Insomniac Player

Bing!

---

➤[Elite Goblin Lv.10 Eliminated.]

➤[Experience +100]

---

Imran looked at the notification. Damien barely had time to react.

Rahul screamed.

The spear-wielding Elite had driven him to one knee.

The spearhead hovered inches from his eye.

Rahul gripped the spear rod with both hands, desperately holding it back.

His arms shook, the goblin leaned forward, and the weapon descended.

Damien rushed behind it. The Elite released one hand from the spear and swung backward.

Its elbow struck Damien’s chest. He stumbled but remained standing.

Imran came from the other side and buried his axe into the goblin’s shoulder.

The Elite shrieked; its concentration broke.

Rahul twisted the spear away from his face.

Then he did something Damien hadn’t expected.

He pulled; the sudden movement dragged the elite forward.

Rahul slammed his forehead into its nose; the goblin staggered.

Rahul tightened his grip on the Elite’s spear and guided it upward.

The blade of the spear entered beneath the Elite’s jaw.

It pierced into the skull; the monster convulsed once, then collapsed over Rahul.

Rahul lay beneath it for a moment. "Please tell me it’s dead."

Bing!

–-

➤[Elite Goblin Lv.10 Eliminated.]

➤[Experience +100]

---

Hearing the notification, Rahul exclaimed. "Wonderful! He’s dead."

"Get up," said Damien.

"It’s heavy," Rahul replied, slapping the back of Elite.

Imran grabbed one of the corpse’s arms and helped roll it away.

Rahul sat up, wiping purple blood from his face.

"I preferred it when we were hiding."

Damien looked toward John. "So did I."

The last Elite Goblin was still alive, barely.

One of its curved blades had shattered beneath John’s mace. The other was buried in John’s shoulder.

Neither seemed concerned. John held the Elite by the throat with one hand.

The goblin clawed at his wrist; John lifted it off the ground.

"You are very fast," he said.

The Elite hissed, and John nodded thoughtfully. "But there’s a problem."

He rested his mace and pulled the curved blade from his shoulder and threw it aside. "You stopped running."

His mace was picked up again and swung from below.

The weapon struck the Elite in the chest; the armor folded inward, and the rib cage shattered.

The goblin flew across the cave, hit the wall, and dropped.

It attempted to move. John walked over and brought the mace down once more.

The head disappeared beneath the impact.

Bing!

---

➤[Elite Goblin Lv.10 Eliminated.]

➤[Experience +100]

---

For a few seconds, no one moved.

The three elite goblins were dead; the chief was dead.

The strongest monsters inside the cave had fallen, their bodies sprawled amid the dust and pooling blood. Yet the battle was far from over.

Ordinary goblins continued pushing through the entrance.

The opening was so crowded that the living climbed over the dead.

Bodies filled the narrow passage; many belonged to goblins, and few belonged to wolves.

Broken shields, spears, and limbs formed a gruesome barricade.

Outside, Damien could hear the wolves snarling.

A deep, resonant bellow reverberated from the darkness beyond the entrance, underscoring the continued presence of the ogre lurking within the forest’s shadows.

They couldn’t fit through the cave entrance without tearing it wider, but judging by the tremors shaking dust from the ceiling, they were trying.

John rested his mace against the ground.

"So..." he breathed heavily. "What now, leader?"

Damien glanced toward the timer.

---

➤[Remaining Tutorial Time: 01:58:43]

---

Two hours.

After everything they had endured, two hours should have seemed short; it didn’t.

Two hours surrounded by an army could last forever.

Damien stepped over the Goblin Chief’s corpse and climbed onto the broken stones beside the entrance.

He kept his body low and carefully looked outside.

The forest was gone, not literally.

The trees still stood, but the space between them had disappeared beneath goblins. Their eyes gleamed in the dark night.

An ocean of green bodies stretched in every direction, thousands of them.

They packed the clearing, filled the slopes, and crowded between the trees. Wolves moved through the gaps like sharks beneath dark water.

Farther back stood the ogre, carrying a new club it made from the tree.

Damien slowly lowered himself. John watched his face. "How many?"

"A lot," Damien replied.

"That’s not a number."

"It becomes pointless after a certain amount."

Rahul leaned against his spear. "So we stay inside."

Damien looked at the cave. The entrance had narrowed beneath the dead.

That helped; only a few goblins could enter at once.

The cave had stone walls, providing a defensive position. If they stayed there, they would survive the remaining two hours.

But the cave was also filling with bodies; the air had become thick and difficult to breathe.

The ogre was widening the entrance with every blow.

Eventually, the cave would stop being a fortress. It would become a box, a box filled with goblins.

Damien looked at John. "We have two options."

John smiled tiredly. "I love options."

"First, we stay here. We defend the entrance for two hours and hope the ogre doesn’t bring the cave down."

John glanced upward, his eyes narrowing with a flash of apprehension as another impact shook the ceiling, revealing a rare moment of uncertainty in his otherwise resolute demeanor.

Small stones rained onto his shoulders. "Comforting."

"Second..." Damien looked toward the horde outside. "We go out."

Everyone stared at him.

Rahul blinked several times. "I’m sorry. I think death damaged my hearing."

Imran’s expression remained calm, but even he looked uncertain. "You want to leave the cave?"

"Yes."

"And go where?"

"Into them."

Mark, who had spent most of the Tutorial avoiding direct combat, laughed nervously.

When nobody joined him, the laugh faded. "You’re serious."

Damien nodded. "The ordinary goblins are Level Three; the chief and elites are dead.

We have the strongest weapons, and we know we can revive."

Rahul pointed toward the entrance. "There are hundreds of them."

"Exactly. That is usually considered a disadvantage. But... It’s also experience."

Silence followed as Damien continued. "If we stay here, we might survive at our current levels.

But this is only the second tutorial. There will be more, stronger monsters and worse bosses."

He looked down at the dagger. "We died against Level Ten enemies.

We survived the Chief because he was arrogant and didn’t know what this weapon could do. The next boss may not make that mistake."

John’s smile slowly disappeared.

Damien looked around the cave. "At the beginning, our objective was only to survive.

That was enough because we were weak. But now we have two hours, a horde of Level Three enemies, and unlimited revival.

Every goblin we kill makes the next Tutorial easier."

Mark stared toward the crowded entrance. Fear was still visible in his eyes, but it was different now.

Before, fear had controlled him. Now it merely warned him.

The goblin chief had fallen; the three elites had fallen.

The impossible had already happened four times inside this cave.

Mark clenched the hilt of the sword. "I vote we go out."

Rahul turned toward him. "You?"

Mark shrugged. "I died six times today. At this point, I’m beginning to take it personally."

One of the teenage players raised her spear. "I’m going too."

Then the old grandpa stepped forward. Then another and another.

No debate followed, no argument.

The decision moved through the cave without needing to be spoken.

John lifted his mace and rested it on his shoulder.

His grin returned. "Well, Damien... You’ve finally created a plan even I think is stupid."

Damien climbed onto the pile of goblin corpses blocking the entrance. "That means a lot."

"It wasn’t a compliment."

"I’ll treasure it anyway."

John stared at him. Damien smiled faintly.

The survivors gathered behind them as an act of revenge for earlier events.

Rahul and Imran stood side by side. Mark gripped his sword with both hands.

The others raised whatever weapons they had.

Outside, the horde screamed. Damien raised the First Blood Dagger.

"Stay together. Don’t chase anything alone and kill the wounded first. If you die, revive and return to formation."

He looked at the endless mass of goblins waiting beyond the cave.

For three days, they had hidden from monsters. They had run, they had trapped, and they had survived.

Now, with less than two hours remaining, something inside them had changed.

The goblins charged the entrance; Damien jumped down to meet them. "Let’s grind."

All of a sudden, John roared. "FREEEEEDOOOOMMM"

Damien flinched. "Mr. John, for Christ’s sake, what the hell was that?"

John’s arm hair stood on end. "Always wanted to try that Braveheart yell. Did I pull off Mel Gibson?"

Damien was dumbfounded before he could say anything. The survivors erupted from the cave.

They crashed into the sea of goblins like a blade driven into flesh, even without John at the lead.

And ever since the tutorial began, now was the time when monsters were the ones forced backward.