The Place Where Everything Begins

2 hours later...

*Whoosh* *Clank*

*Whizz* *Puchi*

*Swoosh* *Chop*

Sounds were being produced from the long spear wielded by Jeremy resonating sonorously within a particular chamber inside the labyrinth. Whether it be a sword, knife, or mace being brandished by the three goblins in front of him, they all were either deflected away or broken in half by Jeremy's artfulness of spearmanship.

Suddenly...

*Thwish*

While flourishing his spear skillfully to fight against the remaining goblin, whom was holding a metal mace with many sharp spikes protruding out from the mace's head, there was a sound akin to a string being pulled and released...

Then he turned his head and body sideways to avoid the approaching arrow fired towards his head by another goblin standing around 15 meters away from him.

*Whizz...*

The arrow went past Jeremy's right ear dangerously, while his right hand holding the spear was quickly retracted back to behind his body in preparation for his next move.

Upon seeing the goblin in his front using this opportunity to bridge the distance between them quickly, and it was now raising the mace above its head, preparing to strike at him directly.

As their distance was too close, Jeremy couldn't use the spearhead to counterattack. So, he decided to jump obliquely, trying to bypass the goblin at its left side to avoid the incoming attack that would come from the goblin's right hand towards his face.

Not expecting that its enemy would try to close the distance instead of widening it, the goblin was caught off guard all of a sudden. It certainly knew that its strike was going to miss the target badly.

Knowing that its face was clearly showing a horrified expression. Afterward, it jumped away instinctively into the opposite side of Jeremy to avoid his tackle.

However, to tackle the enemy?

That was not Jeremy's purpose in the first place; he would never do something so disgraceful like that...

When he saw that the short creature in front of him had tried to increase the distance between them, his now-retracted right hand behind his back started to move out to the side of his body, causing the spear shaft to move closer into his body.

At the time when his position was parallel to the goblin, the shaft was already within his left hand's reach. Then he extended his left hand to catch the spear shaft and pulled it back to his chest as fast as possible, resulting in the spearhead's blade assaulting the unaware goblin from the back.

*Slash*

The goblin's waist was almost cut in half while it was still in mid-air. At the time when it finally 'landed' on the ground, it could not feel its legs anymore. No matter how hard it tried to move its two short legs, they were not responsive anymore.

"Kieeee..."

With its last word was said, it stopped moving...

Meanwhile, Jeremy didn't even turn his head to look at the goblin that was now lying behind him. Instead, he started walking to the goblin in the distance slowly with a blood-bathing spear in hand.

His demeanor was cold and uncaring enough to make a bystander felt chilled deep into their bone marrow...

His every step seemed to cause a chain of tremors echoing into the heart of his every enemy...

His strength and prowess being shown and demonstrated so far were truly unstoppable...

Right now, the man, Jeremy, seemed to be walking leisurely yet so gracefully to his enemy, the goblin archer. Its fate was already sealed in stone the moment Jeremy's eyes were laid on it...

When the goblin archer saw its three companions all dropped dead onto the ground receiving only one strike each by the frightening human to be killed, it got truly scared, while its hands and body kept trembling nonstop.

However, it seemed like its will to live wasn't diminished yet, as it was now trying to nock another arrow on the bow, albeit still trembling so badly.

At the time when Jeremy had reached 5 meters away from it, it finally finished nocking the said arrow, which was now aiming directly at Jeremy's head.

However...

It still didn't shoot yet; instead, it opened its mouth and said, "Kusa!!"

"Kusa!! Peg, kusa!!"

Which meant 'Stop!! You, stop!!'.

Upon hearing that, Jeremy smiled amusingly, but he never stopped his footsteps.

Actually, the goblin had just said in Taesait, one of the goblin languages that Jeremy had learned of before in boring time.

However, right now, this language was kept securely with other unnecessary knowledge within his sea of consciousness not to burden his 'fragile' mind. That's why he didn't realize the meaning behind that said words.

Nevertheless, even if he didn't know the meaning behind those words, he could still roughly guess the gist of it.

However, would he ever stop his tracks and spare that little goblin even if he knew the meaning?

The answer was a huge, NO...

Starting from the very first moment of the First Doom advent, it would only be 'do or die' for the Earthlings.

Jeremy was also no exception regarding this rule...

Right now, Jeremy had already reached 2 meters away from the goblin, which was considered as the most optimum attacking range of a spear, but the scared goblin still didn't fire the arrow at him.

Seeing that sight, Jeremy finally stopped his footsteps while decided to test something.

"Shoot"

He said with evil but charming smile from ear to ear while opening his arms widely like someone who was fully ready to accept a god's judgment.

"..."

After the cowardly goblin saw that sight, it felt even more horrified...

How could this human not fear death?

How could this human look so evil?

He must be a devil from hell... was the only thought that sounded reasonable inside its small head.

Until...

*Thwish*

It got too scared of Jeremy, even its hand that was holding the arrow loosened by itself.

That's right, the arrow was fired accidentally by the spineless goblin...

However, before the goblin could even rejoice at its sudden fortune from killing the human, it got horrified ever again.

*Peng!*

There came the sound of a metal object hitting against another solid object.

To be exact, it was the sound generating from the arrowhead crashing with a transparent light blue film only a few centimeters above Jeremy's skin.

That transparent light blue film was actually Jeremy's mana field projection that had been accompanying him all the time ever since he had become an Apprentice Mage.

[A/N: Chapter 7 - Mana Field Projection]

Right now, he was a Journeyman Mage which was one substage higher than Apprentice Mage. From Jeremy's estimation, his mana field was at least more than enough to defend against a sniper bullet that usually traveled faster than Earth's sound speed. That well-praised result was also thanks to the purest mana inside his dantians.

'This little thing is really a wimp; he actually fires the arrow at me accidentally. Hmm... To defend against that arrow shot, it doesn't even consume 0.2% of my total mana. I can take on more than 500 of those strikes with some mana to spare.'

Having thought of that, Jeremy shook his head dismissively before thrusting his spear forward lightly at the neck of the 'wimp'.

*Puchi* *Plush*

*Thud*

For Jeremy, who had gone through countless life and death situations, he had abandoned the feeling called 'empathy' towards his enemy a long time ago.

There ain't no mercy when Jeremy dealt with his enemy from the get-go...

Just like that, the last goblin eventually dropped down to the ground with its two hands gripping desperately at the big wound on its neck, trying to prevent its green blood from oozing out of the fatal injury. It continued to convulse in pain for almost half a minute before it finally died.

Fair enough, that was quite a death befitting a coward...

After the last goblin ceased its breath, a transparent window suddenly popped up in front of Jeremy, concluding his SP gained from this 'hunt'. It was a total of 260 SP from killing the four goblins.

Meanwhile, Jeremy had already walked away from the scene heading to the dead-end wall at his right side. Right when he reached the wall, he raised his right hand to pull the magical torch downward.

*Click*

*Whoong* *Whoong*

Like magic, the wall began to move back, revealing a gap at the two sides, then it turned sideways, letting Jeremy see the interior of the 'room'.

*Fwhoosh*

*Fwhoosh*

*Fwhoosh*

The magical torches within the squared cave-like room lit up one after another, giving warm-white light into the surrounding.

...

[You have received 500 SP for discovering the final chamber]

...

Upon seeing the notification, Jeremy thought surprisingly to himself, 'A boss room?'

He was indeed amazed at the sudden turn of event, for he didn't know that there was actually a boss room within this labyrinth. After all, it was just an easy difficulty door that the only purpose of this place was to find an exit. And that's it...

However, Jeremy had felt a vague feeling of mana turbulence from behind this wall. So, he decided to check it out for a bit with the thought that maybe he would get some bonus rewards from this hidden room.

Who would have thought that he would actually find a boss room within this place...

Not wanting to waste his mana to cast a detection spell, Jeremy walked forward into the chamber. Simultaneously, when he walked past the 'door' into the chamber, a window popped up in front of him.

...

[If you choose to proceed forward, you will never be able to leave the chamber before eliminating every life form within this place]

[For the hurdle of this place is beyond its original assigned difficulty, you may choose to leave this place within the countdown of 5 seconds]

...

When Jeremy saw those 2 lines of notification, he raised one of his eyebrows in wonder. Afterward, he thought excitedly to himself, 'Like hell will I back down now. I've already determined to crush the tutorial with the highest achievement even before I come here.'

Jeremy was feeling very happy at the moment. It had been such a long time since he had last felt anticipated like this.

But his excitement was very short-lived...

Because the enemies in front of him merely consisted of one old hobgoblin holding a staff and four adult hobgoblins holding a sword each while acting like the old one's guards. All in all, for Jeremy, they were only slightly stronger than the group of 4 goblins that Jeremy had faced a while ago.

*Sigh*

At last, Jeremy sighed to himself and thought optimistically, 'Maybe, I will face something worthwhile within Normal or Hard difficulty door. I really hope so...'