The Place Where Everything Begins

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[The countdown had ended, you can turn back no more]

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*Whoosh*

There came sounds of an invisible barrier being projected at the entrance behind him, signifying that Jeremy would not be able to leave this place anymore.

That was... before he successfully slew the five hobgoblins in front of him.

As if they had just realized Jeremy's presence, one by one, the hobgoblins started to turn their heads in Jeremy's direction.

'They wore leather armor? Hmm... Hobgoblin, a low-rank organism as same as us humans. They are a race that is one rank above the goblin that I have faced so far. A hobgoblin's base strength is more than two times stronger than a goblin... These guys indeed can be considered as hidden bosses for this place.'

Having thought of that basic information, Jeremy carefully scrutinized the 5 'outlanders' in front of him. After all, if we didn't count Jeremy's mana into the equation, this fight would be very tough for him.

The word 'Outlander' was widely used by most humans on Ortus when they referred to other extraterrestrial races.

As for how a hobgoblin looked like, its height was around an average human's height but with its smooth green skin with no body or head hair whatsoever. They also had two long pointed ears but without a long nose like a goblin.

All in all, they looked just like an evolutionary version of a standard green goblin, however, with a stronger-looking body, greater height, heavier weight, and composing demeanor while standing upright.

A hobgoblin was usually born with no element affinity but mostly blessed with a far stronger body and several times higher reproduction rates than humans despite their same organism rank. Furthermore, together with their unique cultivation method, all in all, they were not deemed any weaker than the human race back on Ortus.

However, in rare cases, when one of them was born with an element affinity, that hobgoblin would be hailed as a colored Dokkaebi of which its skin color would be aligned with the respective element that they were born with.

Also, when a Dokkaebi was born, it would be born with a lineage power called 'Ancestor's Guidance' in the universal language, which was said to be an inherited power passed down from its ancestral generations.

In other words, the more powerful its subsequent, direct ancestors were, the stronger the next successor would be...

That was precisely also the case for the old hobgoblin that was currently holding a wooden staff, standing behind the four hobgoblin warriors because its skin color was pitch-black.

That old one was actually a Dokkaebi, of which its black skin color clearly represented its affinity with the darkness element.

That meant the black-skinned Dokkaebi in front of Jeremy could certainly cast some inherited spells inherently derived from its late ancestors...

Upon seeing that the black hooded human in front of them wasn't showing any fearful expression, the Dokkaebi frowned before speaking lightly in an obscure language to the four other hobgoblins in its front.

"Daetaks-seu, kareh at cras."

Then those four hobgoblins nodded their heads in understanding before starting to move into a formation with two on the left and another two on the right side of the old Dokkaebi altogether with their fighting stance readied.

While walking slowly in the hobgoblin's direction, Jeremy pondered inwardly, 'I have to take down the old one first; otherwise, my mana amount would have been reduced from defending the spells cast by it.'

With a determined face, Jeremy stopped his footsteps. Afterward, there was a light glow coming out of his right glove inscription. Meanwhile, the five outlanders also stood with a composed look waiting intently for the start of the forthcoming bloodbath.

At the moment, the distance between the two sides was around 40 meters. Even if they sprinted at full speed to engage in a fight with one another, it would still require approximately 2.5 seconds of full-speed running.

And if Jeremy really wanted to take down the old guy first and foremost, he would have to waste even more time to dodge the four hobgoblin warriors' attacks, then sprinted for around 2 seconds to reach the Dokkaebi.

'That amount of time was enough for that guy to cast more than two spells on me...' Jeremy thought frowningly.

"..."

"..."

"..."

The two sides were having a standoff while staring at one another's eyes attentively; they were currently assessing the possibility of various scenarios that might be able to decide the outcome.

While Jeremy gripped his spear tightly, the four hobgoblin warriors held their own sword firmly, while the old Dokkaebi was actually acting differently...

Because it had spotted a light glow coming out of Jeremy's right glove, so, it decided to put a stop to the standoff by raising its wooden staff into the air, intending to prepare a spell...

Upon seeing that, Jeremy narrowed his eyes, then with his quickest speed, he sprinted out as fast as he could into the direction of the hobgoblins.

Meanwhile, the hobgoblin warriors also made their move by started running in Jeremy's direction. As for the old Dokkaebi, it was reciting an incantation in an unknown language to cast one of its inherited spells at Jeremy.

'Considering that he is a black Dokkaebi, he should cast a curse or a crowd control spell on me.' Thought Jeremy while sprinting at full speed.

The two sides would face off against each other shortly, with only less than 30 meters of distance between them...

While Jeremy was bolting at his full speed, the hobgoblins started to slow down and jogged tightly to one another, closing off every hole that Jeremy might utilize to bypass them to attack the old Dokkaebi in the back.

After all, the 4 of them were ordered by the Dokkaebi, their leader, to stall time for it to cast a curse spell on the human.

They decided to play it safe...

Upon seeing the sight in front of him, Jeremy smirked lightly while his right-hand posture that was holding the spear in an attacking stance was changed into a throwing stance by turning and rotating his palm upside down around the spear shaft.

Then...

Without any prior indication, Jeremy suddenly stopped with his left foot in the front and right foot in the back, while his left arm was extended to his front and his right arm was pulled further behind his back.

He was exactly in a perfect throwing pose...

Despite the weight, length, and design of the spear that was not quite suitable for throwing, Jeremy made it possible with his high skills and personal strength.

*Whoosh*

To the surprise of hobgoblin warriors, the thrown spear had already gone past them before they could assess the situation.

At that time, the black Dokkaebi had been closing its eyes, concentrating entirely on the chant.

Right when the spell was finally ready to be cast, it opened its eyes sharply...

However, before it could chant the final keyword to cast the spell on the human, the sight it saw was not as its anticipation of human versus hobgoblin warriors at all. Instead, it was a long sharp spear darting directly towards its chest.

With no time to dodge, it could only stare at the spear in horror...

*Puchi*

The steel spear went through the chest of the old Dokkaebi smoothly as it went all the way to the ground at a slant angle due to combined velocity from throwing force and gravity force.

The spear was currently pinning down the old Dokkaebi's body with the ground giving no room for it to move at all.

It could now only twitch its four limbs back and forth with its face staring at the ceiling blankly; it continued to be like that for some time before it finally stopped moving forever...

'That throw should have easily broken the world records back on Earth if I were to aim at a slant angle with the sky instead.'

Nodding his head in satisfaction, Jeremy hurriedly jumped back away from the four remaining hobgoblins, not giving them time to react or catch up with him.

After all, his right glove was still glowing and shaping its light blue glow into the shape of a sword, and it still required a bit more than 3 seconds to bring out his sword.

The sword that Jeremy was bringing out was actually the bronze sword that he had acquired from opening the big box after killing the two goblins 2 hours ago.

At this moment, one of the hobgoblin warriors had finally recovered from its shocking state after seeing its leader being impaled to the ground with a long spear ruthlessly.

Then it said, "Kro-ne!!" loudly for the other three companions to hear for them to recover back from their stupor.

"Kro-ne!!"

"Kro-ne!!"

"Kro-ne!!"

One by one, they shouted the same word thunderously, following the first hobgoblin warrior.

Obviously, the word simply meant 'Kill'...

To kill the human in front of them...