10,000x Reward Multiplier: Hell-level Kingdom Building-Chapter 20: [0] The Green Liquid

002

It all happened so abruptly.

The goblins were converging dangerously close to him, on the verge of ending him. At that very moment, a longsword magically appeared in his hand. He swung it with such grace and speed that only the afterimage of the weapon could be seen as it cleaved through flesh and splattered blood, leaving behind a faint blur in the air.

After what seemed to take less than a second, the seven goblin champions fell to the ground, dead.

Those who had leapt to attack were cleaved cleanly into two equal halves, while the others were decapitated neatly, their heads separating from their bodies in a single smooth motion.

The seven goblin champion corpses surrounded the black-attired figure, whose name and real identity had still not been revealed.

Floki stared, his mouth slightly agape and his eyes widened in disbelief. It had taken him over twenty minutes to tire out and take down a single goblin champion, yet this man had done it so casually and in such a short span, making it appear almost completely effortless.

The women, on the other hand, upon seeing their tormentors’ corpses lying lifeless on the ground, began to shed tears of joy. Their expressions were filled with relief as their suffering, at least for the moment, had finally come to an end.

The obese goblin kings, however, slowly lifted their massive bodies from their seats.

Their fat hung loosely all over their bodies, as though no bone existed within them. Yet even so, they still reached a towering height of over eight feet, giving them an overwhelming and oppressive presence.

One of the goblin kings moved its feet, and the resulting thumping sound spread across the hall, echoing heavily through the space.

Its eyes, which had been carefree and uninterested since the beginning, were now glowing red with killing intent directed at the man who had slaughtered its champions.

Floki found himself coming up with an odd explanation for why the goblin kings were only acting now, but he kept those thoughts to himself. Right now, these creatures were the main issue.

He turned to look at the black-attired man, who was lazily wiping the blood off his blade with a rag, still paying no attention to the goblin kings as though they did not exist.

’Just how strong is this guy for him to pay zero attention to the literal boss itself?’ Floki wondered inwardly, choosing not to voice his thoughts.

He wanted to see how the black-attired man would deal with the goblin kings.

Unfortunately, luck was not on his side. He still had a quest to complete.

The penalty of the quest was far too brutal for him to even consider failing it.

The goblin king took another heavy step forward, and the hall trembled slightly within a small region, the vibration spreading through the ground beneath them.

Only its steps alone could deter even the most courageous from daring to fight it, but Floki simply did not have the luxury of fleeing.

"I can do it."

He vowed to himself, then telepathically commanded his system to reveal his attributes.

To his relief, the little time he had spent resting had recovered five points of stamina. For that reason, he was not entirely short on it, giving him a slight but much-needed boost in confidence.

"But I need a good weapon..."

He realized his shortcomings. 𝘧𝑟𝑒𝑒𝘸𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝓁.𝘤𝘰𝓂

The greatsword was a heavy weapon.

Its weight alone would drain his stamina much faster while in combat.

Not just that, his mastery over the greatsword was far from sufficient. He had only managed to use it successfully earlier because of pure adrenaline, something he could not afford to rely on in this fight.

Also, the other weapons used by the defeated goblin champions were heavy as well, some even heavier and more difficult to handle than the greatsword.

While he was still thinking, the obese goblin king took a couple of slow steps closer to the black-attired man.

It had not attacked yet, and Floki did not have enough information or insight to guess what its ability might be.

For now, he simply needed to find a weapon.

"Hey, can you lend me a weapon?"

He turned to the black-attired man and asked while there was still time.

But his question seemed to surprise him.

"You want me... to lend you a weapon?" he pointed at himself and asked, clearly confused.

"Of course, I am talking to you, is there a problem with that?" Floki complained inwardly, though he simply nodded outwardly in response.

The black-attired man gazed at him for a few seconds.

"It must be true, he must have lost his memories because of the beating. Welp, this makes my mission a lot easier."

With a casual shrug, he equipped a longsword and tossed it toward Floki.

Floki caught the sword, and a description window appeared before him.

[ You’ve equipped a common-grade longsword, do you want to check its description? ]

"I don’t have time for that."

Floki rejected the prompt, and without sparing the black-attired man another glance, he began to stride forward with determination toward the obese goblin king.

To be frank, despite the fact that the goblin king could potentially be stronger than the goblin champions, he was not as troubled as he had been when fighting them.

After all, it was fat and moved so slowly. With a few well-placed attacks, it should go down easily, right?

Well, that was what he thought, until the obese goblin king began to excrete a foul-smelling green liquid from numerous pores that suddenly appeared all over its bloated body.

"What the heck..."

Cursing under his breath, he immediately created distance between them to prevent the liquid from reaching him, wary that it might be some form of corrosive poison that activated upon contact with the skin.

He could not even get an answer to his suspicion when, all of a sudden, the goblin king’s body began to swell rapidly, expanding like a balloon being filled with air. Then, with a loud, ear-wrenching sound, it burst apart into the same green liquid it had been excreting earlier.

’What the heck... did it just commit?’ Floki barked inwardly in shock.

The liquid splattered everywhere around the obese goblin, including onto the women, who froze upon contact and began to shiver uncontrollably.

But contrary to Floki’s expectation of corrosion or immediate harm, the women appeared to be fine.

However, the liquid did not remain still.

It began to move on its own, as though it were alive.

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A/N

1. If you were cursed with a 98% chance of failing anything you do. Are there any ways to twist this and benefit from it.

2. What do you think is the real effect of the liquid?