In the center of the Monster Room, the magic circle etched into the floor pulsed with a brilliant light.
An instant later, a horde of goblins materialized atop the circle all at once.
They had been summoned.
"C-can you really win, Takeo-kun...?"
Hinata-san's voice was a terrified whisper. While I answered her with a calm "It'll be fine," a part of me was actually a bit taken aback. Wait. This is quite a lot.
The number of monsters that appeared in a Monster Room was fixed per floor; on Floor 4 of the Shinjuku Dungeon, it was sixteen.
Which meant a swarm of sixteen goblins currently stood right before my eyes.
The composition was fixed by location as well. Here, it consisted of three groups of five: a Level 7 Thief, a Level 7 Warrior, a Level 8 Swordman, a Level 8 Archer, and a Level 8 Mage. That accounted for fifteen.
The final one was a goblin that shouldn't have appeared on Floor 4 yet.
A Level 8 Goblin Commander.
That made sixteen.
The Commander was a goblin equipped with a metal breastplate, a helmet, and a rapier, but it possessed one special skill.
Leadership Lv.1.
This skill made it easier to issue orders to subordinates and provided a passive effect that increased all of their stats by ten percent.
Even with a ten percent boost, the highest stat among the goblins on this floor would only increase by about 4 at most... but combined with their numbers, it wasn't an effect I could afford to underestimate.
It was safer to assume that every goblin here had been strengthened to the equivalent of a level higher than their actual rank.
...
Wait, hold on.
I had been certain I could win for some reason, but wasn't this actually getting dangerous?
The thought crossed my mind, yet strangely, I felt no sense of crisis. I was perfectly calm.
Well, it wasn't as if I could escape now anyway. I might as well trust my intuition and fight.
"—I'm going."
Leaving Hinata-san with those words, I lunged forward.
I had already drawn my sword. My Fighting Spirit skill was active, boosting my stats. I was currently Level 16. These were my base and buffed stats:
Base Stats: ―――――――――――――――― HP: 76/81 (6 up!) MP: 18/18 Strength: 46 (6 up!) Constitution: 35 Intelligence: 6 Spirit: 12 Agility: 40 Dexterity: 40 (4 up!) ――――――――――――――――
Buffed Stats: ―――――――――――――――― Strength: 92 (+46) Constitution: 70 (+35) Intelligence: 6 Spirit: 12 Agility: 80 (+40) Dexterity: 40 ――――――――――――――――
I'd had Hinata-san restore my HP to full before entering the room. I had just consumed a bit of it for the Fighting Spirit skill, but it was negligible.
In any case.
As I stepped into the fray, every goblin eye fixed on me.
While there was still some distance between us, I activated my Taunt Lv.1 skill. I flipped the goblins off and screamed at the top of my lungs.
"Hey! You tiny little Pork Bits! What's wrong, you scared?! Come and get me already!!"
They shouldn't have understood the insult, but the effect of Taunt worked regardless. The pressure from the goblins' stares intensified.
Almost simultaneously, the Commander pointed its rapier at me and shrieked, "Gugya!" The subordinate goblins began to move, maintaining their formation.
I activated my Sword Aura skill in response, enveloping my longsword in a faint blue light, and swung the blade with a sharp snap.
A crescent-shaped shockwave soared through the air, aimed directly at a Mage—or so I intended, until a Thief suddenly leaped in front of the attack, sacrificing its body to act as a shield.
"Tch! Annoying...!"
Cursing under my breath, I kept the main pack of goblins in the center and began to sprint in a wide circle around them.
Not being able to quickly pick off the long-range attackers was a pain, but the Warriors still weren't fast enough to cover every angle. If I targeted enemies positioned away from the Warriors, I could still thin their numbers with flying slashes without being blocked by shields.
Furthermore—
"Gugya! Gugya!!"
The Commander was frantically barking orders, but none of the attacks could hit me as long as I kept moving.
Arrows from the Archers and Fireballs from the Mages streaked toward me one after another, but as long as I maintained my pace and distance, dodging was easy.
Meanwhile, I swung my sword mid-stride, using the slashes from my Sword Aura to whittle down the horde.
I quickly wiped out the three Thieves and moved on to the priority targets like the Archers and Mages—but...
"Gugya!!"
"Ugh, these Warriors are seriously in the way...!"
Perhaps because the battle had dragged on, the Warriors had started blocking my slashes with their shields more effectively. I needed to aim for enemies where the Warriors couldn't provide cover, but as expected of shield-bearers, they had begun to anticipate my movements. Their positioning was clever, constantly obstructing my line of sight.
To make matters worse...
"Gugyagya!!"
Deciding that they would never catch me if I just kept running, the Commander ordered the goblins to split into three groups. They fanned out in different directions.
It seemed they had prioritized surrounding me, even if it meant taking losses along the way.
It meant dividing their forces, but it was a sound tactical judgment. They probably hadn't done it sooner because they didn't think it was necessary against only two people. Or perhaps they had planned to simply overwhelm us from the front with their numbers.
It went without saying that if I were surrounded, I'd be beaten to death on the spot. Escaping the encirclement should have been my top priority—
"—No, I'm going in!"
At that moment, for some reason, I was on a total high.
This fight was fun.
A cold, rational corner of my mind questioned if I was really this kind of person, but I didn't have time for such existential doubts.
I suppressed the thought and focused on the thrill of the slaughter.
With the group split into three, the size of each pack had decreased. Each group consisted of only three or four monsters. I was more than used to fighting those odds.
I charged head-on into the smallest group of three: a Warrior, a Swordman, and a Mage.
"Oraaaaaaaa!!"
"Gugya!?"
I followed my charge with a flying kick. The Warrior caught it with its shield but was blown backward, knocking over the Mage behind it as it tumbled.
In that opening, the Swordman swung its blade at me. I parried the strike, using my overwhelming Strength to knock its sword upward, then swept my blade through its exposed torso. I cleaved it in two with a single blow.
As expected, a 4.8x damage modifier backed by a Strength of 92 was devastating. The goblins on this floor were still one-shot material—as long as they didn't block with a shield.
I moved to finish off the fallen Warrior while I had the chance—
"Whoops!?"
I threw myself backward in a frantic leap.
An Archer's arrow and a Mage's Fireball streaked through the air where I had been standing just a fraction of a second before.
I suppose they weren't going to let me have it all my way.
I started running again. The ring hadn't closed yet, meaning I could still break through the perimeter.
Meanwhile, at the Commander's command, one monster from the group of four began running to reinforce the group I had just reduced to two.
They were trying to shore up the weak point in the encirclement before I could exploit it.
I really should have escaped outside the ring.
I ran. Not toward the gap between the groups—but straight toward a different Warrior.
"Oraaaaaaaa!!"
I sprinted and leaped into the air, kicking my legs out mid-flight.
Seeing this, the Warrior naturally braced its shield for impact. But I didn't—wasn't going to—kick the Warrior away.
"—!?"
The Warrior seemed to waver as the expected impact failed to come.
The moment the soles of my feet touched the shield, I bent my knees to absorb the momentum. For a heartbeat, I stood balanced atop the shield itself. Then, I snapped my knees straight with everything I had, kicking off the shield to vault higher into the air.
The goblins' eyes tracked me as I soared over their heads.
As my jump reached its apex, I looked down at the monsters below.
Specifically, at the Goblin Commander.
All the Warriors were at the front of their respective groups, meaning none were near the leader barking orders from the rear. And the Thieves, who could have used their speed to take the hit, were already dead.
In other words...
"—You're wide open!!"
I shouted with a manic laugh, swinging my sword in mid-air.
A blue arc of energy screamed toward the Commander below.
"—!?"
It couldn't react. It didn't even have time to try.
Without a moment to defend itself, the Commander—along with its metal breastplate—was sliced clean in half, collapsing into the dirt.