Divine Artifact of Nightfall

Currently, I am facing the Goblin King, a disaster-level magical beast. Its power truly cannot be underestimated; the killing intent it emits is utterly terrifying.

But from the very beginning, it was too overconfident, letting its subordinates “feast” on me, never expecting me to slaughter them all without leaving a single one. Now, it wants to tear me apart immediately; I can feel it.

My body has somewhat recovered thanks to leveling up and my two HP and MP recovery skills. But even if fully recovered, I would never be able to defeat it.

“The escape route, the only path to survival, is to defeat it,” I thought.

Having seemingly finished its observation, it began its one-on-one battle with me.

A colossal ice pillar created from thin air shot towards me at terrifying speed. I immediately used [Enhance] to increase my speed, leaping out of its trajectory.

Narrowly escaping death, another fire pillar flew towards me while I was in mid-air. Unable to dodge, I used my sword to block the flame. The flame was deflected, but my arm ached considerably from such immense pressure.

This time, the Goblin enhanced its body, charging at insane speed, swinging its club, twice my size, down. I quickly rolled under its leg, striking a powerful blow thanks to [Enhance], but sadly, it couldn’t cut into its flesh, only enough to scratch its skin.

“Tsk, it’s tough!”

It turned, then fired a large ice pillar down. Dodging it, I continued to slash but still had no effect.

After continuously dodging its powerful attacks for a while, my strength gradually dwindled, while it continued to unleash techniques steadily.

In just a short time of being overwhelmed, I had discerned its pattern of action. It couldn’t cast spells consecutively; it needed time to chant, although I heard nothing. During that time, it would use physical attacks, so I dodged more easily.

About ten minutes into the fight, countless large craters were created, marks of its power.

This time it retreated, maintaining distance. It seemed to be getting tired too. Suddenly, I knelt on one knee, my strength rapidly depleting.

It began to raise its club high, accumulating an extremely terrifying surge of magic power. This magic sphere was far beyond that of the Goblin Mage. Even though I was quite far away, I could still feel a lot of condensed magic power within it, and I also saw both fire and ice appearing on the sphere.

Having seemingly accumulated enough energy, it swung its club towards me. A condensed magic sphere shot towards me at supersonic speed. I simultaneously activated all my skills to dodge this attack; I felt it was extremely dangerous.

I dodged to the side, but its aftershock still sent me flying into the wall, buried under rocks and dirt.

The sphere flew off, hit the cave ceiling, and exploded. A colossal explosion echoed, blowing away the rocks and dirt covering me, and even me, despite being 70 meters away. An extremely dangerous power, capable of annihilating an entire city in an instant.

I could barely breathe, several ribs were broken. Suddenly, [Quick Reflexes] activated, and I quickly rolled to the right. Immediately, a large club slammed into the spot where I had just been. Cold sweat broke out, and I immediately jumped back to create distance, gradually regaining my breath.

Looking back, an unbelievable sight appeared before my eyes. The cave ceiling had been blown away; now I could see light from above, not from the light stones in the cave anymore.

“Are you kidding me! I went so deep underground, and just one attack could destroy it like this?”

The Goblin charged, continuing to swing its club, enveloped in light, down. I luckily jumped high enough to escape; a large area was shattered by the club.

I landed on the ground, seeing it enveloping its club in extremely dazzling Fire and Light magic; I couldn’t clearly see what it was doing. Then it shot out a blinding beam of light. Now I couldn’t open my eyes because the intensity of the light could blind me. I remained highly vigilant, listening for the slightest sound.

“Ugh…”

I let out a cry as an excruciating pain appeared in my body. I must have flown quite far; upon landing, my body was in extreme agony.

The light faded, and I was now lying about 50 meters from my previous position. The silhouette of the Goblin King gradually appeared; its face was slightly paler than before, and it began to pant, probably from using too much magic power. No matter how terrifying the magic power, it would eventually run out.

It began to approach. I tried to stand up but couldn’t. My body was covered in wounds, blood flowing everywhere, pain spreading to every corner. My left arm and right leg were broken, and the spider skin shield over my chest was shattered.

“I’m in my highest defensive state, along with a spider skin shield over my chest, and I’m still mortally wounded like this? It’s truly an extremely powerful magical beast.”

The Goblin King was walking closer. When it saw me, it showed a surprised face, then an intense killing intent radiated from it. It swung its club down at me with a triumphant look.

Although I couldn’t move strongly anymore, I dodged the club. However, I was sent flying into the air. Taking advantage of that, I clung to its shoulder. Sensing me, it swung its shoulder, using its other arm to knock me down.

Unable to move, I fell. But as I fell right in front of it, I threw a blue potion in my hand at its face. I swung my sword with all my might at the potion, breaking it and splashing the liquid all over its face.

It began to drop its club, covering its face with both hands, rubbing its eyes where the potion had stuck.

“Grraooo… Griiiiiiii!”

It screamed loudly, writhing in pain.

Yes, that was the poison from the spider I had defeated. An extremely potent poison with strong paralyzing and highly toxic properties.

I stood up, using my strength to leap to the height of the Goblin’s face. When it saw me, it immediately attacked with a punch. Dodging it, I reached the level of its face, thrusting my sword straight into its left eye. As I fell, I conveniently stabbed its neck.

No matter how tough a magical beast’s skin, in areas of frequent movement, the skin would be thinner. Thus, I easily stabbed its neck.

“GRAOOOOOOOO…”

It screamed to the extreme, shaking the ground, rocks and dirt falling from the cave ceiling. It knelt, blood flowing like a river from its eye and neck.

Although it was severely wounded, blinded and losing blood, one should never underestimate an enemy. I used attack-boosting skills, rushed towards it, and thrust my sword straight into its heart.

The sword pierced through its skin, penetrating its heart. The Goblin’s screams grew fainter and fainter, and finally it collapsed onto the cave floor, ceasing to breathe. The sword pierced its heart, but also broke as it went through the skin; its durability seemed to have greatly diminished.

The sword was still embedded in the Goblin’s heart; I stood holding the hilt, looking into the distance. My consciousness began to fade, and I collapsed right beside its corpse.

I woke up, my wounds almost completely healed, my broken leg gradually mending, though it still hurt to move. Hungry, I picked up some leftover meat from the Fierce Bear and ate it.

When I was full, I took slow steps towards the Goblin King’s corpse. Remembering when I stabbed its heart, I felt something hard. Using the broken pieces of my sword, I dug out its heart, and inside was a transparent red stone, incredibly pure.

Finding it strange, I walked to the corpses of several Goblin generals, dug out their hearts, and found transparent orange stones, smaller than the Goblin King’s. Finding them beautiful, I took them with me. Incidentally, my clothes were tattered, so I would look for another set. The Goblin King’s hide was too tough, and the others were too small to be used.

After pondering for a while, I heard that familiar voice that had been my “companion” for a long time.

[Obtained skills: Light Magic <Advanced>, Speed Boost <Advanced>, Enhance <Advanced>, Strong Hands <Legendary>, King’s Aura, 50% Magic Damage Reduction, Genius Commander, Ice Magic <Legendary>.]

“I got so many, it seems some skills are duplicates too.”

After collecting everything that remained, I left, continuing in my original direction to the end of the cave.

“No weapons or equipment? What a stingy king,” I mumbled to myself.

Walking on, when I reached the end of the cave, I retracted everything I had said about the Goblin King.

A room filled with gold, gems, and many other things. I wasn’t greedy enough to foolishly rush into the mountain of gold before me. I picked up a stone and threw it into the treasure, waited a moment, and seeing nothing happen, I lowered my guard and approached.

Where I approached was not a mountain of gold or jewels, but a set of equipment placed behind the mountain of gold.

I appraised it.

- [Nightfall Suit]: Consists of tunic, pants, boots. Legendary-tier equipment. Crafted from the essence of nightfall.
+ Increases all stats by 10%.
+ Owner-locked.
+ Reduces damage from Divine and Dark magic by 30%.
+ Automatically restores owner.
+ Automatically repairs.
+ Regulates body temperature.

“This is excellent equipment, Legendary-tier, truly rare.”

- [Owner-locked]: Only the owner can use it, disabled when owned by others, links location to owner. Owner: Kariguta Sechi.

“Extremely convenient, only I can use it, excellent anti-theft.”

- [Automatically repairs]: Can restore to original state when damaged.

“Self-repairing attire, truly a treasure.”

Then I changed out of my ragged clothes into the brand new, black from head to toe, equipment.

I continued searching in the mountain of gold. Suddenly, something flew out from deep within the pile of gold.

“A ring?”

I tried to appraise it.

- [Storage Ring]: Contains an infinite space within, time inside is frozen, cannot contain living beings. Legendary-tier.
+ Owner-locked.

“Huh?”

Such excellent equipment for carrying things, why was it buried deep under this mountain of gold? Random or intentional?

Then I continued to the center of the room, where there was a stand, and on it was a card and a rather old book.

- [Status Panel]: Displays the full status of the owner, only the owner can see the status. Legendary-tier.
+ Owner-locked.
+ Creates false status.

- [Creates false status]: Allows the owner to hide their true status from others’ appraisal.

Very convenient for not being discovered by others that I had died.

- [Magic Book]: Teaches magic from basic to advanced.

“Much more concise than the other things.”

After taking all the equipment, I tried putting them into and taking them out of the Item Storage. They disappeared and reappeared just as when I appraised them.

Feeling reassured, I prepared to leave. As I passed the largest mountain of gold, I saw something on its peak. Curious, I jumped up, grabbed it, and pulled it out.

“A sword!”

I involuntarily cheered in joy, as I needed a new weapon.

- [Sword of Nightfall]: Legendary-tier item. Crafted along with the Nightfall Suit. Carries the power of nightfall. Owner: Kariguta Sechi.
+ Damage Absorption <Legendary>: Lv.1
+ Automatically repairs.
+ Owner-locked.
+ Anti-Recovery Slash.
+ Increased Agility <Advanced>: Lv.1
+ Sword Art: Kugiac.

“A Legendary sword? On par with the Holy Sword, an extremely rare treasure has just fallen into my hands.”

I sheathed the sword and slung it over my shoulder. Stepping out of the Goblin’s cave, I still felt like something was missing.

Walking to the end of the cave, I saw the exit, a light I hadn’t seen in a long time – sunlight.

But the truth was, I still hadn’t escaped the initial grassland. So I still had to find a way out of this Forgotten Labyrinth.