Ascension Through Skills
chapter-23

Did Lee Taeyeon mention something about monsters with names?

He couldn’t remember, and the why of it would be one of two things.

Either he had forgotten, or Lee Taeyeon had never met them.

If it was the latter, it meant that she had avoided them. Meanwhile, Taesan had slaughtered the goblins.

Atulak. Genesis.

Their basic appearance was the same as other goblins. They wielded longswords and kept their distance from Taesan while staying on guard.

Those endlessly sunken pairs of eyes were directed at Taesan. This alone made it clear that they were much stronger than other goblins.

“Shall we test it out?”

Taesan charged in, and the goblins began to move. They spread out, trying to surround Taesan.

If they moved like that while he was far, then Taesan’s response would be simple.

As he ran towards them, he took out his staff.

[You have activated Fireball]

A fireball was launched at the goblin named Atulak, who hastily leaped away to avoid it. Because of this, their encirclement was broken and left Genesis exposed.

Taesan slashed his sword down.

Kang

Genesis blocked it with his sword. The goblin kept the same posture, straightened its body, and slashed down. In response, Taesan dove to the left to avoid it and stabbed upward as Genesis moved its sword.

Kagagak.

The sword swung upwards and was deflected off the blade. This was not random swinging but proper usage of the sword. Genesis swung his sword, and Taesan raised his shield.

Kang!

The shield was pushed back. The force Taesan felt from the sword was quite strong.

[You have taken 7 damage.]

‘Significant, huh?’

That power and speed were equivalent to a regular goblin’s full strength. There was a reason why they were called elite goblins.

But still, he was in a superior position. Taesan added force to his shield-bearing hand.

Boom!

“Kick!”

Genesis was bounced back. Instead of rushing in, Taesan twisted his body and swung his sword down. Atulak, who was aiming at his back, hastily blocked it.

Screech

“Guh!”

Atulak’s knee buckled. It tried to grit its teeth and endure it, but the sword slowly began to press down. Genesis shouted as it rushed in.

“Argh!”

Taesan attempted to fend it off with his shield, but Genesis refused to easily step back. Eventually, Taesan had no choice but to retreat.

“Gurk.”

“Kick.”

The goblins didn’t come any closer. Their vigilance toward Taesan intensified.

They had changed their tactics. Rather than seeking an opening in Taesan, they decided to compensate for each other’s weaknesses. Atulak and Genesis charged at the same time.

Taesan blocked Atural’s attack, but then Genesis came attacking. In the moment of blocking the attacks from both sides and trying to push them off with force, the goblins had voluntarily created distance. And then they charged again.

Clash!

The sword trembled, and the shield moved. A fierce swordplay was exchanged. A faint admiration appeared on Taesan’s face.

‘Perfect, huh?’

Atulak and Genesis. The sum of the two elite goblins left no openings. No matter how he tried to push one aside and aim at the other, they evaded together. The other would exert intense pressure if he tried to concentrate on one.

The capabilities of the elite goblins were not inferior to him. Taesan would also struggle if he tried to deal with both of them at the same time.

He had to take down one first.

So, he also had to bear some losses.

[You have activated the Breathless Attack. You gained freedom of breath for the next 12 seconds.]

Thud!

“Ugh!”

He knocked away Genesis’ weapon and dashed toward Atulak. Genesis immediately charged in, aiming for his back, but Taesan ignored the goblin.

[You have activated the Evasion skill. The next attack is evaded.] [You have taken 12 damage.]

Ignoring the pain he felt, he swung his sword forcefully. Atulak’s arm was raised up, so Taesan swung his sword toward the exposed torso.

At that moment, his senses alerted him.

[You have felt a strong premonition.]

A single warning. This attack would definitely fail. Taesan barely managed to restrain his strength to follow his intuition. His sword stopped right in front of Atulak’s head.

And then his pupils expanded at the spear that came after.

[Atulak has activated the Evasion skill. The next attack is dodged.]

“What?”

“Kick!”

Atulak swung his sword at Taesan, and so did Genesis from behind. He was surrounded. Taesan quickly rolled onto the ground. The goblin’s swords struck the ground.

Taesan, who had escaped from the goblins, let out a hollow laugh.

“What?”

He hadn’t seen it wrong. The system window was still in the corner of his vision.

[Atulak has activated the Evasion skill. The next attack is dodged.]

The window that showed up when the players used skills.

It was also appearing for the goblins.

“Roar!”

The goblins rushed in, with Atulak aiming for the left and Genesis for the right.

Taesan ran to the right. He ignored Atulak, who had activated the Evasion skill, and aimed for Genesis, but Genesis did the same.

[Genesis has activated the Evasion skill. The next attack is dodged.]

“Darn.”

Taesan kicked back and distanced himself.

It was clear. These goblins were using skills.

“Roar!”

“Shriek!”

The goblins charged fiercely, unlike before. Taesan realized one more fact from their reckless behavior.

The Evasion skill allowed the user to dodge an opponent’s attack. It essentially allowed the user to ignore an attack without regard for defense.

The goblins were fully aware of the effect of the skill they were using. It meant that they didn’t acquire it overnight.

‘Do all those with names behave like this?’

Taesan swung his sword with a nervous face.

Bang!

“Ugh!”

Pushed by the force, Genesis was thrown away. Taesan then knocked off Atulak’s weapon with his shield. It couldn’t dodge smoothly as before since it was focused on the attack and was thrown far away.

Taesan stepped back and pulled out his bow. Thanks to his increased agility, he was able to shoot two arrows before the goblins could charge again.

[Genesis took 6 damage] [Atulak took 7 damage]

“Ugh!”

“Shriek!”

The arrows brushed past and scraped the goblins. With this, their Evasion was nullified. The goblins hesitated for a moment.

“Shriek.”

“Ugh…”

Taesan raised his sword grimly towards the goblins who hesitated to rush in.

“No big deal. Judging by the looks, it seems like they can’t use their skill more than once. This makes it simple.”

[You have activated the Evasion skill. The next attack is evaded.]

Just as the goblins had, he activated the Evasion skill and rushed in. The first attack would definitely miss. The goblins couldn’t recklessly attack and scrambled about. Meanwhile, Taesan arrived in front of Atulak.

Swish

“Roar!”

Taesan’s sword came down.

Atulak hastily blocked, but the difference in strength was too large.

Genesis tried to attack, but it was too late.

Due to Evasion, the attack was dodged, and Taesan used his sword again.

Swish!

Atulak’s sword broke. Taesan then thrust his sword into the goblin whose means of defense had disappeared.

[You have activated the Continuous Attack skill. The next attack is used twice.] [Atulak is in a weakened state. Damage is inflicted more severely.] [Atulak took 39 damage] [Atulak took 40 damage] [You have won against Atulak] [Your Mark of Struggle has been activated]

“Roar!”

Genesis, who had lost its companion, screamed in rage. Instead of turning around, Taesan activated a skill.

[You have activated the Counter skill. The next enemy attack will be retaliated against]

His body moved automatically. He dodged Genesis’ attack and thrust his sword into its chest.

[Genesis took 46 damage]

“Cough, cough.”

He stabbed the suffering Genesis a few more times.

[Genesis took 18 damage] [Genesis took 17 damage] [You have won against Genesis] [Your Mark of Struggle has ended]

“That was easy.”

Taesan cleanly finished them off.

He said that all players were collaborators. However, there were always exceptions to the rule.

They were those who didn’t know their place and ran wild.

Those with a shallow power who tried to control others.

Easy Mode players who believed their narrow well was everything and created a guild.

Taesan had dealt with them all.

He knew all about each skill’s disadvantages and how to target them.

He was taken aback by the fact that monsters used skills, but the skills themselves weren’t scary.

“Do these named ones use skills?”

Elite monsters wouldn’t only be limited to goblins. Orcs, skeletons, and most named monsters would likely use skills.

“It’s not that hard.”

If the elite goblins had fought in unison instead of relying on their skills, it would have taken him quite a bit of time.

But the opponents were too dependent on their skills. Knowing all the countermeasures, this approach was simpler for him.

Taesan checked his rewards.

[Your Soul Ascension has been activated. Your strength permanently increases by 1. Your agility permanently increases by 1. Your intelligence permanently increases by 1.] [Your Soul Ascension has been activated. Your strength permanently increases by 1. Your agility permanently increases by 1. Your intelligence permanently increases by 1.] [You have acquired 458 gold.]

Perhaps because they were elite monsters, the Soul Ascension stat gain covered all the stats. Taesan was about to overlook it as he always did, but then he paused.

“Huh.”

[Your Soul Ascension has been activated. Your proficiency in Flow Skill increases by 3%.] [Your Soul Ascension has been activated. Your proficiency in Flow Skill increases by 3%.]

The proficiency of a skill increased.

“So because they used skills, it means I can steal that too?”

Soul Ascension stole the power of those he slew, and the scope wasn’t just limited to stats. It was natural to steal the skill proficiency when killing an enemy that used skills.

It was surprising but good. Increasing proficiency was hard. Taesan checked the Flow skill.

[Special Activation Skill: Flow] [Mana consumption: 5] [Proficiency: 42%] [The attack is diverted, reducing damage. It seems like it can divert any weapon's attack. It seems like it can also divert magic and curses.]

As he had used it frequently, it steadily increased, and thanks to Soul Ascension, the proficiency exceeded 40%, and the skill description changed. The added description was about allowing evasion against both magic and curses.

This was great. There were some unavoidable spells in magic. You could only deal with them through equipment or skills, and the Flow skill was just right.

The curse could be diverted to reduce its effect too, which was more than satisfactory.

Unfortunately, there was no equipment. It was regrettable, as the armor worn by the goblins seemed to have a defense power of about 4. He could do nothing about this since it was a matter of probability.

“This one’s pretty good.”

Chain Attack. The skill he acquired from fighting with Lakiratas’ Servant. It was quite useful when he first used it.

[Special Activation Skill: Chain Attack] [Mana consumption: 3] [Proficiency: 1%] [The next attack is used twice. It is not constrained by time or space.]

In other words, it was a copy of his attack. A copy would be created after the initial attack, resulting in double damage.

Unlike the damage, the effect of the attack was not copied. Even if he triggered addition and multiplication and then used a chain attack, only the initial attack power would go in, so it was a skill that Taesan had discarded before.

But Taesan was a Solo Mode player now.

His basic attack power would also increase, so it would be used more often. The mana consumption was relatively low, at 3.

The simple check was over. Taesan arrived at the tomb with a puzzled face.

“What’s this?”

The goblins were guarding this place. Given that there were two elites, it must have been a fairly important place. Taesan conjured up the system window.

[You have discovered the Hero's Tomb.] [First Discovery Bonus] [Your intelligence permanently increases by 1. Your mana permanently increases by 2.]

He hadn’t noticed earlier, but he had received the first discovery bonus. It meant this was something important like the Fountain of Life or Lakiratas’s Altar.

Taesan reached out to the tomb, and a white mist appeared.

The mist clustered and formed a shape. It was not in the form of a human.

“A ghost?”

It took on the shape people on Earth would think of when they imagined a ghost. The shape resembled someone wearing a white sheet upside down.

The ghost spoke.

[Hello! Adventurer!]

The ghost then dissipated into the mist.

[And off you go!]

Taesan reached out to the tomb again. The ghost appeared.

[Hello! Adventurer! Off you go!]

And it disappeared once again.

Taesan’s face twitched.

He reached out. The ghost appeared.

[What are you doing? Didn't I tell you to leave?]

“Hand over the quest.”

[Huh. Look at this one. You dare to ask me for a quest? Do you know who I am?]

“You’re the fallen hero. Who else?”

He already knew the identity of the ghost from the system window. The ghost grumbled after a brief silence as if it had nothing more to say.

[Everything's so convenient now. No need to walk by oneself, sacrifice one's life, and gather information when the system will tell you everything. How handy.]

“Weren’t there any systems in the previous labyrinth?”

[No. There were? What a picky guy.]

The ghost grumbled. Taesan stared at it in shock.

‘What’s with this one?’

All the NPCs he had encountered were far from lightweight.

Whether it was the dwarf or Ainzhar, there was a certain gravitas. But this one was incredibly lightweight.

An NPC and a ghost. The deceased. They could interfere with the living. It could only be one thing.

“Aren’t you going to give me the quest?”

There was something similar to this ghost in Easy Mode. It wasn’t an NPC there, but a quest based on something like a diary, something of the deceased, which was similar.

A quest to fulfill the wishes of the deceased by reading the contents of the diary. The ghost in front of him wouldn’t be much different. The ghost mumbled as if it was bewildered.

[You're a strange one. Bluntly asking for a quest? Wouldn't it be a bit too early for the second floor?]