Jun looked at the flickering white screen, confused. He knew what it was, after all he had read a few light novels but their story didn't interest him much.
'…a system, huh. As the gimmick goes, only I can see it, right?'
Jun looked over the white screen for a second, at the groaning trio of goblins, poking at the two cup noodles.
Jun shivered due to the freezing temperatures of the cave, and focused his eyes back on the screen. Not to add that he was buck naked.
Suddenly, the text on the white screen disappeared, soon replaced by a new set of words.
[The Annhilator seems to have been put into an impeding crisis. For such a case, the main function of the System has been activated before the Tutorial!]
'…There was a Tutorial? Oh damn it, this might be a big nuisance for navigating this thing.'
Jun subtly looked over the small cave. But it turns out, it wasn't a small cave at all!
It was one of many pockets in a cavern system, as at the cave that Jun was trapped in had three pathways, leading to definitely three other rooms.
The room Jun was in was fairly big, but it was more vertically bigger than horizontally big.
A sudden sound ringed in Jun's mind, and suddenly the screen appeared again in front of Jun when he was looking around which made hin jolt a little.
[Two main systems have been activated: Rank Identification…
[…And Shard of the Annhilator.]
'…Hm? What, wasn't the first one obvious for systems? And… what's the last one?'
Jun focused on the words 'Shard of the Annhilator' and the screen flickered for a moment, whereafter the words disappeared, replaced by an entire menu, titled "Shard of the Annhilator".
Suddenly, an archaic and powerful voice resounded in Jun's mind.
"The Shard of the Annhilator is your main method to grow!
"Slaughter! Sacrifice! Feed the blade, and make your existence higher!
"The stronger the soul of the sacrifice, the better the growth!"
The menu in it depicted a white dagger-like object, inside a circle where four lines emerged and went to the right, depicting what one may call "stats".
Jun looked at the first stat, at the top-right of the screen.
[Power]
The archaic voice again came.
"The power of the Annhilator is proportionate to the blade they hold!
"The powerful the blade, the stronger the body and speed of the Annhilator!"
But what made Jun truly disappointed was the rank of the power.
[Power: Negligible]
Jun shook his head and looked at the next stat, right below Power.
[Force]
The archaic voice, as expected, came again.
"The forces of the Three Mountains matter. little to an Annhilator!
"Their Blade is their one and only true force against the world, and in proportionate to the blade allows one to hold the mystical powers of the Blade!"
Again, Jun was disappointed by the rank.
[Force: Absent]
Jun quickly skimmed over the other two stats, but such a choice turned out to be bad, as two messages of the Archaic voice overlapped and made a ginormous explosion of noise in his mind.
"AAnAnnhilatorAnnhilator's…"
'Argh…!'
But he could at least decipher the two messages.
The description of the third stat, "Mastery", by the Archaic voice was like:
"An Annhilator's measurement of the connection and usage of their blade!
"The higher the Mastery, the more inhumane would be the Annhilator!
"Speed of Mastery of Abilities and Skills is also dependent on this!"
And the last stat, made Jun shiver a little due to the ominous name, "Existence".
The archaic voice described this stat as ominously as the name:
"The presence of the Annhilator's Existence in the Three Mountains world…
"The higher the Existence, the more tremendously powerful will be the Annhilator!
"But be aware… this is by far the most difficult to ascend, and higher Existences in the Three Mountains risk showing yourself to the creatures of otherworldly presence…"
The last sentence lingered on the mind of Jun for a few seconds before he snapped back to reality.
Although describing all of this took some time, in reality all of this happened in the span of a few minutes.
Jun looked closely at the one button below the screen, flickering in a gray-ish colour— "Summon".
Jun pondered. Considering how disappointing the stats were, obviously the weapon won't work well.
But goblins were goblins. How difficult to kill will they be?
But such a thought would soon haunt Jun for the rest of the duration of the time he was in the cave.
A subtle flash appeared in the back of Jun, originating from his right hand which was tied with his other hand. A small, sharp object about seven inches long, was gripped by his hand as he started cutting the rope.
***
Tubbo was always the greatest one out of the three goblin brothers.
He was smarter, faster, stronger against the other two but was still never as strong as the hobgoblins, let alone the King of Goblins.
Tubbo, Bubbo and Gubbo were the best team amongst the othee Goblins, so the Hobgoblins chose them the most often for outside mission.
But today's haul was particularly mysterious and stupefying.
Tubbo scratched his big, sharp nose as he looked at a strange set of green clothes.
The texture of the cloth was smooth, but strangely didn't come from any plant he was familiar with.
But the most particularly interesting was these two strange containers.
At one glance, they may garner a bit of attention but may seem uninteresting. But on closer inspection one would find a tasty aroma emanating from it.
Gubbo, the weakest and dumbest of the trio, tried to swallow one whole of these strange containers, but Tubbo smashed his hand on Gubbo's empty head and snatched away the container from his hands.
Bubbo, the smarter one, actually tried to inspect the Container but failed to see the little plastic to open the container.
Tubbo, looking again at the container, smelled it and was entranced by the aroma of the container.
But he would've never expected it to be his last Happy moment.
A sudden pain rushed from his chest, he looked down and saw a small, sharp white object protruding from his bloodied chest— and in the next moment, he realised that today's human was a dangerous one.
Tubbo died silently, as he was thrown away as a hoarse shout came from the goblins agterya few minutes, when his consciousness slipped intk darkness.
***
The first goblin was definitely in death's door.
Jun gripped the bloodied Shard as he looked at the other two goblins.
[Goblin. Low Common Monster]
[Goblin. Low Common Monster]
The highest level, the one Jun had just severely injured, was of a rank of Intermediate Common!
Fortunately, he was able to quickly ambush it at the moment of its daze when smelling the Cup Noodle.
Soon, the two goblin started roaring, broken away from their state of shock.
Their roars sounded furious, clearly angry at the death of their brother.
The duo each leaped away from Jun, grabbing their respective weapons.
The higher level goblin picked up a particularly big rusty cleave blade, whereas the lower one held a big wooden club.
There was still another big wooden club on the ground, and the cleave-holding goblin looked awkward holding the cleave blade.
Clearly, it didn't belong to him. Jun deduced quickly that it might've belonged to the Goblin Jun had just killed.
As clear as glass, the battle definitely favoured him.
And at the next moment, the lower level Goblin leaped at Jun, preparing to swing it's big club.
Jun was shocked at the speed of the Goblin, barely dodging the club as he ducked and rolled, smashing to a wall, groaning in pain.
Jun quickly recovered, looking at the club goblin. But he realised at the next second— the Cleave Goblin was nowhere to be seen!
The hair on Jun's hands standed upright as he just ducked— something brushing past him and the sound of metal dropping and hitting the floor.
He looked to his right, seeing the cleave holding goblin laid down on the floor with the cleave blade far away from it.
The Goblin had dropped its weapon!
In this moment of weakness, Jun gripped his Shard and lunged towards the downed Goblin.
The Goblin didn't even had a chance to get up right before its neck was pierced by something, followed by intense pain and then complete black.
Jun looked over the corpse, all four limbs flayed around as dark, oozing blood surged from the neck Jun had just punctured.
Now, the last obstacle remained.
The club holding goblin roared even more in fury, now just mindlessly charging at Jun.
But at that moment, Jun suddenly felt a sense of weakness. He felt a gradual pain in his back.
Jun sidestepped ths Goblin, feeling out his bare back with his left hand. The Goblin tumbled down and dropped face flat on the ground.
He felt a sharp pain as his left hand touched an area of his shoulderblade.
The roars of the Goblin resumed again as it cleared off from the shock of slipping.
As quickly as possible, Jun retracted his left hand and looked at his hand— it was covered in dark blood!
The cleave goblin had definitely cut him, even if it hadn't cut him fully.
'But an infection shouldn't come in effect so soon!'
Jun groaned in pain, looking angrily at the corpse of the dead goblin.
'Even in death, you spite your enemies!'
He toughened the pain and weakness a little, and focused again on the charging goblin.
The moment of weakness made him miss a timing, and now it was too late to dodge once more. The weakness made him unable to dodge, too.
He prepared for impact as he swung his arms do block the incoming club on his left.
Crash!
"Urgh!"
The actual impact was beyond Jun's mind. It definitely cracked a few bones as he was thrown aside, rolling in the ground as he approached one of the entrances of the room.
But at that moment, Jun froze with confusion.
The raging, furious Goblin was now completely silent, cowering in fear in the direction Jun was in.
He felt tingles of his hair stand up as he felt intense dread. Suddenly, the archaic voice sounded in his mind.
He felt the most fearful he had ever in bis life when he heard it
"You've failed in resolving the impending crisis… the true crisis wasn't the Goblins, but their greatest asset of power.
"But worry not, the powers of the shard allows for the usage of checkpoints and travelling back to the point of time of the checkpoint in order to correct your mistakes!"
Jun twisted his neck slowly, trying to look back at whatever was causing such a situation.
And then.
[King of Goblins]
[Low Common Baron]
And in the next moment, he saw his entire view covered by something large in a blur, followed by complete black.
[You've died]
[Respawning in the last checkpoint…]