Jun slowed down as he looked over to the side, gazing at white window.
[You've averted the current crisis.]
Jun stopped fully after a few seconds, whereafter he dropped down and sat, giving out a huge sigh.
Large beads of sweat trickled down his forehead, but soon after they dried out as if something heated was vaporising them.
This was an effect of the winds of the ventilator tunnels. Even though they were cold winds, they strangely had the same properties as heated gales.
Sometimes they picked up pace, other times the pace died down to a gentle wind.
Jun slid on the ground until his back faced the wall of the tunnel.
He had finally escaped the danger, confirmed as by the system.
But he still had an uneasy feeling in his heart as he shivered in the cold winds. For now the winds were only a gentle breeze, but who knows when theg will become stormy again.
Jun knew he had to act quick before the winds picked up pace.
The window remained suspended in the air, as if waiting for approval. Jun stood up quickly, his breath haggard.
He gazed at the window as he started to run to the direction away from his original location.
Suddenly, the text flickered and switched to a new message.
[The current location is deemed safe. A Checkpoint has been formed with this location as origin.]
Jun looked at with surprise.
'So checkpoints are made after a major hurdle is dealt with?'
Jun smirked with relief that he didn't had to go back to that hellhole of a starting point. But then a sudden confusion ran out in his mind.
How did he end up there? One hypothesis was that he was summoned outside the Goblins' den and the goblins dragged him back to their lair.
But then how would his clothes remain this intact? His shoes were the only thing missing— everything else was as it was before he was transported here.
But Jun dismissed such worries for now. They were trivial compared to the current danger he was facing.
The winds started to slowly pick up as he gazed once more at the window on his left.
Then, the text again shifted. But the next set of words baffled Jun a little.
[ One ability has been provided as compensation for the crisis.]
[You've acquired: Focus (Rare)]
Jun focused his gaze on the highlighted name of the skill, to which in an instant another window popped up, detailing on the ability.
[ Focus (Rare) ]
[ Enhance the effects of your current Mastery with a multiplier of 1.5x for a duration of one minute. ]
[ Cooldown: 2 minutes ]
It was a plain, enhancement skill. But it would've enough for Jun to settle for now. The fact that he earned an ability was enough of a joy for him in this moment.
He considered for a moment on how focusing on highlighted words gave out details on it. Would focusing on the highlighted words in the description of the ability give the same outcome?
He thought of the fact, as he ran, on whether a glossary existed.
But before he could even attempt to summon this, his feey landed on air as he dropped down to somewhere.
Jun gasped, frantically swinging both his arms until he grabbed an edge, hanging there.
He was inside the entrance to another tunnel!
Wind bellowed out from the tunnel Jun was barely in. He saw how the shadows bended as if the tunnel was curving.
Jun looked down and hoped that the tunnel down really curved, as he realised that it was too late to pick himself up— the reason was the original tunnel he was in was now filled with lighting fast winds!
Luck itself had assisted him from suffering miserably in such an unprecedented manner.
Jun gave a big sigh, after which he hanged for a few minutes, mentally preparing himself to let go of holding anymore.
The height between him and the curve was quite a lot of distance, but for his current self he would at least be able to survive intact with just a few bruises.
Then, Jun stopped grabbing the edges as his body dropped and started falling down into the tunnel. This tunnel was much darker, with almost no form of illumination unlike the previous tunnel.
"Bam!"
Jun crashed down when the first curvature of the tunnel met him. His body twisted, tumbling down into the curving tunnel as he groaned in pain.
He steadied himself as he stopped tumbling, and instead slid down as dust from brushing with the ground flew by.
A good amount of time passed, to which the tunnel then slowly turned into another vertical winding tunnel, with cold getle winds passing by.
Jun stood up, stretching his body wilst also grumbling due to the pain.
Thankfully, this tunnel was just slightly smaller than the previous tunnel Jun was in.
He looked forward, looking around in near total darkness. He used his hands to feel the walls of the tunnel.
He started sprinting now. He definitely couldn't remain in this location any longer or else he would risk dying to the strong winds any time.
As he ran, feeling the cold walls of the tunnel, he suddenly stopped. Jun had a strange expression in his face as his body turned to the direction of the wall he was touching.
He tried feeling further as he extended his hands higher up, to which he gasped in shock.
There were small holes inside the tunnels!
Out came subtle winds from these holes. These were the origins of the winds inside the tunnels!
As he reached higher and higher he realised that the frequency of the holes became higher and higher until it felt like a tremendous amount.
Jun could no longer extend his hands further. He retracted them, looking at the ceiling. He couldn't see due to the darkness, but he definitely had only one thought at that moment—
'This place is truly strange and eerie. Even the goblin cave gave a much better feeling than these tunnels!'
He dismissed his unsettled mind as he started to feel the walls again and running.
He hoped he didn't face anything nor dropped to another tunnel in this duration.
***
An insurmountable amount of time had passed. Jun was still running.
Suddenly, his eyes jolted as he saw the brightness inside the tunnel increase. He eas definitely reaching the end of this tunnel!
As th darkness creeped away, the tunnel slowly curved downwards until it reached to a point Jun could no longer steadily walk.
But he definitely saw the exit. He couldn't see what was on the other side due to contrasting brightness between the tunnel and the area beyond the exit.
Jun focused his eyes down beyond the slope towards the exit. At that moment the winds have started to pick up their pace.
He debated on his mind, weighing the risks on whether to jump into an unknown area, or risk about getting destroyed by razor sharp winds.
He focused his vision, trying to peek and discern any details inside the area beyond the exit.
He could discern only… boxes!
Real, wooden boxes!
Jun was taken aback with the sight. What was revealed in front of him as he focused more, was what looked like a storage inside which incredible amounts of boxes stacked on top of another!
Jun could hardly believe that in a mere goblin den, would there be a storage room filled to the brim with wooden containers.
Yes, such a sight made him rethink on whether it was even a goblin den!
'This… this looks more like a Goblin Colony!'
Jun gulped nervously as he realised the number of goblins in here might be much larger than he initially thought. There's chance that there may be other threats besides the King of Goblins!
Jun nervously looked down as the winds in the tunnel picked up. He had to go down or else the wind itself will make him go.
***
"Crash!"
In a massive cavern filled to the brim with collections of gold, wooden boxes, barrels.
Suddenly in the middle of the cavern several of the wooden boxes crumbled and shattered as a figure dropped down high from one amongst many of the ventilator tunnels in the ceiling.
This was, as obvious, Jun.
Jun groaned in pain as he looked around the massive cavern.
Thankfully due to his toughened body, no shrapnel pierced his body and he didn't suffer much damage due to wooden boxes helping as rough cushions.
He stood up on ground, amongst the rubble he had just caused. He sighed, the pain was bearable, but before this he had never been thrown into such dirt poor conditions.
Even RPG games didn't throw their main characters into such conditions, unless that was specifically their gimmick.
Jun looked above, towards the ceiling. He couldn't make up which hole he came from, but he at least felt a little grateful that these holes were there to save him from this horrendous situation.
But now wasn't the time.
A sudden growl could be heard from a distance as the musty smell from a group of nearby boxes was smelled by Jun.
Jun realised this growl was familiar. It was a goblin! And not just one…
It was an entire pack of them as more growls followed by.
Jun ran towards the musty smelling group of boxes, hiding behind them, hoping their scent will mask his own smell.
The lesson with the King of Goblins was that these Goblins had a sharp sense of smell.
As the growls came nearer and nearer, Jun prayed to every Earth god in history he could remember to allow him to survive.