Izroth took one step at a time before arriving at the very edge of the circular platform surrounded by those strange totems. He looked at the totems expecting them to be some sort of magic item like the mysterious red orbs, but there was nothing that popped up.

Izroth then turned to face the ‘Goblin King’s Commander Jruloja’ as he walked forward entering onto the platform.

Woosh! Woosh! Woosh!

As soon as Izroth stepped onto the platform, the strange totems lit up brightly and released a powerful energy wave. The energy swept in a circle making contact with all the totems and forming a nearly transparent barrier that prevented anyone from leaving once they were inside.

That barrier looked a bit similar to the one created by the red orbs, but when one took time out to observe closely, they would discover that the powerful energy was not coming from the totems. There was a faint light red trail thin as a piece of hair, that flowed across the ground resembling something that was extremely ethereal.

Izroth followed with his eyes to the location that they all seemed to connect to, however, he was not successful in finding anything. The trail seemingly vanished midway as though it was not linked to anything at all, to begin with.

“I am Goblin King’s Commander Jruloja! You mess with my research, must become my research!” the ‘Goblin King’s Commander Jruloja’ said as the book it held in its hand, pages flew open rapidly flipping until stopping on a certain page. An intense energy converged into a single point in front of the boss monster before firing out straight at Izroth! It had used the skill ‘Mana Burst’!

Izroth was prepared from the moment he set foot into the room itself and so responded to the sudden attack in a heartbeat. A light blue shapeless form of mana rushed out towards Izroth. It was similar to the ‘Mana Sphere’ that the ‘Goblin Sorcerer’ used, except it was not nearly as predictable and the cast time was insanely fast, this was the power of a boss monster!

“Flickering Steps!” Izroth did not hesitate and immediately used his ‘Flickering Steps’ skill to gain the upper hand. Izroth was unsure of its attack patterns, so he would use his monstrous agility to safely gauge the ‘Goblin King’s Commander Jruloja’ abilities.

Miss!

The ‘Mana Burst’ hit nothing but air and clashed against the transparent barrier behind where Izroth stood just a short while ago before, losing all of its power and dissipating. Afterimages of Izroth could be seen spread throughout the entire circular platform flickering constantly, as his agility with ‘Flickering Steps’ activated, reached a monstrous 380!

Before the ‘Goblin King’s Commander Jruloja’ could even perform its next action, Izroth had already arrived directly in front of it, he had immediately closed the distance between the two of them! “Sword Force… First Baneful Sword: Destruction!”

Izroth’s ‘Nameless Blade’ moved at such a speed that it seemed to be illusory. Izroth’s sword which was covered its trademark light milky blue aura from the combination of his skills had slashed directly across the neck of the ‘Goblin King’s Commander Jruloja’! His speed was too great, the boss monster simply had no time to defend its vital point!

Critical Hit!

-2,180 HP!

5,820/8,000 HP Remaining! (Goblin King’s Commander Jruloja)

Izroth had dealt over 2,000 damage! His ‘First Baneful Sword: Destruction’ dealt 350% of his attack as damage, add to that his ‘Sword Force’ skill from the ‘Nameless Blade’ weapon and a critical strike, his slash dealt 1400% of his attack as damage total! How absolutely terrifying! Such damage was not supposed to exist this early on in the game and yet Izroth used a single strike to reduce the HP of the ‘Goblin King’s Commander Jruloja by more than 25%!

Creeeeeeeeeeeek!

The ‘Goblin King’s Commander Jruloja’ cried out angrily from being attacked so suddenly. The book in its hand closed and what appeared in its place was a battle axe. The ‘Goblin King’s Commander Jruloja’ swung in a full circular motion around itself as the air seemed to split from the great amount of force behind the battle axe’s swing.

Just when it looked as though Izroth had been hit by the battle axe, it turned out to be one of his afterimages as it soon flickered out of existence.

Miss!

Izroth did not waste any time, he had to deal as much damage as possible before his ‘Flickering Steps’ ran out! Because the instant it did, he would automatically lose his speed advantage. Izroth rushed forward swinging his ‘Nameless Blade’ in a horizontal arc that resembled that of a crescent moon. Not too far behind that strike was a phantom that resembled the attack itself! “Phantom Strike!”

This time the ‘Goblin King’s Commander Jruloja’ had its battle axe out and could properly defend its vital points. But Izroth was not aiming for the neck as he knew that area would be heavily guarded by the ‘Goblin King’s Commander Jruloja’ and so instead his first attack sliced into its stomach area. The second strike targetted the right leg of the boss monster!

-100 HP!

-180 HP!

5,540/8,000 HP Remaining! (Goblin King’s Commander Jruloja)

Izroth was satisfied with the assault, however, he could not help but be a bit disappointed in the end. He had thought that if he could damage the ‘Goblin King’s Commander Jruloja’ leg that it would slow it down. Similar to how when he attacked the eyes of a ‘Goblin Worker’ earlier on, he had received a battle alert saying it was blinded.

“Puny human! Burn!” the ‘Goblin King’s Commander Jruloja’ said as it put away its battle axe and a book appeared in its hand. A massive amount of mana began to gather above its head constantly swirling around and raising the temperature of the room!

Izroth had a bad feeling about this and so he treated to a safe distance from the boss monster, or at least he thought.

A crackling sound filled the entire room as a storm of fire formed above the circular platform! The fire began to rain down over the entire battlefield, it seemed like the range of this skill took up the entire circular platform! The ‘Goblin King’s Commander Jruloja’ had used one of its skills, ‘Firestorm’.

-100 HP!

600/700 HP Remaining! (Izroth)

Izroth felt as though he was being cooked alive by this fire! He had not expected the range of the attack to be so massive that it would cover the entire platform! If this kept up, he would only have 200 HP remaining by the time the skill finished!

-100 HP!

500/700 HP Remaining! (Izroth)

The whole platform was filled with a raging flame that emitted an intense wave of heat, it was very hard to clearly see but in the middle of it all the ‘Goblin King’s Commander Jruloja’ was standing at the very center with its hands held to the sky.

Izroth peered in the direction of the strange totems and noticed that the flames seemed to not be able to reach the very edge of the circular platform as though the totem was repelling the fire away from itself. When he saw this, he immediately dashed over using his ‘Flickering Steps’ and arrived there soon after. His theory was proven to be correct, the entirety of the battlefield was covered in the ‘Firestorm’, however, the very edges near the totems were free of any flames! Although Izroth had to waste 3 seconds more waiting for the fire to clear, it was the much better choice when it came to that or taking 300 extra damage to his HP.

After 3 seconds passed, the ‘Firestorm’ cleared out from the platform and the storm above vanished from sight. The ‘Goblin King’s Commander Jruloja’ instantly cast ‘Mana Burst’ at Izroth when the ‘Firestorm’ ended before taking the time to then switch back to its battle axe.

Izroth only had 12 seconds remaining on his ‘Flickering Steps’, so he had to put it to good use! He evaded the incoming ‘Mana Burst’ and flickered with great speed straight at the ‘Goblin King’s Commander Jruloja’! Although Izroth’s attack skills were all on cooldown, that didn’t mean he could not deal damage in the meantime!

Izroth’s ‘Nameless Blade’ soared through the air slicing into the right arm of the boss monster! The ‘Gobin King’s Commander Jruolja’ battle axe swept out in a ring around itself! Izroth had managed to land his strike successfully, but he could not evade the attack coming towards him at the same time and so shifted his ‘Nameless Blade’ closer to himself parrying the incoming battle axe!

-100 HP!

5,440/8,000 HP Remaining! (Goblin King’s Commander Jruloja)

PARRIED!

-130 HP!

370/700 HP Remaining! (Izroth)

Izroth used the momentum from the attack he received and retreated backward. He then quickly took an item from his inventory, it was 1 of the ‘Lesser Health Potion’! He gulped it down not caring for the bitter taste it had and regained back some of his lost HP!

+150 HP!

520/700 HP Remaining! (Izroth)

“How troublesome..” Izroth mumbled to himself before kicking off his right foot and charging back in the direction of the ‘Goblin King’s Commander Jruloja’! There were only 8 seconds left on the time limit for Izroth’s ‘Flickering Steps’.

Most monsters seemed to stick to a specific attack pattern no matter if it would lead to their eventual demise. But a few had an exception to this rule. One of them was the ‘Shadow Wolf’, a world boss. Its attacks were unpredictable and it would adapt to the situation at hand instead of following a specific order of attack. Another seemed to be boss monsters like this ‘Goblin King’s Commander Jruloja’. It had clearly ignored the strike it would receive from Izroth’s attack on its right arm and decided to return an attack back. It was taking damage to deal damage!

If that was the case, then Izroth would have to be even more careful from now on. He could not afford to get into a contest of endurance with this boss monster, as he would be the inevitable loser. Izroth flickered in constant circles around the ‘Goblin King’s Commander Jruloja’ and as it finally swung out with its battle axe passing through one of his afterimages, Izroth cut in an upwards motion towards the eyes of the boss monster! However, it managed to adjust its position slightly avoiding a direct hit to both of its eyes and only one of them were struck!

Izroth did not stop his assault there as he shifted the position of his wrist in a counterclockwise manner. His ‘Nameless Blade’ passed across the neck of the ‘Goblin King’s Commander Jruloja’ on its descent downward!

-100 HP!

Critical Hit!

-260 HP!

5,080/8,000 HP Remaining! (Goblin King’s Commander Jruloja)

Battle Alert: ‘Goblin King’s Commander Jruloja’ has been partially blinded by player Izroth for 10 seconds!

Immediately after his second attack landed, Izroth took exactly three steps back in a quick succession and not long after he did a strong force of wind brushed up against him. It was the battle axe belonging to the boss monster swinging just before him but hitting nothing at all!

Miss!

As soon as Izroth evaded the attack from the ‘Goblin King’s Commander Jruloja’, his body suddenly felt as though some shackles that were locking it in place were being shattered!

Izroth felt an overwhelming power flowing throughout his entire body. It was as though a dam that was stopping this power from passing had been completely broken apart! Izroth’s eyes shone with excitement as he soon heard the system alert go off in his mind. He was using the last bit of time left on his ‘Flickering Steps’ to avoid the ‘Goblin King’s Commander Jruloja’ assault as he knew that the current system message was too important to ignore!

Ding! A mysterious energy has invaded player Izroth’s body!

Ding! Because of system parameters, you cannot advance further!

Ding! The skill ‘Breaker of Limits’ has been activated! System parameters removed!

Ding! Generating skill…

Skill Name: ???

Skill Creator: Izroth

Skill Level: 1/10

Skill Rank: S

Passive: The more the user of this skill battles the stronger their body becomes, permanently raising all of their stats. Enhances all user senses by 100%.

Current Stat Buff:

HP: 200

ATK: 20

DEF: 20

AGI: 20

Description: A skill created by Izroth, the more the user battles the stronger they become over time.

Special Effect: This skill cannot be leveled up using skill points, the user must experience many battles to further advance.

System Alert: Please name the skill!

Izroth could sense with his soul, that his body in the real world strength had increased by much more than twofold! This was the second stage of the ‘Heavenly Golden Body’ physique!

“Name the skill, Heavenly Golden Body!” Izroth said without even having to think about it.

Ding! Generating… Complete! You have named the skill ‘Heavenly Golden Body’!

At the same time, Izroth’s time limit on his ‘Flickering Steps’ had finally run out!