Punched!
Kick!
Eye-Poke!
Hengsheng unleashed every technique he knew as he fought his way through the army of goblins in the dim dungeon corridor.
The fight was brutal for the goblin army. Their green blood splattered across the stone floor as one after another fell before Hengsheng's might.
Yet, he was not unscathed. The sheer number of goblins made defense impossible to maintain perfectly. Though each goblin was weaker than an average man, their relentless assault allowed occasional strikes to slip past his guard, leaving minor cuts across his body.
PAK!
The heavy punch crushed the skull of the ninety-ninth goblin.
"Garrr!!" The last goblin let out a hoarse cry and lunged at him. If it were a true living being, it would have fled long ago. But these goblins were nothing more than artificial constructs, programmed with a single purpose—to charge at the challenger without fear.
Its fate was no different from the rest. Hengsheng's fist slammed into its chest, snuffing out its life in an instant.
Breathing heavily, Hengsheng felt the strain of constant combat on his weak mortal body.
"It's been a while… I almost forgot how fragile humans are," he muttered. He leaned against the cold dungeon wall, resting for a moment before pushing himself to his feet.
He began gathering the scattered EXP Stones left behind by the fallen goblins. With a mental command, he transferred them into the system inventory. When the last one was collected, his inventory displayed 101 Colorless EXP Stones.
The tutorial wasn't over yet; the objective of the last chapter was clear—survive and escape.
As the creator, Hengsheng knew the full content of this chapter. It was designed to push the challenger to their limits: to endure the relentless goblin horde that would spawn endlessly as time passed, and to find the dungeon's exit before it was too late.
The longer one lingered, the more goblins would flood the corridors. If the exit wasn't found within a day, every corner of the dungeon would be overrun by the green-skinned horde—turning survival into hell difficulty, even for him.
However, his goal wasn't to escape. To achieve an outstanding result at the end of the tutorial, he needed to act differently.
Hengsheng walked through the winding corridors, turning left and right whenever he reached a corner.
Before long, he arrived at his first destination. He knocked on the wall, listening carefully. After a moment, a faint hollow echo answered back.
A hidden chamber.
Brick by brick, he pried the wall open until the hole was large enough for him to squeeze through.
Inside was an armory. Rows of weapons and armor lined the walls, and a chest sat in the center, brimming with hundreds of EXP Stones and a couple of Qi Pill—items that could be used to restore his Spiritual Qi during the battle.
[Leather Armor: Level 1, Common]
…
He inspected the set of leather equipment that covered his entire body—chestplate, bracers, boots, and belt—then put them on. Though the set was nothing special, plain and without enhancements, it was enough to give him some extra protection against the goblin horde.
After equipping the protection, he stuffed the weapons from the chamber into his inventory. There were twenty in total: a sword, a spear, a dagger, a shield, and so on. They were the same types of items available for selection back in the first chapter.
He stored all the weapons, leaving only the sword in his hand.
[Basic Sword: Level 1, Common]
He swung it left and right, slashing and stabbing the air as he tried to familiarize himself with its weight and balance in a short time.
His usual fighting style, developed after becoming a cultivator, didn't rely on weapons but on Qi control and destructive techniques.
However, in his current state, he couldn't use any of those techniques—his Qi was too weak to manifest outside his body. Fighting the goblins barehanded had proven too taxing in the previous battle; his fists and feet still ached from the repeated blows. Wielding a weapon would lessen that strain.
With everything prepared, it was time for him to rush into the dungeon. His plan was simple—charge straight toward the center, slay the boss, and end the tutorial with an excellent score.
He stepped out of the hidden chamber and immediately noticed the shadows at the end of the corridor. He wasn't the only one watching—they had spotted him as well.
"GARRR!!" The goblins let out a deafening roar and rushed toward him.
Hengsheng recalled the dungeon map in his mind and realized that the path he needed to take went right through the horde blocking the way.
So, there was no reason to avoid the fight.
He raised his sword to chest level.
"You guys will become my sword practice dummies, then," he said as he performed a vertical slash on the goblin at the front of the row.
SHING!
The goblin's body split in two.
Hengsheng didn't stop at just one attack. He stepped forward, his sword flowing like water, performing a horizontal slash from side to side, decapitating the second goblin.
SHING!
Strike after strike, his sword moved in a relentless combo, mowing down the goblin horde like cutting grass. Their numbers fell far faster than in the previous fight, proving just how much the weapon helped him.
Shortly, all of the hundred goblins lay dead. He quickly grabbed the dropped items and dashed toward his destination.
Along the way, a few more hordes blocked his path, but he cut them down swiftly before continuing forward.
It took him an hour to reach the destination, a large round chamber with numerous corridors branching out in every direction.
This was the Boss Room.
Hengsheng hid in the shadows of a corridor, observing the chamber. Fortunately, this Boss Room wasn't dim like the corridors, with scattered fire sources, campfires, and lanterns, providing just enough light to see inside.
From the dark shadow, he spotted the numerous moving.
A goblin horde filled the chamber, but this one was unlike any he had encountered along the way. Their numbers were five times higher—about 500 goblins.
Among them were a couple of dozen bigger and better-armed goblins, the goblin warriors, who were at least ten times stronger than the normal ones.
At the center stood the boss.
The Goblin Shaman.
The hobgoblin mage, two meters tall, wearing thick skeleton armor and wielding a bone staff, radiated a dark aura from its skin. This goblin constantly cast spells, summoning more goblins into the dungeon.
From the boss's appearance alone, it was clear that this monster was dangerous; its strength was around the low or middle stage of Level 2.
Such a formidable opponent offered no hope to a novice cultivator. But for a senior cultivator like him, it was nothing.
Hengsheng smirked as he considered how to tackle the boss raid. In just a minute, he was ready. He stepped out of the shadows, revealing his presence to the goblin horde.
"GARRR!" One of the goblins spotted him immediately and let out a roar, catching the attention of the entire horde. They did what they always did—rushed toward their prey.
Seeing them coming, Hengsheng slowly stepped backward into the shadows, and the goblin horde rushed to follow.
The dark corridor filled with the sounds of combat—swords slicing, metal clashing, and goblin screams.
"Gar?" the goblin warrior leader cried, observing the battle from a distance. It wondered why the fight wasn't over yet since there was only one intruder; it shouldn't be much of a problem for the horde to handle. And most importantly, why were no goblins returning from the corridor?
The echoes from the corridor persisted, giving no sign that the fight would end soon. Noticing that over half of the horde had disappeared, the goblin warrior leader ordered two of his warriors to check it out.
Obeying the command, two warriors jumped toward the corridor where green blood flowed and rushed into the shadows. Immediately after they entered, the sounds of battle intensified, the clash of metal ringing loudly.
"GARRR!?" the goblin shaman behind the warrior screamed. The raging sound annoyed him. The warrior trembled; they were afraid of the shaman.
Fearing the Shaman's wrath, the goblin warrior leader had no choice but to discover for himself why the two warriors hadn't returned victorious.
He ordered half his warriors to follow. Leaping toward the dark corridor, they ignored the stench of their fallen kin. At the leader's command, one warrior stepped forward and threw his torch into the shadows.
The fire lit up the darkness, revealing a shocking scene. Their fallen kin lay strewn around the corridor—everyone who had entered this place was dead, including one of the warriors, whose torso had been severed from his body.
Another warrior was struggling against the intruder with the assistance of the horde at his side, but it looked less like a fight and more like a massacre. The intruder was merely toying with them.
Unforgivable!
"RAORR!" the leader roared, ordering all the warriors to charge.
Hengsheng's brow lit up as he noticed that half of the warriors had already entered the corridor. There was no need to hold back any longer—time to proceed to the next phase.
SHING!!!!
With a swift motion, his blade flashed, slicing the warrior before him into four clean pieces. Without pause, he turned toward the charging warriors.