Why Did I Have to Enroll - Chapter 11

Lesson 3. This is Your Pet - 3

Why were there over 100 goblins gathered in the dungeon's boss room?

It wasn't because this dungeon employed overwhelming numbers, but because there was a special individual in the boss room with the ability to command goblins.

Its name was Hobgoblin.

In fact, the hobgoblin in British folklore isn't an evil creature like a goblin, but rather closer to a house spirit that helps with household chores.

You know, the house-elf that loves receiving socks and runs away shouting, "Dobby is free!"

It could be called a variation or minor version of the Brownie from Scottish folklore, but in various media (especially games) that Ban Yu-won had encountered, hobgoblins were often depicted as goblin leaders or enhanced versions. So he had assumed that if it was a goblin leader, it must be a hobgoblin.

And originally, his ability tended to 'make things appear as he thought they should.'

"You bastard!"

"The bastard is you, using your comrades as shields."

The goblin club, having awakened to the concept of blind faith, went berserk and swept through the goblins in the boss room.

In the process, the hobgoblin's command was actually meaningless, and only after more than half had fallen did the hobgoblin realize that directly attacking the goblin club was pointless. It then rushed at Ban Yu-won, using a few goblins as shields, but...

"As expected, in terms of skill, that goblin warrior from before was better. Is it because they're different types?"

"How dare you compare me to an inferior species!"

"So you are a different species. But in the end, you're still just a goblin."

"Kuaaaaaah!"

By then, Ban Yu-won, having stolen concepts of life, magic, body, and swordsmanship from the dead goblins, was prepared to face the hobgoblin's attack head-on.

His abilities had grown much stronger than before, while the opponent, except for its brute strength, possessed skills even inferior to the goblin warrior. It would be stranger if he were to be overwhelmed.

"Ha!"

Ban Yu-won decisively deflected the bright blue sword the hobgoblin was wielding, then rushed forward, thrusting his sword ahead.

As the hobgoblin's breath faltered, the magic sword extended unhindered, piercing its neck and spreading blood poison.

"Kehak!"

"Was it shallow?"

"Kueeeeek!"

The hobgoblin's skin was too tough to sever its windpipe completely.

But as Ban Yu-won prepared to thrust again, he saw the hobgoblin drop its sword and clutch its newly pierced neck with both hands, writhing in pain.

"Kek, keeeeeek...!"

"Oh...?"

"Puheeek!"

It vomited purple blood.

As Ban Yu-won hurriedly moved his body to avoid it, his focus shifted from the creature to his surroundings, and he realized anew that all the goblins in the boss room had been killed.

The goblin club that had approached his side was bobbing up and down in the air like a wave.

It looked as if it was asking for praise for a job well done, which made him smile.

"Right, now only you... You're gone too."

The blood-mixed scream it had just let out must have been its death throes.

The hobgoblin had collapsed on the floor, wearing an expression of death similar to the goblins that had died before it.

The poison spreading through the blood, blood poison.

Until now, all the creatures he had faced had died instantly, so he hadn't realized how formidable it was, but seeing how the hobgoblin died, it seemed it shouldn't be taken lightly.

"It's over. Good job, Club!"

Ban Yu-won hugged the goblin club and rejoiced.

Although there were moments when he felt a sense of crisis, overall this dungeon had been smooth and swift.

This was partly due to the goblin club's appropriate support abilities and powerful firepower, but also because Ban Yu-won had properly recognized and utilized his own abilities.

Above all, as Ban Yu-won cleared this dungeon, he felt excitement and a desire for growth rather than fear or terror.

This was tantamount to proving that he could adapt to this world, to the academy, where such battles would be commonplace from now on.

"Whew, now that it's over, I need to collect the spoils."

He had already collected quite a lot of language concepts from the goblins during the battle, but still, nearly 50 corpses remained intact.

He extracted a large amount of concepts from their corpses and weapons, then turned his attention to the most important spoil, the hobgoblin's corpse.

"Let's see."

Since he had been looking down on goblins as an inferior species, surely it must have something more impressive than them.

With that thought, he extracted golden strings of characters from the creature's corpse.

[You absorb Life 5, Magic 3, Evil Spirit (妖鬼) 5, Body 3, Soul 2, Leadership (統率) 1, Murder 1.7, House Spirit (家精) 0.05 from the Hobgoblin.]

There really was a lot of stuff!

'Wait a minute. Life and body are things all monsters had, so that's understandable... but Evil Spirit instead of Demon? Magic was extracted separately. So does this mean hobgoblins are more evil spirit than demons? What's the difference between demons and evil spirit in the first place?'

Of course, there was no way to know.

But the important thing was that all these numbers were ridiculously high!

It was understandable to look down on goblins as an inferior species.

Wasn't this more than double that of the blind goblin warrior who had exuded quite an impressive presence?

But more important than that was the fact that he had obtained the concept of soul from this creature, which he had never gotten from other goblins before.

Ban Yu-won thought that this might be an indicator of a monster's level as he absorbed the remaining elements.

'Leadership is self-explanatory... As expected, it was at an insignificant level. I'll keep this for now. But what about house spirit?'

After absorbing the concept of the word, he realized it meant house fairy.

Although Ban Yu-won recognized hobgoblins as monsters, he was also aware that they appeared as house fairies in English folklore.

Perhaps that's why that faint knowledge allowed him to extract even such a thin concept with a depth of just 0.05?

It was a moment that reaffirmed the fact that language concepts were truly obtained based on what he knew and recognized.

'To properly extract concepts from monsters, I need to study hard. Sigh, that's my fate then. Even if I don't go to college, I still have to study...'

It was then.

Feeling something tapping on his shoulder, he turned his head to see the goblin club rotating complexly in the air, as if trying to tell him something.

"What's wrong?"

It pointed at the golden strings of characters being absorbed into Ban Yu-won's body in real-time.

"Oh, are you asking for some?"

As Ban Yu-won tilted his head and suddenly asked, the goblin club rotated its body greatly as if nodding in affirmation.

Well, it had a faint sense of self, and it must have felt itself getting stronger every time Ban Yu-won gave it a code, so it was understandable for it to beg him for codes.

"Of course I should give you some. Wait a bit. I'm going to extract the demon part now."

But its request wasn't that simple.

Right in front of Ban Yu-won, it transformed itself into a pen and started writing on the stone floor.

"Huh? What, why..."

Ban Yu-won couldn't finish his sentence.

Because he saw the character for life written neatly on the stone floor.

This was no coincidence.

Perhaps it had read the details of the codes Ban Yu-won had absorbed!

"How did you know?"

The goblin club, which had been writing other characters on the floor, unhesitatingly raised its pen tip and pointed at him upon hearing Ban Yu-won's question.

Did this mean it could read thanks to his ability?

It made sense that it would be affected by its master's abilities, given that it had been connected to him in a master-servant relationship since the moment of its birth.

"Alright, life. I hadn't thought of giving this to you. I'll give it. How much should I give?"

The goblin club, which had been shaking its pen tip back and forth as if telling him to wait, drew a long 1 next to 'life'.

Then, as if watching Ban Yu-won's reaction, it trembled its pen tip, which was quite adorable.

"I can give you that much. I could give you more if you want?"

"!!"

Fortunately, that seemed to be enough.

Relieved by Ban Yu-won's affirmation, it continued to move its pen tip vigorously.

Soul 1, and then evil (妖) and spirit.

Soul felt like it was a set with life, so it made sense, but the interesting point was that it asked for both evil and spirit separately.

It could have received them as a whole, but there must be a meaning to specifying them separately.

"First, life and soul."

He detached 1 each of life and soul from the codes he had just collected from the hobgoblin and bestowed them.

Ban Yu-won didn't take it lightly at all, but the result was even more dramatic than he thought.

The moment he finished bestowing, a dazzling golden light burst forth, and the presence emanating from the goblin club was instantly amplified!

[The artifact gains new and infinite possibilities, allowing it to grow steadily from now on. A miracle made possible by the perfect harmony of synthesized concepts! You gain a great realization, improving your ability to utilize Babylonia Code.]

How could this not be a blessing when even the Babylonia Code displayed such a message?

Moreover, this time the artifact had directly fed him an achievement.

Although they were currently detached from the academy's management system and couldn't know, wouldn't the professors be even more shocked if they saw the current goblin club?

"Phew, okay. Next, I should give you evil and spirit, right?"

The goblin club, which gave a greatly changed feeling despite no visible changes (it was hard to spot in the first place), responded even more fiercely and approached him.

Separating the 5 Evil Spirit resulted in a depth of 2.5 each.

First, he added all the spirit he had obtained from killing goblins and bestowed it on it, causing its spirit weapon to instantly surpass 10 and grow to 15.

But what brought about an even more important change was none other than evil.

[evil 2.5 and beast 4 are automatically synthesized. Due to perfect compatibility, a transcendent synthesis far surpassing depth is achieved, completing Evil Beasts (妖獸) 10. It's a perfect concept that cannot be separated again.]

"Ah."

Such a sound escaped involuntarily.

That's right.

Earlier, when creating the fierce shot, I had separated the concept of fierce beast, but I had left the concept of beast inside the goblin club!

Truly astonished by this completely unexpected result, Ban Yu-won stared blankly as the goblin club transformed itself in mid-air.

Evil Beast, an utterly fantastical word born from combining the 'evil' of strange with the 'beast' character.

It refers to an animal that has transcended mere animals and reached the realm of the mystical.

And now, the goblin club was transforming into a living Evil Beast, borrowing the power of the concepts of transformation, life, and soul!

'I hope it can still change back into a magic gun or shield later...?'

Putting aside Ban Yu-won's rather unromantic thoughts while witnessing the birth of a new life, the goblin club, having finally completed its transformation, let out a breath.

"Hiss."

Ban Yu-won, who had been secretly worried that some monstrous form might emerge since it was a Evil Beast, was relieved to see its appearance.

It was a snake.

And one with exceptionally beautiful white scales at that.

Its eyes glimmered with a blue light, and he could clearly sense the aura of evil and spirit emanating from within.

"Can you turn invisible too?"

"Shhhk."

With a deflating sound, its form became transparent.

As if sensing Ban Yu-won's thoughts, it demonstrated its ability to change into various forms like a club, gun, and shield while in that state.

Finally, it dispelled the invisibility and returned to its snake form, then glided through the air as if swimming before coiling itself around Ban Yu-won's arm.

"Hiss, shhhk."

"Alright, from now on, your name is Eve."

"Hisssss!"

He couldn't keep calling it goblin club forever, and now that it had gained a living form, it seemed appropriate to give it a name.

Delighted by the unexpected name, it gently squeezed Ban Yu-won's arm.

As for how the name Eve came about, seeing the snake reminded him of the story of Satan transforming into a serpent and giving the forbidden fruit to Eve in the Garden of Eden, so he named it on impulse.

"Now, let's break the core and get out of here. It's almost lunchtime, so we should head back to school... No, wait."

Actually, it was a bit late for lunch. The student cafeteria might not even accept students coming in at this hour.

In that case, why not explore the outside city as Yumina had suggested?

'I can just check the geography and return to school if it's too far.'

Having made up his mind, Ban Yu-won first destroyed the dungeon core and organized all the concepts.

He pushed all the concepts he didn't immediately need into the code core, and applied the necessary ones to himself.

[Life 45.1

Body 32

Soul 324.5

Magic Power 38.7

Swordsmanship 14.2

Leadership 1 ― The ability to lead a group.

All-Reading Eyes 105

All-Hearing Ears 100

All-Speaking Lips 100]

The internal concepts had grown incomparably since this morning.

"So, do you think I can hold my own against my classmates now?"

"Hiss......"

As Ban Yu-won asked, feeling good about the rapid growth of his internal codes, Eve shook its head apologetically.

In fact, Ban Yu-won already knew, but the firm denial still left a bitter taste in his mouth.

'Well, what matters is the rate of growth, right?'

Today, the day of the entrance ceremony, was Monday.

And the day they would enter the tower was Friday.

Ban Yu-won vowed to grow his abilities to a level where he wouldn't hold back his peers by then, and stepped out of the dungeon with confident strides.