My Plot Armor System

‘Unfortunately, there is no contradiction in this case.’

[ You have defeated a Goblin Guardsman. ]

Taking down his second Guardsman, Damian was disappointed to see that the reality patch still conformed to the stingy FP rules.

While obtaining FP from a fate-limited race was possible using variants, only the first kill of each variant counted. Once the one-time reward was claimed, they became no different from normal Goblins!

‘Stay focused.’

Damian was only confident in himself who gave it his all, if he ended up being distracted, then the difficulty of surviving this could easily spike within seconds.

[ You have defeated a Goblin Guardsman. ]

‘Yes, just like this.’

The Guardsmen were extremely nimble with their hands, but now that the gap in Agility wasn’t as exaggerated, just reacting faster was enough to dodge their attacks.

In return, Damian just had to alternate between semi-serious faints and vital blows to slit their throats.

[ You have defeated… ]

When they were down by half, the remaining three attempted to work together, but it was too late. Not to mention how clumsy their coordination was, Damian had already read their pattern by then.

[ You have defeated… ]

‘Now, will it work?’

Seeing only two in front of him, Damian was slightly excited as he recalled a certain piece of information. If he remembered correctly…

[ You have defeated a Goblin Guardsman. ]

[ You have defeated a total of 5 Goblin Variants. Extinction Threat Status elevated. ]

[ Plot Achievement recorded: FP +15 ]

‘The second-tier achievement is still the same!’

While most achievements usually triggered a single time, some of the more specialized ones had an additional tier or two to them.

Of course, since the elevated reward rarely doubled in value, the gains were usually less than obtaining a wholly new achievement, but at the time when achievements started getting scarce, this kind of addition had a lot of meaning.

‘5 Fate Points are already a lot, most of the common achievements would be hard to trigger in my current conditions.’

In contrast, due to how usually difficult it was to achieve at the start, the Extinction Threat achievement was almost at the end of Damian’s list of repeatable achievements.

However, since fulfilling it wasn’t that hard once he approached the end game, Damian had dug quite deeply into its prerequisite. In the end, he discovered there were two methods of reaching Tier-2, this was just one of them.

‘Since the second method is almost impossible, it would have been impossible otherwise.’

The alternative to killing a thousand Goblins and 5 Goblin variants was killing ten thousand Goblins!

Considering how rare variants were, finding 5 of them in itself was a challenge that had to be dealt with once at a time, but compared to the mass genocide that Damian only managed to achieve once over years of gameplay, it was quite reasonable.

‘Only that character could do something crazy like this.’

All in all, this final Den had been like an oasis to the parched Damian. To begin with, Damian didn’t just thank the Guardsmen for being easy to handle, he was thankful for the fact they could grant him a minimum of 7 Fate Points even under the effect of the fate limit!

As for the last Goblin Guardsman…

‘Let’s play around for a bit.’

Naturally, Damian didn’t suddenly become arrogant. However, since the enthroned Goblin remained unmoving to this moment, it seemed like the key to triggering his encounter was taking down every single Guardsman.

Since that was the case, Damian was simply buying himself some time to recover some more Aura!

‘I really don’t want to repeat everything after coming this close.’

Despite using a wild approach at the start, Damian was filled with the desire to end this as cleanly as possible.

Whatever this last Goblin was capable of… As long as he could cut it down, reaching the next stage… Even leaving the Labyrinth might be possible!

‘This should be enough.’

In order not to run out of breath as well, Damian didn’t wait until all his Aura was refilled, finally allowing the anguished Guardsman to achieve eternal rest.

[ You have defeated a Goblin Guardsman. ]

Once the system notification rang in Damian’s ears, the resting Goblin appeared to have finally come to his senses. In a slow yet artistic manner, he pulled out the two shortswords out of their sheaths.

‘It really feels like a boss battle.’

Having felt the urge to destroy bosses during their cutscenes more than once, Damian originally wanted to dash at his opponent and end things within seconds. However, a deep sense of foreboding stopped him from moving a single step forward.

‘Combat Instincts was actually triggered at this distance?’

Was the price of trying to interrupt a cutscene that steep? Damian wasn’t sure how it would happen, but he felt that his death was imminent if he approached the Goblin at this exact moment.

‘Is it safe now?’

It was only when the Goblin started moving towards Damian that the instant death vibe started to fade. Nonetheless, the general sense of danger still persisted.

Just like the Guardsmen before it, this Goblin was also in leather armor, but it looked to be of higher grade, and it even had a fancier design, making it appear worthy of mounting the throne.

Swish.

Regardless, Damian knew that he couldn’t achieve much by freezing in place, so he stepped forward and sent a swift slash in the Goblin’s way. He was planning to utilize the same tactic he used with the Guardsmen, but…

‘No!’

Before he could even move his other arm or retract the shortsword into an actual attack, all of Damian's focus was shifted into dodging with all of his might!

‘I could barely see it.’

The final Goblin’s arms moved so fast that Combat Instincts were the only reason Damian could dodge the attack. Naturally, the special Goblin didn’t stop at one slash, its shortswords were dancing left and right like hunting snakes.

‘This is…’

All of a sudden, Damian was pushed into a position where evading for his life was the only thing that he could do. He thought he had gotten too good at it that nothing like a Goblin could ever faze him but in the end…

[ You have died. ]

The failed feint at the start ended up being Damian’s one and only attack.