The next morning, Jin returned to the gate without wasting time on hesitation or pointless planning. There wasn't much to plan, anyway. The route into the Beginner Zone was already familiar, the rhythm of its fights had settled into something he could trust, and the only real difference now was that the system had stopped feeling incomplete. There were still gaps in it, still things he didn't know, but now growth had two tracks instead of one, and that alone made every step forward more meaningful. The school grounds were already busy when he passed through them. Students were gathering near the lower training gates, some alone, most in pairs or groups, talking louder than they needed to, trying too hard to sound confident. A few glanced at him out of habit, but none of them stopped him. That was how it had always been at school. People could look, they could whisper, they could laugh among themselves, but they rarely crossed the line openly. Rules existed here, and rules made people cautious. Outside school, cruelty was easier. Inside, it had to hide behind distance.
The gate opened with the same low hum as always, and Jin stepped through into the dim, broken world beyond without slowing. The pressure settled over him immediately, that faint heaviness in the air and the strange silence that belonged to gates and nowhere else. The ruins ahead looked the same as they had the day before—collapsed walls, broken pillars, cracked stone paths half-swallowed by debris—but familiarity didn't make them safe. It only made them readable. Jin moved at a steady pace, one hand resting lightly on the hilt of the school-issued sword, his attention shifting over the angles of the terrain rather than chasing every sound. He didn't need to think much. The pattern was already there. Goblins preferred blind corners and narrow entries. Hobgoblins appeared in more open areas where they had room to swing. Anything stronger usually announced itself through weight alone.
A goblin slipped out from behind a split section of wall before he had gone far, its long limbs tense, its ugly face pulled into that same hungry grin all of them seemed to wear. Jin didn't stop. He stepped in cleanly, faster than the creature expected, and the sword cut across its throat in one smooth line. The body dropped almost immediately, twitching once against the uneven ground before going still. The system responded at once.
[Kill Confirmed]
[Calculating Target Stats…]
Target Stats:
Strength: 8
Agility: 6
Vitality: 7
Mana: 2
Total: 23
[Inferior Extraction Activated]
1% of 23 = 0.23 → Rounded = 1 Stat Point
[+1 Free Stat Point Acquired]
[EXP Gained: +5]
Then another line followed.
[LEVEL UP]
Jin slowed, not out of surprise, but because this was the first level he had earned after seeing the system properly. The change settled into his body in a way that was hard to pin down if he focused on it too directly. There was no surge, no dramatic rush of power, no absurd feeling of transformation. It was quieter than that. His breathing felt slightly cleaner. The way his feet adjusted to the broken ground felt more certain. His body seemed to waste less effort in every motion, as if some small friction had been removed from movement itself. He opened the system and checked it immediately, because what mattered wasn't the sensation. It was the number behind it.
[STATUS WINDOW]
Name: Jin Vale
Level: 3
EXP: 4 / 210
Strength: 9
Agility: 14
Vitality: 11
Mana: 1
Free Stat Points: 32
Job: Rogue
Skills:
Inferior Extraction (Inferior)
The numbers made sense. Five EXP on top of one hundred and nineteen carried four over into the next level requirement. Strength up by one, Agility by two, Vitality by one. Mana unchanged. That fit the job better than the generic increase he had half expected before choosing it. Rogue didn't try to make him balanced. It sharpened what already suited him. Jin closed the system and moved on. The level-up mattered, but standing still inside a gate to appreciate it would have been stupid.
The next two goblins came quickly, one from the left, one after another from a low break in the stone ahead. Jin handled both without difficulty. The first died to a thrust through the throat when it lunged too high. The second tried to circle wider, but there wasn't enough room in the narrow passage, and by the time it adjusted, Jin had already stepped into range and cut it down. The system answered with the same familiar rhythm.
[+1 Free Stat Point]
[+5 EXP]
[+1 Free Stat Point]
[+5 EXP]
He didn't open the panel yet. There was no point every single time. The important thing now was not the existence of progress, but its speed. Leveling had made a difference almost immediately. His movements weren't faster in the exaggerated way stories liked to lie about. The difference was in transitions. Starting, stopping, changing angle—everything flowed with less drag. It made him cleaner, and clean was dangerous in fights like these. Clean meant less wasted effort and fewer small mistakes. Against goblins, that was enough to make them feel even weaker than before.
Jin pushed deeper into the ruins than he usually did, not recklessly, just without the old caution that had kept him circling the outer sections. The air changed little by little as he advanced. The silence thickened. The stone structures grew taller, more collapsed, forming tighter pockets of shadow where visibility dropped. More than once he heard movement without seeing the source immediately, which meant monster density was rising. That was good. Slower for a normal student, maybe, but for him it meant more kills in less time. A trio of goblins appeared near a cracked square of open ground, emerging from different points but converging toward the same center. Jin shifted right at once, forcing the nearest one to commit first while the other two adjusted. The first died in a single slash across the neck. The second came in low and got a boot to the jaw before the sword drove into its face. The third hesitated just a little too long, and that was enough.
[+3 Free Stat Points]
[+15 EXP]
He checked the panel after that.
[STATUS WINDOW]
Name: Jin Vale
Level: 3
EXP: 24 / 210
Strength: 9
Agility: 14
Vitality: 11
Mana: 1
Free Stat Points: 37
Job: Rogue
Skills:
Inferior Extraction (Inferior)
The accumulation was good. Faster than before, even if the extraction rate itself hadn't changed. That was the advantage of leveling. It didn't compete with his skill; it made the process around it easier. Jin closed the panel and kept moving, stepping over a goblin corpse without looking down. The route ahead widened slightly, opening into a section of collapsed courtyard where chunks of dark stone lay scattered across the ground like broken teeth. That was where the next enemy appeared.
At first glance, it looked like a hobgoblin. Then it stood fully, and the differences became obvious. It was taller, broader, and far heavier through the shoulders and chest. The skin looked darker, rougher, almost thickened. Even the way it moved was different. Hobgoblins attacked as soon as they recognized prey. This thing didn't. It advanced with slow, deliberate steps, as if it understood it didn't need to hurry.
A goblin brute.
Jin had heard the name before in passing, never from anyone important, just from the kind of half-useful conversations students had when they wanted to sound more experienced than they were. Stronger than hobgoblins. Harder to cut. Slower to turn. That was enough information.
The brute swung first. The attack came with more speed than its size should have allowed, a wide horizontal sweep that forced Jin to step back quickly. The force of it cracked loose stone where the arm passed. Stronger, then. Not surprising. Jin didn't counter immediately. He circled left instead, light on his feet, making the brute turn. The creature followed, not clumsy exactly, but not fast enough to match the angle cleanly. Jin stepped in and struck at its side. The blade cut, but shallower than expected. Tough skin. Denser muscle. The brute reacted instantly with a backhand swing that came too fast to ignore. Jin retreated, but not completely in time. The edge of the blow clipped his upper arm and sent a sharp line of pain through it.
Not deep. Not serious. Still a mistake.
He widened the distance at once, eyes fixed on the brute rather than on the cut. This was what stronger enemies changed. Goblins punished carelessness with scratches if they got lucky. Something like this could punish it with broken bones. The brute advanced again, heavy feet grinding loose stone under each step. Jin slowed instead of speeding up, letting the rhythm settle. Too much movement would only make him misread the swing. The next attack came downward. Heavy. Committed. Jin slipped to the side, not far, just enough, and struck at the leg as it recovered. The brute staggered slightly. Good. Slower to reset if damaged low. He moved before it could turn fully, cut across the torso, then retreated again. The brute roared, swinging wider this time, anger making it sloppier. Jin waited for exactly that. When the next attack overextended, he stepped inside the arc and drove the blade hard across its neck, then followed with a second, deeper cut before it could recover. The brute crashed down with enough force to shake dust loose from the nearest wall.
[Kill Confirmed]
[Calculating Target Stats…]
Target Stats:
Strength: 24
Agility: 12
Vitality: 24
Mana: 5
Total: 65
[Inferior Extraction Activated]
1% of 65 = 0.65 → Rounded = 1 Stat Point
[+1 Free Stat Point Acquired]
[EXP Gained: +20]
Jin let out a slow breath and looked down at the shallow cut on his arm. It wasn't bleeding much, but that wasn't the point. It should not have happened. Stronger enemies gave better EXP, yes, but they also narrowed the margin for error fast. He opened the system.
[STATUS WINDOW]
Name: Jin Vale
Level: 3
EXP: 44 / 210
Strength: 9
Agility: 14
Vitality: 11
Mana: 1
Free Stat Points: 38
Job: Rogue
Skills:
Inferior Extraction (Inferior)
Thirty-eight points. More than enough to upgrade the skill if he wanted. But not here. Not like this. Upgrading was expensive, and while the increase would matter, it wouldn't stop the next hit from landing if he misjudged it again. The cut on his arm made the decision simple. He opened the stat allocation and spent without hesitation.
Vitality +5
The effect settled through him almost quietly, but he felt it more clearly than the level-up. The soreness in his arm dulled. His body felt denser, steadier, like it could absorb more without losing rhythm. That was what he needed. Not greed. Not saving blindly. Survival first. He closed the panel.
Further ahead, somewhere beyond the dark layers of ruined walls and broken arches, something heavier moved. Jin heard it clearly this time—not the quick patter of goblins, not the stomping aggression of a brute, but something slower and more deliberate, something that belonged deeper in the gate than where he stood now. He didn't rush toward it. Didn't freeze either. He just listened for a second, then adjusted his grip on the sword and took another step forward.
The gate had changed. So had he.
And now, for the first time, the risk was starting to feel real.