The Goblin King's Stampede.
Although that name clicked with all the old players, it wasn't really the official name for the event. The actual title was "Prologue Mission: Goblin King's Uprising."
But of course, unlike regular games, Heaven's Path wasn't so simple. This mission or event, is something called Transition Event. One that is "required" to complete—either failing it or succeeding—before moving on to the next part of the "story."
During launch day in the past timeline, no players had been able to clear the Goblin King's Uprising. And the result stuck. After failing the event, the players were sent into a dilapidated village.
It was supposed to be the starting village—but thanks to failing the prologue, its backstory became "A village barely surviving after getting raided by the Goblin King." That failure made things genuinely difficult for the early players.
Little to no quests. Item shops underpricing bought items, sometimes even refusing entirely. And required items like potions and such being overpriced as fuck.
Only after a month, when new players and those running reset marathons finally cleared the quest, did things change. The dilapidated village was updated, reverting to the normal, lively village it was meant to be. Quests flooded back in, and prices returned to normal.
What I'm getting at is this: if we failed to handle the uprising on the first try, we'd basically be waiting a full month before things could naturally return to their rightful path.
Well... I had no intention of failing the prologue.
I couldn't afford to wait a month for a normal starting village. The game world was about to merge with reality in half a year—every moment we lost was literally fatal.
"Alright!" I whispered, eyes fixed on the entrance to the goblin cave.
Same as when we'd left, the number of goblins visible outside was noticeably lower. But now that the Goblin King had spawned, more should be generating inside the cave as we stood here.
"As planned," I continued.
"Mi—FleetingCloud, you'll act as main vanguard, cutting through enemies as we push through the cave. Ram, support FleetingCloud from behind and handle anything that slips past her."
"Yes!" Miyabi replied promptly.
"As you command, Master." Ram nodded.
The chat immediately latched onto my near-slip, erupting for a moment.
[FriedLiver: Did he just... almost call the goddess by her real name? 😲]
[MoeLover: Mi—something... Noted...!]
[MeatyBun: Double the jiggle, double the fun~!]
Miyabi didn't seem bothered at all. It was only the first syllable, after all—not enough to piece anything together. Instead, she focused on adjusting her accessories properly.
We were about to face the boss. No holding back.
Even if the goblin drops barely moved our stats, something was still better than nothing.
Miyabi had dumped all her free points into STR, going full STR-maxxing. I had a few reservations about it, but at this early stage the strategy was genuinely useful for raw damage output, and the tradeoff from ignoring other stats wasn't drastic enough to matter yet.
She could rebalance later, once we were through the prologue.
As for me, I split my stats evenly between STR and AGI to maximize Ram's scaling, then equipped everything I had on hand—a necklace, two rings, two bracelets, two anklets, and a pair of earrings.
Minor individually, but together they bumped my overall combat power by about 10%. That was by no means a small margin.
Our clothes, though, stayed the same. The goblin equipment wasn't doing anyone any favors aesthetically—other than the viewers, maybe.
I'd rather eat a small stat loss than strap a single piece of hide around my waist.
I glanced at Miyabi. She gave me a nod and a smile.
She was ready.
"Alright!" I called out. "Let's charge!"
Ram launched forward without a moment's hesitation, and the effect of her 2.5x AGI became immediately obvious. By the time Miyabi and I had closed half the distance to the nearest goblin, Ram had already landed her first hit!
A clean swing of her club into the goblin's torso—the sound of snapping bones rang out sharp and clear.
180!
Her damage was absurd too, courtesy of the 2.5x STR multiplier. That was basically double the goblin's max HP in a single hit. EXP streamed toward both of us instantly.
"Don't hog all the glory...!"
Miyabi wasn't about to be left out.
The moment the distance was right, she activated Shukuchi, closing the remaining five meters in an instant. The goblin barely had time to register she was there.
She didn't stop at that.
"Iai Slash...!"
She drew from her sheathe in a single motion—a perfect, 0-frame slash aimed straight at the goblin's head.
CRITICAL!
390!!!
Her damage had leapt to an entirely different tier. The Shogun class carried a passive +100% to Crit Damage—meaning instead of the standard 1.5x multiplier, every critical she landed hit at 2.5x. Even her non-crits were barely trailing behind Ram by a handful of points.
It was absurd either way.
"Now!"
I sprinted past both of them and planted the flag at a good position.
As an Android Meister, I'd gained a passive that doubled all zone effects. The 50% attack boost had become 100%, and the HP regeneration had jumped to 20% every 10 seconds—within a 10-meter radius.
Wide enough to blanket the entire area in front of the cave entrance. Both of them could move freely without ever stepping out of range.
360!
CRITICAL!
540!!!
Ram's output had visibly shifted. Every strike was overkill now. Miyabi was no different—her normal slashes, even without fishing for crits, were already more than triple the goblin's max HP. Neither of them could be survived for more than a single hit.
Within the next minute, the two of them swept the cave entrance completely clean.
Not a single goblin left standing.
Thanks to the pace they kept, our levels climbed by two. The gain was slower now—we'd already overhunted this zone heavily, and the EXP penalty for being overleveled was kicking in. Still, with the sheer volume of goblins we'd cut through, even penalized EXP added up fast.
"Now, let's head in."
Of course, we were far from finished.
With the entrance cleared, it was time to push into the cave itself.
From what I knew, the interior wasn't complicated—mostly a single winding path descending deeper and deeper, ending at the Goblin King's chamber at the very back.
"Finally, a boss fight!" Miyabi grinned, sheathing her sword.
Her weapon wasn't a katana, though—it was still the same, standard, double-edged western sword. Because of that, her Iai Slash carried a fixed penalty: a 3-second resheathing delay after each use.
On top of that, every quickdraw chewed through her sheathe's durability at a steep rate. She couldn't spam the skill freely.
By my estimate, she had five uses left at most before her sheathe breaks.
"Save your Iai for the boss, Miyabi. We'll need it." I told her, then turned to Ram. "As for you, Ram, swap your weapon to this."
Ram was still running the club.
Good for breaking bones, but its raw damage was lacking. I swapped it out for the rare drop I'd just claimed from the clearing—a Goblin Sword and Shield.
Not impressive by any measure, but the damage should roughly double compared to the club. More importantly, the shield gave Ram something to work with defensively. Without a healer, and no levelup recovery available to her as an Android, she had to manage her HP carefully throughout the fight.
Her AI was actually quite good. Her play almost matched a normal, veteran player—if not better.
"If only there were potions..."
I muttered with slight disappointment. But dwelling on what we didn't have wouldn't get us anywhere.
We adjusted the lineup and moved into the cave.
Ram took the front, Miyabi just behind her, and me trailing at the rear. The most logical arrangement given our roles and gear.
[IsekaiPimp: This guy... I envy him...!]
[ShouJyuu: When I grow up, I want to be WhiteGod!]
[ButaYarou: He's just hitching a ride but gets to walk between two beauties! Unfair!]
With little action during the walk, Miyabi's viewers had predictably turned their attention to me—standing at the back, visibly doing nothing. Fair enough. From outsider's perspective, I really was just riding a bus, for sure.
About 100 meters in...
"Goblins ahead!" Ram called out, raising her sword and shield. "Moving to engage!"
Miyabi squinted at the figures deeper in the tunnel, frowning.
"They look different from before—bigger and more intimidating. They are Goblin... Soldiers?" She murmured, reading the names floating above their heads.
Of course, I knew they were going to appear inside the cave beforehand. No normal goblin should be present inside, after all. Goblin Soldiers were the weakest of the bunch, but it should be 2x more powerful than normal goblins.
"An advanced variant of the regular ones." I explained fast. "Expect them to be tougher."
Just as I planted the flag behind the two of them, a single stream camera materialized in front of me out of nowhere. Its camera looked me up and down, from head to toe, before bobbing up and down. A chat bubble blinked into view above it, practically buzzing with excitement.
[Anon00010101: So you're here~! 💕]
"Huh?"
That username. I knew it.