Tsukuru knew that if he tried to throw his daggers at the Hobgoblins from the front, they would either just dodge or deflect them, like they did when he threw his first volley.
So instead, Tsukuru waited until he was within five feet of the two Hobgoblins, and activated his Video Glitch Skill.
As Tsukuru vanished, the Hobgoblin on the left's eyes widened.
"What?!" She asked, as she frantically began to look around. "Where'd he go?!"
A second later, Tsukuru reappeared behind them.
Tsukuru swiped out his hand, launching the two daggers upwards towards the two Hobgoblin's heads before they could react to the sound his Skill had created, indicating that he was behind them.
Instantly, the eyes of the two Hobgoblins widened, and their bodies stiffened.
Instantly, they both fell forward, frozen as statues.
As they did, the two replica daggers could be seen piercing the back of their heads at an upwards angle, as if they had been thrown from a lower elevation.
Behind them, Tsukuru could be seen, his hand still outstretched.
Almost simultaneously, the two Hobgoblins exploded into pixels, as a System message appeared in front of Tsukuru.
[You have killed two Hobgoblins. 100 XP has been awarded. XP: 762/800]
Tsukuru began breathing deeply, and clutched his hand to his stomach.
"My…stomach…still hurts from that gut-punch…" Tsukuru panted, as he tried to catch his breath.
He glanced to the side.
"Also, my body…feels weak…drained…" He muttered. "This exhausted feeling…does this mean…that my MC's been almost fully depleted?"
Slowly, a weary, exhausted smile crept across his face.
"Still, with how strong those five Hobgoblins were, that means that has to be the end of the 'wave', right?" He asked out loud.
As if to personally disagree with him, he heard the sound of electronic interference directly behind him.
In response, Tsukuru let out a groan, and turned his head.
His eyes widened, as he saw eight groups of pixels appear.
Tsukuru's eyes then narrowed.
"I swear to GOD, if this thing spits out eight more Hobgoblins, I'm gonna…!" He muttered angrily under his breath.
However, he relaxed, and let out a sigh of relief, as he saw the groups of pixels cluster together into the familiar shapes of the Swarmers.
There was a bright flash of light, and the cat-sized spiders fully manifested.
"Skree!" They all let out a cry, flexing their pedipalps.
Seeing them, Tsukuru smirked.
"I don't even need to expend MC to deal with these things!" He replied.
Clenching his fist, he ran towards the group of Swarmers.
Using the combination of his "18" in Strength and his "14" in Agility, he zoomed around from Swarmer to Swarmer, delivering a fierce dropkick to each, sending them flying in the air.
As his shoe made contact with the Swarmer's face, it let out a cry of pain.
They all went flying through the air like a kicked ball, before exploding into pixels a few seconds later.
As he killed Swarmer after Swarmer, the System messages kept popping up.
[You have killed a Swarmer. 12 XP received. XP 774/800]
[You have killed a Swarmer. 12 XP received. XP 786/800]
[You have killed a Swarmer. 12 XP received. XP 798/800]
[You have killed a Swarmer. 12 XP received. XP 802/800. Level Up. Congratulations, you are now Level 5. XP: 2/1600.
You have received 1 Stat Point.
You have received a Summon Point.
Your Elite Pawn Grade Haunted Knight has received 1 Pawn Point. Pawn Points: 2/15.
Your Pawn GradeHarpie has received 1 Pawn Point. Pawn Points: 2/5.
A new Racial Slot is now available. Racial Slots: 2/3
Your Ability Level has increased. You are now a Level 3Ability User.
Your MC has increased. MC: 60/60
A new Skill is now available.
Skill Stasis Shift - Lv. 1 has been acquired.]
Like before, Tsukuru dismissed the screen showing his new Skill, as he didn't have time to look at it, and continued his assault on the Swarmers.
The screens continued.
[You have killed a Swarmer. 12 XP received. XP 14/1600]
[You have killed a Swarmer. 12 XP received. XP 26/1600]
[You have killed a Swarmer. 12 XP received. XP 38/1600]
[You have killed a Swarmer. 12 XP received. XP 50/1600]
With all the Swarmers gone, Tsukuru remained alone on the concrete platform, once again panting heavily.
His eyes constantly darted back and forth, looking for any sight of another set of enemies to start manifesting.
Eventually, a set of two System screens appeared in front of Tsukuru, overlapping each other.
[Wave 1 is now complete.
You have received 2 Battle Points.]
[You have completed the Secret Quest: Little Rookie
Quest Requirements: Complete at least one Wave in the Battle Arena.
Quest Rewards:
You have received 2 BP. BP: 4
You have received a new Title: Little Rookie.
Your new Title will be automatically applied while in the Battle Arena.
Title Effect: You will now gain 20% Bonus XP while fighting in the Battle Arena.]
Seeing the message, Tsukuru smirked.
"My first 'Title', huh?" He thought, putting his hand under his chin. "Nice. Maybe this XP boost will help off-set how little XP I get in here."
Then, Tsukuru's eyes narrowed, as he reread the second line of text.
"Wait, what are 'Battle Points'?" He asked.
As if to answer his question, a new System screen appeared.
[Battle Points are rewards given for completing Waves in the Battle Arena.]
Tsukuru hardly had enough time to register the information on the first screen, before a new one appeared, overlaying it.
[A new System Tab has been unlocked.
The Exchange Corner is now available.
Exchange the Battle Points [BP] you earn in the Battle Arena for rewards in the Exchange Corner.]
Confused, Tsukuru flicked up his finger to access the System's UI.
There was a bell chime, and the row of icons appeared.
As they did, he noticed that the "Shop" icon was flashing.
Quirking an eyebrow, Tsukuru pressed it.
Unlike usual, where pressing the icon would bring him directly to the Shop, a rectangle appeared to the side of the icon, like when he pressed one of the other tabs with sub-tabs.
The rectangle had two rectangular bars inside of it.
The top one had the "Shop"'s icon, and was simply labeled "Shop".
However, the one below it had an icon that looked like a square convenience store, and was labeled "Exchange Corner".
Tapping it caused a new screen to open up.
The screen consisted of a long line of rectangles, each showing an image with a label.
[XS XP Candy
Cost: 2 BP
A piece of candy packed with energy. Consuming it grants 100 XP.]
[Strength Pill
Cost 2 BP
A single-use pill. Consuming it will increase your Strength Stat by 1.]
[Stamina Pill
Cost: 2 BP
A single-use pill. Consuming it will permanently increase your Stamina Stat by 1.]
[Agility Pill
Cost: 2 BP
A single-use pill. Consuming it will permanently increase your Agility Stat by 1.]
[Hard-Light Projection Skill Book
Cost: 4 BP
A Skill Book for the Video Ability-Exclusive Skill, Hard-Light Projection.]
[Hobgoblin Summon Race
Cost: 10 BP
Unlocks the Hobgoblin Summon Race and adds it to your Video Arsenal [this does not require you to have an empty Racial Slot]. Adds 1 Pawn Grade Hobgoblin to your Video Arsenal.]
At the very bottom, it had a rectangular bar that showed his number of "BP", which was currently at four, thanks to the rewards from the "Secret Quest".
Tsukuru also noticed that the bars that displayed items that Tsukuru didn't have enough BP to afford were grayed out.
Currently, Tsukuru only had enough BP to buy from among the first five items.
The first image showed a small, translucent, light-blue triangle. It seemed to be some sort of "candy" in a wrapper that, from its description, would grant him 100 XP.
While it was a significant amount of XP, at the same time, it also wasn't anything to write home about.
Especially with how his required XP for Level Ups kept doubling with each Level.
Even at his current Level, Tsukuru would need to buy sixteen of them just to Level Up once.
The next three images each showed a red pill.
Despite the pills looking exactly identical, they each had different descriptions.
As Tsukuru read their descriptions, they seemed almost similar to how Quinn could receive bonus Stat Points from drinking blood.
However, it was the last two items that interested him the most.
One had an image that showed a blacked-out silhouette with his arm outstretched.
In front of him, there was a "shield" of sorts.
It consisted of seven large, translucent, light-blue, interconnected hexagons, each the size of his head.
The hexagons were arranged with three at the top, three at the bottom, and one in the middle.
And the image directly below that one showed a front photo of the "Hobgoblins" he had just fought, exactly how they appeared in the square screen in his System's "Scanner" when he scanned them.
While Tsukuru would have loved to unlock them right away, it cost 10 Battle Points to unlock the Hobgoblin Summon Race.
They were the sole grayed out option, as well as being the most expensive one.
Tsukuru grit his teeth in annoyance, and turned back to the image above the Hobgoblin's.
Seeing the image, Tsukuru thought back to his fight with the Hobgoblins.
When that one had delivered a viscous punch to his gut, knocking the wind out of him.
Tsukuru narrowed his eyes.
'If I had a Skill like that, I would have been able to protect myself!' Tsukuru thought, and he grit his teeth.
He pressed the bar for the 'Hard-light Projection Skill Book'.
Instantly, a new screen appeared.
[Would you like to purchase the Hard-Light Projection Skill Book?
Costs 4BP
BP: 4
[Yes] [No] ]
Tsukuru's face hardened, and he reached forward and slapped the "yes" option.
An electronic beep was heard, and the rectangular bar lit up.
Instantly, the screen vanished into pixels.
A moment later, pixels began to appear in Tsukuru's hand.
The pixels clustered together into the form of a hardcover book.
As the book fully manifested, Tsukuru looked down at it.
The book's cover was a deep blue cover with a light-blue, honeycomb design, making it look as though it was made out of hexagons.
In the bottom half of the cover, it had words written in a computerized, digital-looking font.
Hard-Light Projection
Just below it, it had another line of text written in a slightly smaller font.
Video Ability Skill Book
As Tsukuru held the book in his hand, a System message popped up in front of him.
[Would you like to learn the Skill Hard-Light Projection?
[Yes] [No] ]