The Second Front Opens – and the Chaos Follows
The second front was officially underway.
Orc Empire reinforcements had arrived in full force: cavalry, elite warriors, and shamans. They had joined the fray.
From this point on, the orc generals would send out special detachments. The Sawa Kings of the orc empire would appear at random on the battlefield.
Sawa King List:
White Lizardman Ialtir
Red Mane Orc Marduk
Emperor’s Advisor, Arch-Shaman Behute
Tau Emperor Atomos
The second front was nothing like the first.
Orcs began their encirclement attacks from the rear right away.
Instead of rushing in from the front like before, they surrounded the players on all sides and struck!
If it had been only levels and army strength, they might have held. But the real problem was the high-tier classes that spawned at random.
“What… what is that?!”
First day of the second-front battle.
Players who had seen orc forces backed away in fear.
“Why are the orcs wearing armor?”
Towering orc legions equipped with steel helmets and plate armor.
“Cavalry too! Wolves!”
“Those are quill spiders… eep!”
Special classes that had never appeared before were everywhere.
Goblins, trolls, werewolves, archer orcs, and shamans alike.
“Hee-hee-hee! Hee!”
Orcs on wolves lunged with spears.
The players’ defensive line shattered. Trolls advanced in the gap, swinging their clubs.
Kwaaaaah!
“Oaaak!”
“Kk!”
Just like sweeping dust with a broom, the troll legion crushed everything in its path.
The orc army followed, sweeping the players away.
Defeat in combat.
Contribution earned this battle reduced by 70%.
Orc attacks continue.
Defeat messages flooded in from everywhere as the orcs pushed forward.
Yesterday, a few villages had still been standing. Today they were occupied by the orc horde.
Not every front was like this.
Large guilds and rankers who had strong defensive lines held and even earned contribution points.
“Everyone worked hard…”
“Whoa, it was a total mess!”
“Wait, there it is again!”
“It’s… it’s a Sawa King!”
But no matter where you were, the Sawa Kings of the orc empire always showed up.
Average level 250 Sawa Kings shattered defensive formations of top rankers with nothing but themselves.
“Dammit… retreat!”
“It’s suicide staying here! Fall back!”
Even the rankers tasted bitter defeat.
“This game is crazy, what the hell is this?!”
“We went in thinking it would be lukewarm water, but it turned into a boiling pot.”
“I’m done with this game. GG.”
The community was boiling with rage. Hundreds of players had died in the fighting.
“The front lines are collapsing and penalties are flying everywhere.”
“Real talk… shop prices are rising and our luck debuff got even worse.”
“Large guilds are screwed; maintenance tax is up.”
“Hehe, lol.”
To discourage large guilds and rankers from ignoring events, the developers piled on extra penalties every time the front was breached.
“Still, dying here isn’t real death, so that’s a small mercy.”
“Real death? You can only log out for three hours. And you lose some exp.”
“If it was like normal death, I’d have had a truck sent to headquarters already.”
Once the short death penalty ended, players started logging back in.
“I’m going easy difficulty to level up.”
“The situation there is supposedly better—no cavalry, no trolls.”
Players rushing to easy difficulty exploded in numbers!
Large guilds tried to follow but the situation was dire.
“The accounting department is in chaos right now. Taxes are up thirty percent.”
“Next it’ll be attack power or defense. We have to hold this front.”
Most penalties from the front were aimed at guilds, especially large ones.
Now that they were in easy mode they feared the penalties even more.
Rankers had no choice but to desperately defend the high-difficulty front lines.
“Since we’re already here, let’s take out one of those Sawa Kings.”
“But their stats are insane. My main tank can’t even tank two hits.”
“He tanked one, so let’s plan. We’re rankers—show them what we can do!”
The Ark Guild also prepared to hunt the Sawa Kings.
These were the hardest bosses so far, but the first kill would grant a title.
“We have to be the first. No giving up to foreign servers either.”
“We’re definitely going first!”
“Let’s go!”
The honor of every guild, and the pride of the Korean gaming nation, was on the line.
Rankers moved quickly.
Even after the second front opened, Fafnir continued hunting in easy difficulty.
Word spread and almost three hundred players gathered behind him.
“Stay on the hill no matter what. If you die you still get rewards, so don’t be scared.”
“Yes.”
The players believed Fafnir’s words and started believing in the loot too.
Following the plan without a word, hundreds of orcs melted away one by one.
“Long live!”
“Thanks to Fafnir-nim, our command system is perfect.”
They were so used to moving on the assigned missions that they no longer needed him to speak.
Each had adapted their thinking style to team combat.
‘They’re all doing great. Soon I can leave this place without worry.’
Fafnir thought to himself.
‘With the second front open and Sawa Kings plus special classes appearing, this area is turning red.’
Almost half the players who had been fighting normal difficulty were now flooding into easy difficulty.
More players meant lower hunting efficiency, of course.
Of course Fafnir hadn’t been mindless grinding either.
‘Today and tomorrow we’ll finish the gathering hunt…’
Then it happened.
A group of high-level players approached from the rear after the battle ended.
“Found you.”
“Move, move!”
Gleaming armor and golden robes. Top-rank players.
Not as many as Kingsman Guild, but over twenty players above level 140 approached Fafnir.
“Fafnir-nim?”
“…Yes.”
“We found you exactly.”
A man in golden armor stepped forward, clearly the leader.
“Hello, I am Kim Geonma, executive of the Dragonblood Sect guild. These are my guild members.”
The Dragonblood guild members struck a pose. In reality, the Dragonblood Sect was a strong upper-rank guild.
“We came on orders from the guild master.”
“What business does a guild like yours have with me?”
“Straight to the point: how about joining our guild?”
The Dragonblood Sect.
A high-net-worth guild like Kingsman, but with an entirely different personality.
“Our guild specializes in PvP, team battles, and guild wars. We do normal guild activities too, but our main content is that.”
The weight of PvP content was surprisingly high.
For starters, hunting monsters gave way to killing players for sure items and exp. Many quests used PvP as the completion condition.
And that wasn’t all.
Tournaments, arenas, and other contents rewarded top performance with far more exp and items than normal hunting grounds.
“We also do a lot of guild wars and raids. Performance bonuses are generous and incentives are given on the spot. It’s just my personal opinion, but finding a guild like this isn’t easy.”
Kim Geonma continued.
“Our guild master plans to invest more from now on. You can do whatever you want—no rules, no restrictions.”
The Dragonblood Sect had been aggressively recruiting lately.
Not just numbers—elite members and “famous people” who could boost the guild’s name!
The player ranked first in contribution points this event, Fafnir, perfectly fit the criteria.
“Fafnir-nim, you’re a necromancer, right? Equipment, quests, materials—you must have a hard time.
Come to our guild and none of that will be a worry.”
“Hmm…”
“You could kill every player here right now. You need corpses, don’t you?”
The men around him reached for their weapons in threat.
“Well?”
Kim Geonma smiled smugly. A proposal this good would obviously be tempting.
‘This guy must be the first to offer such a generous recruitment in a long time.’
Most necromancers were looked down on because of their class or only joined parties when black mages and debuffers were absent.
A constant stream of high-ranking necromancers would come running at a guild membership offer!
And here it was.
‘Hmm…’
Fafnir rubbed his chin and thought.
‘A necromancer class offer isn’t bad.’
Dark-aligned jobs often needed PvP badly.
Necromancers especially needed quality corpses, but monsters and NPCs alone couldn’t satisfy the demand.
‘PvP would solve the skeleton problem, and even if I got necromancer items while hunting I could win them all.’
There was no mention of this guild in the original novel. With the plot unpredictable, it was completely up to Fafnir’s judgment.
‘Hmm…’
Fafnir glanced at the opponent. Kim Geonma sat with his legs crossed, completely confident he would accept.
It really wasn’t a bad offer. Joining this guild would give him support in every way and fast growth.
Maybe even clear his debt in one go?
But…
Would a baseball superstar switch to a small Korean farm league?
“Yo.”
Fafnir answered in informal speech.
“I don’t want to hang out with boring villagers and kids who get bullied for hunting villages. Just scram.”
“…Is that the answer?”
“Yeah.”
“You dare call this safe?!”
Skaang! The guild members drew their swords in unison. At that moment Kim Geonma raised his hand to stop them.
“You seem to have no intention, so I’ll be on my way.”
“Yeah.”
“…I understand. I’ll report to our guild master first and then decide whether to come back or not, according to his orders.”
Kim Geonma bowed politely and turned to leave.
Players lurking in the distance approached.
“Fafnir-nim, are you okay?”
“What do you mean?”
“I turned down that proposal. Dragonblood is a PVP guild that actually hunts players, you know.”
The players were all worried.
Challenging a normal guild would cause long-term grudges, but this opponent was a top PVP guild that lived off player hunting.
“Dragonblood is famous, right?”
“The Horizon Gallery guild challenged them and got completely crushed…”
The Horizon Gallery guild was also a strong one that could fight.
And Dragonblood had crushed that guild like a cat with a mouse.
“It’s fine.”
Fafnir shrugged and thought.
‘I guess I’ll have to move up the schedule a bit.’
The next day.
Armed-to-the-teeth Chaotic players flooded into several easy-mode fronts.
Dragonblood’s Assassin Squads equipped with holy power and relics, specifically for undead.
“Find him.”
“We kill him while he’s kneeling and keep going. Start!”
Dozens of Dragonblood Assassin Squads ignored the orcs and went straight for Fafnir.
After a short search, reports came back from each squad.
“Fafnir isn’t here. We saw a lot of similar necromancers but…”
“As expected, he ran.”
Kim Geonma gave new orders.
“It’s the guild master’s order. Just in case, keep searching.”
“Yes!”
If they had given up here, Dragonblood would never have earned such a fearsome reputation.
The Dragonblood guild members ignored the frustrated normal players and kept searching.
But Fafnir never showed himself.
As if he had sunk straight into the ground.
“He didn’t summon any undead?”
“Where the hell did he go?!”
The Dragonblood members were shocked too.
Wasting time was annoying enough, but without fighting on the front they also lost contribution and fame.
“Find him! He must be hiding somewhere!”
The Dragonblood guild members moved while cursing.
But they could not find Fafnir.
The reason? Simple.
Because Fafnir had not entered the easy-difficulty front since yesterday.