Golem Summoner Kim Assault
The Golem Summoner Kim Assault. Until now, the grades of summons had been all over the place. In a way, it was only natural. Since everyone had chosen solo play, there had been no real need for a comprehensive classification system. The only group that had achieved any kind of unified standard were the animal-type summoners. They called their initial summons “minor creature grade,” and once those evolved into humanoid forms, they became “beastkin grade.” The reason was unclear, but every animal-type summon had passed through the beastkin stage.
Then the Stage 3 tournament began. Countless summons and their battle footage flooded the community. That was how the first unified ranking system—the “tier” system—was born. The principle was simple: if a summon displayed a distinctive change compared to before, its tier went up. Using my own summons as an example, the dwarf zombies were Tier 1, while Shinnip was Tier 2. So what about the dogs? The calf-sized dogs were classified as Tier 2 because they had evolved after consuming giants. It still felt vague and incomplete, but with so many different summons existing in the community, this was the best anyone could do. At least a rough framework had emerged.
After reading about it on the community boards, Baengnae had started going around declaring,
“Mm. Baengnae is a hundred tier.”
Baengnae was also Tier 2—a zombie whose intelligence had risen after eating a hundred brains. Yet she had still managed to overwhelm Olivia, who was called a Tier 3. The reason was simple: Baengnae had simply shed far more sweat than her opponent.
“No…”
“What do you mean, no! This is all because I worked out so hard and got stronger!”
Baengnae was currently insisting that she was already strong enough to skip morning exercises. It was, of course, nonsense.
“Baengnae is twice as strong.”
In short, she was claiming she was a hundred-tier existence who was twice as strong as everyone else, so she did not need morning training. My calculation method did not work that way.
“If you’re twice as strong, then you need twice the stimulus to grow, right? So you’re doing double morning exercises.”
“Hwaaang…”
The dogs sprinted across the asphalt while watching Baengnae, who had tried to skip training only to end up with double the workload.
“Hurry up!”
After sending Baengnae off, I called over Shinnip, who had been training nearby. This match was his turn to shine. Baengnae had argued that since she had fought alone for three matches, it was now time for the dogs and Shinnip to work. It was obvious she simply did not want to eat golems, so she was trying to dump the job on her subordinates. Regardless of her intentions, I accepted her suggestion. It was a matter of efficiency. If these golems were the kind I knew, their bodies would be nothing but lumps of stone. Rather than having the small Baengnae hack away at them all day with a sword, it would be far better to smash them with raw strength.
“Master called, so we came.”
“Good. You’ve been working hard.”
I quite liked this guy. It was not just because of his size. Among all training methods, he practiced the most efficient one—the idiot method. If I told him to do ten sets, he would do fifteen. And the number he was counting was only five sets. He had forgotten how many repetitions he had actually done. Of course, this would normally cause serious problems for the body—muscles would knot and pain would follow. But he was a zombie, and this place was a paradise where supplements appeared endlessly. Compared to when he had first crawled out of the well, Shinnip’s body had grown 1.5 times larger.
‘Hmm. He looks even better every time I see him.’
I pulled up a nearby signpost. I had already smashed the surrounding rocks in advance, so it came out easily with little effort.
Clang— Clang—
“Here. Try using this.”
“New weapon. Good.”
The giant held the signpost upside down and swung the rock-attached end wildly. It looked like a very threatening blunt weapon. An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, a stone for a stone. This new weapon would serve as an excellent tool for hunting golems.
Whoosh— Whoosh—
“Good, you’re doing well. How many do you think you can use?”
The giant made a dumb face and slowly began counting his own arms. My mistake for asking. I had him hold one signpost with a single arm.
“Now swing it.”
“Ugh… Uwaa!”
Both stability and speed were lacking. After testing a few things, I made my diagnosis.
“Two should be enough.”
I summoned the zombies and had another signpost prepared. Shinnip has evolved into a Blunt Weapon Zombie! Of course, he was still classified as Tier 2.
***
Word finally arrived that the match had been scheduled. This one had taken an unusually long time. Even though the opponent had been decided long ago, the delay had been caused by the Chameleon Summoner. Whether male or female, the Chameleon Summoner had fought an endless hit-and-run battle with a beastkin-grade chameleon. They had been fighting inside that narrow colosseum arena the entire time. The community had been filled with curses. A full sixteen-hour battle. In the end, the Chameleon Summoner had claimed victory, so perhaps it could be called a valuable win.
‘In a way, that’s an incredible amount of persistence.’
Most users would have given up halfway once people started cursing at them, yet this one had endured to the end. Someone I knew well came to mind—the person who had lured and killed every single bandit one by one back in Stage 2.
‘Is that person really a professional?’
I could not be sure. But if it really was them, I wanted to cheer them on. They had helped me more than once or twice; what was waiting sixteen hours compared to that?
I had called CatMaster rather than her appearing on time for the match. After the snake match, she had completely escaped the threat of disciplinary action. At the same time, she had lost interest in the tournament.
‘Should I call her simple…’
She had told me that even if I lost, she would sponsor me again, so I should just relax. It was a kind thing to say, but I had no intention of losing. That was also why I had called her now. Once the match ended, the tokens would be settled; having CatMaster nearby would make any manipulation easier, would it not?
“I’ll finish this quickly, so wait a bit.”
The chat room opened and the map was generated. Contrary to my bold claim, it felt like this match might drag on for quite a while. The battlefield that formed was a mountainous region. Not only was the map wide, but the environment itself was the real problem. Golems used rocks as resources. It was like having to fight zombies inside a carnivore restaurant. Those cheering for the opponent erupted in joy.
The opponent’s real name was different, but among people he was known as “Kim Assault.” It was a nickname born from the combination of the “Kim OO” notation used in news reports to protect perpetrators and the fact that he had twenty prior assault convictions. What had started as mockery had become a kind of meme.
Both Kim Assault himself and the people following him were the same kind of trash. Even though he was only in Stage 3, his notoriety had turned him into a celebrity among criminal users. They had even opened a dedicated “Criminal Gallery.” They discussed how they would escape prison once they returned to Earth, already calling each other “big bro” and “little bro” and establishing a hierarchy.
“Filthy scum really are everywhere…”
Because of the community’s anonymity, I could not tell exactly who they were. But at least one of them would fall today. The item tally on the central screen had finished. It was time to enter. Once again, I summoned Baengnae first.
Hum—
Baengnae appeared holding two signposts. Because of their weight, she wobbled slightly.
Thud! Thud!
Baengnae drove the signposts into the ground and began the performance she had practiced. She cut her fingertip and sprinkled a little blood, then burst black powder into the air like a smoke screen.
Hum—
In sync with that, I summoned the dogs and Shinnip. Anyone who believed Baengnae was a necromancer would have been completely fooled by the act. Objectively speaking, it was still a little sloppy. The giant pulled out the signposts and held one in each hand. Baengnae climbed onto his shoulder. In front of them, the massive dog stuck out its tongue and stared toward the enemy lines.
The opponent also began summoning. Three spheres, each slightly larger than a basketball, rose into the air—the cores of the golems. They began pulling in the surrounding rocks and piling them onto themselves. Torso, arms, legs. Soon, three golems roughly the same size as Shinnip were complete. As long as their cores remained intact, they could endlessly scrape up dirt and stone to maintain that state.
‘Of course there are limits…’
From watching previous battle videos, “body creation” itself did not seem to consume much. A war of attrition would be extremely disadvantageous.
Crack—
With a loud noise, a massive boulder shattered and compressed, taking the shape of a hammer. It flew through the air and attached itself to one of the golems. It was the Soul Engraving [Weapon Add-on]. The ability to compress existing rock to make it even harder while simultaneously carving it into a desired weapon.
‘He’s upgraded quite a bit…’
As a famous figure, Kim Assault naturally had an enormous number of anti-fans. There was no need to even search the community. His combat data was being analyzed and shared in real time in dedicated rooms. And this growth was quite significant. In size, durability, and movement, the golems felt noticeably stronger than in previous matches. The cause was probably the third match. His previous opponent had been a female named user called the “Seed of Hope.” She had been a famous broadcaster back on Earth. Because of that, the “Seed of Hope” had received all kinds of advice and analysis posts from many users and had reached the third match. Then she met Kim Assault and lost everything—not just the tokens she had collected. As her nickname suggested, her summons had also been plant-types. And the high-quality soil those plants had contained had been absorbed by the golems. Just as Baengnae had grown stronger by eating Olivia, he too had achieved a kind of additional profit.
Amid the flood of posts praising Kim Assault, there were also occasional messages cheering for Baengnae.
‘Tch… better not look at the chat.’
Ding—
The curtain rose. The final match of the tournament had begun.