A Masterpiece of Compromise
To be honest, it wasn't like he hadn't considered the idea...
'I can't do that, Carbanog. Such wicked thoughts are forbidden.'
Carbanog grumbles, accusing you of playing hard to get when you actually love the idea.
'That engineering summon is a bit of a wildcard, though.'
As his highest-level summon, its damage output was top-tier. Its HP was probably massive too. But it hogged all the experience points! For Tae-hyun, who was desperate for every scrap of EXP, "Chong" was practically unusable. On top of that, its form was highly impractical. Since it took the shape of a musket, someone had to discard their own weapon, pick it up, and fire it themselves! And if they did, that person would essentially receive zero experience points for their trouble.
"...Is a remodel really possible?" Tae-hyun finally asked on the sly. If it really could be remodeled, he was willing to give it some thought!
"With my secret technique, Metal Summon Remodeling, it's a piece of cake!"
"Ooh...!" A secret technique? Now that sounded promising!
'Gold Dragons are made of "gold," so wouldn't they count as metal summons?'
Carbanog tells you to stop talking absolute nonsense, asking if you think a gold dragon is some kind of rabbit dragon.
His greedy hope of remodeling Yong-yong as well was, of course, flatly rejected.
"How does the skill actually change it?"
"It draws out the summon's latent potential and transforms it!"
"...Stop speaking in vague, airy-fairy terms."
"Hey, the skill description is literally written like that! Why are you taking it out on me...?"
"Are you not interested in the Elder position anymore?"
"Let me break it down for you in precise, concrete detail."
Carbanog admires the dwarf, noting that he clearly knows how to survive in the professional world.
'Usually, a dwarf who knows how to survive in the professional world doesn't try to destroy his own kingdom just because they wouldn't make him an Elder.'
"First of all, that musket form is way too inconvenient. Make it easier to move around."
"Yes, sir!"
"It would be great if it could fly and also transform into a golem."
"...I will try my absolute best to get as close to that as possible."
For a brief moment, Bekelf was reminded of his days working in the Dwarf Kingdom.
—Bekelf. Build a fortress wall from here to here.
—Yes, sir!
—Bekelf. This fortress wall looks a bit too simple... Develop it to make it look cooler.
—Yes, sir...
—Bekelf. You did a good job fixing the wall, but don't you think the durability is a bit lacking? Increase it.
—Uh... how? It's already fully completed?
—Well, that's for you to figure out.
—Drop dead (Understood).
—...W-what did you just say?
—Ah. My bad. Slipped out...!
Unaware of Bekelf's internal grumbling, Tae-hyun continued to pile on his demands. He might as well have just asked him to build a brand-new one from scratch!
"It hogs all the experience points to itself. Can you fix that too?"
"How on earth am I supposed to—"
"An Elder should be able to pull it off!"
"...Yes, sir..." Ugh, this is so degrading!
Metal Summon Remodeling!
Hearing Tae-hyun's demands, Bekelf pondered so hard he felt like his beard was going to fall out.
First, the form! Something that could fly and transform into a golem...
'...Is that even possible? To make it as close as possible...'
In his quest to maximize its mobility, the idea of a sphere popped into his head.
'A sphere should work, right? As for flying... eh, if you throw it, it'll fly.'
As he redesigned it into a sphere, something else caught his eye.
'A musket is one thing, but a sphere is going to have a hard time attacking, isn't it? Hmm. In that case, I should attach blades all over the outer surface! And I'll drill some firing ports into the sphere too!'
Sharp blades were mounted onto a thick, solid metal sphere, and firing barrels were installed in various spots.
The final product was drifting further and further away from Tae-hyun's original vision of a "cool flying golem"!
'...But is it even possible for it not to take experience points?'
How could something fight alongside you and not take any EXP?
After much agonizing, Bekelf reached a conclusion.
'I'll drastically reduce its damage skills and load it up with buff and debuff skills instead! If it doesn't deal damage, it won't steal any experience points!'
It was flawless logic! If it didn't deal damage, there would be no experience points to steal in the first place.
Bekelf pulled out the dwarven magic stones and enchanting apparatuses he had on hand. Normally, these were meant to be slotted into or cast upon weapons to enchant them... but surely they could be applied to a summon as well!
'Area-of-Effect Fear is an AoE fear skill, so that looks good. Dark Veil completely blinds everyone nearby, so that looks great too... Oh, wait. It would be nice if it could tank well, wouldn't it?'
Clang! Clang! Clang!
Bekelf was indeed a master blacksmith. He was somehow pulling off Tae-hyun's absurd demands.
The result of his labor was a summon specialized entirely for large-scale warfare!
Originally, the engineering summon had been a simple machine that dealt heavy, single-target blows without any special skills. But after Bekelf's remodeling, it had transformed into an entirely different beast.
It possessed almost no damage-dealing skills; instead, the vast majority of its arsenal consisted of area-of-effect debuffs!
"It is complete, Your Holiness! How about the name Gong-gong?"
"...????"
Tae-hyun blinked as he stared at the final product. He had expected some changes, but this...?
Carbanog is shocked, asking what on earth this hideous weapon is!
It was a massive, metallic, bladed sphere larger than a grown man! It looked like it could roll well, but...
"Didn't I ask for a golem?"
"At this size, it can easily fulfill the role of a golem!"
"Its mobility does look decent..."
"It can also shrink!"
Bekelf shrank the massive, bladed metal sphere down to the size of a baseball.
"Did you add a flight function?"
"You just have to throw it like this."
"...You really are an incredibly talented individual."
"Ah, gosh. Hearing you say that makes me a bit embarrassed..."
Bekelf completely misunderstood the true meaning behind Tae-hyun's words!
"I have also resolved the issue of it monopolizing the experience points."
"You did? How?"
"Instead of damage skills, I remodeled its abilities to focus on tanking and various debuffs!"
From a skill that diverted incoming attacks from the surrounding area to strike itself, to wide-range area-of-effect skills!
Taunt, Area-of-Effect Fear, Dark Veil, Dance of Confusion, Stun Wave, and so on...
Tae-hyun had been listening with an indifferent expression at first, but as the names of the skills piled up, his face grew pale with dread.
Carbanog is horrified, asking why he crammed so many skills into it!
Most debuff skills targeted at large groups had relatively weak effects. It was only natural that their potency was lower compared to single-target skills.
But that was only true when dealing with one or two debuffs. What if dozens of them were applied at once?
Getting hit by dozens of vision debuffs, dozens of stun debuffs, dozens of confusion debuffs...
That was the absurd level of what Bekelf had just created.
In a large-scale battle, if you simply picked this thing up and threw it, any enemy below a certain level would instantly collapse!
There was no better counter against opponents who relied on overwhelming numbers.
And that went doubly, triply, quadruply so for players like Lee Se-yeon, Lee Se-yeon, or Lee Se-yeon!
'I didn't think of this approach.'
When dealing with Lee Se-yeon—or any Necromancer, for that matter—the standard strategy was to block her undead army with holy-attribute summons or subordinates while targeting the summoner directly. Trying to defeat every single soldier in an undead army was practically impossible and utterly pointless.
However, using a method like this to stack an insane number of debuffs and neutralize all summons below a certain threshold didn't seem like a bad idea at all.
"...D-did I remodel it poorly?"
"No, Bekelf. This is actually quite excellent."
"!"
At Tae-hyun's praise, Bekelf was so overjoyed he could have leaped for joy. He had felt a twinge of regret while remodeling it, wondering if he had gone too far, but it had turned out to be a massive hit!
"Your Holiness! Actually, I have an even better idea..."
"Oh? What is it?"
"Using Adamantium to craft—"
"Don't talk nonsense."
"..."
'Anyway, I can't keep calling it "Chong" like before. I'll have to call it Gong-gong.'
...Putting the name aside, Carbanog wonders why this summon doesn't speak.
'...Now that you mention it.'
Tae-hyun turned to Bekelf and asked, "Why isn't this guy saying anything?"
"Uh... I ran out of capacity while cramming all those skills in, so I had to remove its voice..."
"..."
...
Spin, spin, spin!
Gong-gong spun rapidly in circles as if protesting!
"...Well, it can't be helped. Performance is what matters most!"
Carbanog complains that the summon is talking to him and making too much noise.
'What is it saying?'
It's asking why you're ignoring it when it's speaking...
Well, what was he supposed to do? Since he couldn't hear it, ignoring it was his only option!
Tae-hyun ignored the silent voice and checked the other skills. It was definitely much better in its sphere form than its musket form.
'It's easy to have it follow behind me, and when a battle breaks out, I can just chuck it first.'
It was a literal gift set of debuffs!
By the way, Carbanog asks if that terrifying archer is going to be okay with this.
'Terrifying archer? Ah, Ji-su? Why, what's wrong with him?'
His eyes are extremely scary... No, not that. Carbanog says that since you've been traveling together, he might have grown attached to the summon.
'...Oh. Wait a minute.'
Now that he thought about it, that was true!
"Your Majesty! You have returned! What was inside?!"
"Nothing, really. There was absolutely nothing there. It was so empty it was actually quite baffling!"
Tae-hyun lied through his teeth without batting an eye, but the dwarves believed every single word. If their King said so, then it must be true!
"Well, Ji-su. You see... they offered to remodel it inside, so I handed it over."
"Once they were alone, Tae-hyun spoke up on the sly. He was fully prepared to drag Bekelf out and shift all the blame onto him if any issues arose!"
"Oh! It got even better. You changed it to increase its mobility, right? Looking at it, it seems like we can load bombs inside and launch them. Am I right?"
"...!"
If there was one thing Tae-hyun had overlooked, it was that Yoo Ji-soo had also become an insanely hardcore pragmatist during her time playing Pan-On. Performance over aesthetics or coolness!
"Its voice is gone, though..."
"Well, it's not like it needs to use the *Speech* skill anyway."
This kid...!
'Cain needs to take a page out of his book.'
In Pan-On, performance was everything. What more could you ask for!
Gong-gong spun rapidly next to her in protest, but Yoo Ji-soo ignored it without a second thought, shrank its size, and clipped it to her waist.
"We've got everything, right?"
"Shh. Let's get out of here as fast as possible. I won't feel at ease until we've safely stashed all our loot back in the territory."
Tae-hyun planned to head straight back to his territory to install the spoils of war he had secured. Carrying them around like this made him far too anxious! This was especially true for Bekelf, who was a living, breathing dwarf. If other dwarves spotted him, they certainly wouldn't treat him kindly.
By the way, Carbanog asks if you didn't come here to find the Authority of Akisus.
'We just secured Adamantium and a master blacksmith. Who cares about some Authority of Akisus right now? It's not like anyone else is going to steal that useless thing anyway.'
...
Are you really his Apostle? Carbanog thought, but Tae-hyun's mind was made up. To hell with the Authority; he would find it later. For now, they had to transport what they had already secured!
The Woodstock Guild navigated the Zaion Mountains with extreme caution. Since their primary goal was to meet Tae-hyun in the first place, there was no need for them to take unnecessary risks.
They carefully avoided large monsters like giants and wyverns, searching high and low for any trace of Tae-hyun...
"...This place is too massive! It's impossible to find him! Besides, how are we even supposed to know where Kim Tae-hyun is?!"
"Should we have asked those old guys we met last time?"
"How would those old guys know where Kim Tae-hyun is? Use your brain."
"Hey, but do Silver Wyverns really spawn here? I really want one..."
"Are you crazy? If we find one, we have to sell it. A Silver Wyvern would fetch whatever price we name."
There were rumors that everyone from famous rankers to wealthy real-life players had placed bounties on them.
"...But why are they so obsessed with Silver Wyverns anyway?"
"Who knows? Maybe they used to play Mabinogi. How does anyone understand trends? It just suddenly blew up... Wait, wait, wait! It's Kim Tae-hyun!!"
"You've finally started seeing things... Holy crap, it really is Kim Tae-hyun?!"
After all, how many players in the game walked around dragging a giant, a prison sealing a demon, and a cannon behind them?