"Huh? Why Do We Have to Hide It?"
"Huh? Why do we have to hide it?" Cain asked, looking completely bewildered.
The Adamantium Armor was truly flawless. Physical defense, magic defense, elemental resistance, bonus stats, various skills... There was simply no other armor in existence that could compete with it.
Yet, it had one fatal flaw. Its appearance.
It's way too plain, Cain thought.
In Cain's mind, a truly cool set of armor had to be golden, radiant, and constantly emitting flashy particle effects or a majestic aura with every step.
If Tae-hyun or Choi Sang-yun heard this, they would have recoiled in disgust, shouting, "You lunatic! Why on earth would anyone wear something like that!"
True high-level rankers never obsessed over such useless cosmetics, but Cain was a man who stayed true to his roots.
He wanted to strut around, showing off in a gleaming suit of armor! ...Unfortunately, the Adamantium Armor did not shine with a golden light, nor did it emit any special effects. In fact, it was usually the opposite that was considered strange.
"What do you mean, 'why hide it'?" Sang-yun sighed. "If word gets out, people are going to swarm us like crazy."
"Hasn't that always been the case?" Cain countered.
"Up until now, they were mostly just targeting Tae-hyun. And even that died down for a while. Think about it. Why do you think that is?"
"Uh... because Kim Tae-hyun slaughtered them all like an absolute psychopath?"
At those words, Tae-hyun, who was standing nearby, stared deadpan at Cain. "Hmm. Cain. So that's what you think of me."
"N-no! It was just a figure of speech!"
"...Well, that's part of it, but it's also because the risk is too high for too little reward," Sang-yun corrected.
The Guild Alliance had once placed an astronomical bounty on Tae-hyun's head, but that had been temporarily suspended after they signed a truce. Occasionally, some players would try to take Tae-hyun down to make a name for themselves... but those fools usually weren't even high-level players, let alone rankers. They were just idiots incapable of objectively assessing their own skills.
Once players reached high-level status or beyond, they became far more cautious, unwilling to risk the characters they had spent so much effort building.
"But what does that have to do with this?" Cain asked.
"What do you mean, 'what does that have to do with this'? Look, the armor we just received... especially yours, which seems to have used a massive amount of Adamantium. This is easily the best equipment currently available to players in all of Pan-On. As far as I know, there isn't a single piece of armor better than this. How do you think other players will feel when they see you wearing it?"
"They'll... want to steal it?"
"Exactly! Tae-hyun is so used to PK that it doesn't matter to him, but the rest of us are in real danger!"
Choi Sang-yun was actually one of the more proficient PKers in the group, since melee damage dealers naturally held an advantage in player-versus-player combat.
"So... are Su-hyeok, Lee Da-bi, and Yu Ji-soo the ones in danger?"
"Personally, I think you're the one in the most danger," Sang-yun said.
"What?! Why?! Why me?!" Cain gasped, utterly shocked. Didn't he have a pretty tough image within the group? Besides, he was a tank! He shouldn't be an easy target!
"First of all, you stand out way too much. Your armor looks the most expensive. And skilled damage dealers aren't really afraid of attacking tanks."
Even if they couldn't kill a tank, as long as the tank couldn't kill them back, that was good enough. Most importantly, Cain had been wandering around on his own quite often lately. To those who were too terrified to touch Kim Tae-hyun, Cain was the perfect alternative target!
"...I'm hiding it immediately!!!"
"The problem is, you can't just hide something like this," Tae-hyun chimed in, agreeing with Sang-yun.
Rumors about high-tier gear had a way of spreading with terrifying speed and accuracy.
"We're going to wear them in the upcoming tournament anyway. Our opponents are all rankers, so they'll notice instantly."
When they attacked and saw system messages like [The attack was deflected!], [The opponent's defense is too high to inflict damage!], or [Compared to that armor, yours is absolute garbage!], they would put two and two together in a heartbeat.
"Th-then what should we do? Should we not wear them?"
"That defeats the whole purpose," Tae-hyun said. "If you're going to worry about every little thing, how are you even going to play Pan-On? If you get good gear, you use it. Just keep Sang-yun's warning in mind. Remember how valuable this armor is. Don't go wandering off alone and get jumped, and make sure you have a way to escape if a fight breaks out."
"Yes. I'll keep that in mind," Yu Ji-soo agreed, gripping her bow tightly.
Tae-hyun asked casually, "You've thought of a method other than 'kill everyone and run,' right?"
"...O-other than that? But, Senior, you always..."
"Let's definitely not copy his methods!" Sang-yun cut in.
"Why on earth would you copy Kim Tae-hyun!" the others cried out in horror, stopping Ji-soo. Killing everyone was not an escape plan!
Well, they'll be fine, Tae-hyun thought. He had only warned Cain because the Chimera needed a healthy dose of fear to stay cautious, but in reality, Tae-hyun wasn't that worried. For one, his party members rarely went anywhere alone; they usually stuck together. Furthermore, every single one of them was now a ranker. Equipped with such ridiculously overpowered gear, they wouldn't die easily. If anything happened, allies would arrive to back them up long before they could be taken down. And besides...
Carbanog notes that since everyone is a follower of Archisus, they will barely drop any equipment upon death.
I was thinking the exact same thing, Tae-hyun smiled inwardly. This was one of the unique perks of the Archisus Church that no other religion offered! Even if a follower died and was forced to log out, they had an incredibly low chance of dropping their precious items.
While a high Luck stat could achieve a similar effect, no sane player invested points into Luck, making the passive skills granted by the church far more convenient. Though Tae-hyun didn't know it yet, this very perk had triggered a massive craze for the Archisus Church among PKers and raiders. A brand-new meta for the outlaw classes had been established!
Besides, playing a single tournament match won't instantly expose us. It'll probably take five or six matches before the rumors really start circulating, Tae-hyun calculated.
Would the defeated teams immediately run to the forums crying, "Hey! Kim Tae-hyun got some insanely broken gear!"? No. Even if they noticed something fishy, they would keep their mouths shut, thinking, If we got wrecked, we might as well let the other teams get wrecked too! It would take at least five or six matches for the word to spread.
...However, Tae-hyun's prediction was completely off. Because there was a certain player who had just had his title snatched away by Tae-hyun.
Although there were generally fewer rankers in crafting professions compared to combat classes, blacksmiths were the sole exception. Blacksmithing was by far the most popular crafting class in the game! Consequently, the competition among top-tier blacksmiths was cutthroat. If anyone posted on the community boards asking, "Who is the best blacksmith ranker?" nearly ten different names would be thrown around.
— Hammerman, Lucas, Steven, Kundt, GeneralGodTaehyun, Nadir, Rodamunda...
And the blacksmith ranker who held the title of [Creator of the Finest Armor] was Hammerman. He was a blacksmith ranker affiliated with the Erangs Kingdom! Despite only leading a small, boutique guild, he was highly respected and sought after by countless giant guilds due to his outstanding skills.
"Alright, let's get to work!" Hammerman announced. He streamed his crafting sessions frequently. In fact, most crafting rankers streamed quite often. Unlike combat classes, they suffered very little loss even if their quests were exposed to the public. Furthermore, if they managed to craft an incredible piece of gear, the stream itself served as free advertising!
Hammerman was an American with a thick, bushy beard that covered most of his face, and he always wore sunglasses. In real life, he was an actual, practicing blacksmith! His stream concept—a massive, muscular blacksmith boisterously hammering away at hot metal—was wildly popular.
"Haha! The exact price is a secret, but it's true that it sold for a mind-blowing amount!" Hammerman said with a shrug. Pride! Hammerman overflowed with pride. The pride of being the absolute best blacksmith in the game. "And that's because I am..."
"Exactly! Now, who crafts better? Lucas or me?"
"And who crafts better? GeneralGodTaehyun or me?"
"That's right! I am the greatest blacksmith of them all! Behold! Today, the masterpiece I am going to craft is... a set of armor forged from iron sourced directly from the Demon Realm!"
Ever since the gates to the Demon Realm had opened, a flood of exotic materials had poured into the market. Many of these materials far surpassed those found on the continent. One of them was demonic iron! Demonic iron ores—such as black demonic iron, white demonic iron, and red demonic iron—were currently the hottest trend among blacksmiths. However, these were not materials just anyone could handle.
"And I'm going to craft a masterpiece using one hundred percent black demonic iron!" Hammerman boasted.
"Watch closely! The forging begins now!"
Under the expectant gaze of his viewers, Hammerman began his work. True to his boast, the demonic iron yielded incredibly powerful effects. As soon as the crafting process was complete, the chat exploded into a frenzy.
"I'll have to think about that starting now! Alright, everyone, remember this day! For I am the greatest blacksm—"
The title [Creator of the Finest Armor] has been lost.
"...ith?" Hammerman stammered, his sentence trailing off.
Hammerman stood frozen, utterly dumbfounded, and his viewers were equally bewildered. None of the other blacksmith streams currently live were crafting anything of that caliber. Who on earth had snatched the title away?!
Speculative posts immediately began flooding the community boards. The title of having crafted the single greatest piece of player-made armor carried immense prestige and weight. When the players couldn't find an immediate answer to who had taken it, their curiosity shifted to a different question.