"But Of Course, My Lord!"

"But of course, my lord!" Burford rubbed his palms together with a sycophantic grin. Then he looked down and thought to himself: Idiots. What exactly do they think the Sadiq Church is?

Even Burford himself was still little more than a nobody within the Sadiq Church — and that was precisely the point. The organization ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠was crawling with powerful NPCs. Obviously, you couldn't just split your party and charge in because a subjugation quest had been issued. You were supposed to come alongside paladins and priests from other orders, or at the very least march in with the royal army. Rolling up solo like this was basically announcing: Please kill me.

This valley had been built with the Sadiq Church's full, grinding fury behind it. Traps lay dormant around every corner.

In truth, the reason players had swarmed here in such numbers was partly Burford's fault — though he had no idea.

Back when Burford had live-streamed the royal palace raid quest, he'd been running his mouth:

The sharp-eyed viewers had suspected it was all bluster, of course. But the others had reasoned: If a player of Burford's caliber is only at a mid-level position in the Church, then maybe it's not as tough as everyone thinks.

Reality, however, was the exact opposite. Burford was barely scraping by as a grunt-level paladin — and even that rank had taken a mountain of quests to reach.

"Move out!"

The Sadiq Church's paladins drew their blades, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠and fire roared to life along the steel. Sadik's Flame.

"What?!"

"There are people up on the cliffs!"

A mage jabbed a finger toward the clifftop, and every head swiveled. Bearing down on them from above were Sadiq paladins, blades blazing, charging at full speed.

"W-we're done for!"

They were already struggling just to handle the monsters. With paladins joining the fray, there was simply no path to victory.

Fortunately, this particular group of players had good situational awareness.

"Run!"

"Wait — the tanks, what about the tanks?"

"Then you grab them and come!"

"……Fine, together!"

No hesitation — immediate retreat. It was the best choice available. Any more dithering and they'd have been wiped to the last.

"Give chase! Don't let them escape!"

One of the Sadiq priests above finished their incantation, and a pair of burning shackles snapped shut around one player's ankles. The damage was negligible — but the instant slowdown was anything but. Movement speed plummeted.

"Aaagh! Hey! Someone dispel this curse! Help!"

"Sorry! I'd have to stop and cast — I'd get caught too!"

"You absolute—!"

The party didn't look back. To dispel the curse, someone would have to stop and channel a spell — and with the paladins right on their heels, that was a death sentence.

The players who couldn't make it out were cut down by the paladins one by one.

The same scene was playing out across the valley.

"That's the winged beast Sadiq commands. First we apply debuffs to bring it down to ground level, then we — gakh!"

"What — what is that?! Run! Run!"

"It's way too strong! Fall back!"

The monsters emerging from the dungeon entrance were far more powerful than anyone had anticipated. And just as players were already stretched thin fighting them, the Sadiq paladins came crashing in from the flanks. For anyone who'd rushed in expecting easy kills, it was a disaster.

Die or flee — players poured out of the dungeon in a panicked stream. Outside, those who'd already escaped sat on the ground with half-vacant expressions.

"This is…"

"It's way stronger than I expected, isn't it?"

Reality had finally set in. The Valley of Despair and Sorrow was not a dungeon you could crack open by sending in one party at a time.

Word spread fast.

In a large-scale quest like this, rumors traveled at lightning speed. With the early parties getting annihilated, the rest pulled back and started taking stock. The reckless and the greedy still charged in the moment they arrived — but the players with a brain found a spot near the dungeon entrance and observed.

Everyone was thinking the same thing. Sure, you could rack up contribution points by fighting now — but there was no reason to throw your life away for it. The risk far outweighed the reward.

Meanwhile, Tae-hyun was still running his royal knights in circles through the Jure Mountains.

Of all the routes to the Valley of Despair and Sorrow, he had chosen the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠longest one — the most roundabout, and absolutely teeming with monsters.

"Monsters spotted!"

"What are your orders?!"

The knights had spotted a Rock Beast stomping toward them from a distance and immediately looked to Tae-hyun for direction. A far cry from the impulsive knights who used to charge without a word — this was almost a different group entirely.

Tae-hyun gave a satisfied nod.

"You have permission to engage."

"Thank you, sir!"

"Let's go!"

Kim Ji-sahn watched Tae-hyun with pure, unguarded admiration. Those arrogant, self-important knights — and he'd turned them into this. It was a talent that defied all imagination.

I suppose when two stubborn, difficult people clash head-on, the more difficult one always wins.

"Why are you staring at me like that?"

"No reason, sir."

Ji-sahn quickly looked away. He was terrified Tae-hyun might somehow read his thoughts.

Meanwhile, the knights were already charging bravely into the fray, trading blows with the Rock Beast. The creature swung its enormous arms and hurled a boulder the size of a house. But these knights were far too seasoned to go down from something like that.

CRACK!

They split the rock or batted it aside, then swarmed the Rock Beast all at once in a focused, concentrated assault. No chivalric one-on-one — just a good, honest pile-on. A proper beatdown.

Not that they'd always fought like this, of course. In the beginning, the knights had strongly preferred the honorable duel — man against monster, face to face, on equal terms.

Naturally, Tae-hyun hadn't stood for it.

Absolute obedience. And with obedience came learning.

They're fighting well.

Tae-hyun watched with quiet satisfaction. Advance on command. Retreat on command. That was the ideal subordinate — nothing more, nothing less. The knights who had strutted around bleating about honor and glory had, somewhere along the way, become genuinely loyal soldiers.

"Well done. Here — eat."

"Ohhhhh!"

"The flavor — the flavor! It seeps straight into your soul!"

Push them hard, feed them well. Push, feed. Repeat.

I wonder how the subjugation quest is going overall?

Tae-hyun was curious about the broader picture. This was a large-scale quest with a massive number of players involved. What he was doing mattered — but so did knowing what everyone else was up to.

He pulled up the Fantasy Online forums during a brief rest break. With personal live-streams having exploded in popularity, gathering intel like this had become almost effortless. Private, solo quests wouldn't show up anywhere, of course — but an event of this scale? Information was going to leak no matter what.

Busy bunch.

Tae-hyun clicked on one stream at random and started watching.

"—So, about six or seven parties have gone in and come back out as full wipes, yeah? And two of those were parties from the famous guilds[CLASSIFIED]and[CLASSIFIED]."

Oh, really?

Full wipes. That was music to his ears. He was taking the long way around — the fact that the quest's progress was stalling meant he wasn't falling behind. And even the famous guilds' parties had been wiped?

Harder than I expected, huh?

Well, it would've been almost embarrassing if the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠place he'd spent so much effort fortifying just rolled over and died to the first wave. Tae-hyun went through the clips one by one, methodically. He wanted to see exactly what monsters were there and where the traps were laid.

Intel collection — the foundation of any engagement.

That horned beast isn't something you can tank head-on. The AoE damage is way too high, and it has a stun on top of that. Do I go full DPS and skip the tank entirely?

This spot here — paladins were hiding in ambush. Hmm. So that cliff formation means paladins are waiting at the top. I'll need to watch for that when we go in.

Watching other people get destroyed and extracting lessons from it. Tae-hyun was never reckless. Whatever the task, he moved only when he'd already calculated the odds in his favor.

As he watched and took notes, the streamer was saying:

"Everyone's just hanging back and sizing each other up for now — but the quest will move forward soon enough. Reinforcements from the other Orders arrive tomorrow. Priests and paladins from allied churches!"

The most reliable allies in the entire subjugation quest. Players who had built up affinity with the various Orders in advance — or who had taken Order-affiliated classes — were practically beaming.

If you had ties to an Order, you could march into a quest like this as part of their formation. While everyone else had to brute-force their way through the valley alone, you'd be pushing through flanked by paladins and priests. That was an enormous advantage.

"I've got some affinity built up with the Demer Order, so I'll be moving with them. Stay tuned for that!"

Once the other Orders show up, will things move faster?

Tae-hyun closed the stream.

Right now, he and his group were looping all the way around to the back of the Valley of Despair and Sorrow — an absurdly wide detour. The reason no one else had taken this route was simple: it was too long and far too dangerous.

And even if you made it all the way around to the back, there was no guarantee of anything worthwhile. No one knew what was waiting inside the valley from that direction. Taking the back route without any assurance of a payoff was the kind of move only a fool would make.

Of course, Tae-hyun's actual reason for coming this way was to drill and break his knights in properly during the march — but still.

"All right. Let's pick up the pace!"

Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud.

Clank. Clank. Clank. Clank.

"Oh! Paladins!"

"Look at that armor — they look incredible, don't they?"

One of the great appeals of the paladin class was, simply put, how they looked. Appearances were the ultimate endgame content, as some players liked to say — and the equipment paladins wore was nothing short of spectacular. Clean, elegant designs. Subtle ornamentation. Outstanding performance stats to match.

That was why players kept wanting to roll paladins despite all the restrictions and obligations that came with joining an Order.

"Advanced Holy Knight, sir! Felix, Intermediate Holy Knight of the Demer Order, reporting!"

"Priest, sir! I'm a Song Priest from the Tyran Church!"

The moment the Order's forces arrived, players came sprinting out to greet them — every one of them holding some kind of Order-affiliated class.