A Quick Break

"Let's take a quick breather."

When Tae-hyun stopped in his tracks, everyone else stopped with him.

Tae-hyun swiftly used a potion.

Potions he'd taken from the merchant group's warehouse!

Each one normally sold for a steep price, but Tae-hyun had simply walked off with them.

Rufo, standing beside him, tilted his head.

"I feel like I've seen that potion somewhere before, sir?"

"You're imagining things."

"...?"

Divine Foresight.

Tae-hyun couldn't ignore the way the red ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠line visible through the Divine Foresight skill was growing thicker and clearer by the second.

On top of that, the cave passage they were moving through was gradually becoming broader and more enormous.

His instincts were telling him one thing.

They were getting closer to the center of the dungeon!

This skill burns way more MP than I expected.

Back when he only used Divine Foresight, he could spam it without worrying about mana.

After all, he wasn't using any other spells.

But now he was firing off magic whenever he could to raise his black magic skills.

His MP was draining much faster than expected.

Good thing I have the Earring of Mana Recovery equipped...

The Earring of Mana Recovery he'd ripped off those idiots who'd attacked him on the road was proving surprisingly useful.

Tae-hyun made a mental note to gather more gear with mana recovery options.

If the number of spells he could use kept increasing, he'd definitely need them.

"Ahem. Ahem."

"...?"

Cain cleared his throat and sidled up to Tae-hyun.

Tae-hyun looked at him like, What the hell is wrong with this guy?

"So, uh. The thing is... I'm basically naked right now..."

Cain had nothing on but a single greatsword slung over his back.

Other than a pair of shorts, everything else was gone.

Completely bare!

If anyone saw him, they could've said, "Oh my god, is that guy some kind of pervert?" and it would've been fair.

He was so embarrassed that he wasn't even recording the quest he was currently on.

With everyone else stuck outside, clearing a quest like this was an enormous opportunity.

If he recorded it and uploaded it, people would eat it up.

But...

It's too humiliating!

Up until recently, Cain had built up a charismatic image for himself.

The fearless guild master of Red Zone, charging into battle head-on!

Sure, it had earned him plenty of enemies, but there were also plenty of fans who loved that side of him.

But what if he suddenly came back to streaming and said, My guild collapsed, it's gone, and I don't have any gear, so now I run around naked?

He'd get laughed at mercilessly.

Cain just couldn't bring himself to do that.

Still, they were heading deeper and ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠deeper into the dungeon.

Staying naked much longer was making him seriously uneasy.

No matter how tanky a warrior was, in a place like this one hit could shred his health bar.

"Can't you give me something to wear too?"

"Did I stash items with you or something? Go put on the gear those Sadiq Holy Knights dropped."

"I tried to..."

They'd fought so many Sadiq Holy Knights by now that there was a decent pile of dropped gear.

Of course, all of it was currently being carried by the blacksmiths.

One of the reasons Tae-hyun had brought them along in the first place.

That reason?

To use them as pack mules!

Because of their class traits, blacksmiths could carry huge amounts of weight.

They were born to haul things.

They were pack mules, sure, but they were getting so much out of this that even the blacksmiths quietly kept carrying the load.

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠

Cain had also hoped to pick out a decent set of armor from the pile if there was something usable.

But...

The gear dropped by the Sadiq Holy Knights all had the same flaw.

If someone who didn't worship Sadiq wore it, they'd get hit with a crippling penalty.

At that point, wearing it was worse than not wearing it at all.

Which was why Cain had come to Tae-hyun.

To ask for something he could actually use.

"Can't you have those blacksmiths make me some armor I can wear?"

He'd already asked them once, but they'd turned him down immediately.

All three of them had said basically the same thing, and Cain had finally given up and come to Tae-hyun instead.

"I asked you to save my life, and now you did, but... can you at least give me something to wear?"

"What, did you leave your items with me? At this rate what, next you'll ask me for gold too? Then you'll want me to split my subordinates with you? Did you deposit all that with me or something?"

"Th-that's not what I said!"

When Tae-hyun barked at him, Cain protested in a wounded voice.

How in the world had his life sunk this low?

Cain had to fight back the sting in his eyes.

"I saved your life. What exactly have you done to prove yourself?"

You never let me fight!

It was Tae-hyun who'd told everyone to stay back whenever Sadiq Holy Knights showed up so he could fight them alone.

Of course, Cain only thought that to himself.

If he said it out loud, he'd just get lectured harder.

"I-if you just give me a chance, I can prove it!"

"Oh yeah?"

"I mean it! Just give me one chance and I'll show you something up front!"

Cain shouted desperately, trying to earn Tae-hyun's acknowledgment.

"Fine. Take this."

"...?"

What Tae-hyun held out was a contract!

In Fantasy Online 2, anything you could imagine was possible.

Player-to-player contracts, naturally, were no exception.

"Write this: I, Cain, agree to repay the appropriate amount in exchange for receiving armor, a belt, gloves, boots, and... whatever, a full-body armor set."

"How much is the 'appropriate amount'?"

"Eh. Around 500 gold should do it."

"About 500 gold?!"

Converted to cash, 500 gold was over twenty million won.

Cain's eyes went wide.

"You can earn it and pay it back. Earn it and pay it back."

"Th-that's not the point."

"What, do you think I'm running a charity? That 500 gold also includes the cost of me letting things slide with you. That's cheap, if anything."

Tae-hyun was the kind of man who never forgot a grudge once it was made.

"Besides, you were the guild master of Red Zone. Why are you whining over 500 gold? Work for it. Earn it the hard way."

"The guild is gone!"

And hearing the guy who'd caused that collapse say it so casually made Cain's blood pressure spike twice as high.

He felt wronged, but there was nothing he could do.

If he wanted to get out of here alive and eventually take revenge on his former guild members, the only choice he had was to take Tae-hyun's hand.

"R-right. Then you'll forget the grudge between us once I pay it back, right?"

"If you pay it back, maybe I'll forget. If you don't, I'll just have another reason to hold a grudge. Wrote down 500 gold? Add 10% interest after that too."

"......"

As Cain wrote, it felt more and more like he was sinking into a swamp.

A thought suddenly crossed his mind.

I had no choice if I wanted to catch those guild bastards, but... what if this is actually an even bigger mistake?

But it was too late now.

Even if it meant taking the devil's hand, he had no other option.

"It's a mid-grade contract from the merchant group's warehouse, so the effect's guaranteed. Don't get any funny ideas about trying to test the penalty."

"I-I wasn't thinking that!"

Cain flushed bright red after being caught.

Can I just run without paying him back?

He had been thinking it.

"Good. You wrote it properly. Then go ask those guys to make it for you now."

"Th-thanks."

He'd lost a lot, but at least the naked life was finally over.

The three blacksmiths really did have skill.

Working quickly with only the materials on hand, they managed to throw together a set of usable, if somewhat low-performance, heavy armor and other equipment.

Cain beamed with happiness—then suddenly turned miserable.

How the hell did I fall this far?

It felt like only yesterday he'd been barking orders at his guild members.

For all the trouble along the way, Tae-hyun's party finally broke through the cave passage and emerged outside.

And what greeted them there was a gigantic cavern.

It was so vast and open that it hardly seemed believable for a cave inside the valley.

The ceiling was so high it looked almost impossibly far away.

"This is..."

"Huh?"

The players all stared in shock at the message windows.

The last line in particular.

The Fire Demonic Beast led by the Order awakens!

There was nothing visible around them yet, but that alone was enough to unsettle everyone.

If the system was announcing it like that, it had to be something monstrously powerful.

"T-Tae-san, this is..."

"I know. It's probably a boss monster. More importantly, look at that."

Tae-hyun pointed into the distance.

There, standing in the cavern, were the temple buildings of the Sadiq Order.

Every structure was carved with blazing fire motifs and the savage, terrifying face of their god.

And at the center of those temple buildings, an enormous pillar of flame was burning.

Just looking at it screams suspicious...

It gave off the exact feeling that if they poked the wrong thing, something insanely powerful would come crawling out.

"Let's go. We're looting that temple!"

"Are you sure that's a good idea?"

"If we miss this chance now, we won't get another one."

Tae-hyun knew it too.

This underground temple was the very core of the Sadiq Order's power.

All the countless traps and obstacles in the valley outside had existed to protect this place.

Which meant the force stationed here would be on an entirely different level from anything they'd seen so far.

Even if a lot of them were out fighting elsewhere.

If there are high-ranking holy knights and priests in there too, yeah... honestly, that could get rough.

The ordinary knights had been strong enough, but the elite holy knights and high priests of the Sadiq Order weren't something he could dismiss lightly.

He knew that from firsthand experience, and right now other players outside the valley were getting wrecked by them on video.

They wielded devastating magic and curses like it was nothing.

Even Tae-hyun's absurd evasion would get worn down if enough high priests focused their spells on him.

Tae-hyun considered the situation.

What was the most efficient way to hit the enemy here?

"Right."

"Pardon? What did you say?"

"I just thought of something good. We'll blow the temple buildings sky-high."

"But we don't have any mages or scrolls..."

"I'm going to use Mechanical Engineering."

At times like this, Mechanical Engineering was still the most convenient tool of all.

It was unstable and took time to make things, but the results were excellent.

Tae-hyun pulled out bombs and materials he'd brought from the merchant group's warehouse.

Then he immediately got to work.

Back in Genoma City, he'd already learned how to craft every kind of bomb he could from a mechanical engineer NPC.

But Tae-hyun didn't stop there.

Additional Modification!

He altered ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the recipe itself through Mechanical Engineering.

A skill that let him tweak an already established design—though there was always the risk of side effects.