Running Away After Coming This Far
“What do you mean, run?”
Even if it was Kim Tae-hyun saying it, the blacksmiths couldn’t accept it just like that.
“What kind of nonsense is that?!”
“Exactly!”
And Cain quietly tried to jump in too.
He’d suffered just as much getting this far. Of course he wanted a bigger reward.
“Yeah! Running away after coming all this way is—”
“Shut up.”
“...”
Cain clamped his mouth shut on the spot.
Tae-hyun continued coldly.
“At least say something that makes sense. We’re already going to die just dealing with the high-ranking Holy Knights and priests coming this way. If the Fire Demonic Beast wakes up too, how the hell are we supposed to beat it? And there’ll be people in there even stronger than the ones we just fought.”
Every word was painfully correct!
But the blacksmiths, drunk on the dream of raiding a boss monster, couldn’t accept reality and sank into despair.
“Ugh... no way...”
“Quit whining. We don’t have time for this. They said the Fire Demonic Beast still hasn’t fully recovered its strength, so let’s blow the place sky-high and get out. Just destroying the temple buildings will be more than enough.”
What Tae-hyun was aiming for, in the end, was contribution points.
He didn’t need to risk his life in some desperate all-or-nothing boss fight.
If we were going to hunt a boss monster, we should’ve dragged a whole church force or a kingdom army out here first.
Trying to sweep everything with just a few dozen knights was pure greed.
Even in situations where most people would’ve gotten greedy, Tae-hyun never lost his cool.
After finishing his explanation, he looked at Cain.
Cain, who’d been silently obeying after being told to shut up, flinched.
“I-I shut up because you told me to shut—”
“Not that. You got those potions earlier, didn’t you? Time to earn their price.”
“...!”
“Take these bombs over to that corner and set them down. All the Sadiq Holy Knights and priests are gathered around the Fire Demonic Beast right now, so planting them should be easy.”
“T-this bomb’s name is Slightly Crazy Engineer's Dangerous Shrapnel Bomb?”
“It’s fine. It won’t explode.”
“What do you mean it won’t explode?! It looks like it’s about to blow any second!”
Tae-hyun had smiled and drawn his sword.
“Got it! I’ll run with the bomb!”
The instant Tae-hyun drew his sword, Cain’s sense of reality returned in full force.
Swallowing his tears, he nodded.
And now—
“Aaaaargh!”
Cain was sprinting while screaming.
The bomb tucked between his arms looked like it might explode at any moment.
“An intruder! He made it all the way here!”
“He dares come alone? Bold fool! Taste my blade!”
And to make things worse, Holy Knights were chasing him from behind.
Cain ran for his life.
He didn’t even have time to fight. He had to set the bombs down first.
“Y-you think this is really okay?”
“He said there weren’t any Holy Knights here, so...”
The blacksmiths had been ordered to carry the bombs to the easiest area—the temple outskirts.
They knew the Sadiq Holy Knights and priests were all gathered deeper inside, but that didn’t make them any less scared.
Even meeting a single Sadiq Holy Knight would put them in danger.
“If we run into one, we bolt. No questions asked.”
“Right. We’re not carrying any baggage now, either.”
The blacksmiths had left behind all the insanely heavy loads they’d been hauling until now.
That had been Tae-hyun’s order.
“Leave your bags behind while you go plant the bombs.”
Of course, Tae-hyun had only one reason for giving that command.
If one of them screws up and a bomb goes off, they’ll die. But we still need to take all the loot we gathered here with us.
Cold-blooded to the bone. Not a drop of mercy!
But the blacksmiths interpreted it differently.
Ah, he doesn’t even want us burdened with luggage while we do this!
He really does look rough on the outside but warm-hearted underneath!
That was the kind of convenient nonsense the blacksmiths came up with.
Still, luck was on their side.
Unlike Cain, they managed to set the bombs in place without running into any enemies.
Everyone was moving separately, planting bombs all over the place.
Of course, Tae-hyun wasn’t sitting idle either.
He was heading for the most dangerous place of all—the inner section of the temple buildings.
Damn it. Nobody else here has stealth skills...
Among everyone present, Tae-hyun had the highest stealth skill.
If he didn’t do it, no one could.
And naturally, this too became another misunderstanding for the blacksmiths.
He’s going to the most dangerous place himself...
For our sake...!
Just like we thought—rough on the outside, but—
Tae-hyun had absolutely no idea they were thinking any of this.
He was only wondering how to blow up the Sadiq Church temple in a way that would make people say he’d done a truly legendary job.
Divine Foresight
Tsk.
Tae-hyun clicked his tongue as he looked at the path marked in red.
There had been a thin path—barely a thread—but after a certain point, even that abruptly disappeared.
In other words, the moment he went farther, his stealth would definitely break.
Divine Foresight wasn’t all-powerful.
It showed good paths and bad ones. It didn’t make the impossible possible.
No helping it.
Tae-hyun decided that even if he had to take a few hits from the high-ranking Sadiq Holy Knights or priests inside, he would rush in, throw the bombs, and get out.
After all, when it came to running away, nobody there could catch him.
It wasn’t just his movement speed either—with his absurd evasion rate, neither the Holy Knights nor the priests would be able to pin him down properly.
“O great Sadiq! Come forth through the Fire Demonic Beast!”
“It is about to awaken! Bow before it!”
“...?”
Hearing voices from inside, Tae-hyun cautiously poked his head out.
There it was again—that giant figure curled up inside the enormous pillar of flame.
It twitched as if it were about to rise at any second.
Lucky Strike, Lucky Strike, Lucky Strike...
Tae-hyun activated Lucky Strike over and over in rapid succession.
[Heads.] Attack power increased by 4x.
Skill cooldown removed.
[Tails!]
The skill’s effect vanished again immediately.
Tae-hyun clicked his tongue and used Lucky Strike once more.
Judging by effect alone, it was an incredible skill—but its biggest weakness was that it was completely luck-based.
The moment tails came up, everything disappeared.
That meant he couldn’t afford to get too greedy in urgent moments.
At least the skill could be chained into itself one more time.
And with enough breathing room like this, he could stack it repeatedly.
Come on. Heads.
[Heads.] Attack power increased by 4x.
Skill cooldown removed.
[Heads.] Attack power increased by 8x.
Skill cooldown removed.
[Heads.] Attack power increased by 16x.
Skill cooldown removed.
“That’s enough. I’m going in.”
Fwaaaash!
The moment Tae-hyun charged in, his stealth broke.
The high-ranking Sadiq Holy Knights and priests inside all whipped their heads around at once.
“Intruder!”
“Kill him!”
What he needed most right now was speed.
Tae-hyun didn’t stop. He ran straight ahead at full speed.
As he sprinted, he slashed with all his might at one of the high-ranking Holy Knights blocking his path.
Bang!
The Sadiq Holy Knight tried to block, but Tae-hyun was too fast.
The knight took the impact head-on and was shoved backward.
Critical strike triggered!
“Urgh! How dare this insignificant mortal—!”
Tae-hyun ignored the Sadiq Holy Knight.
He had something far more urgent to deal with than killing that guy.
Go!
Tae-hyun pulled out a bomb from inside his clothes.
Then hurled it with all his strength.
“What is tha—?!”
The high-ranking Sadiq Holy Knights and priests shouted in shock as they saw the bomb flying toward them.
“Get down!”
And then the explosions began.
KWA-KWA-KWA-KWA-KWA-KWA-KWA-KWA-KWA-KWAAAAANG!
Experience gained.
Experience gained.
Level up achieved.
The Sadiq Church Weapons Storehouse has collapsed. Contribution points awarded.
The Sadiq Church Confessional has collapsed. Contribution points awarded.
A bomb explodes right in front of you. Evasion successful.
A bomb explodes right in front of you. Evasion successful.
A chain explosion engulfs you. Evasion failed. You have entered Stun.
You were struck by falling debris. Evasion successful.
...
There were too many messages to even read!
Flames and explosions filled every direction, making it impossible to see clearly, but Tae-hyun fixed his direction and ran with everything he had.
If he stopped now, he’d die.
Whether from the explosions, or from the Sadiq Holy Knights and priests swarming him—either way, he had to get out.
The objective had already been achieved.
Tae-hyun had told the others that once he triggered his bombs, they were to set theirs off too.
That meant the surrounding area would begin erupting in chain explosions any second now.
The shattered pieces of collapsing buildings were flying everywhere, and the whole situation was utter chaos, but a title was welcome anytime.
Tae-hyun checked his level-up, then his contribution points, and then his Divine stat as well.
Ridiculously calm behavior for a man sprinting through an inferno of explosions.
Divine: 996
Damn it!
He was short by four.
To learn a new Authority of Archisus, his Divine stat had to be over 1,000.
And that was after blowing up all these buildings and smashing apart the Holy Knights and priests inside them...
No helping it. First I get out alive!
“Uh... uh... uh... th-that...”
The blacksmiths, who had been sneaking around planting bombs, stared in shock at the massive explosion erupting in the distance.
This was on a completely different scale from any explosion they’d seen before.
“H-hey, he told us to trigger ours too!”
“Oh. Right.”
The three blacksmiths looked at each other.
“You go light them.”
“What? No way! Why me?!”
“Let’s settle it fair and square with rock-paper-scissors!”
They were blacksmiths too.
They knew all too well what Mechanical Engineering and bombs were like.
“Learning Mechanical Engineering is for idiots!”
A lot of blacksmiths thought exactly that.
And honestly, they weren’t wrong.
Just crafting armor and weapons, enhancing them, and applying buffs was enough to make blacksmiths popular.
Sure, parties rarely wanted them along—but outside of that, blacksmiths were always in demand.
Mechanical Engineering was another story.
It was a difficult skill you could only learn after raising your core blacksmithing skill to a certain level.
And despite being that difficult, what you got from it was... underwhelming.
What Mechanical Engineering produced were things that always seemed to have a screw loose somewhere.
That was Mechanical Engineering in a nutshell—either the performance was bizarre, or it came with some crippling drawback, or it had a set chance to explode.
Spending that time raising armor-crafting or weapon-crafting skills was far more useful.
Sure, bomb-type items were powerful.
But most players hated using them.
If one suddenly exploded halfway through, that was game over.
Better to just bring a mage and cast a strong spell instead.
The blacksmiths knew that too, which was why they were terrified of lighting the bombs.
The blast already looked insanely strong...
If my luck’s bad, I’m the only one who dies here!
Tap—
“Huh?”
While the three of them were busy with rock-paper-scissors, a spark flew from the distant explosion.
A tiny ember landed right on top of the bomb.
Chiiiiiik—
And then they heard it.
The blacksmiths’ faces turned pale.