The Art of Construction
"Is there any other way besides that?!" Cain was genuinely surprised. There's actually a way like that?
"...Shouldn't you do things like lowering the territory taxes, reducing facility usage fees, bringing in plenty of good NPCs, sourcing high-quality quests, discovering uncharted dungeons, and helping players defeat monsters they can't handle?"
It was so correct that Cain had nothing to say. Every single word was spot on!
"But..."
"But?"
"That's hard...!"
"...Then did you expect to just get a free ride, you son of a—"
"C-Coach. You're not angry, right?"
"Haha. Of course not. I never get angry at my players."
"Didn't you fight with your players back when you were with the Beijing Fighters?"
"That was because those bast—no, Player Cain. Why do you keep treating me like some kind of weirdo?"
Sabet was usually a good-natured person, but as the conversation with Cain dragged on, a hint of anger began to creep into his voice. Surprisingly, Cain noticed. His quick-wittedness had improved dramatically after being constantly scolded by Tae-hyun!
"I see. I'll do my best!"
"Exactly, Player Cain. If only you'd said that sooner."
Meanwhile, the 4th Prince ran over in a hurry from afar. He was in such a rush that he didn't even have any guards around him. Normally, if a prince of a kingdom appeared, he should have guards, a system message window popping up, and a halo of light shining around him...
• The 4th Prince requests your help!
• Protect the 4th Prince from the assassins of the other princes!
• If the 4th Prince dies, your Reputation will decrease significantly...
• ......
• ......
"Uh..." Cain flinched at the message window. A quest to protect him from royal assassins!
"This looks hard..."
"Didn't you just say you'd do your best?"
"Ah, no. I'll do my best, but Coach, what is my class?"
"A slave."
"...You have to say the full name! Just saying the last part makes it sound weird!!"
"Oh, weren't you just a slave? The other players called you a slave. Kim Tae-hyun also called you a slave..."
"I am the Slave of Archisus! Archisus's!"
"Ah, I see." Sabet nodded. Indeed, just 'Slave' did seem a bit odd for a class name...
"Anyway, my class is... well, I'm good at taking hits and enduring, but I'm not good at finding assassins."
"That's certainly true. But couldn't you just take the hits instead of the prince?"
"What if I die?"
"You have to make sure you don't die, right?"
"..."
Cain felt a surge of anger but held it in. The other person was his coach, after all. Sabet didn't stop there. He seriously offered some more advice.
"Still, since there are no people on this island, there will be very few people trying to sneak in."
"Not 'none', but 'few'."
"Yes. Since there are few people, any newcomer will stand out. Put the 4th Prince in a secluded place like a tower and guard the perimeter like an iron fortress."
"That sounds like a great idea! Thank you!"
If it was an Erangs Kingdom assassination quest, it was certain that not only NPC assassins but also many players would receive it. Cain was more afraid of that. He knew very well that if assassin players made up their minds, they could be incredibly persistent and cunning. The dangerous ones among them were as dangerous as 0.1 Kim Tae-hyuns. To prevent that, it seemed best to lock the 4th Prince inside a tower.
"4th Prince. You trust me, right?"
"No. I don't..."
"Right. You trust m—what?"
"I like you, but I don't trust you. You're a bit clumsy."
The 4th Prince's intelligence stat seemed to have gone up significantly since they last met!
"Where is the Pope? I think I'll only feel safe if the Pope is here..."
"...I'll let you meet him. Come on, follow me."
"Where are we going?"
"A very nice and safe place."
Cain tricked the 4th Prince and dragged him to a tower in the underground of Nodranche. He planned to lock him inside and tell no one!
Meanwhile, Sabet spotted something approaching from the distant horizon.
'?'
It was an enormous fleet of ships.
'?????'
"Hunting the 1st Prince..."
"Mmm."
"..."
The returned Tae-hyun and his companions were lost in thought. It was because of the quest that had come upon them: Hunting the 1st Prince!
Ryu Da-young cautiously raised her hand and spoke.
"In my opinion, wouldn't it be better to postpone this quest?"
"That's not wrong."
Lee Se-yeon agreed. Honestly, trying to hunt the 1st Prince of the Erangs Kingdom right now was of a similar difficulty to hunting a dragon.
"But Kim Tae-hyun hunted a dragon..."
"...Shut up."
Lee Se-yeon regretted her words and quickly corrected herself.
"It might be even harder than hunting a dragon."
The 1st Prince of Erangs was currently the closest person to the throne. He was in a position to mobilize various terrifying noble knight orders and mages! Knights starting at level 500 or 600 would attack in coordination, and royal mages would rain down all kinds of powerful magic. Even Tae-hyun would be in danger.
"The level of the Erangs royal mages must be incredible. They could pierce through your armor and inflict curses."
Tae-hyun nodded at Lee Se-yeon's words. He wasn't ignoring his opponent either. Tae-hyun's weakness was his low HP. What supported that weakness was his high Luck, his Archisus's Incarnation class skills, and his powerful items. But no matter how broken Adamantium was, it wasn't invincible. It could be pierced at any time by high-level mages or powerful curse skills. For a player with low HP like Tae-hyun, just having those curses stack up would put him in danger.
'Especially if my evasion rate drops, it'll be dangerous.'
Players weren't high enough level to pierce Adamantium Armor yet, but NPCs were different.
"So, if I do it, I plan to assassinate him."
"!"
"...Uh, isn't your class... not an assassin?"
Ryu Da-young was flustered. She knew Tae-hyun's class was a legendary class related to Archisus. It had nothing to do with assassins, right?
"Well, there's no law saying only assassins can assassinate, right?"
"I suppose so, but...?"
Huh? Is that so? No, but still...?
While Ryu Da-young was in confusion, Tae-hyun turned to Lee Da-bi and asked.
"Right. Putting the 1st Prince's assassination aside, how is your class quest going, Da-bi?"
It was the class advancement quest Lee Da-bi had received. However, it wasn't a quest to hunt, trick, threaten, or scam someone, but purely a quest to construct something, so she had been putting it off!
She hadn't expected the question, so Lee Da-bi was flustered.
"I wasn't really thinking about it..."
"Why? You should proceed with it."
"It's a waste of money."
"..."
"...Are you joking?"
This time, Lee Se-yeon was flustered. Tae-hyun whispered.
"No. She's serious."
"No... with Lee Da-bi's income..."
"Her principle is that games are a place to make money, not spend it."
"I get it, so can you stop whispering?"
Lee Se-yeon pushed Tae-hyun away. Why was Tae-hyun speaking for her when Lee Da-bi could speak for herself?
"But it's also a prejudice that you have to spend money to build structures."
"...???"
Everyone except Tae-hyun stared at him with bewildered eyes. If you don't spend money, what do you build it with?
Tae-hyun argued confidently.
"Think about it. The Sky Castle in the Valley. Was that built by spending money?"
"But that wasn't crafted, it was stol—"
Tae-hyun pretended not to hear Lee Da-bi and continued.
"And the various fortresses and roads in our kingdom. Those weren't built by spending money either."
"Those were built by threatening the Guild Alliance members and forcing them to do quests..."
The Guild Alliance members who had invaded the kingdom and been captured had to pay their dues through labor before leaving. The Atali Kingdom was truly built on the blood, sweat, and tears of others!
"So what I want to say is, you can build all sorts of things without necessarily spending gold."
"I understand, Player Kim Tae-hyun."
Ryu Tae-su nodded and said.
"You mean we should go capture those Guild Alliance bastards right now and threaten them."
"...N-No. I didn't mean it to that extent."
He had just received a huge sum of money related to being a tournament judge, so even Tae-hyun would feel a prick of conscience if he immediately went to capture Guild Alliance members. That would be... a bit too much!
"Don't the Power Warrior guild members or the Valley players respond well to this kind of construction?"
"But since this is my quest, using those people would be against the rules..."
Although Power Warrior was a guild that accepted just about anyone, if the guild had no principles, it wouldn't have lasted this long. Lee Da-bi's principles were the biggest reason Power Warrior had survived. She had a strict line! One of them was not using guild members for her own personal gain. Especially when it came to her own matters as the guild leader.
"But they participated a lot in my quests, didn't they?"
"That's because if they just hear your name, everyone participates hoping to hit the jackpot. My quest is a different story. As the guild leader, doing that so selfishly..."
"Then I'll recruit them."
"Ah, no... that's not how it works..."
"What do you mean it doesn't work?"
If Lee Da-bi wanted to keep her principles as guild leader, he had no intention of stopping her. He'd just call them under his own name!
Tae-hyun called a few Power Warrior guild members he knew.
Tae-hyun asked a few Power Warrior guild members if there was anyone who wanted to do construction. Then, those guild members called other guild members...
"Pant, pant, pant, pant."
"Who here has a construction-related class?"
"I carried bricks on the first floor of the Valley temple when I was level 8!"
"Get out of here! My construction skill is Intermediate!"
"I even have a title!!"
The guild members fought and brawled with each other. As a result, a few victorious players emerged.
"We need to build a cheap, huge structure. What would be good?"
"A statue, of course..."
"Not a statue."
Tae-hyun grimaced. Seeing statues with his own face on them all over the place was honestly a bit embarrassing. Even now, whenever he ran into a statue while walking around the Valley, he would flinch!
"How about a tower?"
"A tower... that's definitely good."
Not a massive tower, but a tower built as high as possible for the sole purpose of height!
Carbanog mentions that a certain cult once built an incredibly high tower in the past.
'There was such a time? How was it?'
Carbanog says it doesn't remember very well.
Great structures originally brought powerful additional effects. Holy sanctuaries gave paladins a global buff, statues of incarnations gave a buff to all believers and embarrassment to the incarnation himself...
There definitely seemed to have been a cult that built an incredibly high tower in the past...
Carbanog tilted its head, unable to remember clearly. Strangely, it couldn't recall.
'How anticlimactic.'
The news that a new construction quest was starting in the Atali Kingdom spread quickly. And an enormous number of players began to gather.
A person who could gather countless players just by turning on a stream and saying a single word! That was Tae-hyun. Of course, he hadn't even started streaming yet...