The Holy Knights' Unsuspected Fate

"Excuse me, Sir Holy Knight. Sir Holy Knight."

"You filthy demon! How dare you speak to me!"

One of the demons tried to strike up a conversation with a Holy Knight from another order, but Holy Knights generally did not converse with demons. The Holy Knight barked a harsh reprimand and walked away.

"You ungrateful wretch! And here I thought well of you!"

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"No! Sir Dwarf! That's not it! Aaargh! Aaah!"

The Dwarves poured holy water over the demon in a fit of rage. I cared for you so much that I even brought you blood and meat, and yet you dare!

"I was trying to tempt them! I swear, I didn't mean anything else by it!"

"Is that the truth?"

The Holy Knights whispered among themselves at the demon's excuse. As expected, those caged demons were wicked to the core!

Meanwhile, Tae-hyun was having a serious conversation with the Dwarves. After all, Dwarves were a race specialized in digging tunnels. Most of their kind lived underground or inside deep caverns!

"I want to dig a tunnel."

"Are you trying to build a temporary shelter? There are too many people for everyone to fit, though."

"Foolish. Do you really think His Majesty intends for everyone to go inside? He'll probably leave those disobedient church bastards outside."

"Ah! If that's the case, it won't be very difficult."

"...No. I don't want to build an underground fortress. I'm saying I want to dig a tunnel to get straight into the center of the labyrinth."

"Mmm..."

"That seems difficult, Your Majesty."

"For a tunnel large enough for this many people to pass through, the scale would be massive, and it would make a tremendous amount of noise."

"If those above catch wind of it, we'll be in the worst possible situation."

A tunnel was at its most vulnerable while it was being dug. If the enemies above noticed, they would be trapped like rats in a hole.

"If you absolutely must go in, it would be best to put those Holy Knights at the front line just in case."

The Dwarves said, winking. There was a reason for the old Dwarven proverb: When digging a tunnel, always put the most annoying bastard at the front.

"No... I don't need that kind of tip."

Tae-hyun did not ignore the NPCs' advice. If the Dwarves warned that it was dangerous, then it definitely was.

But clearing this the standard way is still too dangerous.

Having faced the massive skeleton army once before, he had no desire to fight even stronger monsters in similar overwhelming numbers. Even though this expedition was powerful, it clearly had its limits.

If we can't just walk in... is there a way to collapse it or cause some chaos?

There was no need to defeat every single monster in the dungeon. They only needed to buy enough time to reach the center. The problem was that the labyrinth was too sturdy to climb over or break through, making that impossible...

"If digging a tunnel to go inside won't work, what if we dig tunnels along the edges of the labyrinth, plant bombs, and blow the whole thing up?"

"..."

"..."

"...We don't know if that will work or not, but we absolutely love the way you think, Your Majesty."

A Legendary Engineering Quest!

Once a skill level reached Master, the next step was the journey toward the Legendary rank. In Tae-hyun's case, he had already reached Master Mechanical Engineering Lv. 6. He had already received a similar engineering quest. This massive construction quest was proof that it was perfectly suited to Tae-hyun's current level.

...This is definitely not going to be easy.

Thanks to Tae-hyun's skills, a rough estimate formed in his mind. A massive project where they had to circle the entire perimeter of the labyrinth and pack it full of the bombs he had crafted! But there seemed to be no better alternative.

Tae-hyun called the other players over.

"It might sound a bit crazy, but I just thought of a pretty decent plan."

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"...You do realize that when you call something 'a bit crazy,' it's actually terrifying, right?"

Lee Se-yeon looked horrified. If Tae-hyun called something crazy, it was bound to be truly insane.

"So, we dig all the way under here..."

"..."

"..."

The listeners were left utterly speechless. Wait... do crafting classes usually clear dungeons like this?!

"Guild Master. Did Kim Tae-hyun clear dungeons like this back in Pan-On 1 too?"

"I've heard stories about him setting ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠mines on fire and triggering volcanic eruptions, but..."

"...No, even I've never seen anything like this."

Even Lee Se-yeon, who knew him better than most, had never witnessed such a bizarre strategy.

"Se-yeon. Honestly, you can tell it's going to be nearly impossible to clear this the standard way."

"Well, that's true, but..."

Put that way, Lee Se-yeon had no real counterargument. In a war of attrition, the expedition was at too much of a disadvantage. Lee Se-yeon was a Necromancer who prided herself on her own summon armies, but the scale of the monsters here was on a completely different level. Even if she summoned hundreds or thousands, the enemy started in the tens of thousands...

"Who's going to dig the tunnels?"

"The Holy Knights."

"Holy Knights can dig tunnels?!"

The members of the Yuseong Guild were shocked. Those noble, lofty Holy Knights are going to dig tunnels?!

"If they won't, I'll make them."

"..."

"Alright. Let's do it."

"Guild Master?!"

"When there's no other way, we have to try whatever we can. We did something similar when we fought the Hungry Chaos in the desert last time."

"I don't think we did it on this scale back then, though..."

The guild members trembled with anxiety, but they didn't argue with Lee Se-yeon's decision. Even if Kim Tae-hyun was a lunatic, Lee Se-yeon was a reliable Guild Master!

"...So, we're going to dig all around this area, plant bombs, and blow the whole thing sky-high."

"...This is an absurd plan! How do you expect to accomplish this? We will be corrupted by the energy of the Hungry Chaos before we can even finish. We have no laborers here, so who is going to dig these tunnels?"

"You guys are going to do it."

"..."

"..."

"Are you saying you refuse to subjugate the Hungry Chaos?"

"No, it's not that, but why must we do such menial labor..."

"Everyone!!! Look over here!!! The Holy Knights of the Phytos Church!!! They're saying they can't subjugate the Hungry Chaos!!!"

Tae-hyun targeted the easiest mark first. To be precise, it wasn't that they were easy, but rather that their relationship was already so bad that he had nothing to lose by making it worse...

Huridos, the Archbishop of the Phytos Church, looked around in a panic. No matter how high-level an Archbishop was, there was no way he could win a verbal battle against Tae-hyun's speech skills.

"When did we ever say that?!"

"The Archisus Church, on the other hand! We dug deep into the desert sands just to fight the Hungry Chaos!"

"...Fine, we'll dig! We'll dig! Damn it!"

"...W-we will dig as well."

"So please, stop this."

The bishops of the other orders spoke up with disgusted expressions. Looking at the situation, it was obvious that if they resisted any further, they would only suffer a far worse fate.

"I'll leave it in your capable hands."

Despite the fact that the expedition led by Tae-hyun had already entered the dungeon, surprisingly, a few additional parties were still entering. These were rankers who had made cool-headed judgments while others were busy swooning over the star-studded lineup!

"Both Kim Tae-hyun and Lee Se-yeon went in. That means they're confident they can clear it. Would those two have entered if they weren't sure?"

"Plus, even those church NPCs are with them... Kim Tae-hyun has clearly bet everything on this."

Ironically, it was because of Kim Tae-hyun that these parties were joining.

Their goal was simple: to get a free ride while Tae-hyun's expedition cleared the way, to share the spoils, or to scavenge the leftovers... At the very least, it was a profitable venture. Of course, they might draw some resentment, but they were willing to take that risk. If they just wandered around the remote regions of Pan-On for about half a year, Kim Tae-hyun would be too busy to chase them down anyway.

"Hey, Icarus. Are you sure it's okay for you to participate in this?"

The composition of these ranker parties was diverse. Rather than being sent by a single guild, rankers from various guilds had united for their own individual goals. Among them was Icarus, an Orc ranker from the Guild Alliance.

"Why do you ask?"

"Well, didn't the Guild Alliance hand down a rule saying you guys shouldn't mess with Kim Tae-hyun?"

"...What kind of ridiculous nonsense is that?!"

"What? It wasn't?"

"I naturally assumed it was."

The rankers whispered among themselves, looking surprised. There had been rumors about it for a while, but after the All-Star Super Player tournament began, those rumors had solidified.

"I heard the Guild Alliance is walking on eggshells around Kim Tae-hyun."

"They've been beaten so many times that they're just avoiding any confrontation with him altogether."

"Between the current tournament and everything else, isn't Kim Tae-hyun basically keeping the Guild Alliance alive?"

To the Guild Alliance, these were humiliating rumors worthy of putting out a bounty over, but such rumors did not die down easily.

"So the order not to touch Kim Tae-hyun is just a rumor?"

"Well... um... there was a suggestion to exercise restraint, but that was strictly a request. This is my own free will."

"Well, whatever then."

"Which way looks best to enter?"

Even in a party of rankers, there was always someone who took the lead. Taking on that role were Tegosa and Shikil. They were rising rankers whose stock had been soaring after clearing several major quests recently! The momentum of these rising rankers was fierce enough to threaten the established veterans.

"The center. We're going straight through the center."

The rankers had gathered their own share of information. They had contacted other parties that had wiped out in the dungeon to extract details!

"I heard a massive number of skeletons spawn there."

"Don't worry. As a Necromancer, a war of numbers won't work against me."

Tegosa was brimming with confidence. Being a Necromancer, she was highly confident in handling large-scale battles.

"?"

"What is it?"

"Didn't the ground just shake? Wait, a system message popped up?!"

The message appeared first to the player with the highest detection capabilities.

What the hell is this supposed to mean?

Shaking ground right after entering a dungeon. It was a baffling notification. What could it possibly mean...?

But they would soon find out.

"Nobody said anything about this!!"

"Hmm. I think I misunderstood Holy Knights."

Tae-hyun marveled as he watched their work speed. Usually, he had thought of them as an incredibly cheap class that possessed an absurdly high HP pool, numerous recovery spells, and powerful offensive skills... But seeing them now, they were an absolutely filthy class that had high HP, recovery spells, offensive skills, and were perfectly suited for gathering and labor.

Shouldn't the Holy Knight class be banned?

"The work is finished!"

For some reason, it felt like the dirt-covered Holy Knights were glaring daggers at Tae-hyun. Normally, the rival orders should have been bickering and keeping each other in check, but there was none of that. Working hard together had completely melted away their mutual animosity.

Labor really is the best medicine.