Hearts Full of Happiness
Still, their hearts were full to bursting with happiness.
Of course they wanted to brag to other people too. If they’d had their way, they would’ve put up signs everywhere saying, We travel with someone like this!
But Kim Tae-hyun didn’t particularly like attracting attention. He was the type of person furthest removed from vanity or the desire to show off.
“What, you want to go announce to those players over there that we’re passing by?”
“......”
Kim Ji-sahn’s face turned red after getting his thoughts read so perfectly.
Tae-hyun clicked his tongue as if he found him pathetic.
“Instead of wasting time on that, work on one more piece of gear. What’s so great about getting that kind of attention?”
“Aren’t you excited, Tae-hyun-nim?”
“Excited about what...?”
All it meant was more people keeping him in check.
Tae-hyun was seeing reality for exactly what it was.
Clatter, clatter—
Meanwhile, a group of merchants appeared in the distance along the road.
It was common to see merchant caravans traveling like that. Sometimes they were players, sometimes they were NPCs.
Because of that, the blacksmiths and Cain didn’t pay the merchant group much attention.
Huh?
Tae-hyun, meanwhile, had his skill active while working on equipment.
His MP was draining fast, but it was worth it.
The results were outstanding—far beyond what should have been possible with his original skill level.
The reason Tae-hyun’s skill levels grew so quickly was thanks to his Luck and the class skills of Avatar of Archisus.
The problem was that the ones approaching from far away were glowing white.
What’s that?
If they were sparkling white, then there was no way they were harmless NPCs.
“Hey.”
“Yes?”
“The moment I throw a bomb, attack all of them.”
“???”
Rufo, Ed-an, Cain, and even the other blacksmiths all stared at him with expressions full of question marks.
What the hell is he talking about now?
“No, Tae-hyun-nim! You can’t attack civilians!”
“The Sadiq Church does it, so I can too. Why not? We’re from the same church.”
“......”
“Besides, I’m a Count, aren’t I? That means I can do even more.”
“You can’t—”
Before Rufo could even finish, Tae-hyun smoothly pulled out two bombs from inside his clothes and hurled them.
Clang!
One of the bombs smacked the lead merchant right in the head.
You struck the enemy’s weak point with precise technique. Your Throwing skill has increased.
You have acquired the skill Aim for Vital Points.
Designates an exact target point when throwing. Accuracy increases.
The bomb misfires. It does not explode.
“??”
When the bomb didn’t go off, everyone stared at Tae-hyun in confusion.
Tae-hyun, however, didn’t care in the slightest.
He still had one more bomb flying through the air.
KWA-KWA-KWA-KWABOOM!
Your Engineering skill has increased.
“Move!”
“Aaah...! You really shouldn’t do this...!”
Even as he said that, Rufo drew his sword and followed after Tae-hyun.
Cain ran too.
If he stood there doing nothing, he’d probably get hit.
“How dare these lowly mortals!”
“?!”
The blacksmiths behind them jumped in surprise.
That line sounded awfully familiar.
“You shall be cursed by Sadiq!”
The NPCs dressed as merchants threw off their outer robes.
Underneath were the armor and priestly robes of the Sadiq Church.
Assassins of the Sadiq Church disguised as merchants.
“Great Sadiq! Accept me!”
“Savage Sadiq! Accept me!”
“......!”
The ones that looked like Sadiq Holy Knights came charging in, their appearances already mangled from the bomb blast.
Meanwhile, the Sadiq priests were in the rear, chanting ominous spells and casting divine magic.
Tae-hyun knew immediately.
Getting hit by that won’t end well.
The artificial intelligence of Fantasy Online 2 was powerful.
It learned and grew like a real person.
Which meant that after clashing with Tae-hyun a few times, the Sadiq Church had come prepared with ways to deal with him.
“Block him!”
“Bind him even if it costs your lives!”
The Sadiq Holy Knights surged forward in a wave.
It looked like they’d gathered only the elite among the elite.
The moment he exchanged a few blows, Tae-hyun could tell.
Their strength was no joke.
But still—
Evasion successful.
Evasion successful.
They already know ordinary methods can’t damage me, don’t they?
If they wanted to hurt Tae-hyun, they needed either a powerful unavoidable skill that ignored evasion, or they had to stack curses until his status dropped.
But the Sadiq Holy Knights pressed him relentlessly like a storm.
They paid no attention to defense at all—as if all they cared about was pinning down Tae-hyun’s hands.
“Take this! This is the wrath of Sadiq!”
Sadiq’s Left Hand
The Sadiq priests all collapsed forward at once, and a gigantic red left hand appeared above them.
Then it shot straight toward Tae-hyun like an arrow.
“......!”
Even before it launched, Tae-hyun had felt it was bad news and had been watching the priests closely.
Trusting his evasion and trying to dodge it felt far too risky.
He wanted to use Circle of Counterattack, but the Sadiq Holy Knights were clinging to him with suicidal determination, making that impossible.
That was what they had been aiming for.
A carefully prepared assassination.
But Tae-hyun always surpassed expectations.
“O Cain, protect me!”
“??”
For a moment, Rufo doubted his own ears.
Not Archisus, but Cain?
What kind of random backwater god was that?
“Huh—what the hell?!”
Cain, who had been fighting nearby, recoiled in horror.
Tae-hyun had grabbed him and flung him into the air in one swift motion.
“What are you doing, you lunatic— KRAAAAAAGH!”
The gigantic red left hand slammed directly into Cain.
His whole body glowed red, as if it had burst into flame.
“Cain! Thanks!”
“You absolute piece of—”
Tae-hyun didn’t listen and kept fighting the remaining Sadiq Holy Knights.
Now that the priests had all fallen, dealing with the Holy Knights wasn’t difficult.
“Kgh!”
“Lord Sadiq!”
Your Swordsmanship skill has increased.
Your Intermediate Swordsmanship skill level has increased. You can now use Circle of Evasion from the Gataqua Swordsmanship.
Creates a circle with your sword, temporarily increasing evasion.
...?
Tae-hyun paused for a second at the newly unlocked skill.
This was...
...trash, isn’t it?
A skill his class had absolutely no use for.
“Tae-hyun-nim, so you’ve grasped Circle of Evasion! That’s a truly excellent skill. Let me tell you, once there was this one time when I—”
“I’m not using it. Circle of Counterattack is better.”
“?!”
He honestly couldn’t think of many situations where it’d be useful.
At best, maybe it could save him in a moment when even his Luck couldn’t make him dodge?
But even then, Circle of Counterattack still seemed better.
Rufo kept insisting that Circle of Counterattack was a difficult skill, but Tae-hyun was a monster who hit that absurdly demanding timing without trouble.
“You little bastard!”
Cain came storming toward him, fuming.
Tae-hyun asked in a surprised voice,
“You’re not dead?”
“......”
A high-level spell cast by several Sadiq high priests sacrificing their lives, and he’d survived it just fine.
Cain had once dreamed of becoming a ranker, but after dying a few times when the Red Zone Guild collapsed and falling behind in the competition, he wasn’t even close anymore.
Recently he’d started growing again by clearing a few quests, but he was still lacking.
So the fact that he’d endured that was genuinely surprising.
Grinding his teeth, Cain snapped,
“Isn’t this the part where you say you’re sorry? Huh?”
“Did you go around apologizing to all the people you used to shake down?”
“...No.”
“Right? Then I don’t need to either. Why are you expecting that from someone who wouldn’t do it himself? Forget that—tell me your status. Why didn’t you die?”
Anyone listening would think he’d been hoping Cain would.
Cain stopped grinding his teeth long enough to answer.
“It didn’t cut my HP or MP.”
You were struck by Sadiq’s Left Hand.
This is a curse that cannot be dispelled by ordinary means.
Your Luck is fixed at 0.
“Your Luck got locked at zero?”
“Yeah.”
Cain still looked furious, but he didn’t say anything more.
The damage actually wasn’t that severe.
Luck wasn’t even a stat he used. He hadn’t raised it past 20.
But Tae-hyun’s expression turned grave.
Looks like the Sadiq Church is seriously out for blood.
Well, of course they were.
He had blown up a church building deep in the valley, sent the fire demonic beast they’d painstakingly prepared into a rampage, and on top of that had taken the whole region for himself.
It would’ve been strange if they didn’t hold a grudge.
And there was one more thing nagging at him.
Durability: 1/1
Divine Requirement: 5000
If you do not believe in Sadiq, you may be cursed.
A sacred relic of the Sadiq Church, a ring containing the sealed power of Sadiq. If the conditions are met, Sadiq can be summoned.
It was an obviously ominous item, radiating trouble from every angle.
The problem was that Tae-hyun had it, and there was no way the Sadiq Church would sit still about that.
Naturally, they’d try to recover it somehow.
The way they found my exact location is suspicious too. Is this thing tracking me or something?
Tae-hyun’s instincts were especially sharp in situations like this.
He’d spent too many years fighting all kinds of enemies and engaging in PK. Chasing people down and escaping pursuit had become second nature to him.
There were dozens of ways to track someone in Fantasy Online, and plenty of them Tae-hyun probably didn’t know. There were hidden classes with hidden skills you simply couldn’t predict until they were used on you.
I should assume I’m being tracked for now.
Tae-hyun glanced sideways at Cain.
If things get dangerous later, I’ll have to slip it onto that idiot somehow.
An evil decision reached in less than a second.
They’d brought quite a lot of merchant goods with them, so if he stuffed the ring into some ordinary box and mixed it into the cargo, then told Cain to carry it, it would work perfectly.
Anyway, now I know how the Sadiq Church plans to deal with me... I’ll need to be more careful.
If his luck turned bad, he might run into the Sadiq Church while clearing the Authority of Archisus quest.
“Tae-hyun-nim, but how did you know they were from the Sadiq Church?”
“They looked suspicious.”
“You threw bombs because they looked suspicious?”
“There’s a saying, isn’t there? Kill first, think later.”
“There is no such saying!”
Rufo yapped at him from the side, but Tae-hyun ignored him and turned his eyes back to the map.
The place they were heading to now was Marden Castle, located in the southwestern part of Erangs Kingdom.
An old abandoned castle with no owner, surrounded by fairly powerful monsters—even skilled players challenged it only in parties.
The information Ed-an had obtained from the royal palace said that somewhere inside this dungeon, one of Archisus’s Authorities was hidden.
“Somewhere?”
“Underground... most likely. Or maybe not...”
Rufo and Tae-hyun both turned to stare at Ed-an at the same time.
Ed-an avoided their gaze with an awkward expression.
“Tae-hyun-nim, can we really trust that?”
“I was just wondering the same thing.”
But they’d already started this, so there was no backing out now.
“Sunbae-nim. Sunbae-nim.”
“...?”
“Did you see me fight?”
“Huh? You were there too?”
“......”
“I’m kidding. Don’t make that face when you’re built like a mountain.”
Jeong Su-hyeok looked deeply wounded for a moment, then returned to normal at Tae-hyun’s words.
Tae-hyun had given Jeong Su-hyeok a few pieces of advice.
Only a few, though.
Tae-hyun wasn’t the type to grab someone and patiently coach them through every little detail.
Tae-hyun fundamentally had a hard time understanding people without talent.
To him, these things were just too easy.
In the end, Tae-hyun had given Jeong Su-hyeok only one real piece of advice.