The Castle Above and the Dungeon Below
Whether anyone liked it or not, Tae-hyun kept swinging his heavy hammer.
Every time it connected, undead went flying with a meaty thud, and a path opened up in front of them at startling speed.
The Ancient Hammer, inadvertently proving itself a decisive anti-undead weapon!
"Wailing Soul!"
As the undead spearmen of Marden used their skill, filthy, half-transparent spearheads spun through the air and flew at Tae-hyun's party.
The moment they hit, they inflicted a debuff curse that obscured vision and reduced movement speed.
Kim Ji-sahn squeezed his eyes shut.
Evasion successful.
"...!"
"What the hell are you doing? Move!"
"Aaaah! Aaaah!"
Before he could even process the fact that he'd survived, he heard Tae-hyun's voice.
Kim Ji-sahn ran with everything he had.
The undead caught up and hurled every skill they had at him to pin him in place, but every single one missed.
Evasion successful.
Evasion successful.
The player who'd mocked Tae-hyun's party earlier glanced over casually.
They're probably flailing around and getting wiped by now, right?
"?!?!"
The player's eyes widened.
Tae-hyun's party was sprinting straight for the old castle, ignoring the spears stabbing into their backs the whole way.
"What the hell is that?!"
His shout meant nothing.
Tae-hyun's party rushed through the castle gates and disappeared inside.
"Just as I thought. Looks like they won't chase us inside the castle."
Tae-hyun nodded.
His guess had been right.
Thanks to that, the undead monsters Tae-hyun's party had aggroed began slowly advancing toward the other parties still outside.
"#@!&$#&......"
Oblivious to the fact that they were being cursed out from outside, Tae-hyun looked around the interior of the old castle.
Clack.
"What are you doing?"
Beside him, Ed-an made noise with his mechanical arm, flexing it with a metallic click.
Unusually enough, he wore a face full of motivation.
Of course, to Tae-hyun that only translated to, What's this idiot about to screw up now?
"Lord Tae-hyun. Do you know where we are?"
"In an old castle."
"Exactly! A castle! And if we're talking castles, then surely this is my field of expertise. Fufu."
The blood of a thief was boiling in his veins.
Wiggling his fingers, Ed-an spoke with confidence.
If this had been anyone else, it might have sounded reassuring, but Tae-hyun had already lost all faith in Ed-an thanks to several past quests.
A cold stare landed on him.
"Why... are you looking at me like that?"
"I was just wondering if I could really trust the guy who got caught and had his arms cut off."
"That happened exactly once! Damiano I set a cowardly trap, that's all!"
"One time becomes two, and two becomes three. So what are you trying to say?"
"If you grant me some time, I will strip this old castle bare for you!"
"And skim off anything valuable you find along the way?"
"Ghk!"
Ed-an flinched, caught red-handed.
Tae-hyun spoke in a firm voice.
"If I catch you stealing, I'll cut it off."
He didn't specify what he'd cut off, which somehow made it even more threatening.
Ed-an swallowed hard and nodded.
"Huh? A new party?"
"Damn it. There was already too much competition..."
Just then, a party came up from the central underground staircase on the first floor of the castle.
The moment they saw Tae-hyun's party, they grumbled.
More competition never helped anybody in a place like this.
"Hey. Let's just make a quick run for it."
"Even if we want to, can we? Those bastards are seriously driving me insane. How does it make any sense that using one acceleration skill makes four of them spawn at once?"
They showed no particular interest in Tae-hyun's party and simply headed outside.
Then the screams started.
The monsters Tae-hyun had brought in were still wandering around near the entrance.
"Aaaagh!"
"What the hell are those?!"
A little later, the very same party came scrambling back into the castle.
The difference this time was that they were down one member.
"Ugh... what the hell... why did the number of monsters suddenly spike like that?"
Tae-hyun put on a perfectly innocent face.
The players from the party that had absurdly lost a teammate scratched their heads and started talking among themselves.
"What do we do? Should we wait a while?"
"Wait for what? Those things aren't going anywhere."
"Then what about waiting until another party shows up?"
"And how long do you want to wait for that? Isn't that way too vague?"
"Then what else are we supposed to do? We're almost out of potions, our gear needs repairs, and on top of that Dennis, our priest, died..."
It was one setback on top of another.
They clearly needed to regroup, but to regroup they had to break through the monsters outside.
The problem was that their priest had died in a surprise attack they hadn't seen coming at all.
"Do you need some help?"
Then a kind voice came from behind them.
It was Tae-hyun.
"?"
"From what I overheard, it sounds like you're in trouble. Or am I mistaken?"
Beside him, Cain felt a chill crawl up his spine.
Tae-hyun using a voice that warm and friendly?
It was so fake it had gone right past fake and become genuinely creepy.
"Uh... you're not mistaken. But who are you?"
"Haha. Don't worry too much. We came here for the quest too."
Suspicious looks immediately followed.
It wasn't because Tae-hyun's entire party had their faces and gear covered.
That wasn't even the suspicious part.
The reason they were wary was simple: Tae-hyun's party looked like quest competitors.
Knowing that, Tae-hyun kept up the same friendly tone.
"We barely made it in ourselves, but this place is way tougher than we expected. Honestly, I think we may have picked something above our level... Anyway, since you seem to be in a bind, want some help?"
"How?"
"Well, we came here to clear the quest too, so we've got plenty of items. And we even have a blacksmith here."
"...!"
At the mention of a blacksmith, the party members' eyes lit up.
Their equipment durability was hanging by a thread after all the fighting.
"If you'd like, we can repair your gear. We can also sell you some spare items."
"R-really?"
"Of course. We've got to help each other out, don't we?"
The absolute peak of insincerity.
Cain, listening from behind, now looked at Tae-hyun with outright fear.
What horrifying thing was he planning this time that he was being this nice?
"In return, why don't you tell us what you know about this old castle?"
"Uh... that's a bit..."
"Well, you don't have to tell us. But depending on how much you do tell us, the amount of help we can offer might vary a little."
His voice remained as kind as ever.
The content of his words, however, was anything but kind.
The Marden Castle dungeon was, in truth, an underground dungeon.
The soaring old castle above made it easy to think otherwise, but to clear the dungeon, you had to head down the underground staircase in the center of the first floor.
And from there?
It was one hellish maze after another.
There was a reason all the other parties kept going in and out.
The routes were so twisted and complicated that clearing it in one or two tries was impossible.
"...So we were about to head back out and regroup ourselves. But suddenly there were all these monsters gathered in front of the gate..."
"Really? There weren't any when we came in."
A lie delivered without the slightest change in expression.
"Anyway, if you need potions, just say the word. And those blacksmiths over there can handle your equipment."
Tae-hyun wanted to do the work himself, but restrained himself.
If he touched the gear personally, he'd stand out too much.
Stuff like this was better left to the three comparatively normal blacksmiths.
"Thank you so much!"
Tae-hyun held out his hand.
The other party's leader smiled brightly and tried to shake it.
Slide.
"?"
"Payment first."
The party leader, who'd thought Tae-hyun was offering a handshake, awkwardly pulled his hand back.
"...Wait... I thought you said you'd help us..."
"Selling you things all the way out here is helping, isn't it? What? Don't want it?"
"N-no, that's not it."
One of Tae-hyun's party's strengths lay in the absurd capacity of their inventory.
Three blacksmiths as pack mules—an ingenious idea.
As a result, they had more consumables than they knew what to do with.
"This is a Modified Silver Arrow. May explode."
"A Modified Silver Arrow? I'll take it! Hand it over!"
◈ Deals additional damage to undead due to its silver composition.
◈ An arrow improved by a skilled blacksmith.
◈ Modification increased not only the arrowhead's performance, but the speed of the arrow itself.
◈ Additional Option: May explode.
"...!"
The archer player was startled when he saw the item's options.
He couldn't tell exactly what kind of modification had been made, but it clearly boasted higher attack power than normal silver arrows.
Watching the archer jump for joy without noticing the additional option, Tae-hyun rubbed under his nose.
It reminded him exactly of how thrilled he had been the first time he saw the Ancient Hammer and thought, Isn't this item completely broken?!
Blame your appraisal skill for failing to show you the extra option.
By now, Tae-hyun could add hidden properties that other players wouldn't notice.
A player with very high Blacksmithing or certain special skills might catch them, but otherwise they'd never know until they used the item.
The buyer is extremely satisfied with the item created using your Mechanical Engineering skill.
Your Mechanical Engineering skill rises significantly.
Hnnng...
Mechanical Engineering was a production-type skill closely tied to blacksmithing.
Making items like this and satisfying customers gave bonus growth.
So what if the item exploded?
As long as the customer was happy, that was what mattered.
Bang, bang, bang, bang—
Nearby, the blacksmiths were sweating and hammering away hard.
The party members watched them with anxious expressions.
If the blacksmiths were terrible, their gear would be in danger.
But despite the way Tae-hyun treated them like three stooges, the trio's skill had improved at a remarkable pace.
Compared to when they'd first met Tae-hyun, the difference was night and day.
No matter how much they slacked off—by Tae-hyun's standards, anyway—his constant grinding and bullying had forced their skills upward.
"Lord Tae-hyun, here's the gold."
"Good. Nice work."
When Rufo handed him the pouch of gold he'd collected from the party, Tae-hyun immediately tucked it into his clothes.
The blacksmiths, who were working themselves to the bone, didn't notice a thing.
"If you need gold, the merchant group can—"
"The merchant group is the merchant group. Either way, I need to stockpile a lot more gold."
Tae-hyun could already feel it.
He was going to need a lot of money soon.
Especially the territory...
He had a bad feeling it was going to turn into a bottomless gold sink.
Since Tae-hyun didn't spend real money on the game, he had to hoard as much gold in-game as possible.
He already had quite a bit, but compared to players who moved on a guild scale and vacuumed up gold in earnest, it was nowhere near enough.
Hmm... I really do need to build up my gold reserves...
He'd done a lot of things, but since he hadn't focused that hard on making money, he still didn't even have three thousand gold.
Honestly, the fact that he'd reached that amount without trying particularly hard was already impressive.
But Tae-hyun wasn't satisfied.
Once he started making big moves, even ten thousand gold would disappear in no time.
If something important came up and he didn't have enough money, what could be more humiliating than that?
Especially if his father, Kim Tae-san, found out—he'd mock him to his face.
He didn't need to relive it to know exactly how the taunting between them would go.
Once the deal with the other party was done, they finished preparing and started heading for the gate.
They'd been fleeced thoroughly, but for the moment, it had still been a successful transaction.
For now, both sides were satisfied.
For now.
"Wait. If this is an underground dungeon, then what's upstairs?"
"Upstairs? There wasn't anything above. Just ruins."
"No monsters either?"
"Nope. Nothing."
Tae-hyun quickly scanned the party members' faces.
If the leader were lying, at least one of them would show it somehow.
But none of them reacted at all.
Which meant it was true.
You built a castle like this, and there's nothing upstairs?
"Ed-an."
"Yes, Lord Tae-hyun!"
"While I check below, you search above."
"Fufu. Is that not my specialty?"
"If you come back empty-handed, you work under Pelmas from now on."
"...!"