You Should Tell Me After All That Suffering
"You should tell me after all that suffering."
"......!"
Gu Sung-wook seized Tae-hyun’s hand.
"After this quest is over."
"......?"
"Oh, right. I guess I’ll only feel like telling you if I finish this quest successfully, huh?"
"......."
"So I’d really like it if the other people could help out a lot......."
"I’ll help as much as I can!"
By now, Gu Sung-wook had no way out.
He had to get the recipe for it, no matter what!
* * *
"Good. Should we try with this group?"
Tae-hyun looked at the players gathered in front of him and spoke.
Players gathered on the spot!
They were mostly people with high agility, or relatively high levels, or people Tae-hyun had gotten the better of in one way or another.
Gu Sung-wook and suckers like Evangeline stood there with gloomy expressions, while the other players looked at Tae-hyun with sparkling eyes.
They were so happy to have landed this kind of opportunity that they could barely contain themselves.
Seeing that, Evangeline shook her head.
Even she hadn’t known Tae-hyun was that kind of person before she actually met him!
"What do we need to do?!"
"Haha. Don’t worry. I’ll give the orders."
"Wow! Really? Can we appear on broadcast too?"
"If the quest goes well, maybe you will."
At Tae-hyun’s kind reply, the players’ excitement only grew.
"Me! Me! I have a question about the Katerand Island quest......."
"All right! Let’s get moving!"
Figuring the questions would go on too long, Tae-hyun cut them off on the spot.
But the excited players didn’t even notice.
* * *
"If Marquis Marden came alone, that’d be one thing, but he’s leading an army, so his route has to be limited. He’ll probably come through this choke point."
At Tae-hyun’s words, the players listened closely.
Even the most unremarkable remarks commanded their full attention!
"So we wait for that and ambush them?"
"We hide and attack them?"
"No."
"......?"
"I’m going to plant a bunch of traps in this forest, so all you have to do is go out and lure them in. Looking at Marquis Marden, his temper’s so bad he’ll probably come the second you provoke him."
"......."
This was somehow a lot different from what they’d expected!
The players, who had been hoping for a thrilling charge-in-and-bash-each-other brawl, looked a little taken aback.
"Um.... what about the fighting?"
"We’ll fight once they come into the forest."
Tae-hyun answered with a flat expression.
He wasn’t expecting much from these players’ combat ability in the first place.
If Marquis Marden himself showed up, they’d be pushed back immediately!
"This is kind of different from what I thought......."
"Right?"
The players muttered to themselves and started laying traps all over the forest, just as Tae-hyun had ordered.
Click.
A spear trap with powerful piercing force has been installed.
Engineering skill increases.
Engineering skill level has increased.
'Oh. Finally, Intermediate 9?'
Tae-hyun checked his status window with pleased interest.
He had really put in a lot of effort to raise his Engineering skill.
Other people were probably diligently leveling Blacksmithing, but only Tae-hyun had invested this much into Engineering!
'Once I hit Intermediate, things will definitely get easier.'
The moment he reached Intermediate Engineering, all sorts of things became possible.
Not only would the explosive firepower improve, but a wider variety of crafting methods would open up.......
'Mechanical Engineering pets started at Intermediate too, right?'
Pets, companions.... small partners players could take along with them.
Everyone had been mistaking Yongyong for a pet, but strictly speaking, Yongyong wasn’t one.
It was a divine beast with the holy attribute!
From the start, it had been impossible to keep a Gold Dragon as a pet.
There was a limit to what could qualify as a pet monster.
You could get pets in a few different ways.
By summoning them with magic, or by actually catching a monster and taming it.......
And you could also make them with Engineering.
Tae-hyun had a lot of good memories of Mechanical Engineering pets from Fantasy Online 1.
-Huh? Why is there a rabbit here? What a cute.......
KABOOM!
'People really do fall for cute looks so easily.'
Tae-hyun nodded with satisfaction as he watched the players busily moving around and setting traps.
"Can we really catch Marquis Marden with this?"
Evangeline tilted her head beside him and asked.
She had fought alongside him, so she knew.
She knew just how powerful Marquis Marden was as a boss monster.
Normally, to kill a boss like that, you’d form a party of rankers or near-rankers, or else bring in other powerful NPCs.
But the people Tae-hyun had brought were all players whose levels barely reached 70 or 80 at best!
"It’s fine. I’m not planning to kill Marquis Marden here anyway. The goal is to annoy him as much as possible and piss him off."
"......What are you going to do if things go badly? Boss monsters like Marquis Marden aren’t easy to handle."
"Well, I’ve got a method for that."
Tae-hyun swept his gaze over the other players, including Evangeline, and said,
"What method?"
"The people here, of course."
"......!"
Evangeline felt a little moved.
To think that even from Tae-hyun, who seemed to have no heart or blood in him, those words could come out: trust the other people.
If Marquis Marden comes after us in some unexpected way, I’ll have to use the other players as bait and run.
Of course, Tae-hyun’s thoughts were completely different from Evangeline’s!
* * *
"No one’s here, my lord. They must have fled, terrified by your majesty."
"Kekeke. It’s only natural for maggots to run. So. How much farther to Anong Castle?"
"About a day......."
Flash!
In that instant, arrows came flying in!
"Fire! Fire!"
"If possible, let’s hit the Marquis!"
The players, fearless and laughing, came out from the front of the forest and started shooting arrows.
Like a puppy not knowing how scary a tiger was, the players gathered here had little interest in level competition, which made them all the bolder.
"Those bastards?!"
The vampires beside Marquis Marden bristled and unsheathed their claws long.
"My lord! Allow me to handle them right now! Please grant me permission!"
"Leave them. Can’t you tell at a glance? They’re probably hiding in that forest, trying to harass my army. Don’t waste time on such pathetic things."
Thunk, thud-thud-thud!
A few undead soldiers fell after taking arrows, but Marquis Marden’s army was larger than expected, so a few arrows weren’t enough to shake them.
Meanwhile, Tae-hyun was drawing back the string of a massive bow.
It was a bow he’d hurriedly made for this occasion.
"Hmm...."
A crude bow for giants: Durability 55/55, Attack 105. Penalty if used by a race with the wrong body size. Strength requirement 150, Agility requirement 50. This bow was hastily made for giants by an outstanding blacksmith who understood both Blacksmithing and Engineering. Would he really have made something like this for a human to use?
"Hold it tight!"
"I-I am holding it......."
Gu Sung-wook complained bitterly.
Right now, he was helping Tae-hyun fire the bow.
Beside him, Jeong Su-hyeok tilted his head and asked,
"Senior. Have you leveled Archery too?"
"No, but archery isn’t a big deal......."
Thunk!
Tae-hyun drew the string all the way back and let go.
An arrow larger than most javelins whooshed through the air.
Into the sky!
"......."
The people around him stared silently at Tae-hyun.
"It was my first shot. I made a mistake."
"......Wouldn’t it be better to leave this to actual archers?"
"Medicine is for doctors, magic is for mages, and bows are for archers......."
"I can do it!"
While Tae-hyun was making a scene, Marquis Marden saw arrows keep flying out of the forest and wore an irritated expression.
He knew it was an obvious provocation, but that didn’t make it any less annoying.
"This won’t do. You lot, go teach those maggots a lesson! Don’t go too deep......."
Swooosh—
"......?"
Crack!
"Uwaaaagh?!"
Something shaped like a giant arrow flew straight out in front of the horse Marquis Marden was riding and slammed into it.
It was the arrow Tae-hyun had fired.
Marquis Marden let out an ugly scream and tumbled off his horse.
The horse had panicked and leaped, but the humiliation of being thrown from the saddle wasn’t going anywhere.
"You, you maggots......."
But the arrows didn’t end there.
KABOOM!
A large, well-made arrow with silver throwing knives built into it: Attack 55, bonus damage to undead due to the silver. This arrow was made by an outstanding blacksmith who understood both Blacksmithing and Engineering. Forget skill—the thing had something special in its craftsmanship.
Silver throwing knives poured out of the exploded arrow!
"Aaah!"
"Kyaaaagh!"
Hit by a completely unexpected ambush, the vampires shrieked and ran this way and that.
Critical hit triggered!
Critical hit triggered!
Engineering skill increases.
Luck bonus acquired. Success with taunt skill. Taunt skill level increases.
"Ah. So this counts as a critical hit too."
Tae-hyun checked the message window with satisfaction.
Then why isn’t my Archery skill going up?
If an actual archer had heard that, they’d probably have cursed him for having no shame!
-You didn’t even hit the target!
"You, you maggot......."
In any case, Tae-hyun’s attack seemed to have definitely provoked them.
The enraged Marquis Marden slashed his sword and issued the command,
"Go! Crush those maggots!"
The vampires under Marquis Marden all had quick movements and intimidating appearances.
When those vampires charged into the forest together, the players flinched.
"They’re coming!"
"W-what do we do?"
"What do you mean, what do we do? Run like we said!"
Just from their ferocious looks, any desire to fight vanished instantly.
The players wisely abandoned any greed and started running into the forest.
"Where do you think you’re running, you humans!"
"Hand over your blood!"
BOOM!
"?!"
With a thunderous explosion, Evangeline burst out of the smoke.
She had been waiting beside the trap.
Crunch, crack.
Vampire-on-vampire combat was completely different from ordinary fighting.
They closed in immediately and went straight for a bite.
Watching from a distance, Tae-hyun muttered,
"Couldn’t we just feed Evangeline poison and send her after Marquis Marden?"
"Wouldn’t Evangeline absolutely refuse......."
"Tsk. That’s a good idea."
Bang! Bang!
KABOOM!
Evangeline’s combat sense was excellent.
She remembered the traps she’d set and lured enemies right into them.
When her HP dropped during the fight, she’d pretend to retreat toward a trap, confuse the enemy, and then restore her health with a bite.
Evangeline was proving exactly why she was a Hero-class ranker!
"Keep firing! Keep firing!"
Thunk! Thud-thud-thud!
The archer players shot their arrows while Evangeline held the other vampires in place.
And those arrows were no ordinary arrows.
They were specially made by Tae-hyun!
One hit and they exploded, with silver adding extra damage on top.
"Graaah! How dare these human bastards!"
"I’ll kill them!"
The vampires’ eyes turned red as they slipped into a rage state.
Seeing that, Tae-hyun said coldly,
"All right. Retreat toward the second traps!"
He said it loudly enough for the vampires to hear as well.
And the vampires hearing that all stiffened.
Those same kinds of traps, one more time?