“Go Meet the Lord?”
Fantasy Online 2 had a class hierarchy.
There was the king, beneath him the high nobles who ruled cities and castles, beneath them the lesser nobles, and beneath them the knights...
And it wasn’t just NPCs. If players cleared the right quests, they could obtain those ranks too.
Naturally, becoming a noble came with benefits.
People would fawn over you the moment you entered a city. Merchants would voluntarily offer up their finest goods...
If even a low-ranking noble could enjoy that much, then becoming a lord or castellan brought advantages beyond imagination.
Leaving aside how NPCs reacted, you could issue orders, collect taxes, and freely manage the facilities in a city or around a castle.
Right now, the rankers were all crazed over gaining positions as castellans or lords.
Even in Fantasy Online 1, lordships were incredible...
Everybody wanted a city or a castle.
Because once you had one, money practically poured out on its own.
And judging by how much larger Fantasy Online 2 was than the first game, it felt like getting even a single lordship would let you live comfortably for the rest of your life.
“Yes. Someone of your caliber is certainly worth introducing. Tell me when you’re ready. His Lordship won’t appreciate being kept waiting.”
“Understood.”
Tae-hyun gave his appearance a quick once-over.
He looked like an ordinary Tyrum Hunter, the kind you could see anywhere in the city.
This should be good enough, right?
Of course, to anyone who didn’t know what a Tyrum Hunter looked like, he probably just seemed like a huge, vicious mountain bandit.
“I’m ready. Let’s go.”
“Good! Follow me!”
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
Oh, not bad...
Tae-hyun let out a quiet note of admiration as he walked through the inner keep.
To be honest, calling Tyrum City a city was a little embarrassing.
Cities in other kingdoms actually had all the things that made them feel like proper cities.
Massive merchant company buildings, mage towers, splendid works of art, guilds for production classes.
But Tyrum City had none of that.
All it had were rough-looking, muscular Tyrum Hunters and a few merchants selling them goods.
No wonder NPCs from other kingdoms looked down on the Salz Kingdom as barbarians.
It was a small mountain kingdom, and it looked the part.
Still, the inside of the keep was better than he’d expected.
There were no decorations to speak of, but the whitewashed walls gave it a clean, orderly feel.
Outside the city, it had been free-roaming Tyrum Hunters instead of soldiers, but inside the keep he finally saw actual troops.
That armor’s pretty high quality. Doesn’t look like it’s made from plain iron alone.
Tae-hyun recognized their equipment at a glance.
His experience as a blacksmith in Fantasy Online 1, handling all kinds of items, hadn’t gone anywhere.
Just from the subtle tint of the soldiers’ armor, he could tell what materials had gone into it.
They look pretty high-level too. Are the soldiers in other places this strong as well?
“His Lordship is waiting for you.”
Bang!
The doors swung open, revealing a broad hall lined with fully armed soldiers.
“Count Fallon! It’s been too long!”
“It has indeed, August! Have you been well?”
The booming voices of the two men filled the entire chamber.
Tae-hyun clapped his hands over his ears and looked up.
Why the hell is this lord so loud?
The man sitting in a chair draped with animal pelts was... enormous.
Broad shoulders. Thick, veined, muscular arms.
A lord was a noble, but the clothes he wore looked more like a hunter’s than a nobleman’s.
Tae-hyun whispered, “That’s really the lord?”
“Count Fallon? Ah, is it the clothes? Count Fallon used to be a hunter like us. He earned his lands through his military exploits on the battlefield. Well then, how about you start thinking...”
Hunter August was making him want to swear.
For god’s sake!
Was this man a hunter or a stalker?
“No thanks.”
As the two bickered, the Count spoke.
“So you’re the admirable adventurer I’ve heard of? Come closer.”
Tae-hyun shut his mouth at once and approached Count Fallon.
Who was he to disobey a direct summons?
The Count grabbed Tae-hyun’s arm and started feeling it up from every angle.
With a crushingly powerful grip.
“Ow, ow! Owowow!”
“Not as strong as I expected. You need more training! A young man can’t go around like this!”
“Hahaha, Count Fallon! Compared to you, who could possibly measure up?”
“Hahaha, August, you old flatterer! Though I suppose I’m not as young as I used to be!”
Not young, my ass.
He looked like he could throw on armor and march straight onto a battlefield this instant.
His strength was no joke.
But no matter how much he looked like a bandit chief, a noble was still a noble.
Tae-hyun was more than capable of lowering his head if that was what it took to get what he wanted.
Rubbing his throbbing arm, Tae-hyun got his tongue moving.
“Not at all! Looking at your steel-like muscles, my lord, I can scarcely imagine how incredible you must have been in your younger days!”
Count Fallon is pleased.
“Really? Hahaha. You make me blush. Yes, the Orcs were quite afraid of me in my youth. I wiped out whole Orc tribes with these arms! That’s how I earned my domain. Even His Majesty brings it up whenever I see him. Riding up alone and charging straight at the Orcs...”
Is this guy insane?
It was honestly a miracle he was still alive.
“You should try that sort of experience for yourself sometime. You’d learn a great deal.”
It would’ve been faster if he’d just said, Go die.
“I... see. If I get the chance, I’ll try.”
After that, Tae-hyun was treated to a great many stories.
How the Salz Kingdom was a small mountain nation, but because it was always fending off wandering Orc tribes and Dark Elves, its military strength lagged behind no other kingdom.
How those endless military expenses kept the kingdom relatively poor.
How the current king of Salz was, like Count Fallon, a muscle-bound man who loved battle.
It was valuable information.
Tae-hyun listened with his ears wide open.
“Come to think of it, His Majesty’s face has the same imposing dignity and sturdy build as yours.”
The moment Count Fallon said that, August immediately jumped in.
“Hahaha, Count Fallon, you look quite a bit like His Majesty yourself!”
“Do I? I have heard that many times! Hahaha!”
Tae-hyun’s mind started turning for a moment.
The King of Salz looked like Tae-hyun.
Count Fallon looked like the King of Salz.
Which meant...
It meant Tae-hyun looked like Count Fallon.
You have got to be kidding me...
Sure, he was big and rough-looking, but to be told he resembled this mountain-bandit-looking man?
It had been a long time since an NPC had managed to humiliate him like this.
“I... don’t really look like you, do I? How could I possibly compare to your imposing bearing, my lord...”
“No, no! A man can be too modest. You do look like me—and His Majesty!”
Count Fallon thumped him on the back and laughed delightedly.
Then he drove the point home.
“Very much so! If someone said you were my son, I wouldn’t be surprised!”
Damn it...
Tae-hyun gave up and kept his mouth shut.
The attack on his appearance stung, but what did it matter?
As long as the reward was good.
“So. You exterminated the rabbits? I assigned that task to many adventurers who came through our city, but most of them caught a few and then ran away.”
That’s because this city sucks and they left...
Of course, he didn’t say that out loud.
“So I thought to myself: adventurers must all be spineless, petty creatures. But seeing you, I think I was wrong. You clearly possess the blazing heart and oversized guts that only hunters have!”
“I wanted to accept him as a Tyrum Hunter, but he’s absurdly stubborn.”
“Is that so? You truly have no intention of becoming a Tyrum Hunter?”
Hunter August was now trying to turn him into a Tyrum Hunter by borrowing the lord’s authority.
At this point, August was starting to seem less like a hunter and more like a stalker.
Using the lord too? That’s dirty.
Still, what could he do?
August had built the affinity himself.
At times like this, there was only one answer: flop over and grovel.
“My apologies, Count Fallon! There’s something I absolutely want to do...”
Of course, he didn’t say, I’m going to stay Jobless forever without changing classes.
If he said that, even the lord might get angry.
“I see? That’s a shame. If you disliked becoming a Tyrum Hunter, I was going to offer you a position as my guard.”
Protecting a noble was always considered honorable work.
To serve as the personal guard of a noble—one of the noble guard—wasn’t a position just anyone could take. You couldn’t simply want it and get it, and once you took it, it wasn’t something you could easily walk away from.
But it was unquestionably honorable, and it came with real rewards.
The greater the noble you served, the greater your standing as their guard.
Noble Guard
◈ A prestigious class that serves and protects a noble.
◈ Can gain wealth and influence through the power of one’s liege.
◈ Difficult to abandon once accepted.
Other people were desperate to find classes like this, but they just kept raining down on Tae-hyun.
What is this, some class optimized for sycophants?
Reading the description, it looked like the kind of class where you glued yourself to a lord’s side and skimmed off a fortune.
But Tae-hyun was not so easily swayed by things like this.
Only Jobless!
No matter what class was offered, Jobless!
Nothing but Jobless!
When Tae-hyun refused, Count Fallon stroked his beard in disappointment.
Then he clapped his hands.
A few soldiers came in, grunting as they carried a heavy chest. The Count opened it and pulled out a weighty axe.
Tae-hyun tensed up for a second.
He’s not about to swing that at me because I refused, is he?
“If you don’t wish to become a Tyrum Hunter or serve as one of my guards, then I suppose this is all I can offer. To reward a man who knows honor with money would be an insult, wouldn’t it?”
“No, that wouldn’t be insulting at all—”
“Here, take it!”
Strength too low to equip.
Level too low to equip.
Status windows spilled down in succession, informing Tae-hyun that he couldn’t equip it in his current state.
Orc Skull Crusher... what a name.
Still, he couldn’t help feeling excited.
A weapon personally bestowed by a lord as a reward.
The higher the NPC’s rank, the better the quest rewards they handed out—wasn’t that the rule?
Durability: 420/420
Attack Power: 160
Usable Skills: Heavy Blow, Warrior’s Wrath, Storm Charge, Earthshatter
Chance to inflict Intimidation and Fear
Deals 1.5x damage against Orcs
Requirements: Level 125, Strength 500
A weapon Count Fallon used in his youth when he went around smashing Orc skulls. If you look closely, you can still see traces of Orc blood on it. Heavy and powerful enough that an ordinary person couldn’t even hope to wield it.
Option after option flashed before his eyes in a glorious stream.
As expected of a weapon Count Fallon had favored in his youth, both its stats and its options were dazzling.
The problem was...
There is absolutely no way I can ever use this thing.
The level requirement was one thing—he’d hit 125 someday.
But when all he’d done so far was pump Luck nonstop, when exactly was he supposed to reach 500 Strength?
Urgh...
Still, it was undeniably a great weapon.
Heroic-grade items were not easy to come by.
If he put it up on a trade site, it would probably sell for tens of millions of won.
Every warrior-type class player would drool over it.
“Count Fallon! You’re giving him that weapon?”
“Hahaha. For an adventurer who understands honor, I can afford a gift like this!”
“Count Fallon’s generosity moves me once again!”
While Tae-hyun was thinking furiously, the two men were busy starring in some emotional drama of their own.
Wait. Can I sell this?
Surely he wouldn’t get caught just because he sold a weapon gifted by the Count.
It wasn’t as if Count Fallon would summon him later to inspect whether he was making proper use of it.