A Grudge Strong Enough to Sting Him at Death

How much resentment did he have to be carrying to choose, in the very moment of his death, the method that would screw Kim Tae-hyun over the hardest?

That was how relentlessly Tae-hyun had tormented Marquis Marden. Tormented him, tormented him, and tormented him again.

The fragment of the staff lodged in Marquis Marden’s body suddenly blazed with dazzling white light—then exploded.

"Aaaagh!"

The nearby players screamed and threw up their hands over their eyes, not even understanding what had happened.

W-wait...!

The destruction of the Authority was bad enough, but Tae-hyun panicked for a different reason.

Right now, he was supposed to be getting experience for the kill on Marquis Marden.

If his Luck shot up massively here...

...then the experience required to level up would shoot up massively too.

No! It only just went back down to 2,500!

"Kraaaagh!"

Tae-hyun howled as if he’d been punched in the face.

He had no idea how that Authority had been stored in the staff, but it must have been an absurdly powerful object. The force packed inside it had gone far beyond imagination.

Then the message windows appeared.

Exactly two levels.

The players who had taken part in this quest were all power-leveling like mad. The ones who’d participated in the final Marquis Marden raid, even more so.

Compared to Tae-hyun, they’d basically just ridden along and done nothing, and even they had leveled that much. That alone showed what kind of boss monster Marquis Marden had been.

But Tae-hyun had gained only two levels.

At this point, the number Luck 3500 felt so absurd that he couldn’t even begin to picture how much experience it now took to level.

Goddammit...!

Without meaning to, Marquis Marden had gotten his revenge.

One of Tae-hyun’s strengths was how quickly he recovered from a shock.

Not long after, he had already pulled himself together.

The Authority was painfully, maddeningly wasteful to lose—but it was already gone. Nothing could be done about that now.

Still, a lingering regret gnawed at the back of his mind.

If even its destruction raised Luck and Divinity that much, then what the hell was that Authority in the first place?

Ghhk...!

Whatever gratitude he had felt toward Marquis Marden had long since vanished without a trace.

Tae-hyun silently swore that if he ran into any other vampires, he’d take it out on them.

Luck Bestowal.

It was one of the skills gained for ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠pushing Luck ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠past a certain threshold.

It wasn’t one of Archisus’s Authorities, but still—this was no small thing. Enchanting equipment was always a useful skill.

Just being able to cast it before a fight could multiply a party’s combat power several times over.

Mages and priests who specialized in enchantments for gear were always popular in parties.

But Tae-hyun noticed something strange.

Wait... this is random?

Archisus. Whenever Luck was involved, one word always followed.

Random.

What kind of lunatic makes enchantment effects random?!

Before he even had time to be properly dumbfounded, the next oracle appeared.

You haven’t done a damn thing for me, so what’s with the orders?

Priests and holy knights of other denominations were getting every benefit under the sun, while Tae-hyun had to create something from nothing. Naturally, even divine revelations rubbed him the wrong way.

Ah. So that’s what this is.

Tae-hyun understood then why this oracle had appeared.

It had come because the Authority he was supposed to obtain had been destroyed.

"...!"

He had lost the Authority, but it was too early to despair.

For one walking the path of the Avatar, Archisus had shown him the way through an oracle.

Go to Abalab City in the Espa Kingdom.

What he sought would be there.

Abalab City...

Tae-hyun sank into thought.

The Espa Kingdom lay southwest of the Erangs Kingdom.

It had a harsh, barren climate, and more than anything...

That was the kingdom with a lot of Orcs, wasn’t it?

There were quite a few Orc tribes in and around the Espa Kingdom, which meant that among players who chose the Orc race, plenty started there.

After all, the easiest people to get close to were usually your own kind.

Of course, the Orcs of Espa had nothing to do with the Orc tribes far off in the eastern wilds—but for Tae-hyun, who already had bad blood with Orcs, the place still felt deeply unpleasant.

If you wanted to call them dazzling, then yes, they were dazzling stats.

Luck had broken through 3500 almost by accident, but the rest of his stats were monstrous too.

Ordinary players didn’t raise stats like this.

Balanced stat spreads were for idiots.

Most people focused on one main stat and one support stat, or one main stat and two secondary stats.

A build like Tae-hyun’s—everything distributed evenly, and all of them in the several hundreds—was almost unheard of.

Not like I raised them this way because I wanted to...

Tae-hyun clicked his tongue.

The passive skill. You could call it the lifeline of the Avatar of Archisus.

Instead of increasing the stat rewards he gained, it distributed bonus stats randomly.

He couldn’t really complain because his stat growth was so fast, but on any other class this would have been absolute trash.

The only reason it worked at all was because he was the Avatar of Archisus.

Now then, the other stats...

Thanks to the quest, both his Fame and Divinity had risen like mad.

That meant his Infamy—something that had been bothering him—wasn’t something he needed to worry about for a while.

Besides, with a Count title, it probably won’t matter unless it gets really bad.

Even with high Infamy, the title of Count covered a lot.

Sure, maybe he’d wind up with a title like Villainous Count, but still...

Tae-hyun checked his skills.

He had so many skills leveled in so many different directions that they couldn’t even fit neatly on one screen.

If anyone else saw it, they’d have called it fake.

After all, it made no sense for one person to raise skills in such a chaotic spread.

But Tae-hyun had the Avatar of Archisus class buff and his Luck buff, which gave him insane bonuses in production classes.

Of course his growth would be fast.

Magic’s a little disappointing. Haven’t had many chances to use it lately... even Beginner Black Magic is still only level 6. I’ll have to find an opportunity to grind it up.

Tae-hyun began laying out plans in his head.

The one thing that had gone completely off track was his Luck.

He’d expected it to hover somewhere in the low one-thousands for a while, but now it had suddenly blasted past 3,000.

Naturally, leveling had become even harder.

Ah... seriously...

The rankers and other top players would go on enjoying explosive leveling.

Tae-hyun, however, could not.

So the answer is stat grinding and more Authorities?

There was only one way to keep up: obtain more of Archisus’s absurdly broken Authorities and raise his stats through other means.

And with that, his anger at Marquis Marden surged all over again.

If there was one small comfort, it was that he’d managed to kill him without using that item.

If Marquis Marden hadn’t wasted time trying to lock down Tae-hyun’s abilities, he would have been a much more dangerous and much stronger enemy.

If it had come down to a straight-up fight, Tae-hyun would’ve had to use that item too...

"Count! A great victory!"

The one who snapped Tae-hyun out of his thoughts was Count Anong.

Beaming, he strode over with his knights and shouted,

"We defeated Marquis Marden! Are you not pleased?"

"Uh... I’m pleased."

"More than that, I must once again express my admiration, Count. A strategy that read the enemy’s mind! Tactics that struck at their weakness! And even the boldness to bring down the walls themselves without the slightest concern for who might be standing nearby, so long as it meant killing the enemy!"

That last part sounded suspiciously like an insult, but Count Anong seemed completely sincere.

"I’ve resolved to become like that myself!"

"H-hey! Hey! That’s not something you should imitate!"

Count Marcel, standing nearby, turned pale and hurriedly tried to stop him. What on earth did he mean, becoming like Tae-hyun?

But despite his massive build, Count Anong looked at Tae-hyun with almost touching earnestness as he expressed his gratitude.

"Thank you!"

"Sure. The more gratitude, the better. So what can I take?"

As he spoke, Tae-hyun checked his contribution points.

In this battle, Tae-hyun had racked up a truly absurd amount of merit.

He had intercepted Marquis Marden’s army, circled around and destroyed Marden Castle, then finished things by digging a gigantic trap, wiping out the Marquis’s forces, and personally dealing with the Marquis himself.

There was no way Tae-hyun’s contribution could be ignored in this battle.

He had been looking forward to his contribution points from Anong Castle.

How much did I rack up?

Maybe enough to borrow troops, or maybe an artifact...

If he could walk away with a few decent items ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠from Anong Castle, it would’ve been more than worth it.

"...Huh?"

Tae-hyun doubted his own eyes.

One hundred twenty?

Not 1,200. Not 12,000. Just 120?

Then, in the middle of his confusion, his gaze landed on the collapsed wall.

No way...

That’s ridiculous!

Something he hadn’t thought about in the heat of gleefully blowing it up:

That wall had been property of Anong Castle.

Since he had used it as part of his trap and blasted it to pieces, of course points would be deducted.

"Mr. Tae-hyun! I’m Edward, a player from Britain, and I was wondering if maybe you’d party with m—"

Instead of answering, Tae-hyun crooked a finger.

The soldiers of Anong Castle standing nearby immediately charged forward.

"Clear out the peddlers."

"Yes, sir!"

Thanks to Marquis Marden’s last act of sabotage and the loss of his Anong Castle contribution points, Tae-hyun was in a foul mood.

"W-wait a second! Mr. Tae-hyun! You don’t have to be like this! I know you’re rough on the outside, but kind underneath!"

"..."

Watching the player get dragged away, Tae-hyun asked,

"Where the hell did that stupid rumor come from?"

"Seriously!"

Cain nodded furiously beside him.

The idiots spreading crap like that really needed to experience it firsthand before they came to their senses.

"Mr. Tae-hyun! You saved our party, didn’t you? We just wanted to thank you—hey! Let go!"

The soldiers dragged the other players off as well.

After seeing that, the rest of the players who’d been thinking of approaching Tae-hyun backed away.

They wanted to say something, sure—but if they said the wrong thing, it felt like they might get punched.

Ah, come on. But Kim Tae-hyun wouldn’t really do that, right?

Yeah. He’s Kim Tae-hyun.

Hearing the whispering players, Cain shook his head.

Just what kind of creature was Kim Tae-hyun in these people’s minds?

The one who finally worked up the courage to speak was Gu Sung-wook.

He stood in front of Tae-hyun, eyes bloodshot, and said,

"The recipe!!!"

It was a voice steeped in blood, sweat, and tears.