Before the Others Arrive
“Fighting alongside the royal army is out. Realistically, that’s going to be tough.”
Tae-hyun crossed one option off his list.
No matter how silver-tongued he was, there was no way the Espa Kingdom army would fight with him. If Edaor ended up surrounded by the Espa Kingdom forces, then from that point on, Tae-hyun wouldn’t be able to interfere.
Ah, come on. This is ridiculous. It’s not like I even have a guaranteed way to kill him, and the timing window’s a pain too.
Not only did he have no sure way to finish Edaor off, even the window in which it was possible was tricky.
Of course, this was all the result of Tae-hyun’s own sins catching up to him.
Behind him, Abalab City was still blazing furiously!
If other factions jump in, it actually gets harder for me to kill him.
As paradoxical as it sounded, that was the reality.
Then should I just kill him before anyone else can get involved... Damn it. Does that mean I have to give up on messing with Father?
If Edaor died too quickly, his plan to send Edaor’s army toward wherever Kim Tae-san was would fall apart.
Then something flashed through Tae-hyun’s mind.
Wait... how much authority do I have inside Edaor’s army right now? If Edaor dies, wouldn’t I be able to command the army myself?
It had come to him in a flash, but the more he chewed on it, the more plausible it sounded.
The rank he’d earned in the army by offering up Abalab City and the guild players!
That position had kept him from cooperating with the kingdom army—but who would’ve thought it would come back around like this?
The demons Edaor had brought out wouldn’t vanish the instant he died. They’d follow whoever came next in line.
And demons respected the strong, besides...
Kill Edaor right now and then snatch his whole army and run?
Anyone else would have called that insane.
Tae-hyun didn’t.
In his head, the whole picture began to assemble itself piece by piece.
This could work!
Tae-hyun sprang to his feet.
He needed to gather the other players. He couldn’t move alone if he wanted to take down Edaor.
“Ah, before that, I should finish opening the box.”
Inside the box had been another box.
Tae-hyun opened it immediately.
◈ A grimoire containing class skills.
◈ The class it belongs to is unknown.
“What is this, some kind of matryoshka doll?”
He’d opened a box, and inside was another box-like item...
Use
“If possible, I hope it’s a mage-related class...”
Tae-hyun still hadn’t fully given up on magic.
If it was an item like an A-Rank Skill Grimoire, then the skills inside were obviously going to be powerful even by class-skill standards.
If he could just get one or two decent spells out of it, he’d be able to use them for a very long time.
You have obtained the Secrets of the Lazedan Blacksmith.
“The Lazedan Blacksmith?”
He could tell it was part of a blacksmithing class line, but to understand its traits he’d have to look at the skill names.
You have learned Equipment Disguise.
You have learned Force Equip.
You have learned Unstable Equipment Crafting.
“...”
Tae-hyun’s expression soured.
For the first time in a while, Tae-hyun found himself reflecting on his own actions.
Did I do something bad recently and get punished for it?
But no matter how carefully he thought it over, no matter how honestly he searched his conscience, Tae-hyun hadn’t done a single thing wrong.
If I didn’t do anything wrong, then it’s just bad luck!
His self-reflection lasted less than ten seconds!
The Lazedan Blacksmith class skills weren’t bad skills at all.
Judging by their performance, they were definitely hard-to-obtain class skills even among blacksmith classes.
The problem was that if he’d gotten literally any class besides Lazedan Blacksmith, he could’ve gotten skills that were far more useful and much better.
“Of all things, why’d it have to be some weird class... Items like an A-Rank Skill Grimoire aren’t easy to get, either.”
Grumbling, Tae-hyun checked the skills.
Equipment Disguise: You can forge the outward appearance and status window of equipment. As the skill level rises, the duration and range of forgery increase.
Force Equip: Ignore equipment restrictions and forcibly equip gear. As the skill level rises, the penalties decrease.
Unstable Equipment Crafting: You can craft equipment with the Unstable attribute. Unstable equipment is more powerful than normal gear, but breaks easily.
“Hmm... Force Equip is definitely good. Didn’t expect to get a skill like this here.”
Tae-hyun’s class wasn’t blacksmith.
Other people misunderstood that point, but there was a limit to the blacksmith skills Tae-hyun could acquire.
While other blacksmiths cleared class quests and gained all sorts of skills—magic swords, elemental imbuement, and so on—Tae-hyun had only been using basic blacksmithing skills all this time!
One of the more famous blacksmith skills was the one that ignored equipment restrictions and let you wear gear anyway.
Being able to ignore level and stat requirements and equip something regardless was a tremendous advantage.
He had never imagined he’d acquire it like this.
“The problem is Equipment Disguise and Unstable Equipment Crafting...”
Tae-hyun had never been the type to shy away from learning a wide variety of skills.
Other people called it being a jack-of-all-trades, but Tae-hyun actually liked that versatility.
Still, this was a bit...
“Ha. I’m trying to live a virtuous life, so why do I keep getting skills like these?”
Skills that practically shoved him forward!
With the look of a man suffering nobly from unavoidable temptation, Tae-hyun nodded to himself.
Watching all of this from the side, Rufo stared at him with a deeply baffled expression.
The man opened a box, and then suddenly started acting like that. What on earth was wrong with him?
“Why’d you call us?”
“Exactly. What could we possibly have to talk about? Hmph.”
Yang Sung-gyu was icy, and Lee Da-bi wasn’t much warmer.
Of course, that didn’t make Tae-hyun reflect or repent in the slightest.
“I think you two are under some kind of misunderstanding.”
“...?”
“You don’t actually think I can’t PK the two of you, do you? If there’s nothing to talk about, should we just throw down right here?”
There it was—the immediate PK threat!
He had stabbed the guilds in Abalab in the back and crushed them how long ago, and here he was saying he could attack even these two, people who had at least worked with him for a while.
“...”
He’s seriously a complete bastard! Who was the one who said Kim Tae-hyun had a good personality?!
Lee Da-bi had come to realize that broadcasts and reality were not merely a little different.
They were very, very different.
“Now that I think about it, I guess we do have plenty to talk about!”
But what could she do?
The law was far away, and blades were close.
Lee Da-bi forced a smile.
“Haha. Right?” said Tae-hyun. “We’re friends.”
“Friends! We’re definitely friends!”
Seeing the two of them clasp hands and giggle, Yang Sung-gyu shook his head.
It felt like he was looking at something no human being was meant to witness.
I need to get out of here as soon as possible...
“Tae-hyun, let me say one thing up front. Threatening me won’t work anymore. If I die, I’m just going to leave Edaor’s army cleanly. So you can forget about using me to attack Hyung Tae-san.”
Yang Sung-gyu had made up his mind.
His early response—fear of the death penalty, plus the lazy thought of what could Tae-hyun really do?—had only made things worse.
Tae-hyun really was...
A monster who showed you 100 when you only expected 1.
He had gone into battle with him carelessly, and before he knew it, he’d ended up in a situation where he might be stabbing Kim Tae-san in the back.
Yang Sung-gyu no longer believed he could help Tae-hyun.
A PK threat?
That worked well on someone like Lee Da-bi, who had a lot to lose, but not on Yang Sung-gyu.
If I die, I’ll just take the death penalty and leave Edaor’s army. That’s better.
If he let himself get dragged along because he was afraid of penalties, he’d just lose more in the end.
That was Yang Sung-gyu’s cold, realistic judgment.
“Haha. Mister. Since when have I ever threatened you?”
“...Didn’t you just do that?”
Grip!
Tae-hyun tightened his hand around Lee Da-bi’s.
“Ow! Owowowow!”
“Threatened you? Must’ve misheard me.”
“Yes! Yes! I misheard! That was totally my mistake!”
Tae-hyun let go of her hand and said,
“And, Mister. I called you here because this is good news for you too.”
“...?”
“I’m thinking of hitting Edaor. Join me.”
“...?!”
Yang Sung-gyu had thought nothing could surprise him anymore.
He was wrong.
“You’re going after Edaor? Right now?”
After hearing Tae-hyun’s explanation, Yang Sung-gyu’s face hardened.
What the hell is he thinking?
“If you kill Edaor, your plan to send Edaor’s army after Hyung is over, isn’t it?”
“Haha. Mister. Did you seriously think I was going to send demons to a city just to torment my father? Would I really go that far?”
You absolutely would...
Yang Sung-gyu swallowed the words.
Listening beside them, Lee Da-bi tilted her head, having no clue what they were talking about.
“I just said that to scare him a little. He must’ve heard by now, so I’m sure he’s agonizing over all kinds of things.”
“Hmm...”
“And in the first place, do you think I’d trust a guy like Roy? He’s a player-killer who runs around PKing people.”
“That’s true, but...”
It wasn’t impossible.
Kim Tae-san really had started moving busily after hearing the news.
So had Tae-hyun been planning to kill Edaor from the beginning?
And sending the army toward Kim Tae-san’s city had just been camouflage?
Did this brat play me again?
Yang Sung-gyu didn’t even imagine that he was, in fact, still being played now.
“If we’re going to kill Edaor, we need every preparation we can get and all the forces here mobilized, then hit him all at once. He’s still a boss monster, after all.”
“Hold on, we can’t do that. The second we attack, Edaor will trigger the poison.”
“I’ve got an antidote.”
“...You had an antidote this whole time and didn’t give it to us?”
Lee Da-bi muttered.
“You got a problem with that?”
“No...”
“Right. The poison can be dealt with using the antidote.”
“Can that antidote really be trusted?”
Yang Sung-gyu looked at Tae-hyun suspiciously.
He’d been fooled so many times by now that even if Tae-hyun said he’d made bean curd out of soybeans, Yang Sung-gyu would struggle to believe it.
“Mister, when did you become this distrustful? You’re hurting my feelings.”
“And whose fault do you think that is? Also, Tae-hyun. There was something I started to say earlier. They say the name of the player who told the other cooks that the guild was selling poisoned food was Yang Sung-gyu. Doesn’t that strike you as strange?”
“Not really. Names are common.”
“Isn’t it a little too convenient? Huh? Doesn’t it seem like someone made that name up in advance in case the Restaurant Guild came back for revenge later?”
“Haha. Mister. That’s paranoia.”
“Either way, I’m not trusting that antidote.”
“Then what are you going to do?”
“I’m using this.”
What Yang Sung-gyu pulled out was a scroll.
A scroll glowing with a faint green light.
◈ Uses Advanced Identification on a target item.
◈ A rare scroll that can fetch hundreds, or even a thousand gold when supply is low.
The effect was simple, but it was by no means a common item.
If one appeared at auction, it would start in the hundreds, and if supply was tight it could climb all the way to a thousand.
For players clearing dungeons or quests, having a way to identify items was extremely important.
But most combat classes had no item-identification skill.
You either brought along a production-class player, went to one yourself, or used a scroll like this.
Even with the steep price, players clearing important quests tried to carry one or two because of the convenience.
Bringing a crafter along was difficult, and going to find one every single time was a waste of time.
As expected of an item that burned money just by existing, Lee Da-bi’s eyes gleamed.
“Isn’t it way too wasteful to use that? I’ll use a Low-grade Identification Scroll, so that one—”
“No. It’s not too wasteful when it comes to this bastard!”
Distrust rooted down to the bone!
Without hesitating, Yang Sung-gyu used the identification on the antidote Tae-hyun had handed him.
“...”
Of course, the result came back clean.
It was a perfectly normal antidote.
Tae-hyun smirked.