"Don't Look Down on Us!"
Splash! Every time high-grade undead were thrown into the cauldron, the middle-aged men looked as devastated as if it were their own loss.
"Just ignore that guy's talk about health tonics..."
"Hey, why?! Just hear me out!"
"Someone shut him up."
The man who had put forward the bizarre theory that "even undead can be a health tonic if eaten right" was quickly subdued by the others. Even the Orc ahjussis had eyes. Tae-hyun, currently transformed into a wraith, didn't exactly look appetizing!
"Anyway, we really want to take them with us. Is it really impossible?"
"We'll buy them! Just name your price!"
The middle-aged men shook their pouches of gold!
"Oh. How much were you thinking?"
Lee Da-bi, standing nearby, asked with a highly intrigued expression. She was always on the lookout for new markets. A brand-new market in Pan-On: undead pets!
...Wait, that probably won't work, Lee Da-bi's rational mind quickly kicked back in.
Tae-hyun shook his head and said,
"No, it's not that I don't want to give them to you... but you need the ability to handle them to take them. None of you are Necromancers. To properly control a Death Knight like this, you basically need to be a Necromancer with at least an Advanced rank in Dark Magic..."
Even though Tae-hyun had very few magic skills, his basic magic skills themselves were high level. Yet, even he had to unsummon most of them once his wraith state ended. That was how difficult high-grade undead were to control.
"See? Even Tae-hyun says so."
"Mmm..."
"So we should just boil them down and eat—mmph! Mmph-mmph!"
"Is there really absolutely no way?"
Yang Sung-gyu asked with a disappointed face. It was a shame, but Tae-hyun knew Pan-On better than anyone, so if he said there was no way, there was nothing they could do.
"Well... it's not like there's absolutely zero ways."
"What?"
"There's a way?"
"A perfect and wonderful way to take all the undead with us?!"
"I don't think anyone said that," Cain muttered from behind. These older guys had a real talent for hearing only what they wanted to hear.
"For now, I'll give each of you one undead, so take them."
"Won't they rebel immediately, though?" Lee Da-bi tilted her head and asked. If a player lacking Dark Magic skills tried to command the undead, they would usually run away or rebel instantly.
"Yeah. They probably will."
"?"
"Then you just have to beat them into submission."
"......!!"
The mouths of everyone nearby fell open. What an incredibly barbaric method!
"If they rebel, beat them down. If they try to run, beat them until they stop... If you keep doing that, their Terror stat will rise, and they'll start listening to some extent..."
When leading subordinate NPCs in Pan-On, various stats and skills came into play. Typically, it required leadership skills, and for undead NPCs, magic and Dark Magic skills. Additionally, treating subordinate NPCs kindly raised their Loyalty, while being strict and terrifying raised their Terror. Both Loyalty and Terror were stats that helped make them obedient. What Tae-hyun was suggesting was to raise that Terror stat through sheer physical violence!
"That's an amazing method!"
"Exactly! We can definitely do that!"
The middle-aged men nodded in delight. However, Tae-hyun wasn't finished speaking.
"Hey, I'm not done yet. Anyway, this is an extremely inefficient method... First of all, you can't kill them when you beat them. Since you guys can't summon them back if they die. And to make them listen through the Terror stat, you'll have to raise it incredibly high, which means beating them once or twice won't cut it. You'll probably have to beat them dozens of times... Just hire a Dark Mage."
"No way! We'll raise them well!"
"Yeah! I'll feed him three square meals a day and even take him on walks!"
The middle-aged men suddenly looked as if their childhood innocence had been reawakened! They stood protectively in front of the undead who were on the verge of being thrown into the cauldron, desperately blocking Tae-hyun. Feeling annoyed, Tae-hyun waved his hand.
"Well, fine then... take one each."
It's not my problem.
Whether the older guys got backstabbed by their undead subordinates or run over by them, it was none of Tae-hyun's business. Everyone should take responsibility for their own lives!
Flash! The moment Tae-hyun gave his permission, the middle-aged men rushed forward in a swarm and began picking out their undead one by one.
"We don't have much time, so pick quickly."
"I'll take this one!"
"This one looks good to me! Look how big he is!"
Instead of any cold, logical analysis, the older guys chose their undead purely based on physical appearance.
Your Dark Magic skill is extremely low.
The undead monster refuses to obey your commands.
"Hmph! I appreciate you saving me, but I will never obey the commands of someone unqualified—urk!"
"Listen to me! I said, listen to me!"
"Wa... Wait a..."
"Listen to me!"
The middle-aged men immediately began swinging their clubs without a second thought!
"What are you even trying to..."
"Listen!"
"No, you have to actually say something for me to—thwack! thud! smack!"
The older guys simply thought, If we keep beating them, their Terror stat will go up! Thanks to this, a bizarre scene unfolded: a group of Orcs chasing down and relentlessly pummeling their respective undead companions.
"Stop right there! I said, stop!"
"I will obey! I will obey your commands!"
"No, you won't! Your Terror stat is still too low!"
"...This is surreal."
"Let's just throw the rest in quickly and get out of here."
Tae-hyun ignored the chaos, swept the remaining undead into the cauldron, and refined them into essences. Then, he fed them to Golgol-i.
"Look at Golgol-i eat. Good, isn't it? Huh?"
"......"
Golgol-i gave up and drank the essences. Watching the other undead getting beaten to a pulp in the distance made his own situation feel relatively luxurious.
Golgol-i's Strength has increased.
Golgol-i's Constitution has increased.
...
...
◈ Durability: 50/50
◈ Description: The Death Knight Golgol-i, whose soul is no longer bound to the Demon Realm, can reappear on the continent upon the call of his named master after a certain period of time, even if he is unsummoned. A ring that allows you to summon Golgol-i.
The ring was crudely crafted from the bones of a Death Knight. Although its raw stats were negligible, the fact that it allowed him to summon Golgol-i again was a massive benefit.
Since I couldn't use Yong-yong or Heuk-heuk recklessly because I wouldn't be able to summon the exact same ones if they died...
Tae-hyun looked at Golgol-i with a highly satisfied gaze. As expected, the undead race really is useful in this regard!
Shiver. For some reason, Golgol-i felt a sudden chill run down his spine.
"Come to think of it, what are your levels right now?"
Yong-yong had just barely passed level 300, while Golgol-i, who had devoured every undead essence in sight, was at level 330. As for Heuk-heuk... he was already lounging around in the 340s.
"Master..."
Yong-yong looked at Tae-hyun with sorrowful eyes. But even Tae-hyun couldn't help this. It wasn't like he had actively tried to level up Heuk-heuk; it was just that he had engaged in so much high-infamy gameplay that it couldn't be helped!
"Tae-hyun! We'll be taking our leave now!"
"Thanks for the undead! We'll raise them well!"
"We'll send Stau over soon, too!"
"Yeah! Thank you so much!"
The excited middle-aged men departed with joyful faces, each dragging an undead along by the hand!
I wonder if that will actually end well, Tae-hyun thought to himself.
For people without any Dark Magic skills to command the undead was no simple task. The undead would constantly try to flee and rebel. What if a fight broke out on their way back? Things would undoubtedly get exponentially more complicated!
Of course, Tae-hyun didn't bother pointing that out. Why? Because... it wasn't his problem!
"Alright. Let's head back now and smash through the dungeon preliminaries."
While Tae-hyun was having a grand old time wiping out the assassination squads and crushing players here, other normal teams would be running the tournament dungeons and devising strategies.
"Doesn't something feel a bit strange lately?"
"Like what?"
"It feels like the number of people buying bombs has increased quite a bit."
"That's definitely true."
Gabriel nodded. He had thought it was just a temporary spike, but bomb sales had undeniably risen.
The mechanical engineering blacksmiths working in the Valley occasionally sold their creations. Of course, the buyers were extremely few and far between—only those who were truly desperate or utterly fearless!
Yet, lately, bomb items were selling like hotcakes for some bizarre reason. What's more, the buyers were unfamiliar faces who had never been seen in the territory before.
"Could this be..."
"?"
"Has the mechanical engineering boom finally arrived?"
"!"
The mechanical engineering boom! It was something the mechanical engineering blacksmiths had been talking about for ages. Ever since Tae-hyun had made waves with his engineering, the blacksmiths had dreamed of a boom. Of course, it had never actually happened. Among all blacksmithing sub-skills, engineering was simply too unstable and extreme. But the blacksmiths had never given up hope.
The boom will come one day!
And now, bombs were flying off the shelves at an absurd rate... Could this really be the boom?!
"Has it finally arrived?!"
"The reaction was certainly explosive when we created the Plague Wasteland last time!"
To be precise, the actual reactions had been along the lines of, "Yikes, look at those psychopaths;;" or "I should definitely stay far away from them," but such nuances were completely lost on the blacksmiths.
"Everyone! Let's work even harder!"
"Yeah!!!"
"By the way, isn't the dungeon raid tournament happening soon?"
"It is. What of it?"
"Just saying. Let's get back to work!"
"Alright! Back to work!"
The tournament held absolutely no interest for the blacksmiths!
"There goes another one running away!"
"Ugh, these guys are so incredibly stubborn!"
The Orc ahjussis grumbled as they chased after the fleeing undead. Just as Tae-hyun had warned, dragging even a single undead along was pure torture. The moment they looked away, the undead ran. The moment they turned their backs, the undead attacked!
The phrase 'evil undead' hadn't been coined for nothing. Undead were, by nature, inherently malicious.
"Ugh... I bought a whole bunch of Dark Magic spellbooks, but..."
"Isn't this skill leveling up way too slowly?"
The older guys grumbled as they pulled out their Dark Magic spellbooks. They were just basic Dark Magic spellbooks bought from the auction house! In Pan-On, high-tier spellbooks were rarely sold and incredibly difficult to obtain. For the most part, they had to be acquired directly through quests.
For these middle-aged men who had never used magic in their lives, starting with Dark Magic was an uphill battle. But they had to do it!
"Dark Bolt!Dark Bolt!"
"Hey, why are you shooting that at me?!"
"It doesn't even hurt! Let me practice a bit!"
Yang Sung-gyu grew increasingly anxious as he led the group. Unlike their journey here, their pace had slowed to a crawl. If they were attacked now, things would get highly annoying. Furthermore, their guild had quite a few enemies. The Guild Alliance wasn't the only faction grinding its teeth after the battle in the Auston Kingdom. The events from earlier had likely spread like wildfire through broadcasts...
Since Tae-hyun was involved, almost everyone must have watched it.
Yang Sung-gyu's prediction was spot on. As expected of Pan-On's number-one troublemaker, almost all the popular forum posts were analytical threads about Tae-hyun.
📌 [Analysis] Kim Tae-hyun vs. The Assassination Squad
📌 [Discussion] Who exactly were the players fighting Kim Tae-hyun?!
📌 [News] Kim Tae-hyun pulls out a new card! The shocking and terrifying undead army!
📌 [Expose] Exposing the mysterious merchants who show up to rip everyone off whenever a fight breaks out!
📌 [Theory] A 10-year veteran Necromancer analyzes Kim Tae-hyun's undead army.
📌 [Rant] How did the enemy guild become such a joke of a team?
It was to the point where it completely overshadowed the opening of the tournament's preliminary dungeons! He was truly drawing explosive attention right from the get-go.
Yang Sung-gyu's anxiety soon became reality.
"You bastards!"
"!"
From the hill ahead, the remaining players of the enemy guild and the assassination squad appeared.
"How dare you... How dare you do that to us! Did you think we'd just let this slide?!"
Their numbers are a bit small...
Having been utterly crushed earlier, their numbers looked pitifully small. There were only about twenty to thirty of them. Were they planning an ambush from elsewhere?
"Tae-hyun was the one who ordered it! If you have a complaint, go take it up with him! He's still back there!"
"Shut up! We'll deal with Kim Tae-hyun later. First, it's you guys!"
"Are you guys targeting us just because you're too scared of Tae-hyun...?"
Flinch! Hit right where it hurt, the enemy player fell silent. Seeing this, the middle-aged men behind Yang Sung-gyu erupted in fury.
"These absolute sons of bitches!"
"Where do these wet-behind-the-ears punks get off looking down on us?!"
"Hey! How old are you?!"
"Ugh! Shut up! Attack! Attack them!"
Realizing that a prolonged argument would do nothing for their image, the enemy leader quickly gave the signal.
Thwack! And then, he was struck by an arrow flying from afar and fell.
"?"