The Trial at the Altar
Whether the two onlookers were shocked or not, Tae-hyun was all smiles as he checked the item.
◈ Durability: 0/?
◈ Attack Power: 88
◈ Usable Skills: Wraith Form, Wraith's Curse
◈ Deals powerful damage to wraiths
◈ Inflicts curse damage on the user when attacking
◈ Infamy increases if worn continuously
◈ Luck -100 while equipped
◈ A cursed ghost sword used by Wraith Warriors. A powerful and deadly blade, but far too dangerous for the living to wield.
"...?"
Tae-hyun tilted his head.
It was definitely a good item. Gear with no level restriction and no stat requirement always sold for a high price on the market. Just judging by its attack power, even players in the level 70 to 80 range could use it without complaint.
But nothing in the world was all upside, was it?
What are these penalties?
It was plastered with options that people would normally hesitate to touch even if only one of them were attached to an item.
- Inflicts curse damage on the user when attacking.
"......"
- Infamy increases if worn continuously.
"......"
Tae-hyun tried to make peace with it somehow.
Yeah, well... as for curse damage, in Tae-hyun's case he could dodge it. And Infamy could be offset with Fame.
The last penalty was Luck -100 while equipped.
Honestly, that was the mildest penalty of all.
For Tae-hyun, losing 100 Luck wasn't even enough to sting.
But... what happens if Luck drops below zero?
The question suddenly occurred to him.
Anyone other than someone like Tae-hyun, who had stacked Luck to absurd levels, would probably fall below zero if they took a -100 penalty.
And if that happened, then what?
What... you trip while walking, fall backward, and smash your nose or something?
Tae-hyun dismissed it like a joke, but his imagination was almost exactly right.
For now, Tae-hyun didn't pick up the Wraith Warrior's Sword.
The penalties worried him, sure, but more than that, he just didn't feel any real need for it.
If the wraiths had still been alive, he would have fought them with the Wraith Warrior's Sword. But the Ancient Hammer was a genuinely outstanding item too.
It came with swordsmanship skill penalties, but the Ancient Hammer's raw performance more than made up for that.
Against the enemies coming out in this dungeon, there was nothing better.
"Circle of Attack!"
"- Kraaagh! How are you using that sword?!"
"- Thief! Put that sword down!"
Without answering, Tae-hyun swung his hammer and butchered the Wraith Warriors.
He was starting to get the hang of it now.
One of Tae-hyun's greatest strengths was adaptability.
He had an extraordinary ability to quickly size up an opponent and come up with a method tailored to them.
That was how, back in Fantasy Online 1, he had gone around defeating rankers with a class like blacksmith.
It was no different with the Wraith Warriors.
At first, he had no feel for them, and fighting several at once had pushed him into real danger.
But not anymore.
No matter how many there are, three at most.
As he moved, Tae-hyun counted the number of Wraith Warriors chasing him.
They were strong, but not especially fast.
If he controlled the distance just right and adjusted the number following him...
"Now!"
"- Gah!"
As Tae-hyun suddenly spun around and charged after fleeing, the Wraith Warrior panicked and slashed with its sword.
Attack avoided.
Attack avoided.
"- You cowardly human! Fight fair and square!"
"How's something without a body talking about fighting fair?"
Tae-hyun didn't care. He swung the hammer anyway.
Even with the numbers controlled, the Wraith Warriors were never easy opponents.
He couldn't let his guard down for a second.
The curse!
Tae-hyun tightened his body and swung the hammer.
- Circle of Counterattack!
When he timed it perfectly, the curse fired by the Wraith Warrior rebounded straight back at it.
Pwuhk!
The Wraith Warrior's body stiffened for a moment, unable to move.
Tae-hyun brought the hammer straight down vertically.
KRAK!
"Hoo..."
Because you fought continuously and tenaciously without rest, your Constitution increases by 1.
Your Stamina increases by 1.
Tae-hyun drank one of the potions he'd looted from the Merchant Group and wrapped himself in bandages.
Every single time he fought a Wraith Warrior, it felt dangerously close.
How far have I come?
Every time a Wraith Warrior appeared, he had run, doubled back, run again, and doubled back again.
A lot of time had passed because of that, but it didn't feel like he'd actually made that much progress.
"...!"
Thud, thud, thud—
A sound coming from far away.
Wraith Warriors didn't make noises like that.
Tae-hyun's expression hardened.
What the hell is that?
Usually, sounds like that came from something huge and heavy.
And things like that were usually strong.
"- I smell something alive!"
The Cursed Flesh Golem has appeared.
Unlike with the Wraith Warriors, a warning message appeared for this one.
Tae-hyun swallowed.
The fact that a message like that popped up was itself proof of just how strong the bastard was.
No matter how you looked at it, it seemed twice Tae-hyun's size, both in height and width.
Its appearance was grotesque too. It looked like someone had scavenged muscle from all over and stitched it together in patches.
"- Living thing! A living thing...!"
Tae-hyun didn't listen. He charged.
Either way, that golem was blocking the passage.
- Lucky Strike, Lucky Strike, Lucky Strike!
A rapid chain of Lucky Strike buffs stacked up in succession.
Tae-hyun sprinted down the path and smashed the golem's leg.
"- ...?"
"...?"
The one who hit it was bewildered, and the one who got hit was bewildered too.
Tae-hyun had charged in with such violent momentum that the golem even flinched when the blow landed...
But it had taken no damage at all.
"You're a golem, so why the hell are you a living creature?!"
Cursing, Tae-hyun rolled backward.
A fist slammed down exactly where he'd been standing a moment earlier.
"- You dare insult me!"
"No, if you're a living thing, why are you saying crap like 'I smell something alive'?!"
Grumbling, Tae-hyun kept widening the distance.
Golem-type monsters were usually slow movers. If he opened the gap, then the attack—
"...!"
Pupupak!
Tae-hyun went tumbling backward.
The shock of taking a heavy hit washed through him in full.
Your movement speed decreases.
Your HP is being drained.
Due to Divine Authority, the curse has been weakened.
This is no joke?!
It was much faster than the curses from the Wraith Warriors.
Blink once and it'd already be flying at him.
With Circle of Counterattack—!
"- Die, living thing!"
"...!"
Tae-hyun realized the weakness of Circle of Counterattack.
If they come in from several directions at once, it's impossible to reflect them all!
"Even though it looks like that, the Cursed Flesh Golem is closer to a mage type."
"A mage type?"
Yoon Ju-hwan tilted his head.
Looking at the sheer bulk of the Cursed Flesh Golem, it was hard to believe something like that would be good at magic.
Monsters that were good at magic were supposed to look intelligent. Smart. Scholarly, even.
"It's strong in melee too, sure, but that's just because its base stats are ridiculous. If you break it down, it's a mage type. Look at it spamming curses like that. The only way that's possible is with insane mana recovery and casting speed."
You couldn't let the Cursed Flesh Golem's outward appearance fool you.
If you wanted to deal with it properly, you had to fight it the way you fought a mage.
If you treated it like an ordinary golem, you were asking for trouble.
"If it's a mage-type instead of a melee warrior, doesn't that make it a bad matchup for Kim Tae-hyun?"
"It does. Pretty much."
A warrior-type player who unleashed overwhelming force in close combat.
No one denied that kind of player's power in a one-on-one fight.
But to Tae-hyun, they were easy prey.
Warrior-type players had extremely few skills that could break through evasion and land a hit.
Mages, on the other hand, had curses in every flavor imaginable.
And among those were plenty of skills that ignored evasion and weakened the target directly.
"He needs to put the hammer away, draw the sword, and rush it. At Kim Tae-hyun's current attack power, if he buffs it as much as possible and goes in, he should be able to bring it down."
Lucky Strike had irregular activation conditions, but the skill itself was close to broken.
And if you added in the passive skills he got from the class of Avatar of Archisus, along with Tae-hyun's innate close-quarters combat sense...
Show me, Kim Tae-hyun! Show me your talent!
"Uh... he's running away."
"What?!"
KWAKWAKWA-KWANG!
Tae-hyun ran.
Forward.
At this point, I'm just leaving it behind!
Tae-hyun hadn't entered the dungeon to clear it completely.
He had come in to find the class skill waiting at the end.
He pulled out the bombs he was carrying and threw them at the golem.
More precisely, he threw them at the upper part of the golem—toward the ceiling.
Then he charged at the same time.
Diving into a collapsing ceiling was the kind of thing only a madman would do, but Tae-hyun had something he trusted.
Evasion successful.
Evasion successful.
Evasion successful.
Countless windows flashed up.
Chunks of rock screamed past Tae-hyun's sides, grazing by him and smashing apart with skin-crawling force.
"- Come back! Living thing!"
"Would you come back if you were me?"
Tae-hyun ran at full speed without looking back.
Whirrrk—!
A bizarre sound came from behind him.
Something like a tongue extended out from the golem's body, stretching like a whip and blocking Tae-hyun's path ahead.
There seemed to be dozens of them.
- Shadow Leap!
The exclusive skill of the Wanderer's Shoes.
Shadow Leap.
Tae-hyun's shadow sprang upward and became a foothold beneath his feet.
Tae-hyun stepped on it and leaped upward in succession.
One whip tried to catch his ankle, but—
The binding attack was avoided.
- Complete Escape!
Another exclusive skill of the Wanderer's Shoes.
It gave up the ability to attack in exchange for a tremendous burst of movement speed.
The Flesh Golem showered him with curses, but the distance had already opened.
Tae-hyun vanished swiftly into the darkness of the underground temple corridor.
It felt like he'd been running for ages.
After even turning off the light-emitting magic item as he ran, Tae-hyun realized the passage had ended.
Before he knew it, he had reached a wide hall.
At the center stood a high altar, accessible only by climbing a staircase.
Is this it?
Anyone else would have rushed the altar immediately, but Tae-hyun wasn't just anyone.
The most dangerous moment was always the instant you got careless because you thought you'd made it.
So he checked his surroundings first.
Doesn't look like there's anything here...
The Flesh Golem he had left behind hadn't reappeared, and no Wraith Warriors were showing themselves either.
Which somehow made it more unsettling.
So what's waiting here?
He waited and searched the area, but nothing changed.
Tae-hyun sighed once and started climbing the stairs.
The moment his foot touched the staircase, light began to spill from the altar.
At the same time, a voice rang out.
If you are not the rightful successor of this place, turn back at once.
This warning is for your own sake.
"...?"
Would anyone really hear that and turn around?
Even if they weren't the Avatar of Archisus, Tae-hyun doubted it.
Considering how much suffering it had taken just to get here...
If you refuse to turn back, then you shall face the proper trial!
"Ah. Sure."
Tae-hyun ignored it and kept walking upward.
The voice said nothing more.
What sat atop the altar was a single tightly rolled parchment.
Tae-hyun sighed again.
It radiated the unmistakable feeling that the moment he touched it, something would happen.
If I need to run... there.
Tae-hyun pulled out bombs and planted them in the ceiling and in the corners.
If anything happened, he intended to blow the place open and escape.
Fighting could come later. Grabbing the thing and getting out came first.
That should be enough, right? Then...
Having made up his mind, Tae-hyun reached out.
And he took hold of the parchment.
At once, blinding light erupted from it.