A Battle of Mutual Misunderstanding
While everyone was busy misunderstanding everyone else, Woo Jeong-sik, Kim Ji-sahn, and Park Seong-chan came trudging back after fighting each other to their hearts’ content.
“What are you doing?”
“We were talking about cooking.”
At Tae-hyun’s answer, Kim Ji-sahn stole a glance at Ju Hyeon-yeong.
Then he asked in alarm, “D-don’t tell me... you’re not actually teaching her how to cook or anything, are you?”
“Nope.”
“He is.”
Tae-hyun and Ju Hyeon-yeong answered at the exact same time.
Tilting her head, Ju Hyeon-yeong asked, “Was I not supposed to say that?”
“Yeah. Next time, watch what I say and match me.”
“I’m sorry. I didn’t realize I wasn’t supposed to say it.”
Listening to the exchange, Kim Ji-sahn nearly jumped out of his skin in disbelief.
“No! Tae-san-nim! If you’re going to teach someone, shouldn’t it be us first?! Do you have any idea how hard we worked?!”
“Fine. I’ll teach you.”
“Really?!”
“Yeah. Grab a ladle.”
“Understood—... wait, what? Why a ladle?”
“Weren’t you asking me to teach you cooking?”
“Not cooking! Blacksmithing!”
“Blacksmithing... there’s not really much for me to teach.”
At Tae-hyun’s words, Kim Ji-sahn and Park Seong-chan let out short snorts of disbelief.
Even Woo Jeong-sik, standing to the side, looked unconvinced.
“Not much to teach? And you expect us to believe that?”
“Then don’t, you little punk.”
Tae-hyun’s voice turned dangerous in an instant.
The moment they heard it, the other two flinched and shrank back.
For the moment he’d seemed ordinary enough, but now that they thought about it, Tae-hyun’s personality had always been rotten to the core.
No, seriously... when he talks to that woman, he’s all nice and polite...!
What is this, discrimination?!
Tae-hyun was the sort of person whose attitude changed depending on who he was dealing with.
With people who were weak like children, or genuinely kind, he might be awkward, but he still adjusted himself to them.
But with people as twisted and shady as the three in front of him?
That was when his real personality came out.
Ju Hyeon-yeong was so upright she practically made people think She’s dazzling!, so he treated her kindly. Those three, on the other hand, were a different story.
They were greedy, just like Tae-hyun himself.
“N-no, it’s not that I don’t believe you... I just meant, please teach us anything at all.”
“That’s right! It’s fine if there isn’t much! We’d be grateful if you just taught us what you know!”
An immediate change of stance.
Kim Ji-sahn and Park Seong-chan folded at once.
There was no point stubbornly pushing in a situation like this. All it would get them was another beating.
Woo Jeong-sik, however, had a little less sense than the others.
“Come on. To me, it just looks like you don’t want to teach us.”
“...!”
Kim Ji-sahn and Park Seong-chan whipped their heads around to stare at him.
Had that man finally lost his mind?
They had spent a fair amount of time on the island with Tae-hyun, but Woo Jeong-sik had mostly been elsewhere.
So he had no idea just how nasty Tae-hyun could get.
Tae-hyun looked at Woo Jeong-sik and asked, “What?”
“Huh?”
The moment he heard that single word, Woo Jeong-sik unconsciously straightened his posture.
It took real talent to pack that much chill into a one-syllable word.
“What did you just say?”
“Uh, I—I said maybe you just don’t want to teach us... it was a joke. A joke!”
“A joke? Didn’t sound like one.”
“People can joke around! Why are you acting so scary—wait, why are you walking this way...?”
“I was about to make a joke too. What? Don’t like that?”
There were few things more terrifying than someone radiating pure frost while claiming they were about to joke around.
Woo Jeong-sik kept backing up.
He’s not actually going to PK me right here... is he?
Tae-hyun didn’t PK him.
Instead, he called over the soldiers.
“Hey.”
“You called, sir?”
“This gentleman says he wants to go back. Send him back.”
“Pardon? When did I ever— no, I don’t want to go back! Let go!”
“If he doesn’t want to go back, you can beat him a few times first.”
At Tae-hyun’s words, the soldiers lifted their spears.
Not to stab him—with the shafts. They looked ready to club him.
Seeing that, Woo Jeong-sik hurriedly clamped his mouth shut.
“Take him back. And if he keeps yapping on the ship, toss him into the sea.”
“Mmph! Mmmpfh!”
As the soldiers dragged him away, Woo Jeong-sik learned a few more facts.
One of them was that Tae-hyun’s personality was incredibly filthy.
“Nice. The loudmouth’s gone.”
“......”
Kim Ji-sahn and Park Seong-chan stared in the direction Woo Jeong-sik had been dragged off, looking utterly appalled.
He might’ve been a rival, but they’d never expected him to vanish like that.
“Anyway, let’s keep moving. The soldiers want to get going too.”
At Tae-hyun’s words, both blacksmiths pulled miserable faces.
The chance to ask him to teach them skills had slipped away.
After tidying up the pot, Ju Hyeon-yeong asked, “Is there anything I can do to help?”
“What’s a cook supposed to do in the middle of a fight? Once the work’s done, you can cook.”
Hearing that, Kim Ji-sahn asked, “Isn’t there anything we can help with?”
“Sure there is. Carry my luggage for me. Woo Jeong-sik’s gone, so I’ve got no one left to haul it.”
“......”
Clearly, they were being treated very differently.
Just because she’s pretty, this is way too much, isn’t it?
Ju Hyeon-yeong really was diligent, and she was the calm, elegant kind of beauty too, but that didn’t make their resentment vanish.
“Don’t want to carry it?”
“No, sir! We’d love to!”
“Let’s move. We don’t want to get in the soldiers’ way while they’re fighting.”
And so the players followed behind the soldiers, heading deeper into the underground dungeon.
“The path splits here. What should we do?”
The Centurion commanding the soldiers looked to Tae-hyun as he asked.
At the suddenly branching tunnel, Tae-hyun frowned.
That wasn’t here earlier.
He had only come through once, but he remembered the route perfectly.
In matters like this, Tae-hyun’s memory was flawless.
A trap. If the dungeon layout’s changed all of a sudden...
Dungeons whose paths shifted over time weren’t exactly rare.
Tae-hyun activated a skill.
“Let’s take the middle.”
“No need to send scouts?”
“There’s no reason to check the others. It’d just be a waste of time.”
“Understood. We’ll proceed that way.”
Thanks to Brangson holding Tae-hyun in such high regard, the soldiers listened to him readily.
If some other player had said the same thing, there was a good chance they would’ve refused—or at best responded halfheartedly.
“Specter Warriors!”
“Form ranks! They’re nothing special!”
By now, the Specter Warriors were familiar enemies to the soldiers.
They barely even panicked anymore.
“Wait... something’s off.”
“Sir?”
But Tae-hyun had already realized something was wrong.
“They’re stronger than the ones we fought earlier. Better be careful.”
“Then shall we have the priests prepare an attack?”
“That’s fine, but I’ll need to join the fight too.”
“We can’t allow that! Lord Brangson specifically—”
“Oops, my foot slipped!”
Shouting that, Tae-hyun rushed forward.
It was true—the Specter Warriors here were stronger.
Looks like the Specter of the Ancient God really is nearby.
He’d guessed it had fled underground to recover, and apparently that guess had been spot on.
Clang!
A Specter Warrior caught Tae-hyun’s attack.
The Specter Warriors here may have grown stronger, but one thing about them was exactly the same.
“Kill him!”
“It’s him!”
They hated Tae-hyun with a passion.
The moment Tae-hyun stepped to the front, the Specter Warriors broke away from the soldiers and charged him instead.
The soldiers freaked out and rushed forward as well.
“No! Stop them!”
“He must not be harmed!”
As a result, before Tae-hyun could even swing his sword, the soldiers had already formed a human wall in front of him.
“Would you idiots let me fight already?!”
Tae-hyun shouted in frustration.
Being considerate was one thing, but this was a little too much.
“So you have finally come, Successor. I have been waiting for you.”
Tae-hyun nodded with a deeply exhausted expression.
They had now reached the altar where the Specter of the Ancient God had first awakened.
Defeating the swarming Specter Warriors and avoiding the trap-made detours, they’d pushed steadily forward, so getting here hadn’t been difficult.
But Tae-hyun looked utterly drained.
Not because of the Specter Warriors, and not because of the traps.
Because of the soldiers.
I never got to swing my sword even once in the end.
Every time he tried to do anything, they threw their lives on the line to stop him.
Tae-hyun let out a long, weary sigh.
Seeing that, the Specter of the Ancient God apparently took it the wrong way and began to laugh.
“Kuhahaha! It seems my servants gave you more trouble than you expected, Successor.”
“Yeah. They sure did.”
“I suppose I should at least praise you for somehow making it all the way here! Behold my authority! This island is mine now, and the sea before it will admit no one! With but a flick of a finger, I can—”
As the Specter of the Ancient God droned on, Ju Hyeon-yeong leaned in and whispered, “Do we really have to wait for it to finish talking?”
“...?”
“Wouldn’t it be better if the priests and mages used the time it’s talking to prepare their attacks and hit it?”
“That is an ice-cold plan. I love it.”
“What? Ice-cold?”
“That’s the same energy as attacking the enemy robot while it’s still in the middle of transforming. Completely my style.”
“......”
While Ju Hyeon-yeong froze, Tae-hyun beckoned to the Centurion.
“Prepare to attack.”
“Attack immediately?”
“Yeah. What’s the point of listening to this idiot ramble? Let’s just hit it.”
“Successor! If you have anything to say, then speak—... hm?”
As the Specter of the Ancient God talked, the soldiers began moving in a flurry.
After getting burned that many times, it still hasn’t learned.
The Specter’s attention was fixed solely on Tae-hyun, ignoring everyone else.
Thanks to that, the Royal Navy soldiers were able to finish their preparations cleanly.
The mages and priests alike began chanting in earnest.
“You coward! Successor, can you still call yourself the Successor after bringing outsiders with you instead of coming alone?!”
“Didn’t you already say I wasn’t qualified?”
“Th-that may be true, but this is still cowardly!”
“Sure. I’ll keep fighting cowardly, then you can come at me honorably. Though now that I think about it, taking over an entire island and spamming undead is kind of cowardly too, isn’t it?”
“That’s not cowardly, that’s my authority—”
Holy Burst
Mana Overlap
Raging Sphere of Flame
“Kraaaagh!”
While Tae-hyun kept it talking, the priests and mages completed their spells and launched their attack.
Blinding flashes slammed into the Specter of the Ancient God, while blazing fire orbs exploded and scattered in all directions.
“I will never forgive this!”
At the Specter of the Ancient God’s howl, Tae-hyun drew his sword.
He hadn’t expected magic to finish it off in the first place.
No matter how stupid it looked, this was still a boss monster powerful enough to transform an entire island.
If they wanted to end it, they’d need to deal damage on that scale.
“Go!”
Tae-hyun shouted go only after charging first.
If he’d shouted it before moving, the soldiers probably would’ve stopped him.
“Ah! We’ll take the lead!”
Ignoring the soldiers shouting behind him, Tae-hyun closed in on the Specter of the Ancient God.
The Specter lashed its body out like a whip at him.
Tak!Tat-tak!Ta-ta-tak!
Every strike that hit the floor shattered and split the ground apart.
Tae-hyun bent his neck aside to evade the whip, then slashed hard through its torso.
A critical hit has occurred!
The true body of the Specter of the Ancient God has begun to break down. 99%
“...Huh?”
Tae-hyun unconsciously lifted his head and stared at the Specter of the Ancient God.
A giant mass of writhing blackness.
And after taking all that punishment from the mages and priests, it still had 99% left?
“What is it, Successor? Are you frightened?”
“Well... if it comes to it, I’ll just run.”
Tae-hyun reached that conclusion cleanly.
After all, there were plenty of other people here who could die in his place.
A chill ran down Kim Ji-sahn’s and Park Seong-chan’s spines all at once.