No Wonder He's So Wicked
I have a feeling that guy is talking trash about me.
"Archisus...!"
"Hmm. I guess accepting it was too much after all."
Tae-hyun gripped his weapon once more. The demons who had been victimized by Archisus in the Demon Realm harbored incredibly deep grudges. Basically, the older the archdemon, the deeper the grudge ran.
"Hey~~~!!! You... bastards! Have you... have you ever been scammed by Archisus?!"
"Ah, that demon is at it again. He always gets drunk like that whenever he drinks human souls."
"Let's not invite him to our soul parties anymore."
It was hard to believe, but Pogalo was technically an Archdemon. He might struggle and fight to the death, claiming he would never compromise with Tae-hyun, the Avatar of Archisus.
Honestly, I don't really know what makes him strong, but if he struggles, I'll just beat him with everything I've got.
A man who gave his absolute all even if his opponent was a level 1 slime! That was none other than Tae-hyun.
"Are you asking me, Pogalo, to cooperate against Archisus?!"
"...?"
"Then it can't be helped! Keugh! I shall cooperate!" Pogalo shouted grandly.
For a moment, Tae-hyun thought he had misheard. He had expected something like, Do you think I would cooperate even if I die by Archisus's hand?!
Why did he sound so tragic and solemn just to surrender?
"R-right. Thanks for cooperating. So, are there any dangerous demons around here?"
"Keugh! Do you think I would tell you such a thing! But this vicinity is abandoned land, so few demons covet it!"
"......"
[......]
"......"
The gazes of Tae-hyun's party turned extremely subtle. What kind of guy was this?
"Then is it safe?"
"Not quite. The reason this place is abandoned is..."
Rumble!
"!"
A lightning storm is raging!
Beware of the lightning striking from the skies of the Demon Realm! Lightning is famously known to seek out exceptionally unfortunate individuals.
Your Luck is insanely high!
The lightning does not approach your vicinity.
"Because of this weather?"
The Demon Realm was also a place where people—well, demons—lived, so the weather had to be decent for a region to be popular. Demons had diverse preferences, but few would enjoy a place where lightning raged like crazy.
"We need to prepare! We have to prepare!"
"For what?"
"You idiot! Lightning is striking!"
Suana's true feelings slipped out in her panic! Unlike Tae-hyun, who had seen the system messages, Suana was desperate.
"Who is she calling an idiot..."
"Shall I kill her?"
Hearing Yu Ji-soo's words, Suana flared up. It was one thing to be ignored by Kim Tae-hyun or Cain, but to be looked down on by the rest of the party? When had she fallen so low!
"You. Watch your mouth. Unless you want to PK."
"Ah, sure. Go ahead if you want to."
Yu Ji-soo gestured with her hands, mimicking a Sweet Traditional Snack.
Watching this, Choi Sang-yun was filled with admiration.
This kid... is copying Tae-hyun perfectly!
She only learned the bad habits!
Being treated like a Sweet Traditional Snack by a player she barely knew made Suana's blood pressure spike even further.
"Why, you little..."
"Hey, you're a ranker, just hold back."
"Yeah. And they're with Kim Tae-hyun, what can you do?"
"Maintain your image! Your image!"
The other rankers with her held Suana back. They weren't usually close and were actually rivals, but after getting ruined together by the World Tree, they had somehow bonded!
If a big fight breaks out, Kim Tae-hyun will get involved!
Just endure it!
Of course, saying that directly would be too embarrassing, so they beat around the bush.
"Image management! Image!"
"I heard Yuseong Gaming even screens players' personalities!"
"Are you saying my personality is bad right now?"
"A-ah... no. It's not like that. Of course you have a great personality."
"But you never know what might happen. You have to manage it beforehand."
Tae-hyun tilted his head.
"Why is Yuseong Gaming being brought up?"
Johansson replied.
"I heard she's preparing to join Yuseong Gaming."
"But they check personalities?"
"Yuseong Gaming screens for character and any past trouble, you know."
Hmm. Then shouldn't they fire their captain?
Tae-hyun had a thought that would have made Lee Se-yeon clutch the back of her neck in outrage.
Yu Ji-soo stared intently at Suana from the side.
"Hmm..."
"What are you staring at? Lower your eyes."
"Ah. Yes."
Yu Ji-soo smiled brightly. Strangely, that smile was even more irritating. She felt like she had lost somehow!
Suana quickly changed the subject.
"...We have to prepare for the lightning! Even the Guild Alliance suffered massive damage from it before!"
"Then prepare."
"What?"
"I said, prepare. I won't stop you."
At Tae-hyun's words, Suana's expression contorted in various ways before settling. She was simply too terrified of Tae-hyun to say anything to him.
"...Fine! I'll just prepare!"
"Those Guild Alliance bastards are such pushovers. If they had just brought someone with high Luck, it would have been solved instantly."
Tae-hyun muttered nonsense to himself. Suana huffed, glared at Yu Ji-soo one last time, and stomped off. Tae-hyun clicked his tongue at the sight.
"It would be better if she didn't..."
"What do you mean by that?"
"Nothing. Anyway, Pogalo. Is it because of this weather that other demons don't come here?"
"Hmph! Do you think I would answer your questions! The reason this is abandoned land is because of the monsters nearby!"
There were monsters in the Demon Realm as well. Monsters far stronger and more dangerous than those on the continent! However, things operated a bit differently here compared to the continent. While the continental races avoided areas with strong monsters, the Demon Realm simply hunted them down. Why would demons bother avoiding monsters? They were a race several times more powerful than those on the continent.
In other words, any monsters remaining in the Demon Realm were either incredibly numerous or absurdly powerful!
"What kind of monsters?"
"We call them the ones from the shadows. Because..."
You possess extremely high Luck! You have detected the opponent's stealth!
You possess the Lucky Stealth skill! You receive an additional bonus to detecting stealth!
You possess the Highest-grade Tactical Skill! You have successfully detected additional stealth targets!
Flash!
"Ambush!"
Highest-grade Tactical Skill has been activated!
The stats of your party members rise drastically.
You receive a command bonus due to your Highest-grade Tactical Skill.
"Crazy!"
"W-what is this?!"
The rankers weren't surprised by the ambush. As veteran rankers, they had been through all kinds of battles—land, sea, and air. They wouldn't be startled by a stealth monster's surprise attack. What shocked them was the message window!
What kind of tactical skill granted this many bonuses? And at the Highest grade?
Didn't the buff-specialized commander players raised by large guilds barely reach the early stages of Advanced?
What on earth has this guy been doing?
Tae-hyun activated his skill without hesitation.
"Aki-sus's Divine Territory!"
You have used Aki-sus's Divine Territory!
A domain is declared in the name of Archisus!
The opponent's stealth is broken!
The opponent is afflicted with the status ailment: Blind...
The opponent is struck by the lightning of the Demon Realm!
Oh. I didn't expect that. Even the lightning pouring from outside struck them!
"Kahaha! Wipe them out!"
"Nice, very nice!"
The demons were thrilled. The unlucky adventurers were being attacked. Of course they were happy.
"Get the shields out!"
At Tae-hyun's shout, the Archisus Artillery responded vigorously.
"Yes, sir!"
The demons were puzzled. They didn't seem to carry shields, so did they even have any? The answer came immediately.
"Hey!! You crazy dwarf bastards!"
The Dwarfs were setting up the cages holding the captive demons as shields in front of them! It was a swift action executed without a single second of hesitation.
"Don't you need our strength!"
"If we die, you'll be in trouble too!"
"We can just get new ones!"
"Do you think finding demons is easy!"
"Hmph. We even have a Demon Duke's son at our place!"
"What a ridiculous lie... Just let us go instead! We'll fight!"
The demons clamored, but the Artillery didn't budge an inch. Just like Western pioneers circling their wagons to form a temporary fort, they used the demons to construct an additional fortress. Furthermore, the claim that the cages were crafted by a god of silver wasn't a bluff; they boasted insane durability.
As expected! They can be used as shields too.
In truth, Tae-hyun had been eyeing the cage-like prisons holding the demons rather than the demons themselves. Their durability was extraordinary, proving to be incredibly sturdy.
"Keugh! You bastard of Archisus! If you don't let me go, I will get on my knees and beg!"
"Ah. Instinctively..."
When he came to his senses, he realized he was holding Pogalo out in front of him as a shield. Even though Tae-hyun didn't really need a shield!
They are strong, though.
Once the attackers' stealth was broken, Tae-hyun immediately grasped the situation. Elf-like figures were mounting an assault while commanding wolf monsters. The peculiar thing was that everyone, from the commanders to the beasts they controlled, possessed invisibility skills! If that was a racial trait, it was an utterly broken one.
Moreover, as expected of denizens of the Demon Realm, their levels didn't seem low. Even with their stealth broken, they fought quite well.
But they aren't unstoppable.
The rankers, bolstered by various buffs, along with Tae-hyun's party and the soldiers and knights brought by the 4th Prince, fought back. If they still had their stealth, it might be different, but now Aki-sus's Divine Territory was active. The battlefield was heavily stacked against them. The attackers seemed to realize this quickly as well.
"Retreat! Retreat!"
You have repelled the attack of the Shadow Elves!
Your control over the Abandoned Land has increased.
Current control over the Abandoned Land: 4%
If you completely dominate the Abandoned Land, you can declare it as the territory of Archisus.
Oh... this is basically asking to be killed.
A server-wide aggro draw to the demons of every layer of the Demon Realm! A declaration that would infuriate even the Demon Dukes who had been shut inside their castles for ten thousand years! But Tae-hyun didn't just dismiss it. He had to clear the quest eventually. He couldn't avoid declaring the return of Archisus forever. He had to do it at least once.
What if I raise the territory control as much as possible, wait for the kingdom's main army to arrive, and once they get here, top off the control to declare it Archisus's land and immediately bail?
In that case, the main army would literally experience the Demon Realm on hell difficulty!
[......]
It's not my fault, is it? Sure, it hurts to lose land we worked hard to conquer, but...
Tae-hyun was shameless. If they sent him as the vanguard, they had to take responsibility! Honestly, Tae-hyun's feelings had already soured completely after they sent him as a vanguard without even properly providing knights or soldiers. If you don't look out for me, I won't look out for you either!
Carbanog wasn't a particularly benevolent divine entity either. The kind of god who, if slapped on the left cheek, would retaliate by double-slapping both cheeks with its front paws!
"That startled me. As expected of the Demon Realm, there are all kinds of freaks."
"But didn't we not get hit by a single bolt of lightning? Do we really need to build this?"
The rankers grumbled. They were already experiencing an identity crisis over whether they were rankers or manual laborers due to the fortress construction, and now they had to do even more work.
"If you want to get struck by lightning, go right ahead!"
"But Kim Tae-hyun is just standing there doing nothing."
"Yeah. Doesn't he have some way to avoid getting hit?"
An incredibly complacent thought that no proper ranker should ever have! But Tae-hyun was the exception. Even now, countless guilds and rankers were diving in, thinking, The Demon Realm seems way too dangerous no matter how I look at it... but hmm, since Kim Tae-hyun went, he must have a plan. It'll be fine! The ultimate symbol of faith and trust!
Hearing that, Suana suddenly grew anxious. Indeed. If it were Kim Tae-hyun, he would definitely be working them to the bone to prepare a countermeasure, wouldn't he?
"...Mr. Kim Tae-hyun. By any chance, do you have a way to block the lightning?"
"Yeah. I've already got it covered."
"Then why didn't you tell us?"
"You didn't ask."
"...You... son of a..."
A clash between reason and instinct!