Level Up Machine 051: The Traitors (3)
“Are you planning to use that Forced Liberation you employed before?”
Bae Han-seong asked him, his face hardening into a stiff mask.
Yeong-sik had a history of wiping out Light Shield Guild's elite forces in one go.
But as Yeong-sik himself had said, it was a power he couldn't control at will, and the risks were absurdly high.
With that in mind, Han-seong let out a short sigh before continuing.
“If you're thinking of using Forced Liberation, there's no need. We can hold our own against Judas Guild with our current forces alone.”
If the allied forces from other guilds supporting his 'plan' joined in, taking on Judas Guild head-on wouldn't be difficult at all.
...Most of them died during the last civil war.
The internal war that had ravaged Salvatore Guild hadn't just destroyed the guild itself. The opposing faction that had rebelled against it had met the same downfall.
Numbers favored Tiriya's side, but quality of summoners leaned toward her supporters—neither had an easy path to victory.
That meant if support evened out the headcount, Salvatore Guild actually held the advantage.
The problem is that burning through our forces on something like this would make executing the plan impossible...
Han-seong's expression darkened.
What he was scheming wasn't dungeon raids or monster hunts.
It was assaulting a kingdom's royal castle.
He'd been carefully gathering the necessary forces for that, but wasting them on a fight with Judas Guild would leave him right back at square one.
Not like last time...
Han-seong clenched his fist tightly.
He recalled the desperation of that time—when the guild master's family was threatened, when they fell into the kingdom's trap, when rage boiled over but true revenge went unheeded, and they just kept fighting each other down the path to ruin.
That gut-wrenching despair crept up his spine once more.
“No. As I said before, Forced Liberation isn't a power I can use at will. That's why I'll go with another method.”
Yeong-sik cut through his despair with a calm, matter-of-fact tone.
Hearing that confident declaration, Han-seong looked at him in disbelief.
“We need to fight the traitors without depleting our current forces. We can't afford extreme tactics.”
“Win while keeping most of our strength intact?”
“...At least 80% or we risk derailing the plan.”
Han-seong sighed deeply even as he spoke.
He knew full well how absurd it was to preserve over 80% in a battle of evenly matched forces.
Even by raw numbers, it meant taking only about 20 losses while annihilating 100—a ridiculous feat.
“That sounds doable.”
Contrary to Han-seong's expectation of shock at the 80% requirement, Yeong-sik nodded with a composed expression.
“Doable...? They're no pushovers, Yeong-sik. Especially against our key players like Yu-jin or Cheol-tae—they'll have countermeasures.”
Judas Guild wasn't stupid. They knew beating Salvatore, backed by other guilds, wouldn't be easy.
Yet their unhesitating advance meant they believed they had a solid chance of victory.
“Yes. But they have no intel on me. That's enough.”
Yeong-sik stated it flatly, without a trace of arrogance or disdain.
He spoke with infinite calm and cold precision, as if he'd reached that conclusion through pure logic.
Han-seong frowned as he watched him.
Where does that confidence come from?
He knew Yeong-sik's power better than anyone when not using Forced Liberation.
Sure, his combat sense was exceptional—stronger than your average summoner.
But without combat skills, there were limits.
No, forget skills or sense—Yeong-sik's level was too low.
No way he's leveled up that much in just a month since we parted in Talion...
Han-seong figured even intense hunting couldn't push him past level 50.
Level 50 in a month would be insanely fast already.
“Yeong-sik, what's your current level?”
Han-seong asked, unable to fathom the source of his confidence.
“Level 68.”
“Level... 68?”
Han-seong's eyes widened in shock as he repeated it.
He wasn't the only one stunned. Yuna, Cheol-tae—even the usually stoic Yu-jin—gaped at Yeong-sik.
“How? A month without a supporter, and that kind of level-up...?”
Han-seong stared in utter disbelief.
“I'll explain later. That's not the priority right now, is it?”
Yeong-sik replied calmly.
The tent's occupants nodded in agreement.
He was right—the how of his absurd leveling didn't matter now.
What counted was the imminent clash with Judas Guild.
“Do you have a map of the terrain here?”
“Ah, yes. Here.”
Han-seong handed it over in a daze.
Yeong-sik's eyes sharpened as he scanned the map.
Steep mountains and rocky terrain...
His mind raced.
Park Cheol-tae spoke up.
“If you're thinking of triggering a landslide, I wouldn't recommend it. It'd sabotage our castle raid prep and draw the kingdom's security forces.”
Their position wasn't far from the capital.
A landslide for total annihilation would light up like a beacon for the authorities.
Yu-jin, arms crossed and listening silently, spoke in his signature icy tone.
“Besides, landslides aren't that effective here. This isn't Earth warfare.”
He stated it coldly.
History showed overwhelming victories in army-vs-army battles shared common traits.
One was terrain exploitation: herding foes into impassable spots and burning them, burying them in avalanches.
But as Yu-jin said, wars on the Ernoir continent were a different beast.
Each summoner was superhuman compared to old Earth's humans—powerful beyond measure.
Terrain tricks like fire or landslides weren't useless, but they rarely delivered Earth's decisive results.
“No worries there. I wasn't planning on a landslide anyway.”
Yeong-sik replied flatly.
The guild members stared at him, baffled.
“Then what method do you have in mind?”
Han-seong looked utterly lost.
Kim Chan-hyeong, watching silently, cleared his throat.
He frowned at the Salvatore members fixated on Yeong-sik.
What the hell is going on?
He couldn't make sense of it.
As far as he knew, this Yeong-sik was a newbie who'd joined just months ago.
A 61st-cycle greenhorn who hadn't endured Salvatore's desperate fall.
Yet here he was, steering the conversation like a high-ranking exec—or even the guild master.
No wonder Kim Chan-hyeong was puzzled.
Why...?
Kim Chan-hyeong narrowed his eyes at the unremarkable young man.
No overwhelming strength, no obvious special powers.
Sure, there was a subtle charisma that commanded presence, but for a newbie? That level of influence in the guild defied logic.
“...He's really a newbie?”
Yoo Tae-sik and Park Eun-young eyed Yeong-sik suspiciously, sharing the doubt.
It was beyond common sense—the authority, the aura.
But Salvatore's members—especially Han-seong and Yuna—gazed at him with unwavering trust.
That trust stemmed from one fact: Yeong-sik possessed the potential to single-handedly crush a mid-tier guild.
Having witnessed that miracle firsthand, they couldn't treat him like a mere rookie.
Yeong-sik was too alien for that.
The other guild members felt it too.
Through Yuna and Han-seong, they'd heard what Yeong-sik was and what he'd done.
The tales sounded insane, but when he detached his right arm as proof, they had no choice but to believe.
That uniqueness had granted him outsized influence—no one could see him as just a newbie.
And Yeong-sik's calm tone, his piercing gaze, radiated an eerie charisma that stirred everyone in the tent.
An air as if ruling over others, lording above them, was utterly natural to him.
Despite their questions, Kim Chan-hyeong, Yoo Tae-sik, and Park Eun-young held their tongues.
“First.”
Yeong-sik spoke.
All eyes locked on his mouth.
A heavy silence blanketed the tent.
He pointed to a section of the map.
“We plant mines along this route. They'll panic hard at first. Then use drones to track their positions and keep laying mines ahead.”
Yeong-sik looked up with a sly grin.
“That'll give you a real show.”
His utterly casual tone plunged the tent into thick silence.
“At the right moment, lay down Gatling fire for another wave of chaos. Then we hit 'em with the ambush.”
Kim Chan-hyeong, Yoo Tae-sik, and Park Eun-young stared in bewilderment.
Reading their thoughts was easy.
Mines? Drones? Gatling gun?
What the hell is this guy babbling about?