The Giant’s Ring

BOOM-!

"Duck!"

"Kraaaah!"

Amid the blast, someone’s scream rang out. Three bodies struck by the Black Knight’s tower shield lifted clean off the ground, sailed through the air, and crashed back to the earth. The support team rushed in to the wounded, whose bodies were twitching as they coughed up blood.

"Drink this, now."

"Priests, move it. Faster."

A potion filled with a faintly glowing red liquid was brought to the injured man’s mouth. As soon as they drank it, the priests’ divine healing magic poured down in a steady line.

The sunken chests of the wounded rose back into place. Arms and legs that had been left dangling or twisted found their proper shape again.

"This is insane. What the hell is this potion?"

"I’ve never seen anything like it."

The priests knew full well that the reason the injured were healing so quickly was not because of their own divine magic. Their healing had played a part, certainly, but most of the recovery had come from ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the potion.

It was a potion none of them had ever seen in Eternal World. It looked nothing like the potions made by the mages’ tower or the church among the native NPCs they had once called local inhabitants, and its effect was just as different.

"It’s the Masked Lord’s, isn’t it? Made in the Masked Castle."

At the mention of the Masked Lord and the Masked Castle, the priests simply nodded without objection.

"Anyway, it’s incredible."

They moved the injured to one side. Their wounds had healed to a degree, but they still couldn’t jump back into battle right away. It would take some time before they could shake off the aftereffects of the damage they had just taken.

The priests turned their attention to the raid still in progress.

The Knight of the Sun, Richard Polsen, was serving as the main tank, while the Dragon Slayer, Manuel Mateus, who was said to have the strongest attack among the masters of the top-tier guilds, was acting as main dealer in the assault on the Black Knight.

"Back off. Earthquake!"

Richard Polsen shouted for the others to retreat, then moved in even closer to the Black Knight himself. With the kite shield in his hand and his cherished sword, Sun’s Blessing, he drew the Black Knight’s aggro.

The Black Knight responded by driving the massive sword in its hands hard into the ground.

KRRAAARRUMBLE-!

A crater spread outward in a circle from the center of the blade. By then, the raid party had already escaped the range of Earthquake.

"Kraaah!"

"Focus heals!"

At the main healer’s command, the waiting priests poured all of their divine healing magic onto Richard Polsen at once. Even while he was coughing up blood and screaming in pain, Richard Polsen broke free of the stun and immediately drew the Black Knight’s aggro back onto himself.

"Hold for a moment...! Hold... now!"

"Begin the damage!"

Manuel Mateus, serving as the main dealer, shouted as he charged into the battlefield. From the side opposite Richard Polsen, who was holding the aggro, the dealers concentrated all their attacks on one leg of the Black Knight.

Manuel Mateus swung his cherished sword from Eternal World, the one that had earned him the title of Dragon Slayer, in a hard horizontal slash.

No, slash was almost the wrong word. Smash fit it better. The Dragon Slayer, whose attack power was worthy of its fearsome name, slammed into the Black Knight’s leg. But the wound he left behind was only about the width of a finger joint.

Even that much damage could only be inflicted by Manuel Mateus. The other dealers focused one by one on the wound he had created, trying to widen the opening he’d made as much as possible.

"Aggro shifted! Shield charge, dealers dodge!"

Starting with Manuel Mateus, the dealers all withdrew from the battlefield at once. Right on time, Richard Polsen caught the Black Knight’s attention again. But the aggro still refused to settle properly.

The Black Knight rushed straight toward Manuel Mateus, who had done the most damage, tower shield raised in front of it like a wall.

"Manuel!"

"You son of a—!"

Manuel Mateus spat out a curse and dodged sharply to the side. Still, he failed to evade the Black Knight’s attack completely.

Thud-

His body was launched into the air. Even though he managed to lessen the impact by pulling back slightly the instant the Black Knight’s tower shield struck him, a savage pain still surged through him.

There was no time to suffer from it. Manuel Mateus moved immediately. The Black Knight’s follow-up attack was coming. As expected, it drove its sword straight down toward him.

At the moment of crisis, Richard Polsen stepped in front of Manuel Mateus.

"Move, now!"

He barked the order and slashed the Black Knight’s knee with Sun’s Blessing. When a few fragments flew off, the sword that had been swinging toward Manuel Mateus changed course and carved toward Richard Polsen instead.

Richard Polsen narrowly dodged the Black Knight’s attack. While he drew the aggro back onto himself, Manuel Mateus withdrew from the battlefield and received treatment from the priests.

Richard Polsen’s tanking lived up to his reputation. The aggro had shifted to Manuel Mateus for a moment, but when you considered that he had only lost control once over the course of a raid that had lasted more than thirty minutes, it was textbook play through and through.

"Dealers, start attacking!"

Richard Polsen’s shout echoed long across the Steel Mountains.

* * *

"Haah... ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠haah... I feel like I’m going to die."

Leaning against the Black Knight’s corpse, Richard Polsen kept dragging in rough breaths. Not far away, Manuel Mateus lay on the ground and shook his head.

"I don’t think I could do that again if you made me."

"Was the Black Knight always this strong?"

"Not this bad, of course, but it was strong."

Even in Eternal World, the two guilds had periodically cleared the Steel Mountains. But the difficulty had never been quite this high.

Both men knew exactly why. It was because of the equipment worn by the guild members who had joined them in the raid. They were wearing the gear Yoon Sang-hyuk had lent them, but compared with what they had worn in Eternal World, the weapons and armor were lacking in several ways.

"What do we have to give them before we get their gear back?"

Richard Polsen looked over at the guild members who were groaning in pain from their injuries.

"How am I supposed to know?"

Manuel Mateus shook his head at Richard Polsen’s words.

If they could get back even the weapons and armor used by the guild elites during the final quest, the Steel Mountains would become far easier to raid.

"We’ll have to have a serious talk when we get back."

"I’ll talk after I see the result of your talk."

"What a opportunistic bastard."

"Heh. Ah, that hurts."

Laughing, Manuel Mateus clutched his chest and twisted his body. Around the two men, guild members were sprawled out in all directions. Most had exhausted every last ounce of strength and collapsed where they stood. But a few had suffered serious injuries. Four guild members had lost either an arm or a leg.

If not for the potions Yoon Sang-hyuk had supplied, the damage would have been several times worse. No, the raid might not even have been possible at all.

"In the end, this place is basically the Masked Mercenary Group’s hunting ground."

"Pretty much. Until we can raid it safely ourselves, we’ll have to keep importing adamantium and redium somehow."

"Will he sell it?"

"He won’t, right?"

"You’re asking an obvious question. It’s basically strategic material. ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠If I were him, I wouldn’t sell it either."

"Still, we should ask. The two of us at least have some personal ties with the Masked Lord."

"I hope he sells it."

If they could obtain a steady supply of adamantium and redium, they could drastically raise the guild members’ equipment standards.

"That crazy bastard is probably still soloing the Black Knight."

"Probably."

"Man, what a monster."

"Is that news? If the Masked Lord hadn’t taught us how to clear the dungeons that were supposedly impossible to raid, there are plenty we still wouldn’t have been able to clear. Come to think of it, we all owe him a tremendous debt."

"That’s the problem. So ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠many people don’t realize it."

After chatting for a while and recovering some stamina, the two men slowly pushed themselves upright.

"All right, that’s enough. We’ll stop the Steel Mountains raid here. The Black Knight’s corpse will be divided exactly half and half between Absolute Guild and Dragon Slayers Guild."

Watching Richard Polsen organize the guild members, Manuel Mateus shook his head and muttered, "But how are we supposed to transport that corpse?"

* * *

Braki’s battle hammer struck the Black Knight’s joints with pinpoint accuracy. With every successive hunt, the time needed to clear the Black Knight grew shorter and shorter.

Thud-!

At last, the Black Knight stopped moving. It knelt with its head bowed. Even on one knee, it was far taller than Yoon Sang-hyuk.

As he looked at it, an odd light flickered in Yoon Sang-hyuk’s eyes.

It was because of the object sparkling on the ground. At a glance, it looked like a hexagonal nut used in a factory.

"Well, well. So the Giant’s Ring drops after all. Guess I was pretty lucky."

Titan Ring.

It was an item commonly called the Giant’s Ring, and the Black Knight dropped it at an absurdly low rate.

Yoon Sang-hyuk picked up the Titan Ring and used his item appraisal skill.

For a Unique-grade item, the information was unusually sparse. But within that brief description was everything that mattered about how extraordinary the Titan Ring really was.

It raised Strength and Vitality by a hundred points each, and it allowed the user to activate Iron Skin. In other words, it was an essential item for tanks.

In Eternal World, top rankers never traveled with only one set of equipment. Depending on the hunting ground and the boss’s tendencies, they had to change their loadout accordingly.

The most numerous of those loadouts were accessories. Where magic defense was needed, where elemental defense was needed, where physical defense was needed, the accessories worn were all different.

As for the Titan Ring, it was a mandatory item in any situation. There was no need to say twice how valuable that made it.

If Richard Polsen knew Yoon Sang-hyuk had obtained the Titan Ring, he probably would have been sick with jealousy. That was because when Richard Polsen had returned the weapons and armor he had worn in Eternal World, he had not returned the accessories.

If Absolute Guild and Dragon Slayers Guild had had all their accessories with them when they fought the Black Knight, they would not have cleared a single Black Knight and then left the Steel Mountains.

Yoon Sang-hyuk put the Black Knight’s corpse into his subspace. After entering the Steel Mountains, he had hunted six Black Knights. Even after six corpses that likely weighed tens of tons each had been stored inside, the subspace still had an enormous amount of room left.

He brushed his hands against his backside, looked around, and muttered, "Still no Red Knight in sight."