The White Knight on the Summit
Incheon Namdong Industrial Complex.
A man with a scruffy beard covering half his face wore a cap so old its brim had split. He was a dark-skinned foreigner, but none of the people passing by gave him a second glance.
Foreign workers were common enough in Namdong Industrial Complex that no one thought twice about them. Judging by the black plastic bag in his hand and the worn-out satchel slung over his shoulder, he looked like one of the laborers who had come all the way to this distant country to make a living.
The man left the crowded streets and headed deeper into the industrial zone. Two years ago, this place had been packed with factory workers, but now it was so desolate it might as well have been a ghost town.
What had once been an industrial district had partially transformed into a hunting ground, and all the surrounding factories had gone under. The man kept walking along the empty road through the complex.
When he reached a high wall, he glanced around. Watch posts stood at regular intervals, but not a hint of human presence could be felt inside them.
Tap-
The man lightly stamped his foot. To anyone watching, it would have been unbelievable: with nothing more than a small hop, he vaulted more than five meters and cleanly cleared the wall.
What had once been industrial land was now a hunting ground occupied by an orc village. The man confirmed it with a grin, and between his black beard and dark skin, a set of teeth gleamed especially white.
He took a cigarette from the black bag and lit it.
“Hoo-.”
Exhaling a long stream of smoke, he headed toward the orc village.
An alien presence brushed over his whole body. He had entered the hunting ground. Once again, his hand went into the black bag.
With a sweep of his hand, silver powder cloaked his body. As if it were some kind of magic dust, his form blurred and then vanished.
He dropped the bag to the ground and walked deeper into the orc settlement. Green-skinned orcs came into view, each one roughly twice the bulk of a human, their bodies packed with knotted muscle.
But even as the man passed right beside them, the orcs failed to notice his presence. He moved all the way to the deepest part of the village.
Once he reached a place with no orcs around, he took off his bag and set it down beside him. He picked up a branch from the ground and drew a circle. Inside it, he scratched lines and added strange shapes.
He took the black bag from his satchel and punched a hole in one side. Sparkling powder spilled out through the opening. The man sprinkled it over the circle and symbols he had drawn.
He took out round stones, placed them one by one on the shapes he had made, and then moved to the center of the circle and sat down.
A bizarre incantation spilled from the man's mouth. The mana around him began to writhe. It surged and roiled around the magic circle he had drawn.
How much time had passed?
The man opened his eyes. His entire irises gleamed black. The mana pouring out of the magic circle changed to black at that very moment.
“As king of the dead, I command you. Warriors who have conquered even death itself, awaken.”
The man spread both hands to either side. The black mana, swirling like a vortex, danced in response to his gesture. Black waves of mana rapidly consumed the surroundings. The broad ground around the magic circle turned completely black.
Kreeeek- kreeeek-
With the sound of something grinding against something else, beings began to emerge through the blackened earth.
The undead made of bone.
Skeletons.
In an instant, hundreds of skeletons rose to their feet. Looking at the undead he had created, the man broke into a wide smile.
Even then, more undead kept forcing their way up through the ground.
“I learned something very useful from the Masked Lord.”
* * *
Baekjeong deflected the Black Knight’s sword with his shield and shouted at the top of his lungs.
“DPS, begin attack!”
As if they had been waiting for the order, all the damage dealers launched their assault on the Black Knight at once. Baekjeong kept the Black Knight’s aggro locked in place, constantly adjusting its angle so the DPS could attack freely.
“AoE! Dodge!”
As the damage dealers all retreated in unison, Baekjeong took the Black Knight’s skill head-on. The priests’ holy recovery magic poured down on him. Baekjeong was managing the Black Knight’s aggro with steady precision and leading the raid.
Not far away, a group of players was observing the Black Knight strategy.
“Not bad.”
Yoon Sang-hyuk nodded in satisfaction as he watched Baekjeong keep the Black Knight effectively pinned down.
The Masked Mercenary Group and the Balhae Guild had formed two assault teams and entered the Steel Mountains. Half of the first assault team led by Baekjeong belonged to the Masked Mercenary Group, while the other half was made up of Balhae Guild members.
It wasn’t that Yoon Sang-hyuk looked down on the Balhae Guild, but they were far behind the Masked Mercenary Group in level, and the gear they wore was just as different. If the Balhae Guild tried to take on the Black Knight alone, there would be heavy casualties.
“You’re watching closely, aren’t you?”
“Yes, my lord.”
Balhae Guild Master Choi Seok-hyun answered shortly and firmly.
He had the highest level in the Balhae Guild, and his gear was the best among them, but Choi Seok-hyun had never actually fought a Black Knight before.
“If you make a mistake, people will die.”
“I understand.”
“The Masked Mercenary Group’s sub-tank will handle the front line with you. For the first clear, let him take the main tank position.”
It was the sort of thing that would have stung his pride, but Choi Seok-hyun didn’t argue. Even as a sub-tank of the Masked Mercenary Group, that man was still far above him in level.
“If you can clear the Black Knight properly, you’ll be able to make up for the Balhae Guild’s biggest weakness: your low levels. Don’t get greedy about hoarding loot. The guild gets stronger when the guild members get stronger, and that’s how you get stronger too.”
“I’ll keep that in mind.”
Thud-!
The Black Knight threw its body down onto the ground, and the first assault team led by Baekjeong ended its raid.
“Raid complete!”
At Baekjeong’s cry, the participants burst into cheers all at once. They had finished the raid with not a single injury.
“We won’t be able to take on two of them.”
As Baekjeong approached, Yoon Sang-hyuk spoke. No one had been injured, but the gear they wore was far from normal. The armor was in tatters, the sword had chips knocked out all along its edge, and even the unique-grade shield was dented in several places.
“You worked hard.”
Baekjeong smiled broadly and bowed his head.
“Did the hunting there help?”
“Yes, my lord. Since everything there is structured like a full raid, I’ve learned a great deal.”
He was talking about the Castle of Chaos.
The degraded demon lords that appeared in the Castle of Chaos were all raid bosses in their own right. After fighting raids so often, it was only natural that Baekjeong’s judgment had sharpened and his ability to give the right orders to his team had improved.
It would have been good to send the Balhae Guild members to the Castle of Chaos as well, but Yoon Sang-hyuk didn’t trust them enough for that yet. Maybe someday, once enough time had passed and his trust in them had grown, but for now he wasn’t going to show them everything.
“Rest enough, then move out.”
* * *
After the second assault team finished its raid, the Masked Mercenary Group and the Balhae Guild withdrew from the Steel Mountains. After watching them leave the dungeon, Yoon Sang-hyuk climbed the mountain alone.
The second assault team had also cleared the Black Knights without issue. Two people had been injured, but even that was a better result than he had expected.
He ignored the Black Knights he saw and kept climbing higher and higher. Today’s goal was to reach the summit. If luck was on his side, maybe he would run into the Steel Mountains’ boss, the White Knight.
He looked as though he were walking slowly, but he was actually ascending at a speed faster than an ordinary person could sprint on level ground. About an hour later, he reached the summit.
The peak of the Steel Mountains was a round, flat plain about a hundred meters in radius.
Inside his mask, Yoon Sang-hyuk smiled brightly.
Something welcome was waiting in the center of that plain.
“Am I lucky?”
Meeting a White Knight in Eternal World had been like plucking a star from the sky. There was no one capable of raiding a White Knight, which meant Yoon Sang-hyuk could monopolize it if he found one, but it had always been terribly difficult to locate.
As if sensing Yoon Sang-hyuk’s presence, the White Knight slowly turned around. Unlike the Black or Red Knights, the White Knight wasn’t large. It was exactly the same height and build as Yoon Sang-hyuk himself.
But just because it was smaller didn’t mean the value of its remains was any less. Every part of the White Knight’s body was made of mithril.
In terms of value, even one arm from a White Knight was worth more than the complete corpse of a Red Knight.
“Give me one Golem Heart, at least.”
Among the items dropped by the knight series that appeared in the Steel Mountains, the Golem Heart had the lowest drop rate. Magic engineers valued it even higher than dragon hearts.
Whether it was fate or not, even after hunting more knights than anyone else in Eternal World, Yoon Sang-hyuk had never obtained a single Golem Heart.
“Dina would love this.”
Dina Kruger, the magic engineer of the basement family, might even start treating Yoon Sang-hyuk like her father if he brought her a Golem Heart. If it was the White Knight’s heart instead of the Black Knight’s, then there was no need to even ask.
He faced the White Knight, who held a greatsword as long as his own height.
If a dungeon overflow happened in the Steel Mountains and the White Knight crossed the boundary, South Korea would turn into hell.
The weapon Yoon Sang-hyuk chose against the White Knight was the dragon emperor Admarion’s prized sword, Admarion’s Recognition. Braki’s war hammer and the Thunder Rod were both unique items, but if they kept striking a White Knight made entirely of mithril, their durability wouldn’t hold out.
Admarion’s Recognition was a sword forged from dragon bone, a material tougher than mithril. Its blade had been infused with mana extracted from a dragon heart and quenched in dragon blood, then named after Admarion, the dragon emperor once called the king of dragons.
The White Knight slashed the air with its greatsword.
Though its frame was small, it carried a presence he could never feel from a Black or Red Knight.
A thrilling jolt ran up Yoon Sang-hyuk’s spine and shook his head.
He moved first.
Spat-
He kicked off the ground and closed the distance between himself and the White Knight. Yoon Sang-hyuk’s sword surged upward from below. The White Knight dodged the attack, leaving a white afterimage behind, then swung its greatsword horizontally. Before the blade itself arrived, the sharp wind born from that swing swept over Yoon Sang-hyuk.
Yoon Sang-hyuk’s upper body snapped backward. He bent his waist until his back nearly touched the ground, then straightened again and slammed his shoulder into the White Knight.
Once more, the White Knight evaded his assault with a simple movement and brought its greatsword down vertically.
Crack- KWAANG-
The floor caved in.
Yoon Sang-hyuk’s sword aimed for the White Knight’s wrist. The White Knight lifted the blade it had just smashed into the ground back up again.
Clang.
The two swords collided. Yoon Sang-hyuk’s body flew upward. The White Knight’s strength was that tremendous. Even the White Knight itself was forced back a step.
A white flash swept across Yoon Sang-hyuk as he landed on the ground. His dazzling aura blade had pierced through the tip of the White Knight’s greatsword and come surging up.
The aura blade could only be used once a swordsman reached level 250 and completed their final advancement to become the Master of the Sword.
This was exactly why the so-called top ten guilds back in Eternal World had never been able to raid a White Knight.
Aside from Yoon Sang-hyuk, the highest-level player known to the world was Richard Polsen. He had returned to reality, continued leveling, and was only now just reaching level 230. Which meant even he still couldn’t use an aura blade.
“Not bad.”
Wooooong-
A red flash surged from Yoon Sang-hyuk’s sword as well.
Charging at the White Knight at high speed, Yoon Sang-hyuk shouted,
“Let’s play for real.”