The Infinite Engine
Famous for the GM's open-world level of freedom. This world is truly packed with all kinds of possibilities. As a side note, the question I hear most often is, "Doesn't it get boring doing this much?" Haven't you done everything already? No way. It's always new and thrilling for me. Especially squad compositions—they always get me excited......
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......If it's difficult, start by throwing out the fixed ideas of tank, damage dealer, and supporter. Why shouldn't a tank attack? Can't a close-range dealer take over the tank role instead? Is there a law that says supporters can't attack?
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......When you reach the final advanced stage, you can combine various special classes like bards, summoners, and healers with each of their traits. Have you seen a healer building walls? Gets you pumped, right? It's awesome, isn't it? After seeing that, are you still going to do things the same old way?
The surging black waves.
A gloomy haze sparkling like the Milky Way across those black waves.
The sinister magical power emitted by the Dark Trolls' tattoos, filling the entire field of vision.
And right now.
There is a light resisting that torrent of ashen magical power.
Boom!!
Hwarang drove in a Shield Charge. Several Dark Trolls were blasted into the air.
The trolls were completely crumpled like guardrails smashed by an eight-ton truck. And in that brief instant while they hung in the air—
Hwarang reloaded once more.
He backstepped far away and searched for weak points. He locked onto the protruding sections.
Hwarang's log-thick thighs swelled for a single moment before he transformed into another streak of light and crushed the protrusion.
Faster.
Bang—!!
Even faster!
Kwaaang—!!
I won't stop.
KAAAADDD—!!
The chariot of light ground the Dark Trolls to pieces. Monstrous strength pulverized them as blood and flesh scattered everywhere.
Yet the Dark Troll wave kept surging without end. Compared to the raging black waves, it was only a faint light, but Hwarang protected that light without the slightest doubt.
At that moment, Pridwen answered that noble light with light of its own. Pridwen asked Kim Yu-shin.
Are you righteous?
Instead of answering with words, Kim Yu-shin showed Pridwen his response.
He would not be defeated by those sinister beings, nor would he ever kneel. Standing at the very front to protect his comrades and family—that was Kim Yu-shin's definition of justice.
And in that instant—
AAAA——!!
Pridwen answered Kim Yu-shin's justice.
Then I shall make you a hero.
The goddess depicted on Pridwen manifested in light and sang toward the sky. With a tremendous roar, something slammed down onto the black waves.
Bang—!!!
Something revealed itself through the dust.
Standing atop the crushed corpses of Dark Trolls was none other than a shield. A sacred silver shield the size of a triumphal arch.
And there wasn't just one.
Twelve—the number that symbolized perfection. It was the highest praise Pridwen could offer to Kim Yu-shin's justice, and so the symbols of that justice rained down.
――――――!!!!
The black waves halted before the newly erected silver wall.
Caught in a bottleneck and packed tightly together, the only place they could reach was the single entrance at the center of the wall.
When Hwarang arrived there, radiating light, another gatekeeper was already ripping trolls apart.
Crunch—!
Crushing, hurling, tearing, folding.
A giant.
Park Su-bin's milk-white giant was smashing trolls to pieces. Hwarang stood beside him and spoke.
"Subin, I'm joining in."
"Yes!"
Hwarang's Super Synergy changed depending on who he was with.
When paired with Yu Ri-ra, it focused on protection and growth. When he formed a duo with the Mountain King, mobility and pressure devastated the league.
Even so, both combinations had fallen slightly short of fully drawing out Hwarang's weight and aggression.
But now it was different.
Kim Yu-shin and Park Su-bin.
Hwarang and the Monster.
The destructive physical force radiating from the chariot of light and the giant trampled everything around them. The trolls couldn't even use their greatest advantage—their regeneration—because they were being thoroughly destroyed.
The two of them were displaying the catastrophic destructive power exactly as Lee Shin had taught them.
"In this formation, their role isn't simply to block."
Since they had given up on breaking through, the monsters had no choice but to pile up.
Look at them right now—the Dark Trolls tangled together in a massive heap, the ones blocked by the wall screaming as they burned from the holy power radiating from the shield barrier.
Yet the Dark Trolls kept pouring in. Even if they burned, they regenerated. Even if they were trampled and crushed, their regenerative power let them rise again and threaten the main force.
"These are Level 7 Dark Trolls, and they're strengthened due to their numbers. Simple tanking might not be enough. That's why these two have to step forward."
What they had in common was raw physical power.
Park Su-bin's giant that used overwhelming mass, and Kim Yu-shin's Shield Charge that utilized mass and speed.
A style where offense and defense were one and the same.
On top of that, both of their basic attacks were area-of-effect strikes.
"It's fifty-fifty meat and water anyway. Just swing wildly. This is the perfect battlefield for those two to display their maximum destructive power."
Whenever the streak of light charged in, several trolls flew into the sky along with a shockwave. Whenever the giant rampaged, foul-smelling blood painted the air.
"And once it's set up like this, the main actor appears."
No matter how much world-class stamina Hwarang possessed, no matter how close to infinite Park Su-bin's magic power was.
It wasn't truly infinite. There was still an end.
Moreover, this position was clearly forcing both of them into an overpaced situation.
That was why they needed a driving force to maintain their pace.
The massive princess standing on one axis with her wings spread wide.
None other than Seo Ye-na.
"Our princess is truly the alpha and omega of this positioning."
Stamina, of course, but even magic power and fatigue.
Archangel's Touch, which consumed holy power to restore everything of allies within a certain range.
This trait turned Seo Ye-na into an engine. She was the most important engine that would keep the raid party rolling, including those two!
"When you spread those wings, those two will maintain peak combat power at all times. It will also change the surrounding area to holy attribute. What does that mean? It means synergy is added to all holy techniques."
It wasn't just Seo Ye-na, who used blessings, healing, and holy power, who became stronger. Hwarang's Pridwen was clearly a holy-attribute item as well. The wall erected by splitting the ground would also be strengthened.
And one more thing.
"We can't forget about weakening the opposing attribute either."
Dark Trolls were clearly magic-attribute monsters!
The reason those Dark Trolls were dropping like flies wasn't solely because Park Su-bin and Hwarang were strong. It was because of Seo Ye-na's permanent debuff limited to magic attributes.
"But if we do this, another problem arises. In exchange for maintaining those two's combat power, our princess's holy power will hit rock bottom, right?"
"That's why we have the healer team standing by."
"Guys!!"
At Seo Ye-na's command, the healer team that had been clustered together blocking one side all turned toward her at once and cast healing magic.
A shower of light poured down, cleanly erasing the bruises and scratches covering her massive body... but it didn't stop there.
The healing power poured out by the six healers at full strength was more than enough to restore her enormous frame, with plenty left over.
And at that moment, the trait Lee Shin had given Seo Ye-na activated.
Sacrifice of Blood and Flesh (S)
: A ritual in which ancient holy knights sacrificed themselves to overcome hardship and adversity. Those who possess this trait will obtain even more abundant divine grace by sacrificing their own life.
This trait had a story behind it.
It had originally appeared as an SS-rank trait, but because its usage frequency was so low, it was the unfortunate trait that had been downgraded to S-rank.
First error: what people expected from a holy power user was healing, yet it required the healer to pay with their own stamina.
Second error: even if used, the holy power restored was proportional to the stamina sacrificed, so with a healer's characteristically small health pool, the amount of holy power gained was pitifully tiny.
But Lee Shin was an old veteran who never neglected his research.
The first error could be solved if the healer simply raised their stamina.
The second error could be solved by having six healers focus their healing at once.
The research to convert surplus healing power into holy power.
The research was a resounding success, and this was the result.
"You recover the healer team's magic power, and the healer team recovers your holy power. This is revolutionary! It's a true perpetual engine!!"
"Go, Princess! Show them your majesty (physical)!!"
The wings that had been fading rose even more brilliantly, and a soft veil of light enveloped the surroundings.
Hwarang, Park Su-bin, and the entire healer team were restored, while the Dark Trolls faltered on the opposite side.
On top of that, Ryu Hong-seok's Warrior's Song shamanism came in, Zhuge Min-gi's Link Force increased health pools, and each healer's support magic was injected...
For a brief moment, Seo Ye-na transformed into a monster who could stand shoulder-to-shoulder with Ranker Hwarang Kim Yu-shin and the next world-class monster Park Su-bin!
"Out of the way!!"
As Hwarang and Park Su-bin pulled back and Seo Ye-na's mace struck a Dark Troll floating in the air—
Booom—!
With the sound of bursting hide, the Dark Troll exploded into chunks of flesh.
"……!!"
"……!!"
At that horrifying sight, even Hwarang swallowed hard. Park Su-bin’s jaw dropped. Even the Dark Trolls rolled their eyes in shock. Only the healer team looked proud, as if it were their own masterpiece.
In the midst of it all, Seo Ye-na wiped the flesh splatter from her face and let out a deep sigh.
"Ah, life..."
Dad, Mom, are you watching? It looks like your daughter has gone way past marriageable age.
Her steel boots stomped down on the head of a wriggling troll.
They're melting them!
They're trampling them!
They're completely pulverizing them!!
— "Exactly as it sounds. The Mir Guild is pulverizing the endlessly swarming Dark Troll wave. The Dark Trolls are turning into chunks of meat in real time!"
— "This is insane! I'm about to faint!!"
— "If Hwarang's twelve silver shields created a wall that shrank the frontline, then the monster Park Su-bin took on the role of gatekeeper. And the healer team led by Seo Ye-na has established a solid shield wall."
— "Wait a second? That... is that a shield wall? A healer is tearing trolls apart?!"
— "...Correction. Seo Ye-na is tearing the trolls apart."
No tanker? Just block them somehow.
Low stamina? Just recover it somehow.
— "Is it just me, or does this side seem overwhelmingly faster at processing the monsters?"
— "It's not just you! They're melting them before they can even pile up! Any troll that sets foot in that area simply disappears."
— "A wall of corpses is forming. The speed of accumulation is faster than the speed at which they disappear into magic power! Amazing. Can it really be this stable without a single dedicated tanker?"
— "The secret is aggro control!"
— "Could you explain in more detail?"
— "Maintaining aggro is the most basic virtue of a tanker. Only then can the other damage dealers attack with peace of mind."
That was why tankers always used 'provocation-type' skills to secure aggro.
People had thought the Mir Guild, which had no tankers in their squad, would struggle with aggro maintenance, but...
— "They're maintaining aggro by using the heals themselves! It's a dizzying idea, but at the same time a stroke of genius!"
Healing skills, excluding provocation types, draw the most aggro. By focusing them for an instant, they're securing aggro brilliantly!
The proof is that the left and right attack squads are stably melting the Dark Trolls.
— "The Mountain King is impressive, but the synergy between Yu Ri-ra and Baek Yeon-woo is astonishing. Isn't this the first time those two have worked together?"
— "You've pointed out a great detail. I was surprised by that as well."
Usually when two damage dealers with overly strong personalities met, they created discord rather than synergy. That was why lubricants like Hwarang or the Mountain King were so valuable.
People had been worried, but those two were meshing together unbelievably well.
— "They're skipping clumsy coordination and focusing purely on their greatest strength—speed!"
— "I'm losing my mind. I can't hold it in anymore."
— "What do you mean?"
— "Lee Shin. I mean Guild Master Lee Shin. Doesn't this mean he prepared all of this from the off-season?"
— "??!!"
The caster realized the true meaning behind the words and was rendered speechless.
That's right. It was during the off-season when the Mir Guild swept up all those healers.
Back then, many guilds had clicked their tongues at the Mir Guild. No matter how important healers were, one or two should have been enough—yet they recruited seven.
Then, with the unprecedentedly brutal schedule, all talk of the healers died down, but...
It turned out they had been drawing exactly this picture.
Even before the off-season.
— "S-sorry. I got goosebumps and lost my words for a second. So you're saying Guild Master Lee Shin has been envisioning this scene since back then?"
— "We can't know for sure, but at the very least, this unheard-of positioning we see today was definitely planned. This level of perfection couldn't possibly come from just a day or two of practice."
— "Wow..."
— "Although it's only the first day so we're being cautious, at this rate everyone may need to rethink their assumptions."
The commentator looked at another screen.
It showed the guilds that had been aggressively funneling monsters.
— "The monsters they sent to crush them..."
— "Are becoming points for the Mir Guild."
— "That's right. Sometimes you end up doing someone else a favor."
The guilds grew serious as they watched the monsters they had driven over being melted away so futilely. The scene of Manwang biting his lip laid the current situation bare.
— "All their plans collapsed in a single day. Now they have to rebuild the board from scratch."