An Overwhelming War Chest
The amount of war funds they carried was no joke.
These two were clearly far more dangerous than the underwater giant.
War funds payment confirmed.
Commencing autonomous combat.
Look at the top of these castle walls shown through World Observation.
When the kingdom’s banners fluttered, the archers raised their bows and aimed toward the horizon.
Please issue your command.
Issue a command?
Yet within World Observation, the knight’s sparkling eyes waited patiently for Kim Hwang-je’s answer.
Kim Hwang-je pointed at the enemies and commanded in a low, authoritative tone.
“Fire at wiiiill~!”
Poyu echoed the order in its babyish voice.
Poyu, you little…
Regardless, the kingdom’s army instantly brought the ideal of “all-out barrage” to life.
If a torrential downpour flew forward, would it look like this?
Hundreds of soldiers unleashed arrows solely at the two intruders, turning the sky into a black storm of arrows.
And that wasn’t all—the mages and priests atop the walls poured out mass paralysis spells.
“What the hell!”
Baekju screamed.
When shower water pressure is too strong, it creates wind that blows away the steam in the bathroom.
The arrow rain was so fierce that clouds of dust were blasted in every direction.
Indeed, the soldiers who had survived waves of Calamity-rank monsters until now were the absolute elite.
The two Howling members charged in from blind angles.
The spot where they had just been standing was instantly riddled with arrows like a swarm of hornets.
Yet the arrows pierced straight through the concrete as if it were tofu, quivering only at the fletching.
“Sirius! We need to retreat right now!”
Baekju shouted at Sirius, who had already dashed inside the building.
This was cement. Definitely not soft tofu.
Any hunter could fire an arrow hard enough to shatter rock.
But that was just the crude play of rookies who only knew brute force.
Arrows that buried themselves up to the shaft like these meant the archers had reached the pinnacle of pinpoint concentration.
And they were spitting them out like machine guns?
What the—?
“The intel was wrong! That guy isn’t a mage—this is a trap! We’ll get caught at this rate!”
But Sirius only bared his teeth and roared with laughter.
“Kwa ha ha ha ha! Not a mage, but an archer-mage of this caliber? Who the hell is he? Iron Blood Corps? Golden? Baekju! Fall back! I’m bringing out the armor!”
“Don’t do it! The Lord will be furious!”
“Hmph. If you don’t back off, I’ll crack your skull first!”
“Damn it!”
Baekju hurriedly retreated and vanished into thin air.
Sirius dodged the arrows flying toward him while running.
“Good. Come, Heavenly Wolf! Let’s enjoy this together!”
With that shout, Sirius summoned his armor. Silver-white light gathered in the air and wrapped around his entire body.
The transformation was no joke.
And not just because a muscular man was transforming.
The armor encasing Sirius burned with silver-white power drawn from the constellation of the Heavenly Wolf.
“I am Sirius, Master Warrior of Howling. I’ve finally found a worthy opponent in this boring mission. Kim Hwang-je, I will cut you down!”
Kim Hwang-je listened to the booming voice echoing up from the lower floors and made a tired face.
There were always guys in the world who never shut up when they fought.
“Now then, archer. Try to run from me!”
Sirius sprinted up the wall.
He bounded all the way to the seventh floor in one go.
A fight between a swordsman and an archer came down to mobility after the first exchange.
If the archer kept distance and landed hits, the swordsman died. If the swordsman closed in for melee, the bow was useless.
So of course Sirius was certain Kim Hwang-je would flee from him.
But look at that silhouette.
Beyond the dust kicked up by the arrows, the man stood frozen in place as if terrified.
This fight was already over. After such a powerful barrage, he must have exhausted his strength and curled up in fear.
Sirius swung his sword to sweep away the dust cloud and revealed himself.
“Puhahaha! The Lord will be pleased!”
He didn’t even dodge. Got him!
But the moment their eyes met, a question suddenly popped into Sirius’s mind.
Wait… why is he rubbing his eyes with one hand?
And where’s his bow?
‘Ah, my eyes are itchy.’
Kim Hwang-je, who had been a civilian just days ago, was simply rubbing his irritated eyes from all the dust.
In that instant, the thought ‘Then who the hell was shooting?’ flashed through Sirius’s head.
Obviously, it was the castle.
How convenient it was to have others fight for you.
“Die split in half!”
Sirius roared.
He could wonder about the details after killing the guy.
He raised his sword high to cleave Kim Hwang-je in two.
At that exact moment, a catapult on the castle walls launched a boulder.
A boulder?
Yes.
It was roughly two tons.
Something sparkled near Kim Hwang-je’s stomach, and suddenly a boulder large enough to blot out the entire view slammed into Sirius.
THUD!
The sound of impact wasn’t crisp or loud like in the movies.
It was quiet. Heavy.
“Guhhhk!”
But Sirius’s eyes bulged as he was sent flying backward.
How many people in the world had ever been hit by a catapult while doing this kind of work?
Sirius flew like gum stuck to a rock and crashed into the building under construction.
It looked exactly like a meteor falling from the sky.
At the same time, the building that had been struck by both Sirius and the meteor had several floors completely pierced and collapsed inward. A blast of hot wind, dust, and stone fragments erupted in all directions.
And then it exploded.
It was a dust explosion.
BOOM!
The crackling power of the constellation, the powder, and the resulting friction caused a dust explosion no one had anticipated. Flames and scorching heat swept through everything.
“Ow, hot! Cough! Cough!”
At this rate I’m going to die just from coughing!
Kim Hwang-je thought as he was engulfed by the hot wind.
“Mister, are you okayang?”
Poyu crawled up to his face and blew gently into his eyes.
“Hiiing, if I was a little bigger I could’ve just chewed him up and killed him. Sowwy…”
“It’s fine. You’d just ruin your mouth.”
Please don’t ever talk about chewing up humans in the future. Just stay cute like this.
Deploying castle barrier for the fairy dragon.
What does that mean? Didn’t we already finish the enemies?
Huh?
Kim Hwang-je suddenly noticed an arrow flying straight at them.
“What the—?”
His mind went blank.
The arrow was flying directly toward Poyu.
CLANG—!
But the barrier the castle had prepared in advance deflected the incoming arrow.
“Damn it, how did they notice?!”
Baekju burst out from Kim Hwang-je’s shadow and charged at him.
He was wearing the exact same white armor as Sirius. It was a magical artifact flowing with the power of a constellation.
Baekju had only pretended to run away earlier and had slipped into the shadows from the start.
“As expected, this level of trickery doesn’t work on you! However!”
Of course, Kim Hwang-je hadn’t even known he was there.
Baekju tossed his bow aside, drew twin daggers, and stabbed straight for Kim Hwang-je’s throat.
At this distance, neither a mage nor an archer could possibly dodge!
And he succeeded in slashing the side of the neck.
Scratch—!
That should have been the case.
What was this sensation and sound?
There had been no sign of any spellcasting.
Yet this feeling was exactly like scraping against a barrier.
It was because the mages of the castle had already cast defensive magic.
The daggers had merely lightly grazed the castle wall and passed by.
Baekju stared in confusion at his blades, now completely dulled and covered in dust.
“What the—? Is he a golem?!”
“Nope.”
As Baekju spoke, Kim Hwang-je reached back and grabbed him by the collar.
“What?!”
Baekju panicked and tried to break free, but Kim Hwang-je had already lost any thread of mercy or reason toward the one who had targeted Poyu.
Kim Hwang-je growled.
Poyu? What’s that?
Baekju wanted to ask.
He had only aimed at the face because he couldn’t see Poyu, but Kim Hwang-je’s rage could no longer be stopped.
“What?”
Since the body would be used for forced labor,
Destroying the armor would be enough.
The Castle Becomes Me (Lv.2)
King Dave
Ordinary Strike (Lv.??)
130 million won.
A pure white light exploded outward.
In that instant, Baekju saw something.
A figure stood atop the castle wall, overflowing with dignity.
If there was anyone who could be called a king without it feeling awkward, it was this man.
Awe slowly filled Baekju’s heart.
What is this? What is this feeling? A mental attack? But…!
The king drew his sword with absolute resolve, yet with an incredibly gentle motion.
His posture was refined and concise, like a living blade itself.
He smoothly took his stance and drew a single, clean cut from top to bottom.
And with that, the sword split the world.
A moment later—
CRAAAAAACK—!
A massive shockwave erupted from both sides, sending a shockwave across the entire area.
The building behind Baekju, the mountain in the distance, and even the sky itself were sliced cleanly in a straight line.
The various pressures that always existed in the atmosphere twisted violently, triggering storms and earthquakes in their wake.
Mountains, earth, sky, and the moisture in the air all exploded and mixed together into a tempest.
“Guh… hk…”
With a godlike display of swordsmanship that split the world itself, the king had precisely cut only Baekju’s armor and clothes in half.
Click.
The king elegantly sheathed his sword.
Flutter—
At that moment, Baekju’s clothes and armor split perfectly in two and fell away to either side.
In the blink of an eye, Baekju was left completely naked and collapsed onto the ground.
Poyu examined Kim Hwang-je’s neck.
“Mister! Your neck got stabbed, are you okay?!”
“I’m fine. It got deflected. I had a gray potion ready.”
“Defwected? Gray potion…?”
While gently patting and comforting Poyu, Kim Hwang-je looked back at the castle through World Observation.
Soldiers were carrying cement in magical containers.
Thanks to Gemini’s translation magic, Park Jo-woon was directing the soldiers and applying cement to the slightly damaged sections of the wall.
Just like a veteran construction foreman.
“How… did he only cut the armor…?”
Kim Hwang-je reached out toward the trembling Baekju, whose mind was half gone, and toward Sirius, who had been smashed by the catapult, destroyed the neighboring building, and fallen down.
Workforce Deployment (Lv.1)
Labor Correction Sentence Issued
Labor correction has been sentenced!
Labor! Healthy body! Sound mind!
Restore your loyalty!
Soon, a black aura-like energy spread around Kim Hwang-je’s body, and a shadow shaped like a mouth rose up.
The shadow stretched long across the ground and dragged both Sirius, who was pinned beneath the boulder, and the trembling Baekju toward Kim Hwang-je.
“N-no! What is this?!”
“Uwaaah! Uwaaaaaah!”
The two flailed about as if swimming on dry land, but they were caught by the powerful waves of shadow and dragged helplessly away. In an instant, they vanished into Kim Hwang-je’s stomach.
“Whew!”
Kim Hwang-je stood up and leaned his back against the wall.
It was his first real battle.
But he had survived!
Yeah. That was enough.
And he had protected Uncle Park Jo-woon too.
This time, he had truly protected someone.
Kim Hwang-je sat back down on the pile of rubble.
The city sparkling with lights lay right before his eyes.
He suddenly couldn’t tell if this was the same neighborhood he had lived in until yesterday, or if this building was the same one he had been working on just days ago.
“You’ve worked hard, Your Majesty Kim Hwang-je.”
Who is that?
When Kim Hwang-je looked around, he saw Jung Da-yeon’s butler, his forehead drenched in sweat.
It looked like the man had barely managed to walk over using every ounce of strength he had.
‘He swallowed two people alive… Just what is he?’
Even in the midst of such terror, his thorough sense of duty as a butler had forced him to stand before Kim Hwang-je.
“Truly a terrifying power… I never imagined you would handle two members of Howling at the same time. And that archery and swordsmanship… Just who are you, sir?”
Kim Hwang-je remained silent because he had no answer to give.
The butler waited quietly in the silence, then bowed deeply.
He had decided it was not a question he should have asked.
“Please forgive my rudeness. I have brought a gift from Lady Jung Da-yeon. Please calm your anger.”
“I’m not really angry.”
It wasn’t that his mood had improved because of a gift.
But hearing Jung Da-yeon’s name made him feel like he had suddenly returned to reality.
It was the ironic moment he realized that the unreal world of hunters had become the place most familiar to him.