Tower Defense (2)
[1st Wave: 1,000 F-class Goblins]
Gururururu—!
Goblins poured out of the blue portal.
The way they swarmed toward the maze entrance, spears in hand, was like a nest of hornets kicked open in the sun.
But Kim Jun’s party simply watched.
“Yaaawn.”
Sitting in a chair, Kim Jun let out a long yawn.
He had one leg crossed over the other, his chin resting on the armrest, so relaxed he looked less like a fighter and more like a spectator at a stadium.
Gigiik-
Ping! Ping! Ping!
The rain of arrows pouring from the archer tower pierced the goblins clean through.
One shot, one kill.
Pow!
Kurrraaaagh!
When the cannon tower belched fire, dozens of them were blown apart at once.
Monster slain: Goblin × 503
Coins acquired: 5,030
Not a single goblin made it past the maze entrance.
“…That’s it?”
“Didn’t even feel like it started.”
The newly joined hunters stood there with their mouths hanging open.
The desperate, life-or-death battle they had imagined was nowhere to be seen.
All they heard was click, click, click—and the monsters died.
Meanwhile, the other strongholds were already in chaos.
“Hey! The stone wall tower broke!”
“Then build it yourself! We already spent all our coins on potions!”
“Damn it, and it’s only the first wave!”
All across the desert, the forest, and the frozen wasteland, scenes of utter mayhem were unfolding.
Trying to save coins, some parties hadn’t even managed to put up a single proper stone wall, and already there were places where the line had been punched through.
Same as before.
Kim Jun closed his eyes briefly.
It had been the same before his regression, too.
At the start, everyone assumed they could endure, and then, after the tenth wave, they began to collapse one after another.
The problem was that this hadn’t even really started yet.
And then, before long—
5th Wave: 1,000 D-class Orcs
The fifth wave began.
*
Flap—
The banner bearing a blue dragon emblem fluttered in the cold mountain wind.
“A tower? Why would we need something like that?”
Han Seojin snorted.
Cheongryong Guild prided itself on being one of the largest in all of Korea.
With two S-class hunters and twenty-eight A-class hunters, monsters were hardly a problem. With that much firepower, what was there to fear?
And besides, they had taken position in steep, rugged mountains. That was practically a natural tower already.
“Ryu Aran, look at the map.”
“Yes, Guild Leader.”
Where Han Seojin pointed, three strongholds had been arranged in the shape of a triangle.
They were all command fortresses belonging to Cheongryong Guild.
“If we place them that close together, the monsters will pile up three times as badly…”
“That’s the point, you idiot.”
Greed flashed in Han Seojin’s eyes.
“Three times the monsters means three times the coins. We sweep them all up in one go.”
Ryu Aran looked uneasy.
“But isn’t that too risky?”
“Risky? Who do you think we are?”
Han Seojin smiled, brimming with confidence.
“And don’t buy any towers or anything like that. Save every coin we earn on this floor. Ah, tell the other two places, too.”
“Why?”
“That item in Thebes’ market district—the Attribute Enhancement Scroll. It costs 200,000 coins.”
Han Seojin’s plan was simple.
He would hold out with terrain and raw combat strength alone, without investing in towers, and then use the coins he earned to buy high-grade items.
“This is our chance to put some real distance between us and everyone else.”
His gaze drifted toward the massive fortress sitting far off on the plain.
Kim Jun’s fortress.
“Unlike those fools wasting their money on nonsense.”
“But…”
Ryu Aran, the vice guild leader, remained uneasy.
Even if they had secured an excellent position, her instincts told her the tower’s trial wouldn’t be so forgiving. There had to be a reason the tower provided those functions.
“At least install a minimum level of defense—”
Han Seojin’s gaze turned cold.
“What? You think my judgment is wrong?”
“N-no, that’s not what I meant—”
Ryu Aran shrank back.
Han Seojin took a step closer, and his eyes carried a clear warning.
“Don’t think that because you’re family you can question my decisions. This isn’t a family gathering. It’s a guild.”
“…Yes, Guild Leader.”
Ryu Aran lowered her head.
It was always like this.
If she offered a reasonable opinion, he called it rebellion; if she even hinted at a different thought, he treated it as a challenge.
A strange relationship—family, and yet not family at all.
“So what do we do with the money? Hah, hah, hah.”
Ignoring Ryu Aran’s worry entirely, Han Seojin was already thinking about how to spend the coins that would be pouring in from the three parties.
*
Kwaaaang-!
The thunderous clash of spear and shield shook the mountainside.
“Uoooooh!”
“Push them back!”
Cheongryong Guild’s A-class hunters charged in unison.
Tankers with shields formed a wall.
Behind them, mages alternated fire and ice, mowing down the orcs.
Monster slain: D-class Orc × 423
Coins acquired: 84,600
“Good! Just as expected of Cheongryong!”
“See? I told you, with the Guild Leader here, there’s no problem!”
The early momentum was perfect.
As the vice guild leader, Ryu Aran swung her blue spear, and lightning burst forth, cutting through a cluster of orcs. Dozens of them collapsed in a cloud of ash.
“At this rate, this wave will be over in no time.”
Han Seojin smiled lazily.
But the problem began immediately after that.
Before the fifth wave had even ended, the sixth followed, then the seventh, then the eighth…
7th Wave: 1,200 D-class Orcs + 500 Goblin Archers
Thud-thud-thud-thud-!
A new wave of monsters filled the mountainside as they swarmed down the slope.
“Above! Watch the arrows!”
“Deploy the shields!”
Arrows rained down on the tankers’ shields. The volley was so fierce the shields trembled under the impact.
“Damn it, where are the potions!”
“You can’t use them already!”
As wave after wave passed, the spirited shouting began to carry a strange note of fatigue.
The monster count kept climbing, and with ranged attacks mixed in, the line was gradually starting to shake.
“This is nothing. Hold the line!”
Han Seojin’s voice never changed.
In truth, Cheongryong’s firepower remained strong, and every wave was eventually crushed. But the problem was stamina.
By the time the fourteenth wave ended, the situation had changed completely.
“Haaah… haaah…”
“Just one more potion…”
Rough breathing and pained groans seeped from all over the formation.
The early bravado was gone, and unease had begun to seep into their eyes.
Even so, Han Seojin still looked relaxed.
“See? I told you towers weren’t necessary. All you needed was the right spot. Tch.”
“Y-yes… Guild Leader.”
The guild members answered obediently, but their thoughts were different.
We can’t keep this up forever.
If anything stronger comes out…
Such thoughts kept circling through their minds.
And their worries were slowly becoming reality.
15th Wave: 500 C-class Orc Elite Soldiers + 3,000 Orc Soldiers + 50 Orc Assault Captains
Thud—thud—
Massive elite soldiers carrying giant axes appeared with footsteps heavy enough to shake the mountainside.
“S-shit, look at their size!”
“If we let even one through, the line’s broken.”
In that moment, Han Seojin stepped forward.
“Blizzard!”
Cold energy burst from Han Seojin’s hands.
In an instant, a white snowstorm swept across the battlefield and engulfed the elite soldiers.
Kwa-jik! Kkeokkeokkeok—!
Ice crystals pierced through the elites’ bodies, freezing them from the inside out.
One by one, the massive orcs became blocks of ice and crashed to the ground.
“See?”
Han Seojin brushed off his hands and smiled in satisfaction.
His frost magic was real. Dozens of elite soldiers had frozen to death in an instant.
But the other monsters surged in to fill the gap, and the guild members’ formation wavered for a heartbeat.
“The back line’s breaking through!”
“Healer! Get us some healing!”
Screams erupted.
They could still fight, but the cracks were widening.
There were already four wounded.
Then a cautious voice rang out.
“…Guild Leader.”
One of the A-class hunters glanced around nervously before speaking.
“Wouldn’t it be better to build at least a few towers? The monsters keep coming…”
The air froze.
“Are you questioning me now?”
“N-no! That’s not what I meant—”
Wham!
Before the words were even finished, Han Seojin’s hand came flying across.
The A-class hunter staggered and slammed to the ground.
“Don’t bark like a dog. If I tell you to do something, you do it.”
No one could help him.
Everyone knew it. The moment they defied Han Seojin, they’d be treated the same way.
Whoooosh—
Only the mountain wind continued to whip the blue banner back and forth.
And though no one dared say it aloud, the same thought drifted through everyone’s heart.
At this rate… we’re going to collapse.
Of course, even Han Seojin had begun to wonder whether he should build towers, given how much stronger and more numerous the monsters were becoming.
But then—
Coins in possession: 252,000
A sly grin spread over his face.
The result of forced transfers from all three parties in real time.
252,000 coins.
That enormous sum had completely paralyzed Han Seojin’s rational judgment.
Just a little longer. If it really gets bad, I’ll build them little by little later.
“Aaaagh!”
“Send support to the right!”
Even as his guild members fell around him, Han Seojin was smiling.
*
For a short while, a lull settled between waves. While the guild members caught their breath and drank potions—
One hunter wiped the sweat from his brow, looked up, and then stared toward the plain in the distance.
“Hey, look over there…”
“Wh-what is that?”
“That’s practically a castle.”
The guild members were staring in awe at the massive structure far off across the plain.
A gigantic Lunarium wall stretched out like the Great Wall of China, and on top of it stood hundreds of towers packed in so tightly there was barely room between them.
“How many coins did they sink into that?”
“Wow, I’m really jealous. Those guys can just sit there and watch comfortably.”
“Meanwhile we’re running ourselves ragged over here.”
“Shit… some people just end up with the wrong—heh!”
“Watch your mouth. Someone might hear you.”
The guild members’ voices gradually fell to a murmur. They knew better than to say any more.
But their eyes stayed fixed on that colossal fortress on the plain.
And inside that fortress—
“Ugh, I’m bored out of my mind.”
Park Minsu lay back with a yawn.
“Hyung, can’t we tear down just a few towers?”
“Why?”
“Because it’s too boring! Is this really floor sixteen?”
There was, quite literally, nothing to do.
Kim Jun’s maze design was perfect.
The monsters that rushed in at the entrance turned left and were met by the first archer tower’s rain of arrows.
Less than half of them survived that, only to be swept away again in the second section.
The few that remained were cut down by yet another rain of arrows every time they turned left or right.
The corpses piled up layer by layer, until they formed a natural barrier of their own.
Standing atop a wall built from enemy corpses, the allied towers kept firing as if they were machines.
“It should reach us here before long.”
Kim Jun’s eyes hardened for a moment.
So far, so good. So far.
But once the thirtieth wave hit—
Then it would come surging in like a tidal wave.
B-class monsters would arrive in hordes, and their numbers would snowball to five thousand, then ten thousand, then twenty thousand, then fifty thousand.
And starting from the fortieth wave, A-class monsters would appear in large numbers.
Ogre Lords. Wyverns. Death Knights.
Creatures that could wipe out an ordinary team if just one appeared, coming in droves.
And then, at the end.
The fiftieth wave.
At the end of it all stood an S-class monster commanding every wave.
Was it a Leviathan?
A boss powerful enough to make even Kim Jun fail in his previous life.
31