Chapter 173. Different Purposes.
***
"The resistance was stronger than we expected."
Juriell and Jin-ryong nodded in agreement with Ki-chan's words. "Yes. We thought we'd easily break through the outer walls and win this time, but they were prepared for anything."
Seo-woon looked at the destroyed magic cannon. Because of the two magic cannons installed next to the flagpole atop the inner city, they'd lost 80% of the soldiers who had entered the inner city safely.
Its power was far greater than they'd expected, and Juriell nearly lost the game. If Jin-ryong hadn't calmly pulled her to safety, she would have been swept away along with the soldiers. Looking at the magic cannon that had caused them so much trouble, Lilingwei said regretfully, "It's a shame it's broken." "We'll find an item to repair it. Maybe another magic cannon will come along."
"It looks much stronger than the magic map we used on the previous sea chart."
"Because this is for siege warfare." "Let's finish the cleanup and resource gathering first. We have a lot of work to do." Seo-woon then activated the map and searched for Deception Castle. The notification that Team Senruk had captured the Charm Castle had come from the top center of the map, quite far from his position.
"I've captured the largest of the 50 castles, so I'll crush its surroundings."
Seo-woon was considering the number of troops needed to capture the castle. Naturally, having a larger castle that can produce more resources simultaneously would give him an advantage in terms of power. Furthermore, their opponent was King Krucen, known as the "King of Armies."
"Are you worried?"
Seo-woon nodded at Ki-chan's words. "The location is excellent. If it's him, he'll dominate the center in an instant." Hearing Seo-woon's words, the team members who had been clearing the area and collecting crates gathered around him. They had also heard the news that Team Senruk had captured Gohok Castle, so it was impossible not to be worried.
"Capturing the center means you'll be attacked from all directions."
Seo-woon responded to Dump, who was speaking uncharacteristically harshly. "On the other hand, there's no better place to capture the entire region than the center. We can also maintain a steady supply there."
Juriell nodded and spoke up. "The hard part about this game is that it's hard to judge the team's size. You never know when they'll split up or regroup. Since it's hard to accurately assess the enemy's numbers, I think we should focus on gathering resources for now."
"You're right. Resource gathering is the most important thing. Especially items. The importance of items has completely changed compared to other games."
The boss monster and the buff monster.
The buff monster was in a swamp between three castles not far away, while the boss monster was diagonally opposite their current location on the map. "Are you going to fight the buff monster?" "Since it's a siege war, we might get surrounded. We don't have enough men to split up."
Seo-woon nodded at Ki-chan's words. "Since there aren't many of us, we can move faster."
"Are you going alone again?!"
"Technically, I'm not alone." Seo-woon took out two spirit stones, and Ki-chan sighed. "Don't worry. I won't push myself too hard. I'll just take a quick look and come back."
"If someone attacks an empty castle, we won't be able to offer any resistance, and the castle will fall."
Seo-woon nodded at his words. "We only have to protect Gojoji Castle. The three castles on this side are just a front for it." With that, Seo-woon looked at Juriell and continued. "I'll leave the rear to you."
With that, Seo-woon left the castle towards the enhancement monsters, leaving his teammates' worried gazes behind. As he moved, Seo-woon grabbed the soldiers that appeared and swept them away, advancing towards the enhancement monster.
***
"It must be fate that we meet this guy here."
The two men standing next to the old man with the bald head and long beard, who bore the scars of time, nodded in agreement with his words. "Yes, Master. We have finally found the clue to the secret of Eternity Alchemy. And to see the ancient weapon, the Giant Warrior, here in person? I feel as if Mercury's grace is upon us."
The three of them looked at the Forgotten Giant Warrior, a massive boss monster supported by eight spider-like legs, with mixed emotions. How could they not feel that way, when before them lay the secret of alchemizing Infinity, the legendary metal that had been the lifelong goal of all alchemists?
And there, before them, stood the Forgotten Giant Warrior, the pinnacle of alchemy said to be crafted entirely from Infinity. Their emotions were too intense to be expressed in words.
Behind the three alchemists, two men approached and asked, "Is this giant warrior really that impressive?" "It's like a legend to us alchemists... So, in your words, it's like the production method of a legendary immortal warrior lost in battle?"
"Like an immortal warrior." The group of people watching the alchemists and wizards converse and share their feelings frowned.
"I understand. Let's hurry. We don't know when the others will appear. That madman has taken over the central castle. Crown Jin Seo-woon is also trapped in this game, so I'm worried."
The alchemists and mages frowned at the words of the knight leading the approximately 60 guild members. Although they had joined forces with the others due to their small numbers, their playstyles were incompatible. Despite their skills, they looked around nervously, as if waiting for an opportunity to submit and join another team.
"How greedy they are for something like this…"
Suddenly, the bald alchemist and the shaman's eyes met and flashed.
***
"This is an enhancement beast."
Standing motionless on the plain was a knight figure made of steel, approximately 20 meters tall, that looked like a steel soldier inflated to gigantic proportions.
A short distance from the enhancement beast, Seo-woon was crouching on a hill, observing the creature and glowing red with his Hwa-an-geum-jeong. He pulled out two spirit stones from his lower domain.
When Seonma-gi disappeared, two monkeys appeared and shook their heads as they looked at Seo-woon, who was lying flat on the ground. "What a ridiculous sight?"
"Why are you doing that?" "There might be other enemies. You two, crouch down." The two monkeys pretended not to hear Seo-woon's words and looked at the enhancement monster in the distance.
"Should we take care of that guy?"
"Let's finish him quickly. If we keep looking at that ugly sight, we'll be gutted." At the monkeys' words, Seo-woon slightly raised his body and spoke. "Your role is…" Seo-woon explained what the two monkeys should do, looked around, and summoned the remaining Seonma-gi.
-Knock!
The battle began when Jeon Daeseong pulled out his magic staff and struck the enhancement monster's head without warning. The long magic staff quickly shortened as it struck the large steel soldier's head. The impact must have been quite powerful, because the steel soldier stumbled and, belatedly, raised his sword and charged toward Jeon Daeseong.
Despite his massive size, he moved with surprising agility, swinging the sword with tremendous force with both hands.
- Thud! He merely swung his sword downward, but clouds of dust flew in all directions, and the ground shook with a loud bang. Jeon Daeseong parried the sword with minimal movement and swung his extended staff again, but the enemy tumbled agilely off the ground and slashed his sword to the side.
"Damn!"
Jeon Dae-sung screamed and fell back. A massive sword flew past Jeon Dae-sung's nose, creating a wave of wind.
- Thud!
- Crack! Crack!
The battle between the two, vastly different in size, was fierce. Occasionally, when he failed to parry and blocked the enemy's sword, Jeon Dae-sung would be thrown back and slammed into the ground, while the relatively smaller Jeon Dae-sung would knock down the tree-sized enemy and attack him.
Just as Jeon Dae-sung, his steel body cracked and dust-soaked from every side, was beginning to tire, new figures began to emerge. "Everyone, attack!" Thirty players and 500 bronze cavalry followed behind, aiming for Jeon Dae-sung, who was fiercely battling the giant steel soldier. Suddenly, a man stopped in front of them. It was, of course, Jin Seo-woon.
"Come and see!"
The 30 players who had been trying to charge forward hesitated as another Jecheon Daeseong appeared beside Seo-woon, who stood confidently in front of them. One of them shouted in surprise, "It's Jin Seo-woon!"
At these words, the hesitant group stopped in their tracks. As they calculated whether they could defeat Jecheon Daeseong, who was facing Jin Seo-woon and 500 bronze cavalry alone with only 30 men, they quickly came up with the answer.
"Stop! Everyone, stop!"
They stopped the cavalry that had followed them and watched as Jeon Daeseong seized the enhancement beast with expressions of disappointment and disgust.
Now missing its left arm and half of its head, the enhancement beast looked like it wouldn't be able to hold out much longer and was about to be captured. "If we're wiped out here, the main headquarters will be in danger.Let's retreat while he still has some strength."
The warrior leading the group nodded at the sorcerer's words. "Let's return to headquarters!" Even as they turned their backs and rode away with the cavalry, they glanced nervously behind them, wondering if Jin Seo-woon was following them. Seeing him still standing there, one knight breathed a sigh of relief and said, "But why isn't he chasing us?"
"If he's chasing us and that monkey gets attacked by another team, he might lose his buff monster. And Jin Seo-woon had to come out of everyone. We're unlucky." The group nodded in agreement with the warrior's attempt to justify himself.
"We'll need at least 3,000 steel soldiers to stand a chance against him." "In this game, if we can gather enough soldiers, we'll have a chance of catching him. There's no need to lose heart. This game is more about teamwork than individual skill. If we gather enough soldiers, we can win!"
Everyone nodded with hopeful expressions at the words they wanted to hear. "We somehow got through it." Shin-yo, who had transformed into Seo-woon, replied as she watched Seo-woon transform and attack the large steel soldier. "I don't know anything else, but you're extraordinarily talented at fooling others." "Hearing that from you makes me worried about your future."
While the two Jech'daeseongs were talking, Seo-woon, who had completely destroyed the large steel soldier's head, returned to his original form and gasped. "Huh… It's tougher than I thought. Its durability is no joke."
Even after the corrupted eyes floating around the enhancement monster disappeared, enemies appeared, suggesting that the team had periodically set up corrupted eyes while continuing to observe the enhancement monster. If they had destroyed the corrupted eyes and started attacking the monster, they would undoubtedly have been defeated.
"Thankfully, the bluff worked."
Saying this, as he approached Shin-yo and Shin-geum, Seo-woon looked at a single blue orb lying on the ground. Instead of the supposed buff notification that should have come when a buff monster was defeated, he picked up the item in surprise, and only then did the notification sound.
-Ding! You've obtained a Large Enhancement Orb. Using it on a soldier will enlarge that soldier. *Can only be used once every three days.
"This might work on its own."
A large soldier could easily be defeated by about 20 skilled players, but in a chaotic siege war, there was nothing more useful. It was a shame there weren't any buffs available for the entire team, but large soldiers who could destroy ordinary soldiers in one fell swoop were worth it.
- Resource gathering is slow here. Soldiers and items barely spawn.
At Namsa-gwang's words, Seo-woon placed the sphere on the lower area and replied. - Let's move on. There are two empty castles here. - Understood. What should we do with the soldiers? Seo-woon issued an order in response to Lim's question:
- Bring out everyone except the infantry. Go to the command center first. It's the largest castle we have. We'll fill the command center with soldiers we'll collect later.
-How many soldiers have we gathered so far?
-A total of 800 infantry soldiers, 600 bronze soldiers, and 200 steel soldiers. A total of 300 cavalry soldiers, 400 archers, and 900 infantry soldiers. -So 800 people in the command center? Not bad.
-So what should we do with the defensive items? I didn't install them just in case.
-Defensive items? -Things like catapults, magic cannons, watchtowers, and steel doors.
-Bring them all.
-Understood. I'll leave now.
After finishing speaking, Seo-woon started picturing the battlefield in his mind.
***
"Betrayal!"
-Squeak. When the last knight's neck was slit, the sorcerer attached an amulet to the knight's corpse and stuck a sharp needle into his body. Surprisingly, the knight's corpse didn't disappear; only a box appeared next to him. "Idiot. This game is full of betrayals. That's why knights who only use their bodies are useless."
The bald alchemist muttered over the knight's corpse and looked around. A full 200 zombies had instantly killed 60 of their former comrades and now stood motionless, awaiting their master's commands. The motionless zombies created an eerie atmosphere in the blood-soaked arena. "Were they called 'Great Zombies'? Their strength certainly increases with their numbers."
"Once we learn the precise timing from the Jinbeiga and establish a formation, we can deal with this ragtag group. Our ultimate goal is to create a thousand zombies and establish a formation. Once we do that..."
"Our guild will become the strongest guild in the Crown." Those who had once fought their way through Cloyd as a stable group of ordinary individuals like Jinbega masters and alchemists were now establishing themselves as a guild, slowly building their own territory.
Was it revenge for the humiliation they had suffered? Those who had been neglected within Cloyd, despite their pride in their main force, now smiled over the corpses of their teammates. Clutching the Eternium dropped by the boss monster and the giant soldiers' plans, they were basking in their victory as if the outcome of this game had already been decided.