Part 8. Ted’s Siege (1)
True misfortune is always like that.
It happens in places I neither see nor know.
Like a mouse that hadn’t moved for a fleeting instant.
Like the neck of a monitor that suddenly snapped.
Like a tidal wave born on the other side of the sea.
A ripple created somewhere I never saw and never knew. It grows its body and surges toward me, slowly.
I merely rejoice at the shallower waters, thinking only of catching more fish.
And when it finally grows large enough to blanket the sky and draws near, only then do I learn.
It’s already too late. Foolishly so.
True misfortune is always like that.
How can I avoid the tidal wave rushing to engulf me from beyond the sea?
What must I do to avoid it?
If I cannot avoid it. What should I do?
What should I do?
—Cheon Gyeong-u, diary written at age 20
* * *
‘That’s it!’
Ted’s hand holding Black and White trembled.
He had finally obtained a second skill socket befitting the Six-Star Constellation.
‘Just how far will this thing evolve?’
A musket with powerful single-target damage unleashing area attacks?
This was practically a collapse of balance.
Face Chronicle’s strict
No rapid fire, damage penalties, massive mana consumption, no superior compatible skills… and so on.
It imposed all kinds of penalties, throwing out the question, “You still want area attacks?”
‘Muskets don’t have area-attack skills above B-rank at all.’
Thus, only restricted low-rank area attacks were permitted.
But for Ted—no, for the Six-Star Constellation—such restrictions were meaningless.
+19.
A one-in-a-thousand chance was a miracle that shattered balance.
Ted imagined it. Himself mowing down monsters in the mid-level zones by the hundreds.
When the D-rank Charged Lightning eventually evolved all the way to S-rank, he couldn’t know exactly what would emerge, but it would surely be a Musket-tier skill comparable to Hellfire.
‘With this, two angles are locked in.’
Ted envisioned the battles ahead.
Carrying close combat with the overwhelming damage of +19 and the Goblin Trio.
In mass hunts, using Charged Lightning to wipe everything out in one hit.
Variables arising in other situations would be addressed flexibly, boosting survivability with
‘Slowly but surely, the full picture is coming together.’
Still, Ted was far from enough.
He lacked skills to raise survivability, overall stats were insufficient, and item farming was woefully behind.
He needed more achievements, more titles. Better items too.
But the achievement
―Max mastery increase for all Thief-class skills: 10%
―Mana cost reduction for all Thief-class skills: 10%
‘I was too distracted by Charged Lightning earlier to notice, but this is pretty good too. A Limit Break achievement, at that.’
Limit Break achievement.
Among achievements, there were those that raised a skill’s maximum mastery cap.
Extremely rare achievements that shone brighter the higher one’s level and caliber became.
Naturally, most Limit Break achievements only came from A-rank quests or higher, and they were valuable enough to be traded for real money based on their acquisition method.
Yet Ted had obtained one of them.
‘This is a huge gain! This reward is enough.’
There were ten days remaining until the Siege.
Five days remained in the 2nd class change period.
Ted began preparing to head to the mid-level zone for those five days.
‘Survivability. Unconditionally focus on survivability. It’s been a while since I spent money.’
Ted had virtually no income for the past two months.
Moreover, after purchasing multiple
Though still a large sum, it was far too little to buy what he absolutely needed going forward, so Ted hadn’t spent a single penny recently.
But now was the time to invest.
Ted purchased a full set of the best level 200 rare gear available at the auction house.
Musket-exclusive equipment, gloves, shoes, top and bottom, necklace, rings, epaulets, cloak, and more—a total of thirteen rare items.
Despite being low-level 200 gear, the set cost around 30 million won. Roughly one-sixth of Ted’s current funds.
Its name: the
‘Once I hit level 300, there’ll be much better gear everywhere… I can just resell this then and buy something else.’
Ted checked the options.
―All Stats: +25
―Bonus HP: +10%
―Bonus Mana: +10%
―Bonus Defense: +100
The options on each individual item, plus the set bonuses on top!
Thanks to the Sharpshooter’s Uniform set effects, Ted’s defense instantly surpassed 900.
Considering his attack power was 20,000, it was absurdly low, but at this level, it stretched attacks from level 400 monsters that would have killed him in three hits into five hits.
A significant difference.
Additionally, he steadily purchased HP-related items. With two necklaces, earrings, rings, and so on, Ted was able to raise his max HP from 2,050 to 4,100.
It was the moment a three-hit kill became a ten-hit kill.
Truly, only a cash warrior could pull off a level-200 gear farm like this!
‘At this rate, I won’t die easily! This completes the setup.’
Ted, farming items for the first time, looked over the Sharpshooter’s Uniform with satisfaction.
It clashed horribly with the bear doll mask.
‘Appearance doesn’t matter.’
Step by step, after farming even better items. Making fortunes through boss hunting and power-leveling with the +19 Black and White, repeating spending sprees until his entire body was plastered in unique items!
That was Ted’s future item-farming plan.
‘Anyway, it really is an area skill… it devours a ton of mana.’
Ted invested all his newly acquired stats into Intelligence.
Until then, Ted’s mana had hovered around 600.
With the Sharpshooter’s Uniform set, his mana reached 760, and after investing bonus stats into Intelligence, he barely pushed past 830.
‘So two shots max for now.’
The number of immediate usable shots: two!
But it wasn’t a major problem. He just had to fight leisurely while chugging mana potions.
“
Ted summoned the Goblin Trio.
Even without summoning them, the rascals were doing fine, but he had grown fond of them after seeing how happy they got whenever he gave them food.
‘Looking at them like this, they’re like silver puppies. Kinda cute. If only everything would keep going this smoothly from now on…’
Huh?
Wait.
Ted, feeling at ease for a moment, felt a shiver run down his spine.
‘Things are going smoothly? Does that even make sense for me?’
An extremely alien phrase. ‘Something is going smoothly.’
His sharp instincts stood fully on edge.
‘This can’t be happening. It can’t be… I need to do something right now.’
Anxiety he had momentarily forgotten crept over him.
‘But what should I do? What can I do to block the approaching misfortune in advance? What kind of misfortune is even within my ability to block right now?’
In a way, it was a form of obsession.
In Cheon Gyeong-u’s life, whenever things began going smoothly, a bomb would inevitably drop right afterward!
In other words, Ted felt the current calm, stable situation was like a spark touching a fuse.
‘Whew… no. It can’t be. Calm down. Calm down.’
Ted shook his head rapidly.
‘I poured my whole life’s luck into this +19… which means I just have to overcome whatever misfortune comes next with this +19.’
Thinking that way calmed his mind.
The great fortune accumulated over a lifetime: the +19 Black and White.
With it, he would overcome the countless misfortunes ahead. This miracle of astronomical odds possessed enough power to overcome any misfortune.
‘Or who knows, maybe my string of bad luck has finally ended. Lately, while things have been tough, it’s not like I’ve had seriously terrible luck.’
Well, if you asked whether there was no misfortune, there was. It happened now and then.
However, there hadn’t been any misfortune great enough to derail Ted’s game plan.
‘Right. I just need to keep going smoothly like this. What’s the rush? Is it even possible for someone to be this consistently unlucky?’
Ted, ignoring and distorting history!
Because it would be too painful if he didn’t rationalize it somehow.
“Right, guys?”
Kieeeeek!
Ted petted the heads of the three cheering Silver Goblins.
Soon, their mental states surfaced, caught by the passive skill
“Huh?”
But something slightly different… no, a very strange status window tagged along behind the
“Wha?”
No way. It can’t be.
With trembling hands, Ted checked the final status window.
―Original Date: May 16th, 2:00 PM.
―Changed Date: May 10th, 7:00 AM.
Guild [Paprika Special Forces] has changed the Siege date.
This notice is final.
Please adjust your schedules accordingly after confirmation.
Thank you.
“….”
Having confirmed the notice, Ted blankly opened his calendar status window.
‘A-ah, my class change ends in three days…’
With the Paprika Special Forces’ Siege date change, the Siege would begin in two days.
‘What the hell is this? Then what about desperately saving the Sibori Musket Academy? What about risking my life stealing? What happens to all of that!’
“Uraaaagh!”
It was a force majeure.
The Siege date change decided by Pateuk was something Ted could do nothing about!
In that instant, rage surged from deep within Ted’s chest, and he began tearing at his hair and rolling on the ground.
“Damn it! Damn it! I busted my ass to barely match that date!”
Kieek?
The Silver Goblin Trio watched Ted’s bizarre behavior for a moment.
Kiyaaaaah!
Kiyaaaaah!
…Finding it amusing, they soon began flailing about themselves, tearing at their nonexistent hair and rolling on the ground too.
“Don’t copy me! I said don’t copy me!”
When Ted pointed a finger, half-sobbing, they imitated him too, pointing at the comrade beside them.
Kieeeek! Kigik! Kigigik!
Ilkkigi pointed at Samkkigi.
Samkkigi pointed at Dukkigi.
Dukkigi pointed at everyone with two fingers!
Watching them, the strength to be angry drained away.
“Damn it….”
After a long bout of rampaging, Ted calmed his heart.
Right, wasn’t this exactly what he had expected?
It was entirely possible.
‘As if this were the first or second time.’
No wonder he had felt like everything was going smoothly.
Ted accepted reality. Now, he was hopelessly entangled in the Siege.
But Ted did not simply despair as he would have in the past.
Instead, he quickly shifted to cold, rational thought.
‘Right. It’s fine. I just have to end this Siege in the shortest possible time with my +19 Black and White.’
Misfortune had already struck.
In this situation, Ted began establishing a calm, composed contingency plan.
He began preparing his own plan to smash through the Siege in the shortest time.
‘The Siege starts in two days.’
Moving the board with individual force had been impossible even for the previous Ted in the level 600s.
But for the current Ted, it was not impossible.
Not for the current Ted wielding the +19 Black and White.
‘Pateuk… you’re all dead. For real.’
Having made up his mind, Ted sat down and disassembled Black and White.
And began maintaining the firearm.
There wasn’t much to maintain on a +19 anyway. Its durability was dozens of times higher than that of other weapons.
But this was a kind of ritual.
A ritual to steady his mind as much as possible before entering a full-fledged war.
Kik!
The goblins followed Ted and disassembled their muskets too. Then they began firearm maintenance despite having no idea how.