Part 8. Ted's Siege (6)
On the Paprika Special Forces staff officers' side.
Chalsu, the leader of Patek, repeatedly inspected the troops.
"The shamanic arrays you ordered are fully prepared!"
"Understood. Just in case, go over them one last time."
"Yes, sir!"
The soldiers preparing for the siege numbered over ten thousand users.
The total amount invested in this siege amounted to several billion won.
Along with the investors, Chalsu himself had poured in 1 billion won. It was his entire fortune, money saved from his life as a BJ, plus the proceeds from selling his house and car.
All this investment could be rewarded several times over if they conquered Count Ssauron's territory. The taxes collected from a domain of 400,000 people like Ssauron's were truly enormous.
'If this fails... I'm finished.'
Chalsu swallowed dryly.
This siege was truly a bet-your-life gamble.
However, it was by no means a reckless one.
'Nam Yunho, you bastard... I never knew you were such a loyal guy! Heh heh.'
In fact, for this siege, Chalsu had recruited nine users in the level 500s.
But nine was not enough. According to his intel, the Count's territory had twelve level 500 NPCs.
9:12... It was a disadvantageous situation.
But just yesterday, the Moonlight Hunter Roan had suddenly brought along tremendous powerhouses, claiming they were his comrades.
Thanks to that, the ratio of core combat power—3rd advancement users—could be roughly matched.
'Well, they pleaded so much to be assigned to the vanguard that I put them there. They'll definitely help.'
Users who had undergone their 3rd advancement held a massive gap over those who hadn't. The differences in skills, achievements, titles, and usable items gained through the 3rd advancement were enormous.
The Moonlight Hunter Roan's team would surely be a great asset.
'Well, the real deal in this siege is something else, though.'
In truth... he had a true trump card.
A mysterious phone call Chalsu had received not long ago.
The strongest rankers dispatched from the guild
"Ahahaha! The commander seems nervous!"
Someone laughed brightly and slapped Chalsu on the back.
"Ah, no. I'm not."
"Right. There's no need to be nervous. We'll take care of everything and finish this! Ahaha!"
"Yes, that's right. With rankers from the Daeil Empire personally here, I am relieved."
A man clad head-to-toe in blue full-body heavy armor, with a greatsword as tall as himself slung across his back.
He was known as
A ranker of level 672, counted within the top five of Japan's highest guild,
He, whose personal value alone was several billion, had come here personally.
"Your voice seems a bit too loud as always."
A composed woman's voice was heard.
A woman wearing a neat fairy dress stood beside Tenichi.
"Oh my, is my voice that loud? Our fairy lady is always so fussy. Ahahaha!"
"Ha... You're so noisy, really."
The woman muttering under her breath was Ruri.
Surprisingly, her level was higher than Tenichi's. Her level of 685 ranked 8th in all of Japan!
She was a woman who could be called the apex of the
The two of them were veterans who had participated in and won multiple territorial sieges in the Pixie Kingdom, centered around the Daeil Empire guild.
True siege specialists.
"By the way, about that
"Yes. By now, it should have wreaked considerable havoc inside the outer walls of the Count's territory, no?"
"Actually... that's not the case."
Chalsu recalled the report he had received yesterday.
Until then, Chalsu had only known that a powerful NPC was hiding in Sector 4 of the Ssauron Plains.
So he had strengthened
The source of that power was none other than
In Face Chronicle,
Representative examples were
A special power that made impossible things possible through ordinary skills and magic. Shamanism.
The newly born parasitic host would obtain the power of both the soul and the host. It was a kind of fusion.
Chalsu believed that with it, they could deal fatal damage even to a level 650 NPC. Though it was a mid-grade boss monster, Paragon's level would exceed 500.
However, an unexpected report had come in. That a hunting party of NPCs and one user had slain Akritch.
'A musket-wielding user... They said a user with a very strong musket killed Akritch... There's a variable I don't know about...'
No matter how much he searched domestic records, he couldn't find a musketeer of level 650 or higher.
This brought great anxiety to Chalsu, who had bet his life on this siege.
"It seems the
"Ah, is that so?"
"...Lady Ruri. No, it's not just 'is that so.' I wish to ask if you have any better methods. Honestly, I'm anxious... To think there's someone strong enough inside to break the
Seeing the anxious Chalsu, she smiled lightly.
"Hehe... Chalsu-nim. Can you see the shamanic tattoo under my ear?"
Now that he looked, both Tenichi and Ruri had shamanic tattoos under their ears along the jawline.
Both had numbers engraved there: Tenichi had 5, Ruri had 8.
"What are those?"
"They're the number of territories we've led and conquered."
"Ah..."
"Honestly, I had hoped the strong NPC inside would be absorbed through this Grand Shamanism, but it seems that was too much... It appears there are more things even we haven't grasped... But don't worry. We have... hmm, about 3 days left, don't we?"
"Excuse me?"
"Yes. Within 3 days, we'll be having dinner in the Count's manor conference room."
Whether she knew Chalsu's feelings or not, Shaman Sage Ruri beamed brightly.
Chalsu had no choice but to believe the words of the girl much younger than himself.
Even though they were waging this siege with him, they refused to expose their operation. He had only been told the overall flow.
"Well then, it's starting. I'll go smash them up quickly! Haha!"
Tenichi, who had been checking his watch, soon rose from his seat.
Now was the time for the first scenario they had prepared.
Bwoooooooong——————!!
With the sound of a massive war horn, the siege began.
The Count's forces, armed with all manner of cannons and throwing weapons atop the sturdy walls. And facing them, Patek's neatly arrayed troops.
Yet both formations were quiet.
A siege normally had a flavor of gradual buildup.
It was about starting by probing one another, revealing the opponent's cards one by one rather than exposing all strategies from the start.
However, the start of this siege was somehow strange.
An NPC soldier observing the enemy's movements from a watchtower shouted.
"The enemy is supplying mana to their shamanic arrays!"
"Shamanic arrays?"
The Count's officers came out to check personally.
In fact, they had been drawing shamanic arrays for several days now.
Enormous shamanic arrays—no fewer than six of them.
However, due to the nature of shamanic arrays, they were impossible to observe with the naked eye until mana was infused.
Thus, they were only now witnessing light surging from the enormous arrays.
"What in the world is that?"
"Is it siege magic?"
Soon, the mages and shamans of the Count's territory who had examined it with
"That's not a siege magic-related shamanic array... Huh? Something's strange."
"It seems to be a sort of recovery, hardness reinforcement, long-range casting shamanic array. The scale is enormous—it's a grand shamanic array—yet its target unit is an individual. Why would they cast such an array...?"
They expressed their doubts.
It was because those massive, numerous shamanic arrays were not collective, but individual shamanism.
Soon... their doubts turned to shock.
"Try to stop me! Ahahaha!"
A man walked out alone from Patek's camp.
A man clad head-to-toe in blue-hued heavy armor.
He drew a bastard sword as large as himself. A blade adorned with two splendid skill orbs.
"What kind of madman is that?"
"Fire the cannons!"
Soon, a rain of arrows, magic, and cannon shells poured down on him as he walked across the battlefield alone. Power enough to kill any monster instantly.
"Hahaha,
The moment the man shouted the skill, his full-body armor transformed bizarrely and wrapped thickly around his form.
Every attack fired from the Count's castle struck him squarely. Yet the man walked on nonchalantly, taking all attacks with his body.
"Huh? What?"
"What is that... He took all that and he's fine?"
Soon, he began to run.
And he ran faster and faster toward the castle gate.
At that moment, the officers standing atop the outer wall tensed.
They felt an instinctual fear from his actions.
"Fire freezing field magic so he can't reach us!"
"Suppress him! Keep firing the cannons!"
But the shots fired too late could not hit him.
Whether he used a skill, from 100 meters away, he soared to the castle gate at an incredible speed.
Kwaaaang——!!!
Soon, something happened that made everyone doubt their eyes.
The man who had performed a super-long-range dash broke the castle gate's triple reinforcement magic by himself. At the same time, the gate's durability dropped by nearly 10%.
The durability of the gate, reinforced with all manner of magecraft, was tens of thousands.
Considering its defense was in the thousands, the charge skill the man had unleashed like a finishing move had an attack power approaching at least 20,000.
"Wh-what?! What! What's that monster!"
"What's making him so tough? Magic, magic! Something stronger!"
It was truly strength beyond all known standards.
The Count's stunned forces fired cannons and unleashed all sorts of powerful magic.
Yet the endless barrage could not reduce his HP by much.
Because the six grand shamanic arrays on Patek's side far behind him continuously raised his HP and defense.
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
Every time he swung his heavy bastard sword, blue mana flickered and dealt massive damage to the gate.
Consequently, the outer wall gate's durability began to rapidly deplete. Though the man was clearly just swinging a two-handed sword, the entire wall shook as if a giant cannonball had struck it.
"Damn it! What the hell is that monster..."
"How can he do that..."
The Count's soldiers on the outer wall were terrified.
That man was truly a human siege weapon.
"Deliver this news to His Excellency the Count at once. I shall try to hold him back for now."
Junior Baron Ryeonghan sent a dispatch and immediately began chanting a grand magic spell.
* * *
"What?"
Count Ssauron frowned upon receiving the urgent news.
It was a completely unforeseen situation.
According to his intelligence, Patek's side didn't have a single 3-Star 2nd Stage (Level 650) powerhouse.
But watching the footage from the reported artifact, the being was unmistakably a monster-class outsider of at least 3-Star 2nd Stage.
"This is quite troublesome."
The staff officers simply hung their heads with stiff faces.
An unexpected monster had appeared.
3-Star 2nd Stage.
They were powerhouses with a gap of more than three times that of their peers at 3-Star 1st Stage (Level 500, 3rd advancement).
Such powerhouses were limited to barely two digits even across the entire Caron Kingdom, which was divided into over a hundred territories.
On the Count's side, there existed only one NPC of level 650 or higher.
"First, we must defend the outer walls as best we can. No matter how grand the shamanic arrays are, their mana is not infinite... They won't be able to continue such attacks indefinitely. Even if we must abandon the outer walls, my lord... you must not move personally."
One staff officer, gauging Count Ssauron's expression, spoke urgently.
Indeed. The only NPC on the Count's side at level 650 or higher.
That person was Count Ssauron himself.
But if he joined the fight now, it would turn problematic. If the Count were to die, the overall morale of his territory's army would suffer a massive penalty.
If morale fell, the defensive battle was doomed.
"Was there no outsider firing a musket on the outer wall?"
"Excuse me? Ah, I shall report on the force deployment."
"No, that is not what I mean."
The Count rested his chin on his hand and fell into deep thought.
At this critical juncture, it seemed that outsider, the one named Ted, was not on the outer wall.
However, the Count had already finished investigating the outsider. Even if he wasn't on the outer wall, he was in a position where he had to be within the territory.
"Hoo, we are outmatched by Patek in strength."
The Count's brows furrowed.
Where on earth had such a monster come from?
A monstrous outsider with internal power equal to his own, honed over thirty years on the battlefield.
'Those Patek bastards... I thought they were preparing a fight they couldn't win, but...'
So this was their trump card.
In any case, the important thing wasn't the cause, but assessing the situation.
Whatever else happened, if they were outmatched in the power of the 3-Star realm (Level 500 or above, 3rd advancement), that battle had no answer.
He had to overturn the decision he had made yesterday.
"Go to Raiden Academy at once and bring that outsider named Ted."