“Are you really a Supporter?”
“I am!”
Korean Zhang Fei thumped his chest with both fists.
He looked and acted like a Warrior whose hobby was collecting the heads he had lopped off enemies on the front line, yet he was a Supporter.
It felt as though I had just witnessed an elephant insist it was a bird, whirl its trunk like a helicopter, and fly into the sky.
“My name is Jo Ikdeok! I look forward to working with you!”
Even his name.
At that point, not being a Warrior was a crime.
“Are you... really a Supporter? You just don’t look like one at all.”
The Mage tilted her head slightly as she asked. She looked quite flustered herself.
“Hmm, I am often misunderstood in that regard. But do not worry! Though I look like this, I have often been told that I am quite a competent Supporter!”
“I can’t help but worry....”
“HAH!”
At that moment, Snake Eyes grabbed his stomach and laughed.
“What exactly is so funny?”
“Ah...! It’s nothing, Jaeha, sir. It’s simply that, for such an important Placement Exam, you seem to have been matched with some rather entertaining teammates....”
He laughed for a while before wiping the tears gathered at the corners of his eyes and placing a hand on my shoulder.
“I think my role is going to be crucial here. We effectively have no Supporter, and I’m the only Bronze Player. Aren’t the two of us practically this team’s entire fighting strength?”
“W-What?!”
“What are you talking about?! We’re Players too!”
The Mage and Archer bristled at the blatant provocation.
On the other hand, Jo Ikdeok, who had arguably been insulted the most, was unexpectedly calm.
I had expected him to be the first to step up and grab the man by the collar.
“Come on~ Look at it objectively. This is a Bronze-level game. It’s not as though any of you can do much~.”
Snake Eyes raised both hands near his shoulders and spoke in a mocking tone.
“Only someone at Jaeha, sir’s level can be even the slightest bit useful, right?”
“......”
“After all, there’s no way this lineup can clear it~. You need at least some kind of record to get a good rank, right? Who knows? What would have landed in the lower reaches of Stones might reach the upper tier, and what would have landed in upper Stones might reach Iron.”
There was a major difference between Stones and Iron.
Skipping the Promotion Assessment between them alone was a tremendous advantage.
That was why the Placement Exam was such a valuable series of matches. You could not afford to throw away even one game.
“None of you want to throw it away for nothing, right?”
“Ugh... Uuugh....”
“Hmm.......”
“So! If you show a little sincerity, I’ll do you a special favor and play seriously!”
“...What?”
“You all know what I mean, so why act like you don’t~? I mean give me Credits. Five thousand per person should be about right?”
“You want us to give you Credits?!”
“If you don’t want to pay, then don’t~. I don’t care about throwing away a Ranked Match.”
“If you want to throw it away like this, go right ahead. Heh heh heh!”
Snake Eyes grinned wickedly and sat down with a thud.
-Seriously... People like that actually exist?
-In his second Placement Exam match, he runs into a Troll-Poor?
-Damn it! Take off the mosaic and expose him!
-What’s Jaeha going to do?
Troll-Poor.
A portmanteau of troll and poor, it referred to malicious Players who refused to play properly unless they were paid Credits.
Of course, repeatedly doing something like that would earn a penalty from Channel itself. In the worst-case scenario, they could even be barred from accessing it. That was why most of them did it only once or twice at a time, like earning pocket money.
“Don’t pay him. Players like that usually aren’t very good anyway. There’s a high chance he’ll just take the money and run.”
“But...!”
“It’s fine without him.”
At least, this was Valkyrie Canyon.
“The four of us can clear it.”
“Us? Pfft!”
Snake Eyes let out a clear laugh of derision.
“Jaeha, sir. I know you’re reasonably good, but aren’t you getting a little too full of yourself? You’re still unranked, after all.”
“......”
“You cleared Underground Prison by making your teammates do everything, too. Weren’t you really just giving orders from the back? So don’t get so cocky and...”
“Hey.”
The man had been talking a little too much for a while now.
And I had never liked bastards who were all talk.
“Shut up already.”
“Did you just tell me to shut up?”
“We don’t have a single Credit to give you, so if you’re not going to participate, go squat in the back.”
“Ha! Fine... Let’s see that great skill of yours. But don’t worry. My wallet is always open.”
With a PTOOEY!, Snake Eyes spat on the floor and flopped down beside the statue.
Fortunately, Players could not destroy the Statue of the Goddess of Hope.
“Um... Is this really all right? It is a Bronze-level game....”
“It won’t be easy, but it isn’t impossible. So listen to me.”
I raised one corner of my lips in a grin.
“I’ll make sure we clear it.”
“Kuh...! A chivalrous spirit that refuses to bow to injustice! This humble one is moved!”
Jo Ikdeok roared as he swung his Chinese halberd(...) through the air.
“From now on, I shall heed every word you say, brother!”
“Do not call me brother. I’m still only twenty-four.”
“Then this humble one is indeed your younger brother. I am twenty-one!”
...Really?
You wore a school uniform until two years ago?
‘No, that isn’t the point....’
The game was about to begin.
If only to make that smug bastard snickering behind us eat his words, I had to clear this game perfectly.
“Listen to me carefully from now on.”
Today.
We go beyond Bronze.
Naturally, there were many types of Defense maps.
Different maps appeared at different ranks, and many of them had special mechanics.
Among them, Valkyrie Canyon could be considered simple in many ways.
Normally, Defense required stopping monsters charging in from several directions, but this place had only one passage.
‘The passage directly ahead.’
Blocking that one point was enough. But by the same token, every monster that would have been spread across several paths poured in at once.
People commonly described Valkyrie Canyon this way.
‘A war-of-attrition map.’
A place that required no strategy. All you had to do was stop the monsters charging in from the front.
Well, that was not completely wrong. I would not deny that it was the standard strategy.
But did that mean you should simply give up if your team lacked firepower?
Of course not.
There was naturally a strategy for situations where firepower was lacking.
This was knowledge from the future, but it was not, too.
Because I had discovered this method myself.
It was a strategy I had relied on whenever Valkyrie Canyon appeared back when I was Bronze.
Granted, this would be harder because everyone was at Placement Exam level, and we were down one person.
‘I’ll have to make up for what we lack.’
I stood in front of the canyon passage.
I had relayed every bit of strategy I could.
All that remained was for me to perform even better so that everyone could fulfill their role.
[Time Remaining Until Start: 1 minute]
As the message appeared in the air, I pulled a candy from my pocket and placed it in my mouth.
CRUNCH!
The candy shattered with a crisp sound.
As the sugar crumbled, sweetness spread across my mouth like Mana.
My body heated up as though preparing for battle.
[The game begins!]
[The Monster Wave begins!]
[Protect the ‘Statue of the Goddess of Hope’!]
RUMBLE...!
The ground beneath my feet trembled lightly.
A multicolored tide gradually came into view from the distance.
“SKREEEE!”
“GRRK! SKREEE!”
Orcs, Goblins, and Ogres.
A legion of monsters kicked up dust as it surged toward us.
“All right, then....”
I forcefully released the Mana inside my body.
“Let’s go.”
BOOM!
I kicked off the ground and rushed straight toward the monster legion.
[Gravity Field] (D)
A violet force field formed, creating a gravity zone.
Ordinarily, I would have stopped there.
“I’m the only Warrior right now!”
A field this size could not cover all of them.
So it had to grow larger. Wider.
‘Unlike during the Constitution Awakening training!’
I expanded the range of the force field!
FWOOSH!
The outer edge of the field expanded, enlarging the gravity zone.
Normally, it would have been impossible to manipulate a single Skill this fluidly.
‘With my Mana Control Proficiency at the highest level...!’
I could do it.
“SKREE?!”
“GRRK...!”
The monsters that entered the gravity zone grew sluggish.
Living creatures were accustomed to their own weight.
Make them just a little heavier, and they would feel uncomfortable. Their movements would turn awkward.
Taking advantage of that opening—
“Hah...!”
I swung my hammer.
CRUSH!
With one strike, the bodies of the monsters in front of me were smashed apart.
But I could not let it end there.
There were at least several thousand monsters I had to hold off.
‘Don’t stop fighting!’
Again and again, I slammed and swung my hammer, pulverizing everything around me.
Attacks occasionally caught me off guard, but I did not bother dodging them and continued attacking.
‘Trust the Buff and shrug off the minor attacks!’
[Buff: Recovery Acceleration(Lv.3)]
Thanks to the Buff bestowed by the statue, I could make up for the lack of healing to some extent.
There was just one slight problem.
The power was a little lacking.
BANG!
“SNORT!”
A High Orc that had somehow blocked my hammer sneered at me.
It was one of the most formidable monsters that could appear at Bronze rank.
-A High Orc...!
-This time, he’s really screwed.
-This was ridiculous from the start. He’s basically trying to stop a Monster Wave by himself.
“SNORT!”
The creature thrust its muscular arm toward me.
I slipped away half a beat early and gripped the hammer’s handle with one hand.
‘Because I widened Gravity Field too much, the power is lower than I expected.’
Narrow it, and the range decreases in exchange for greater gravity.
Widen it, and the range increases in exchange for weaker gravity.
‘Right now, the gravity feels at least thirty percent weaker than usual.’
“GRRRK!”
“SKREEE!”
The moment I showed an opening, the monsters rushed in as though they had been waiting for it.
The High Orc led the charge, intent on crushing me.
“...This reminds me of an old comic I once read.”
I gathered Mana into both arms, my shoulders, and my legs.
SQUEEZE!
I gripped the hammer’s handle tightly.
“Just because I’ve grown weaker—”
As the monsters closed in—
“—doesn’t mean you’ve grown stronger!”
I drove the hammer down again and again.
If once was not enough, then ten times.
If ten times was not enough, then a hundred.
A technique that turned the flow of Mana and the movement of my muscles into a repeated motion, increasing its power with every strike.
[Titan Stamp]
Along with Cannonball, it was a technique I frequently relied on.
BOOM! BANG! BOOM! BOOOOM!
The longer the hammering continued, the more momentum and power it gained, devastating the entire area.
Shockwaves formed as gravity and Mana tangled together, shoving aside and shattering the smaller monsters.
“SNORT?! SQUEAL!”
“What do you think?”
Even the head of the High Orc that had begun to hesitate—
“Has that smile faded now?”
CRUNCH! CRACK! BOOM!
I smashed it with dozens of hammer blows until it became a lump of pulp.
When the repeated motion stopped, every monster in the area had been annihilated.
-Insane....
-What the hell was that?
-He wiped out an entire wave by himself?
-Today’s common knowledge: Shin-saster’s terror does not discriminate between humans and monsters.
-That looked more like meteor bombardment than a hammer.
Of course, this was not the end.
Monsters were still streaming through that narrow passage.
They were tougher and hardier than before.
“Fine. Come at me as much as you like.”
“I’m not even fully warmed up yet.”
The strategy for ‘Valkyrie Canyon’ was only just beginning.
.
.
.
[‘Gravity Field(D)’ is on the verge of evolution!]