Chapter 17
<I> directed Olim to watch the place where the Lich Lord would reappear when he is resurrected and ordered her to wait for an attack. Afterwards, <I> turned back to the message window to reply.
Seo Dawon: Where are you? What about Garam?
Bae Jaemin: Garam is…
Bae Jaemin: He’s really seriously injured
To make matters worse, he reported that Jung Garam had been injured. <I> had an ominous looming feeling.
Seo Dawon: How bad?
Bae Jaemin: I think we should leave
Bae Jaemin: He hurt his arm and eyes, and he’s bleeding a lot
Seo Dawon: The ‘Complete Recovery’ spell isn’t working?
Bae jaemin: My spell is still on cooldown
Bae Jaemin: I’m going to activate the emergency escape, so please approve it
""
Seo Dawon: Okay
Seo Dawon: And you? Are you alright?
Bae Jaemin: Yeah
Soon, an announcement appeared: [“Bae Jaemin” has requested emergency evacuation]. <I> approved it and began to ready Garam’s escape kit as well.
“…..!”
But at that moment, something felt odd. <My> sharp intuition alerted <me> to something approaching from the back.
“Kuh-urk….”
But when <I> noticed this, <I> had already allowed that oddity to approach too close for safety. As if someone had shot a fire arrow into <my> back, a searing pain had shot through <my> spine, and <I> felt my vision grow dim.
Kim Olim, who noticed me fall, turned around and roared, “Seo Dawon-!”
All the other guild members turned their heads towards <me> at Olim’s shout. <I>, too, managed to stay awake and not faint at the shock of her voice and collapsed where <I> stood.
Perhaps the blow was truly deadly, <my> arms lost all sensation. Something was wedged into <my> back…What is it? Is this the boss’s new attack pattern?
“…Just as Lee Do-jin assured me. No matter how sensitive my opponent may be, he can’t possibly perceive ‘this’ from the back.” The shadow behind <me> did not belong to a monster. “Hello, Seo Dawon.”
The attacker placed a foot on <my> neck; her frivolous voice that promised violence was one that <I’ve> heard before. The attacker leaned over and made eye contact with my faltering eyes, as if to jog <my> memory.
“Long time no see?”
“Lim Jisoo! What have you done!” Kim Olim shouted in anger before <I> could respond.
A loud ‘crash’ could be heard not far away. Had Olim thrown her spear at Lim Jisoo?
Lim Jisoo suddenly placed greater pressure on <my> neck after Olim’s attack. Perhaps she wanted to threaten Olim for daring to harm her. She must have expected some sort of flailing from <me>, but, even if she were to break <my> neck, <I> didn’t intend to give her the satisfaction from any unseemly outward show of pain.
Lim Jisoo clicked her tongue while looking at me and removed her foot. “You’re still no fun.”
“Lim Jisoo…Have you finally gone insane?” <I> croaked.
Obviously Lim Jisoo and <I> despised each other, but to the point of attacking <me> from behind? With the intent to kill? If news spread that she attacked a guildmaster during a raid, Lim Jisoo’s life as a respected ranker would be over. Had she really gone insane?
Perhaps she was anticipating <my> question–perhaps she read the confusion on <my> face–Lim Jisoo opened her mouth with a triumphant smile. “Seo Dawon. Didn’t I warn you, as your sunbae 1 ? Remember?”
<I> bit back <my> questions as there was no value to answering this madwoman, but Lim Jisoo seemed to be intoxicated. She continued as if she didn’t care about <my> response with exaggerated gestures and raised voice.
“I told you to stop putting on airs, stop pretending to be good, and live modestly. This is your karma.”
Her words were nonsense, but <I> felt the atmosphere change as soon as Lim Jisoo finished speaking.
Though <I> could only see the guild members’ feet from my prone position, their stance had changed. Somehow the sound of Ragi’s chain sword clanking against itself seemed quite creepy.
The Lich Lord’s resurrection spot seemed quiet, so something else must have emerged. And the guild members were nervous enough to change into defensive positions to deal with it…<I> wanted to see what Lim Jisoo had summoned, but this crazy bitch crouched in front of <me>, blocking <my> line of sight.
With a deranged smile, she whispered, “First of all…Watch your annoying guild members die.”
As soon as those words left her mouth <I> heard a wet tear–the fishy smell of blood assaulted my nose. <I> didn’t hear anyone screaming, but <I> knew–or rather <I> felt–that someone in the guild was mortally wounded or killed.
<I> looked Lim Jisoo square in the eye and said, “Step aside, pig bastard, so I can watch.”
Lim Jisoo’s smiling face hardened; her cheeks twitched. She grabbed <me> by the collar and raised <my> dangling body into the air. “You still don’t understand your situation, do you?”
Then, Jisoo turned her body to the side, as if she were putting on a performance.
<I> knew better than anyone else the present state of the guild members. <We> were already exhausted from trying to defeat the Lich Lord and his Death Knights, and Bae Jaemin, the team’s only Priest, had left the dungeon.
Above all, <I> was the guild’s biggest firepower, but <I> was held in Lim Jisoo’s hands, collapsed and useless. <I> had no idea what Lim Jisoo had stabbed into <my> back, but because of it, the mana circulation in my body was disrupted. <I> couldn’t even call upon <my> Mage abilities to change this dire situation.
To drive <us> into this corner…This attack must have been a thoroughly researched and prepared trap that must have been conceived long ago. However, Lim Jisoo could not have accomplished all this on her own; <I> needed to uncover her partner in crime.
Lim Jisoo finally responded to <my> provocations and swept her arms across the battlefield. <I> could finally see our enemy…or should <I> say enemies.
“How do you feel? Two of the nation’s top three guilds joined hands to demolish you Red Lotus eyesores.” Though her tone was flippant, as if she were joking, the battlefield corroborated her words.
Only eight of the Red Lotus guild members participated in the <Tower of Command> raid. Two of them, Garam and Jaemin, were absent, and <I> was captured by Lim Jisoo. Therefore, only five members were standing in the field.
At a rough glance, over 50 people were surrounding <us>. Moreover, a good portion of them were guild rankers that were so famous that anyone in <our> country, even those living under rocks, could recognize them.
First of all, the famous [Red Dragon] guild stood out because of the members’ cliche uniforms embroidered with red dragons. The guild itself was established by gang members; both users and ordinary folk began to call them loan sharks. It is said that the chairman of the group, Koo Kyungman, currently has the most cash in Korea; he was the king of dirty money.
Of course, <I> had no reason to get entangled with a punk like Gu Kyungman who only played around at clubs or expanded his dirty business. And, it wasn’t as if Kyungman had hid the bloodthirst in his eyes when he came to <our> guild to solicit personal jobs.
But the man had a shrewd brain on his shoulders, <I> didn’t think he’d dare gamble being the Red Lotus’s enemy. Worse, the guildmaster, Kyungman, didn’t send one of his officer underlings but instead came personally to fight. He stood in the center of a group of Red Dragons, wearing a childish cape (the symbol of the Red Dragon guild master) draped over a body as thin as anchovies.
He was a Mutuga 2, a class that used gauntlets. The gauntlets were always infused with poison, befitting his treacherous nature, and, predictably, he would only use black weapons. After briefly pacing the battlefield, he locked onto one target and began doggedly chasing.
That target was Kyungsik, the alchemist who had just lost his Golem. Koo Kyungman had a nose like a hunting dog; he had correctly chosen the weakest target.
Fortunately, Kyung-sik, who had noticed him chasing, quickly turned to run and narrowly avoided an attack from behind. The chase was momentarily suspended when Olim threw a shield at Kyungman. Kyung-sik quickly ran by Olim’s side.
But the real reason for the halt was quickly revealed: Kyung-sik had already fallen victim to the insidious poison on the gauntlet. He collapsed in Olim’s arms, face turning blue and gushing black blood. Olim’s expression contorted.
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