Post by Wing on Nov 15, 2014 10:39:27 GMT
Volume 41 summary
By iheartz
Chapter 1: The Hero's brief anguish
Chapter 2: The Descent of the Hero
Chapter 3: Catastrophe Rising
Chapter 4: Frontal Attack
Chapter 5: Weed's Song
Chapter 6: A War That Wasn't Meant to Happen
Chapter 7: Swaying War
Chapter 8: The Crumbling Palace
Chapter 9: Misfortune of the Haven Empire
Chapter 1: The Hero's brief anguish
Story starts out with the the players in Hermes' army looking at the Arpen Castle/Palace, encouraging each other and raising their morale (ex: talking about how much loot they are going to get, how the opponents are just newbies, etc.). Deuraka, the commander of the the First Northern Subjugation Army (with his voice amplified by Shaman wind magic) declares he wants to duel with Weed. Deuraka thinks back about the report which the Hermes guild intelligence division gave which analyzed all of Weed's skills and concluded that the chances of Weed winning are less than 20% (although they are still unsure if Weed got anything from his time traveling quest). In preparation for the duel, Deuraka was given the highest quality armor, the blessing of one of the top priests in the continent, and a dark magic buff by shaman that took 7 hours to prepare. The Arpen players talk among themselves about who's going to win the duel and one of them mentions how Deuraka has the title Lord of the Lake (?), how he has won a duel against the leader of the Templar Knights (or he is one of the leaders, idk), etc. To Deuraka’s disappointment, Weed doesn’t appear and a level 430 warrior named Kamon (?) steps out instead. Kamon gets his ass handed to him and is killed quickly. More Arpen players step out to duel with Deuraka, but they all fail. After 10 overwhelming duels, Deraka declares if Weed doesn’t step out, the Haven army will attack and crush the kingdom. After waiting for a minute, Deuraka orders his army to move forward. (Editor’s note: The combat here is confusing and it’s hard to tell which side is doing which action). The Arpen players rush towards the Haven army, but they are devastated by ranged counterstrike that the Haven army gives (AoE fire magic as well as volleys of arrows). Those who managed to survive the ranged barrage then collide with a shield wall composed of Haven’s armoured infantry, which immediately crushes them. The battle is going badly for the Arpen side and Hermes players confidently declare that the battle is already over.
Hess Tiger is in the palace (?) looking at the armies (I believe this is set a little bit in the past before the two armies started fighting). He remarks how although there are a lot of soldiers, they are all pretty weak and fairly untrained. He compares it to his time (right after Weed killed the dragon) when the presence of the Desert Warriors will cause the morale of the enemy soldiers to plummet to rock bottom. In fact, they were so infamous that the enemy army would sometimes break down from desertions or internal rebellions (because they don’t want to fight the desert warriors).
Hess wonders if he should just use the time he has been given to wander like the wind, going around and enjoying life in the world, despite of Weed’s orders. He watches the 10 duels with little interest (in the past, Hess has reached level 869 due to all of his adventures) and watches the two armies start fighting. He has just made up his mind to leave to distant places (he wants to explore the ocean which he hasn’t seen before?) but then hears the cry of a little Arpen girl calling out for her dad. Because of the devotion the Arpen subjects has for their King, they willingly took up arms against the invaders. However, the place where the little girl’s dad was standing (he was an archer) was devastated by the Haven army’s magical attacks. The Haven army immediately follows up with more attacks, completely killing the people in the area who survived the first strike. This rouses Hess’ wrath and regret, his wrath because the Haven army was targeting the fallen and the injured, and his regret for not following Weed’s orders. He rebukes himself for doubting Weed and decides to take up arms, summoning his sword and armor. Normally, the resurrection skill wouldn’t be able to bring back Hess’s equipment. However, his equipment was given to him by the High Elves and the forest trees (?) still remember him, his armour and swords which kept by the woods were sent to him through the power of the fairies (the woods and the fairies also greet him).
Scene switches to Pale’s group who are still digging up treasure. Because they were buried in the ground for 600 years, all of the treasure was in a really bad state. They were currently useless right now, but it may be possible to restore them with the ability of an extremely skilled blacksmith (they’re all lvl 450+ equipment). Tired and bored of digging up treasure, the group decides to head to the Arpen palace to help, but Bel (the bard. I’m just shortening her name since google trans says “Belt” right here) remarks on how they would never reach there in time. Zephyr thinks about it for a moment and sighs, mentioning how they could ask Weed’s sister to teleport them there (although the teleportation is essential, Zephyr knows that he’ll be nagged at a lot by Weed’s sister).
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Chapter 2: The Descent of the Hero
Chapter starts off in the studio of a Royal Road broadcasting company, where the mood is rather gloomy. This is because they had anticipated record-breaking watchers in the Northern War (Arpen Kingdom is the last major power that the Hermes guild has not controlled. Also, Weed’s the king). In the beginning, the invasion matched the expectations of the broadcasters. However, as time went on and Hermes won battle after battle, more and more viewers left. One of the analysts at the station explains that it is because the Hermes guild is too overwhelming and the viewers are not interested in watching somebody steamroll all opposition every single time. The staff discuss about what would happen in the North, what would happen if the Hermes guild won the war, if they should continue broadcasting on the Northern war (they would be losing money because the costs of editing/equipment/etc. would be greater than the money earned from the viewers in the current situation). In the end, KMC decides to continue with their coverage and not worry about short-term profits.
Scene switches to Bart (Seoyun’s father) who has become a merchant in Royal Road. He recently arrived at the Arpen palace and was doing trade as a merchant there. He has been doing fairly well thanks to his real-life businessman skills and has opened up a small stall. It is mentioned that it was partly because of the merchants why Arpen prospered so much. Because of the low taxes and beginners, the merchants flocked to Arpen. This led to the development of free trade and high competition, which, in turn resulted in increased production ability, technological development and population growth. After selling some quest items to a beginner, he turns his eyes onto Seoyun who is nearby (not really clear about this part. Maybe the scene changed). Seoyun is staying in Mora/the palace (not sure which one) in case Weed needs the life transfer granted by the wedding rings. Several guys recognized her mask (she’s still wearing her mask to hide her face) and connects her with the “goddess” that appeared before. One guy asks her if she has a boyfriend and is heartbroken when she replies yes. A girl ask Seoyun what her hobby is and Seoyun replies that she is currently learning some type of cooking (something to do with rice?)
Scene switches back to the battle where the Arpen army is being wrecked by the continuous barrage of arrows and spells. It turns out that the wizards are wearing equipment specifically designed so that they have immense mana , mana regeneration, and low mana spell costs. Although the wizards have no defense whatsoever, they are protected by the wall of armored infantry and they can also cast over triple the amount of spells they normally cast. The wizards then cast Pillars of Fire, a top class magic spell that required 50 fire wizards to cast, and then cast Tornado Stream. By itself, Pillars of fire only scorches the area it is cast on, and then disappears. However, the two spells combined and a tornado of fire was formed, devastating the Northern Army. The one-sided slaughter continued until a voice rang out, declaring that the army shall oppose the wicked ones, fighting as fierce as the desert storm, never ceasing until their bodies return to the earth.
After hearing that, everybody in the Arpen army gets their health restored, a %50 increase in strength, increases to all battle stats, up to a 2-fold increase in power of their abilities, and various blessings from 12 (?) different gods. A player wonders who on earth could have given a buff like that and turns around. There, standing on the cliffs, was a figure with an Elven blade in his hand and Elven-forged armor. The player is stunned, and speaks out in a shaking voice “Hess…Tiger?” The Arpen players bursnt out into disbelief and awe, while Hess Tiger’s fanclub started arguing among themselves whether the person was the real Hess or not. All of the girls go wild because Hess has a noble and elegant face while the body gives off an aura of force and wildness (it was mentioned that Hess was similar in build to the Geomchis except for the crucial face factor lol). Hess shouts out that the “Great King of the Desert” has tasked him with defeating the intruders and asks everybody to fight with him.
All of the player characters gets a pop-up in front of them asking them if they are willing to follow his commands. The downside is that sometimes, their bodies will follow Hess’s orders (and not their own). However, they’ll gain increased experience and public value points. Players start shouting out how they’ll follow Hess Tiger, how Weed hasn’t abandoned them. Also, there was this one player who went ecstatic, telling Hess Tiger how she would be his slave (LOL). In the end, 9,483,201 players agree to follow Hess’s orders.
Hess orders the army to charge forward, and while the players are running forward, they suddenly discovered that they have been temporarily granted the skill Vicious Assault which increases movement speed significantly. The Haven mages try to stop the charge with lightning and fire magic, but thanks to the various blessings (Goddess of Earth Mine: reduce damage by 68%, Freya: eliminates hunger, fatigue, and generally restores body to normal, Baldereu: Granted ring (ability unknown except for that something good will happen), Ahteurok (increase attack power more experience, etc.) Energized by their sudden turn of fortune, the Arpen users start their Porridge chant and begin their assault.
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Chapter 3: Catastrophe Rising
The players from the Arpen army smashed into the Haven shield wall like a tide. Although they didn’t actually inflict much damage, it was a huge psychological blow to many of the Hermes characters. However, their past war experiences has allowed them to cool down and calmly deal with the sudden appearance of Hess Tiger. They quickly ordered their mages to saturate the areas in front of the shield wall with spells like an AoE poison spell which fills the area with toxic fumes, killing off most of the Arpen beginner players. Weakened, the Arpen players were not able to break through the shield wall and reach the ranged units in the back (there was a short scene about a young girl urging her siblings to fight on. Apparently, it’s clear in her mind that Arpen=good and Haven=bad lol). Upon seeing their shield wall holding up, the Haven commanders sigh in relief, commenting on how the shield wall+ranged unit formation was extremely effective.
Pale and his group are teleported to the castle and Surka immediately dives off the cliff to the clashing armies. Romuna teleports (or is teleported) to a good position for casting fire magic (something about having a good wind direction and a clear line of sight to the enemies), Irene heads to the back to casts blessings and heals, Bel and Hwaryeongun perform near the palace, and Pale begins shooting. Weed’s sister and Zephyr remains, and Violations asks why Zephyr hasn’t gone to fight yet. Zephyr, being the playboy he is, replies that although the battle is important, he thinks she is even more important. As such, he will stay with her to protect her (it mentions something about “greasy talking” haha). Weed’s sister shakes her head and says something (something about her grandmother telling her about what a man should/shouldn’t do to/for a woman? Idk), and then walks towards the battlefield, with Zephyr following her.
Scene changes to the floating island where a lot of the Avian race has gathered. They are annoyed and irritated at the fact that they are prohibited from fighting. One of the players (?), an Eagle avian, complains to the Golden Bird and asks why they can’t fight. There are many other similar questions thrown about but the Golden Bird simply ignores all of them. We learn a little bit about how the new players create Avian characters. Apparently, they can select the egg that they want to be born from, which decides what type of Avian they are. The variety and choices of eggs depend on the Avian race themselves (I may be completely wrong about this). For example, if more sparrow-Avians lay eggs, then more people are allowed to choose the sparrow race. There is also a mention of a Thunderbird race here. The complaints gradually grow louder, with the Avian branch of the Porridge cult having the loudest complaints (?), when suddenly Weed appears, stunning all of the players to silence. The Golden Bird flies to his right shoulder while Eunsae/Esuna sits on his left. Weed gives a speech about the humble origins of Arpen, describes the battle going on, the tax hikes that would happen if the Arpen kingdom loses, and asks if the Avian race could help with Arpen’s plight (during this/slightly before his speech, the Avians were going wild. One person even wanted Weed to sign his/her wing). The novel compares Weed’s speech to the speeches of politicians during the elections (basically, the audience would accept and follow whatever the politicians say). Weed ends his speech and there was a short silence, where he was wondering if they had seen through his speech. However, the Avian race immediately burst into applause, pledging that they would follow Weed and began taking off in a humongous flock.
The Avians reach the battle and start trying to divebomb the ranged units of the Haven army. They are met by a large wall of arrows and ice magic, and they start falling out of the sky. Hess Tiger then jumps down from the palace, summoning a Pegasus (because he’s a “friend of the forest”) and rushes towards the Haven army. He is immediately noticed because all of the blessings that the gods have bestowed upon him has literally given him a shining halo and the Haven commanders order all ranged units to concentrate fire on Hess. Deuraka asks on the guild chat about the abilities of Hess Tiger, but he was told that the information department didn’t bother investigating Hess (seeing as they thought there would be no possibility of that information being useful). Thousands of spells fly at Hess Tiger, the most noticeable being spears of ice more than 30 meters long, and a Hermes wizard remarks how there’s no way the Pegasus can dodge in time. Hess pulls out his scimitar, uses a skill which envelops the sword in high temperature flames (google trans: “Deterioration of the Blade”) and swings it at the ice spears. There is a large amount of steam and ice fragments, and the Hermes wizards confidently declares that it’s over. However, he is shocked when he suddenly receives a message about how the backlash from the destruction of the ice spears has reduced his mana to only 32.8% and causes a 14% reduction in his wisdom stat. Watched by the shocked Haven army, Hess shouts at the Arpen army to continue their attack.
Scene switches to the Geomchi group who are watching the battle. They talk about how fun their previous experiences of guerilla warfare was and after some discussion, they charge in (note: not exactly sure what else they talked about and I’m also not sure why they waited that long before attacking. Maybe they were waiting for the downpour of spells to end?). They mix in with the other players in the Arpen army and hit the Haven shield wall, cleaving through the shields of the armoured infantry with their sword skill (“Sword that slashes through anything” the one that they created at the end of their master quest.) They also use another new skill which (speculation) adds some type of splash damage to their attacks, causing the damage from their sword to jump to other enemies as well (one of the disciples cut down 14 people with one swing?). We find out about Geomchideulyi (not sure which number he is) who apparently never graduated middle school (also something about receiving a scholarship, and leaving in his sophomore year of high school) and went through life with the goal of becoming strong. After experiencing Royal Road for the first time, he decided that Royal Road was going to be the path to become stronger and has reached a level of 450. The commanders of the Haven army hurriedly orders the knights to sortie, trying to close the breaches that the Geomchi’s made. The Geomchis are more than ready for the knights, cutting through them with sword, spear, ax and bow, all the while exclaiming how it’s like a playground for them and how its fun.
Weed (?) is in the clouds looking at the battle. The Geomchi have cause a large breach and Hess Tiger is in the main camp (?) of the Haven army, massacring everybody there. In the short time he landed, he has already killed 100 (or 200) players already. He then reviews his information about the other Haven army Corps in the North right now. There are currently six (or seven) army corps (including the one that’s fighting at the palace) which give a combined total of 2.1 million troops . One of the corps is currently sieging the Citadel (the one where Bar Khan used to control) in order to prevent the Orcs and other races from sending help (?). Weed thinks that the amount of personnel the Hermes guild deployed for the expedition is ridiculous but grudgingly agrees that its necessary because they would have to police a huge amount of area if they won. He considers the Haven armies actions and concludes that if the Palace falls, then the Haven armies will be free to launch attacks on multiple fronts and will most likely control half of the North in 1 to 2 weeks (?). This gives Weed a headache similar to the one he got while thinking about how the electrical and food prices are rising up, but he declares that he’ll smash the Haven army. He finishes carving a statue of a turtle and adds it to the other marine-animal statues in front of him. There are statues of people getting eaten by piranhas, large spiky rockfish, crocodiles, loaches, flounders, etc. He then uses the cloud sculpting skill and rain starts to fall on the back elements of the Haven army. He continues using cloud sculpting, and soon, a storm starts brewing above the heads of the Haven army (it was mentioned that he had carved over 200 sculptures to cause this miniature storm). The rain quickly turns the ground into a muddy mess which makes it harder for the soldiers to get a good footing on the ground. Also, it dampens the effects of fire magic.
The clouds continue to darken and one of the Hermes players mentions (in guild chat) that it feels like the rain is artificial. He is then told that there are only about 3 wizards (?) that are capable of exerting climate control on this skill and none of them are in the Northern continent at the moment. However, it was possible for a high level prayer involving a lot of difficult-to-obtain materials to cause a storm like that, although the prayer is usually used to end a drought or to irrigate vast quantities of land.
Weed looks at the rain below him and comments on how that it will serve to amplify his skill, although to what extent, he does not know. He then pulls out a Masterpiece sculpture of a tsunami (I think the sculpture is made of ice) and uses Catastrophe Engraving. We find out that the reason why he created the rain clouds was to increase the effects of the sculpture. He then gets a message telling him that Freya has given him her blessing, which increases the power of the sculpture by 89%. Weed wonders if the power is too strong and if it would hurt his allies as well. However, he then shrugs and says that he already did the deed so there’s not point in regretting it. He asks Sanya (the wyvern he’s riding on) what about its opinion but it played dumb and simply said that it will follow Weed (?).
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Chapter 4: Frontal Attack
Weed’s animated sculptures (more than 50+ of them) are watching the fighting. Rover comments how there’s going to be fighting again today and how that means it’s going to be harder for him to live to an old age. The Golden man agrees and blames it all on Weed. Bach comments on how the rain looks bad (or it has a dampening effect on fire) and the Hydra heads squabble among themselves (one of them says that it’s hungry, another one points out that they all share the same stomach so they are all hungry (?), and a lot more stuff that I can’t understand).
The Arpen army continues pushing at the Haven Army. (There’s several pages of stuff that’s hard to understand. Something about the Arpen players not caring that much for their lives, sharing the best ways to bum rush the Haven soldiers, and using movement speed increasing magic to run away from the AoE magics that the Haven mages have). Suddenly, many of the soldiers on both sides start feeling cold. The Haven commanders simply explain it away with the logic that it is the Northern continent and a rainstorm so it’s natural to feel cold. The Arpen players wonder if it’s a new magic that the Haven army has prepared. The cold increases to a severe chill which has a significant (12%) decrease in physical ability as well as a 42% reduction in regeneration (not sure of health, mana, stamina, or all three). One Arpen player shouts that the Hermes guild are dirty bastards, seeing such a significant stat drain is lethal to the low leveled players that are fighting right now. The Avians are also affected by the rain, which drenches their wings and forces them to land (although some high level players managed to escape). The Haven army was also affected, although not as much. The only trouble that the rain and the cold caused for them was a decreased in their ranged magic and arrow attacks (the soldiers all possess cloaks that can keep the body warm to some extent). The temperature has now reached the level where a person’s exhalation is foggy, and where the cold is sapping all body heat away. However, the temperature continues dropping. In the next two minutes, hail the size of ice cubes are crashing down onto the earth, and arctic winds are battering the soldiers.
A Haven soldier slips, and bringsdown an entire 10 meter section of the army with him, which was hugely embarrassing for the Hermes guild. One of the Hermes players asks how mere winds could cause such a fall, and another notes that the entire battlefield has been covered in ice. A Haven commander orders the troops to slow their advance, and to watch their footing. The Hermes guild-chat is abuzz, and they conclude that this was Weed causing a natural disaster. A player remarks how the cold is virtually harmless . Another one points out that the cold actually dropped the fighting ability of the soldiers by a fairly large amount and this will cause more soldiers to die. The first player (the one who identified it as a disaster) says that they must wary of Weed’s disasters and orders the wizards in the Haven’s Second Corps to cast warmth magic over the entire army.
Scene switches to the Arpen army, where a player is cautioning the others to avoid the ice chunks, saying that it’s definitely a disaster caused by King Weed. It mentions that all of the players are essentially brainwashed by Weed so they have no negative feelings towards Weed treating them as collateral damage (there’s a lot of people spouting their beliefs at Weed’s greatness but it’s hard for me to understand what they’re saying). The Arpen army continues to charge forward but more than half of the entire army (that’s hundreds of thousands if not millions of people) slip and fall. However, they don’t blame Weed but instead, tell the ones that didn’t fall to go forwards. The fallen players try to advance but some of them discovered that they were frozen to the ground.
The Hermes players laugh at the Arpen army, saying how Weed screwed up. Because of the magic of the spellcasters, they are mostly safe from the cold while the Arpen players are making a fool of themselves. What’s more, the cold has diminished Hess Tiger’s fire abilities. They start cheering , shouting out that the Haven Empire has won again, when suddenly large tremors shake the frozen earth. One player wonders if it’s a large monster, while another player disagrees, pointing out it’s more like an earthquake. Before they can speculate any further, a giant tidal way rushes in from the East (the same direction as a lake) and surges towards the battlefield. One player yells that it’s a tsunami on land and a commanders gives the order for the soldiers to brace themselves. Deuraka asks if it’s really a tsunami and a player in the Second Army Corps yells that’s it’s a tidal wave before the communication is cut by the player’s scream. One of the Hermes players panics (?) at the destruction that Weed has caused, but another one tells him to calm down because Weed can only use Catastrophe Sculpting once a day. The tsunami engulfs the soldiers, smashing apart the Haven formation. A player tries to run from the tsunami but is swept up and sent tumbling for hundreds of meters. To his surprise he manages to survive, thanks to his high level armor. It turns out that the tsunami has essentially wiped out about 20% of the Haven forces. The Hermes commanders judge this to be an unfortunate but manageable problem, seeing they still held a power advantage over the Arpen forces and they can also replenish the NPC troops by increasing conscription from occupied territories. However the full effects of the natural disaster didn’t end there. The water soaked survivors promptly started to freeze in the cold temperatures, and the tsunami also scattered debris everywhere on the battlefield, making it harder for the Haven army to get back into formation. Deuraka is irritated because over 30,000 (or 80,000) troops have been killed. However, he dismisses it as an unavoidable misfortune, and praises (?) Weed for his tactical skills. He orders the elite troops of the Haven army to take this chance and target Hess Tiger (half of the Arpen troops following Hess Tiger have already been killed or disable due to the battle and tsunami).
In the back line of the Arpen army, Marfan’s large voice was booming out, telling everybody how he is having a huge sale on spiked boots and dog sleds (he claims that he is a conscientious merchant and wouldn’t even earn a penny from the sales) with no refunds or returns. He is immediately flocked by players who want the equipment to go fight the Haven army and quickly sells out. Marfan has a large grin on his face and he thinks to himself that “of course it’s a lie” and how although the gear is really cheap, they are also made from the lowest quality materials possible (they have super low durability). While Marfan is thinking about his sales (I believe it says that he paid Weed for the information and it also mentions something about a conscience being extremely expensive for a merchant lol), thousands of dog sleds are rushing towards the Haven army across the ice. In the sky, the Avian forces led by Golden Bird (I guess Weed ordered some to hang back? Either that or the first wave was players and this one was NPCs) take off, heading towards the Haven army from the sky.
Chapter 5: Weed's Song
The Arpen players launched a huge counterattack from both land and sky. Before, their attacks were largely rendered useless thanks to the large level advantage and the tactics that the Haven army used. However, thanks to the tsunami, the Haven shield wall has been heavily disrupted. In addition, the leftover ice and chill has made it harder for the wizards to conduct their spellcasting. To make up for their weakness, the Haven army’s necromancers start moving out (I think it’s Haven army due to their high levels, I may be wrong though). Unlike the other classes, Necromancers show their true power later in the battle, when the battlefield has filled with corpses. Because of the fast growing nature of their jobs and the Undead Legion quests, most of the Haven’s necromancers have already exceeded level 460.
The Dark Gamers are watching the fighting, trying to decide if they should intervene or not. Although they want to fight for Arpen, they are only willing to do so if there is a chance of winning. Otherwise, they would be wasting levels and skill levels which would cost them real money (the time spent recovering those levels and skills can’t be spent taking job requests). One of them remarks that if the Haven empire even shows the slightest signs of crumbling, they will attack.
Suddenly, a great singing voice boomed out in the sky. The song tells of a storm with gusty winds and cold rain, shaking the house. One player shouts out “This messed up pitch, tempo, lyrics! There’s only one person!..” and all the players look up. Descending with the countless Avians was one man standing on a wyvern (yes, I believe he’s standing and not riding), with the Red Star sword in his hand. The song continues, talking about how the storm causes the body to shake, so you’re (he’s addressing the audience here) going to have to turn on the electric blanket. There’s also something about using the boiler, gas vs electricity costs, and the young people today not knowing the suffering that the others went through. The Avians flying with him try to figure out what he’s talking about and one of them suggests that Weed’s song is like the ancient Lizardmen songs, which have extremely complex rhythms. Another one (or the same one) mentions that it might be a poem which includes real life social conditions, with the main one being the physical pain and well-being of the elderly (something also about income inequality and labour). The Avians give up on trying to interpret Weed’s songs (Editor’s note: They aren’t the only ones -.-) and decide to sing along, even though they don’t know the meaning of the song.
Once the Haven wizards spotted Weed, they immediately focus their spells on him, sending hundreds of spells flying towards Weed. Weed tells the wyvern, Sanya to avoid it (he may have said that all of the other wyverns could do it?) and while shedding tears, Sanya performs several high speed maneuvers and dodges the spells (the wyvern is an extremely fast flying creature and they are also at the maximum range for the spells). Weed looks over the battlefield to decide where he should attack. After judging the wizards to be too well guarded, he decides to assist Hess Tiger instead. He orders Sanya to fly towards Hess, who is extremely easy to locate thanks to the pillar of fire and lava that are burning everything for hundreds of meters surrounding him. Once Sanya had reached a height of about 600 meters from the ground, Weed jumps off the wyvern. Because of the dangers of falling several thousands of feet to the ground and the hundreds of magical arrows (or magic and arrows) heading towards him, he takes out his ancient shield. The shield intercepts the storm of projectiles and magic (Weed loses 14% of his HP), and Weed continues to plummet towards the ground. However, in contrary to the Haven wizards’ expectations (I think that they stopped attacking because they knew he was going to die), Weed landed gently onto the ground. This was thanks to the feathers that he had purchased from Lavias which protects the user from fall damage. Weed meets up with Hess Tiger and his followers, and they proceed to wreak havoc among the Haven lines.
Weed gets several rare 400+ items (a belt and a hammer) from killing Hermes players, and he notes that because of their high notoriety (presumably from looting+killing), their item drop rates have increased. 3 Knight players charge towards Weed, declaring that they’ll take his neck. Weed checks their level and find that they all range around level 430. He blinks in and casts fire explosion, fire of extinction, and (something) hell. It mentions how Weed is in the peak fighting condition right now. The dragon sword Red Star absorbs fire to strengthen its users and the characteristic of the Desert Warriors is to strengthen and control fire. When Weed is fighting with Hess Tiger, his damage dealt is essentially doubled and all stats as a whole are increased by 30% (with the largest boots in strength and agility). He gets an increase in fencing level, +1 strength, and a small reputation boost. The player group following them cheers for Weed and Hess Tiger (I think he says something about doing a deed worthy of standing beside Weed or something? Extremely confusing sentence) quickly kills 10 enemy players in a flash. It turns out that one of the players was a notorious murder and Hess revealed a big smile. He mentions how in the past, he also fought this way against the greedy king (? Need somebody to check this sentence). Weed glosses over Hess’ statement and holds a hand out to Hess. Hess dutifully hands over the items that he picked up. Weed then causes Van Hawke and Tori (it mentions that Van Hawke has gotten stronger and all of his Death Knight related skills have gone up one rank, although it’ll take a very long time for him to reach the level of an Abyssal knight again). Weed calls Van Hawke incompetent while Tori is trying his best to remain unnoticed, and Weed tells them to seize control of the summoned undead (?) while trying to remain alive. Weed and Hess continue fighting, with the two attracting more enemies every minute (they are the two most targeted men on the battlefield after all). A dark mage casts several high level curses towards the two, but the protection of the goddess of black magic destroys the curse heading towards Hess while Weed is immune to the curse thanks to Red Star (it also mentions something about the ruler of the continent having resistance to harmful magic). Weed gets surprise-attacked by a thief and loses 13% of his life (it mentions that thieves essentially serve as the assassins of the battlefield. They have high enough combat strength to fight in battle (unlike assassins who end things in one hit), while still having enough stealth to remain unnoticed). The thief follows up with a flurry of attacks but Hess casts an AoE fire magic, healing Weed and incinerating the thief. In this fashion, they carve their way through the Haven Army.
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Chapter 6: A War That Wasn't Meant to Happen
Deuraka is having a hasty battle conference with the other members of the Hermes guild and the commanders. Several of the Haven corps have experienced large losses (there was also something about it being expected that Weed would be able to inflict these losses with his catastrophe sculpting). However, the other Corps are succeeding in holding off most aerial attackers and encircling Weed+Hess Tiger. Deuraka mulls over his possible strategies and decides to end everything in this battle instead of taking the safer option of retreating and waiting for reinforcements (because the Arpen army will respawn while the Haven army is mostly made up of NPC troops). Deuraka orders all corps to advance in an aggressive assault, quelling the doubts that the other commanders had with an “I’ll take responsibility for everything.” Deuraka’s Corp advances, with the Haven knights and infantry smashing apart the Arpen users. The third, fourth, fifth and sixth Corps also advance forward, all of them determined to win the glory of taking the palace (I think the second one was the one that screwed by the tsunami/tasked with stopping Weed and Hess).
The battle is been displayed on the monitors of a business meeting that the Hermes guild is having with 24 others. These people were not part of the guild, but representatives of various real-world businessmen and groups that have invested in the Haven Empire. They discuss about the control the Hermes guild has over Royal Road and the business opportunities in it (tourism, virtual real estate, etc.). One of the investors mention how his children had encouraged him to play and how he was surprised by the realism of the game. In fact, he says, just watching the battle makes him feel like a young man again (it got his “blood boiling”). Rafael acknowledges that statement and smiles, sipping some wine. However, on his side, one of the Hermes leaders scowled, having just received the report that Deuraka is taking independent action. Although irritated about his actions, they decide not to countermand Deuraka’s orders (?) seeing as it’s almost guaranteed that they’ll be able to take the palace this way (although with higher casualties). The group sits back and watches the battle unfold.
The Corps charge towards the palace, with massive steel/stone golems (?) making up the vanguard of each army. There is a subtle competition between the corps, seeing as each one wanted the glory of reaching the palace first. The knights are sent deployed out to clear a larger path, and the Haven corps quickly pierces through the Arpen formation. Weed notices the shift in the Haven army and realizes that their goal has shifted to destroying the palace instead of defeating the opposing army. His face pales as he notes that most of the high leveled users have been sent out to the field and only week troops have been left to guard the palace. A voice tells him that even if he notices the change, it’s too late now, Weed finds out that he and Hess Tiger have been lured out and surrounded by the Haven Army’s Mage Knights. The average Haven NPC soldier is in the late 300s in terms of levels. However, the Mage Knights are a group of players whose levels exceed 430 and are equipped with some of the best gear that the Hermes guild can provide. The leader of the Mage Knights asks if Weed has any last words (he does this because he wants to dramatize the confrontation so he’ll get more fame and advertisement money through/from the T.V. companies that are broadcasting the fight). Weed announces that although Haven has invaded the Northern lands, the only thing they’re going to have when leaving is their bodies (referring to the respawn). The leaders laughs and tells Weed that those are big words (I believe he abruptly stops because he realizes that laughing is only going to make him look like the villain) and orders the Mage Knights to charge. A thousand of the troops charge towards Weed and Hess Tiger while the other thousand stand back and begin casting their spells (it’s possible that it’s an elite mage+knight division). Weed and Hess charge towards the Mage knights, and Hess immediately uses powerful AoE fire and wind magic (Blazing Storm of Fire and Tempest Gale?). The skills instantly kill 16 of the knights and set the surrounding landscape and people on fire, causing a lot of panic in that area. Weed just stands sticks close to Hess Tiger, prioritizing analyzing the situation over fighting and healing/getting buffed from Hess’s flames. The leader pales when he realizes that he might have misunderstood the situation and bit off more than he can chew. He orders the magic users to saturate the area Weed and Hess are in with spells, which causes an immediate backlash to the magic knights that are in the area as well. Weed realizes this and blinks away, dodging the arrows as well as heading to intercept the Haven armies marching towards the palace. Hess Tiger just simply bulldozes his way through the ranks of the Mage Knights, with the lava aura of his body instantly incinerating any arrow that comes near him. The leader orders the group to chase down Weed and Hess (because if he stopped/killed Weed+Hess, he’ll be the hero of the battle). Ironically, many of his troops get hit by magic attacks and arrows launched by their own side. He yells at the other corps, asking what they’re doing and saying that they’re all on the same side, but realizes the fatal mistake. A large portion of the ranged troops consists of NPCs. In battle, players will usually take their own course of action, adapting to the situation as they see fit. However, NPCs will usually choose to loyally follow their orders. As such, he watched the pride and joy of the Haven army get decimated by the countless of magic attacks falling from the sky (?).
Weed and Hess gets closer to one of the Corps, with Hess pulverizing all of the soldiers that try to hinder them (Hess is constantly emitting fire and magma, and the book compares him to blazing volcano). However, they still aren’t going to be able to reach the palace before the Haven forces do and he calls out for the Phoenix. Suddenly, a second sun rose over the mountain horizon. It was the Phoenix, one of the strongest living sculptures in the world (due to its “unquenchable fire” of vitality property and the sacrifice of four out of five of the other phoenix brothers). A part of the Arpen army bursts into cheers and during that time, Weed quickly mounts of Phoenix and rises high up in the air, looking at the battlefield from afar. He sees that there are three legions/corps that are pushing their way towards the palace, and although the Arpen players are trying to stop them, the Arpen players can only slow the march of the corps. Things are looking grim (he also says something about “keeping with the palace never even won the war” and something about the Haven empire), but Weed declares: “Here today, all of the Haven invaders will die.”
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Chapter 7: Swaying War
The beginners in the palace are hurriedly trying to prepare for battle. Originally, they only intended to go to the palace to spectate on the battle from a high and relatively safe position, leaving if things started to get too dangerous for them. However, the rapid speed of the Haven army’s sudden advance and the vast numbers of the Haven troops marching towards the palace (more than half of the army) has caused a panic with the people in the palace. Some people (the merchants and tourists) try to leave the palace but find the way blocked by the four corps/legions. The Haven commanders shout out to kill everyone and take no prisoners. As such, this left the beginners no choice but to fight, with most of the beginners assisting the defenders in dropping stones/boiling oil on the Haven army. Pale is on the palace walls (apparently it doubles as a fortress) and shoots an arrow up into the sky, using the skill Scattering of the Earth (?). This arrow explodes into many pieces which then fall back towards the ground, exploding when they make contact with something. Besides him, there are also many other archers and ranged units on the wall, taking advantage of the walls height and the fatigue of the enemy (they had to march up a steep hill in heavy armor). But although they are facing such a disadvantage, the battle-hardened Haven army does not retreat.
Weed and Hess Tiger reaches the Arpen palace, and Weed orders Hess to take commander of Seville’s group (I believe those were the descendants of the soldier animated sculptures) and the desert warriors that came. He also orders his animated sculptures to attack (not sure if they’re attacking the forces that are sieging the castle or if they’re fighting in the plains). He then walks onto the palace walls (?) and gain large buffs (the powers of the earth that are channeled into the place block 96% of all ranged attacks, increase health and strength by 240%). He also notices a warning that if the monuments that are channeling the power (?) are weakened, then the power will fall as well. Deuraka sees Weed going into the palace and smiles, saying that they’ll take down both Weed and the palace in one blow. The Arpen army also notices the assault on the palace, and the Arpen commanders (they’re all real-world ex-military personnel) also dispatch groups to help the palace defenders.
Scene switches to the leader of the Black Lions guild, Carlisle, who is checking his email. He discovers he only has 39 emails, and he reminisces about the days where the Black Lion guild was extremely popular, with nearly 10 million players in the guild. However, after their disastrous defeat at the hands of the Hermes guilds, all of this fame disappeared like dust in the wind (Editor’s note: I believe the Black Lion’s guild were the one that controlled the mines which Weed was mining sapphire+got killed in. They were also one of the major participants in the guild alliance against Hermes which got crushed). He looks over the mail, with most of them being generic things like “how are you doing?” and “I found a new hunting ground.” He suddenly stops, shocked, when he find an email sent by Weed with the content “Don’t you want some revenge against the Haven Empire?” He doubts the authenticity of the letter at first (because Weed is one of the most common character names in Royal Road now). During that time, his T.V. is on in the background, with the Northern War (and Weed’s fight) being covered at that moment. He mutters to himself that it’s definitely a joke, but before he deletes the email, he decides to check the authenticity of the sender. Mail sent from a Royal Road account has the special function of allowing the sender to include an image of his avatar as a “signature” of sorts. Carlisle checks this signature is shocked to discover an image of Weed wearing his signature, and unique, gear. He is then puzzled as to why Weed would contact him; there is no way for him to interfere in the Northern world and his guild is just a shell of what it once was (it may have been disbanded, not sure). He continues reading the mail, in which Weed says that the Hermes guild will devour the Versailles continent if left alone. However, there is an opportunity to counterattack while the Haven Empire is shaken, much like how even wolves can hunt a wounded lion. It then ends with the line that this opportunity will come once Haven has been defeated in the North. Carlisle is surprised that Weed hasn’t given up yet and still believes Arpen can defeat the Haven army. Although the combined armies of all of the other large guilds have failed to defeat the Hermes guild, Weed still believes that he can win. But, he says to himself, Weed cannot win this war with his mind alone. His eyes turn towards the television, and looks at the situation (because many different stations are covering this fight, you can watch the battle from different ways in each of the different channels). However, no matter what point of view he looked at the battle, he only saw a helpless situation. He believes that it’s impossible to win, but he then thinks of the huge effect that it will have if the Arpen side somehow won. It would shatter the Hermes guild’s reputation of being undefeatable, and provide a signal for those who are unhappy with Hermes’ rule to revolt. He turns up the volume of the television. Unbeknownst to him, the guild leaders of the Black Swords, Sherwood, Cloud, and President (there are some other guilds names I can’t decipher), the guilds known as the losers of the war for the continent, have also received this email.
Weed and his sculpture companions/slaves are fighting furiously to prevent the invasion of the palace. Hess and Weed are leading the defense at the front gates while Baja (the barbarian) is commanding the teams for defending the side gates). The Golden Bird is following a hit-and-run strategy, while Eunsae/Esuna is providing support. Bart (Seoyun’s dad) watches him and is impressed by his charisma and his demeanor, although he still wonders if Weed is good enough for Seoyun (because Bart is a merchant, he is currently hiding on pillar (or roof) away from combat). Their eyes make contact for a short moment (they both said something, might have been each other’s names), before the attacking Haven soldiers blocks Weed’s gaze again. Bart lowers his head, and discovers that he feels embarrassed (this might be because he’s very low level in Royal Road. However, this entire paragraph is confusing).
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Chapter 8: The Crumbling Palace
Weed is fighting off the enemies, constantly using Blink to retreat and attack weak points. He teleports away from the fighting and uses the break to glance at the rest of the battlefield. Hess Tiger has charged at the Sixth Hermes corp, slaughtering the commanders and elite troops in his way. The deaths of so many commanders have caused a disruption in the chain of command and has allowed the Northern defenders to stop the advance of the Sixth Corp. The rest of the sculptures were fighting the other corps (Bingrong is looking for the best moment to use his ice breath, Hydra is gleefully eating the enwmy soldiers, Rover is talking about how he’s going to become rib eye, etc.). The sculpture group, along with the Geomchi band are the two forces that are playing the biggest part in slowing down the Haven advance. Weed thinks over their assault (a vanguard of mounted knights to quickly seize the gates followed up by an assault with the main Haven force once it caught up). Weed moans about the inequality in life (he compare this situation with that of how a poor kid will always be behind a rich kid? There’s also something about how if he married Seoyun, he would be rich and wouldn’t have to do anything? Needs double checking). Suddenly, he sees Deuraka and his escorts approaching him. Deuraka joyfully cries out at how he’s glad to have found Weed and declares that he will kill Weed. During his short speech, more than 10,000 knights and elite soldiers had arrived (note: they are in a plaza in front of the gates)
Weed gives a nasty grin and wonders to himself whether he can lure more of the soldiers into his trap. He uses his singing skill to yell out the fact that the Haven army is having an indiscriminate slaughter inside the palace and killing those who can’t defend themselves. He asks for everybody’s help to stop the Haven army. Upon hearing this, the Arpen players all cheer, saying how the King of the Arpen kingdom always protects the weak. They are also impressed by his actions, standing in front of the gate, heroically swinging his flaming sword back and forth to prevent the Haven army from breaking through (note: the entire time, the merchants, tourists, and civilians were being airlifted outside of the palace by the Avians). The strongest of the Haven troops, the Twilight Templars, start riding torwards Weed. They hurl their javelins towards Weed, but Weed teleports towards the knight, and uses Wrath of Fire to set the knights on fire. Weed orders Bach to stick close to him and the Arpen players also decided to help Weed. Although their attacks were as effective as throwing eggs against a rock, they did manage to hinder the Templars a bit. Eagle shrieks ring through the air and Avian players of the warrior tribes (eagles, falcons, etc.) come down from the air, harassing the Templars further. Deuraka calmly watches the battle and judges that it wouldn’t be difficult to deal with Weed normally. However, because of Weed’s teleportation and fire abilities, it is extremely hard to get a hold of Weed. He tells some troops to deal with Weed and orders the rest of them to attack the palace. From the back, the fourth corps is also attacking the palace. Besieged from all sides, the palace defenses are broken and the Haven armies march into the palace. One of the northern players bitterly watches the Haven army going through the gates, moaning about how many times he had to carry the stones needed to build the palace. Weed notices that the Haven army has breached the defenses and is now rampaging throughout the palace. He sends a whisper to a person, telling him to start the operation and to not hesitate.
Gaston (one of the architects of the palace) is sitting in the bar, heavily drinking with other architects. They are crying over how their beautiful works have been destroyed (such as the Alcazar bridge). Gaston remembers a recent conversation with Weed he had and shudders. It went something like this.
“What?....Did…I? Did I hear something wrong?”
“No.”
“Tell me again.”
“Make preparations to destroy the Arpen Palace please.”
“If you didn’t like the look of a building, it’ll be an easy fix. You don’t have to destroy the whole thing.”
“No, I want you to completely destroy the palace.”
“You’re kidding.”
“It’ll be a pretty expensive joke if that’s the case.” (Curse google trans for not making this clearer. The words barley bread were mentioned here but I can’t make any sense of how they would fit into this sentence).
Gaston then hears Weed’s plans of collapsing the palace on the army and he judges that it’ll be possible to quickly collapse the palace (apparently there is a key structural area which would cause the collapse of other parts of the palace if it was destroyed). Weed also tells Gaston that he wants the collapse of the Palace to cause a landslide, and Gaston mentions that it might be possible. Gaston talks to some of the other architects and they determined that if they dig some tunnels through the soil, it would be possible for the collapse to cause a landslide with the loosened soil. As such, with a small select team of other architects, they laid out the necessary requirements to collapse the palace. He is pulled out of his recollections by Weed’s message to start the operation. He pulls out a small model of the Arpen palace from his pocket and smashes it against the ground. A window popped up informing him that he used the Building Collapse skill.
Hess Tiger is attacking the commanders of the six corps. He pulls out a bow he obtained from the High Elves and lets loose several arrows at lightning speeds (his fangirls followers (both Avian and Human) are cheering him on). He then uses Rivers of Lava, which causes him to emit intense flames and lava from his body. It is mentioned that this is one of the strongest skills that the Desert warriors could get. However, in order to learn this skill, one had to visit a certain place and undergo a special ceremony. In the past, Weed believed that this took too much time, so he ordered Hess Tiger to get the skill instead. The rivers of flame and lava created by one of the strongest warriors from the Age of War sweeps through the soldiers of the modern era, wiping out anyone that gets even close to Hess Tiger. He is rampaging his way through the second corps when he notices that the palace walls have been penetrated. He is thinking to himself that he is late to the defense when suddenly, a deafening ringing sound begins. The palace then starts shaking, and all eyes, whether Haven or Arpen, stare at the palace. The palace sways and all of the buildings start collapsing. The Hermes players outside the palace wonders if Weed was willing to destroy the palace rather than to let them conquer it, and they break into a cold sweat. (Weed also shouts something out but I can’t understand what he’s saying)
Deuraka orders that all commanders make a report and reports come in of all the walls and buildings collapsing. He realizes that Weed is sacrificing the palace to bring them down and chills break out in his body when he feels what it’s like to fight the God of War. He calls for a full retreat and the Haven corps hastily try to pull back. However, the buildings start completely coming down, triggering landslides and causing large debris (pieces of the palace) to roll down the slope. Weed uses Blink to teleport on top of the phoenix and he views the scene below. Several of the mountains that the Palace was situated on have collapsed and were sliding down the slopes. Weed mutters about how it was a waste of his money and compares it to the real estate bubble?). (There’s a few sentences about Weed seeing Deuraka and saying something here. He says “that’s life,” referring to how honor, power and money are meaningless if you can’t enjoy it. Note: I think he’s talking about how Deuraka had the position of commander-in-chief of the army).
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Chapter 9: Misfortune of the Haven Empire
A window pops up in front of every player in Arpen, informing them about the destruction of the palace. It also tells them the consequences: a setback in local politics, the weakening of army morale, the reduction of loyalty among the citizens, the emergence of rebels, increase of separatist movement (demanding independence), increase in monster invasions on frontier towns, economic recession, trade decrease, decrease in taxes, a delay in the construction of great buildings, several villages leaving Arpen, reduce in cultural expansion, and the rewards (or payments) of all quests related to the Arpen kingdom have been reduced or eliminated entirely. Although enormous harm was done to Arpen by the destruction of the palace, the collapse and the landslide that it caused all but wiped out the first, third, and fourth Haven Army Corps. The Arpen players in the battlefield cheer at the unexpected reversal and they attack the enemy with renewed fervor. Surrounded from all sides and with the stronger Arpen forces (Hess Tiger, living sculptures, etc.) joining in the fighting, the second and fifth corps were mopped up. A message appears again, informing everybody that the Haven army has been defeated, with the first, second, third, fourth, fifth, and sixth corps wiped out without a single man left standing. The battle equipment of the Hermes army has been seized (May be talking about the faith stat instead? Google trans: battle of the material seized all faith), all siege weapons have been destroyed, the prestige of the empire falls by 14, the morale of the Imperial army has fallen, and security of the territories in the empire has weakened. The faces of Bard Ray, Raphael, and all of the Hermes guild leaders stiffened upon seeing this. One person mutters out “this can’t be” while another one said that this was because of Deuraka’s leadership, but the changes his mind, saying how they can’t blame Deuraka because it was a reasonable judgment at that time. Another person points out that nobody could have expected that Arpen would be willing to sacrifice its palace and said that they lost because their foresight was week. Yet another leader says that troops can be trained again and the biggest impact of this defeat was the loss of their appearance of invincibility. He says that although the palace was destroyed, everybody is going to see this as Weed’s victory. In the atmosphere of shock at the Hermes meeting/banquet, some of the businessman hesitantly expresses their uncertainty over going all out in investing in the Hermes guild (?). After the shock wears off, the leaders start talking about sending their an even larger, higher-leveled army to crush the North and raze it to the ground. In the midst of all of the talking and yelling, Bard Ray quietly says that he should go deal with Weed himself. However, Rafael (the only one who heard him), shakes his head, saying that they can’t afford to allocate any more forces currently to deal with the North if they want to follow their current plan of strengthening the position of the Hermes guild in the central continent (they need troops for security, funds for improving infrastructure and building armies, etc.). Also, they don’t have enough resources to take control of the massive Northern lands even if they did manage to defeat the Arpen army now after the deaths of so many Haven soldiers. In the end, the Hermes guild decides to simply strengthen their position in the North (build up some of the forts they established there, etc.) and to embargo all trade with the North. Suddenly, the chinaware on the tables start shaking, and after a short amount of time there is a notable shaking sound. One of the leaders ask if there is an earthquake now of all times. Another leader points out that they have already offered many sacrifices to the Goddess of the Earth and already received her blessing. However, another person shoots back, saying that this is obviously an earthquake. Rafael thinks about the current phenomenon which is strangely similar to the collapse of the Arpen palace he just saw, and breaks out into a cold sweat. In a bar, Seuneun, one of the continent’s top architects, complains about the treatment of the Haven Empire. He recalled how an official from the Haven Empire approached him telling him (not asking) to build the Imperial palace. He was given all of the money, material, and personnel he desired but he had was also given unrealistic building goals (ex: finish this building in a month) and told that if he didn’t meet the goal, he would be fired on the spot. However, even after he had finished constructing some buildings, he would sometimes be told that the building had too many pillars, or it was too small, and ordered to start over from scratch. On top of all of that, he was also poorly paid and he was constantly insulted (the supervisors were saying how he had bad skills). One example was when he built a building where the roof was designed to artistically channel the water from rain into a crystal clear lake in the center of the building. However, he was ordered by the Haven officials to tear it down, and replace it with a golden building instead. As such, they destroyed a building that he poured his heart and soul into and replaced it with a gaudy abomination. On top of that, the Haven supervisors sneered at his design, saying that it was just a lie of his to hide the fact that he built a leaky roof because of his inferior building skills. In the end, he (or another architect) was fed up and started to build everything to look nice on the surface but of extremely shoddy quality within. As such, not even a month has passed and the Haven palace has already has near broken pillars, small cracks in the ceiling, etc. Seuneun pulls out a model of the Haven palace, and comments on the strange feeling he has of wanting to destroy his work with his own hands, and destroys the model. The entire palace shakes intensely, and thousands of stone columns shatter. The ceiling collapses down, and all of the buildings start falling apart. Having already been weakened , the Haven palace quickly turns into a pile of rubble. The End.
By iheartz
Chapter 1: The Hero's brief anguish
Chapter 2: The Descent of the Hero
Chapter 3: Catastrophe Rising
Chapter 4: Frontal Attack
Chapter 5: Weed's Song
Chapter 6: A War That Wasn't Meant to Happen
Chapter 7: Swaying War
Chapter 8: The Crumbling Palace
Chapter 9: Misfortune of the Haven Empire
Chapter 1: The Hero's brief anguish
Story starts out with the the players in Hermes' army looking at the Arpen Castle/Palace, encouraging each other and raising their morale (ex: talking about how much loot they are going to get, how the opponents are just newbies, etc.). Deuraka, the commander of the the First Northern Subjugation Army (with his voice amplified by Shaman wind magic) declares he wants to duel with Weed. Deuraka thinks back about the report which the Hermes guild intelligence division gave which analyzed all of Weed's skills and concluded that the chances of Weed winning are less than 20% (although they are still unsure if Weed got anything from his time traveling quest). In preparation for the duel, Deuraka was given the highest quality armor, the blessing of one of the top priests in the continent, and a dark magic buff by shaman that took 7 hours to prepare. The Arpen players talk among themselves about who's going to win the duel and one of them mentions how Deuraka has the title Lord of the Lake (?), how he has won a duel against the leader of the Templar Knights (or he is one of the leaders, idk), etc. To Deuraka’s disappointment, Weed doesn’t appear and a level 430 warrior named Kamon (?) steps out instead. Kamon gets his ass handed to him and is killed quickly. More Arpen players step out to duel with Deuraka, but they all fail. After 10 overwhelming duels, Deraka declares if Weed doesn’t step out, the Haven army will attack and crush the kingdom. After waiting for a minute, Deuraka orders his army to move forward. (Editor’s note: The combat here is confusing and it’s hard to tell which side is doing which action). The Arpen players rush towards the Haven army, but they are devastated by ranged counterstrike that the Haven army gives (AoE fire magic as well as volleys of arrows). Those who managed to survive the ranged barrage then collide with a shield wall composed of Haven’s armoured infantry, which immediately crushes them. The battle is going badly for the Arpen side and Hermes players confidently declare that the battle is already over.
Hess Tiger is in the palace (?) looking at the armies (I believe this is set a little bit in the past before the two armies started fighting). He remarks how although there are a lot of soldiers, they are all pretty weak and fairly untrained. He compares it to his time (right after Weed killed the dragon) when the presence of the Desert Warriors will cause the morale of the enemy soldiers to plummet to rock bottom. In fact, they were so infamous that the enemy army would sometimes break down from desertions or internal rebellions (because they don’t want to fight the desert warriors).
Hess wonders if he should just use the time he has been given to wander like the wind, going around and enjoying life in the world, despite of Weed’s orders. He watches the 10 duels with little interest (in the past, Hess has reached level 869 due to all of his adventures) and watches the two armies start fighting. He has just made up his mind to leave to distant places (he wants to explore the ocean which he hasn’t seen before?) but then hears the cry of a little Arpen girl calling out for her dad. Because of the devotion the Arpen subjects has for their King, they willingly took up arms against the invaders. However, the place where the little girl’s dad was standing (he was an archer) was devastated by the Haven army’s magical attacks. The Haven army immediately follows up with more attacks, completely killing the people in the area who survived the first strike. This rouses Hess’ wrath and regret, his wrath because the Haven army was targeting the fallen and the injured, and his regret for not following Weed’s orders. He rebukes himself for doubting Weed and decides to take up arms, summoning his sword and armor. Normally, the resurrection skill wouldn’t be able to bring back Hess’s equipment. However, his equipment was given to him by the High Elves and the forest trees (?) still remember him, his armour and swords which kept by the woods were sent to him through the power of the fairies (the woods and the fairies also greet him).
Scene switches to Pale’s group who are still digging up treasure. Because they were buried in the ground for 600 years, all of the treasure was in a really bad state. They were currently useless right now, but it may be possible to restore them with the ability of an extremely skilled blacksmith (they’re all lvl 450+ equipment). Tired and bored of digging up treasure, the group decides to head to the Arpen palace to help, but Bel (the bard. I’m just shortening her name since google trans says “Belt” right here) remarks on how they would never reach there in time. Zephyr thinks about it for a moment and sighs, mentioning how they could ask Weed’s sister to teleport them there (although the teleportation is essential, Zephyr knows that he’ll be nagged at a lot by Weed’s sister).
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Chapter 2: The Descent of the Hero
Chapter starts off in the studio of a Royal Road broadcasting company, where the mood is rather gloomy. This is because they had anticipated record-breaking watchers in the Northern War (Arpen Kingdom is the last major power that the Hermes guild has not controlled. Also, Weed’s the king). In the beginning, the invasion matched the expectations of the broadcasters. However, as time went on and Hermes won battle after battle, more and more viewers left. One of the analysts at the station explains that it is because the Hermes guild is too overwhelming and the viewers are not interested in watching somebody steamroll all opposition every single time. The staff discuss about what would happen in the North, what would happen if the Hermes guild won the war, if they should continue broadcasting on the Northern war (they would be losing money because the costs of editing/equipment/etc. would be greater than the money earned from the viewers in the current situation). In the end, KMC decides to continue with their coverage and not worry about short-term profits.
Scene switches to Bart (Seoyun’s father) who has become a merchant in Royal Road. He recently arrived at the Arpen palace and was doing trade as a merchant there. He has been doing fairly well thanks to his real-life businessman skills and has opened up a small stall. It is mentioned that it was partly because of the merchants why Arpen prospered so much. Because of the low taxes and beginners, the merchants flocked to Arpen. This led to the development of free trade and high competition, which, in turn resulted in increased production ability, technological development and population growth. After selling some quest items to a beginner, he turns his eyes onto Seoyun who is nearby (not really clear about this part. Maybe the scene changed). Seoyun is staying in Mora/the palace (not sure which one) in case Weed needs the life transfer granted by the wedding rings. Several guys recognized her mask (she’s still wearing her mask to hide her face) and connects her with the “goddess” that appeared before. One guy asks her if she has a boyfriend and is heartbroken when she replies yes. A girl ask Seoyun what her hobby is and Seoyun replies that she is currently learning some type of cooking (something to do with rice?)
Scene switches back to the battle where the Arpen army is being wrecked by the continuous barrage of arrows and spells. It turns out that the wizards are wearing equipment specifically designed so that they have immense mana , mana regeneration, and low mana spell costs. Although the wizards have no defense whatsoever, they are protected by the wall of armored infantry and they can also cast over triple the amount of spells they normally cast. The wizards then cast Pillars of Fire, a top class magic spell that required 50 fire wizards to cast, and then cast Tornado Stream. By itself, Pillars of fire only scorches the area it is cast on, and then disappears. However, the two spells combined and a tornado of fire was formed, devastating the Northern Army. The one-sided slaughter continued until a voice rang out, declaring that the army shall oppose the wicked ones, fighting as fierce as the desert storm, never ceasing until their bodies return to the earth.
After hearing that, everybody in the Arpen army gets their health restored, a %50 increase in strength, increases to all battle stats, up to a 2-fold increase in power of their abilities, and various blessings from 12 (?) different gods. A player wonders who on earth could have given a buff like that and turns around. There, standing on the cliffs, was a figure with an Elven blade in his hand and Elven-forged armor. The player is stunned, and speaks out in a shaking voice “Hess…Tiger?” The Arpen players bursnt out into disbelief and awe, while Hess Tiger’s fanclub started arguing among themselves whether the person was the real Hess or not. All of the girls go wild because Hess has a noble and elegant face while the body gives off an aura of force and wildness (it was mentioned that Hess was similar in build to the Geomchis except for the crucial face factor lol). Hess shouts out that the “Great King of the Desert” has tasked him with defeating the intruders and asks everybody to fight with him.
All of the player characters gets a pop-up in front of them asking them if they are willing to follow his commands. The downside is that sometimes, their bodies will follow Hess’s orders (and not their own). However, they’ll gain increased experience and public value points. Players start shouting out how they’ll follow Hess Tiger, how Weed hasn’t abandoned them. Also, there was this one player who went ecstatic, telling Hess Tiger how she would be his slave (LOL). In the end, 9,483,201 players agree to follow Hess’s orders.
Hess orders the army to charge forward, and while the players are running forward, they suddenly discovered that they have been temporarily granted the skill Vicious Assault which increases movement speed significantly. The Haven mages try to stop the charge with lightning and fire magic, but thanks to the various blessings (Goddess of Earth Mine: reduce damage by 68%, Freya: eliminates hunger, fatigue, and generally restores body to normal, Baldereu: Granted ring (ability unknown except for that something good will happen), Ahteurok (increase attack power more experience, etc.) Energized by their sudden turn of fortune, the Arpen users start their Porridge chant and begin their assault.
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Chapter 3: Catastrophe Rising
The players from the Arpen army smashed into the Haven shield wall like a tide. Although they didn’t actually inflict much damage, it was a huge psychological blow to many of the Hermes characters. However, their past war experiences has allowed them to cool down and calmly deal with the sudden appearance of Hess Tiger. They quickly ordered their mages to saturate the areas in front of the shield wall with spells like an AoE poison spell which fills the area with toxic fumes, killing off most of the Arpen beginner players. Weakened, the Arpen players were not able to break through the shield wall and reach the ranged units in the back (there was a short scene about a young girl urging her siblings to fight on. Apparently, it’s clear in her mind that Arpen=good and Haven=bad lol). Upon seeing their shield wall holding up, the Haven commanders sigh in relief, commenting on how the shield wall+ranged unit formation was extremely effective.
Pale and his group are teleported to the castle and Surka immediately dives off the cliff to the clashing armies. Romuna teleports (or is teleported) to a good position for casting fire magic (something about having a good wind direction and a clear line of sight to the enemies), Irene heads to the back to casts blessings and heals, Bel and Hwaryeongun perform near the palace, and Pale begins shooting. Weed’s sister and Zephyr remains, and Violations asks why Zephyr hasn’t gone to fight yet. Zephyr, being the playboy he is, replies that although the battle is important, he thinks she is even more important. As such, he will stay with her to protect her (it mentions something about “greasy talking” haha). Weed’s sister shakes her head and says something (something about her grandmother telling her about what a man should/shouldn’t do to/for a woman? Idk), and then walks towards the battlefield, with Zephyr following her.
Scene changes to the floating island where a lot of the Avian race has gathered. They are annoyed and irritated at the fact that they are prohibited from fighting. One of the players (?), an Eagle avian, complains to the Golden Bird and asks why they can’t fight. There are many other similar questions thrown about but the Golden Bird simply ignores all of them. We learn a little bit about how the new players create Avian characters. Apparently, they can select the egg that they want to be born from, which decides what type of Avian they are. The variety and choices of eggs depend on the Avian race themselves (I may be completely wrong about this). For example, if more sparrow-Avians lay eggs, then more people are allowed to choose the sparrow race. There is also a mention of a Thunderbird race here. The complaints gradually grow louder, with the Avian branch of the Porridge cult having the loudest complaints (?), when suddenly Weed appears, stunning all of the players to silence. The Golden Bird flies to his right shoulder while Eunsae/Esuna sits on his left. Weed gives a speech about the humble origins of Arpen, describes the battle going on, the tax hikes that would happen if the Arpen kingdom loses, and asks if the Avian race could help with Arpen’s plight (during this/slightly before his speech, the Avians were going wild. One person even wanted Weed to sign his/her wing). The novel compares Weed’s speech to the speeches of politicians during the elections (basically, the audience would accept and follow whatever the politicians say). Weed ends his speech and there was a short silence, where he was wondering if they had seen through his speech. However, the Avian race immediately burst into applause, pledging that they would follow Weed and began taking off in a humongous flock.
The Avians reach the battle and start trying to divebomb the ranged units of the Haven army. They are met by a large wall of arrows and ice magic, and they start falling out of the sky. Hess Tiger then jumps down from the palace, summoning a Pegasus (because he’s a “friend of the forest”) and rushes towards the Haven army. He is immediately noticed because all of the blessings that the gods have bestowed upon him has literally given him a shining halo and the Haven commanders order all ranged units to concentrate fire on Hess. Deuraka asks on the guild chat about the abilities of Hess Tiger, but he was told that the information department didn’t bother investigating Hess (seeing as they thought there would be no possibility of that information being useful). Thousands of spells fly at Hess Tiger, the most noticeable being spears of ice more than 30 meters long, and a Hermes wizard remarks how there’s no way the Pegasus can dodge in time. Hess pulls out his scimitar, uses a skill which envelops the sword in high temperature flames (google trans: “Deterioration of the Blade”) and swings it at the ice spears. There is a large amount of steam and ice fragments, and the Hermes wizards confidently declares that it’s over. However, he is shocked when he suddenly receives a message about how the backlash from the destruction of the ice spears has reduced his mana to only 32.8% and causes a 14% reduction in his wisdom stat. Watched by the shocked Haven army, Hess shouts at the Arpen army to continue their attack.
Scene switches to the Geomchi group who are watching the battle. They talk about how fun their previous experiences of guerilla warfare was and after some discussion, they charge in (note: not exactly sure what else they talked about and I’m also not sure why they waited that long before attacking. Maybe they were waiting for the downpour of spells to end?). They mix in with the other players in the Arpen army and hit the Haven shield wall, cleaving through the shields of the armoured infantry with their sword skill (“Sword that slashes through anything” the one that they created at the end of their master quest.) They also use another new skill which (speculation) adds some type of splash damage to their attacks, causing the damage from their sword to jump to other enemies as well (one of the disciples cut down 14 people with one swing?). We find out about Geomchideulyi (not sure which number he is) who apparently never graduated middle school (also something about receiving a scholarship, and leaving in his sophomore year of high school) and went through life with the goal of becoming strong. After experiencing Royal Road for the first time, he decided that Royal Road was going to be the path to become stronger and has reached a level of 450. The commanders of the Haven army hurriedly orders the knights to sortie, trying to close the breaches that the Geomchi’s made. The Geomchis are more than ready for the knights, cutting through them with sword, spear, ax and bow, all the while exclaiming how it’s like a playground for them and how its fun.
Weed (?) is in the clouds looking at the battle. The Geomchi have cause a large breach and Hess Tiger is in the main camp (?) of the Haven army, massacring everybody there. In the short time he landed, he has already killed 100 (or 200) players already. He then reviews his information about the other Haven army Corps in the North right now. There are currently six (or seven) army corps (including the one that’s fighting at the palace) which give a combined total of 2.1 million troops . One of the corps is currently sieging the Citadel (the one where Bar Khan used to control) in order to prevent the Orcs and other races from sending help (?). Weed thinks that the amount of personnel the Hermes guild deployed for the expedition is ridiculous but grudgingly agrees that its necessary because they would have to police a huge amount of area if they won. He considers the Haven armies actions and concludes that if the Palace falls, then the Haven armies will be free to launch attacks on multiple fronts and will most likely control half of the North in 1 to 2 weeks (?). This gives Weed a headache similar to the one he got while thinking about how the electrical and food prices are rising up, but he declares that he’ll smash the Haven army. He finishes carving a statue of a turtle and adds it to the other marine-animal statues in front of him. There are statues of people getting eaten by piranhas, large spiky rockfish, crocodiles, loaches, flounders, etc. He then uses the cloud sculpting skill and rain starts to fall on the back elements of the Haven army. He continues using cloud sculpting, and soon, a storm starts brewing above the heads of the Haven army (it was mentioned that he had carved over 200 sculptures to cause this miniature storm). The rain quickly turns the ground into a muddy mess which makes it harder for the soldiers to get a good footing on the ground. Also, it dampens the effects of fire magic.
The clouds continue to darken and one of the Hermes players mentions (in guild chat) that it feels like the rain is artificial. He is then told that there are only about 3 wizards (?) that are capable of exerting climate control on this skill and none of them are in the Northern continent at the moment. However, it was possible for a high level prayer involving a lot of difficult-to-obtain materials to cause a storm like that, although the prayer is usually used to end a drought or to irrigate vast quantities of land.
Weed looks at the rain below him and comments on how that it will serve to amplify his skill, although to what extent, he does not know. He then pulls out a Masterpiece sculpture of a tsunami (I think the sculpture is made of ice) and uses Catastrophe Engraving. We find out that the reason why he created the rain clouds was to increase the effects of the sculpture. He then gets a message telling him that Freya has given him her blessing, which increases the power of the sculpture by 89%. Weed wonders if the power is too strong and if it would hurt his allies as well. However, he then shrugs and says that he already did the deed so there’s not point in regretting it. He asks Sanya (the wyvern he’s riding on) what about its opinion but it played dumb and simply said that it will follow Weed (?).
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Chapter 4: Frontal Attack
Weed’s animated sculptures (more than 50+ of them) are watching the fighting. Rover comments how there’s going to be fighting again today and how that means it’s going to be harder for him to live to an old age. The Golden man agrees and blames it all on Weed. Bach comments on how the rain looks bad (or it has a dampening effect on fire) and the Hydra heads squabble among themselves (one of them says that it’s hungry, another one points out that they all share the same stomach so they are all hungry (?), and a lot more stuff that I can’t understand).
The Arpen army continues pushing at the Haven Army. (There’s several pages of stuff that’s hard to understand. Something about the Arpen players not caring that much for their lives, sharing the best ways to bum rush the Haven soldiers, and using movement speed increasing magic to run away from the AoE magics that the Haven mages have). Suddenly, many of the soldiers on both sides start feeling cold. The Haven commanders simply explain it away with the logic that it is the Northern continent and a rainstorm so it’s natural to feel cold. The Arpen players wonder if it’s a new magic that the Haven army has prepared. The cold increases to a severe chill which has a significant (12%) decrease in physical ability as well as a 42% reduction in regeneration (not sure of health, mana, stamina, or all three). One Arpen player shouts that the Hermes guild are dirty bastards, seeing such a significant stat drain is lethal to the low leveled players that are fighting right now. The Avians are also affected by the rain, which drenches their wings and forces them to land (although some high level players managed to escape). The Haven army was also affected, although not as much. The only trouble that the rain and the cold caused for them was a decreased in their ranged magic and arrow attacks (the soldiers all possess cloaks that can keep the body warm to some extent). The temperature has now reached the level where a person’s exhalation is foggy, and where the cold is sapping all body heat away. However, the temperature continues dropping. In the next two minutes, hail the size of ice cubes are crashing down onto the earth, and arctic winds are battering the soldiers.
A Haven soldier slips, and bringsdown an entire 10 meter section of the army with him, which was hugely embarrassing for the Hermes guild. One of the Hermes players asks how mere winds could cause such a fall, and another notes that the entire battlefield has been covered in ice. A Haven commander orders the troops to slow their advance, and to watch their footing. The Hermes guild-chat is abuzz, and they conclude that this was Weed causing a natural disaster. A player remarks how the cold is virtually harmless . Another one points out that the cold actually dropped the fighting ability of the soldiers by a fairly large amount and this will cause more soldiers to die. The first player (the one who identified it as a disaster) says that they must wary of Weed’s disasters and orders the wizards in the Haven’s Second Corps to cast warmth magic over the entire army.
Scene switches to the Arpen army, where a player is cautioning the others to avoid the ice chunks, saying that it’s definitely a disaster caused by King Weed. It mentions that all of the players are essentially brainwashed by Weed so they have no negative feelings towards Weed treating them as collateral damage (there’s a lot of people spouting their beliefs at Weed’s greatness but it’s hard for me to understand what they’re saying). The Arpen army continues to charge forward but more than half of the entire army (that’s hundreds of thousands if not millions of people) slip and fall. However, they don’t blame Weed but instead, tell the ones that didn’t fall to go forwards. The fallen players try to advance but some of them discovered that they were frozen to the ground.
The Hermes players laugh at the Arpen army, saying how Weed screwed up. Because of the magic of the spellcasters, they are mostly safe from the cold while the Arpen players are making a fool of themselves. What’s more, the cold has diminished Hess Tiger’s fire abilities. They start cheering , shouting out that the Haven Empire has won again, when suddenly large tremors shake the frozen earth. One player wonders if it’s a large monster, while another player disagrees, pointing out it’s more like an earthquake. Before they can speculate any further, a giant tidal way rushes in from the East (the same direction as a lake) and surges towards the battlefield. One player yells that it’s a tsunami on land and a commanders gives the order for the soldiers to brace themselves. Deuraka asks if it’s really a tsunami and a player in the Second Army Corps yells that’s it’s a tidal wave before the communication is cut by the player’s scream. One of the Hermes players panics (?) at the destruction that Weed has caused, but another one tells him to calm down because Weed can only use Catastrophe Sculpting once a day. The tsunami engulfs the soldiers, smashing apart the Haven formation. A player tries to run from the tsunami but is swept up and sent tumbling for hundreds of meters. To his surprise he manages to survive, thanks to his high level armor. It turns out that the tsunami has essentially wiped out about 20% of the Haven forces. The Hermes commanders judge this to be an unfortunate but manageable problem, seeing they still held a power advantage over the Arpen forces and they can also replenish the NPC troops by increasing conscription from occupied territories. However the full effects of the natural disaster didn’t end there. The water soaked survivors promptly started to freeze in the cold temperatures, and the tsunami also scattered debris everywhere on the battlefield, making it harder for the Haven army to get back into formation. Deuraka is irritated because over 30,000 (or 80,000) troops have been killed. However, he dismisses it as an unavoidable misfortune, and praises (?) Weed for his tactical skills. He orders the elite troops of the Haven army to take this chance and target Hess Tiger (half of the Arpen troops following Hess Tiger have already been killed or disable due to the battle and tsunami).
In the back line of the Arpen army, Marfan’s large voice was booming out, telling everybody how he is having a huge sale on spiked boots and dog sleds (he claims that he is a conscientious merchant and wouldn’t even earn a penny from the sales) with no refunds or returns. He is immediately flocked by players who want the equipment to go fight the Haven army and quickly sells out. Marfan has a large grin on his face and he thinks to himself that “of course it’s a lie” and how although the gear is really cheap, they are also made from the lowest quality materials possible (they have super low durability). While Marfan is thinking about his sales (I believe it says that he paid Weed for the information and it also mentions something about a conscience being extremely expensive for a merchant lol), thousands of dog sleds are rushing towards the Haven army across the ice. In the sky, the Avian forces led by Golden Bird (I guess Weed ordered some to hang back? Either that or the first wave was players and this one was NPCs) take off, heading towards the Haven army from the sky.
Chapter 5: Weed's Song
The Arpen players launched a huge counterattack from both land and sky. Before, their attacks were largely rendered useless thanks to the large level advantage and the tactics that the Haven army used. However, thanks to the tsunami, the Haven shield wall has been heavily disrupted. In addition, the leftover ice and chill has made it harder for the wizards to conduct their spellcasting. To make up for their weakness, the Haven army’s necromancers start moving out (I think it’s Haven army due to their high levels, I may be wrong though). Unlike the other classes, Necromancers show their true power later in the battle, when the battlefield has filled with corpses. Because of the fast growing nature of their jobs and the Undead Legion quests, most of the Haven’s necromancers have already exceeded level 460.
The Dark Gamers are watching the fighting, trying to decide if they should intervene or not. Although they want to fight for Arpen, they are only willing to do so if there is a chance of winning. Otherwise, they would be wasting levels and skill levels which would cost them real money (the time spent recovering those levels and skills can’t be spent taking job requests). One of them remarks that if the Haven empire even shows the slightest signs of crumbling, they will attack.
Suddenly, a great singing voice boomed out in the sky. The song tells of a storm with gusty winds and cold rain, shaking the house. One player shouts out “This messed up pitch, tempo, lyrics! There’s only one person!..” and all the players look up. Descending with the countless Avians was one man standing on a wyvern (yes, I believe he’s standing and not riding), with the Red Star sword in his hand. The song continues, talking about how the storm causes the body to shake, so you’re (he’s addressing the audience here) going to have to turn on the electric blanket. There’s also something about using the boiler, gas vs electricity costs, and the young people today not knowing the suffering that the others went through. The Avians flying with him try to figure out what he’s talking about and one of them suggests that Weed’s song is like the ancient Lizardmen songs, which have extremely complex rhythms. Another one (or the same one) mentions that it might be a poem which includes real life social conditions, with the main one being the physical pain and well-being of the elderly (something also about income inequality and labour). The Avians give up on trying to interpret Weed’s songs (Editor’s note: They aren’t the only ones -.-) and decide to sing along, even though they don’t know the meaning of the song.
Once the Haven wizards spotted Weed, they immediately focus their spells on him, sending hundreds of spells flying towards Weed. Weed tells the wyvern, Sanya to avoid it (he may have said that all of the other wyverns could do it?) and while shedding tears, Sanya performs several high speed maneuvers and dodges the spells (the wyvern is an extremely fast flying creature and they are also at the maximum range for the spells). Weed looks over the battlefield to decide where he should attack. After judging the wizards to be too well guarded, he decides to assist Hess Tiger instead. He orders Sanya to fly towards Hess, who is extremely easy to locate thanks to the pillar of fire and lava that are burning everything for hundreds of meters surrounding him. Once Sanya had reached a height of about 600 meters from the ground, Weed jumps off the wyvern. Because of the dangers of falling several thousands of feet to the ground and the hundreds of magical arrows (or magic and arrows) heading towards him, he takes out his ancient shield. The shield intercepts the storm of projectiles and magic (Weed loses 14% of his HP), and Weed continues to plummet towards the ground. However, in contrary to the Haven wizards’ expectations (I think that they stopped attacking because they knew he was going to die), Weed landed gently onto the ground. This was thanks to the feathers that he had purchased from Lavias which protects the user from fall damage. Weed meets up with Hess Tiger and his followers, and they proceed to wreak havoc among the Haven lines.
Weed gets several rare 400+ items (a belt and a hammer) from killing Hermes players, and he notes that because of their high notoriety (presumably from looting+killing), their item drop rates have increased. 3 Knight players charge towards Weed, declaring that they’ll take his neck. Weed checks their level and find that they all range around level 430. He blinks in and casts fire explosion, fire of extinction, and (something) hell. It mentions how Weed is in the peak fighting condition right now. The dragon sword Red Star absorbs fire to strengthen its users and the characteristic of the Desert Warriors is to strengthen and control fire. When Weed is fighting with Hess Tiger, his damage dealt is essentially doubled and all stats as a whole are increased by 30% (with the largest boots in strength and agility). He gets an increase in fencing level, +1 strength, and a small reputation boost. The player group following them cheers for Weed and Hess Tiger (I think he says something about doing a deed worthy of standing beside Weed or something? Extremely confusing sentence) quickly kills 10 enemy players in a flash. It turns out that one of the players was a notorious murder and Hess revealed a big smile. He mentions how in the past, he also fought this way against the greedy king (? Need somebody to check this sentence). Weed glosses over Hess’ statement and holds a hand out to Hess. Hess dutifully hands over the items that he picked up. Weed then causes Van Hawke and Tori (it mentions that Van Hawke has gotten stronger and all of his Death Knight related skills have gone up one rank, although it’ll take a very long time for him to reach the level of an Abyssal knight again). Weed calls Van Hawke incompetent while Tori is trying his best to remain unnoticed, and Weed tells them to seize control of the summoned undead (?) while trying to remain alive. Weed and Hess continue fighting, with the two attracting more enemies every minute (they are the two most targeted men on the battlefield after all). A dark mage casts several high level curses towards the two, but the protection of the goddess of black magic destroys the curse heading towards Hess while Weed is immune to the curse thanks to Red Star (it also mentions something about the ruler of the continent having resistance to harmful magic). Weed gets surprise-attacked by a thief and loses 13% of his life (it mentions that thieves essentially serve as the assassins of the battlefield. They have high enough combat strength to fight in battle (unlike assassins who end things in one hit), while still having enough stealth to remain unnoticed). The thief follows up with a flurry of attacks but Hess casts an AoE fire magic, healing Weed and incinerating the thief. In this fashion, they carve their way through the Haven Army.
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Chapter 6: A War That Wasn't Meant to Happen
Deuraka is having a hasty battle conference with the other members of the Hermes guild and the commanders. Several of the Haven corps have experienced large losses (there was also something about it being expected that Weed would be able to inflict these losses with his catastrophe sculpting). However, the other Corps are succeeding in holding off most aerial attackers and encircling Weed+Hess Tiger. Deuraka mulls over his possible strategies and decides to end everything in this battle instead of taking the safer option of retreating and waiting for reinforcements (because the Arpen army will respawn while the Haven army is mostly made up of NPC troops). Deuraka orders all corps to advance in an aggressive assault, quelling the doubts that the other commanders had with an “I’ll take responsibility for everything.” Deuraka’s Corp advances, with the Haven knights and infantry smashing apart the Arpen users. The third, fourth, fifth and sixth Corps also advance forward, all of them determined to win the glory of taking the palace (I think the second one was the one that screwed by the tsunami/tasked with stopping Weed and Hess).
The battle is been displayed on the monitors of a business meeting that the Hermes guild is having with 24 others. These people were not part of the guild, but representatives of various real-world businessmen and groups that have invested in the Haven Empire. They discuss about the control the Hermes guild has over Royal Road and the business opportunities in it (tourism, virtual real estate, etc.). One of the investors mention how his children had encouraged him to play and how he was surprised by the realism of the game. In fact, he says, just watching the battle makes him feel like a young man again (it got his “blood boiling”). Rafael acknowledges that statement and smiles, sipping some wine. However, on his side, one of the Hermes leaders scowled, having just received the report that Deuraka is taking independent action. Although irritated about his actions, they decide not to countermand Deuraka’s orders (?) seeing as it’s almost guaranteed that they’ll be able to take the palace this way (although with higher casualties). The group sits back and watches the battle unfold.
The Corps charge towards the palace, with massive steel/stone golems (?) making up the vanguard of each army. There is a subtle competition between the corps, seeing as each one wanted the glory of reaching the palace first. The knights are sent deployed out to clear a larger path, and the Haven corps quickly pierces through the Arpen formation. Weed notices the shift in the Haven army and realizes that their goal has shifted to destroying the palace instead of defeating the opposing army. His face pales as he notes that most of the high leveled users have been sent out to the field and only week troops have been left to guard the palace. A voice tells him that even if he notices the change, it’s too late now, Weed finds out that he and Hess Tiger have been lured out and surrounded by the Haven Army’s Mage Knights. The average Haven NPC soldier is in the late 300s in terms of levels. However, the Mage Knights are a group of players whose levels exceed 430 and are equipped with some of the best gear that the Hermes guild can provide. The leader of the Mage Knights asks if Weed has any last words (he does this because he wants to dramatize the confrontation so he’ll get more fame and advertisement money through/from the T.V. companies that are broadcasting the fight). Weed announces that although Haven has invaded the Northern lands, the only thing they’re going to have when leaving is their bodies (referring to the respawn). The leaders laughs and tells Weed that those are big words (I believe he abruptly stops because he realizes that laughing is only going to make him look like the villain) and orders the Mage Knights to charge. A thousand of the troops charge towards Weed and Hess Tiger while the other thousand stand back and begin casting their spells (it’s possible that it’s an elite mage+knight division). Weed and Hess charge towards the Mage knights, and Hess immediately uses powerful AoE fire and wind magic (Blazing Storm of Fire and Tempest Gale?). The skills instantly kill 16 of the knights and set the surrounding landscape and people on fire, causing a lot of panic in that area. Weed just stands sticks close to Hess Tiger, prioritizing analyzing the situation over fighting and healing/getting buffed from Hess’s flames. The leader pales when he realizes that he might have misunderstood the situation and bit off more than he can chew. He orders the magic users to saturate the area Weed and Hess are in with spells, which causes an immediate backlash to the magic knights that are in the area as well. Weed realizes this and blinks away, dodging the arrows as well as heading to intercept the Haven armies marching towards the palace. Hess Tiger just simply bulldozes his way through the ranks of the Mage Knights, with the lava aura of his body instantly incinerating any arrow that comes near him. The leader orders the group to chase down Weed and Hess (because if he stopped/killed Weed+Hess, he’ll be the hero of the battle). Ironically, many of his troops get hit by magic attacks and arrows launched by their own side. He yells at the other corps, asking what they’re doing and saying that they’re all on the same side, but realizes the fatal mistake. A large portion of the ranged troops consists of NPCs. In battle, players will usually take their own course of action, adapting to the situation as they see fit. However, NPCs will usually choose to loyally follow their orders. As such, he watched the pride and joy of the Haven army get decimated by the countless of magic attacks falling from the sky (?).
Weed and Hess gets closer to one of the Corps, with Hess pulverizing all of the soldiers that try to hinder them (Hess is constantly emitting fire and magma, and the book compares him to blazing volcano). However, they still aren’t going to be able to reach the palace before the Haven forces do and he calls out for the Phoenix. Suddenly, a second sun rose over the mountain horizon. It was the Phoenix, one of the strongest living sculptures in the world (due to its “unquenchable fire” of vitality property and the sacrifice of four out of five of the other phoenix brothers). A part of the Arpen army bursts into cheers and during that time, Weed quickly mounts of Phoenix and rises high up in the air, looking at the battlefield from afar. He sees that there are three legions/corps that are pushing their way towards the palace, and although the Arpen players are trying to stop them, the Arpen players can only slow the march of the corps. Things are looking grim (he also says something about “keeping with the palace never even won the war” and something about the Haven empire), but Weed declares: “Here today, all of the Haven invaders will die.”
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Chapter 7: Swaying War
The beginners in the palace are hurriedly trying to prepare for battle. Originally, they only intended to go to the palace to spectate on the battle from a high and relatively safe position, leaving if things started to get too dangerous for them. However, the rapid speed of the Haven army’s sudden advance and the vast numbers of the Haven troops marching towards the palace (more than half of the army) has caused a panic with the people in the palace. Some people (the merchants and tourists) try to leave the palace but find the way blocked by the four corps/legions. The Haven commanders shout out to kill everyone and take no prisoners. As such, this left the beginners no choice but to fight, with most of the beginners assisting the defenders in dropping stones/boiling oil on the Haven army. Pale is on the palace walls (apparently it doubles as a fortress) and shoots an arrow up into the sky, using the skill Scattering of the Earth (?). This arrow explodes into many pieces which then fall back towards the ground, exploding when they make contact with something. Besides him, there are also many other archers and ranged units on the wall, taking advantage of the walls height and the fatigue of the enemy (they had to march up a steep hill in heavy armor). But although they are facing such a disadvantage, the battle-hardened Haven army does not retreat.
Weed and Hess Tiger reaches the Arpen palace, and Weed orders Hess to take commander of Seville’s group (I believe those were the descendants of the soldier animated sculptures) and the desert warriors that came. He also orders his animated sculptures to attack (not sure if they’re attacking the forces that are sieging the castle or if they’re fighting in the plains). He then walks onto the palace walls (?) and gain large buffs (the powers of the earth that are channeled into the place block 96% of all ranged attacks, increase health and strength by 240%). He also notices a warning that if the monuments that are channeling the power (?) are weakened, then the power will fall as well. Deuraka sees Weed going into the palace and smiles, saying that they’ll take down both Weed and the palace in one blow. The Arpen army also notices the assault on the palace, and the Arpen commanders (they’re all real-world ex-military personnel) also dispatch groups to help the palace defenders.
Scene switches to the leader of the Black Lions guild, Carlisle, who is checking his email. He discovers he only has 39 emails, and he reminisces about the days where the Black Lion guild was extremely popular, with nearly 10 million players in the guild. However, after their disastrous defeat at the hands of the Hermes guilds, all of this fame disappeared like dust in the wind (Editor’s note: I believe the Black Lion’s guild were the one that controlled the mines which Weed was mining sapphire+got killed in. They were also one of the major participants in the guild alliance against Hermes which got crushed). He looks over the mail, with most of them being generic things like “how are you doing?” and “I found a new hunting ground.” He suddenly stops, shocked, when he find an email sent by Weed with the content “Don’t you want some revenge against the Haven Empire?” He doubts the authenticity of the letter at first (because Weed is one of the most common character names in Royal Road now). During that time, his T.V. is on in the background, with the Northern War (and Weed’s fight) being covered at that moment. He mutters to himself that it’s definitely a joke, but before he deletes the email, he decides to check the authenticity of the sender. Mail sent from a Royal Road account has the special function of allowing the sender to include an image of his avatar as a “signature” of sorts. Carlisle checks this signature is shocked to discover an image of Weed wearing his signature, and unique, gear. He is then puzzled as to why Weed would contact him; there is no way for him to interfere in the Northern world and his guild is just a shell of what it once was (it may have been disbanded, not sure). He continues reading the mail, in which Weed says that the Hermes guild will devour the Versailles continent if left alone. However, there is an opportunity to counterattack while the Haven Empire is shaken, much like how even wolves can hunt a wounded lion. It then ends with the line that this opportunity will come once Haven has been defeated in the North. Carlisle is surprised that Weed hasn’t given up yet and still believes Arpen can defeat the Haven army. Although the combined armies of all of the other large guilds have failed to defeat the Hermes guild, Weed still believes that he can win. But, he says to himself, Weed cannot win this war with his mind alone. His eyes turn towards the television, and looks at the situation (because many different stations are covering this fight, you can watch the battle from different ways in each of the different channels). However, no matter what point of view he looked at the battle, he only saw a helpless situation. He believes that it’s impossible to win, but he then thinks of the huge effect that it will have if the Arpen side somehow won. It would shatter the Hermes guild’s reputation of being undefeatable, and provide a signal for those who are unhappy with Hermes’ rule to revolt. He turns up the volume of the television. Unbeknownst to him, the guild leaders of the Black Swords, Sherwood, Cloud, and President (there are some other guilds names I can’t decipher), the guilds known as the losers of the war for the continent, have also received this email.
Weed and his sculpture companions/slaves are fighting furiously to prevent the invasion of the palace. Hess and Weed are leading the defense at the front gates while Baja (the barbarian) is commanding the teams for defending the side gates). The Golden Bird is following a hit-and-run strategy, while Eunsae/Esuna is providing support. Bart (Seoyun’s dad) watches him and is impressed by his charisma and his demeanor, although he still wonders if Weed is good enough for Seoyun (because Bart is a merchant, he is currently hiding on pillar (or roof) away from combat). Their eyes make contact for a short moment (they both said something, might have been each other’s names), before the attacking Haven soldiers blocks Weed’s gaze again. Bart lowers his head, and discovers that he feels embarrassed (this might be because he’s very low level in Royal Road. However, this entire paragraph is confusing).
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Chapter 8: The Crumbling Palace
Weed is fighting off the enemies, constantly using Blink to retreat and attack weak points. He teleports away from the fighting and uses the break to glance at the rest of the battlefield. Hess Tiger has charged at the Sixth Hermes corp, slaughtering the commanders and elite troops in his way. The deaths of so many commanders have caused a disruption in the chain of command and has allowed the Northern defenders to stop the advance of the Sixth Corp. The rest of the sculptures were fighting the other corps (Bingrong is looking for the best moment to use his ice breath, Hydra is gleefully eating the enwmy soldiers, Rover is talking about how he’s going to become rib eye, etc.). The sculpture group, along with the Geomchi band are the two forces that are playing the biggest part in slowing down the Haven advance. Weed thinks over their assault (a vanguard of mounted knights to quickly seize the gates followed up by an assault with the main Haven force once it caught up). Weed moans about the inequality in life (he compare this situation with that of how a poor kid will always be behind a rich kid? There’s also something about how if he married Seoyun, he would be rich and wouldn’t have to do anything? Needs double checking). Suddenly, he sees Deuraka and his escorts approaching him. Deuraka joyfully cries out at how he’s glad to have found Weed and declares that he will kill Weed. During his short speech, more than 10,000 knights and elite soldiers had arrived (note: they are in a plaza in front of the gates)
Weed gives a nasty grin and wonders to himself whether he can lure more of the soldiers into his trap. He uses his singing skill to yell out the fact that the Haven army is having an indiscriminate slaughter inside the palace and killing those who can’t defend themselves. He asks for everybody’s help to stop the Haven army. Upon hearing this, the Arpen players all cheer, saying how the King of the Arpen kingdom always protects the weak. They are also impressed by his actions, standing in front of the gate, heroically swinging his flaming sword back and forth to prevent the Haven army from breaking through (note: the entire time, the merchants, tourists, and civilians were being airlifted outside of the palace by the Avians). The strongest of the Haven troops, the Twilight Templars, start riding torwards Weed. They hurl their javelins towards Weed, but Weed teleports towards the knight, and uses Wrath of Fire to set the knights on fire. Weed orders Bach to stick close to him and the Arpen players also decided to help Weed. Although their attacks were as effective as throwing eggs against a rock, they did manage to hinder the Templars a bit. Eagle shrieks ring through the air and Avian players of the warrior tribes (eagles, falcons, etc.) come down from the air, harassing the Templars further. Deuraka calmly watches the battle and judges that it wouldn’t be difficult to deal with Weed normally. However, because of Weed’s teleportation and fire abilities, it is extremely hard to get a hold of Weed. He tells some troops to deal with Weed and orders the rest of them to attack the palace. From the back, the fourth corps is also attacking the palace. Besieged from all sides, the palace defenses are broken and the Haven armies march into the palace. One of the northern players bitterly watches the Haven army going through the gates, moaning about how many times he had to carry the stones needed to build the palace. Weed notices that the Haven army has breached the defenses and is now rampaging throughout the palace. He sends a whisper to a person, telling him to start the operation and to not hesitate.
Gaston (one of the architects of the palace) is sitting in the bar, heavily drinking with other architects. They are crying over how their beautiful works have been destroyed (such as the Alcazar bridge). Gaston remembers a recent conversation with Weed he had and shudders. It went something like this.
“What?....Did…I? Did I hear something wrong?”
“No.”
“Tell me again.”
“Make preparations to destroy the Arpen Palace please.”
“If you didn’t like the look of a building, it’ll be an easy fix. You don’t have to destroy the whole thing.”
“No, I want you to completely destroy the palace.”
“You’re kidding.”
“It’ll be a pretty expensive joke if that’s the case.” (Curse google trans for not making this clearer. The words barley bread were mentioned here but I can’t make any sense of how they would fit into this sentence).
Gaston then hears Weed’s plans of collapsing the palace on the army and he judges that it’ll be possible to quickly collapse the palace (apparently there is a key structural area which would cause the collapse of other parts of the palace if it was destroyed). Weed also tells Gaston that he wants the collapse of the Palace to cause a landslide, and Gaston mentions that it might be possible. Gaston talks to some of the other architects and they determined that if they dig some tunnels through the soil, it would be possible for the collapse to cause a landslide with the loosened soil. As such, with a small select team of other architects, they laid out the necessary requirements to collapse the palace. He is pulled out of his recollections by Weed’s message to start the operation. He pulls out a small model of the Arpen palace from his pocket and smashes it against the ground. A window popped up informing him that he used the Building Collapse skill.
Hess Tiger is attacking the commanders of the six corps. He pulls out a bow he obtained from the High Elves and lets loose several arrows at lightning speeds (his fangirls followers (both Avian and Human) are cheering him on). He then uses Rivers of Lava, which causes him to emit intense flames and lava from his body. It is mentioned that this is one of the strongest skills that the Desert warriors could get. However, in order to learn this skill, one had to visit a certain place and undergo a special ceremony. In the past, Weed believed that this took too much time, so he ordered Hess Tiger to get the skill instead. The rivers of flame and lava created by one of the strongest warriors from the Age of War sweeps through the soldiers of the modern era, wiping out anyone that gets even close to Hess Tiger. He is rampaging his way through the second corps when he notices that the palace walls have been penetrated. He is thinking to himself that he is late to the defense when suddenly, a deafening ringing sound begins. The palace then starts shaking, and all eyes, whether Haven or Arpen, stare at the palace. The palace sways and all of the buildings start collapsing. The Hermes players outside the palace wonders if Weed was willing to destroy the palace rather than to let them conquer it, and they break into a cold sweat. (Weed also shouts something out but I can’t understand what he’s saying)
Deuraka orders that all commanders make a report and reports come in of all the walls and buildings collapsing. He realizes that Weed is sacrificing the palace to bring them down and chills break out in his body when he feels what it’s like to fight the God of War. He calls for a full retreat and the Haven corps hastily try to pull back. However, the buildings start completely coming down, triggering landslides and causing large debris (pieces of the palace) to roll down the slope. Weed uses Blink to teleport on top of the phoenix and he views the scene below. Several of the mountains that the Palace was situated on have collapsed and were sliding down the slopes. Weed mutters about how it was a waste of his money and compares it to the real estate bubble?). (There’s a few sentences about Weed seeing Deuraka and saying something here. He says “that’s life,” referring to how honor, power and money are meaningless if you can’t enjoy it. Note: I think he’s talking about how Deuraka had the position of commander-in-chief of the army).
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Chapter 9: Misfortune of the Haven Empire
A window pops up in front of every player in Arpen, informing them about the destruction of the palace. It also tells them the consequences: a setback in local politics, the weakening of army morale, the reduction of loyalty among the citizens, the emergence of rebels, increase of separatist movement (demanding independence), increase in monster invasions on frontier towns, economic recession, trade decrease, decrease in taxes, a delay in the construction of great buildings, several villages leaving Arpen, reduce in cultural expansion, and the rewards (or payments) of all quests related to the Arpen kingdom have been reduced or eliminated entirely. Although enormous harm was done to Arpen by the destruction of the palace, the collapse and the landslide that it caused all but wiped out the first, third, and fourth Haven Army Corps. The Arpen players in the battlefield cheer at the unexpected reversal and they attack the enemy with renewed fervor. Surrounded from all sides and with the stronger Arpen forces (Hess Tiger, living sculptures, etc.) joining in the fighting, the second and fifth corps were mopped up. A message appears again, informing everybody that the Haven army has been defeated, with the first, second, third, fourth, fifth, and sixth corps wiped out without a single man left standing. The battle equipment of the Hermes army has been seized (May be talking about the faith stat instead? Google trans: battle of the material seized all faith), all siege weapons have been destroyed, the prestige of the empire falls by 14, the morale of the Imperial army has fallen, and security of the territories in the empire has weakened. The faces of Bard Ray, Raphael, and all of the Hermes guild leaders stiffened upon seeing this. One person mutters out “this can’t be” while another one said that this was because of Deuraka’s leadership, but the changes his mind, saying how they can’t blame Deuraka because it was a reasonable judgment at that time. Another person points out that nobody could have expected that Arpen would be willing to sacrifice its palace and said that they lost because their foresight was week. Yet another leader says that troops can be trained again and the biggest impact of this defeat was the loss of their appearance of invincibility. He says that although the palace was destroyed, everybody is going to see this as Weed’s victory. In the atmosphere of shock at the Hermes meeting/banquet, some of the businessman hesitantly expresses their uncertainty over going all out in investing in the Hermes guild (?). After the shock wears off, the leaders start talking about sending their an even larger, higher-leveled army to crush the North and raze it to the ground. In the midst of all of the talking and yelling, Bard Ray quietly says that he should go deal with Weed himself. However, Rafael (the only one who heard him), shakes his head, saying that they can’t afford to allocate any more forces currently to deal with the North if they want to follow their current plan of strengthening the position of the Hermes guild in the central continent (they need troops for security, funds for improving infrastructure and building armies, etc.). Also, they don’t have enough resources to take control of the massive Northern lands even if they did manage to defeat the Arpen army now after the deaths of so many Haven soldiers. In the end, the Hermes guild decides to simply strengthen their position in the North (build up some of the forts they established there, etc.) and to embargo all trade with the North. Suddenly, the chinaware on the tables start shaking, and after a short amount of time there is a notable shaking sound. One of the leaders ask if there is an earthquake now of all times. Another leader points out that they have already offered many sacrifices to the Goddess of the Earth and already received her blessing. However, another person shoots back, saying that this is obviously an earthquake. Rafael thinks about the current phenomenon which is strangely similar to the collapse of the Arpen palace he just saw, and breaks out into a cold sweat. In a bar, Seuneun, one of the continent’s top architects, complains about the treatment of the Haven Empire. He recalled how an official from the Haven Empire approached him telling him (not asking) to build the Imperial palace. He was given all of the money, material, and personnel he desired but he had was also given unrealistic building goals (ex: finish this building in a month) and told that if he didn’t meet the goal, he would be fired on the spot. However, even after he had finished constructing some buildings, he would sometimes be told that the building had too many pillars, or it was too small, and ordered to start over from scratch. On top of all of that, he was also poorly paid and he was constantly insulted (the supervisors were saying how he had bad skills). One example was when he built a building where the roof was designed to artistically channel the water from rain into a crystal clear lake in the center of the building. However, he was ordered by the Haven officials to tear it down, and replace it with a golden building instead. As such, they destroyed a building that he poured his heart and soul into and replaced it with a gaudy abomination. On top of that, the Haven supervisors sneered at his design, saying that it was just a lie of his to hide the fact that he built a leaky roof because of his inferior building skills. In the end, he (or another architect) was fed up and started to build everything to look nice on the surface but of extremely shoddy quality within. As such, not even a month has passed and the Haven palace has already has near broken pillars, small cracks in the ceiling, etc. Seuneun pulls out a model of the Haven palace, and comments on the strange feeling he has of wanting to destroy his work with his own hands, and destroys the model. The entire palace shakes intensely, and thousands of stone columns shatter. The ceiling collapses down, and all of the buildings start falling apart. Having already been weakened , the Haven palace quickly turns into a pile of rubble. The End.