“Hey, Pon! Don’t use me as a shield! This jerk, hiding behind me in order to try and suck up all the honey!”

Pon, the person famous for being one of the best spearmen in Satisfy. After threatening Malacus, he clicked his tongue at Vantner, who was staggering like an angry wild boar.

“Vantner, you’re a guardian knight. Isn’t it natural to use you as a shield? The tanker attracts the attention while the damage dealer eats the honey: this is a common sense strategy. Please start thinking before you get angry. Isn’t your brain too small?”

If Vantner and Pon stood next to each other, the age difference seemed to be around 20 years. But both of them were turning 36 this year. Vantner was bald, bearded, and looked to be in his late 40s, while Pon was handsome and had a sleek physique, making him seem to be in his late 20s.

Additionally, the relationship between the two wasn’t good. Vantner, who was inferior in appearance, hated Pon from the moment he realized that Pon was the same age as him. Pon also ignored the simple Vantner because he thought Vantner was stupid.

No, the two people had a low mental age from the beginning. Jishuka said they were ‘two people who found value in disliking each other.’

“My class might be that of a guardian knight, but most of my stat points are in strength. I’ve told you this many times, so remember it, chicken head! Do I have to teach you again? I am a guardian knight, but my defense is low! So don’t stick with me! Our guild’s tanker is Toban, not me!”

“Stupid... you chose a defense class, yet you didn’t invest the stat points in something appropriate. No tanking, no attack. Where are you useful?”

“W-What? You bastard! Would you like to experience the power of an all strength guardian knight in PvP? I request a 1-on-1 duel!”

“Okay. I will make you experience the incompetence of your character. But I’ll have to pass for now.”

Vantner was extremely useful in battle between users.

He had the ‘Reduce Damage Received’ passive skill and basic defense skills, as well as heals... unlike other guardian knights, he had a high attack power so he could gain an advantage in battles.

Of course, if the opponent’s attack power was extremely high, his defense wouldn’t be sufficient. Furthermore, if the opponent’s defense was extremely high, his attack would not be able to hit them with his moderate attack power. However, the current level of users didn’t have that type of threat.

In particular, a guardian knight had a one-time invincible skill. If the timing was good, it was able to neutralize the enemy’s movements once. Therefore, guardian knights tended to be active in PvP.

So Vantner had a great momentum.

“Heh, you are scared.”

Pon snorted. "Not at all. Have you forgotten what we are doing right now? It is a boss raid. But you want a 1-on-1 duel right now? How is that possible? In the first place, isn’t my unified ranking much higher than yours? Isn’t the result obvious, even if we don’t fight?”

“Shut up! Are you scared? Don’t avoid it! Your mouth sure is good at being nasty! Let’s meet in real life!”

“What will happen if we meet in reality? In reality, you wouldn’t be able to do a single thing against me. So please act moderately, you bald bastard.”

Vantner strongly denied it, “I’m not bald in reality! I just set my hairstyle to bald when I created the character. How many times do I have to tell you this, chicken head?”

“Doesn’t making yourself bald make you look older? Does that make sense? You must really be bald.”

“If I was actually bald, I wouldn’t be setting it as bald in the game! I would’ve made my hair thicker!”

“If you are pretending not to be bald, you might’ve deliberately set your character to be bald.”

“This $#!~$#!!”

Vantner, the 1st ranked guardian knight, and Pon, the 1st ranked spear knight. The two people who played the role of the vanguard in the Tzedakah Guild, they were at each other’s throat instead of fighting the enemy.

Malacus was angry about being ignored and decided to punish them. “Why are you fighting among yourselves? These disagreeable guys keep on gathering!”

Roaaaar!

Eight rays of black magic aimed at Vantner and Pon, who saw the attack and quickly jumped to the side. Surprisingly, Malacus’ magic rays changed direction, persistently following Pon.

“What? Why aren’t they chasing me? You dare ignore me?!”

Vantner landed on the ground and yelled, while Pon suddenly jumped up.

“This is the first time I’ve seen guided magic. Indeed, one of the Eight Servants... that isn’t a false reputation!”

Pon decided he couldn’t escape the magic power and gathered strength in his spear. Intense flames appeared at the end of the spear and Pon used a skill.

“Mach Spear!"

Peeeeeong! Pepepepeng!

The sonic spear was unleashed, causing a series of explosions in the air. The explosion was so great that even the Tzedakah Guild members, including Vantner, could feel the aftereffects.

Kwajajajajak!

Pure force and pure magic power colliding, which one would win? There was no such thing, as obviously, the stronger side would win! Pon’s rotating spear pierced through the eight rays of magic power in a single red light.

Kwaaaaang!

The red flash collided with the black shield. Rare agitation appeared on Pon’s face.

“It couldn’t pierce through?”

That’s right. Even that skill was helpless in front of Malacus’ shield.

“... This is serious.”

Pon was 23rd on the unified rankings. At least in numerical terms, he was the 23rd strongest among two billion users and was one of the top three in the Tzedakah Guild. He had hunted hundreds of boss monsters, but this was the first time Mach Spear had been obsolete.

It was a reminder of how good Malacus’ defense skill was, but Pon thought differently.

‘I haven’t been able to replace my weapon despite gaining 50 levels. This is the limit of my present weapon. I need a better weapon.’

Pon was currently level 243, yet Pon was using a spear with a level requirement of 190. It couldn’t be helped. He hadn’t been able to find a spear better than the one he was using now, even if he visited a famous blacksmith.

Why? Pon’s spear had a unique rating. It had a level requirement of 190, but it was better than level 240 rare and epic rated spears, considering the unique rating and special options. In other words, Pon needed to find a unique spear that exceeded the level 190 requirement before he could replace his weapon.

However, whenever he brought the materials to create the best spears, the famous blacksmiths almost always created normal or rare items. In some cases, epic items were produced, but they weren’t satisfactory.

‘An outstanding blacksmith is urgently needed.’

The unknown craftsman who turned the world upside down by making the Special Jaffa Arrows! Pon and Jishuka were longing for him.

‘If he made me a spear, I would be able to penetrate Malacus’ shield!’

On the other hand, Malacus was suffering quite a bit. He defended against the spear with the black shield, but the weight of the spear had dealt a shock to him. Additionally, he deployed a three-fold shield but almost failed to defend against such a big blow.

"To be shamed like this by a mere traveler...!”

Vantner didn’t miss that Malacus’ legs were weak.

“He is in a stiffened state!”

Vantner grasped his axes as tightly as possible. Then he used all his strength to throw an axe.

Swaeeel!

Throwing weapons was one of the few offensive skills of a guardian knight, but it was light compared to Pon’s spear.

Kang!

Malacus made an annoyed look, deployed the shield and deflected the axe.

“...”

Vantner witnessed his axe being blown away and grabbed his head.

“Aaaagh! This is really crazy!”

He was angry at his powerlessness. His class was called guardian knight—it consisted of a skill tree that protected the user and their allies, but high stamina was required in order to master advanced protection skills.

Vantner invested points in strength in order to level up quickly. Therefore, he wasn’t able to demonstrate the characteristics of a guardian knight or play an effective role against Malacus like Pon.

On the other hand, wasn’t Pon looking cool after facing Malacus alone? In fact, Vantner was 66th on the unified rankings, which wasn't much lower than the 23rd ranked Pon, but it was inevitable that his ego would be wounded.

“There should be an item to roll back the stats!”

“Satisfy doesn’t have a cache system. It is unlikely that such an item will ever be released.”

Vantner hit the ground while Pon sincerely advised him, “Starting from the next level up, invest all your points in stamina. If you keep investing in strength, your character will turn to shit. Right now, the strength build guardian knight is emerging as a trend in PvP, but haven’t you realized the limitations now? The stronger the opponent, the more useless a strength build guardian knight is.”

“Ugh!”

Vantner berated himself for ignorantly distributing his points to strength just to become a ranker faster. Additionally, Pon was so caught up in his desire for a stronger weapon that he couldn’t concentrate on the situation.

Right now, they had completely forgotten an important thing—the presence of Regas who was abandoned in the corner!

“Are you guys chatting among yourselves again? You really have no tension. Okay, I will let you know exactly what the situation is right now,” Malacus declared while grabbing Regas’ bloody head.

Pon finally noticed Regas’ presence and asked, “What? Regas? Why are you in that state? Did you run out of potions? But why haven’t you run away yet?”

Regas, who became Malacus’ hostage, laughed as if he was embarrassed. “Haha, I wanted to see how strong Malacus was so I watched as closely as possible. I thought it would help my training.”

“... Just die.”

He felt it since the L.T.S days, but there were too many idiots in this guild. Pon and Vantner ignored Regas.

Then Malacus shouted to Jishuka, who was watching the battlefield with folded arms, “Girl! All of you will soon turn out like this person.”

Malacus started concentrating magic power on his fingertips. He was going to crush Regas’ head like a watermelon.

For a ranker, death was a tremendous blow. They would lose experience equivalent to one week of hunting if they died. So originally, the Tzedakah Guild wouldn’t stay quiet if their companion was going to die. They would try to protect their companions as much as possible.

However, this was an exception—Regas was able to live, but he was going to die because of his own foolishness. He was merely reaping what he sowed and it wasn’t worth braving the threat to save him from what he deserved.

“Die cleanly and fix your mentality.”

In a situation where no one in the Tzedakah Guild was trying to save Regas, one man called out.

“Pagma's Sword Dance, Restraint!”

“...?!”

Everyone’s eyes, including Malacus and Jishuka, turned to one side. Then they saw it. Khan’s disciple, the creator of the Special Jaffa Arrows, no, maybe he was just an ordinary blacksmith. The Asian youth, whose identity still couldn’t be determined yet, was dancing with a shining dagger.

“...”

His expression was determined as he danced. It was a rare, highly skilled sword dance. It looked like...

“Isn’t this crazy?”

The Tzedakah Guild members were upset.

“What is this? Why is he suddenly dancing in this situation?”

Grid’s odd behavior that couldn’t be understood by ordinary people’s common sense! Toban saw him and remembered an incident from the past.

“I remember that guy now...”

It was a few months ago when he was recruiting for the Guardian of the Forest raid in Bairan Village. The warrior, who looked around level 80, wanted to enter the raid by pretending to be level 100. He said that he never wore armour because he was a master of control. That loser was Grid?

‘This is completely...’

Toban gave a deep sigh and spoke to Jishuka, “Master, as expected, this time seems to be another false tip. Grid is a warrior, not a blacksmith. He was a braggart... Ack?”

Toban was amazed. The appearance of Grid dancing alone seemed crazy at first, but it was only for a moment. As he watched, his heart started beating faster and he felt an intense pressure coming from Grid.

‘What is this?’

Toban no longer talked casually about Grid, as he felt overwhelmed and retreated. He realized that Jishuka and all the guild members were reacting the same way. Even...

‘Even Malacus!’