[Party] furple: Highly suspicious but makes sense.
[Party] Oath’s Vow: Then I’ll step out for a bit before we head to Venus.
At Oath’s words, the party members all slumped down in their spots. After seating his character, Sa-yoon stretched his back and got up. It was time for a quick stretch.
After that, they dove into the dungeon again. Thankfully, they could only run it once per day. For the first time, Sa-yoon understood why the dungeon’s entry cooldown was so long.
In the midst of everything, Sa-yoon learned that his party members had transferred from Divine’s main server, Lepus.
[Party] Chasa: Seriously… why’d you all transfer to this backwater server?
[Party] Shokrates: The population density was too high… We wanted to experience a slower pace?
[Party] Freedeal: Hah… Well, I gotta admit, it’s nice that the capital isn’t as crowded here.
[Party] GegulGegulFrog: For real. I could never snag a vendor spot at the marketplace before, but here? Instant. LMAO.
That was complete nonsense. It wasn’t like they had to worry about housing prices or commuting times in real life. In online games, high-population servers were objectively better.
Despite Sa-yoon’s skepticism, the party members just spammed “ㅋ” (lol) and stubbornly refused to explain their real reasons.
At best, they all agreed it just “seemed fun.” He already knew they were crazy, but this felt like getting an official diagnosis.
[Party] GegulGegulFrog: Ugh, siege war’s tomorrow, and potion prices are already spiking. T_T
[Party] Shokrates: I miss Snowman…
[Party] Freedeal: At this rate, maybe he’s not coming back?
[Party] Shokrates: Nah, nah. That guy has his hands in too many things here. It’ll take him a while to collect his stuff and come back. LOL.
Before they knew it, the conversation had shifted to tomorrow’s siege war. Hearing that, Sa-yoon opened the marketplace window while still standing.
Even factoring in the extra 10% transaction fee of the temporary marketplace, the prices were outrageously inflated. Items were disappearing in real time as he checked. By tomorrow, prices would skyrocket even further.
That meant he should list his items before bed. Large-scale battles like siege wars, which involved entire servers, were like a holiday season for crafters like Sa-yoon—a time to make serious profit.
Thanks to his wrist recovery period, he had been mass-producing items nonstop, and now he had a literal mountain of crafted food stockpiled. Feeling pleased, he closed the marketplace window and turned to his party.
[Party] Chasa: Want me to sell you some supplies?
At that, his party members gathered around him.
[Party] GegulGegulFrog: We’ve been waiting for this moment. We’ll serve you well.
[Party] Shokrates: …Isn’t that supposed to be the seller’s line?
[Party] Oath’s Vow: Buying 100 bundles of package sets.
[Party] GegulGegulFrog: Same, 100 bundles here too.
[Whisper] furple: Got any special-modified jelly?
[Whisper] Chasa: Yep.
[Whisper] furple: I’ll take 500 jellies, 500 grilled dishes, and 200 package sets. Just name the price, and I’ll transfer the gold.
The transactions were swift and efficient. With a satisfying deal completed, his inventory was now significantly heavier with gold.
Checking the temporary marketplace again, he saw that his rare field-obtained blueprint fashion items still hadn’t sold. Given their steep price, it made sense that no one had bought them yet.
Once he saved up a bit more, he planned to whisper a high-level crafter directly to negotiate a better price.
[Party] GegulGegulFrog: Someone tell Snowman he doesn’t need to show up tomorrow.
[Party] Shokrates: Uh, I still have a storage alt in his guild. Want me to actually relay that message?
[Party] GegulGegulFrog: Damn, you take jokes way too seriously.
[Party] Shokrates: ㅠㅠ
[Party] Oath’s Vow: Chasa, how’s the siege war scene here?
[Party] Chasa: The melee-to-ranged ratio seems pretty balanced.
[Party] Chasa: But since the population is smaller, it’s probably gonna be tougher than what you’re used to.
[Party] Oath’s Vow: What about the commanders?
[Party] Chasa: One guild has been monopolizing the position.
[Party] GegulGegulFrog: Meh, that’s boring.
[Party] GegulGegulFrog: Siege wars are only fun when it’s a chaotic free-for-all.
[Party] Freedeal: Yeah, if one guild dominates everything, what’s the point?
[Party] Oath’s Vow: Hahaha.
From the very beginning of Cygnus, the massive guild Noize had monopolized the commander position, with its guild master, noise, practically ruling with an iron fist.
[Party] Shokrates: We’ve only survived thanks to Oath. Divine Oath. God Oath.
[Party] GegulGegulFrog: We came here to turn this place into the Three Kingdoms era, remember? I’m hyped.
[Party] Chasa: Do different commanders use different strategies?
noise always stuck to the same tactics. Even if different deities appeared, his core approach remained unchanged.
[Party] Shokrates: Yeah, it changes every time, so following different strategies is part of the fun!
[Party] Oath’s Vow: Alright, we’re heading to the next dungeon now.
Even inside the tavern, the siege war discussion continued. The conversation naturally veered off into random topics, as usual.
Because of that, Sa-yoon completely forgot to join the guild before logging off.
“Oh, right.”
Then again, it wasn’t like they played together regularly. He could just let them know he’d join before the siege war tomorrow.
That was what he thought—without realizing what was coming.
Some nights were like that. When you wake up suddenly, completely alert, but stubbornly waste another 20 minutes tossing and turning in bed.
Realizing he wouldn’t fall back asleep, Sa-yoon finally got up. Despite the short rest, he felt surprisingly refreshed.
Out of habit, he checked his friends list—everyone was offline. It was that awkward hour when it was too late for the night owls and too early for the morning crew.
As expected, he had nothing to do, so he grabbed a bunch of enhancement fragments from storage and headed to his usual upgrade spot— a secluded corner of Ataraxys Beach.
[‘Dionysus’ Blessed Robe Gloves’ enhancement failed!]
[‘Dionysus’ Blessed Robe Gloves’ enhancement failed!]
[‘Dionysus’ Blessed Robe Gloves’ enhancement failed!]
“…Ah.”
Was it being this stubborn because of its top-tier stats? Ever since he got it, Sa-yoon had been feeding it enhancement fragments whenever he had the chance, but the robe gloves spat them all back out without fail.
His personal enhancement rule was simple: if an item broke three times in a row, he stopped and took a cooldown period. Rolling his mouse over the gloves, which shimmered in violet light, he sighed and moved away.
Enhancement was a bust.
Opening the party recruitment window, he was surprised to see a few listings available—but every single one was looking for melee DPS or a black mage. Typical 8282 culture, always chasing pure damage output.
Now, he was truly out of things to do, and the realization left him momentarily bewildered. Strictly speaking, there were still plenty of things he could do. As a solo player, he had always managed just fine with fishing, crafting, and character customization.
But he just didn’t want to.
Had the game always felt this quiet? As he stared at the chat window—where the only activity came from the occasional sales messages—Sa-yoon absentmindedly tapped his mouse.
For the past two weeks, every time he logged in, he had been immediately kidnapped into party play, running around with them until he logged off. If this wasn’t a fixed party, then what was?
The saying goes that you don’t notice when someone joins, but you do notice when they leave. Apparently, that applied to him too.
Well, since he was planning to join the guild later anyway, he might as well sort out his current one now.
Since two-letter guild names were considered rare, he planned to keep a placeholder by registering one of his alts in it. After transferring ownership and leaving the guild, the tag beneath his name disappeared.
Pausing for a moment, Sa-yoon made up his mind and moved to a new location.
[Battle is starting!]
[May Athena’s blessing be with you.]
In the end, he found himself in a 1v1 arena.
As long as he stayed within the top 1%, he would still receive ranking rewards, and he had already secured a comfortable spot. Even if he lost dozens more matches, he wouldn’t drop out of the bracket.
This was just a casual visit—to test out a new skill combo and adjust to the latest update.
As soon as the match began, his opponent charged forward, like a bull spotting a red flag.
“Ugh, Noize again.”
Sa-yoon’s brows furrowed as he read the not-so-welcome guild name. Maybe it was because Noize was a massive guild, but his previous opponent had also been one of theirs.
Judging by the reckless, all-in movement of this Blade Master, the guy was overflowing with confidence.
[You have died.]
[Round 1 has ended.]
“Ah.”
Yeah, this setup wasn’t working.
Sa-yoon stared at the grayed-out screen, watching his skills go on cooldown. His current build, focused purely on offensive skills instead of crowd control or immobilization, worked well against ranged opponents. But when a tanky melee opponent latched onto him, he had no way to break free.
Maybe this skill set was too experimental.
Just as he casually switched to his second preset build—
[General] WhiteNoise: Chasa.
[General] Chasa: Yeah?
At that moment, both of them had respawned at their starting positions due to Sa-yoon’s death. They were in the short prep phase before Round 2 began when WhiteNoise suddenly struck up a conversation.
[General] WhiteNoise: lol
[General] WhiteNoise: It’s nothing serious.
Sa-yoon immediately sensed that whatever was coming next was, in fact, very serious.
[General] WhiteNoise: You ever thought about leveling a new class?
[General] WhiteNoise: There’s an EXP buff going on right now.
[General] Chasa: ?
…Was this how recruitment worked now?
