After finishing his discussions with Kahn and Phante, Yeon-woo played with Sesha for a while before leaving the village in the evening. Of course, Yeon-woo was very careful to avoid the tribe members from noticing his departure. Those darn tribe members would inevitably clamor for more training sessions and force Yeon-woo to fight them all over again. Yeon-woo felt that it was unfortunate that he could not install a direct portal to the outside world since the village was protected by a barrier.
Before leaving the village, Yeon-woo reflexively glanced back. For some reason, he had an uneasy feeling in his chest. ‘The assassination plot.’ Faceless and his associates were somewhere planning the assassination. It seemed like an absurd idea. Now that they’d been pushed to their limits by Arthia, Faceless and his associates seemed to be making a foolish last stand. No matter how many guys they brought in, they would not be able to touch even a hair on the Martial King’s head. That was how strong the Martial King was.
Yeon-woo could guarantee that no matter how much one searched the heavens, it would be difficult to find anyone who was the Martial King’s match. ‘Even though I’ve grown so strong, I still can’t tell how much I’ve caught up to Master.’
The more powerful Yeon-woo became, the more he understood the Martial King’s greatness. Yeon-woo would consider himself lucky just to have the ability to handle the One-horned tribe, much less reach the Martial King’s level.
As a result, when Yeon-woo saw some information related to Faceless in the Changgong Library, and even when Doyle reported their movements, Yeon-woo did not think much of it. However, it wasn’t as though he didn’t have some concerns.
Faceless. A guy with the soul of the Sword God had a good idea of the Martial King’s strength. Yeon-woo couldn’t understand why he would have such a futile plan. Did he have something that would help him? Even if anything like that existed, Yeon-woo still felt that the Martial King would not be endangered. Still, Yeon-woo couldn’t shake off the uneasiness he felt.
“Psychic Medium, do you know something?” Yeon-woo asked the Psychic Medium, who was watching him from somewhere. She could see the entire stage from wherever she was, and more importantly, she possessed eyes that could see into the future.
『Of course, I do. Since it’s related to my husband, don’t you think I’d check it out?』
“I see. All right.” Assassinations were only successful if the target was unprepared instead of wary. It was only at that point that Yeon-woo could leave the village with a light heart.
***
『How cute. Even though he doesn’t show it, he’s really concerned for his master. He’s exactly what I envisioned for a son-in-law. Don’t you agree?』
The Martial King had been sitting cross-legged in meditation when the Psychic Medium’s voice rang in his ears, making him frown.
“Cute, my foot! He’s more concerned about getting to a point where he’ll be able to smack his master’s face.”
『Isn’t that the quality that made you interested in him?』
The Martial King smirked. He did not reply, but the Psychic Medium knew that his silence meant he viewed Yeon-woo positively. Before meeting Yeon-woo, the Martial King had had two disciples, but he had expelled and disowned both because they did not live up to his expectations.
Since the Martial King kept Yeon-woo as a disciple, it meant he had high expectations. Furthermore, Yeon-woo was progressing as well as he’d anticipated—in fact, Yeon-woo had even exceeded his expectations. Yeon-woo possessed wisdom, a fighting spirit, zeal, longing, an understanding of mutually beneficial acts, vengeance, a desire for domination, and…a temper.
Due to this, the Martial King could not help but feel a little sorry for Yeon-woo.
『Are you really not going to tell him?』
“Yeah. He already has a lot to do, so I don’t want to concern him further. It’s not like predictions are always correct.”
Absolute Death. “So, I’m definitely going to die…” The thought that he may not see how far his disciple would go, how much he would achieve…and looking at the fortune that he had just picked…
Tsk! The Martial King lightly clucked his tongue.
***
At some point, a strange rumor started circulating within the Tower: “Kahn and Phante have formed their own factions!”
Arthia normally operated with an unusual structure. Yeon-woo, the clan leader, and a small number of elites formed the core leadership. Several affiliated organizations were connected to that core leadership like branches. Unlike the other large clans that possessed many strong members at their core, Arthia operated more like an oligarchy with a few people ruling over the majority. As a result, power was concentrated in those who were most active in conducting external activities for the clan, such as Kahn and Phante.
The two were responsible for many of Arthia’s achievements, which allowed the clan to dominate the Tower, and many affiliated organizations and players were naturally eager to impress these two clan members.
Kahn hated being tied down to something, and Phante had an uncompromising attitude that did not allow him to hide his contempt for the weak, which meant that they hadn’t tried to create factions before. However, Kahn had lately grown less active in the clan’s activities and was beginning to hold meetings wtih various organizations and players within the clan.
He met the clan heads of Arthia’s affiliated organizations in person, developed friendships, and often hung out with other rankers. As a result, people gradually gathered around Kahn, and his faction formed naturally, composed of influential people from various fields.
On the other hand, Phante led several players through the main challenges of each floor together, and although he was always arrogant and looked down on others, he gained admirers who were enthusiastic about his macho attitude, and they began following him as though he were their master.
Thus, Arthia was gradually divided into two factions. The free-spirited Kahn’s faction was called the Hawk faction, and those who followed the destructive Phante were referred to as the Tiger faction. Although the boundaries between the factions weren’t entirely clear cut, at some point, the confrontations between Kahn and Phante began in earnest.
They argued during clan discussions on how to suppress White Dragon and ended up in a sword fight. Fortunately, Doyle stepped in and stopped the fight from escalating. However, the two turned their backs to each other and said that they could not stand each other anymore. Since the two had always been at odds with each other, many of those concerned about the clan felt that the situation was like a powder keg that would explode at any moment.
The two factions became wary of each other and began to mark out their boundaries.
***
At some point, Kahn began to confide in those closest to him about his dissatisfaction with Arthia. “Phante is an idiot. In fact, isn’t he just a babe in the woods with a silver spoon in his mouth who doesn’t know anything about the world and rampages around thanks to the protection of his father?”
“The clan leader often doesn’t show up as well…that seems a bit too much.”
“Arthia is a little too bloated. There are too many good-for-nothings within the clan. We need to thin out our ranks and reorganize.”
“And the clan leader’s personality? No one has to state anything further because we all know how bad his personality is.”
Initially, the members were scared about revealing their complaints, but as Kahn continued to express his dissatisfaction, they grew bolder and more vocal. Little by little, they wriggled out from the absolute fear that Yeon-woo induced and began to open their eyes to their desires.
One by one…
***
After time passed, Kahn started receiving strange offers through shadowy sources.
“Please look favorably upon us in the future. If you ever need anything, just let us know.”
First, it started with bribes.
“Let’s discuss the rights and interests of this floor…”
Soon, other requests started to come in, including ones that dealt with Arthia’s secrets. In public, Kahn pretended as if everything were normal, but, behind the scenes, he started leaking information. The plans to weed out internal insurgents sometimes ended in failure.
Many of the clan members voiced their opinion that Kahn had changed and was now a danger to the clan, but his position was so strong that their voices went mostly unheard.
One day, a secret proposal suddenly came in.
“Hmm?” While organizing papers in his office alone in the late hours of the night, Kahn quickly pulled out his Blood Sword as he felt something foreign around him. However, a shadow blade appeared under his chin before he could even take a defensive stance.
‘Strong!’ Kahn’s expression hardened as he realized that his opponent was not to be taken lightly. “Who are you?” If his opponent had come to assassinate him, the blade would not have stopped where it did.
『You’re a thoughtful person, like I heard. It was the right decision to visit you instead of Phante.』 The wielder of the shadow blade bowed his head as he pulled back his weapon. 『My name is Narc from the Krancia Merchant Alliance.』
“Merchant Alliance?” Kahn snorted. The guy who had suddenly appeared in the dead of night and covered his face with a mask was claiming to be a merchant. Even a passing dog would laugh.
『I know what you’re thinking, but the fact that we’re a merchant alliance doesn’t change anything.』
“Fine. A lowly merchant like you must have come for some reason. What kind of trade are you offering?”
『I want to purchase some information from you.』
“Information?”
『Yes. I need information regarding Arthia’s clan leader, the Shadow King.』
Kahn’s expression hardened. “Why do you want information on that bad-tempered bastard? He hasn’t done anything outside in a while.”
The masked intruder’s eyes widened at the rude way Kahn referred to his clan leader. It seemed like the rumors were true that Kahn was greatly dissatisfied with his clan leader, the Shadow King.
『Your sentiment is exactly the reason why I need the information. In the future, his movements will influence the Tower’s state of affairs. We believe he’s preparing something during this time of inactivity, and our merchant alliance would like to know what the Shadow King is doing, even if it is just a small piece of information. Can you help us?』
“I can’t.”
『Phew! It seems like you’re still wary of us, then…』
“No. I want to do as you asked, too.”
『Hmm?』 The masked man tilted his head as though he did not understand Kahn’s meaning.
“It’s because that bad-tempered bastard is watching all of this.” The masked man was startled and tried to tear the portal scroll that he carried in his chest.
“Urgh!” Suddenly, something shot out of the masked man’s shadow, smashed his spine, and pierced through his chest.
Kahn laughed as he watched the scene, and it was only then that the masked man realized that he had been acting all along. Slash! However, the masked man didn’t have much longer to think. As the shadow moved again, it sliced off his head. Yeon-woo appeared above the shadow and intercepted the soul of the masked man, which was just about to leave his body.
「Argh! Aaah!」
Yeon-woo started to burn the masked man’s soul using his Purgatory Furnace skill. As the soul struggled in pain, it spit out various thoughts before deteriorating into a remnant soul that was sucked into Yeon-woo’s Soul Collection.
“What do you think?”
At Kahn’s question, Yeon-woo shook his head.
Kahn lightly clucked his tongue. “It’s not them again? Damn it!”
Kahn and Phante’s subversion was part of Yeon-woo’s plans to lure the Sea of Time to approach them. However, the Sea of Time was not taking the bait and continued to keep their heads low.
In the meantime, Yeon-woo was able to enjoy some unexpected side-benefits, such as finding out which of the clan members were dissatisfied with Arthia or which ones did not even deserve to be members. He’d also discovered some secret associations and organizations formed while avoiding Arthia’s information network.
Doyle had already created a blacklist. Doyle was planning on taking care of all of them in one fell swoop later on, but Yeon-woo was unhappy that the plan was taking so long since he had many other things to do.
“Besides that, Kahn…”
“Huh?”
“Who are you calling a bad-tempered bastard?”
“Heh. I just said that to deceive him.”As if he had already anticipated the question, Kahn used a portal scroll and quickly slipped away.
Yeon-woo frowned as he was left alone in the office.
***
‘I guess I’ll just have to observe a bit longer.’He believed that the Sea of Time had already infiltrated deep into Arthia’s ranks. Since it was virtually impossible to catch such infiltrators quickly, Yeon-woo decided to proceed calmly with the plan, no matter how impatient he felt.
Besides, he had work to do in the meantime.‘Reclaim Tartarus.’It was his turn to rescue the gods of Olympus, who were waiting for him somewhere below.
