EDEN — Chapter 1 (Part 2)

Once the five seconds were over, I-eon survived comfortably, and even the lowest-level ranger barely hung on.

When the explosion wiped out the remaining monsters, the battle ended naturally. I-eon, stunned beyond words, was just about to speak to the healer, if not for the explosion of a loud voice.

“That’s why you should’ve been in front of the pillar earlier! Because you cut it so close, that happened!”

“What?”

Startled at the thief’s shout, the ranger snapped back with teary frustration.

“We both made mistakes. Why do you have to blame me like that?”

“Both? Ha, we both made mistakes?”

Why is he acting like this again… I-eon pressed his fingers to his forehead.

“Do you know how hard I’ve been carrying you this whole time?”

“I told you from the start I was fine sitting out. I didn’t want the pressure either, so who dragged me here?”

“Dragged you? I did that for your sake…”

“You messed up earlier, too. Why is it only a problem when I do it?”

At that, the thief’s face turned vicious. It was a time-attack dungeon, not something they could waste time arguing in. I-eon tried to mediate with a strained smile.

“Hey, let’s just stop and move on.”

“Why bring up something that’s already over?”

“It is over, but you’re the one making it a problem!”

Of course, neither of them listened.

Damn it… I’m never doing a public party again. I-eon dropped the forced smile and grabbed his bangs in frustration. Of all things, why did the party leader have to placate this couple just to clear a dungeon? Whether it was group projects or public-party leadership, some roles were just cursed.

He couldn’t leave them like this, though, so he grabbed the thief’s arm with a firm expression to put an end to the fight.

In that moment, a chilling aura spread through the air, and dark-red chains wrapped around the couple’s necks. Startled, I-eon let go of the thief’s arm and retreated a step. The couple also froze at the sight of chains around each other’s throats. The ominous chains rattled and tightened. The woman, her health already low, collapsed first and died.

“What is this…?”

Eyes wide, the thief turned his head, and I-eon also looked in the same direction. The demon priest lightly tapped the ground with his staff, regardless of what the thief was trying to say. Instantly, the thief’s health plummeted, and he collapsed dead as well.

“……”

With two of the four dead, the painful argument vanished as if it had never happened, leaving only silence. Stunned by the incomprehensible situation, I-eon blinked blankly. The man tilted his head slowly at him.

“How strange.”

“…?”

His quiet voice didn’t match the situation at all. I-eon forced himself to look away from the two corpses lying side by side and faced the man.

“You’re a Paladin of Tiog, right?”

“… I am.”

At his cautious reply, the man lifted the corner of his mouth in a smile.

“Then why aren’t you dead?”

… What?

Hearing that horrifying line spoken with a smiling face, I-eon staggered backward. Meanwhile, the man’s staff glimmered, and strange symbols appeared around him. I-eon realized he was testing various things on him and gripped his sword tightly.

Even if it was a game, to casually commit team kills like that, this public party wasn’t just sabotaged by the unstable couple, but even the reliable healer turned out to be a landmine.

Even now, should he attack first and kill that guy before anything worse happens? Whether the man sensed I-eon’s intense inner conflict or not, he frowned. Then he cast another skill, and unlike before, when nothing had happened, this time a dark red mist wrapped around I-eon’s body. Just as he flinched and tried to step back, a notification sounded.

—Burning Will! Physical attack power increases by 35 percent.

“…?”

Why give him a buff? Was this supposed to be a fair one-on-one fight?

I-eon watched the man’s movements with the same caution he used against boss monsters. The man was alternating between examining I-eon’s status window and his own with keen interest. Like a cat toying with a mouse, the tense standoff continued for quite a while on I-eon’s side only.

During that time, the couple’s bodies lying on the floor became gradually transparent before disappearing completely. Since resurrection was impossible without a healer’s skill, they must have returned to town. Seeing the items dropped where their bodies had been made, I-eon’s spine turn cold again. Equipment was equipment, but after level 200, the time needed to recover lost experience…

He seriously considered leaving the dungeon and running away.

At that moment, the man, who had multiple windows open while searching for something, suddenly let out an “Ah,” and said lightly:

“They were in our guild.”

“What?”

I-eon let out a short laugh of disbelief. His guild was tiny, barely ten members. On the day he joined, he had greeted every guildmate, one by one. Unless there was a hole in his memory, that man had certainly not been there. If he had even seen him once, he would never forget a face like that. The only guild member I-eon had yet to meet was the guild master…

“…?”

Why was that the conclusion?

He had heard from Debbie that the guild master was a ranker healer. But… but! I-eon stared with a face like he had just swallowed spoiled food, desperately denying reality. There was no way that lunatic was the guild master.

“I think you’re mistaken.”

“Joined… five days ago.”

The man ignored I-eon’s protest and smiled, as if disappointed. I-eon immediately understood why. Guild expulsion was only possible seven days after joining, and guild members couldn’t harm each other unless they deliberately initiated a duel. Which meant…

Once he grasped the situation, a sudden boldness surged through I-eon, and he threw his sword down.

“You psycho. Why the hell are you team-killing!”

Even with I-eon’s blatant shift in attitude, the man replied with the same calm expression he had shown up to now.

“They were loud. And incompetent.”

“I mean, sure, but still…”

Honestly, if it weren’t for the healer’s abilities, I-eon might’ve wanted to smack that mouthy thief every time he made a mistake. Realizing he agreed with the man’s sentiment for a brief moment, I-eon shut his mouth and let out a long sigh.

“We still have to clear the dungeon. How are we supposed to do that with no damage dealers?”

“We can clear it.”

The man shrugged, relaxed as ever, which only frustrated I-eon further. How were a tank and a healer supposed to do that? Time was an issue, and from the next room onward, their damage would be far too low. Even with two healthy damage dealers, clearing without buffs was difficult. The man had to know that, yet he walked ahead without hesitation.

“Just keep aggro properly.”

“……”

Considering everything the man had done so far, it wasn’t entirely baseless confidence… but still. Traveling with a PKer (Player Killer) was unsettling, yet I-eon didn’t have many options left. He took a screenshot just in case he had to report him on the official forums later. It would’ve been better if he had taken the shot when the corpses were still there, but since it was too late, he figured leaving evidence of the man’s distinctive gear would be enough. Even if the protective mode blurred his face, his equipment alone was identifiable. The man didn’t bother stopping I-eon despite the constant shutter sounds.

Only three normal rooms and a mid-boss room were left before the final boss. The man entered the next chamber first. I-eon hurried to take the lead as the tank, but before he could step ahead, the man pulled a ticket from his inventory and tore it.

The torn paper vanished before it hit the ground. At the same time, the massive cavern before them warped as if sucked into a black hole and disappeared without a trace. Where the cavern had been, only a normal corridor remained, identical to the one behind them.

“Huh? What the…”

Startled by the inexplicable sight, I-eon looked around. The man waved another ticket casually.

“Dungeon skip ticket.”

“…The kind from the random box?”

“Yes.”

He had only ever heard that such things existed, but this was his first time seeing one. The dungeon skip ticket, one of the random box items released in the cash shop earlier this year. It couldn’t be used on the boss or mid-boss, but each ticket skipped one room entirely, drastically shortening the dungeon clear time. It was an item that had provoked a flood of complaints from users who enjoyed challenging the rankings of timeout dungeons, and since only a small quantity had ever been released, it was now nearly impossible to find…

Did he strip that from someone he killed?

I-eon stared suspiciously at the man’s back.

To his amazement, the man used tickets to skip the remaining two rooms without hesitation. The dread didn’t go away, but his body certainly appreciated the convenience.

And at last, they reached the problematic mid-boss room. The ticket could no longer be used here.

“What are you planning to do now? You know I’m the tank, right?”

The mid-bosses were the guardian wraiths that protected the king’s phantom. Three wraiths in total, each with absurd health bars and complicated chain attacks. You had to kill one within five minutes so the remaining two would weaken. Otherwise, no matter how much the tank hit them, after five minutes, he would simply be beaten to death by their power spike.

The man’s plan was barely a plan at all, just something simple.

“Stand in the middle and hold out. When I give the signal, use your strongest single-hit skill.”

“That’s… it?”

The man nodded and began placing buffs. Buried under countless sound effects and notifications, I-eon narrowed his eyes, unable to trust him. With the terrifying boost to his defense and health, he would certainly be able to endure for a long time, but the damage was still the issue. Unless the healer suddenly sprouted dual blades and went on a rampage, how were they supposed to clear the dungeon without a damage dealer?

His chest was full of doubt, yet the extreme endgame-tier buffs turned him into a tank far sturdier than a normal tank. For now, he positioned himself where the wraith would spawn. Since they were in the same guild and couldn’t kill each other directly, a sudden thought hit him: was the man trying to kill him indirectly like this?
But the man had already entered the room, and the door sealed shut.

The three magic circles in front of I-eon began to whirl violently, announcing the wraiths’ arrival. Wraiths with a sword, a spear, and an axe rose from the ground, screaming to assert dominance.

I-eon immediately used a taunt to draw aggro, blocking the axe wraith’s vicious downward strike with his shield. The spear and sword followed with relentless pressure, making him want to turtle completely behind his shield, but his buffed body barely budged. And every time he got hit, the man healed him without missing a beat… turning him into an excellent human shield.

Standing at a safe distance, the man kept applying debuffs even while checking I-eon’s status. Dark red smoke clung stubbornly around the axe wraith, and black magic circles appeared and vanished repeatedly.

—Guardian Duruquan’s attack speed decreases.
—Guardian Duruquan’s physical defense decreases by 50.
—Guardian Duruquan suffers the Black Saint’s curse, revealing weaknesses.
—Guardian Duruquan’s critical evasion decreases.
—Guardian Duruquan’s…

The debuffs piled on endlessly. As they stacked, the axe wraith’s movements slowed and its attacks weakened. While blocking the other two wraiths steadily, I-eon couldn’t help making a tired face. There should have been limits to skill points and mana, yet he had never seen a healer who could fire off so many debuffs nonstop. Theoretically possible, maybe, but…

Finally, when preparations seemed complete, the wraith’s body darkened into a deep violet, and buffs poured onto I-eon as well.

—By the blessing of Demon God Nox, all attack power increases by 50 percent.
—Armor penetration increases.
—The energy of Nox and Tiog clash. Buff duration is shortened.
—Deal increased damage to ghost-type monsters.
—Critical hit rate increases.

Lastly, a glowing red sigil appeared near I-eon’s heart.

—Holy Sacrifice! Sacrifice the life force of Tiog-aligned party members to deliver a devastating strike.

“Who said you could…”

“Now.”

Before the person being sacrificed could even object, the wicked skill drained seventy percent of his health. I-eon grit his teeth at the man’s sharp signal, swallowing his anger. Fine, he’d see where this went.

The paladin’s strongest single-hit skill, Condemnation, struck toward the wraith. Lightning fell along the sword’s trajectory, delivering a critical hit and piercing the wraith’s body.

Crash!

A thunderous roar filled the room.

“Kraaaagh…!! My king!!”

The wraith’s death cry shredded their ears, and a violent gust of icy wind tore through the room. I-eon braced himself, enduring with clenched eyes.

But even in that moment, something didn’t add up. That anguished cry, calling for the king it was supposed to protect, only happened when the wraith was destroyed. But a tank landing a single hit shouldn’t…

“…?”

Killed in one hit…?

The axe wraith Duruquan was gone. Only the remaining two wraiths were left, charging in to tear I-eon apart. But though their menace remained, losing one of their number had weakened them severely compared to before.

Still stunned, I-eon turned to look for the healer. And somehow, the man was already right beside him.

He swung his staff at the weakened wraiths. It was just a normal attack, yet each blow landed with a savage crack. The wraith couldn’t endure even a few hits before flailing its arms and dissolving into dust. The last one died the same way. Only then did I-eon realize that a beautifully polished, long staff could look far more lethal than a blunt weapon.

“What the hell…”

“They must have had big health pools. Damage numbers look good.”

The man said casually as he nudged through the dropped loot with his foot. Being forcibly put into a berserker-like state and used wasn’t pleasant, but the absurdity of the outcome drained the will to complain.

Are all high-rankers like this…
So when he said they could clear it with just the two of them, it hadn’t been bragging at all.

“Not hard, right?”

“Well, yes, but… this is ridiculous.”

“We can do the boss the same way.”

“Are you even a real user? You’re not some bug abuser or a GM?”

Given his abnormal level and behavior, it was a perfectly reasonable suspicion. But the man only looked genuinely confused.

“Then why play the game?”

“A normal user can be that strong?”

“I’m right here.”

He jerked his chin toward himself. It was shameless bragging, but his handsome face made the arrogance suit him, and above all, it was true. I-eon just didn’t respond and headed toward the boss’s room.

Even after using three skip tickets, they had used almost all the allotted time, but the fact that a tank and healer duo had taken down the boss at all was a miracle. If I-eon hadn’t seen it himself, he wouldn’t have believed it even if someone posted screenshots on the official forums.

Because the powerful buffs had cooldown times, the man repeatedly healed him while I-eon tanked blow after blow. No matter how much he was hit or knocked around, he simply didn’t die. At that point, calling him a zombie paladin wouldn’t be wrong. “You can’t die, and I can’t die,” basically.

Either way, the two of them eventually defeated the king’s wraith and its subordinates and arrived at the reward chamber.

“We actually cleared it…”

I-eon unequipped his weapon, tired from swinging it endlessly, and let out a deep sigh. Watching the man through the repetitive boss patterns, he had learned something: the man possessed several skills with similar effects but slightly different conditions, allowing them to stack. There was no way the developers would include such balance-shattering abilities in the default skill tree, so they must have been skills he acquired through his own achievements.

To raise all those skills, he should have run out of skill points and been forced to leave them at mediocre levels, but every skill the man used was at least semi–endgame tier. Not only that, he never once missed the moment a buff ended, always keeping enemies at their weakest and allies at their strongest. If he joined a properly organized party, the overall DPS would skyrocket to an unbelievable degree.

And yet he insisted he wasn’t a bug user or a GM, so he had to be a maniac beyond even hardcore gamers.

While I-eon watched the man pick out only a few items from the reward chest, he opened his own box. Among potions, consumables, vendor trash weapons, and miscellaneous junk, a round antique object caught his eye. I-eon picked it up with a small sound of admiration.

—Acquired “Bard’s Compass.”
—Quest complete!
—New quest has been created.

“Hah… at least the suffering paid off.”

Feeling a little moved, I-eon tucked the compass safely away. Seeing that, the man spoke casually.

“You’re doing the sacred relic quest?”

“Uh, yeah.”

His face remained as expressionless as it had been from the start, but now that everything was over, that emotionless look felt nothing but uncomfortable. A PKer who had tried to kill him too; someone he had cursed at and spoken informally to; someone with whom he had ended up clearing the dungeon as a duo; and worst of all, someone who wasn’t even a stranger but the guild master. I-eon couldn’t keep his eyes focused anywhere, uneasy with the embarrassment flooding him. The man let out a small laugh.

“Sorry about earlier.”

“Oh.”

I-eon hadn’t expected the apology to come first. A bit surprised, he rubbed his chin before replying.

“No, well… we cleared it because of you anyway.”

“That’s true.”

“… Wow. You really don’t understand humility, do you?”

Even with I-eon’s jab, the man just smiled easily. After all, the thief had been the root of the problem, and though he felt slightly bad for the ranger, he had no desire to think about those two ever again. Ideally, he hoped never to meet them again. As he mentally erased the couple from his mind, I-eon suddenly asked:

“But is it fine for a healer to PK people like that? Doesn’t your bad reputation score go up? Ah, maybe demons don’t care?”

“Well… it’s fine.”

With a shrug, the man dismissed it lightly, then turned his body toward the exit.

“See you later.”

He left with a clean, uncluttered manner that didn’t match the mess he had created. Watching the broad back grow distant, I-eon felt strangely conflicted. He didn’t want to see him again… Maybe he should consider leaving the guild.

Two days after this memorable encounter with a guild master he hadn’t even known the face of, I-eon sprawled across the sofa in his house and opened Eden’s official website. Using the compass, he had found a treasure chest in an underwater cave and obtained the quest item, a stone tablet, but he had no way to decipher the writing on it. With no helpful clues in the quest window or item description, the best option was to look for answers from other players.

The event banner sparkled at the top of the site, but since the developers had gone quiet while preparing the large summer update, there wasn’t much to look at. I-eon skimmed through the event list and entered the community plaza. As expected of Eden, the undefeated number-one game in market share, posts were being uploaded rapidly.

He scrolled past the chatter-filled free board and was about to move to the Q&A board when his hand suddenly froze. A particular thread title hit his vision like a spotlight. It even had a “Popular Post” tag attached.

[Title: Raham <<< Leta Ruins PKer]

The post date was exactly two days ago. As if drawn in, I-eon clicked it.

[Today I met a PKer in a public party at Leta Ruins.
It was the tank, me, my girlfriend, and a healer (PKer). We almost cleared the dungeon and were talking for a moment when out of nowhere the healer bastard debuffed us and killed me and my girlfriend–
Since it’s inside a dungeon, we couldn’t resurrect so we dropped gear and I lost EXP from dying, ffs.
I looked him up, and that bastard has a crazy high PK ranking. Seems like he always kills dealers near the end to steal the rewards, that scumbag.
The tank was the party leader; shouldn’t the PL filter trash like that? Since he didn’t kill the PL, maybe the two were working together, lol. No wonder he had an attitude from the startㅋㅋ
And he kept snapping at me, but started flirting with my girlfriend like he was hot shitㅋ
Raham < Demon Priest
I-eon < Human Paladin
If you go to a dungeon, watch out for those scammers. If any high-level bros see them, please deliver justice. Thinking of posting to the scandal board too. Attached proof screenshots below.]

“……”

The screenshot taken after death, washed in black-and-white, showed I-eon and the man facing each other. But since it had been taken before I-eon understood the situation, his dazed, blank expression could easily be interpreted as calm indifference. The distortion of the story erased even the slight guilt he felt about the man killing the couple; if anything, it wiped that feeling out completely.

So that’s how he wants to play it.

Properly angry now, I-eon opened the comments section, fully ready to go keyboard-warrior mode. Since the poster even uploaded screenshots as “evidence,” he didn’t need to imagine what kind of comments onlookers had left.

“Bastard… I should’ve taken a screenshot of him almost dying because of me.”

Because of the hundreds of comments, the page took a moment to load. About to start swearing immediately, I-eon paused at the top comments marked as “Best.” Wondering if he misread something, he narrowed his eyes and looked more closely, but the comments were strange.

[best) Nice troll-self-report, gg.]
[best) Posts about Raham PKing show up every now and then lol. It’s always trolls.]
[best) At this point just nerf Raham–]
[best) Speedwagon: There’s this insane healer called Raham. When he runs a dungeon and meets trolls, he kills them. If the whole party is trolls, he kills everyone and clears it alone. So OP=the troll, ok?]
└How does a healer solo a dungeon?
└Raham’s skills, stats, gear, and control are all broken.
└Damn dude’s personality is wrecked.
└Rumor says he’s dual-class.

Most of the comments were like that. Of course, there were people mocking the original poster or insulting Raham too, but surprisingly many reacted as if this were normal. Apparently, the man was quite famous, but since I-eon rarely visited the community and only played however he felt like, he hadn’t known anything about Raham.

I-eon forgot his original reason for opening the comments as he read the reactions one by one. It seemed players all had similar senses. Some praised the man’s looks, some complained that being handsome made him even more annoying, some said liking him despite being a PKer meant you’d defend a criminal if he was pretty, and some argued PK wasn’t even against the rules, so who cared. Thankfully, because of the man’s notoriety, nobody mentioned I-eon at all.

After roughly gauging the atmosphere, I-eon first reported the thief’s post. Since character appearances in the game were almost identical to the user’s real face, the game blurred the faces of users who didn’t consent to being photographed. But the screenshot clearly showed I-eon’s face, meaning the poster had used an unauthorized transparency-removal program. Even if such tools were quietly common, posting proof of it on the official forum was idiotic. At least he was stupid.

When the game notified him that the report was submitted, a yellow light appeared at the corner of his screen with a ding, Debbie had sent a whisper request. Remembering his original purpose, I-eon postponed checking the whisper and returned to the thief’s post to open the comments again. And this time, calmer than before, he typed with steady fingers.

[This is the Paladin himself. I almost lost the dungeon twice because of the original poster. And if I’d known the healer was like that, I wouldn’t have taken in a troll like you; we would’ve just run it as a duo.]

“Hm…”

I-eon wanted to say something that would really get under the thief’s skin, but nothing appropriate came to mind. And besides, everyone else was already tearing into him on their own… It felt like getting something done without lifting a finger. Leaving behind that brief comment, I-eon closed all the windows and got up from the sofa. When he accepted the whisper request Debbie kept sending, the alert had grown so sparkly and distracting that he couldn’t ignore it anymore.

[I-eon!]

“Yes.”

[Today’s the day you officially become a full guild member.]

“Ah…”

It had already been a full week since he joined. The image of the man being oddly disappointed flickered through his mind, but he shook it off quickly and asked Debbie:

“Isn’t there some kind of promotion requirement?”

[Nope. Just come to the guild hall.]

“I’ll be there now.”

It was a bit bothersome, but he didn’t have anything else to do anyway, so I-eon immediately took the portal that led to the guild hall. As long as someone belonged to a guild and had housing, anyone could install this direct portal. Because of that, the price to buy a guild hall varied wildly depending on location, almost like real-world real estate. Even so, despite being a small guild, Nox had somehow purchased a guild hall right in the shopping district where only large guilds usually gathered. It wasn’t even an old guild. How much money had they thrown into that place…

“Welcome!”

When he arrived at the guild hall, Debbie, Coco-pang, and five other guild members warmly greeted him. It seemed silly that they all gathered just because he was getting promoted, but to them, the moment felt meaningful.

“All this for me?”

“Of course. Our youngest member is getting promoted, we have to show up.”

Ji Jong-sosi, whose gentle expression always made him look amiable, laughed as he watched I-eon grow bashful. At thirty-three, he was the guild’s oldest member despite still being pretty young, and he was an Archmage. He usually smiled as though nothing fazed him, but apparently, he loved wild, destructive combat. Supposedly, it was his way of blowing off stress from work, though I-eon hadn’t personally witnessed it yet.

Debbie nodded vigorously in agreement with him, then suddenly dropped a comment that caught I-eon off guard.

“Hope guild master gets here soon.”

“… Why the guild master?”

He hadn’t run into the man even once by chance during the past two days, and the thought of leaving the guild had faded naturally. With no way of knowing his situation, Debbie beamed as she explained:

“You said this is your first guild, right? To become an official guild member, the guild master has to conduct the promotion ceremony personally.”

“Oh… I see.”

“Recruiting new members is my job, but I’m picky… so the last person who had a promotion ceremony was me.”

Beside them, Iraine, the bard with elven tattoos along one cheek, chimed in cheerfully. One of the biggest reasons I-eon hadn’t quit the guild was the friendliness of the members and how harmonious a small guild could be. There was none of the territorial attitude or faction drama that large guilds were known for.

Well, if they had a guild master, he might as well be interested in some way. With that quick rationalization, I-eon chatted with the guild members while subtly asking about their guild master. Debbie jumped at the chance to answer.

“Guild master? He’s insane. Seriously insane!”

“Really?”

“Yes! Ah, but maybe because he’s so insanely strong, his personality is… hmm… a bit hard to read? Or maybe just confusing?”

“To be honest, it’s hard for us to see him, too. He’s like a figurehead.”

A figurehead… Ji Jong-sosi didn’t sound mocking, and the words weren’t inaccurate. I-eon himself had assumed Debbie was the guild master at first. Suddenly, he wondered whether the other members knew about the man’s habit of PKing in dungeons. Given their personalities, they probably wouldn’t care even if they did.

[Debbie: Guild master, where are you~!]

Debbie couldn’t hold back and prodded the guild master in guild chat. I-eon stared at the chat window, feeling his shoulders tense with a subtle kind of dread. How did he end up in this awkward, uncomfortable connection with someone he didn’t even know by face until two days ago? It would’ve been nicer if the man just stayed offline, but a reply soon appeared.

[Raham: Coming.]