Ch.145[Episode 145] Alliance

Park Chunbae and Malei looked at Sir Dominic with disgust as he overcame even an instant death skill.

What exactly is an instant death skill?

Isn’t an instant death skill supposed to kill once upon casting?

To withstand such an instant death skill.

And to still have the leisure to speak after enduring it.

This was absurd, even with the continuous buffs applied to tanks.

However, Sir Dominic wasn’t immune to instant death skills.

In fact, this happened because of a new trait Sir Dominic had acquired upon reaching 3-star status.

[Knight Banneret].

Directly translated, it means senior knight.

Sir Dominic was currently equipped with Knight Banneret, an upper-tier trait of the tank class.

He had temporarily changed his trait while creating a new character card.

And that action became the reason Sir Dominic survived once.

[[Knight Banneret]: You are a knight among knights. Your banner gains additional effects.]

This was the description of the Knight Banneret trait.

Because of this, when Sir Dominic equipped this trait, his T4 Division Banner gained additional effects as described.

Beyond the 125% increase to the [Standard Bearer] special skill effect, new effects were added.

[Division Banner(T4): Bearing this banner is an honor. [Standard Bearer] effect increased by 125% and can use [Overcome Death] or [Forward March].]

[[Overcome Death]: When facing death, you immediately recover 20% of your maximum health and avoid death. (Solo play only, once per game)]

[[Forward March]: Upon casting, you and your party, as well as the army you lead, gain a shield equal to 10% of maximum health for 5 seconds. (Party/Commander only, 1 minute cooldown)]

Truly powerful skills befitting a 3-star.

Among these, the [Overcome Death] effect triggered, allowing him to withstand the instant death skill once.

Since Park Chunbae and Malei didn’t know this fact, Sir Dominic began to look like a monster to them, but even if they had known, it wouldn’t have made much difference.

No, if they had known, they would have complained about this absurd society.

Saying how they give all these overpowered traits to tanks but never to damage dealers.

A bell sound echoes from afar.

A beam of light enters the alley, illuminating Sir Dominic who has survived the instant death skill.

A soft hymn resonates, as if celebrating Sir Dominic’s return.

White feathers flutter down from somewhere, celebrating Sir Dominic’s return.

A series of magnificent scenes, almost excessive.

Another trait of Sir Dominic, [Cinematic], had activated.

The cheerful bell sound stopped as soon as Sir Dominic completely escaped the instant death judgment.

An effect truly worthy of drawing all attention to Sir Dominic!

“…I don’t know how you avoided the instant death skill, but you’re certainly not in good shape.”

Malei said while properly shuffling his cards.

The fact that he was properly shuffling his cards was evidence of his surprise.

At Malei’s words, Park Chunbae carefully examined Sir Dominic.

Armor tattered from the instant death skill.

A state that didn’t look fine at all.

Malei was right.

Sir Dominic had somehow blocked the instant death skill, but it seemed he hadn’t blocked it completely.

“Probably… 20%.”

Malei estimated Sir Dominic’s health.

Having spent a long time in Gachaland, Malei’s guess was eerily accurate.

“20%, huh? That’s still manageable.”

Park Chunbae chuckled.

“Sorry to both of you—”

Just then, an unpleasant voice was heard from somewhere.

“Is this perhaps an opportunity?”

Park Chunbae and Malei looked at a porter crouching in the alley, staring endlessly.

Unnecessarily flowing short hair.

Unnecessarily good hair quality despite being blonde.

And an ugly face with protruding cheekbones that made the blonde hair seem wasted.

“Maybe?”

“He withstood the instant death skill once, but he’s not in good condition.”

Park Chunbae and Malei each offered a comment to the newly appeared figure.

This unpleasant person’s name was Hines.

Porter Hines.

“Seeing all this gives me inspiration.”

Bard Tales appeared behind Hines.

“This situation in music—”

“Shut up.”

Hines glared at Tales with wide eyes.

Tales, intimidated by the intensity, pouted and hung his head low.

Even the feather on his hat drooped as if dejected.

“An opportunity indeed.”

Hines, having silenced Tales, smiled vilely.

“Is it time to use ‘that’?”

“Isn’t it ‘that thing’ rather than ‘that’?”

“Right.”

In response to Park Chunbae’s question, Hines took something out of his bag.

A syringe containing an ominous liquid.

It was a hacking tool.

Sir Dominic’s one remaining eye widened.

Sir Dominic had heard about that liquid before.

It must have been information that I’m Not Little had warned Sir Dominic about, saying he had almost died.

Being injected with that liquid meant immediate expulsion from Gachaland.

Sir Dominic’s tension escalated.

“So now we just need to inject that into that anachronistic knight…”

Malei murmured dreamily, staring at the ominously swirling liquid in the syringe.

“That—”

And Tales, who had been watching all this, interjected.

Everyone’s attention turned to Tales.

“About ‘that thing’. Do you have more?”

“No, just this one.”

“Then what happens if the injection fails?”

“We’ll have to subdue him thoroughly before injecting to ensure that doesn’t happen.”

A conversation began between Hines and Tales.

Sir Dominic silently listened to their conversation.

Not only did he need to recover some health, but he could also naturally gather information about the One Star Alliance’s objectives.

“Enough!”

Just then, Park Chunbae shouted.

“Sir Dominic is openly recovering, you idiots!”

Park Chunbae’s already fierce face grew even fiercer.

“That’s right. We should have taken action immediately.”

Malei raised his finger to the sky.

A firework shot from his hand and painted the sky with red flames.

Was that firework a signal?

From various corners of this dark, narrow alley, suspicious individuals began to appear one by one.

Ruffians appearing with pipes, hammers, or socks filled with sand.

“We know Sir Dominic’s weakness well.”

Park Chunbae smiled vilely.

“That he’s weak against patterns? Strong-weak-weak strong-strong-weak-weak?”

“Not that.”

Park Chunbae, serious in response to Malei’s joke, glared at Sir Dominic and said.

“That he can only face one opponent at a time.”

That’s right.

Sir Dominic might seem specialized for combat against multiple people with his sword and shield, but in reality, he was only specialized in enduring against multiple people. In practice, he could only fight one person at a time, or at most two.

Sir Dominic tried to step back but, sensing a blow from behind, leaped forward.

A rusty hammer swept through the spot where Sir Dominic had just been.

“Well, well, did you think we wouldn’t know about you?”

Park Chunbae tapped his temple with a vile smile.

“‘The good don’t come first, those who come first aren’t good.’ You should have known that our visit wasn’t with good intentions.”

After saying this, Park Chunbae raised the axe at his waist.

And with a baseball bat that appeared from nowhere, he hit the axe upward, sending it flying toward Sir Dominic.

It was a very inefficient attack method, but there was a reason Park Chunbae was counted among the worst of the 1-star trio.

Malei, unable to use the instant death skill again, was using magic tricks to buff allies, Hines was unnecessarily harassing a female colleague, and Tales was excitedly playing music on his lute.

When a goblin appeared from somewhere and started tap dancing, the alley turned into a chaotic mess.

In this chaos, Sir Dominic was barely blocking attacks coming from all directions while trying to find an escape route.

After blocking a pipe with his shield, Sir Dominic spotted a path between people, but it was soon blocked by Malei’s magic.

Although Sir Dominic’s health was still decent, it was a desperate situation where he would inevitably be subdued if things continued.

Sir Dominic could guess that the moment he was subdued, he would be injected with the hacking tool and immediately expelled.

It would have been nice to have an area-of-effect skill, Sir Dominic thought idly.

Seeing no way out, Sir Dominic was just trying to enjoy the current situation.

…There’s a saying that genius cannot defeat effort, and effort cannot defeat enjoyment.

Then what about someone who both makes an effort and enjoys?

Wouldn’t the whole world try to help such a person?

Something heavy falls from the sky.

The One Star Alliance members began to panic due to the dust raised by whatever had landed in the alley with a thud.

“…I don’t forgive those who bully tanks.”

“Hmm.”

No, what fell wasn’t just one thing.

As the momentarily raised dust cleared, the identity of what had fallen from the sky was revealed.

A giant steel tube walking on two legs.

And a female knight in rusty, decaying armor sitting on top of it with her legs crossed.

“Indeed, if someone messes with a person our tank union has set its sights on, don’t they deserve to die?”

“Hmm.”

The female knight lightly jumped from the walking steel tube to the ground and stepped in front of Sir Dominic.

The muzzle of the steel tube pointed at those surrounding Sir Dominic.

A new force had appeared.