Chapter 48: Song Haechang, Part II

Song Haechang honestly didn’t want to be a tanker, even though he had learned the Unrivaled skill. But after spending 2.4 billion golden rings to learn the skill, he couldn’t bring up that he wanted to be a damage dealer instead. He was only able to become the first of his guild to learn the skill because the guild had amassed its resources for him to do so. He had to become the reliable tanker the guild wanted him to be.

No matter how well the Sunbin Guild started off, 2.4 billion golden rings was still expensive. It was a price tag that managed to deliver a huge blow to the financially stable guild.

When Song Haein learned her Unrivaled skill, the guild had run out of golden rings and she had to put a hold on her leveling. Learning the skill at exactly level 500 was the safest and the most economical way. Still, the guild’s vault remained empty for about three months. All of the guild’s members had to even watch their potion use to save up.

The second guild member to learn the Unrivaled skill was not supposed to be Song Haein, but the head of security, Han Kyungchul. He gave the privilege to Song Haein when she begged him that she had to learn the skill instead.

Song Haechang was the guild’s rightful heir, and it was accepted that he would be the first to learn the skill, but that wasn’t the case for Song Haein. At first, there were members who weren’t happy towards Song Haein. That is, until the raid.

Song Haechang decided to try once more after learning Taunt when he reached level 600. He wanted to raid the mid-grade dungeon in Jeju, the one his youngest sister perfectly cleared. He was confident this time. Even though he was embarrassed to, he watched the video of his sister’s raid many, many times over.

“God damn it! Shit!”

He still failed. This raid was even more deplorable than the raid on the Chinese dungeon.

Back then, only 11 of the 20 party members ended up dying in the raid. This time, however, 15 members died. Only he, a healer and three other members managed to survive. The 15 members did resurrect, but the death penalty they sustained was like losing a whole level they worked so hard to achieve. They were the most elite devas the guild had to offer. Losing a whole level was a huge cost.

When Song Haein led her first mid-grade dungeon boss raid, she went in expecting that she was going to fail. The party she went with wasn’t the best squad either, as other guild members expected that she would fail, too. But she still managed to keep her squad alive and successfully defeat the monster. Failing twice in a row made a huge dent in Song Haechang’s pride.

Of course, it’s not to say that the success or failure of a raid didn’t always rely on the party’s tank, and there were some words of encouragement towards Song Haechang… until the raid’s video was released.

He was worse than bad. It seemed like he just had no talent for command at all.

It was evident that Song Haechang had everything he needed for the raid, from the best equipment, to the highest levels, to the best party members. But he just didn’t know how to properly utilize any of it. Even though he had higher defense than his sister, he was slow in blocking attacks. He tried to block after the attack had already gone through. Even though he had the Defense Mastery skill, he just couldn’t defend against any attack.

His AGI and STR were much higher than Song Haein’s, but while Song Haein matched the boss’s pace, Song Haechang was literally thrown around by the boss.

He had trained so much before the raid, but his attempts at blocking were all over the place. It was an absolute crisis. There was no hope for him.

The sub-tanker in the party who didn’t have the Unrivaled skill had to take over the main tank role during the fight, but that was the deciding move. Their movements tangled with one another, and they couldn’t properly control the boss monster.

Even though he killed all of those monsters so easily trying to get to level 500, there was no evidence of that skill anywhere. Song Haechang had tapered his stats so that when he learned the Unrivaled skill, he would be tailored for the best fighter. He showed good promise at becoming a decent damage dealer with his skill at using a greatsword. His skill in low-grade dungeons had people come to believe that he would also make a great tanker, and they didn’t expect him to fail.

After failing twice in a row, Song Haechang became a recluse, holing himself up in the guild all day. The Sunbin Guild’s master and vice-master were equally frustrated. Nothing had gone the way they planned. They had spent 2.4 billion golden rings so that he could learn the skill, but he just couldn’t adapt at all.

Song Daechang just wasn’t cut out for the tank role. He never stood on the front line to take the boss’s attacks for his teammates, and didn’t understand how to create openings so that his teammates could attack the boss.

“Ugh. Damn it all!” It was a good thing that Song Haein became the perfect tank. It was like the guild had won an unexpected lottery. But Song Haechang could only sigh in frustration every time he thought about it.

“Where is Haechang?”

“He’s still in his room.”

“Whew…I see. What do you think about your son?” It was his grandson, but Song Daechul felt that the boy’s father would know more what the boy was thinking.

“I doubt there is anything else we can do. He said he was going to remove the Unrivaled skill.”

Song Daechul sighed heavily. As Song Haechang’s grandfather, he understood what his grandson was going through and felt bad for him. But as the Sunbin Guild’s guild master, he was also angry.

The guild was going to lose out on 2.4 billion golden rings. That wasn’t a small amount. The guild went through so much to save up that much!

When the Sunbin Group first became a guild, they relied heavily on the employees. They had to persuade them that they needed money, that there was a skill needed for the guild to come out on top. The guild members put all their faith into the guild and worked tirelessly to save that much.

Song Daechul placed a hand on his aching forehead and leaned his head back on his chair.

“Perhaps once more…” Chairman Song couldn’t finish what he wanted to say. He remembered the video of the Jeju dungeon raid again. Scrambling. Stumbling. Awkward. Any of those words perfectly described what he saw. That was how much of a mess it was.

He just couldn’t bring himself to suggest that Song Haechang should try once more.

“Was talent always this important?” A deva’s abilities were pretty damn visible to the naked eye. You could see how strong and how fast they were. The more points added to stats made a deva that much stronger and much faster, allowing them to attack better.

Anyone could become stronger and faster due to stat points, and people believed that there was no use for talent anymore.

There were items and skills to compensate for any fallback. It became the norm.

“Obviously that’s not true. All thanks to my own grandson.” It didn’t matter if the conditions were the same; it mattered how they were used. There were those who knew what they were doing and those who had no clue at all. Unfortunately, his only grandson was the latter type.

“Tell him to remove the skill.” Song Daechul made his decision after contemplating for thirty minutes. There was no hope. He knew that pushing the boy further would only wreck the boy more.

Even hedgehogs love their babies. He still had to accept it, no matter how badly he thought about the whole situation. This was the decision he made as the boy’s grandfather and as the guild’s master.

“Take away all of the boy’s items and privileges. He is to start from the very bottom if he wants to come back to the top. Have him work the fields eight hours a day like the mortals and have him hunt only on his own time. If he can’t come back up, then he will stay down there. This is the most I can do as his grandfather and as his guild master.”

This was probably not enough compensation for wasting the guild’s precious 2.4 billion golden rings that the guild members had poured blood, sweat, and tears into saving.

Someone squandered away the Sunbin Guild’s investment in its future, so someone had to take responsibility for it.

“Yes, father. I understand.” Even though this is his son they were talking about, Song Myungsoo accepted it. He knew the value of the 2.4 billion.

After the whole fiasco with Song Haechang, the Sunbin Guild began testing devas to find out what the best role for them was. The guild also trained the devas so that they knew it wasn’t just about hunting monsters; it was about making one better at fighting and better at working with teams.

It was thanks to Song Haechang that the guild learned that it wasn’t just about stats, skills and items. They amounted to about 99% of a deva’s true strength, but it was the remaining 1% that mattered.

Once the Sunbin Guild set up its role tester and training program, the guild became much stronger than before. It wasn’t long until other guilds adopted the same system.

It was ironic that it was thanks to Song Haechang that devas growth process took a huge leap forward in a safer and better direction.

Back before Lee Jiwon jumped into the Sea of Reset, Song Haechang’s role in the Sunbin Guild was as solid as his sister’s. He hadn’t learned the Unrivaled skill right away. He had used the guild’s unanimous support to quickly level up and was level 700 when he learned about the skill.

It wasn’t worth learning the Unrivaled skill at level 700 versus level 500. The stat bonuses were more valuable at level 500. Using the Sea of Reset to get back up to level 500 just to learn the skill also wasn’t wise, as there only 114 devas could learn the skill. But not having the Unrivaled skill didn’t mean he was weak.

The only reason people believed Unrivaled was a good skill was that it made great tanks!

Tanks with the Unrivaled skill were much better at taking damage from other devas and boss monsters than normal tanks. The skill was even more required in high level boss raids, as the boss monster had more skills to use, making their debuff abilities just about useless.

Skills came in use more in fights against other devas than in boss fights. For example, ice magic damage had a passive that slowed movement and attack speed, lowered ATT and DEF, and lowered VIT. This was all part of debuffing.

There was nothing else much to say about deities. There was a 50% decrease in damage received. You needed an Unrivaled to soak up damage from deities if you wanted to win a fight against them.

If you took all of these reasons into account, you would notice that most Unrivaleds were tanks.

For devas that wanted to be damage dealers, it was wiser for them to invest their 20 skill points in other skills than to spend them all on the Unrivaled skill.

There were a few damage dealers that learned the Unrivaled skill, but compared to other dealers that used their skill points elsewhere, their abilities were the same, if not lower than normal devas.

Compensating for the loss of skill points with defensive abilities really made it better to go up against other devas, boss monsters, and even deities. That was why devas that learned the Unrivaled skill made the best tanks.

The Song Haechang from the past had fine-tuned his abilities as an Ice Mage. He preferred attacking from the distance rather than fighting up close and personal.

He was more brains than brawn. Rather than having to consistently react, he preferred to plan out his moves and attacks to cause the most confusion possible on his opponents. That was who Song Haechang used to be.

He was so adept in ice magic that he could freeze a horde of monsters in an instant. That was the power of Song Haechang!

But with Lee Jiwon’s newfound connection to the Sunbin Guild, Song Haechang’s future had changed drastically.

The Song Haechang who had the full support of his guild and had walked with his head held high was no more.

He was now full of inferiority, like a boil on the verge of bursting.

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