The Commander’s Burden

“Address her properly as Valtael.”

“Have you completely forgotten that we’re in this mess because that oh-so-great Valtael ran away and distracted Valta?”

“That’s right! Because of that ungrateful woman, our brothers are now poisoned…!”

“You’d better watch your mouth if you don’t want to die, huh?”

Bang!
The atmosphere in the conference hall became hostile, led by Tegen, who had finally slammed the table and stood up, his face red and blue, and the black manes sitting opposite him.

“Hey! For now, how about we find the antidote first?”

I quickly intervened, feeling a sense of déjà vu.

“The longer the poison stays, the worse the condition gets…”

“Why do you keep interrupting? Those who are not Varg should not speak in a military council!”

I shrank back again at the sharp shout.
Karvan had given me the opportunity to attend the meeting, but he had not said I could give my opinion.

“I’m sorry. I just wanted to be of help too.”

“…Well, there’s no need to be so harsh. I didn’t know about the Igra information either.”

Afraid that I would make a fool of myself again if I stepped forward like before, I meekly apologized and retreated, and perhaps because I looked pitiful, a few of the Maha who were watching started to take my side.

“He’s not wrong. We need to find the antidote as soon as possible, this is no time for us to be fighting amongst ourselves.”

“That’s right. Isn’t she the Valtael, one way or another?”

“No matter how much she is the Valtael, she doesn’t have the right…”

“She has it more than anyone.”

At the firm words of the man who had just entered the conference hall, the noisy hall became quiet.

It was Mashak.
With his long brown hair tied back and wearing a white coat, he stood out.

“Valta has granted the command of this operation to the Valtael.”

Mashak, who had crossed the quiet conference hall, stood next to me and opened his mouth.
A murmur spread from all sides, as if they had been frozen and then thawed.

“…What? Why such an absurd…!”

“You’d better watch your mouth. Have you forgotten how insubordination is dealt with in a military council.”

At his sharp words, a cold water was thrown on the atmosphere again, but dissatisfied gazes still landed on me.

“If you have any complaints, please tell me. All statements will be recorded and delivered directly to Valta.”

Only then did the flinching Maha sit down one by one.

“The Valtael is right. The poison from the bite will worsen with time, so finding the antidote as soon as possible is the priority. Useless armchair theorizing will not help at all.”

After finishing his words, Mashak looked back at me.
His cold eyes were now filled with concern, as if nothing had happened.
As I smiled and nodded to reassure him that I was fine, he also smiled back.

“…Hey, Mashak, haven’t you heard the rumor?”

One of the Maha, who was glaring back and forth at us, intervened.
His sneering gaze was evident.

“I do not pay attention to trivial rumors.”

“You should pay attention. How did your family die.”

The man who had suddenly intervened glanced at me and then said with emphasis.

“They were torn to pieces by a Destroyer.”

I froze on the spot.
Putting aside the fact that they had noticed that I was a Destroyer.

“Doesn’t Mashak have a family?”
“…He did. They died a long time ago.”

I remembered Mashak, who was looking at the penlight I had gifted him with a complicated expression.
I had thought he had made that expression simply because it was an Awakener’s item, but I had no idea.

“And yet you’re siding with a Destroyer, that’s a crazy thing to do. Isn’t it? Your family in heaven would be crying.”

“Unless he’s a gutless bastard…”

“How dare you speak so vulgarly? Show respect in front of the Valtael.”

But Mashak’s gaze was calm.
He just pointed out their words with a stiff voice.
I, who was standing at a loss a step away from him, could only open and close my mouth and finally speak.

“Uh, Mashak…”

“It’s all in the past. Just because you were injured by a tree, you can’t hate the entire forest, can you?”

As our eyes met, Mashak smiled.
His brown eyes, which resembled a tree, curved gently.

“Shinbi-nim, you just have to, remain as our Valtael as you are now.”

A polite yet complicated smile.
It was the same face he had made when I had asked him to call me ‘Shinbi’ instead of ‘Valtael.’

“As I said, Valta has handed over the command of this operation to Shinbi-nim.”

“……”

“May I ask for your help.”

I nodded my head without a word and began to rummage through the monster encyclopedia.

I had to find the antidote as soon as possible.
Because I couldn’t let him lose his family again.

[Igra: Uses ranged weapons based on its excellent eyesight. Carries multiple crossbows.]

The Igra bastards had poisoned the well.
It was the easiest and fastest way to weaken the enemy’s strength, but it was not a method that was readily used.
Because even innocent civilians would suffer great damage.

It was like an unspoken rule, just like not killing low-level newbie users even in a PK-enabled field in-game.

But, those bastards had broken that unwritten rule.

‘The opponent has jumped into the mud first and is beckoning me to come and fight, so how can my body not get dirty?’
‘To think they would use a foul play in front of me, who ended up in this state for using a skill bug.’

I decided to gladly respond.
To this dogfight.

“…Let’s see how you like a taste of a skill bug.”

In this game, which was full of bugs to the point of being called ‘Bugsys Chronicle,’ the skill bugs of the Varg were unimaginably diverse and original.
Among them, the most famous was the bug that chewed up projectiles.

[Welcome to the Legacyth Chronicle Social Integrated Community.]

[HOT! This post is overheating.]

[Title] That f*cking Varg projectile bug is still here
Content: Because of their passive, if three or more of them are together, they chew up all the projectiles. When are they going to fix this?

[Comments (1,535)]
▷Ganebdaritwigim: Just take a melee character with you
▷Sirin-chan-daisuki: Yare yare, you little punk, you still don’t know this game. Are you expecting it to be fixed?
▷Bandeut-hannyubi: Then what should I use to hunt Varg??
└Gyohoe-neun-yeong-eoro: Casting magic.
└Mahyeol-nyangkkun: If you’re not a gamer, just leave; how do you hunt Varg with magic? They’re so fast that you get hit while casting; it has to be a melee character. If you’re a tank like a Berserker or a Plunderer, just steal a close-range skill and go.
└Bandeut-hannyubi: I’m a sniper, so I can’t learn magic and I only have bow skillsㅠㅠㅠ
└Mugigomanjang: If you’re a bow character, all your skills will be chewed up, so you can’t really hunt them. Just ask for help.
└Gwangjeonsaneun-gwang-gwang-ul-eoyo: Where are you located? If you tell me, I’ll hunt them for you.

Among the Varg’s passive skills, <Pack Hunt> reduces damage when accompanied by a mount and has a chance to nullify projectile attacks.

But this mechanism had somehow gone wrong, and a bug had occurred where if three or more Varg were together, they would chew up all the projectile skills.

I remembered this bug clearly.

[Baekbal-imyeon-chungbunhae (Marksman): Shinbi-nim, have you by any chance done the Varg hunting quest?]
[Baekbal-imyeon-chungbunhae (Marksman): If you’re not busy, please save a sniper, I’m going to die because of a bug (tears)]

Because a guild member who only played a bow character had asked for help with a quest, and while helping him, I had encountered the Varg’s skill bug for the first time.

-Shinbi-nim, aren’t you going to kill that one? It has a debuff.
-I’ll kill it later if it follows me.

As the saying goes, life is a wheel of fortune.
At that time, I had coincidentally obtained a broken skill and was in a good mood, so I had even let that guy go as a gesture of goodwill, but to think that now I had to cooperate with those monsters and fight.

‘Life is so interesting.’
I chuckled hollowly and then shook my head.

“Listen carefully. If three of you stick together, you won’t be hit even if the Igra shoots an arrow.”

I even drew a picture with the chalk that Mashak had handed me and started to explain.
It felt very strange to be lecturing the very people who were the subject of the skill bug on the mechanism of using it.

“Three of you will surround and protect one sniper and approach the light tower, and then shoot and break the light with a bow.”

“We’re already short on combat personnel, and you’re telling three of us to just hold hands and play?”

A few of the group who were glaring at me with their arms crossed jeered as if they had been waiting.

“Is this the best strategy that the great Valtael could come up with? To all die holding hands. It’s f*cking useless.”

“Can’t you watch your disrespectful words? This…”

“No! I’ll just show you. Let’s go to the plaza.”

At the atmosphere that was about to become hostile again, I decided to show them a demonstration directly without saying any more.

“Now, watch carefully.”

I took the Varg to the plaza and made three of them hold hands, and then I picked up a small stone from the ground and threw it at them.

“……!”

The stone, which was flying in a parabola, bounced off in mid-air and fell to the ground with a thud.
As if there was an invisible tent around them.

“Wh-what? Udura! What did you do? Did you use some kind of magic?”

“I didn’t do anything. I was just holding hands.”

A large commotion arose at that sight.
Their eyes widened, and they started to experiment in pairs of three, and thankfully, they all succeeded.
I had been worried about what to do if it didn’t work, but it was all for nothing.

‘…Of course.’
‘This f*cked up game couldn’t possibly have fixed a bug.’

“O-ooh! What, it really works?”

“Valtael! How did you know such a secret plan?!”

“It was a method used to counter the Destroyers a long time ago.”

Just as the hope that there might be a chance of winning was about to spread, a sneering voice intervened.

“I heard it was a primitive method that the old Varg used to survive against the ruffian-like Destroyers, so I’m quite curious how an outsider would know that.”