Debuff Master

“Fuck!”

The Head Blacksmith of the Autonika Workshop, Boothroyd, received a call in the middle of the night from the Southern Great Jungle while he was still sleeping, and he immediately took an airship to the Great Jungle.

“Those imbeciles! How could they cause this huge mess?!” Boothroyd raged.

Siegfried van Proa was the king of the new rising power on the continent, the Proatine Kingdom. He was considered the VVIP of not only the Autonika Workshop but also the Bavarian Workshop and Mercedes Workshop.

Moreover, he was the first person on the entire continent to achieve the "Triple Crown."

Siegfried had even gone around the continent solving all sorts of big issues, and he had also saved Emperor Stuttgart as well as a host of other rulers from danger in the recent incident at the World Peace Conference.

It wasn't the case for the Adventurers, but Siegfried’s reputation among the upper echelon of NPCs had already transcended the reputation of most rulers of powerful kingdoms.

The Proatine Kingdom had forged blood alliances with numerous nations. However, the recent news about how one of the Five Star Heavens—the Grappling Master—Leonid, who had been missing for the past fifteen years, had suddenly appeared and declared the Lambda Kingdom as a blood ally of the Proatine Kingdom shocked everyone.

As if that was not enough, there were rumors that Siegfried van Proa’s master had killed an ancient dragon in a single punch. There were also rumors going around that his said master was actually a godly being who had descended upon the continent.

Considering those things, Autonika Workshop had actually dared to mess with Siegfried van Proa?

“AAAAAAAH!” Boothroyd screamed and pulled his hair while squirming in agony.

The workshop’s reputation wasn't important right now. The bigger issue was that they were about to get on the bad side of Siegfried van Proa, who was arguably a rising star on the continent.

It was clear as day what was going to happen if Siegfried van Proa decided to cut ties with the Autonika Workshop and forge a stronger bond with the Bavarian Workshop.

Things could blow out of proportion; the Proatine Kingdom could cut ties with the Autonika Workshop as well.

Boothroyd staggered over to his secretary and commanded, “This instant... I want you to relay my command that none of our branches are to do business with the United Guild. I also want you to announce that we will respond with force if they dare take any action against King Siegfried van Proa.

"Our workshop will face catastrophic consequences if they make King Siegfried suffer even more loses!”

“Y-Yes, sir!” the secretary replied and relayed the command to every single Autonika Workshop branch on the continent.

“Ah, also,” Boothroyd said and added, “Declare a manhunt of the Adventurer, Descartes, for spoiling our workshop’s reputation. Make sure to inform every single kingdom we have relations with regarding the matter. We cannot destroy the entire United Guild, but we have to destroy that bastard no matter what.

"That is the only way we can placate King Siegfried’s anger...”

“Yes, sir!”

Thus, the Ranker, Descartes, unknowingly ended up becoming the enemy of the Autonika Workshop and would probably be forced to quit the game. Of course, he would only find out his predicament thirty-six hours later.

***

Boothroyd rushed over to meet Siegfried the moment he landed in the Southern Great Jungle.

“...!”

However, the first person he met was not Siegfried but the Head Blacksmith of the Bavarian Workshop, Quandt.

“Well, well, if it isn’t the little brat, Boothroyd.”

“Old man Quandt...”

“Where are you rushing to at this hour? Did you do something wrong by any chance?”

“Please mind your words.”

“My words? What about them? Do they scare you? Haha! I guess they do! After all, you wouldn’t pull all those stunts if you weren’t scared of our workshop! Keke! Well, it’s not that I don’t understand you. A third-rate workshop like you has to pull all sorts of stunts just to catch up to us!”

“Who said I pulled any stunts, you old man?!”

“Keke! They say a criminal will definitely visit the crime scene again! I guess that’s not wrong at all!”

“You damned old man...!”

“Hurry on now~ The devil is waiting for you~ Kekeke!” Quandt sneered before walking back to his workshop.

“That sleazy old man dares to...!” Boothroyd gnashed his teeth in anger, but that was it. He would have grabbed Quandt’s collar by now or something, but placating Siegfried was far more important right now.

“Just wait and see...” Boothroyd muttered under his breath while glaring at Quandt’s back. Unfortunately, he was clueless about what Quandt meant by “The devil is waiting for you."

He had no idea what was waiting for him.

***

“King Siegfried!”

“Oh? You are here? Long time no see.”

Siegfried was leisurely sipping on the tea that Lancepot had prepared for him.

“I, the Head Blacksmith of the Autonika Workshop, Boothroyd, greet His Majesty, King Siegfried van Proa!”

“I did not expect you to come at this hour, to be honest.”

“Our workshop has caused irrevocable damage to Your Majesty, and I, as the Head Blacksmith, could not sleep soundly after hearing about it!”

“Come on~ Stop with your lies; I’m going to end up believing you~”

“I am telling the truth, Your Majesty.”

“Not gonna believe you~”

“Please believe me, King Siegfried,” Boothroyd pleaded in a very sincere and serious voice.

‘Who’s going to sleep soundly after picking a fight with someone like you?’ Boothroyd thought.

Meanwhile, Siegfried was starting to get excited at the thought of getting something for free. ‘Hohoho! I wonder what he’s going to give me!’

“I heard something disturbing happened to Your Majesty recently.”

“Oh? The rumors have already reached that far?”

It was then.

‘You already know it! You’re the reason behind it!’ Boothroyd raged inwardly, and his blood pressure shot up so high that he almost suffered a stroke.

When did Siegfried van Proa become so shameless? Boothroyd was certain that Siegfried could become a politician judging from how brazen and shameless he was at the moment.

‘He’s strong, but more than that. He's so smart that it's scary.’ Boothroyd was certain that Siegfried was simply feigning ignorance and that he was actually a cunning fellow inside.

“Your Majesty.”

“Yes?”

“Our workshop feels heavily responsible for this incident.”

“Oh! I like the words that you've chosen!” Siegfried praised. Then, he added, “I would have given you an earful if you said something like this was an unfortunate mistake or something like that.

"You see, I hate it when people try to gloss it over as an unfortunate mistake. I mean, it kind of sounds like you’re not really sorry and you’re just saying for the sake of saying sorry, right? Did I make sense?”

“Gasp!”

“Still, I’m happy that you feel responsible for this.”

“T-Thank you, Your Majesty,” Boothroyd forced himself to utter those words. Then, he started his plan to placate Siegfried.

“Your Majesty.”

“Yes?”

“As I have said just now, our workshop is aware of our responsibility in the recent incident, and we feel that it is only right for us to compensate Your Majesty for the trouble that we've caused.”

“Really?” Siegfried asked with a huge smile after hearing the word compensate.

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

“So what kind of compensation are we talking about?”

“It is something that Your Majesty will certainly be satisfied with.”

“Oh? Did you just say I will be satisfied by it?”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

“I will certainly be satisfied?”

“Y-Yes...”

“Sounds good!”

“Huh...?”

“I didn’t expect anything less from the Autonika Workshop! I mean, it doesn’t make sense that the classy Autonika Workshop would hire an Adventurer to ambush me just so you could obtain the patent for the new material, right?

"Hahaha! It’s not like you don’t know your reputation is going to hit rock bottom if you do that!”

“...”

“So... What kind of compensation are we talking about?” Siegfried asked while leering like a hungry viper at Boothroyd.

‘W-What?! His eyes are flashing like gold!’ Boothroyd was shocked.

Siegfried’s eyes had transformed, becoming like gold coins instead of the eyes of a human being.

However, Boothroyd had simply misunderstood as Siegfried’s eyes were as clear as an innocent young boy’s eyes.

***

Right after the negotiations...

“Haha! The Autonika Workshop sure is different!” Siegfried exclaimed while shaking Boothroyd’s hand. “I’m happy that this incident was the doing of an Adventurer, and the Autonika Workshop is unrelated to it! I hereby guarantee this under my name!”

“I thank Your Majesty for being wise and pursuing the truth of the matter. You are indeed a wise king,” Boothroyd said, albeit a bit forced.

The agreement they signed just now was so one-sided that he felt his eyes were going blind from anger just reading through it, and he had to gnash his teeth just to sign the paper.

‘Today. I've met the devil...’ Boothroyd finally understood what Quandt meant when he said, “The devil is waiting for you."

“Yawn~ It’s getting late, so I’ll be heading off first. Today was a very tiring day.”

“I-I wish you a pleasant evening...”

“You too~”

Siegfried left the Autonika Workshop, leaving Boothroyd all alone.

Left all alone, Boothroyd trembled in anger.

“From today onwards... T-That Descartes or Fuckartes...! Whatever the fuck his name is! I want him dead every forty-nine hours... Kill him again and again...! Use whatever power or influence our workshop has to hunt him down...! Make sure he will never step foot on the continent ever again! Do you understand?!” Boothroyd roared.

***

The next morning, Siegfried descended onto the continent around eleven in the morning, which was two hours later than usual. His day yesterday was simply too tiring that he ended up sleeping in. Well, he was tired, but he did make a killing, but that was not important right now.

“Kyu! You’re back!”

“Good morning!”

“Good morning! What are we doing today? Kyuuu!”

“We’re going to start this lovely day by collecting gold!”

“Kyuuu!”

Siegfried headed straight to his vending machine.

“Yahoo! It’s sold out again!” Siegfried exclaimed after seeing that the vending machine was sold out. Then, he withdrew all of the money, and a stream of gold coins gushed out from the vending machine into his Inventory. Afterward, he refilled the vending machine with more items to sell.

“Siegfried-nim! You’re a bit late today!” Gosran said as she suddenly appeared beside him.

“Ah, I was tired yesterday,” Siegfried replied.

“Well, I’m sure you were tired. But did you finish whatever you had to do last night?”

“Hmm... Let’s just say I had to drive someone to a corner?” Siegfried replied with a mischievous grin.

“Huh?”

“I didn’t want to corner him that badly, but I had no other choice. I mean, I have to prioritize my own safety first, and it’s not like he’s innocent, right?” Siegfried explained. Then, he thought, ‘Descartes will have to quit the game since the Autonika Workshop is willing to go this far. The United Guild won’t dare to touch me because of the Autonika Workshop.’

The reason Siegfried had decided to pressure the Autonika Workshop and extort a lot of money from them was to force the workshop to keep the United Guild in check for him.

“Anyway, I’m on my way to collect my quest reward. Do you want to tag along? I think you have to be there.”

“Sure.”

They arrived at the mobile smithy of the Bavarian Workshop.

“Good morning! Hohoho!” Quandt greeted them with a cheerful voice. He looked extremely haggard from studying the Green Otherworldly Essence all night, but he looked extremely happy, too.

The fact that they were going to obtain the patent for the new material on top of Boothroyd getting put in his place was more than enough to make him brimming with joy and energy to pull an all-nighter.

“Are the results out?” Siegfried asked.

“Yes, it has,” Quandt replied.

“How is it?”

“Based on our study... We cannot mix this with the metals or minerals existing in our world.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“So what I mean is... It’s impossible to make an artifact with this material,” Quandt replied.

Kwachik!

A vein bulged on Siegfried’s forehead the moment he heard Quandt's words.

Updat𝓮d from freew𝒆bnov𝒆l.co(m)