Chapter 48: Chapter 47: Song Haechang, Part II (2/2)
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.
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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.
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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.