“Is this… a ‘sword’?”
“With this, you too are now a warrior wielding a miniature sword. Well, a total newbie who just picked up a sword, haha!”
“Haha.”
Knight Roland, brushing off the Glesia Magician’s words, casually glanced at the sword at his waist.
Of course, it was just for a moment, and he soon hung the pouch he received from the magician on the opposite side of his waist.
‘War’s Hammer, huh.’
A 1v1 board game using miniatures, newly created by Kyle Byron.
The rules and victory conditions were passionately explained by this enthusiastic magician, complete with flying spit.
“So, the goal is to win the tournament?”
“Before winning, the first step is to get into the tower.”
“…You mean the Glesia Magic Tower?”
“Ah, no, it’s not that anymore—it’s the Duel Tower now! You play games with other participants in this territory, collect a certain number of stars, and then you can enter the tower. Only the first eight warriors to enter get to compete in the main event.”
Is it okay for a magician from Glesia to refer to her own magic tower as ‘that thing’?
Then again, considering she readily lent out miniatures that usually cost a fortune, it was clear she was deeply obsessed with this board game.
She even mentioned carrying extra miniatures around at all times, aside from her own.
“The most exciting part is that this game has an anti-rule.”
“Anti-rule?”
“The winner can take one of the loser’s miniatures. If you’re lucky, you might get your hands on a powerful and expensive special unit or special equipment miniature…!!”
‘Clearly, that’s why she joined.’
While making it to the main event or winning the tournament is one thing, there are probably quite a few participants who joined just for that anti-rule.
You might scoff, thinking, “How expensive can a board game miniature really be?”
…But here stands someone who once spent 10 billion gold on a single character card for a board game, albeit a different kind.
Still, it’s unlikely miniatures would reach 10 billion gold, but this is a board game created by *that* Kyle Byron. If War’s Hammer spreads across the continent, the prices of certain miniatures are bound to skyrocket.
‘They might even reach tens of millions of gold each.’
Even if they don’t reach the level of exclusive character cards only the winner can obtain.
At that point, it’s a worthwhile investment, and for Knight Roland, it’s also a way to quickly pay off his debts.
Unintentionally, Roland found himself fired up for this board game tournament.
Even though it’s his first time playing, there’s no entry fee, right? Even if he loses a borrowed miniature due to the anti-rule, he can always pay it back.
As Roland resolved to give it a try…
<Looks like it's about time.>
“……!!”
From the high reaches of the Glesia Magic Tower—no, the Duel Tower—two figures emerged.
Shisha Glesia, with her flowing blue hair and alluring figure, and…
Kyle Byron, standing behind her like a servant.
‘Wait, why are they like that…?’
From Roland’s perspective, who didn’t know the relationship between Shisha and Kyle, it was just baffling.
Shisha, seemingly unaware of Roland, who had hidden his aura, continued with a smile.
<Well, I'm sure everyone's tired of waiting, so let's skip the opening remarks.>
“It’s starting…!!”
“Finally!”
“Haha, I’ll prove I’m the strongest!”
“Declare the start of the duel, Chunsik!”
“Got it, duel start!!!”
*Boom!*
Shisha, who called Kyle Byron “Chunsik,” was clearly hyped up. Well, who wouldn’t be excited to watch a board game battle royale unfolding across the entire territory? It’s gotta be a spectacle.
And then, as Kyle Byron stepped forward at her words, raising his hand diagonally to declare the start of the tournament…
A firework shot off somewhere and exploded in the sky, causing chaos all around.
“The tournament has begun!”
“Move first! Find the weakest one!”
“You! We made eye contact! Wanna give it a shot!?”
“Let’s do it!”
The crowd gathered near the Duel Tower erupted into chaos, forming teams and either moving somewhere or starting board games with those they encountered.
In the blink of an eye, the area turned into a battlefield (?) while Knight Roland was left pondering what to do.
“Hey, rookie! Since I lent you the miniatures, wanna stick together?”
“………Well, I’d be grateful.”
“Haha! Watch and learn from this veteran’s skills!”
Rumor has it that Kyle Byron spread the War’s Hammer about a week ago, but can he really call himself a veteran with that?
For a moment, Roland doubted, but he quickly followed the magician anyway.
“What’s the plan?”
“There’s someone I need to find! I must get my revenge……!!”
Revenge?
Just as Roland was about to ask about that concerning word, someone blocked the magician and Roland.
“I knew you’d come here.”
“You!”
“I’ll crush you right here, right now.”
A mysterious man appeared in a somewhat bizarre pose… or rather, judging by his attire, he was a magician from the Agni Magic Tower.
The Agni Magic Tower exists in the northern monster mountain range, but I’ve heard they’ve had repeated exchanges with the Glesia Magic Tower. So, it’s no big deal for an Agni magician to be here.
And it was clear at a glance that he knew the Glesia magician who was with Roland.
At the same time, it was obvious that the “revenge” the magician mentioned was directed at this Agni magician. The Glesia magician’s gaze was anything but ordinary.
“I was planning to save our match for the finals… but finishing it here works too.”
“You talk too much. Are you even a board gamer?”
“Right, no need for words! Let’s begin!”
“That’s what I wanted!”
The Glesia magician and the Agni magician simultaneously pulled out game boards from their pouches.
Roland, who had heard about it but never actually seen War’s Hammer being played, stepped back to watch what they were doing.
Soon, the game boards the two board gamers pulled out began to unfold.
*Click, click!*
The slightly thick square-shaped game board unfolded in midair. To be precise, the unfolded board itself wasn’t that big.
But as frost began to seep from its edges…
It froze over, interlocking with the opponent’s game board to form a complete game board.
*Crackle!*
Even the ice that formed wasn’t rough but smooth, and despite being ice, it was colored and patterned so it no longer looked like ice.
‘Smart move.’
Instead of including that whole thing as part of the game board, they used ice to expand its size.
That’s…
You can create or destroy hills with ramen ice, changing the game board in real time.
Of course, it’s a high-difficulty ice magic, but for the magicians of Glesia Magic Tower and Shisha Glesia, it’s no big deal.
Naturally, this was only possible because it was Glesia Magic Tower… just like Abracadabra in Arkhé Magic Tower.
<Terrain has been determined as 'plains.'>
“Of all things, plains…”
“Ha! What bad luck!”
With the announcement that the terrain had been decided as plains—more accurately, with the recorded voice of Shisha—the various three-dimensional ice terrains transformed into a flat plain.
Once that happens, the miniatures would clash directly without any terrain features to use.
The Glesia Magician, looking slightly troubled, and the Agni Magician, already confident with a smug smile, soon took out their miniatures.
They arranged the miniatures, which took up most of their pouches, into formations on the game board.
‘Glesia’s side… a mix of humans and dragons?’
There are five races in War’s Hammer: humans, dwarves, elves, orcs, and dragons.
And among them, dragons are the most special race.
In a game where the maximum number of miniatures is 20, one dragon counts as four units. So, if you form a unit with only dragons, the maximum is five dragons.
Just like that over there.
“Still an ambiguous combination! You haven’t forgotten that mixing different races incurs a penalty, have you?”
“Even so, one dragon is manageable. Especially since this is a special unit… a ‘White Dragon.'”
“Right! As if you could have such a miniature…!!”
Unlike the Glesia Magician, the Agni Magician had unified his unit with a single race: dragons.
And not just any dragons—five of them were the special unit ‘White Dragon’ that the Glesia Magician had brought out.
The sight of five massive white dragons lined up in a row.
Even though they were just miniatures, they were so vivid and each in a different pose, exuding an overwhelming sense of intimidation.
“Duel!!”
“…Duel!”
Both magicians declared a duel simultaneously.
And thus, War’s Hammer began.
And then.
“Your annoying human special unit, the Black Magician…!! I’ll crush it with a breath attack! Rolling the dice! Dragon’s Breath gets a +4 modifier! The dice roll is… 4! That makes a total of 8!”
“Tch, with two Black Magicians together, I can use a defensive spell. That reduces your dice value by 3, but…!”
“Still, 5! Much higher than your dice value of 3! Take this! The explosive blast of destruction!”
“…Damn it.”
The Glesia Magician fought valiantly but couldn’t withstand the breath attacks of five White Dragons on the plains.
She managed to take down four of Agni’s dragons, but in the end, Agni had one dragon left, while Glesia only had two Black Magicians remaining.
If she had just endured this breath attack, she could have counterattacked and won.
But of course, since she didn’t hold out, it was all just a what-if. All that remained was the result of losing by a narrow margin.
“See? The power of dragons, the strongest race in War’s Hammer!”
“Humans are… strong too! I took down four of your dragons!”
“But you didn’t win. That’s the only result that matters. And now… you must follow the ‘rules.'”
As War’s Hammer concluded, the game board…
The ice melted in an instant and returned to their pouch.
But the miniature was still left out, not put back in the pouch.
The defeated Glesia Magician handed over the star to Agni the Magician.
Due to the anti-rule, she had to hand over one miniature.
“What I’ll take is, of course, the White Dragon!”
“Grandpa’s miniature…!!”
…Grandpa? Isn’t this a board game that’s only been around for a week?
“The White Dragon your grandpa carved… a legendary miniature that only six exist in the world.”
“I’ll take it back from you soon!”
“No, that won’t be necessary.”
“What?”
“It’s mine now.”
Agni the Magician stared at the White Dragon miniature with cold eyes.
Then, with a sly grin, he tightened his grip on the miniature.
Even using strength-enhancing magic.
“You, you! Don’t tell me!”
“In this world, the White Dragon… I only need the one I have!”
*Crunch!*
“You!!!”
“Hahahaha!!”
Agni the Magician, who had finally destroyed the White Dragon, burst into maniacal laughter.
The madness of believing only he should possess the White Dragon miniature. And the despair of Glesia the Magician as her grandpa’s miniature was shattered before her eyes.
To put it nicely, it was genuine passion… or to put it harshly, it was over-immersion. Knight Roland, who had been quietly observing, spoke up.
“Is that White Dragon miniature really that precious?”
“…It’s a miniature my grandpa made with Kyle Byron’s permission. Only six exist. It’s very precious to me…”
“Then just win it back.”
“W-win it back?”
“If you defeat that Agni Magician, you can take the White Dragon back through the anti-rule.”
“W-wait! Are you crazy? He’s strong! A beginner like me can’t beat him…!!”
Glesia the Magician frantically tried to stop Knight Roland.
But Roland had already taken out the game board from his pouch long ago.
‘Board games are serious business.’
After all, Knight Roland had bought the Bang character card for 1 billion gold.
And he felt just as much anger over the destruction of the miniature.
“You heard Glesia the Magician, right? Will you refuse a beginner’s challenge?”
“Are you kidding? I should be the one asking, how dare a mere beginner challenge me?”
“You never know until you try.”
“If you’re so eager to hand over the miniature to me!”
“Duel!!”
The two board gamers drew their swords, named Miniature.
And Knight Roland, the Grandmaster who had reached the pinnacle with his ‘sword,’ had no intention of losing.
