Vol 7 Chapter 3 (2/2)
Even dinkuron lost half of his health bar to this cruel attack
But Silver Sword held the line
Kannagi had the resuscitation spell 'Soul Call Prayer', which teleported dead co them A convenient spell which extracted allies to a safe distance in order to heal them Recovery was supported by the Carbuncle conjured by a Suic-attack classes had health recovery spells too They ht be weaker than their healer class counterpart, but it helped to relieve the burden of the healing specialists
The healers other than the Kannagi prioritized healing the wounded dinkuron did not back down as he went head to head against Ruseato
The powerful strike that swept one round was probably the special attack of the raid boss
The members of Silver Sould etch this blow into their memory The Summoner beside Willia time The sound reached the ears of all their allies
Without exception, all special attacks of raid bosses had conditions
The main condition was their recast time Powerful attacks would not be launched in rapid succession Each skill had its own cool down tiht be 10 seconds or 30 seconds, but it definitely existed
As planned, the Sue the cool down ti duties and kept his dae per second up
When Elder Tales was still a game, the time was tracked by a 3rd party software or just by a physical stopwatch Every move of the raid boss was recorded for reference and analyzed by the e, attribute, area, rate, animation, penetration, critical chance, all these were taken note of
The challengers would also share their information on the cloud servers and discuss it on the foruies
”18, 19, 20, 21”
The hoarse but steady count of the male Summoner mixed with the noise of steel on steel, clashes of the sword and the reverberating sound of thunder and fire
All the members focused on the count and the enemy before them
Silver Sword continued to challenge raids in this world sed by chaos using primitive and aard tactics
The strong guild of the past had fallen on hard times
Covered in dirt and forced to the edge, they concentrated on the count and their will for victory
When the count hit 26, '7th of the garden' Ruseato's colossal halberd rose The horrible strike caain
But William's comrades were fearless
The assassins and Swashbucklers leapt into the air
The Bards and Druids pulled away like a spring
Clerics buffed the defense of the tanks
They handled the second strike much better
The inco time was over, there were no casualties
The hit points of many players fell drastically, but they were on theteam
They h the 1st phase, they could handle the attack of the enemy
William sneered with a violent look
No The raid boss covered with blade-like armor definitely had more attacks up his sleeves And he had not even shi+fted into alternate modes yet
(But things aren't too bad,) Williaht as he shot his arrows
Before William realized, the words had escaped from his throat and he roared, ”Up the DPS! We can't win this if we hold back, weaken him!”
Huge amounts of arrows flew out
Swords clashed, threatening to dissolve the for spells danced and surrounded Ruseato
William understood All boss monsters had an incredible ah to turn players off For a first class raiding guild like Silver Sword, the level 94 Guardian dinkuron had base hit points of 18,000 The raid boss had one or ten thousand times that amount of health
If you viewed the hit points of '7th of the garden' Ruseato in the forrinding his health down It was hard to even see the da up all this e was the only way to take him down
”Look out below you!”
The shrill voice came from the bandit Federico
'7th of the garden' Ruseato suddenly slowed his movements and a blackmovement covered the entire floor of the arena in a hurry
”It deals dae, attribute is poison! It hinders action, correction, hinders movement! Attack speed and power are diminished!”
dinkuron reported his findings At his feet was the black ooze eak flickering lightning as it entangled dinkuron's metal boots
William hesitated for a moment
It caused daht
The da sparks to fly, but eak as it didn't break through Melee members eaker defense than dinkuron did not suffer e was low
The danificant and hindered led, '7th of the garden' Ruseato started to move with heavy steps
dinkuron used Anchor Howl to stop him, but the effect was nullified The armor of Ruseato had a new nullify skills effect
Wide area e
When William realized its intent, he roared
”Mass buff defense! Mass healing!”
This roar was like pressing a button, the team reacted on command
Translucent hee light of reactive heal, all of that was bloith one stroke The arden' Ruseato was like a weapon itself The toweringclose to the ground, h the members of Silver Sword
But despite that
More than half of the group survived
The fearless sound of counting continued, ignoring the pain
”Healers of the 1st hold down the front line! 2nd party retreat to recuperate! 3rd and 4th lower output to 70, prioritize resuscitation!”
William smiled, unable to hold back his joy
He could s from his nose
The taste of iron in the blood that was the raid William was after
The ene, beyond his expectations
But William and his creere still alive
The battle was just beginning
4
Des He recovered his health slowly through his passive skill Resilience
The fight had fallen into a stalemate
He grit his teeth as though he wanted to shatter thelared at the enemy
Facing the '7th of the garden' Ruseato in dull purple ar hiht was going well TheDemiqas struck at Ruseato's sturdy ar deep marks on the armor
These scars were like branches of a tree, covering Ruseato's whole body Suddenly, he started to shed, breaking out of his old shell like a hardboiled egg
A Ruseato as white as a hospital's ceiling eed from within
The ared with the shadow at his feet, for into shadoarriors These black, slender and featureless iant battle scythes They seemed 2 dimensional like pieces of paper because of their dark appearance
Deed white Ruseato's beam
A weak casual attack unlike the fierce strike from before
De his hit points
Silver Sword rabbed this chance to move in and attack in waves, but were intercepted by the shadoarriors Their range and attack poere much weaker when compared with Ruseato's, but they ht now
The group dodged Ruseato's careless attacks while destroying the shadoarriors
Even the main tank dinkuron was unable to taunt this nuet along with, they would need 5 tanks to aggravate the eneroup
The shadoarriors pushed forward like bugs attracted by the sweet scent of honey
Demiqas locked on to these monsters with Wyvern Kick
De kick allowing hi this skill, he could charge into the midst of the enemy in one move This was not advisable in nore the attacks of a strong raid boss like Ruseato It also left the healers behind hierous situation But the shadows before him were raid e and unwieldy weapons were a piece of cake for Monks like Demiqas
De sound
De the air on a skateboard as he burst through the chest of a shadoarrior with his Tiger Echo Fist
The raid mobs attacked with their scythes in retaliation Demiqas parried away the strikes with a backhand, pulled his knee to his chest and launched a shadowless kick
The eneround
But with every shadoarrior that fell, Ruseato would absorb their darkness and recover a bit of health
They were going back to square one
The white Ruseato could heal itself
The catalyst was the shadoarriors, existing just to buy tih health after soain Its armor would then be dyed black and it would launch powerful attacks repeatedly
The group could endure the torrent of attacks if it were just Ruseato alone If the shadoarriors teamed up with black Ruseato, the tanks would fall under the shadoarriors' scythes after black Ruseato's powerful strikes
The health of the group was supplied by the healers Be it the protection barrier of Kannagi or the reactive heal of the Cleric, there was a limit to what they could do
Fighting '7th of the garden' Ruseato alone had already pushed them to the limit
They couldn't let thethem would restore the health of white Ruseato Before they knew it, there were twenty odd shadoarriors, and the raid had been pushed to the brink of failure
shi+roe was the one who broke the stalemate It irked DemiqasThe nued black Ruseato was equivalent to the number of shadoarriors
This discovery allowed Silver Sword to pull theether
Leaving the task of attacking to the powerful players, healers and supporting e output This way, they could limit the number of shadoarriors that would form to a dozen when Ruseato activated white mode
The coward shi+roe as directing froeance for Deandia were shattered by him If those 3 hadn't come to Susukino, Demiqas would have adapted to this world slowly
That werecat Swashbuckler could be forgiven That swordsman had waved his rapier in front of Demiqas But that coward didn't even look Demiqas in the eye the whole time
shi+roe acted as if he didn't remember Demiqas' name
Demiqas still remembered shi+roe's expression back in Susukino That ns of worry when he saw De, he could tell from this raid Then at least mock Demiqas a little, even a look of disdain would be fine too
But that Enchanter only wore the expression of 'don't trouble me'
Deer on the shadoarriors
He punched through a warrior with Lightning Straight
After dodging with Phantom Step, he used Aerial Rave to launch his foe into the air He attacked its flank with a Wyvern Kick, and followed up the air combo with another Wyvern Kick
That was the extent shi+roe cared about Demiqas
Demiqas would not rest unless he killed shi+roe, his fiery anger burned in his lungs He swore to tor born into this world
But noas not the time
It was regrettable, but his capability was lie that shi+roe was very strong Not just equipment, his skills were better than Demiqas' too
When Demiqas took part in this raid, he wanted to backstab shi+roe in the beginning The training substitute for this was theHe just wanted to uplift his spirit His body felt lighter than before Deh all the shadoarriors
Just when Deotten used to the pace of the raid, he noticed a sy around his wrist This unfae He realized things were different froh level because of the buffing spell of thatfaster and increasing the attack power
Just like what he was experiencing now
A shadoarrior drew near and raised its battle scythe high
There was still half a second of rigidity ti Wyvern Kick Demiqas should have taken the blow directly, but that didn't happen
He ht fail to notice sometimes, but shi+roe had cast spells to assist him ever since they entered the zone This spell seeic that used a shock wave to stun the ene norreat help if it could stun the raid mob for even a second One second was plenty for Dee with Monkey Step and counterattacking with a Dragon Tail Swing roundhouse kick
De all out to decimate the enemy ithin shi+roe's calculations
De out of formation and his roundhouse kick, all this valiant effort was done under the watchful eyes of shi+roe
This man did not have the power and skill of Demiqas
What he could do was tospells Such dependence on deception would not work on powerful foes
More importantly, shi+roe could preempt what Demiqas wanted to do and provide support without Deh Derown if he ed to understand to this extent
(I will kill you one day)
(I will do it before everyone)
(I will sret this and spend the rest of your life in tears)
(First, I will obtain phantasear in this raid)
(Grind my level, refine my techniques)
De out one enemy after another
His class Monk had short cool down time and had powerful attacks His attack power couldn't match that of weapon specialist classes, but his hit points and abnored to roaht of the raid boss, all the while dishi+ng out da his body to strike, kick, parry and attack with all the skills he had
The battle was progressing slowly
Even when the eneanize the team successfully with his fiery will Maintain the front lines with tanks and healers, keeping the ene out the full potential of this formation, they wouldn't be wiped out so easily If they could keep this up, fend off the shadoarriors and grind off Ruseato's health, they would be able to pull it off
But this would take a while with ment calls they had to make The decisions required calm and focus, and needed to be made fast with little room for error Raids were a combination of all these actions
Demiqas was heat
Demiqas was fire
Concentrating on dodging the attacks in front of hih and eli to shatter its armor with thunder-like punches
His mind slowly became empty as he immersed himself in the heat of battle Coht with Nyanta, Demiqas was able to focus on the battle without distraction
But he didn't notice the situation had changed until he heard the scream from behind
You couldn't blauard Even the veteran raid ates on the east and west side of the arena were fully open In the darkness beyond, the bearded frost giant hite pupils, '4th of the garden' Tarutauruga and the fiery serpent, '3rd of the garden' Ibra-Habura loomed
They entered the arena, bringing a ind of frost and fire with the on Ruseato The 4th party iped out in a blink of an eye, the splash da the other parties
De fro this ridiculous scene
This was too much
Deht now
He thought they should be taking them on one at a time
They had to take care of Ruseato's ht The balance could be destroyed by just adding one or two roup
They were just getting the hang of it, even though their chance of victory was akin to walking on thin ice
But now there were two arden' Ruseato
Demiqas knew the truth
They couldn't win this
The probley
There was an overwhel all their delicate preparation and hard work If they had to take on 3 raid bosses, they would need a 96 people Legion Raid army instead of a 24 people Full Raid force
He re from the depth of his ear that said this before
' This world is no longer a gaame has ended Your time has ended'
Just like Adventurers adjusting their strategy for the raids, the monsters could also abandon their position and ht
If De he would consider was such a strategy
Working together to destroy the Adventurers
This was common sense, and it had happened
In this arena with cruelty and despair frozen in, Demiqas could hear an inhuman shriek
A face the size of a billboard you saw in cineiant leaned in as if he were falling and slaroup With a splatter, a Summoner turned into a stain on the arena floor
De that calmed his mind
De the surprised shi+roe flying After 3 or 4 sou in iant's club
Look at how pitiful you are, coward Demiqas mocked shi+roe
Although his left leg was crushed because of this, it orth it since he got to see shi+roe's dumbfounded look
'See if you can killraid bosses,' Demiqas spat onto the floor
But both Demiqas and shi+roe were unable to escape froarden' Ibra-Habura Not just theu, William and Tetora It was the saer than Deh countless raids as if they were killing bugs
All theall sense of pain The 24 roup iped out
5
Krusty exited frooblin hut that s oblins
His lieutenant Takayahtheaded when they h
Compared to the hut piled with dirty hay and filth, even standing under the freezing winter sky was a hundred ties in temperature anyway
It was the same with Krusty
He relaxed his shoulders and left the goblin's lodging, there was nothing for him there
All the huts were all the saround, a pillar was erected and the roof and walls were rass There were several such pried in rows for each settlement This was one such hut in the Silver Rack Mountain There were countless settle about 300 goblins
Most of these settlements were like empty shells
Krusty's aroblins
The 70 balance were probably gathered at the Citadel of Seven Falls ruled by the goblin king
It had been a an
While Takayah the area, they would scout out the surrounding zones and verify the locations of the goblin settle to the intelligence they gathered, the ca slowly
In the beginning, the consensus of the Round Table was that raiding the Citadel of Seven Falls could be easily done But the goblins in Eastal had been reproducing and bolstering their nu to a colossal scale This was a crisis cohtmare for the People of the Land
On the other hand, these goblins were not a threat for the Adventurers of Akiba, at least for the level 90 players in battle guilds There was a raid quest that needed to be completed within the Citadel of Seven Falls, which Krusty was confident of finishi+ng in 2 days with a select group of Adventurers Takayareed with his assessment
The goal this ti
The mission was to ensure the safety of the People of the Land living in the north eastern region The root of the proble the area Even if they could take out the goblin king successfully, they would still fail if the leaderless goblins spilled out from Silver Rack Mountain
The staff officers of the command unit, Krusty and Takayah the region akin to a hunting trip Dozens of Adventurer groups were patrolling Silver Rack Mountain, doing reconnaissance and small scale battles
They were herding the this battle plan to chase all the goblins in the region into the Citadel of Seven Falls For the goblins, they weretheir forces to counterattack But for Takayaroup, this was just a part of the plan
Takayama headed into the valley with a ready water source by Krusty's orders
The otherthe area around the settleoblins left behind They were relaxed as this was just a routine check
Krusty and Takayae as they followed a trail they had found
This path was probably used by the goblins to retrieve water But the goblins were only 140cht, so it was hard for the 2 of theh
Aftertheir way to the river, they squinted their eyes because of a gust of wind The cool wind seemed to sweep away any air of doubt Takayama liked it, but Krusty seemed to be unmoved
Although she felt it when the Libra Festival ended, but Krusty seeht bite her handkerchief and worry about hirown man, he would probably feel annoyed if a woht
(No, it has nothing to do with being an adult or a child Boys are delicate no e)
Takayae
Takayauess what the things he orried about were An approxi, she chatted with him a bit
”Milord?”
”Hmm? What's the matter, officer Takayama?”
Krusty reacted slowly as he looked at Takayahtful eyes
”You seemed troubled recently What's on your mind?”
”Hmm”
Krusty hid his auntlets he norloves today The aruild reat There were plenty of people ere fooled by his appearance, but this made operations easy to run With this in mind, Takayama probed further
”Are you bored?”
Krusty gave Takayama a shi+fty look He considered it for a nified expression and s his arms in surrender
”That's it I'm bored”
”Please bear with it”
”I have been enduring it every day”
Takayahed
It was just a wild guess but she was right
Krusty had an intellectual look and took logical actions He had the capability to est battle guild in the Yamato server was a real result he could be proud of With 1700 uild was beyond the size of a small or medium enterprise in the real world
But Krusty was not as perfect as he looked
The young man who oversaw all sort of issues in the Round Table Council was mischievous and bored easily
This was only known to a few pioneer core anization was because 'I just want to see ill happen if I succeed in doing it' It was notIt was a talent nethich happened to be an iuild
Krusty did it on a whim one dayThis gaae nuame developers knew this and had made similar statements They included all sorts of systems for the players to find companions to play with But what if the players coea?
That hy DDD was founded
It was fine even if it were not a guild He used the guild as a template because it was convenient When Elder Tales was just a gah voice chat and an official website This systes and the syste manpower for raids were done the same way
Krusty was interested in delegating co 'each department plan their own activities to achieve results', and was intrigued by such self-sufficient groups Hence, even though the guild was very large, it remained flexible without bureaucratic red tape
This continued after the Catastrophe too With the formation of the Round Table Council, Krusty used the chance to push the departments to be more autono a self-sustaining guild, but his offhand approach uild as well
Simply said, he had too much free time
Takaya indeed Even though Krusty was talented, it was difficult to spend time with him because he was too capable His excess abilities caused unexpected troubles and chaos around him, for better or for worse
It was a pain to handle a bored Krusty
He was not a lawless criood than bad But the chaos he caused in the process gave headaches to Takayaht that he could restrain his 'boredo Raynesia, but she see lady
(Forcing this issue onto the princess is unreasonable anyway)
When she thought about it, she felt apologetic towards Raynesia
(I have to think of a topic,) she thought as she caught up with Krusty andering aimlessly by the river He bent down and meddled with some pebbles
”Found so?”
”Not really”
Krusty adjusted his glasses whicha pebble before his eyes This was probably the tip of a broken spear
The river er than the fists of a child in the depths of the water There was snow around the area, but thisplace for a BBQ in the summer
Krusty kicked so
”This place appears to be a training area”
”Training This area seems to be well tended”
Takayama replied
At a glance, she could see the signs of stones being e of the trees If she looked closer, she could find remnants of weapons between the rocks and trees This place had been used for quite a period of time
She had never thought that the goblins would conduct training, but this was normal if they wanted to start a war But even so, she didn't think this would help theoblins were much lower than the Adventurers
As Takayaht about it seriously for a ot it in an instant
The goblins were training their strategy and tactics
They had not considered this possibility before Just like Takayaroup plotted different approaches to raid the Citadel of Seven Falls, the goblins were also preparing for battle in different ways This world was not Elder Tales any this earlier
”Milord, let's head back and break the news to the others”
”We need to send scouts to search the surroundings for training grounds and their effects”
”That's right”
The two of them headed back towards the settlement after a short conversation They needed to el and Richou's scout party first Next would be heading back to headquarters and giving the necessary orders
It was already too late when Takayaently It lowed red hot
The recent perfore
It did not becoer instead, so she didn't send it for repairs But so battles, and heat up for no reason
Takayama looked confused as she drew out her weapon to inspect it This action was done autoht
But Takaya that she was certain the bones in her ar a dark red sphere enveloping Krusty who had snatched the weapon away from her
The weapon e everything into its twisted core
The bored DDD guild master was in the center of the sphere
Krusty pushed Takayama aith his other hand, but Takaya out desperately for Krusty She pushed her right hand into the twisted space
But with a sharp crack, Takayaht
Takayaht hand, her old friend Krusty, and the Scythe naone