Chapter 15

Offline meetups are always bound to be fun.

I talked with Pinkubelly, no, Hayaan, about what to do after reaching max level.

After today’s offline meetup, I can start enjoying max-level content tomorrow. So, I asked Hayaan what I should do.

First and foremost, it’s about gearing up with max-level equipment.

Right now, I’m wearing gear obtained from quests or basic gear bought from shops.

In Leore, item level is more important than character level. After reaching max level, the way to boost your stats is by increasing your item level.

So, the first thing to do in max-level content is dungeons. Dungeons!

You gather a party of four to run dungeons. The usual party composition is one tank, two DPS, and one healer.

The first dungeon to tackle at max level is called [Underground Cave].

Just hearing the name makes me think there will be monsters I won’t want to see.

Originally, I was scared of ghosts. I wouldn’t watch horror movies even if someone gave me free tickets.

I can handle gore, but jump scares are a no-go.

But after becoming Arang, I started disliking bugs too.

The Queen Spider was somewhat bearable since it had spider legs attached to a human body.

The problem is that the monsters in the Underground Cave dungeon are said to be spiders, rats, and big bugs.

Ugh… I already hate it.

“By the way, Hayaan unnie, you don’t look much different from your in-game avatar. Oh, your eye color is different.”

Hayaan, who looks like a saint in her Leore gear. I thought she was pretty when I first saw her.

The pretty Pinkubelly and the real-life Hayaan look exactly alike. The only differences are eye color and outfit.

Of course, wearing Leore outfits in real life is impossible.

[Ah, yeah. I was too lazy to customize, so I just started with the default.]

“Customizing is definitely a hassle.”

I usually use presets made by others or stick close to the default when playing games.

But in Leore, everything from my nickname to my appearance was already set when I woke up as Arang.

“I don’t look any different from my Leore avatar either.”

Wait a minute.

“No, actually, I don’t have limbs in real life, so there are a lot of differences between my avatar and real life.”

Definitely, since I didn’t have limbs before, about half of my avatar is different from reality.

[…]

Time flew by while talking about Leore.

Before I knew it, the bossam I ordered had arrived, and I got a message from downstairs.

“Hayaan unnie. Hayaan unnie.”

[Uh, yeah? What?]

“I have this hikikomori vibe, so I talk well in the virtual world but not so much in real life. So, don’t be too surprised.”

[Huh? Oh, okay.]

When Anna unnie came back and the bossam was ready on the table next to my bed, Anna unnie came over and took off my VR headset.

My vision went black, and when I opened my eyes, I saw Hayaan unnie in real life, not Pinkubelly on the screen.

Once again, my mind was trapped in the depths of the abyss.

But I could feel that I was getting better bit by bit.

I nodded and greeted Hayaan unnie.

Hayaan unnie was startled when she saw me. She was surprised by my appearance.

It’s a bit embarrassing to say it myself, but Arang’s appearance rivals that of child actors.

When I first came to my senses and saw Arang’s appearance, I was just as shocked as Hayaan unnie.

Anna unnie tidied up everything on my body and picked me up.

Now back to being a doll, I rested my head on Anna unnie’s chest and looked at the deliciously prepared bossam.

“Shall we eat now?”

Anna unnie spoke for me.

“Ah… yes, yes.”

I ate the bossam fed by Anna unnie.

True to being an older sister, she fed me exactly what I wanted, whenever I wanted.

Mmm~ The bossam is so delicious.

Bossam really needs shrimp sauce and kimchi.

While eating bossam, I thought, since I’m still a doll not used to emotions and can’t speak, why aren’t Anna unnie and Hayaan unnie talking?

Well, they just met, so suddenly acting close would be weird.

Hayaan unnie must be shy.

But is the bossam that good? Hayaan unnie has tears in her eyes. Did she accidentally bite into raw garlic?

“Arang, should I give you some makguksu too?”

“…Okay.”

The offline meetup was a success.

After enjoying the bossam, I went back into the VR headset, laughed, and talked about Leore until it ended.

Hayaan and I agreed to have another offline meetup, and she left the hospital room with Anna.

==

As soon as Ihayan left Arang’s hospital room, she slumped to the floor.

“Thank you for your hard work, Hayaan. Thank you for treating Arang so well.”

“Ah… I’m sorry. I tried not to show it in front of Arang…”

When Arang came out of the VR headset and hugged her sister Anna, I almost cried.

The lively eyes of Arang were nowhere to be seen.

The lifeless, dull eyes of Arang looked like those of a dead person.

Seeing Arang without limbs reminded me of her limbs in Leore.

I had a slight sense of where her limbs were cut off.

“No, Hayaan, you did really well. Thanks to you, Arang had a lot of fun. Thank you.”

“Does Arang… have to keep living like this…?”

“…Yes. We don’t know when the illness might relapse…”

“Ah…”

==

To prepare for the first [Underground Cave] dungeon, I first bought max-level gear from the shop.

After buying the cheapest basic max-level gear, I almost spent all the gold I had earned from quests and killing monsters. But it was nice to have everything.

Thanks to Pinkubelly, I saved a lot on potions, but now Snowball is rolling like this.

Since Pinkubelly had to go home and it would take a while to get back to Leore, I decided to try out the max-level Sword Master skills.

I entered the training ground.

Unlike the early village training ground, many people were using the training facility.

Some users looked at me curiously.

Hoho, that’s right. I’m the one who solo-cleared the Orc Chieftain, the Corrupted Judge, and the Queen Spider duo!

As I reached max level, I checked out the skills one by one.

First, the big ones: the passive skill [Vengeance] suits me the most.

[Vengeance]

When parrying is successful, the next attack’s final damage increases by 30% and is guaranteed to hit.

It might seem like a simple 30% damage increase, but ‘final’ is key.

In Leore, final damage is calculated after all other damage calculations and is multiplicative.

That’s why stacking ‘final’ damage increases is crucial.

Other classes usually don’t have ‘final’ damage increases in their skills and have to rely on gear, but Sword Masters are the only ones with final damage in their skills.

The problem is that the condition is a successful parry, which is extremely difficult, so few people use it effectively.

But who am I?

I’m the Sword Master who’s been killing field bosses with parries.

As Pinkubelly said, some Sword Masters deliberately parry with tanks to trigger this skill.

The reason is none other than this skill.

[Annihilation Strike]

Deals 1500% damage to the front.

Cast time: 3.0 seconds

Cooldown: 120 seconds

A simple yet brutally powerful skill. Despite the 120-second cooldown, it has a massive 1500% multiplier.

It’s the most important skill for Sword Masters and a must-hit. The base multiplier is so high that triggering [Vengeance] before using it can skyrocket your DPS.

The problem is that despite being a swordsman skill, it has a 3-second cast time.

In raids, 3 seconds is a very long time. In Leore, a VR game, getting stunned often interrupts attacks and skills.

But having to stand still for 3 seconds to cast a skill? Unless you fully understand the mechanics, mistakes are bound to happen.

Looking up strategy videos, there are two ways to use [Annihilation Strike].

First, use [Pentagon] to stack 5 [Chain Attack] speed buffs, then use [Annihilation Strike] to slightly reduce cast time.

Second, successfully parry to trigger [Vengeance], then use [Annihilation Strike].

But me…

In the training ground, I used [Pentagon] on a training dummy to stack 5 [Chain Attack] buffs, then quickly parried the dummy’s attack.

Bang bang!

As soon as I parried, my sword gleamed red.

In that state, I immediately used [Annihilation Strike].

The cast time is 3 seconds, but with 3% attack speed from 10 stacks, 5% base Sword Master attack speed, and an additional 15% attack speed buff from max level, my total attack speed was a whopping 50%, reducing my cast time to just.

2.0 seconds

A pure white light erupted from my sword as I swung it.

18135

Before reaching max level, my damage was in the hundreds, but now, nearly 20,000 damage floated above the dummy’s head.

Ugh…! This skill is insanely satisfying.

The problem is the 2-minute cooldown…

While playing around with skills in the training ground, Pinkubelly logged in.