Chapter 43

[Update History Notice]

Hello, this is Legacy of Raid.

The regular maintenance on July 25th (Thursday) has been completed.

Below is the information on the updates after the maintenance on July 25th (Thursday).

Please refer to the provided information to ensure a smooth experience in Legacy of Raid.

[New Updates]

– New Content Update

– New Equipment

– New Items

– New System

– Revisions

– Event Announcement

– Balance Patch

– Bug Fixes

==

Our guild member, [Arang Baldukgae] Miaerang, had fun playing and then parted ways. As soon as I logged in, a notice popped up.

It seems like the final season update of the expansion pack, so naturally, there was a lot of update content.

Since it’s not a raid release but just the pre-raid quests, there’s no rush, so I decided to take my time going through the update details.

First, the new content is, of course, the new story and quests for the upcoming raid. I’ll skip this since I can jump right into it once I enter Leore.

The new equipment is likely new craftable gear and raid gear, but since I need to clear the raid first, it’s not immediately necessary.

The new items are essential for the new raid, like new buff items, but since I haven’t leveled up my crafting profession, I’ll skip this too.

The revisions don’t interest me much since I haven’t been in Leore for long.

The event announcements are about daily and weekly quests and raids within Leore, so just playing as usual will yield some nice rewards.

And the most important part of this update: the balance patch.

In RPGs, the scariest thing is the balance patch.

Balance patch.

It’s about adjusting the strengths and weaknesses of each class, buffing or nerfing them.

Even if you’re not usually interested in patches, the balance patch is something you can’t ignore.

This is my first balance patch since starting Leore, and with a pounding heart, I jumped straight to the balance patch section.

[Balance Patch]

I immediately went to my only max-level class, [Sword Master].

Currently, Sword Master is considered decent.

Its damage isn’t low, and it provides party synergy, slightly boosting the stats of the entire party, which significantly increases the party’s overall damage, making its employment rate quite high.

In this situation, I thought there wouldn’t be much to change in the balance patch.

But…

“Huh?”

The Sword Master section is surprisingly long.

First, the developer’s comment at the top.

==

[Recently, Sword Master adventurers have shown consistent growth and proficiency, resulting in outstanding damage indicators across various content.

The recent damage indicators for Sword Master are significantly higher compared to other classes.

However, the damage indicators for Sword Master currently show a much larger variance compared to other classes.

Therefore, we have adjusted Sword Master’s skills to mitigate the damage variance among Sword Master adventurers.]

==

Wait, is this balance patch because of me…?

Recently, before this update, I ran various content and posted my damage meters on the Leore log site.

Even without the final gear, I confidently took first place in most Sword Master logs.

Moreover, the gap between me and the second place was quite significant.

I was dealing damage almost on par with pure DPS classes.

Honestly, it was a bit strange for a synergy DPS to match pure DPS in damage.

I had been expecting a balance patch.

I was curious about how it would change.

==

[Sword Master]

[Chain Attack]

Swing your sword to attack the front. Each successful attack increases attack speed by 3% for 3 seconds. Can stack up to 10 times.

Deals 110% damage.

Swing your sword to attack the front. Each successful attack increases attack speed by 5% for 5 seconds. Can stack up to 5 times.

Deals 115% damage.

[We have restructured Chain Attack to make it easier to maintain, as many adventurers found it challenging, leading to significant damage variance.]

==

First, the maximum stacks for Chain Attack have been halved. Instead, the attack speed increase has been buffed by 2%.

Calculating the maximum stacks, it’s a 5% nerf, but the damage has been increased from 110% to 115%, so it’s not bad.

Basically, using the Sword Master skill [Pentagon] allows you to maintain the maximum stacks of Chain Attack, so it seems they made it easier to use Chain Attack.

Looking back, I was the only Sword Master who could maintain 10 stacks, but now it seems anyone can do it.

The problem was what came next.

==

[Vengeance]

When parrying, the next attack’s final damage increases by 30% and becomes a guaranteed hit.

[Vengeance] skill removed.

A new active skill, [Wish], has been added.

[Wish]

When used, the next attack’s final damage increases by 10% and becomes a guaranteed hit. (20 seconds)

[With the addition of many end-game contents, parrying has become more difficult, and the usage frequency of the Vengeance skill has decreased, becoming a skill used only by specific adventurers. Therefore, we have removed the Vengeance skill and added the Wish skill to ease the conditions.]

==

This… this is a painful nerf.

Other Sword Master users might be happy since the rarely used Vengeance skill is gone and replaced with an active skill, but for me, who constantly parries and uses Vengeance, it’s a significant nerf.

Overall, it’s a good patch for average or below-average Sword Master users.

They’ve completely eased the difficulty of maintaining Chain Attack, making it possible for anyone to maintain full stacks. Just use the skill [Pentagon] and you’re set.

Additionally, since Vengeance, which was hard to use due to the difficulty of parrying, has been removed and replaced with an active skill, it’s now usable whenever you want, which is good for users.

It’s like suddenly getting a 10% final damage increase skill.

But for me, it’s like my damage just dropped by 20%.

No, thinking about it, it’s even worse. The Sword Master’s ultimate skill, [Annihilation Strike], which stacks with various buffs and the 30% final damage increase from Vengeance, used to deal insane damage. Now, with a 20% nerf, the actual damage drop is much more significant.

Thinking about it makes me angry.

I really liked Sword Master.

The thrill of maintaining Chain Attack buffs while parrying and squeezing out damage was exquisite…

Hmm…

Should I switch to a class that got buffed this patch?

==

I’ve mostly gone through the patch notes, so I logged into Leore.

Has Miae arrived home and logged into Leore?

I immediately searched for [Arang Baldukgae] in the player search.

Ding!

[Arang Baldukgae] user not found.

“Huh…?”

What’s this?

Usually, if someone is logged out, it says “User is logged out,” not “User not found.”

Meaning, there’s no user with the nickname [Arang Baldukgae].

Wait, did she delete her character because she didn’t like meeting me…?

While I was thinking that,

[Arang Baldukgae] noticed I was online and came running to meet me.

[Munchkin Cat]

LV: 60

Arang Baedeokgae

Huh…? Did you like me touching your belly that much today…?

==

On the way back home after having fun with Arang.

Kwon Miae clenched and unclenched her right hand, recalling the feel of Arang’s belly she touched before parting ways.

It wasn’t sudden.

After playing board games for a long time and getting tired from chess, I moved Arang to the bed and talked with her. Arang brought it up first.

She asked if I was disappointed I couldn’t touch her feet. And if I was sad I couldn’t touch her hands.

Honestly, who could say, “Yes, I wanted to touch them!”

Not knowing Arang’s condition, I might have said things that could hurt her, and even her nickname could have been a wound, but Arang played with me sincerely and liked me without any issues.

Arang wasn’t much different in Leore and reality.

Of course, her appearance in reality was despairing, but her personality was exactly the same as in Leore.

Thanks to that, I didn’t pay attention to her appearance and had fun with her just like in Leore.

So I adapted to Arang’s real appearance, but seeing her lying on the bed without her prosthetic arm and leg was both beautiful and heartbreaking.

Arang said she couldn’t grant my request to touch her hands or feet, but I could touch her belly.

I was about to refuse, but suddenly the thought of wanting to touch it burst out, and I couldn’t refuse.

Because of that, Arang twisted her body and slid down, naturally lifting her top and revealing her belly.

The moment I saw it.

I couldn’t resist.

The lingering sensation of Arang’s belly.

Until now, I thought I liked feet.

But I was wrong.

==

As soon as I got home, I logged into Leore.

Since I had pre-downloaded the update, I didn’t need to wait.

Normally, after a major season update, I would check the update status in the notice, but now that wasn’t important.

I immediately went to the shop and bought a nickname change ticket.

It costs 20,000 won to change a nickname once, but that wasn’t important now.

[Arang Baldukgae] → [Arang Baedeokgae], would you like to change?

[Accept] [Decline]

Without a second thought, I pressed the accept button.