Chapter 50

“Hmm…”

I stuck my sword into the ground and sank into thought.

This season’s final raid boss. It’s much harder than I thought.

The final boss was a cordyceps that had been controlling all the bosses so far.

When we entered the boss room, the sphere made of cordyceps looked honestly lame, but during the fight, the cordyceps kept changing into all the forms it had parasitized, which was kind of cool.

The raid was going smoothly until we hit 30% HP.

The boss transformed into a chimera-like form combining all the bosses it had parasitized and went berserk.

It unleashed powerful attacks in all directions, switching aggro randomly as if the concept of aggro didn’t exist.

Because of this, healers had to randomly heal DPS whose health was dropping, and the tank had to predict and follow the boss’s movements to block attacks meant for the DPS.

“It’s so tricky and exhausting…!”

After the raid wiped and revived, Sunchoo, the main tank, sighed deeply and slumped down.

“Here’s some water.”

“Thanks, Palgili.”

We’ve been stuck on the 30% HP pattern all day today.

But we haven’t made any progress.

If the pattern was fixed, it would be one thing, but this so-called “crazy berserk” pattern seems to be random every time, making it hard to get used to.

As Sunchoo said, it’s a tricky and difficult pattern.

The tank has to follow the boss and protect the DPS and healers.

The healer has to pay attention to everyone because of the boss’s random attacks.

The DPS has to dodge the boss’s attacks and take as little damage as possible.

The crazy berserk pattern seems to be more about pure physical skill than mechanics.

But the problem is that the pattern requires extreme physical skill, more than expected.

I told the raid preparing for the next attempt, “We have an hour left, but let’s call it a day here.”

Even though there was an hour left, everyone nodded and sat down.

Everyone was exhausted, mentally and physically.

“Get some good rest, eat something delicious, and let’s start again tomorrow.”

“Good work, everyone.”

Everyone started logging out with tired expressions, and of course, I didn’t log out but teleported to the guild house I had bought.

“Phew…”

Lying on the sofa on the first floor, I thought about the final boss, [Abyss Artamin].

From the mechanics to the patterns, everything was tricky and difficult. But we were doing well, cheering each other on and helping with mistakes.

However, the crazy berserk pattern didn’t tolerate any mistakes from any raid member.

If you missed even a slight attack from the boss, someone would get hit immediately, shaking the raid.

If it just ended with taking damage, it wouldn’t be this hard. The problem is that every time you get hit by the boss, a debuff stacks, and when it reaches 5 stacks…

You lose control of your body and become the boss’s ally, attacking us.

That’s why a tank with high resilience stats has to take the hits. DPS and healers without resilience stats become enemies at 5 stacks, but tanks can handle up to 10 stacks.

As I lay alone on the sofa, lost in thought, a shadow fell over my face.

Looking up, I saw Pinkubelly and Sunchoo.

“Huh? Why haven’t you logged out, sisters?”

“Our guild leader and raid leader, Arang, hasn’t logged out, so how can we?”

“Right…!”

“I’m here because I have to be. You should go rest. I’m much more comfortable here.”

“But you should get some proper sleep~ Anna will worry!”

“Is that so…”

Indeed, I haven’t been able to talk to Anna much lately because of the raid attempts and rehabilitation training.

“Maybe I’ll sleep a bit early today…”

“Yeah, let’s do that!”

“Then I’ll go to bed too. Sisters, get some rest and let’s give it our all tomorrow.”

“Good night, Arang…!”

“Yeah. Good night, Pinkubelly.”

After saying goodbye to Pinkubelly and Sunchoo, I opened the settings and logged out of Leore.

I dove into the giant bed in the middle of the white space.

The soft bed made me feel sleepy, but sleep didn’t come. Maybe because I always sleep at a set time, logging out an hour early didn’t make me sleepy an hour early.

I went to the Leore gallery for the first time in a while.

The top post was, of course, about the WFK situation.

“Oh? What’s this?”

I was a bit anxious because we were stuck at the 30% HP crazy berserk pattern, but we were at the same progress as the top raid.

Moreover, the rest of the top 3 were still stuck at the third boss.

“At this rate… it seems doable?”

I slowly browsed through the Leore gallery.

From interesting to fun posts, I naturally came across posts about myself.

I was more famous in the Leore gallery than I thought.

“Wait, why am I the gallery owner?”

I only posted once in the Leore gallery. Just once, to recruit for the guild. But suddenly, I became the gallery owner.

“The identity of the gallery owner?”

The post was discussing my identity. That I was a 30-year-old man, a netizen pretending to be a girl, etc.

The post claimed that since I was so good at the raid leader role and understood mechanics and patterns so well, I must be an old man who’s been playing RPGs for a long time.

“Accurate…?”

Of course, the comments were busy cursing the poster. Since there were people who had seen me at the Mom’s Touch collaboration store, the post was quickly deleted by the admin.

Honestly, if I weren’t Arang, I would have been stung.

The poster wasn’t wrong about anything. Everything they said about me was true. The only problem was that I became Arang.

Next, I saw a video of me and Pinkubelly parrying the final mechanic of the first boss, 4 Arms 4 Hits.

It seemed like people watching Kang Hangeul’s stream had edited the clip of me handling the mechanic.

Holding the Tashim Sword, I parried the head and torso, which took the most damage, while tree roots pierced my limbs. But just as I was about to get stunned, Pinkubelly pulled me out at the perfect moment, making it seem like I wasn’t stunned at all.

Even I thought it looked cool.

I immediately saved the video the creator had made and left a comment.

[Thanks for making such a great video.]

==

Day 11 of attempts.

Everyone was fully motivated, unlike when we finished yesterday.

The reason was the link posted in the raid chat.

It was the WFK status link I had seen before bed.

While we had been focusing only on our raid, realizing how close we were to WFK filled everyone with fighting spirit.

“Let’s start!!!”

Kuuuung!

[Abyss Artamin]

[■■■□□□□□□□]

The moment the boss’s HP dropped to 30%.

The boss’s body swelled up instantly, transforming into a chimera combining all the forms from the Abyss raid.

And the crazy berserk pattern began.

The boss, instead of looking at Sunchoo, scanned the raid members with its many eyes and charged at me.

‘Nice!’

The boss’s first attack was on me. This was the best scenario.

I raised my sword to my right shoulder and charged forward. The sword emitted a vivid blue light.

The boss’s grotesque scythe-like arm perfectly matched the trajectory of my swing.

The clash of the sword and the boss’s scythe produced a crisp, satisfying parry sound.

The recoil from the parry sent the Tashim Sword flying, and the boss’s strong stats caused me to get stunned.

Crack.

While I was stunned and unable to do anything, the boss casually launched its next attack.

“Hyahhh!”

Sunchoo rushed from afar and blocked the boss’s attack aimed at me with his axe.

Thud!!!

But Sunchoo, rushing in a hurry without even stabilizing his stance, was sent flying sideways by the boss’s attack.

I gritted my teeth, trying to break free from the stun even 0.1 seconds faster.

Now…!

Clang!

Second parry.

The parry prevented the debuff from stacking, but parrying the boss’s attack twice had severe side effects.

‘I can’t move a finger…!’

It wasn’t just a stun; it felt like I was petrified, unable to control my body.

The boss, true to its crazy berserk pattern, kept attacking.

Its attack speed increased, and if I allowed even one hit, I’d reach 5 stacks in an instant and lose control of my body.

“Hyah!”

Clang!

A dagger smaller than the one-handed sword I was holding appeared behind me as Baedeokgae charged in and parried the boss’s attack.

Perfect timing, precise trajectory.

But the assassin class’s parry, with its low strength stat, wasn’t very effective. However, it prevented the debuff from stacking.

“Ugh!?”

The boss, ignoring the stunned scythe, swung its other arm holding a sword at Baedeokgae.

Kuuuung!

The clash of the giant sword and the dagger.

Soon, the dark light enveloping Baedeokgae’s dagger disappeared, and as she was pushed back, I stepped in front of her, adding my Tashim Sword to her dagger to block the boss’s descending sword.

Kugugugugugung!

“Arang-ah!?”

“Hold on!!!”

“Yeah!!!”

‘It’s so heavy…!’

Kuuung!

The boss, as if trying to crush me and Baedeokgae in one go, brought down its other arm holding a giant sword, adding more force to its attack.

I realized that if I let go even a little, both Baedeokgae and I would die instantly.

‘I don’t have enough strength…!’

The boss, annoyed that we were blocking its sword, created another giant sword with its other arm and tried to crush us, but,

Kwaaaaah!

“Hyah!”

This time, Palgili blocked it with his massive shield.

And so began the clash with the boss.

At this moment, I realized that the boss, which had been rampaging like crazy, had stopped to crush me, Baedeokgae, and Palgili with sheer force.

‘It’s a mechanic…!’

“Everyone, don’t hold back on skills, use buffs, and focus fire on the boss!!!”

---