Chapter 66

[World of Arseria Gallery – General]

[Concept Article]

[Nightmare 10/10/10 Part 1 Boss Professor Cronicle]

Author: ㅇㅇ

That priest who cleared Svalrum earlier, right?

(Nightmare (10/10/10) Professor Cronicle Appearance Cutscene.mp4)

Is the Ice Sphere really that big? Each one is the size of an acoustic guitar.

– Wasn’t that a gimmick that starts with 10% health and puts you in a stunned state? If that hits, you’d be finished in one go!

Even if you come with a full 3000 health tank, it feels like you’d die instantly.

– What’s with this bait? Everyone’s talking about the game in the World Gallery.

Please, just open up the Gold Cup and talk about the game,ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

– I read the article thoroughly.

– Ugh, that sounds annoying;;

– If they clear 10/10/10, how much combat power would that be at minimum?

– 150,000?

– 150,000?ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ With 120,000 power, you can still get smashed in Challenger.

On a Sunday evening when everyone is gathered, the ACK Pro Tournament was held between two boring weaker teams, causing the audience to endure a dull time.

It all started from a post written in a ‘Healer Class’ tab by a famous user.

A streamer said they would challenge Nightmare 10/10/10 as a priest.

It was a common tactic among streamers to attract attention, so people couldn’t even find a reason to click the post.

The post seemed to get buried, but then other posts began to pop up rapidly.

[I’ve never seen a priest in 10/10/10 before]

[What’s this Unspecified doing?]

[Whoa~~~ Planning to get utterly wrecked by Svalrum as a priest,ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ]

One or two posts failed to attract people’s interest.

However, those who couldn’t contain their curiosity continued to check the contents.

(Observatory Security Guard Perfect Clear Photo.jpg)

(Sword embedded in the arm video.mp4)

(4-Element Joint Casting 5-Second Cut.mp4)

Sometimes, I’d seen videos of foreign streamers who, with their exceptional intellect, managed to clear boss battles through unknown magic.

But now, this blonde woman’s spell was faster and more precise than that.

(The final blow critical damage 1807.jpg)

With a single attack, about a quarter of the boss’s health disappeared.

So I asked. Who is this?

[ㅇㅇ: ipfs://<u>www.twish.ch/noname</u>]

The people seemed captivated and followed the link.

Then, they saw that ‘Adella’, known as the gallery master in the World Gallery, along with a rumored female streamer, was facing the final boss of Part 1, ‘Professor Cronicle’.

* * *

Adella trembled like a aspen quaking in the wind.

Her ears were pressed flat back, and her tail lengthened.

This was a typical behavior exhibited when she was overwhelmed by fear.

– Everyone, be quiet.

– Focus on the battle, kids, pay attention.

– If we clear this, something big will come.

– I’m looking forward to how strong Professor Cronicle is.

– It’s impressive that Adella made it to the boss fight.

– Seriously,ㅋㅋ, she looks so weak that it wouldn’t be surprising if she died at any moment.

– I’ve only seen her on VTubing, but now I’m watching this live.

– Shouldn’t we just turn off the chat window, manager?

[▶Chat Window – OFF]

Name closed the chat window, gathering the opinions of the viewers.

How difficult this battle would be remained uncertain.

“You were the culprit of this incident, huh? You still can’t let go of your stubbornness… If you had lived concealed in the sewers, you wouldn’t have suffered such a terrible death in the future.”

Professor Cronicle uttered bitterly.

“You definitely chased me out, right?!”

“No, you had no qualifications. Your place was meant for the hero all along. And listen.”

As he extended his hand, a laurel, carefully held in Name’s arms, resonated and flew away.

It was the laurel of life given by Sisiella.

“Aren’t there plenty of thieving tomcats coveting others’ possessions?”

Professor Cronicle gracefully placed the crown upon his head.

The crown scattered into thousands of shimmering lights and absorbed into his body.

[Remnant Academy Vice Dean · Professor Cronicle (0/1)]

“I never granted you the position of my child.”

The pocket watch of Professor Cronicle gleamed.

“Dodge!”

A dense murderous intent.

Name rushed towards Adella, rolling on the ground with her.

Kuwaaah-!

What kind of magic is this, I can’t even fathom it.

Suddenly, the watch blazed, splitting the earth with searing beams.

The true name of the boss appeared above his head, so the battle had already begun.

– Destructive Beam!!!!!!!!!!

– Manager, he dodges this!

– If you just have a rough idea, you can predict and dodge it.

– I got hit by that twice even knowing it,ㅋㅋㅋ

Instant death.

If you get hit, it’s an unreasonable asymmetric power that can end the game in one blow.

From now on, Name’s party had to fight against the boss while keeping the cooldown laser in mind.

“Is this the true power of Wigrasil? Looking at your meager selves, it seems you don’t know the essence of the laurel at all.”

Professor Cronicle, synchronized with the laurel, burst into laughter.

Vice Dean of the Academy, yet he had always been a second-in-command.

He received a strict sanction from the academy for abandoning his post without warning due to secret orders from above to seize the laurel.

However, his curiosity was piqued.

He had come into possession of something for which it didn’t matter if he broke the academy’s trust.

Before being a professor, as a scholar, a pure curiosity arose within him.

He knew of the existence of laurel, but whether it was a precious object or not had become a question mark.

However, the sharp-minded Professor Cronicle quickly realized the truth.

“A dimensional pass. If you know the way, you can wield unlimited magic.”

Alterations to worlds and histories were not mere empty talk.

“Was Wigrasil a cult that worshiped reason?”

Once again, a red light emitted from the pocket watch.

This time in an X shape, then in a T shape.

Holding onto Adella, who had nearly lost her senses, Name jumped across the safe zone.

– This is insaneㄷㄷㄷㄷㄷㄷㄷ

– What does Professor Cronicle mean?

– Later on, more context will be revealed, but he’s roughly mentioning the difference in the principles of magic between the World of Arseria and our real world.

– Is it like the Fourth Wall?

– No, it didn’t go that far in the story.

– But why can we use laurel and not wield unlimited magic?

– We need to think about balance;;

– If you have a head, think a little.

– Did you see how annoyed that person is while kindly answering all the questions?ㅋㅋㅋㅋ

– Can one dodge just by seeing it and predicting?

– I don’t know, now I’m getting scared too.

“Forest Guardian. Until when did you think you could hide the truth? When we realize that everything we have been learning, all the knowledge humanity has built, is false, illusory, corrupt, and wicked.”

The source of doom replaced the full moon.

“Did you hope that we would fall into despair and sit down?”

Professor Cronicle’s attacks couldn’t be dodged to win.

The output of the beams grew stronger, and Professor Cronicle’s mastery of laurel increased every second.

How to break through the time limitation?

The strategy was to seek the vulnerabilities between each attack and steadily accumulate damage.

The first part boss tests ‘dodging’ and ‘distance management’ among players.

Each character learns their effective range and speed, allowing them to acquire coping strategies when facing enemies who exceed their combat power.

Above all, the most crucial virtue is to make quick judgments without hesitating.

Delaying judgment can sometimes lead to weakening rather than determining the situation.

Seeing Name continue to dodge, the viewers concluded limits.

In the future, 4, 5, and ultimately when 10 beams come flying, even if she can foresee the future, there will come a time when physically dodging becomes impossible.

“Complete newbie vibes.”

This was the first thing Name said.

“Now that I can handle magic a bit, so I’m all excited?”

Mixed with frustration and irritation, it was unintentional, yet her words invited a discussion among the viewers who were kind enough to engage.

– ?????

– Suddenly acting tough?

– Calling a professor of the Academy a newbie,ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

– The priest reverses the world,ㄷㄷㄷㄷ

– Since you failed to teach me, I’ll give the professor an F.

– Then it’s not a course evaluation, but rather a student evaluation,ㅋㅋㅋㅋ

– Even professors who get a score of 1 in evaluations don’t get kicked out of school, so who cares?

– When the manager says it, somehow it feels cooler.

– Not cringe at all.

“Are you being reckless, Forest Guardian? It’s getting boring to play around any longer.”

The total damage accumulations Name managed to inflict upon the boss was barely half.

On the other hand, the laser skills unleashed by Professor Cronicle had already exceeded system limits, and each strike was at a level that would result in instant death.

– It’s really over.

– Honestly, getting close was tough, but Cronicle has lower health, so it shouldn’t be that much of a deal.

– Isn’t he fatter than Svalrum from earlier?

– Don’t be ridiculous,ㅋㅋㅋㅋ Can you hit harder than this?

After learning, one realizes their deficiencies, and only after attempting to teach do they recognize the blocks.

The limits of the laurel that Name had thoroughly analyzed definitely existed.

Name realized the true nature of the magic used by the boss.

This isn’t a laser.

Normal lasers don’t have enough destructive power to split the earth like that. Moreover, due to diffraction limits, the theoretically achievable range is also limited.

Finding it suspicious that the ground only splits without igniting the grass, Name bent down to touch the fissured ground.

To her surprise, the earth was mushy, like right after rainfall.

“You’ve handled water-type magic before, haven’t you?”

Though verbose, in the end, Professor Cronicle was also ultimately unable to escape from the accustomed practices.

Certainly, a laser is a concept that an individual encountering magic for the first time wouldn’t think of.

It’s a cleverly disguised powerful water cannon.

Accelerating water particles to the limit, reinforcing the cutting power, and continuously repeating the ‘replication-dissolution’ of the magic until making contact with the enemy, this mechanism was embedded in the pocket watch.

As electromagnetic waves travel in a straight line, creating cause and effect with electric and magnetic fields, two parallel clusters of mechanics spontaneously generate the next magic circle, appearing as if extending like a laser.

If you realize this, it becomes a hollow trick.

It was just a strong water cannon, but to those who thought it was a laser and used reflective magic, condolences were in order.

Name stood still, awaiting the next attack.

“I shall bring ruin upon all descendants of Wigrasil.”

Just like Bally once did, the final words of Professor Cronicle were revealed.

With the help of the system, the area of the skill’s effect was highlighted in red.

A circle with a radius of 25 meters. Casting time is 1 second.

An unavoidable trigger.

Name’s eyes softly closed as she mentally recalled runes one by one.

The viewers squinted, witnessing the scene.

Though the waves of fierce mana crashed down,

[Cancellation: Elemental Decomposition]

By the elemental decomposition technique of 18-directional dihydrogen monoxide, the laser was effortlessly dissolved.