Translator: HunterW
Editor: RED
The Shire Guild’s headquarters in New York City…
“You can rest here until it’s time for dinner.”
“Alright. Thank you.” Samuel led me to a room for VIPs. Once inside, I plopped down on the expensive, comfortable bed. I took out an item and fiddled with it in my hand.
“If this is their reward, then there’s no reason I shouldn’t come.” I recalled the conversation I had with Samuel back in Seoul as I stared at the item.
—
Back in the living room of my house in Seoul…
“We would like you to have this.” Samuel produced an item prepared to reward me for my aid. It shone with a bright, red light, meaning it was either a Rank 8 or Rank 9 item. I took the item for now, curious as to what they deemed worthy of my help.
“Item Check.”
==[Random Skill Chest (Rank 9)
This Random Chest contains many skills, ranging from common to rare.
Opening this chest will randomly yield one of the skills contained in the chest. However, the yielded skill will depend on the amount of skill points the person opening the chest has available. If the person opening this chest only has 1 skill point available, the yielded skill may be a skill that only requires 0 or 1 skill point.
This chest will disappear after opening.
The skill learned from a Random Skill Chest cannot be deleted. However, there is the option to not learn the yielded skill. (Not learning the skill will not consume skill points.)]==
I wasn’t sure what to make of it when I realized what the item was. There was a chance I could really hit the jackpot with it, or get completely shafted. I would have preferred an actual Rank 9 equip or normal item until I read the part about rare skills.
Good skills were worth way more than any item, and I’d encountered and faced off against people with amazing skills. These people had the ability to crush their enemies in an instant, just like the Predator Duke.
“Is it to your tastes?” Samuel asked.
I put on my best poker face before answering, but I had to admit, I really did like it. Only a normal person wouldn’t know what to make of a Rank 9 Random Skill Chest; I wasn’t normal, though. I still had my Luck Boost. That Luck Boost is what was still granting me 3 Shaman Ko Stat points every day, and is what got me the Infinite Space Ring from the Time Attack quest. So yes, I really wanted the chest, but I made sure not to make it obvious.
“I realize that there’s a chance that a weak skill could come out of the chest but there is also a chance that a really powerful skill is inside. It’s a Rank 9 chest as well,” Samuel quickly added when he saw my expressionless face.
“I think I would have preferred an actual Rank 9 item instead.”
“I…I understand you could feel that way, but…”
“Very well!”
“Excuse me?”
“I said I’ll do it.” Regardless of what it was, it is still Rank 9. I had to accept their offer. If I kept being too wishy-washy, there was a chance they might just replace it with something else all together.
“Thank you so much!”
—
Back to the Shire Guild’s VIP room…
“It does seem a waste to use it now, though. Open Stats Menu.”
==[Name: Lee Jiwon
Level: 640 Death Count: 0
Title: Earth’s First Deva
HP: 8,815,700/8,815,700 MP: 347,800/347,800
Strength: 19,514 + 1,641 Agility: 13,951 Vitality: 14,051
Willpower: 3,418 Intelligence: 3,148
Unassigned Stat Points: 420 + 186
Fatigue: 0
Special Effects: Luck Boost (X+1), immune to all Status effects, Dungeon Seeker 14 points
Physical Attack: 71,082 Physical Defense: 29,197
Magical Attack: 10,994 Magical Defense: 16,884]==
My level only went up by 21 levels after hunting this past month. Sure, that was incredibly fast for someone over level 600 to accomplish in less than a month, but it just wasn’t enough for me.
“Still, Shaman Ko’s Stat points really aren’t anything to scoff at, the more I level up,” I said to myself as I invested all of the unassigned Stat points to STR.
“Should I wait until I reach level 650?” I had 4 unused skill points right now. The last time I had spent my skill points was when I was level 450 and bought the Judge’s Gavel. I had obtained 3 skill points through leveling up since then, and gained an extra as a reward from the Time Attack quest. I wasn’t really saving them; I just didn’t really have a skill I wanted to learn.
“Okay! I’ll wait until I have 5 skill points and then I’ll open the chest.” I placed the Random Skill Chest back into my inventory and lazed around in bed.
—
That night…
“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Lee. I am Daniel Miller, the guild master of the Shire.”
“Hello, Mr. Miller. I guess you already know who I am,” I said. I had to admit, he was a little intimidating. He was the leader of the strongest guild in all of America, after all. I took his outstretched hand, however, and shook it strongly. I wasn’t some nobody, either.
“I want to express my gratitude for deciding to help us.”
“Don’t worry about it. I’d say I was paid quite well to do so.”
“Hahaha! Then please, sit here. We have some time to talk.”
I sat down at the giant dining table and began to have dinner with Daniel and his family.
“You’ve met Samuel already, haven’t you? He’s my eldest son.”
“Yes, I have, in Seoul.”
After a rather nice dinner, we moved to a conference room.
“The role we’d like you to take in this upcoming raid is that of a tank.”
“A tank?” I heard the gist of what was going on from Samuel back in Seoul, but this was interesting. I wondered what sort of boss monster could actually defeat the Shire Guild three times in a row.
“I’ll explain as we watch the replays of our previous raids,” Algred, the head of the Shire’s Intelligence Division, spoke up. He turned on the projector in the conference room and began playing the videos.
“The monsters of the dungeon are Undead type, and are as strong as any other high-grade dungeon. They are powerful monsters, but can be hunted with a decent enough party. Obviously, the dungeon floors are also the perfect hunting grounds for healers.” Dungeons with Undead-type monsters were extremely valuable. Normal dungeons severely limited the growth rate of healers, but with Undead monsters, healers could actually carry the role of magic DPS.
I watched as the Shire Guild in the video made quick work of the monsters in front of them.
“The normal dungeon monsters don’t travel in large hordes. We haven’t run into any difficulties with them, as we have many guild members ready to hunt. It’s the boss monster that is the source of our grief.”
The video soon displayed the dungeon’s boss monster.
“It’s called the Dark Caster, and the raid has a party size of twenty. We can’t have any more or any less.”
I could tell from the video that the Dark Caster was a Magic-type.
“I’m sure you’re wondering how we lost three times against a Magic-type boss monster. It’s quite simple, really. Whenever its HP falls by 20%, it becomes invincible for one minute and fires twenty curse beams, one for each party member. These curse beams are unavoidable as well.”
Soon, the Dark Caster in the video cast a golden shield spell around itself and fire black rays of light out of its body. However, the rays looked resistible and the twenty party members did just that.
“This first curse beam is in fact resistible by even healers and supporters, but the power of the curse doubles after every wave. In other words, the power of the curse that activates when its HP falls by 40% is twice as powerful as the curse that activates when its HP only falls by 20%.” Algred took a sip of his tea before continuing, “The curse does have a time limit and it attacks in a linear path so it is possible to have tanks in the front blocking the curse beams while the rest move behind the tanks. That has been our raid method so far.”
The video showed exactly that.
“If that was all there was to the Dark Caster, we definitely would have had a good chance of clearing the dungeon but… there is another problem.”
“What’s that?” I asked.
“A party can resist up to its fourth curse beam. But in addition to every time it loses 20%, it also becomes invincible every thirty minutes, and fires another curse beam each time it becomes invulnerable.”
I couldn’t help but scoff in disbelief at what Algred just said.
“If, for instance, we were two hours into the raid, and brought its HP down to 40%, it would have fired its third 20% curse beam, and also have fired off four timed curse beams, not just one; that’s seven curse beams in all by then. There is just no way to stop its attacks thanks to its invincibility. Each curse beam doubles in strength each time it’s fired, so the seventh curse beam would do sixty-four times more damage than its first beam. After that…”
“…” Not a single person in the room said anything. I shivered just thinking about it.
The video showed exactly what Algred explained. The tanks couldn’t resist all of the curses for the supporters and healers.
“The healers and supporters can resist up to the third curse, but after that, the tanks will have to bear the entire brunt of the curses each time the Dark Caster casts them. It’s a huge burden on the tanks,” another officer said. “The only way to compensate for its thirty-minute timeframe is someone with a huge damage output, but that means that person will have equally low defensive power.”
That much was obvious. A deva or deity with equally high attack power and defensive capabilities was completely overpowered. But one such person existed, and that was me.
“The problems don’t end there.”
“Excuse me?” That should have been enough problems. There couldn’t really be anymore… could there?
“If even one party member dies during the raid…the raid fails. The party will be instantly forced out of the dungeon, and we have to wait a month until the boss room opens again.”
“Are you sure this is a high-grade dungeon?”
Yeah, I knew that there were only low, mid, and high-grade dungeons, but this dungeon was way too difficult for even a high-grade. I had never heard about a high-grade being this difficult in the past.
“We’re positive it’s a high-grade dungeon. I understand what you mean, though. Many of us couldn’t believe it, either.”
-If only I had Absolute Destruction-, was all I could think about, but unfortunately, I didn’t have it. There was nothing I could do about it, either.
In the end, this was a battle of time. If we couldn’t defeat the Dark Caster as fast as possible, it would be impossible to clear the dungeon. Those curses were going to tear us apart.
“We have gathered five Unrivaled devas, including you, to serve as tanks, ten devas specializing in DPS, and we are currently preparing five healers. Now that you have joined us, our preparations are just about complete.”
“You’ve gathered a total of five Unrivaleds?” Five Unrivaled devas in one spot was a lot, considering the fact that there were only 114 of us.
“Yes, we have. The Shire Guild is putting everything it has into this upcoming raid. We’ve decided this is our best course of action after researching the three failed raids over and over again. I’m sure you know that we’re going to need to deal as much damage against the Dark Caster as possible if we’re going to succeed,” another officer said. “At first glance, it might seem foolish to have only one healer per tank, but it’ll have to be enough. That way we can at least survive until the eighth curse.”
“We’ll split the party into five teams: 1 Unrivaled tank, 1 healer and 2 DPS. I’m sorry to say it, but our success rests on the shoulders of the tanks.”
I had to admit, I had really underestimated this dungeon boss. I had thought that I would be able to at least fight most of the battle on my own, but after hearing the boss’s description, I finally realized that I might just be in way over my head this time.
-So, that’s why they offered a Rank 9 item.-
“We even thought about putting in just one supporter, to at least somewhat counter the Dark Caster’s curse and cast debuffs of our own, but decided that it was best to do without.”
I couldn’t help but smile at that, though. We had a supporter who probably had the strongest debuffs of any specialized supporter out there. We had my King-Emperor’s Dignity and my Altered Equality!
