[Whisper]kk1234: Not bad lol
[Whisper]kk1234: Your guild’s on bad terms though
『rainfall』, hit right where it hurt, went silent for a moment.
[Whisper]『rainfall』: Where did you hear that?
[Whisper]kk1234: Where do you think
[Whisper]kk1234: Your guild master told ours they’d kick you if we wanted lol
[Whisper]『rainfall』: Ah, right
Normally, that’d flip your stomach, but 『rainfall』 was perfectly placid. I couldn’t believe a guy who never lets anything slide was this calm.
[Whisper]kk1234: Hey, kill your guild master instead of me
[Whisper]『rainfall』: Why would I kill someone over that?
[Whisper]kk1234: This is a game…
[Whisper]『rainfall』: Exactly
[Whisper]『rainfall』: It’s just a game, no reason to get mad
[Whisper]kk1234: ???
He wasn’t wrong, but he was the last person who should be saying it.
[Whisper]『rainfall』: I mean,
[Whisper]『rainfall』: Even if that happens to me, I don’t feel that wronged
[Whisper]kk1234: I feel wronged though??
[Whisper]『rainfall』: Not my problem
Ah, is that so….
[Whisper]『rainfall』: I do what I want in real life, so it’s fine if some things don’t work out in a game
[Whisper]kk1234: You could’ve extended that kindness to me too??
[Whisper]『rainfall』: Catching you was revenge and also for the public good
What a stretch. Killing me counts as a public service now….
[Whisper]kk1234: You don’t even have a reason to put up with it
[Whisper]kk1234: Quit the guild
[Whisper]『rainfall』: If I quit, will your guild take me?
[Whisper]kk1234: Not my call, it’s not my guild
[Whisper]『rainfall』: lol
[Whisper]『rainfall』: I was just saying
Maybe he added that because he knew it made my skin crawl.
Me in the same guild as 『rainfall』? That’s ridiculous—
—or is it?
We’ve already gotten used to partying together anyway, so wouldn’t it be fine? If we’re in the same guild, he can’t beat me up anymore. Peace restored.
[Guild]kk1234: If 『rainfall』 came to our guild, would we take him??
[Guild]Rete: lmao
[Guild]Rete: Finally moving in together?
[Guild]Kim Mooni: lol?
[Guild]CaptainDaehan: If K’s fine with it, I don’t mind
[Guild]kk1234: I do mind though
[Guild]ScamMage: What is this…
[Guild]Rete: If you move in, all your secrets get exposed…
[Guild]shine..: Formation broken
Rete, who’d been lagging a bit behind chatting, dumped a skill and shaved a monster’s HP bar in one go. Classic overreaction from someone with a guilty conscience.
The dungeon push went pretty smoothly.
[Party]ScamMage: Feels like we’re halfway…
[Party]Kim Mooni: lol easier than I thought
[Party]BoomerLatte: Do not… raise… a defeat flag…!
And as if to fulfill that defeat flag, a mid-boss appeared with exquisite timing.
[Party]Rete: If we wipe it’s Mooni’s fault k
[Party]ScamMage: True…
[Party]Kim Mooni: ?? lol
[Chamberlain Pierre] Insolent vermin defiling the royal castle.
[Chamberlain Pierre] I shall clean you up!
Pierre clapped twice. Then servants holding brooms poured out behind him and charged our side all at once.
Judging by the lack of names above their heads, they weren’t individual monsters but a skill effect… but the effect packed the map so full there was no dodging it.
[Party]Kim Mooni: Stunned ffs
The sprinting servants vanished when they hit the far wall. The moment a player collided with a charging servant, they got stunned, little stars spinning above their head, and were rendered unable to act.
And that brief window was plenty of time for Pierre to attack the player.
[Chamberlain Pierre] Begone!
The window to hit Pierre was short. He clapped once, and this time soldiers came charging with spears from the opposite side.
[Party]BoomerLatte: If you jump, you can dodge.
Latte said it while double-jumping mid-air. But most classes can only jump once, and only a few can jump twice or more.
kk1234 [Barrier of Sanctity!]
I threw my skill up quick, but [Barrier of Sanctity], which blocks monsters, was useless against skill effects rather than monsters. Just in case, I’d ducked back fast—Rete had too—and the two of us got launched side by side.
[Party]Rete: fuck lololol
shine.. [Sacred Blessing!]
Shine dumped a huge heal, but it only kept us up for a moment. Pierre’s skill cooldown came back pretty fast.
If you timed your invuln just right, you could avoid taking the hit briefly, but we didn’t have a bunch of invulns, and our own skills were on cooldown, so there were limits.
[Party]Kim Mooni: What’s the pattern
[Party]BoomerLatte: Filthy indeed…
We tried hitting before he cast, and hugging the wall when he did, but nothing worked.
[Party]kk1234: There’s no window to hit him
[Party]『rainfall』: Then don’t hit him
At 『rainfall』’s words, we stopped attacking. Fair—made sense.
The chamberlain chained his skills, summoning servants and soldiers. And with us no longer piling on, he just stopped in place.
[Chamberlain Pierre] Good, good, it’s quiet now.
[Chamberlain Pierre] His Excellency will be pleased.
Pierre clasped his hands behind his back and started to stroll. Since it was a new pattern, we held our fire instead of hitting him immediately. Soon, black footprints began to stamp one by one in Pierre’s wake as he walked.
“Is that it?”
The moment I thought “that’s the one,” I sprinted over and stepped on a black footprint. A black aura roared up and wrapped my character.
For a second I thought we were screwed.
But there was no status ailment, and wreathed in black aura, I smacked Pierre.
[Chamberlain Pierre] Oh my!
[Chamberlain Pierre] What is this? Guards!
Flustered, Pierre called guards again, but this time it just spawned two normal guard monsters.
Party members all stepped on footprints to cloak themselves in black aura, then attacked Pierre. The aura didn’t last forever; it faded with time.
We waited one more cycle and then beat Pierre down cleanly. Of course, it wasn’t clean for everyone.
[Party]Kim Mooni: lol
[Party]BoomerLatte: Downed alone
[Party]ScamMage: Shame of the guild…
[Party]Kim Mooni: I was trying to squeeze more DPS
[Party]BoomerLatte: If you die… what good… is DPS…!
Yeah, for a DPS, eking out a bit more damage is pride—but dying is just pathetic. Like Kim Mooni.
Shine used a resurrection skill and got Mooni back up.
[Party]kk1234: Burning through our res count, great ——
Aurora’s dungeons have a resurrection-count limit. They’re designed so clumsy hands can’t brute-force clears by reviving forever. If you burn all your res counts and can’t get up, even if you clear the dungeon you don’t get any EXP or items.
Some players complain, “Why isn’t it unlimited,” but that’s just the mindset of ham-handed players like Kim Mooni who try to solve everything with res spam.
[Party]kk1234: Ham-hands
[Party]Kim Mooni: Ham-hands who kept getting killed by Nagi
[Party]『rainfall』: lol
[Party]kk1234: Why the hell are you laughing
[Party]『rainfall』: What?
[Party]kk1234: Nothing, please laugh
[Party]Rete: He’s whipped…
[Party]Kim Mooni: Heal pls
[Party]BoomerLatte: You have… found a proper… match,,
[Party]『rainfall』: I refused his proposal, so please don’t tie us together
[Party]Rete: dang
[Party]CaptainDaehan: You two were that close?
[Party]Rete: K’s gay, huh
[Party]ScamMage: Oh really?
[Party]ScamMage: Kk1234…
[Party]ScamMage: Gay1234?
[Party]kk1234: What bullshit ——
[Party]Kim Mooni: Heal me ——
[Party]ScamMage: I don’t have prejudice tho
[Party]ScamMage: I read boy-love fanfic too
[Party]BoomerLatte: Why… do you… read that…
[Party]Rete: Duck said
[Party]Rete: K gets jealous and blocks people who approach 『rainfall』 lol
[Party]kk1234: ?
[Party]Rete: Duck tried to act friendly with 『rainfall』
[Party]Rete: You blocked him because Duck’s a guy
[Party]kk1234: That wasn’t blocking?
[Party]『rainfall』: Creepy
[Party]kk1234: I said it wasn’t??
[Party]Kim Mooni: Uh, hey
[Party]Kim Mooni: Could I get a heal here…
Mooni, who’d been adding static to the channel for a while, was rolling around on the floor. Shine, who’d been standing quietly, healed Mooni.
[Party]shine..: Please be careful, Mooni
[Party]Kim Mooni: Yes
[Party]shine..: Let’s move
At Shine’s razor-sharp call to focus for dungeon pacing, the chatter cut off for now.
I’d only thrown out a line because it pissed me off that 『rainfall』 only goes rabid at me, but somehow they twisted it into something weird…. I shivered at the creepy talk and dragged my mouse.