While others are still struggling to even reach the third floor, to think someone managed to take down a named boss on the fifth… that really is ahead of the curve. Jaejung-hyung says this as he chews on squid jerky.
“If you’re going to kill it anyway, it’s best to be the first. The very first time a named boss goes down, it dumps everything it can possibly drop. Same as with the Orc Chieftain. Now, no matter how many times you kill that chieftain, it’s not like the glaive just rains down. I even heard there are people who’ve been farming him constantly since maintenance ended, and only then does it finally come out.”
At the word glaive, I recall the attack. By now, that weapon’s pretty famous. In more ways than one.
“That sounds like it happened on our server.”
“Your server? That guy’s sharp. Thanks to him, the moment maintenance ends, everyone’s doing boss rushes.”
“So what about the Twin-Head War Wolf? How was that?”
“How was it… the boss itself isn’t actually all that strong. But it spews both ice and fire, and if you get hit by those, you’re finished.”
“Like a breath attack?”
“Mm… something like that. Fire’s basically an AoE spell, but since it shoots straight out of its mouth, the area it covers is pretty wide. It doesn’t shave off HP all at once. Instead, while you’re burning, your HP plummets at insane speed. Once you get hit, potions can’t cover it. You just die.”
“Isn’t that too overpowered?”
“Yeah, no kidding. It’s broken. At first, I was seriously wondering what they were thinking, making something like this even beatable. The boss got hit and just burned down flat-out, game over. Well, not literally burned, of course. But since the game doesn’t have any kind of elemental resistance, it felt kind of unfair.”
“So how did you guys clear it?”
“It wasn’t impossible. Remember I said it uses ice magic too? It spits out these chunks of ice from its mouth. If you get hit, that body part freezes, slowing you way down. Plenty of people died just from being stuck in place and getting whittled down. But if fire and ice overlap, what do you think happens?”
“You freeze in place and your HP ticks down until you’re done for?”
“No. The ice effect ends, and the fire effect ends. They cancel each other out. We had no idea how many teams we’d have to throw into the grinder to figure that out. Even knowing it, if you get frozen first, you slow down so much that avoiding the fire AoE is almost impossible. The easier way is to get hit by fire first, then by ice.”
“But there’s no guarantee it’ll even use both at the same time, right?”
“Exactly. That’s really just an emergency trick when things are desperate. In the end, it’s all about gear and zerg tactics.”
Zerg tactics… That’s exactly what our party lacks most. And that’s something we really can’t do anything about.
***
Jaejung-hyung fell asleep, and the boss went home. I sat at the counter with my head buried in my arms. When my thoughts get tangled, I sometimes end up like this. The reason isn’t complicated: the Twin-Head War Wolf.
Isn’t there some way to cheese it flat-out…? I rack my brain, but I can’t find an answer.
Unlike the Orc Chieftain, there’s no concept of a separate boss chamber here. If you can just outlast it with potions, you win. Of course, having the gear and level to make potions viable is a given. And your control has to be top-tier too. The fifth floor’s layout is so complex that dozens of players can’t just all pile in at once. The magic is supposedly hard to dodge in such tight spaces, too.
There’s no high perch you can cling to like with the Orc Chieftain. For one, there’s no altar-like structure. More importantly, it jumps. Climbing up high just makes you an easy target—it’ll blast you and you’ll fall to your death.
No matter how hard I squeeze my brain, nothing good comes out. Was my head always this empty? I wish something would just pop up. Isn’t RTP supposed to boost everything? Team Leader Yoo Haeseon said that in the virtual world, anything was possible. But this is reality.
Having high RTP doesn’t seem to make you any smarter. If RTP really correlated with intelligence, maybe people would be ranked in society by RTP the way we are by test scores. It’s the one frustrating thing about it.
***
< Welcome to the world of Lost Sky. >
Brainwave check.
Joo Seungho. Male.
Character name Jooho. Level 14.
Loading…
Grinding high-level mobs all this time finally paid off—I hit Level 14. Now that I’m used to dungeon monster patterns, I don’t suffer from my low agility as much. So I allocated my latest points to strength.
Name: Jooho
Level: 14
【STR 3 ▲1】 【AGI 4+1】 【VIT 3】
【INT 0】 【MANA 1】
***
So now my power’s 1.2×, my movement speed 1.4×?
Honestly, I want to raise agility more than strength. But according to Jaejung-hyung, if strength and agility get too far apart, they actually hinder each other.
Some people tested full-STR and full-AGI builds since we got the reset scroll, but apparently they didn’t get the output they wanted. There must be some kind of interdependent formula.
Since Jaejung-hyung is looking into it, I’m sure he’ll figure it out soon enough. That’s his specialty.
“Welcome.”
“Hello.”
Charming and PrettyGirl both send me whispers in turn. Shield Warrior’s a little late—must be busy. While we wait in town, Shield Warrior finally logs in.
“Do you think there’s any way we can handle the Twin-Head War Wolf just by ourselves?”
At my question, Shield Warrior shakes his head. Looks like he thinks it’s hopeless.
“This time we’ll probably have to join in with other groups.”
“Yeah, that’s how most people do it. Last time was just special. If we expected that every time, we wouldn’t even be able to play.”
Talking side by side with Shield Warrior, before long we arrive at the dungeon entrance.
We go in up to the third floor, search around for a while, and find a decent spot.
Two War Wolf Warriors, two War Wolf Mages.
I’m Level 14. Charming and PrettyGirl are 16. Shield Warrior’s 17. He’s definitely been putting in more hours, but since I’ll soon be quitting my job at the PC bang, I can catch up. So unlike before, it doesn’t bother me as much.
By now, we’re all used to the patterns on the third floor. Fighting War Wolf Warriors doesn’t feel nearly as hard anymore.
“They used to look like monsters, but now they’re kind of easy.”
Shield Warrior shows off, talking while he fights a warrior. He blocks here and there with his shield, deflects, angles off strikes, showing all sorts of tricks. He chips away steadily with his sword, slow but reliable, and eventually drops the enemy.
PrettyGirl, on the other hand, slams her glaive into weak, unarmored spots with aggressive precision, dodging everything she needs to. In truth, her kill speed is far superior to Shield Warrior’s—partly because of her playstyle, partly because her weapon’s a named drop.
Charming and I each take a mage. She uses the fight as target practice, dodging spells while countering with her bow. Even with her relatively low agility, she times her dodges by reading cast motions and projectile direction, all while shooting back.
Everyone’s doing well. Each of us is getting better at playing to our strengths.
Meanwhile, I wondered if I could parry spells the same way I do arrows—slice them out of the air with a blade. Tried it, and all I got was my HP chopped down. A good attempt, bad outcome.
Still, mage HP is low. I burned mine down quickly, helped the others, and the area was cleared in no time.
“Looks like magic can’t be deflected with longswords.”
I sigh, full of regret. Shield Warrior stares at me like he’s sick of my antics.
“Even deflecting arrows by just nudging the tip with your blade—that alone is beyond human control. And now you’re trying to block magic?”
“But when it’s flying right at me, every time I dodge, it feels like such a waste.”
At that, Shield Warrior just shakes his head again. Hopeless case, his face says.
Either way, we’re handling the third-floor mobs really well now.
“It’s definitely easier.”
Shield Warrior puffs up.
“Easier than at first, yeah.”
PrettyGirl looks relaxed. Charming and I just smile.
We could technically camp a five-mob room, but the respawn timing forces you to fight nonstop without breathing room. We gave up on that.
Yesterday at the end of our hunt, we tried a five-mob room and nearly coughed up blood. Shield Warrior was the only one enjoying himself, and the rest of us shot daggers at him. Four is the sweet spot.
So now we’re pacing ourselves comfortably.
“On the fourth floor, they all mix together, right?”
Charming asks as she casts. Shield Warrior answers right away.
“Yeah, that’s what I heard. There’s a lot more of them too. From the fourth floor on, we might need a full party. Actually, come to think of it, do we really have to stick to just four of us?”
“I like it being just us.”
PrettyGirl finally voices an opinion. We’ve gotten used to running as four. When she does speak up, it hits right in the chest.
“I don’t mind if it stays like this. We can add more if we have to, but I’m fine as we are.”
Charming doesn’t sound unhappy either.
Come to think of it, how did these three party without me? I never asked. I just assumed they managed fine. But hearing this now, it sounds like they really did just go on as a trio.
“Did you three usually party together when I wasn’t around?”
“Yes. Mostly on the first floor. If spots were full, we’d join other parties.”
“And what about when you were solo?”
Charming pauses to think, then answers.
“I’d stay in town, or mostly do quests. There aren’t really many quests designed for groups yet. Plus the quest orders don’t always line up, so it’s more efficient to just do them whenever. Now I do them with PrettyGirl. Shield Warrior’s so far ahead he does his separately.”
“Come to think of it, I’ve barely done any quests.”
Every time I log in, I just grind with them. I completely forgot quests even existed.
“Since our gear’s good, hunting was far better. If we’d been questing around the same time as everyone else, we’d have just wasted hours standing in line. Even now, some quest mobs still have queues.”
“So looking back, it was the better choice.”
Sure, doing both would be ideal, but I didn’t have the time. If I had to pick one, it had to be hunting together.
If I hadn’t met these people and was still alone, I probably would’ve spent my time questing.
Now that I’ll soon quit working at the PC bang, I might need to start handling quests too.
Shield Warrior brings it up as if he’d just remembered.
“Actually, I was meaning to say: even if you skip the others, you really should progress the main quest. You can skip Orc territory rewards since they’re poor, but the wolf zone’s final reward is pretty big.”
“What kind?”
PrettyGirl jumps in to answer.
“An accessory. All stats +1.”
“Oh!”
That’s… an absolute must. That’s five stats. In this game, every stat is useful regardless of build. That’s insane value.
“I think I’ll have a bit more time soon. It won’t be too late if I start then, right?”
“Right. Just make sure you clear the prerequisite quests before the Forgotten Castle. The final target’s a named boss.”
We keep hunting in the same spot, chatting, until Charming calls us to a stop.
“The buff ran out. Hold on.”
【 Protect Shield! 】
Charming casts, and a white circular magic circle forms at her feet, rotating as it shines upward.
It’s a spell used to shore up a mage’s low defense. Technically, every class can learn it, but most STR-based characters never invest in INT, so only pure mage builds use it. It boosts the DEF of all your armor by +1. But since it requires INT 4, not everyone can casually cast it.
I find myself staring blankly at Charming as she casts. Something about it is tugging at me.
“Charming, that spell only works on yourself, right?”
“Yes. When I use it, all my armor gets +1 DEF. I’ve tried casting it on others, but it doesn’t work at all.”
She says it casually.
But why are her words snagging at me like this? Something keeps nagging.
“And that +1 stays as long as the spell’s active?”
“Yes. Is something odd about it?”
She tilts her head.
“…Could you try… taking your armor off for a moment?”
“Huh?!”
Everyone stares at me like I’ve lost it. Charming is flustered and speechless. PrettyGirl, especially, looks at me as if I’ve just outed myself as a pervert.
That’s not what I meant.
This is so unfair.