Tap!
“Ah!”
Bae Merong’s foot, which jumped from the last platform, didn’t fully land on the corridor floor near the exit. Deathly Death grabbed and pulled up her body as she was about to fall down after misstepping.
“Th-thank you, Death oppa.”
“It’s a basic platform puzzle. It would be good for you to train regularly too, junior.”
Behind Bae Merong, who cutely stuck out her tongue and smiled bashfully, Cherni’s desperate scream was heard.
“Aaaaah!”
Bae Merong peeked her head out from the edge of the corridor cliff and looked down.
Cherni, who had fallen from the platform, was rubbing his bottom, and the gargoyle golems that had risen around him were slowly approaching.
Cherni’s face turned pale blue.
“Please save me!”
“Jaewook, just revive and come back. That’ll be faster than killing them all, right?”
“Isn’t that too easy to say when it’s not you!? Aaaaargh!”
“Wow, this 19+ game is so cruel.”
Behind Bae Merong, who was pretending to cover her eyes but watching Cherni being sliced through her fingers, Deathly Death expressed his dissatisfaction.
“If we waste time in a place like this, we can’t catch up to the No Name party. That party with Rain will make incredible clearing speed in named battles.”
“But it’s definitely difficult. All party members have to cross to move on to the next room, right? Or kill all the golems below. It’s hard enough to keep balance on narrow platforms floating in the air, but we have to step on them quickly before they disappear.”
“Actually, we all fell in the first corridor section. Other parties will be in a similar situation. It’s not an easy section that can be crossed in one go unless you’re like Rain. Even if she crosses in one go, she’ll have to wait for her party members. Isn’t that right, Chris?”
“…”
Chris didn’t say anything.
Her mind had been complicated since entering the dungeon.
She thought she could finally figure out the identity of the No Name party members this time, but Rain disappeared into the dungeon alone.
Even if Chris’s Raid Party members didn’t know, Chris herself had been looking for Rain’s party members since arriving at this dungeon entrance.
Of course, parties don’t have to enter at the same time because they share the instance dungeon. But it was incomprehensible that party members who had been conquering dungeons together so far didn’t even have a word of conversation before tackling an elite dungeon.
She was going to ask them to take good care of Rain when she met them, and scold them for not paying attention to Rain’s condition. And on the side, do some networking for multi-person raid content that might come out in the future.
But she couldn’t find them.
As if they were people who never existed in the first place.
“…Does that make sense? No, could she maybe… Even so, four people couldn’t win?”
“Chris, what are you thinking about?”
“Ah, it’s nothing.”
Chris shook her head vigorously at Deathly Death’s question.
A possibility she hadn’t considered started to rear its head.
A story that seemed possible given Rain’s capabilities she had seen while doing buses together.
“Solo play…?”
* * *
[1st Named]
[Level 45 Ancient Golem Minotaur]
[HP 7,340,679/8,600,000]
Thud, thud, thud!
A pattern of stomping twice and hitting the ground with both fists, a surrounding area 3-hit pattern.
I flowed through it naturally with Backward Evasion, approach skill when the second judgment disappears, and Counterattack, without stopping the barrage of attacks.
Clang clang clang!
A strange sound rang out. A sound like hitting metal, as if swords were clashing. It seemed like special magical treatment had been applied to the high-purity magic stones. Mr. Minotaur’s body was like hard metal.
Whoosh, whoosh!
The golem turned its body and swung its fist at me. I lightly moved my body left and right to avoid those attacks.
Mr. Minotaur’s normal attack is a swinging pattern using heavy fists. There’s no need to block it. It can be sufficiently avoided by turning the body.
The attack speed itself is quite fast. It’s a speed that doesn’t match the huge body that looks more than twice my height. Still, it’s not very threatening.
There’s only one pattern that must be blocked unconditionally.
Mr. Minotaur suddenly lowered his posture and bowed his head. The bull’s sharp two horns shone brightly and faced me. And it came up towards me at a terrifying speed.
Whoosh!
Clang!
[Block (A)]
-Blocks attacks from the front 180 degrees.
-(A rank) When blocking successfully within 0.2 seconds of skill use, gain a ‘Vigor’ buff that increases all damage for 10 seconds.
At the same time as gaining the Vigor buff, my body that blocked the horn uppercut attack filled with tremendous power floated slightly in the air.
Swish.
Rotating my body in the air, I activated Moonlight Slash, and brought down the sword imbued with starlight towards the bull’s horns.
Clang!
I licked my lips as I landed.
As expected, it doesn’t cut.
I really want to cut those horns of his.
Clang clang clang! Slash!
While slashing Mr. Minotaur with the starlight-imbued sword, I avoid the second uppercut with Flash Strike. I don’t stop the offensive while maintaining the Vigor buff after getting behind Mr. Minotaur.
There was one more reason to be particularly careful in this battle.
The moment the boss battle started, the entrance I came through disappeared. This cube-shaped room became a complete cube form.
There’s no retreat route. It’s a very nasty situation for me. If I can’t clear it on the first try, I might end up in quite a painful situation.
Meanwhile, Mr. Minotaur’s HP decreased at a fast rate, soon approaching the 75% section.
Oooooh-!
Can golems feel pain too? He twisted his body as if in agony.
I raised my sword and focused on Mr. Minotaur’s movements.
A different action from normal patterns. Clearly, it’s a sign of entering a special phase.
Oooooh-!
Boom boom boom boom!
Along with the golem’s action of raising its body that was crouched down as if stretching, blue energy explosively burst out from his body. I reflexively used Backward Evasion.
Flash!
The moment that energy swept through the room, a red light flickered once on the wall at 3 o’clock.
My eyes didn’t miss that light.
I immediately stuck close to respond to Mr. Minotaur’s patterns, while keeping an eye on the 3 o’clock wall that had flickered red among the four walls of the cube-shaped room.
What does it mean? It seems to mean to use that wall to do something.
Clack!
After delivering the first sword strike after entering the special phase to Mr. Minotaur, I soon detected something strange.
The sound of the sword hitting changed.
The damage the golem was taking decreased. Exactly by half.
The light emitting from the magic stones forming his body had become stronger. And that light was forming a barrier around Mr. Minotaur’s body.
I need to disable the barrier as soon as possible. Otherwise, I’ll surely get caught in a time attack pattern.
The barrier disable gimmick was clear. It must be to use the 3 o’clock wall that flickered red.
Tap tap.
I immediately created distance from Mr. Minotaur and stood with my back to the 3 o’clock wall.
Oooooh-!
Thud, thud.
Looking at me with increased distance, Mr. Minotaur stomped twice and lowered his head, pointing his sharp horns at me.
Induce a long-range pattern, and ram the bull’s charge into the wall that flickered red.
Like a bullfighter.
Thud, thud, thud!
Mr. Minotaur started charging at me with his horns raised.
I can’t deal damage while he’s charging. Of course, there’s not much help in dealing reduced damage anyway. It’s important to disable the barrier as soon as possible.
The charge direction mustn’t go off course. The longer the barrier maintenance time, the more the time attack pattern will tighten around my neck.
Swish.
When the bull’s charge reached my feet, my body using Counterattack moved behind Mr. Minotaur.
Crash! Rumble.
Ooooom-!
The moment the huge horns rammed into the wall, red light burst from the wall and blew away Mr. Minotaur’s barrier. Soon Mr. Minotaur fell to his knees and entered a groggy state.
“As expected.”
Clang clang clang!
I started delivering sword strikes to Mr. Minotaur’s body that had fallen to its knees without delay.
[1st Named]
[Level 45 Ancient Golem Minotaur]
[HP 4,365,500/8,600,000]
Mr. Minotaur’s HP went down to around 50%.
It’s become HP where the second special phase will come out.
Slash!
I brought Mr. Minotaur’s HP below 50% with a final Flash Strike, and watched his movements.
Oooooh-!
Boom boom boom boom!
Like at 75%, one full area-of-effect attack, and one wall flickered red.
This time, 9 o’clock.
Tap tap tap.
When I quickly moved to 9 o’clock and stood with my back to the wall, the entire room started shaking violently.
Rumble rumble!
“Huh!?”
I quickly lowered my posture and balanced myself.
Something’s different from the first special phase. There was no such shaking earlier.
Click.
A strange sound was heard.
Creak.
The walls on all sides moved slightly backwards and separated from the floor.
Only pitch-black darkness could be seen through those gaps.
I stared blankly at the walls that started moving, forgetting to watch the golem’s movements.
“Wow.”
This dungeon completely separates the boss room walls.
The four walls separated and slowly started moving, soon beginning to rotate at a fast speed.
Rumble rumble!
The sight of the surrounding walls rotating in one direction with strong vibrations was truly spectacular.
I looked at the rotating walls with a dumbfounded expression.
Labyrinth. Cube-shaped room structure.
It wouldn’t be strange if the walls rotated or the room itself moved. Even in that old labyrinth movie with a cube theme, the rooms kept moving.
But I didn’t expect the walls to actually move. Is this possible when ancient dwarf technology and magic stone mana work together?
Click.
The separated walls stopped rotating after a while and reassembled into a room shape.
Tap tap tap!
I came to my senses and quickly moved my body.
The wall that flickered red is no longer at 9 o’clock.
Fortunately, my eyes didn’t miss the original position of the rapidly rotating walls.
The wall that was at 9 o’clock had moved to 12 o’clock.
Thud, thud, thud!
Mr. Minotaur’s charge, which started as soon as the wall rotation stopped, also headed towards the 12 o’clock direction where I had moved.
Crash! Rumble.
Ooooom-!
Mr. Minotaur, who rammed his horns into the wall, fell to his knees again. At the same time, the barrier also completely disappeared due to the red light that burst from the wall.
I raised my sword towards the immobilized giant body.
Alright, so this is how it works.