Chapter 101
Chapter 101
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: Vine
Chapter: 101
Chapter Title: Clearing the Frozen Palace of the Tundra
-----------------------------------------------------------------
[Third Boss]
[Level 48 Witch Frederica]
[HP 4,992,760/ 50,000,000 (9%)]
The witch's eyes, made of ice, turned bloodshot.
With bloodshot eyes and a body cracked and broken all over, the witch flinging blades of ice from within the storm was a truly terrifying sight.
[Attack Stacks: 8 (1m 19s)]
The buff was currently at eight stacks.
To be honest, I'd messed up from the start.
If I had done it properly, I would have gotten up to ten stacks.
Destroying just one white orb could quell the storm. I was supposed to destroy them one by one to barely maintain the attack power buff stacks.
In the end, my attack stacks broke right before the second special phase, forcing me to face her enrage.
But she didn't have much left.
With all the buffs I'd stacked, I could definitely take her down now.
Inside the fierce blizzard that gradually expanded its range, threatening to eventually cover the entire throne room, I calmly activated an invincibility skill.
Positioning myself between the virtual and the real, I used the abilities of my bracelet and Astaroth in tandem.
*Crack, crack.* The ice blades protecting the witch's body shattered one by one,
and a final flash of my blade struck the cracked and broken face of 'Witch Frederica'.
*Flash!*
A thin, vertical line was drawn across the witch's face.
The last thing the witch showed was a look of disbelief.
*Crack.*
"Hoo."
*Swish.*
For the sake of performance, I gave Astaroth a cool spin before sheathing it.
Was this the first clear?
I opened the area chat window to check the system message.
['Noname' Party has succeeded in the first-ever defeat of the Elite Dungeon, 'Frozen Palace of the Tundra'!]
"Hmph."
I nodded with a satisfied expression.
My first elite dungeon attempt, a solo first-clear run stream, was over.
It might have looked easy, but it was by no means a walk in the park.
The first bosses, the Spearman and the Shield Bearer, definitely had dangerous patterns. If I hadn't gotten information from Gyuam Jo Hyeon-su's stream, I might have been paralyzed by the four-stack debuff. And with the final boss, my attack stacks broke midway, forcing me to power through her enrage phase to clear it.
Still, it was a relief I didn't have to retry.
For now, let's just focus on the fact that I finished it safely.
I could say I showed off a pretty cool side of myself.
*Thump, thump.*
Closing my eyes gently and placing a hand on my chest, I could feel my heart pounding.
Even though it was just a created body, the small heart made its presence clearly known.
Then again, in a way, Iseulbi's body was also a created one.
This felt a little different from running dungeons alone with no one watching.
Right now, many people were watching me.
A strange sense of pleasure outweighed any embarrassment.
Was I an attention seeker?
Even so, I don't think I could ever do a stream where I interact with people.
Maybe just broadcasting during first-clear runs would be okay.
It feels good.
As expected, it's in the heat of battle that I feel most alive.
It seems I'm destined to live my life with a sword.
Satisfied with my successful debut—the first stream where I publicly showed myself—I was about to turn it off.
"Ah."
I exclaimed and clapped my hands.
I almost forgot the most important part.
*Patter.*
I trotted over to the shattered remains of 'Witch Frederica' and checked the loot.
The first dungeon of the new expansion would also bring me massive profits.
I could pay back Chris and earn some gold for my personal use.
And after I finished farming, I needed to run carry services.
Showing off powerful weapon stats and pretty outfits would also serve as an advertisement for the carries.
I could run solo carries while playing it safe, or run fast carries with Chris's party members.
"Huh?"
But, I couldn't see a weapon.
That can't be right.
In the early days of a dungeon, weapons are the biggest source of income.
I hurriedly scanned the loot list.
[Soul of the Frozen Palace Lord]
[Elite Grade]
[Witch Frederica's Unmelting Ice Crystal]
(Tradable)
"Hmm..."
Instead of an Elite weapon, there was an item I'd never seen before.
Is this it?
At first, I thought it was an item like the 'Green Dragon Heart' that would let me obtain my class weapon, but there was no reaction when I held it.
I took out the Elite weapon I used to use, the 'Sword of the Ancient Temple'.
"As I thought."
When I brought the 'Soul of the Frozen Palace Lord' to the 'Sword of the Ancient Temple', a weapon evolution interface appeared.
【Weapon Evolution Formula】
【Soul of the Frozen Palace Lord + Sword of the Ancient Temple = Sword of the Frozen Palace Lord】
[Sword of the Frozen Palace Lord]
[Elite Grade]
[Attack Power 350]
['Moonlight Slash' Skill Damage +60%]
[Socket 1: EMPTY]
[Socket 2: EMPTY]
[Socket 3: EMPTY]
[Socket 4: EMPTY]
(Binds on Evolution)
Is this the 'Weapon Evolution System' that was introduced with the new expansion?
The mana stone enhancement level is obviously reset, but the skill damage option is carried over, and you can evolve it into a weapon for your own class.
As long as you have the 'Soul of the Frozen Palace Lord', your weapon farming is done.
Starting with this expansion, the time it takes to get a class weapon with the desired stats has been significantly reduced.
"Tsk."
I clicked my tongue.
Allowing the weapon class and skill stats to be carried over is definitely a user-friendly patch.
But it doesn't only have positive effects.
The lifespan of the content is shortened.
Consequently, the lifespan of my main source of income—the carry service—also shortens.
Feeling a bit disappointed, I was carefully examining the evolution information for the 'Frozen Palace Lord's Weapon' when I discovered something interesting in the 'Mana Stone Enhancement' section.
I smirked.
"These guys."
As expected of Hana Games, they were no pushovers when it came to controlling the rate of content consumption.
Getting an Elite weapon isn't the end of it.
You have to raise the weapon's tier through mana stone enhancement to bring out its full potential.
However.
【Enhancement Materials - (Common, Fine, Superior) Mana Stone + Essence of the Frozen Palace】
[Essence of the Frozen Palace]
[Material Item]
[Obtainable by dismantling Frozen Palace accessories or from daily quests]
(Untradable)
Starting with this weapon, the 'Essence of the Frozen Palace' is required as an enhancement material.
And it's an untradable item.
To enhance the weapon, you absolutely have to run the 'Frozen Palace of the Tundra' to get the essence.
"Good."
With this, my expansion pack carry service business is safe.
Before turning off the stream, I took out the soul and the essence and moved closer to the camera.
***
"...So, she looks behind her here, uses Backward Evasion to enter the storm first. Just before the invincibility frames end, she uses Counterattack, then Flash Strike, dealing damage and simultaneously escaping the storm's range."
"You can see it a bit better at 0.25x speed. Rain has perfectly calculated when the invincibility frames for each skill end."
"After getting out like this, she fires a sword aura from the edge of the storm. This must be the new Swordsman skill you can get from the Ice Crystal Tower. She uses the fifth hit to create distance, resets her cooldowns, and then enters again with Backward Evasion. Then it's a repeat."
[WGM what are you doing now?]
[Analyzing Whitey's fight.]
[If we could copy her just by analyzing it, we would've done it already.]
[Isn't Swordsman OP? Does it make sense for one to solo first-clear an elite dungeon?]
[The forums are half in awe, half rioting, lol.]
[The international forums are going crazy too.]
[I don't think Hana Games can just let this slide, right?]
[They need to reinvestigate the issue with Whitey's sync rate too.]
[You guys still don't get that it's not a sync rate problem?]
[lol even if you guys played with 100% sync rate, you'd get instantly killed by Orc1 in Astria Online~ You can only compete because you have skills and stats.]
[fr lol]
[Trash mob 1 lol]
[You might not be able to copy her movements, but you can at least benefit from the reaction speed, right?]
[Let's say you hack your capsule to raise the sync rate without getting caught. What are you gonna do about the pain?]
[Yeah, you could get a mental illness if you mess up.]
[I hacked my capsule to 50% once, got slightly burned by a slime, and immediately lowered it;;]
[Idk, whatever, Swordsman definitely needs a nerf.]
[How are they gonna balance this?]
[Stop talking nonsense.]
[How can you look at the class ceiling and talk about averages?]
[If they patch it to target Whitey, all Swordsmen will die.]
[Hana Games said they would never do nerf patches.]
[They should probably reduce the gap between physical monsters and regular users though.]
[Giving each class more status effect skills and invincibility skills should solve it, more or less?]
[Yeah, since Whitey dodges a lot with her physical skill.]
.
.
[What's Whitey doing now?]
[I wanna see Whitey.]
[Go to Whitey's stream. Looks like she's checking items now.]
[Can't chat there.]
[Whitey, please interact with us.]
[I like watching the analysis too, though.]
[Isn't she gonna show what items dropped?]
The chat window began to stir.
It was because We Got Married's strategy analysis content was dragging on.
"Ah, it seems she's checking the dropped items, so I switched to the VOD. Looks like Rain is still streaming."
We Got Married switched from the VOD back to the live feed.
Soon, the image of a girl holding two items appeared on the screen.
"...It looks like she's saying something..."
For some reason, she had her head down, her face slightly flushed, and was mumbling something quietly.
With the volume turned up, Rain's voice could be heard clearly.
- ...This is the weapon evolution item that drops here, and you can use it to evolve the Sword of the Ancient Temple into the Sword of the Frozen Palace. But to enhance the Frozen Palace weapon, you have to farm by running this place. You can't buy the Essence of the Frozen Palace from the auction house.
We Got Married's expression turned strange.
"...It's like a product promotion, isn't it?"
Rain soon lifted her head, looked straight at the screen, and concluded her words firmly.
- So, Chris's carry service... please use it a lot.
[Kuaaaargh!]
[Haaaaaack lololol]
[I'm going to get a carry right now.]
[Hey, you gotta give Whitey time to farm lololol.]
[Wait...! I'll buy some gold and come...!]
[Forgiven because she's cute.]