Chapter 116
Chapter 116
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 116
Chapter Title: The First Named: Black Dragon (1)
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[Whoa~ The day is finally here!]
[Astria Online's first raid dungeon!]
[So many 12-man attack squads have formed.]
[Which Korean server squad is most likely to get the first clear?]
[The Red and White squad, Skada's squad, and Dajeong Dosa's squad.]
[It's gotta be one of those three.]
[Yeah, those squads are made up of party members who were always neck and neck for the top spots in the elite dungeon first clear runs.]
[But everyone's equal before Whitey, right?]
[Isn't the Red and White squad the most likely to succeed, since they have Whitey?]
Gyuam Jo Hyeon-su, the guild master of Plan B, the largest guild in the Betarion Empire, looked at the chat and complained to his viewers.
"Hey, guys! Talk about our Plan B attack squad, too!"
[lol You don't actually think you're gonna get the first clear, do you, streamer?]
[fr.... let's talk about something else]
[Hahahahaha]
[Lmao]
[It's sad that the top squads aren't streaming.]
[It's normal for squads going for the first clear not to stream.]
[Yeah, they'd just get their strategies stolen. It's all downsides.]
[Plan B and the GG Clan stream because their guild masters are doing it for promotion.]
[The Plan B vs. GG Clan rivalry is one of the main attractions, lol]
[Jo Hyeon-su! Uphold the pride of the Betarion Empire's largest guild!]
[Go, Alpharion Empire's GG Clan!]
[There's an Alpharion spy above!]
Shing!
Screech-!
Jo Hyeon-su smirked as he cut down the demonic minions rushing at him.
"Guild Master. The mobs in this tree have way more HP than the ones in elite dungeons. It definitely feels like a legendary-grade dungeon."
"Kiki. But to match that, we can tackle it with twelve people, can't we?"
"Hmm, I have no idea what kind of enemies will greet us."
"We should have recruited some of the older players. There are people with experience from that globally popular raid game, 'World of Artoria'."
"They're playing this as a relaxing game. It's a bit much to force a grueling raid schedule on them that could last up to a month..."
"Ehem, this is a job for the young, energetic, and quick-witted."
"We'll clear it quickly and then carry them through while listening to their old stories. Hahaha!"
The members of the Plan B attack squad chatted amongst themselves as they explored the 'Tree of the Abyss'.
A raid dungeon resembling a colossal, hollow, dead tree.
The 'Tree of the Abyss'.
The scenery inside was bizarre.
Black branches were tangled together to form walls, creating a straight path that spiraled along the tree's outer shell.
Jo Hyeon-su grumbled with a look of dissatisfaction.
"It feels like we're just going in circles. What on earth is the internal structure of this tree?"
"Maybe it's a spiral-shaped maze. The kind where you circle your way slowly toward the center."
"And there will probably be named monsters like in the elite dungeons along the way."
The stream's chat also began to buzz with speculation as they watched Plan B's progress.
[Like an ammonite fossil?]
[I want to see how the other parties are doing.]
[Go watch the GG Clan's stream.]
[I wonder how the Red and White squad is doing.]
[I bet Whitey is just smashing through everything.]
[I heard a rumor from an acquaintance that the main tank for the Red and White guild's squad is Death of Death?]
[Death of Death? What about Whitey?]
[Dunno? Haven't heard anything.]
[No way....]
[Soloing a raid dungeon?]
[That's really impossible.]
[You can clear an elite dungeon by doing the DPS of 2-3 people, but for a raid, you need to do the work of 12?]
[Even if she can execute the mechanics alone....]
[The absolute DPS would be lacking. It's structurally impossible.]
[No matter how much of a convention-breaker Whitey is....]
*
[Level 53]
[Miasma-Corrupted Ent + Gatekeeper Veid]
[HP 79,047,000 / 100,000,000 (79%)]
"Kakakakakat!"
Wooooo-
A black, ancient tree stirred to life.
The 'Miasma-Corrupted Ent'.
Atop the tree, a man who appeared to be a demon was cackling madly.
'Gatekeeper Veid'.
The Ent continuously slammed its roots into the ground.
Thud, thud, thud!
Chris ran with a talisman in hand, shouting quickly.
"Branch pattern, one by one, starting with the furthest person! Line them up straight! Starting with Chris at 25 meters! Beimerung, Yeon Min-ah, Dalboreum, Red Hot Chicken, in that order!"
Fwoosh!!
The root the Ent slammed into the ground shot up as a spike-like pillar, targeting Chris. After luring the pillar to the desired location, Chris swiftly used a backward evasion to get out of the way.
Fwoosh, fwoosh, fwoosh!
Five wooden branches shot up as pillars, targeting each of the ranged dealers in the Red and White attack squad.
[Ent's Branch]
[HP 10,000,000 / 10,000,000 (100%)]
All the ranged dealers, excluding the melee dealers attacking the Ent up close, were executing this special pattern.
They had already wiped several times just figuring out how to counter this pattern.
If the wooden branches overlapped, the Ent would immediately go berserk, causing a wipe.
If the wooden branches were placed too far apart, they wouldn't be able to destroy them in time.
Lining them up straight was crucial.
They had to be dealt with at once using the ranged dealers' linear area-of-effect skills.
Fwoosh!
With Red Hot Chicken as the last one, the Red and White attack squad succeeded in lining up all the Ent's branches.
The ranged dealers began to focus their attacks on those branches.
Pew pew pew, kaboom!
Under the powerful firepower of the ranged dealers, who had finished farming the Frozen Palace, the Ent's branches couldn't last long and were torn apart.
"Grr, you pests!"
The demon atop the Ent, 'Veid', made a displeased face and raised his hand high.
Wooooom!
With an ominous hum, a giant purple orb began to form above his hand.
A precursor to the special pattern's area-of-effect attack, Miasma Explosion.
Chris gave the order without delay.
"Beimerung, Yeon Min-ah. Ice Prison! Then Cherni, Dalboreum. Water Sphere Protection!"
At the same time, Veid's miasma orb exploded.
Fshaaaa!
Rumblllllle!
The miasma orb erupted in a series of explosions, sweeping over the members of the Red and White attack squad.
The Mage's Ice Prison and the Spirit Master's Water Sphere Protection successfully shielded both the ranged and melee dealer groups in their respective positions.
With that, the special phase ended without any damage taken.
Whoosh, whoosh!
The Ent returned to its normal pattern, swinging its branches and starting to hammer the tank, Death of Death.
Each and every blow was terrifyingly powerful. No matter how good Death of Death's movements were, a single hit meant he was out.
The tank's death meant a party wipe.
Even Death of Death couldn't risk the dangerous play of deflecting attacks while dishing out maximum damage.
Whirrrr!
The Ent's branches spun violently, sweeping across the entire combat area. The ranged dealers also used their respective counters.
Clang! Thwack thwack!
"Ugh. We got past the special phase, but the normal pattern is no joke either!"
"It's so tough because we still take some damage even when we use our counters!"
"Keep your HP at max at all times!"
The Ent's normal pattern didn't just target the tank. Party members had to counter the attacks that swept the entire area.
Naturally, the party's overall damage output couldn't help but decrease significantly.
But all twelve people gathered here were seasoned veterans, skilled members of the Red and White guild's attack squad.
They calmly countered the patterns and steadily chipped away at the Ent's HP.
Rumble!
Oooooooh!
The Ent let out a shriek and laid its massive body down on the floor of the 'Tree of the Abyss'.
"Gah!"
At the same time, the demon Veid, who had been controlling the Ent, fell to the ground.
"Ugh, you're a dangerous bunch. But you won't make it any further inside. Kakakat!"
Ssk.
He managed a smile on his thwarted face and vanished through the inner wall of the Tree of the Abyss.
Waaaaah-!
The members of the Red and White attack squad cheered.
"We, we beat it!"
"Wahah! Did that take about two or three hours? For something they gave us 30 days for, we cleared the first named monster pretty fast!"
Chris, with a stern expression, checked the 'Dungeon Progress Interface' and shook her head.
"No. The progress hasn't updated."
[Raid Dungeon 'Tree of the Abyss' Progress 0/3]
Beimerung and Cherni turned pale.
"That means...!"
"Just a mid-boss!? Something this powerful?"
Rumble...
Chris watched the black branches in front of them slowly begin to melt away and spoke softly.
"The first named boss is probably just ahead."
With tense expressions, the members of the Red and White attack squad entered the opening to the cavern that had finally gaped open.
Inside the 'Tree of the Abyss'. A massive cavern existed within.
In its center.
Krrk-
A black dragon, exhaling a breath filled with ominous energy.
It was coiled up.
A giant lizard, its entire body covered in black scales.
It was a Black Dragon.
Its size was certainly smaller, about half that of the Green Dragon world boss.
However, this was a named boss in an expansion area's raid dungeon. The immense power it held within would be no less than that of the Green Dragon, the world boss of the previous region.
This time, they couldn't rely on outside help.
A boss that had to be overcome by just the twelve of them.
Chris bit her lip.
There was no time to waste.
Even now, Rain was likely pushing herself too hard. This time, she might seriously injure herself and end up hospitalized.
If she had her way, she would have pulled an all-nighter to make progress, but the real lives of the twelve Red and White squad members were also important. Some of them had jobs in the real world. She couldn't force her own stubbornness on all of her squad mates.
Gazing at the massive creature, Chris muttered.
"Can we beat it today?"
[First Named]
[Level 53]
[Black Dragon]
[HP 200,000,000 / 200,000,000 (100%)]