Chapter 16
Chapter 16
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 16
Chapter Title: First Named Boss: The Black Wyvern (1)
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"The inside is cleaner than I thought."
Is this a habit I picked up after becoming a solo player?
Although torches were lit here and there, the corridor was mostly dim. Feeling a slight sense of fear, I muttered to myself to shake it off.
A pyramid built in the middle of a desert.
Unlike its exterior, which suggested I'd be climbing up to conquer it, I was continuously descending.
A clean, straight corridor, not at all like ancient ruins.
The path would remain narrow for a while, then suddenly open into a wide cavern where monsters would occasionally appear.
"Kaaak!"
Befitting the name 'Tomb of the Lesser Demon,' a succession of mindless fiends, barely demonic, attacked me.
Some had the form of four-legged chimeras, others the form of humans.
Even the human-shaped ones, with their hideously distorted faces and the fiendish wings or tails attached to them, made it abundantly clear they were inhuman.
Looking at them made me miss the Hero's sword I once wielded.
If it were the Holy Sword that vanquishes evil, I could have wiped them all out in a single blow.
Twirl.
My body spun once, and moonlight settled on the tip of my sword.
[Moonlight Slash (D)]
- Unleashes a powerful slash attack in a 360-degree arc.
- (Instant Cast) Upon a successful block
- (D-Rank) After casting the skill, enter Quick-Draw Stance (30-second cooldown to re-enter Quick-Draw Stance)
An enhanced version of the slash skill, 'Moonlight Slash.'
Its 180-degree attack range had been extended to 360 degrees.
But the most important part was the 'Quick-Draw Stance' I entered after using the skill.
It was an offense-focused stance that explosively increased my agility stat and allowed me to use powerful Moonlight Slashes consecutively with no cast time.
However, I couldn't 'Block' while in the 'Quick-Draw Stance.'
A true all-or-nothing offensive stance.
If I wanted to block an attack, I had to return to a normal sword stance.
However.
"If I'm fast enough, there's no need to block attacks."
Of course, my movements weren't as fluid as they were in my days as the Hero when I used mana.
I felt my body grow lighter after casting Moonlight Slash.
I lowered my stance and brought my sword to my hip.
Shnk.
My body soon glided through the monsters.
Having already penetrated the fiendish horde, the gleam of my sword flashed repeatedly around me.
Fwoosh-fwoosh-fwoosh-fwoosh!
"Kaaaaah!"
The fiends couldn't withstand my 'Moonlight Slash' and fell one after another.
"Grrrrrr!"
From the side, a chimera with the head of a wolf charged at me.
Sshhh.
My body slid behind the monster.
The 'Counterattack' skill, usable in Quick-Draw Stance.
It was a technique that allowed me to instantly get behind a monster with my lightened movements.
Snap.
"Kruong?"
The wolf chimera that had lunged to bite me snapped at empty air.
Shlaaack!
Wobble.
Having lost its head in vain, the wolf chimera collapsed onto the corridor floor.
"Hoo."
After clearing out a group of fiends, I sheathed my sword and caught my breath.
I smiled brightly.
"Now I feel more like a swordsman."
I'd tested my current strength enough on the monsters in this elite dungeon.
Have I gotten pretty strong now?
With slightly lighter steps, I moved toward the dungeon's core.
Thump, thump.
And then, I reached a massive cavern, on a completely different scale from the ones before.
Just how far underground have I come?
How high is the ceiling?
It was so high that I couldn't see the top in the darkness; the ceiling was impossibly far above.
I gaped, looking around the dim cavern.
"This place is..."
Probably the lair of the first named boss.
The moment I stepped into the cavern.
Fwoosh.
Blue torches flared to life on all the walls.
A vast cavern with no obstacles.
But here and there near the walls, I could see some incongruous things.
Wow! Skeletons!
I'm no expert on human anatomy, but judging by the clothes on the skeletons and the weapons scattered alongside them, they were unmistakably human.
They seemed to be the corpses of NPCs who had come here and died.
Considering the name 'Tomb of the Lesser Demon,' I wondered if this dungeon was tied to some kind of story.
And, in the center of the now fully-lit cavern.
'It' was there.
A massive body covered in black scales, shimmering in the light of the blue torches.
Its girth was three meters? Four?
In any case, it looked like three or four people with their arms outstretched wouldn't be able to encircle it.
Along with reptilian wings, the head of a lizard finally came into view.
Its form was...
"A d-dragon?"
No, dragons aren't this small.
And dragons have four legs in addition to their wings.
Like the pterosaurs that once lived on Earth, this thing's name was...
"A wyvern."
Right, that was the name.
I'd seen them on the Astria Continent before.
But it didn't seem like the kind of monster that would appear in the depths of a tomb-like ruin.
Well, it's a game, so there must be some detailed lore.
This is definitely not an easy monster.
It's different from a dragon, but this creature could also spew something similar to a breath attack.
Back when I was the Hero, I could have dealt with it easily, but...
The wyvern and my current self.
The stark difference in our power soon became clear in numbers.
Grrrk.
The wyvern raised its massive, black-scaled body.
Through the interface that finally appeared, I could see its HP.
"Whoa."
210,000.
A marvelous number that could only elicit awe.
Compared to the 'Orc King,' which had a lot of HP, this was almost seven times as much.
The stats of the named monster had skyrocketed with just a one-region difference.
"Th-the mob stat inflation is insane."
I grimaced.
But I've also gotten considerably stronger.
I raised my sword with vigor.
Moonlight Slash, and Quick-Draw Stance.
This is a good chance to test out a new attack cycle using them.
Beep.
As I stepped into the wyvern's perception range, I heard the system sound indicating I'd drawn its aggro.
The wyvern rolled its pupils once, like a lizard, and then stared at me.
It had definitely recognized me.
I carefully moved forward.
First, I'll maintain my blocking stance and deal with its normal patterns one by one.
Kaaaaaaah!!
"Ugh!"
Ruuuumble!
The wyvern's ear-splitting roar filled the cavern, and a powerful shockwave spread out in all directions.
My body stiffened for a moment from its aftershock.
Flap.
The wyvern spread its massive wings, flapped them once, and charged toward me with a speed that belied its huge body.
Kaaaaaaah!
[First Named Boss]
[Level 27 Black Wyvern]
[HP 210,000/210,000]
*
Kaaaaaaah!
Clang!
The wyvern's claws swung at me.
But my 'Block' skill intercepted the attack without a problem.
Whoosh.
Next, the wyvern's heavy tail swung toward me.
Clang!
This, too, was blocked.
I calmly continued to block the wyvern's attacks with my 'Block' skill.
A head slam, a claw swipe, and a tail swing.
Three basic patterns that could be blocked.
And then.
Flap.
The wyvern flapped its wings.
Fwip-fwip-fwip-fwip!
The wyvern's black scales shot out from all directions, aiming for my entire body.
If it keeps flinging its scales around like that, won't it eventually look like a plucked chicken?
After that brief, silly thought, I activated my backstep skill to dodge the scales.
That attack couldn't be blocked.
I tried to 'Block' it at first, but the densely packed scales pierced through my guard and embedded themselves all over my body.
A powerful scale attack that wiped out more than half my HP in one go.
After taking such a painful hit on my first try, I had no choice but to retreat with tears in my eyes.
But it's a different story if you know it's coming.
I could now handle all of its normal patterns.
I decided to be a little more daring with my attacks.
Calmly weaving 'Thrust' skills between blocks to chip away at the wyvern's HP, I used 'Moonlight Slash' for the first time during its tail swing pattern.
Shlaaack!
With this 'Moonlight Slash,' I shifted into Quick-Draw Stance.
The next pattern was the scale fling.
Flap.
The wyvern flapped its wings.
This time, instead of 'Backstep,' I used 'Counterattack,' which was available in Quick-Draw Stance.
Sshhh.
My body slid in a flash, taking up a position behind the wyvern.
Fwoosh-fwoosh-fwoosh-fwoosh!
Moonlight gathered on the tip of my sword again and again.
The consecutive 'Moonlight Slash' skills I could use in Quick-Draw Stance rapidly depleted the wyvern's HP.
Kaaaaak!
The wyvern let out a pained roar.
The wyvern quickly spun its massive body and slammed its head toward me.
The named boss's swift attack, far surpassing any player's agility stat, was impossible to dodge even with the agility boost from Quick-Draw Stance.
But I still had my block.
Clang!
Disengaging Quick-Draw Stance and returning to my normal sword stance, I calmly blocked the wyvern's next attack.
I gave a triumphant smile.
"This is it."
The wyvern's 'Scale Fling' attack was powerful and wide-ranging, but it also had a very long delay before the next move.
If I could get behind it during that window, I could deal a lot of damage.
'Quick-Draw Stance' and 'Moonlight Slash.'
The new swordsman attack cycle I'd learned unleashed an explosive amount of damage in a short time.
Of course, it had the disadvantage of making me vulnerable to attacks since I couldn't use Block in 'Quick-Draw Stance,' but all I had to do was cram it into a large pattern delay like this.
[First Named Boss]
[Level 27 Black Wyvern]
[HP 157,050/210,000]
I'd chipped away its HP faster than I expected.
But I didn't let my guard down.
Just like the named bosses in the last elite dungeon, this one probably had a special pattern that would trigger once its HP dropped below a certain percentage.
As I expected, the 'Black Wyvern' did not disappoint.
I almost wish it had.
Kaaaaaaah!
Flap, flap.
Once its HP dropped below 75%, the wyvern flapped its wings several times in place.
Flap, flap, flap.
Its massive body began to rise slowly into the air.
"Gasp."
I broke out in a cold sweat.
That's right.
A very obvious fact.
A beast with wings... could fly.
Kaaaaaaah