Dungeon

"Arang."

"Oh? You're here!"

I was drilling skill after skill, trying to get the feel of them back into my body, when Pink Berry found me.

"Did you get home all right?"

"Yeah. Got in fine. What about you?"

"Me? The second you left, I logged straight into Legacy of Raid. So—want to throw up a party listing?"

The level-sixty dungeon Underground Cave was Legacy of Raid's first real dungeon, and it dropped level-seventy gear. Unlike most RPGs, you didn't play this game to raise your character level. You played it to raise your item level, and for that first stretch of farming, the place you went the moment you hit the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠cap of sixty was Underground Cave.

It was a four-person dungeon, meant to be run as one tank, two damage dealers, and one healer. You didn't strictly have to clear it with four. Fewer was allowed, and so was more. Go ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠in short, though, and the clear dragged; fail to finish within the time limit and the dungeon enraged, the boss swelling until a clear was all but impossible. Bring a crowd, on the other hand, and the number of drops stayed exactly the same, so the time you spent farming only got longer. Most people simply took the four the game had designed it for.

Right now our party was a Sword Master for damage and a White Mage for healing. We still needed a tank, and one more damage dealer.

"Who should we take?"

There were plenty of jobs—Swordsman, Warrior, Gladiator, Archer, Assassin, Sorcerer, and on from there. Second advancements branched off those, and the list only got longer.

"You're melee, Arang, so it'd be easier if we had a ranged damage dealer."

"Yeah, true. So I'll lock the listing to ranged jobs only... and then a tank."

Tanks were scarce, both in jobs and in people willing to play them. Most RPGs ran short on tanks, but Legacy of Raid was supposed to be especially barren. It was a full-dive world. You had to face the monster, the boss, right there in front of your eyes, and the fear that rolled off a tank buster was no joke. I understood that perfectly well. The first time I saw the tank buster on the Queen Spider, a field boss, it had been genuinely chilling. At least we didn't have to recruit a healer. Thanks to Pink Berry, that slot was already filled.

"Nobody's coming."

Thirty minutes had passed since I posted the listing, and not a single person had applied. Plenty of people were running the first max-level dungeon. The problem, as usual, seemed to be the title. It said heading party.

"Almost nobody's doing heading parties at this stage."

Pink Berry was right. People usually avoided them. They ate far too much time.

A heading party, put simply, meant you looked up nothing—no guides, no videos—and learned the fight by slamming your head straight into it. The trouble was that most Korean players wanted no part of that. They dug up the Ryutube guide first, got the mechanics more or less memorized, and only then joined a progression party. But I wanted to meet every dungeon and every raid in this full-dive game with my own eyes and my own body, the first time. Come in having already watched the guide, and that first-look feeling—the flutter of it—was gone.

"If it stays like this, we've got a problem... hmm."

The final raid was still a long way off, and if every single dungeon took this long to fill, that was a real problem. So I'd have to cheat a little. Find someone with time to spare, the way Pink Berry had it, who'd actually humor my heading parties.

Veterans did turn up in heading parties now and then. They came to watch the person banging their head against the wall. Even if they already knew the gimmicks and the guide, they kept their mouths shut until the one doing the heading asked for help. While I was at it, I might as well recruit people who could stick with me until the farming for raid was finished.

I told Pink Berry what I was thinking.

"You know someone?"

"Yeah. There's a streamer who's also a Ryutuber. Kang Hangil."

"Oh—the guy who came for that interview?"

"Yeah. He thanked me for doing it and said to call him if I ever needed help. I'll call him over and stick him on tank. From what I saw, his tank's max level too."

"Won't he be really busy, though?"

"So I'll message him and see."

And he was famous. Wouldn't he be able to drag a damage dealer in from somewhere? I sent a whisper to Kang Hangil, the man I'd added back when he interviewed me.

Kang Hangil was one of the best-known streamers and Ryutubers in Legacy of Raid. He had already been famous, and being the only person to land an interview with Lee Arang had made him more famous still. Lately he had been roaming field bosses, taking on the challenges that had sprung up because of her.

Other field bosses, cleared alongside a healer, had started falling to people willing to grind the clock down. A solo clear of the Orc Chieftain still did not exist.

Today, too, he had finished his raids and was about to go after the Orc Chieftain when a whisper alert chimed.

Ding.

"Huh? What? A whisper?"

Hangil was famous enough that whispers poured in from viewers and strangers alike, so he kept every alert off by default. Only the important people were allowed to ping him. He opened the chat at once.

"Huh? Why's she messaging all of a sudden?"

"No, no—one second."

He skimmed Lee Arang's whisper as fast as he could. She hadn't contacted him ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠once since the interview, and what arrived out of nowhere was, of all things, a call for a tank slave.

"Everyone, Orc Chieftain attempts are postponed indefinitely."

"Miss Arang hit max level and messaged me to run a dungeon together."

"I already told her I'm in. We're heading to the Underground Cave."

Hangil sprinted for the Underground Cave as fast as he could and pulled up in front of Lee Arang, who was waving one hand high and hard in his direction.

"You got here awfully fast."

"I ran straight over. Ah—and I'm live right now. Is that all right? I've got the screen hidden for the moment."

"It's fine. We're going to clear the dungeons, and if I'd meant to keep you from streaming that whole time, I would've felt too bad to call. Oh, this is Pink Berry, my partner healer."

"Ah, hello. I'm Pink Berry, a White Mage."

"A pleasure to meet you. I'm Kang Hangil, Berserker."

"Mr. Hangil, you did actually read that we're going in heading today, right?"

"Yes. I read it properly. What kind of tank would you like?"

"Let's decide by the tank Pink Berry wants, more than what I ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠want."

"I'm confident in my healing, so whatever tank you'd like to play is fine."

"Are you sure? My tanks are max level, but the gear really is just the basic set, and I can't exactly say the skill is anything special."

At that, Arang laughed.

"Oh, come on. We've got a complete beginner standing right here. What's there to worry about? Oh, and we need one more damage dealer. Know anyone you can bring? Someone with a lot of free time."

"I'll ask around the guild."

"Um... would it be all right if I turned the stream on now?"

"Yes! Pink Berry, you're fine with it too, right?"

"Yeah. It's fine."

"Then..."

"Ah, before that—Pink Berry said she's starting Ryutube, so could you give her some tips later?"

"That much I can certainly do. Then I'll switch it on."

Hangil worked the menu, and a translucent round camera appeared over his head. Arang stepped straight into its line of sight, waved, and greeted them.

"Hey, everyone."

"Miss Arang is a private citizen. Everyone, please watch the chat."

A damage dealer from Kang Hangil's guild arrived—a sorcerer-line job that worked fire and lightning. A Mage.

A four-person party, thrown together on the spot.

That was the party that walked into the Underground Cave.

"I'm counting on you all!"

Arang was first through the entrance. She gave a little hop and drew her weapon.

"I'm going in!"

Hangil hefted a greatsword as tall as he was and broke into a run.

It wasn't long before the dungeon's monsters showed themselves. Four enormous rats, each a good meter long, flashed crimson eyes, and Hangil opened with the tank-only skill Roar, seizing their aggro.

The instant that aggro locked, Arang started building what she had practiced all day—Chain Slash, and the ten stacks of the Heartstrike Sword.

Pentagon struck one rat and laid down five stacks. From there she fed the Sword Master's skills in at perfect intervals, not a hair off the timing, shoving area attacks through the pack so the Chain Slash buff never dropped for even a moment.

Hangil startled at the aggro values suddenly running wild. He had never thought of himself as a particularly good tank, but he had thought his aggro control, at least, was solid—and in an instant, one monster's aggro spiked off him.

"Careful!"

He shouted it as the rat lunged for Arang.

Clang!

The sound of the parry rang out, and Arang killed the rat where it stood.