A Walk in the Toxic Park
Fortunately, the alliance raid was packed with healers. Priests stepped forward from all sides to begin casting their recovery spells.
"Stay still! Don't move! It's hard to target you!"
"Everyone, stay calm and hold your ground! It's not enough to kill you!"
The shouts of rankers and party leaders echoed from every direction.
Chaos was far more dangerous than the poison itself! If poisoned players panicked and acted on their own, the situation would only spiral out of control. This was especially true for a loose coalition like this alliance raid.
"I cast Detox—"
Poisonous miasma continues to rise from the dark, black swamp of demonic energy!
You have been poisoned!
"...!"
The raid hadn't even officially begun yet, but the swamp's miasma was already proving relentless. Even after the priests cast their detox spells, the poison kept rising, stubbornly re-infecting the players. It was a trap truly worthy of Hakkarias.
"It wasn't just a one-time trigger?!"
"Find the source and purify it!"
"No! It's better to just ignore it and run!"
The realization that such a powerful trap wasn't a one-off event threw the alliance raid into utter disarray.
"Party Four! Party Four, get close to the swamp and find the source of the poison!"
"I told you we should just run!"
"Hmm. It's already a total circus."
Tae-hyun and his companions, who were trailing at the very back, watched the chaos unfold. Tae-hyun turned to his group.
"The miasma is going to reach us soon, so get ready."
"Yes, sir!"
"Uh... but how?"
Cain asked, flustered. Tae-hyun's party didn't have a single healer! It was an absurd composition that no normal group would ever run, but they had grown so accustomed to traveling this way that they had completely forgotten about it.
"Just use antidote potions."
"Continuously?"
"Well, you'll just have to suck it up."
"Suck what up?"
"I mean, just endure it."
"..."
Cain silently pulled out an antidote potion. If his master told him to endure, he had to endure! However, the moment to use the potion never came.
"?"
"??"
The miasma simply didn't touch them.
"What's going on?"
"Uh... it's not coming near us?"
The toxic fog had clearly drifted toward them, but instead of touching them, it parted and flowed right past. Tae-hyun frowned in confusion. No evasion notification had popped up. What was this?
The miasma from the dark, black swamp of demonic energy actively avoids the Black Dragon, Heuk-heuk!
"...You beautiful bastard!"
Tae-hyun hugged Heuk-heuk. Bringing him along had definitely been the right call! He was actually useful!
- Heh-heh-heh. Master, this is nothing for someone of my caliber.
"Fine, fine. I'll let you brag just for today."
Tae-hyun canceled the Word of Power skill he had been preparing. He had originally planned to purify the poison and erect a barrier around them if they got infected. He hadn't actually intended to rely solely on antidote potions! Thanks to Heuk-heuk's unexpected passive effect, Tae-hyun's party bypassed the trap entirely.
But the parties ahead of them weren't so lucky. They were running around like headless chickens.
"Party Four! I told you to find the source!"
"That Alcott guy still hasn't kicked his old habits. Does he think he's still in the Guild Alliance?"
Tae-hyun clicked his tongue. Such authoritative commands might have worked back in the Guild Alliance, but they were a terrible idea in a loose alliance raid like this. It might work under normal circumstances, but who would listen to that kind of bossing around in a crisis? Party Four had only been ordered to do it because they were closest to the swamp, but to them, it just sounded like they were being told to sacrifice themselves for everyone else's benefit.
You have to coax them and sweet-talk them a bit, not just bark orders like that...
Just as Tae-hyun predicted, Party Four's leader and members revolted fiercely.
"You want us to go in there? Are you trying to get us killed?!"
"Just have all the ranged players spam purification from back here!"
"What? That won't solve anything! It's way too wide of an area to just blindly spam..."
Alcott looked dumbfounded and opened his mouth to shout again, but Crawford held him back.
"Hey. Let's just ignore it and push through."
"If we don't detoxify it, everyone from the front to the back will keep taking damage!"
"Think about it from their perspective. Would you listen to your own orders if you were them? They have absolutely nothing to gain."
"...!"
Crawford's words snapped Alcott back to reality.
"...Damn it! Charge forward! Ignore the miasma and push through!"
"Yeah, let's just go."
Still unable to let it go, Alcott glared backward and muttered, "Everyone listens when Kim Tae-hyun speaks..."
"Are you Kim Tae-hyun? Besides, the people who follow him around are basically fanatics."
"Oh, we made it through. Well, if we wiped here, that would have been..."
The Venom Golems of the Black Dragon Hakkarias have appeared!
The Venom Golems show no mercy to intruders!
Swoosh!
The moment they cleared the swamp, golems began rising from all directions. Of course, the alliance raid had expected at least this much.
"Split up by party and take them on! Begin combat!"
Tae-hyun eyed the newly appeared Venom Golems greedily. I can harvest some essences, and if they drop poison, I can upgrade my skills! Tae-hyun quickly calculated the potential profit. However, the Venom Golems didn't even spare Tae-hyun's group a single glance.
The Venom Golems of the Black Dragon Hakkarias actively avoid the Black Dragon, Heuk-heuk!
"..."
While everyone else was locked in fierce combat, taking on one or two golems each, Tae-hyun's party felt strangely ostracized. Cain asked hesitantly, "Hey. Should we just walk right in?"
"Ah... no. We don't know what's waiting inside, so let's stick with the main group as much as possible."
You have defeated a Venom Golem!
The poison explodes!
"?!"
"That son of a bitch Hakkarias...!"
The alliance raid was learning firsthand just how venomous and irritating the deceased Black Dragon truly was. The traps were layered on top of each other! When they finally defeated a golem that spewed deadly poison, its entire body detonated, showering the area in toxic fluid. Eventually, players from one of the parties began getting forced to log out. And they hadn't even set foot inside the lair yet!
"Toba! A golem is coming! Block it!"
"Ugh! My feet are stuck too!"
Toba's party, which had looked down on Tae-hyun's group earlier, was also cornered. They had pushed forward without clearing the swamp's miasma, only to run straight into the golems. Fighting under conditions several times harder than usual was exhausting. In the midst of the frantic battle, Toba suddenly remembered the small Korean party trailing behind them. If we're struggling this much, are they already dead? They were at the very back, so they wouldn't have been able to get help from other parties...
Maybe I should have helped them...? No, I was too busy saving my own skin!
Feeling a twinge of guilt, Toba stole a glance backward. And saw an unbelievable sight.
"???"
Tae-hyun's party was sitting down, comfortably resting! A newly spawned Venom Golem glanced at Tae-hyun's group, carefully sidestepped them, and marched straight toward Toba's party.
"?????"
"Toba! What are you doing?!"
"Uh... right!"
He wanted to keep watching, but his party members yelled at him. Every second counted, so why was he staring backward like an idiot? Toba hurriedly turned his head back and forced himself to focus on the fight.
"This..."
"I think we miscalculated..."
Alcott, Crawford, and the other rankers nodded in agreement. Though they didn't say it out loud, they were all thinking the same thing.
We heard Hakkarias was dead, so we came, but this difficulty is insane!
Even before entering the lair, players were logging out left and right. At this rate, it wouldn't be surprising if they suffered a total party wipe once they stepped inside. Alcott thought to himself, We took this too lightly. Clearing the lair with this alliance raid is definitely impossible.
But even though he thought that... no one dared to say "let's call it off" out loud. It was a pointless suggestion anyway! If they went to the alliance raid and said, "Everyone! This seems impossible, so let's stop!" what kind of reaction would they get?
"Screw off! You just want to monopolize the loot for yourselves!"
That was the only response they would receive. In fact, one relatively kind and naive ranker had tried to gently suggest it to the alliance party leaders, only to return with nothing but a barrage of angry protests.
"...Well, what can we do? We have to keep going."
"It's their choice, after all."
Since the parties were so stubborn, the rankers had no reason to back out either. Honestly, they were the ones least likely to die here anyway! No matter how dangerous the lair was, they were confident in their ability to survive, and having so many meat shields made it even easier to avoid danger. They might get blamed later, but none of the rankers cared about that.
In the end, the rankers made their decision: keep advancing! They had nothing to lose.
"Alright! The lair is right in front of us! Let's go!"
But they didn't know one crucial truth: the most dangerous thing in any battle is an incompetent ally.
The alliance raid arrived at the entrance of the lair, battered and bruised. It looked like nearly a third of their forces had already logged out. Their numbers had shrunk drastically.
"The problem is how to open the entrance."
Hakkarias's Lair occupied an entire massive mountain. The grand, imposing gates set into the base of the mountain were enough to make any intruder shrink back in intimidation.
"Crawford. Can you detect any magic?"
"Hold on, let me..."
Rumble!
The grand gates swung open on their own.
"???"
"Is... is it a trap?"
Suspicion arose instantly. Of course they were suspicious. They had faced all kinds of vicious traps just to get here, and now the gates were simply opening for them?
However, a completely different message window popped up for Tae-hyun's party.
The presence of a Black Dragon has been detected. The gates of the lair are opening!
You have opened the gates of Hakkarias's Lair! Your Reputation has increased significantly!
...Should I have just come here alone?
- Heh-heh-heh. Master, please praise me more.
"Yes, yes. Good job."
Toba, who was walking ahead, casually approached and asked, "Did you guys... finish off all those Venom Golems earlier and then just rest?"
"Of course."
"!!"
Toba gasped. I looked down on them because of their small numbers, but they're actually monstrously strong!
- Grrrrr!
"...?"
A heavy, low growl echoed from deep within the lair. The regular players couldn't understand it, but Tae-hyun, Yong-yong, and Heuk-heuk understood perfectly.
Words laced with a Dragon's Curse echo from within the lair!
The Giant Warrior, Mad Langdberg, is charging toward you!
"Who is Langdberg?"
- I do not know who he is, but he is undoubtedly a highly dangerous foe, Master!
"Yeah, I think so too. But we have Heuk-heuk, so we should be fine, right?"
- Hehe. You can count on me, Master.
Yong-yong glared at Heuk-heuk. Ever since they arrived at the lair, the Black Dragon had been acting exceptionally cocky.
"A giant is coming. Get ready."
"What giant?"
Toba, who was standing in front of Tae-hyun, tilted his head in confusion at their conversation.
Boom!
"Aaargh!"
A massive boulder suddenly flew out from the open gates and exploded. Then, a thunderous roar shook the surrounding area.
- Intruders! Intruders! Kill! Kill!
"Is... is that really a giant?"
Cain stammered, completely taken aback. The Giant race was big, but they weren't this big, were they?!
Thud! Thud! Crash!
Langdberg began wildly swinging his massive club. With every swing, the ground shattered, kicking up miniature hurricanes. The alliance raid was swept away instantly. It was an overwhelming display of destructive power that left them completely helpless.
"L-level analysis!"
The target's level is too high to be measured accurately.
Target Level: 600+
Are you crazy?!
Alcott was horrified. How could a mere gatekeeper be this strong...?!
"Heuk-heuk. Can I really count on you?"
- Uh... well... uh...
Heuk-heuk stared at Langdberg. The giant was the size of a small mountain. He looked completely out of his mind, but surely he would recognize a Black Dragon and refrain from attacking, right?
Whoosh!
"Refrain, my ass!"
Tae-hyun lunged forward like lightning and parried Langdberg's strike. Langdberg stumbled back, his eyes widening in surprise. He couldn't believe someone had actually blocked his attack!
"Heuk-heuk?"
- W-well, it seems that because he's completely insane...
"Yeah, I get it."
Tae-hyun immediately gave up on Heuk-heuk's dragon authority and gestured to his party. The alliance raid's purpose was practically over anyway. They would just abandon them and slip inside!
And Tae-hyun wasn't the only one with this idea. The other parties were already moving fast. Terrified players fled, while those who still had some fight left charged forward. They would bypass Langdberg and head straight into the lair!
By the way, how is that guy so strong? Did Hakkarias cast some kind of spell on him?