My First Raid

Raid. Raid. That was the true flower of any RPG. It was the kind of content where you teamed up with other players, combined your strength to take down a boss, and claimed the rewards. And in the two months I’d been playing this game, I had never once done a raid. No, I couldn’t. My class was Mage. In La Mae, it was considered the absolute worst class—called all sorts of lovely nicknames like glass cannon, high-difficulty controls, long-range damage dealer only, and fragile artillery. No party would take someone like me.

Of course, a few viewers had offered to run with me, but I turned them all down. The relationship between me and my viewers had to stay with me firmly on top and them below. The moment I asked them for a favor, the power dynamic would flip. I’d become the viewer, and they’d become the one in control. And once that happened, it could happen again. I had to prevent that at all costs.

So once I secretly opened my own party, but this time no one even applied to join. That was because I’d already made a name for myself as a notorious PK user back then. But now things are different…!

Today, one of the regular raid members got into a car accident, so the Paladin guy had no choice but to call me as a substitute. Now I can finally do a proper raid…!

I moved my mouse cursor over the microphone button. Turning this on would let me talk to the raid members. Gulp.My first raid party in my entire life….

Gathering my courage, I turned on the mic.

“…Hello.”

“……!”

Without thinking, I clasped both hands over my mouth. The raid members were actually real people. They weren’t all AIs or anything, right? I needed to pull myself together so I wouldn’t start crying.

Is that the Paladin guy?

My eyes landed on the Paladin standing alone on the monitor. Come to think of it, he hadn’t said a single word since I joined.

“Paladin, aren’t you turning on your mic?”

“Aw, that’s too bad…”

I’d wanted to thank him for inviting me, but I guessed I’d have to wait until after the raid. The female Martial Artist who seemed to be the raid leader started organizing the party. There were eight members total, split into two groups of four.

Party 1

1. Warrior

2. Rogue

3. Martial Artist

4. Priest

Party 2

5. Martial Artist (Raid Leader)

6. Mage

7. Warrior

8. Priest

The moment I was assigned to Party 2, I greeted the other members. Right after, the raid leader began giving instructions.

“I got mine too.”

My very first raid. My heart was pounding like crazy. It was beating so hard I actually clutched my chest. I guess there’s no helping feeling nervous, huh?

This raid had only been out for three weeks. Since the boss respawned weekly, if we succeeded once we’d have to wait another full week. The other raid members had only beaten the boss twice so far, and I had zero raid experience. I absolutely could not make any mistakes.

I turned off my mic and asked the viewers.

“…Do you think I can actually do this?”

The viewers’ encouragement didn’t calm me down at all. Maybe I should do a fortune reading? To avoid causing as much trouble as possible, I’d watched strategy videos and memorized every pattern, but variables could pop up at any time.

I clicked Accept. The world around me warped instantly. The other raid members were beside me, and ahead stood a massive, imposing golden door.

Creeeeak.

As we approached, the door opened on its own. The sight beyond was breathtaking.

“Whoa…”

The exclamation slipped out before I could stop it. The ground was completely covered in gold. Rivers of liquid gold flowed everywhere, and stacks of gold bars lined every path.

“Everyone remember? Don’t get swept away by the water.”

All of us, including me, nodded.

The boss’s voice rang out. To reach him, we’d have to dodge several obstacles. One of them was the wave-like river of gold rushing toward us.

Don’t get nervous…!

If even a single drop of that golden river touched you, your character would turn into solid gold and get swept away to their death. In other words, just don’t touch it.

Immediately after, a wave surged from behind us. We sprinted toward the castle gate. Everyone except me used their mobility skills. In this section, you literally couldn’t survive without one. And a Mage only had one mobility skill.

Trick. A skill that swapped positions with another character. It honestly couldn’t even be called a mobility skill.

Guess I have no choice but to use a dirty trick?

“Rogue, sorry about this.”

Before using my skill, I quickly grabbed the Rogue, pointed my staff downward, and activated it.

Skill: Gust Wind

Since the knockback effect didn’t work on myself, I needed someone next to me.

The knockback launched us high into the sky. The Rogue screamed the whole way up.

Oh right, everyone else is using VR gear.

I’d forgotten that VR connected your senses and made the game feel incredibly real. I’m kinda curious what it feels like. Watching the screaming Rogue made me genuinely curious. I should buy a VR headset later when I have time.

We landed safely at the castle gate. Thanks to my glass cannon body, we both took fall damage, but that was easily fixed with heals. The raid leader was impressed as she watched us land safely.

“Oh! I didn’t expect that kind of method! That’s amazing!”

“…Haha, thank you. When you play a Mage, you end up learning all sorts of weird tricks.”

I really didn’t want to know these kinds of tricks in the first place.

“Could you teach me how to play Mage sometime?”

“Are you serious? You’ll regret it.”

I sincerely hoped she wouldn’t make an irreversible choice on a whim. If I could go back to the past, I’d beat the crap out of my past self for picking Mage until I died.

We entered the golden castle. The moment we stepped inside, the first boss greeted us.

A giant golden statue knight wielding a greatsword began to move. The raid consisted of three gates total, and the Golden Statue Knight was the first. In the early phase, we dodged the minor patterns, applied raid buffs, and dealt damage.

At 156 lines of health, the Golden Knight’s first pattern would activate—golden spikes shooting up from the ground. The spikes only targeted one specific player.

A target marker appeared above my character. For a second I blanked out, but I quickly came to my senses and slapped both cheeks.

Slap!I’ve seen this pattern in my dreams a million times! I can do this!

For this pattern, the targeted player had to stand behind the boss while the rest of the raid stood in a straight line in front of it.

It’s coming!

I lined up with the others. The golden spike shot straight toward me at high speed.

Skill: Lightning Bolt

I quickly hit the boss with damage before the spike reached me. The spike sank back into ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the ground. In this pattern, the targeted player had to hit the boss with a skill. If they didn’t, every other party member would take double the normal damage.

“Success!”

All the raid members poured damage into the boss. Unfortunately, the repair Paladin got caught in a random pattern.

The boss grabbed the Paladin and hurled him far into the golden river. I was worried we’d be short on damage, but we somehow made it to the second pattern.

“…Thank you.”

To think a Mage like me was getting praised—I felt like I might cry tears of joy, but since we were still in the middle of a raid, I focused on the patterns.

The second pattern was sunlight pouring down from the sky. If you got hit by it, your character would turn into gold, and the AI would control you to attack your own allies. I had good control so I didn’t get hit, and neither did the others…

“……”

The moment I thought that, the Martial Artist from Party 1 got caught.

The Rogue stepped up to handle the now-hostile Martial Artist. The good thing about this pattern was that if you dealt enough damage, the person would return to normal. Once the Martial Artist’s health dropped a bit, control returned and they rejoined the fight against the boss.

After dodging the minor patterns and attacks, we somehow reached the final pattern.

“Everyone, hang in there! This is the last pattern!”

The final pattern was the boss’s last desperate struggle—basically a self-destruct move.

Cracks spread across the statue’s chest and shattered instantly. A massive golden heart appeared inside the boss’s body and began to swell larger and larger.

“Everyone, get to your assigned positions!”

The raid members moved to the edges and formed a heptagon. Spears were summoned according to the number of surviving players.

The moment the raid leader typed “3,” everyone hurled their golden spears at the heart in perfect sync. If even one person missed the timing, a wipe mechanic would trigger and kill the entire raid.

We had thrown the spears in perfect rhythm. The boss collapsed. The first gate was cleared, and a message popped up saying the achievement was complete. Then the MVP window began to appear.

I was secretly hoping my character’s face would show up in first place on the MVP screen.

1st — ChoiJonghyun'sWig

2nd — Cat'sMeal

3rd — OneShotOneKill

4th — ThousandYearSweetDealer

It was made up of three damage dealers and one supporter. And at the very top was my username. That meant I had dealt the most damage out of the entire raid.

Is it really okay for me to be this happy…?

To get MVP on my very first raid—I really felt like I might cry.

“Ahem, of course. This much is basic for me!”

Mages originally had the highest damage output of any class, and I hadn’t missed a single moment to deal damage, so the result was only natural.

We took a short break, but it passed by in the blink of an eye. The second gate was waiting for us.