Chapter 32: Hallelujah
Holy attribute enemy struck. Attribute damage applied.
Target stunned for 4 seconds.
Mainades had fallen into more panic than expected, triggering an unexpected critical hit.
Nice!
This was a once-in-a-lifetime chance.
If I miss this, there won't be a next time!
No way a monster like that would go down from one ambush success.
He had to cram in as much damage as possible during these 4 seconds!
Pow-pow-pow-bam!
"Kah... kahak!"
Carpe's fists and feet began moving like flashes of lightning.
-This never gets old no matter how many times I see it. How the hell does he move like that?
Carpe was just an ordinary college dropout.
He'd never formally trained in martial arts, nor was he an expert in human anatomy. He'd never studied that stuff specifically.
But the experience points he'd accumulated climbing to #2 in the arena had transformed him from a regular college kid into a combat machine.
-You bastard. Just admit it already. You're ex-special forces or got kidnapped as a kid and turned into a cyborg, right?
I'm an ordinary college student.
-Ordinary my ass. If that's ordinary, then Lotte Mart is a corner store. Ordinary? Get outta here if you don't wanna die.
I'm focusing, so don't talk to me!
-Damn, he even has the leisure to reply in the middle of this?
No matter what Cheonma Jijon blabbered from the sidelines, Carpe silently kept his limbs flying.
Pow-pow-pow-bam!
"Ah, aaak!"
He tried weapon drops twice mid-DPS, but sadly couldn't pry that scythe from her hand.
Instead, he relentlessly targeted vitals.
Philtrum, jaw, solar plexus, and so on.
Like a machine, without a millimeter of error, he struck the same spots over and over.
Holy attribute enemy struck. Attribute damage applied.
Successfully repeated attacks on the same vital spot in a short time. Additional damage triggered.
Right ankle repeatedly struck. Enemy movement speed reduced by 20% for a set duration.
"How... how dare you!"
Unfortunately, the one-sided DPS window didn't last.
The 4 seconds were up, and Mainades, regaining her senses, swung her scythe wide.
But Carpe, who had precisely tracked the stun timer, was already well out of the scythe's range.
"You... you! I'll kill you. Tear you to shreds!"
The pristine white hat symbolizing a priest had vanished somewhere.
Her beautifully flowing hair was now a tangled mess, and her face twisted like a demon's.
"I swear to the gods, you won't die easy!"
She glared at Carpe with murderous intent and screamed.
The sweet, smiling pure priestess from the start was gone.
Seeing that, Carpe smirked and said,
"Polite character trait. Switches to casual when pissed."
-...You sure know how to pull aggro.
"Die!"
Mainades charged with a ferocious roar, sprinting full speed at Carpe.
But...
"Heave-ho."
Carpe effortlessly slipped out of her reach once more.
As expected, not that fast.
-...Tsk.
Part of it was the movement debuff, but even without it, Mainades wasn't particularly quick.
-She can't be fast.
Mainades was an invincible boss.
Players had to kite her as much as possible and plant the token at home base. That's how the dungeon was designed to be cleared.
What if an invincible boss was also fast?
Then no one could clear it. She's near-invincible in combat, so she has to be slow to make sense.
Once you grasped that, the rest became surprisingly manageable.
There was a classic way to handle a brute-force strong but slow tank.
"Fire Arrow!"
Kiting.
Like keeping a steady distance from a kite, maintain distance from the enemy while peppering them with ranged attacks!
"No matter how stacked a melee DPS-tank gets, without a gap-closer, they're just ranged bait."
-Cowardly bastard. Dragging a sub-car to the man's battlefield (top lane).
"Enjoyer trait. Main champ is top Teemo."
-Trash...
"Anyway, kite her down like this and she'll eventually... Huh?"
But Carpe had overlooked one thing.
This Ruana's Pit dungeon was only accessible to heirs of the Magic King, the mage line.
And naturally, its invincible boss had countermeasures against magic.
"Hmph! Pathetic!"
Just before Carpe's magic arrow hit Mainades, a translucent barrier formed in front of her eyes.
Clang!
The magic arrow and barrier collided, both evaporating instantly.
Startled, Carpe hurriedly widened the gap.
"What the—?!"
-Hmm. Auto Magic Shield. 5-star skill exclusive to cleric classes. Effect's just like you saw.
"Auto-magic defense? What kind of broken skill is that for 5-star?!"
-It's not that OP on inspection.
It couldn't block physical skills, and not all magic either.
It fully blocked 3-star or lower magic skills, halved damage from 5-star or lower, and couldn't block 6-star+ at all.
That alone made it solid, but Auto Magic Shield had a fatal flaw.
-Cooldown's 5 minutes.
In reality, it auto-blocked low-level magic once every 5 minutes.
And since it was cleric-exclusive, demand wasn't high. Priests didn't tank anyway.
"Got it? Then Fire Arrow again!"
Clang!
"Useless! Cooldown's 5 minutes!"
-That was the standard Auto Magic Shield explanation. You didn't think an invincible boss uses a basic skill, right?
"Still, that's too much..."
Carpe kept distance while firing magic arrows, figuring out the mana shield recharge via trial and error.
5 seconds.
Not minutes—seconds.
And Elemental Arrow's cooldown? Also 5 seconds.
The two skills canceled eternally.
"5 seconds? You're kidding!"
-Kya, this dungeon's well-designed. Gotta be that tough to call it invincible against mages.
"What a crazy game."
What now?
His only ranged magic was the 3-star Elemental Arrow. But it couldn't pierce the shield.
Melee was risky against that brute...
Glance.
The corner timer ticked relentlessly. He couldn't kite forever.
I have a plan, but...
Timing was everything. One slip, and it'd be game over—quest failed, Magic Overlord growth stalled.
...Or just play safe, plant the token at home?
-Cheonma avatar birth: 1 minute away.
"Screw it. If I die, I die. Can't watch that happen!"
Cheonma's words sealed it.
Carpe charged straight at Mainades.
Once close enough, he fired another Fire Arrow at her face.
Clang!
The Fire Arrow exploded against the shield, billowing black smoke.
5 seconds until shield regen.
"Hmph!"
The rising black smoke obscured Mainades' vision. She scoffed at the obvious ploy.
"Think this smoke fools me?"
Hated to admit it, but this heretic wasn't ordinary.
A mage with impossible melee sense.
Melee's more dangerous with this guy.
So when he reversed course and closed in, she focused fully.
Whoosh!
She easily dodged the punch slicing through the smoke.
As the fist cut air, Carpe's guard naturally opened.
End of the line.
Mainades tensed every muscle to swing her scythe full force.
4 seconds until shield regen.
But Carpe hadn't charged blindly on smoke alone.
He spread his clenched fist wide.
Magic Weapon Enigma's additional option triggered.
Enigma stored skills can now be activated 'chantless'.
His hidden ace.
The moment Enigma's second option activated.
The stored skill in Enigma was...
Tssing!
A single 'Ice Arrow' shot rapidly at Mainades' forehead.
An ambush impossible to dodge without knowing about Enigma.
"Ahaha!"
3 seconds until shield regen.
But incredibly, she tilted her head back as if waiting, dodging the Ice Arrow!
Carpe—and even Cheonma—were genuinely shocked by the unforeseen development.
"How?!"
"Good plan, wrong opponent."
A necklace with a blue gem embedded gleamed softly at her throat.
-No way? Dragon's Eye?!
Dodgable only if unaware of Enigma. But she dodged.
Simple conclusion: She already knew about Enigma.
Thanks to the legendary item revealing enemy 'equipped items' and 'skills'!
-Why's a super-rare like that in a low-level zone!
Even the ancient vet Cheonma had seen it once in 10+ years—and only from afar.
"Such a pity~"
She'd activated Dragon's Eye since Carpe entered the dungeon.
Confirmed skills: Four total. One legendary item.
8-star Magic Engineering.
7-star Elemental Mastery.
3-star Elemental Arrow.
3-star Striking.
Only one attack skill: 3-star Elemental Arrow.
Factor in the legendary item's skill storage, and attack magic maxed at two uses. Thus...
"No more spells left? Little rat?"
~1 second until shield regen.
Enough time for Mainades to slice Carpe at least thrice.
-Dodge!
Cheonma's lament dripped with regret.
But sadly, it didn't reach her.
"There is. One left."
"Desperate bluff to survive? How pathetic."
Dragon's Eye had confirmed it.
No skills left. Confident, she swung her scythe—and Carpe grinned.
"Not me. Him."
-Dodge, idiot! Look behind you!
Cheonma's voice as Carpe's Patron Spirit couldn't reach Mainades!
Just before her scythe cleaved Carpe...
Boom!!!
A bolt of lightning pierced Mainades' body.
"Kyaaaaah!"
Calling Thunder struck. Paralyzed for 5 seconds.
"Phew. Close call."
Carpe rubbed his neck. A slight timing miss and...
"Kyuuu!"
"Yeah, good job, Hyang. 10 extra acorns!"
"Kyuuu-hut!"
The one who triggered Calling Thunder was none other than Mukhyang.
Spell of Eight (8-star)
Mastery over eight attribute magics: fire, water, lightning, ice, light, darkness, plant, mind.
1. Acquire and use corresponding attribute magics without penalty (8-star or lower only).
2. +10% damage to those attributes.
3. Imbue those attributes onto target's gear.
An epic pet's unique skill superior to Carpe's Elemental Mastery for those eight attributes.
That's why Carpe hadn't learned Calling Thunder himself, handing it to Mukhyang.
"Grk... this much damage... Once paralysis ends!"
Paralyzed Mainades gritted her teeth.
'Paralysis' amplified skill damage during its duration alongside stun.
But it was fine. She could endure.
Magic Shield regenerated just before the bolt, halving damage.
Considering level gap and her HP, 5 seconds was doable.
"Bet you're thinking that."
He hadn't counted on Calling Thunder's damage anyway.
The paralysis itself was key.
Carpe pulled a card from inventory and tore it.
Consume skill points to acquire skill?
"Acquire."
The ultimate burst skill converting all user HP/MP to damage.
That's why he'd closed in—to land it point-blank for max damage.
"Here we go."
Carpe touched Mainades' forehead with his hand.
A pure white orb—like a holy grenade—formed above her head.
Mainades paled; Carpe grinned.
"Hal~lelujah."
"N-nooooo!"
-N-nooooo!
"Yes you will!"
Flash!
The holy grenade detonated.