Event Raid (3)

I'd declared myself the tank, but that didn't mean I planned to take every hit myself. I didn't have a taunt skill, after all.

KRAAAAAAAH!!

"Mad Demon! You are truly magnificent! You have no skills, yet you hold that spider so well!"

"Eii, eii! Bad spider bullying Mad Demon! Die!"

"This is sooo easyyy. Is this a raaaid? I wanna live doing ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠raaaids every daaay."

And yet the spider only attacked me. Against the women hammering its body and ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠slicing off its tentacles, it answered with the bare minimum of tentacles — but at me, who hadn't landed a single hit, it flung them like it wanted me dead.

KRAAAAAH!!!

"Girls! The spider jumped! Stay out of the green zone! Yohan! You go into the green zone!"

"Why?"

"Because you're tanking! Diamond Body is such a broken skill!"

Sophia shouted, fired up. The two adorable little ones beside her waved their arms with equal enthusiasm.

"Dad…"

Dad, you're so cool! You're so tough and amazing! Dad is the best in the universe!

My daughter was cheering me on. A man had no choice. Sometimes a man had to walk into a fight knowing full well he was about to get beaten like a dog.

I moved into the green zone. The round hole on the spider clinging to the ceiling curved into a crescent — like a smile.

"You little shit… so that was an eye…"

Where did it even eat from? The tentacles?

Thud-thud-thud-thud-thud

While I was thinking about something else entirely, the spider's back burst open and poured out a flood of baby spiders. I wanted to dodge, but the tough grass roots had bound my ankles, so I just took it.

Kii—

Kiek

Kiyuuu

Baby spiders covered in green fuzz bit into me with everything they had. My skin tickled. So this was what it felt like when parasitic plants siphoned nutrients?

"Diamond Body is seriously the best! There's a level gap and the baby spiders' teeth still can't sink in! Thanks to Yohan we can ignore one whole pattern!"

"Mad Demon! You are truly magnificent!"

"Mad Demon is Mad Demon, so of course!"

"Sooo easyyy."

The women, who'd retreated to the safe zone, chattered excitedly. I looked at Cheonsol the way a cow looks at the butcher leading it to slaughter.

I worked hard today, so I'm requesting service tonight. Whether the telepathy got through or not, Cheonsol nodded.

For my beautiful wife's mouth service, breast service, and handjob, I could endure any hardship!

"Come at me, you spider bitch!"

"…Why do you assume the spider is female?"

I ignored Cheonsol. I planted my feet firmly in the ground and covered my face like a yellow-belt taekwondo student.

In the blink of an eye, the spider leapt from the ceiling and coiled a tentacle around my arm.

Crunch-crunch

The tentacle wound tight, trying to crush bone. But it couldn't break through the defense of my fully activated Naked Armor — the one I'd cast after taking that laser beam earlier.

It left a purple bruise on the skin, but the bone was fine. I'd taken a hit. Now it was my turn!

"Attack!"

On my signal, the women swarmed in and hammered the spider.

Thwack-thwack

KRAAAAH!

"Fall back once!"

Scramble-scramble

Blue blood streaming from its carapace, the spider locked eyes on me. Shouldn't it be looking at Cheonsol, the one who'd actually wounded it? Why me?

KROOOOH!

Tentacles bound all four of my limbs. This was bad!

"Spider!! Get a grip! Even a monster has lines it shouldn't cross! Tentacle play is a women-only skill! You can't use it on a man!"

A tentacle licked me with vivid precision. The technique — writhing as if savoring muscle — was no joke.

It was such a technician that my bones felt ready to snap.

"Oh my god. Yohan. Yohan is… like that…"

"Hoh. I may be developing a new preference."

"Wowww. Can't we take a piicture?"

"Mad Demon… gulp."

"What are you all doing? Attack!"

At my roar, the gawking women snapped out of it and started beating the tentacle spider. Then the spider fired every last remaining baby spider, and they scrambled back again.

"Sea mist."

Na-a, slow as she was, spread fog to scramble the spider's vision. The baby spiders, losing their way, all latched onto my body instead.

Getting tentacle-spider-played made me think of a movie I'd seen back on Earth.

"Tentacle spider. You made a huge mistake. When a spider bites you, you get superpowers."

There was a famous line from a movie, too. A great cock attracts many pussies. Great penis something something many pussy. I should've studied English more.

Kroooh?

"Hup!"

I tensed every muscle, but the tentacles didn't snap. Thanks to Diamond Body, my flesh wouldn't break — so no superpowers for me.

Close one.

KRAAAAAH!!

I hadn't even been trying to trick it, but the tentacle spider flew into a rage and tried to tear me limb from limb. I held on for dear life while the women beat the spider for dear life.

Eventually I burned through every last drop of Self-Healing and Divine Power. I died first, and the women followed one after another.

Back in the Divine Realm, I stared blankly at the messages. We'd failed after all. That spider bastard was strong.

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠

"Mad Demon! Are you all right?"

"Yeah! Yohan! Are you okay?"

Suddenly Sophia and Cheonsol rushed over and started patting me down all over.

"What's wrong?"

"This was your first time dying, Yohan. Are you okay? Does anything hurt?"

"Do you ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠feel any residual pain? Is your heart all right? Hiding it will only make it worse. Speak honestly."

"I'm fine."

I'd never died since becoming a minion, but I'd died plenty of times playing VR games.

In those sadistic, deliberately unfair games whose motto was basically "if you don't know, you die," I'd died hundreds of times before clearing them. This was nothing.

Dying mid-raid felt a lot like dying in a game. The safety measures were solid enough that it didn't affect my condition at all.

"Hic. Hic-hic."

Someone was crying. I looked over and found Lan-lan-i dropping fat, chicken-drop-sized tears. Why cry and break your dad's heart like that?

I hugged her and she buried her face in my chest, nuzzling. One thing I really hated about raids ending: items regenerated.

The front of my clothes was soaked with Lan-lan-i's tears and snot. I'd have to sneak it into Sophia's laundry pile.

Washing it myself was too much work.

"Lan-lan-i. Why are you crying?"

"Because Lan-lan-i is weak. Hic. Mad Demon died… If I'd killed the spider, Mad Demon wouldn't have died, hic."

Our Lan-lan-i really was adorable. She'd cried because she was sad her dad had died. I glanced sideways — Cheonsol and Sophia both wore expressions half pity, half fondness.

"Unnie…"

At Evni's word, Lan-lan-i's head snapped up.

"No! Just because I cried doesn't mean I'm giving up the unnie seat! Once an unnie, always an unnie!"

"Darn…"

Unnies are so funny. Lan-lan-i unnie. I'll wipe your tears for you.

Lulu held out the skull she always carried around. Speechless, Lan-lan-i started whacking both younger sisters on the head.

"…"

Hueee

The eldest sister was educating the younger ones properly. Heartwarming.

"Sooo whyyy did we faaail the cleaar?"

Na-a brought up the topic. Conveniently, I'd already thought about it while getting beaten.

"We're short on DPS."

"Kh…"

"Ugh…"

Cheonsol and Lan-lan-i reacted identically. Mother and daughter, no doubt about it — they showed it clear as day.

Sophia shared my opinion.

"We're short on DPS, but it can't be helped. The raid party limit was twenty. We tried to clear it with a fifth of that, so of course our attack power fell short."

"Lan-lan-i hit it really hard…"

"It's not Lan-lan-i's fault. We just didn't have the numbers."

I stroked Lan-lan-i's head. Back when she'd first hit puberty she'd refused head pats, but now she accepted them gladly.

"Mmm."

Lan-lan-i made a sound like a well-fed cat and rubbed herself against me. The kid had… grown a bit too well. Something down below stirred slightly.

"Then what do we do? Should we recruit more minions?"

"Hmm…"

"This lady has a fine idea."

Cheonsol pointed a finger into empty air and brought up her status window. Then she zoomed in on the EXP bar sitting at 99%.

"After participating in the raid, my experience rose by two percent. One more run and this lady will level up."

"You're right! Why didn't I think of that?"

Sophia hopped in place. I loved Sophia's exaggerated reactions. Her tits bounced.

"Mad Demon."

Lan-lan-i tugged my clothes.

"More head pats?"

"…Sure."

"Okay, okay."

Lan-lan-i stared straight through my face while enjoying the head pats. Watching her eyes go soft in real time, she clearly liked it a lot.

"Once she levels up, Cheonsol will be able to deal real damage to the tentacle spider! Yohan, you were close to leveling up too, right?"

"One second."

I checked my status window.

"Ninety-seven percent. Two more runs for me."

"There's no guarantee it'll always go up two percent at a time, so let's raid again tomorrow! Once you level up, Cheonsol and Yohan get stronger, and you get new skills, so we'll definitely clear it!"

"Then we'll plan the strategy after we level up tomorrow. Shall we check the rewards for now?"

"Let's!"

I checked the rewards.

Ah. The idiot admins dumped all the rewards at once. That made it way too obvious. They could've at least split them up.

We decided to save the raid rewards until after leveling up. The moment the next day arrived, we challenged the raid again.

This time we didn't die — we held out until the timer ran out. Unlike yesterday, we'd rationed our skills efficiently.

And it seemed the EXP you earned scaled with contribution.

"This lady has reached Level 2!"

Cheonsol and I leveled up at the same time. A welcome message appeared.