The Golden Skeleton Knight (1)
The moment Sanghyuk stepped onto the eighth floor, a broad smile spread across his face.
A radiant golden brilliance flooded the entire chamber. It was an unmistakable glow, and the sight of it made his heart leap with excitement.
It hit! It actually spawned!
Among all skeleton-type field bosses, only a single one radiated such dazzling light.
“The Golden Skeleton Knight!”
Others called it the ‘Golden Skeleton Lottery.’ It was the very jackpot Sanghyuk had been hoping for.
I secretly wished for it, but to think it really appeared…
There were two reasons for Sanghyuk’s delight. First, the Golden Skeleton Knight was a field boss renowned for its staggering, lottery-level drops. Second, and just as importantly, it was the easiest to handle among every skeleton-class field boss in existence.
Even for someone of Sanghyuk’s caliber, hunting a field boss at this early stage was a daunting undertaking. Yet facing this particular opponent filled him with boundless confidence.
Normally, Sanghyuk would have scouted which field boss had spawned, retreated to make meticulous preparations, and only then mounted a calculated assault. But against the Golden Skeleton Knight, there was no need for elaborate prep work. If anything, wasting time to prepare ran the risk of losing the coveted ‘First Kill’ achievement to someone else.
No whispers had surfaced yet of a field boss being spotted or hunted down, but the world was unpredictable. His only minor regret was having just thirty-four Flame Stone combination cards left in his inventory, though that hardly seemed like an insurmountable hurdle. Against other field bosses, perhaps, but this one? To Sanghyuk, the Golden Skeleton Knight was like Sun Wukong trapped in the palm of the Buddha.
Still, I can’t forget that this is a boss monster designed for a full party, and right now, I’m entirely on my own. Let’s do a quick mental review of the raid strategy.
Before advancing toward the epicenter of that golden radiance, Sanghyuk conducted his final checklist.
Its core skills are Golden Aura and Golden Lightning Strike, right?
Back in his past life, the gold-farming syndicate Sanghyuk had been trapped in hunted the Golden Skeleton Knight relentlessly, chasing the dream of hitting the jackpot. Even as a low-grade field boss, locating one was notoriously difficult. Yet the sheer scale of that sweatshop dwarfed most large guilds, and Sanghyuk had personally clashed with the creature hundreds of times. Because it sat at the lowest level threshold among field bosses, it was targeted more often than any other. Thanks to that grueling history, he knew the monster inside and out.
Golden Aura is just a self-buff, so I don’t need to worry about it. The real threat is the Golden Lightning Strike… Back then, muscle memory had me dodging it with my eyes closed. The question is, will those reflexes come right back?
True to its name, Golden Lightning Strike called down a bolt of shimmering, gilded thunder directly onto its target. A tell preceded the cast, meaning evading it wasn’t impossible, but the lightning crashed down with such terrifying speed that hesitating for even a second or two meant taking a direct hit. Easy as the boss might be conceptually, it remained a party-scale field boss. Taking a clean blow meant instant death.
Especially right now. My level is low, and my Defense and Health are nowhere near high enough. A single strike will wipe me out on the spot.
The crux of the fight was simple: never get hit by the lightning.
On top of that, it boasts the massive health pool typical of a field boss. This is going to be an endurance match.
Synthesizing every tactic in his mind, the raid boiled down to a single concise objective:
Flawlessly dodge Golden Lightning Strike over an extended battle while relentlessly chipping away at its health until it falls.
It sounded simple enough in words, but turning theory into reality was a different beast altogether.
“So basically, I have to take down an elephant by poking it with a needle? No, a needle’s an exaggeration—more like an awl. Either way, keeping my focus sharp for hours is everything.”
Mental preparation complete, only the execution remained.
Smack, smack!
Sanghyuk slapped both cheeks with his palms, stoking his fighting spirit.
“Let’s do this!”
With a short, determined cry, Sanghyuk charged forward. And so, the hunt for the Golden Skeleton Knight began.
Golden Lightning Strike crashed down at random intervals between ten and twenty seconds. Tracking a timer was pointless.
The only way to survive was by watching the monster’s wind-up: the moment the two hollow sockets in its skull tilted upward toward the ceiling. Standing roughly twice Sanghyuk’s height, the knight was rather compact for a boss monster, which meant its preliminary motions were subtle and easily missed.
The bolts plummeted with blinding velocity, making evasion exceptionally demanding. In a standard five-man party, players could rotate positions to bait and dodge the strikes with relative ease, but as a solo player, such tactics were out of the question. Sanghyuk had no choice but to dodge every single lightning bolt through raw reflexes alone. And he had to sustain it for two grueling hours.
Here it comes!
The knight’s skull tilted back ever so slightly. Sanghyuk immediately threw his body to the side.
Flash—CRRRR-BOOOOM!
Precisely one second after Sanghyuk dove, a jagged pillar of golden thunder obliterated the spot where he had just stood.
Countless strikes had already descended, so many that keeping tally had long lost all meaning. Yet Sanghyuk had evaded every single one. Nor was he merely dodging. Rolling across the stone floor, he thrust his hand toward the monster.
Fwhoosh—CRACK!
A Flame Stone slammed into the brief opening in the Golden Skeleton Knight’s guard, erupting on impact.
Sanghyuk continued to wear down the monster with relentless micro-damage. It truly felt like stabbing an elephant with an awl, yet the towering beast was undeniably beginning to falter. Maintaining razor-sharp concentration while dodging lethal lightning for two continuous hours was an ordeal, but Sanghyuk had swiftly reclaimed the sensory rhythm from his past life. As a result, he danced around the golden thunderbolts without a hair’s breadth of error.
The end is near.
Watching the Golden Skeleton Knight sway on its feet, Sanghyuk gave a slight nod. Lacking a skill to inspect its exact health pool, he couldn't see the numbers, but his vast combat experience told him the creature had reached its absolute limit. Rolling madly across the hard floor for two hours had left Sanghyuk battered and drained, but he remained in far better shape than his quarry.
It should be about time for the death rattle…
Sanghyuk bit his lower lip as he tracked the boss’s position. Throughout the fight, he had paid meticulous attention to where the monster moved.
Naturally, no boss monster relied on a single attack pattern from start to finish. They all possessed at least two distinct phases. The Golden Skeleton Knight was no exception; as a low-grade field boss, it had precisely two patterns, the second being a desperate last stand triggered right before death.
Clack-clack-clack-clack!
As if reading Sanghyuk’s thoughts, the knight’s loose jawbone began to chatter violently up and down. The radiant golden light bathing its frame dimmed, bleeding away into the air.
Phase Two!
Recognizing the unmistakable sign of the second pattern, Sanghyuk braced himself mentally.
One, two… here it comes!
FLASH—BZZZZZZZZZT!
KRA-KRA-KRA-BOOOOOM!
An apocalyptic tempest of golden lightning erupted outward from the knight, tearing across the chamber and scouring the surrounding ground clean. This was the monster's second pattern, a mechanic that was remarkably simple in design.
To put it plainly, it was the Golden Skeleton Knight’s final, suicidal death throes.
It ceased all basic attacks, and it no longer cast Golden Lightning Strike or Golden Aura. It froze in place, unable to take even a single step. All it did was unleash a devastating lightning storm in every direction every three seconds. Yet sometimes, simplicity was the most terrifying thing of all.
The golden shockwave swept through the chamber without mercy. Even the hardiest, most heavily armored tank currently playing EL would have been vaporized in a single hit. It was an unavoidable, room-wide wipe mechanic repeating every three seconds.
Did entering Phase Two mean an automatic party wipe or a forced retreat? Far from it.
Though his name was still unknown at this time, the celebrated future raid ranker known as ‘Iron Man’ Deeprom once left a famous quote:
Just as Deeprom had said, the Golden Skeleton Knight’s second phase appeared impossible at first glance, but once the correct mechanic was understood, clearing it became almost laughably simple.
Having faced this creature hundreds of times in his previous life, Sanghyuk knew the exact countermeasure. That was why he had evaded that catastrophic opening blast with absolute ease. To be precise, he had dropped flat inside a hollow depression in the stone floor at the exact moment of impact, allowing the lightning storm to pass harmlessly inches above his back.
The crater was the secret. It was the linchpin of the entire raid strategy.
Strictly speaking, it wasn’t Sanghyuk who had dug the trench; it was the Golden Skeleton Knight itself—or rather, its Golden Lightning Strikes.
One, two…
Tap, tap!
The instant the first lightning storm dissipated, Sanghyuk leaped out of the crater and hurled himself into another pit just ahead. Speed was paramount. With the boss firing every three seconds, Sanghyuk was granted an advance window of exactly two.
Incoming!
FLASH—CRACKLE-SNAP!
KRA-BOOOOM!
Another tempest swept through the air, yet Sanghyuk remained entirely unscathed. Miraculously, the craters he used for cover were closely aligned, forming a connected trail that stretched all the way to the feet of the distant Golden Skeleton Knight. As long as he utilized these trenches properly, he could reach melee range without suffering a scratch.
Naturally, the alignment of these craters was no accident.
Throughout Phase One, Sanghyuk had already been preparing for Phase Two. He had used the monster's own lightning to carve a masterpiece into the stone floor. In his past life, players had called this technique ‘pit work.’ The better one managed this battlefield sculpting, the smoother the second phase became. Later on, when players' stats soared, brute-forcing through the damage without cover became common, but that era lay far in the future. For now, pit work was the only viable method.
Anticipating the transition, Sanghyuk had subtly herded the boss directly into the center of his finished handiwork. Now, he advanced steadily toward it through the web of interconnected craters. The knight blasted lethal lightning every three seconds, but it couldn't inflict a single speck of damage on Sanghyuk tucked safely below the blast radius.
Crawling from pit to pit, Sanghyuk drew closer. The monster was expending the last dregs of its life force, meaning as long as he timed the three-second bursts, nothing else posed a threat. Furthermore, while the knight became completely immune to ranged attacks during this final phase, its physical defense plummeted, leaving it catastrophically vulnerable to melee strikes. A single solid melee hit was all it took to shatter it completely.
Armed with this knowledge from his past life, Sanghyuk’s flawless pit work brought him effortlessly to the boss’s feet. All that remained was to deliver the finishing blow.
FLASH—CRACKLE!
KRA-BOOOOM!
The instant the latest storm swept over him and cleared, Sanghyuk surged upward from the trench. Gripping the Traveler's Treasure Sword with both hands, he brought the blade crashing down onto the knight's skeletal instep with all the strength in his body.
SHING—CRUNCH! CRACKLE-SNAP!
Where he struck didn't matter. All that counted was landing a direct physical blow.
Spiderweb fractures erupted from the impaled foot, spreading across the knight’s entire golden frame in an instant. It was over. Pushed far beyond its limits, the creature had no strength left to endure the impact.
Rumble, crumble…
The Golden Skeleton Knight collapsed into a heap of brittle fragments, its terrifying presence reduced to dust in an instant.
After more than two hours of grueling combat, Sanghyuk’s battle against the field boss had finally drawn to a close.