The First Visitor (1)

The Sky Giant commanded a formidable arsenal of abilities, but filtering out the minor nuisances left only three truly lethal threats to worry about:

Thunder Stomp, Thunder Roar, and Sunset Eye Beam.

These three constituted the core mechanics of the Sky Giant. Factor in standard auto-attacks that hit hard enough to knock the wind right out of anyone on the receiving end, and you had a recipe for a raid straight out of hell.

The crux of the Sky Giant raid is dealing damage while cleanly dodging every single basic attack... That's what this battle comes down to.

Incidentally, a traditional tanking approach was practically useless against the Sky Giant. If a Level 45 dedicated tank took a direct hit from one of its basic swings without mitigating it, they would be obliterated on the spot. To survive, a tank was forced to pop major defensive cooldowns every time or rely entirely on evasion tanking.

Yet calling it "evasion tanking" was easier said than done; at this stage of the game, not a single player was capable of pulling it off properly.

Evasion tanking demanded supreme player instincts on top of exceptionally high evasion stats.

Once comprehensive raid strategies for the Sky Giant spread later on, more players would stack evasion to attempt evasion builds. But right now? Virtually nobody dared to try. Of course, regardless of prevailing trends, Sanghyuk intended to evasion tank the boss.

To prepare, he had thoroughly cleaned out the auction house of every piece of armor and accessory carrying evasion stats. On top of that, he had prepared a 1-cost evasion buff Combination Card: 'Blessing of the Wind'.

Since the buff lasted thirty minutes, a single card was plenty. As for whatever stats he still lacked, he chose to place his faith in his own instincts. Evasion tanking was never just a matter of stacking raw numbers; depending on how one read and reacted to an enemy's movements, a player with modest evasion stats could dodge far more efficiently than the sheet math suggested.

In that sense, having studied the Sky Giant's attack patterns more intimately than anyone alive, Sanghyuk was confident he could evade its blows.

Yet even if defense could somehow be patched together, the real problem lay on the offensive side. Shaving down the Sky Giant's colossal mountain of health was a monumental task.

Standard seven-player parties raiding the Sky Giant required at least four dedicated damage dealers to stand a fighting chance. The optimal meta was a '5+1+1' setup—five pure DPS, one tank, and one healer—followed closely by a '4+1+1+1' composition featuring four DPS, one buffer, one tank, and one healer.

Any setup running only three damage dealers, or doubling up on tanks or healers, had almost zero hope of taking down the Sky Giant.

Above all, if the party failed to slay the Sky Giant within thirty minutes of engaging, the boss cast a self-buff called 'Sky Giant's Wrath', multiplying all of its stats by fourfold.

In essence, an enraged boss meant an immediate, guaranteed wipe.

Thus, the Sky Giant had to be brought down within thirty minutes, no matter what, forcing any raid party to hyper-optimize their damage output.

Every circumstance was stacked against Sanghyuk. Carrying the entire burden alone, conventional methods could never provide enough damage. Even if he wielded power far beyond the realm of ordinary players, acting as the main tank while matching the output of five dedicated damage dealers was practically impossible.

Naturally, Sanghyuk's ultimate ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠goal was to build a true one-man army capable of rivaling a full sixteen-player raid squad by himself, but many milestones still stood between him and that ambition.

At present, Sanghyuk operated roughly at the level of a top-tier four-man party. How, then, did he intend to bridge the inevitable damage deficit?

He held one definitive secret weapon.

Flash!

The instant a crimson glare wrapped around Sanghyuk, he gritted his teeth and endured the shock. Without a second thought, he hurled himself sideways, broke away from combat, and bolted without looking back.

Even as he fled, the red luminescence seeped steadily into his body. This eerie glow was the 'Curse of Raging Flame'.

The monster wielding this skill was the 'Undying Flame Tiger', a semi-named boss lurking at the deepest recesses of the Flame Cave at the southern tip of the Twilight Lands.

Resembling an enormous feline wreathed entirely in fire, it possessed immense fire-attribute power. And it was this beast that inflicted the Curse of Raging Flame.

Strictly speaking, the Undying Flame Tiger cast the curse as a dying death throe just before drawing its final breath. To finish the creature off, one had to suffer the Curse of Raging Flame and strike its skull with absolute precision.

In lore, the Undying Flame Tiger was born from the ashes of a phoenix, granting it a trait known as 'Low-grade Immortality'. Normal attacks could never deliver the finishing blow.

The effect of the Curse of Raging Flame was brutal: it continuously burned away 10 HP per second while simultaneously scorching away 1 Karma per second.

To be afflicted meant watching not just one's vitality, but one's hard-earned experience points vanish into thin air.

Naturally, players despised the curse. Nobody wanted their raw Karma chipped away.

While under the influence of the Curse of Raging Flame, all defense-related properties were bypassed, dealing True Damage directly to the target. This allowed players to pierce the tiger's Low-grade Immortality and slay it, but almost no one was willing to burn their own Karma just to complete a hunt.

Because of this, the Flame Tiger was thoroughly unpopular.

So why had Sanghyuk tracked down this beast and engaged it just before challenging the Sky Giant? And why flee mid-fight?

The reason was simple.

Sanghyuk needed the curse.

The Curse of Raging Flame possessed the power to neutralize every form of defense. While the cost was steep, the impending return dwarfed whatever penalty he had to pay.

With this... I can bypass Giant's Endurance!

That was why Sanghyuk had sought out the curse: to pierce Giant's Endurance.

The Curse of Raging Flame lasted precisely forty minutes.

Fleeing the Flame Tiger, teleporting directly to the 4th floor of the Giant's Cave via Recall, navigating the traps, and standing before the Sky Giant would leave him with roughly thirty minutes remaining on the curse's timer.

The battle against the Sky Giant had to be concluded within thirty minutes anyway. Over that period, 24,000 HP and 2,400 Karma would burn away, but the health loss could be counterbalanced with the 0-cost Combination Card 'Root of Recovery'. As for the Karma, he had already braced for the loss and didn't mourn it.

Burning 2,400 Karma even fifteen times wouldn't trigger a level-down, so it posed no true risk.

If he failed fifteen times, he would simply farm back some Karma and try again.

In truth, exploiting an external buff—or rather, a curse—was a temporary measure. This exploit would only remain viable for another two months or so.

Two months from now, a minor, nondescript guild would use a different external buff to bring down the 'Gray Orc Lord', widely recognized as one of the Twilight Lands' most formidable named bosses. Word of the feat would leak online, sparking an uproar across the community.

As the controversy escalated, Raon Soft would instruct Chaos, the central governing AI, to patch out all external buffs, causing them to dispel immediately upon leaving their zone of origin.

As for the players who exploited the buff to slay the Gray Orc Lord, the system ruled their actions within the bounds of permissible systemic mechanics. It was a generous ruling, but since no actual bugs had been exploited, punishment was hardly warranted.

Regardless, Sanghyuk had to conquer the Sky Giant before that patch took place. Once external buffs were blocked, taking down the Sky Giant solo would ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠demand drastically more time and effort—if it remained possible at all.

Whoosh.

Having warped directly to the 4th floor of the Giant's Cave, Sanghyuk dashed toward the massive subterranean cavern where the Sky Giant dwelt.

The battle against the Sky Giant began the very moment he bound the Curse of Raging Flame to his flesh.

BOOOOOM!

The moment the Sky Giant unleashed its Thunder Stomp, Sanghyuk timed his leap, kicking off the ground into the air.

Thunder Stomp knocked down all grounded enemies for three seconds and inflicted a vulnerable state. Anyone caught dazed on the floor would immediately be swept up in the barrage of Sunset Eye Beams that followed, reduced to a handful of ash.

Flash! Bzzzzzzzt!

True to form, the Sky Giant followed up Thunder Stomp with a rapid volley of Sunset Eye Beams. The crimson lances blasting from its twin eyes carried enough destructive force to vaporize whatever they touched; even a glancing hit could prove fatal.

Fortunately, Sunset Eye Beam followed distinct firing patterns, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠and having memorized every variation, Sanghyuk evaded without breaking a sweat.

Pattern D... Concentrated right spread.

Swish! Reading the angle of the giant's gaze and its stance, Sanghyuk predicted the pattern with absolute precision and threw himself to the left.

BOOOOOOM!

Just as anticipated, the ground to the right of where he had stood was utterly devastated.

Sanghyuk didn't merely dodge. As he evaded, he thrust out his left hand, hurling the Combination Card 'Spear of Zeus'.

Flash! CRASH!

The Spear of Zeus bored cleanly into the Sky Giant's flank.

Seizing every microscopic opening, Sanghyuk steadily stacked damage onto the titan.

Only five minutes left? No... this isn't enough. The DPS is falling short...

Despite dealing as much damage as humanly possible, it was nowhere near enough to fell the Sky Giant.

Without a dedicated tank holding aggro to let him unleash sustained burst combos, even the Curse of Raging Flame—which bypassed both Giant's Endurance and the titan's base defense—couldn't fully compensate for the lack of raw firepower.

The Sky Giant's remaining vitality could be roughly gauged by the swollen veins bulging on its broad forehead. Right now, six veins were visible.

That meant roughly 40% of its health still remained.

Cut losses and retry!

The sooner he gave up, the better. With precious Karma burning away by the second, a swift death was the only way to stem the bleeding.

Whoosh!

Sanghyuk stopped dodging the Sky Giant's auto-attacks. In other words, he accepted death.

THWACK!

A single fist from the Sky Giant crushed Sanghyuk on the spot. Death carried no physical agony, but the bitter taste of defeat left him sour. Still, it was a necessary sacrifice for the next attempt, and he met death with composure.

The Sky ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Giant was truly no easy mark.

Sanghyuk attempted the raid five times consecutively on the first day, but on all five occasions, the glaring damage deficit forced him to abort midway.

Having tasted five bitter failures on day one, Sanghyuk concluded that he had to swap out one of his Combination Cards.

He removed 'Wind Barrier'—a survival Combination Card kept in reserve for botched dodges or emergency bailouts—and slotted in 'Black Flame Dragon', a card forged purely for supreme offensive violence.

He had known all along that Black Flame Dragon offered absurdly high damage expectations, yet had hesitated to equip it due to its monstrous cost of 12, its punishing activation conditions, and the exorbitant price of its crafting ingredients.

Now, however, cost and inconvenience were secondary concerns; pure DPS was paramount. He had no choice but to shave away the safety margins of his survivability and dump everything into erratic, volatile offense.

Wind Barrier cost 4, and since he held three copies, unslotting them freed up enough room to prepare a single copy of Black Flame Dragon. With that, his insurance policies were wiped clean.

In their place stood the ultimate damage-dealing Combination Card: Black Flame Dragon. Sanghyuk had now deployed every single offensive card within his current capability.

If even Black Flame Dragon failed, he would have to tear down the entire raid plan and rebuild it from scratch.

The Black Flame Dragon card was a double-edged sword.

Yet Sanghyuk had no choice but to walk the tightrope to bring the Sky Giant down.

No matter how exorbitant the Ogre Blood and Orc Berserker Heart had been... and no matter if the 'Black Flame Dragon's Rampage' meant that a mere graze from the Sky Giant would kill him instantly... he had to shoulder the risk.

A perilous challenge where a single misstep meant instant obliteration.

Yet if he could conquer it... the rewards awaiting him lay beyond imagination.