96. The Community's True Genius
Most challengers these days check the guides posted on the community forums and take down bosses using the standard strategies. Naturally, they're hopeless when it comes to figuring out how to beat a boss they've never seen before.
But it's different for the tiny fraction of top-tier guide-writers who've been hunkered down long-term to become high-rank Hunters, or the handful of ancient veterans still around. Guild masters who stayed behind to maintain order inside the Tower of Trials, or the absolute elite rankers glued to their spots aiming for S-rank. These guys have racked up experience close to that of the first-generation climbers—in fact, some of them actually cleared the Tower back in the 1st or 2nd gen days.
My post, still riding high on the community's attention, was racking up comments fast. At first, they were the usual brain-dead replies—people not even bothering to look at the screenshot I'd uploaded. But one by one, they started reading the content and freaking out over the world boss they'd only heard rumors about.
Around then, I posted another update. I attached a screenshot of the system message and explained the situation.
Comments were one thing, but the private messages were blowing up—hundreds of them. A few were even from top guilds.
From what I knew, world bosses had only appeared three times total in Korea. The raiders who'd shone in those three events scored unique or epic rewards, rocketing them to top Hunter status. No wonder the elite guilds were obsessed with world bosses.
Of course, since they couldn't transfer to our Tower, their interest was pointless. But the info and tips they offered would definitely help with the strategy.
I reopened the community. In the short time I'd been away, comments had piled up into the hundreds, and with recommendations pouring in by the dozens per second, my post shot straight to popular.
That naturally shifted the community's hot topic over here. Pages filled up with related threads.
Amid the flood of off-topic bait-chasing crap, one post rocketed to popular with tons of recommendations.
Here's proof I topped contributions in our Galtrom raid party.
During world raid wait time, trash mobs spawn near the boss with the same elements.
So you can test damage with different elemental enchants beforehand.
Raids are one-shot deals anyway, so slap disposable elemental enchants on your raid mates for insane DPS boost.
Or after taking a hit, enchant elemental resist—tanks get like 1.5x tankier.
Solo you’re dead no matter what, but I’ll dig up old strat records anyway.
Post this on the main threads so Jinhyuk can see it.
The community buzz was rolling hard, dragging out advice from veterans and experts as expected. Useful info was starting to pile up bit by bit.
I uploaded a screenshot of the world boss's appearance, detailed my faction quest status, spilled on the high elf king's true identity, the World Tree lore, and how I was seeking cooperation from each faction.
After that, even more useful info flooded in faster than before. Everyone's done the 7-9 floor faction quests, after all. Tips from kingdom army routes I hadn't touched, high elf routes, and even lore theories from self-proclaimed Tower historians basing it on the setting.
Counting all of 'em, around 50 cannons.
Originally for siege quest, but you can reinforce with materials.
Up to +4 is efficient, beyond that only if you got mats to burn.
They might refuse cannons, but there's a 4th division general NPC in the command chain?
Tower variations exist but follow questline and his cannon corruption scandal pops up.
Blackmail him with that. Post on main threads pls.
Siege weapon from the siege event questline.
This one was especially handy. Efficiency dropping off didn't matter—my inventory was a mountain of reinforcement materials.
After that, I took a few dark elf mages out and tested on trash mobs based on the tips. Posted that light element worked best, followed by spell element attacks.
Kingdom holy knights' Holy Charge stacks with Shining Charge, use both.
Dark elf alchemy shop has random craft for Light Orbs, good option.
Orbs are one-use with short duration, time for DPS windows only.
Cannons can get elements too, but light boost is low so go spell element.
Kingdom high mage NPCs can do Land of Spells—AoE spell element amp buff.
Cast it before first cannon volley.
Info poured in fast again. The rare big event of a world boss raid, plus interest in the server's only solo player, created perfect synergy.
Even top rankers who rarely showed up chimed in with experience-based tips. More practical, applicable ones than I'd expected.
Countless strategies and tactics I'd missed as a solo player with no standard raid experience. Rumors and rules of thumb passed down orally from gen 1 days.
Individually trivial, but hundreds—thousands—combined into massive value.
Yeah, this was the community's true function. Real crowd-sourced genius.
I devoured the community's handouts and pieced together a rough raid plan. Other climbers critiqued and refined the plan I shared, and by the end, it looked solid.
Problem was executing it. The plan assumed full cooperation from all three factions. No teamwork, and it was game over. Half the forces, and prep wouldn't even finish before raid start.
I tossed a few 'decent' screenshots as thanks to the hyped community, then closed the window.
Now came the normal summit. With the raid looming, this meeting would decide if the factions cooperated.
A few observers including me watched as faction reps took seats at the round table. Mercedes for the high elves. Not the king, but some legion commander for the kingdom army. His presence and stride screamed top kingdom NPC war power.
Dark elf rep should've been Queen Elenoir, naturally.
"The dark elf representative is late?"
Elenoir's presence wasn't approaching. What the hell?
I eyed a nearby dark elf, but he just shook his head.
A few minutes later, the dark elf rep finally entered.
"Well now, looks like all the big shots are here."
The dark elf rep showed up in work clothes totally out of place, reeking of iron and forge smoke. Not Elenoir at the table, but a short dark elf blacksmith.
"Erwen?"
It was Erwen.