Chapter 34 – Raid Start

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The three days flew by, and the day of my first raid debut had arrived.

I arrived 30 minutes early to prepare, watching the GuildRaid Group Members already getting ready themselves.

I double-checked the buffs, food, and potions that Pink Berry and I had prepared for today’s raid.

[Abyss Entrance] was the first raid released in LEORE.

For those unfamiliar, [Abyss Entrance] is an 8-person Raid with only one Boss.

In other words, it’s a Raid that’s cleared once you defeat that single Boss.

It’s been out for a while, so DPS isn’t that crucial, but since my equipment is completely newbie-level, I made sure to prepare thoroughly.

“Is everyone ready? Does anyone need more time?”

“Everyone’s ready!”

Soonchu nodded with a smile.

“Alright. Let’s go!”

Everyone took the portal and arrived at the entrance of [Abyss Entrance].

The Raid map that appeared after passing through the cave, valley, and entrance resembled the corrupted Yuuni Salt Flats.

The red, clear sky and the calm, shallow water reflecting it were spectacular.

If I were just here to enjoy the scenery, I would have been amazed, but this is a Raid location.

That means there’s a Boss.

I looked around but couldn’t see it. Is it the type where the Boss appears when you get close?

The Raid Group Members didn’t say anything and just stood still, so there wasn’t a problem.

While I was wondering what to do, a huge vibration echoed.

Kooong.

I raised my head toward where the vibration seemed to originate, and there was a crack in the sky.

Another vibration echoed.

Kooong!

A bigger vibration and more ominous sound than before were heard.

Jjeojeong!

The crack in the sky stretched out like tree branches and then shattered. A hole appeared in the sky. A huge hand emerged from the broken hole, grabbed both sides, and forcibly widened it.

Tteudeudeuㅡdeuk!

A grotesque, gigantic Raid Boss crawled out of the enlarged hole like something from the horror movie <i>The Ring</i>.

I quickly examined the Raid Boss.

I can usually infer the concept of the Raid, the Boss’s abilities, attacks, and gimmicks from its appearance.

The Boss is legless, like the previous Maggot Boss. It doesn’t seem to have much mobility, but I don’t know how to describe it.

It feels like a Moai statue made of tangled tree roots instead of stone.

It looks like there’s a gimmick where the tree roots move like tentacles again.

Anyway, there doesn’t seem to be any more information to glean, so I have to start the Raid.

I immediately used the system provided in the Raid to confirm combat preparations.

Tting! With a sound, I checked the combat preparation confirmation for all the Raid Group Members.

As everyone pressed the confirm button, “8 combat preparations completed” appeared in front of me.

As soon as the preparations were finished, Soonchu, the Tank of the 1st Party, charged forward.

He immediately used the Taunt skill on the Raid Boss [Abyss Gatekeeper], and the Boss looked at Soonchu and moved.

I quickly closed the distance to the Boss, stretched out my right foot, and raised my sword.

I used the ultra-high-speed [Chain Attack] buff, stacked to 10, that I had learned for this Raid.

First, I used [Square Quadler], which has a short pre- and post-delay, to stack 4 times. Starting with the end of the skill’s motion, I immediately used [Pentagon], unleashing 5 Chain Attacks to stack 9 times.

Now, this is where it gets tricky. I have to cancel the post-delay of [Pentagon] with a normal attack and then use [Annihilation Strike].

While playing LEORE, I have become completely familiar with its system.

LEORE basically doesn’t offer complete freedom of movement like in reality. There’s a Stun System, a Vibration System, and pre- and post-delay.

It’s not a system where you just press a skill and it immediately goes off like in a normal RPG game.

Here, there’s something called post-delay canceling.

That’s when the post-delay from one action and the pre-delay of the next action share the same posture, allowing the post- and pre-delay to proceed together.

In other words, you can use time very efficiently.

This is one of the skills often used in PVP. I didn’t know about it until I watched various RyuTube YouTube videos about PVP.

In PVP, every millisecond is important, and that time determines victory or defeat.

That’s why post-delay canceling is quite important. But it’s very, very difficult to pull off.

The reason is that you have to turn off [Combat Assistance].

[Combat Assistance] uses a fixed attack in a fixed place consistently, like in a PC RPG, the moment you cast a skill.

But the moment you turn off [Combat Assistance], you have to control the skill entirely according to your will from start to finish.

The problem is that if you exceed the area that the system can recognize when using a skill, the skill automatically disappears.

So, to do post-delay canceling, you have to do an attack that doesn’t deviate from the system. And you have to intentionally match the finishing posture of that attack with the pre-delay of another skill, which is unbelievably difficult.

For this reason, even the most hardcore veteran players only do about two skills in a row that they think can be post-delay canceled.

But I was different.

Lee Arang’s body, no, my body, had different senses. Is it because the senses are concentrated because I don’t have arms and legs?

It’s a given that the information in front of me appears detailed and slow, and I can even feel the limitations of LEORE’s system.

I can feel how far the system allows the movement of the skill, so starting with [Square Quadler], [Pentagon], and finally [Annihilation Strike], I canceled all the post-delay and blasted the Boss as naturally as flowing water.

My graph on the Party Meter shot up as if it would pierce the top. And at that moment…

The Boss turned around and looked at me.

“Ugh?”

And then he shot a Tank Buster at me.

The Boss, who shot a beam in a large fan shape instead of just a single attack, killed 7 Raid Group Members, including me, except for Soonchu, who was on the opposite side as the Main Tank.

==

“Wow… Arang, you’re really crazy. How does that kind of DPS even come out?”

Soonchu was dumbfounded by the aggro he had lost, even though he had used all his aggro-related skills.

He had never lost aggro while doing Raids, so he was even more surprised by the current situation.

“As expected, it’s Arangnim. I never imagined that he would lose in the opening DPS battle.”

Footwiper couldn’t believe that he had lost in the Raid start opening DPS to a Swordmaster, who isn’t a Pure Dealer like his job, Grim Reaper or Magician, but an ordinary Dealer.

“I’m sorry… I made a new DPS cycle this time and tried using it, but the burst DPS was stronger than I thought.”

“I’ll use the aggro skill and pass the aggro to Soonchu. It’s a waste not to do it when you can put out this much DPS.”

“That’s right, that’s right!”

Arm Length 10cm suggested tactics for the opening, and everyone nodded.

-Wow, this is really absurd. It’s absurd.
-At this point, shouldn’t we Nerf the Soma? Is that opening DPS even right? lol
-Was Soma actually a Pure Dealer?
-Soma gives bonus stats to the entire Party, but if the DPS is also strong lol

The Raid progressed smoothly.

Since only intuitive gimmicks have appeared so far, the Arang Arang Party is progressing quickly.

Basically, the Arang Arang Party Members are skilled enough to have cleared up to the latest Raid, so the progress can’t help but be good because they execute Arang’s instructions without making a single mistake.

-Arang is so cute, I’m going crazy
-Honestly, she’s so pretty
-She’s good at the game, she’s pretty, she’s young, she’s crazy
-The reason why Kang Hangil has been so popular recently is thanks to our Arang lol
-But at this rate, we’ll be clearing this Raid quickly?

As time passed and the Boss’s HP was at 1%, the Boss stopped still and used a gimmick, scattering tree seeds around.

After a while, the seeds bloomed into flowers, and the flowers moved and crawled towards the Boss.

-It’s the last wipe Gimmick
-If you see this for the first time, you don’t know anything
-If you don’t know, you have to die lol

Arang ordered the Raid Group Members to remove the flowers as much as possible. But the Raid Group Members who were removing the flowers fell and died, and eventually the Raid Group was wiped out.

Arang, having seen the wipe gimmick for the first time, didn’t say anything, unlike the first Try. She stuck her sword into the floor and fell into thought.

Everyone looked at Arang, lost in thought, without saying anything.

A very serious expression. But everyone was looking at Arang adoringly.

At that moment, Arangs Foot Licker was thinking…

‘Y-you’re too cute…! H-how, how! Pick her up in that state and rub her feet…! I must perform well for Arang and ask her to meet me at the Regular Meeting so I can touch her feet.’

Of course, he has no intention of doing it by force. Footwiper respects Arang and will follow her choice.

That’s why Footwiper wanted to meet Arang even more.

Az09xo