Former Hero, Solo Play Oriented – Chapter 15

“It’s cleaner inside than I expected.”

Is this a habit I developed after becoming a solo player?

Feeling a bit of fear in the overall dim corridor with torches dotted along it, I inwardly tried to shake off my fear by talking to myself.

A pyramid built in the middle of the desert.

Unlike the exterior, which seemed like it would be cleared going up, I kept going down.

A straight corridor that was clean, unlike an old relic.

It remained narrow, but wide caverns occasionally appeared, and monsters occasionally appeared there.

“Kaaak!”

Befitting the name ‘Lesser Demon’s Tomb,’ demonic beasts bordering on demonkind without intelligence kept attacking me in succession.

Some in the form of four-legged chimeras, some in human form.

Even those in human form clearly showed they were inhuman beings through their hideously distorted faces and the demonic wings or tails attached to them.

Looking at them made me miss the hero’s sword I used to use a little.

If it were a holy sword that repels evil, I could sweep them all away in one go.

Twirl.

My body spun once, and moonlight descended on the tip of my sword.

[Moonlight Slash (D)]

-Delivers a strong slashing attack in a 360-degree arc.

-(Instant activation) When blocking succeeds

-(D rank) After skill activation, enter Sword Drawing Stance (Cooldown 30 seconds for re-entering Sword Drawing Stance)

‘Moonlight Slash’ is the enhanced version of the Slash skill.

The 180-degree attack range had expanded to 360 degrees.

But the most important thing was the ‘Sword Drawing Stance’ entered after skill activation.

It was an attack-focused stance that explosively increased agility stats and allowed continuous use of powerful Moonlight Slashes without casting time.

Instead, while in ‘Sword Drawing Stance’, you couldn’t ‘Block’.

Literally a stance focused on attack with no defense.

If you want to block attacks, you have to return to the normal sword stance.

But.

“If the speed increases, there’s no need to block attacks.”

Of course, it’s not the same level of movement as in my hero days when I used mana.

I felt my body become lighter after activating Moonlight Slash.

I lowered my stance and brought my sword to my waist.

Swish.

My body soon moved as if sliding between the monsters.

Before I knew it, sword light flashed repeatedly around my body that had dived into the group of demonic beasts.

Slash slash slash slash!

“Kaaaa!”

The demonic beasts couldn’t withstand my ‘Moonlight Slash’ and fell.

“Grrrr!”

A chimera with a wolf’s head charged from the side.

Swish.

My body moved like sliding to the monster’s rear.

The ‘Counterattack’ skill that can be used in Sword Drawing Stance.

A technique that allows you to instantly take the monster’s back through lightened body movements.

Snap.

“Keung?”

The wolf chimera that charged to bite me bit the air.

Slash!

Shake.

Having lost its head in vain, the wolf chimera sprawled on the corridor floor.

“Phew.”

After dealing with a group of demonic beasts, I caught my breath while sheathing my sword.

I smiled brightly.

“Now this feels more like a Swordsman.”

I had sufficiently tested my current strength through the elite dungeon monsters.

Have I gotten quite strong with this?

I moved towards the depths of the dungeon with slightly lighter steps.

Thump thump.

And, I reached a massive cavern on a completely different level from the caverns so far.

How far underground have I come?

How high is the ceiling?

The ceiling was so high that its end couldn’t be known in the darkness.

I looked around the dim cavern with my mouth open.

“This place.”

Probably, the 1st named’s dwelling.

The moment I entered the cavern.

Whoosh.

Blue torches lit up on the surrounding walls.

A huge cavern without a single obstacle.

But near the walls here and there, incongruous things could be seen.

Wow! Skeletons!

Although I’m not knowledgeable about human anatomy, judging from the clothes worn on the bones and the shape of the weapons scattered around, they were undoubtedly human skeletons.

They looked like the corpses of NPCs who had come here and died.

Given the name ‘Lesser Demon’s Tomb’ too, is this dungeon related to some story?

And, finally in the fully lit center of the cavern.

‘It’ was there.

A massive body covered in black scales, shimmering in the light of the blue torches.

Body circumference 3 meters? 4 meters?

Anyway, it looked like even three or four people with outstretched arms couldn’t encircle it.

A lizard’s head finally revealed its outline along with reptilian wings.

That form.

“D-dragon?”

No, dragons aren’t this small.

And dragons have four legs separate from their wings.

Like the pterosaurs that once lived on Earth, this thing’s name was.

“Wyvern.”

Yes, that was its name.

I had seen them in the Astria continent too.

But it shouldn’t be a monster that would appear in the underground of such a tomb relic.

Well, it’s a game, so there must be detailed settings.

It’s definitely not an easy monster.

Unlike dragons, this creature could also spew something similar to breath.

If it were me from my hero days, I could easily defeat it.

The Wyvern and me now.

That stark difference in power would soon be known numerically.

Grrrr.

The wyvern raised its massive body covered in black scales.

Finally, through the interface that appeared, I could check its HP.

“Wow.”

210,000.

An astounding number that can only elicit admiration.

Compared to the ‘Orc King’ which had a lot of HP, it’s almost seven times more.

The named monster’s specs had increased enormously with just one area difference.

“Th-this mob spec inflation is too much.”

I made a tearful face.

But I’ve also become quite strong now.

I lifted my sword vigorously.

Moonlight Slash, and Sword Drawing Stance.

It’s a good opportunity to test the new attack cycle using them.

Beep.

As I stepped into the wyvern’s recognition range, the system sound of aggro being drawn was heard.

Roll.

The wyvern rolled its pupils once like a lizard and stared at me.

It had definitely recognized me.

I carefully moved my body forward.

For now, let’s go through the normal patterns one by one while maintaining a blocking stance.

Kaaaaa!!

“Ugh!”

Rumble rumble!

The wyvern’s ear-splitting roar filled the cavern, and simultaneously a strong shockwave spread in all directions.

My body stiffened momentarily from its aftermath.

Flutter.

The wyvern spread its massive wings and flapped once, then rushed towards me at a speed that didn’t match its huge body.

Kaaaaa!

[1st Named]

[Level 27 Black Wyvern]

[HP 210,000/210,000]

* * *

Kaaaa!

Clang!

The wyvern’s claws swung in.

But my ‘Block’ skill blocked that attack without problem.

Whoosh.

Then the wyvern’s heavy tail swung towards me.

Clang!

This too was blocked.

I calmly blocked the wyvern’s attacks through the ‘Block’ skill.

Head slam, claw swipe, and tail swipe.

Three patterns that can basically be ‘Blocked’.

And then.

Flutter.

The wyvern flapped its wings.

Thwack thwack thwack thwack!

The wyvern’s black scales, occupying all directions, rushed in aiming for my whole body.

If it keeps flinging scales around like that, won’t it become a naked chicken someday?

After briefly having this silly thought, I activated the backward evasion skill to avoid the scales.

That couldn’t be blocked.

I tried ‘Block’ at first, but the densely flying scales penetrated between the blocks and embedded themselves all over my body.

A powerful scale attack that blew away more than half my HP in one go.

Having suffered a very painful experience on the first try, I had no choice but to retreat while whimpering.

But it’s different if you know about it.

Now I could respond to all normal patterns.

I decided to make a bit bolder attack.

As I was calmly chipping away at the wyvern’s HP by chaining ‘Thrust’ skills between blocks, I activated the ‘Moonlight Slash’ skill for the first time during the tail swipe pattern.

Slash!

Through this ‘Moonlight Slash’ skill, I transitioned to Sword Drawing Stance.

The next pattern is scale throwing.

Flutter.

The wyvern flapped its wings.

This time, instead of ‘Backward Evasion’, I used ‘Counterattack’ which can be activated in Sword Drawing Stance.

Swish.

My body moved as if sliding, instantly taking the wyvern’s rear.

Slash slash slash slash!

Moonlight settled on the tip of my sword in succession.

The ‘Moonlight Slash’ skill that can be activated continuously in Sword Drawing Stance rapidly chipped away at the wyvern’s HP.

Kaaaak!

The wyvern let out a pain-filled roar.

The wyvern quickly turned its massive body and slammed its head towards me.

The named monster’s quick attack, far surpassing users’ agility stats, couldn’t be avoided even with the increased agility from Sword Drawing Stance.

But, I still had blocking.

Clang!

After canceling Sword Drawing Stance and returning to normal sword stance, I calmly blocked the wyvern’s next attack.

I smiled with satisfaction.

“This is it.”

The wyvern’s ‘Scale Throwing’ attack had a very long delay until the next action, as it was powerful and wide-ranging.

If I could take its back during that time, I could deal a lot of damage.

‘Sword Drawing Stance’ and ‘Moonlight Slash’.

The Swordsman’s new attack cycle I had learned unleashed explosive damage in a short time.

Of course, there was the disadvantage of becoming vulnerable to attacks since you can’t use the block skill in ‘Sword Drawing Stance’, but it’s fine if you squeeze it in during such a large pattern delay.

[1st Named]

[Level 27 Black Wyvern]

[HP 157,050/210,000]

I chipped away at its HP faster than expected.

But I didn’t let my guard down.

Like the named monsters in the previous elite dungeon, this one probably has a special pattern that activates when it falls below a certain percentage.

As I expected, the ‘Black Wyvern’ didn’t disappoint me.

I wish it had disappointed me.

Kaaaa!

Flutter, flutter.

When its HP fell below 75%, the wyvern flapped its wings several times in place.

Flutter, flutter, flutter.

That massive body started to float up little by little.

“Uhh.”

I sweated profusely.

That’s right.

An all too obvious fact.

A beast with wings can fly in the air.

Kaaaa!