Keoma

As expected, offline meetups are bound to be fun.

I talked with Pinku Berry, no, Hayan-ssi, about what to do after reaching max level.

The offline meetup ended today, and from tomorrow, I can enjoy max-level content. So, I asked Hayan-ssi what I should do.

First, the very first thing is to get max-level gear.

Right now, I’m wearing gear I got from quests or basic gear sold in the shop.

In Leore, item level is fundamentally more important than character level. The way to increase your stats after reaching max level is to raise your item level.

So, the first thing you do among the max-level content is dungeons. Dungeons!

Dungeons where you recruit four party members. The party composition is usually one tank, two dealers, and one healer.

The first max-level dungeon you should run is the [Underground Cave] dungeon.

Just hearing about it makes me think there will be monsters I don’t want to see.

Originally, what I was afraid of were ghosts. I wouldn’t watch horror movies even if someone gave me a ticket.

I’m okay with gore, but I can’t handle jump scares.

But after becoming Arang, I’ve also come to hate bugs.

The Queen Spider was at least okay because it had spider legs attached to a human body.

The problem is that the monsters in the Underground Cave dungeon are said to be spiders, rats, and huge bugs.

Ugh… I already hate it.

,Come to think of it, Hayan-eonni is no different from her original Keoma, right? Oh, her eye color is different.”

Hayan-ssi is wearing equipment that makes her look like a saint in Leore. I thought she was a pretty person when I first saw her.

That pretty Pinku Berry and the real-life Pinku Berry, Hayan-ssi, look exactly alike. The only differences are eye color and outfit?

Well, it’s impossible to wear the outfit from Leore in real life.

[Ah, yeah. I was too lazy to customize, so I just started.]

,Customizing can be a pain, for sure.”

When I play games, I usually use Keomas made by other people or make minimal changes from the default presets.

But in Leore, from the nickname to the Keoma, everything was already done when I opened my eyes as Arang.

,I’m no different from my Leore Keoma either.”

Wait a minute.

,No. Come to think of it, I don’t have arms and legs in real life, so aren’t there many differences between my Keoma and reality?”

Well, since I went from having no arms and legs to having them, you could say that reality and my Keoma are about half different.

[…]

Time flew by while we were talking about Leore.

Before I knew it, I got a call from downstairs saying the bossam I ordered had arrived.

,Hayan-eonni. Hayan-eonni.”

[Uh, yeah? What’s up?]

,I have that hikikomori vibe, so I can talk well in the virtual world, but I’m not good at it in real life, okay? So, don’t be too surprised.”

[Oh? Oh, okay.]

Anna-nunna came back, and after the bossam was all set up on the table next to my bed, Anna-nunna came over and took off my terminal device.

My vision was covered in darkness, and when I opened my eyes, I saw real-life Hayan-eonni instead of Pinku Berry in the screen.

Once again, my mind fell into a swamp and was trapped in the deep sea.

But I can feel that I’m getting better little by little.

I nodded and greeted Hayan-eonni.

Hayan-eonni looked at me and was startled. She was surprised by my appearance.

It’s a little embarrassing for me to say it myself, but Arang’s appearance is so good that it puts most child actors to shame.

I was so surprised when I first regained consciousness and saw Arang’s appearance. It was exactly Hayan-eonni’s reaction.

Anna-eonni neatly cleaned up everything around my body and then picked me up.

Having turned back into a doll, I rested the back of my head against Anna-eonni’s chest and looked at the deliciously prepared bossam.

,Shall we eat now?”

Anna-eonni said it for me.

,Ah… yes, yes.”

I ate the bossam that Anna-eonni fed me.

As expected of my older sister, she put whatever I wanted into my mouth whenever I wanted.

Mmm~ The bossam is so delicious.

As expected, salted shrimp and kimchi are important for bossam.

While I was eating bossam, I was thinking, since I’m supposed to be a doll who can’t speak because I’m not used to emotions yet, why aren’t Anna-eonni and Hayan-eonni talking?

Well, it would be strange to suddenly talk like close friends when it’s the first time meeting.

Hayan-eonni must be shy.

But is the bossam that delicious? Hayan-eonni has tears in her eyes. Oh, did she accidentally bite into raw garlic?

,Arang-a, shall I give you some makguksu too?”

,…Yeah.”

The offline meetup was a success.

We ate the bossam deliciously, then I went back into the terminal device, and we laughed and talked about Leore until the end.

Hayan-ssi said we should have another offline meetup next time, and then she left the hospital room with Anna.

==

As soon as Lee Hayan left Arang’s hospital room, she collapsed onto the floor.

,You’ve worked hard, Hayan-ssi. Thank you. Thank you for treating Arang well.”

,Ah… I, I’m sorry. I didn’t want to show it to Arang, but…”

The moment Arang came out of the terminal device and was held by her older sister, Anna-nim, I almost burst into tears.

Arang’s lively eyes were nowhere to be seen.

Arang’s lifeless eyes, devoid of any vitality, looked like those of a dead person.

Seeing Arang without arms and legs reminded me of Arang’s arms and legs in Leore.

There was a slight boundary on Arang’s arms and legs, and that area was exactly where Arang’s amputations were.

,No. Hayan-ssi, you did a really good job. Thanks to you, Arang had a lot of fun. Thank you.”

,Does Arang… does Arang have to live like that forever…?”

,…Yes. We don’t know when the illness will recur…”

,Ah…”

==

To go to the first [Underground Cave] dungeon, I first bought and equipped the max-level gear sold in the shop.

As soon as I bought the cheapest basic max-level gear, I used up almost all the gold I had earned from quests and killing monsters so far. But it was nice that I bought everything.

The snowball that Pinku Berry helped me roll by saving potions is rolling like this.

Since it will take a while for Pinku Berry to go home and log into Leore, I decided to try out the Sword Master’s max-level skills.

I entered the training ground.

Unlike the training ground in the starting village, many people were using the training ground.

Some users are looking at me with curiosity.

Hehe, that’s right. I’m the one who solo cleared the Orc Chieftain, the Corrupted Judge, and the Queen Spider duo!

As I reached max level, I gradually checked the skills.

First, looking at the major ones, the passive skill that suits me the most is [Revenge].

[Revenge]

Upon successfully parrying, the next attack’s final damage is increased by 30% and is guaranteed to hit.

You might think it’s just a skill that increases damage by 30%, but ‘final’ is important.

In Leore, final damage is applied multiplicatively after all damage calculations are done.

That’s why it’s important to get as much ‘final’ damage increase as possible.

Usually, other classes don’t have ‘final’ damage increase in their skills, so they have to get it from item equipment options, but Sword Masters are the only ones who have final damage.

The problem is that the condition is a successful parry, which is extremely difficult, so not many people use it well.

But who am I?

I’m the Sword Master who has been killing field bosses with parries.

As Pinku Berry said, Sword Masters deliberately parry with tanks to trigger this skill.

The reason is none other than this skill.

[Annihilation Strike]

Deals 1500% damage to the front.

Cast time: 3.0 seconds

Cooldown: 120 seconds

It’s a skill with simple yet brutal damage. The cooldown is a whopping 120 seconds, but it has a massive coefficient of 1500%.

It’s the most important skill for Sword Masters and a skill that must be landed. The base coefficient is so high that using it after triggering [Revenge] drastically increases DPS.

The problem is that the cast time is 3 seconds, even though it’s a swordsman skill.

In raids, 3 seconds is a very long time. Leore is a virtual reality game, so attacks and skills are often interrupted when you receive a flinching attack.

But having to stand still and cast a skill for 3 seconds means that mistakes are bound to happen a lot unless you’ve completely figured out the mechanics.

After looking up strategy videos, there are two ways to use [Annihilation Strike].

The first is to use the [Pentagon] skill, stack the [Rapid Strikes] attack speed buff 5 times, and then use [Annihilation Strike] to reduce the cast time even a little.

The second is to successfully parry and activate [Revenge] before using [Annihilation Strike].

But I…

I used [Pentagon] against the combat dummy provided in the training ground, stacked [Rapid Strikes] 5 times quickly, and then parried the dummy’s attack.

Pangpang!

As soon as I succeeded in parrying, a red light flashed on my sword.

In that state, I immediately used [Annihilation Strike].

The cast time is 3 seconds, but with 10 stacks of 3% attack speed, the Sword Master’s base attack speed of 5%, and the additional attack speed buff of 15% I got at max level, my attack speed is a whopping 50%, so my cast time is only.

2.0 seconds

I swung the sword, which was emitting a pure white light.

18135

Damage in the hundreds before reaching max level suddenly jumped to nearly 20,000 above the dummy’s head.

Kheu…! This skill feels so good.

The problem is the 2-minute cooldown…

While I was having fun with the skills in the training ground, Pinku Berry logged in.