Episode 44
[Party] Jaesugang: Was I not supposed to look?
[Party] Kkulppang: Nah
[Party] Kkulppang: I forgot I sent it
[Party] Kkulppang: So I was wondering how you knew
Having cleared up the misunderstanding, I was now ready to attack the boss with peace of mind. But when I actually tried to attack, I was at a loss as to what skill I should use. How did Jaesugang use his skills again? The only thing I knew was the damage rotation he used in PvP. And even that I had memorized only by the motions, so when I saw the names, there were more skills I didn’t recognize than ones I did.
I sweated buckets by myself as I read through the skill descriptions, then, thinking screw it, I just pressed some virus skill that caught my eye. It had been a year since I last raised a Field Medic, so trying to handle one felt unfamiliar, but it was also rather thrilling, enough to make my heart pound……
[Combat] You used Protection of Moonlight on a party member.
I had expected it to cast Virus when I pressed the hotkey, so after pressing the skill, I sat there waiting. But my character performed the all-too-familiar motion for
I froze for a while as question marks marched through my head. Come to think of it, Jaesugang was still dealing damage using Field Medic skills. That meant only the visible skill layout had changed; the substance was still the skills I originally used.
I swallowed the awkward cough that rose naturally from the embarrassment creeping up on me and started jamming skills into the boss according to what my fingers remembered. Jaesugang didn’t notice, right?
[Party] Jaesugang: I thought a Field Medic skill would go out
[Party] Jaesugang: So I pressed Virus 2
[Party] Jaesugang: But I guess it was MoonProt (*Protection of Moonlight)? lol
That ghostly bastard.
[Party] Kkulppang: yeah
[Party] Jaesugang: lolololol
For some reason, my face felt hot. Sighing, I controlled the keyboard with one hand to slam in skills, while with the hand that had been holding the mouse, I gulped down some water whenever I had a moment. I’d been so focused on the dungeon that I’d left the water sitting there for ages, so it was unbearably lukewarm.
After that, the boss only stared at us as if we were lab rats, then closed its eyes and clasped its hands near its chest. Along with that, a casting bar appeared above its health gauge. It was using a skill.
As I watched to see what bizarre mechanic it would use this time, I recalled where my defensive skills had been and preemptively put up one survival skill just in case. Since I’d been playing a Holy Knight for a little over two years, I knew where every skill was, but with the icons changed like this—and with some places showing up as empty spaces as if there were no skill there—it was extremely confusing.
I tried to respond as calmly as possible, but the casting bar, which had been filling toward the end, suddenly disappeared. As if the boss were playing mind games like a user, it had canceled the cast it had been performing. With the cast interrupted, the boss opened its closed eyes and let its hands drop limply. It looked just like it had given up in the middle of using a skill.
The survival skill I’d put down in advance as a precaution was wasted for nothing. Is this thing a person? Is an admin pretending to be a boss mob because it’s a hidden boss?
Whatever the truth was, the fact that my survival skill had been wasted didn’t change. It wasn’t an especially efficient skill anyway, and this was our first try, so I let it slide and poured what little lingering resentment I had into my attack skills as I ran my DPS rotation.
The boss, which had canceled its cast and had been stroking its chin while looking down at the floor as if contemplating something, once again waved both hands as though conducting. This time its fingers also drifted along as if playing the piano. Then, above Jaesugang’s head and mine, large, round somethings of unknown identity appeared. A new cast bar appeared for the boss as well.
There was still plenty of casting time left, so until then, I attacked the boss while keeping my gaze focused above my head. The more the cast bar filled, the clearer the round shape became. Finally, when the cast was about 70% complete, I could tell what it was.
It was a large pocket watch. Like an analog clock, it had an hour hand, a minute hand, and even a second hand, but in the center floated the Arabic number 45. That number decreased at a steady pace—44, 43……
I wasn’t sure what it meant, but the watch was swaying precariously as if it might fall at any moment. Thinking it might be an attack that dealt damage when the clock dropped, I used the remaining external defensive skill I had. Then the skill finished casting, and the number written on the clock stopped at 1 before it dropped in an instant.
However, the skill used by that nameless thing was not an attack skill. As the clock fell, it pierced through my character’s body, blinked on and off, and slowly disappeared. Not a single point of damage came in.
Instead, another problem occurred.
[System] Welcome to Dusk! Click the question mark button in the upper left to check the help guide!
[Combat] You gained 1 experience point.
[System] You have achieved the Prologue achievement.
[System] You have achieved the Flower of Travel, the Beginning of a Party achievement.
[Combat] You gained 1,500 experience points.
[System] You have reached Level 2.
[System] You can learn a new skill.
[System] You have reached Level 3.
[System] You can learn a new skill.
Notification sounds rang out sharply enough to hurt my ears. The chat log was also going wild, so I jumped in surprise and looked at it. It was a parade of messages I couldn’t even remember the last time I’d seen. The level-up effect even wrapped around my character in a flashy glow, just as the log said.
Why is this popping up? That was what I was thinking when the boss suddenly cast something at high speed.
[Combat] You took 1,111 damage from the used by .
[Combat] Jaesugang took 1,111 damage from ’s .
[Combat] You have died from ’s attack.
[Combat] Jaesugang has died.
[System] The lockdown on the Abandoned Temple area is being lifted.
“Huh?”
We died. From a measly thousand damage.
[Party] Kkulppang: ??????
[Party] Kkulppang: [Combat] You took 1,111 damage from the used by .
[Party] Kkulppang: ??????????????????
[Party] Kkulppang: My HP is 120k though?
[Party] Kkulppang: ??????????????????????????????????????????????????
More than the monster’s name not appearing, what baffled me was that I’d died at full health after getting hit by that laughable number, 1,111. 1111. Even the way it looked was like that. It felt like a scar that had scraped across a tank’s pride.
[Party] Jaesugang: Didn’t you see that earlier?
[Party] Kkulppang: See what?
[Party] Kkulppang: I saw a lot
[Party] Kkulppang: But all I can think about is the 1111 dmg
[Party] Jaesugang: We became level 1.
[Party] Kkulppang: ?
What Jaesugang had seen was us being reverted to level 1. Since we had become level 1, the messages that appeared when you first started Dusk had shown up, and at that time our health was barely in the triple digits, so we died after getting hit by an AoE with four-digit damage—that was what he was saying.
In short, the skill that white boss bastard had just used was “level reset.”
[Party] Kkulppang: What the
[Party] Kkulppang: fuck
[Party] Kkulppang: This is so ridiculous... lololololol
I let out a hollow laugh from sheer disbelief. What kind of mechanic reset a user’s level? What even was this?
[Party] Jaesugang: lololol
[Party] Jaesugang: But isn’t it fun??
Jaesugang asked if it wasn’t still fun.
We’d only seen two mechanics, wiped, and had to retry, and he was asking if it wasn’t fun?
[Party] Kkulppang: lol
[Party] Kkulppang: It’s insanely fun
It was extremely fun.
Title: Please nerf JSG already
Author: [Jeoba] Chukgusipnya Nongguinne
Hidden.finalboss.14tries.and.we.couldn’t.get.past.50percent.HP
This.is.all.because.ever.since.Jaesugang.started.Dusk.the.dungeons.have.been.cleared.way.too.easily
Because.of.Jaesugang.the.dev.team.gritted.their.teeth.and.made.this.fucking.piece.of.shit.bastard.final.boss
Nerf.Jaesugang’s.intelligence.nerf.it
Nerf.it...fuuuck...seriously...nerf.it...
Whether.you.nerf.Jaesugang’s.intelligence...or.nerf.the.hidden.final.boss.difficulty..
Nerf.it...you...^^ucking...bastards....
I.can’t..use.my.brain...
Let.me...clear.it.with.mechanics.execution.please.Even.if.the.mechanics.are.hard.that’s.fine.Just.don’t.make.me.use.my.brain.
Do.I.really...have.to...use.my.brain...even.in.a.game?
Change.it.to.a.physical.execution.dungeon.like.Bitmudeon.ple..ase..
(32 comments)
- What happened? Don’t cry, tell us
└ 【Best Comment】 [Author] Fuck....fuck.......
- 【Best Comment】 If they set the strategy standard based on Jaesugang, then if a boss you clear with physical execution comes out, who do you think that standard will be?
└ 【Best Comment】 [Author] Ah
└ lolololololololololololololololololololololololololol
└ lolololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololol
└ lololololololololololololololololololololololololololol
└ Every emotion is contained in that “Ah”
└ Either way it’s hell... lol The dev team using them as the standard in the first place is what’s weird...
- Most hidden users are either Chongchong or Jisa (*Commander Commander), so if it were a dungeon cleared through physical execution, people probably wouldn’t be saying the strategy was hard... But of all things, it’s a brain-using instance dungeon lololol
└ That sounds like you’re saying rankers aren’t smart?
└ Ah, I meant that if they’re PvP rankers, they usually have better physical execution, so it feels harder for them. I wrote it in a way that could cause misunderstanding, sorry sorry
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