Chapter 226
"Alright, got it. You even got yourself a secretary. Shall we give it a try then?"
Seojun turned his head forward, not to the right where the chat window was open.
He studied the giant statue before him.
Its face was obscured by a helmet.
The massive medieval knight statue, nearly 3 meters tall, held a spear and shield as its weapons.
"Is it automatic when I get close?"
Since it's a tutorial, there shouldn't be anything too complicated.
He was about to step forward, assuming as much, when a message from the still-open chat room stopped him.
—Wait!
"Mr. LivingOffTheTastingCorner? Why?"
—You think you're the only one betting? lololol
—You're not getting a free meal
—If you fail, you gotta put up something too
—I bet my character deletion, so you gotta offer something equivalent
"That's true. But I'm going to win anyway, aren't I?"
Seojun spoke, deliberately making his voice as annoyingly smug as possible.
Since they couldn't see his expression anyway, he figured he might as well needle them this way.
—Ugh lol shut up and just put something up already
—Rakel users, trust in me, I'll beat this guy and bring peace back to Raven
—So, what are you gonna bet?
"Hahaha. How about I use the ad revenue to buy some Rakel merch and share it with the users?"
—That's nice lol
—Ah lol go for it
—But how much did they pay you for the ad?
"The amount's a secret. I'll do it if I lose. So, can I really go now?"
Seojun checked the chat room's okay and glanced at the chat window one last time.
Character deletion bet vs. ad revenue?
The reactions seemed to agree the terms were fair.
Actually, many knew that Seojun was putting up even more.
—Isn't that amount kind of huge?
—It's gotta be in the thousands easy, he's basically betting max-level chars, the host
—But it's parrying, right? Totally easy, right?
—Deflecting is a bit different from countering, they say
—So can you pull off Sword of Judgment five times?
—Rolololol
—What's with this Sword of Judgment crap, you weebs lololol anyway, host, just give me a piece of merch
—Deflecting is crazy lololol if you pull it off even once, you become the star of the raid, newbies
After gauging the public opinion, Seojun walked to the center of the room, which exuded the atmosphere of an abandoned temple.
As he reached the knight statue, a dialogue with an NPC seemed to begin, just like earlier.
This time, however, a system message appeared instead of an NPC.
[Sanctuary of the Adventurer]
"Oh. Is that all?"
It wasn't.
[You really came? Welcome! Here in this sanctuary, let's learn the basics of being an adventurer! I'm actually the master of this sanctuary!]
Along with a voice, an NPC dialogue line popped up.
"Is that the same NPC from before? Quite the personality."
—Rolololol
—"You really came?" <-- that's gold
—You told them to come! lolol
Seojun listened to the explanation that followed.
[First, I'll teach you about skills, the most basic thing for an adventurer! Wanna try shouting 'Skill Window'?]
Simultaneously, a new system window appeared next to the map.
[Sanctuary of the Adventurer]
[Skills]
"If I follow the sequence, countering and deflecting will come up, right? TastingCorner?"
—Yep hurry up and do it
—But calling me TastingCorner is kinda annoying lol
—Say the full name or something
"Nope. Alright, then, skill window."
Seojun opened the skill window.
He hadn't class-changed yet, but there were skills in the window. Were these basic shared skills for adventurers?
"Slash? Double Slash? Triple Slash?"
The skill names were incredibly lame.
"Is this right?"
Seojun asked TastingCorner again.
For some reason, chatting with this viewer was entertaining.
—You haven't class-changed yet, dummy lol
—Cheers~
—lol but those actually suit you
—They disappear once you class-change
Look at that.
Seojun was working hard to entertain him, wasn't he?
"Hahaha. Got it. Then…."
[You adventurers can activate skills by performing the actions written in your skill window! When you activate a skill, extra damage and additional effects are applied! Wanna give it a try?]
Without answering, Seojun read the description of the topmost skill, Slash.
"Swinging the sword? That's it?"
So all he had to do was swing it?
Seojun drew the sword from his back and swung it with both hands.
Whoosh!
At the moment he swung the sword,
a very simple effect—light traced an arc along the tip of the blade, then vanished.
—That's Slash. It's the indicator that the skill activated
—But he actually activated a skill? I thought he wouldn't even be able to swing it
—lolololol
"Then is this Double Slash?"
He hadn't read the skill description yet, but for some reason, if he swung the sword from left to right,
then from right to left, making one round trip, cutting each way,
the skill activated.
"Oh."
And when he did the second slash, the attack speed increased.
If he simply swung back and forth, it would take twice the time, but thanks to the increased attack speed, it only took 1.5 times as long.
"The effects are just as underwhelming."
—Is he geeking out over noob skills lololol
—Once you class-change and get a new class, your eyes will pop out
—Naw, before that you're gonna get wrecked and cough up your ad money lol
TastingCorner was consistent.
"Now that I've tried using the skill, let's move on to the next step."
Seojun noticed the second tab in the system box from earlier had opened, and he clicked it.
[Movement Skills]
It was something you could activate at will and it had a cooldown.
"And since I still haven't class-changed, I can only use Acceleration. So other classes can do things like jump far using their weapons or teleport, right? I see."
The next tab opened.
[Combat]
[The adventurer is... in the continent...]
The NPC gave a generic explanation that players would fight monsters a lot.
[Then let's fight first!]
And suddenly, it made him fight.
The knight statue in the center began to move.
It was 3 meters tall.
With a long spear that fit its massive body and a large round shield, the statue approached Seojun.
Its movements weren't hasty.
"We're fighting right away? TastingCorner?"
Seojun called out that name again. TastingCorner.
—Are you not gonna fight? lolol
—Ah lol
—Just show us quickly
—Joking aside, the thing you're fighting right now doesn't lose health anyway; you have to die once to move to the next stage, just die now
Now that just stoked his competitive spirit.
"Is there really no way to kill that statue? Like, absolutely no possibility, none? Veteran players, please tell me."
Checking through the main chat window, not just TastingCorner's chat room, they said it was completely impossible.
It wasn't about being as good as Shin Hayeon or anything—there was simply no way to deal damage to it.
Seojun was dumbfounded.
"Are you saying the game company really made the game that half-heartedly?"
The viewers were dumbfounded too.
Not at the game company, but at Seojun.
—It's not about half-hearted, host lolol
—How is telling you to just move on without killing it half-hearted lolol
—Etore! Wreck Etore!
—But at least you can deal damage to Etore; I heard you can't even hit this one?
—Yep, you can't kill it
—You'll be able to kill it later
Right now was the third part of the Sanctuary of the Adventurer, Combat.
The "later" they mentioned in the chat probably referred to the following stages.
He figured they'd show some kind of system to deal with this boss.
Before he knew it, the statue had approached and thrust its spear at close range.
Whoooosh!
Seojun dodged the massive spear to his right.
Then, without a moment's break, the child-sized shield came crashing down where he had dodged.
Of course, Seojun easily sidestepped again. He was already reading the next attack from its movements.
But what was surprising was—
"For a tutorial, it's got quite the difficulty."
What the...?
—They designed it so you're supposed to die, host lolol
—FYI, one hit from that and you're dead
—You gotta move to the next stage to learn
I see.
"But what exactly are the countering conditions, TastingCorner? A little explanation, please."
Whoosh!
Whoosh!
The spear thrust repeatedly.
This seemed to be its basic attack.
Would the specific patterns, the so-called gimmicks, appear later?
While Seojun calmly dodged the spear and shield, TastingCorner started explaining.
Maybe he felt bad about earlier when he said he'd get someone else if he didn't want to explain—now, if asked, he answered well.
—He sure dodges well, definitely has skill lol
—Countering is perfectly deflecting a boss's basic attack with a specific skill (Slash can counter).
—Usually the angle is perpendicular to the center of the opponent's weapon. The angle that most squarely blocks the attack.
—Countering is possible even now
—Deflecting is not possible
—FYI, countering is the highlight of raids
So countering is similar to parrying.
"Understood. Let's give it a shot."
To land a counter, Seojun focused solely on the statue.
In that moment, both TastingCorner's chat window and the main chat window vanished from his perception.
He concentrated for one reason only:
The difficulty was far higher than he thought.
Even for countering, for parrying, that is.
'Deflecting must be much harder. But it seems doable, so why do they say it's impossible?'
That question lingered, but he focused on countering for now.
The spear jabbed at him from all angles.
And whenever he moved near the shield to dodge it, an attack with the shield swinging at him inevitably followed.
He had the pattern figured out.
Whoosh!
The moment the sharp spear tip aimed for his heart again,
Seojun swung his sword vertically, from top to bottom.
That was his most confident sword path.
And for Seojun to be confident meant he could perfectly control all his body's movements and the result the sword would create.
The Slash skill activated. The effect would draw a curved arc if you looked from the side.
And right as that curve was about halfway drawn, the blade of his sword met the spear's tip exactly above his forehead.
Vertically.
Clang!
With a sound effect that didn't feel like metal meeting stone, the statue stumbled backward hesitantly.
"Oh. So this is countering."
Incredibly difficult.
Was this why they called it the highlight of raids?
Were other raids all similar in difficulty?
A notification popped up.
['SwordGod1' has stopped the ancient statue!]
—???
—No way???
—WTF???
But suddenly, TastingCorner started spamming question marks.
"Why?"
—Uh... how'd you do that?
What the.
Why had he stopped his antics?
Seojun set aside his disappointment and asked.
"What do you mean, what? The counter?"
The statue started moving again, but dodging was easy enough while chatting.
—Yeah
—It's a spear right now
—No, what the hell
—...No, what the crap
—What is it?......
"Does anyone else want to explain what that person is going on about, since I still have no idea?"
Seojun shifted his gaze to the chat window.
Existing viewers were also posting that they had no idea.
But veteran viewers had similar reactions to TastingCorner's, and some explained, so Seojun understood the situation and laughed.
—Srsly lolololol did he just screw up?
—Did he seriously just counter the spear tip? Was that even possible???
—Explanation for newbies: When TastingCorner said countering is possible even now, he meant countering the shield lololol who counters the spear tip lolololol
—TastingCorner's hands must be shaking right now lololol
—This streamer is on a whole different level with his skills lolol what the heck lolol
No wonder the difficulty seemed abnormally high. Other raids probably weren't like this.
Well.
Thinking about it, the difficulty of countering could vary drastically depending on the weapon's form and the attack method, and a thrusting spear was near the top of that list.
Anyway.
"So what you're saying is, how did I counter the spear?"
—Yeah that
—How do you counter a spear, like wtf
—Is it a bug? What the...
—He actually has real skill? And no one's ever done it before?
—No, seriously, how did you do it?
Smiling, Seojun once again swung his sword from top to bottom.
['SwordGod1' has stopped the ancient statue!]
And then he uttered just one word.
Believing a single word would be explanation enough.
"Well?"
Parrying.
Well.
I've shown this level of skill plenty of times already.
Hadn't I?
—Lololololol
—Ah lolololol
—That's our host lololol
—He made it look so natural and easy, I didn't even realize it was hard lolol his skill is just on a different dimension lololol
—Seriously, let's go live off the tasting corner, you bastard lolololol
The existing viewers seemed to agree.