Looking at the fallen Venus flytrap, the party members sank to the ground one after another.
“I-we won….”
Until the very last moment, before sunlight had once again fallen over their heads, the word defeat had been hovering before their eyes.
Belated relief washed over them, and everyone let out a deep sigh.
Among them, Veronica, a swordswoman like Ian who had seen Ian’s blade up close, found herself with a question.
“What exactly did you just do?”
The skill Ian had used was Slash, a basic cutting technique.
No matter how strong she was, it was common knowledge that a single-hit skill lacked damage compared to a two-hit combo.
And yet Ian’s attack had gone far beyond the wound Veronica had made, unleashing far more powerful damage.
At her question, Ian answered indifferently.
“It wasn’t anything special. I just assigned the stats I hadn’t spent yet.”
“H-huh? Your stats?”
“I’d been saving them just in case.”
Before swinging that final blow, Ian had put all 6 stat points she had into Strength.
Name: IAN
Gender: Female
Level: 20
Status: Strength 26 | Agility 23+2 | Stamina 17 | Magic 15
Proficiencies: Basic Swordsmanship (267/1000), Basic Magic (153/1000)
Her Strength, originally 20, had become 26, drastically raising the damage she had been lacking.
That was why, despite it being a basic skill, she had been able to cut through the Venus flytrap’s stem in a single stroke.
Still, Ian smiled bitterly.
‘I won’t be able to put points into Strength for a while.’
Originally, she had thought it might be better to invest in her Magic stat.
After all, in this third area, she had been benefiting far more from magic than from her sword.
But in that situation, investing in Strength had been the best choice.
Even if she had used magic, the Venus flytrap would likely have recovered faster than it turned to ash.
Even so, feeling regret for no reason, she shook her head hard.
It was to shake off the thoughts of stats muddling her mind.
“At any rate, let’s rest a little, then move out again.”
The sun was still high in the sky.
There was no need to push themselves and move in a hurry.
After that short rest ended, Ian’s party began moving again.
This time as well, man-eating flowers of all shapes and colors sprang out to block their path.
Once again, the flowers’ attacks did not pose a great threat to the players.
On top of that, thanks to the previous battle, Veronica and Aya, who had been level 16, had reached level 17, allowing the fight to end even more smoothly than before.
Before long, Ian’s party faced the second gatekeeper, [Lv. 19 Blood Rose].
It was a monster with an annoying gimmick that restored its health whenever its thorns drew blood, but Ian’s party, composed of evasive dealers, defeated the bloodsucking rose even more easily than they had the Venus flytrap.
As a reward for defeating it, Lily, Zola, and Naira each gained a level.
Thanks to that, the monster wave that followed was not even an obstacle.
Ian’s party advanced quickly toward the place where Solar Bloom awaited.
And finally.
“That’s Solar Bloom?”
“Isn’t it just a sunflower?”
“Whoa… It’s huge.”
Even from a great distance, they could see the enormous golden flower greedily absorbing the ley line and the sunlight.
[Lv. 20 Solar Bloom]
The Destroyer of the Sun, counted alongside Alraune as one of Durigarda’s four elite monsters.
Before its overwhelming majesty, Ian spoke calmly.
“Let’s wait until night.”
Before they knew it, the sun was near the horizon.
***
Meanwhile, in the dungeon north of the outpost, the Collapsed Temple, those attempting to clear it encountered a monster that let thorny vines hang down like roots.
[Lv. 20 Juggernaut]
An ancient guardian tree that had once protected Durigarda.
The fallen executor swung its vines at the players.
Emily blocked a vine with her shield and shouted to the people in the rear.
“Fire magic, launch!”
At her command, spheres of flame appeared behind her and rushed toward the Juggernaut.
-Bababang!
The players’ fire magic struck the Juggernaut’s body.
Along with sparks, its massive body staggered.
The Juggernaut’s eyes turned toward the rear of the players, toward the mages.
A long thorny vine, swung like a whip, surged toward the mages.
-Kagagak!
But the shield users protecting the mages’ side blocked it at just the right timing.
In that opening, the fire magic that had finished activating flew toward the Juggernaut once more.
The same pattern repeated.
Block the vines, fire magic, block the vines again.
At the harmony created by offense and defense, a smile appeared on Emily’s lips.
‘This composition was definitely the right one.’
There were seven people currently participating in the Juggernaut raid.
The party consisted of three shield users, including Emily, and four mages, including Mugi.
At first, even Emily had been half in doubt.
After all, gathering the mages in one place was essentially placing that much more burden on the other parties.
But after hearing Kalinia’s advice and deciding on this party composition, Emily could be certain.
This combination was the answer.
Not only she, but every player here felt the same.
Each time they fired magic, each time they blocked the thorny vines, doubt turned into certainty.
At this rate, victory was only a matter of time.
The tanks held on tenaciously, and the mages desperately fired their flame magic.
And finally.
-Kugung….
At the center of the temple, the fallen guardian tree burned and collapsed.
Having succeeded in the raid, Emily savored the joy and looked toward the place where the dungeons the other players had gone to lay.
“Please, let them succeed too.”
She wished for the victory of the players who had to fight there.
***
In the dungeon east of the outpost, the Hill of Winds, the players led by Adrian were facing an elite monster.
[Lv. 20 Silent Orchid]
Durigarda’s silent killer.
The orchid swung its leaves, sending blades of wind flying toward the players.
“Nasser!”
“Iron Wall!”
Nasser, the team’s only shield user, raised his shield and blocked the rush of blades.
In that gap, Adrian, another axe warrior named Nate, and Kai, the only swordsman, cut down the orchid leaves growing beneath their feet.
“Don’t let them grow, no matter what!”
“Got it!”
“But these things are growing faster than I thought!”
But there were far more orchids growing than the leaves they were cutting.
The reason it was called the silent killer was that orchids growing beneath one’s feet without notice would aim for one’s life.
Even from a distance, they created new winds.
With a shortage of shields to block from the front, leaving the growing orchids alone was a shortcut to defeat.
Because of that, those with bladed weapons desperately removed the orchids.
As a result, the task of attacking the main body inevitably fell to the remaining three spearmen.
“Drive!”
“Twins Spear!”
“Swing!”
The spears, with their comparatively longer reach than the orchid leaves, easily pierced and struck the white flower that was the main body.
The problem, however, was the ever-increasing wind.
Adrian’s brow furrowed.
‘If only we had one more swordsman or axe warrior….’
They could have stopped the growing orchids.
But with Ian and Veronica gone to the dungeon where Solar Bloom was, there were no remaining swordsmen or axe warriors.
They had to succeed in clearing it with only the people here.
But the orchids continued to increase in number, and more wind than before raged toward the players.
‘What do we do?’
At that moment, Kalinia’s advice surfaced in Adrian’s mind.
‘When facing Silent Orchid, time will not be on your side.’
He had not understood what it meant then, but Adrian understood now.
With this method of clearing it, they could not win.
If so.
“Give up on defense! Everyone, charge!”
The only remaining method was to end it swiftly, before the orchids multiplied.
But at Adrian’s sudden order, the players were flustered.
“Adrian! Are you out of your mind—”
“We’re going to be slowly strangled to death anyway! We have to finish it here.”
In their hearts, they could not erase their unease, but their heads understood Adrian’s judgment.
“Ah, screw it, I don’t know! At this point, it’s all or nothing!”
“Yeah, what’s the worst that can happen? We die?”
“Still, I’ll do my best to block until the very end!”
Moreover, the people gathered here were players who valued Strength over Agility.
When it came to single-hit damage, they were confident they would lose to no one.
Intense light swirled around the players’ weapons.
And all of them began a fierce charge toward the main body.
Countless blades of wind appeared in the air and surged toward the players.
Even though Nasser used Charge until the very end to block as much as he could, small wounds multiplied across the players’ bodies.
But the players’ charge did not stop.
“Stampede!”
“Drive!”
“Sword Rush!”
The players’ attacks struck the main body all at once.
Ignoring their wounds, they poured every powerful skill they had into it.
And finally.
-Seogeok!
Adrian’s axe cut off the flower of the Silent Orchid.
“I-we won….”
Everyone sank to the ground with sighs of relief, finally feeling that they had survived.
“No one’s in serious danger, right?”
“Yeah. It hurts a bit, but… if we’d been any later, I couldn’t have guaranteed it.”
“Right. That was a good call.”
As they briefly savored the afterglow of battle, the sky became dyed in the colors of sunset.
Watching the sinking sun, Adrian murmured.
“By the way, I wonder how things are going over there.”
His gaze turned south, toward the Garden of the Sun, where the decisive battle with Solar Bloom would soon take place.
Everyone here was hoping for their victory.
But.
In the Garden of the Sun, now fallen into night—
-Kwagwagwang!
“N-no…. I, I….”
“Ian! What are you doing? Get a hold of yourself! Hey!”
The shadow of defeat was falling heavily.