Dragged into Haesal’s party and hauled into the raid so fast it was like roasting beans in a lightning flash, Yeonjun was breaking out in a cold sweat while the cutscene played.
Back in the day, he could have cleared a difficulty like this stone drunk.
No matter how badly his physical skill had gone to shit, something at this level should still be well within what he could handle.
But even when he took deep breaths, his pounding heart refused to calm down.
‘What if I’m the one who wipes us?’
A vague anxiety welled up in Yeonjun’s chest, and Saekyeonpil’s glorious record came to mind.
It was not as though that man had wanted to be like that either.
Yeonjun gripped the mouse, suppressing the urge to smack his past self, the one who had firmly resolved never to become someone like Saekyeonpil.
What he needed to do now was not blame himself, but keep his head on straight and do his share properly.
He had already memorized the strategy so thoroughly he was sick of it.
The difficulty itself was not all that high, really. If he backed off when he needed to, went in when he needed to, hit diligently, and did not miss the timing to run, it was a clear that should go through without trouble.
Even so, because it had been so long, he was more worried that he might violate some common rule or etiquette he did not know.
‘It’s fine… just don’t do anything weird and shut up and focus on DPS.’
Not that Yeonjun had ever been that kind of person in the first place.
Trying to force some awkward small talk and bringing up useless chatter would have been ridiculous too.
Things like, Before I quit there used to be a skill like this, but it changed now, hahaha, and then dumping TMI no one who started after the reboot even wanted to hear, that was the absolute worst thing a returning player could do.
No one was going to ask about that, so he should think of the keyboard as existing only for “hello” and “thank you.”
With that firm resolve, Yeonjun checked the count displayed on the screen.
[System: Battle will begin shortly.]
[System: 3 seconds until battle begins]
[System: 2 seconds until battle begins]
[System: 1 second until battle begins]
[System: Battle start!]
As the countdown ended, Haesal marked Baesuk Heuin, the main tank, with the tank icon over his head.
When Baesuk Heuin, a Mar-race Paladin, gave a little hop in place once, the healer Seol Heewon cast a protection skill on him.
Transparent wings glowing in a faint purple wrapped around Baesuk Heuin like a stream of water, then shone like a halo.
[System: <Divine Bless>]
As if to show he had confirmed it, Baesuk Heuin hopped in place once more and moved forward, revealing a cave path leading to the central altar.
[Party/DoHaesal: Stones roll down here at random, so]
Before Haesal could even finish typing that much, a pile of rocks collapsed right beside them and stones came pouring down in a rush.
[Party/PleaseScoldMe: Ack]
The seven who quickly evacuated forward crossed the alley without taking any damage at all, but maybe because he had been distracted for a moment, PleaseScoldMe’s character stuttered and stepped backward.
Baesuk Heuin then quickly used a pull skill that could drag an allied character toward himself, trying to yank PleaseScoldMe over.
But maybe the timing was just slightly off, because a small tragedy unfolded.
[Party/Seol Heewon: ?]
[Party/Middle-Aged Hunter: ????]
[Party/Planaria: ??]
Because the pull timing missed by the tiniest hair, right in front of everyone PleaseScoldMe’s character was struck head-on by the rolling boulder and sent tumbling down toward the restart section.
[Party/PleaseScoldMe: ???????ㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠ]
[Party/PleaseScoldMe: Did I do something wrong?]
[Party/Seol Heewon: Did you maybe build up some grudge we don’t know about?]
[Party/PleaseScoldMe: No????ㅠㅠㅠㅠ??]
While PleaseScoldMe crawled back up from the bottomless abyss, the one actually at fault pretended nothing had happened.
[Party/Baesuk Heuin: Ah sry sry]
[Party/Baesuk Heuin: Shoulda pressed a little later]
If he had pressed later, another boulder would just have rolled in from the opposite side anyway, so it only would have changed the direction PleaseScoldMe fell.
While everyone laughed, chatted, and teased in a disorderly mess, Haesal brought things back under control.
[Party/DoHaesal: Once everyone’s here, we’ll head out right away]
In front of Ignis-nim, don’t sit there making pointless small talk and talking nonsense.
Haein, tense all over, worried in case they looked like a group that was too casual about raids, trading rude or unpleasant jokes back and forth, but none of the chat was entering Yeonjun’s eyes at all.
‘As soon as it starts, first the pillars fall in the four directions, so two people go into each section according to the assigned spots and break the pillars first. Once the pillars are broken, the boss comes out again in the center, so you stick close at the 6 o’clock side and hit it, and once the boss’s HP drops to about 90 percent the ground-pattern mechanic comes out, so don’t mess up and dodge it properly…’
Running through the flow of the fifteen-minute raid from start to finish once in his head should have made him feel a little calmer than before…
Yeah right.
If after all this I still mess up, I’m really an idiot.
The color kept draining from his face.
Don’t do anything stupid.
Don’t make some weird mistake.
Neither Haesal nor any of the Yeonhwa guild members had the faintest idea that Yeonjun was sitting there smacking himself in the face.
[Party/PleaseScoldMe: Huh]
[Party/PleaseScoldMe: I-I made it]
[Party/DoHaesal: Go]
Following Haesal’s chat, a short countdown visible only to party members passed through the telepathic system message, and then Baesuk Heuin, the main tank, quickly charged at the boss.
[Pantheon: You vile creatures, it is already too late! Everything shall proceed according to the great Lord Emon’s plan!]
The moment the boss recognized the main tank, the boss’s rough humanlike body swelled hideously, bulging grotesquely, and transformed into a half-man, half-beast monster with the head of a creature.
Pantheon, the boss of the Chapter 7 final raid, was a tyrant who had fallen for the temptation of a demonic beast promising to make him a complete being.
From Heroic raid onward he transformed into four forms, and in Epic raid five, showing all kinds of varied patterns, but right now this was Normal difficulty.
Only the wolf form of phase 1 and the bear form of phase 2 appeared here.
[???: Grrrrr… grr… grrrrr…]
The boss, looking like a lycanthrope, leapt high toward the ceiling, and the screen shook wildly as four enormous pillars came crashing down across the entire map.
[Party/DoHaesal: Please check your assigned positions]
Centered on the four pillars fallen in a cross shape, the usual setup was main tank and main healer in the north section, sub-tank and sub-healer in the south section, and one melee DPS and one ranged DPS paired together on the left and right.
And naturally, Ignis-nim’s pair spot was beside Haesal.
‘Paired DPS with Ignis-nim…!’
At the very moment the wish Haein had waited longer for than the day he became an adult was about to come true, something that absolutely should not have happened happened.
[Party/Middle-Aged Hunter: ??]
[Party/MintChocoJokbal: ????]
[Party/Planaria: omg]
[Party/AuroraPatient: ㄷㄷ;;;]
PleaseScoldMe, who had come running in out of breath from the restart section, took the spot beside Haesal out of habit, just as he always did.
[Party/Ignis: ????]
Until ten seconds ago, Yeonjun had definitely known that was his place, but seeing PleaseScoldMe come charging toward Haein so confidently threw him into confusion.
Did I remember something wrong?
Did I mess something up?
Did I come to the wrong place?
Am I… Saekyeonpil…?
An older guy causing trouble by crawling into a raid he has no business entering when he can’t even remember a gimmick position…?
To keep positions from overlapping, Yeonjun quickly moved himself instead to the spot PleaseScoldMe was originally supposed to have taken.
[Party/DoHaesal: ?]
Faced with an imminent gimmick where the assigned pairs had to neatly exchange buffs and debuffs while breaking their pillars, Suyeong, who had suddenly and unexpectedly become the pair DPS with the guild master’s “that person” (note: not his lover), was completely flustered.
[Guild/Middle-Aged Hunter: ?]
[Guild/Middle-Aged Hunter: What the hell;]
[Guild/Middle-Aged Hunter: Why did Ignis-nim come over here?]
In that brief instant, countless thoughts crossed PleaseScoldMe’s mind.
I’m dead now.
A siren blared in his head telling him he ought to choose death himself.
[Guild/PleaseScoldMe: I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorryㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠ]
While desperately smashing the pillar, PleaseScoldMe tried an equally desperate apology using a stock phrase he had bound to a hotkey, but Haein’s heart had already gone cold.
[Guild/Middle-Aged Hunter: Ah]
[Guild/Middle-Aged Hunter: So Hon-nim went to the wrong place]
[Guild/Middle-Aged Hunter: and that’s why Ignis-nim came over here?]
[Guild/PleaseScoldMe: I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry]
The sealed-off area soon lit up brightly as the DPS check segment began.
Annoying or not, that was that.
He could not afford to look sloppy in front of Ignis-nim over something this minor.
Putting off punishing PleaseScoldMe until later, Haein quickly switched back into battle mode and typed.
[Party/DoHaesal: Since Hon-nim changed places by mistake and it can’t be helped]
[Party/DoHaesal: we’ll just swap for this one]
[Party/PleaseScoldMe: Yep]
[Party/PleaseScoldMe: I’m sorry ㅠㅠㅠㅠ]
Whether he knew or not that Haein’s heart had just sunk like a stone, Ignis’s outward appearance remained perfectly calm.
[Party/Ignis: Understood]
With that final chat line, Yeonjun decided to focus only on the job he originally had to do for this gimmick.
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