HSF 68

“Hmm… I’m thinking about whether to go home, or have dinner here and practice more.”

“Do whatever Hyung is comfortable with.”

“Then let’s eat here and go.”

Hee-won’s face visibly brightened at Cheong-hyeon’s words. No matter how I thought about it, it didn’t seem like Hee-won had a knack for dating and naturally drew out skinship. The evidence was in his still clumsy appearance, unable to properly hide his feelings, and his previous behavior of pushing forward recklessly. It was as if liking someone, let alone dating, was a first for Hee-won, who acted so selfishly. I had never talked to Hee-won about dating, so I couldn’t know for sure, but I could sufficiently guess that he had little experience dating people.

“Hee-won-ah, you said you’re an only child, right?”

“Yes. Why all of a sudden?”

“Just wondering.”

Maybe Hee-won was used to being loved because he was a precious only son who grew up being cherished. He tilted his head, and Cheong-hyeon felt another impulse to reach out to Hee-won. Who wouldn’t find him adorable? It was clearly Hee-won’s fault that I was particularly lenient with skinship towards him. Cheong-hyeon didn’t think any deeper and cleared his head.

Amidst the comfort and discomfort in my relationship with Hee-won, the new boss raid was nearing its end. Artirens shed its skin as if molting, its body tripling in size and transforming into a hideous form. The background also changed to a bluish and dark atmosphere, as if night had fallen.

Artirens stretched out its beastly arm and snatched Tae-young, who was within range. Artirens began to absorb the countless souls being dragged up from below the ground. Seeing this, Tae-young said in a resigned voice.

-Ah, I’m gonna die.

A pillar of light spewed from Artirens’ mouth, targeting Tae-young. This long, continuous attack dealt powerful damage continuously, to the point where even two healers pouring out their skills couldn’t save him. In the end, Tae-young died without being able to do anything.

As we repeated the practice, the party members’ expectations rose as Artirens’ health gradually decreased. Finally, when its health dropped below 1%, Artirens roared loudly and suddenly disappeared into the ground. I thought it was over, but the heightened emotions couldn’t explode and ambiguously subsided.

“Is it over?”

“I think there’s more.”

The ground where Artirens had disappeared rippled and undulated, and after a while, when it reappeared, its health had recovered to 10%. I could feel the party members’ motivation dropping in real time, along with sighs. At the same time, a chat message was posted on the CCO channel where only the initial guild members were gathered.

[Marachip: Emergency news!!!!]

[Marachip: It looks like Heo Jeong Noona’s party is about to clear]

[Marachip: They said they’ll post the final pattern strategy after they clear?]

[Heekkom: Ah ㅜ We seem to be at the final pattern too….]

[Marachip: ㅜㅜ Fighting fighting!!!!]

[Capybara: Hyung and Noonas, good luck!!]

[Marachip: I’ll bring back more useful information if I can get it ^^7]

[Tiramisush: Thank you ㅠㅅㅠ]

Now, the first clear of Artirens was nothing more than a race against time. Encouraged by the support, they renewed their determination and burned with motivation. First of all, it seemed like we needed to nullify the health recovery pattern, but no matter how many times we tried again, there seemed to be no way to pull the boss out of the ground.

-I really don’t know, so I’ll just cheer you on!

Woo-jin said shamelessly and took out the piano he always carried, starting to play in the middle of the map. Instead of the repetitive and boring background music, an exciting latest idol song echoed.

“I actually feel a bit more energized…”

“I’m getting annoyed, though?”

Leaving Hee-won, who was frowning, Cheong-hyeon felt refreshed and looked around the map again. The spacious temple had a high ceiling, angel-shaped statues, and harp-shaped sculptures. Although it was buried in the ground, it was a properly decorated map. While observing whether there was anything wrong with the statues in the back, a light flashed on one of the statues and immediately disappeared. The light appeared in the first of the five orbs above each statue’s head, and it seemed like something would happen if all the orbs lit up.

“A light came on in this statue, do you want to take a look?”

-Where? When I looked earlier, there were no changes.

-Where, where?

At Cheong-hyeon’s words, all the guild members gathered in front of the statues. They waited there for a while, but the statues remained silent without any changes.

“A light really came on earlier…”

“Then, what’s different between earlier and now…”

“Hmm…”

“Try playing the piano again.”

Woo-jin took out the piano again in front of the statues. Cheong-hyeon stopped him from playing a song like before and had him press the notes one by one. The orbs on the statues lit up when a specific note was played, but the light went out again if the wrong note was pressed.

“We can’t find it by pressing these one by one.”

“I don’t think it’s that difficult of a note.”

“Yeah. It should be a note we know and is related to this dungeon.”

“Hmm, try playing any of the songs that come out when we get debuffs.”

Artirens always sang a song when inflicting debuffs on users, and each debuff had a different note. It was a song that was imprinted in our minds because it was short, simple, and sung every time a debuff was inflicted. Woo-jin, pressing the notes one by one, immediately played one of the songs. It was the song for the [Judgment] debuff, which restricted movement and made the user float in the air.

“Oh, Woo-jin is doing well!”

“I’m a man who graduated from a practical music department!”

With Woo-jin’s confident voice, all the lights on one of the statues lit up, and its wings spread wide open. The same song that was played echoed louder and louder, with harmonies stacking one by one. Artirens, who had been hiding underground, was dragged out as if being pulled. It hadn’t recovered any health.

A new health bar and countdown appeared above Artirens’ head. The forcibly pulled-out Artirens roared and slammed the ground, causing the map to shake. Soon after, structures, including piles of dirt, began to fall from the ceiling like rain.

“…Right. There’s no way there wouldn’t be a desperate pattern.”

The damage from being hit by the falling debris was significant, and party members were becoming critically injured everywhere. Eventually, we failed and withered away, and from the very next attempt, we started playing the song as soon as we entered Artirens’ temple. By playing the debuffs we had suffered from the boss according to the situation, the difficulty became easier than before, and the raid progressed faster.

“I knew it was impossibly difficult…”

In the last pattern we re-entered, we calmly attacked while avoiding the things falling from the ceiling, and the clear was right in front of us. Cheong-hyeon avoided the collapsing debris and got close to Artirens. This time, I really had a good feeling. If we kept going like this, the clear was guaranteed.

As Artirens grew larger, its movements also became larger, and we were easily attacked if we didn’t pay attention to even small movements. Cheong-hyeon avoided the movement of the wings swinging and moved towards the boss’s face, but unfortunately, debris fell behind him, trapping him in a narrow gap.

“Hyung, that looks a bit dangerous.”

“Yeah. I’m going to get out as soon as the debris disappears.”

As if knowing his plan, Artirens stretched out its arm towards Cheong-hyeon. It wasn’t a difficult attack to avoid, but it was an attack pattern that would kill you if you were caught. Cheong-hyeon, who had no room to escape, was caught as it was. A sigh burst out involuntarily. Cheong-hyeon’s eyes quickly turned to the boss’s health bar. The remaining health was less than 5%. Unless another problem arose for the other party members, the clear was guaranteed even if Cheong-hyeon died.

“Ah, Hyung. If you get caught by that…”

“I couldn’t avoid it. I’m screwed.”

-What should we do? Cheong-hyeon is about to die, should we continue?

-We can’t give up on the first clear after coming this far!

-I’ll choose loyalty over the first clear!

-We need to decide quickly.

The voice chat room became noisy with the unexpected situation. While opinions were divided, Hee-won, the party leader and guild leader, made a decision.

“Don’t grab him, let’s go again.”

“No! Just keep going. We decided to get the first clear.”

“But…”

“It’s okay, I think it would be more upsetting to not get the first clear after suffering like this. Let’s quickly finish it.”

According to the news that Marachip had been delivering from time to time, it seemed that there was more than one party in the middle of the final pattern. If we started over from the beginning here, we would definitely lose the first clear, so it was the right choice to clear even if Cheong-hyeon died. I knew it in my head, and I didn’t even think about starting over, but I couldn’t help but feel bitter.

Artirens was a dungeon that could be cleared once a month, and even if you cleared it while dead, it was recognized as cleared, so you couldn’t catch the boss again until the next month. The only rewards you received were the basic ones. Not being able to get the randomly appearing equipment items was also a problem, but there was a bigger problem.

When you caught Artirens, you could acquire an item called ‘Trace of the Moon,’ and if you collected these, they became materials for creating new weapons. Of course, Cheong-hyeon, who cleared it while dead, couldn’t receive the item. Since he couldn’t receive the ‘Trace of the Moon’ item this month, he would inevitably acquire the weapon a month later than others.