Chapter 34

The Corrupted Stone (3)

Boss monsters have stats that are far beyond that of normal monsters at their level .

Just like people form a party of three or more people to hunt normal monsters, a bigger party is formed to hunt boss monsters . That is what is known as a raid .

Boss monsters appear in many ways . Those that regularly spawn in designated areas appear with what is known as a Field Reset . A period of time after the death of a boss, a field gets generated randomly for the boss monster to spawn .

The last Dragon Lizard raid happened one week ago .

In that case, it wasn’t weird for a Dragon Lizard to appear a week after along with a Field Reset . Although it was strange for Hyrkan and his 10 pursuers to arrive here, it was an impossible matter .

Only, there was something Hyrkan couldn’t understand .

‘A black swamp… was there such a setting?’

It was the existence of a black swamp .

As someone who aimed to hit level 30 in the Lizard Swamp, Hyrkan naturally had information on the Dragon Lizard . In fact, he periodically checked for updated information on the Dragon Lizard . Furthermore, there were often public announcements before a boss monster raids began, warning players not to hinder the raid . During the time he stayed in the Lizard Swamp, Hyrkan naturally avoided the areas where Dragon Lizard raids were happening . At the same time, he made sure to gather information on how Dragon Lizard spawn areas looked like .

Characteristic such as a black swamp did not exist in Hyrkan’s memory .

In other words, the black swamp in front of him was a special case .

‘Could it be?’

Ahimbree’s quest immediately flashed through Hyrkan’s mind . The nested egg Ahimbree mentioned was likely to be an egg inside a Dragon Lizard’s home .

Once Hyrkan arrived at this conclusion, Hyrkan wanted to curse out loud .

‘No way . ’

It was just too absurd .

‘You expect me to kill a monster that needs a level 40 average 20-man raid, and get its egg?’

The raid difficulty of Dragon Lizard was not high . For a boss monster, it was rather easy .

Even so, it was impossible to do it alone . In the first place, boss monsters weren’t designed to be killed by a single player or a small group of players . Considering Ahimbree just casually gave out such a quest, Hyrkan was fully justified in wanting to curse .

In any case, now was Hyrkan’s chance .

Of course, it wasn’t easy for Hyrkan to kill the Dragon Lizard . However, it wasn’t impossible . Hyrkan always fought boss monsters higher than his own level, and he had plenty of experience in battles . He was better than any professional . As Dragon Lizard was one of the easier boss monsters, it was possible for Hyrkan to kill it if he had to .

However, it was currently too risky . The chance of him being successful was less than 10% .

In such a case, there was only one answer .

‘As if I’d kill it . ’

It wasn’t worth it to risk his life .

Instead, this was a chance .

‘Hmm . ’

Hyrkan stared at the nine players standing in a daze . Although they were shocked from having one of their comrades taken by the Dragon Lizard, it didn’t take long before they snapped back to the matter at hand . Soon, they changed from their defenseless state to that of tension and alertness .

‘Looks like they’ve got the basics down at least . ’

Although they were fools who were tricked by a bunch of girls and lost their time and items to Hyrkan, they were at least level 30 . At that level, it was inevitable that they went through a fair number of battles .

Even if they might not know the best course of action, they knew by instinct what had to be done first and foremost .

“Damn it . Alright, get ready!”

The first one to come to his senses organized his thoughts and gave an order .

“It’s a Dragon Lizard! You want to fight it?”

Someone voiced his doubts . In truth, it was a stupid question . If he was experienced in battle, he would have questioned the method .

“Even if we are running, we have to get ready . ”

“Why don’t we try? Don’t you think we have a chance if all nine of us try our best?”

One member voiced a somewhat crazy suggestion . Listening to their conversation from afar, Hyrkan smirked in response .

‘Idiot . You can’t even catch me and you want to kill a Dragon Lizard?’

In the meanwhile, the two swordsmen who were standing in the swamp began to turn and walk out . They knew that if they were attacked in the swamp, they would have little chance to even struggle . It was an obvious choice .

‘You wish . ’

Watching this scene, Hyrkan could hardly sit still .

Hyrkan snapped his fingers twice . The look in the dancing skeleton’s eyes changed . The Skeleton Warrior burned with intent to fight .

To such Skeleton Warrior…

“Madness Helm . ”

Hyrkan poured more fuel to light his fire .

“Bone Armor . ”

He even supplied more wood to ensure the fire did not go out .

With Hyrkan’s magic, two horns sprouted out from the Skeleton Warrior’s head along with a scarlet luster in its eyes . Its empty rib cage began filling, and what appeared in place was an armor-like upper body made of bones .

In this state, the Skeleton Warrior quickly approached the two players who had turned their backs on him .

With his aggressive nature amplified by Madness Helm, the Skeleton Warrior ran towards the two players without hesitation .

“Careful!”

When someone caught sight of this, he obviously warned the two swordsmen . The two swordsmen then turned their heads to look behind them .

“Shit!”

The Skeleton Warrior was only a few seconds away from reaching them . With no other choice, one swordsman raised his sword with a bitter voice .

“I’ll take him!”

“Thanks!”

He thought to sacrifice himself, and the other voiced his gratitude as he continued on his way .

The seven remaining players were watching attentively .

“Let’s help . ”

“Magicians, prepare your magic . Priests, prepare to heal!”

At this moment, they were entirely focused on saving their allies .

Having seen such sight, Hyrkan chuckled .

‘This must be their first boss raid . Come on guys, that should be the least of your concerns . ’

As if to respond to Hyrkan’s laugh, the Dragon Lizard appeared from the right flank of the seven players . When Hyrkan caught sight of this, he quickly threw himself into the swamp .

★★★

What was the most important thing in a boss raid?

When asked this question, many would answer in different ways . Some might say it’s the existence of a powerful magician, a tank to attract aggro, a striker to fight on the front line, or a priest to keep others alive . However, those who experienced countless number of boss raids did not care about these trifling things . They answered in a simple manner .

Eliminating the variable!

The variable implied any hostile monsters or players that was not the boss monster .

This was why luring ability was so important . Before starting the boss monster hunt, skilled guilds or raid parties first sought to lure non-boss monsters away from the boss .

With this in mind, a fully-buffed Skeleton Warrior was the greatest, yet the worst, variable .

Furthermore, this wasn’t just an ordinary Skeleton Warrior .

It was a D-rank Skeleton Warrior under an E-rank Madness Helm effect . A Skeleton Warrior with such specs was something a level 40 necromancer would summon .

To make it worse, this Skeleton Warrior was one that received daily, one on one, training from Hyrkan . Its evasion ability was far above an average Skeleton warrior, and something that an average or below-average swordsman couldn’t handle for long .

‘This god damn skeleton!’

Not only did it easily evade any attacks, it even counterattacked afterwards . Against such an opponent, the swordsman let out every single curse word in his arsenal .

In the meanwhile, the Dragon Lizard was running towards the seven players grouped together like bowling pins . Taking notice of the Dragon Lizard, the seven players had no other choice but to separate . Otherwise, the clash would surely result in a strike .

Unfortunately, it wasn’t that easy to separate . It was largely due to the fact that they were distracted by the Skeleton Warrior .

In the end…

Gulp!

A priest had been swallowed by the Dragon Lizard .

“Fuck!”

As he disappeared into the Dragon Lizard’s mouth, the priest let out an uncouth scream . Of course, it wasn’t much of a spectacle . Boss raids were generally filled with all sorts of foul language .

Meanwhile, the Skeleton Warrior drove its opponent into a corner .

Having received an order from its master, it showed no signs of wanting to stop .

After seeing the Skeleton Warrior pushing back the swordsman, the swordsman that had escaped thanks to his sacrifice stopped in place .

‘Damn it!’

On land, seven players were in fierce combat with the Dragon Lizard . In that case, it might be better to go save his comrade than to run . Thinking this, the swordsman turned and started his way back in the muddy swamp .

Suddenly, a fireball struck the back of the player fighting against the Skeleton Warrior . The swordsman on his way to save him stopped, startled .

“What are you doing?”

“S-Sorry, it was a mistake!”

The magician had tried to help, but ended up striking his ally .

“You retard, watch where you’re throwing that thing!”

The swordsman angrily cursed at his comrade . It was the typical scenario for failure .

★★★

Monsters had different characteristics depending on their type . Of these, the most representative were dragon-type monsters .

Dragon-type monsters made nests .

The so-called lairs .

Inside these lairs were treasures . There were crafting materials as a start, and when these monsters killed players, they kept their fully crafted items inside their lairs .

Because of this, it wasn’t rare for players to avoid fighting dragon-type monsters and just loot their lairs .

This was the so-called sneak-thieving

It was something that happened quite often in Warlord . Considering the high profit one would gain at low risk, it was only obvious . Although it was no different than burglary, one wouldn’t be punished for it . Furthermore, there were demands for sneak-thieving videos, albeit not as much as raids . After all, adventures to find hidden treasures have always been used as motives for movies, Indiana Jones being the most prominent .

Hyrkan had much experience in this as well .

As a result, Hyrkan remained on high alert as he jumped from tree to tree like a monkey, looking for the Dragon Lizard’s lair . As he moved, Hyrkan summoned a Skeleton Warrior and put him just standing in the swamp . It was a bait, and at the same time, a warning signal . If this Skeleton Warrior was attacked, Hyrkan’s magic power would deplete and notify him that the Dragon Lizard was on his way .

About 15 minutes after Hyrkan’s search started…

‘Okay . ’

Hyrkan caught sight of what looked like a large beaver dam . The large nest was about 3600 square feet, which was large enough for a country house to cover . Hyrkan immediately began to climb the nest as if he was rock climbing . Inside the nest were several objects, metals and gems .

One of them…

‘Is this an egg?’

Resembled an egg .

‘Isn’t this a rock?’

However, it was more fittingly a rock than an egg . An egg-shaped rock, one might say .

Even Hyrkan could not understand what it was . Of course, as he questioned it in his mind, he quickly changed crafting materials into coins and put them in his pocket . As he could not change the ‘egg’ into a coin, he simply wrapped it up and wore it behind him like a bag . Then, he quickly ran out from the lair .

At that moment, Hyrkan’s magic power depleted in a breeze . It signaled the death of the Skeleton Warrior he had summoned to distract the nine players .

Hyrkan tightly shut his mouth .

He still had something left unfinished .

★★★

By the time Hyrkan returned to the battlefield, it was in complete chaos .

Signs of the Dragon Lizard’s struggle was apparent in his surroundings . Fire still burned, most likely from the magic cast by the magicians . Among these flames, Hyrkan caught sight of shining watches .

Hyrkan looked over all the chaos, and something that had escaped the Dragon Lizard’s eyes caught Hyrkan’s sight .

“What’s up?”

It was a survivor .

He was the sole survivor, one who had hid himself amidst the death of his allies . Because the Dragon Lizard suddenly dashed off, he was able to survive . This, of course, was caused by Hyrkan entering the Dragon Lizard’s lair .

In a way, Hyrkan was the one who saved his life .

Of course, this was something the player had no way of knowing . Even if he did, he would not look at Hyrkan as one would look at his savior .

In any case, the player found his current situation simply… absurd .

Over ten players had gathered for revenge . It was something that rarely happened even in Warlord . That being the case, he was confident . No matter how strong Hyrkan might be, he thought it was impossible for him to take on all ten of them by himself .

He had never expected the situation to turn to this .

He couldn’t even be angry .

He was simply shocked beyond belief .

He stared at Hyrkan without a word . On the other hand, Hyrkan examined the arm and facial colors of the player in front of him .

‘He’s poisoned . ’

Likely from the Dragon Lizard’s poison, the player’s right arm was turning black as charcoal, and black marks stained across his face . If a priest were present, he would be healed in an instant, but it was clear that would not be the case .

If left alone, he would undoubtedly die .

Of course, if he wanted to struggle to his bitter end, it was possible . A person at his last breadth was always the most dangerous .

Despite this fact, Hyrkan shortened the distance between them .

“Warlord is one hell of a game, isn’t it? It drives you crazy in the strangest of ways . ”

The dying player stared intently at Hyrkan as he approached him . He was currently contemplating quite a bit .

On one hand, he wanted to harm Hyrkan even if it meant quickening his own death . On the other, everything felt to be in vain . He felt it would be useless no matter what he did .

“You fucker…”

In the end, he only moved his mouth .

Watching the player in front of him, Hyrkan tapped his hahoe mask with his finger .

“Let’s take this opportunity to get things straight . Remember this mask . If you ever see it again, you’re going to want to run . Because if I find you first… I’ll make you repeat what you just said . ”

At this, the player became enraged as he attempted to swing his fist towards Hyrkan .

However…

Stab!

Hyrkan simply dodged his fist, and stabbed his sword in his eyes, which could be seen between the gap in his helmet . Not once, but several times . He was merciless as he continuously stabbed at him like a machine .

Chwing!

As Hyrkan pulled out the sword, it scratched the helmet, causing a metallic sound to ring out . This screech which could be heard only by Hyrkan was more terrifying than ever before .

The player had been force logged out long ago .

Although Hyrkan was well aware of this fact, he continued to stab him until only his watch remained .

In the end, his corpse melted down, leaving behind only his watch, which Hyrkan was quick to pick up .

‘If you keep coming even after this, then it’s war . ’

This was something Hyrkan picked up from his time fighting against the Stormhunter Guild and the Hahoe Mask Guild that betrayed him . It wasn’t enough to just kill them . He had to make them never want to play Warlord again .

Of course, Hyrkan wasn’t done with things just yet . He knew the other party would be the same .

‘Next time I see you, I’ll kill you again . ’

Hyrkan once again pledged revenge and punishment as he turned around and stared back at the black swamp .

He didn’t stare at it for long .

Soon after, he turned his back and began to run as far as possible from the black swamp .

As he ran, he began to search for guilds or raid parties in the vicinity of Bangtz Castle . When he was done, he picked one and contacted them .

“The Dragon Lizard has respawned in the Lizard Swamp . I’m selling the exact location for 100 dollars . ”

A few minutes afterwards, he got a response .

– What’s your account number?

It was his final bit of profit from the Lizard Swamp .