"You know what boss they're killing?" BeetsByLuds asked Clementropy28. "Or failing to kill?" He corrected himself with a derisive snort.

“I’m not sure,” Clement replied. “Megan wouldn’t tell me. I did try to be nice.”

“Did you at least see what Sigil Totem she was using?” If he knew where they were warping to, he could just check the notable monsters in the area they could be hunting.

After Wharton and Nic exited the game having finished their tasks for the day, Luds was alone wondering what he should do next. By now, he should be driving to his girlfriend's office to pick her up to have dinner together. However, this week was crunch time at her work; she'd probably be doing some overtime for a couple of hours.

Luds didn't want to wait while doing nothing in his car, so he stayed inside MCO. There should be something he could busy himself with at Kurghal Village. Perhaps some weak players needed his advice? Or he could just hang out and chat with whomever he’d run into.

If he didn’t get the time wrong, there should be people at the auction house—the sale of a Relic Quality spear dropped by one of the mini-bosses of Rabisu Peak was about to expire. There might be a rare interesting altercation that could entertain him. If not there, he could go visit the guys at the marketplace.

But it seemed he didn't need to walk far before finding something to occupy him.

He spotted the new guy—Herald Something, the weirdo who named himself after the owner of Dolly's—spawning in front of the Chief's Lodge. There was nothing noteworthy about it. But then another weirdo appeared, the klutz using a two-wand setup.

Luds couldn't remember her name, but he did recall trying to convince her a couple of times to change the inferior build she was using.

When going as a magic caster, she should use a staff. A one-handed staff would be best, plus a different magical item—a wand if she was being stubborn about it. Two wands were redundant because she couldn't take advantage of some juicy passives only staff-wielding Mardukryon Ocadules had.

Cheeseman obviously wasn't giving them any good advice, yet he was dragging them to join the Great Hunt in their sorry state. What the hell was he teaching them? Luds couldn't even tell what build the new guy was going for.

Luds felt it was his duty to share with them a thing or two about Mardukryons. He was about to go and strike up a small chat with them, maybe give them tips to show he was much more helpful than Cheeseman, when they both teleported away.

Their loss, he thought, veering to the auction house.

Later, he saw Cheeseman and the rest of his pathetic party of four spawning one at a time by the Chief's Lodge. And then they warped away just as quickly as they arrived.

That was when he realized they were fighting a boss and got wiped. That would explain why they appeared one by one instead of as a group—the boss was killing them. They did warp away together, meaning they were headed to the same place.

This was a comedy show Luds wanted to see. However, he couldn't simply ask them what they were doing; they wouldn't tell him for sure.

As luck would have it, Clement was there by his stall, selling potions and meals. If Luds wasn't wrong, Clement was about five months old as a Mardukryon. He was also currently a Contractor for SpartanDonkey; Luds could count on the fact that he'd do some snooping around if the price was right.

And Luds was more than willing to pay the price.

This would beat sitting in his car, watching the MCO Channel, maybe munching on chips. An hour of primetime comedy entertainment just for some Artas. Sounds like a cool deal.

“Yeah, I think I saw her Sigil Totem," said Clement. "I followed her when she bought a bunch of them and I caught a glimpse. If my eyes weren't wrong, and sometimes my eyes are wrong, mind you, it was a Nixigaunt Totem."

“Cool, cool. A Nixigaunt?" Luds scratched his horn as he tried to recall what was in that Sigil Totem's area. "There's the Overrun Grove, the Silent Plaza, and I think the Shade is near that place." He wasn’t sure what they could be hunting there.

He paid Clement his fees before buying the appropriate Sigil Totem from the NPC to follow Cheeseman's party.

It took him about fifteen minutes to find them.

"These guys are serious?" Luds muttered under his breath as he peeked from behind a large tree. "They're trying to kill the Living Statue? Mighty crazy!"

The reason it took him a while to track down their party was that he didn't think they'd be insane enough to fight this particular boss. He checked the two mini-bosses in the area, circled to see if any Elites were spawned, and then checked the mini-bosses again just in case they missed each other. They weren’t there.

At first, he suspected that either they already logged out or Clement gave him the wrong information.

But before Luds teleported back to Kurghal Village to berate Clement and demand a refund, he decided to visit the boss of the area. And behold, Cheeseman and his misguided followers were trying and massively failing to kill the Living Statue!

"There's no way they can do this," Luds said as he watched them get wiped again. He had no idea how many attempts they had made, but at some point, they should realize this was a futile endeavor. "Should I go over there and knock some sense into them?"

The truth these guys should face was that their damage was simply too low.

Actually, that wasn't the real issue. They had the DPS needed—the Cheeseman was there. His DPS was crazy high as he had shown during the previous Great Hunt, kill stealing the bosses that Luds' party was hunting. He was definitely much stronger now. Luds was aware that Jensen and his other party mates gave their items and Artas to Cheeseman before changing their race.

It was unfortunate that Luds' party had already filled their six slots before Jensen's party disbanded. Otherwise, Luds' would've done his best to recruit Cheeseman. That was the dream team. If they had that lineup, they'd have a strong chance to join the top ranks of the Great Hunt. Maybe I should tease Wharton that we'll kick him for Cheeseman?

Luds did have a lot of laughs watching Cheeseman's party die left and right, frantically running around to survive. They eventually got the hang of it and did quite well that he had to give them a few claps. But the boss was too far away from dying.

"Yeah, the Cheeseman's damage should be more than enough," Luds said, stroking his tusk. "It's just that he's forced to be the tank." It was just plain sad and pathetic tanking too.

Nic would probably get angry with him if she'd know he talked to them again. She scolded him earlier for bothering their party. 'Bothering'—that was the term she used, but Luds didn't see it that way.

He was genuinely trying to help them out. He honestly thought, and he knew he was a hundred percent correct, that it was better for people to face reality rather than waste their time doing something when they had no chance of succeeding.

"I should do the correct thing and tell them to aim lower." Luds waited for Cheeseman's party to arrive after their latest defeat and galloped towards them before they could start fighting the Living Statue again.

Kezodilla was just about to give up on killing Zoar Elab, the Living Statue. Not call it a day and continue tomorrow, but instead admit that there was no way their party could win against the boss. Everything they had tried so far had failed.

If only Jensen was still here to tank this, he thought as they walked back to the boss area.

But his friends no longer wanted to stay as a Mardukryon, and he couldn't do anything to stop them from changing races. He didn't have an answer to their complaints that there was no progress to the content, everything was getting stale, everyone else was quitting anyway, and they just simply wanted to try something new.

As for Kezo, he wasn't the type of person to move around. He focused on one thing and would see it through until the end. He picked Mardukryon with his friends—even if his friends had left him, he'd stay behind and continue building his character. But this time, he might have to swallow his pride and admit defeat.

Killing Zoar Elab wasn't something he could see through until the end unless there were major changes in their party.

And he knew none was coming.

His party members were silent as they stood outside the ruins of a grand plaza that was the boss area, staring at the Living Statue pacing in the distance. He knew they were all tired and discouraged.

Did he push the team too far? Perhaps he should just end their practice before any of them could think of quitting.

Then next time, he'd aim for easier opponents. A few wins would bring their morale back up. He shouldn't make the mistake of trying to force casual players to become hardcore. It just wouldn't do. Maybe someday, he'd be able to form a proper party for the Great Hunt.

For now, he had to do his best with the players he gathered.

The faint sound of hooves coming from their right broke him out of his reverie. It was followed by an all too familiar voice from the last person he wanted to meet right now. "Cheeseman!" the player approaching them shouted. And there was only one person who called him by that stupid nickname. "Hey, Cheeseman! Mind if I talk to you guys for a sec?"

What is Luds doing here? Kezo groaned. Was he watching them get wiped by the Living Statue?

"I see you guys are having problems with this boss," Luds said, answering Kezo's mental question. "Now, I don't normally intrude in another party's training session, but I saw that you guys struggling a bit."

"Yes, we're having some trouble." Kezo tried his best to stop himself from rolling his eyes. "That's what a practice is for," he said, repeating the same thing he'd been telling his party mates. "We'll eventually get stronger and do this."

"Or...just hear me out here," Luds said. "Or, how about you choose a weaker boss for practice?"

Normally, it was easy to be annoyed with Luds. It was harder to hate him if he was right. Kezo himself was thinking the same thing. Sure, Luds could be less arrogant, blunt, and condescending, but it didn't change the fact that their party couldn't handle the Living Statue.

"This is what I've observed." Luds wagged his finger at them. "Your DPS is too low. Kezo should use his full DPS build..." And he continued with things Kezo had already thought of. He ended with, "Unless you find a tank, there's no hope here."

"Yes, I know," Kezo replied with a sharper tone than he intended. "But there's no other tank than me."

"And there's your problem," Luds said. "You're aiming for something you shouldn't even think of aiming for." Then he saluted them. "My work here is done. Just take it easy, guys. Leave the boss hunting during the Great Hunt to us." He turned into sparkling lights as he logged out.

"Maybe we should just find some other boss to kill,” Kezo said, heaving a deep sigh. “Or we can just settle with the weaker event mobs?"

"There's nothing wrong with that," Megan said. "I mean, we know our limitations."

"It's good to not continually die," Nitana added matter-of-factly.

"Is what Luds said true?" Herald asked.

"That we should aim lower?" said Kezo. "Uh, it seems like he's right—"

"No, not that. What he said about needing a tank?"

"Kind of..." Kezo shook his head. "But as I've said, we don't have an actual tank."

"Let's continue tomorrow," Herald said. "I may be able to come up with something."