In about 10 minutes we reduced the health of the boss to 10%. And then, here we go! As a rule, the 10% mark was the limit, after which monsters began to use all their abilities and their strongest skills. The hydra yanked its tail sharply, smacking one of the tanks with it and sending him flying, wiping out three-quarters of his health. The tanks were deliberately positioned so that in such a blow they would fly not over the horizon, but into the wall of the cave. And my healing bush was growing next to the supposed 'landing' spot. Such a scene had repeated itself twenty times in the past ten minutes. But this time I saw in the future that the hydra rushed after the tank, scattering the players like bowling balls, and finished the tank, and my bush as well, with a blow of the head.

I felt that such a scenario did not suit me, so I immediately began to go over the options for the future, while scanning the information about the hydra and its features. The solution was immediately found.

Meanwhile, in reality, three seconds had passed. The Hydra swiped its tail at the tank, stopped, squealed loudly, and then rushed forward, scattering those around it. At that moment, my Poison Spit flew into one of its nine heads. According to the mechanics of the game, it was nearly impossible to stop a hydra in a state of rage. But if you stun a particular hydra head at a strictly defined moment, the skill worked on the boss, interrupting its attack. Just guessing the right head and the right moment was unrealistic. However, because I perceived the internal mechanics of the game, I also saw the right vulnerability. As a result, the hydra stumbled and collapsed to the floor with a loud howl.

“Run away!” - The leader of the raid shouted.

The Hydra lay on the ground for a few seconds, then got up, screamed loudly, and tried again to dash forward, but it was again stunned at the most critical moment by my skill, which had time to recharge.

“Attack it!!!” - I shouted.

Oddly enough, everyone immediately obeyed my order and swarmed toward the hydra from all sides. In less than thirty seconds we wiped out the rest of the boss's life, and with one last roar, the hydra collapsed to the floor and froze. A second later I saw a system message.

***A raid led by player Tender Velvet Night has set a record for killing the boss Nine-headed Diabolical Poison Hydra. New kill time: 12:08. Previous score improved by 41:33***

Wow! A record. However, it didn't belong to me, but to the leader of our raid. But something confuses me about the difference from the previous record by forty minutes. How is that possible?

“What's that? Ahhhh... How did we even get her? Why did it die?” - A record-holder's eyes widened.

“What was supposed to happen?” - I asked her.

“After the hydra has ten percent health left, it starts running around the hall, and then sacrifices one of its heads to regain full health.”

I shifted my gaze to the boss's corpse. Looks like my 'omniscience' isn't absolute at all. I'd have to ask the right question to know the answer. If I'd known that the hydra had to be killed nine times, I wouldn't have used my cheating abilities.

The people around me looked at me with apprehension and envy. Some tried to find out how I'd learned how to stun the Hydra, but I gave the standard 'read the guides' excuse. Of course, no one believed that I'd read about this technique in a manual. But between the players spread rumors that I'm checking tactics that I stole from one of the strongest guilds on the server. Huh, so naive. Their jealousy doesn't give them even a shadow of a chance to guess what the real reason is.

In fact, after killing the boss, there was no point in staying in the raid. We all went through the portal and found ourselves in the 'public' dungeon, where the second part of the quest to choose a profession was taking place. There was a small safe area where players gathered in strength, and an NPC standing at the side issuing quests.

“Would you like to join our guild?” - One of the players immediately took asked me.

“Not today.” - I waved him off. Maybe I should make my own guild, so no one would ask stupid questions like that.

“What do you mean?” - Again the native didn't understand me. However, he didn't ask for details, and just walked away, getting the right answer from my gaze.

I walked over to the desired NPC and spoke to him with a progress report.

“I killed the Nine-headed Diabolical Poison Hydra.”

“That's good. So, who do we have here...? Druid Hypnotist? That's the first time I've ever encountered such a combination.” - NPC paused for a few seconds. – “Sorry, I don't know what assignment to give you. Go back to Crab Town and tell it to the Hypnotist Mentor at the Scout Guild. He will decide what you should do next.”

“Can't you ask him about it yourself?” - I got angry. What kind of stupid bureaucracy is this?

“How?” - NPC surprised.

“Write him a private message.”

“No, that's not how it works. You have to tell him personally. That' s the rules.”

Fuck! I'm speechless. I wasted two hours just to be told to go back and ask an even more stupid question to an even dumber NPC. After swearing under my breath, I used the return spell and traveled to the capital. Then I found the right NPC and told him about his subordinate's problem.

“Oh, I see.” - He nodded. – “Druid - Hypnotist? That's an interesting combination. You are the first player on the server who has chosen such a profession. I've already made a mission recommendation for you. Now you can go back to the dungeon and get the mission.”

Go back? It spent two hours trying to reach that NPC. Sure, another goal was to kill a hydra, but damn, TWO HOURS! And now I have to find a raid again and waste time. I urgently need to kill someone in a very painful way. It was useless to argue with the NPCs, because even though they were mostly regular people, they had to follow the rules and instructions, no matter how dumb they were.

When I got outside, I went to the portal again and teleported to the entrance of the dungeon. This time I decided not to look for the raid, but just to slip quietly through the cave and get out from the other side. After all, I didn't need to kill the hydra anymore. Once in the dungeon, it only took fifteen minutes for me to get to the opposite end of the dungeon. If I didn't have to sneak around the monsters, I could have run that distance in five minutes.

Only at the finish line I found out that I had to kill a hydra to activate an exit portal. In fact, at first, I saw an 'inactive' portal, and then I read the activation condition from it. And, as if on purpose, at that moment the hydra crawled swiftly into the hall and froze nearby, looking at me contemptuously. I was thinking hard, so I stopped scanning the future options.

The hydra screamed, and I automatically threw a stun spell at it, after which it slammed its head to the floor. And the sounds it made were something along the lines of.

“Waaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!”

The hydra pulled itself up off the ground, jumped up, screamed again, and slammed its head to the floor again.

“Wah-a-a-p-hoo-hoo-hoo-hoo-hoo! Wah-a-a-p-hoo-hoo-hoo-hoo-hoo-hoo! Waaa-a-a-p-hoo-hoo-hoo-hoo-hoo-hoo! Waaaaaahhhhhhooooooooooooooo! Waaa-a-a-p-hoo-hoo-hoo-hoo-hoo-hoo-hoo! Wah-a-a-p-hoo-hoo-hoo-hoo-hoo-hoo-hoo-hoo-hoo-hoo-hoo-hoo!”

I stood there, throwing a spell at the boss, wondering what to do next. Suddenly I realized that every time the hydra's head hits the floor, his health goes down by one percent. That's a cheat! It looked like I could kill this boss without straining at all. The cycle of roaring, 'banging his head against the wall' and collecting brains lasted exactly three and a half seconds. During that time Poison Spit had time to roll back, so I could continue to abuse the hydra until the evening. But it didn't last that long. After exactly one hundred hits to the floor, the hydra squealed for the last time and died. And I was immediately notified that I had set a new record with a time of 5:50, for which I received +3% poison damage.

By now, setting new records was no longer something surprising. They were reported all the time. But a record like this, with a boss kill in six minutes, was absolutely unbelievable. Especially when you consider that the previous record was 53:41, and a raid with my participation would most likely have taken more than an hour and a half to kill the Hydra.

Approaching the boss, I gathered the loot and got the 'Soul of the Diabolical Hydra'. It must be worth something. I tossed the loot into my backpack, turned on my invisibility, and exited the dungeon. This time the quest was a devastating success. I was required to smuggle into the scout camps that were watching the 'dark forces' and heal every single one of the locals. Easy!

As I expected, with the invisibility and jumping, this task was pretty easy. I didn't have to beat the bosses, but just had to sneak past them. I only had to kill the relatively weak monsters that sat at the entrance of the scout camps. But there I simply planted a bunch of mushrooms next to me, and then planted one mushroom under the side of the monster. When the monster got a hit, he ran toward me to attack, and fell into my trap, which destroyed him in a fraction of a second. In the scouting camp itself, all I had to do was plant a bush, and it would heal anything and everything within its range in a minute.

In all, I had five 'safe houses' to visit, where NPCs involved in surveillance of the 'dark forces' were hiding. After healing the residents of four of the safe houses, I headed to the fifth. But along the way, I came across to a raid of the Age of Glory guild that was clearing out the bosses in the caves. Most importantly, this raid was led by Zinovia Reinhardt herself. I, of course, could not pass by and decided to destroy this raid no matter of cost.

I didn't rush into an attack right away, but first I studied the enemy's capabilities. Here I faced an unpleasant surprise. There were 25 people in the raid, and most of them were level ten. Three were level nine. But Zinovia herself and her assistant were at eleventh level. But that wasn't the main thing. The players had about the same amount of health as I did, between 1,500 and 4,000. The 'helper' named ''Sword that Conquered Heaven' had 26,000 health. But that wasn't the most shocking thing either. Because my ideological opponent had 103,000 health. To me, she was an epic-level boss. What's more, her attack power and skill damage were so great that she could kill me with a single hit, with almost any skill.