The Return Of The Genius Ranker Of All Times [EN]: Chapter 17

Episode 17.

Dungeons in God of War Online came in various types.

From the most common general dungeons, to labyrinth types that required an explorer job, and single boss types.

There were also several special and event dungeons, but usually, it was those three main categories.

The Variant Goblin Warrior’s habitat was a single boss type dungeon.

Krooooar!

“Wow…….”

As the name suggested, these dungeons only had one boss, and most of them were at least elite-grade.

As such, they exuded an overwhelming presence compared to bosses in general dungeons.

“Seriously, the pressure is no joke…….”

“Is that an elite boss?”

“Is this even a game……?”

ShieldGod and his party, facing its might from the entrance, couldn’t help but be amazed.

They were used to such bosses in many VR games with decent graphics, but this vivid sense of pressure was new.

It felt like facing a monster in real life.

“Ugh…….”

YooBinKkyung was rubbing her arms as if getting goosebumps.

Seeing their reaction, Do-hyun carefully examined the boss.

Krrr…….

Standing over 2 meters tall, which was unusual for a goblin, with a muscular build rivaling that of an orc, and a beast-like cry.

Could that physique, which made the massive greatsword not look so big, really be called a goblin?

The look in its eyes, as it waited for them to enter the cave, was eerily fierce.

-HP: [20,000 / 20,000]

Its health points were an overwhelming 20,000.

It was on a different level from ordinary goblins with barely a thousand HP.

[Variant Goblin Warrior]

-Title: Elite Boss

-Type: Goblin

-Traits: Warrior, Variant, Enhanced Physique

-Description: A goblin possessing the title of Warrior, which only the greatest warriors of the goblin race can have.

He was the greatest goblin in the tribe, but he was cursed, lost his reason along with his skin color, rampaged, and was exiled.

However, the strength of his body has mutated even more destructively.

‘Warrior, Variant, Enhanced Physique.’

Typical traits of melee combat-type bosses.

Even one trait is threatening, but it has three.

With such immense HP, the title of Elite Boss was well-deserved, but somehow Do-hyun didn’t feel particularly nervous.

‘I’ve taken down a million before, 20,000 is nothing…….’

Moreover, he was alone back then.

Compared to that time when he was level 1, now there were four level 9s, so it was laughable.

Of course, that didn’t mean he would be careless.

Rather, the fact that they were a group could be a disadvantage against an elite boss.

“Hoo!”

ShieldGod, taking a deep breath, quietly took out his shield.

Naturally, attention was focused on him. Receiving their gaze, ShieldGod asked briefly.

“……Everyone memorized the patterns, right?”

“Yeah. I’ve got them down cold.”

“Of course.”

At this point, ShieldGod glanced at Do-hyun and nodded.

He took Do-hyun’s calm expression as affirmation.

And frankly, he felt that his friends might cause trouble, but not him.

Because he had shown overwhelming combat power.

‘I have to do well.’

His role was the most important here.

Knowing that better than anyone, ShieldGod steeled himself and opened his mouth.

“Then, we’ll start the try [attempt at the dungeon].”

The moment they stepped into the cave where the monster was.

Krooooar!

The boss, who had been waiting for them to enter, roared powerfully and charged.

The first pattern was a charge.

It was a reckless charge without any probing, but the charge of that huge bulk felt like facing a tank.

It was easy to panic when facing it for the first time, but ShieldGod calmly shouted.

“Scatter!”

Leaving the party scattering in all directions, ShieldGod stood alone.

‘Just a little more.’

Of course, he didn’t intend to face the shield head-on.

That would be suicide.

The monster’s charge was not something a tanker with no decent defense skills could block with just a shield.

The moment he put the shield up, he would undoubtedly be sent flying and crash into the wall.

And the moment he was stunned, all the aggro [the monster’s focus] would be lost, and the party would be wiped out.

‘Now!’

When the monster seemed close, he rolled to the side, and the wall was revealed.

The monster, like a bull, rammed into the wall that appeared instead of ShieldGod, and eventually, its movement stopped as it hit its head against the innocent wall.

[The Variant Goblin Warrior is stunned for 2 seconds.]

“Everyone, now’s your chance!”

In the meantime, YooBinKkyung and ForeheadDD quickly formed a formation and fired arrows and magic.

Pyoobyeok! Pow!

Just one round of dealing damage without being greedy.

Krrr…….

Immediately after, the Variant Goblin Warrior, freed from its stun, turned around and looked around.

It was looking for a target to attack.

Then, the moment it made eye contact with ShieldGod, who was standing in the front, holding up his shield.

Krooooar!

Without any hesitation, the monster charged and swung its greatsword.

Clang!

A heavy sound echoed as the shield and greatsword collided.

As the greatsword pressed down fiercely as if trying to crush him along with the shield, ShieldGod deflected it and pushed with his shoulder, causing the Variant Goblin Warrior to step back a little.

Nevertheless, the Variant Goblin Warrior stuck to him again like a magnet.

[Unique ability ‘Indifferent Taunt’ is activated.]

[Draws the aggro of the target you make eye contact with, and the probability of aggro being released decreases.]

[Trait ‘Guardian’ is activated.]

[When party members are behind you, defense, health, and stamina increase.]

It was the moment when ShieldGod’s traits and unique ability shone.

Confirming that the aggro was completely fixed, he shouted.

“It’s done!”

Only after hearing ShieldGod’s shout did Do-hyun appear.

He had been hiding so as not to be distracted during the aggro-grabbing process.

Clang! Kwaang!

Pshwook! Pow! Swish!

While ShieldGod was constantly blocking attacks with his shield, arrows and magic were fired from behind, and Do-hyun also swung his sword and stabbed appropriately so as not to draw too much aggro.

[‘ShieldGod’ has inflicted a status ailment on the Variant Goblin Warrior.]

[The Variant Goblin Warrior is stunned for 1 second.]

A very stable boss try considering it was the first try.

Overall, everyone was doing their part well, but the most decisive factor was ShieldGod.

‘I felt it when we were catching goblins, but he’s good.’

Commonly, people pick healers or damage dealers as the most important in boss tries, but that’s what newbies say.

The more experienced you are, the more important the tanker is.

The success rate varied greatly depending on how well they managed aggro and how well they interrupted patterns [attack sequences].

As the difficulty of the boss increased, there were many times when one pattern exerted bizarre power.

Therefore, tankers always had to shoulder the heaviest responsibility.

A duel only between the boss and themselves, without anyone’s help.

‘A one-on-one with the boss.’

Those who were good at that, called a one-on-one, were called first-class tankers by experienced players.

In that respect, ShieldGod was showing a decent performance.

If he grew well like that, he would be treated well no matter which guild he went to.

In fact, YooBinKkyung and ForeheadDD were comfortably dealing damage without taking any risks.

‘Tankers like that are becoming rarer.’

From the perspective of a ranged dealer, the difference between having a tanker who allows you to deal damage comfortably and not having one was more valuable than anything else.

Among the tankers, who were fewer in number than dealers, those who could do that were bound to be treated well.

‘Good. Just keep doing what you’re doing.’

Perhaps feeling that himself, ShieldGod felt adrenaline spreading.

A feeling as if his moderately tense body was heating up with excitement.

A cold head suppressed the bursting excitement as much as possible, sweat flowed down, and all the senses of his body were more sensitive than ever.

Now, there was only one pattern left in the first phase.

‘If I can cut off the horizontal slash, it’ll be stable after that.’

Continuous horizontal slashes.

If they could get past that pattern, called the Mixer, there would be no more risk factors in the first phase.

The Mixer only appeared once in the first phase.

In other words, it was a threatening pattern enough to be sufficient with just one appearance.

But ShieldGod was confident.

‘I read it until right before entering the dungeon.’

Ten times that YooBinKkyung mentioned?

He read, thought, and simulated it enough to surpass that long ago.

At what timing the pattern was activated, what the activation motion was…….

Thanks to that, he was doing a great job of marking even now.

If he didn’t get too nervous, he would be able to cut off the Mixer pattern sufficiently.

‘Fortunately, I have plenty of stamina left.’

To maintain a stable pace, he had almost all-in on stamina with all the points he gained from leveling up.

Thanks to that, he had a lot of HP left, and he also had 100 stamina left.

A sufficiently relaxed situation.

But there was one thing that ShieldGod hadn’t anticipated.

“Uh, uh?”

“Shield, you need to prepare for the pattern now, right?”

“What? Why!”

ShieldGod shouted as if he didn’t understand the urgent voice coming from behind.

It had only been about 15 minutes since they started the try, so why would they need to prepare for the pattern?

The horizontal slash was generally a pattern that came out after 30 minutes.

That’s because it was a pattern that only came out after HP dropped below 50%. There was no way the pattern would come out now.

……Yes, that’s how it would normally be.

“It’s at 10,000 now!”

“……What?”

ShieldGod, who had paused while holding his shield, opened the boss’s information window.

Then he saw it.

-HP: [10,031 / 20,000]

“……Crazy.”

The health points had really dropped to 10,000.

And the moment he realized that, the current situation flowed through his head like a panorama.

YooBinKkyung and ForeheadDD, who were only about 10m away to hit attacks stably.

And himself and Kaiser, who were right next to the boss.

If the Mixer was activated, he and Kaiser would be sent flying first, and it would quickly sweep through YooBinKkyung and ForeheadDD.

‘Why already?’

Why had the HP been reduced so much already?

It was his fault for not thinking of opening the information window because he was concentrating, but frankly, it was an incomprehensible situation.

Then, the memory of the first goblin hunt flashed by.

‘……Could it be?’

At the same time, the name Kaiser flashed through ShieldGod’s mind.

He had experienced abnormal aggro and hunting speed back then too.

Even though he thought it was too fast, it wasn’t unbelievable if he crammed in the maximum damage of the weapon and added traits or unique abilities.

Four people were catching it, and with that level of combat skill, he thought that speed might be possible.

‘……Is his damage that strong?’

But this was not it.

To make a pattern that generally comes out after four people hunt for 30 minutes come out in 15 minutes, how high was his damage contribution?

This was not a level that a level 9 player who drew a Heroic God could show.

‘No, does even drawing a Mythic God produce this kind of damage?’

Frankly, he didn’t know.

Everything was full of questions, but ShieldGod couldn’t continue thinking.

Whoong-.

In the meantime, he had to hurriedly raise his shield against the greatsword that was being swung.

The monster’s movement came into ShieldGod’s eyes.

Clang!

The Variant Goblin Warrior, wielding the greatsword that was dyed red like its red eyes, knocked away the shield and grabbed the handle with both hands.

It was the unique stance that appeared when the pattern was activated.

‘Ba, Bash!’

He desperately tried to swing the bash, but it was already too late.

The shield had already been knocked away by the monster’s swing during the preliminary stance.

By the time he recovered his posture and used the bash, the Mixer would have already been activated, and he would clearly be ground away along with the shield.

‘Oh, no…….’

A red light turned on in his head.

It felt like his complicated head was filled with the monster’s red eyes, filling his vision.

At the moment when his mind became dizzy and cold sweat flowed.

That!

“……Huh?”

Something brushed past with a light step, and

Whirr- Stab.

Kuh!?

Kaiser’s sword, which had gracefully penetrated with a picture-like movement, stabbed the monster’s hand that was grabbing the handle.

The sword stabbed as naturally as a magnet.

No matter how muscular the monster was, it couldn’t build muscle on its fingers, and it was only natural that the monster, stabbed by the sword while trying to swing, dropped the greatsword.

Clatter-.

The sound of the greatsword falling was buried in the scream.

The one-hit kill pattern performed only once in the first phase vanished in vain.

With a mere stab that didn’t exert any skills or traits.

“……Good heavens.”

ShieldGod’s gaze, who muttered without realizing it in that absurd situation, naturally turned to Do-hyun.

He had a calm face as if it was natural.

He was always like that.

He was like that at the beginning, when he was mowing down goblins, and when he entered the dungeon, he always had that expression.

‘……How can he be like that?’

No matter how outstanding a gamer is, there is a field [specialty].

Even the strongest dealer is usually not good at tanking or healing, and vice versa.