Emperor of Solo Play 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 **** **** 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 **** 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 **** 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 .