Episode 178

1.

Monsters were charging in from every direction.

Orcs, goblins, ogres.

From monsters whose names everyone knew and had grown familiar with, to creatures whose appearance—and even names—he was seeing for the first time.

An 8-star dungeon was that kind of place.

A new world with a new ecosystem laid out before you.

Over the six years that had passed, humanity had sacrificed itself to gather information about dungeons and learn about monsters, then organized that information into data and used it to strategize.

Thanks to that, players had grown more and more capable, to the point that they could clear even 7-star dungeons with relative ease, and they no longer panicked when facing monsters they had never seen before.

Naturally, it was far easier to fight monsters you already knew than to deal with entirely new ones.

And as you accumulated experience, you could even take one look at a monster you had never seen and make a rough judgment.

Reckless assumptions could get you killed, but as a reference point, they were undeniably useful.

For example, you might go into battle with a basic understanding of "Monsters of this type are weak to this element and tend to use that kind of pattern," the sort of principles and rules that governed monster ecosystems.

An 8-star dungeon was exactly the kind of place that completely shattered those rules and that information.

—Whoa, what the hell? Why does that ogre have two heads?

—Are those goblins riding ogres?

—That orc has four arms.

A new ecosystem.

The monsters' appearances were vaguely familiar, yet there were just enough differences to make judging them by existing information impossible.

People swallowed hard as they watched the footage released to the public.

If even the monsters they recognized looked like that, what about the ones they had never seen before? The ones that didn't show up in any monster encyclopedia, no matter how frantically you searched? What kind of power would those things have? What terrifying skills would they use? The thought filled them with a mixture of anticipation and fear.

'If I went into that dungeon, could I make it out alive?'

'What must Fly be feeling, standing there all alone?'

Even at a glance, hundreds of monsters were rushing in. No matter how strong Fly was, could he really withstand that onslaught?

Especially in an Epic dungeon, not even a Normal one.

Regardless of everyone's worries, the video continued to play.

Countless monsters charged at the intruder without a moment's hesitation, sprinting with the crazed momentum of predators desperate to tear their prey apart.

There was nowhere to run.

And Fly did not run.

He simply raised his staff.

Mana gathered around it.

Spells poured nonstop from his lips, and multicolored magic circles bloomed all around him.

For a while now, people had started to look down on Fly.

He was still ranked number one in the world, a player with an overwhelmingly powerful Legendary class that no one could even dream of catching up to.

However, ever since Kim Buja had appeared and started beating him in competition, far fewer people worshipped Fly as an untouchable idol.

It felt like he was trying to make up for that now.

'I am still the best.'

His determination to prove that fact filled his every move.

And it was more than just determination.

Fly put his power on full display.

CRACK! CRACKLE!

A cold wave burst outward in all directions, freezing the very air.

The movements of the monsters, whose thick hides could withstand even razor-sharp blades, suddenly stopped.

It wasn't just one or two.

It was almost all of them.

With only a tiny handful of exceptions, every monster was frozen solid.

Even the ones that managed to escape the ice were far from unscathed.

Their movements turned sluggish.

They forced their way forward through the bitter cold that clung to their bodies, but the ferocity they had shown at the start was completely gone.

"That's broken."

Anyone watching couldn't help but say it.

For ordinary people, just seeing flames burst from someone's palm felt like witnessing real magic.

The fact that everyone watching—all knowledgeable players—was calling it broken meant that this was an unfamiliar, unknown, and seemingly impossible realm of power.

They weren't just screaming that it was busted.

They were making precise judgments and analyses.

Even though the video showed only a single skill with no explanation, they were already inferring and predicting its properties.

"That's at least a 4-star freeze, maybe higher."

"A Legendary class, huh? What kind of AoE spell comes with a 4-star status effect? It's one thing in PvP, but in a mass battle, there's just no counter to that."

"He casts that spell once and it's a massacre. There aren't many players who own items with that level of status immunity, and there are almost no mages who can cleanse it."

Status effects were what players currently rated as the most powerful abilities in existence.

Of course, they required various conditions to be met, and some monsters had innate resistances. Even so, status effects made combat much easier and could create variables that hadn't existed before.

For that reason, players did everything they could to buy at least one item with a status effect or prayed to roll a skill that had one.

Conversely, they avoided monsters or dungeons that used them.

This video showed exactly why, more brutally than anything else.

The players were in awe.

"Is it really okay for him to show something like this?"

"This is my first time seeing it. Is that a skill he's always had?"

"Could be something he learned at level 70."

"Wow, how confident do you have to be to upload your first 8-star Epic dungeon clear video unedited and just reveal a skill like that?"

"Honestly, it doesn't really matter if he reveals it. There's no guarantee that's his only AoE status skill. And if it ever comes to PvP, he's basically forcing his opponent to equip at least 4-star status immunity or resistance items, so he can pressure them that way, too."

Fly's confidence was on full display.

He ignored everyone's concerns and showed off his abilities to his heart's content.

It was no different from before.

Even though this was clearly a different dungeon.

"He could probably handle a 9-star dungeon, too."

Overwhelming stats, class, gear, and decision-making.

In a fight where he had every advantage, Fly proved it with ease.

"Feels like Fly won this round."

He was still the strongest in the world.

* * *

For other players, Fly's 8-star dungeon clear video was something to admire from afar, an unattainable dream. For Kim Buja, however, it was a little different.

"This damn game. Actual skill doesn't matter. All you need is an AoE status skill, and you win."

It became a clear turning point that gave him a concrete direction.

The dungeons Kim Buja and Fly had entered were different in both level and grade, but in broad strokes, they were similar: both had to face large numbers of enemies.

Fly had also fought a boss and encountered countless elite monsters.

Even so, the only reason he had been able to clear the dungeon in a time only slightly slower than Kim Buja's came down to a single factor.

He had an AoE spell that completely negated the gap between an 8-star and a 3-star dungeon.

If Kim Buja had possessed a spell like that, he could say with confidence:

"I would have been out in under twenty-four hours."

In theory, Kim Buja could substitute that with gold.

He could buy a one-time-use item or learn a skill of a similar caliber.

The problem was that both options required a ridiculous amount of gold.

The latter was so expensive, with so many zeros attached to the price tag, that he hadn't even bothered to calculate the total. It was completely out of the question.

Even so, watching Fly's video, he set a goal.

"I'm learning one, no matter what."

As he progressed, he would encounter more and more monsters and run into countless obstacles.

No matter how exceptional his innate abilities were or how good his combat sense was, the simple truth was that you needed at least one definitive answer for dealing with large numbers of enemies.

He had known that, honestly.

He had wanted it from the very beginning.

He had simply been reluctant because focusing on that kind of growth required investing gold in ways that were inefficient for his immediate needs.

"If I just add an AoE spell to my current arsenal, I'll be set."

It would be even better if it was an AoE with a status effect.

It was an absurdly greedy wish, but he had already worked out a method.

"It's finally time to pull it out."

His hidden trump card.

The one thing he had wanted to keep secret for life—he was finally going to use it.

2.

While they were enjoying a rare date, Jeong Seora casually brought something up to Kim Buja.

"Lately, a lot of people on your channel have been saying they're curious how Hwangdo is doing."

"Ah."

Jeong Seora didn't really nitpick how he ran his channel.

She was a fan herself and had grown used to his style.

If something wasn't being uploaded, she knew better than anyone that there was a reason for it.

"You forgot, didn't you?"

"Yes."

That was why she was reminding him.

In the early days of the channel, Hwangdo had drawn a lot of attention, and a high percentage of viewers came specifically to see him.

At this point, the channel wouldn't crash and burn just because Hwangdo wasn't around, but as a fan, she still wanted to see him active on the channel.

Normally, Kim Buja would have just said he would bring Hwangdo on whenever he remembered.

This time, however, he nodded with a meaningful smile.

"He'll be on soon. As the second main character."

"Has the time finally come?"

"Yes. Watching Fly's video made it clear. No matter what anyone says, AoE is king. I can beat Fly one-on-one all day and make cool videos of myself taking down Catastrophe monsters, but the moment Fly goes into an 8-star dungeon and wipes out hundreds of monsters in one go, the pecking order is reestablished."

Even Jeong Seora couldn't really argue with that.

The entire world, including the online communities, was going wild.

Fly might have been showered with every curse imaginable whenever Kim Buja knocked him from his lofty position, but with one impactful video like this, he was right back on top.

"It's a bit much for me to do personally, so I'm going to have Hwangdo handle it."

It was something Kim Buja would need sooner or later as well.

He intended to fill that need through Hwangdo.

There was no special reason.

"It's cheaper that way."

It wasn't just that he could use him cheaply.

For now, the skills Kim Buja used didn't require much mana, but that could change as time went on.

His mana stat was abnormally high, but the kind of spell Fly had used in the video was the sort of skill that could drain your mana dry in an instant.

It would cost a lot, but it was work that had to be done eventually.

It was better to do it now, while his motivation was burning.

"I'll help, too."

"Yes. I'll be counting on you."

Strictly speaking, it wasn't an exaggeration to say that Hwangdo's real owner was Jeong Seora, not Kim Buja, given how little time he had actually spent with the dragon.

He had practically abandoned Hwangdo at home while he disappeared for days on end on gold missions or in the Tower of Trials.

So he accepted her help without hesitation.

"I need to earn some gold first, so starting today, I really have to take Hwangdo into dungeons."

And not just Hwangdo.

If he made good use of the pets he would acquire in the future, he would be able to run dungeons much more comfortably.

As Kim Buja, newly resolved after clearing a 3-star Legendary dungeon, was firming up his mindset, Jeong Seora spoke up with an awkward expression.

"Uh, that might be difficult for now."

"Why?"

"Hwangdo isn't home right now."

"What?"

"Lately, he sometimes leaves the house and wanders around for a few days. When I went over yesterday and didn't see him, I figured we'd have to wait a bit."

He was too stunned to speak.

"It's been about two months now. You didn't know, did you?"

The first news he had heard about Hwangdo in a long time was that he had run away from home.

* * *

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