Chapter 71
I watch the scene unfolding before my eyes.
A night street ringing with carols.
Two men are seen walking in comfortable clothes.
’I’ opened my mouth and exhaled a cloud of white breath.
The person walking beside him, hands shoved in his pockets, speaks.
"Oh, they’re selling roasted chestnuts over there."
Then, he nudges me with his elbow and asks.
"Hyung, you want some roasted chestnuts?"
"Aren’t you sick of them?"
Despite the words, ’I’ is already stepping toward the chestnut truck.
"Isn’t your practice intense, Hyung?"
"Not really. It’s actually fun...Are you struggling?"
Haha, a refreshing laugh bursts out. A grinning response comes back.
"I’m playing games with you, Hyung."
At the remark that it’s impossible to struggle when he wins every single day, ’I’ laughed along.
"Ah, I want to debut and play a match soon."
"Me too. I want to play a match tomorrow."
"That’s a bit much."
The two of them stop in front of the chestnut truck, chatting about trivial things.
I looked at the smiling ’me’.
Continuously.
Unable to tear my eyes away.
"Roasted Chestnut."
...
"Roasted Chestnut."
...
"Roasted Chestnut."
"Yes."
"When did this happen?"
"Before I debuted as a player.. back during my training days."
"I see. Could you tell me more about your past, Roasted Chestnut?"
"Roasted Chestnut."
" Ah, sorry. Just for a moment, I just.."
"Why are you trembling so much?"
"Shall we head back out? While I enjoy learning about you, this seems to be a difficult time for you."
"I want to go out. Please... I beg you."
"Of course, Roasted Chestnut. Let us go out together. Close your eyes. Slowly inhale and exhale."
"You’re doing great. We will be out shortly, so just keep your eyes closed and wait a little longer. Just a tiny bit. You can wait, right, Roasted Chestnut?"
"Yes.."
"Excellent. Now, then."
I slowly opened my eyes.
My face was damp with cold sweat. I tried to wipe away the dripping perspiration, but it wasn’t easy because my hands were shaking.
I forced myself to rub my face vigorously.
Finally, my senses returned.
"Roasted Chestnut. Are you alright?"
A soft sensation touched my cheek. I offered my thanks to the slime clinging to one side of my face.
"Mr. Dominic... Thank you for pulling me out..."
’That was close.’
Gorgos, the hidden boss of the 88th floor of the Day Dungeon, was a tricky opponent who used illusion magic.
Because he was not friendly toward humans, he was particularly cruel.
One was supposed to conquer him while under a mental protection buff obtained by eating dishes made from monsters, but he had suddenly appeared on the 45th floor, and I had been caught completely off guard.
In the game, if you fall under Gorgos’s illusion magic, a black screen persists for 60 seconds while a pleasant, calm song plays.
Then, after 60 seconds, a system window appears for the player.
This is an eternal world where everything you desire comes true.
At this point, flowers fall across the screen, and the player has to press the arrow keys according to the pattern.
If the pattern wasn’t identified, the duration of the illusion would double, and if the time spent in the illusion exceeded 30 minutes, the player would die.
In the game, a gimmick involving arrow keys was provided, but in the trial of reality, there was nothing.
I had to break out of the illusion entirely on my own.
If Dominic hadn’t helped, I think it would have been difficult to escape.
Why did Gorgos appear on the 45th floor?
Suddenly, I remembered what happened at Deadzone.
The situation felt similar to when the emergency generator had suddenly broken down.
However, it wasn’t something to worry about right now.
Keeping the vague connection in the back of my mind, I first looked for Je Hyun-oh.
He remained frozen, as if he had turned into a stone statue.
’I have to kill Gorgos.’
Unless the hidden boss was defeated, it seemed impossible to pull Je Hyun-oh out of the illusion magic.
While playing the Archive game and wandering through the game’s version of South Korea and the TRA Bureau, I had gathered various pieces of information about the characters.
But compared to other characters, there wasn’t much information on Je Hyun-oh.
What kind of illusion was he seeing that he couldn’t wake up?
What was certain was that I had to get Je Hyun-oh out before 30 minutes passed.
I looked at the goat head before me.
’Can I take him down alone?’
The answer was clear.
Impossible.
I knew Gorgos’s skills and strategy inside out, but the limitations of my class were too distinct.
And chef is a support class.
If I had come fully prepared, it might be different, but in a situation like this, a boss fight was only possible with a dealer capable of dealing heavy damage.
’Wait.’
I called out to the slime, which was moving from my cheek down to my shoulder.
"Mr. Dominic."
"Yes, Roasted Chestnut."
"Would you be able to help me take down that goat head?"
"Of course. I shall slay it for you right now, Roasted Chestnut."
I hurriedly stopped Dominic.
"No, you must only use magic. Not something you created yourself, but the magic skills provided here."
"Hmm, I understand."
This was a situation where an 88th-floor boss had appeared on the 45th floor.
If Dominic used his own power in the boss fight, an even more serious error might occur.
Furthermore, Dominic shouldn’t accumulate too much contribution.
If he became the top contributor, it would be difficult to explain.
"What is your level?"
"It is 51."
Everyone’s level had jumped significantly after today’s Day Dungeon conquest, but it was still far too low to take down an 88th-floor hidden boss.
But...I felt like I could make it work somehow.
[Highest Grade Rock Salt: A high- purity salt ore fragment without impurities. Suitable for use in high-end cuisine.]
I took out the rock salt I had obtained from the hidden boss of the 33rd floor.
In Phase 1, Gorgos creates dozens of illusions that look exactly like the original using illusion magic; at this time, a player holding rock salt is unconditionally attacked by the real body.
In the game, party members would die helplessly every time Gorgos created illusions, so this was a method I discovered after about 70 retries to find a countermeasure.
It seemed to be a setting where Gorgos, with his goat head, retained some animal instincts that were affected by the rock salt.
"Mr. Dominic. Please learn the ’Blazing Ray’ skill and raise the skill level to the maximum!"
A strange light flickered in the red eyes of the goat head.
Gorgos waved a staff tangled in brambles, as if conducting a choir.
As the skeletons inside the net bags let out horrific screams, the background music signaling the start of the boss fight began to play.
The ear-splitting screams of the skeletons and the melodies of the orchestra formed a discordant harmony.
The moment the screams peaked, a black area-of-effect (AoE zone manifested on the floor.
Since I knew when and where the zones would appear, I could easily avoid them even with a Chef’s stats.
Je Hyun-oh, caught in the illusion, would have his health drained, but he wasn’t someone who would die from just that.
Once I avoided all the zones, a red light flashed in Gorgos’s eyes, and dozens of illusions appeared in the narrow space.
The sight of goat heads densely surrounding me was not particularly pleasant.
Dozens of Gorgoses charged at me simultaneously.
I gripped the rock salt and shouted while running.
"Mr. Dominic! Just fire the ray at the one waving the staff!"
"This magic is... quite classical, but if you wish, Roasted Chestnut, I shall use it."
A small magic circle formed in front of the slime, and a humming sound echoed as if mana was condensing.
Then, a sharp noise, like glass being scratched, erupted.
A beam of blue mana struck the goat head that was trying to entwine me in brambles.
"Kieeeek!"
The illusions vanished instantly, and Gorgos crashed to the floor.
Shedding tears of blood, Gorgos tore open the net bags.
The trapped skeletons were released with screams, and the tail of a tuxedo made of black flames stretched out long, covering the floor.
The black flames covering the entire 45th floor began to drain health with continuous damage.
I looked at Gorgos with startled eyes.
’This is a Phase 3 gimmick.!’
His health had been depleted so much by a single Blazing Ray that he had skipped Phase 2 entirely.
Just as I was thinking that the skill shouldn’t be this powerful-
The skeletons screamed and fired black fireballs from all directions.
I quickly dodged the fireballs and checked Gorgos.
Gorgos waved his staff like a mad conductor.
[You have been affected by the status ailment ’Charm. Duration: 30 seconds.]
It was magic that seized the mind and forced the target to approach him.
My charmed body stiffened, and my limbs began to move on their own.
My face was smiling involuntarily.
I counted the seconds internally as I was forced to approach Gorgos.
The moment I got close to Gorgos due to the charm was the opportunity.
"Mr. Dominic. After the charm ends and before the goat head casts illusion magic again, the staff will glow for 1.7 seconds. At that moment, please strike the glass horn with the ray."
The glass horn is fundamentally invincible.
However, if you attack it from a very close distance just before Gorgos uses magic, you can deal damage to the glass horn.
If the glass horn is destroyed, the black smoke trapped inside flows backward, the skeletons’ funeral dirge stops, and Gorgos enters a temporary neutralized state.
If a concentrated attack is launched then, victory in the boss fight is possible even with my current level and class.
It was an attack that required a sense for timing a short window, but it should be no problem for Dominic.
"I understand, Roasted Chestnut. But what is ’Charm’? Is that why you are approaching that goat head now?"
I tried to explain to him, but as I got closer to Gorgos, the effect of the charm grew stronger, making it impossible to speak properly.
I murmured with hazy, unfocused eyes.
"Mr. Dominic. Please.."
As I fully reached Gorgos, the brambles of the staff grew and bound me.
The thorns digging into my skin were quite painful.
Blood seeped from where the thorns were embedded, staining my clothes red.
At that moment, Gorgos trembled violently.
Shaking his head wildly, Gorgos stared intently at me with red eyes flashing a strange light.
I didn’t know why he was doing that, but I just wanted him to cast the illusion magic already.
Perhaps it was just my imagination, but the brambles seemed to increase and wind around my body even more than before.
It was while I was waiting, swallowing my groans.
Vreeee, the sound of mana gathering echoed.
Gorgos’ staff was not yet glowing.
But because of the charm, I couldn’t open my mouth.
The sound, with a completely different quality than before, was menacing.
My body froze instinctively at the sound that seemed to trigger a primal fear.
And then, a sharp noise.
A ray is fired.
However, it was... not the Blazing Ray.
A nebula flickered within a beautiful line of light, flowing like the Milky Way.
The phenomenon where stars die and are born touched the goat head.
Gorgos began to crumple.
As if a giant, invisible hand were squeezing him, his entire body collapsed and clumped toward the center.
Crack, crunch, the sound of bones breaking haphazardly was eerie.
The moment Gorgos’s body, collapsing toward the center, reached its limit-
A blinding blue explosion occurred.
I squeezed my eyes shut and then opened them.
Gorgos was nowhere to be seen.
Only cold stardust lingered in the air like mist before slowly settling.
A pitch-black hole had formed in the center of the floor where Gorgos had stood.
Inside it, countless eyes were packed.
The distortion, like a black hole, sucked in all the stardust without leaving a trace and then vanished smoothly.
A glitched system window popped up.
[The 88th Floor Hidden Boss, Gorgos, has died!]
The...hidden boss, who was supposed to flee, had died...
As I stood there dazed, Dominic apologized politely.
"I am sorry. I was startled because you were hurt, Roasted Chestnut, and I made a mistake."
His words, asking for my understanding because he failed to use the designated magic, scattered in the wind.
I felt like the dungeon would disappear if he made one more mistake.
Before I could even suppress my racing heart-
"By the way, Roasted Chestnut."
Dominic, who had moved close to my face, tapped my cheek with his ear.
"That berserker seems a bit strange. Wouldn’t it be best to subdue him?" Je Hyun-oh, having awakened from the illusion, was staring at me.