Just as they agreed, the girls went to take a break. It would only be an hour long though, since they still needed to raid the dungeon. It had been close to 4 hours since they started the dungeon raid, so there was still plenty of time left in the day to continue.
If they couldn’t finish it up today, then they would wait until tomorrow to continue. Unique dungeons were notorious for taking days to complete because of how troublesome some of the puzzles and monsters were inside of them.
Maria had already done 2 unique dungeons. The first was the dungeon where she found the lightning spirit, Raiju, and the second was Transylvania Castle. Only the first dungeon gave her some trouble, but the castle was pretty easy, though it was only because she had her vampire subordinates helping her out.
Without them, it would have taken Maria a much longer time to conquer the place. This was now her 3rd unique dungeon raid, but it proved to be her hardest dungeon raid ever.
Sure, the first boss she fought wasn’t too impressive and one could say that she practically soloed it, but the second boss monster was so annoying to fight. It was a tree spirit and, like most tree-type monsters, it had an absurdly large amount of HP and battle regeneration. After that was the monster’s unique Territory Skill that inflicted [Silence] and [Deafen] on everyone within the enclosure the monster was protecting.
This prevented her party from using any skills or spells and stopped them from effectively communicating with each other. They didn’t know which debuff it was, but it prevented them from using their party’s chat, which was super annoying.
Lizzy was back at home and scribbling in her notebook about the skills that Magrada used in their battle earlier.
“Tsk, as I thought, the Territory Skill is the most annoying. The [Silence] that prevents us from using skills is fine, but [Deafen], which I’m going to assume prevents us from using the party chat and communicating, is really what’s breaking down our team’s synergy and effectiveness…” Lizzy mumbled to herself. “Without any proper comms, it’s hard for Cindy, our party’s only healer, to keep up with any of our situations since we have to constantly move around the field to dodge the boss monster’s attacks!”
Lizzy wasn’t saying that Cindy was an incompetent healer or anything. In fact, she was one of the few powerful healers out there since she was backed by the Citadel Guild. Her technique, situational awareness, communication skills, and decision-making were all top-notch since she was a frontline player.
The only problem was that the boss battle started off with high-intensity right from the get-go due to the Territory Skill it had that couldn’t be dispelled. Not only that, but the boss monster started off in its rage mode even though they didn’t do anything to infuriate it like Maria did before with the first boss.
The only solace that Lizzy saw in all of it was that the boss’s Territory Skill also affected itself, since not once during the battle did she see it use a proper skill or spell. All it did was attack with its hundreds of branches which, for the most part, was easy to deal with, since they only had to block, dodge, or parry them.
It was definitely much better to deal with the monster’s normal attacks than its skills or spells.
The monster’s level was also another pressing issue. Lizzy was the only one in the party who was level 400 and with Maria being a special case, they were the only two who didn’t experience the boss monster’s level suppression.
After Lizzy, Sky had the highest level in the party. She was level 361, which was quite surprising considering that the rank 1 on the level leaderboards was only level 354. She was 7 levels above the rank 1 player.
Of course, Lizzy easily topped that, but that was because she had the pleasure of leveling up in the Underworld thanks to Maria.
However, despite being level 361, that was still over 20 levels lower than the boss monster, so she had to deal with the level suppression penalty for fighting a monster that was much higher-leveled than she was.
The level suppression definitely had an impact on her damage output as she wasn’t doing enough damage on the boss monster to actually have an impact on it. Only Maria and Lizzy were the ones who were actually doing anything on the boss monster, which was why the party’s damage to the boss was only 0.5 percent per minute after factoring in its innate battle regeneration.
At the rate they were currently going, it would take hours for them to defeat Magrada. Lizzy was seriously worrying whether or not this raid was even possible at their current levels.
From the looks of things, it clearly wasn’t. They needed to bring in more players to help them, but unfortunately, the dungeon had a 6 participant limit.
As for trying to overwhelm the monster with Maria’s armies, that wasn’t possible. Earlier, before they left, Maria and Lizzy tried to see if it was possible to summon her soldiers outside of the enclosure before having them march inside.
It was impossible because once the Shadow Puppets and Undead marched into the area, they would immediately be banished back to the Shadow Realm and Undead Realm where they were kept before Maria summoned them.
This also happened to her Champion level summons, so the plan to overwhelm Magrada with Maria’s puppets and undead summons was not possible.
Lizzy stressed over what plan they could use to defeat the resilient boss monster, but unfortunately, nothing came to mind. By all accounts, this boss monster could only be taken down by a raid party of 12 or more players–all of which were tanks, close-ranged damage dealers, and archers.
Priests and mages were completely useless in this fight. In regards to splashing potions onto the people who needed healing, since a priest’s healing couldn’t be used, it was better if an archer or thief class player did that because they were much more mobile than any other class.
With this in mind, Lizzy decided that perhaps for this boss battle, they would need to change the party members and swap out Cindy and Lilith for an archer and thief.
An hour went by pretty fast, so the girls logged back into the game and regrouped. Lizzy quickly gathered everyone for a meeting and began sharing her thoughts about the dungeon’s second boss monster.
There was a reason why she was the leader. Even in the midst of the intense battle with Magrada, Lizzy was always observing and collecting data. She was able to make a rather comprehensive list of the boss monster’s attack patterns and characteristics, compiling them all into a single document file that she shared with everyone.
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“This is all the data I have on Magrada for now. Since the battle started with it being in rage mode, I’m going to assume that it no longer has anything else to show. Maybe a change in its attack pattern once its HP drops to below 50 percent and 10 percent, just like with the dungeon’s first boss monster,” Lizzy said.
“Good observation, Lizzy. I didn’t even notice that it was also suffering from its own Territory Skill. It really didn’t use a single attack skill on us when we were fighting it,” Lilith said as she read through the file.
“This is only an initial assessment. It isn’t anything final. We still have to stay alert and take note of any changes in its behavior and movement. I don’t want anyone to get surprised and, in a moment of ignorance, die.”
“We’ll take note of that,” Sky said with a nod.
Lizzy nodded and said, “Now, this is the plan I have drawn up after taking a lot of things into consideration.”
She began explaining to the girls her plan and her idea of replacing Cindy and Lilith with 2 other players who were an archer and a thief, just for this part of the dungeon. The two girls in question nodded in agreement after hearing Lizzy’s suggestion.
“Yeah, I think that’s the best thing we can do,” Cindy said with a helpless look.
“Unfortunately, we really are useless in the fight. I can’t cast any spells and Cindy can’t even heal. We’re just wasting the participant slots for this boss battle, so replacing us is probably for the best,” Lilith chimed in, voicing her thoughts on the matter.
Glad that she had their consent, Lizzy sighed in relief and said, “Alright, I’m glad I have both of your agreements. Anyway, pick someone from your respective group or guilds to replace you. Have them meet up with us here for a briefing, then we’ll head back into the dungeon and don’t go anywhere, you two. Once we’re done with Magrada, we’ll need to exit the dungeon and reform the party with you guys in it before we can continue on.”
“Give us a few minutes.”
“Un.”
The two girls quickly left the house they were in for the meeting Lizzy was holding and went to find their guild and party.
Maria walked to the window nearby and looked outside. The city was still in shambles, but her soldiers were working on clearing any debris on the road and patrolling the streets.
The house they were in was the house closest to the castle’s entrance that was still intact. They could’ve held their meeting somewhere near the castle’s gates, but the space was too open and they needed some privacy.
“Man, I didn’t think this dungeon would be so troublesome,” Maria mumbled to herself. Most of the dungeons she had raided were easy–at least, in her mind.
She had never encountered a boss monster like this in a dungeon that was nearly unkillable.
Theoretically speaking, they should be able to kill Magrada in 3 or 4 hours with Lizzy’s new plan, but that was only if everything went according to plan, no one died, nothing too drastic changed with the boss monster’s behavior and attack pattern when its HP hits a certain threshold, and if no unexpected variables came up.
It was impossible to factor in unexpected variables into the plan because they were supposed to be…unexpected. Lizzy just hoped nothing crazy happened later in the battle, so they could quickly get past this troublesome boss.
Seeing her friend contemplate hard on the plan she made, Maria leaned back against the wall and thought to herself, ‘All this time, most of my raids were easy because I had my subordinates with me. Hmm, if I bring Ash and everyone else, I’m sure things will be easy, but let’s not do that…’
Maria could see that the level suppression was the biggest hindrance in the boss battle. Being unable to use skills and spells was troublesome, but if everyone could actually do some damage with their normal attacks, then things wouldn’t be so hard.
Besides her and Lizzy, everyone else was unable to effectively deal damage to the boss monster because it was more than 20 levels ahead of them. The level suppression was just way too harsh.
If she brought her high-leveled NPC subordinates into the dungeon to fight the boss, things could be resolved rather quickly. Bringing in her friends, Amanda and Emily, would also be another solution, but she had already promised every player who allied with her that this dungeon would be a reward for them.
Maria didn’t want to break her promise just so she could complete the dungeon quicker. She had integrity and everyone trusted her. That trust was something she did not want to break–ever.
Having more allies was definitely much better than having more enemies. It was troublesome enough that Maria had to deal with most of the strongest players in the game because they opposed her.
She was lucky to have connections with other powerful players to balance things out, so she needed to preserve and foster those connections. This was one of the ways to do exactly that!
Lizzy saw her friend thinking deeply about something and walked over to her, lightly tapping her on the forehead and getting her attention.
“Hm? What's up, Liz?”
Lizzy smirked at her and said, “I can probably guess what you’re thinking about.”
“Eh?”
“You thought that bringing in Amanda and Emily would solve our problems much faster, right?”
Maria looked at her friend and shrugged, “More or less. Amanda probably won’t be able to do much because she’s a mage, but Emily would definitely be better to have around than two underleveled archers or thieves.”
“Hehe, no one is underleveled. We’re the ones who are way ahead of everyone else.”
Maria shrugged and kept silent.
“Welp, you’re the one who promised everyone that the top 5 groups in the contribution rankings would be able to participate in this dungeon raid. It’s a lot tougher than you thought, huh?”
She nodded at her friend’s question and replied, “Yeah. Things definitely would’ve been much easier if I personally had chosen the party members, or I could raid the dungeon solo with just me and my subordinates. Ash and everyone else are around level 400 by now, so we'd probably breeze through the castle.”
“You can do that?” Lizzy asked.
“Of course! That’s how I conquered Transylvania Castle all on my own!”
“Hmmm, I see…”
“...but if I did that, I would be throwing away the connections I made with the players who allied with me in this war just for my own greed…I’d rather not do that…” Maria quickly said.
Lizzy smiled proudly and said in reply, “I’m glad you’ve realized that on your own! It’s always good to have more allies and friends than enemies!”
“You can say that again…just dealing with other players, especially if they’re enemies, is such a drag!”
A while later, Cindy and Lilith returned to the house along with two newcomers in tow.
“Hey guys, we’re back!” Lilith said upon entering the room.
“These are the guys who’ll replace us,” Cindy said, introducing the person behind her.
Maria saw the guy and was already familiar with him.
“Oh, you’re Gerald’s friend. Hendrick, right?” Maria said after looking at the person Cindy brought.
Hendrick smiled and said with a laugh, “Hahaha! I’m honored that the Dire’s Empress still remembers me!”
They had only met once and that was quite some time ago. Maria’s memory, however, was really good, so she easily remembered him. As for the person Lilith brought, she also recognized him because they had met up quite a few times already since he was in the same party as Lilith.
“So you’re replacing Lilith, Curio?”
Curio, the archer of Lilith’s party, said with a nod, “Since you guys needed an archer, it’s only natural that I’d be the one to replace Lilith!”
“Great. Anyway, sit down. Lizzy will fill you in on the boss we’ll be fighting and what everyone needs to do.”
After a short briefing, the two newcomers were able to get a grasp of what they were going to be facing in the dungeon later and what roles they would be playing. Hendrick was an assassin-branch thief, so he just needed to do what Rafflesia was doing while Curio was going to be shooting his arrows from afar and acting as the ‘potions splasher’ of the team.
Lizzy shared the video of the party’s battle with the boss before the break, so this gave the two guys a better visualization of what to expect in the fight ahead of them.
“Damn, we’ll need to concentrate and focus a lot on this…” Hendrick said.
Curio shook his head in amazement and also gave his two cents on the battle ahead after watching the video, “So, I’ll be acting as the team’s healer. This will definitely be interesting.”
“Alright, since you guys already know what to do, let’s head back into the dungeon, yeah?”
“Let’s go.”
“Mhm.”
Lizzy gave Maria a nod and she sent the two guys a party invitation, which they readily accepted.
Maria noticed that Curio and Hendrick both had higher levels than Cindy and Lilith, who they had just replaced, but unfortunately, their levels were still too low to break free from the level suppression.
In spite of that and the various other disadvantages the party had in this boss raid, Maria was confident in Lizzy’s plan and firmly believed that they were going to destroy Magrada this time around and turned towards everyone.
“Let’s go chop down a tree.”