𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝟐𝟓𝟎
[Desert Nightmare Deshon (Raid Boss)]
‘Raid Boss?’
Turning my head towards the unusual sound, I discovered a giant sand monster, at least 50 meters tall, approaching this location.
Putting aside how something of that size could only be discovered now, I couldn’t believe it was a Raid Boss, so I decided to take a moment to assess the situation.
‘A Raid appearing in such an open place, not even a hidden location?’
Almost all Raids were like workshops, constantly hunting down the boss after calculating its appearance time.
In other words, that Raid Boss, which looked like a turtle and a dinosaur combined, was just a creature that would be hunted down by guilds whenever it appeared, so there was no reason for it to appear now.
‘No, wait a minute?’
Suddenly, I remembered that there were surprisingly few players when I first arrived here.
Thanks to that, a hypothesis also emerged.
Among the Raid Bosses, one that is left untouched…… no, one that cannot be touched.
In other words, an unconquerable boss.
If that dinosaur turtle here is an unconquerable boss, everything makes sense.
It must still be here because it can’t be caught, and that’s probably why there are no players coming here.
‘Then that Skeleton Dragon Summoner must have run away as soon as it appeared.’
But there was no more time to leisurely contemplate.
If I didn’t plan to sit still and die, I had to choose between catching it or retreating.
Of course, my choice leaned towards catching it.
“Are you thinking of catching it?”
“Well, I can’t miss this opportunity.”
An untouched Raid Boss.
It was too precious to just leave it be.
Since it was a boss that even players at the current level couldn’t catch and left alone, I thought I could get at least a Unique item if I caught it, so I prepared for battle with the dinosaur turtle and said to Yua.
“Just in case, wouldn’t it be better for Yua-nim to stay back?”
“No, I’ll fight too.”
Yua answered without even hesitating.
As expected, I nodded.
“Then stay a little further back and observe its attack patterns before joining in.”
“Yes.”
[Deshon, Wandering the Desert, has recognized you.]
[Raid Boss Monster. The battle with Desert Nightmare Deshon begins.]
“Title Change. Summon.”
As soon as the conversation with Yua ended, a message announcing the start of the battle appeared, and I summoned Ust first, just like I had when facing Raid Bosses before.
[Summoning Ust, Swallowing the Bitter Cold.]
[Summoned Beast’s level increases by 21.]
[Related Stat Summon (1,182) is applied.]
[All stats of Ust, Swallowing the Bitter Cold, increase by 591. Health and Magic Power increase by 5,910 each.]
[Due to the effect of the title ‘ Soul Contract ‘……]
[Due to the effect of the item set ‘ Noble Nature’s Blessing ‘……]
Dozens of messages popped up just from summoning.
Furthermore, Ust, strengthened repeatedly through titles and items, now boasted an enormous size exceeding 10 meters, but it was still far from the size of the dinosaur turtle approaching now.
‘But looking at Ust’s size, I might not be able to summon him in dungeons anymore.’
I thought the day I might have to part with Ust wasn’t far off, and for now, I ordered him to attack.
“Fight.”
I thought that the current Ust could probably win against most Raid Bosses, but since the dinosaur turtle in front of me was an unconquerable boss, I thought it would be difficult.
“Title Change, Jayer’s Guardian Shield.”
[S-rank Skill. Jayer’s Guardian Shield is activated.]
Therefore, feeling the need to actively attack, I gave the order to Ust, changed my title again, and used Guardian Shield before running towards the dinosaur turtle.
Rumble━
‘Huh?’
As I approached the dinosaur turtle…… Deshon, I could see it slowly raising its front leg.
[Desert Nightmare Deshon uses Sand Tsunami.]
‘Skill?’
Crash!!━
The moment I recognized it as a skill, it slammed its front leg onto the ground, and simultaneously, sand surged up like a giant wave and engulfed me.
A sand wave at least tens of meters high.
Judging that dodging was impossible, I decided to rely on my accumulated health and defense to endure the oncoming sand wave, and soon my body was swept away by the sand and dragged backwards mercilessly.
‘Ugh.’
[Damage received! 17,027.]
Fortunately, perhaps because it was a form created by a skill, the sand that swept over me and dragged me back disappeared in an instant, but the damage I received was significant.
‘What is this……’
It wasn’t even a single attack, just being caught in a wide-area attack, and I received this much damage?
Momentarily flustered by the unusually high damage, I tried to think of a strategy again, but before I could, I saw sand thorns appearing on Deshon’s back.
[Desert Nightmare Deshon uses Sand Downpour.]
Crackle, Crackle, Boom!━
Then, hundreds of thorns that had sprung up from Deshon’s back shot out explosively and scattered in all directions.
Fortunately, unlike the previous Sand Tsunami, it wasn’t an unavoidable attack, so I calmly dodged the falling sand thorns and looked for a chance to approach and attack again, but Deshon didn’t easily allow such an approach.
[Desert Nightmare Deshon uses Sand Prison.]
‘It’s a magic type despite its appearance?’
It should be using its massive body for physical attacks, but it kept spamming skills.
Anyway, due to the skill called Sand Prison, sand bars rose around me in the shape of a cage, trying to trap me, but this time, I could easily break through it.
“Elsyke’s Phantom Shift.”
Pop!━
Leaving a phantom inside the prison, I succeeded in approaching Deshon and immediately unleashed the attack I had prepared towards its front leg.
“Thunder Strike!”
Crash!━
[Skill Damage! 20,317.]
‘As expected.’
I learned that its defense was also considerable due to its size, but I didn’t stop attacking.
After quickly landing three Thunder Strikes, dealing a total of 100,000 damage, I slammed my shield down with force, and simultaneously, an invisible shockwave spread out in all directions.
Crash!!━
[Skill Damage! 30,396.]
‘Let’s see, I dealt roughly 130,000 damage in an instant, so.’
It didn’t seem like a completely unconquerable creature.
This meant that if I could land 10 successful attacks like this, I could deal a total of 1.3 million damage.
Also, I thought that no matter how much health it had, it would be around 2-3 million, so I recalled that the remaining attacks were less than 20, and even thought that it might be possible to conquer it like this.
‘Looking at it this way, I’ve become quite strong too.’
I thought, and at that moment.
Roar!━
[Desert Nightmare Deshon uses Physical Restoration.]
[Desert Nightmare Deshon’s health recovers by 10,000 per second.]
“……”
10,000?
‘What is this……’
While I was momentarily stunned by the absurd skill, Deshon opened its mouth as if to devour me and lowered its head.
“Elsyke’s Phantom Shift!”
Crash!━
As soon as I confirmed the attack, I hastily used Phantom Shift to dodge. Turning my head, I saw Deshon chewing on the phantom and the ground together, and I realized that it was much more difficult than I had thought.
By the way, 10,000 health recovery per second?
Of course, if I decided to attack, I could deal more than 10,000 damage per second.
I had just dealt 130,000 damage.
Moreover, if we combined the attacks from Ust in the rear, it still wasn’t a boss that couldn’t be conquered, but I couldn’t help but admit that my spirit was dampened for a moment.
‘Alright, let’s keep trying.’
[Desert Nightmare Deshon uses Unique Skill.]
[Unique Skill: Desert Nightmare.]
“……?”
What’s this again?
While I was puzzled by the Unique Skill, which I had never seen before while playing Twilight, sand started to rise from the ground I was standing on and wrap around my ankles.
“What the!?”
The sand, as if trying to hold me in place, could be shaken off by kicking my feet, but it required some effort.
Also, as soon as I got rid of the sand, new sand started to wrap around my ankles again. It seemed like a skill that would unconditionally summon sand to grab and hold me whenever I touched the ground.
‘This is troublesome.’
Rumble━
At that moment, Deshon raised its front leg as if to crush me and immediately slammed it down. I forcefully shook off the sand and dodged backwards, but the sand wrapped around my ankles again.
Simultaneously, Deshon’s mouth moved again, trying to swallow me whole.
“Elsyke’s Phantom Shift.”
Crash!━
In the end, I had no choice but to use Phantom Shift to dodge. Seeing the sand wrap around my ankles as if waiting for me, I felt irritated.
‘Oh, really.’
It’s not like I couldn’t move if I forced myself.
But it kept bothering me, and it was annoying because it made me move a beat slower than usual.
‘By the way, what happened to Yua?’
Thinking that the situation wasn’t suitable for Yua to help after experiencing it myself, I turned my head to check and saw her struggling to shake off the sand properly.
Compared to that, I could at least shake it off without much difficulty, although it was bothersome. Thinking based on that, I wondered if it depended on the Strength stat.
‘If your Strength is low, does this mean you can’t even run in this Raid?’
In addition, by now, it would have recovered all the damage I inflicted.
This meant I had to start dealing damage from scratch. In this situation, if it used Sand Tsunami or Sand Downpour like before, I thought there was a high chance Yua would die, so I had no choice but to retreat.
* * *
“You did well.”
“Did well…… Do you know anything about Deshon?”
Deciding to retreat because of Desert Nightmare, I approached Yua with Phantom Shift, carried her, and immediately left the area where Deshon was.
Then, returning to the Church of Light, I told Sina about what had happened there. Sina spoke as if I had made the right decision.
“Of course, I know. It’s a Raid Boss that appeared during a quest conducted by the Osiris Guild. It probably appeared before the second main scenario started.”
“If it’s the second main scenario, it hasn’t been long.”
“That’s right. But the boss was so abnormally strong that the Osiris Guild was wiped out twice, and all other guilds failed as well, so I heard it’s a boss you have to run away from as soon as you see it.”
“Was it that bad?”
“Huh? What do you expect me to say when someone who actually fought it asks that?”
It didn’t seem like I absolutely had to run away.
However, recalling Yua, who couldn’t even move properly because she was bound by the sand, it didn’t seem like a completely wrong statement.
‘As for me, I wasn’t greatly affected because of my high Strength.’
If Yua was affected to that extent, it meant that mage-type players couldn’t even participate in the fight.
“The speculation is that you need something to block Deshon’s skills.”
“Is there such a thing?”
“It’s a boss that appeared during a quest, right? In other words, Deshon is also part of the quest, so wouldn’t there be a way to solve it?”
“……”
If there was a way to solve it as Sina said, the Osiris Guild, who received the quest, was the most likely candidate.
“Anyway, it’s a problem. You said the Apostle is hiding in that area, right? It seems like you have no choice but to try and find it secretly.”
“Or there’s the option of catching Deshon.”
“……I know you’re amazing, Rudin-nim, but you can’t do anything about the regeneration and the Desert Nightmare skill.”
Certainly, recalling the regeneration that recovered 10,000 health per second and the Desert Nightmare that bound your ankles, it didn’t seem like a boss designed to be caught.
However.
“Well, you never know until you try.”
For some reason, I felt like it might be possible.
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