[Guild] Freeriding: Wild….Grass…Hare…LOLOLOL
[Guild] EternalSnowMountainIceFlower: A nickname inversely proportional to decency ㅜ
They left their footprints behind while stealing names. It was an act of kindness on par with Hansel and Gretel. Sa-yoon grabbed a random name and hit the follow button, quickly switching screens.
WildGrassHare.
When he searched for the unfamiliar name online, a small animal appeared, carefully holding grass and flowers in its mouth. It had big ears and a dopey look, as if it would get startled by the slightest noise and drop everything it was carrying before bolting away.
[Guild] AlmondCrunch: WildGrassHare looks cute.
[Guild] Freeriding: Right? Chasa.
[Guild] Freeriding: No matter how I look at it, my WildGrassHare seems more like the type to shred flowers.
[Guild] WildGrassHare: Better than Freeriding.
[Guild] WildGrassHare: Your name alone screams bad attitude.
[Guild] Freeriding: How the hell does a healer go by Freeriding? If this gets out, Wartum’s gonna sue me ㅗ
“But it doesn’t look like you.”
“Right?”
Shin-jae immediately brightened up. Sa-yoon nodded, deep in thought. The WildGrassHare, which resembled a hamster, looked way too gentle.
“You look like this instead.”
Shin-jae’s face was full of expectation as Sa-yoon fumbled for the name of the animal. It wasn’t a polecat, but…
“A lynx.”
“You’re saying I look like a lynx?”
“Yeah, but a baby lynx.”
Wasn’t he? Sa-yoon murmured to himself, and Shin-jae’s handsome face contorted into a spectrum of emotions. He first looked stunned, then his expression twisted as if he’d just bitten into a clove of raw garlic.
“A lynx? A lynx…?”
He kept repeating it, as if he couldn’t accept it. Seeing that, Sa-yoon pressed a quick peck onto his lips. A second later, a groan came from beside him—”Ah, hyung…”—as if Shin-jae were physically suffering.
This was bad. Sa-yoon was starting to enjoy teasing him too much.
Oath’s Vow: We’re here.
The party had arrived at the hill while they were chatting. Adjusting his view with the mouse, he saw a massive dog with fiery red fur standing in front of the black cave. It was the first named boss—Cerberus.
Furple: It’s got three heads, how do we manage aggro?
Oath: I’ll grab two, and Frog can take one.
“Or should I pull aggro instead?”
Oath: That works too.
Frog: Can’t TankAggro just tank instead of me?
Oath: I’ll take the middle, Frog, you handle the left, and Chasa, you take the right head. Swakkoong, you handle main tank’s healing.
Swakkoong: Okay, okay!
Frog: Damn… fine.
Oath: Going in.
After confirming that everyone had finished doping up, Oath wrapped up the briefing and charged in first.
[The Gatekeeper of Hell has detected an enemy.]
[The Lord of Darkness has sensed intruders.]
Dun-dun! With that sound effect, yellow exclamation marks appeared above all three heads before vanishing. The awakened Cerberus sprang to its feet, letting out a menacing growl.
[Grrrr! Woof! Woof!]
Oath’s opening attack struck the middle head dead-on, and the rest of the party swiftly took their positions.
Oath: Got aggro.
“I’ve got mine too.”
Frog: Frog, okay.
The veterans positioned themselves precisely at 10 o’clock, 12 o’clock, and 2 o’clock, each taking responsibility for a head. The three heads howled in different directions simultaneously.
Oath: Watch out for the stomp.
Its massive front paw came crashing down onto the ground. The two players and a single demon standing in front were all stunned. In the next turn, they each used their defensive skills, leaving only the poor demon still immobilized.
Oath: Cleanse the Howl debuff.
Swakkoong: Got it.
Frog: Shoo, shoo, good doggy.
As Cerberus let out a thunderous howl, a red bleeding debuff appeared beneath the party members’ health bars. But with a single cleanse, it vanished without a trace.
Sa-yoon tilted his head. Normally, debuffs from named bosses in these kinds of fights wouldn’t be removed with just one cleanse—you’d usually need to use the skill twice.
These bastards… Did they half-ass this? Given the balance patch notes, it was a reasonable suspicion.
Oath: Entering the 75% phase. Stay focused, everyone.
The party smoothly advanced into the first special pattern phase. And then… nothing happened.
Swakkoong: Are they seriously just handing us the first boss?
Furple: Is this a bug? There’s no way there’s no pattern here.
Freedeal: What if the second and third bosses are insanely difficult instead?
Oath: Current HP at 74%. This is weird, but… let’s just keep up the DPS.
While the party members stayed on edge, bracing for an unexpected pattern, theories ran wild in chat. But with the fight being easier than expected, the atmosphere remained positive.
Frog: First boss is stupid easy. We could clear first kill in two hours at this rate~
And at that moment, the boss lost its shit.
[The Gatekeeper of Hell, Cerberus, is enraged.]
[The Gatekeeper of Hell, Cerberus, is enraged.]
[The Gatekeeper of Hell, Cerberus, is enraged.]
Swakkoong: Frog, you just triggered a goddamn flag, didn’t you?
Frog: Hey, how is this my fault?! It was designed this way from the start!
With each howl, a rage alarm went off, and a yellow buff appeared. There were now three icons. Hovering over them with the cursor brought up a small pop-up:
Cerberus (Left Head) Buff: +10% Damage Reduction
Cerberus (Middle Head) Buff: +10% Attack Power
Cerberus (Right Head) Buff: +10% Attack Speed
“Damage reduction 10%, attack power 10%, attack speed 10%?”
Isn’t that a busted buff?!
There was no time to be shocked. Cerberus, now fully enraged, began casting a skill. The name appeared: <Flaming Hell Resonance>. No one had any clue what it did, so there was no way to counter it.
Oath: Just go full burst for now.
At Oath’s command, the damage dealers unloaded everything they had. But the moment the cast bar filled, Cerberus’ health shot back up to 99%. It was a healing skill.
With its HP fully restored, all three heads howled in unison, and then—its massive front paws slammed down.
BOOM.
And again.
BOOM.
BOOM BOOM BOOM.
Like pounding meat for a pork cutlet, the relentless stomps continued until all three tanks were dead. With its immediate threats eliminated, Cerberus turned its attention to the rest of the party.
The pattern repeated.
BOOM. Death.
BOOM. Death.
Team wipe.
[Would you like to revive at the entrance?
Yes / No]
There was no choice to make. Everyone hit “Yes” and respawned at a riverbank, their names stripped away. At least it wasn’t a full reset back to the start.
With the death debuff still on, the eight of them sat down at their spots in exhaustion.
Oath: Holy shit, this is insane.
Furple: Jeon-gi, if you’re gonna yell, at least turn on your mic. I keep thinking it’s Oath talking and getting jump-scared.
Jeon-gi: Oh, my bad, okay okay.
Oath: Gonna check the footage real quick.
“Haah…”
So this was what heading into a brand-new dungeon felt like. Without any information, it was just pure frustration.
“You okay, hyung?”
Hearing him sigh, Shin-jae asked in a quiet voice.
“Yeah, first-clear runs are always like this. Takes forever.”
Sa-yoon smiled as he pulled up the recorded footage. His mic had already been off since Shin-jae started talking.
“Oh, I’m having the time of my life right now.”
Even through the frustration, a fire of determination flared in his eyes. As he focused on the footage, his gaze gleamed with excitement.
Watching him, Shin-jae clenched his fist tightly.
Frog: No wonder there were no patterns until 74%…
[Guild] EternalSnowMountainIceFlower: Lmao wtf, that was so anticlimactic.
Freedeal: So the pattern starts at 74%.
Furple: It was supposed to start at 75%, but our DPS might’ve pushed past it too fast. Same thing happened with Dionysus.
[Guild] AlmondCrunch: Watching the footage…
[Guild] AlmondCrunch: Shokrates’ Explosion and Furple’s Rapid Barrage overlapped, and the burst damage spiked at that moment.
Furple: Oh, yeah, that makes sense.
Oath: Inseong, did you max out Deadly Poison?
[Guild] WildGrassHare: Yep.
Oath: We’ll use that next time it pops up.
[Guild] WildGrassHare: Got it.
Deadly Poison applied a healing reduction debuff.
On their second attempt, after Cerberus healed, its HP only recovered to 82%—not bad. The problem came after that.
Out of nowhere, flames erupted from the ground, latching onto Furple’s body.
Furple: Ah, what the hell is this?!
Freedeal: Furple, move back! Back!
Caught off guard by the sudden disaster, the archer jumped backward in a panic. The attack must have been AoE because the party members clustered near the tail took damage as well.
Realizing what was happening, Furple quickly used a movement skill to break away from the group. Meanwhile, Cerberus—now 10% faster—was equally demolishing all three tanks.
Swakkoong: Fuck, I’m completely out of mana.
Oath: Frog, some heals, please. I’ll use Fierce Resolve.
Frog: I’m gonna die! Frog’s dead!
Freedeal: Shit, I’m out of mana! Heal yourself, do something!
Frog: How the hell is a Blade Master supposed to self-heal?!
Freedeal: Use anything that boosts your HP!
The healers were running out of mana, their desperate voices overlapping in panic. When it came down to prioritizing heals, party members and demons came first—summons were always the lowest priority.
Oath barely held on with his defensive skills, while Frog frantically dodged around. Meanwhile, Chasa sacrificed his own HP to heal his demon. He tried to boost the healing output using the bonus effect on Priest armor, but the incoming damage far exceeded what he could recover.
A sharp “Ah, fuck!” burst through the speakers. There was no time to check who it was—the party was in complete chaos.
“Hagenti is down.”
Only after reaching the brink of death did Chasa finally give up on Hagenti. The golden bull vanished, and now only one of Cerberus’ heads remained. That head immediately turned and chomped Chasa to death.
Oath quickly grabbed aggro on the remaining head, but with no healing, Frog collapsed next.
Then, massive jaws snapped down on Swakkoong. The healer was shredded to the bone, without even enough mana left to heal himself. With the main healer dead, the rest of the team held out for as long as they could before falling one by one.
And so, they found themselves back at the nameless riverbank once again.
The entire party sat in silence for a moment.
“…I think,” Sa-yoon finally spoke.
Oath: Yes, Chasa?
“I don’t think three tanks is the way to go.”
