“At 1 minute and 27 seconds, when it enrages, it gets a triple-stacked buff. If all three tanks attack, the healing can’t keep up. The key seems to be preventing the triple stack.”
Oath’s Vow: Stun didn’t work.
Jeon-gi: Sleep doesn’t work either. I tried it.
Swakkoong: Our tank is sensitive, huh?
If you used Sleep or a stun skill when the monster was casting a skill, you could interrupt it. But named bosses were immune to status effects.
Furple: Is there nowhere we can pin it? If we could jam its head somewhere to stop it from attacking, that’d be perfect.
Using terrain to their advantage was a common strategy. At those words, the party members rushed up the hill. Unfortunately, there was no suitable spot to wedge the boss in. They clustered on the hill, standing close together as they resumed their discussion.
Chasa subtly nudged the characters standing in irregular intervals, adjusting their positions. Watching him, Killer joined in. Once they had arranged themselves properly, they casually took a screenshot.
Swakkoong: Or should we try to endure with the Priest’s Abundance buff?
Furple: If the Priest uses their ult early, we won’t survive the later phases.
Swakkoong:That’s true.
GegulGegulFrog: Should I headbutt it and try to stun it?
A flurry of ideas emerged in a short time.
What if they used an ultimate skill to get past this phase? But then what about the next turn? Could they afford to use their ult now if they didn’t need it for the second boss? Shouldn’t they just focus on clearing this phase first? Oath’s Vow could try to grab aggro on both heads. Or maybe they should just go with a single tank. But wouldn’t that still result in a triple stack?
They were back to square one.
Furple: This is a maze.
None of the ideas felt like the right answer. If it felt off, it probably wasn’t the solution. They were definitely missing something.
Jeon-gi: In myths, don’t they usually put the monster to sleep with some kind of sedative-laced meat?
GegulGegulFrog: Then should we try feeding it some Drakan steak?
Freedeal: Are you insane?
GegulGegulFrog: Ojojo, my tiny puppy ~
Swakkoong: Is it really small, though?
With that, GegulGegulFrog suddenly rushed toward Cerberus and threw the food. The “puppy” didn’t even glance at the steak—it just bit down on the frog and killed it. The red poison frog lay sprawled on the ground.
GegulGegulFrog: Guess it wasn’t a sleep effect.
Furple: That was obvious to anyone.
“Huh?”
While the frog was being torn apart, Sa-yoon had been spamming screenshots, capturing the frames. He narrowed his eyes. Had something just flashed?
“Isn’t there something over there?”
Furple: Where?
“Near where Frog’s hand was. I can’t see it clearly because of their hand, but I think I saw a glow when they fell. Hold on, I’ll check.”
He switched windows and opened his folder. After sifting through nearly identical screenshots, he found the one he was looking for.
A partially buried stone gleamed—it had a smooth, iridescent sheen, almost like polished mother-of-pearl or a seashell. Watching alongside him, Shin-jae nodded in agreement.
Switching back to the game window, Sa-yoon moved his cursor over the stone from a distance. However, the game registered it as nothing more than a natural object. No interaction prompt appeared.
“That’s weird.”
Hundreds of online photo outings. Sa-yoon had roamed mountains, fields, and open plains like a true nature enthusiast. And in these dimly lit environments, natural objects never glowed.
“I don’t think it’s a distance issue… It might only activate under specific conditions.”
Furple: Like in Venus?
Oath’s Vow: Makes sense.
Swakkoong: Damn, that RNG apple is a blast from the past.
In the early days of the game, there was a dungeon called Venus’ Garden. You could only harvest the Golden Apple while Venus was awake. If the garden’s mistress was asleep, the apple was just a background prop.
If players entered the final boss room without harvesting the apple, they would trigger the goddess’s wrath and get wiped out. Since the harvesting conditions seemed random at first, players called it the “RNG Apple” until they figured out the pattern.
The stone was within Cerberus’ detection range. The plan was for Furple to trigger combat and interact with the stone. If nothing happened, Swakkoong would use their ultimate.
Just as Sa-yoon was about to summon Vine—a damage-type demon instead of a tank—he hesitated. If he was summoning a damage demon anyway… why not test out a new one?
Using mana orbs would help alleviate some of the healers’ mana issues. Plus, it was a good chance to double-check the diamond he had missed earlier…
The decision was quick.
[[Combat] By the call of the Contractor ‘Chasa,’ the primordial demon Harpas has been summoned.]
As Chasa cast a buff, a bird wreathed in black flames cawed sharply and circled around him. Every time its wings flapped, embers scattered like glitter in the air.
If only demons weren’t so damn beautiful… A lament from someone who had looped back in time a hundred times and still ended up as a Warlock.
Meanwhile, the battle had begun.
Furple: Uh, this thing isn’t reacting at all?
Furple hopped up and down on the stone. So was it just glowing at set intervals? The grim realization that they had to start over with their strategy made Sa-yoon click his tongue. The underworld really wasn’t easy…
Swakkoong: Protect the Warlock at all costs.
[Guild] Freeriding: Everyone but the tank and Chasa, survive on your own ^^~
The mana orbs generated by the damage demon were flowing steadily to Freedeal and Swakkoong. Since Sa-yoon had adjusted the angles like an egg-shooting game, the receivers didn’t even need to move to collect them. It was only natural that the healers—who had been draining their mana dry—welcomed the extra resources with open arms.
[Guild] WildGrassHare: Mana potion machine.
[Guild] WildGrassHare: Are you planning to grow stronger by leeching off other people’s skills?
[Guild] Freeriding: Why you startin’ fights?
And, of course, his younger lover was getting jealous about it.
As the banter continued, the party had already reached the first special pattern phase.
Oath’s Vow: 78%. Inseong, get ready for extreme poison.
Furple: Oh! Wait a sec.
Swakkoong: What, what?
Furple: Something just appeared out of nowhere.
The ground beneath Furple’s feet glowed, and a harp materialized there. After a brief pause, Furple plucked at the strings, and a beautiful melody filled the air.
As the music played, the frenzied heads that had been rampaging suddenly calmed down.
[Guild] GentleFlamePants: Whoa, holy shit.
[Guild] GentleFlamePants: Chasa, how the hell did you know about this?
Jeon-gi: Your eyesight must be insane.
“Well, actually, I’m Mongolian.”
Sa-yoon’s calm statement sent shockwaves through the chat.
Swakkoong: Huh?!
Jeon-gi: Wait, for real?
“Yeah, my pronunciation’s natural, right?”
Freedeal: I seriously thought you were Korean…
GegulGegulFrog: So, did you live in one of those… ger things? When did you move to Korea?
[Guild] WildGrassHare: AS IF.
[Guild] AlmondCrunch: Ahahahahahaha
[Guild] Freeriding: ???
[Guild] AlmondCrunch: Y’all are so gullible. ㅠㅠ]
Jeon-gi: I totally believed it for a second. Betrayal.
Swakkoong: Who corrupted Chasa? Get your head down and reflect.
At that moment, a discordant note rang out, causing the melody to falter.
Woof! Woof woof!
Furple: Ah, hold up. I’m the one playing this? This rhythm game is insane.
Ding!
Ding!
More dissonant notes followed in quick succession.
[Guild] GentleFlamePants: Wow Furple, why are you so bad at this?
Furple: Dude, this is ridiculously hard.
Furple: It literally says I failed the performance just now.
“There must be a minimum number of notes you can’t miss.”
The harp gradually became transparent before disappearing entirely. The moment the music stopped, Cerberus immediately went berserk, as if it had never been calm in the first place.
[Hell’s Gatekeeper, Cerberus, is enraged.]
[Hell’s Gatekeeper, Cerberus, is enraged.]
[Hell’s Gatekeeper, Cerberus, is enraged.]
GegulGegulFrog: Damn, this thing is way too sensitive.
Swakkoong: Isn’t this bastard just straight-up rage-prone?
But no one responded. Everyone was too busy trying not to die.
And just like that, another wipe.
After the third wipe, the party sat in a circle. Someone tossed a campfire into the middle, and a soft flame flickered to life. A system message popped up, indicating that HP recovery had increased by 3%.
[Guild] ArcherofDarkness: Okay, I have something to confess.
[Guild] GentleFlamePants: What is it?
[Guild] ArcherofDarkness: …I have no sense of rhythm. ㅠㅠ
Well, that explained the constant mistakes.
Killer was a melee DPS, and Jeon-gi, being a casting class, wasn’t suited for playing music either. Healers and tanks were out of the question. By process of elimination, the harp player had to be Chasa.
Oath’s Vow: Let’s go.
Swakkoong: We’re ending this here.
GegulGegulFrog: Let’s do this!
This was already their fourth attempt.
At 80%, the harp was summoned again, and a rhythm game interface appeared in the middle of the screen. It worked just like fishing—hitting the right button at the right time.
Sa-yoon adapted instantly and started playing.
Swakkoong: This is so relaxing…
Even while the Warlock plucked the harp, his demons continued attacking, steadily filling up the diamond gauge.
Once all five segments were full, a message appeared.
[An allied support skill has been activated.]
An allied support skill? Was it that new skill announced earlier?
However, there were no newly activated skills on the skill bar. Just as Sa-yoon opened the skill window—
Oath’s Vow: It’s absorbing HP periodically. Inseong, one more extreme poison.
WildGrassHare: Ok
The moment Killer’s body glowed green, something changed on Sa-yoon’s screen.
What the hell is this?
A glowing icon had appeared right in the middle of the screen, and if something looked this much like a new skill, there was only one thing to do. Mesmerized, Sa-yoon pressed the button.
A sharp chirping sound echoed.
From somewhere, a massive flock of birds swarmed over Cerberus, tearing through it. Each individual bird seemed to register as a separate hit, as countless damage numbers exploded across the boss’s body before fading.
GegulGegulFrog: Whoa, whose skill is this?
Oath’s Vow: Looks like a new one.
Jeon-gi: Holy shit, the effect is insane…
—Didn’t I tell you? We’re a perfect match.
As the flock dispersed, a familiar voice rang out. It was the Demon Hunter’s voice line—the one that always played when Chasa and Killer stood next to each other in idle motion.
Sa-yoon, eyes wide in shock, turned his head.
Shin-jae was staring back at him, wearing the exact same expression.
“Holy shit.”
This was it. The damage buff they had been waiting for.
