Former Hero, Solo Play Oriented

“The inside is cleaner than I expected.”

Could it be a habit formed after becoming a solo player?

Although the torches were spaced out, I felt slight fear in the dimly lit corridor, so I tried to shake it off with some muttering to myself.

A pyramid erected in the middle of the desert.

Contrary to what I thought I would be tackling, I kept going down instead.

A straight corridor that looked clean, not like an ancient ruin.

It continued to narrow, then suddenly widened into a large chamber, where monsters broke into view one by one.

“Kaaak!”

True to its name, ‘Lesser Demon’s Tomb,’ the mindless demon creatures of the Demon Race attacked me in succession.

Some took the form of four-legged beast chimeras, while others appeared human.

Even those that resembled humans made it clear they were non-human with their grotesquely distorted faces and the demon wings or tails attached to them.

Looking at them, I found myself missing the Hero’s sword I used back in the day.

If only it was a Holy Sword that could wipe them all out in one strike.

Spin.

My body spun around, and moonlight shone down on my sword’s tip.

[Moonlight Slash (D)]
– Deals a strong slashing attack in a 360-degree radius.
– (Instant Activation) On successful block,
– (D-Rank) After casting the skill, enter Sword Drawing Technique (Cooldown for re-entering Sword Drawing Technique: 30 seconds)

An enhanced version of the slash, ‘Moonlight Slash.’

The attack radius increased from 180 degrees to 360 degrees.

But the most important part was the ‘Sword Drawing Technique,’ which allowed for explosive increases in agility and continuous use of powerful Moonlight Slashes without casting time, focusing solely on offense.

However, entering ‘Sword Drawing Technique’ meant I couldn’t block.

A posture that truly had no defense, solely focused on attack.

If I wanted to block, I had to return to a normal swordsmanship stance.

But…

“If my speed increases, there’s no need to block.”

Of course, it wasn’t as fluid as when I used mana as a Hero.

After casting Moonlight Slash, I felt my body lighten.

I lowered my stance and brought my sword to my waist.

Swish.

I moved smoothly between the monsters.

As I made my way into the demon horde, my sword was continuously flashing.

Slash,slash,slash,slash!

“Kaaaaar!”

My ‘Moonlight Slash’ caused the demons to fall, unable to resist.

Growl!

From the side, a chimera with a wolf’s head rushed at me.

Swish.

My body glided to the back of the monster.

Using the ‘Counterattack’ skill available in Sword Drawing Technique.

With agile movements, I swiftly took position behind the monster.

Chomp.

“Kuung?”

The wolf chimera, charging to bite me, snapped at thin air.

Slash!

Shudder.

The hopelessly headless wolf chimera sprawled lifeless on the corridor floor.

“Huff.”

Having cleaned up a group of monsters, I sheathed my sword, catching my breath.

I smiled brightly.

“Now I look a bit more like a swordsman.”

I had sufficiently tested my current strength against the monsters in the Elite Dungeon.

Was I strong enough now?

With lighter steps, I moved deeper into the dungeon.

Thud, thud.

Then, I reached a vast chamber unlike any I had encountered before.

Just how far down had I come?

How high was the ceiling?

In the dark, I couldn’t see the end; the ceiling towered high above me.

I gaped, staring around the dimly lit chamber.

“This place is…”

Most likely, the lair of the Level 1 Named Enemy.

The moment I stepped into the chamber,

Woosh.

Blue torches ignited on the surrounding walls.

A huge chamber with no obstacles.

But near the walls, I could see something strange.

Whoa! Skeletons!

Although I wasn’t an expert on human anatomy, judging by the clothing on the skeletons and the scattered weapons, they were undoubtedly human remains.

They seemed to be corpses of NPCs who had perished here.

Given the name ‘Lesser Demon’s Tomb,’ does this dungeon have any connection to a story?

And then, in the now fully lit center of the chamber,

‘It’ appeared.

A massive body covered in black scales that shimmered in the blue torchlight.

Was it about 3 meters? 4 meters?

In any case, it was too large for just a few people to wrap their arms around.

With reptilian wings, the outline of a lizard-like head finally became clear.

Its form was.

“D-Dragon?”

No, dragons aren’t this small.

Besides, a dragon has four legs separate from its wings.

Like a pterosaur that once lived on Earth, this creature is called.

“Wyvern.”

Yeah, that was the name.

I’ve seen them on the Continent of Astria.

But this wasn’t a monster that should be appearing in a burial site like this.

Well, it’s a game, so there are bound to be intricate settings.

This is definitely not an easy monster.

Though different from dragons, this creature can also unleash breath-like attacks.

If it were the country of my Hero days, it wouldn’t have been difficult to deal with.

But now, with the Wyvern…

The stark power gap soon became clear through its stats.

Grrr.

The Wyvern raised its massive body covered in black scales.

At length, the interface appeared, allowing me to check its HP.

“Wow.”

210,000.

An astonishing figure that could only evoke admiration.

Even compared to the ‘Orc King’ with high HP, it had nearly seven times more.

Just a single region difference drastically raised the specs of this Named Monster.

“Monster stat inflation is too much!”

I pouted.

But I knew I had gotten quite strong too.

I raised my sword fervently.

Moonlight Slash, and then Sword Drawing Technique.

It was a great opportunity to test a new attack cycle utilizing those skills.

Beep.

As I stepped into the Wyvern’s aggro range, I heard the system sound drawing its attention.

Roll roll.

The Wyvern rolled its pupils like a lizard and fixed its gaze on me.

It definitely recognized me.

I cautiously moved my body forward.

For now, I maintained a blocking stance, starting with the basic patterns.

Kaaaaaah!

“Ugh!”

Crashhhh!

The ear-splitting roar of the Wyvern filled the chamber, and at the same time, powerful shockwaves radiated outward.

My body momentarily stiffened from the impact.

Flap.

The Wyvern flapped its enormous wings and charged toward me with a surprising speed for its size.

Kaaaaaah!

[Level 1 Named Enemy]
[Level 27 Black Wyvern]
[HP 210,000/210,000]

Kaaah!

The Wyvern’s claws swung toward me.

But my ‘Block’ skill flawlessly intercepted the attack.

Whoosh.

Next, the Wyvern’s heavy tail swung towards me.

Kaaah!

This too was blocked.

I calmly utilized the ‘Block’ skill to fend off the Wyvern’s attacks.

Head thrusts, claw swipes, and tail swings.

Three basic patterns that could be ‘Blocked.’

And then.

Flap.

The Wyvern flapped its wings.

Pow pow pow!

The black scales of the Wyvern flew in all directions, raining down on me.

If it keeps spraying scales like that, am I going to end up as a rotisserie chicken?

I briefly entertained that silly thought and activated my backward evasion skill to dodge the scales.

That was something I couldn’t block.

Initially, I tried to ‘Block’ it, but the densely flying scales pierced through my defenses and embedded themselves all over my body.

A powerful scale attack that wiped out more than half of my HP in one hit.

In my first attempt, I got hurt badly and was left with no choice but to retreat.

But knowing was a different story.

Now, I could counter all the basic patterns.

I decided to make a bolder attack.

Calmly slipping in ‘Thrust’ attacks through the gaps in my blocks, I began chipping away at the Wyvern’s HP until, during the tail swing pattern, I unleashed my ‘Moonlight Slash’ skill for the first time.

Slash!

This ‘Moonlight Slash’ skill allowed me to switch into Sword Drawing Technique.

The next pattern was the scale shower.

Flap.

The Wyvern flapped its wings again.

This time, instead of using backward evasion, I activated ‘Counterattack’ from Sword Drawing Technique.

Swish.

I glided smoothly, swiftly positioning myself behind the Wyvern.

Slash, slash, slash, slash!

As the moonlight graced my sword tip, I unleashed ‘Moonlight Slash’ in rapid succession during Sword Drawing Technique.

Kaaaah!

The Wyvern roared in pain.

Quickly, the Wyvern spun its massive body around and thrust its head toward me.

The Named Enemy’s rapid attack, outpacing user agility stats, couldn’t be evaded even with the heightened agility from Sword Drawing Technique.

But I still had the ‘Block’ skill.

Clang!

Reverting from Sword Drawing Technique to a normal sword stance, I calmly blocked the Wyvern’s next attack.

A triumphant smile spread across my face.

“This is it.”

The Wyvern’s ‘Scale Shower’ attack, powerful and wide-ranging, had a significant delay before its next action.

If I could take advantage and strike its rear during that time, I could deal considerable damage.

‘Sword Drawing Technique’ and ‘Moonlight Slash.’

The newly learned attack cycle unleashed explosive damage in a short period.

Of course, the downside of being unable to block while in ‘Sword Drawing Technique’ left me vulnerable, but if I could draw it in between such wide gaps in patterns, then it was a net win.

[Level 1 Named Enemy]
[Level 27 Black Wyvern]
[HP 157,050/210,000]

I was depleting its HP surprisingly quickly.

But I didn’t let my guard down.

Just like the Named Enemies in the last Elite Dungeon, this one likely had a special pattern that activated below a certain percentage.

True to my expectations, the ‘Black Wyvern’ didn’t disappoint.

I almost wished it had let me down.

Kaaah!

Flap, flap.

When its HP dropped below 75%, the Wyvern began to flap its wings repeatedly in place.

Flap, flap, flap.

That massive body started to lift off the ground little by little.

“Gah.”

I began to sweat profusely.

It was indeed, a natural fact.

A winged beast can fly.

Kaaaah!

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