NOVEL WEB chapter 16
[Party] CottonCandyFox: Over here~
I accepted CottonCandyFox's offer to position the mage and quietly stood next to her.
[Party] CottonCandyFox: Until I say in chat~
[Party] CottonCandyFox: DPS gogogo
The spot we moved to was still inside the boss's attack range, but I trusted CottonCandyFox’s chat and started charging up Fireball.
From Phase 2 onward, Marbas became completely immune to all CC, so it was better to focus on high-damage skills.
「Filthy insects…!」
Marbas let out a furious roar and swung his hammer wide toward the front. Boom, bam! He slammed the ground twice in a row, and on the third strike, the entire floor cracked open with flames erupting everywhere.
[Party] CottonCandyFox: Now
I had already expected this the moment Marbas started smashing the ground, so I dodged the flames with my evasion skill right as CottonCandyFox’s message came in. So the red glow on the floor marked the final strike.
Unlike me, CottonCandyFox, and HoneybeeBzzz, who were on this side, SuwonSpecialCity and WitchLetsGo on the opposite side easily avoided both consecutive attacks. Their classes had short cooldowns and extra evasion skills compared to others.
As for WatDoUCongDoU, the tank, he was basically immune to CC, and his defense and HP were so high that as long as the healer stuck with him, there was no need for him to move at all.
Then, seeing HoneybeeBzzz desperately running around in the distance, I finally understood what CottonCandyFox meant earlier by ‘mage position.’
‘The positioning is completely different depending on the class.’
Normally, CottonCandyFox should be over there with HoneybeeBzzz, buffing from that area.
When I watched raid videos before, I only focused on the patterns and damage numbers, so I never really paid attention to positioning. But seeing it now, that part mattered quite a bit too.
I was slowly getting a grasp of Marbas’s overall attack patterns, so when the Whirlwind swing came—where he spun his hammer in a full 360—and the jump ❖ Nоvеl𝚒ght ❖ (Exclusive on Nоvеl𝚒ght) AoE attack that smashed the whole map, I avoided them easily. CottonCandyFox started hopping around, cheering me on.
[Party] CottonCandyFox: Kyaaa, sooo good~!! >ㅁ<
[Party] CottonCandyFox: You’re awesome~!!♥♥♥
“……”
She’s using emotes in the middle of this chaos? This lunatic’s seriously something else.
「Grrraaahh!」
WitchLetsGo’s
「I’ll kill every last one of you!」
Finally, the Phase 3 dialogue triggered. Even though we couldn’t see his HP bar, that meant he was down to about 30%.
[Party] WatDoUCongDoU: Watch out for wall slam
Phase 3, the
The random charge attack locked onto one player and barreled toward them at insane speed. You had to time your evasion skill perfectly, so it was tricky. But after each wall slam, there was a 3-second window before the next charge, so landing DPS wasn’t hard.
「DIE!」
The first target Marbas locked onto was SuwonSpecialCity. But SuwonSpecialCity smoothly dodged with his evasion skill as Marbas charged like a demon bull, then summoned dozens of swords from midair, raining them down.
It was
[Party] CottonCandyFox: Waaah~ oh nooo~
[Party] CottonCandyFox: So scarrry~ Fox is scared~ㅠㅡㅠ
Seeing Marbas charging toward her, CottonCandyFox spammed emotes with a teary face while dodging cleanly at the same time. Chat spam, emotes, and dodging—she’s doing literally everything.
Once again, Marbas missed his target and slammed into the wall, eating a barrage of skills from everyone. Watching this unfold, I almost felt bad for the guy.
「Grrgh… grk…!」
Marbas turned toward his third target, glowing bright red all over. That meant he was near death. And the last target was… me.
While Marbas was in charge mode, all damage and CC were nullified, so no one could help me. I stayed calm, watching him barrel toward me.
SuwonSpecialCity had dodged when the distance between him and Marbas looked about a fingertip-width on screen—around 2 seconds after the charge started. CottonCandyFox had dodged at even closer range, around 3 seconds in.
But Marbas had charged from the center of the map toward SuwonSpecialCity, while with CottonCandyFox, he dashed clear across the whole map, which naturally took longer. So judging the timing based on screen distance, not seconds, was more accurate.
Good thing I paid attention to how they dodged. I hit my evasion skill right as Marbas closed in, just like SuwonSpecialCity had done. Boom! As expected, Marbas missed and smashed straight into the wall again.
[Party] WitchLetsGo: Oh, nice nice
[Party] WatDoUCongDoU: ssss
[Party] HoneybeeBzzz: sss
[Party] CottonCandyFox: hehehehe
Our party unleashed all their prepared skills, and with a final screech, Marbas dropped his hammer and collapsed to the ground. At the same time, a flood of notifications filled the screen.
The dungeon clear instantly filled up half my EXP bar. One more Keyrunt Normal run and I’d hit level 216.
“Crazy… no wonder everyone’s addicted to raids.”
Plus, the raid rewards included plenty of gear and upgrade mats. Now I really got why people raved about raids.
[Party] SuwonSpecialCity: gg~ good work
[Party] HoneybeeBzzz: nice nice
[Party] WatDoUCongDoU: sss good job everyone
[Party] WitchLetsGo: whoa, at the end
[Party] WitchLetsGo: when I realized it was Sleepy-hyung getting charged, I panicked ㄷㄷ;
[Party] HoneybeeBzzz: fr
[Party] HoneybeeBzzz: dodging wall slam is brutal
[Party] WatDoUCongDoU: honestly dying there wouldn’t have been weird
[Party] CottonCandyFox: hehehehe
[Party] CottonCandyFox: Sleepy-oppa did sooo good hehehe
[Party] ImSoSleepy: thx thx, good job everyone
I still had no clue why CottonCandyFox was so happy I did well. I sorted through my disaster of an inventory, stuffed with new items, while thinking.
‘Guess I should leave the party now?’
Usually, raid parties did three consecutive runs, but no one mentioned it this time… Plus, they were all skilled enough to manage without me.
Besides, I gained good experience this run, so I could find an official party later—no big loss.
Just as I was about to politely slip away, CottonCandyFox clung onto me again.
[Party] CottonCandyFox: Sleepy-oppa!
[Party] ImSoSleepy: ?
[Party] CottonCandyFox: Oppa, you’re sooo good at this game~
[Party] CottonCandyFox: Wanna keep partying with us??ㅇ.ㅇ
Keep partying? Just to be sure, I asked:
[Party] ImSoSleepy: You mean, keep running today?
[Party] CottonCandyFox: Nope~ keep!! partying!! long-term!! ^ㅅ^
[Party] CottonCandyFox: Today, tomorrow, and theeeen the day after!!
So she meant a long-term party arrangement. I stared at the offer, indifferent.
‘Why bother?’
They could manage fine without me… though yeah, if they did other raids outside Keyrunt, they’d need a ranged DPS like me.
Honestly, it wasn’t a bad offer on my end either. It’d save me time looking for parties.
[Party] ImSoSleepy: Then sure, sounds good
[Party] CottonCandyFox: ㅇㅅㅇ!!
[Party] CottonCandyFox: Then, Sleepy-oppa~
[Party] CottonCandyFox: I think you might need more gear^.^!
“……?”
What now? Is she saying I need better gear to stay in?
Tilting my head at the weird chat, CottonCandyFox sent me a trade request.
[Party] CottonCandyFox: Boots with movement speed~
[Party] CottonCandyFox: And a bracelet with magic resistance!
The trade window showed boots and a bracelet. I hovered my mouse over them—just like she said, they had movement speed and magic resistance.
‘What the hell…’
A netkama giving me gear instead of scamming? Unreal.
[Party] ImSoSleepy: nah, it’s fine;
[Party] ImSoSleepy: I’ll buy my own
[Party] CottonCandyFox: Eh? But we’re doing run two right nowㅜㅡㅜ
[Party] CottonCandyFox: These aren’t even expensive~
[Party] CottonCandyFox: Just take ‘em! Let’s run together~!!! ;ㅡ;
Sure, they weren’t pricey, but—
[Party] ImSoSleepy: Feels weird just taking ‘em;;
[Party] CottonCandyFox: Then, Sleepy-oppa hehe
[Party] CottonCandyFox: If you take the gear, can you tell me one little thing~?
[Party] ImSoSleepy: ?
[Party] CottonCandyFox: It’s nothing big~
[Party] CottonCandyFox: Earlier, when you thanked WatDoUCongDoU
[Party] CottonCandyFox: What was that about???^^
[Party] CottonCandyFox: Fox was sooo curious I almost failed to dodge wall slam~!ㅠ.ㅜ
“……”
[Party] WatDoUCongDoU: ?ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
[Party] WatDoUCongDoU: Ahㅋㅋㅋㅋthat?ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
[Party] HoneybeeBzzz: fr I was curious tooㅋㅋㅋㅋ
[Party] WitchLetsGo: Yeah your reaction had me wondering so badㅋㅋㅋ
I slowly closed my eyes, then opened them again. The endless, one-sided affection, absurd game sense, high-level skill, and constant attempts to give me stuff…
I calmly typed into chat: ‘/whisper Yoo Chae’ and sent a message.
[Whisper] ImSoSleepy: Hey
Immediately, the system replied.
Seeing that, I curled my lips up and smirked viciously.
‘This bastard, huh?’