NOVEL WEB chapter 7
Starting at level 210, Zenoris begins handing out raid quests.
There are two types of raids: field raids and dungeon raids, and field raids are usually the easier, more straightforward option. That’s why all quests between level 210 and 220 are field raid quests.
The very first raid that gets triggered? Hunt the White Dragon.
The White Dragon nests in the Northern Snowfield region. It's located right at the center of a restricted zone, and entry is only permitted once fifty players have gathered.
Accepting Yoo Chae’s offer to teach me how raids work, we immediately fast-traveled to the snowfields. At the entrance to the restricted zone where the White Dragon spawns, a horde of players were already milling around, waiting for the raid to begin.
[Party] Yoo Chae: Once the raid starts, typing chat’s gonna be tough.
[Party] Yoo Chae: Can you do voice?
[Party] Yoo Chae: Like Discord or something
[Party] I’mSoSleepy: Sure, Discord works
[Party] Yoo Chae: Add me—what’s your tag?
[Party] I’mSoSleepy: YooJihan#62146
I booted up Discord and sent over my name and code. The friend request came through almost instantly.
His Discord nickname was exactly the same as in-game—Yoo Chae. I never bothered changing mine, so it’s still my real name. Should’ve switched to my game handle when I had the chance.
[Party] Yoo Chae: One sec
[Party] Yoo Chae: I’ll call you
That message made me hesitate.
Wait… are we seriously doing a one-on-one voice call?
This feels awkward…
I’m not exactly shy or antisocial, but having a one-on-one voice call with someone I’ve only known for a few days—especially someone I’ve had weird tension with—is just plain uncomfortable.
[Party] I’mSoSleepy: Just the two of us?
[Party] Yoo Chae: Yep.
[Party] Yoo Chae: Of course.
I asked just in case, but the answer was firm.
Not much I can do. He’s offering to teach me the raid—can’t really back out now.
[Party] Yoo Chae: Come on in.
His tone turned oddly stiff, like he was rushing things. I slowly shifted my gaze to the window he’d opened. Sure enough, no one else was in the voice channel.
Dusting off the headset I hadn’t used in ages, I flipped the mic back into position and joined the call. Yoo Chae was already there. After a brief silence, he was the first to speak.
“Hyung?”
“…Yeah.”
A weird flush of embarrassment hit me out of nowhere. My hand twitched on the mouse.
“Why’re you being so awkward?”
“…I’m not. It’s just…”
He let out a low, teasing chuckle—his voice smooth, quiet. That made it even more awkward. I’d never done a solo voice call with someone I barely knew in any game, ever.
Now that I could actually hear his voice, it didn’t feel like I could just treat him like text anymore. I found myself rubbing the back of my head when Yoo Chae finally got down to business.
“See that rock up ahead? Click that, and it’ll register you for the raid.”
“Got it.”
Pushing past the packed crowd of characters near the entrance, I saw the glowing blue rock he’d pointed out. Clicking it brought up a transparent list of player nicknames.
Current participants: 47.
You needed 50 to start. Just three more.
“Only three more—that’s not bad. People usually fill up quick around this time.”
“Yeah?”
“Yep. Between 8 and 10 PM, groups form fast. Slows down after 11, especially on weekdays.”
Yoo Chae calmly continued explaining things. That voice of his? Girls would lose their minds. But still, something about it mirrored his usual chat tone, and my shoulders slowly relaxed.
“It’s starting. Hyung, get your weapon ready.”
Just like he said, three more players joined, and the entry barrier lifted. I hurriedly equipped my staff and entered the zone with Yoo Chae.
Fwooooosh—
A wide, snowy plain opened up, white winds howling. In the center, towering like a mountain, was the White Dragon. Its growl rumbled like thunder.
The White Dragon’s debuff applied three effects: reduced movement speed, reduced attack speed, and reduced recovery rate.
“Here, equip this.”
With my movement speed crippled by the debuff, Yoo Chae handed me a headgear.
“That’ll fix your movement and recovery. You can only block two of the three debuffs, so forget about attack speed.”
Didn’t matter. I’m a mage—attack speed dropping a bit isn’t a big deal. I slotted in the gear and replied like I usually do.
“Cool. Thanks.”
“Huh? Oh, no problem…”
That steady, even voice of his started trembling just from a simple thank-you. Same as in chat. Consistently dramatic, this guy.
“I’ll go over the attack patterns.”
His tone had softened a little now—maybe embarrassed—but he kept explaining.
“For dragons, including White Dragon, their mechanics change based on HP percentage. See that gauge up top?”
“That 30?”
“Yeah.”
Just like he said, a blazing red bar had appeared at the top of the screen. 30/30. Didn’t take a genius to figure out that was the dragon’s health.
“Until it drops to 25, it only uses tail whips and foot stomps. Super easy. Land your skills now and try to get at least half the required damage done.”
To clear the level quest and the raid quest, you had to deal at least 500,000 damage to the White Dragon.
I didn’t know yet how much my skills would penetrate its defense, but the more I hit, the better.
“From 24 and below, it flies up. Gets a little tricky, but you’ve got the control for it.”
“Doesn’t it also use magic?”
“Yep. Once it’s airborne, it casts Hailstorm and Thunder. But they’re slow, so just watch for the floor markers and dodge.”
If the game’s kind enough to give a floor marker, dodging won’t be a problem. I nodded.
“Then what?”
“From 17 and down, it starts using Breath. That one’s rough. It hits hard—if it lands on you in your current state, you’ll probably go straight to Deadly1.”
“How do you dodge it?”
“It sweeps the map in a clockwise arc. Just use a dodge skill at the right moment—timing is key.”
“Got it.”
“Then from 5 down, it casts Meteors. I’ll explain that part when we get there—too hard to describe with just words.”
“Hmph.”
Not the most reassuring answer, but I didn’t have time to research it on my own, so I’d have to take his word for it. As soon as he finished, a cutscene of the White Dragon roaring kicked in—the raid had officially begun.
[Global] Eurella: Everyone’s clumped at 7 o’clock;
[Global] Eurella: We need bodies at 12, come on
[Global] Kola: Any buffers or healers here??
[Global] BunnyBarker: Who the hell’s the Sharp Shooter showboating up front?
[Global] BunnyBarker: Get your ass back, you’re in the damn way
The moment the cutscene ended, fifty players rushed the dragon. Just like Yoo Chae said, now was the time to stack damage while the mechanics were easy. I joined the swarm and launched spells nonstop.
Thanks to our party, I could clearly see Yoo Chae’s chain damage numbers—way more noticeable than the others’. While most people were doing 2k or 3k per hit, Yoo Chae was regularly dropping 20k+ every swing.
Roaring in pain, the White Dragon suddenly spread its massive wings and took off—right at 24/30 HP.
KURRRRRUNG! THOOM!
Hailstorm dropped AoE stuns, while white Thunder bolts crashed all over the field.
I prioritized dodging the Hailstorm over Thunder—the latter had smaller range. Around me, players who got stunned by the storm got wrecked by Thunder right after, collapsing on the spot.
[Global] BunnyBarker: Ranged DPS are so f***ing useless, holy hell
[Global] CoffeeScent: Why’s everyone taking so long to heal;;
[Global] SketchingShadow: We’re just short on ranged, that’s it…
[Global] SketchingShadow: They need to change field parties to have 25 melee, 25 ranged
[Global] Misshare: Deadass worst game design
The health bar was clearly dropping slower now. Looked like we only had about 16 ranged attackers, so DPS output was sagging.
KIIIIEEEEK—!
Still, after steadily chipping away at its HP, the dragon came back down. Its mouth opened wide and unleashed a wave of searing white fire.
The dragon’s signature skill—Breath.
It clearly started sweeping clockwise, just like Yoo Chae said. But pulling off the dodge ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) at the perfect time was trickier than expected.
“You really are good, hyung.”
I’d barely dodged the fourth Breath when Yoo Chae finally spoke again, tossing out a casual compliment. Since he was the one who taught me the pattern, I accepted it without a word.
While most of us were too busy panicking to land hits, Yoo Chae and the other endgame veterans kept attacking cleanly while dodging. The gauge started falling rapidly again.
The eighth Breath hit. The dragon’s HP dropped to 5/30. Its wings flared wide once more.
Meteor phase.
This was the final mechanic. If we survived this round, we’d take down the White Dragon.
I stopped casting immediately and asked:
“What do I do now?”
“Come stand next to me.”
The White Dragon soared high into the air and conjured a massive, blazing-red fireball. A 10 appeared at the center of the screen—ten seconds until Meteor drop.
“See that blue crystal embedded up ahead? When the meteors hit, a shield goes up around it. That’s the only way to survive.”
“That one at 12 o’clock?”
“Yeah. They’re at 12, 3, 6, and 9—right at the edge of the map. Meteors fall four times total, and you have to move to a different crystal every turn.”
I listened as I dashed toward the 12 o’clock crystal. I reached it just as the ten seconds ended. A massive meteor crashed down with a deafening explosion. That was way too close.
“Don’t think I can make it to the next one in ten seconds.”
I couldn’t summon a mount either—the quest disabled pets. As I watched the meteor burst harmlessly against the shield, I asked, and Yoo Chae answered confidently.
“That’s why I told you to stick with me.”
He stashed away his gold chain weapon and pulled out a red one instead. Chiiing. His character spun the chain in a circle, likely activating a skill.
“Hyung, send me a Bind request.”
“A what?”
Is that even a thing? Curious, I right-clicked on Yoo Chae’s character. A new option popped up: [Request Bind].
I clicked it. My character suddenly latched onto his like glue.
“What the hell is this?”
I asked, skeptical. Yoo Chae sounded delighted.
“It’s one of the hidden skills for Chain Blade class.”
Right then, the Meteor phase ended. Yoo Chae flung his chain out toward a pillar in the distance. It coiled around it, and in an instant, both of us—still stuck together—were flung across the field straight to the pillar.
“It’s not used much since there are better hidden skills for this class.”
“Yeah, I can see why. Doesn’t seem useful anywhere else…”
“Exactly. And not a lot of people play Chain Blade, either.”
Thanks to that, we reached the 3 o’clock crystal with zero trouble and easily survived the second meteor.
Other players relied on nearby buffers to boost movement speed or begged max-level mages for teleport assists. The clueless ones who tried running? They got flattened by meteors and died on the spot.
Once you survived the meteor phase, the rest was cake. Since Meteor was the final mechanic, the grounded White Dragon couldn’t even fight back and got dogpiled into oblivion. Its HP hit 0/30, and a flash of radiant light exploded outward—quest complete.
[Global] SwayingMoonlight: ggg
[Global] Stript: gj gj
[Global] Kankan2: gg y’all
[Global] Misshare: good work~
“Hyung, did you get the damage in?”
“Barely.”
I opened the completed quest window to check my damage output. 502,361. Just barely made the cut.
“Got it by like 2,000 points.”
One less hit and I would’ve failed the quest. Still, I got both the level quest and field quest XP payout, so it was a damn solid haul.
“Hmm. What staff are you using right now?”
“Luna.”
“I think your damage is lagging ‘cause of the staff. Hang on.”
As soon as the White Dragon died, the system auto-kicked us out of the restricted zone. Yoo Chae summoned his pet and opened a trade request.
I scowled the moment I saw what was sitting in the trade window. A staff.
“No need.”
“It’s not even expensive, hyung.”
He replied like he’d read my mind.
“With your current staff, the next raid quests are gonna be rough.”
“What’s different about this one?”
I looked over the staff he offered. Same +4 as mine. About the same attack and durability too. Only difference? The spec tag at the bottom said Lux 2.0. That caught my eye.
“You use elemental skills a lot, right? The Solis Staff works better for you.”
“What’s the thing at the bottom?”
“That? It’s… not a big deal. Just bonus damage—like 2%. Barely noticeable.”
“……”
Still didn’t feel right. Instead of accepting the trade, I pulled up the auction house. Every answer lives in the auction house.
Scrolled through the staff listings. Sure enough, a few were tagged with Lux. Let’s see… +4 Luna Staff. Lux 1.0 versions were going for around 5,000 gold. Not dirt cheap, but not high-end either.
So it really is minor. If that’s the case, then no reason not to take it.
Feeling lighter, I accepted the trade and received the staff.
“Thanks.”
“Don’t mention it.”
The moment I equipped it, the blue gem embedded in the staff lit up with a gentle glow. First time I’d seen that kind of visual effect.
At my thanks, Yoo Chae responded in the brightest voice I’d heard from him all day.
“Use it well, hyung.”
Note
[←1] Deadly: A combat status where the character is one hit away from death. Any damage taken results in immediate KO.