The Return of the Genius Ranker of All Times - Chapter 17

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Episode 17

Chapter 17.

There are various types of dungeons in Godose.

From the most common general dungeons to labyrinth types that require explorer classes, and even single boss types.

There were also various special dungeons and event dungeons, but usually it was those three types.

Among them, the Habitat of the Mutant Goblin Warrior was a single boss type dungeon.

Krwaaaar!

“Wow…”

Literally a dungeon with only one boss existing in it, most of them were dungeons inhabited by at least Elite-grade bosses.

As such, they had no choice but to display overwhelming presence compared to regular dungeon bosses,

“The aura is seriously no joke…”

“This is an Elite boss?”

“This is really a game, right…?”

Shield Master’s party, who faced that presence right from the entrance, couldn’t help but be amazed.

They were used to such bosses since there were many VR games with excellent graphics, but this was the first time they felt such vivid pressure.

It felt like they were truly facing a monster in reality.

“Ugh…”

Yubinkkung was rubbing her arms as if getting goosebumps.

Seeing their reactions, Dohyun also carefully examined the boss.

Grrrr…

A height over 2 meters, which didn’t suit a goblin, a muscular body that rivaled any orc, and beast-like growling sounds.

Could that physique, which made even that massive greatsword look small, truly be called a goblin?

The eyes of the creature waiting in the cave for them to enter were glowing ominously and menacingly.

-HP : [20,000 / 20,000]

An overwhelming figure with health reaching a whopping 20,000.

It was on a completely different level from goblins that barely had less than a thousand.

[Mutant Goblin Warrior]

-Title : Elite Boss

-Type : Goblin

-Traits : Warrior, Mutant, Physical Enhancement

-Description : A goblin possessing the title Warrior, which only the greatest warriors of the goblin tribe can have.

It was the greatest goblin in its tribe, but was cursed, losing its reason along with its skin color and went on a rampage before being exiled.

However, its physical strength mutated to become even more destructive.

‘Warrior, Mutant, Physical Enhancement.’

These were typical traits that close-combat type bosses possessed.

Three traits that were threatening even individually.

With such tremendous HP on top of that, it was worthy of the Elite Boss title, but somehow Dohyun didn’t feel particularly tense.

‘I’ve even killed one with a million HP, so 20,000 is nothing…’

He had even been alone back then.

Compared to being level 1 at that time, now there were four of them at level 9, so it was almost laughable.

Of course, that didn’t mean he planned to let his guard down.

Rather, being in a group could be poison when dealing with Elite Bosses.

“Hoo!”

Shield Master exhaled forcefully and quietly drew his shield.

Naturally, all eyes turned to him. Receiving their gazes, Shield Master briefly asked.

“…Everyone memorized the patterns, right?”

“Yeah. I memorized them perfectly.”

“Of course.”

At this point, Shield Master glanced at Dohyun and nodded.

He took Dohyun’s calm expression as affirmation.

And honestly, his friends might cause problems, but Dohyun probably wouldn’t.

He had shown such overwhelming combat ability after all.

‘I need to do well.’

His role was the most important here.

Knowing this fact better than anyone, Shield Master steeled himself again and spoke.

“Then let’s start the attempt.”

The moment they stepped into the cave where the creature was.

Krwaaaaaar!

The boss that had been waiting for them to enter while making eye contact let out a powerful roar and charged.

It was the first pattern – a charge.

It was a brutish assault with no probing or anything, but a charge from that massive body was as terrifying as facing a tank.

Anyone facing it for the first time would panic, but Shield Master calmly shouted.

“Scatter!”

While his party scattered in all directions, Shield Master stood his ground alone.

‘Just a little more.’

Of course, he had no intention of blocking it head-on with his shield.

That would be suicide.

The creature’s charge wasn’t something a tank without proper defensive skills could block with just a shield.

The moment he put up his shield, he would undoubtedly be sent flying into the wall.

The moment he got stunned, all aggro would scatter and the party would be wiped out.

‘Now!’

When the creature got close, he rolled to the side, revealing the wall.

The creature charged into the wall that appeared instead of Shield Master like a bull, and finally the creature’s movement stopped after ramming its head into the innocent wall.

[Mutant Goblin Warrior is stunned for 2 seconds.]

“Everyone, now!”

In the meantime, Yubinkkung and Miganddeok, who had quickly formed their positions, shot arrows and magic.

Pyubyuk! Peoong!

Just one round of dealing damage without being greedy.

Grrrr…

Right after, the Mutant Goblin Warrior recovered from the stun, turned around, and looked around.

It was looking for attack targets.

Then, the moment it made eye contact with Shield Master, who was responding with his shield raised at the front.

Krwaaaar!

Without any hesitation, the creature charged and swung its greatsword.

Clang!

A heavy sound echoed as the shield and greatsword collided.

As he deflected the greatsword that was pressing down menacingly as if to crush him along with his shield and pushed with his shoulder, the Mutant Goblin Warrior stepped back slightly.

Nevertheless, the Mutant Goblin Warrior stuck to him again like a magnet.

[Unique ability ‘Indifferent Provocation’ activates.]

[Draws aggro from targets that make eye contact and reduces the probability of losing aggro.]

[Trait ‘Protection’ activates.]

[When party members are behind, defense, health, and stamina increase.]

It was the moment when Shield Master’s traits and unique ability shone.

Confirming that aggro was completely secured, he shouted.

“Got it!”

Only after hearing Shield Master’s shout did Dohyun appear.

He had been hiding so as not to scatter the aggro during the process of securing it.

Clang! Kwang!

Swoosh! Bang! Slash!

While continuously blocking attacks with his shield, arrows and magic were shot from behind, and Dohyun also moderately swung and thrust his sword without drawing too much aggro.

[‘Shield Master’ has inflicted a status ailment on the Mutant Goblin Warrior.]

[The Mutant Goblin Warrior is stunned for 1 second.]

And whenever the aggro seemed a bit unstable, he would cut it off with a well-timed bash.

Considering this was their first try, it was an incredibly stable boss attempt.

Everyone was playing their roles well overall, but the most decisive factor was Shield Master.

‘I felt it when hunting goblins too, but he’s pretty good.’

People often say the most important role in boss attempts is the healer or DPS, but that’s what ignorant people say.

The more experienced players become, the more they value the tank.

The success rate varied drastically depending on how well they managed aggro and how well they interrupted patterns.

This was because as boss difficulty increased, a single pattern could often unleash devastating power.

Therefore, tanks always had to carry the heaviest responsibility on their shoulders.

A duel with no one’s help – just the boss and themselves.

‘A one-on-one duel with the boss.’

Veteran players called tanks who were best at this so-called duel first-class tanks.

In that regard, Shield Master was showing quite decent performance.

If he continued to grow well like this, he could receive good treatment at any guild.

In fact, weren’t Yubinkkung and Miganddeok comfortably dealing damage without any risk?

‘Tanks like this are becoming more precious these days.’

From a ranged DPS perspective, the difference between having a tank who lets you deal damage comfortably and not having one was more valuable than anything else.

Among tanks, who were already fewer in number compared to DPS, those capable of this were bound to receive good treatment.

‘Good. Just keep doing what you’re doing now.’

Perhaps sensing this himself, Shield Master felt adrenaline coursing through him.

The feeling of his moderately tense body heating up with excitement.

His cool head suppressed the excitement that seemed ready to burst as sweat dripped down, and his whole body’s senses were sharper than ever.

Now there was only one pattern left in Phase 1.

‘If I can just interrupt the horizontal slash, it’ll be stable after that.’

Consecutive horizontal slashes.

Once they got past that pattern, commonly called the “blender,” there would be no more dangerous elements in Phase 1.

The blender only appeared once in Phase 1.

In other words, it was also a pattern threatening enough that once was sufficient.

But Shield Master was confident.

‘I studied it until right before entering the dungeon.’

Ten times, as Yubinkkung had mentioned?

He had already surpassed that, reading and thinking and running simulations.

At what timing the pattern activated, what the activation motion looked like…

Thanks to that, wasn’t he marking excellently even now?

As long as he didn’t get too nervous, he should be able to interrupt the blender pattern as well.

‘Fortunately, I have plenty of stamina left too.’

For a stable pace, he had invested almost all the points gained from leveling up into stamina.

Thanks to that, he had plenty of HP remaining, and still had 100 stamina left.

It was a situation with plenty of room to spare.

However, there was one thing Shield Master hadn’t anticipated.

“Huh, what?”

“Shield! Shouldn’t you be preparing for the pattern now?”

“What? Why!”

At the urgent voice from behind him, Shield Master shouted as if he couldn’t understand.

It had only been about 15 minutes since they started the attempt – why would he need to prepare for the pattern?

The horizontal slash was a pattern that generally only came out after 30 minutes.

That made sense since it was a pattern that only appeared after HP dropped below 50%. There was no way the pattern would come out now.

…Yes, that would normally be the case.

“It’s at 10,000 now!”

“…What?”

Shield Master, who had hesitated while holding his shield, opened the boss’s information window.

And there he saw it.

-HP : [10,031 / 20,000]

“…Crazy.”

The health that had really dropped to the 10,000 range.

And the moment he realized this, the current situation flowed through his mind like a panorama.

Yubinkkung and Miganddeok, only about 10 meters away to land attacks safely.

And himself and Kaiser, right next to the boss.

When the blender activated, he and Kaiser would be blown away first, then it would instantly sweep through Yubinkkung and Miganddeok.

‘Why already?’

How had the HP been reduced so much already?

It was his fault for not thinking to open the information window while concentrating, but honestly, it was an incomprehensible situation.

Then a memory of the first goblin hunt flashed by.

‘…Could it be?’

At the same time, the name Kaiser flashed through Shield Master’s mind.

Even then, he had experienced abnormal aggro and hunting speed.

Though he thought it was too fast, if you pushed with the weapon’s maximum damage and added traits or unique abilities, it wasn’t unbelievable.

Four people were hunting together, and with that level of combat skill, that speed could be possible.

‘…His DPS is that strong?’

But this was different.

To make a pattern that normally takes four people 30 minutes of hunting appear in just 15 minutes – how high must his DPS contribution be?

This wasn’t a level that a level 9 player who drew a Hero God could show.

‘No, would this kind of damage come out even from drawing a Mythic God?’

Honestly, he wasn’t sure.

Everything was full of questions, but Shield Master couldn’t continue his thoughts.

Whoosh-.

While he was spacing out for a moment, he had to hastily raise his shield against the incoming greatsword.

In Shield Master’s eyes, he could see the creature’s movement.

Clang!

The Mutant Goblin Warrior struck the shield with its greatsword, dyed red like its red eyes, then gripped the handle with both hands.

It was the characteristic stance that appeared when a pattern was about to activate.

‘Ba, bash!’

He tried to swing a bash urgently, but it was already too late.

His shield had already been knocked away by the creature’s swing during its preparatory stance.

By the time he recovered his stance and used bash, the blender would have already activated and he would surely be sliced apart, shield and all.

‘No, this can’t…’

Warning signals lit up in his mind.

His complicated thoughts were filled with the creature’s red eyes, feeling like they were filling his entire vision.

As his mind grew faint and cold sweat flowed.

Tap!

“…Huh?”

Something passed by with light, cheerful steps,

Swish- thunk.

Graaah!?

Kaiser’s sword, flowing in with picture-perfect movement, stabbed the hand of the creature gripping the handle.

A sword that pierced as naturally as if drawn by a magnet.

No matter how muscular the creature was, it couldn’t build muscle in its fingers, and it was perfectly natural for the creature to drop its greatsword after being stabbed in the hand while trying to swing.

Clatter-.

Kraaaaaahhhhh!!

The sound of the greatsword falling was drowned out by the scream.

It was the moment when the ultimate skill pattern performed only once in Phase 1 crumbled pathetically.

To nothing more than a simple thrust that used no skills or traits whatsoever.

“…Good Lord.”

At that absurd situation, Shield Master found himself unconsciously muttering as his gaze naturally turned toward Dohyun.

He wore a calm expression as if it were only natural.

He was always like that.

He had been that way from the beginning, when he was massacring goblins, and even when they first entered the dungeon—he always had that same expression.

‘…How can he be like that?’

No matter how outstanding a gamer was, there were still specialized fields.

Even the strongest DPS couldn’t tank or heal well, and the reverse was also true.

Just look at himself—he had absolutely no talent for dealing damage.

But… what should he call that man who excelled in every aspect regardless of role?

And he acted so nonchalant, as if all of it were perfectly natural.

Shield Master couldn’t understand it, but for Dohyun, it was only natural.

A duel?

‘I’ve done plenty of those myself.’

Ironically, during his Demroc days in Kaiser’s party, his role had been that of a tanker.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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