Chapter 446: The First Clue 1

- Journal—G30

In terms of a gamer's preferences...

(syncopation)

Most users who weren't as good at gaming would tend to play the game as soon as a thought crossed their mind.

Of course, that wasn't a bad decision.

An average gamer play games because they want to enjoy.

It was an upsetting thing if one got stressed out by playing games.

However, there were many users who had a strong desire to play compared to the ones who just played for fun.

Most of them were in the upper-middle class. They wanted to stay ahead of other users. They want to have better skills and get better items into their possession.

Though it was a known thing, effort was needed for one to stay ahead of others.

If they failed to hit a dungeon, they would think about the reason for their failure. If they lost in a PK, they would study the reasons for why they were defeated.

Thinking about their own play every day was what made users become better.

It could be called the realm of heaviness.

If so, what kind of play do users have to do to become top rankers after that stage?

The most important thing they should do was to try to grasp the changes planners were planning to do.

If users got a quest, users should think about why the quest was given to them. If users got a new skill, then users should think about what the skill was for.

When looking at a small option of an item, think about what the intended option was and how to get the most out of that option.

The point was 'research' on the game's system.

Users who constantly researched and found what was best for them were the ones among the top 10%.

Personally, if users gave the right amount of effort, then most users could be in the top 10%.

However, to become better than that 10%, one needed something that had no connection with effort.

Physical and game sense.

In other words... talent.

Most of the game-playing users succeeded in playing the game as theoretically as possible.

These were the rankers who were on the top list.

If so, how about the top 1%. No, how many users with single-digit rankings were in percentage?

If one needed to define them in a single word.

'Non-standard beings.'

Beyond knowing the planner's planning intent, they also found loopholes and analyze the system to earn new techniques. There were a few special users who had shown the ups and downs of playing beyond the theoretical limit. They were called gamers.

Star players who were admired by numerous users of Kailan.

And among them, the number one user was 'Ian'.

Kailan Chief planner Na Ji-chan's report, "Analysis of Gamer's propensity".

* * *

Lacamer's recovery skill could recover his vitality with how much damage was done to his summoned Undead.

Ian was able to find the 'flaw' in that system.

The key was the damage dealt with his summons.

Ian's mouth turned to a wicked smile.

'So... after all this, all the summons just need to have a minuscule amount of vitality before attacking Lacamer. We should then kill his summons.'

If someone heard his thoughts, they would think, 'What the hell is he thinking?'

It sounded like crazy.

However, if one thought about the experiment that Ian did a while ago, then one could understand what it meant.

Not 'Damage done' but 'Damage suffered'.

In other words, the 'damage' applied for the recovery factor was applied on the basis of the subject.

To put it a bit more plainly, if one attacked with millions of damage, the opponent couldn't take more than 10 damage if he has only 10 vitality points remaining.

Meaning... Lacamer would only recover 10 vitality.

Ian who was convinced by his experiment immediately began to plan an operation.

"Hoonie-ah, you have Soul Rust, right?" Asked Ian.

"Oh, isn't that obvious?"

Soul Rust was a very useful attack magic skill for the Warlocks.

A wide-area spell that dealt 1% of the enemy's remaining vitality every second as long as the enemy was within the spell's range.

If they could bind the enemy within the spell's range, no matter who it was, in a span of 5 to 50 minutes the enemy would be dead.

In general, the mentioned skill was used when hunting monsters such as golems which had slow agility and high magic resistance.

Slow agility meant that it was easy to keep them within the spell's range, and any damage could be dealt to them regardless of their magic resistance.

Warlocks usually use Soul Rust to reduce the enemy's vitality to less than 10% and then use other attacking spells to finish them off. That was how they could hunt a golem quickly.

But apart from that, Hoonie didn't understand why Ian wanted to use Soul Rust in their current situation.

'I don't think that it's going to be that effective.'

The ones they were up against didn't have high magic resistance and most of them were Undead that moved quickly.

There was no way that the Boss monster Lacamer would come within the range of Soul Rust.

Even if they bind him up, he would recover right away.

However, as Ian continued to explain, Hoonie understood what he was aiming for.

"It is impossible to kill enemies within the Soul Rust?"

"What is that...?"

"You cut one percent of the remaining vitality, not the maximum vitality. At the end, not a converging one."

"Ah, I see. I never thought of it that way. I haven't used Soul Rust for attacking in a very long time."

Ian nodded and responded,

"That is the point—to bring down the vitality of the summoned undead as low as possible. We will then kill them in one go."

"...!"

"If we do this right, then Lacamer wouldn't be able to recover that much vitality."

"Crazy...!"

Hoonie was shocked.

This idea was something that would've never crossed his mind.

Somehow, the vitality of Lacamer wasn't as high as normal boss monsters.

If everyone in the party used their magic including Breath, then they could cut down Lacamer's vitality at once.

At the same time, the vitality that was restored would be a problem, but Ian probably had something up his sleeve.

If the vitality of the Undead dropped to less than two digits being in the Soul Rust, no matter how powerful the wide-area magic was, he wouldn't be able to recover 10,000 worth of vitality.

Remir who heard the conversation between those two wanted to confirm if that was true.

"Is that really possible?"

Of course, Lacamer wouldn't stay still when being attacked. He would definitely summon new Undead monsters.

However, the number of undead that could be summoned by Lacamer were limited, and his summons skills couldn't be used constantly.

While avoiding the newly summoned undead monsters, they wanted to do a deal and catch Lacamer.

Ian moved his gaze to check the time limit.

00:13:27

'13 minutes? That's a little tight.'

The odds were enough.

If Ian's party didn't make any mistakes and worked perfectly according to his plan, then theoretically they could catch Lacamer within 10 minutes.

Ian briefly explained the operation in the chat window, and Hoonie immediately invoked Soul Rust.

"Soul... Rust!"

Swahh-!

Unpleasant souls came out like they were trying to escape, blue smoke began to spread on the field.

However, Lacamer just laughed at Hoonie's Soul Rust.

"Hehe, you're really fighting me with such low leveled black magic? Pathetic!"

Soul Rust was one of the most basic magics of Warlocks, so it was natural for Lacamer to laugh since he was a Lich Wizard.

As soon as Hoonie's Soul Rust was played, Remir's wide-area flame magic exploded.

It was one of Remir's most powerful wide-area spells.

Kwang-!

Its effects were relatively simple, but its destructive power was much stronger than any other magic.

Remir's magic roared throughout the battlefield and devoured all the Undead in a blink of an eye. That was a testament of how strong that spell was.

It was, of course, part of their strategy to use such an attack.

The Soul Rust took too much time to cut down the Undeads' vitality which was why they had to 'spice' things up.

Lacamer was flustered.

Of course, he just recovered his damage, and his vitality was back to full again.

"Huhu, it was fine this time. Amazing! Humans know how to use the magic of eight circles."

Remir then gave out many several lower-tier magics.

The vitality of the undead monsters was cut down even more.

Once the Undeads' vitality fell to less than 15%, Ian ordered,

"From now on, let's focus all of our attacks on Lacamer for three minutes. Don't bother attacking the undead!"

"Okay!"

"Let's show him!"

Around the healer Levya, Ian's party members gathered.

With the Dragonic Barrier, they could hold up for three minutes. However, they still had to be cautious about something unexpected.

After defeating all the undead monsters, they had to focus their attacks on Lacamer.

"Devine protection! Bright Light!"

A white glow radiated from the hands of Levya, and a wide area shield-like magic was created.

But nevertheless, the offense of the undead monsters was great.

Ian's party was all poised to defend, using their potions to barely endure the attack of the Undead.

The most troubling thing was that they shouldn't kill the Undead.

The number of undead monsters currently summoned on the battlefield was the maximum amount that Lacamer could summon with his leadership.

If Ian's party killed all the undead monsters, Lacamer would have fresh leadership to get new undead.

The more undead monsters were summoned, the more Lacamer's vitality would recover. Ian desperately tried to refrain from doing those things.

Lacamer had a tough time understanding Ian's strategy.

Lacamer got flustered and tried to make his way toward Ian's party.

"What are you trying to do! Spirit Storm!"

Kwaah-!

A raging dark storm came from the staff of Lacamer.

The Spirit Storm was one of Lacamer's most powerful skill.

Ian's head began to work.

'Levya's shield won't last anymore. We'll be wiped out right away.'

Ian was looking at the undead monsters' vitality that was on the battlefield.

There was a little more than what they needed, and the Dragonic Barrier was still available for him to use.

After assessing their current situation, Ian ordered Elcarix,

"El, Dragonic Barrier!"

"Yeah, dad!"

A bright white glow came out.

Wheeing-!

All the members of Ian's party were surrounded by a white halo, and that meant that they had to strike now.

"Hoonie, Remir noona!"

"Okay!"

Hoonie and Remir moved to their position.

Subsequently, their skills started to burst out.

"Bbakbbak, Roar of the Dragon!"

Kwahh!

Hoonie and Remir's wide-area magic needed time to cast, so Ian covered them.

Ian was much more focused than ever.

All the wide-area skills would be released at the same time, so the newly summoned undead monsters wouldn't be hit with it.

'One, two, three...!'

After a while.

Ian raised his right hand at the same time.

"Breath, Smash!"

Swooah-!

Including Breath, the offensive ability of Ian's familiars was mostly of intermediate level.

Therefore, in order to match the timing with Remir and Hoonie, he waited a while.

BBookbbook and Karceus's Breath was being charged inside their mouths.

In the next moment, Ian's party's most powerful wide-area magic began to sweep the battlefield.