The Twisted Pilgod and the Cogi Potion

You can’t keep track of time inside a dungeon. There’s no way to tell if the sun has risen or not. After a rough sleep, I awoke to find the others already prepared, patiently awaiting my rise.

‘It’s not that I wasn’t scared. I was already aware that the time display vanished in sleep mode, and that my body felt stiff upon waking, needing a good stretch.’

[Logout.]

[Cannot execute. Please check the main quest.]

‘But it’s fine. No matter how broken things get, everything will be alright.’

“See that veil over there? Beyond it, a boss-level monster awaits. I can’t recall its exact identity, but it’s not a particularly difficult one, so there’s no need to be nervous. Oh, and before we enter, eat up and get your blessings. Your resistance to corruption is low, so you’ll literally only be able to breathe in there otherwise.”

The moment my eyes opened, I pulled out health regeneration buff food from my inventory and applied every type of buff available. Though the buffs themselves would only last a little over ten minutes, the encounter would surely be over by then.

“If it’s ‘easy’ by Sir Haut’s standards, doesn’t that mean we’re practically doomed?”

“If this place were truly deadly, I wouldn’t have brought you along. For today, just observe. If my memory serves, there’s another dungeon a day or two’s journey from here. That one is even weaker than this, so I’ll have you tackle it yourselves.”

Dungeons of lower difficulty often cluster together. This is true for most RPGs, not just 『The Garden』. Beginners level up quickly, allowing for rapid movement between hunting grounds, but as players reach higher levels, hunting grounds become vast and disparate.

‘While efficiency might dictate choosing only a select few, I intend to have them experience a variety.’

I tossed them the food and then turned my attention to my inventory. Normally, I wouldn’t bother with special gear for a minor boss like this. However, this time, I needed to teach them the knack of pattern analysis, which meant taking as many hits as possible to demonstrate.

I simply retrieved the sturdiest basic Mithril armor. Using gear with special options felt wasteful, and equipping anything too powerful might even inflict reflective damage.

Alongside it, I pulled out a steel shield and a Cogi potion, which nullified pain. This potion was truly a collector’s item, rarely used, but since there were no pain limits now, I decided to drink it for this fight.

“Are you going to fight in armor today?”

“Yes. I need to take as many hits as possible. I’ll be fighting while under the influence of Cogi.”

I replied as I donned the armor, but the trio’s expressions were peculiar.

‘Why are they looking like that?’ As I tilted my head and glanced at them, Jack, who had been casting blessings, asked me a question.

“Isn’t that, well, a drug?”

“It is. Why do you ask?”

Cogi is one of the drugs that appears in the game; the others only exist in lore and cannot be obtained. Its effect is simple: it completely nullifies pain. However, it causes a slight tremor in vision, and the screen’s saturation gradually decreases, turning completely black and white in severe cases of addiction. Additionally, the next day, one’s sensory perception increases slightly.

Some players deliberately consume it the day before hunting a demon, claiming that the game’s default pain limitation diminishes the thrill of combat. They aim for the minuscule sensory boost that comes as a side effect, hoping to enhance their control accuracy. Of course, I don’t go to such extremes.

I tried it a few times initially, but the boost was so negligible—a mere mouse-dropping’s worth within the limit—that it offered no real enjoyment. The feeling of colors draining away as a debuff was also quite unpleasant.

“Alright, are you all ready? We’re going in now.”

Before the trio could even utter a word, I playfully kicked and pushed them through the veil.

The moment I stepped in, a booming sound effect reverberated, and an event cutscene began. As the ground trembled, dust rained down from the ceiling, and livid spectral entities swirled amidst a violet glow. From a blood-stained stone altar, a colossal, half-rotted monstrosity began to crawl forth. Since the event cutscene couldn’t be skipped, it had been a while since I’d witnessed it.

I pointed at the mass, from which an eerie, wailing sound emanated, and began to explain.

“That’s the ‘Twisted Pilgod.’ According to lore, it’s a necromantic demon that possesses the decaying flesh of a vanished giant race, and one of the ‘Sorrowful King’s’ minions.”

“Th-that’s not something to explain so casually!”

“It’s nothing special, aside from its sturdy physique. Hmm, I had rather hoped for ‘Crying Child Meme’ to appear instead.”

While ‘Crying Child Meme’ is somewhat humanoid, its massive size makes it an incredibly easy demon to strike. It’s a demon that crawls around as hundreds of entangled infant forms, and its slow speed makes it ideal for demonstrating attack motions.

Still, for a first lesson, this is acceptable. Visually, being a giant might make it slightly less repulsive, even if the sight of human-arm-sized maggots crawling over its heavily decomposed body is rather grotesque.

Nocturne, whose stomach seemed weaker than I’d anticipated, was making retching motions at the sight. I quickly enveloped them in a very small, high-grade defensive barrier.

“Stay here and watch, don’t come out. Understand?”

Before they could reply, the Pilgod, having fully emerged from the altar, let out a resounding roar.

“You damned bastard!! Just when I thought I could forget, you’re back again! How many times do you intend to slaughter us?!”

“Oh? You remember me? More importantly, you can speak?”

“I’ve died countless times by your hand! Do you think I could ever forget such agony?!”

It started screaming the moment its appearance event scene ended. Usually, it charges immediately, requiring an initial dodge. I checked how many Pilgod insignias I had in my inventory and then raised my shield, summoning a generic, low-grade one-handed sword, unwilling to waste a good one. As for my fork, knowing they wouldn’t see it clearly, I opted for a magically constructed sword instead. This way, the mana trails would be distinctly visible.

“What? I’ve only killed you 154 times.”

“Only?! You are worse than any demon! How much further do you intend to goooo—!!!”

“What’s the big deal about that? Zeras has been over a thousand. If you count the times I brought him back from near death with a heal just to kill him again, it’s probably closer to three thousand.”

Sometimes, demons appear with specific conditions or special phases, which prompted me to conduct various experiments. At my words, the Pilgod recoiled in horror, thumping its massive club on the ground in place. The field was merely a hollow cavern, with only a stone altar standing isolated in the center. The Pilgod itself was dozens of times larger than me, roughly four to five meters tall by estimation.

“Th-this time will be different! We’ve given up the Authority of Reincarnation, but in return, we are several times stronger!!”

“I’ve already tried ‘Enhanced Mode’ once. It wasn’t anything special.”

Unlike ‘Difficulty Increase Mode,’ ‘Enhanced Mode’ significantly boosted a demon’s overall stats. The problem, however, was that despite the numerical increase in strength, the basic patterns remained unchanged, which made it rather uninteresting. In fact, the excessively high stats often caused bugs where interesting patterns were overridden, leaving only basic attacks.

At my words, the Pilgod gnashed its teeth, beginning to thump its feet impatiently on the ground. It was like a bull right before a charge.

I cast a quick glance at the youngsters behind me and spoke.

“Watch that movement closely. It means it’s about to charge. And then…”

Immediately afterward, the Pilgod lunged. I raised my shield, keeping my eyes fixed on it until it was right before me. A rumble and a thud, and dust scattered everywhere.

Having consumed the Cogi, I waited until the Pilgod’s massive body was directly in front of me, then subtly nudged my shield against it, deflecting it sideways. With a tremendous CRASH—!! the Pilgod tumbled to the side.

“If you swing too quickly, you’ll get hit. Wait until it’s right in front of you, so close its foot almost brushes your toes, then raise your shield just half a palm’s length and bat it aside. That’s how you make it tumble like that.”

‘See? Easy, isn’t it?’ I turned back, smiling, but it seemed the kids weren’t paying attention.

‘Why are they like that? There’s no simpler explanation than this, is there?’

The Twisted Pilgod lay embedded in a wall, struggling to regain its senses. I pointed at it with my hand, explaining kindly.

“When you parry a charge, it rolls over like that. And it takes a while for it to get back up, doesn’t it? I didn’t pursue it because I wanted to show you as many parries as possible, but normally, you could rush in and land three or four heavy blows during that time.”

“I’ll teach you attack timing with a different demon, not this one. Pilgod’s counterattack speed is quite fast, you see.”

‘I don’t know why the kids aren’t responding.’

“Why so quiet? Is it too difficult? Well, I suppose just watching once isn’t quite enough, is it?”

‘I should show them a bit more.’ I adjusted my grip on the shield and watched the Pilgod. It staggered to its feet, clutching its head with one hand, then gripped the massive club at its waist.

“When it approaches holding the club like that, it’s an attack motion. Watching its shoulders is best for discerning the pattern, but if that’s too hard, observing its feet works too. When it puts its weight into it, its back foot shifts back half a step, like so…”

The Pilgod quickly strode towards me, raising its club. Then, it began to strike wildly: CRASH! CRASH! CRASH! I parried the three consecutive overhead swings with my shield, then swiftly rolled to the right to evade. The rebounding club narrowly grazed above my head, and the Pilgod, seemingly tripping over its own feet, staggered backward.

“The attack pattern changes depending on its walking motion. This one, for instance, is a quick stride. It usually performs three consecutive overhead strikes followed by a horizontal swing. Oh, and there’s also a walking approach where it leaps and slams down at the end; in that case, don’t parry, just roll to evade it immediately.”

“Why can’t I hit you—!!”

“Because you’re slow, of course. Kids, can’t you see it clearly enough now? Should I apply a ‘Slow’ debuff and show you again?”

CRASH! CRASH! The flailing Pilgod shrieked, swinging its club wildly, but to no avail. I calmly waited, then parried every strike just before the club could graze me.

Turning to check, I found all three of them utterly drained of color. They were pale, almost ghostly white, trembling uncontrollably, and the tiny sprouts above their heads quivered pitifully.

“M-more importantly, focus on the demon…”

“I am focusing perfectly well. Do you have any idea?”