Chapter 46: Executioner Crow

The Deron Online app had a feature that allowed players to check auction house items and prices in real time.

It was a very convenient system that allowed players to check item listings even when they were unable to log into the game.

I stared blankly at my phone screen.

As I expected, the price of Taechuk was dropping in real-time.

Whenever I refreshed the auction house items, new Taechuk listings flooded in.

It was an easy-to-obtain event item, so there were massive amounts of stock in the game.

If I had processed all of my Taechuk listings before realizing this situation…

And then used the gold I earned to repurchase the now cheaper Taechuk…

Of course, by now, it was just a meaningless thought.

The rumors that Taechuk could no longer be used in raids had already started spreading.

The price of Taechuk was plummeting uncontrollably.

The value of Taechuk hadn’t been completely lost.

It simply couldn’t be used in raids anymore, but it would still show its overpowering performance in areas like general fields and conquest content.

This flood of listings was just a temporary phenomenon.

At least, that’s what I wanted to believe.

“What are you staring at?”

“Oh… Sohee.”

Had she already returned from the bathroom?

Sohee was smiling brightly in front of me.

“I’m just… a little depressed.”

I mumbled as I showed Sohee the screen of my phone.

The price fluctuation graph in the auction house showed how much Taechuk had dropped overnight.

It had fallen by 50%.

The 100,000 Taechuk I was holding, worth 7,000 gold, had lost half its value.

It paused for a moment at 50%, but it seemed like it would fall even further.

The speed at which listings were piling up was faster than the rate at which people were buying Taechuk.

“It’s just a temporary phenomenon.”

“I know, but…”

“In a week, the price should recover a bit, right?”

“Do you think so…?”

“Yeah.”

But despite Sohee’s words of comfort, I couldn’t relax.

I groaned while staring at the phone screen.

If I had sold my Taechuk before the price dropped and then repurchased it now, I could’ve made a huge profit…

I really regretted it.

When I got home, I immediately logged into the game.

There were about 20 minutes left until the scheduled time.

I browsed the auction house and sighed.

There was nothing I could do at the moment.

At least, the good news was that the raid members had quickly sold off their Taechuk listings.

I shook off my thoughts about Taechuk, checked the potions and buffs I would use for the raid, and headed to the raid dungeon.

I arrived just in time for the scheduled meeting, and all the raid members were gathered.

Yesterday, we hadn’t been able to defeat the last boss due to a lack of time, but today would be different.

“Did everyone review the videos they recorded? I’m trusting you on that.”

I looked at each of the raid members.

I too had rewatched the recorded videos before falling asleep, carefully checking for any changed patterns or anything I might have missed.

I spent the entire night with my eyes shining, reviewing it thoroughly.

At the entrance of the raid dungeon, there were members from other raids walking around as well.

Seeing their figures, I couldn’t help but feel anxious.

“Let’s enter.”

I entered the raid dungeon with my raid members.

Of course, I didn’t forget to jump as we entered the dungeon.

With a light hop, we entered, and applause and admiration immediately came from behind.

Was it really that fun to tease such a cool raid leader?

I noticed the mischievous smiles of my members and quickly turned my head away.

Last night, we had cleared all the named bosses except for the final one, so the path inside the dungeon was completely clear.

We walked straight toward the last boss.

[Corrupted Sun God Solara]

The massive black giant was standing in the same place as yesterday.

“Engage.”

Since all preparations had been completed before entering the raid dungeon, we immediately moved into the boss room.

As the main tank raised their shield and began to move forward, Solara’s gaze fixed on the tank.

The giant’s massive fist collided with the knight’s sword, and the shockwave spread widely.

At that moment, Solara’s aggro was firmly locked onto the main tank.

“DPS!”

Before I even shouted at the damage dealers, attacks were already being prepared.

Flashy magic began pouring from the air behind the giant’s back, and the melee damage dealers like me clung to the giant’s legs, wildly swinging our weapons.

When Solara’s health dropped to 95%, her body began to glow brightly.

This triggered a sustained pattern aimed at shaking off the melee damage dealers.

The melee damage dealers, including myself, quickly retreated from the giant’s ankles.

At that moment, a black shockwave spread outward from Solara’s body.

This pattern caused little damage to the tank but could deal a significant blow to weaker classes like rogues, sometimes reducing their health by half with a single hit.

As time passed and Solara’s health dropped to 80%, the second pattern began.

A cursed lightning pattern dropped every 10 seconds.

It was the same pattern as Sun Force, the Holy Dragon.

Individually, the pattern wasn’t difficult to handle.

But as these continuous interrupting patterns stacked up, players tended to make unexpected mistakes.

When Solara’s health reached 70%, the black giant’s body vanished, and it was summoned to the center of the boss room.

Solara raised both arms high into the air and shouted.

[I will show you the true power of the sun!]

As soon as Solara’s line finished, a massive black sun appeared in the sky.

The ominous black sun soon began to scatter area-of-effect attacks toward the ground.

While the areas where the attacks would land were marked with red circles, the range was so vast that evading the attacks became the priority.

“Don’t get greedy with damage! Focus on survival!”

After summoning the black sun, Solara did nothing.

This meant we could keep dealing damage until the pattern ended, but that wasn’t as easy as it sounded.

The black sun continued to scatter area attacks from the sky, and the cursed black lightning, constantly appearing, was another factor torturing the damage dealers.

Despite the situation, some of the raid members still continued to deal damage.

Among them were the warlocks, Harang, Helena, and Iyeap, who were all dealing continuous damage over time.

Among them, the one who dealt the most damage was Harang.

The Musketeer, the advanced class of the Archer, had extremely short skill delays, both before and after the skill activation.

Once the prepared bullets were loaded, it allowed for shooting while moving, which was a great advantage.

Harang didn’t stop.

Dodging black lightning and the sun’s wide-area attacks, white bullets continued to pour from his weapon.

I also didn’t lag behind and swung my sword.

With the overwhelming mobility of a Berserker and my innate talent, I dodged every pattern by a hair’s breadth.

There was no need for much calculation. I simply moved according to my instincts and swung my sword.

Some hits were inevitable.

I wasn’t a fragile class like a rogue, so taking one hit wasn’t an issue.

Of course, I didn’t receive healing from the healers.

I had potions and the Paladin’s healing abilities.

In other words, my survivability as a damage dealer was pretty solid.

As soon as the black sun pattern passed, Solara knelt down and began to groan.

She then scattered the black energy, filled with her power, in all directions.

The scattered black energy fell to the ground, wriggling and forming the shape of a black knight.

It was Solara’s corrupted Paladin summoning pattern.

I bit my lip.

If I could use Taechuk here, I would have easily pushed through the black sun pattern and prevented the summoning of the corrupted Paladin.

Corrupted Paladins were tougher than normal elite monsters.

They frequently used healing and shielding abilities, forcing us to keep our distance from the boss.

In this situation, I had to die.

That way, we could pass this pattern more easily.

As the sub-tanker gathered the corrupted Paladins and began to dribble them, I used my Leap Strike skill to dive right into the center of the monsters.

Immediately after, I activated the Berserk buff and used the Healing Wind skill.

As a skill with immense DPS, the health of the corrupted Paladins began to drop rapidly.

However, right after that, an overwhelming number of attacks came at me.

Sharp blades sliced through the air from all directions, grazing my arms and legs, and a sword pierced through my abdomen.

Even with a healer’s support, I couldn’t survive such an attack—it was certain death.

But I endured.

The [Combat Continuation] skill activated, putting me into an immortal state.

My health was fixed at 1, and I immediately triggered my next skill.

Boom!

I swung my massive greatsword down to the ground, sending the corrupted Paladins flying into the air.

Right after, I used the [Fury Strike] skill, slashing with my sword in a sweeping arc.

As the blood-red trajectory sliced through the Paladins’ bodies, my vision turned gray, and my body collapsed.

Thanks to the Berserker’s passive, I could deal high damage to targets with high defense.

The corrupted Paladins’ thick armor was shredded and crumpled as they hit the ground.

They didn’t die, though. They had about 20% health left.

Helena’s Meteor finished them off.

A massive meteor fell from the sky, incinerating the corrupted Paladins’ bodies in an instant.

After about 10 seconds, my gray-tinged vision cleared up.

The healers had used their resurrection skill on me.

The flow was good. No one made mistakes up until now.

A sigh of relief escaped me, while Solara’s health continued to steadily drop.

When Solara’s health reached 30%, she used the black sun pattern once again.

The situation repeated itself, just like before.

This meant that the clear was almost within reach.

Right after the black sun pattern ended, the summoning pattern activated again.

Black energy scattered in all directions, and the corrupted Paladins slowly began to appear.

But there was a difference from earlier.

Among the newly appeared corrupted Paladins, there was one with a much larger frame than the others.

It even had a name.

This meant it was a Named Monster, not just a regular elite monster.

[Executioner Crow, Commander of the Order]

I quickly checked its stats.

For a Named monster, it didn’t have that much health.

It was only about twice as much as the regular elite Paladins.

If I used the same strategy as before—sacrificing myself and then resurrecting—it should be an easy hurdle to overcome.

It didn’t matter if we couldn’t kill Crow.

As long as the sub-tanker was alive, they could hold it for a while.

The sub-tanker began gathering the summoned Paladins, just like before.

Right after, I jumped into the neatly gathered group of Paladins.

Boom!

All the Paladins were stunned by the area-wide stun, and I immediately began using Healing Wind to grind down their health.

Everything was going smoothly.

That’s what I thought.

As soon as the stun duration ended, the Paladins’ blades began flying at me.

While moving in Healing Wind, I managed to dodge most of the attacks, but I couldn’t avoid them all.

My full health quickly plummeted to 1.

When the Healing Wind effect ended, I broke through the red whirlwind effect, and the knight with black eyes charged at me.

“Ugh!”

With a desperate scream, I swung my sword to block the attack, but it was my sword that bounced off.

The knight’s upper body was fully revealed, and he raised his sword in front of me.

Executioner Crow swung his holy sword and pierced my heart.

Thud!!

The immortality effect hadn’t ended yet.

But my vision turned gray.

This was a special pattern from a monster that prevented receiving resurrection from the Priest during the battle.

[Execution] appeared.

This was a pattern I hadn’t seen before.