Emperor of Solo Play

­ Bear Warrior (2)

Fssh!

The breastplate disappeared and the Bear Warrior’s back, filled with brown hair like a field of grass, was on fire. At the same time, the Bear Warrior’s obsidian-like eyes shook violently.

Kuoo!

It turned its head towards the direction the fireball flew from. There, a Skeleton Magician was standing alone. The Bear Warrior worked its two hind legs and charged towards the Skeleton Magician. His stride and speed easily surpassed the limits of his physique.

Charge.

With this skill, he was a walking natural disaster. In an instant, he closed the distance while holding his shield in front of him. There was nothing the Skeleton Magician could do to avoid the Bear Warrior’s tackle.

Kwang!

A boom echoed out as the Skeleton Magician’s bones scattered into the forest. Even after creating such a horrific scene, the Bear Warrior didn’t seem satisfied as it continued its charge and broke two more trees.

Uooooo!

After stopping its charge, it let out a roar filled with fury. The roar cut past the forest like a sword wind and reached Hyrkan who was running away with the Skeleton Magician as bait.

‘Whew!’

Hyrkan let out a sigh of relief on the inside.

‘I almost died.’

33 minutes had passed since his battle with the Bear Warrior began. 14 minutes had passed since he had successfully attacked his target points and took off the Bear Warrior’s breastplate. After that, the Bear Warrior naturally entered its second phase.

Once the second phase began, Hyrkan’s strategy became simple. Since he had successfully taken off the breastplate which was his main priority, he just had to focus on dealing damage rather than destroying its armor. Of course, dealing damage wasn’t so easy either.

‘It really is hard without a priest.’

The most important thing was to land his attacks.

He estimated his current power and organization to be that of a 5 to 10 men party of his level. It was impressive. As much as this was the style of the necromancer class, performing the role of so many people by himself was something even the Warlord developers couldn’t have predicted.

However, there was a critical weakness in his forces.

The lack of a healer.

In a situation where everything was over once Hyrkan died, the lack of a healer that could keep him alive was bigger than he had anticipated.

The role of a healer was absolute. Once a healer reached level 100, as long as a player did not die, he could be back to fighting condition within a minute. There was a skill that revived an ally even if his HP became 0. It was thanks to healers that Warlord’s strikers and tankers could attach themselves to gigantic monsters like mosquitos to suck their blood.

Sadly, the help of a healer was something Hyrkan couldn’t expect in this battle. His only source of healing was a HP recovery candy worth 100 gold each. As such, Hyrkan considered his two Skeleton Magicians as his life lines. When a magic attack struck the Bear Warrior in its second phase, it turned its aggro to the magician. Hyrkan used this fact to his advantage.

Of course, it wasn’t something he could rely on often.

‘With this, Skeleton Magician is on cooldown for a bit.’

To begin with, Skeleton Magician Summon had a longer cooldown time than Skeleton Warrior Summon. Plus, the most he could summon was two.

‘They’re magic power eating ghosts… er, skeletons!’

Most importantly, the amount of magic power needed to summon them and use magic attacks was huge. He had already used much of the consumable items he brought. He had used 20 Bone Explosives worth 50 gold each, and used so much magic power and stamina recovery candies that he lost count. Because of how much candy he ate, he could taste their flavors just by swallowing his saliva. Furthermore, he had used most of the buff items he had. Currently, he only had about 20 percent of them left.

Kuoo!

Hearing the Bear Warrior’s roar, Hyrkan shook his head side by side.

‘It should be entering its third phase soon…’

When participating in a boss raid, the quantity of items one brought was key. If the boss monster had more HP than the quantity of items allowed, the raid was a fail. Otherwise, the raid was a success.

It goes without saying that it was foolish to risk one’s life on a failed raid. It was the same for Hyrkan. A true expert knew when to back down in face of a failure. It was much better than going overboard and losing everything.

Of course…

‘Please.’

Although many understood this in theory, not many could carry it out in action. The same was true for Hyrkan. Although his head understood what needed to be done, in a situation where he had to run, Hyrkan would not do so.

That is, if his plans ever went awry, the only thing left for Hyrkan would be destruction.

At that moment…

Boom!

The Bear Warrior’s loud stomp instantly silenced the loud forest. Although Hyrkan had been anxious, he was slightly relieved as the corner of his mouth curved up slightly. He let out a short breath of air.

“It’s here!”

The third phase had begun.

★★★

There was a question that players known to be good at raids received to the point of exhaustion.

“What’s the secret to having a good, easy raid?”

Most players answered like so. It was important to coordinate with your allies. It was important to know the hunting method in and out. It was important to prepare for anything that could happen. It was important to keep calmness in all situations and have good judgement… etc. Although they were decent answers, the most definite answer was something else.

“Go for a monster lower than your own level. With that, the raid will be easy and you’ll do a good job.”

You had to hunt a monster weaker than yourself.

Warlord’s monsters were designed so that a level 100 player could hunt monsters under level 100. It wasn’t the developers that did this, but the artificial intelligence behind the system management. In any case, it was much easier for a level 100 player to hunt a level 80 monster than a level 100 monster. It was typical of an RPG game.

However, those that were known to be good at raids usually went for monsters 10 to even 30 or 40 levels higher than themselves. A boss monster no less! Most did not consider raids as real raids if this condition was not met.

If put in a good way, it was being risky. If put in a bad way, it was being foolish.

Of course, those that played to make a living had to be risky and foolish. Having fun wasn’t their main concern. No one watched cars going 80 km per hour on a highway for entertainment. Cars had to race at about 300 km per hour or so for people to watch and be entertained. Otherwise, no one would pay the money to see such a thing.

Then what was the best way to be both risky and foolish, yet still produce good results?

Everything!

You had to be good at everything!

Keeping calm and having good judgement were just the basics. Boldness and decisiveness, fast reaction, and readiness to gamble. These were all traits that had to be honed to the extreme.

In this sense, Hyrkan was the best.

Boom!

After entering the third phase, the Bear Warrior’s stats rose by 33 percent. No debuff magic worked on it and it could use Charge without a cooldown time limit.

Plus, it was effectively a machine. It attacked anything in its sight and destroyed it. Watching the Bear Warrior charge towards you was like watching a truck trying to crush you at full speed.

Most blanked out at such a sight.

Hyrkan, on the other hand, waited for a timing. He didn’t blindly dodge the Bear Warrior’s charge.

‘COME!’

Instead, Hyrkan baited the Bear Warrior. With a large rock behind him, he waited until the Bear Warrior was close enough.

Only then did he throw his body to the side and narrowly avoided the Bear Warrior’s Charge.

Boom!

The Bear Warrior’s body struck the rock and a booming sound rang out. After rolling on the ground and landing, Hyrkan immediately checked out the state of the Bear Warrior, then his own surroundings.

‘Are there more rocks?’

Although it depended on the situation, it was generally impossible to deal damage to the Bear Warrior with attacks. At least, not with Hyrkan’s current power. It wasn’t that he was completely out of ways to deal damage, but that the method he had was barely effective.

For that reason, the best tactic was to do what he had just done.

Using a large rock, cliff wall, or thick tree, the Bear Warrior had to be baited to charging.

It was easy to say, but he had to perform the action of narrowly dodging a bulldozer throttling at full speed multiple times.

Those watching would certainly be on the edge of their seats for the entire duration.

Thankfully, this wouldn’t last for much longer.

Kuoo!

The Bear Warrior had thrown away its shield.

Even while examining his surroundings, Hyrkan had never lost sight of the Bear Warrior. When he saw the Bear Warrior’s action, a light shone in his eyes.

‘A special pattern!’

Having thrown away its shield, the Bear Warrior would cease to be a warrior. Instead, it would turn into a tyrannical beast.

One that ran on its fours!

One that moved only by its instincts with its life at risk!

Hyrkan ran towards the rock he found. Once he did, he threw a Skeleton Fragment and summoned a Skeleton Warrior. A Blood Goblin Skeleton Warrior made its appearance. It stared fixedly at Hyrkan after being summoned, waiting for his command. Hyrkan gave it a Bone Explosive and drew a cross on its skull with his finger.

‘Good.’

Then, he picked up the Blood Goblin Skeleton Warrior and threw it amidst the grass.

Thwack!

The moment the sound of it landing rang out, Hyrkan made a similar sound with his finger.

Snap!

‘Here’s the finale.’

Kukuku!

The Bear Warrior was charging towards Hyrkan at full speed. On its fours, it was now faster than before. With the rock behind him, Hyrkan faced the Bear Warrior head on.

There was no time to even blink, much less gulp.

A few seconds afterwards…

BOOM!

With a thundering blast, the large rock shattered into pieces. The Bear Warrior’s body rolled on the ground after shattering the rock. An enormous monster measured in tons was rolling on the ground. The result was disaster itself. The trees on its path was pulled up by the roots, and the ground became a mess.

Kuooo!

The Bear Warrior got up from such a state. Its ferocity had not died down in the slightest. As if to show off its good health, it stood on its hind legs. However, it no longer had the aura it once did. Its helmet was crushed from its repeated charge, its breastplate was gone, and its back was burnt black from the Skeleton Magician’s fire. Its shoulder pads and gloves had also become rags and the armor on its lower body was dented in several places.

It was in this instant that a crudely designed sword flew to its chest like an arrow.

Stab!

The Orc Hero’s Sword.

The sword dug itself deeply into the weakened Bear Warrior. The Bear Warrior raised its head to look at the one who threw the sword.

Hyrkan, wearing his Skeleton Armor, put his hands up and shouted towards the Bear Warrior.

“COME!”

Provocation.

It was one that the Bear Warrior had no reason to refuse.

It stomped towards Hyrkan. With its sword and shield gone, it raised its hand to swipe Hyrkan down. Then it planned to bite down on him to finish him off.

In that instant…

Clack clack!

The hidden Skeleton Warrior made its appearance. The two horns on its head clearly showed that it was under the effect of Madness Helm. When the Bear Warrior noticed its presence and turned around, it was too late. The Skeleton Warrior had already flung its body towards the Bear Warrior. It flew like a bird and stung the Bear Warrior’s body like a wasp.

At the same time…

Boom!

The Bone Explosive in the Skeleton Warrior’s possession exploded.

The destructive force of the Bone Explosive was immense. It had to be. A 500 gold Bone Explosive. It was the strongest one Hyrkan had prepared, one that rivaled an attack by a level 70 magician.

Of course, that wasn’t enough. The Bear Warrior had not fallen.

Up until here, everything was as Hyrkan planned.

‘Perfect.’

While the Bear Warrior was distracted by the Bone Explosive, Hyrkan had charged towards the Bear Warrior. Now, he leaped into the air, flying towards it. He grabbed the sword in the Bear Warrior’s chest.

Stab!

The sword dug in even deeper.

Guuuuuo!

Just like that, the sword cut down on the Bear Warrior’s skin, muscle, and flesh. What adorned the Bear Warrior’s death was Hyrkan’s sword.

★★★

“I need two titles?”

“Yes, sir. Two titles related to the Bulkas Rangers are required in order to receive the scenario quest from the Bulkas Ranger captain, Maoong.”

After hearing the explanation, Hatch shook his head.

“Two titles to obtain the quest… what a pain in the ass.”

“The quickest way is to perform 10 quests that the Bulkas Rangers give and hunting 100 monsters within a day. The quest team is currently doing their best, so it should be over shortly.”

“This is why I don’t like main scenario quests. It takes 2, 3 days to do pretty much anything… hey, is there a level 100 hunting ground nearby?”

“Past the Bulkas Mountain Range is a Block Field. It hasn’t been opened yet, so I can only suggest you look elsewhere…”

The man explaining stopped when he saw Hatch waving his hand. Shaking his head, hatch gulped down the melon beer in front of him.

He was irritated.

‘Two days at the very least. If I’m slow, I could even be stuck here for four days.’

Four days was enough to level up. Using the time to complete a quest was a bitter thing to do. Of course, it would work out for the better in the future. After all, the title he would get from the quest progress would be worth more than leveling up once.

There was something else that was irritating him.

“By the way, are you sure Hahoe Mask Hyrkan is near here?”

“That, we know for sure. There’s a guild called the Apollo Guild. It seems they clashed with Hahoe Mask Hyrkan recently.”

“The hell is that?”

“It’s a guild made by some rich guy named Apollo. His characteristic would be… that he’s extremely fat.”

At his explanation, Hatch immediately thought of a person.

‘Ah, so the owner of that poor armor must have been Apollo.’

“So? Why did they clash?”

“I’m not exactly sure, but the chance is that the Apollo Guild picked a fight with him. The rumors surrounding them aren’t the greatest. Not that it’s bad… in any case, Hyrkan hasn’t left the Bulkas Mountain Range. We are sure of it. I will take care of looking for him, so you just have to show up when I do.”

Even at this, Hatch’s expression didn’t brighten up. In the end, nothing was resolved.

‘I swear, once my contract ends, I’m leaving for sure.’

Remembering the contract duration, Hatch gulped down the melon beer once again.

Hatch. His contract with the Stormhunter Guild would last until year 2050.