Chapter 103
103. At the Very End
While preparing for this World Raid, I revealed some of my stats to the challengers on the community forum.
At the same time, I learned some of the stats of the rankers I was being compared to.
As I'd guessed, my current stats were clearly superior to those of the low-floor rankers staying on the 25th floor.
Of course, as a Normal-class player, I was at a disadvantage when it came to things like the variety of my active skills.
There was exactly one area in which I was overwhelmingly superior in terms of my overall stats.
Resistance skills.
The [Greater Magic Resistance] and [Spell Resistance] skills I'd acquired relatively recently weren't anything special.
But skills like [Fire Resistance] and [Poison Resistance], which I'd obtained early on and steadily developed, had virtually no equal among the people I was being compared to.
I'd heard that even among the top-tier rankers staying above the 75th floor, hardly any possessed resistance levels this high.
Apparently, there were a few rare rankers whose resistances were comparable to or higher than mine.
But even they didn't seem to possess as wide a variety of resistances as evenly distributed as mine.
Therefore, it wasn't strange that the snake-dragon, which currently used fire as its main weapon, couldn't deal any effective damage to me.
-Kkwajik!
The battle hammer I brought down with all my strength crushed one of the snake-dragon's cumbersome arms.
“Graaagh! You bastard!”
Having literally lost an appendage it had merely tacked on, the snake-dragon screamed in an ugly voice.
Perhaps the cry itself had a magical effect, because the wounds all over its body began to throb before flames sprang from them.
Mercedes and the corps commander, who had been fighting at the very front with me, were engulfed in flames as well.
But no flames sprang from Eleanor, who had been fighting from the rear as a mage.
Apparently, only wounds inflicted by that sword or the branches growing from its body ignited. When you thought about it, this was a truly shameless pattern.
The flames weren't all that powerful, but wasn't this an area-of-effect pattern that couldn't be evaded and dealt damage in proportion to the damage it had inflicted?
If I hadn't had Fire Resistance, even an endless stream of curses about how unfair it was wouldn't have been enough.
“Done showing off?”
I slapped out the flames sprouting from my wounds and charged at the snake-dragon with my weapon in hand again.
The snake-dragon panicked and thrust out branches wildly, but the number of branches it could extend had dropped considerably from before.
Its burning body was shrinking as well, and now it no longer even looked worthy of the grand name World Boss.
-Puhk!
A long spear pierced the snake-dragon's body, and it writhed its enormous form in pain once again.
It couldn't even properly struggle to evade anymore. Then again, I'd been beating it one-sidedly for quite some time.
I'd already countered all the patterns it had displayed in desperation, and it didn't seem to have enough strength left to rampage around.
“Let's finish this, you disgusting bastard.”
I signaled to the three people behind me. The two besides Eleanor charged in alongside me.
Mercedes had greater attack power per strike than I did, while the human corps commander's attack speed was faster.
Compared to those two top-tier NPCs, I was inferior in both my level of Mana Reinforcement and my basic stats.
-Shuruuk!
But with Eleanor's support magic—the black shadow winding around my body—things were different.
-Fwoooosh! Boom!
The blast of scorching heat pushed the two charging alongside me back, but I wasn't stopped because I could withstand the flames.
The snake-dragon poured every burning branch it had toward me.
Judging from its appearance and attitude, this was probably its final struggle.
I took the attack, which was difficult to evade, with my body and counterthrust the snake-dragon's reverse scale, which I'd had such a hard time finding.
-Puhak!
A critical effect burst in red light, while red blood gushed from my body where the branches had pierced it.
The HP bar that had reached the bottom several times today was shaved down to a precarious point once again.
Ignoring my dying body, I repeatedly stabbed the snake-dragon's reverse scale.
-Kkwak-kkwak-kkwak-kkwak-kkwak!
Every thrust triggered a critical hit, and the snake-dragon's attacks pierced straight through my body, but—
After repeating that desperate exchange several times, the one that collapsed was—not me, but the blazing snake.
“Aaaaaaaah!”
-Thud!
It fell. Dust scattered, and a series of notification windows appeared before my eyes.
[WORLD BOSS - You have defeated the World-Devouring Snake-Dragon, Nidgrak'svarfvalnir!]
[Everyone will praise the raid party that accomplished a great feat!]
[Raid roster: Seo Jinhyuk (1 member)]
[Rewards will be granted to all raid members who participated in the raid.]
The number of notifications scrolling upward was enormous. There were so many that it was difficult to read them all one by one.
Even after receiving rewards this substantial, I felt neither the exhilaration of growth nor any sense of accomplishment.
Clearing the World Boss meant that the goodbye I'd finally chosen after wavering so many times had arrived.
“Anyway... we won.”
I stepped on the fallen snake-dragon's head and quietly declared our victory.
“So this really is goodbye, then.”
Eleanor, standing a step away, looked at me, said that, and smiled bitterly.
**
I shut off all the reward notifications that had popped up noisily and approached Eleanor.
“Since we defeated that thing, the quest should be over now, but I don't know at what point your consciousness will disappear.”
Eleanor smiled faintly and made light of it with a joke. She looked much more relieved than she had right before the raid began.
“Once you claim the reward, that's where it ends. The reward's already entered your inventory, so it should happen soon.”
“Hmm, so they'll give us enough time to say goodbye one last time. I don't seem to have become an empty shell yet.”
“I don't know exactly either. You saw it in my memories, too. It's not something that happens often.”
Mercedes and the corps commander couldn't understand what we were talking about. They were both NPCs, after all.
“But if it's a farewell, haven't we already said enough goodbyes?”
“I wonder if we can really call that a farewell.”
Leaving the two of them to react to the snake-dragon's corpse in their own ways, we talked a short distance away from them.
“There are still so many things I want to tell you, but I haven't sorted them out yet... I don't think I have the confidence to properly put them into words.”
Eleanor sank down where she stood and sighed.
“If the conversation gets cut off halfway through, it will obviously cause misunderstandings—maybe it's better not to say anything.”
I felt the same way. If I suddenly turned into an empty shell in the middle of an awkward conversation, the shock would be tremendous.
After exchanging a few words, we agreed not to say separate goodbyes.
Since we didn't know when the change into an empty shell would happen, we also agreed to act naturally so that it wouldn't feel strange when it did.
“We should sound the victory fanfare and deal with the damage. You can leave in the meantime—or enjoy your victory.”
If I went by my inclination, I'd leave immediately—no, if I stuck to the decision I'd made, I should leave right away. If my condition had been just a little better, I would have left this very moment.
Apparently, even my regeneration had its limits. After surviving near-death several times in a row, my recovery had slowed.
It might have been because of the backlash from repeatedly using Mana Reinforcement in this condition. The pendant was in bad shape too.
-Clatter.
The pendant that had allowed me to use Mana Reinforcement had been completely ruined during the fierce battle.
It wasn't merely that its durability had decreased; it seemed to have been classified as destroyed outright, because its item name and category had changed entirely.
I'd obtained a great deal from the World Raid rewards, but I'd still lost the most important item—the Mana Reinforcement pendant.
Once I considered the items and gold I'd spent and ran the numbers, I might have ultimately come out at a loss.
Though I couldn't quantify everything I'd lost.
**
I rested for exactly one full day after that, then went looking for the maze area so I could climb to the next floor.
The maze area itself had vanished in the World Boss raid, but the floor transfer gate leading to the next floor was still here.
The Epic Quest reward hadn't been issued yet. It had been marked complete, but apparently they were still calculating its rank.
Once the ranking was finished, the reward would automatically be added, so there shouldn't be any problem with moving up to the next floor.
Since I hadn't received the reward yet, Eleanor probably hadn't turned into an empty shell.
I didn't want to leave some lingering regret by saying goodbye separately for no reason. That was why I'd come out here alone.
“Well, I got a rough look at how everyone ended up...”
Even so, over the past day, I'd been able to watch from a distance what could be called the aftermath.
Eleanor said she needed to learn more about the World Tree, so she decided to take the defeated snake-dragon's corpse and begin researching it.
Mercedes made a grave for the prince and said that afterward, she would try, however clumsily, to lead the remaining high elves.
I didn't really have a chance to speak separately with the Kingdom Army, but the corps commander offered me a position and left.
He said that if I had nowhere to go, I could come to the kingdom anytime, and that someone as skilled as me would always be welcome.
Of course, I wouldn't be returning to the 9th floor.
No matter how difficult or painful things became, I'd sworn to keep moving forward without stopping. I couldn't turn back.
I would leave with at least a little pride in having protected this world—and think back on it from time to time whenever things became painful.
No, no. Pride? There was no way I had any right to feel something like that. Forget it.
[Activate the floor transfer gate?]
I immediately activated the transfer gate to proceed to the 10th floor, and—
-Boom!
At that moment, a tremendous boom erupted in the distance and shook the sky.
Then I sensed a wave of explosive power through Mana Detection. It was coming from the direction of the Dark Elf fortress.
What the hell was this? I'd already cleared the Epic Quest. After going this far, it still wasn't over?
I could ignore it. The floor transfer gate was still functioning. The quest was over anyway.
But by the time I came to my senses, I was already running toward the dark elf village.
“Hey, what is this—what the hell is all this? Seriously, you've got to be kidding me.”
What greeted me there was Eleanor, her abdomen pierced by an unidentified black spike.