Chapter 42: Rock Giant

While everyone thought they were doomed and that an hour of their hard leveling would be lost just like that, Yone let his dagger slip by his hand for a split second before catching it by its hilt.

’It’s way bigger indeed, but the strategy should be the same.’ Taking a deep breath, Yone gathered all of his strength into his shoulder and threw his dagger right at the middle of the gigantic rock.

Futile attempt…futile attempt!

The party despaired at the sight of Requiem throwing his dagger at the building like a rock above their heads, their hearts having already accepted their fate as they anticipated the dagger would simply bounce back.

Contrary to their thoughts, however, the moment the tip of the dagger’s blade hit the middle of the rock, the entire rock came to a stop, and in the blink of an eye, it turned into a brownish fog.

Everyone was shocked at the sight, but before anyone could react and praise Requiem for his quick thinking and attempt to save their lives. Another rock the size of a building was thrown in their way.

Life mental steeled at this moment, and she readied her bow and arrow to imitate Requiem’s actions,’ I can’t be fearful just because it’s Hell Mode, I need to prove my worth, or else how can I expect anyone to look at me differently?’

As she was about to release her arrow, Requiem placed his hand in front of her,” Don’t, we dodging this one.”

At his words, the party didn’t take a second longer before they sped out of the rock’s gigantic frame and avoided it just barely.

“Damnint, careful of the aftermath of the crash,” Silent Wall yelled as he picked up his shield and stood in front of everyone, expecting countless rocks to fly their way, only for him to be standing there like a statue for several seconds without any sound being heard or a rock hitting him.

“Listen up, you’re gonna be following my exact instructions from now on,” Requiem instructed as he ignored the tank’s embarrassed expression, his eyes locked onto the gigantic rocks scattered onto the barren land.

“The only difference between hard mode and hell mode is those flying rocks the size of a building, except that everything else is merely a bit more HP and attack power for monsters and bosses. If you want to live, follow what I say word for word.”

Merely a bit more HP and attack power? If it was that easy, then why even bother naming it Hell Mode and advising players not to enter it before they level and gear up?

Everyone rolled their eyes at his words, but didn’t comment and listened closely.

“Despite what I said, the dungeon isn’t as easy as you may assume. If any of you do not follow my command, you will instantly be kicked out of the party without batting an eye, understood?” Requiem’s words were firm as he darted his eyes and looked at his party’s expression.

’Seems like they are not that immature,’ He breathed a sigh of relief after seeing their serious expression and determination.

Seeing the rock the size of a building had given countless parties a heart attack in his past life. In fact, countless parties suffered and only after a week of continuous exploring on hell mode did the top guilds find out how to even surpass this barren land.

This is why Yone didn’t blame them for their cowardly act during the initial attack; he understood that Eclipse Online was nowhere near End World, and people hadn’t genuinely expressed what a life-and-death situation truly entails. They were simply inexperienced when it came to real raiding, whether in dungeons or raids.

Being lectured by Requiem and hearing his indifferent words made the whole party tense up and take this a lot more seriously than initially. They had first thought they would wipe and leave the dungeon with Requiem changing the mode to hard or normal, but seeing the way he dealt with rock-like building, everyone started building up some hope.

Maybe they could clear it.

Just maybe…

They didn’t know for sure, but they still chose to trust him.

“Listen up, the formation is easy, but under no circumstances are you allowed to break it, okay?” Seeing everyone nooding, he continued,” I’ll be walking in front with Silent Wall next to me, Rage will be walking in front of Calm Sea with Swift Slash right at his side, protecting the cleric at all costs, and Life at the end of the formation.”

The only reason Yone let Silent Wall walk next to him was because of the fact that tanking in dungeons, especially hell mode, was totally different from outside. The freedom Eclipse Online gave to players was unlike any other game; that’s true.

But in dungeons, such freedom matters less when a single hit from an elite monster takes away all your hp, and inside dungeons, one couldn’t dodge forever and had to tank a hit for his teammates, so Yone had no way of tanking all those mobs by himself.

Under Yone’s lead, everyone kept walking through the barren land, but the moment they got closer to a rock randomly placed inside of there, everyone tensed up as a huge rock-like monster rose from under it, its HP alone making everyone gasp for air.

It was merely a level 3 Elite Monster, a rock giant. However, due to the dungeon’s effects, everything was enhanced, whether it be defense, attack, or HP. With its HP reaching 1000.

“Relax, this is just a small mob.” Silent Wall, you walk up and take the agro, cleric keep your eyes on him and the moment the rock deals damage for more than three seconds and his agro is tight on him you can start healing him, Life, I want you to keep an eye on the sky and destroy any large rock’s flying our way by targeting it’s middle.”

Silent Wall exhaled slowly as he steeled his heart and walked up, with the others also controlling their fear and following Requiem’s commands.

Seeing this, Yone nodded and then looked at Rage and Swift Slash,” Rage, Swift Slash, keep an eye on the little rock monsters that will spawn around us and protect the cleric and hunter at all costs.”

They both nodded stiffly, their expressions uneasy after seeing the mob’s hp.

This was hell mode, and although the monster was merely level 3, the significance of the mode undoubtedly left that fear deeply rooted inside of them.

Yone liked everyone’s quick response to his commands and also moved up close as he stayed a meter behind the tank, waiting for the three seconds to pass so the agro does not randomly shift and he gets attacked out of nowhere.

90%…75%… The rock giant’s damage was terrifying as everyone tensed up, seeing their tanks’ hp going down by 25% in a matter of a second, their eyes locking into Requiem in hopes of giving the command to heal.

However, Yone shook his head and waited.

40%… when the tank’s hp reached a critical threshold and was about to reach the 20% range, Yone yelled,” Cleric, use Save the Day and get his hp back to full, and then cast renew on him and focus your remaining healings on the our two melee damage dealers.”

Save the Day was a spell that was used in critical moments and had a very long cooldown of ten minutes, where it could heal one’s HP to full in an instant, while Renew was a spell that gave slight heals of 20 to 40 for a seven-second duration.

“Tank, use shield wall and stand firmly on your spot,” Yone gave commands one after the other as he went into stealth and circled around the rock giant with an opener that left the whole party dumbfounded for a split second.

150!…200!…Critical Hit!…100!…

But their eyes didn’t linger on Yone for longer as four small rocks the size of a human appeared on each side, and their direction was the backline of their formation. Surprisingly, their HP was 70% lower than the rock giant, and dealing with them was only annoying, but not that hard.

Dang! Dang! Dang!

With the True Ice Dagger of reducing one’s defense by 5% and with the help of his stealth passive’s, Yone’s ate away at the Rock’s giant HP at a frightening speed, he was letting out several attacks in a matter of second and before even three seconds could pass, the mob’s HP plummeted to zero before he even thought of running, his body crumbling into smaller rocks and two items were left at his spot.

A lucky player? Truly ridiculous statements.

/// Is pacing fine for the dungeon, or should it be a bit faster? this is very important to know. Also, spend those Power Stones in here, they truly give me a huge boost of will to write even more Chapters! And check the author’s note for goals! ///

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep