"I’m full.”
It was his mother’s words. His mother, who raised him alone in a cold and foreign land. She went hungry everyday, causing the skin of her belly to go taunt. But she took care of her son’s three meals a day without fail. She endured countless suffering that Kraugel couldn’t even fathom.
Just.
He wanted to repay the grace his mother showed when she raised him. But the heavens didn’t allow it. It taunted his mother, as if she was born to be unhappy.
***
After the 14th day of the National Competition, the players were given two days of rest.
It was a type of maintenance period. The players began their preparations for the remaining five events. There were some who obtained new items and raised their levels, some who cleared quests with high rewards, or some who raised their control skills with spars.
Kraugel was one of them. He entered a dungeon that other players would find difficult alone and hunted monsters. He gained experience as the talk with the doctor passed through his mind.
-Your mother’s symptoms are becoming worse.If she doesn’t receive the new medicine...
During the National Competition, Kraugel was forced to hospitalize his mother and constantly kept in contact with her doctor. And the news that was delivered every day was unfortunate. There were physical complications and his mother might only have a few years left.
"...”
The only new medicine that could cure Alzheimer’s. Kraugel needed to lead Russia to victory to obtain it. He discarded his pride and conscience and agreed to a dirty deal. At the time of the siege. Kraugel couldn’t refuse Lauel’s suggestion to join Overgeared in exchange for Lauel ‘conceding’ the game.
But the current flow wasn’t ideal. Judging by the five events remaining and the list of participants, Russia was unlikely to win. Russia could only aim at the gold medal in PvP, while the US was in a position to win gold medals in the boss raid and blacksmith production event.
Unless there was a special incident, the winner was likely to be the United States.
‘There’s hope if another country wins the boss raid or blacksmith event, but...’
Zibal’s ability in boss raids was unrivalled, while Panmir was the best blacksmith after Grid. In addition, Grid declared that he wouldn’t participate in the blacksmithing event. It was natural that the US would win gold medals in these two events.
Had Heaven forsaken his mother?
Kraugel’s feeling of despair deepened.
***
The Overgeared members knew about Grid’s ability in raids. In particular, Peak Sword had witnessed Grid raiding Hell Gao. After that, there was Vampire Earl Elfin Stone and Vampire Viscount Tiramet... Grid had defeated many named bosses.
But Zibal was more than that. There were rumors that the number of named boss monsters raided by Zibal was approaching 20. Debirion’s Envoy had a passive skill that dealt addition damage to monsters as well as various active skills. Zibal was a real specialist in raids.
“God Grid! Let’s aim for a silver medal!"
Grid watched Zibal’s raid videos. Peak Sword guessed he was nervous and energetically shouted. ‘Incompetent Peak Sword’ had failed to win a medal during the National Competition, so he could only keep up Grid’s morale.
Ttiring~
As they were watching Zibal’s videos against boss monsters and trying to analyze his raid skills more deeply, the phones of Grid and the Korean representatives rang at the same time. It was an announcement delivered to all National Competition participants by the organizers.
[The information of the raid monster has been released. For more information, please check the TV or the Internet.]
Grid confirmed the message and terminated the footage being played, turning the channel to Satisfy’s news station. The middle aged anchor was delivering the hot news that was just received.
『 The information about the boss monsters to be raided by 32 countries has been released. Let’s take a look. 』
The life of breaking news was fast. The anchor moved quickly in case he lost viewers to other stations and the information of the boss monster flashed on the screen.
[Drake]
Level: 420
A flying monster with a small amount of dragon’s blood.
Their intelligence is greatly reduced compared to wyverns, but their combat power and power of the breath is overwhelmingly superior!
They have high status resistance, extreme resistance to physical attacks, resistance to magic attacks, relatively high stamina, and can stay in the air infinitely.
Drop items: Drake’s heart, drake leather, drake’s fang, drake’s bone.
『 Drakes are a senior monster that have never been raided once. It means a strategy hasn’t been revealed yet. 』
『 Doesn’t that mean all teams are in an equal position when starting? 』
『 That’s right. It seems like the organizations have considered equality. 』
『 However, the players will be feeling desperate. In order to hunt flying monsters, ranged damage dealers and magicians are needed. How many ranged damage dealers and magicians are capable of damaging a drake? 』
『 Blocking the flying ability is the key to the raid. But how can they block it when the monster has status resistance...? 』
『 Since it’s a level 400 monster, they need to be at least at the third advancement to do damage. I wonder how many countries can succeed in the raid. 』
“How do we defeat that?”
"Won’t the US also find it hard?”
The South Korean representatives were sulking. Yura and Peak Sword’s expression was also bad. Only seven people were going against a flying boss monster, and South Korea only had Grid and Peak Sword above level 300. Everyone judged that the raid was impossible and felt despair.
“I’ll be in the capsule room for the next two days.”
Grid rose from his seat.
"Yes, let’s go hunting. I should gain at least one more level.”
Peak Sword got up along with Grid. It was impossible to think up a strategy to defeat this boss monster. The South Korean representatives were tired and judged it was better to give up early and prepare for other events. It was the same for the representatives gathered in other spaces.
Only the United States, Russia, Canada, and France were seriously concerned about a strategy against the drake.
***
The National Competition’s 17th day.
The last team event, the boss raid would take place. The interest of the world was hot.
A drake. People were excited about the chance to indirectly experience the power of boss monsters that were difficult to meet. The players were motivated, unlike how they were originally. The organizers announced that the teams would keep the items dropped by the drakes.
It was an extreme measure because they were worried that the unmotivated attitude of the participants would interfere with their performance in the event. The result was commendable. The representatives who grumbled ‘How can we catch a drake?’ and planned to drop out early became motivated. They needed to succeed in the raid in order to get the items that the drake would drop.
It was the same with the Korean representatives. The materials dropped by the drake were incomparable to the materials distributed in Satisfy so far. It was a profit even if it was shared between seven people.
“God Grid! Let’s do our best! Even if we can’t win the medal, we must fight to the end and make sure the drake dies!”
Peak Sword shouted with tension. Meanwhile, Grid was still calm. His attitude made Yura uneasy.
‘Why?’
Grid was promised a large amount of money from the Comet Group and raised his value of a Satisfy gamer. Despite feeling proud and pleased with himself, he somehow felt bad since he signed with the Comet Group. She wondered if he had some worries that she didn’t know about?
Regardless of Yura’s concern, the competition’s schedule proceeded.
『 All participants should go to the capsule room! 』
The 244 participants from 32 countries moved to the capsules assigned to them and logged into Satisfy. The countries appeared in different maps, but a drake appeared in front of all of them and roared.
Kurarararara!
[The dragon’s blood deals fear to all subordinates!]
[You will be in a rigid state for 10 seconds.]
[All buffs are deactivated, with defense and resistance reduced by 50%. You will step back from the enemy.]
[You have temporarily lost your hearing from the drake’s roar!]
[All types of conversations will be blocked for 1 minute and 30 seconds!]
[Your body has been suppressed by the gust from the drake’s wings!]
[As long as the drake’s wings continue to flap, all speeds will drop by 30%!]
Depending on the level and resistance of each player, the duration of the debuff was different. In any case, all the players of each country suffered. In particular, the players who pre-used buff skills lost them before they could even enjoy the effect.
‘The command system has collapsed.!’
The United States was also overwhelmed. The drake’s roar had the effect of blocking all types of conversations. This was a problem because no matter what they said, the contents wasn’t communicated to their colleagues. An unknown enemy, the drake.
Zibal quickly understood thanks to his numerous raid experience, but it was useless because he couldn’t communicate with his team members.
“Kuak!”
“Ugh...!”
The drake, which was over 5m in length, moved at a speed that wasn’t suitable for its huge size. It started devastate the US team, making the world feel shock.
『 The strongest US team is trampled on so easily...! Strong! The drake is really strong! 』
『 The 30% slowness effect is deadly. Even Kraugel was hit. First of all, the strategy is to stop those wings... 』
『 Ah! As soon as you spoke, Bondre of France used ice magic and froze one of the drake’s wings! 』
『 ...But it was broken in an instant. Its resistance to magic is ridiculously high. 』
The moment that the atmosphere became serious.
“Eh? Comet’s new capsule is so much better than the performance of other capsules! I can move smoothly! Hey! It’s amazing!”
The Korean Grid started speaking loudly. The attention of the commentators and viewers focused on him. On the upper chest of Grid’s Triple Layers, the logo of the Comet Group could be seen. Yura blushed as she looked at Grid and realized.
Grid had been uncomfortable the last few days because he was embarrassed at the thought of speaking such words.
"...”
Yura looked at Grid while the viewers resented Grid’s obvious PPL (product placement) because it broke the immersion. Grid was being blamed for being a monster created by the age of materialism. Fortunately, the voices of the viewers didn’t reach Grid.
Grid wasn’t shaken and could concentrate on the raid. He took out a pole that was 3m long and had a diameter of 80cm, inserting it deep into the group. Then he threw the trident attached to the pile by a rope towards the drake. It was the Spear Shot skill that he obtained from the Behen Archipelago.
Puok!
The trident pierced the drake’s leather and it tried to fly away. But the rope connected to the pole pulled it tightly and the drake’s flight was blocked. That’s right. Once again, it was the power of items. During the past two resting days, Grid had devised items that could neutralize the strength of flying monsters.
He came up with several of them. Grid pulled out new items.
TL Note: From now on, all previous mentions of drakes will be changed to wyverns. So Huroi’s pet and the pets used during the pet marathon are wyverns, not drakes.