Chapter 251 - Episode 251: Atraxthes, The Keeper Of Time. (2)

We are looking at Atraxthes standing in front of his throne, Kingstar leans his head toward us.

"Don't you guys think that there are so many things that are wrong with the information that we got about his status?"

Liu is staring at Atraxthes' status screen and he raises his eyebrows.

"The fact that his level is 1.500 isn't that the same as Sulrk?"

I look at him and tilt my head.

"Well, Sulrk's level is followed by the phases, and 1.500 is when Sulrk is at the Thunderstorm phase which is the hardest phase, while Atraxthes is at the sunny phase which we all can agree on is the easiest phase of the total of 3 phases. The book that I got said that there are 3 phases in this dungeon, the first one is the Sunny phase, the second one is the Shady phase, and the third is the Sandstorm phase."

Liu looks at me and opens his mouth with surprises.

"Oh... so this dungeon has 3 phases as well? Well, that's enough to remind ourselves that we are too early for this dungeon don't you guys think?"

Kingstar is nodding in agreement.

"Yeah, I think we shouldn't try to go for the next phase since we barely survive the easiest phase and I don't want to think what kind of handicap will await us in the Shady and Sandstorm phases. For now, let's just focus on clearing this stage, yeah?"

Cho Ahn is humming with confusion.

"His level is high enough but his health is only 100.000 and his ATK is 0? Something is fishy here and I don't like it already."

Lothair is walking toward the barrier that is preventing the players and Atraxthes from attacking each other since we are still in a preparation phase. He looks around and sees the pillars around Atraxthes and the half pyramid where his throne is built on top of it, Lothair keeps staring at those things and doesn't say anything. Diamond approaches him and puts his hand on Lothair's shoulder.

"What are you thinking about?"

Lothair looks at Diamond and then points his finger at the pillars and the half pyramid.

"He's standing in the high ground, and to reach on top of that pyramid will take a while from where we are at right now. Do you think that his low health has something to do with this terrain? Maybe there's something that might prevent us from getting close with him?"

We are all walking toward Lothair and look at the half pyramid. Diamond shrugs and shakes his head while looking at the pyramid.

"Well, I'm not sure but we will find it out later. Right now we need a plan on how to defeat this guy because this is the longest raid that I have ever experienced and I want to get out of this place as soon as possible. I'm sick of this place."

Kingstar looks at the players and starts to make the plan with the Ophiuchus, they're all voicing their opinions on the strategy that they're going to us. In the end, they all agree to lead each faction while Ivonna is going to be the strategist that will look over each faction. Kingstar and the Aarus Empire's faction will be approaching Atraxthes from the front, Diamond and the Eluna Empire's faction will be approaching Atraxthes from the left side, lastly, Sigryd and the Alliance Kingdoms' faction will be approaching Atraxthes from the right side.

The three of them start briefing with the players from each faction, Ivonna is standing in front of the barrier while staring at Atraxthes. I approach her and look at her, she turns her head to look at me, she smiles and sighs.

"What do you think of our plan?"

I smile and nod.

"It's okay, you don't have to worry about it."

Michael and the others are approaching us and they're all standing behind us. I turn around and look at them.

"I know that you guys want some kind of insurance if the plan failed by asking me for information of this last stage, but I don't want to give it all to you because that ruins the fun. Still, I'm not going to let this raid fail after what you all have been through for the past few days, so I'm going to tell you something important, and listen to me carefully."

All of them are getting closer to me and lean their heads forward. I look at them and point at Atraxthes.

"Remember, this dungeon isn't about fighting monsters, you can tell just by the look of Atraxthes's status screen that he's too weak for a boss monster and that means you have to do something during the battle and I want all of your eyes to pay any attention to details of this map."

They all nod with understanding, then Ivonna looks at Hans and Leo.

"It seems that this job is perfect for both of you."

Hans and Leo look at each other and cross each other's forearm, then Leo looks at Ivonna and nods.

"Leave it to us, we are good at gathering information."

Ivonna nods and then she looks at Chelsea and Emma.

"Chessi, Emma, I need you to stay by my side because if something unexpected happens, I need you to be my DPS with Francesca and at the same time to protect Grisell as always. Mike and William, you can go with Alessandro and Sigryd and report me when there's something out of the ordinary is happening."

The five of them nod with understanding. Michael and William are joining Alessandro and Sigryd while Emma and Chelsea are standing next to Grisell who's busy eating her snack as always. Ivonna then looks at me.

"For you, I don't think I have to give you any order. You can do whatever you want because I know that you always do your best."

Francesca is clearing her throat.

"Okay, lover. Get a room already."

We both look at Francesca, she smiles and runs away. We shake our heads while chuckling, then Kingstar and Diamond are approaching us. Kingstar is pointing at me while looking at Ivonna.

"What's he going to do?"

Ivonna looks at me and she shakes her head.

"He will do what he always does."

Kingstar is furrowing his forehead but then shrugs.

"I don't know what's that means but somehow it's reassuring me."

Kingstar looks around and claps his hands.

"It's almost time, get ready, all of you."

We all nod and then Kingstar and Diamond leave to their own team.

The barrier disappears and a notification appears

[The boss battle now begins!]

[May the Betelgeuse bless you!]

Kingstar, Diamond, Sigryd, and the players from each faction are walking toward the pyramid where Atraxthes is at. The distance between us and him is about 500 meters and the pyramid itself is 100 meters tall, so it will take a while for them to reach Atraxthes. Diamond and Sigryd are separating from the group and move their separate ways, they all look so nervous because Atraxthes hasn't made a move nor used anything to attack them, he's only glaring at all of us while holding an hourglass and his spear.

We are following Kingstar from far behind, Hans and Leo are looking around and looking for something, and as soon as we are passing the pillars Hans and Leo are pointing at one of the pillars, Leo looks at Ivonna.

"Ivonna, look."

We are all looking at the pillar that he's pointing at, there's a symbol of a sun on top of the pillar, then Hans is pointing at another pillar, we look at the pillar he's pointing at and there's a symbol of a moon. We are all looking at the other 4 pillars and they have different symbols on them, stars, hourglass, pyramid, and the last one is a sea but then they realize that it's not a sea but a sea of sand because all of the symbols are representing all the elements in this area.

While they're busy looking at the symbols, Kingstar raises his sword and yells.

"Halt!"

Everyone's eyes are looking at Kingstar, but then they all look at Atraxthes that is trying to stand up from his throne. Atraxthess lifts his spear and slams it to the ground and the impact of his spear is echoing through the whole area. A semi-transparent blue wall is forming around the pyramid and everyone is looking at it in silence, then Atraxthes lifts his hourglass then flips it down.

Atraxthes is smiling sinisterly and looks at us.

"I, the Keeper of Time have seen the past, the present, and the future..."

Atraxthes is pointing his spear at us and then lifts his spear up to the hole above him.

"Soul of the damned! Come forth!"

One by one a cursed soul appears from under the sand, a total of hundreds of thousands of cursed soul appears. It's not even the thing that surprises everyone, the thing that surprises them is that the cursed souls are the players that didn't survive the dungeon. We see Teke Teke, Gunther, and the other commanders that didn't survive become our enemies.

Kingstar is stretching his arms.

"So we are going to fight our fallen brothers and sisters, this is interesting...."