Chapter 7

Chapter 7

Do-hyeon closed his eyes for a moment.

As he took a slow, deep breath and focused, the moment he opened his eyes, the world looked different from just a moment ago.

His vision cleared, the background noise faded, and the monster became more distinct.

He could clearly see the darkness rippling over the scales that covered its body like fur, and even the slight twitching of its fingers.

“.......”

It was as if even his breathing had stopped, leaving an eerie silence.

This was a phenomenon that occurred whenever Do-hyeon concentrated to the extreme.

With a cool head, he began to assess his physical condition objectively.

‘I’m in good shape.’

Perhaps it was because it had been a while since he last played a game?

He didn’t think he had ever been this clear-headed before, but today, his focus felt sharper than usual.

Kraaaaaah!!

Perhaps the monster had sensed something unusual from Do-hyeon.

It began to roar even more violently.

For a named boss, it seemed to have lost all reason, reacting purely on instinct.

Hup!

Do-hyeon moved first.

There was no time for any testing moves; he dashed forward, and the monster immediately reacted.

Of course, its response was quick, but its speed was slow.

However...

Boom!

Due to its enormous size, its arms covered an absurdly wide area.

It was a simple movement, just extending its arm, but that alone was enough to make Do-hyeon throw himself with all his strength to avoid it.

[Basic skill ‘Strike’ activated.]

Tick!

As he rolled and slashed at the arm, it made a sound like metal being struck.

The entire sequence flowed seamlessly, as if it were a single, fluid motion.

Kraaaah!

The monster roared, swinging its massive arms alternately.

Do-hyeon rolled in the opposite direction, dodging with all his might, then swung his sword again.

The impact felt like hitting metal with a plastic sword. After retreating out of its range, Do-hyeon checked the monster’s reduced health.

-HP: [999,880 / ???]

‘...120.’

That was the total HP decrease after two attacks.

And one of those had been with the Strike skill.

‘Using Strike reduces HP by 80, while a normal attack reduces it by 40.’

Considering the cooldown of Strike was 12 seconds, it would take around 20,000 slashes to defeat the monster.

Even if he tried to hit it repeatedly, his speed was reduced by the debuff, so at most, he could only strike twice.

Meanwhile, if Do-hyeon took a single hit, he would die.

He hadn’t been hit yet, but he was certain of this.

-HP: [200 / 200]

There was no way a weak level 1 character like him could survive such an overwhelming attack.

He had to dodge at least 10,000 attacks and land 20,000 of his own.

And all this while slowed by the debuff.

To survive, he would need to evade every attack with full concentration.

At the same time, he would need to force in attacks, and the moment he lost focus and failed to roll out of the way in time, it would all be over.

‘...This is an insanely difficult challenge.’

Was this really intended to be cleared as a hidden piece?

They said God of Savior was managed by an AI rather than humans, but this was so difficult that it made him wonder if the AI couldn’t understand human standards.

But in the face of such a seemingly impossible challenge, Do-hyeon laughed.

‘This is fun.’

The reason Do-hyeon had continued playing DemRock, despite all the frustrations of the luck-based game, was simple.

The incredibly high level of difficulty.

And the sense of achievement that came from overcoming that difficulty.

It was just too much fun.

“Can you kill the tutorial boss? Are you crazy?”

“There’s no way. That thing isn’t meant to be killed.”

“Don’t even mention Ironblood Dragon or whatever it’s called. Just thinking about it gives me chills.”

For some reason, they hated the tutorial boss more than even the regular players.

Even when asked about the reason for their disdain, they wouldn’t answer directly, leaving other players to guess that it was somehow related to maxing out Charlie’s affinity.

“...Ironblood Dragon, was it? It doesn’t bring back pleasant memories.”

Even Myeolsal, one of the most famous players, was among them.

Though his answer was vague, seeing someone usually so confident hesitate left a huge impression, and players ultimately accepted the idea.

***

[The tutorial boss isn’t designed to be defeated.]

[It’s just an event to show players that such a monster exists.]

The tutorial boss, the Ironblood Dragon.

It was never meant to be killed.

[Isn’t it possible to kill the tutorial boss? I mean, I did manage to deal damage.]

-Yeah, no. Even Myeolsal couldn’t kill it.

-They probably just made it so you can damage it for the sake of realism.

-Wow, you actually thought to hit it. I just stood there and let it kill me.

Sometimes, new players who didn’t know better would ask whether it was possible to kill the boss, noticing that they could deal damage to it. And every time, the veteran players would give the same answer: ‘impossible.’

[Wait? What? Its name changed?]

-??

-What are you talking about?

-No, it was supposed to be Ironblood Dragon, but now it says Slothful Dragon instead.

-?? Whoa? What? For real?

-Can its name change?

However, today, for the first time since the game’s release, this established belief cracked.

-Why did its name change on its own?

-Is it a bug?

-How could it be a bug? God of Savior’s AI is leagues ahead of anything like Algogo.

-Then what is it? Did someone kill it?

-No way... seriously?

After all, the tutorial boss, which had remained unchanged since launch, had shown its first sign of transformation.

Some speculated that this meant the boss had finally been defeated after 18 months.

But that theory was quickly dismissed.

-No way... There’s no way.

-How would a level 1 even manage that?

-Myeolsal couldn’t kill it, and now, someone has? Who?

-If someone had killed it, there would’ve been a video by now.

-There’s no proof it’s been defeated. And even if it’s a named boss, aside from the name change, everything else looks the same, right?

It was simply too unbelievable.

Even if someone showed actual evidence, it would be dismissed as a hoax.

In a situation with no proof at all, the theory had no credibility.

“The tutorial boss’s name changed?”

“...It’s an error.”

“They do update the game regularly... There was an update today, so maybe that’s the cause.”

“They killed it? That’s impossible. Well, maybe if Kaiser brought his old party back.”

“What about Kaiser? Didn’t you hear me? He’d need his entire party to do it. Kaiser or not, ‘that thing’ can’t be killed solo.”

Even high-rankers who had maxed out Charlie’s affinity dismissed the idea, leaving no room for rebuttal.

Myeolsal remained silent on the matter, but since he didn’t deny it, and so many top players felt the same way, ordinary users had no choice but to accept it as fact.

Still, there was some lingering curiosity.

-But if you did manage to kill it, what kind of reward would you get?

-This game has some insane difficulty spikes, but... every time, the rewards are always worth it, aren’t they?

-True, whenever I think God of Savior is just pure RNG hell, they give out amazing rewards, and I end up calling it a masterpiece again.

If someone did somehow manage to defeat that ridiculous boss... what would they get in return?

-Who knows. But whatever it is, it would probably be the greatest reward in the history of God of Savior.

Of course, it was all just speculation, and the players soon dismissed it as a joke.

Which is why none of them could have imagined.

That what they thought was an outlandish fantasy... was actually happening.