Translator: Kurehas.h.i.+ Aiko
Editor: ryunakama
Chapter 54: Momentary Thoughts Part 2 Part 1
「Long story short, "The Gravekeeper Wezaemon" is a secret Unique Monster Boss that Ashurkai managed to discover last winter. Ever since then we"ve been using him to measure the strength and potential of new members.」
You can obtain EXP just by having encountered the Unique Monster, no need to defeat it first. Certainly, if you are able to keep such monster"s location a secret and successfully occupy it, you would no longer even need to go monster hunting for EXP. That is, if the monster in question was not a random encounter, like Luukan. And looking at the members of Ashurkai, this strategy was proving itself to be very efficient so far.
「But you"d have to go out of your way to conceal that Boss from other players, or prevent some randoms from encountering it…… isn"t that too much work for what it"s worth?」
「Well, you do have a point here.」
「Not to mention that doing something like that kinda defies the reason for playing MMOs in general.」
It was kind of like playing a demo version of the game without unlocking the full content. I mean, technically it"s not bad, and if someone wanted to do it, then they by all means could do it, but what was the point? If you can do something, then you should definitely try to do it.
「So we are going to infiltrate the area controlled by Ashurkai, sneak into the boss chamber and take it down. Now, let"s talk about our general strategy.」
Pencilgton sends us copies of the "Player Books". It was an item that was kinda like a blank booklet where players could write whatever the h.e.l.l they wanted. Inside the books, there seems to be a well-thought strategy written down to a point.
The Unique Monster "Gravekeeper Wezaemon" is a humanoid boss-type monster that can be encountered during the Unique Quest EX: "From Far Away With Love".
This unique quest can only be activated if you talk to the unique NPC "Setsuna of the Distant Days" that appears in the hidden part of the area "Hidden Flower Garden". You must do it without any weapons equipped and on the night of the full moon.
「Fumu……」
「What"s wrong? If you have any questions, I will try to answer them to the best of my ability. 」
「No, it"s just that this story……」
Unique Quest EX, huh…… So does that mean it is directly related to the Unique Monster in question? Then what about my Unique Quest…… No, best not to think about it too much for now.
「To start the quest, visit the "Hidden Flower Garden" on the night of the full moon. Then, the further path shall reveal itself to you.」
「I"ve never really done any Unique Quests yet, so please tell me, are they crazy difficult or what?」
「Hmm, I wonder, Set-chan…… I mean, the NPC thinks it will be a difficult fight, so if we are to treat it like a flag of sorts, it surely seems that way.」
「Then I guess on the next pages we are going to find Wezaemon"s attack patterns and general strategies?」
"At the beginning of the battle, the "Gravekeeper Wezaemon" activates the skill that raises all of his stats for the duration of the battle depending on the number of enemies he is facing. At the same time, the players need to fight him with their stats being lowered significantly.
At the same time, since the level is being lowered, every skill point a.s.signed between levels fifty one to ninety nine becomes nullified.
This effect also applies to the NPCs, so going into the fight together with high-level NPCs as help becomes utterly meaningless."
Now wait just a G.o.d d.a.m.ned moment.
「It can interfere with both levels and statuses? And it says here that it only lasts for the duration of the battle…… But wouldn"t that make the fight impossible to clear? Since this is a Unique Monster its level should exceed one hundred, right?」
「Some skilled players and programmers did some digging and apparently its level oscillates around two hundred or so. Even the most G.o.dly of players and cheaters combined wouldn"t be able to best him normally. So maybe there are some special victory conditions.」
Having a boss beat you in levels almost four times was already quite bad, but lowering your own stats while being at it was going a little overboard. But special victory conditions…… It was a whole different story if the victory conditions were other than reducing the enemy"s HP to zero. There were also special conditions when it comes to losing the battle, but I don"t think that they will apply to a battle with a Unique Monster.
Possible options here would entail: "finding or destroying a specific object on the battle arena", "the pa.s.sage of time", "surviving a peculiar attack", and rarely "persuading the boss to stop attacking".
「I see why the levels doesn"t matter as much in this fight.」
「I mean you technically can bring people with high levels, but they are going to serve as meat s.h.i.+elds at best.」
No, you shouldn"t really underestimate the role of a meat s.h.i.+eld…… I mean, a tank in a team. However, when the difference in levels would be as big as one hundred and fifty levels, the difference between a tank and a fighter would be minimal.
「By the way, what are your thoughts on the victory conditions?」
「For the time being I managed to confirm that there are no items to be broken on the battle arena, so that option is very unlikely here. I"d wager on pa.s.sage of time, but I cannot be one hundred percent sure.」
「Fumu…… Oh, the battle patterns? How thoughtful of you to put them here.」
Says Katsu, knowing full well that knowing the attack patterns of your opponent can make a difference between victory and defeat. He once even told me that knowing the number of frames on the attacks of the opponents would be really nice, but it was overdoing it and was taking a lot of the fun out of the battle itself. But apparently Pencilgton was going to put everything into this one single attempt.
「Most of the time he attacks with his sword, but can also carry out physical punches. But more often than not he is going to go for a sword attack.」