374 - Searching for the Power Measurer 4
374 - Searching for the Power Measurer 4
374 - Searching for the Power Measurer 4
TL/Editor: raei
Schedule: 5/week
Illustrations: Posted in discord
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The named monster on the 51st floor was an Ogre. Unlike the ogres outside, this one used a skill when its health dropped to a certain level - whether it was berserk or frenzy, I wasn't sure. But it wasn't a big deal.
After all, a giant growing from 8m to 9m tall didn't change the fact that it was still a giant. Whether its punches hurt more or not made little difference. Our paper-thin party members would be in trouble if hit, while I could block its attacks with my shield regardless of its state.
It was like a weak monster with an attack power buff that dies in one hit anyway - the buff becomes meaningless. This felt exactly like the 51st floor, a taste of Season 2.
As expected, the Ogre was just a combat power gauge.
"Its reach lengthened as it grew, and its body heated up," Grace observed. "Seeing how it tore through the chain net, its strength must have increased tremendously. To think an already strong Ogre could get even stronger..."
"Still, it was easier to dodge since it lost its reason. I was just a bit taken aback.""Throwing clumps of dirt wildly looked quite dangerous," Irene chimed in.
"I guess I should block those with holy magic, right? It could be risky if it suddenly spreads over a wide area..."
After dismantling the ballista with practiced hands and sending off the mercenary band to another part of the plains, we took a short break to discuss the Ogre. Its heavy mana stone had long since been tucked away in our inventory.
The discussion was more like ruminating over our own mistakes rather than feedback on the battle.
Grace mumbled that she shouldn't have fixated on the eyes, regretting not landing an effective hit on the named monster. Katie expressed disappointment in her sword that only shallowly grazed the skin.
Meanwhile, Irene felt sorry for the mercenaries, saying she could have blocked the clumps of dirt with her holy magic.
'Indeed, is our attack power lacking?' I wondered.
Excluding Irene, who felt guilty about the mercenaries' injuries as befitting a Saint candidate, most of the regrets were about insufficient attack power.
Grace had aimed for the eyes but was blocked by its hands, ultimately failing to deal significant damage and only hindering its vision with flash arrows. Katie had slashed its ankle and restricted the Ogre's movement with her frost aura, but that was all she managed to do.
I had hoped that the chronic problem of insufficient attack power might have been resolved during the training event where we briefly separated at the start of Season 2, but...
I guessed only individual skills like swordsmanship and archery had improved a bit.
Well, I had just picked up some sword fragment and called it a day, so I supposed there weren't any grand buffs.
"But when the Ogre used its skill, it turned bright red and started steaming," Han Se-ah interjected. "I wonder if it'd die quickly if we inflicted tons of bleeding? You know, if blood moves super fast, it could burst out of the blood vessels. Should I tell Katie to aim for the blood vessels? I want to kill it a bit faster."
-The f*ck is this b*tch babbling about while others are giving feedback
-You're lacking damage too, so stop obsessing over CC skills and start dealing some damage lol
-Forget about goblins, but when a named monster appears, at least call down some lightning or something you brainless f*ck. Why are you digging holes?
-Still, it shouldn't take more than 5 minutes to take down a giant-type named monster, right? That's pretty good.
-She's just full of herself. It's clearing easily but she's complaining about not meeting the time attack goal lol
Meanwhile, Se-ah was just spewing nonsense to her viewers, but looking at the chat made me change my mind a bit.
"Don't be too hasty."
"Even in the Kingdom or the Empire, there are few parties that can hunt an Ogre without injuries."
"That's right."
"If we rush, we might stumble. Everyone has done well so far, and I'm sure we'll continue to do well."
From a gamer's perspective, one might say our attack power was lacking, but as adventurers, weren't we an ideal and perfect party?
They said our attack power was insufficient, but that was a discomfort most knights felt when facing large monsters. How much could a sword barely over 1m long or an arrow about 60cm long hurt a giant that's 9-10m tall?
Thinking that way, I stopped the feedback that seemed about to transition from regret to grumbling. Irene immediately chimed in, perhaps trying to console the somewhat dejected Grace and Katie. With a bright smile, she praised the two in a higher voice than usual.
As sighs are contagious, so are smiles. The two were immediately influenced by Irene's gentle voice. Well, by the Kingdom's common sense, young adventurers in their early 20s hunting an Ogre - and a strange skill-using Ogre at that - without a scratch was something to be proud of.
Come to think of it, could they have been feeling psychological pressure because of the name "Hero Party"? It was a thought that suddenly occurred to me after seeing the chat, but it seemed like a more important issue than I had expected.
---
Raei Translations
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Indeed, the most annoying thing about climbing the tower had to be dealing with mages.
"You're saying the Ogre turned bright red and grew larger?" a mage asked eagerly.
"Yes, yes," Han Se-ah replied, clearly uncomfortable. "So, um, step back a bit, yes?"
-Teacher Roland disappeared in that moment lol. Is he an assassin, not a tank?
-Even the Private First Class in our squad would hide less stealthily than that, f*ck lol. Didn't he come in together?
-No, he went to another room as soon as the camera turned away lololololol
-Ah lol, the teacher is a tank so he's telling the mage to handle the mage
-Ugh, look at how he's sticking his face in. It's really uncomfortable, seriously
[Han Se-ah the Pathmaker donated 10,000 won!]
Se-ah, isn't it thanks to your stream that even mage memes have been created?
"Memes?" Han Se-ah asked, confused.
"What memes all of a sudden... Oh, you mean those overseas artists drawing short comics about mages? I saw someone upload it to the fan cafe."
Han Se-ah had blurted out an explanation while selling mana stones - that when we faced the named monster Ogre in the plains, it got excited, its body grew enormous, turned red-hot, and even started steaming.
How could mages stay still after hearing such an interesting story? With eyes so wide they looked like they might pop out, a mage rushed forward, then suddenly stopped as he realized he was facing beautiful women who were also the Hero Party. He sent a pleading look my way.
For a Magic Tower shut-in who only did research, these beauties were too much to handle. If he wanted to stick close and ask questions, I was probably the only guy he could approach... but I had long since fled from the Magic Tower lobby to the magic tool exhibition hall when Han Se-ah started running her mouth.
No matter how much a tank's job was to draw aggro, I didn't want to deal with that kind of aggro.
"Are you looking for something?" a female Magic Tower employee asked, trying to sidle up to me like a cosmetics store clerk. "Perhaps I could guide you..."
"It's fine," I replied curtly.
After sending her away, I opened a hologram window while pretending to look at crystal balls and such.
What I opened in the hologram window was Han Se-ah's fan cafe. As a mega-corporation-level streamer with an average of 100,000 real-time viewers and over a million followers, the scale of her fan cafe was enormous.
It seemed there were quite a few foreign members too, probably because there was a board for analyzing streams and preparing tower strategies. As a result, it was flooded with information and humor posts from all sorts of sites like Korean galleries, overseas Reddit, and Japanese 2ch.
'...No wonder they say they need moderators for each board instead of just cafe managers.'
Both on the forum and the fan cafe, today's popular posts were about the Ogre. Although they couldn't reach the 51st floor, players roaming various parts of the continent were posting their experiences and videos related to Ogres.
Just as there were users climbing the tower and users living in cities, there were quite a few users wandering the world. Although the relative proportion was small, it was a globally popular game, so even a low percentage meant a huge number of people.
A wandering user who died after encountering an Ogre while working as a porter for a mercenary band, a mage user who stalked an Ogre for half a year to write a Monster Ecology thesis for the Magic Tower, a chef user who went bankrupt because the merchant guild they had a food supply contract with got wiped out by an Ogre...
Indeed, Ogres were like traffic accidents that popped up anywhere and everywhere. Still, there were no stories of peculiar individuals turning bright red outside the tower.
"But really!" Han Se-ah's voice cut through my thoughts. "Roland, where the hell are you? I'm about to get dragged into the Magic Tower at this rate. The air feels stuffy and uncomfortable! Our party members aren't even trying to join in because it's magic talk! What is our tank doing, the mage is dying-!"
-It's not the mage that's dying, but your stream that might die
-lol If that mage was a female mage or if you were a guy, you'd have been dragged away arm-in-arm like a dog by now
-Oh, Se-ah's teeth-grinding is f*cking hilarious lol. You'll die alone even if you die, b*tch
-No way, you bastards. I didn't eat dinner because I was waiting for the dinner mukbang show after completing the quest
-? You mean you watch the stream to eat together? What kind of over-immersion is this, f*ck.
Anyway, I thought they'd leave her alone because of the awkward atmosphere, but the mage seems so obsessed with the Ogre story that he keeps fidgeting and asking questions even in this awkward atmosphere.
I needed to eat, so I guessed I should go rescue her.