Reincarnated in the game world ~ A gamer's beginning to [Dungeon job hunting recommendation]

The «Greater Demon» was a formidable boss, or else it wouldn't have been the field boss of a Rank 10 intermediate-high dungeon.

It was four metres tall with an absolutely shredded physique, making for an overwhelming presence. 

Its skin was a deep green, its eyes were stark white, and its bald head was crowned with two wicked horns. With arms as thick as tree trunks, a single swing of its fists could send a tank flying. 

And yet, as if physical menace wasn't enough, it even had plenty of magic in its arsenal, ranging from pure destruction to debuffs. 

Among all the field bosses you would find in the intermediate dungeons, it was easily in the top. The timing it appeared at was just as foul.

The tough part about challenging monsters in waves was managing MP and exhaustion. The earlier waves were challenging enough, and then imagine facing a monster that shrugs damage faster than you could expect. A nightmare for sure. Such scenarios were often the party wipe moment. 

To us, though, while there was no denying its strength, we'd faced it once and won already. Everyone knew their role, requiring no explanation. And since we'd make sure to keep ourselves on tip-top condition in earlier wave attacks, we're as good as our first battle. 

Meanwhile, the monster behind it was precisely the summoner of all the monsters in this altar—Evil God Devotee: Wight. Though, it had invincibility as long as «Greater Demon» remained on its feet, so we ignored it for now. 

Right off the bat, «Great Demon» cued the starting of battle with a barrage of spells, but Sierra stood her ground. 

The opening was also often the party crushed if you're exhausted and unprepared. So caution was absolute.

After having its opening move blocked, «Greater Demon» moved in for close-quarter combat, slamming its fist with such intensity as if they're bullets launched from a gatling gun. Hell, it even mixed in lasters shooting from the eyes. 

Sierra blocked them all with her shield, occasionally deflecting them. We exploited the opportunity while its attention was focused on her, and closed in, slamming our attacks. As a demon, holy attribute attacks were most effective against it. My «Firmament Sword» and Lana's magic became the source of main damage. 

It also had defense mechanics where it exudes dark aura from all over its body when going close-combat. When in proximity, that dark aura inflicted DoT effects like «Poison» and «Burn». Truly a menace. Still, nothing we hadn't seen. The healing over time from Lana's recovery spell easily outpaces the damage from «Greater Demon»'s DoT effect.

With everyone clear of what to do from their prior experience, «Greater Demon» stood no chance, and before long, it dispersed into effect. 

Once summons were out, the summoner could no longer transfer damage. The wight was only about as strong as a regular mob, so a flurry of attacks from Ester and Karua sent it to the grave in seconds.

The drop was «Silver Chest» and we obtained an «Amulet of Abyssal Hegemony» from it——an accessory that boosts the power of dark magic. This was going to Mert later.

Just like other dungeons, there was only one field boss for every ten floors. The waves from floor 41 were randomised between 1~3, and each had 20 monsters at highest. It would be lucky if we stumbled on one wave.

But, while there was no field boss now, the true challenge going ahead was wandering boss now. It could appear in any wave of any floor. Given the structure of this dungeon, the general thought would've been 'does this dungeon even have a wandering boss?', so it was important to be vary. As they say, the chance might be low, but it's never zero!

Whether it's in the early wave, or in the wave at the end, we're destined to face each other. Well, occasionally it would also pop up on floors 31~39, so sometimes you could be lucky and miss the encounter if you'd used the magic circle to teleport straight to floor 40.

However, to no one's surprise, such wasn't the case this time. 

It, «Gawlbaumes», appeared in the 3rd wave of floor 46. 

The wandering boss sported a dog-like body in a reptilian-esque shape. It had three heads, but unlike Cereberus, they're lizard faces. They breathed dark flames, and with three heads, it was capable of attacking in three different directions at any time. It was truly a nuisance to ignore the aggro.

I had Lana spamming «Sacred Barrier» for our defense, meanwhile we used attacks laced with holy attributes to deal damage. As a lackey of great evil, it'd the same weakness as «Greater Demon».

In the game, the wandering bosses of «Altar Dungeon» were quite popular among players. Among its tendency to face challenges head on—unlike other wandering bosses who'd flee when they see them losing—and drop being pretty great, it was a literal walking treasure for them.

It must've been a surprise right? Like, how a wandering boss, which was supposed to be quite a challenge before facing the last boss, had all the glaring weaknesses but not a single attribute that made wandering bosses a headache, plus all the reason for players to chop it down.

Players thought so too, but eventually everyone guessed it was meant to be a 'bonus reward' to players from developers after going through the grindy, tedious nature of this dungeon.

In between Lana's array of sacred and holy attribute spells, and mine «Firmament Sword», «Gawlbaumes» never stood a chance against us. We dispatched it pretty shortly, and then dealt with Evil God Devotee almost immediately, clearing the floor 46.

The wandering boss left behind a silver chest which dropped a pair of boots decorated with the design of a demon girl. 

"Woah, the «Demon's Dark Boots»? This can only be equipped by «Demon» category job holders."

Well, it appeared Elise was going to have a gift soon. In fact, due to having class restriction, it was on par with the «Gold Chest» drops. What a great time to drop by!

Afterwards, we continued to bulldoze our way, and before long we also cleared the second to last altar. This time, there were only 2 waves, so it was easy peasy. With the last monster down, the entrance to reach floor 50 appeared.

I let out a cheerful shout to have made this far.

"We're finally here!"

"This was long. Facing that many monsters back-to-back is quite the workout."

"Ten floors with an average of 20 waves... that’s nearly 400 monsters. I can see why so few people bother clearing this dungeon."

"One more... then, curry."

"Hang in there, we’re almost there. But before we dive in, let’s take a breather."

" " "Agreed!" " "

Everyone understood why this dungeon was so rarely visited. You'd have to be an expert in dealing with hordes to reach this far after all. 

Of course, it didn't throw all challenges at first. As one nicknamed Battle Tower, the difficulty spike was procedural. The floor 1~19 didn't have waves, you just had to clear 10 monsters each floor. The waves started from floor 20 and onward, with floor 20~39 having randomised 1~2 waves, each releasing 15 monsters at once to deal with. And the last 10 floors had randomised 1~3 waves, each putting out 20 monsters just like we dealt with now.

The last boss of this dungeon appeared solo.

Aside from that, there were few outliers, like floor 30, and floor 40. They threw a non-avoidable 3 waves and 5 waves challenge respectively. 

A 200 monster count was nothing to scoff at. If anything, the floor 40 to 49 were meant to be tackled alongside other parties. It definitely forces you to see what the true grind was like. Oh well, it would've been so nice if we could've just streamrolled through them.

Well, no whining about what couldn't be helped. Anyway, the clock was ticking 1:00 PM. We'd enough time to go for boss grind, and might even get to hit level 15, the highest we could reach with the experience reward from intermediate dungeons.

But, for now, we stopped to catch our breath. 

I pulled out the leisure set from my «Item» Bag and started setting up lunch. We might as well eat while we rest. If it wasn't for teleportation circle having different rule here—they're one way ticket, and if we wanted to return, we would've to restart from floor 40—we would've teleported out to the academy for lunch. That's why I'd lunch prepared beforehand.

"Speaking of, are we going for the Rare Boss here too, Zephyr?" 

Sierra asked while I was setting up. I turned and gave her a firm nod.

"You bet. The rare boss drops great items. They can easily carry us till Advanced dungeon. We'll be swimming in loot!"

"Swimming in loot?"

"Yep, there will be enough to make a mountain, I'm telling you, this is the best place to gear up for the next stage of a new challenge."

It appeared 'swimming in loot' was a foreign expression to Sierra as she tilted her head in confusion. But I continued.

As the apex dungeon among intermediate ranks, the drops were nothing to scoff at. Besides equipment that could carry us in advanced dungeons, there was even the possibility of dropping bonafide advanced-grade equipment too. 

In the gamer’s term, «Altar Dungeon» was the sort of farming point you'd want to stop and gear yourself before throwing hands against a new set of challenges. 

If anything, I'd almost decided to grind this dungeon for the remainder of Dungeon Week.

"I like the sound of it! Lately, I've been feeling like my equipment is barely keeping up!"

"Mhm, to be honest, I've had the same thought. The damage I'm taking has increased significantly lately. I think an upgrade is long overdue."

Lana and Ester added their piece. 

Yeah, no surprise. They're still wearing their «Princess Equipment Set», aka the equipment they'd have in the starting. 

Since you'd have to clear intermediate-high dungeons at minimum to rank up the prestige in the game—which was how you'd recruit members of «Princess Job»»—the base strength of «Princess Job» characters were set to intermediate-high dungeons.

They're upgradable, too, which could carry over till advanced dungeons. Regardless, it didn't change they're still beginner level. You could only strengthen them so much before hitting the limit. The shortcoming became even more glaring when other equipment sets offered formidable passive skills, and other support skills.

It was certainly about time for them to change.

"The rare boss of this dungeon was a demon named «Dark Horned Beast - Brenmor», or «Bumor» in short. It was a bipedal beast resembling a minotaur, but with four arms. It carries a greatsword in two hands and a staff in each of the others. With four weapons in its grasp, it was well versed in physical and magical offence."

"So all the bosses here are some sort of demons?!"

"I mean, it's called «Twilight Altar Dungeon». So, yes, a majority of them have evil attributes."

I replied to Lana's quip with theatrical gesture. You'd either see them carrying some sort of wand, or covered in cloak, truly manifesting the 'I'm Evil' vibe. Heck, I might even go for a limb and say these floors were like those demon summoning altars... or so it's my pet theory. 

On that note, there was no more Evil God Devotee out there. Just like any other rare boss, it would be «Bomer» itself showing up from the rare boss effect. 

"And another particular thing to remember—the demon's attack had a wide range, so even the vanguard could be caught in its offence, so be careful of that. Also, if you see it flipping over its mantle, make sure to retreat. It is the cue to the AoE attack. Either prop a defense stance, or use defensive skill immediately."

"Me too?"

"Yes, you too, Lana. Certainly, your resistance to Dark attributes is highest, but this boss is absolutely a force. Either switch to a defensive stance, or better yet, just be ready to invoke «Sacred Barrier». You wouldn't want to get stuck in Downed status, and then become a bashing target for the boss."

It would be catastrophic to lose our healer. The lack of sustenance was what led to the party's demise more often than not.

"Alright! Then I will just do that, so don't fret over it!"

"Great."

Truly, it was really assuring to have a healer capable of defending themselves. The less we, the vanguard, had to worry about rearguard, the better we could fight with full attention. Having faced so many challenges, Lana knew that precisely.

"And what's the unique skill of this boss?"

"Right, almost forgot. «Bumor»’s Unique Skill is a physical attack specialized for close combat—«Brenmor Style: Twin Sunder Wave». When using it, it would cast aside its two staffs, and grips the two greatswords with all four hands. It will swell its muscles to absurd degrees, and slam them down almost as if attempting to destroy the boss room itself. And two swords mean it was a two-hit attack. The first hit is designed to shatter defensive skill, and second to smash you down. If it managed to connect, even the tank would get shredded."

It was due to this fearsome effect that the unique skill was called «Twin Tank Devastator». The first hit had the defense shatter effect. So if you'd only prepared one defense skill... Well, let's just say it was the easiest way to game over. 

And if by some miracle one still managed to cling to a silver of their HP, they would still be inflicted to Downed status. There was just no getting out of it. 

We’re going to need a bulletproof strategy for this one.