Chapter 71 - The Road Leading Up To Fate (2)
「How many combos can you do?」
"Combos? Wait… I was able to do 280!"
TarrTarr proudly answered.
It was true that he was lucky to achieve that, but among Thieves, only the top 1% of users had received the achievement for doing 250 combos. So he was proud of it.
「Hmm…」
However, Hyun responded in a lukewarm way.
「Did you know that there are limits to the maximum combo?」
"There's something like that?!"
「Yes… Thief would be the strongest job if you could just do an infinite amount of combo with no restrictions.」
TarrTarr didn't know about the things Hyun told him next.
「 There are surprisingly a lot of limitations to the combo system. For example… If you move from a certain area, the combo resets. The opponent you're attacking has to be within 50 meters… Most tricks are blocked… But I'm sure you knew about these things.」
"I knew a few of them… But I wasn't aware of the ones you mentioned!"
After seeing TarrTarr answer innocently, Hyun felt he didn't need to explain anymore.
「Well, I guess that as long as you record the video properly, you don't need to understand everything.」
Hyun walked toward the entrance of the dungeon.
TarrTarr had begun to trust Hyun and let him do as he wished.
Novice Dungeon of the Necromancer…
From the name, it seemed like a hunting place where low-level monsters appeared, but the truth was that it was the perfect place for a beginner to die.
The first enemies to appear were level 30 skeletons, but as you advanced through the dungeon, the monsters started to get stronger.
In the middle of the dungeon, level 50 skeleton archers appeared!
In the latter half of the dungeon, you even had to deal with level 70 mage skeletons!
If you reached the middle-boss area, you might encounter an undead army that had a level over 100.
Most of the time, users only farmed within the first and second half of the dungeon—maybe until the area with skeleton mages.
Some parties that had rankers hunted in the area of the middle boss, but they were the exception.
And because the patch had just happened, most users were doing quests related to the forces they belonged to, so the hunting grounds were empty.
"Are we going to the dungeon alone?"
「Why?」
"No… It's just that I thought it may be good if we had a Priest in the party."
「 There are only weak monsters here, so there's no need to receive healing.」
If it were him, he would've never imagined entering the dungeon without a party, but since Hyun was so confident, TarrTarr just kept his mouth closed.
The first part of the dungeon was easy.
—There was only one or two level 30 skeletons.
Hyun took out TarrTarr's weapons.
He had swords that were about 40 centimeters long in each hand.
「Is the weapon magic grade? It seems like you also don't have a lot of money.」
"But those are quite expensive."
「Once you earn some money, it would be better if you changed the weapons first.」
Hyun was used to dual-wielding swords.
Thief was the first job he'd picked when he first began playing Asra.
He began using a long sword in the latter part of the game, but until he reached level 200, just like TarrTarr, his main weapons used to be dual swords.
Swipe-
Hyun ravaged the skeletons with the swords he had in both hands.
Even if there were a lot of level 30 monsters, they were no threat at all.
Dozens of lights shone at the same time.
'It feels great.'
That was the first time he used dual swords while moving, but he felt very comfortable as if he'd done it before.
That meant that he had gotten used to the slight differences between Asra and Asrian.
[Critical Hit! You've dealt 153 damage!]
[Critical Hit! You've dealt 144 damage!]
Four combo, five combo, six combo…
As Hyun passed by while brandishing the sword, skeletons piled up, and after a while, they disappeared.
He cut, twisted, stabbed, and cut again!
The attacks didn't stop—they kept flowing like water.
[«Combo» Lv.4(+1)]
- Depending on the number of the combo, the speed of attacks and movement increases.
Thanks to that skill, TarrTarr's speed increased but suddenly stopped.
They had beaten all the monsters around them.
The moment Hyun cleared all the monsters in one area, the number of combos had reached 180.
"Woah…"
TarrTarr couldn't hide his surprise after seeing Hyun annihilate the skeletons.
He was surprised by the fact that his character could move like that.
Because he enjoyed looking at other people's gameplay, he'd seen many videos of rankers, but he'd never seen someone use dual swords in such a clean way.
"Done! I can edit this and upload it!"
「What are you talking about?」
"We've recorded the video, so let's get out of the dungeon."
Hyun tilted his head at what TarrTarr said.
「Huh? We're moving to where we're going to record the video.」
"What?"
「I've been a Support for too long, so it's been a while since I've used weapons… I hope the video comes out okay.」
Hyun said while scratching his head as he started to walk forward.
Because Hyun had control priority, TarrTarr was forced to follow him.
Hyun eliminated level 40 skeletons as if they were nothing.
Even though they were movements he'd already seen, TarrTarr was still surprised by it.
He was wondering if the character was really his.
All the scenes were being saved in TarrTarr's capsule memory.
"This is great! With just some editing, it will look great!"
"Woah… So you can link the attack in such ways…"
"Can we rest for a little bit? Fighting like this must be tiring…"
Hyun let TarrTarr talk and focused on defeating the enemies in front of him.
To be honest, he was starting to get excited about fighting.
'This feels great…'
Being «Assimilated» to Ain and experiencing the Close-Range Magician wasn't bad, but the fighting style he originally enjoyed was this one.
—The sensation of his body moving faster than the speed at which he could think!
Even though it was his first time using the Thief job in Asrian, he remembered all the complex movements he used in the previous game and started doing them.
By the time Hyun stopped fighting, all the skeletons around them had become experience points.
'I'm in good condition today.'
Suddenly, stairs that lead to the underground appeared.
Hyun walked toward them without doubting for a moment.
—It was the next area of the dungeon.
"You can record from now on. Check that the recording option is on. I'm going to properly start now."
Hyun, who seemed bothered talking via whisper, just said it with TarrTarr's voice.
Translator - Daniel Shin
Proofreader - ilafy
* * *
Even TarrTarr's cutesy voice sounded odd when Hyun used it.
Although the tone of the voice hadn't changed, its atmosphere was completely different.
"I don't think we should go there…"
TarrTarr said anxiously.
"Even parties don't frequently go down there… Because there are so many monsters, a single mistake can make you get surrounded by monsters and die. And a thief alone…"
"I know that."
Hyun said while smiling.
The place they were going to was called the dungeon's 'Core.' It was a place where monsters respawned faster than anywhere else.
Basically, it was one of the most dangerous parts of the dungeon.
He suddenly began remembering the past.
Hunting at the core for the entire day, going to eat, hunting again, and then eating again—that used to be his routine.
Back then, his job used to be Thief.
According to Hyun's knowledge, it was the best place for a Thief oriented to «Combo» like TarrTarr to hunt.
"You just have to trust me. Just focus on recording."
TarrTarr quickly reached the next area.
As soon as they went down, a level 50 skeleton soldier appeared.
TarrTarr calmed down.
That was because, instead of walking toward the core, Hyun approached an enemy that was separated from the rest.
But that relief suddenly became doubt.
"Huh?!"
Hyun put both weapons away…
And then suddenly started to punch the skeleton.
"You can't deal damage without a weapon…"
"You can."
As if he were a professional boxer, Hyun punched the skeleton while dodging its attacks and led it toward the wall.
Just like Hyun said, although it was little, he was definitely dealing damage.
[You've dealt 5 damage!]
[You've dealt 3 damage!]
"I'm working on a combo."
"That… Shouldn't work."
TarrTarr looked at Hyun, who was controlling his body, with doubt.
He had also tried doing that, so he knew the result.
Hyun was trying to lower the damage output to increase the combo.
If it worked, more Thieves would've obtained the combo achievement.
But the truth was that it wasn't that easy.
Only 1% of all Thiefs had the achievement of doing more than 250 combos, and there was a reason for that.
"I've also tried that before."
But Hyun ignored TarrTarr and just focused on hitting the skeleton.
25 combo, 26 combo, 27 combo…
He kept punching the skeleton while moving with proper steps as if his job was a Fighter.
If someone were next to them watching, they wouldn't have guessed that TarrTarr's job was Thief.
No, they would probably be confused without being able to tell what his job was.
Hyun took out the swords again once the number of combos approached 50.
[49 combo! You've dealt 89 damage!]
[50 combo! You've dealt 103 damage!]
[You've dealt too many consecutive weak attacks to the same opponent!]
[You can't get any more combo from his opponent!]
The moment he defeated the opponent with exactly 50 combos…
He received that message!
It was a system that blocked users from exploiting tricks.
You would soon reach the limit if you attacked a normal monster with weak attacks.
There was no way Hyun wouldn't know about that.
'Now!'
Hyun had been waiting for the moment to reach 50 combos. He grabbed a stone on the floor and threw it toward a skeleton warrior in the distance.
The stone flew toward it and hit the skeleton warrior on the forehead.
[51 combo! You've dealt 2 damage!]
As the message appeared, Hyun moved forward at a frightening speed.
He hit the next opponent with his punch and started to push it toward the corner.
TarrTarr watched with his mouth gaping at how Hyun connected the combo.
"Was that timing calculated?"
Hyun didn't answer TarrTarr's question because he was too focused on hitting the skeleton.
Even without Hyun answering his question, TarrTarr soon discovered the answer.
Just the moment he was about to reach 100 combos, Hyun took out the double swords.
[99 combo! Critical Hit! You've dealt 235 damage!]
[100 combo! Critical Hit! You've dealt 241 damage!]
[You've dealt too many consecutive weak attacks to the same opponent!]
[You can't get any more combo from his opponent!]
The moment Hyun reached 100 combos, he quickly moved toward the next target.
He didn't forget to throw a stone.
All those movements connected naturally, and the number of combos pilled up.
'Oh, my god…'
TarrTarr's mouth was gaping.
The proper fight hadn't even begun yet, but he was already feeling chills after looking at the combos pilling up.
Because it was his job, he knew how difficult it was to do something like that.
'Something like this was possible…?'
Every single movement up to 0.1 seconds was calculated.
Just one mistake would be enough to break the combo, but Hyun was using every single second to draw the perfect picture.
237 combo, 238 combo, 239 combo.
TarrTarr soon discovered something else.
He was so impressed by the movements, the timing, and other physical stuff that he hadn't noticed it yet.
'He had already planned out the entire fight route?'
