Ero Dungeon Online: My Desires!-Chapter 15: New Item (2)

"I can't say I disagree with you, but I'd probably vomit if I accidentally saw porn like that. I don't know how you couldn't blink at it," he said.

"I've spent a lot of time on the internet. A lot of time. You sort of just get desensitized to it. Just like with brain penetration and guro. Not into those either, but they're strictly fictional, so nobody is getting harmed in them."

"Did... did you say brain penetration?"

"Yeah. I'm fine with all-the-way-through as long as it's consensual and extremely unrealistic to the point where whoever is getting fucked doesn't die or suffer serious injury from it, but brain penetration isn't my thing."

"All – all the way through?"

"Yeah. Dick goes in through one hole and comes out through the other. Usually done with tentacles or giant monsters. It's hot when the girl is enjoying it and, you know, not dead from it."

"I thought what the others told me about you was an exaggeration. They undersold you."

"Only Thera is going to tell you everything you need to know about me. The rest can't handle the lewd."

"Is she like you then?"

"Oh, no. Not in the slightest. It wouldn't be right for me to say much about her, but I can tell you that she's just really accepting and open."

"Really? All of us new members are terrified of her."

"That's adorable, but you don't need to be as long as she's on the same side as you."

"What if we end up not on the same side?"

"Then yeah, you should be terrified."

"I – I see."

"Anyways, let's go over the strat for this boss before the others get impatient."

Boss after boss fell before us. While there were struggles at times, especially in regard to the new DPS members, we eventually made it through to the final boss of the dungeon.

The Grand Lich, Former Ruler of Xinax, Valren Essa.

While I wasn't much of a roleplayer, I still found the lore behind him interesting. His city was under attack by demons and he knew that they were going to lose. Nobody from the surrounding nations had any interest in coming to their rescue as that would have meant getting on the demons' bad side. So, what did our future lich do? He turned to forbidden magic that promised to empower him and his people with the strength needed to defeat the demons.

Unfortunately for him, he was manipulated by a demon in disguise into doing that. The magic that was meant to save his people doomed them, turning them undead and him into a monster that would be feared for centuries – that would be feared until us brave adventurers came to defeat him.

A lot of the lore-loving players loved him. Those same players were extremely upset by the abrupt end to his story. The most closure there is to his story is the battle in which we kill him. When he dies, all he does is play a death animation without a single word.

The developers really screwed up the end of his tale.

At least there were rumors for those who loved him that the developers were working on a fix that would satisfy them.

But that didn't matter to me and the others. All that mattered was that we killed him before the timer ran out. Only fifty minutes were left before we would get locked out for the rest of the day, and each attempt at killing him would take about fifteen minutes if everything went well.

Given the previous bosses, everything was not going to go well.

"Alright. Other than it being more of the same for us, he's going to summon adds that you're going to need to tank. I'll let you know when it's time for the tank swaps, but those are only going to happen a few times. It's the adds that need dealt with. They're both going to have cleave attacks and will be immune to physical damage, so you have to make sure that you're facing them away from the others and you won't be able to use normal attacks to hold threat," I explained.

"Got it. So, when the adds spawn, I'll gather them, run to the edge of the arena, and have them face out so that their cleaves don't hit anybody," Kedrin confirmed.

"For the most part. A third add will spawn with them once the boss is below half health, but you won't be able to tank that one. It'll randomly follow around a healer and cast cleave attacks until dead. Once the boss dips below twenty-five percent health, it's going to start casting an ultimate. We both need to get in front of everybody and use our AoE protection skills. If either of doesn't do that, we all die. If anybody isn't close behind us and inside of both of our fields, they're dead. Other than that... I think it's about every forty-five seconds that the boss casts a death glare spell. You have to either shut your eyes or turn away. If you're looking at him when the spell goes off, you die and your corpse gets turned into another add. It's not that big of a deal if one of the DPS gets it since they can be revived once the add is dead, but if it happens to one of us – well, it'll be time for the healers to adjust."

"Anything else?"

"One more thing. If the ground underneath you starts to glow purple and look distorted, move. A bunch of hands will pop out of it to grab you and hold you down if you get hit by it. Also, are you any good at the Heroics system?"

"I love the Heroics system. Can... can I—"

"Yep. It's all yours as long as you're confident enough to pull it off."

Hearing that lit up his expression with bright eyes and a wide smile. The positive energy coming from him was contagious and spread to everybody else who noticed it.

The battle begun as soon as explanations were over.

We wiped. Twice.

The first defeat came before we could even get the boss under eighty percent health. The DPS were just dying too frequently and draining the healers' mana, so we let the boss kill us to restart.

The second attempt went much better. We got the boss down to seven percent health thanks to a certain healer shouting and threatening everybody after every single little mistake they made, but because of the DPS still getting used to dodging all the AoE during the fight, our raid-wipe DPS was too low to meet the final DPS check.

Then came the third attempt. We barely had any time left and nobody wanted to get locked out after making so much progress. Honestly, if the raid wasn't composed mostly of veterans, there was no way the new members wouldn't have cleared it. All raiders had to start somewhere, though, and the guild was as successful as it was because of the process that it used to scout for undeveloped talent.

The talent of the new members came to light once they were motivated enough. There were still deaths, but we got the boss down to only three percent health left when the final attack began.

If the boss finished casting its spell before we killed him, we were all dead.

"Keep it up!" I shouted. "We've got this!"

It was a race between our DPS and the boss's casting speed.

Then, out of the corner of my eye, I noticed Kedrin smiling at me.

He activated a skill that dropped his health down to one percent. It was a valuable skill for tanks that made them invulnerable to all damage for a few seconds at the cost of dropping to almost zero health. In other words, it was a panic button saved for worst case scenarios.

Or it was a damage-boosting button for the end of a battle that was especially helpful to people who did more damage the less health they had.

Boosted by his low health, Kedrin gave our DPS the final push to finish the boss off.

The grand lich's skeletal staff dropped to the ground as he reeled back in agony, dark mist flowing out from his body.

A glowing circle appeared on the ground next to the staff – a Heroics circle.

"It's all yours," I told Kedrin.

"Got it!"

Kedrin jumped into the circle and began the event.

Similar to dancing games where certain movements had to be done in a specific order, the Heroics system allowed players to deliver unique, final attacks to bosses in exchange for a bonus reward. Such final attacks were not possible through normal combat. They were more like scripted, mini-cutscenes driven by instinct given by the game.

Kedrin, standing over the unholy staff, thrust his sword into the demonic gem embedded within it. The crystal exploded with foul energy, causing the boss to drop to his knees as it was bound to his soul. As part of the event, though, the boss was not yet done. He swung an arm out to attack Kedrin, but it was lopped off by Kedrin's sword.

Next came the beheading.

Kedrin swung his sword horizontally toward the boss's neck, severing the undead head from its enchanted corpse of a body.

And that was it.

The battle was over and a chest of loot appeared in front of us as a victory fanfare played.

Kedrin got a guaranteed drop from performing the Heroic finisher, and the rest of the raid would have to roll on whatever items were inside the chest.

To my surprise... there was even an item in the chest that would be perfect for my dungeon if I won the roll for it. I completely forgot that the item even existed and never saw it drop before, so I was more than a bit excited when I saw the item.

And it was a very... handy item.