The World Turned into a Game After I Woke up

“Out of the way! I’ll block it!”

“Heal! Get ready to heal! DPS, fall back!” Shin Hyuk charged in ahead of his teammates and brought his Rank 6 Giant’s Shield up close to his shoulder in front of the Stone Golem, bracing for the impact. The Stone Golem unleashed its Rockslide on top of Shin Hyuk.

“Gahhh!” Boulders the size of a full-grown adult crashed down upon Shin Hyuk. His grunt of pain could be heard from beneath the boulders.

“Chun Song Yi! Don’t stop healing! We must persevere!” Kang Il Hwan quickly took over command and shouted to Chung Song Yi.

“Got it!”

The Stone Golem’s Rockslide rained down boulders for seven seconds, and Shin Hyuk couldn’t be seen beneath it. Finally, the boulders shifted, and Shin Hyuk got up with his shield still raised.

“I’m alright. Go! Attack now!”

“Continue your attacks! Take up formation one!. Attack once and retreat. Don’t get greedy!” Once Kang Il Hwan noticed that Shin Hyuk was still up, he ordered the other two damage dealers to follow him and attack. Kang Il Hwan was an archer and used his wide view of the battlefield to give out the proper orders. He and Shin Hyuk had made that decision just prior to the raid.

“The healer can’t help you. Look out for your health on your own and don’t be hasty!” Their only healer could only aid Shin Hyuk, who was taking the brunt of the Stone Golem’s attacks. The dealers were strong enough that they wouldn’t die from a hit or two, but it had already been three hours into the battle; they couldn’t afford to take any more hits.

All they could do was to rely on potions and back off until the potion’s cooldown expired before they could use another one.

Kang Il Hwan hadn’t expected Shin Hyuk to fight this hard. He did tell him to at least look the part, but he was doing much better than anticipated. The most important part of being a tank was being able to take a boss’s attack and remain standing. That was the main role of a tanker, but there was more to being the perfect tank.

The perfect tanker could not only block a boss monster’s attacks, but also keep the boss monster’s attention on the tanker, and away from the other party members. This was known as aggro. A tank’s skill in combat was based on the tank’s ability to aggro monsters. The better the aggro, the safer the damage dealers were in battle. If the boss monster wasn’t focused on them, they could unleash more attacks and skills onto the boss. In other words, good aggro shortened the length of a boss raid!

Shin Hyuk’s skill as a tanker was only C-grade. Compared to Song Haein’s B-grade, his skills definitely lagged behind. However, the dazzling skills and aggro retention Shin Hyuk was showing right now were that of a B-grade. Thanks to Shin Hyuk’s enthusiasm in the fight, the entire party saw a ray of hope that they could succeed. The damage dealers decided not to give up, and put more effort into their attacks.

“Damn it! Chun Song Yi, how much more do we have left?” Shin Hyuk asked Chun Song Yi, who had the Detect Skill, after retreating from the Stone Golem’s attacks for a moment.

“Its health is below 10% now.”

Shin Hyuk felt conflicted with what she just told him. They went into this battle, half-expecting to give up halfway through the fight, but sometime in the middle of the battle, they were giving it their all.

Shin Hyuk had led many boss monster raids at the Eulsukdo dungeon. The Seorak dungeon was a low-grade dungeon like the one in Eulsukdo, but this boss was much stronger, so much stronger that it was recommended to have a minimum of eight party members. The Eulsukdo dungeon only needed six. The Eulsukdo dungeon was also in the middle of his guild’s territory, and he had raided it a few times to see what his abilities were like.

He had never failed.

Of course, he always went with a full party of six, and they were all elites of the Yung Gong Guild. He was able to consistently and easily fell the dungeon boss monster.

This Seorak dungeon was very difficult for Shin Hyuk, even with all that experience. His party of eight had fallen to five total members. They had a 70% chance of failing. They didn’t expect to succeed when they first entered the boss room.

They were severely unprepared for the battle. They were thinking about the best way to die during the raid. But this difficult and seemingly impossible boss raid seemed to have awakened something in Shin Hyuk.

Shin Hyuk’s determination was like a weed that bloomed into flower amidst the struggle.

“Out of the way!” When Shin Hyuk noticed that the Stone Golem shifted its focus to a greatsword-wielding warrior, he rushed in. He raised his shield in front of him and charged at the Stone Golem.

“Provoke!” Shin Hyuk cried out as he crashed his shield into to the Stone Golem’s leg. The Golem turned around to face Shin Hyuk; he had successfully aggroed the boss once more!

“I told you not to attack too many times in a row. Its HP is below 10% now. I’ll block all of its attacks, so retreat after attacking once. We’re done for if we lose one more!” The Stone Golem had a very high health regeneration rate. If they lost one more damage dealer, they wouldn’t be able to effectively lower the boss’s health, and would end up losing the battle.

“Yes, sir! I’m sorry!”

The Stone Golem turned its body to bring its fist crashing down once more on Shin Hyuk. Shin Hyuk was a typical tanker with low AGI. He didn’t think about dodging the attack and raised his shield once more to brace himself.

The crash of impact was teeth-rattling!

“Attack again and retreat!”

“Double Power Shot!”

“Mighty Blow!”

“Heart Strike!” Once the Stone Golem attacked Shin Hyuk, the three damage dealers shot off their most powerful skills. When the Stone Golem turned to face them, Shin Hyuk raised his shield and intercepted the Golem again.

“Shield Bash! Provoke!” He raised his shield above his head and slammed it down on the Golem’s foot. He used his Provoke skill to make the Stone Golem focus on him once more.

————–

-They’re doing pretty well, aren’t they?- The party’s teamwork was top notch. The three damage dealers attacked the Stone Golem at the exact moment Shin Hyuk held the Golem’s aggro. Shin Hyuk didn’t let himself be stopped by the Stone Golem’s attacks, either. Every time he was pushed back or fell, he got right back up and charged back in. It was simple, but a widely used technique, if the tank was good enough.

“Heal, Flourishing Cure Incense!” The healer, Chun Song Yi, was healing Shin Hyuk every time he got damaged. She also used an AoE healing spell so that the damage dealers could restore at least a little bit of their health.

“What percent is it at?” Shin Hyuk, asked as he retreated once more.

“It’s a 3% now. If we keep this up, we can finish it within 5-10 minutes. We five can defeat an eight-man boss raid!”

“Let me know when it’s at 1%. We’re going to change history today!”

“Yes!” Chun Song Yi shouted in a shaky voice, as if what Shin Hyuk said got her all worked up. However, to me, it sounded as if she was inviting me to burst in.

I slowly crept into the boss room. I had covered my face with a shirt and I made my armor visible. Now what? My clothes smelled a little off from being stuck in the suitcase for four years straight. The shirt I randomly pulled out had a large duck printed on it. I ripped holes in the duck’s eyes so that I could see through it and tightly tied the shirt around my head.

“Is that all I need to do? Ah. Open Stats Menu!…”

I gained two levels traveling through the Seorak dungeon. It was only 40 Stat points in all, but I wanted this to be perfect and put them all into my STR.

“My first target is the healer. I’ll stealthily take her out, and then take out the archer. If I can take both of them out at once, it would be perfect.” I tightened my hold on my trusty greatsword’s grip.

“I’m ready.” At the same time, I heard the healer speak out. “The Stone Golem’s health is at 2% now!”

I moved as soon as she spoke.

The healer kept herself at a far distance from the fight and stood the closest to the door to the safe room. She was in the perfect position to be my first target.

I barely walked five steps and I was right behind her. Not a single one of them noticed me approach. I walked right up to her and stabbed her in the back with my greatsword.

Because of her weak physical DEF, the blade easily went through and came out her front.

“Haah!” Air escaped from the healer’s mouth like air escaping a balloon. I wasn’t here to revel in the sound and quickly covered her mouth with my hand. I wrapped my elbow around her neck.

“Urgh…guh…” The healer gasped to try to breathe, but could only look at me with confused and indignant eyes. She could only see my eyes through the eyeholes I made.

“You’re from the Yung Gong Guild, right? Nice to meet ya.” The healer struggled to get away from me, but with the blade still impaling her through her back and my chokehold on her, it was all in vain. Soon, she lost all strength in her body and collapsed. She couldn’t last long with her low VIT.

The archer was my next target. I approached carefully, as this was the guy who had taken command of the party in Shin Hyuk’s stead. The archer was so completely focused on the battle and the Stone Golem in front of him that he didn’t notice me behind him. I came up right behind him and quickly thrust my sword at him to stab him in the back. The blade managed to sink in but thanks to his high AGI, he rolled forward the moment he felt the blade enter him. He actually managed to avoid the brunt of the attack with his quick reaction, but the damage was already done.

I walked towards him.

“Gah! Who the hell are you?” Shin Hyuk and the other two damage dealers finally turned to look at me when they heard the archer’s scream. They just stood there, staring at me, confused as to what was going on.

“Duck…Duck?” Dumbfounded, the archer looked up at me and asked, half to me and half to himself.

Rather than reply, I charged at the archer to take him out first. The archer hadn’t gotten back up from rolling yet, and I tackled him with my shoulder and shoved him to the ground. I hit him in the face with the pommel of my sword.

“Motherf…! What the fuck…get off!” The archer swore and brought his hands up to try to cover his face, but I was too strong for him to block any of my attacks.

“Gek!” With one final blow, the archer’s head split open and the archer died, his body disappearing in a cloud of smoke. Shin Hyuk and the other two remained frozen on the spot. They just stared at me, eyes wide open.

I turned to Shin Hyuk and spoke to him.

“Hey. You’re going to get hit if you just stand there.”

“Oh, crap!” The Stone Golem swung kicked at Shin Hyuk and struck his side. Unable to properly defend against the attack, he flew across the room.

“Ohh…you should be more careful. I told you that you were going to get hit,” I said to Shin Hyuk in a low voice, as he was gasping in pain.

“Who the fuck are you?”

“What the !ell are you doing here?” The two damage dealers finally snapped out of their shock when Shin Hyuk was flung to the side, and shouted at me together.

“Me?” I pointed to myself.

“I’m…well…hmm…Duck Duck? Yeah, that’s right. I’m the Stone Golem’s friend, Duck Duck. You messed with my friend. For that, I’ll kill you all!” In that instant, I recalled what the archer called me and decided to introduce myself as the Stone Golem’s pal, Duck Duck!

=============

Editor’s Note: Yes, we can hear you screaming out “GOOOOOOSE!” all the way over here.

Once I saw the Stone Golem approach Shin Hyuk, I charged at the damage dealers. I knew that they were exhausted after watching them fight. They were barely hanging on with potions.

I rushed at the broadsword wielder to the right, raised my sword over my head, and swung down at his head. The warrior saw me coming and raised his own sword to block my incoming attack.

The blades crashed into each other with a screech of metal. The warrior lost in the battle of strength, and dropped to one knee. He looked over and saw that my blade had managed to break through his defense and slice into his shoulder.

“Fuck! How high is your STR?”

“Who knows? It’s not like I’ll tell you, though.” I raised my foot and kicked the warrior in this chest. He didn’t have a chance to block my attack and rolled back three meters. He must have still had HP leftover and got up right away.

“Damn, this guy’s STR is crazy high,” the broadsword warrior muttered to his comrade.

“We’ll attack him together.”

“Right.”

The two melee fighters charged at me in tandem, but I wasn’t daunted. They were tired from the long battle, and I was still lively.

I glanced at Shin Hyuk who was still blocking the Stone Golem’s attacks, and rushed forward to attack the melee fighters first. The broadsword warrior stabbed at my chest, while the greatsword warrior swung at my right shoulder. I was going to let the greatsword slice through my shoulder and focus on the broadsword warrior’s attack. It would be easier for me if I took out one of them first, rather than to try to take on both at the same time.

“Mighty Blow!”

“Heart Strike!”

I saw that the Mighty Blow from the greatsword wielder dealt a total of 40,000 health points, but thanks to my already high health, my shoulder wasn’t hurt very much.

I blocked the Heart Strike with the broad side of my greatsword. Because of the skill’s power, I still managed to lose another 10,000 health points and felt a strong repulsive force from the attack.

“Fuck! His VIT is high, too.”

“My Heart Strike can’t find its mark.” The two warriors must have fought together many times as their movements were in complete synch. But no amount of teamwork could ever work against a foe so much stronger than them.

“My turn. Rahh!” I swung my sword at the broadsword warrior’s hip with full intent to cut him in half.

“Look out!”

“Shit!”

Despite the greatsword warrior’s warning, the broadsword warrior couldn’t do anything but watch as the blade of my sword slice cleanly through his body. His body promptly vanished into a cloud of smoke.

“And then there was one.”

“Shit! Who the fuck are you? Why are you doing this?”

“Didn’t I just tell you? I’m the Stone Golem’s friend, Duck Duck. Don’t dismiss our friendship so easily.”

“You…” The greatsword warrior’s face turned bright red at my reply. I didn’t have all day to joke around, and rushed at him.

“Berserker’s Roar! Raaahhh!” The warrior shouted as soon as I got close to him. The shout was so loud that it felt like my eardrums were going to pop.

[You have been afflicted with Fear from Berserker’s Roar.]

[Fear prevented by status immunity effect.]

The skill managed to stop me dead in my tracks for a split second, but it only made me swing my sword faster at the warrior.

“Gak!” The blade of my sword stabbed into the warrior’s chest. But this guy must have had higher defense than the others, as the blade didn’t pierce him. Instead, the force of the blow forced him to roll backwards. His chest wasn’t pierced, but it seemed that he still took significant damage when I noticed that his face looked drained.

“Argh! Shit! How could my Berserker’s Roar not work? Does that mean you have the Unrivaled skill? If you do, then people should know who you are! Who are you?”

“I’m not telling you. Why don’t you find out yourself?” I approached the collapsed warrior, raised my sword above my head and swung it straight down on him. This time, the sword pierced through.

“Once I find…” Before he could finish, his body vanished into a cloud of smoke.

It took me less than three minutes to wipe out the Yung Gong Guild members, excluding Shin Hyuk. I did ambush them and they were exhausted from fighting the Stone Golem, but I felt very satisfied that I took them all out easily.

I turned around to face Shin Hyuk and the Stone Golem. Shin Hyuk had his gaze fixed at me all the while blocking the Stone Golem’s attacks. His eyes were filled with rage. If looks could kill, his glare would have inflicted at least 400,000 points of damage on me.

“Who the fuck are you? Argh!” Shin Hyuk bitterly asked me while squeezing his body behind his shield to block the Stone Golem’s unceasing attacks.

“I’m Duck Duck!”

“You son of a bitch! Don’t fuck with me and tell me who you are! I know you’re not a normal deva; you know the Unrivaled skill! Do you have any idea how severe the consequences are of fucking with us? Are you not afraid of the Yung Gong Guild’s might!?”

“I am afraid! That’s why I’m Duck Duck right now! Oh! Be careful. That attack looks pretty strong.” As if angered by the previous fight, the Stone Golem used another skill on Shin Hyuk. Its Meteor Fist came crashing down on him.

Squeezed behind his shield, Shin Hyuk’s body that was being crushed little by little. Shin Hyuk was slowly being buried in the ground.

“I, no, the entire Yung Gong Guild, will find you! We know every single Unrivaled out there! We will find out who you are soon enough. Gah! A merciless vengeance will be waiting for you! Don’t think that you’ll get out of this easily!” Shin Hyuk spat at me through gritted teeth.

“I know, right? I’ve come so far. To think that I’m talking to the great Shin Hyuk face to face. But it looks like this conversation is going to be cut short, doesn’t it?” Unable to heal or receive heals during the Stone Golem’s onslaught, Shin Hyuk was heavily weakened. It showed everywhere on him.

“Well, have a nice trip. I’ll be sure to make good use of the dungeon treasure. Oh, that’s right. If I get something good from the random chest hmm…what can I do? I’ll make good use of that too. But did you know? For some reason, good items do come out in these situations.”

“You son of a bitch! Just you wait! I’ll find you and I’ll kill you!” Shin Hyuk roared at me so loud that his eyes became bloodshot and his voice became hoarse. I could tell he was really mad.

“Someone once told me that the grass is tastier on the other side. That’s not right. Was it greener on the other side? Anyway, thanks for the loot! Oh, before you go, what do you think about someone turning over a new leaf? It’s hard, isn’t it? A leopard can’t change its spots.”

“Shut the fuck up! You piece of shit! Just you wait! I’ll find your parents, family, friends, and even your distant relatives and kill them all! I’ll make you live through Hell!”

“Oh dear…looks like I need to be careful from now on. But let me say one thing, too. I’ll make sure the same happens to you, too.” I brought my face closer to Shin Hyuk’s raging face and looked straight at him to tell him what I would do as coolly as possible.

“I’ll get my reve…” Before Shin Hyuk could finish, the Stone Golem completely crushed his body, killing him. His body soon vanished in smoke, as well.

“Did I come off too strong?” I asked myself as I watched the smoke dissipate.

I knew that from the moment I decided to interfere with the raid, I would make myself an eternal enemy of the Yung Gong Guild. I made that decision proudly, and I would make it again if I could.

“I guess I finally got to screw over the Yung Gong Guild, after dreaming about it for so long.” I wasn’t sure what was in store for me now, but I didn’t regret what I did. My head was really getting to big for me.

The Stone Golem and I were now the only ones left in the boss room. The Stone Golem looked up from Shin Hyuk’s vanished body and turned towards me.

“From friend to foe, is it?” I said to myself as I looked at the Stone Golem. I tightened my hold on my sword’s grip. The Stone Golem charged at me. But, unfortunately for it, it was a boss monster whose health was at rock bottom now. I met the Golem’s charge and swung my sword in the air.

The Stone Golem’s attack smashedinto me, but I ignored it and continued to attack. This raid was already 99% over. I had no reason to take my time.

After my fifth attack, the Stone Golem stopped moving. Its body crumbled into a pile of rocks and collapsed to the floor.

[You have leveled up.]

[You have leveled up.]

:

:

[You have leveled up.]

Multiple level up alerts came up in front of me consecutively. There was no one else in the boss room, and all of the boss’s experience was transferred to me.

“Damn! I just gained 22 levels at once!” I rummaged through the dead Stone Golem’s body as I watched the message alerts come up.

“Sweet! 1,809,000 golden rings!” Among the million plus golden rings, I found a high-grade Stone Golem Nucleus and 29 Magic Stones. I would have been pissed off it that was all I found, but fortunately, there two more items that shone with blue light. They were rare items that could be Ranked anywhere from 4-6.

One of them was a pair of gauntlets, and the other was a ring. I decided to check the gauntlets first, as I didn’t expect much from them.

—————-

[Stone Golem’s Sturdy Stone Gauntlets (Rank 4)

A pair of gauntlets made from the magic stones from the body of a Stone Golem. The gauntlets boast high DEF and high penetration resistance thanks to its material. However, because it is made of stone, its weight decreases attack speed.

Decrease attack speed by 4%

Increase VIT by 60

Chance to avoid critical hits decreased by 37%

Increase penetration resistance by 8

Durability: 675/1000

Increase DEF by 350, increase MDEF by 40]

——————–

“That’s more like it.” It had decent effects for only being a Rank 4 gauntlet. My attention went elsewhere, however, as there was something a little better.

Of all equipment types, the most sought after and useful were weapons. Weapons had the most valuable effects: critical rate, critical damage, and penetration. Having good weapons was also the best way to greatly boost ATT.

One good weapon was the same as having multiple accessories and pieces of armor equipped.

Armor and accessories were always secondary. Accessories themselves were rare. They were expensive, and their drop rates were extremely low. That was why some people sought more accessories than weapons.

“I managed to find a Rank 6 belt at the weaker Bukhan Mountain dungeon. This dungeon is stronger.”

I was always happy to check items. My body tensed with anticipation.

“Item check!”

——————-

[Stone Golem’s Sturdy Stone Ring (Rank 5)

A ring made from a magic stone from the body of a Stone Golem. The ring boasts high DEF and MDEF thanks to its material.

Increase STR by 50

Increase HP by 30,000, increase MP by 6,000

Critical chance increase by 1.2%, chance to avoid critical hits increased by 55%

Decrease chance to avoid physical skills by 2.5%

Increase penetration resistance by 5

Increase DEF by 195, increase MDEF by 5]

———————–

“It’s Rank 5. That’s more than good enough! Finding that Rank 6 belt was just too much. Finding anything above Rank 7 there would be just too crazy.” I was more than satisfied with what I just found. I would have been happy if it was a Rank 4!

“I would have preferred VIT and WIL instead of health and mana, though.” If it were my VIT and WIL that were increased, my HP, MP and DEF and MDEF would have gone up together. I could have knocked two birds with one stone ring.

I slipped my hands into the gauntlets.

[You have equipped Stone Golem’s Sturdy Stone Gauntlets (Rank 4). Do you wish to toggle on the gauntlets’ outer appearance?]

“No.”

The gauntlets began to fade from view until they were completely invisible. I put on the stone ring right afterwards and set that one to invisible, as well…