Chad was locked in a tense fight with the second boss when Flynn's voice call request suddenly flashed in front of him. The timing could not have been worse. Their team had already pushed the boss past half health, everyone was focused, and then the notification distracted him for a split second. That was all it took. A missed cue, a failed mechanic, and the boss wiped them clean.
"Son of a—" Chad swore as he opened the communicator. "If this isn't important, I'm coming over there to cut your junk off."
"Oh?" Flynn's voice turned flat. "You want to test whether I'll throw you off the balcony right now?"
Chad froze. He remembered very clearly that he was living in Flynn's apartment. His tone shifted at once. "Alright, alright. Flynn, my man. What can your humble servant do for you?"
"How do you beat the first boss?"
"What, you guys are already in Heroic? That one's easy."
"No. Hell mode."
There was a loud yelp on the other end. "Hell mode?" Chad's eyes widened. It had barely been over an hour and Flynn's group had already cleared Normal and Heroic. That pace alone was enough to discourage most players. His first reaction was that Flynn must be in a stacked team. "Who's in your group?" he asked quickly.
"Why?"
"No time, just tell me!"
"Give me the strategy first. We're on a timer too."
Chad understood immediately. They were racing for server first as well. Still, since his own team had not even cleared the first boss yet, he assumed Flynn's group could not be that far ahead in skill. A grin spread across his face. "My friend, we're competitors now. Why would I hand over the strategy?"
"Is that so," Flynn said, then let out a long sigh. "I was planning to share a good bottle of wine with you later. If you're not interested, I guess I'll ask Sophia instead."
"Hey! Sophia is the one I like, don't you dare." Chad's reaction was instant. "You bastard," he added through clenched teeth. "Fine, you win. That's dirty."
He had never told anyone about his crush. Not even the girls in their circle suspected it. Most people assumed he liked Chloe. The fact that Flynn had figured it out left him both annoyed and impressed.
"Are you going to talk or not?" Flynn pressed. "Stop wasting time."
"Fine. Listen carefully. Pull Agud into the entrance corridor. Your ranged players stay outside in the courtyard, pressed against the outer wall of the corridor. When he starts casting Charge, they step behind the wall to break line of sight. After Charge goes off, they move back out and create distance again. When Charge is almost off cooldown, they return to the wall. Repeat that cycle. It's annoying, but if you do it cleanly, it's guaranteed."
"That's all?"
"That's all. The rest is just holding formation and surviving the other abilities. We're about to pull again. By the way, looks like you got yourself a decent team. Want to make a bet?"
"Sure. Late-night snack is on the loser. We'll see who gets further."
"You're on," Chad laughed. "You're already behind, I'll be generous. If you just catch up to our progress, I'll call it your win."
He ended the call feeling confident. Even with the strategy, Agud was not simple. What he did not expect was that ten minutes later, Flynn would send him a link to a newly acquired silver-grade item.
Chad stared at the screen, stunned. The rarity of the item was not the main shock. The real problem was that Flynn's group had cleared Agud on their first attempt after learning the tactic. That part felt hard to accept.
In truth, Flynn's group had also been fortunate.
Let-There-Be-Light had tried something similar before, using the wall to break Charge, but they had not created enough distance afterward. They avoided the knockdown, yet after a Mass Fear they were standing too close. As fragile classes, they were instantly cut down when Agud turned on them.
This time, the extra distance made the difference. When Mass Fear triggered, Agud needed more than two seconds to close the gap to the casters. By the time he reached them, Not-A-Bystander and Let-There-Be-Light had already recovered and regained control of the fight.
Hoof Stomp, which had previously caused them endless trouble, also played out differently. Flynn's damage output kept him firmly at second on the threat table. Every time Not-A-Bystander was stunned by Hoof Stomp, Agud immediately switched targets to Flynn.
That might have been fatal for anyone else.
Agud's mount used Hoof Stomp eight times. Eight times, Agud turned to Flynn. Aside from a single unavoidable Crescent Slash, Flynn avoided every normal attack that followed. He moved with precise timing, never overcommitting and never panicking.
By the end of the fight, Let-There-Be-Light had a new description ready.
"He's a bug," he muttered while distributing loot. "This guy is a system bug."
The drops included a silver-grade dagger, a green-grade shield, and a green-grade staff. All were solid upgrades. The dagger required level sixteen, and Flynn was just short of that threshold, so he could only store it for later. Let-There-Be-Light and Not-A-Bystander equipped their new gear immediately. The stat increases were modest, but the morale boost was not.
After a short rest to recover resources, they advanced deeper into the castle.
A large iron door separated the courtyard from the interior halls. It was locked tight. According to the dungeon lore, many had tried to force it open over the past century, and none had succeeded. The only accessible path was a side gallery that curved toward the rear garden, where another entrance led inside.
But the gallery and garden were also crawling with wandering ghosts. The ones in the courtyard had once been castle guards. These new ones were the former servants and attendants. Rhaess, the Head Maid, was the most important among them and the second boss they'd have to face.
The ghosts in the gallery came in packs of three or four. They wore old servant uniforms, mostly cloth armor, and carried strange weapons. Some held thin blades that looked more suited for dining tables than battlefields. Others gripped bouquets that emitted a faint, hostile glow. One even dragged a pair of oversized pruning shears.
"Okay, giant pruning shears. These guys are something else," Amy said, drawing her bow and firing a Concussive Shot at a ghost named 'Gardener'.
Not-A-Bystander rushed the other two. "Amy, kite it far," he called out with a laugh. "No clue if these things are ranged or melee."
"Probably melee," Amy replied, keeping roughly thirty yards between herself and the Gardener, the standard maximum range for most ranged attacks. Any farther and she would lose target lock. The ghost had not used any skills at that distance, so she assumed it was a close-combat type.
"Don't get careless. Don't push it," Let-There-Be-Light warned.
"I know," Amy muttered, though she continued moving along the wall with steady footwork.
Peerless Blood-Sword and Not-A-Bystander engaged their targets. Flynn, however, kept watching the Gardener with a slight frown.
"Something's off," he said quietly.
"It's just a trash mob," Peerless Blood-Sword replied with a forced laugh. "Stop overthinking it."
"When it was about eighteen yards from Amy, it paused for a moment," Flynn said. "She moved fast, so it was hard to notice."
"Eighteen yards? You serious? Did you actually measure it?" The edge in Peerless Blood-Sword's voice was obvious.
Flynn gave Peerless Blood-Sword a surprised look. The guy's tone was off, carrying some kind of weight. When their eyes met, Peerless Blood-Sword quickly looked away, focusing hard on the mob like he was deep in thought. Flynn considered it. This shift in attitude had started not long after they entered Hell mode. Before that, he'd been totally normal. Did he steal the show?
'Tsk, tsk. It's tough being this good, makes people jealous.' Flynn thought with a grin aimed at Peerless Blood-Sword. "I didn't measure it. It just felt like eighteen. Could be off by a bit."
Let-There-Be-Light stepped in before the exchange went further. "Most ranged attacks cap at thirty yards," he began, then caught the serious look in Flynn's eyes. He changed direction mid-sentence. "Go help Amy."
Peerless Blood-Sword shot him a look, ready to argue, but a private message appeared from Light: "Blood-Sword, you're not acting normal."
The words hit harder than expected. He realized he had been letting his frustration show. After a brief pause, he took a breath and nodded. His focus shifted fully back to the fight.
By then, Flynn was already sprinting toward Amy.
She had kited the Gardener into a corner and was about to cut ninety degrees along the wall. The ghost did not follow her exact path. Instead, it moved in a straight line, cutting the corner to intercept. The gap between them shrank quickly.
Flynn did the math in his head; their speeds and the courtyard's size. He realized that if Amy kept going the way she was, the distance between her and the mob would definitely drop under eighteen yards.
Sure enough, a moment later, Amy hit the next corner. The Gardener stopped, put away its giant shears, and pulled out... a bucket.
"A bucket!" Not just Amy, but even Flynn was thrown off. He'd expected some kind of skill, not a random household item. The next second, the Gardener threw the bucket. It exploded over Amy's head, drenching her completely in a flood of water.