At one-third of the battle, there was a change in the explosion pattern, but Chris' party managed to survive. They succeeded in reducing Aspero’s HP down to zero.

**[3rd Named Boss]**  
**[Level 40 Magic General Aspero]**  
**[HP 1/6,000,000]**

However, Aspero did not fall.

Sensing something ominous, Chris shouted to his party members.

"It's not over! There's more to this!"

Boom!

A low, rumbling noise filled the air.

Aspero slammed one of its chimera arms into the ground.

Simultaneously, numerous orbs began filling the entire battlefield.

"All-out explosion! Beimerung! What's the cooldown on Frozen Prison?"

"Two seconds... one second... I can use it now!"

"Use Frozen Prison first!"

Crack.

The bodies of the party members froze. Soon, the magical orbs all detonated simultaneously.

Boom, boom, boom!

"Ugh, there's no safe zone in this pattern! We have to use all invincibility and party protection skills!"

"Why won't it end?!"

The rumbling continued.

Without a moment's respite, more orbs were generated. 

Second explosion pattern.

"Undine!"

Whoosh!

With Cherni's shout, a giant water barrier enveloped the party members.

Boom, boom, boom!

The second explosion was blocked by the spirit summoner’s 'Water Sphere' skill, protecting the party.

"Prepare for the third explosion! It’s definitely coming! We need to ensure individual survival!"

The ominous rumbling echoed again.

Before Chris could finish his words, the battlefield was filled with purple orbs, signaling the third explosion.

Tap, tap.

Boom, boom, boom!

This time, all four party members used backward movement skills to avoid the pattern.

But the explosions hadn’t ended yet.

The rumbling returned.

"What!? This is insane!"

An unexpected fourth wide-area attack appeared, but Chris’ skilled party members responded without delay.

Boom, boom, boom!

Swoosh.

Deathmaster, the fighter, used the fighter’s 'Martial Step,' a counter to the swordsman’s 'Counterattack,' successfully resisting the explosion. 

Fortunately, by this point, the ranged classes also had personal invincibility skills on cooldown. 

Numerous talismans around Chris' body tore apart, blocking the explosion. The flames surrounding Beimerung dissipated, and the rocks protecting Cherni crumbled away.

They managed to survive the fourth explosion. Is it finally over?

However, 'Magic General Aspero' betrayed their expectations.

The rumbling began again.

Fifth explosion. This time, they couldn’t escape. All invincibility skills were still on cooldown.

The faces of the entire party turned pale.

Boom, boom, boom!

"Aaaah!"

"Guh, ack!"

The party members were scattered in all directions by the fifth explosion. Their HP was almost depleted.

And then, the sixth explosion.

"Can we dodge it!?"

"Can we? Ah, no, it’s not possible!"

The cooldown was just slightly short.

If they hadn’t dodged the third explosion with perfect timing, the cooldown on their movement skills wouldn’t have reset.

Chris screamed in frustration.

"This is a scam! How are we supposed to beat this?!"

Boom, boom, boom!

Amidst the all-consuming explosions, Deathmaster’s battle cry echoed.

"Woooooah!"

The last thing the party saw within the explosion was Deathmaster transforming into a dragon.

---

Tap, tap, tap!

The resurrected members of Chris' raid party rushed up the stairs to the top of the third area.

Deathmaster had not resurrected. That meant he was still alive.

If the battle was ongoing, the barrier preventing entry was still active. They couldn’t join the fight after resurrecting, but they had to check the situation.

When they reached the battlefield where Aspero had fought, what they saw was...

Deathmaster, frozen in place with his fist extended forward, and Aspero’s body gradually disintegrating into dust.

The party erupted into cheers.

"Y-yes! We did it!"

"How did you survive, Deathmaster?! How did you live through that!?"

"Hu..."

Deathmaster, relaxing his posture and taking a deep breath, shared his skill interface with the party.

**[Dragon Fist]**  
**[Invincible during cast]**  
**[Cooldown: 1 minute]**

Chris let out a whistle.

"A new skill from the Tower of Training...!"

"Was the invincibility effect something you could intentionally use? It’s so short it might as well not exist!"

"It’s a skill where you punch a straight line infused with dragon’s power. There's invincibility during the brief moment before the punch lands. It was a gamble, but I managed to pull it off."

Chris laughed heartily, slapping Deathmaster on the back.

"Hahaha! Nice, nice! Deathmaster, I’ll lift your restriction on using the company’s test room!"

"Mm!"

Deathmaster closed his eyes and clenched his fist.

"We cleared it this time, but will we always have to survive six explosions? The difficulty is just too high."

Cherni grumbled, and Chris shook his head.

"No, as long as we calculate the cooldown of invincibility skills, we can manage. This time, we used the safest party-wide protection skills first because it was a new pattern."

Beimerung immediately understood Chris' explanation.

"Oh...! If we use the invincibility skills with the shortest cooldowns first..."

"Yeah, and we can use them one more time. By following this principle, we can rotate the invincibility skills in order of their cooldown times, using party-wide protection skills to reset the cooldown in between. Once we figure out the frequency and number of explosion patterns, we won’t have to rely on Deathmaster’s monkey tricks."

"K-khm. Monkey tricks, huh? I was the key to our success in this strategy. I’d appreciate some recognition."

"It’s still difficult, though. There are still a lot of people who can’t master the backward movement yet. The physical requirements are getting higher and higher."

"In the end, it’s just a matter of repetition. Even with synchronization limits, if you try dozens of times, your body will memorize the timing."

Chris smiled triumphantly.

They had broken through the desperate pattern of the named boss in one attempt and successfully cleared it.

This time, they must have beaten the NoName party.

"So, did the Chris raid team get the first clear? Anyone have region announcements on?"

"...Gasp!"

Beimerung checked the region announcement and swallowed hard.

"This... this came up five minutes ago. During our attempt."

"What!?"

**[Noname Party has successfully cleared the Elite Dungeon, 'Aspero's Citadel' for the first time!]**

---

After the battle ended, I drank a potion, and my depleted HP slowly began to recover.

I hugged myself, waiting for the excruciating pain to subside.

After the pain fully dissipated, I reflected on the battle.

"So, that was the 0% enraged pattern."

The entire battlefield was filled with exploding orbs, a total of six explosions.

Backward movement, counterattack, and Moonlight Slash allowed us to resist three times.

Then, on the fourth explosion, backward movement came off cooldown, and counterattack worked for the fifth. No problems so far.

But there was no way to dodge the sixth explosion.

Of course, as long as you're not standing right next to an orb, it doesn’t result in instant death. It’s possible to survive one hit and still clear the fight.

But...

"It hurts. It really hurts."

I whined to myself.

If Beimerung or Cherni were here, they would’ve used party-wide protection skills to cover one of the explosions.

"Sigh."

I let out a light sigh.

This is the solo play I chose. Complaining won’t change anything.

Even though I have no way of avoiding the sixth explosion each time, as long as I survive, I just need to endure the pain for a moment.

Anyway, once again, Rain-sama has cleared the dungeon!

I forced a bright smile, clenched my fist, and raised it in triumph.

Finally, it was time to check the reward items.

Thump, thump.

I confidently walked toward the item box left behind by Aspero, ready to claim my victory.

**[Aspero’s Yin-Yang Orb]**  
**[Elite Grade]**  
**[Attack Power: 270]**  
**[40% increased damage for the 'Demon Seal' skill]**  
**[Socket 1: EMPTY]**  
**[Socket 2: EMPTY]**  
**(Bound upon equipping)**

"Gasp...!"

The attack power and skill damage multiplier were exactly what I expected.

But the most important detail was that, starting with this weapon, there were now two Echo Stone slots.  

Considering the previous Zarcan weapon only had one slot, this was a massive upgrade.

It allowed for various combinations of Echo Stones.

Stats and lifesteal combinations. Or even attack power and lifesteal.

I checked how many Zarcan Coins I had.

After completing the Zarcan farm, I mostly ran dungeon buses, so I didn’t have many coins left from selling accessories.

But I had been doing my daily quests consistently. With just a few more coins, I could purchase an Echo Stone at full price and equip it.

And then, I discovered another item that made me shout in excitement.

"Yes! An Echo Stone!"

**[Purple Echo Stone]**  
**[Weapon Socket Item]**  
**[Strength +30]**  
**(Bound upon equipping)**

A tradeable Echo Stone that still maintained a high market price!

Each class’s

 primary stat affects attack power, but it’s still ranked lower than an attack power Echo Stone. However, the stat increase provided additional combat advantages.

Especially for a class like a fighter, which could immobilize enemies with strength-based skills, a strength Echo Stone was more desirable than an attack power one.

The issue was that, by now, early players had likely collected enough Zarcan Coins to purchase Echo Stones at full price.

Zarcan weapons only had one slot. For players who already had full-priced Echo Stones, there was no need to buy expensive tradeable ones.

"But."

After calculating my options, I grinned mischievously and carefully tucked the Echo Stone into my inventory.

This new weapon had two slots.

To utilize both slots immediately, I had to buy one tradeable Echo Stone.

I had already acquired one during the first Zarcan raid and was using it.

"When Aspero’s weapons flood the market, the price of tradeable Echo Stones will skyrocket."

Smiling broadly, I opened the auction house.

It was a shame I hadn’t gotten a weapon this time, but it would drop eventually as I kept farming.

And the Yin-Yang Orb I had just obtained could be sold for a good price.

Wait.

As I was about to list the Yin-Yang Orb on the auction house, someone’s face flashed through my mind.

I put the orb back into my inventory, sat down, and began to ponder.

"Hmmm...."