[First Named Boss]  
[Level 45 Ancient Golem Minotaur]  
[HP 4,290,056/8,600,000]

*Rumble, rumble!*

The entire cube-shaped boss room began to shake violently.

Chris crouched low and shouted.

“It’s the special phase! This time, we can’t miss the red wall!”

*Clank.*  
*Whir, whir, whir!*

The four walls began to separate and rotate to the right. The wall that had flashed red was originally at the 12 o’clock position, where Beimerung stood.

*Rumble, rumble!*

But the intense shaking of the boss room made it hard for the party members to focus on the movement of the walls.

“Ahh! It’s shaking too much!”

“I-I lost track of it!”

“Damn it! It’s impossible to figure out where it’s going with all this movement!”

Even though everyone tried to keep their eyes open, the violently shifting view made it nearly impossible to track where the 12 o’clock wall had moved.

Chris bit her lip. She, too, had lost track of the wall that had flashed red.

*Thud, clank.*

The tremors in the boss room stopped, and the walls finished rotating. As the room returned to its cube shape, Chris gave an order to Deathmaster.

“Just try the 12 o’clock wall!”

“Got it!”

*Tat-tat!*

Quickly dodging backward, Deathmaster positioned himself with his back to the 12 o’clock wall as the Minotaur prepared to charge.

*Boom, boom, boom!*

*Crash!*

The Minotaur’s massive horns slammed into the wall, sending a shockwave through the boss room.

*Flash!*

Red light exploded from the wall, but not from the 12 o’clock position. It came from the 6 o’clock wall where Chris was standing.

“What?!”

*Ooooooooh!*

The Minotaur shook its head a few times and began attacking Deathmaster again, who was holding its aggro.

Cherni’s voice echoed through the boss room.

“We’re not doing any damage! This barrier is much stronger than the first phase!”

“We’re only doing about 20% of our original damage. Can we still keep going?”

“Let’s keep trying! With our party’s firepower, we might be able to pull it off!”

Even if they failed to hit the right wall, it wasn’t as though they couldn’t deal any damage at all. Eventually, the boss would enter a berserk mode, but if they could succeed with the gimmick during the 25% special phase, they still had a chance to bring it down.

The damage dealt to the golem had significantly decreased, and the normal phase had dragged on. Deathmaster was starting to struggle.

However, Chris’s raid team had impressive firepower. Despite the reduction in damage, they managed to push the Minotaur into the 25% special phase.

*Ooooooooh!*

*Boom, boom, boom!*

Blue energy burst from the Minotaur’s body, and the 6 o’clock wall flashed red.

“It’s at 6 o’clock this time, I won’t miss it!”

The entire raid team, having survived the AoE attack using ice prisons, immediately focused their attention on the walls.

*Rumble, rumble!*

The floor trembled, the walls rotated, and soon, the movement of the boss room stopped.

“Did you find it?!”

“I lost it again!”

“Is it even possible to track it?!”

Once again, none of the party members could keep track of the wall’s movement. Even Deathmaster couldn’t follow it.

“To hell with it, let’s just guess! Death, try 3 o’clock!”

At Chris’s shout, Deathmaster immediately adjusted, leading the Minotaur’s charge toward the 3 o’clock wall.

*Crash! Boom!*

*Oooooooom!*

As the Minotaur slammed into the 3 o’clock wall, red light erupted, and the barrier shattered. The golem collapsed into a groggy state.

The entire party’s faces lit up with relief.

“We did it!”

“No time to waste! Start attacking now!”

The raid team unleashed all their firepower on the immobilized Minotaur.

---

[First Named Boss]  
[Level 45 Ancient Golem Minotaur]  
[HP 1,409,581/8,600,000]

*Ooooooooh!*

Just as Chris’s team was steadily whittling down the boss’s remaining HP, a new barrier formed around the Minotaur with a roar.

Chris’s face showed her surprise.

“A barrier?! I thought the special phase was over!”

“We’re barely dealing any damage! This—this is…”

“The barrier has three layers!”

*Whoosh, thud!*

“Gah!”

Deathmaster was hit by the Minotaur’s upward horn strike, launching his body into the air, nearly crashing into the ceiling. The sheer power of the blow was terrifying.

Chris’s face turned pale.

“Berserk mode!”

The golem’s attack power, defense, and speed had all skyrocketed. The party had been hit with a time-attack situation.

At this point, it was clear that without perfectly executing the mechanics, there was no way they could defeat the boss with their current firepower.

*Boom, boom, boom, boom!*

Still airborne and unable to regain his footing, Deathmaster became impaled on the Minotaur’s horns. With him dangling helplessly from the horns, the Minotaur charged at Cherni.

“W-wahhh!”

Cherni screamed as he activated an invincibility skill, but he was still ripped apart by the Minotaur’s vicious horn strikes.

The Minotaur’s rampage didn’t stop until the entire party was wiped out.

---

“This first named boss is no joke. If we can adjust aggro and switch from Death’s tanking to ranged tanking, we might be able to shorten the charge time,” Beimerung suggested.

“Hmm, that’s worth considering. But it won’t be easy. It would require precise damage control. And even if we manage that, if we can’t hit the right wall when it flashes, we’ll still have to retry,” Deathmaster said.

“Statistically, if we keep trying, we should be able to get through. We have a 6.25% chance of guessing the right wall twice in a row,” Cherni calculated.

“If the charge angle is even slightly off, the red light won’t trigger. The pattern is hard to handle, and the time-attack pressure is intense. Even leaving it up to luck, the chance of a clear is less than 6%.”

“We can’t afford to gamble on luck and pour all our time into just the first named boss. There’s got to be some mechanic we’re missing,” Chris said, deep in thought as she studied the walls of the boss room.

No matter how hard she tried to focus, it seemed impossible to track the movement of the walls through the violent shaking.

Could Rain do it? Had Rain cleared the first boss already?

Chris opened her messenger window briefly.

[Swordsman 'Drizzle Rain' (Online, Do Not Disturb)]

“Should I visit her room?”

Muttering to herself, Chris quickly closed the messenger and shook her head.

What are you thinking, Chris?

Just because you’re stuck, you’re considering asking Rain for help? You said it was a friendly competition.

If you contact Rain’s capsule from outside, it might disrupt her progress.

And if she’s truly soloing… wouldn’t that just make me feel even worse?

---

Suddenly, as she stared absentmindedly at the walls, a thought struck Chris.

The faint blue light illuminating the patterns carved into the walls…

Wait, were the wall patterns always like that?

Hurriedly, Chris glanced at the four walls, looking from one to the other.

They were different.

The patterns carved into each of the four walls were all different. At first glance, they seemed similar, but now, looking at them in a calm state, the difference was clear.

“Aha.”

Confidence returned to Chris’s face.

---

[First Named Boss]  
[Level 45 Ancient Golem Minotaur]  
[HP 316,819/8,600,000]

At some point, the Minotaur’s attacks had become faster and stronger, and the barrier had regenerated. The remaining HP was barely going down.

This was a common situation I had to deal with when soloing bosses—the inevitable berserk phase. As time passed, the boss became so powerful that it was no longer possible to defeat it conventionally.

However, this wasn’t the kind of berserk mode that posed a serious problem for me. Even if the damage I dealt had drastically decreased, I could still chip away at the boss over time. Compared to bosses like Gallovan from the second named fight in the *Outpost*, who restricted the battle area, this wasn’t as threatening.

Increased attack strength? As long as I didn’t get hit, it didn’t matter. I only needed to block the patterns I could handle.

Increased speed? It’s still not as fast as the *Ancient Hero*.

*Whir!*

*Clang!*

I blocked the upward horn strike with perfect timing, but the impact sent my light body flying into the air.

The Minotaur raised its sharp horns, ready to impale me as I hung mid-air.

*Swish.*

I twisted my body in mid-air, keeping my eyes on the Minotaur, and brought my sword to my waist.

There was only one target. My relentless attacks had paid off.

The sharp horns of the bull had numerous cracks.

Using the

 momentum of my fall, I drove *One Slash* right into the cracked horn.

*Flash!*

*Crack!*

My sword and body became one as I slammed into the ground like a bolt of light, shattering the Minotaur’s left horn.

*Ooooooooh!*

The Minotaur twisted in agony.

Even with the barrier, it couldn’t withstand the force of my *One Slash*, powered by gravity.

That’s one horn down, buddy!

But the right horn was still intact. The Minotaur twisted its body and prepared to strike again.

*Whir!*

*Clang!*

Once again, I was flung into the air.

*Flash!*

At that moment, light burst from my body, resetting the cooldowns of all my skills.

[Bracelet of Hammer and Anvil]  
[Elite]  
[Strength +35, Agility +35, Intelligence +35]  
[Unique Ability: Resets all skill cooldowns (Cooldown: 10 minutes)]

The bracelet’s unique ability had activated. I could use *One Slash* again.

Time to take care of that other horn.

What should I call a bull with no horns?

Either way, this is going to hurt.

“Hang in there, Minotaur.”

*Flash!*