[World Boss]  
[Green Dragon]  
[HP: 159,900,540 / 200,000,000]

*KAaaaaa—!!*

A deafening roar echoed through the landscape, shaking the mountains and trees. The dragon's fierce presence caused the players around it to freeze in fear.

The Green Dragon's sharp eyes glowed as it glared at the players before it. Its massive body, covered in gleaming, steel-like scales, shimmered in the light.

The colossal World Boss, the *Green Dragon*, stared down its prey, its enormous lizard-like eyes flashing dangerously. Slowly, it inhaled deeply.

*Wooooom.*

Its gigantic chest expanded, and from deep within its mouth, a unique, radiant green light began to swirl. As its jaws slowly opened, the energy intensified, swirling with ferocity, growing brighter and brighter until its maw was lit like a small sun.

Facing the destructive force head-on was *Plan B’s* guild master, *Stonewall Cho Hyunsu*, a swordsman class. He called out to his raid team.

“No matter how overwhelming the power, it can't break through invulnerability skills! Follow the plan in order!”

Before he could finish his sentence—

*FLASH!*

A wave of pure energy mixed with deadly poison erupted from the Green Dragon, surging toward the players.

*KRACK! KABOOM!*

The intense green energy split the air, blanketing the entire forest in its glow. Everything around was drowned in the destructive green light, as trees were uprooted by the blast accompanying the breath.

*KRRRRUMMMBLE!*

*Tat!*

The raid members quickly blurred backward as they dodged, their bodies shielded by ice, water droplets, and protective charms in quick succession.

*SPAAAAARK!*

As the relentless breath finally weakened, *Plan B*’s raid team, having cycled through raid-wide shields and invulnerability skills, successfully survived the first breath attack from the World Boss.

Cho Hyunsu let out a smug chuckle.

“Kekeke, good. Everyone made it through. As I thought, it’s not an impossible pattern.”

“Guardian tanks, resuming position!”

Immediately, two sub-tanks took the aggro from the two *Iron Golems* that had appeared alongside the boss.

[Iron Golem]  
[HP: 48,050,049 / 50,000,000]

Covered in green dragon scales, the Guardians were a significant threat, but thanks to the sub-tanks drawing their attention, the main DPS could focus entirely on the Green Dragon.

*BOOM!*

The two Guardians were now safely taunted by the sub-tanks.

“Everyone, use potions and antidotes! From now on, this area will be covered in poison gas! Don't hold back on the potions!”

Following Cho Hyunsu’s orders, the raid members quickly drank their potions and antidotes. The lingering poison gas from the Green Dragon's breath attack was hindering their progress.

Though the first round of antidotes had cleared the accumulated poison, until the cooldown was back, they would have to rely on potions to survive the ticking poison damage.

Massive HP, wide-area breath attacks, continuous poison gas damage, two Guardians, and brutal normal attack patterns...

The *Green Dragon* was truly deserving of its title as a World Boss.

*WHOOOSH!*

Suddenly, the Green Dragon’s enormous tail, thicker than a person’s torso, swept across the battlefield. Its range covered the entire raid group.

*KAKAKANG!*

“Ugh!”

“Aah!”

Although everyone used defensive skills, they couldn’t completely absorb the damage. Two of the ranged DPS who hadn’t yet recovered from the poison damage saw their HP dangerously drop.

Still, if they could continue like this, they would soon reach the special phase.

However, being in the middle of a *Faction Battlefield*, *Plan B*’s guild master, Cho Hyunsu, couldn’t solely focus on the boss fight.

“Damn, things were going well. What’s with GG Gang? They’ve been quiet for a while, and now they show up?”

Cho Hyunsu grew anxious.

His guild members were notifying him through the guild chat that the situation on the *Verbeia Forest* battlefield, where the World Boss raid was taking place, was rapidly changing.

“Alfarion Empire is pushing hard! We won’t be able to keep up the raid for much longer!”

“Should we retreat?”

“Of course, they won’t be able to clear it either, but we can’t weaken the World Boss for them. We’ll reset the fight, push back Alfarion Empire, and resume the raid afterward.”

*GG Gang’s* main force had reached the area near the Dragon’s Lair. They would break through and reach the boss fight soon.

As Cho Hyunsu retreated while managing the dragon’s normal attack patterns, he spotted a martial artist in a red robe approaching.

Recognizing the figure, Cho Hyunsu ground his teeth.

“WeGotMarried...!”

“Hehe, Hyunsu, where are you rushing off to?”

*THUD!*

*SLASH!*

“Ugh! PVP setup!?”

Cho Hyunsu was knocked back several meters as he blocked WeGotMarried’s incoming strike.

The damage penetrating his guard confirmed his suspicion—WeGotMarried was in a PVP gear setup, focused entirely on player-versus-player stats.

“WeGotMarried, you should know that you can’t change your gear setup inside a faction battlefield, right? Are you planning to raid the World Boss with a PVP build?”

“Of course not. Unlike you, Hyunsu, I’m not skilled enough to handle both raid-leading and arena combat. But even I know that no matter how many players you throw at it, a World Boss won’t fall to a PVP build.”

“Then what...?”

“The team raiding the World Boss today isn’t *GG Gang*.”

“What?!”

Cho Hyunsu urgently scanned his surroundings.

*BOOM! BAM!*

“Gah!”

“Urgh!”

The *Plan B* raid members, set up with PVE gear, were being easily cut down by GG Gang’s main force. The entire GG Gang was equipped in PVP gear.

None of them seemed to be part of the raid team.

“So you’re planning to push us out and then bring in your raid team. Heh, fine. I’ll retreat for now, but I hope you taste the full wrath of the Green Dragon.”

If he fell here, he’d face a faction battlefield re-entry cooldown penalty.

Deciding to retreat strategically, Cho Hyunsu pulled out a special return scroll.

His only remaining option was to regroup with the Plan B alliance inside the forest and delay GG Gang’s raid as long as possible.

It wouldn’t be easy to stop their first attempt. But by the time GG Gang’s raid team was wiped out by the Green Dragon, Plan B would have time to reorganize. After that, they could intercept any reinforcements from inside the forest.

Once GG Gang’s main force was driven back, Plan B could resume raiding the World Boss comfortably.

“Kekeke!”

With a mocking laugh, Cho Hyunsu activated the return scroll and disappeared from *Verbeia Forest*.

As the raid team moved out of its range, the Green Dragon returned to its lair.

WeGotMarried stood still for a moment, staring at where Cho Hyunsu had been.

Then, gazing up at the towering cliffs that led to the Dragon’s Lair, he murmured quietly.

“*Red and White Guild*. Plan B will be handled by GG Gang. I leave the Green Dragon to you.”

---

I clung tightly to Chris’s side, watching as Plan B retreated.

*KAaaa—!!*

With a victorious roar, the Green Dragon returned to its lair, and I let out a small exclamation.

“Oh.”

Indeed, it was nothing like those Wyverns. This thing was truly impressive.

However, dragons in the continent of Astrea were really just oversized, powerful Wyverns. Though the gap between the two was vast, making the dragon worthy of being a World Boss.

Atop the towering cliff where the raid had taken place, 13 players stood.

They were the core members of the raid-focused *Red and White Guild*.

Chris turned around and addressed the 13 raid members, including herself.

“Hello, everyone. It’s quite something that the first full meeting of *Red and White Guild* is taking place at the frontline of a World Boss raid.”

Smiles spread across the faces of the raid members.

I stayed close to Chris as I glanced around at their faces.

Besides Chris’s party, there were two other first-clear raid teams.

These were the members of *Red and White Guild*, the ones who would be part of future large-scale raids.

I even recognized a familiar face.

“Ah, young swordsman, good to see you again. Sorry about the bus party incident.”

One of the warriors scratched his head and smiled at me.

I nodded slightly.

He was *Leroy Hopkins*, the leader of a four-person party that had once used our bus party service.

Although he had caused me some pain back then, it had led to Chris meeting Lee Seulbi, so I held no grudge against him now.

Hopkins was the party leader of one of the first-clear groups. No wonder he’d dealt such impressive damage, even as a bus passenger.

The leader of the other party was a male ranger with blue hair.

He greeted Chris.

“I’m *Seopseop*, the leader of *Seopseop Party*. Recently, for the sake of World Boss raiding, we’ve transferred our entire party to the Alfarion Empire.”

I tilted my head slightly.

I

 felt like I had seen him somewhere before.

Hopkins Party and Seopseop Party. Eight members in total.

Chris Party, four members.

And Noname Party, one member—me.

A 13-person raid team had formed here.

Chris looked around at the group and began the briefing.

“We’ve already discussed raid tactics via video call on our group messenger, so I’ll skip the detailed explanation.”

Hopkins stroked his chin and nodded.

“The Green Dragon… Seeing it in person is a whole different experience than watching videos. Do you think it’ll go as planned?”

“It’s even more clear now. We might just one-shot it. Plan B left us plenty of information.”

“Oh-ho.”

“Indeed.”

The raid members expressed their excitement at Chris’s confident words.

“Everyone has their floating potions, right? Drink them, and you won’t take fall damage when you jump off the cliff.”

*Beimerung* looked down at the cliff below and whistled.

“Whew, taking the cliff route. Well, whatever else, it sure comes with a nice view.”

“It’s a bit roundabout, but it lets us avoid unnecessary PVP. Plus, we can make use of things like this.”

Chris patted my head and gestured around.

Two enormous ballistae were hidden in the foliage atop the cliff. They would certainly come in handy for the raid.

“A flying World Boss. Judging by these ballistae, it’s safe to assume it’ll have a flying phase once its HP drops low enough. Got it? Two rangers, stay on the cliff.”

Seopseop and the other ranger nodded. They would use the ballistae to target the dragon’s wings during its flight phase.

*Cherni* asked Chris a question.

“The breath attack is seriously dangerous. Should we use the raid-wide shields in sequence, like Plan B did?”

“Using all the shields like that left the ranged DPS vulnerable to the Green Dragon’s AOE physical attack. Even if Plan B had continued, their ranged DPS would’ve been wiped before the shield cooldowns were back up. Rain found another way for us to handle it.”

I pointed to the two *Iron Golems* standing idle on either side of the Dragon’s Lair.

“See those green scales on their bodies? They look like shields, don’t they? If we take them down…”

“Ah, I see.”

Hopkins nodded.

The other raid members seemed to understand as well.

The green scales covering the Guardians would serve as objects to block the dragon’s breath attack.

However, the Guardians each had 50 million HP. The DPS would need to focus all their firepower to take them down quickly.

“That means the raid-wide shield will be limited to the DPS near the Guardians. The main tank won’t be in the shield’s range.”

“If the main tank dies, we’ll have to start over. I can see why Plan B focused all their damage on the boss while just pulling aggro on the Guardians. If the main tank has to face the dragon’s patterns alone without the shield…”

Seopseop trailed off as Chris looked down at me.

“Rain, will you be okay?”

“No problem.”

I looked up at Chris and smiled. She gave me a confident smile in return.

*Gulp, gulp.*

I drew my sword and drank my floating potion.

The simulation was over.

The first World Boss raid—the *Green Dragon*.

Raid leader: Chris.

Main tank: Rain.

*THUD.*

With the floating potion slowing my fall, my body began to drop off the cliff.

Chris followed suit, leaping after me.

*WOOOSH!*

The wind rushed past as Chris caught up to me mid-air, gripping my hand tightly. Her eyes sparkled with determination as she spoke.

“We’ll clear it in one go.”