[Southeast Divine Mark Activation 0/1]
[Southwest Divine Mark Activation 0/1]
[North Divine Mark Activation 1/1]
[???]
[Celestial Basin Overall Progress 0/1]
Tap tap tap.
Nervously tapping the scabbard, I sat cross-legged on top of a large pile of rocks waiting for the next lamia wave and muttered a complaint to myself.
"This won't do."
It's a waste of time.
There's no point in just defending the northern Divine Mark alone.
It seemed that no further changes could be expected in the Celestial Basin area unless at least all Divine Marks were activated.
Three places where Divine Marks were buried. At first glance, they seemed to be buried randomly, but if you drew lines between the locations, they formed an exquisite equilateral triangle.
A kind of holy magic circle with each point forming a vertex.
The full-scale purification of Celestial Basin would begin only when the Divine Marks at all points were activated and they started resonating with each other.
But if I leave this place to activate Divine Marks at other locations, the lamias will dig up this place.
There's no way. It's physically impossible.
Because I don't have three bodies.
Is this how they're blocking me because I keep doing solo play? Even if they put in berserk patterns, I break through with the cheat key of the hero's power, and I overcome instant death gimmicks with the belt function given by Sister Elaine, so they present a structure that's physically impossible to solo?
This is tyranny. I want to advance alone. Even if the reason Celestial Basin has this structure isn't just the game company's intention, lately it feels like the Astria continent itself keeps trying to oppress me.
"Ugh."
I felt like crying out of frustration but held it in.
And fell into thought.
Think carefully, Rain, Lee Seulbi.
[Entry Level 53]
[Elite Dungeon (4-person party recommended)]
[Celestial Basin]
"It's not a 4-person party dungeon, but a 4-person party recommended dungeon."
Recommended.
Not forced.
This rule hasn't been broken from the start.
DPS is the second issue.
Not just me, but other users have also occasionally succeeded in soloing elite dungeons after raising their specs.
All the elite dungeons we've been through so far were possible to break through alone through gimmick understanding, equipment skills, and item use. Of course, it demanded somewhat forced gameplay.
"Then."
It's possible here too.
It's just a party play recommended dungeon.
I just haven't discovered the method for solo play yet.
-It's just a recommendation, right?
I smiled remembering the words of 'Nagi', the swordsman newbie I'm raising.
It's thanks to Nagi. In some ways, she's even more sharp than me.
Come to think of it, it's been a while since I've seen her face. I've been busy placating Chris unnie lately, and there was the Tomb of Swords try, and my head was very complicated. I wonder how much she's raised her level in the meantime? I should go meet her after clearing this elite dungeon. It seems about time for Nagi to challenge the forward base too.
Stand up.
I got up from the rock.
The task is set.
I didn't need to focus only on the Divine Marks.
[???]
This question mark that appeared on the dungeon progress interface must be a kind of hidden condition.
This is probably the key to clearing.
To find the hidden condition from now on.
This wide Celestial Basin, the entire instance field.
I'll search thoroughly.
Tap!
I immediately leapt from the rock.
Hiss hiss-!!
Leaving behind the lamia wave rushing in again, I set off to find the hidden clear condition.
Rumble rumble-!
The sound of lamia groups digging up the pile of stones could be heard distantly.
[Southeast Divine Mark Activation 0/1]
[Southwest Divine Mark Activation 0/1]
[North Divine Mark Activation 0/1]
[???]
[Celestial Basin Overall Progress 0/1]
Tap tap tap tap!
Running at high speed, I passed through the center of Celestial Basin and started exploring the edge of the basin surrounded by rocky mountains.
In the center, there's one wide open space that looks like the final named boss battle area. And, on the floor at the edges of Celestial Basin here and there.
"Why didn't I notice?"
Huge holes dug in the rocky floor everywhere.
Traces of something huge moving underground.
And.
Hiss-??
Slash!
After beheading an ordinary lamia that was just crawling out of there, I figured out the direction of the diagonally dug hole and started running towards it.
'Dungeon progress interface'.
Certainly, it's a good feature that presents the conditions needed for dungeon conquest.
And of course, those conditions must be met to clear the dungeon.
Currently, all the vanguard users challenging this dungeon will be checking the clear conditions and obsessing over Divine Mark activation. They don't see anything else. The hidden condition will bother them, but if they have enough people, there's no problem performing the defense. Even if the boss doesn't appear after successful purification, they can worry about the hidden condition then.
But.
"Even with enough people, the defense process itself won't be easy."
Huge holes dug all over Celestial Basin. They don't look like they were dug by ordinary lamias at all.
There must be special individuals.
They will probably appear to interfere with the full-scale purification work when all Divine Marks are successfully activated.
As long as the special individuals are alive, defense is very difficult. They need to be dealt with first.
Of course, with enough people, it's possible to perform defense while enduring the special individuals' attacks. But dealing with the special mobs, a kind of hidden named boss, will make the overall difficulty much easier.
And the lamias that keep appearing endlessly within Celestial Basin. It's clearly not the battle structure of a typical elite dungeon.
This isn't an open field. Even open field 'respawns' have conditions. This game, Astria Online, is very realistic despite being a game. Even the monster respawn method in open fields wasn't suddenly generated from thin air, but new individuals would pop out from nearby forests and such.
Mobs dealt with in individual instance dungeons don't respawn.
But they keep coming here.
What if the ordinary lamia respawn condition is linked to the survival of special individuals?
"If we deal with the special individuals, there's no need for defense."
Tap.
I looked at a cave dug in a corner of the rocky mountain surrounding the basin at the edge of Celestial Basin.
The cave entrance isn't that big. Just enough for one or two adult men to barely pass through. It could be considered a small natural cave, but.
I grinned looking at several huge holes dug in the surrounding floor.
A passage used by special individuals.
These guys move underground.
Then, this is probably.
"The lair of special mobs."
I carefully, but confidently stepped inside through the cave entrance.
Quietly.
"The inside is cleaner than I thought."
The cave interior made of clean stone floors.
It's a considerably wide space.
I've often seen this structure in other elite dungeons too.
This is most likely the named boss battle area.
And at the edge of that wide cavern.
"Oh."
I was taken aback for once.
Eggs, eggs, eggs.
A feast of huge eggs surrounding the entire wall.
Eggs so large I could curl up my small body and fit inside them.
They're incomparably larger than Earth's ostrich eggs or Astria continent's Copopo eggs.
I've seen eggs this size before.
The Chimera hatchery I encountered during the 'Aspero Fortress' conquest.
These are.
"Lamia eggs, perhaps."
Red and blue magic swirling around was promoting their growth. The ominous light emitted by that magic dimly illuminates the inside of the cave.
Then, the beings that laid these.
Are they in here?
They're not visible around the cave floor and walls.
Then.
I looked up at the high ceiling inside the cave.
In that dim light.
Hiss-
"Ah... Aah!"
I unconsciously covered my eyes and blushed.
Two giant lamias, one red and one blue, were entangled with their snake lower bodies intertwined and upper bodies pressed together.
Naturally, being lamias, they both had female upper bodies.
No, these eggs. Did those guys lay them?
All lamias are female, so how on earth.
"How did eggs come about between women?"
Some inexplicable curiosity arose, but the discomfort was greater.
We need a safety filter, a safety filter for minors.
Ching!
In an angry state, I drew Astaroth and sprayed sword energy towards the giant lamias entangled on the ceiling.
Slash slash slash!
"Lewd things are not allowed!"
Screech--!!
Thud.
The two lamias hit by my sword energy fell to the cave floor with a loud noise and.
Roar!
Hiss hiss hiss hiss!
They raised their long snake lower bodies greatly while making ferocious sounds.
I smiled confidently looking at the two giant lamias, blue snake and red snake, clearly showing hostility.
I don't like defense. This is better.
"Now it feels more like an elite dungeon."
[Hidden Named]
[Level 55 Red Lamia]
[HP 69,140,050 / 70,000,000 (99%)]
[Hidden Named]
[Level 55 Blue Lamia]
[HP 69,117,998 / 70,000,000 (99%)]