When The Cute Godkiller Opens A Tavern [Stubbed]

Chapter 101 - The First Floor

”It’s not always a given that the first floor of a raid will be a pushover. In fact, it usually sets the tone for the rest of the raid. So it’s doubly important that everyone puts their best foot forward from the get go.” ~Maxims Ya Yobore

Shallies didn’t even need to be involved dealing with the Raid Pillars. She gave her Guiding Star buffs only to the seraphim, keeping herself as low profile as possible. Though there were already a few people who had witnessed what she could do, she had also given them reason to believe that it was in a limited capacity. Reserving her Mass Dancing Stars for crucial fights, for example, was something everyone agreed to without contest.

The first pillar was defended by a Chaos Pitmaster, a demonic entity capable of confusing adventurers into fighting their allies. Underneath a cloak, made out of black, smoking mana, were six arms, each one holding a whip. Horns with swirling red mana penetrated its hood, and its perpetually angry demon-face had dark red eyes. The demon walked on two legs as it cracked every whip, each crack accompanied by a magical flare in an attempt to mind-control the raid group.

Fortunately, this wasn’t the first time the Gaiamaxims Guild had dealt with such a troublesome monster. Melee combatants kept their distance from the Chaos Pitmaster’s range of influence, while taunting the straggling monsters that populated the room. Then the ranged fighters destroyed the demonic entity with a barrage of holy, water, and ice Spells.

It never had chance.

The second Raid Pillar was guarded by a lavashifter. It was larger than the Boss Monster that had appeared in the initial wave a few days ago. But now that the raid group was fully equipped to deal with this flaming elemental, it didn’t even take them half an hour to clear the room.

On their way to the third Raid Pillar, Shallies subtly assessed the raid group. Even though their progress was steady, it hadn’t been without any damage.

At the same time, Maxims ordered a short rest.

Their healers and spellcasters had gone through half their mana already, and it was showing in the effectiveness of their Spells. Nothing a mana potion couldn’t fix. Their armors and shields also needed a quick repair, which was easily solved by their repair tools.

Overall, no one was seriously injured or unable to continue.

Everything was as had been expected, so far. It was only the first floor of the Thrush’ven Alir Raid, after all. Though Shallies did silently commend the whole group for keeping it together. The guild might have dealt with The Great Storm all this time, but the majority of the current group had minimal experience when it came to this raid.

Which brought her to the Guildmaster.

“When are your reinforcements showing up?” she asked.

“Before we go to the second floor,” Maxims replied. “The first floor will give us an idea of how the rest of the raid will look like. Once we have enough data, I’ll send Coraline the information so that the others can prepare.”

Valor’el and Yoshelle arrived next to them at the same time.

“We’re all good on our end,” said the seraph.

“Same here,” added the Guild Princess.

“Good.” Maxims gave a nod, and the raid then continued.

While the group dealt with the third Raid Pillar, guarded by a burning eonpede and a frigid eonpede, Shallies took the time to subtly probe for the mysterious presence she had felt at the entrance.

Truth be told, her options were limited. Maxims had brought with him some talented detectors. They were mainly the reason why no one had suffered any injuries from traps or surprise attacks, save from the Velruzen’s Spawn at the beginning of the raid. And while she could work her way around their range of detection, one of them might be able to infer that something was trying to dodge them. They probably wouldn’t point fingers directly at her, but it would cause unnecessary stress in the raid as a whole.

Scanning the entire raid was out of the question as well. Doing so would require Stellar Mana. Its Divine Authority, along with her proximity, would alert the detectors even if she managed to control its output on time.

Along with the fact that she still had to participate in the fight against the colossal elemental centipedes, her only actual option was to fully engage her Focus, Mana-Affinity, and Constitution. Doing so would allow her sense of awareness to touch the entire floor without alerting any of the detectors.

Nothing. Whatever it was, it had retreated to the higher floors, or had escaped the raid already.

One thing was for sure however, the presence was either wary, peaceful, or cunning. It had pranking in mind, rather than anything sinister. Otherwise, the challenges this raid had faced so far would have been far more tremendous. The fact that they were alive meant that whatever this entity was, knew that she was the Godkiller.

There aren’t many entities out there that would play a prank on me…

Shallies gave up on her attempt after the guild finished off the eonpedes. It wouldn’t do her well to get too distracted. At the very least, she had enough confirmation that they were safe on this floor.

And now that all three Raid Pillars had been dealt with, the guild cleared the rest of the floor before gathering at the safe zone near the Boss Room for another short break.

While Maxims reviewed their strategy for the Storm Dragon with his guildmembers, Shallies prepared meals for everyone. They were just normal meals this time, since everyone who wanted a Food Buff had already gotten one before entering the raid.

“Need help?” Phey’lan asked. Arun’dul was beside her. Valor’el was attending the review meeting.

“Yeah. Can you distribute the bowls?” Shallies asked in return. She placed the bowls in trays. “I just made some Tomato Soup and Grilled Cheese Sandwiches. Can’t have anything heavy before a big fight.”

The two seraphim gave a nod and went on their way.

As she filled up more bowls, Shallies went ahead and listened in on the strategy meeting.

“Storm Dragons evolved from either the Blue or White lineages,” Maxims began. “That already aligns them with the more mana-efficient type of monsters. Expect a lot of magical attacks. The element, of course, is pretty obvious, so gear up to defend and attack against it.

“We’ll deal with it the usual way: clip off its wings, then finish it off. If it manages to transform into a lightning body, then we’ll try to dispel it as soon as possible while defending against it.

“Remember, protect yourselves and your allies. Don’t get too greedy. It doesn’t matter who manages to get the finishing blow. We’ll take credit and experience from it either way.”

As people nodded their agreement to Maxim’s closing remarks, Phey’lan and Arun’dul showed up to distribute the bowls of soup. People were delighted to have such a warming meal before their first major encounter.

Shallies caught the Guildmaster’s silent gesture of appreciation towards her. She returned the gesture in kind and enjoyed her own meal as well.

---

Shallies was, again, impressed by the Gaiamaxims Guild. Just like how Maxims had drawn it up, the Storm Dragon managed to transform into a lightning body. In fact, it didn’t take long for the dragon to use the technique, as if it had been part of its plan all along.

This simply meant that the Storm Dragon wasn’t a machination of the raid. Most of the monsters in this raid had been sculpted by Thrush’ven Alir through the mixture of essence and mana. This included the Raid Boss Pillars and the monsters that they had defeated in the hallways and corridors. But like Velruzen’s Spawns, this dragon was most likely a native of its Reality. In this case, the Storm Reality. Or, it had been living in The Great Storm all this time.

Fello’resh had had a thing for Storm Dragons, after all. One could say that Thrush’ven Alir had been the prime hangout spot of this particular type of dragon.

In its lightning body state, the Raid Boss of the first floor grew tremendously in size. The entire room shifted through its will. The wall of clouds dispersed, creating a wider arena that could span multiple Cinterbrim Towns.

Thunder boomed in the air, the atmosphere shivered with crippling static, and lightning struck indiscriminately.

But the Gaiamaxims Guild stood their ground. The seraphim also stood their ground. And Shallies was there enjoying the view.

A normal person would’ve long since ran away in fear. Some might not even have been able to run at all, paralyzed by the overwhelming power before them. But not Maxims and his army.

Adventurers, at least the most successful ones, carried with them a courage that was borderline insanity. This time around, however, it wasn’t without reason.

On their Guildmaster’s command, the raid group fired Spells on the monstrous Storm Dragon. At the same time, the support team created barriers to defend against the static and lightning.

The Raid Boss roared, deflecting some of the Spells. With its lightning body, it zipped around and dodged the rest. In that exact same movement, it also hurled its own lightning blasts, attempting to destroy the barrier.

Shallies deflected a couple of those blasts with her Shooting Stars. Valor’el and Phey’lan did the same, using their own Skills and Spells. Their efforts allowed the raid group to concentrate on attacking the Boss.

It was a war of attrition. One that Shallies predicted was in their favor. The adventurers in this raid group had a lot of experience. Not just in their levels, but with their combat experience as well. It didn’t take them long to track down and catch up to the Storm Dragon.

A Frigid Blade struck the monster, momentarily stopping it in its tracks. Then the rest of the suppressing fire pinned it down to the ground. That allowed Maxims to get close.

The Guildmaster of the Gaiamaxims Guild was a Myth Slayer. And he was well and capable of dispelling the Storm Dragon’s lightning body transformation.

He didn’t hesitate, even as the monster retaliated. Yoshelle was quick to his side, blocking a lightning claw. Valor’el was there as well, deflecting a lightning breath. And with one final step, Maxims brought forth his longsword and slashed down the Storm Dragon. With a loud boom, the lightning body dispersed into motes of mana, revealing the actual dragon within.

The execution that followed was quick and easy.

Quiet followed as the lifeless Storm Dragon lay defeated on the cloud floor. The arena had kept its current state, making the portal to the next floor a little farther than it should be. No one could be bothered to approach it for now.

Shallies quickly assessed the guild. Despite everyone’s efforts to mitigate the damage, a number of them had still taken a serious hit. Out of the fifty Hero Class doublers, five were no longer capable of continuing, at least for today. One of the six Single Favored Class holders was also out of commission.

Not a big loss, but with the fact that they had no knowledge of how many floors there could be on this raid, their progress might stall if they weren’t being careful. Fortunately, this guild was actually capable of reinforcements.

“I’ll have one of the healers take the injured back to the entrance,” Maxims said to the seraphim. “They’ll recuperate there and be back in action tomorrow. For now, we’ll wait for Coraline and the others. It shouldn’t take too long. Then we’ll head to the next floor.”

“We’ll gather all the loot for now,” Yoshelle said.

“Anything in there I can cook?” Shallies asked.

“I’ll go check, but it can wait until dinner, right?”

“Yeah. No problem.” Shallies opened her System Console and brought out a seat from her Class Inventory. “I’ll check on Grace and the others for now.”

“Oh, good idea!” Phey’lan said, bringing a seat of her own. “Can I watch?”

Without much to do, Valor’el and Arun’dul joined them.

Shallies sighed. “I suppose there’s no harm in it.”

The first thing that they saw was Grace hiding in the bushes with a desperate look on her face.