LS 81

Including Dohee and Moonhyuk, a total of ten guild members headed en masse to Wornan in Denme. Wornan was a newly opened map that had come with the Demon Hunter prelude quest. Denme itself was a desert kingdom filled with sandy dunes and oases, and Wornan was designed as a small, rural village nestled at its edge. The kingdom’s main industries were tourism and trade.

It had been a while since they’d moved as a group, so it was a bit chaotic. None of them were particularly quiet players, and the chat window was constantly buzzing. They were only on the scheduled airship for a few minutes, yet the talking never stopped. SiblingSpicyNoodle kept glancing at their dazzling gauntlets, randomly spamming “ㅠㅠㅠㅠ” or “ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ” in chat, caught in a whirlwind of meaningless joy and drama.

[Party] SoftRiceCake: Denme LOL it’s been forever since I’ve been here

[Party] PrettyHealerHyung: Yeah, not much reason to come otherwise…ㅠ lol

[Party] SoftRiceCake: So how are we gonna split the Demon Hunter party?

Up to 12 players could be in a regular party, but for world raids, they had to split into two raid squads. Since Demon Hunter raids required ten players total, they’d likely go in two groups of five, each a balanced party but joined under a single raid.

At SoftRiceCake’s question, Dohee let out a small hum. Moonhyuk turned to look at him.

“We’re…”

“Hm?”

“Dohee, we’re going in different parties… right?”

His voice was a little sulky. It was only natural, they couldn’t have two supports in one group, but he still sounded disappointed. Dohee couldn’t help but smile at the way Moonhyuk’s eyebrows drooped.

“Yeah. Why, you wanted to be in the same party?”

“…But we can’t.”

Moonhyuk shook his head. As they arrived in Denme and the screen transitioned, Dohee tried to cheer him up.

“It’s nothing complicated. I’ll give you a few pointers ahead of time. You’ll do great.”

“Okay!”

Just hearing he’d do well was enough to brighten his expression.

You couldn’t find a more transparent guy.

Moonhyuk’s emotions were always written all over his face, and Dohee liked that.

A hundred times better than someone who played games or hid what they were thinking.

As the guild members bickered about party composition at the Denme port, Dohee typed:

[Party] GoingSupporter: Party 1 will have Tando as healer

[Party] GoingSupporter: One melee DPS and two ranged

[Party] GoingSupporter: I’ll take Party 1. So, Tando, SiblingSpicyNoodle, Yeohoo, and SoftRiceCake with me

[Party] GoingSupporter: Party 2 same setup, one melee, two ranged

[Party] GoingSupporter: Knockoff, HealerHyung, Yeojin, 4Evil, and Oreckthat go there

[Party] Tando: GoSupp being unexpectedly thoughtful again~

[Party] GoingSupporter: ?? What are you on about lol

[Party] Tando: Party 2 has jobs with similar burst cooldowns

[Party] Tando: Makes it easier for IngSupp to time buffs

[Party] Tando: You were being considerate, weren’t you?

He’s sharp, I’ll give him that.

[Party] GoingSupporter: Wasn’t like that

[Party] GoingSupporter: Everyone good with this?

[Party] YeohooHae: Seems solid lol. Let’s do another raid after this while we’re all warmed up

[Party] YeohooHae: Good chance for IngSupp to practice buff timing

[Party] GoingSupporter: Yep

Tando was right, Party 2 was built around classes that made Moonhyuk’s buffing easier.

Moonhyuk didn’t fully realize it yet, but the other guild members were seasoned players with multiple alts and had no problem with Dohee’s choices.

Party 1 had Holy Wizard Tando (healer), Striker SiblingSpicyNoodle (melee DPS), Moon Master YeohooHae (ranged), and Sorceress SoftRiceCake (ranged).

Party 2 included Priest PrettyHealerHyung (healer), Warlord 4EvilPrettyGirl (melee), Dark Age YeojinHae (ranged), and Dragon Knight Oreckthat (ranged).

Holy Wizard was a healer class more focused on burst support, attack buffs and instant shields, than continuous healing.

Since Noodle often raided with Tando, they’d already developed team chemistry.

Yeohoo and SoftRiceCake had low defense, but they were self-sufficient enough to survive without constant healing.

DPS characters had windows for explosive burst damage, and each class had different cooldown cycles. That made buff timing tricky, things like attack boosts or crit damage increases had to be timed precisely.

The three DPS in Party 1 all had wildly different burst windows, meaning Dohee would need to rotate buffs. But for someone with his raid experience, it was no big deal.

Moonhyuk, though, might find it difficult.

Priest, HealerHyung’s class, had little to no buffing ability but excelled at sustained healing and keeping everyone alive. A textbook support class.

With 4Evil acting as the tank and grabbing aggro, Yeojin and Oreckthat could safely deal damage.

Dark Age and Dragon Knight both used summons and had similar skill cycles, which synced perfectly for burst.

4Evil had great awareness and would time his own skills around Moonhyuk’s buffs anyway.

Warrior didn’t have any burst skills to begin with, so that was no issue.

Even if Moonhyuk messed up or lagged behind, HealerHyung could cover for him.

All in all, the setup was ideal. It wasn’t just thrown together.

There was no need to explain it all to Moonhyuk, but Tando’s comments about Dohee being “surprisingly kind” and “super thoughtful” made him feel awkward.

He played dumb.

Moonhyuk probably didn’t understand half of what they were even talking about anyway.

[Party] PrettyHealerHyung: [clap emoji] Oh, I think that’s the NPC!

As they approached Wornan’s entrance, an NPC was pacing nervously out front.

A bright orange exclamation point floated over his head, looked like they’d found the right guy.

Everyone rushed over and accepted the quest.

<Lost Demon Hunter>

Suspicious Box

? This is a prelude quest for the world raid “Lost Demon Hunter.”

Talk to the NPC “One Armed Merchant” again.

!Note:

▷ All party members must complete this quest to enter the Demon Hunter raid.

▷ This is a chain quest. Follow the NPCs marked with orange question marks to proceed.

“Wow… I’m kinda nervous,” Moonhyuk said.

Dohee glanced over.

Moonhyuk’s cheeks had turned slightly red as he stared at his monitor.

Dohee stifled a laugh. He really wanted to poke them.

“Didn’t get nervous during any other raids?”

“Well, yeah, but– back then, I didn’t really know about prelude quests…? Like, sometimes I’d just finish the main story and somehow clear the quest by accident, and there were a few you did for me while I was working…”

His voice trailed off.

Was that true? Dohee tilted his head.

All world raids required specific quest clears to enter, but yeah, some could be cleared while pushing the main story, others had to be tracked down separately.

He vaguely remembered doing a few for Moonhyuk when he was too busy to log in.

He’d even cleared some on alts and gotten so used to it that he barely felt anything about them anymore.

But for Moonhyuk, this was probably his first time doing a prelude quest specifically for raid entry, and that explained why he was so excited.

Dohee understood. He’d felt the same the first time too.

Not that it really mattered.

If Moonhyuk was enjoying himself, that was all that mattered.

When he hit the “Accept” button, an orange question mark appeared over the NPC’s head.

A chain quest, as expected.

The guild followed along and accepted the next steps together.

[NPC] One Armed Merchant: Oh my! Greetings, adventurer. I see you’re on your way to Wornan?

: Yes

[NPC] One Armed Merchant: I hate to ask, but – since fate has brought us together, might you spare a moment to help me? I’ll make sure it’s worth your time.

: What kind of help do you need?

[NPC] One Armed Merchant: It’s nothing big. I’m just a lowly worker for the Bark Merchant Guild, the largest in Denme. I was organizing cargo for a shipment heading to the capital, Halden, when I noticed one box had gone missing.

The merchant guild’s deputy is extremely strict, and if he finds out something’s gone missing, I’ll be in big trouble…

It’ll be faster if we search together, don’t you think?

The other workers are too busy, and I have to find it before the day ends.

: What kind of box is it?

[NPC] One Armed Merchant: It’s a very old box, a square jade-colored one with a tiny golden lock. I made sure it was there before entering Wornan, so it must be somewhere nearby.

: Then let’s split up and search

[NPC] One Armed Merchant: Great idea! If you find it, please bring it to me. I’m counting on you.

: Got it