Almond and others began their practice session while the other three parties discussed internally.
“I’m not letting my party participate in that,” Brynjar calmly said as he had come to a decision already. “The way my puppet died still gives me chills. It’s simply too powerful. The floor boss usually has high Health and Mana only, while other stats are relatively low so that we can tank damage and match with its movement and skills.”
“But this Heroic Boss?” Brynjar shook his head. “I couldn’t see anything clearly, and even if I was present there physically and used Focus Field, I wouldn’t be able to react properly.”
“So that’s why they said that even with their crazy high-ranking gears, they still have a chance of dying…” Yuxin frowned.
“The rewards they got are practically impossible to get on these lower floors unless they did something no one knew, which is this Heroic Challenge mode,” Lyndia narrowed her eyes. “It means the rewards of this Heroic Boss are something we can’t even imagine because who knows what else they’ve gotten aside from items.”
“I can’t find a realistic approach to defeat that Heroic floor boss just based on its stats,” Brynjar wryly said. “And it’s a humanoid boss, which means it’s more intelligent, and its skills would be crazy powerful as well. Yeah, no.”
“Leader, look at them fighting. What the fuck…”
“That Almond rookie who took rank 1 in the Rising Star is a freak! Nobody has been able to touch him with any skill yet!”
“I can’t follow their movements properly. All of their stats are boosted by those Epic and legendary items.”
‘They freaking have gear sets!”
“Those summons are also crazy! He alone is enough to wipe out the normal floor boss with his summons…”
“…”
“Yeah, no. That guy is going to get very strong, wtf…”
“GAA will get another monstrous powerhouse, and that too very soon, based on his progress speed,” Yuxin muttered while watching the battle.
“Yeah, he led this group to the 5th floor already, and all of them have crazy items on top of that,” Lyndia nodded as she looked at Almond.
“So, what’s your decision?” Brynjal asked while his gaze was on the ongoing combat. “You can see their power, but even then, it’s going to be tough for them. It’s clear from this practice and their expressions.”
“Boss, that strongest guy, Almond, also had a somber face despite that level of combat power…yeah, we should sit out from this one.”
They could indeed see the power of the whole group, especially Almond and some of his spirit wraiths, but what they were watching wasn’t even the full power of Almond.
Almond wasn’t using his Espada Ad Grimveil to its full potential because that would be overkill even in practice. He simply didn’t need to use any domain techniques of that skill.
Regardless, the three parties came to a sound decision, and not wanting to disturb the practice session, they began leaving one by one, activating their floor advancement trial to complete it and moving to the next floor instead of participating in the Heroic Challenge Floor boss fight.
Everyone disappeared soon as only Brynjal remained.
He watched for a while until Almond and others took a break after ten minutes.
“Can I join?” Brynjal asked as he approached Almond. “My puppets might be useful in attracting the boss’ attention. Some are agile, some are tanky, and all of them can have a taunt aura that forces a target to go after that.”
Almond blinked, ‘A forceful taunt? That’s wonderful.’
“That actually sounds good, don’t you think?” Lily turned to Almond.
“Yeah,” Almond nodded. “Come on, join us, and show me what you got.”
…
Time passed, and everyone practiced for over two hours and only stopped when only thirty minutes remained until the first cycle’s end.
There was no second chance for this Heroic challenge, and the plan was to kill the boss as soon as possible, preferably in thirty seconds.
Everyone rested for twenty minutes before it was finally time.
“Drink the supreme-quality potions we got from the party chest once we enter. Don’t any of you dare to think about saving it,” Almond said as he glanced at others. “And share it with the ones that don’t have it.”
Almond also took out a set of potions and gave it to Brynjal.
The Supreme quality assortment of potions they got from first rank party chest was absolutely essential because of their buffs.
Each one got three sets of potions, with a single set containing eight potions.
Six of them were stat-boosting potions for each stat, boosting one’s Strength, Health, Stamina, Mana, Perception, and Focus by 50% for 1 minute.
The other two in the set were Complete Recovery Health Potion and Arcane Mana Boost Potion.
Complete Recovery Health Potion could heal all injuries, remove all harmful effects, and even recover organs and limbs as long as the person’s brain wasn’t dead.
Arcane Mana Boost Potion could recover Mana to full and also increase Mana recovery by 500% for 30 seconds.
As such, Almond made sure that everyone got a set of these eight potions each.
“Drink all potions when 10 seconds are left until the boss’s appearance,” Almond said before turning to the stairs and adorning his high-quality Legendary Gear set. “Let’s go.”
Almond was slightly more confident of completing this raid successfully without casualty because of this gear set.
“Wait,” Lily suddenly said, her eyes glinting as she thought of a problem. “We know that the Heroic boss usually takes one minute before it spawns, but…”
Turning to Brynjal, she continued, “Brynjal’s puppet entered before, and it was spawned after a minute. What if the boss is now just waiting for us?”
Hearing Lily’s words, the ones who had fought with the previous Heroic Bosses felt a chill crawling down their back.
“T-That shouldn’t be the case, right?” Talia asked, stammering as she weakly smiled.
Xavier gulped and said, “I have a bad feeling.”
“Me too,” Natalia bit her lips, her forehead sweating.
But she wasn’t alone, as all others except for the first-timers were sweating.
Almond turned to Brynjal and said, his expression more somber than ever before, “Send a puppet inside. We have to see what’s going on inside.”
‘This heroic challenge area was also different than previous ones with the meadow and pond…Please, please, I hope the boss has returned,’ Almond prayed internally as Brynjal sent his puppet inside.
However, a few moments afterward, everyone saw Brynjal’s expression changing drastically before his eyes flickered as he closed them.
And his expression only grew graver.
“The area…. it changed,” Brynjal was sweating harder than anyone now, his voice trembling. “T-The meadow is overgrown. The p-plants are big, and the boss…h-he is there in the middle.”
“Floating while sitting cross-legged, with his wooden staff beside him.”
“Fuck, fuck, fuck,” Amir muttered.
“What do we do now?” Maya asked as her expression was pale.
“Boss,” Marcus turned to Almond, his fists clenched. ‘We can do it still!’
Everyone was looking at Almond.
“We can’t do anything else,” Almond frowned. “We can never leave unless we defeat that Heroic Spirit, so we have to do this.”
“We have less than ten minutes before the cycle ends,” Lily informed, her expression grave.
“D-Don’t tell me the Heroic Boss will also get stronger on the second cycle?!” Jemma stuttered, her eyes filled with fear.
“Hell no!”
“If we wait, then we’ll never defeat the boss during this month, and the Labyrinth will close after twelve days! What will happen then?”
“We have to kill the boss who is prepared to receive us,” Jian frowned. “There’s not much choice here. Let’s do it.”
“The fuck do you know about it?” Amir muttered. “I almost died on the previous floor.”
“That’s true, but…”
“Fuck.”
“We have to do this, but the chance of dying inside is higher now…”
“Goddamn it! It’s all because we had to show those three parties the goddamn heroic boss,” Xavier frowned.
Everyone was feeling fear. The stress was getting them, and panic was settling in. Seeing their status, those who hadn’t yet witnessed the power of a Heroic Boss were also affected.
‘Darling,’ Lily looked at him. ‘We have to do this. Calm them down first.’
“Calm down, everyone,” Almond said as he took a deep breath and composed himself, his gaze turning sharp and bright.
Almond pierced his Legendary golden sword on the ground, his aura exploding. “Five minutes. Listen to me and get ready. We are changing our strategy slightly on how we enter inside and make a move. Listen! We will do this! We are getting out of the Labyrinth today after defeating the Heroic Boss!”
“And that’s final!”