From level 210, raid quests start appearing in Xenoris.
Raids are divided into field raids and dungeon raids. Generally, field raids are easier and more straightforward. Maybe that's why all the quests from level 210 to 220 are field raid quests.
The very first field raid quest that came my way was hunting the White Dragon.
The White Dragon, which inhabits the northern snowfield region, is located in the center of a restricted area. To enter that area, a group of 50 players is required.
At Yuchae's offer to teach me how to raid, we immediately headed to the snowfield region. At the entrance to the restricted area where the White Dragon spawns, a swarm of players were already waiting for the raid to start.
[Party] Yuchae: Once the raid starts, it's hard to communicate through chat.
[Party] Yuchae: Can you use voice chat?
[Party] Yuchae: Like Discord or something.
[Party] I'mSoSleepy: Discord, let's go.
[Party] Yuchae: Share your Discord code so I can friend you.
[Party] I'mSoSleepy: yujihan#62146
After launching Discord and sending my nickname and code, a friend request came quickly.
Their Discord nickname was the same as their in-game name: Yuchae. I always just use my real name out of laziness… Maybe I should've changed it to my game nickname.
[Party] Yuchae: Hold on.
[Party] Yuchae: I'll call you.
I froze for a moment at that message.
Wait. Are we really going to be on a call just the two of us?
'That's kind of awkward…'
I'm not extremely shy, but talking one-on-one with someone I've known for less than a week did feel a little uncomfortable. Especially considering we had that one tense moment before.
[Party] I'mSoSleepy: Just you and me, no one else?
[Party] Yuchae: Yep.
[Party] Yuchae: Of course.
The reply was unexpectedly firm when I asked just to be sure.
Well, can't be helped… They're offering to teach me the raid; it'd be rude to refuse now.
[Party] Yuchae: Come on.
Yuchae urged me, sounding a bit stiff. I slowly shifted my gaze to the program window. Sure enough, the voice chat room they invited me to had only the two of us.
I picked up the headset microphone I had barely used and joined the call. After a moment of silence, Yuchae—who had already entered—spoke first.
"Hyung?" (A respectful term meaning "older brother," used by males)
"…Yeah."
A sudden wave of awkward embarrassment hit me, and my hand on the mouse twitched slightly.
"Why are you acting so awkward?"
"…I'm not, really."
Yuchae let out a soft laugh and teased me gently, his low and calm voice making me even more flustered. I had never voice chatted with someone I'd just met in a game, so I wasn't used to this at all.
Hearing his actual voice made casual conversation harder than just typing. I scratched the back of my head awkwardly as Yuchae got straight to the point.
"See that rock up ahead? Click it to join the raid."
"Got it."
I pushed my way through the crowd of characters to the entrance of the restricted zone, and there it was—a blue rock like Yuchae had said. When I clicked it, a translucent window popped up showing the list of player nicknames.
There were 47 players currently. We just needed 3 more to hit the required 50 and start the raid.
"Three more isn't bad. This time of day, people join pretty fast."
"Really?"
"Yeah. Between 8 and 10 p.m., it fills quickly… but after 11, it slows down a bit, since it's a weekday."
Yuchae explained in a calm, gentle tone. A voice girls would swoon over. Still, the atmosphere felt somewhat like chatting, so the tension in my shoulders eased up a bit.
"It's starting. Hyung, get your weapon ready."
Just as he said, the last three players joined, and the entrance to the restricted area opened. I quickly grabbed my staff and entered with Yuchae.
Snowflakes blew across the wide, white expanse, and in the middle of it all stood the colossal White Dragon, towering like a mountain. Its roar sounded like thunder.
You have entered the battle zone. Please be cautious.
The Lord of Frost is nearby. Debuffs are being applied.
"Subdue the White Dragon" quest has been automatically assigned to all field participants.
The White Dragon inflicted three debuffs: reduced movement speed, attack speed, and recovery speed.
"Here, wear this."
Yuchae handed me a head accessory, probably noticing how slow I'd become.
"Wearing that will return your movement and recovery speed to normal. You can only block two of the three debuffs, so forget about attack speed."
As a mage, I didn't mind the slower attack speed too much. I put on the head accessory and said what I normally would.
"Yeah, thanks."
"Huh? Oh… you're welcome…"
Yuchae's calm voice wavered just from a simple thank you—just like when we chatted. He's consistently like that, huh?
"I'll explain the attack patterns now."
This time, he sounded a little shy as he continued.
"All field dragons, including White Dragon, change patterns depending on their HP percentage. You see the gauge at the top?"
"The one that says 30?"
"Yeah."
Just like he said, a bright red HP bar had appeared at the top of the screen. Seeing the 30/30 gauge, I didn't even need an explanation to know how much health the White Dragon had.
"Up to 25, it only does tail swipes and stomps, so it's easy. This is the best time to land your skills, so try to deal at least half your required damage now."
To complete both the level quest and the raid entry quest, we had to deal over 500,000 damage to the White Dragon.
How much damage skills would deal against the White Dragon's defense wasn't clear yet, but one thing was certain: the more I hit, the better.
"From 24%, the dragon takes flight, and it gets a bit tricky—but with your control, you should be fine."
"I heard it uses magic too."
"Yeah. From 24%, it uses Hailstorm and Thunder from above. But they're not that fast, so just watch the ground indicators and dodge accordingly."
If it gives visual cues on the ground, dodging should be easy. I nodded.
"And after that?"
"From 17%, it breathes fire... This part's a bit tricky. The damage is high enough that, in your current state, getting hit once might immediately trigger Deadly 3."
"How do I dodge it?"
"The breath attack sweeps across the whole map in a circle, so you just need to time your dodge skill right. Always clockwise."
"Got it."
"And from 5%, it starts dropping meteors—but I'll explain that when we get there. It's hard to explain just in words."
"Hm."
It was a little unsettling that he'd explain it later, but I didn't have time to research it myself, so I had no choice but to go along with it. As soon as our conversation ended, a cutscene of the White Dragon roaring played, and the raid officially began.
[Global Chat] Eurerra: Everyone's crowding around 7 o'clock;[Global Chat] Eurerra: 12 o'clock is short on people, help out[Global Chat] Kola: Anyone here a buffer or healer??[Global Chat] BunnyBark: Who the hell is that sharpshooter pushing ahead[Global Chat] BunnyBark: Get back, you're annoying
The moment the cutscene ended, 50 players charged at the White Dragon—just like Yuchae had said, to maximize damage while the early patterns were still easy. I joined the crowd, casting spells as hard as I could.
Since we were in a party, I could clearly see Yuchae's chain damage numbers, which stood out way more than everyone else's. While others were dealing 2k to 3k damage, Yuchae was constantly dishing out over 20k per hit.
Taking all the punishment from 50 players, the White Dragon let out a screech and spread its massive wings to take flight. This happened exactly when its HP gauge dropped to 24/30.
Boom! Boom!
Hailstorms and white lightning rained down chaotically across the field, each hitting in an AoE with a stun effect if too close.
I focused more on dodging the Hailstorm since it had a wider range than the Thunder. Around me, stunned players got zapped by lightning and collapsed left and right.
[Global Chat] BunnyBark: Ranged players are so damn slow[Global Chat] CoffeeScent: Why's healing so delayed;;[Global Chat] DrawingShadow: Nah, we just don't have enough ranged DPS this run…[Global Chat] DrawingShadow: We seriously need to balance field raids to 25 ranged and 25 melee[Global Chat] MishaRe: Actual trash game fr
Sure enough, the HP bar was dropping noticeably slower than before. From what I could tell, there were only about 16 ranged attackers, fewer than the melee group—meaning less damage output.
Screeeeeech—!
Still, we steadily chipped away at the dragon's health until it descended back to the ground. Then, it opened its jaws wide and unleashed a stream of white flame.
It was the Breath skill, unique to boss dragons. The breath attack sweeping clockwise was easy to predict, but timing the dodge perfectly was harder than expected.
"You're really good, Hyung."
After I narrowly dodged the fourth breath, Yuchae—who had been silently playing—offered praise. Since it was coming from the one who taught me the pattern, I accepted it quietly.
While newbies like me were just focused on dodging, skilled players like Yuchae and the veterans were attacking smoothly, helping the HP bar drop faster. After the eighth breath, the White Dragon's HP reached 5/30 and it began flapping its wings again.
It was time for Meteors. If we could survive this phase, we'd win. I quickly stopped casting and asked:
"What do I do?"
"Come stand next to me."
The White Dragon soared high and summoned bright red fireballs. A giant number 10 appeared on the screen—a countdown until impact.
"Do you see that rock with the blue gem in front of us? When the meteors fall, a shield activates there. That's the only way to survive."
"The one at the 12 o'clock position?"
"Yeah. There are rocks at 12, 3, 6, and 9 o'clock on the edge of the map. Four meteors will fall in total, and you have to move to a different rock each time."
Listening to the instructions, I sprinted to the rock at 12 o'clock. Just as I arrived, the 10 seconds ended and a massive meteor slammed down with a deafening boom. That was close.
"Don't think I'll make it in 10 seconds next turn."
I couldn't even summon a pet mid-field quest. Watching the meteor impact from within the translucent shield, I voiced my concern, and Yuchae answered confidently.
"That's why I told you to stick close to me."
Yuchae put away his golden chain and brought out a red one. With a ching sound, his character twirled the chain—clearly activating a skill.
"Hyung, send me a Link Request."
"What?"
There's a feature like that? Curious, I right-clicked on Yuchae's character and saw a new option in the menu: [Link Request].
Fascinated, I clicked it—and my character immediately snapped right next to Yuchae's. What the heck was that?
"This is a thing?"
I asked, half skeptical. Yuchae answered with clear excitement in his voice.
"It's one of the hidden skills for Chain users."
Just then, the meteor phase ended. Yuchae dramatically swung his chain, hooking it around a distant pillar. Instantly, both of our characters—tethered together—flew toward it.
"This skill doesn't get used much since there are better hidden ones."
"Yeah, I guess there aren't many times where this would be useful…"
"Exactly. And there aren't many Chain users to begin with."
Thanks to that, we easily reached the rock at the 3 o'clock position and survived the second meteor phase without issue.
Other players had to ask nearby buffers for movement speed boosts or rely on max-level mages for teleports. Those who ran on foot without knowing what to do got obliterated by the meteor, no mercy.
After surviving the meteors, the rest was a breeze. Since Meteor was the final skill phase, the White Dragon, now grounded, was unable to put up a fight. Everyone piled on and finished it off. When its HP hit 0/30, a burst of bright light signaled the quest's completion.
[Global Chat] FullMoonWobble: ggg[Global Chat] Stript: gj gj[Global Chat] KanKan2: ggs[Global Chat] Mishare: Nice work, everyone~
"Did you meet the damage quota, hyung?"
"Yeah, I managed it."
I opened the completed quest window to check my total damage dealt. 502,361. That was dangerously close.
"Only about 2,000 over. Just barely made it."
If I had missed even a single hit, I probably would've failed the quest. Still, I got experience from both the level quest and the field quest at the same time—pretty rewarding, actually.
"Hm. What staff are you using right now?"
"Luna."
"I think your staff's the reason your damage was a little low. Hang on."
As soon as the White Dragon died, we were automatically booted out of the restricted area. Yuchae summoned his pet and sent me a trade request.
I frowned at the staff sitting right at the top of the trade window.
"I don't need it."
"It's not expensive, hyung."
Yuchae replied instantly, as if he could read exactly what I was thinking.
"With your current staff, it'll be rough clearing the upcoming raid quests."
"What's different about this one?"
I inspected the staff he offered. It was a +4 staff, just like mine. The attack power and durability were pretty similar. But at the bottom of the stat window, something odd caught my eye: it said Lux 2.0.
"Since you often use elemental skills, the Solis Staff will suit you better."
"What's that thing at the bottom?"
"That's just… nothing major. It's some bonus damage thing, like 2%. Not a huge deal."
"…"
Still suspicious, I didn't accept the trade right away and opened the auction house instead. The auction house has all the answers.
I scrolled through the staff listings, and sure enough, several had the Lux tag. Let's see… +4 Luna Staffs. The Lux 1.0 versions were going for around 5,000 gold. Not dirt cheap, but not insanely pricey for a staff either.
So maybe it really isn't a big deal? If that's the case, there's no reason not to accept it.
Feeling more at ease, I accepted the trade and took the staff.
"Thanks."
"No problem."
As soon as I equipped it, the blue gem at the tip of the staff lit up with a radiant glow. That was a new visual effect I hadn't seen before.
To my thanks, Yuchae responded with the brightest voice I'd heard from him all day.
"Use it well, hyung."