The definition of a trash mob differs from person to person, but generally it refers to monsters that are easy to kill.
To Ryu Min, the Centaur counted as a trash mob.
'To everyone else, it would probably be on the level of an elite mob.'
For players in the low 20s like they were now, it would be a tough opponent.
That didn't mean it was impossible to kill.
Five together could handle one just fine.
'The problem is that it's just a trash mob.'
Contrary to what people assumed, the Centaur wasn't a boss.
The real boss was a Minotaur with the head of a bull, lurking somewhere out there.
'To take down the Minotaur, you need at least twenty level-20 players.'
In other words, you needed at least four five-man parties before you could even start to contend with it.
That's how strong it was.
'Of course, to me it's just a monster with a tough hide and sluggish movements.'
The players had probably thought as they were forming parties
that this mission was easier than they expected.
That a party of five would be enough to take down a boss.
'But while a Centaur is doable, a Minotaur is not. A five-man party of low level-20s doesn't stand a chance.'
To kill it with just five, they'd all need to be at least level 30.
No, honestly, even level 30 would be pushing it.
'Maybe if they were level 40.'
This was why the angel had said they could never kill it alone.
The Minotaur simply wasn't something you could kill by yourself.
'That's the trap in this Round. It's designed to make you think that as long as you form a five-person party, you can kill the boss.'
Of course, they'd never actually said that five people would be enough to kill a boss…
'The damn angel knows full well that you need at least twenty people to have a chance, and still pretends otherwise.'
It was hard not to see the omission of such crucial information as anything but intentional.
'Well, it's probably just following orders from higher up.'
That didn't mean he had any grounds to run around broadcasting it.
It would only make people suspicious of him.
'All I can do is watch.'
Anyone who ran into the Minotaur would realize.
That a single five-man party wasn't enough to face it.
That to kill the boss, they'd need layers upon layers of cooperation.
'Once they figure that out, multiple parties will band together and help each other.'
That was the strategy for Round 6.
They had to cooperate and yield kills to one another if they wanted to survive.
'There'll be some trouble along the way, but in the end they'll cooperate. They have no other choice.'
Some people might think
then there's no need to hunt Centaurs at all.
Since they had nothing to do with the quest's objective.
'But any player with a bit of sense will know why there's a time limit.'
Why else were they given as much as six hours?
'It's so they can hunt Centaurs during that time and raise their levels as much as possible.'
The Minotaur could be killed later.
The method for determining first place wasn't based on who killed it first.
'First place depends on how little time it took to kill it.'
In short, the order didn't matter.
As long as you killed it in the shortest time, you could secure first place.
That was why Ryu Min had been acting so relaxed.
'And the others weren't in a hurry either, because they knew it too.'
There were six pieces of information Ryu Min had dressed up as prophecy.
First: Round 6 is a mission where you form a five-person party and kill a boss.
Second: the Centaur is just a trash mob, and the Minotaur is the real boss.
Third: you need at least four five-man parties to have a shot at the boss, so parties must cooperate.
Fourth: rankings aren't determined by the order in which the boss is killed, but by how little time it takes to kill it.
Fifth: once a team kills the boss, they are immediately protected by a pillar of light. In other words, they have to spend the remaining time doing nothing, which actually puts them at a disadvantage.
Sixth: the optimal strategy is to spend the time limit killing Centaurs to grow stronger, and only then challenge the boss.
This was the core strategy for Round 6.
Everyone knew this except Heo Tae-seok, who hadn't heard the prophecy.
"Judging from how that other team reacted, that thing doesn't seem to be a boss. The real boss must be something else."
Acting as if he'd just reasoned out knowledge he already knew, Ryu Min turned to his party and spoke.
"From here on, I'll tell you my plan."
"Please do."
"We're putting the boss off for later. First, we'll hunt those half-man, half-horse things to raise our levels, right up until the time limit."
"Huh? Why…?"
"Those five barely managed to beat that thing at level 20. If something like that is just a trash mob, we'll need at least several parties to take down the boss. We don't know how strong it really is, so rushing in to kill it seems unwise. There could be other traps as well."
"Ah…"
"What if, like in Round 1, we kill the boss early and end up trapped inside a pillar of light? Then we'd just waste the remaining time doing nothing. It seems wiser to hunt trash mobs first and watch how things play out."
"Ah… r-right, that makes sense."
An Sang-cheol was quietly amazed at Ryu Min's judgment.
'I-I didn't know Black Scythe had this much insight…'
That they would need to gather other parties to kill the boss.
That killing the boss would trap them in a pillar of light.
That the purpose of the time limit was to allow for hunting, and so on.
He'd pierced right through to the correct strategy without ever hearing the prophecy.
If it were up to him, he would have thoughtlessly gathered other parties and tried to kill the boss right away.
"S-so you're saying we hunt trash mobs first and kill the boss later?"
"Exactly."
"But we might lose first place that way—is that alright?"
"It doesn't matter. Even if we miss out on the first-place rewards, we'll have the EXP we gain from hunting for six hours. And it's possible they're not even measuring first place by who kills it first."
"…"
An Sang-cheol was at a loss for words.
'Incredible. How does he find the right path without a prophecy?'
It was like watching someone escape a maze they'd never seen before without taking a single wrong turn.
"Understood. Then shall we go hunt those half-human, half-horse monsters together? Ah, before that we should probably talk roles and work out a simple strategy…"
"No, there's no need. I'll be the only one killing monsters."
"Huh? You'll hunt alone, Black Scythe-nim?"
An Sang-cheol and the others all stared in shock.
He was saying he'd solo monsters that even five-man parties struggled to kill?
Given Black Scythe's level, it wasn't impossible.
But if he hunted alone, what were the rest of them supposed to do?
As if reading that thought, Ryu Min spoke.
"You won't do anything. I'll land all the killing blows."
"S-sir? Then what are we supposed to do…?"
"All you have to do is follow me around and soak up EXP and gold. In other words, I'm carrying you."
In gaming terms, he was offering to put them on a bus.
"In exchange, I'm taking every item that drops based on contribution. In return, you get to raise your levels and gold quickly with no risk. How does that sound?"
"Hmm… if that's the case…"
It was undeniably an attractive offer.
Who would turn down the chance to safely earn EXP and gold just for giving up some items?
"I'm in."
"What about the rest of you?"
"We're fine with it too."
"We'll follow your lead, Black Scythe-nim."
Once they'd all agreed, Ryu Min nodded.
"You made the right choice. I doubt you'll regret it."
For Ryu Min, soloing was far more convenient than fighting together.
Even if they tried to help, they would only get in the way.
'Centaurs are nothing but trash mobs to me anyway.'
Ryu Min raised Death's Side.
"Let's go."
Swoosh—!
As he shot forward like a bullet, the others flinched in surprise.
"L-let's hurry and follow him!"
Led by An Sang-cheol, they all ran after him.
Even with Swift buffing their movement speed, the distance between them didn't close.
'How can he be this fast?'
'Just how high is his Agility…?'
Even Heo Tae-seok, who'd been confident in his own speed, was nothing more than a house cat before a cheetah when it came to Black Scythe.
"Ah, over there!"
Ryu Min faced a Centaur for the first time this Round.
"Graaah—!"
Before its roar even ended, slash—the head flew off.
Time taken to kill the Centaur: 0.3 seconds.
At a hunting speed that didn't even take a full second, his rushing party members stopped dead in their tracks, stunned.
'W-what just happened?'
'In a single hit…?'
None of them had imagined the Centaur would die in one strike.
Ignoring their reactions—or perhaps not even noticing them—Ryu Min sprinted straight toward his next target.
About thirty minutes into the hunt—
[You have detected the location of target 'Centaur.']
[It is currently 52m away.]
Using the Tracking skill to locate prey one after another, Ryu Min paused for a moment.
[You have slain a Centaur!]
[Triple EXP buff is in effect.]
[Title effect increases EXP by 1.5 times.]
[EXP +0.89%]
[Gold +60]
[Current kill count: 172/100]
[Due to the Rune of Slaughter, all stats are increased by 100%.]
The kill messages scrolled up along one edge of his vision.
'172 kills in 30 minutes. Not bad at all.'
There were a total of 2,000 Centaurs roaming the field.
At this pace, he might be able to monopolize every last one within six hours.
'Well, aside from the few that other players manage to kill.'
His gaze dropped slightly lower.
[Stacks accumulated with the Beads of Eternity: 71/100]
[Current durability of the Beads of Eternity: 828/1,000]
[Stat points gained from the Beads of Eternity: 11]
Below that, messages for the Beads of Eternity were also updating in real time.
While wearing the Beads of Eternity, these messages appeared every time he killed a mob.
'I just have to keep an eye on this and farm Centaurs until the durability drops back down to 1, like before.'
It was very convenient not having to constantly check his equipment window.
'Once I'm back, I'll have to ask Russell to fix its durability again.'
While he was thinking that, he suddenly heard the sound of footsteps running.
When he turned around, his party members were staggering toward him, out of breath.
"Huff, huff, huff…"
"Ahh… I'm dying here…"
He couldn't help but smile at how even just keeping up was too much for them.
"If you're tired, we can rest for a bit."
"Really?"
"Th-thank you!"
Given a break for the first time in a while, the group collapsed to the ground.
Seo Arin and Heo Tae-seok, whose Strength stats were low, sprawled out flat on their backs.
"Just running after you is a full-time job."
"I thought a 100m range would be generous enough, but not even close…"
"Tell me about it. Phew…"
They complained, but it was a happy problem to have.
It had only been 30 minutes, and they'd already leveled up.
"Black Scythe-nim, you're incredible. Your hunting speed is insane."
"Is that your way of saying you don't like it?"
At his teasing question, Min Juri frantically waved her hands.
"N-no, not at all! My level's going up just from following you; how could I dislike that?"
"Is this what people call a bus? You're the one working hard here, not us."
Seeing the chance, Seo Arin jumped into the conversation, but Ryu Min responded calmly.
"Looks to me like you're the ones having a harder time."
"Haha…"
As they laughed and caught their breath, a group approached Ryu Min.
"Huh? That's Black Scythe, isn't it?"
"Whoa! It really is!"
There were four groups in total.
As a total of twenty people approached, his party's laughter faded, replaced by wary looks.
But there was nothing to worry about.
They would have to be insane to attack a party that had Black Scythe in it.
Sure enough—
the moment they saw Ryu Min, they bowed their heads politely.
"Good day, Black Scythe-nim. To run into you here, we must be pretty lucky. Hahaha!"
"Enough of that. What do you want?"
"Ah, well, the thing is, we're recruiting teams to hunt the boss. We were wondering if you'd like to join our group…"