Your Commander-in-Chief – Chapter 244

“Um…”

After the raid that was scheduled for the day came to an end and everyone dispersed, I was racking my brain on how to use the blood magic, a race skill of the True Blood.

Of course, since my knowledge as a wizard was shallow, the Snow Mage and Helena were helping me out.

The two of them sat with me in front of a large table, sifting through numerous item options and job trees.

“What about this, Blood Demon King?”

“Um…”

I tilted my head at the Snow Mage’s suggestion.

She was setting up a job tree optimized for the True Blood race.

“What about Battle Mage and Rune Caster? You’re not going for the higher jobs?”

The job tree presented by the Snow Mage looked like this:

Ice Caster x1

Fire Caster x1

Rune Caster x2

Battle Mage x2

Elemental Master x2

There were no higher jobs in the tree that the Snow Mage proposed.

All jobs were available for selection at tier 4 or lower.

Helena, who was observing from the side, suddenly exclaimed as if she realized something.

“Oh…”

I tilted my head while looking at the job tree suggested by the Snow Mage.

“Why did you come up with a job tree like this? Battle Mage is a PvP specialized job, right? It doesn’t seem to fit well with the rest of the tree.”

“I’m just going to pick up the passives for Battle Mage.”

Said the Snow Mage, showing me the passive skills that the Battle Mage possessed.

[Flow of Battle]

Recovers 3% mana every time your health drops by 1%.

[Turn the Tide]

When your health is below 30%, damage from magic skills of rank 4 or lower increases by 100%.

“This is…”

“While blood magic skills are a mixed bag for typical wizards, having the characteristics of a Battle Mage provides significant synergy.”

“But there are no higher jobs in the end. Is it okay to choose only these lower-tier jobs?”

“That’s enough. As long as the build I devised flows smoothly.”

The Snow Mage said this while showing me only the key skills from the job she suggested.

“First, the Rune Caster.”

[Runic Engraving]

When using a magic skill, creates a runic engraving that matches the attribute of that skill.

1 Runic Engraving held: Magic Damage +10%

2 Runic Engravings held: Magic skill mana cost reduced by 30%

3 Runic Engravings held: Casting speed +20%

4 Runic Engravings held: Gives surrounding allies +5% to stats.

“Only this skill from Rune Caster is what I’ll take.”

“Are you just going to discard the rest?”

“Yes.”

“Then for the bottom Fire Caster and Ice Caster, you only chose one each for creating runic engravings?”

“Yes!”

I grabbed my head at the Snow Mage’s words.

It felt strange that I had to use two job ranks just to pick up one buff skill.

“The last one is Elemental Master. I’m only going to use two skills from here.”

[Elemental Overload]

30% increase in mana cost for magic skills.

50% increase in damage for magic skills.

[Elemental Cannon]

Fires a beam possessing the four elemental attributes.

The mana cost increases by 1% per second for each second of skill usage, and magic damage increases by 10% each time.

*Maximum stack count: 15

“Wait… isn’t this skill unused by anyone?”

“It just wasn’t used because it doesn’t produce results.”

“Uh…”

I nodded as I looked over the build proposed by the Snow Mage.

While looking at the skills individually seemed off, when gathered together, a rather plausible build was formed.

“Shall we reset the rank right now?”

“What?”

“I think it might be stronger than the build you’re currently using, right? Helena.”

I glanced at Helena, gauging her reaction to the Snow Mage’s words.

My current job tree was the one Helena had taught me. But to my surprise, she also nodded as if she saw potential in the build the Snow Mage had chosen.

“Is it that powerful?”

“Not bad. If we’re just looking at damage, this would probably be the strongest wizard build so far.”

“Is it really that much?”

“But the downside is that it lacks any survival skills…”

“Hm…”

“This should definitely allow you to beat Hwarang, right?”

Beat Hwarang?

The moment the Snow Mage finished speaking, I was rummaging through the cash shop.

*

The evening after defeating the second named, Hellfire Dragon Bahamut, the anticipated raid time finally arrived.

I stood on a distant hill, arms crossed, away from my party members.

Whoosh—

The strong wind blew, fluttering the cloak spread behind me.

“The Party Leader is posing…”

“Looks like today’s theme is chic.”

“He seems to really love that cloak. He keeps flaunting it.”

No matter how quietly they whispered, I could hear everything.

I turned my head toward the voices of my party members and leaped off the hill dramatically.

Thud-!

What a fantastic landing it was!

As I subtly gauged their reactions, the Snow Mage, hidden among the party members, applauded.

Clap, clap, clap-!

Starting off is always tough. The Snow Mage’s applause quickly spread to the entire party.

Totally clueless, the party members kept clapping until I waved my hand to tell them to stop.

It was quite satisfying.

“6:50 PM. Time for a headcount.”

I said that as I began checking my party members.

No one’s class had changed. No one’s equipment had suddenly weakened.

The composition of the party was perfect.

All 40 of us, including me, were right here.

Everything was flawless.

Nodding my head, I opened my mouth.

“Everyone, let’s enter!”

We entered the Raid Dungeon with the party members.

The place we arrived at was before a giant altar where the third named monster sat.

This time, the named monster looked familiar to everyone.

[Fallen Moonlight Crow]

Crow.

A character that played the role of the protagonist in Deron’s story.

In the new expansion, he had been given little importance, yet here he appeared in a corrupted form in the raid dungeon out of nowhere.

“Oh… Is it Crow again?”

“Is this the second time he’s fallen? He always seems to be getting corrupted.”

“Honestly, there were hints about this in the main story… So…”

The party members who delved deep into the story began conversing amongst themselves.

Apparently, they mentioned the possibility of Crow’s corruption somewhere in the main quest, but to me, it was hard to understand.

Who the named monster was had little relevance to me. I was much more interested in the items he would drop than the game’s story.

“Let’s proceed!”

I shouted to the entire party.

Everyone began using their buff skills and taking out potions.

Watching all this, Dogrik nodded and began approaching Crow.

[Oh ho… It’s you all…]

Crow, clad in worn armor, looked different this time.

The shimmering silver armor radiated a soft moonlight, and the sword he held sparkling brightly, as if shaped from the moon in the dark sky.

Rather than a fallen knight, he looked more like a Paladin serving a deity of the moon.

“Hyaap!”

Dogrik charged at Crow, who was about to utter some important dialogue.

As his heavy body collided with Crow’s, combat naturally began.

“Ah… the dialogue…!”

“Gah…!”

Some party members sighed in disappointment.

But what could we do? The battle had already started.

Crow swung his sword, skipping his dialogue.

[Ha!]

Swish—!

The sword of moonlight, swinging wide.

The crescent-shaped attack spread like a wide arc, dealing damage to the nearby melee dealers.

I lowered my gaze to check the DPS of Hwarang.

As the battle commenced, the one recording the highest ranking was, as usual, rolling on the ground and shooting his gun.

I couldn’t help but laugh at the sight.

This time, I would win.

“Yap!”

Before starting to deal damage, I began the task of creating runic engravings.

Using several low-level skills with short casting times and cooldowns, I quickly generated 5 runic engravings and immediately got into position.

I spent 5 seconds preparing until I was truly ready after the battle commenced.

Right now, my DPS ranking was quite dismal.

But this was only the startup phase.

The true potential of this build was just about to begin.

With feet shoulder-width apart, I settled into position.

Then, I extended the staff in my hand and aimed at the enemy.

Being humanoid, Crow was small and moved quickly, making aiming a bit challenging, but none of that mattered to me.

With my aim now fixed.

Next.

I yelled out with conviction.

“Fire!!!”

Wooosh-!

The beam fired from the end of my staff was incredibly thin.

And weak.

The party members around me gasped in surprise at my grand shout, but I remained focused, zeroing in on Crow.

“Uh… Party Leader?”

“You’re shooting some weird beam…?”

The other wizards began looking at me with puzzled expressions.

It was understandable. My build had suddenly changed. And I was using a skill no one ever used.

My DPS ranking still lingered at the bottom.

But that was only for a moment.

“Hyaaaah!”

As the duration of [Elemental Cannon] lengthened, the beam emanating from my staff began to thicken.

The thicker the beam, the higher the damage, naturally.

The DPS ranking also climbed vertically.

From lingering at the 30th rank, I soon crept closer to the top 10.

Boom—!

As time passed and the beam thickened, the noise grew louder and the effects became more dazzling.

By the time the crimson beam enveloped Crow’s entire body, my DPS ranking had shot up to 5th place.

I turned my gaze to check my mana pool.

It was currently draining at a rate of 10% per second.

I knew it would run out in an instant.

Immediately, I used a blood magic skill to convert the expiring mana into health.

Boom—!

Blood magic skills were essentially buff skills with an on/off feature.

Naturally, I could maintain [Elemental Cannon] while using it.

The moment I opened blood magic, my health began to drain, causing my mana to surge rapidly.

As I hit the 30% health mark, I immediately deactivated the blood magic buff.

I didn’t stop.

I kept firing.

The lost health was replenished by the sub-healer’s heals.

In other words, as long as the healer has sufficient mana, I could continuously unleash immense firepower.

Boom!

The beam that had been erupting from the end of my staff expanded explosively.

Finally reached it.

The final stage of draining 15% mana per second.

Naturally, the magic damage had also risen to 150%.

Kaboom!

The DPS, which had remained in the top 10, shot up vertically.

In less than 3 seconds, it reclaimed the first place from Hwarang.

But the DPS continued to climb.

“Hyaaaah!”

When my mana ran low, I turned on the blood magic to replenish my mana.

Once all my mana was full, I’d turn off the blood magic and drain my mana again.

This continued, and Crow’s health dropped to the 70% mark in under 2 minutes from the start of the battle.

“I can’t believe this…”

Rolling around and shooting away, Hwarang looked back at me with a shocked expression regarding my DPS ranking.

Right now, the DPS difference between him and me was over twice.

And it was only getting wider, suggesting it would ultimately settle around three times.

Then, it happened.

Crow, who had been facing Dogrik, suddenly turned and started striding toward me.

“No!!! No!!!”

Dogrik screamed, swinging his sword, but Crow didn’t even glance at him.

Even with a forced provocation, it didn’t last long.

Crow continued walking towards me.

“Ah…”

I opened my mouth in shock.

Having a high DPS meant that my aggro figure was equally elevated.

I was dealing over twice the damage of the top dealer in the party.

Of course, it was impossible for the main tanker to manage the aggro levels.

“Get away…!”

I immediately canceled the magic and used Blink to create distance, but I couldn’t entirely shake Crow off.

The rapidly advancing Crow shoved his sword of moonlight into my chest.

Crack—!

“Hyahhh…”

I felt my strength drain away as my vision became tinted gray.