Stalkerizing

[Party] GegulGegulFrog: You guys know the meat shield can see this chat too, right? ㅠㅠ

[Party] Freedeal: Got dragged into this party somehow… but now it’s getting interesting. Ha.

[Party] Furple: I literally said I’d be a good person starting today… ㅠㅠ

[Party] Shokrates: You said that? Why didn’t I hear about it?

[Party] GegulGegulFrog: Because you were late.

[Party] Shokrates: Ah, damn.

[Party] a10235044: Lol? I’m saying I’ll tank.

Why do you keep stopping me? Is tanking with a Warlock that untrustworthy? Sa-yoon tilted his head.

He wouldn’t have brought it up if he thought it wasn’t possible in the first place. In fact, from the moment he saw the party didn’t have a tank, he already anticipated this run would be dangerous and had prepared countermeasures accordingly.

[Party] Chasa: Excuse me, but

[Party] Chasa: Warlocks have tanking demons.

[Party] Chasa: How about we try it once, and if it doesn’t work, then 44 can tank?

Only after that did the party’s response settle into a reluctant “If you insist…” There wasn’t a shred of trust in that answer, and Sa-yoon’s lips curled slightly.

Standing before the third boss, Midas, Sa-yoon summoned his tanking demon.

[Combat] Contractor ‘Chasa’ has summoned the Greater Demon Hagenti.

A golden-winged bull burst forth from the magic circle, letting out a powerful cry. As golden dust flaked off its wings, Hagenti stood as one of the most beautiful summons, especially under the sunset—perfect for a screenshot.

Demonic summons had an oddly attractive appearance for creatures of hell. In an official interview, the developers explained that demons were meant to be alluring beings, so they put extra effort into their designs.

They really shouldn’t have.

Because Sa-yoon had been one of those drawn in by their charm.

If only the demons hadn’t been so well-designed.

With another pointless regret weighing on him, Sa-yoon began applying buffs to the golden bull.

[Party] Chasa: Going in.

[Party] Chasa: Only heal the demon. I don’t need any heals, I’m good.

[Party] Freedeal: Chasa, if it doesn’t work out, you can pass the tank role to me ♡♡ anytime ㅠㅠ

[Party] GegulGegulFrog: Our tank, fighting! 🙂

With both encouragement and concern from the party members, the golden bull charged toward the third boss. The battle had begun.

[Party] Freedeal: Is it just me, or is this way more stable than before?

[Party] Freedeal: Am I imagining things?

[Party] Shokrates: Did we all just get collectively hypnotized?

[Party] GegulGegulFrog: Tanking demon is crazy good?!

It wasn’t their imagination. With Hagenti tanking, Midas wasn’t aggroing onto other party members, nor were their health bars fluctuating wildly.

Hagenti was a tanking demon—a “tank-demon,” or simply, a tanking pet. It couldn’t fully match an actual tank, of course, but as long as its skills were used properly, it provided much more stability compared to a damage dealer taking the hits.

[Combat] Using Resonant Sacrifice. Hagenti’s HP recovers by 1,050.

[Combat] Using Dark Blessing. Summon’s defense increases.

[Combat] Using Life Drain. HP recovers by 3,240.

Before the run, Sa-yoon had visited a skill exchanger in the capital and swapped a few skills.

With Resonant Sacrifice, he could sacrifice a portion of the Warlock’s HP to heal his summon, then replenish it using Life Drain. It wasn’t without risks, but when executed properly, he could sustain himself nearly as well as a healer.

[Party] Shokrates: Wait, does Life Drain normally restore that much??? No need for potions at this rate.

[Party] GegulGegulFrog: Maybe a crit? But it’s been proccing a lot…

The party members threw out their guesses, but the one keeping them stable had no time to reply. Sa-yoon was juggling aggro management, damage output, summon HP, and his own health all at once.

[Combat] Summon uses Demonic Taunt. Aggro drawn to summon.

[Combat] Summon uses Relentless Mark. Aggro drawn to summon.

[Combat] Used Elixir of Origin.

[Combat] HP restored by 7,800.

Sa-yoon had spent all his remaining skill points on threat-generating abilities. The downside was that his damage output had become pitifully low due to the lack of attack skills, but in exchange, he could tank smoothly.

[Party] Shokrates: What the hell am I watching right now?

[Party] Shokrates: Do Warlocks normally have this many taunt skills???

[Party] a10235044: Huh?

When Midas’ HP dropped below 50%, there was a mechanic where he would take a deep breath and freeze for 1.5 seconds before a major attack. Seizing that brief window, Sa-yoon quickly typed into the chat.

[Party] Chasa: Normally,

[Party] Chasa: Warlock summons don’t need to taunt in a party.

[Party] Furple: Well, yeah. In a normal party, there’s already a tank…

Aside from GegulGegulFrog, the rest of the party were all experienced players, so they dodged the boss mechanics without any need for callouts. That, at least, made things easier.

Since the party was almost entirely made up of DPS, Midas’ health was depleting nearly twice as fast as it would in a standard run—slight exaggeration, but not far off.

[Party] Freedeal: At this rate, you were born to be a tank.

[Party] GegulGegulFrog: Right? Your aggro control is insane.

[Party] Freedeal: Chasa, don’t you think tanking suits you? It’s been forever since I’ve had a party this stable.

At first, the party had been skeptical, but now they were practically tripping over themselves to shower him with praise. It wasn’t the first time Sa-yoon had been complimented, but this was an obvious attempt to butter him up—especially considering what Freedeal had said earlier.

[Party] Chasa: Not making an alt.

[Party] Freedeal: Ah ㅠㅠ you won’t budge…

[Party] GegulGegulFrog: Fair enough.

[Party] GegulGegulFrog: Tanks always end up as meat shields anyway…

[Party] GegulGegulFrog: But seriously, why didn’t you tank from the start, Chasa?

[Party] Chasa: 2nd boss has random aggro, so tanking doesn’t really mean much…

As for the first boss—he honestly hadn’t expected GegulGegulFrog to be such a walking disaster. If he admitted that, the chat would definitely explode again…

[Party] Furple: Prep for the Blessing.

The final mechanic was about to hit. Sa-yoon, pretending to be busy, smoothly dodged the question and whispered to the temporary nicknamed player.

[Whisper] Chasa: Did you bring Weaken?

[Whisper] a10235044: Yeah.

[Whisper] Chasa: Use it on the gold phase.

[Whisper] a10235044: There??

The other player sounded confused, but Sa-yoon didn’t have the bandwidth to explain.

[I shall grant the Blessing of Radiant Gold!]

As Midas raised his hands, the entire room was bathed in golden light. It was a wide-area attack that affected everyone present.

On cue, the party members activated their dodging skills or invincibility buffs.

[Party] Freedeal: Fuck this skill ㅠㅠ

All except for one person.

Caught mid-cast while healing, Freedeal failed to dodge in time and turned into a solid gold statue.

[Party] GegulGegulFrog: Freedeal, come on, even if you wanted a break, this is a bit much.

[Party] Furple: We called you a healer as precious as gold, and now you actually turned into gold.

[Party] Freedeal: My bad ㅠㅠ

[Party] Shokrates: Someone should probably say something at this point…

[Party] Freedeal: But wait ㅠㅠ I wasn’t the only one hit… Chasa’s demon got caught too ㅠ

The moment they saw Freedeal afflicted with a status effect, the entire party halted their attacks.

If a DPS or even the tank went down, they could still scrape by somehow. But if their only healer was out of commission, clearing the fight was impossible.

To make matters worse, Midas had an incredibly frustrating AI pattern—if even one player was caught by the petrification effect, he would immediately enter a berserk state and repeatedly cast his golden-area attack. It was an automatic wipe.

The single mistake had rendered all the effort of cutting Midas’ health down to 25% useless. Whether he realized it or not, Freedeal kept alternating between cursing and apologizing.

[Party] Chasa: Keep attacking.

[Party] Shokrates: ??? What?

[Party] a10235044: He said, attack.

[Party] GegulGegulFrog: ???

It was only then that the party members noticed something strange—Midas, who should have been preparing to cast Blessing of Gold again, was just standing there, silent.

Not only that, but the other mechanics that should have triggered during this phase weren’t activating either. He was simply punching the golden statue.

[Combat] Used Resonant Sacrifice. Hagenti’s HP restored by 1,050.

[Combat] Used Dark Blessing. Summon’s defense increased.

[Combat] Used Life Drain. HP restored by 2,080.

Even though Midas was only dealing basic attacks, he was still a raid boss. Every hit chunked Hagenti’s health significantly.

Sa-yoon kept pouring healing into his frozen summon, but without a healer, it was a losing battle.

[Party] Chasa: Hurry up and attack.

[Party] Shokrates: Oh shit, got it!

As Sa-yoon urged them on, the party—still confused—began piling on damage.

[Party] Shokrates: But seriously, what’s happening?

[Party] Freedeal: The berserk buff disappeared. I think it bugged out. Keep going, fighting!! ㅠㅠ

While the melee DPS were busy fighting, Shokrates, who had a bit more breathing room, kept voicing his curiosity.

They were both robe-wearing classes, but Warlocks had to juggle far more mechanics, and Sa-yoon had no time to answer.

[Summon has been dispelled.]

Despite chugging potions like they were shots, in the end, Hagenti vanished.

At that moment, Midas finally snapped out of it and raised his hands—the casting motion for Blessing of Gold.