I Reincarnated into a Game Filled with Mods – Chapter 43

Chapter 43

The damage calculation formula for plunge attacks was simple.

It inflicts damage equal to a certain amount of the enemy’s maximum HP, proportional to the distance fallen, and then the damage of the weapon being held is added on top of that.

In other words, the higher the character falls from, and the stronger the weapon’s one-hit damage, the greater the damage that can be dealt with a plunge attack.

Furthermore, if it’s possible to kill an enemy with the damage from a plunge attack, fall damage could be negated.

If the enemy isn’t killed, the character takes damage upon landing since they attack while hitting the ground, and situations where they even die on the spot occur often.

However, if the target dies, the character executes a special motion based on their weapon type, killing the enemy and landing safely on the ground.

No matter how high they fall from. In fact, it’s better to fall from a higher place because the HP-proportional damage increases.

The situation I’m currently in was also of that kind.

Dozens of regular mobs were swarming at the bottom of this pit, so no matter where the player fell, they could kill an enemy with a plunge attack and land without taking damage.

Thanks to that, I had to watch dozens of human-sized centipedes wriggling together in a pile.

‘Good. It’s right below.’

After confirming that the mid-boss was in the spot where I would fall, I switched my weapon grip so that the tip of the blade faced downwards.

The monster, which looked like several centipedes fused together and was several times larger than the others, raised its head upon hearing the loud noise from above.

Immediately, I plummeted down onto it.

“ㅡ!!!!!!”

I stomped down on its shoulders with all my might, thrusting my sword deep into what I assumed was its head.

As expected, I didn’t feel the impact of landing at all. Instead, my shoulder armor took the full brunt of the impact and caved in with a crunch. My feet dug into the inside of the shell.

The blade of the Bloodstained Sword plunged deep into its face. I grabbed the hilt from the side and below, pushing it in with all my strength. The entire upper part of the sword, except for the crossguard, was buried inside.

ㅡCrack! Crunch!

While I was dealing with the mid-boss with a plunge attack, the rock fragments that fell later mercilessly crushed the centipedes squirming in the puddle. The sound of shells shattering could be heard from everywhere.

The mobs that weren’t on the side where the player fell were dealt with by the rocks like that. Thanks to that, I didn’t have to kill them one by one.

“…”

The mid-boss met the same fate. It trembled its horrifyingly numerous legs before curling them inwards. It was a sign that its life had been extinguished.

Its body swayed greatly. I pulled the sword out of its head, spun around in the air, and landed on the ground. Even though it was a move I’d never done before, it flowed very naturally.

The monster splashed into the puddle, creating a spray of water. A disgusting-colored liquid slowly spread around it. I frowned and turned my head.

‘This place is done.’

I looked around. Every single centipede that had been swarming around here was flattened by the rocks that fell from the ceiling, without exception.

Originally, this was a ridiculously tricky section where you had to land with a plunge attack on one of the nearby mobs and then fight the mid-boss and six or seven mobs simultaneously.

However, users had discovered a glimmer of possibility here and managed to find a spot where they could land a plunge attack on the mid-boss. Even in Darkest Light Mode, this hadn’t changed.

The falling height was so immense that even the mid-boss, whose HP was dozens of times higher than that of normal enemies, was guaranteed to be one-shotted, and all the other mobs were crushed to death by the falling rocks.

There was no reason not to use this method.

‘I wonder if it dropped any items.’

I poked around near the corpses of the centipedes that had been flattened by the rocks. I was hoping for some rare item drops. However, I couldn’t see anything except for pools of blood and disgusting pieces of flesh.

Honestly, I wasn’t sure whether to be disappointed or relieved. There was no inventory or status window, so even if items dropped, I had no way to carry them.

In the game, you could just press the E key to acquire items, and they would automatically be sorted and stacked in your inventory by type, with no limit on the quantity.

But not here.

Even the Headless Ironclad Cavalryman’s spear, which I could have easily acquired and checked in my inventory if this were the game, had to be carried by me on horseback and tied to the saddle.

Even while I was in the Knights Order, I tried picking up items that were treated as such, just in case, but nothing happened.

‘At this rate, I don’t know how I’m going to farm enhancement materials later.’

Since they’ve already thrown realism out the window, couldn’t they have just included an inventory too?

ㅡRumble!

I heard the sound of the cave shaking in the distance. Instinctively, irritation surged through me as I felt the vibrations. It was a sign that the time to face the boss of this dungeon was approaching.

‘Damn Rock Centipede.’

Just thinking about it made my teeth grind. If it weren’t for the fact that it was a mandatory boss that had to be defeated to obtain the rune, I would have skipped it by any means necessary.

To summarize the ‘Rock Centipede’, the boss of this dungeon, in one sentence, it was simply a disgustingly dirty boss.

Except for newbies who had just started Brightest Darkness 4 and reached this point for the first time, there was no division of opinion about it. There wasn’t a single person who liked it, only those who hated it.

It was a structure that couldn’t help but elicit curses from anyone with even a little bit of experience. The overwhelming consensus in the community was that the boss itself was poorly designed.

It was to the point where people were saying that if a remake of Brightest Darkness 4 came out in about 30 years, they should just remove the Rock Centipede.

There were various reasons, but the three biggest problems were:

It’s not fun.

It takes a long time.

Its patterns are dirty.

‘Actually, the first reason is the most overwhelming.’

Even if it takes a long time to defeat, people will understand if it’s fun. The fact that the final boss of Brightest Darkness 4, which also has 4 phases like the Rock Centipede, is praised is a testament to this.

Still, I couldn’t just skip it and move on. I steeled myself and entered the path that was wide open on one side of the puddle wall.

The path was incredibly wide. I wondered if six or seven people could walk side by side, and the height was almost twice my own.

However, the walls and floor were extremely uneven. If I tripped and fell, it seemed like tearing my skin would be the least of my worries. I had the absurd thought of whether I could even die from that.

‘This is it.’

After walking for quite some time, I stopped when I saw a spot where unnatural holes were뚫려있는 in the walls, floor, and ceiling, a sight that anyone could recognize. This was the place.

Now, if I approached that hole, the first phase would begin. I slowly walked towards it, suppressing the irritation that was already starting to well up.

Just as I was almost there, the cave shook violently, and the sound of rock being scraped could be heard from all directions.

The sound grew louder and louder, and the tremors intensified accordingly. The scraping sound could be heard from the walls, the floor, and the ceiling.

‘Calmly.’

If I moved carelessly in this situation, I could get hit by the Rock Centipede emerging from the hole and die instantly. It was best to just stay still and not move around nearby.

ㅡKwaaaaaang!

Before long, a gigantic monster burst out of the nearest hole, shattering the surrounding terrain.

Its overall appearance was no different from an ordinary centipede, but its entire body was made of rock. This didn’t mean that its shell and exoskeleton were as hard as rock, but that its body itself was literally rock.

It was an appearance that perfectly matched the name ‘Rock Centipede’.

And it was monstrously huge.

Each of its hundreds of legs was as long as my height, and even though only the front part was sticking out of the hole, it was about the height of a multi-story building.

If you included the rest of its body that was still hidden inside the hole, the total length of its body would probably be no different from an apartment building.

‘It’s even more insane in person.’

The pressure was greater than I expected, with a monster made of rock, shaped like a centipede, and larger than a building looking down at me. This was the reason why newbies would panic when they first encountered it.

But that was it. When I thought about the struggle I would have to go through with this thing, irritation came before fear or anxiety.

ㅡKwoong!

The Rock Centipede’s body settled onto the floor. The entire cave trembled. It started crawling towards me, clicking its mandibles together.

Hundreds of rock-made legs scraped against the floor, making an unpleasant sound endlessly. Every single one of those movements was irritating.

I slowly backed away towards the wall. The Rock Centipede also slowly turned its body and followed me. Then, it started to pick up speed.

A gigantic, rock-made centipede was charging towards me at full speed, flapping its hundreds of legs and twisting its joints. It looked like it was going to ram into me and crush me against the wall.

The problem was that the speed it considered its full speed was only slightly faster than the player’s basic walking speed. There was no chance of mistiming, and even less chance of being caught and killed.

‘…Now.’

I waited until the distance closed further, then rolled to the side just before its head could ram into me, escaping diagonally. Even though I had disappeared from its sight, the Rock Centipede couldn’t stop its charge.

ㅡKwoong!

And then, unable to control its own speed, it violently crashed into the wall. The entire cave shook, and rock fragments rained down from the ceiling.

The Rock Centipede thrashed and convulsed. I backed away to avoid getting hit by its tantrum.

Even getting hit by a single piece of rock flying around near that thing would kill you. If newbies asked why they died even though they were far away, nine times out of ten, it was because they got hit by a rock.

After thrashing, convulsing, and wreaking havoc on its surroundings, the Rock Centipede clicked its mandibles together a few times in frustration and burrowed back into the rock. It took a long time for it to disappear because its body was so huge.

‘Now I have to wait for a long time again.’

I plopped down on the spot. Anyway, it would take almost a minute for it to come back out after going in like that. The developers said that it took so long because its body was so huge that it couldn’t change direction quickly.

Now I just had to repeat this 59 more times until phase 4. It was 29 times in vanilla, but it was doubled because of Darkest Light Mode.

The people who made Darkest Light Mode got a lot of flak too. People were complaining about why they increased the number of gimmicks instead of reducing them.

During those 59 repetitions, I had to wait for a minute each time, meticulously dodge every single one of the hundreds of flailing legs, and even avoid the flying rock fragments.

I sat down on the spot and started waiting endlessly for the Rock Centipede to emerge again.