"Damn!"

Even Karl couldn't ignore how dangerous this place was.

An area with a life loss rate almost twice as high as the [Depths] wasn't something you could just walk into casually.

Anyone who entered with less than 250 lives was basically asking to die forever.

It would be like willingly stepping into a fire pit and acting surprised when you burned alive.

Still, even with the danger clear as day, players were doing what players always did, either refusing to enter the clearing the moment they saw the [Lives loss rate], or puffing up their chests and convincing themselves they were brave enough to try.

Some froze at the edge, debating if it was worth the risk.

Others just charged in without thinking, assuming numbers alone meant safety.

Karl stayed put for a few seconds, just observing the battlefield.

There were around fifty players spread out across the clearing, fighting the [Special Boss] all at once.

It looked chaotic, messy, and desperate, but not hopeless.

"They're actually doing decent," Karl nodded to himself.

"But this is the minimum if you want to defeat a boss like this."

Then his eyes shifted toward the target of all the chaos, the [Floral Master].

It stood a little over two meters tall, a monster shaped from twisted vines and hardened wood.

Its "head" was a floating lantern glowing with an eerie hue, pulsing faintly like it had a heartbeat of its own.

In its singular wooden hand it clutched a massive magic wand, longer than a spear and carved with vine-like patterns that moved even though nothing touched them.

The thing itself wasn't particularly strong on its own.

Karl could tell immediately that its real power came from the monsters it summoned to protect itself and attack for it.

In terms of how players organized their classes, this boss would basically be a [Beast Master].

Karl raised his hand slightly and opened its panel.

---

[Floral Master (Level 45)]

[Rank: Legendary (Special Boss)]

[HP: 2,500,000]

[Time: 1 hour 35 minutes 58 seconds]

---

As expected of a [Special Boss], its HP was massive.

Only [Zone Bosses] or [Unique Bosses] went higher.

Karl scanned the HP bar again.

"They didn't deal a single point of damage," he muttered, "Weird."

It had already been around twenty-five minutes since the battle started.

Even if the players weren't the strongest ones around, leaving the HP literally untouched was strange.

In most cases, the boss at least took scratch damage.

Frostbite Crystals!

Karl summoned five icy crystals into existence, lined them up, and fired them all straight toward the [Floral Master].

Fwoosh!

The boss immediately snapped its lantern-head toward Karl and raised its wand.

A massive flower shot up from the ground, its petals shifting and folding in an instant to form a giant wooden shield.

It planted itself between the crystals and the boss.

BOOM!

All five crystals exploded against the shield harmlessly before the flower vanished back into the ground.

"...Alright," Karl said under his breath, "I think I get it."

Karl scanned the battlefield more carefully this time.

None of the players were actually fighting the [Floral Master] directly.

Every single one of them was too busy dealing with the other two types of monsters the boss kept summoning.

Dozens of players were locked in struggle with snapping jaws made of petals or massive purple carnivorous flowers.

Karl opened their panels too.

---

[Jaw of Bloom (Level 45)]

[Rank: Elite (Summon)]

[HP: 300,000]

---

[Man-Eating Flower (Level 45)]

[Rank: Epic (Special Summon)]

[HP: 310,000]

---

Karl quickly counted.

Ten [Jaw of Bloom]. Five [Man-Eating Flowers]. Fifteen summoned monsters in total.

No wonder the players couldn't push forward.

They were stuck just trying not to get eaten alive.

Fire Meteor!

Karl targeted a pair, one [Jaw of Bloom] and one [Man-Eating Flower], that were overwhelming a nearby team.

BOOM!

-493,650!

Both monsters were immediately vaporized, giving that team a second to breathe.

They looked at Karl, eyes widening as they recognized his ID.

"Oblivion's with us," their leader shouted, "Come on boys, we annihilate that boss!"

"Hell yeah!"

With renewed motivation, they charged straight toward the [Floral Master].

Their weapons came down in a flurry of swings—

Fwoosh!

The same massive flower with the shield materialized again, instantly blocking every single strike.

Then it swung its giant shield outward in a wide arc.

Slam!

One of the players was sent flying through the air.

The hit didn't kill him, but the force behind it was ridiculous.

Karl immediately pulled up its panel.

---

[Floral Defender (Level 45)]

[Rank: Legendary (Powerful Summon)]

[HP: 10,000]

---

It only had 10,000 HP.

Because with that shield, 10,000 might as well have been infinite.

The thing's defensive power was absurd.

Even attacks from level 50 players barely scratched it.

And since it was a summon, the [Floral Master] didn't need stamina or mana to keep using it.

That alone made the fight extremely annoying.

Karl also noticed the symbols next to their ranks.

The boss could only have a certain number of each "type" of summon active at once.

He also noticed something else.

The [Floral Master] didn't resummon the monsters he killed instantly.

There was some kind of cooldown timer involved.

'So that's the trick,' Karl thought, 'If I get rid of the [Floral Defender], the boss is exposed.'

But there was a problem. No matter what he launched, nothing got through that shield.

Not even Fire Meteor. All around him players were shouting.

"God damn it, this ain't working!"

"How do we beat that thing if it can block ANY attack?"

"This is so stupid!"

Meanwhile, the lantern-head of the [Floral Master] flickered on and off like it was mocking them. Laughing silently.

Karl narrowed his eyes.

That lantern gleam just made him more annoyed. But then something clicked in his mind.

Everyone here was trying to kill the [Floral Master].

They kept focusing on attacking forward. Every blow they threw aimed at the boss.

That was the mistake. They should be focusing on the [Floral Defender] first.

But since the defender was too fast and its shield too durable, most players assumed it was impossible.

Slam!

The [Floral Defender] slammed its shield again, sending another player rolling back.

But Karl was already smiling. There was only one.

Only one defender the boss could summon at a time. That made things a lot simpler.

"I got it."

Karl reached for the [Revenant Necklace] around his neck and activated it.

Revenant Call!

A [Soul Revenant] materialized beside him, flickering like a pale blue ghost.

Karl pointed ahead.

"Attack on the other side," he ordered, "I'll do the rest."

The revenant tilted its head, looked at Karl, then looked toward the [Floral Master].

It nodded once and rushed forward.

Karl didn't need it to deal damage. He didn't need it to be strong.

He just needed it to create one moment. One shift in position.

The revenant circled around the left side of the boss, lifting its sword.

The [Floral Defender] instantly appeared, blocking the attack and crushing the revenant in a single blow.

'Perfect.'

Right at that moment Karl spun his staff and pointed forward.

Fire Meteor!

But this time, the meteor wasn't aimed at the [Floral Master].

The summon reacted only to attacks targeting its master. It didn't react to attacks targeting itself.

BOOM!

-493,650!

The meteor slammed directly into the [Floral Defender]'s back, obliterating it in an instant.

The shield shattered into burning fragments as the petals turned to ash.

As a result, the [Floral Master] also received the damage as [Fire Meteor] was an AoE attack.

"Holy shit, he beat the thing that was defending it!"

"Damn, looks like we'll be able to attack now!"

Hope surged through the clearing. But at that exact moment…

Click!

The lantern-head of the boss flickered once. Then turned bright crimson.

Ding!

["Floral Master" has entered a "Berserk" state.]

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