NOVEL NEXT Chapter 78: The Cloak That Shouldn’t Exist
The danger of Blackwater was swiftly neutralized by the alert party. Once its most lethal mechanic was out of play, the BOSS was little more than a glorified elite—bulkier, yes, but no longer truly threatening.
After all, this was just an early-game dungeon. Once the mechanics were figured out, the challenge vanished. In later stages, even if you had the BOSS's entire ability list memorized, clearing the fight would still be brutal.
Despairer Hughesman lived up to its name only briefly before it met its own despair. Its health bar nosedived. Even when it cast Blackwater every thirty to forty seconds, it couldn't stop its inevitable collapse.
With one last piercing shriek—an AoE scream that rattled the team's health bars—the elemental body disintegrated. All that remained were two elemental armlets, dimly glowing on the ground like flickering embers. That was the corpse.
Achievement notifications burst across personal and guild channels. Not Glorious Achievements—nothing with real rewards—but the kind that marked task completions. Still, they drew attention.
The stream of system messages quickly set off chatter across other dungeon teams still mid-fight. Ryan's squad had claimed the first clear—and, more impressively, the first-ever full clear of the Outer Corrupted Forest in Kingdom Forge.
"No, no, no, no, NO! Guild leader, you guys are insane!"
Noob's message hit the guild chat like a shout.
"Smoking Gun and I are still fighting trash mobs and you guys already cleared the BOSS!"
"Seriously! We're still stuck in wave three, and you guys already took first clear?!"
Evelyn complained.
"From now on, let's just disqualify Ryan's team from competitions. Their stats are stupid high. It's not even fair—they're bulldozing dungeons!"
"Yeah, for real!" AJ added.
"You've got a tank with over 1300 health! We're over here losing half our HP to a sneeze."
The chat exploded with envious reactions.
"Hey, don't hate the player!" Ryan fired back, riled up by the pile-on.
"Is it my fault I'm built like a raid boss? You'll all thank me when we're clearing actual raids!"
Ever since moving into his new place that morning, Ryan had been... looser. Lately, the guild had noticed a change in him. Previously quiet, the kind of guild leader who only spoke up when necessary, he'd started talking more—joking, teasing, even bantering.
Moonlight Beauty, watching the chat chaos unfold, finally cut in with a gentle reminder:
"Guild leader, loot the BOSS before the body despawns."
"Tch, fine!" Ryan huffed, dramatic.
"None of you understand the lonely burden of leadership. I'll go handle the loot. You can sit there and envy me, you poor peasants!"
Grinning, he walked over to Despairer Hughesman's corpse and knelt beside it. With a quick prayer—
"Amen. Give me something good, please."
—he reached out and looted the drops.
Something solid and green materialized in his hand.
"Oh, a cloak!"
The team perked up. By now, everyone had gear in most slots, but a few items remained hard to come by.
Trinkets, for one—those only dropped from rare quests or specialized dungeons. And cloaks—almost always either basic white with nothing but armor, or rare versions with real stats that were nearly impossible to find.
An uncommon quality cloak? That was as good as a fine-grade item in the current market.
With that final loot drop, Ryan had done it—he'd pulled an uncommon-quality cloak straight off the BOSS. While it couldn't compete with epic (purple) gear, in the current stage of the game, it was easily worth more than several fine-quality pieces combined.
—
Despairer's Cloak (Back)
Binds when picked up
Level: 16
Quality: Uncommon
Attribute: Stamina +7
---
Seven full points of stamina. For a tank, that was nearly endgame-level gear this early on. The group stared at it in collective silence, their faces a mix of awe and soul-crushing envy.
"Alright, everyone—roll for it!" Ryan said cheerfully, giving the cloak a little shake like he was auctioning it.
"Boss… why are we rolling for that?" Moonlight Beauty frowned, crossing her arms. She wanted it, sure—but even she knew who that cloak was meant for. "It's clearly a tank item."
The others nodded in agreement.
"Exactly. Tanks get the most out of stamina," Nightwalker said, eyeing the glowing green cloak with longing. "A ten percent boost for a tank is way better than for any of us. Just take it.
Their words made Ryan pause.
He smiled—but deep down, a strange warmth twisted in his chest. In his past life, loot like this had been a bloodbath. Even uncommon gear sparked arguments and betrayals in party chat. Yet here they were, offering it up without hesitation.
It caught him off guard.
"You guys..." he muttered, trying to sound casual, though a bit of his gratitude leaked through. "You're all really something."
But he wasn't about to take gear he didn't need.
"I'm good, though," Ryan said, finally pulling up his inventory. "Already got a better cloak."
He selected his equipped item and displayed it to the team:
---
Zephyr Cloak
Binds when equipped
Level: 16
Quality: Uncommon
Effect: Agility +2, Stamina +4
Use: Slows your fall, preventing high-fall damage.
---
The chat went silent for a moment.
"Whoa... that's not even in the database yet," AJ typed. "Where the hell did you get that?"
Ryan didn't answer immediately. He just grinned at the screen, eyes gleaming.
This wasn't just any cloak.
The Zephyr Cloak was a top-tier Engineering craft—only accessible through a schematic that wouldn't even exist until level 60, dropped by monsters that hadn't been introduced yet in the current patch. And yet, here it was, crafted and equipped by him at level 16.
In truth, Ryan had been leveling Engineering with laser focus for this one item. Not bombs, not scopes—just this cloak.
In his past life, the schematic hadn't even dropped until the expansion after launch. He only knew about it because he'd seen it much, much later—when most players had forgotten early-game gear even existed. Its passive stat boost was decent, but the active effect? That was the real prize.
With it, Ryan didn't need Feather Fall scrolls or a mage to save him from deadly cliffs and mountain paths. Even at level 90, people still used it. And unlike bombs, the Zephyr Cloak could be used by anyone. It didn't require an Engineering level to equip—only to craft.
But even crafting it was insane at this point in the game.
Some parts required rare drops from mobs above level 30. Others could only be produced through Jewelcrafting—a profession not even widely available yet. Without insider knowledge, no player could gather the right pieces, let alone anticipate the value of the schematic.
Only someone like Ryan—someone who had already lived through the game—could pull this off. And now, he had a cloak that absolutely shouldn't exist in this era.