Chapter 2
The Long Terror is essentially a turn-based roguelike game. Even if you build the same class combination every playthrough, the names of the Heroes (characters) change, the structure of the dungeons changes, and the loot (items) or artifacts dropped also change. Even if you somehow recruit a Hero with the same class and name, the four basic skills assigned to them will still be different.
That’s why people call it a “luck-based RNG game.”
In essence, whether you succeed in clearing the game depends on how you assemble your class combination, how you place your Heroes, how effectively you use your skills and consumable items, and how well you manage your inventory.
The maximum party size is four Heroes.
The standard combination is a tank, a damage dealer, a healer, and one additional role.
Of course, on low difficulty levels, you don’t need all that. You can steamroll with pure damage or, for fun, try something ridiculous like a 4-tank muscle team. As long as you aren’t catastrophically unlucky, you could theoretically complete the game without any deaths.
But on normal difficulty, it’s practically impossible to complete a no-death run with silly combinations like a 4-tank or 4-damage dealer party. On hard difficulty, there’s not even a need to discuss it.
In other words, in this harder-than-hard scenario, three of your four party members are essentially locked into a tank, a damage dealer, and a healer.
The fourth party member depends on your preference. Personally, I prefer playing it safe, so I’d put a damage-tank hybrid or a secondary healer in the fourth slot.
But there was a key difference in this world.
I wasn’t a player controlling characters beyond the fourth wall by just clicking a mouse. I was a Hero myself, who had to fight directly.
In other words, before recruiting other Heroes, I needed to choose my own class.
‘Whether this is a dream or not, I need to proceed. The 3-day time limit is bothering me. After that… well, I’ll figure it out then.’
Given how hardcore this game is, ignoring even the smallest detail would be foolish, let alone something as important as a stated time limit. It would be idiotic to ignore such an obvious red flag.
At least for the next three days, I decided to focus solely on the tutorial and understanding this world.
“What would you like to name your Hero party? It’s best to avoid duplicates.”
“I’ll go with HAT.”
“Hmm. No duplicates. It’s approved. Hand this paper to the Hero Support Office, and they’ll provide you with one free companion Hero.”
“Thank you.”
‘This is a single-player game. Why would duplicates matter?’
The difficulty of this world was brutal.
In the game, you could just scribble a team name, but here it cost me five silver coins just to register. It meant nothing beyond that, but still, I was down to three gold coins and nine silver coins.
It seemed like plenty for now, but considering what I’d need for equipment and supplies, I had to be careful.
‘Let’s just consider it the cost of recruiting my first companion.’
But before that, I had to choose my class.
“This is the Hero Training Center. What can we help you with?”
“I’m here to choose a class.”
“We can provide a brief explanation of the classes if you wish. Would you like that?”
“Yes, please.”
I had all 13 existing classes memorized down to their stats, but three new classes were added with the latest DLC. I decided to listen to the explanation to be safe.
<Melee Classes>
- Knight / Guardian / Paladin / Berserker
<Ranged & Rogue Classes>
- Plunderer/ Bounty Hunter / Treasure Hunter / Assassin / Crossbowman
<Support & Healing Classes>
- Imprecator / Battle Vestal / Curing Vestal / Bard
<Special Classes>
- Werewolf / Black Merchant / Reinforced Human
The three new classes from the DLC were in the Special category. I had the explanations checked just in case there were any changes to the existing classes, but there were none.
‘Tanks are a no-go. I’m too much of a coward to stand in the front.’
Tanks typically stood in the 1st position (the frontline) about 80% of the time. Not all monsters attacked the front first, but most targeted the 1st or 2nd position. If aggro was completely random, there’d be no point in having a tank.
So, tanks were out.
‘Healers are also out. While two healers give good sustain, you end up lacking damage output. If I get unlucky and take consecutive critical hits, my front line could get wiped out before I can even heal them. That happened frequently enough on hard difficulty, and it’s even harder here.’
In terms of pure healing output, the Imprecator was the best, but there was a problem: all of its skills were based on curses, meaning its healing was also considered a curse. Moreover, the minimum healing value could go below zero, into the negatives. In the worst case, you’d curse the enemy while failing to heal, wasting an entire turn. It was a risky, lottery-type character.
‘The consistent healer is the Curing Vestal, but… that’s only available for female characters.’
In fact, in this game, even if you choose the same class, your stats will vary depending on whether your character is male or female, and there are also racial stat modifiers (this is where the real luck factor comes in).
Anyway, if you want to maintain stability with a 1-healer party, you’re forced to pick the Curing Vestal, but both the Curing Vestal and the Battle Vestal are exclusively female characters. And since I’m a male, I couldn’t pick them even if I wanted to. So, healers who stand in the 4th row (the backline) were ruled out.
That leaves the 2nd and 3rd rows.
If I assume we’re going with a 1-healer party, it’s a choice between having a main damage dealer with a secondary damage dealer or a main damage dealer with a tank.
Of course, the latter has much better combat strength… but the higher the difficulty, the more essential a rogue-type character becomes.
Mapping (scouting), detecting traps, long-range support, light damage but packed with utility.
On higher difficulties, even the smallest misstep could be fatal, and the presence of a rogue significantly increases the chance of avoiding risks in advance.
So, rogue-types were also necessary.
And in the game, rogue-types are generally treated as…
“I guess I’m the main damage dealer then.”
No matter how scary direct combat was, I didn’t want to live as a slave.
‘If I go with a treasure hunter for the rogue, then having myself as a crossbowman in a dual-range composition wouldn’t be bad.’
The crossbowman is a ranged damage dealer whose strength lies in consistent damage. However, its weakness is also ‘consistent’ damage—there are no extremely powerful skills.
‘But picking an assassin would make me a glass cannon.’
‘The berserker has crazy damage output, but its utility is nearly non-existent, and its accuracy is terrible.’
By eliminating options one by one, I narrowed it down to:
Bounty Hunter / Werewolf / Reinforced Human.
‘Oh right, the werewolf class has terrible synergy with the Vestal.’
The werewolf boasts the highest maximum health and attack power of all classes when transformed, so I was considering it, but then I remembered that you couldn’t form a team with a Vestal.
There’s a setting where the Vestals refuse to team up with a werewolf, so if you try to form a party with them, one of the two randomly leaves the party or refuses to enter the dungeon. I wasn’t sure how it was implemented here, but there was no need to take unnecessary risks.
‘Oh, what’s this? The Reinforced Human’s penalty is crazy.’
Then I noticed something I hadn’t seen before: the class traits of the Reinforced Human.
It has a 50% slower deterioration of Mentality (psychological state), but at the same time, it reduces all healing effects by 50%.
In a game where party sustainability is key, no matter how good the basic stats and modifiers are, a 50% reduction in healing is a massive penalty.
‘Tsk. Looks like I’m going with a double-hunter combo on this highest difficulty.’
Of course, this was all just a plan, and if the class I wanted didn’t appear, all of it would be meaningless.
“Have you decided?”
“Yes. I’ll go with Bounty Hunter.”
“All right. It’s done. You can now receive your Bounty Hunter skills and pick up your basic equipment at the Equipment Support Office.”
[Class changed to ‘Bounty Hunter.’]
[Hendrik ‘Yujin’ TerrorHunter]
Race/Gender: Human Male
Class: Bounty Hunter
Level: 1
Max HP: 14 (11 + 3)
Attack Power: 2-10 (7 + 3)
Defense: 3 (1 + 2)
Speed: 7 (6 + 1)
Resilience/Awakening: 5%
Scouting Probability: 16%
Positive Traits: *Wanderer (Speed +1)
‘Wow… my stats are really unimpressive.’
It was daunting to think about when I’d reach level 10, but that wasn’t important right now.
The most crucial turning point of the game, the recruitment of the first companion, was ahead of me.
At the Hero Support Office, you are shown 10 potential companions, each randomly generated in terms of gender, class, traits, and race.
In walkthroughs, there’s even advice suggesting you delete your save file and start over if your first companion is unsatisfactory. You repeat the recruitment process until you find a good enough character.
That’s how pivotal the first companion selection is—it’s the first big decision that will define the success of the Hero Party.
Of course, I couldn’t afford to engage in such repetitive tactics.
“Welcome. Are you here to apply?”
“No, I’m here to recruit.”
“Hand over your Hero Party certificate… hm. Look them over and let me know. But be warned—there are no second chances.”
The recruiter, in contrast to the polite training center staff, spoke in a more casual and rough tone. His muscular build didn’t match his thin voice, which felt oddly out of place as I reviewed the hero candidates’ information.
‘The first companion has to be a tank or a healer.’
The first option was to recruit a solid tank to push through dungeons while providing a safe haven for health and mentality recovery. The second option was to recruit a healer to sustain me while I absorbed some hits, with plans to recruit a tank later.
The advantage of the first option was that I would take less damage and be able to deal damage more steadily. The advantage of the second option was that by levelling up the healer early, the party’s sustainability would exceed the game’s progression.
A two-damage-dealer composition was out of the question.
[Karlov]
Race/Gender: Human Male
Class: Plunderer
‘Pass.’
I dismissed the first hero candidate as soon as I saw the class.
[Yeria]
Race/Gender: Dark Elf Female
Class: Assassin
‘Ugh, such a waste.’
The second hero was also passed on immediately based on the class, but it was truly unfortunate. Dark Elves had the highest stat bonuses for the Assassin class. Although her gender reduced her max HP, attack power, and defense due to the female stat modifiers, the race bonus was so unique that it almost offset those penalties.
From the third to the ninth candidates, I kept encountering problems. Either their class was wrong, their race and class combo was negatively matched, or they had terrible negative traits, so I had to pass on all of them.
Even if this were just the “Hard” difficulty, I could have used at least three of them, but this was the highest difficulty. I couldn’t afford to pick a flawed character, even if they weren’t terrible.
Suppressing my growing anxiety, I checked the profile of the 10th candidate.
[Kaya]
Race/Gender: Half-Elf Female
Class: Battle Vestal
“What… a Half-Elf Vestal?”
For the first time since starting this game, I encountered a class and race combination I had never seen before.
What was going on?
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