Chương 34: B1 | Chapter 31

Aidan How the hell did he survive that fall?! He fell off of a freaking tower! I grit my teeth before examining the boss. Or at least, examining what little I can from this high up. And what I find is at least a little bit more reassuring than my first sight of him. The boss isn't perfectly fine. He took a good amount of damage from the fall. I can see at least one bone having broken to the point of sticking out of both his skin and armor on both of his legs. Making the boss struggle pretty badly to stand up.

Hence his roaring. He is roaring more from pain than anger this time. That's why the roar sounded different earlier than the previous roars. The way his legs are broken, though… Did he land on his feet…? After falling from a tower? Also, how the hell is he still standing?! His bones are literally sticking out of his armor, not just his legs! At least his armor is badly cracked on the legs part. Even if the upper half isn't damaged.

I even see damage still being stacked from my Void Rend skill damaging the cracked legs despite him being very far away. Tears begin to leak from my eyes at the sheer pain in my body, so I lower myself to the ground. If for no other reason than to lessen the pain. Then I continue looking down at the boss as his legs wobble. Clearly unstable. And the damage from my Void Rend continues to occasionally scratch at the already partially shattered armor around his legs. Gradually whittling it away.

On top of all that, a pool of dark blue, almost black blood is forming at his feet. Showing the first instance of this void mage's blood since the start of the battle. I feel both regret and relief that I decided to challenge this boss. Despite him being a boss I didn't need to fight to clear the floor and Tutorial. Regret because of this fucking pain, and relief because it looks like I might be able to win now. Considering how the boss is struggling to take even a single step.

The boss will likely bleed out eventually at this rate. And he clearly can't climb a tower in his condition. Maybe I can even just wait up here for him to die? Then have my voidlings carry me down to drain him of source mana. That plan crumbles the moment the void mage starts creating numerous orbs of void mana around him before throwing them all up at the top of the tower.

Making my voidlings rush on instinct to pull me back before the orbs slam into the tower and begin to blast parts of it away to fall down towards the ground near its edge. Barely saving my life in the process as my heart beats at a million miles per hour just looking at the further ruined edge of the tower. Right. Mage. I keep forgetting, but he is a mage.

More orbs of void mana begin to fly up at the top of the tower, with some of them slamming into the tower and further destroying it and others flying past, missing the tower. And as my voidlings all work to move me over to the stairs to climb down the tower, I find a blue message appearing in my vision that shocks me.

◊*Cluster-Wide Achievement*◊ Users Xyr'thak, Zyn'kora, Zyxari, Vexkora, Thraxxil, Xalvrix, Vrixka, Zyr'thex, Vroxxil, Xyrrik, and Vex'thara have become the first ones in the Tutorial for the Gaia Cluster to clear the Easy Difficulty Tutorial. Therefore, each one of them receives a special Easy Tutorial Pioneer Title and an Epic Rarity Loot Box for their Cluster-Wide Achievement. Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

◊*Cluster-Wide Achievement*◊ Cluster-Wide… Achievement? There are rewards for being the first to do things in the cluster? Wait, the cluster is the group of planets being merged for the Tutorial and where we end up after the Tutorial, right? I think that was what Ali and the Guide said. The Achievement mentioned Easy Difficulty too, so there are probably Achievements for Normal and Hard Difficulties as well.

Knowing that there is a genuine reward like an Achievement for being the first to complete this floor on hard difficulty significantly increases my motivation to finish off the boss as quickly as possible. But something ends up surprising me as the voidlings rush down the stairs of the tower with me carried by them all and void mana orbs smashing the tower itself around us. My claws end up digging into the voidlings a little by accident. And it actually heals me a little from lifeforce drain.

Relieving some of the pain I feel ever so slightly. I didn't think about it before, but my voidlings have lifeforce as well. It feels wrong to use my own creations as batteries for lifeforce. Not that the voidlings seem to care, since the moment they notice that, as if on instinct, some of them try to purposefully drag my claws across their carapaces to heal me. Clearly showing their absolute loyalty towards me in the process. I grit my teeth for a moment, only to give in when I realize they're taking turns.

Making sure not to harm any of them very badly as they spread out the damage and lifeforce draining to each of them. And by the time we make it to the balcony on the exterior floor, I find my wounds healed enough that I'm no longer in immense pain anymore. I'm even able to walk again, since my legs are fully healed. With the exception of what I'm guessing are some fractures in my bones. But those can be ignored. The pain is already significantly less than it was earlier after all.

So I start to walk on my own when we reach the balcony. Then I look over the ledge to see the void mage looking tired now. No doubt from his void orb spam. And he's no longer standing on two legs. He's closer to the tower than before, but now he's down on one knee. As if his legs couldn't hold on any longer. His eyes seem to tremble when they notice me looking significantly better than before, but that might just be my imagination. None of this stops him from throwing more void orbs at us.

So I order my voidlings to begin climbing down the side of the tower. Since I know they can climb the tower's walls from our earlier climb up to this very balcony when we were first going up the tower. Then I start using Void Pits to reduce the power in the void orbs while dodging them and throwing void rends down at him now that I'm in range. Starting what I hope will be the final part of the battle. Not long after my voidlings reach the ground, another Cluster-Wide Achievement appears in my vision.

This one in orange text. Making me narrow my eyes for a moment before letting out a breath of relief when I see it's for the Normal Difficulty Tutorial. Not the hard one. ◊*Cluster-Wide Achievement*◊ Users Andrew Stone, Rictar'lavi, Xyrr'kethal, Akira Fuji, and Serina Duskbane have become the first ones in the Tutorial for the Gaia Cluster to clear the Normal Difficulty Tutorial.

Therefore, each one of them receives a special Normal Tutorial Pioneer Title and a Legendary Rarity Loot Box for their Cluster-Wide Achievement. ◊*Cluster-Wide Achievement*◊ That's a lot of familiar names. But I guess that makes sense, since the normal difficulty has five users working together. And if the first ones to enter the fifth floor were the top ranking users, then they'd have to be paired together.

I quickly return my focus to the boss when he starts to fight against my voidlings with his sword and open fist instead of using magic. With the purple energy in his eyes almost completely gone. Did he run out of mana? I hope so. My voidlings all target his legs and his head as I continue firing void rends at him. All while my repeated stacks of damage from Void Rend damage his armor over and over again. Until the armor around his legs finally shatter, revealing his legs beneath to my voidlings.

But at this point, his bleeding is significantly slower than it was before. And since I can tell that he hasn't healed just from looking at his wounds even from here, I think he might be running out of blood. I let out a breath in relief at what I'm assuming is the end of the battle. Only for my eyes to widen when the void mage suddenly lifts his head towards me and begins to glow with a deep purple glow. Almost like a bomb about to blow up. Shit. I hurriedly order my voidlings to move away, but it's too late.

The void mage explodes with a massive whoomph sound cutting off all noise in just a second. Making what looks like a black hole of sorts spanning several meters around him. And the only voidling that managed to get out of the blast range was the general, who is faster at registering my orders by the sheer fact that it's my general. I clench my fist at the sight of the orb, but the orb doesn't disappear for several seconds. And when it does, it reveals the void mage still standing there.

Why won't this bastard just d- The void mage, who was standing perfectly still and on both of his legs somehow, slowly creaks forward before slamming face-first into the ground. Meanwhile a System Message appears in my vision. [Level 50 Void Mage has been slain. Appropriate source mana has been allocated.] Oh. He did die. I collapse onto the ground of the half-ruined balcony as relief sets in at last. Without it being interrupted this time. Finally.

Then numerous level-up messages begin to appear in my vision one after another.