Chapter Forty-Two: Passing the Barrier

After withstanding the rain of fire for two or three seconds, Zhang Shan also fell.

Now, on the battlefield, there were only four warriors with Charge skills left alive, along with a group of substitute supports.

The warriors’ Charge could draw aggro and slow the boss, but it had no stun effect and couldn’t interrupt skills. So, during the earlier interrupting sequence, they had waited on the periphery, ready to step in, and thus managed to survive.

With Zhang Shan down, his Rebirth passive needed another ten seconds to activate.

During this time, if no one held the boss’s attention, it would attack anyone randomly among the remaining players.

“One warrior at a time, rotate Charge to hold the boss. Each just needs to take one hit, keep it for three seconds, and absolutely don’t let the boss hit the supports. Supports, get ready to move closer to Six Pipes. When he resurrects, heal him immediately!”

In this emergency, even Wind and Cloud, usually calm, was yelling frantically.

“I’ll go first.” Wind and Cloud’s Secretary declared, then charged at the boss.

Secretary, a Guardian Warrior, was a proper tank class, but unfortunately, he hadn’t been able to play his role in this boss fight.

It wasn’t his fault. The boss’s attack was six thousand damage in one hit, while Secretary’s total health was less than seven thousand.

The boss only needed two hits to knock him out, and if it critted, it would take him out in one blow.

Here, he couldn’t tank at all. He survived only because he had learned Charge and had stayed on standby at the edge.

When he charged the boss, he was doomed.

Still, Secretary had nearly seven thousand health, and decent defense. He managed to withstand two hits, holding the boss for five or six seconds.

When the third warrior fell after charging, Zhang Shan’s Rebirth passive finally triggered, and he revived at full status.

The Rebirth passive was a bug-like skill—too bad it could only be used once every twenty-four hours. If its cooldown were shorter, it’d be even better.

Standing up, Zhang Shan quickly attacked the boss, drawing its aggro.

The remaining supports hurried after him, healing him in time.

Wind Chime also gave him an attack blessing.

At this point, the boss had about seventy thousand health left. In the last ten seconds, no one could deal any damage, and the boss had even recovered several thousand health.

Fortunately, seventy thousand wasn’t much for Zhang Shan. If he triggered the Holy Attack effect, two hits would be enough.

Even without any critical effects, he could blow up the boss in about twenty seconds.

While attacking the boss, Zhang Shan summoned his panda pet again.

Now, he wasn’t counting on the pet’s luck to deliver the final blow.

Instead, he summoned it to immediately unleash its Combo skill near the boss.

After leveling up to twenty with Zhang Shan, the pet’s attack power had greatly improved, reaching over a thousand.

Seven combos could deal nearly ten thousand damage—quite impressive.

In this race against time, every extra bit of damage mattered. Killing the boss one second sooner reduced uncontrollable risks.

Even the last surviving Berserker was now swinging his axe at the boss. Though the damage was pitiful, every bit helped.

Under the tense, continuous assault, Zhang Shan triggered a heavy strike effect—five times damage.

The boss’s health quickly bottomed out. After a few more attacks, the boss finally collapsed, unwillingly.

Those who survived till the end, besides Zhang Shan, all gained a level, reaching fifteen.

Whew, that was nerve-wracking. After the boss fell, Zhang Shan sat down heavily.

He was exhausted—less than five minutes of fighting felt like years. It was so intense.

Luckily, their luck held out: the boss didn’t imprison Zhang Shan at the last moment. Otherwise, the outcome would have been uncertain.

System announcement: Congratulations to players Wind and Cloud, Wind Chime, Six Pipes Bodhisattva… for the first clear of Demon Suppression Platform, Floor One.

All received +1 skill point and +100 merit.

Wind Chime used a resurrection spell to revive Wind and Cloud.

As for the others, they could only remain lying down, wait for the loot distribution, then return to town to revive.

After all, resurrection spells like this had a long cooldown—no way to revive a second person for now.

“Finally killed it. Damn, that was hard. Luckily, the artifact master is awesome.”

“Yeah, even a level twenty tank couldn’t withstand it without strong gear.”

“With what? A cloak, a cloak! At least a blue or higher cloak, then a Guardian Warrior might take a couple more hits.”

“That’s easy to say. Where do you get a blue cloak? I’ve never seen one.”

“I have one, haha.” Wind Chime had survived and leveled up, reaching fifteen. Now she could finally equip the blue cloak she’d bought from Zhang Shan.

“No way! How do you have a blue cloak?”

Wind Chime displayed the cloak’s stats.

“Wow, adds 3900 health. Not as insane as Six Pipes’ priest cloak, but already very strong.”

“Yeah, such a tanky support—a little blood bull.”

“You’re the bull, your whole family’s blood bulls,” Wind Chime replied, annoyed. She didn’t like that nickname—she was a cute girl, after all.

“Alright, let’s distribute the gear, then return to town and establish the guild,” Wind and Cloud interrupted everyone’s chatter.

“Exactly, gear distribution first. It’s a red boss—surely no trash gear will drop, right?”

“Hard to say, since we chose normal difficulty.”

“If you don’t play normal, you want to try other difficulties? That’s suicide.”

“Gods, bless me with a red item, best if it’s a red cloak,” Secretary prayed while lying on the ground.

“Dream on.”

Wind and Cloud displayed all the boss drops.

Three pieces of gear, one material, one skill book. The red gear consisted of two pairs of shoes; the orange gear was a shirt and a ring.

The shoes were agility-based—their stats made Zhang Shan drool.

The shirt was strength-based, the ring for intelligence. The skill book turned out to be the boss’s first skill: Heavenly Fire Meteor.

A powerful skill—level one added ten percent damage, with only a three-second cooldown, same as the fire mage’s beginner skill.

Once a fire mage learned this, they could basically abandon their starter skill. The only downside was high mana consumption.

Level one cost a hundred mana, but that was manageable. As levels and gear improved, max mana would increase.

With big blue potions and gear recovery effects, mana was generally sufficient.

“I suggest the shoes go to Six Pipes. No need to roll—this clear was entirely thanks to him. Otherwise, even if we came back next week, we might not clear it,” Wind and Cloud told the other agility players.

“No problem, the shoes belong to the artifact master. We have no objections.”

“Is this alright?” Zhang Shan really wanted the red shoes, but getting them without a roll made him feel embarrassed.

“Don’t be modest, big guy. Who’d dare roll against you? No one’s that shameless.”

“Yeah, you carried both damage and tanking. Who’d compete with you for gear? Don’t be sentimental.”

Wind and Cloud didn’t say more, directly assigning the shoes to Zhang Shan.

The orange shirt went to Lone Rider, who lucked out.

He had zero presence all game, but got an orange piece for free.

No one minded; after all, most had “won by lying down” in this boss fight.

The orange ring went to a cute support girl Zhang Shan didn’t know.

The material was rolled by everyone; Zhang Shan only scored 48, so it went to Secretary.

The last item, the Heavenly Fire Meteor skill book.

Wind and Cloud said, “Let me have the skill book—by old rules, I’ll send a red packet to everyone here who didn’t get an item.”

Okay.

With all items distributed, Wind and Cloud announced,

“Alright, everyone return to town. I’ll go hand in the quest. Let’s hope there are no more steps, so our Wind and Cloud Guild can become the first guild in the new world.”