Liam was caught up in a dense crowd. There was no way to spot his friends. Incessant chatter rang in his ears.

  Hundreds of pyers were gathered, and new ones tinuously arrived. The streets of the city were overflowing.

  Liam felt unfortable. He was never a fan of crowded pces. He discussed with his party, agreeing to meet outside the city.

  However, as more information became known about the boss, pyers uood that they first had to talk to the guards.

  Thus, Liam was forced to cramp together with others in an area close to the gate. The oved slowly, approag a group of five soldiers at the front.

  The captain stantly tried to calm down the pyers, but it was a fruitless endeavor.

  As if all this wasn’t enough a few people around Liam reized him, unceasingly asking all kinds of questions from how to beat dungeons to what underwear he was wearing.

  Liam thanked all the gods he could think of when he finally reached the front, grabbing a ring from a soldier and esg through the gate.

  Massaging his temples he followed the road for a short minute before taking a turn to the right.

  He arrived at a rge wooden building, with some tables outside and a spacious stable. It ost station, and his party members were already waiting outside.

  “Expert! There you are! Quick, we are te!”

  “Greetings, my friend.”

  “Hi Mirage.”

  While the others still had the mind to greet Liam, Cye looked incredibly anxious.

  “Don’t worry. A world boss isn’t so easily killed.”

  “But there are so many people here!”

  “I wouldn’t sider those many…”

  Liam recalled battles against world bosses in his past life. pared to hundreds of thousands of pyers braving fire and swords, the current se was not worth mentioning.

  However, he could see that Cye wasn’t the only oh an urgent expression.

  Silver Bde looked at everyone as she spoke up:

  “This is the first world boss! It will certainly give an achievement. If we get it, I will pay everyone 50.000 credits.”

  Immediately a few pairs of eyes lit up.

  “50.000? What are we waiting for? Let’s go!”

  Bloody Edge appeared eager, but Silver Bde held him back:

  “Wait! First, we o know more about the boss.”

  Saying this, the female tank looked at Liam. Seeing all the expet looks the vetera somewhat embarrassed. But he could only shrug his shoulders.

  “Suys, I don’t know anything.”

  The others were taken aback, exging gnces amongst themselves.

  However, it was obvious that they found it hard to believe. Rather, they thought that this was the result of their discussion in the m. Maybe this was Mirage’s way of reminding them to keep a certain level of independence.

  Liam noticed the skeptical looks but had nothing to say.

  Suddenly a message reached Liam.

  [Silver Bde: Mirage, I uand that you want to train us. But now is not the right time. This is a ce for us to get another achievement under our belt.]

  Reading this, Bleary Mirage felt an odd stab in his heart.

  [Bleary Mirage: Sorry, Silver. But I REALLY don’t know anything about this world boss.]

  Silver Bde let out a sigh. Gng at Liam she knew he eaking the truth. She felt somewhat guilty for doubting him.

  “Sorry.”

  “Don’t mention it.”

  Cye looked at the two with fusion:

  “What’s going on?”

  “Nothing.”

  “Wait, are you writing private messages? What’s the… mhhm.”

  Seeing Cye’s eyes getting brighter and brighter from strong curiosity, Balm reacted quickly, shutting her friend’s mouth with her hand.

  Silver Bde rolled her eyes, ignored Cye, and addressed the party:

  “Since we don’t have muformation, we o move carefully. Let’s observe from a distance first.”

  “Well, it’s not like we got no information at all. Have you all taken a look at the ri from the soldiers?”

  With Quickstep’s reminder everyone quickly sed the ring. Most of them already did so earlier but were still fused by the item.

  [Ring of Void ProteCategory: Magic

  Effect: Protects against lingering void energy.

  Duration: 3 hours

  This inspicuous item is the foundation allowing aboul’s inhabitants to fight back against the void.]

  Liam had not time to check the ring so far. When he did so now, he involuntarily drew a sharp breath, attrag everyone’s attention.

  “ you expin what this is about, Mirage?”

  “Yes. You guys should know that the void is the greatest threat to aboul as a whole. The void produces void energy, which is incredibly destructive.

  Lingering void energy surrounds areas corrupted by the void. If a pyer enters without defensive measures, they will be tinuously damaged.”

  The others nodded, fully uanding the importance of the ring.

  “Our uping enemy will be a void-corrupted creature.”, cluded Radiant Shield with a surprised face.

  “Most likely.”

  “What does this mean for us?”, asked Cye.

  “We o be careful of void damage. There are almost no items in the game with void defense. So, it is difficult to defend against.”

  “Oh.”

  When Cye heard this, she wasn’t perturbed. As a mage she had no defeo speak of. Whether it was void damage, fire damage, or normal damage, she couldn’t allow herself to get hit anyways.

  Naturally Silver Bde and Radiant Shield had different feelings about it.

  “Is there anything else we o look out for?”, questioned Quickstep.

  “Keep in mind that void oppos always enter a berserk mode. Don’t get caught off guard.”

  “Good. Is that it?”

  “That’s it.”

  “Well then, I’d say it’s time to go.”

  The others nodded quickly upon hearing those words from Silver Bde. Everyo anxious aed watg groups of pyers running on the road not far away.

  They quickly followed Silver Bde’s lead, traveling in the same dire.

  Soon, a strange forest came into few. A violet fog hung in the air, giving one a stifling, twisted feeling of pure nothingness.

  It corroded the surroundings, turning the soil pitch bck. The trees were shriveled, twisting and turning, their bark taking on an eerie violet color.

  The dense foliage close to the ground deposed, turning into fertile ground for various violet flowers to grow, lookiively beautiful.

  However, the terrifying atmosphere was broken by the many pyers creating a ruckus, verging towards a point deeper in the forest.

  “Let’s go.”

  Silver Bde didn’t waste much time in studying the surroundings, following after the crowd.

  Soon a rge number of pyers could be seen, cirg a certain spot while staring ahead.

  Liam’s party occupied ay spot somewhere at the side, the situation.

  The pyers were gathered around a small valley. A t tree grew within it. Surprisingly it wasirely corrupted by the lingering void energy yet, green and violet intermixing on its opy.

  But what captured the most attention was the huge bird sitting on top of the tree. It resembled an rown hawk, angry screeches ing out of its extremely sharp beak.

  The bird opes wings wide in an intimidating posture, showing the violet color slowly dyeing its feathers.

  Even the characteristic white streak running along its back revealed a tinge of violet.

  A quick check revealed the bird’s identity.

  [Void-corrupted White-Striped Violent HawkRank: World Boss

  Level: 15

  HP: 60.000/60.000]

  The pyers were clearly appreheo ehe hawk the size of a small house. Thus, they gathered above the valley, waiting for ao make the first step.

  At the same time murmurs could be heard discussing the famous pyers present.

  “Look, over there with the bck hair, it’s Star Gazer!”

  “So handsome!”

  “He brought so many people, probably more than a hundred. Where did they e from?”

  “Isn’t it normal? Those rich guys naturally hired followers.”

  “With so many people they are surely pnning to found a guild.”

  “Yes, and Star Gazer isn’t the only one. Look over there!”

  “Damn what a giant! Even for an orc! Is this Earthquake?”

  “Yeah. It’s said he publicly challenged Cye, the number one on the ranking list, as soon as he reached level 10. But he got no answer.”

  “Wow, isn’t it said that Earthquake is incredibly arrogant? Did someone really out-arrogant him?”

  “He should be pretty angry. Especially since Phoenix Feather made fun of him.”

  “Right, now I remember. Phoenix Feather is a level manic, always at the top of all leaderboards. Earthquake stantly challenges her too.”

  “Yes. It’s only natural that their guilds of Fme and Force of Nature ’t see eye-to-eye.”

  “Damn with so many famous guilds here I don’t know if we make any waves.”

  “And it’s not gettier. Look over there! It’s Silver Bde and them.”

  “Oh? Hotpot arrived?”

  “What Hotpot?”

  “You don’t know? That’s the niame people gave to the top party right now.”

  “Wow, Silver Bde looks so heroic!”

  “Fortune is my goddess!”

  Liam’s brow twitched listening to the crowd, but he quickly ighem.

  His eyes sed the surroundings, notig a few promi figures. A good looking female human mage, Phoenix Feather. A giant male orc with muscles like tree trunks, Earthquake. And a familiar male elven mage…