Chapter 73 Rewards [1]

The Golem started breaking and disintegrating. Nathan was standing on top of it and continued laughing.

Leon flinched at his appearance.

The way Nathan was behaving scared him.

Nathan's right arm was mangled, to the point, one can see his bones. Even then Nathan was laughing as if those injuries weren't there, to begin with.

Nathan's face didn't show a hint of pain.

This appearance of Nathan scared him.

"It.. was f…un"

Nathan's body swayed and he fell.

Leon swiftly moves and catches him. As he held Nathan, he found Nathan's breathing was getting slower and slower.

He touched Nathan's forehead and found it to be burning.

"Did he overuse his Stigma?"

Indeed, Nathan had been constructing swords non-stop to act as footholds. He even created a stair of swords for him and Leon after they went behind the Golem.

There was no way that the energy consumption was low.

Leon realized how wrong he had been. The reason Nathan was laughing wasn't that he was crazy but because he was relieved to come out of this ordeal alive.

The relief must have made him forget about the pain.

Nathan must have been over-using his Aura core to fight without even voicing out any complaints. Of course, he will be happy after his efforts bore fruit.

"Is he alive?"

Susan walked to the duo and looked at Nathan's arm.

"Does he have something against his arms?"

Leon glared at Susan's irresponsible words but realizing that she was the one holding healing elixirs, he didn't say anything.

"Give me some Healing Elixir. I need to heal Nathan."

"I don't have any left. I had to use all of it when he didn't dodge and was hit by the stray debris."

Hearing her answer Leon swiftly decided on his next course of action.

"I'll take him to the Elixir Pool out of the boss room."

Leon couldn't bear seeing Nathan in that condition. He quickly needed medical attention.

Fortunately, there was an Elixir pool outside. An Elixir has miraculous healing properties. It should be able to heal Nathan's arm.

"Wait. You can't go outside. We need to get the rewards first."

Susan stopped Leon from leaving. Leon glared at her.

Every time Susan spoke he hated her more and more.

"Is that even important right now?"

Leon went around her. He was adamant about healing Nathan before anything else, even if it meant giving up on his reward.

"Listen to her. We should get the ..reward first."

Nathan suddenly spoke in a coarse voice.

Leon was surprised that Nathan still held onto his consciousness despite the pain he must be going through.

But it didn't mean he was going to agree to Nathan's demand. He quickly refuted.

"You are losing too much blood. We need to get you healed before anything else."

"You don't need to worry about me. First Clear of Stage-0 Dungeon is something that even the pioneers will fight over. You shouldn't leave your hard-earned reward for me."

"But your condition-"

"It's okay I won't die from this."

Leon couldn't speak anymore.

He nodded his head and walked toward the door that appeared after the Golem was defeated.

As he silently walked, there was only one thought in his head, 'Why do you keep thinking about others even when you are like this?'

***

"It's okay I won't die from this."

Leon finally shut up. Does this little shit know that he was responsible for 2/3rd of that monstrosity of a Golem?

And now after I worked my ass off to defeat it he is trying to take me away from my reward?

Heck no, you thief!

'Why is she glaring at me like that?'

From the corner of my eyes, I saw Susan stare at me as we walked toward the door.

I was walking with Leon supporting me.

'I guess I overdid it.'

My Ether reserves were down to 5%. I used more Ether than I was planning.

It wasn't my fault though. The feeling of being able to touch things and able to see the result of my training after a decade was too exhilarating.

The plan also went without a hitch except for the last part.

My plan was pretty simple.

Have Susan make Golem use its AOE attack.

When Susan is fighting the Golem, Leon and I will run behind it and use stairs created by my swords to climb higher in the air. This was to make sure we didn't get caught up in the upcoming AOE attack.

After the Golem does its AOE attack, I'll jump down with the clone Leon that was formed from his art's sixth form.

The clone was a precaution I took.

The Golem was evolving at a fearsome speed. It would be good if it didn't notice that I was jumping toward its head. But there was a chance it will notice.

Between Leon and me, Leon had higher priority because he was the main damage dealer of our group. This will make Golem attack Leon's clone, mistaking it for Leon, instead of me.

The clone was only for the worst-case scenario. In case the Golem found me while I was free-falling.

Can't believe it happened so naturally.

I really do have -13 in luck.

After I will land on the Golem's head I will use my fused orb and disable the Golem. Ultimately disabling its [Anti-Magic Field]

[Anti-Magic Field] was particularly annoying. Not only does it block every magic in its range, but it also dampers skills and arts depending on Mana.

With the [Anti-Magic Field] down 90% work was done.

Then Leon will use [Hunter Eye] and find its core. Followed by him using his art in those few seconds to destroy the core.

Everything was perfect if not for the Golem waking earlier than predicted.

I never thought that the Golem will recover before 15 seconds were up.

It seems that the duration of the fused orb I calculated was wrong or had some kind of mistake.

I was aware of this possibility, but there was nothing that could have been done.

Leon and I have acted as fast as possible already. We couldn't have done it faster.

Moreover, this was the first time I used the orb. I couldn't have known the error duration.

"Urgh.."

I groaned, remembering I have to think of some excuses as to how I was able to deactivate the Golem and knew about Leon's art.

'I'll think about it later. For now, let's treat me sweet-sweet rewards.'