Free Web NovelChapter 17: [17]: The Vanguard’s Folly, The Bridge Blockade
The Obsidian Carapace locked around his chest and shoulders didn’t just look incredible like polished, pitch-black volcanic glass, it felt genuinely solid.
The VR engine did a fantastic job of simulating the heavy, secure feeling of premium armor without actually restricting his movement.
His base Defense was sitting at a massive 46, and his health pool had ballooned to 420. For a Level 12 player, those numbers were completely broken.
He checked his map interface.
The Blighted Marches were located just past a massive stone bridge crossing a dried-out riverbed.
As the bridge came into view, Levi let out an annoyed sigh.
Standing right in the middle of the wide stone pathway was a blockade. Ten players were lined up in a tight, organized formation. They all wore identical tabards over their gear, black cloth with a gold trim.
The system identified their guild tag hovering over their heads: [Obsidian Vanguard].
"Why do guilds always act like cartoon villains?" Levi muttered to himself, adjusting his grip on his Silver-tier Arachnid’s Fang Scythe.
At the front of the blockade stood a guy named Darius. He was a Level 11 Knight, wearing a full set of basic iron armor and holding a heavy tower shield. He looked like the typical try-hard guild officer who took his fake internet authority way too seriously.
When Levi got within twenty yards, Darius held up his sword and pointed it aggressively.
"Halt right there, solo," Darius shouted, puffing out his chest. "This bridge and the grinding zone behind it are currently locked down by the Obsidian Vanguard. We’ve claimed it to farm a specific elite spawn. You want to cross? You pay the toll. Fifty gold coins, or you turn around."
Levi just stared at him.
Fifty gold? On day two of the server, the average player was excited to find a single silver coin. A fifty-gold toll was completely absurd. It was basically a nice way of saying ’we will kill anyone who tries to walk past us.’
Levi didn’t bother arguing.
In his past life, he had learned that talking to these people was a complete waste of oxygen.
He simply opened his skill menu and toggled on his [Siphon Aura].
Instantly, a warm, glowing green energy wrapped around his boots and arms. His mana bar started ticking down by 2 points every second.
Darius noticed the glowing buff and burst out laughing. "Are you actually serious? Look at this guy! He thinks he’s a main character." Darius turned to the three warriors standing in his front line. "Dispatch this arrogant solo. Send him back to the respawn point. Strip his gear if he drops any."
The three Level 11 warriors rushed forward, raising their crude iron swords. They moved with standard, sluggish game animations, clearly not having any extra points dumped into Agility.
Levi didn’t retreat. He didn’t even raise his scythe to block.
With his Agility sitting at 38 and his Boots of the Deep Tide giving him a flat +5 Speed bonus, his total Speed was 43. To Levi, the three charging warriors looked like they were running underwater.
He casually walked forward.
The first warrior swung a heavy downward chop. Levi simply tilted his shoulder, letting the blade miss him by an inch. He didn’t even break his stride. He weaved past the second warrior’s clumsy thrust and completely ignored the third. He just walked right through the center of their frontline formation like they were stationary traffic cones.
"Hey! Turn around!" one of the warriors yelled, entirely confused by how fast Levi was moving.
Levi ignored them. He kept his eyes locked directly on the backline of the Vanguard’s formation. Huddled behind Darius were four squishy Mages and two Archers. They were already winding up their basic fireballs and drawing their bowstrings.
"Phantom Step," Levi said.
He felt 20 Mana instantly drain from his pool.
His dark Obsidian Carapace dissolved into a blur of black shadow. He bypassed the physical distance entirely, teleporting five meters forward and reappearing directly inside the tight cluster of casters.
Panic erupted.
The Mages canceled their spell animations, tripping over their own robes trying to backpedal.
"Reaping Arc!" Levi shouted, dumping 10 Mana.
The silver blade of his scythe ignited with a violent, bloody red aura. Levi twisted his hips and unleashed a massive, three-meter horizontal wave of energy right at chest height.
The game’s math engine processed the strike instantly. Levi’s Total Attack was 125. The Reaping Arc multiplier of 1.8 pushed his raw skill damage to a massive 225.
The Mages and Archers were wearing cheap cloth and leather gear. Their Defense was a miserable 10.
225 raw damage minus 10 Defense equaled exactly 215 Final Damage.
Because they were Level 10 and 11 casters who hadn’t invested anything into Vitality, their maximum health pools sat around 180 HP.
The red wave of energy tore straight through all four Mages and one of the Archers.
[-215] [-215] [-215] [-215] [-215]
The heavy red numbers exploded into the air.
There was no knockback animation, no chance to heal.
The scythe cleanly cut five players in half.
They all shrieked simultaneously as the pain engine shocked them, and then they instantly shattered into glowing blue polygons.
The remaining Archer dropped his bow and sprinted away in sheer terror.
Darius whirled around, his face completely pale. He just watched half his squad get vaporized in less than two seconds.
"You hacker!" Darius screamed, completely losing his cool. He charged at Levi, slamming his heavy tower shield forward to trigger his [Shield Bash] skill.
Levi deliberately stood his ground. He wanted to see how his new armor held up.
The heavy iron shield smashed squarely into Levi’s chestplate. The VR helmet simulated a blunt, heavy thud against his ribs, but the pain was almost non-existent.
The system ran the calculation. Darius had a solid 60 Attack power behind that skill. Levi’s new Defense was 46.
60 Attack minus 46 Defense meant Levi took exactly 14 damage.
A tiny red [-14] floated above Levi’s head. His health dropped to 406/420. Levi didn’t even flinch. He just looked down at Darius’s shield.
Exactly one second later, the green glow around Levi’s boots pulsed. His [Siphon Aura] kicked in. Since he was officially in combat, it healed him for 15 HP.
A green [+15] floated up, instantly topping his health bar right back to 420/420.
Darius stared at Levi’s health bar, his jaw dropping open. He had just hit him with his strongest stun skill, and the damage was instantly erased.
Levi looked Darius dead in the eyes with a completely flat expression. "My turn."
Levi gripped his scythe with both hands and unleashed a rapid flurry of basic physical attacks. He didn’t even bother using a skill. He just brought the heavy silver blade down like a sledgehammer.
Darius raised his shield to block. It didn’t matter.
Levi’s Total Attack was 125. Darius’s iron armor gave him a decent 35 Defense.
125 minus 35 equaled exactly 90 damage per hit.
Slash. [-90] Slash. [-90] Slash. [-90]
Three brutal strikes connected in rapid succession. The sheer force of the 270 total damage shattered the durability of Darius’s shield, knocking it out of his hands. Darius’s health bar plummeted to zero instantly.
"Wait... " Darius choked out, before his avatar violently shattered into pixels. A pile of copper coins and a useless iron gauntlet dropped onto the stone bridge.
Levi rested his scythe on his shoulder and turned his head to look at the three front-line warriors who were still standing at the other end of the bridge.
The three warriors looked at where their guild leader and entire backline used to be. They looked at Levi, then looked at each other. Without a single word, they turned around and sprinted back toward the City of Thresholds as fast as their low Agility could carry them.
"That’s what I thought," Levi muttered, toggling off his Siphon Aura to stop the mana drain.
He didn’t get a single point of XP for the slaughter. Player kills yielded absolutely nothing but infamy and whatever unequipped trash they dropped. He spent thirty seconds walking over the pixels, picking up a few health potions and a couple of silver coins the Mages had dropped.
With the annoying blockade cleared, Levi turned and walked across the rest of the bridge.
The air temperature immediately spiked, and the sky turned a sickly, bruised purple color. He was officially leaving the safe zones behind. It was time to enter the Blight.
