Free Web NovelChapter 22: [22]: The Trial Space, Elixir of the Wraith
Levi stepped through the massive obsidian doors and entered the cavernous antechamber of the Shrine of the Hollow. The moment his boots crossed the threshold, the heavy stone doors ground shut behind him with a deafening slam, plunging the room into near darkness.
A second later, ghostly blue torches flared to life along the massive stone pillars, illuminating a wide, circular arena.
A harsh, red system prompt violently flashed directly in the center of Levi’s vision, forcing him to stop in his tracks.
[Warning: Entering Trial Space.]
[No respawn permitted. Teleportation disabled. Communication disabled.]
[Death in this instance results in a permanent lockout from the SSS-Rank Class ’Herald of the Hollow’.]
"Well, they certainly know how to build tension," Levi muttered, swiping the red warning screen away.
He looked ahead. In the dead center of the circular room was a raised stone altar covered in glowing, necrotic runes. He knew exactly how this worked. The moment he stepped onto that altar, the boss would spawn, and the doors would remain locked until the timer ran out.
He had to survive against the Level 50 Avatar of the Hollow King for exactly 3 minutes. One hundred and eighty seconds.
He wasn’t expected to kill it. A Level 15 player fighting a Level 50 boss meant dealing with a 35-level gap. The suppression penalty would be so absurdly high that his 165 Attack would be mathematically reduced to zero. He would deal exactly 1 damage per hit. The game developers designed this purely as a dodging and endurance test.
But Levi knew dodging wasn’t enough. In a closed circular arena, there was no physical way to outrun a boss with a massive movement speed advantage. Eventually, he was going to get hit. And with a Level 50 boss’s base attack power, a single clean hit would instantly wipe his 520 HP pool.
He needed a trump card.
Levi opened his inventory. During his grueling ten-hour grind outside, he had looted a massive pile of junk from the Ashen Ghouls. Mixed in with the useless rags and copper coins were exactly three identical consumable potions.
He pulled them out. They were small, square glass bottles filled with a thick, metallic gray liquid.
[Ironskin Potion]
[Rarity: Uncommon]
[Effect: Grants 30% physical damage reduction for 10 seconds. Cooldown: 5 minutes.]
"Thirty percent damage reduction is cute," Levi said, looking at the bottles. "But if a boss hits me for a thousand damage, reducing it by thirty percent still means I take seven hundred damage. I still die instantly."
He opened his status menu and pulled up the Boundless Fusion interface. The familiar, glowing golden slots materialized in the dim blue light of the antechamber.
He dragged the three Uncommon Ironskin Potions into the fusion slots.
"Let’s see what the system thinks about a 90% reduction," Levi smirked. He tapped the ’Fuse’ button.
A blinding silver light erupted in the dark room, casting massive, shifting shadows against the stone walls. The three square bottles melted together. The glass warped and stretched, reforming into an elegant, crystal vial. The metallic gray liquid inside boiled furiously before settling into a deep, swirling void-black color.
Levi grabbed the crystal vial out of the air and read the new tooltip.
[Elixir of the Wraith]
[Rarity: Silver]
[Effect: Grants 90% physical damage reduction and absolute immunity to all crowd control effects for 10 seconds. Cooldown: 1 Hour.]
"Now that is a trump card," Levi breathed.
A 90% damage reduction meant he could effectively face-tank a fatal blow and walk away with a sliver of health. The immunity to crowd control was just the cherry on top, preventing the boss from stunning or knocking him down for a follow-up strike.
He equipped the Elixir of the Wraith to the very first slot on his quick-belt, right next to his hand. He didn’t have to open his menu to drink it. he just had to shatter it against his chest in an emergency.
He ran through his final mental checklist. The strategy was simple, but executing it was going to require absolute perfection.
First, his raw evasion. His Agility gave him 43 Speed. That was incredibly fast for a Level 15 player, but it was probably barely enough to keep up with a Level 50 boss’s base movement. He was going to have to rely entirely on reaction time, waiting until the absolute last millisecond to dodge so the boss’s attack tracking couldn’t adjust.
Second, his mobility skill. [Phantom Step] cost 20 Mana and had a 15-second cooldown. He couldn’t just spam it to run away. He had to save it exclusively for the boss’s massive AoE attacks: the ones that covered the entire room and couldn’t be dodged by simply stepping to the side.
Third, his emergency buttons. He had the Elixir of the Wraith for the boss’s unavoidable ultimate attack. Every high-tier boss in Starfall had an enrage mechanic or a homing attack that was mathematically designed to force the player to use defensive skills. When that happened, he would pop the elixir.
Finally, his health. He had 520 Max HP. His Siphon Aura was completely useless here because it only healed him when he was in combat and hitting a boss for 1 damage didn’t trigger the combat healing threshold fast enough to matter. He was going to have to rely on his 5 unassigned stat points as an instant 100 HP burst heal if things went sideways.
"Okay," Levi said, rolling his virtual shoulders. "Speed for the basics. Phantom Step for the AoE. Wraith Elixir for the ultimate. Stat points for the emergency heal. It’s just math. Don’t panic."
He gripped his Silver-tier Arachnid’s Fang Scythe with both hands. The heavy weapon felt incredibly reassuring. Even if he couldn’t kill the boss, he was going to make sure the boss knew he was there.
Levi stepped away from the heavy obsidian doors and walked toward the center of the room. The blue torches flickered wildly as he approached the raised stone altar.
The ambient sound of the game entirely dropped out. There was no wind, no distant monster screeches, no hum of magical energy. It was dead silent.
He placed his right boot onto the glowing, necrotic runes of the altar.
The runes instantly flared from a dim gray to a blinding, hostile red. The stone floor beneath him violently trembled, sending a shockwave through his legs. The air in the room suddenly grew incredibly dense, making his virtual lungs struggle to pull in oxygen.
Levi didn’t back down. He stepped fully onto the altar and settled into a wide, defensive combat stance.
"Let’s get this over with," Levi said.
A massive pillar of ghostly blue fire erupted from the center of the altar, shooting straight up into the dark ceiling. The trial was starting.
