Free Web NovelChapter 27: [27]: Forging the Aegis, Hollow’s Ward
Levi walked through the massive stone gates of the City of Thresholds with a completely full inventory and a very dangerous plan.
The city was much livelier than it had been a few days ago.
The main streets were packed with players shouting for groups, trading low-level crafting materials, and trying to act like they knew what they were doing.
Levi ignored all of them.
He had just spent an absurd amount of time chain-executing Ashen Ghouls, and his digital pockets were practically bursting at the seams. Between the raw silver coin drops and the massive haul of Uncommon and Bronze loot he had gathered, he was basically a walking bank vault.
He didn’t bother haggling with players this time. He went straight to the Grand Auction House, dumped all of his fused Silver-tier gear onto the real-money exchange, and let the desperate guild leaders empty their wallets. High-tier gear was still incredibly scarce. Within twenty minutes, his auctions completely sold out.
Levi checked his interface. He had exactly 1,200 Gold Coins.
"I love pay-to-win whales," Levi muttered, closing the auction window.
He had the money, but he knew what was coming next. The Level 20 dungeons weren’t like the starter zones or the open-world bosses. They featured hard mechanics. Unavoidable, room-wide nukes that ignored evasion stats and simply checked if your health bar was fat enough to survive. Even with his massive 1,020 Max HP, eating a raw boss ultimate without a defensive cooldown was mathematically stupid. He needed a hard defensive active skill.
Levi navigated the bustling market streets until he reached the magic district. The area was filled with glowing crystal displays and NPCs wearing ridiculous, oversized wizard hats. He walked up to the largest vendor stall, manned by an NPC named Arcanist Voss.
Voss was a tall, incredibly skinny man with a glowing monocle who looked at players like they were stray dogs.
"Welcome to the arcane repository," Voss said in a bored, monotone voice. "Please do not touch the merchandise if you cannot afford it. I am currently out of beginner fire spells, so save your copper."
"I don’t need fire," Levi said, pulling up the vendor’s digital inventory.
He scrolled past the overpriced offensive spells and the useless utility buffs until he found exactly what he was looking for at the very bottom of the list.
[Iron Deflection]
[Rarity: Uncommon]
[Effect: Consumes 30 Mana. Creates a magical shield equal to 100% of the user’s Intelligence stat for 5 seconds. Cooldown: 15 seconds.]
To a normal player, this skill was absolute garbage. If a mage had 50 Intelligence, this skill gave them a 50 HP shield for five seconds. A single basic attack from a Level 10 mob would shatter it completely. It was practically a scam.
"I’ll take the Iron Deflection skill book," Levi said. "Actually, give me nine of them."
Arcanist Voss blinked, his glowing monocle slipping down his nose. "Nine? Boy, the knowledge does not stack. Reading the same book nine times will not make you a master of deflection. It will only make you lighter in the purse."
"Just process the transaction, Voss," Levi said, hitting the buyout button on the UI.
The price was absurd. The vendor charged exactly 100 Gold Coins per book. Most players would never even look at this item. Levi hit accept, watching his massive 1,200 Gold bankroll instantly drop by 900. The nine thick, blue-leather skill books materialized inside his inventory.
"A fool and his gold," Voss muttered, shaking his head and returning to his ledger.
Levi didn’t care what the NPC thought. He turned around and walked down the street to the nearest player inn. He paid two silver coins for a private room, walked upstairs, and locked the heavy wooden door behind him.
The room was small, featuring a standard bed and a flickering candle on a desk. Levi sat down on the edge of the mattress and pulled up the Boundless Fusion interface. The glowing golden slots illuminated the dark room.
"Time to build a fortress," Levi said.
He dragged the first batch of three Uncommon [Iron Deflection] books into the fusion slots. He tapped the ’Fuse’ button.
The three blue books melted together into a swirling vortex of arcane light, compressing and hardening until a sleek, silver-bound tome dropped into his hand.
[Aegis Parry]
[Rarity: Silver]
[Effect: Consumes 80 Mana. Creates a magical shield equal to 250% of the user’s Intelligence stat for 8 seconds. Reflects 10% of blocked damage back to the attacker. Cooldown: 30 seconds.]
"Much better, but not good enough for a Level 20 boss," Levi muttered.
He repeated the exact same process two more times. He fused the remaining six Uncommon books in batches of three. The blinding light flashed in the inn room twice more, leaving him with exactly three identical Silver-tier [Aegis Parry] skill books.
Levi wiped a bead of virtual sweat from his forehead. Fusing items up to Silver was easy. It just required the base items. But fusing Silver items into Gold rarity was an entirely different beast. The system didn’t just let you combine them for free. It required a massive catalyst.
He placed the three Silver-tier [Aegis Parry] books into the fusion slots.
A harsh red warning prompt immediately flashed over the UI.
[Warning: Fusing Silver-tier items into Gold-tier requires a high-level catalyst or a raw currency fee of 250 Gold Coins. Failure to provide the catalyst will result in the destruction of the base items.]
"There goes the rest of my wallet," Levi sighed.
He transferred 250 Gold Coins from his inventory directly into the fusion window’s payment slot. His total bankroll was now sitting at a pathetic 50 Gold. He had basically emptied his life savings in the span of ten minutes.
He hit the ’Fuse’ button.
This time, the light wasn’t just silver. A blinding, prismatic explosion of color filled the tiny inn room, actually rattling the virtual windows. The three silver books completely dissolved into raw data, the floating runes spinning so fast they created a small localized windstorm inside the room.
The digital grinding noise sounded like a massive vault door locking into place. The light finally stabilized, compressing into a heavy, magnificent tome bound in dark, pitch-black leather with glowing gold trim.
Levi grabbed the book out of the air. The system chimed loudly.
[Hollow’s Ward]
[Rarity: Gold]
[Effect: Consumes 150 Mana. Creates a dark-matter shield equal to 500% of the user’s Intelligence stat + 500 Base HP for 15 seconds. While the shield holds, the user is entirely immune to status effects and knockbacks. Cooldown: 60 seconds.]
Levi stared at the tooltip, a massive grin spreading across his face.
"Oh, this game is so broken if you know the math," Levi laughed.
He selected the book and hit ’Learn’. The heavy gold tome shattered into hundreds of golden particles that rushed directly into his chest. The knowledge of how to channel the dark-matter shield instantly burned itself into his avatar’s code.
He immediately opened his status menu to run the calculations. In Starfall, a shield that scaled off multiple stats was incredibly rare. Most defensive skills just gave a flat number. This skill scaled off his Intelligence.
His current Intelligence stat was exactly 40.
That meant pressing this button gave him a dark-matter shield with exactly 700 HP.
"Seven hundred health on demand," Levi calculated, running a hand through his hair. "My base health pool is one thousand and twenty. If I cast this right before a boss ultimate, my total effective health pool is one thousand, seven hundred and twenty."
It was a staggering number. A normal Level 16 player would be absolutely thrilled to have 400 total HP. Levi was walking around with nearly two thousand effective health, immunity to knockbacks, and a Siphon Aura that healed him constantly. He wasn’t just a glass cannon with an execution mechanic anymore. He was a highly mobile, teleporting fortress.
The only downside was the cost. The shield required 150 Mana to cast. His maximum mana pool was currently 450. Casting the shield would eat exactly a third of his fuel tank. Combined with Phantom Step costing 20 Mana, Reaping Arc costing 10, and Soul Harvest taking 50, his mana bar was going to be pushed to its absolute breaking point during an intense boss fight.
"I’m going to have to drink mana potions like water," Levi muttered, closing his interface. "Good thing I bought a massive stack before I emptied my wallet."
He stood up from the bed, feeling the heavy, solid weight of his Obsidian Carapace armor on his chest. His build was finally complete for the next tier of progression.
He walked out of the inn room, headed downstairs, and exited the building. The city streets were still bustling with players complaining about spawn rates and expensive basic gear. Levi ignored the chat logs floating in the air.
He opened his world map and set a waypoint for the Drowned Hollows.
It was time to tackle the Tomb of the Sunken Sovereign. It was a notoriously brutal Level 20 dungeon mathematically designed to wipe out highly coordinated ten-man raid parties. The game expected players to bring two tanks, three healers, and five DPS classes just to get past the front door.
Levi intended to walk through the front door by himself, teleport behind everything, and execute the entire dungeon.
He checked his quick-belt to make sure his mana potions were hot-keyed, adjusted the dark-aura wrapped Arachnid’s Fang Scythe on his back, and started the long walk toward the southern gates.
