Free Web NovelChapter 30: [30]: The Golden Drop, Execution Chains
Levi knelt down in the shallow water covering the marble floor and sifted through the massive loot pile the Captain of the Sunken Guard had left behind. Nightmare instances always had highly inflated drop rates for solo players, and the game hadn’t disappointed.
He grabbed a heavy stack of silver coins, completely ignoring the generic rusted swords. He picked up a rare crafting material called [Tears of the Sunken]—a glowing blue orb that pulsed with water magic. It would easily sell for a fortune on his auction house later.
But what actually mattered was sitting at the bottom of the pile.
Levi pulled out exactly three identical pairs of heavy, silver-plated arm guards.
[Silver Vambraces of the Tide]
[Rarity: Silver]
[Effect: +10 DEF, +5 STR]
"Finally, some base defense," Levi said.
He didn’t bother putting them on. He immediately opened the Boundless Fusion interface. The familiar golden slots popped up in front of him. He dragged all three Silver-tier vambraces into the slots.
The system threw up the standard warning prompt.
[Warning: Fusing Silver-tier items into Gold-tier requires a raw currency fee of 250 Gold Coins.]
Levi checked his inventory. He had exactly 50 Gold left from his earlier spending spree in the city, plus whatever silver and gold he had picked up from the mobs in the dungeon entrance. He had just enough to cover the catalyst fee.
"Take it," Levi muttered, slamming the confirm button and basically emptying his wallet again.
A blinding, prismatic explosion of color lit up the dark dungeon room. The three silver arm guards melted together, the metal compressing and shifting. The silver color darkened into a rich, deep gold, and jagged, protective spikes formed along the knuckles and forearms.
The light faded, leaving a heavy pair of gauntlets floating in the air.
[Sovereign’s Golden Gauntlets]
[Rarity: Gold]
[Effect: +25 DEF, +15 STR]
[Passive: 5% chance on hit to Stun target for 1 second.]
Levi let out a low whistle. A stun passive. In Starfall, hard crowd-control was basically king. Even if it was only a 5% chance, his attack speed was so high that he swung his scythe constantly. He was bound to trigger it during long fights.
He immediately equipped the gauntlets. The heavy gold metal locked onto his forearms, feeling incredibly solid.
He pulled up his status menu to run the math. His Defense bumped from 76 to 91. His Strength jumped from 86 to 101.
With 101 Strength, his new Base Attack was 202. Adding the 45 Attack from his scythe brought it to 247. Once the 20% class passive multiplied the total, his Final Attack hit a monstrous 296.
"Two hundred and ninety-six attack on a Level 17," Levi laughed, closing the menu. His damage was absolutely astronomical. He gripped his scythe and walked over to the massive coral doors at the end of the room. He pushed them open and stepped into the second floor of the tomb.
The scenery shifted. Instead of flooded corridors, this floor looked like a massive, ruined underwater cathedral. Glowing jellyfish floated in the air like lanterns.
Patrolling the aisles of the cathedral were the next set of mobs. They were tall, sickly pale women wearing tattered blue robes and holding twisted coral staffs.
[Corrupted Priestess]
[Level: 22]
[HP: 3,500 | ATK: 250 Magic | DEF: 50]
"Magic damage," Levi noted. "And absolutely terrible defense."
He didn’t even bother casting Hollow’s Ward. With his new stats, he wanted to see exactly how fast he could clear a room. He targeted a cluster of three Priestesses standing near a ruined pew and burned 20 Mana for [Phantom Step].
He teleported five meters forward, instantly appearing directly in the middle of them.
The Priestesses shrieked, raising their coral staffs to cast a spell, but Levi was already swinging.
He ran the math in his head instantly. Their Defense was 50. His scythe ignored 15%, dropping it to 42. His Attack was 296. 296 minus 42 left 254 raw damage. The 25% Level Suppression penalty for the five-level gap applied, dropping his basic physical strikes to 190 Final Damage.
For his AoE, the math was just as simple. 190 final basic damage multiplied by the 1.8 Reaping Arc modifier equaled exactly 342 final skill damage.
"Reaping Arc!"
He dumped 10 Mana. The red wave of energy carved through all three casters.
[-342] [-342] [-342]
The Priestesses screamed as nearly ten percent of their health vanished in a single fraction of a second. Levi followed up with a rapid blur of basic attacks.
[-190] [-190] [-190]
On his fourth swing, a bright yellow icon flashed over one of the Priestess’s heads. The 5% passive from his new Sovereign’s Golden Gauntlets triggered. The mob completely froze in place, her spellcasting animation violently canceled by the 1-second stun.
"That is beautiful," Levi smirked.
Because they were squishy casters, their 3,500 health pools evaporated under his relentless damage. He didn’t even let them die naturally to the bleed effect. The second their health bars dropped below 700 HP—the 20% mark—he went to work.
"Soul Harvest."
Fifty Mana vanished. The spectral guillotine slammed down, decapitating the first Priestess.
[Movement skill cooldowns reset.]
Levi instantly cast Phantom Step, teleporting two feet to the left to dodge a magic bolt from the second Priestess. He slashed her twice, dropping her below the threshold, and executed her.
He reset his blink again, teleported behind the third, and executed her too.
The entire pack was deleted in less than fifteen seconds. Levi had barely taken a scratch. He popped a mana potion to keep his fuel tank topped off and looked out across the sprawling cathedral floor. There were dozens of Corrupted Priestesses wandering around.
For the next three hours, Levi turned the second floor of the Tomb into a literal meat grinder.
He didn’t pull them slowly. He just blinked from target to target, using his Reaping Arc to chunk their health, relying on his Gauntlets to randomly stun them out of their magic casts, and chaining his [Soul Harvest] executions flawlessly. He flashed across the dungeon like a grim reaper, leaving nothing but dissolving pixels and dropped loot in his wake.
The massive Nightmare-tier XP drops stacked up incredibly fast.
After slaughtering his way through the entire cathedral floor, he reached the massive, towering obsidian doors that led to the final boss room.
The golden pillar of light crashed down on him right as he stepped up to the doors.
[System Notification: Level Up! You are now Level 18.]
Levi let out a long breath and rested his silver scythe on the floor. He opened his menu to assign his 5 new free stat points. He had completely cleared the 450,000 XP requirement, leaving him at 0/550,000 for the next level.
He checked his resources. The final boss of this dungeon was going to be an absolute nightmare of unavoidable damage. He needed a fatter shield, and he needed more mana to sustain the fight without chugging potions every five seconds.
He dumped all 5 points into Intelligence.
His INT jumped from 40 to 45. His maximum Mana instantly expanded to 500 (45 * 10 + 50 from the ring).
He quickly recalculated the math for his [Hollow’s Ward] shield. The shield scaled off 500% of his Intelligence. 45 times 5 was 225. Add the base 500 HP, and his new dark-matter shield would absorb exactly 725 damage per cast.
"Seven hundred and twenty-five extra health on demand," Levi nodded, completely satisfied.
He checked his quick-belt to make sure his top-tier mana potions were slotted correctly. He gripped his scythe, feeling the heavy, reassuring weight of his Gold-tier gauntlets. He was fully prepped, fully healed, and hitting harder than anyone else on the server.
He pushed both hands against the heavy coral doors of the throne room. They slowly ground open, revealing the dark, flooded chamber beyond. Levi stepped inside, ready to claim the server’s first major boss kill.
—-
Updated Stat Sheet:
- Name: Levi | Level: 18
- Class: [Herald of the Hollow (SSS)] | Talent: [Supreme Harvester (SSS)]
- HP: 1020/1020 | Mana: 500/500
- STR: 101 | AGI: 63 | VIT: 46 | INT: 45 | LUK: 25
- Attack: 296 | Defense: 91 | Speed: 68
- Core Skills: [Reaping Arc], [Phantom Step], [Siphon Aura], [Soul Harvest], [Hollow’s Ward].
