Free Web NovelChapter 44: [44]: Reaping the Moon, A Diamond Finish
The Blood Moon Herald floated fifty feet in the air, acting like a massive, demonic vacuum cleaner. The ambient red moonlight from the entire zone was being violently sucked into the center of its chest, fueling the [Lunar Devastation] cast. The magical circle spinning behind the boss grew brighter and brighter by the second.
Levi stood on the dirt road, his boots planted in the ash.
He quickly checked the boss’s HP. It was sitting at exactly 15,000.
"Fifteen thousand," Levi muttered. "That’s exactly ten percent of its maximum health."
His eyes darted to his skill bar. His [Soul Harvest] icon was sitting right there. It was designed to instantly execute enemies below 20% health. The boss was well below the threshold. Levi desperately tried to activate it, mentally screaming at the system to trigger the skill.
[System Notification: Invalid Target. Soul Harvest cannot be used on Boss or Event Boss entities.]
"Stupid game mechanics," Levi cursed, spitting on the ground.
He couldn’t cheat his way out of this one. He had to kill it the old-fashioned way.
He glanced at his peripheral vision. The gold buff timer for his [Tears of the Warlord] potion was violently flashing red. He had exactly 5 seconds left before his massive 150% Attack buff expired. Once that buff dropped, his damage would plummet back to normal, and the 55% suppression penalty would make his attacks completely worthless.
He checked his mana pool. He was sitting at exactly 100/560 Mana.
He didn’t have time to think. He bent his knees and jumped.
"Phantom Step!"
Levi burned 20 Mana. His body dissolved into pitch-black shadow. He completely bypassed gravity, teleporting straight up into the sky. He reappeared fifty feet in the air, perfectly level with the hovering demon.
He was hanging in mid-air, completely suspended by the game’s momentary free-fall physics.
The demon’s glowing eyes snapped onto him, but it couldn’t stop its casting animation.
"Reaping Arc!" Levi yelled, dumping another 10 Mana.
The Sovereign’s Deathknell erupted in a blinding red wave of energy. Levi swung the scythe horizontally, carving the attack directly across the boss’s armored chest.
He ran the math in a microsecond. The boss’s Defense was back to a flat 400. His scythe ignored 20%, dropping it to 320. His buffed Attack was 954. Multiplied by 1.8 for the skill, he had 1,717 raw damage. 1,717 minus 320 left 1,397.
Then, the brutal 55% Level Suppression penalty slashed the final number.
[-628]
"Not enough," Levi grunted.
The Reaping Arc didn’t even put a real dent in the 15,000 HP pool. At 628 damage per cast, it would take twenty Reaping Arcs to kill it. He didn’t have twenty casts. He had three seconds left on his potion buff.
He was starting to fall back toward the earth. Gravity was pulling at his avatar.
"I need critical hits," Levi realized frantically.
In Aethelgard, critical hit chance was mostly determined by the Luck stat, which Levi had practically ignored. However, the game featured a skill-based "Weak Point" mechanic. If a player physically struck a highly vulnerable area—like an unarmored joint or an eyeball—the game registered it as an automatic critical hit, doubling the final damage.
Levi tightened his grip on his scythe. He used his 83 Speed to violently twist his falling trajectory. Instead of slashing at the demon’s heavy chest armor, he thrust the tip of the curved scythe directly upward, aiming straight for the demon’s glowing, fiery eyes.
The blade connected.
Math check: 954 Attack minus 320 effective Defense equaled 634 raw damage. The 55% suppression penalty reduced it to 285. But because it was a Weak Point strike, the damage was automatically doubled.
285 multiplied by 2 equaled 570 Final Damage.
[-570 CRIT!]
The massive yellow critical text exploded in the air.
The demon flinched. The force of the critical hit triggered the VR engine’s "hit-lag" physics. In Aethelgard, landing a massive critical hit temporarily froze the attack animation for a fraction of a second to add visual weight to the blow.
Levi absolutely abused the mechanic. Because the scythe was locked in hit-lag against the boss’s face, Levi’s falling momentum was temporarily arrested. He was literally hanging onto the boss’s face by the blade of his scythe.
"Die!" Levi screamed.
He yanked the scythe out and swung again, aiming directly for the second eye.
[-570 CRIT!]
He swung again. He turned into an absolute madman, suspended fifty feet in the air, hacking violently at the boss’s face. His 83 Speed allowed him to unleash a rapid barrage of Weak Point strikes.
[-570 CRIT!] [-570 CRIT!] [-570 CRIT!] [-570 CRIT!]
The scythe’s passive bleed triggered immediately. The small teardrop icon appeared over the demon’s horns.
[-5] [-5] [-5]
The boss’s health bar was plummeting. 10,000. 7,000. 4,000.
The gold timer in his peripheral vision ticked down. 2 seconds. 1 second.
The red magic circle behind the boss suddenly pulsed. A deafening hum filled the air. The [Lunar Devastation] cast bar hit 99%. The sky began to turn completely white as the nuke prepared to drop.
Levi swung his scythe one last time. He put every single ounce of simulated strength his avatar had left into the swing, driving the heavy silver blade directly through the demon’s skull.
[-570 CRIT!]
The bleed ticked one final time.
[-5]
The Blood Moon Herald’s health bar hit exactly zero.
The potion buff timer in Levi’s vision hit 0:00 and vanished. His massive 954 Attack instantly plummeted back to normal.
But it didn’t matter. He had won the race.
The demon froze completely. The massive red magic circle behind it shattered into a million pieces of broken glass. The blinding white light of the nuke violently imploded, getting sucked right back into the boss’s chest.
For a single heartbeat, the sky was perfectly silent.
Then, the Blood Moon Herald violently exploded. It didn’t just shatter into polygons. It detonated like a supernova, sending a shockwave of pure red light tearing across the night sky.
Levi lost his grip on his weapon and was thrown backward by the explosion. He plummeted fifty feet toward the dirt road, but he didn’t care. He just stared up at the dissolving boss, a massive grin on his face.
He hit the ground hard. The impact dealt 200 fall damage, dropping his health to 857, but he just rolled onto his back and laughed.
The red, bruised sky instantly cleared, replaced by a peaceful, calm morning blue. The event was over.
A global server announcement broadcast instantly.
[Server Announcement: Event Boss Defeated! The Blood Moon Eclipse has ended. The City of Thresholds is saved.]
[Player ’Levi’ has single-handedly ended the Eclipse. Rewards dispatched.]
A colossal mountain of Gold and Platinum-tier loot boxes rained down from the sky, crashing onto the dirt road all around him.
Before Levi could even sit up, the dense, blinding crimson aura of his class passive ripped itself from the sky and slammed heavily into his chest.
[Supreme Harvester triggered.]
[The Blood Moon Herald’s primary stat is STR (300).]
[You have plundered 2% of its core stat.]
[Gained +6 STR permanently!]
A second later, the massive XP modifier for the event kicked in.
[System Notification: Boss Defeated. Massive 200% Event Modifier Applied. Gained 500,000 XP.]
The golden pillar of progression light crashed down on Levi.
[System Notification: Level Up! You are now Level 20.]
"Level twenty," Levi breathed, dismissing the notifications.
Level 20 was the next major milestone in the game. It unlocked the Domain System and Mount Licensing. He was officially out of the early game.
He pushed himself up off the dirt. Because his potion buff had expired, his stats returned to their normal, permanent levels. He opened his menu to check his new baseline numbers.
His Strength was 131. The +6 from the boss plunder pushed it to 137.
He had 5 new free stat points from hitting Level 20. Knowing he needed more raw evasion and attack speed to handle the next tier of zones, he dumped all 5 points directly into Agility.
His Agility bumped from 78 to 83. His derived Speed stat followed, jumping from 83 to 88.
He ran his permanent offensive math. 137 Strength times 2 gave him a base attack of 274. Adding the 140 from the Sovereign’s Deathknell brought his total to 414. Applying his 20% class passive meant his permanent, unbuffed Total Attack was now sitting at exactly 496.
Nearly 500 Attack. He didn’t need a massive potion buff anymore. He was going to completely shred the mid-game content on his own.
Levi closed his interface and looked around the battlefield. The massive piles of Platinum loot boxes were practically glowing in the morning sun. He had just saved the city, broken the progression curve, and harvested the stats of an event boss.
He grabbed his scythe from the dirt and walked toward the loot. It was time to find a mount and buy a piece of the world.
