Free Web NovelChapter 45: [45]: Level 20 Milestone, Hollow’s Guillotine
Levi laid flat on his back in the dirt road, staring up at the clear blue sky. The Blood Moon Eclipse was officially over. The deafening, earth-shaking roar of the event boss had been replaced by the quiet morning wind and the distant, confused shouting of the players hiding behind the City of Thresholds’ stone walls.
He didn’t care about the players. He cared about the system notifications currently flooding his peripheral vision.
[System Notification: Level 20 Milestone Reached.]
[Domain System Unlocked: You may now purchase and claim ruined forts in the overworld to establish personal or guild territories.]
[Mount Licensing Unlocked: You may now purchase a riding license and tame beasts to increase overland travel speed.]
"Finally," Levi grunted, pushing himself up into a sitting position.
Level 20 was the absolute turning point in Aethelgard. In the early game, players were essentially just glorified peasants running around on foot. But once you hit the Level 20 milestone, the map opened up. Domains allowed you to generate passive income, and mounts stopped you from wasting hours just walking from zone to zone.
But dealing with real estate and horses could wait. Levi looked around the battlefield.
The dirt road was completely covered in a mountain of loot. The Blood Moon Herald hadn’t just dropped a few items; it had detonated like a piñata. Platinum and Gold-tier loot boxes were stacked on top of each other, practically glowing in the morning sun.
Levi pushed himself to his feet, ignoring the simulated aches in his joints, and started ripping the boxes open.
He didn’t bother checking his surroundings to see if any greedy players were sneaking out of the city to steal his drops. Anyone who saw him delete a Level 30 Event Boss by himself would have to be mathematically brain-dead to try and PK him right now.
He cracked open the first Platinum box. A massive pile of gold coins spilled out. The system automatically transferred the currency into his digital wallet.
[Gained 5,000 Gold Coins.]
"Five grand from one box," Levi laughed out loud. "The game’s economy is going to be completely ruined when the big guilds find out how much raw cash events drop."
He moved down the line, opening box after box. He tossed aside generic Gold-tier heavy armor and useless magic staffs. His Obsidian Carapace and Sovereign’s Deathknell scythe were perfectly tailored to his SSS-Rank class. He didn’t need random gear. He needed skill books.
His core offensive skill, [Reaping Arc], was still an Uncommon-tier book he had fused back in the wheat fields on day one. It only dealt 180% physical damage. That was great for the beginner zones, but against Level 20 and 30 mobs, a 180% multiplier just wasn’t going to cut through their massive defense pools fast enough.
"Come on, give me the duplicates," Levi muttered, digging through a pile of glowing purple boxes.
Event bosses had notoriously bloated loot tables, meaning they dropped dozens of lower-tier items alongside the big rewards. Levi smashed open a cluster of boxes and grinned.
Sitting at the bottom of the pile were three familiar, thick leather-bound tomes.
[Reaping Arc]
[Rarity: Uncommon Skill Book]
"Got you," Levi said.
He didn’t hesitate. He opened his status menu and pulled up the Boundless Fusion interface. The three golden slots materialized in the air in front of him. He dragged the three Uncommon books into the slots and tapped ’Fuse’.
A bright flash of silver light illuminated the dirt road. The three books melted into floating runes, spun into a vortex, and condensed into a much thicker, silver-bound tome.
[Cleaving Arc]
[Rarity: Silver Skill Book]
[Effect: Consumes 40 Mana. Deals 250% physical damage in a 5-meter frontal cone.]
It was a solid upgrade, but Levi wasn’t settling for Silver. He opened his spatial inventory and scrolled past his raw materials. Back when he was grinding the Ashen Crypts, he had looted a massive pile of gear and skill books from the skeletons. He had purposely saved two generic Silver-tier offensive skill books that dropped from the higher-level mobs.
He pulled them out. One was called [Phantom Slash] and the other was [Heavy Cleave]. Because Boundless Fusion required three items of the exact same rarity to work, these generic Silver books were perfect catalyst fodder.
He dragged his newly created [Cleaving Arc] and the two extra Silver books into the fusion slots.
The system threw up the standard high-tier warning prompt.
[Warning: Fusing Silver-tier skill books into Gold-tier requires a raw currency fee of 500 Gold Coins. Proceed?]
"I just picked up five thousand gold from your own boss," Levi said, tapping the confirm button. "Take the fee."
The 500 Gold vanished from his wallet. Instantly, a blinding, prismatic explosion of color lit up the area. The three silver books dissolved into raw, swirling data. The digital grinding noise sounded like heavy gears snapping into place. The light rapidly compressed, hardening into an incredibly thick tome bound in pitch-black leather with glowing gold trim.
Levi grabbed the book out of the air.
[Hollow’s Guillotine]
[Rarity: Gold Skill Book]
[Effect: Consumes 100 Mana. Deals 350% physical damage in a 10-meter cone. Enemies hit are afflicted with a 20% DEF reduction for 5 seconds. Cooldown: 10 seconds.]
Levi stared at the text. A massive, ruthless smile spread across his face.
"Three hundred and fifty percent," he whispered.
He instantly clicked ’Learn’. The heavy gold tome shattered into hundreds of golden particles that rushed directly into his chest. The knowledge of how to channel the devastating cone attack burned itself into his avatar.
He immediately pulled up his stat sheet to run the math on his new toy.
His permanent, unbuffed Total Attack was currently sitting at 496.
If he cast [Hollow’s Guillotine], the skill took that 496 Attack and multiplied it by 3.5.
496 times 3.5 equaled exactly 1,736 raw damage.
"Over seventeen hundred raw damage before enemy armor is even calculated," Levi laughed, running a hand through his hair. "And my Gold-tier scythe already ignores twenty percent of enemy defense. Add the skill’s debuff, which shreds another twenty percent defense, and I’m basically hitting them as if they’re naked."
It was a completely broken synergy. The Reaping Arc had carried him through the tutorial phase, but Hollow’s Guillotine was a certified mid-game nuke. The only downside was the hefty 100 Mana cost. With his mana pool sitting at 560, he could only cast it five times before running completely dry. He was going to have to manage his fuel tank perfectly and rely on his [Soul Harvest] executions to finish off weakened mobs.
Levi closed his interface and looked back at the city. The massive iron gates of Threshold were finally opening. Groups of high-level guild officers and curious players were cautiously stepping out onto the dirt road, pointing at him and the massive crater left by the event boss.
He could already hear the proximity chat lighting up with people arguing about whether he was a developer testing an admin account or a hacker.
Levi didn’t care about their opinions. The City of Thresholds was tapped out. He had looted the auction house, beaten the local Nightmare dungeon, and farmed the area event. There was absolutely zero mathematical reason for him to stay here.
He turned his back on the city and began walking north.
His next destination was Valerius Citadel, the capital of the region and the central hub for players who had crossed the Level 20 threshold. The map was about to get significantly larger, and the walking distances were going to become completely unmanageable on foot.
He needed a mount. But he wasn’t going to buy a basic brown horse like a casual player. He was going to exploit his SSS-Rank talent to build something much worse.
