Chương 103: Essencefruit

Meno sat beneath the green-leaved tree and stared at the Titan Key in his inventory until anger pressed behind his eyes. The key would not move. He could not sell it, drop it, destroy it, stash it, or pretend it had never existed. It sat there in its locked slot, a reward he had earned and could not use because someone had decided a Titan Trial needed two people for incomprehensible reasons. Chat was still talking about the panel.

interview disaster Pike cooked you Thorn malding Vanta best guest BrineSaint dad energy Meno ignored them and focused on the key.

"This is the reason I did not get a Swing Master Titan option." malding key diff need friends solo player tax find teammate"Absolute trash design," Meno said.

"Why would it not be solo?" Chat kept making fun of him, which was rude because he was obviously correct.

"Of course I am mad. This thing needs someone my level or higher to even attempt, and that person has to accept maybe losing their character." He pointed at the key like it could feel shame.

"Will someone think of rank-one players? How are we supposed to use this?" rank one oppression poor guy delete character friend check failed solo streamer tragedy"I earned this. I should be able to use it on my own whenever I want." He opened the leaderboard again and closed it almost immediately, because the list only made him more annoyed.

"What am I supposed to do now? Maybe I would get another evolution option. Karmabeast is what, level forty-five?" Guild chat answered. [Guild] Ruinelle: 42 Meno facepalmed as he realized Karmabeast was probably doing PvP all day. He was intentionally sabotaging his promise to tag along by staying too low to qualify. As long as he remained underleveled, he would never have to enter the Titan Trial. Clever bastard.

choose evolution pick Imperial Infernal gang Eternal death content stop stalling Meno reopened the evolution options. He liked Infernal the most. Break Infernal giving one hundred percent Action Speed on Chain break was exactly the kind of thing that could become disgusting in actual combat, especially when the spec broke Chain constantly by design. It had hidden potential, and hidden potential was where the good stuff lived. Eternal was unplayable.

Imperial was strong, but too clean and too straightforward, with less room to bend the rules until the system made a noise. Meno looked at the Titan Key again.

"Do you guys think a champion could join the Titan Trial?" no what NPC teammate? travel how dont ask bird guy"The trial would scale up like crazy because it is based on the highest-level participant. The description says players only, but the champions do not behave like normal NPCs. They can form teams with each other. Maybe one can be persuaded to travel to the main continent." noway they hate you ship? bring whale ask smokehead"Look, ships must be a special mount type. Maybe tier two or three."

Meno started pacing beneath the tree as the idea got worse and therefore better.

"These guys got here somehow. They must have something." Chat did not like where this was going, which confirmed there was probably something there.

"It is worth a shot. Nothing to lose." gonna lose rank dignity? nothing btw trial level too high"Even if I pick an evolution right now, I still have almost no XP options here. So it accomplishes nothing." That settled it for now. If the champion idea failed, he could always pick an evolution later, but first he needed to explore Naraltan properly and try to unlock the map.

So far, the continent was a vast flat plate of blue-glowing stone with leafless shrieking trees, silent lightning, and the occasional green-leaved respawn tree that looked far too pleasant for the surrounding nonsense. The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. The champion count bothered him most. He saw no one.

Maybe they somehow sensed Essencefruit spawns and spent all day chasing them, or maybe because Meno was the only player present, the AI did not feel the need to populate the area heavily. Or maybe the zone calamity had wiped out everyone nearby. That seemed less likely, but Naraltan had already promoted a raid boss into a zone calamity through repeated lightning strikes, so the bar for stupid outcomes had dropped.

"If more players come here, there will definitely be more champions," Meno said.

"No way this place stays empty." He summoned the Gravewurm. The mount emerged from the glowing stone with a wet grinding sound, somehow uglier under blue light. Meno climbed on and picked a random direction. Since he had no map, every direction had equal value, which was a fancy way to say he was lost. He rode straight until lightning struck close enough to matter. Meno commanded the Gravewurm to jump, and the mount's high arc carried him clear before the homing tendrils could form a killing net under him.

The same thing happened again a few minutes later. The pattern was starting to make sense. The first strike was the warning. The follow-up was the actual murder attempt. Twenty minutes passed with no sightings, and then he reached the edge. The same cliff dropped toward the dark sea below, jagged rock walls rising through the water like broken blades. He had no idea which side of Naraltan he had reached. East, west, north, south, all of it looked the same.

"If there is a town, it has to be along the shore," Meno said. town cope NPC port shipyard? apple market no towns only pain"So we follow the edge. If I circle the whole place and find nothing, then we can call it unfinished with confidence." He rode along the shore until a thick lightning bolt slammed into a nearby tree. Meno reacted before thinking. He dismissed the Gravewurm, jumped, and kicked with False Wings.

Splitwing launched him toward the tree before a rogue could appear from invisibility and steal the prize again. The trunk pulsed with blue light, and something formed on a branch. Not an apple. A weird donut-shaped banana. Meno grabbed it anyway, then kicked off the tree the moment his hand closed around it. He shot away, summoned the Gravewurm as he landed, hit the saddle hard, and sent the mount racing forward.

fruit HE GOT ONE lucky eat eat eat Meno looked inland and saw something coming fast: a short hawk-headed humanoid on a small six-legged giraffe mount, its legs blurring into one continuous motion as the rider leaned low with a staff held forward, closing on the Gravewurm far too quickly. [Raku — Level 107 — Harku Champion — Mage]"Of course." bird mage 107 best mount ever run Fiku cousin Meno inspected the fruit while the Gravewurm pushed to full speed. [Essencefruit] Consumption requires 120 uninterrupted seconds.

Taking damage cancels consumption. On successful consumption, grants 1 Essence. Essencefruit drops on death. Can be traded. Cannot be listed on the Auction House. [Essence] Essence may be invested into Modification Paths. Essence cannot be refunded. [Available Modification Paths] [Refinement] Required Essence: 1 Modify one class ability or passive. Three modification options will be generated upon selection. [Upgrade] Required Essence: 1 Upgrade one class ability or passive by one tier.

Each class ability or passive may be upgraded up to 5 times. [Replacement] Required Essence: 2 Replace one class ability or passive. Three replacement options will be generated upon selection. All upgrades are lost. [Storm Infusion] Required Essence: 3 Unlock one new storm-infused ability or passive. Maximum Storm Infusions: 3. [Core Revision] Spend 1 Essence to generate three Core Revision options for your core class mechanic. Each option will display its required Essence cost, current progress, and final effect.

Select one option to create an active Core Revision Path. Unselected options will be discarded. Only one Core Revision Path may be active at a time. All options will be generated based on class, combat history, achievements, faction standing, and world-state conditions. [Class Evolution path has not been selected.] Essencefruit cannot currently be consumed. For a second, Meno forgot the mage chasing him. WHAT modify class want this right now storm infusion??? was about to reroll"Well," Meno said.

"About that emergency vote." As the six-legged giraffe closed the distance, Meno tightened his grip on the fruit.

"Pack it up, because there is no way people are not coming for this." The moment Raku reached casting range, the Harku Champion jumped off the mount. A projectile struck the Gravewurm, and the mount vanished into green smoke beneath him. Meno kicked sideways before he hit the ground, trying to break line of sight through movement. Raku teleported forward, then split into five copies. Five huge crackling balls of lightning came at him from different directions.

Meno twisted, using one False Wings kick to slip between the first two, only for thin arcs to spring between the balls and link into an impassable net. He had one instant to understand the trap before the lightning killed him. [Death Penalty Applied: -400g] [Essencefruit dropped.] cool mage clean combo deleted fruit gone skill issue lightning zone mage Meno respawned beneath a green-leaved tree somewhere inland, with no way to know if it was the same one.

Naraltan stretched in every direction, leafless trunks standing far apart beneath the black clouds. The Essencefruit was gone, probably already tucked into a bird mage's smug little inventory.

"Lightning mage in a lightning zone. Amazing." 5 copies net tech no dodge Mage diff Raku owns"So Essencefruit is huge," Meno said.

"Level one hundred fix-your-class mechanic combined with a slot machine and overpowered smart opponents. To upgrade each ability five times, you need a lot of these." modify first replacement core revision storm infusion"Replacement costs double," Meno said.

"Modification is probably things like more range for less damage, or reduced cost with longer cooldown. It won't be free damage." He looked back at the class evolution prompt.

"The Core Revision is the big one. Technically, you could pick Eternal and then hope for a path that fixes the garbage attack speed restriction." Eternal saved fruit fixes nerf Naraltan mandatory Essencefruit changed everything, not because it solved the class problem, but because it meant the problem could be fixed later. His options were not final anymore, but he could not eat a fruit until he picked an evolution. The AI had not simply taken his build apart at level sixty.

It had moved the repair tools into Naraltan and hidden them behind level one hundred-plus champions, two-minute consumption timers, death drops, and smart enemies who could inspect him. Meno looked out across the glowing plain. He would try the Titan Key communication idea once. One more attempt at talking to a champion, one more attempt at making Veyrath do something strange without directly abusing a bug. If that failed, he would pick an evolution and start hunting fruit like everyone else soon would.

It was going to be hard, but hard was fine. Hard was infinitely better than impossible.