Chương 49: The Catacomb Had No Respect

Meno felt great. That was dangerous, so he refused to examine it too closely. Thinking about it would make the feeling complicated, and complicated feelings had already caused enough damage to his pillow, his pride, and possibly his Streamline contract. He climbed into the Soma-X7, kept the stream off, and logged into Veyrath. Westmarket loaded around him in evening light, loud with players, market spam, bounty talk, and all the usual launch-week panic.

Meno headed north in a jagged line, refusing to kindly provide another assassination lane. If anyone had funny ideas after Karmabeast, they could try shooting a bouncing idiot instead of a jogging one. The mountains came up gray and broken ahead. He climbed without using the road, kicking off empty air and catching ledges with clean, practiced movements. The Melrai Dunes opened on the other side, pale gold under hard sun, but he did not linger long enough for sandworms to start remembering him.

The Glassdry Catacomb entrance waited between the leaning statues, half-buried and quiet. Meno stepped through. [Dungeon Entered: Glassdry Catacomb] Only then did he turn the stream on and wait five minutes for the viewers to arrive. Viewers: 18, 204. 22, 881. Chat arrived like a sewer pipe had broken.

INTERVIEW KING did the AI classify your stool yet Streamline Daily any% ask OxideChoir out coward MAKEUPBEADGOD PikeNorth not happy Meno lifted the repaired Charmsteel Rune Spire and swung it once in the green-lit tunnel. The blade immediately scraped the stone wall. Sparks jumped. The sound crawled up his spine. Meno lowered the absurd weapon and stared at the narrow passage.

"Right," he said.

"This dungeon hates innovation." lamp post too tall use dagger no dagger lol tunnel says no stabby build He tested a few movements. Full sweeps were garbage, and diagonal cuts needed too much room. Tip work was usable, though. With the Rune Spire's reach, the tunnel became a stabbing lane as long as he kept his body angled and did not try to look cool.

"Thrusts, then," Meno said.

"Boring but works." He walked forward. The first Boneknife went for his back at the same old spot. A cold edge kissed the air behind him, and the Sleepless Grip pulsed white-gold before the stun could take hold. [Sleepless Script] Stun resisted. Meno turned already moving. The undead rogue flickered out of stealth, narrow bones wrapped in black cloth, knife arms raised for the second strike. [Hostile: Glassdry Boneknife | Type: Undead Rogue | Threat: Normal | Trait: Grave-Stealth]"Normal?" Meno said.

"You got demoted." The Boneknife lunged. Meno slid backward, let the first knife pass in front of his chest, and jabbed the Rune Spire into the skeleton's collarbone from outside its comfortable range. [Compound Swing | Chain: 2 | Damage: +20%] Two stacks per hit still felt wrong in the best way. The skeleton tried to close, but the long blade kept touching bone before its knives could reach him. Meno bounced in and out, small steps, short thrusts, sidesteps timed to the Boneknife's shoulders.

At Chain 8, he triggered Panic Pump. [Compound Swing | Chain: 108 | Damage: +1180%] [Current HP set to 1] Three hits later, the Boneknife fell apart. [Kill Confirmed: Glassdry Boneknife] [XP Awarded] Meno stared at the XP line.

"One percent." normal mob btw brine farming simulator welcome to efficient gameplay raid trash spoiled him 1% good actually"Last time, these things were worth ten percent," Meno said, looting the bones.

"Now it's one. A tenfold decrease because the game decided I'm too old for skeletons." [Uncommon III Gravebone Splinter Acquired] He looked down the tunnel.

"I cannot fathom how BrineSaint puts up with this." Killing appropriate enemies, receiving appropriate rewards, and moving upward through sensible repetition sounded miserable. He did not wait for HP to regenerate. One HP was enough if the first hit never landed. The next Boneknife struck from stealth near the second lamp bracket. [Sleepless Script] Stun resisted. Meno ducked the follow-up slash, slid past the skeleton's left side, and stabbed through the back of its ribs.

The Rune Spire's length made the tunnel awkward, but it also meant the Boneknife had to enter a bad space to threaten him. [Technique Activated: Panic Pump] [Compound Swing | Chain: 100 | Damage: +1000%] The skeleton melted in four hits. [Kill Confirmed: Glassdry Boneknife] [XP Awarded] [Uncommon III Gravebone Joint Acquired]"Okay," Meno said.

"Good weapons against normal threats are unfair." good gear discovered pay to win but with suffering turns out uncommon beats bones BrineSaint knew this 20 levels ago He repeated the process through the tunnel. The third Boneknife lost its stun to Sleepless Script and its skull to three clean thrusts after Panic Pump. The fourth almost landed one shallow knife scrape. The fifth tried to feint low, which would have worked better if he was still using a dagger.

By the eighth Boneknife, the dungeon felt too easy for five people. The rogues were dangerous because of stealth opener, stun, and burst. Once the glove erased the opener and the Rune Spire controlled range, they were ordinary bones with knives and bad footwork. Meno looted the last one and checked the tally. [Uncommon III Gravebone x8 acquired] [Level 34: 8%]"Pretty sure there's no party-size scaling," he said while advancing toward the boss chamber.

"Everyone fights the same version. Which means five people at the right level probably delete this place." casual dungeon I deserve content too normal players can't dodge anything not everything is raid hard"Yeah," Meno said.

"If the AI tuned every normal dungeon like the raid, average players would quit." Viewers: 72, 443. It was higher than expected and nowhere near the raid wave. Meno tried not to let both facts sit in the same part of his brain. The square chamber opened ahead with its cracked tomb altar, green torchlight, and carved robed figure holding a dark orb. Meno did not wait around to build dread. He stepped over the threshold. The altar lit.

Bones, robes, and the black orb flew together in the air, assembling the caster piece by piece. The skull crowned itself in cracked bone. The orb settled above one skeletal palm, drinking green light. [Hostile: Glassdry Ossuary Adept | Type: Undead Caster | Threat: Normal | Trait: Shadow Orb]"Normal boss," Meno said.

"Sad." The orb glowed. [Sleepless Script] Shadow Vulnerability resisted.

"Not sad for you, though." Meno did not rush in. He had a ranged option now, and the boss was a pure caster in a square room with readable spells. That meant he could be less heroic and more annoying. He activated Panic Pump, and swung. [Compound Swing | Chain: 100 | Damage: +1000%] [Hundredfold Cleave] A silver crescent tore off the blade and struck the Adept across the ribs. The projectile burst on impact, cleave force rattling the altar behind it.

[Chain Broken: Hundredfold Cleave] The boss's HP dropped to ninety-five percent and Meno immediately activated Panic Pump again. [Compound Swing | Chain: 100 | Damage: +1000%] Another projectile. Another silver cut. The boss dropped to ninety. PROJECTILE FARM normal boss bullied he became caster rerolling how do I get Titan Variant swing mage this combo is broken Meno circled while firing. At range, the shadow bolts were embarrassingly fair.

The orb glowed, the bolt formed, and he stepped aside or used a small False Wings kick when the angle boxed him toward the wall. The tendrils spreading across the floor were worse in theory than practice. After the Lost Temple tiles, the safe gaps looked like the game was apologizing. Black lines crawled over the chamber floor. Meno stood in a clean space and fired another Hundredfold. Eighty-five percent. The shadow chains came next, whipping out from the orb in branching lines meant to stop his circling movement.

Meno saw the pattern early, jumped once, kicked sideways, and slid between two chains with the Rune Spire already rising for the next projectile. Eighty. The glove pulsed again. [Sleepless Script] Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation. Shadow Vulnerability resisted. Meno paused mid-step and almost caught a follow-up shadow bolt for it.

"Oh, I'm stupid." rare self-awareness what now glove too good? curse eater? He flicked open his equipment panel, unequipped the Sleepless Grip, and kept circling with bare hands on the Rune Spire. The next orb glow pushed the debuff into him cleanly. [Debuff Applied: Shadow Vulnerability] Shadow damage taken increased by 20%. Meno reequipped the Sleepless Grip immediately. [Curse Eater] Damage increased by 50% while suffering from a debuff or status effect.

"Now we're talking." He used Panic Pump and fired the next Hundredfold. The projectile hit, and the boss's HP dropped by seven and a half percent instead of five. math gloves intentionally unequipped what gear swap gamer AI director patch inventory swap pls do not patch just get good Meno kept the pace. Shadow bolt, step. Projectile. Chains, False Wings adjustment. Projectile. Tendrils, safe gap. Projectile.

The Adept did not move, could not lock him down, and could not stack enough vulnerability before the fight ended. The final Hundredfold hit the black orb dead center. The Ossuary Adept shrieked as the orb cracked. Its rib cage split outward, robe strips burning away into green ash. The skeleton fell apart before the orb hit the ground and shattered into black dust. [Kill Confirmed: Glassdry Ossuary Adept] [XP Awarded] A green beam rose from the broken altar, and Meno walked toward it with immediate distrust.

[Item Acquired: Glassdry Shade Wand] Quality: Uncommon III Type: Wand Shadow Channel: Shadow spell damage increased by 20%. Hollow Casting: Shadow spell cost reduced by 20%. Meno held the wand up.

"Totally useless." want it sell to me give shadow mage here"The boss gave five percent experience," Meno said, putting the wand away.

"Five times the rogues. If it was still High, probably fifty percent. Normal difficulty is poverty." He passed through the door behind the boss and stopped. The next room had a higher ceiling, immediately improving his opinion of it. Stone coffins filled the chamber in neat rows: five across, four deep, twenty total. An archway waited at the far end, which meant the coffins were absolutely part of the problem. Meno waited at the entrance while his HP regenerated. The debuff faded.

The Sleepless Grip's script dimmed, readying itself again.

"This is definitely a trap." trap? no coffins are friendly open them for hugs pull row by row sensible gamer route"The sensible thing is row by row," Meno said.

"So obviously not." He studied the spacing. Five enemies was not meaningfully safer than twenty if he had to dodge them all normally. Five attacks still filled a room when one HP was involved. Twenty just removed the illusion. Range. Door line. Projectile cleaves. Caster line-of-sight. Kite backward. That was the route. When HP hit full, Meno stepped into the room, bent his knees, and jumped. False Wings kicked him forward above the middle aisle.

When he reached the center of the chamber, the coffins lit with necrotic green. All twenty lids slammed open. Meno shoved his legs forward and kicked off empty air in the opposite direction, reversing his momentum while watching the dead rise. Ten skeletal warriors hauled themselves from the coffins with cracked shields and short swords. Ten caster skeletons rose behind them with staves crowned in green-black glass.

"Warriors and mages," Meno said.

"Classic." He landed, turned, and sprinted away. The skeletons chased. Meno reached the boss chamber, activated Panic Pump, and started firing into the coffin room through the doorway. [Compound Swing | Chain: 100 | Damage: +1000%] [Hundredfold Cleave] The leading shield skeleton raised its guard. The silver projectile hit the shield and did no visible damage to it. The cleave detonated on impact and ripped through everything behind it. Silver cuts flashed across the room of skeletons.

"Good enough." door cheese AOE through shield normal dungeon hates him projectile cleave is stupid Meno pumped again. Fired again. The shield warrior blocked again and stayed healthy. Everything behind it lost another chunk. Each projectile took around fifteen percent from the pack. The mages tried to cast from the coffin room, but the angle through the door refused them clean lines.

They started walking forward instead, which was exactly what Meno wanted and exactly what he did not want once ten casters had a doorway. He backed into the tunnel while firing. Silver crescents tore into the chamber again and again. The undead pack crowded through the door, warriors first, mages squeezing behind them. Shadow balls began to arc out once the casters entered line-of-sight, splattering against walls and floor in dark explosions. Meno sidestepped the first two.

A third landed close enough that shadow fire almost licked his boots. He fired another projectile and retreated deeper into the tunnel. A fourth shadow ball hit behind him where the tunnel narrowed. No room. Meno jumped, and the False Wings shield wrapped around him as the explosion bloomed at his back. The silver shell cracked but held. He landed at one HP, still refusing to admit reality, and fired again before the skeletons could fill the gap. The pack broke. Warriors collapsed. Casters shattered.

Bone and staff pieces scattered across the doorway and coffin room floor. Only the leading shield skeleton remained, untouched and rude.

"Of course you lived." Meno let the next Panic Pump bring him to one hundred stacks, but he did not fire. He closed distance instead. The warrior raised its shield. Meno stepped past the first slash, stabbed around the shield edge, then let the Rune Spire's reach pull him outside the counter. The shield skeleton adjusted cleanly when he attacked straight. Bad. So he stopped attacking straight. He timed each thrust with its sword swing. When it committed, the shield drifted one fraction out of line.

The Rune Spire entered that gap again and again. Six hits killed it. [Kill Confirmed: Glassdry Shieldguard] Meno looted the mess. [Uncommon III Gravebone x20 Acquired] He rested the Rune Spire across his shoulder, careful not to clip the wall.

"Hundredfold is really good for farming Normal threats," he said.

"The ranged cleave deletes trash packs. But this dungeon still sucks for this weapon." lamp post too long make dagger make bigger sword two hander? two hander projectile cleave? Meno stopped.

"A two-hander might actually be better for this kind of ranged farming." Chat smelled a build pivot and started foaming. He held up one hand.

"Not for everything. But if I'm just Panic Pumping into Hundredfold, base damage matters more than normal recovery. A two-hander would hit harder per projectile. Fewer commits, fewer casts to dodge, fewer chances to get clipped. Speed matters when building chain normally. For projectile spam, big damage per swing might be worth it." He looked at the Rune Spire.

"Definitely worth testing later." His HP crawled upward while he advanced through the coffin room. The opened coffins showed no hidden loot, because the game was cruel in small, traditional ways too. The next passage angled downward into colder air and older stone. Meno descended. The chamber below was round, with chains dropping from the ceiling into the center around a skeleton three times the size of the rogues. It hung upside down, arms dangling, two swords loose in its bony hands.

Its spine bent the wrong way, its ribs opened toward the floor, and its skull hung back at a sick angle, like it had died trying to look up.

"That's weird." [Hostile: Glassdry Chain-Dancer | Type: Undead Duelist | Threat: Normal | Trait: Ceiling Tether] we love him upside down boss poke it do not poke it Meno poked it with the Rune Spire, skipping Panic Pump and the opener. The tip tapped the skeleton's ribs, green light flared in its empty eye sockets, and the Chain-Dancer began spinning. Both swords whipped outward as its entire hanging body became an upside-down lawn mower.

The chains above it rattled and moved, dragging the spinning skeleton toward Meno at a pace that was deeply unfair for something attached to a ceiling. Meno jumped back. The sword storm kept coming. He kicked off the chamber wall, then kicked again with False Wings for more distance, landing near the opposite side of the room as the boss carved the air where he had been. ceiling blender fight him normally coward justice for spinnybones Meno almost committed to the ranged plan right there.

The skeleton stopped spinning, and the chains snapped tight. The Chain-Dancer shot toward him, body swinging from the ceiling like a hooked weight. Meno twisted aside, but one sword caught him across the ribs. His HP dropped to fifty percent. He landed ugly but upright, and chat treated the damage like bonus content.

"That hurt." Meno steadied the Rune Spire and changed plans. Panic Pump was too risky until he had the boss's rhythm. The ceiling charge could cross the whole room, and the spin punished proximity. He needed to fight at max poke range and keep enough HP to survive one mistake. The Chain-Dancer swayed, then came at him with both swords whipping in messy, drunken patterns. No clean form. No proper stance. Just random-seeming cuts from an inverted skeleton whose shoulders worked wrong.

Meno bounced just outside range and stabbed. [Compound Swing | Chain: 2 | Damage: +20%] The boss followed faster than expected. He sidestepped one sword, leaned away from the other, and poked again at the ribs. The Rune Spire helped, but the chamber was not wide enough to let him kite forever. The chains on the ceiling kept repositioning the boss, dragging it after him with mechanical patience. At Chain 32, the boss sat at eighty-nine percent HP. Then the swords spread outward.

"Spin." Meno jumped back. The Chain-Dancer became a lawn mower again, chains scraping as it swept toward him. He kicked off the wall, kept the Rune Spire extended, and discovered the reach barely allowed contact outside the edge of the sword storm. He poked once. [Compound Swing | Chain: 34 | Damage: +340%] The tip scraped bone. Valid hit. He poked again. The spin shifted wider than he judged. One sword clipped his leg, and pain punched up through the haptics. HP dropped to thirty-five percent.

[Chain Broken: Stagger]"Damn." Meno kicked backward and created space. The spin ended. The chains drew tight for the charge. He watched the ceiling. The moment the boss launched, Meno jumped upward instead of away. First False Wings kick sent him higher. Second kick shoved him toward the central chain cluster. His free hand grabbed one of the thick hanging chains hard enough that the haptics bit into his palm. The Chain-Dancer shot beneath him and slammed into the far wall.

Meno hung from the ceiling chain with one hand. Then he started stabbing down. [Compound Swing | Chain: 2 | Damage: +20%] The skeleton twisted below him, bones grinding. It tried to lift itself horizontal, arms reaching upward with both swords. Meno used the hanging chain as a pivot, stabbed again, and then triggered Panic Pump. [Compound Swing | Chain: 104 | Damage: +1040%] [Current HP set to 1] The damage finally mattered. The Chain-Dancer's HP dropped in visible bites. Eighty-seven. Eighty-two.

It hauled itself up along the chains, body folding into a horrible horizontal shape so the swords could reach him. Meno let go before the swing landed. He dropped past the blades, hit the floor in a crouch, and stabbed upward before the chain could starve. [Compound Swing | Chain: 118 | Damage: +1180%] The boss had to twist back down to face him. Meno saw it.

"There." There was a reposition tax. Whenever he moved above the boss, the skeleton had to change its body shape to attack. Whenever he dropped below, it had to unfold again. The chains gave it speed, but they also made orientation matter. Meno stabbed to keep the chain alive, jumped again, kicked twice, and caught the hanging chain above the boss as his next hit connected.

BRO FOUND IT 3D movement is broken ceiling camping solo exploit class boss has no vertical plan"It has a plan," Meno said, ducking as the skeleton folded upward again.

"It's just bad." The loop settled in fast. Hang above. Stab. Force the skeleton to lift its torso and swing upward. Drop before the attack. Stab on the way down. Land. Force the boss to twist back toward the floor. Stab, Jump, False Wings, chain grab, repeat. The Chain-Dancer tried to spin twice, but the spin was worse when Meno was above it. The swords carved a wide horizontal storm beneath his boots while he hung just outside the upper arc and stabbed down through the gaps.

Once, a sword nicked the False Wings shield as he jumped, but the silver shell took it. Meno kept the chain alive. [Compound Swing | Chain: 136 | Damage: +1360%] Its ribs cracked first. Then the spine snapped. The chains jerked upward, released all at once, and the huge skeleton crashed into the center of the room in a pile of swords, bones. [Kill Confirmed: Glassdry Chain-Dancer] [XP Awarded] Meno landed beside the corpse, breathing harder than the reward deserved. [Level 34: 38%]"Five percent," he said.

"Normal dungeon bosses are not worth the time for XP." He looked at the green beam.

"But loot is loot." [Item Acquired: Chain-Dancer's Mail Grips] Quality: Uncommon III Type: Mail Gloves Defense: Medium Mail Bonus: +5% Defense Penetration. Shadowguard Weave: Shadow damage taken reduced by 10%. Meno held up the gloves and stared.

"Gloves." same slot LMAO mail bonus though defense pen good mail is best boss dps leather still wins shadow resist set?

"The game is trolling me," Meno said.

"Exact slot I already filled with Legendary gear." He still inspected them properly. Mail had medium defense and a five percent defense-penetration bonus per piece. That was interesting. Plate gave high defense but action-speed penalties. Cloth gave low defense and status recovery. Leather, according to the crafting forums, gave medium defense and action speed per piece.

"Defense Penetration is good against high-Defense enemies," Meno said, putting the gloves away.

"But speed is universal. Attacks, dodges, positioning, everything. Mail might be amazing for some builds. For me, leather still looks better unless the enemy is a wall." He paused.

"Most enemies that matter are walls, though, so maybe mail is best." He tapped the glove icon in inventory.

"Shadowguard means shadow resist, basically. Veyrath doesn't seem to use a separate resistance stat. Defense reduces everything, then gear mods specialize. HP mostly scales by level from what I've seen." actual analysis bro read the guide offline streamer learned gear write that down Meno moved into the next passage while HP regenerated. The tunnel angled down again. Green flame lines crawled along the walls now, thin and restless, all pointing deeper.

The air grew colder, but the kind of cold that felt dry instead of damp, like the catacomb had been emptied of anything soft. The final chamber opened below, and Meno stopped at the threshold. At the back of the room floated a lich. Its skeleton was cleaner than the others, golden accents grown into the bones like old ornament. A green brazier burned beside it, and the flame climbed the wall behind the boss in thin streams, drawing weird symbols that kept changing when Meno tried to follow them.

Between Meno and the lich, seven packs of skeletons stood in a half-circle. Each pack had three enemies: one warrior, one rogue, one mage. Familiar shapes, upgraded only by arrangement and malice. The rogues were not hidden this time. Black-green venom dripped from their knives instead, vapor curling off the blades. Meno inspected one pack, then the boss.

[Hostile: Glassdry Warrior | Type: Undead Soldier | Threat: Normal | Trait: Shieldguard] [Hostile: Glassdry Venomknife | Type: Undead Rogue | Threat: Normal | Trait: Shadow Poison] [Hostile: Glassdry Bonecaller | Type: Undead Caster | Threat: Normal | Trait: Grave Bolt] Then the lich's prompt appeared. [Hostile: Glassdry Lich-Priest | Type: Undead Caster | Threat: High | Trait: Brazier Soul] Meno's face lit up.

"Oh," he said.

"High threat." HIGH BOSS XP REAL? level 35 incoming passive choice maybe clear room first idiot can he even clear this solo seven packs lol Meno rested the Rune Spire against his shoulder, eyes moving over the half-circle, the brazier, the changing green symbols, and the twenty-one skeletons between him and the first worthwhile XP bar in the dungeon. He smiled.

"Now this is a room."