Chương 50: Math Boss Undefeated

Meno stared into the final chamber and did not move. Seven packs stood between him and the lich. Twenty-one skeletons, one High threat boss, one green brazier throwing crawling symbols across the wall, and no convenient sign saying which part of the room would explode first. If he died here, the entire dungeon reset. He had no desire to clear it again. Viewers: 72, 118. Comfortable. Stable. Good enough that he could pretend he was not still thinking about six hundred thousand people watching him after the raid.

The lich floated at the back of the chamber, golden-accented bones gleaming under hollow flame. It did not move. The seven trash packs did not move either, which made the whole creepy. Waiting enemies always felt like they knew something. Meno lowered the Rune Spire slightly.

"Normal dungeons usually don't have clean tether resets. If I pull these, they chase until I leave, die, or clear them." pull all coward single pack boring think of content think of your repair bill"I am thinking of everything." He looked back over the dungeon in his head. Boneknives. Caster boss. Coffin room. Chain-Dancer. Shield warriors. Mages. The AI had kept the pieces simple but mean, like it expected five players to solve them with roles. Then he saw it. The shield warrior had been useless.

It blocked damage, slowed pulls, and made projectile cleaves awkward. In normal party play, that was its job: defensive bottleneck, front line, let the casters and rogues punish mistakes. For him, 100% damage mitigation on block was perfect. Blocked hits still counted as hits. Meno slowly smiled.

"Oh," he said.

"That is unethical." CHAT LISTENING what did he see UNETHICAL TIME"If the AI turns blocked attacks into invalid hits, it breaks a bunch of classes. If it specifically nerfs Swing Master, then anyone with a shield makes the class unplayable for almost everyone." Meno rolled his shoulders and lifted the Rune Spire.

"So there's no reason to hold back. If it gets nerfed, I'll adjust." He stepped forward, eyes on the nearest left pack.

"This next bit is going to be disgusting," Meno said.

"Shut your eyes, chat." Chat did the opposite. He pulled carefully. A long poke clipped the closest rogue's shoulder and triggered only one trio. Warrior, rogue, and mage snapped toward him at once. The other six packs stayed still, which was already the dungeon being generous enough to make him suspicious. Meno backed out of the final chamber and into the passage. The rogue came first, knife dripping black-green venom. The warrior followed with shield raised.

The mage lifted its staff, green-black light collecting at the tip. Meno did not activate Panic Pump. Too risky. One HP with a rogue, a shield, and ground explosions was a good way to become a cautionary clip. The rogue lunged. Meno stepped back, jabbed its ribs, and let the Rune Spire's reach do the ugly work. [Compound Swing | Chain: 2 | Damage: +20%] The mage fired. Meno bounced sideways as the shadow ball hit the tunnel floor and burst in a dark circle.

The warrior swung at him next, but the attack died inches short because the Rune Spire had already forced Meno outside normal melee range. The rogue got one knife across his forearm. [Sleepless Script] Shadow Poison resisted.

"Good glove." legendary glove carries poison denied Karmabeast crying interview poison not resisted"Different damage type," Meno muttered, and stabbed again. He kited backward through the passage, never letting the rogue get comfortable. Stab, step. Mage glow, side hop. Warrior swing, one step back. At Chain 50, the rogue cracked apart. [Kill Confirmed: Glassdry Venomknife] Meno let the chain expire.

[Chain Broken: Stop] He waited until the rogue bones settled, then jumped over the shield warrior's next swing and kicked off empty air toward the mage. The caster panicked in the quiet way skeletons panicked, which meant it raised its staff and threw a shadow ball directly under his feet. Meno landed too close, caught the explosion, and dropped to 60% HP.

"Fine." not fine that was 40% normal mage btw he needed healer he said healers lame Meno circled the mage while the warrior chased behind him. Close range made the shadow balls worse. The cast was readable, but the blast radius mattered when he had to keep track of the shield warrior's sword at the same time. He kept stabbing. [Compound Swing | Chain: 18 | Damage: +180%] [Compound Swing | Chain: 30 | Damage: +300%] The mage fired again.

Meno used a short False Wings kick sideways, landed behind the caster, and stabbed through its spine. [Compound Swing | Chain: 42 | Damage: +420%] [Kill Confirmed: Glassdry Bonecaller] This time, he kept the chain alive. The shield warrior turned toward him, shield lifted and sword ready, and Meno stabbed straight into the shield. The strike rang against it for zero damage. [Compound Swing | Chain: 46 | Damage: +460%] Meno's smile came back.

"There it is." OH NO blocked hit counts training dummy acquired shield bro doomed AI DIRECTOR LOOK AWAY He began walking the warrior back toward the final chamber. The shield warrior's offense was pathetic without support. It stepped, slashed, and recovered like a monster designed to buy time for better monsters. Meno was not trying to damage it, which made the fight easier. He only needed the shield. Stab shield. Step out of the sword swing. Stab shield. Circle. Let the warrior turn. Stab shield.

"Hundred." He kept going. The Rune Spire tapped the shield again and again, metal ringing through the tunnel in a steady rhythm. Because of Titan Variant, every clean blocked hit gave 2 Chain. Around 1 attack per second meant 100 Chain in about 50 seconds if he played safe. He could go a little faster, but faster meant letting the warrior's sword become relevant, and the whole point was disrespecting it without dying.

[Compound Swing | Chain: 140 | Damage: +1400%] Chat began to split between people who understood and people who thought he had lost his mind. he is practicing why not kill it stack storage HUNDREDFOLD SCALES loading the gun this is illegal but boring Meno did not explain yet. At Chain 200, his hands settled into the work. Stab, sidestep, stab, backstep, stab. Always shield. Never body. The warrior kept blocking with perfect discipline, and perfect discipline made it the best accomplice in the dungeon.

At Chain 250, he laughed once.

"Double stacks are so stupid." At Chain 300, he started circling closer to the final chamber entrance. Twenty-five hits later, the counter reached 350. The Page in the raid had taken over 1000 stacks, but that was a Level 50+ Threat??? book with divine paper. This was a High threat dungeon boss sitting behind normal trash. Also, the Page had died through accumulated damage across hundreds of hits. This time, most of the damage would arrive in one swing. That meant overkill was insurance.

[Compound Swing | Chain: 500 | Damage: +5000%] Meno kept going. The rhythm became small and mechanical. His hands worked like a sewing machine. Stab, sidestep. Stab, backstep. Stab, angle the tip away from the warrior's arm and into the shield face. The shield blocked everything, saving the warrior's HP and feeding the chain. [Compound Swing | Chain: 600 | Damage: +6000%] At 700, chat got quieter in the way chat got quiet before becoming unbearable. clip ready where is he aiming boss nuke?

no way it reaches Hundredfold impact cleaves all hostiles near impact remember Lich about to get deleted"It might be enough," Meno said. The final chamber waited behind him. Six untouched packs stood in formation. The lich floated behind them, High threat prompt still bright, brazier flame crawling symbols up the wall. The shield warrior in front of him kept doing its job, unaware its job had changed from guard to ammunition. Meno backed closer.

At 950, he stopped circling and started moving straight backward into the final chamber. The shield warrior followed, swinging and blocking. The other packs remained still for three more steps, then the nearest rogue twitched. Meno was almost in aggro range now. He inhaled once. The counter hit 998. Meno jumped backward into the room, crossing the invisible line, and stabbed the warrior's shield one last time. [Compound Swing | Chain: 1000 | Damage: +10000%] The six remaining packs woke as one.

"Clip this." Meno turned and swung. [Hundredfold Cleave] The Rune Spire launched a silver arc straight through the gap above the trash and into the floating lich. For half a second, everything moved toward Meno. Rogues sprang forward. Warriors raised shields. Mages lifted staves. The lich's green flame surged higher behind it. Meno jumped forward and kicked with False Wings, throwing himself away from the closing half-circle. The silver projectile hit the lich. The cleave exploded.

White-silver force swallowed the back of the chamber, then the middle, then the front. Skeletons vanished in chunks of bone and green ash. Shields did not matter. Robes did not matter. The warrior Meno had used as a training dummy disappeared with the rest of them, finally allowed to stop helping. Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings. The lich's body shattered in the same blast, and Meno almost celebrated for real.

Then a small engraved box floated up from the bone pile.

"Oh, come on." The box opened. Every green flame in the room bent toward it. The brazier guttered, the wall symbols snapped loose, and the hollow fire poured into the box like breath drawn through teeth. The lich reformed above the bone pile at 20% HP. [Glassdry Lich-Priest | Brazier Soul] Survive the hollow flame. The resurrected boss lifted both hands, spreading green flame across the chamber floor until only one clean circle remained near the side wall.

"Okay," he said.

"Less clipped." LMAO PHASE TWO only clip the celebration all according to plan? run idiot Meno jumped. False Wings caught under his feet and shoved him toward the safe circle. The circle was just far enough away to be insulting. He landed on its edge, but flame licked his heel before the shield could matter. HP dropped to 50%. The circle began shrinking. A new clean circle appeared on the opposite side of the chamber. Meno jumped again, kicked once, kicked twice, and still landed too early.

The green flame ticked through him before he reached safety. HP dropped to 40%. Not good. Another circle appeared, and Meno moved into it, but the problem stayed the same. One tick brought him down to 30% HP. The lich floated above the fire, surrounded by green flame. All the space around it burned. If Meno charged in, he would die before he brought 20% to zero. If he started Panic Pump into Hundredfold spam, he would drop to 1 HP and die on the next reposition before the boss fell.

The circle shrank, another appeared, and Meno jumped. His HP dropped to 20% as he landed. The next circle appeared even farther away, because the dungeon apparently had a sense of comedy. He launched himself with both False Wings kicks, stretched the landing as far as he could, and still took the tick before entering the safe space. HP dropped to 10%. The circle shrank under his boots. Meno stared at the lich and felt anger start to rise, hot and useless. He had erased the room. He had solved the shield.

He had threaded the pull. He had done the hard part, and now he was going to die because a phase wanted him to play musical chairs. Then every flame in the chamber pulled back into the lich, and the boss locked in place. Meno blinked.

"Wait." The lich detonated. Green fire burst inward first, crushing its own rib cage, then flashed outward harmlessly as ash and hollow light. The engraved box split down the middle and vanished before it touched the ground. [Kill Confirmed: Glassdry Lich-Priest] [XP Awarded] [Level Up | Level 35] [Class Passive Available] Meno stood in the safe circle at 10% HP, breathing through his teeth. He closed the passive notification without reading it.

"All according to plan," he said.

"Don't clip that last part." only clip that last part PLAN = PANIC 10% genius Brazier Soul tax all according to prayer Meno looted the skeleton piles first, because shame could wait behind materials. [Uncommon III Gravebone x21 Acquired]"More bones," he said.

"Beautiful. Useless. Sellable." He approached the boss drop, saw the blue beam, and felt his irritation vanish. Blue meant at least Rare I. [Item Acquired: Hollow Lich Essence] Quality: Rare I Type: Magical Ingredient Material Trait: Undeath, Shadow, Hollow Flame"That has to be worth at least 1000 gold," he said.

"Maybe more if people are desperate, which they always are. Also, I really want to know what happens if I put this in a weapon." do it now shadow spire lich sword Bradbaron licking screen Meno put the lich essence away and looked around the chamber for an exit portal. The dungeon offered no bright gate, convenient reward doorway, shrine, or helpful floating prompt congratulating him for walking all the way through the skeleton basement.

"Seriously have to walk all the way back?" Meno said.

"Very immersive." dev intended cardio normal dungeon experience raid player discovers legs He checked the room more carefully before leaving. Where the brazier had burned, black ash coated the stone. The symbols on the wall were gone, but a charred scroll fragment lay half-curled near the brazier base, edges glowing faintly with dead green. Meno's quest danger sense activated so hard he almost stepped away on instinct.

flower delivery FLOWER DELIVERY touch it hidden chain black market wife quest DO NOT READ Meno picked the scroll fragment up and put it directly into inventory without opening it. [Charred Scroll Fragment Acquired]"Maybe it sells." quest coward read it content never trust paper"I have no interest in quests," Meno said, which was technically true and historically useless. He finally opened the level 35 passive prompt.

"Okay. Class passive unlock. Let's see what we got." [Class Passive Available] Choose one Titan Variant passive. [Option 1: Titan Variant — Lingering Wings] False Wings shield persists for 1 second after landing. The shield still ends early if depleted. Meno stared at it.

"That would have saved me from the flame ticks in that fight." too soon take it safe choice shield good no more 10% clown He moved to the next option. [Option 2: Titan Variant — Weapon Master] Swapping weapons during combat no longer breaks your Chain. Gain bonuses based on the weapon type currently wielded. One-Handed Weapon: Reaching a new 100-Chain threshold restores 10% maxHP. Two-Handed Weapon: Weapon hits grant 50 Chain and gain 75% Armor Penetration. 80% less Maximum Attack Speed in combat.

Chain upkeep window is extended.

"I need a calculator." CALCULATOR ARC math boss spawned pick it weapon swap build 75 armor pen insane 80 less speed rip He moved to the third. [Option 3: Titan Variant — Break Surplus] Once per combat, when your Chain would break, prevent the break and gain 10 Chain. Meno breathed out slowly.

"That looks immediately broken." pick 3 pick 2 pick wings chat vote democracy now"No democracy." He paced inside the boss room while HP regenerated. Lingering Wings was clean. One second after landing meant False Wings shield did not vanish the instant his boots touched ground. It helped PvP, traps, explosions, poison clouds, every stupid situation where the danger arrived half a beat after landing. Weapon Master was confusing and therefore dangerous.

Swapping weapons during combat no longer breaking Chain only mattered if he had weapons worth swapping to. It also meant playing the class twice as hard, because now every build decision became a weapon-timing decision.

"The 10% maxHP heal at 100, 200, 300 Chain is nice," Meno said.

"Not amazing. Good, but not damage. It helps long fights if I'm actually building chain normally." He looked at the two-handed section again and frowned.

"50 Chain per hit and 75% Armor Penetration sounds insane. Then 80% less Maximum Attack Speed walks in with a bat." Break Surplus was simpler. Once per combat, the first chain break did not break. It gained 10 Chain instead. Panic Pump into Hundredfold would trigger the break, fail to break, and then he could Panic Pump again after the attempted break? Maybe. If the game treated the break event as prevented but still valid for reuse, it became disgusting.

If not, it still saved a chain from a miss, stop, forced dodge, or bad pattern. At 1 HP, that was basically an extra life for the chain.

"Okay, chat," Meno said.

"Math time. Close your ears." oh no impossible challenge PRAYERBEADMATH Meno opened the forum overlay and hated it immediately. The top post under weapon speed testing was by someone named Chadculator. Meno hovered over the close button on principle.

"No." read it CHADCULATOR king first to 100 confirmed Meno sighed, opened it, and found the post seasoned heavily with contempt. I know people love big streamers who run around doing dumb things with peanut sized brains and still succeed due to having broken classes. This is understandable since values are hidden. What cannot be forgiven is the lack of public testing. I have spent hours testing each weapon type against the same enemy and the target dummy with Common I weapons for proper comparisons.

Meno stopped reading and looked at chat.

"This guy is already wrong." you are the peanut keep reading he cooked you target dummy merchant He kept reading anyway. This is only for melee martial weapons with exactly ZERO Action or Attack Speed bonus. Testing ranged weapons and spells is too class and ammo dependent. I am not doing it YET. 1h sword: max 3 attacks per second, base damage 1. 00 = 3 DPS 1h dagger: max 4 attacks per second, base damage 0. 75 = 3 DPS 1h axe: max 2. 5 attacks per second, base damage 1.

20 = 3 DPS 1h mace: max 2 attacks per second, base damage 1. 50 = 3 DPS 1h spear: max 2. 7 attacks per second, base damage 1. 11 = 3 DPS 2h spear/polearm types: max 2 attacks per second, base damage 1. 50 = 3 DPS 2h quarterstaff: max 1. 8 attacks per second, base damage 1. 67 = 3 DPS 2h sword: max 1. 67 attacks per second, base damage 1. 80 = 3 DPS 2h axe: max 1. 5 attacks per second, base damage 2. 00 = 3 DPS 2h mace: max 1 attack per second, base damage 3.

00 = 3 DPS 2h magic staff, for lols: max 1 attack per second, base damage 1. 00 = 1 DPS Which weapon is best? In theory, all weapon types are equal in DPS. In practice, it depends on your class. Notes: Using a shield reduces max attack speed by 10%. Dual wielding reduces max attack speed by 15%, but gives modifiers from both weapons. This is either worth it or bait depending on your class. PS: I do not know whether Rune Spire has different values from a normal one-handed sword.

I have no access to one, so I could not test it. Also, do not mention that moron in the responses below. He runs around using a single one-handed sword on a dagger class and thinks this is gameplay. He clearly does not understand numbers. Tragic. Meno closed his eyes. The boss room stayed quiet; chat did not. MORON CONFIRMED tragic he said tragic Chadculator owns you single one-handed sword on dagger class"This Chadculator guy is an idiot," Meno said.

"Monsters do not stand still waiting for you to hit them at max speed. Maybe he should try playing 1 HP with a dagger." He opened an actual calculator on stream, in front of more than seventy thousand people. Chat discovered a new religion. CALCULATOR UI old man learns numbers show work math stream this is worse than crafting chadculator raid boss Meno ignored them. So far, he had played mostly on vibes, spite, and whatever looked stupid enough to work.

That had carried him a long way, but Weapon Master was too weird to judge by vibes.

"Maximum Attack Speed probably means the cap for that weapon," he said.

"Because this is VR, you can always swing slower than cap. You can't swing faster than cap unless gear or skills raise it." He entered the 80% reduction first.

"Fastest two-hander is spear or polearm. Base max 2 attacks per second. With 80% less Maximum Attack Speed, that becomes 0. 4 attacks per second. One attack every 2. 5 seconds." garbage but 50 chain 2. 5 seconds is forever skill issue polearm believers rise"2h quarterstaff is 1. 8 down to 0. 36 attacks per second, so 2. 78 seconds per attack. 2h sword is 1. 67 down to 0. 334, so 2. 99 seconds per attack. 2h axe is 1. 5 down to 0. 3, so 3. 33 seconds per attack." He typed the last line and snorted.

"2h mace is 5 seconds for 1 attack. Good luck with that. Even if you stack 100% Armor Penetration with a full mail set and the passive, you still have to hit things." wrong mace believers betrayed 5 sec BONK imagine missing delete character"You should imagine missing," Meno said.

"That's called gameplay." He made the next assumptions aloud.

"Let's assume the target has 50% damage reduction from Defense, and I am using a full mail set that gives one-handers 25% Armor Penetration. That means one-handers only suffer 37. 5% damage reduction and deal 62. 5% of their listed damage." MAIL META he remembered armor penetration numbers! chat write this down nobody can write this down"Since one-handers still only give 2 Chain stacks per hit, with a dagger I could get, in theory, 480 Chain stacks after 1 minute.

That would be about 147 DPS before Defense, but against this target it becomes about 91. 9 DPS. A one-handed sword is 360 stacks, about 111 DPS before Defense, and about 69. 4 DPS after Defense." He kept the calculator open and went down the list.

"A one-handed axe is 300 stacks, about 93 DPS before Defense, and about 58. 1 DPS after Defense. A one-handed mace is 240 stacks, about 75 DPS before Defense, and about 46. 9 DPS after Defense. A one-handed spear is 324 stacks, about 100 DPS before Defense, and about 62. 6 DPS after Defense." dagger wins sword cope spear range tax mace funeral what about Rune Spire values"I don't know if Rune Spire has different values," Meno said.

"Nobody knows because Chadculator doesn't have one." He moved to the two-handers.

"The two-handers look strange because Weapon Master guts their max attack speed by 80%, but the Armor Penetration is stacked evenly for comparison: 75% from the passive and 25% from the same mail setup, for 100% total Armor Penetration. So against this target, the two-handers ignore Defense completely." armor printer bank vault killer construct tech 2h believers alive?

"A two-handed spear or polearm only attacks 0. 4 times per second, so one hit every 2. 5 seconds, but because each hit grants 50 Chain, it reaches 1200 stacks after 1 minute. Its DPS at that point is about 72. 6 DPS, and because it ignores all Defense, it stays 72. 6 DPS against this target." huh worse than dagger better than sword? 72. 6 not bad 2. 5 sec bad"A two-handed quarterstaff reaches 1080 stacks and about 65. 5 DPS. A two-handed sword reaches about 1002 stacks and 60. 8 DPS.

A two-handed axe reaches 900 stacks and 54. 6 DPS. A two-handed mace reaches 600 stacks and 36. 6 DPS, because 5 seconds per hit is basically a weapon asking for written permission before attacking." mace slander written permission lmao quarterstaff robbed 2h sword fashion dead dagger still god Meno leaned back, eyes narrowing at the numbers.

"So dagger still wins sustained DPS if I can stay close enough to use it. Sword and spear lose damage on paper but give better reach and safer uptime. Two-handers are not sustained damage weapons with this passive. They are high-risk chain-loading and armor-cracking weapons. You use them when the enemy gives you a window, especially against high-Defense targets, then swap back before the slow attack speed gets you killed."

calculate longer 1 min bad sample do 5 min do 10 min stack scaling changes chadculator would do it"It doesn't change the conclusion," Meno said.

"Longer duration just makes attack speed matter more. Dagger stays disgusting on soft targets because it attacks much faster. Two-handed spear or polearm is second in this setup, and it only gets better when Defense is higher than 50% reduction." He typed a few more numbers, mostly to prove the point to himself.

"The fastest two-hander only needs the target to have around 46% Defense reduction before it beats a one-handed sword. It beats one-handed spear earlier, axe earlier, mace almost immediately. Dagger is the problem. The target needs around 68% damage reduction from Defense before two-handed polearm beats dagger sustained DPS." He pointed at the passive window.

"So dagger is soft-target king. Two-handers are for armored enemies, high-Defense bosses, constructs, shields." bank vault meta take Weapon Master then you just proved it good 2h swap build mail set dream"No," Meno said.

"I proved it's bait for me right now." Chat flared, but Meno raised one finger before the spam could organize.

"2. 5 seconds per attack on the fastest two-handed type is not viable for solo play unless the enemy gives me clean windows. After all that nonsense, it still loses sustained DPS to a dagger until the target has absurd Defense. It also does nothing for my two-hander Hundredfold idea, because Hundredfold breaks the chain and does not give chain. The 50 Chain per hit doesn't matter for the projectile if I am just firing stored stacks." He looked at Weapon Master again and felt the temptation anyway.

Swapping without chain break was good. One-handed healing at thresholds was good. Two-hander chain chunks were interesting. It was a whole future build packed into one box. It was also clunky garbage before he had the weapon set, armor set, practice, and encounter data to make it worth skipping a simpler survival tool.

"I can still swap weapons without this passive," Meno said.

"It just breaks the chain. Sometimes that's fine. If I take this now, I might ruin my two-hander use forever by locking it behind slow-motion attacks." He moved to Break Surplus.

"Break Surplus is immediate value. Panic Pump into Hundredfold, first break gets prevented, and I keep the chain plus 10. If the Panic Pump reset still recognizes the attempted break, disgusting. If it doesn't, still disgusting. It also saves a chain when I get forced to stop, miss, dodge, or deal with some stupid room mechanic." He selected it. [Titan Variant — Break Surplus] Once per combat, when your Chain would break, prevent the break and gain 10 Chain. Chat froze for half a second, then exploded.

PRAYERBEADNOMATH HE DID ALL THAT TO PICK 3 MATH BOSS UNDEFEATED you no weapon master? lingering wings crying chadculator wins again A clip title appeared almost instantly in the corner of his stream overlay. PRAYERBEADGOD BRICKS CHARACTER LIVE AFTER LOSING TO CALCULATOR Another one followed. MATH BOSS UNDEFEATED — MENO PICKS WRONG PASSIVE Meno stared at the titles until his face went hot.

"You are all wrong." cope show damage meter wrong passive ask Chadculator peanut brain confirmed"No, you absolute clowns," Meno snapped.

"Weapon Master is a future passive. Future. Later. When I can justify attacking in slow motion once every 2. 5 seconds." Chat got worse, so Meno stabbed the air with the Rune Spire and nearly hit the wall.

"Break Surplus works now. Right now. In raids, dungeons, PvP, farming, everything. You people see 75% Armor Penetration and forget the part where the weapon takes a lunch break before attacking." He turned toward the exit tunnel, still arguing with a chat window that could not be defeated and probably gained viewers from being attacked.

"Chadculator would die to the first Boneknife."