Chương 54: World Tour Part 2

[Zone Discovered: Sunken Observatory] Recommended Range: 30–40 Meno stepped onto a cracked stair and felt his weight pull sideways for half a breath. Pebbles rolled up a wall. A bronze ring turned overhead with no support. Somewhere below, a metal lens groaned like it was still trying to find a star, and the air smelled faintly like machine grease. The Observatory was a broken dome sunk into the mountain, its rooms split open under the sky.

Stone stairs climbed walls, balconies hung from tilted towers, and brass telescope arms crossed the open chambers like snapped ribs. Meno stepped over a hole. Broken star maps covered the stone around him, while snow fell through the missing roof and drifted sideways whenever the gravity shifted. Lens-Eyed Constructs patrolled with cracked brass ribs and rotating glass heads, Normal threat with focus beams that punished straight approaches.

Meno cut sideways across a tilted stair and kept sending Hundredfolds through the beam before it could fully tighten. The construct staggered apart behind him in pieces, and the noise shook a pair of Starved Gargoyles from the broken dome above, all thin wings and stone hunger. One dropped into his path with its claws spread, Normal threat and too committed to the dive. Meno dodged under the first swipe, kept spamming Hundredfold combos through the opening, and turned the pounce into falling rubble.

Mirror Spiders stalked the tilted halls at Normal threat, their reflective shells showing Meno from angles where he was not standing yet. He killed those too when they blocked him, silver arcs cracking through glassy legs and mirrored bodies without slowing his pace. Gravity Wisps drifted between the ruins, pulling loose stones sideways through Moderate threat fields that made every jump suspect.

Meno hit one anyway, because the floor under him tilted at the wrong second and a rusted blade from a Broken Astrolabe Sentry carved through the space where his neck had been. He jumped, kicked off with False Wings, and the shield flare caught the edge of the blade with a hard flash. The impact threw him sideways instead of up. A second False Wings kick saved him from slamming into a wall, but it dumped him onto a cracked balcony that immediately sagged under his boots. Bad landing.

A Hollow Astronomer waited there in pale robes, star charts sewn into its sleeves and a glass lens embedded over one eye. [Hostile: Hollow Astronomer | Type: Undead Scholar | Threat: Moderate | Trait: Gravity Margins] The Moderate threat prompt made sense a second later, when two more Astronomers lifted their hands from nearby balconies. The staircase under Meno tried to become a wall. He threw himself backward into a full somersault as gravity snapped sideways.

Stone steps rushed past his face, a blade spun beneath him, and a Gravity Wisp dragged his landing point half a body-length to the left just to make the math uglier. Meno hit on one hand, rolled, and fired Hundredfold before the ruins could decide where down was supposed to be. He kicked off the shifting stair, hit a sideways pillar, and burned both False Wings steps to avoid dropping straight into a Mirror Spider nest. The shield cracked as a loose stone punched in from the wrong direction.

"That was rude." gravity accountant fight them moderate rule nope observatory wants him folded The Observatory Sleepwalker stood inside a cracked viewing chamber open to daylight. [Hostile: Sleepwalker | Type: Dream-Touched Humanoid | Threat:??? | Trait: Dreamer] Its aura turned the stars on inside every broken lens and puddle of rainwater. Little white points appeared where no sky reflected, and the floor around the Sleepwalker sagged like stone had become cloth.

Loose stones orbited its body in slow loops, while a Lens-Eyed Construct inside the field split into three delayed copies that turned toward Meno at different times. Meno backed out before the copies agreed on a target.

"Nope. Ghost observatory. Later." The viewcounter had climbed past 81, 000, which told Meno exactly what kind of people watched him. They left during sensible grinding and came back the moment he was close to dying. The Observatory gave him real XP, but not enough to forgive the navigation. He killed normal Constructs, Gargoyles, and Mirror Spiders when they were convenient, ignored anything with gravity in its trait, and spent forty-six minutes never fully certain whether east was down.

When cold stone gave way to soft earth and glowing flowers, he almost thanked the dirt. [Zone Discovered: Veilbloom Woods] Recommended Range: 10–20 Veilbloom looked beautiful enough to be suspicious. Glowmoths drifted around his shoulders, Petal Foxes flashed luminous pink tails through the brush, Singing Briar Sprites pelted his calves with thorns, Mooncap Slimes pulsed under mushroom clusters, and Gentle Barklings waddled between lantern trees with tiny hollow faces. Everything was Low threat.

Players filled the paths. Some chased Petal Foxes, some picked flowers, some sat in circles playing instruments with NPCs near the road, and one warlock in a wide hat explained to three beginners why demons were "not technically evil, just misunderstood." [AlmostVincent | Class: Briar Warlock — Level 16 | Ability: Thorn Familiar] Meno stopped at a glowing stream and let his breath settle. For once, the woods smelled like clean rain instead of swamp rot or machine grease.

A Bloomrest Charmer in a flower-dyed cloak stepped from behind a tree, her mask painted with a smiling tulip.

"Lost traveler, would you care to dream of the path you most desire?" Meno pointed at her.

"I don't recommend dreams with Vervenzal around." The Charmer went still.

"Don't say that name." scared the NPC apologize sleep dust mommy he fears flowers"Bye." Bloomrest glowed between the trees, a small town of lantern platforms and flower roofs. Meno circled it without entering, and the road carried him faster than any root-choked zone had managed. Crossing Veilbloom was quick because beginner zones came with roads, and roads were secretly the strongest mobility skill in the game. The trees thinned into sea wind and silver towers.

[Landmark Reached: Eastveil Outer Approach] Eastveil rose above canals and salt air in silver and green. Round towers climbed over the water, each crowned with a circular platform that held a house like a perch above the city, while silver accents caught the light along railings, bridges, and high windows. Polished road guards in silver coats stood with curved spears beside the outer bridges, and Meno kept outside the walls, treating the capital as another landmark instead of a stop.

Pearl-Wing Gulls screamed over the roofs, Garden Imps trimmed hedges with stolen knives, Silverback Stray Hounds slept near market carts, Canal Eels flashed under bridges, and Veil-Sparrows blinked along the walls. All Low threat city-edge life, not worth a swing. A small group of players recognized him near the canal road and started following at a distance.

"Are you doing a meetup?" one asked.

"No."

"Can we run with you?"

"No."

"We're mages."

"That makes you slower." [CometMaybe | Class: Tide Spark — Level 11 | Ability: Brine Bolt] [Minaa | Class: Mirror Witch — Level 10 | Ability: Reflection Flicker] Meno slowed for two minutes anyway because they were not hostile, only new. They asked about leveling, and he told them dungeons beat wandering if they wanted efficiency. They asked if Swing Master was any good, and he said, "Sure, if you have a high pain tolerance." One asked if he knew BrineSaint, and Meno immediately started running again.

Eastveil's outer roads took ten minutes to circle, and he followed the salt smell south instead of the gates. [Zone Discovered: Silvermere Coast] Recommended Range: 1–20 The range gap looked weirdly huge, but Meno guessed that made sense if Silvermere Coast covered most of the eastern shoreline instead of one neat beginner pocket. Silvermere Coast was beginner land with better scenery.

Reef Crabs scuttled over wet stone, Tide Eels struck from shallow pools, Cliff Gulls dove with knife-like beaks, Saltglass Slimes shimmered near the tide line.

"Very atmospheric," Meno told chat, as a Cave Urchin rolled past with determined stupidity. Players were everywhere. Fishing players, cooking players, two streamers filming a synchronized spell intro on the rocks, and a party of five casters who got ambushed mid-pose by a Tideglass Wrecker, a hunched shoreline raider in a patched slicker, shell mask, and ropes of dripping kelp. The Wrecker raised its hook and managed half a threat line before three different elements erased it.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation. Meno watched the smoke clear.

"That was overkill." [Foamy | Class: Brine Witch — Level 14 | Ability: Salt Hex]"For style," she said, bowing with a sea-green wand.

"Valid," Meno said. He took a short break by a cliff because the view deserved half a minute and because his real body had started remembering that it owned lungs. Tideglass Watch sat along the shore below, a small outpost with nets, lanterns, and a Zubra catapult station perched dangerously close to a cliff edge. [Catapult Station Discovered: Tideglass Watch] A Zubra engineer tested the launch harness by putting a crab in it. The crab flew twenty feet, landed in a tide pool, and immediately fought the water.

Meno nodded.

"Still safer than Streamline interviews." journalism vs zubra artillery catapult has standards zubra warn you first ask the catapult how it feels Meno turned away from the coast and headed inland. Silvermere still took another eight minutes to leave, because roads helped and cliffs slowed him. The land turned inward toward pale fog. [Zone Discovered: Moonfen Expanse] Recommended Range: 20–30 Moonfen was gray reeds, pale mud, and water that reflected too much sky. The paths drowned, rose, and lied in turns.

Mudlurkers surfaced with flat lamprey faces, Moonreed Serpents curled around flooded trails, Lantern Toads puffed glowing throats, and Fogbound Stags watched from the banks with moss hanging from their antlers. All Low threat. Interesting to look at, useless to fight. Moonfen Reed-Speakers moved through the fog in gray reeds and bone beads, calling to each other with hollow whistles while trained frogs the size of stools sat beside them.

They were Low threat too, but the frogs watched Meno with round, judgmental eyes.

"I respect him," Meno said.

"But no XP." frog alliance recruit frog stool frog secret boss Moonfen Bastion appeared as a squat fort on dry ground, its lanterns smeared by fog, with a single Zubra catapult beside a reed platform. [Catapult Station Discovered: Moonfen Bastion] A party rested near the platform, all muddy boots and mid-tier exhaustion. [BornReady | Class: Marsh Hexer — Level 25 | Ability: Bog Mark] [Lanternburst | Class: Fog Binder — Level 24 | Ability: Mist Veil]"PrayerBeadGod?" Lanternburst asked.

"Are you clearing the bastion quest?"

"No."

"Good," BornReady said.

"It sucks." Meno believed them and kept moving. The pass through Moonfen took twenty-nine minutes. Marsh travel punished straight lines, fog hid empty space as well as monsters. Then the land climbed toward a dark broken crown ahead, and curiosity pulled him upward despite every reasonable part of his brain objecting. [Zone Discovered: Starfall Crown] Recommended Range: 40–50 Meno entered Starfall Crown at a run and felt the zone punish his confidence without touching him.

Black stone and pale grass spread under his boots, broken by star-metal craters and floating rocks that hung over the slopes with no visible support. A Fallen Sky-Stone Golem turned toward him, High threat, its cracked black core burning in its chest. Meno did not slow down. A Void-Feathered Raptor dove from one of the floating stones, also High threat and fast enough that Meno jumped and kicked off with False Wings before it finished choosing an angle.

The raptor hit where he had been and spewed black dust into a nasty cloud.

"That was not a welcome bird." welcome bird fight it high threat coward you are Level 37 bird said no Shardback Elk moved in herds between craters, High threat with crystal antlers that looked built to carry a player into a wall. Meno cut wide around them, boots skidding over black stone as one lifted its head and tracked him through the pale grass.

Meteor Crabs dug through broken rocks ahead, plated in star-metal and also High threat, armored enough to make Weapon Master whisper from the bad-decision corner of his brain. He kept running. Then a Gravity-Torn Wraith drifted between two floating stones, Lethal threat, its body stretched vertically like a robe hung from the moon. Meno turned before it noticed him. He ran until the Wraith slipped behind a ridge of black stone, then slowed near the lip of the next crater.

The Sleepwalker stood below, where no grass grew. [Hostile: Sleepwalker | Type: Dream-Touched Humanoid | Threat:??? | Trait: Dreamer] Its aura made meteors fall upward. Pebbles, broken spearheads, and half-buried bones lifted from the ground, floated for one breath, then shot into the sky and vanished into a gray ring of cloud. [Hostile: Crown Shardcaller | Type: Dream-Sharded Humanoid | Threat:??? | Trait: Star Chime] A tall Crown Shardcaller stood inside the field in a star-metal mask,???

threat and speaking through chimes, but each note stretched too long and bent out of shape while his shadow lifted off the ground without him. Meno watched from a safe ridge for four seconds.

"This place is worth returning to with gear." He went just far enough toward the center to see the land dip into a darker hollow beneath the Lost Temple's shadow. Then a Shardback Elk screamed behind him and ended the sightseeing. [Hostile: Shardback Elk | Type: Beast | Threat: High | Trait: Crystal Gore] The elk came out of the pale grass with its crystal antlers lowered. Meno did not have room to test its damage. He used Panic Pump before the first charge landed.

[Compound Swing | Chain: 100 | Damage: +1000%] His HP dropped to one, and Meno unloaded Hundredfold into the elk's shoulder. Silver arcs hammered crystal and hide in a frantic blur. The chain should have shattered under the burst, but Break Surplus caught the break, burned itself out, and fed the combo instead. [Break Surplus Activated | Chain Break Prevented | Chain: +10] [Compound Swing | Chain: 210 | Damage: +2100%] The elk screamed and charged through him. Meno was not there anymore.

He jumped sideways, kicked once with False Wings, then kicked again in midair as crystal antlers carved through the space under his boots. The shield flared from the skill, but he knew better than to trust it. High threat meant the shield was probably useless. He landed beside the elk's flank and kept swinging. One hit. Two stacks. Another hit. Two more. The Shardback Elk skidded, hooves tearing sparks from black stone, and the ground around Meno lit with thin crystal lines.

He saw the pattern spread before the spikes rose. Not under him. Around him. A cage, then a burst.

"Absolutely not." He chased the elk with False Wings instead of backing away, cutting along its side before the crystal growth erupted behind him in a spray of white shards. The explosion washed cold light across his back. One fragment nearly clipped him. Meno leaned back hard, stabbing forward at the same time, and the thrust caught the elk just enough to keep him from falling flat on his back. [Compound Swing | Chain: 218 | Damage: +2180%] The elk snapped its head sideways.

Meno ducked under the antlers so close the crystal tips dragged wind across his hair, then drove the Rune Spire into its ribs before it could finish the turn. He could not stop. If he stopped, the chain died. If the chain died, this became a fair fight, and fair fights were death. The elk bounded away. Meno jumped after it. It should have been stupid, chasing a charging monster across a crater field at one HP, but the alternative was letting the stack fall.

He landed, stabbed and jumped between star-metal rocks, kicked off a tilted slab with False Wings, and landed just close enough to tag the elk's hind leg before the chain timer bled out. The ground flashed again. Meno kept stabbing. This time he baited the charge first. He angled left, let the elk commit, then jumped back as crystal spikes punched up where he had been standing.

The elk hit the empty space, antlers low, and Meno used False Wings to cross over its shoulder while the crystals exploded behind both of them. The blast missed. Barely. [Compound Swing | Chain: 250 | Damage: +2500%] Meno hit the ground running, turned with the elk, and kept the Rune Spire moving. The weapon rang against crystal plates. Every charge forced him to choose between distance and damage, and every crystal bloom tried to make that choice lethal. The elk reared. The crater answered.

Crystal growths tore up from three sides, glowing too bright at their roots. Meno saw the trap half a second before it closed. He stepped toward the only ugly option, directly under the elk's raised chest, and swung twice before its hooves came down. Two hits. Another four stacks. Then he kicked backward with False Wings as the hooves crushed stone where his skull had been. The crystal growths detonated. For a breath, the whole crater became white noise and broken glass.

Meno came out of it half-blind, HP still sitting at one like a bad joke. The elk staggered after him, one shoulder split open, crystal antlers dimming at the tips. He did not plant his foot. He did not make a decision heroic enough to deserve music. He just kept stabbing because stopping meant losing the chain, and losing the chain meant dying tired. His vision blurred around the edges. Crystal flashed near his face.

He drove the Rune Spire forward again and again, praying the hitboxes were as generous as the danger was not. [Compound Swing | Chain: 350 | Damage: +3500%] The elk lowered its head for another charge, and Meno met it at an angle, not head-on, never head-on. He slipped past the left antler so close he could smell the sharp mineral bite of it, weirdly similar to his aftershave, and stabbed into the open wound again and again, moving like a machine before the monster could turn. The Rune Spire blurred.

The elk did not fall. It slammed one hoof down, and crystal veins raced through the crater floor toward Meno's feet. He jumped before they reached him, shield flaring only once he left the ground, and kicked off with False Wings as the first crystal spike burst under his shadow. The second kick threw him sideways over the elk's back. He stabbed down once as he passed, scraped the Rune Spire along its spine, then twisted in the air and clipped the base of one crystal antler before he dropped. His boots hit stone.

He lunged after it and landed two ugly thrusts into the elk's flank before it could pull away. [Compound Swing | Chain: 400 | Damage: +4000%] The elk twisted beneath him. Antlers swept up like a crystal gate, and Meno tucked his knees so sharply the tips passed under his boots without touching. For half a second he had no safe angle, just black stone below and a High threat monster turning faster than anything with antlers had any right to turn.

He landed badly, one boot skidding across loose star-metal gravel, and stabbed low into the elk's hind leg before the chain could slip away. Still alive. Still counting. The Shardback Elk screamed again and kicked backward. Meno dropped flat under the hooves, felt the wind of them pass over his shoulder, and rolled toward the monster instead of away. Crystal lines crawled around him in a widening ring. The elk was trying to pin him inside the blast.

"Don't think so." Meno stabbed once, twice, then shoved off the ground and jumped just as the ring detonated. False Wings snapped him higher. The shield flared in the air, catching a spray of crystal dust that would have turned his one HP into a black hole. He kicked again, clipped the elk's shoulder with the Rune Spire on the way past, and landed on a tilted star-metal slab. Gravity pulled a little sideways.

Meno ran down the slab anyway, dragging one last shallow hit across the elk's flank before it surged after him. Good. Meno led it away from the glowing crystal growths, cutting across the crater rim while jabbing every time the Rune Spire could reach. The weapon struck shoulder, flank, antler base, anything that kept the chain from dying. Each hit was ugly. None were clean. Clean was for people with HP. [Compound Swing | Chain: 450 | Damage: +4500%] The elk lunged, and Meno jumped backward off the crater lip.

For one stomach-dropping second, there was only empty air behind him. Then False Wings caught, shield flashing around his body as he kicked sideways, bounced off a floating shard of stone, and came down behind the elk's front leg. He drove the Rune Spire in deep, then kept hitting without pause because the elk finally looked distressed. The elk staggered. Its antlers lit from root to tip, and every crystal growth in the crater answered.

Meno saw the whole field wake up around him, dozens of pale spikes humming in the stone. No clean dodge. Just timing. He sprinted straight at the elk and jabbed its chest as he passed into range, just enough to keep the chain alive. The first crystal burst behind him. The second burst to his left. The third rose under his leading foot, and he kicked off it with False Wings before it exploded, shield flaring bright enough to bleach the edge of his vision.

He came down almost on top of the elk's neck and stabbed twice before his boots fully settled. [Compound Swing | Chain: 500 | Damage: +5000%] The damage finally felt unfair in his direction. The elk tried to throw him off with a full-body twist, but Meno stayed close, too close for the antlers to line up. He kept stabbing into the same ruined shoulder while the Rune Spire flashed silver, each thrust feeding the chain, each dodge smaller than the last. His breath came thin. His vision pulsed at the edges.

The crater kept trying to murder him. The elk lowered its head one final time. Meno did not back away. He stepped inside the charge, ducked under the right antler, and let the mineral-aftershave bite fill his nose again as crystal passed within a finger of his face. Then he planted the Rune Spire against the open wound and triggered another burst. Silver arcs stacked through crystal, hide, and star-metal bone until they looked like one long cut. The Shardback Elk took one more step. Then its legs folded under it.

Crystal antlers hit the black stone and cracked apart, scattering pale shards across the crater. Meno stood over it, breathing hard, one hit away from becoming the stupidest corpse in Starfall Crown.

"Dangerous," he said to chat.

"But viable later." That was enough. [Kill Confirmed: Shardback Elk] [Level Up | Level 38] The elk dissolved into a blue loot beam. Meno stared at it for half a second, then broke his own rule again and picked it up. [Item Acquired: Shardback Crystal Antler] Quality: Rare III Type: Crafting Material Material Trait: Crystal, Impact, Star-Metal Chat immediately punished him for it. bro said normal threats only stop looting must be cheating how did he kill that high threat btw rules? hello?

show off tour Meno looked at the cracked antler in his inventory, then at the fading corpse.

"Rules are flexible." Starfall took nineteen minutes because he barely entered, killed one thing, and spent most of the visit refusing to die. He dropped back into Moonfen by a different route, using the bastion's silhouette, marsh lights, and the least-drowned stretches of road to orient south and west.