Chương 149: Mr. Pluto

Pluto There was one small problem with the excellent plan of farming more absurdly overleveled trash packs. The water was still rising. As far as Meno was concerned, that was Solar's problem. The AI had built an underground continent full of fractures, let one of them connect directly to the Jagged Sea, and apparently forgotten the extremely advanced technology known as plugging the hole.

The cavern where they had fought the Cryo-Balvaths was nowhere near flooding yet, but a thin stream had already found the passage behind them. Most of it vanished into smaller cracks along the way, while the rest followed the natural downward tilt of the floor and continued deeper into Layer 4. Surely the entire Jagged Sea was not going to drain through one hole because he had stabbed the seabed. Just plug it. There had never been an intended route connecting the surface directly to Layer 4 anyway.

Players were supposed to descend from the restored Fractera foothold into Layer 1, find the path to Layer 2, then keep working through some cursed underground labyrinth until they eventually reached the deeper zones. Meno had simply skipped the labyrinth by drilling straight down. If the water kept coming, it would take a while before enough accumulated to become his problem. By then, Solar could fix the obvious oversight. Again, just plug the hole.

Layer 4 was much more interesting than standing around waiting for another Balvath pack to respawn. Orange veins ran through almost every wall and ceiling, giving them enough light to navigate without torches. Connected caverns stretched deeper through Fractera, full of stalagmites, broken shelves of rock, and narrow passages that made Meno feel like an actual explorer. Everything about the Depths pointed toward one enormous descent to whatever existed near Veyrath's core.

Saint Edras had warned that the Rift Kings were weakening the bonds holding Furnon below, which made Furnon sound like the eventual raid endboss of this entire underground progression. The Rift Kings themselves were less clear. They had apparently come here searching for some grand secret and kept digging toward something they absolutely should not disturb. It was always power or greed. Meno was not much of a lore person, but the pattern was obvious.

They could have stayed in the first cavern and waited for another Balvath pack, but after getting half a level from one pull, Meno had no desire to turn the discovery into spawn camping yet. There would be plenty of time for that once they understood what else existed down here. He and Karmabeast continued through the next passage with a thin ribbon of seawater following them. It ran around their boots, slipped into cracks, then reappeared farther down whenever the stone forced it back toward the main path.

Meno pointed at it while they walked.

"See how the water follows the slope? That's proof nothing is flat." Karmabeast stopped for half a step and looked at him over one shoulder.

"Are you serious?" Meno opened his mouth to continue the education, but the passage widened before he could answer as the water situation upgraded from mildly concerning to possibly mainstream-news worthy. A blue portal floated in the center of the cavern, and the narrow stream following them crossed the floor, reached the glowing surface, and disappeared straight through it. Meno slowed to watch the water vanish for several seconds before edging closer.

"That's not good." Karmabeast came up beside him but kept a healthy amount of distance from the portal. Meno tilted his head.

"Technically, though, there's no reason the sea needs a water limit in VR, right?"

"You tell me." Karmabeast folded his arms.

"You're the scientist, Mr. Pluto." MR PLUTO LMAO is the sea actually going into the portal? enter the portal coward SURPRISE RAIN IN EXTRA DIMENSION Meno could already picture the headline.

"Yeah, this is way past clip territory. I can see the subtitle now: Two Scientists Flush the Jagged Sea, Ships Can No Longer Reach Fractera." Karmabeast grabbed his face with both hands and groaned.

"Bro, if they put that space-is-fake joke in the segment, my mother is gonna kill me." Meno turned toward him.

"So you were joking?" Karmabeast lowered his hands and avoided eye contact.

"Depends. But she doesn't need to hear that." Meno looked back toward the portal and stepped around the trickle of water feeding into it.

"Anyway, let's go past this thing. If we enter, Veyrath might explode."

"Naaah." Karmabeast moved closer again, curiosity already winning.

"You see it, you taste it. That's the rule." Meno gave him a disgusted look.

"Whose rule is that? Do you actually do that?" Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings. Karmabeast gave a small shrug.

"Maybe."

"Whatever. I'm about to poke it, so stand back." DO NOT POKE he said lick not poke NEW WORLD STATE INCOMING pluto brained orangutan wait let me log out first Karmabeast did not need further encouragement. He backed almost to the cavern wall while Meno equipped Vervenzal's Verdict and Marcel's Reacher, then activated Annihilator. The two weapons merged into the elongated crimson spear-sword, preserving the spear's reach while adding Verdict's modifiers.

Meno approached the portal carefully, planted his feet, and pushed the point into the blue surface. The portal reacted before the blade went more than a few inches through. A pulse exploded outward. Blue-white energy rolled across the cavern, passing through both players before fading into the walls. [Sleepless Grip Blocked: Riftburn] Meno looked down at himself and found nothing burning.

Across the room, Karmabeast had been briefly wrapped in blue fire, but shadows surged around his body and swallowed the effect almost immediately.

"Damnit." Karmabeast flexed one hand as the last shadow faded.

"Everything you touch turns aggro." Another pulse came before Meno could answer, and this time Sleepless Grip had already done its job. Blue flames erupted across Meno's armor, taking 15% HP on the first tick. He activated Crownmind immediately, wiping the effect before the next chunk could land, then glanced toward Karmabeast. The shadow coating around him was still holding.

"That's a good skill you got there."

"You are one to talk." Karmabeast kept his eyes on the portal.

"Anyway, that proved nothing except it doesn't like being stabbed." The portal pulsed a third time and both players caught fire. Another 15% disappeared from Meno's health, but quick math said Crownmind would return before the burn killed him, especially once Inexhaustible started regenerating below 50%. Karmabeast had a much worse problem. His shadows faded, but the blue flames did not.

"Not good, not good." Karmabeast slapped at his chest, then apparently remembered that did nothing in Veyrath.

"Thirty-second cooldown. I'm toast. Got nothing." Meno checked Karmabeast's HP, then his own abilities, and remembered the most ridiculous button Tyrant had. For that to work, he needed to land a hit.

"You have cheat death?" Karmabeast looked over, still burning.

"Yeah."

"Don't dodge." Confusion cut through the panic.

"What?" Meno canceled Annihilator, kicked Karmabeast from the party, and activated Quadrillionator in one sequence. Karmabeast's name turned hostile while the Massive weapon formed in Meno's hands, leaving him a full second behind the situation.

"Wait, what are you—" Meno stabbed him. The Massive hit landed almost exactly as Riftburn ate through the rest of Karmabeast's HP. His cheat-death effect triggered and kept him alive, which was all Meno needed. Mush became available on the victim of his most recent Massive hit, and Meno activated it. Excrino stepped out of nothing. One moment Karmabeast stood there burning with blue fire; the next, an incarnation of the Hanged God towered over him with one enormous fist already raised.

The fist came down, and Karmabeast got mushed into the floor like an overripe grape. A system announcement covered Meno's vision immediately. [World First: Divine Intervention] First player to successfully use a Divine-tier skill. Reward: Divine Writ of Bestowal Meno forgot about Karmabeast for a second.

"WAIT! THAT'S NOT A DESIGN CREDIT!" ACTUAL REWARD AI GAVE HIM SOMETHING REAL KARMA GOT DIVINELY SQUASHED WORLD FIRST DIVINE SKILL DIVINE WRIT??? Karmabeast's crushed body faded, then reappeared 1 second later where he had been standing. The blue fire was gone along with every other transient effect, leaving him at 1 HP and looking profoundly confused. Meno immediately sent another party invite.

His own Crownmind came back at almost the same time, and he used it to purge the remaining Riftburn from himself while Inexhaustible had already softened most of the damage taken during the wait. Karmabeast accepted the invite and checked himself from head to toe as his HP started recovering.

"Okay. No clue what just happened." Meno barely heard him, because Excrino was still there. According to Mush, the incarnation was supposed to kill the target, resurrect them, and then disappear. Instead, the Hanged God stood in the middle of the cavern staring at the portal like he had noticed something on the other side. Meno shifted one cautious step backward because none of this was in the tooltip, while Excrino studied the blue surface for another moment.

"Acceptable." Then he stepped through it. Meno and Karmabeast exchanged a look, but neither had enough time to say anything before Excrino returned with something struggling in one hand. The creature was humanoid but painfully thin, with stretched blue skin and narrow limbs. Meno barely got a useful look before Excrino tightened both hands around it, crushing the thing into a rough ball between his palms.

Excrino opened his mouth, dropped the entire creature inside, chewed twice, swallowed, looked content with the result, then faded from the cavern like he had only stopped by for lunch. A quest appeared in front of Meno. [Quest: Break It] Feed Rift Kings to Excrino so that the Hanged God may grow stronger. Progress: 1 / 66 Reward: Tyrant Evolution Advancement Meno started reading and sighed.

"Another quest. This god is a total asshole." Then his eyes reached the reward line.

"Tyrant Evolution Advancement, though. That's too good." Karmabeast had gone completely quiet beside him, which was probably the correct reaction. The next notification went global. [GLOBAL ANNOUNCEMENT] Excrino, The Hanged God, has consumed a Rift King and grown stronger. His ascent has begun. Stop him before he becomes too powerful to contain. The paths of Veyra, Muran, Delfor, and Firentaz remain undiscovered. A God cannot manifest in Veyrath until their associated Class Evolution is first attained.

Seek their paths. Bring the Gods into Veyrath. YOU FED A GOD STOP HIM BEFORE TOO POWERFUL LOL FOUR MORE GODS WORLD EVENT SPEEDRUN AGAIN WHO IS DELFOR FIND THE OTHER EVOLUTIONS Karmabeast slowly turned toward Meno, his HP finally high enough that he no longer looked one lick from death.

"Seriously, man. We got here like half an hour ago. Can you chill out a bit? I want my levels first." Meno reread the announcement while the thin stream of seawater continued slipping through the portal beside them. Nothing suggested the world was ending in the next sixty seconds, so it was safe enough to ignore for now. Excrino still needed 65 Rift Kings before whatever Tyrant Evolution Advancement meant, and the other four gods were still locked behind undiscovered paths.

Plenty of time, and the World First reward was more interesting anyway. For once, Solar had given him something that was not a design credit. Meno opened it. [Divine Writ of Bestowal] One-Time Use. Bound. Offer your current Class Evolution to another target who already possesses a Class Evolution. The target must accept the offer. If accepted, their current Class Evolution is replaced by your current Evolution path. Their base class is unchanged.

Class Evolutions granted through this item do not count toward global holder limits. Meno finished reading, closed the window immediately, and locked his face down. Karmabeast noticed anyway.

"What is it?"

"Only a spheroid brain would understand." Karmabeast threw both hands up.

"Fine. Then I'll just open your clips." Meno glanced toward the portal, then at the stream of water still disappearing through it.

"Careful. Make sure you don't fall off the edge."