Chương 104: Prelude to Absolute Insanity

Meno was not exactly sure what to make of the Essence system. At level sixty, making a new character might be faster than rerolling abilities through random modification options, especially when every Essencefruit was guarded by level one hundred champions and came with a two-minute eating timer. At level one hundred, though, nobody would want to reroll after investing that much time, so the system made sense in a cruel way. The five-upgrade limit mattered too.

Even if someone loved their class exactly as it was, Ability Upgrade and Storm Infusion made Essence mandatory. No serious player would ignore five possible upgrades per skill, and Meno wondered if level sixty-five and seventy even gave normal ability rewards, or if Naraltan had quietly replaced future growth with lightning bananas. He summoned the Gravewurm. The mount surfaced from the blue-glowing stone, and Meno climbed on with a tired sigh.

He picked a direction again, using the same basic method as before: reach the sea, find the border, circle the zone, and hope he bumped into a smokehead type champion rather than another murderous little hawk.

"The Harku aggro on sight," Meno said.

"The smokehead had manners. He made fun of me before attacking." ask whale what about chain hairs talk to lonachi find chululu Raku owns you"Raku owes me four hundred gold." The Gravewurm moved at full speed. Time passed with only normal lightning strikes to break the boredom. Meno guided the mount through jumps, sharp turns, and occasional ugly slides when the ground flashed beneath them. The border eventually bent right, and he kept following it. An hour dragged by, and chat got bored first.

dead zone nothing here map when fruit extinct Meno was not much more entertained. The champions had to be running toward actual fruit spawns somewhere. So far, only Fiku the necromancer had been content to sit and fish for whatever lived deeper off the edge. Everyone else had arrived fast when fruit appeared, which meant they either sensed Essencefruit or followed some zone-wide signal players could not see. He also suspected the zone calamity had moved to Naraltan's center.

He had not seen it since dying to the golden javelin, and if the Second Dream Incarnate acted like a lightning rod, more fruit might spawn near it. That would make the outer edge sparse and explain why circling the border felt like watching paint dry, except the paint occasionally tried to electrocute him. Then he saw a champion sitting near the cliff edge in front of a low eating tray with fish laid out across it. Chat woke up.

whale guy fish lunchbreak looks tasty do not punch [Druunol — Level 102 — Korka Champion — Druid] It was one of the orca-headed humanoids, broad and black-and-white scaled like Bruuwol, but calmer. Druid was another class type Meno had not seen among players yet. Druunol noticed the Gravewurm, glanced at Meno once, then kept tossing fish into his mouth with enthusiastic chewing. Meno stopped at a safe distance and dismissed the mount before walking closer slowly.

A friendly introduction seemed important, especially because asking if the orca wanted to join a Titan Trial that might delete him sounded like a bad opening line. Meno opened his inventory and found the Charred Scroll Fragment from that old level thirty-to-forty skeleton dungeon, a quest item he had carried around for what felt like a previous lifetime. He had never checked it properly, which made it useless to him. Perfect. Meno lifted the fragment and stepped into roleplay mode.

"Hello! I brought you a letter." LETTER mailman arc what are you doing quest RP wrong continent Druunol looked up while still chewing, his dark eyes settling on Meno in a way that made Meno very aware of his own leg muscles and how they might taste with salt.

"Suspicious human messenger," Druunol said.

"Your heart beats fast. Who sent you to cause strife?" Meno held up the scroll.

"Do you want it or not?" Druunol's chewing slowed.

"Lay it on the ground." Meno threw the charred fragment between them. Druunol flicked one hand, sending the eating tray and remaining fish into inventory. When he stood, a staff appeared in his hand, basically a living tree branch with green leaves still attached. He stepped toward the scroll and covered it in soft green light. Nothing happened. quest? why green going to break something what is this stop immediately wrong item Druunol looked at Meno.

"Give me the key." Key? Meno had no idea what the druid meant. He had invented the messenger act fifteen seconds ago to avoid instant aggro, but the scroll had come from behind a lich, and lich drops usually belonged with lich nonsense. Puzzle quest chains were not his specialty. Meno opened his inventory and took out a Rare I Hollow Lich Essence, the swirling black orb he had ignored forever, then threw it beside the scroll. Druunol cast the same spell over the orb.

Satisfied, he stepped closer and nudged it with one foot until it touched the charred fragment. The orb melted into the parchment. Burned edges repaired themselves, missing sections reformed, and the little ruined scrap became a full scroll sealed with a dark-green sigil. Meno felt several pieces of his brain connect in the most insulting order possible: he had carried the solution the whole time without knowing it. SECRET QUEST lich essence key PRAYERQUESTGOD mailman genius what did you do"Well," Meno said.

"That worked." It could not be worth much, though. The dungeon had been low-level by current standards. Maybe it started a cute midgame quest chain for Rare III gear. The chance that a level thirty-to-forty dungeon item mattered on Naraltan should have been basically nothing. Druunol picked up the repaired scroll, unfurled it, and started reading. A moment later, the druid chuckled, the sound coming out as a strange vroom-vroom rumble through his orca throat.

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"A mythic seed," Druunol said.

"I thank you for this." Meno's brain stopped. MYTHIC MYTHIC SEED HE GAVE IT AWAY NOOOOO mailman disaster"Mythic?" Meno said. Druunol rolled the scroll carefully. Meno felt his mouth go dry. Was it actually a quest chain leading to a mythic item? One he had just handed to a level one hundred two NPC because he wanted to roleplay a messenger for thirty seconds?

"Uhm," Meno said.

"Okay. Now that you have read it, can you stamp it and give it back?" Druunol looked at him strangely.

"I keep this." Meno tried not to lunge immediately.

"You know it directs you to Veyrath. Maybe we could work together. Form a party." smooth negotiation time he is cooking badly please no"I know the locations," Meno continued.

"We could start at the Titan Trial. Very prestigious. With my assistance, you would no doubt have great success and maybe unlock a coveted subclass." Druunol said nothing.

"If you go to Veyrath alone, all factions will attack you."

"Unnecessary consideration," Druunol said. Meno did not like that tone.

"I shall take this to our king. Invading Veyrath should be a small matter, well worth a mythic artifact to bolster our kind." INVADE??? MENO YOU DID WHAT KORKA WAR take it back Meno jumped without speech or warning. He launched forward and kicked, reaching for the scroll in Druunol's hand, but the Korka transformed into a penguin with insulting speed. Meno sailed over him as the small black-and-white shape skipped toward the cliff.

"No." The penguin jumped off the edge. Meno landed and dashed to the cliff, but by the time he looked down, Druunol was already gone beneath the dark water. [Global Announcement] Druunol, Korka Champion, is swimming toward Korkala to deliver a path to a great mythic bounty to his king. Intercept him on the way, or the Korkas will invade Veyrath soon. Druunol may be located on the map by players with Fishing Level 60 or higher. Meno lifted both hands immediately.

"This is not my fault!" YOUR FAULT MYTHIC MAILMAN KORKA INVASION just one normal day pls for real PBG EVENT AGAIN ban him intercept with what"How was I supposed to know that was even possible?" Meno should have expected smart NPCs could trigger events, but not that a forgotten skeleton dungeon quest item could become a global Korka invasion timer.

The Hollow Lich Essence had been pure guesswork because it dropped from the same boss that guarded the scroll, and now Druunol was swimming toward a kingdom Meno had never heard of with a mythic lead in hand. Level sixty Fishing was equivalent to Legendary I rarity bracket. Meno seriously doubted anyone had that yet. Some profession addict might, but if they existed, they were probably fishing in peace far away from any of this chaos. The Titan Trial champion plan died on the spot.

Even if Meno convinced one of these champions to cooperate, it would probably trigger some event instead of placing them in his party. They were too smart for loophole replacement, too tied into kingdoms, races, and large consequences. It had been too much to hope for. Meno looked at chat.

"Please calm down. This definitely was not an exploit." unintended interaction classic PBG immersion constant grief not exploit btw"It was an unintended interaction," Meno said.

"You guys like immersion, right? This is immersion. Quests can evolve in strange, unexpected ways." constant grief is immersion stop immersing us mailman of doom PBG type questing never roleplay again That did not help. Over five million people were melting down in real time, and Meno found himself missing the smaller chat that had mostly made fun of him with names he recognized. Those viewers had still trolled him constantly, but they had been part of the climb.

This swarm felt sharper, more temporary, more ready to hate him for being the center of something they wanted to control. Meno summoned the Gravewurm again, climbed on, and kept following the edge. Another hour passed with nothing but glowing stone, silent lightning, and his own thoughts circling the same problems until they wore a groove. Class evolution. Essencefruit. Invasion. Zone calamity. Public perception. His old build sitting behind the level sixty gate like something already dead but not buried.

Finally, a notification appeared. [Naraltan Map Unlocked] Meno opened the map and found the entire "continent" was basically a huge square with rounded corners: one zone, one vast lightning-infested battleground, and no towns, ports, villages or dungeons. It only showed his location in relation to the border and a hazy center region where the storm thickened.

"That confirms it," Meno said. Chat waited for the wrong conclusion.

"This place is a high-level battleground." He zoomed out again.

"It is big enough for tons of players. Took about two hours to circle with the Gravewurm moving fast, and I still have no clue what happens near the center. The edges are just dead space unless fruit spawns." Meno sighed. There was nothing else to do except hunt Essencefruit. The options were bad. Randomly stumbling onto fruit would take forever, while killing champions might drop fruit but came with the small issue of not being able to kill champions cleanly.

Even if he stole a low-health kill, the survivor would probably delete him right after, and none of that helped with the two-minute consumption timer. The timer itself had few restrictions: one hundred twenty uninterrupted seconds, and taking damage canceled it. That was it. No stationary line. No "cannot move." No "cannot enter combat." If he could avoid damage while eating, he could use the fruit.

The problem was that every champion could close distance faster than his Gravewurm and attack from angles that made normal running worthless. More fruit would be near the zone calamity. He had no evidence, but he still believed it. The Second Dream Incarnate acted like a lightning rod, and fruit spawned when lightning charged trees. If the center had more lightning, it had more fruit. The raid boss was a disaster, but it might also be the only cover strong enough to survive champion interference.

Meno kept circling the plan in his head: grab an Essencefruit, stay near the Second Dream Incarnate for two minutes without taking damage, use the boss as cover against champions. It was crazy, yes, but it did not require finding a new bug. It only required using a terrible zone against itself. For this to work, he needed speed. A lot of it. Nothing else mattered. Meno stopped the Gravewurm.

"Okay, guys. I have had enough of this." oh no choice time finally Imperial believers rise"I am picking a class evolution for one singular passive. I wonder if you can guess which." brain size common sense delete character self control quest avoidance"Very funny," Meno said.

"No. This is it." He brought up the Infernal selection and highlighted one passive. [Break Infernal] When Chain breaks, gain 100% increased Action Speed for 1 second. Gain [Break], allowing you to intentionally break Chain at any time. Meno tapped the words.

"If you are not trying to do proper damage, you can maintain this permanently." no way hit break hit break speed loop Infernal chosen Imperial dead"Action Speed affects movement speed and attack speed. Hit, break. Hit, break. This is the ticket." Imperial supporters erupted. IMPERIAL BETTER rank one class wasted bad pick explosion clown char bricked I am out you'll regret it Meno ignored them.

"Here is the plan." Chat braced.

"If no fruit spawns, we pull the raid boss near a tree with Cannon Infernal. Use normal attacks and Break Infernal to stay alive. Grab fruit, climb the raid boss, then wait for champions to arrive." He opened the Infernal text again.

"They should take aggro fast because my normal attacks deal zero damage, so threat should be almost nothing. Then I use Pump Infernal on cooldown to spread Infernal Marks with Cleave Infernal or store explosions with Madness Infernal." madness fruit plan this is terrible keep going zero threat cope boss backpack"If any champion drops low, I blow them up. Either cap Chain and trigger a normal detonation or release stored detonations from Madness Infernal.

The stored ones do not work with Infernal Mark, but it boosts range from short to medium which is about three cars radius." He took one breath.

"Otherwise, I keep hitting and breaking Chain to maintain Break Infernal speed. That is the play." Meno looked at the three evolution options one last time. Eternal was a dare written by someone who wanted him dead. Imperial was the responsible choice. Infernal was the one waiting to be broken. He selected Swing Master Infernal. [Class Evolution Selected: Swing Master Infernal] The prompt expanded. [Class Evolution cannot be changed.] [Proceed?] Meno pressed yes before he could talk himself into being reasonable.

The system hit him all at once, tearing his old skill list apart in clean, silent lines. Chain Madness vanished first. The Madness weapon slot vanished with it, dumping the axe back into his inventory, and his offhand dagger unequipped a moment later. Panic Pump vanished next. Break Surplus, Self-Control, Hundredfold Cleave, and Unbound Chain disappeared from the active space in his head one after another, like familiar teeth being pulled without permission. New instincts settled into the gaps.

Not damage built through rhythm anymore, but pressure, cap, release, break. Infernal Chain took shape inside him, slower in some places and sharper in others. His attacks no longer promised steady escalation. They promised emptiness, then violence, then reset. The old dance was gone.

[Swing Master Infernal Acquired] [Compound Swing replaced with Chain Detonation] [Break Infernal acquired] [Pump Infernal acquired] [Madness Infernal acquired] [Cleave Infernal acquired] [Pull Infernal acquired] [Control Infernal acquired] [Cannon Infernal acquired] Meno stood very still on the glowing stone. For one sharp moment, he missed the old class too much to speak. Then he drew Vervenzal's Verdict.

"Time for absolute insanity," he said. Chat screamed with approval, anger, grief, and predictions of disaster. Meno activated Pump Infernal, triggered Break, and felt his body snap faster for one bright second. He took a step, and the motion carried him twice as far as it should have.

"Okay," he said.

"That part is nice."