Chương 148: Same Type

They were being flushed. There was no graceful descent into the Fractera Depths, no hidden staircase waiting for the clever player who had checked underwater, and definitely no convenient ledge where they could stop and reconsider. The hole Meno had punched through the seabed had become a drain, and the Jagged Sea shoved itself after them hard enough that neither player had any control over the route. Visibility vanished inside a churn of frothy water, sand, and broken stone.

Orange veins in Fractera's rock were the only reliable light, flashing through the murk while the current twisted Meno down a passage too narrow to fight. He could barely see Karmabeast, only the occasional dark shape tumbling behind him. A notification appeared through the chaos. [Fractera Depths — Layer 1 | Level: 60–70] The fracture narrowed, twisted, then dropped again as the torrent kept forcing itself deeper.

Water seeped into smaller cracks around them and widened those too, sending vibrations through the rock whenever another weak section gave way. [Fractera Depths — Layer 2 | Level: 70–80] This was what Meno wanted. He equipped Marcel's Reacher, twisted toward the nearest wall, and drove the spear into a seam as they passed.

The point caught for barely half a second, scraping hard enough to slow him, but before Meno could get both hands around the shaft Karmabeast came tumbling out of the murk and slammed straight into his back. The spear tore free and both of them continued downward while Karmabeast activated something that wrapped his body in shadows and tried kicking against the current. The skill accomplished about as much as arguing with the ocean. The next notification appeared soon afterward.

[Fractera Depths — Layer 3 | Level: 80–90] This was getting bad. Their air was almost gone, the passage still offered no exit, and the temperature kept rising as the orange glow inside the surrounding rock became brighter. Meno had no idea where they would resurrect if they drowned this deep, but getting sent back to some surface shrine would piss him off. The passage finally widened and dumped them into a submerged basin.

Meno hit the rocky floor hard enough to lose the last of his air, rolled once, and came to rest while the current weakened around him. Karmabeast landed nearby, and both players immediately searched the chamber for anything that looked like an exit. There was nothing: no side tunnel, no air pocket, no crack leading toward a dry cavern. They had reached the bottom of a fracture completely filled with seawater, while the Jagged Sea continued pouring into it from somewhere far above.

Meno's oxygen bar emptied, and drowning damage started soon afterward. Karmabeast's movements became much more frantic as his own air disappeared, but panic was not going to create a door. Meno forced himself to stop scanning the walls and focus on the floor instead. If the weight of the sea had widened one fracture enough to drag them three layers down, there was at least a chance the same pressure could finish another one.

He gestured for Karmabeast to move away, and the other player understood enough to swim upward. Meno activated Quadrillionator. Marcel's Reacher, Marcel's Vainglaive, and Sinseeker fused into the giant lance-like Massive weapon again, almost too long for the chamber. There was no room to build momentum for another diving impact, and Airwalk's Movement Speed bonus did nothing underwater, so stabbing the floor normally would produce nowhere near the force of the attack that opened the first hole.

The bow portion gave him another option. Meno laid the Massive weapon along the bottom, stepped onto the shaft with both feet, and reached down for Sinseeker's enormous string. The draw was painfully slow underwater even with the Attack Speed from Marcel's Revelry, and his HP continued dropping while he hauled the string farther back until the entire weapon flexed beneath him. He released point-blank into the floor.

There was almost no satisfying sound underwater, only a violent burst of displaced water that blasted sand and bubbles across the chamber. The projectile drove into the stone hard enough to crack it, then Quadrillionator separated back into its components. The fracture was visible, but nowhere near large enough. Meno checked the cooldown. 5 seconds. That had sounded very short, but it felt much longer while drowning. Karmabeast saw what Meno was trying to do and immediately joined in.

He swam down, drove both daggers into the new crack, then triggered an ability that detonated them inside a thick green cloud. The blast widened the opening slightly, but the floor still held, and by then both players had fallen below 50% HP. Inexhaustible began regenerating Meno for 10% Maximum HP per second, slowing the drowning enough to keep him from collapsing immediately. Karmabeast had no equivalent sustain and was losing the race much faster. Waiting passively for Quadrillionator was not an option.

Meno activated Annihilator. Vervenzal's Verdict merged with Marcel's Reacher, creating an elongated crimson spear-sword that reminded him enough of the old Spire Sword to trigger half a second of nostalgia before he started using it as the worst drill in Veyrath. The doubled Attack Speed let him hammer the same weak point over and over while Karmabeast slashed at the edges and periodically detonated more poison inside the crack. It was terrible excavation, but between them the damaged section kept spreading.

Karmabeast's HP was getting dangerously low when Quadrillionator finally returned. Meno canceled Annihilator, fused the three components again, braced the Massive weapon against the floor, and hauled the bowstring back while drowning damage continued chewing at both of them. This one had to work. He released. The projectile punched into the weakened stone, and this time the fracture opened far enough for the weight of the water above them to matter.

Seawater forced itself through the break and began widening it from inside while Karmabeast drove both daggers into the largest opening and detonated them one more time. The floor gave way beneath them. [Fractera Depths — Layer 4 | Level: 90–100] They dropped with the broken rock into an enormous chamber full of air.

Meno fell out of the descending column of water and sucked in a huge breath as the drowning effect ended, then kicked sideways with Airwalk before the waterfall could carry him all the way to the cavern floor. Karmabeast burst out of the same torrent moments later wrapped in shadows, repeatedly kicking through empty space with his Umbral movement skill until both of them landed apart and turned back toward what they had created. A full waterfall now poured from the ceiling.

"That might become a problem," Meno said. The chamber was huge, so filling it would take time, but there was an entire sea feeding the hole. Karmabeast had already found something more useful. Halfway up one wall, a narrow orange-lit slit continued deeper into the rock.

"YEEEEHHAA! Tunnel forward, midpoint, higher. Go, go!" HE BROKE INTO LAYER FOUR YOU GUYS WERE SUPPOSED TO STOP AT TWO THE OCEAN IS FOLLOWING THEM THIS IS THE WORST SHORTCUT EVER Karmabeast started climbing the wall with enough confidence that he had clearly done this sort of thing before, using narrow cracks and stone protrusions without slowing much. Meno skipped most of the effort.

One jump and an Airwalk kick carried him to the ledge, where he reached down and helped Karmabeast through the last section before both of them crawled into the glowing slit. The passage stayed tight for a short distance, then opened into another dry cavern with no water immediately trying to kill them. Meno leaned back against the rock and looked satisfied.

"See? Easy Layer 4 access."

"That popping good, PBG." Karmabeast laughed.

"Only thirty levels above me. Should be a breeze."

"Told you you were underleveled."

"That's not the issue, man. If we die here, where do you think we resurrect?" Karmabeast threw both hands outward.

"You got me stuck in a death loop. I know you've done this before, but I'm in poverty. Every thousand gold hurts."

"Mine costs ten thousand." The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings. Karmabeast raised both arms in surrender.

"You win. Both this world and your brain are flat. That's why they match." Meno was about to explain why that made even less sense than the original nonsense when one of the orange veins in the cavern wall opened. Not cracked. Opened. A glowing orange eyeball roughly the size of a basketball stared out through the stone. Another appeared beside it, then more along the wall, until ten eyes watched from different points around the cavern.

The rock around them softened, and five creatures pushed through as if solid stone were only a curtain. They landed low on clawed feet, each with a hunched torso, a circular mouth full of needle teeth, long arms ending in blue-glowing claws, and a thick spiked tail tipped with a shovel-shaped blade. Meno inspected the closest. [Cryo-Balvath Spawn | Pack-Hunter | Tremor-Sense | Frostbite Claws | Level 90]"XP coming up."

HE SAID XP LMAO THE WALL HAD MONSTERS IN IT termor sense don't touch ground KARMA IS TEN LEVELS BELOW LAYER MINIMUM claw is slow debuff for sure FARM THEM FARM THEM Karmabeast's tone changed immediately.

"I'm CC support. Main target on your first attack, burst." Then he vanished into Stealth. Meno activated Quadrillionator, and the five Balvaths moved before the Massive weapon had even finished forming. They attacked like a pack rather than five separate mobs. Three rushed low across the stone while the other two bounded onto opposite walls, all five adjusting to Meno's movement before he had committed to anything. The moment his boot shifted against the floor, every head turned toward the vibration.

Tremor-Sense was not flavor text. Meno jumped, and the second his feet left the ground, the pack lost that perfect read. They could still track him visually, but instead of moving ahead of his trajectory, they had to react to the actual jump, which gave Meno just enough room to angle the gigantic Quadrillionator down like a lance and drive it into the front Balvath. The hit landed with a heavy thunk and shoved the creature backward across the stone.

[Chain: 1100 | Damage: +11, 000% | Total: 111x] The other four were already converging. Two jumped directly for Meno while the wall-runners crossed from opposite angles, one cutting toward his upward path and the other aiming for the space where his jump would naturally end. Meno kicked higher with Airwalk, but the Balvaths corrected almost immediately, claws catching the walls before they launched again. Karmabeast appeared below the pack at the same time.

A dark pulse expanded from him and caught all four pursuing Balvaths in one stun, locking their bodies in midair. In the same motion, he threw a dagger toward the fifth monster recovering from Meno's Massive hit. The Balvath tried to leap back into the fight, but the dagger detonated in a green poison cloud and shadowy chains snapped around its torso, dragging it down before it could rejoin the others. That was the split Meno needed.

He equipped Sinseeker, and activated Xenocide while all five monsters were still inside medium range. The bow shattered into thousands of dark fragments, black lightning linking the pieces while the death zone moved with Meno above the floor. The first damage cycle hit the entire pack. It did not come close to killing them. These were real Level 90 monsters with Fractera health pools, and the stunned four were already recovering together.

Two twisted before reaching the floor and caught the cavern wall with their claws, while the other pair landed and launched back upward the instant control returned. The isolated fifth tore against Karmabeast's shadow chain while poison continued chewing at it. Meno kicked sideways as the pack collapsed on his position. Three attacks missed cleanly, but the fourth Balvath had used the vibration from his previous landing to take a better angle and came up underneath him.

The claw itself missed, but the blue glow around it brushed across Meno's boot before he cleared the jump. Cold spread through his leg, but Sleepless Grip reacted before the slow could take hold and blocked the debuff.

"Good gloves." He kept moving, using Airwalk to stay above the pack while Xenocide continued chewing through them below. The shardstorm followed him through the cavern, black lightning snapping between fragments. Karmabeast was already dealing with the next wave. He reappeared behind the four healthier Balvaths as they regrouped, caught them in another short control window, then kicked into the air while throwing a second dagger toward the isolated target.

Another green explosion caught it just as the first chain broke, coating it in fresh poison and pulling it away again. By the time Xenocide finished, the pack had all taken meaningful damage, but the main Balvath had suffered much more from the initial Massive hit and Karmabeast's focused pressure. Sinseeker rebuilt in Meno's hands, and only then did he notice that the Xenocide cooldown had begun.

"So the cooldown starts after the effect ends. Scam." With fifty percent Cooldown Reduction, the listed 10 seconds became 5 after the death zone vanished, which meant he could not chain the skill as tightly as he had hoped. Quadrillionator was already available again. Meno kicked toward the isolated Balvath while Karmabeast kept the other four occupied. He formed the Massive weapon in midair, planted his legs against the shaft, and hauled Sinseeker's enormous bowstring back while falling over the target.

A glowing projectile formed inside the fused weapon. Meno released. The shot slammed into the Balvath's skull and drove its HP down to 70%. [Chain: 1200 | Damage: +12, 000% | Total: 121x]"Okay. They're tanky." The other four were already coming out of control, and Karmabeast moved before they could spread. He kicked over the group, dropped another poison dagger into their center, and detonated it as they launched.

Shadow chains snapped tight around all four and pulled them back into the cloud while a heavy movement slow settled over the pack. That bought Meno room to keep the damaged target separate. He landed, jumped then returned to Sinseeker, fighting barely above floor level where Arrival gave him the Movement Speed bonus without forcing him into huge arcs. The Balvath attacked in combinations instead of single swings, one Frostbite claw cutting high while the shovel-shaped tail swept low to herd Meno toward the ground.

Sinseeker meant he did not need to waste attention on aim. Meno fired wherever his hands happened to be pointed while concentrating on movement, and every white projectile curved back toward the nearest hostile target. By staying close to the damaged Balvath while Karmabeast kept the other four farther away, Meno made sure the homing effect kept choosing the right monster. The Balvath adapted quickly.

Its tail began cutting off easy landings while its claws attacked the places Meno would need to touch down and reset Airwalk. He spent an extra kick to reverse direction instead, and Karmabeast used the opening to appear behind the monster, unload a rapid three-hit dagger sequence, then vanish before it could retaliate. The four controlled Balvaths eventually broke free together. This time they spread before charging. Meno had to give ground immediately.

One foot brushed the stone while he reset Airwalk, and that tiny contact was enough for all five heads to snap toward the vibration. The healthier monsters split their approach to cover his most obvious exits while the damaged Balvath attacked from the front. Meno launched upward before the formation closed. One claw passed beneath his heel, but another Balvath came off the wall at shoulder height and forced him to burn an Airwalk kick earlier than planned.

He twisted away from that hit, only for the damaged target to use the opening and rake glowing blue claws across his side. The strike tore through his leather and dropped Meno to 32% HP while Frostbite tried to drag his movement down again. Meno purged the slow with Crownmind, kicked free, and returned to Sinseeker once he had space. Inexhaustible started restoring his HP. Karmabeast saved the separation before the pack could capitalize.

He appeared among the four healthier Balvaths and hit them with another group stun, their existing momentum carrying them forward even after their bodies locked up. Meno used the breathing room to reset his spacing around the damaged target. Xenocide came off cooldown. This time Meno used it less like a damage button and more like moving terrain. Sinseeker burst into the shardstorm around him, and instead of running away from the pack, Meno curved through the middle of their formation while staying airborne.

The Balvaths had to choose between chasing him through the death zone or giving him space, and their Pack-Hunter behavior made the decision for them. They chased. Meno used Airwalk to keep the route awkward, changing height and direction while the shardstorm continued striking anything that remained within medium range. Karmabeast committed almost entirely to control, dropping poison beneath the healthier four whenever their stuns ended and using shadow chains to ruin their first jumps.

By the time the second Xenocide ended, the off-target Balvaths had all lost a noticeable chunk of HP, but the main one remained far lower because it had also eaten two Massive hits, repeated Sinseeker shots, and Karmabeast's burst combo. That difference was exactly what Meno needed. As Sinseeker rebuilt, he formed another Quadrillionator, but this time ignored the bowstring. The damaged Balvath jumped for him and Meno used his final Airwalk kick to drive backward with the Massive lance leveled in front of his body.

They collided in midair. The Balvath lost the exchange and was knocked back across the cavern. [Chain: 1300 | Damage: +13, 000% | Total: 131x] Karmabeast slowed the healthier four before they could immediately pile onto Meno, but their pattern was getting harder to control. The Balvaths were spreading farther between windows, using the cavern walls more often, and changing their jumps whenever poison appeared underneath them. Meno returned to Sinseeker and committed entirely to finishing the damaged target.

Its HP had fallen to 24%. Karmabeast understood the plan without being told. He stopped spending meaningful damage on the main Balvath and used another cooldown on the other four instead, flashing between them with rapid dagger strikes that applied different poison effects before shadowstepping back to Meno. All four tried to engage, but the stacked poison slowed them enough that they could no longer close before Meno and Karmabeast adjusted. Meno deliberately held Xenocide.

He kept Sinseeker on the main target while hovering just above the floor, using Airwalk for spacing. Karmabeast kept the other four tied up with slows and chains, until the damaged Balvath finally fell below 5%.

"Bring them in!" Karmabeast stopped peeling the pack away and let the healthier four collapse toward Meno. Two rushed over the ground while one came off the left wall and another bounded down from above, all of them converging at the same time as the nearly dead main target lunged forward with both Frostbite claws extended. Meno activated Xenocide.

Sinseeker fragmented into black shards, and the death zone caught all five as Meno kicked backward from the main target's claws and changed direction to avoid the wall-runner cutting through his previous position. Black lightning flashed between the shards as the nearly dead Balvath ate the last hits it could survive. Its HP disappeared during the barrage, and the moment Xenocide registered the kill, the other four Balvaths dropped like their strings had been cut.

PACK EXECUTE CONFIRMED XENOCIDE IS ACTUALLY XENOCIDE SAME TYPE MEANS SAME MONSTER TYPE HOW IS THIS A SKILL??? TYRANT DOING TYRANT THINGS Five XP notifications arrived together. Meno checked his progress and found roughly half a level waiting there, while Karmabeast got enough from the same pack to shoot straight to Level 62. He looked between the corpses and then back at Meno.

"They just died? Those four still had tons of HP."

"My skill. If Xenocide kills something, every target of the exact same type inside the zone dies too." Meno nudged one of the Balvaths with his boot.

"Pack monsters definitely count as the same type."

"That is sick. If we farm Level 90 normal packs with your busted bow and just set up one execute target every pull, I'm entering top ten." Meno ran the same math from the opposite direction.

"If you weren't here, that would've been a full level." Karmabeast looked offended.

"If I wasn't here, the other four would've been sitting on your face. These things are fast, they jump good, and every time you touch the floor, they know where you're going before you move."

"It would've just taken longer."

"Nah, man. This is good." Karmabeast looked toward the orange-lit passage leading deeper into Layer 4.

"We found the farm. We keep doing exactly that and avoid anything serious. Elites or bosses, we run. Those will cook us." Meno checked the half-level gain again, then looted the corpses and found Balvath Claw Fragments, a Fractured Heat Organ, and one Balvath Tail Plate. Vendor junk. Apparently, Level 90 monsters still understood how to be disappointing. He closed the loot window and looked down the same passage.

"Sure." He had absolutely no intention of running from the first interesting thing they found.