Chương 168: Five Seconds

Meno craned his neck toward the damage Sinforged Trinity had done to Fractera and decided the corruption effect had been a little excessive. The black beam had not stopped at their cavern ceiling. It had drilled a clean circular shaft through every layer above them, and at the far end Meno could see a patch of open sky. Somehow, upgrading one weapon had punched a shortcut from Layer 4 all the way to the surface. Solar was not pulling any punches with corrupted-item visuals.

Meno marked the shaft on his map while searching for the dungeon entrance. Layer 5's zone reveal made that much easier, and one icon stood out immediately: a skull farther northwest, deeper into Layer 4 than their current position.

"You think we can go up this corrupted chute you made?" Karmabeast asked, peering into the shaft overhead.

"Yeah, for sure. I can reset False Wings off the wall, and you can cover that much in 15 seconds. It's Fractera's first elevator. My public contribution is already through the roof."

"Good thing we weren't below Fracturehold, otherwise your public contribution would have been a world-state progression." They left before either of them discovered another way to improve Fractera. Layer 4 barely felt like the same zone with their rebuilt movement kits. Meno could tear across the ground with his full airborne Movement Speed bonuses, jump straight into False Wings, kick through a cavern, and hit the ground without bleeding off the speed he had built.

Grounded and airborne movement finally flowed into each other instead of fighting over who got control. Karmabeast had even fewer reasons to touch the ground. Sky Tormentor gave him 15 seconds of empty-air kicks, enough to ricochet through shafts, clear rock shelves, and change direction midair until the skill ran dry. After that, he could use Venom Step to teleport to Meno and keep pace. The skill did not apply Venom Tyrant to friendly targets, but it still worked like his old shadow step.

They were not exploring Layer 4 anymore. They were skipping it. Balveth packs peeled out of the walls with both players already halfway across the cavern. Elites barely finished turning before Meno and Karmabeast were past them. Unless something physically blocked the route, it had stopped qualifying as content. Two players, a Deadeye and a Striker, were farming easy trash directly across their path. Karmabeast cut sideways without warning. Meno did not even slow down enough to help.

Both had Eternal and enough anti-CC to shrug off Karmabeast's opening control. That would have mattered against old Umbral. Against Venom Tormentor Tyrant EX, Crowd Control Immunity only upgraded the damage they were about to eat. Karmabeast disappeared into Venom Shade, snapped in beside the Deadeye with Venom Step, and buried a Massive hit into him to apply Venom Tyrant. The Deadeye purged it immediately. Karmabeast hit him again and put Venom Tyrant straight back on, exactly as he wanted.

Toxic Crash forced another defensive response before Venom Cloak spread the debuff across the cavern and caught every nearby Balveth with it. That was where the damage became stupid. Each Balveth carrying Venom Tyrant meant another Multi-Strike. Karmabeast swung once at the Deadeye. Damage numbers swallowed him, and the Deadeye disappeared under the burst. The Striker activated his Eternal damage window and launched his skill, only for Karmabeast to parry the attack and trigger its failure condition.

The Striker died to his own Eternal skill before Meno had even drawn Sinforged Trinity. Karmabeast caught back up like nothing had happened.

"Not bad, not bad. Umbral was trash compared to this damage even if I lost my Disorient. Stealth, Venom Step, hit, bait purge, stun, Cloak, pump. Didn't even use Mush. And I'm full Leather, that's +50% Action Speed total."

"I don't wanna hear it."

"This Tyrant EX thing is just insanely broken, just saying. And if this isn't considered full Divine, I wonder how strong Divine Evolutions actually are with all Divine-tier skills."

"Well, Tyrant was capped to three holders originally for a reason. You just got a free pass." Meno jumped a glowing fracture and landed without losing speed.

"Also, higher rarity doesn't always mean better. My OG Swing Master wasn't much worse than this, and that was sub-sixty without any Evolutions. It's about building it right and deleting everything that doesn't give damage."

"Zugzug damage zugzug."

"So what happened with Arayu?" Karmabeast vanished into Stealth. Because they were in the same party, Meno could still see his outline moving beside him. That answered enough, and Meno let the subject die. The skull marker led them to a wide rock tunnel with a swirling dungeon boundary filling the entrance. Heat rolled through the portal in waves, hotter than the normal warmth of Layer 4, and the notification appeared as soon as they approached.

[Dungeon: The Balveth Crucible] Recommended Level: 95–100 Party Size: 1–5"That's surprising. Thought it would be 90 to 100," Karmabeast said.

"This is good. Means the loot starts at Ancient II. Must be tuned hard, this is the final dungeon before the raid." Meno peered past the boundary at the black city waiting inside.

"So everyone gets raid gear from here, crafting, or whatever vendor I don't know about."

"Man, I didn't expect to be doing dungeons. You turned me into a PvE player. This is tragic." Karmabeast checked the level range one more time.

"Gonna catch my 85 up to your 89 real fast if we can clear this." They stepped through. The Crucible barely looked like Fractera anymore. A city had replaced the usual orange-veined tunnels. The main road cut straight between squat buildings carved from black stone, while molten fractures glowed beneath the pavement and lit the lower walls from below. At the far end stood a narrow spire with a circular platform wrapped around its peak.

The layout could not have been more obvious: one road, bosses stacked along it, tower at the end.

"This is good. Looks straightforward. I hate labyrinths." The first boss waited in a circular plaza where the road opened between the buildings. Vaelkor looked like a Balveth priest halfway through some ritual. He still had the same hunched body, circular mouth packed with needle teeth, and long clawed arms, only enlarged and buried beneath dark robes. Unlike the others, he had no tail. Four mixed trash packs stood around the edge of the plaza, five Balveths to a group. Twenty adds total.

[Vaelkor, Veil Hierophant | Boss | Silence | Mana Drain | Summon Shades | Level 95] Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more. Karmabeast tracked the four packs around the plaza, then settled on Vaelkor in the center.

"So what's the plan here? This might be my first real dungeon. Do we pull these groups one at a time, then wipe to the mechanics until we figure out how to do it?"

"Yeah, no. We're just going to delete the boss. This looks weaker than the Level 100 Champion Elite that smashed us, plus it's clearly anti-caster."

"How is it weaker? Elite to Boss is a big step up for stats, and Bosses are immune to crowd control."

"Don't care. Here's what we do. We go in, press Mush, then kill it." THE STRAT IS PRESS MUSH LMAO world first raid guide quality 20 adds btw BOSS MECHANICS OPTIONAL he rebuilt the class for exactly this nonsense"Still, there is no way that's it, right?" Karmabeast said.

"Don't ruin my first dungeon experience."

"If it doesn't die, then just keep hitting it." PHASE TWO: KEEP HITTING IT brinesaint writing this down PBG GUIDE 10/10 mechanics hate this one simple trick"Okay, I'm nervous, man. I'm good against smart targets. The dumb ones always surprise me."

"That makes no sense. Anyway, we go in from the air only, press Mush after landing, then start hitting. All the trash will aggro too, so don't panic. Once Mush gives them Venom Tyrant, stun them with Toxic Crash."

"You are setting me up, aren't you? Straight to fail-clip compilation." They lined up where the road emptied into the plaza. Karmabeast triggered Sky Tormentor. Meno kicked into False Wings, and they launched together. The plaza vanished beneath them. Meno angled his flight just past Vaelkor, lining up Sinforged Trinity so the entire sweep of the glaive would pass through the boss, while Karmabeast shot straight for its front. They slammed down within a beat of each other and activated Mush.

Excrino's power hit both of them at once. Meno tripled in size. Sinforged Trinity grew with him until its dark crimson blade looked capable of sweeping across half the plaza, while Karmabeast bulked up beside him with two serrated Debillionator blades. Vaelkor had looked enormous when they entered. Now the Level 95 boss was the small one.

THEY BECAME THE BOSSES VAELKOR IS THE TRASH MOB NOW EXCRINO RAID TEAM WHY ARE THEY SO BIG THIS DUNGEON IS COOKED Karmabeast hit Toxic Crash the instant Venom Tyrant spread through the plaza. All twenty trash mobs locked in place, and both players went straight into Vaelkor. There was no rotation to execute or mechanic worth respecting. They only needed to stay close enough to keep connecting and swing as fast as they could. Sleepless Grip ate the first Silence aimed at Meno.

Karmabeast answered with Venom Cloak, gaining Magic Avoidance while spreading a fresh Venom Tyrant across the entire pack. With 100% Action Speed from Mush, Meno reached roughly 4. 5 Massive hits per second. Sinforged Trinity no longer moved like a heavy glaive. The dark crimson blade tore back and forth through Vaelkor so fast that individual swings started blending together. Massive weapons were not meant to move like this.

One second into the fight, Meno's Chain was already climbing faster than it ever had before. [Chain: 1400 | Damage: +14, 000% | Total: 141x] Karmabeast's side of the fight was almost unreadable. Twenty trash Balveths plus Vaelkor put Venom Tyrant on twenty-one targets. Venom Master turned every one into another Multi-Strike, and Karmabeast's linked Massive weapons buried the boss beneath overlapping hits and damage numbers. Two seconds.

[Chain: 1900 | Damage: +19, 000% | Total: 191x] The twenty trash Balveths were still enjoying their 5-second vacation. Sinforged Trinity's Legendary V Damage Tier was earning its upgrade. Then Vaelkor summoned fifteen Shades and handed Karmabeast even more damage. Mush spread Venom Tyrant across all fifteen, Toxic Crash locked them down with the rest of the pack, and suddenly thirty-six targets were feeding his Multi-Strike count while he kept tunneling Vaelkor.

The boss's HP bar was getting shredded too fast to follow. Three seconds. [Chain: 2300 | Damage: +23, 000% | Total: 231x] Mush ended with the Chain update, shrinking both players back to normal size. Meno's attack rate dropped from roughly 4. 5 Massive hits per second to 2. 25, and after 3 seconds at the higher speed, it felt like Veyrath had suddenly switched to half speed. Four seconds. [Chain: 2500 | Damage: +25, 000% | Total: 251x] Vaelkor forced another cast through.

Dark energy poured back into its body and restored 10% Maximum HP, only for the recovered chunk of its health bar to get shredded off again almost immediately. Five seconds. [Chain: 2800 | Damage: +28, 000% | Total: 281x] Vaelkor dropped below 10%. Titan could have finished it, but thirty-five adds made a Xenocide clear too good to waste. Karmabeast stopped at the last sliver while Meno cut his attack rate and eyeballed the HP bar.

Xenocide had to be the killing blow: too early and Vaelkor lived, too late and an ordinary swing stole it. Meno fed the boss one more hit, saw the sliver hold, then activated Xenocide. Black flame raced across Sinforged Trinity as he ripped the glaive through Vaelkor. [Boss Defeated: Vaelkor, Veil Hierophant] Vaelkor remained upright for a fraction of a second before collapsing. The fifteen Shades winked out with their master.

FIVE SECOND BOSS LMAOOOO LEVEL 95 DUNGEON BTW VAELKOR CAST ONE HEAL AND DIED TRASH DELETED FOR FREE TYRANT EX IS NOT OKAY BRINESAINT GONNA REVERT TO RAGE MODE THE BOSS DID ZERO DAMAGE Every normal Balveth within range followed, regardless of variant, role, or pack. Same species, same result: they all dropped at once as though somebody had cut the strings holding them up. The XP hit immediately. [Level Up! | Level 90] [Class Augmentation Available] The clear pushed Meno past Level 90 and Karmabeast to 87.

An Ancient-colored loot beam rose from Vaelkor's corpse. Karmabeast stared at the empty plaza around the body, then back at the loot beam like he was still waiting for the actual boss fight to start.

"What? That's it?"

"Swing Master is so back."

"I think I did most of the damage." Karmabeast pointed at the last damage numbers fading over Vaelkor's corpse.

"Every hit was twenty-two numbers at first then more. That's like one seventy-seven trillion million billion million increased damage total per hit."

"Yeah, but my weapon is higher tier than yours. That's at least a tenfold difference." SOURCE: HE MADE IT UP 10X DAMAGE TIER TRUST ME BRO KARMA NUMBERS WERE BLOCKING THE BOSS both of you are illegal"You are delulu. No way the difference is that big." Karmabeast crossed the plaza toward the corpses.

"And even if it is, my number is still bigger."

"But you're using a linked Massive weapon. I'm using a two-handed one, so each of your Dual-Wielding hits is half as good as one hit from my weapon for sure."

"Where does it say that? I don't see it. I also attack five times per second per weapon, so like ten times a second during Mush because I have 50% extra Action Speed from gear. You're what, 4. 5 with one weapon? That is DPS poverty." Meno pointed Sinforged Trinity at Karmabeast's shorter paired blades.

"My weapon is bigger, and the boss simply died too fast. Super undertuned." NOT UNDERTUNED YOU TWO ARE BROKEN THE BOSS IS LITERALLY LEVEL 95 he got one heal off and pbg calls it undertuned SOLAR PLEASE LOOK AT THIS CLIP"I was worried about nothing," Karmabeast said.

"PvE is too easy. Also, we are so about to be nerfed it's not even funny."

"PvE is not easy. You're abusing my genius Tyrant EX edits. Old version was trash compared to this. We just got this, we are immune to nerfs." Karmabeast looked toward the Ancient loot beam with open disappointment at the injustice of Meno getting the boss drop.

"That logic is cooked. Also, your loot, I guess."

"See? AI knows who to reward. You can take all the trash loot. I'll change the settings." Meno headed toward Vaelkor.

"Better name for your class would be Trash Master anyway since all your damage comes from the trash packs." TRASH MASTER EX SUPPORT ROGUE TO TRASH MASTER PIPELINE 21 TARGETS = SKILL KARMA FARMING ADDS FOR DPS NOW HE NEEDS TRASH TO PARSE"I'll take Trash Tormentor. Don't pollute my image with names like Master. I'm a humble person." Meno left the new Level 90 augmentation unopened. He wanted more time with the rebuilt class before committing to another permanent choice.

The current setup had holes, but he did not know yet which ones would actually matter. Another Attack Speed augmentation seemed unlikely, while Mush was absurd enough that improving its 3-second duration or 6-minute cooldown could be valuable. Karmabeast moved around the plaza collecting drops from the twenty dead Balveths while Meno reached Vaelkor's body and opened the boss loot. The amulet that came out was complete trash.

Meno wanted to throw it away on principle, but Ancient II was still worth far too much gold to waste.

[Ancient II | Vaelkor's Black Litany] Type: Amulet +100 Mana +25% increased Mana Vaelkor's Aura Your Minions within medium range gain Multi-Strike 1 Your Minions within medium range gain Multi-Cast 1 Your Minions within medium range gain 50% increased Movement Speed Your Minions within medium range gain 1% Lifesteal Your Minions within medium range gain 1% Mana Leech Your Minions within medium range gain 1% Absorption Leech SUMMONER AMULET NICE I WANT IT GIVE PLS MULTISTRIKE MINIONS WHAT ANCIENT II FIRST BOSS DROP SELL IT DONT SCIENCE IT Meno shared the tooltip with Karmabeast.

"Do you think this would work on you if I equip it?" Karmabeast broke into applause.

"Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha. If you don't want it, I'll take it. I am in poverty." Meno tucked the amulet into his inventory before Karmabeast got any ideas.

"Anyway, let's go next. Mush cooldown should finish soon. Let's see if we can blow up the next one." He rested Sinforged Trinity over his shoulder and headed down the road toward the next plaza.

"Time to see if this ghost thing from the weapon corruption works with bosses."