Chương 169: Three Seconds Times Two Minus Three Minus Half

Meno was sure their new Movement Speed could skip most of the Crucible and take them straight to the final boss. The problem was everything they passed would follow, and Karmabeast was still too far below the dungeon's level for Stealth to carry him through untouched. No Level 95–100 dungeon was going to let players skip the whole thing for free. Maybe after a few more levels. For now, the road to the second boss was simple.

Instead of stacking the trash around the boss plaza like Vaelkor's room, the dungeon spread four packs of five along the road, two on each side. Every pack had the same setup: three melee Balveths, one Fire caster, and one healer. None of them looked capable of stopping Meno and Karmabeast. Dungeon trash had always been weird like that. Even a normal top party of five was not supposed to struggle here.

The Balveths were stronger than their open-world versions, but mostly padded a fifteen-minute boss run into twenty with low-XP mobs and forgettable drops. Five wasted minutes became a lot of wasted time over repeated clears. And once higher-tier classes entered the mix, grouping everything could be faster than playing the dungeon properly. Every enemy carrying Venom Tyrant gave Karmabeast another Multi-Strike, and other classes had to benefit from giant pulls too.

If that became common at Level 100, Solar might have to dump the extra difficulty into boss HP instead. Maybe that was the real wall. They would know soon enough. Mush was the bottleneck on their boss-delete strategy. Killing something in 5 seconds meant less when they had to wait 6 minutes to repeat it. Meno could unequip Sinforged Trinity and get his Aurastone's Cooldown Reduction back, but Karmabeast had no matching item. His cooldown set the pace.

"Pull on top, then adjust?" Karmabeast asked.

"Yeah. Blast past them, let them stack up, then Mush, stun, adjust." Meno launched off the road with False Wings boosting his Jump Power. Old False Hero had jumped far harder, but compared with vanilla Swing Master, this felt amazing. Karmabeast triggered Sky Tormentor beside him, and they kicked through the air toward the plaza. Fire projectiles chased them off the road.

Meno snapped through direction changes between kicks while Karmabeast climbed over a volley, and seconds later the next plaza spread beneath them. A larger Balveth waited with a bow nearly as tall as its body. A long tail curled behind it, ending in the same spade-shaped tip Meno had seen on some open-world variants. Meno inspected the boss as they dropped toward it. [Kharvek, Crucible Bombardier | Boss | Flying | Knockback | Detonator | Level 96] Flying was new.

Veyrath was reaching the point where vertical mobility felt less like a weird advantage and more like something players were expected to have an answer for. Karmabeast used Venom Step before Meno landed and appeared behind Kharvek, opening with his linked Massive blades while the four trash packs flooded onto the plaza behind them. Meno had a different test in mind. He swung Sinforged Trinity and activated its corruption effect with the same attack.

The weapon remembered Vaelkor because Meno's actual killing blow had landed on the boss. Xenocide had killed the surrounding trash through its species effect rather than Sinforged Trinity itself. A transparent Veil Hierophant formed beside them and lifted one arm to cast Silence at Kharvek. The Silence bounced off boss immunity for an excellent contribution of absolutely nothing. Kharvek took off before the ghost could embarrass itself further.

No wings appeared, but the Flying tag did not seem concerned with aerodynamics. The boss simply shot upward as though the air had grabbed it. Meno caught it with one Massive swing before it escaped his reach. [Chain: 1100 | Damage: +11, 000% | Total: 111x] Karmabeast stayed on Kharvek with Sky Tormentor while Meno jumped after them. A sideways False Wings kick dodged one arrow; the next fired him upward and back into range. Kharvek blasted wind in every direction and launched Karmabeast toward the plaza.

Meno hit Mush before the Knockback reached him. Excrino's power tripled him and Sinforged Trinity in size, and Crowd Control Immunity let him punch straight through the wind. Karmabeast triggered Mush mid-fall, caught himself in the air, then stunned all twenty trash mobs with Toxic Crash as Venom Tyrant spread through the packs. He snapped back to Kharvek with Venom Step, and both Tyrants unloaded. Against a moving target, Mush felt even more broken, because of the flying effect.

Sinforged Trinity whipped across Kharvek's back in a dark crimson blur while full flight kept him locked behind the boss. Karmabeast held the front while Kharvek fired arrows into him point-blank. The bow still had to draw before every shot, giving him just enough warning to catch each projectile on a Massive blade and Deflect it aside. [Chain: 1400 | Damage: +14, 000% | Total: 141x] Vaelkor's ghost finally found another button to press and summoned several transparent Shades below.

Naturally, they ran for the stunned trash mobs instead of Kharvek, making the summon just as useless as the Silence. Meno and Karmabeast kept pumping while Kharvek fought for space. Full flight meant Meno no longer needed kicks or somewhere to land. He thought about moving somewhere and went there, sticking to Kharvek's back while Sinforged Trinity tore through it and Karmabeast poured Multi-Strikes into its front. Vaelkor faded after 3 seconds of accomplishing almost nothing. Kharvek was already below 50% HP.

[Chain: 2400 | Damage: +24, 000% | Total: 241x] FLYING BOSS GETTING AIR CAMPED MUSH IS A 3 SECOND RAID BOSS BUTTON KHARVEK LOST HALF HP BEFORE DOING A MECHANIC ghost vaelkor earning minimum wage 4. 5 MASSIVE SWINGS PER SECOND IS FILTHY Mush expired and dropped both players out of flight. The state change reset all three of Meno's False Wings kicks. Karmabeast still had Sky Tormentor running, so neither stayed grounded for long.

Meno kicked back toward Kharvek before his Chain upkeep expired, and Karmabeast shot up beside him to keep attacking. An arrow cut across his route. Meno kicked around it, closed the gap, and ripped Sinforged Trinity through Kharvek. [Chain: 2500 | Damage: +25, 000% | Total: 251x] On the way past, Meno planted a foot on Kharvek's shoulder and refreshed False Wings again. He had learned the trick against the Zone Calamity in Naraltan. Moving players only counted as ground when they were grounded themselves.

Bosses had no such problem, so one touch on Kharvek gave Meno all three kicks back. Kharvek immediately tried to shake him, diving and cutting through the plaza in sharp turns. Meno stopped trying to stand on it and turned the boss into a moving reset point instead: jump off, swing through, dodge an arrow, kick back in, touch Kharvek, repeat. Every pass kept his Chain alive and landed another Massive hit.

His theoretical DPS was getting murdered, and the whole thing looked like a circus act, but both beat watching Kharvek fly out of reach while his Chain expired. The first Toxic Crash wore off with Sky Tormentor still running. Karmabeast refreshed Venom Tyrant across the twenty trash mobs with Venom Cloak, stunned them for another 5 seconds with Toxic Crash, then went straight back to pumping Kharvek. A few seconds later, Sky Tormentor was almost spent.

Karmabeast peeled away from the boss and used his remaining kicks to land before the skill expired. Meno kept bouncing off Kharvek as it flew. [Chain: 3100 | Damage: +31, 000% | Total: 311x] Kharvek had enough of serving as Meno's landing pad. On the next reset, a point-blank Knockback burst blasted Meno toward the plaza. Crownmind was useless here. There was nothing to purge after Knockback had already moved him; he needed immunity on impact or enough control afterward.

Meno twisted mid-fall and aimed for the stunned trash. Kharvek was out of reach, so they would do. Red orbs ignited across the plaza and overhead, swelling toward detonation until the arena became a maze of gaps. Meno started picking a route down, but one orb expanded across his path before he could redirect. He ate the explosion square in the chest. The blast dumped him to 49% HP and stripped Inexhaustible's full-health Movement Speed bonus. The opening burst had been free. The actual boss fight was not.

Meno hit the stone beside the stunned trash and went to work while Karmabeast closed in, watching Kharvek's arrows. At 3, 100 Chain, the first Balveth died in three hits. Two more left the next one low enough for Meno to eyeball the finish. He triggered Xenocide and ripped Sinforged Trinity through it. The Balveth died on the swing, and every normal Balveth within long range dropped with it. No third stun needed. Those six attacks also topped Meno back to full HP through his Lifesteal. Vampire garbage had use.

[Chain: 3700 | Damage: +37, 000% | Total: 371x] The red orbs detonated before Meno could enjoy the heal. Overlapping blasts shredded him back to 34% HP, and the last one stunned him. Crownmind purged it. Karmabeast's Venom Cloak was still on cooldown. Meno kicked across the plaza, planted himself in Kharvek's firing line, and switched from damage to Deflecting arrows with Sinforged Trinity. Weapon Master made it possible, but Deflecting with a Massive glaive wasn't simple. The shaft was useless for it.

Meno had to intercept every shot with the crescent blade and angle the impact well enough to send it away. Miss the angle and Karmabeast ate the arrow. DEFLECTING WITH A STREETLAMP LIFESTEAL JUST SAVED HIM LOL weapon master apology form incoming THE FLYING BOSS IS ACTUALLY COOKING THEM Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon. five second first boss into this is cinema Successful Deflects didn't break Chain, but they did nothing to refresh the upkeep timer.

Three seconds passed without Meno landing a weapon hit, and his Chain upkeep expired. Defiant triggered before the resource could break, preserving all 3, 700 Chain and making it unbreakable for 6 seconds. Once that ended, the normal 3-second upkeep window would return, giving him 9 seconds total to land another hit. It was once per combat, and Meno had already spent it. Kharvek changed mechanics before the extension became a problem.

Five large squares across the plaza lit green, spaced apart like selected spaces on a chessboard, while the boss stopped firing and began spawning fiery orbs in the center. These were not the same as the red detonation field. The new orbs dropped into a growing pile instead of floating around the arena, and a timer appeared above them with no clue what would happen at zero. Chat was just as lost as Meno. GREEN = SAFE MAYBE BALL DELIVERY QUEST DO NOT LET THE PILE FINISH"I'll handle it. Save Chain," Karmabeast said.

Meno accepted immediately. With Sky Tormentor off cooldown, Karmabeast shot toward the center while Meno kicked back into the air after Kharvek. Karmabeast grabbed a fiery ball and started burning. He carried it through the nearest green square, where the orb vanished, confirming the mechanic just as Kharvek spawned several more. Meno left the deliveries to him and went back to Kharvek.

The boss darted around the arena firing arrows, dragging Meno back into the same dodge-hit-reset loop: kick around a shot, land a Massive hit, touch Kharvek to reset False Wings, launch away, repeat. Movement Speed made the corrections fast, but Kharvek changed direction too often for Meno to attack at full speed. He took the lost uptime and trusted Lifesteal to patch smaller mistakes, including one arrow straight to the face when another hit mattered more than a clean dodge.

Kharvek's arrows kept knocking Meno toward 47% HP, and Lifesteal kept dragging him back toward 83% while his Chain climbed. [Chain: 5300 | Damage: +53, 000% | Total: 531x] Lifesteal had scaled into something ridiculous. With Chain pushing his damage higher, two clean hits now healed what had taken three before. Solar's unwanted stat was becoming stronger with every swing, and Meno still refused to forgive it. Below, Karmabeast had become a delivery rocket.

He snatched a fiery orb, kicked across the plaza, dumped it into a green square, then shot back for another before the burn could chew through too much HP. Sky Tormentor kept the trips short, but each one still cost him. The timer hit its final seconds with Karmabeast at 4% HP and orbs still piled in the center. Venom Cloak came off cooldown just before they detonated. He triggered it, and 100% Magic Avoidance let the explosion wash over him without touching his last sliver of HP. Meno got the full blast.

Fire swallowed half the arena and caught him in midair, ripping him down to 3%. He carved one more hit through Kharvek and Lifestealed past 53%, then ate a fresh spread of explosive balls that slammed him straight back to 7%. Kharvek had finally dropped below 10%. That was enough. Meno kicked it square in the chest, and Titan triggered. The Level 96 boss died instantly. Every remaining orb vanished with it before either player could get finished off. [Boss Defeated: Kharvek, Crucible Bombardier] [Level Up! | Level 91] SUB ONE MINUTE KHARVEK ALMOST HAD THEM THIS BOSS ACTUALLY HAD MECHANICS LIFESTEAL CARRY HE FINALLY PASSED 2K BY A LOT LIFESTEAL APOLOGY VIDEO WHEN Karmabeast hit Level 89 from the clear. Meno dropped beside him and slung Sinforged Trinity over one shoulder as he surveyed the burned-out plaza. By normal standards, the kill had been fast. Compared with deleting Vaelkor in roughly 5 seconds, it had been miserable.

They chunked Kharvek below 50% almost immediately, then spent rest of the time chasing it, maintaining Chain, hauling bombs, and barely staying alive. The burst worked. The moment Mush ran out, the fight was a mess. Karmabeast felt it hardest. He had burned part of Sky Tormentor just reaching Kharvek, then lost most of his uptime once it expired and left him grounded beneath a flying boss.

Meno stayed on target longer, but dodging arrows, chasing Kharvek, and farming False Wings resets between swings still gutted his Chain generation. If Kharvek had gotten another full bomb pile off, they were in trouble.

"Still sub one minute," Karmabeast said.

"That was clutch. My Cloak barely came off cooldown. Shouldn't have burned Sky Tormentor at the start just to reach the thing. Lost like a third of its duration, then I was stranded. By the time it came back, you killed the trash."

"This is why a passive is better. You can work around it, but you can't do anything about a cooldown."

"Yeah, I need Cooldown Reduction bad." Karmabeast pumped one fist and started toward Kharvek's corpse.

"At least the loot is mine this time." He grabbed the drop and shared it.

[Ancient II | Kharvek's Skybreaker] Type: Mail Helmet Durability: Augmented+++ Defense: Medium+++ Mail Bonus: +5% Defense Pierce +1000% more Mail Bonus Effect while Airborne +20% increased Damage per 10% uncapped Defense Pierce +1% Absorption Pierce per 10% uncapped Defense Pierce +1% Avoidance Pierce per 10% uncapped Defense Pierce +1% Block Pierce per 10% uncapped Defense Pierce +1% Reduction Pierce per 10% uncapped Defense Pierce Skybreaker made Meno stop and do the math.

With False Wings applying his airborne modifiers on the ground, the +1000% Mail Bonus Effect multiplier was basically permanent. That turned 5% Defense Pierce into 50%, and Skybreaker scaled everything else from the uncapped value instead of stopping at 100%. A five-piece Mail setup with the same 5% bonus on every slot would hit 250% Defense Pierce.

The extra 150% did nothing for piercing Defense itself, but Skybreaker still cashed it in for another 300% increased Damage and 15% Absorption Pierce, Avoidance Pierce, Block Pierce, and Reduction Pierce. Avoidance Pierce was immediately interesting. Karmabeast's Venom Cloak could give 100% Magic Avoidance, but enough Pierce turned guaranteed immunity back into RNG. Block Pierce was easy value, and Reduction Pierce could cut through straight damage reduction.

Meno did not know every interaction yet, but Skybreaker was clearly more than a stat stick. And Mush only ignored most of that during its 3-second burst. Kharvek had just shown him what happened when the boss lived longer.

"I need this," Meno said.

"Defense Pierce is useless to you. All your damage becomes Poison and bypasses Defense already, and you can't afford to lose Action Speed by switching from Leather to Mail anyway."

"True, but this is a build-defining piece for any Mail user. Worth a ton of gold. Better than that amulet."

"That amulet doubles minion damage."

"Only if the minions don't already have Multi this and Multi that. Also, it's only good for summoners. This one is flexible." HE WANTS THE HELMET BAD trade negotiations begin PBG Level 1 Merchant 50% DEFENSE PIERCE FROM ONE SLOT karma finally discovered market value DO NOT LET PBG DO GUILD LOOT RULES Karmabeast had a point, which was inconvenient. Meno also had to accept that Karmabeast had not fully embraced proper guild dungeon culture yet.

In a well-run guild, the system was simple: all valuable loot went to the guild master, and everyone else trusted his judgment. GraveMistake clearly needed training. Maybe an online quiz, with removal for anyone who failed.

"How about this?" Meno said.

"I give you Legendary III Vervenzal's Pursuit, the amulet, and you keep all the trash loot too. Pursuit is better than whatever helmet you have now, and the projectile charge plus extra hit actually work with your Massive weapon." The helmet had served Meno well, but his build had moved away from everything that made it useful. Quadrillionator could no longer become a projectile, which killed Hunt Beyond Reach as part of his main loop.

"Deal." SCAMMED Karmabeast robbed him PBG ROBBED KARMA BOTH SIDES SOMEHOW SCAMMED casually trading 10 mill items The item trade made Meno realize he was actually bugged. He was not using Quadrillionator anymore. Sinforged Trinity was a real Massive weapon, while the projectile and Multi-Strike restrictions were written into Quadrillionator itself. Pursuit should have worked. Solar must not have expected anyone to corrupt the combined weapon.

The AI had apparently carried Quadrillionator's restrictions over to Swing Master Tyrant wholesale and left the tooltips unchanged. That was low even for Solar. Or completely unintended, which meant Meno wanted his bug fix. He equipped Kharvek's Skybreaker and left the helmet hidden through his settings. The stats were what mattered. Defense Pierce jumped by 50%.

The uncapped value also fed Skybreaker another 100% increased Damage and 5% each of Absorption Pierce, Avoidance Pierce, Block Pierce, and Reduction Pierce. Much better. Giving Karmabeast Vervenzal's Pursuit did cost Meno its Leather Action Speed. Weapon Master had been converting that into Lifesteal, dropping him from 8% to 6% when he switched to Mail. Solar had made him miss Lifesteal. Totally unacceptable. His damage was still ramping.

Since rebuilding Quadrillionator, his weapons contributed almost no increased Damage, yet Chain alone had already gone stupid. Now Skybreaker gave every future Mail piece another stat line he could juice. Ancient II came with one insult: no World First. Somebody had already equipped the rarity while Meno was wasting XP at the Streamline party. Another boss waited farther down the road behind more trash.

Meno and Karmabeast stopped outside aggro range to let Mush finish its 6-minute cooldown, giving Meno time to think about Sinforged Trinity's corruption. Kharvek had replaced Vaelkor as his most recent personal kill, so the next ghost should be the Bombardier. Vaelkor had managed one useless Silence and some equally useless Shades before its 3 seconds ran out. Kharvek had better buttons. The real jackpot would be an enemy with some broken buff or instant effect the ghost could fire immediately.

Anything that stayed behind after the summon vanished would be even better. For now, the corruption was mostly decoration. Once Mush was ready, they moved to the plaza and Meno inspected the boss. [Gorvath, Crucible Bastion | Boss | Block | Parry | Counterattack | Level 97] Gorvath was built like a tank even by Balveth standards. Heavy Plate covered most of its body, a broad shield guarded one side, and even the spade-shaped tip of its tail was wrapped in steel.

"Counterattacking is nasty," Karmabeast said.

"It'll hit back with boosted damage after every Parry. If it Parries you, your Chain is breaking for sure."

"While Mush is on, we can't be Parried or Blocked. Once it's gone, we clear the trash and slow down. It can only Block one direction. You bait it from the front, and I ramp from the back."

"Rogue DPS front, warrior back. Makes sense." THE ROGUE IS THE TANK NOW PBG BACK ATTACK BUILD GORVATH ABOUT TO LEARN DIVINE PARRY RULES please let the ghost do something this time When both Divine cooldowns finished, they launched straight into Gorvath's plaza. Mush blew them up into Excrino form on landing while Venom Tyrant spread through the trash and Karmabeast froze every pack with Toxic Crash. Meno activated Sinforged Trinity's corruption and ripped his first swing through Gorvath's shield.

The boss tried to Block and got nothing, leaving Gorvath stuck cycling defenses while both Tyrants pumped into it. Kharvek's ghost spawned and immediately shot into the air. A massive pile of ghostly explosive orbs appeared over Gorvath. Meno recognized the mechanic, then realized what was missing: no green tiles, no way to clear the bombs. The entire pile detonated in one massive burst, ghostly fire crashing down over Gorvath hard enough to erase most of its HP in an instant. 23% remained.

WHAT GHOST KHARVEK JUST SKIPPED THE MECHANIC NO GREEN TILES NO PROBLEM CORRUPTED WEAPON IS A BOSS SUMMONER GORVATH LOST 77% TO AN OLD BOSS LMAO The damage caught both of them off guard. By the time Meno and Karmabeast realized Gorvath was already at 23%, they had landed enough extra hits to kill it with almost 1 second of Mush still running. [Boss Defeated: Gorvath, Crucible Bastion] [Level Up! | Level 92] That left twenty trash mobs alive and one problem: Meno had not prepared Xenocide.

If he killed any of them himself, Sinforged Trinity would replace Gorvath with trash as its stored ghost. Karmabeast handled it. He rushed the stunned packs and dropped Venocide over them, filling the plaza with thick green mist. Mush expired as he hit Venom Cloak, refreshing Venom Tyrant across every surviving Balveth. One died inside Venocide. The rest dropped with it. Perfect. Karmabeast owned every trash kill, so Gorvath remained stored in Sinforged Trinity.

The XP pushed Karmabeast to Level 90 and unlocked another augmentation.

"That was sick. That was a sub-3-second kill." Karmabeast pointed at Gorvath's corpse.

"Do you think we're getting banned? I don't wanna get banned."

"We didn't do anything wrong. It was some weird interaction with the stored dungeon boss using its dungeon mechanic without the tiles to reduce the damage." Karmabeast flapped his arms while crossing the plaza.

"Do you think Arayu would be impressed?"

"For sure. Rina liked it when I sent her the screenshot. I don't think there is anyone not impressed with big damage." Karmabeast nodded like Meno had just delivered wisdom from a mountain.

"Your loot. I'm going to send this clip to her. Be right back." Meno opened Gorvath's drop. [Ancient II | Gorvath's Reprisal] Type: Plate Gloves Durability: Augmented+++ Defense: High+++ Plate Penalty: -5% Action Speed +30% Maximum HP +100% increased Parry Precision +100% increased Attack Speed with Counterattacks +100% increased Damage with Counterattacks Counterattacks deal 50% Splash Damage Counterattacks restore 5% Maximum HP COUNTERATTACK TANK BIS TANKSLOP RIP PLATE GLOVES NO THANKS OXY ITEM???

ANCIENT II DROPS ARE ACTUALLY JUICED The +100% Attack Speed line caught Meno first, until the words with Counterattacks finished the sentence and ruined it. Parry builds had never interested him. Parry Precision making the timing easier sounded useful against weapon users, but plenty of monsters attacked with claws, teeth, spells, or things he was not even sure could be Parried.

Maybe any melee hit counted with the right timing, but building around that sounded like a fantastic way to spend half the fight waiting for the enemy to attack instead of doing damage. For a tank, though, the gloves made more sense. Parry a hit, counter faster and harder, splash part of the damage around the target, then restore 5% Maximum HP.

"Do you know how Splash Damage works?"

"I think it's short- or melee-range AOE around the target hit. Not sure."

"Do you want this counterattack thing?"

"I don't need Precision. I can Parry without it just fine, and I am not putting on Plate. That's not happening." Karmabeast finished whatever he had been doing with Arayu and gave the tooltip another pass.

"Some Juggernauts specialize in this hit-hard-after-you-Parry style, so it should be worth good gold since it's basically the best item possible for them. Some Stalker rogues can abuse that gimmick too, but I don't think they want Plate."

"Great. Anything good from the trash?"

"Junk and a few crafting mats," Karmabeast said.

"We should split gold from the mats." Karmabeast recoiled.

"What? You said I am Trash Tormentor…" His protest lasted another second before he gave up.

"Fine." Meno stored Gorvath's gloves for later sale and faced the road ahead. One more boss stood between them and the tower. Beyond it, the spire still loomed over the Crucible with the final boss waiting on its circular platform. Three bosses down, two to go. Maybe three if the tower had another surprise inside. Time to finish the dungeon.