Chương 60: Grounding Problem

They barely reached the Mage Tower stairs before chat found the next problem. hide helmet HIDE HELMET immersion mode helmet show face or fraud he bought pants and lost face Meno stopped walking with one boot on the first stair, because the stream showed him in the new Charmleather Helm, and the sight made him understand why most players he had passed in cities looked suspiciously uncovered above the neck. Chadculator looked at him with mild disappointment.

"You really didn't know?"

"I knew," Meno said, opening settings.

"I chose not to think about cosmetics."

"Right." Meno found the equipment display tab after two wrong menus and one deeply insulting tooltip about visual preferences. The toggle sat there like it had always been waiting for him. He switched helmet display off, and his avatar's face appeared again while the stats stayed active. [Helmet Display: Hidden] there he is settings boss phase 2 cleared immersion mode flashbacks They climbed toward the Mage Tower, but the plan started creaking before the door opened.

Two people with shovels would take too long, especially when one of them was Chadculator, who looked like he would complain for every scoop. The hole needed to be deep, wide, and far enough. Meno checked his viewcount. Viewers: 68, 922"Bradbaron," Meno said to the stream.

"I know you have a notification for your own name because you're like that. Log in, meet us, and buy two more shovels. I'll give you stuff to sell afterward." merchant summon BRADBARON WifeLawyer alert he absolutely did brad senses profit Chadculator looked sideways at him.

"Who is that?"

"You'll love him," Meno said.

"He is a merchant who buys levels with gold."

"Why would I like someone like that?" Chadculator asked.

"These people sully the integrity of Veyrath." Meno started to agree, then remembered Bradbaron had turned his weird swords into the pile of gold currently funding this attempt.

"The Merchant Exchange should probably not exist as a shadow market," Meno said.

"But the whole system pushes people into guilds and contracts anyway, so at least this version pays me." Chadculator made a sound that could have been disgust or a small equipment failure. They waited outside the tower for ten minutes while chat tried to summon Bradbaron through mockery. A bald man finally came running across the plaza with a shovel balanced on each shoulder, his robe flapping behind him and his breathing already offended.

[Bradbaron | Class: Fire Adept — Level 20 | Ability: Ignition Point]"Came as fast as I could!" Bradbaron said, slowing only when he reached them.

"I was getting a massage when the notification pinged, so this had better be profitable." still level 20 massage merchant he came armed buying levels cooldown Meno looked at the level tag.

"Still twenty?"

"I have been busy moving your inventory through an economy full of cowards and thieves," Bradbaron said.

"Also, carries are expensive when everyone thinks they're a future Titan candidate." Bradbaron noticed Chadculator, and his face shifted into clean business mode.

"Do you already have a merchant contract?" Chadculator stared at him.

"I can sell my own crap."

"That's what everyone says before underpricing, timing errors, and terrible screenshots."

"Not now," Meno said.

"We do not have time for you two to discover mutual hatred." Bradbaron handed Meno one shovel, kept one, and looked ready to say more until Meno walked into the Mage Tower. The portal chamber was crowded enough that three players recognized him, one asked about the mount quest, and another shouted that Westmarket had the best king because the crown guards looked richest. They arrived at the Lost Temple and stepped straight into the blue portal.

A blink later, Southreach's upper ring opened around them, dry wind cutting across the plaza and red banners snapping outside the tower. Bradbaron adjusted his robe.

"Should we form a proper party?"

"No need," Meno said, heading for the road out.

"We aren't here to feed you XP."

"That sounded personal." They left Southreach by the outer road and cut toward Redreed Frontier. The same low-zone fields rolled past, full of players still fighting Band Riders, Redgrass Snakes, and Reed Jackals like the future of the continent depended on it. A shield user recognized Meno and waved. Meno nodded once, because stopping would invite advice requests. Bradbaron watched a Redreed Band Rider gallop past in the distance.

"This is pleasant."

"We are not staying in pleasant," Meno said.

"Of course not. That would damage the brand." Crystalstep Basin announced itself before the prompt, not with monsters, but with the way the light began to lie. [Zone Discovered: Crystalstep Basin] Recommended Range: 40–50 The basin spread ahead with massive blue, violet, and clear crystals jutting from the earth in uneven clusters. Bright bands shifted across the ground as the crystals caught daylight and threw it into false edges, false gaps, and false movement. Meno stopped at the edge.

"Crystalstep is a high-risk resonance-crystal biome where light lies, footsteps betray you, and sound can punch you to death." Bradbaron lowered his shovel.

"Are you narrating, or trying to scare us away?" Chadculator looked across the basin with the first real caution he had shown all day.

"If we aggro anything, we die. We can't do your stupid jump-away routine."

"We sneak in slowly," Meno said. sneak squad three idiots one basin merchant escort quest They moved in a loose line, Meno ahead, Chadculator behind him, and Bradbaron last because he kept looking at the crystals like he was calculating shipping costs. The first patrol forced them left. Crystalback Mantises stalked between two violet growths, High threat prompts bright above blade arms that clicked open and closed with patient hunger.

Their bodies were narrow and polished enough to catch the glare, which made them vanish for half a step whenever the light shifted. [Hostile: Crystalback Mantis | Type: Crystal Beast | Threat: High | Trait: Shard Ambush] Meno crouched and motioned the others down.

"All question marks," Chadculator whispered.

"If the respawn drops us in the middle of this zone, I'm losing all my gold."

"You barely lose any gold at your level," Meno said. Chadculator shot him a look.

"I barely have any." They circled around the mantises by slipping between two clear crystal slabs, and for a while the path held. Then an Echo Elemental assembled itself from ringing plates thirty steps ahead. It had no flesh, only layered crystal shards pulling together around a hollow core. One fist struck the ground before it even finished forming, and the sound rolled through the basin hard enough to make Bradbaron clap both hands over his ears. Meno threw one arm back.

"Back." The sound punch did not touch them directly, but the vibration cracked the edge of a small crystal near Chadculator's boot. Chadculator stared at the split shard.

"That thing kills through missed attacks." They backtracked and took a northern bend instead. Basin Harmonists blocked the ridge above that route, Lethal threat tags hanging over humanoid figures with tuning-fork staffs and glowing translucent veins under their skin. One tapped its staff against the stone, and every crystal in the area answered with a rising note. Meno froze until the note faded.

[Hostile: Basin Harmonist | Type: Resonant Humanoid | Threat: Lethal | Trait: Harmonic Rupture]"I wonder if the sound thing is Air-aspect," Meno said.

"It has to be, right?" Bradbaron swallowed.

"Why are we here again?"

"To dig a hole," Meno said. The center lay beyond the ridge, so they stayed low and slid through narrower gaps between crystals. Leyline Wisps ruined that plan. Three lights blinked into existence across the path, vanished, then reappeared closer, their bodies little more than blue sparks wrapped in thin rings of energy. Meno did not wait for them to decide what they were doing. He grabbed Chadculator by the back of his vest, hooked Bradbaron under one arm, and jumped.

If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.

"What are you—" Bradbaron started. False Wings caught beneath Meno's feet. The first kick threw all three of them sideways behind a violet crystal. The second shoved them deeper into cover, and Meno landed in a crouch with Bradbaron half-sliding into him and Chadculator twisting free with a curse. The wisps flickered through the space they had just left, then drifted away without turning. Bradbaron stayed on one knee, breathing hard.

"That was awful." Meno ignored him because the Sleepwalker had come into view. It stood between two tall crystal growths near the basin's center, pale cloth hanging still while lightning snapped around it with no cloud above. Bolts struck one crystal, bounced to another, split across the air, and came back in bright jagged lines that turned the space around it into a cage of white-blue strikes.

Each flash rang in the crystals a half-second later, and looking too directly at the pattern made Meno's vision split into false ground and false steps. [Hostile: Sleepwalker | Type: Dream-Touched Humanoid | Threat:??? | Trait: Dreamer] Meno looked away fast.

"Do not stare at it." Bradbaron turned his face toward the dirt.

"I think I'm going to be sick." Chadculator nodded.

"Try not to vomit in your capsule. Cleanup is nasty." Bradbaron stared at him.

"Why do you know that?"

"Testing." They stopped at medium range, measured by Meno's Hundredfold sense more than any visible mark. Closer might aggro the Sleepwalker, and if it started drifting toward them before the trap was ready, the entire plan turned into three idiots feeding lightning. Meno pointed to an empty patch between crystal clusters.

"Stand back and give me room." Chadculator looked at the ground, then at the crystals, then at Meno's axe.

"How the hell do you want to dig here? You would need a mining crew." Meno equipped one of the Uncommon III Great Axes. The weight shifted his stance immediately. The axe was heavier than the Rune Spire, slower to recover, and much better at making the air feel aware of it. He lifted it over the patch, adjusted his grip, and brought it down into the crystal-heavy top layer. The impact cracked across his arms. axe-cavating AXE DIGGING durability crime this is content The new leather bonus hit him between swings.

Eight percent action speed sounded small on the tooltip, but the Soma-X7 translated it through his body like someone had tuned his timing half a step too fast. His arms reached the next motion before his habits expected them there, and the axe head dipped too early on the second strike. Meno corrected on the third.

"That feels wrong," he muttered. Chadculator watched him.

"Action speed?"

"Yeah."

"Gear changing body timing is obvious."

"It was obvious after I felt it," Meno said, and struck the ground again. The crystal surface chipped under the axe in hard flakes. It was not proper mining, but the heavy blade broke the upper layer better than a shovel would have, and every strike opened more dirt below the crystal crust. Durability fell in ugly chunks. Chadculator leaned closer, then clicked his tongue.

"That is going to destroy the axe."

"I have three." Meno kept swinging. The feedback traveled up his arms every time the axe struck. Not pain exactly, but impact that made his muscles tighten until they started going half-numb. Fighting monsters wore weapons down. Smashing crystal dirt murdered them. After ten minutes, the durability had gone red. Bradbaron finally raised one hand.

"What exactly am I doing here?" Meno switched to the second axe and pointed with the first before putting it away.

"Start shoveling fragments out of the way. Chad too." Chadculator stared at the broken crystal layer.

"Great. Manual labor." Bradbaron took his shovel in both hands like it might bite him.

"I have never done anything like this in my life."

"It will build character," Meno said. They scraped broken crystal chunks away while Meno rested his arms. Chadculator worked with irritated competence, short and efficient, while Bradbaron kept trying to shovel from the wrong side and pushing fragments back into the cleared patch. digging grave he wants to bury them treasure? why hole explain coward"The lightning needs to be grounded," Meno said.

"I can't fight that Sleepwalker while the aura bounces bolts off crystals from every side. That is like an archer shooting one projectile that splits and hits me twice." Bradbaron paused.

"Will dirt stop magical lightning?"

"It is magical crystal dirt." The second stretch settled into a brutal rhythm. Meno struck until the crystal crust broke, the others shoveled chunks clear, then he struck again. The Sleepwalker's lightning kept snapping in the distance, close enough to flash over their work but not close enough to trigger the fight. Bradbaron lasted eight minutes without complaining.

"This is the most miserable thing that has happened to me since my yacht broke down and I missed the swimsuit section of summer fashion week." Chadculator stopped shoveling.

"You have a yacht?"

"Yes."

"Why own one? They're inefficient. Rent when needed." Bradbaron looked at him like he had been born yesterday.

"That is not how it works. People won't even talk to me if they think I can't afford a boat." Meno kept hitting the ground while both of them spoke. The axe rose and fell. His arms kept going numb. Crystal dust stuck to the leather sleeves he had bought to survive lightning, and the stream enjoyed every second of him beating the ground with a weapon worth more than most players' entire accounts. At last, the second axe reached red durability. Meno put it away, breathing harder than he wanted to admit.

The cleared patch was roughly three people across, top crystal layer removed and uneven dirt exposed beneath. It was ugly, shallow, and nothing like a proper trap yet, but it no longer reflected lightning like the surrounding crystal.

"Okay," Meno said.

"Top layer is gone. Start digging. Six feet deep minimum." Chadculator leaned on his shovel.

"I didn't sign up for a labor camp. I test stuff."

"Then think of it as testing how fast you can dig a hole with a shovel." That caught Chadculator's interest. A flicker moved at the edge of Meno's vision. Leyline Wisps drifted between crystals, coming closer in a broken blink pattern. Meno's body moved before the warning finished forming in his head. He shouted, "Keep digging and stay down," then ran toward the wisps. One appeared directly ahead of him. He jumped, fired both False Wings kicks, and cut across their path close enough to get their attention.

The wisps snapped after him in stuttering flashes, little blue rings folding and unfolding as they chased. Meno kept low, baited them around a ridge of crystal, and dragged them away until they lost interest and flickered apart. By the time he returned, Chadculator was already waist-deep in the hole, which for him meant most of his body had disappeared. Bradbaron paused to wipe his forehead.

"I need a mojito. This is easily one of the most unpleasant days of my recent life."

"Then you are doing pretty well," Meno said, taking a shovel.

"Stop crying." Meno joined the digging. His higher level helped immediately. The shovel bit deeper, his body recovered faster, and dirt moved in steady throws while Bradbaron struggled with every scoop, his mage class doing him no favors. Chadculator was at least a warrior, though he complained constantly to protect the punk persona. Ten minutes got them deep enough. Then they widened it. After that, they started digging forward toward the Sleepwalker.

Meno used the third axe whenever crystal nodes appeared in the dirt, chopping them apart before the shovels could keep moving. Bradbaron became the dirt mule, shoveling loose soil backward through the tunnel. Chadculator dug forward, muttering occasional corrections to Meno's angle of progress. Meno paused once when his own thought caught up to him. This was immersive. He hated that the word kept coming back.

The world let shovels dig, axes break crystal, tunnels hold, and lightning maybe obey dirt because the AI wanted Veyrath to act like a place instead of a menu. The view count began climbing, because apparently three idiots digging a hole in an endgame zone counted as content. Viewers: 74, 303 Most trolls who wanted to interfere would have to cross level forty to fifty patrols first, and the monsters here were better moderators than any platform tool. The tunnel progressed by ugly inches.

Crystal roots ran through the dirt in clear and violet veins, ringing every time the shovel or axe hit them. Meno broke them with the axe, Chadculator carved forward, and Bradbaron dragged the loose dirt back. More than once, lightning struck above and sent a faint hum through the tunnel ceiling. All three of them stopped moving, stopped breathing, and waited for the dirt to decide whether it was still a ceiling. An hour passed like that.

At last, Meno crawled forward, checked the direction against the Sleepwalker's last position, and held up one hand.

"Good enough. We should be under it." Bradbaron lay on his back in the tunnel behind them.

"Maybe I was wrong. This is almost relaxing now. Much better than fishing." Chadculator looked offended.

"I am not doing this again if you fail. I am an intellectual. I don't dig holes."

"Sure you are," Meno said. intellectual LMAO hole PhD Bradbaron zen arc digging meta discovered"Wider," Meno said.

"Then we thin the top. When I pull it, I break through from below and drop it in." They widened the chamber under the Sleepwalker's position as much as three miserable people could manage in a cramped tunnel. Bradbaron hauled dirt backward, faster now that he had accepted his new life. Chadculator tapped the ceiling with the shovel handle, listening between strikes and making noises that suggested Meno's plan had only a distant relationship with reality.

Meno crawled back from the trap chamber to the entry slope and stood in the open air again. His arms felt packed with wet sand, and his new armor was coated in dust. The Sleepwalker still floated between the crystals, lightning bouncing around it in bright violent lines.

"Okay," Meno said.

"You two stay back. I probably only get one shot. If I push its HP low enough and die, it hops to another zone." Chadculator held up a dirt-smeared hand.

"Explain exactly what you're doing before you freestyle and waste our work." Meno pointed at the trap.

"Simple. I make it fall into the hole. That should reduce the lightning bouncing off crystals. I have forty percent lightning reduction from gear. Then I stand there in full DPS mode and kill it before I die while Sleepless Grip blocks debuffs." Chadculator's face tightened.

"No." Meno blinked.

"That was the plan."

"Yes," Chadculator said.

"And now we improve it before you turn a hundred minutes of digging into a stream highlight called Idiot Digs His Own Grave, Gets Fried by Sleepwalker." Bradbaron lifted one finger from where he was sitting near a crystal.

"That title would perform."

"Switch to your plate chest," Chadculator said." High Defense matters here. Plate chest plus three leather pieces costs you seven percent action speed, but you still end up one percent positive. That Defense gain matters more than tiny speed when your whole plan is standing still and eating aura ticks." Meno frowned.

"If I fail the DPS check, Defense doesn't matter. The aura contracts and blows up."

"Defense matters until the explosion," Chadculator said.

"You need to live long enough to reach the kill. Use the plate chest. Based on what I saw online, you've got about three minutes before the aura throws a tantrum." Meno swapped the Charmleather Vest for the Charmsteel Plate Chest. The weight settled over him with immediate clunk, and his movement slowed just enough to feel closer to the timing he knew. After a few breaths, the capsule adjusted the pressure until the plate no longer felt intrusive, only present.

[Armor Adjusted] [Action Speed Net: +1%] [Earthen Guard Total: Lightning and Air damage taken reduced by 40%.] [Defense increased.]"Use one Deepwater Rune Dagger and one normal dagger," Chadculator said.

"One ten-second debuff resist won't carry the fight, and one cleanse charge might save it. Keep one debuff on yourself for Curse Eater as much as you can." Meno equipped a Rune Dagger in his right hand and a normal Earthen Edge Dagger in his left. The weapons felt tiny after the Rune Spire and ridiculous after the axes. Their reach was nothing. Their speed was everything. His hands wanted to overmove, swinging like he still had a blade long enough to threaten space outside his own arm length.

Chadculator clicked his tongue.

"Practice now."

"I know."

"You don't. More stab, smaller movements. Don't use them like swords. No arcs. Tuck your arms in and alternate forward. There is no need for finesse against a stationary target." Meno almost argued, then tried it. Right stab. Left stab. Right, left, right, left. The movement tightened fast once he stopped trying to make it look like combat. Against something trapped in a hole, reach did not matter if he could stand close enough.

The daggers became quick forward punches with points attached, and action feedback pulled each hit into the next until his arms blurred.

"Better," Chadculator said.

"Still ugly."

"I cherish your support." Meno practiced for ten minutes. The first minute felt stupid. The third started to build rhythm. By the seventh, the alternating stabs had a clean enough pace that he could watch the imaginary chain climb in his head without feeling like his elbows would betray him. Then he stopped, shook out his hands, and let his breathing settle. Viewers: 92, 427 The number sat there bright and unhelpful. Meno looked toward the Sleepwalker.

"Chat, this is either the lamest Titan ever or a complete waste of time. It might even get my class nerfed. If it does, I want JaxxonVale's warlock stun deleted too." fair nerf jawline still jelly sleepwalker about to eat no way this works Chadculator stepped closer.

"You need around fifty hits for one hundred stacks in roughly seven seconds. If you're lower than that, you're too slow and need to ramp faster. Pull up a timer. Do not go by feeling. Dagger base damage is lower than you're used to, so you need higher stacks than your brain expects." Meno paused.

"That is actually good advice." Meno opened a small stopwatch overlay and placed it at the right edge of his vision. The Sleepwalker drifted above the thin ceiling of the tunnel chamber, lightning cracking between crystals, unaware or uncaring that three idiots had spent an hour rearranging the ground beneath it. Meno raised both daggers.

"Let's go, chat," he said, already knowing it would be clipped either way.

"Only clip this if I succeed."