Chương 77: Wurm Express

Meno commanded the Gravewurm to move, and within five seconds, he knew he had been right about the Speed stat. It was a mount stat, not a player stat. The worm started with a heavy ripple from head to tail, slow enough to make chat boo, then its armored rings compressed and extended in a smooth surge that pushed it down the road faster than any player on foot.

Twenty people lurched backward at once, and the sound behind Meno became a chorus of surprise, fear, laughter, and one noise that did not belong to a dignified raid member. Viewers: 102, 644 Almos shouted from directly behind Meno.

"Hold the spike, not me!" Junebug answered, "You are more stable!" SPEED DATE WORM hold the spike Junebug confirmed tanking she holding aggro raid bus romance WURM EXPRESS"Everyone behave," Meno said, which had never worked once in his life. Riding the Gravewurm felt like lying on a board over gentle waves while the ocean decided to sprint. Its body skidded forward in long pulses, the rings compressing under them before stretching out again, making the passengers sway together whether they wanted to or not.

Meno thought there was a sport like that on water, something with flat boards, paddles, balance, and too much sun. Paddleboarding, maybe, though he was not big on sports unless the sport had XP. Controlling it was stranger than riding it. The reins were mostly a focus point. Meno had not received a course in worm handling, and pulling left did not really pull left. While he held the dark leather line, the Gravewurm felt attached to his character in the same rough way a skill did. Not telepathy. Command pressure.

"Left," Meno muttered. The worm drifted left after considering whether obedience fit its schedule. He followed the road south toward Rillpost, and the first problem revealed itself fast. The Gravewurm wanted to go straight. Roads did not. Every small curve forced him to correct the head early, then correct again when the massive body decided momentum had better ideas.

"Low Control," Meno said.

"Confirmed." still worth sports bus worm handling guide when driver diff do not crash They reached Rillpost in no time. The southern road cut through the middle of town, packed with low-level players doing errands, selling junk, chasing chickens, and standing in the exact places a bus-sized mount should not go. Meno had no idea what would happen if he ran people over. Then he had about three seconds to learn.

"Get out of the way!" he shouted. Most players reacted. Players jumped, rolled, or dove into side alleys as the Gravewurm barreled down the road. One level six newbie froze in the middle, staring up at the oncoming worm with doomed stillness. Meno hauled back on the reins, but stopping the Gravewurm felt like asking a moving train to reconsider. The worm rolled over him. [JustrelaxPete has died.] [Karma -10] Meno stared ahead. The Gravewurm barely noticed.

"That was an unfortunate accident," he said. Chat did not accept the phrasing. JUSTRELAXPETE NO vehicular PvP world first mount kill RIP Pete gravewurm road safety -10 karma lol The guy had just started Veyrath and was now permanently scarred by a worm bus flattening him in a starter town. At least the Gravewurm had not eaten him. That would have been a bit much, though Meno did briefly wonder if he could command it to do that later, preferably not in front of guards. The important lesson was practical.

The mount was not cosmetic. It had mass, collision, presence, and utility beyond carrying people, and a jackal would never have done that. Meno felt better about the choice for about half a second before speeding up again, just in case the town guards decided the situation required paperwork. Low-level players screamed insults from the side of the road. Sabra shouted from the back, "What happened? You just lost Karma."

"Nothing," Meno shouted back.

"It was a glitch." GLITCH JustrelaxPatch nothing to see here totally normal mount desync he murdered Pete Meno kept the Gravewurm pointed south. The map showed a road through the mountains toward Mirclaw Marsh. The old route to the marsh had gone through Garrison Fields, the orc passage, and Emberhollow before reaching the gate where the Zubra catapult had launched him. With a jumping worm, he did not need to go all the way around. The scenery blurred as the worm hit full pace.

Trees slid past on both sides, low branches snapping against the mount's armored rings, and the nervousness behind him gradually turned into excitement. VeeVeeZap started hollering in the back every time the worm surged faster.

"Okay, you can let go now," Almos said to the woman still gripping him.

"Do I have to?" Junebug said. Almos thought about it for one doomed second.

"I guess not." Meno shook his head, because he had not expected the raid bus to become speed dating. Nix shouted from somewhere in the middle rows, "PrayerBeadGod, can you go faster?"

"Call me Meno," he shouted back.

"And maybe a bit faster." Rogues always wanted faster. He pressed the command through the reins, and the Gravewurm increased pace, though not by much. It had already been moving near its limit. Ahead, the forest thinned and the mountains rose, dark slopes breaking the horizon. The road up the mountain cut in sharp bends along the side, which made it completely unsuitable for the Gravewurm.

"Hold on tight," Meno shouted.

"We are jumping." People immediately made unhappy sounds behind him. Meno aimed the worm straight at the slope instead of following the road and gave the command to jump one level up the switchback. The Gravewurm contorted with frightening speed, rear rings compressing hard and back rising under the passengers before it sprang. Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation. The trajectory went wrong immediately.

screaming wrong angle WORM JUMP please land bus in air The Gravewurm flew higher than Meno could jump with False Wings, and people screamed behind him while Morfoos laughed so loud he sounded broken. The worm struck the side of the mountain at a hard angle, sending a landing shock through its back like a small earthquake. Someone fell off.

"Man overboard!" Latch shouted. Meno yanked the worm to a stop and looked back. VeeVeeZap was tumbling down the side of the mountain, bright blue hair flashing between rocks as she tried and failed to stop herself. Meno commanded the Gravewurm to stay, jumped from its back, and used False Wings to kick downhill. He landed, jumped again, kicked a second time, and intercepted her. He caught her around the waist and dug one heel into the slope. They slid another few feet, then stopped.

VeeVeeZap blinked, then gave a light embarrassed chuckle.

"My bad. Got a vee bit excited and let go." Meno checked her HP and saw she had lost twenty percent from the fall.

"Mages," he said. Climbing back would take too long for her, and the road was not the point of this trip, so Meno chose the practical option before his brain could turn it into a social issue.

"I'll carry you up. No time to waste." VeeVeeZap looked at him awkwardly.

"Sure." Meno picked her up, jumped, and used False Wings to climb back toward the mount. By the time he set her down on the Gravewurm's back, chat had already chosen malice. CHEATING RIP AURELIA princess carry clip Meno no the situation escalates"Get your heads out of the gutter," Meno said. He got back in the saddle, gripped the reins, and commanded another jump. This one still landed off from where he wanted, but nobody fell.

One messy launch at a time, they climbed the mountain until Mirclaw Marsh spread below them, green-brown and wet, with Ashfang Volcano rising in the distance. Meno looked down the steep slope.

"Okay," he said.

"We are going down the fast way." Several passengers made immediate objections.

"It is too steep to ride down, and I do not want to bounce one jump at a time. Too slow." Meno glanced back.

"Hold your breaths when I say so." Pip sounded genuinely confused.

"Breath?" Nix answered before Meno could.

"He is definitely doing something with Preypool." Someone else muttered, "We are definitely going to die, aren't we?" Meno lifted one hand.

"More faith, guys. This has never gone wrong before." first time Preypool crash test FIRST TIME bad sentence Pete died for science Meno ignored the dissent and commanded the Gravewurm to jump as far as it could. At first, the mount resisted because it knew there was nothing ahead. Meno pushed harder through the reins, and after several tense seconds, the worm relented, compressed, and sprang out from the mountain in a long arc. Everyone screamed. Veyrath was too realistic sometimes.

Wind tore past them as the Gravewurm tumbled slightly side to side, trying to keep its belly downward while the ground rose too quickly. They fell for nearly twelve seconds, long enough for every passenger to reconsider trusting a streamer with transportation.

"Breath now!" Meno triggered Panic Pump. Then Preypool. A globe of water expanded around the falling Gravewurm and everyone on its back. They plunged into the suspended water at speed. The Gravewurm's body cushioned most of the impact, but the feedback still punched through Meno's legs hard enough to numb them for a moment. The water dragged at their fall without stopping it completely, and the worm dropped through the lower edge of the globe to hit the ground with a wet, heavy thump.

[Combat State Ended] [Preypool Collapsed] Water crashed over the slope behind them. The Gravewurm shook its body in irritated ripples, almost throwing half the raid off again.

"Wicked!" Ruinelle shouted. WORM DROP PREYPOOL PARACHUTE THIS IS ILLEGAL mount tech water landing Pete would be proud Meno looked back to check everyone. Pip was hugging Almos, who stared forward with a stone face like nothing unusual was happening. The landing had pushed everyone else sideways, forward, or partly on top of each other. Orlaqt was laughing and apologizing to Sabra, who looked like she had started regretting the faction choice.

"Told you it would work," Meno said. He steered left toward the road and passed into Mirclaw Marsh. The Gravewurm moved at a steady pace through the wet ground, heavy body sliding over mud and roots without slowing as much as a player would. Around them, players fought crocodile-looking monsters, marsh spiders, leech packs, and walking reed beasts. Every group stopped to stare. One guy lost footing while fighting a crocodile and got bitten hard enough to die.

not our fault second casualty mount aura kill environmental damage RIP marsh guy Latch shouted from the back, "I was farming here. This zone is bad. The dungeon is a hole in the ground with marsh spider things. They stack a cocoon debuff that stays on you out of combat for way too long." Another passenger answered, "You need to do an escort quest to save a stranded Zubra. He gives you a torch that removes the debuff." Latch's voice cracked.

"Really? Damn, I wasted so much time without it." Meno did not comment. Quest allergy had consequences, and he preferred when other people suffered them too. They reached the open way to Ashfang Volcano, and the ground shifted from marsh rot to black rock, dust, and thin channels of glowing magma. Mountain ridges boxed the zone on both sides, the sea lay beyond them, and the huge volcano rose in the center.

Between the ridges and the cone, the land stretched mostly flat, cut by intermittent lava streams flowing down from the slopes. The road ended. Meno angled the Gravewurm away from the lava channels and aimed for the volcano. Monsters roamed everywhere. Fire elementals moved in pairs, magma elementals dragged molten limbs through the black stone, and ash wraiths hovered above cracked ground with sparks leaking from their robes.

Meno avoided every group he could, but the Gravewurm was large enough that some aggro was inevitable. A magma elemental hurled a burning rock into the mount's side, and pressure surged through the reins. The Gravewurm did not show an HP bar. Instead, Meno felt the hit as a hard warning through his hands, a sense that if enough damage built up, the mount would vanish back into its stone. Better than a health bar, and still unpleasant.

"Mount can be forced to despawn," Meno said.

"Avoid hits." good design expensive worm lava death bus do not despawn"If it vanishes over lava, we are all soup." That focused the passengers. They reached the base of the volcano, and Meno started using small jumps over magma channels. Standing in lava too long would definitely push the Gravewurm back into the Mountstone, and plunging nineteen passengers plus Meno into molten rock sounded like a bad clip. Progress was slow but steady at first.

The lower slope was broad enough for the Gravewurm to crawl and jump, but higher up, the incline sharpened, forcing Meno to stop aiming straight because the mount's body could bounce off the steep face and slide back down. Ash blew across the path, and heat shimmer made the black stone ahead hard to read. The volcano was massive, over nine thousand feet tall according to the map, and near the summit, the path became too steep for the worm. Meno stopped on a rocky shelf and turned back.

"Everyone off. Wait here. I'll go up alone and plant the flag." Junebug slid down the side of the worm and landed beside the rock shelf.

"Are you sure we won't get banned if you put that thing somewhere this hard to reach? Most people can't get up there." Meno waved her concern away.

"Don't worry. We are putting a flag at the obvious place. If the AI does not want it, it will not allow it. Nothing can go wrong." Orlaqt clasped her hands.

"Oh my dear, he said the bad sentence." Meno ignored the circus and dismissed the Gravewurm. [Mountstone Recalled] The huge worm collapsed into green light and folded back into the gem. Meno started climbing. For him, scaling the upper volcano was trivial. Jump, False Wings kick, kick again, land on black rock, repeat. The heat rose harder near the crater, and ash stuck to the edges of his armor, but the route had enough ledges for his movement kit. He reached the crater rim fast.

The air smelled like his kitchen, which was probably cause for concern. Below, the volcano's mouth glowed orange through shifting smoke. He found the highest stable point near the edge, pulled the Grave Crown Banner from inventory, and drove the pole into the black rock. A prompt appeared. [Plant Grave Crown Banner in Ashfang Volcano?] Confirm? [Y/N] Meno accepted, and the banner unfurled. Black cloth snapped open in the hot wind, the golden skull flaring bright enough to reflect off the ash around it.

A huge ripple washed outward from the peak, rolling down the slopes, across the flat black land, over magma channels, and toward the dungeon entrance. From the summit, it looked beautiful, and then the notifications arrived. [Kingdom Quest Complete: First Claim of the Grave Crown] Report to Royal Quartermaster Marcel. Meno stared.

"Reporting to Marcel is not a reward. That is punishment." A global announcement followed. [World Announcement] The Grave Crown has claimed Ashfang Volcano. Open Skirmish has begun in the region. A new buff appeared. [Grave Crown Claim] Experience gained in Ashfang Volcano increased by 50%.

"Okay," Meno said.

"That part works." Then the mountain trembled. The ground cracked under Meno's boots, and he dropped prone before the vibration could throw him off the crater rim. Ash burst upward in thin black streams. Far below, magma channels brightened, and several monster packs went still as if something had called them. Chat went wild. EVENT EVENT OF COURSE WORLD EVENT AGAIN bad sentence worked run [Regional Event Triggered: Crown in the Ash] The Grave Crown Banner has pierced Ashfang's Crown Vent.

The mountain rejects the claim. Elite monsters now roam Ashfang Volcano. Meno read it twice.

"Of course there is a zone event attached. Players fighting each other was too tame. Now everyone has to dodge elite monsters too." He pushed himself up carefully.

"I have no idea what Elite means in Veyrath. Maybe level fifty. Maybe same level but higher threat. Maybe special boss category. Could be anything." His thoughts stopped. A large wyvern emerged from the horizon, wings beating through ash smoke as it turned toward the mountain slope below him. Toward his raid. raid wipe WYVERN GET DOWN save them coward Elite means that RUN Meno stared at the wyvern, then at the distant shelf where his level thirty-five-to-thirty-nine passengers waited.

"The banner was supposed to aggro players," he said.

"Not the entire zone."