Chương 95: Clipped and Shipped

Kaerthalan flew for a while. Meno had no clue how fast they were going, but the sea below kept dragging his attention down because Jagged Sea was not a dramatic name. It was a warning label. Thin, sharp rock walls jutted from the dark water at random angles, forming long barriers ships would have to sail around instead of through. Some rose higher than castle towers, while others barely broke the surface, black ridges waiting to tear open anything moving too confidently.

Meno sat on the dragon's back because there was nothing else to do, still trying to understand the no-scaling nonsense. Morlando had said Feltforge could make endless content, so why could the AI not quickly adjust Naraltan for level sixty players? Maybe it was a lore problem. Kaerthalan had called it a place where the strong went to claim power, and if the AI lowered it too much, the whole internal structure might collapse. Either way, level one hundred monsters were not a challenge. They were a wall.

Meno had wanted danger, not an area that would delete him for breathing too close to a squirrel. The Legendary III sword helped, but one amazing weapon did not magically make him invincible. Ten minutes into the flight, Brad's name flashed across his phonelink, and Meno muted stream audio before taking it.

"Good job," Brad said immediately.

"That was insane."

"Thanks?"

"I also reached level twenty-five alone."

"Oh," Meno said, because Brad sounded like he expected fireworks.

"Nice. Congrats. You should probably consult Chadculator before your class upgrade at thirty."

"I killed things by myself. I can pick a class."

"I still asked for his input, and I am level fifty-nine."

"Fine, point taken. Panel discussion tomorrow at eight p. m. with the top five players on The Meta Desk. Fifty thousand to show up for a video call is good. Take it." Meno almost said fifty thousand was a lot. Then the one point six million from the simulation sat in his head and made the number feel small, which was a dangerous kind of stupid. Fifty thousand credits for a video call was amazing.

He needed legitimate sponsorship and appearance money anyway, especially after Morlando's warning about his account jumping from broke to suspicious.

"Okay," Meno said.

"So, what, around seventeen hours from now?"

"Yes. Now get to that continent as fast as possible. I want to see it before I go to bed. Bye." Brad hung up.

"Sure," Meno said to a dead call. He unmuted stream audio and opened the leaderboard.

[Launch Leaderboard | Global Level Rank] [Rank 1: PrayerBeadGod — Level 59 — Swing Master] [Rank 2: BrineSaint — Level 53 — Dawn Bastion] [Rank 3: Thorn — Level 51 — War Anchor] [Rank 4: Pike — Level 51 — Terra Siege Channeler] [Rank 5: VantaRush — Level 51 — Knifeclock Pattern Rogue] [Rank 6: JaxxonVale — Level 51 — Gilded Rift Warlock] [Rank 7: Kestrel — Level 51 — Orbit Prism Detonator] [Rank 8: Oxy — Level 51 — Bloodrush Pit Juggernaut] [Rank 9: Honeygrave — Level 51 — Rot Savant] [Rank 10: Moon — Level 51 — Crimson Mercy Herald]"What?

They added classes?" class reveal Knifeclock??? tags gone kestrel archer right? siege channeler mage? BrineSaint 53 The promo name tags were gone, and a bunch of people had shortened their names too. Thorn was obviously Thornwake from Stormhold. Pike had to be PikeNorth from Highbanner. Moon was Moonwake from Silverwake. Oxy had gone fully into the short version, like she had kicked OxideChoir into a ditch. Meno checked whether she was still streaming, and of course she was.

More specifically, she was watching his stream while streaming, because that was apparently content now. Meno opened the phonelink and called her. She picked up immediately.

"Heeey."

"Hey," Meno said.

"What is going on with the leaderboard?"

"So about that." Oxy leaned back in her stream window, looking fried around the edges despite the grin.

"First, your dragon fight was so cool, I am a bit jelly."

"It was okay. This thing is too hard to hit." Kaerthalan snorted, and a cloud of ash blew back into Meno's face.

"Second, the big boys decided to be silly and used their ladder name change to put BanPBG all over." Oxy waved one hand.

"It got shut down big time. Everyone got a free name change, tags are a big no-no now, and the ladder shows classes." Meno heard the exhaustion in her voice. It was under the playful stretch, under the performance, under the way she refused to let a syllable land clean. Calling it out would make it a thing, so he stepped around it. The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

"And how come you changed your name?"

"A bunch of us shortened for branding. Carla's idea." Oxy pointed at the camera.

"By the way, you are very not popular right now among top players. Just sayyying."

"Shocking."

"Level one hundred zone, Naraltan, was it? What are you gonna do?" Meno looked ahead over Kaerthalan's neck. There was not much he could do, but there was one play, maybe, and it was ethically greasy enough that saying it out loud would make chat foam at the mouth. It was not an exploit, exactly. The ability said level fifty-plus open-world zone, and Naraltan qualified if he survived long enough to activate it.

"Probably summon the weekly raid boss from my solo achievement invocation thing." NO do not toxic world boss abuse he's alone there oh no"It said fifty-plus zone, so it should work," Meno said.

"It also said the boss fights all creatures. Level one hundred monsters should make it easy to kill, and I will be the only one with contribution." NOT FAIR he found it again weekly loot theft rank one criminal Oxy stared at him, then laughed with her whole tired face.

"Nooooooo. That is sooo toxic."

"It's totally within the rules."

"It is amazing how fast you come up with the most annoying things ever." She sighed.

"I wish I could be there."

"Build a boat."

"I joined Grave Crown, by the way. I had to have that durability buff. Big time." Oxy tilted her head.

"Can I join your guild?" Meno opened the guild tab while holding onto a dragon scale with one hand, found the invite button, and sent it. [Oxy has joined GraveMistake.]"There." [Guild] VeeVeeZap: wait what [Guild] Chadculator: welcome read rules [Guild] Oxy: hiiii little skeletons"If you need someone else in," Meno said, "tell Chadculator."

"Nice." Oxy leaned closer.

"How did your meeting go? Did they make you mad? Is that why you went rogue with the achievement?" Meno did not like the question.

"What? No." It came out too fast.

"It just seemed more interesting this way," he said.

"The meeting was nothing. I am getting nerfed soon, and he asked me not to destroy Veyrath." insta fail he destroyed route asked not to destroy dragon says otherwise Morlando crying"I didn't," Meno said.

"I asked the dragon to fly me to the most interesting place possible. It is not my fault the AI is drunk all the time." Oxy laughed, weaker than usual.

"Meno, Meno, Meno. That error level cap is something."

"Yeah, I mean, it probably means one hundred, right? Or one ten, since the zone is one hundred-plus."

"See?" Oxy said.

"Not even the AI knows. It was not ready yet." Meno finally saw something in the distance that was not more dark water and knife rocks.

"Okay," he said.

"I am almost there. The system seems to be working overtime to finish it. It should be fine."

"Huge nothing-can-go-wrong vibes."

"Everything has gone wrong already. We are past that."

"I will get out of your hair, then. Have fun."

"Bye. You should probably sleep soon." Oxy chuckled.

"Yep. Bye-bye." The call ended, and Meno looked forward as Naraltan came into view. From a distance, it looked like someone had cleaved the top off an enormous mountain and left the smooth base jutting out of the sea as a vast stone plate stretching toward the horizon. The entire continent glowed faint blue, not from lamps or moons or anything sensible, but from the rock itself. Enormous trees rose from it at scattered intervals, their long bare branches black against the pale light.

Above it, the sky was packed with black clouds, and lightning fell constantly. Small jagged lines struck here and there, while larger bolts braided together into enormous flashes that hit deeper inland. The impacts lit the distant ground for a moment, then faded. The lightning kept striking, but the sound never arrived. There was no sun, no moon, no warm horizon line. The blue glow from the ground illuminated everything clearly enough to see, soft on the eyes and strange in the chest.

Naraltan should have been dark, but instead it looked enchanted by a spell. No mountains. No rivers. Only glowing stone, dead-looking trees, black clouds, and silent lightning. It looked like the graveyard of archmages, or whatever stood above archmages. Kaerthalan spoke without turning his head.

"I drop you at the edge, and I am gone. I never want to see you again." Meno patted one scale.

"What if I find an apple here? You don't want it?"

"Bring it to me as soon as you do. I will be in my temple." dragon folded he wants fruit temple landlord bring snacks Meno laughed.

"Yeah, sure." He wondered what would happen if he ate one. Kaerthalan had said the apples gave power. In player terms, that might mean XP, stats, or some special progression system above the normal cap. Meno had a sneaking suspicion the AI had made the answer up mid-conversation and planned to figure out the tooltip later. They reached the coastline, where the rock platform rose higher than Meno expected, a sheer wall from sea to top. About Chain Cannon range. Six cars, maybe, from waterline to edge.

"How are ships supposed to dock here?" Meno imagined future guild vessels reaching the continent and realizing nobody had brought a ladder. Maybe the ports had to be built first. Maybe the royal factions would bring some absurd zubra-powered elevator system. Kaerthalan landed on the edge and looked around anxiously, which worried Meno more than the silent lightning. The dragon shifted from foot to foot, clearly impatient for him to get off.

Meno jumped down onto the glowing stone, and Kaerthalan immediately beat his wings, shooting back into the air like Naraltan charged rent by the second.

"Goodbye to you too." The dragon did not answer. Meno watched him turn toward the sea and disappear back across the Jagged Sea with undignified haste. He stood alone on the edge of Naraltan, with dark water and sharp rocks below him and open expanse stretching far in every other direction. No obvious plants besides the tall bare trees, and none of them had visible fruit from here. Meno crouched and touched the ground. Warm.

The blue glow rose through the stone, soft and steady, carrying a strange relaxing quality if he looked into the distance too long. It felt like the world was trying to convince him to stop worrying while lightning stabbed the horizon. Visibility remained clear all the way to the cloud ceiling. pretty tree leaves stolen this is sick no thunder apple hell Meno looked up, and lightning struck again without thunder.

"Good design." A thought hit him like a bottle, and he stood too fast, scanning the edge of Naraltan. There was no portal, dock, NPC, shrine he recognized, return prompt, or conveniently glowing exit circle. Meno turned in a full circle.

"How the hell do I return to the mainland?" ship clipped and shipped stuck build boat Naraltan prison swim coward Meno looked at his inventory. Almost-broken Rare III Ashwake Cleaver. Uncommon III offhand dagger. One usable Legendary III sword. He had no apples, repair NPC, safe route, or clue whether the first monster would be a bird, a tree, a lightning deer, or a level one hundred chosen warrior who could fold him into a loading screen.

"GraveMistake," Meno said.

"New priority guild mission." The first question mark appeared in guild chat, then fifty more followed.

"Build that ship and rescue me as soon as possible." He looked out at the empty glowing continent.

"Please."