Chapter 66: [66]: The Chained Core, Diamond Fusion
Levi scooped up the massive pile of loot boxes from the Searing Crater and shoved them all directly into his spatial inventory. He didn’t want to sort through them out in the open with five thousand players staring at him from the cliffs.
He walked to the edge of the iron platform and triggered his mount slot.
A massive pool of dark shadow erupted from the hot metal grates, and the Behemoth of the Hollow stepped out. Levi grabbed the reins, pulled himself up into the saddle, and kicked his spurs into the beast’s armored sides.
With his base Speed now sitting at 236, the Behemoth’s flat +200 Speed bonus pushed his mounted velocity to an absolutely absurd 436 Speed.
The dark horse exploded off the platform. Levi didn’t even bother riding up the normal paths. The Behemoth hit the hardened magma rivers and just blurred. The landscape warped into a heavily distorted tunnel of black rock and gray ash as he tore through the Ashen Peaks.
In a matter of minutes, the familiar, towering black walls of the Ruined Keep of Ash appeared on the horizon.
Levi rode straight through the massive steel gates of his Domain. The courtyard of the Harvester’s Exchange was packed with even more players than before. The massive influx of high-level crafters and guild merchants were busy shouting prices at the Grand Mercantile Hub.
A few players stopped what they were doing and stared as Levi rode in.
"Is that the guy from the livestream?" a merchant whispered, pointing at Levi’s pitch-black armor.
"Don’t look at him," another player hissed, grabbing his friend’s arm. "I saw him delete Ironclad in twenty seconds. Just keep trading."
Levi completely ignored them. He rode the Behemoth directly to the steps of his Keep, dismissed the mount, and walked inside.
He bypassed his black glass throne room entirely. He walked down the stone corridor and entered his private Domain vault. He grabbed the heavy iron handle, pulled the massive vault door shut behind him, and engaged the digital lock.
The room was completely quiet, illuminated only by a few glowing blue torches on the wall.
"Alright," Levi muttered, dropping his scythe against the wall. "Time to sort the garbage from the treasure."
He opened his inventory and dumped the entire pile of World Boss loot onto the stone floor of the vault.
First, he grabbed the raw currency. Valdor The Chained had dropped a massive chunk of gold. The system automatically added 15,000 Gold Coins directly to his wallet. That completely refunded the massive catalyst fee he had blown on the [Tear of the Chained] potion earlier, putting his liquid cash back in a very comfortable spot.
Next, he tossed aside the generic Gold-tier heavy armor and the glowing magical staffs. The stats on them were great for a normal Level 30 player, but they didn’t synergize with his Herald class at all. He threw them into a separate inventory tab to sell on his own auction house later.
At the very bottom of the pile, glowing with a soft, pulsing white light, were three identical Platinum-tier item boxes.
Levi picked them up and popped them open.
Inside sat three identical necklaces. They were made of thick, dark iron links, with a glowing, cracked piece of obsidian serving as the centerpiece.
[Shard of the Shackled]
[Rarity: Platinum]
[Effect: +30 to All Stats (STR, AGI, VIT, INT, LUK).]
"Plus thirty to all stats is fantastic," Levi noted, reading the tooltip. "But three of a kind means we can do a lot better."
This was the absolute culmination of his early-game progression. He had the raw materials, and he had the cash. He immediately opened his status menu and pulled up the [Boundless Fusion] interface.
The three glowing golden slots materialized in the dark vault.
Levi dragged the three Platinum-tier [Shard of the Shackled] necklaces into the slots.
The system threw up the most aggressive warning prompt he had seen so far. The text wasn’t just red; it was flashing violently.
[CRITICAL WARNING: Fusing Platinum-tier equipment into Diamond-tier requires a massive systemic overwrite. A raw currency fee of 50,000 Gold Coins is absolutely required to proceed. Failure to provide the catalyst will result in total item destruction. Do you accept?]
"Fifty thousand gold," Levi breathed.
It was a staggering amount of money. But thanks to his 5% Domain tax steadily farming the server’s top merchants all day, his vault balance had naturally crept up while he was fighting the boss. Combined with the 15,000 Gold he just looted from Valdor, his total balance was sitting just over 60,000 Gold Coins.
"Take the money," Levi said, tapping the confirm button.
Fifty thousand gold vanished from his ledger instantly.
The fusion process was completely terrifying. The three Platinum necklaces didn’t just melt. They violently collapsed inward, the digital matter crunching together with a deafening, high-pitched ringing sound. The light generated by the fusion turned into a miniature black hole in the center of the vault, sucking all the ambient torchlight into it.
The black hole stabilized for a fraction of a second before exploding outward in a completely silent, blinding wave of pure white energy.
The light faded, leaving a single, pristine necklace floating in the interface. The chain was made of pure, liquid starlight, and the centerpiece was a flawless, uncut diamond that pulsed with dark energy.
Levi reached out and grabbed it.
[Heart of the Chained]
[Rarity: Diamond]
[Effect: +100 to All Stats (STR, AGI, VIT, INT, LUK).]
[Passive: Grants a permanent 50% Damage Reduction from all incoming sources. Soul-Bound.]
Levi just stared at the text. He didn’t even say anything. The item was so mathematically broken that it didn’t even feel like it belonged in the same game as the other players.
A flat +100 to all stats, combined with a permanent 50% damage reduction.
He unequipped his old generic silver necklace and clasped the [Heart of the Chained] around his neck.
The power surge nearly knocked his avatar offline. The VR engine actually glitched for a millisecond as a massive wave of raw numerical data was forcibly injected into his character sheet.
Levi pulled up his stat menu to calculate the final numbers.
His Strength was 232. Add the 100 from the necklace, pushing it to 332.
His Agility went from 216 to 316.
His Vitality jumped from 153 to 253.
His Intelligence bumped from 101 to 201.
His Luck hit 175.
With 253 Vitality, and the 100 HP from the Obsidian Carapace his new maximum health pool was a staggering 5,160 HP!
His base Defense followed. 253 Vitality plus his 30 Armor gave him exactly 283 Defense.
After multiplying his Intelligence by 10 and adding the 50 from his ring, his Max Mana came to exactly 2,060!
His Base Attack was next, doubling his Strength and adding his scythe’s weapon attack, applying the 20% Herald class passive brought his permanent, completely unbuffed Total Attack to exactly 964!
He was nearly hitting for a thousand damage a swing, all day, every day.
Finally, his Speed. 316 Agility plus the 20 flat Speed from his Hollow’s Treads put him at exactly 336 on-foot Speed.
Levi looked at his completed stat sheet.
With 5,160 HP, 283 Defense, and a flat 50% Damage Reduction passive, he was mathematically unkillable by anything currently existing in the game. With 964 Attack and 336 Speed, he was a walking natural disaster.
He had thoroughly broken the Level 28 scaling curve. He had solidified his role as the absolute apex predator of Starfall.
Levi let out a long, satisfied breath. He closed the menu.