Chapter 94: The Abyssal Goliaths, Reflected True Damage
’Goliath Defense is 3,000,’ Levi calculated. ’My scythe drops their effective Defense down to 2,400.’
His Total Attack was 3,468.
"Four hundred and eighty damage per basic strike," Levi sighed, doing the division in his head. "Against a two hundred and fifty thousand health pool. If I just stand there and swing, I will literally die of old age before their health bars hit zero."
Isolde stepped up next to him, raising her wooden staff. "Commencing artillery protocols. Targeting high-density hostiles."
"Hold your fire, Isolde," Levi said, throwing his arm out to stop her.
Isolde’s blank eyes shifted to look at him. "Query. Your physical damage parameters are insufficient to clear the targets within an optimal timeframe. My True Damage bypass is required."
"I know," Levi smirked, spinning his scythe. "But I just dropped fifty grand on a Platinum-tier shield. I want to see if the reflection mechanic actually works. Don’t shoot. I want them to hit me."
Isolde lowered her staff, her gray cloak perfectly still. "Acknowledged. Standing by."
Levi stepped out into the ossuary. He didn’t sneak. He intentionally kicked a massive pile of skulls, sending bones clattering across the room.
The two Abyssal Goliaths stopped their patrol. They slowly turned their tiny, glowing red eyes toward him. They let out a deafening roar that shook the bone pillars, raised their massive stone pillars, and charged.
For being twenty feet tall, they moved fast. Every footstep cracked the floor.
"Platinum Ward of the Abyss!" Levi shouted.
He dumped 500 Mana. The air froze. A thick, swirling vortex of pitch-black abyssal matter erupted from the floor, entirely encasing his avatar. Thanks to his recent Intelligence plunder, the shield locked into place with exactly 8,010 HP.
Levi didn’t dodge. He planted his boots in the bone dust and stood perfectly still.
The first Abyssal Goliath reached him and swung its massive stone pillar in a devastating horizontal sweep aimed right at Levi’s chest.
The heavy stone crashed directly into the black hole shield.
The VR pain engine sent a dull, vibrating pulse into Levi’s chest, but he didn’t flinch. He watched the system process the hit instantly.
The Goliath had 5,000 Attack. Levi’s current Defense was 384.
[-2,308]
The impact slammed into his 8,010 HP Platinum Ward. The shield violently rippled, absorbing the hit perfectly and dropping to 5,702 HP.
But the real magic happened a split second later.
The Platinum Ward’s passive effect triggered. While the shield held, it reflected 20% of all incoming physical damage back to the attacker as True Damage. The game calculated the reflection based on the *unmitigated* 5,000 physical attack of the boss, before Levi’s armor or diamond necklace reduced it.
A violent, dark-purple shockwave exploded out from Levi’s shield and slammed directly back into the massive Goliath.
[-1,000 True Damage]
The corrupted red text popped up over the giant’s head. The Goliath actually staggered backward, dropping its stone pillar slightly as it absorbed 1,000 points of completely unblockable damage.
Levi burst out laughing. "Oh, that is absolutely broken. You’re literally killing yourself."
The second Goliath charged in, bringing its stone pillar down in an overhead crush. It smashed into Levi’s shield.
[-2,308]
[-1,000 True Damage]
The shield absorbed the hit, dropping to 3,394 HP, and instantly blasted the second giant with reflection damage.
Levi didn’t just stand there forever. The shield had a 60-second cooldown, and it was going to break on the next hit. He used his 1,191 Speed to blur into motion. He dashed between the two towering giants, becoming a glitching black shadow.
He didn’t bother using Hollow’s Guillotine to shred their defense. He wanted to save his mana. He just swung basic physical attacks, letting the silver blade of his scythe hack into their ankles for a measly 480 damage a pop.
[-480] [-480] [-480]
The damage was pathetic, but every hit triggered his weapon’s 10% Lifesteal, instantly feeding 48 HP back into his pool to keep him topped off. More importantly, it applied the 5 DMG/sec true damage bleed on both targets.
He treated the fight like a high-speed game of tag. He would use his massive speed advantage to completely run circles around the lumbering giants. He physically ducked under sweeping pillars, slid between their massive iron-clad legs, and chipped away at their health bars.
Whenever his Platinum Ward came off its 60-second cooldown, Levi intentionally stopped dodging. He would cast the massive 8,010 HP shield, let both Goliaths smash him with their 5,000 Attack swings, and watch the shield reflect 1,000 True Damage back into their faces.
It was a slow, grueling marathon.
Levi was sweating profusely inside the NerveDive helmet, his real-world arms aching from landing hundreds of basic strikes, but the strategy was mathematically flawless. The Goliaths were slowly killing themselves against his abyssal barrier.
Fifteen minutes dragged on.
Their massive 250,000 health pools finally melted down. 100,000. 75,000. 60,000.
Levi watched the red bars closely as he dodged another overhead smash.
"Okay, almost there," Levi grunted, checking his mana pool. He popped a Greater Mana Potion from his belt, letting the blue liquid refill his tank to a comfortable 3,060/3,060.
The health bars dipped to exactly 50,000 HP.
Twenty percent of 250,000. The magic threshold was met.
"Soul Harvest."
Levi dumped 50 Mana. The pitch-black spectral guillotine materialized high in the vaulted ceiling of the ossuary. It slammed straight down, completely ignoring the giant’s 3,000 Defense, and cleanly decapitated the first Abyssal Goliath.
[Target Executed. Movement skill cooldowns reset.]
Levi burned 20 Mana, his body dissolving into dark light. He teleported exactly ten meters to the right, appearing behind the second giant.
"Soul Harvest."
Another 50 Mana vanished. The second spectral scythe dropped.
Both Level 60 Elites collapsed onto the bone-littered floor. They violently shattered into millions of glowing blue polygons, raining high-tier crafting materials all over the ossuary.
Levi toggled off his Siphon Aura to stop the mana drain and leaned heavily on his scythe.
Before the polygons even settled, two incredibly dense, thick crimson auras ripped out of the empty space. They shot across the room and slammed directly into his chest.
[Supreme Harvester triggered 2 times.]
[Abyssal Goliath’s primary stat is VIT (3200).]
[You have plundered 5% of its core stat.]
[Gained +160 VIT permanently!]
Levi let out a massive, tired laugh as the raw Vitality forced its way into his avatar. Plus one hundred and sixty Vitality from two kills.
He opened his status menu instantly. His previous Vitality was 334. Adding the +160 from the plunder pushed it straight to 494.
His health pool underwent a violent, massive expansion, his new maximum health was a staggering 9,980 HP.
His base Defense also spiked. 494 Vitality plus the 50 Defense from his Platinum Mantle of the Long Night pushed his permanent Defense to exactly 544.
"Almost ten thousand health," Levi said, staring at the numbers in disbelief. "I’m not a glass cannon anymore. I’m a raid boss."
A second later, the massive XP drop hit his progression bar.
[System Notification: Slain 2x Level 60 Elite Abyssal Goliaths. Gained 22,000,000 XP.]
The 22 million XP made a massive jump in his bar, pushing him to 82.5 million out of the 100 million needed for Level 50, but he didn’t level up.
Levi closed his menu and looked back at Isolde. She was standing patiently near the entrance, her wooden staff resting at her side.
"The shield reflection mechanic is operating at a highly optimal efficiency rating," Isolde stated flatly.
"Yeah, it’s pretty great," Levi smirked, spinning his scythe. "Come on. We’ve got a maze to clear."
—-
The Ashen Labyrinth was getting on Levi’s nerves. The twisting walls made of fused bones were bad enough, but his real issue was his damage output.
He was approaching Level 50, yet he was still swinging a Gold-tier weapon he got from a Level 25 boss. The Sovereign’s Deathknell was a great scythe, but its base Attack of 140 was starting to bottleneck his build. Against the massive armor pools of the Level 60 Elites in this maze, he needed something that hit considerably harder.
"This thing is basically a butter knife now," Levi grumbled, shaking the bone dust off the dark-gold blade. "I need an upgrade before we hit the Spire."
Over the last few hours, Levi had completely altered his farming route. Instead of clearing everything in his path, he had actively hunted down Obsidian Dreadknights. He knew their loot tables. He needed their weapon drops.
He had intentionally isolated and slaughtered exactly ten more Dreadknights in the twisting corridors. It was a tedious, sweaty grind of dodging heavy greatswords and relying on Isolde’s True Damage blasts to break their armor walls, but the effort paid off.
Levi kicked the shattered remains of the tenth Dreadknight aside and sifted through the blue polygons.
"Finally," Levi grinned.