Chapter 57: [57]: The Diamond Catalyst, Tear of the Chained
Levi materialized in the center of the Harvester’s Exchange throne room in a bright flash of blue teleportation light. The dark, black glass throne and the glowing magma channels were exactly as he left them. Outside in the courtyard, he could hear the muffled shouts of players still furiously haggling and trading items.
He didn’t walk outside to greet his customers. He walked straight past the throne and opened the heavy iron door leading into his personal Domain vault.
"Let’s see how much we made," Levi muttered.
He pulled up the Domain ledger interface. Thanks to the flat 5% tax he had been skimming off every single transaction on the server’s busiest black market, his bank account was completely bloated.
[Domain Vault Balance: 85,000 Gold Coins]
Eighty-five thousand gold. Most top-tier guilds didn’t even have a fraction of that in their collective banks right now. Levi was practically the central bank of Aethelgard.
But holding onto the gold was useless. A Level 40 World Boss was spawning in exactly forty-eight hours. If that boss survived, the real-world merge happened early, and everyone died. He needed to convert this digital cash into raw, game-breaking power.
Levi accessed his Grand Mercantile Hub remotely from the vault. He opened the auction house interface and set the search filters to consumables, prioritizing raw stat buffs.
"I need burst damage. Let’s see what the crafters are selling today," Levi said, scrolling past pages of useless minor health potions and low-level defense buffs.
He found a listing near the back pages. It was a rare, Silver-tier consumable created by Alchemists who got lucky with their crafting RNG.
[Elixir of the Giant]
[Rarity: Silver]
[Effect: Grants +50 STR for 5 minutes.]
"Fifty strength is a joke against an eighty-five percent suppression penalty," Levi noted. "But it’s a start."
He checked the market supply. There were exactly thirty-two of these elixirs listed across the entire server. The sellers knew they were rare, so they were price-gouging them at roughly 1,480 Gold a pop.
Levi didn’t even blink. He tapped the buyout button repeatedly. He purchased exactly twenty-seven copies of the [Elixir of the Giant].
[Transaction Complete. 40,000 Gold Coins deducted.]
"Ouch," Levi winced slightly as his massive vault balance was instantly cut in half. "You guys better be worth it."
He closed the auction interface and pulled up his SSS-Rank talent, Boundless Fusion. The three glowing golden slots hovered in the dark vault room.
He dragged the twenty-seven Silver elixirs into the slots in batches of three.
He tapped ’Fuse’ nine times in rapid succession. Since they were only Silver items fusing into Gold, the system didn’t hit him with a ridiculous catalyst fee yet. The vault lit up with nine consecutive flashes of bright, prismatic light. The glass bottles melted, the liquids boiling and purifying until they condensed into nine heavier, gold-banded flasks.
[Blood of the Titan]
[Rarity: Gold]
[Effect: Grants +100 STR, +100 VIT for 10 minutes.]
Levi grabbed the nine Gold flasks out of the air. "Better. But still not enough."
He dragged the nine [Blood of the Titan] potions back into the fusion slots in batches of three.
The system instantly threw a massive red warning prompt across his vision.
[Warning: Fusing Gold-tier consumables into Platinum-tier requires a massive catalyst fee of 10,000 Gold Coins per fusion. Proceed?]
"Ten grand per fusion," Levi sighed. "The devs really wanted to make sure nobody ever crafted Platinum items this early."
He dumped 10,000 Gold into the payment slot and hit confirm. He did it three times in a row, burning exactly 30,000 Gold Coins. His vault balance was now sitting at a pathetic 15,000 Gold.
The fusion process for Platinum was violent. The air in the vault physically heated up. The Gold flasks completely shattered, the liquid inside them turning into a blinding, pure white energy that spun like a miniature hurricane. The digital grinding noise was deafening. The light finally stabilized, dropping three incredibly sleek, glowing white vials into Levi’s hand.
[Essence of the War God]
[Rarity: Platinum]
[Effect: Grants +300 STR, +300 VIT for 15 minutes.]
Levi stared at the stats. Three hundred strength was an insane boost. It would temporarily push his Base Attack through the roof. But he knew the math. Even with 300 extra Strength, the 85% Level Suppression penalty from the Level 40 World Boss would still reduce his final damage to single digits. He needed to push it one step further.
He placed the three Platinum vials right back into the fusion slots.
The system UI turned an aggressive, flashing crimson.
[CRITICAL WARNING: Fusing Platinum-tier items into Diamond-tier is currently restricted by server progression limits. A Divine Catalyst is absolutely required. A raw currency fee of 30,000 Gold Coins must also be provided.]
"I don’t have thirty thousand gold left," Levi realized, checking his vault. He was fifteen grand short.
He quickly opened his inventory and started dumping the massive stacks of raw crafting materials, excess silver gear, and boss drops he had hoarded from the Undercrypt onto the auction house. He severely undercut the market prices just to get liquid cash fast.
Ten minutes later, his ledger updated. He had exactly 31,000 Gold.
He dragged 30,000 Gold into the fusion payment slot. Next, he opened his spatial inventory and pulled out the [Platinum Anomaly Shard] that Isolde had left on the floor of the boss room. The shard pulsed with that strange, administrative white light.
Levi dropped the Anomaly Shard into the Divine Catalyst slot.
"Don’t blow up in my face," Levi said, tapping the confirm button.
The entire Ruined Keep of Ash violently shook. Outside in the courtyard, players started screaming, thinking an earthquake event was triggering. Inside the vault, Levi had to cover his eyes. The three Platinum vials and the Anomaly Shard collapsed inward, creating a literal miniature black hole that sucked all the ambient light out of the room.
The black hole stabilized, then exploded outward in a wave of silent, blinding force.
Floating perfectly in the center of the UI was a single, diamond-shaped vial filled with a liquid that looked like liquid starlight.
Levi reached out and grabbed it.
[Tear of the Chained]
[Rarity: Diamond]
[Effect: Grants +1,000 STR and perfectly nullifies ALL Level Suppression penalties for exactly 5 minutes. Cooldown: 7 Days.]
Levi’s jaw physically dropped. He just stared at the text floating in front of him.
"Nullifies all Level Suppression penalties," Levi whispered.
This was it. This was the god-killing weapon. A flat +1,000 Strength meant his Base Attack would skyrocket into the thousands. And without the 85% suppression penalty choking his damage, every single swing of his scythe was going to hit the World Boss for full, raw, unmitigated numbers.
He didn’t even care that he had just blown 85,000 Gold and his entire inventory of junk to make a potion that only lasted five minutes. Five minutes with uncapped damage was an eternity.
He carefully slotted the Diamond vial into the primary slot on his quick-use belt. He made sure the hotkey was completely unobstructed.
"I’m ready," Levi said, a ruthless smile spreading across his face. "Let the Gods come."