Chapter 55: [55]: The Wraith King, 60% Suppression
Levi walked down the final set of stone stairs, his boots crunching against the scattered bone dust. The temperature in the Undercrypt dropped so fast that his virtual breath turned into thick white clouds. Frost completely covered the black plating of his Obsidian Carapace.
At the bottom of the steps, a pair of massive, heavily rusted iron doors sat slightly open. A pale blue light leaked out from the gap, accompanied by the distinct, heavy sound of metal scraping against stone.
Levi pushed the doors open with his shoulder. The hinges shrieked loudly.
The final chamber of the Undercrypt was built like a massive colosseum. The walls were lined with thousands of embedded skulls, and the floor was made of perfectly smooth, polished black marble.
Standing dead in the center of the room was the ruler of this dungeon.
It was a towering, ten-foot-tall suit of jagged iron armor completely filled with swirling, violent blue ghost-light. The monster didn’t have a physical body, just a floating spectral cape and a massive, glowing greatsword resting on its shoulder.
[Wraith King Morwen]
[Level: 35 | Boss]
[HP: 200,000 | ATK: 1,200 | DEF: 500]
"Two hundred thousand health," Levi muttered, resting his Gold-tier Sovereign’s Deathknell scythe on his shoulder. "And an attack stat over a thousand. You’ve got to be kidding me."
He didn’t take another step forward. He just stood at the entrance and ran the math in his head. This was the biggest level gap he had ever faced against a boss entity. He was Level 23. Morwen was Level 35.
That was a twelve-level gap. The game’s Level Suppression penalty scaled at 5% per level, meaning he was about to get slammed with a suffocating 60% damage reduction penalty.
’Alright, let’s break down the wall,’ Levi thought, his eyes tracking the boss as it slowly turned its horned helmet toward him. ’Morwen’s Defense is 500. My Gold scythe ignores 20% of that. Twenty percent of 500 is 100. That drops his effective Defense down to 400.’
He checked his own offense. Thanks to his recent level-ups and stat allocations, his Total Attack was sitting at a highly respectable 544.
544 minus 400 meant his raw damage per swing was exactly 144. Now came the brutal part. Apply the 60% suppression penalty. That meant he was only dealing 40% of his actual damage.
144 multiplied by 0.4 resulted in roughly 57 Final Damage per basic strike.
"Fifty-seven damage a swing against two hundred thousand health," Levi sighed, actually shaking his head. "That is roughly three thousand and five hundred basic attacks. I’m going to get carpal tunnel from this."
He ran the defensive numbers next. If the Wraith King hit him, its 1,200 Attack would go up against Levi’s 113 Defense.
1,200 minus 113 meant he would take exactly 1,087 damage per hit.
Levi’s Max HP was 1,760. One hit would drop him to 673 health. Two hits would instantly kill him.
"No mistakes," Levi told himself.
He dumped 150 Mana. "Hollow’s Ward."
The pitch-black, swirling dark-matter shield instantly erupted around his avatar, locking into place with exactly 755 HP. He toggled on his Siphon Aura. The green light wrapped around his boots, and his mana began ticking down by 2 points every second.
Wraith King Morwen didn’t wait for him to buff up any further. The boss raised its spectral greatsword, the blue ghost-light flaring violently, and charged. It didn’t run; it simply glided across the polished marble floor, closing the gap instantly.
The boss swung the greatsword in a massive, horizontal sweep.
Levi kicked off the marble. His 103 Speed made him incredibly fast. He ducked under the glowing blade, feeling the digital chill of the ghost-light scrape past his neck, and popped up right inside the boss’s guard.
"Hollow’s Guillotine!"
He dumped 100 Mana. The scythe erupted in a blinding, pitch-black and gold aura. He unleashed the massive ten-meter cone directly into the Wraith King’s armored chest.
Math processed the skill instantly: 544 Attack times 3.5 gave 1,904 raw damage. Minus the 400 effective Defense left 1,504. Apply the 60% penalty, and the final skill damage was exactly 601.
[-601]
The boss staggered slightly. The skill’s debuff triggered. A broken shield icon popped up over Morwen’s head, shredding 20% of its remaining armor. The boss’s Defense plummeted from 400 down to 320.
Levi went to work. With the defense shredded, his basic strikes hit marginally harder. 544 minus 320 equaled 224. Multiply by 0.4 for the suppression penalty, and his new basic attacks dealt exactly 89 Final Damage.
[-89] [-89] [-89]
He landed three rapid strikes, hacking the heavy gold blade into the spectral armor. The 10% Lifesteal fed a tiny 8 HP back into his pool per swing, keeping his health topped off.
The tiny bleeding teardrop icon appeared over the Wraith King’s head.
[-5] [-5] [-5]
"That’s the ticket," Levi muttered. The 5 true damage per second was going to be the real MVP of this marathon.
Morwen recovered from the stagger and slammed the butt of its greatsword into the floor.
[Warning: Wraith King Morwen is casting Soul Cleave.]
The blue ghost-light inside the armor exploded outward. A dozen massive, crescent-shaped projectiles of necrotic energy shot across the room in a chaotic, overlapping pattern.
"Phantom Step!"
Levi burned 20 Mana. His body dissolved into a dark shadow, bypassing the first two projectiles completely. He reappeared five meters to the right, but the projectiles were tracking him.
He relied entirely on his 103 Speed to physically weave between the flying blades of energy. He twisted his torso, jumped over a low-flying projectile, and slid underneath another. One of the necrotic blades clipped his shoulder.
[-1,087]
The hit slammed into his Hollow’s Ward. The 755 HP shield violently shattered into black shards. The remaining 332 damage bled through to his actual health pool.
His HP dropped from 1,760 down to 1,428.
"Okay, dodging is mandatory," Levi grunted, recovering his footing.
He didn’t recast the shield yet. He needed to save mana for his Guillotine. He sprinted back into melee range and resumed the grind.
The fight turned into a state of absolute, flow-state focus. Levi couldn’t afford to take another clean hit without his shield. He completely zoned out everything except the boss’s attack animations. When Morwen pulled its shoulder back, Levi stepped right. When the boss raised the sword, Levi dashed behind it.
He maintained the debuff perfectly, casting Hollow’s Guillotine exactly every ten seconds. He kept the bleed ticking. He wove his basic attacks constantly, landing hundreds of strikes.
Minutes dragged on. Five minutes. Ten minutes. Fifteen minutes.
The VR helmet’s stamina engine was brutal. Levi’s virtual lungs burned, and his real-world arms felt like they were filled with lead. Every single swing required physical effort, and he had already swung the scythe over two thousand times.
His mana pool was a constant nightmare. He was chugging Greater Mana Potions every time his tank dipped below 50, instantly restoring 300 Mana to keep his Phantom Step and Siphon Aura online.
At the twenty-minute mark, the Wraith King’s massive health bar finally hit the bottom.
Levi couldn’t use Soul Harvest on a boss. He had to chew through the very last hit point manually.
Morwen raised its spectral greatsword for one final Soul Cleave.
Levi didn’t even try to dodge. He stepped right into the boss’s chest and drove the Sovereign’s Deathknell straight upward, directly into the glowing blue light inside the helmet.
[-89]
The bleed ticked one final time.
[-5]
The massive 200,000 HP health bar hit zero.
The Wraith King froze instantly. The blue ghost-light violently flickered and then completely blew out, like a candle getting snuffed. The massive suit of rusted iron armor collapsed into a pile of junk on the marble floor.
The boss shattered into a massive explosion of blue polygons, rare crafting materials, and gold coins.
[System Notification: You have slain Level 35 Boss Wraith King Morwen. Gained 800,000 XP.]
Levi dropped his scythe onto the marble floor. He didn’t even care about the XP drop right now. He just toggled off Siphon Aura and fell onto his back, staring up at the dark ceiling of the colosseum. His chest heaved as he sucked in digital air.
"Twenty minutes," Levi wheezed. "Never again."
Before he could even sit up, the dense, blinding crimson aura of the harvest ripped out of the boss’s dissolving armor. It shot across the room and slammed heavily into Levi’s chest.
[Supreme Harvester triggered.]
[Wraith King Morwen’s primary stat is AGI (500).]
[You have plundered 3% of its core stat.]
[Gained +15 AGI permanently!]
Levi let out a tired laugh as the raw Agility rushed into his system. He opened his menu to check the math.
His Agility jumped from 98 to 113.
His derived Speed stat exploded. He took his previous 103 Speed, added the +15, and hit exactly 118 Speed.
"A hundred and eighteen speed," Levi muttered, closing the menu. "My base walking speed is faster than most players’ sprint abilities."
He finally sat up and looked at the massive pile of loot sitting in the center of the room. He had beaten the 60% suppression wall. Now, it was time to grab his rewards and figure out what to do with his massive surplus of XP.