Chapter 71: [71]: The Execution of Vorn, Fall of Valerius
Levi’s basic strikes had battered Commander Vorn’s health bar down to exactly 40,000 HP.
Twenty percent. The magic threshold.
Vorn stumbled backward, his heavy obsidian armor scraping against the volcanic dirt. The massive, fifteen-foot-tall demon general let out a furious, bubbling roar. He knew he was losing the war of attrition.
The boss slammed the butt of his corrosive halberd into the ground. A bright, sickly green light began to pulse from the weapon, traveling up Vorn’s massive arms.
A system prompt flashed over the boss’s head.
[Warning: Commander Vorn is casting Abyssal Regeneration.]
"Yeah, we’re not doing that," Levi said flatly.
He didn’t try to interrupt the cast with a basic attack. He just stared up at the giant demon and tapped his skill icon.
"Soul Harvest."
Levi felt 50 Mana drain out of his massive 2,060 pool.
The dark, shadowy aura wrapping around Levi’s avatar instantly violently detached. It shot high into the smoky, ash-filled sky above the Harvester’s Exchange. The shadows compressed and expanded, instantly forming a massive, pitch-black spectral guillotine blade right over Vorn’s horned helmet.
The boss didn’t even have time to look up.
The spectral scythe slammed straight down. It completely ignored the boss’s 800 Defense. It entirely bypassed the suffocating 80% Level Suppression penalty. The giant blade cleaved cleanly through the thick obsidian armor, right through the demon’s neck.
Commander Vorn’s casting animation violently canceled. The green healing light shattered like a broken lightbulb.
The Elite’s head hit the dirt with a heavy thud. A second later, the massive fifteen-foot body collapsed and exploded into millions of glowing blue polygons.
[System Notification: Target Executed.]
[Movement skill cooldowns reset.]
Levi let out a massive, ragged exhale. He rested the heavy Gold-tier Sovereign’s Deathknell against the ground and wiped the virtual sweat from his forehead. Fighting an Elite sixteen levels higher than him was physically exhausting, but the payout was about to be absolutely ridiculous.
Before the polygons even settled into the dirt, a blinding, thick crimson aura ripped out of the boss’s crater. It was the densest harvest aura Levi had ever seen. It shot across the courtyard and slammed into his chest like a physical punch.
[Supreme Harvester triggered.]
[Commander Vorn’s primary stat is STR (600).]
[You have plundered 3% of its core stat.]
[Gained +18 STR permanently!]
"Eighteen Strength," Levi laughed, rubbing his chest. "That’s thirty-six raw base attack from a single kill. This is just getting completely unfair."
Then, the experience points dropped.
[System Notification: Slain Level 45 Elite Commander Vorn. Massive level-gap multiplier applied. Gained 14,000,000 XP.]
Fourteen million experience points.
The golden pillar of progression light crashed down from the sky with the force of a localized nuke. The light completely engulfed Levi’s avatar, instantly wiping away fifteen minutes of agonizing physical fatigue. His 5,160 Max HP and 2,060 Max Mana snapped perfectly back to full.
[System Notification: Level Up! You are now Level 30.]
"Level thirty," Levi smirked. "I just jumped another massive bracket."
He turned to look at the remaining Abyssal Gargoyles. The army of Level 35 invasion mobs had stopped swarming the NPC guards. They just stood there, staring blankly at the spot where their general had just been deleted. A second later, the Gargoyles screeched, turned around, and started frantically flying back up into the swirling black clouds.
They were retreating. His domain was completely safe.
Levi opened his menu to assign his stats and check his loot, but before his fingers even touched the holographic screen, a deafening, blaring alarm ripped across the entire server.
The UI violently flashed red. It wasn’t a standard local warning. It was a global broadcast, forced onto the screens of every single player currently logged into Starfall.
[CRITICAL EVENT: Valerius Citadel’s outer walls have fallen.]
[General Malakor is currently marching on the Citadel Core.]
[WARNING: If the Citadel Core falls, the regional safe zones will collapse. Permanent death will be enabled server-wide.]
Levi stared at the red text floating in the air.
"Permanent death," Levi read aloud, actually blinking in disbelief. "On week one? What kind of terrible business model is this? The developers are just going to let the system delete the entire player base?"
He opened the world chat. It was scrolling so fast it looked like a wall of blurred white text. People were absolutely losing their minds.
"THEY BREACHED THE WALLS! RUN!"
"I can’t log out! The menu button is grayed out!"
"What do you mean permadeath?! I just bought a bronze sword!"
"Solar Lance and Ironclad are wiping! The mobs are Level 50!"
Levi closed the chat. Isolde wasn’t lying. Because he killed the World Boss early, the system was throwing a tantrum and trying to force a server wipe to correct the timeline.
If Valerius Citadel fell, everyone died. Including him.
"Just when I got my tax haven running smoothly," Levi sighed in annoyance. "I guess I have to do everything myself."
He didn’t have time to sort through the loot boxes Vorn dropped. He quickly opened his status menu. He had 5 new free stat points from hitting Level 30. He needed to get to Valerius immediately, and he needed his attack speed to be as fast as mathematically possible to chew through the invasion forces.
He dumped all 5 points directly into Agility.
His Agility jumped from 316 to 321.
His Strength was 337. The +18 from the boss plunder pushed his permanent Strength to exactly 355, gave him an unarmed base attack of 710. Add the 140 Attack from his Gold-tier scythe, bringing it to 850. Finally, apply the massive 20% class passive from the Herald of the Hollow, pushed his unbuffed, permanent Total Attack to a staggering 1,020.
He had officially broken the 1,000 Attack barrier.
He checked his derived Speed. 321 Agility plus the 20 flat Speed from his Hollow’s Treads put his on-foot Speed at 341.
He closed his menu, dismissing the red warning prompts, and triggered his mount slot.
A massive pool of dark shadow erupted from the volcanic dirt. The Behemoth of the Hollow stepped out, its red eyes burning aggressively.
Levi grabbed the heavy leather reins and pulled himself into the saddle.
His mounted Speed calculation was completely absurd. 341 base Speed plus the Behemoth’s flat 200 bonus meant he was about to travel at exactly 541 Speed.
"Hold on tight," Levi told the dark horse.
He kicked his spurs into the Behemoth’s sides.
The beast exploded forward. The acceleration was so violently fast that the ground beneath the horse’s hooves actually shattered. Levi was pinned back in the saddle by the simulated G-force. He shot away from the Ruined Keep of Ash, leaving a massive trail of kicked-up dirt and ash in his wake, aiming dead south toward Valerius Citadel.