Chapter 54: [54]: The Phantom Grind, Level 23 Milestone
The Undercrypt of the Forgotten wasn’t just a hidden zone. It was a hyperbolic time chamber.
Levi realized instantly that leaving this cavern to go do quests or explore the overworld would be a complete waste of time. The math was undeniably in his favor. A single kill gave him 25,000 XP, and the mobs themselves dropped the exact potions he needed to sustain his highly aggressive mana-burning combat loop. He had literally found the perfect infinite farm.
He spent the next three days in the real world doing absolutely nothing else.
His routine was brutal. He would log into Aethelgard, sprint into the cavern, and start pulling. He didn’t just fight the Crypt Weavers. As he pushed deeper into the bone-lined halls, he ran into the second type of mob in the dungeon.
[Spectral Knight]
[Level: 35]
[HP: 25,000 | ATK: 850 | DEF: 400]
They were towering suits of rusted armor completely filled with glowing blue ghost-light. They wielded massive spectral greatswords and moved faster than the giant spiders.
But their health pool was 5,000 points lower. That meant Levi could hit the 20% execution threshold even faster.
The combat loop became a completely optimized machine.
Levi would run through the crypt, intentionally drawing the aggro of a Crypt Weaver and a Spectral Knight at the same time. When they charged him, he cast [Hollow’s Ward], letting his 755 HP dark-matter shield absorb their first massive hit.
"Hollow’s Guillotine!"
He would dump 100 Mana, shredding both of their armors with the massive gold-tier cone attack. Then, he used his 98 Speed to dance between the heavy greatsword swings and the venomous spider strikes. He hacked them relentlessly, keeping the 5 DMG/sec true damage bleed active on both targets.
The second the Spectral Knight hit 5,000 HP, Levi dumped 50 Mana.
"Soul Harvest."
The pitch-black spectral guillotine dropped, instantly decapitating the Knight. The movement skill cooldown reset triggered.
"Phantom Step."
Levi burned 20 Mana, dissolving into shadow to completely dodge a sweep from the spider. He reappeared behind the Crypt Weaver, chunked its remaining health down to 6,000 HP, and executed it with a second Soul Harvest.
Two dead Level 35 mobs. Fifty thousand XP gained in less than eight minutes. He looted the Greater Mana Potions they dropped, drank them to refill his tank, and moved to the next pack.
The physical toll of grinding in VR for three straight days was severe. The NerveDive helmet perfectly simulated exhaustion, meaning Levi’s real-world shoulders and back ached horribly from swinging the heavy scythe thousands of times. He only logged out when the system forced a real-world hydration warning. He would rip the helmet off, eat a bowl of cold instant noodles in his cramped apartment, drink two bottles of water, and plug right back in.
On the third day of the marathon grind, he executed a Spectral Knight.
The golden pillar of light crashed down, illuminating the dark crypt. All of the built-up simulated fatigue in his limbs instantly vanished.
[System Notification: Level Up! You are now Level 22.]
Levi stopped and leaned against a bone pillar. He pulled up his math.
Hitting Level 22 was a massive deal. The level gap between him and the Level 35 mobs was now exactly 13 levels. That meant the Level Suppression penalty dropped from 70% down to 65%.
It sounded like a minor change, but giving him back 5% of his raw damage output completely sped up the clear time. His basic strikes started hitting for 88 damage instead of 75. His Guillotine hit for 553 damage instead of 474.
He didn’t even bother assigning his 5 free stat points. He just closed the menu and went right back to pulling.
The next two days were a blur.
The cavern became a massive graveyard of dropped silver coins and useless Level 35 armor pieces. He slaughtered over a hundred more mobs. The 25,000 XP drops constantly flooded his progression bar. The combat became absolute muscle memory. Dodge, Guillotine, slash, execute, blink. Over and over again.
By the end of the fifth day, Levi was standing knee-deep in gray webbing and dissolving blue polygons.
The golden pillar of light crashed down again.
[System Notification: Level Up! You are now Level 23.]
Levi finally dropped his scythe. The heavy weapon clattered loudly against the stone floor. He toggled off his [Siphon Aura] and just stood there, breathing in the cold air of the Undercrypt.
"Okay. I’m done," Levi wheezed. "If I swing this thing one more time, my real-world arms are going to fall off."
He opened his status menu. He had completely filled the 2,000,000 XP requirement and now needed a ridiculous 3,000,000 XP to hit Level 24.
He had exactly 10 unassigned free stat points sitting in his menu from the last two level-ups.
He needed to speed up his clear times even further, and he needed to make sure he wasn’t getting clipped by the faster mobs. He split the points evenly.
He assigned 5 points to Strength, pushing it from 152 to 157.
He assigned the remaining 5 points to Agility, pushing it from 93 to 98.
The numbers updated instantly.
His derived Speed stat bumped from 98 to exactly 103. Breaking the 100 Speed barrier made his avatar feel practically weightless. When he shifted his weight, the game physics had a tiny microsecond delay trying to catch up to his movement.
He ran the new offensive math. 157 Strength times 2 gave him a base attack of 314. Adding the 140 Attack from the Sovereign’s Deathknell brought it to 454.
Finally, applying the 20% multiplier from the Herald of the Hollow class shot his Total Attack up to 544.
"Five hundred and forty-four attack. Over a hundred speed," Levi smirked, looking at his stat sheet.
He was Level 23, but he had the raw numbers of a player approaching the endgame. He picked up his scythe from the floor. He had practically cleared out the entire upper section of the Undercrypt. There was nothing left to kill except whatever was waiting at the absolute bottom of the dungeon.
He checked his potion belt. He was fully stocked with the Greater Mana Potions the mobs had dropped. He was fully healed.
Levi walked deeper into the cavern, ready to find the boss that ruled this place.