Chapter 69: [69]: Evolving the Harvest, Hollow’s Traverse
Levi stood in the courtyard of the Harvester’s Exchange, surrounded by the dissolving blue polygons of the first Abyssal Gargoyle wave. The Level 29 golden level-up light had just washed over him, completely refilling his stats.
But as he stared at his UI, he noticed a glaring problem with his combat loop.
His mana pool was at a massive 2,060 thanks to the Heart of the Chained necklace. However, even with that absurd amount of fuel, his mana was burning out way too fast.
His Siphon Aura was a constant drain of 2 Mana per second. Every time he used Hollow’s Guillotine to shred enemy armor, that was 100 Mana gone. Phantom Step cost 20 Mana, and Soul Harvest cost 50 Mana. Against a handful of enemies, it was fine. But against an endless invasion event where hundreds of mobs were dropping from the sky, the sheer volume of skill-spamming was outpacing his regeneration.
"I can’t keep chugging potions every thirty seconds," Levi muttered, opening his inventory to check his supply. He had plenty left, but the cast animation for drinking a potion broke his combat rhythm.
He walked over to the nearest pile of Gargoyle loot. The Level 35 mobs were dropping highly inflated rewards because of the event modifiers. He kicked aside a stack of heavy stone crafting materials and a few useless iron broadswords.
He was looking for skill books.
He dug through the pile until he spotted a familiar silver glow. He pulled out three identical, sleek silver tomes.
[Abyssal Lunge]
[Rarity: Silver]
[Effect: Consumes 30 Mana. Dash forward 10 meters, dealing 150% physical damage to enemies in your path. Cooldown: 12 seconds.]
It was a decent mobility skill for a normal warrior, but Levi didn’t want a dash. Dashing meant his character model physically moved through the space, which meant he could still be hit by AoE attacks mid-dash. He needed the instant teleportation of his Phantom Step.
"Let’s see if the system lets me do a targeted upgrade," Levi said.
He opened the Boundless Fusion interface. The glowing golden slots popped up in the smoky, ash-filled air of the courtyard.
Instead of just dropping the three new books in, he opened his skill menu and un-equipped his Silver-tier [Phantom Step] skill. The knowledge temporarily extracted from his avatar, materializing back into a physical silver book in his hand.
He placed the [Phantom Step] book into the primary fusion slot. Then, he dragged the three [Abyssal Lunge] books into the secondary material slots.
The system instantly flagged the transaction.
[Warning: Fusing identical rarity skill books into a targeted Gold-tier upgrade requires a raw currency fee of 500 Gold Coins. Proceed?]
"I own the auction house. Five hundred gold is literally pocket change," Levi smirked. He tapped the confirm button.
The 500 Gold vanished from his ledger. The fusion interface exploded with a blinding, prismatic light. The three Abyssal Lunge books completely melted down, turning into raw, swirling silver runes that aggressively funneled into the Phantom Step tome.
The digital grinding sound echoed loudly off the black walls of the keep. The silver cover of the book darkened into a pitch-black leather, and heavy gold trim wrapped around the binding.
The light cleared. Levi grabbed the new Gold-tier book out of the air.
[Hollow’s Traverse]
[Rarity: Gold Skill Book]
[Effect: Consumes 50 Mana. Instantly teleport up to 30 meters in any direction. Passive: If an enemy dies within 3 seconds of using this skill, the Mana cost is fully refunded and the cooldown is reset. Cooldown: 10 seconds.]
Levi actually stopped breathing for a second. He just stared at the tooltip.
"Thirty meters," Levi whispered. "And an instant mana refund."
He hit ’Learn’. The heavy gold book shattered into golden particles that rushed directly into his chest. The new spatial coordinates and teleportation math burned themselves into his avatar’s code.
He looked up at the sky. The thick, swirling black clouds over the Ashen Peaks were already parting again.
The second wave of the Abyssal Incursion was arriving.
Dozens of massive, charcoal-gray Abyssal Gargoyles dropped out of the clouds, slamming into the dirt slope outside the keep’s open gates. They shrieked, flexing their bat-like wings and dragging their jagged stone claws across the ground.
Levi didn’t wait for them to reach the gate. He wanted to test his new toy.
He locked his eyes onto a Gargoyle standing all the way at the back of the newly spawned pack, easily twenty-five meters away.
"Hollow’s Traverse," Levi commanded.
He felt a heavy chunk of 50 Mana drain from his pool. But instead of dissolving into a normal shadow, the game’s physics engine completely warped. The world stretched into a tunnel of dark light. He bypassed the entire pack of Gargoyles, crossing the massive distance instantly, and reappeared directly behind his target.
The sheer speed and distance of the teleport was jarring, but Levi’s reflexes were dialed in.
Before the Gargoyle could even turn its heavy stone head, Levi dumped 100 Mana.
"Hollow’s Guillotine!"
The Gold-tier scythe erupted in a blinding dark-gold aura. He ripped the blade in a massive cone, smashing into the target and three other Gargoyles standing next to it.
[-1,985] [-1,985] [-1,985] [-1,985]
The skill shattered their defense, dropping the broken shield debuff over their heads.
Levi stepped forward and swung a basic physical attack directly into the neck of the Gargoyle he had teleported behind. Because its defense was shredded, his 976 Attack hit like a runaway train.
[-418]
The monster’s health was already chipped, and the basic strike pushed it over the edge. It shattered into blue polygons.
The exact millisecond the Gargoyle died, a system prompt flashed in Levi’s peripheral vision.
[Hollow’s Traverse condition met. 50 Mana refunded. Cooldown reset.]
His mana bar instantly ticked back up by 50 points. The skill icon flashed green on his hotbar, completely ready to use again.
"Oh, you guys are in so much trouble," Levi laughed loudly, his voice echoing over the volcanic plains.
He had effectively unlocked infinite, completely free mobility. As long as he got a kill within three seconds of blinking, the teleport cost him absolutely nothing.
He didn’t hold back anymore. Levi turned the front gates of his Domain into an absolute slaughterhouse.
"Hollow’s Traverse!"
He blinked thirty meters to the left, appearing right next to a cluster of Gargoyles charging the NPC guards. He carved them up with basic strikes.
[-418] [-418] [-418]
The scythe’s 10% Lifesteal instantly healed any chip damage he took, while the 5 DMG/sec bleed ticked down their health bars.
He executed one with Soul Harvest. The Guillotine dropped, the monster shattered, and his teleport reset.
"Hollow’s Traverse!"
He blinked thirty meters to the right, dodging a massive claw swipe, and reappeared in the air above another Gargoyle. He brought the heavy scythe down on its skull.
The combat loop was completely flawless. He was a glitching shadow, teleporting massive distances across the battlefield, shredding armor, and chaining executions. He looked like an administrator just deleting assets from the game engine.
The Level 35 Gargoyles didn’t stand a chance. Their AI was completely incapable of tracking a target that was moving thirty meters at a time without triggering any physical pathing. They just swung their claws at empty air, roaring in confusion as Levi dismantled them from their blind spots.
The massive underdog XP modifiers kept flooding his screen. 40,000 XP per kill.
He wiped out the entire second wave in less than ten minutes. The dirt outside the keep was completely covered in a thick layer of blue polygons and dropped loot boxes.
Levi stopped in the middle of the carnage, letting his scythe rest on the ground. He didn’t even need to toggle off his Siphon Aura. Thanks to the mana refunds from his new teleport skill, his mana pool was sitting at a highly comfortable 1,800/2,060.
He looked toward the horizon. The black clouds weren’t dropping any more Gargoyles.
Instead, the massive, charred rocks at the edge of the slope began to shift. The siege engines of the Abyssal Incursion were finally rolling forward, pulled by heavily armored demon slaves.
The real assault was about to begin.