Chương 128: Very High Speed

"Two thrown explosives blew up the ship. How is that even possible?" Meno said as he left the Guild Hall, still annoyed.

"Crownfall had Patience at Level 60 Fishing, so they probably have a profession freak for everything. Still, it could've been cheap." SWAP TO ENGINEERING boat diffed by two consumables 100K REPAIR LOL KESTREL SENT THE DEMOLITION SQUAD cheap for them expensive for you HE REMEMBERED CRAFTING EXISTS Chat was enjoying the situation far more than Meno was, so he stopped looking at it and headed toward Westmarket's royal quarter.

He still needed a faster mount, there was no reason to keep crawling around on the Gravewurm. The royal quarter sat behind Westmarket's second wall, where the streets widened, the buildings became cleaner, and royal guards appeared often enough that Meno wondered what they were expecting to happen. He crossed through the main building and followed the noise toward the throne room, already hearing music and laughter before the doors opened. Marcel was having a party. The man seemed to exist inside a permanent feast.

Musicians played along one wall, servants moved between guests with trays of fruit, pastries, and wine, while Marcel lounged near the throne.

"Ah, you return! Slayer of Vervenzal, you smell just as bad as ever." Marcel turned toward the woman beside him, who was serving dried dates directly into his mouth.

"Isabel, would you, dear?" She chuckled, set down the tray, and picked up a yellow bottle from another servant before turning toward Meno. Meno realized what was coming and accepted it half a second before a cloud of floral scent hit him directly in the face. The smell was so aggressively sweet it should have counted as a debuff.

Meno stood there while it settled over his skin and clothes and felt a very real urge to attack both NPCs, but assaulting members of the royal family was probably a good way to discover exactly how severe Solar had made the new Karma penalties. He hated this clown.

"Show me the scroll before you get the Vervenzal treatment." Marcel laughed.

"What is Vervenzal to me? A fallen loser. I, however, remain exactly where I belong." PUNCH HIM PBG bro bit much MARCEL TITAN V CONFIRMED DO IT THE JAIL CONTENT WOULD BE PEAK he sprayed you first self defense A royal guard stepped in before Meno griefed himself and handed him the quartermaster scroll. Marcel had already gone back to entertaining himself, grabbing a drink from a nearby tray and splashing it directly into Isabel's face. She giggled like he had done her a favor.

Meno turned slightly so neither of them dirtied his vision and opened the scroll. He had 68, 660 Reputation. Tier 2 mounts only required 25k, which meant he had more than enough progression to browse properly. He wanted to check the new faction gear afterward, but the mount came first.

[Available Tier 2 Mountstones] [Grave Crown Blightscale] Speed: High Control: Low Jump: High Capacity: High The Blightscale looked like a giant Komodo dragon that had died, rotted halfway through, and then been informed it still had work tomorrow. It was pretty sick, and High Capacity made it useful for moving a raid, but Meno had come for a solo mount. He moved on. [Grave Crown Gravecycle] Speed: Very High Control: Very High Jump: Low Capacity: Low"This is it," Meno said, already decided.

The Gravecycle was an actual mechanical mount instead of another animal-shaped corpse. Very High Speed and Very High Control were exactly what he wanted. Low Jump was annoying, but he still had the Gravewurm whenever he needed a mount that could leave the ground. More importantly, Desync Titan had already given Meno more vertical mobility than most mounts could offer. The price hurt more. Every Tier 2 Mountstone cost 250k gold. Meno checked the remaining options before committing.

[Grave Crown Rotwhale] Speed: Low Control: Medium Jump: High Capacity: Very High The Rotwhale looked like the Gravewurm's cursed older brother: a huge beached-whale corpse dragging itself around on skeletal legs jutting from both sides of its body. High Capacity already supported around twenty people, so Very High Capacity had to mean some ridiculous number. Meno could imagine GraveMistake piling onto it, but the last time he had organized a raid, JustrelaxPete died. Raids were dangerous.

[Grave Crown Graverunner] Speed: High Control: Medium Jump: Very High Capacity: Low The Graverunner looked like a skeletal horse reinforced with black metal and too many sharpened bones. Very High Jump was tempting, and for any sane solo player it was probably the best balanced option among the four. Meno was not interested in balance. He purchased the Gravecycle for 250k, bringing his total down to 2, 799, 415g.

Not long ago, he had been sitting comfortably above five million, and between the ship, the repair bill, and now the mount, more than two million had disappeared almost immediately. Going broke in Veyrath was much easier than getting rich. The repair bill dragged Kestrel back into his head, making the purchase feel even more expensive. He moved on to the rest of the quartermaster inventory and noticed there was still no Level 60+ PvP flag available. That made Fractera look even more unfinished.

The zone had technically opened, but none of the systems around it were ready for the next stage of progression. Monsters were sparse, nobody had found a meaningful dungeon, and even the faction vendors had not updated into whatever came after the current gear tier. There had to be a world-state trigger everyone was missing. Fractera should have a neutral city, a progression hub, something, and Meno suspected finding or activating it would update everything else.

The PvP equipment was strange enough to pull him away from that theory. With 68, 660 Reputation, the highest tier he could buy was Epic I. Epic II required 75k Reputation, Epic III required 100k, and the requirement for Legendary I remained hidden. Disappointing. More importantly, now that old Karma had become Reputation, Meno had no idea how Grave Crown players were supposed to increase it efficiently. If Solar expected them to start questing for faction progression, that would be too evil.

There had to be PvP quests somewhere. Unless Solar had forgotten. Also possible. Meno opened one of the plate pieces. Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.

[Epic I Grave Crown Breastplate] Type: Plate Chest Durability: Maximum Defense: High Plate Penalty: -5% Action Speed -5% Maximum HP +5% Healing Reduction Applied on Damage +2% Cooldown Recovery Speed +5% Crowd Control Recovery Speed +1% HP regenerated Per Second +5% Elemental Damage Reduction"Very cookie-cutter stat distribution. I don't get the minus max HP. With five items that's a troll. It even makes the regen worse. And this thing costs 25k gold."

The rest of the plate pieces used the exact same stat package, so Meno skipped through them and opened leather instead. [Epic I Grave Crown Hideskin] Type: Leather Chest Durability: Maximum Defense: Medium Leather Bonus: +2% Action Speed -5% Maximum HP +5% Healing Reduction Applied on Damage +2% Cooldown Recovery Speed +5% Crowd Control Duration +5% Movement Speed +5% Damage"Leather good. Movement Speed and Damage are the best stats easy."

SHOCKING PBG LIKES DAMAGE speed addict reviews gear defense is for people who get hit Thorn just closed the stream LEATHER PROPAGANDA AGAIN next he tells us action speed is good faster faster faster"Very funny, chat. Thanks for being here." The remaining leather pieces had identical stats, meaning a full set would provide 25% Movement Speed before other effects.

Meno might actually have considered buying it if Unstable did not disable normal grounded movement, but with False Hero he would be spending most important combat windows hopping around like an idiot anyway. Cloth came next.

[Epic I Grave Crown Robe] Type: Cloth Chest Durability: Maximum Defense: Low Cloth Bonus: +10% Crowd Control Recovery Speed -5% Maximum HP +5% Healing Reduction Applied on Damage +2% Cooldown Recovery Speed +1% Mana Regenerated Per Second +2% Cast Speed +5% Damage and Healing"The cloth bonus is obviously broken for PvP. Wouldn't be surprised to see Karma beasts run around in full cloth, even if the Cast Speed and Mana regen is useless to him."

Ten percent Crowd Control Recovery Speed per piece was a lot when players could die inside a single stun chain. False Hero could not exploit it for Pyronucleosis because the self-stun ignored recovery modifiers, but almost any normal PvP build would care. Meno checked mail.

[Epic I Grave Crown Scaleskin] Type: Mail Chest Durability: Maximum Defense: Medium Mail Bonus: +5% Defense Pierce -5% Maximum HP +5% Healing Reduction Applied on Damage +2% Cooldown Recovery Speed +2% Damage Reduction +2% Attack Speed +7% Damage"Mail is the bait. More damage on paper, but trust me, Movement Speed is better for uptime. You also don't need Damage Reduction if you don't get hit. Still, Mail is probably best for you guys in chat."

BAN HIM AGAIN dodging is waste of damage get healer zero defense pants man giving survival advice THORN WAS RIGHT yes mail best he is right Meno smiled and moved on to weapons, hoping they had somehow escaped the faction's maximum-HP curse. They had not. [Epic I Grave Crown Poker] Type: Dagger Durability: Maximum -5% Maximum HP +5% Healing Reduction Applied on Damage +2% Cooldown Recovery Speed +15% Block Pierce +1% Lifesteal +30% Damage"Now that's a weapon.

The Rare III dagger I used against Vervenzal only had +15% Damage. I also had over 10k Chain stacks, so that's that." Meno focused on the Block Pierce next.

"This is a Thorn counter. Two of these and he dies behind his shield. You would probably need at least Legendary I for the base damage, but it's solid." The first three stat lines were shared across every Grave Crown weapon he checked: Maximum HP loss, Healing Reduction applied on damage, and Cooldown Recovery Speed. Apparently that was the faction identity now.

"The minus HP is the curse." The rest of the martial weapons followed the same pattern, so Meno checked a caster weapon out of curiosity. [Epic I Grave Crown Branch] Type: Two-Handed Staff Durability: Maximum -10% Maximum HP +10% Healing Reduction Applied on Damage +4% Cooldown Recovery Speed +30% Spell Block Pierce +30% Cast Speed +60% Damage and Healing"Cast Speed is huge. I wonder if that Healing also applies to self-heals. If yes it makes sense, it didn't get Lifesteal."

The one-handed wand used roughly half the values, while rings and amulets came in several variants aimed at different archetypes. Every one Meno checked still carried -5% Maximum HP. A full Grave Crown set could cut maximum HP by 50%. That was brutal enough at Epic I. There was no way the penalty also increased with rarity, because eventually players would equip themselves into a health bar that barely existed. Surely. Meno closed the quartermaster interface and tossed the scroll back to the royal guard.

On the way out, he grabbed a pastry topped with strawberry-looking cream from the tray of a nearby server and threw it directly at Marcel. It hit him on the nose. Cream spread across his face.

"YOU!" DIRECT HIT MARCEL GOT SNIPED PASTRY DETONATION RUN PBG RUN HE FINALLY ATTACKED HIM FALSE HERO VS TRUE KING ISABEL SPRAY HIM AGAIN Meno was already running out of the throne room, chuckling to himself before anyone could decide whether pastry assault counted as an attack. That felt good. Once he cleared the royal quarter, Meno opened Kestrel's stream in an overlay and confirmed that the Crownfall GM was indeed somewhere in Fractera. Perfect.

He closed the stream, left through Westmarket's western gate, and finally summoned the Gravecycle. The Mountstone unfolded with a metallic scrape as black bone and iron bands assembled into a low two-wheeled machine. Grave-runes rotated inside the frame, and the wheels were not rubber at all but spinning rings of compressed ash surrounded by blue corpse-fire. The whole thing looked like someone had described a motorcycle to a necromancer and refused to provide an example. Meno climbed on and activated it.

The Gravecycle launched with a sound like shovel blades scraping across stone. Very High Speed justified the price immediately. Westmarket's outer buildings blurred behind him while blue corpse-fire streaked along the road. Meno made a small correction around an NPC wagon and learned that Very High Control mattered as much as acceleration. The mount cut around the obstacle without the wide turn he expected from something moving that fast. He pushed harder.

Players on ordinary mounts stayed ahead just long enough for Meno to recognize them before they vanished behind him. The rotating runes spun faster, the corpse-fire thickened around the wheels, and the grinding sound beneath the mount rose into a metallic scream as the Gravecycle tore west. The Low Jump rating became obvious whenever the road changed elevation. The machine barely wanted to leave the surface, absorbing bumps and holding itself down instead of launching into the air. Meno did not care.

The Gravecycle existed to go forward very quickly, and it did that extremely well. Corners were the only place he had to pay attention. Very High Control did not mean the game saved him from bad inputs; it meant every bad input happened immediately. At this speed, jerking the mount too far would still send him into a tree with incredible responsiveness. Meno kept the corrections small and reached the Royal Docks much faster than he ever had on the Gravewurm. The new mount was exactly what he had hoped for.

He had also learned from the previous boat incident. There was no chance he was summoning the Blackwake beside a crowded dock where another invisible idiot could throw explosives onto it. Meno dismissed the Gravecycle well before the shoreline, ran toward one of the outer piers, planted both feet at the end, and launched himself toward open water with Desync Titan. The jump carried him far beyond the docking bays and over the Jagged Sea.

Several viewers who had managed to follow him stopped near the shore while Meno sailed forward, dropped, and hit the water well away from anyone who might have demolition charges ready. He summoned the repaired Blackwake immediately. Dark water spiraled over the sea beside him as the miniature vessel expanded into full size. Once the hull settled onto the waves, Meno grabbed the ladder, climbed aboard, and went straight to the raised steering position. Meno opened the sails and pushed the ship to full speed.

The Blackwake surged forward as wind filled the dark canvas and the sharp bow cut through the waves. It felt completely different from controlling a normal mount. The vessel had too much mass to snap into a new direction the moment he turned the wheel, so Meno had to start every movement earlier and let the hull carve through the water. Rocky shelves jutted from the Jagged Sea ahead, some barely visible beneath the waves while others rose into long black formations capable of tearing open the hull if he hit them.

Meno aimed between the first two and learned quickly that the Blackwake rewarded smooth steering. Sharp turns killed speed; wide lines kept the sails working and let the ship carry momentum through the gaps. He started taking the shelves faster. The Blackwake leaned slightly as it cut around one formation, straightened into a narrow channel, then accelerated once the water opened ahead.

Spray rolled along the black hull while the sails snapped overhead, and Meno found the whole thing much more satisfying than sitting on some NPC transport while the game moved him across the ocean. After a few minutes, the coast was already shrinking behind him and the Jagged Sea had opened into mostly uninterrupted water. Meno kept the ship at full speed, happy with the purchase now that it was no longer on fire, and started thinking about what he would do when he reached Kestrel.

Then he realized he had no idea where Fractera actually was. Meno slowed only enough to open the world map safely while still steering. Veyrath spread across the display, with Naraltan marked far away on the opposite side of the continent, but Fractera was not highlighted anywhere useful from his current position. He looked from the map to the open sea ahead. Every available direction looked basically the same.

"Wait." Meno turned in place, surrounded by water.

"Where the hell is Fractera?"