Chương 143: One Damage

Meno returned to the main castle with Fael sitting ominously in his inventory and went straight through the Royal Quarter toward the throne room. The changes started before he even got there. Guards bowed as he passed, and when the throne-room doors opened, the music stopped so abruptly that half the nobles turned before Meno had taken three steps inside.

Westmarket's permanent royal party was still going, tables covered in food and wine with servants circling between them, but now most of the nobles offered shallow half-bows instead of ignoring him. That was already weird. The Royal Quartermaster had been sprawled sideways across the throne as usual, but the moment he saw Meno, he straightened, brushed at his coat, and tried to arrange his face into something respectable. The result looked mostly constipated.

"I always knew your potential, my Lord." Marcel did not bow, apparently unwilling to surrender that much dignity, but standing properly was already unprecedented. Meno gave him an ugly look and said nothing. Before introducing Fael to anyone, he needed to check the faction vendor. If the cursed pet ate Marcel and permanently removed access to the Quartermaster, that would be one of the most legendary self-owns he had managed so far.

He motioned toward the guard beside the throne, and the NPC handed him the vendor scroll immediately. The interface opened, and the result was tragic. Legendary III equipment had indeed unlocked at 250, 000 Reputation, exactly like Meno hoped. Every piece also cost two million gold.

"You have got to be kidding me." Meno scrolled through the weapons twice, hoping he had misread a zero. He had not. Even BrineSaint's old bounty-farming pace would have required something like forty hours of extremely efficient Veyran grinding to buy a single piece under the old Red Bastion gold setup. Worse, Meno technically had a lot of money sitting in the auction house. Sitting, because he had listed everything with no buyout and a two-day duration. Only a few hours had passed.

Meno vaguely remembered that canceling an active auction charged a penalty based on the current highest bid. With millions of viewers and major guilds already fighting over the Masterwork pieces, that could mean paying hundreds of thousands of gold just to take his own items back down. He closed the vendor interface in irritation. Lately, he kept solving whatever problem was directly in front of him and creating another one twenty minutes later.

The auction distraction had worked perfectly, but he had not considered that Tyrant might immediately require an entire arsenal. Excellent planning. With nothing useful left to do at the vendor, Meno finally turned toward Marcel.

"I would like to introduce a friend." Marcel wrinkled his nose.

"I hope it smells better than you." His eyes widened slightly.

"I mean, naturally, I am honored." While saying it, he became distracted by something inside his left nostril and started trying to remove it with one finger.

"Isabel! Prepare our welcoming cheese tray." The woman beside the throne immediately hurried toward a servant, gave several quick instructions, and sent him through a side door. Marcel finally gave up on his nose.

"When can we expect this guest?"

"Now." Meno focused on the cursed item. Black smoke popped across the throne-room floor, and Fael appeared lying flat on its back. Asleep. The creature was larger than Meno expected. If it stood upright, it would probably reach around his knees. Black fur covered almost everything below the neck, but the head was clearly reptilian rather than primate, resembling an oversized snapping turtle attached to the body of some strange tailless ape.

Its hands ended in thick yellow claws that looked far too combat-ready for something officially labeled a Non-Combat Pet. Meno was increasingly convinced Fael existed as some secret ingredient to a horrible quest chain, but he had no interest in figuring that out right now. Marcel recoiled against the throne.

"What in the tarnation is that thing?! You brought a forsaken, fallen being into the throne room!"

"It's friendly. Just pat its stomach." DO IT MARCEL PET FAEL PETTING FORBIDDEN BTW THIS IS AN ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT marcel trust him he is very trustworthy Marcel narrowed his eyes.

"You take me for a fool."

"Yes."

"Isabel, quickly notify the staff to swap the guest tray to the special one from the basement." Isabel relayed the order without hesitation. Fael remained on its back, asleep without the slightest concern for the entire royal court staring at it. The Nap Time: Always line had apparently not been flavor text. Meno waited several seconds, then decided there was only one useful test. He walked over and nudged Fael's stomach with his foot. Fael reacted instantly. Its turtle neck shot outward like a whip.

Meno saw the head blur toward him and jumped on instinct, then kicked against empty air with Airwalk to throw himself higher as the neck swept through the throne room in a complete circle. Every noble hit the floor. Tables overturned, platters and glasses crashed across the stone, and Marcel fell backward onto his ass while a Royal Guard dove over him like somebody had just attempted an assassination.

The turtle head completed its sweep without actually biting anything, snapped back into Fael's body, and the creature stood. Meno remained suspended in the air for a moment, looking down at the wreckage. Fael looked around with the deeply offended expression of something that had been awakened against its will.

NECK BOSS INTRO EVERYONE HIT THE FLOOR LMAO non-combat BTW PBG almost decapitated by a cosmetic PETTING FORBIDDEN MEANS PETTING FORBIDDEN Meno pointed toward Marcel, who was being pulled upright by two guards.

"Hey. Eat that guy there." Fael looked. [Fael refuses to eat Royal Quartermaster Marcel.] Reason: Meat spoiled. For several seconds, Marcel looked too offended to form language. SPOILED MEAT ROYAL QUARTERMASTER: EXPIRED FAEL HAS STANDARDS MARCEL REJECTED BY THE PET HE WONT EVEN EAT HIM LMAOOOO Isabel, somehow, looked delighted.

"Oh, it's adorable!" The Royal Guards seemed less sure what to make of what had just happened. Fael solved the immediate problem by hopping onto the throne, curling into a ball, and going back to sleep. Marcel remained standing because nobody seemed willing to discover what happened if they physically moved it. A servant finally rushed out of the side room carrying the special welcome platter.

Large slabs of preserved meat had been stacked across it, and Meno deliberately avoided asking what animal, or person, they came from. Marcel accepted the tray with shaking hands, selected one slab, and approached his occupied throne like he was feeding a dragon.

"Good creature. Very good creature." He held the meat over Fael. One reptilian eye opened, and the neck snapped upward so fast that Marcel barely had time to flinch before the entire slab disappeared. Fael swallowed it whole, tucked its head back down, and closed its eyes again. [Fael's mood improved from Absolute Hatred to Near-Absolute Hatred.]"Progress," Meno said.

"Good boy," Marcel whispered. He offered another piece. Fael ate it, but nothing changed. Apparently, Near-Absolute Hatred was all one platter could buy. Isabel watched from several feet away until curiosity defeated survival instinct. She crept closer to the throne, slowly extended one hand toward Fael's stomach. Meno saw the reptilian eyes open.

"Maybe don't—" Fael moved. The creature became a black blur, grabbed Isabel, and launched her across the throne room. She screamed as she flew toward the doors. Meno jumped before thinking, kicked sideways with Airwalk to correct his trajectory, caught Isabel in midair, then used another kick to redirect both of them before landing smoothly near the entrance. He let her go, and Isabel stood frozen in shock. Marcel lit up.

"Amazing! Isabel, you were flying! Do it again! Do it again!" Her fear lasted maybe another second before turning into delight.

"Yes! My Lord, I shall. What a thrill!" Meno looked from her to Marcel, then toward Fael sleeping on the throne again. He had officially reached his limit for roleplay.

"I'm leaving." He actually hoped the cursed pet would decide the throne was comfortable enough to remain Marcel's problem, but when Meno reached the door, Fael dissolved into black smoke, rushed across the room, and disappeared back into his inventory. That told him something important: if Fael could return to the item on its own, it could probably leave on its own too. The Mythic bow was starting to feel expensive despite costing 1g.

There was no doubt the creature would reappear at the worst possible moment someday. Meno left the throne room while chat continued demanding that he summon Fael again. The spam gradually changed as he crossed the Royal Quarter, with KESTREL INTERVIEW and META DESK becoming common enough to catch his attention. That was worth checking, so Meno opened the Meta Desk stream in an overlay. The show used a clean studio setup.

Mina Calde sat on one side of the desk with Sera Voss beside her, while Kestrel occupied the guest chair across from them. Kestrel looked almost exactly like his character: light-brown hair shaved tightly at the sides with the longer top pulled into a rough Viking-style cut, heavy stubble, lean build. He was definitely older than Meno by several years, probably somewhere in his early thirties. Mina was already in the middle of a question.

"Crownfall has been criticized for avoiding open PvP despite having several players near the top of the global rankings. Why not split your strongest players away from dungeon progression and start contesting some of these faction objectives directly?" Kestrel leaned back.

"Look, we don't have time to PvP. When you're managing a guild, it's not just about you. PBG can rush ahead and soak all the solo XP he wants, but I need to make sure everyone in the guild progresses at a steady pace. If we split the best players and tell them to solo now, half of Crownfall falls behind, especially healers, supports, and casters that aren't viable solo." That sounded like a bunch of reasonable excuses, which still made them excuses. Sera followed up.

"So you don't see the current level gap as a serious problem?"

"No. We'll let the guys go solo once we near the Level 100 thresholds. PBG might be ahead now, but he'll have a rude awakening later." You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story. Meno frowned at the overlay. Sure. Mina shifted toward the obvious subject.

"PrayerBeadGod just razed Northspire, disabled Red Bastion's faction benefits, created a raid modeled on his former class, and then became the first Tyrant. Do you see that as smart competitive play, or mostly spectacle?"

"It's just attention-seeking behavior. I don't know how his ego fits inside the capsule." Kestrel gave a faint smile.

"Crownfall is a professional guild. We don't ruin other people's fun. We have sponsors to think about." Meno was getting tired of hearing ego every time he did something interesting. He was not razing cities because he needed everyone looking at him. He did it because the option existed and because Kestrel's people had blown up his ship. What was he supposed to do, pick Mercy and quietly farm another dungeon for sixteen hours? Sera glanced at her notes.

"He's said repeatedly that the entire Northspire incident started because two Crownfall players destroyed his ship. Did you order that?"

"No. I did not tell anyone to blow up his ship. Those two idiots acted on their own and have already been removed from the guild." Meno did not believe him for a second. Mina moved to the raid itself.

"Will Crownfall attempt the new Northspire Raid?"

"No. What for?" Kestrel asked.

"I don't think it's impossible, but it would be a major time sink better spent spamming dungeons."

"And Crownfall's faction plans?" Sera asked.

"You're currently showing Sunring Concord tags. Was that a reaction to losing Northspire?"

"It wasn't a decision in reaction to him ruining Red Bastion. We'd already been considering the swap to Sunring Concord, Southreach. We needed to farm some gear first because swapping factions makes old faction gear unusable." Kestrel leaned forward slightly.

"Sunring Concord's buffs are superior now. Final dungeon bosses drop trophies and one additional equipment item. Each dungeon boss drops at least one crafting material. With loot like Masterwork and above, that's clearly better than wasting time farming gold for a vendor, which is frankly lame and extremely time-consuming. Nobody likes farming gold." That part, at least, was true. Mina brought up the Tyrant announcement.

"Let's talk numbers. People are calling Tyrant the strongest class evolution revealed so far. Do you agree?"

"Well, Tyrant is obviously strong, but I don't think it's as good as people seem to think. PBG hasn't been to Fractera yet. We've already fought monsters there, and HP values go up steeply. About ten times normal." Kestrel gestured with one hand.

"So while his static 1, 000 Chain buff looks huge numbers-wise, it only really counts as if it were around 100 on Veyran relative to those health pools." That got Meno's attention. Ten-times HP. Good to know. Sera asked, "Are Crownfall players pursuing the remaining two Tyrant slots?"

"No. I'm sure positive Karma will eventually have similar benefits, but currently that's almost impossible for top players to farm because most people are lower level than us. Other PvE content should have similar benefits." Kestrel shrugged.

"And I like my Eternal. Once I know the fight, the 'you die' downside basically disappears and my damage shreds. It's less all-around than Tyrant, but not that far behind in terms of DPS, which is what I care about. I can always play with supports that provide the rest." Mina smiled.

"You've published an evolution guide today as well."

"I think we found and tested all the normal evolutions available. I won't explain all of them here; people can read the details on our website. Anything not in that list should be special and gated behind another system, not randomly acquirable."

"Titan included?" Sera asked.

"Titan is good. Once we saw the class-swap mechanic, it was easy to prepare for, so we already have two people with it." Kestrel paused.

"I'll give that to PBG. Going in there blind was ballsy. But once you know what it's about and avoid the last punishment phase, it's very doable. The challenges are tailored to the classes that enter, and Crownfall players are top tier." He continued before either host could interrupt.

"What needs a patch is how you have to do it at Level 59. Unlike Tyrant, if you already have an evolution, a swap option isn't presented. I'd change that. And with Naraltan deleted, post-Level-60 players can't get it anymore. Clearly an oversight." Mina asked how Titan compared with the standard evolution paths.

"Mechanically, Titan isn't as transformative as Tyrant. It doesn't change much about your class; it mostly makes the numbers bigger. It's probably the strongest unlimited evolution still, after either Eternal or Paragon depending on what you want. Paragon is the best value because it gives a good balance of offense and defense. If you're okay with no defense, DPS-wise Eternal is better." Sera glanced at another screen.

"PrayerBeadGod just purchased a Mythic I bow from the Black Market for 1g. Thoughts?"

"I saw it. Yeah, if you get to a vendor first, it's bound to have some good stuff." Kestrel smiled toward the camera.

"That's why Veyrath is so interesting. There's always something to explore. We never run out of content. The AI is doing a good job." Meno shook his head because that was blatant. Kestrel was schmoozing Solar now. Mina seemed amused as she moved toward the obvious final question.

"Any message for PrayerBeadGod?"

"No messages." Kestrel gave a small shrug.

"Apparently I'm living rent-free in his head, but I'm not especially preoccupied with him. I have enough on my plate. I do get emotional on stream sometimes. I'm human." Sera pushed once more.

"Would you duel him if the opportunity came up?"

"No. Eternal is terrible for PvP because I can die to my own skill, and he's very good at dodging. Once we get to Level 100 and classes stabilize, I'll farm him." Kestrel smiled again.

"Crownfall will naturally dominate everything except the negative Karma board. Have you seen that? The names speak for themselves. Those guys in GraveMistake are not well." Meno closed the overlay before Kestrel tilted him into doing something else expensive. RENT FREE HE SAID HE WILL FARM YOU AT 100 KESTREL ACTUALLY SOUNDS REASONABLE LOL PBG IS MAD GRAVEMISTAKE NOT WELL CONFIRMED CALL HIM CALL HIM CALL HIM"I'm not mad." That sounded defensive even to Meno. He checked the leaderboard instead.

[2] Kestrel — 66 | Prism Detonator Eternal | SC | Crownfall [3] BrineSaint — 66 | Dawn Bastion Paragon | RB | No Guild Meno frowned. Where was Thorn? Both Kestrel and BrineSaint had passed him again. They were simply too efficient. Across ten hours of dungeon farming, tiny differences in route quality, downtime, party coordination, and reset timing accumulated until the gap became entire levels. Meno had spent a lot of those same hours experimenting, streaming, arguing, and doing things that generated no XP at all.

He still did not entirely buy Kestrel's explanation about Sunring Concord. Switching factions deleted Reputation. Even if Sunring earned it naturally through dungeon progression, Crownfall would still need time to reach 250, 000 again for Legendary III vendor access and beyond. Everyone would also need replacement faction gear and probably new mounts. The Sunring special mount was not even that impressive in Meno's opinion.

Their best Tier 1 option was a Shieldback Rhino with Medium across every stat, while Red Bastion's Gilded Stag at least had High Speed at the cost of Low Jump. Both were garbage compared with the Gravecycle. The Tier 2 mount had turned into one of Meno's best time-saving purchases. Thinking about Red Bastion reminded him of Northspire, which reminded him that Thorn currently had a problem and Meno currently needed gold. That combination produced a very good idea. He called Thorn.

The guild leader answered immediately.

"What is it? I'm still mad at you. Make it short."

"How about I clean up the Northspire Raid for you? Let's say ten million gold. Up front, no refunds." There was a pause.

"And just how are you going to do that? Are you going to swap to a dead faction for only that?"

"Look, I'll apply my functioning brain and the ability to read tooltips. It's a hidden skill, so don't worry about it. Ask your sister, ask other Red Bastion people, put the gold together, then let me handle the rest."

"Five million. I'm deducting the other half to repair my office again." Meno almost stopped walking.

"Seriously? How about you lock yourself in the capsule so you stop breaking things? Or stop injecting yourself with shady stuff."

"I'll inject whatever the hell I damn please. Take it or leave it."

"Fine. Send someone to Westmarket right now. Then convince Moon to pay you half. I don't want to wait."

"Go to the bank. I'll get our guy to log." Meno summoned the Gravecycle and drove through the crowd toward Westmarket's bank. A Stormhold member was already waiting when he arrived, and after a quick trade, Meno's gold problem improved by five million gold. Good enough. He immediately reversed course toward the cathedral. The trip back down to the Black Market felt considerably longer now that he knew exactly how many stairs were involved. Meno ignored the bar and headed straight for the sixth door.

The Sin Broker's shifting voice greeted him from the darkness.

"Back so soon? Enjoying my wares?"

"Take back Fael or I'll find a way to feed you to that cat outside." The room went strangely quiet.

"Don't do that." Interesting. The Sin Broker apparently feared the cat. Meno filed that away and bought Mindmelter for 1, 000, 000g before leaving. A few minutes later, he was back above ground, on the Gravecycle, and blasting north toward Northspire. Chat kept demanding an explanation, but Meno gave them nothing. The solution to the False Hero raid was obvious enough if anyone stopped panicking and actually read the mechanics.

Thorn had convinced himself the boss was unkillable because Engulf stabilized at 10% HP while False Furnace generated Absorption. Kestrel had two people with Titan subclasses and apparently still had not connected the important part. Meno had explained the entire interaction on stream when he chose the augmentation. Everyone had the information. They were just looking at it wrong.

By the time Northspire's corrupted skyline appeared ahead, Meno had already played the fight through in his head enough times to know the sequence. First, he needed the raid to believe he belonged there. Meno stopped outside, stored the Gravecycle, and activated Mindmelter. His character did not visibly change, but a (Red Bastion) marker now sat beside Grave Crown in the interface.

"Don't clip this if it doesn't work." He equipped Sinseeker and approached the raid entrance. The barrier accepted him.

"Nice." The world transitioned, and Meno appeared inside the expanded throne room facing the giant False Hero version of himself. The raid boss remained exactly as disturbing as before: five times Meno's height, nearly naked except for pants and jewelry, sitting on an oversized throne with his own face twisted into something much more hostile. The boss opened its eyes. Meno forced his mind into the combat preset and muted everything unnecessary. Chat vanished from his attention.

The viewer count, still above 10 million, stopped mattering. In theory, the fight was simple. He could not allow False Hero to establish physical contact, because once Sticky attached the raid boss to him, Tyrant had no clean tool to remove it. He also could not damage the boss early. If he pushed the HP bar at the wrong time, the AI could use Pyronucleosis, trigger Reactor, and undo the entire setup. The boss needed to burn itself down. Meno only had to survive 9 seconds.

False Hero stood and immediately used Desync. The giant burning body crossed the throne room with ridiculous speed as Engulf activated midair. Meno jumped before contact and kicked sideways with Airwalk, letting the boss pass underneath. He used the next kick to redirect over its shoulder while False Hero landed, turned, and launched again. The size made the movement almost absurd.

Something that large should not have been able to change position that quickly, and every leap covered enough of the room that simply running away would never work. Meno used height and angle instead of distance. Another Airwalk kick pushed him sideways before the boss reached his position. He stopped briefly in empty air, watched the next trajectory form, then jumped again from nothing and let False Hero miss underneath. The boss kept burning itself, and its HP fell every second.

Meno landed only when he needed to reset his kicks, then immediately returned to the air. At one point the giant version of himself predicted the landing well enough to force a much sharper correction, so Meno leaned forward until he was almost facing the floor and kicked upward against empty air. The reversed force sent him down hard enough to roll through the landing, reset Airwalk, and launch again before False Hero could establish contact. 20%. Then 10%. The bar stopped, exactly as expected.

Drowned Pilgrim's Vitality was now countering Engulf, while False Furnace started generating Absorption on top of the boss's health. That was the opening. Meno drew Sinseeker. He had never fired a bow in VR in his life, but fortunately this one did most of the work for him. The weapon was nearly as tall as his upper body, with a dark-crimson frame, black string, and no visible quiver.

Meno pulled the string while kicking laterally through the air, and a glowing white arrow materialized as the draw reached full length. He did not even bother aiming at the boss. He released. The arrow shot forward, bent almost completely backward in a violent curve, then accelerated toward the nearest hostile target. Weapon Master doubled its projectile speed and made the shot Unblockable; Sinseeker handled the homing. The arrow hit False Hero for almost no damage, which was exactly what Meno wanted.

Magic Piercer ignored the growing Absorption Shield and shaved the boss's real HP from 10% to slightly below the Titan threshold. The AI reacted immediately. False Hero used Pyronucleosis. Engulf shut off and the boss stunned itself for 3 seconds, apparently trying to reset the dangerous low-health state and trigger Reactor. That was its mistake. Meno landed, turned, and made a short jump just above the floor.

Instead of continuing the arc, he used Airwalk to stabilize himself at that elevation, gaining Arrival's doubled Movement Speed while effectively sprinting through empty air just above the floor. Meno crossed the throne room before the stun ended, hit one final jump, and drop-kicked the giant False Hero so hard in the chest that Titan triggered on impact. The raid boss died instantly. [False Hero has been slain.] NO WAY ONE ARROW HE EXECUTED HIS OWN RAID BOSS THAT WAS THE WHOLE STRATEGY???

TITAN HARD COUNTER LMAO THORN PAID FIVE MILLION FOR THIS PBG JUST SCAMMED RED BASTION READ TOOLTIP DIFF [GLOBAL ANNOUNCEMENT] The Northspire Raid has been cleared by PrayerBeadGod. Red Bastion may begin reconstructing the city. The North has been freed; the Crown Prince returns from exile to take his rightful place as King. Meno stood beside the enormous corpse and brought chat back into focus.

"See? Trivial." That made the spam worse.

"I didn't want to give it away earlier for obvious reasons, but Titan Subclass hard-countered False Hero. All you needed was one point of real damage to pierce the Absorption and push it below 10% HP." He opened the tooltip. [Titan] Kicking a target below 10% HP kills them instantly. Bypasses all effects." Engulf can't kill the boss because the ring regenerates exactly what it loses.

False Furnace only protects against incoming damage, so once you touch the real HP bar and push it under 10%, the execute ignores the rest." The Titan effect did not care about raid HP, Reactor, or Absorption. It killed the target.

"You don't need a Mythic bow either. Any class with an Absorption-piercing hit should work if you can dodge the jumps. I'm sure Magic Piercer ammunition can be crafted for normal bows too. Sinseeker just comes with it built in." THORN GOT ROBBED create problem solve problem profit TWENTY PLAYER RAID SOLOED this was barely a raid PBG knew the boss too well"That's really all it was." False Hero was gone now.

Nobody would ever play the class again outside old clips, and the only remaining version had just been executed inside its own raid. It had been fun, deeply flawed, limited to seven abilities, and still a scam. The raid began shaking as the instance prepared to collapse. There were no rewards, exactly as promised, and Meno did not even receive any XP.

He had no interest in finding out where the automatic exit would dump him, so he left manually, resummoned the Gravecycle outside Northspire, and drove away before the surrounding players could reorganize around his bounty, as he deactivated Mindmelter. Now he had enough gold to buy two Legendary III weapons from Marcel. At least, that had been the plan. Meno looked at Sinseeker while riding and started reconsidering the entire Tyrant setup.

The bow had Legendary IV Damage Tier, one tier above the Legendary III weapons Marcel sold. And Damage Tier was king. The most important thing on a weapon by far. Chain increased all damage, so nothing prevented Meno from using Sinseeker as his primary weapon instead of forcing everything through Annihilator. The more he thought about it, the more flexible Tyrant became. Quadrillionator only needed a Massive weapon hit to generate 100 Chain.

If Meno used the skill purely as a Chain generator, the damage of the temporary Massive weapon barely mattered. He could combine Sinseeker with two Common I garbage weapons, land the guaranteed homing ranged hit, gain 100 Chain, then return to firing the bow normally. That would preserve Sinseeker's much higher Damage Tier for the attacks that actually mattered. Even better, the projectiles could not miss and could not be blocked.

Chain only broke if Meno missed or failed to land a weapon attack within 3 seconds, so as long as he fired Sinseeker often enough, maintaining Chain should become automatic. The targeting was the only obvious annoyance. Sinseeker always homed toward the closest hostile target, so add-heavy fights could drag shots away from the boss. Meno could solve that by standing closer. Melee range archery. Perfectly normal.

The main sacrifice was Annihilator's 100% Attack Speed bonus, but Meno did not even know Sinseeker's normal firing rhythm yet. He had fired exactly one arrow. Maybe it was already fast. Maybe not. There was also the Cursed Divine Teardrop sitting in his inventory. Using it on Sinseeker was incredibly tempting. Increasing a Mythic I item by another Rarity Tier sounded like the kind of decision that could produce something ridiculous. Unfortunately, the word unpredictably was doing a lot of work.

Sinseeker was already too useful to gamble. The Teardrop was probably better spent corrupting some Legendary III weapon where even a strange outcome would not destroy the foundation of his build. Meno accelerated the Gravecycle. Kestrel had said Fractera monsters carried around ten times normal HP. Good. Meno finally had something worth testing Tyrant on. If the Sinseeker strategy worked the way he thought, maybe he did not need to spend millions building a perfect Annihilator setup yet.

Maybe he could use cheap weapons for Quadrillionator, maintain Chain with unmissable arrows, and push levels immediately. Level 80 was waiting, and anyone thinking they could catch him near 100 was dreaming.