Chương 166: Delete Master

Meno logged into Veyrath with his stream turned off. After everything that had happened in Fractera, broadcasting his exact login location before he could even load properly was a free invitation to get stream-sniped. Realistically, most people capable of doing it were probably recovering from the same Streamline party, but that was no reason to hand out an ambush. Nothing waited for him in the Layer 4 cavern.

The orange glowstone still burned through the walls, seawater still trickled along the lower cracks, and no player had camped the spot where he had logged out. Meno tucked himself into a narrow corner with enough visibility to notice anyone approaching, brought the stream online. shirtgod has returned WHERE IS THE SHIRT rina debuff still active??? nice speech mr rising tide RINA + PBG CONFIRMED the shirt throw clip has 19m views lmao PUBLIC SPEAKER GOD"Forget about that. We're doing Tyrant EX right now."

Meno opened the class panel and brought up Swing Master Tyrant EX. He had spent enough time thinking about the build between waking up, researching everyone else's classes, getting drunk, and recovering from all of that to know what the real problem was.

"I considered the issue very hard. The core problem is how slowly Tyrant ramps Chain. I haven't even gotten to 2, 000 Chain yet." The number sounded pathetic now that he said it out loud. Tyrant started him at 1, 000, and every Massive hit only added 100. On paper that meant he could ramp forever. In practice, building even another thousand stacks meant landing ten Massive attacks without breaking Chain, and the weapon type fought him every step of the way.

"Even with my gear bringing the cooldown to around 5 seconds, Massive weapons have a base Attack Speed of 0. 5 attacks per second. That's a full 2 seconds per swing before Attack Speed. I only have 50% from gear plus the Action Speed I had from leather, so even boosted it was still slow. Quadrillionator being ranged hid the problem because I could shoot while moving, but it was a band-aid." Massive weapons hit harder at baseline than even a two-handed mace.

That was great for individual hits and terrible for a class that wanted to land as many Massive hits as possible.

"Basically, Massive damage is good. Massive speed is trash. That makes the ramp clunky and inconsistent." bro says he considered this very hard YOU WERE DRUNK FOR HALF THE TIME theorycrafted between booze stacks 40 hour grind into party into hangover build science he considered it while shirtless Meno ignored them and opened the first modification window.

"Let's start. Annihilator. Good skill for doing more damage at lower Chain, but it generates nothing by itself. Combine two one-handed weapons, gain 100% Attack Speed, get the Weapon Master bonuses, faster burst, all nice. The problem is it needs two good weapons, and the combined Damage Tier drops to the lower one." That was the part Meno cared about more now that Layer 4 had shown him the real gear curve. A great weapon paired with a mediocre one did not average out.

The worse component dragged the whole result down.

"Cool skill, but I don't need it." He clicked the sacrifice field. [Annihilator] Sacrifice: Entire skill. ENTIRE SKILL???? FIRST BUTTON AND HE DELETES IT AI revoke his permissions bro waited for tyrant ex then typed delete ANNIHILATOR NOOO HE IS PRUNING THE CLASS Meno entered the ask. Ask: A passive that increases Attack Speed with Massive weapons by 999%. The confirmation button lit, and Meno pressed it. [Annihilator EX] Passive. While wielding a Massive weapon, gain 200% increased Attack Speed. Meno smiled.

"Nice. See? Working as intended. We're already at 1. 5 attacks per second before anything else from gear." The original skill had required two weapons, activation, and a temporary combination to get its speed. Now the important part followed the weapon type he intended to use almost permanently. One delete, immediate improvement.

"Next. Quadrillionator." This one needed more thought because, unlike Annihilator, Quadrillionator was carrying the entire build. It was the only reliable way he had to create a Massive weapon, which meant it was also the only thing feeding Chain. Unfortunately, it was overcooked.

"This skill is bloated. One one-handed weapon, one two-handed, one ranged. It inherits all three items, gives melee 100% Defense Pierce, can fire ranged, lasts one attack, has a cooldown, and drops Damage Tier to the lowest component." The last line ruined the whole thing.

"Damage Tier is the most important weapon stat by far. Think about it. If a Common I weapon somehow had 100% increased damage, based on everything I've seen, Common II with no modifier would still beat it. Base scaling matters too much." just get better weapons richest poor person problem have you tried equipping good loot THREE LEGENDARY VI EZ skill issue but inventory"You guys don't get it. One weapon will always be ahead as you progress.

Getting three weapons at the highest possible tier at the same time isn't simple, especially when drops start getting limited." He had enough loot data that the bottleneck was obvious now.

"The last boss in the new raid is supposed to drop Legendary VI. You can kill it once per week. The Layer 4 dungeon endboss drops Ancient III, which has equivalent Legendary VI Damage Tier, but you only get one guaranteed drop from it per day. After that, you have to spam the dungeon until your brain melts hoping for another." And Quadrillionator demanded three specific weapon categories.

"One-handed, two-handed, ranged. That means every time I progress into a new damage bracket, I have to rebuild three slots just to stop one bad component from griefing the Massive weapon. That's too slow. I need the Damage Tier to progress, but progressing is how I get the Damage Tier." Trap. Meno opened the modification window. [Quadrillionator] Sacrifice: Entire skill.

HE DID IT AGAIN QUADRILLIONATOR IS DEAD STOP TYPING ENTIRE SKILL THE DELETE BUILD PBG PLEASE CLOSE THE MENU Meno filled the ask with far more care than he had given Annihilator. Ask: Remove all inherited item modifiers, weapon categories, special combination results, ranged functionality, and Defense Pierce. Let it combine any 3 weapons, keep only the highest Damage Tier among them, and use everything sacrificed to remove the cooldown and one-attack limit. He confirmed. [Quadrillionator EX] Active.

Lasts until canceled. Combine any 3 weapons into a Massive melee weapon with no modifiers. Its Damage Tier equals the highest among the weapons used. Its attacks cannot become projectiles or gain additional hits from Multi-Strike. WAIT EVERY SWING IS MASSIVE NOW highest tier wins???? back to swinging okay this is disgusting CHAIN FARMER BUILD rip siege bow you were ugly but loved NO MODS JUST BONK"It worked!" Meno reread it anyway, checking for the kind of hidden wording that usually ruined his day.

"Now it creates a Massive weapon with basically no modifiers, but it keeps the highest Damage Tier from any of the three components. More importantly, it stays equipped, so every normal hit is a Massive hit and every normal hit gives 100 Chain." That changed everything. The ranged side was gone. Vervenzal's Pursuit could no longer turn its melee attack into a projectile either, because Quadrillionator EX explicitly prevented it.

Multi-Strike was dead on it too, although Tyrant had never granted extra Chain from additional hits in the first place.

"I don't care about Multi-Strike. I care about Chain. This also destroys most of the old Weapon Master synergy, and the weapon will be smaller since it no longer counts as a two-hander for the Weapon Size bonus, but it should still be larger than a normal two-handed weapon just from being Massive." He closed the tooltip.

"No more siege-bow nonsense." Another ability went onto the chopping block. [Xenocide] Sacrifice: Entire skill. of course entire skill EVERYTHING MUST GO SALE tyrant liquidation event XENOCIDE HAD A FAMILY he sees utility and gets offended"Yes, entire skill again. This one was both broken and terrible." The old Xenocide had a 3-second death zone that followed Meno, hit every hostile target ten times, and could erase every other enemy of the exact same type after one died.

That had been absurd against uniform trash packs, but the weapon lock made Meno unable to attack during the effect, Chain could not grow, and the same-type restriction fell apart the moment a pack mixed variants.

"The AOE damage was half useless because the execute was the real reason to press it. Then the execute only killed exact matching types. If I fight half Fire Balveths and half Ice Balveths, killing a Fire one only wipes the Fire group even though they're all Balveths." Meno knew what he wanted instead. Ask: Remove the death zone, repeated hits, damage, weapon lock, and Chain protection. Make it apply to only one attack with no damage bonus.

Extend the cooldown, exclude players, Elites, Bosses, and higher enemies, and use everything sacrificed to expand the kill effect from the exact same type to the same species at long range. He confirmed. [Xenocide EX] Active. Cooldown: 1 minute. Cooldown starts when Xenocide EX is consumed. Your next weapon hit consumes Xenocide EX. If that hit kills a monster, all non-Elite, non-Boss monsters of the same species within long range of the slain target also die. Does not affect players.

TRASH FARMING GOD one balveth dies entire bloodline logs out SAME SPECIES LONG RANGE???? 30 sec cd with aurastone btw PACK-HUNTER JUST GOT PACK-HUNTED actually better xenocide"Huge. One-minute baseline means 30 seconds with my gear. Long range, same species, and I don't lose my weapon for 3 seconds." The skill no longer helped him kill its first target. That was fine. Chain would handle that part.

"Bosses were unique types anyway, so excluding them barely matters. I just need the first hit after activation to finish something. One Balveth dies, all the normal Balveths around it die whether they're mages, healers, chargers, whatever. The downside is no damage component, so it all comes down to my Chain-boosted attack actually getting the kill." Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings. That was a trade Meno would take every time.

The next modification was much smaller. He opened Crownmind and thought back to Excrino cutting a Null Domain through Layer 4. All their abilities had simply stopped working inside it, including the purge that should have saved him. There was not much he was willing to remove from Crownmind, but one line mattered less now. [Crownmind] Sacrifice: Dying refreshes the cooldown. Ask: Use the sacrificed refresh to briefly let my effects ignore Nullification after activation. [Crownmind EX] Active. Cooldown: 10 seconds.

Purges all Crowd Control and Debuffs. Gain 1 second of Nullification Immunity after use. Can be activated at any time, even while Nullified.

"Actually worked?" Meno had expected the sacrifice to be too small.

"Maybe useful later, maybe not. Nullification is stupidly strong because it turns off effects and makes skills non-functional. One second could save me from something important, or it could do absolutely nothing. Still better than a death refresh when I'm about to delete my death passive anyway." That brought him to Inexhaustible. Meno had never liked it. A passive dedicated entirely to HP regeneration occupied space in his class while contributing exactly zero damage.

It had saved him more than once, which was not the same thing as respecting it. Movement Speed offered a much better use for that power. It worked defensively, worked offensively, made positioning easier, reduced downtime, and fed directly into what he wanted to do with Airwalk. The more conditional he made the replacement, the more value he expected Solar to give him. [Inexhaustible Tyrant] Sacrifice: Entire skill.

THERE GOES THE REGEN HE DELETED SUSTAIN TOO below 1 hp speedrun incoming False Hero brain damage is permanent someone take the UI away"Relax." Meno entered the ask. Ask: Remove all HP regeneration. Only function while nearly full or nearly dead, and use the sacrificed sustain to increase airborne Movement Speed. The result appeared. [Inexhaustible EX] While above 99% Maximum HP or below 1% Maximum HP, gain 100% increased airborne Movement Speed.

"Nice. Annoying that it didn't go above 100% with restrictions that severe, but that much Movement Speed while basically full or basically dead is good." It only worked airborne. For now. Meno selected Airwalk next. The passive had been great because of freedom, but that same freedom was also what made it soft. Standing and running on invisible air for 3 seconds sounded insanely useful until Meno considered what he actually wanted from the class. Melee. Speed. Constantly changing elevation.

The invisible platforms made him more comfortable, not faster. Against a moving target, he still had to spend kicks to follow vertical changes. Worse, Arrival only gave its 100% Movement Speed and Jump Power while airborne, so every landing felt like somebody unplugged half his build until he jumped again. Meno did not need the crutch. [Airwalk Tyrant] Sacrifice: You may stand or move through air at your current elevation for 3 seconds.

NOOOOO THE AIR FLOORS HE IS REMOVING THE BRAKES PBG YOU NEED THOSE BECAUSE YOU MISS bro is deleting quality of life on purpose THIS IS HOW FALL DAMAGE WINS"Trust the process. I know what I'm doing." He entered the replacement. Ask: Make airborne Movement Speed and Jump Power bonuses also work while grounded, then use anything left over for more Movement Speed and Jump Power. The ability changed names when he confirmed it. [False Wings EX] After jumping, you may kick off empty air up to 3 times before landing.

Airwalk kicks are restored when you land. All airborne modifiers apply while grounded. Augmented: Arrival While airborne, gain 100% increased Movement Speed and Jump Power. Jump Power also boosts Airwalk kick strength. FALSE WINGS IS BACK ALL AIRBORNE MODS WORK ON GROUND???? WAIT HE COOKED arrival everywhere is nasty THE FLOOR BUFFS YOU NOW gravity build deleted"The skill actually reverted to False Wings. Except it's juiced." The first line was already enough for Meno.

The second was what made the whole modification worth sacrificing the invisible platforms.

"All airborne modifiers is huge. Not just Arrival. Anything I add later, anything from gear, anything else that specifically says airborne can now apply while grounded too. That means I get the Jump Power before I even jump, which lets me launch harder into False Wings in the first place." Movement Speed controlled top speed. Jump Power controlled the acceleration and the strength behind each air kick. Meno wanted both.

"Some people are going to call this a downgrade because I can't stand on nothing anymore. They are wrong." Next came the passive Meno expected to be easy. Weapon Master had been excellent with old Annihilator and Quadrillionator. One-handed gave Deflect, two-handed increased Weapon Size, ranged doubled projectile speed and made attacks Unblockable, Dual-Wielding blocked movement impairments, and a shield reduced area damage. New Quadrillionator counted as none of those. It was only Massive.

That meant Weapon Master was about to become a dead tooltip unless Meno rebuilt it around the weapon he intended to use. [Weapon Master Tyrant] Sacrifice: Entire skill. Meno entered what seemed like the obvious ask. Ask: Move the useful parts onto Massive weapons. Keep projectile Deflection and movement-immunity, then convert everything else into Action Speed. He confirmed without much hesitation. Then read the result. [Weapon Master EX] While wielding a Massive weapon, you can Deflect attack and spell projectiles.

While wielding a Massive weapon, you are immune to movement-impairing effects. While wielding a Massive weapon, gain Action Speed equal to your current Action Speed penalty from wearing Plate armor. While wielding a Massive weapon, positive Action Speed modifiers on items are converted to an equal amount of Lifesteal. For several seconds, chat understood the problem before Meno finished processing it.

LIFESTEAL LMAOOOOOO AI COUNTERGANK IT ATE YOUR ACTION SPEED VAMPIRE MASTER EX BRO ASKED FOR SPEED AND GOT HEALING THIS IS THE FUNNIEST POSSIBLE ROLL"IT RUINED MY ACTION SPEED! I DIDN'T SAY CONVERT ACTION SPEED. WHO NEEDS LIFESTEAL." NUMBER WENT SIDEWAYS AI heard damage and said sustain +8% action speed GONE he is actually furious lmao"THIS IS PURE TROLL. GAIN ACTION SPEED EQUAL TO PLATE PENALTY? THAT MEANS THEY CANCEL TO ZERO AND I GAIN NOTHING." Meno logged out.

There was no transition, no thoughtful reconsideration, and no attempt to finish the rest of the build first. One moment Layer 4 surrounded him; the next the capsule opened and Meno climbed out like he had just discovered somebody tampering with his bank account. Vivi looked up from her setup in the living room. Meno ignored her, sat down at the computer, opened the Veyrath website, found customer support, and started typing.

HE ACTUALLY LOGGED OUT SUPPORT TICKET RAID someone warn the employee weapon master claimed another victim NUMBER GO UP SPEECH INCOMING Meno typed: Your AI braindead. I ask for speed it eats my stat and vomits out lifesteal. Who needs this vampire garbage. I don't get hit. I need DAMAGE. Number go up. UP. Not crawl sideways into healing trash. Massive weapon swing faster hit harder. Simple. Fix passive stop griefing my build. He submitted it. SEND IT SUPPORT AGENT LOGGING IN TO THIS NUMBER GO UP. UP.

the grammar proves the point AI won the round please post the support response Meno felt better immediately. The ticket would almost certainly accomplish nothing, but that was not the point. Solar needed to know the war wasn't over. He closed the window, climbed back into the capsule, and returned to Layer 4 with renewed purpose. One bad modification was not enough to grief the build. Next useless skill. [Defiant Tyrant] Sacrifice: Entire skill.

"I don't need cheat death or the 1 HP resurrection. This thing is worthless." That ignored the fights Defiant had saved, but Meno had already decided how he valued survival. Ask: Replace the death prevention with Chain protection. He confirmed. [Defiant EX] Once per combat, when Chain would break, prevent it. Chain cannot break for 6 seconds. When this effect ends, refresh the 3-second Chain upkeep window.

"At least it got this much right. Nothing spectacular, but actually useful. When you're at 10, 000 Chain, breaking it is basically dying anyway." He moved on.

"Next." Mush was harder. The Divine ability had incredible utility. It killed the target of Meno's most recent Massive hit, resurrected them 1 second later, stripped transient resources and effects, and had already solved mechanics that should have been impossible. It was a gimmick. The value depended on the situation, the target, and Solar giving him something worth purging. Meno wanted a button that was useful every time he pressed it, and preferably one that produced large numbers.

He was hesitant to ask for Action Speed after the Weapon Master disaster, but Mush was Divine. If Solar could not squeeze real Action Speed out of a Divine sacrifice, there was no point hoping for it anywhere else. More importantly, Weapon Master EX only converted positive Action Speed from items into Lifesteal. Skill-based Action Speed should survive. Meno selected the ability. [Mush] Sacrifice: Entire skill. STOP STOP STOP NOT THE DIVINE SKILL HE IS DELETING EXCRINO YOU CANNOT UNCOOK THIS Meno entered the ask.

Ask: Make me the Incarnation of Excrino instead. Prevent Chain from breaking, and give me as much Action Speed as possible for 3 seconds. Give it a long cooldown. The confirmation took a fraction longer than the others. [Mush EX] Active. Divine. Cooldown: 6 minutes. Become an Incarnation of Excrino for 3 seconds. When the effect ends, refresh the 3-second Chain upkeep window. Your body and weapon triple in size. You can fly using your airborne Movement Speed.

Your attacks cannot be Blocked, Deflected, Parried, Absorbed, or Reduced. Gain 100% increased Action Speed. Gain Crowd Control Immunity. Chain cannot break. Meno almost shouted before reaching the final line.

"YESSS! This is awesome." Chat agreed for once. THREE TIMES SIZE??? SHORT DURATION UNBLOCKABLE UNDEFLECTABLE UNREDUCED 3 SECOND RAID BOSS MODE HE CAN FLY TOO LMAO DIVINE BUTTON ACTUALLY DIVINE"Six-minute cooldown goes to 3 minutes with my gear. Crazy burst window, and it also becomes a Chain-ramp window because I can attack the whole time." The size increase alone was going to be absurd with a Massive weapon.

Add flight, Crowd Control Immunity, and attacks that ignored almost every conventional defensive response, and Mush EX looked like the sort of button bosses were supposed to have. The 100% Action Speed was the real prize.

"That's a multiplier. Before the next augment, my current Massive setup jumps from 250% increased Attack Speed and around 1. 75 attacks per second to 3. 5. One-handed speed, Massive base damage, and 100 Chain on every hit." Three seconds was short. At that speed, three seconds was plenty.

"We are so back." One decision remained before he could transfer Tyrant EX. His Level 80 augmentation. Meno had held it because he expected Tyrant's advancement to change the class, and for once his paranoia had paid off. The skills in front of him now barely resembled what he had been choosing from before.

"Okay. Level 80 augment time. Gotta be careful here." He went through the options mentally.

"More speed is the goal, so putting it on Annihilator EX seems bad because that already gives Attack Speed. Weapon Master was already a fail. Quadrillionator would probably offer me options to reintroduce all the garbage I just removed. Inexhaustible is too clunky to invest more into right now. The Movement Speed is good, but that's all." Mush EX already had more effects packed into its 3-second duration than some full classes. That left False Wings EX.

"We need to snipe an airborne modifier." The phrase all airborne modifiers apply while grounded made the choice obvious. Anything generated as an airborne bonus could become permanent so long as the game interpreted it through False Wings EX. The interface allowed a second augmentation on the same skill. Meno selected it, and three options appeared. [Option 1: Jetstream] While airborne, gain 100% increased Attack Speed.

[Option 2: Nimbus] While airborne, gain 1% Maximum HP as Absorption per second, up to 100% Maximum HP. Absorption generated by Nimbus fades over time while out of combat. [Option 3: Skypower] While airborne, deal 30% more Damage.

"YES! There it is." Meno selected Jetstream without giving the other two a second look. Speed was better than direct damage on Swing Master. Chain already supplied damage, and the more quickly he could hit, the faster that damage multiplier climbed. More attacks meant more Chain. More Chain meant more damage anyway. And because False Wings EX made airborne modifiers apply on the ground, the supposed condition had already been deleted by his previous modification. The updated skill appeared.

[False Wings EX] After jumping, you may kick off empty air up to 3 times before landing. Airwalk kicks are restored when you land. All airborne modifiers apply while grounded. Augmented: Arrival While airborne, gain 100% increased Movement Speed and Jump Power. Jump Power also boosts Airwalk kick strength. Augmented: Jetstream While airborne, gain 100% increased Attack Speed.

"Look at that. Beautiful." JETSTREAM HIT 100% ATTACK SPEED EVERYWHERE HE ACTUALLY OUTPLAYED THE CONDITION FALSE WINGS STOCKS UP AI won weapon master but lost the augment GROUND IS AIR NOW APPARENTLY Meno reopened the combined numbers in his head. Annihilator EX gave 200% increased Attack Speed with Massive weapons. Marcel's Revelry added another 50% from his two Charisma-modifier items. Jetstream added 100% more, and False Wings EX carried that modifier onto the ground.

"2. 25 attacks per second on Massive weapons now. And with Mush, we're around 4. 5 attacks per second. That's dagger-speed territory on something bigger than a two-hander." It was exactly what he wanted. The Weapon Master loss still hurt, especially the stolen Action Speed from his leather gear, but the rest of the rebuild had shifted Tyrant from a collection of giant cooldown gimmicks into something much cleaner. Equip Massive weapon. Hit. Build Chain. Hit faster. Build more Chain. Kill everything.

A shadow moved at the edge of the cavern entrance. Karmabeast appeared a moment later, having finally logged in.

"Was watching your stream," he said.

"This is tragic, man. What did you do?"

"Tragic? Just pruned all the useless crap." Meno closed the augmentation interface and faced him.

"Do you still want Tyrant EX or not? If you need your hand held, maybe stay on Umbral."

"Shut up, of course I want it. I'm just worried it will prune all the fun stuff." Meno opened the Divine Writ of Bestowal. Now that every Tyrant EX modification had been confirmed, the restriction preventing transfer was gone. Karmabeast's name appeared as a valid target. Meno offered the Evolution, and Karmabeast accepted. Golden light exploded across the cavern hard enough to flashbang both streams.

Excrino manifested inside it without warning, reached into his own body, and pulled out one of the swords driven through his chest. Karmabeast had enough time to realize something unpleasant was happening. The Hanged God cut him into four pieces. Golden light caught the separated sections before they could hit the floor, pulled them back together, and rebuilt Karmabeast in place. Excrino slid the sword back through his own body, regarded the finished result for less than a second, then disappeared.

Karmabeast remained standing, whole, and no longer a Venom Tormentor Umbral. He opened his new class panel.

"Nooo. I'm a rogue. I don't want to use Massive weapons." Meno nodded. The design principles had transferred exactly as advertised. Karmabeast had received a huge buff, even if he did not understand it yet. Damage was always best.