Chương 180: Solar’s Last Nerve

The podcast had ended, but nobody seemed interested in leaving the studio. Sparkling water had been replaced by beers, while the fake beach kept rolling across the wall screens as everyone processed BeadGuard Patch 7 in their own way. None of the men were happy. The women were not happy either, but they were mostly unhappy with the men, which Meno considered an invalid reason under the current circumstances.

"Brine! Stop pacing and calm down," Celeste said.

"I'm not letting you slip back into your old ways because of a stupid bug."

"Stupid bug?" BrineSaint turned at the end of the studio and paced back the other way.

"I spent weeks in a capsule playing with that bug. How does it not catch something like that sooner?"

"You know why," Kestrel said from his chair. He lifted his glass and pointed it toward Meno.

"We're progressing too fast. It has to make new content and patch holes at the same time while this guy runs around setting everything on fire."

"Yeah, it's totally my fault your Defense stat didn't function." Meno stretched one arm across the back of the sofa.

"It's a trash stat anyway. The moment you fight something higher rarity, it starts becoming worthless. We still don't know how much it drops per rarity tier. It might be 20, 50, 100%."

"We didn't notice because we were farming Normal Threat under the old system resetting dungeons," Kestrel said.

"Once we reached Fractera content, everything started chunking tanks. We thought Defense was just falling off. Now we know why."

"I need another drink," BrineSaint said, looking toward the bar.

"Give me something stronger."

"Brine! Please, it doesn't matter."

"Even if it doesn't matter, I still want one." He looked toward Meryn.

"You turned off the podcast, right?"

"No." Kestrel lowered his glass.

"What?"

"The live feed is off," Meryn said.

"I'm still recording behind-the-scenes footage we can sell."

"Turn it off," BrineSaint said.

"That was enough."

"Vivi, make sure it's off," Meno said.

"We're done with the content."

"Okay." Vivi headed toward the production controls while Rina leaned closer to Meno on the sofa.

"You okay?" Rina asked.

"Hey, don't get too dramatic. I'm fine." Meno nodded toward BrineSaint, who had resumed pacing.

"Brine's the one who needs an intervention, and he got massively buffed. Still acting like his character got deleted."

"I was buffed because my class literally did not function," BrineSaint said without slowing down.

"No wonder you pulled ahead. If I had the Defense, I could have kept up."

"Come on, man. Kept up how? I literally soloed a raid boss to get rank one. You're not keeping up with that."

"We would have been farther ahead when you reached Vervenzal," BrineSaint said. Kestrel waved toward the bartender for a refill.

"Can you two stop? This is pathetic." He looked at Rina.

"You did a good job hosting, by the way. Thank you."

"Why are you thanking her?" Meryn asked.

"She barely did anything." Kestrel turned toward her.

"I'm being nice."

"Are you?" Meryn folded her arms.

"Is that because she has half her tits out? Unbelievable." Even Meno needed a second to process that.

"Don't start this." He pointed between them.

"Kestrel, apologize to Meryn so we can move past it, please. My Lifesteal just got capped. I can't heal through whatever this is."

"I didn't do anything wrong," Kestrel said.

"Why are you suddenly freaking out? Nothing happened. I'm the injured party here."

"Oh really?" Meryn said.

"If your career collapses, what happens to me as your manager? I go manage somebody else? I was never supposed to be a manager in the first place. I wanted to be a tattoo artist, but I've been doing this for you basically for free for years."

"Please don't start this in front of everyone," Kestrel said.

"Brine, let's go back to our room, okay?" Celeste said.

"No." Vivi watched Kestrel and Meryn's argument gain another stack before turning toward Meno.

"Meno, we should leave too."

"I'm good." Meno turned toward Rina instead.

"Think you can get Meryn out of here?"

"I'll try." Rina stood and crossed toward the women. Meno tried to pull Kestrel away from the argument while also stopping BrineSaint from reopening the Defense discussion, accomplishing almost nothing on either front. It took Rina around 3 minutes to work her way into the mess and get Meryn, Celeste, and the others moving toward the door. Once the women were gone, the studio became much quieter. Meno deployed his plan.

"We should take revenge." BrineSaint stopped pacing.

"Yes. How?"

"I'm mad," Kestrel said, "but not mad enough to get banned."

"Nothing like that. The raid resets tomorrow, so we're short on time. I have a save with two bosses dead and three left." Meno leaned forward.

"I take Conqueror. Me, you two, Karmabeast, and one extra, preferably a damage support. We clear the raid before reset." BrineSaint slapped one palm against the armrest.

"I'm only Level 83."

"Me too," Kestrel said.

"Doesn't matter. I'll carry. You guys just need to handle the mechanics, whatever they are. Maybe we wipe a bunch. Who cares?"

"I would normally decline," Kestrel said, setting down his glass, "but this feels personal. I'm in."

"Let's do it." BrineSaint finally sat down.

"I could bring Burst, but if I invite him and leave the rest of my team out, it could fracture the group. I can't risk that."

"I don't want anyone from Crownfall either," Kestrel said.

"I want this clear to be a show of force. Ego check, before they start complaining about every little thing." Meno remembered something.

"What happened to that Mythic I quest scroll you sniped from the Korka on your ship?"

"That?" Kestrel rubbed his thumb along the side of his glass.

"I still have the quest. It turned out to be for your raid-resurrection Mythic, Meno's Last Word. Really good effect, but finishing it would have cost around 100 million gold at the time, so we stopped. Then world state progression happened, and Mythic I wasn't worth it anymore. The item doesn't even give stats."

"Since you never showed it on stream, I heard rumors that it was a crossbow, a warlock staff, and several other things," BrineSaint said.

"Viewer nonsense," Kestrel said.

"If that's the actual item, the offhand would be extremely strong in a Conqueror setup," BrineSaint said.

"My gear isn't good enough to tank anything in that raid, but with that, we could still contribute."

"Can you get it?" Meno asked.

"I can, but there are problems. For one, it's an offhand Orb. My class can't use it, and none of yours can either if you need a shield or Massive weapon. It also still costs around 10 million gold, so if I do this, I want a guaranteed Legendary VI from the last boss."

"That's a bit much. You get one guaranteed Legendary VI from the boss before it. Everything else gets assigned normally."

"Good."

"We should bring Patro for the last spot," BrineSaint said.

"He can hold Meno's Last Word. It might even resurrect his minions."

"SoloKing hasn't joined a party in his life, remember?" Kestrel said with a sneer.

"You guys seriously don't want a Healer?"

"There's nothing to heal. At your level, if you get hit, you die." Meno tapped his chest.

"I'll be taking half damage after everything else. Only major mistakes should kill me, and even nerfed Lifesteal can cover the rest. Weapon Master converts the 14% Action Speed on my ring into Lifesteal. Even at the base 1, 000 Chain, I should hit the 5% cap."

"Let's go," Kestrel said.

"The second the servers come back, we need to be ready. We have less than 12 hours until reset."

"You're staying at The Pearl too?" Meno asked.

"Where else? I don't own a house in every city." Kestrel paused.

"Yet." They left the studio behind. The abused door was still functional, with only some fresh damage around the lower panels. Meno had no doubt The Pearl would find a way to put it on somebody's bill anyway. On the way upstairs, Vivi and Meryn talked nonstop about engagement metrics while Rina spoke more quietly with Celeste. Meno tuned all of it out. His attention was already back in Veyrath.

The servers were still down when they reached the suite, so Meno and Rina went to get food while Vivi kept firing podcast clips onto every platform in existence. Meno was too distracted to argue over the order this time and let Rina choose whatever she wanted. This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

"You're going to be busy, right?" Rina asked once their food arrived.

"I still have some work to catch up on."

"Yeah. Our setup is terrible, but we're going to try brute-forcing the raid before reset for an extra Divine Key. I might be able to carry it, but the others are a little too low level."

"Why are you bringing them, then? It's kinda strange. I thought you'd try to solo it."

"If I try breaking another raid right after the bleed incident, that's basically asking for a ban. They might be underleveled, but they know what they're doing and can handle the mechanics." They finished eating and split up. Meno spent the next hour trying to decide which Dual Class to pick. He got nowhere. Another Swing Master still looked like the best long-term option because it could eventually carry a second Divine Evolution. Right now, though, doubling the class with a worse evolution did nothing.

Rush Master was much more exciting after the Movement Speed changes. The higher cap alone made him want to test it. Martial Master looked complicated, but the new Lifesteal cap made Multi-Strike much more attractive. More separate hits meant more separate 5% healing caps, which could turn the class into a sustain monster. The other Master Sub-Types seemed trash. Heavy Striker involved too much standing still. Rapid Striker's timing-based attacks sounded annoying.

Imbued Striker looked too flexible, which usually meant being decent at everything instead of disgusting at one thing. The Tank options were even less appealing. Anchor was immediately out for the same reason as Heavy Striker. Meno was not standing still. Bulwark was too defensive, while Juggernaut looked fine but still required voluntarily picking a Tank spec, which gave Meno no joy. That left Swing Master, Rush Master, and Martial Master as the real candidates.

Too much was happening to properly learn another class right now, so Meno decided not to pick anything yet. Hopefully that was possible. When Veyrath finally came back online, Meno climbed into the capsule and booted up his stream. He sent Streamline collab invites to Karmabeast, BrineSaint, and Kestrel. Karmabeast accepted almost immediately. Patro was not online.

"Cool podcast," Karmabeast said.

"Loved the crashout rotation. Peak drama."

"Did you bribe the AI? Those were barely nerfs."

"Easy Magician subclass protection. The AI flags me as an idiot, so it goes easier on me than you Titans running around kicking monsters to death." Karmabeast's voice shifted.

"So what are you planning?"

"We're doing the raid. Brine, Kestrel, and maybe Patro are coming. I'm taking Conqueror. Hopefully you weren't planning to pick it too."

"No chance. Dual Class is cool for variety, but Conqueror doesn't do much for PvP. I'm also a big zero on carrying people through raids. I'm perfectly happy taking your key."

"So which one?"

"With all these stat caps dropping, I'm going Fatebreaker. Cooldown refresh gets better the more CDR you have. If somebody kites my first Mush, I can get another one during my second stun cycle." Karmabeast paused.

"Plus, you didn't put Fatebreaker on the tier list, so technically it isn't FFF-tier. Hidden OP."

"That's one way to put it, but you're probably right. For a rogue, cooldowns are priority." Meno loaded into the Road to Rimvolen. Snow still fell across the frozen road, and the raid remained exactly where the emergency shutdown had left it. Serrakhal's corpse was gone, but the second boss remained cleared and Meno's raid save had survived. Karmabeast loaded beside him a few seconds later, still in the party. Chat was already spamming clips and quotes from the podcast, which meant the content had worked.

Meno opened Prestige Selection and chose Conqueror. The Dual Class selector appeared immediately, but when he closed it without making a choice, Veyrath let him continue. Excellent. The replacement reward for Dirty Hands appeared next. [Mythic II | Right of Conquest] Type: Prestige Gloves Durability: +10% Maximum HP Defense: +10% Damage Reduction Prestige Bonus: +10% Cooldown Reduction Choose one Active skill from your Dual Class to retain for your Main Class. Your left ring slot is disabled.

PRODIGY JUST GOT POWERCREPT ONE SKILL CROSS CLASS???? THAT GLOVE IS DISGUSTING LEFT RING TAX RETURNS"Damn. This makes picking the Dual Class even harder. It only works one way, but that is huge." Meno reread the effect.

"This one glove is better than the entire Prodigy Prestige, even with it eating two item slots." He definitely was not picking a class yet.

"Swing Master Titan is the obvious choice, but there might be some broken skill on Rush or Martial Master that I can copy over to my Main. That changes everything." Meno left Right of Conquest unequipped and put Sleepless Grip back on instead. The old Legendary I glove contributed exactly zero meaningful Defense at this level, but it had never betrayed him. With Dirty Hands gone and Right of Conquest sitting in his inventory, his left ring slot worked again too.

Meno equipped Marcel's Forgery, bringing back the +500% Threat he wanted for the raid.

"What loot did you get?" Meno asked.

"One useless wand, another useless offhand, and cool Leather pants I just equipped." Meno checked the three items he had grabbed before Solar pulled the plug. At least the emergency shutdown had not eaten them. Then again, Veyrath had let him keep his Vervenzal loot, so there was precedent for keeping the proceeds from public-service incidents. The first drop came from Drovak.

[Legendary IV | Drovak's Roadblock] Type: Shield Block Tier: Legendary IV [1] Defense [2] Block [3] Damage Reduction (Block reduces incoming damage to 0 against an equal-Tier valid Blocked hit. Each Tier the incoming hit exceeds the shield's Block Tier reduces Block effectiveness by 50%. If incoming damage exceeds 75% Maximum HP after Defense but before Damage Reduction, Block is ineffective.) Durability: Indestructible This shield can Block 2 Rarity Tiers higher (Legendary VI) without losing effectiveness.

"Oh, how nice of it to explain how Block actually works. That's new." Meno turned the shield tooltip over mentally.

"This is essentially a Legendary VI shield with zero mods. Progression gear." The second item was less useful to him. [Legendary V | Serrakhal's Cryofall] Type: Two-Handed Bow Damage Tier: Legendary V Damage Factor: 2. 0x Attack Speed: 1.

5/s Durability: Indestructible Default Arrow Type: Cryo (Arrow Damage Converted to Ice Damage) Default Arrow Capacity: 50 (Each Arrow consumes 1 Arrow Capacity) Default Arrow Resupply Time: 10 seconds Multi-Projectile 1 (Release 2 Arrows) Each damaging Arrow summons a Comet above its target. On impact, the Comet deals 100% Weapon Damage as Ice Spell Damage. (Spell Damage cannot be Blocked by Default)"Didn't know Spell Damage couldn't be Blocked.

It doesn't say Unblockable, so what it really means is unless your skill specifically allows you to do it. Unblockable is a mod that overrides even those." imagine if block was also bugged bow with meteor DLC SPELLGUARD STOCKS UP what is resupply"Resupply is probably like a cooldown. You get the fifty arrows back every ten seconds. Don't really care, it's Archer stuff. Let them figure it out." Then came the last item. Its name prepared Meno for the tooltip.

[Legendary V | Serrakhal's Trash] Type: Plate Boots Defense: Very High Durability: Indestructible Plate Penalty: -5% Action Speed Your Damage Reduction is always 50% regardless of any other effect. Your Current HP is always considered 100% for Positive and Negative effects. Your Maximum HP is always 1. 5 times base (+50% Maximum HP) regardless of any other effect. ACTUALLY CALLED TRASH CURRENT HP ALWAYS 100%??? INEXHAUSTIBLE PERMA PROC 50% DR HARD LOCK IS WEIRD"That is indeed trash, but better than the one I have."

The item hard-capped too many stats for Meno's liking. Damage Reduction could never rise above 50%, while Maximum HP was locked at 1. 5x. The Current HP line was the only part he cared about.

"My Current HP is always considered 100% for positive and negative effects, so this gives me permanent Inexhaustible uptime. After losing my Marcel boots, that puts me at 200% Movement Speed all the time." Meno equipped them.

"I'd still rather have a flat +50% Movement Speed roll. This is way worse than it looks." Serrakhal's Trash lived up to the name. The Plate had been repaired, broken, patched again, then apparently abandoned halfway through. A large gap in the front of one boot left Meno's big toe sticking out. Ridiculous. BrineSaint finally accepted the Streamline collab.

"Had to sort out the team, but I'm ready." BRINE IS BACK DEFENSE WORKS NOW KING ASK HIM ABOUT MANA LEECH DOOR BOSS PHASE TWO PUBLIC SERVICE REUNION Meno sent BrineSaint a party invite, then sent one to Kestrel as a less subtle reminder to accept the collab. Kestrel's voice came through a moment later.

"Patro is out. Says it would tarnish his SoloKing status. Absolute moron. We need someone else." Meno started running through replacements. Thorn could reach the raid without babysitting, but another massively underleveled Tank solved nothing. Oxy had the same problem and no useful support kit. Brine was already occupying the Tank Who Cannot Tank Because He Is Too Low-Level slot. Kestrel refused to bring anyone from Crownfall.

BrineSaint would not bring Burst because giving one member of BrineTime a Divine Key while leaving the other three behind would cause problems. Apparently the team handled exclusion better when everyone was excluded together. Solver was high enough level, but Meno knew almost nothing about him. He sent Honeygrave a Streamline collab request. Honey accepted almost immediately, like he had been expecting it.

"How do you feel about joining us for the raid?"

"Can't do it, mate. IRL cost too high. Sorry."

"Can you lend us Merry?"

"Nope. Level your own Healer. Bye." Honeygrave left the call. he said lend us merry LMAO HONEY SAID LEVEL YOUR OWN HEALER raid recruitment going great bro been trashing healers nonstop priest uprising"Bring Arayu," Karmabeast said.

"She's only Level 80, but you won't find a better mage."

"Wasn't really looking for a mage, but fine. I can ask." Meno opened guild chat. PrayerBeadGod: Arayu, come to the raid. We need a fifth to equip a Mythic I Orb and not die. The reply came almost immediately. ArayuXO: Busy. Meno was starting to lose patience. He was offering free raid loot, a possible Divine Realm Key, and a front-row seat to some of the hardest content currently available. Somehow everyone was acting like he had asked them to help move a sofa. He typed again.

PrayerBeadGod: I will set you up with Thorn. I think he is single. ArayuXO: Inv"HEY!" Karmabeast shouted.

"What are you doing?" INSTANT INV KARMA JUST GOT GANKED BY GUILD CHAT THORN META AGAIN ARAYU MOVED FASTER THAN VENOM STEP"Don't you see? This is a chance to impress her with your skill. She will be right next to you. By the time we are done, she won't care about Thorn anymore."

"You think so?" Karmabeast asked.

"One hundred percent."

"Good. Thanks, man." It took another half hour for everyone to reach the raid. Once the group assembled on the frozen road, Meno inspected the three newcomers and immediately understood they were about to have a rough time.

[BrineSaint | Level 83 | Dawn Bastion Paragon | RB | BrineTime] [Kestrel | Level 83 | Prism Detonator Eternal | SC | Crownfall] [ArayuXO | Level 80 | Arch Elementalist Myriad | GC | GraveMistake] Arayu looked almost exactly like she did in real life: short, with shoulder-length hair split across ten different colors. A robe covered most of her build, a pointed wizard hat sat over the multicolored hair, and she carried a wooden wand paired with an oversized crystal focus.

Kestrel arrived carrying their secret weapon.

"Got the Mythic. It wasn't cheap."

"Do you need a bow?" Meno asked. Meno shared Serrakhal's Cryofall.

"No, that's crap," Kestrel said.

"I can't lose the stats from my Ancient I. We'll mostly be handling adds and mechanics anyway while you kill things."

"Brine, you'll definitely want this shield." Meno shared Drovak's Roadblock.

"Yes," BrineSaint said.

"I'll give it back when we're done."

"No need. If you get a drop I want, send it over, okay?"

"Fine." Meno turned toward Arayu.

"Accept the Streamline collab." She accepted, putting everyone on the same call. Karmabeast immediately activated Magician, summoning a bouquet of roses and offering it to Arayu. She did not even look at him. Meno shook his head. Karmabeast was trying way too hard.

"Kestrel, can you show the Mythic?" Meno asked. Kestrel shared the item. [Mythic I | Meno's Last Word] Type: Orb Once per combat, each allied player revives fully restored when killed. Does not affect the wielder. Chat remembered it too. MENO'S LAST WORD IS REAL FULL RAID REVIVE ORB???

IT HAS ZERO STATS LMAO I WAS THERE Meno remembered designing the item back in Emberhollow at Level 10, when he knew almost nothing about Veyrath and a full resurrection effect sounded like the best possible thing he could put on an item. It was strong. The problem was everything he had learned since. Meno would rather prevent death than revive afterward because dying still destroyed Chain. The Orb also had no stats, which became a much bigger sacrifice once normal offhands started carrying Ancient-tier modifiers.

He should have made it cheat-death protection instead, but it was too late now. The range was another question mark. The tooltip never mentioned one, but there had to be a limit somewhere. Otherwise, someone could party with a player on another continent and resurrect them remotely whenever they died. Kestrel handed the Orb to Arayu.

"I want this back afterward."

"Sure thing." She rolled the crystal Orb between her fingers.

"Although... maybe. I might, just might, sell it for gold. I'm so broke right now." Arayu had been in the party for less than a minute and was already causing problems. Meno turned toward the frozen road ahead.

"Okay, let's get this party rolling. Three bosses to go."