Chương 43: Legendary Skills

The plan was simple in Meno's head. The route assembled itself one ugly rule at a time. Poke the tome to death with reach. Keep the chain alive. Kite the slow reflecting armor around the inert giant. Never hit the Remnant with real stacks. Save the Rune Spire's cleanse for Do Not Jump. Use the Vessel as a zero-damage punching bag whenever Do Not Strike Twice appeared.

Keep moving through Do Not Stand Still, stop using active buttons during Do Not Speak, and avoid every golden tile while the floor rearranged itself under his feet. Doing all of that at the same time seemed slightly unreasonable. Meno stared at the Sleepless Page, the Kneeling Vessel, and the Gilded Remnant from the edge of the pull range. The Page floated there, pages turning with a dry, soft flutter. The Vessel knelt behind it, huge and still, golden script crawling faintly across its chest.

The Remnant stood beside them with empty hands lowered, patient in a way that made Meno want to insult it before it moved. Meno lifted the Charmsteel Rune Spire. The weapon still felt stupid in his hand. It was perfect for one thing: touching enemies from places where they did not want him standing. He dashed across an ivory tile and poked the Page. [Compound Swing | Chain: 1 | Damage: +10%] The tip scraped across a moving line of gold-black text.

The Page's health shifted by a grain of sand pretending to be progress. [Curse Applied: Do Not Stand Still] Remaining stationary too long inflicts heavy holy damage.

"Fine." Meno was already moving. He circled left, keeping the Page at maximum poke range while the Gilded Remnant walked toward him. The armor moved slowly, but its path stayed clean, and the shifting tiles meant slow did not mean harmless. Gold squares slid into places where his feet wanted to be. Ivory pulled away. The room tried to turn movement into a tax. He poked the Page again, then skipped one tile sideways before the Remnant's empty hand got close enough to test whatever Empty Vow did besides reflection.

[Compound Swing | Chain: 5 | Damage: +50%] The curse shifted. [Curse Applied: Do Not Speak] Casting any abilities inflicts heavy holy damage. Meno stopped reaching for Panic Pump and clicked his tongue.

"Annoying timing." The Remnant closed the angle. Meno bounced behind the Kneeling Vessel, using the giant's inert body as a wall. The armor had to path around it, and that gave him one clean line to the Page. He extended the Rune Spire, hit the tome, pulled back, skipped to the other side of the Vessel, and hit again barely before the chain starved. The Remnant rounded the Vessel. Meno jumped, kicked off empty air, and slashed the Page from above, the Rune Spire tip barely reaching the edge of an open page.

He landed on ivory, slid one boot away from a gold tile, and the moment Do Not Speak faded, he triggered Panic Pump. [Technique Activated: Panic Pump] [Compound Swing | Chain: 112 | Damage: +1120%] [Current HP set to 1] The curse shifted again. [Curse Applied: Do Not Strike Twice] Hitting the same target twice in a row inflicts heavy holy damage. Meno almost stabbed the Page by habit. His wrist twisted at the last instant. The forward poke became a horizontal sweep that scraped the Kneeling Vessel's thigh instead.

Zero damage. Valid resistance. The chain lived. The swing's momentum dragged him too far to the right, and he had to jump backward before the Remnant's hands reached him. Bad choice. His first False Wings kick fired crooked. The second had to correct hard, and he nearly landed on a gold tile that had not been gold half a second earlier. He stomped the air, twisted his hips, and landed safe but too far from the Page. The chain dropped.

[Chain Broken: Tempo Break] The Gilded Remnant kept walking toward him with the same blank patience. Meno stared at it, then at the Page, then at the floor. The fight was cooked. Forcing it would only donate five gold and dignity. He ran. The pack reset after the Remnant reached its leash. The Page settled back into place. The Vessel remained kneeling. The Rune Spire's Deepwater charge vanished with the chain, which felt worse than expected.

"Charge falls off on reset," Meno said.

"Of course it does." deepwater scam one hp field trip failed again strike twice brainrot Meno did not wait for HP regeneration. It did not matter. Panic Pump had made health theoretical anyway. He went in again. This time he opened clean. Jump in, poke the Page, activate Panic Pump before the first curse had fully settled. [Compound Swing | Chain: 1 | Damage: +10%] [Technique Activated: Panic Pump] [Current HP set to 1] [Compound Swing | Chain: 101 | Damage: +1010%] The Page immediately punished him.

[Curse Applied: Do Not Jump] Taking an airborne action inflicts heavy holy damage. Meno froze with his knees bent.

"Oh, that's evil." No cleanse charge. The floor shifted under him, and ivory squares slid apart, leaving gold where his next step wanted to go. He had to step manually around the Page, threading his boots through safe tiles while the Remnant walked forward. He looked down too long, forgot the Page for half a beat, and the chain died before he could stab again. [Chain Broken: Stop]"Damn it." He ran out again before the Remnant could turn his bad attempt into a receipt. The third attempt went better.

Meno opened with the stab-Panic Pump combo, then got Do Not Stand Still. Good. He could work with good. He circled the Page while mostly watching the floor and the Remnant's feet, because the book did not move and the armor only mattered if he let it close. Ivory tile, poke. Step behind the Vessel. Poke from the other side. Let the Remnant path around the giant. Skip forward. Keep the Page at the very edge of the Rune Spire's reach. [Compound Swing | Chain: 120 | Damage: +1200%] Do Not Strike Twice landed.

This time, he was ready. He swept across the Vessel's side with the flat of the Rune Spire, using the body as a dead note in the rhythm, then let the sword's momentum reverse through his hips and shoulders. The return cut struck the Page as he skipped forward into the same circling pattern. [Compound Swing | Chain: 150 | Damage: +1500%] The curses kept rotating. Do Not Stand Still and Do Not Speak were free if he did not get cute, sticking to footwork and raw weapon movement.

Do Not Strike Twice turned the Vessel into a rhythm post, which felt offensive after everything the game had already done with posts. When Do Not Jump came, the Rune Spire's rune path glowed. If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. [Deepwater Rune Activated] [Debuff Removed: Do Not Jump] He picked up the pace to recharge the twenty-hit requirement before the next Do Not Jump. That was the correct play.

The game, being run by an AI with a personal interest in suffering, repeated the curse immediately. [Curse Applied: Do Not Jump] Meno had already jumped. His stomach dropped harder than his avatar did. The holy warning flared at the edge of his vision, and below him, the floor shifted gold where ivory had been. He had one breath to choose between curse damage, tile death, or a third option he should have had ready. He stopped attacking, pulled the Morgra Ritual Stand from inventory, and dropped it beneath him.

The three-legged stand clanged onto the golden tile. Meno landed on top of it awkwardly, one knee hitting the circular middle hard enough to rattle the frame. He survived. The chain did not. [Chain Broken: Stop] Meno grabbed the stand, shoved it back into inventory, and retreated before the Remnant reached him. Viewers: 322, 409. STOOLGOD STOOLGOD STOOLGOD he parried floor book hates stool stand MVP dragon altar carry Meno reset the pack and stood outside the pull range while chat turned into a fever dream.

The stand was key. It gave him a way to answer golden tiles when Do Not Jump arrived at the wrong time, when the floor shifted badly, or when the curse doubled up before Deepwater recharged. He had not been prepared to use it cleanly. That was on him. The strategy was good. Kite the Remnant around the inert huge body of the Vessel. Poke the Page. Use the Vessel for Do Not Strike Twice. Save Deepwater for Do Not Jump. If Deepwater was not charged, stool the floor. If tiles shifted badly, stool the floor.

Pick the stand up every time because losing the unclassified altar trash inside a raid would ruin the entire category of future stupidity. The Page stayed still. The Remnant had no face worth watching, only feet and a steady pattern if he routed correctly. What mattered was the floor, the Page's health, the curse text, and the chain timer settling into his bones. Meno rolled his shoulders. Viewers: 522, 118.

"Again." He entered with a stab. [Compound Swing | Chain: 1 | Damage: +10%] Panic Pump followed before thought could slow him down. [Technique Activated: Panic Pump] [Compound Swing | Chain: 101 | Damage: +1010%] [Current HP set to 1] The Page opened with Do Not Stand Still. Good. Meno moved left, not fast, not flashy. The Rune Spire extended in a long poke that scraped the Page and came back in a smooth arc. He stepped behind the Vessel's left knee as the Remnant walked toward him.

The armor tried to take the direct line, failed against the giant body, and corrected around it. That correction gave Meno the next hit. Poke. Step. Poke. The floor shifted. Gold slid under the route he wanted. Meno did not jump because he did not need to. He turned the next poke into a diagonal sweep, used the weapon's momentum to spin one step backward onto ivory, and let the long blade finish its motion into the Page's lower corner. [Compound Swing | Chain: 150 | Damage: +1500%] Do Not Strike Twice. Vessel hit.

Page hit. Vessel hit. Page hit. The Vessel took no damage, but the chain did not care. Valid resistance was valid resistance, and Meno had built an entire career out of making that fact everyone else's problem. The Remnant closed once when the floor shifted against him. Meno dropped the stand onto the nearest gold tile, stepped onto it for half a second, let the Remnant path around the Vessel instead of cutting straight through him, then picked the stand back up and kept going.

[Compound Swing | Chain: 200 | Damage: +2000%] Do Not Speak landed. Meno did not activate anything. He did not use Deepwater. He did not False Wings. He only moved, stabbed, and let the Rune Spire continue around his body instead of pulling it back like a normal sword. The weapon wanted to swing wide. Fighting that made it clunky. Letting it flow made it ugly and effective. He circled the Vessel. The Page's health hit ninety-four percent.

"Ridiculous defense," Meno muttered. Half an hour, he realized then. Maybe more. This thing was going to take forever. He kept going. The fight became a loop with teeth. Do Not Jump appeared; Deepwater removed it. Do Not Jump appeared again too early; the stand caught a golden tile under his boots, then went back into inventory before the Remnant's hand reached him. Do Not Stand Still made him keep sliding around the Vessel's knees. Do Not Speak forced raw movement only.

Do Not Strike Twice made every other hit go into the Vessel, which slowed the kill but saved the chain. [Compound Swing | Chain: 300 | Damage: +3000%] The Page dropped under ninety percent. Chat was no longer a conversation. It was a storm of numbers, panic, route calls, stool worship, and people screaming whenever the floor shifted near his foot. Meno ignored all of them and watched the tiles. Gold. Ivory. Ivory. Gold sliding left. Stand if trapped. Pick it up. Vessel hip. Page edge. Remnant foot angle. Step.

Do Not Speak. No active buttons. Poke. The Rune Spire began to feel less like a weapon and more like a rotating hazard he had politely borrowed. If he tried to stop it dead, his wrist and shoulder paid. If he guided it, the blade carried itself through the next line. Horizontal sweep into poke. Diagonal cut into half-spin. Backhand scrape against the Vessel, forward thrust into the Page. [Compound Swing | Chain: 500 | Damage: +5000%] The Page hit seventy-one percent. Its health barely respected him.

The damage numbers had become stupid, and the tome still resisted like it was printed on divine paper. Uncommon II was better than Common trash by a mile. It was still Uncommon II inside a Level 50+ world raid. Meno did not let that matter. Do Not Jump arrived when Deepwater was charged. [Deepwater Rune Activated] [Debuff Removed: Do Not Jump] Twenty hits later, it charged again. He held the charge instead of spending it on anything else.

The weapon could remove one debuff; the fight had one debuff that killed his movement. Everything else got solved by feet, stand, and spite. At Chain 678, the floor shifted into a near checkmate. Gold slid under both side routes, the Remnant blocked the front lane, and the Vessel's huge knee sealed the inside angle. Meno dropped the stand onto gold, jumped onto it without using False Wings, stabbed the Page from the stand's top, then picked the stand up mid-hop to the next ivory tile. Chat somehow got louder.

STOOL STEP ALTAR PARKOUR this is illegal STOOLGOD Vervenzal watching like??? At Chain 800, Meno's real shoulders started aching through the Soma-X7. The capsule kept him safe, but it did not make repetition free. The Rune Spire's long leverage dragged at his grip. His feet kept making micro-corrections on shifting tiles. His eyes burned from reading floor, curse, monster feet, and chain tempo without letting any one thing become the whole screen. The Page hit fifty-two percent. Meno laughed once, too tight.

"This book has more HP than BrineSaint has viewers." Do Not Strike Twice came during a bad tile shift. He swept the Vessel, reversed toward the Page, then had to abort because the Remnant's hand entered the line. Instead of forcing the poke, he let the Rune Spire continue past the Page, spun around the Vessel's outer side, dropped the stand under a gold tile step, picked it up, and stabbed the Page from a sharper angle. The chain starved down to the last breath and survived.

[Compound Swing | Chain: 900 | Damage: +9000%]"Yes! Let's go!" At Chain 1000, the system marked the number with the same cold lack of praise it gave everything else. [Compound Swing | Chain: 1000 | Damage: +10000%] The Page hit twenty percent. Meno's mouth had gone dry, his HP still sitting at one. The viewers vanished from his head. Only ivory mattered. Gold. Vessel. Page. Remnant. Curse. Deepwater. Stand. Pick it up. Again. The Page tried to double Do Not Jump again at Chain 1087. Deepwater took the first.

The second came before twenty hits. Meno dropped the stand under himself, landed on it, stabbed the Page from the top, then picked it up as he stepped down to ivory. The Remnant's hand passed through the air where his chest had been.

"Slow," he whispered, meaning himself, and corrected the pace. At Chain 1200, the Page hit five percent. [Compound Swing | Chain: 1200 | Damage: +12000%] The temple seemed to tighten around the pack. The Kneeling Vessel's golden script brightened by one shade. The Gilded Remnant sped up by a fraction, maybe real, maybe fatigue lying to him. The Page's pages turned faster, gold-black text crawling across every surface. Do Not Strike Twice. Vessel. Page. Do Not Stand Still. Step. Poke. Do Not Jump.

[Deepwater Rune Activated] [Debuff Removed: Do Not Jump] Chain 1220. The Page's health became a sliver. Meno circled the Vessel one last time. The Remnant cut the inside lane. The floor shifted gold under the outside lane. He dropped the stand, stepped on it, stabbed the Vessel because Do Not Strike Twice still held, picked the stand back up, and let the Rune Spire's full length carry forward into the Page. [Compound Swing | Chain: 1231 | Damage: +12310%] The tip pierced the center fold of the Sleepless Page.

The tome snapped shut. For one second, every page inside it screamed. Then the book tore apart, pages bursting into gold ash and black ink that evaporated before touching the floor. [Kill Confirmed: Sleepless Page] [XP Awarded: Solo Raid Threat??? Kill] An orange beam shot up from the floor where the tome died. Chat detonated. LEGENDARY ORANGE PICK IT UP PICK IT UP PICK IT UP Vessel waking LOOT FIRST RUN Meno dove. The Kneeling Vessel moved behind him. The giant's head lifted.

Its golden inscriptions opened like eyes across its chest, each line filling with bright holy fire. The Gilded Remnant stopped walking and knelt. The Page's ash spiraled into the Vessel's mouth. Meno's hand closed on the loot. [Item Acquired] The Vessel stood. Meno did not get a last move. Holy fire exploded outward from the giant in a perfect circle, the ivory tiles, and Meno's body in one white-gold pulse.

[Death | Kneeling Vessel — Delayed Awakening] [Currency Lost: 50 gold] [Respawn: Lost Temple Platform] Meno woke outside the raid entrance on the floating platform, staring at the sky. For several seconds, he did not move. Notifications stacked in the edge of his vision. [Warning: Maximum Single Source XP Threshold Reached] [Level Up | Level 30] [Level Up | Level 31] [Level Up | Level 32] [Level Up | Level 33] [Level Up | Level 34] Then Titan III appeared. Then the class evolution prompt opened behind it.

Meno stared at the layered system notices with his throat tight and his hands shaking on the platform stone. Level thirty-four. Titan III. Class evolution. He shoved all of that aside because the orange beam had become an object in his inventory, and if the raid had killed him before the pickup confirmed, he would have invented a new category of grief. The loot panel opened. [Item Acquired] Type: Legendary I Cloth Gloves — Sleepless Grip Durability: Maximum Defense: Low Cloth Bonus: +10% status recovery speed.

Sleepless Script: Resist the next debuff or status effect applied to you. Recharge: 10 seconds. Curse Eater: Deal 50% increased damage while suffering from a debuff or status effect. Meno read it once, then again.

"Now we're talking!" The Ashen Crown Dragon slept nearby. The four archmages meditated beside it. The Lost Temple gate turned quietly behind him. Viewers: 681, 904. Meno lay flat on the platform stone and started laughing.