Chương 73: Feeding Frenzy

Meno stared between Self-Control and Stoppable until the words started to feel hostile." Self-Control it is," he said. Chat immediately split apart. NOOOO STOOOOOPPABLE UNSTOPPABLE shield tech correct pick"Removing Stop prompts is too good," Meno said.

"Being locked to a twenty-five percent shield instead of HP is something I can manage. Honestly, fighting on the edge is more exciting. I kind of miss it." He read Self-Control again, committing the logic before chat could bury it.

"At least I won't die to a pebble or random chip damage. First Chain Madness can't break Chain after Panic Pump, so I can learn patterns early without losing the entire opener. If I burn Break Surplus with Hundredfold, I can use the second Panic Pump for another unbreakable Chain Madness combo." Chat started typing math warnings, which was rich coming from people who had told him to spin into a wall.

"It also makes the class viable in PvP," Meno said.

"Building Chain normally into real defensive cooldowns is probably almost impossible. With this, I get an opener that matters, and if I need to recycle it, I can break Chain on purpose." cope smart cope PVP arc Karmabeast sweating no self control build Meno selected it. [Passive Selected: Titan Variant — Self-Control] He activated Panic Pump immediately. [Current HP set to 1] [Shield: 25% Max HP] [Compound Swing | Chain: 100 | Damage: +1000%] The sensation was strange.

His HP bar sat at one, but the shield wrapped over it as a clean buffer. The panic that usually came with 1 HP did not bite as hard. There was still risk, still the edge, but now the edge had a guardrail.

"Testing first floor," Meno said. The first pack aggroed as he swam straight through them, activated Chain Madness, and then did something that would have been impossible five minutes ago. He did not attack. He circled the Scorpolas, dodging tridents and harpoons while the Great Axe waited in his hands and the Chain counter stayed at one hundred like a trained dog. Meno laughed once.

"Oh, that feels so much better." For the first time, his class did not feel patched together with duct tape, bad luck, and anger. It had an opener. It had controlled risk. It cost seventy-five percent of his HP going forward, but after Sleepwalker, Sunken Spire, and the Wheat Imp pebble incident, that price looked payable. The first floor died fast. No Stop prompts interrupted Madness while the shield held.

The early ramp became smooth, and Bloodwake refreshed the shield instead of his HP whenever five enemies died. He could even use the first Madness like a fake Stop for Chain Torpedo, giving himself an on-demand launch at the start of a fight. After the wall incident, though, that thought came with caution. [Level 45: 3. 75%] Meno checked the boss tag before it died fully.

"Okay," he said.

"Boss is Normal now. XP donation got cut to one point two five percent, less than the trash combined." trash better than boss crab retired floor aged out go deeper second floor content"The Scorpolas are still Normal," Meno said.

"Maybe they have one more level before they turn Low and stop paying rent." He did the math and disliked it.

"Twenty-six more runs to hit forty-six. No. That kills viewership and my will to exist." boring farm need comms call Aurelia NO second floor sunlight please"I don't have anyone for comms," Meno said. Chat spammed drowned bird noises in protest.

"Checking second floor counts as content," Meno said. He swam down through the sink at the tip of the cone, past the place where the Leviathan Crab had guarded the passage. If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it's taken without permission from the author. Report it. The tunnel was narrow and dark, lit only by strips of green moss clinging to the stone. No air pockets appeared along the way.

Without Bloodwake, traveling this section alone would have been miserable, and traveling it with a party would have meant five people arguing about who got to breathe first. When the tunnel opened below, Meno stopped at the lip. The second floor was a huge ring-shaped chamber, wide and dark, with murky water that swallowed distance after a few body lengths. Broken patches of moss glowed along the walls, too dim to show the bottom.

Five small air pockets hovered at scattered points around the chamber, each one faintly lit and too far from the next.

"I see no monsters," Meno said. that means monster jumpscare incoming do not enter He entered fully and swam toward the center. The shark came from his side. It was the size of a small house, grey-black and silent until its mouth opened. Then there were only teeth and the sudden certainty that one bite could take most of him. Meno kicked upward on pure panic, Bloodwake speed saving him by inches as the jaws snapped shut where his legs had been. The wake shoved him sideways anyway. Chat screamed.

SHARK HOUSE SHARK I SPILLED MY COFFEE PRAYERBEADFOOD IT ALMOST ATE YOU LEAVE NOW LEAVE NOW Meno rounded on it, daggers up. The shark circled once, then faded into the murky water until only its outline remained. Strapped to its back was a Scorpola rider, gripping a staff with red shell rings tied around the top. The shark had no prompt. The rider did. [Hostile: Scorpola Ritualist Tamer | Type: Brine Scorpionkin | Threat: High | Ability: Bloodbait Command]" High threat rider," Meno said.

"Shark is apparently just equipment." The shark emerged again. This time Meno was ready. He dodged under the first bite, triggered Panic Pump, and activated Chain Madness. The axe appeared. Meno struck the shark's side, and the blade bit cleanly. The problem was that the shark did not stay. It surged away, forcing him to chase, and even with Bloodwake, its top speed beat his.

small shark demoted big shark faster rank down shark gap When the Scorpola Ritualist Tamer lifted its staff, the entire chamber began to turn. Water pulled around the ring in a fast circle, frothing as the speed built. Meno's path bent without permission, and the shark vanished into the churn. His Chain stayed at one hundred twenty because Self-Control still protected the first Madness, but that did not help if he could not see anything to hit.

"Where is safe?" The center. The water there stayed almost still while the ring churned around it. Meno swam hard toward the middle and waited with the axe raised. The vortex slowed after several seconds, but the mechanic had done its real work. The shark used the speed and shot through the center like a siege bolt. Meno kicked upward. The jaws passed beneath him close enough for teeth to scrape the sole of his boot. Chat's panic redoubled.

JUMPSCARE NOPE tank mechanic he needs shield guy Bloodwake saved him big shark diff"Without Bloodwake, dead," Meno said. The shark circled back. This time he dodged early and got two seconds of damage into its flank before it pulled away again. The Chain counter moved from one hundred twenty to one hundred sixty. It was too slow for a boss that refused to trade hits. Then the shark stopped in the center of the chamber, and the ritualist raised its staff.

Red light gathered around the shell rings before spreading into a translucent shield over both rider and shark. Around them, five large fish corpses rose from the murk. Meno stared.

"What?" fish? feed mechanic kill fish save fish what is happening eat them first Chat was useless. Meno needed data. Panic Pump was still preserving Chain during the first Madness window, so he swam to the nearest corpse and struck it. Nothing happened. Then he grabbed the fish under one arm. The flesh melted in his grip, peeling down to white bone, and Meno recoiled hard enough to drop it. The skeleton glowed red before flesh crawled back over it, reforming the corpse.

"Oh," Meno said.

"Carry them?" The ritual expired before he could test more. The red shield melted into the shark, and it launched forward, eating the other four fish corpses in rapid bites. With each corpse, it grew. The red glow sank into its skin, filling the gills, teeth, and eyes. By the time it turned on Meno, it was larger, faster, and moving through the water with no visible windup.

"Bad." He still had one corpse awkwardly trapped under his arm when the shark crossed the chamber too fast. Meno kicked sideways with everything he had, but the collision clipped his left side and sent him spinning through the water. [Death | Bloodwake Devourer — Ritual Feast Collision] [Currency Lost: 100g] [Respawn: Sunken Spire Entrance] He respawned outside the dungeon entrance. [Currency: 189, 495g] Meno floated there, hands on his head.

"Amazing. This dungeon is awful." Chat agreed with uncommon unity. NEVER nope shark boss full party mechanic washing machine floor mount quest now Meno rubbed his face.

"You can barely see anything, so dodging is already hard. Speed helps, but this is clearly designed for a tank to block the shark. Then the rider turns the whole chamber into a vortex, and the corpse mechanic is obviously built for a full party." He pointed at the entrance.

"If you do not stop the shark from eating the fish, it enrages and deletes you." delete shark bring tank call Chad go mount figure it out Meno opened a poll.

"Okay, guys. We can go try the mount quest, or I can keep dying to this until I figure something out." The one-minute timer started. Chat weaponized democracy. Meno waited with his arms folded while the numbers swung back and forth with suspicious timing. Dungeon took the lead. Mount caught up. Dungeon surged. Mount tied. The final second hit. Poll Closed Continue Sunken Spire: 50. 0% Mount Quest: 50. 0% Meno stared.

"Are you serious?" Chat celebrated like it had cleared the raid. PERFECT BALANCE USELESS POLL WE DID IT 50/50 META democracy wins"As useless as ever," Meno said. He closed the poll.

"Dungeon voters, congratulations. You have proven that half of chat enjoys watching algae. Mount voters, congratulations. You were correct, and democracy has failed you." mount arc SUNLIGHT horse time king drown? do not drown king yet"We are doing mount quest," Meno said.

"Then we come back later once I figure something out." He looked back at Sunken Spire's dark entrance, the green-blue glow pulling inward.

"I need to see sunlight," Meno said.

"Let's see which kingdom we join."