Chapter 16: [16] : The World Boss Announcement, Sanctum Core
Declan, Sloane, and Kendra were standing near the crater ridge overlooking the Sunken Armory.
Declan was still looking at his Origin Point balance. He was completely satisfied with the five thousand points Sloane had just farmed for him from the Black Vanguard dropped gear.
He was just about to tell them to start walking when the sky above them suddenly changed.
The bruised purple clouds ripped open. A glaring blood-red light spilled across the Ashlands.
BONG!
A massive bell chimed.
It was so loud the ground vibrated under their boots. It didn't sound like it came from the sky. It sounded like it rang directly inside their skulls.
Kendra covered her ears and dropped to her knees. "What is that?! My head hurts!"
Sloane stumbled backward and grabbed onto a dead tree to keep her balance. "Is it an earthquake? Or did you break the game again?"
"I didn't do anything," Declan said.
He was perfectly fine. He just looked up at the red sky with a flat expression.
A massive holographic text box appeared in the sky. It was visible to every single player in the sector. It wasn't the usual blue system text. It was burning gold.
[Server Event]
↳ The First World Boss has spawned.
[Boss Information]
↳ Name: Gargantua, the Rot-Walker
↳ Level: 15
↳ Location: The Ashen Bog, Sector 4
[Notice]
↳ The Purge Wave will initiate in exactly 12 hours. Seek shelter.
The red light slowly faded back to the normal sickly purple. The golden text dissolved into sparks.
"Level 15?" Sloane gasped. Her eyes were wide with panic. "The highest level thing we fought was that stupid rock golem, and that was Level 8! A Level 15 World Boss? That thing will sneeze and wipe out half the server!"
Kendra slowly stood up. Her hands were still shaking.
"Declan, we are Level 6 and 7. We can't go near the Ashen Bog. We just need to find a safe zone and hide."
Declan completely ignored her panic. He was focused on the last line of the system prompt.
"The Purge Wave," he muttered. "The tutorial voice mentioned that when we first dropped into the alley. Survive the Purge. But it didn't say what the Purge actually was."
"It sounds like a server wipe," Sloane said nervously. "Like an event where they just spawn a million monsters to kill anyone who isn't hiding."
"Hiding where exactly?" Declan asked as he looked at her. "We haven't seen a single permanent safe zone. The campfire was temporary. The Vanguard barricade was player-made. If a wave of monsters comes, standing behind a rock isn't going to save you."
"Then what do we do?" Kendra asked.
"We need information," Declan said. He turned around and looked back the way they came. "We know exactly one local resident."
Ten minutes later, the trio stood back inside the Sunken Armory.
Declan didn't bother walking the whole way. He just used Void Blink a few times to cross the gaps and the leech-filled water, leaving Sloane and Kendra to carefully pick their way across the safe path he had cleared earlier.
Thatcher, the blind NPC diver, was still sitting on the floor of the empty vault. He looked up when he heard Declan's heavy boots hit the stone floor.
"You came back," Thatcher rasped. "I thought you would be halfway to Sector 5 by now, Grid-walker."
"Change of plans," Declan said.
He walked right up to the blind man and crossed his arms.
"The system just announced a World Boss. Gargantua, the Rot-Walker. It also gave us a twelve-hour timer for something called a Purge Wave. Tell me what that means."
Thatcher flinched.
His pale and dirty face went completely white. He pulled his knees up to his chest and suddenly looked very small inside his heavy diving suit.
"The Purge," Thatcher whispered.
His voice was shaking with genuine terror.
"It is the Grid's extermination protocol. When the timer hits zero, the sky will turn black. The system will spawn the Flesh-Stalkers. Millions of them. They do not stop. They do not tire. They sweep across the entire sector and eat everything that breathes."
Sloane swallowed hard. "So we just stay in a safe zone, right? Like a city?"
Thatcher let out a dry and humorless laugh.
"There are no cities left in Sector 4. The Grid destroyed them all centuries ago. The campfires and small barriers will fail. The Flesh-Stalkers will tear right through them. If you are outside during the Purge, you die. Your avatar is deleted. Your real body burns."
"There has to be a way to survive," Declan said flatly. "The system always provides a mechanic. It's a game rule."
"There is only one way," Thatcher said.
He pointed a trembling finger toward the ceiling.
"A Sanctum. A permanent absolute safe zone. The barriers of a Sanctum are tied directly to the core code of the Grid. Monsters cannot enter it. They cannot even perceive it."
"Okay," Declan nodded. "Where is the nearest Sanctum?"
"There isn't one," Thatcher replied. "Not anymore. But a Sanctum can be built."
Declan narrowed his eyes. "How?"
"The core," Thatcher breathed. "A Sanctum Core. It is an item of immense power. It holds the administrative rights to a piece of the Grid's territory. If you plant a Sanctum Core in the ground, it generates a one-kilometer energy dome. An Iron Bastion."
Thatcher paused. His blind eyes stared at Declan's boots.
"The first World Boss of a sector always drops a Sanctum Core. That is the rule. Gargantua holds the only key to surviving the Purge."
Declan pulled up his system interface. He looked at his Origin Points. He had 4,850 points.
He looked at his +20 Carnage Cleaver and his +10 Warden's Halberd. He had the gear. He had the currency. Now he had the objective.
"A base building mechanic," Declan said. A slow predatory grin spread across his face.
In the real world, the megacorps owned his life, his debt, and his cell. If he built a Sanctum here, he would be the one making the rules. He would be the landlord. "I like the sound of that. I get a core, I get a fortress."
"Are you insane?" Sloane yelled.
She grabbed Declan's arm and pulled him around to face her.
"Did you not hear the prompt? The boss is Level 15! We are half that level. You can't just walk up to a World Boss and hit it with your heavy stick. It will crush you!"
"Sloane is right," Kendra agreed. She looked absolutely terrified.
"We just saw an entire guild get wiped out. If this boss drops the only safe zone item, every single major guild in the sector is going to be there. We will be fighting the boss and hundreds of other players at the same time."
Declan casually brushed Sloane's hand off his arm.
"You two are thinking like normal players. Normal players worry about level gaps. Normal players worry about numbers."
He tapped the side of his head.
"I don't care if there are five hundred guys standing in front of that boss. I'm going to walk in there, take the core, and leave. You want to survive the Purge? You follow me. You want to die in the mud? You stay here."
Sloane stared at him.
She looked at his pitch-black trench coat, the spiky boots, and the utterly calm look in his dark eyes. She remembered how he turned three massive warriors into red mist with a snap of his fingers.
She let out a long and frustrated groan. "Fine. But I'm not fighting a Level 15 boss. I am staying way in the back. I will literally hide in a bush."
"Good," Declan said. "Quartermaster, open the Global Auction House. Do a search for the Ashen Bog. Find out what the environmental hazards are."
Sloane blinked in confusion but she opened her glowing yellow interface. She swiped through the menus rapidly.
"Okay. Ashen Bog. It's a Level 10 to 15 zone. The description says it is entirely covered in deep mud and toxic miasma. The mud reduces movement speed by eighty percent. The miasma inflicts constant poison damage over time and drains stamina."
"Perfect," Declan said. "Buy a basic Purification Talisman. The cheapest one you can find."
"A basic talisman won't do anything against a Level 15 hazard," Sloane argued. "It only blocks Level 1 toxins for like ten minutes."
"Just buy it," Declan ordered.
Sloane grumbled but tapped her screen. "Done. It cost fifty Origin Points. I am transferring it to your inventory now."
Declan felt a small weight appear in his digital storage. "Alright. Let's go hunting."
He didn't wait for them to complain again. He turned and walked out of the Sunken Armory.
He had less than three days to secure a fortress and he wasn't going to let a giant rotting zombie or a bunch of desperate players stand in his way.
The Grid wanted to play rough. Declan was perfectly fine with that. He was going to break all their rules.
-----x-----
Chapter 17: [17] : The Ashen Bog, Aura of Cleansing
The walk to the Ashen Bog took three miserable hours. The rocky terrain of the Ashlands slowly gave way to a disgusting sunken valley.
Declan stood at the edge of the ridge and looked down.
The Ashen Bog looked exactly like the name suggested. It was a massive sprawling wetland filled with dead blackened trees. The ground wasn't dirt or water. It was thick bubbling gray mud that looked like wet cement.
The worst part was the air.
A thick blanket of neon green fog hung over the entire swamp. It was a toxic miasma.
Even from up on the ridge, the smell was atrocious. It smelled like rotten eggs and battery acid.
[Zone Information]
↳ Entered Area: The Ashen Bog
↳ Warning: Level 10 to 15 Boss Zone
[Environmental Hazards]
↳ Toxic Miasma: HP drains by 10 per second. Stamina regeneration halted.
↳ Deep Mud: Movement speed reduced by 80%.
Kendra immediately started coughing. She covered her mouth with her sleeve and her eyes watered.
"I can't breathe," she gasped. "My health is already dropping."
Sloane looked at her own interface in a panic.
"My healing skills cost mana. If I have to spam heals just to keep us alive from the air, I'll be out of mana in five minutes. We literally can't walk in there."
"Relax," Declan said. He didn't look worried at all.
He opened his inventory and pulled out the item Sloane had bought for him on the Global Auction House. It was a small and cheap-looking piece of yellow paper with some red runic symbols scribbled on it.
[Item Stats]
↳ Name: Purification Talisman
↳ Tier: Scavenged
↳ Effect: Clears Level 1 toxins from the air in a one-meter radius for 10 minutes.
It was absolute trash. Any normal player walking into the Ashen Bog with this would die in exactly eleven minutes.
"System," Declan said in his mind. "Enhance the Purification Talisman. Twenty times. Do it all at once."
He had over four thousand Origin Points. Spending two hundred points to upgrade a basic utility item was pocket change to him now.
The system reacted instantly.
A blinding pillar of white light shot out from Declan's hand. The system chimes sounded like a machine gun going off in his head.
[System Enhancement Initiated]
↳ Talisman +1... +5...
↳ Notice: Maximum safety threshold reached. Item shatter imminent.
↳ Talent: Boundless Enhancement activated. Cap removed.
↳ Talisman +6... +10...
↳ Triggering Conceptual Mutation...
The yellow paper changed. It turned into a solid and smooth piece of white jade. The red scribbles vanished and were replaced by elegant glowing silver engravings.
↳ Talisman +15... +20...
↳ Triggering Conceptual Mutation...
The white light suddenly pulsed outward and turned into a soft calming silver glow. The light washed over Declan, Sloane, and Kendra.
The coughing stopped instantly.
Sloane took a deep breath. She blinked in shock. "What the heck. The air smells like peppermint."
Declan looked at the new stats floating above the jade stone in his hand.
[Item Information]
↳ Name: Talisman of Absolute Purity +20
↳ Tier: Scavenged (Double Mutated)
[Item Traits]
↳ Trait 1: Everlasting Ward. The item no longer has a duration limit. It is permanently active while in inventory.
↳ Trait 2: Aura of Cleansing.
↳ Functionality: Creates a permanent 10-meter radius around the user. Inside this radius, all toxic, magical, or conceptual environmental hazards are completely nullified. Furthermore, gravity and terrain friction are normalized to standard flat ground. The user and allies within the radius ignore all terrain debuffs.
"Beautiful," Declan said. He tossed the jade stone into his inventory.
A faint and almost invisible silver dome expanded outward from his body. It created a perfect ten-meter bubble around them. Where the silver dome touched the neon green miasma, the toxic gas simply hissed and vanished.
"We're good," Declan announced. He stepped off the ridge and walked straight down into the bubbling gray mud.
His +10 Spiked Striders hit the mud. But instead of sinking in up to his knees, his boots rested firmly on the surface.
The Aura of Cleansing completely normalized the terrain physics. To Declan, walking on the deep swamp mud felt exactly like walking on a paved sidewalk.
"Come on," Declan called back to the girls. "Keep up. Stay inside the bubble."
Sloane and Kendra exchanged a look of pure disbelief. They hurried down the ridge and stepped into the silver radius. Kendra tapped her foot on the mud. It was solid under her boots.
"You completely broke the zone mechanics," Sloane muttered as she shook her head. "The developers are going to ban your account."
"Let them try," Declan laughed.
They walked deeper into the Ashen Bog. The silver bubble pushed the green fog away effortlessly. Inside the dome, the air was cool and fresh. Outside the dome, it was a literal nightmare.
After about twenty minutes of walking, they started seeing other players.
It was a pathetic sight. A group of four players wearing heavy Forged-tier armor were crawling through the mud about fifty feet away. They were completely covered in the gray sludge.
They were coughing violently and spitting up blood as the toxic miasma melted their lungs.
"Help," one of the crawling players croaked. He reached a muddy hand toward Declan's silver bubble. "Please. Need potions."
Declan didn't even turn his head. He just kept walking at a brisk and comfortable pace.
"Should we help them?" Kendra asked softly. She looked back at the dying players.
"No," Declan said flatly. "They don't have anything I want. And they made the choice to walk into a Level 15 hazard zone without proper gear. Stupidity gets you deleted here."
Sloane shuddered but didn't argue. She knew Declan was right. If they stepped outside the bubble to help, they would start taking the damage too.
Some situations change a person's character, especially when it's about surviving.
They passed dozens of dead bodies. The mud was littered with dissolving avatars and dropped junk gear.
Most players hadn't even made it a mile into the swamp before the constant HP drain killed them. The movement speed debuff meant they couldn't run away once they realized their mistake.
"It's a slaughterhouse," Sloane observed as she stepped over a floating iron helmet. "Nobody is going to reach the boss at this rate."
"Big guilds will," Declan said. He kept his eyes locked on the horizon. "A guild with a lot of money can buy enough high-level potions to power through the damage. Or they have high-level mages casting area-of-effect wind spells to push the fog back. They will be there."
Sure enough, the deeper they went, the louder the sounds of combat became.
They started hearing the heavy thud of explosions and the sharp crackle of magic. The fog up ahead was flashing with bright red and blue lights.
Declan stopped walking. He held up a hand. The silver bubble stopped with him.
Through the thick green miasma just outside their safe zone, they could see the faint outline of a massive ruined stone temple sinking into the mud.
"We found the spawn point," Declan said.
He narrowed his eyes. The area around the temple wasn't empty.
There were hundreds of players standing in tight organized formations. They had set up large magical wards that pushed the green fog back to create a massive artificial safe zone.
"Look at the banners," Kendra whispered. She pointed at the massive black and gold flags planted in the mud.
"Sovereign Syndicate," Sloane read the text on the flags. She groaned loudly.
"Declan, that is the biggest pay-to-win guild on the server. They have thousands of members. They buy all the best gear with real-world money on the black market."
"I don't care about their bank accounts," Declan said as he stared at the massive crowd. "I care about the boss."
He cracked his knuckles. It was time to crash a party.
-----x-----
Chapter 18: [18] : The Guild Blockade, Void Blink
Declan walked forward and pushed his silver bubble of clean air right up to the edge of the Sovereign Syndicate camp.
The guild setup was impressive. They had over five hundred players surrounding the sunken stone temple.
They weren't wearing the cheap mismatched garbage that the Black Vanguard wore. Every single member of the Sovereign Syndicate wore polished matching gold and black armor. Their weapons glowed with high-tier enchantments.
They had dozens of Mages maintaining a massive wind barrier to keep the toxic fog out. They had rows of archers and heavily armored shield-bearers standing in perfect military lines.
And in the center of the camp, sitting on a literal velvet folding chair, was a guy who looked completely out of place. He wore a pristine white suit that didn't have a speck of mud on it. He was sipping from a crystal goblet.
A floating name tag above his head read.
↳ Caldwell, Guild Master
"That guy looks like a massive tool," Declan noted casually.
"He is Caldwell," Sloane whispered frantically. She stayed low behind Declan's coat.
"He is the heir to some massive real-world tech conglomerate. He basically treats the Grid like his personal playground. Declan, we cannot fight five hundred max-geared players. It's impossible."
"I'm not going to need to fight them," Declan said. "Look at what they're doing."
Declan pointed past the army toward the sunken temple.
The temple courtyard was a massive arena of bubbling mud. Standing in the center of it was the World Boss.
Gargantua, the Rot-Walker.
It was horrifying. It was at least forty feet tall and made entirely of rotting wood, rusted metal, and decaying corpses fused together into a towering humanoid shape. Massive vines pulsed with toxic green light wrapped around its limbs.
Every time it took a step, the ground shook violently.
[Target Information]
↳ Name: Gargantua, the Rot-Walker
↳ Level: 15, World Boss
↳ HP: 50,000 / 50,000
But Caldwell wasn't attacking it with his elite army.
Instead, the Sovereign guards were violently shoving small groups of low-level unarmed players into the arena. These were desperate newbies who had clearly been captured or bribed to be here.
The newbies screamed and ran into the mud. The moment they crossed the invisible aggro line, Gargantua roared.
The boss raised a massive rotting fist and slammed it into the ground. A huge shockwave of toxic green spikes exploded outward and covered the entire arena. The unarmored players were instantly impaled and melted into pixels.
"Cannon fodder," Declan said. His voice was cold.
"The boss has a massive area-of-effect attack that triggers on proximity. Caldwell doesn't want his expensive guild members taking the hit. He's throwing trash mobs at the boss to drain its mana and force its skills on cooldown."
"That is sick," Kendra muttered as she gripped her bow tightly.
"It's incredibly inefficient," Declan corrected her. "It's taking them forever."
Declan stepped out from behind a dead tree and walked directly toward the Sovereign barricade. His silver Aura of Cleansing pushed the fog away which made his approach very obvious.
Instantly, ten Sovereign guards turned and leveled heavy crossbows at him.
"Halt!" a guard barked. He wore a shiny gold helmet. "This zone is locked down by the Sovereign Syndicate. Turn around and walk away, or we will delete your avatar."
Declan didn't stop. He didn't pull out his cleaver. He didn't summon his halberd. He just kept his hands in the pockets of his pitch-black Predator Coat.
He glanced at his stamina bar.
[Biological State]
↳ Stamina: 100 / 100
His mutated skill, Void Blink, cost exactly 15 stamina per cast. It can teleport him 15 meters instantly and ignore all physical obstacles. With 100 stamina, he could cast it six times back-to-back before his stamina bottomed out.
Six times fifteen was ninety meters.
He looked at the distance between himself and the towering World Boss. It was roughly eighty meters.
Perfect.
"You deaf?" the guard yelled as he stepped forward with his sword drawn. "I said halt!"
Declan looked over his shoulder at Sloane and Kendra. "Stay here. Enjoy the show."
Then, he looked back at the guard. He smiled.
"Void Blink."
The world turned pitch black.
Declan vanished from his spot. The guard's sword swung through empty air.
Instantly, Declan materialized fifteen meters ahead. He appeared directly behind the front line of shield-bearers. Before they could even turn their heads or shout in alarm, he cast it again.
"Void Blink."
Another flash of nothingness. He skipped fifteen meters deeper into the camp and appeared right next to a group of mages casting wind spells. The sudden displacement of air made their robes flutter. Declan didn't attack them.
"Void Blink."
He vanished again. He was moving way too fast for the human eye to track. To the Sovereign Syndicate, he was just a blur of black leather flickering through their camp like a glitch in the server code.
"Intruder!" someone finally screamed.
"He's bypassing the line! Stop him!"
Caldwell stood up from his velvet chair and spilled his crystal goblet. "What is that? Shoot him!"
Dozens of crossbow bolts and fireballs were fired in a panic. They all hit empty air. Declan was already gone.
"Void Blink."
He teleported straight through Caldwell's command tent and appeared right at the edge of the boss arena. The bubbling mud of the courtyard was right in front of him.
He had about forty stamina left.
"Void Blink."
One final jump. The darkness enveloped him and spat him out directly in the center of the arena.
His +10 Spiked Striders hit the mud with a soft squelch. Because of his Aura of Cleansing, the mud instantly hardened under his boots like solid concrete. The toxic air around him was pushed away in a perfect ten-meter bubble.
Declan slowly stood up straight. He rolled his shoulders.
He was standing exactly at the feet of the massive forty-foot-tall Rot-Walker.
Back at the barricade, the entire 500-man army of the Sovereign Syndicate fell dead silent. Caldwell stared at the lone figure in the black coat with his jaw hanging open in sheer disbelief.
Nobody just walked into a boss aggro zone alone.
Gargantua slowly looked down. Its glowing green eyes locked onto the tiny human standing at its feet. The boss let out a deafening mechanical roar that shook the entire swamp.
Declan didn't flinch. He just looked up at the towering monster.
He reached into his inventory. The heavy dark iron shaft of the +10 Warden Halberd materialized in his right hand. He rested the blunt four-hundred-pound axe head casually against his shoulder.
"Alright big guy," Declan smiled as he looked up at the boss. "Let's see what you got."