Chapter 19: [19] : Cracking the Rot-Walker, Conceptual Sever
Declan stood inside his silver bubble of purified air and completely ignored the five hundred heavily armed players behind him.
He tilted his head back and looked up at Gargantua.
The monster let out a mechanical grinding roar that shook the bubbling gray mud under Declan's boots.
Before the real action started.
Back at the barricade, Caldwell spilled the rest of his drink.
The guild master of the Sovereign Syndicate pointed a shaking finger at Declan.
"Who is that idiot?!" Caldwell screamed at his lieutenants.
Declan was interfering in his master plan.
"He just walked right into the aggro radius! He's going to trigger the AoE stomp! Kill the boss! Hit it with everything before that random scrub resets the aggro!"
The Sovereign Syndicate was highly trained. They didn't hesitate.
"Fire!" a raid leader yelled.
Dozens of heavy ballistas mounted on the crater ridge fired simultaneously.
Massive steel bolts the size of telephone poles slammed into Gargantua's back and shoulders.
The mages in the backline released a synchronized volley of high-tier fireballs and lightning strikes.
The explosions were deafening.
The sheer amount of damage numbers popping up over the World Boss's head formed a solid wall of red text.
Declan didn't move. He just watched the boss's health bar.
[HP: 42,000 / 50,000]
The artillery barrage had shaved off a huge chunk of health in seconds.
But then, the thick green vines wrapped around Gargantua's body flared with a blinding light.
A new system prompt appeared over the monster.
[Passive Triggered: Fungal Regeneration]
The massive holes in the boss's chest and shoulders began to violently knit back together.
Rotting wood grew at a rapid pace.
Mutilated corpses snapped back into place.
Within three seconds, the health bar shot right back up.
[HP: 49,500 / 50,000]
Caldwell slammed his fist onto his velvet folding chair.
"Keep firing! It's a DPS check! We have to out-damage the healing factor! Drain its mana!"
Nothing beats hiting it hards until it breaks, everything has a limit.
More explosions rocked the swamp.
The cycle repeated.
The guild would blast away eight thousand health, and the boss would instantly heal it all back.
The ground pounded as Gargantua stomped its massive feet.
It sent waves of toxic spikes outward, instantly killing the low-level cannon fodder players Caldwell had pushed into the arena.
Declan stood perfectly safe in his silver bubble.
The toxic spikes hit the invisible wall of his +20 Purification Talisman and dissolved into harmless green mist.
"Well, that is annoying," Declan muttered to himself.
He crossed his arms and did the math.
His +20 Carnage Cleaver dealt massive bleed damage.
His +10 Warden's Halberd dealt absurd kinetic crushing damage.
But neither of those mattered if the boss could just magically regenerate thousands of health points per second.
He could chop off the boss's leg, and a new one would just grow back before the monster even hit the ground.
He needed anti-heal.
He needed to turn off that regeneration permanently.
This actually beats hiting it hard.
While the Sovereign Syndicate screamed and fired their weapons, Declan calmly pulled up his system interface.
The monster was pretty occupied with the incoming shots.
He opened the newly unlocked Global Auction House.
The holographic yellow screen floated in front of him.
He typed in a quick search filter.
[Keywords: Bleed, Anti-Heal, Wound. Tier: Scavenged.]
A list of cheap low-level items and skill books populated the screen.
Most of it was absolute trash being sold by desperate players in other sectors.
Declan scrolled past the rusty daggers and spiked arrows until he found what he was looking for.
[Skill Book: Lacerate]
↳ Type: Active Skill
↳ Requirement: Bladed Weapon
↳ Description: Consume 20 Stamina to deliver a jagged strike. Reduces target's healing received by 10% for 5 seconds.
↳ Buyout Price: 15 Origin Points.
As usual, It was a terrible skill for a normal player.
Ten percent healing reduction for five seconds was basically useless against a World Boss.
But Declan didn't care about the base stats.
He only cared about the concept.
He tapped the buyout button.
[Item Purchased. Origin Points -15.]
The glowing blue book materialized in his hand.
He pressed it against his chest instantly.
The book shattered into light and absorbed into his skin, dumping the muscle memory of the attack into his brain.
[Skill Learned: Lacerate Level 1]
Declan checked his balance.
He still had over four thousand Origin Points from the Black Vanguard massacre.
"System," Declan said in his mind. "Enhance the Lacerate skill. Twenty times."
The familiar splitting headache hit him.
It felt like someone was driving a nail into his temple as the system forcefully rewrote the digital code inside his mind.
[System Enhancement Initiated]
↳ Lacerate +1... +5...
[Notice: Maximum safety threshold reached. Neural corruption imminent.]
[Talent: Boundless Enhancement activated. Cap removed.]
↳ Lacerate +6... +15... +19...
The headache vanished and was replaced by a cold sharp clarity.
[Lacerate has reached +20.]
[Triggering Conceptual Mutation...]
The system text in his vision turned a dark bloody crimson.
[Skill Mutated: Conceptual Sever]
↳ Type: Active Skill
↳ Description: Consume 20 Stamina to deliver a strike that severs the target's connection to restoration. Wounds inflicted by this attack cannot be healed by any spell, passive skill, item, or natural regeneration. The damage is permanent until the target dies.
Declan smiled.
The cheat codes were fully operational.
He closed the interface and reached into his digital storage.
The +20 Carnage Cleaver appeared in his right hand.
The pitch-black serrated blade pulsed with a dark red glow.
Gargantua was busy swatting away fireballs.
It hadn't even noticed the tiny human standing by its left foot.
Declan checked his stamina. It was full. He had one hundred points.
He was more than ready.
"Void Blink," Declan thought.
The world went pitch black for a fraction of a second.
Declan vanished from the mud and reappeared directly behind the boss's massive tree-trunk-sized left ankle.
He didn't hesitate.
He activated Conceptual Sever and swung the Carnage Cleaver with both hands.
Schwing!
The red blade sliced cleanly through the rotting wood and thick vines of the monster's Achilles tendon.
Dark sludgy sap sprayed out of the wound.
Gargantua let out a deafening screech.
The boss stumbled forward, its massive left leg buckling under its own weight.
The green vines around the wound flared brightly as the passive regeneration tried to kick in.
The green light met the jagged cut and physically shattered.
It looked like glass breaking.
The code of the game literally refused to allow the healing to apply. The wound stayed open.
"What happened to its leg?!" Caldwell yelled from the barricade.
"Did the artillery hit a weak spot?"
Declan didn't stick around to answer. He looked up at the towering monster.
"Void Blink."
He teleported straight up, appearing fifteen meters higher right next to the boss's massive hip joint.
Gravity immediately grabbed him but he already had his cleaver pulled back.
He activated Conceptual Sever again.
He drove the blade deep into the rotting flesh and rusted metal of the hip socket, dragging it downward as he started to fall.
Gargantua roared in absolute agony.
The boss blindly swiped a massive hand at its own hip trying to crush whatever was hurting it.
Declan let himself drop for half a second to dodge the giant hand.
Then he locked his eyes on the center of the monster's back.
"Void Blink."
He vanished from mid-air and reappeared directly between Gargantua's shoulder blades.
He landed on a platform of fused rotting corpses that made up the boss's spine.
He had sixty stamina left.
He only needed twenty for the final strike.
The World Boss was thrashing wildly now.
It couldn't put any weight on its left leg and its hip was totally shredded.
The Sovereign Syndicate mages stopped casting.
They were completely confused as to why the boss was suddenly tearing itself apart.
Declan gripped the Carnage Cleaver tight.
He raised it high above his head.
The jagged blade glowed with the dark crimson light of the mutated skill.
He aimed straight down at the thickest part of the monster's spinal column.
"Lights out," Declan whispered.
He drove the cleaver down with everything he had.
The Conceptual Sever easily cut through the rusted iron and petrified wood.
The blade sank deep into the core of the boss's spine.
It instantly severed the main neural connection between the upper and lower halves of the colossal body.
Gargantua's glowing green eyes flickered and dimmed.
The massive roar turned into a pathetic gargling wheeze.
The monster's legs completely gave out.
Forty feet of rotting mass collapsed straight down into the swamp.
The impact was like a meteor hitting the earth.
A massive tidal wave of gray mud and toxic water exploded outward in a complete circle.
The mud wave crashed over the Sovereign Syndicate's wind barriers.
It knocked dozens of heavily armored players off their feet and sent Caldwell tumbling out of his velvet chair.
Declan rode the collapsing monster down like a surfer on a wave.
Thanks to his Spiked Striders' fall damage immunity, he didn't even feel the jarring impact when the boss finally hit the ground.
He stood up straight on the paralyzed monster's back.
Gargantua was completely immobilized.
Its health bar was sitting at 35,000 but it couldn't move a single muscle.
The healing vines sparked and fizzled, desperately trying to repair the severed spine.
But the conceptual rule held firm. The boss was permanently crippled.
He was almost done.
Declan casually rested the bloody cleaver on his shoulder and looked out at the Sovereign Syndicate camp.
It was time to finish the job.
-----x-----
Chapter 20: [20] : Stealing the Kill, Player V
The Ashen Bog was completely silent except for the bubbling of the mud.
Gargantua lay face down in the swamp completely paralyzed.
Its massive health bar hovered over its head reading exactly 35,000 points.
The boss's glowing green eyes twitched frantically.
But its severed spine and crippled legs refused to move.
Caldwell pushed himself up from the mud.
His pristine white suit was ruined and covered in gray sludge.
He looked at the downed World Boss.
Then he looked up at the lone figure in the black coat standing casually on the monster's back.
Caldwell's eyes went wide.
He didn't know who this guy was and he didn't care.
All he cared about was the health bar.
That's what his brain was telling him but his body was saying otherwise.
He was actually shivering.
"The boss is stunned!" Caldwell screamed as his voice cracked with desperation.
"It can't heal! The healing mechanic is broken! Kill it! Steal the kill right now!"
The Sovereign Syndicate scrambled to obey.
Five hundred players snapped out of their shock.
"Mages! Dump your mana!" the raid leader yelled. "Archers, aim for the head!"
Hundreds of glowing magic circles appeared in the air above the guild's backline.
Fireballs, ice lances, and crackling bolts of purple lightning began to materialize.
The archers pulled back their bowstrings.
The tips of their arrows glowed with armor-piercing enchantments.
They were about to unleash enough damage to wipe out the remaining thirty-five thousand health points in a single massive volley.
If they landed the last hit, the system would award the boss kill and the loot to their guild.
Declan stood on Gargantua's broad back.
He looked at the massive glowing light show charging up across the mud pit.
"You guys are really slow," Declan noted casually.
He willed the Carnage Cleaver back into his digital storage.
He didn't need bleed damage for this.
He didn't need anti-heal anymore.
He just needed pure raw immediate destruction.
He reached out his right hand.
The air distorted heavily as the +10 Dull Warden's Halberd materialized.
The massive unpolished block of dark iron dropped into his palm with a heavy thud.
Declan gritted his teeth as the eighty-pound weight settled onto his shoulder.
His base strength was still too low to handle the weapon properly.
But he only needed to swing it once.
Across the arena Caldwell slashed his hand downward. "Fire!"
The sky lit up.
Hundreds of spells and arrows launched simultaneously.
They arched through the toxic fog like a localized meteor shower.
They were all aimed directly at Gargantua's massive head.
They were going to hit in exactly three seconds.
Declan didn't wait.
He planted his spiked boots firmly into the rotting wood of the boss's back.
He gripped the leather-wrapped shaft of the halberd with both hands and hauled the massive weapon up over his head.
But he was not going to use only his own force.
"System," Declan thought. "Drop the hammer."
He swung the halberd straight down at the back of Gargantua's skull.
The instant the weapon started its downward arc, the mutated trait activated.
[Trait: Weight of the Warden triggered.]
The mass of the weapon increased by five hundred percent.
Eighty pounds instantly became four hundred pounds.
Combined with the speed of Declan's swing, the kinetic energy generated by the blunt axe head defied all standard physics.
The halberd tore through the air creating a visible shockwave of warped pressure.
It sounded like a jet engine breaking the sound barrier.
The blunt edge smashed into the center of the World Boss's head.
CRACK!
There was no resistance.
The four-hundred-pound kinetic strike didn't just break the skull.
It completely caved it in.
The rotting wood, iron plates, and fused bone shattered instantly under the impossible force.
Gargantua's massive head was flattened into the mud.
[Critical Strike! 38,500 Physical Damage dealt!]
It actually damaged passed that number.
The health bar hovering over the boss instantly zeroed out.
Half a second later, the massive barrage of Sovereign Syndicate spells and arrows slammed into the exact same spot.
Fire and ice exploded outward completely engulfing the front half of the boss in a blinding storm of magic.
But it was too late.
The system chime rang out in Declan's head loud and crystal clear.
[World Boss Gargantua, the Rot-Walker Level 15 Defeated!]
[Experience Points Gained: 150,000]
A cascade of golden light washed over Declan, repeating so fast it looked like a strobe light.
[Level Up!] x6
[You are now Level 12.]
The massive forty-foot corpse beneath Declan's boots began to dissolve.
Millions of bright blue digital pixels floated up into the toxic fog breaking the boss down into nothingness.
Declan dropped down to the solid mud as the body vanished completely.
Sitting in the mud perfectly clean and glowing with a soft authoritative light were two items.
Declan knelt down and picked them up.
The first was a heavy perfectly smooth block of black obsidian.
It pulsed with a faint purple energy that felt warm to the touch.
[Item: Sanctum Core]
↳ Tier: Sovereign
↳ Description: The administrative key to a region. Planting this core into the earth will generate a one-kilometer permanent Safe Zone dome. Monsters cannot enter or perceive the area within. The owner of the core holds absolute administrative rights over the zone's entry and physics.
"Hello, real estate," Declan smiled.
He immediately tossed it into his inventory.
He looked at the second item.
It was a sleek dark silver ring with a small swirling black gemstone set in the center.
It looked like a tiny galaxy trapped in glass.
[Item: Ring of the Void-Hoarder]
↳ Tier: Mythic
↳ Stats: Agility +20, Intelligence +10.
↳ Passive: Expands digital inventory space by 500 slots. Items placed inside weigh absolutely nothing.
Declan slipped the ring onto his right index finger.
He felt the massive stat boost instantly.
He was lighter and faster, and his mind felt sharper.
A Mythic drop on the first day of the Grid was the kind of luck normal players killed for.
Suddenly a massive deafening bell chimed across the entire sky.
It wasn't just in the Ashen Bog.
This bell rang across every single sector ringing loudly in the minds of millions of players simultaneously.
A massive golden holographic banner unrolled across the bruised purple clouds.
[Global Server Announcement!]
[The Level 15 World Boss, Gargantua, has been slain!]
[First Boss Kill registered to hidden alias: Player V]
[The path to survival is open.]
Across the Grid absolute chaos erupted.
Guilds that were currently organizing raids stopped in their tracks.
Solo players stared at the sky in shock.
Someone had already killed the World Boss? The game had barely started!
Back in the Ashen Bog the smoke from the magical barrage finally cleared.
Caldwell stood at the edge of the crater.
He stared at the empty patch of mud where the boss used to be.
He stared at the golden words fading in the sky.
Then he looked at Declan.
The guy in the black coat was just standing there adjusting his new silver ring.
Caldwell's face turned violently red.
The veins in his neck bulged.
He had spent millions of real-world dollars setting up this guild.
He had paid for the best gear, hired the best players, and orchestrated a massive meat-shield strategy just to secure that Sanctum Core.
And some random guy had just walked in, hit the boss with a stick, and put the core in his pocket.
"You," Caldwell whispered, his voice trembling with sheer unadulterated rage.
Declan looked up.
He gave Caldwell a lazy two-finger salute.
"Thanks for the leash job. You guys really softened him up for me."
Caldwell completely lost his mind.
"Kill him!" Caldwell shrieked, pointing both hands at Declan.
"I don't care about his defense! I don't care what level he is! Lock down the perimeter! Block the exits! Nobody teleports out of here! Peel that coat off his dead body and get me my Core!"
Five hundred Sovereign Syndicate members drew their weapons.
The mages began to aggressively chant, setting up spatial lock wards to prevent any standard escape skills.
Declan looked at the massive army bearing down on him.
He wasn't going to fight five hundred guys.
He was overpowered but he wasn't stupid.
It was time to leave.
-----x-----
Chapter 21: [21] : Escape from the Syndicate, Spatial Anchor
Five hundred heavily geared players charging at once was a terrifying sight.
The ground of the Ashen Bog shook under their boots.
The front line of shield-bearers roared as they closed the distance.
Meanwhile the mages in the back rapidly cast glowing nets of spatial magic into the sky.
Trying to deactivate whatever trick he was using.
"Spatial Lock activated!" a mage yelled.
"Standard teleportation skills are disabled within a hundred meters!"
Declan stood in the center of the muddy arena.
He didn't pull his halberd back out.
He just glanced at his system interface.
[Stamina: 100/100]
He could use Void Blink six times.
That gave him ninety meters of movement.
The Sovereign Syndicate had formed a massive ring around the arena that was easily two hundred meters thick.
If he tried to blink through them, he would run out of stamina right in the middle of their backline.
With fifty defense from his coat, he wouldn't die instantly.
But five hundred players continuously hitting him would eventually chip his health down to zero.
"Hand it over, kid!" Caldwell screamed while safely standing behind a wall of tanks.
"I will literally wire a million to your real-world bank account right now if you drop that Core! If you don't, we will kill you, take it anyway, and spawn-camp you until you permanently log off!"
Declan laughed.
He was smart enough to realise that Caldwell was just baiting him.
"You guys always offer money when you realize you can't win."
He didn't need to run.
He just needed to bend the rules again.
He looked down at his right hand.
The new Mythic-tier [Ring of the Void-Hoarder] gleamed on his index finger.
The base stats were great but base stats didn't get you out of an army's trap.
He needed a conceptual exit.
He opened his enhancement menu and linked it directly to the ring.
He checked his Origin Point balance.
Killing a World Boss solo didn't just give experience.
It dumped a massive fortune into his account.
He had over thirty thousand points sitting in his inventory.
Normal items cost one point per level.
Relics cost fifty.
He had no idea what a Mythic item cost to upgrade but he was about to find out.
"System," Declan commanded instantly.
"Enhance the Ring of the Void-Hoarder to plus ten. Push it through the warning."
[System Enhancement Initiated]
↳ Mythic Tier Item detected. Cost: 500 Origin Points per level.
↳ Ring +1... +2... +5...
[Notice: Maximum safety threshold reached. Item shatter imminent. Severe soul backlash guaranteed.]
Declan didn't even blink.
He let his SSS Talent crush the game's safety protocols like a bug.
[Talent: Boundless Enhancement activated. Cap removed.]
↳ Ring +6... +8... +10.
[5,000 Origin Points Consumed.]
The dark silver ring on his finger violently erupted with a deep pulsing void energy.
It didn't physically change shape.
But the tiny black gemstone in the center expanded, looking like a literal miniature black hole resting on his knuckle.
[Ring of the Void-Hoarder has reached +10.]
[Triggering Conceptual Mutation...]
The system text flashed in a brilliant blinding purple light.
[Ring of the Void-Hoarder +10 Mutated]
↳ Trait Unlocked: Spatial Anchor
↳ Functionality: The user can instantly recall themselves and all equipped items to the exact coordinate of any active party member regardless of distance, spatial locks, or environmental restrictions. Cooldown: 1 Hour.
Declan read the text and a massive grin spread across his face.
A standard spatial lock stopped basic teleportation skills.
It stopped people from blinking a few feet away.
It could not stop a mutated conceptual rule that completely ignored the game's physical environment.
And luckily Declan had forced two terrified girls to join his party a few hours ago.
The fake negotiation was over, Caldwell was running out of patience.
"Fire!" Caldwell shrieked.
The Sovereign mages unleashed their second volley.
Hundreds of fireballs, jagged ice spears, and heavy crossbow bolts rained down from the sky.
They were all curving directly toward Declan's location.
Declan casually shoved his left hand into the pocket of his Predator's Coat.
He raised his right hand high in the air.
The mutated ring caught the light of the incoming spells.
He looked right at Caldwell and flipped him a highly deliberate and very disrespectful middle finger.
"Keep your money," Declan said.
He activated Spatial Anchor.
He targeted Sloane.
The ring flared with absolute darkness.
A cylinder of pure void energy crashed down from the sky, completely swallowing Declan.
A split second later, the massive magical barrage slammed into the mud where he had just been standing.
The explosion was catastrophic.
Mud, water, and toxic gas blew hundreds of feet into the air.
When the smoke cleared, there was a massive crater in the center of the arena.
It was completely empty.
No body.
No dropped loot.
No Sanctum Core.
"Where is he?!" Caldwell screamed as his voice cracked violently.
He grabbed a nearby mage by the collar.
"You said the area was locked! Where did he go?!"
The mage looked at his glowing interface in sheer panic.
"He... he's gone, sir. He didn't teleport out of the zone. He just... stopped existing on this coordinate plane."
Caldwell dropped to his knees in the mud.
He stared at the empty crater.
He realized he had just lost the single most important item in the entire game to a guy who didn't even bother to draw a weapon on him.
Miles away on the rocky ridge overlooking the Sunken Armory, Sloane and Kendra were sitting on a flat stone.
"Do you think he's dead?" Kendra asked quietly while kicking a pebble into the dark water below.
"The system announced someone named Player V killed the boss. It didn't say Declan."
"Declan is exactly the kind of guy who hides his username to be edgy," Sloane sighed.
She rubbed her temples.
"But yes. He walked into a 500-man army. He's probably a puddle of pixels right now. We need to figure out what to do before the Purge Wave hits."
Suddenly the air right next to them violently popped.
A cylinder of black void energy slammed into the rocky dirt.
The wind whipped out and nearly knocked Kendra off the rock.
The darkness vanished instantly.
Declan was standing there.
His black coat was perfectly clean.
He was completely unharmed.
Kendra shrieked and fell backward.
Sloane jumped up and summoned her glowing green healing magic out of pure reflex.
"What the hell?!" Sloane yelled as she grabbed her chest.
"You can't just pop out of nowhere like that!"
Declan ignored her, he gave them a scare on purpose.
He reached into his inventory and pulled out the massive heavy block of pulsing black obsidian.
He casually tossed the Sanctum Core into the air and caught it with one hand.
He looked at his two completely stunned scouts.
"Alright," Declan smiled with his dark eyes gleaming.
"I got the rock."