Chapter 236: The Killbox

  Without a doubt, the second floor of this tower dungeon was far more dangerous than the first, but not because of the two elite, level-60 Legion Portal Guardians, which stood across from one another and were incapable of doing any serious damage to Zach; no, it was because of the red-haired, big-chested Vixen Portal Commander that sheltered behind the two of them in front of the stone-sealed exit. Unlike the Orcs, this mob could actually hurt and kill Zach if he wasn’t careful, which was something Zach had discovered a bit earlier in the night when he’d risked taking on all three at once. He’d succeeded, of course, but not without a bit of pain.

  Those icicle attacks hurt!

  Zach was lucky his passive HP regeneration had been enough to take care of him after one of those sharp, spear-like pieces of ice had been shot completely through his ankle. If he had been hurt even just a tiny bit worse, it probably would’ve crossed the threshold to where he would’ve required a red stone.

  “Definitely don’t want a repeat of that,” he said to himself with a nervous, self-aware laugh.

  Looking ahead, he eyed the three mobs as he drew both his swords, the newest of which was the same exact weapon that the Vixen Portal Commander wielded, which made sense since she was the one he’d gotten it from.

  The weapon, Frozen Blade of the Mystics, looked like it was made entirely out of ice, from the point of the blade itself all the way down to its looped grip. It also left behind a trail of quickly dissipating, icy vapor wherever it happened to be waved. And now, as Zach gripped his hand around the hilt of this Epic-Rarity sword, he realized it would be the key to speeding up his leveling thanks to his newest ability, Amplifying Surge.

  It’s just a shame I don’t have any ice-based magical attacks, he thought, recalling that the blade’s special ability was a very powerful debuff that lowered ice resistance. Somewhat amusingly, the only spell he had learned thus far was Flame Arrow II: a fire spell he’d be using with a sword made of ice.

  Raising the spell blade, Zach, for the first time, activated Amplifying Surge, taking a deep breath as he did so.

  Not too bad, he thought as just a single bead of sweat slid down his forehead.

  As far as its Exertion Cost was concerned, Amplifying Surge cost the same as Wave Slash: moderate. But in terms of how it functioned, it was much more like Boundless, being that there were no other sounds, sights, or any other stimuli attached to the use of it. Upon activation, it was simply there and ready to go—or at least he assumed that was the case.

  “Okay, this might be a bit exhausting,” he warned himself. “But it’ll be a great workout.”

  Extending his arm, Zach pointed his spell blade in the direction of the three elite mobs ahead of him.

  “Here goes nothing,” Zach said. Then he chanted. “Val En Flamir Arr!”

  His body, acting on its own, made two swipes in the air with the icy rapier, briefly making dual frosty streaks wherever the weapon slashed, and then, following these two quick movements, six entire rings of flame manifested into existence about a foot in front of his body at chest height in a neat, horizontal line, and it was from within these flaming rings that six arrows made of pure fire emerged, all six of which shot across the distance, exploding upon contact with the elite mobs, each being on the receiving end of two per mob.

  Gods, it really works, Zach thought, astonished. Whoah, whoah, whoah! It’s like I cast the spell three times and not once!

  A surge of pure satisfaction coursed through him, turning quickly into raw excitement. The fact that it’d actually worked wasn’t what shocked him, but rather, it was how it worked that blew his mind. The ability had stated it would cause his spell to “affect” all the targets within its 30-range limit. But he hadn’t actually expected that to mean the spell would be duplicated as though he’d literally cast it three times back-to-back. The sight of it caused him to swell with a rush of energy.

  The damage was also pretty damn good, too.

  The elite Orcs were hit for between 190-210k, and the force of the spells' impact was enough to shove them in the opposite direction, causing each to stumble. The Vixen Portal Commander took around 170k per arrow as well, and she too backed up a few steps as though pushed. Then, as expected, all three elite mobs aggroed onto Zach immediately, wasting no time in responding to his aggression with plenty of their own.

  “Krest zencht harganar!” barked Legion Portal Guardian A.

  “Krest zencht harganar!” agreed Legion Portal Guardian B.

  “Intruders!” shouted the Vixen Portal Commander as she drew her icy rapier, the mere motion causing her oversized breasts to jiggle in what had to be a deliberately exaggerated way. “Orcs! Protect the tower!”

  All three elite mobs snapped into action, and so too did Zach. Proceeding as quickly as he possibly could, Zach again activated the Moderate exertion-level ability, Amplifying Surge, followed instantly by the Moderate-Low spell, Flame Arrow II, and thus, he again chanted, “Val en Flamir Arr!”

  As he’d done before, he swung his blade back and forth, causing another six arrows to fire swiftly out of six burning rings, all of which proceeded directly to their targets as though locked onto them.

  Two of the fire arrows promptly struck the Legion Portal Guardian on his left, dealing 210,444 and 195,211 damage in unison while causing the Orc to briefly stagger and stumble on its charge over to him. The other Orc, however, was a little less lucky. Upon impact, the two arrows succeeded in causing the mob to fall over and slam down onto its back.

  And then there were his remaining two arrows, which struck the Vixen Portal Commander just as she finished waving around her identical spell blade and casting a spell of her own. Her cast succeeded just before impact.

  This is the dangerous one, Zach thought as he readied himself.

  The stone flooring began to crack and split apart, and it then continued to break, but it did so in a line that began near the red-haired mob’s feet and soon quickly closed in on Zach. He knew what this was, however: it was her crowd-control attack, which, if successful, would encase him in ice and leave him completely helpless for a long enough time to risk death.

  The Vixen Portal Commanders often opened with this attack, which was like a combination of a root and a stun, one that lasted for way too long of a time, perhaps even an unfairly long time. Therefore, as the stone flooring continued to split on its way over to him, Zach jumped off to the side at the last possible moment, narrowly avoiding the pillar of ice that shot up through the floor where he had been standing. Then he activated Amplifying Surge a third time, swung his rapier around, and sent another six arrows surging forward, each striking his targets.

  Both of the Orcs had only first resumed their charge, but each were again halted, and both were knocked flat onto their backs. The red-haired Vixen, on the other hand, remained on her feet, but she was at least shoved in the opposite direction until her back hit the slab-like covering over the exit to the third floor on the other side of the area.

  Once again, his Flame Arrow II had not only dealt a great deal of damage, but it had prevented any of the three elite mobs from advancing towards him, preserving the distance between him and his enemies—and it also left significant, visible signs of injury as well.

  All three of them, Vixen included, were now charred and scorched on various areas of their bodies, with one of the Orcs having a blackened, stained face; its lips were stuck together as though the heat had caused them to bubble and fuse, and Zach could smell the burned skin even from across the room. The Vixen Portal Commander had also gotten badly scalded, and in what came as a guilty sort of shame to Zach, he realized he’d cooked her right boob until it was nothing more than a burnt lump of smoking flesh.

  Zach sucked in a deep breath, activated Amplifying Surge, and then followed it up with another Flame Arrow II. And then he repeated this combination again immediately after, and then again right after that. The result was six constant, non-stop waving motions of his rapier-wielding hand, followed by eighteen arrows made of fire flying across the second-floor area and exploding into the elites, sending all three backward.

  But now, he was getting exhausted.

  Having used the combination yet another three times in a row so quickly, all the exertion struck him at once, and it was a bit more than he’d been anticipating. It overcame him for a moment, leaving him feeling temporarily paralyzed and in need of catching his breath.

  “Oh, shit,” he said with a gasp, sucking air into his lungs as sweat poured down the sides of his face and the nape of his neck. He opened his mouth more widely to take in even larger gulps of oxygen.

  While Zach faltered, the three elites picked themselves up, and the Vixen Portal Commander muttered something before sending three sharp, elongated icicles zipping through the air towards him while the two Orcish elites sprinted his way as though chasing after behind them. It was like the icicles were cavalry leading the charge. Zach, still panting, forced his tired body to move.

  Lowering his right, rapier-wielding arm and raising his left, he swung his Primordial Void Blade over and across from him in a one-handed slash, then immediately whipped it right back the same way, and in doing so, he cut down two of the three icicles that the Vixen Portal Commander had sent his way. But the third one…that one got him.

  “Gah—fuck!” he cried out as the spear-like ice projectile struck his right shoulder and went straight through it, piercing his skin cleanly and emerging from the back like a needle going through a thread. It caused him to involuntarily drop his Frozen Blade of the Mystics while simultaneously immobilizing his entire arm. Zach swore as the weapon clacked against the stone flooring. Even worse, he didn’t even have the time to pick it back up, as the two elite Orcs were already upon him. And although they weren’t a threat in and of themselves, they could easily end up becoming a fatal distraction, making it easier for the Vixen Portal Commander to cut him down with more of her ice magic.

  Be cool, he told himself. You can handle this.

  Zach winced as he activated Amplifying Surge yet again. Already fatigued, it caused his eyes to briefly become unfocused and a tinnitus-like ringing in his ears. But he pulled himself together and activated Halting Strike, exhausting himself even further. Given that the actual area he was fighting in was fairly small, he assumed—hoped, really—that the 30 range of Amplifying Surge would be enough to stun all three mobs and give him the second he would need to reset his position and recover. And so, as the first Orc reached him, he swung his blade haphazardly with one hand while Halting Strike was active. He didn’t care if he actually landed a direct hit or not, as the ability would work regardless.

  Upon activation, the Primordial Void Blade began to crackle with red, electric-like sparks as it swung through the air towards the Legion Portal Guardian B’s throat. The elite mob raised one of its two axes to guard, and their weapons clashed. Upon contact, the red, electrical sparks went through Zach’s sword, into the Orc’s axe, and then it continued on until spreading into the Orc’s body, causing it to then become paralyzed for between 0.5 to 1.2 seconds—just as Zach had expected. But what Zach had also expected was for the same thing to happen to the other Legion Portal Guardian and the red-haired, rapier-wielding Vixen.

  But it didn’t. Neither of them was stunned.

  “Wh-what the fuck?” he blurted out. “Why?’

  Zach felt an almost ache-like sensation thudding in his brain as he was met by both confusion and a lack of time to make sense of any of this. What in the name of the Gods had he done wrong? Why wasn’t it working? Had there been some wording on Amplifying Surge that he hadn’t understood? He’d used the ability correctly. He was sure of it. So why hadn’t his stun worked as an area-of-effect ability?

  These questions—and quite a few others—swirled around in his head, causing his attention to become diverted at a very bad time. Right now, the Vixen Portal Commander was already whipping up another spell, and Legion Portal Guardian A was already swinging around its axe. Oh, and the very brief stun on Legion Portal Guardian B had already expired, barely buying him any time at all.

  I don’t know what went wrong, but I’ll have to figure it out afterwards, not now, he told himself. I’ve got to deal with these three first.

  Rather than dwell on the dilemma, Zach decided to instead use a different method of crowd control—by relying upon one of the only two pieces of gear he actually had equipped: his Bold Treads of New Horizons, which had an incredibly powerful AOE stun ability that he’d only used once so far. Come to think of it, it’d been a few days since he’d tested the stun ability on his footwear, and he’d almost forgotten all about it. But now, having collected all five required Jolt Charges just by going about his normal business, he consumed them to activate Jolting Restraint.

  Instantly, three yellowish balls of electricity popped into existence around all three elite mobs, encasing and surrounding them like an orb-shaped prison. Loud buzzing and crackles permeated the air, though it did not last for long, as these electrical orbs then vanished almost immediately after appearing. Yet upon their parting, the two Orcish Elites and the red-haired Vixen dropped their arms down to their sides and remained perfectly still—and would continue to do so for between 3.5 to 8 seconds, which in Zach’s opinion was a hell of an amazing stun.

  Much more than Halting Strike’s 0.5 to 1.2. And it’s AOE, too!

  When Zach had first entered the world of adventuring and leveling, if you would’ve told him that 3.5 to 8 seconds was a “long time” for a stun duration, he would have laughed at you. After all, that was hardly any time at all. But in the adventuring world, it was an eternity. No, it was ten eternities. It was the sort of thing Jimmy would’ve called “overpowered” or “OP,” which were terms he liked to use for long-lasting CC.

  Aside from a slight trembling of their shoulders, the three elite mobs remained perfectly still as their bodies gave off little yellow dancing sparks—and Zach acted fast. Briefly sheathing his Primordial Void Blade, he reached across to his opposite shoulder and yanked out the icicle spear in one tug, causing blood to begin pouring out of a fresh wound in the shape of a ball.

  Despite how much he was bleeding and how bad the wound looked, the fact that it was in a non-vital area meant that passive HP regeneration would probably suffice. Unfortunately, that required him to be out of combat before it began to work, and that was time he knew he wouldn’t be given. Thus, upon yanking the icicle free, he lifted his left hand, dug it under his helm, and pressed down on the three emergency stones he kept on top of his scalp. He could feel just one shatter—almost certainly the red, which meant he hadn’t lost all that much blood and obviously hadn’t been struck anywhere vital.

  Healing began immediately. The wound sizzled and bubbled then began to close, and Zach dropped down into a squat to pick up his rapier after several seconds had come and gone and his arm was no longer immobile. The fact that he had time to do all of this and still return to his feet within the stun’s duration meant it must’ve lasted for its full 8 seconds. It even lasted the full duration on the Legion Portal Guardian A, which had already been stunned with Halting Strike and should’ve suffered some diminishing returns.

  No, wait, that’s not how it works, he thought, reminding himself of an important detail he’d learned back when Olivir had put the dragon to sleep and everyone had been left with all those adds to fight. Halting Strike is a physical stun, and Jolting Restraint is magical. They’re counted as separate types of CC even though they do the same thing.

  With his rapier back in his right hand, he again drew his Primordial Void Blade just as the stun at last expired. Then, immediately, he activated Flame Arrow II, causing another six arrows to fly like homing missiles at each of the elite mobs, where they detonated on impact and caused a brief orange flash that lit up the room. Interestingly, the fact that there were six arrows and not two confirmed to him that his earlier use of Amplifying Surge hadn’t been consumed, which in turn meant that the cause of his earlier failure with Halting Strike was not that the ability had been used and didn’t work, but that it didn’t seem to work with that particular ability.

  I don’t get it, he thought. Why?

  This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

  He decided he’d consider that question in much greater detail once he finished off these three mobs. Gritting his teeth, he activated the Amplifying Surge and Flame Arrow II combination twice more, causing the entire area to again light up orange as he further burned the three elites to a crisp, killing Legion Portal Guardian B outright.

  Even while still standing upright, the entire mob disintegrated right in front of Zach, its body turning into fine grains of sand that clumped together over the stone flooring in a somewhat neat little pile.

  +110,000xp

  Zach, panting and struggling to hold it together, felt himself on the verge of collapse. The room seemed to spin, and his heart was pounding dangerously fast. Still, he was so close to ending this. So he ignored the wetness all over his head and neck that had become soaked in sweat, and he ignored the way his heart was beating like a hyperactive drummer, and he viciously swung his Primordial Void Blade with one hand, striking the Orc in the chest and dealing 54,211 damage, finishing it off for good. Yet he was so exhausted that the exertion of performing such a slash caused him to make a loud “eugh” sound along with the motion.

  +110,000xp

  Lifting his eyes, he saw the Vixen Portal Commander waving around her rapier as though winding up for some painful ice attack. Heaving, fatigued, but very much unwilling to bear the brunt of any more of her bullshit, Zach made use of the fact that he now had 209 points into dexterity, and he used the last of his stamina to raise his arm, lean forward, and hurl his Primordial Void Blade at her.

  He watched as the blade made a whooshing sound as it spun across the air, but with such high dexterity, he knew exactly how it would land. He winced a bit as the bladed end came to a halt after lodging itself into the beautiful mob’s cranium, splitting it open and dealing 49,221 damage. Like the Legion Portal Guardian B, she did not fall over. She merely regarded Zach with an empty, lifeless expression that contrasted with her realistic-sounding death wail as her body imploded in on itself, turning in an instant into ashes. A moment later, the sound of his blade falling down upon the stone flooring echoed in the room, and this sound was followed by a small rumbling as the thin, vertical slab of stone sealing off the steps to the third floor slid aside, allowing entry.

  +170,500xp

  That one’s worth…a lot.

  Zach dropped his rapier and fell to his knees, huffing for air, and then threw out his palms to steady himself as his body began to plop forward. For nearly five minutes, he stayed that way, his body locked in a position similar to someone begging for forgiveness. Sweat poured out of his forehead along with the sides of his face, and his hair was completely drenched. Eventually, however, he forced himself to pick himself up before he ended up getting caught in a respawn, and so he grabbed his rapier, hobbled his way to the other end of the room right in front of the stairs to the third floor, and then retrieved his Primordial Void Blade, where it was partially buried in the clump of sand that had previously been the Vixen Portal Commander.

  After sheathing both his weapons, he suddenly felt dizzy: very dizzy. He felt a strange sensation. Was he falling? He wasn’t sure, but he had a sensation similar to dropping. He felt something hit his face, something stone-like and inclined—like a step of some sort. Everything suddenly turned black. Or at least he thought it did. Honestly, he felt so out of it that he wasn’t even certain at first. But then a terrible, unbearable pain awakened him as his eyes popped open a little time later, and it confirmed to him that he had, in fact, succumbed to a bit of E-debt.

  And in the worst possible way.

  Now, Zach roared out in agony, alarm, and confusion as his pain-senses went into overload. “Owe, owe, oweeee! What the fuck? What happened? My foot! Ahhh!”

  The pain flared so suddenly and so intensely that it roused him immediately back to full awareness. It was coming from below his knee—no, lower, even. His left ankle, perhaps. It was an awful, throbbing, and searing pain that confused him until his eyes became focused enough for him to realize what had actually happened—and Gods, it made him mad.

  You’ve got to be kidding me! This kind of bullshit only ever happens to me!

  It seemed he’d passed out and had fallen forward onto the stairwell itself, with his head on the second step and most of his body sprawled out on the first. But he had done so in a way that had left him with his leg extended and his foot partially sticking out of the entrance, which was now blocked off, meaning the mobs on the second floor had respawned. And with them, the exit had naturally resealed—chopping off his entire fucking foot in the process. This meant that, until the next weekly reset, there would now be a Gods-be-damned human foot near the Vixen Portal Commander that spawned on the second floor.

  His foot. It was probably bloody, too.

  “Gods dammit,” he growled, forcing himself to roll over onto his back. He realized the pinky toe of his other foot had also been chopped off, as his heel was now pressing flat against the stone slab that only moved aside when the mobs on the second floor died. “Such bullshit,” he said, still with a growl. “Can’t believe that just happened.”

  Raising his hand, he activated Bank and Storage. In a somewhat reclining position, it was difficult to see inside his box, but he obviously couldn’t stand. Still, he just managed to spot a red stone, and he brought it into his lifted hand. Immediately, he slapped it onto his chest, and then he breathed a sigh of relief as the healing process began. He also took out another Red Rejuvenation Stone and stuffed it under his helm to replace the one he’d used.

  I can’t believe I just wasted two of them, he thought bitterly. But I still have seven left.

  As Zach went through the pins-and-needles sensation that came with having his foot regrown, he took his mind off the discomfort by thinking about what he’d just learned and what he needed to change.

  To begin with, he knew that, at least in theory, it should be possible to use Amplifying Surge to vastly speed up his leveling. But if so, what he’d just done was clearly not the way to go about it. He’d literally exhausted himself to the point of passing out from E-debt on a fight that, earlier in the night, he’d gotten through without even breaking a sweat. So, yeah, whatever he’d just done was not the right idea.

  But it’s a volume problem, not a method problem. Right?

  As Zach thought on it, the idea made more and more sense. The real problem wasn’t the amount of stamina he’d used; no, the problem was the amount of stamina he’d used just to kill three mobs. Jimmy would never do something like that. Jimmy was a nutcase who would pull an entire dungeon. That, after all, was how he’d managed to shoot up in the levels so fast that he’d been accused of being power-leveled.

  For Zach to make the most of this ability, he needed to think bigger: bolder. Because expending that kind of energy would only be worth it if the payoff was bigger than what it would be if he used it fighting normally.

  I think I know what to do, he thought, feeling a mischievous grin entering onto his face as he wiggled his freshly regrown toes. Miraculously, his boots had somehow not suffered a full break despite the left one being destroyed, and so now, Zach could actually see his left boot begin to regrow right over and around his skin in real time as the equipment regenerated.

  This is going to be cool! As long as it doesn’t kill me.

  As Zach stayed sprawled out on the steps to recover his stamina, an idea popped right into his head, one that he committed to almost immediately, as it just felt right. But as he did so, another thought emerged, one of a more concerned nature.

  Why didn’t my Halting Strike work?

  He decided to pull up the information for Amplifying Surge yet again despite having read it many times when he’d first gotten the ability.

  Rereading the description over and over, Zach’s mind came up blank. He just didn’t get it. He even pulled up Halting Strike and had the ability information float in the air right beside it as though hoping to see some kind of connection or clue as to what had gone wrong.

  “Yeah, I don’t get it,” Zach muttered. He even began reading both abilities out loud like they were facts he was studying for a test in school. “…hostile enemies within range. All spells and abilities used with Amplifying Surge have their maximum or set range changed to the range of Amplifying Surge.”

  Zach would’ve shrugged if it were possible to do so while sprawled out on the steps. “So, yeah, I don’t get it. Amplifying Surge makes my stuff AOE, and it changes whatever ability I use with it so that its range is the same as Amplifying Surge, which is 30. So Halting Strike would have its range changed to 30 from…from…uh…”

  Zach blinked. Then he picked himself up into a sitting position on the first step. He inhaled. Like a light flicking on in his brain, it all finally clicked. “Halting Strike doesn’t have any range! It’s a melee attack.”

  Was that it? Was that why it failed?

  It had to be. If so, it meant that only spells and abilities that actually had a range would work. This meant Wave Slash likely wouldn’t work either, as that one had no set range. Yes, it did have a point at which the projectile would burn itself out into nothingness, but that wasn’t part of the requirements or limitations of the ability itself. So, Wave Slash was probably off the table—but Phase Slash wasn’t! Hell, he was counting on it.

  After another ten minutes of lazing around, Zach at last got to his feet. With his Bank and Storage still active, he grabbed twenty of his cards at random, each one appearing in his hand. Quickly, he stuffed them under his helm so that they joined the stones, and then he marched up the stairs to the third floor, where he emerged in a very small, rounded room connected to a narrow hall with a low ceiling that required him to duck at parts to avoid hitting his head. At other parts, the top was open and Zach could technically leap up and out of this little passageway if he wanted to get back to the second or first floor in a hurry.

  If everything went his way, this would become important soon enough.

  For now, he simply continued on his way, and eventually, the narrow passage widened before leading into a significantly larger, but also roundish room on the opposite side of the tower, where an unlit chandelier hung above.

  The first time Zach had come to this third floor, Landy had been haunting him, and so he hadn’t really processed just how strange it was that such a lone piece of “furniture” like a chandelier existed all on its own. It really stood out. The Gods only knew what the point was of putting a chandelier on this specific floor all by itself and on no others. But, if nothing else, it did give Zach an idea.

  If my Star Gun goes out on me again while I’m still fighting, this can give me a bit of emergency light.

  Yeah, lighting it might be worth the little cost of exertion. And so, drawing his rapier, Zach decided to use Flame Arrow II with the chandelier as a target. Hopefully, he wouldn’t blow the entire thing up and would succeed in merely lighting it. Afterwards, he’d deal with the seven elite mobs on this floor.

  Swinging his rapier back and forth, he chanted, “Val En Flamir Arr!”

  Two flame portals popped into existence in front of him, and two fire arrows then shot out of them from within. Both struck the chandelier at the exact same time, causing it to make a sound oddly similar to a gong before violently swinging back and forth. Yet at least it was still intact, and at least it was now providing a backup source of light.

  “Okay,” Zach said. “Now I have to—”

  His words ended in a surprised, fearful croak as, from the thin air itself, something emerged. Something large. It was a massive, heavy, gem-encrusted treasure chest, one that simply appeared before him right in front of his face. It just…it just appeared! For seemingly no reason. Zach was so startled by its unexpected appearance that he actually jumped backwards and drew his Primordial Void Blade in the second or two that it took his eyes to register what it actually even was.

  Zach then watched, transfixed, as this treasure chest plummeted before slamming down with a loud bang onto the stone floor. And for just a few moments, Zach stared at it, unblinking. Then his entire mood became elevated, and he let out a cheer of pure victory. “I just discovered a secret puzzle thing!” he yelled. “I…I just discovered a secret puzzle thing!”

  Sheathing his two blades, he eagerly ran forward, dropped down into a crouch, and with greed coursing through his veins, he undid two little latches, which caused the treasure chest to pop open, revealing the contents inside. With an exclamation of giddy cheer, Zach leaned over and looked inside. And he saw…he saw…

  Huh? He saw…nothing?

  What the hell?

  There was nothing inside the chest. Not even a single Gods-be-damned thing. What the fuck? What kind of…how was this even possible? Zach discovered a secret puzzle thing. So where was his Gods-cursed reward? What the hell? There was nothing in here. He even reached inside and felt around with his palm to be sure—and yep, there was nothing at all. Though the inside did feel a bit strange over by the bottom left corner.

  Zach moved the chest back a bit so it was directly beneath the chandelier light, and then he again peered inside. And now, he could see a message carved into the chest itself.

  Jimmy wuz here first bitches. Get rekt. We tested the chest and it don’t respawn the loot. 1st come 1st serve ftw.

  Anger clapped Zach like a bolt of lightning. “Jimmy!” he roared out, more reflexively than intentionally, his voice now booming through the quiet tower. “If you’re still alive out there, you won’t be once I find you! Gods dammit!”

  Having been totally robbed, it took Zach nearly fifteen minutes before he could resume what he’d set out to do, as his anger had come in like an unforecasted storm, leaving him muttering and pacing back and forth. He couldn’t believe it. He’d found an actual secret dungeon puzzle, and there was nothing inside of it but some stupid message. And what did “ftw” mean, anyway? Actually, you know what? Zach was so pissed off he didn’t even care what it meant. Gods, this was so lame and unfair. He’d gotten his hopes up for nothing!

  Of course Jimmy discovered this already. He probably found every fucking secret that exists in this place.

  But…at least it meant that Jimmy and the others had made it this far, right? After all, there was still no definitive proof that the raid ever actually succeeded in reaching the top of the tower, as the weekly reset would clean up all bodies and blood. The only evidence Zach had that his friends had been here at all was the dead gate guardian corpse outside the tower and this little “message” that Jimmy had left behind for whoever or whatever came next, following in his footsteps as Zach currently was.

  Fully rested up and wanting to refocus his energy, Zach reached under his helm and pulled out the twenty cards he’d taken out of Bank and Storage. Having selected them at random, he began using Card Summon to fill the room with what turned out to be thirteen Legion Portal Guardians, two Vixen Portal Commanders, and five Acolytes of the Portal.

  “Go get them,” Zach said, making a waving motion while mentally commanding his cards to attack the seven elite mobs on this floor, which consisted of three Legion Portal Guardians, two Vixen Portal Commanders, and two Acolytes. Instantly, a chorus of Orcish voices cried out, most of them on his side, as his cards swarmed and mercilessly pummeled the far smaller, inferior force, earning Zach a negligible amount of experience points—a number so tiny he didn’t even pay attention to it.

  He also didn’t participate, either. He simply relaxed with his back to one of the walls and hummed to himself while watching his cards rip his enemies to shreds. The point of his cards, of course, was not to earn him any meaningful experience points, but to quickly kill these mobs and open up the entrance to the next set of stairs so that he could move along without expending any energy.

  And at that, they succeeded quickly and easily.

  Their mission accomplished, Zach dismissed them with Card Dismiss and stuffed them underneath his helm. He would’ve been happy to return them to his item box, but Bank and Storage was still on cooldown, so that would just have to do for now. And with that, he made his way into the next stairwell.

  Climbing up to the top, Zach exited into an area that was the largest of the first four floors, but was still smaller than the spider-boss floor one above. But much like the encounter area where he’d fought the spider boss, there was a funnel-shaped hole in the very center of the room that led directly down into the wide, narrow tunnel that he’d only just traipsed through to get to the third floor. And if Zach craned his neck up, he could see the fifth floor—much, much higher up—and the vague outline of what he was now pretty sure was the spider boss.

  I’m coming for you tomorrow, he thought with a confident grin. Well, technically later today, since it’s like 3 AM.

  The fourth floor had nine elite mobs lined up in a grid-like formation, with three Orcs leading the pack, three Vixen Portal Commanders side by side in the middle, and three of the bald-headed, staff-wielding Acolytes of the Portal at the rear. It wasn’t much of a step up from the last floor, which had seven mobs.

  If this works, Zach thought, becoming excited. This might go down as the coolest thing I’ve ever done.

  Before beginning, Zach waited what he estimated to be around fifteen minutes for the mobs on the third floor to respawn, as this entire thing would be pointless without them. To be safe, he probably waited closer to twenty minutes, but he needed to be sure. Afterwards, he drew his two blades, sucked in a deep breath, and readied himself. This was going to be a bit wild.

  If this works, I’ll be able to level as fast as Jimmy!

  Zach knew he needed to be extremely careful. Failure here would surely mean death. He couldn’t afford to slip up and make a mistake. He had to do this perfectly. Taking one more deep breath, he activated Amplifying Surge, feeling his body warm ever so slightly as a bit of fatigue settled in. Then, following this, he released the breath he’d been holding, and he chanted, “Val En Flamir Arr!”

  The sight that greeted him was so spectacular it was almost mesmerizing. Once again, Zach struggled to believe it was even real. With nine mobs targeted, and all of them being in range, the result was that 18 separate flaming portals manifested into existence, so many that they did not even appear in a straight, horizontal line, but rather in a slightly curved, triangular formation. Then, from within these 18 rings of flame, 18 arrows shot out, their combined whistling reminding him of warfare as all of them ripped across the room and struck their targets, two apiece.

  And now it was time to run.

  The Orcish elites barked out their war cry. The Vixen Portal Commanders shouted out their warnings. The Acolytes said nothing. But all nine made at least some sound as they raced across the room heading in his direction: all except for two of the three Vixen Portal Commanders, who were busy splitting open the floor as their icy crowd-control attack closed in on him faster than anything else.

  With urgency, Zach whipped his body to the right and took off at a full sprint towards the funnel-like hole in the center of the room. For a brief moment, he feared he might not actually make it, as the splitting, cracking ground was moving towards him far faster than he was able to run. Yet he just made it. Leaping into the air, he dropped down just as the icy, crystal-like structures burst up from the floor near the edge of the hole, right as he jumped into it.

  “Come get me!” Zach shouted as he began to fall.

  Naked except for a helm, boots, and underwear, a refreshing wind-like blast covered his skin as he fell from the fourth floor onto the narrow hallway of the third. The moment he touched down, he immediately got up, blasted forward, and dashed into the third floor, where the seven elites awaited.

  I’ve got to be really, really quick!

  Zach activated his combination. And this time, he didn’t even bother waiting for the 14 arrows to shoot across the room. The moment he used Amplifying Surge followed by Flame Arrow II, he spun around and took off right back the way he’d just come from. Yet, despite how fast he’d moved, he was still unable to return to the narrow hall before the first two Legion Portal Guardians dropped down from the floor above, their arms already raised as though they intended to crash their axes down at the moment of impact.

  “Shit!”

  Zach threw himself in the opposite direction as both of the mobs slammed down at full speed while simultaneously lashing out with their axes. And the power behind their combined attack proved to be more than this tiny little tunnel passageway could handle, as within mere seconds of impact, the entire tunnel shook, then split open with a loud snap, spilling Zach, the two Orcs, and whoever else was approaching all the way down to the second floor, where Zach landed on the Vixen Portal Commander from the second floor and flattened her, dealing 11,411 unintentional damage.

  I didn’t know this could happen!

  Zach scrambled back to his feet as the two Legion Portal Guardians on the second floor aggroed him. At the same time, elite after elite was now dropping down to this floor like raindrops. Moving as fast as he could, Zach launched himself into another sprint, this time to the exit, where stone platform steps would normally be found whenever the elite on the first floor were killed. For now, however, Zach had to leap down just as he’d been doing.

  With a click-like sound, he landed on his feet—but close enough to aggro the lone Legion Portal Guardian, who happened to be just a few feet from him.

  “Krest zencht harganar!” it barked out as it took a swipe at his throat. Zach ducked, spun, and delivered a back kick that pushed it away from him—just as four more of them dropped down from the second floor, along with two Vixen Portal Commanders. The rest of the mobs were not far behind.

  Almost! I’m almost ready!

  His blades still drawn, Zach opted to smash his way through the partition rather than neatly going through it. Running at it at full speed, his body slammed through the stone and even caused the nearby walls to shake as he made a mad dash towards the tower’s entrance. As he ran, he at last activated Unleashed Phase with a Phase Level of 0.

  At once, a dim glow came upon his entire body, far more pronounced than usual as he was almost naked. His hands and feet also gave off the impossibly black smoke, and all his stats were elevated. His stamina was also fully replenished, and he felt revitalized and fresh.

  Having been more exhausted than he’d realized, he started off with less than 14 minutes, as the 15-minute timer subtracted whatever was necessary to replenish him. But more importantly, it gave him access to the ability he needed.

  It was time to do this.

  Please work, he begged, sending his prayers to the Gods. Just for once, let me have something work out on the first try!

  Zach watched as twenty various elite mobs broke their own way through the partition, more or less clumped together as they pursued Zach like some kind of frenzied mob seeking justice. But this was exactly what he’d been hoping for. Zach, waiting for them to come just a little bit closer, sheathed his spell blade and gripped his Primordial Void Blade in both hands. With that, he activated Amplifying Surge, subtracting two minutes from his time.

  “Phase Slash!” he cried out an instant later, swinging his sword diagonally downwards through the air. Immediately following this motion, a hideously loud sound like that of a zipper opening through fabric filled the entire tower, and on the heels of this sound, Zach saw something that actually made him shiver. Twenty ripples appeared around him, some within such close proximity to one another that it almost seemed to be one larger ripple and not two.

  And all these distortions took off the moment they appeared, moving at a blazing speed towards the horde of elite mobs that Zach had aggroed—and each one struck their target.

  620,441

  702,444

  821,111

  505,222

  600,001

  The damage numbers all jumbled together, but Zach ignored them. There were too many entities to keep track of at once, and Zach’s heart was pounding with excitement in his chest. “Phase Slash!” he cried out again, but only after activating Amplifying Surge.

  Limbs and other body parts were visibly exploded off bodies, faces were disfigured, and weapons went flying. It was carnage on an incredible scale. Superheated, sizzling blood splattered all over the area near the partition, and a collective thud rang out as bodies were sent flying backwards, with some even blasting through the stone and into the room on the first floor where the Legion Portal Guardian spawned.

  “Phase Slash!” Zach cried again.

  And now, there were deaths. A quarter of them died just like that. In some cases, they went out with a pop and their insides actually exploded, coating the walls and the floor in boiling guts and blood.

  +110,000xp

  +110,000xp

  +175,500xp

  +200,000xp

  +110,000xp

  “Phase Slash!”

  And this one finished off the rest. Just like that, twenty elite mobs were vaporized in a matter of seconds, leaving the entire first floor of the tower dungeon looking like the aftermath of a mass, indoor execution, with blood and guts even staining parts of the ceiling, some of it now leaking back down. Zach, who stood far enough away—right near the exit—managed to spare himself being showered in it. But Gods, it was a disgusting sight.

  But the XP rolling in sure wasn’t.

  Zach sheathed his blades and nodded to himself. This seemed like a good time to turn in for the night.