Chapter 41: The Weight of Divine Pressure
It wasn't particularly useful here, but in the outside world, this would be the ultimate kiting tool.
Reducing either Attack Velocity or Movement Speed was already powerful enough. Reducing both simultaneously was simply broken.
This was especially true against Warrior classes. They were already naturally slow in both movement and attack; a twenty percent reduction would turn them into nothing more than literal practice targets.
The same logic applied to mobs.
However, the description didn't specify if the effect was forced, meaning there was a high probability it could be removed through Purification.
But even then!
It wouldn't matter.
The effect triggered on a Basic Attack. As long as Liam kept attacking, Purification would be useless—he would just reapply the debuff instantly.
Liam pulled his thoughts back to the present.
A knock sounded at Mrs. Gable’s door, followed by an elderly voice from outside.
"Mrs. Gable, is the Adventurer still here?"
"He is, Chief."
Mrs. Gable opened the door to reveal a short, white-haired old man.
Rivers, The Village Chief
HP: ???
Attack: ???
Skills: ???
Nothing but question marks.
A prickle of dread ran down Liam’s spine at the sight.
"Brave Adventurer, you have my deepest thanks. However, simply slaying those Frost-Wolf Lycans is far from enough."
"Our home was once a peaceful place. But then, a Divine from the Western Domains passed through, and a heavy snow began to fall. It hasn't stopped for six months."
"Since then, half of every year has been buried under ice and snow. And when the frost comes, the monsters follow."
Liam realized he had triggered the main plot quest for the dungeon.
"Chief, is there anything I can do to help?"
"We all wish for things to return to the way they were. If you can destroy the traces left by the Frost Corpse and restore peace to the Novice Village, we will offer you our most precious treasure in return."
Ding! Rivers, The Village Chief has offered you a quest. Do you accept?
Quest Requirement: Destroy the Traces of the Frost-Corpse and restore peace to the Novice Village.
Penalty: None.
Reward: Weapon Evolution Scroll +1.
Liam’s eyes lit up.
This was a top-tier item.
A Weapon Evolution Scroll could upgrade a single piece of equipment.
He couldn't help but feel a surge of excitement. If he used it on the Tome of Mortality, what kind of insane stats would it gain?
This was a completely unexpected windfall.
"Rest assured, Chief. I’ll give it everything I've got."
A satisfied smile spread across Rivers' face.
"Good luck, brave Adventurer."
Liam nodded and stepped out of the house.
"In that case, I’ll take my leave."
It was time to get back to the fight.
As he walked through the village, he sensed eyes watching him through windows.
Yet, not a single soul stepped outside. They watched from a distance, paralyzed by the fear that more monsters might appear at any moment.
He headed forward.
The path ahead was an endless, blinding expanse of white.
Suddenly, Liam’s foot struck something solid. He kicked the snow aside to reveal a Boundary Monolith.
He brushed the frost off the stone, revealing eight simple words.
The Primordial Eastern Empire rests here.
Those few words sent his mind racing.
Players from the Dragon Empire were supposed to descend into the Primordial Eastern Empire upon entering Twilight of the Gods.
But for some unknown reason, that empire "rested here"—buried and gone.
This was the reason why Dragon Empire players found themselves in a Westernized version of the Astral Kingdom.
As he pushed further ahead, a suffocating pressure settled over him. It felt as though an invisible weight was crushing his chest, forcing his heart to hammer against his ribs.
"This is... Divine Pressure!"
Even in his past life, Liam had rarely encountered Divine Pressure. To find it here, in this dungeon, was staggering.
Ding! You are affected by Divine Pressure. All attributes decreased by 10%.
Crack—
Liam’s expression shifted instantly.
A fracture had appeared on his Purifying Jade Amulet.
Without a second's hesitation, he unequipped the item and stowed it away.
Purifying Jade Amulet (Unique Gear)
Requirement: Can only be worn if voluntarily transferred. Cannot be dropped or looted. Cannot be worn by others unless gifted.
Effect: Grants immunity to 80% of Crowd Control, Slow, Curse, Poison, Burn, Freeze, Paralysis, and other negative debuffs.
Durability: 80/100.
His reaction had been fast, but the amulet's durability had already plummeted by twenty points.
Unique Gear was notoriously difficult to damage. Yet, this Divine Pressure had cracked it in seconds.
Ding! You are affected by Divine Pressure. Attribute reduction increased to 50%.
Ding! You are affected by the frost. Movement Speed and Attack Velocity decreased by 25%.
Liam sucked in a sharp breath.
Without the Purifying Jade Amulet, his stats were being butchered.
His Attack Velocity, which had been a solid 6.73, crashed down to 1.68.
Dammit.
A seventy-five percent reduction was absurd.
His scalp prickled with unease. His movement speed and HP were equally crippled. His damage output was about to take a massive hit.
The dungeon was already punishingly difficult. With these debuffs, it was becoming a nightmare.
"I guess the early success made me overconfident. Hell Difficulty is even more terrifying than I imagined."
Liam pressed on, fighting against the crushing weight of the Divine Pressure.
Suddenly, he detected movement beneath the snow.
Before he could react, a Frost Serpent lunged from the drifts, its maw gaping wide as it snapped at him.
Liam threw himself into a roll, an arrow already notched and flying from his bow the moment he hit the ground.
Frost Serpent (Bronze Boss)
Level: 50
HP: 30,000,000 / 30,000,000
Attack: 10,010
Skills: ???
A Bronze Boss. And a snake at that.
Snakes were notoriously difficult to handle; their sleek, low-slung bodies made them incredibly hard to knock into a Suspension state.
If his Attack Velocity were normal, Liam could have pulled it off. But at 1.68? It was nearly impossible.
Liam currently had 380 unassigned AP. If he dumped every single point into Attack Velocity, his base speed would hit 12.15.
Of course, that was before the debuffs.
After factoring in the seventy-five percent reduction, his actual Attack Velocity would sit at a meager 3.03.
It was low, but with perfect timing, maintaining an infinite Airborne loop wasn't entirely out of the question.
After a moment's thought, he dumped all 380 points into Attack Velocity.
Base: 12.15. Actual: 3.03.
Thwip! Thwip! Thwip!
Liam began the dance, his Spiral-Draw Archery firing in rapid succession.
-11,023.
-11,024.
With his attributes halved, his damage output had shriveled.
He didn't let it discourage him. After tasting the true difficulty of this dungeon, he wasn't even sure he could clear it in one go anymore. For now, he just needed to push as far as possible to learn the mechanics.
Looking back, he realized he had cleared the Frost-Wolf Lycans too quickly. If he had slowed down, he probably could have stacked another 50,000 to 100,000 HP.
That would have boosted both his Basic Attack damage and his survivability. Even if the Divine Pressure dampened those gains, every little bit counted.
Thwip! Thwip! Thwip!
The arrows whistled through the air.
Finally, Liam managed to launch the Frost Serpent into the air.
Keeping a Bronze Boss airborne was dozens of times harder than a regular mob. The mental strain was immense.
But he had to hold the line. Failure meant a swift death.
The serpent had thirty million HP. Liam was dealing roughly thirty thousand damage per second. At that rate, it would take nearly forty minutes to kill a single snake.
And that was assuming he made zero mistakes and a second serpent didn't show up.
The thought made his head ache.
However, there was a silver lining. At nine HP stacks per second, forty minutes of combat would net him 21,600 permanent HP.
His damage would grow as the fight dragged on.
Of course, that was all theoretical. In this place, variables were everywhere.
And as it turned out, disaster arrived right on cue.
Liam had been kiting the serpent for thirty minutes. He was nearing the finish line when a second Frost Serpent erupted from the snow.
Shit. This is going to be a problem.
His movement speed was shot; outmaneuvering two of them with positioning alone was impossible.
He had one more trick: Twin Dragon Spiral.
He could fire two arrows at once. Unlike a standard Twin Shot, both arrows used the Spiral-Draw technique, meaning they both carried knockback.
But even with Liam's top-tier mechanics, keeping two serpents airborne simultaneously was a tall order. They were simply too difficult to launch.
However, he could keep one in the air while kiting the other.
Just as he had calculated, the first serpent died at the forty-one-minute mark.
Then came the second.
Airborne, follow-up, repeat.
But twenty minutes into the second fight, a third Frost Serpent appeared.
Liam finally understood the pattern: one serpent spawned every thirty minutes.
He had no choice but to keep kiting.
The first kill had granted him 22,000 HP. Combined with the progress on the second, he had stacked a total of 28,000 HP.
With the multipliers from Tears of the Life Goddess and his innate talent, that was an actual gain of over 36,000 HP.
But under the fifty-percent attribute penalty, the effective gain was 18,000.
That translated to roughly 500 extra damage per Basic Attack, or 1,600 extra damage per second.
Against a thirty-million HP pool, it was a drop in the bucket.
By the time the second serpent fell, the third had already been active for twenty minutes. Which meant he had ten minutes before the fourth appeared.
He was holding on, for now.
But what would happen when he had to face three at once?
The prospect was terrifying. Facing three meant he would inevitably have to tank the damage of at least one.
Liam braced himself. He would have to take it one step at a time.
After the second kill, his damage per second had increased by another 1,900. Totaling his gains, he was now doing 3,500 more damage per second than when he started.
That was an extra 210,000 damage every ten minutes. It still felt too slow.
Liam went full throttle and finally finished off the third serpent.
Then, his nightmare began.
Three serpents at once.
He stuck to his rhythm, utilizing Twin Dragon Spiral.
In truth, Liam’s skill was high enough to fire three Spiral-Draw arrows at once. But doing so would sacrifice his ability to keep any of them airborne—the force wouldn't be concentrated enough.
He could only pray his defenses would hold against the one he couldn't disable.
-10,000!
-9,998!
The damage numbers popped up. For now, it was manageable.
Compared to the Lycans, the serpents hit harder, but their Attack Velocity was slightly lower, and they didn't apply a Bleed status.
He just hoped they didn't have any hidden, game-breaking skills.
As Liam kited, the suspended serpent hit its Unstoppable threshold and crashed to the ground.
Without hesitation, Liam switched to Trident Salvo, kiting all three simultaneously.
This reduced the overall pressure on his positioning.
This was where the twenty-percent slow from The Frost Decree finally showed its worth.
In this war of attrition, his movement was crippled, but so was theirs.
By pulling three at once, he no longer had to worry about the precision required for an Airborne state. It was easier, in a way.
As long as he maintained the rhythm of the Spiral-Draw knockbacks, he could remain stable.
He considered sticking to this safe method, but quickly dismissed it.
He needed to maximize his output. He launched another serpent back into the air, focusing his fire to burn them down as fast as possible.
The moment an Unstoppable state ended, he focused that serpent down, then moved on to the fifth serpent that had joined the fray.
Thanks to their Glacial Mending skill, the fifth serpent had already regenerated a significant portion of its health, though it wasn't at full.
This was a razor's edge. He had to push his damage to the absolute limit, or he’d be swallowed whole.
He could handle three serpents with extreme kiting. Four, however... based on his calculations, he could probably manage it, but the mental exhaustion would be staggering.
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