Chapter 124: Harvesting the Mutant, God-Shards
Levi gripped the haft of his weapon with both hands. He was getting close to the execution threshold.
"Keep him locked down, Isolde," Levi said, his eyes completely dead. "We’re going to harvest this freak."
**
The massive, liquid-metal axe swung over Levi’s head, generating a wave of heat that practically cooked the digital air.
Levi didn’t even flinch. He just casually stepped backward, letting the ridiculously slow weapon smash into the splintered wooden deck of the dreadnought.
"You hit like a truck, I’ll give you that," Levi smirked, dragging the tip of his Platinum scythe across the burning wood. "But you swing like my grandmother."
Inside the red Gravity Well, the mutated Guild Master was struggling to even lift his weapon again. Isolde’s Anomaly spell had completely crushed Gideon’s Speed stat to an absolute zero. The fifteen-foot-tall monstrosity of molten iron and screaming code was a sitting duck.
More importantly, his Defense had been cut directly in half.
Levi didn’t waste the opening. He blurred forward, his 1,636 Speed turning him into a glitching dark shadow. He stepped right inside the mutant’s guard and unleashed a relentless blender of basic physical attacks.
The Platinum Scythe of the Eclipse tore through the liquid metal flesh.
[-1,865]
[-1,865]
[-1,865]
The damage numbers weren’t the apocalyptic fifty-thousand hits he managed during his Overdrive buff, but they were consistent.
Gideon’s original Defense was 8,000. Isolde’s Gravity Well cut that down to 4,000. Levi’s scythe ignored 30% of that, dropping the effective Defense to just 2,800.
With his permanent Total Attack sitting at 7,464, his raw output was 4,664. The game engine slapped him with the brutal 60% Level Suppression penalty for the twelve-level gap, scrubbing out more than half his damage.
But 1,865 Final Damage per swing was more than enough when he was attacking four times a second.
The best part wasn’t the damage, though. It was the sustain.
[+1,166 HP]
[+1,166 HP]
[+1,166 HP]
His Platinum scythe boasted a massive 25% Lifesteal passive. Every single time the blade carved into the boss, a thick stream of green healing numbers flooded his UI. He was ripping nearly 4,600 health back into his Shared HP pool every second.
The horrific 23,000 damage hit he took earlier from the molten axe was already completely erased. His shared health bar with Isolde violently shot back up to a perfect 105,980.
He was essentially an immortal mosquito slowly bleeding out a giant.
"Keep him locked down!" Levi yelled over his shoulder, spinning the heavy scythe like a propeller.
"Gravity Well parameters holding," Isolde replied. She was floating safely above the burning ship, her basic wooden staff glowing with a fierce, blinding white light. She didn’t sound robotic at all right now; she just sounded incredibly focused.
She pointed the staff downward.
[-5,000 True Damage]
Her Anomaly blast slammed directly into the glitching white God-Shard buried in Gideon’s chest. The mutant let out a horrific, metallic shriek that sounded like two cars crashing into each other.
The massive 5,000,000 HP health bar above Gideon’s head was melting.
Levi kept his eyes locked on the red bar. The combat loop was flawless. Isolde kept the boss paralyzed and stripped of armor, and Levi just held down the attack command.
2 million. 1.8 million. 1.5 million.
"You guys really thought this was the play?" Levi mocked, dodging another incredibly slow horizontal axe sweep. "You sold out the entire surface map to the Pantheon just so you could turn into a giant, ugly loot pinata?"
Gideon couldn’t answer. The player’s consciousness was completely buried under the God-Shard’s corruption. The mutant just roared, spitting molten iron onto the deck.
"Guess the conversation is over," Levi grunted.
1.2 million. 1.1 million.
"Get ready!" Levi called out.
The health bar ticked down.
1,000,000 HP.
Exactly twenty percent of the mutant’s maximum health.
Gideon was a massive, hulking monstrosity, but the game engine classified him as a Level 72 Elite, not a Boss. And because he was an Elite, the system rules applied.
Levi didn’t even swing his scythe. He just stopped, completely ignoring the massive molten axe swinging toward his face.
"Soul Harvest."
The dark, shadowy aura wrapping around his Obsidian Carapace armor instantly detached. It shot up into the smoky, purple sky above the dreadnought and violently expanded. A massive, pitch-black spectral guillotine blade materialized right over the mutant’s head.
The 60% Level Suppression penalty didn’t matter. The 4,000 remaining Defense didn’t matter. The execution mechanic was absolute.
The giant spectral scythe dropped.
It passed straight through the molten iron axe, completely ignoring the weapon’s collision hitbox, and slammed directly through Gideon’s thick, mutated neck.
The Elite monstrosity froze completely. The burning white God-Shard in its chest violently cracked down the middle.
Then, the entire fifteen-foot-tall mutant shattered into millions of black and glowing white polygons.
[Target Executed. Movement skill cooldowns reset.]
Levi let out a heavy breath, resting his scythe on his shoulder as the polygons washed over him. The heavy thud of dropped loot hitting the wooden deck sounded like music to his ears.
A dense, thick crimson aura ripped out of the empty space where Gideon died. It shot across the deck and slammed violently into Levi’s chest.
[Supreme Harvester triggered.]
[Mutant Gideon’s primary stat is STR (2,000).]
[You have plundered 3% of its core stat.]
[Gained +60 STR permanently!]
Levi felt the raw, physical power surge into his avatar. His virtual muscles actually felt tighter. Sixty Strength from a single kill was absolutely ridiculous. It was a massive injection of base stats.
But the system wasn’t done.
Killing a Level 72 Elite when you were only Level 60 triggered a massive underdog XP multiplier.
[System Notification: Slain Level 72 Elite ’Iron Mutation’. Gained 180,000,000 XP.]
The golden pillar of progression light crashed down through the purple storm clouds, completely engulfing Levi. The light instantly washed away his stamina drain.
[System Notification: Level Up! You are now Level 61.]
Levi smirked, swiping his menu open with his left hand.
The 180 million XP combined with his leftover 45 million pushed him to exactly 225,000,000 XP. It easily paid the 220 million cost for Level 61, leaving him with 5,000,000 XP carrying over. He needed 240,000,000 for the next level.
He had 5 new free stat points. He dumped them straight into Strength without a second thought.
His previous Strength was 2,860. He added the 60 from the plunder and the 5 from the level-up.
His new permanent Strength hit exactly 2,925.
"Seven thousand, six hundred and twenty," Levi read the number off his stat sheet. "I’m literally scaling faster than the game can throw mobs at me."
He closed the menu and looked up at the sky.
The mighty armada of the Mortal Coalition was completely broken. Over three hundred ships were burning or actively falling out of the sky.
The remaining vessels, including Ovidia’s massive flagship, weren’t firing their cannons anymore. They were actively fleeing. The sight of their mutated Guild Master getting casually executed had completely shattered their morale.
The massive galleons were turning their sails, burning their blue Aether-cores to maximum capacity as they desperately retreated toward the central hub of floating islands.
Levi stood on the splintered, burning deck of the dreadnought. His dark Obsidian armor was practically glowing from the level-up, and his Platinum scythe was literally dripping with black, glitching code from the mutant.
Isolde floated down, her boots gently touching the wooden deck beside him.
"Target eliminated," Isolde stated, looking at the piles of high-tier loot scattered across the ship. "The hostile fleet is currently retreating. Their combat morale parameters have dropped to zero."
"Yeah, they’re running," Levi said, watching the flagship disappear into the purple clouds.
He wasn’t going to chase them. He had already broken their blockade and made his point. More importantly, he had a massive haul of loot sitting at his feet.
"One down," Levi grinned, turning to Isolde. "Let’s loot this ship and get out of here. We have an island to claim."
**
The Behemoth of the Hollow galloped through the open sky, its massive hooves striking the invisible, solid platforms Isolde’s Anomaly code constantly generated in the air.
Levi held the reins loosely. He wasn’t looking at the fleeing ships anymore. His eyes were locked on the massive, sprawling landmass hovering dead ahead.
It was the largest floating island in the entire Aether Skies archipelago. The bottom of the island was a jagged mess of dirt, roots, and glowing blue Aether crystals holding it aloft. The top, however, was a perfectly manicured, flat expanse of green grass and white stone pathways.
It was the planned headquarters for the Mortal Coalition. It was a massive Level 80 stronghold that the mega-guilds had pooled all their real-world money to purchase.
And right now, it was completely empty.