Chapter 132: The Shattered Heavens, Aegis-Constructs

He had 15 new free stat points from the level ups. He dumped them entirely into Strength.

He ran his new math. His base stats had just exploded from the World Boss plunder.

His previous Strength was 2,930. He added the 100 from the plunder, plus the 15 free stat points. His new permanent Strength hit exactly 3,045.

His Agility bumped to 1,716.

His Vitality bumped to 2,104.

His Intelligence bumped to 511.

His Luck bumped to 175.

He did the offensive calculations next. 3,045 Strength multiplied by two gave him a base attack of 6,090. Add the 2,000 Attack from his Diamond scythe, bringing it to 8,090.

Apply the 20% Herald class passive.

His new permanent Total Attack was exactly 9,708.

The system rapidly recalculated their Shared HP pool based on his new 2,104 Vitality.

2,104 multiplied by 20 was 42,080. Add his 100 flat armor bonus. Then add Isolde’s massive 50,000 base Anomaly health and the 25,000 bonus from the Mythic rings.

[Shared HP: 117,180 / 117,180]

Levi let out a long breath, staring at his updated stat sheet. He was a Level 65 player with stats that completely broke the game’s intended scaling.

He dismissed the UI and stood up, looking at the massive mountain of Platinum and Diamond-tier loot boxes sitting in the middle of the nest.

"We stopped the island," Levi said, cracking his knuckles. "Now let’s see what the bird dropped."

***

Levi and Isolde didn’t stick around to admire the stabilized island. They looted Garuda’s nest, tossed the high-tier materials into their shared inventory, and summoned the Behemoth of the Hollow.

They flew back up into the Aether Skies, leaving the blood-red clouds of the descent event behind them.

"The tectonic shifts in the real world have stabilized," Isolde reported from the back of the saddle. Her gray eyes were completely blank as she parsed real-time data feeds from outside the game. "The server is correcting the geological damage. Our intervention prevented widespread structural collapse."

"Good," Levi grunted, steering the mount through a patch of clear blue sky. "But they’re just going to keep dropping rocks until we cut off the source."

He wasn’t looking at the floating islands anymore. He was tracking a thick, corrupted stream of blue Aether-current that was flowing upward, snaking through the sky like a massive, glowing river.

"Where does that lead?" Levi asked, pointing at the current.

Isolde ran a quick scan. "That current feeds directly into a Level 90-plus instanced zone. The server designates it as ’The Shattered Heavens.’ It is a fifty-player Raid Dungeon."

"A fifty-man raid," Levi smirked. "Perfect. I need some new armor, and raid dungeons drop the best crafting materials in the game."

He pulled hard on the reins, banking the Behemoth directly into the glowing blue current. The mount’s speed spiked as the Aether forcefully dragged them upward.

They rode the current for twenty minutes, climbing higher and higher into the atmosphere until the standard floating islands vanished entirely. The sky turned a deep, bruised purple.

At the end of the Aether river sat a massive, floating structure. It didn’t look like a castle or a keep. It looked like a colossal, open-air blacksmith’s forge built on a plateau of solid dark iron. Giant chimneys spewed blue fire into the sky, and the sound of heavy metal hammers clanging against anvils echoed for miles.

Levi pulled the Behemoth to a halt on the edge of the iron plateau and unsummoned the mount.

"This is it," Levi said, drawing the Diamond-tier Scythe of the Shattered Heavens. The starlight blade hummed eagerly.

Isolde stepped up next to him. Her gray eyes flashed with green hexadecimal code as she accessed the zone’s hidden lore files.

"This facility is ancient," Isolde stated flatly. "According to the server architecture, this is the original forge where the Celestial Pantheon crafted their divine armor. The entire zone is heavily saturated with Aether-Sparks."

"A Pantheon forge," Levi grinned. "That means the crafting bench inside is going to be completely busted. If we clear this place, I can use my Boundless Fusion on their forge to build my final armor set."

They walked up the heavy iron steps leading to the first room of the dungeon.

It was a massive, open courtyard filled with glowing rivers of liquid Aether. Patrolling the courtyard were the dungeon’s trash mobs. They weren’t standard monsters. They were towering, mechanical golems made of pure, polished silver and glowing blue runes. They wielded massive energy shields that covered their entire bodies.

The system threw up the red nameplates.

[Aegis-Construct]

[Level: 88 | Elite]

[HP: 10,000,000 | ATK: 35,000 | DEF: 50,000]

Levi stared at the stats and let out a dry laugh. "Ten million health. And fifty thousand defense. These are just the trash mobs."

He ran the math in his head.

He was Level 65. The constructs were Level 88. That was an insane twenty-three-level gap.

In Starfall, the Level Suppression penalty capped out at 100%. Because the gap was over twenty levels, the system engine completely flat-lined Levi’s physical damage output.

His 9,708 Total Attack was absolutely meaningless. Even if his scythe ignored 50% of their armor, the 100% suppression penalty meant his physical strikes would hit for a big, fat zero.

"My physical damage is completely walled," Levi told Isolde. "I’m relying entirely on the scythe’s passive."

"Your True Damage output is mathematically sufficient," Isolde assured him. "I will provide localized gravity snares to restrict their movement parameters."

"Let’s get to work," Levi said.

He didn’t bother using stealth. He just walked right out into the middle of the iron courtyard.

Six Level 88 Aegis-Constructs instantly turned their glowing blue visors toward him. They didn’t roar. They just raised their massive energy shields and charged forward in perfect, synchronized military formation.

Levi stepped into the pocket and swung the Scythe of the Shattered Heavens in a wide, horizontal arc.

The blade smashed into the lead construct’s energy shield. The game engine processed the physical damage as exactly 0.

But the Diamond scythe’s passive triggered instantly.

*Attacks deal True Damage equal to 5% of target’s Max HP.*

The Aegis-Construct had a 10,000,000 HP pool. Five percent of ten million was exactly 500,000.

[-500,000 True Damage]

The massive red number exploded off the construct’s shield. The silver golem violently shuddered, its mechanical joints sparking as five percent of its total health vanished in a single hit.

"Twenty hits," Levi muttered, resetting his stance. "It takes twenty hits to kill one."

With his 1,736 Speed, landing twenty hits was trivial. He blurred into motion, turning into a glitching black shadow as he danced between the massive constructs. He swung the scythe furiously, landing three or four hits every second.

[-500,000] [-500,000] [-500,000]

The true damage completely ignored their 50,000 Defense. He was carving through their massive health pools purely by exploiting the percentage-based math.

The constructs fought back. They swung heavy silver fists and bashed him with their energy shields.

A shield bash caught Levi in the ribs.

The defensive math calculated. Construct Attack was 35,000. Levi’s Defense was 2,154.

35,000 minus 2,154 equaled 32,846 raw incoming damage.

[-32,846]

Levi’s Shared HP pool dropped from 117,180 down to 84,334.

He didn’t even flinch. His next basic swing dealt 500,000 True Damage. His scythe had a 40% Lifesteal passive. Forty percent of 500,000 was exactly 200,000.

[+200,000 HP]

The system tried to force-feed two hundred thousand health back into his pool. His health bar instantly slammed right back to a perfect 117,180, over-capping entirely.

He was out-healing thirty thousand damage hits with a single basic attack.

"Isolde, group them up!" Levi shouted, ducking under a silver fist.

"Gravity Well deployed," Isolde stated flatly.

She slammed her staff against the iron floor. A massive red sphere of Anomaly energy materialized, completely encompassing all six constructs. Their movement speed artificially locked to zero. They froze in place, unable to lift their shields.

Levi dashed into the red sphere.

"Hollow’s Guillotine!"

He dumped 100 Mana. The dark-gold cone ripped upward, smashing into all six constructs simultaneously. The physical damage was zero, but the 5% True Damage passive applied to the entire AoE.

[-500,000 True Damage] x6.

Levi went absolutely wild. He hacked into the frozen golems, landing strike after strike. The 10,000,000 HP pools steadily melted down.

It took him exactly a minute to land twenty hits on the pack.

He didn’t need to use Soul Harvest. The final True Damage ticks wiped their health bars to zero.

The six Aegis-Constructs completely shut down. Their blue runes faded to black, and their massive silver bodies collapsed onto the iron floor before shattering into millions of glowing blue polygons.

Levi didn’t stop. He sprinted deeper into the courtyard, dragging aggro from every single construct in the room.