Nexus Runner [EPIC Progression Fantasy litRPG]

Count Tydrion-crab was heaving against the sand, but for the moment, his unbelievable strength proved insufficient. I rushed up to his eye stalks, which were waving wildly. I tried slapping an emoji trap sticker onto one of them, but couldn't pull it out of my inventory.

Weapon, I guess. I could use spells, including spell scrolls. I crouched right between the eye stalks as they tried swinging over to hit me. They bumped against my armor with little squishing sounds, accomplishing absolutely nothing. Enraged by the berserker debuff, he kept trying.

I ignored the feeble hits and triggered a scroll of Incineration Breath. The awesome beam of pure destruction drove straight down and burned through the thinner armor there between the eyes, drilling deep into the boss-turned-monster.

In one convulsive move, he heaved himself out of the sand, sending me tumbling away. Making that weird, gurgling roar again, Tydrion shouldered his way out of the sand, giant claws raising to smash down over me even before he was fully free.

I triggered a scroll of ice blast, aiming for one of his eyes. The beam of ice consumed the eye, freezing it solid, and the stalk snapped with a surprisingly musical tinkle.

That really ticked him off. He lunged out of the sand and charged, so I hurled a Sphere of Darkness potion. Perfect hit, right at the base of his other eye. Impenetrable darkness blossomed out to cover most of his face.

He kept coming, and even blind he could easily trample me to death. I dodged around his enormous legs as he blindly thrashed around. His rage seemed to grow ever hotter, but he was momentarily helpless. I could hit him with impunity.

What could I hit him with, though? That Incineration Breath had hurt him a little, but I could burn through my entire inventory without doing enough damage. He was just too big.

I needed to get through that shell. Only then could I really hurt him.

"Time for plan C," I muttered as I embraced a new crazy idea. This one was going to be awesome, so I mentally saluted the Flair aspect of my ability The Show Must Go On. Whether or not it inspired me, viewers were about to get a treat.

Using one of my scrolls of teleport, I appeared 200 yards above the blind monster's back. Then I used Tether Slide to rocket down at his back, triggering the Implacable effect to double my speed and increase damage by 500%. To accelerate even more, I activated the special feature of my fancy new Heavyweight Grieves, increasing my weight to the max.

That should increase my power by 400%. I also pulled out my nexus crystal and held it in my hand for a single second before tossing it back into my inventory. A pulse of pure nexus energy coursed through me, supercharging my health, mana, and all my physical stats by 200%. And to capitalize on my upcoming supercharged hit, I equipped my new Rock-n-Roll Gauntlets of Punishment.

As Tether Slide yanked me downward, gaining speed every second, wind whistled past my ears and a heavy metal song started blaring around me.

Cyrus, his voice more enthusiastic than ever, exclaimed, "Excellent choice! The Trooper by Iron Maiden."

With the pulsing beat shaking the water-laden air, I descended like a living lightning bolt, heavy gauntlets leading the way. Just as I struck, I triggered my Goliath title's ability to double my Strength again. Then I stacked the thousands of charges built up from Potential Hammer, along with the 25% extra damage per title from my Alexander title's Eminent Domain.

I had 19 titles now, so that added another 475% pure damage to my already many-times magnified punch. For the icing on top, I triggered Fernand's Mercy ring, transforming 75% of the total enormous charge stored in my Tesla Coil bracelet into pure damage.

To make sure I did not waste this chance, I activated Executioner's Timepiece for the first time.

"Executioner's Timepiece. Rare. This pocket watch once belonged to the famous duelist Aldric Varesh from Velmora Prime. The hands are locked and will move only once per battle if a temporary spell is sacrificed. With the movement of the second hand, choose 1 spell or ability to reset the cooldown. Then next time that spell or ability is cast, it will gain plus 50% power for each of the remaining uses of the sacrificed spell."

I nearly chose Knock Knock as the temporary spell to sacrifice. It was my least useful combat spell, but only had 2 remaining uses. That might not add enough power, and I needed all the power I could get. So with a sigh, I chose a different spell.

"You have sacrificed temporary spell Should of Gears with 5 uses remaining to reset the cooldown of Divergent Strike and add 250% extra power."

I cast Divergent Strike, adding its much-boosted power to the multi-stacked attack just as I hit. Striking the center of the crab's enormous back was like pile-driving fist-first into concrete.

The insane amount of stacked power erupted from the gauntlets in a concussive blast wave that not even Tydrion's giant, magically-enhanced crab shell could shrug off. The shell imploded and I burst through like a living meteor.

The gauntlets could withstand just about any impact. I couldn't. Crash-punching the crab broke my arms and ripped my shoulder muscles, despite my layers of protection and my immense Strength and Constitution. It rattled me so hard, I nearly blacked out. That would have been a stupid way to lose the duel.

I distantly heart a warbling cry of pain from Tydrion as I drove deep into the monster's body before slamming to a hard stop against a wall of bone. All around me, the giant crab body shuddered and shook and I realized the blow had actually knocked him flat to the ground.

"That's what I call a good punch," I wheezed, then just lay there for a second, upside down in the middle of the crab's body, surrounded by fleshy meat and gooey crab innards, smiling.

"Ow," I muttered as healing power thundered in from the much-diminished charge in my Tesla Coil bracelet. And since I was stuck in the middle of his enormous body, Energy Ward poured in more energy than ever. Combined with my rapid regeneration, my health bar shot back up.

I tried moving, but it was tough through the meat and gunk and bone walls that seemed to press in on every side. Stupid crabs. I loved crab meat, but even eating a little Earth-sized crab could be a pain. It seemed most of the interior of their body was filled with huge, blocky bones. Tydrion's crab internals, the size of a small apartment, seemed even more reinforced than normal, and I was stuck in the middle of it.

Still, now that I was inside, I could do some real damage. I managed to right myself and twist around till I faced front. Then I cast Phantom Step. The meaty world around me faded to muted colors as I phased to incorporeal.

I willed myself forward, passing right through the walls of bone blocking my path, heading for the front of his body. Then I chuckled. Could I have triggered Phantom Step sooner and simply jumped through his shell? I should have thought of that after using my rune.

In seconds, I swept forward to the very front of his giant crab body, which was bucking and spinning wildly as he tried to figure out how to deal with me. With my spell at level 7, I had up to 35 seconds before Phantom Step wore off, so I had time.

Still, I stopped in front of the final wall of bone blocking access to his brain. I didn't want to pop back into the real world in the middle of his nasty, fleshy insides. I wasn't sure what that would do to me. Would I push his innards aside as I re-formed, or would I get some of his meat stuck inside of me? That was a disgusting thought.

So I cast Abyssal Requiem. The black, necrotic beam of destruction tore into the fleshy meat, vaporizing it and forming an open space of black, melting goo. Then I turned the beam to the wall of bone barring my path and carved a circle, like the outline of a manhole cover. Thick bone resisted the nasty beam longer, but still blackened and melted under the concentrated onslaught.

I dropped Phantom Step, phasing back to reality. Thankfully, my layers of head protection blocked most of the stench, but I caught enough of a whiff to decide to see how long I could hold my breath.

With my Gauntlets of Punishment still equipped, I punched the manhole-sized hole I'd carved through the bone. The heavy blow blasted that circle of bone out into his brain space.

"That'll work," I said with a satisfied smile and cast Mana Desert.

The entire crab sagged as all that mana he'd been using to empower his giant form snuffed out. The world swayed drunkenly as he staggered. That should keep him distracted long enough to finish the job.

I dove through the hole I'd made through his skull, my smooth chitin armor helping me slide right through without getting stuck, and plunged into the crab's brain.

The huge, greenish-gray mess was a lot bigger than a normal crab's, but the monster was really a high-leveled nymph lord, after all. What must he be thinking right now? Was he able to think again, or was the berserker rage still messing with him?

Too late to do anything about it.

I tore through the brain, one good claw out, ripping and tearing, doing both physical and spiritual damage. The crab body bucked wildly, then froze. Had I cut through his muscle control? Ten seconds of hacking and slashing and stomping, and I finally got the notification I'd been waiting for.

"Congratulations, Lucas! You have defeated Count Tydrion, Level 99 Wave Tyrant. Bonus experience gained for defeating a much higher-leveled enemy. Experience doubled for defeating a lord of the court in a formal duel. Experience doubled again for defeating an enemy affected by a berserker rage triggered by your Overlord Chitin armor. Prizes doubled."

"Congratulations, Lucas! You have reached level 44. Stat points allocated, plus 12 free points.

Two levels? As awesome as that might be, it still felt a bit stingy, especially since I'd defeated those other flying fish too. I'd gotten 4 levels for defeating Viscount Ashkaroth. Sure, I had gained a lot of levels since then, so each level took more experience, but Tydrion was a much higher-leveled noble, and the experience got doubled twice.

Did the live feeds affect how much experience I could gain? I would have thought it would give me more, but maybe since I was getting so many VIP points, my normal experience was being reduced? Hopefully not.

My Spartacus title should have helped with more bonus experience since Tydrion was a boss-level monster. Then again, I had defeated Lord Ashkaroth down on stage 2. He hadn't been in quite the same league as Tydrion, but did the fact that they were both members of Marisara's court actually reduce the bonus?

While I mulled that over, I triggered Harvest, Loot, and Soul Feed.

I fell down through the clouds of stinky black smoke as oceans of white power like dense fog followed, overcharging my stats.

"Congratulations, Lucas! You have successfully harvested Brine Scourge."

"Brine Scourge. Rare. Level 5. Unleash a superheated jet of saltwater that burns like acid and leaves target encrusted in hard salt deposits that hinder movement. Uses remaining: 3. Due to your class perk, uses remaining increased to 6."

That sounded like a good spell. Would it melt or corrode clockwork insects as well as those rust potions? Maybe. I dumped 4 of my new stat points into Strength to bring it up to an even hundred, then put the rest into Dexterity, pushing the base number to 71. The influx of new power percolated through my entire system, refreshing me, body and mind.

I landed on the torn-up sands and, as the stinky black smoke dissipated, I found the crowd of merfolk that had been cheering on Tydrion a moment ago all staring in slack-jawed disbelief.

I waved. "What, no cheers for the victor?"

That seemed to shake Corvath, the mermaid king, out of his shock. Instead of screaming in rage, he stepped slowly forward, a smile widening on his humanoid face. ""Thank you for removing that arrogant lordling."

"It was honestly my pleasure."

Corvath brought his trident up and his smile turned predatory. "Now, when I defeat you, the great queen's court must finally acknowledge my right to lordship."

He rushed straight in. Had he not seen how fast I could dodge? Did he assume I was exhausted after the fight and easy pickings? Kings were supposed to be smarter than that.

Honestly, he was right to assume I didn't feel like another intense duel. Not that I'd let him skewer me. I had a hard no-skewer policy.

My fancy new Broadside cannon dropped onto the sands in front of me, pointing right at the fast-charging Corvath.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

The mer king had just enough time to realize he'd screwed up before I fired. He was moving too fast, fully committed to striking me down with a single blow, so couldn't dodge. He kept his trident aimed straight at me, while a glowing barrier materialized around him.

I appreciated his optimism, but optimism wouldn't stop a cannonball fired from 10 feet away. The entire cannon bucked with a report like thunder. It was even better than the pirate movies.

Corvath's defensive move did make a difference, though. Instead of detonating against his face, the cannonball detonated against the tip of his trident. The blast drove the weapon back through his own shield, then his fancy armor, and finally right through his chest before the explosion catapulted him away like a ragdoll.

No way I'd let him escape. His trajectory would drop him back into the water where I'd probably lose him. So I Shadow Walked into the space right in front of him. The roiling waters and scattered lights made for tons of shadows, so I easily picked the perfect one.

With the duel finished, I had access to my other weapons. Corvath should have thought that through. I appeared with Echo and Scalebiter in hand, pointing straight ahead, and I poured a ton of mana into Echo just before the merman arrived and impaled himself upon my blades. Scalebiter punched right through the hole in his armor created by his own trident and slid between 2 of his ribs.

Echo drove through a lung, then unleashed a mighty blast of convergence mana that shredded his mana pool and most of his innards. The blast got echoed, then doubled again by the blade's ability, pretty much liquefying his insides.

Still face to face, with my blades driven deep into his chest, we fell together into the water. Incredibly, Corvath wasn't dead. He struggled weakly against me, but he didn't have much fight left.

I left my blades in place and pulled out my simple silver dagger. I didn't have leverage for one of my heavy weapons, nor did I need them. With a quick slash, I cut his throat, then plunged the dagger through the side of his head. I nearly hit him with a spell too, but didn't need it.

"Congratulations, Lucas! You have defeated Corvath the Chosen, Level 85 Mermaid King stage 3 boss. Bonus experienced gained for defeating a higher-level enemy."

"Congratulations, Lucas! You have completed the first part of the stage-3 quest. For defeating the first stage boss, you receive an emerald Ursula loot box."

No level, though. Was that because I'd killed him too quickly? No doubt my Spartacus title hadn't given me any extra experience, and as high-leveled as Corvath was, he wouldn't have given any tier-0 person 10 levels either.

After the long slog of the duel against Tydrion, a quick kill of a stage-3 boss was a huge relief, though. The water clouded with blood, but I could still see a dozen angry merfolk rushing at me, tridents at the ready. So I triggered Harvest, Loot, and Soul Feed, then used Shadow Walk again to step back onto the island right behind the other merfolk, who were all standing on the shore, looking at the spot I'd splashed down with their leader.

"Hey, how are ya?" I called as I cast my last use of Mana Desert.

The wave of mana-suppressing power covered the entire shore and caught all the merfolk in it. Men and women alike staggered and collapsed to the ground as their human legs transformed back to flippers.

Huh. So it required magic for them to maintain human form? Bonus.

More merfolk rose to the surface of the water, while swarms of flying fish dove to attack. None of the whales used their Abyssal Requiem or tried to organize another Sharknado. Now that their leader was dead, had their powers started fail them already? Would they start falling from the sky? Not soon enough.

Before I could decide my plan of attack, explosions started rocking the flying fish. Blasts of fiery destruction and cones of ice were followed by a cyclone of mixed elements that consumed the head of one of the whales. The attacks totally caught them by surprise, and their disciplined diving attacks degenerated into panicked attempts at fleeing.

That's when I saw my team diving through the air above the fish. Steve and half a dozen clones were firing arrows or throwing Molotov cocktails. Lana was firing her crossbow, while Ruby had both her grenade and potion launchers in hand and was firing both from the hip, raining an ever-changing barrage of destruction upon the unprepared fish.

Jane pointed at one of the remaining whales, and suddenly it turned and slammed another whale broadside, chomping it right in half. She had to be using her new Dominate ability. That was both awesome and a bit terrifying.

Andy swept down, blades flashing as he tore through disorganized ranks of fish, then engaged 3 different Stormpiercers in an acrobatic aerial duel. With remarkable agility, he avoided their immobilizing spells and pressed the attack hard.

Tomas appeared next to me and flung out a hand. Half a dozen contraptions appeared, spaced between the merfolk. Made from clockwork scraps and a blend of other metals, each huge construct was equipped with several bladed arms and powered by clockwork cores. They sat on multiple legs that didn't move, but the bodies spun, setting the bladed arms whirling and tearing through the flopping merfolk.

Between each of the large contraptions appeared several perfect replica Drillscarabs. The beetle-shaped monsters scuttled forward, their massive drill heads driving through merfolk with no problem.

"You made some already?"

Tomas grinned. "The plans made it easy."

The monsters, already disoriented and shocked by the defeat of their leaders, broke and tried to flee. Some of the merfolk already in the water disappeared below the surface, as did fish in the lake. None of the flying fish or the mermaids caught on land made it.

In a shockingly short time, we all gathered on the island. Ruby landed and gave me a fierce hug, then stepped back, one hand on her hip, eyebrow raised, expression annoyed.

"Had to go and try taking on the entire boss lair alone, eh?"

"Hey, it wasn't like that!"

"Sure it wasn't," she said with abundant sarcasm. "Don't be a craic vacuum, Lucas. We all need experience too." Then she winked.

I chuckled. "Thanks for getting these layabouts moving. I'm glad you got here fast."

"So am I," Steve said, throwing his hands out to gesture at the many clouds of dispersing stinky black smoke from the many monsters we'd all just looted. "If we'd delayed even another minute, you would have killed everything alone."

Tomas clapped me on the shoulder. "Glad you're okay."

"And I'm glad you saved some for us, boss," Andy said, saluting with his sword.

Lana just looked relieved no one had gotten hurt, and Jane was lying on the ground nearby, her eyes closed. Had she over-exerted her Willpower taking over that whale? She'd be okay in a minute.

"Where's Nigel?"

Ruby said, "He wants you to summon him directly rather than having to fly down through the canals like we did."

"These Water Flight scrolls are amazing!" Steve laughed. "There's so much water in the air, we flew through the cavern no problem."

"Probably be able to fly over Ruin just as easy with the constant rain," Andy said.

Lana sighed. "I'd prefer flying over that sunlit Echo City you told us about than a rain-drenched, monster-infested Ruin."

"Where's your sense of adventure?" Andy teased.

Tomas helped Jane stand, and I told them about my run-in with Count Tydrion.

"Level 99?" Tomas exclaimed.

Steve chuckled. "You'd think they'd know better than send giant crabs after you. That's the second one you destroyed from the inside."

"I bet that was gross," Ruby said with a grimace.

I shrugged. "Yeah, but better than getting crushed."

"So Queen Marisara is sending her people down to stage 3?" Andy asked grimly.

"He said he bought some kind of exception. It sounded expensive. If Queen Marisara could send an entire army against us, we'd get crushed, but I don't think she can."

How would we deal with an entire court on stage 4? Fighting Tydrion alone had taken my entire focus for far too long.

"We all got a bunch of levels here, but we do need to get stronger," Jane said. She still looked a bit pale, but seemed good to go.

"And we need to get all the loot we can." I activated Spellseer's Gaze and scanned the island, looking for the boss's lair.

I didn't spot a lair, but did spot a single item blazing like a miniature sun in my mana sight. It was stuck in the top of the little hill at the center of the island.

= = = = = =

This is a quick review of Lucas's current stats. As usual, feel free to enjoy the stats or, if stats don't interest you, skip this chapter without missing anything.

Name: Lucas Altan

Race: Tier-1 Human

Class: Mystic Reaver

Level: 44

Life Points: 6,547 Efficiency

(Tier-0 equivalent: 661,950) 100%

Mana: 258 100%

(Tier-0 equivalent: 2,580)

Number of Followers: 12

(Note: Tier-0 equivalents are multiplied based on Efficiency)

BASE STATS:

Constitution: 115 60%

Intelligence: 67 100%

Strength: 105 60%

Dexterity: 71 60%

Wisdom: 150 60%

SECONDARY STATS:

Endurance: 245 60%

Agility: 314 60%

Perception: 263 60%

Magical Resistances 216 60%

Luck: 179 60%

CHA: 1888 100%

OTHER STATS:

Mental Resistance: 106 100%

Fear Resistance: 65 100%

Poison Resistance: 60 100%

Fire Resistance: 60 100%

Heat Resistance: 60 100%

Steam Resistance: 60 100%

Most Elemental Resistances: 55 100%

Other Resistances: 50 100%

PERMANENT SPELLS

1 Harvest Level 9

2 Tether Slide Level 3

3 Energy Ward Level 6

UTILITY SPELLS:

1 Mystic Looter Tier-1 Level 1

2 Linguasight. Level 8

3 Navigation Level 4

4 Soul Feed Level 5

CLASS SPELLS:

1 Elemental Harmony Level 3

2 Divergent Strike Level 4

3 Potential Hammer / Hammer Strike Level 2

TEMPORARY SPELLS:

1 Knock Knock. Common. Uses Remaining: 2

2 Shadow Walk. Rare. (Tied to Toe Ring. Replenishes 1 use per day)

Uses Remaining: 8

3 Upper Cut. Uncommon. Uses Remaining: 1

4 Abyssal Requiem. Rare. Uses Remaining: 5

5 Brine Scourge. Rare. (Harvested Spell 1). Uses Remaining: 5

6 Mana Desert. Rare. Level 4. (Mimicked Spell). Uses Remaining: 1

Tier-1 ABILITIES

Swordsman Uncommon Level 3

Mana Control Uncommon Level 4

Meditation Uncommon Level 4

Tier-0 Abilities

Hand-to-hand martial arts fighting. Common Level 16

Heavy Weapons Common Level 11

Dual Wield Epic Level 8

Knife Throwing Common Level 9

Spellseers Gaze Rare Level 7

Wolf Blood Uncommon Level 15

Wolf Sight Uncommon Level 7

Perception Pulse Rare Level 6

Runesmith Uncommon Level 21

Mana Strings Uncommon Level 9

Mimic Rare Level 9

Crisis Management Uncommon Level 8

Fire Hand Rare Level 7

The Show Must Go On Rare Level 13

Iron Lung Rare Level 6

Visionary Resolve Rare Level 6

Sport Fishing Uncommon Level 9

Phantom Step Gear Ability Level 7

Force Weaver Class Ability Level 9

Squared Circuit Class Ability Level 7

EXISTING TITLES:

Inquisitive Mind

Trailblazer

David Copperfield

Lucky Stiff

Musketeer

Spartacus

Doctor Strange

Hercules

Alan Alan

Tiberius

Merlin

Beast master

Mephistoles

Alexander

Goliath

Alpha

Intergalactic Guardian

The Greatest Showman

NEW TITLES:

Elf Born