GLOBAL AWAKENING: My 10,000x Exp Multiplier-Chapter 72: []Leveling to 25, Forging the Runic Aegis
The transition into Floor 24 was abrupt and violent. Vahn Ryker stepped over the shattered corpse of a Level 35 Abyssal Minotaur, his boots splashing into a shallow pool of dark water. He flicked his wrist, the pitch-black blade of his Soul-Bound dagger shedding a thick layer of glowing blood.
The environment of the high twenties was a sprawling subterranean labyrinth of ruined aqueducts and crumbling stone pillars. The air was thick with humidity and the metallic tang of dried blood. Without his Verdant Chronos-Sight to map the layout, Vahn had been forced to navigate the maze using raw spatial awareness.
He was breathing heavily now. His chest heaved and sweat matted his dark hair to his forehead. The Tower of Combat was living up to its brutal reputation. The monsters here weren’t just highly leveled, they were incredibly dense. They possessed armor ratings and health pools designed to absorb massive amounts of punishment.
[System Remark]
↳ Floor 24 Cleared.
↳ Level Up!
↳ Current Level: 24
Vahn stared at the golden text floating in the dim light. Twenty-four. He was one level away from a major progression threshold. In the old mechanics of Aetheria, Level 25 was the first fundamental class evolution point. It was the stage where a player transitioned from a novice to a recognized adept, unlocking core defensive and utility skills.
He sheathed the Shadow Blade and wiped a smudge of dirt from his cheek. His 9,999 points of Endurance were the only reason his muscles hadn’t melted from the sustained exertion of the past few hours. Fighting without his Administrator magic was like trying to carve a sculpture with a sledgehammer. It was entirely possible, but incredibly taxing.
He walked toward the massive glowing red transition matrix at the end of the aqueduct. Floor 25 was a milestone floor. There would be no hordes of easily dispatched grunts. There would be a singular monumental obstacle.
Vahn stepped onto the matrix. The world flashed crimson.
He materialized in the center of a massive flat platform suspended over a lake of boiling lava. The heat was immense, radiating upward and warping the air. Vahn’s passive fire immunity instantly nullified the environmental damage, but the visual intensity of the arena was staggering.
At the far end of the platform, kneeling before a massive obsidian throne, was the Floor Guardian.
[Host Information]
↳ Labyrinth Boss: The Iron-Blood Centurion, Warlord of the 25th Legion
↳ Level: 45 (Elite Vanguard)
↳ HP: 2,500,000 / 2,500,000
The Warlord wasn’t a mindless beast. It was a towering nine-foot-tall humanoid entity clad in incredibly thick spiked crimson armor. It wielded a massive two-handed executioner’s greatsword that dragged heavily along the stone floor. As Vahn arrived, the Warlord slowly stood up, its glowing yellow eyes locking onto him through the slit of its heavy helm.
"A challenger without magic." The Warlord’s voice boomed. It was a deep metallic rumble that vibrated through the stone platform. "You rely entirely on the frailty of flesh. You will break against my iron."
"I have broken harder things than you." Vahn replied smoothly, his voice devoid of fatigue.
He didn’t draw his dagger. The Shadow Blade was a weapon of precision, designed to sever data streams and slip through gaps in armor. Against a massive heavily plated tank with two and a half million hit points, precision was inefficient. He needed raw overwhelming blunt force.
The Warlord charged. Despite its massive size, the boss moved with terrifying speed. It crossed the platform in three massive strides and raised the executioner’s sword high above its head. The blade ignited with a furious blood-red aura, a skill designed to completely shatter a player’s block.
"Executioner’s Cleave!" The Warlord roared, bringing the massive sword down in a devastating vertical arc.
Vahn didn’t use a skill. He engaged his base Agility and pivoted sharply to the left. The greatsword slammed into the stone exactly where he had been standing, detonating in a massive shockwave of red kinetic energy. The concussive force of the impact clipped Vahn’s shoulder, tearing the fabric of his jacket and leaving a shallow bleeding gash across his skin.
Vahn gritted his teeth as he ignored the stinging pain. It was the first time he had taken actual physical damage since entering the Tower.
Before the Warlord could pull its heavy sword from the cratered stone, Vahn stepped perfectly into its guard. He planted his left foot, rotating his hips and channeling every ounce of his 9,999 Strength into a devastating upward palm strike aimed directly at the underside of the Warlord’s heavy helmet.
The Force of the Void engaged. Fifty percent of the boss’s physical mitigation was completely ignored.
Crack!
The impact was deafening! The Warlord’s head snapped violently backward, and the heavy crimson helmet dented inward under the sheer pressure of the blow. The massive boss stumbled backward, its health bar instantly plummeting by a staggering five hundred thousand points.
But the Elite Vanguard didn’t fall. It let out a furious metallic roar, releasing its stuck sword and swinging a massive armored backhand. The spiked gauntlet slammed squarely into Vahn’s chest.
Vahn was launched backward, his boots skidding dangerously close to the edge of the platform and the boiling lava below. He coughed, a sharp pain radiating through his ribs. His monstrous Endurance absorbed the worst of the blow and prevented his bones from shattering, but the kinetic displacement was undeniable.
"You hit hard for a mortal." The Warlord sneered, regaining its balance and raising its sword again.
"I’m not a mortal." Vahn breathed out, a cold smile breaking across his bruised face. "I’m the Administrator."
Vahn didn’t wait for the boss to charge again. He launched himself forward in a blur of dark motion. The Warlord swung a wide horizontal arc, aiming to cut him in half. Vahn slid underneath the blazing red blade, his knees scraping the stone floor. As he passed beneath the Warlord’s guard, he drove his fist entirely through the monster’s heavily armored knee joint.
The boss shrieked as its leg buckled. As it dropped rigidly to one knee, Vahn bounced off the stone, utilizing his momentum to launch himself upward. He spun in mid-air and delivered a brutal descending axe-kick directly onto the back of the Warlord’s exposed neck.
The kinetic force was absolute. The Warlord’s cervical plating shattered. Its massive body slammed face-first into the stone platform, a web of deep cracks spreading outward from the point of impact.
Vahn landed lightly on the boss’s broad back. He finally drew the Soul-Bound Shadow Blade, the dark dagger humming with violent intent. He drove the blade deep into the exposed glowing red core at the base of the Warlord’s neck.
The boss stiffened. Its massive health bar instantly zeroed out as the dagger devoured its foundational code. The nine-foot giant dissolved into a torrential geyser of blue and gold pixels.
Vahn dropped to his hands and knees on the empty platform, gasping for air. His muscles burned and his ribs ached, but the battle was over.
[System Remark]
↳ Floor 25 Cleared. Boss Elimination Bonus Applied.
↳ Hidden Modifier Applied: The 10,000x Factor. Total EXP Gained: 150,000,000.
↳ Level Up!
The golden light of the level-up washed over him, instantly restoring his health and wiping away his fatigue. The cut on his shoulder knit itself back together.
[Host Information]
↳ Congratulations. You have reached Level 25.
↳ Class Progression Milestone Reached. Evaluating Celestial Architect Pathways.
↳ Skill Unlocked: Runic Aegis (Epic).
[System Ability]
↳ Runic Aegis: Conjures a localized barrier of high-density administrative code that absorbs physical and magical trauma. Barrier strength scales with user’s base Intelligence and Endurance.
Vahn sat back, looking at the glowing blue text. Runic Aegis. It was a solid defensive skill. To a normal player, an Epic-tier shield spell was a massive boon. But to Vahn, operating in a world where alien Overlords threw nuclear blasts around, an Epic-tier shield was essentially paper!
He needed absolute mitigation. He needed a defense that didn’t just block damage but fundamentally rejected it.
"System." Vahn commanded, his voice echoing in the empty lava-lit chamber. His Origin Energy was sealed, preventing him from altering the environment. But the EXP Converter was still unlocked for personal upgrades. "Access Skill Mutation Interface. Target, Runic Aegis."
[Functionality]
↳ Conversion Interface Opened. Please allocate EXP to mutate the target skill.
Vahn looked at his internal reservoir. He had amassed billions of experience points from his rapid climb. He didn’t hesitate at all. He poured a staggering sum of raw data directly into the skill’s foundational code.
"Allocate five hundred million experience points. Force a structural evolution. Remove the active casting requirement. Bind the code directly to my physical avatar."
[System Remark]
↳ Mutating a defensive skill into a passive, Soul-Bound state requires extreme physical anchoring. The process will induce severe localized pain. Proceed?
"I dictate the pain. Execute."
A blinding flash of azure light erupted from Vahn’s chest. He gasped, his back arching as an intense searing heat flooded his nervous system. It felt like liquid fire was being injected directly into his veins!
The raw experience points didn’t just upgrade the skill, they aggressively rewrote his biology. Intricate glowing blue runes began to physically etch themselves across his skin. They wrapped around his forearms, traced the lines of his collarbone, and sank deep into the fabric of his dark combat jacket. The runes pulsed with overwhelming power, synchronizing perfectly with his heartbeat.
[System Enhancement]
↳ Ding! Conversion Complete.
↳ Runic Aegis (Epic) has mutated into Soul-Bound Aegis (Mythic)!
↳ Passive Effect: The user’s physical form is permanently cloaked in a microscopic barrier of absolute data.
↳ Negates 80% of all incoming physical and magical damage.
↳ Immune to baseline status ailments and system debuffs.
Vahn slowly stood up. The glowing blue runes faded into his skin, leaving no visible trace of the staggering power resting just beneath the surface. He rolled his shoulders, feeling incredibly light. The dull ache of his physical vulnerability was entirely gone. He wasn’t just a glass cannon anymore. He was a fortress!
He looked toward the far end of the platform where a new glowing blue transition matrix had appeared, leading to Floor 26.
Vahn offered a cold smile to the empty room. His hardware was upgraded. His defenses were absolute. It was time to shatter the rest of the Tower.
