GLOBAL AWAKENING: My 10,000x Exp Multiplier-Chapter 22: []Slaying the Drake, The Calamity Curse
The sea of cataclysmic dragon fire washed over Vahn Ryker. It was a torrential wave of absolute destruction that should have instantly vaporized him into a scattering of blue pixels.
Instead, the flames parted around his cheap brown tunic like water breaking against a stone. He stood perfectly relaxed in the epicenter of the scorching inferno.
Vahn let out a soft and satisfied sigh. He rolled his shoulders as the catastrophic heat felt like nothing more than a warm summer breeze against his skin.
Ten million experience points had permanently rewritten his digital infrastructure. He was a Level 1 Architect with absolute fire immunity!
Above him, the Mutated Inferno Drake cut off its breath attack and its massive jaws snapped shut. It landed heavily on a jagged outcropping of molten slag, making the ground tremble violently beneath its sheer weight.
The Level 40 Mythic boss blinked its miniature sun eyes. Genuine confusion radiated from its reptilian features. It had just unleashed its ultimate wipe mechanic, a move designed to annihilate fifty-man raid teams, yet the tiny human below hadn’t lost a single hit point!
"My turn." Vahn smiled.
His voice was no longer the flat monotone of a detached machine. There was a genuinely thrilled edge to it now. He was starting to enjoy breaking the rules of this universe.
He didn’t have the mana to cast a spell. His reserves were still utterly drained from the chaotic display on the tenth floor.
But with fifty base Agility and a weapon that possessed its own localized gravitational pull, he didn’t need magic.
Vahn’s boots cracked the obsidian floor as he launched himself upward. To the Drake, the human suddenly vanished and was replaced by a blur of dark motion.
Vahn sailed through the ash choked air, crossing the fifty meter gap in a fraction of a heartbeat. He drew the Soul Bound Shadow Blade. The dark metal hummed with a violent violet energy, eager to devour the massive reservoir of data sitting right in front of it.
The Drake roared and raised a massive claw to swat Vahn out of the air.
"Too slow." Vahn murmured playfully.
He didn’t use Temporal Step. He simply twisted his body mid air, using the beast’s own incoming claw as a stepping stone. His boot touched the incredibly hot scales, and he pushed off, redirecting his momentum directly toward the Drake’s massive exposed throat.
Vahn drove the Shadow Blade deep into the creature’s vocal cords. He channeled every ounce of his kinetic velocity into the strike and twisted his wrist to maximize the internal structural damage.
The legendary dagger acted like a localized black hole. It aggressively tore through the Drake’s armor plating and feasted on its internal mana core.
A high pitched screech erupted from the Mythic boss. The violet energy of Vahn’s blade surged and completely shredded the Drake from the inside out.
With a thunderous wet crunch, the massive beast stiffened. Its glowing eyes dimmed before it violently exploded into a blinding geyser of golden and crimson pixels.
Vahn landed gracefully on the molten outcropping and casually flipped the dagger in his hand before sheathing it at his hip.
[Ding!]
[You have successfully slain the Mutated Inferno Drake (Level 40 Mythic)!]
[Solo Kill Bonus Applied!]
[Level Difference Bonus Applied!]
[Hidden Modifier Activated: 10,000x Experience Converter!]
[Total EXP Gained: 45,000,000 EXP!]
Forty-five million! Vahn’s lips twitched into a wide victorious smile. He was amassing a treasury of raw power that could buy entire nations.
Down on the canyon floor, the golden barrier of healing magic flickered and died. Aria dropped her staff, her chest heaving as she gasped for air.
Beside her, Sia lowered her heavy iron tower shield. Her silver grey eyes were wide with absolute reverence.
Hana just clapped her hands, entirely unbothered by the near death experience.
"Show off!" Hana yelled up at him, her voice echoing through the newly silent canyon.
Vahn chuckled and prepared to jump down to join them. "Just standard optimization, Hana. Someone has to carry the team’s damage output."
But before Vahn could take a step, the artificial sky above the Jade Canyons did something it was never programmed to do. It bled!
The dark clouds didn’t part. They were violently torn open by an invisible and oppressive force. The ambient temperature instantly plummeted to sub-zero and frost began to form on the molten slag.
Sia instantly raised her shield as her military instincts screamed. "Commander! Incoming anomaly!"
Vahn’s smile vanished. His deep purple eyes flared with intense azure circuits as his Chronos Sight engaged automatically.
What he saw made his breath catch in his throat.
The data code of the 12th floor wasn’t just glitching. It was being forcefully suppressed by an external source of power.
From the tear in the sky, a colossal holographic projection descended. It was the figure of a man draped in elegant robes woven from shadows and starlight. He possessed pale skin, long silver hair, and eyes that burned with terrifying malice.
The sheer gravitational weight of his presence forced Sia to her knees, her shield cracking under the pressure. Aria gasped and clutched her chest as her mana pathways were violently restricted.
It was Ethan. The Demon Duke of the Galactic Vanguard.
"Well, well." The projection’s voice echoed, sounding like grinding tectonic plates. "An anomaly in the nursery. You are far too loud, little insect. Your blatant disregard for the engine’s limitations has drawn my gaze across the cosmic void."
Vahn didn’t kneel. He stood completely upright with his back straight, meeting the Demon Duke’s crimson gaze with an icy unyielding stare.
"You’re early. The Convergence isn’t scheduled for another thirty days. Are the Overlords getting impatient, or are you just terrible at reading a calendar?"
The Duke’s eyes narrowed. Genuine surprise flickered across his aristocratic features before a dark booming laugh rattled the canyon walls.
"Arrogant. Ignorant. You think you understand the timeline? You have accelerated the decay of your own world by gorging on its data. You are a fascinating glitch."
The projection raised a single pale finger and pointed it directly at Vahn’s chest.
"Let us see how long you survive when the abyss knows exactly where you are."
A beam of pure condensed dark matter shot from the Duke’s finger. It was infinitely faster than the Drake’s fire and bypassed Vahn’s Agility entirely. The beam struck Vahn square in the center of his chest.
Vahn gasped. A sharp agonizing jolt of pain ripped through his digital avatar.
It wasn’t kinetic damage. It was a localized rewrite of his soul’s code. He stumbled backward and his hand flew to his chest as a glowing black rune burned itself into his skin right over his heart.
[Warning! Foreign Code Injection Detected!]
[You have been branded with the Calamity Curse.]
↳ Effect 1: Your presence acts as a beacon to all high tier abyssal entities.
↳ Effect 2: All base stats will continuously drain by 1 percent per hour. If stats reach absolute zero, total neural wipe is imminent.
"A parting gift." Duke Ethan sneered as his massive projection slowly began to fade back into the tear in the sky. "I will see you soon, little anomaly. Do try not to die before I arrive."
The tear sealed shut. The freezing gravity vanished and was replaced once again by the standard ruined heat of the canyon.
Vahn dropped to one knee and a ragged exhale escaped his lips. He clutched his chest. The black rune pulsed with a sickly rhythmic throb as if a parasite was attempting to burrow into his ribs.
"Vahn!" Aria screamed, abandoning all pretense of her formal priestess demeanor. 𝚏𝕣𝕖𝚎𝚠𝚎𝚋𝚗𝐨𝐯𝕖𝕝.𝕔𝐨𝕞
She scrambled up the molten outcropping, completely ignoring the heat that singed her white robes. She threw herself beside him and her hands instantly glowed with a brilliant warm pink light as she pressed them against his chest.
Sia and Hana arrived seconds later. Hana’s playful demeanor was gone and replaced by raw trembling panic.
"What did he do to you? Brother, what is that?!"
"It’s a tracking beacon." Vahn muttered. His voice was tight with pain, though he forced a small reassuring smile for his sister. "And a rather poorly optimized debuff. It seems my reputation precedes me."
"This isn’t a joke!" Aria snapped. Tears welled in her emerald eyes. Her healing magic flared aggressively to try and scrub the black rune from his skin. "I can’t cleanse it! The code is too deep. It’s draining your baseline latency!"
"Aria, breathe." Vahn said softly.
He reached up and his large hand gently covered hers where they rested against his chest. He didn’t push her away. He simply held her hands to anchor her panic.
"It’s a stat drain. I have zero base stats to begin with. It’s essentially trying to divide by zero. It hurts, but it won’t kill me. Yet."
Aria looked down at him. Her face flushed slightly at the warmth of his hand over hers, though her terror remained.
"You always do this! You always act like you’re invincible! You are not a machine, Vahn!"
"I’m perfectly fine." Vahn chuckled, though the slight wince betrayed him. He looked at Sia who was standing rigidly with her silver eyes filled with profound guilt.
"I failed to intercept the attack, Commander." Sia said, her voice hollow. "I am a defective shield."
"Sia, if you ever call yourself defective again, I’m cutting your pay." Vahn replied smoothly.
He slowly pushed himself to his feet and kept one hand firmly on Aria’s shoulder to steady himself.
"That was a localized projection of a Tier 6 entity. If you had intercepted that, you would have been deleted permanently. You held the line perfectly. Now, let’s gather the loot and get off this floor. We have an uninvited guest to prepare for."
He turned his gaze back to the canyon floor where the massive pile of glowing drops rested. A Calamity Curse was annoying, yes. But forty-five million EXP and Mythic dragon loot? That was an investment he could work with.
