GLOBAL AWAKENING: My 10,000x Exp Multiplier-Chapter 6: []The First Labyrinth, Hunting Shadowstalkers
The Sunken Catacombs lay at the extreme northern edge of the beginner zone. It was a massive tear in the earth that bled a thick unnatural fog.
It was designed as the ultimate test for players before they left the tutorial island. It was a brutal labyrinth that demanded coordinated parties and heavy healing.
The entrance was littered with the glowing blue pixels of dying players. Those were teams that had ventured too far and been violently ejected back to the spawn point.
Vahn Ryker stood at the precipice of the cavern. His black hair stirred gently in the cold updraft.
He watched a party of ten players scream in terror as they scrambled out of the dark. They dragged their wounded tank behind them.
"Don’t go in there, man!" one of the fleeing warriors yelled. He had noticed Vahn standing near the entrance.
"The shadows literally come alive! They bypass armor. You can’t solo this. You will lose a whole level of EXP!"
Vahn didn’t acknowledge the warning. He didn’t even turn his head. He simply stepped off the ledge and allowed the darkness of the Catacombs to swallow him whole.
The temperature plummeted immediately. The stone walls were slick with moisture. The only light came from faint bioluminescent moss clinging to the ceiling.
The air was deathly silent. But Vahn’s fifty Agility wasn’t just about movement speed. It fundamentally altered his sensory perception. He could feel the minute shifts in air pressure. He could hear the scrape of claws against stone fifty meters down the corridor.
He drew the Soul-Bound Shadow Blade. The dark metal seemed to drink in the ambient gloom. It rendered the weapon completely invisible in the dim light.
From the ceiling above, a localized patch of darkness detached itself. It made no sound as it plummeted straight toward Vahn’s neck.
This was a Shadowstalker. It was a Level 12 beast resembling a massive panther made entirely of smoke and razor-sharp obsidian claws. They were notorious for their stealth mechanics. They were designed to instantly execute squishy backline players.
To a normal player, the attack was a guaranteed death sentence. To Vahn, calculating the trajectory of a falling object was basic arithmetic.
He didn’t dodge. He simply engaged his newly mutated Epic Skill.
Temporal Step.
The world didn’t just slow down. It ground to a complete and agonizing halt!
The falling Shadowstalker hung suspended in mid-air. Its jaws were open and its claws were inches from Vahn’s face.
Vahn stepped casually to the right. He stepped entirely out of the beast’s attack vector. He raised the Shadow Blade and aligned the razor edge perfectly with the gap between the beast’s cervical vertebrae.
He canceled the skill. Time snapped back to its normal velocity.
The Shadowstalker crashed into the stone floor where Vahn had been standing a fraction of a millisecond prior. The beast didn’t even have time to register that it had missed its prey.
Its own momentum carried its neck directly into the stationary edge of Vahn’s blade.
Squelch.
The decapitation was instantaneous and utterly silent. The beast’s form destabilized and erupted into a geyser of blue pixels.
[System Notification]
↳ You have slain a Level 12 Shadowstalker.
↳ Base EXP gained: 150.
The standard system notification chimed in his head. But Vahn wasn’t a standard player. The golden text hidden behind the system’s firewall flared brilliantly across his retina.
[Hidden System]
↳ Hidden Modifier Applied: The 10,000x Factor.
↳ Total EXP gained: 1,500,000.
Vahn’s expression remained an impassive mask. But his eyes glowed with intense calculating azure light.
A million and a half experience points from a single effortless strike!
But he wasn’t looking at his personal EXP reservoir. He was looking at the blade in his hand.
As the beast died, a wisp of dark ethereal energy drifted up from the corpse. It was the monster’s Item Soul. It was violently sucked into the Shadow Blade.
[Weapon Status]
↳ Soul-Bound Shadow Blade has absorbed 10 Item Soul EXP.
↳ Hidden Modifier Applied: The 10,000x Factor.
↳ Blade has absorbed 100,000 Item Soul EXP. Level Up!
↳ Level Up!
↳ Level Up!
The dagger vibrated fiercely in his grip. The metal compressed and sharpened as its base damage multiplied exponentially.
The math was flawless. The multiplier didn’t just apply to his character level. It infected every single progression system tied to his avatar. He had discovered a localized infinity loop.
He wasn’t just farming. He was mass-producing raw power!
"Optimal," Vahn muttered quietly.
He walked deeper into the labyrinth. He didn’t bother with stealth. He wanted them to come.
Within minutes, the Catacombs realized there was an intruder. The shadows peeled off the walls in droves. Packs of Shadowstalkers lunged at him from the darkness, sometimes five or six at a time.
It wasn’t a battle. It was a systematic mathematical slaughter.
Vahn moved like a ghost through the damp corridors. He became a blur of motion.
Temporal Step engaged. A sidestep. A perfectly angled thrust.
Temporal Step disengaged. A spray of pixels. A million EXP added to the bank!
He didn’t waste a single calorie of energy on flashy spins or heavy chops. Every movement was minimized to achieve maximum lethality. He killed with the flat detachment of a man checking off a grocery list.
Thwack. Squelch. Slice.
Ten minutes later, Vahn stood in the center of the first major cavern. The ground was littered with standard loot drops. There were fangs, pelts, and silver coins that he didn’t even bother to pick up.
His EXP reservoir had ballooned past twenty million. His Shadow Blade had reached Level 15 and radiated a palpable aura of menace.
He paused and rubbed his temples. A slight throbbing headache bloomed behind his eyes. Using Temporal Step continuously was straining his neural link. The human brain wasn’t meant to process spatial data at this velocity.
He needed to adjust his combat parameters or risk a forced logout.
Just as he sheathed his blade to allow his stamina to recover, a sound echoed from the deeper tunnels.
It wasn’t the hiss of a Shadowstalker. It was the heavy rhythmic clang of metal striking stone. It was accompanied by the desperate shouts of cornered players.
Vahn tilted his head. His purple eyes narrowed in the darkness. He recognized the distinct auditory signature of a heavy tower shield deflecting a blunt force impact.
He didn’t care about saving strangers. But the sound was coming from the primary transit artery leading to the second floor.
They were blocking his farming route!
He sighed. It was a flat mechanical sound. He began walking toward the noise. It was time to clear the obstruction.
