Utopian System

The fifteenth challenge had pushed them to innovate. Thirty-two evolved kobolds, each with one and a half million health points, had proven too numerous and too durable for conventional tactics.

Dionz kept rattling off their "proper" names with enthusiasm, but to Elio they were just larger, more dangerous versions of their predecessors.

He wouldn't remember the names anyway…

The sheer volume of attacks they could coordinate had initially seemed overwhelming.

Every approach was met with a storm of perfectly timed strikes that made sustained combat impossible.

But that very lethality had inspired their unconventional solution.

"If we can't survive long," Elio had reasoned, "then let's make our deaths count as an attack."

The "bomb" strategy was born from this realization.

Poison Stinger would form a shield of white phosphorus around them as they charged in, while Emberg prepared to superheat it. When the enemies inevitably broke through their defense, instead of trying to survive, they'd trigger a massive chain reaction.

The phosphorus from Poison Stinger's barriers would ignite explosively when Emberg superheated the oxygen-enriched air around them. Each "death run" would result in a devastating chain fire explosion before Elio was forced back to his physical form.

Then they'd immediately re-enter, not wasting a second on recovery or reflection.

Another shield, another charge, another explosion.

Each cycle took only minutes, by the end even seconds, and each explosion took its toll on their opponents.

The evolved kobolds, for all their increased power and coordination, couldn't prevent these suicide runs. Their attacks would break through the phosphorus shield, yes, but that very action would trigger the explosive reaction they'd planned for.

Hour after hour, explosion after explosion, they whittled down the enemy numbers. The chamber became a continuous cycle of shields forming, breaking, and exploding in magnificent chain reactions.

♢♢♢♢

Now, just hours later, Elio stood before the goddess statue to claim the rewards of the fifteenth challenge.

The strategy hadn't been elegant, had abandoned any pretense of traditional combat, but it had worked.
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"How are you feeling?" Dionz asked, watching Elio take the prices and prepare for the next challenge. "The corruption should be getting stronger."

"Actually, I think I'm starting to understand it better," Elio replied, pausing his preparations. "It's like... you know when you're facing something terrifying, and you feel fear trying to overwhelm you?"

Dionz nodded, suddenly more attentive than his usual casual demeanor.

"You can't eliminate the fear completely, it's always there. But you can push it back, make it secondary to what really matters. The people you need to protect, the things you have to do..."

Elio's eyes focused on something distant atop the stairs. "The corruption is similar. When I focus on Zara, on the city, on everything we're fighting for... I can push it back. Not eliminate it, but control its influence."

The god had materialized what looked like a notebook and was actually taking notes, his usual dramatic flair replaced by genuine interest.

"Are you... are you seriously writing this down?" Elio asked, bemused.

"Of course!" Dionz looked up from his notes. "You're literally the first test subject for this level of divine corruption... well, you are also the last one. Don't underestimate what you're achieving here."

He flipped through several pages of notes. "I mean from your specific species… There were some similar experiments, in which most beings either reject it completely and fail, or embrace it totally and lose themselves. But you're a different human now and seem to be finding a middle ground, learning to coexist with it while maintaining your core self."

"I thought you were joking about the test subject part," Elio said, watching the god continue to scribble notes.

"Oh, I joke about many things," Dionz grinned, but his eyes remained serious. "But this? This is unprecedented. Every observation could be crucial for... well, for things you might need to understand later."

His expression brightened suddenly, returning to his more familiar theatrical self. "But don't let me keep you! Sixty-four enhanced "whatever-I-decided-to-call-them" as you like to say, await inside the portal! Same explosion strategy?"

Elio nodded, already moving to merge with Emberg's form. As he did, he noticed Dionz adding more notes, muttering something about "emotional anchors" and "consciousness preservation."

"You know," Elio said just before entering the portal, "for someone who claims to have made so many mathematical errors, you're surprisingly thorough with those notes."

"Different kind of processing!" Dionz called after him cheerfully. "This is more about the 'soul' than numbers. Though if you want to talk about calculation errors, wait until you see the enemy count at level forty and…"

But Elio and Poison Stinger were already gone, ready to start their explosive strategy against the doubled number of opponents. Behind them, Dionz rolled his eyes and continued writing, his usual playful demeanor momentarily replaced by intense concentration.

"Subject maintains somewhat normal individuality while accepting power... uses emotional connections as stabilizing anchors... demonstrates conscious control over corruption's influence..."

He paused in his writing. "Maybe this time... maybe he really can..."

The god quickly returned to his usual grin, but the notes remained clutched in his hand, filled with observations that seemed far more important than he was letting on.

♢♢♢♢

Dionz was in the middle of eating something that looked suspiciously like divine instant noodles when Elio emerged from another attempt.

Two days had passed, and the limitations of their strategy were becoming increasingly apparent.

"The problem started back in level eighteen and won't go away," Elio said, watching Emberg and Poison Stinger materialize beside him. "Our combination just doesn't scale well for these numbers."

He began analyzing their limitations out loud while Dionz slurped his noodles with divine lack of ceremony: "Poison Stinger's boron magic is too elastic. When we try to use it as shrapnel in an oxygen or helium-saturated bomb, it just stretches instead of fragmenting properly. And Emberg's fire attacks, while powerful, lose effectiveness too quickly with distance."

"The heat dissipation problem," Dionz nodded sagely, wiping broth from his chin. "Classic thermodynamics."

"Since level eighteen's 256 enemies, we haven't been able to hit them all in a single entry. Each level takes an exponentially longer time… We need a different approach or this will take years."