There was one last obstacle awaiting them, one that already had the little wolf whimpering.
The flaming heart seemed to enter a defensive more.
There was no downtime anymore. It was simply volley after volley, one more every time it beat.
— THUMP! THUMP! —
— THUMP! THUMP! —
— THUMP! THUMP! —
Lots of fire was heading their way, only to die in front of them. The heart was protecting its domain with a wall of fire, one that never went down.
"Woo?!" (Shock!)
What was that?! How were they supposed to reach the other side?! This was impossible! It looked at its master and gave a low woo of disappointment. They wouldn't be able to beat the bully heart.
"Hehe, are you feeling down?" Jack rubbed the little fellow's head with affection. "Observe carefully, what do you see?"
"Woo?" (Puzzled.)
Fire, fire, more fire! That's all there was! Was its master planning to head in there?! It was suicide!
"Look with more attention. See how the volleys fly and listen to the beating. It may look invincible, but there is a rhythm." Jack smiled brightly before taking a step forward.
The little wolf raised a paw, covering one of its eyes. It couldn't bear to watch, but it had to. How long before its master turned into a ball of fire? But what happened next rendered it speechless.
Jack walked in, sprinted at times, hopped like a rabbit at others, heck he even lay down at some point! Yet the fireballs were all missing him! It even looked like the projectiles were avoiding him!
It took him 2 minutes and 17 seconds. Then he was in front of the heart, grinning like a conqueror. The heart thumped very softly as if begging for forgiveness.
— Thump. Thump. —
— Thump. —
But it was only wasting its time:
"Heart attack time, biatch!" Jack slashed, avenging all the shit the boss had thrown at them.
— Shriek!!! —
The enemy finally thumped its last with a blood-curling screech, dissolving into red particles. All that remained was one sparkling drop of blood, shining brighter than a blood ruby.
+ 1000 XP
[+ Fiery Chicken Soul]
[+ Fiery Chicken Fire Seed]
[+ Fiery Chicken Blood Essence]
Oh god! All these were phenomenal!
1. Souls were quite unusual, and their effect could be extremely varied, but it was always good stuff.
2. Seeds were mainly related to the creature's element and often gave useful passives.
3. Blood essence was both the jackpot and a risky move. This thing could unlock bloodlines, allowing one to unlock a new evolution path! It was arguably the best kind of catalyst in Infinite.
Just as they were done looting, the entire realm shook. Then it seemingly disappeared, as they found themselves back in the room with the statue. The only difference was that a golden chest was now waiting for them.
"Even more rewards?!" Jack uttered, shocked.
"Woo!" (Eager!)
A mimic check later, Jack had a new item:
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Enduring Chicken Necklace!
Rank F
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[Attribute] +4 SPI
[Trait] +Boost Regeneration (All)
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
With this, Jack finally had a full set. Two rings, two earrings, a necklace, and the full armor set. Along with his Cluckinator and Aegis, he was fully geared.
[ Wore a full equipment set! ]
[ Acquired Title: A Noob No More! Allows one to Flex! ]
[Complete set bonus! Uncommon + Prestige with NPCs! ]
"Fucking finally! Not being a Noob while still being in the tutorial is pretty unheard of, so that's good. Not that it's any use…."
"Woo?" (Noob?)
There was so much that the little wolf didn't understand, but it felt its master's mood. This was enough to bring it extreme joy. If jack was happy, it was happy too!
But the notifications weren't over just yet!
[ Completed a Hellish Clear! ]
[ Acquired Title: You call this Hell? I'm still standing! +5% in Hellish (Passive)]
"5%? 5% what?! Attributes? Damage? 5% more flying donkeys?"
"….."
"Alright then, keep your secrets."
[ Completed the hardest of the Hellish dungeons!]
[ Congratulations, do you have any feedback? ]
"Wait..what?!"
In front of Jack's eyes appeared a window containing a survey. Was there going to be a reward for filling it? He sure hoped so! He was gonna do it just in case.
Rating? 4/5⭐
Length? It's fine.
Difficulty? Not too bad.
Rewards? More is always better.
Any additional feedback? It needs a harder alternative version to it: preferably necromancy-based. People love that shit!
"This should do the trick….send!"
[Thank you for filling the survey!]
"That's it? No gift box or anything! Hey system, you can't be that stingy. I used my precious time to answer your questions diligently!"
[….]
[Filled a survey!]
[ Acquired Title: I Filled a Survey!]
Along with the title, there was even a small jingle that played. Was this considered great customer service?
"That's something, I guess…Actually, wait! Are there other people that completed a Hellish dungeon so far?! If not, this should be rewarded too." Jack grumbled.
[Achievement: First to Complete Hellish Clear!]
[ Acquired Title: The First Hellish Clearer +15% Damage in Dungeon! ]
[Accomplished a feat! Would you like to send a server announcement? Y/N? ]
"Don't mind if I do." Jack thought for a bit before he chuckled to himself.
Oh, this would be fun. It was just a shame that he wouldn't see the other players' reactions…
━━━━━━ POV ━━━━━━━
The players all across Infinite suddenly all became crazy, It was all because of one system message:
[A Player has completed a Hellish Dungeon for the first time!]
[ Custom Server Message Incoming!]
[First Clear? Wow! Wanna see it all? Join my OnlyFa— Check my Highlights! Soon available on MeTube! #Demon King! #New Leaf Village! #Badass ]
All over Infinite, players were struck speechless…only for a second. Then they couldn't stop talking about it:
"Completed a Hellish Dungeon for the first time?! My party barely managed to complete the Fox Grove at Normal!"
"You can complete a dungeon?! All I can do is head inside to die over and over!"
"You guys can enter dungeons?! I'm not even level 5 here!"
"What?! You guys have seen dungeons?!"
Even the strongest players, the pro-gamers from other games, found the dungeons extremely challenging. Yet someone had completed freaking Hellish?!
"I don't even know what Hellish is, and I'm still impressed!"
"Wait, it says a player, not players? Why?"
"Don't tell me he soloed it?!"
"Dummy, that's impossible."
"Yeah, there's no way!"
They all agreed with that latter statement. Dungeons in Infinite really required a full party even to attempt them. Otherwise, it was 100% suicide!
"Demon King? New Leaf Village?"
"I feel like I've heard that somewhere before."
"Isn't that the cheat posting fake info on social media?"
"Fake? Fake?! Didn't you hear that last message?! It's coming from the game itself!"
"Hey, I'm just repeating what all the experts have been saying. Still, how does that even make sense?!"
The more they thought about it and the more at a loss they felt. What kind of conspiracy was this? Did this mean that all these experts had been slandering that guy?! But why?!
"There's only one way to know. We gotta watch those highlights for sure!"
At this moment, plenty logged out of Infinite.. They all wanted to know more about this Demon King guy, especially the ones who had already heard about him….
