In the Fox Grove dungeon, Jack stared at the fox-shaped shadow and uttered solemnly:
“Get ready. It’s coming.”
“Woo?!” (Tensing up)
“The Hunter has marked you. It will stop at nothing to add us to its soul collection now.”
The little wolf felt Jack’s seriousness through their link.
This new enemy was no joke. In fact, it was a very iconic one to the beginner area. Why? Because it gave so many Newbies PTSD! This monster never fucking played fair!
“Alright, let’s leave this village— well, after we do one little thing.”
Jack quickly made his way toward one of the abandoned, destroyed kitchens. It was time to create a secret weapon!
— Using Large Mixing Pot! —
+ Chili
+ Cayenne
+ Wild Garlic
+ White Vinegar
— Mixing it all! —
[Obtained Smelly Fox Repellent!]
[*Can double as a female repellent!*]
Most MMOs would state that kind of stuff clearly, but in Infinite, there were little secrets hidden everywhere. This was hella fun once you got used to it!
This one required:
1. To develop a basic affinity with the NPC or ask him the right questions.
2. To receive and read his fox booklet.
3. To collect the ingredients.
4. To mix them all.
Was it too hidden? Not really. The NPC would eventually talk about it if given a chance to speak long enough— which Jack hadn’t cared about.
Now, how were they supposed to proceed? The Hunter going after them was akin to a sword of Damocles. It could utterly annihilate them at any time.
Jack couldn’t help but frown. God, this would be one massive pain in the ass! They only stood a chance if they managed to bait the creature.
━━━━━━ POV ━━━━━━━
Once upon a time, he used to be human.
How long had it been? He couldn’t recall. All he knew was that he had been betrayed. The humans had sacrificed him to save themselves! They really couldn’t be trusted.
He had killed them all except that one detestable guy. Why did he hate him? He wasn’t sure, but it didn’t matter.
He was letting him live so that he could forever suffer the anguish of loneliness. He would lose a piece of his mind with every passing day, and there was beauty in that.
But recently, there had been intruders. They had shattered the peacefulness of the forest. There was no way that he would allow them to live!
He would hunt them, grab their soul, and devour it. There was no greater delicacy than a human about to perish.
He loved the fear in their eyes, the trembling of their bodies, the erratic last-second struggle for survival, and that sweet despair at them dying pitifully. He couldn’t get enough of it!
Now he would strike again. There were new targets: a small wolf and its master. They would soon learn why this forest was his domain! He grinned as the hunt began.
He watched them from the shadows, the wolf’s shadow, to be precise. He saw every single move they made. He had a front-row view of the action!
Hehehe. The dumb human was hunting, exerting himself, unaware of the horrors that were about to befall him. Meanwhile, the little wolf was moving about, scouting for its master.
That’s when an opportunity showed itself. The dumb human began fighting three foxes and could barely keep up. He kept blocking and going for a battle of attrition: this would be so much fun!
He slowly approached his target, walking with his body seemingly melting into the shadows.
— Shadow Walk! —
The dumb human had no clue that death was upon him. He would neutralize him first and let the wolf watch. In any case, the little one wasn’t a threat. That’s when he reached his target.
He was so close that he could hear the guy’s beating heart, one that was steady for now. But it would soon beat in absolute dread for him!
He was so close that he could touch the man’s back. How would he react when he plunged his claws into him? Twitch in confusion at first? Cry out in dismay and anger? It was time…
The Hunter clawed at the human.
— Swipe! —
He watched the shadowy aura of death go from his claw toward the target with a smirk. But just as he was rejoicing…
— WOOSHHHH! —
What the heck was that?! Suddenly all he saw was red. Then he felt the pain.
He twitched while observing his surroundings. The three foxes were now on the ground, nothing but lifeless husks. What?! They were all dead?! What was happening?!
Was the red streak an attack?! This didn’t make any sense! How were they defeated so quickly?! That’s when the human slowly spoke.
“So, how is it? Are you having fun hunting?” There was so much sarcasm oozing through his voice.
The man’s heart was now beating quickly, but something was wrong with the scene. What was up with that huge ass grin on his face?! The man’s eyes didn’t show any despair, no they showed excitement and…pleasure?!
This attack was a failure! He had to retreat right now! But first, he had to make this guy fall! He relentlessly attacked:
— Swipe! —
— Swipe! —
— Swipe! —
The guy blocked it all perfectly, sometimes even riposting, but it didn’t matter.
-1
-1
-1
-1
Only one damage per hit? So what? The Hunter was actually winning this trade. Was it because he could attack extremely fast? Nope.
Every time his attack connected, a tiny and barely discernable shadow fox mark appeared on the man’s body. The man’s constant blocking allowed him to just stack this on him. He was fucked!
At this rate, there was no need to run. He would get rid of the pesky human in one go! He patiently kept attacking.
+Shadow Fox Mark Applied
+Shadow Fox Mark Applied
+Shadow Fox Mark Applied
All until it reached an insane 20 stacks. Even the overlord of this realm would die in one hit from his next move. This was huge!
It was time to end it all! He made sure to wait for the perfect timing.
The man blocked, blocked, blocked, and couldn’t block anymore. He was close enough that he couldn’t run away either. This was over!
The Hunter spun on himself, generating a wave of shadow, an unstoppable one! The human was as good as dead!
— Shadow Slice! —
But that’s when it happened: the human rolled. It was nothing fancy. In fact, he looked very awkward while doing it. But somehow, the shadowy arc passed right above his head?! He was completely unharmed! How?!
He looked his way with that eternal goddamn smile of his.
“Hunting is fun, isn’t it?”
That’s when The Hunter realized that he was fucked. He had become nothing but cannon-fodder to fuel the growth of this monstrous man.
Even then, he couldn’t understand how the man had shown such prowess at the beginning…but then it saw the little wolf nearby. It was very happily and raunchily peeing on its own shadow, one in the shape of a fox.
They knew about it?! No, they had always known!
The wolf hadn’t been scouting to find enemies. It had been scouting to deny him vision. It had been scouting so it wouldn’t reveal the trap its master was laying.
Having trouble against three foxes? Nope! This had all been one huge fucking joke. The dangerous-looking foxes had been at the brink of death the whole damn time!
It now understood how it had failed.
“It was fun, wasn’t it? Let’s do this again sometimes.” The man cackled.
But even then, it was unreconciled! Fuck this human! Why was it that he felt like the monster? This felt so bad…
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Jack happily slashed with his Cluckinator dealing the last blow on The Hunter.
He stared at the now-dead Hunter. It was a bipedal fox that seemed half real and half made of darkness. This was because it was a Half-Fox, Half-Shadow lost soul who hunted the living.
Honestly, this fight could have been way harder. He had truly been lucky:
1. The little wolf had gotten the mark, letting him set up an ambush.
2. Bloody Cleave had allowed him to finish the three foxes instantly. Fighting 3 mobs + The Hunter would have been a nightmare.
3. His pet contract was special. Their link was a higher-level one, letting them share their senses. The wolf had actually been the one to detect the monster by smelling it. The Shadow Walk was no joke!
4. He already knew about the Shadow Slice. It worked similarly to his Bloody Cleave and Chicken Marks combo but was even stronger. Without dodging that move, he would have perished 100%.
This was why he loved the fights in Infinite. This was just the beginning, and there were already mechanics involved. This specific boss was all about relying on one’s allies to trap it slowly.
Anyway, now that it was dead, it was time for loot! Jack happily approached it and collected it all. There was only a single item, but it was plenty:
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Uncommon Shadowy Belt
Rank F
Level 5
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[Armor Rating] 1
[Armor Type] Leather
[Durability] Great (Except Light)
[Attribute] +2 AGI
[Trait] + Shadow Affinity (—)
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
That +2 AGI was massive!
As for the Unranked Shadow Affinity, it could be useful for a rogue, but to him, it was pretty useless. But, whatever…stats FTW!
He’d just have to remember to repair the belt if it took heavy light element magical damage.
Jack happily wore the belt. This was why he was even doing dungeons in the first place. It gave rare armor pieces, ones he needed for his tutorial-crushing plans. Good fucking luck getting a belt otherwise!
“How do I look?”
“Woo!” (Praising)
“Right, very dashing is accurate indeed!”
“Alright. Let’s head to the next big guy, shall we? I’ll have lots to teach you for this one….”
“Woo!” (Determined!)
Their teamwork would be tested once more…
Creator’s Thought
What some people don’t seem to realize is that the whole tutorial is one big fucking quest. The better you complete it and the better the rewards in the next town. Sure it’s possible to rush but there are disadvantages to that. I won’t settle for anything but perfect! ^_^v