Brandon stabbed himself across the chest with his dagger with a mad look on his face. A dull ache spread from the visceral wound. His blood magically flowed into the ground underneath him, forming a complex ritual circle made of blood. Friends on the Other Side would give him and any allies a buff, but it would come at the cost of his health. Depending on the rank of his skill and how much health he chooses to sacrifice will determine how big a buff will be given.
Brandon sacrificed 75% of his health for a massive damage buff. Physical damage, magical damage, critical damage, and skill damage. There wasn’t a single attack of his that wouldn’t do a crazy amount of damage right now! Although, if he took a hit or two, it would be game over right here and now.
“Forbidden Curse!” Brandon refused to let that happen, though.
A black spiraling mass of cursed spells formed into a ball in front of Brandon’s hand. With a flex of his hand, the spell shot forward and landed directly on the necromancer’s body. An eruption of curses exploded when it made contact with the necromancer’s body. It shrieked in horrific pain as its body was wracked with a multitude of debuffs. The effects would be worse if it weren’t an undead that had a natural resistance to most debuffs.
Before the boss could enter its berserk form or start fighting for its life like they usually do when they’re low on health, Brandon spammed more spells. Curses and skills flowed out of him as if he had infinite mana, but he was actually stealing the necromancer’s health and mana through one of his skills combined with downing potions. Rather than describing this as a boss fight, it was easier to say it was one-sided bullying.
Brandon ate the Ultra Mushroom before starting the boss fight. Despite its name, its effects were more normal than it sounded. The Ultra Mushroom simply gave him an overall buff in all stats. His Mind, Body, and Magic stats were doubled. This power-up, combined with the skill Ritual of Blood, grew his strength to crazy numbers. Because of that, Brandon only took a few moments to decimate the quest’s boss and loot his goodies.
The loot wasn’t the only thing he gained, though. Brandon also leveled up and received another achievement. Boss Slayer II was the name of the achievement and was given to him for defeating ten bosses all by himself. Boss Slayer I gave him a skill that increased his damage to boss entities by 25%. The second advancement ranked up that initial skill and allowed him to do a 50% increase in damage to all bosses.
Outside of that, they divided the drops into two piles, one for usage and one for selling. There was a staff that would make any other Cursed One smile with glee and dance around like a little girl but was useless to him on the account of his mythic voodoo doll. It was a growth weapon that was suited perfectly for him. He was really thankful to the Mushroom Queen. If he could help it, he would never destroy her for drastically improving his life both inside and outside the gaming world. Brandon didn’t care if she was just a bunch of ones and zeroes in a video game. He was just a bunch of cells stuffed into a fleshy bag of meat and liquids. They weren’t so different in his mind.
Brandon left the boss’s cave decked out in scary black robes that boosted his skills, Magic stat, and Mind stat. As he made his way back to the duke’s castle, he started to think. Was it possible that the duke sent him out on this quest to kill him? While Brandon knew he had a great reputation among NPCs for completing seemingly impossible quests and surviving where others have died, did that paint a bounty on his head? There was no way an important boss like the Duke would try to kill him, was there?
[Quest Updated!]
[You’ve found out the true reason Duke Gaul sent you out on this impossible task! Duke Gaul considered you a significant threat regarding your future potential. The Mushroom Queen tasked him to weaken Humanity’s forces from the inside! Cursed Hero! It is up to you to find evidence of the Duke’s traitorous actions and report it to the King! Quickly! It's up to you to quickly find evidence of the Duke's traitorous actions, or all might be lost for Humanity!]
[Rewards: Dukedom, massive experience points, massive reputation points, and the achievement: Hero of Humanity!]
[Failure: Slavery, Torture, Death, or Experimentation.]
Brandon was a little worried. Were they about to reach the finale of the first expansion so soon? There was even a time limit of half a year for this quest! He didn’t even know where to start to begin looking for evidence of the duke’s crimes! He needed help and knew the best person to find when he was lost. Instead of returning to the Duke, Brandon made his way to the capital, where King Avery’s army was stationed.
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