The Grand Duelist

A few minutes earlier...

[Souls and Ego required for Quest Completion: 231/3000]

"Still not enough..." A hoarse voice rang within the darkness.

"The souls required for the quest completion is too much..."

Within a certain cave, a figure could be seen moving amidst the darkness. His figure didn't look like he was a different entity from the darkness. It was as if he was the darkness himself.

Nevertheless, that figure existed in reality and was a player. Specifically, an aspiring Disciple of the God of Darkness, an Apostle of the God of Darkness.

[An intruder has entered the Dark Wolf's Den]

A system notification appeared before him and a smile appeared on his lips. For his mission, he raised the difficulty of the dungeon by adding monsters on strategic locations and making sure that they would appear in the moments that his enemies never expected.

He modified the dungeon so that its difficulty would slowly increase and build-up so that in the end. His enemies would feel despair because of the large number of enemies that they had to deal with that had higher strength than them.

When despair filled the mind of his enemies. That would be the time where he would strike.

However, even though he had the capability of manipulating the minds of the monsters. That didn't mean that they had their affinity. He had to move secretly within the darkness to that he wouldn't disturb the monsters and lure them away from their original locations.

"Let's see how strong these newbies are this time..." He whispered before moving towards the entrance of the cave, with the intention of seeing the slaughter and despair of the new players first-hand.

"Luminous!"

A ball of light exploded in the air, briefly revealing everything around the newbies as he hurriedly leaped backward and hid behind a rock in an effort to evade the incoming light.

"Shit, I almost ruined my plans there..." He violently cursed to himself. He didn't want to reveal himself to these newbies prematurely for he planned of only revealing himself as the mastermind of everything at the moment when these newbies were on the verge of death.

When that time came, he would appear out of the darkness and siphon their souls out of their bodies.

Witnessing those new players screaming in pain and asking for mercy was something that he thoroughly liked.

This was the reason why he played Victory.

In the outside world, he couldn't even dream of doing something like this.

But in Victory? Anything was possible and he could do whatever he wanted with almost no repercussions.

This was the reason why he really liked the realism and freedom that Victory granted to every player.

His hidden desires were also the reason why he chose to side with the darkness and became an Apostle of the God of Darkness.

"But those newbies... That girl used Luminous and that Hunter is using Fanning Arrows. Those are skills that a newbie couldn't possibly possess. But that young man right there looks like the definition of a newbie. Wait... Could it be that he enlisted the service of these two young women as taxis?"

When he realized these, anger surged in his heart.

"That bastard, making these beautiful women work for him... Men should do all the manual labor, not the other way around!" Killing intent filled his eyes but he chose to suppress his anger.

In the end, he still wanted to see the end of his plans and he believed that when that happened, he could take revenge against Joseph for the sake of the two women.

"Just wait, you disgusting bastard..." If curses could kill then Joseph would've died dozens of times already. He took one more glance at the three before retreating deeper into the cave.

"Fireball!" The Magician of the three screamed and the figure within the darkness saw a ball of fire streaking through the air towards the blocked entrance of the cave.

[The intruders are attacking the blockage at the entrance.]

[The blockage successfully resisted. Their escape has failed.]

"What a futile resistance, it would be better if they just let the wolves devour them and they won't have to struggle like this." He shook his head before he continued on his walk But before he could even walk far away, a system notification informed him of something absurd.

[The intruders have eliminated the wolves guarding the entrance of the cave!]

"What?" He stopped in his tracks. He turned around and found traces of Blizzard.

"That Magician... She's an Elementalist? Why would a second main-class advancement player be here?

"But compared to me, she's nothing... I'm in a place surrounded by darkness. This is my domain as the Apostle of the God of Darkness." He stared directly at the two young women.

He couldn't help but find them familiar. However, these feelings merely lasted for a moment before he turned around and continued deeper into the cave.

"It looks like I will need to release the product of the fusion between a monster and darkness energy..." He whispered in the air before thoroughly disappearing into the darkness.

[You acquired the Wrath of Voliwolf.]

[A Hidden BOSS has appeared!]

"Roaaaaaar!"

"Shit, we're done for..." Nina cursed, she didn't care about her image as a maiden at this point.

[The dark energies in the surroundings stirred by the appearance of Voliwolf, Leader of the Pack has influenced your body and soul.]

[All of your attributes are reduced by 25%.]

[The dark energy slows you down.]

[Your Movement Speed is reduced by 50%.]

[The dark energy causes fear and it instills hesitation within your heart.]

[There is a certain probability of automatically failing on your chanting, and attacks.]

[You cannot resist.]

The so-called incarnation of a Great Demon stared at Joseph as Joseph's expression paled from what he saw.

[Name: Leader of the Pack, Voliwolf (Darkened).

Level: ???]

These were the only information that he saw from the monster before him. Several question marks after the "Level" meant that the Level of the monster was at least ten times higher than the observer. Not only that, apart from the status effects that the Hidden BOSS brought, it also had three Health Bars.

A single Health Bar floating above its head and two blood-colored stars, indicating the presence of two other Health Bars.

[You are under the effects of Direct Suppression.]

[Direct Suppression's effect is underway. In front of an overwhelming presence, the effects of all of your attacks are greatly reduced. Skills take longer than usual to cool down and your Movement Speed is reduced by 50%.]

[You cannot resist.]

"How in the hell do we defeat this monster?" Joseph whispered amidst his gritted teeth.