MMORPG: Rise of the Peerless Pumpkinmancer

Somewhere in the world of Infinite, a man was relaxedly sitting, seemingly meditating. His face was peaceful as he enjoyed the quiet atmosphere. Right next to him, there was a small wolf and a corpse.

Jack couldn't help but sigh as he slowly opened his eyes. Why was it that every time he ran the Fox Grove dungeon, the NPC always died?! As far as he remembered, this wasn't supposed to happen.

Hell, it should have been possible to recruit the guy to help against the final Boss too. Then again, perhaps his instant convincing method was a bit too OP for the tutorial. After all, it took him but a few minutes to turn the coward into a courageous zealot!

Throughout his recent dungeon runs, he had witnessed the NPC die in many different manners:

- Devoured by rats

- Stomped to pulp by foxes (?!)

- Choked to death on a piece of meat

- Valiantly tried to tank the hunter's attacks

- Driven to insanity + killed himself after a failed intervention on past trauma.

He couldn't help but smile wryly as a system announcement appeared:

[Convinced an NPC to brave danger until death… repeatedly!]

[Acquired Title: Living Call of the Void! — Dangerously Persuasive]

Call of the void: aka that little voice that tells you to jump from a tall building, or jump into incoming traffic or even drink a bottle of bleach.

"System, are you sure you ain't drunk? You should be giving a title to the NPC who's way too suicidal!" Jack grumbled, with the puzzled wolf observing him.

Oh well, it wasn't like it mattered either.

After all, the little wolf was improving by the second. They now had a system: the little wolf would voluntarily wander off the usual path to bait the Mini-Boss. Then they would use the NPC to clear the village area and finally face the final Boss.

It would usually go like this:

— Roar! —

— Dash! —

— Dash! —

— Dash! —

The Boss would appear very menacing and dash all over the place, but the prompts on the ground betrayed where he was heading. Every time there would either be empty air at its destination or a badass Demon King ready to block.

Defeating the orange creature became a routine task for them. The more they did it, the more confident the small wolf was becoming.

It had even begun to taunt the enemy while dodging the deadly attacks in their latest fight. How awesome was that! Jack felt like a parent who had seen his kid grow way too fast!

Every time the run would end up with the usual +180 XP! All until he finally reached level 6.

He couldn't help but give a satisfied grin as he felt his stats grow:

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[ STATUS! ]

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Player: Jack' O Level 6

Class: None

Title: Demon King!

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HP: 32

Mana: 16

Condition: Healthy

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Armor Rating: 12 (55%)

Defense Type: Balanced

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STR: 19 + 1

AGI: 1 + 5

INT: 1+2

SPI: 1 + 1

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- Bloody Cleave F

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- Gathering F

- Butchering F

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- Well-Fed

- Regeneration (—)

- Blood Scent (1 STR + 1 AGI )

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He couldn't help but grin as he saw the massive 20 STR. Only a pure build could reach such a value so early in the game.

Then his gear gave him a bit of AGI, making sure that while he was slow, he wasn't the slowest either.

As for the Shoulders + Belt, they had definitely added to his survivability. It was only an estimate, but his damage reduction had gone from 50% to 55%.

Then there was the loot. He now had in extra:

4 x Fox Fur Cloak

3 X Shadowy Belts

9 X Various level 5 armor pieces

Even with his increased loot gain (++), Jack still averaged one special Boss drop per run, either the Cloak or the belt.

As for the other players, it would mostly be 2 special drops per 3 runs. The real issue was that they would have to share it, thus making Jack's farming five times as efficient even without the buff.

At that point, he had entirely run out of potions. Even if he was good, completely avoiding damage against the Fox Boss was impossible.

He had also spent a long while in there since he had trained his partner a lot. In fact, the second day was almost over, and it would soon be reset time.

But as he casually exited the fox Grove, he was confronted with a massive crowd who instantly stared at him with expectation.

What now?…

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So many were so damn excited about the new Fox Grove!

1. There was the whole bonus loot event happening!

2. The newly released Demon King highlights made their blood boil in anticipation.

3. Even the training instructor commented from time to time about how braves were supposed to explore other worlds and conquer them.

They felt that entering that world was priority number one!— They needed to be level 5 ASAP!

For that very reason, they trained. Before many were wasting their time exploring, PKing, and doing quests….but they all began hunting foxes like crazy!

The poor creatures could only accept their fates with pitiful yelps. The previously deadly-looking monsters were nothing but XP and D.L. membership fees in the players' eyes!

They were still struggling, but the zeal they now had showed miracles as they leveled up extremely fast!

The Pro-Payers had been level 5 at the start of Day 2, and the zealous players were finally reaching that point. This included the Mighty Wolves but also a few other parties.

As these heroes decisively headed inside the dungeon, a crowd naturally formed to await their glorious return.

It wasn't even that they doubted the authenticity of Jack's video. Nope, they just wanted to know how average players would react to the dungeon.

Oh, but they were dying to know if the Boss really was level 20!

As the portal trembled, they couldn't help but hold their breath. There it came! They would finally be able to ask questions and—

But the one who appeared was the Demon King himself along with his wolf. This was quite comical. Parties of 5 had gone inside prepared for death, and yet he was just casually strolling out.

As he saw them, he frowned slightly. "What are you guys doing loitering outside?"

One of them scratched his head awkwardly: "We're not level 5 yet…."

"Then you should get back to grinding. In the other villages, people are probably leveling up like crazy. Hell, there are probably many who are level 6 already." Jack advised them.

"What, already 6?!"

"Isn't that too high?!"

"I mean, there are level 5 peeps here."

That's when one of them took the courage to talk back to Jack.

"S-sir Demon King. We're actually waiting for some friends who headed inside. They should be coming out soon. Would you like to wait for them with us?"

Why the hell would he do that? But then Jack got slightly curious. How would they all react to this first dungeon? Would they somehow figure out how to weaken the final Boss? What about the NPC? He kept dying, but was it the same for them?

"Alright, I'll wait a few minutes and see if they come out."

The shy player was now pumping his fist in the air, a massive smile on his face. The Demon King had accepted his invitation?! His friends were all staring at him while giving him thumbs up.

But would Jack lose his time? Hell no! He suddenly sat right in front of the crowd, the orange glow of the portal giving him an unfathomable look.

Was he about to meditate while waiting? The players stared at him as discreetly as possible.

That's when he took an item out of his inventory. It seemed to be leather pants that looked pretty ordinary yet different than any they had ever seen. What was he going to do with this?

He suddenly clapped his hands

— CLAP! —

"Hello everyone, and welcome to the first-ever Demonic Legion's auction! I'm glad to see you all made it."

The players exchange wry glances. All made it? They were here first!— kinda…

"Now, here is the first product: Level 5 leather pants. Great quality! Not only does it boost one's armor rating, but it also makes you look so much better." He then turned toward a female player.

"Say, beautiful…."

"M-me?!" She furiously blushed at being singled-out by the Demon King.

"Yes! If a guy asked you on a date in public, would you rather he wear pants or not?" Jack energetically asked.

The poor girl was about to answer that it was entirely different in a game…but then she saw his smile and gaze. His eyes were promising her endless torment were she to screw up his pants sale— or so she thought.

Also, had that bright "Demon King!" title always been there?! It was so intimidating!

"T-that…if he doesn't even have pants, I'm not interested!" She forced herself to utter in a spirit of self-preservation.

The bystanders didn't know how to feel about this. What kind of phrasing was this?! He had associated cheap low-level equipment with human dignity! Did he really need to remind them of how destitute they looked?!

But even with this fantastic pitch, no one seemed to be interested. Jack gave them a weird glance.

"Really?! Are all of you satisfied with walking around with your bare legs?!"

"That's not it… we're broke. I'd rather save to join D.L than to buy a pair of pants…." One sighed.

Ah! How great it was for Jack to be his own competitor! He chuckled slightly. You guys can pay with Credits if you want to—

"2 Credits!"

"5 Credits!"

"10 Credits!"

That's when they began bidding, one after the other. Jack remained utterly speechless. Seriously?! How were shitty level 5 pants so popular?!

A few minutes later, he had sold all nine armor pieces for a total of 387 credits. He felt like he was dreaming. What the hell?! Sure the players were easy to scam right now…but 387?!

The scary and fearsome Demon King was now wholly overwhelmed and all smiles. After all, this almost covered this month's rent of 500! That loot had been so trashy that he would have had no qualm with discarding it. Good thing he hadn't!

As for the players, they felt it was a fair deal. Some of them had money and were ready to splurge. This was also the first loot obtained from the dungeon, and it looked different from the one from the NPCs.

They would be able to show off for a few days at least since most of the player base was still naked. It would also save them hours of farming. It wasn't completely foolish— from a rich guy's point of view.

But just as Jack was rejoicing about his successful sales, the dungeon entrance rippled once again.

They were back…

Creator's Thought

At this moment part of me wondered if I should become a professional item farmer. After all, it would be a surefire way to get Credits in the short term. By aiming to become a ranker I was going for the long term, even stuff that might not be as good right now.