MMORPG: Rise of the Peerless Pumpkinmancer

On the floor laid a wolf-human chimera-looking corpse.

“Let’s see what’s the loot” Jack gleefully approached it. Drum roll! Killing this guy had given…..Jackpot!

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Uncommon Drunk Wolf Armguards

Rank F

Level 5

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[Armor Rating] 1

[Armor Type] Leather

[Durability] Good

[Attribute] +2 AGI

[Trait] + Alcohol Resist

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It sure was fitting the drunken, cowardly wolf character…

What was he even supposed to do with alcohol tolerance in the beginner village? There wasn’t even a tavern! Then again, Steven probably sold some as a general merchant.

At least the Agility value was pretty damn awesome. It was an increase of 33% to his current value!— not like that would change much, but it felt nice to say aloud.

“Oh well, it’s pretty good stuff.” Jack smiled.

“Woo!” (Glad!)

As he wore his new equipment, the NPCs cheered— all except the elders. They were the ones who had known the deceased for the longest.

This sure felt strange to them. A man who had been their friend earlier today was now a corpse at their feet. A part of them wished he could have kept hiding his identity. Then things could have stayed as they used to be.

Meanwhile, the murderer was happily looting the wine bottle that had caused the Mini-Boss’s demise. How nice, it was still intact! He’d be able to reuse it for the next run! Just like that, the creature’s fate had been sealed already.

People losing their friend? The last struggles of a misunderstood wolf? Jack didn’t care for any of it. For him, the tragedy had only meant progress in his quest.

As for the actual corpse, a necklace hung around its neck. It was a wolf’s fang but clearly not its for it was too large. It wasn’t an item that a player could wear either.

As Jack picked it up, it began glowing very softly in a silvery light before abruptly stopping. What?! Apparently, he seemed to be the only one to have noticed.

He began playing with it, slowly figuring out the item’s secret. When it was pointing in a specific direction, it would glow softly. This was a magical compass!

“Well, let’s finish this once and for all!” Jack encouraged his group.

“Woo!” (Intimidating!)

Thus their journey began. But since they had a heading and an army it turned out to be a pretty straightforward one:

Villagers: Far From Home —> A tale of wolf slaughter.

They were an unstoppable force with a fearless leader and a cute mascot. Soon they reached their destination and found many large stones placed in a stylized circle. Jack couldn’t help but mumble:

“What is this, Stonehenge?”

“Woo?” (Wondering)

“Envoy, have you seen something like that before?!”

“What kind of wonder is it?”

“Is it dangerous?”

There was no way that he would explain it to them. In his hand, the fang was glowing more than ever as it began to tremble. It was as if it had come alive and was trying to escape his grasp.

He slowly approached it until he finally reached a large monolith in the middle. It was filled with many scratch marks that formed ??….home. This was the wolf’s lair, right?

Right below that, there was a wolf’s paw imprint.

Jack pressed the fang to the stone. That’s when the monolith began to glow silvery. But other than the cool special effect, there wasn’t anything else happening.

“Woo!” (Fascinated.)

“I think we need a wolf to activate this. Good thing we have one right here, right?” Jack muttered.

“Woo!” (Excited!)

Moon Moon jumped in happiness. They needed a wolf?! It was a wolf! It would now be its time to shine! It followed its master’s directives as it overlapped its paw with the one in the rock.

The whole thing suddenly began to buzz as it began glowing even brighter.

— BUZZ! —

Everyone around prepared themselves for what would happen while clenching their grasp on their weapons.

— BUZZ! —

— BUZZ! —

— BUZZ! —

“…..”

“…..”

“-_-“

But no matter how long they waited, there was nothing else happening. That’s when jack noticed that the paw imprint seemed to be glowing, but not entirely. He could only sigh.

“It seems that we need a bigger wolf.”

Moon Moon cried softly, disappointed. This was its first encounter with ageism ever— the world was unfair and it would get used to it.

Jack pointed at a few minions, ordering them:

“Spread out and bring me back a wolf ASAP!”

Watching them leave to do his bidding sure felt great. A few minutes later, they were already coming back, running while being chased by a small group of 4 wolves.

Needless to say, it was a one-sided fight. One that ended with a wolf forcefully tied to the monolith. It couldn’t understand what the heck was happening. What were the humans planning?! This wasn’t natural!

Jack ignored the sad cries of the confused wolf as he turned to his subordinates:

“Are you guys ready? Once I approach the fang, we will gain access to the lair of the wolf Boss. After we defeat that guy, they won’t ever threaten any of us!”

As they heard this, they showed incredible resolve. They were going to carve a future for themselves, their descendants, and all that bullshit.

“YES!”

“We’ll fight with everything we got!”

“We’ll follow you till the end of the world!”

Till the end of the world? So… pretty much this last dungeon fight. But this was all that he needed. Jack finally approached the fang.

That’s when the light reached an incredible brightness, with the monolith starting to tremble. But it wasn’t over. All the surrounding rocks began to resonate with it, humming akin to a heavenly melody.

“Woo!” (Wow!)

“Hehe, true. It is pretty damn cool.”

All the rocks freaking began to glow, all until their entire vision was only silvery light. It was as if they had left the material plane and reached a new magical world.

[Entering Wolf Inner Sanctum!]

[Are you ready?]

“Hehe, I was born ready!”

“Woo!” (Brave!)

Then the light finally disappeared, and the Boss appeared in all its glory. It looked so freaking damn imposing! But even then, Jack only laughed. This would be done in a jiffy.

“Guys, let’s fuck this ugly wolf up!” He bellowed. But as Jack turned back, he suddenly choked.

“Guys?!”

They were all gone…

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[A/N] Hype! PRIV Mass Release Time! ??

Day 2: Spooky Scary Skeleton Tier (4/4) ???

Reminder that PRIV is optional but really appreciated. Two more days of Priv-Hell ??

Creator’s Thought

None of the villagers had teleported with me. There stopped my bulldozing legacy. Truly a shame considering how easy their presence would have made this challenge. Guess I celebrated way too early. Oh well, shit happens…