Chapter 29: An Unexpected Reward
--Chapter 29--
Title>> An Unexpected Reward
Cough!
Cough!
Xavier placed his hand over his mouth and stood right in front of the demonic Imp Vaguis, its bloodshot eyes now held faint traces of light.
The armor which, at closer inspection, looked like it was made from the demon’s own bones cracked, slowly crumbling.
Deep crimson light spilled through the cracks, then dimmed a moment later.
"Thank yo–"
A calm and solemn voice slipped in and prickled Xavier’s hearing. Coming from nowhere he could initially pinpoint.
Half a second later, Vaguis the Bounded dissolved into motes of red light and Xavier could finally tell who that voice belonged to.
And just why it had never been sound but a feeling. This was because it came from inside his head.
"Thank you, Child of Cruelty," Vaguis mumbled telepathically.
And with that, the final embers of Vaguis’s body disappeared into the darkness.
Next, the darkness, or whatever it was that lived high above, exhaled deeply, the constant breathing finally receded.
But something lingered deep inside Xavier. A feeling that felt like a clog inside his body had been opened.
As if a part of his very existence had taken a step higher.
’What is this?’ Xavier mused, holding his chest.
He tried to search for what had changed in the silence and understand.
’Why?’
’Why Child of Cruelty?’
’What did that even mean?’
Because for the first time in several playthroughs, he had actually heard Vaguis speak.
He was about to take a step closer to the chained throne when a grunt snapped him back from his introspection.
"Everyone alive?" a hurting Timothee called out.
"Define alive," Dex groaned, his hand pressed against his back.
Xavier quickly turned to face the party and there she was.
Juo.
The girl just stood there, staff still raised, water skill still gathering at the crystal crown of the staff.
Her skill had never fired. And all she could do was stare at the blank space where Vaguis had been.
The bland to indifferent expression on her face almost made Xavier feel bad.
Almost...!
Juo slowly lowered her staff, staring at Timothee who had a massive sword ten inches from his head, only saved by the shield’s durability.
She looked at Priya and Dex, who had been sent flying by the resulting shockwave of the sword and shield’s collision.
Last but definitely not least, she looked directly at Xavier. Meeting his ever-watchful eyes.
"So you knew?"
"Of course I did."
A rather awkward silence formed a different type of barrier around them even after the previous one formed from chains had disappeared.
Dex and Timothee narrowed their eyes, their gazes moving from Xavier to Juo, then to each other.
"What?" Dex asked Timothee, who simply shrugged before wincing in pain a second later.
Priya, on the other hand, just remained quiet, calmly watching to see what would happen next.
Amidst all this, neither Juo nor Xavier looked away from each other.
"For how long?" Juo adjusted her glasses on the bridge of her nose.
"Since we entered," Xavier walked forward, his footsteps finally clicking on the glass floor after the ominous breathing from above had stopped completely.
"It took me a while, but I finally pieced it together why you’ve been holding back for so long."
"The last hit rewards?" Timothee raised a brow curiously.
"Yeah..." Xavier smiled.
’Anytime now... this is getting awkward,’ he thought.
Timothee tilted his head towards Juo. But the woman in question didn’t look too bothered. She simply straightened her glasses.
"You are smarter than they say," Juo remarked.
"Thanks for the compliment, but I’ve cleared this dungeon more times than you’ve cleared your browser history."
Juo remained silent, the awkwardness returning like a receding wave on the bank of a river.
But luckily for everyone, especially Xavier who had been praying for it.
The system notifications came in like a cascade.
It started with the general party and dungeon clear rewards.
[Stage Three: Cathedral of the Bound — Cleared]
[Party EXP Bonus: +15% for Full Party Clear]
[Total Stage EXP: 2,875 — Distributed]
Xavier smiled as he read through it. That Experience Point total meant he had finally hit another threshold.
He didn’t wait long before the system notifications rolled through for him, just as they probably had for the others.
Ding!
[You have received Experience Points]
[You have leveled up]
[Current Level: 10]
[Attributes available to share: 4]
[A Bloodline Purity Level has increased]
[Demonic Purity: 8 → 10]
Xavier narrowed his eyes at the last two notifications.
’Wait... what?’
He’d done this dungeon back to back, but never had he gotten a Purity increase from it.
Vaguis the Bounded was an Imp, sure... but he was still just a dungeon boss.
Maybe at Hard Difficulty he reached Level 20, but at the end of the day, he wasn’t a quest-piloting NPC.
And this dungeon was repeatable, not a one-time special dungeon like a few others.
’Wait... wait... Or was this why he called me that?’
Was this the feeling he felt in his chest earlier when he was called...
Child of Cruelty.
Xavier was genuinely confused because a Purity upgrade was tough to achieve.
Unlike most MMORPGs, Arillion Online treated bloodlines differently.
Bloodlines only grew when you walked and acted their path.
Which meant that accumulating Experience Points, coins, skills, equipment and the others didn’t matter when it came to bloodline growth.
For dragons, it was conquest, territoriality, hoarding and basically imposing your will on the world of Arillion.
This was one of the reasons his hidden Bloodline Class, Dragon Sovereign, required him to claim a territory in order to awaken.
But for demons, it was purely violence. Absurd and unreal violence coupled with mastery over Malice.
For demons, true growth meant climbing the hierarchy and clearing the thrones of higher demons along the way.
So while dragons imposed their will upon the world...
Demons imposed their strength upon their own kind.
This combination was why Xavier believed the two bloodlines suited each other so well... and yet were among the hardest paths to power in Arillion.
Then it clicked.
He had defeated a fellow demon. The Imp, Vaguis.
That alone had met the criteria for a Purity increase.
However, this was a new feature because dungeons had never granted this before.
Until now that is...
’i guess things had to change since it’s now a death game?’
"Hey, you okay ?" Priya’s slightly hitched voice called out to him.
This brought Xavier back to the present. Apparently, he was zoning off.
"Yeah..I am."
"I guess even Master X is amazed by the rewards." Timothee faked a chuckle while grimacing.
Tanking so many hits had finally began taking its toll.
Xavier knew he would have to do something about that, but first, he looked at the other rewards.
The blue screens lined up in front of his eyes.
[Successful Dungeon Clear - Hollowgate]
[Difficulty: Medium]
[Party: 5 Members]
[Total Clear Time: 1 Hour, 47 Minutes]
"Its been an hour plus already?" Xavier murmured, while he kept his eyes on the rest of the rewards, especially the pool.
[Dungeon Clear Rewards — Party Pool]
[Copper Coins × 4000→ Pending Distribution]
[Silver Coins ×25→ Pending Distribution]
[Equipment/ Material: Ash Runner Fang ×13, Ash Runner Fur ×6,
Sentinel Blade(Uncommon),
Sentinel Shield (Uncommon), Combustion potion×10, Keeper’s Chain Fragment(Rare)]
Xavier read across the list, the general pool wasn’t half bad for a medium-level dungeon.
The items weren’t bad. Some would do very well for crafting, and it even contained a rare equipment.
Which was a big deal in the early game.
But for Xavier, it was all about those coins.
Those shiny little things were one of the main reasons he agreed to come in the first place.
Honestly, he was willing to surrender anything shared to him from that pool for more coins because the next best thing was already waiting.
Or was it the best?
Xavier’s eyes moved down to the screen that had everyone in the group moping when they saw it.
[Player Hunter X has triggered the one-time LAST-HIT BONUS]
[Last Hit Bonus — Vaguis the Bounded]
[Condition: Land the final blow on the dungeon boss]
And just when he thought he’d reached the very peak of his happiness, the familiar golden border only he could see appeared.
Ding!
[Absolute Drop Authority Activated]
[Scanning...]
"Good show... jolly good show..!" Xavier’s grin grew wider than ever.
--End Of Chapter--
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