Chapter 1850 – Hidden Reward
With Shi Feng’s command, the divine runes on the gigantic pair of doors before him began to glow with a purple-gold light A moment later, the divine runes released a beam of light that threatened to devour the Flame Demon King.
“No!” Upon seeing the beam, the Flame Demon King, who was within 50 yards of Shi Feng, turned in a panic and tried to flee.
However, the beam of light was much faster than the Flame Demon King. In the blink of an eye, the purple-gold light enveloped the World Boss, and the Ancient Fiend cried out in pain. In the next moment, the Flame Demon King began to shrink, and the flames around its body gradually extinguished.
A short moment later, the World Gate slowly opened. Some force sucked the valley’s fire through the opening gates, and the Flame Demon King began to shrink even faster.
From its original height of 50 meters, the Flame Demon King quickly shrunk to 40 meters... 30 meters... 10 meters...
By the time the World Gate was fully open, the black hole within had devoured every last flame in the valley. The Flame Demon King had also been dragged towards the World Gate by the black hole’s powerful gravity.
“No! This is my power!” the Flame Demon King shouted, panicking as it used every shred of power to fight the black hole’s pull.
Seeing this, Shi Feng could not help but breathe a sigh of relief.
He had no hope against a Level 83 Mythic ranked Ancient Fiend right now. Fortunately, the World Gate could remove things that didn’t originate from the continent of God’s Domain.
While the World Gate had activated, the Philosopher’s Hand had also undergone a transformation.
The Philosopher’s Hand had originally been made of translucent crystal, radiating an ominous feeling. Now, however, not only had the ominous feeling disappeared, but the translucent hand had also transformed into a blood-red bead.
What pristine Mana! As Shi Feng held the blood-red bead, he could feel incredibly pure Mana emerge from it This Mana was even purer than that from the Seven Luminaries Crystals.
Suddenly, Shi Feng heard the sound of a system notification.
...
System: Congratulations! You have completed the Epic ranked Main Storyline Quest “Philosopher’s Wish” before Level 80. Rewarding Philosopher’s Hand, +40% EXP of current level, 5 Legacy Skill Points, 30 Free Mastery Points, 30,000 Subclass
Proficiency Points, and one Subclass Dark-Gold Design.
When the system notification ended, Shi Feng’s experience bar rose to 52% of Level 68.
However, obtaining the complete Philosopher’s Hand excited Shi Feng far more than the bountiful EXP. This was a bona fide Legendary item. Any superpower in God’s Domain would easily go mad over this.
Moreover, Shi Feng was surprised by the additional reward for completing the quest before reaching Level 80.
Five Legacy Skill Points were no small matter. In addition, the awarded 30,000 Subclass Proficiency Points would save him a lot of time when upgrading his forger subclass. After reaching the Master rank, players would still need a ridiculous number of Proficiency Points to rise from a Basic Master to an Intermediate Master. While ordinary Master Lifestyle players might not have trouble earning the required Proficiency Points, it was a different story for Shi Feng. Shi Feng had many matters he needed to deal with, and he only had a small amount of time to invest in his forging. As a result, he didn’t obtain Forging Proficiency Points very quickly.
However, the most valuable of the rewards had to be the Subclass Dark-Gold Design.
This Subclass Dark-Gold Design wasn’t like ordinary designs. Not only could it upgrade a design to Dark-Gold rank, but the new design would be a player-creation.
It was common knowledge that becoming a Master Lifestyle Player was incredibly difficult. Players needed to create completely new items, which had to meet certain requirements. To accomplish this feat, players needed a certain understanding of items and materials.
This was also the case when players tried to rise from a Basic Master to an Intermediate Master. In fact, the promotion to an Intermediate Master was even more difficult since players would have to create one Dark-Gold item or three Fine-Gold items. This hurdle had been the end of the line for many Basic Master Lifestyle players during Shi Feng’s previous life.
In the past, when one had referred to a Master Lifestyle player, they had generally meant Basic Masters. The majority of God’s Domain’s Master Lifestyle Players had been Basic rank. After ten years in the game, Basic Masters hadn’t received as much attention from first-rate Guilds, although they were still VIPs in second-rate Guilds. At most, they would be treated slightly better than the average Lifestyle player. Only Intermediate Masters had earned first-rate Guilds’ respect.
Now that he had a Subclass Dark-Gold Design, he had received a free pass to become an Intermediate Master.
Of course, an Intermediate Master that reached the rank by using a Subclass Dark-Gold Design wasn’t as capable as a player that reached the rank through their own hard work and original items. The latter had solidified their foundation, while the former had none. A player who became an Intermediate Master though their work would have a higher possibility of creating more Dark-Gold items in the future, soon becoming an Advanced Master. On the other hand, the Intermediate Master that did not possess a sturdy foundation would struggle to advance. The only real benefit of using such a cheap method to become an Intermediate Master was the higher production success rates that came with the rank.
Even so, many Basic Master Lifestyle players had spent their entire life savings to get their hands on a Subclass Dark-Gold Design during Shi Feng’s previous life since they had already reached their limits.
As Shi Feng celebrated his additional rewards, the World Gate began to close. By the time the World Gate had shut, the valley was void of fire. Only the scorched earth remained.
“Despicable human! It took me hundreds of years to accumulate that power! And now it’s all gone! You will pay for this with your soul! I will turn you into a puppet that will forever live under my command!” the Flame Demon King bellowed as it glared at Shi Feng.
Currently, the Flame Demon King was only eight meters tall. It looked like an infant compared to its previous size. Its aura was also much weaker.
...
[Flame Demon King] (Elemental Creature, Mythic)
Level 81
HP 32,000,000/32,000,000
...
The Flame Demon King didn’t even have the HP of a Mythic monster anymore. A Mana Depletion debuff also graced its status bar, lasting for a whole hour.
The World Gate has robbed it of so much energy? Shi Feng was astonished when he saw the enraged Flame Demon King.
The valley’s flames had originated from a Higher Plain, containing unparalleled power. The fire had been highly sought after by Fire Elementals since they could increase the elementals’ power. The Flame Demon King had only grown so strong because it had continuously absorbed these flames’ power. Now that the World Gate had returned these flames to their source, the Flame Demon King had lost the power it had accumulated over the years.
With the energy that had bolstered its physical form gone, it was only natural that the Flame Demon King had weakened. Only, Shi Feng never thought that the Flame Demon King would grow this weak.
Thinking up to this point, Shi Feng abandoned all thoughts of escape.
This was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. When the time the Mana Depletion debuff ended, the Flame Demon King would recover its strength. Although it wouldn’t be as strong as it had been, it would still be beyond current players’ capabilities.
Before the Flame Demon King could launch an attack, Shi Feng activated Power of Darkness, Phantom Kill, and Dragon Soul.
A Level 68 High Lord ranked Black Dragon should have zero chances against a Level 80 Mythic monster, but now, the Black Dragon had the upper hand against the weakened Flame Demon King. While the Black Dragon kept the Flame Demon King busy, Shi Feng activated every Skill he had to the weakened Boss.
Thunder Flame Explosion!
Flame Burst!
Nine Dragons Slash!
Lightning Slash!
Although the weakened Flame Demon King was still a World Boss, whose ability prevented players from using external tools, it no longer mattered. The Flame Demon King’s Defense had drastically fallen, after all.
Now, Shi Feng’s normal attacks dealt over -30,000 damage, while critical hits dealt over -70,000 damage. Even the weakest of his Skills inflicted over -100,000 damage.
Even when the Flame Demon King used its powerful AOE attacks, Shi Feng, who had over 400 Fire Resistance, only took a little over -3,000 damage from each hit.
The Flame Demon King’s HP continued to fall.
%... 50%... 20%...
When the Black Dragon’s duration was almost over, the Flame Demon King had around 10% HP remaining. Once the Black Dragon was gone, Shi Feng would have to fight the World Boss head-on.
I guess there’s no other choice. Shi Feng sighed as he came to terms with his current predicament. A moment later, he retrieved the Evil God’s Inheritance from his bag once more.
Trying to escape a World Boss was an extremely difficult task. This was especially true now that he had used all of his Skills. Furthermore, it wasn’t every day that he found himself in such a favorable position against a World Boss.
“Die!” Gritting his teeth, Shi Feng sacrificed his Attributes to activate the Evil God’s Inheritance. He then activated Godslayer.
Five pitch-black sword lights instantly pierced the Flame Demon King, leaving five deep grooves in the rocky ground before Shi Feng.
“Despicable human! If the World Gate hadn’t taken my power from me...” The Flame Demon King’s eyes burned with rage as it glared at Shi Feng, but despite its fury, the Flame Demon King’s HP didn’t stop depleting before it eventually reached zero.
Boom!
As the Flame Demon King fell to the ground, its fiery body started to dissipate. A short moment later, only Shi Feng remained in the scorched valley.