Hellboy's Dad

He had originally only intended to play around with this goblin character and had never planned to stick with it. Goblins leveled up easily enough, but they faced severe limitations. After all, they simply lacked the gravitas—he had never heard of a goblin becoming a major villain. He had only meant to test the waters, never expecting things to go so smoothly that he would advance to an elite template and become the leader of a faction. After that, he had become a little reluctant to give it up.

But that reluctance wasn't particularly strong, and the Seed of Elements was another matter entirely. It could give an elemental creature tremendous growth potential. Although he didn't know what the mutation would turn it into, surely it would grow stronger, not weaker. If he created another character with an elemental creature template, absorbed the Seed of Elements, and grew into an elemental lord, he would be a walking bug. Even though the Seed of Elements' description was vague and its precise effects unclear, the mere possibility was enough to make Xiao Yu pay a steep price for it. Compared to that, a goblin boss character was utterly insignificant.

So what if he burned to ashes a month from now? As long as he got the Seed of Elements, deleting his character and starting over would be no big deal.

At that thought, a look of resolve flashed across Xiao Yu's face. It's settled, then. Sorry, Kalax, but I'm taking this Seed of Elements.

"System, put the Seed of Elements in my system warehouse." Xiao Yu issued the system command directly.

Every player had a shared system warehouse that allowed items to be transferred conveniently between their different characters. Unlocking it cost coupons, of course, but its usefulness made it well worth the price.

System notification: Items cannot be retrieved during a story quest.

"What!? Damn it."

Xiao Yu was so angry he nearly cursed aloud.

So he couldn't retrieve it during the quest. What now? What's more, the night elves would be hunting him down within 24 hours. The night hunters probably wouldn't show up immediately, but who knew when they might suddenly appear? When they did, not only would the Seed of Elements be taken back, but he would also lose his life to a story kill. This was bad. Did he have no choice but to summon Kalax?

Wait, all night elves can accept this quest? Haha, I've got it! An idea suddenly struck Xiao Yu, and he immediately declared himself a genius.

There was no time to waste. Xiao Yu rushed out of the temple and headed back the way he had come.

In the square beneath the temple, the giant bear the archdruid had transformed into was still fighting the goblins.

But it looked as if they couldn't hold out much longer-"they" being Xiao Yu's goblin underlings, of course. A monster was a monster, all right. Despite their overwhelming advantage in numbers, they still couldn't bring the giant bear down. Instead, it had left corpses strewn everywhere and thrown their formation into chaos. Although plenty of goblins remained, their hidden trait of cowardice had finally kicked in, and they all cowered, too afraid to charge.

We're screwed. Might as well make a run for it. Standing at the edge of the battlefield, Xiao Yu was already thinking of abandoning his army and sneaking away. He had the Seed of Elements, anyway, so there was no point staying.

Still, he had a fair understanding of his own strength. With this bunch of underlings, he could still throw his weight around, but alone without them, any three to five adventurers could kill him.

As he hesitated, a deep voice suddenly sounded behind him.

"Hey, little goblin, need a hand?"

The voice filled Xiao Yu with delight. He turned to see Teddy the Bear King. The beast elites had vanished as soon as they entered the village; he hadn't expected one to show up now. "Just you?"

"Obviously not!" Deathclaw emerged from the shadows as well.

The Wolf King came running over with a bunch of underlings right behind him. Their mouths were covered in blood, and it looked as though they had done plenty of biting.

You're really that kind? Xiao Yu thought. But when he glanced back at the archdruid, he immediately understood. The bear the archdruid had become was covered in wounds after one battle after another. His mana was nearly depleted, and his health was down to half. He looked to be at the end of his strength. They had probably seen an opportunity and come to steal the kill.

That was fine, though. He was going to delete his character and start over anyway, so what did it matter if he gave them the kill? At that thought, Xiao Yu quickly nodded. "Yes, I really do."

Deathclaw froze for a moment, evidently not expecting Xiao Yu to answer so readily. "We can help, but we get the kill on the archdruid."

"Fine, fine, fine, it's all yours!" Xiao Yu couldn't afford to worry about much else now. The archdruid's kill was probably worth a lot of reputation points, but the Seed of Elements was what he wanted most. If they could kill the archdruid and let him pull his remaining troops out, nothing could be better. Still, as a professional player, he was used to bargaining for benefits. "You can have the kill, but I get the equipment."

The bear and the leopard exchanged a glance. Equipment was no use to them anyway, so they agreed at once. Teddy the Bear King charged in and pounced, meeting the giant bear the archdruid had become head-on. Beowulf the Wolf King led his pack of young wolves around the archdruid like a pack of hunting dogs closing in on a grizzly, while Deathclaw went straight into stealth. The beasts worked together in perfect coordination.

Seeing that the beasts had taken the archdruid's aggro, Xiao Yu hurriedly ordered his goblins to pull back and regroup. More than half had been lost in the fierce battle, leaving just over forty.

Xiao Yu paid no further attention to the battle. While everyone was ganging up on the archdruid, he took the opportunity to find someone to help him.

He hadn't gone far when he saw a group of gnolls charging toward him in disarray, led by Derek. "Bad news, Boss Eric! Those adventurers have broken into the village!"

"What!?" Xiao Yu was startled. When it rained, it poured. The archdruid hadn't been dealt with yet, and now the adventurers had shown up.

"What happened? Didn't I tell you to guard the respawn point?" Xiao Yu yelled. "What the ****** were you doing? You couldn't even hold a respawn point."

"You can't blame me for that! Who knew there was a respawn point outside the village too? And it's not like you don't know those adventurers. They're way stronger than us monsters in a fight. Two raids charged in together, and there was no stopping them."

Two raids? Seriously? It's already past midnight. How could there be so many adventurers online? Xiao Yu was at a loss for words.

An hour earlier.

Thank goodness, I finally finished the class quest.

Hellboy's Dad, the young warlock who had previously hired a mercenary for his class quest, glanced at the graceful, shapely succubus behind him and felt a little excited. Although he hadn't managed to hire that level 48 high-level mercenary, he had still completed the class quest with the druid mercenary's help. The completion rating hadn't been as high as he had imagined, of course.

A warlock's demon-summoning quest worked in a rather unusual way. The warlock had to keep defeating demons that emerged from a void rift. Each time he defeated one, he could make a pact with it. Once he made a pact, of course, he wouldn't be able to summon any other demons.

The stronger the warlock, the longer he could hold out and the more choices he naturally had. With the mercenary's help, Hellboy had barely made it to the seventh wave and ultimately made a pact with a succubus.

He could actually have held out for another two waves, but how could having a big, burly felguard at his side compare to the pleasure of having a beautiful, seductive succubus? Her combat power might be a little weaker, but simply being easy on the eyes more than made up for it.

But why did this succubus feel a little strange? She seemed a bit too lifelike. Rather than being charming and alluring as he had imagined, she looked around curiously like a child and barely paid him any attention.

Nightwhisper Village had already appeared in the distance, but Hellboy's Dad noticed that something seemed off. Why were there so many fires in the village?