Approximately 20 minutes later, the final boss of the Hell Instance let out a guttural, mournful shriek. A word appeared above its head, rendered in a chilling crimson script: Execute! The boss's health bar, which had seemed like an endless abyss just moments ago, emptied in an instant, and its massive, shadowy form collapsed, giving way to a burst of shimmering light clusters.
Vincent emerged from the darkness of the Shadow Void, a faint, satisfied smile on his face. He had only one thing to say about the difficulty of the Hell Instance: was that all?
The Hell Instance was indeed a brutal challenge, far exceeding the Hard Instance. The monsters were stronger, their intensity multiplied more than fivefold, and each wave contained at least eighteen enemies. But they were facing Vincent and Thalia, two EpicProfessionals with their passive skills active, and that made all the difference. The Hard Instance was a one-shot slaughter, while the Hell Instance simply wasn't much harder.
With two Epic Shadow Assassins attacking at full strength, the demonic rabbits of the Hell Instance were completely outmatched. Thalia was hit a few times, her health dropping, but the passive healing from her Night Walker skill restored it in seconds, making recovery potions completely unnecessary. As for Vincent, his health bar never even flickered.
For the final boss, a hulking rabbit wreathed in black mist, Vincent even used his Shadow Void Slash once to bypass its crowd-control skills. The sheer power of the move was breathtaking. He had a feeling the boss had over a hundred thousand health, with astonishingly high defense and attack power. Vincent estimated that the Centaur team must have spent at least an hour of their one and a half hours fighting this one enemy.
Even with their immense power, Vincent and Thalia still fought for a "long time" in comparison to the previous monsters. Thalia's attack power, with her passive skill active, exceeded two thousand, and his own had reached a mind-boggling four thousand. Yet, even with that power, they still had to fight for several minutes. He knew with absolute certainty that no ordinary team, even an excellent one, could produce their level of explosive damage.
"Brother! Another dagger dropped! This time it's a blue item... Ah! It has a skill!" Thalia's voice was a sudden, high-pitched shriek of pure excitement. Vincent watched, a smile on his face, as she sprinted toward him, a glowing dagger clutched in her hands.
"Look, look!" she panted, her eyes wide with unbridled joy.
Vincent took the dagger, his expression one of genuine surprise. It was still a Rabbit Dagger, but it was on a completely different level from her previous one. This one was crafted with exquisite precision, its handle wrapped in a shimmering, dark thread, and a delicate, light-blue glow pulsed from the blade as if it were wreathed in poisonous mist.
[Rabbit Dagger (Excellent)]
[Attributes: Attack 347, Agility +100, Strength +57]
[Skill: Blood Drink]
[Equipment Activation Condition: Level 10 Assassin Professional]
[Blood Drink: 10% of the damage you deal will be converted into your health. (When at full health, a life shield not exceeding 20% of your maximum health will be formed.)]
"This... is incredible," Vincent murmured, his eyes lighting up. The Blood Drink skill was a perfect fit for a "violent Assassin" like Thalia. Not only did it provide her with constant lifesteal, but the life shield at full health effectively gave her an additional 20% to her health bar. This would make her survivability almost as terrifying as her attack power.
"It's so annoying! Why is leveling up so slow?" Thalia wailed, her excitement suddenly replaced by a childish, extreme frustration. "After clearing a Hell Instance, I'm still only level 1!"
Vincent chuckled and handed the dagger back. "Then you'll just have to wait until level 10 to equip it. It's something to look forward to. Alright, get ready, let's go out."
A new thought made Thalia's eyes light up again. Her voice trembled with a thrilling mix of fear and excitement. "Brother... are we going to the Abyss Instance?"
"Of course," Vincent said, his voice confident. "We're already here. Let's go. Remember to add '(Human)' to your codename." He looked at the system prompt that had just appeared on his panel.
[Congratulations, your team has broken the speed record for the 'Rabbit Paradise — Hell' Instance. Rewards: Experience +5000, Gold +5000, 1 Tier 0 Professional Blind Box (Excellent). Your speed record will also be recorded for future generations to admire.]
[Please decide your team name. And whether to disclose your name, profession, level, and other information.]
They were used to this process now. Without hesitation, they filled in the fields: "Paradise, Boss (Human), Hill (Human)."
"The... the Hell Instance record has... has also been broken!" The cry was a stunned, trembling whisper that was heard throughout the crowd. A dazzling, ominous blue light permeated the entire instance portal, and new text appeared. When the Professionals looked up, their collective breath hitched in their throats.
The speedrun record for Rabbit Paradise, Hell Instance... was broken!
The moment the familiar names, 'Paradise', 'Boss', and 'Hill', appeared on the screen, a collective gasp swept through the crowd. "This... was the Hell Instance!" A normal person might not have understood the weight of that. But the Professionals knew. While two excellent Professionals might have been able to clear the Normal and Hard instances with enough skill and gear, the Hell Instance was a different beast entirely. Many of them had tried. A good number couldn't even defeat the first wave of enemies before fleeing in embarrassment.
And now... the Hell Instance record was broken. By the same two people! Then they looked at the time.
"21 minutes, 58 seconds, 41!"
A fresh wave of shock hit them. "Twenty minutes! Two people broke the Hell Instance!" one person cried out in disbelief. "Holy crap!"
The entire crowd was dumbfounded. After a long moment of stunned silence, a young man spoke, his voice trembling as he voiced a thought that had occurred to everyone.
"These two... could they be... Epic Professionals?!"
The moment those two words left his mouth, a heavy, cold silence fell over the entire area. Epic Professionals! They were the stuff of legend, the ultimate cornerstones of a race. Had such beings appeared in Iron Fang City? Everyone was filled with a chilling, profound shock.
In the distance, the Centaur Clan, who had just suffered a devastating public humiliation, also looked up. Upon hearing the distant speculation, their expressions shifted from shame to pure, unadulterated shock. The Centaur Clan had many excellent Professionals, but Epic Professionals were exceedingly rare, even for them. The thought that humans might now have two... was terrifying.
The momentary clash of egos was now rendered completely insignificant. The possibility of the human race having two nascent Epic Professionals was a massive, looming threat. Every Epic Professional, once they reached maturity, had the potential to become a cornerstone of their race, a beacon of strength and influence. And the Centaur Clan and humans were not on friendly terms.
The Centaurs looked at each other, their faces solemn. The brief shock gave way to a tactical dread. They turned and, without a single word, set off at a hurried pace, leaving Rabbit Town behind.
At the heart of the chaotic crowd, a small, tight-knit group of Professionals stood apart, their faces etched with a different kind of shock. They were a cut above the others, their auras a quiet testament to their power. The flat-haired youth, his expression shifting from disbelief to grave concern, looked up from the record to the departing Centaurs.
"Should we stop them?" he quietly asked his companion, a handsome youth with sharp, intelligent eyes.
His companion's eyes flickered, his mind racing. He slowly shook his head. "It can't be kept a secret. Not anymore." The youth who asked the question froze, then understood. With three records like this, records that would soon be seen by everyone, there was no hiding the truth. The entire city, and soon the world, would know.
"I'm actually glad these two from Paradise were careful enough," the handsome youth mused aloud, his voice low and serious. "They probably know that for Epic Professionals, once exposed, their power could bring them catastrophic disaster. They would become targets." He looked around at the bustling, excited crowd, who were completely unaware of the danger these records had just created. "I didn't expect a simple whim to bring some new people to lead to something like this..."
"Let's go," he said, turning to his companions. "We need to head back immediately. The appearance of Epic Professionals in the city is a big deal. We have to inform the higher-ups." His companions, all powerful in their own right, quickly nodded in unison.
On this seemingly ordinary day, due to the refreshing of a few digital records, Iron Tooth City and the Centaur Clan felt, for some unknown reason, a profound and inescapable sense of a storm brewing on the horizon.