The Almighty Ring

After racking his head for ideas, Jiang Fei came up with something. A probable impossibility, at worst, an improbable possibility at best.

Jiang Fei first collected all the Ant Eggs and Ant Milk for that day and contacted Big Brother Bear. He had Big Brother Bear schedule shifts to keep the Secret Dungeon under guard around the clock. Since the Secret Dungeon was a solo dungeon, one person had to remain within it to shut off its access to the world.

Jiang Fei was confident in their ability to carry out his instructions. He knew all too well that these punks were zealously loyal to him. As long as he instructed them not to kill the Ant Queen, they would guard her until the end of days. It was not because of their loyalty to Jiang Fei. It was the fact that Han Tianyu was tight with Jiang Fei! Underneath the smile and laugh when he was joking around with Jiang Fei, Han Tianyu is a cold-hearted military man that could turn your entire family into dust with just a snap of his fingers. Besides, they were all being paid by Han Tianyu. Even they feared the day when Han Tianyu decided that they were a waste of money. They needed to work doubly hard to prove him wrong. Disobeying Jiang Fei was one thing, but Jiang Fei telling on them to Han Tianyu, would send them to the bottom of the sea, where they would be nothing but feed to the fishes. Jiang Fei knew that, and he had confidence in the thugs’ loyalty towards his cause.

With someone guarding the Secret Dungeon, Jiang Fei headed back to Dawnlight City. There, he kept his haul in his personal storage, never to reveal it to a single person. After that, he stored the obtained equipment in the guild public storage. After filling up the ring’s red slots with fodder equipment, Jiang Fei once more headed to the Bottom of the Bloodpool with Isabella in tow.

This time, Jiang Fei chose the normal difficulty. Having completed the dungeon once, he had a rough grasp of its mechanics. He was able to work in increased tandem with Isabella. As a result, they completed the entire dungeon run in less than an hour. Jiang Fei exited the dungeon happier than ever, his experience bar all the more fulfilled.

After the warm-up, Jiang Fei turned back to the entrance and increased the difficulty.

“Ding! You’re about to enter the Elite mode Dungeon “Bottom of the Bloodpool.” This is a 15-man party dungeon. Your party still has empty slots. Do you still wish to enter?”

“Yes.” Jiang Fei replied instantaneously, and the two of them melded into the dungeon entrance.

The monsters standing guard were still Elite tiered, but their levels were much higher at Level 35. It would be a tough fight since their overall strength had gone up a fair bit.

Demon Lacerator (Xenogenesis, Elite) Level: 35 Health Points: 23,000 Attack Power: 1,700 Skills: Laceration, Sever

Laceration: Attacks and bleeds a target. Stackable up to 5 times. Sever: Instantly increases attack speed by 20%. Note: An unknown infected being.

The monster’s health points had increased by 10,000; almost double that of the previous difficulty while the attack power had increased by roughly 50%. Such observations were made from the two monsters at the start of the dungeon alone. It would not be much trouble for a party of fifteen members. One thing to note was that almost all the monsters in that dungeon came in groups. Any average party would have to mete out tremendous effort just to survive.

“Come on then. Let’s get things rolling.”

Jiang Fei took charge and used Ice Burst on the two monsters.

-3,025! -3,174!

Flame Burst!

-12,453! -12,847!

As the two were fresh from a completed run of the same dungeon, their teamwork was seamless. After Ice Burst froze the two monsters up, Isabella’s fire skill immediately burst out from the ground. Even so, such a well-executed combination was unable to instantly kill off the monsters. Isabella finished them off with Shadow Dragon Breath and a couple of Abyssal Flames.

As they proceeded on, the two met up with more monsters. Even as the monster count grew, Jiang Fei and Isabella were basically a pair of indestructible tanks. Their journey was smooth sailing and almost casual. On top of that, Jiang Fei had entered a dungeon that was meant for fifteen players, so all the experience points were granted to him and him alone, and it was a tremendous amount.

“Ding! Congratulations to player Verdure Glider for reaching Level 36! All Attributes +1! Obtained 5 Attribute Points!”

Even Jiang Fei did not expect to level up this soon; they had not even encountered the first boss of the dungeon.

“As expected of running a dungeon alone. Haha!”

Jiang Fei grinned from ear to ear. After some simple calculations, one could gain at least ten times the experience points from running a dungeon, as compared to conventional grinding.

“Hoho. You have changed my perception of adventurers. You guys have a ridiculous growth rate. It’s almost a perpetual spurt,” said Isabella. It was perhaps, the first time Isabella had praised Jiang Fei.

“Oh please. Don’t take me as an average adventurer,” Jiang Fei snorted proudly. As arrogant as he was, he fully understood that it was all due to Isabella’s prowess that had allowed him to run a fifteen-man dungeon, alone. Alone, he could never have achieved such a feat. Even if he could run the dungeon alone, it would take way too much time to make it worth his while.

They now stood before the first boss.

Sentry Guardian Felix (Bloodborne, Vice-Leader) Level: 35 Health Points: 150,000 Attack Power: 2,800

Skills: Charge, Frenzy Attack Charge: Charges towards the furthest targets and deals powerful damage and causes knockdown. Frenzy Attack: Immediately deals a powerful attack and increases attack speed by 10%. Note: A true Bloodborne. A demon officer at the outskirts of the Blood Prison.

Bloodborne Foot Soldiers (Xenogenesis, Advance Elite) Level: 35 Health Points: 80,000 Magic Attack: 1,700

Skills: Shadow Bolt, Curse, Darkness Recovery Shadow Bolt: Fires a shadow arrow at a target. Deals shadow magic damage. 2 second cast time. Curse: Curses a target, dealing DoT shadow damage. Lasts for 15 seconds. Darkness Recovery: Bloodborne Foot Soldiers will protect the Sentry Guardian Felix. Restores Felix health points by 30%.

“Crap. As expected of the Elite difficulty. The boss is so much tougher now.”

Jiang Fei sighed. Alone, he would have failed at this point. However, with Isabella by his side, they might still have a chance just yet.

“What do think? Can you handle them?” said Jiang Fei. The boss had over 150,000 health points. Even Jiang Fei had doubts.

Isabella pondered for a brief moment and said, “You shall take on the small minions. I will handle the big one.”

She was confident, or so she sounded. This time, the boss was strong enough to give her pause, rather than usually charge headlong into it.

“Will do,” Jiang Fei replied. He decided to quickly take down the minions first, as their healing skill would be troublesome.

“Ready when you are,” said Isabella as she prepared her magic.