MMORPG: The Almighty Ring

Chapter 26: A Surprising Dungeon

After some time, normal Level 10 monsters stopped becoming enough for him to gain sufficient experience. It was most infuriating. The Level gap between the girls in the Rosette Knights and himself were too far apart!

Of course, he was not trying to compete with Happy Drunk and his team of elites. He was trying his best to catch up to Rosette Knighthood’s average level! A great deal of them were already Level 17, with the lowest being Level 16! If Jiang Fei were to continue killing Level 10 monsters, he would never catch up with them.

The problem lay with training ground. No matter where he went, most of the popular training grounds would be occupied by guilds, weak and strong alike. Left without any other choice, Jiang Fei ventured deep into the Forest.

The Night Forest was not a very pleasant place to train as it was crawling with Beast-type enemies. They would never drop coins, Cloth materials, or anything else that could be useful. However, their corpses could be harvested for their hides. A Leather Craftworker could gather some food materials. However, its value was far too low to cover the cost of training. Unless a large guild had a Leather Craftworker in the party to collect as many leathers as they need, it was completely not worth killing the monsters in the forest.

As Jiang Fei ventured deeper into the forest, the Levels gradually increased. The Wild Tigers there had reached Level 13! There were even Level 15 Black Bears!

Even so, Jiang Fei’s superior equipment wiped the ground with their faces. The Wild Tiger may be swifter than he was, but its claws could not penetrate his armor. The Black Bear may have the strength to deal just a little more damage, but it was nothing compared to the damage Jiang Fei could dealt to it, and neither could it surpass his recovery rate, courtesy of his Lifesteal passive.

“Ding! You have defeated Black Bear. Obtained 270 Experience Points!”

“Ding! Congratulations player Verdure Glider for reaching Level 11. All attribute +1. Obtained 5 Undistributed Attribute Points!”

After spending an hour in the deeper regions of the Night Forest, Jiang Fei finally gained a Level. The bright glow was so satisfying to watch, especially when Jiang Fei had never leveled up since he left the Beginner’s Village!

“5 points?! Full Vitality!”

Jiang Fei swiftly opened the Attribute Window and invested all the given Attribute Point solely on Vitality. As a result, his Health Points now reached 1,800 points.

After walking deeper into the Night Forest, the monsters that spawned there posed no more challenge. It seemed that the levels of the Wild Tiger and Black Bear were capped at Level 13 and Level 15.

“Please hold!” A voice rang out behind Jiang Fei, just as he was about to venture deeper. An NPC guard rushed towards Jiang Fei, anxiety and worry lining his face.

“Huh?”

Jiang Fei turned around with his shield raised, fearing that a random player was about to attack him. He lowered his guard when he saw that it was an NPC guard who clearly did not have the intention to fight.

“Respected adventurer! Please do not proceed any further! There has been an incident in the forest ahead. The monsters deep there have undergone some sort of mutation! They have become extremely dangerous!” said the guard, catching his breath.

“Mutation?” asked Jiang Fei, “What sort of mutation?”

“I don’t know. But Lord Moliere has set off into the deepest area of the forest to investigate the source. Unfortunately, the Lord has been in there for three days and nothing has been heard from him!”

“Is there anything I can do to help?” said Jiang Fei. Without a doubt, meeting an NPC inside the forest only meant one thing. A quest!

“O, great adventurer! Would you brave into the forest and investigate what happened to Lord Moliere?”

“Ding! The Patrolling Guard has a quest for you—The Mutated Forest. Do you accept?”

“Gladly,” said Jiang Fei.

Quest Name: The Mutated Forest (Dungeon)

Quest Description: Something has happened to the Night Forest, and some are calling it an unknown mutation! Patrol Captain Moliere has gone into the forest to investigate the cause, but has yet to return! The Patrolling Guard hopes that you could enter the Night Forest and search for Captain Moliere!

Quest Goal: Search Moliere.

Quest Reward: 15,000 Experience Points, 5 Silver Coins

“Good luck to you. O, great adventurer!” hailed the guard. After that, he immediately turned away and left. It was the programmed response, the scripted line, and the limited artificial intelligence capabilities.

That did not matter to Jiang Fei, as he had just received a very important quest!

“A dungeon quest! Nice!” Both stunned and happy at the same time, Jiang Fei could not believe his luck. The quest alone did not mean much, but it would eventually lead him into an actual dungeon! That mattered the most!

Although Jiang Fei considered himself to be quite the introvert, he was not all agoraphobic. At times, he would chat with the girls in the guild. Those girls may not be the most skilled players out there, but they had their uses. That being able to detect gossip faster than anyone. If anyone in the game ever finds a dungeon, that news would surely reach their ears. This gave Jiang Fei good reason to suspect that he might have just found the game’s first dungeon.

Some NPC had popped up to “prevent” him from proceeding any further. That must have meant that if Jiang Fei proceeded as planned, he would soon reach the dungeon. Precisely what he wanted.

“Ding! You are about to enter the dungeon “Deep into the Night Forest.” The monsters inside are much stronger than you have ever encountered.

It is recommended that you explore the dungeon with a party. Please bring sufficient potions. Do you wish to enter the dungeon?”

“Yes.” Jiang Fei replied.

“Ding! “Deep into the Night Forest” minimum requirement: Player Level 12! You are currently too weak. Please train more before entering the dungeon!”

“What the f—?” Just when the game had raised his hopes sky-high, Jiang Fei was immensely let down to learn that the system had applied a level limitation to the dungeon. Jiang Fei would have to gain another Level to enter the dungeon!

As he went on, Jiang Fei could see the entrance of the dungeon. It had a violet, glowing light barrier that acted as a door.

Deep into the Night Forest (Level 15 Dungeon)

Level Requirement: 12 – 25

Player Limit: Normal Mode: 5 Player Small Party, Elite Mode: 10 Player Party, Heroic Mode: 10 Player Party.

Note: This is Dawn Break’s lowest Leveled dungeon. Dungeon Difficulty: Medium, High, Very High.

Due to the ring’s special function, Jiang Fei was able to obtain detailed information about the dungeon. He was slightly worried about the dungeon’s difficulty. At its lowest Level, the dungeon’s default difficulty was at Medium! There were even High and Very High threat levels! If the lowest Level dungeon’s default difficulty was already at Medium, what would higher-leveled dungeons be like?

Worst of all was the fact that Jiang Fei did not meet the dungeon’s entry Level Requirement! He was just one level away! If anyone were to steal this dungeon from him, he would be devastated!

In the end, Jiang Fei decided to sprint to Level 12 and enter the dungeon. If he could survive the dungeon on his own, he would not need to summon the girls from Rosette Knighthood!

To speed things up, Jiang Fei hurriedly trained in the vicinity of the dungeon. In just half an hour, Jiang Fei had killed almost all the monsters close to the dungeon entrance and reached Level 12!