After investing all five Attribute Points into Vitality, Jiang Fei’s maximum health had surpassed 2,000. His current Health Points were at 2,064, matching a Level 20 Warrior!
“Finally! I can enter the dungeon!”
Jiang Fei excitedly entered the dungeon, and a system notification popped out.
“Ding! Welcome to the “Deep into the Night Forest” Dungeon! Please select your difficulty!”
“Normal.”
Since Jiang Fei was the only player, he would not dare to try the harder difficulty. Might as well clear the easiest one to gauge the difficulty level.
*Woosh*
A bright white light flashed by as Jiang Fei made his way past the violet light barrier and into the dungeon.
Once Jiang Fei was inside the dungeon instance, he was greeted by an empty space with no monsters around. It was a small, mini-sized, safe zone. This existed in all dungeons, allowing party members to prepare themselves.
Not far from where he stood, Jiang Fei could spot two tiger-like creatures. They possessed the heads, tails, and limbs of a tiger, but walked on two legs like humans. From that distance, the creatures looked like the Tigerfolk of the Beastmen Race.
Despite the low-light, it was easy to spot the two creature, as their eyes glowed red.
Demonized Tigerman (Humanoid Being, Normal)
Level: 14
Heath Points: 1,150
Attack Power: 95
Note: Berserk and Demonized for an unknown reason. Low threat level.
“Berserk huh? I’ll see you rage about with a caved-in skull!” Jiang Fei roared as he charged towards the monster.
“GROOOWL!” The two Tigermen spotted Jiang Fei and roared.
Unlike the monsters that spawned outside of a dungeon, monsters that spawned within the dungeon came in groups of at least two.
-34!
Jiang Fei smashed the monster with his hammer and dealt just slightly lower damage than usual. It was expected, as monsters in the dungeon would always be stronger. Still, it was not much of a problem.
-1!
-1!
Both the Tigermen slashed away at Jiang Fei, but could only deal the bare minimum amount of damage, due to Jiang Fei’s insanely high Defense. When Jiang Fei saw that the monsters still could not penetrate his Defense, he sighed a breath of relief and continued to attack the monsters.
“Ding! You have defeated Demonized Tigerman! Obtained 525 Experience Points!”
“Ding! You have defeated Demonized Tigerman! Obtained 525 Experience Points!”
While they were stronger than usual, they also provided more experience points. It was more than double of that outside of the dungeon! No matter the game, dungeons would always be the best places to grind!
“Ding! You have obtained 15 copper coins!”
“Ding! You have obtained Linen x6!”
The Demonized Tigermen were not Wild Beast types, they were Humanoid monsters. That was the reason why the loot had changed.
“Tsk. Trash items,” Jiang Fei clicked his tongue disgruntledly and pressed on.
“GROOWL!” Another group of Demonized Tigermen appeared, but the numbers had increased exponentially. This time, it was a group of six! If a small party had encountered them, the tank would find his hands quickly getting full. However, even alone, Jiang Fei stood strong, unconcerned about the little scratches they gave him!
After two minutes of whacking and smashing, Jiang Fei stood victorious over their corpses. Since his Luck was exceptionally higher than the norm, the group of Tigermen had dropped some Linen. They may be rather useless to Jiang Fei, but Linen was a valuable material for Tailors. They were valued much higher than Ores per article.
After looting, Jiang Fei continued onward, killing more Tigermen, their groups increasing in size. At one point, Jiang Fei had encountered a group of 10 Tigermen!
“Phew! No wonder the default difficulty was Medium! The start of the dungeon is already swarming with monsters! Without a proper tank, there’s no way a normal party would last!”
…
“Ding! Congratulations, Player Verdure Glider for reaching Level 13! All Attribute +1. Obtained 5 Undistributed Attribute Points!”
Jiang Fei had gained a Level, way ahead of expectations, and that was before the boss had even shown up! It was not all too surprising, since the dungeon had been designed for a party of five. Since Jiang Fei was doing this solo, he was claiming a vast amount of experience by himself.
Naturally, Jiang Fei had invested all the given Attribute Points into Vitality. With his Health Points raised, Jiang Fei upped the ante. After defeating two more large groups of Demonized Tigermen, Jiang Fei stood before the first Dungeon boss.
Zaire, the Ferocious Tiger (Humanoid, Elite)
Level: 15
Health Points: 2,100
Attack Power: 150
Skills: Heavy Hit, Swipe, Blitz Assault
Note: Leader of the Demonized Tigermen. Medium threat.
“Bring on the pain!” Jiang Fei roared. After killing so many Tigermen, Jiang Fei’s confidence was at its peak. Unhesitatingly, he charged at the boss.
“GROOOAH!” The boss roared and answered with a charge of its own.
Charge!
Against that boss, there was no need for Jiang Fei to keep his skills in reserve!
-50!
Since this skill came from an equipment, the damage was fixed. But it was not that pathetic amount of damage that Jiang Fei was counting on, it was the two-second stun effect!
Iron Fist!
-300!
Equipment-derived skills came with their shortcomings. Not only did they have longer cooldown times, but their attacks were also incapable of inflicting critical damage. No player could rely on equipment skill for a lucky strike. Unfortunately, that was all Jiang Fei could depend on.
“GROOAH!” After recovering, the boss roared and started retaliating.
-55!
As the first boss of the dungeon, Zaire was powerful enough to cause significant damage. Still, Jiang Fei had Health Points to spare. He was not too worried about it.
“Taste my steel!” Jiang Fei bellowed, leaping into the air with his hammer held aloft.
-25!
Clearly, this boss did not have much Defense, if even Jiang Fei’s normal attacks could deal some damage. But it was the passives that kicked in next!
“ROAR!”
With a fixed 10 damage per second, Jiang Fei started laying on as many Laceration debuff stacks as permitted onto the boss. A few seconds later, Jiang Fei’s total DPS was 134 damage!
“GROOAH!”
When the boss’s Health Points neared 60%, Zaire turned around rapidly and used its tail to knock Jiang Fei down before quickly pouncing on him like a furious cat.
Even though the attack was nothing to Jiang Fei, it could have wiped out a regular party. The attack had a knockdown effect, as well as an aggro-clearing effect. Without any aggro, the boss would no longer be focused on the tank. In that split second, the next member who deals damage or heals someone else would be the next target. Losing one, or even two party members would be inevitable in such a situation.
As Jiang Fei was the only one present then, the boss could only pick on him. That attack was nothing but a minor setback for Jiang Fei. The final combo left Jiang Fei was momentarily stunned, but the boss just had to leap for him! ‘How nice of you! I don’t even have to walk back to you!’
