What a wretched ring this is. If you’ve ever received a letter of luck in your youth, you might understand. While it’s called a letter of luck, once you receive it, it feels more like a dirty cursed letter.
If you don’t copy it and send it to others, it’ll turn from a letter of luck to a letter of misfortune. The mischievous developers of Paradiso have designed such tricks into their artifacts. In a game, you can just respawn after dying, but here, this isn’t the case.
This is reality, where dead lives cannot be revived with a mere click of a button!
About thirty seconds had flown by while I held the ring absentmindedly, likely due to the fact that I was wearing Gracia’s ring. This particular ring doesn't just lead to instant death; instead, it breaks the spirit of the wearer, leading them to commit self-destructive acts. Gracia’s ring, on the other hand, grants immunity from all mental debuffs and effects. That’s why I was unfazed by the cursed ring's tooltip warning that it would "corrupt your entire mind."
‘It may be a disaster for others, but for me, it’ll be somewhat sweet.’ A smile of triumph appeared on my face. Many people must have fallen victim to this ring, excluding the first person who picked it up. After all, having to put the ring on four people within 60 seconds while panicking would raise suspicion. In fact, the ring had fallen not far from a visible skeleton.
The ring of luck, once it fulfilled its purpose of being worn by four people, would change to reveal more advantageous options. I could still reap the benefits of the instant death curse without putting the ring on anyone else.
Meanwhile, my team members waited for me to catch up, taking in the sights of the dungeon. The one-minute warning from the ring had ended.
“Ugh.” At that moment, I felt a slight headache, like when I first met the Red Queen. But it faded quickly.
‘Oh!’ At the same time, a change occurred with the luck ring.
[The curse of the ring has been activated and the sacrificial target has been eliminated.]
‘Looks like the system is mistakenly judging that since I infused it with the curse, the target is dead.’ Though it was a misunderstanding on the system's part, it turned out favorably for me, which left me in a pleasing mood! I continued to read the message.
[Ring of Luck: Blessing of Pleled]
[Classification Rank: 5 Stars]
[Option 1: 100% increase in experience gain for all allies within a 69m radius]
[Option 2: 0.5 HP recovery per second for all allies within a 69m radius]
[Option 3: 0.5 MP recovery per second for all allies within a 69m radius]
[Option 4: Lucky Day - Avoid a fatal blow that could result in instant death through the ring's power. Limit one use. After activating "Lucky Day," Option 4 disappears.]
‘Lucky! This really has turned into a ring of luck.’ After yielding the curse, it transformed into a versatile buff ring. Options 1 to 3 provided benefits not just to me but to all team members. Additionally, Option 4 gave me a life-saving reprieve in emergencies.
“Thank you.” I offered a polite bow towards the cold skeleton that had become a relic of the past, a hunter who had perished here for a long time. With such an auspicious beginning, it was time to dive deeper into the dungeon with renewed vigor.
Jared and his party swiftly moved towards the fifth chamber on the first underground floor as planned. Their smooth progress was largely due to Jared's impressive dribbling skills. As Jared arrived at the fifth chamber and surveyed the inner walls, it was Rakis, the de facto leader after Jared, who broke the silence.
“Isn’t it strange? Other hunters frequently lose their lives on the way here, yet we just strolled in without a care.”
Haze, who was keen on Jared, responded, “It’s incredible! Lord, you’ve skillfully lured those demonic beasts, making them fight each other!” Everyone nodded in agreement; Jared had been dragging along over twenty demonic beasts while progressing to the next chamber. He kept inflicting damage to maintain their focus on him, ensuring they never glanced at any other team member.
“It was a masterclass in monster dribbling. A true feast for the eyes,” Chloe, who rarely spoke, added her opinion. This was the first time she had witnessed such a performance, one that even A-rank or S-rank magic hunter would struggle to achieve, especially with so many monsters.
“But what exactly is the lord searching for?” Lena pointed at Jared, who was feeling around the walls with his eyes closed, as if searching for something hidden.
After Jared rummaged around the wall for about five minutes, everyone started paying close attention to his every move.
“Found it!” Jared shouted, seemingly having discovered something.
“Turn away!” he warned the team while pressing a hand against the wall. At his cue, everyone turned their heads in the opposite direction.
“Hah!” Jared let out a powerful shout, and at that moment, he released his magical energy.
Boom! What seemed to be a solid wall just moments ago suddenly revealed a hole. It was an unexpected and unprecedented change for anyone.
‘The Demon Army’s Refuge. A path connecting the fifth chamber of the first underground floor to the eighth chamber of the fourth floor. A shortcut concept that the developers of Paradiso had started but left as mere remnants.’
My memory was accurate. After thoroughly inspecting the inner wall of the fifth chamber, I identified an empty space. Normally, the inside of a wall should be packed with dirt or gravel, yet this particular area felt oddly hollow. This was the shortcut I remembered from the dungeon. However, it wasn’t exactly a true shortcut in the classic sense—it didn’t lead completely through to the eighth chamber on the fourth floor.
Once entered, the path would abruptly end before reaching the eighth chamber. To put it in percentage terms? About 85%. Hence, if one ventured down this path, they would have to dig through the remaining 15% themselves. This route was one the developers of Paradiso had left unfinished.
The original plan was to provide users aiming to conquer the Demon Army’s Refuge with a little fun along the way. Instead of conquering each chamber through normal means, they wanted to create a backdoor route. However, this shortcut allowed players to jump straight from the first underground floor to the fourth floor, which was too great an advantage, leading to the design halt. They left the path as it was, regretting the wasted effort, and hence its traces still remained.
‘Could it be that one day I’ll meet users from my past life that I enjoyed Paradiso with?’ This thought suddenly crossed my mind. What truly concerned me was the Eastern Continent, which had been mentioned before by Behard. Neither I nor the people of this world knew anything about it. I couldn’t help but wonder if the Eastern Continent might be a disguise linking back to my past life’s Paradiso universe.
‘But that’s not something to worry about now.’ Shaking off the complicated thoughts, I took out a bomb I had brought along to the dungeon. It was a modified version of Jared’s mine—a typical mine that exploded when stepped on but had been tampered with to detonate after a set period, like a timed bomb.
“Everyone, focus on the path leading to the sixth chamber. When this bomb explodes, any demonic beasts or other monsters on the other side might come rushing in.”
Soon after I finished speaking, everyone formed a line, strategically positioning themselves behind me. I tossed three bombs into the corridor. Given that we were aiming to break through the wall, anything less than powerful firepower wouldn’t suffice.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The bombs rolled along the sloped path toward the eighth chamber of the fourth floor. Ten seconds later, a loud blast echoed through the dungeon. Surprisingly, the entire dungeon didn’t shake too violently. The bombs had been sufficiently calibrated to create a small, concentrated explosion. However...
Kweh! Kweh! Kweh!
Responding to the brief vibrations, demonic beasts from the sixth chamber streamed towards us down the corridor.
“Hehe, how fun!”
Kuwaaa! Mia waved her hands elegantly, pulling the air roughly toward the hallway. The approaching demonic beasts slowed considerably as the wind, which had entered from the outside, began to blow violently through the narrow passage.
“Hah! Hah!” Lena positioned herself in the path leading to the fifth chamber, raising her shield high. She relentlessly poked with her longsword, causing the demonic beasts to scream and fall.
“…”
Isabelle silently wove spells against the demons, particularly targeting the ones visible in the back.
Kweh? Kweh!
Suddenly, a demonic beast’s expression changed, triggering its own rampage and causing it to seize the monsters beside it, creating an explosive backlash.
Boom! Boom!
It sacrificed itself to kill its fellow demons, committing team kills.
“I’ll take care of the small fry up front.”
Chloe dashed toward a demonic beast that narrowly escaped the explosion.
“Chloe, I’ll support you!” Haze followed closely behind. As the team’s assassin, Chloe had to approach the monsters the closest, making her at the greatest risk of injury. Thus, Haze began preparing her healing spells.
Once reaching the Divine Three stage, healing could be executed from a distance, allowing her to support allies while maintaining a safe distance.
“Great. Really great.” I clapped, wearing a satisfied expression. The organic teamwork and skill displayed were all running according to plan.
‘Well then, shall we go in?’
I quickly slipped my body through the hole I had created to check the state of the hidden path. Rakis should be waiting here, so unless something unexpected happened, there would be no issues.
Swish.
Phew.
Swish.
Dusting off the dirt, I slid further down the slope. My clothes got dirty, but I felt fantastic. Considering the entire scale of the dungeon, I was traversing a shortcut that exceeded nearly 70% of its scope.
Then…
“Perfect! So perfect!”
Upon reaching the end of the passage, I came face to face with the familiar interior landscape of the eighth chamber of the fourth floor. I had jumped straight from the Demon Army's Refuge to the edge of the fourth floor, bypassing the dangerous sections of the second and third floors just like that!
End of Chapter 77