Li Wei debated whether to voice out his opinion or not and finally decided to speak. Even if they could not defeat the Wolf Queen, he was planning on coming back the next night.
"But you were only a group of five at that time, right? Now there are seven of us, we can give it a shot," said Li Wei while looking at the others. He wanted to bring them with him for now.
The temptation of beating a boss was not small and the party recognized the mage and Li Wei's skills.
The party members discussed among themselves for a little while and then: "Let's give it a try, but if we see that one of us is about to die, we will retreat immediately. I don't want to waste tonight's experience," said Salty Boy
"Agreed!"
"Yes!"
And so, they resumed hunting by entering the Wolf Queen's territory. Li Wei got used to fighting in such conditions. He could easily deal with one wolf and often fought two or three at once. There were also bears but Li Wei could only fight one at a time; bears were slower than wolves but had higher Vitality and Strength. Their massive claws were to be avoided at all cost.
Eventually; "Aoouuhhhh" a long deep howl was heard from behind the team. They all turned back to see a wolf three times larger than the other ones, almost of the size of a human. Above its head was "Wolf Queen level 9". It had a majestic appearance; her white fur was shining under the moonlight giving it an air of royalty. The Wolf Queen proudly stood under the moonlight as she disdainfully looked at the intruders of her territory.
Li Wei and his teammates immediately got into formation. The Paladin raised his shield in front of the Wolf Queen. But before they could engage, the Wolf Queen made the first move. It revealed its fangs and let out a long deep howl; 3 wolves immediately appeared behind her ferociously looking at the party.
The fight began. The Paladin taunted the Wolf Queen while the rest of the team focused the normal wolves. It was a common strategy to get rid of the minions first before defeating the boss. Li Wei engaged the closest wolf while the rogues took one each. Li Wei could immediately see the difference; the wolves' fur was darker and there was a dim light surrounding these wolves. They were faster and fiercer than the other ones.
Li Wei stabbed his right sword towards the wolf, but it easily dodged the strike and countered with its claws. Li Wei tried to parry with his other sword, but it was pushed back. The Strength of that wolf was definitely higher than usual. Li Wei furrowed his brows; the battle was not going to be easy. He determined that he could defeat the wolf but that it would take time as he needed to slowly wear it out, but time was what he was lacking. He did not know how long the Paladin would be able to hold.
[Strengthen]
Deciding to hasten the shorten the fight, Li Wei used his skill and this time, pushed back the wolf's claws. Sword strikes after sword strikes, Li Wei slowly depleted its health. It looked like the defense of these wolves was lower than usual. Each of Li Wei's sword strikes was dealing about 15 damage while it would normally only deal 12 on the other wolves.
No one on the team was slacking off. Both rogues used their own skill, [Rush] and were nimbly dodging the wolves' claws while striking them with their daggers. The Ranger was constantly firing arrows, synchronizing with the rogues to prevent the wolf from dodging. The priest and the mage were standing behind the Paladin; the first one was constantly healing the Paladin while using its other skill [Empower]. The latter could increase the target's strength by 2 for a limited amount of time. As for the mage, he was constantly firing Mana Bolts at the minion wolves and using Mana Shield when it was needed.
It did not take long before all 3 wolves' HP bar was depleted, the whole party then focused its attention on the Wolf Queen. The latter looked enraged, seeing the slaughter of its kin. It howled and pushed back the Paladin; it was a skill similar to Warrior's [Howl] that could produce a knockback effect. The Wolf Queen then jumped into the air and pounced right at the priest, its claws shining with a deadly glow.
"Crap"
The priest had the weakest defense of all of them. If he died, then defeating the boss would be impossible.
[Earth Wall], seeing the situation, Li Wei did not hesitate and immediately protected the Priest. He created an Earth Wall between him and the Wolf Queen, buying just enough time for the priest to retreat. The Wall barely held one strike, but the Paladin recovered and immediately drew back the aggro by using [Taunt]. The claws pushed the Paladin back a few meters, taking away a quarter of his health.
The rogues immediately took advantage of the situation and used [Stab] on both sides of the Wolf Queen. "-17","-19".
The Ranger also followed up with [Precise Shot], the level 5 skill that greatly increased the precision of the next arrow and ignores the defences. She aimed at the Wolf Queen's eyes.
However, the wolf queen was not stupid. It had good instinct and even if the shot was precise, it was cut in mid-air by her claws. The Wolf Queen then turned around and bit at the male rogue, taking one-third of its HP. Li Wei immediately jumped in to take the spot of the rogue, stabbing his sword towards the Wolf Queen, but the latter easily dodged it.
The Wolf Queen then jumped and tried to bite Li Wei, but it was intercepted by a Mana Bolt on the face.
...
Both sides took some distance from each other, the priest quickly healed the rogue back to full health while the Wolf Queen broke from their encirclement. 3 minutes have passed since the beginning of the fight, but she still had 80% of her health despite receiving the attacks from all of them.
"Aouhhh"
Following that, the Wolf Queen howled once again, summoning 3 other wolves to her side. They were back to square one.
"How is it? It's feasible right?" asked Li Wei.
"Yeah if it continues like that, we can slowly wear her down, but we don't know if she has other skills so be careful everyone!" answered Salty Boy.
"It is going to take a while and will cost us some potion but the rewards should be worth it!"
The fight resumed, and the team adopted the same strategy as last time. Each rogue lured one wolf each and Li Wei engaged the last one. This time, they all finished their targets faster than last time. They quickly drank a potion and charged towards the Wolf Queen.
The Wolf Queen varied its attack patterns, sometimes biting, sometimes using its claws or even its tail. Both sides slowly lost their HP. When the Wolf Queen reached 50% HP, she once again howled and summoned wolves, but this time she did not summon 3 but 7 of them.
Li Wei and his team became anxious, they would not be able to resist the attack of so many wolves. But all the 7 wolves did not charge at them, only 3 attacked them, the others revealed their fangs to the side bushes and charged in that direction.
...
"F**! We were discovered! Fight them!"
Suddenly, a group of players charged out of the woods on the right. There were 10 players, all level 7/ They had been watching the fight of Li Wei's team and trying to be the mantis stalking the cicada but their plan failed. The Wolves had good sense of smell and could easily locate them. As for why more wolves were summoned this time; the number of summons depended on the number of players around the Wolf Queen. It would be too easy if players ganged up to fight a boss and so, it became stronger the more players there was.
"Let's back off!" said the ranger, sending a meaningful glance at her team.
They all understood a boss was valuable. They did not want to risk losing all the loot to the other party; they would rather not get anything. Li Wei did not mind that. He had already obtained what he wanted. He now had an idea how the Wolf Queen fought. He wasn't sure if he could solo it, but he could give it a try. After all, he did not use his full strength, nor his throwing needles.
The other party of players fought off the wolves. They were visibly taken by surprise by the strength and speed of these wolves, but they nevertheless held their ground. But as Li Wei's team retreated, the Wolf Queen and the other wolves focused their attention towards that party.
Li Wei's team did not fully retreat; they only walked back a few meters, just enough to let go of the aggro of the wolves. It was their turn to observe the fight. But the other party was not stupid either. They also started to retreat letting the Wolf Queen regain its HP.
That was one of the risks of hunting bosses; other parties could pop up and interrupt you. They could also steal the boss which was even worse. And so, both parties looked at each other from afar, none willing to be the first to attack the Wolf Queen again.
As for the Wolf Queen, it ferociously looked at both parties of players, but still slowly retreated. It had good instinct and knew she would be no match for 17 players, and so chose to slowly retreat into the forest.
Li Wei and his team sent angry glares to the other party but remained silent. It was normal for players to steal bosses in MMORPGs, it was the law of the jungle, literally.
"Cowards! Why did you retreat!" the other party's leader shouted.
"Pfff! Shut up dumb***! Trying to kill steal this daddy !!"
"... You **"
...
A war of words started but did not last for long, after all the Wolf Queen was already gone and they would gain nothing from fighting each other.
And at the end of the night, they collected a huge amount of loot. Li Wei's exp bar was almost full (3691/4000) and the mage even leveled up. Night hunting was definitely more rewarding. Li Wei was now confident he could fight alone against those small packs of wolves as for the Wolf Queen, he could not confirm anything.
The team safely returned back to Little Root Town. On the Main Street, they added each other as friends, said goodbye and left in different directions. Adding each other as friends after partying was very common. Everyone would like to be friends with competent individuals; that showed that they recognized Li Wei's skills.
...
Li Wei got back to the inn. It was very late and as a result, he could not shower. He could only go to his room and sleep. Fortunately, there were no such things as hygiene levels or bad smell associated with cleanliness.
It was 4:12, Li Wei lied on his bed looking at the forums, the Server Leaderboard was now full of players. It only displayed the top 10000 players and more than 4000 spots were taken. Many other leaderboards were also opened; one for each class and one for each of the 12 cities players could spawn at upon going to Zero.
Li Wei did not know yet which city he would spawn at and so could not judge the situation. Looking at the Leaderboard made him feel stressed; so many people were ahead of him. Fortunately, the highest level was still level 10, so the gap wasn't that large yet.
Li Wei lay down and slept. He needed to step up his game but first, decreasing the fatigue level was necessary.
...
The next morning, Li Wei woke up at 11:30... It was the first time he woke up that late, but after a night of hunting, it was necessary; his fatigue level was down to 12%. He got off his bed and went for a brunch. Then it was time to empty his inventory.
Li Wei sold all his loot of yesterday in the various shops and then went to Carlos' Shop.
...
"Wow you've already collected so many! Give them to me brother, I will turn them into ingots!" said Carlos with a rare wide smile.
Li Wei noticed Calros' change in attitude but still gave him the ores. He then left and went to a tailor's shop. With 25 gold in his pocket, it was time to upgrade his equipment. His weapons were fine, but he could upgrade his armor.
The tailor shop was similar to street shops on Earth, players could just browse through the different set of clothes and see their stats before purchasing them. Alternatively, players could order a custom-made equipment for additional fees.
The militia's equipment was good, but those here were better. Finally, Li Wei settled onto new pants, boots, and a shirt, increasing his total armor to 40 for 10 gold.
Players had a total of 7 equipment. In addition to the previously mentioned ones, they could equip gloves, leg guards, armguards and a helmet.
With his new equipment, Li Wei went back to see Carlos who had already finished transforming the ores.
...
"Hey, kid! Thank you! Here's your ingots! Thanks to them, I am on the verge of advancing to Grade 1 Blacksmith. All I need now is to use my 2 ingots to forge a Grade 1 equipment! "
"Wow, congratulations!! I knew you would succeed," answered Li Wei. "That means I will get better equipment from now on, right?"
"Yes, I need to reward you for that. Speak! What type of equipment do you need? I'll forge my first Grade 1 equipment for you!"
Hearing that, Li Wei thought for a while his swords were already pretty good, even if they were grade 0 weapons, they came from the militia and could be considered as the best of Grade 0. A new weapon was not an emergency. Finally;
"I don't know, I don't feel like I need a new weapon but if you can give me something to beat the Wolf Queen..."
"The Wolf Queen? Ah yeah, you need a Beast Core... That's a bit tough; her fur is very resistant to weapons... But I think I know what you need. Go to the Boiling Pot magic shop, and explain what you need. They should have something for you... It's probably expensive, but tell them that I owe you a favor."
Li Wei looked at Carlos, puzzled. But he readily thanked him and went to the magic shop.
...
"I know what you need, give me a second."
The magic shop owner was an old woman. She looked like an old granny and had a very soothing gentle voice. Upon hearing the request of Li Wei, she nodded and went inside to find something. She quickly came back with some circular bottles in hand.
[Explosive Potion]
Deals 30 Damage in a 5 meters radius of the explosion. 50% bonus damage is dealt to monsters.