"Woosh!"
An arrow flew above Li Wei's head and ended the life of the last mine bat.
"Good job everyone!" declared Cai Wenji as he sheathed back his daggers.
Li Wei sighed, he was not very satisfied with his performance. He was getting better at coordinating with the others but was often taking the aggro which messed up the paladins' rhythms. But at least, he was getting better at dealing with those bats. They did not represent much of a threat anymore.
He calmed down his breathing as he put his palm on the mine bat's corpse, "Collect"
Two new [Mine Bat Wing] were added to his inventory, making a total of 10 wing bats. The party had been farming for more than three hours, but they were not feeling tired. It was obviously more efficient this way. Li Wei now had [5217/10000] exp.
"The bats are not really challenging to our party. What about we test ourselves against the scorpions?" asked Bright Sun.
She did not contribute much to the party either. The paladins were quite skilled and did not take too much damage.
"Yes! The bats are simply not a challenge! Let's look for stronger opponents!" commented The One Hero as he collected the loot from another corpse.
"If we look for stronger monsters, it will take longer to defeat them. Even if they give more exp, it will be less efficient. But alright. I also want to challenge myself. The scorpions are slower than the bats, but they have more vitality and strength, shall we go up?" asked Cai Wenji as he looked at his teammates to seek their opinion.
They all quickly nodded, and Cai Wenji led the party upstairs. On the way, they met five other parties hunting in the dungeon, two of which were from the Gem Family. Although there was some hostility between the two guilds, they generally kept these grudges for when bosses appeared.
The 8th floor was no different from the previous ones. As they arrived, they immediately met three parties of the Fleeting Clouds Sect in battle with a group of scorpions. These scorpions were about twice the size of the mine rats, they were covered with a greyish brown shell while their long-curved tails were shining with a deadly glow.
The scorpions were only level 12 but were able to defend themselves despite it being a 7 vs 30.
Cai Wenji ignored the parties and went straight to one of the tunnels. The other parties did not ask for help and so, there was no need for him to intervene or he might be seen as a killstealer instead.
"Forge God, Titan! Grab only one. We don't know their strength yet!" calmly ordered Cai Wenji while going into stealth.
The two paladins carefully approached a nearby scorpion and lured it towards the group. However, due to lack of space, all of them would not be able to attack at the same time. Only The One Hero stepped forward to attack it.
Li Wei and Silent Day moved to one side each. They did not want to get in the way of the projectiles of the ranger and the mage.
Forge God, who was holding the aggro, was slowly walking backward while moving his shield accordingly to parry the poisoned sting of the scorpion. Once he got to a certain point, Cai Wenji suddenly jumped above the scorpion.
With his two curved daggers, he made a quick spin and made two cuts along the scorpion's tail, "-16","-13". Only relatively small numbers popped up above the scorpion's head. As soon as it felt pain, the scorpion immediately disregarded Forge God and turned to stab its tail toward Cai Wenji, but Titan was already in position, ready to block the tail.
"Ting!" A loud sound was heard as the sting hit the shield.
Forge God, who was now facing the back of the scorpion, activated [Bash] and pushed the scorpion to the side, just enough for it to enter the range of The One Hero. The latter activated both [Strengthen] and [Cleave], cutting through the scorpion, "-24".
Everyone was depressed as they saw the low numbers appearing above the scorpion, but as it was still flying away, the mage immediately sent her [Mana Bolt] while the ranger charged his [Power Shot]. The two skills simultaneously hit the scorpion, pushing it further back and dealing a total of 50 damage.
"It really is tougher than the mine bats! Be careful!" shouted Cai Wenji as he repositioned himself to a better spot.
The scorpion was enraged. It quickly got back up and charged at the party. But the two paladins immediately got in its way.
The scorpion could only helplessly strike the paladins. Seeing that it was going nowhere, its two pincers started to glow with a blue light. And as it hit Titan, the latter was instantly pushed back a few meters.
With this opening, the scorpion tried to bypass Forge God, but The One Hero immediately got in the way, using his smaller shield to tank the scorpion's pincers which returned to normal.
While watching that scene, Li Wei felt someone looking at him. He turned only to see Silent Day quietly nod at him before grabbing her spear and moving forward.
Li Wei immediately understood what she meant. After just a few hours of hunting together, they already understood each other to a certain extent. He drew his own swords and closely followed behind her.
The One Hero immediately pushed back the pincers and used his sword to repel the poisoned sting before quickly rolling to the side. This move gave just enough space for Silent Day to follow up. Her spear quickly stabbed the scorpion's head, dealing 18 damage.
She rapidly stabbed and pulled the spear back in short successions before jumping to the side. 4 times was her limit; it could not be called a skill, but it was definitely a powerful move. If she used this move many times, it might turn into a self-learned skill.
During her stabs, the scorpion tried to retaliate, but Titan, who was standing behind the scorpion, used his hammer to pin down the tail.
Just as Silent Day jumped aside, Li Wei was already ready to attack. With his 2 swords, he directly attacked the scorpion on its head, then quickly applying pressure on his right leg, he jumped to the side and spun to strike the scorpion again but this time on its legs.
The scorpion flinched for a second, but before he could strike back, a [Mana Bolt] exploded on its face.
It only had 25 HP left as Cai Wenji suddenly appeared on top of the scorpion. He mercilessly plunged his two daggers into the eyes of the scorpion, ending its life. The scorpion's body convulsed. Its legs then lost all strength and his body fell on the ground.
"Good job everyone! Nice follow-up!" commented a panting Cai Wenji as he collected the loot from the scorpion.
There was clearly a difference between the 7th and 8th floor. The whole party needed to be involved to defeat just one scorpion, but everyone was thrilled.
"Finally a challenge! Let's not lose time! Forge bro go grab another one!" excitedly exclaimed The One Hero.
Forge God sent a quick look at Cai Wenji who silently nodded. He could already determine that the party could defeat one scorpion. Cai Wenji was not a talkative person, but he was very smart when it came to decision making.
Bright Sun and the other priest quickly brought the paladins back to full health from the backline, and the paladins once again went to lure a scorpion.
...
30 minutes later, Li Wei's group killed their 6th scorpion. They slowly got used to the scorpion's pattern and could predict its movement to a certain extent.
But Li Wei, who wanted to redeem himself for his earlier mistakes, made a suggestion: "Why don't we try two scorpions at the same time? Only one makes it hard for all of us to attack at the same time, and we have 2 paladins."
"You are very ambitious! I like that! I also agree, I did not even use my full strength yet!" commented The One Hero as he gave a thumbs-up to Li Wei.
It was a riskier operation, but what Li Wei said was true. The party did not maximize its DPS against only one scorpion. And they were earning exp at a lower rate than on the 7th floor when dealing with only one at a time.
Bright Sun who was at the back stepped forward and said:" I think that Seven is right! I think that we do have the strength to deal with two scorpions at a time. You did not even need our healing in the middle of the fight so far."
"Alright! In that case, let's split into 2 groups of five. One on each scorpion, the group that finishes first will help the other," declared Cai Wenji.
Quickly, two groups were formed. Li Wei was with Bright Sun, Silent Day, Titan and the ranger.
The two paladins each brought a scorpion away from the group of monsters and each group engaged their respective scorpion.
Li Wei knew that this time, he could not slack off. He stealthily positioned himself behind the scorpion. He waited for Titan to get a good hold of the aggro and then immediately used [Cleave] at the back legs of the scorpion.
It was the weakness that the team discovered while fighting the scorpions. Although it was not fatal, damaging the legs would reduce the movement of the scorpion to a certain extent. Li Wei hacked at the legs repeatedly with his swords.
Meanwhile, Silent Day was poking the pincers of the scorpion with her spear, grabbing its attention. Titan was doing his best to protect her, but it resulted in him taking some damage. It was much harder to hold the aggro alone.
The ranger fired some arrows, but he did not deal much damage; rangers had limited effectiveness in this closed up environment. Their arrows could not fly very high and he was also afraid of hitting his own teammates due to his lack of experience.
This fight put much more pressure on the paladin who constantly had to grab the attention of the scorpion. The latter's health slowly decreased until it hit 50%.
At that point, its sting at the tip of the tail suddenly shone, but it did not stab the paladin, instead, it turned around and aimed for Li Wei. The latter was surprised, he raised one sword to push the sting away but in vain.
He was pierced in the stomach, "-31"
[You have been hit by the scorpion's poison sting. Applied poison for 1 minute. Effect: -5 HP every 10 seconds]
This was a serious effect, Li Wei only had a total of 100 HP and just the physical damage already took away a third of it. But Bright Sun immediately reacted and cast [Cure], removing the poison effect. Her heal was still on cooldown and it was more important to reserve it for the Paladin who was constantly losing health.
Li Wei was taken by surprise, but he quickly recollected himself and pierced his 2 swords into the skull of the scorpion.
Silent Day used her [Flurry Stabs] hitting the legs of the scorpion while Titan jumped onto the scorpion and used his weight to give momentum to [Bash], crushing the scorpion to the ground.
The poor scorpion did not get the opportunity to retaliate. It was constantly assaulted from different directions. It was frustrated and violently swung its pincers, but Silent Day made a swift jump back, avoiding the attack.
The scorpion was still left with some HP. Li Wei was about to used [Blade Draw] but a blue light appeared in the corner of his eyes.
[Mana Burst]
The scorpion was immediately killed by the mage's skill.
"You guys are too slow! We have already finished!" bragged The One Hero, looking triumphant as his right foot was stepping on the other scorpion's corpse.
"Why are you so proud! You obviously have magic damage to help you!" argued the ranger; he was not very pleased, he could not contribute much in this environment and felt that he was dragging the team down.
"Alright, that's enough! We still have time for two more scorpions. Then, it's time for lunch!" announced Cai Wenji, not giving the two any chance to argue.
...
It was finally lunch time. Everyone was exhausted after hunting in the dungeon. All the members of the Fleeting Clouds Sect were gathering outside the dungeon, near the guards' camp.
The lunch was once again provided by the Fleeting Clouds Sect; free lunch boxes were distributed to everyone. Li Wei sat with his team under the shade of a tree to enjoy the free food.
Bright Sun was the only one not there. As soon as they came out of the dungeon, she was immediately spotted by Sun Rose who then brought her away.
Everyone was happily chatting. It was a well-deserved break. Li Wei noticed that several players already leveled up to level 11. He estimated that he himself would level up tomorrow if he continued to farm at this speed. His speed had definitely decreased; when he was still at Little Root Town, he would be able to easily level up at least twice per day but here, it would take him two days just to level up once.
Li Wei was chatting with Silent Day when suddenly,
"Cough Cough! Your attention please!"
A tall young man, with the IGN Wang Hao, stood out in the middle of the players. He was wearing the Fleeting Clouds Sect's badge. Li Wei remembered seeing him stand close to Wang Chong who did the speech this morning.
"Everyone, I would like to welcome all our new recruits here today. I am sure that many of you, if not all, chose to join our Fleeting Clouds Sect because of the techniques we displayed. But so far, you have only seen the surface! I, Wang Hao is here to open your eyes. In the sect, we prioritize strength above everything else. There are two things we like in the sect; duels and competitions! It is the best way for us to compare our strength and improve ourselves."
"This is why, I will propose that we do a short exchange of pointers here, to get everyone accustomed to our habits. One of you against me! What do you think?"
"Mmmm"
Murmurs rose from the crowd, but many players silently nodded. They had nothing against a duel. It would instead prove to be very entertaining, especially if they could witness the techniques of other families.
"In that case, I will randomly pick someone for a duel!" righteously declared Wang Hao as he lifted his finger, pausing for a second as if searching for a target.
Suddenly, Li Wei once again felt a chill down his spine. He raised his head to look around, but before he could identify the cause,
Wang Hao glanced at the crowd for a moment and suddenly turned and pointed his finger straight at Li Wei, "You. Let's exchange some pointers!"