The next morning, Li Wei woke up to the alarm he set up. The sky was still dark but if he wanted to meet his schedule, Li Wei would need to leave soon. He had already planned his journey and the first step was to go to the stables to rent a horse. There was no public transport there. Players needed to move like in medieval times. Although teleportation portals existed. These only linked cities together and had a significant price.
Although it looked like a hasty decision, Li Wei had actually long thought of exploring the Abe's forest. He needed to quickly raise his strength and one way to achieve his goal was to upgrade his ring. He did not have enough gold to cover the cost and therefore, he needed to collect the required material himself. One of them could be found at the Abe's Forest.
The streets were mostly empty; only a few people were busy transporting their merchandise. Li Wei walked down the streets and to the direction of the stables. Along the way, he noticed a strange phenomenon.
There was not much light on the streets, but Li Wei noticed a lot of mist flowing out of a particular alley as he walked past it. Intrigued, Li Wei stopped for a moment to observe the source of the mist. The mist was gloomy and sinister; the entire alley was completely hidden by the darkness.
Had it been real life, Li Wei would have stayed as far away from these sorts of things but now, he was in a game. What did those strange phenomena mean? They were an opportunity to trigger quests!
'I am safe inside the city. There is no harm in just having a look. Maybe it is a hidden quest!'
He tiptoed to the alley and peeked inside. Unfortunately, it was way too dark for him to see anything. He could feel the coldness of the mist through his boots. Li Wei summoned his courage and sneakily stepped into the alley.
He hid behind a large crate and notice a faint silhouette sitting in the middle of the alley. He wore a cloak and a hood, hiding his features. There was a dark crystal ball set up in front of him. All the mist seemed to be flowing out of the crystal ball.
Li Wei quietly observed the person but suddenly, the crystal ball started to glow. "There is not need to hide behind the crates. Be my guest."
The rauque male voice of the cloaked figure sounded in the alley. Li Wei felt a shiver run down his spine. He had been discovered. He bit his lips, conflicted into meeting the cloaked figure or actually running away. Eventually, he chose the former and stepped out of his hiding spot.
The cloaked figure waved his hand and a chair suddenly appeared out of nowhere, facing him. "Have a seat. Since it is your first time here, this consultation will be for free."
'What? Consultation?' Li Wei's mind was racing. He stood next to the chair but did not sit on it. The atmosphere was gloomy; it felt as if he had just entered a horror movie.
"What are you?" tentatively asked Li Wei.
"I used many names in the past but now, I am known as the Clairvoyant. Fate allowed us to meet. Let me see what else is in reserve for you," said the cloaked figure. He raised his bony hands on both sides of the crystal ball as it glowed brighter and brighter.
Li Wei remained silent. He felt that the cloaked figure was focusing on his task. 'Looks like one of those scam mediums claiming to predict the future.'
"I see… You are going North East… To the Gassian Lake… No… You real aim is the Abe's Forest, but you will inevitably go to the Lake… Fish… Fish… A lot of fish… The harvest will be good, but the real gain would happen on the return journey… He has been trying to hide it for decades! They are here… Coming for him… Remember, if you want to earn something… Respect the dead… Respect the dead…"
Li Wei instinctively took a step back as he listened to the cloaked figure. His sentences did not make sense and as he progress through his prediction, he became more and more agitated. Near the end, he started trembling uncontrollably and then, suddenly stopped.
It was complete silence. As soon as he finished speaking, the cloaked figure froze, quietly catching up his breath.
'What did I just witness? Is he crazy?' thought Li Wei. He did not want anything to do with this crazy person.
As Li Wei was about to leave, the cloaked figure suddenly raised his head from the crystal ball to look at Li Wei. "It will be free this time but for your next consultation, there will be a price to pay."
Li Wei's vision suddenly darkened. The cloaked figure exploded into a thick cloud of black mist. Li Wei raised his hands to protect his face as he closed his eyes. "Remember… Respect the dead… Bring in something valuable next time… Or I shall be your worst nightmare." A creepy rattle sounded next to his ears.
When he opened his eyes again, the cloaked figure had completely disappeared. The alley was completely empty and was well lighted. Li Wei stood in the middle of the alley with a confused expression. He was drenched in cold sweat. "What was that just now? Was it real?"
…
A few minutes later, Li Wei was leaving the city on top of a horse. He decided to forget about his strange encounter with the cloak figure. It all seemed too unreal.
The horse's name was Mirabel. At first, Li Wei felt awkward on top of the horse. The constant motion made him feel uncomfortable. Mirabel was a relatively calm horse. She was well trained and responded appropriately to Li Wei's commands. After just a few minutes, he quickly got used to her pace. The game helped the players by giving every player the "Riding" skill. Even though it did not appear in the character window, its effects were already active.
He quickly arrived in front of the dungeon. Since he was going north, it was inevitable for him to go near the dungeon. But as he was quietly passing by, he was stopped by a group of guards stationed near the entrance.
"Hello, adventurer! There is an emergency mission being released. Would you like to participate?" asked one of the guards.
"An emergency? What happened?" curiously asked Li Wei.
"Actually, it is not really an emergency but during the night, the dungeon modified itself. It is a normal thing for the dungeon to mutate occasionally but this time, the first 10 floors all changed at once. We are now looking for adventurers to explore and map these floors. Will you help us?"
At the same time, a voice was heard,
[System prompt: You have received the quest, "Map the dungeon". Do you want to accept?]
[Information]
Walk through the first ten floors of the dungeon. A map will be automatically recorded as you explore the floors.
Reward: 2000 exp per floor
Completion: 0%
Note: This quest is being given to all players near the dungeon simultaneously. The rewards for each floor can only be claimed once. Please make haste!
"This..." Li Wei was pleasantly surprised. He was lucky to obtain a quest at that moment, but he quickly noticed other players being stopped by other guards. It was clear that the competition was going to be fierce. 2000 exp per floor was huge. Although it would take about 40 minutes to fully explore a floor if they ignored fighting against monsters, this represented a massive amount of exp.
He hesitated for a while but eventually decided to reject the quest. It would take him too long for just one floor and he did not know how many players were already working on this quest. He preferred to continue his journey. The guards did not react to his refusal. They simply wished him a safe journey and turned to another incoming group of players.
As he was leaving, Li Wei saw a large group of Stone Defenders approaching.
"They really look like an army walking in this formation… At least they are not walking like in parades," thought Li Wei.
Quickly moving away, Li Wei took the opportunity to send a quick message to Cai Wenji, informing him of the event quest. He was a member of the guild and felt like it was his duty to provide this type of harmless information.
Not waiting for an answer, he lightly kicked Mirablel and quickly left the area. There was a long distance to travel.
A few hours later, Li Wei was starting to feel bored. The landscape was very repetitive. Although the farms became rarer, endless fields were still in view. That was one of the issues with traveling; there was nothing productive he could do meanwhile.
"Maybe I should have borrowed a book at the library or something," thought Li Wei. Still, he felt that he made the right choice. Going to Abe's forest was a good way to break away from the monotony of hunting monsters daily. It was also a good way to explore the world and not restrict himself to the city.
As he was deep in thoughts, he suddenly got a message from the guild chat, "All available players of the guild are to meet quickly at the inn. Contribution points will be awarded for presence!"
"Just what is happening?" thought Li Wei. He had only left the city for half a day. What could have already happened?
After a quick exchange with Cai Wenji, he learned that an event was taking place at the dungeon. While exploring the floors, the players came across secret rooms and were now fighting for the treasures inside.
The Fleeting Clouds Sect itself was gathering its troops to fight for the treasures and so, a message was sent to each guild affiliated to the sect. However, Li Wei decided to ignore it. He was already too far from the dungeon to come back in time. It would be better for him to continue his journey. When he explained it to Cai Wenji, the latter also approved of his decision and then left to focus on the event.
"Ahh, maybe I should have accepted the quest, I might have been the one to find the treasures first. This sudden quest, coupled with the strange meeting with the cloaked man, I guess this game has a lot to offer if we I am active enough," sighed Li Wei. But the opportunity was already gone.
"Let's mute the chat for now. It's best for me to focus on my own objective for now…"
...
The sun was about to set as Li Wei finally arrived near a nameless forest. He had finally left the farmers' fields and was now in complete wilderness. He quickly jumped off Mirabel. Horses also had their own fatigue level. Although it had much better endurance than humans, Mirabel still looked very happy to see that they were stopping for the night.
Li Wei quickly took out the provisions for the horse. Marcus at the stables offered those together with the horse as he would need to feed it for the duration of the trip; it was all included in the 2 gold he paid.
"Good girl," said Li Wei as he patted Mirabel. He silently tied the reins to one of the nearby trees. The reins were long enough to allow the horse to move a bit, but it could not run away. There was no danger in leaving Mirabel outside. Despite its appearance, it was a level 15 beast. It was not at the level of war horses but a kick from it could easily push Li Wei away.
Besides, this forest could be considered to be very safe, sheltering only creatures below level 10. The night cycle would slightly strengthen the beasts but as long as he did not set his camp in the middle of the forest, there would be no issue.
Having taken care of the horse, Li Wei proceeded in setting up the camp. It was an extremely easy task. Collecting some wood for a fire camp did not take long while the tent could be set automatically. It would have been too complex to have to build the tent, it just came out as a triangular shelter as Li Wei took it out his inventory.
With everything ready, it was time for a quick session of [Gliding Steps] before dinner.
It was already the third time Li Wei was practicing these moves. He already got quite used to it. His body did not tremble as much when he had to stand on the tips of his toe. 30 minutes later, the system prompt finally came:
[System prompt: You have completed a training cycle of [Gliding Steps]. Completion rate: 80%]
"How come it is only 80%?" murmured Li Wei. He was certain he was getting more proficient, but why did the completion rate actually decrease? He thought for a while and finally found the reason.
It was due to his environment. Using the training center did come with unseen benefits. What would be the point of paying for a training area if there were no benefits? Training there boosted the completion rate by about 10% which made it totally worth the price. Additionally, fatigue increased at a slower rate at the training center.
He took a quick look at his character window to find that his [gliding steps] was now displaying (43/100) mastery points. It would not be long before he would be able to use that technique.
With nothing else to do, he decided to hunt for a bit in the forest. Even with the night cycle, Li Wei was confident since the beast there were supposedly very weak. Although horse riding during the entire day did bring him some exp, it was far from a day's worth of hunting. His exp bar was so close to being full.
With the camp already set up, Li Wei set out and hunted on the outskirts of the forest. He did not go too far from the tent. He did not hunt for long, there was still a lot of traveling to do the next day and he could not afford too much fatigue for now.
...
An hour later, Li Wei was finally lying under his tent. He rolled in his makeshift blanket but still failed to fall asleep. It was a completely different environment. The lack of comfort from a bed and the constant sounds of the wild prevented him from resting properly. Sleeping outside was a new experience for Li Wei. He would instantly tense up when he heard the sudden rustling of leaves caused by the beasts.
Unable to sleep, he started to recall the past few days and remembered that he told Bright Sun that there might be a way to improve the Gliding Steps for her. Now that he had time, he pondered over the problem for a while. He was sure that this technique was more meant for men than women. It was just an intuition at first but when he thought about it, men and women were different.
Li Wei did have some knowledge of biology since influenced by his peers, medicine was the career path he chose. Leaving aside the difference in muscle mass, Li Wei knew that women had larger pelvis than men which results in different hip joints and allows for a wider range of movement.
With this clue in mind, Li Wei started to think about his own movements when he did the technique, what needed to be changed for it to be more appropriate for women? He had no idea; his knowledge in the human anatomy was very shallow, but following his own intuition, he came up with some possible modifications in the movements. They were nothing major, but they would put in more stress on the hip joints. There was no way for him to test his hypothesis. He could only wait to go back and ask Bright Sun about it.
"Maybe I should also think of a way to improve the actual version for men too?"
Unbeknown to him, his mind slowly drifted away as he finally fell asleep.