Time went by quickly as Li Wei and his party killed their way through the Time Attacks! After using all their five entries to Alyssa's Lair, they moved on to the Graveyard of Longsoul.
The familiar undead monsters once again faced Li Wei and his party, but the outcome was not different. They succeeded in achieving a time of 20 minutes, but it was not worth mentioning when compared to the world record.
Due to their party's composition, they decided to stop after attempting the Graveyard of Longsoul five times. The island of desolation was not a friendly environment to the mage and Bright Sun. They would end up spending a lot of Mana Potions if they wanted to be useful which would be unfair to the two.
Even after the ten Time Attacks, Li Wei still failed to find out any possible loopholes to exploit! He was slightly depressed but, in the end, if the tricks were so easy to find, everyone would have extremely low time records.
The party of five quickly walked out of the painting. "Can we go and eat now?" asked Silent Day.
"Yeah! I am really hungry! Let's go to the Prosperity Hall! I heard that today the theme is Chinese food!" exclaimed the mage.
Bright Sun, who was leading the way, turned and declared, "Sure! But let me check where Cai Wenji is." She quickly opened her interface and started typing her message.
Meanwhile, Li Wei was still deep in thoughts. He was getting a bit obsessed about these Time Attacks but no matter how he thought about the runs, he did not find anything out of the ordinary that he could use.
Suddenly, a voice full of charm came from the side, "Oh here you are! You really did not accept my friend request!"
The party quickly turned to look at the speaker. They all immediately recognized her. A graceful and beautiful lady dressed in light warrior gear was slowly making her way towards the party. Her black hair was tied in a hair bun while a long blue sword was hanging at her waist. She had a very faint cold aura, making her seem less approachable despite her beauty.
Bright Sun quickly stepped up, "Miss Li. May I help you?"
As for Li Wei, he could only awkwardly scratch his hair. The lady was naturally Li Yuxin. The Li Yuxin of yesterday and that of today looked very different. She looked lively and valiant as she was fighting in the rain of ashes but now, the female warrior looked like one of those cold unattainable beauties. Her appearance was exactly the same but now that they were not fighting, Li Wei could see her womanly charm and aura.
He never thought that he would actually see her today! After all, there were so many players! It should have been very easy to hide in the crowd! He did not care much about her friend request; it was safer to keep some distance from the Li family.
"Are you Cai Die? We have never spoken to each other before, I am Li Yuxin"
"It's an honor Miss Li! Did one of us trouble you?" asked Bright Sun.
It was normal for the two ladies to have never spoken to each other. Although they saw and heard of each other, they had different status! Bright Sun only came from a branch family while Li Yuxin was the daughter of the great elder of the Li Family! As a result, there was a massive difference in status between them, and that was without taking into consideration that the two families were not very friendly to each other.
"I am here to challenge this guy!" declared Li Yuxin while pointing at Li Wei. Immediately, everyone's attention focused on Li Wei; it was not just his party but also the nearby players were interested in the person Li Yuxin wanted to challenge!
"D*mn... What did I do to deserve that..." said Li Wei to himself. He just wanted to remain low-key but, that girl succeeded in directing everyone's eyes towards him. She had already broken his win streak! Fighting her again was the last thing he wanted to think about.
"Ah! Miss Li. It would not be appropriate! I am still level 14 while you are already level 15! It would not be very fair," answered Li Wei with an embarrassed expression.
It turned out that Li Yuxin already leveled up and was now level 15. Li Wei himself was close to leveling up but he was not going to reveal that information.
"That's indeed true! But I will stay at level 15 for quite some time! Once you reach level 15, we shall duel again! Accept my friend request!" said Li Yuxin with a triumphant smile.
"Ughh" Li Wei could only reluctantly agree. Under the eyes of everyone, what excuse could he use to refuse her friend request? All the surrounding players were dreaming to take Li Wei's place! Many players had the same thought in mind: "That guy does not know his luck!"
His finger quickly moved, and another player was added to his friend list.
"That's great! We shall chat again later, I still have to attempt the Graveyard of Longsoul!" said Li Yuxin as she quickly moved away. Having accomplished her goal, she did not need to stay any longer. All she wanted was to add Li Wei as a friend. She was clearly not satisfied with the result of yesterday's battle and absolutely wanted a rematch. To her dismay, Li Wei did not accept her friend request even if she sent him the request in front of his eyes.
When she left the scorching ground, elder Du did not seem to be disappointed in her for losing. Instead, he even encouraged her to have more interactions with Li Wei. He said that he would make a great sparring partner.
Although Li Yuxin had already left, the players' eyes still remained on Li Wei.
"How did you meet Li Yuxin? She is the chosen player who will represent the Li family in the Time Attacks. She rarely ever comes out!" asked Bright Sun who followed the exchanged from the side. Her eyes were suspiciously looking at Li Wei.
"It was at the Colosseum for the ranked battle," answered the latter. He did not give any details since it was a fight he did not really want to recall.
Hearing that, Bright Sun and the other party members widened their eyes! Although they never interacted with Li Yuxin, they had heard a lot of things about her. Since her young age, she immersed herself in martial arts and had been nicknamed as the Martial Princess. She was very keen on fighting other martial artists of the same generation and would often challenge them again and again. But she would do that only if she did not win or only nearly won! From that, they quickly deduced the outcome of the ranked battle and could only look at Li Wei with respect.
To avoid staying under the surrounding players' look, the party quickly moved outside the Hall of Fame to wait for Cai Wenji and his party.
As they walked, Li Wei curiously asked Bright Sun, "Did you not say that Li Yuxin would level up slowly? How come she is already level 15 then?"
The latter smiled, "Don't take the term slow leveler literally! They level up at the same pace as us but will remain at this level for a while. She might stay for more than a week at level 15 as she tries to break the record of the Time Attack. And by the time they are satisfied or give up the record, we would have long reached level 16 or 17! She will practice her technique, trying to level them up; this does not give any exp."
"So that's why..."
The party was happily chatting when suddenly, Li Wei received a message; it was Moody Writer. "I've got your Beast Cores. You can collect them whenever you are ready!"
Seeing the message, Li Wei could not help but recall his fight. If only he had won, he would still be on the path to obtaining the Moon Stone. But now, he would have to ask the alchemist to obtain it somehow. The Moon Stone was the only material he was missing! He made a quick mental note to ask him about that!
"Why are they taking so long?" complained Silent Day. She was starting to feel hungry! Having spent the morning killing the insects she hated, she could not wait to sit down at the restaurant and enjoy a good meal.
"Be patient. He just entered the lair when we contacted them. You don't expect them to suddenly break the record like that," said Titan.
Hearing that, something flashed into Li Wei's mind, "Bright Sun! There is something I want to ask!"
"Huh? What is it?" answered the priest.
"Will it be possible to know the strategy that the slow levelers will be using to break the records?" asked Li Wei. He had been thinking about possible tricks to use but found nothing! However, he was certain that the sect should have already figured out a few things!
"You want the strategy?" said Bright Sun with a surprised expression. For a moment, she did not know what to say. "Are you going to attempt it? It is impossible for you to do it since the strategies rely heavily on items!"
It was something he was already well aware of. There were no restrictions on items that could be brought into the Time Attacks. He highly suspected that the players would probably be tossing Explosive Potions all over the place but inside, he was hoping that they had some sort of strategy. "I know, but I am still very curious. Do they believe they would be able to bring the record down to what that solo guy did?"
Bright Sun awkwardly answered, "Ehmm, according to our estimate, the lowest we'll be able to bring the record down would be about 5 minutes for each one of them! But that would be using more than 100 Explosive Potions per run."
100 explosive potions? These represented at least 2000 gold! And that was just for one run. There was no doubt that many guilds would attempt the same method and the records might differ by seconds. In the end, just for the sake of improving their reputation or the small reward, the Time Attacks turned into money pits.
"Can you tell me the details? I can't be that the players will just toss Explosive potions everywhere, right?" asked Li Wei.
"Eh, we did not figure anything out for the graveyard of Longsoul so they will effectively only use explosive potions there. The island of desolation is different; since it is only a matter of escaping, they will use speed buffing items and decoys. As for Alyssa's lair, the plan is to use smoke bombs to push all the spiders towards the final room before using Explosive potions there! That is all I know, I am not one of the slow levelers, so I only have this information!"
This answer naturally left Li Wei disappointed; there was no useful information like loopholes, but he could not blame Bright Sun for that. The real strategies were probably kept secret to avoid leaking them to the other guilds!
The little priest took notice of Li Wei's expression. "Breaking the record isn't that easy! We should leave this to the special players. Although the rewards are alluring, it will be a waste of time and gold for us."
"You are probably right," answered Li Wei but in his mind, he did not give up yet.
...
After a gracious meal where everyone paid for himself, Li Wei left the party and went to the Alchemist Association. He would soon level up and did not know how long it would take for Moody Writer to obtain a Moon Stone. It was better to ask him to look for it early so that he might be able to upgrade his ring before attempting the Time Attack one last time.
He already became familiar with the Alchemist Association. After speaking with the receptionist, he walked through the different corridors to Moody Writer's room.
The alchemist was busy refining some potions and Li Wei did his best to not disturb him. It was only after 15 minutes that the latter finished his concoction and adjusted himself to talk to Li Wei. He did not say anything but let out a smile as he took out the two Beast Cores from his inventory.
The first one was red while the other one was grey, but both came from level 15 monsters. It was all that mattered to Li Wei; the formula mentioned that he could also use beast cores from better monsters, but he did not know the impact of using better materials. Also, he only said to Moody Writer that the core needed to come from a level 15 monster or higher; the latter naturally went for the easiest option.
"Thank you!"
"You're welcome! May I ask why you need these two beast cores? You don't look like someone who practices a profession... Is it to gift them to someone?" asked moody Writer.
"Haha, no! It's for my own use, but I'll keep that a secret for now!"
Moody Writer was tactful and did not ask any more questions; "Sure. We all have our own secrets!"
An awkward silence settled into the room for a moment, but Li Wei quickly asked:
"Did you successfully extract the formula of the potions?"
"Not yet. It is much harder than it looks! The potion is volatile, and I only have so much, I need to slowly do the tests one by one! And I am also very busy recently! Everyone is looking for Explosive Potions. It's a great way to make some profits" answered Moody Writer.
"That's good, I am not in a hurry to get the money. But I will need your help with something else..." said Li Wei.
Moody Writer raised an eyebrow, "What is it? If it is something I can do, I will naturally help you."
"I need a Moon Stone..."