[System prompt: You have trained into the Myriad Sword Dance for 138 minutes. Average completion rate: 65%]
'Only 65%... Now I understand the frustration the martial artists can feel. After more than two hours, I only managed to get 28 mastery points… I need 19 more to obtain the skill but that probably means two more hours…'
'The Myriad Sword Dance is much more suited to me but training that technique will lead to a dead end.'
Li Wei sighed in frustration. He stood up and looked around him. He has been meditating under a tree near the cottages, away from the noise. Now, in just two hours, his fatigue was at 90%.
He noticed a few messages in his inbox. Whenever he would start practising his techniques, Li Wei would generally turn off the notifications because they could interrupt his training and drastically lower the completion rate.
The message came from Cai Wenji. The young rogue has been keeping Li Wei updated on the progress of the journey. They will be arriving in a few hours. This time, the Cai Family mobilised a total of two thousand players. Most members of Avalanche were on their way and even several members of the Fleeting Clouds Sect were coming.
According to Cai Wenji, because of the importance of the dungeon, the main branch of the Cai Family would take the lead in this mission. While both Cai Wenji and Li Wei himself were rewarded with 2000 Contribution Points for reporting the quest, at the end of the day, anything valuable obtained from the dungeon will be taken by the Cai Family. In short, they were being cast aside after receiving some meagre rewards.
Under normal circumstances, Li Wei would feel outraged by the outcome. However, he knew how difficult the conquest of the dungeon would be. More importantly, the dungeon was nothing like the classic dungeons they knew about; it was a bandit camp.
'So they are arriving in a few hours and are planning to attack the dungeon tonight? Don't they need to rest? They must have accumulated a lot of fatigue while traveling.'
Li Wei furrowed his brows as he continued to read the message. Apparently, the large mobilisation of players did not go unnoticed by the other guilds and by the other families of the Fleeting Clouds Sect. Everyone wanted a slice of the cake, but the Cai Family was not willing to give away the benefits it could claim. They were rushing this attack because other guilds were also making their way here.
'Sigh… I thought this was going to be a relaxed quest. But if everyone is involved, taking down the bandit camp might not be too hard. Looking at the time, there's still about three hours before Cai Wenji arrives. I should head back for now and sleep to recover my fatigue. Hopefully, it will be low enough.'
…
Three hours later, Li Wei wakes up after receiving several messages from Cai Wenji. They have arrived at the Gassian Lake and have set up a small camp near the cottages.
Li Wei forced himself to leave his bed. His fatigue was at 46%. It was still high but eating something would lower it to acceptable levels. Furthermore, just attacking the camp should not generate too much fatigue.
He left Andy's cottage, closing the door behind him. The kind fisherman once again agreed to let Li Wei stay at his place.
As soon as he stepped out of the garden, Li Wei noticed the countless tents being set up by the players. He recognised the badge of Avalanche floating next to their name tag. Several players also tried to approach the fishermen to learn about the area but they were all quickly turned away for disturbing the fishes.
Any forceful player who refused to leave and caused any form of disturbance was beaten to a pulp by the fishermen. Despite their appearance, the fishermen were all above level 20 and could easily deal with the players. The players themselves, only averaged level 16. They were even weaker than Li Wei even though he spent so much time traveling around.
Li Wei messaged Cai Wenji and asked for his location. They agreed to meet at the entrance of the camp and a few minutes later, Li Wei saw many familiar faces.
"Hey, Seven! It has been a while. Have you been hiding yourself here?" The One Hero was the first one to approach Li Wei with his usual energetic self.
"Hello." Several other members of Cai Wenji's core team also greeted him. Forge God and Titan, the two paladins of the team were the most familiar with him after The One Hero. They became friendlier with time, especially after having been invited to the Time Attack of Alyssa's Lair. While only Titan, Cai Wenji and Bright Sun were able to obtain the special rewards, everyone thought highly of him.
"How has everyone been?" Li Wei was brought to a more private tent where they would be able to talk without being heard. These tents could be purchased at the store for 10 gold. They were large enough to accommodate five people but if people did not mind squeezing a little bit, ten people could easily enter.
The whole team was here, except for Bright Sun who had to stay at Algate City. She became a Grade 1 Chef to escape her arranged marriage but now, she needed to shoulder the responsibilities of her profession and produce as many dishes as possible.
"So, you say we are going to attack the dungeon in a few hours?"
"Yes. We don't know how much progress the other guilds have made. They might risk it and travel overnight. If they arrive on time, there will be a fierce competition for the dungeon. Dungeons are valuable resources that any guild would want to monopolise. They are the foundations of future towns."
"Still. Isn't this too risky?"
"It's just a dungeon. How hard can raiding it be? We have an entire guild here and my father is sending more people from Abelfort to help us."
"Well… The thing is, have you seen the dungeon?" Li Wei asks with an awkward expression.
"Not really. Cai Shangjun is in charge of the operation. He is an elder of the main branch. As soon as he arrived here, he spoke to the fishermen and got the quest about raiding the bandit camp. However, he has seen no trace of your dungeon quest. He has asked me to contact you about it so that you can share the quest." Cai Wenji explained.
"Sure. I can share it with you." As he spoke, Li Wei quickly shared the quest with everyone in the tent. They will spread it around for him. "The thing is that during the past two days, I explored the surroundings and walked upstream. I saw the bandit camp and the location of the bandit camp matches that of the dungeon."
"You mean we would have to go through the bandit camp to defeat the dungeon?"
"I don't know. I am just saying what I saw. Also, the bandits are all at least level 22. I did not get to test their strength though."
"You already did more than enough. No need to work yourself to the bone. The main branch will take care of everything. If they want the prestige of conquering a dungeon, they also need to work for it."
"Anyway, let's stop talking about this quest. Let's talk about what you did on your excursion. I am genuinely surprised that you are already level 18. You travelled for so many days but still managed to have as much exp as I." Cai Wenji shifted the topic of the conversation. He was curious about what Li Wei went through. News travelled fast and the entire server was aware of the demons' attack on Verdan Town.
In fact, it was not only Verdan Town that was affected but several towns in the East. To some extent, even Algate City was affected by the few surviving demons.
"I guess I just got lucky. With the bonus level up from the Time Attack reward and the emergency quest I got enough experience to barely level up." Li Wei answered. He did not mention the graverobber quest and how he obtained many rare items. He did not want Cai Wenji to know that he sold precious resources to an opposing family.
"I see. But did you end up receiving a penalty? I heard that almost all the players who took the emergency quests were penalised to some extent. All the players affected complained; the situation was so bad that even the Yu Family has started looking for other towns to relocate."
"What? Almost everyone got a penalty? I successfully escorted the princess to Boroughton but I did get a penalty because of negative feedback from the princess. I can't take any quests from the Warrior Association and for the rest of the month, part of my rewards will be deducted."
Cai Wenji nodded. The rest of the party members looked at Li Wei with pity. "Yes. Everyone got the same penalty with varying degree. I heard that aside from those who lost their life fighting against the demons, all the other players are receiving reduced rewards, even those who helped to save the items in the warehouses. The NPCs need someone to blame and the scapegoats are the players. The players are complaining but Gaia is not doing anything. Her role is to maintain fairness in New Earth but since she is letting the NPCs take advantage of the players, it can only mean that the person behind the demons' attack is a player."
"Do you mean that somebody is able to control the demons?" Li Wei was stunned.
"We don't know yet, but it is possible. Anyway, all of this should not affect you very much. Just look at you, you are wearing so many Grade 2 equipment! How were you even able to afford all of this? Just one piece must cost 100 gold." Cai Wenji exclaimed. He originally did not fully trust his dad and his sister's judgement of Li Wei but now, he had no choice. As an outer member who barely got any resources from the sect, Li Wei was wearing better equipment than he was. Only the core team of the main branch could rival him.
"I got one from the rewards of the Time Attack and was lucky enough to steal a few things during my emergency quest." Li Wei answered. He has already put on the [Coarse Hide Helmet] he obtained from the world record. While it did not have any skills associated with it, the helmet increased Li Wei's Endurance by seven points. A whole seven points; it meant seventy more HP which increased his max health by a third.
"You must be the luckiest man alive then. You are always using luck as an excuse. I have to thank you. I got this chestplate from the rewards and also a night vision skill."
"A skill that grant night vision? You are the one who's lucky. I only got a crappy passive skill that improves NPCs favourability toward me. But it does not work at all, see how I got the penalties despite escorting the princess."
They continued to talk for a bit. Cai Wenji was trying to unravel the mysteries of Li Wei's adventure. He knew that Li Wei was not telling him everything, but he had no obligations to do so.