16 Night Hunting

Li Wei was walking towards the town, seemingly careless but he was never really careless, after one week in such an environment and the previous ambush of the Red Bandits, he has developed a habit of constantly being on alert.

"That scene is so familiar, it reminds me of the Red Bandits !" said Li Wei while walking. He let out a smile and for a fraction of a second, intently looked at a particular bush.

And it was precisely where Scarlet Moon and his teammates were hiding. They were clearly not as skilled at hiding as the Red Bandits. Even though they could not directly be seen, the area close to that bush was messy, a lot of leaves were scattered on the floor. From that, Li Wei could determine that something was wrong and so said that sentence aloud.

...

In the bushes, Scarlet Moon and his friends were muttering among themselves when they saw Li Wei appear at the end of the path.

"Is this the easy target you were talking about? He does look very carefree, not even having a weapon."

"Yes, but look, he is level 8, while the 5 of us are only level 7. He definitely has some skills."

"Wait a minute, Seven... I have seen that name somewhere before ! Where was it ???"

"It does not matter where you saw it... We are 5 and he's clearly alone... Even if he's stronger, we outnumber him."

"Yes wait for him to pass, we'll jump behind him. Scarlet Moon will engage and we'll follow closely behind."

At that moment, they heard Li Wei's footsteps getting closer and heard him talk about the Red Bandits. They were puzzled but did not say anything, they did their best to hold their breath. Scarlet Moon was about to jump out when he suddenly felt a strong force on his collar.

"Wait, idiot, I know where I saw his name now... On the forum, yesterday night, there was someone who said that they saw a player together with the militia attacking the Solas Department Store. And that player's name was Seven."

"Ohhhh, does that mean he triggered a hidden quest? He must definitely have some good stuff on him."

"Tssskk, it's not only that, he is more skilled than he looks. A few days ago, he was able to charge onto the Leaderboard of the Tower of Heroes... It has refreshed now so you won't see his name but according to the players present, he was only level 5 but was able to defeat the 6th floor..."

They all fell silent, beating one floor above his level meant he was definitely skilled. Would their number advantage be enough?

"I say let's call it a day... We might just end up suffering for nothing..."

"You're right.. I could not even beat the 5th floor when I was level 5"

"Really? That guy definitely has good stuff on him"

"Sure then, you charge and distract him !"

"..."

The others just silently nodded, they knew that fighting against Li Wei would result in casualties and they were not willing to lose their levels for that.

...

And so, Li Wei walked pass them without nothing happening... He was puzzled, "Was I wrong ? wasn't there people hiding there ?"

Li Wei stayed on alert, but nothing happened. He safely reached the town and directly went to the inn. Most shops were already closed, he would have to wait for tomorrow to sell his harvest.

Having already collected the required number of middle-grade iron ores, Li Wei was already planning how to get the Beast Core. He needed to go night hunting, but his fatigue level was currently at 29%, it was lower than usual since he did not do much hunting today.

Li Wei could not afford to wait a whole day without doing anything productive to have good Fatigue levels. It was a good opportunity to try night hunting. Even if he could not get the Beast Core tonight, at least, he would familiarise himself with the environment at night. Li Wei then remembered that there were parties on the main street that recruited players to go night hunting.

Considering that he already had some fatigue, he decided to team up with a group. Apparently, hunting at night was much more dangerous than during the day, it was recommended to go in groups.

And so, Li Wei went for an early meal and emptied his inventory into his room before going to the main street.

...

On the main street, Li Wei quickly found what he was looking for. This time, there were actually quite a few teams across the street recruiting players. Li Wei silently observed the different teams, he did not know which one to choose, he tried to remember the faces of the team he saw last time, but could not remember them.

Having no choice, Li Wei started eliminating teams in his mind, his criteria were, of course, levels. That was the easiest way to judge someone's skill, especially in the early game. Most players hunting at night were level 8. Hunting at night was more dangerous, but also more rewarding, the monsters awarded more exp than during the day.

Eventually, Li Wei settled on a team, they were about to leave and readily accepted Li Wei. In New Earth, parties of ten could be made between players, exp obtained from slaying monsters would then be shared equally among the party members. Li Wei's party consisted of 6 members, excluding Li Wei.

There were 2 rogues, 1 paladin, 1 mage, 1 priest and 1 ranger. With Li Wei, they now had one player from each class. The team happily set off towards the Northern Forest, even though it contained level 3-6 monsters during the day, at night, all monsters gained 2 levels.

5 of the party members seemed to be friends and often hunted together, the atmosphere was very friendly and they tried readily started conversations with Li Wei and the mage.

"So have you guys ever hunted at night before ?" said Salty Boy, the paladin while looking at Li Wei and the mage.

"Nope never! Is it really much harder than during the day ?" answered Li Wei.

The mage, Forest Tiger shook his head, "Never, leveling up as a mage is much harder and I needed to get used to the skills."

"Haha, it is hard at first, but you'll get used to it pretty quickly... We all went through that."

The priest and one of the rogue also joined up the conversation, they even talked about what they did before entering New Earth. Apparently, they were colleagues at an office in Beijing, when they met each other in the game, they decided to party together.

As for the other rogue and the ranger, the 2 girls of the team, they were more reserved and chatted among themselves.

Li Wei and Forest Tiger quickly got comfortable and chatted more openly. Eventually, they reached the Northern Forest.

Li Wei looked at it and did not recognize it. It was different from during the day; the lively and calm forest now looked mysterious and creepy, from the effect of the moonlight, the branches looked like giant arms protruding out of the trees.

"Ok guys! focus now, we need to be careful. Stay behind the paladin."

The team started to carefully advance into the forest. The paladin, Salty Boy was leading the party, one rogue on each side, the ranger and the mage at the back while Li Wei and the priest were at the center. Monster encounters were more common at night, and they were quickly greeted by a bunch of wolves.

The wolves' name was different than from the day; there was an "Enraged" added before their name which was written in red, they were also level 7 instead of level 5.

The wolves quickly howled and jumped at the party, there were at 7 wolves attacking from all sides.

The Paladin quickly put himself in front of 3 wolves and activated his skill [Taunt], it was a common skill that enraged the target and attracted its aggro. The Ranger followed up and started shooting arrows at these wolves. The 2 rogues also took one wolf each and dragged them away from the Paladin.

Li Wei dashed towards the closest wolf and started hacking his sword at it. The wolf was clearly agiler than his counterpart during the day, but it was nothing compared to the bat Li Wei faced earlier in the Sealed Mine.

With his two swords, Li Wei kept poking the wolf with one and when the latter jumped at Li Wei, he would use the other sword to strike the wolf in mid-air, pushing it away.

Meanwhile, the priest was standing in the middle of everyone, healing those who needed help but focused his attention more on the Paladin. As for the mage, he engaged the last wolf and kept it at bay with the Mana Shield and Mana Bolt, but he would not last for long.

Li Wei continued to attack the wolf, its HP eventually reached one third. As if it was crazy, it crouched on the ground and then pounced right towards Li Wei. The latter tried to push the wolf away again but failed. "-17" appeared on Li Wei's chest making him take a few steps back but the wolf itself ended up dying in the assault. It looked like a desperate strike, an attack that could deal a lot of damage but at the cost of injuring itself.

Having finished the wolf, Li Wei quickly turned around to look at the situation, everyone was quite skilled, the paladin and the ranger could hold their ground, they were stalling until everyone else finished their fights.

The two rogues had depleted more than half of the HP of their respective wolf and even the mage was slowing depleting its HP with constant Mana Bolts.

Seeing that, Li Wei chose to help the mage, he had one of the weakest defense among all of them, Li Wei dashed towards the wolf who did not notice it. It was focused on the mage until it suddenly saw a blade coming from the side.

[Cleave]

"-24"

The Wolf was pushed back a few meters, it then looked angrily at Li Wei, taking an aggressive position.

The mage nodded at Li Wei and positioned himself behind Li Wei. The Wolf pounced and jumped towards Li Wei, but the mage shot a Mana Bolt disrupting the jump. Li Wei did not let go of this opportunity and stabbed the wolf to death. The wolf howled one last time before closing its eyes forever.

Meanwhile, the male rogue had already dealt with his wolf and was helping the other rogue. But the 3 wolves in front of the Paladin were still alive. The paladin himself did not deal much damage and as for the ranger, it was not that she was bad, but the wolves had high agility and would often dodge her arrows. She was frustrated with the results but there was nothing she could do but persevere.

Fortunately, Li Wei and the mage joined the fight shortly after. Outnumbered, the wolves could only fight to death; the last standing one tried to escape but was finished off by a Mana Bolt before it could succeed.

"Good Job everyone! It wasn't that hard right? 7 at once are rare, we usually get 4 or 5 at a time but this time we have a great mage and a great warrior with us" said Salty Boy while grinning.

After that, they all sat down to rest a little, then came the distribution of the loot, even though the exp was equally shared, the loots weren't but they had originally accepted to equally share them. There were seven wolves and seven of them which was perfect for distribution.

The priest drank a Mana Potion and the whole group went back to hunting. He was the only one who did not take damage, but his Mana Bar was completely empty after casting heal so many times.

Li Wei quickly noticed that there were much more monsters than during the day, usually, players would encounter groups of 3-4 monsters but now they encountered 5-6 at once. But Li Wei did not complain, they were basically free exp.

In addition to monsters, many resources were also available, wild herbs and medicinal plants could be easily found around the forest. That was not due to the night cycle, but rather due to the fact that much fewer players were present there during the night.

After a few hours, the harvest was bountiful, they killed a total of 31 wolves and 11 bears. Fortunately, no parrots were found, they would not attack during the night as it would be too hard to track them down in this dark environment. Li Wei had obtained a bunch of exp and now had (3182/4000).

It was already 23:49, usually players would hunt until about 3:00, so it was a good time for a pause. The party settled down and ate some snacks since it was the first time Li Wei and the mage went out night hunting, they brought nothing, but the team graciously shared some with them. They were not hungry, but eating was a way to decrease fatigue and fatigue accumulated faster when hunting at night, for instance, Li Wei's fatigue level was already at 51%.

After eating it was time to hunt again, but they did not go any deeper into the forest, instead, they walked back towards the town.

Puzzled, Li Wei asked, "Why don't we continue forward? Is there a problem ?"

The Priest quickly responded "Ummm, ahead is the territory of the Wolf Queen, it's a level 9 boss. We tried to fight it yesterday, but we were utterly crushed. We even had to abandon Salty Boy to escape, that's why he was only level 7 when you met him earlier"

Li Wei looked at the team who was showing embarrassed expressions, "Oh that's why !"

But then Li Wei thought of something, wasn't that what he was looking for? A Boss that spawns during the night? One that could drop a Beast Core!

It was an opportunity to get the Beast Core, but it was also dangerous, if the team was defeated easily by it, it would be really hard to get the Core, and there was also the problem of loot distribution, he did not know what the boss would drop and there might be conflicts; he would then be alone against a team of 5, maybe even 6.