53 The Graveyard of Longsoul 1

[System prompt: You have completed a training cycle of [Gliding Steps], completion rate: 90%]

[System prompt: Congratulations player Seven, mastery of Gliding Steps has reach 100/100, you have obtained the skills: Gliding Steps]

"Finally!" exclaimed Li Wei. He just finished his daily training session of the Gliding Steps and had finally obtained his skill.

[Gliding Steps (level 0)]

Creates a thin layer of air under the user's feet, allowing the user to glide onto the ground for 1 second

Mana Cost: 5

Cooldown: 0

Mastery: 4/1000

Note: Mastery increases when practicing a cycle of the training technique. Fill in the Mastery bar to level up the skill.

Li Wei was currently in one of the private training room of the sect at the Training Center. After emptying his inventory at the Fleeting Clouds Sect's Headquarters for 1930 contribution points, he immediately came here.

After a whole week, he was finally rewarded with the skill he asked for when joining the guild. Unable to wait, he immediately activated the skill and leaned to the left.

Li Wei suddenly felt very light and unstable, it was something he experienced before. He tried to recall where he experienced that feeling and found the answer. It felt exactly like the last time he went ice skating! He felt insecure for a moment, but as he found that he could control his balance, he calmed himself.

But that feeling suddenly disappeared as abruptly as it appeared, one second was already over causing his feet to come back into contact with the ground. As that happened, Li Wei almost lost his balance but managed to remain standing.

"Looks like just acquiring the skill is not enough, I still need to practice it to not ridicule myself," said Li Wei.

Although he still needed some work to be able to use the skill properly, Li Wei was very satisfied. He was doubting whether he made the right choice in choosing this skill but now, he wasn't anymore. In addition to strengthening his legs, the training technique also gave him a very flexible skill. Although he liked and was inspired by the Red Bandit Leader's dual sword style, Li Wei did not want to exactly copy it; he just wanted to use this as a base and customize it to his own style.

He thought of the Gliding Steps as a way to make his moves less predictable, he could swing his sword and if his opponent reacted by blocking, he could simply glide to the side to change the trajectory of his swords. Just that one skill already increased the range of moves he could do.

Since his Fatigue level was still within the acceptable range, Li Wei sat down to attempt the meditation technique he received. Although it would only give him more Wisdom, it was better than nothing.

He quickly sat down and cleared his mind. It was the first time he was trying this technique and it was completely different from the Gliding Steps. After 30 minutes, the system prompt came:

[System prompt: You have completed a training cycle of [Clarity of the mind], completion rate: 62%]

"Wow, only 62% I did not know it was that bad!" said Li Wei. He was obviously not satisfied with his performance. Even if it was his first time trying something like that, it was still a blow at his moral.

"Nevermind that! Let's head back quickly... There's the guild's event tomorrow, I have to sleep early to get rid of all the Fatigue"

...

The next morning, Li Wei woke up earlier than usual. He was back at 10% Fatigue which was a reasonable level. The reason he woke up early was that it was time to refill his potions; after his journey, most of his potions were exhausted and since he was going to the guild's event later, he needed to be prepared. Fortunately, NPCs' shops at Algate city were open 24/7.

He decided to leave behind the antidotes crafted by the Lake Fairy and all the non-combat related items in his room. He was provided with a chest in which he could safely store his items. As for his money, he still did not decide how to use it properly and chose to postpone that for later.

It did not take long for him to run his errands and he quickly arrived at the Fleeting Clouds Sect's Headquarters. He came in quite early but many players were already present. Even Cai Wenji and Bright Sun were in the hall waiting for others to arrive.

"We won't be in the same team this time, my sister and I will be going with some members from the main branch of the Cai Family," said Cai Wenji as he greeted Li Wei.

"Really? Why is that the case? " asked Li Wei.

"We are going to try to snatch back the record from the Stone Defenders this time, so they want to put the strongest together. Apparently, the family recently recruited a pro-player and we would be in the same party as him!" explained Bright Sun.

"You should have probably heard about him, he was last year's MVP of the Overload tournament, King of Champions. He came to China after having been invited to join the Chinese team, but he did not get to play this season due to the global disaster," continued Cai Wenji.

"King of Champions? " thought Li Wei. He naturally knew who that person was. He was a god-tier player in the most popular MMORPG, Overload. Since Li Wei played many games before, he naturally watched streams and pro tournament, there was no way he would not know who was that legendary figure.

"Look, it's that guy over there! " said Bright Sun as she pointed towards a tall Caucasian man. "He was previously a member of the Gem Family, but for some reasons, he decided to leave and was recruited by our family. "

Li Wei turned his attention to the tall man. He clearly stood out of the crowd but Li Wei could not help but feel that something was wrong with this man. Just from one look, Li Wei felt that he did not like him. The smug smile on his face kept irritating Li Wei.

As he was watching King of Champions talk to 3 other members of the Fleeting Clouds Sect, Li Wei suddenly felt a strong tap on his shoulder. He looked behind only to find The One Hero grinning at him. Behind him, Forge God and Silent Day were smiling and waving at him.

"You guys stay here, we have to go and meet King of Champions, Forge God has the team compositions we prepared," said Cai Wenji as he left with his sister.

"King of Champions? What a name! That guy better not shame himself when I will beat him up!" said The One Hero.

"So? What are the teams' composition?" asked Li Wei, completely ignoring The One Hero.

"None of us are together, there'll be one rogue, one mage, one priest and one paladin in yours, I believe you've never met them," said Forge God.

Silent Day quickly added, "we will all try to beat the Graveyard of Longsoul first and we need a balanced team to succeed, this Time Attack is limited to groups of 5 players under level 15, therefore, we cannot be together because 3 warriors in one team isn't optimal and don't worry, you'll be given information about the strategy to follow before entering."

Li Wei nodded, her explanation made sense and he did not know much about the Graveyard of Longsoul.

30 minutes later, Li Wei's new team arrived. His new team leader, Cai Jing was someone from the main branch of the Cai Family. He quickly gave everyone a sheet of paper which explained in details the strategy they would adopt.

All Li Wei's team members actually came from the main branch of the Cai Family and it was clear that they were more arrogant than Cai Wenji and Bright Sun due to their superior status. They did not really like the fact that Li Wei joined their party this time; in their eyes, he only got to join them to fill in the gaps and would drag them down.

They were still polite but did not try to bond with him. Li Wei also did not mind and simply studied the strategy.

Following that, the whole group moved to the Hall of Fame where the Time Attacks took place. It was situated in the War District and was isolated from the rest of the buildings. Its architecture made it look like a Roman building with large pillars at the entrance.

Many players were already there attempting to beat the Time Attacks. As they went in, Li Wei was surprised to find such a large and open hall. Despite the number of players, there was still a lot of space.

He followed the group and went to a slightly smaller hall, inside were 3 large paintings each showing different landscapes. On the one to the right, was an island in the middle of the sea; on the one on the left, was the entrance to a cavern covered with spider webs and on the middle one was a graveyard full of tombs and gravestones.

Above each one of the 3 paintings were 3 screens displaying the records; one for the whole world, one for the Dominion Empire and one for Algate City.

Li Wei was naturally curious to find the time they would need to beat but was surprised to see how mediocre Algate City's performance was. It might be due to the incident at the dungeon causing the players to lose at least a level, but the lowest time of Algate City was 31 minutes, while the lowest time of the Dominion Empire was 27 minutes.

4 minutes was a lot of time when it came to this sort of activity. It was important to note that players needed to be level 15 or below for their time to be recorded on the screen. Even if just one player was above level 15, then the whole party's time would be voided.

While players could freely communicate with others within their empire, they could not do so to the other empires and therefore, most of the names of the players on the world record screen were only displayed as "???". They could only see which empire the record holders came from.

But what really surprised Li Wei was that next to the world record, there was only 1 "???". That meant that a player soloed the entire Time Attack and was still able to beat the time of a full party of five players. Although his time was not far away from the others at 26:19, it was still a feat since he was able to do that alone.

But what was even more impressive, was that the world records of the 3 different Time Attacks all belonged to that one person! While Li Wei was surprised, all the other players did not seem flustered about this. They came here several times but that one person had always been at top of the screen. They were all irritated when they discovered that just one person could be their team of five. But there was nothing they could do, there was no way to communicate with other empires for now, all they knew was that that one person came from the Millenium Empire.

"Enough losing time, let's go! We need to get that record!" said Cai Jing as he lead the way to the middle painting. As he arrived in front of the painting, he did not stop but continued forward. As he was about to hit the painting, the latter seemed to distort for a second and Cai Jing was absorbed inside.

The rest of Li Wei's team quickly followed one by one and disappeared in the painting. Li Wei also silently went in under the eyes of the surrounding players.

...

"Go! You two block those skeletons on the left! I'll deal with this undead corpse. Seven! You go deal with these 2 skeletons on the right!" declared Cai Jing as soon as Li Wei entered. He did not even spare a glance at his team and walked forward to get into the range of the undead corpse.

Li Wei did not say anything and drew his blades. Even though Cai Jing was rough, he understood that it was time to be serious; the timer would start as soon as all the five players would enter the painting. So, there was no time to recover; in this case, even 1 second could cost them a record.

The atmosphere was gloomy. The 5 players were currently standing at the entrance of the graveyard. In front of them, several creepy gravestones were scattered everywhere and between them, were undead wandering endlessly. There was also a pale transparent mist that covered the graveyard, slightly reducing the visibility but also making the area look more spooky.

But there was no time to look at the landscape, the Paladin and the Rogue immediately went to intercept the 2 skeletons on the left while the priest stood by Cai Jing.

Li Wei diligently followed the instructions and swung his swords at the 2 skeletons on the right. They were level 10 skeletons and were relatively weak but that was because they were still at the gate! The monsters would keep getting stronger as they progressed inside. While Li Wei's team consisted of level 12 and level 13 players, the final boss of this Time Attack, "Longsoul" was a level 15 Lich but no one seemed to mind fighting a boss 2 levels above their own.