Abe's Forest(1)

While Li Wei was peacefully sleeping, things were completely different at Algate City. At the Raflore Mansion, servants and messengers were constantly relaying messages.

"Send five more squads and put the city in an emergency state!" said the with an exhausted expression. It was finally time for him to meet his wife after a long day of sorting out documents but as he was about to leave, a group of panicked secretaries suddenly barged into his office informing him of the events.

According to a report by the guards at the dungeon, a monster wave was about to crash onto the city. The exact origin of that wave was unknown. They suspected that the adventurers caused it due to their strange behavior earlier during the day.

"Sir Marquis! This is unacceptable. It has not even been a week since they arrived, and the adventurers already caused a monster wave! We cannot allow them to do as they want!" declared a secretary. There was no clear proof that the adventurers were the cause, but the adventurers were an easy scapegoat to blame.

"Then what do you propose?" sighed the Marquis. He was already annoyed at being delayed and now the secretary was delaying him even more. But he understood that the secretary was right. If the adventurers were to bring more trouble to the city, it would definitely be detrimental to him.

"Very simple, Sir Marquis. Just make the adventurers defend the city! They caused this situation! They should at least help in resolving the trouble they caused. They are just going to revive upon death anyway, it will serve them a lesson!"

"Yes Sir, you can simply pass it as a command to help defend the town!"

...

Gem Family headquarters,

An emergency meeting was being held to discuss today's event. Not only were all the important figures having the names of gemstones present, but a group of players known to have formed part of the programming team of the game was present.

Diamond: "What was that earlier? I thought the first event was supposed to be Halloween in a few months' time?"

"This... I don't know. We did not program anything like that. Maybe it was done by another team or it might even be something that Gaia decided to implement so that we do not rely on our knowledge of the game," answered one of the programmers.

"So useless! Why did we even invite you here if you cannot provide reliable information of the game!" commented Crystal.

"Alright thank you, sirs." Amethyst dismissed the programmers by waving her hand. They all already knew that the programmers were not to be blamed but everyone was already on their nerves after dying today during the event.

Ruby: "How should we respond to that? It is clear that the Stone Defenders came out on top! Even though they all died, they collected a massive amount of exp in those tunnels. They should still be level 12 while we are back down to level 10!"

Diamond: "Then explain what exactly happened. How did we miss that opportunity?"

Sapphire: "Apparently, it was all due to the special quest available this morning. We ignored it but the Stone Defenders took it seriously and got the map of all the 10 floors of the dungeon. We don't have much information but according to our spies, the maps contained a message. From the way the floors were arranged, if you look at the whole map, they contained indications on positions of secret rooms. While some secret rooms contained items, there was a particular one which looked like a dormitory for monsters. The Stone Defenders took advantage of that and slaughtered their way through while the monsters were caught unaware and obtained a lot of exp from that."

Opal: "Did they exploit a bug? If so, we just need to report to Gaia!"

Diamond: "We already made a report but apparently everything was in order! Those bastards were the only one to profit from that. We all died in vain and.."

At that moment, an announcement was heard:

[Announcement: A monster wave is on its way to Algate City. The wind marquis decreed that all players are to contribute to the defense! Players ignoring this call to arms will be sent to jail]

...

The Gem Family was not the only one having a meeting, the Fleeting Clouds Sect was also discussing today's event when they heard the announcement.

A few seconds later, a quest was given to all players present at Algate City:

[System prompt: You have received the quest, "Defend the city against the Monster Wave"]

[Information]

A Monster Wave is coming from the Algate Dungeon. Join the guards to protect the city.

Reward: None

Note: Failure to contribute to the defense will result in the player being sent to jail.

"This! What the hell is that! Not only did we die in the dungeon! Now we also have to defend the city! Isn't that equivalent to asking us to die again? How can we fight against level 30 monsters?" exclaimed Wang Hao.

The player present were all the figureheads of their respective family. As soon as they obtained the notification, they were all furious about it.

"What do we do? Do we have to attend this?" asked a player by the IGN, Mist Soldier.

"There is no other choice. If we go to jail, we won't even get to farm monsters for a whole week. Dying once is nothing compared to that... But those Stone Defenders must definitely pay for what they did!" declared Wang Chong.

...

Li Wei was unaware of the events occurring at the city. He did not receive the new quest since he left earlier and did not receive any message since he muted the guild chat.

A day later, the sun was high in the sky when Li Wei finally arrived at his destination. Abe's Forest was in view. Next to it was a giant lake known as the Gassian Lake. After these two and a half days of traveling, Li Wei finally collected enough exp from riding the horse and some night hunting to level up.

Now that he was level 11, he was more confident than ever in succeeding. The free stat point was naturally immediately attributed to Dexterity, pushing it to 21.

The reason Li Wei came here was for the Shining Alyssums. These flowers could be found at the bank of Lake to the side of the forest. This location contained monsters ranging from level 12 to 18 but Li Wei still dared to come here since his goal was not the monsters but the flowers. They were relatively rare, but since he was the first to come to this area, he was confident to be able to gather five.

Li Wei took the opportunity to go by the lake. He was surprised to see a dozen cottages on the bank. Several people were fishing in the lake; some were standing on the banks while others were on boats in the middle of the Lake.

As Li Wei approached the group of people on the bank, the fishermen angrily immediately stared at him and quickly told him to dismount and to bring the horse away. According to them, the constant "Clip Clop Clip Clop" made by Mirabel's steps were scaring away the fishes.

With no other choices, Li Wei silently dismounted. These seemingly weak fishermen were all at least level 20. After exchanging a few whispers, a kind fisherman took pity on him and gave him the permission to tie his horse to one of the trees in a cottage's garden. It was what Li Wei was looking for. Abe's Forest was different from the nameless forest. He could not simply attach the horse to one of the trees there.

With his horse in a safe place, Li Wei decided to start looking for the Shining Alyssums. According to his schedule, he had about 2 days times to search the area. The fishermen angrily stared at him as he walked past them as his steps were 'loud' even if he tried to walk as silently as possible. To avoid further annoying them, Li Wei quickened his steps and reached the forest.

Being close to the lake, this part of the forest was not very dense. Rays of light easily went through the foliage. Apart from looking more luxuriant, there was no big difference between Abe's forest and the previous one he went through.

Although it looked very peaceful and safe, hidden dangers were everywhere. It did not take long for Li Wei to find a level 16 boa lazily lying on a branch. It turned its head to look at Li Wei but did not bother to move to attack him.

Li Wei became extremely vigilant, looking everywhere around him. He changed direction to avoid the boa. He clearly knew that he stood no chance against a beast 5 levels above him. The only monster he told himself he would try to fight if he met one was the level 12 Forest Spider which was the weakest monster there.

With swords in hands, Li Wei walked as silently as possible. Always avoiding the beasts in the surroundings. After more than 30 minutes of search, he still failed to find any Shining Alyssums.

After 30 more minutes of hide and seek with the beasts, Li Wei finally saw what he came for, under the shade of a tree, a lonely flower was standing there under the protection of a level 16 boa. The latter was seemingly asleep, hanging to the lowest branch of the tree.

Having finally found his target, Li Wei quickly jumped behind a nearby tree, afraid of alerting the boa. "What should I do? Is it really asleep? Or should I divert its attention somewhere else?"

Li Wei had no knowledge of the boa's aggro range, but he was certain that the flower was within it. Hesitating for a second, he finally decided to perform some tests. Taking out a rather large piece of meat that he prepared in advance, he readjusted his position and moved a few steps forward.

As quietly as possible, he tossed the piece of meat at about 10 meters from the boa and immediately hid behind a tree.

No response. The boa continued to quietly sleep despite the "Thumm" caused by the meat when it landed.

Tiptoeing, Li Wei collected that piece of meat back and returned to his position. After a quick look to make sure the boa was still sleeping, he tossed the meat again but this time, at about 8 meters from the boa.

No response. Again, nothing happened. Li Wei was relieved but at the same time, he felt the tension building up. He collected the meat again and repeated the steps, this time, 6 meters from the boa.

Still no response. The boa did not seem to have noticed anything. Anxious, Li Wei waited a little bit longer than usual before he once again stepped forward to grab the piece of meat.

But as he grabbed the meat, "Hisss Hisss" Li Wei suddenly tensed, he raised his head only to find that the boa was still quietly sleeping. "Was it my imagination?" thought Li Wei.

He was about to return back to his position when he suddenly felt danger. All his senses were screaming, telling him to jump to the side. Without hesitation, Li Wei rolled to the side and as he was turning onto himself, he saw a level 15 boa crawling behind him.

"Gasp"

Unfortunately for him, his sudden movement alerted the sleeping boa which opened its eyes and immediately turned its attention to Li Wei. The piece of meat actually landed just outside the aggro range of the boa, but as Li Wei rolled to the side, he inadvertently entered the aggro range for a moment.

"Hisss hiss", the two snakes slowly crawled towards Li Wei. They were relatively slow but Li Wei did not dare delay and quickly took some steps back.

'Me and my sh*tty luck'

Grinding his teeth, Li Wei was about to turn and flee when he noticed a small detail about the two boas, they were staring at him but more precisely at his hand holding the large piece of meat.

A thought crossed his mind, "Would they be more interested in the piece of meat than me if I toss it away?"

Li Wei immediately moved the piece of meat to his other hand only to notice that the eyes of the boas followed the piece of meat. Gaining some confidence, Li Wei quickly tossed it to the side but he did not immediately rush to the flower. He continued to slowly retreat for a moment.

As they saw the piece of meat flying, the two boas hissed loudly before crawling as fast as they could towards the juicy meat. The snake that was previously sleeping stopped for a second to look at Li Wei with hesitation but as it saw the other boa completely ignoring the human, it quickly also decided to turn its attention to the meat. Between chasing a human that he was not even guaranteed to catch and an immobile piece of meat that was lying a few meters away from it, it naturally chose the latter.

Li Wei tensed as his eyes met that of the boa. He let out a sigh of relief as he saw the boa ignore him for the piece of meat. Not daring to stay there any longer, he quickly went around the boas to collect the Shining Alyssum.

"Hiss hiss!"

As soon as Li Wei picked the yellowish flower and put it in his inventory, the hissing sound of the snakes once again reached his ears. Taking a quick look, he found the two snakes breaking into a fight, it seemed that the level 15 boa engulfed the whole piece of meat leaving nothing for the level 16 one. The latter immediately got enraged and started hissing wildly.

Li Wei did not dare stay, having already obtained what he wanted. He preferred to stay far away from these creatures.

A few minutes later, the two snakes finally separated themselves and the level 16 boa slowly returned to its previous location. It was badly injured but it still came out on top and forced the other boa to regurgitate the piece of meat. As it arrived at its spot, it immediately noticed that the Shining Alyssum was missing.

"Hisss!"

Enraged, the boa quickly coiled around the stem of the tree to gain some height and look around. But he did not find anything, the human was nowhere to be seen. Fury appeared in its eye. Unfortunately, Li Wei was already hundreds of meters away.