Fire

"Did you even look out for some information before coming up with this idea? The spider webs are resistant to magic!" answered Li Yuxin. Seeing his expression, Li Yuxin even thought for a moment that he might have come up with a good plan. But the answer crushed all these thoughts.

But Li Wei ignored her disappointed look, "Precisely! It's resistant to magic! Not to fire... You know? The normal fire... Not the one you do with magic... As simple as that."

"Normal fire?" A spark appeared in Li Yuxin's eyes, "People have already tried that before! From what I know, I doubt the fire will reach the last room in time. Although the spider webs are connected, there might be some problems when it comes to air, the tunnels are not that wide, and we don't know about the ventilation of the cave!"

"That's true! But you will see. My initial idea was indeed just to set up a fire, but now, I thought of a way to spread it really quickly!"

A few minutes later, Cai Wenji and Bright Sun arrived accompanied by Forge God, Titan, and The One Hero.

"They've all signed the contract and will go in turn if the plan succeeds," said Cai Wenji as soon as they arrived.

Li Wei nodded, "Good! Then let's distribute the items."

Hearing that, Bright Sun quickly initiated a trade with Li Wei. On the screen, he could see a hundred opaque gallons. He quickly accepted and waited for Bright Sun to trade with Li Yuxin.

When the latter saw the items, she suspiciously looked at Bright Sun. "What are those? Is it not just burning the lair?"

"It's just cooking oil!"

"Cooking oil!?" exclaimed Li Yuxin but her mind was already thinking about the different scenarios

...

After a few minutes of explanation, the party finally entered Alyssa's Lair. This time, Titan would act as the fifth member.

In fact, with this strategy, just one player was needed. Having more players would not influence the outcome too much but this way, more people could benefit from the reward.

As soon as they appeared in front of the cave, the 5 players immediately rushed towards it. They had already discussed how to act. Although there was no pressure, everyone was excited and wanted to see if it would really succeed.

Li Yuxin was the fastest. Her long sword was already drawn and quickly cut through the spider web at the entrance, revealing the dirty cave.

"Quick!"

Li Wei, who was just behind Li Yuxin, took a bottle out of his inventory and immediately poured the liquid inside on the nearby spider web. A strong smell of alcohol immediately permeated the air.

Li Yuxin frowned and took a few steps back. It was not only to get away from the strong smell but also for her safety. Even Li Wei quickly took a few steps back.

A few seconds later, Cai Wenji tossed the lighted torch in his hands. This was a common item that could be bought in most stores; they were typically used when players would go to the mines or would want to travel at night.

Everyone watched as the lighted torch drew a beautiful arc. Time seemed to slow down as the torch slowly descended towards the spider web. But as soon as it made contact, everyone's face was suddenly assaulted by a heat wave as the spider web suddenly burst into flames.

It did not matter that they were slightly moist due to the morning dew. After being covered with cheap alcohol from Li Wei's bottle, all the nearby spider webs became extremely flammable! With that, the first part of the plan was completed.

However, as Bright Sun explained, the lair was not very large, the tunnels had some narrow parts and so, as the fire would travel along the tunnel, it would slowly burn down the oxygen of the cave. As it would emit a lot of smoke, there were some specific locations where the smoke would accumulate and push back the oxygen.

But this is where the second part of Li Wei's plan came into play.

Despite the strong heat, nobody backed down and everyone started taking out gallons after gallons.

They were full of cooking oil. Alcohol was only used to quickly light up the fire to a certain extent! But it was not appropriate to allow the fire to keep burning and so, they settled on another cheap and accessible liquid: cooking oil.

Li Wei and his party were standing about 5 meters from the raging fire! They did not dare approach too much but that would not affect the result.

They all quickly started pouring out the liquids out of the gallons. They divided themselves into 2 teams, each one pouring a different liquid.

The girls were pouring cooking oil. The gallons were large and could contain up to 10 L of oil. But since they were in the game, the girls easily lifted the bottles and emptied them quickly. They could easily pour two or three bottles at a time, simply by tilting one or two bottles near their feet and using their hands for the other.

As for the men, they were simply pouring water out of large gallons!

"Bllggh Bllgggghh" Huge amounts of water flowed out, carrying the cooking oil towards the raging fire! As soon as they came into contact, the raging fire seemed to suddenly become even more excited, like someone who was just starting to feel the effect of an aphrodisiac.

The oil, carried by the water, caught fire and immediately started to flow deeper into the lair. Very quickly, all Li Wei and the others could see was fire!

Due to Alyssa's Lair's design, the floor was slightly inclined such that the entrance would be at a higher level than the end of the dungeon! All they needed to do, was to pour the liquids from the entrance and eventually, they would reach Alyssa's room!

Even as part of the fire was being carried deep into the lair, the fire near the entrance was slowly spreading through the spider webs, climbing up to the walls and roof.

The plan was simple! Use alcohol to initiate the fire, use cooking oil to fuel it and use water to carry it down the lair!

Everybody knew that cooking oil would float over the water! That way, the fire would keep burning even if water was added; it was common knowledge. And so, they decided to use water as a way to carry that burning fire deep into the lair! Making fire was great, but what was the point if it could not reach Alyssa?

"It's really working!" said Li Yuxin while looking at the huge flames in front of her. Her hands were still moving, continuously pouring out more oil. They did not know how much was needed in order for the liquid to reach the end of the cave but since it was cheap, they continued to pour more and more!

"Did you think it would fail?" asked Bright Sun.

"That guy did not even explain his plan to me correctly! I only learned about it 5 minutes earlier!" said Li Yuxin. A few seconds later, she showed a conflicted expression as she thought: "Does that mean we won't duel?"

The three men were quickly emptying gallon after gallon. But very quickly, they all started coughing. Even the flames were starting to waver.

"Cough cough!"

"Cough!

[Twister]

Seeing the situation, Li Wei immediately used his ring's skill. It was the one Li Yuxin brought! When they were trading at the Hall of Fame, she also took out the rings and gave one to each member.

They all already understood the situation; the flames were wavering because of the lack of oxygen! It was something that crossed Li Wei's mind.

But this was not really a problem since considering the amount of liquid they poured, he estimated that the fire had already reached Alyssa's lair and should at this moment be slowly roasting the Spider Queen. However, he decided to bring a way to ensure the circulation of air.

Wind magically started blowing and the flames regained their strength. The Twister was aimed at a random spot in front of him. It did not matter where it was used, its sole purpose was to create an air current and possibly refill the oxygen inside this part of the tunnel. He did not know if this would be useful, the fire might already have died down somewhere but at least, it helped them stay near the fire!

On another note, it did not really matter if all the flames died down since that would mean that all the oxygen would be used up! As a result, all the spiders would also perish; like many living organisms, spiders needed oxygen to survive! At this point, the fire was already raging everywhere in the lair. If it died down, that would simply mean that all the oxygen of the lair was used up! As such, either the spiders died by the fire or by lack of oxygen!

And that was without even taking into consideration the smoke generated by the flame that would disorient and slowly kill the poor insects.

The idea of Li Wei did not revolve simply on the fact that the spider webs would burn with normal fire! It was the act of quickly transporting the fire inside the lair that was the determinant factor.

With the newly oxygenized air, the fire regained its former vigor and burned down everything in front of the party.

"Alyssa should already be suffering! Look at your event logs, it says that we killed some spiders!" said Bright Sun.

It was effectively like she said, everyone in the party received event logs during the last minute. They received some exp along with it. Everyone was delighted, the plan was really working!

Additionally, they could check the % completion of the Time Attack! Right now, only 2 minutes have passed since the start of the Time Attack but the % completion was already at a staggering 85%

"It is true! We might beat the world record of three minutes!" exclaimed Cai Wenji. At this point, they did not know if it still mattered if they poured in more liquid, but they continued their tasks just to be safe.

The fire might have already died down in the middle of the lair between Alyssa's room and the entrance, but they nevertheless continued.

The % completion slowly climbed up and was now at 93%

Suddenly, "Thump thump!"

Muffled noises came from the depth of the lair. Everyone held their breath. Between the flames, they saw the large silhouette of the Spider Queen appeared!

She was nothing like her usual terrifying appearance. Her entire body was covered with ashes and burn marks, her grey arms were carrying two of her eggs. Her eyes were full of fury as she painfully tried to charge towards the exit!

Her HP bar was almost depleted! She barely had 10% of her HP but as a boss, it was still a significant amount. But as she walked through the flames, her HP bar started to dwindle very quickly!

"You! How dare you, my daughters! They were all burnt!!!" screamed Alyssa. She quickened her steps as one of her eggs fell into the flames creating another explosion.

The completion rate rose to 94%.

"There's only her and her egg left. Stop pouring oil, attack now!" shouted Cai Wenji. He quickly analyzed the situation and drew a short crossbow.

The best scenario would have been if one of them was a mage or a ranger, but they did not have this luxury. As a rogue, Cai Wenji also used a mini crossbow. He quickly shot a few bolts at Alyssa, further reducing her HP. But the Spider Queen persisted. She looked like a demon walking out of Hell Fire.

Li Yuxin also saw the situation and quickly reacted, her long sword immediately flashed as she activated her skill: [Blade Draw]

The wind blade flew towards the Spider Queen who had no choice but to let go of her last egg. For a moment, sadness could be seen on her burnt face, but that emotion was quickly replaced by fury!

She only had 2% HP left. She knew very well that her life would end here. But there was no way she would make it easy for her lair's invaders.

Her HP plummeted to 1% as she closed the gap between her and the party. However, Titan was there to intercept her. His large shield blocked her claw-like hands. And before she could do anything else, her body was pierced on both sides by Li Wei and Li Yuxin.

"Ahhh! Dirty humans! You shall regret this!!!" Her scream filled the lair as Alyssa closed her eyes with a painful expression.

At the same time, the long-desired system prompt came in:

[System prompt: Congratulation for completing the Time Attack: Alyssa's Lair. Your final time is 2:39]

"We really did it?" murmured Bright Sun as she stood there in daze.

"You… Were you a pyromaniac or an arsonist in real life!? How could you come up with such a perverse idea!?" exclaimed Li Yuxin.

As for Cai Wenji and Titan, they both slapped Li Wei on the back. "Good job!"

The latter silently smiled as he watched the fire slowly die down. The world record was now his! But that did not mean he would stop there!