Chapter 732: Out goes spring, it“s autumn once more! Changes and progress...
The weather inside Aincrad is undoubtedly one of the best ever on record.
Like the real world, this game world had seasons as well. However, the weather inside here isn"t as random as the weather in the real world. The weather is a bad girl, she didn"t need permission from anybody. Seasonal s.h.i.+fts also happen so gradually one wouldn"t normally notice it.
Unlike the real world, the weather in this world is determined by factors that were fixed from the start of the game. Somebody set a certain date up with a sunny sky and a rainy one the next day.
Due to this, a lot of players were expecting this great weather with this pattern in mind.
Even in the most desolate floors with ice everywhere, there will be brief sunlight and clear skies for that floor. On floors with perpetually beautiful weather, well, things are going to kick up a notch and the weather will be so fine it"s like somebody glazed a layer of honey over the whole floor. The whole floor smelled like flowers and the breeze is just spectacular.
Aincrad, 22nd-floor, in front of the lake...
In casual clothes, Wu Yan was fis.h.i.+ng while yawning in boredom. He looked at the scenic lake. In his vision, an indicator was floating up and down. Fis.h.i.+ng is a test of patience, it also tested one"s attention span. If that was the case, Wu Yan failed miserably because he"s still yawning like n.o.body"s business. He looked at the indicator from time to time but he"s not too focused on it.
n.o.body blamed him. The weather inside Aincrad is just too good, it"s practically a sin for someone who favors sleeping to be awake right now!
Yet, here he is... fis.h.i.+ng for a fish that won"t bite.
Any fis.h.i.+ng expert would judge Wu Yan poorly. If a player like him can get a fish, the price of fish would surely plummet.
And those people would have spoken too soon. If they saw the fishes swimming around in the pail beside Wu Yan, their jaws would drop to the ground. There were at least a dozen fishes in the pail and they were all beautiful catches too!
He is someone who can break the common sense of the "experts".
While Wu Yan waited with a tired look, another fish got hooked. He casually pulled the fish up and he tossed it into the pail beside him. Wu Yan mumbled.
"I think that should be enough?..."
Wu Yan stored away his fis.h.i.+ng rod and he picked up the pail beside him. He clicked invisible b.u.t.tons and the pail disappeared in a flash of light. He had put the fishes away in his inventory
He shook the empty pail and he started moving in the direction of his home.
"I can just fish up some more, tomorrow..."
Wu Yan sounded so lazy, put a pillow on his face and you wouldn"t be faulted for thinking he"s just murmuring in his sleep. Wu Yan sounded unfazed. This is a man who used one year to max out his fis.h.i.+ng skill.
That"s right, one year has gone by since the raid players took down the 75th-floor boss!
In the span of one year, a lot transpired. Wu Yan is ignorant of most of the mundane stuff despite standing at the apex. He used most of his time grinding to make sure his strength doesn"t fall relative to others. Other than that, the remainder of his time were spent with his wife and daughter. They lived like a happy family.
Like a hermit that distance himself from affairs of others, Wu Yan & Asuna were mostly clueless of the events that happened outside of their home. However, they both kept tabs on important events, only ignoring the useless news.
They were well-informed on the progress of the raid members, floor clears. For example, they are aware of cataclysm that fell upon the Divine Dragon Alliance.
This happened soon after the death of the 75th-floor boss. On the 76th-floor, the Dragons found the boss room ahead of others.
The guild leader at the time must have been high on virtual has.h.i.+sh or something. He omitted the discovery and he took his own elite team which made up half of his core members to try and take on the floor boss.
The bosses after the quarter-floor bosses were relatively easy in the past and they offered a very lucrative reward against risk ratio. Although the bosses were strong, they were nowhere near the strength of the quarter floor bosses.
They must have took a bet on this information and they wanted to hog the juicy loot...
Blinded by avarice, the Dragons challenged the floor boss. The rest was history...
Although the 76th-floor boss was weak, weaker than both the 74th-floor boss and the 75th-floor boss, it was still a formidable boss that posed a tremendous risk to any guild, much less an unprepared guild like the Dragons. What did they think was going to happen?
They weren"t as lucky as the Army when they screwed up last time. Wu Yan and Asuna saved their b.u.t.ts. This time, everyone including the guild leader at the time died in the boss room. Having suffered a major blow like this, the Dragons bowed out just like the Army did in the past.
Presently, there are only the Knights of the Blood Oath, the Moonlit Black Cats, and Fuurinkazan on the frontlines...
Their mistakes taxed the clearers heavily. Signs of a feeble raid group emerged during the second raid on the 76-th floor. Wu Yan lent a helping hand and they slaughtered the floor boss. He unlocked the 77th-floor for all the players. Giving them some s.p.a.ce to recoup lost strength.
The remaining three guilds were worth their salt. They tried even harder after rising beyond the 76-th floor. The Knights, the Cats, and Fuurinkazan expanded vigorously.
In the end, their fervent and undying pa.s.sion accelerated allowed them to take down the 77th-floor, 78th-floor, and the 79th-floor without Wu Yan"s help.
Heathcliff also stopped inviting Wu Yan after that point.
Wu Yan"s relations.h.i.+p with the raid group went back to how it was in the past.
The two parties competed against each other.
Whoever found the floor boss first gets to kill it. Just like how things were before the 75th-floor.
The clearers made tremendous progress, that much was evident to anyone who observed them. Even after losing a clearing guild, they still pulled themselves together and they cleared floors after floors without Wu Yan"s help. Asuna who went training with Wu Yan also picked up quite a few tricks from Wu Yan that made her a very skilled fighter.
In one year, the clearers took down floors after floors until they reached the stage that got all the players watching with heavy breathing...
The 98th-floor!