Li Wei quietly followed the waitress with his party. He was guided through a large staircase on the side. As soon as they entered the second floor, it was like in a completely different place. Li Wei's nostrils were instantly assaulted by a variety of enticing aromas coming from the plates of the customers.

The second floor had fewer tables than the first one, there was more space between them, giving more privacy to the customers. The room was lightly decorated, just enough to show that it was a special place but without overwhelming the customers. There was also a terrace where some tables were placed. From there, the customers could watch the plaza in front of the restaurant.

The group was quickly brought to a table and everyone was given a menu. Li Wei froze when he saw the prices. The cheapest meal cost at least 5 gold and that was just an appetizer. When he compared it to the food he was used to, this was clearly extremely expensive; a normal meal would cost around 1 gold at Algate City.

While Li Wei was flustered about the price, the two girls and Cai Wenji did not seem to mind it. Recently, they came here to eat a lot due to the good properties of the food. Cai Wenji was very sensitive and noticed Li Wei's behavior, he quickly said:

"I am treating, so you guys can pick whatever you want,"

"Really? In that case, we should go for a three-course meal!" said Liu Beibei as she browsed through the menu.

“What about the special of the day?” asked Bright Sun.

A few minutes later, the waitress came back to take their orders. In the end, they all went for three-course meals. And as they waited for their dishes, the conversation once again drifted towards Li Wei's trip.

"Oh, by the way, I met a crazy guy at the Warrior Association when I came back. He was furious because I traded there and not at the sect. He said he would report it..." said Li Wei.

"Really? Well, it is true that you are free to exchange your loot where you want but it would have been nice if you exchanged some at the sect so that we can grow... Anyway, who is that guy? I will deal with that later," answered Cai Wenji.

"I did not see him before at the sect, but he is from the Fleeting Clouds Sect, not from a branch guild. His name is Wang Lin,"

Instantly, the atmosphere turned weird and both Liu Beibei and Cai Wenji turned to briefly look at Bright Sun. The latter was making a weird expression.

"Don't worry about that guy. You did not see him at the Colosseum, but he is one of the leading figures of the Wang Family. He went to fight the other guilds for the Mutated Giant Worm on that day. It will be alright, that guy is just biased against Avalanche due to issues in real life. He will always be picky about us so just ignore him," said Cai Wenji.

"So, can you tell me what happened here while I was gone? It is not normal for you to still be level 11," asked Li Wei, changing the subject.

He was very curious about that. If he was not wrong, players should have already reached level 13 or level 14 by now. It was weird that even Bright Sun and Liu Beibei were only level 12.

"Oh yeah. You blocked all messages, so you are not aware of it. You remember the quest you received but refused on the day of your departure? We went there to take the quest, but the Stone Defenders arrived earlier and were the first to complete all the maps. The tenth floor took a bit longer since only rogues could stealthily explore it but they had such a lead that we could not catch up in time."

"So when they completed the maps, they made sure to get some copies before submitting the quest. But when you looked at the map, you could see a hidden message. The way the walls and tunnels were distributed made it looked like very badly written Chinese characters."

"The Stone Defenders were the one to complete the maps, so they naturally were the only one able to read the message. It contained 3 locations in the dungeon, the message pointed at a specific floor, a specific corridor and specific spot."

"We don't know if it was intentionally made by the game designers, but the locations were actually secret rooms. Two of them contained treasures that the Stone Defenders collected. In the end, most of the players sent to these rooms died but they were still able to bring back a few items."

"As for the third room, they found a lot of defenseless monsters in there and they took advantage of that to get a lot of exp. Since we were already in the dungeon, we noticed their strange behavior and also fought for some of the loot. The Gem Family also joinede in and then it became a mess."

Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

"The Stone Defenders killed quite a lot of monsters and since they were level 15 and higher, the players obtained a lot of exp and leveled up a lot. Most of the players were level 13 at that time. Then, we tried to take a slice of the cake, but it was too late. The monsters inside reacted and not only that, stronger monsters that ranged from level 20 to level 30 appeared. We were all slaughtered without exception. All players in the dungeon were killed."

"And it did not end there, a few hours later, when we revived, we all received a compulsory quest to defend the city against the monster wave from the dungeon. Since I am a rogue, I had to fight at the frontline but against level 30 monsters, I could not even scratch them before dying again. Fortunately, my sister is a priest. She stood in the backline and did not die a second time."

"Yes, luckily it's just a game! But still, dying is not a very pleasant experience! You are so lucky to have left before that event," said Bright Sun.

At that moment, the waitress arrived with the appetizers. Li Wei's was a special secret soup. Since everyone was hungry, they all immediately started eating. The creamy flavor assaulted Li Wei as soon as he placed the spoon in his mouth. It was clearly much better than what he used to have. But more importantly, a system prompt came up as soon as he took a sip,

[System prompt: you have consumed a Special Secret Soup, Fatigue recovery increased for the next 10 minutes]

"Wow! This is really good!" commented Li Wei.

"Indeed! That's why many people come here to eat and it is a good way to recover fatigue for us to train our techniques afterward," said Liu Beibei.

"Huh? It is a really expensive way to recover your fatigue, no? Isn't it more affordable to use the Fatigue Recovery Potions the sect is making?" asked Li Wei.

"You did not read the guild's chat, so you don't know. You are not the only one who thought that but unfortunately, the Fatigue Recovery Potion is toxic when consumed in large amounts," said Cai Wenji.

“You should not take more than three per week. Those who abused it were bedridden for two days. That's why it is better to recover fatigue by enjoying a good meal," added Bright Sun.

“The game is full of loopholes but at the same time, many of them are traps!” commented Liu Beibei.

They all enjoyed their dish and as Li Wei finished his soup, his fatigue level already went down by 10%, it was a really large amount considering that it was just the appetizer.

Shortly after, the main dishes arrived. Li Wei did not know much about western cuisine. He randomly chose one and ended up with some lamb chops. The plate in front of him was beautifully decorated.

Not able to resist, he quickly took a bite. The meat was really tender and the flavor was further highlighted by the sauce. It was one of the best dishes he has ever tasted. As he took the last bite, he could only internally complain about the small portion but as he checked his character window, he found that his fatigue level went down by another 20%.

"30% less fatigue! It is not bad, right? One day when I'll become a Grade 3 cook, I'll also be able to create such dishes," said Bright Sun. The profession she chose was actually "cook”. She was just a Grade 0 cook for now, but it was normal considering that she did not focus on crafting and went to hunt daily.

Even for those who spent the whole day crafting, reaching Grade 1 in a week was rare; only a handful already reached that level. Not everyone could exploit a loophole like Li Wei and even if they did, it would quickly be patched by the system. Even the loophole Li Wei used was already patched.

"So you chose cook as your profession?" asked Li Wei.

"Yes! She already had great cooking skills in the real world. It’s easy for her to replicate them here!" commented Liu Beibei.

Bright Sun simply smiled and nodded, "It is a pity that we are restricted by the game's rule, it does not matter how much knowledge you have, you still have to follow the grades to use higher tier ingredients more effectively," said Bright Sun.

"Then what did you guys choose?" asked Li Wei while looking at Cai Wenji and Liu Beibei.

"I am a musician! Like Cai Die, I already learned some musical skills in real life. I am simply replicating them in the game," said Liu Beibei.

"I am a Blacksmith, " simply answered Cai Wenji.

"I suggest that you start choosing a serious profession, Seven. Fisherman is... not very useful... I don't know what benefits you get from leveling the profession, but I doubt it has anything to do with stats," said Bright Sun. While Li Wei said that he participated in the fishing competition, he omitted the Lake Fairy and the fact that he was already a Grade 1 fisherman.

"I'll think about it..."

The waitress once again came to their table this time, carrying their desserts. Since the weather setting was that of the beginning of summer, it was very warm and Li Wei opted for a simple ice-cream. This further lowered his fatigue level by another 10%. In total, 40% of his fatigue was removed with just a meal but that meal would cost 20 gold. Li Wei did not know if this was worth it, but it was definitely effective in reducing fatigue.

[System prompt: You have consumed a three-course meal, special effect activated, Strength and Dexterity +2 for 2 hours]

Another prompt came up, informing Li Wei of the other bonuses of eating the meal. But right now, it was not useful to him since he would just go back to do some training before resting.

"What are we doing tomorrow for the sect's event?" asked Li Wei. Now that everyone finished eating, they were calmly relaxing in their seat waiting for the waitress to come back to pay the bill.

"Tomorrow we are doing Time Attacks at the Hall of Fame," said Cai Wenji.

"Time attacks?" asked Li Wei.

"Yeah. It is basically clearing a mini-dungeon as fast as possible. The times are recorded and there's a ranking for the lowest time. If you want to know the lore behind this, they say that powerful space and time magicians created these mini-dungeons to train the future generations. They trapped many existing powerful monsters and weakened them in these dimensions so that we can already get used to fighting them. Also, many scenarios and special locations are replicated," answered Cai Wenji.

"This should be interesting! I did a lot of those when I used to play pc games. It should be fun," said Li Wei.

"Right now, Stone Defenders holds the records for all three Time Attacks available for our level, but the best strategy hasn't been figured out yet. It can change at any time, we should aim at getting first place in the city. The world record is out of our reach for now." said Cai Wenji.

...

A few minutes later, Li Wei left the trio and walked towards the Fleeting Clouds Sect's Headquarters. It was time for him to empty his inventory. He planned to go back to his inn to rest but since his fatigue level had greatly recovered, he decided to go to the training center afterward. It was time to finally obtain the Gliding Steps skill.

At the same time, Cai Wenji and the two girls left the restaurant,

"You did a good job inviting him, brother!" said Bright Sun.

"Sigh... But 20 gold is gone just like that. I am not a miser but right now we need as much gold as possible to quickly grow," answered Cai Wenji.

"Did you not complain about him not joining the party when not compulsory? You need to build a good relationship with him, not just like a boss and a worker but more like friends. I know you are not too good a socializing, but you need to put in some efforts if you want a united team! Besides, it's just 20 gold..." answered Bright Sun.

"Mmm, you should have just taken the leadership role... I am not fit for these things..."

"Nah, I am good like that, I don't want to have that much pressure and I am a girl. The elders would have never agreed. Just treat him as a friend like everyone else is doing. It is normal for him to take some time to integrate to the group. I am sure he'll spend more time with us in the future"

“Whatever you say sis…”