"Alright, alright, come find me next time youâre around, Iâll give you ten Munai Cats to play with and a luxury standalone pyramid."
"Ahmed, I think this mummy custom of yours is still a bit too avant-garde for us Divine Continent people."
"Hmm... the deep sea doesnât seem very suitable for humans... and thereâs often no signal either."
As everyone was laughing and joking, a system prompt popped up.
[Task subject detected to have disappeared, making a judgment]
[Judgment passed]
[You have completed the main task earlyâsurvive for 30 days]
[Your final evaluation is receiving an unparalleled boost]
[Settlement will begin in ten seconds]
[10]
[9]
[...]
Lu Wenwu waved to everyone: "See you guys when fate allows, this short journey ends here."
After a brief moment of emptiness, Lu Wenwu and Mao Mao appeared in the white settlement room.
[Settlement in progress]
[You have cleared the dungeonâEternal Illusion]
[Number of players survived: 5]
[You completed the side quests: [Wound of Frenzied Blood], [Dust to Dust, Earth to Earth] Ă43]
[You completed the hidden tasks: [Red and White Crash], [Eternal Illusion Destruction]]
[You ended and perfectly completed the main task 28 days early]
[Dungeon Evaluation: Miracle]
[Dungeon Summary: Really, life isnât all about fighting. For a moment, I actually thought you were going to use your brain to complete this main task! Hidden tasks arenât all about slaughter, and neither are side quests and special side quests! Exploring the story background of the dungeon world can also boost your score!]
Lu Wenwu expressed nonchalance at the resentment shown in the dungeon summary.
Explore story background?
Dig deep for task clues?
Follow the procedures?
Too slow and too brain-consuming.
Why use your brain when fists can solve it?
Plus, wasnât I obviously more efficient!
[Your Level has increased to Level 28]
[You have obtained the item: Bloodline Transformation Potion Ă1]
[You have obtained 20x Accelerated Cultivation Card Ă20]
[You have obtained 992,000 Spirit Coins]
[You have obtained 60 free attribute points]
â
[Congratulations, your player level has been raised to: B]
[Congratulations, your rest duration has been extended, currently: 150 days]
Rest time has been extended again.
Nice.
This time the settlement coincided with the end of a battle, so Lu Wenwu decided not to open the boxes right now, but instead teleported back home to rest initially.
Because this dungeon ended too soon, Blue Star Time was still on the afternoon of the day Lu Wenwu set out.
A flash of white light, and a person and a dog appeared in a familiar living room.
Outside, the mechanical noises were incessant, almost the entire villa area was under construction.
Xiaobao, lying on the cat stand, opened one eye to glance at Lu Wenwu and Mao Mao, meowed impatiently, turned around, curled into a ball, and continued to sleep soundly.
Today unusually, there wasnât a cat-dog fight.
Xiaobao always found it lazy to play with Mao Mao.
And Mao Mao was too exhausted at this moment, it was still lying sprawled on the ground.
Similarly fatigued, Lu Wenwu had no heart to mischievously tease the little cat either.
He dragged the doglike Mao Mao to take a bath in the bathroom, and as soon as he touched the pillow, he instantly fell into a deep sleep.
He slept through from morning till noon the next day when Liu Ming made his routine visit to check on Xiaobaoâs cat food, cans, drinking water, and fish snacks, finally awakening the person and the dog from their deep slumber.
Just in time for lunch, Lu Wenwu warmly invited Liu Ming to stay for a meal.
The main course was the Demon Horse Meat extracted from the dungeon in the past few days.
With a Spirit Chefâs touch, Lu Wenwu had removed the demon power from it, providing ordinary people with strength and invigorating effects.
As for the staple food...
It naturally had to be the golden, crispy egg-stuffed pancake!
At the dining table, as Liu Ming ate, he marveled: "After having Brother Wuâs cooking, the food in the bureau cafeteria is practically inedible. But, that said, you sure do love egg-stuffed pancakes."
Lu Wenwu, gnawing on a giant horse leg, replied muffledly, "Just say if youâre eating or not, stop blabbering on!"
"Eat? Why wouldnât I!" Liu Ming chuckled, "By the way, Brother Wu, this dungeon was pretty smooth! You came back so soon."
"Smooth? I guess it was..." Lu Wenwu shrugged, "Speaking of which, can you get in touch with an Artifact Refining Master or some Master Forger?"
"Of course, lifestyle professions arenât that rare," Liu Ming swallowed his mouthful and got serious, "What level are you looking for, Brother Wu?"
"Iâm not familiar with their level distinctions, but I need to repair and reforge a discarded piece of Epic Armor, and repair and enhance my Heavy Cannon Gloves," Lu Wenwu said, "preferably up to Legendary Level."
"Legendary Level?"
Liu Ming was taken aback.
Though heâs not a player, as a member dedicated to serving top-notch genius players like Lu Wenwu within the Player Administration Bureau, heâs naturally not unfamiliar with various level classifications.
"Is it very difficult? Or donât we have such masters?"
Seeing his furrowed brow, Lu Wenwu quickly asked.
"Well, itâs not that... we donât lack such talents." Liu Ming shook his head, groaning a bit, "But thereâs an issue. Creating such high-level equipment, and two pieces at once, youâll need to queue up, and the process will take a very long time."
"Queue? How long of a wait? Can I pay extra Spirit Coins to cut in line?" Lu Wenwu felt the situation becoming tricky.
"Not quite, itâs not about the money."
Liu Ming shook his head again, with an apologetic glance in his eyes.
"Artifact Refining Masters are rare, everyone wants good weapons and equipment, but there are very few people with such high levels in this sub-profession."
"Unless they are already friends, every player they can contact has some special status, or is a top-notch powerhouse themselves."
"Anyone whoâs reached this level has assets and connections, right? To prevent malicious competition, or even malicious trapping, the state expressly prohibits queue-jumping through any means."
"Regarding the waiting time... hold on, let me check."
Saying this, Liu Ming projected a three-dimensional screen from his wristwatch and operated and browsed it for a while.
"In a scenario where everything goes smoothly, materials are sufficient, and no specific Artifact Refining Master level is designated, in the most optimistic case, starting to queue now, you can get the first equipment at least a year and a half later with one successful attempt."
Lu Wenwu: "..."
A year and a half? The cucumber and vegetables might as well turn cold!
By then, I might have reached A Tier, pursuing Mythical Level equipment already!
Theoretically, this time frame is already extremely ample for a normal A Tier player capable of crafting Legendary Level equipment, without delays for a raid.
But...
Who told Lu Wenwu heâs only at Level B for now!
Rest time isnât that extended!
Clearly, Liu Ming understands this too.
Besides showing a helpless expression, thereâs really not much else he can help Lu Wenwu with.
Even though heâs an official bureau member, in actual fact, Liu Ming is just a small liaison officer.
At most, he is the most capable one among the liaison officers.
Helping Lu Wenwu with errands and handling some trivial matters - no problem.
But helping him queue-jump like this is truly asking too much.
Itâs akin to asking a catfish monster to single-handedly defeat Sun Wukong + Zhu Bajie + Sha Wujing + Ao Lie, then capture Tang Monk alive.
After sending off the powerless Liu Ming, Lu Wenwu pondered for a moment and simply sent a message to his few friends.
Asked them if they knew any Artifact Refining Masters or the like.
If really unworkable, any finished products on hand are also up for discussion.
However, Lu Wenwu still leaned more towards repairing and reforging to enhance.
Firstly, old items were easy to handle.
Secondly, it also saved resources.
After all, these were collected bit by bit with his fists, they shouldnât be wasted.
For now, setting aside the equipment repair and upgrade matter, Lu Wenwu decided to, as a routine, open the two Mysterious Fortune Bags given as hidden rewards.