The Great Thief

by Stayrr

He had never invested in shares or bought a lottery ticket, and neither did he have any experience in the general business industry. Lu Li found that the only thing he could do was play games. Luckily he had experienced rebirth, and was one step ahead of everyone else. Luckily, games had been developing extremely quickly, and there were many people who had become rich through play

3. 65

The Great Thief - Chapter 65: Moonlight is Killed Light Novel Pub

The Great Thief

Chapter 65: Moonlight is Killed

"You will get the reward. You just need to go into town and enter your account. There is a small transfer fee though, so you'll need to wait for a while to receive the experience," Lu Li explained.

"Oh my, it sounds expensive by the way you describe it. How much is this transfer fee?"

Everyone was curious.

"Transferring from the Novice Village costs 1 Gold and transferring between towns costs 2 Gold. You cannot transfer between Novice Villages…"

Lu Li shook his head, feeling the burden of the price.

He had a plan to send it to different cities, but the cost would give him some trouble.

The game company must have been going bankrupt to try and make money so ruthlessly. Everyone was speechless.

Most of the group was considered to be doing pretty well. Remnant Dream was carrying 4-5 Gold, while Lu Li had over 10 Gold, even after purchasing the upgrade materials for the Supreme One Ring.

How could ordinary players spare that kind of money? Even 1 Gold was considered quite a lot.

Only those who spent money on the trading platform to buy Gold coins could spare some.

Repairing equips cost money and potions cost money. With these two costs, a player's earnings would quickly be gone. If one wanted to buy 2 Common equips, they would truly be impoverished.

"It's just 1 Gold, I guess."

Other than Lu Li, Azure Sea Breeze also had money to spare after fighting a few Bosses.

"After beating the Boss, I want to claim the EXP. I'm 10% EXP from reaching level 10 now. How much EXP will I get?"

"Let me calculate… you should be at least level 12 after receiving it."

Lu Li calculated it based on some previous posts he had read, but he was unsure.

"If I can really get to level 12 that would be great! After level 10, the EXP cost to level up each time is a couple times more than the previous level. I'm currently levelling up slower than this turtle!" Azure Sea Breeze burst into tears.

Kleig blinked innocently. It wanted to turn and run but was intercepted by Moonlight's Charge. Once again, it was attacked relentlessly.

Without its healing ability, Kleigh was a piece of cake. After only 20 minutes, it let out a scream.

"The Boss is here and there are players killing it already!"

The Boss' scream seemed to have attracted some players.

"I'll get the items; you guys return to town!" Lu Li decisively spoke and picked up the Boss' drops.

Moonlight didn't pick up any items, but didn't channel his recall either. Instead, he faced the two players and rushed towards them. With three swishes of his axe, one of them was already dead.

Charge, Slash, Sweep… Execute!

Lu Li stared and was a little scared. He wasn't paying attention, but this guy seemed to have execute.

By the time the other player had reacted, he only saw the corpse of his companion. In his surprise, he was unable to stop Azure Sea Breeze's and the others' return channels.

Lu Li didn't channel either, instead preparing to go into Stealth after picking up the items.

He was a Thief! Thieves would never need to use the return channel!

Lu Li didn't advise Moonlight to return either: he was a PVP maniac, so he wouldn't give up any PVP opportunity. He would rather die.

Lu Li snuck off to the side, watching Moonlight make use of the cramped forest terrain to kill the players one by one. He had no plans whatsoever to help. It was too bad that he didn't have some melon seeds to snack on; otherwise, this would have been perfect.

Moonlight's technique was excellent. His positioning was always right and he moved around to avoid most of the non-targeting skills. The Axe in his hands was constantly waving around. The Berserker was commonly dubbed as the King of physical attack, but tended not to kill people efficiently.

However, after fighting for 3 minutes, Moonlight had already taken a dozen lives. When he cast Whirlwind, he took out 5-6 players who only had a bit of HP left.

Nevertheless, the overpowered Berserker was not invincible.

Moonlight's HP continued to decline: 80%, 60%, 50%...

Oh no, he had been crowd controlled!

The next wave of attacks hit really hard and he was now at less than 10% HP.

Moonlight had no intention of running away, but at this point, only Thieves and Druids could possibly escape.

"Die! How dare you mess with the Glorious Paladins!"

Moonlight then fell as this was shouted.

His axe dropped and didn't turn white with his corpse.

The weapon dropped!

It looked cool, had high attack and possibly some other effects. All the players excitedly held their breaths.

"Wow, so pretentious for such a small guild," Lu Li thought. The players who PVP'ed with Moonlight were all members of the Glorious Paladins. They were well disciplined and left the dropped equip to the commander. Not one of the players went to pick it up.

As the commander bent down and picked up the weapon, a Thief with his face covered suddenly appeared before him. He picked up the axe and threw it into his backpack before slowly fading away.

His attitude was way too casual, like he had picked up a coin from his bedroom floor.

"What are you guys looking at? Go and flush out that Thief!" The commander was frozen for a full 5 seconds before roaring at his guild members.

Even the Imperial Secret Service's elite players couldn't flush Lu Li out. For these slow-reaction, second-rate ordinary players to do so was just wishful thinking.

"I dropped my weapon." Moonlight sounded depressed.

He had lost the high attack Bloodseeker's Axe that gave additional Strength and swung smoothly. He could have dropped anything, but somehow this was the thing that dropped.

"Hey, I just picked up an axe. Not sure if it's yours," Lu Li joked.

"You really are something else. I'll wait for you in the village."

Moonlight didn't offer any money, immediately sending a trade request. He spent all day PVPing, so he didn't have any money to give Lu Li.

"Don't stay in the village, go to Snake Valley and fight snakes for the next two hours. Then, we can kill the snake Boss before going to town," Lu Li said.

Once the others heard about the Boss, they forgot about everything else.

Lu Li transformed into a small Leopard and rushed like a gust of wind. He didn't take the road in case someone saw him, instead running through the bushes by the side of the road.

Later on, when the Child of the Forest skill was more common, the small golden leopard would be a common sight and he would have nothing to worry about.

"Lu Li, which town are we going to? I just saw a transfer representative and there are 126 towns where it could be sent to."

Azure Sea Breeze was worried about where to go.

"Grey Valley of course," said Lu Li without hesitation.

The Great Thief

Chapter 66: Rattan City

Gray Valley and its surrounding areas were the most popular places for players between LV10-30.

This area had five private Instance Dungeons to be explored, according to the town map.

It also had the most complete set of Trade Profession NPCs and Dawn's only fishing master, who resided by the Iris Lake.

The scenery was also beautiful, making it a paradise for casual gamers.

From here you could reach the Human and Dwarf ports, the Evil Faction's outpost, Stranglethorn Vale and the Druid's Sacred Moonlight Grove.

This was also a popular PVP location, especially between the Light Faction and the Evil Faction in a contest for land. The blood of countless players flowed through the river.

As well as this, the altar that Lu Li needed to upgrade his ring was in Gray Valley; he couldn't think of a reason not to go there.

The other players wouldn't know all this at first and would travel to various places in the world. However, as the player-base's knowledge deepened, they would slowly converge in Gray Valley to the point of overcrowding.

Azure Sea Breeze and the others had no reason to disagree, so they followed Lu Li to Gray Valley.

Lu Li ran until his stamina depleted, before resting by the roadside.

This was another feature added by the update. Sprinting, flying, fighting and completing Instance Dungeons all consumed some stamina, which could be regained by resting. Additionally, Alchemy could produce Stamina Potions and eating cooked food could restore stamina.

While waiting for the others to arrive, Lu Li looked at the items dropped by the turtle Boss.

The Wild Boss ended up dropping a Steel item.

Poison Bow (Steel): Damage 15-24, Agility 3, Special Effect: Targets hit by this weapon will be poisoned. Level Requirement 5, Durability 28/28.

Bows, Crossbows and rifles were all part of Dawn's ranged weapons. The Bow's attack was higher, while the Crossbow and rifle had higher attack speed. Amongst these, the rifle with a sight attached had the highest accuracy.

For players who weren't very good, the rifle was their choice of weapon.

The Poison Bow was most suited to Hunters, but other professions could use it as a means of ranged attack.

The attributes of this weapon were similar to the Crossbow that Lu Li gave to Remnant Dream. For her, the Crossbow was easier to use, so she probably would not want to switch weapons.

Lu Li intended to hold on to the Bow – he needed to do something that required a ranged weapon. With it, his efforts would be halved for twice the result.

This Poison Bow was a Shortbow, so it had outstanding attack and a far greater attack speed than that of a Longbow. It also had a small frame, so it wouldn't hinder his movements if he carried it on his back.

After asking Remnant Dream in the chatroom, the hunter decided not to change weapons. To her, operating the Bow was a nightmare.

Kleig only dropped one Steel item, in addition to 2 Bronze items, one of which was a Druid Jungle Herdsmen equip. Lu Li took the Shortbow and didn't participate in the rest of the distribution.

A few of them had now reached Snake Valley, but they didn't immediately fight the Boss. Instead, they farmed the ordinary snakes because they needed to find Snake Bile to produce Antidotes.

The lowest level member was currently Remnant Dream at LV8. Everyone else was now LV9 and approaching LV10. Only Azure Sea Breeze had long since achieved this milestone, but the experience of levelling up after this was truly horrible. He had been farming snakes for over 2 hours now and had only gained 3% EXP.

Lu Li was collecting Snake Bile while fighting the monsters, creating antidotes whenever the cooldown refreshed.

After making quite a few Intermediate Antidotes, they started fighting the Boss.

Snake King Gallaher wasn't a Boss that could be dealt with in greater numbers. Its poison attack had been dubbed the 'Full Screen', but Lu Li had Intermediate antidotes which were taken on his command. This made the 35,000HP Boss rather satisfying to fight.

After the Snake King fell, Lu Li's EXP jumped to 85%.

However, he hadn't been paying much attention his EXP, as his full attention was on the items that Gallaher had dropped.

It dared not to drop a Rager Pendant!

Only with a complete Equipment Set would the Rager Pendant have a special effect. Without the set, it was just an ordinary equip.

Gallaher had been killed twice now, but both times, the Rager Pendant hadn't been dropped.

Lu Li wasn't very frustrated, as all level 10 to 20 Bosses had a decent chance of dropping them.

The loot wasn't nearly as good as the First Clear. The only noteworthy item was a pair of Steel Mage Shoes that were pretty average – they didn't even give movement speed. Lu Li passed them to Lonesome Flower and gave the rest of the 4 Bronze equips, including those from the turtle, to Azure Sea Breeze to sell and split between those who hadn't received a Steel equip.

As for the two materials that the Boss dropped, they were both unanimously given to Lu Li.

Later, the group prepared to leave Moon Shadow Valley. For some, this small Night Elf Forest Village gave opportunity, but for others, only disappointment.

For Lu Li, this place was now part of the past; there was a broader world beyond.

In town, there were Auction houses, the Arena, more Instance Dungeons, more quests, even more NPCs and many business opportunities.

As long as it only cost 1 Gold to leave Moon Shadow Valley, Lu Li's and his group wouldn't miss this bit of money. Azure Sea Breeze waited for everyone on the Teleportation Channel, while Lu Li went ahead to another place.

There was something that Lu Li initially only had a 50% chance of getting, but now he stood an 80% chance.

Rattan City, a small town in the heart of the Evil Faction, celebrated its first guest.

"Look, it's an elf. Wait, it's a sinful Thief, a despicable bandit, a dirty robber. Guys, help me catch him." A Dwarf Goblin Guard jumped up and down but dared not move forward to attack, choosing to keep shouting instead.

Lu Li remembered that because he had attacked the Goblin businessman Krolly, his Goblin reputation was negative. Rattan City happened to be a typical Goblin town.

The two or three level 60 Goblins were careful not to come over. Their timidity was nothing like their great greed.

"Is this how Rattan City treats adventurers?" Lu Li braced himself and took a step forward, not showing a shred of fear.

"We only welcome friendlies," the guards shouted angrily. "But you, the jungle stalker, attacked a great businessman. Mr Krolly has spread your reputation throughout the goblin world."

"I swear in the name of Elune, I am no enemy of the goblin world," Lu Li explained while rubbing two pieces of gold in his hands. He proclaimed boldly, "In order to learn the great discipline of engineering, I deliberately travelled for thousands of miles from the Whispering Forest in Moon Shadow Valley."

"Oh, you've heard about Rattan City's engineering?"

The Goblin had a sense of pride, not only because they had the most comprehensive set of merchandise in the mainland, but also because of their great engineering.

"Yes, in this world, there is nothing compared to Goblin Engineering." Lu Li handed a gold coin to the Head of the Guards. "Respected Rattan City Guardian, can you recommend Rattan City's greatest Engineering Master?"

The Great Thief

Chapter 67: Recipe

While Goblin Engineering itself was well renowned, a remote place like Rattan City only had garbage Engineering Masters.

However, learning the basics of Engineering was the same everywhere. It was only when you were specializing that would need to choose an appropriate mentor. To gain back some Goblin reputation, Lu Li would have to bite the bullet and learn some engineering from Rattan City.

The guards brought Lu Li across the wooden deck. Along the way, he could see the unfavorable looks that the NPCs gave him. This was the effect of his hated reputation.

After reaching the shore, they travelled to a house with two mechanical dolls placed by the door.

A goblin's body was like that of a dwarf, so their houses were tiny to Lu Li.

He needed to bend over to enter the house, but fortunately, there was a sofa that could accommodate his butt. Only after he sat down could he straighten his neck.

"Oh, Gabi, why did you bring this Elf to me?"

The Goblin Engineer looked at him curiously. When he turned around, Lu Li could see his magnified eyes behind his glasses, a truly horrifying sight.

"Although he is an unwelcome robber, he brought some gold to atone for it," the head guard said with a smile.

"Oh, you want to study Engineering?"

The expression of the Goblin Engineer improved, but he was still preoccupied with his work. He pushed a semi-new book towards Lu Li.

"5 gold."

Lu Li almost coughed up blood. Everywhere else, studying a Trade Skill would only cost 50 silver. This greedy dwarf was charging ten times the price.

However, he didn't have a choice: he wanted to gain back reputation, so he needed to pay them. He was also under the surveillance of a LV60 NPC. The only thing he could do was obediently pay the money.

System: You have received the Goblin's goodwill. Your reputation is now neutral.

System: You have discovered Rattan City, receiving 200 EXP…

Lu Li was relieved after hearing the System Announcements. At least these NPCs would not oppose him anymore.

Goblins were always polite to people who were rich. The head guard gave Lu Li a salute and walked off with his gun, satisfied.

Lu Li opened the Engineering Skills book. The title page was written in blue ink, describing an outline in goblin language. He couldn't understand it at all, but this was a virtual game, so he didn't need to. After he used the skill book, it disappeared.

The Goblin Engineer didn't observe the way that Lu Li did his learning. He was working on his experiment and told him, "If you don't need anything else, please leave. I'm very busy right now."

"Respected Master, do you have a recipe for sale?" Good or bad, each Trade Skill Trainer had his/her own unique recipes. Lu Li knew that this trainer was no exception.

"Oh, it's over there on the side. Three gold for each one. If you want one, you can pay me directly, but don't expect me to explain it to you, despicable elf." Because his reputation was only neutral, the Goblin Engineer's attitude was still unfriendly.

Lu Li wasn't angry; he walked over to the dusty oak table. There were a few thin parchments on it.

Blueprint: Blue fireworks, used for entertainment. This was not a unique formula. The mainland sold a similar one, so this definitely wasn't worth 3 gold coins.

Blueprint: Fine handmade guns. These had average damage and the required materials weren't cheap. The weapons were only bronze anyway. Lu Li shook his head and put down the drawing.

He looked at another two and was completely disappointed. It seemed as though this Goblin Engineer was only an Intermediate level – these blueprints were all for low level useless items. He didn't have any expectations when he picked up the last one.

"Master, are all the blueprints here for sale?"

Lu Li put in effort to calm his frenzied heartbeat, lest the Goblin Engineer saw his excitement.

But he was needlessly worrying; the Goblin Engineer didn't even care enough to look back, impatiently scolding him.

"Pick one, leave the gold coins and get out of here! Or else, I'll show you the Engineer's wrath!"

Lu Li took the last recipe, dropped the three gold coins onto the test bench and left in large strides.

As he left the store, an arrow flew at his head!

Had he been exposed? Lu Li's heart sank. Maybe a group of NPCs were coming to take back the recipe.

The arrow hit his shoulder, dealing 70 damage. The attack seemed pretty high, but for a LV60 NPC, this was the lowest damage it could do.

While he was confused, a group of NPCs rushed over.

The mechanical doll by his side moved forwards and used a magical sword to cut the attacker down.

Lu Li then realized that it was an attack by a group of Evil Faction players. The NPCs weren't after him.

Dawn had areas which were neutral with neutral NPCs. Rattan City was one of these. They had no preferences for Light or Evil Faction players, but if someone used an attack in front of them, it would be taken as a provocation. Just like that, they would be killed before they could do anything.

The poor Evil Faction Hunter didn't even react and turned into a corpse.

Not only that, he also dropped an equip.

Lu Li rushed over to pick up the things and threw them into his bag before running out of town. He instantly transformed into a Cheetah and carefully avoiding the monsters outside of the village, dashing along the coastline towards the marsh.

"My recipe, hey! Where is the recipe I put down?" A sharp roar suddenly sounded from within the Goblin Engineer's cabin, "Damn elf, he stole my Akare's Bomb recipe! Dammit, dammit, guards, GUARDS!"

"Master, what happened?"

The guard rushed over and was shocked to see the nearly crazy Goblin Engineer. There were broken bottles and jars scattered everywhere and all kinds of materials and accessories lying around. None of this was enough to quell his anger.

"An Elf that Captain Gabriel brought over, he… he…"

The Goblin Engineer couldn't go on.

Took away?

Cheated away?

Stole away?

The Goblins were crafty merchants, always selling for exorbitant prices and always firm when the transaction had been completed.

One of the classic sayings of the Goblin race was, "Don't even think about taking a single gold coin from me. Refund isn't a word I know."

Akare slumped on the dirty floor. He had to admit that Lu Li didn't take, cheat or steal, but rather had bought the recipe. He was under the witness of the System God and was willing to complete the transaction.

"Ooo, the Great Akare suffered a loss. Akare sold all his possessions for 3 gold coins."

The sad goblin engineer couldn't help but burst into tears. His cries were so distressing that those who heard them wept too.

The few guards were very understanding; the Goblins only earned and never lost. To lose money was worse than to kill them. It was no wonder that Akare was so sad.

The Great Thief

Chapter 68: Aegwynn Residence

Only when he had almost used up all his stamina did Lu Li dare to slow down. He carefully took out the old parchment from his backpack.

This parchment was completely different from the others; it was older and looked more exquisite. Even the handwriting had a sense of charm. This was not something an intermediate engineer would own.

Blueprint: Ivy's Fool Bomb

Field: Engineering

Requirement: Intermediate (150)

Use: Teaches you to create "Ivy's Foolproof Bomb"

Ivy's Fool Bomb: A fool bomb that can be used by any adventurer who knows nothing about engineering. It will hit the target almost every time! Deals 2000 damage to tall targets within a radius of 5 yards.

Lu Li had only seen Ivy's Fool Bomb once in his past life. It was in an auction house and was sold for 300 gold, which at the time was worth almost $50,000.

Ivy's Fool bomb was not something that conventional Engineers could make. It was said that no one in Azeroth could make any items from the Ivy series.

Ivy was a legendary master engineer who had accidentally killed himself over 1000 years ago, attempting to create a super bomb that could level the Kayaro Mountains. The bomb had exploded during the manufacturing process, burning him and all twelve of his children to a crisp. Their labs and lab notes were also destroyed in the explosion.

Only some of their less well-known disciples survived. These people more or less inherited Ivy's legacy, but unfortunately, were also interested in bombs. They dedicated their lives to developing them, which led to their deaths as well. This was the reason for its decline.

Making bombs was risky, but the profits were huge.

No one could imagine, that this remote seaside town would contain a lost Ivy formula, and not just an Ivy formula, but one for a bomb.

Bombs were very useful; other than in PVP or in fighting bosses, one could use them to farm monsters. They were essentially EXP farming machines.

Lu Li only needed to drop a few bombs and watch as his level rose.

He affectionately read the blueprints over and over again, before reluctantly putting them back in his bag. He then remembered that he had also picked up a piece of equipment.

Bestial Soul Shoulderpad (Steel): Armour 18, Agility 6, Pet attack 20%, Level Requirement 10, Durability 35/35.

This was a hunter exclusive Chain Mail Armour. The 20% attack buff for pets was the best bonus that a Beastmaster Hunter could ask for. It would sell for at least 10 gold coins in the auction house.

He didn't know who the hunter that dropped this was, or whether it fell from his bag or from his body. It would be truly unfortunate, if a LV10 expert was out there still trying understand why he was killed.

Not far north was a castle owned by a union and currently in the hands of Sierra's army.

Sierra was the daughter of Admiral Kurdilas. Under the guidance of the Prophet Medivh, Mage Jaina Proudmoor led the fugitives of Lordaeron to a city on the east coast of Kalimdor.

Lu Li had come here to find a secluded Great Prophet.

In his past life, he had completed a quest where he heard an NPC tell a story about Aegwynn that mentioned this.

She (Aegwynn) was sent to Kalimdor and built a beautiful hut along the shore near Rattan City, as she waited for death to come.

Then, she constructed an Astral Well, from which she saw the end of her son (Medivh). When she saw Khadgar and Lothar Execute Medivh, her heart broke.

She was determined to use all of her magic to revive her son!

After storing up her magical powers for 20 years, she finally managed to revive Medivh and remove him from Sargeras' evil soul. Medivh was determined to atone for his wickedness, so he travelled and implored the leaders of all the races to unite against the Burning Legion as one.

Then, Aegwynn sacrificed the last of her magic for her grandson. This Guardian of Tirisfal who had lived for thousands of years was suspected to have reached the extreme limits of life.

According to legend, Medivh took Karazhan's energy, illusion, memory and everything else. He said, "Now, let us start again," before turning into a crow and flying away.

In the library of written records, it was said that 'the prophet disappeared until old age…'

Lu Li hoped to find that beautiful hut at the beach outside Rattan City and Medivh along with it.

The hut was not hard to find; Lu Li soon saw it on the shore.

Green ivy covered the rooftop, which bloomed with densely intertwined lavenders and bright yellow flowers.

There was an old tree next to the door of the hut, with a gray swing hanging down from it.

He could imagine that in a similarly quiet evening, there might be a seemingly ordinary old woman sitting on the swing, gazing out at the sea.

She would reminisce about her life in the Tirisfal woodland and the sound of the boys laughing would play in her ears. She would also think back to Sargeras, who was imprisoned by her in the abyss of powerful demons. Then, there was Nielas Aran…

Aran, the one who she had decided to have a child with, the Stormwind City Court Mage.

The cool sea breeze blew at her, as she smiled, rembering her son, her grandson…

Lu Li walked somberly to the swing and bowed lowly to the woman who had given everything for Azeroth. "The most powerful mage that transcends demigods; may you rest in the world of Emerald Dreams," he thought.

Ivy's formula and the Bestial Soul Shoulderpad had already paid the teleport fee ten times over.

But to be able to see Aegwynn's former residence made this trip even more meaningful.

He sat down on the swing and took out a book from his backpack.

My life belongs to myself and I make all my decisions willingly and freely. I have never been controlled by anyone: not even the gods can do so! I lower my head to others out of respect and admiration, but never out of subservience!

Lu Li stroked the cover that these words were engraved upon, looking more and more determined.

The Great Thief

Chapter 69: Raven Transformation

"My life belongs to myself…" A sigh sounded out and Lu Li suddenly discovered that a person had appeared next to the swing without him realising.

The person was wearing a hat and a large cloak that was decorated with many feathers. The face under the hat looked incredibly old, scarred with the marks of time. He held a crude-looking Staff that looked like a lump in his right hand.

"Esteemed senior, this Adventurer Elf from the Whispering Forest pays his respects," Lu Li said, as he hurriedly stood up with one hand over his chest. This was a formal Elf greeting.

"Oh, so it's an Elf from far away. Little fellow, the words you just said sounded very familiar."

The elderly man supported himself using the edge of the well and sat down. He looked like nothing more than a weak old man.

"I received an Enchanting book from a Great Dwarf Master and those words were carved on the title page. The Great Master told me to come to Rattan City's seaside to search for a great Enchanter. Esteemed senior, are you the person I came to find?" Lu Li did not reveal the true reason why he had come, instead giving himself a very good excuse.

"No, I'm not skilled in Enchanting, but she… Elf, can I have a look at your Enchanting book?" The elderly man looked up at Lu Li, with eyes full of wisdom.

Lu Li handed the book over and stood a few steps away.

"It's her…" The elderly man stared at the words engraved on the cover of the book, as well as the words left by Aegwynn on the title page. His entire body began to fade and space began to twist as a great wave of magic overflowed from within him.

It became difficult for Lu Li to breathe, as though something had grabbed onto him by his mind. It felt like his spirit could be destroyed with a single thought.

Luckily, this change in the atmosphere disappeared as quickly as it came. In an instant, everything returned to normal. Even the flowers that had been torn from the trees were restored, as if nothing had happened to them.

If it weren't for the sweat covering his hands, Lu Li would have believed that everything that had just happened was a hallucination.

"I'm sorry to disappoint you, Fairy, but she is gone." The old Magician's wizened hands stroked the cover of the book, as many complicated emotions flashed in his eyes: grief, resentment, attachment…

"That's quite a pity. However, this Enchanting book is quite ancient and there's much that I don't understand in it."

Lu Li suddenly felt some disdain for himself as he suddenly said, "You seem to really like this book. In that case, please accept it as a present from me."

An incredibly rare and godly Trade Skill Book had been given away by Lu Li just like that.

However, Lu Li did not feel any regret. It wasn't because the Enchanting materials were too difficult to find, but this book, Aegwnn's relic, should have been given to her son. After all, it meant a lot more to him than to Lu Li.

"Thank you for your generosity, Elf, although, I know your motives are not pure," Medivh said as he lightly sighed, "Because of your generosity and sincerity, I will grant one request from you."

Lu Li did not feel any fear, but was rather relaxed. He had never thought of deceiving this prophet - all he wanted was an opportunity to talk to Medivh.

As such, he directly said, "Respected son of Aran, Guardian of Tirisfal, I would like to learn the Raven Transformation from you."

Indeed, Lu Li wanted to fly!

"Raven Transformation?" Medivh, a human who was more powerful than demigod, was completely confused by this request.

At the start, Medivh had been attracted by the words Lu Li was reading out and had appeared out of nowhere. Later, he found out that this weak Elf had his mother's legacy book. Finally, that Elf had actually gifted this priceless Enchanting book to him, for a simple transformation skill in return!

He didn't ask for Atiesh, Greatstaff of the Guardian, nor did he ask for the Raven God's Cloak or for any incredibly powerful spells…

He had asked for the Raven Transformation skill!

Was it difficult to turn into a raven? Not at all!

In a LV50 Private Instance Dungeon, players could meet a projection of the Raven God and receive a flight skill book. When Druids reached LV60, they would receive a flight-related quest. Although it was quite difficult, the majority of the Druid players would be able to receive a flight skill book. These included the Raven Transformation, the Bat Transformation and many others.

The only caveat was that it could only be obtained after reaching LV50-LV60.

If Lu Li wanted to fly now, only this elderly man in front of him could help him. Even Archdruid Malfurion Stormrage, the Lord of the Night Elves, could not teach him a flight skill so casually.

"It's a pity that you're not a Magician," Medivh said as he shook his head.

Lu Li's heart sank. In his 'past life', he had read some guides that said that Medivh could turn into a raven. Moreover, in order to develop this skill, it was said that Medivh had studied the Druids' transformation skills and fought with the Raven God Anzu.

Even though Anzu was a demigod, he had been beaten black and blue by Medivh. He had been beaten so badly that Medivh was able to use the feathers he had dropped to create a Legendary grade cloak.

"I can only teach you the modified Crow Transformation. Are you still willing to exchange, Elf?" The elderly man spoke slowly. It turned out that it wasn't that Lu Li couldn't learn the skill, but that there were some issues involved in teaching it.

"Thank you for your generosity, Lord Magician. I am willing."

Lu Li had no other choice: he had already given away the Enchanting book. The elderly man would probably insta-kill him if he changed his mind. In Dawn's lore, Medivh had done many good things, but had also committed many evil deeds.

Medivh did not give him a skill book. Rather, he simply pointed towards Lu Li's forehead and a system announcement popped up.

System: you have learned the skill Crow Transformation.

Crow Transformation (fake): Channel for 30 seconds and consume 500 HP to become a raven, allowing you to fly for a limited period of time. Flying consumes 10 HP per second and being attacked while in flight will cancel out the transformation. Level: 1/5.

This skill was quite flawed. The original skill was an instant cast, whereas this one needed to be channelled for 30 seconds. The original skill also cost nothing, whereas this one costed a base of 500 HP in addition to 10 HP per second. The original skill allowed one to fly indefinitely, whereas this one only allowed him to fly for a "limited period of time". What was even worse was that he would fall from the sky if he was hit by anything.

As for the Level: 1/5, this was something introduced in the update.

It didn't mean that players could not increase their Proficiency of a skill - this was still hidden. Every 2 levels, a player would receive 1 Skill Point (SP). Using SP and gold coins, the corresponding profession's Instructor could raise the level of their skills. Of course, if one had the patience and determination, they could raise their skill levels through practice and training instead.

All in all, Lu Li was quite unhappy with this skill, but he couldn't voice his dissatisfaction.

Medivh looked easy-going, but that was because he did not display his might. This Archmage who had been killed, then revived by his mother, could obliterate Lu Li with a sneeze.

"My transformation skill requires Mana, but you don't have any Mana within you. As such, I could only modify the skill before giving it to you," the elderly man said, trying to comfort him.

"I received a badge many years ago. Hopefully it can make up for the deficiencies of the skill, so I will gift it to you as well."

The Great Thief

Chapter 70: Rankings

Bloodstained Badge (Silver): Constitution10, recover 1% HP every 3 seconds when wearing the badge. Has a certain chance to activate 30% damage conversion. Level Requirement: LV10. Durability: 40/40.

It was a Silver grade equipment and a badge as well, which was extremely rare. The stats were also amazing.

"It definitely makes up for it. Respected Archmage, I have no way to express my gratitude towards you," Lu Li said with an expression of excitement, while gripping the badge as though he was afraid that it would be taken back.

This was no less than expected from a being that surpassed demigods. He had casually given out such a rare and valuable item. It was possible that this was the lowest quality item that Medivh had and Lu Li even felt tempted to bring a crowd of people to rob him.

"It's good that you're satisfied. May you have a pleasant journey, Cenarius' ineheritor." Medivh looked deeply at the Supreme One Ring on Lu Li's finger as he slowly disappeared into the light of the sunset.

An extremely overpowered bomb recipe, a flight skill and a piece of Silver grade equipment!

He had received quite a few good items and achieved his goal. Lu Li happily channelled his hearthstone and prepared to return to town.

He did not return to the nearest town, but the Moon Shadow Valley that the hearthstone was bound to. Teleporting from a town to another town cost 2 gold coins, but teleporting from the Novice Village only cost 1 gold coin. Moreover, Lu Li did not dare to return to the Rattan City - the Guards would just kill him immediately.

The Moon Shadow Valley was even more busy than before. Countless new players had joined the game and the once spacious Novice Village had become packed full of people. He couldn't help but admire the foresight of whoever had designed the Novice Villages.

"LV3 Bronze grade weapon, 7-10 Attack. Willing to accept gold coins or real money. Absolutely essential for Thieves who want to quickly level up, don't miss out!"

"Boosting for the Spider Lair Instance Dungeon, minimum level is LV3. $2,000 for 1 person, guaranteed to level you up after 1 run."

"Selling an entire set of low level equipment, $10,000. If you want to catch up to the other players, you'll need to make some investments…"

The first batch of players found that this was a good business opportunity and quickly earned enough money to teleport to another city or town. Some people didn't want to let this opportunity go and decided to stay in the Novice Village for a while.

These people would be left behind by the people who chose to leave and would quickly be overtaken by the new players. After all, new players received double EXP for a period of time.

Lu Li didn't plan to earn money here, even though he knew it was quite profitable to do business with newbies.

With his level and equipment, it would be no problem to boost four people through an Instance Dungeon.

Lu Li paid 1 gold coin to the teleporter and stood on the teleportation channel. After a few seconds of dizziness, he arrived at the Grey Valley's Astrana.

Astrana was the Light Faction's base camp in the Grey Valley. It was situated between sentry outposts and was behind the Zoram Harbor. There were all sorts of races here: Elves, Dwarves, Humans, Draenei, Worgen, Gnomes and even Pandaren.

"What are you guys doing?" Looking around this familiar, yet unfamiliar town, Lu Li contacted Azure Sea Breeze.

"Doing some quests while waiting for you. Go to the Council Hall and register your account; you'll be able to see the Level Rankings. We'll wait for you and collect our EXP reward together, then dominate the Level Rankings," Azure Sea Breeze replied.

Lu Li knew that Azure Sea Breeze was obsessed with the Level Rankings, so he couldn't complain and quickly headed off.

The highest-ranking officer in the Grey Valley was a Sentinel Captain called Raene Wolfrunner. She was a female Night Elf Hunter, Warrior and Ranger, and was incredibly powerful. Moreover, she rode on a giant grey wolf and had many Night Elf Cavalry under her command.

Registering an account required one simple step: paying money!

Lu Li gave 10 gold coins to the Tax Officer Ramkin, who then declared that Lu Li had officially become a member of Astrana.

Lu Li opened the Rankings and a transparent frame appeared in front of him.

There were 2 public rankings in Dawn: the Level Rankings and the Glory Rankings. All of the other rankings were made by players.

The Level Rankings were self-explanatory and the Glory Rankings were listed with PVP maniacs. Players could receive Glory from killing the enemy faction's players, as well as completing frontline quests. Because every player's rank was currently that of a Recruit, killing an enemy player would only give a bit of Glory.

Level Rankings:

1. I No Understand, LV11, Hunter, Glory Capital, Evil Faction

2. Wild, LV11, Mage, Blood-red War Flag, Light Faction

3. Sorrowless, LV10, Mage, Glory Capital, Evil Faction

4. Green Flag Wine, LV10, Paladin, Gale Legion, Evil Faction

5. Brother Yang Is Here, LV10, Warlock, Peacetime Dynasty, Evil Faction

6. Not A Primary Schooler, LV10, Priest, Blood-red War Flag, Light Faction

7. Water Fairy, LV10, Thief, Drizzle Court, Light Faction

8. Twilight, LV10, Mage, Stellar Union, Evil Faction

9. Azure Sea Breeze, LV10, Warrior, No Guild, Light Faction

10. Ninja Turtle, LV10, Paladin, Glory Capital, Evil Faction

Glory Rankings:

1. Blood Dagger, 78, Thief, Glory Capital, Evil Faction

2. Hornet's Nest, 66, Warrior, Seventh Heaven, Light Faction

3. Storm Warrior, 52, Warrior, Gale Legion, Evil Faction

4. Flowers and Jade, 48, Shaman, Blood-red War Flag, Light Faction

5. Man of Darkness, 35, Mage, Glory Capital, Evil Faction

6. Empty Forest, 32, Hunter, No Guild, Light Faction

7. Life Is But A Dream, 31, Thief, Stellar Union, Evil Faction

8. Zurich, 25, Mage, Gale Legion, Evil Faction

9. Swirling Left Eye, 22, Thief, Imperial Secret Service, Light Faction

10. Staring Right Eye, 20, Thief, Imperial Secret Service, Light Faction

The Glory Rankings were filled with PVP maniacs. Blood Dagger was a famous Thief who loved PVP and was extremely skilled at it. This was the same for Hornet's Nest, as well as the rest of the players on the Glory Rankings. If it weren't for Azure Sea Breeze always dragging him out, Moonlight would probably be up there as well.

The two Rankings were pretty much filled with experts from the biggest guilds. It was no wonder they would be able to take the top spots in the Level Rankings with so much help. The two opposing factions were evenly matched in the Glory Rankings, but the Light Faction was slightly behind in the Level Rankings with only four players there.

The guildless Azure Sea Breeze was particularly eye-catching. This made him look quite special.

The reason he could make it onto the Level Rankings was simple – he was a levelling maniac and Lu Li had taken him to kill many Bosses. It would be strange if he couldn't make it onto the Level Rankings.

Lu Li looked at his own rankings. Because he had not killed any of the enemy faction's players, he had not yet entered the Glory Rankings. He was currently ranked 66th in the Level Rankings, but had not spent much time training. To him, this was quite a pleasant surprise – in his 'past life', he wouldn't have even dared to dream of being in the top 100.

Furthermore, the 3rd to the 52nd ranked players were all LV10. Lu Li was only about 10% away from reaching LV10 and was just a sliver behind these players.

The Great Thief

Chapter 71: Dominating the Rankings

While there weren't many other players around, Lu Li went to the Inn to bind his hearthstone to Astrana. In the future, if he used his hearthstone, he would appear in Astrana instead of the Novice Village. However, the Inn did much more than bind hearthstones.

If one logged off in the Inn for 6 hours, they would receive double EXP for 1 hour the next time they logged in. This was another feature of the new update.

The game company used all sorts of methods to force players to rest and encouraged them to strike a good balance in their daily living. Perhaps this was one of the reasons why Dawn became more and more popular.

It was likely that no one knew that a new Board of Directors, comprised of people from various countries, was slowly being formed. In the future, Dawn would be controlled by these people.

A few weeks later, a player called Dancing Flower Beauty would become a representative for China's Magnetic Hovercar Company for $5 million. This was the first time the virtual world began to influence the real world.

Companies in the real world began to enter into the game world and guilds began to seek sponsors, forming strong partnerships!

From that point, the game began to integrate itself more into the real world and vice versa. Companies rented shops in the game, shifting the focus of investments from Equipment Shops, Potion Shops and Item Shops to hotels, cinemas, shopping centres and offices.

More and more people turned their lives and work towards the game. As for labour in the real world, technology had advanced so much that most labour was done by robots.

"Lu Li, over here!" Azure Sea Breeze waved, catching the attention of Lu Li who was slowly walking around.

Lu Li walked over and entered with the rest of the group into the Council Hall. The NPC who gave out the EXP rewards was located there.

"We'll show those mortals our power. They thought they were so great, but they'll all be crying once they look at the Level Rankings," Azure Sea Breeze excitedly said.

"No matter what you want to do, I'm going to hide my name," Lu Li said as he shook his head.

Lu Li liked to keep a low profile and did not like to be at the centre of attention. If he wanted to, he could probably find a representative contract which would earn him hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of dollars. If he was lucky, he could become a star in the game world and earn even more money.

"Hide your name?" Azure Sea Breeze was completely dumbfounded.

It was not as though there were no players who hid their names. There were around 7-8 of them in the top 100, but everyone in the top 10 chose not to hide their names. The update also introduced a World Channel, where many people paid money to try and become famous. Everyone was famous; why would anyone hide their name?

One's name, profession, level and guild were all great for advertising.

"I also want to hide my name." March Rain always followed what Lu Li said; whatever he said was bound to be correct.

Lonesome Flower harrumphed and indicated that he would also hide his name.

Remnant Dream did not really mind - she was too preoccupied with grooming her new pet leopard.

Moonlight didn't say anything, but also decided to hide his information.

Azure Sea Breeze looked around in shock, as he clapped his hands together, saying, "Right, hiding our names would be better. Think about how mysterious it would be if the top players on the Level Rankings all hid their names."

In order to seem mysterious, Azure Sea Breeze also endured the pain of hiding his name.

And thus, the group went to collect their EXP rewards.

All they had to do was tell the Administrative Officer why they had come. After their identities were confirmed, they immediately received their EXP bonuses.

Azure Sea Breeze, who was nearly at LV11, directly shot to LV12!

Lu Li, who was 10% away from LV10, shot halfway through LV11!

Lonesome Flower and March Rain, who were also LV9, shot to LV11, just behind Lu Li.

Moonlight and Remnant Dream had both just reached LV9, but because of how much EXP they received, they also made it to LV11 and entered the top 10 rankings.

As such, there were great changes to the Level Rankings.

1. Unknown Player, LV12, Light Faction

2. Unknown Player, LV11, Light Faction

3. Unknown Player, LV11, Light Faction

4. Unknown Player, LV11, Light Faction

5. Unknown Player, LV11, Light Faction

6. Unknown Player, LV11, Light Faction

7. I No Understand, LV11, Hunter, Glory Capital, Evil Faction

8. Wild, LV11, Mage, Blood-red War Flag, Light Faction

9. Sorrowless, LV10, Glory Capital, Evil Faction

10. Green Flag Wine, LV10, Paladin, Gale Legion, Evil Faction

All 6 of them were now in the top 10 rankings.

It seemed that I No Understand and Wild had barely reached LV11. After all, they were ranked lower than Moonlight and Remnant Dream, who only had 10% in their LV11 EXP bars.

They were all shocked and even Moonlight, who didn't really care about levels, started to breathe heavily.

Only the naïve and innocent Remnant Dream looked around in bewilderment, confused as to why they were acting that way. March Rain kindly explained to her what it meant to be on the Level Rankings.

No one knew who first discovered the changes in the Level Rankings. With the hundreds of millions of players, it almost guaranteed that someone would always be looking at the Level Rankings. However, not everyone wanted to spend 1 silver coin to talk in the World Channel.

Wine Courage Wang: GM, there's something wrong with your game. Everyone, quickly look at the Level Rankings!

Paw Scent: It must be a hacker from the Light Faction. Goddamn! There's a whole row of them; the Evil Faction only has 3 players up there now.

Monster King: Is this game even playable? Even the Level Rankings are bugged. Where did these 6 unknown players come from? Plus, they're all from the Light Faction.

Eyeless Fish: Oh my, so many rich people talking in this World Channel. Anyone looking for a spouse? Either gender is fine~

What followed were the messages of many players suspecting that there was a bug in the game. Some of them immediately reported this to the customer service department. After all, reporting bugs in Dawn gave generous rewards.

After waiting for a long time, there had still been no news on the game's official website. The Level Rankings stayed the same and only after 5 or 6 minutes did someone realise that something was off.

Wonderboo: Looks like some people charged into the top 10. I thought I'd be able to get into the top 100 today, but that just crushed me. I'm going to log off and write a book with myself as the main character.

Mysterious Vanguard: Could it be a power team that made it to the top 10 together? Did they complete some sort of godly quest? Did they help Queen Sylvanas kill Arthas Menethil?

I Will Be The Lich King: Piss off @Mysterious Vanguard, long live Prince Arthas!

Harmony Dragon: You idiot. If Arthas doesn't die, how will you be the Lich King? Could it be that you want to be the Lich King's boyfriend?

Showgirl Chunnie: The 9th ranked Azure Sea Breeze disappeared. I'm sure he's one of the 6 players. As for the other 5, tell us who you are and stop being so mysterious…

All of the prominent guilds took great interest in this matter. All of them wanted to recruit these people, but it was impossible due to them hiding their names.

A few people thought to Azure Sea Breeze and the other person who had obtained the First Clear of the Instance Dungeons and Bosses. Some guessed that Lu Li was one of them, while others guessed that it was Beautiful Moonlight and her friends. Others speculated that some lucky people, who were unknown to the public, had received rewards from the system.

The Great Thief

Chapter 72: Buying Goods At The Exchange Hall

After revelling in their glory for a bit, Moonlight couldn't take it anymore and went to the Broken Wood Outpost to kill people.

The Broken Wood Outpost was the Evil Faction's Grey Valley base camp. Together with the Warsong Sawmill, it was the Evil Faction's frontline in the north.

The two sides' main forces were withdrawn in their own territories. NPCs would often give out kill quests to players in both factions. Not only would killing players from the opposing faction give them Glory, it would also give them some EXP as well.

From the Broken Wood Outpost to the Forest Treehouse, players from both sides engaged in ferocious battle.

Lu Li looked at the time and recommended that everyone go and clear the Spider Lair Instance Dungeon. Although they couldn't receive any EXP or set any new records, there was still a possibility of getting Steel grade equipment. Selling two pieces of Steel grade equipment could net them 10 or so gold coins. Not all of them had a full set of Steel grade equipment either.

Main Tank: Warrior Azure Sea Breeze, 3500 HP, 6 pieces of Steel grade equipment, number 1 on the Level Rankings.

Healer: Priest March Rain, 1600 HP, 5 pieces of Steel grade equipment, number 4 on the Level Rankings.

DPS: Thief Lu Li, 1500 HP, 2 pieces of Silver grade equipment, 8 pieces of Steel grade equipment, number 2 on the Level Rankings.

DPS: Mage Lonesome Flower, 1100 HP, 1 piece of Silver grade equipment, 6 pieces of Steel grade equipment, number 3 on the Level Rankings.

DPS: Hunter Remnant Dream, 2000 HP, 4 pieces of Steel grade equipment, number 6 on the Level Rankings.

Almost all of Remnant Dream's Steel grade equipment had been found in Instance Dungeons cleared with Lu Li. The best equipment she had found from training with strangers was of a Bronze grade. It wasn't that they hadn't found any Steel grade equipment, but that the leaders of the groups were dishonest. They had told her that the Steel grade equipment was bad and convinced her to give it up.

Cheating players was commonly seen.

Lu Li remembered the Steel-grade Chain Mail Armour that he had picked up from a player in Rattan City. He took it out and gave it to Remnant Dream. She didn't understand what was so good about it, but was still overjoyed.

Now, Remnant Dream had 5 pieces of Steel grade equipment - the same as March Rain.

Considering equipment alone, Lu Li's team was quite incredible and far superior to even the elite groups supported by large guilds. They even had 3 pieces of Silver grade equipment, that barely any of the player-base had even seen.

This sort of team could easily destroy the Spider Lair Instance Dungeon. There was no need for them to kill the 8 Guards one by one - they could decimate the group in one go. It took them a grand total of 22 minutes to clear the Instance Dungeon, which was a whole 10 minutes faster than the current record.

The equipment that they found was either useless to them or not as good as what they currently had. In the end, they decided that Lu Li would sell them and split the money.

"If you have any excess money, pass it to me. I'm going to have a look at the Exchange Hall," Lu Li said.

The other people took out their money and handed it to Lu Li. Altogether, they had 20 or so gold coins.

Only Lu Li's team could take out such an amount of money. The only other groups that could fork out such a large amount were guilds with thousands of people.

It was not difficult to earn money in Dawn, but there was a high cost to survive. The game company had brilliantly devised a system that maintained a general balance in the economy.

Exchange Halls were only available in towns or cities. Players could consign many items to sell and could also view and buy items consigned by other players.

The consignment method was very simple. A player could set a minimum price, as well as a maximum price.

The lowest items would be auctioned first and the person with the highest bid would win the item. If no one bought the item over a period of time, it would simply be mailed back to the owner. A player could also directly buy an item by paying the maximum price (the "buying price") set by the owner.

Some people did not set a maximum price, making it so that it could only be sold by auction.

Lu Li looked through most of the equipment and listed his for a slightly lower price than the market price.

Afterwards, he used the search function to see if any of the materials he wanted were being offered:

Lava Essence Soul: None!

Variant Scorpion Eggs: None!

Jade Statue: None!

Eternal Frozen Shard. Just as Lu Li was going to repetitively start a new search, he suddenly found that there was a result for this item.

Not only were there Eternal Frozen Shards for sale, but there were 6 of them!

Their minimum price was 1 gold coin and the buying price was 5 gold coins.

Lu Li felt as though he was dreaming. These things would be worth more than 50 gold coins in 1 month or so, but were currently being sold for less than 1 gold coin.

In order to prevent any complications, Lu Li decided to immediately purchase them for the buying price.

The system told him that he had a new mail.

A few more system announcements then rang out, telling him he had new mail. It was probably to notify him that the equipment he had just consigned had been sold.

Lu Li went to the mailbox at the entrance of the Exchange Hall and saw that the 2 pieces of Steel grade equipment and 3 pieces of Bronze grade equipment had all been sold. In total, he had earned 23 gold coins.

There were also 6 Eternal Frozen Shards.

Lu Li went back to browsing through the available items. There were many items that he needed.

Lu Li need 8 different materials to upgrade the Supreme One Ring to level 3. After a long search, he had only found the Eternal Frozen Shards. It was a type of material that could be found when mining for Frost Iron. This meant that there were already professional Miners in the game that didn't belong to a guild.

How could a player belonging to a guild consign this sort of extremely precious material at such a pitiful price?

Although he couldn't find any of the 7 other materials, Lu Li did not feel disappointed. After all, he hadn't expected to find any of them so early on in the game.

He had a look at the facial equipment section and was surprised to find that there was much more equipment than he had expected.

It seemed that a Tailor had obtained a blueprint and was mass-producing these things.

The 'facial equipment' was split into 2 main categories: Bandannas and Veils. These sorts of equipment usually didn't have any stats, and if they did, they would be ordinary at most. However, they could conceal a player's identity and protect their privacy.

In reality, the strips of cloth that he had ripped from a Common grade equipment served the same purpose.

He looked through the equipment and chose a grey bandanna that reduced poison miasma damage by 20%, which cost him 60 silver coins. The system once again told him that he had new mail.

Afterwards, Lu Li went to see if there were any good arrows.

Although he had a Steel grade Bow, he was a Thief without Bow Proficiency. He wouldn't be able to deal sufficient damage to a Boss with just this Bow, so he had to start thinking about arrows.

In order to make life easier for Hunters, basic arrows would automatically spawn in one's quiver. Other professions using a Bow would also receive this benefit. However, these arrows did not have any Attack power - the damage dealt was only calculated from the Bow and the player's own Attack.

After hitting a target, an arrow would automatically disappear. If it still had Durability, it would automatically return to the quiver. If it ran out of Durability, or was destroyed while in flight, the arrow would disappear.

Hunters with a Blacksmith profession would usually increase their Blacksmithing level by creating arrows. Not only were the costs low, the arrows could be used by themselves or sold. If they were lucky enough to find a blueprint to create a valuable type of arrow, they would be able to earn as much as those who could create Bronze grade equipment.

Normal Arrow: 0-1 Attack. Durability: 3.

Most of the arrows in the Exchange Hall were Iron Arrows, which were slightly better than the ones the system provided. They costed 10 silver coins each.

Above these were Fine Steel Arrows. Their Attack was 1-2, but there were not many of them. Because there were only 10 or so for sale, they were incredibly expensive.

Lu Li almost decided to buy some Iron Arrows when he saw something that caught his eye.

Armory Rusty Arrow: 2-5 Attack. Durability: 2.

The Great Thief

Chapter 73: Stocking up on Snake Trust Grass

Armory Rusty Arrows were the standard weapons of the NPC army. They were manufactured in bulk and stored in the Armory. However, they rusted because of the poor storage conditions and their durability and attack both fell. This didn't make much of an impact because they were still a lot better than the average Fine Steel Arrows.

A bundle of these arrows costed about 20 silver, which came down to about 2 copper each. This was much more expensive than the cost of making normal Iron Arrows. Therefore, many people were reluctant to use these arrows.

Lu Li picked out the Armory Rusty Arrows and bought the bundles that were listed at 20 silver or less. He ended up with 9 bundles of arrows.

With 10 or so gold left, Lu Li continued browsing but did not find any other rare materials. However, it was not necessary to search for rare materials to become rich. Even trading the most average materials could make big money.

For example, Snake Trust Grass was the most important material for making Intermediate Health Potions. Without it, only Beginner Health Potions could be used at the LV10 Death Mines.

No one had seen the recipe for Intermediate Health Potions, so no one knew about the importance of Snake Trust Grass.

Snake Trust Grass and Silver Leaf Grass were both uncommon. Lu Li spent a day in Snake Valley and had only managed to find 10 or so. However, Snake Trust Grass could also be found around the Beginner Villages. Since Snake Trust Grass was a higher level than Silver Leaf Grass, the Proficiency one gained from harvesting it was much greater.

Many players used them to practise and increase their Harvesting Skill. Since it would be a waste to sell them at the Shops, players would list them in the Auction Hall at very low prices. They hoped that 'stupid merchants' would see the Snake Trust Grass bundles and buy them.

Lu Li compared a few other popular materials on the market and decided to buy the Snake Trust Grass.

He bought them not because of their importance, but because of their low price. There was also too much stock in the Exchange Hall. Thousands of Snake Trust Grass had been listed on the market. Some were listed separately, while others were in a set.

Each set contained 20 units of Snake Trust Grass and could be sold for 40 copper in NPC Shops. At the Auction Hall, they were listed for about 10 times that price - 400 copper or 4 silver.

When the recipe was released into the game, a set would cost about 3 Gold. The profit Lu Li made would be much more than just 10 times.

It was too cheap! Lu Li continued to buy and buy and buy!

All together he bought more than 100 sets. He also bought an additional 100 sets that were listed for under 5 silver.

However, Lu Li decided not to buy the sets that were listed for more than 5 silver so that the market would not be affected. Since he had no other competition, he could be patient and wait until tomorrow for more sets to be listed at under 5 silver.

Lu Li then spent about 20 silver to rent a small room which gave him the ability to log off.

After he logged off, the pretty landladies treated Lu Li to some 5-star hotel standard takeaway so that they could ask questions about the game. Lu Li answered as much as he could and they all thanked him.

Zhou Huan Huan and Yang Liu were both new players, so Lu Li designed the best possible levelling guide and advised them to make the most out of their 3 days of Double EXP. After the Double EXP, they would be around the same level as the older players.

The 3 girls considered renting his room for free.

An expert was living with them and giving them tips. Not only were they not paying him, they were also taking rent from him. How dare they!

Lu Li felt energetic during the day and decided to use up some energy at the gym. After an exhausting workout, he dragged his tired body back home and slept.

After waking up, he ate and logged on as always. Since he logged off at the hotel, he received a 1-hour double EXP buff.

This double EXP buff could be used at any time, depending on when the player wanted to activate it. Obviously, once activated, it couldn't be stopped and would continue for the entire hour.

The Level Rankings had not changed much; Lu Li and his friends were still in the top 6.

Azure Sea Breeze suggested that they go to the next Instance Dungeon since there were players that had already explored new ones. Although the LV10 Death Mines were close to the Human towns, any town with an Instance Dungeon Teleporter could send them there. This included the Grey Valley.

No one seemed to care about the 5 copper transportation fees.

"I still have some errands to run; you guys can go and try out the dungeon. Don't be too hopeful though, because this Instance Dungeon is extremely annoying. If you guys get hit by the Boss' ultimate skill, those with weaker equipment will instantly die. He can also target freeze someone. If you heal or cure the frozen one, you'll draw aggro and will have to kite the boss. I'm not so sure about the exact details."

Lu Li tried recalling the details of the Instance Dungeon and roughly pointed out the main things.

The level requirement for the Death Mines was only 10. However, the monsters were all at least LV12. Monsters before the bosses were at least LV15 and after the boss, they became LV16.

Lu Li did not want to discourage the others. However, it would be difficult to defeat the first boss Glubtok even under Lu Li's command. The group's equipment level was simply too low. As for the second boss Helix, it would plant mines everywhere which were impossible to guard against and predict the location of. Unless everyone had intermediate Healing Potions, it was almost impossible to pass that stage.

Intermediate Healing Potion recipes were extremely hard to find. There were no rumours of any one with the recipe. Otherwise, the prices for the Snake Trust Grass in the Auction Hall would not so low.

Lu Li recalled a post on the forum that was entitled, 'Whichever Guild announces that they have an alchemist capable of making Intermediate Healing Potions will have a long line of people begging to join.'

Lu Li felt very blessed when he remembered the sets of Snake Trust Grass that he had yet to take out from his mail box. He would browse the market again and use up all the gold he had on Snake Trust Grass.

"Forget it then, we'll continue to level while waiting for you."

Azure Sea Breeze decided to give up upon hearing how difficult the Instance Dungeon was. If they got stuck in the dungeon and died, they would lose the equipment found and the EXP gained. He was extremely stubborn and reluctant to lose EXP.

"If you guys want to form a party and kill mobs, I suggest killing Nagas. They're often in a group, so there are a lot of mobs which are easy to find. Low HP and defence but high EXP. As long as you kill the Naga Healer first, the rest is a piece of cake," Lu Li suggested.

"Where is it? Mark it on the map." Azure Sea Breeze took out a leather paper and gave it to Lu Li.

"Someone's already making the map, impressive." Lu Li was impressed, as though he was witnessing history unfold.

After studying the rough map, he pointed at the location of Nagas.

"Start killing at this point and continue down this path. You'll see an abandoned dock. Swim across the sea and after 3 to 5 minutes, you will see a small island. The mobs are plentiful there: more than enough for you guys to clean up. But remember to only enter the water when you arrive at the dock. Otherwise, there might be Ghosts of Dead Pirates which are Elite Grade Monsters with annoying attacks.

Lu Li had a phase where he farmed the Nagas relentlessly to make money. He knew the tips and tricks of farming them like the back of his hand.

The Island was very deserted because people couldn't even find its location. The mobs there would be enough to help them get to level 12.

"Got it, see you later." Azure Sea Breeze waved and lead the others to train.

He and the others knew that Lu Li had a lot of secrets, but they never asked him about it. Everyone had their own secret and everyone had a story, just like Lonesome Flower's Silver Grade Weapon. Its stats were crazy powerful and no one knew where he had found it.

Lu Li left to upgrade his ring. He was about to be rewarded for the preparation he had done for the crafting of the Supreme Two Ring.

The Great Thief

Chapter 74: Twilight Altar

To upgrade the ring, Lu Li needed to enter the Twilight Valley through the Amisallan Jungle. This was where the Twilight Altar was located, which was looked after by the High Disciple Anzelin.

Lu Li prepared himself, as he began his journey through the Amisallan Jungle.

The Amisallan Jungle was filled with Nightmoon Tigers – cunning beasts that ranged from LV15-20. They often travelled in packs of 3 to 5 and could become invisible. They also had a Counter Invisibility Skill, which meant that even thieves would have trouble getting past them.

Luckily, Lu Li had learnt the Crow Transformation skill.

Crow Transformation (fake): Spend 30 seconds and consume 500 HP to become a raven, allowing you to fly for a limited period of time. Flying consumes 10 HP per second and being attacked while in flight will cancel out the transformation. Level: 1/5.

Lu Li currently had 1480 HP, which mainly came from a couple of equips that increased his Constitution – especially the Bloodstained Badge, which added 10 points.

After transforming, he immediately lost 500HP. This gave him the ability to fly for 3 minutes, however, 2 minutes was probably the safer option for him as it would allow for some landing time. This greatly decreased the chance of him being ambushed by Nightmoon Tigers.

Nightmoon Tiger packs could contain a rare white-coated variant called a Shadowclaw Tiger. These had very fast attack speed and could turn invisible. As such, they were very useful pets for Hunters. Lu Li planned to bring Remnant Dream here when they were higher level.

Lu Li checked his supplies then casted Crow Transformation.

After 30 seconds, Lu Li felt his body transforming into a crow. It was a strange sensation, almost as though his body had disintegrated and reformed back into a crow. After adjusting to his new form, he flapped his wings and flew away.

This was definitely different to the normal Crow Transformation skill. Normally, when the skill was cast, only animations and light effects appeared. He wouldn't necessarily feel different.

However, compared to the normal Crow Transformation, the skill taught by Medivh was much faster. Flapping his wings took little effort or energy.

Looking down from a bird's eye view, the giant trees looked more like small mushrooms and the monsters on the ground appeared to be small black dots.

From the time he had taken off, his HP had dropped by 10 per second. This loss was slightly alleviated by his badge which regenerated HP, at a rate of 0.1% (14 HP) per 3 seconds.

He calculated that he could easily fly for a little more than 3 minutes.

The deeper part of the Amisallan Jungle contained many rivers and valleys. This seemingly peaceful and quiet area was lurking with dangerous monsters in the shadows.

Lu Li started to look for a landing spot after 2 minutes of flying. This spot had to be an open field, suitable for battle and preferably without any Nightmoon Tigers. With such low HP, it would be impossible for him to withstand an ambush from a pack of Tigers.

Lu Li landed on a rock in the middle of a river. He sat down to recover his HP with bread.

The food that could be bought from the system was a bargain because of its cheap price. It was too bad it could only be consumed outside of battle.

After he recovered, he continued flying, and as he was flying, he spotted a Griffon in the distance.

He immediately headed straight down into the forest, unperturbed by the threat of monsters.

Griffons were often associated with Dwarfs from the Wild Hammer Clan. These savage mounts would tear up any enemies they saw in the skies, except for Giant Dragons.

Grey Valley was still in the vicinity of the Whispering Forest, which was too dense for the Griffon to land and search for him. It hovered over the forest momentarily, then flew away with its magnificent wings.

Lu Li waited for half an hour before he took flight again.

His efforts had paid off; after recalling the route from his memory, Lu Li finally entered the Twilight Valley.

Immediately, he began his search for the Twilight Altar.

The Twilight Hammer was an infamous Evil Cult Organisation within Dawn. They searched ruins and historic relics from around the world to find information that suggested the existence of the Ancient Gods. They firmly believed that Azeroth would one day be ruled by the Ancient Gods again.

As such, they built the Twilight Altar to collect energy from the earth, which they hoped the Ancient Gods would use to return triumphantly from the abyss.

Not long after, Lu Li saw the four tall towers that surrounded the altar.

He hovered over the altar for a while and landed right in front of High Disciple Anzelin. As he transformed back, his body blurred and the outline of his Elf form appeared from within the distorted light.

"Elf, this is not a place you should be."

Anzelin did not summon his Twilight Fanatics to prepare for battle; perhaps Lu Li's entrance was too out of the ordinary. Instead, he only appeared to be slightly alerted.

"Successor of Gujar's willpower, why do you not greet a friend from afar?" Lu Li questioned while laughing, "I bring greetings from Duke Ravenholdt, wishing that your God will return soon."

Lu Li was referring to Gujar, the creator of the Twilight Hammer who had many identities.

Duke Ravenholdt was the head of Ravenholdt Manor. The Ravenholdt Manor that he had established was also known as the Assassin Guild. The Thief Guild consisted of the most powerful Thieves and Assassins. Lu Li was pretending to be a member from the Assassin Guild.

"You? A puny Elf? How did you gain Ravenholdt's trust and grace?" Anzelin was quite intelligent and had been appointed to the role of summoning Water Corps. He was one of the senior members of the Twilight Hammer.

The Assassin Guild was the most mysterious and secretive organisation in Dawn. Few had seen Ravenholdt in person and some did not even believe in his existence. Naturally, many thieves and assassins saw him as their leader who was well respected.

Their standards for accepting members was very high. The fact that Lu Li brought personal greetings from Ravenholdt suggested that he was an official member and not just one of the minions.

Lu Li showed them his ring and said, "My dear Twilight Members, I'm sure you're familiar with this."

"The Supreme Ring! Are you associated with… Malfurion?" Although Anzelin was only a LV50 boss, the sound of his voice was still terrifying. Lu Li was pleased that he had pretended to be a member of Ravenholdt's Manor.

The Twilight Hammer's arch enemy was The Ring of the Earth and the Cenarion Circle. Malfurion was the leader of Cenarion Circle.

He said calmly, "I swear in the name of Ravenholdt, I have never seen Malfurion and have never been blessed by him. I cannot tell you how I obtained this ring, but I am simply proving to you my capabilities."

If Lu Li had Ravenholdt's Badge, it would have been even easier to persuade him. It was too bad that they were so difficult to obtain.

"I acknowledge your strength. Speak, Elf, why did you come here?" Anzelin asked fearfully, his eyes fixated on the Supreme Ring. He wasn't sure how Lu Li had obtained it, but he could not help but respect him.

Should he steal it? Forget it. The Twilight Hammer hated Druids, so they naturally wouldn't use the Druid's God Ring. Besides, they did not dare to offend the Assassin Guild in any way.

I wanted to gain powers from the earth, so I brought some gifts," Lu Li said as he pulled out the things he had prepared from his bag.

Upon hearing that Lu Li wanted to use the powers from the Earth, Anzelin hesitated and wanted to refuse. However, after seeing what Lu Li had offered, he began to waver.

The Great Thief

Chapter 75: To Supreme Two Ring

This was the Whispering Forest, the base of the Cenarion Circle. The Twilight Hammer's power here was almost negligible.

High Disciple Anzelin was summoning the Water Corps, preparing to attack Meisnera's Guardpost. However, the scarce supplies had seriously affected his working efficiency and Lu Li had just taken out exactly what he needed in exactly the right amount.

"I don't have to use your altar, but you seem to be missing these things. I'm afraid that…" Lu Li seemed like he was about to walk away.

"Alright, alright, you cunning Elf, I accept your gift. Please put the Earth's power mediums onto the altar."

Anzelin quickly called Lu Li and agreed to the deal.

The altar absorbed some of the Earth's power. The soldiers that were summoned were a little weaker, but without these materials, who knew how long it would take to create enough of them?

This in itself was a dilemma, as the Twillight Hammer's High Disciples wanted to attack as soon as possible. Yet, they underestimated the Earth power that the ring needed.

Lu Li stretched out his hand and the ring automatically detached from his finger, slowly floating to the top of the altar. As Anzelin continued his spell, a golden energy was drawn out from the altar and gathered around the ring.

Two minutes later, Anzelin's forehead was began to sweat. Why wasn't it done yet?

After another two minutes, Anzelin's face started to pale. Why did this damn ring upgrade need so much energy?

Within another 10 minutes, Anzelin's face began to contort and his heart was full of anger. There was also a trace of fear in his eyes, but he did not stop the altar.

The process lasted more than 10 minutes before Lu Li successfully got a System Prompt.

System: Your Supreme Ring has been upgraded to level 2, keep working hard!

Supreme Two Ring (Gold): Strength 10, Agility 10, Critical Chance 20%, Vampirism 20%. Special Effect: The Lord of the Forest, Cenarius, gave this ring special powers. You can learn three Druid transformation skills, as well as two skills for one of those transformations. Equipment requirement: None. Durability: None.

This was very worthy of its Gold status. Lu Li didn't need to say anything about the 20 bonus attribute points, which alone were already worthy of Gold grading. The most important thing was the 20% Critical Chance, which was its most unnatural attribute.

Lu Li's Rager Bracer and Steel equips only added 5% Critical Chance. Even then, it was exclusive to melees and used by people from LV10 all the way to LV30.

This ring added 20% in one go!

Additionally, the 20% Vampirism was much stronger than before. When paired with his Bloodstained Badge, he wouldn't need to take potions under normal circumstances.

"Thank you for your generosity, may your God protect you. See you later Anzelin."

Lu Li had no intention of crossing the bridge. It was not that he didn't want to, but that he couldn't beat it. A LV30 Boss was no laughing matter.

"I do not wish to see you again, fallen Elf. Go back to the darkness." Anzelin wasn't so polite. He looked at the cracks forming on the altar heartbrokenly, trying to think of a solution.

His Ravenholdt Manor identity held him back. Otherwise, he would have personally killed this kid.

Lu Li didn't directly return to the city – he remembered that there was a chest near the Twilight Valley. In his past life, there were Thieves that fought over this chest because it wasn't an ordinary Bronze chest but a higher level Steel chest.

The Steel chest had a certain probability that it would drop Silver Equipment.

However, he didn't know its specific location. After all, he wasn't a Thief and so he didn't expect to pass by it.

Twilight Valley had humanoid monsters known as Twilight Fanatics. They were once Anzelin's subordinates, but they had long since lost their minds and would attempt to kill anyone they saw.

Lu Li didn't want to tango with them either, flying directly above them. Based on his vague impressions, he narrowed his search to an area within the Dilan Ruins.

The Dilan Ruins was filled with rundown buildings. All that was left was the mural that tragically played witness to their history.

There were many Twilight Fanatics wandering around in the area, which would pose a problem if they weren't dealt with. Lu Li carefully used Stealth to sneak up behind one and was about to kill it when he suddenly realized something.

The humanoid form could be stolen from!

If you were a Thief and you didn't steal anything, how can you be called a Thief?

Dawn's Thieves were similar to Assassins, but they used traditional gaming terms. The stealing aspect of the profession seemed to be a little lacking.

You couldn't steal from players, non-human creatures, friendly units…

The only creatures you could steal from were these humanoid monsters, such as the Twilight Fanatics.

Stealing: gives a certain chance to obtain coins and equips from a humanoid body. Results in aggro. Cannot be used against players or non-hated NPCs.

Lu Li carefully got close to the Twilight Fanatic and used the Steal skill on the monster.

System: Stealing failed!

The Twilight Fanatic turned its head and pointed its Magic Staff at Lu Li.

Lu Li wasn't angry; his strong stats and regeneration allowed him to effortlessly deal with this LV15 monster. The EXP gained was also very good.

The next few times he encountered this monster, he would try to steal from them.

His luck was good for one time where he stole 5 copper coins, but all his other attempts failed.

System: You steal a piece of rag.

System: You steal 5 copper.

System: …

As he continued to steal, his success rate slowly increased. Although the steal skill didn't fall under the category of upgradeable skills, practice certainly did make perfect. Between a rookie and a god thief, there was definitely a difference.

The chest could only be come across by chance, so Lu Li relaxed by practicing his Steal skill and farming. This was how the afternoon came to pass.

As he opened up the level ranking list, he saw that the top of the list hadn't really changed. After all, everyone was desperately levelling. Azure Sea Breeze and the rest must have followed Lu Li's pointers. As long as they chose a good location and the monsters were good for farming, there was no reason for anyone to be able to catch up.

On the other hand, the Glory Rankings had shifted. Other than Blood Dagger always being fixed in the top three, everyone else's position changed by the minute.

Moonlight was truly an expert – he had suddenly managed to rush into 4th place. Currently, he had killed over 100 people, but if he kept going like this, his level ranking would suffer.

Everyone had their own playstyle, so there was no need to force anything, but Lu Li just felt a bit emotional about it.

He skillfully finished off the Twilight Fanatic that he was fighting, with a Slit Throat at 75% Skill Completion and 90% damage that had also critically hit. He then reached down to pick up the few copper coins it had dropped and looked around. Suddenly, something caught his eye.

A treasure Chest!

Steel Treasure Chest!

The Great Thief

Chapter 76: Steel Treasure Chest

A treasure chest's grade could be determined based on its appearance. Its color, adornments and material were all visibly of a higher quality.

Lu Li looked at the monsters in the surrounding area, making sure they were far away before standing in front of the Steel Chest and casting Unlock.

System: Sorry, your Unlock skill's level is insufficient to open this treasure chest.

Insufficient level?

Lu Li froze for a moment, before realizing that the Unlock also needed a certain level.

LV1 Unlock could only open Bronze chests, while a Steel chest required a LV2 or greater Unlock.

After the System Update, Lu Li received 5 Skill Points – one for every 2 levels he had gained. Fortunately, he still hadn't used any of them.

Most skills required one to find a teacher to upgrade them, with the exception of original skills. Unlock and Steal were both skills that came with the Thief profession, so Lu Li could upgrade them on his own. If he couldn't, he would need to leave and make a return trip for this Treasure Chest.

He painfully added a Skill Point and confirmed the upgrade.

Unlock: 10 second cast, 1 minute cool down. Opens locked chests and doors. Skill Proficiency: 2/5.

There wasn't much change other than the cool down halving, which was a pretty good of upgrade. System: Unlock failed.

After a minute, he tried again but it failed. Perhaps a newly levelled-up skill required some practice, because Lu Li had already used the Unlock skill countless times.

Seven minutes later, on his seventh attempt, Lu Lu finally managed to open the treasure chest.

This was likely the first Steel chest to be opened in the game. Lu Li couldn't help but feel excited.

He reached his hand in and felt around, discovering a ring shaped item.

A ring!

It really was a ring! Lu Li cried out in satisfaction. As it turned out, people who dared to take the first steps were the luckiest of them all.

It didn't matter what profession this equip was for, or what kind of properties it had. As long as it was a ring that was higher than Bronze, it would sell.

Lu Li's current rings were the Supreme Ring on his right hand and an ordinary Bronze agility ring 1 ring on his left hand. In reality, not many people were wearing 2 rings at once.

Sharp Tooth Ring (Steel): Damage 6-8, Strength 6, Agility 3. Equipment Requirement: level 10. Durability 30/30.

The one he had found was a good one and something he could use as well. Lu Li unceremoniously replaced the low level Agility 1 ring.

Lu Li reached in again, filled with hope. This time, he found a blueprint.

Blueprint – Magic Patterned Bag

He was a little disappointed – why couldn't it have been for an Intermediate Healing Potion?

If he found the Intermediate Healing Potion blueprint, he would have been rich.

Lu Li was apparently an insatiably greedy kind of person. The Magic Patterned Bag was a 20 space bag, with 14 more spaces than the 6-space bag that the system sold. For the majority who couldn't scrape together four 6-space bags, this magic bag would definitely be very popular.

However, it was unlikely to make him rich, as the income wasn't going to be stable.

March Rain seemed to be learning Tailoring, so he would give it to her when he got back.

There were only these two things in the chest and Lu Li unwillingly retracted his hand. He memorized the location of the Steel chest and its respawn time, before directly heading back to the city.

After returning to the city, he first went to the Auction House to see if there was any cheap Snake Trust Grass. There was less stock this time and he didn't have enough money, so he only bought 70 sets.

His mailbox had now accumulated 300 Snake Trust Grass sets.

However, many players from the first group had already reached LV10. Monsters higher than LV10 all had a small chance of dropping the Intermediate Healing Potion Recipe. Who knew how much longer it would be before this secret was known by everyone and the price of the herb skyrocketed?

It was too bad that he didn't have enough money. Even Azure Sea Breeze and others' money had all be completely spent. Maybe he could go to the trading platform and buy gold coins.

Suddenly a person's face appeared in his mind: Shen Wansan!

"Boss Shen, are you here?"

"Don't ask if I'm here. If you have business then speak; every minute is gold wasted," Shen Wansan responded cheerfully.

"Really now, I've come to borrow some spending money. What do you think?" Lu Li wasn't too hopeful.

"Hmm…" Shen Wansan hesitated as expected.

"To be honest, I do have a few gold coins, but they have been used to invest in some goods. I've also heard some news that many companies are currently trying to enter the game to do business. We small-timers don't dare to compete with them, but I won't pass up an opportunity to make some cash."

This really was an opportunity. While these big companies settled in and catered for high-end goods, they might leave some holes in the market for ordinary players to make some money.

"Lend the money to me for a month at 100% interest. How about that?" Lu Li sweetened the deal.

"We'll talk in person." Shen Wansan was immediately interested.

This was Lu Li's reputation as an expert, figuratively slapping him across the face.

When he reached the designated Tavern, Shen Wansan was already there waiting.

"Expert brother, why is your face covered?" Shen Wansan didn't understand.

"Isn't it cool? I see many people covering their faces on the street."

Lu Li opened his bandana and drank some water.

"Sure, but it's inconvenient. I guess what Expert brother is doing is justified though. You won't to be recognized on the street right?" Shan Wansan wasn't sure if he was supposed to be jealous or pleased at his misfortune.

"Fortunately, this bandana exists and it's also fortunate that many people wear bandanas," Lu Li sighed.

Bandanas were made by Tailors. Their price wasn't very high and those who liked being mysterious would buy one to give off that air. You could often see masked people on the street.

"What are you planning on doing that gives you the confidence to loan with 100% interest?" After a few formalities, Shen Wansan went straight to the main point.

"This…" Lu Li shook his head without speaking.

"Hey hey, I have two gold collection offices under me, in addition to spending all my time collecting goods at the Trading Platform. So far, I've gathered around 180 gold."

Shen Wansan had reason to be proud; to have this kind of net worth only after a week of the game opening was no small feat.

Shen Wansan specialized in short term investments: buying low and selling high.

He also knew that gold could slowly decrease in value, so if he wanted to earn money, investing in goods that were guaranteed to increase their value was the best way.

But what kind of items increase in value?

Equipment was definitely a no go!

His colleagues, in an attempt to stock up in Bronze equipment, had made an absolute mess.

Since the Spider Lair opened, countless strategies have been developed. New players could join an ordinary players' party to fight the two bosses which caused the number of Bronze equips to surge. What was originally valued at 20 silver coins couldn't even be sold at 10.

"Lend 50 gold coins to me and I'll tell you the secret. This is a ludicrous sale, how about that?" Lu Li laughed. He wasn't worried whether the other side would agree, as he knew this kind of businessman. Once they tasted blood, they would never let it go.

However, Shen Wansan subverted his knowledge, shaking his head with a serious expression.

"Maybe we can cooperate in a different way."

The Great Thief

Chapter 77: Collaboration

Maybe we can work together in a different way. The words that came out of the businessman's mouth were surprisingly sincere.

Lu Li looked at him in surprise, asking, "What do you propose?"

He had already said that it is a big business deal and that he only needed to borrow a sum of gold. He was even offering to pay 100% interest. Was Shen still unsatisfied? Greed was a really bad habit.

Shen Wansan explained, "I propose we work in a collaboration. Let me control the money and I'll pay you dividends. How about that?"

He was a businessman, born into a business family. Although the three generations before him did their businesss in secret, he still knew the one universal truth - never take a once off deal.

Lending the money to Lu Li for his business opportunity for a double repayment seemed fair, but it didn't help to develop their relations.

Everyone just made their own money and had nothing to do with each other.

In the future, they might not come to look for him anymore. Even worse, they might find another person to do business with.

Only by working together with an elite expert would Shen Wansan feel like he was truly making business.

Lu Li didn't think this far – he considered Shen Wansan's proposal and found that it would be more convenient if he did it. He wouldn't need to spend levelling time to visit the Exchange Hall.

After finalizing the terms of their agreement, Shen Wansan wrote up an electronic contract. Under the witness of the great system God, this also had a legal effect in the real world.

The main idea of the contract was that Shen Wansan would invest 100 gold coins into whatever Lu Li specified and that they would split the profits evenly.

If his specified good didn't double in value within the next month, then Lu Li would give Shen Wansan his Silver badge.

"Guru, tell me what I'll need to buy."

Shen Wansan changed his tone, now directly addressing him as guru.

"Do you know about Healing Potions?" Lu Li asked.

"Do you want Silver Leaved Grass or Peacebloom flowers?" As a qualified businessman, Shen Wansan understood the game, at least to the point where the Basic Heal Potion was made of Peacebloom Flowers and Silver Leaved Grass.

"How could I be asking for the Basic Healing Potion?" Lu Li shook his head, continuing, "Those don't earn any much money. We need to make the Intermediate ones."

"Intermediate Healing Potion?!" Shen Wansan stared blankly at Lu Li.

"Guru, do you know how to make Intermediate Heal Potions?"

He had complete faith – in his mind, Lu Li had already ascended to a divine level. None of these strange things seemed strange to him anymore. If the guru could make Intermediate Healing Potions, they could make a mountain of gold!

"I don't know how to make it."

This one phrase cast doubt into Shen Wansan's mind, but what Lu Li said next reversed this.

"But, I do know where I can get the Intermediate Healing Potion Recipe."

"Are you asking me to buy its ingredients?" Shen Wansan trembled with excitement.

"Guru, quickly tell me what kind of ingredients!"

"Snake Trust Grass." Lu Li took a sip of his tea and wrote those words on the table.

Shen Wansan's lip trembled before he wiped them away with his sleeve. In silence, he stood up, bid Lu Li goodbye and turned away.

Every minute was worth dozens of gold. This was now more true than ever!

"Gee, still impatient as ever."

Lu Li shook his head, picked up his tea and drained it. He was about to leave before he was stopped by the waiter.

"Sir, you haven't paid."

What!

System: Players Sorrowless, I No Understand, Ninja Turtle… and another 20 players, have gotten the first clear on Wild Boss Wild Boar King Cossady.

What again!

After stepping out of the tavern, Lu Li opened the rankings. I No Understand, who was a fair bit behind, had now overtaken Moonlight at 6th place.

Wild Boar King Cossady was a LV15 Boss. Glory Capital needed to bring more than 20 people to beat it, which meant that the EXP each person received was drastically lower. Otherwise, he would have rose another rank.

It wasn't that Lu Li hadn't fought the Wild Boar King before; he was just incapable of defeating it. At the Boss' command, all the monsters in the area would attack.

Only 20 people were mentioned, but in taking this Boss, Glory Capital had used over 300 players.

Lu Li touched the short bow on his back. Seeing as there was still time, he could go and kill Death Knight Benedict.

Death Knight Benedict could be found in the Morningstar Tower in the Land of Ghosts. If he wanted to go there, he would need to transfer to Blackedge Fortress and fly over Blackedge Mountain into the Blood Elf site.

Going all the way to someone else's land to fight a Boss sounded heroic, but he had no other choice.

No matter how overpowered one was, there were only a handful of Bosses one could solo.

The special thing about Dark Knight Benedict was that he was not very smart and he didn't self-heal. Most of his skills were melee ranged, so as long as Lu Li positioned well, he would be able to eventually shoot him down.

After spending 2 gold coins, Lu Li arrived at Blackedge Fortress.

Blackedge Fortress was a neutral city, but it was deserted at the moment. When players started to become Death Paladins, it would liven up.

After Lu Li selected his target, he carefully flew over the treetops.

The Morningstar Tower's location was very remote and players shouldn't have even explored the area yet. After all, it was filled with LV15 ghosts with high defence. They also had terrifying spells: once a player was hit, they would involuntarily run around attracting even more monsters.

It was said that the Morningstar Tower was a magic tower where a famous enchantress had studied her magic.

Benedict was the Paladin that served her. No one knew what happened, but one day the enchantress disappeared and this Paladin became a Death Knight who attacked anyone that came close to the tower.

Lu Li settled at the top of the Morningstar Tower and transformed back.

A husky roar could be heard from a distance, before a Paladin that was tall in stature rushed over on his horse.

The man was dead and so was the horse; this was the Death Knight.

He waved his spear and roared anxiously, but couldn't step forwards.

The Morningstar Tower was the final memory he couldn't destroy!

Lu Li squatted on the tower and relentlessly shot arrows at Benedict. This was the easiest Boss to kill, but sooner or later all the major guilds would fight over it and it would spill enough blood to form a river.

Even with the Steel Bow, the high damage arrows only dealt 4-5 damage to Benedict. The poison did most of the work, as he perpetually lost a single HP at a time.

After 4 to 5 minutes, Benefit began to summon ghouls.

Ghouls had 4000HP and would Charge at ranged professions. Generally, when fighting this Boss, you would prioritize clearing these out.

Lu Li didn't need to worry though –he was so high up that the ghouls' Charge couldn't reach him.

In addition to Charge, Ghouls could also explode, but this was once again useless against Lu Li.

He was like a bug.

When his HP fell to half, the Death Knight released a death mark on Lu Li.

This caused him to lose 300HP per second, for 5 seconds.

Lu Li didn't have 1500 HP, but he could drink potions and he also had the Bloodstained Badge. While it was exciting, there was almost no risk of death.

Once Lu Li was back at full health, he let out a sigh of relief. The Death Knight didn't seem to have any more moves.

He was afraid that the Boss would be unreasonable like him. If a melee Boss started to perform multiple ranged attacks in succession, he would be dead before he could even speak.

The Great Thief

Chapter 78: Someone Was Coming to Steal The Boss

After grinding for an hour, the Death Knight finally reached low HP.

When this happened, it used a new ability.

Desecration: A field is created at the foot of the caster. All who stand in it have their movement speed reduced by 50% and take 1000 Shadow damage every 2 seconds.

Needless to say, this was an overpowered skill; one tick of the Shadow damage would drop Lu Li past half HP. Fortunately, his reactions were quick and he immediately changed locations when the skill was cast. However, he still had to take at least one tick of the damage.

At 5% HP, the Boss went berserk, releasing skill after skill that left potholes in the ground.

While Lu Li was fighting the Boss, he suddenly stopped attacking and listened attentively. His expression was grave.

There were other people!

He stood up on the tower and looked around the perimeter, spotting a party of a dozen people who were quickly clearing out mobs. It seemed that their goal was to reach the tower as well.

The loud cries of Death Knight had most likely alerted the nearby players that were farming.

"There's someone standing on the tower," a sharp-eyed player said as he pointed at Lu Li.

"How did he get up there?" a Blood Elf Mage asked while casting spells.

"Not sure, but it doesn't matter. It sounds like the Boss isn't dead yet, so if we quickly get there we can steal it from him. There's no way we can't steal it, given that there are so many of us."

The one who said this was a female Hunter. Judging by her skilled arm movements alone, she was probably twice as good as Remnant Dream.

After a couple of glances, Lu Li stopped staring and sped up his ranged attacks.

The Death Knight's constitution was high and he was completely covered in armour. There wasn't much difference in hitting any part of his body, so Lu Li didn't need to find a weak spot.

The Boss only had 2000 remaining HP, but the group of people were getting close. If they were clearing monsters, then the waves of mobs would be pulled away.

Just as Lu Li thought this, the mobs were pulled away and the Evil Faction players got closer and closer to the Morningstar Tower.

The thought of killing the Boss only with the bow was now just wishful thinking.

It was time to just attack!

Lu Li jumped off the tower and rushed at the Boss.

System: Shadowstrike Skill Completion 93%, resulting in 210% Skill Damage and stunning the target for 1 second.

A -64 red damage value floated up. This was ten times the damage of the bow and arrow!

System: Backstab Skill Completion 81%, resulting in 92% Skill Damage. Target's armor is broken.

The Armor Break on this kind of High Defence Boss was very useful. Before that, Lu Li's attacks only dealt damage in the tens, but after the Armor Break effect, normal attacks dealt 20-30 damage.

The Boss hit Lu Li, -350!

He downed a Health Potion and before the armor break was lost, he quickly cast Shadowstrike again.

System: Shadowstrike Skill Completion 95%, dealing 300% Skill Damage and stunning for 2 seconds.

This was Manual Mode! Upon reaching a completion rate of 95%, he could deal three times his normal damage. He knew that even before his 'rebirth' there weren't many people who were able to do such a thing.

There were less actions required for Shadowstrike and it was Lu Li's most practiced skill. With a bit of luck, he had managed to pull off this amazing blow.

Benedict didn't even hit him a second time; he was angry and raised his Warhammer to cast Desecration.

What was astonishing, was that Desecration appeared even at the feet of the people standing a hundred yards away.

Not for a second did they think that the Boss would target them in his spell. The whole party was standing on the Desecration area of effect, which dealt 1000 damage every 2 seconds. They immediately started losing members.

4 or 5 white lights shone out!

"Dammit, the Boss is dead."

The group left, afraid of taking another tick of Desecration. Those who were lucky discovered that many had fallen, including their Boss - the 9th ranked player Sorrowless, who was Glory Capital's leader!

However, it wasn't over yet. Desecration caused each of them to move 50% slower, allowing the monsters that they were pulling started to quickly catch up to them and cause all sorts of chaos.

Lu Li stood in front of the Boss. Obviously, he couldn't escape, but after he had activated the skill on his shoes, he could barely feel the effects of the slow.

Swift Leather Boots (Steel): Armor 8, Agility 4, Effect: Swiftness, movement speed increased by 10% for 10 seconds. 120 second cool down. Cannot be stacked. Equipment Requirement: Level 5. Durability 30/30.

After 10 seconds, the Swiftness effect dissipated and Lu Li was hit by the Boss twice, taking more than 700 damage. He had survived the whole ordeal.

The Boss was now down to less than 500 HP.

"Quickly, the Boss is about to die. Pull this wave of monsters away, No Understand you go interfere with the Thief fighting the Boss."

After their Boss had died, another member immediately assumed command. The number 1 guild did not have an undeserved reputation.

Lu Li's eyes narrowed as he stepped off the ground and launched himself up, swiping his dagger from left to right.

System: Slit Throat Skill Completion 85%, dealing 100% Skill Damage and a Bleed effect.

Critical!

The initial blow dealt -147, followed by a stream of about ten -20s.

After the critical hit, Benedict went into a weakened state where his attack and defence were greatly reduced. He seemed to know his life was ending and looked back at the Morningstar Tower, quietly awaiting his death.

Shadowstrike, Backstab, Shadowstrike, Slit Throat.

The Boss had fallen!

Level up!

System: Player Lu Li has achieved the First Clear on Wild Boss Death Knight Benedict!

Once this kill was broadcasted in the World Announcements, there was a great uproar.

This time, Lu Li was the only name on the announcement.

Jade Flower Lover: Oh my, he solo'ed a Boss!

Saltless Exchange: Guru Lu Li is overpowered. Sorrowless managed to kill a wild Boss too.

Great Qin Pioneer: Sorrowless my ass. It sounds nice to say that they did it with 20 people, but I have friends in the Evil Faction and they saw 300-400 people move out. Lu Li solo'ed the Death Knight. Even the name of the boss is scary.

Painted Feathers: We the Light Faction have Guru Lu Li. What does the Evil Faction have? Come, let's compare.

Glory Capital's players were still dealing with the last wave, but they looked a little sluggish. There wasn't a word to describe the strength of this Thief. He didn't look very strong, but you could clearly see Benedict's spilled blood.

A completely armor clad soul couldn't have been an easy fight.

I No Understand finally rushed out from amongst the monsters, firing his bow!

The Great Thief

Chapter 79: A Mutual Fear

Lu Li tanked the two incoming arrows, quickly picking up the dropped equips and materials.

He didn't have time to pick up the dozens of silver coins. He ducked and rolled to avoid a white glowing arrow. This was the Hunter's Crowd Control spell. If he was hit, he would be in a state of confusion for 3 seconds. In that time he would be killed.

Shadowmeld, Stealth.

"Dammit, he's escaped," I No Understand angrily burst out, while shooting a arrows in the direction Lu Li had vanished.

"No Understand, why didn't you start with your Confusion Arrows?" One younger member was dissatisfied.

"Screw you! Mother! Dammit! Do you think the Confusion Arrows have a long range?" I No Understand rebuked the ungrateful ingrate.

"The Boss is rushing over," he reminded.

"Then what are you doing here? Let's withdraw."

The female hunter looked around for a moment and said, "Did you see the World Announcement? The Thief just then was Lu Li, the god who took out multiple members of the Imperial Secret Service. Let's just forget about today; levelling up is more important."

After hearing that it was Lu Li, the hot-blooded member was silent.

Lu Li's popularity was also as equally outrageous in the Evil Faction when compared to the Light faction. After all, everyone was notified when a World Announcement was made. Their understanding of the two words, 'Lu Li', was: God Thief!

Lu Li had actually hidden behind the Morningstar Tower, eating bread to recover HP.

Although he hadn't lost all of his HP, he had come close. Facing a Boss head-on was never going to be a Thief's strength.

He had also overheard the conversation of the group. Seeing as they had no intention to fight him, he wouldn't chase after them either.

If he wasn't wrong, this was the same party of Glory Capital that fought the Boss, although he didn't know if Blood Dagger or Man of Darkness was in the party. Lu Li wasn't afraid of them, but couldn't envision himself killing them if he attacked the group.

Waiting until his HP was almost fully recovered, he found a remote corner to transform into a crow before returning to the city.

After returning to Astrana, Lu Li could finally relax and check out what the Boss Dropped. There were some rare materials, an Intermediate Health Potion and 3 pieces of equipment.

Protector's Promise Chestplate, Plate Armor, Steel Equipment, 7 strength, 20% increase to all holy damage. Level requirement: 10.

Low-level equipment was becoming less and less valuable, so Lu Li intended to immediately sell this one.

Shadow Shinguards, Cloth Armor, Steel Equipment, 8 Intelligence. MP consumption of Shadow skills are reduced by 10%.

This was a relatively good effect that was suited to Shadow Priests and Warlocks. He was also going to sell it.

There was also a Bronze equip that was LV10, so it would be worth slightly more than a LV5 Bronze equip.

The greatest thing he had gained from the Boss was EXP: soloing it had taken him to 30% of the next level.

Now, he was close to beating Azure Sea Breeze in the player rankings. Lu Li estimated that Sea Breeze had roughly 20% EXP than he did.

There was still a lot of time left, so Lu Li contacted Azure Sea Breeze, only to find out that the few of them were already doing the Elite Spider Lair. It would be best for him to farm the lair on his own.

Previously, he wouldn't dare farm alone, but now that he had the Bloodstained Badge, the small Spider lair posed him no problem.

"Seeking a Boost for the Spider Lair, will do the regular difficulty for free and pay 1 Gold for Elite difficulty. Is there a strong party willing to take a solo player?" The World Announcements were filled with advertisements such as these, but most of the players wouldn't choose to do the Elite difficulty.

The risk was too great and the time spent was too much. It just wasn't cost effective.

Lu Li casually browsed for a bit and hid his name, before sending out invites to the players who had posted the messages.

This was the issue with fame – having too much of it caused problems. He just wanted to quickly get to farming; he didn't want to be bothered for doing an Instance Dungeon.

System: Lonely Master has been added to the party.

System: Wine Courage Wang has been added to the party.

System: Foolish Fanatic has been added to the party.

System: Endless Horizon has been added to the party.

Lonely Master: "Why did you send me a party invite? Are you boosting? Elite Dungeon?"

Lu Li: "Yep, boosting at Elite difficulty. You can directly transfer the payment over there; 1 gold in advance."

Lonely Master: "Are the others part of your party?"

Lu Li: "They're all clients."

Lonely Master: "What? You're taking all of these clients alone? Are you crazy?"

System: Lonely Master was kicked from the party.

The other people in the party were silent. Lu Li's decisiveness was actually convincing to the other players.

Lu Li: "If you have any problems you can leave, otherwise go enter the Instance Dungeon. I need one more player."

Endless Horizon: "Let me ask a question, can I invite someone?"

Lu Li: What's the name, I'll add them.

Endless Horizon: "Return to Shore."

Lu Li: …

Wine Courage Wang: …

Foolish Fanatic: …

Endless Horizon and Return to Shore were… a couple. Now that the party was full, they entered the Instance Dungeon.

"I'll say this now, you don't have to fight. You can just follow," Lu Li urged after collecting the gold.

Foolish Fanatic raised his hand and asked, "Guru, I am a Healer, do you need healing?"

"Do it yourselves, I don't need it."

Lu Li shook his head and went into Stealth. He faced the monsters and killed one after another. He killed every monster within 3 strikes and it was all over within 20 seconds.

"OP! No wonder he can take all these clients alone. Guru you must have a full set of Steel equips and rank highly on the player rankings."

Return to Shore was a little chatty and had been talking non-stop since they had entered the dungeon. Lu Li slightly regretted adding him.

"Guru, I'm telling you, my role model is Lu Li, followed by you," Return to Shore continued.

"What do you mean? You can't even tell who this bandana wearing Guru is. How can you admire him?" Wine Courage Wang asked.

"If he wasn't a guru, why would he cover his face? Maybe the person levelling us right now is Lu Li himself," Return to Shore hypothesized.

"Shut up, I'll kick you if you keep making noise," Lu Li spoke and all of them fell silent.

Once he reached the Brook, Lu Li got the 20% attack buff so he could kill the monsters even faster.

The only drawback of boosting was that his level was too high and there was barely any EXP to split. The 4 clients that were following him were level 3-4, so they were excited about the EXP they were getting.

Occasionally a common equip would be dropped, but Lu Li wouldn't even bother which made the clients even happier.

"The Elite Instance Dungeon is so much better. The EXP I've gotten so far is more than if I did the regular difficulty twice."

Wine Courage Wang was very emotional.

"The most critical is having good equipment. Just buy any two and put them on so you can join a party to do the regular difficulty. If you're lucky, you'll get a Steel equip and you'll be able to join a party to do the Elite difficulty."

When doing Elite Instance Dungeons, many people would want to know if you were carrying a Steel equip first.

"If you want to do the Elite difficulty, you'll need to learn more."

Lu Li killed the last monster and headed towards the first Boss.

As long as it wasn't too much trouble, he didn't mind teaching rookies.

While attacking, he gave a brief introduction on the various stages of a Boss' behavior and the various professions that could deal with it. Lu Li only drank 3 Basic Health Potions before putting the Boss down.

The only exciting part of the whole experience was when Endless Horizon stepped a little too far forward and was almost killed by a small spider.

The Great Thief

Chapter 80: For The Blueprint

The Boss dropped a Steel equip which was ecstatically bought by Wine Courage Wang for 2 Gold. Although the price of equipment was dropping, good equipment was still hard to find. Steel equips with good properties were worth around 3 gold and were bought quickly if they appeared on the auction.

The price of the equipment sold was at a modest rate, so Wine Courage Wang was very grateful towards Lu Li.

Unfortunately, his name was hidden, so the party members could only see what he looked like. They all unanimously gave up on adding him.

After the second Boss was defeated, it dropped a Magic Staff weapon.

What was the most expensive weapon in Dawn?

It was definitely the Magic Staff!

Mages, Warlocks, Priests, Druids, Warriors, Hunters and Shamans could all use a Magic Staff. However, Hunters and Warriors generally didn't use them.

All four clients were able to use the Magic Staff, so Lu Li held a bid for it.

The attributes on this Magic Staff were pretty good, so its final price was 5 gold. Overall, Lu Li had managed to make 10 gold from this Instance Dungeon while spending almost nothing.

Unfortunately, Elite Instance Dungeons could only be completed once per day and the Regular Instance Dungeon wasn't worth doing. After this round, he declined the client's request to continue farming and went straight to the Exchange hall.

He had a look around for materials to upgrade his Supreme Ring and for Skill Books that he could use, but didn't find anything. He then looked for Snake Trust Grass and bought all the sets he could find for less than 10 silver.

After all the Snake Trust Grass on the market had been sold, its price had started rise.

This was just the reality of the market. Fortunately, a price of 10 silver coins would still make for a large profit margin and Lu Li couldn't think of anything that could be more profitable than this.

Afterward, he dropped off the two Steel Equips into the Auction Room. This time, he didn't set a maximum price but opted for a non-maximum price auction.

For parties that wanted to complete the new Instance Dungeons, LV10 Steel equips were the most sought after items. There was absolutely no worry that he wouldn't be able to sell them.

Currently, the most valuable equipment were LV10 Steel equips. Most of the older players were approaching LV10 and the newer players with double EXP had no need to invest into the lower level equips. It would be better for them if they had the money to bid for a LV10 equip.

The equipment had only just been consigned before a series of bids went up.

The price of the Steel Equipment almost instantly shot to 3 gold, before slowing down, as the number of players who could pull out 3 gold for a piece of equipment were few.

Lu Li estimated that the auction would be complete in 6 hours and that the two equips would easily make 10 gold.

For the rest of his time, Lu Li went to look for Azure Sea Breeze to farm Nagas with and use his double EXP boost. This was the same double EXP boost that he had gained by staying in the hotel for more than 6 hours.

He gave the Magic Patterned Bag blueprint and the few pieces of Magic Cloth to March Rain. He was counting on her to quickly increase her skills so she could start creating the Magic Patterned Bag. The group's current bags were becoming more and more lacking.

March Rain's Tailoring was almost at an Intermediate level. Everyone was eager to get a Magic Patterned Bag so they all contributed the cloth that they had.

While they were farming, Azure Sea Breeze and Lu Li discussed the formation of a Mercenary group.

Lu Li had been thinking about how creating a fixed party was a must. After all, Dawn wasn't a single player game. Also, the rare materials that one needed to progress were not something a single person could gather on their own.

Moreover, even with Lu Li's own foresight, he dared not to take a random party through the Death Mines. The Death Mines and the Spider Lair were on two completely different levels. The Death Mines were a true test of a player's abilities.

There was also the issue of Private Instance Dungeons. If he found a Private Instance Dungeon Scroll, he would need to take a group of knowledgeable people that he could trust. Otherwise, if he took a random party and failed 3 times, the scroll would become useless.

Lu Li was caught in a dilemma. Thieves required an independent playstyle, so it was difficult to rely too much on a party.

As such, he didn't want to be the party leader.

"Sea Breeze, you should be the leader," Lu Li said.

"What, why would you make me the leader?" Azure Sea Breeze was confused.

"I can't spend too long with everyone else; I'm a Thief. I need to move alone a lot of the time," Lu Li explained, feeling as though he would be able to persuade the others.

"Don't be ridiculous," Azure Sea Breeze did not hesitate to refuse, "What does you being the leader have to do with that? You do your thing and we'll do ours. The leader role doesn't have to be too official. I won't do it."

"Yeah, it's not that different with or without you."

Lonesome Flower glanced at his sister who was paying attention to Lu Li, healing him even when he lost a bit of HP. Couldn't she see that her brother was about to lose all of his HP? "When we need you, you can come. When we don't need you, you can be elsewhere"

Lonesome Flower actually wanted to avoid him! Lu Li laughed bitterly.

"Big brother Lu Li, you should be the leader. How good would it be if our leader was the number 1 player," Remnant Dream said eagerly.

"Hello? I am the ranked number 1 player," Azure Sea Breeze corrected her before asking Moonlight, "Hey, little light, what do you say?"

Moonlight had spent all day PVPing, but had come here to spend his double EXP boost like Lu Li. He waved his hand coldly and said, "Don't call me little light, unless you want to lose a level."

"You see! I can't deal with this kind of teammate," Azure Sea Breeze held out his hands and sighed. "How about I be the vice leader; I'll help out with matters dealing with PVE."

"Why don't we make a guild?' Remnant Dream ignorantly asked.

"Guilds have to pay taxes, silly."

In reality, they could make a guild, but it would be better if they waited for a while to take a pre-existing high-level guild from someone. It would cost a lot less.

Now that they had gotten this far in the conversation, Lu Li could no longer refuse. He planned to go and spend some money the next day to establish the Mercenary group. In future, all PVE related matters would be dealt with by Azure Sea Breeze, as he was considered an expert in PVE matters and managing teams. His wealth of knowledge was far greater than Lu Li's.

Then, they also had to discuss the issue of exploring the new Instance Dungeon.

Now that he had hoarded a large number of Snake Trust Grass, he had to find a way to obtain the Intermediate Health Potion recipe as quickly as possible.

Once he had the recipe, he would be able to take the team to get the Death Mine's first clear.

After all, the First Clear rewards were great and had a much higher drop rate.

The Intermediate Health Potion recipe could be dropped by any monster that was higher than LV10. Lu Li and the group had farmed these monsters for 2-3 days, but they hadn't seen even the shadow of the recipe.

The other players still had not heard of the Intermediate Healing Potion. Otherwise, the auction house would not have people selling Snake Trust Grass for so little.

Previously, someone had written a guide to getting Intermediate Healing Potion Recipes and had written out a list of monsters that were the most likely to drop them. Lu Li recalled that the most likely monster were humanoids called 'Undead Herbalists'.

The next day, Lu Li went to the Council Hall to register a Mercenary Group under the name 'XinXin'. Other than this game, all he had on his mind was his sister. When the council member asked him, he reflexively responded with those words.

He had no regard for the others' protests.

After he invited the five regular group members, he hesitated, before deciding against inviting his landladies.

His next actions would be undertaken alone; his goal was to get the Intermediate Health Potion Recipe.

The Great Thief

Chapter 81: Pick Pocket Skill

Lu Li chose the Undead Herbalists for 3 main reasons.

The first was that these monsters were the same level as him, so farming them would be easy and there wouldn't be any reduction to his EXP. Secondly, the Undead Herbalists had a high chance of dropping blueprints, and just like any other humanoid monster, Lu Li could Pick Pocket them. Finally, they also could drop a type of Quick Poison recipe in addition to the Intermediate Potion recipe.

Poison was incredibly useful to Thieves, just as a pet was to a Hunter.

The only issue was that the Undead Herbalist spawn point was quite far away from Astrana and was within enemy territory.

This was of no concern to Lu Li, however. As he stroked the sharp edge of the Broodmother's Kiss, he felt his body surge with energy.

Every Thief became stronger through killing!

With a combination of flying, using Stealth and running as the Little Cheetah, Lu Li burned through his Stamina twice before reaching the Grey Valley's frontlines.

The sound of a logging machine could be heard, as well as miserable cries. The scent of grass and trees in the air was stained with the thick smell of blood.

Lu Li saw many players from the opposing factions fighting and killing each other. He observed a few battles while stealthed, before leaving after a short while.

His goal here was to obtain recipes, not to earn Glory. Of course, if there were Evil Faction players crazy enough to charge into Light territory, he wouldn't pass up the opportunity for free Glory.

However, he first went to the Silverwing Outpost to receive a quest.

The Silverwing Outpost was the outermost outpost in the Grey Valley and as such, was a popular battle site. As he was nearing the outpost, an Elf stopped him.

"Young kinsman, this is not a place where you should come."

Replying to this Elf required luck. If a player replied too slowly, or gave a poor excuse, this Silverwing Warrior would tell you to leave, as this place was involved in military matters.

However, Lu Li did not feel anxious at all and he quickly replied, "I have sufficient strength and wish to fight for the peace of the Grey Valley!"

As long as a player expressed their desire to fight, the NPC would give them a PVP quest.

Once the Silverwing Warrior heard Lu Li's words, he nodded in satisfaction.

"Welcome, new warrior. I hope you can prove yourself first," he replied.

"As you wish." Lu Li had come solely for this quest, so he did not hesitate in accepting it.

"The Forest's medicinal herbs have been defiled by the Undead and Orcs. Please go and stop them. This badge will record your battle results," the Silverwing Warrior said with a murderous gleam in his eyes. "Show those despicable invaders our might."

Lu Li received the badge and the system notified him that he had received the Faction Quest 'The Bleeding Outsiders'.

Under the supervision of the Orcs, the Undead Herbalists busily collected medicinal herbs to create potions for the warriors on the frontlines.

The quest required him to kill the Undead Herbalists and Orc Supervisors.

Players from both the Light and Evil Factions would receive this quest. Players from the Light Faction were required to kill the Undead Herbalists, while players from the Evil Faction were required to protect them and kill the Light Faction players.

These quests could only be accepted after reaching LV12 and there were not many players in this region yet. There was only a small training group who were about 200 feet away. They seemed to be from the Evil Faction, as there was a Tauren (a human with a bull head) among them.

Lu Li crept behind an Orc Supervisor and used the Pick Pocket skill on it.

System: Pick Pocket failed.

The instant his Pick Pocket failed, Lu Li used Cheap Shot, stunning the Orc Supervisor for 4 seconds.

The 4 seconds of stun, coupled with Lu Li's mastery of Shadowstrike, caused the Orc Supervisor to be stunned until its death.

If Pick Pocket failed, Lu Li would immediately be attacked by his target. However, the system would allow him to use Stealth if he was quick enough, which afforded him the opportunity to use Cheap Shot. This was a basic technique for Thieves, but there were not many players who were able to do this.

It was not technically difficult, but not enough players knew that this was even possible.

Killing the Orc Supervisor did not give Lu Li any Glory, but the badge in his bag now showed the number '1'.

Killing an Orc Supervisor would usually leave behind 4 defenceless Undead Herbalists. However, Lu Li did not underestimate these monsters covered in large robes. They would often throw out poison bottles, which dealt quite a lot of poison damage.

Pick Pocket.

System: You have obtained a bottle of Basic Antidote.

Basic Antidotes were now common goods. After hitting another Undead Herbalist with Sap, Lu Li quickly killed the one that he had just pick pocketed before any of the others could react.

Lu Li continuously used Pick Pocket and quickly killed his targets after. He was like an incredibly efficient farming bot.

He continued until he heard a system announcement.

System: Respected player, through your continuous efforts, your Shadowstrike Skill has levelled up to LV2.

Shadowstrike had finally levelled up! Lu Li almost wept tears of joy – this was the first time that he had levelled up a skill through his hard work.

Before he could rejoice, he heard the next piece of information given by the system.

System: Because you were the first player to level up a skill through practice, you also receive 1 additional SP.

This was why Lu Li did not use his SP to level up Shadowstrike – he knew that being the first person to level up a skill through hard work would have good rewards.

The 1 SP he had gained was not to be looked down on. The system only gave 1 SP per 2 levels and every profession had more than 10 skills. With every skill having a level cap of 5, it would take many SP points to level every skill to its max level.

SP was even more valuable than Silver grade equipment.

Shadowstrike: Instant Cast, Cooldown Time: 4 seconds. Deals 20 damage to the target, as well as 150% weapon attack damage. Awards 1 Combo Point. Level: 2/5.

Compared to the LV1 Shadowstrike, this LV2 Shadowstrike was much more powerful. Lu Li couldn't help but find a monster and try to finish it off with Shadowstrike.

System: Shadowstrike Skill Completion 92%, caused 180% Skill Damage. Target stunned for 2 seconds.

The Undead Herbalist, which only had half of its HP bar remaining, staggered and then fell to the ground.

He had actually dealt a critical hit.

Although the official website didn't give any detailed figures, some dedicated players had run tests. They hypothesised that levelling up a skill didn't only increase the damage, but also Critical Chance.

With his main attack skill levelled up, the speed at which Lu Li farmed monsters became much faster. The number on the badge now had 3 digits, but all of the items that he had stolen were all common and useless things.

System: You have obtained [Recipe: Basic Agility Potion].

Lu Li stared in shock. He had finally obtained a recipe.

Recipe: Basic Agility Potion

Recipe: Alchemy

Requirements: Intermediate Alchemy (180)

Use: Teaches you how to create a Basic Agility Portion

Basic Agility Potion: Increases Agility by 5 points for 2 minutes. Cooldown Time: 30 minutes.

Although it wasn't the recipe for the Intermediate Health Potion, Agility Potions were still quite good. They could increase Agility for a short period of time, which was incredibly useful in Boss fights or PVP.

This Potion could raise Agility by 5 points, while Lu Li only received 5 stat points per level.

It seemed that it really wasn't too difficult to obtain recipes using Pick Pocket. Lu Li felt even more motivated and began to farm monsters even faster.

The Great Thief

Chapter 82: Faerie Fire

Just as Lu Li was about to kill an Orc Supervisor, a black figure charged towards him.

Lu Li muttered inwardly, "I've been waiting for you for a long time, you scrub."

A habit that he had developed in his 'past life' was that he would always keep an eye out for ambushes. Otherwise, he would be easily killed while faming money.

Why did people pick on Gold Collection Unit members?

The reason was simple: Gold Collection Unit members had decent equipment, but they weren't skilled enough to compete with experts. As such, killing these sorts of people was usually had a low risk and a high reward.

Tauren innately had greater Strength than other races, but because of how big they were, they were often quite slow. Although this Tauren had charged over at full speed, Lu Li was fully prepared.

Lu Li grabbed the Orc Supervisor and held him out as a shield.

The Orc Supervisor was powerless to resist.

Seeing that he was about to crash into the monster, the Tauren Warrior knew that this battle would be tough.

However, there was no medicine for regret. The Tauren did not despair, because he knew he had allies who were rushing over – a Tauren Druid and a Tauren Priest. They had all been quite reliable.

They're just a motley crew, Lu Li thought to himself as he shook his head. He stunned the Warrior using a Shadowstrike and continuously attacked him with normal attacks, causing his HP to rapidly fall.

Who said that Warriors countered Thieves?! The Tauren Warrior almost started to weep.

"Hurry up and heal me!"

"Oh, sure."

The two other Tauren hurriedly ran over and started to cast healing spells on him.

The Druid and Priest were both Healers.

This was a classic team composition that worked well when each player had fairly average Attack. It was very difficult to kill a team with one Attacker and two Healers.

Lu Li almost felt sorry for these poor people.

However, he didn't feel too bad about killing them when he saw the axe that the Warrior was holding.

The axe was called the Mangler and it had a Bleed effect. It was a decent double-handed weapon for PVP and cost 68 Glory points to purchase from the Evil Faction's frontline Quartermaster.

That meant that this crew had killed at least 68 Light Faction players.

Lu Li quickly cast Shadowmeld and became stealthed.

"Hurry and use Trample," the Druid yelled.

"Goddamn…"

Only then did the Tauren Warrior find that he was no longer stunned. He stomped down with his feet, but didn't find anything near him.

Priest: "….."

Lu Li had used Sap on the poor Priest.

The Druid thought to himself, "Damn this guy's smart. He stunned the Priest, so he's probably coming for me. Then, there'll be no one to heal the Warrior." Upon coming to this conclusion, he quickly started to heal himself.

Red damage figures began to float above the Priest's head, and by the time the Druid had realised what was happening, the Priest was already on the ground.

Lu Li immediately entered Stealth, then sprang towards the Druid who was only just beginning to react. After being hit by Cheap Shot, the Druid was not able to retaliate at all and quickly joined the Priest in the dirt. As for the Tauren Warrior, he was still chasing after Lu Li.

Lu Li's Movement Speed was already fast to begin with, and after activating the speed skill on his Boots, it was impossible for the Warrior to catch up to him.

In a 1v1 battle, the Tauren Warrior had no confidence in beating Lu Li. The other two players had been killed by Lu Li in a flash and the gap between them was simply too vast.

After killing three people, Lu Li now had 3 Glory points.

Glory points were incredibly useful – they could be used to increase one's Rank, or could be exchanged for EXP, materials or equipment. With enough Glory, one could even exchange them for a mount…

Of course, this would take much time and effort. After finishing off his three assailants, Lu Li continued to farm monsters for recipes.

Lu Li's EXP bar had now increased by 10%, which was not much slower than if he were to train in a party.

The Undead Herbalists would occasionally drop some equipment, but they were usually quite ordinary. After reaching LV10, most people had a full set of Bronze grade equipment. It was good that Lu Li barely needed to consume any Potions while farming because of his Bloodstained Badge.

Just like that, 4 or 5 hours passed.

During this period of time, there had been many enemy players who had tried to ambush him. However, they were all quickly killed by Lu Li.

Without even really trying, Lu Li's Glory had risen to 17.

Suddenly, a voice shouted out. "It's him!" a busty young woman angrily yelled out as she pointed at Lu Li. His wanton killing had finally brought him some trouble. Ten or so people surrounding the woman all murderously glared at him.

Before Lu Li could react, his body lit up with flames.

Faerie Fire? There are people with this skill already? Lu Li was completely dumbfounded.

Faerie Fire: Instant Cast. Uses magic to surround the target, preventing them from going into stealth or concealing themselves. Causes 50 damage when cast in Bear Form.

This was a Druid spell and was the one that Thieves hated the most. Without the Shadow Cloak skill to give magic immunity, it was basically a death sentence for Thieves.

What was even worse was that this skill lasted for a whole 40 seconds.

Lu Li immediately turned and ran. Otherwise, he would be dead for sure!

The group of people never expected Lu Li to react so quickly. He hadn't even said anything before he sprinted away.

What was even more shocking was that this Thief was incredibly fast. He was even able to outrun the abilities that were just about to hit him.

It was not until the Faerie Fire had disappeared did Lu Li finally calm down and stop running.

He felt like cursing at the system for being unfair. Back in his 'past life' when he was a Druid, he had only found this skill book when he was LV28. Who would have thought that someone from the Evil Faction had learnt it already? This was simply preposterous.

Lu Li was determined to obtain the Shadow Cloak skill. Otherwise, things would not turn out so well next time.

He had underestimated these people, but they had also underestimated him.

If he was affected by the Faerie Fire and surrounded on all sides, he wouldn't have been able to escape, no matter how fast he could run.

This would not be the case with the Shadow Cloak skill. The Shadow Cloak skill was the Thieves' trump card in PVP. It gave magic immunity for a short period of time, which was essential to not being killed.

However, it was rare for normal monsters to drop this skill book and the Bosses that dropped it were incredibly difficult to kill.

Or were they?

The Great Thief

Chapter 83: Finding the Recipe

There were a few Bosses that could be killed by relying on the terrain around them, such as the Death Knight. Lu Li's other target was even more highly levelled, but dropped even better items. The only prerequisite for fighting it was that he had Intermediate Health Potions.

All Bosses could cast skills. The Death Knight's Desecration could even affect players that were not part of the battle.

His next target's skills were used even more frequently and it would be impossible to survive without a large stock of Intermediate Health Potions.

As such, it was essential that he obtained the Intermediate Health Potion recipe.

He casually killed off a few enemy players, before returning to his training spot.

Unfortunately, he couldn't think of anything that was easier to farm than the Undead Herbalists.

Pick Pocket.

System: You have obtained a bottle of Basic Deadly Poison.

This was good stuff. Lu Li took out the bottle of poison that he had just stolen, then hesitated. He decided not to apply it to his dagger.

It would be better to save this for fighting Bosses or other players.

Lu Li's experience as a Gold Collection Unit member had made him a patient person. He continuously farmed monsters for 8 hours. In the end, he was too tired and hungry, so he logged off to get some rest and eat some food.

After logging on again, he looked at the Rankings.

Moonlight had fallen out of the top 10 in the Level Rankings, but he had advanced to the number 2 position in the Glory Rankings. He was now right behind Blood Dagger with his 220 Glory.

Although Remnant Dream would often train with Azure Sea Breeze, she had strict parents. She had to eat and sleep at set times, and had fallen to number 9 on the Level Rankings.

Azure Sea Breeze was now LV14 and was the only LV14 player in Dawn. Apart from when he was eating, he never logged off. He didn't have real life things to do like Lu Li and was a classic levelling addict.

Although he was still LV13, Lu Li was quite close to where Azure Sea Breeze was because he had solo-killed a Boss. Moreover, his Attack was quite high which made it incredibly easy for him to farm monsters.

Lonesome Flower and March Rain were right behind Lu Li. They had been training with Azure Sea Breeze and so were gaining EXP quite quickly as well.

Lu Li's goal for the day was to reach LV14. As for obtaining the Intermediate Health Potion recipe, he had already started to lose hope.

"If you can't find it, then never mind. That's the problem with Dawn. What kind of game would make it so difficult to obtain Potions? All the previous games I've played sold all kinds of Potions in the shops," Azure Sea Breeze said, as he chatted to Lu Li through a voice call.

He was met with silence from Lu Li.

"Did you know, that when you logged off to eat lunch, the Blood-red War Flag killed a Boss. It was a Desert Explorer or something, but I forgot what level it was. Apparently, it took 70-80 people to kill it…"

Lu Li still did not reply. He had foreseen that this would happen. After all, it was impossible for him to take all the good things. In the end, Dawn was a fairly balanced game. Moonlight would often die and Lu Li would have to run for his life when there were too many people. There were also Bosses that anyone could kill…

Lu Li knew that the Desert Explorer Boss had a chance to drop the Explorer equipment set that was exclusive to Hunters. However, this Boss had a large spawn area and was difficult to find. Moreover, it would be impossible for Lu Li and his party to kill it.

"There's a Bounty Quest for killing you in the Mercenary Hall. I'm guessing that it was the Imperial Secret Service who made it."

Azure Sea Breeze continued to chat on, despite Lu Li's silence.

"Killing you once will earn 10 gold coins and the maximum number of times you can do it is ten. It's actually quite a bit of money. Do you want to help your bro become a little richer?"

Lu Li felt quite annoyed. He wasn't sure if he was more annoyed towards Azure Sea Breeze, who was taking joy in his misery, or the Imperial Secret Service that wouldn't leave him alone.

As he repetitively Pick Pocketed and killed monsters, Lu Li suddenly realised something.

The system had told him that he had successfully stolen something, but he was so zoned out that he hadn't realised. He hurriedly opened his bag.

Sitting in the second last space was a piece of paper.

System: You have obtained [Recipe: Intermediate Health Potion].

Lu Li stared in shock. He found it! He had finally found it!

Recipe: Intermediate Health Potion

Recipe: Alchemy

Requirements: Intermediate Alchemy (120)

Use: Teaches you how to create an Intermediate Health Potion

Intermediate Health Potion: Immediately recovers 200 HP, as well as 20 HP per second for the next 10 seconds (will be cancelled if hit). Is not restricted by battle. Cooldown Time: 60 seconds.

When Lu Li took out the recipe, he almost cried.

He had spent so much time and effort looking for it. Back in his 'past life', he had also obtained this recipe. However, this was after the game had been released for a year. As such, the recipe only sold for 20 gold coins in the Exchange Hall. Who knew how difficult it was to find these things in the wilderness?

Even if someone offered him 200 gold coins to buy it right now, he would still refuse.

At this point, Lu Li felt like vomiting when he saw an Undead Herbalist. He looked at the quest badge in his bag, and was blown away by the number it displayed.

2,089!

It had taken him a whole 13 hours.

Lu Li immediately learned the method for creating the Intermediate Health Potions. He didn't want to risk being killed by an enemy player and dropping it. He would probably blow up in anger if that happened.

Lu Li returned to the Silverwing Outpost, wondering what the reward for clearing the quest to such a degree would be.

As he entered the outpost, he was not stopped this time. Perhaps it was because of the badge in his bag. He looked around, but didn't find the Silverwing Warrior who had issued the quest to him. As such, he approached Vinda Nightwing , the Commander of the Outpost.

"Hello, what can I help you with?"

Lu Li took out the silver badge, "I was tasked by a Silverwing Warrior to complete 'The Bleeding Outsiders'."

"Your courage is praiseworthy, my fellow kinsman. Please give me the badge," Vinda Nightwing said. After receiving the badge, the incredibly cool and calm commander's expression changed.

"Is there something wrong?" Lu Li asked, perturbed. He had completed this task successfully in his 'past life'. Could it be that killing too many was not good?

"No, you've done very well. I will give you the reward now."

Vinda Nightwing regained her composure and put the badge away, then pointed her finger towards Lu Li's forehead.

System: You have outstandingly completed the quest 'The Bleeding Outsiders. You received Glory points, EXP and Fame.

Lu Li's body flashed with light as he levelled up. Not only was he now LV14, his EXP was also 16% full. That meant that the quest completion reward had given him enough EXP to fill up around 20% of his EXP bar.

He had done much more than was required of him. If he had asked, the NPC would have told him that the number of Undead Herbalists he was required to kill was 20.

The rewards would only increase after killing more than 500 monsters, so barely any players bothered with this.

No one would farm those monsters as repetitively as he had. Not only had he spent nearly an entire day, he was also able to kill the monsters much faster than other players. The number of monsters he had killed would take other players 3 to 5 days to kill.

The Great Thief

Chapter 84: Top in Both Rankings!

It wasn't impossible to do what he had achieved, but there were two prerequisites.

Firstly, there had to be very few people farming there (ideally just 1). Otherwise, there would not be enough monsters. Secondly, the player had to be incredibly patient like Lu Li, being able to farm for more than 10 hours without getting bored.

Most players were here to enjoy the game, not to play themselves to death. Azure Sea Breeze was an exception.

Just as he had thought of Azure Sea Breeze, he heard him ranting again.

"Goddamit, Goddamit," Azure Sea Breeze cursed. "What the hell did you do, you monster?"

"Can you talk like a decent person?" Lu Li quickly turned the volume down. Why was he acting so explosively?

"Look at the Rankings, look at the Rankings! How am I going to keep living? I've been killing myself to level up, but I've been overtaken by you. Not only did you overtake me, you also trampled all over Moonlight as well."

Lu Li had no idea what he was talking about, so he opened the Rankings.

First place in the Level Rankings!

This wasn't unexpected – he had received a considerable amount of EXP from completing the quest.

However, he was also first place on the Glory Rankings!

Lu Li quickly opened his stats page and saw that his Glory had reached 285!

He clearly remembered that he originally only had 20-30 Glory, which was all earned from enemy players who insisted on attacking him. Killing those people hadn't taken much effort.

After looking through the system records, Lu Li finally understood what had happened.

In addition to the EXP reward increasing, the Glory reward had also been significantly boosted.

Normally, this quest would give 2 Glory points as a reward: 1 Glory point per 10 Undead Herbalists. Based on this rate, he had earned a bonus 208 Glory points. Moreover, because this was a PVP quest, the Silverwing Commander had also given him an additional 50 Glory points.

He was now at the top of both Rankings!

Lu Li thought carefully, but couldn't think of someone who had ever taken the top places in both Rankings.

"Did you go deaf or did you die? Why aren't you replying?" Azure Sea Breeze continuously ranted, before changing his tone, "Big bro, Big bro Lu Li, please tell me how you did it. I want to do it as well, pleeeease…"

"Stop being so disgusting," Lu Li replied as he shivered. However, he still told Azure Sea Breeze exactly what he had done.

"Over 2,000? Goddamn, you're an absolute madman," Azure Sea Breeze howled.

"Can you ask the NPC how many monsters you need to kill to unlock that bonus?"

Lu Li went back to talk to the Silverwing Commander, but no matter how much he probed, Vinda Nightwing only smiled.

Lu Li did not dare to ask anymore. The Commander was being courteous because he had rendered exceptional services. However, he didn't want to risk being thrown out of the Outpost.

"The Commander wouldn't tell me, but I think it's definitely above 200. I have no idea if it's between 500-1000, or over 2000. Do you want to come and try?" Lu Li asked.

He was certain that it was above 200, because someone had killed over 200 in his 'past life', but had complained that this quest was boring and didn't give good rewards. Lu Li didn't have many talents, but one of his few was having a good memory.

"How is the Undead Herbalists' Defence and how much HP do they have? Do you think it'd be good to farm in a party?"

Lu Li described the Undead Herbalists' general stats and dispelled any unrealistic thoughts that Azure Sea Breeze was thinking.

"It's possible to form a party, but you'll have to share the kills. You'll have to multiply as many people you bring by 2000. Plus, this is the Grey Valley's frontlines. I didn't want to kill anyone, but ended up killing 20-30 people who attacked me. I was even chased by a group of people, but they gave up because they couldn't catch me."

The group with the Faerie Fire had returned once more but failed. They didn't bother him after that.

If it was Azure Sea Breeze, he definitely would have died.

"This won't work and that won't work. Screw it, I'll just farm monsters properly. This might be of use to Moonlight though; you should tell him about it."

Azure Sea Breeze was quite a sensible person. After hearing that it wouldn't work, he immediately let it go.

"Alright I'll be hanging up now. I've almost gone deaf from your nagging," Lu Li said.

"Don't hang up yet, tell me what your plans are. Are you going to try out the new Instance Dungeon or continue to level up?" Azure Sea Breeze asked.

"I think I'll continue to level up. Making Potions takes some time and it's best if we're all LV14. If the Boss is 3 levels higher than us, we'll receive extra damage," Lu Li replied.

The last two Bosses of the Death Mines were both LV16 and would deal extra damage to players who were LV13 or below. Moreover, players who were LV13 or below would also deal reduced damage to the Bosses.

"Farming Nagas isn't efficient anymore. Should we farm something else?"

Azure Sea Breeze was becoming lazy and wanted to save some time in training. After all, Lu Li was like a god of knowledge to him.

"Have a look if there's a place called the Fire Scar Temple. There are Demon Guards and other hell monsters. There's also a Boss that spawns in the deepest region there. I'll bring some Potions and help you kill the Boss." Lu Li thought for a while before deciding to take down the Demon Warlock Akereus.

That place wasn't very well hidden and it would soon be filled with players.

The equipment that Akereus dropped was fairly ordinary, but he was still a LV15 Boss in the wilderness. He had a chance of dropping the Rager Equipment Set that Lu Li wanted, as well as a Fire Scar Temple's Instance Dungeon Scroll. The Fire Scar Temple was one of the early private instance dungeons. Akereus also had underlings, so the EXP that he gave was much more than the Death Knight.

Lu Li directly returned from the Silverwing Outpost to the town. He first went to the mailbox to collect the money he had earned from selling the Steel grade equipment.

After the 5% transaction fee was applied, Lu Li received 33 gold coins. He checked the price of the Snake Trust Grass and bought all that he could.

The other ingredient for creating Intermediate Health Potions was Peacebloom Flowers.

Peacebloom Flowers were not worth much, as they could be found all over the Novice Village. A player could casually gather more than 100 sets in a day and sell them for 20 copper coins per set.

The Great Thief

Chapter 85: Scammer Merchant

Lu Li rented a quiet room at Astrana. He had brought along a bunch of ingredients to start his Alchemy journey.

Alchemy could either fail or crit. If it failed, the ingredients used would disappear and the player's HP would decrease. If it crit, the player's HP would increase and it would yield double the amount of finished product.

System: You have successfully crafted 1 Intermediate Health Potion, Alchemy Proficiency 1

System: You have successfully crafted 1 Intermediate Health Potion, Alchemy Proficiency 1

The cooldown for using Intermediate Health Potion was, only a minute. Lu Li had been crafting for 2 hours and had more than 100 bottles. Overall, the chance to crit was much higher than the chance to fail. This was why he paid money to rent a room, instead of just crafting in a random location.

Out of his 100 Health Potions, Lu Li took 20 and listed them on the market for 1 Gold each.

What a scam!

Everyone was getting ripped off by him.

In his previous life, Snake Trust Grass sold for 3 or 4 Gold per set. This meant that the cost of making an Intermediate Potion was a little more than 10 silver. At the moment, the Auction Hall was only selling the Grass for a few silver coins per set.

He was spending less than a silver coin per Intermediate Health Potion, yet he was selling them for 1 gold each!

It was a rip-off, targeted at rich guilds.

He wasn't worried about people not buying his potions, because all the big guilds were trying to clear the Death Mines. They could not wait to get their hands on Intermediate Health Potions. One gold per potion was considered reasonable for them.

Lu Li did not list all of them on the Auction Hall. It was a simple concept of supply versus demand – the rarer the item, the more he could sell it for. He could not let anyone else know that he could mass produce Intermediate Health Potions. Even if someone else were to farm the recipe, they would give it to their own guild first.

If there was demand, then there would be profit.

After he made the batch of potions, Lu Li repaired his worn-out equipment which cost him more than 1 gold. This was a small price to pay for the money he would gain from selling the potions.

After he finished his repairs, Lu Li left to find a Skill Trainer.

He tried to activate the quest, but was ignored many times by the Thief Skills Trainer.

Lu Li decided to give up and unwillingly took out his gold to level up his skills.

At LV14, he had 7 skill points. Previously, he had gained 1SP from the system for being the first player to level up a skill through practice. However, he had spent 1SP on his Unlock Spell so that he could open Steel treasure chests. As such, he was left with only 7 skill points.

Lu Li decided to max out Shadowstrike. It was the most basic skill for the Thief class and was also his most used skill. Shadowstrike would continue to be used later on, even after he learned new skills.

Backstab had to be upgraded as well. Mastery on Backstab had the potential to break armour, which was very useful for fighting bosses. Lu Li decided to add two SP to this skill.

Backhand Backstab was a commonly used ultimate skill. However, Lu Li found that Slit Throat dealt more damage. He decided to leave Backhand Backstab for now, choosing to consider levelling it up when he had received more SP.

He added one point to Slit Throat and saved the rest of his remaining SP for his future skills, such as Gale Step and Shadow Cloak.

"That's 15 gold all together," the old thief said expressionlessly.

Luckily, he had saved some money from before. Otherwise, he would not be able to level his skills, even though he had enough SP.

Shadow Strike: Instant Cast, Cooldown Time: 4 seconds. Deals 100 damage to the target, as well as 200% weapon attack damage. Awards 1 Combo Point. Level: 5/5.

This was a massive difference. After he levelled up the skill, the damage had more than doubled.

Backstab and Slit Throat had also become stronger. However, the difference was less obvious when compared to Shadowstrike. No one was willing to spend so many SP points on a single skill.

After he had finished preparing, Lu Li headed off to the Fire Scar Temple.

Azure Sea Breeze and a few other people had already entered. Lu Li saw the remains of dead bodies littered through the temple courts, as he made his way through the area.

Occasionally, he came across some patrolling Hell Hounds.

Hell Hounds were demons that took the form of big dogs and were the untamed version of the Mage's Hell Hounds.

They were the minions of the Dog King Harka and had very bad eye sight. Hell Hounds could accurately sense any surrounding magic and would use this ability to hunt their prey.

Since Lu Li was a thief, they passed by him unknowingly. This didn't matter, however, as he killed them because they were good EXP.

Eventually, he came to the place where Demon Warlock Akereus spawned.

Azure Sea Breeze and the others were nearby killing mobs. When they saw that Lu Li had arrived, they quickly finished off their targets and gathered together.

"Aren't you going to say anything?" Azure Sea Breeze asked.

"I've never killed it. What can I say?" Lu Li handed out the Intermediate Health Potions and applied the poison he had found to his dagger.

He had saved this poison for a time of need. Today was that time.

Akereus had a massive body, with hooved feet and crimson wings that extended from his back. He wielded a green, burning sword and wore an Archimonde Insignia Breast Plate. In some ways, Akereus looked more awesome than the Cynocephali Elder.

Azure Sea Breeze approached the boss carefully. Akereus opened his eyes slowly, which looked sinisterly empty and radiated a green light.

"Team, let's get him!" Azure Sea Breeze cried out loudly and charged towards the boss with his shield and sword.

Lu Li had already snuck behind the boss, and when Azure Sea Breeze had built up enough aggro, he used Cheap Shot.

Immune!

Now he remembered; demon monsters were immune to stuns.

He had no other choice but to fight him head-on.

System: Shadow Strike Skill Completion 91%, resulting in 160% Skill Damage and stunning the target for 2 seconds.

Although the Boss was still stun-immune, the damage that this dealt was still very high. The numbers that appeared above Akereus shocked everyone.

"Why do you do triple my damage?!" Lonesome Flower was truly astonished – he thought that his equipment was a similar level to Lu Li's. He had Silver Grade equipment, but his damage was much lower.

"Akereus is immune to 20% of magic damage dealt," Lu Li explained.

"That still doesn't explain why you do triple my damage, big bro. My magic damage is damn high." Lonesome Flower felt like he was a failure in the eyes of little sister.

"My Shadow Strike Completion is at 90%, so it deals 160% Skill Damage. Plus, my skill is already maxed."

In front of his team mates, Lu Li had nothing to hide.

At 160% Skill Damage, his Shadowstrike was dealing the same damage as a critical hit.

"Why did you put all your SP on a trash beginner skill?" Azure Sea Breeze also did not understand.

"There are no trash skills in Dawn; everyone has a skill they use the most. If you want to be a pro, you have to max the skill you use the most," Lu Li said, as he corrected their misunderstanding.

Traditionally, in online games, beginner skills would be replaced by higher level skills later on.

Dawn on the other hand was completely different. Shadowstrike would always be used by Thieves. A Magician's Frostbolt would always be their main skill. For Priest's, Flash Heal was their most reliable healing skill. Finally, if you took out a Hunter's Arcane Shot, they wouldn't be able to fight mobs.

The Great Thief

Chapter 86: It Can Fly

Lu Li took a step back, twisted his wrists and stabbed straight into the boss's spine.

System: Backstab Skill Completion 83%, resulting in 95% Weapon Damage. Rank 1 Armour Pierce Effect.

Akereus entered a state of Pierced Armour. Demon type bosses were immune to stuns, but they were not immune to Armour Piercing Effects.

"You upgraded this skill as well, right?" Lonesome Flower feared that the gap between him and Lu Li was widening. This made him very mad.

"Of course, I increased it by two levels," Lu Li replied.

"What should I level up then?" Lonesome Flower asked shamelessly.

"Aren't you a frost mage? Frost Bolt, Blizzard! Those two are essential. When you learn Water Elemental, level that up as well." Lu Li was an expert at this, but knowing too much beforehand was not fun.

Not everyone treated this game as a job like he did. Discovery and experimenting with the game was part of the fun.

"You put the Intermediate Health Potions on the market?" Azure Sea Breeze asked.

"Yeah, for 1 gold." Lu Li said, as he looked through the world chat.

"Brother Lu Li, you're such a scammer," Remnant Dream said, making faces at Lu Li while her pet chased Akereus.

"The poison damage is pretty impressive; was this the poison you applied before?" March Rain inquired.

"Careful, the boss is using his skill. Azure Sea Breeze, raise your shield," Lu Li reminded him as he stared at the fireball that was forming in the boss's hands.

Azure Sea Breeze raised his shield and braced himself.

"Prepare to face Akereus's wrath!" Fire rained down upon them while a gigantic fireball trailed behind.

Evil Sacrifice!

Evil Fireball!

As the two skills hit Azure Sea Breeze, damage continued to appear above him.

-85, -560, -85, -85, -85…

Evil Sacrifice was also an AOE debuff skill, so everyone had damage figures appearing above them.

Azure Sea Breeze had high defence which negated a good portion of the damage, but he still took 85 damage per second. It was even worse for everyone else. Remnant Dream and Lu Li took more than 100 points of damage, while Lonesome flower and March Rain, being mage classes with high magic defence, still took 89 points of damage.

It was fortunate that everyone had upgraded their gear and had more than 1000HP. If not, half of them would had died.

The Boss continued his assault and rained down fireballs. The dark, red fireballs continued to bombard Azure Sea Breeze.

March Rain had already learnt Flash Heal, which had a lower cooldown and faster cast time than her normal healing skill. Her healing had increased and become more impactful – each flash heal restored more than 200 HP. Azure Sea Breeze had also drunk an Intermediate Health Potion and managed to survive.

This damage absorption was way beyond Lu Li's expectation. Any other main tank would have died to that barrage of attacks.

Lu Li had never personally fought Akereus and had only read on guides on defeating him. Most of them recommended to bring two main tanks.

After everyone had managed to recover their HP, there was another animation – a summon!

Arcane energy formed blue symbols on the ground and Akereus slowly conjured up two Hell Hounds.

"Quickly, get rid of them! Those monsters drain your mana," Lonesome Flower and March Rain yelled at the sight of the Hell Hounds.

The siblings played classes that relied heavily on mana, so they had to quickly get rid of them.

Lu Li also knew the consequences of this. If the healer was out of mana, the whole team would die. He charged and attacked one by himself, while Remnant Dream commanded her little cheetah to handle the other. Lonesome Flower panicked and casted a barrage of skills on the Hell Hounds that flew everywhere.

"You don't seem as powerful when you're fighting the boss."

Azure Breeze mocked him.

"The normal mobs can drain all of my mana in 3 hits. These Elite Hell Hounds can probably drain all of my energy in 3 hits. I don't know what the game company is doing. Where is the counter play?" Lonesome Flower complained.

Lu Li used Backhand Backstab on the Hell Hound, which went flying and died.

The second Hell Hound cast Magic Burn on Lonesome Flower. Lu Li was unable to do anything. He could only watch as Lonesome Flower's mana dropped by a third.

Luckily, the team ganged up on the Hell Hound and killed it before it could do anything else.

"I desperately need the Awakening Skill Book," Lonesome Flower sighed heavily.

There were already magicians on the forum that were bragging about this skill. It could restore 30% of one's maximum mana at LV1, increasing to 60% at LV5. However, Lu Li also knew that at max level, it would restore HP by 20% as well.

The game was unfair to Mages?

They had crowd control, AOE, invincibility, critical strike, teleportation, stealth, doppelgangers and a variety of shields. Mages were overpowered in this game.

Of course, that was only if one had unlocked these skills.

As for the Awakening Skill, players only received it if they were lucky. Lu Li couldn't help him with that even if he wanted to.

"Are we able to defeat this boss?" Lonesome Flower asked. "It's not even at half HP yet and we're already struggling. Who knows what kind of stuff it will pull out later."

Lu Li couldn't help but roll his eyes, "How should I know? I just know that there was a LV15 boss here. As for how powerful it is, only the system knows."

"So, you're not all-powerful like we thought. Lonesome Flower, March Rain, stand behind Remnant Dream. When the Hell Hounds, appear let them drain mana from her," Azure Sea Breeze commanded.

"Why?" The little Hunter felt wronged.

"You don't use mana. Why are you scared of being drained?"

When the boss casted Evil Sacrifice and Evil Fire Ball again, Azure Sea Breeze immediately raised his shield and bravely braced himself before the roars of Akereus.

The Hell Hounds appeared again and Lu Li immediately attacked, as they used their magic burn on Remnant Dream.

Every skill had a cooldown. When Hell Hound's skills were on cooldown, they were like sitting ducks, waiting to be slaughtered. The team had managed to survive another attack for now and the Boss HP was at 50%.

Suddenly, Akereus began to fly.

The Great Thief

Chapter 87: Fortune Favors The Fool

"Lu Li, Lu Li!" Seeing that the Boss could fly, Azure Sea Breeze immediately asked for assistance.

"Stop yelling, just wait and see what kind of skills it has before making any decisions. Remnant Dream, continue attacking." Lu Li actually knew, but he didn't know how to describe them.

Akereus flew into the air, but he wasn't very high up and was still within attacking range of the ranged professions. He circled in the air, muttering some demon language before a muffled rumbling could be heard.

"What is he doing?" Azure Sea Breeze looked up and stared dumbly.

"It's charging a magic spell." Lu Li was also a little uncertain, but he quickly identified it. He saw Akereus wave the green sword in his hands and dark, red fireballs that exploded upon impact began to rain down.

"Dodge the incoming fireballs. Don't stand on the flames," Lu Li shouted as he moved away.

Fortunately, the fireballs would always hover in the sky for a moment and their falling speed wasn't very fast. As long as you moved away, it was easy to dodge them.

"Ahh, help!" Remnant Dream clutched her head like a headless fly and scurried around.

This was a true test of skill. When they previously fought Bosses, they could remain stationary for the entire fight. Even Remnant Dream could take advantage of that and deal some decent damage. In this situation, however, she had no idea how to react.

Lu Li watched her run straight into a fireball, taking 400-500 damage. She had also stepped onto the fire, so her HP was quickly depleting.

"Come and follow me," Lu Li shouted at her.

Remnant Dream had a moment of resolution and ran over to Lu Li, unceremoniously grabbing on to the back of his belt and hanging off it like a tail.

Lonesome Flower and Azure Sea Breeze were faring much better and were casually walking about. The Boss' big menacing skills didn't do much damage to them. March Rain was a little shaky at first, but quickly learned how the fireballs fell and was easily dodging them while healing the others.

Was there anything worse in the world? This boss could hit you, but you couldn't hit him back.

The good news was he would tire after a while and eventually come down.

With their pent-up frustrations, the team immediately rushed up and attacked it. Just like that, the Boss was taken down to 30% HP.

Gas Explosion!

Akereus was back in action, blowing away all the melee players except the Main Tank.

"Dammit, he knocked Lu Li away," Azure Sea Breeze said. "He flew 120 yards away, he's definitely dead."

"If he flies backwards like that, he's going to land on his butt." Lonesome Flower was blatantly taking pleasure in Lu Li's misfortune.

"Our party is about to get cleared." Remnant Dream put down her crossbow with a look of sorrow.

"Hey, even if he's dead, it doesn't mean we've lost. I'm very strong too." The Main Tank was a little unhappy.

March Rain didn't say anything, instead rushing towards where Lu Li was and preparing to heal him. However, she knew that the chances of surviving such a fall were very slim.

Lu Li had felt a rush of air, after which he saw the Grey Valley's forest and blue sky, with its tall canopy and dancing birds. His mouth moved and he turned into a gold leopard while he was falling.

"Oh my," Azure Sea Breeze cried out.

"Oh what!" exclaimed Lonesome Flower.

"Woah," breathed March Rain.

After landing easily, Lu Li stared blankly at Remnant Dream. "What are you trying to do?" he asked.

"Let me hug you. Transform back and let me hug you." Remnant Dream blinked and looked hopeful.

"Come on, we have work to do," Lu Li answered coldly.

At 20% HP, the Boss once again cast Evil Sacrifice and Evil Fireball, which was easy to get through.

At 10% HP, Akereus did nothing.

With victory in his sights, Azure Sea Breeze laughed, "Here comes the end of your reign, today next year will be the anniversary of your death!"

Lu Li covered his face. He didn't have the heart to tell him that the Boss was about to cast his most disgusting spell.

Azure Sea Breeze laughed while Akereus roared and waved his green sword. Everyone began to run around like headless flies.

Fear Roar!

All targets within 200 yards were affected by a 6-8 second fear.

Akereus went berserk, mercilessly laying into Azure Sea Breeze's body.

-450, -600, -800, -1000, -1200…

"Waaaaahh!"

Azure Sea Breeze return to normal for a moment, before his vision went black and white.

The tank was down!

March Rain put down her Magic Staff and looked at Lu Li.

"Heal me. Everyone else, DPS – the Boss is almost dead."

Lu Li blocked the Boss, furiously waving his dagger.

Fortunately, the Boss' berserk ended with the fear, so Lu Li only took 500 damage.

Lu Li downed an Intermediate Healing Potion, which brought him to full HP with March Rain's heal. He cast Slit Throat on the Boss, which had a bleed effect.

Part of Lonesome Flower's attacks were being resisted, so his damage to the Boss was not even remotely close the Lu Li's.

The Boss HP was finally grinded down and Akereus was unable to continue carrying his sword. He sighed before proclaiming, "One day, I will return to my original place (The Abyss)."

System: Players Lu Li, Azure Sea Breeze, Lonesome Flower, March Rain and Remnant Dream have achieved the First Clear on the Wild Boss Akereus!

The World Announcements were once again filled with excitement, but some didn't bother checking because they saw Lu Li's name. They had accepted this to be normal.

There was actually quite a handsome amount of EXP. Lu Li's EXP bar rose by 8%.

The rescued Azure Sea Breeze was sad, because he didn't receive this and had also lost 10% EXP from his death. His 2nd place seat was now in danger, as Lonesome Flower reached LV14.

"Woah, the system gave me a skill point. Did you guys get it?" Remnant Dream was happy; she had spent a lot of time with this group of experts and knew that Skill Points weren't easy to come by.

"Nope," March Rain replied as she shook her head quietly.

"Good work," Lu Li said. He didn't have the strength for banter.

"The heavens are blind," Azure Sea Breeze muttered as he sat on the ground.

"Fortune favors the fool," Lonesome Flower cried, with tears running down his face.

The Great Thief

Chapter 88: Instance Dungeon Scroll

Even a fool would know that they had gotten a good thing. Remnant Dream grinned as she went to pick up the equips that the Boss dropped.

"Oh, a one-handed sword. Big brother Sea Breeze, this is yours."

The little hunter ran back and offered him the loot.

Hellreaver (Steel): Damage 30-42, Strength 8, Constitution 5. Special Effect: Armor Piercing. Certain probability to cause a 20% armor break to the target. Cannot be stacked. Equipment requirement: level 15. Durability 45/45

A level 15 Steel equip with an armor breaking effect!

The half dazed Azure Sea Breeze was suddenly filled with vigor as he jumped up, took the Hellreaver and started laughing.

He had long been jealous of Moonlight's Bloodseeker's Axe's armor break effect. He never thought that he would receive a weapon with this effect, let alone one that was level 15. The damage on this was also significantly better than a current level 5 Steel equip.

The armor piercing effect was just too strong. It was definitely one of the top three Warrior effects. Moonlight had seen level 10 steel equips before, but they didn't have this effect, so he continued to use his precious axe.

It was a pity that this was a level 15 equip, so he couldn't wield it just yet.

"See what else there is," Lu Li urged. Akereus' drops were said to be bad, but perhaps it would drop some good weapons on the first clear.

"Remove Curse; this is some kind of Skill Book. It seems like it's for mages. I don't know, I can't learn it." The skill book had a Mage profession logo, so the little hunter managed to work it out.

"That's mine, I'm a mage."

Lonesome Flower, who was staring at the sky and pretending to be sad, immediately ran over.

Curses were very common in Dawn. Many Bosses could cast these skills which put their target in a weakened state. Warlocks also had all sorts of strange and unusual curses, but this was also their weakness.

To be able to learn a skill was a good thing. Lonesome Flower could no longer be sad.

"What else?" Lu Li was a little disappointed that he couldn't use it.

"A Bronze belt for Priests, which is for big sister March Rain. There's also a Bronze bracer for me, but it isn't as good as the one I already have. Lu Li you can go sell it. Finally, there is a rare material and a scroll…"

"What kind of scroll!" Lu Li's eyes lit up.

"Fire Scar Temple – Common. With this scroll, you will have 3 days to enter the Ordinary Difficulty Fire Scar Temple."

Remnant Dream read out the words on the scroll.

"It's a private Instance Dungeon. It should drop some good items."

Lu Li immediately thought that Akereus was a good Boss. Whoever thought otherwise deserved to be spat in the face.

"Is it difficult?" Azure Sea Breeze was a little worried, as the scroll had been dropped by a LV15 Boss. Akereus has been killed, but admittedly this was toughest battle that the party had faced yet. Its dungeon couldn't be that easy, even if it was only regular difficulty.

"We have three opportunities to clear the Instance Dungeon, but after 3 days the scroll will disappear. Even if we can't do it, we'll have to try," Lu Li laughed bitterly.

"How about we go kill Gallaher once today, again tomorrow and also tomorrow's Akereus. We can kill a few more Bosses and get a few more Steel equips before people realize." Being a girl, March Rain was more careful than the others.

Her suggestion didn't make sense, however. Why would they go back to a lower level area? The transfer cost money.

"It does make sense!" Azure Sea Breeze exclaimed as he clapped his hands. "We can raise some money by selling things in the Exchange Hall."

Lu Li seemed to be suddenly lost in thought, but he realized that this was the normal mentality. Spending some money at the Exchange Hall or trading farmed equips for others were effective ways to increase their strength.

It was not as though he had a choice. Ever since his rebirth, everything he had done was to earn money because of the despair he had faced. He couldn't let a single gold coin go to waste.

"Let's return to the city and go the Dark Ravine."

Lu Li put the rare materials in his bag and started channeling his teleport.

He still had some Intermediate Antidotes from last time, but he bought a few more from the Exchange Hall. A group of people headed straight to fight the Boss.

Whispering Forest had many Novice Villages and each one had its own kids of Boss. It was too bad that Lu Li couldn't think of any Bosses other than the one in Snake Valley, so his plan of clearing out the Novice Village Bosses couldn't be executed.

There was still no one fighting the Snake Boss and they had prior experience. With a new tier of equipment, there was no way they were going to lose and Snake King Gallaher eventually fell.

Snake Skin Shoulderpad (Steel): Defence 15, Strength 6, Agility 4. Equipment Requirement: level 10. Durability 32/32.

This was a leather equip for Warrior Thieves. Its properties were average and it didn't have a special effect. After all, it was only LV10. However, it was still much better than the Bronze Shoulderpads that Lu Li had on, so Lu Li gladly took it.

Another item that was dropped was a Steel Magic item, but what Lonesome Flower had was better. The group decided to sell it to raise funds for the transfer, which was really a monetary sinkhole. A single return trip cost them 10 gold. If it weren't for this Boss' guaranteed EXP and rare material drops, going back to fight the Novice Village bosses wouldn't be worth it.

Taking advantage of the little time they had left, they quickly cleared the Elite-difficulty Spider lair, which dropped two LV5 steel equips. No one needed them, so they were consigned to the Exchange Hall.

The Intermediate Health Potions that he had consigned were almost all sold out.

Of the 20 bottles he had put up for sale, 15 of them had been sold. The remaining 5 weren't getting any attention.

This result was a little unexpected. Lu Li had predicted that those who were capable of doing the Death Mines should have been on a mad rush to buy these.

In fact, he had idealized the situation.

He had only put in 20 potions so that they wouldn't attract attention, but this was already too many.

Intermediate Health Potions could only be dropped by LV15 monsters at an extremely low probability. The Exchange Hall had only ever seen one or two of them at a time and they were always marked at absurd prices.

The big guilds immediately understood that someone had learnt to make this Potion the moment that 20 of them had appeared at once.

They also knew that this person wasn't part of a guild. Otherwise, they wouldn't be selling it.

Twenty bottles weren't enough to keep them safe in the Death Mines, so the guilds decided to wait and look into who had learned the recipe. Once they found him, they would immediately try to win him over.

Moreover, the smaller guilds had no desire to clear the dungeon. This was a time to live frugally and develop the economic strength of the guild.

The only buyers left were the adventurous casual players who liked taking risks and had bought the potion for their protection. These were the people that had bought the 15 potions.

Lu Li thought for a moment and slowly began to understand what was happening. He simply put up the rest of the 50 Health Potions up for sale. This would be enough for a group to clear the Death Mines. Someone would definitely go for it.

He was still carrying a few dozen gold coins, so he looked around for cheap Snake Trust Grass and spent all his money on it.

The Intermediate Health Potion recipe would probably be farmed out in the next few days, so this was his last opportunity.

In reality, the price of Snake Trust Grass had risen a few times. Twenty silver was considered cheap now, but most people sold it for fifty silver per set. As long as someone was buying it, the prices would continue to rise.

Lu Li used the rest of the time to create the Health Potions. He did this until he was unbearably tired, before going offline to sleep.

The Great Thief

Chapter 89: Death Mines

This time, Lu Li was successful. Selling all 50 Intermediate Health Potions, plus the few Steel Equips earned him over 70 gold. Five percent of this was paid to the Exchange Hall.

It was a huge sum of money.

Azure Sea Breeze who was waiting online was also shocked by this sum of money.

It was not that they hadn't seen this amount of money before, but they never thought that selling potions would be so profitable.

"Look around for what you need; we can buy it directly from the Exchange Hall. Once you have everything, we can go and clear the Death Mines."

Lu Li didn't want to wait around any longer than he needed to.

"That's no good," objected Lonesome Flower. "This money was all made by you; we didn't do anything. How can we use it to buy our own equips?"

"Hey, don't say it like that," Lu Li touched his nose and said shyly, "Of all the Bosses we've fought, you've given me all the rare materials. Those aren't things you can buy with money."

"Rare materials?" Azure Sea Breeze was puzzled. "I've always felt like you place too much value in these rare materials. Are they a really that important?"

"Of course," Lu Li resolutely nodded, "On the official website, it says that Dawn's equipment are divided into grades: Common, Bronze, Steel, Silver, Gold, Dark Gold, Epic and Legendary. There are also potentially even higher grades like Demigod and God. What the website doesn't say, however, is that there are certain items at Epic and above which can't be dropped."

"How do you get them then?" Remnant Dream stared blankly.

"Are they crafted by the materials?" Azure Sea Breeze immediately understood.

"Correct. Bosses will drop an Epic Equipment Matrix, which allows you to craft an Epic equip with the rare materials. The equips that are crafted are better than those directly dropped and this is also true for the Legendary equips. As for the Demigod and God equips, I'm not sure," Lu Li revealed to them.

To the others, he was very mysterious, so it wasn't too surprising that he knew this.

On the forums, there were people selling rare materials at astonishing prices and the three LV5 Bosses had been killed over and over. The big guilds must also have known this secret.

"That sounds like it's still going to be a while. In that case, I'll just go ahead with this."

Azure Sea Breeze was still the most straightforward member; he would never be needlessly polite with Lu Li. Lu Li really admired that about him.

The Exchange Hall had LV10 Steel equips and even some LV15 ones, but they weren't cheap.

It had been calculated that the current Chinese market had over 4 million players and counting. In order to accommodate for this huge number, there were thousands of Novice Villages like the Shadow Valley and hundreds more towns. Having this many locations naturally meant that there were many Bosses. There would always be a supply of Boss-dropped materials on the market.

Lu Li was currently equipped with Steel-grade shoes, a shirt, pants, gloves, bracers, a main weapon and a long ranged weapon. His belts, cloaks, and headgear, however, were Bronze. As for his two badges, two rings and necklace, he was already incredibly fortunate to just have these items. He would definitely not be looking to replace them any time soon.

All he was looking for was a Cloak, Belt and some Headgear.

Nothing really caught his eye, even after a thorough search. So, he spent a dozen silver to buy a LV10 Bronze Cloak that gave a few more attribute points than his LV5 one.

There were a few Steel Headgears though. Lu Li eventually decided on spending 5 gold for one of them.

Sword Dancer's Hat (Steel): Armor 13, Agility 6, Constitution 2. Equipment Requirement: level 10. Durability 22/30.

This equip was satisfactory for his needs. There wasn't anything much better than this, but the 5-gold price tag was quite hefty. However, this still easily afforded by Lu Li.

Light Belt (Steel): Armor 16, Agility 8. Special Effect: Certain probability to deal 20% extra damage. Level Requirement: Level 10. Durability 16/32.

This belt was good, but its price was very steep, at 9 gold. Lu Li hesitated for a moment before buying it as well.

He also searched for Skill Books.

There were barely any Skill Books in the Exchange Hall, especially those for Thieves. This was unfortunate.

The most commonly available Skill Books were for Druids. Lu Li thought for a while before giving up. His Cheetah form could only learn 2 skills, so he needed to consider this very carefully.

Lu Li also helped Remnant Dream pick out 2 pieces. Once everyone had picked out their equipment, the 70-80 gold he had earned was completely spent.

Everyone's equipment was already excellent, so their overall strength didn't increase by that much.

Lu Li also let Azure Sea Breeze find some Supplementary Tools for the upcoming Instance Dungeon, while he ran off and rented a quiet room to craft a few dozen Intermediate Health Potions.

After this, he consigned another 50 bottles to the Exchange Hall!

It was time to go to the Death Mines!

It was said that the gold deposits in the Death Mines could increase the wealth of Stormwind by a third. In the first Orc War, the mine was abandoned because according to legend, it was haunted.

This lasted until the day a ragtag group of kids formed the Defias Brotherhood and occupied this maze. They used it as their base of operations for the destruction of Stormwind city.

The story of the Defias Brotherhood was a long one and won't be expanded on here.

As they entered the Instance Dungeon, the path led them along a winding cavern. As a Thief, Lu Li was in charge of navigating, while the others followed him.

He stopped when he reached a fork in the path and after some careful observation, he pointed to the side of the small cave and said, "Look, there is an NPC"

Azure Sea Breeze and the others looked carefully and saw a half-dead NPC behind an abandoned mine cart.

If one didn't look carefully, he would be difficult to spot.

Seeing that someone was coming, he struggled to get up.

"Dear adventurers, how are you?"

"Who are you? Why are you in this place? I hear this is the base of the Defias Brotherhood."

Lu Li stepped forwards and began to talk to him.

"I am Lieutenant Horatio from Stormwind city. Adventurers, I have something I need you to do. Can you lend me your strength?"

How could Lu Li reject? "Of course, we will do our best," he replied.

"I was ordered to investigate the situation within the Death Mines, but as you can see, I was bitten by a snake. Can you do a trip in there for me?" Horatio showed the players his darkened calf.

"We are going in to clear it out. We are happy to take your request," Lu Li said without hesitation.

Lieutenant Horatio took out a small disk.

"Glubtok the Foreman will be the first rival you encounter and he is a powerful Ogre Mage. Be careful, he has both brute strength derived from his race and many evil spells! Bring this communication device so we can keep in touch when conducting the investigation."

Lu Li took the small disk and the system prompted him that he had accepted the Death Mines Quest.

The Great Thief

Chapter 90: The Relaxed Old One

The group quickly encountered monsters.

What they saw was a group of Cynocephali diggers, toiling away. There were two fatter ones overseeing the work.

"There are so many monsters; we won't be able to clear them out cleanly," Azure Sea Breeze grimaced "Cannons," Lu Li observed and pointed in a direction.

"Dammit, the monsters in this Instance Dungeon can use cannons as well."

Azure Sea Breeze's face turned green; he didn't want to know what it was like to be bombarded.

The Cannons in Dawn were based on the medieval age, but they weren't exactly the same as the ones in real life. They were incredibly powerful, so it would be very bad if someone were to take a direct hit. The players all had a heartfelt fear for these cannons.

"There's only one wave of monsters around the cannon. We should take it," Lu Li said.

"You know how to fire a cannon?" Azure Sea Breeze was confused.

"Firing a cannon in a game is easy. You don't need to do it properly," Lu Li explained.

"You go in first and stun the gunman. I don't want to get hit by that," Azure Sea Breeze gestured at Lu Li.

Lu Li shrugged and entered stealth.

There was a fat Ogre responsible for firing the cannon and two Cynocephali slaves protecting him.

The Ogre was immune to sap, so Lu Li cast Cheap Shot on him. Once the Ogre was stunned, Lu Li came out of stealth which the two Cynocephali slaves to scream and wave their hands.

-32, -28…

The Ogre was an elite, but the Cynocephali were just ordinary monsters. This damage wasn't very surprising.

Azure Sea Breeze immediately rushed over to pull the mobs away.

Lu Li felt around a bit and set up the cannon. In his past life, he had been called 'the little expert'. Now, it was time for him to shine.

He fired directly at a group of monsters, dealing a significant amount of damage as the cannonball exploded.

The 7-8 monsters that were affected started running towards the cannon, but there was a Main Tank to intercept them. Lu Li continued to fire freely.

The cannon also had HP and would be destroyed when this was depleted. However, between Lu Li's constant firing and Azure Sea Breeze's tanking, the mobs were brutally slaughtered. They didn't even have a chance to reach the cannon.

"I'll go pull more monsters." Azure Sea Breeze knew what to do next without any instruction.

He rushed off on his own and quickly brought back a group of monsters. Lu Li fired the cannon at them and cleared them out two times faster than they would have normally.

The first wave of monsters before the first boss were quickly cleared out. Lu Li let the cannon go and followed the party to face the Boss. They couldn't move the cannon, otherwise they would have used it in the fight.

Glubtok the Foreman had two Ogre bodyguards.

Azure Sea Breeze observed for a moment and that the Boss and his bodyguard's aggro would not be drawn together, so he directly attacked them.

His mistake was that the bodyguard's aggro mechanic was unlike Dawn's regular aggro mechanic. They ignored Azure Sea Breeze's taunts and rushed over with their hammers raised.

One of these bodyguards was immediately stunned by Lu Li's Cheap Shot, while the other was hit by Azure Sea Breeze's Charge. With the crowd control active, the well-equipped group quickly sent them to see the System gods.

After a short recovery period, they turned their attention to Glubtok.

"Glubtok will show you the power of the Arcane!" The fat Ogre was clearly angry.

His anger proved useless, as Lu Li would have been able to kill him a few days ago. Now, everyone was a higher level and they had better equipment. Glubtok the Foreman was killed in just over 10 minutes. The Quest Tracker prompted them that they had successfully killed the Foreman and gave them their next instruction: Kill Helix.

"It can't be that hard," Azure Sea Breeze remarked.

"If it weren't for brother Lu Li reminding someone to cast Shield Wall, that person would have died," Remnant Dream grinned mischievously.

"Cough, cough, Remnant Dream, how about you go and see what the Boss dropped?" The little hunter was very lucky and enjoyed picking up weapons.

Remnant Dream went to Glubtok's corpse and began to loot it.

"Ah, these are clothes for sister March. It's too bad they're LV15." She had picked up piece of Steel clothing with decent attributes, but its requirements were a bit too high. After the Boss was taken down, March Rain reached LV14. She would be able to equip this after one more level.

"What else is there?" Azure Sea Breeze stared expectantly at the little hunter.

Remnant Dream felt around and replied, "There is a LV15 Bronze equip, two pieces of Magic Patterned Cloth and an Intermediate Potion. That's it."

"Well, this is the first Boss. You can't hope for too much, let's keep going," Azure Sea Breeze inhaled with disappointment.

Only Lu Li knew that Dawn was a stingy game. It was best not to have high hopes for the coming Boss either. The fact that the first Boss had dropped a Steel equip was probably because of the First Clear bonus. The probability of a Steel drop was normally very low.

After Glubtok the Foreman fell, a stone door on the mountain behind them had opened up. Upon entering the stone door, they faced a different kind of monster – Supervisor Brother Bulin and Mine Bunny Girl.

The former could cast a Compelling Roar which raised its own attack speed by 50% and Excitement, which dealt Shadow damage to its target and reduced its movement speed by 50%. The latter would throw a plate to lower the target's attack speed by 30% and movement speed by 50%.

The difficulty had significantly increased, but this was not enough to stop the advance of Lu Li and his team.

Before long, they stood before the second Boss, Helix.

Helix was actually a foreigner to the Death Mines.

He was originally a Bilgewater Cartel craftsman, but had received a large sum of money from the Defias Brotherhood to come and work for them. Being a shrewd Goblin, he quickly took up the offer and renounced his allegiance to his previous employer.

Helix was riding on the body of a mechanical monster.

Players needed to deal with the mechanical monster first. During this process, Helix would lay hidden mines around the giant room which would explode when stepped on, causing all players within 4 yards to be damaged and knocked back.

If they were unlucky, the knockback could land them onto another mine.

Fighting this Boss therefore required the use of Intermediate Healing Potions. Otherwise, the pressure would be too great. Helix was called the party killer for a reason.

The Great Thief

Chapter 91: Repeated Party Wipes

"I've got it," said Azure Sea Breeze, as he waved his sword and rushed towards the Boss.

"Hey…" Lu Li didn't have time to stop him and could only watch as the heavily armored Main Tank rushed past him. He was then kicked away by the mechanical monster like a ball. It was really rather pathetic.

"What a strong Boss." Azure Sea Breeze was visibly shaken and afraid of going in again.

"Go again. Are you going to wait for its cooldowns to refresh?"

Azure Sea Breeze flicked his middle finger at Lu Li and charged at the Boss once again.

Lu Li didn't bother going into Stealth because the mechanical monster was immune to stuns. Without killing it first, players had no hope of fighting the Boss.

The mechanical monster and the Boss worked as a unit. They could both deal damage to the players while Helix constantly laid down mines. They were about the size of a palm and would spin when they were thrown onto the ground, before slowly drilling their way underground. When a player stood on the ground above one of them, it would explode.

Although the mechanical monster was strong enough to knock back Azure Sea Breeze, it mostly only dealt single digit damage.

Boom!

Lonesome Flower felt something heat up under his foot before he was sent flying.

-425!

Half of his HP was suddenly depleted.

After landing, he staggered backwards for a few steps.

Boom!

Perhaps he was simply unlucky, but as he stepped backwards he triggered another mine. This time March Rain was also knocked up with him.

The two of them flew up and then hit the ground.

Lonesome Flower glowed white. He was unexpectedly killed very quickly.

This was the Boss' most headache-inducing aspect – the area of effect explosion that could affect teammates within four yards.

If a player was hit by a mine and triggered another one within 30 seconds, the damage they took would be doubled.

"Look at you, cowering like mice."

The goblin engineer happily ridiculed them atop of the mechanical monster.

When March Rain landed, she quickly started to heal herself.

They had only just begun and had already lost a high DPS player. What a tragedy this was.

"Continue fighting. We have to familiarize ourselves with the Boss. If you trigger a mine, immediately drink a potion. Do not try to save them."

Lu Li looked at his frightened teammates and spoke profoundly.

The others thought for a while and came to the same realization. They would probably be unable to defeat the Boss this time, but the least they could do was try and work out what kind of skills it had for the next fight.

The mechanical monster had high HP and they had only managed to deplete half of its HP bar after five minutes of fighting.

Lu Li suddenly felt a vibration under his foot and he quickly tried to escape. Unfortunately, the mine had already been triggered. He and Azure Sea Breeze were both caught in the explosion.

"Take your potion!" Lu Li already had a potion in hand and quickly drank it as soon as he landed.

As the Main Tank was knocked up, the mechanical monster charged and knocked back the Healer. When March Rain hit the ground, she triggered another mine. Coincidentally, Azure Sea Breeze landed near her and both of them were sent flying.

It was chaos!

The whole scene was out of control, as the Boss went after Remnant Dream directly. With every swing of its mechanical arm, Remnant Dream lost 300 HP. The little Hunter was scared and tried to escape, but in doing so, she triggered a mine and died before she could even take a potion.

By the time Azure Sea Breeze had regained the Boss' aggro, the party only had three people left.

Without the two DPS professions, the mechanical monster was losing HP at an even slower rate.

After struggling for some time, a mine was triggered again. This time, it was even worse. The Main Tank stepped on one mine after another until he died. There was absolutely no window for healing.

Without a Main Tank, the other two quickly turned and ran, but the room was closed and there was nowhere to go.

After the group was revived, they all gloomily sat by the door to Helix's room.

They had all felt very strong; their equipment was good and their level was high. They didn't expect to be wiped before they had even killed the mechanical monster.

"This is just how it is; we'll get used to it eventually." Azure Sea Breeze tried to cheer everyone up but his efforts were in vain.

"The loss of EXP is heartbreaking." Lonesome Flower put on a long face.

After the update, a few different death penalties had been introduced in Dawn:

The first was for field deaths: Revive in the Cemetery and lose 20% EXP. In addition, the player will be in a weakened state for 30 minutes.

The second was also for field deaths: Your soul runs to the place of death and revives there, but make sure your corpse is guarded. The player will also lose 15% EXP.

The third was also for field deaths: Revive by a spell from a profession and lose 10% EXP.

The fourth was for Instance Dungeon deaths: Your soul will appear in the cemetery outside the Instance Dungeon. Your soul can enter the Instance Dungeon to revive at the entrance of the Instance Dungeon. The player will lose 1% EXP, but these deaths are unlike the others. A player cannot drop a level in this way.

One percent didn't sound like much, but one still had to kill many monsters to obtain this. The Boss was also extremely hard to defeat, so who knew how many times they were going to die?

Their second attempt was much smoother. Now that they had experience with the explosions, they could balance themselves if they were affected. Remnant Dream didn't run away this time and they successfully killed the mechanical monster.

All that was left was Helix.

"Well, you've succeeded in provoking Helix."

The goblin engineer angrily stood up from the wreckage of the mechanical monster.

Helix still had a very disgusting skill - Mount.

He could jump onto a person's head and block their vision. The victim was usually considered dead and attacked by their teammates.

Moreover, the frequency of him burying the mines was higher too. Lu Li's party was wiped again and again, for a third, fourth and fifth time…

"Stop, this isn't the way to go about it either," Lu Li shouted at Azure Sea Breeze, who still wanted to continue.

"There isn't much time left, so everyone should go and take a break. Think about how we can beat the Boss while you're at it"

The others were physically and mentally exhausted, so they didn't object.

In reality, Lu Li already had a strategy; he just didn't want to say it out loud.

Fighting Instance Dungeons required a great use of teamwork and various focused tactics. There was a strategy and skill to fighting every Boss.

Lu Li knew many strategies because of his rebirth, but they were still very limited. When he eventually ran out of strategies and they had to face an unfamiliar Instance Dungeon, what would they do?

As such, they had to get used to studying Instance Dungeons.

This Boss wasn't very difficult. Some would even say that it was easy, so it provided a good test.

He logged back on after a meal and the five of them sat in front of the Helix room door discussing tactics.

"Let's stand apart from each other," Remnant Dream said.

"Yo, can you not think of something that a rookie would say?" Lonesome Flower mocked.

"The biggest problem is when you get knocked back and you land on another mine. This Boss seems highly reliant on luck."

March Rain always worked really hard, but she could only helplessly watch as her teammates died.

"Yeah, we can try standing in the corners. If all the ranged players stand in the corners, the wall will block them from triggering any others if they trigger one in the first place."

Azure Sea Breeze's experience showed and he quickly found a way to deal with the explosions.

The Great Thief

Chapter 92: Kick

The three ranged players all stood with their backs to the walls, while Azure Sea Breeze pulled the Boss to the center. He and Lu Li stood apart from each other. Everyone's positions were very carefully chosen so that no two people would be sent flying together.

Based on Lu Li's memorized strategy, these were the correct positions. With the Intermediate Health Potions and a bit of luck, this Boss wouldn't be too difficult.

They were able to kill the mechanical monster smoothly and Helix didn't pose too much of an issue either. After 10 minutes, he fell before them.

A Steel Dagger!

Bayonet of Vengeance (Steel): Damage 20-28, Agility 8, Strength 4. Effect: On hit, there is a chance that the target will bleed, taking 20 damage per second for 5 seconds. Equipment Requirement: level 15. Durability 35/35.

There was no doubt that this was Lu Li's weapon.

This was a high-quality dagger too. It had high damage, good attributes and a good special effect. It was almost impeccable.

It even caused a bleed effect that could not be removed. This could stop stealth!

For fights between Thieves, there was no better effect than bleed.

It was a pity that Lu Li was still half a level below the level requirement.

After killing Helix, the EXP that everyone had lost was mostly regained. No one got a Skill Point reward this time; it seemed like the probability of getting one was very small.

According to the Quest Tracker, the third Boss was called "Death God 5000".

It sounded like a very scary name, but it was really just a mechanical harvester.

Around it stood four mechanical monsters. The Death God 5000 would start to move after the four mechanical monsters had been killed.

This Boss wasn't really difficult to defeat and didn't require any special strategy. As long as they dodged its swiping attack (which was like Whirlwind), they would be fine. The only difficult part of the fight was when the room would periodically be filled with 'Molten Slags'.

Molten Slags were a fire elemental monster with a molten shield that dealt 4000 damage to surrounding enemies.

Currently, no one could tank this kind of damage.

Fortunately, there was a machine next to the Boss—the prototype Harvester. It was activated when the fight started and could be operated by anyone. It had high damage and was immune to shield damage. It could also crowd control the Molten Slags, which would allow the ranged players to quickly wipe them out.

The small Xin Xin Mercenary Group killed the Boss in one try without losing a single member.

It was too bad that this Boss was really stingy; it didn't drop a single Steel equip. It only dropped one Bronze equip and an engineering material.

The fourth Boss was the Piercing Heart Wolf General.

In Dawn's lore, James Harrington was cursed to become a Worgen. In that one unfortunate night, he destroyed his beloved family and his maritime career. After that, he renamed himself the Piercing Heart Wolf and fled to the western wilderness. He later accepted his appointment by the Defias Brotherhood to command their fearless ships.

This Boss didn't have any special active skills, but had one passive skill—Bloodlust.

Bloodlust slowly increased the Boss' attack speed and damage. The longer the fight went for, the more unlikely his defeat became.

This was the reason why Lu Li had asked everyone to level up before going into the Death Mines. If they were three levels lower than this Boss, then the damage reduction and its own damage buff would be too much to overcome. They would simply be unable to kill the Boss in a short enough timeframe. Once the Main Tank was killed, the rest of the team would soon go down with him.

Lu Li, Azure Sea Breeze, Lonesome Flower and March Rain were all level 14. Remnant Dream was level 13 and the Piercing Heart Wolf General was level 16. The level difference was not that wide.

"Let's give it a shot. If we can't do it, then we'll go back and level up. We can come back when everyone is LV15," Azure Sea Breeze suggested. The others didn't oppose him.

Taking down 50% of the Boss' HP went relatively smoothly, because the Boss' bonus damage wasn't too high. However, when his HP dropped to 30%, the damage started to become ridiculous. The Wolf General would deal 500-600 damage per strike, with the occasional critical hit.

When the Boss reached 20% HP, Azure Sea Breeze squealed and was killed.

Team kill!

The second time, they did slightly better and managed to lower it to 15% HP.

However, they were unable to get its HP below 15% in their successive attempts.

Losing 1% EXP each time didn't sound like a lot, but it added up quickly.

Moreover, Dawn's other players' were continuing to gain EXP while their own EXP was decreasing. If they were continue like this, they would soon be unable to maintain their positions on the Level Rankings.

They soon realized that they couldn't do it and gave up.

There were already some posts on the forums, describing some pioneer guilds who were still stuck on the first Boss.

These people didn't have any Intermediate Health Potions.

After the Instance Dungeon, Azure Sea Breeze proposed killing the Demon Warlock and Snake Bosses. He was dressed in Steel items, but most of them were only LV5, so his defence was considerably weaker.

They were going to go kill Akereus first. Now that they had the prior experience, this would be an easier boss to fight.

In order for the other players to gain more EXP, Lu Li quit the party when the Boss dropped to 20% HP and left the battle. He went back to the city to prepare Intermediate Antidotes.

The EXP distribution in Dawn was very fair. As long as you participated and didn't die, you would be assigned some EXP. However, if you quit the fight, you wouldn't receive any EXP.

When Lu Li got back to the city, he took out the gold he had made through the Intermediate Health Potion sales from the mailbox. He then went around looking for Snake Bile and other cheap items.

Before long, Azure Sea Breeze was assigning the loot. Akereus didn't drop anything good this time, just some Heal Leather which was exclusive to Healer Druids and some common materials.

The Heal Leather was consigned in the Exchange Hall.

Lu Li checked the items he needed to upgrade his supreme ring, but he expectantly found nothing.

He browsed the skill books that were available and stumbled upon one called 'Kick'.

Kick: Instant cast. Cooldown of 15 seconds. Quickly kick the target to interrupt spell casts. This also prevents the target from casting related spells for another 5 seconds. Proficiency 1/5.

This was a very good Skill book; it could be used for both Instance Dungeons and PVP.

However, the price was quite expensive at 20 gold coins.

Although the price of gold had fallen to 300:1, 20 gold was still thousands of dollars. This was still far beyond what the average player could afford.

This was probably the reason Lu Li had found it. Otherwise, it would have already been bought.

The Great Thief

Chapter 93: Special Equipment

Lu Li didn't hesitate in buying the Kick skill for 20 gold coins.

Lu Li wondered if there was any Silver grade equipment being sold. In his curiosity, he looked at all equipment from the most expensive first to the least expensive.

The most expensive piece of equipment was Steel-grade and was listed at 400 gold coins. The description was, "The Great Qin Empire is recruiting; contact Great Qin Pioneer for details." Lu Li was speechless and couldn't help but marvel at their resourcefulness.

He scrolled down and saw that there were many similar things. Many people had listed trash-tier equipment for very high prices, with descriptions detailing recruitment advertisements, looking for a spouse, looking to make friends, etc.

Some people listed their equipment for exorbitant prices and said in the description that they were only willing to trade for weapons that were suitable for their own profession.

After looking through the priciest equipment, Lu Li confirmed that no one was selling any Silver grade equipment.

Unless something miraculous happened to a ridiculously lucky player, the chances of obtaining Silver grade equipment at this point in the game were practically impossible. Bosses that could drop Silver grade equipment at this point in the game could only be found in the Hero difficulty of the Death Mines. Even Elite grade Bosses wouldn't drop Silver grade equipment so early on.

Wait a second…

A piece of equipment selling for 200 or so gold caught his eye, and seemed to be in the 'facial equipment' category.

He quickly went back.

It was a Steel grade Bandanna!

Lu Li couldn't believe his eyes. Even in his 'past life', he had never even heard of a Steel grade Bandanna.

Nameless (Steel): 1 Defence, All Stats1, Special Effect: Hides Information (can be toggled), Leve Requirement: LV1. No Durability.

The 1 point of Defence was quite insignificant, and although the Bandanna gave All Stats1, this wasn't necessarily better than a piece of Bronze grade equipment. However, it gave the ability to hide one's information.

What did it mean to hide one's information? For example, Lu Li had hid his information in the Level Rankings, so he was displayed as an 'Unknown Player'. When forming a team, he would also hide his information, so that his name was 'Unknown Player'. Since the system allowed one to their information in certain situations, why couldn't there be equipment that hid one's information?

Looking at the words 'hides information', Lu Li suddenly remembered something.

In his 'past life', there was a Thief who would not leave his name when PVPing with other players, even if he attacked first.

The system gave the players a choice whether to hide their information on the Rankings, or when forming teams, but there was no such option for PVP. As such, the system would alert both players in a PVP combat that the intiating player had maliciously attacked the other. This gave the attacked player 10 minutes to retaliate.

However, when that particular Thief attacked, this system announcement did not come up.

The players who were killed did not even know who had killed them and couldn't find anyone to take revenge on. As such, there were often people reporting this issue on the official website. However, the response from the game company was that this was not a bug, so people stopped reporting this issue.

Perhaps that person had used this sort of equipment.

Lu Li looked at the description.

"Steel grade Bandanna, willing to exchange for a high-quality Thief equipment, preferably weapon. PM 'Black Cat'."

Lu Li immediately contacted that player.

Lu Li: You there?

Black Cat: Yes, yes, do you want to exchange equipment? I know it doesn't have a very nice name, but if you don't have Steel grade equipment, then forget about it. This lady here would rather throw it away than trade it for Bronze grade equipment.

Evidently, it was a female player. She had sent a lengthy reply back, with a tone of annoyance. It seemed that many people had offered to exchange with her, but the results had not turned out too well.

Lu Li directly sent over the Dagger's stats.

Lu Li: Death's Shadow (Steel): 12-25 Damage, Strength5, Attack Speed10%. Level Requirement: LV6. Durability: 32/32.

Black Cat: Hmm… Hmm… Not bad, but…

This was an exquisite Dagger – it was quite rare to have 12-25 Attack on a single-handed weapon. The 5 points of Strength made this Dagger seem even more enticing and it even gave a 10% increase to Attack Speed. This was incredibly rare for low level equipment. Normally, even 5% was a lot.

However, Black Cat was not entirely willing to trade for only this Dagger. After all, her Bandanna was incredibly special.

Special Steel grade equipment was incredibly rare!

If it wasn't for the fact that female players could only use Veils, she would have probably kept it for herself.

Lu Li: Broodmother's Kiss (Steel): 10-22 Damage, Agility4, Special Effect: Upon successfully attacking a target, there is a chance of the target being poisoned and taking 20 damage per second for 5 seconds. Level Requirement: LV5. Durability: 30/30.

This Dagger was not inferior to the previous one in the slightest and its Poison effect was very useful against Bosses.

Black Cat: Wow, great god… wait, do you really have this equipment? You're not tricking me, right?"

Lu Li: You can pick either one of the Daggers. If you want, we can trade. If not, forget it.

Black Cat: It's a pity they're both LV5 weapons though. Great god, I'm nearly LV10, so can you give me a piece of LV10 equipment or both of those LV5 Daggers?

Lu Li: No way, goodbye.

Black Cat: Wait, let's be reasonable.

Lu Li: How about this: you choose one of the Daggers and I'll add on a LV5 Steel grade Leather Armour. Your Steel-grade Bandanna is rare, but hiding information isn't that useful. After all, the game's settings already allows you to hide your information.

Black Cat thought for a while and felt that what Lu Li had said was true. After all, many other players had said the same thing. Players didn't have to rely on equipment to hide their information and most players wanted to become famous.

None of the players on the Glory Rankings who she had talked to were interested in this Bandanna. Only the somewhat famous Midnight Ghost was somewhat interested in trading. However, he was only willing to trade a fairly ordinary piece of LV5 equipment, which couldn't even be compared to the ones that Lu Li had offered.

Lu Li was very patient and did not rush Black Cat. He bought a temporary LV10 Bronze grade weapon and a LV10 Bronze grade Armour, then left the Exchange Hall. His destination was the Inn, where he could hire a private room to create some Intermediate Health Potions.

After half an hour, he received a reply.

Black Cat: Great god, I've decided to trade with you. I'm a combat Thief, so I want the Death's Shadow and the Leather Armour. Where are you now?

Lu Li: Meet me at the Dark Ravine. I'll pay for the transport fee.

Trading at the Dark Ravine was much cheaper than trading at the Grey Valley. After all, going between towns cost 2 gold coins, but going between a town and a village cost only 1 gold coin.

With someone willing to pay the transport fee, Black Cat immediately went to the Dark Ravine.

At the agreed location, she saw a Thief who had covered his face and had his name hidden during the transaction.

The special equipment "Nameless" was thus obtained by Lu Li.

Lu Li was lacking a decent weapon and clothing, but he had bought some to use temporarily. When he levelled up to LV15, he could equip the LV15 Steel grade equipment in his bag.

He bought this Bandanna just in case he became too famous in future and was targeted. Who knew when it would be useful? Moreover, he no longer had a need for his 2 LV5 weapons and he wasn't lacking in gold, so he decided to trade them off.

The Great Thief

Chapter 94: Ambushed

After a while, Azure Sea Breeze and the others came to the Dark Ravine. Then, they all headed off to the Snake Valley to kill Gallaher.

Gallaher's territory was in a corner of the Snake Valley. As it was surrounded and attacked by Lu Li's group, it furiously spat out poison and swept around its massive tail, trying to send these disrespectful players to the grave.

It was a pity that it could not do so.

Against these skilful, high-levelled and well-equipped players, it could only struggle in vain.

"We won't be able to kill this Boss for much longer. There are many waves of players heading this way and they'll probably reach here in two or so days," Azure Sea Breeze said in disappointment as he patted Gallaher's head with his shield. He was furiously counterattacked by Gallaher in response.

"As long as our equipment is good enough, we won't need to worry about not having enough Bosses to kill. It's just that the high level Bosses are way too hard to kill," Lu Li replied.

"Do you want to recruit some new people?"

"I don't mind; you can handle that." Lu Li wasn't really interested in these things.

He knew many future-experts, but they wouldn't necessarily want to join them. Moreover, experts were usually quite haughty. Once they became famous, they might not want to stay within the small Mercenary Group.

When Lu Li's HP dropped down to 50%, he drank an Intermediate Antidote, which cancelled out the Boss' Poison Attack. Following that, the Boss hit him with its tail, dealing 70 damage. However, with his 1,000 HP pool, he was in no danger at all.

Suddenly, Lu Li's face darkened.

When did these people creep up behind them?!

Before Lu Li's group could react, all sorts of attacks – Frostbolts, Fireballs, Shadow Arrows, Arcane Shots, Lightning Bolts – rained down upon them.

Remnant Dream, Lonesome Flower and March Rain were all instantly killed.

Only 2 of them were able to react in time. Lu Li immediately used Vanish, avoiding the first wave of attacks, while Azure Sea Breeze activated Shield Wall. This resulted in there only being a chain of single-digit damage figures rising above him.

There were at least 70-80 enemy players. Azure Sea Breeze couldn't last very long and after Shield Wall's effects ended, he was also buried by a wave of skills.

However, he had bought enough time for Lu Li to run away. By the time they had finished off Azure Sea Breeze, they simply couldn't find Lu Li.

Although Lu Li wasn't invincible, he wouldn't lose his Stealth from being hit for the first 3 seconds after using Vanish. He quickly activated the speed boost from his Boots and his Movement Speed increased by 10%.

After escaping from the enemy players' attack range, Lu Li immediately transformed into the Little Cheetah and dove into the grass.

"Goddamit, he escaped again!"

"How is this possible?! We threw so many attacks at him but couldn't insta-kill him!"

"His level's probably pretty high, my attack missed…"

"My Charm skill also missed."

"Increase the search perimeter. Thieves are usually quite slow when they're Stealthed. Everyone cast your abilities wherever you think he might be."

"Is there a Tank? Someone tank this Boss. It doesn't have much HP left, so we might as well kill it…"

"Idiot. Find the Thief first. If weren't able to kill a Thief with 70-80 people, that would be disgraceful. I'll kill anyone who dares to fight the Boss before we've found him."

"What gives you the right to order us around? We can't wholeheartedly look for the Thief before killing this Boss."

"Exactly, we can use the system to check his coordinates every 30 minutes, so we might as well kill the Boss first."

Although they knew not to underestimate this Thief, these 70-80 people had successfully snuck up on him and attacked. Who would think that anything could go wrong?

This motley crowd simply couldn't resist the temptation of the Boss.

"I'm fine, but don't come over for now," Lu Li answered his communication device, telling his teammates what was happening.

"Dreamy's a bit down, so I'll try to cheer her up," March Rain replied.

It wasn't that the little Hunter had never died in the game before, but that this was the first time she had been killed by players.

Lu Li felt a bit guilty. After all, these players had come for him.

The peaceful days that had gone by caused him to let his guard down and he had forgotten about the bounty on his head.

This group of people had come exactly for the bounty.

After the second update, the bounty system was introduced. After paying 10 gold coins, a player could list a bounty quest in the Mercenary Hall.

The person who placed the bounty on Lu Li was quite rich. Killing Lu Li would earn them 10 gold coins and the maximum number of kills was 10. This meant that there was a total bounty of 100 gold coins on him!

Any player could spend 10 silver coins in order to receive this bounty. Every 30 minutes, players could spend 50 silver coins to search for the target's coordinates.

Lu Li had spent the entire morning in the Instance Dungeon and didn't expect that the bounty hunters would come for him.

Not only had he gotten four of his teammates killed, but he had also exposed this place to others.

He didn't leave, but hid nearby in the woods.

He was so close that he could hear what they were saying and discovered who they were.

Some of them were from the Imperial Secret Service and their leader was 'Sorry I'm Stronger Than You'. He wanted the players to hurry up and find Lu Li, but it was a pity that there were only 20-30 Imperial Secret Service players in that group. The other people were all strangers and had only joined up with them for the bounty.

The system made it so that players who assisted in completing the bounty quest would receive 80% of the reward.

Killing Lu Li would earn 8 gold and they might not even earn a large share of that. As such, many of the players decided to finish off the Boss. Gallaher now had less than half of its HP, and it could be killed within minutes by the 70-80 players.

Sorry I'm Stronger Than You had no choice but to compromise, "Hurry up and finish it off; the equipment will belong to whoever can get their hands on it. If someone attacks another person for equipment, then the rest of you kill him immediately.

He then ordered his guild's players to keep an eye on the time and immediately search for Lu Li's coordinates as soon as it was possible again. For some reason, he had a bad feeling about this. He had been there the last time the Imperial Secret Service had tried to kill this guy and he knew what he was capable of.

Even though Lu Li wanted to tear these people into shreds, he remained calm.

He retreated somewhere safe and coldly watched as the motley crowd attacked the Boss under Sorry I'm Stronger Than You's command.

With so many people, Gallaher's HP quickly fell.

30%!

The giant snake leaned backwards as it deeply inhaled, then spat out its venom towards the players.

Bosses in the wilderness were all quite tough and Gallaher was no exception. Its poison and AOE attacks made it an incredibly tough Boss to kill.

This wave of venom covered more than half of the players.

The Great Thief

Chapter 95: Bloody Battle

The first time Lu Li's team had fought this Boss, they had been completely annihilated. Because these people were much higher-levelled than Lu Li and the others were at the time, no one died from the first wave of venom.

However, many of them now had critical HP!

How could Gallaher be so easy to kill? It had reduced a majority of the attacking players to critical HP in just 1 attack.

"Heal! Hurry up and heal! Are you dead or something?!" A motley crowd was indeed a motley crowd. Seeing their HP fall so low, they all began to yell for healing, covering up their leader's voice.

Gallaher then followed up with a tail attack.

The crowd began to yell even louder and more desperately.

At the beginning, none of them had taken Gallaher seriously. After all, it was a LV12 Boss that had lost a big chunk of its HP.

No one thought that they would lose players so quickly.

A group of players died immediately as 5 or 6 rays of light flew off.

There were only 5 Healers. After all, this crowd had come to kill Lu Li, so the vast majority of them were professions with high damage. The Healers raised their Staffs and started to cast healing magic. Luckily, the Boss didn't continuously attack, allowing the players to slightly relax.

Lu Li silently crept behind a Priest and immediately stunned him as he raised his Staff.

The Priest didn't expect to be ambushed and his face was filled with shock. He even thought that the Boss had used a new skill and a string of damage figures arose from his body.

1 down!

Dead players couldn't talk, but they could type.

However, before he could type anything, another Healer from the team sent out 3 words:

"Fudge, I'm dead!"

"The Healers are being killed!" the crowd suddenly realised, as they saw Lu Li furiously attacking the third Healer.

"Everyone, don't panic, focus your attacks on him!"

With a Boss and a godly Thief separately attacking them, how could they not panic?

In reality, the elusive Lu Li, who had been called 'Textbook' Lu Li, was no less dangerous than the Boss.

Some of the players reacted quickly and immediately launched their skills towards Lu Li.

He didn't bother to look over as he slashed his Dagger across the frightened Healer's throat.

Slit Throat! Critical Hit!

Lu Li jumped forwards and rolled, avoiding most of the attacks. Regardless, his HP still fell by 40% after being hit by the few remaining attacks.

He didn't run or retreat like the players had expected. He ran towards the Boss and used the Boss' body to block the players' second wave of attacks.

A wall of skills erupted on the Boss' body.

The Boss' HP once again fell.

When the players finally rushed over, there was no trace of Lu Li. He had long since disappeared, and they had now drawn the aggro of the Boss.

Should they fight or not?!

The Boss only had a bit more than 20% of its HP, so it would be a pity to give up.

However, how could they keep fighting? They had already lost 3 Healers and they had to constantly worry about being ambushed by the Thief.

"Hurry up and quickly finish it off. If anyone dies, just run back to your body," Sorry I'm Stronger Than You ordered as he gnashed his teeth. They had to finish off this Boss, otherwise the players would be too demotivated to look for Lu Li.

The Druids with healings spells were designated as the new Healers. Although their healing spells weren't as great, it was better than nothing.

20%!

Lu Li ran his fingers over his Dagger's sharp and cold edge. He knew that there would be an opportunity coming soon.

Gallaher once again sharply inhaled, pulling in the players in front of it, then blasted them with poisonous fog. Within the poisonous fog, many players turned into rays of white light.

This time, 10 or so of them had died.

The remaining players were all at critical HP and most of them were cursing the system, asking why the Antidotes weren't working.

Lu Li sprang forwards and activated his speed boost skill from his Boots, then flashed around within the crowd.

He killed every time he attacked!

Now, even his normal attacks were able to finish the remaining players off. The players at critical HP simply couldn't do anything against him.

In an instant, the battlefield descended into utter chaos.

Some people were screaming for healing, some were cursing Lu Li for being despicable and some were desperately attacking the Boss. It was amusing how few players were actually retaliating against Lu Li.

Lu Li ran over to an area where there were fewer players and used Kick on a Mage, interrupting the spell she was casting. He then drank a bottle of Intermediate Health Potion.

This immediately recovered almost half of his HP, bringing him back into the safety margin.

"Hurry up and kill him!!" Sorry I'm Stronger Than You's voice was already hoarse from shouting. However, he found that they simply couldn't do anything against Lu Li, who was significantly more skilled than they were.

What the hell were they supposed to do?

Lu Li used the Boss and the other players to block skills, while he jumped around and caused chaos. Although it looked quite inelegant, this was surprisingly effective, and the 70-80 players couldn't help but want to learn from him.

There were very few Instant Cast spells that had Crowd Control or Detection abilities. The Mages often found that by the time they could cast the more useful spells, Lu Li had already escaped outside of their range.

He seemed to have some sort of speed buff that made it even harder to deal with him.

What was even worse was that he had a skill that could interrupt other skills. While other players were charging up or channelling their skills, he would always ruin everything with a kick.

He also seemed to be familiar with the skills of all the other professions, allowing him to make prompt and efficient decisions. He always dodged, retreated and attacked at the right times.

Furthermore, he seemed to be incredibly rich. He continuously drank down Intermediate Health Potions that cost 1 gold coin per bottle. It seemed that he would drink one as soon as the Cooldown Time expired.

The Boss once again spat out venom when it fell to 10% of its health.

This time, even Lu Li was dragged over.

The Boss that had once caused him great pressure was now nothing to him. After drinking an Intermediate Antidote, he only took 300 damage.

Long live Gallaher! The battle field was once filled with rays of white light.

Comparing their almost-empty HP bars to Lu Li's relatively healthy one, the players near him all fell into despair.

Very few even had the heart to retaliate anymore.

All of them were crying as they thought, "This isn't a player, this is a Boss!"

However, Lu Li didn't show any mercy. While the players were all at critical HP, he immediately killed the Healer beside him and ran off.

Against so many players at such short range, all Lu Li could do was run.

However, after taking some time to recover, he once again jumped into the fray.

The Boss' HP continuously fell, as did the players' HP.

Sorry I'm Stronger Than You suddenly realised that out of the 70-80 people he had brought, only 10 or so remained, and they were all at critical HP.

No one knew who the first to do so was, but after seeing Lu Li drink another Intermediate Health Potion, the players all started to madly run away.

However, Lu Li definitely wouldn't let them go. Together with the Boss, he chased after the escaping players as he killed them off, one by one.

The Great Thief

Chapter 96: Complete Extermination

Lu Li's rebirth caused him to treasure his new life. As such, he tried to avoid trouble as much as possible.

However, he had found this was wrong.

Incredibly wrong!

Even if he didn't cause trouble for others, this didn't mean that others wouldn't cause him trouble.

It was more understandable for the Imperial Secret Service to target him and his friends. After all, there was enmity between them and they had caused each other to suffer losses.

But what was up with the rest of these people? Lu Li had never offended them.

Luckily, he was skilled and had 3 years' worth of experience. Even Moonlight probably wouldn't have been able to survive.

What made this even worse was that even Lu Li's friends had been brought into this.

This was especially so for Remnant Dream. She was just a high schooler and was about the same age as his little sister. Although things had been rough on her in the game, she had never been mercilessly killed by other players.

Yet, these people had unhesitatingly killed her.

These people had to die.

Lu Li pulled his Dagger out from a player's back, turning him into a corpse.

The Boss had been a great help. Not only did it block attacks for him, but it also attacked the players continuously. Without any Healers, the players who he wanted to kill quickly died.

It was almost as if he and the Boss had formed a partnership.

The remaining players ran for a while, and were finally able to escape as they spread out.

Two of them ran into a snake nest and were killed by a group of LV10 snakes.

Another was smacked to death by the Boss' tail, while their leader was finished off by Lu Li.

Lu Li remembered this person. He seemed to be an expert member of the Imperial Secret Service. However, he was pitifully easy to kill and did not even put up a struggle.

The last 7 or 8 people continued to run without even looking back.

As for whether they would be able to pass through the snake territory in critical HP, Lu Li simply didn't care.

The almost-dead Boss turned its attention to Lu Li. He was the only player left within its aggro range.

Lu Li picked up the equipment that Sorry I'm Stronger Than You dropped, gripped his Dagger and started to fight with the Boss.

System: Shadowstrike Skill Completion 94%, caused 250% Skill Damage, target stunned for 2 seconds.

A red '-228' floated above the Boss' head.

After taking a weight off his shoulders, his Skill Completion had become even higher. He had never achieved 94% Skill Completion before.

The Boss was stunned for 2 seconds, giving Lu Li ample time to slaughter it.

Shadowstrike, normal attack, normal attack…

System: Backstab Skill Completion 85%, caused 100% Equipment Damage, Rank 1 Armour Pierce effect.

Shadowstrike, Slit Throat!

The Boss' HP was quickly depleted and it fell to the ground.

Lu Li picked up Azure Sea Breeze's call, "Go and train somewhere; I've killed the Boss."

"Good," Azure Sea Breeze replied, "What do you plan to do now?"

"Kill people!"

"Just make sure you don't do anything rash. If it's not safe, just hide in the Instance Dungeon. We've got 24 hours; we might as well work at it," Azure Sea Breeze replied. Bounties could not be issued casually. They cost 10 gold coins to be put up and even more gold for the reward. Moreover, the system would take 20% of the deposit regardless of whether anyone completed the bounty quest or not.

The Imperial Secret Service's bounty reward was 10 gold coins per kill up to 10 kills. Even if no one completed the quest, they would still have to pay 30 gold coins.

This wasn't much to them. After all, sending 30 people to the Dark Ravine cost 30-40 gold coins.

The current exchange rate was 1 gold coin for $300. This operation had cost the Imperial Secret Service more than $20,000 in total.

As long as players with a bounty hid inside an Instance Dungeon, or another safe area, the bounty would disappear after 24 hours.

Issuing bounties once or twice was fine for the Imperial Secret Service, but even large guilds couldn't afford to issue them continuously.

"I know what I'm doing. Try to level up as much as you can so we can use the Fire Scar Temple Instance Dungeon tomorrow. It'll be the last day tomorrow, so we have to clear it." Lu Li picked up the equipment the Boss had dropped as he started to channel his hearthstone.

There was a LV10 Steel grade equipment for Mages, which was perfect for Lonesome Flower. There were also many other pieces of equipment in his bag that he had picked up from killing other players. The people who had come for his bounty all had pretty decent equipment, which made him feel quite happy.

The lowest grade of equipment he found was Bronze and there were 4-5 pieces of Steel grade equipment that he could sell.

It was a pity that they were all LV5, so they wouldn't be very useful to Lu Li and his friends.

After returning to town, Lu Li put most of the equipment he had picked up into the Exchange Hall.

According to his calculations, this would earn him about 10 or so gold coins.

He checked the prices of the Snake Trust Grass and was surprised to find that even the cheapest set was selling for 2.8 gold coins.

"Bro, have you seen the prices for Snake Trust Grass in the Exchange Hall?"

Shen Wansan quickly replied, "I have. Tow hours ago, the Drizzle Court found the recipe for making Intermediate Health Potions and all of the Snake Trust Grass in the Exchange Hall was bought by them. By the way, someone said that you were being hunted down in the World Channel. Are you alright?"

"Mm, I'm fine. How many sets have you stored up?"

"Don't worry, I've got more than 10 people working for me and all of them have hundreds of sets. This time, we're going to make a killing," Shen Wansan replied. He had thought about cheating Lu Li, because his contract didn't stipulate how many sets he should collect, or how much he should buy them for. It only stipulated that the total amount he should spend was 100 gold coins.

However, Shen Wansan decided against it.

After all, 70-80 people had failed to kill this person.

He was a veteran and had been a businessman in many games. He knew how powerful the Imperial Secret Service was. In their heyday, game companies had even discussed with them before releasing new features.

If it wasn't for the fact that they did not act with integrity and did foolish things, they would be ranked even higher.

However, even such a powerful guild couldn't do much to Lu Li.

"If you have Snake Trust Grass on you, pass it to me and I'll take care of it for you. I'm sure I'll be able to sell them for at least 3 gold coins per set," Shen Wansan said. The Drizzle Court had been madly buying all of the Snake Trust Grass in the Exchange Hall, but they weren't dumb. They did not buy any of the extremely expensive sets.

If one wanted to sell them for high prices, they needed to be patient and use some business tactics.

Lu Li thought about it. Indeed, he didn't have much time or energy to sell Snake Trust Grass.

"I'll give them to you for 3 gold coins per set. If you can sell them for higher, you can keep the excess. I've got 500 sets here," Lu Li replied. He had bought as much as he could over the past few days and Azure Sea Breeze and the others had given the ones they collected to him as well.

In reality, he had much more than 500 sets!

However, he did not allow his excitement to overwhelm him. He had to at least keep enough for himself to use.

Lu Li sent 500 sets of Snake Trust Grass in his mailbox to Shen Wansan, then took out a few sets and went to the Inn to make Potions.

After creating the Potions, he gave 10 bottles to each of his teammates and restocked his own supply. To other players, these things were worth tens of silver coins. However, to Lu Li, Snake Trust Grass was only worth a few silver coins, which was also the value of the Potions to him.