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

4. 97

The Great Thief - Chapter 97: Close Proximity Light Novel Pub

The Great Thief

Chapter 97: Close Proximity

Every 30 minutes, players could ask the system to search for a target's coordinates.

However, this cool down applied to everyone. Whenever someone's coordinates was checked, no one else could search for them again until after the cooldown had ended.

Because of this, Lu Li did not have the whole server looking for him. He didn't bother to wait at the Mercenary Hall to see who had accepted his bounty quest.

Instead, he found a place and waited for the person who had searched for his coordinates.

Lornesta was located quite close to the coast lines. It used to be an ancient city of Night Elves and had been abandoned for a long time. Now, only Nagas roamed around the ruins of the ancient city.

One of the great mysteries of Dawn was that for some reason, Nagas were more attracted to this place than any other High Elf ruins. It was recorded in ancient scrolls that the current Naga Queen Azshara had lost godly artefacts at this place while she was still a High Elf.

Lady Janira had occupied this city with her Naga Scout Army and would attack any enemies that dared to approach it.

Because Nagas normally spent their time underwater, they had a poor level of awareness on land. Even though the stealthy Lu Li had walked around Lady Janira, he had not been noticed. However, he did this carefully, as he still respected the power of Lady Janira, who was a LV20 Boss.

The average levels of normal mobs in the Scout Army were around LV18, which was four levels higher than Lu Li. Luckily, it was less than five levels – mobs had increased critical chance when the level difference was more than five.

Although these LV18 mobs were normal monsters, they were just as annoying as the Elite grade monsters in the Death Mines. They could even be compared to some weaker bosses.

As per tradition, the Nagas had two incredibly broken skills: Consume Magic and Mana Drain.

The army lead by Lady Janira had crossed the Sea of Death which granted the surviving troops the ability to poison. The poison wasn't as strong as Gallagher's poison, but it was still powerful enough to be lethal to players that were 5 levels lower than them.

Lu Li had chosen this place to be the cemetery for the bounty hunters.

Mana Drain, Poison and a LV20 boss!

As soon as Raging Wolf Blood came online, he received the notification that Sorry I'm Stronger Than You and others had all died.

"Did you get the new coordinates?" Raging Wolf Blood did not blame others, because he had also been out-played by Lu Li once. Luckily, he had retreated and minimized the loss.

"Got it. He's in a ruin located in Grey Valley. We got obliterated; how do we report back to our boss?" Sorry I'm Better Than You asked anxiously.

"Stop worrying about it. We'll find a peacemaker and come to terms with him," Raging Blood Wolf said moodily. His plans with Lu Li and the Imperial Secret Service had not gone well. He had decided to continuously mess with Lu Li.

"I don't think we can come to terms. I killed a couple of his team mates, including 2 girls."

Sorry I'm Better Than You had a face of slight regret.

"So what if they were girls? If a girl fights you do you not fight back? Stop being such a coward. If an opportunity arises, I'll kill his team mates so that they'll lose levels. Then Lu Li won't be able to get first clears," Raging Wolf Blood sneered.

"Ok, I'll inform the others." Sorry I'm better than you nodded.

"How many players have accepted Lu Li's bounty?"

"There are more than 100 in the chat room. There were more before but many gave up on the quest. They said we had no chance of killing Lu Li," Sorry I'm Better Than You said bitterly.

"These people are useless. When we're in fights they fight like cowards, but when we're retreating, they're always the first ones to run."

The people who survived the ambush on Lu Li were all useless. They couldn't fight but were very talented in the art of running away.

"Go gather up the troops, notify Swirling Left Eye and Staring Right Eye and prepare to leave." Raging Wolf Blood was the commander of Imperial Secret Service's 1st squadron and had made a name for himself in both PVP and PVE.

It was too bad he didn't know what Lu Li had in store for him at the ruins.

Lu Li decided not to wait like a fool for them and started hunting monsters near Lornesta.

He stole while training.

Half of the ruin city was covered by bodies of water. There were ditches, puddles and pools everywhere, and beneath many of these lay various ruins and abandoned buildings.

A ripple slowly spread out on the surface of the water nearby.

Perhaps it was the blood spilt from killing monsters, or perhaps it was a bug. Lu Li saw the ripple and didn't think much of it.

Swirling Left Eye let out a sigh of relief as he hid nearby. He hated Lu Li with all his heart and was confused as to why he was hunting in this area.

The ruin was surrounded by water; if he wasn't careful he would give himself away.

He held his breath and glanced at Staring Right Eye. The two slowly moved in towards Lu Li's backside.

Ever since their last encounter, the reputation of the Imperial Secret Service's "Two Eyed Thief" combo had been destroyed. However, they had trained and upgraded their equipment, so they felt like they were just as strong as Lu Li.

Swirling Left Eye was confident that he could solo-kill Lu Li.

Lu Li quickly finished off a Naga with Slit Throat.

After the battle had finished, he casually picked up the coppers that the monsters dropped. Lu Li rested at a nearby pillar as he quietly recovered HP with bread.

Since these were LV18 monsters, they had left Lu Li with only 60% HP after the battle.

Swirling Left Eye did not care that Lu Li was unaware of his attack. Did he really think that no one could find him just because he went to a remote area?

As he approached Lu Li, he realised that he couldn't attack him from behind because he had his back to the pillar.

If he could stun Lu Li from behind, Swirling Left Eye had an 80% chance to kill his target.

Perhaps it was the bread, but Lu Li's health recovered very slowly. A single piece of bread only recovered around 10% HP. He still had 20% left to recover.

An unaware target who was not even full HP. Swirling Left Eye started to doubt himself.

Lu Li let out a sigh, as though he was anxious about his surroundings. "Poor fella," Swirling Left Eye thought. He was the first player to have a bounty Dawn.

Lu Li took out another bread, trying to fully recover his HP.

Swirling Left Eye knew that he did not have time to hesitate. He had to make his move.

The Great Thief

Chapter 98: The Battle Between Thieves

Cheap shot could only be used from behind.

However, being an elite PVP Thief in the top 100 rankings, Swirling Left Eye obviously had other options.

Gouge: 1 second cast, targets the eyes of the enemy, causes paralysis for 2 seconds. Must be facing the target. Any damage will cause the enemy to come out of the paralysis state. Current level 3/5.

This was dropped by a LV10 boss that he had killed with his guild.

After acquiring this skill, Swirling Left Eye had immediately levelled it up twice, which shortened the cast time by a second.

This skill was his trump card!

A battle between thieves! Lu Li must die!

Swirling Left Eye was holding his LV10 Black Steel-Grade Dagger which had a Berserk effect. He was confident that his gear was better than everyone else's, including the legendary Lu Li.

The cold blade swung across the air and swiftly stabbed Lu Li in the eye

Swirling Left Eye's strike landed, but not on Lu Li's eyes as he expected.

The blade hit something else - a health potion.

The dagger shattered the bottle, which provided no resistance, as the blade continued on its course. But this was it.

Although the health potion did not stop Swirling Left Eye's skill, it still revealed his position.

Gouge could be used under any circumstances. It did not break invisibility, but if it hit anything, the invisibility would end.

"Quick, quick, I still have a chance!" Swirling Left Eye thought calmly, pretending that nothing had happened. He was taking a risk, betting that Lu Li could not react in time. He didn't think anyone could avoid this ambush.

Was it even an ambush?

Of course it wasn't. Lu Li immediately kicked him, as if he had already anticipated this attack.

Kick: Instant cast. Cooldown of 15 seconds. Quickly kick the target to interrupt spell casts. Also prevents the target from casting related spells for another 5 seconds. Proficiency 1/5.

Lu Li's Kick was only LV1, but it was more than enough.

Swirling Left Eye was kicked right in his middle and groaned. He felt like he was baited into a trap.

The pain was worse than being stabbed by Lu Li with the dagger. This punk wasn't being hunted; he was the hunter!

System: Shadowstrike Skill Completion 90%, caused 150% Skill Damage, target stunned for 1 second.

One second was enough to decide life and death!

Shadowmeld, Stealth, Cheap Shot, Backstab, Shadow Strike, Backhand Backstab!

Swirling Left Eye sighed and knelt on the ground, defeated.

Lu Li didn't care about how a dead man felt. He picked up the dagger, examined it, and almost wanted to kiss Swirling Left Eye's dead body.

"My dear Left Eye, did you come to give me this gift?"

In order to trade for the Black Steel Grade Bandana, Lu Li had given away his dagger. He had equipped a bronze dagger as a replacement, which significantly decreased his attack.

He hastily equipped the new dagger and swung it around happily. He was very satisfied.

Berserk Fang (Steel): 16-24 Attack, Agility6, Special Effect: Has a certain chance to trigger the Berserk effect, increasing Attack and Attack Speed by 10%. Level Requirement: LV10. Durability: 25/35.

Berserk effect was the best effect in the game. Lu Li felt incredibly grateful for the bounty.

When the next patch came out, the bounty system would be altered slightly. If the person with the bounty killed someone who had accepted the bounty, he would receive a large sum of gold. It was too bad that he didn't receive anything this time. However, Lu Li had no complaints, since he had looted this new dagger.

Swirling Left Eye still had other gear, but none of it could be compared to the quality of his dagger.

Lu Li activated Stealth and disappeared, leaving behind a corpse.

There were no movements or ripples in the surrounding puddles; no one could tell whether had he left or stayed in place.

After receiving Swirling Left Eye's message, Staring Right Eye hastily headed towards that location. However, after receiving the news about his partner's death, he hesitated and decided to head back. Since he was about the same power as Swirling Left Eye, he probably stood no chance as well.

The areas around the Ruins of Lornesta were beginning to fill up with a crowd. Although they had the numbers, they weren't making much progress with the LV18 Naga boss who could drain mana and deal poison.

Thieves could freely go in and out of the ruins, but the other classes could not. They had to slowly clear every mob in the area.

"I thought bounties were easy to get. Looks like we're wrong," a player said disappointedly.

"Yeah, so what if we have the numbers? We can only check for his location every half an hour. Even if he wasn't a Thief, he could just change his location every half an hour and it would be difficult to find him," another player agreed.

"I have a feeling he chose this place on purpose," a mage said, as looked at his mana bar with despair.

Mana Drain!

Was there another skill that was more disgusting than mana drain?

Yes, there had to be!

There was a single player that kept asking for heals. All of the priests had to concentrate their heals on him to raise his HP back up.

He had almost died from the poison.

Mana drain only demoralized you, but poison could be lethal.

A LV18 boss was a nightmare for these LV12-13 players. If the Secret Imperial Service had not provided all these healers, many would have died before even catching a glimpse of Lu Li.

"Left Eye is dead," Sorry I'm Better Than You reported sternly.

"That idiot! Why couldn't he wait for everyone to catch up? What about Right eye? Did he find Lu Li?" Raging Wolf Blood's expression changed.

"Right Eye already retreated. Left Eye died before he could arrive. He even lost the Berserk Fang," Sorry I'm Better Than You said, annoyed.

Dawn did not have an 'Outlaw' system. However, if you killed too many people, the chances of you dropping your best gear when you died became higher. Weapons had the highest chance to drop. This was why Lu Li was able to pick up Moonlight's axe last time.

"How did he die? He always went on about deciding the winner between him and Lu Li? How could he just have died?" Raging Wolf Blood said disappointedly.

"Left Eye said he got baited. Lu Li pretended not to see him and ambushed him. In my opinion, Lu Li had already expected our plan. Maybe we should cancel the operation." Sorry I'm Better Than You said carefully.

"Do you think we can afford to lose him?" Raging Wolf Blood replied.

This was an operation involving more than 100 people. They had to at least commit to their plans.

"Tell everyone to be extra careful. As long as we're steady and cautious, there's no way he can confront us!"

The Great Thief

Chapter 99: Getting Someone Else To Do The Dirty Work

Was it necessary to stubbornly continue fighting Lu Li like this?

He knew more about the Thief profession than anyone else in Dawn.

In two years, Dawn's Chief designer Fan Zhou would comment in an interview about the Thief profession, "The Thief is the King of Shadows. We have chosen to give them many kill-skills and mobility that cannot be matched by other professions. The idea is to keep them in perpetual killing motion, never needing to step out of the shadows."

Lu Li selected a new location and continued to farm monsters.

He only had 40% EXP left before LV15, at which point he could do a Job Transfer Quest.

The quest reward was a 10% increase in all attributes. Depending on the degree of completion, there might also be Skills, Skill Points or equips as a reward.

Dedicated players above LV15 would pull ahead and become much stronger than ordinary players. Only then would he be truly be worthy of being Rank 1. As for his pursuers behind him, they would still have to deal with the LV18 monsters in the area.

Besides farming monsters, he also collected herbs.

The damp environment allowed him to find some new specimens, such as the Fuming Toadstool and Swiftthisle.

The Fuming Toadstool was a material that was used for making 'Basic Slow Poison', while the Swiftthisle was used to make the Basic Agility Potion.

To a Thief, these were treasures.

After farming for 15 minutes, Lu Li went into Stealth and looked for a new location.

The locations that he looked for were generally densely packed with monsters. Any players that wanted to get closer to him would need to clear out the monsters first. Even Thieves and Druids would need to act carefully.

Within 15 minutes, Lu Li had killed two Thief players that were lurking around him.

The various puddles on the ground were his radar. Even a good Thief would have a hard time staying undetected.

Raging Wolf Blood gloomily gestured for the Priests to revive the two corpses he had found. He saw the depressed expressions on the mercenaries' faces, but his mood was even worse than theirs.

Shouldn't a Thief with a bounty placed on him be in constant fear?

Why were the hunters the ones who seemed to be the victims?

After working out how long it had been, Sorry I'm Stronger Than You spent another 50 silver coins to check Lu Li's coordinates.

"Oh wow, he's next to us."

He opened the map and plotted the coordinates. What Raging Wolf Blood saw made him instantly feel sick.

"There's no way that we can't kill him. We'll all rush over at once. Ignore the monsters."

Sorry I'm Stronger Than You was also filled with anger. The 110 of them had been looking all over the ruins, only to find out that he was right under their noses.

"Wait, I've seen the terrain over there. It's very uneven."

Staring Right Eye didn't approve of this.

"No, uneven terrain should make it hard for him to run. We have so many people – one wave of skills should be enough to kill him."

The surrounding players were becoming restless. They thought that following the Imperial Secret Service would result in a bountiful reward, but there weren't even any scraps for them.

"Everyone calm down. Rushing in is not the way to solve the problem. We, the Imperial Secret Service promise to take none of his dropped items. They will be split among you instead."

Raging Wolf Blood was also desperately trying to suppress his own emotions.

These guys were just some motley crew!

After struggling to keep the impulses of the crowd in check, Raging Wolf Blood sent a team of Thieves to explore the way ahead.

Before they left, he told them sincerely, "Your sole quest is to scout out a path. Do not succumb to your impulses. Swirling Left Eye is your example. Keep in mind that he is top 10 on the Glory Rankings."

Swirling Left Eye's face turned green and he wanted to stab himself.

Not long after, the mounted scouts returned.

"He is farming monsters in high spirits."

The Thieves were infuriated, because they had been looking for him for half a day. However, they thought back to the commander's orders and didn't dare to make a move.

"What about the surrounding terrain?" Raging Wolf blood disregarded their resentment and directly asked Staring Right Eye.

Staring Right Eye described the rough terrain, concluding with, "The terrain is very complex, but I think we can use it our advantage. We have many people, so we can block him in with the walls."

"Let's go!" Raging Wolf Blood glanced at everyone's bloodshot eyes. He then waved his hand and moved out.

He was also almost unable to hold himself back.

This was a former residential area that had been subjected to years of water erosion. All that was left now were ruins. From afar, Lu Li could be seen at half HP fighting a Naga scout.

He was within a dense group of monsters, but maintained a safe distance from them. He only let one of them aggro him at a time.

"Kill!"

As the saying goes, seeing your enemies makes your rage burn. This group of players who had been taunted for the past couple of hours had been holding onto a belly full of fire.

In that moment, there was no order. No one would obey any commands that were given.

Kill him!

Lu Li acted as though he was deaf, as he continued to casually kill the monsters. He didn't even notice the players who were rushing towards him.

The ferocity was clear on their faces.

"Your last day has come; the ocean will devour you," an ordinary-looking Naga angrily declared, as it held up its Magic Staff.

A visible circle of magic spread out from the staff, freezing everything in its path. This move was worthy of one of Queen Azshara's court mages. Lady Janira's simple hand gesture was stronger than a regular Mages' Frost Nova by many times.

When it was about to spread to Lu Li, he took two steps back and entered the water behind him.

Raging Wolf Blood no longer had the energy to keep track of Lu Li, but he had to recognize reality: they had unwittingly invaded a Master Mage's territory.

Damn Lu Li! This was a trap!

The frozen players were frightened to find that in addition to being frozen for 9 seconds, they were taking 100 freeze damage per second.

The Boss was still holding up the Magic Staff, while the Elves chanted an obscure spell. These ancient Elves were very beautiful and Lady Janira's voice had a sexy tone, but no one could appreciate those things at the moment.

Lu Li transformed into a little seal and disappeared deep underwater. He didn't think that he could handle any of that with 0 armor.

After a while, he stuck his head through the surface.

The world was peaceful. If it weren't for Lady Janira's manic laughing, Lu Li would have almost thought that there was no one here.

He regained his regular form and went into stealth.

"Thank you, distinguished Lady Janira. The glory of your master, Queen Azshara, will be known by the whole continent," he thought.

With two skills, the entire group of players had been completely wiped out!

The pieces of equipment and materials on the ground were the only evidence of them that was left behind.

The Great Thief

Chapter 100: Thief Trainer

There were two LV10 Steel equips, nine of LV5 Steel equips, 26 Bronze equips and 4 Common equips. The rest was just debris.

After all, not everyone would drop something, and the dropped item might not even be an equip.

Even so, the harvest this time was terrifying.

Receiving one LV10 Steel equip was already great. It could replace any piece of Remnant Dream's full body of Bronze equipment.

There were also several LV5 Steel equips with fairly good attributes. Lu Li intended to give these to his landlords, who would now be almost out of the Novice Village.

Although he had no obligation to give them anything, they had treated him well, so this was a sign of his gratitude.

Additionally, most players were now in a rush to upgrade their skills. This cost a lot of Gold, so it was difficult to sell equips at a high price. It would be better to give the items to a friend, rather than sell them for cheap in the Exchange Hall.

The World Announcements had not been quiet for a single moment today. Countless players were watching to see if Lu Li would fall because of his bounty.

Even some of Lu Li's 'fans' were scared to be too optimistic. After all, there were hundreds of people looking for him, not to mention his coordinates being revealed every half an hour.

Contrary to everyone's expectations, Lu Li didn't die and return to the city. Instead, those who went to hunt for him started returning. There was also a particular moment when a large group of people suddenly appeared in Aston's Revive point. It was a spectacle.

As a result, these people became a joke in the World Announcements.

Raging Wolf Blood was embarrassed, angry and frustrated, but he had to face the fact that their second action had failed.

The choices he had before him were to either gather more manpower or give up.

Lu Li was too lazy to care about these things. He blocked the World Announcements and friend requests so that he wouldn't have to know what was happening in Dawn because of him.

He returned to the city and gave the useful equipment to other people, while consigning the useless stuff to the Exchange Hall.

There were dozens of gold coins in his mailbox, but there were still about 10 Intermediate Health Potions that hadn't been sold. There was nothing he could do about this, as someone had managed to find the recipe. No one would buy his exorbitantly-priced potions.

Lu Li browsed around the Exchange Hall. Intermediate Health Potions were generally selling for around 50 silver coins. The price was still quite high.

Surely a guild other than the Drizzle Court had found the Intermediate Health Potion recipe.

When more Intermediate Health Potion recipes were found, their price would stabilize at around 20 silver coins.

Lu Li then put some of his own up for sale. Given the price that he had bought the ingredients for, this was still profitable for him.

Then, he searched for something he was interested in.

An engineering product, 'Explosive Trap', caught his eye. He didn't imagine that someone would have learned the blueprints for this item. He looked at the price before buying it for 2 gold.

This was created by combining tin with some engineering skills and definitely wasn't worth 2 gold. However, Lu Li had a way to make this worth over 10 gold, so he wasn't too fussed about the price.

After spending dozens of silver coins to repair his equipment, Lu Li left the town. He looked for a secluded place and started his Crow Transformation skill. He then flew west towards Astrana.

The desolate Oberdeen Ruins were once a lively city. There was an abandoned Moon Well not too far away from this place, which was Lu Li's current objective. After observing his surroundings, he put the explosive trap into some bushes.

The best feature of this engineering product was that the trigger was very sensitive. Even a nearby micro-vibration would trigger the trap. Fortunately, there were no small animals nearby. Otherwise, he would be really afraid to use the trap.

His target was often found in this area. In theory, it would be blown up.

Lu Li carefully retreated and hid behind a bush.

He didn't move. He didn't even dare to take a big breath. The target that was coming was a former Thief skill trainer and his Stealth Skill was probably the best there was. Lu Li being called 'textbook' was a joke before this person.

This trainer did not take the initiative to attack others, instead only retaliating when he was attacked.

Lu Li only knew about his existence because of his rebirth.

The gentle wind of the forest could be heard in the silence of the ruins, like a soft cry.

Besides that, there was nothing here.

Lu Li could even hear the sound of his own heartbeat.

After a long while, he was awoken by the sound of a loud explosion. The explosive trap had been triggered.

A figure appeared out of nowhere and Lu Li immediately went up to cast Cheap Shot on it.

Block!

Two daggers collided, which emitted a loud screech.

Lu Li couldn't attend to the fact that his weapon's durability was quickly dropping. Cheap Shot didn't work, so he quickly cast Shadowstrike, his best skill. It was almost a definite stun when cast by his hands.

He was confident that he would be able to crowd-control the specter before him.

Suddenly, the Thief Skill Trainer turned white. His body was somewhere in between existence and non-existence. It could only be described as a ghost.

System: Shadowstrike Skill Completion 48%, resulting in 33% skill damage.

The Thief Skill Trainer turned to the side, which made Lu Li's dagger miss. Lu Li had completed less than half of the Skill Completion, which dealt a measly 30 points of damage.

He took two steps back and concentrated on the Thief Trainer.

This was but a mere instinctive spirit that had been left behind. No wonder the people from his past life said that it was best for Thieves to come to Oberdeen's Thief skill trainer.

The Thief Trainer fiddled with the dagger in his hand and took a step before appearing next to Lu Li. The dagger's snakelike twist reached Lu Li's back. While this wasn't the most appropriate position or timing, it was certainly the most effective path to get to him.

It was the standard Backstab posture. Lu Li, who had struggled to cast Backstab, felt like he had already benefitted a lot by watching his movements.

In this urgent moment, Lu Li's dagger didn't stay motionless. With his left dagger, he tried to block the Thief Trainer's attack.

The Thief Trainer then smiled mockingly, took a step forwards and now was completely behind Lu Li. -46, -52, -48.

A string of damage values rose above Lu Li's head.

Fortunately, he was only an elite!

Otherwise, this Thief Trainer would be the most difficult Boss around.

Lu Li activated the speed buff on his shoes and immediately ran out of attack range. He turned his body at the same time and cast Shadowstrike.

He didn't even see the target this time. Instead, he went with his feeling and managed to land a blow.

System: Shadowstrike Skill Completion 76%, resulting in 83% skill damage.

Two figures were going at it in the Oberdeen Ruins. The Thief Trainer's skills and equipment were slightly better, but the System only gave it an elite status. Its Attack and Defence were very different to Lu Li's.

Lu Li would also shamelessly take potions to replenish his health.

He spent another 10 minutes before taking his opponent down.

The Thief Trainer didn't drop anything good. No equipment or materials, just a single secret room key.

This key was designed to open the corresponding secret room door, which was the purpose of this trip.

He was going to use this key to unlock some treasure.

The Great Thief

Chapter 101: Empty Abyss

In the history of Dawn, there was only one event that had a far-reaching influence.

In that year, a fierce conflict between Malfurion and Azshara threw the High Elves into chaos. The whirlpool in the Well of Eternity eventually exploded and sparked a series of catastrophes. The huge explosion shook the foundations of the temple and caused a powerful earthquake throughout the continent.

Grey Valley was also affected by this. The ground sank and water from the Misty Sea rushed in to form a rampant river. The river was vast and turbulent, but this did not result in a disaster, because all the water was falling into an empty abyss.

This could be seen in the form a huge whirlpool. Lu Li was standing on the rocks next to the whirlpool.

He checked his equipment and supplies again, before closing his eyes and jumping in.

Lu Li didn't even make a splash upon entering; he was immediately sucked in.

He couldn't make out what was up and what was down. His vision was completely white and he soon found himself drowning. The water pressure pressing against him didn't help, as he started to lose HP. Lu Li quickly drank an Intermediate Health Potion before transforming into a Seal.

Although he still couldn't see anything or control his movements, the Seal form would stop him from losing any more HP.

After what seemed like an eternity, Lu Li was finally released.

If it weren't for the OP skill Shadow Cloak, he would have never subjected himself to such as experience. It was only through his tenacious mind and tough body that he was able to get up.

The torrent could still be heard outside, but Lu Li was now standing in an underground cave.

He was lucky that he had been thrown into this cave.

Many people that took Underwater Breathing Potions were unable to be thrown into this cave. Only players with Seal Transformation stood a chance.

In his past life, the first player to find this cave was a Druid. The poor player was sucked into the whirlpool, but he didn't want to die. Who knew how long he was in there, before he was finally thrown into the cave?

The cave was straight and the end could be seen from Lu Li's position.

There stood a heavy stone gate, engraved with an ancient and mysterious pattern.

As he got closer, Lu Li read the text above it.

"Tyrande? It really is you. After spending a million long years in darkness, your voice is like a bright light shining onto my heart."

These nonsensical words were puzzling.

In the middle of the gate was a very conspicuous keyhole.

It was actually not a keyhole, but rather a hole with the function of moving the gate. The Thief's Unlock skill couldn't be used to open this stone gate.

Lu Li took out the key and put it into the hole. The glyphs on the stone gate started moving and the hexagons lit up one at a time. After a while, it thunderously began to move backwards.

There was a prisoner held here, or at least the prisoner's avatar.

Lu Li's goal was to kill it and get the guaranteed Shadow Cloak drop.

In this ancient cell, the High Elf Guards had now become ghosts after being killed in an invasion. They haunted the place, ready to kill any adventurer they came across.

There were 20 elite monsters in the cell, which Lu Li quickly took care of. Finally, he saw the projection of Illidan kneeling over an altar.

He was blind and his hands were holding a pair of indistinct blades. He was completely motionless.

This was just a shadow, but an imprisoned shadow nonetheless. He had long been forgotten by his enemies, but an emotional person would comment that he continued to long for Tyrande – even through 10,000 years.

Lu Li transformed into a crow and slowly flew to the totem pole in the middle of the hall.

This was also a Boss that was confined to the ground, but this was definitely much harder to kill than the Death Knight.

An arrow flew through the air, signaling the start of the battle.

"You are walking on a dark path. You shouldn't be here, Night Elf!" the shadow said to Lu Li, as it looked up. His manner was calm, not showing any sign of anger. After tens of thousands of years, he wouldn't become angry over such a small thing.

Lu Li ignored him and kept firing.

This was Dawn's most powerful Demon Hunter. Any moment of hesitation could spell his doom.

Of course, if Lu Li wanted to become a Demon Hunter, he could get down and actually talk to him. This might even reveal some clues about the profession. However, as a Light Faction Night Elf player, Lu Li was definitely not going to give up his own future and defect to the Demons.

The Evil Faction weren't allies with the Demons. In fact, they were actually sworn enemies.

Once Lu Li became a Demon Hunter, he would find no favor with either faction.

Seeing that his persuasion wasn't working, the shadow began to attack. He waved the dual blades in his hands and a spell that was similar to Shadow Arrow hit Lu Li. This took half of his HP.

Lu Li seemed to know that it was coming and calmly drank a potion.

The shadow was struggling on the altar – he wanted to rush over and kill this little elf that dared to provoke him. However, a light flashed over the altar, which revealed the shackles that tightly bound the shadow to the six surrounding pillars.

The shadow struggled in vain for a little longer before casting another spell.

Lu Li was only left with a little bit of HP this time. It was a good thing this was a melee Boss with a long cooldown on its spells. Otherwise, he would already be dead.

Another skill that it had was Consume Magic, which was capable of removing a player's entire MP bar.

This was used immediately, as Lu Li was the only one here.

Losing his mana didn't pose a threat to him; it actually gave him more time to recover. He was finally able to take another Intermediate Health Potion to replenish his HP.

Lu Li's current arrows were the high-damage Wolf Teeth Arrows that could deal 6-7 damage. They cost 40 silver each and had 5 durability, which meant that they could be shot 5 thousand times. They were truly worth the money.

A group of people gathered near the empty abyss.

"The result of 2 queries have been this place but I can't see him. The system must be wrong," said Sorry I'm Strong Than You.

"How can the system be wrong? Look around carefully. Maybe he went underground?" Raging Wolf Blood's face was sullen. He sent players to search the surrounding area.

This time they had even more people – around 300-400. Most of them were from the Imperial Secret Service.

There were also some random players who had started following them. Even those who had initially dismissed the whole thing were suddenly interested. Their numbers were quite large and they were following from the back.

"It might actually be possible that he is underground," Staring Right Eye said, while staring at the big whirlpool by the cliff.

"You mean that he is in there?" Raging Wolf Blood also stared at the big whirlpool for a long time. His mouth suddenly felt dry.

"It's the only remaining explanation, unless this is another trap." Staring Right Eye sounded unsure.

"How about we send someone in to try it?" Sorry I'm Strong Than You suggested.

The Great Thief

Chapter 102: End Of The Line

A high-HP Paladin drank an Underwater Breathing Potion and was dropped in.

The Underwater Breathing Potion only lasted for 5 minutes. Soon after it expired, the Paladin appeared in the cemetery. He shook his head and sent a message, "I have to do something in real life, I'll be going offline for now. Bye bye."

No matter how much they tried to get into contact with him later, there was no response.

He definitely feigned his death!

Given the limited duration of the Underwater Breathing Potion, they picked a Druid named 'My Brother is Epic'.

He soon came back from the cemetery and said with shame, "I didn't have time to react before I drowned."

So, they kicked him back in.

This time, the poor Druid managed to pull off the Seal Transformation, but he immediately regretted it.

This kind of spinning sensation was too much to bear.

"What is this? My Brother is Epic is offline now too."

Sorry I'm Stronger Than You's expression was dark, as he was afraid of what was below. What could possibly be down there that would result in actions like these from their players?

"Call him and ask him what is going on."

Raging Wolf Blood was actually not that anxious.

He was afraid that there would be nothing down there. However, given that there was something strange happening below, it was definitely possible that Lu Li was in there.

In this age of technology, there was no need to go offline to make a call. Sorry I'm Stronger Than You simply called My Brother is Epic with his communication device.

"Epic, why did you go offline?"

"Basically, I'm really scared and I don't want to log back on."

"How on earth did you get logged off?" Sorry I'm Stronger than you was becoming impatient.

"The system said I was getting too emotional and kicked me out of the game."

My Brother is Epic felt like he had been wronged.

"What's down there?"

"Nothing, it's all just water. Dammit, there was so much water. I was tossed about for who knows how long. It was endless."

The poor Druid had lost control of his emotions. He was worried that if he logged back on, he would still find himself tossing about in the water.

In order to protect the players, the game would keep track of their bodily functions. It measured a player's emotional level and various other bodily functions. If there was something wrong, the player would be kicked out of the game and an emergency call would be made.

Sorry I'm Stronger than You hung up and told Raging Wolf Blood what had happened. He, too, was beginning to worry.

He looked at another Druid, whose face immediately went pale.

"Boss, I'm afraid of deep water. If I go down there I'll definitely be kicked by the system."

"Boss I have heart disease, don't make me do it," said another.

"Two gold coins!" Raging Wolf Blood promised.

There was no response.

"Five gold coins, final offer."

Splash, splash!

Three Druids with no moral integrity scrambled to jump in. Five gold could be used to purchase a decent LV10 Steel equip. These were players from large guilds, so they didn't have much money.

"Are you all crazy?" Sorry I'm Stronger Than You was surprised.

"I'm the crazy one."

Raging Wolf Blood's face was pale; he didn't expect three to jump at once.

After quite a long time, one of the Druids was finally thrown into the cave within the whirlpool.

The large stone gate was still open. The Druid, who was called King Satan, felt like he was the main character of a story. He placed himself in the middle of an adventure, wondering what was ahead.

A mountain of gold? Magic Weapons? Or perhaps there would be some secrets that would allow him to fly…

All he saw, however, was Lu Li fighting a Boss as he squatted on a tall totem pole.

"B…Boss, I see Lu Li. He's fighting a Boss," King Satan whimpered, as he sat on the ground. He knew that it was unlikely that Lu Li would come to mess with him, so he sat to take a breath.

"Why hasn't he killed you yet?"

It was difficult to imagine the scenario.

"He's busy fighting the Boss, so he isn't bothered with me."

King Satan looked up and saw how high up Lu Li was. He couldn't imagine how a Thief could get up there.

Now that he knew how to get into the cave, Raging Wolf Blood remained silent.

Of the three Druids that went in, one had made it and another had killed himself by cancelling the Seal Transformation because he couldn't take it. There was one more foolhardy guy who was still in the middle of the turbulent waters. This meant that only certain kinds of players can enter and that they would therefore be unable to maintain their numbers advantage. Moreover, if only Druids could make it, how could they possibly pose a threat to Lu Li?

"Try and interfere with the Boss."

The poor Druid was helpless. The best he could do was try and ruin Lu Li's Bossfight.

King Satan hesitated before clenching his teeth and transforming into the resilient Bear Form. He then rushed forwards with zeal.

Lu Li almost broke out in laughter. He had already seen this guy who had come out of nowhere, but there was nothing he could do. He couldn't afford to shoot a Druid that could heal himself.

Fortunately, the Druid got himself killed instead.

Illidan's shadow was already angry after being shot by Lu Li repeatedly and he had begun to suspect his High Elf training. Much of his power had already been eaten away after 10,000 years of imprisonment. However, this was Illidan, the great demon. Even his mere shadow was strong beyond measure.

Fortunately, something came his way. The shadow seized the Druid's legs and raised him off the ground.

This was one of the Boss' skills – it could twist a human body beyond recognition.

Lu Li couldn't bear to look; the poor child who had made it here was already quite mentally strong. However, he was completely unprepared for this. Even a LV20 Main Tank who had put all their points into Constitution wouldn't dare to fight Illidan's shadow.

King Satan almost started crying.

Fortunately, the Boss didn't prolong his suffering.

After a few moments, he was sent back to the cemetery.

"If a group of Druids go in, would it be possible for you to steal the Boss?"

Sorry I'm Stronger Than You thought that if he made a World Announcement that Lu Li was fighting a Boss, there would be countless players ready to join in.

"It's useless; the Boss' attacks are too strong. Lu Li has found a place where he can't be attacked. If many people go in and die without gaining anything, then our Imperial Secret Service will become a target of the public."

Raging Wolf Blood shook his head and made him give up the idea.

"Give up?"

"Let's give up."

"I can already see the players mocking us," Sorry I'm Stronger Than You lamented.

"It doesn't matter. We'll announce tomorrow that the Elite Guild's pay has been doubled. As long as there is some interest, our slightly tarnished reputation is no issue."

Raging Wolf Blood's ability to see this showed that he had the psychological qualities required for a good leader.

"Oh, has the Boss been investing?" Sorry I'm Stronger Than You asked excitedly.

"That's right, I've bought 500 shares from 3 different powerful companies. There will be a large sum of money coming in soon. The Imperial Secret Service will not fall. We will have opportunities to deal with Lu Li later," Raging Wolf Blood responded.

The Great Thief

Chapter 103: Shadow Cloak

After the Boss fell, Lu Li finally reached LV15.

System: Player Lu Li has successfully achieved First Clear on the Wild Boss Illidan's Shade!

He had solo-killed another Boss!

Was this person playing on a private server? How was he so far ahead? The struggling regular players felt a sense of unfairness.

The World Announcements then became a mess. There was a mix of denouncement, defence, praise and requests for apprenticeship.

Lu Li blocked all these channels; he didn't want to see whether players admired or were jealous of him. However, he didn't block the messages from his friends, which included the congratulations of his newly-added female landlords.

"Master, you killed a Boss on your own," Huan Huan commented. Her in game name was 'Small Raccoon'.

"Was the Boss easy to kill?" asked Yi Yi, who went by 'Willow Yi Yi'.

"I'm so jealous! I wanna bite you," said Dou Dou, whose in game name was 'Don't Hit Dou Dou'.

"Did you not say you would PVP with me when you were free? When are you free?"

This was from the well-known beauty, Water Fairy. It was too bad that she was overly emotional, always asking for people to be killed.

"Brother Lu Li is so strong."

It seemed like Remnant Dream had recovered from being killed. After all, it was just a game.

"Is there anything for me?" This was from Azure Sea Breeze, the most straightforward of them all.

Lu Li replied to each of these messages, one at a time. When he was done, he saw the system message.

He was the first player to reach LV15.

He had abused this situation, but it was unfortunate that there wasn't any reward.

Dawn would obviously not reward you for abusing the game, but it wouldn't penalize you either.

Lu Li came down from the totem pole and went to see what the Boss had dropped.

He hoped that he would find a Warblade.

Warblades were a one-handed weapon. They had higher attack than daggers, but still maintained a comparable attack speed.

There was also a skill book that was guaranteed to drop: "Shadow Cloak".

Shadow Cloak: Instant Cast. 90 second cooldown. Provides a short period of magical immunity and instantly removes all debuffs upon activation. Lasts for 3 seconds. Proficiency 1/5.

He won't need to worry about being crowd-controlled from now on, as most magical crowd control skills could be negated by this skill.

In addition this, there was an Ancestral Bead, which was green. Lu Li picked it up and was overjoyed.

This wasn't an equip, but a rare material that could be used to make a LV40 Silver Shaman Weapon. However, this wasn't why Lu Li wanted it. It was important to him for a very specific reason.

The Ancestral Bead was one of the necessary materials for upgrading the Supreme Ring.

After finding two good items in a row, Lu Li was content. He didn't expect too much from the last item.

Unexpectedly, the item he had expected the least from gave him the biggest surprise.

The name of this item was the same as the skill book. It was an equip named Shadow Cloak.

Shadow Cloak (Steel): Armor 12, Agility 10. Effect: Emerge from the shadows (stealth) behind a target and gain 50% movement speed for 2 seconds. Equipment Requirement: level 15. Durability 32/32.

Was there an equip more powerful than this?

Compared to what he had right now, apart from the Supreme Ring and the Bloodstained Badge, there was absolutely nothing that was as powerful as this cloak.

He could stealth and get behind his target before they could even react. At this point, he could use Cheap Shot to stun it for 4 seconds.

What kind of person would be able to escape such an attack?

If he had this equip, he would have been able to confidently face Aberdeen's Thief Trainer, instead of beating him down with the help of potions.

Furthermore, this was a cloak.

Cloaks weren't considered particularly rare, but they still had really low drop rates. One might not be able to buy a good cloak, even if they had the money. In addition, this cloak was designed like a cape and was able to almost cover up most of his body. It made him look a little more mysterious.

As well as these three items, the Boss also dropped the Writings of the Dark Herald.

It seemed like the drop rates for a First Clear were really high, as the Writings of the Dark Herald also had a low drop rate.

It was a thin book with writings on the cover that said, "This eroded book holds the secrets to being a Demon Hunter."

After opening it, there was a System Prompt: This scroll is incomplete, it is part of a larger set of scrolls. It seems like this provides the steps required to become a Demon Hunter.

Most Night Elves that became Demon Hunters participated in rituals and ceremonies they didn't understand. It was likely that no one was supposed to read this scroll.

Ranger Golinda Nahien would know what to do with this.

This was one of Dawn's most famous dark items. It was proof that a player had become a Demon Hunter.

Lu Li had no plans to become a Demon Hunter right now or in the future.

Although they were a hidden profession, Demon Hunters were quite useless. Previously, a few successful players had transferred, but nothing came of it.

In fact, most of Dawn's hidden professions were dead ends and were purely for entertainment.

Of course, this could still be sold for a good price, as there were many tycoons who were eager to try out the hidden professions.

To them, strength was irrelevant before trendiness.

After returning to the city, it was almost time for Lu Li to go offline. He fixed up the equipment that he used and logged off. He then posted an anonymous post to the official forums.

'Hidden Professions in the Exchange Hall.'

Even quality goods still needed advertising. Players who saw the Writings of the Dark Herald had no idea what it was, so they didn't place a bid.

Lu Li covered everything in his post, from the role of the item, to the quest that allowed the transfer to become a Demon Hunter. It was truly a five star service.

The next day, the first thing he did was look at the Writings of the Dark Herald.

146 gold coins!

Lu Li was startled. He knew that this would earn him some money, but he didn't think it would be so much.

Moreover, this auction wasn't even over. The number was still rapidly on the rise.

While he was standing in the Exchange Hall, the price of the Writings of the Dark Herald had increased to 150 gold coins.

Originally, he had felt as though the Shadow Cloak skill book, Ancestral Bead and the Shadow Cloak were all incredible finds. However, none of these would have sold for more than 150 gold coins.

During this time, many gold coins were being spent on upgrading skills. With demand driving the supply, gold prices were firmly placed at slightly more than $300. This meant that the Writings of The Dark Herald was worth around 50-60 thousand dollars.

Lu Li had intended to take his little sister to the hospital for a full body check in the next few days, so the more money he had, the better. He was also considering whether he should sell a few more of his items.

The Great Thief

Chapter 104: Clean Field

"Did you hear that there is a Hidden Profession Transfer item in the Exchange Hall?" Azure Sea Breeze immediately asked when he saw that Lu Li had come online.

"Yep, Demon Hunter," Lu Li casually responded.

"Are you interested? I can send some money for you to get it. I read in the forums that Thieves are good for becoming Demon Hunters," Azure Sea Breeze said enthusiastically.

Although he wasn't as rich as Lu Li, he spent all his days in Instance Dungeons and got free potions from Lu Li. He was considered a rich man compared to the ordinary players.

"Uh… didn't I tell you that I put that onto the Exchange Hall?" Lu Li was a little touched, but he was never going to admit it.

"Dammit, you got a Transfer Item… and you consigned it to the Exchange Hall? Why?"

Azure Sea Breeze was incoherent; he once again felt like Lu Li was some kind of alien.

"The advancement of a Thief is pretty good. Why would I become a Demon Hunter? Hidden Professions aren't as good as everyone thinks," Lu Li explained.

If hadn't experienced rebirth, he probably wouldn't have hesitated to perform the transfer.

"But it's a Hidden Profession, you dummy."

Azure Sea Breeze was bitter.

"Listen to me, if you ever find a Hidden Profession, don't just transfer right away," Lu Li solemnly warned.

It wasn't only his rebirth insights that told him Hidden Professions were a dead end. In a year's time, there would be an official statement made in response to all the crying of the Hidden Profession players: "Hidden Professions are not bad, they are just not as strong as everyone imagined. Dawn's Hidden Professions are supposed to fun."

The key word here was 'fun'.

It would be okay if they weren't particularly strong. They just needed to be on par with the regular professions. The problem was, that Hidden Professions were hard to attain and were far weaker than the regular professions.

Lu Li knew a few Hidden Profession players. Their equipment was often a complete mess. At LV30, they would still be using LV20 equipment.

"If they're that bad, then never mind."

Azure Sea Breeze was still disappointed.

"How did your levelling go yesterday? Can we clear the Fire Temple yet?"

There was no way Lu Li would be able to solo the Instance Dungeon.

"Remnant Dream still needs 20% EXP. We are currently at the Dilan Ruins using our double EXP boosts. She should level up soon. I am a little over LV15, but I'm still incomparable to you. You just go around soloing Bosses at random," Azure Sea Breeze responded.

"That place was under a body of water. Otherwise, I wouldn't dare fight a Boss while there is a bounty on me."

Lu Li was concerned that Azure Sea Breeze would misunderstand, so he further clarified, "The Boss took 3 hours to kill and I used dozens of potions. It wasn't exactly the easiest experience."

"Don't worry about it, as long as you remember me when you get good items. Don't be stingy. I'm almost out of potions, so make some before you join us," Azure Sea Breeze said with a laugh. He didn't think too much about it.

"You go ahead and keep training then. I'll make some potions."

Lu Li picked up some materials and two recipes from the Exchange Hall.

He had a Basic Agility Potion Recipe, but it required Intermediate Alchemy (180). Currently he was at Intermediate Alchemy (156), so he hadn't quite met the learning requirements. Making more Intermediate Health Potions now no longer granted any additional EXP. He needed to learn some new recipes.

One of the two recipes he got from the Exchange Hall was a Basic Intelligence Potion. Its effects were almost the same as the Basic Agility Potions, but its learning requirements were lower. It only requirement an Intermediate (150) to learn.

Basic Intelligence Potions increased Intelligence by 3 points. This wasn't overpowered, but the materials to craft it were cheap. Lu Li intended to use this recipe to quickly level his alchemy.

The other recipe was a pleasant surprise.

Recipe: Luck Potion

Use: teaches you how to make Luck Potions

Luck Potion: Enables you to occasionally find extra treasures on hostile targets. Lasts 20 minutes.

Many people did not know what this potion actually did. For a long time, there was doubt that this potion even did anything at all. After endless testing, it did not seem to have any effect on a monster's drop rate.

It was only later that people realized that this potion wasn't supposed to be used for fighting monsters, but rather to gain additional income when using the Thief's Pick Pocket.

Pick Pocketing humanoids had always been an unstable source of income, but after using the Luck Potion, the number of coins gained increased by around 50%. What would originally result in 5 coins would now be 7, which allowed for a slow but steady increase in income.

More importantly, this potion gave Pick Pocket a certain probability to steal blueprints.

If used correctly, this recipe that he had spent 20 silver on would give him up to one thousand times the profit.

In the private hotel room, Lu Li first made that Intermediate Health Potions that were going to be used in the Instance Dungeon. He then used the materials he had bought from the Exchange Hall to make a dozen bottles of Basic Intelligence Potion, successfully raising his Trade Skill to Intermediate (160). The new recipes were very good for upgrading his Trade Skill.

After reaching Intermediate (160), Lu Li tried to make some Luck Potions.

Luck Potions were very special, in that their failure rates were very high. The officially released probability was 50%. However, this was only an approximation and having dozens of potions continuously fail wasn't unheard of.

Hence, the production was much slower than the Health Potions.

Lu Li first washed his crucible before putting in the Golden Lotus that he had bought from the Exchange Hall. He grinded it into a fine powder and put it into a crystal bottle. He then added some extra herbs before carefully swirling it above the stove.

Bang! The bottle exploded, releasing a charred aroma throughout the room.

Obviously, this first attempt had failed.

The temperature was probably a bit too high.

Lu Li made that observation based on what he had remembered from an alchemy post.

In his second attempt, lady luck smiled upon him and he successfully created a Luck Potion.

At this time, the communicator on his waist vibrated. Lu Li carefully put the Potion into his bag and opened it up.

"Just so you know, we got chased away."

It was Azure Sea Breeze.

"Were you killed?" Lu Li frowned. The Dilan Ruins were quite a remote place, which was why he had recommended that they train there. Why would there be other people?

"Those people were crazy. They didn't say anything, but just attacked us," Azure Sea Breeze said a little angrily. "March Rain and Remnant Dream are okay, but Flowers and I died. I even lost my shoes."

"I'll go take a look. Were they guild members? Did you see any guild badges?" Lu Li started to pack up his things, ending today's alchemy session. He could do this at any time in the future.

As he messaged, he flew towards the Dilan Ruins in his crow form. His friends had been attacked, so he had to attack back. Even as a second rate player in his previous life, he had gone up against large guilds. Now that he had experienced rebirth, the idea didn't even phase him.

"I didn't see them clearly, don't worry about it. They had many people in their group. We were going to fight an Instance Dungeon anyway, so I'll just pretend it was a free teleport back to the city."

Azure Sea Breeze tried to discourage him.

"Get out of here, it must be a big guild. Are you afraid of the conflict between them and me? I'm already on the way. I want to see which big guild this is."

Lu Li knew that Azure Sea Breeze was lying.

"You've already offended the Imperial Secret Service. Don't provoke another big guild," Azure Sea Breeze said bitterly.

Had he known this would happen, he wouldn't have told Lu Li about this. They were only a few players; how could they go up against a big guild? The Imperial Secret Service already had them on the run and now there was going to be another…

Lu Li turned off his communicator, flapped his wings and dived towards the Dilan Ruins.

The Great Thief

Chapter 105: Planning To Steal A Boss

The Dilan Ruins was a castle surrounded by a forest and black fog. There were quite a few players around.

What shocked Lu Li was that there were 300 or 400 players gathered here.

Could it be that they wanted to fight the High Disciple Anzelin?

Anzelin was a difficult Boss. He was like Janila and was not a simple wilderness Boss. They were special Faction NPCs and with the current players' strength, even 500 of them wouldn't be able to take him down.

Lu Li found an isolated spot to stop and recover some HP. He put on his Steel grade Bandanna, Nameless, and hid his information, then slowly edged over.

These people were really fighting a Boss. It wasn't the massive Boss Anzelin, but a humanoid Boss.

It was wearing a tattered Mage's Robe, and its pale face was filled with the aura of death…

The Plague Messenger Nois!

Based on his knowledge of the game, as well as the name of this place, Lu Li deduced that Nois was formerly the Baron of Dilan.

Before he had fallen, he was part of the aristocracy and was a genius Necromagus. He was incredibly accomplished in the arts of Necromancy and Curses.

However, his madness and cruelness had reduced Dilan to ruins.

The Plague Messenger Nois was a summoned Boss, like the Cynocephali Elder that Lu Li had killed in the past. They were both unique and would not respawn after being killed. Lu Li had entered the game fairly late in his 'past life', so he had never seen the Plague Messenger Nois. However, he knew some information about it and had read some descriptions from players who had taken it down.

The guide for killing the Plague Messenger Nois was very simple – remove Curse.

Only Druids and Mages could remove Curses in Dawn. The Skill Books for those skills were incredibly rare, but this wasn't a problem for large guilds. With thousands of Mages and Druids, there would be at least 10 to 20 of them who had these skills.

Lu Li didn't dare to get too close – a LV15 Boss wasn't something to be taken lightly.

He observed the players fighting the Boss and identified the guild badge on their chests- the Gangnam Royals.

They were the number 3 guild in China and had 200 year old history, which dated back to when keyboards were still being used. It had been established by a bunch of rich kids.

Although the guild went through some rough times, it managed to survive with the financial support of these people.

They only had one strength, which was their wealth. Of course, wealth often brought about arrogance.

When training, they would monopolised the entire area and oppress others with their numbers in PVP battles. As well as this, they would destroy their opponents using money in guild battles. They were a blight in the virtual world and had ruined many great games. However, game companies simply couldn't ban them due to the inflow of revenue that they brought.

Most people in the Gangnam Royals had chosen the Human race, so he had not encountered them in the Novice Village. Otherwise, they definitely would have gotten into conflicts.

The Gangnam Royals loved monopolising areas, which was what Lu Li hated.

If someone wanted to monopolise an area he was training in, he would not rest until they were gone.

In his 'past life' he had often gotten into fights because of things like this. It seemed that this would be the same in his new life.

The one in charge of this expedition was the guild executive Sword Raise Sand. He was a LV14 Warrior and was 9th on the Level Rankings. It was said that he was fairly skilled, but didn't have many opportunities to show off, because the Gangnam Royals always fought as a group.

The player who received the Plague Messenger quest was guildless, so he contacted the Gangnam Royals for help. He thought that he might as well let them take the rewards from killing the Boss, as he could receive the excellent rewards for completing the quest.

There were many benefits in killing a Boss, so the Gangnam Royals readily agreed.

As for the players they had killed at the start, they simply didn't care about them.

Lu Li hid behind a collapsed wall and curled up into a ball. Even if he wasn't stealthed, no one would be able to detect him.

He had originally planned to kill a few of them to relieve his anger, but seeing that they were fighting the Plague Messenger Boss, he changed his mind.

The Plague Messenger had a chance of dropping Plague Shards – one of the materials he needed for upgrading the Supreme One Ring. Plague Shards were incredibly difficult to find, and in his 'past life', Azure Sea Breeze said that he had spent half a year finding 3 Plague Shards.

Lu Li planned to wait and steal the Boss.

Wanting to steal a Boss was easy, but actually doing it was hard.

First of all, one had to be close enough to the Boss. In a battlefield with hundreds of players squeezed together and spells and arrows flying everywhere, it would be difficult for a Thief to be able to remain Stealthed.

Moreover, even in an army of one thousand, the players would be split into small teams of 5 or 10 players. The Captain would immediately recognise a stranger trying to mix in.

As well as this, one had to be familiar with the Boss' skills. It was a crucial mistake to think that the Boss was on his or her side and that it wouldn't attack them.

Finally, the player had to be able to react fast enough and act quickly. Only by dealing the final blow would the player receive the EXP and equipment from the Boss.

Dawn's system of giving out rewards for killing Bosses was quite unique. Apart from the team that dealt the most damage to the Boss, the player who dealt the final blow would receive 20% of the EXP and the right to take equipment as well.

This sometimes created some problems. For example, in order to take the 20% EXP for themselves, some people paid teams to lower the Boss' HP, then dealt the final blow. Some people camped others who were fighting Bosses and would rush in to deal the final blow. However, that usually resulted in the player being completely annihilated by the others.

Thus, it was understandable why guilds often forced any other players out of the area when fighting a Boss.

However, Lu Li did not accept what they had done. Even if they wanted to monopolise the area, they didn't have to kill anyone. To Lu Li, it was wrong to kill for such selfish reasons.

The Plague Messenger had quite a few powerful skills, such as the Plague Messenger's Curse. This was a classic big move, which could instantly affect 20 or so players. If the Curse remained on a player for more than 10 seconds, it would turn into the Plague Messenger's Fury.

It was just a Curse, and didn't seem all that powerful. However, that was only if one did not know what the Plague Messenger's Fury did.

Plague Messenger's Fury: Affected players turn into a bomb, dealing 400-600 Nature Damage to other players within 30 feet. Additionally causes 300-500 Nature Damage every 2 seconds for 10 seconds after that.

With the players' HP at the current stage of the game, this was a death sentence for large teams.

The hundreds of players fighting the Boss had no idea what was coming for them.

Lu Li's was positioned quite well. He was in a shadowy corner where he was hidden from the Plague Messenger, so he would not be Cursed. He also would not be blown up by other players.

Even if another player looked his way, they still wouldn't see him if they weren't paying attention. After all, the Dilan Ruins were filled with dark grey smoke all year round.

The Great Thief

Chapter 106: Stealing!

Bang! Bang! Bang!

A chain of 3 explosions sounded out. Three players weren't able to get rid of their Curses in time and became bombs, exploding and blasting all players within 30 feet of them.

No player could survive the initial blast of 400-600 damage and the 300-500 damage every 2 seconds for 10 seconds. The three bombs also covered an extremely large area.

Lu Li felt extremely gleeful upon seeing that 70 or so players had died. The leader, Sword Raises Sand, almost coughed up blood. However, he was competent and immediately gave out orders to the Mages and Druids who could remove Curses, while ordering the rest of the players to spread out.

Even so, players died almost every second.

The Plague Messenger was extremely shameless in the sense that it had no consistency to its attacks. While other Bosses would launch certain attacks when they fell to a certain percentage of their health, the Plague Messenger did not do so. It released skills whenever it wanted, with no predictability at all. Sometimes it wouldn't use certain skills for a long time and sometimes it would repeatedly use them.

Continuously using those skills was simply ridiculous.

The Cooldown Time for removing skills was 30 seconds. If no one had their skill ready when a player was Cursed…

Luckily, the game didn't contain much gore. Otherwise, the scene of blood, organs and limbs flying everywhere would have made the Gangnam Royals throw up.

Before the Boss' health had even fallen to half, they had lost more than 100 people.

However, taking down a Boss wasn't simply about having the numbers. In fact, the more people there were, the faster the Boss would regenerate HP and the more frequently it would use skills. This was especially bad for the Plague Messenger, who did not have a fixed attack pattern.

"If you're Cursed, don't run into a crowd. Are you trying to get everyone killed?!" Sword Raises Sand was furious by this point. Normally, he wouldn't talk to the players like this. After all, there were many people with incredibly rich and influential parents in the guild.

This time, he had no other choice. The quality of players in the Gangnam Royals was a lot lower than that of other guilds. They were only ranked higher than the Blood-red War Flag because they had more people and more resources.

A small mistake caused tens of people to become corpses on the ground.

It was unfortunate that this was a wilderness Boss. Dying here meant losing quite a lot of EXP.

By the time Nois' HP had fallen to 30%, the Gangnam Royals had lost more than half of their people.

Lu Li began to have more confidence in stealing the Boss, because it still hadn't used its Ultimate Skill yet.

It was important to remember where this was – the Dilan Ruins. Below, tens of thousands of Baron Nois' subjects were buried in the ground.

When the Plague Messenger's HP fell to 20%, it began to summon Undead Warriors.

It could summon 10 every time and could use this skill 3 times. The LV15 Elite grade monsters would rip apart all players within their vision.

Lu Li sneakily activated Stealth as he saw the Boss' HP falling lower and lower.

The Plague Messenger roared out, "Awaken, my warriors! Rise up and fight once again!"

Rays of black light shot out from the crown on his head like arrows from a bow, and bore into the ground. Some of the rays of light passed through players on the way, instantly killing those not at full HP and critically injuring those who were.

The Gangnam Royals thought that the attack was over. However, the ground began to crack as Undead Monsters crawled out.

Although there were only 10 of them, their momentum was too frightening.

Sword Raises Sand hoarsely croaked out instructions to the Knights and Warriors to hold back these Elite monsters, while commanding everyone else to continue attacking the Boss. Healers were to quickly recover their Mana and continuously heal.

By the time the 10 Elite grade monsters had been finished off, the Gangnam Royals had lost another 40-50 people.

The issue was that the black rays of light dealt massive amounts of damage and the Elite grade monsters were able to insta-kill any players who had low HP.

The second and third waves went better for the players. After all, they knew what to expect. Sword Raises Sand began to feel calmer after clearing them out.

He didn't know if it was because of the Boss' skill, but he suddenly felt more jumpy.

When the Boss' HP fell to 5%, its body flashed with red light as it went into berserk mode. It began to rapidly cast its spells in every direction and the two tanks desperately used their skills, trying to draw the aggro back to them. However, this was useless.

Luckily, the berserk mode was only activated when it was nearly dead. Everyone could see that the Boss' death was only a matter of time.

The Boss' HP fell to 3%... 2%...

Lu Li continuously searched for ways to get closer to the Boss. At this point, the battlefield was quite sparse, which gave him the space to move around.

Just as he was calculating the best time to attack the Boss and secure the final blow, the Gangnam Royals' players stopped attacking. Not only did the Attackers stop attacking, even the tanks put away their weapons, while the Healers continued to rapidly heal.

Lu Li stared in shock for a few moments before he realised what they were doing and almost laughed out loud.

Many large guilds would do this sort of thing. They would often let an important figure within the guild take the final blow, so that they could maintain a decent level. The players usually didn't mind, as this meant that their rewards would be much higher.

For a guild like the Gangnam Royals that was made up of privileged children, it was no surprise that they would do such a thing.

In his 'past life', Lu Li had even heard of them 'auctioning' the final blow for a Boss. The money earned from the auction would be split among the players who participated in the Boss battle, which was something that attracted people to join the Gangnam Royals.

Even picking up the crumbs of the wealthy was not too bad.

Sword Raises Sand cupped his hands in salute towards the other players and took out his two-handed Greatsword.

The Healers quickly started to heal him, in case the Boss suddenly attacked and killed off their leader. Sword Raises Sand treated people fairly and was well-liked by most people.

Just as he raised his Greatsword and was about to rush over, a black shadow suddenly appeared behind the Boss.

The black shadow was covered with a grey Cloak and his face was hidden by a Bandanna. None of his skin could be seen. However, the player's appearance wasn't important. Sword Raises Sand furiously watched as the black shadow immediately began to attack the Boss with his two daggers.

The first thought that came to mind was that someone was stealing the Boss!

The second was that this wasn't a player from the guild!

The third was that the Boss had been stolen!

This person had incredibly high attack, being able to deal tens of damage with each hit. In fact, he had dealt over 100 damage with the last hit.

As the Boss' HP was cleared out, a system announcement was made, notifying players that the Plague Messenger Nois' First Clear had been completed.

All of that happened in an instant. By the time Sword Raises Sand was able to react, the black shadow was already picking up the equipment.

"KILL HIM!" Sword Raises Sand roared out as he charged over towards the black shadow. The other players felt as if they had woken up from a dream and started to frantically launch their skills.

The black shadow picked up 3 pieces of equipment before being buried by the skills.

He was finished!

The Great Thief

Chapter 107: Rager

The ice from the Frostbolts disappeared, the corrosion from the Shadow Arrows vanished and the Arrows from the Hunters were removed by the system. However, the corpse that should have been on the ground…

Was not there!

The Gangnam Royals players were not willing to give up so easily and madly launched their skills everywhere. Even an incredibly tough tank would be insta-killed if they were hit. However, they simply couldn't find the black shadow that had stolen the Boss and quite a few pieces of equipment.

Sword Raises Sand was completely dumbfounded – even more so than he had been when the person had stolen the Boss. It was almost impossible to escape from a net of attacks like this.

Even a Thief who learned Vanish would be reduced to a corpse under such a barrage of attacks. After all, Vanish only prevented a player from being forced out of Stealth if they were attacked. It did not mitigate damage. Could it be that this person had learned the legendary Gale Steps?

Gale Steps was said to be an overpowered skill that could mitigate damage for 1 second while allowing the user to maintain their Stealth.

"Check which players have learned the Gale Steps skill, especially players in the Light Faction," Sword Raises Sand ordered in a low voice.

When a player from the enemy Faction appeared, their body would be covered by a thin blood mist which made them easily identifiable. However, the black shadow did not have such a visual effect on him, which meant that he was a Thief from the Light Faction.

"Could it be Lu Li?" Someone asked in a small voice.

As the most famous and powerful Thief in the Light Faction, it was inevitable that someone would suspect him.

"It's not impossible, so make sure you keep an eye on him. What happened today must not be spread to the public. If I find out that anyone has leaked out this information, the consequences will be severe," Sword Raises Sand said darkly, as he started to look at the World Channel.

Although Lu Li had dealt the final blow, the most damage was dealt by the Gangnam Royals. If it wasn't for the fact that the final blow had been stolen, they would have felt incredibly proud of themselves. However, upon seeing the arising discussion on the World Channel, Sword Raises Sand felt even worse.

Demonic Blood Angel: Congratulations to our brothers the Gangnam Royals for getting the First Clear of the Plague Messenger Nois.

Arrogant Egg: No less than expected from the second ranked guild. The Gangnam Royals really are powerful.

Flaming Meteor Fire: What a joke, you must be kidding, right? Killing a LV15 Boss with 400 people? You call that powerful? At the most, you can say that they have strength in numbers. Lu Li and Glacial Autumn Wind soloed Bosses by themselves.

Crescent Moon Wind: That doesn't matter. In the end, they still got the First Clear. Rich people of the Gangnam Royals, good on you. Flaming Meteor Fire, stop criticising others and go train. Watch out that you don't get targeted.

Great Barbarian God: Where are the Gangnam Royal's rich ones? Why aren't they showing off their exquisite equipment?

Flowers and Jade: Yeah, show us if you have anything good. I've got a lot of money, so I might just want to trade with you, haha~.

What the world did not lack were busybodies. Even though talking on the World Channel cost money, they still chatted away.

No matter if it was congratulating the Gangnam Royals or mocking them, they were rubbing salt into their wounds. After all, they had used 400 people to kill a Boss and the final 20% EXP and equipment had been stolen from them.

There were still 2 pieces of equipment that Lu Li didn't have time to take away.

When they were brought to Sword Raises Sand, he almost cried.

They were both Bronze grade equipment!

On the other hand, Lu Li was very happy with the three items and equipment he had received.

A Skill Book!

Seed of Corruption: 2 seconds Cast Time, 60 seconds Cooldown Time. Infects a target's body with a Demonic Seed, causing (Magic Attack x 160%) Darkness Damage within 8 seconds. If the target dies because of the damage, they will explode, dealing (Magic Attack x 80%) Darkness Damage to all enemies within 10 feet of the target.

This was a weaker version of one of the Plague Messenger's skills. However, it was still incredibly powerful, especially in team fights.

This Skill Book wasn't of much use to Lu Li, but he was sure that Mages would fight to the death over it.

His second spoil of war was what he wanted most – a Plague Shard. When the Boss died, Lu Li immediately grabbed it.

Lu Li was also extremely happy with the final piece of equipment. In fact, he had been wanting this for a long time.

Rager's Pendant (Steel): Hit10%, Reduces Ice Magic Damage by 5%, Level Requirement: LV10. Durability: 32/32. (Part of the Rager Equipment Set, exclusive to melee professions)

Pendants were a type of necklace that gave Hit, Critical Chance, Evasion or Damage Reduction, but not Attack or Defence.

The Rager's Pendant gave Lu Li 10% Hit. For players that used Automatic Mode, Hit increased the likelihood of hitting their target. For players using Manual Mode, Hit had a chance of increasing Skill Completion. As such, Hit was said to be one of the best stats for a Manual Mode player and was not at all inferior to Critical Chance. The 10% Hit that this piece of equipment had increased its value by several times.

The 5% Damage Reduction to Ice Magic Damage was also quite good. In PVP fights, even 1 or 2 HP could affect the outcome of a battle. 5% Damage Reduction would be incredibly useful in fights and this was especially so, because the most popular element chosen by Mages was Ice.

Below LV30, the Rager's Pendant was the best necklace for melee players. This was especially so if a player also had the Rager's Bracers. When equipped together, the Equipment Set's effects would be triggered, making the player even stronger.

Rage: Has a certain chance to increase Movement Speed and Attack Speed by 20%, as well as lower Defence by 20%. Lasts for 30 seconds.

This effect was quite similar to the one Lu Li's new Dagger had.

Berserk Fang (Steel): 16-24 Attack, Agility6, Special Effect: Has a certain chance to trigger the Berserk effect, increasing Attack and Attack Speed by 10%, Level Requirement: LV10. Durability: 35/35.

Lu Li had received this Dagger as a spoil of war from killing the top Thief in the Imperial Secret Service, Swirling Left Eye.

What was important was that the Berserk Fang's 'Berserk' effect was different to the Rager's 'Rage' effect. As such, they could stack. Of course, having these 2 effects triggered at the same time was entirely dependent on luck.

Lu Li now owned quite a few exquisite pieces of equipment.

Not considering the Supreme One Ring and the Bloodstained Badge, these two Steel grade pieces of equipment completely surpassed what most other players had.

The Rager Equipment Set was the best Equipment Set for melee professions before LV30 and he also had a LV10 and LV15Dagger. Both of these were Steel grade equipment with special effects and he also had a Cloak that could make every Thief drool.

The reason why Lu Li was able to escape from such a barrage of attacks was because of the Shadow Cloak.

He had chosen a player who was in a good position and used the Shadow Cloak's effect to instantaneously appear behind him. After this, he entered into Stealth and left.

Lu Li's Boots were also excellent. Although they were only LV5, they could instantly increase his Movement Speed by 10%. This had saved his life many times.

His pants gave 10% Critical Chance, which made them something he was unwilling to swap out for.

Lu Li couldn't say that his equipment was the best in Dawn, but he could confidently say that the number of people who had better equipment than him could be counted on one hand!

The Great Thief

Chapter 108: Please Let Me Have Your Kids

After the white light from the hearthstone had disappeared, Lu Li appeared at Astrana's spawn point. As soon as he arrived, he saw Azure Sea Breeze and the others, who had been anxiously waiting for him. They couldn't convince Lu Li not to go. and they knew that they would only be a burden to him if they went. The only thing that they could do was wait for him.

"It doesn't matter that you couldn't steal it. When we're stronger, we'll go and kill them all," Seeing how calm Lu Li looked, Azure Sea Breeze thought that he had failed.

The system announcement saying that the Gangnam Royals had achieved the First Clear for the Boss had been heard by everyone.

The only thing he could do was comfort Lu Li.

"What are you on about? Of course I got it."

Lu Li was still not quite used to the discomfort that teleporting brought, which was why he looked so blank.

He had just been in an incredibly intense situation and had stolen a Boss from the hands of the second ranked guild. However, he was not as ecstatic as one would have expected him to be. Instead, it was as if he had done something extremely ordinary.

For Thieves, remaining cold and aloof was quite normal. If he was a normal player, he definitely would have been extremely excited about what just happened.

However, Lu Li was not playing this game for fun. This was his job, a job that could allow himself and his little sister to live better lives. As such, he wouldn't be afraid to make everyone his enemy in order to achieve his goals.

"Really?! Did you steal any good equipment from them?" Azure Sea Breeze's reaction was more like a normal person's.

Lu Li showed the three items he had obtained to the rest of the team in their team channel. He then explained the value of each of those items, which completely shocked the other players. Even Lonesome Flower, who had remained expressionless, couldn't help but grin.

"I need the Plague Shard, as well as the Rager's Pendant. I'll give this Skill Book to Azure Sea Breeze to sell and you and Lonesome Flower can split the money," Lu Li said as he handed the Skill Book to Azure Sea Breeze.

Lonesome Flower was about to refuse, but Azure Sea Breeze had already gleefully accepted it.

"Sure. Flower and I both lost quite a bit of EXP, so this should be enough to heal the wounds on our hearts."

The team chatted as they headed to the Fire Scar Temple.

The Fire Scar Temple was in the Temple Ruins that the Apocalypse Guard Akereus was in. If they wanted to enter the Fire Scar Temple, they would first have to defeat Akereus.

Currently, quite a few players had found their way to this place. By the time Lu Li and his team had arrived, they found that the space that Akereus occupied was empty.

The Akereus for this day had been killed already.

Lu Li and his team stood on the altar and activated the Instance Dungeon scroll.

System: You have entered the Fire Scar Temple Instance Dungeon, Normal level. Kill the Apocalypse Guard Claudius!

The Normal level Instance Dungeon only had one Boss, which was Claudius. Like Akereus, he was also an Apocalypse Guard.

In the Elite level Instance Dungeon there would be a second Boss, in the Difficult level Instance Dungeon there would be 3 Bosses, and it was unknown how many there were in the Nightmare level Instance Dungeon. After all, Nightmare level Instance Dungeon scrolls were far too rare. Lu Li had never seen a guide for the Nightmare level Fire Scar Temple, but rumours said that the Silver grade Bow used by the famous hunter Glacial Autumn Wind had come from it.

Because Lu Li's team only had a Normal level Instance Dungeon scroll, they only needed to kill Claudius.

Claudius was slightly stronger than Akereus, so Lu Li had waited for everyone to level up before coming to this Instance Dungeon.

Today was the deadline, so they had to pass it in one go!

The first wave of monsters were Hellhounds. Lonesome Flower and March Rain absolutely hated these dogs that could siphon Mana.

However, they weren't enough to stop Lu Li's team.

After 10 minutes, they stood before Claudius.

Claudius' appearance was quite similar to Akereus'. To Lu Li, there wasn't much difference between them.

"Wait."

Lu Li grabbed Azure Sea Breeze, who was about to charge up.

"Do you have a guide?" Azure Sea Breeze asked hopefully.

Having a guide would be wonderful. As long as they acted in a specific way, they would be able to easily beat the Boss. Azure Sea Breeze had experienced what it was like to get past a Boss easily with a good guide and felt quite inadequate without one.

"Guide, my ass. Use this," Lu Li said as he took off his badge and handed it to Azure Sea Breeze.

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

"My lord," Azure Sea Breeze cried out, "Please accept my worship. Please let me be your servant! Please let me have your kids!"

Lonesome Flower rolled his eyes and the two girls giggled. However, after they saw the stats of the badge, they were completely dumbfounded. They simply couldn't imagine how Lu Li had obtained this Silver grade equipment.

Lonesome Flower, who had been incredibly proud of his Silver grade Staff, couldn't muster up any pride anymore.

"Stop making a racket. I'm only lending this to you temporarily. I still need it," Lu Li said.

"Cheh!" Azure Sea Breeze's face immediately fell.

In reality, they were all joking around. If any of them wanted to use one of Lu Li's things, all they had to do was ask. Lu Li didn't have any intentions of solely keeping the badge to himself, otherwise he wouldn't have taken it out.

Azure Sea Breeze felt incredibly confident with his new badge and yelled as he rushed at the Boss.

During the first three minutes of the fight, Claudius acted normally. He had incredibly slow Attack Speed and average Attack. His attacks didn't even have the Burn effect that the other Apocalypse Guards did.

Regardless, none of the players let down their guard. The more normal a Boss seemed, the more unpredictably it could act.

Three minutes later, Claudius used his first skill.

"Crap, it actually has an Armour Pierce effect. March Rain, focus on healing Azure Sea Breeze."

Azure Sea Breeze didn't know what else was coming, so he didn't dare to casually use his Shield Wall. He could only do his best to block the Boss' attacks and try to reduce the damage as much as possible.

"Don't worry, this much damage can't kill you," Lu Li said, as he prevented March Rain from using her special healing skill.

March Rain was becoming more and more skilled as a player, but still needed to develop her judgement. She also didn't have enough confidence in herself, which made it easy for her to listen to others.

Claudius' Armour Pierce was not as simple as Azure Sea Breeze had thought. When the Armour Pierce's duration had expired by one third, the Boss swung his sword again and stacked another Armour Pierce.

Azure Sea Breeze could no longer afford to rant or muck around. He focused on his HP bar and the Boss' attacks, preparing to use Shield Wall.

Lu Li started to feel that his team's tank was lacking some Damage Reduction. While attacking, he tried to recall where it was that they could find a Damage Reduction skill for Defence Warriors.

The two Armour Pierce effects caused Azure Sea Breeze's health to fall by 20% each time. Claudius' damage was simply insane. It would be impossible to survive with only March Rain's healing.

"Don't hesitate! Start using Potions!" Lu Li reminded him. If he didn't start using Potions to bring his health back up, he wouldn't be able to survive when the Boss stacked another Armour Pierce effect.

The toughest part about fighting Claudius was his Armour Pierce effect. He could continuously stack it, which became deadly for tanks. With three Armour Pierce stacks, it would be incredibly difficult for any tank to survive, unless they could quickly bring the Boss' HP below 60%.

The Great Thief

Chapter 109: Three Stacks of Armour Pierce

As soon as Azure Sea Breeze had replenished his HP, the powerful Armour Pierce Attack hit him again.

He was hit and lost 60% of his HP.

With three stacks of Armour Pierce, Azure Sea Breeze's armour became non-existent. Now he had to tank with his raw HP.

If any other main tank was in his position right now, they would have been instantly killed.

Azure Sea Breeze held his breath, raised his shield and braced himself for Claudius' next attack.

He waited a few seconds right after being attacked in order to maximize the duration of the shield.

With his Shield Wall up, the damage he received was only about 30%.

With March Rain's heals, this was enough for him to survive the damage from the boss.

However, Shield Wall only lasted 5 seconds and had a cooldown of 60 seconds. Azure Sea Breeze had to invest 4 SP into this skill to raise it max level, which would allow it to last for 8 seconds with a 40 second cooldown.

Shield Wall could block three times at most during its duration.

Claudius' Armour Pierce Effect still lasted more than 10 seconds.

Lu Li had no choice but to believe in Azure Sea Breeze's skill and March Rain's healing. All he could do was to focus on dealing damage and taking down Claudius' HP to 60% as fast as possible.

When the Shield Wall duration ended, everyone anxiously kept their eyes on Azure Sea Breeze's HP bar.

If anything happened, Lu Li had to grab aggro no matter what.

Switching aggro wasn't particularly difficult. All Azure Sea Breeze had to do was to activate the Dark Elf racial skill – Shadowmeld, which cause Claudius to aggro onto the player dealing the most damage. However, Lu Li would only be able to tank a few hits.

Some equips had passive and active effects, such as March Rain's staff, which had an 20% increased healing active. When the Shield Wall disappeared, she activated it and her heals became significantly stronger.

But it wasn't enough!

Azure Sea Breeze immediately drank an Intermediate Health Potion.

Now he knew why Lu Li had told him to drink a potion earlier.

Intermediate Health Potions recovered 200 HP. In addition to March Rain's increased healing, Azure Sea Breeze was able to recover up to 60% of his HP before Claudius' next attack.

Final Blow!

After receiving this attack, Claudius' Armour Pierce Effect disappeared.

However, instead of disappearing completely, the Armour Pierce dropped from 3 stacks to 2 stacks. The damage he received was still very high.

Lu Li was about to tell Azure Sea Breeze to use Shadowmeld when something completely unexpected happened.

When Azure Sea Breeze was attacked and took 60% of his HP in damage, he was also healed by 800 HP.

With the 800HP heal and March Rain's enhanced Flash Heal, Azure Sea Breeze was able to survive.

"Damage Conversion!" Lu Li soon realised.

The passive from the Bloodstained Badge saved the entire team.

Upon being attacked, there was a chance for 30% damage dealt is converted to HP.

Azure Sea Breeze received more than 2000 points of damage, which equated to about an 800 HP recovery from the conversion.

Damage Conversion was an effect that converted damage received back to HP. It was based on the damage dealt by the attacker, whereas Life Steal was based on the damage dealt by the player.

For Lu Li, Life Steal was more beneficial to him, but for low attack Main Tanks, damage conversion was much better.

If it weren't for the Crow Transformation that drained his HP to maintain, he would have given Azure Sea Breeze his Bloodstain Badge.

"Keep going; get the boss' HP down to 60% before the next Armour Pierce!" Lu Li shouted, encouraging the others to continue fighting.

In between Backstabs, he used regular attacks in order to maximize his damage output. Lu Li also activated his armour and dagger actives to increase his Attack. After a minute of relentless attacking, a red, bloody mist began to surround him.

If anyone else saw him, they would have thought he was from the Horde, because the effects were so similar.

In reality, Lu Li had activated the Rage effect.

Rager Equipment Set: Rage: activated at a certain chance. Movement speed increased by 20%, attack speed increased by 20%, defence decreased by 20%. 30 second duration.

Lu Li wasn't worried about the decrease in defence because Azure Sea Breeze was pulling the aggro. After he received the 20% attack speed buff, his daggers became too fast for the naked eye to see.

Damage figures started appearing above the boss with an occasional critical strike. The damage that appeared from his high-completion Shadowstrike were even higher than crits.

If Lu Li and the others were not able to take the boss' HP down to 60% within the 30 second buff duration, he would probably kill himself.

The Boss' HP came down to 59% and Lu Li felt a sense of relief.

Dawn was so realistic that he began to feel sweaty under his armour.

After this, Claudius was easily dealt with and died after 10 or so minutes.

System: You have successfully slain Claudius. EXP and rewards will be received.

Claudius was the Apocalyptic Guard of the Burning Legion, so slaying him gave them a handsome amount of rewards, EXP and reputation. Remnant Dream, along with Azure Sea Breeze and Lonesome Flower all levelled up to 15.

Lu Li was now LV15 with 18% EXP. He was the same level as Claudius, so the EXP he received was slightly less.

Since they had entered the Normal level Claudius dungeon, they only received a single piece of Steel Grade equipment and two copper equips. Lu Li and his party were all already wearing Steel Grade equips, so these drops were useless to them. They decided that they would be sold for money.

The Black Steel Grade equip had pretty nice stats and was a chain mail shoulder for healer Shamans. It had an overload effect which increased intelligence by 50 for 5 seconds.

Five seconds were more than enough to make an impact on the battlefield. Lu Li discussed with his teammates and decided to give it to his landlady Huan Huan.

Under Don't Hit Dou Dou's leadership, Huan Huan and Yi Yi followed Lu Li's levelling guide and continued advancing in the game.

They were a team consisting of a Healing Shaman, a skilful Hunter and an experienced Death Knight. The trio all managed to get to LV12 after the three days of double EXP.

These three girls all joined the Drizzle Court. Even in this guild full of beauties, they were still among the prettiest.

Although they were not high-level, they still managed to make a name for themselves, especially Huan Huan, who had good organisation skills. Apparently, she had even become an elder of the Drizzle Court.

The Great Thief

Chapter 110: Large Sum

Lu Li was not one of those perverts who constantly stared at girls. He did not owe the land ladies any favours and was not obliged to write them a levelling guide in addition to running errands for them.

The reason why he was being so nice was because of their hospitality to Lu Xin.

His recent hard work in the game and caused him to neglect his baby sister.

The three landladies often took Lu Xin to eat, shop and play at theme parks.

Even though Lu Li was so concentrated on the game, he noticed that the introverted Lu Xin had become more outgoing and cheerful like other girls her age.

This was something that Lu Li could not achieve by himself.

Although others may have thought that it was wasteful to give away Steel Grade equips, it was the least he could to express his gratitude.

Lu Li was a person who knew that he should repay those who were kind to him. To see his little sister be happy was his biggest dream. Since he didn't have much, he had to repay them in any way he could.

Azure Sea Breeze and others didn't oppose his decision. The reason why they had stayed with him in the first place was because of his maturity and kind-heartedness.

"Your sister is so lucky to have a brother like you," Remnant Dream enviously said.

"Silly girl, do I not treat you well?" Azure Sea Breeze asked jokingly.

Since Azure Sea Breeze was an only child, he often envied Lu Li and Lonesome Flower for having little sisters. Recently, he had been encouraging Remnant Dream to call him older brother.

"Let's return to town. Everyone should log off and take a break; we'll clear the Death Mines this afternoon."

Compared to the last time, they had a much higher chance of clearing the Death Mines.

Lu Li considered exploring the Elite Level or Difficult Level if they could easily pass the Normal level. The Death Mines were a low-level Instance Dungeon and therefore did not have a Nightmare Level.

"We should take the first clear for the Death Mines before the system refreshes."

Clearing the Elite Level Instance Dungeon gave you a chance to appear on TV. Azure Sea Breeze really wanted to appear on TV so that he could brag about it.

Previously, he had told his friends about being ranked 2nd. Their response was to immediately expose him on the forums.

Luckily, he didn't go as far as exposing Lu Li's secrets as well.

Lu Li had to forgive him because he was a well-geared, PVE-focused main tank who would be very useful in the future.

"Today is Friday. We'll focus on levelling up over the next two days in the mornings while we try and get first clears of dungeons in the afternoon. "

"Why does this game keep updating? What kind of a game updates weekly?" Lonesome Flower asked, slightly ticked off.

"The updates won't be as frequent in the future. The third system update didn't really change much." Lu Li did not tell them that Dawn had become a ground-breaking MMORPG after the third patch.

After the third update, the $30,000 gaming helmet was reduced to $3,000.

This bankrupted many big gaming companies around the world.

As of now, Dawn had more than 10 million players. After the price drop of the gaming helmet, hundreds of millions more joined the Chinese server alone. Anyone could calculate the billions of dollars in profit, based on the sheer number of players and the price of the gaming helmets.

Only a national standard gaming company could take such a gamble.

From then on, the era of MMORPGs began.

Many people bought the gaming helmet to make money in the game and joined various gold farming guilds.

Older people joined the game to enjoy fishing, chess and cooking. Others that were more passionate also chose a class to join in on this new teenage craze. Members that were over the age of 50 joined the old Mage guild: Mage Palace. They quickly became an attraction in Dawn.

Kids could wear the gaming helmet to take tutoring classes in game. These offered face to face interactions with the tutor.

Many more entertainment companies started holding concerts, as well as filming dramas and movies within Dawn.

Companies joined in to build skyscrapers. Workers would practice using machinery and their working facilities for real life. Soldiers used the game as a virtual war zone to emulate actual wars and combat.

There were also a group of people called the Scenery Crew, who hoped to explore every corner of Azeroth.

Lu Li did not have the opportunity to participate in the game in his past life, because he was too worried about his sister. He entered the game a year later which was much too late.

However, in this life, it was different. He joined the game as soon as it came out with the experience that others did not have.

When he parted with Azure Sea Breeze and the others, he went to look for Shen Wan San.

Rather than putting up the loot on the Exchange Hall, he would give it to Shen Wan San. He would always be able to sell it for more.

"Shen Boss, how you doing? Has the Snake Trust Grass sold out yet?" Lu Li had not contacted him in a couple of days and wasn't sure whether he had done his job.

Everything was sold, except for the sets that Lu Li had saved for himself.

Lu Li and Shen Wan San agreed on a deal and he gave him another 500 sets of Snake Trust Grass to sell at 3 gold per set.

Lu Li reminded him to sell them before the game updated. The reason for this was in case the gold economy crashed.

Gold had dropped from $1500:1 to $1000, $800, $500 and now, $300. From there it would continue to steadily decline until it stabilized at $100:1.

Many people thought that when the billions of players joined the game, there would be a crazy demand for gold. After all, they would need equipment, skill books, crafting materials…

Shen Wan San was thinking the exact same thing, but after Lu Li told him otherwise, he began to panic.

"I was about to find you, older brother. Your gold will be counted in front of you; meet at the Noah Bar, room 3." Shen Wan San was a very humble man. Though he called Lu Li 'older brother', he was actually in his mid-30s.

Noah Bar was run by NPCs and had a fair price. It was a popular gathering place among young teenagers.

Lu Li greeted the bar host and was directed to room 3. When he opened the door, he saw a fat, black panther on the seats.

If he had saw this in real life, he would've been scared to death. However, this was quite a normal sight in a game.

The panther returned to its normal form, revealing Shen Wan San's silly face. "I learnt the Panther Transformation Skill recently. It's so fun."

"If Boss Shen played a combat class, you might be pretty good."

Lu Li complemented him insincerely and cut straight to the main topic.

"How much gold do I get this time?"

Despite already roughly knowing, the amount of gold in front of him still made his heart pound.

The Great Thief

Chapter 111: Millionaire

"So impatient."

Shen Wansan was laughing, but he put on a straight face when he saw that Lu Li wasn't smiling.

"For the 500 Snake Trust Grass, as per our agreement, I'll be giving you 1500 gold. However, it actually sold for more than this…"

"The extra is yours to keep."

Lu Li quickly did some mental calculations. The current Trading Platform had a price of 1:330, so this amount equated to $490,500.

"Our separate deal was an investment of 100 gold. I actually asked a friend to borrow a little more money, so it ended up being a little more…"

Shen Wansan's voice was compassionate, Lu Li had earned a lot of money, but so had he.

It was all because of this person before him that he had such an opportunity. The other players only saw the strange price of the Snake Trust Grass, but who would have thought that it was because of him? He had used this kind of low-level material to leverage a huge profit.

"Stop. We agreed on 100 gold coins. We'll maintain that agreement," Lu Li corrected him.

Business is business and if things become unclear, it was bound to lead to trouble.

If he received any additional money, that would no longer be business, but compassion.

"You…" Shen Wansan smiled wryly and could only helplessly say, "100 gold coins bought about 830 sets of Snake Trust Grass, at an average of 12 silver coins each. Taking into account the initial cost, they were sold for a total of 2668 gold."

After accepting the transaction, the system prompted Lu Li that he had received 2834 gold.

In addition to the money he had made from his last few days of selling Intermediate Health Potions, he now had 3000 gold!

Without any delay, Lu Li pulled up the trading interface and set an offer of 100 gold coins for $350.

Those who were selling gold were waiting for the system update, so that the gold prices would increase. However, those that were buying gold were worried for this same reason. The former group of people didn't want to sell gold now, while the latter group of people wanted to buy gold now. The Trade Platform's information currently showed that there were more buyers than sellers, so Lu Li didn't have to worry that no one would buy his gold.

It was currently a seller's market, with the platform transaction fees to be paid by the buyer!

In total, Lu Li had made a million dollars!

In his previous life, Lu Xin's medical fees had totaled over a million dollars. He had thought of everything, but even if he had sold himself entirely, he would still not be able make enough money. He had even considered selling all of his organs.

Now, in just three weeks' time, he had basically solved the problem of medical fees.

A burden that he had been carrying in his heart for a long time had finally been lifted.

"Expert Brother, do you have any new business ventures? How about we continue to cooperate?" Seeing that Lu Li was about to leave, Shen Wansan quickly grabbed his arm. His face was beaming.

He sincerely wanted to continue to share more of his benefits with Lu Li and to be able to continue to tell him this kind of news.

"Boss Shen, you're addicted. This time I inadvertently found out the secret of the Intermediate Health Potion. Who knows if I'll encounter another chance like this? I'm not one of the game designers."

Lu Li's face was innocent, as he resolutely insisted that this was an accident.

The game designers actually couldn't make money like this. Firstly, they weren't allowed to enter the game and secondly, there were state agencies that monitored the game. If there were any issues that arose, the game designers would face harsh legal consequences.

Lu Li's goal wasn't to make money, but the profits from the Snake Trust Grass were insane.

To be able to turn a profit that was 3 to 5 times the cost was already unusual, let alone a profit of 10 times. Moreover, the value of gold would soon decrease, while an ever-increasing stockpile of goods was built up. Soon, making money would become significantly harder.

However, the most important reason for refusing was that he didn't want to take any risks. He couldn't explain why he knew so much, so if he did this too often, he might come under police investigation. Who knew what might happen then? This game wasn't run like any other.

He wasn't the only one to solo Bosses and it could be argued that they were sufficiently strong enough to achieve those First Clears. However, even if there was some doubt to that, 100 years of internet law precedent meant that the internet police couldn't get to him.

With regards to hoarding goods, you could say that you had a vision, but it was unlikely that people would believe that you were some kind of prophet.

Under the resentful gaze of Shen Wansan, Lu Li took his large sum of money and left the Noah Tavern.

When Lu Li logged back on after going offline to have some food and do exercise, the system prompted him that thirty transactions had occurred.

This speed was a little beyond his expectations. He thought that it would be a day or two before he could sell all of these gold coins. If he knew that this would happen, he would have increased the price. He estimated that someone would have bought the gold even if it was priced at 1:400.

What was done was done, so Lu Li didn't think too much about it after that.

He was just about to tell the news to the others, when Azure Sea Breeze called him.

"You're finally here. Lighty was looking for you, you should respond to him."

Azure Sea Breeze really liked giving people nicknames. He called Moonlight, 'Lighty', Lonesome Flower, 'Flower' and Remnant Dream, 'Dream'. The only person he didn't dare to do it to was March Rain.

"Why is he looking for me?" Lu Li paid the 5 copper coin transmission fee and accepted Moonlight's call.

"Do you still need money? I've found a way…"

Moonlight had been spending most of his time PVPing as opposed to levelling. Luckily, Glory could be traded for EXP, so he wasn't too far behind. He was actually still within top 100 in the level rankings.

"Oh, what way?" Lu Li didn't think of him as the entrepreneurial type. As such, he was pretty curious.

Although he had just made a large sum of money and had solved an urgent matter, who could say that they had earned too much money?

He would like to buy a house, so he wouldn't have to live in someone else's home.

"PVP."

Moonlight's speech was simple, unlike Lonesome Flower's or Azure Sea Breeze's.

"Don't tell me it's by killing people and taking what they drop," Lu Li laughed.

This was definitely an option, given Lu Li's equipment and level.

However, Lu Li had plans to become a professional player, so his reputation mattered.

"Gambling equipment, gold coins or cash," Moonlight responded.

Lu Li suddenly remembered from his past life that high-end PVP circles would gamble while PVPing. He never thought that he would be doing such a thing.

"This isn't the best idea. The game company doesn't care now, but that doesn't mean that they won't target it later."

He didn't know if this was true, but he was apprehensive anyway. Gambling was illegal.

"What happens in the future will be in the future."

Moonlight evidently thought otherwise.

"Aren't you in urgent need of money?"

Lu Li was busy, even busier than the professional players he had previously seen. When asked why he was so busy all the time, his response would always detail needing money. Moonlight had been thinking about this and hoped that he could find a way to help him.

Lu Li was sure that this was the reason.

The avenues for gambling had not yet been set up in Dawn. After all, there were all kinds of incomplete infrastructure needed to ensure fairness. Gambling would begin to rear its head when the arena was set up. However, Lu Li was reasonable in wanting to fight in the arena right now.

The gambling didn't even need to happen offline. It was just masked under the guise of other things, such as buying or selling equipment.

"Thank you."

Lu Li didn't waste his words either and replied, "I'll be going into an Instance Dungeon soon, so I'll contact you tomorrow. Are there any suitable opponents?"

"There are two people who want to challenge you: Water Fairy and Hornet's Nest," Moonlight elaborated.

"It's for a 100 gold coins. Are you interested?"

The Great Thief

Chapter 112: Seeing the Piercing Heart Wolf General Again

Playing for 100 gold wasn't a low bet.

PVP battles tended to last from a few seconds to a couple of minutes. To lose $30,000 in such a small amount of time was not something most people could afford.

However, Lu Li had no reason to hesitate, as he was confident he would win.

Of course, he wouldn't underestimate Hornet's Nest and Water Fairy. Both of these players were PVP experts, especially Water Fairy. Lu Li had a full set of Steel armor but he wasn't actually that much stronger than them. It was entirely possible that Water Fairy was also equipped with an entire set of Steel armor that was LV10 or higher.

"How about tonight? I'll take on one of them. You can help me get either one," Lu Li said.

"Then, according to Hornet's Nest, your opponent will be Water Fairy. I'll send you a video later and you can make your final decision afterwards."

Moonlight stood by and paused for a moment before continuing, "If the Instance Dungeon drops something that I can use, remember to hold on to it. I'll buy it at market price."

"Rest assured, I'll remember. But when we finish, you should go in and clear it twice. Levelling up in Instance Dungeons is faster than in the wilderness," Lu Li suggested.

PVPing on your own wasn't a sustainable long-term practice, as a player's equipment level would slowly lag behind. Most PVP players would get the support of a guild and follow them on Elite Instance Dungeon runs. Alternatively, they would ask for mages to help them quickly kill groups of monsters.

"Sure, when the time comes I'll talk to Sea Breeze."

After Moonlight said this, he terminated the chat.

Lu Li sat by the Instance Dungeon entrance as he waited for everyone else to turn up.

Visiting the Death Mines still made everyone feel uncomfortable. The last time they had faced the Piercing Heart Wolf General, Lu Li had saved their progress. This time, they could start by directly facing the Boss.

Progress in Dawn could be saved, sold or refreshed, but these operations had to be carried out by the party leader.

Generally, as a Boss was killed more often, its drops become worse. For example, once the First Clear had been taken on the normal difficulty of the Death Mines, the next three Boss kills had a 30% chance of dropping a Steel equip. The following three Boss kills would then only have a 15% chance of dropping a Steel equip.

Lu Li had saved their progress so they wouldn't have to repeat the first section of the Instance Dungeon.

According to Azure Sea Breeze, most guilds were still stuck with facing Helix. The few that could reach the Piercing Heart Wolf General were very highly ranked guilds.

They had so many people, so they could afford to send many elite parties in at once.

It would be a miracle if a small group like Lu Li's could take out the Piercing Heart Wolf General.

Azure Sea Breeze's equipment and level made it clear that he was the number 1 Main Tank in Dawn. March Rain's technique was getting better and better and she was definitely comparable to an elite Priest from a big guild. Lonesome Flower and Lu Li's damage output could easily be considered to be among the best. As for Remnant Dream, her technique still wasn't great, but her equipment and pet helped her to keep her ground.

Now that they were freshly facing the Boss again, the players didn't feel the depression of being killed over and over.

"Sea Breeze, watch yourself. I'll be dealing as much as damage as I can."

Lu Li did not intend to issue any instructions. There weren't any instructions worth giving for this Boss anyway. The Main Tank drew aggro, the Healer healed and the damage dealers focused on attacking. As long as they could kill it in a relatively short amount of time, they would be victorious.

"Don't worry. As long as you guys fight like you did last time, I'll be tanking the damage until the very end."

Azure Sea Breeze waved his hand and placed his shield in front of his chest, before charging towards the Piercing Heart Wolf General.

Lu Li's figure flashed and appeared behind the Boss, almost before Azure Sea Breeze finished his charge. He then completed a Backstab with more than 80% Skill Completion to the Boss' spine.

Armor Piece effect!

The Piercing Heart Wolf Generals aggro was then transferred to Lu Li. It turned around and faced Lu Li with its claws. Fortunately, Azure Sea Breeze's taunt timing was very good, so the Boss was forced by the system to focus its attacks on him instead.

Lu Li only dared to do this because Azure Sea Breeze was skilled. Otherwise, he would have waited for the Main Tank to draw aggro.

Under the Armor Pierce effect, the Wolf General's HP dropped rapidly. It was much faster than last time and an entire chunk of the Boss' health was instantly wiped out.

Lu Li made sure that he wasn't being careless and started to attack faster as the effect on his dagger was triggered.

There were two effects that could activate from his daggers. One was a bleed, while the other was berserk. These were very suitable for fighting Bosses, but it was too bad that the probability of their activation was very low. You never knew when they were going to trigger.

Lonesome Flower stood next to his sister, quietly casting his spells. As a mage, most of his skills required channeling, but his damage was very high. According to the damage statistics, his damage was only 15% lower than Lu Li's. This was only because Lu Li had just released a quick wave of attacks.

March Rain's focus was entirely on the Main Tank. She avoided using her stronger spells, as they would be needed at a later stage.

As the Piercing Heart Wolf General's HP fell to 50%, its damage increased. Its body was shrouded in a light red mist, which indicated that it was a in an aggressive state. However, unlike Berserk, its defence was not weakened.

Lu Li downed an Agility Potion and flicked his wrist, casting a high Skill Completion Shadowstrike.

Without any hesitation, he used up the five combo points he had just accumulated to cast Slit Throat which applied a bleed effect to the Boss.

The Piercing Heart Wolf General's HP was now at 40%.

Lu Li looked up and saw the damage being taken by Azure Sea Breeze before breathing a sigh of relief.

The damage wasn't too high yet. Between the strong healing and the Intermediate Health Potions, this Boss no longer posed a threat to their party.

The ever-increasing damage due to Bloodlust no longer out scaled their party, but the fight wasn't at its end yet. When the Boss reached 20% HP, it used another skill.

Wolf Order: A player is chosen and turned into a Worgen. This player will follow the Piercing Heart Wolf General's commands.

This was different to Cynocephali Elder Allen's Charm. Charm retained a player's skills, while Wolf Order turned a player into a Worgen with only two skills.

The first skill was Dash, which was similar to Charge. It dealt damage and also knocked players down. While this skill dealt high damage, it was unlikely to kill anyone.

The other skill was Corrosion, which cause anyone that was hit to take damage over time and have reduced armor. As long as the Piercing Heart Wolf General was not in its Bloodlust state, this didn't pose too much of a threat either.

The Wolf Order targeted Lonesome Flower and transformed him for 30 seconds.

Without one of their stronger DPS characters, fighting the Boss was a little more difficult. However, they still eventually managed to reduce the Boss down to 10% HP.

The final aggressive stage was a joke. The Piercing Heart Wolf General actually did less damage in the aggressive form than it did with its regular Bloodlust bonus.

In just nine minutes, Lu Li's team destroyed the Piercing Heart Wolf General, who had previously killed them five times. Azure Sea Breeze was even lucky enough to be awarded a Skill Point.

For both Remnant Dream and Azure Sea Breeze to obtain a Skill Point as a reward in an ordinary Instance Dungeon must have been because of the First Clear. The chances of this happening otherwise were so low that it was impossible.

The Great Thief

Chapter 113: Fearless Barrier

Once the Piercing Heart Wolf General fell, the Quest Tracker prompted Lu Li to proceed further into the cave and destroy the Defias Brotherhood's Fearless Ship.

However, they first had to find out what the Piercing Heart Wolf General had dropped. This was the First Clear, so it was guaranteed to drop a Steel item.

"Wow, Sea Breeze, there's a shield for you."

Looting was Remnant Dream's favourite part. Her hands seemed to be particularly lucky, so she had become the Xin Xin Mercenary Group's resident looter.

When he heard that it was a Shield, Lu Li could already guess what the item was.

This was definitely the result of the First Clear, because even on Elite difficulty, it only had a small chance of dropping. The item in question was the Fearless Barrier.

Fearless Barrier (Steel): Armour 32, Constitution 12. Effect: When your HP is drops below 20%, all damage taken is reduced by 80% for 8 seconds. Equipment Requirement: level 15. Durability 45/45.

Every profession had a different set of pros and cons, so it was difficult to determine which profession was the best.

However, this item had high armor and high constitution in addition to its very special effect. The Fearless Barrier was definitely a must-have for Main Tanks farming the Death Mines.

The Main Tank was the core of every party. As such, it was absolutely necessary that every team had one when attempting to farm the Death Mines.

"Oh my, this equip is way too strong. It'll basically make me invincible."

Azure Sea Breeze equipped the shield as soon as he laid his hands on it. He waved the dark green shield about as he grinned with satisfaction.

In some ways, its special effect was more powerful than Shield Wall.

As long as the Boss they were fighting wasn't too strong, it would be very difficult to instantly kill Azure Sea Breeze. His shield would buy them some extra time to Heal and figure out the Boss' skills.

Many things could be done within eight seconds.

Even an average player would instantly command respect if they obtained the Fearless Barrier at this stage of the game.

Not a single rare material was dropped, as their luck had probably been used up already.

In addition to the Fearless Barrier, there were two pieces of Bronze equipment.

These were both LV15, which was currently the most commonly-used category of equipment. Nobody even looked at their effects, as their attributes were similar to a LV5 Steel equip. Lu Li wasn't too fussed about what happened to them.

"I wanna roll for it."

This was a strange thing for Remnant Dream to say, but no one decided to stop her.

Instead, they indulged her wishes. If she wanted to roll, then she could roll for them.

Azure Sea Breeze rolled and got 78 points.

"Oh well. I guess I'm just too good."

With his number, it was highly likely that he would take the equipment. However, he also had a large ego and began to show off.

March Rain smiled before rolling the dice and got 52 points.

"Brother Flower, roll quickly," Remnant Dream urged. It seemed like she was more excited for this than looting.

The proud Flower felt a sense of disdain towards this child's play and reluctantly rolled his dice. He got 16 points and his face immediately darkened.

Lu Li rolled 44 points. He wasn't very lucky when it came to things like this. Considering how unlucky he was, 44 points was already pretty good.

Once everyone was done, Remnant Dream held her hands near her stomach and offered a prayer.

92 points!

"Wow! I won, I won!" the little hunter exclaimed, as she excitedly jumped around.

The others started to sweat at this sight; it seemed like she would want to do this more often in the future.

Lu Li's party was fairly cooperative when it came to equipment. Steel equipment would be assigned to whoever was most suited to use it and if there wasn't anyone, it would be sold. Bronze equips on the other hand would sell for a few silver at most, so whoever picked these up could have them.

It was too bad that the little hunter wasn't around when the party was first established, so she didn't get to enjoy rolling for equips. Once they fixed the teams, she would have even fewer opportunities to do so.

Lu Li shook his head in silence while the two pieces of Bronze equipment were directly given to Remnant Dream.

At this time, Remnant Dream interrupted and said, "Brother Lu Li, I…. don't want the equips, I just wanted to roll…"

She didn't want her teammates to think that she wanted the equipment. The little hunter didn't know much, but she was sensitive to this kind of thing. She had heard that some parties had split up over issues of distributing equipment.

"Don't worry about it; it's just two pieces of Bronze equipment."

Lu Li patted her head before opening the large, underground cave door behind the Boss.

Everyone else followed him and patted her head as well. Even March Rain smiled as she reached out and rubbed her arm.

They entered an enormous cave with a large lake in the center. Within their field of vision, they saw the Fearless Ship docked at the pier. There was a small path that extended out to the river bank which led into the pier.

Suddenly, there was a rumble; something was happening.

Knowing that the enemy had broken through Piercing Heart Wolf General's defensive position, the Fearless Ship's Captain ordered the ship to start firing.

On the path to the Fearless Ship, cannonballs would land and explode. These explosions left charred, shallow pits in the ground.

The Captain had also released a whole group of Mutant Parrots which were as big as falcons. These parrots flew over the path and the lake, ready to attack anyone that got too close.

Azure Sea Breeze turned a little green. They didn't know how much damage these cannonballs could deal and the uncertainty made him shiver. Someone had to go and test out the strength of these cannonballs and as the Main Tank, he was the most suitable for the job.

He gingerly stepped out onto the path and anxiously waited for a cannonball to fall on him.

"Don't you see that the locations where the cannonballs fall are fixed?"

Lu Li laughed at this sight. He felt as though he should remind them that the cannonballs wouldn't kill them, but would still deal significant damage. The main purpose of these cannonballs was to scare them off.

"Dammit, why didn't you say anything?"

Azure Sea Breeze was so ashamed that he nearly walked away.

"You didn't ask." Kind people could sometimes do bad things too.

Azure Sea Breeze was speechless as he rolled his eyes.

"Tell us what to do. Even if the locations are fixed, there are still parrots that will harass us."

"Do you guys see those patches over there? There is quite a large space between the dropping cannonballs. We can stand there and clear out the monsters. Just make sure you keep moving to minimize the chance of a cannonball hitting you," Lu Li said, as he pointed.

"The best time to go is right after two cannonball fall."

Azure Sea Breeze's wisdom helped to optimize the plan.

After two cannonballs fell, there would be a short break. This break was the key to avoid being hit.

"Well, let's try it."

Lu Li directed the Main Tank to go first. Azure Sea Breeze angrily put up his middle finger and went out with his shield.

Their predictions were correct and the path actually turned out to be pretty easy to travel along. The only unexpected thing that happened was Remnant Dream falling into the river. She began to flail and scream, but eventually found out that the river was only waist-deep.

The leader of the Defias Brotherhood, Edwin Van Cleef, had brought a group of workers to renovate Stormwind. The Royal Family of Stormwind later found out that they had expended their budget on the war and could not pay for the engineering costs.

They even wanted to default on the debt.

Edwin Van Cleef turned out to be a revolutionist. He gathered workers and recruited people from the lowest part of society before leaving Stormwind, vowing to one day destroy it.

The Fearless Ship before them was all he had at first.

It was actually an old sailboat. So, if they wanted to face the captain, they would have to climb aboard.

The Elite monsters were easy to kill and gave a surprisingly large amount of EXP. Azure Sea Breeze started to become addicted to killing them. They ended up wasting a lot of time by killing monsters that they didn't have to, but seeing the rise in EXP was worth it.

The Great Thief

Chapter 114: Female Boss

The Captain of this ship was not Edwin Van Cleef, but a monster he had hired.

The current Captain Cookie was an amphibian who used to be the Chief Chef of the Fearless Ship. He took the post when the previous Captain died and poisoned all those who opposed him.

This just went to show that you should never offend a cook.

Edwin Van Cleef's heir seemed to accept the chef Captain. She didn't care who served as the Captain of this post, so long as they took personal responsibility.

The existence of the second last Boss, Captain Cookie, was actually purely for entertainment.

It sat inside a burning pot which would burn those who got too close. This Boss primarily used ranged attacks, which forced Lu Li to dodge while attacking.

Captain Cookie smiled and said, "Oh, pitiful players, come try this."

Food was thrown everywhere throughout the battle, both good and bad.

It was quite easy to distinguish between these two; they just got Azure Sea Breeze to try it first. His HP was very high, so there was no way he could die.

The food that had a slight green glow were poisonous. Eating or touching it resulted in the player going into a stackable Disgust state. This reduced a player's attack speed and cast rate by 10%, while also dealing 200 damage per second. The affected player had to find non-poisonous food (that increased attack speed and cast rate by 10%) to remove this state.

If they weren't careful, they could step on multiple poisoned foods and quickly lose party members.

Fortunately, Lu Li's team was pretty skilled. Even Remnant Dream managed to successfully dodge the poisoned food while only consuming the healthy ones.

Lu Li saw this and curiously asked the little hunter about it. It turned out that she had played a similar kind of game when she was young that involved similar mechanics of dodging and eating. When the fight was over, she even complained that it wasn't difficult enough to be satisfying.

Captain Cookie was about to fall. The whole process had been smooth and uneventful. At such a low difficulty, everyone could imagine what the dropped items would be. There was no need to report them.

The three Bronze equips that dropped were very common. Remnant Dream was unwilling to take any, so it was given to the others.

Although the drops were bad, the fight still gave quite a bit of EXP because it was with a LV16 Boss. Lu Li himself rose to LV16, while Azure Sea Breeze, Lonesome Flower and March Rain stayed at LV 15. Remnant Dream was now only 20% away from reaching to LV15.

The Death Mine's final Boss was Vanessa Van Cleef – Edwin Van Cleef's daughter. By now, Edwin Van Cleef had long been killed by the 'hero' sent from Stormwind.

The Quest Tracker told the story of how Vanessa had witnessed the tragic fate of her father when she was very young. As the daughter of the former leader of the Defias Brotherhood, she took it upon herself to plan revenge on Stormwind within the Death Mines.

As a little girl who lost both her parents, she grew up seeking vengeance for her father.

In some sense, the players standing before her were a cruel circumstance. There were actually many cruel circumstances all throughout Dawn.

However, Lu Li had no plans to be sympathetic. The moment they entered the cabin, they immediately began fighting wave after wave of Defias Sailors.

These Sailors were good farming monsters. To Lu Li's party, there was no danger and lots of EXP to be gained. By the time they had finished fighting, Lu Li had made a good amount of progress into his EXP bar.

However, what regular party could deal with six consecutive waves of monsters? In total, they were attacked by 30 Elite monsters all at once.

Even with the strength of Lu Li's party, they still had to take potions on several occasions.

Once the 30 monsters had been killed, Lu Li immediately commanded everyone to retreat.

The cabin was too dark and there wasn't enough space, so it didn't make a good battlefield for the players.

Azure Sea Breeze and the others obeyed and hurriedly rushed out of the cabin.

"Where is the Boss?" Azure Sea Breeze didn't understand why Lu Li had taken them onto the deck. He was standing in the front, keeping everyone behind him in case of an attack.

"Edwin was the Chief of the Engineering Union, but before that, he trained in Stormwind's Intelligence agency (MI7) for many years. Even the head of MI7, Madias Shore, had nothing but praise for him…" Lu Li slowly explained.

"Dammit, what are you saying?" Azure Sea Breeze was becoming impatient.

"He's a great Thief," Lu Li said helplessly.

"So?" Sea Breeze didn't understand.

"As his daughter, Vanessa Van Cleef is also a Thief. Do you think she will openly engage us?" Lu Li asked.

Most parties who fought Vanessa for the first time would have started to become bored. This was to be expected, because Vanessa didn't seem to be doing anything at all. At some point, she would choose a target and go into Stealth to ambush it. If the party's reaction speed was quick enough, they might save that member. Otherwise, they would lose a member before the Boss fight even started.

However, with this kind of turtle-style defensive formation, Vanessa could only attack the Main Tank.

"What? It's her."

Azure Sea Breeze raised his shield and went into a defensive stance.

"Brother Lu Li is so strong. How did you know?" Remnant Dream was starry eyed. She was still young and innocently adored him.

"Hehe, Astrana's Skill area has a library which records a lot of Azeroth's lore. You can go read some if you have nothing to do," Lu Li responded with a compelling reason.

He was already tired of this Normal difficulty Death Mine and was eager for it to end.

"No thanks, I hate reading," the primary school girl said as she shook her head rebelliously. She was at an age where she hated everything to do with study.

The female Boss unexpectedly appeared in front of Azure Sea Breeze and hammered him right on the forehead.

This was one of the stronger skills that Vanessa had in her arsenal. Azure Sea Breeze was stunned for 5 seconds and his armor was reduced by 20%.

Before he was able to recover, Vanessa added in a Kidney Strike, increasing the stun duration to 9 seconds.

Apart from this, there was not much else that she could do. She had limited ranged attacks and was blocked by the wooden wall. All she could do was continue to attack Azure Sea Breeze from the front as he complained about how broken this Boss was.

The location that they had selected was good and reduced the effectiveness of the Boss.

Lu Li could have stealthed and spread out, but he didn't dare to do so. Vanessa probably had a few more tricks up her sleeve.

Remnant Dream's commanded her second pet to attack. It valiantly charged out, but was quickly dealt with. The little hunter could only continue firing her crossbow, holding down the trigger.

Lonesome Flower, who was devoted to his sister, suddenly realized he had fallen in love with Vanessa. This was not because of her charming movements, but because she had scared Lu Li into his shell.

March Rain no longer looked to him in worship.

This situation was also great for ranged professions, so he had by far the largest damage output.

While waiting for Azure Sea Breeze to recover, he cast as many disabling spells as he could. Between him and Remnant Dream, Vanessa had already lost 10% of her HP.

The Great Thief

Chapter 115: Clearance

"I believe in my father; our cause is just!"

As Vanessa said this, she elegantly spun on the spot and swung the edge of blade outwards.

Blade Flurry!

Her blade was swinging so fast that it was blurry. Those who were about to be hit by it knew that it was going to hurt. Lu Li hid behind Azure Sea Breeze but still got hit twice, losing 600 HP instantly.

Azure Sea Breeze, who was standing at the front, quickly cast Shield Wall. When the flurry ended, he only had 40% of his HP remaining.

Although he was normally one to mess around, he could be depended on when it counted. When Vanessa had begun her Blade Flurry, he had promptly cast Shield Wall and blocked most of the damage. It was unlikely that the team could have tanked it otherwise.

However, in doing so, he enraged Vanessa. She cast Backhand Backstab and stunned him, while also applying an Amour Pierce effect. His HP was falling so quickly that even March Rain's healing couldn't keep up.

Luckily, the Fearless Barrier he was equipped with had a very strong effect. When he dropped below 20% HP, he practically became impossible to kill as it would mitigate most of the damage. This wasn't only useful for PVE; many Paladins liked using it for PVP as well.

During the eight second damage reduction period, his HP was restored to a safe amount.

Lu Li didn't bother hiding anymore. He pushed past the gap left by Azure Sea Breeze and started to help deal damage.

Vanessa's HP began to drop quickly. When she reached 60% HP, she revealed another one of her tricks. One could say that she started cheating.

Player's from his previous life had always ridiculed the idea of a Thief with the ability to summon helpers.

Following the instructions of their leader, a Defias Executor, Defias Shade and Defias Blood Shaman all appeared on the battlefield.

"Flower, turn the Blood Shaman into a sheep," Lu Li ordered.

Lonesome Flower quickly targeted the Blood Shaman and cast Polymorph on him. The Blood Shaman turned into a sheep and began to run around.

"It's so cute!"

Remnant Dream had a special kind of thought process that everyone was used to by now.

Lu Li ignored the bleating Blood Shaman and went straight towards the Executor, who was the equivalent of a Paladin. If it only had high damage that would be fine, but it also had a very strong healing spell. Killing it had to be their first priority.

Under Lu Li's leadership, the players stopped attacking the Boss and focused their fire on the Executor, upon which it quickly died.

At this point, they ignored the Blood Shaman, even though killing Mages and Shamans first was a common practice by most parties. Instead, the next target they switched to was the Defias Shade.

The order they had taken made sense, as the healing of the Executor would have quickly undone all of their efforts.

After dealing with Executor, they immediately turned to the Defias Shade. This monster could disappear mysteriously, but killing him actually turned out to be pretty easy as he could be crowd-controlled. They just needed to keep him crowd-controlled long enough to be dealt with.

However, the Shaman that was left also had a trick of his own. Lu Li quickly told everyone, "Don't the Shaman yet. Kill the Boss first."

You could do that?

Azure Sea Breeze and the others were puzzled, but they had blind faith in Lu Li, so they switched their focus to Vanessa.

The Blood Shaman didn't attack anyone, but started to channel a spell instead.

As it did this, a transparent cover appeared on the battlefield. It was as tall as a person and had a 40 yard radius. It looked like a big bubble.

"Sea Breeze try to move the Boss so that Flower and I can attack her. Flower, stand with me."

Lu Li moved and stood in the bubble.

As he entered the bubble, a damage value floated above his head as he lost 200 HP.

"Are you trying to get me killed?"

Lonesome Flower hesitated before bracing himself and stepping in. The damage dealt by the bubble was magic-type, so he lost around 150 HP.

After stepping into the bubble, he realised what was happening. He saw that he had gained a status effect.

'Reduce defence by 50%, increase attack by 50% and take damage every 5 seconds.'

Azure Sea Breeze pulled the Boss into a good position before everyone else desperately tried to deal as much damage as they could.

As Lu Li and Lonesome Flower were taking constant damage, March Rain took care of them. If things got too out of hand, they could still take an Intermediate Health Potion.

With a 50% increase in attack, the Boss' HP quickly dropped from 60% to 40%.

"Kill the Shaman."

Lu Li turned around and targeted the Defias Blood Shaman.

"How unfortunate. If only we could take the Blood Shaman with us to farm monsters. His buff is just too good," Lonesome Flower said as he coordinated with Lu Li to instantly kill it.

When her HP dropped below 40%, Vanessa suddenly became invincible!

She activated some kind of dodging item which caused everyone who attacked her to miss. She would then flash like a ghost and appear behind the players before casting Cheap Shot.

Luckily she would only hit once at a time, which gave March Rain some time to heal.

This meant that if the bubble was still up…

Seeing how he had instantly dropped to half HP, Lonesome Flower's face went pale.

However, this phase didn't last very long, as Azure Sea Breeze was working very hard to regain aggro. While Vanessa was attacking them, she also complained about Stormwind City.

The players never thought that Vanessa was a bad guy.

In this world, there were many that were actually sympathetic to this charming female Thief.

The two girls were affected by her speech and unknowingly stopped their attacking and healing, but they quickly started again after Lu Li yelled at them. He had no intention of dying because of the Boss' lines.

When her HP dropped below 20%, Vanessa Van Cleef became enraged and started to blow up the ship.

No matter how beautiful she was, her craziness would pull anyone back to reality.

"Follow me!" Lu Li turned and ran. The others quickly followed suit.

The system would never have designed an Instance Dungeon that was unsolvable. Lu Li brought everyone to some ropes by the side of the boat which could be used to swing off the hull and avoid the explosion.

He had thought that the girls wouldn't dare to jump, but he didn't think that their swings would be smoother than his.

By now, the explosion that Vanessa started had dissipated. As this was a videogame, the explosion had no effect on the ship's hull.

They continued to damage Vanessa, but she no longer did anything as flashy as the explosion.

Her parents were killed when she was 12, which was the reason she had developed this hatred. Fighting this Boss felt like they were a reading story; everyone's emotions were conflicted.

"It's just a game; don't take it too seriously. When we come back, we'll see her again," Lu Li said as he tried to lighten up the mood.

This argument was surprisingly effective and quickly did away with the sadness in the player's hearts.

"It's unfortunate though," Lu Li muttered.

"Why is it unfortunate?" March Rain was right next to him, so she could hear him.

"There won't be a World Announcement."

Lu Li changed the subject. His words didn't make much sense, but Azure Sea Breeze would have known what he was talking about.

Clearing the Death Mines at ordinary difficulty wasn't rewarded with a World Announcement. However, if they could do it at this difficulty, they could probably complete it at Elite or higher difficulties too.

Of course, Lu Li didn't really care about the World Announcements. He was just sad that he didn't get to see the Hidden Boss.

The final Boss of this Instance Dungeon was Vanessa Van Cleef. However, there was a certain chance that players would be able to face the Defias Brotherhood founder, Edwin Van Cleef, in his spirit form.

That was the so called Hidden Boss.

The Great Thief

Chapter 116: Broken Skull

Lu Li was a little sad that they hadn't encountered the Hidden Boss, but the others didn't know about its existence. There was a sense of excitement in the air as soon as they had completed the Instance Dungeon. Remnant Dream was already eagerly looting the body.

Although Vanessa lost her parents at a young age, she was still the oldest member of the Defias Brotherhood. There was no way that her items would be bad, so Lu Li was also looking forward to this moment.

"Brotherhood Cloak, waaahh! It's a Steel Cloak for Thieves. It has an additional skill that increases the Stealth effect by 50%. Brother Lu Li, isn't that great?" Remnant Dream had been following the party for a long time and was now able to determine the value of an item based on its special effects.

"Of course."

Lu Li nodded, but was a little disappointed.

The Brotherhood Cloak was pretty good. Lots of people would want this cloak as it could compensate for a player's lack of skill in using Stealth. However, for a player like Lu Li, this effect had no practical significance. His Shadow Cloak was better in general for him.

"Don't be disappointed; take it anyway. You should be able to find someone who is willing to trade for it."

Azure Sea Breeze looked at Lu Li's face and immediately knew that he already had something better.

Everyone still unanimously decided that the cloak should be given to Lu Li. He accepted it and put it into his backpack.

"Defias Ring! This ring… is so beautiful…"

The expressions of the three boys turned dark. What did its beauty have to do with anything? They wanted to know the attributes; who cared about the way it looked?

"Bronze, plus 5 Agility and 2 Strength, no special effects."

Remnant Dream's standards had also been raised. She knew that if it wasn't a Steel item, it probably wasn't any good.

"Brother Lu Li, do you want it?" Remnant Dream actually really wanted it, not because it was better than what she currently had, but because it was beautiful.

"You can take it. This isn't as good as what I already have."

Seeing how much she liked it, Lu Li didn't have the heart to say no.

"This Instance Dungeon didn't feel too hard. When are we going to try the higher difficulties?" Azure Sea Breeze asked.

"Let's wait until tomorrow. I want to go kill a Boss; you take Remnant Dream somewhere to level. Her level is still too low," Lu Li said as he shook his head.

He was currently LV16, while Azure Sea Breeze, Lonesome Flower and March Rain were LV15. Only Remnant Dream was still not yet LV15.

Remnant Dream immediately lowered her head. She was a student, so she had to study in the day and could only play at night. Although the game world was sunny, she couldn't go without rest. It was natural that her level would fall behind.

"Don't let her get too tired."

Lu Li softened his voice after seeing the little girl's guilty look.

After leaving the Instance Dungeon, Lu Li made some Intermediate Health Potions before heading into the Exchange Hall.

He first bought some high damage arrows before shopping around for a crossbow. He intended to kill Illidan's Shadow again as the items that it had dropped were just too great.

Only Illidan's Shadow could attract him enough to stand in a corner and do nothing but shoot for a good portion of the day.

He had long since forgotten about the Death Knight. The first reason was because the First Clear hadn't give him any particularly good items. However, the more important reason was that the Boss had been discovered by Glory Capital. It didn't matter if they couldn't fight it themselves, as they could also enlist other players to help them.

His LV5 Steel Bow's attack was too low, despite having a poison effect. It had taken him a really long time to kill Illidan's Shadow.

As such, it was important that he bought a good long ranged weapon.

The Exchange Hall's range of selection was getting better, but finding a particularly great item was also becoming more difficult. The current Exchange Hall fee was 5%, which was not a negligible amount. Lu Li also knew that after the third update, this fee would be increased to 10%. This would result in many more shops appearing.

Lu Li currently didn't have any plans to open a shop as he didn't have enough stock. Attempting to open a shop right now would cost him a lot of money.

Buying a shop was even more unthinkable as players simply couldn't afford to do it. It took the top ten big financial groups working together to set up a virtual office and even then, they could only just cover the rent.

After some browsing, Lu Li's eyes suddenly lit up.

Broken Skull (Steel): Damage 20-28, Agility 6. Special Effect: There is a certain probability of dealing Piercing damage to the target. Equipment Requirement: LV10. Durability 13/32.

This was better than Lu Li's LV5 Steel bow.

Poison Bow (Steel): Damage 15-24, Agility 3. Special Effect: There is a certain probability of poisoning the target. Equipment Requirement: LV5. Durability 28/28.

There were three additional attribute points and an increase in the damage range. The effect wasn't that much better, but what was important was that the Broken Skull was a crossbow. Crossbows had a higher fire rate than bows. For every 10 shots a bow could make, a crossbow could make 13-15.

Piercing damage was a very common effect among crossbows. The pierce meant that it could ignore defence and deal maximum critical damage to the target.

For example, if he was fighting Illidan's Shadow, what was normally 20-30 damage would be at least 60 if the Pierce effect was activated. Compared to the Poison Bow, its DPS was much higher.

However, it wasn't cheap and was priced at 15 gold coins.

Lu Li didn't let this stop him – he had just made a million dollars.

After buying the crossbow, he looked around for some crossbow proficiency skill books.

These kinds of skill books weren't very common, but they had a large demand. Lu Li couldn't find a single one.

He quickly let it go.

A hunter's crossbow proficiency could increase its damage by 5%. A non-hunter could learn crossbow proficiency, but it would only increase the damage by a maximum of 2%. Lu Li didn't think that the small bonus was that important.

After he had bought everything, he went to the Empty Abyss.

The sight of the Abyss was breathtaking. As Lu Li stood by the cliff and watched the vortex rotate, he started to feel sick.

Remaining determined, he drew in a deep breath and jumped into the whirlpool.

He then turned into a small seal and patiently waited.

This time he wasn't so lucky. He had been in the vortex for quite a while, but he still hadn't been thrown into the cave. He could only helplessly keep waiting.

Lu Li was a successful person and as such, many players admired him, were jealous of him or hated him. However, most players didn't despise him and just considered him to be a really lucky guy.

After spinning around for so long, most people would have left by killing themselves.

Lu Li wasn't like most people. In moments like these, he would think about his past life and remember the feeling of despair.

Being tossed around by the whirlpool didn't feel great, but no matter what, he would always have hope because he was willing to fight for the things he cared about.

Through the pain, he even felt a bit of happiness.

This was simply insane!

The system didn't torture him for too long. After about half an hour, he was finally tossed into the cave.

As he lay on the cold, hard floor, Lu Li still felt like he was spinning. He was also struggling to cancel the Seal Transformation spell. He slowly pushed himself off the ground and made his way towards the stone gate.

The key hadn't disappeared from when he used it last time, so he took it out and put it into the keyhole. The circles on the stone gate began to light up, opening the cage of Illidan's Shadow once again.

The Great Thief

Chapter 117: Trade Skill

Of course, others had tried to defeat this Boss before.

Previously, Lu Li had fought it while he had a bounty on him. There had been many Imperial Secret Service players and people from other guilds who were after his bounty. As such, the Boss under the whirlpool no longer remained a secret.

Some Druids had transformed into seals and attempted to enter. Those who could endure the ferocity of the whirlpool were thrown into the cave.

However, none of them could open the stone door, so they quickly gave up.

As such, Illidan's Shadow became Lu Li's private Boss. Unless other players received quests from NPCs and were sent here directly, this Boss would only be accessible by him.

This time, after putting-on his better equipment, he only spent 3.5 hours to defeat it and consumed 40 Intermediate Health Potions in the process. Intermediate Health Potions now costed 30 silver coins per bottle. Adding on the few quivers of Arrows he had used, the cost of killing this Boss was around 10-20 gold coins.

Lu Li would still be determined to fight it, even if he made a loss.

After killing it, his EXP rose by 45% of his bar. If he killed Illidan's Shadow again tomorrow, and trained for a bit, he could easily reach LV17. After this, he could then consider accepting the upgrading-profession quest.

Apart from the handsome EXP reward, there was also the equipment, materials and Skill Books to look forward to.

The Boss had once again dropped a Shadow Cloak Skill Book.

Although Lu Li had already learned that skill, he could sell it for quite a bit of money. This Skill Book was worth far more than any piece of Steel grade equipment.

The Skill Book alone made killing Illidan's Shadow worthwhile.

This time, it also dropped a piece of Shoulder Plate Armour. Although it was Steel grade and had a special effect, it simply couldn't compare to the Shadow Cloak that he had obtained last time.

Lu Li sent its information to Moonlight, asking him if he wanted it or not.

Moonlight was not picky and immediately replied, saying that he would pay 5 gold coins for it.

Five gold coins for a piece of Steel grade equipment that had a special effect was a reasonable price.

Apart from equipment and Skill Book, Illidan also dropped a material – Shadow Essence. This could be used to forge Warlock equipment and was therefore useless to Lu Li. It also couldn't be sold for very much at this stage, so he could only put it in his storage and wait for its value to increase.

After killing the Boss, Lu Li did not continue to train, but instead returned to town.

He was still the top ranked player in the Level Rankings by at least half a level, so he wasn't in a rush to continue training. Moreover, in Dawn, level didn't determine everything. There were many other important things to take care of, for example, Trade Skills.

Trade Skills in Dawn were quite complex and even Lu Li didn't have a full understanding of them.

However, his knowledge was enough.

The were 4 main 'collection' types – Herbalism, Mining, Skinning and Logging, which branched out into further sub-categories.

Lu Li planned to learn Herbalism and Mining.

He chose Herbalism for his Alchemy, and Mining because he knew many places that contained rare and valuable resources. It would be a pity not to harvest them.

Moreover, Mining brought the most benefits in terms of profit.

Normally, players would learn Mining and one of the other three collection Trade Skills. Players often opted for Skinning or Herbalism. Logging had limited uses, so most players only chose it because that was their role in their guild.

Lu Li actually wanted to learn Skinning as well – apart from being able to obtain large amounts of fur, one could also obtain many different food ingredients.

However, Dawn only allowed players to choose two different types of collection Trade Skills, so he gave up on the thought.

Skinning didn't have much skill requirement – as long as a monster was beast-type, anyone could skin it. As such, fur and meat were quite common in the Exchange Hall.

There were also many non-collection Trade Skills. These included Jewellery, Engineering, Enchanting, Forging, Tailoring, Alchemy, Brewing, Planting, Cooking, Fishing, etc…

Even after playing the game for three years, Lu Li hadn't been able to fully investigate all of them.

There was no limit on how many of these other Trade Skills a player could learn. However, they were restricted to only learning two within a town's Trade Skill District. If a player had learned two or more Trade Skills already, the NPC would no longer teach them.

However, these restrictions were nothing to Lu Li. After all, he knew many ways to obtain Trade Skills, such as finding NPCs in the wilderness, doing secret quests, or trading in Fame Points.

Nevertheless, he didn't plan to be a Trade Skills player for his whole life.

After giving it some thought, he decided to learn Engineering, Alchemy, Fishing and Cooking.

He would have to wait until he found the opportunity to learn Fishing and Cooking, while he had already learned Alchemy. He had far-surpassed the Intermediate level, and was sure that after a few days, he could become an Advanced Alchemist.

Lu Li had learned Engineering from an NPC at Rattan City by paying money. This took up one of the skills he could learn from NPCs in towns or cities, and had cost him 10 times more than it normally would.

Because his high-quality Bomb Blueprint required Intermediate Level Engineering to use, he had to learn Engineering and level it up.

With the Bomb, training would be much faster and more efficient.

Currently, his level of Engineering could create three things: Spanners, Bolts and Low Quality Gunpowder.

As of now now, there wasn't much he could do apart from collecting materials and making what he could. At least he could then use them to creating other things in future.

Creating Spanners and Bolts required Bronze Ingots, while Low Quality Gunpowder required Low Quality Stones, which were a Refined Product.

Lu Li cleared out the Bag with 18 bag spaces that March Rain had given him and bought a bunch of raw materials from the Exchange Hall. He then rented a private room in the Engineering Laboratory and started to make Low Quality Gunpowder.

Luckily, players did not actually have to know how to make gunpowder.

Through Lu Li's efforts, his Engineering EXP bar slowly filled up. The best thing about doing this was that players didn't need to concentrate at all. As such, many people found someone to talk to while they practiced.

Doing this required much patience, but this was no problem for Lu Li.

System: You have successfully produced some Low Quality Gunpowder. You received EXP in your Trade Skill.

System: Production failed.

Lu Li put away the Low Quality Gunpowder he had made and continued to level up his Engineering. He would gain a bit of EXP every time he produced 3-5 Low Quality Gunpowder. By the time he had reached 30 points, this EXP was drastically reduced.

As such, Lu Li started to produce Spanners.

Spanners were essential in Engineering, but were quite difficult to make.

System: You have successfully produced a Low Quality Spanner.

Lu Li threw it away.

System: You have created a Failed Spanner.

Lu Li also threw it away.

He made another 5 or 6, all of which were Normal Spanners, however, they still weren't good enough to be used.

Spanners determined the success rate of Engineering products. The better the Spanner, the more likely the player would be to successfully create something. Any player would want a Perfect Spanner and Lu Li was no exception. However, even after failing so many times, he didn't feel dejected at all.

He left the workbench, walked over to the centre of the room and sat down, closing his eyes. Of course, he wasn't practicing some kind of martial art, but rather, meditating to calm himself down as he went through each step of the production process.

The Great Thief

Chapter 118: Helping the Little Hunter Catch a Pet

No matter how realistic a virtual game was, in the end, it was just a game. Of course, players were not required to create Spanners using the same process as in real life. However, there were a few basic steps that had to be followed: using a hammer to smash Bronze Ingots into rough billets, placing the rough billets into the rolling mill to shape them, and finally, some polishing at the end.

It was impossible for anything to go wrong in the second step, so, one only had to be careful in the hammering and polishing parts.

Lu Li walked over to the workbench and did his best to hammer out 5 identical rough billets, giving them each a number. He then placed them into the rolling mill and took out 5 Crude Spanners. After this, he went to the polishing wheel and started to polish the Spanners.

After a few minutes, five completed Spanners lay side-by-side on the workbench.

This sort of batch production looked efficient, but didn't give any EXP. However, the finished products could still be used.

1 Low Quality Spanner, 2 Failed Spanners and 2 Normal Spanners.

Normal Spanners could be used to make things, but Lu Li was not satisfied with them. He recalled what he had done to craft each of the Spanners, while taking into account their respective qualities.

He concluded that what influenced the quality of a Spanner the most was the hammering.

If he used the right amount of force when hammering, and hammered the rough billets into the right dimensions, the quality of the Spanner would improve.

Knowing this, what he needed to do was quite simple.

Lu Li noisily hammered the Bronze Ingots, doing his best to control the strength he used as he worked them into rough billets. He then followed the next two steps, turning them into Spanners.

After changing his methods, Lu Li did not produce a single Failed Spanner. The worst one he made was of Normal Quality, and he was even able to produce 2 Good-Quality Spanners. If he wanted to increase the quality even more, he would probably have to use better materials. After all, it was wishful thinking to create a Perfect Quality Spanner with Bronze Ingots.

In order to save money, Lu Li had purchased the lowest-quality raw materials.

As such, he began to produce Bolts. Bolts could also be used to make other things and were quite important, so Lu Li decided to use them to increase his Engineering level

It was a pity that producing Bolts took up too much time. By the time he logged off, he still hadn't reached Intermediate Level.

He started his next day in Dawn by training and when he saw that Remnant Dream had logged on, he contacted her.

"Dreamy, you're LV15 now; come over and I'll help you catch a new pet."

Lu Li decided to help Remnant Dream increase her strength. No matter how bad her skills were, she would be able to do well as long as she had a powerful pet.

The rest of the group all went off to the Exchange Hall.

It was impossible for players to get stronger by relying on themselves to obtain equipment. It was best to trade or buy from others whenever it was appropriate.

After meeting up with the little Hunter, Lu Li took her to the Amisallan Jungle. It was a famous and dangerous place within the Grey Valley.

The Amisallan Jungle was filled with Nightmoon Tigers and was a forbidden area for players under LV15. Even teams would rather go around it than risk going through it.

One never knew when they would be jumped on by a Nightmoon Tiger in Stealth, let alone how many would jump out at them. Once they were targeted, they would be finished.

"Big brother Lu Li, I think my little leopard is pretty cute."

Remnant Dream tried to speak up for the little leopard she had been with for the past few days.

"Even though you can only summon one at a time, a Hunter can have two pets. I never said you had to give up your leopard," Lu Li patiently explained. Azure Sea Breeze would have immediately kicked out the leopard.

"Then what about my little pig?" the little Hunter asked, downcast.

"Just get rid of that pig. When you're higher level, I'll help you find an even cuter one," Lu Li said, as if he was cheering up his little sister.

Lu Li's words turned out to be quite effective and Remnant Dream immediately released her little pig, which oinked as it ran off. It was unlikely to survive in the Amisallan Jungle.

"What sort of pet are we going to catch today? Is it strong?" Remnant Dream asked, as she reluctantly put her little leopard into the Standby Pet Space.

"It's called a Shadowclaw Tiger. It has very good stats, and has higher Attack, Defence and Speed than your little leopard. It can even go into Stealth."

Shadowclaw Tigers were one of the best pets in the early stages of the game. However, they were quite rare, so finding one required luck.

The Amisallan Jungle was incredibly dangerous, but that depended on the player.

Being with a LV16 expert thief, Remnant Dream was never in any danger.

Perhaps Remnant Dream was just as Azure Sea Breeze said – not very smart, but incredibly lucky. She would always draw extremely good equipment and it didn't take long for her to find a Shadowclaw Tiger. It was lying on a grassy hill with no other monsters in sight.

Lu Li went into Stealth and crept around it, then stunned it with 1 hit.

The Shadowclaw Tiger lived up to its reputation as a rare monster – the 4-second Cheap Shot only lasted for 2 seconds on it and it took less damage than the Elite-grade monsters in Instance Dungeons. Rotating through a set of his full combo only depleted 40% of its HP.

The Elite-grade monsters in the Death Mines couldn't even handle one full combo from Lu Li.

This big tiger was extremely beautiful. It had snow-white fur, and its body was sleek, but powerfully-built. Its eyes ferocious eyes shone like topazes, but underneath them, it looked innocent and kind. Remnant Dream fell in love with it at first sight.

As soon as the tiger recovered from the stun, it immediately swiped at Lu Li.

This was its 'Sweep' skill, which dealt damage to targets in a 180-degree arc in front of it.

-127!

This was damage worthy of a top-grade pet. With Lu Li's excellent equipment, only a Boss could deal that much damage to him in 1 hit.

However, the Shadowclaw Tiger had other skills.

Tendon Rend: Mauls the target's ankles, reducing their Movement Speed 50% for 6 seconds. Cooldown Time: 10 seconds.

Thick Skin: When HP falls below 40%, reduces damage taken by 50% for 12 seconds. This skill can only be triggered every 120 seconds.

Adding onto its Stealth, it had 4 skills: Stealth, Sweep, Tendon Rend and Thick Skin.

Indeed, it was a top-grade pet!

Pets with 2 or 3 skills were innately excellent. Having 4 skills made for a top-grade pet, while a perfect pet would have 5. Of course, this wasn't necessarily always the case. After all, skills had tiers as well.

However, the Shadowclaw Tiger that Lu Li and Remnant Dream had found had 4 excellent skills.

Stealth was for utility, Sweep was an AOE skill, Tendon Rend was for Movement Control and Thick Skin was for defence!

Lu Li felt slightly disappointed. If it also had Smack, a Crowd Control skill, it would have been perfect.

After allowing the tiger to hit him once, Lu Li began to counterattack and quickly brought its HP down to less than 20%.

He stopped attacking and signalled towards Remnant Dream.

"Alright, use your Tame skill. Don't be nervous, just take it slow."

Remnant Dream hurriedly used the Tame skill on the Shadowclaw Tiger.

It was impossible to use Tame on a monster at full health, as the likelihood of Tame succeeding increased as the monster's health decreased. Every monster had 3 chances of being Tamed. After this, it would commit suicide.

Failure!

The Great Thief

Chapter 119: Preparing to Form a 10-Person Team

Seeing that Tame had failed, the little Hunter stomped on the ground in frustration.

Rare monsters were fairly hard to Tame, so Lu Li had to reduce its health even more. He didn't dare to use skills anymore, so he drank an Intermediate Health Potion and started to use his normal attacks. He hit the tiger again and again until it was at 10% HP.

"Don't be nervous, try again. You've still got 2 chances."

Remnant Dream wasn't as nervous this time, but her Tame still failed.

Lu Li was speechless. Wasn't her luck extremely good? He had no choice but to continue to decrease its HP.

8%... 6%... 5%...

Lu Li didn't stop… 2%!

"Big brother Lu Li, stop attacking, stop attacking! You're going to kill it!" Remnant Dream called out.

Lu Li couldn't help but roll his eyes. This tiger hasn't even submitted, but you're already defending it.

He flicked his Dagger and used Shadowstrike.

Lu Li could easily reach 90% Skill Completion with his Shadowstrike which would instantly kill the tiger. Remnant Dream started to wonder if he had gone crazy.

Of course he hadn't!

System: Shadowstrike Skill Completion 33%, caused 25% Skill Damage.

A damage figure of 46 appeared above the Shadowclaw Tiger's head, leaving it with just 14 HP.

Less than 1%!

"Alright, try again. If it doesn't work this time, it just means that this guy isn't fated to be with you," Lu Li nonchalantly said, disregarding the amazing feat he had just performed.

If a player who was familiar with the Manual Mode was watching, they would be flabbergasted.

Achieving high Skill Completion wasn't easy, but controlling it was even harder.

Lu Li could pretty much deal as much damage as he wanted.

The little Hunter was shocked, and her hand trembled as she touched the Shadowclaw Tiger's head in her final attempt to tame it.

Success!

It was almost impossible for Tame to fail on a monster with 10 or so HP left.

After being summoned as a pet, the tiger that was originally half as tall as a human now stood below Remnant Dream's knee . It now looked more like a cat than a tiger.

Remnant Dream cried out and picked it up as she stroked it…

The little tiger desperately tried to squirm out of its new owner's embrace. However, it could only pitifully cry out.

Pets all fell to LV1 after being tamed. If Remnant Dream wanted the tiger to become strong enough to fight, she would have to help train it.

After Remnant Dream had caught her pet, the two returned to town and called their teammates to enter the Instance Dungeon.

This time, they did not choose the Normal level.

Instead, they skipped over the Elite level and went straight to the Difficult level!

"Alright, this is going to be fun. Go hard or go home, eh? I'm sure the Elite level is too easy for us."

The childish Azure Sea Breeze didn't feel pressured at all, but instead was grinning with excitement.

"I trust you," March Rain said as she gripped her Staff, full of confidence in Lu Li.

Lonesome Flower was completely focused on his little sister. As long as she was fine with it, so was he. Of course, he was unhappy with how much she trusted Lu Li.

As for Remnant Dream… she never knew what was going on.

They found Horatio, who had issued the quest near the entrance the last time. He was still lying behind the abandoned mine cart and still looked half-dead.

"Adventurers, you've finally come," Horatio weakly said, as he looked at them and struggled to get up.

"We've killed Vanessa and the quest log shows that we've completed our quest. Please give us our reward," Lu Li said, as he showed Horatio the quest log. The system notified him that he had completed the Death Mines quest and he instantly received 6% EXP.

Apart from the EXP, they also received Fame for the Stormwind City, but there were no equipment or money rewards. It seemed that this half-dead NPC was incredibly poor. Lu Li and his team didn't waste any time and accepted the next quest, 'Stormwind City General' – a letter-delivery quest. They then proceeded to enter the Instance Dungeon.

Compared to other teams, Lu Li's was quite advanced. Most other teams were still struggling with the Normal level, while even the elite teams would be destroyed in the Elite level.

"Apart from us, the fastest are the Blood-red War Flag. Yesterday, I heard that they reached the Piercing Heart Wolf General, but their tank wasn't strong enough. Otherwise, they would have defeated him."

Azure Sea Breeze knew all of the latest news and rumours. After all, he liked to make friends.

"Did they ask you for help?" Lu Li asked.

"Of course. They tried to get me to join their guild. They made it seem as though not joining was a terrible loss for me," Azure Sea Breeze said disdainfully.

"If you want to join, you can join them. Big guilds treat their experts well," Lu Li joked.

"My bro, don't joke around with me. What sort of future would I have there? No matter what they say to me, they'll definitely give the good equipment they find to the tank that they raised. I'm familiar with this sort of thing," Azure Sea Breeze replied.

"Since you're not leaving, let's all keep our eyes out for suitable people to join us. We need to find another 5 people for the Wailing Cave, which is a 10-person Instance Dungeon. It'll be impossible for us to clear it with 5 people," Lu Li said. What he had said earlier was a joke – none of the people in his team liked the style of the big guilds.

"Leave it to me," Azure Sea Breeze said as he proudly patted his chest.

"We need to test any potential people for a week. If any of us aren't happy with them, they have to leave," Lu Li said, as he started to clear out the smaller monsters.

Upon hearing this, Azure Sea Breeze smiled bitterly. He also went to draw the aggro of the monsters, muttering, "Teams take time to grow together. How can you send someone off in a week? I'll lose a lot of face."

"Since we're forming an important group, we need to have strict requirements," Lu Li explained.

One reason was because he had too many secrets. The other was that he knew what sort of person Azure Sea Breeze was. He was extremely extroverted and friendly, as well as incredibly skilled. It would be no problem for him to lead a group. However, he had a fatal flaw; he trusted people too easily. He was the type to have a multitude of friends, but not a single confidant.

From what Lu Li remembered, Azure Sea Breeze had been fairly famous when he had entered the game. He was well-loved, was on the Level Rankings and had set records for Instance Dungeons…

However, someone had betrayed him after he had obtained the Supreme One Ring. It was all downhill from there.

In order to upgrade the Supreme One Ring, he had spent an incredible amount of time on searching for materials. His Semi-Permanent Party had disbanded and he had been hunted down for the ring. Some of his 'closest friends' had asked to keep the ring safe for him, then joined the groups hunting him down when he refused.

Although Azure Sea Breeze was dissatisfied with the restrictions set by Lu Li, there was nothing he could do.

After all, the core of the group was Lu Li and he had absolute faith in him. After all, without Lu Li, they wouldn't even be together.

While discussing their new team, they continued to push on and quickly arrived at the first Boss, Glubtok the Foreman. There were rumours that he secretly loved the long-legged Vanessa. However, because of his demonic appearance, he could only be a doorkeeper for his goddess.

Azure Sea Breeze didn't him at all and immediately charged.

The Great Thief

Chapter 120: Steel-Grade Leather Armour

Killing this two-headed fatty had been a piece of cake last time and it wouldn't be too difficult this time either. This was in spite of the fact that the Instance Dungeon was now 40% harder than last time and that the fatty had a new skill.

A continuously moving wall of fire appeared around him, which would cause a player to receive massive damage and be Burned if they touched it. There wouldn't even be time for healing before the player was killed.

In order to fight Glubtok, players had to slip past the wall of fire and attack it, while fighting off the smaller monsters that it summoned. None of this was a requirement in the Normal Level Instance Dungeon.

Remnant Dream held on to Lu Li's Leather Armour as she followed him closely. She would occasionally attack as well.

The little tiger, who was named "Cutey", was put on the 'follow' mode and followed closely behind its master. After all, it was still too low-levelled to be of any help.

The main performer in this battle was Lonesome Flower. He had taken the spotlight quite often, especially when Lu Li was unable to. With his LV10 Silver grade Staff, he could easily and effectively attack from afar.

With the other players serving as distractions, Lonesome Flower was able take down the Boss with no problems.

However, they had spent 30 minutes to this and their entire party had even died once. They knew that this Instance Dungeon would definitely take a long time, and that they probably wouldn't be able to clear it within a day.

After Glubtok died, Azure Sea Breeze levelled up and became the second player in Dawn to reach LV16.

Everyone else also received quite a lot of EXP – even more than Lu Li had obtained from Illidan's Shadow. This was no less than expected from a Difficult Level Instance Dungeon. Lu Li was now 30% away from LV17 and would probably be able to level up after killing the second Boss, Helix.

"Let's see what the Boss dropped."

The Instance Dungeon demanded absolute concentration, so all of the players sat down to take a rest.

Remnant Dream was in charge of collecting the equipment. She brought back a Magic Staff, a material, a Recipe and 2 pieces of Bronze-grade equipment.

The Recipe was for an Intermediate Mana Potion and wasn't very rare. After all, the potions were already being sold in the Exchange Hall. Lu Li had not learned how to make them yet, so he decided that he might as well use it.

However, he didn't plan to buy the materials to make Intermediate Mana Potions. After all, he couldn't increase his EXP through making them and selling them wouldn't earn him much either.

"What are the Staff's stats?" Lonesome Flower couldn't resist asking.

"I'm not giving it to you; it's for big sister March."

Remnant Dream ran over and handed the Magic Staff to March Rain. March Rain smiled as she patted her head and showed everyone the Staff's stats. It was a Staff for Healers and gave 10% Healing Critical Chance.

"Damn, 10% Healing Critical Chance. That's pretty good."

Lonesome Flower was quite happy that his little sister had obtained such an excellent piece of equipment. Although March Rain's original weapon was extremely good, it was too low-levelled.

Lu Li shook his head.

"This Staff's stats aren't that great. Healers don't need Healing Critical Chance, but guaranteed buffs."

The other people felt as though a bucket of cold water had been poured on them, but couldn't help but agree with Lu Li's words.

Healers were often faced with two situations: non-desperate and desperate.

In non-desperate situations, they could casually heal their teammates with their normal spells, so the increased healing from the Critical Chance wouldn't be of much use.

On the other hand, if the bonus healing from the Critical Chance never came in desperate situations, it would also be useless.

"Which one should I use then?" March Rain began to trust Lu Li more and more. She had originally thought that this weapon was the best, but Lu Li's words had showed her how wrong she had been.

"I guess it's better for you to use the new one for now. It's higher level and had better stats. In the future, you can switch it out for a better one, so don't be afraid to spend some money when the time comes. If you don't have enough, you can ask us," Lu Li replied.

"Hmph. After saying so much, the conclusion is still to use it," Lonesome Flower coldly said.

"Flower, that little 'hmph' made you seem so cute and girly," Azure Sea Breeze laughed. He was met with a whack to the head.

After joking around and chatting, they began to kill the smaller monsters.

There were many more monsters, when compared to the Normal Level Instance Dungeon, on the way to the second Boss. They were all LV15 Elite grade monsters, so it took some time to kill them. However, they gave quite a bit of EXP and soon, Remnant Dream's pet reached LV9. After levelling up another 2 times, it would be able to fight with them.

The second Boss caused their party to die many times, so no one dared to be careless.

However, they were able to use the same positioning as before, so it wasn't too hard to defeat Helix. All it took was some more time, and for the Healer to continuously drink Mana Potions and summon Shadowfiends.

Luckily, March Rain had the Shadowfiend skill. Otherwise, it would be difficult to sustain such a long battle.

After the second Boss fell, Lu Li, Lonesome Flower and March Rain all levelled up.

Lu Li had reached LV17 even faster than he had expected. Originally, he had thought that he would only level up after completing the Instance Dungeon.

Although the Difficult Level Instance Dungeon was harder than the Normal Level Instance Dungeon by 40%, it gave around 70-80% more EXP. The Elite Level Instance Dungeon gave 40% more EXP.

The second Boss didn't drop any rare materials, blueprints or recipes, but it was definitely not stingy. It still gave 2 pieces of LV15 Steel-grade equipment – one for Remnant Dream and one for Lu Li.

Remnant Dream's was called 'Piercing Harpoon', and was an excellent, long weapon. Hunter melee weapons were usually just for decoration and stats, so these were all that mattered.

Lu Li received a piece of Leather Armour. According to Dawn's system, this was a piece of Chest Armour, so it counted as an Upper Garment.

Concealing Chest Armour (Steel): 18 Armour, Agility6, Constitution2, Special Effect: Has a certain chance to absorb 20% of damage taken, Level Requirement: LV15. Durability: 28/28.

Lu Li's original Weaver's Leather Armor had been traded for his Steel grade Bandanna, so he had bought a LV10 Bronze-grade Armor to temporarily use. It had very ordinary stats, but he had not been able to find anything better. As such, he was overjoyed to obtain this Concealing Chest Armour.

The third Boss, Deathgod 5000, was no challenge at all. Even in the Nightmare Level Instance Dungeon, it would probably be extremely easy to beat as well. Lu Li's party only spent 10 minutes to defeat it.

It dropped a piece of equipment for Shamans that no one could use, so they decided to sell it.

The Piercing Heart Wolf General that they had bitterly struggled with in the past did not show any mercy this time either. It made them miserable from the moment they started fighting, and because it ended up killing their Healer, everyone in the party died.

They failed in their second attempt as well. Azure Sea Breeze activated Shield Wall a bit too late and the Fearless Barrier wasn't enough to save him. As such, everyone once again died.

"Alright, let's stop here for today."

"We're stopping after only dying twice?" Azure Sea Breeze didn't feel like giving up so easily.

"It's not because we can't beat it, but because we're all so tired," Lu Li said, as he looked at the two girls.

"Plus, I want to go and try out the Arena later. If you guys want to continue, go ahead. We shouldn't have any problems finishing off the last few Bosses tomorrow."

The Great Thief

Chapter 121: Arena

The first thing that Lu Li did after he exited the Instance Dungeon was craft more Intermediate Health Potions.

As his Alchemy levels increased, the crafting time of the potions and the chance of failure both decreased. He decided to relax while waiting for his potions to be made.

As he waited, he browsed the forums and researched the current rules regarding PVP.

The Arena mode was still quite undeveloped.

Players had to request for the system to make a battle room. The number of players was optional and the battle system was quite flexible.

A fee of 1 gold was required to create a battle room. Challengers could request to join the room after paying 10 silver coins. If the challenger won, then he would receive 20 silver coins, but if the room owner won, the entry fee would be rewarded to him.

If the room owner lost, he would also lose the room.

A password could also be set to the room, so that those only those who knew the password would be granted access.

Lu Li planned on fighting Water Fairy tonight.

Water Fairy had been a famous Thief in Lu Li's past life. Although she did not have the best skills, her equips were godly.

Lu Li planned on preparing and practising beforehand in case things went south during the battle.

Painted Feathers, LV15 Mage, Wins: 43 Losses: 15

Lu Li had found a random room and saw that the owner was a LV15 Mage. Although his opponent appeared to be decent, Lu Li was still confident that he could win.

System: Dear player, welcome to the battle system. Would you like to change your battle ID?

Lu Li froze for a second, realizing that the earlier version of the battle system allowed you to change your battle ID. Most people skipped this process because it was unnecessary, and nobody cared about being anonymous.

This function was taken out before Lu Li had joined the game in his past life, because not many people used it.

Lu Li thought for a second and randomly changed his ID to 'No Name'. The name wasn't a childish joke; he just wanted to sound cool as he wore his Steel-Grade Bandana.

Since he changed his name, he thought that he might as well change his appearance.

He took out his Steel-Grade Bandana and wrapped it around his face. Coupled with his Black Shadow Cloak, this made him look like a complete badass.

After paying the entry fee of 10 silver, Lu Li was teleported on a round battle field. The arena was flat and was no more than 50 yards in diameter. There were no obstacles in the arena for Lu Li to hide behind.

The battle field was chosen by the room owner and was selected because it gave him an advantage. This was one of the benefits that encouraged players to create rooms.

Painted Feather was on a 7-win streak. Gaining 10 silver per win, he had almost broken even with the cost of creating a room.

But now, a new challenger had entered the room.

It was a thief dressed in a body of leather armour with a dagger in each hand.

Painted Feathers almost laughed out loud when he saw him, finding his appearance to be amusing. Normally, Lu Li's outfit would be somewhat mysterious. However, after a day of challengers coming in who were dressed exactly the same, he couldn't help but laugh.

The new challenger that stood before him was even more outrageous. Not only was he wearing a bandana, but he was also wearing a black cloak. Did he really think that he looked cool?

When he checked the challenger's ID to know he had come from, Painted Feathers became even more annoyed.

No name!

Could one be any more arrogant?

"I hate people are more arrogant than me."

Painted Feathers resolved to teach this guy a lesson.

He summoned a Water Elemental which appeared on the battle field.

Lu Li became alert and prepared for battle.

Players who created rooms were all confident in their skills. The Mage was already at an advantage with the Water Elemental alone.

Lu Li approached him carefully, and when he was within the Water Elemental's aggro range, he quickly dashed behind Painted Feathers, then stunned him from behind.

Painted Feathers knew he was in trouble and before he could react, he was already stunned.

A Pro!

He knew that he was no match.

Water Elementals were very alert and intelligent summons; they were able to detect stealth units.

This No-Name guy had managed to sneak past the Water Elemental before it could even react. This demonstrated how fast Lu Li was.

After being stunned, he was attacked relentlessly.

Painted Feathers realised how helpless he was after he found out that his Frost Bolt only dealt 50 damage to Lu Li. On the other hand, all of Lu Li's damage figure were well above 100 and sometimes reached even more than 200~300.

The significant damage difference was due to the Piercing Armour effect.

After the stun duration finished, Painted Feathers quickly escaped, as his Water Elemental raised its arm and casted Frost Nova.

The Water Elemental's Frost Nova was a weaker version of the real skill and only had a radius of 8 yards.

However, everyone still respected its power because of the freeze duration.

The random 8-second freeze duration of the Frost Nova left its frozen targets helpless. All that they could do was wait for their death.

"Eh?"

Painted Feathers was hoping to see a frozen Thief. He though that with his decent gear, high attack and Water Elemental, he could still turn the tables around.

However, this was all according to Lu Li's calculations.

As the icy mist faded, it revealed that nothing was hit by the Frost Nova.

Painted Feathers immediately felt a sharp pain behind his back, and he was instantly transported back outside the room.

Lu Li had won the battle and received 20 silver as reward.

His PVP rating was now Wins: 1 Losses: 0

The first battle he had fought was relatively easy. It wasn't because Water Elemental Mages were weak, but because they currently had no shields.

Once Mages acquired their shields, a battle between a Mage and a Thief would be more entertaining.

The second battle he fought was with a Warrior.

In Dawn, there were no overpowered Class, but only overpowered players.

The warrior that Lu Li faced this time was much weaker and was continuously stunned by him. When the battle was over, he was whisked out of the room before he was even able to activate any of his gear's actives.

Lu Li breezed through his other opponents as well and quickly stacked up on wins.

10 winning streak!

The Great Thief

Chapter 122: Fighting Water Fairy (Part 1)

The Arena was much simpler compared to what Lu Li had remembered.

Some players formed chat rooms to exchange information and tips on PVP.

The biggest chat room was called Pride.

Saltless Exchange: Painted Feathers, what happened to your room? Are we still going to practice today?

Jade Flower Lover: He was defeated and lost his room. He's crying right now.

Saltless Exchange: What happened?

Festive Sacrifice: Apparently, he went up against a hardcore player.

Painted Feathers: I'm not crying; it was just 1 loss. Why would I cry…

Saltless Exchange: That's right; it's not like you haven't lost before. Want me to get revenge?

Painted Feathers: Forget it. You don't stand a chance.

Saltless Exchange: Is he a strong pro? You don't even have the courage for a rematch.

Painted Feathers: I'm not sure who he is. His ID is No Name. Has anyone heard of him?

Old Man Next Door: Who's talking about No Name!?

Painted Feathers: I just opened an arena room and got defeated by a guy called No Name. Do you know him Old Man?

Old Man Next Door: Was he wearing a black cloak and a black bandana? I don't know him but he defeated my room as well. God dammit! I had just opened up the room as well. What a waste of gold.

Painted Feathers: At least I didn't lose too much silver. He's pretty much undefeatable with his speed and attack.

Iron Sword: I see that there are others that were defeated by him. I just lost to him and was about to seek revenge, but I guess I'll just be wasting my time.

Painted Feathers: Haha, Iron Sword, you lost as well? Where did this random guy come from? I thought all the Pros train in the wild.

Iron Sword: Maybe it's because you lose EXP in the wild when you die, whereas we can only lose money here. Anyways, this No Name guy is too strong. We better avoid him for a while.

A random Pro had come out of nowhere and defeated more than 10 confident, skilled players. The news of this started to spread like wild fire.

Players such as Moonlight would often practice on others that were around his same skill level. Occasionally, he would also go to the battle front to fight players who were experienced in PVP. Lu Li had come in and casually defeated everyone, which made them feel very nervous and insecure.

However, Lu Li was only using these arena battle rooms to relax before his fight with Water Fairy.

After he could not find a worthy opponent, he decided to travel to the Empty Abyss to train on Illidan's Shadows. He planned on fighting Illidan's Shadow, then facing off against Water Fairy after a good night's rest.

After 3 hours, Illidan's Shadow was defeated.

System: Illidian's Shadow successful slain, 1 SP will be received.

Lu Li heard the System's notification and phased out for a second. He checked the System Log again to make sure he had heard right.

Finally! An extra SP!

He had not received an SP as a reward from the System since he had levelled up his Shadow Strike.

After the last Instance Dungeon, Remnant Dream and Azure Sea Breeze had each been rewarded with 1 SP, but not Lu Li. This random SP reward made Lu Li extremely happy.

He now had 10 SP in total: 8 SP from reaching LV17, 1 SP from Shadow Strike and 1 from Illidan's Shadow.

His SP distribution was as follows: 3 SP for Shadow Strike, 2 SP for Backstab, 1SP for Unlock, 1SP for Seal Transformation and 1SP for Slit Throat. He still had 2 SP remaining.

Besides the bonus SP, the boss also gave 13% EXP as reward. In addition to this, he also received a copy of the 'Shadow Cloak' Skill Book.

Shadow Cloak was an essential Thief skill. It was extremely difficult to fight against skilled Mages without it. Without Shadow Cloak, a Thief would be locked in place because of the Mage's debuffs and crowd control.

However, it was still extremely rare. The 2 copies that Lu Li had would sell for a great price.

Other than the Shadow Cloak Skill Book, Illidan's Shadow also dropped a Steel-Grade Equip for Mages and Priests that had decent stats. He considered giving it to Lonesome Flower.

After defeating the Boss, Lu Li left to look for a Skills Trainer and decided to add the remaining 2 SP to Slit Throat. This greatly increased its damage and critical chance.

Moonlight came to look for Lu Li soon after.

"Don't get careless. I've fought her twice and we're tied at a win each. She has many Silver Grade Equips on her," Moonlight reminded Lu Li. Since Warriors countered Thieves, to be able to steal a win off Moonlight showed just how overpowered Water Fairy's gear was.

"Why did you rank her before Hornet's Nest?" Lu Li asked.

"Hornet's Nest has better skills…" Moonlight subconsciously answered, unsure as to why Lu Li had asked that question.

"Exactly. No matter how good your gear is, you're not threat if you don't have the skills. If I can't defeat her, then I shouldn't even bother challenging Hornet's Nest." Lu Li never underestimated or overestimated his opponents.

He had Silver-Grade Equipment as well.

His Rager set was on par with many Silver Grade Equips and he had gotten his Bloodstained Badge back from Azure Sea Breeze. His ring was even better than Silver Grade and the rest of his gear had powerful actives and passives.

As for his skills, his Shadow Strike was maxed out and he also had Backhand Backstab and Slit Throat to help him when needed.

"Eh, whatever, do as you like," Moonlight said. "That lady has heaps of money. If she sees something she likes, don't be afraid to name your price because she'll most likely accept it."

"I can't sell her anything that I'm wearing; there are some spare equips in my bag that I have trouble selling though. Hurry up and contact her. The sooner we fight, the sooner I can go home and sleep," Lu Li hurriedly urged.

He actually had Water Fairy on his friends list. However, he had ignored her many times when she wanted to fight him. It would be awkward if he contacted her first, so he asked Moonlight to contact her instead.

Water Fairy responded quickly and arrived at the Astrana arena centre.

Creating a room required talking to a specific NPC. After this, the owner would be transported to it.

"Hehe, it's rare to see you around," the beautiful girl sharply said.

"I've been busy making money," Lu Li replied.

"So, you're actually a professional player. Let me see if you've got any goods…" Water Fairy said, as she closely examined the gear that Lu Li was wearing.

The Great Thief

Chapter 123: Fighting Water Fairy (Part 2)

Lu Li took out the 'Shadow Cloak' skill book from his backpack and showed it to Water Fairy.

Her face was suddenly shocked and she quickly swallowed.

"Are you willing to sell it me?"

"Yep!"

"Why would you want to sell such a good skill book to me?"

This was too good to be true; Water Fairy didn't dare to believe it.

In Dawn, less than 10 people would end up learning Shadow Cloak. Water Fairy had been trying to buy this skill book for a long time, but had been unsuccessful so far. She didn't think that would ever find it, let alone in the hands of Lu Li.

Lu Li laughed at this scene.

The answer was self-evident and as Water Fairy realized this, her eyes widened.

"You actually found two copies of 'Shadow Cloak'!"

Three, silly girl!

Lu Li was actually quite proud of this, even if his face didn't show it. He shook the skill book in his hands and said, "If you want it, name your price. I'll sell it if you name an appropriate one. I can't really be bothered to take it to the Exchange Hall."

"One hundred gold!" Water Fairy hesitated for a moment before declaring her price.

When Lu Li first entered the game, he had been incredibly lucky and had managed to find a Mage crowd-control skill book – 'Frost Nova'. At the time, he had sold it for 20 gold, but the value of gold was $1500:1. The 20 gold he had earned translated to $30,000.

Now, the exchange rate of gold was $300:1. If Water Fairy payed 100 gold, then the value of 'Shadow Cloak' and 'Frost Nova' would be the same.

However, the price that she had named reflected her sincerity. Lu Li could have pushed to get a little more, but he didn't do so. Instead, he directly traded the skill book to her.

"100 is fine by me. Just give it to Moonlight. It'll be tonight's ante."

"Thank you so much; I'll buy you a meal one day if you're free."

Water Fairy nodded happily as she grinned. Her whole face seemed to radiate with joy.

She was the kind of person that people couldn't take their eyes off, but she had a cold demeanor, so most people kept their distance. However, in this moment, her true personality had been revealed. Who would have thought that she had such a pure smile?

"Alright, if there are no other questions, we should get started."

The more-experienced Moonlight couldn't help but feel a little embarrassed for him.

This guy deserved to be single for the rest of his life!

Water Fairy nodded and began to paint something onto her dagger.

Lu Li couldn't help but watch her and sigh. This was a benefit of being a tycoon; she had already started to use poisons.

He had Pick-Pocketed poison from the Undead Herbalist, but had already used it to fight a Boss. Later, he tried to look for poisons in the Exchange Hall but couldn't find any. He didn't know if Water Fairy had found hers, or if it had been produced by her guild members.

If it had been produced by Drizzle Court guild players, he could potentially ask about purchasing some after the PVP. For now, he would just forget about it; there was no way she would give him some before the fight.

Lu Li spent a gold coin to construct a common room that was used in Thief vs. Thief battles, before telling Water Fairy the room password.

Before long, the two of them appeared in the competition room.

This map was similar to one that Lu Li was in before; it was just a small circular platform.

Lu Li and Water Fairy made eye contact one last time before almost simultaneously going into Stealth. The two of them immediately lost track of each other, but the arena wasn't very big. Eventually, they were bound to run into one another.

Lu Li's footsteps were light, as he floated about.

It wasn't long before Water Fairy should have been near where he was originally. Lu Li carefully tried to sense any movement in the air. His brain was simulating the field like a net, attempting to sift out any irregularities.

In his previous life, Lu Li also needed to be sneaky, so his Stealthing-ability was very natural.

However, he quickly realized that he had been overconfident.

He felt a movement in the air behind him and his neck hair quickly stood on its ends.

A dagger was moving as quick as an arrow towards the back of his head.

His opponent must have had some kind of specialized Stealth equipment!

Lu Li's brain reacted quickly. He moved his arms, legs and contorted his body, managing to block the dagger without even looking at it.

Chiang! With that sound, Lu Li knew that he had blocked the attack, especially since he had not been stunned by Cheap Shot.

Water Fairy was not disappointed by this and followed her first attack with an even stronger one.

Lu Li had previously studied Water Fairy's PVP tutorial videos, but now that he was facing her in person, he could really feel the oppressive nature of her attacks.

There was one word to describe them—fast!

Water Fairy's attack speed was so high, that for every attack Lu Li got in, she attacked back three times.

However, this kind of speed didn't come from her high attack-speed attributes. Instead, she had chosen to exchange effectiveness for speed. Her attacks were relentless, but she didn't pay attention to her Skill Completion, as the damage she dealt was around 30-40.

The poison that she used also wasn't what Lu Li had expected. It was more of a fast-acting poison that allowed each attack to deal more damage.

On the other hand, when Lu Li attacked her, he would deal 80-100 damage.

System: Shadowstrike Skill Completion 65%, resulting in 72% damage.

This should have had a high Skill Completion, but was reduced because it was blocked.

Overall, Lu Li was losing more HP, but only by a small margin.

Lu Li knew that this was a bad situation to be in, but he didn't panic. He kept his cool and continued to allow her to come at him.

Even her flurry of attacks had gaps in them. Water Fairy's attacks were affected by changing positions and casting spells. When Lu Li found an opportunity, he activated the Swiftness effect of his shoes and swept her aside. She tried to turn and follow him, but paused for a moment.

This was the effect that Lu Li wanted.

System: Shadowstrike Skill Completion 89%, dealing 112% damage and stunning for 1 second!

After being stunned, Water Fairy frantically tried to cast Shadowmeld. In the moment Shadowmeld took effect, it could nullify an attack by making it lose its target. She hoped that Shadowmeld would protect her from being stunned by Cheap Shot.

In that short 1 second duration, Lu Li's attack came and Water Fairy's Shadowmeld also activated.

It looked like she had had timed it perfectly.

However, things don't always turn out as planned. Water Fairy was shocked to find that Lu Li hadn't used Cheap Shot, but a regular attack.

She had been tricked!

As she realized this, she felt the chill of a dagger behind her.

The real Cheap Shot was coming!

Fortunately, she still had another skill – Gale Steps.

This was the first time that Lu Li had seen Gale Steps.

Gale Steps was considered one of the strongest Thief skills. It gave invincibility and dealt high damage, while boosting movement speed and critical chance.

He didn't know what level Water Fairy's Gale Steps were, but a max-level Gale Steps gave 2 seconds of invincibility, 80% bonus movement speed and dealt 280% bonus damage when coming out of Stealth.

He now realized out why Moonlight had lost to her. Water Fairy's skills were far too strong. Her equipment was also very good and he was willing to bet that all her equipment was at least LV15 Steel-Grade.

Now that he had thought about it, this wasn't outside the realm of possibility. With such a big guild behind her, it would have been strange for her not to have good equipment.

Lu Li pursed his lips and maintained his straight expression while retreating backwards.

The Great Thief

Chapter 124: The World Is So Big

When one retreats, the other naturally advances. Water Fairy had no doubt that she would be able to catch up to Lu Li, as her Gale Steps gave her a significant movement-speed buff.

Just as she was about to come into contact with him, he halted his retreat and kicked the empty space in front of him.

Moonlight was capable of knocking Lu Li out of stealth with a normal kick. As such, Lu Li's Kick skill was bound to do the same, given that skills could be cast faster than regular actions.

Water Fairy made a muffled groan before appearing in front of Lu Li, as she clutched her stomach in pain.

However, she still managed to take a step and launch herself at Lu Li. She was attempting to utilize the first attack coming out of Gale Steps, which had a bonus 280% damage. After such a prolonged fight, Lu Li only had about 300 HP remaining. This attack could instantly kill him.

Was he about to lose?

Of course not!

The moment Water Fairy's dagger touched Lu Li's skin, she thought that she had won.

In that moment, he smiled at her before instantly vanishing.

Naturally, she thought that Lu Li had gone into Stealth. She followed his action and kicked towards the empty space before her.

Halfway through her kick, she realized the mistake that she had made. A sting on her back told her that Lu Li had appeared behind her.

This was the Shadow Cloak's special effect!

Lu Li was able to make three, uninterrupted attacks – Shadowstrike, a normal attack and Backstab.

After Water Fairy had turned around, he took a step forwards and positioned himself next to her. He then turned and cast a Backhand Backstab at her back.

The little HP that Water Fairy had left instantly disappeared.

Lu Li had won!

When they both stepped out of the competition room, Lu Li could see that she was eager to try again.

"Again."

The female tycoon was obviously dissatisfied.

"It's getting late, maybe another time."

Lu Li received the 200 gold coins from Moonlight while shaking his head and rejecting the challenge.

The first 100 was his own deposit and the second 100 was Water Fairy's bet.

What a quick 100 gold!

The feeling was addictively exhilarating, but it was probably best to ensure moderation.

Lu Li remembered from his previous life that there had been players who went bankrupt, or who were caught by the Internet Police because of in-game gambling. These players were mostly experts as well.

Moreover, fighting Water Fairy again wouldn't be easy. Her equipment was as good as his and she had a skill that he hadn't learned. Gale Steps alone had proved to be a great threat to him.

The reason that Lu Li won was solely because of his significant PVP experience. He was just too familiar with Dawn's gameplay, and could quickly read situations and bait out skills. In fact, the moments that Water Fairy had taken an advantage in were all within Lu Li's expectations.

Baiting out skills was especially important in PVP. Feigning positions, actions, skills and baiting out the opponent's crowd-control and crowd-control recovery skills were all necessary to winning.

Currently, players still haven't used the Manual Mode for long enough to master any of this.

If Water Fairy felt like the fight was unfair, it was only due to her shallow understanding of PVP.

She could be thinking that she shouldn't have used Shadowmeld so early, so as to save it for a more critical moment. However, even if they fought again, Lu Li still had many ways to bait out her main skills.

Her invitation was rejected, but she couldn't force Lu Li to go again, so she left in a huff.

"You can have this equipment. They aren't very good, but I'm sure you'll make do."

Lu Li handed a bag of Steel equipment to Moonlight. He fought Bosses quite regularly and had many pieces of equipment that he couldn't be bothered to sell.

Moonlight didn't mind; he immediately equipped them.

In that moment, Lu Li realized that Moonlight didn't have a complete set of equipment. He was still wearing some Bronze equipment.

"What's happened here?" Lu Li asked.

"While fighting the Gangnam Royals, I was so engrossed that I got killed a few times," Moonlight said plainly. He wasn't angry or passionate about it; his tone was as plain as water.

Fundamentally, Azure Sea Breeze and Moonlight were very different people. Azure Sea Breeze had the boldness of a Warrior, but Moonlight was more haughty and eccentric.

"You can't really buy anything good in the Exchange Hall. It would probably be better if you did some Instance Dungeons with us, as opposed to wandering around with that axe."

Lu Li understood Moonlight, but didn't necessarily agree with his philosophy.

"I had a similar thought; call me when the time comes," Moonlight said, as he waved his hand and left.

Taking advantage of the little time he had left, Lu Li quickly trained his engineering skills.

However, making Bolts wasn't enough for him to level up to Intermediate. His engineering EXP bar stayed at 62, while he required 80 points.

With a need to find new recipes, Lu Li went to the Exchange Hall. He searched for Basic Engineering Recipes, trying to find one that was cheap and easy to make.

Engineering was a very neglected profession. It didn't have access to a variety of living materials, nor could it produce a large variety of equipment. Its products were strange and mostly unreliable.

The bomb blueprint was the sole motivation for Lu Li's interest in Engineering. With 2000 damage, any monster below LV20 would instantly die to it, while any monster above LV20 would be critically wounded if hit.

He just needed to find a place with many monsters to draw together and bomb. He estimated that it would give him an entire level of EXP.

Lu Li was looking forward to being able to hold his own bomb. While browsing through the recipes being sold at the Exchange Hall, he noticed that there were a wide range of grades between them. He had been looking for a couple of dozen minutes before he finally decided on one.

Blueprint: The world Is So Big

Recipe: Engineering

Requirement: Basic (50)

Use: Teaches you how to make "The W0orld Is So Big"

The World Is So Big: This is a very wonderful item. Just try it and see. Then, you will know how big the world is.

This blueprint wasn't cheap, which was probably something to do with the strange description. The player had marked it at a price of 3 gold coins, which was equivalent to an ordinary Steel item.

However, Lu Li didn't hesitate. Once he saw the price, he immediately bought it.

The World Is So Big. Many people would have been confused by the name, but Lu Li knew what it did. In his previous life, many people would ask an engineer to make one of these for them. Its primary function was so that they could act cute.

That's right, to act cute!

The World Is So Big made people smaller – around 1/8th of their original size. Of course, when they were that small, the world would appear big to them. That's where the name came from.

Mini-players who were only a few centimeters tall were particularly cute.

Lu Li then searched the Exchange Hall and found all the materials that he needed for this item.

Creating one costed around 20 silver, but once its effect was made known, there would definitely be buyers.

Of course, Lu Li couldn't sell it for too much because it could only be used three times. Something that could only be used three times could only be sold for 3 gold at the very most.

In fact, even 3 gold was stretching it a little.

The Great Thief

Chapter 125: Options For the New Party Members

When he had purchased enough material, Lu Li returned to the engineering lab once again.

The physical mechanics behind 'The World Is So Big' were unknown. After all, this was just a video game. The whole process of creating one was not difficult, but very time consuming. Lu Li had spent 10 minutes just to create a single one. The System then prompted him that he had gained 1 point of EXP.

No wonder so few people chose engineering; upgrading your skills took too long. If you had the right alchemy recipe, you could have gained 10 points of EXP in 10 minutes.

The finished product looked a little like a syringe that was filled with white light. He stabbed himself with it and felt a dazzling electric shock as he quickly shrunk like a deflating balloon.

In addition to looking physically smaller, this also reduced the effect of aggro by 20%. It lasted for 30 minutes, disappeared upon death and could be cancelled.

Lu Li could no longer reach the workbench that was originally at waist height. There was no way he could work like this, so he cancelled the effect. Upon confirmation, he immediately started growing until his original size was restored.

He still had 13 points before reaching Intermediate Level, but he didn't particularly mind and continued to work hard.

As he began to speed up, Azure Sea Breeze sent a call request.

"This is so depressing; I can't find anyone," Azure Sea Breeze lamented.

"Oh, tell me what happened."

Lu Li half-heartedly asked him to elaborate while smashing an object and putting it into a small copper tube.

"I asked some experts that I knew, but most of them were already part of a guild. Those that weren't are asking for too much. They want priority in equipment drops, the materials and some have even asked for the last hit EXP on Bossess…"

"Don't you play with them often?" Lu Li chuckled, as he carefully tightened the copper pipe. The System prompted him that his product was successful and he gained EXP.

"Usually when they come to me for help, their words are like honey. But once they hear about leaving their guild, they become apprehensive."

Azure Sea Breeze was really sad this time; he had no idea how he had managed to get stuck in this situation.

Lu Li thought to himself that this was to be expected for as long as Azure Sea Breeze had a strong willingness to trust anyone.

Lu Li had deliberately set difficult entry requirements. Not only was there a probation period, you also needed to be unanimously accepted by the old members. No matter how strong they were, most players would be disheartened by this, let alone the guild members that Azure Sea Breeze was inviting.

In the age of virtual reality, guilds were no different to real life companies. If you asked someone to give up their source of income and refuse to provide them with some sort of security, they wouldn't want to come.

As for those who had complicated conditions, Lu Li didn't even need to disapprove. Azure Sea Breeze wasn't willing to accept those people either.

"So be it. I have a few candidates; try contacting them," Lu Li said, as he listed them off. He was becoming more and more skilled in producing "The World Is So Big".

"You have suitable candidates? Why didn't you say anything? I've been running around everywhere," Azure Sea Breeze replied angrily.

Lu Li didn't worry about him and continued listing his candidates.

"There's one person called Wandering; he should be a Paladin. His skills are pretty good, but he's a little strange. Just watch out when you contact him…"

"You mean Wandering, the narcissist?!" Azure Sea Breeze yelled out.

"Narcissist is probably right."

Lu Li recalled the Wandering from his past life. This was probably the most appropriate description.

"How could you possibly know someone like that? No way!"

Azure Sea Breeze was strongly opposed to the idea.

"Tell me why not." Lu Li thought this situation was amusing.

"I can't take his narcissism," Azure Sea Breeze responded.

"But he's not a bad player. He also has a sense of duty. Do you admit to that?"

Lu Li still remembered how he had met Wandering. Azure Sea Breeze was in dire straits and was being hunted by players with explosive magic.

The group of players were his so-called 'friends'. Wandering was involved in the operation, but as a member hiding in their ranks. He relayed information to Azure Sea Breeze so he could stay one step ahead of the group. After he was found out, he couldn't leave the spawn area for a few days.

"I guess you're right."

Azure Sea Breeze had to admit it, but he continued to argue, "But that guy just joined this week. How is he going to keep up with his poor equipment?"

Azure Sea Breeze was good friends with him in a previous game. However, they had a falling out and now he hated him.

"Levels can be gained and poor equipment isn't really a reason. If you don't contact him, I'll do it for you."

Lu Li thought that Wandering was very appropriate. There was no need to worry that he would betray them for his own self-interest.

"Alright, alright, I've messaged him. Don't forget what you said; if he's not appropriate then we'll kick him out. If anyone has any objections in a week's time, he has to go."

Azure Sea Breeze had thought it through.

"There's one more person. Listen up."

Lu Li had just finished making his fifth 'The World Is So Big' and he placed it into his bag. His luck had been good and he gained a little more EXP.

"Please don't be another person like Wandering; we don't play well together."

Azure Sea Breeze was filled with resentment.

He was still so arrogant and was yet to truly understand the wisdom of the world. Lu Li still remembered him crying that he was a fool, and telling him that he only had two friends. Only two…

"Sesame Rice Ball. Try him."

"Him? That's probably unlikely; he's the Seventh Heaven's Chief Warlock."

Azure Sea Breeze was shocked.

The Seventh Heaven was a low-key group, but they had formidable strength and were even stronger than Drizzle Court. In the annual game guild rankings, they ranked fifth in the Chinese District.

To be the Chief Warlock in a guild that stood out among thousands was a testament to his strength.

"Yes, Sesame Rice Ball is currently Seventh Heaven's Chief Warlock. However, from what I hear, this will soon no longer be the case. The Seventh Heaven's financial manager had homosexual tendencies and found that Sesame Rice Ball appeared… alluring. When the Big Boss found out about this, he got scared and kicked him out of Seventh Heaven. He wouldn't want to return, even if it meant his death."

This was a controversial matter in his previous life. However, it had been a year since the event when Lu Li entered the game. Even so, the players, especially fujoshis, continued to talk about it.

With the explicit details filling their brains to the brim, all kinds of erotic texts appeared all over the forums. They were masterpieces, boasting the allure of love. It was only then that Lu Li had learned the meaning of 'Boy's Love'.

The Great Thief

Chapter 126: Moon Creek Prison

After going offline, Lu Li lit up his room with a dim bedside lamp. He got up from his bed and his neck felt sore. Then, he put on a pair of slippers before heading outside.

When he had enough money, he would definitely need to buy a Health Pod. All those advertised drugs were useless; only the Health Pod's full body massage systems would make the helmets more comfortable.

In the living room, the three female landlords were snuggled into the sofa and watching TV.

These girls were already beautiful, so to see them snuggled up together like that would make most people go crazy. However, Lu Li was not one of these people; he quietly greeted them and headed into the kitchen. His eyes didn't linger for any longer than they needed to.

"He isn't sleepwalking right?" Dou Jing Jing asked curiously.

"I don't think so."

Zhou Huan Huan wasn't very sure.

"You guys are less attractive than a piece of bread," Yang Liu said maliciously.

"Oh, the great god is just really different."

Zhou Huan Huan blamed everything on the fact that Lu Li was revered as a god. Once this was brought up, there was nothing left to be said.

"Great god? If he's a great god, why don't we ask him to help us?"

Dou Jing Jing patted Yang Liu's thigh with a look of realization.

"Even Water Fairy couldn't find him; what makes you think you'll be able to?" Yang Liu shook her head.

"I'll go ask him."

She quietly jumped off the sofa and ran barefoot into the kitchen.

Lu Li was cooking; he intended to make braised pork and julienned stir-fry potato. His knife skills were pretty good and the thickness of the potatoes were all very even. It was hard to tell them apart, unless you looked at them very carefully.

"Great god, how are you?" Dou Jing Jing asked as she bounced over towards him.

"What is it?" Lu Li put down the knife and looked at her.

Perhaps it was for their beauty, but the three landlords didn't stay online for as long as Lu Li did. As such, their eating and leisure times eventually drifted apart, which resulted in a lack of communication in the house.

"How's living here? Are you comfortable?"

For someone who enjoyed causing trouble, speaking gently like this was really difficult.

"It's been good. Thank you for taking care of Xin Xin," Lu Li replied, as he continued cooking. He handed her a cup of cucumber juice that he had been preparing.

"Xin Xin is really cute; we all really like her. It doesn't really count as taking care of her."

Dou Jing Jing took the cucumber juice and watched Lu Li work, as she leaned against the marble counter.

At this time, Lu Li would usually make extra so that his sister could have some after coming home from tuition. At first, he had given her money to buy lunch, but he soon realized that he couldn't bear to pay the exorbitant prices set by the school refectory.

"Is there anything else?" Lu Li asked.

"Uhm…."

Usually she wasn't this polite to Lu Li. When she needed to ask something of someone, she would find it very difficult. Dou Jing Jing quietly said, "Sister Huan Huan got an Instance Dungeon Scroll. We've already tried it twice, but we failed both times."

"Oh, an Instance Dungeon Scroll! What kind of Instance Dungeon?" Lu Li was intruiged.

"Moon Creek Prison. It's in the human part of town. It's an underground prison," Dou Jing Jin responded.

"Tell me what it's like."

Lu Li had to acknowledge that anyone could get these Instance Dungeon scrolls. He wasn't the only one that was lucky.

"Our small party got it when we were doing a quest. We didn't really prepare and just went in," Dou Jin Jin shamefully said. "We were immediately killed by the first Boss."

"The first Boss? Is there a second one?" Lu Li was even more surprised.

"Yeah, it's an Elite difficulty dungeon scroll. When we went in, we were prompted to kill two Bosses." Dou Jin Jin felt as though that the existence of the two Bosses wasn't out of the ordinary.

However, she truly was lucky. The Elite Difficulty Instance Dungeon Scroll was an uncommon drop and the monsters within it were difficult. These five lucky newbies were naturally going to be killed.

"What about the second time? Did you ask for help?" Lu Li was now really interested in this Instance Dungeon. One of the materials required for the Supreme Ring upgrade was called 'Barbaric Blood'. These were only dropped from the Moon Creek Prison's Worgen Boss. In an Elite Instance Dungeon, the chance of it dropping was even more likely.

"The second time, we got the biggest expert from our guild, Water Fairy."

It would have been difficult for these three female landlords who were also Drizzle Court players to find other experts. This was understandable.

"But you still couldn't do it, right?" Lu Li was not surprised.

"Yeah, the Main Tank couldn't keep up. This was also our guild's strongest Main Tank. We still couldn't even beat the first Boss. Water Fairy said that it couldn't be beaten at this stage of the game."

Dou Jin Jin sounded depressed.

It was like having an unreachable pile of treasure in front of you. This was more painful than not having any treasure at all.

"In other words, you only have one chance left."

Not only did Instance Dungeon scroll have a three-day limit, it also had a three-chance limit. If the Instance Dungeon was not beaten in three attempts, then the scroll would be considered a failure.

"You definitely have a way, right? You've gotten so many First Clears."

Dou Jin Jin was like a patient desperately seeking after medical attention.

With one last chance left, she went to Lu Li. To her, he was even better than Water Fairy. After all, he was currently the man of the hour.

"I'll come find you tomorrow morning. As for the items dropped by the Instance Dungeon, I want a specific kind of material and one equip."

"You… alright."

Dou Jin Jin was a little angry that Lu Li wanted to be paid, but she realized that this wasn't that bad. Otherwise, they would have just wasted their last chance. She and Lu Li were acquainted, but not to the point where he would be helping her for free.

After having dinner, Lu Li trained at the gym until his sister got back.

"Big brother, you aren't asleep!" Lu Xin was a little surprised. Ever since her brother started playing videogames, his schedule had been reversed. She didn't get to see him very often.

"Yeah, I've been waiting for you." Lu Li sat beside his sister and looked at the girl who was growing up.

She seemed a little pale. He used to think that she was just malnourished or that she was studying too hard. Who would have guessed that the disease was already spreading in her body?

"Is there anything wrong?" Being stared at by her brother made her feel a little uncomfortable. She couldn't help but twist away.

She had heard big sister Dou Dou talk about a kind of person that liked their sisters. Could it be that her brother… no, there's no way. They grew up together, so they had to be close…

Lu Li didn't know what her beloved sister was quietly thinking of. He touched her face and calmly said, "Go call your school and take a day off. I'm bringing you to the hospital on Monday. I've already made the appointment."

"Oh, but why?"

Lu Xin, who was immersed in Dou Dou's fantasy world, heard her brother talking about the hospital and thought it was a little silly.

"One of my friends got sick, but they found out too late. I want us both to do a full body checkup."

In order to not put too much pressure on his sister, Lu Li fabricated a temporary excuse to do a full body checkup.

"But I feel fine." The Lu family had never gotten sick before.

"I've recently made some money, so don't worry about that. Big brother will soon make even more, so you've just got to listen to me." Lu Li patted Lu Xin's little head and as he came to a conclusion.

"Don't forget to make the call."

The Great Thief

Chapter 127: I Have The Final Say

When he came back online the next day, Lu Li spent two gold coins to transport himself west of the city. It was Dou Jing Jing who wanted to meet him there. Her in game name was Don't Hit Dou Dou and probably had something to do with the phrase "Have dinner and hit dou dou".

"We have to give you one spot."

Dou Jing Jing was a little worried.

In Dawn, Instance Dungeon Scrolls actually produced private Instance Dungeons. As such, in addition to the three attempts rule, the parties attempted them could only have 50% variation.

Moon Creek Prison was a five person dungeon, so three people from the party that had attempted it the first time always had to take part.

In their first attempt, the party consisted of the three lady landlords and two other Drizzle Court players.

On the second run, Yang Liu had to give up her spot because she was a Hunter. She gave up her DPS position to Water Fairy. Now, someone else needed to give up their spot for Lu Li. After some discussion, it was decided that this would be Dou Jing Jing.

"Looks like your guild members aren't very friendly."

Two out of the three landlords had already given up their spots. The other two players who were there in the first attempt remained adamant about staying in their positions.

The only reason Huan Huan was still in was because this was her quest. Without her, they wouldn't be able to do it at all.

"It's normally fine, but when it's important…"

Dou Jing Jing bitterly lowered her head.

"Well, in that case, I want two equips and the material. You tell them that. If they refuse, then I'll leave." Lu Li wasn't as amicable as the three other ladies.

In an Elite Dungeon, at least three pieces of equipment would be dropped, in addition to the EXP and First Clear rewards. If he was helping a friend, he would be content with just taking the material and leaving everything else. However, in this current situation, only one of his friends could enter the Instance Dungeon. Of course, Lu Li would have been dissatisfied otherwise.

"You…" Dou Jing Jing was angry, but she knew that he wasn't being like this because of her. All she could do was message the team channel.

There were two forms of communication in Dawn – one was text and the other was voice. Dou Jing Jing was using text, but based on her facial expressions, it didn't seem like it was going well.

The few other players were already waiting at the dungeon. Other than Water Fairy and the landlords, there were two other players – a female Mage and a male Warrior.

He didn't think that Drizzle Court would start taking in male players; it must have been the pressure on them to keep up in the game.

With such a large player base, only accepting female players just wasn't enough to keep up on the rankings. Recruiting some appropriate, high-level male players was inevitable for the development of Drizzle Court.

"Dou Dou, what is this? He's already taking two items and now he wants more? Are you doing this because he is your friend?"

The female Mage saw Lu Li and Dou Jing Jing standing together and openly cried out.

Lu Li didn't even look at her and instead nodded directly at Water Fairy.

Water Fairy was lazy with her response and nodded in return. The atmosphere was tense and there was no sense of being a team.

"Lu Li…" Dou Jing Jing was becoming unruly. She didn't argue at all, but tugged at his sleeve and looked at him with a teary face.

"You guys have tried and failed twice. You have no ground on which to bargain with me. If you want to get through this Instance Dungeon, you will just have to agree."

Lu Li was straightforward and didn't extend any courtesy to Water Fairy.

Water Fairy grunted but said nothing.

"Who do you think you are? How can you say that?"

This female Mage had only started playing in the second release. The name, 'Lu Li', didn't carry much meaning for her. The male Warrior was trying to restrain her, but to no avail.

"You're only LV15; don't bother entering. You and Dou Dou should join the party," Lu Li said, as he pointed at the Warrior. "If there are no problems, then stay, but you must listen to my instructions. If anyone has any problems with that, you can leave the party."

"I have no problems with that," the warrior desperately nodded.

He knew that Lu Li wasn't afraid of kicking them out. He quickly accepted the invitation from Zhou Huan Huan and waited for them to complete the party modifications.

The beautiful female Mage from Drizzle Court must have been popular. She was probably also sought after by many male players. After Lu Li had been so blunt with her, she became furious and began to raise her Magic Staff.

"That's enough. You can return."

Water Fairy cut off the Mage, forcing her to swallow whatever she was about to say to Lu Li.

Next to Water Fairy, any kind of pride she felt for her own beauty was a joke. Moreover, Water Fairy held a very high position in the guild.

Some people said that the president of Drizzle Court wasn't Water Fairy, but that she was actually the financial backer. Regardless, her words had the authority to decide who was or wasn't in the guild.

The female Mage stared angrily at Lu Li before turning away.

Zhou Huan Huan let out a helpless sigh before pulling out the Instance Dungeon scroll and channeling it.

The LV17 Lu Li, LV15 Little Bear Huan Huan (Zhou Huan Huan), LV16 Don't Hit Dou Dou (Dou Jing Jing), LV15 Leaf Bro and LV16 Water Fairy all entered the Instance Dungeon.

Little Bear Huan Huan was the party's Shaman Healer, while Leaf Bro was the Main Tank. Both of their levels were relatively low and their equipment wasn't too great. This Elite-difficulty Moon Creek Prison was now going to be a little harder. Luckily, Lu Li had prior knowledge, so he wouldn't be doing this the conventional way.

However, in order to confuse them and pave a way for his strategy, he began to tell them a story that was related to this abandoned prison.

"The Defias Brotherhood had once attempted to release prisoners from this place, but they didn't imagine that the first person they encountered would be a crazy Gnoll. After many of them were bitten, they escaped the area and left it alone."

"You really know a lot."

Zhou Huan Huan sincerely admired his knowledge.

"When I have free time, I read in the library. If you understand the background of certain characters or locations, you can find more quests or learn strategies for Instance Dungeons. As for this prison, the first Boss is going to be Gnoll Ording. If you know about its origin, then you will know its weakness and its skills…" Lu Li continued.

As the saying goes, listening to the wise is better than ten years of study. Even Water Fairy, with her cold character, was carefully listening to Lu Li's explanation. She and the others couldn't help but admire him.

The dungeon's save point only appeared after killing a Boss; there was no such feature for killing the little mobs. However, now that they had two strong Thieves in Lu Li and Water Fairy, they were easily able to clear them out.

After 10 minutes, they stood before the first Boss, Gnoll Ording.

The Great Thief

Chapter 128: Deriving a Strategy From the Story

The Gnoll was two meters tall and abnormally large. Its skin was green and gray, and became darker around its nose. It had a full, greyish-red mane and its head looked like a hyena with yellow teeth and blood-red eyes.

Everyone was looking at Lu Li. They had all died the last time they had gotten here and didn't have high hopes for this attempt either. However, they all wanted to know what the best way to destroy this Gnoll was.

"Compared to the other Gnolls, Gnoll Ording is actually very religious," Lu Li said.

"Just tell us how to kill him; I know its religious. Last time we fought it, it kept saying something about Yenogg."

The others who had heard this were amused – they didn't think that Ording's belief was useful. Was there a way to use a certain doctrine against it?

"Yenogg is a relatively weak Demon Lord."

Lu Li looked at them and saw that they were a little disheartened. It was as if he had done something childish.

"Is there a way to work out the strategy with this information?" Little Bear Huan Huan was the one who had set up the studio, so she had some potential for leadership.

"That is correct. This is actually the info you need to be able to deal with it," Lu Li nodded, before continuing, "But there is someone else that needs to be mentioned—Krasus. This guy was a genius. When he was building this prison…"

"Who is Krasus?" Huan Huan took Lu Li's explanation like a bedtime story.

Lu Li wasn't angry that his explanation had been interrupted and further explained with a weird expression on his face, "Krasus should actually be called Claustraz. He is a dragon – one of the youngest spouses of the Red Dragon Queen…"

"The youngest spouse? Does that mean that the Red Dragon Queen had many spouses?"

The female members were suddenly paying attention.

"Hehe, in short, Krasus was a dragon, but he was a genius in the rare Red Dragon magic. By the virtue of his magical power, he became the leader of Dalaran's strongest group – the 'Sixth Assembly'. He would normally appear like a High Elf and only used his original form in exceptional circumstances.

"Wow, it sounds so mysterious and magical!"

Dou Jing Jing sighed at the epic-ness of these characters, while the others were shocked by Lu Li's knowledge.

Lu Li wasn't just making this up. In his past life, when he wasn't farming for gold throughout the day, he would be reading in Danassus' library.

In the end, Lu Li developed a natural desire for knowledge, despite never attending school in reality. Even so, he knew that the game's so-called literary masterpieces were just fantasy.

However, these books were not entirely useless. One could imagine how much effort Dawn's development team had spent on developing them. There were probably tens of thousands of fantasy writers involved in a compilation of stories.

There were many hidden secrets among them.

The books had an undeniable role in transforming Lu Li from a Gold Collection Member to a second rate expert in his previous life.

Take the Red Dragon Krasus for example – he knew where to get an Epic Quest, with a great amount of EXP, a legendary Mage equip and a Mage skill book as a reward.

It was too bad that he wasn't a Mage.

"Where was I up to?" Lu Li frowned.

"You said that Krasus built the prison. I still can't believe that this prison is run by a dragon."

Huan Huan looked around the prison for any dragon-related markings, but couldn't find any.

"That's correct. Krasus was a genius of a Mage. He created a prison without any guards."

Lu Li felt a little sympathy for the Gnoll, as he stood in front of it.

"How does it not need guards? Won't the prisoners just run away?" Dou Jing Jing asked curiously.

"Although there are no guards, there is someone stopping them from escaping," Lu Li said as he pointed at Ording and continued, "It helps Krasus stop all the foreign enemies who want to come in and all the prisoners who want to get out."

"Why?" This revelation was even more surprising than the guardless prison.

"Krasus built the Gnoll's cell as an altar – one that can communicate with the Demon Lord Yenogg. Do you think Ording would leave the place where it can communicate with its god?"

"Probably not."

Everyone's eyes suddenly opened.

"Yep, with Ording stationed here, no prisoners are able to leave. If it's hungry, it'll eat anyone that comes in, or any prisoners that try to escape. In other words, it'll eat anyone that passes by."

"Are you saying that Ording is the Instance Dungeon's most powerful Boss?"

If the first Boss was already this strong, how could they even stand a chance against the rest of the Instance Dungeon?!

"That's right. For as long as Ording stands at the altar, it has the skills and strength of a final Boss."

Lu Li deliberately emphasized the word 'altar'.

"However, once the place from which he draws strength is destroyed, he can be killed."

"Are you saying we need to destroy the altar?" Huan Huan and the others were all wondering the same thing.

"It's a little easier than that. Do you see the four statues? Once the Boss starts to draw power from them, it will gain high attack and defence. During that time, we'll have a short window to destroy the statue. It is only in that moment that the statues are vulnerable; they are otherwise indestructible," Lu Li stressed.

"I see that you have studied Instanced Dungeons."

Water Fairy, who hadn't been particularly concerned with Instance Dungeons, now held Lu Li in high esteem. "Do you have any interest in Drizzle Court?" she asked.

No wonder there were people who said that she lacked worldly wisdom – how could she be so direct?

"Sorry, I'm not interested in joining any guilds. I'm just trying to help out my friend and claim the rewards."

Lu Li rejected her even more directly.

"Alright."

Seeing that Lu Li had refused, Water Fairy didn't press further on the matter. The reality was that she wasn't actually interested in building up her guild either.

"Warrior, attack. Don't activate your damage reduction skills," Lu Li commanded. Leaf Bro simply nodded and headed for the Gnoll.

"Meat! Fresh Meat!" Ording hadn't eaten anything for a few years now. Hunger tormented its soul, so it was excited to see the players move closer.

The moment that it started advancing, it casted its spell—Rapid Charge.

Rapid Charge: Charge to a target, causing the caster's next attack to deal more damage to it.

This was the same skill that they had seen last time. It dealt high damage but was not fatal. The skill that they had to watch out for was Mortal Strike.

Mortal Strike: Inflicts 200% weapon damage to the target and injures it. Any Heal skill cast on the injured targeted is reduced by 50% for 5 seconds.

Not only did this skill deal a lot of damage, it also halves the effects of healing. On several occasions during the fight, Leaf Bro had wanted to activate his damage reduction skills. However, Lu Li had told him not to, so now his HP was critical.