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

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The Great Thief - Chapter 193: Life and Death Light Novel Pub

The Great Thief

Chapter 193: Life and Death

Lu Li realised that using the bombs to level up was extremely costly.

However, even if the costs were high, he still needed to level.

Many people didn't even know how to use their money effectively.

I No Fully Understand from the Evil Faction had gone to the extent of hiring people to help him level. He hired people to carry out specific tasks, such as luring and gathering monsters together.

Everyone was doing all that they could to level up as fast as possible.

The top of the Level Rankings had been filled with LV18 players a couple of days ago. Today, there were more than thirty LV19 players, who seemed to have given up on Instance Dungeons and were now focused solely on levelling up.

Lu Li prepared the material required to upgrade the bombs.

As he was about to start, he remembered something.

The explosion from making fireworks dealt a few hundred points of damage. What would happen if he upgraded the bombs?

He was terrified. What if he was killed instantly?

"What are you guys doing right now?" Lu Li decided not to risk it and private-messaged March Rain for help.

If he died instantly from the explosion, March Rain could revive him on the spot.

"We're all training; it's getting so hard to level up. Why don't you come and level with us?" March Rain quickly replied.

"Let Hachi Chan heal them. Come back to town and help me," Lu Li said.

"Ok, I'll be right over," March Rain replied without a second thought.

"What's this for?" She was evidently confused by all the tools that were involved. Her profession was Tailoring, which was a lot simpler than Engineering.

Engineering was extremely complicated, as it involved all the other professions in one way or another.

"I'm making bombs; it's very dangerous," Lu Li said seriously. "You'd better stay far away in that corner. Yeah, even further. Prepare to heal and shield me from afar."

"I don't know what you're talking about, but it sounds awesome," March Rain joked.

"Hope you won't get too scared," Lu Li said, as he readied himself to start.

The first time was an experimental trial, so Lu Li's expectations weren't very high. There was a very low success rate and before the bomb was assembled, it exploded.

Boom!

With a flash of light and a loud explosion, Lu Li was sent flying.

March Rain quickly healed him and finally understood what he meant before. This wasn't just dangerous – it was life threatening.

Lu Li patted his chest and said worriedly, "Put a shield on me. Otherwise, I might die from the explosion."

Luckily, the game prevented tools from being damaged during crafting. Otherwise, Lu Li would have to pay for the repair fees.

On his second attempt, Lu Li got lucky and the bomb powder was successfully made without exploding.

However, when he poured the bomb powder into the bronze bomb shell and slowly placed the detonator inside, it exploded again. This time, Lu Li received even more damage.

Even with the shield, he was at a critically low HP.

No wonder the bomb experts like Ivy had all died. This was way too dangerous.

"Let's stop this – it's too dangerous."

March Rain didn't understand why Lu Li was doing all of this. Did all Engineers go through this process?

"It's fine. Even if I die, it doesn't matter." Lu Li wiped away the dirt on his face from the explosion and continued, "Don't forget – it's a game and we can be revived."

March Rain was impressed with his determination.

Lu Li rested for a while before making the third bomb.

It's fine to make mistakes, but it's unacceptable to make the same mistakes.

Learning from his previous mistakes, he managed to successfully craft one.

System: Successfully crafted "Ivy's Fool Bomb" Engineering EXP 5.

Lu Li was so excited that he almost threw the bomb in his hand.

Ivy's Fool Bomb: A fool bomb that can be used by any adventurer who knows nothing about Engineering. Will hit the target almost every time! Deals 1600 Fire damage to tall targets within a radius of 5 yards.

It was stated in the blue print that it would deal 2000 fire damage. However, Lu Li knew why there was a difference.

In order to increase the success rate, he had purposely decreased the amount of explosive powder that was added.

Less explosive powder meant less power.

It would be much easier now since he had the experience.

Despite this, accidents continued to trouble Lu Li.

After his 3rd failed attempt, his gear was in such a terrible condition that he had to borrow 50 gold from March Rain to repair it.

When the success rate increased, Lu Li decided to add more explosive powder to increase the power.

Lu Li was blown away by the next failure and landed on the ground as a corpse.

He was quickly revived by March Rain and continued, undeterred from completing his suicidal mission.

"Ok, finally finished."

Lu Li placed the last bomb carefully onto the table and let out a sigh of relief.

In reality, a successfully crafted bomb wouldn't explode unless it was activated. Nevertheless, he was still careful with it because he had put in so much effort.

"Why did you craft so many of these? Are they for killing monsters?" March Rain finally asked.

Lu Li simply smiled and gave the bomb to her.

"My goodness! Why is the damage so high?!" March Rain was surprised.

Such an overpowered item shouldn't even exist!

A LV20 monster usually had around 3000 to 4000 HP. This meant that they could easily be killed with 2 bombs.

The main problem was the radius of 5 yards!

March Rain immediately imagined the satisfaction of throwing the Fool's Bombs into a large group of monsters and watching them as they disintegrated.

"It's too bad that the success rate was so low."

Lu Li's face and hair was black and burnt from the explosions.

He had started with 50 or so material sets, but only 36 attempts had been successful. However, he had gained a respectable amount of Engineering EXP and was now Intermediate Level (167), with only 13 more levels to reach Advanced Level.

Advanced Level Engineers could make Goblin Jumper Cables.

Unlike Beginner Maintenance Robots, Goblin Jumper Cables can be sold for a high price. The demand for these things were very high, especially for experts. In Lu Li's past life, almost every expert had a Goblin Jumper Cable in their inventory.

Imagine dying in the wild and dropping your best equipment.

Of course, you could risk it and pray that it was still there by the time you go back. If not, then you could only feel happy for making someone else's day.

However, if you had a Goblin Jumper Cable in your inventory…

All you had to do was activate it and have a chance to revive on the spot.

"Are you going to use these to level up?" March Rain was envious.

"Yes, but not alone. I need the whole team, so gather them up. I know a great location – we can level up together," Lu Li corrected her.

The Great Thief

Chapter 194: Revenant Lands

He had planned to come to this place ever since he had found the blueprint.

The Revenant Lands!

The Revenant Lands were probably the best place to level up using the bombs.

They belonged to the Revenant Lord Absorune Nilan.

Absorune was the prodigy of the Nilan family, who was raised by the royal magicians. He exceeded all of their expectations and was appointed to be the next Royal Great Magician in line.

In Dawn's lore, every prodigy had a tragic storyline.

Absorune fell in love with a peasant girl from the country side.

Their love was forbidden by the elders, in order to keep their name pure and royal. As such, the Duke of Nilan ordered the girl to be executed.

That night, the moonlight was tainted by blood.

The small town became nothing but ruins under the mercy of a cavalry raid.

When Absorune arrived at the scene, the girl and the entire town had been drowned in their own blood. From then on, Absorune was no more – he had become the Revenant Lord.

After receiving help from the Witch King, he revived the citizens of the town and invaded the land of his family with his plagued army.

Ever since, the once rich and powerful land that was inherited by the Nilan family had become barren, without a trace of life.

After the party teleported to Astrana and walked around for a while, they arrived at their destination.

The Revenant Lands did not have day or night. They were covered by a heavy blanket of black smoke and there were no animals, no trees and no signs of life.

It was so silent that the only thing you could hear was breathing.

This time, the entire Xin Xin Mercenary Group was gathered together – Lu Li, Azure Sea Breeze, Lonesome Flower, March Rain, Remnant Dream, Hachi Chan, Sesame Rice Ball, Wandering, and Moonlight.

There was also a new member that had been accepted by Wandering after two days of observation.

Sakura Memories, LV17 Shaman.

She was a tomboy and learnt martial arts in real life. She was very good at the game and had been selected out of the 10 or so Shamans that were being considered.

Even though she was only LV17, she was not to be underestimated.

Sakura Memories was a pro at levelling and even Azure Sea Breeze was impressed with her.

The main reason that Lu Li and the others were at the top of the Level Rankings was because they were one of the first players in the game.

Sakura Memories was different - she was part of the 2nd wave of players.

For someone that started playing in the 2nd wave to have already reached LV17 was extremely impressive, especially for a solo player.

What was even more impressive was that the little Shaman had already completed her Profession Upgrade Quest by herself.

The stereotype of girls being bad at games had long been forgotten. Hachi Chan was a quest expert, Remnant Dream had the best gear and March Rain's natural talent for the game exceeded everyone else's.

Sakura Memories was a classic example of an independent, strong woman. Not only was her willpower stronger than most men, she was also valiant and formidable.

It was Lu Li's first-time meeting Sakura Memories. However, she had already met everyone else while they were training together.

"How fast can we level using these bombs?" Sakura Memories asked unsurely.

As a 2nd wave player, she was completely tunnel-visioned on levelling and had no idea what it meant to be the top player in the game.

She probably thought that Lu Li was not much stronger than Wandering.

"We'll level very fast," Lu Li assured her confidently.

"The Fool's Bomb does very high damage in an area. However, you need to gather up a lot of monsters to maximize its potential. If there was a place like that, wouldn't a group of Mages with AOE skills essentially do the same thing?" Sakura Memories didn't understand why Lu Li insisted on training with these bombs. She even thought that he was being unreasonable.

"The monsters have really high Magic Resist, which would greatly reduce a Mage's damage," Lu Li explained patiently.

"But there aren't any monsters here."

Azure Sea Breeze looked into the distance and saw nothing.

"There will be monsters later. Let's set up first." Lu Li directed everyone's attention towards the higher ground in the valley and said, "Everyone, gather over there."

Everyone trusted in Lu Li and didn't question him, so Sakura Memories naturally followed them.

Although she was doubtful about Lu Li's plan, she decided to follow what he said, since she was still new to the group.

This place was great for training – there was a large hole in the slope up ahead which was perfect for trapping monsters.

Everyone climbed up the slope and looked down at the ditch.

However, the slope wasn't steep enough and could be climbed-up from below.

In a game as popular as Dawn, there were bound to be unique features involving the terrain.

For example, speed was reduced when going up a hill. If the terrain was too steep, the system would not allow you to climb up. When going downhill, there was an increase in speed.

"Flower, stand at this position," Lu Li commanded.

"Then what?" Lonesome Flower asked.

"You are in charge of casting Blizzard to decrease the speed of the monsters at the front of the pack. Sea Breeze, Moonlight and Wandering, you three stand in front of Flower to prevent monsters from getting to her. Who's good at throwing things? I need two people."

Lu Li looked at the remaining people that hadn't been assigned a task and decided to choose Sesame Rice Ball.

It wasn't because he looked down on girls, but that the girls in the group were too unpredictable.

"Yeah, I'll do it. I've played basketball for many years, so throwing things should be easy."

Sesame Rice Ball nodded and accepted the job.

"Then…" March Rain hesitated because she wasn't confident.

"I'll do it. I've played basketball, soccer, volleyball, ping pong and other sports as well," Sakura Memory said confidently. She was displeased when Lu Li had looked over the group of girls and asked Rice Ball instead.

"Ok… you can try then."

Lu Li was originally planning on letting March Rain do it, as he trusted the little Priest more.

"What do I do?" Hachi Chan became worried.

"Uh… you stand right there. If any monsters plan on climbing up, then you can blow them away."

Lu Li thought for a while and assigned a random job for her to do. In reality, when monsters were aggroed, they wouldn't randomly wander around.

What Lu Li meant by 'blowing' was the Druid skill and not with her mouth.

"And me, and me!" Remnant Dream saw that everyone had been assigned a role and felt left out.

"When the monsters die, you can go pick up the gear," Lu Li said to the little Hunter.

"Are you going to lure the monsters by yourself?" Wandering asked.

"Yeah, I can do it alone. I'll bring the monsters into the circle and run around for a while. Let the monsters gather up in the centre and throw the bombs on my signal. You must throw them together, one towards the left and one towards the right. Try to damage all the monsters."

"What kind of monsters are we killing?"

"Spirits. They are around LV20-25 and have about 3600 HP. Two bombs will completely wipe them out. The key is to throw the bombs perfectly. When we finish, I'll go lure more while you guys clear the battle field for the next wave."

There were a lot of monsters. A slight mistake would mean certain death, which was why Lu Li didn't mind spending the extra time explaining to them.

The Great Thief

Chapter 195: Pulling the Monsters

After his explanation, Lu Li gave the Bloodstained Badge to Azure Sea Breeze before bending forwards to drink a Basic Agility Potion. He then rushed off into the empty wasteland.

"Are there really monsters here?" Sakura Memories asked, confused.

"If he says so, then yes." Azure Sea Breeze had known Lu Li for the longest, so he trusted him the most.

"If there are ghost monsters, then it's very possible." Conversely, Wandering was more inclined to use his mind to analyze the problem.

"Why is it possible if they are ghosts?"

"In Dawn, you cannot pass through each other. I'm sure you're all aware of that? Wandering glanced at Azure Sea Breeze with contempt.

"Of course." Everyone knew this to be true.

"Ghosts are the exception to this rule. They don't have a physical body, so they are unrestrained by unit collision," Wandering sighed. "As such, the Fool's Bomb can only be a great farming tool if it's used against ghosts."

One could only admire Lu Li's eccentric way of thinking.

If it was any other kind of monster, they would only have killed a couple dozen in half a day's time, even if they were perfectly packed into a 5-yard radius.

A dozen people killing a couple of dozen monsters in half a day wasn't efficient at all.

However, because Ghosts had no body, they could be infinitely stacked.

Theoretically, a small area could accommodate an infinite number of ghosts.

Theoretically, one bomb could yield several levels of EXP…

But of course, these were all considered in the theoretical realm.

There were abandoned houses strewn all over the Wilderness. These houses had been severely beaten by the wind.

When Lu Li rushed past, his clothes ruffled in the wind and awakened the sleeping presence of the land.

A translucent shadow amongst the ruins turned its head and saw Lu Li's silhouette. This shadow was quiet for a moment, before it threw its head back and let out a soul-piercing wail.

This wasn't a normal cry – it was Soul Shriek. Ghosts which had this skill could use it to summon companions.

More ghosts started to appear.

They all followed Lu Li closely with the intention of tearing him apart.

Before long, a Death Mark appeared above his head.

He was now the equivalent of a guiding light that the monsters would incessantly chase. Lu Li could finally increase his speed.

He turned into a Leopard and dashed about chaotically in the wilderness.

Even his journey back wasn't without its dangers.

These ghosts did not have bodies, but Lu Li wasn't like them. Their attacks could easily cause his movement to be interrupted.

Moreover, these ghosts could also cast Slows.

Once afflicted by a Slow, his movement speed would be greatly reduced.

Lu Li told the others that they couldn't farm here for this very reason.

There weren't many people who were faster than Lu Li. Even a Druid with the Cheetah transformation was still slower than Lu Li's Child of the Forest.

The ghosts behind him continued to wail and summon more ghosts, thus increasing his number of pursuers.

He didn't dare to stop for even a single moment, afraid that they might cast a Slow onto him.

In his previous life, he once had the privilege of witnessing the Evil Faction's top guild 'Stellar Union' kill the Revenant Lord. However, this was a bit of an exaggeration for the Stellar Union – they didn't actually see the Boss.

Their group of over 400 players were all submerged in the boundless Sea of Death.

From that point on, 'Life Exclusion Zone' was no longer just a name, but a reality.

Lu Li was currently in the periphery of the outskirts of the Revenant Lands. Even so, he was frightened by the flood of monsters following him. He gave up on his plan to continue pulling and turned a corner to leave, not knowing how many ghosts he was bringing with him.

"Lu Li, are you done yet? Flower and I have been waiting for ages," Azure Sea Breeze pleaded in the chatroom.

"Just finished. There are quite a few monsters, but you must stay calm."

Lu Li was concerned that they wouldn't know how to react to this situation, so he quickly addressed it.

"Relax, I've experienced all kinds of storms with…"

"Shut up, don't start now. Everyone stay alert and get ready!" Wandering interrupted Azure Sea Breeze's boasting.

There were definitely too many monsters.

From their perspective on the high ground, they could see the overwhelming number of monsters chasing Lu Li. The monsters were almost transparent, with hideous and pained faces.

Lu Li rushed over.

Lonesome Flower hastily threw a Blizzard down behind him.

Lu Li didn't dare to enter into the fray, as he ran around the perimeter to congregate and herd the monsters together

The bomb's radius was very small, but every extra monster killed was worth it.

"Can I throw it now?" Sakura Memories' palms were becoming sweaty upon seeing Lu Li perilously dodging in and out of the Ghosts' claws.

Mother didn't need to worry about Lu Li any longer.

If it weren't for this inappropriate moment, she would have immediately expressed her admiration for Lu Li.

"Wait. Wait for my command."

Lu Li cancelled his Leopard form in the distance. His speed was slower, making his situation more dangerous, but his eyes remained focused on the monsters. He then quickly activated the swiftness effect on his shoes.

"Lu Li!" Wandering was standing up quite high, so he could clearly see a white, ring-like slow come out of a ghost's claw and into Lu Li's body.

Lu Li heard his call and didn't continue to stand idly as he activated Shadow Cloak.

Magic Immunity!

"Good." Wandering was relieved' his timing was just right.

The ghosts were continuously packed into a small patch of ground and eventually, there were thousands of them huddled together.

"Do it!"

When Lu Li saw that the monsters had gathered and that his Shadow Cloak duration was almost up, he quickly issued the blast command.

The Fool's bomb was called the Fool's bomb because it was easy to operate.

Once the player triggered the activation mechanism, the bomb would prime and explode after three seconds!

Sesame Rice Ball and Sakura Memories were both technically good players. They didn't dare to delay when there were this many monsters and both immediately threw the bombs.

Lu Li quickly crawled behind some cover and sat down.

The Fool's Bomb exploded with much more force than it had in his lab. There was a flash before a fiery shockwave was sent out in a five yard radius. The explosion was ferocious…

Any units that were in the area of effect were subjected to a fixed amount of damage.

Even these peculiar ghosts were affected.

Ghosts weren't a commonly-farmed monster, as they were immune to all physical damage and most magic damage.

There were only two kinds of players that could farm them – Paladins and Light Priests.

However, there were no issues with using the bomb. Lu Li could continuously hear the sound of himself gaining EXP as he joyfully looked at his EXP bar visibly filling up.

"Why are there still so many!?"

Wandering's shout caught Lu Li's attention. He was surprised to discover that there were still hundreds of ghosts on the field that had not yet died.

"Paladin, go and keep them occupied. Hachi Chan and Memories, you guys are responsible for DPS. March Rain heal. Sesame Rice Ball, get another bomb ready."

After observing the situation, Lu Li resolutely decided to use another bomb.

There were several hundred monsters that were over LV20, so there was no way they could clear them out with conventional methods.

The Great Thief

Chapter 196: Bombing Indiscriminately

"Lu Li, how much are those?"

Wandering felt impressed with himself; he was worried about the costs even at a time like this.

"Over a dozen gold. Throw!" Lu Li responded.

Sesame Rice Ball flicked his hand, released the bomb and watched as the black gadget floated through the air. It was like throwing a handful of gold.

There was a loud explosion which left some coins behind. There was nothing else left.

"This is insane. Insane," Sakura Memories muttered to herself.

She wasn't poor – in fact, she could be considered to be quite well-off. Otherwise, she wouldn't have been able to buy such expensive levelling equipment on her first day.

But even she didn't dare to believe that the bomb she had just thrown was worth over a dozen gold.

They threw three bombs in total. Even if they were only worth 40 gold altogether, that was still $4000 in real money. The statistics from China Economics Online showed that the national average income was not even 4000 dollars.

However, by the look on Lu Li's face, it was obvious that he wanted to do that again.

"If you feel like it's a waste, then make sure you aim it a little better."

Lu Li knew what their faces meant but calmly waved his hands and rushed back into the Revenant Lands.

In his second attempt, Lu Li pulled the monsters at a faster rate. He had a better understanding of their attack patterns and thus, was able to pull even more of them.

He still refused to show the new players that he could transform into a leopard. You could call him stingy or cautious, but this was just the way he had been brought up.

After doing one big loop, Lu Li transformed back into his original form as he made his way back.

"He's coming."

Wandering saw a small black dot in the distance that was being followed by an overwhelming group.

Sakura Memories and Sesame Rice Ball were much more cautious with the bombs this time. They threw them correctly, which caused a splendid explosion.

The monsters were completely wiped out under the force of these two bombs as the EXP bars of each player rushed forwards once again.

This was the kind of EXP that you could only receive after half a day's work.

"Let's split the cost evenly." Moonlight was a PVP player who usually just carried an axe and went around chopping people down. He rarely participated in team activities and felt particularly sorry.

"Yeah. This way of farming is just too expensive. Let's talk about how we're paying."

Wandering was always one to insist on financial clarity, so naturally, he was the first to support the idea.

The others also voiced their opinions. It was okay if they had to spend some money. Every wave required three bombs, which was a few dozen gold coins. If they didn't contribute and just enjoyed the free EXP, they would feel guilty.

However, they also wanted to know something else.

This was an item that could yield half a day's worth of EXP in 10 minutes, and was definitely not something that was only worth a few dozen gold coins.

If this bomb was sold, people would pay 100 gold coins for one.

They couldn't imagine that in Lu Li's previous life, he had found a Fool's bomb and auctioned it for 300 gold.

Of course, there were many reasons why he was able to auction it at such a price. The buyer probably had a specific reason for wanting the bomb – he didn't take it to use for farming.

Players weren't able to derive a blueprint from a product, but NPCs could. That buyer bought the bomb so he could give it to an NPC, hoping that the Fool's Bomb blueprint would be produced.

Unfortunately, Lu Li never found out who ultimately developed the Fool's Bomb blueprint.

"At our level, we can level up in six waves."

Azure Sea Breeze was filled with emotion. As a levelling madman, he had thought very hard about how to farm more efficiently. However, all of his struggles couldn't even be compared to a few pudgy-looking black balls.

As he said this, the second wave was cleared out. He was already about level up, so he reached LV20, becoming the second person to do so behind Lu Li.

Lonesome Flower closely followed; he seemed to be about to about to level up as well.

However, Lu Li was already halfway past LV21. The EXP required for him to level up had become greater and greater, but he would easily reach LV22 by the end of the day.

With 36 bombs, they could wipe out 12 more waves of monsters.

To get from LV19 to 20, a player needed to clear out 6 waves.

20 to 21 required 10 waves, 21 to 22 required 16 waves and 22 to 23 required 24 waves. The assumption here was that every wave would not be smaller than the second wave.

Of course, as Lu Li got better at pulling the monsters, the number of monsters increased.

After all the bombs had been used, Lu Li had made decent progress into LV22 EXP bar. The others had all levelled up as well.

Azure Sea Breeze and Lonesome Flower were both LV21 now. Other than Sakura Memories, who still needed a little more EXP, everyone else was LV20. They had taken over the leaderboard once again and this time, it was by a significant margin. They now suddenly occupied 9 positions.

The World Announcements had already turned itself upside down in uproar.

Some smarter people related this to Lu Li's purchase of Starwood, feeling like they had discovered a secret.

Starwood could quickly increase your level!

By eating it?

That was a joke, but it probably had to do with a quest. But where would they find the NPC? How could they find the NPC? How would they obtain the quest? They wanted to ride this rocket too…

Lu Li once again muted the World Announcements. In trying to figure out the function of Starwood, the channel had reached another climax.

He had expected this to happen, as he had only recently acquired the Starwood.

The players who were jealous of him were not in the minority.

Even the 4th player, who was once number 1 and was currently the Chief of Glory Capital – "I No Understand" – was furious with envy.

He really was going mad.

He was the reputation of the guild.

If a player could hold a position at the front of the rankings, it would be good publicity for their guild.

Glory Capital had promised him great riches if he reached the top spot, as both he and the guild would receive significant monetary benefits. The amount was so high that even large guild executives were desperately pushing for it.

However, it was probably best if they just forgot about first place. Lu Li's levelling was far faster than any ordinary player.

While the top 100 list was filled with players who were LV 18-19, only one person had managed to reach LV21 at this time.

Perhaps they could settle for second. Azure Sea Breeze and Lonesome Flower were doing well, but at least there was some hope of overtaking them.

Poor I No Understand…

In order to help him level up, his guild had sent out 12 Mages. They were split into 3 teams that were always killing monsters. There was also a group of players who would pull the monsters in and another group of players that would deliver potions…

If there were more monsters available, there would be even more players doing this.

But seeing Lonesome Flower and Azure Sea Breeze's recent progress would make any player's eyes pop out.

Who would have thought that so many people would overtake I No Understand in such quick succession? In under an hour, he had lost the 4th place that he had worked so hard for and dropped to 10th.

Lu Li, Azure Sea Breeze, Lonesome Flower, March Rain, Remnant Dream, Sesame Rice Ball, Wandering, Moonlight and Hachi Chan were currently in the top nine. All of them were from Xin Xin Mercenary Group.

Damned Xin Xin Mercenary Group!

The Great Thief

Chapter 197: A Statistical Anomaly?

Damned Xin Xin Mercenary Group!

They must have been cheating!

Someone should report them to customer services - these slags needed to be punished!

However, those people were bound to be disappointed. After some investigation by the system, all the data had been found to be normal.

A blueprint had been 'stolen' by a player from an NPC. The player then crazily levelled up their Engineering EXP to reach the appropriate level for the bomb. The only jaw-dropping fact was that this player clearly had the ability to mass produce these bombs.

A group of game designers, Technical Advisors and Sociology Experts had been called together for an urgent meeting.

"We have no right to delete something that is natural within the game – this is contrary to the spirit of the game. Various player unions are constantly watching the data within the game," the legal advisor said seriously.

He made no reference to the law, because he knew that the law wasn't the strongest power.

The spirit of the game wasn't something that had always been taken seriously. However, it could now become a matter of life and death for a game. Once a game company had violated the spirit of the game, many players would be disappointed and rival game companies could easily use this against them.

Although Dawn was controlled by high-authority figures throughout the country, these figures still had political enemies.

These enemies were always lurking, waiting for any kind of error to pounce on.

As Dawn seemed to become more and more popular, there were bound to be people who were eagerly waiting for its downfall so they could drag their enemies down into the abyss.

"That is correct. We also don't have the ability to make such a change. The key to modify the main program lies with the board of directors," supported the technician.

"This really isn't much of an issue," the CEO said as he waved his hands, "I don't understand why you guys wanted to meet so urgently."

"All of Dawn's player base is concerned about this player. This is no small matter," the head designer responded while wiping the sweat off his forehead.

This man had gone straight to his boss' superior. He thought that the issue was so big that he had called out the CEO. However, he didn't realize that they would have a completely opposite opinion.

This was what people were most afraid of in a workplace. Could he have done something dumb?

"Concerned about this player? This really isn't an issue." The CEO operated the control panel, bringing up a large picture Lu Li on the screen. "We have been closely following this player since the beginning of the game."

"His ability has destroyed the balance of the game," the director declared, trying to draw everyone's attention.

"Can he fight 100 people at once? Or kill a person in one hit? Or does he have some kind of godly equipment on his body?" The CEO stood up as he grew impatient.

It was probably unlikely that Lu Li could fight 100 people at once. Although his PVP battles were stunning, this was nothing compared to fighting 100 players at once. Realistically, there was even a chance of failure when facing a party of five players. If it were 10 players, he would probably have to avoid them, while if it were 100 players, he wouldn't even dare to reveal himself.

As for killing a person in one hit, it took him a whole skill rotation.

His Supreme Ring – the godly item – had been slightly abused. It was originally designed for entertainment purposes.

The fact that Lu Li had already upgraded it to level two was beyond the designer's expectations. Even the head designer felt embarrassed about this.

"We need a hero, the players need a hero and Dawn needs a hero. The more players there are like this, the better," the CEO said as he left the room. When he was a few steps short of leaving the room, he said, "Mr Chen, you have abused your power and attempted to tamper with the natural data within the game. Submit your resignation to HR tomorrow. I'm sure I don't need to explain the non-disclosure agreement"

The head designer slumped into his chair. His mind was a mess; the only word that he remembered was resignation.

"Mr Chen, take care now."

His deputy, who had pushed him to call this meeting, smiled as he walked over.

"You…" Head Designer Chen was now blue in the face, as he finally understood.

"If you think about it, it really isn't a problem. The Fool's bomb isn't really that good. Starwood's drop rate is also quite low and the ghosts aren't that common either. Once they level up, the ghosts will eventually yield no EXP. The balance hasn't been destroyed," the deputy sighed as he shook his head. "Don't blame me – you were blinded by your own greed. You really wanted to interfere with natural data? This is natural data we are talking about…"

Lu Li had no idea that he had even caused some ripples within the game company.

It was a good thing that everyone had listened to Lu Li's instructions to clear out their bags, otherwise they wouldn't have been able to hold as many things. Even so, there was still so many Bronze and Common equipment that they had to throw away as trash.

The ghosts were all ordinary monsters, so the best that they could drop was Bronze equipment. The chance of them dropping Steel equipment was almost non-existent.

However, it was still worth collecting the Skill Books and the materials.

After farming tens of thousands of these ghosts, a dozen Skill Books had been dropped. Of course, one shouldn't hope to obtain an Ultimate Skill from these ordinary monsters.

Lu Li himself had managed to obtain a Thief Skill—Gouge.

Gouge: 2 second cast time. Gouge the target's eyes, paralyzing them for 1 second. The target must be facing you when the skill is cast. Any damage to the target will cause them to recover. Proficiency 1/5.

With a two second cast time, this skill would never be taken seriously. Regular players were more likely to use Instant Cast skills like Kidney Strike, which had a longer crowd control.

However, the experts had a different opinion.

When this skill was upgraded, its cast time would be shortened and its crowd control duration will be increased. It would then become a very good crowd control skill.

Lu Li already had quite a few crowd control skills, but no one would ever complain about ever having too many. As such, he quickly learnt the skill.

"Sell whatever equipment you can and take whatever materials you need. Everyone can do their own thing now," Lu Li declared as the battlefield cleared.

"These are all basically trash; selling them won't make much money. We've spent a few hundred gold today… Actually, if you calculate it with the market price rather than the cost, we would have spent even more," Wandering said, looking extremely uncomfortable.

"You old fart. Where can you buy levels from?" Azure Sea Breeze immediately refuted Wandering.

To a levelling madman like him, there was no price that was too high. Sakura Memories, who was also a levelling madman, nodded at this.

She still felt like she was dreaming. She was only LV17 in the morning, but in a flash, she had suddenly reached LV19 with only a little more to go until LV20.

As a female player who had joined with the second batch of players, such an achievement was already something to be proud of. She had now even ranked on the leaderboard among the top 16.

"Alright, stop arguing about it. I made the bombs so we could all level up; don't worry too much about the money. If you feel like you need to compensate me, you can help me find some special, rare materials that I will need down the line."

"I can't do that. We should at least compensate the costs," Wandering insisted, "Otherwise, who else would dare to come and farm this free EXP again?"

They really were farming free EXP today.

Other than Lu Li's bombs, Lonesome Flower was the only other person who had contributed, by casting Blizzard.

"Everyone can share the cost price then. We currently have two tasks. Those who haven't upgraded their professions should do the Profession Upgrade Quest and everyone else should get ready for the Howling Caves!" Lu Li resolutely ended the dispute and announced the beginning of the Howling Caves plan.

The Great Thief

Chapter 198: Mid-Autumn Festival Activities

Before travelling to the Revenant Lands, Lu Li had already planned to take on the wasteland's Howling Caves. However, he knew that it was going to be very difficult, so he was meticulously making preparations.

The higher the level of an Instance Dungeon, the more difficult it was. A ten-player Instance Dungeon like the Howling Caves would teach the players the true meaning of despair.

But this time, it would be different, as the Xin Xin Mercenary Group's members were mostly at least LV20. Azure Sea Breeze was already LV21, so he would not receive bonus damage from the first three Bosses due to their level difference.

Despite this and the fact that they had enough players, they couldn't simply take on the Howling Caves.

Lu Li wanted Wandering and the others to attempt their Profession Upgrade Quests, as players who had completed these were generally stronger.

While they did this, he was going to practice his Forging Trade Skill. His Engineering had already brought him substantial returns and surely, the highly-regarded Forging Trade Skill would not disappoint him.

At that moment, a System Prompt sounded in his ear.

This was accompanied by brightly-colored text appearing on all the channels. Every player in Dawn had received this announcement.

System: The Mid-Autumn Festival is coming and we would like to spend this festive time with you! On the 27th of September 2215, Dawn will be hosting a series of events: 1 – Mooncakes from the sky – the whole map will randomly drop Mooncake Gift Boxes. 2 – The Shadow Cup PVP competition will begin. 3 – All the craftsmen NPCs in all towns and villages will refresh. 4 – …

There were 10 events altogether, ranging from PVE to PVP and Combat professions to Trade Professions. Even Data Collectors and casuals could take part in them. As long a player participated in some way, they would receive the rewards.

It was needless to say that the most important events were the first three. At the very least, Lu Li would put his effort the first three.

The first event was open to all players. Most players were likely to find a Mooncake Gift Box, which had a chance of dropping Potions, Equipment, Materials, toys, Mooncakes etc.

Moreover, there was a chance that a monster could drop a Mooncake Gift Box. This chance was higher when fighting a Boss.

As the name of the second event suggested, it was a PVP event. In fact, this was the event that all of the experts were interested in.

The Shadow Cup was a historical gaming tournament. It was started 160 years ago by Shadow and had quickly become an integral part of entertainment culture.

It was said that this cup was the creation of one senior player. Players watched as he had decided one day to start the Shadow Cup, which he then persisted to host for over 100 years.

His slogan was intimidating: As the Shadow never dies, so will this event never end!

All his descendants had to declare that statement before they could take on any tasks for the Shadow Cup.

Shadow had also suffered some career lows in the past 100 years, but whenever these occurred, countless players would flock to the cinemas to support him.

As technology developed to the point where food could be synthesized and factories had become fully autonomous, human resources were eventually freed. Anyone, rich or poor, could now support the entertainment industry and the influence of the Shadow Cup naturally rose again.

The most important thing was that the winnings of each Shadow Cup totaled tens of millions of dollars in real money.

The third event was also for all players, as anyone could accept the quest. However, as the NPC would only give out Trade Skill related quests, it was considered a Trade Skill event.

"That sounds awesome," Azure Sea Breeze grinned.

"Tch, what could you possibly participate in?" Wandering glanced at him with disdain, which successfully sent the Main Tank into a rage.

"You talking about me? Do you remember when you last asked me for help? If I didn't bring the appendicitis medicine, you would have just laid in bed in pain. You called me and cried out to me to save you because you thought you were going to die," Azure Sea Breeze retaliated.

"The events will start next week. Which events would you guys like to participate in?" Lu Li quickly cut them off. If they fought each other out here in the wilderness, one of them would die and lose EXP.

"Can't we participate in all of them?" Hachi Chan's eyes lit up, feeling like her time had come.

"You could, but it would be better to just focus on one. We can split into small groups to work out which of these events are the most cost effective." Lu Li couldn't find a way to tell them that the first three events were the best and could only make tact recommendations.

In reality, all of the rewards were quite good, but it was more difficult to win a prize in the last seven events.

For example, the "I love Dawn" photography contest had a $1 million prize that was offered by a photography company. However, the Xin Xin Mercenary Group probably didn't have anyone who could do that.

"What do you plan to participate in?" Moonlight asked.

"Anyone can participate in the first one as long as they are in game – it just depends on their luck. But, I plan to pick up a quest for the Third event. I've practiced my Engineering and it's almost at Expert Level. As for the third event…"Lu Li paused.

"Let's do it together."

Moonlight wasn't his usual calm self; he was actually showing some excitement.

"Why? Are you interested?"

"It's a professional event – aren't you interested?" Moonlight's eyes were shining, which made him look inexhaustibly eager.

"I once heard of someone who the online world considered as a great God of gaming. His name was Blood Demon," Wandering said as he inserted himself into the conversation and continued, "He and his team had taken many positions on many ranking lists and had even become champions of the Shadow Cup. But, rumor had it that they had some internal conflict which sent them downhill. Eventually, they had a complete falling out in a game called Shadow Realm…"

Upon hearing the name Blood Demon, Moonlight's expression changed a little. He waited until Wandering finished his ramble before wryly adding, "That's right, I am Blood Demon. Brother Wandering seems to know a lot."

Wandering smiled sneakily and said, "Actually, I'm Guessing."

"You damned blind rat," Azure Sea Breeze attacked. "Lighty, I'm not talking about you. I'm talking about him."

"Ah, let's not revisit things in the past."

Moonlight shook his head, obviously unwilling to talk about his past and instead asked, "Lu Li, are you interested in participating in a Professional Competition with me, a failure? We'll go in and take home the grand prize."

"I'm not like you," Lu Li refused, shaking his head.

Moonlight looked a little distressed. Would he have no way of starting over ever again?

"I'm not like you – I don't have any interest in taking home the grand prize. However, I am very interested in the rewards that are involved in winning the grand prize. There's no way I'm not participating in the second event," Lu Li seriously said.

Moonlight didn't know whether he should laugh or cry. He rubbed his face as he said, "We are still down by one person. Shadow Cup matches are 3v3."

"Hrm, this is no easy task…" Lu Li laughed.

Wandering immediately straightened up; he had to be the one.

"March Rain can be our Healer."

Lu Li immediately picked March Rain. This little Priest was already good enough to be the main Priest of the Champion team, based on the memories of his past life.

Her talent could easily be seen from the PVE situations that they had been in.

Within the short period of one month, he had watched the little noob, who could only look on as her brother died to the Wolf, grow into a Priest who could independently heal an entire party, before finally becoming the main force behind the First Clear of the Death Mines on Difficult Level.

Lu Li had solo'ed Bosses time and time again, so he was always in the limelight. Azure Sea Breeze was the Main Tank, so he was perceived to be the core of the team. As for the Healer, not many players paid attention to her, so they never really appreciated her importance.

Most players just thought that you just needed to keep on healing and that there was no technique to it.

Lu Li suddenly felt expectant that March Rain would improve while in PVP. She would definitely be better than in PVE.

Although Wandering was a good player, he didn't have much PVP ability, much like Azure Sea Breeze. If Lu Li and Moonlight had to pick one other player, they wouldn't pick them.

The Great Thief

Chapter 199: Forging Day

Lu Li, Moonlight and March Rain. A Thief, a Warrior and a Priest – what a wonderful combination.

In all of Lu Li's experience, he had never seen such a composition before. This composition mainly lacked magical crowd control and damage. Moreover, Priests currently didn't have many skills, so they might not be strong enough.

However, he still believed that they could pull it off. Moonlight and Lu Li's burst was high; there weren't many players who could survive their focused attacks.

This was especially the case for Lu Li, who not only had strong attacks, but high-survivability as well.

"If March Rain can finish her Profession Transfer quest, that would be good."

Moonlight had already completed his quest. He had purchased the Transfer Scroll with 2000 Glory points, so he had never actually set foot on the quest maps.

Most PVP players completed their Profession Transfer in this way, but comparatively speaking, their need for Skill Points was not as great.

"I'll go to the outpost and try to finish it."

March Rain looked gentle but was actually quite fortuitous. She was like Lu Li and would try her best in all the things that she did.

"Alright, let me know when you're in and we'll see which map it is." Lu Li didn't have a plan either.

A large portion of completing the Profession Transfer was based on luck. For example, you could end up in an easy map, or run into some players that you knew. Azure Sea Breeze smoothly completed his quest because he ran into some Drizzle Court players who he was familiar with.

However, if you got a special map with many enemies, you would have to rely on your own ability.

"Once you're in, look around to see if there are players from large guilds around. I'll help you look," added Moonlight. His connections were wider than Lu Li's and the people he knew were all experts.

"If that doesn't work, we can take you into the battlefield. Farming 2000 Glory Points is actually not that difficult," Lu Li said murderously. Moonlight agreed with him – today was only Wednesday and they still had four days to go. It would be enough time.

As they were off negotiating, Azure Sea Breeze walked over with his chest puffed-up.

"We also want to participate in the competition. Wandering, Sakura Memories and I will form an aggressive team. If you end up facing us in the competition, good luck to you."

"Huh, you have two Main Tanks. What kind of joke is this?" Lu Li laughed at the thought of it.

"That's true. If I'm so strong, why do I need Breezy? Breezy you're out. Everyone, welcome Sesame Rice Ball to our team," Wandering said.

"You shameless dog," Azure Sea Breeze raged. "Dreamy, big brother will take you to a competition to earn some gold!"

The little hunter shook her head and said, "No, no, I don't want to fight. I need to accompany Guo Guo…

Guo Guo was her pet Tiger that had been raised to be plump and strong. It was exceptionally ferocious, but it was too bad that it had such a cute name. If it wasn't constrained by the system, the tiger would have eaten its master by now.

"Hachi Chan!" Azure Sea Breeze apprehensively looked at the Druid.

"Alright, alright." With such boundless energy, she was truly the daughter of the System.

"Fantastic. Flower, I don't need to ask you right? We're like brothers…"

Azure Sea Breeze embraced Lonesome Flower's shoulder.

"Oh," Lonesome Flower sneered, "Not too long ago, you didn't even consider me and now, you're suddenly my brother. Sorry, I only have one sister who is about to be stolen away and no brothers."

"Uhh, but Flower, I treat you so well…"

Lonesome Flower ignored him and started to channel his return teleport.

Lu Li and the others started to head off as well. Those who hadn't finished their Profession Transfer had to get ready for it, but Lu Li was planning to train his Forging. Hachi Chan was already LV20 and he couldn't put off using her Mold for much longer.

Azure Sea Breeze, who had also already finished his Profession Transfer quest, decided to prepare for the Shadow Cup. He went into the Warsong Canyon with an axe in one hand and a giant shield in the other.

Moonlight felt a sense of obligation and followed him. Otherwise, this could end badly for Azure Sea Breeze.

Unlike Lu Li, he had no experience of being excessively hunted, so he had not developed his escaping ability. He was currently like a moving bag of Glory that could even drop equipment.

Lu Li emptied his backpack and filled it with Crushed Stones before heading to the Blacksmith to learn Forging.

Although the game's Blacksmith was bigger than most players would have initially imagined, the number of players who wanted to learn Forging was just too great. There was always a long queue all day long.

Moreover, not everyone could receive a room number to forge in.

The person responsible for registration was a small, grumpy Dwarf.

"15 Silver coins per hour." The little Dwarf was rather dishonest – his price was very high.

"Why it so expensive? Alchemy only costs 5 Silver!" the player in front of Lu Li cried out. Fifteen Silver coins was already the price of a piece of Bronze equipment. The income wouldn't be able to cover the costs at this price.

The Dwarf stared at him and curled his beard as he said, "Don't compare this to such a sissy trade skill; you are blaspheming the Forging Gods. Go to the back of the line."

Although he was a Dwarf, he still had immense strength, which showed as he grabbed the player's belt and knocked him to the back of the line.

He landed exactly at the last position of the line, not any closer or any further.

Lu Li obediently took out the 15 Silver coins.

"Brother Dwarf from the Copper Tribe, please open a Forging room for me. I would like to learn the great art of Forging."

After his history was acknowledged, the Copper Tribe Dwarf immediate put away his contempt for Lu Li. Upon hearing that Lu Li wanted to learn the great art of Forging, he didn't hesitate. The moment that Lu Li finished the formalities, he immediately handed over the Forging Badge.

The room that was given to Lu Li was also quite good. The fireplace was burning ferociously and was obviously using good coal.

However, Lu Li could only Forge Whetstones, so he couldn't make use of this flame.

Making a Whetstone was quite simple. There was almost no chance of failure, but it gave less EXP.

Fortunately, Lu Li only needed to get his Forging level to Basic (15) before he was able to Forge something else. Altogether, he forged over 30 Whetstones to complete his goal.

The next thing was the Green One-handed Sword that he had found in the Exchange Hall.

After Lu Li prepared the materials, he stared at the Forging Hammer in his hands.

Cresso's Hammer (Special): Strength 20, Forging Speed 30%, Forging Success Rate 20%, Grade 1, Lu Li Exclusive, Durability 100/100.

Because of its 20 Strength, it was easy to wave around. Lu Li's Forging Speed also noticeably increased. As for the increased Success Rate, Lu Li couldn't really feel it, as the Whetstone's probability of failure was too low. Out of the 30 Whetstones he had forged, not a single one had failed.

What could Grade 1 possible mean? Perhaps it meant that an equipment's Grade would be immediately promoted?

That probably wasn't the case – it was too ridiculous. If a newly-forged equipment was Bronze, the result would be a Steel-grade piece of equipment. If it was Steel, then the result would be a Silver piece of equipment. If it was Silver, then the result would be beyond imaginable.

Regardless, he would know once he forged something. Lu Li was looking forward to wielding the hammer as he smashed it down onto the unfinished One-Handed Sword.

The Great Thief

Chapter 200: A Good Return

System: Production of the Soldier's Long Sword has failed.

F…Failed!

How could it have failed? Weren't the initial stages of Forging supposed to be easy to get through? The hammer should have also increased the success rate by 20%...

He had been so focused on the end-result that he had failed.

In his previous life, a strong Trade Profession Player had once said that Trade Skills required 'heart'!

After gathering his thoughts, Lu Li focused all of his attention onto the sword base that was before him.

Of course, in-game Forging was nothing like Forging in real life. In reality, forging a sword required fanning the flames, smelting ore, casting and other kinds of machinery. On the other hand, the game would skip over the first few steps. Once the Trade Skill was used, a certain amount of ore would be consumed and the sword base would be formed. Players were only required to hammer the sword into shape, temper it…etc

System: A Soldier's Long Sword has been successfully produced. Forging EXP 1.

Soldier's Long Sword (Bronze): Damage 12-18, Strength 3, Equipment Requirement: Level 5. Durability 20/20.

It seemed to be a little different…

Lu Li opened up the Forging panel and found the blueprint that he had learnt.

On the blueprint, it said that the Forged Soldier's Long Sword would be:

Soldier's Long Sword (Bronze): Damage 10-16, Strength 1~2, Equipment Requirement: Level 5. Durability 20/20.

This definitely wasn't what he had in his hands.

Not only was its upper and lower bound of damage increased by 2 points, it also now had three attribute points.

Even low-end LV5 Steel-Grade equipment would only have three attribute points.

One could doubtlessly say that Lu Li was holding was an exquisite weapon.

Exquisite LV5 weapons couldn't be sold for a heaven-defying price, but they could still be sold for at least 10 or so silver coins in the Exchange Hall

Presumably, this was the effect of the Grade 1 property.

Lu Li then continued to make another 13 Swords. Two of them had 3 attributes, while the rest had 2 attributes. There wasn't a single sword that only had Strength1.

He felt like a large mountain of coins had fallen from the sky and buried him.

From Forging 14 Swords, he had gained a total of 10 EXP. He now needed to find a new blueprint to increase his EXP more rapidly. Because of this magical hammer, he wouldn't lose as much money.

"That is…"

Lu Li had long since noticed a person standing at the door who seemed to have something on his mind. After hesitantly approaching someone else, he would immediately retreat, as if he was too embarrassed to speak.

"What are you looking for?" Lu Li looked at him calmly.

The person before him was wearing cloth armor and had a Warlock-style Steeple hat. In one hand, he held a LV10 Steel Magic Staff; he was probably a Warlock. Lu Li couldn't see his level, but based on his equipment, it probably wasn't very high. He was unlikely to be higher than LV15.

Perhaps it was because Lu Li's gaze didn't carry the same alertness that most players did, but the Warlock mustered up the courage to ask, "My equipment is critical but I have no money. Can you lend me some money for the repairs?"

Before Lu Li could respond, he hastily added, "My name is Iron Sword. I will definitely return the money to you. You can note it in the system…"

"Don't trust him," a player nearby interjected. "There are plenty of people in Astrana who are begging like him. They have all kinds of reasons for wanting money. Even if you give him money now, the next time you see him, he'll still be asking for money. As for the system note, you have to pay for that."

"I'll pay for the system note," Iron Sword responded.

"Hahaha, then why don't you exchange some real-life money at the Trade Platform for some coins, you fool." The passerby smiled impudently, proud that he had debunked a liar.

What he said was true – the Trading Platform was quite advanced and could credit the coins to your account in under half an hour.

"I… nevermind, excuse me."

Iron Sword bowed his head in humiliation and was about to leave.

"How much do you need?" Lu Li called out.

"Just 1 gold. No, 80 Silver. I don't need a full repair," Iron Sword said eagerly.

"How did you get to a point where you don't even have money to repair your equipment?" He couldn't even pay for 1 gold? Lu Li was now a little skeptical. Dawn's repair costs were notoriously high, but regular players should still have been able to support themselves.

"I transferred all my money yesterday and today, I died a few times while trying to kill a quest monster," Iron Sword sighed helplessly.

Lu Li finally came around. He now understood why Iron Sword was unable to even pay for the repair costs for his equipment.

He had the same experience in his past life. Any money he made in-game, he would immediately convert to real dollars. He would never have enough money in real life to exchange for in-game currency either.

"Here is two gold. You can have it," Lu Li said as he transferred two gold.

He wasn't a tycoon, but he wasn't that charitable either. This was in spite of the fact that he had just received a few hundred gold from the other members of the Mercenary Group for creating the bombs.

"Thank you so much, but 1 gold is enough," Iron Sword refused.

"Just keep it – you'll probably need it. Use the rest on potions." Lu Li said as he confirmed the transaction.

"Thank you." Iron Sword hesitated momentarily before quickly closing the window.

"Yet another person who has been cheated."

The passerby saw that Lu Li had given the money and bitterly left, shaking his head.

"What monsters were you fighting that caused you to die over and over?" Lu Li didn't leave immediately. Instead, he asked a few more questions about him. Now that he had helped him, Lu Li didn't want him to die again and end up on the same path as before.

"The Fire Elemental Lord Magmasa. It's a rare monster. I always come really close."

Iron Sword had nothing to hide.

"Oh, is it a huge Fire Elemental Monster?" When Lu Li heard the name Magmasa, his eyes lit up.

The Fire Elemental Lord Magmasa was not a Boss. However, it was a rare monster with an irregular refresh time and place. Only players who had received the relevant quest could find it.

"Yeah, it's a really big Fire Elemental. The lower's its HP, the higher its defence," Iron Sword exasperatedly replied.

"Let's go. I'll help you kill it." Lu Li sent a party invite.

"Isn't that too much trouble for you…"

He had just borrowed some money and now he needed help to fight a monster. Iron Sword felt like he was asking for too much.

It might drop something that I need," Lu Li explained bluntly.

"Alright. If it does drop, then it's yours."

When Iron Sword heard that Lu Li needed something, he accepted the party invite without a second thought. He didn't even ask what the item was.

"Oh, you're Lu Li!"

"Yep, let's go." He had forgotten to make himself anonymous, but it didn't really matter.

The Great Thief

Chapter 201: Exquisite Silver-Grade Equipment

Behind Lake Erie was the Howling Wolf Valley, but despite its name, it didn't have any wolves. The wind blew around in the Felwood Forest, making it sound like the howl of wolves.

The fire monster Lord Magmasa sat on top of a stone pile within the Howling Wolf Valley, like a silly red quail.

It didn't have much of a story – it had just lived for a long time.

The system gave the details of the monster, repeatedly showing a life and death story. Now, two players appeared in front of it.

" ' O ' ROARRRR~" The fire monster stood up and let out a massive roar.

Because Lu Li was in a party with the quest recipient, he could also see this monster. He didn't feel nervous at all – after all, this thing just seemed scary and wasn't very strong.

Rare monsters were placed in a special category. Some rare monsters were as strong as Bosses or Heroes, while others were even weaker than normal monsters.

Magmasa was in the middle and was slightly stronger than an elite grade monster.

Iron Sword summoned his pet, a jumpy demon that most PVE Warlocks used. Lu Li thought that it would have been better if he used a Hellhound. After all, the fire monster was a melee, magic attacker. However, Iron Sword's financial status probably wouldn't permit the purchase of a Hellhound's Contract.

"Are you in need of money?" Lu Li asked while attacking.

His attack was very high and most of Magmasa's aggro fell on him. The amount of damage he was taking would be fatal for Iron Sword, but Lu Li didn't care at all.

"I need money for my father's treatment. He participated in the Indian War when he was younger…" Iron Sword hoarsely replied.

Lu Li was surprised. Normally, soldiers injured in battle would receive a pension. However, for those who fought in the Indian War, it was different. That massive war had been too cruel and many soldiers had become war criminals for killing civilians.

Iron Sword's father was probably one of those people. Although they weren't punished, they lost their status as soldiers and the corresponding benefits.

Iron Sword had previously been quite close to killing the monster and with Lu Li helping him, Magmasa quickly fell.

Two Steel grade equipment, one rare material and a quest item.

"I just want the quest item; you can have everything else. This quest has very good rewards."

Iron Sword only picked up the quest item and offered everything else to Lu Li.

"I just want this," Lu Li said as he picked up the rare material. "Helping you kill this monster wasn't a big deal and this rare material is worth 50 gold coins. Plus, just having money doesn't necessarily mean you can buy it."

"Ah, it's worth that much?" Iron Sword was shocked.

"What, are you regretting it now? If you want it, you can take it and sell it for 50 gold coins. You can do a lot with that money," Lu Li said as he lightly threw the Lava Essence up and down in his hand.

Fifty gold coins was quite large sum of money for anyone, except for the rich tycoons who viewed money like dirt.

This was especially so for Iron Sword, who didn't even have enough money to repair his equipment.

Anyone could see his internal conflict and regret.

"Never mind. What's yours is yours. I never go back on my promises."

In the end, Iron Sword let out a long breath and lightened up.

"In the future, if you need help with anything, just let me know," Lu Li said as he sent a him a friend request. He had always respected soldiers and Iron Sword was a man of integrity.

Iron Sword accepted his friend request, but didn't say much.

Although he had let go of a large sum of money, he was still filled with gratitude towards Lu Li. He felt that Lu Li wasn't as arrogant or aloof as most people thought.

"Take these two pieces of equipment and sell them."

Lu Li gave the two pieces of equipment to Iron Sword. He had seen the stats and saw that they were quite good. They could definitely be sold for a few gold coins.

"I'll return to you the 2 gold coins that I borrowed after I sell them." This time, Iron Sword didn't refuse. Just because he had integrity didn't mean he was an idiot. This was his quest and Lu Li was just helping him. Since Lu Li had taken the most valuable thing, he naturally couldn't take any more.

"Ah, alright." Lu Li respected this person, but also felt a bit speechless. He shook his head and started to channel his hearthstone.

If Iron Sword went back on his word, Lu Li would have bought the Lava Essence for 50 gold coins. After all, he required the Lava Essence to level up his Supreme Two Ring.

However, if that was the case, it would have simply been a business dealing between them. After receiving the Lava Essence, Lu Li wouldn't have added Iron Sword as a friend, no matter how much he sympathised with him.

When he returned to Astrana, Lu Li went to the Exchange Hall and chose a few blueprints, then started forging again.

Engineering had taken up a few days of his time and although Forging was not easy, it wasn't nearly as time-intensive. However, that was only if one had enough resources.

When Lu Li ran out of EXP from a blueprint, he would immediately switch to the next one. Lu Li didn't really care that the blueprints were quite expensive.

With Cresso's Hammer, the chance of forging good equipment was massively increased. He would be able to recover quite a bit of the money with the equipment he sold.

By investing unreservedly into Forging, Lu Li raised his Forging to Intermediate Level (120) in half a day.

In actuality, Hachi Chan's Mold only required Intermediate Level (95). Lu Li spent hundreds of gold coins to raise his Forging to Intermediate Level (120) to increase the chance of success.

It wouldn't matter if he failed at creating a normal piece of equipment, as he would just lose some materials. However, if he failed with the Mold, he would lose both the materials and the Mold.

As such, Lu Li was determined to succeed on his first try.

Hachi Chan had originally planned to watch him create her exquisite weapon. She demanded to postpone her profession upgrade quest to watch him forge. However, Lu Li had harshly rejected that idea, as he didn't like being watched while he forged.

That was a reason a great master would give, and no one could refute it.

All of the materials, including the 2 rare materials, had been prepared. Lu Li rested for a while before starting. The process to forge a Magic Staff was quite complicated, but his hammer was a great help.

"Did you succeed? Did you succeed?" someone would periodically ask in the chat. This wasn't only Hachi Chan – everyone else was very interested in this weapon.

"All of you shut up, or I'll mute the chat," Lu Li replied in frustration.

The chat instantly became silent.

Lu Li calmed down his breathing and used a burin covered with a metallic liquid to continue inscribing symbols on the staff.

He followed each step on the blueprint and soon, he had reached the final stages.

Lu Li's breathing became ragged. He wasn't sure if it was because of the heat from the furnace, or because he was too nervous. His forehead was covered with sweat and the thing that he dreaded most was hearing a system notification.

Despite this, there was nothing Lu Li could do to avoid hearing one.

As Lu Li used his forging hammer to do the final shaping for the Magic Branch, a system announcement sounded out after the final strike.

System: You have successfully created Umbranse's Staff (Exquisite Silver grade), Forging EXP1.

He had succeeded?

"I succeeded!" Lu Li yelled into the chat.

"Goddamn, the god weapon has been born. Hurry up and show us the stats," Azure Sea Breeze excitedly said.

"Mine, mine, it's mine!" Hachi Chan yelled.

Umbranse's Staff (Exquisite Silver grade): 16-24 Attack, Intelligence16, Constitution4, Special Effect 1: Magic Critical Chance13%, Special Effect 2: when casting a spell on a target, has a certain chance to increase/decrease target's Defence by 20%, Level Requirement: LV20. Durability: 55/55.

It was actually an Exquisite Silver-grade equipment! The first time he had created a piece of equipment with a Mold had resulted in an Exquisite Silver-grade equipment!

The Great Thief

Chapter 202: Grade1

All equipment created from Molds had a prefix added to their grades.

As such, it was obvious whether a piece of equipment had been dropped or created by a Mold.

There were 4 prefixes that equipment from Molds could have: Fine, Superior, Exquisite and Perfect. The gap between each prefix was quite big, with Perfect Silver-grade equipment almost rivalling Gold-grade equipment.

Even the lowest grade of equipment from a Mold was better than normal equipment of the same grade. Of course, it was possible for Silver grade equipment that had been dropped to have heaven-defying stats as well.

The Umbranse's Staff in Lu Li's hands had skipped the Fine and Superior grades and was an Exquisite Silver-grade equipment.

The Attack wasn't that great, but Magic professions didn't rely on the Equipment Damage. Instead, most of their damage came from their Skill Damage. The staff gave 20 points of stats, all of which were quite useful. This was especially so for Intelligence, which was 16.

What made this staff worthy of its status as an Exquisite Silver-grade equip were its Special Effects.

Magic Critical Chance13%. In his 'past life', Lu Li had seen a Fine Umbranse's Staff with a Critical Chance of 11%. That meant that for every level of quality, the Critical Chance was increased by 1%.

As for the chance to increase or decrease a target's Defence by 20%, that was an unexpected surprise.

Lu Li had once read a thread that listed very rare Special Effects and included this one.

Healers or other support-roles could give their teammates a 20% Defence buff, while the 20% reduction to Defence could be used as massive Armour Pierce!

This was the first piece of Lu Li had forged from a Mold. At the very bottom, he carved the golden words: Forged by Lu Li, giving this weapon some history.

Lu Li looked at the words 'Exquisite Silver grade' and suddenly thought of something – could this be the effect of the Grade1?

He never believed that his luck was very good. Although he had put all of his effort into forging this weapon, he never would have expected it to be an Exquisite Silver grade equip.

In fact, he didn't even dare to hope for a Superior Silver grade.

Perhaps the Grade1 meant that when creating a piece of equipment from a Mold, its grade would be boosted one higher.

If it was as he thought, then the Grade1 stat would be completely heaven-defying.

This stat was listed behind the Success Rate20%. Usually, the further back a stat or Special Effect was, the more powerful it was.

Of course, Lu Li couldn't confirm if this was true.

"Damn, it's so good. Can you make me one sometime as well?" Azure Sea Breeze was drooling in envy.

"Sure, if you have a Mold." Lu Li packed up his things and prepared to conclude this period of training his Trade Professions. He would slowly continue to train them up in future.

"Molds are so hard to come by. Apart from Hachi Chan's one, I haven't seen any others." Azure Sea Breeze was devastated.

In actuality, he was someone who had seen and experienced much. He had achieved various First Clears and records. It was a pity that he had never obtained a Mold before and the quest that Hachi Chan completed would not give the same rewards.

Exquisite Silver grade. Ignoring all of the stats that it gave, the alone prefix was quite impressive.

"The Wailing Cave will drop a Mold," Lu Li replied.

"Goddamn, why didn't you say so earlier? Everyone, let's work hard. There's still a few a still hours until the game ends today, so let's enter the Instance Dungeon as soon as possible," Azure Sea Breeze's yelled, which hurt everyone's ears.

"Even if we go into the Instance Dungeon, that doesn't mean we'll beat the Boss," Lonesome Flower said.

"Even if we beat the Boss, that doesn't mean a Mold will drop," Wandering added.

"Even if a Mold drops, that doesn't mean it will be suitable for you," Hachi Chan also joined in.

"Even if it is suitable for you, you won't necessarily be able to find the rare materials. Haha, Hachi Chan, I'm pretty good, right?" Remnant Dream laughed uncontrollably.

"Ahem, and even if you have the materials, that doesn't mean I'll make it for you." Lu Li dealt the final blow.

"You're all bad people…" Azure Sea Breeze whimpered as he crawled away.

"I finished my profession upgrade," Sesame Rice Ball softly said in the chat.

Most of the time, this shy guy stayed silent or quiet.

However, with his skills and power, he had long since earned the respect from the rest of the team.

Ever since Sesame Rice Ball had joined the Mercenary Group, Lu Li had spent less effort into Alchemy. He only needed to make his own poisons.

Seventh Heaven had funded Sesame Rice Ball's Alchemy, so his level was much higher than Lu Li's. Not only could he made Advanced Antidotes, he could also make Intermediate Health Potions, Intermediate Agility Potions, Intermediate Strength Potions, Intermediate Intelligence Potions, Intermediate Constitution Potions and even Intermediate Tenacity Potions.

Seventh Heaven had taken away all of his equipment when he left, but they couldn't take away his skills.

"Can you make some Potions? I'll pay in a bit."

Wandering put himself in charge of logistics. As soon as he heard that Sesame Rice Ball was free, he immediately gave him something to do.

"Make a lot of Advanced Antidotes if you can," Lu Li added. There were many poisonous monsters in the Wailing Cave and their poison required Advance Antidotes to cure.

"Anything else?" Sesame Rice Ball respected Lu Li a lot and always took his views seriously.

"Some Constitution Potions as well," Lu Li said after thinking for a moment.

Lu Li made 2 bottles of Deadly Poison then went to find a place to peacefully farm monsters.

Most of the mainstream players of Japan spent their time training and levelling up. In the early stages of the game, level determined everything and no one wanted to fall behind.

As someone who had experienced 'rebirth', Lu Li also needed to train and level up.

After farming for more than half an hour, a second person finished their profession upgrade.

"I finished upgrading my profession. Luckily, I met some nice people," Hachi Chan said, letting out a sigh of relief. Her profession still leaned towards dealing damage and healing. With her amazing set of equipment, she didn't need to worry about not being able to handle two roles.

For someone like her who enjoyed questing, she needed to develop in such a direction anyways. It wasn't just for the team.

"Goddamn, are you the system's daughter? Is this even possible?" Wandering was fighting some monsters, while also keeping up his guard against enemy players. He was feeling quite melancholic.

"Lu Li, where are you? I'll come find you," Hachi Chan ignored him and asked Lu Li for his location.

"For what?" Lu Li pretended not to know why.

"My staff, my staff! I'm sure you're all jealous!!" the little girl loudly yelled.

If Remnant Dream was a silly-cute character, Hachi Chan was an idiot-cute one, who liked to make up things in her head.

She had already imagined that these people were so jealous of her exquisite equipment that they were going to suppress her. The glorious Hachi Chan definitely wouldn't yield.

Lu Li told her where he was and quickly saw a golden cheetah rushing over.

The Great Thief

Chapter 203: Hachi Chan's Fujoshi Habits

This was the first time Lu Li had seen Hachi Chan transform. It turned out that she had also learned the Child of The Forest.

Lu Li's equipment was not much better than Hachi Chan's, especially after he handed over the Exquisite Silver-grade Staff.

"Did you get any rewards from finishing the profession upgrade quest?" Lu Li wasn't sure how many Silver-grade equips this girl had.

"Don't even mention it. The rewards were so bad – a Steel grade equipment, a Skill Point and a Skill Book. The equipment was worse than what I already had and the Skill Book was something I've already learned," the system's daughter dissatisfiedly complained to her father.

Receiving a Skill Point was already amazing. Most people only received a Steel-grade equip when they completed the quest.

"Oh, what Skill Book was it?" Lu Li asked.

"Stealth. I've already learned it." Hachi Chan played around with her Staff, looking at it with fond eyes. However, Lu Li simply wouldn't praise her.

"Give it to me then," Lu Li said as he stretched out his hand. He felt that it wasn't too good to just take something from a little girl so he added, "I'll give you 10 gold coins."

"I'll give it to you as a gift. Thank you for making me such an excellent and pretty piece of equipment," Hachi Chan casually replied.

"I'd be pretty happy if you took off the bit after 'excellent'," Lu Li annoyedly replied. The Staff had extraordinary stats and Special Effects, yet she valued its looks the most.

However, he was very interested in the Skill Book.

As more and more Molds were found, Dawn's 'Forging Alliance' would suggest recommended prices and very soon, these received the support of all Blacksmiths.

They believed that if the Forging failed, the Blacksmith should compensate the owner of the Mold for 20% of the value of the materials used. Of course, they could also privately agree otherwise.

If they forged a Fine grade equip, the would pay Blacksmith a small fee, or even no fee at all.

Forging a Superior-grade equip would result in the Blacksmith taking a fee worth 10% of the materials used.

Forging an Exquisite-grade equip would result in the Blacksmith receiving a fee worth 20% of the materials used. In reality, most Blacksmiths took more than this standard. Usually, the owners of the Mold were more than happy to pay some extra money in exchange for the Exquisite grade equipment.

As for Perfect-grade equipment, there was no way to set a standard price, and neither was there a need to. After all, most Blacksmiths would never be able to forge a Perfect-grade equip/

Umbranse's Staff was an Exquisite Silver-grade equip.

According to the standard prices, Hachi Chan would have to pay Lu Li far more than the Stealth Skill Book she had just gifted him.

Lu Li had wanted this Skill Book for a long time.

Although the Druid Cheetah Stealth Skill Book wasn't very rare, the demand for it was far too high. Lu Li couldn't spend all of his time at the Exchange Hall waiting, so he had never been able to obtain one.

After handing over the Staff, Lu Li went to continue farming monsters. He still had half an hour of double EXP left, and every second of it was incredibly precious.

When she received her Staff, Hachi Chan didn't immediately leave. Instead, she used her skills to help Lu Li farm monsters.

Lu Li could only add her into his party.

"When are we going to throw bombs again?" Hachi Chan felt quite bored of farming like this.

"Starwood is pretty hard to obtain and I have to collect some more." There was nothing Lu Li could do. After all, he wasn't so thick-skinned as to ask for Starwood on the World Channel again.

One Starwood in exchange for a favour – he couldn't make too many of those deals.z

Moreover, many people already had their suspicions about Starwood. When he went to the Exchange Hall, he couldn't find a single one.

Most of the Starwood Lu Li had was given to him by players who respected him. These were all personal favours that needed to be paid back – he couldn't just throw them a gold coin in exchange.

"You can't make any without Starwood?" Hachi Chan pitifully asked.

Since she had entered the game, she had completed many, many quests. She had seen hundreds, if not thousands, of rare and strange things, but she had never obtained a Starwood before. Perhaps its drop rate was too low.

"There will be people selling it," Lu Li confidently replied.

Starwood had a low drop rate, but with tens of millions of players, it was impossible for it not to drop. The people who currently had Starwood were probably trying to investigate how it could give them EXP, but most of them were doomed to fail.

When they failed, they would naturally throw those 'useless things' into the Exchange Hall.

"Hachi Chan, you're doing it wrong." After they had farmed for a bit, Lu Li couldn't take it anymore.

It wasn't because he liked to teach other people, but because he had played as a Druid in his 'past life'. He simply couldn't stand watching Hachi Chan play like that.

"I think I'm farming pretty well." Hachi Chan blinked in confusion.

"No matter if it's attacking or healing, a Druid Mage should be using damage or healing over time…" Lu Li blabbered on for a few minutes before he paused and said, "You should try to understand your skills more instead of just using them casually."

"Ah…" Hachi Chan opened her mouth, with a silly expression on her face.

"What, you can't understand it?" Lu Li frowned. In order to cater to her intelligence level, he had already explained things quite simply.

With intelligence like that, Lu Li wondered how she usually did quests.

Hachi Chan looked as if she was an adventurer who had just discovered a new continent. Unable take her eyes off Lu Li's face, she said, "Lu Li, I always thought you were a high and mighty expert. Who would have thought that you could talk so much?"

Lu Li frowned deeply and he felt a sudden urge to flick her on the head.

What was going on in that brain of hers? How could she think of such things when the 'great god' was teaching her 1 to 1?

"Did you understand the things I just talked about?!"

"I… I did," Hachi Chan nervously nodded and gulped.

"Then I'll continue talking about Healing Druids. I'm only going to say it once and if you make any mistakes when we go into the Wailing Cave, I won't show any mercy." Lu Li pretended to look fierce and mean.

Unafraid, Hachi Chan came closer.

"I heard that you have a little sister who's younger than me. Do you usually smack her?"

"If you continue to gossip, I'll really smack you right now." This kid was simply too much. Lu Li could feel the calmness that he prided himself in slipping away.

"Alright, alright. Why do you have to be so mean?" Hachi Chan didn't dare to continue to provoke Lu Li.

The was no one around where they were. What would she do if a certain someone was provoked to the point of committing murder?

"The Wailing Caves require two Healers – one main and one support. March Rain is the main Healer and you'll be the support Healer. When there's a big need for healing, you'll help. At other times, you'll be attacking. Of course, when attacking the Boss, you need to make sure that you keep a heal over time on him…"

"Got it?"

"G-Got it…" Hachi Chan shook herself out of her daze and hurriedly replied.

"Clearing an Instance Dungeon is much harder than doing quests, so everyone needs to work hard. Otherwise, everyone will be dragged down," Lu Li earnestly and patiently said.

Only towards girls around his little sister's age did he have this much patience.

"Lu Li, you need to be careful of Wandering," Hachi Chan mysteriously said.

"What's up with Wandering?" Lu Li was surprised. He simply couldn't understand what this little girl was talking about. He thought that Wandering was a pretty good guy and he had known him for a long time in his 'past life'.

"I feel that there's a lot going on between him and Azure Sea Breeze," Hachi Chan stood on her tiptoes and whispered to Lu Li.

Apart from the two of them, there were only monsters around. What was going on with this girl?

"They've known each other for ages. Of course there's a lot between them." Lu Li didn't understand what she was talking about.

He felt that this young girl had a problem with communication. Luckily, Xin Xin wasn't like this.

"But you're a couple with Azure Sea Breeze, right?"

Suddenly a girl's voice shrilly cried out, "Aiya, don't pull my ears! Save me! Dreamy, hurry up and save me! Lu Li's hitting me…"

The Great Thief

Chapter 204: Preparing to Start The New Instance Dungeon

"Why is it me?" Lonesome Flower's expression was quite terrifying. Even his little sister kept her distance.

"Ah, Flower, don't be sad." Perhaps he felt bad or had some other motives, but Azure Sea Breeze came over and put his arm around Lonesome Flower's shoulder to comfort him.

"Why am I the only person who hasn't finished their profession upgrade quest?!" Lonesome Flower felt quite depressed.

The difficulty of the profession upgrade quests was suitable for most players above LV20. Most of the Xin Xin Mercenary Group had reached this level, and all of them had excellent equipment and skills.

As long as nothing went wrong, they would be able to finish the quest, even if they were alone.

Lonesome Flower was extremely unlucky. At the beginning, he had been too arrogant to form a party with the other Light Faction players. As such, he had been slaughtered by a large group of Evil Faction players.

Lu Li felt that Lonesome Flower failing his quest was quite normal, and it wasn't necessarily bad.

Lonesome Flower was simply too arrogant and aloof.

He only cared about his little sister and didn't interact much with anyone else.

As such, no one else from the Mercenary Group paid him much attention. His cooperation in Instance Dungeons was also quite lacking – all he did was attack and attack.

Dawn was not a game for single players. Lu Li hoped that Lonesome Flower would understand this through what had happened.

"Alright, you can try again in three days. Right now, we're going to the Wailing Cave. I'll draw a map for everyone," Lu Li said as he took out a piece of sheepskin paper.

"Why do we need a map? Can't we be transported by the NPC?" Everyone felt quite confused.

Lu Li could only patiently explain, "The Wailing Cave is in the South of the Barrenlands. The last time when I went to the Barrenlands…"

"Wait, the person who set fire to the Horde's camp was you?" Moonlight asked, flabbergasted.

"Yes, that was a quest," Lu Li nodded.

"Goddamn, I'm speechless," Moonlight bitterly laughed and patted Lu Li's shoulder. This guy was quite good at surprising those around him.

Not many people knew about it in the Light Faction, but there were many discussions going on in the Evil Faction around this topic. This was especially so in the PVP groups, where the players were all very interested. Most people thought that it was an NPC who had dived into enemy territory to set fire to the camp.

As for Gaze, the Warrior who Lu Li had encountered, he hadn't mentioned anything to anyone.

"To be honest, it wasn't as glorious as it sounds. We can talk about it later. I'll talk about what I learned from scouting out the Barrenlands." Of course, Lu Li hadn't actually done any scouting. He just needed an excuse to give out information he had read about in his 'past life'.

"What did you find?"

"There's a Sweetwater oasis near the Wailing Cave. If you soak in there for 10 minutes, you get an All Stats 5 buff which only works in the Wailing Cave," Lu Li explained.

"Why'd you go in for 10 minutes?" Wandering was confused.

"To take a bath," Lu Li weakly replied.

Wandering responded with a middle finger.

"Alright, alright, I'll stop messing around. I thought back to the Spider Lair Instance Dungeon and decided to try it out. I feel like this will give us an edge over other players. Who else would go in there and soak for 10 minutes?"

"Even though All Stats 5 isn't that overpowered, it's still quite useful for our whole team. How long does it last for?"

"I'm not sure. I stayed in the Instance Dungeon for about an hour, but it still hadn't run out. It disappeared after I came out." Lu Li knew that Wandering wouldn't easily be tricked. Luckily, he had prepared some answers in advance.

"Alright, since it's like that, it wouldn't be good to be sent there directly by an NPC. Draw the map for us then," Wandering excitedly said.

"It's actually pretty simple. You go to Rattan City first and walk along this path. Make sure that you stay on it, because it's the safest route. Don't try to take shortcuts, because there are many Orc Wolfriders on the way from Rattan City to the Wailing Cave. They're all LV30 Elites, extremely fast, and are difficult to deal with. You're pretty much dead if they see you."

"Do we have to take this trip every time we go?" Azure Sea Breeze discontentedly asked.

He was a Warrior, so he didn't like to sneak around and hide.

"That's not necessary. At this place," Lu Li pointed at the map, "There's a frontline command station. You can repair your equipment there and buy some simple items. There's also an Inn, but the only issue is that there's no transportation channel or Exchange Hall."

"It's so troublesome without a transportation channel."

"Don't rely on transportation channels too much. In the future, they're going to get rid of most transportation channels. They'll only be in certain maps," Lu Li kindheartedly reminded them.

"Why would they do that?" Everyone else was quite unhappy about that, especially the lazy Azure Sea Breeze.

Hachi Chan was on the verge of tears. She already had a bad sense of direction and if the transportation channels were removed, it would take her years to get anywhere with those little legs of hers.

"There aren't many maps in the early stages of the game and there are many players, but it's difficult to get around. When mounts are introduced, you naturally won't need transportation channels anymore."

Lu Li was clearer about this than anyone else. As the game progressed, the number of transportation channels would decrease. In the later stages of the game, they would only be available for distances that would take more than half a day of travelling.

Replacing them would be land mounts, flying mounts, airships and other flying machines.

"Hachi Chan, you scout ahead with your cheetah form in Stealth. If you see any Orc Wolfriders, give a warning and Wandering will direct you," Lu Li looked at the unreliable Druid and sighed.

"What about you? Aren't you coming with us?"

"I… I can't go to Rattan City…" Lu Li stammered as he wiped away some cold sweat from his forehead.

"Why not?" Rattan City was in Astrana's transportation channel list. Even though it didn't belong to the Light Faction, it still was a neutral place. Everyone was curious as to why Lu Li couldn't go.

"Err, I just can't." Lu Li's response made everyone grind their teeth in frustration.

"Tell us, tell us!" Remnant Dream and Hachi Chan grabbed either side of Lu Li, refusing to let go.

"Alright, let go, I'll tell you. I offended an NPC there, so I can't go back. Are you happy now?" Lu Li gave in.

Offended a NPC?

Azure Sea Breeze couldn't help but think of that poor Goblin Businessman Krolly. He pointed at Lu Li with a trembling hand as he yelled, "You killed an NPC again?! Are you addicted to killing NPCs?"

"You hooligan, when did I ever kill an NPC?" Lu Li rolled his eyes.

"Big brother Sea Breeze, have you guys really killed an NPC before?" With Hachi Chan's encouragement, Remnant Dream began to act cute, but everyone else was curious as well.

Lonesome Flower and March Rain had been with Lu Li for a long time, but didn't know he had killed an NPC before.

Azure Sea Breeze was being overwhelmed by the girls and could only pitifully look at Lu Li.

Lu Li clapped his hands and sternly said, "What are you guys still doing here? Hurry up and set out. We're going to try to kill a Boss today; there's a very high chance of a Mold dropping for the First Clear."

Could he be more fake than that? Everyone looked at him with disdain.

Lu Li ignored them and simply left.

He had to travel further than them, as he needed to pass through the Warsong Valley, so he ran the whole way.

Although he could fly, it still wasn't as convenient as using a transportation channel.

"Goddamn, can I tell them or not? Lu Li, you little girl! Don't run away!" Azure Sea Breeze was only able to react after Lu Li had ran off and was left to deal with the curiosity of his teammates.

The Great Thief

Chapter 205: Delicious Wind Serpent

In order to prepare for the long battle ahead, Lu Li had already bought supplies and sent them to Wandering. He sent them through the Mailing System, where items could be stored and mailed to others.

He didn't want to waste time and planned to travel past the Warsong Valley as quickly as possible.

If he could get past the Warsong Orc Guards last time, he could easily do it again. Previously, he had used "The World is So Big" to confuse all of the guards' senses. This time, he could easily fool them with the Deception Orb.

An Undead Thief from the Evil Faction casually strolled through the Horde's area.

"Lu Li, there're so many Centuars around here. How do I get past?" Wandering asked anxiously in the chat room.

Every time he encountered a problem, he would naturally ask for Lu Li's opinion on the matter. There were too many monsters and killing them would be a waste of time and energy.

"Find a place with less monsters; I'll be right over. Apparently, the monsters here drop a magical blue print called 'Delicious Wind Serpent'." Lu Li transformed into a crow and flapped his wings as he soared across the sky.

Ever since he had levelled up his Crow Transformation, the flying speed had greatly increased.

"Delicious Wind Serpent? Is it edible?"

"Yes, there are no bonus stats, but it's very cool. If you consume it, you can become a Ninja or a Pirate." Lu Li saw the Sweetwater Oasis in the distance.

The Sweetwater Oasis and the Bitterwater Oasis were both inside the centaurs' territory. The Kolkar Centaurs led by Khan Dez'hepah roamed the barren north. They had to compete with the Durotar Orcs and the Thunder Cliff Taurens for land.

The Celkis Centaurs were also a part of these deformed monsters and came from Desolate Land. They had lost to the Tauren in a battle and were driven out of their land.

The Kolkar Centaurs received support from the Cenarion Union and declared war upon the Orcs.

The lore had nothing to do with the players, but they would aggro onto anyone who came close. The players were interested in them for their loot.

Delicious Wind Serpent recipe!

No matter what they planned to do with it, it was worth the time investment.

Lu Li did not descend from the sky in Crow form, but suddenly appeared in front of Azure Sea Breeze and the others.

"Goddamn, are you trying to scare us?!" Azure Sea Breeze was angry at Lu Li for suddenly popping up in front of them and almost split him in half with his axe.

"Look at the time – you guys are so inefficient," Lu Li scolded him.

He trusted Azure Sea Breeze to explain the problem of killing the NPC. He would never betray him, even if people threatened to cut his manhood off.

"Didn't you say there's a recipe that drops here which that allows you to transform into a pirate?" Hachi Chan searched the ground littered with Centaur corpses.

"Hachi Chan loves Johnny Depp," Remnant explained.

"Johnny Depp? What the hell is that? Is that a boss?" Lu Li was confused.

"You… don't know who Johnny Depp is? He's one of the greatest movie stars from 200 years ago," Hachi Chan explained as she coldly stared at Lu Li. "He passed away long ago. What a shame; I can only see him in movies. He was one of the greatest actors of all time."

"Why are you still talking about him when he's dead? I hope he comes and finds you at night," Lu Li said, trying to scare her.

"Uncle. You're so lame. What a pathetic attempt at scaring little girls."

"I might look mature but I'm nowhere near looking like an uncle. I'm still young," Lu Li retorted, almost coughing up blood. "The drop rate for the Delicious Wind Serpent recipe is way too low. That's too bad. Let's go take a bath."

"PERVERT. Why would you ask girls to go take a bath with you? Remnant and I aren't even of legal age yet," Hachi Chan taunted him. She had held a grudge on Lu Li ever since he had pulled on her ear.

Lu Li was defeated.

After everyone had a good laugh, they arrived together at Sweetwater Lake.

Ten minutes later, Wandering impatiently asked, "Why is nothing happening?"

Lu Li jumped out of the water and led them towards the Instance Dungeon cave. "Things will happen after we enter the instance dungeon," he replied.

This secret Instance Dungeon wouldn't be discovered until much later. Normally, people wouldn't bother to stay in the water for that long.

Although the dungeon was hard to find, it wasn't completely impossible. Therefore, there was no reason for them to suspect that Lu Li had undergone a rebirth.

The girls who had previously said that they weren't afraid of ghosts huddled in the centre of the group, too afraid to even speak.

They soon arrived at a large pool of water which obstructed their way.

"Carefully swim over; don't aggro the monsters in the water. They're very deep down, so as long as we cross the river quickly, they won't notice us," Lu Li whispered.

"There's something in the water…?" Remnant Dream almost cried while holding onto Hachi chan.

March Rain also took a couple steps back because she was afraid. Only Sakura Memories seemed fine and curiously walked closer, trying to figure out what was in the water.

"There're only two monsters down there." Lu Li was speechless.

"That's so scary! What if they pull on my legs and drag me down?" Hachi Chan began to cry.

"They're monsters, not water ghosts." Lu Li finally understood why many elite groups didn't accept female players.

"How do you know there aren't any water ghosts? I'm not going in, never," Hachi Chan protested which was met with agreeance from Remnant Dream. In their current state, they probably wouldn't even touch the water unless they were thrown down.

"Big Bro, lure the monsters out and we'll kill them," March Rain urged as she pulled on her older brother's sleeves.

"Kill them!" Lonesome Flower exclaimed enthusiastically to impress the ladies.

"How about I lure them?" Sakura Memory couldn't wait.

"Wait, if we're going to fight them, at least have a strategy," Lu Li said, defeated. "The two monsters down there are both Elite Grade and have high HP. The main problem is that they can restore their HP by going back down into the deep when it low.

"Focus on one then?" Moonlight suggested.

"Yes, we need to all burst it at once and kill it before it goes back down," Lu Li nodded and agreed.

They wouldn't let a girl go down to lure the monsters. Azure Sea Breeze, who was standing by the edge, felt a painful kick from behind as his heavy armour splashed into the water.

"Wandering, you asshole. I bet it was you that kicked me," Azure Sea Breeze said as he plunged into the water.

"No one saw me kicking you. Innocent until proven guilty!" Wandering replied cheekily.

The Great Thief

Chapter 206: Obtaining Another Bracelet

"Who else besides you would kick me? Do you think I'm actually stupid?!" Azure Sea Breeze was not angry because he was in the water, but because he had been kicked in.

"Shut up Azure. Prepare for battle."

The two shadows beneath the surface grew larger and larger as the water began to stir up.

The monster is here!

"Goddamn, these monsters are massive. Are you sure these aren't bosses?!" Azure Sea Breeze had always been a fearless type of guy. He had seen all kinds of weird, creepy and even gory things, but the monsters beneath the water sent chills up his spine.

"You're the ones that wanted to fight them," Lu Li said, trying to avoid responsibility.

Not many people fought these monsters, not because they were difficult, but because of the way they would appear. The way they lurked in the shadows and rushed towards you as soon as you entered the water would leave anyone with post-traumatic stress disorder and deep-sea-phobia.

Even their gear and drops sank to the bottom, most people would choose against retrieving them.

The girls began to run away and even Sakura Memory's face became pale. The monster's large and sinister mouth came rushing towards Azure Sea Breeze to devour him.

Its name was 'Deviate Lurker' and it looked like a plesiosaurus.

"Hurry up and get up, or you'll get one shot," Wandering laughed.

Azure Sea Breeze clumsily avoided the attack and raised his shield, as he casted Taunt.

Lu Li and Wandering stood beside him and instantly attacked the Lurker that had been taunted. Everyone began to support them from behind, using fear to fuel their strength as they threw every ability they had at it.

The plesiosaurus was quickly killed and cried as it ran away.

"Rest for a bit and lure the other one." Lu Li then glanced at the little Druid and asked, "Hachi Chan do you want to go down to pick up the loot later?"

"No. I'd rather die," Hachi Chan refused.

"There's a high chance that it'll drop the recipe for Delicious Wind Serpent." Lu Li wasn't lying this time. Although the information wasn't on the forums yet, he knew from his past life that these monsters had a high chance of dropping the recipe.

"Whatever it drops, I ain't going down there. Lu Li, you're so mean. I'm traumatised and never going swimming again." The sight of the two giant monsters appearing from the depths of the sea was enough to leave her traumatised for a long time.

Lu Li felt slightly guilty and gently said, "Ok, ok, I'll go down and get it. If I find the recipe, I'll even share it with you guys."

"Go lure the monsters," Wandering demanded as he kicked Azure Sea Breeze.

Azure Sea Breeze was confident this time from the previous experience and used his shield to lure the Lurker up to the surface.

The second monster heard the commotion from above and rushed upwards.

It was no different this time and the Lurker was beat to death.

Lu Li received two Intermediate Underwater Breathing Potions from Sesame Rice Ball and jumped into the water.

He hadn't even learned to make Beginner Underwater Breathing Potions, but Rice Ball had upgraded his alchemy to Advanced level and had learned many rare recipes.

Lu Li felt pressured from this, because if Sesame Rice Ball didn't benefit more from Xin Xin Mercenary Group than Seventh Heaven, he would feel guilty for making him join.

It was very dark below, so he transformed into Seal to increase his field of view.

The pool of water was similar to a pocket. The expanse of water below became wider and wider as he dove in deeper. Now, he could feel the currents moving.

Lu Li only saw a Bronze Grade Weapon when he reached the bottom.

He wasn't sure if the recipe had dropped, or if it had been swept away by the currents.

Lu Li began to search around.

Treasure Chest!

He had yet to find the recipe, but had managed to stumble upon a Steel Grade Treasure Box.

He prayed that something good would come out.

Recently, he had been quite busy and was unable to go around looking for Treasure Boxes.

When he had the time, he planned on searching for Treasure Boxes that he remembered from his past life.

Lu Li searched the Treasure Box with his seal claws and felt a piece of cloth at first.

This was a robe for Mages with some decent stats, but for Lu Li's group, it was nothing more than garbage. He decided to keep it in his bag to sell.

Normally, a Steel Grade Treasure Box would drop two items, so Lu Li searched the box again.

He felt a circle shaped object that was larger than a ring and took it out.

Bracelet!

He remembered the time he had found a bracelet in a Treasure Box at the start of the game. He had sold it for about 10 times the price of a normal Bronze Grade Equip.

Lu Li looked back on this with a deep sense of regret.

Being the first female-only gear in the game, he could have sold it for a ridiculous price, even if the stats were terrible. He could never forgive himself for selling it for so cheap.

Protection of the Tides (Steel): Strength6, Stamina 6, Adds 12 slots to inventory. Level Requirement: 15, Durability 36/36

Protection of the Tides was made of jade and looked like flowing water. Lu Li didn't care about the appearance of gear, but the bracelet was so beautiful that he was mesmerized for a few seconds.

He could probably sell this for good money.

Or perhaps, he could give it to someone as a present. Just kidding, as if Lu Li would do that.

This bracelet had value in its appearance, not in its stats.

When he finished the Instance Dungeon, he planned on selling it to the jewellery shop.

After he opened the treasure box, he searched around for a while and decided to head back up after finding nothing.

"Why were you down there for so long? I thought you drowned," Azure Sea Breeze said.

"I opened a treasure box and found 2 Steel Grade Equipment. You guys wouldn't need them, so I'll keep them for myself," Lu Li replied. "The monster only dropped a Bronze Grade Equipment and nothing else.

"This was expected. A 5000 HP Elite Monster probably wouldn't drop anything good." Wandering glanced at Lu Li and decided to believe that he wasn't keeping stuff to himself. He didn't question Lu Li about the treasure box either.

If Lu Li could say it out loud, he must have had a clear conscience.

After travelling past the pool of water, they came across a number of different monsters.

Devouring Ectoplasm – a disgusting slime monster commonly known as Slimey by most players.

Deviate Coiler – a wind serpent that was able to spit out poison. Although it looked like a regular monster, it had a very high damage output. If it wasn't for Sesame Rice Ball's Advanced Antidotes, someone might have died.

Deviate Slayer – a very fierce raptor. It was also a normal monster, but it could crit every three hits, which dealt a lot of damage.

Even though the monsters were quite fierce, Lu Li and his group managed to get through everything smoothly and arrived at the Instance Dungeon Entrance.

The Great Thief

Chapter 207: Starting The Howling Caves

The first ten-person Instance Dungeon had officially begun.

"You are the party leader; select a difficulty," Wandering said.

"Nightmare, pick Nightmare!" Azure Sea Breezed egged Lu Li on.

The others were eager as well and even Wandering was facing Lu Li with anticipation.

Lu Li's PVP ability was quite strong, but not many people cared about that. The people who knew him had predominantly heard about him through the World Announcements for First Clears and Soloing Bosses.

"Your face is a Nightmare," Lu Li said as he wiped the sweat off his forehead. Perhaps the Death Mines had set a bad precedent, but his friends seemed to no longer have any fear of Instance Dungeons.

The Howling Caves was a 10-person Dungeon with four available difficulties – Ordinary, Elite, Difficult and Nightmare. This was likely to be the first Instance Dungeon in Dawn that included all the levels of difficulty.

Although completing the Death Mines was no easy feat, the Difficult Level was still the highest available.

While the Elite difficulty could be considered as 20% harder than the Ordinary Difficulty and the Difficult Level 30% more, the Nightmare difficulty didn't follow this trend. It wasn't even just 50% more difficult – in fact, it was a Heaven-Defying 100% more difficult.

Furthermore, all Nightmare-Difficulty Bosses had super-overpowered area of effect Skills. Only the last two Bosses in the other difficulties had these.

"Elite."

Lu Li took no notice of the looks of disdain and decisively chose the Elite Difficulty.

"Ah, Elite it is then. We can still get First Clear with that."

Wandering had a strong fighting spirit and comforted everyone.

After entering the Dungeon, everyone gained 5 to their attributes.

"Can I ask something? Why have I gained 8 points?" Hachi Chan didn't mean to show off, but everyone else had only gained five points. Her situation was understandably unusual.

"Little one, you truly are the System's daughter. Was there anything else you wanted?" Azure Sea Breeze had almost fallen prostrate before her. The System was definitely telling them something.

"Keke, little Hachi, do you want to tell us the strategy for this Instance Dungeon?" Remnant Dream also started jealously teasing her.

"Give me two Molds please." The prideful Flower tried to fit in by making a joke that was unusual of his character.

"Don't be ridiculous. How could you have gained 8 points? Did anyone else gain 8 points?"Moonlight's voice interrupted them.

"I think I can explain that."

Lu Li waited for their discussion to end before speaking confidently.

"Why?"

"Because Hachi Chan is a Druid," Lu Li explained. "The monsters in the Howling Caves predominantly have Druid canines. They were once part of Cenarion's circle of life and their goal was to restore the Barrenlands…."

"You mean to say that they're good guys? We are actually going to kill good guys!?" Hachi Chan's eyes widened with shock.

"Uhh…" Lu Li hesitated for a second, before continuing, "Archdruid Navarax believed that he could use an underground fountain to restore the Barrenlands into a fertile land, but such a task required energy to be drawn from the legendary world of Emerald Dreams."

"And then?" Everyone remembered that Lu Li said he spent his time in the library when he had nothing better to do.

"Then there was a tragedy of course. Navarax had accidentally created a living nightmare and the great power changed the Howling Caves. The water became contaminated and the once docile animals turned into vicious carnivores. Now, Navarax is trapped within his own nightmare, waiting to be rescued."

"Good thing we aren't going to be the bad guys," Hachi Chan sighed, as she patted her chest with relief.

Lu Li didn't laugh at her. It was actually because of her innocent mind that she had gained the NPC's favor and become obsessed with Quests. Maybe he was also too obsessed about the game?

"So…?" Wandering asked helplessly.

"We aren't Druids, so we won't be able to enjoy the Druid benefits. It doesn't make that much of a difference anyway; let's just calmly do this Dungeon," Lu Li consoled them.

"Yeah, you're right. Let's all try our best for this Dungeon." Wandering nodded and quickly adjusted his mood.

After taking a few steps, they were faced with a number of humanoid creatures.

Azure Sea Breeze immediately became alert and raised his shield, but Lu Li quickly reached out and held him back.

"Not yet. They aren't monsters."

"Not a monster? But that's a Tauren!" Azure Sea Breezed exclaimed in a whisper.

Tauren belonged to the Evil Faction. The Evil Faction was not necessarily evil; this was simply what they had been named by the game company. However, to the NPCs, their lifestyles were different because they considered themselves as a part of the Horde.

As the Tauren were part of the Horde and the players were in the Alliance, they were naturally sworn enemies.

"Don't be silly. It's a Tauren, but it's also a Druid. Don't you see the Night Elf behind it?" Lu Li was afraid that his teammate was about to start a war.

These three NPCs – two Tauren and one Night Elf – were in fact followers of Navarax, and had formidable strength because of the Nightmare's erosion. As such, if a player picked a fight with them, they were basically asked to be killed.

Lu Li stepped forwards and gave an Elven greeting.

"Upon Cenarius' name, is there anything I can help you with?"

"Oh, it's some adventurers. May the light shine upon you."

The two Tauren reciprocated the greeting, before turning and shouting, "Ebru, these are your people!"

The Night Elf behind them came forward and after a courteous exchange, she began to give them the quest:

"…I need to wake him up from the nightmare, otherwise he will be trapped in there forever, supplying evil energy to the lands. However, I will first need to kill his fallen servants before I am able to perform the awakening ceremony. Can you help me, my people?"

System: Ebru from the Howling Caves has requested that you kill Poison Fang Lord Cobrahn, Anacondra, Pythas and Serpentis. Do you accept?

Lu Li wasn't the only one who received this prompt; everyone else got it as well. The entire Xin Xin Mercenary Group confidently accepted the quest.

Then, Lu Li brought everyone to talk to the other two NPCs. They picked up two Collection Quests – one to collect ten variants of leather and the other to collect five Snake Flowers from the depths of the cave.

In order to help the adventurers complete the quest, the NPC also gave everyone five Advanced Antidotes and five Intermediate Health Potions. Other parties would have thought that this was quite good, but Lu Li's party did not lack these things. Nevertheless, it was still better than nothing.

There were many small monsters on the way which ranged from LV18-20. The EXP they gave was not bad, but they didn't really drop anything.

As the Main Tank, Azure Sea Breeze took the lead and provided everyone with a convenient environment to deal damage. Occasionally, one or two monsters would break through the Main Tank's defense, but they couldn't escape Wandering, the Side Tank.

Having two tanks made things quite easy; everyone could just enjoy dealing damage.

However, March Rain had to heal two people. At first, she found this a little difficult, but slowly became more confident over time. Hachi Chan was supposed to help her, but she could never find the opportunity to do so. As such, she acted in DPS role as well.

Her equipment was quite strong and after Lu Li had pointed out some techniques she needed to work on, her damage output was now quite considerable.

The first Boss was not far off and Lu Li was soon able to see her – Poison Fang Anacondra, a female Night Elf who was an Acolyte and a Druid.

The Great Thief

Chapter 208: A New Commander

"You can take command, Wandering," Lu Li said, as he carefully coated his dagger with poison.

"Me? Why me?" Wandering was surprised; he thought that Lu Li would personally make the commands. After all, they were in the Barrenlands.

"Of course I'm talking about you. You can't always rely on me. What if I'm not there? I'm a Thief you know," Lu Li responded.

The reason why Lu Li always did well as a commander was not because of his talent in commanding, but because of his knowledge in strategy. As long as a player wasn't completely useless, they would be able to get pass the Instance Dungeon with his step-by-step instructions.

He had tried to train Azure Sea Breeze to become a commander, but nothing came of it. The team was a mess under his leadership.

"Alright, I'll give it a try." Wandering did not refuse, as he had faith in himself.

"You can do it. We all believe in you. If I have anything to say, I'll still let you know. Everyone, put in your best effort – we will be beating this Boss today." Lu Li was under a very strong impression that Wandering had a special talent for Commanding.

From Lu Li's memory of his past life, Wandering had gone undercover in unions to help Azure Sea Breeze. He had joined those unions by presenting himself as a commander. Only a talented commander could make a quick, decisive decision in the heat of the moment.

"Oh no, why do I feel like our future is bleak?" Azure Sea Breeze rolled his eyes.

"Wandering big bro, you can do it, good luck!" Hachi Chan happily welcomed the fact that Lu Li had renounced his position as commander. She had always thought that Lu Li wasn't a good person, as he liked to pull her ears.

The others also expressed their support. Wandering had won their hearts by being very reliable.

However, this did make him just a little more narcissistic, a little more vicious with his words and a little lazier…

"Big bro, I think you can do it too."

This was Sakura Memories speaking. She was clearly a beautiful and elegant person, yet she was speaking so crudely with the guys.

"Alright then, if everyone is in support of me, then I'll just go ahead then. Breezy, attack!" Wandering gave the Main Tank a kick.

Azure Sea Breeze stared at him and asked, "Just like that? Aren't you gonna say anything else?"

"It's our first time – what else is there to say? We have to test the Boss to see what skills it has," Wandering responded confidently.

Indeed, the first step for clearing an Instance Dungeon was by testing it out first.

However, Lu Li was already prepared for a depressing result before the fight even began.

Poison Fang Anacondra wasn't too difficult, but the dinosaurs nearby would soon notice the fighting. They would then let out a loud roar that would attract all the monsters from nearby, including the dinosaurs and Fanged Druids from across the river.

No matter how strong the party was, there was no way they would be able to defeat that kind of gang-up.

Nevertheless, he had just expressed his trust in Wandering, so he couldn't start questioning him now.

The sight of ten players rushing in to fight was even more spectacular than five players. Anacondra used a Lightning Bolt to attack. Its attack frequency wasn't very high and its damage wasn't more than Azure Sea Breeze could bear.

When the fight first started, everything seemed like it was going well.

After the Boss had taken some damage, she started to heal herself.

"Dammit, Lu Li, interrupt…"

Before those words had even left his mouth, Lu Li had already kicked the Boss to cancel the skill. Wandering could only swallow the rest of his sentence.

However, Anacondra was a Monster that used magic, so there was no way that she would only cast Lightning Bolts. If those were all she used, the players would feel incredibly bored.

In reality, they actually did feel bored and just wanted to get the fight over with.

Deep Sleep! Make a target unconscious for 15 seconds.

Unfortunately, the target was March Rain.

Fifteen seconds didn't seem like long, but by the time the Healer woke up, the whole team would be dead.

This was probably the most difficult aspect in facing Anacondra. If a party was unlucky and their Healer was put to sleep, they would be thrown into chaos. Those with a short temper would definitely lose their minds.

During the 15 seconds of sleep, the System slowly counted each and every second.

However, Wandering remained calm and commanded the second Healer that Lu Li had assigned.

"Little Hachi, heal Breezy," Wandering directed with a normal pace and tone.

He was still worried and wanted to yell too, but he knew that if he did, he would send Little Hachi into a mess.

Hachi Chan was stunned for a second, before she subconsciously turned to Azure Sea Breeze and casted Rejuvenation on him.

Her technique was a little sloppy; she definitely wouldn't be able to completely replace the original Healer.

Azure Sea Breeze wasn't stupid – he quickly cast Shield Wall and greatly reduced the damage received.

"Restoration!" Lu Li shouted out the name of the skill.

Hachi Chan subconsciously obeyed and cast Restoration. The rejuvenation of Restoration was quite strong and it healed a considerable amount of HP. Azure Sea Breeze's HP instantly jumped back up.

Although she was the second healer, Hachi Chan's Equipment and Skills were quite strong. As such, the amount that she had just healed was actually no less than what March Rain was capable of.

"Cast Lifebloom, now, again, and again. Alright, now Heal…" Lu Li had played as a Druid in his past life. Although he didn't play a Healing Druid, he still knew how to heal at an elementary level.

To him, it was effortless – he could do it even with his eyes closed. However, other people had different opinions about this.

You're a Thief – how do you know about Druid skills so well?

Before everyone could make a scene, Lu Li quickly told them that he didn't immediately rest after logging off each day. He would read up on information about the game, including the skills of other professions.

No one could become a master by simply relying on luck.

With Lu Li's guidance, Hachi Chan kept Azure Sea Breeze's HP at a safe amount while they waited for March Rain to wake up. Once she recovered, everything was back on track.

Anacondra suddenly flashed green and thorns appeared all around her.

This skill reflected melee damage and dealt 200 Nature damage. Lu Li and Moonlight backed off the moment they saw this, demonstrating the skills that they had picked up from PVP. However, Wandering and Sakura Memories were a little slower to react. By the time they had stopped attacking, they had already lost half their HP.

It would be helpful to add at this point that Sakura Memories was a Melee Buffing Shaman.

Buffing Shamans were a class that dealt a mixture of physical and magic damage. They used various totems to fight their enemies, were able to Heal and could also generate mana…

"Memories and Hachi Chan, heal the other Melee Professions," Wandering commanded.

At that moment, a velociraptor strolled by and saw a group of players swarming around Anacondra.

"Don't worry, keep dealing damage. I'll pull it. Hachi Chan, watch my HP."

Wandering was the side-tank, so this was perfect for his role.

Unfortunately, reality wasn't as perfect as they had imagined. The little dinosaur didn't rush in to attack them. Instead, it raised its head and let out a loud cry.

In response to its call, a group of mobs from various places flocked over.

The party was about to be destroyed; there was no doubt about it!

Lu Li used Gale Steps the avoid the Boss' attack and so was the last player alive in the party.

Generally, thieves didn't die with the rest of the team

Some of them suggested sending a player to guard the path where the little dinosaur would come from, while others maintained that they should just focus-fire the dinosaur when it appeared. The atmosphere was becoming quite heated. Regardless of the idea, everyone was participating in the discussion.

"Why not just pull the Boss off to one side?"

Lu Li didn't say this out loud, but private-messaged this to Wandering.

Wandering saw the private message, but couldn't understand why Lu Li had used this. However, he soon realized that Lu Li wanted to establish him as an authority.

The Great Thief

Chapter 209: Catching A Druid As A Pet

"Alright, stop fighting. Following Lu Li' suggestion, we'll pull the Boss off to the side."

Wandering was grateful for what Lu Li was doing, but he was a proud man and couldn't claim the idea as his own.

Lu Li was a little irritated, but there was nothing he could do.

This time, Wandering carefully inspected the surrounding environment before deciding on a secluded corner. He truly did have discerning eyes, as the location he selected would later become the standard spot in most strategies for farming Anacondra.

As the line of sight was blocked, there was no way that the little dinosaur could see them, unless if it ran in to look.

However, before they began fighting, Wandering made an unexpected decision.

"What, you want me to heal?" Hachi Chan's eyes were wide and was so shocked that her mouth was hanging open.

"Yes, you will be the main healer, March Rain you are the side Healer. I'm giving you an opportunity to improve by taking us out of our comfort zone, so make good use of it. Lu Li will guide you on what skills to use, but also consider why he has asked to you use those skills," Wandering whispered.

Lu Li internally praised Wandering over and over.

He was quite courageous to use a dungeon clear for teaching, but if you thought about it, there wasn't anything really wrong with it.

The only loss was Hachi Chan's damage output. Her output wasn't that high anyway, so the party would probably do fine without her. Hachi Chan was now the Main Healer, but in reality, March Rain would still be watching everyone's HP.

If they previously weren't so unlucky as to have their Healer go to sleep, the little dinosaur wouldn't have found them.

This time, Anacondra was killed with no complications.

"What did it drop? Quickly go find out!" Hachi Chan anxiously cried out.

She had fought her heart out for this Boss and had done more than half of the healing. March Rain only took over when she had run out of MP.

"I'll loot it."

Remnant Dream was the party's designated equipment distributor because of her lucky hands. She was also unwilling to give up the role.

"One Silver Equip – a Chain Mail Armor. Oh wow, its main bonus is additional Intelligence…"

"It's for a Shaman, give it to Memories," Wandering commanded.

"There is a rare material," Remnant Dream said, as she reluctantly gave the Armor to Sakura Memories.

Sakura Memories was a little embarrassed. This was her first Instance Dungeon experience with the party and she was already receiving equipment. Moreover, it was a LV20 Silver equip with good attributes.

"Give me the rare material. Lu Li and I will deal with it," said Wandering.

"Oh, and give the ring to Memories as well," added Lu Li.

Lu Li nodded and took out the Wind Ring to hand it to her.

This ring was a LV25 equip, but with its -30% effectiveness, a LV18 player could equip it. Its effects were quite special, especially the buff that gave Shaman Totems an additional 10% effectiveness. This could be considered as a God item for Shamans.

"These… are all for me?" Sakura Memories felt that the ring's effect was too good to be true.

"No need to be polite – you aren't just getting these for free. I've been keeping track of the scores and these will be deducted from your final contribution. So, keep working hard," Wandering said as he held up a book that he had been carrying. He really had been keeping track of everything.

Azure Sea Breeze snatched the book and began to read it out loud, "Howling Caves points record: Group participation – 10 points each. Immaculate leadership by Wandering – 5 points. Wow, you think your leadership is immaculate? Do you have no shame? Satisfactory performance by Azure Sea Breeze – 1 point. You old geezer, you think my performance is only satisfactory? Constructive criticism by Lu Li – 5 points. Hachi Chan showing great improvement – 3 points. Why did I get the least points!?"

Everyone had gained bonus points of about 3 on average. However, Azure Sea Breeze had only gained a single point.

"It's not an exact science. If an equip that is dropped is suitable for you, then you'll get it," Wandering grunted before snatching back his book.

"Do you think you can fool me Wandering? The points are obviously tied to the gold reward, but you've gone and taken mine away," Azure Sea Breeze cried out angrily.

"Alright, if you keep arguing about this, I'll make sure you don't have a life to spend your money on," Wandering fearlessly said.

He wasn't trying to create a false account – it just happened that Azure Sea Breeze's points appeared particularly fraudulent. However, the sum of both their points was six, which was the same as everyone else's. The scoring wasn't very strict and neither was it perfectly fair.

"Alright, stop fighting. Don't you see I'm still allocating items? There's also a Skill book – 'Moonkin Form'. The name sounds so ugly. It's yours Hachi," Remnant Dream said as she looted the third item.

"Let… let me see."

The name really did have quite an ugly ring to it. Why would a girl want to learn a skill that was called Moonkin Form?

It was a Transformation Skill that could turn Hachi Chan into the Moonkin Form?

In full view of everyone, Hachi Chan learned the skill and brazenly used it.

The creature that appeared was furry, chubby and looked like a giant quail. If it weren't for the fact that everyone had seen her transform, they wouldn't have recognized it as Hachi Chan.

"Waaaa, Its so cute!" Remnant Dream rushed over and started rubbing its fur.

March Rain and Sakura Memories also ran over and joined in.

"Seems pretty good. Does it look okay?" Hachi Chan had already completely forgotten about the skill's name. As long as it looked good, everything was fine…

"It's really really cute. I don't know if there will be plush toys of this coming out, but I really want to hug one to sleep." Given March Rain's expression, it seemed like she was a girl who liked plush toys.

"It can be custom made. I'll find a company to do it later," said a certain sis-con immediately.

"That's true. Hachi Chan, can you strike a few poses so I can take some pictures?" March Rain asked.

Originally, their relationship was a little awkward, but now that they had something in common to talk about, the girls had hit it off. Wandering didn't rush them either. After all, their objective of defeating the first Boss had been reached.

Hachi Chan obediently struck a candid pose for them.

Obviously, Dawn had put in a great effort to cater for female tastes. For example, the Druid's Moonkin Form had a number of cute elements to it.

Lu Li hit Lonesome Flower with his elbow.

"What?" Lonesome Flower turned around unhappily; he had been helping to take pictures.

"If it turns out well, can you make one for my sister as well? It has to be pink. Can you also make it a little bigger? My sister is 150cm tall. How tall do you think it'll be?" Lu Li didn't really know if Lu Xin would like it, but he subconsciously wanted to get one for her.

With a common talking point, Lonesome Flower finally felt like he could have a conversation with someone. The two of them discussed which designs would be most comfortable and aesthetically pleasing…

"Hey! Dreamy, what are you doing to me!?" Hachi Chan's cry caught everyone's attention and they all twisted back around to see what had happened.

It wasn't really anything…

Only Lu Li, who had a keen eye and a deep understanding of Hunter skills, understood. However, he couldn't bear to look and had to cover his face. Why were they doing this?

"Don't move Hachi," Remnant Dream said.

"What is this? What are you trying to do?" Hachi Chan anxiously watched the slight yellow glow of the shroud around her. Although she knew that her party members couldn't hurt her, the fact that a skill was being cast on her was enough to scare her.

"I… I want to catch you as my pet…" Remnant Dream softly whispered as she continued her hand motions.

The Great Thief

Chapter 210: Resurrection

"We're good friends, but you want to capture me as a pet?" Although she was young, Hachi Chan knew that she should protect herself from her enemies and watch out for her closest friends.

This girl wanted to capture her as a pet!

Many other Hunter had this dream as well, to capture a Druid as a pet.

However, while most people only ever thought about it, Remnant Dream had acted on it. The little hunter had been casting her Tame Beast Skill for a while now.

"Hey, I'm a player. You can't capture me. You can't!" Hachi Chan's panic was quite adorable, but the game wouldn't allow a player to capture another player as a pet… right?

Remnant Dream bitterly retracted her hands, but she was unwilling. She even private-messaged Lu Li, "How can I capture the quail as a pet?"

"That's your best friend, and you want to capture her?" Lu Li gave her a strange look.

"No, I just wanted to try it. Next time… I'll just capture someone from the Evil Faction."

Now that the little girl had calmed down, she realized the error in what she was doing to her friend. As such, she directed her intention towards someone from the Evil Faction.

"You can't capture other players…" Lu Li said helplessly.

"Then… can I capture NPCs?" The girl who had a foolish mind like Hachi Chan was being quite creative.

"NPC…" Lu Li wanted to say that she couldn't, but he suddenly thought of Mok'Nathal's final descendant – Rexxar. He was followed around by large Bear named Misha, who was also a Druid.

There was also Windcaller Claude, who had been captured as a pet by a Boss in the Dark Swamp. He had become a laughing stock throughout all of Azeroth.

"It definitely must be possible." Seeing Lu Li's hesitation, Remnant Dream smiled and declared, "Alright, I've decided that I will be capturing a Druid as a pet."

What a grand dream. Lu Li wiped away his sweat and said nothing.

People would always have dreams, but what if she succeeded?

After some rest, they continued on their journey.

"Which way should we go?" Azure Sea Breeze wiped off the blood that had been splashed on his face, as they stopped at a fork in the road.

There wasn't really a plan. The environment was too complex, so there was no easy way to determine what the right way was. Dawn wasn't like the other games, where there were full screen maps or navigational plug-ins.

"I have an idea."

Hachi Chan had already recovered from Remnant Dream's capture attempt and was ready to provide a suggestion on how they could navigate through the Instance Dungeon.

"Alright, let's hear it." Wandering's head was hurting.

It seemed absurd for someone with a poor sense of direction to give advice about navigation, but Wandering made sure that he heard everyone's opinion.

"This is a gold coin…" she said as she pulled out a golden coin. This wasn't the game currency, but rather a special prop that could be bought with special currency awarded from quests.

Everyone stared at the coin in her hand. Could it be that it was somehow able to direct them?

"Here, we have a left path and a right path. If the gold coin is face up, we will go left. If the gold coin is face down…" Hachi Chan said casually.

Everyone just sweated in silence.

"I do this all the time when navigating through quests." Hachi Chan noticed that she was being ignored and was a little aggravated.

"What if the coin stands on its end?" Sakura Memories asked as she walked to her side and rubbed her own head.

She had a point – what would happen if the coin ended up standing?

In reality, the split-path wasn't a big deal. If they took the wrong way, they would just have to travel for longer. Wandering directed the party to pick a path at random.

As they were about to leave, Remnant Dream, who was probably too preoccupied by her dream of capturing a Druid as a pet, stepped to close to the edge and slid down.

"Help!" the little girl cried out in surprise and fear.

"Don't be afraid. We'll find a way down to save you. Look around to see if there is anything you can grab onto," Lu Li said. He didn't want to keep talking, but she truly did have heaven-defying luck.

Jumping in at this point was actually the correct way of completing the Instance Dungeon.

"Waaa, there are monsters down here! They're attacking my pet!" Remnant Dream felt like she had been abandoned to face the unknown dangers alone.

"Let's jump."

Lu Li led the group as he jumped in. The other quickly followed suit.

The river wasn't actually that deep – in fact, the water only reached up to their ankles.

Remnant Dream had run into some crocodile monsters, which actually posed no real threat to her, let alone the whole group of players that had now jumped down as well. The area was quickly cleared, but now they were faced with the problem of climbing back up the smooth slope.

"I'll explore this way," said Lu Li. As a Thief, this was the perfect job for him. It also conveniently directed them onto the route that led towards the second Boss.

Before long, everyone had received a prompt from Lu Li to move forwards and they quickly discovered the Poison Fang Abyss.

There was a constant stream of monsters the whole way. Luckily, the monsters dropped the quest items that they needed, so even though the day was ending, everyone was in high spirits.

One of the items, Snake Flower, had a very low drop rate. They had only acquired three out of five.

As all ten of them had the quest, the item was even scarcer.

Azure Sea Breeze strongly suspected that while Lu Li was walking ahead of them, he had taken all the Snake Flowers.

Lu Li disdainfully disagreed with this explanation. He was responsible for guiding the group from the front, and was so perfect for the role that it was almost over-kill for him to be doing it.

The second Boss, Cobrahn, was in a relatively remote location. If Remnant Dream had not fallen down, which prompted Lu Li's guidance, they likely would not have found him within the Instance Dungeon.

The others didn't know about this. They thought that they would just stumble upon a Boss, even with the mistakes being made.

Cobrahn wasn't that much different from Poison Fang Anacondra. The only difference was that he would use Poison that dealt 700 damage per second.

At that point, the party started losing members.

One of the players who died was Sakura Memories. Who let this girl play as a melee? This outcome had a larger probability of occurring because she was melee.

"Are we giving up?" asked Sesame Rice ball. The Boss hadn't even lost 20% of its HP and they had already lost a member. Generally, a commander would sacrifice a few members so that the others could escape.

They would then start again with more certainty.

"Continue fighting. Everyone, keep at it. It would be good if we could kill the Boss today, but it's okay if we don't as well," Wandering said calmly.

As the poison was quite different from normal, Wandering's leadership style had to be very meticulous. He would address every detail, no matter how small it was, and was paying full attention to everyone's actions.

Lu Li's leadership style focused more on macro maneuvers, only calling out specific instructions at very the last minute.

"I can revive big sister," Hachi Chan volunteered.

"While we are in combat, you can't use Revive," March Rain reminded her nicely. Revive had a low drop rate, but there was still a subset of players who had the skill.

Hachi Chan had probably never been in a party with other people before, so she didn't know that Revive required the player to leave combat first.

"My revive is very special – it's called Resurrection," Hachi Chan said seriously.

The Great Thief

Chapter 211: Solved Another One

Resurrection?

Lu Li's eyes lit up; he instantly knew what Hachi Chan was talking about.

In Dawn, there were many professions that could heal. Each profession had their own unique uses, but a healer Druid's specialty was Resurrection.

This was a rare skill that a Druid could use in any form. Its value was in the fact that teammates could be revived while still in combat.

Only a Healer Druid would have this kind of skill!

As Hachi Chan channeled the Resurrect, Sakura Memories slowly sat up. It was unlikely that this skill had been upgraded, so she only had a little bit of HP.

However, this was of no issue as the party had two healers. Sakura Memories was quickly taken from back the brink of death.

The Boss' poison was too strong, so everyone had no choice but to carry a bottle of Advanced Antidote. Even so, the Advanced Antidote wasn't enough to cure them. It only served to mitigate part of the poison's effect.

Wandering also had no choice but instruct Hachi Chan to heal the Main Tank, while the more-skilled March Rain was delegated the task of watching over the rest of the team's HP.

March Rain had an extremely heightened sense of game consciousness. The players in the party would often receive healing the moment they started taking damage from the poison.

"I feel like this Boss can be beaten," Azure Sea Breeze muttered under his breath.

Upon seeing that the Boss had lost over half its HP and that everyone was still alive, Remnant Dream underestimated the poison's strength and was downed again.

"Now you know why I chose the Elite Difficulty," Lu Li said as he glanced at him. It wasn't as though Azure Sea Breeze was stupid; he just didn't use his brain sometimes.

The Elite difficulty was just right to break this newly-established team in.

If it was Nightmare or even Difficult, it would be impossible for them to complete.

"Sakura Memories, keep using your totems. Everyone, don't get greedy when you're dealing damage. Flower and Rice Ball, keep your damage output steady. We have a good chance of beating this Instance Dungeon, but if someone accidentally takes aggro, all our efforts will be for nothing."

As the Bosses of the Howling Caves had the Thorns Skill, which was capable of reflecting physical damage, the melee professions were limited. As such, the players who were the most capable of dealing damage were Lonesome Flower, followed by Sesame Rice ball. Behind them were Lu Li, Moonlight and the rest.

However, Lonesome Flower could only deal a limited amount of damage, as he wasn't as confident in dealing with aggro as Lu Li.

As the Boss' HP continued to decline, it cast the Deep Sleep Skill. This time, the target was Moonlight. This didn't affect the team much, so everyone just continued to calmly deal damage.

"Lighty, your position looks pretty funny. You don't look like an expert at all; you should just keep sleeping," Azure Sea Breeze teased.

Deep Sleep tended to put players into unsightly positions. This was especially the case with male characters; it was really quite silly.

"Lu Li… never mind, just pretend I didn't say anything." Wandering didn't have to say anything before Lu Li kicked the Boss to interrupt its healing. He decided not to tell Lu Li about interrupting the Boss anymore, as he would always do it before he even finished speaking. How embarrassing.

He then realised that there were some players that required explicit instruction, such as Remnant Dream, Hachi Chan, and even Lonesome Flower. The others didn't need any instruction at all and would just do what they needed to when the time came. These players were Lu Li, Moonlight and March Rain.

The three of them competing in the Shadow Cup together now seemed to make sense.

There was also one more player who could make decisions in the middle of a situation – Azure Sea Breeze. He immediately put up the Shield wall just as the Boss went into Berserk.

Other than going Berserk, the Boss also sent out two Poison Fang Druids.

Bang!

The Berserked Boss knocked Moonlight away before also knocking Sakura Memories away. When they landed, they were both at critical HP. This sent both of the healers into a healing frenzy.

"Don't worry about the others, just make sure you keep healing. Everyone, just ignore the monsters. Focus your damage on the Boss!" Lu Li finally couldn't help himself as he barked some instructions.

Wandering needed to be more decisive. It didn't matter if some of them died, as long as the Boss was beaten. They didn't lose any EXP for dying in the Instance Dungeon anyway.

In his past life, Lu Li remembered meeting a party leader that really liked using players as cannon fodder. Because of this, he always generated easy results on missions.

With Lu Li intervening, everyone but the Healers focused their damage on the Boss. The two monsters were chasing Lonesome Flower, but they were unable to stop him from dealing as much damage as he could.

Lonesome Flower was ready to sacrifice himself. He let the two monsters attack him and continued to damage the Boss.

Lonesome Flower died!

Sesame Rice Ball died!

Remnant Dream died!

However, at this time, the Boss also died!

"Healers, start saving people. Revive Remnant Dream first. I'll be going now – I'm so tired. I think we'll stop here for today – there isn't much time left anyway." Wandering wiped the sweat from his forehead, feeling exhausted from leading the party.

Remnant Dream ran up to loot the Boss the moment she was revived.

"Skill Book, Disperse." The first item that Remnant Dream looted was a skill book.

"Give it to March Rain. With this Skill book, there will be no need to fear the next time she is affected by Deep Sleep." Disperse targeted Magic spells and fortunately, Deep Sleep was one of them.

"A Silver Hammer. Seems to be for Healers." Remnant Dream sent the attributes to everyone so they could see them.

"I don't want it," March Rain said shook her head.

No one else wanted to claim it either, as taking it would mean a deduction in their contribution points.

"In that case, we'll just put it on the Exchange Hall and split the money proportionally later." Wandering didn't mind that no one wanted it. The equipment was for general use and the fact that it was Silver made it valuable in the Exchange Hall.

"There is also a Steel equipment. That's it," Remnant Dream announced as she stood up and clapped her hands.

"The attributes are not bad. Breezy, you can take it, I'll take 10 points off you." Wandering forced it onto Azure Sea Breeze without much of an explanation.

"You old geezer, you use defensive equipment as well. Why don't you take it yourself? I want Silver equipment and Molds, not Steel equipment," Azure Sea Breeze exclaimed angrily.

This LV20 Steel equip was actually quite strong. It was much better than the equipment he currently had.

However, now that he had seen the kind of equipment that Hachi Chan's Mold made, he didn't want this kind of equipment anymore. Wandering had even pushed it onto him, suddenly deducting points without discussing it.

"Alright, this is where we will stop the Instance Dungeon for today. Hachi and Dreamy, you guys are still in high school, so don't play for too much longer. Go to sleep. We'll start again tonight at 8pm, so it's not too much of a rush." Although Wandering planned to start a little later, everyone was fine with it.

He understood everyone's different situations, even more so than Lu Li.

Hachi Chan and Remnant Dream were 2nd year High School students, Sesame Rice Ball was in his first year of University, while March Rain and Sakura Memories were already well into University. Wandering and Azure Sea Breeze were both in their final year of university and Lonesome Flower was in the year before them. Moonlight was the oldest here, being someone who had already graduated many years ago.

Lu Li's situation was a little more complicated. He had never been to university, but was now mixing into the community and was a professional player.

All in all, everyone except for the two little girls had adequate time to play the game.

Although the game placed the body into a shallow sleeping state, it was far inferior to proper deep sleep. The girls' bodies were also still growing, so that was even more of a reason not to stay up.

"Both of our results are really good," Remnant Dream protested.

"We also work really hard and study well," Hachi Chan added, as she adorably swung her head.

"If you don't want to be 1.5m tall forever, then quickly go to sleep!" Now that the Instance Dungeon was over, Wandering had returned to his abrasive self. "You guys are so ugly and short. I really worry about how you guys are ever going to get married…"

The Great Thief

Chapter 212: Guardian Goddess (Part 1)

The girls were immediately provoked to anger the moment that Wandering finished speaking. They were naturally quite beautiful and were almost reaching maturity, so what he had said was unbearable to them.

In view of the grieving Remnant Dream, Azure Sea Breeze kicked his buddy down into river.

Wandering: "Aaaah…"

"Will he die?" March Rain asked cheekily.

"Splash! Listen, there's water down there," Azure Sea Breeze responded with a laugh.

"You made that 'splash' sound," Sakura Memories shot back at him.

"It's all the same, let's go." After he finished speaking, he left the Instance Dungeon.

The other men didn't hesitate to leave with him. The girls were currently still kind-hearted, but this would only last for another three seconds. Everyone was wondering why Wandering had thought it was a good idea to say that to those girls, as they quickly left as a group.

Only Wandering was left in the river, forced to find another way out. He hoped that he wouldn't run into any monsters.

After leaving the Instance Dungeon, Lu Li brought everyone to the camp that was spoken of in the legends. While they were working on clearing the Howling Caves, they had to stay here in this village.

With the little bit of time they had left, Lu Li asked Remnant Dream for some cooked food.

In order to raise Guo Guo, Remnant Dream had to develop her cooking skills. While in reality, she was unable to even make fried potato strips, she could cook food that was beyond delicious in game. This food could even give bonus attributes.

After distributing some food to everyone, Remnant Dream and Hachi Chan logged off. They seemed to have something on their minds.

From the top of the canopy tigers fall, Dreamy and Hachi were 1.5 metres tall.

Lonesome Flower then brought his sister and the others who weren't logging off to train.

As for Moonlight, the Barrenlands were heaven for him. They were filled with Horde players!

Lu Li didn't go to train. Instead, he left the camp after receiving the food to search for some Treasure Chests.

Treasure Chests would often spawn in weird places. For example, they could spawn on mountains, in caves, or even in ditches. Of course, the most important place to check was a monster's tent, as this was the most likely place for a Treasure Chest to appear.

Some Treasure Chests had a fixed refresh time, while others had a random refresh timer. The inability to determine a Chests' refresh time was a Treasure Chest hunter's biggest fear.

As Lu Li flapped his wings, he flew slowly and close to the ground, not wanting to accidentally fly past a Chest.

He had quite the harvest along the way, but it was too bad that most of the chests were Bronze. Most of the items inside, other than the two skill books and some low-end material, had no market value.

Regular materials were quite different from rare materials.

Rare materials were still useful in the long term, no matter how low their level was. A LV80 Mold could potentially still use a Jade Spider Web. On the other hand, low-level regular materials didn't retain their value, as they could only be used for low-level equipment.

One of the two skill books was for a Paladin skill – 'Divine Intervention'. Obtaining this was a complete surprise.

A Paladin could use Divine Intervention on a friendly target to protect them from any physical or skill damage. Although this removed the target from battle and prevented them from moving, monsters would be unable to hit them for the duration of the skill.

In a situation where a team was about be destroyed, a Paladin could sacrifice himself to protect the Healer and cast this skill on them.

This would lead to the Healer being the lone survivor on the battlefield. However, the Boss would then also return to its original position.

Wandering would definitely appreciate this skill; it would also serve as a consolation for being thrown off the cliff.

The other skill book was far worse. The Warrior's 'Shieldstrike' was currently only worth 10 silver in the Exchange Hall and was pretty worthless.

There was a kind of Thief called a 'Treasure Hunter' that made a profession out of opening Treasure Chests. The forums were filled with 'get rich quick' schemes for such players. In his past life, Lu Li was envious of these people and this was partly the reason why he had chosen to play as a Thief.

Unfortunately, now that he was actually playing as a Thief, he realized that reality was quite different from what he imagined.

Treasure Chests weren't widely distributed and they didn't necessarily drop good items, let alone anything that would make him rich overnight.

With a deep resentment for the game, Lu Li logged off.

After some sleep, he sent his sister to school. As she had not yet formally accepted the treatment, she still needed to go to school.

Lu Li greeted the teacher, hoping that his sister would be able to receive special treatment. She absolutely could not participate in any physical activity or do any school work that was particularly arduous.

According to Lu Li, it didn't matter too much if she couldn't make it into university. Her brother could support her for life.

When Lu Li logged on the next day, he received some news: Some Water Elementals had appeared near Meisnera's Output and were being farmed.

"Guardian Goddess…" Lu Li muttered to himself.

If it weren't for this news, Lu Li would have completely forgotten about this. This was his original reason for choosing Astrana as a landing point.

As previously mentioned, Meisnera was truly beautiful and had a serene voice.

For the players in Grey Valley, it would be understandable if they had not heard of Raene Wolfrunning (Astrana's Chief), or Malfurion, but if one did not know about Meisnera, then their life had not been truly lived.

There were even girls who were addicted to her voice. She was the pinnacle of 200 years of gaming history.

Lots of players had her lines recorded and used them as a ringtone in real life.

If there were Water Elementals near Meisnera's Output, then the High Disciple Anzelin of the Twillight Hammer had completed his plan to deploy in Astrana. The day of attack was imminent.

There had been some Twilight Cultist activity in the Grey Valley, but their numbers were small and were not considered as a threat to the Night Elf Sentinel Army.

Anzelin and his subordinates understood this, so they created a Twilight Altar and used its strength to summon Water Elementals from the sea.

Lu Li also had some kind of relationship with these Water Elementals.

In order to upgrade his ring, Lu Li and the High Disciple Anzelin of the Twillight Hammer had struck a deal. He would give some materials to the altar and be allowed to draw some of its strength.

However, Anzelin had underestimated the energy needed for the ring.

This resulted in a delay in the formation time of the Water Elementals.

However, there was also another side to the situation. Although Lu Li had delayed the formation of the Water Elementals, the current Water Elementals would be a lot stronger than the ones he had faced in his past life. This was because of the materials he had given.

"What level are the Water Elementals?" Lu Li asked.

"Around level 20. They give quite a bit of EXP. Do you want to go and join the party?" Wandering was still in the Barrenlands camp, but his heart had already returned all the way back to Meisnera's Output.

"Go if you want to and take the others with you as well. There's no rush to complete the Instance Dungeon." Lu Li was very supportive of his decision.

Guardian Goddess, or as the official statement called it, 'The Meisnera Outpost Battle', appeared to be a very worthwhile event. There were large amounts of EXP, equipment, rewards and Glory points to be earned…

When he heard about the Glory points rewards, Lu Li's face fell.

The Great Thief

Chapter 213: Three-Person Party

Lu Li opened up his stats page and saw that his Glory was still -312.

Burning the Horde's supplies rewarded him with a generous amount of EXP and a Deception Orb. However, he had lost large amounts of Glory because he had made the mistake of burning some of the human slaves to death.

He was definitely the player with the lowest Glory in all of Dawn!

If he wanted to participate in the "Goddess Protection" event, he had to quickly raise his Glory back to a positive value!

Everyone else was enjoying their EXP, but he had to go to the Warsong Valley.

"Lu Li, why aren't you coming?" Apart from the two girls who could only log-on after 8pm, everyone else was waiting for Lu Li.

"I'm going to the Warsong Valley to get my Glory back to positive," Lu Li sighed.

"Why?" Wandering was quite frustrated.

"It's complicated. Regardless, it's what I need to do, so you guys go first. Be careful though – right now, there aren't many water elementals, so it's the players farming the monsters. In the afternoon, it'll be the monsters farming the players," Lu Li warned them.

Indeed, Anzelin barely qualified as a Boss and had low status. However, he was a genius, and had gathered some zealots to form a massive water elemental army right under the noses of the Night Elf Sentinel Corps.

In his 'past life', Lu Li had entered the game after this battle, but he had heard many old players talk about it.

According to them, the water elementals seemed to extend endlessly over the heavens and the earth, which at the time, had thrown them into a state of despair.

"I'll help you. The Alliance players are all farming water elementals, so there are many Horde players at the Warsong Valley." Moonlight loved to fight other players and had wanted to work with Lu Li for a long time. As he thought about a Warrior and a Thief working together, his blood began to boil with excitement.

"Mmm okay."

Lu Li evilly realised that a Berserker would be decent cannon fodder.

"I want to go as well. We're a three-person party right?" March Rain thought for a moment before deciding to tag along as well.

"Hmm, alright, you can do some practice and observe some real killing techniques." Moonlight liked to call killing an art, and was obsessed with PVP. This was why he wasn't a very fitting leader.

"Then I'll go as well," Sesame Rice Ball said.

"No, it's alright; three people is enough. Having too many people can be troublesome as well. You're lower level than us, so it's better for you to farm some EXP," Lu Li refused.

Having more people wasn't necessarily a good thing, and there were many parties that had more people than them.

Lu Li returned to town and first went to the Exchange Hall.

A Stampeding Roar Skill Book costed 60 gold, which was worth around $6000 in real life. Lu Li unhesitatingly bought it.

Supreme Two Ring's Special Effect: The Lord of the Forest, Cenarius, gave this ring special powers. You can learn three Druid transformation skills, as well as two skills for each of those transformations.

Lu Li had learned the Seal Transformation at the very beginning, which payed off extremely well for him.

The second skill he had learned was the Child of the Forest, which allowed him to transform into the little cheetah.

The third one was his Raven Transformation, which allowed him to fly. It was a skill he relied on heavily, as it allowed him to simply fly over places that other people wouldn't dare to go near.

As for the 'learn two skills for each of those transformations', he could only learn skills for his cheetah transformation. The Seal and Raven Transformations belonged to swimming and flying transformations, so no additional skills could be learned on top of those.

Lu Li had always been unsure as to what he should learn for his cheetah transformation.

Not too long ago, he had learned Stealth.

And now, he had chosen his second skill, Stampeding Roar.

Stampeding Roar, Instant Cast, Cooldown Time: 60 seconds. A roar let out by a Druid that causes the Movement Speed of allied players within 5 feet to increase by 30%. Lasts for 5 seconds, and removes all snare and trap effects. Current Level: 1/5.

In actuality, Stampeding Roar wasn't very suitable for Lu Li, and didn't make him stronger.

It was for his team! Or at least, that's what Lu Li told himself.

When he thought of the Shadow Cup's massive prize, he felt much better.

Half an hour later, their three-person party arrived outside the battlefield.

"I'm in charge of scouting," Lu Li said as he pointed at himself. "Lighty's in charge of engaging. March Rain, just protect yourself and heal us up now and then."

Moonlight and March Rain both nodded, as the three of them entered the Warsong Valley together.

Lu Li turned into a little cheetah and entered into Stealth. If one were to be direct and unflattering, he could be described as a rat darting around. If anyone looked over, they would only notice the grass moving.

"In front of us, 3 O'clock, 1 Warrior, 1 Priest, 2 Mages, 1 Warlock. They have a pretty bad formation. Moonlight, use your windmill and kill them," Lu Li softly said in their chat.

This team had a standard composition. What defined a standard composition? It was quite simple – a team with a Healer was a standard composition.

Perhaps everything had gone too well for them, but they began to relax their wariness.

"What's with the Alliance dogs today? So unsatisfying," the Warrior at the head laughed.

"They're probably too scared of us after yesterday. Glory Capital is the biggest guild in the game now, and is destroying everyone in the Warsong Valley. The Blood Red War Flag doesn't even dare to retaliate," the Mage walking beside him scoffed.

"Are we going to continue today?" someone at the back asked.

"It's impossible for there to be a big battle today like yesterday. The Glory Capital's starting on the Wailing Cave today, so there are only a couple of small teams patrolling around to suppress the Alliance dogs," the Mage said.

"It was a single battle, but it was so awe-inspiring. It's a pity their standards for recruiting are too high. Crap, enemy attack…"

The Warrior turned his head and saw a person suddenly burst out from the thickets. Just as they stopped walking, a Whirlwind came towards them.

The Priest lifted his staff, but before he could cast a heal, he felt a sharp pain in the back of his head, and his vision became dark.

Lu Li managed to deal with the Healer in just a few strikes, before Moonlight's Whirlwind had even finished.

Apart from the Warrior, the other three players instantly fell to Critical HP!

Moonlight cut off the Priest's escape route with a Charge and executed him with two strikes from his Axe. Lu Li activated his Cloak's special effect and instantly appeared behind the Warlock, then Kicked him, interrupting the Fear he was about to cast. He then dealt a Shadowstrike with a high Skill Completion which stunned him, then finished him off with another two blows.

There was still a Mage and a Warrior left.

"Brace yourself!" Moonlight and the other Warrior Charged into each other, leaving both of them Stunned.

The Mage wasn't so lucky. He was used to casting Cone of Cold to slow down Thieves, but he simply couldn't hit Lu Li with it. Lu Li continuously flitted around while dealing damage.

An expert!

A pretty girl came out from behind a tree and started to channel a healing spell, leaving the other two survivors in despair.

It had taken the three of them less than 40 seconds to achieve a flawless victory over five players. Moonlight had lost a bit of HP, while Lu Li hadn't even been hit. The difference in strength between the two teams was extremely obvious.

"March Rain, you didn't need to come out. Be careful in the future."

Lu Li didn't pick up the dropped equipment, and instead entered into Stealth.

He continued to scout ahead of them for enemies. When there were too many of them, he would guide Moonlight and March Rain to avoid them. When he found modestly-sized teams, he would coordinate with Moonlight and March Rain to ambush them, and when he found single players, he would simply kill them by himself. There was simply no opportunity for Moonlight and March Rain to participate in those battles.

The Warsong Valley was incredibly vast, and if one could casually bump into an expert like Lu Li, then experts would be far too common.

The Great Thief

Chapter 214: Complete Dominance

"There are quite a few people, but that doesn't mean we won't have an opportunity," Lu Li said as he stroked the edge of his Dagger. "Let's watch the show for now."

Below the mountain slope, a group of people were fighting and killing each other.

The Alliance's side was at an obvious disadvantage, both in their numbers and their skill.

As for the Horde's side, they had made smart decisions to advance or to retreat. Evidently, they had a competent commander.

The Alliance's numbers continuously dwindled. Almost all of them had to face two enemies, or an enemy with a Healer following them around.

"It's about time. I'll go down first. Moonlight, try to kill as many Healers as possible. March Rain…" Lu Li paused, "It's time for you to get into action."

After killing their way through the Warsong Valley, March Rain was no longer the scared quail hiding in the thickets. Although Moonlight was not fully satisfied with her performance, at least they had confirmed that she had talent in this area.

March Rain gripped the staff in her hands and heavily nodded.

Lu Li crept behind a Druid in Stealth, who was probably their commander. The reason he had deduced this was because everyone paid quite a deal of attention to him.

If he wasn't the commander, there would be no reason for everyone to look at him so often. After all, it wasn't at though he were a beautiful lady.

The Alliance players weren't idiots. Occasionally, a few of them would rush over to try and kill this Druid. However, the Horde players protected him well, and he was quite skilled as well.

Lu Li waited patiently. Even if Moonlight charged down from the mountain slope and rushed into the crowd of enemies, he would continue to remain Stealthed.

This new Warrior was an expert.

The Druid's attention was quickly commanded by Moonlight. His lips moved and a few Horde Mages went over in an attempt to surround and suppress Moonlight.

Moonlight reacted quickly and immediately activated Petrified Skin. This greatly boosted his Defence and made him immune to all Crowd Control skills, allowing him to tank many of the Mages' attacks.

Which profession was the toughest on the battlefield?

Berserkers!

When Petrified Skin's effects ended, Moonlight activated his second Crowd Control immunity skill, Berserk!

This was a Berserker's most famous skill. At its max level, Berserk sacrificed 30% Defence for 30% Attack, 30% Attack Speed and 30% Critical Rate.

Moreover, he would be immune to all Crowd Control effects during that period of time.

After activating Berserk, he immediately casted Whirlwind and spun around like a human spinning top within the crowd of Horde players.

Some people said that Warriors only had three tricks. There were two explanations for this.

The first was their skills: Charge, Berserk and Whirlwind, which could pretty much kill anyone.

The other explanation was their three buffs: Attack, Attack Speed and Critical Rate, which Berserk buffed by 30%. Currently, it was mainly the Berserkers who had the ability to insta-kill players!

Lu Li personally witnessed Moonlight executing a Mage in one hit, although his HP wasn't full to begin with.

The Druid commander also saw Moonlight's ferocity and ordered more people to surround him. The Alliance players who were barely hanging in there finally had an opportunity to breathe, and began to fight with more vigour.

Moonlight fell to Critical HP!

After all, he wasn't a god. Being able to furiously attack despite being attacked by 4 or 5 people was already quite impressive.

Just as Moonlight was about to fall, a ball of white light floated over and disappeared into his body.

689!

56, 62, 44……

Immediately, half of his HP bar was filled again.

"Goddamn, such overpowered healing", the Druid cursed silently. He could only order the people around him to join those attacking the Warrior in frustration.

"Thieves and Warriors, go and kill the Healers!"

This was the last order he issued before he was hit by a Cheap Shot from Lu Li.

Cheap Shot, followed by a high Skill Completion Back Stab, successfully activated Armour Pierce. The Druid frantically transformed into a bear – Druid transformations could cancel out Crowd Control effects.

The stun from Cheap Shot disappeared with the transformation. However, it was a pity that the Druid's reaction speed, which he had prided himself in, was completely laughable compared to Lu Li's.

Lu Li had already taken his reaction speed into account and used Ambush, rendering him paralysed. He then used a normal attack, Shadowstrike (stun), Slit Throat (bleed)…

The Druid stumbled backwards and fell to the ground.

The people standing at the front were puzzled as to why their commander hadn't spoken in a while. As they turned around, they happened to see the Druid fall to the ground, but there was no one around him!

Anyone who saw this scene would feel spooked – only ten seconds had passed.

Lu Li had timed his assassination perfectly and chained his skills together seamlessly. This Druid was only the leader of a small team in the Glory Capital. How could he react in time to the attack of someone of Lu Li's calibre?

From the beginning up until end, he hadn't even seen who it was.

The commander's death didn't cause the Horde players to despair or feel scared. Instead, they became furious and began to fight even harder.

The Alliance players fell one by one, but this didn't include the members of Lu Li's team. Moonlight became much more reserved and stood in front of March Rain, tanking most of the damage.

In a virtual game where most attacks didn't pass through players, protecting Healers was entirely possible.

With their superb skills and excellent equipment, Lu Li's team was incredibly strong. They were at a clear advantage and managed to tie many of the Horde players down.

Lu Li casually walked around, taking life after life. His main targets were players who weren't at full health, as he could kill players at Critical HP with a single hit. At first, the Horde players didn't notice, but as more and more players died, they saw Lu Li walking around like a death god.

It was a pity that with their current numbers, it was impossible for them to surround him with many people.

After the battle concluded, the three of them politely declined the invitation from the Alliance survivors to join them, and went to look for new targets.

"Looks like you killed a lot of people. How much Glory did you get?" Moonlight asked.

"They were all recruits, so I only got about 70-80 Glory," Lu Li replied after looking through his stats. He still needed over 100 Glory to get back to a positive value, but he would be done soon if he was lucky.

"Last time, I killed a Rank 4 Sergeant Major and received 40 Glory for that," Moonlight said, not feeling satisfied yet.

"What's your rank now?" Lu Li felt quite curious.

"I died quite a few times, so I'm a Rank 6 Sergeant Major. If it wasn't for those deaths, I would've been a Centurion a long time ago. From what I know, there are more than 10 Centurions right now," Moonlight said in disappointment.

Dawn's Glory system and Military Rank system were quite complicated. To put it simply, one's Military Rank was linked to their Glory: under 100 points was a Private, 100-500 was a Corporal, 500-1000 was a Sergeant and 1000-2000 was a Rank 1 Sergeant Major. For every 1000 Glory after that, they would increase by 1 rank, eventually becoming a Centurion at 10000 Glory.

After Centurion there was Legatus, Brigadier, General, Marshal, Grand Marshal, Warlord, Supreme Warlord…

If players were killed on the battlefield, they would lose a certain amount of Glory, which was quite complicated to calculate. However, it precluded the possibility of hiring people to farm Glory.

Killing players of different ranks gave different amounts of Glory. Killing Privates or Corporals only gave 1 Glory, and there were many of these noobs running around. Killing a Sergeant gave 5 points. In the group that Lu Li had just killed, there were 2 Sergeants. These sorts of people were becoming more and more common.

Killing a Rank 1 Sergeant Major gave 10 points, while killing a Centurion or above gave extra rewards.

It was a pity that despite staying in the Warsong Valley for 3-4 hours, Lu Li and his team hadn't even run into a Sergeant Major, let alone a Centurion.

Luckily, because there were many noobs, Lu Li was able to become a Private after 3 or so hours and escape the embarrassment of having negative Glory.

The Great Thief

Chapter 215: Goddess Protection

"Are you guys done? There are more and more monster! It feels so good to see my EXP grow so quickly!" Azure Sea Breeze yelled in the chat. He had already done this many times.

Lu Li picked up the equipment on the ground and said, "Let's finish here today."

"I haven't had enough though." Moonlight preferred killing people with his axe to farming for EXP.

Surprisingly, March Rain actually nodded her head in agreement. Through their session today, her violent side had been awakened, and she found her heart racing as she fought and killed.

If Lonesome Flower knew that Lu Li had corrupted his darling little sister, he would be furious.

"Don't worry, we'll come here to play for a bit every day. It'll be good preparation for the competition next Monday," Lu Li said, supporting her enthusiasm." March Rain, there's something I want you to do. I want you to think about how to survive despite being attacked by 3 players, and give us the opportunity to protect you…"

It was entirely possible that they would be up against 3 attackers.

In 3v3 battles, many teams were formed of professions with high Attack, foregoing any Healers. Their goal was to immediately focus and burst down the Healer or Mage in the other team.

"Mm, I've learned a lot today. I'll have a good think about it," March Rain nodded.

She had improved immensely, and through this, she could truly see just how skilled Lu Li and Moonlight were. From this, she saw just how lacking she was.

The Meisnera Outpost had become the most densely packed place in the game.

Countless player were fighting on this map.

"Goddamit Lu Li, hurry up and bring March Rain here. I'm nearly dead and Hachi Chan's healing isn't reliable. She always runs out of MP…" Under Lu Li's guidance, Hachi Chan's healing skills had improved, but her timing wasn't as good as March Rain's.

Azure Sea Breeze continuously shouted, leaving Lu Li and the others no other choice but to hurry up.

They suddenly heard him scream, "Hachi Chan hurry up and heal!! Why aren't you healing?? You still have a lot of MP right? You just recovered some…"

Hachi Chan angrily replied, "No way, I'm not healing you. You think my healing isn't good enough, so you're not getting any."

"Serves you right…" Wandering coldly laughed. However, for the team, he pacified Hachi Chan, saying, "Look at how stupid he looks. Just heal him once or twice – it doesn't really matter if he dies, but we'll have less cannon fodder."

Tears poured down Azure Sea Breeze's face and he didn't dare to say anything further.

When the three of them finally joined up with everyone else, they were able to greatly reduce the pressure on the others.

"Goddamn, didn't I tell you to stay safe? Why'd you choose to defend this place?" Lu Li asked as soon as he arrived.

Wandering looked around them and replied in annoyance, "Everything was fine at first and farming EXP was easy. Who would have thought that things would turn out like this?"

"There are going to be a lot more later, so let's quickly move out," Lu Li softly said, as he killed the monster he was dealing with.

Undoubtedly, these monsters were just cannon fodder sent in by Anzelin. The event would only truly start when the system gave out the quest later.

"If we go, this area will be undefended," Wandering sceptically said.

"That's the Wings of Dawn guild over there; they'll be happy to cover for us." Lu Li looked over and saw that the group of people close to them were wearing the uniform of the Wings of Dawn.

"Where are we going?"

"To the east side, of course," Lu Li replied as he led his team and retreated.

The Wings of Dawn knew that this place was a treasure trove of EXP and if it wasn't for the fact that this was the first time that such an event had occurred, they would have tried to snatch this spot from them. Furthermore, everyone was getting along quite nicely.

When they saw Lu Li and his team leave, they immediately sent over a 50-person team.

The east side of the sentry outpost faced a tall mountain, and at the centre lay a small basin. The monsters that attacked this place had to squeeze through the two sides, so there weren't many of them.

As well as this, the monsters had to walk uphill, which reduced their Movement Speed and Attack.

"There were more monsters back there. Why did we have to come here?" Azure Sea Breeze wasn't too happy about this. To a levelling maniac, monsters equalled EXP. Giving up on a place with that many monsters was like stabbing him.

"Farm at peace here. Just don't cry later," Lu Li replied. "Everyone, have a look at your consumables and see if you're lacking anything. This battle's going to go on for a long time, and we won't have time to sit down and recover."

"How long will it last for?" Wandering asked in shock.

Wasn't it just an event? Normally, events only lasted for 1 or 2 hours, with some of the shortest ones lasting for only 10 or so minutes. They had already been fighting for 4 or 5 hours, but Lu Li's words had made it seem like this was just the beginning.

"Probably around 12 hours," It had been far too long ago, and Lu Li couldn't exactly remember the duration of the event.

"Fudge," Wandering cursed. "Then what we have probably isn't enough, especially our Intermediate Health potions and Intermediate MP Potions…"

"I'll go buy some." Lu Li distributed the things he had on him then returned to Astrana.

He bought a large quantity of Potions from the Exchange Hall and stuffed his bag to its limit, then returned to the Meisnera Outpost.

"So fast!" Wandering was completely dumbfounded.

There were no transportation channels between the Meisnera Outpost and Astrana. Under optimal circumstances, it would still take at least 30 minutes to travel to and from.

There were water elementals everywhere, and yet, it had only taken Lu Li 10 or so minutes to get back. This was including the time it had taken him to go to the Exchange Hall and buy everything.

"I'm a Thief, so I move quickly and have many skills that can increase my Movement Speed." Lu Li suddenly realised he had made a mistake – after all, he had flown all the way back.

Luckily, Wandering was only shocked and didn't want to pry any further. At this moment, a system announcement rang out, drawing away their attention.

System: A group of Twilight Hammer cultists have set up camp to the south-west. Anzelin and the dark Old Gods formed an alliance, granting them the power to control the water elementals. A vast water elemental army is heading towards the Meisnera Outpost. Esteemed adventurers, please fight valiantly for the Moon Goddess!

System: Would you like to accept the quest 'Defend the Meisnera Outpost'?

"For the Moon Goddess!" someone yelled out.

Momentarily, yells could be heard echoing around the Meisnera Outpost.

For the Moon Goddess!

For the Moon Goddess!

For the Moon Goddess!

Almost every single player accepted the quest – after all, they were going to kill monsters anyway. If they could receive additional rewards while doing so, why would they refuse?

System: Accepting the quest and surviving until the water elemental army is destroyed will result in abundant rewards.

Anyone else would probably think that it was just some EXP, but only Lu Li knew just how 'abundant' the rewards were.

From the recounts he had read, almost all of the surviving players had levelled-up, with some players even levelling-up twice. It was estimated that over 100,000 players received Silver grade equipment, some players received Molds, and some said that they had even received Skill Points.

The players who chose not to participate would regret it for the rest of their lives.

The Great Thief

Chapter 216: The War Flag Will Not Fall

Anyone could accept a quest issued by the system.

All players who accepted the quest received a buff.

Meisnera's Blessing: HP Recovery 20%, MP Recovery 20%, Damage to Elementals 20%.

What a buff!

The players all yelled out in joy, completely delighted.

"Everyone be careful. If you can survive, you'll receive good rewards. If you can't, you'll lose EXP." All of the players were completely confidently, but Lu Li could only coldly laugh.

"Oi, why's this guy always so pessimistic?" Azure Sea Breeze asked as he nudged Wandering.

"How am I meant to know?" Wandering also felt that something was weird. He wasn't a prophet, but just from logical reasoning, the game company couldn't have designed such a massive event to be easily completed.

The Meisnera Outpost was the doorway to Astrana. It faced the southwest and bore most of the pressure from the coastline, Deadwind Pass, Warsong Valley and the Grey Valley.

This was especially so for the sea enemies, the Nagas, which had to be defended against.

The defence line at the outpost was made up of a formation consisting of millions of soldiers. Of course, there weren't that many Night Elf Sentry Corps from the Grey Valley, but there were masses of players!

Millions of players were transported from various places in order to participate in the largest official event.

The quest was quite simple – it only required them to kill monsters, but even gave a buff.

Soon, their questions were answered. Five minutes after the quest was issued, the sound of a massive wave of water could be heard drawing near.

Wandering looked up and almost dropped his hammer.

The water elementals came from the southwest, but Wandering and the others were facing the east. Logically, there shouldn't have been too many water elementals, and yet, all they could see in the distance were water elementals. Not even a single patch of grass or dirt was visible anymore.

"Goddamn, why are there so many? What do we do? Run?" Azure Sea Breeze's legs went soft and he almost collapsed to the ground.

Even if all the monsters only attacked him once, he wouldn't even be able to last for 3 seconds. No damage reduction skill in the world would be able to save him.

"Run, my ass. It's all EXP."

Lu Li, who had been quite serious, now looked relaxed. "March Rain, do your best to control the tempo. Hachi Chan, just use Rejuvenation and stay safe," he commanded.

Rejuvenation was a heal-over-time skill, which could help keep them at a healthy HP level when they weren't losing too much HP.

As he spoke, he continuously attacked water elementals.

Although he had lent his Bloodstained Badge to Azure Sea Breeze, his equipment gave him quite a lot of stats. He was also a higher level than the water elementals, so he was even more resilient than a normal Warrior.

Everyone else was dumbfounded.

Surely he wasn't a Thief that had put all of his stats into Constitution? As they inwardly debated among themselves, they saw him kill a water elemental in 3 hits.

Goddamn, was that water elemental made of mud?

"Ah!"

The Healer of the team next to them wasn't focusing and had forgotten to heal. Someone in their team had been killed by a water elemental.

Only then did they realise that the massive water elemental army had arrived. Everyone needed to pay attention, otherwise a single mistake could cost them their lives.

Water elementals were melee magic monsters. Their attacks dealt water damage and gave a Movement Speed debuff.

Suicidal people would often rush headfirst into battle and be drowned in the sea of water elementals. Lu Li's group were more careful, and because they had the advantage of the terrain, they waited for the monsters to charge at them.

Lu Li had chosen this area himself. The slope was steep enough and they were surrounded by massive fir trees.

As such, they didn't have to face as many monsters at once. In total, there were only 10 or so water elementals attacking Azure Sea Breeze at any given time.

With Lu Li distracting some at the side, the situation was fairly stable.

However, the other players weren't so lucky. They had thought that they could simply receive free EXP by facing some LV20 monsters.

Because many of the teams were created on the spot and didn't have good compositions, the players were continuously pushed back.

Capcoman: Blood-red War Flag's Sixth Unit, shrink down the defence line towards me.

A message came up in the Region Channel. No one expected that the first guild to react would be the Blood Red War Flag.

Although the Light Faction didn't have a super-guild like the Glory Capital, the Blood Red War Flag was still quite powerful, and was greater than the Gangnam Royals at times.

They had actually retreated against the sea of monsters.

The other guilds all followed suit and shrank down their defence lines. However, many players still turned into orbs of white light from the repeated assaults of the water elementals.

With the players retreating and the monsters advancing, not a single player had the opportunity to breathe in this battle.

"For the Moon Goddess!"

"Long live the Alliance!"

From the crowd of players, groups of suicide squads charged out and yelled as they blocked the monsters.

This was the first clash between the player and monster army, and resulted in tens of thousands of people turning into white light.

However, these people didn't die for nothing. The players behind them had enough time to get into formation, as if they were attacking an Instance Dungeon.

Warriors, Knights and Druids roared as they advanced.

Flowers and Jade: I'm the commander of the Blood Red War Flag's Second Unit. All players and guilds are currently facing a great danger. This is no longer EXP farming, but a battle. Behind us is the Meisnera Outpost, as well as our home. For the Alliance, let our clothes be stained with blood. The war flag will not fall!

Hornet's Nest: The Seventh Heaven will defend the south.

Green Flag Wine: The Seventh Heaven will defend the west.

One by one, the guilds stood out and organised even more solid defence lines. As the solo players cooperated with the guilds' experts, the players finally found a foothold and stopped retreating.

Vanish!

Lu Li was continuously hit by a few monsters. He almost lost his balance and had to resort to his Vanish skill.

Having lost their target, the monsters sprang towards Lonesome Flower, who was beside Lu Li. Lonesome Flower coldly harrumphed and activated his ice shield.

Lu Li took a few breaths, then dived back into the battle.

There was no such thing as an impenetrable defence line. Even with his abilities, he couldn't guarantee that no monsters would make it past him. If the monsters charged into the crowd of players and attacked a magic profession player without decent equipment, they would be insta-killed.

Normal players weren't like them, who were all over LV20.

"There's something bad happening at the Warsong Valley. Have a look at the kindergarten chat," Moonlight said to Lu Li.

Lu Li opened the muted chat and immediately heard Hornet's Nest's furious voice.

"Twilight, what's the meaning of this?"

Twilight (Stellar Union): "I had no other choice. The NPC gave the order to destroy the Silverwing Outpost. Otherwise, why would my Stellar Union attack during such a bad time for you guys? We completely respect your bravery and hot-bloodedness."

"Despicable!"

If the Meisnera Outpost was a doorway to Astrana, the Silverwing Outpost was the frontline of the Grey Valley, which prevented the Orcs from invading. It was also the place where players could buy consumables in the Warsong Valley.

In the chat, Blood Dagger (Glory Capital) cackled, "Our spies said that you've been levelling quite happily, so if we don't do something quickly, we'll be trampled on by you guys."

Flowers and Jade: Glory Capital is powerful, but you're nothing to me.

Blood Dagger: Lil Jade, I'm looking forward to getting hot and heavy with you at the Shadow Cup.

Zurich (Gale Legion): You can do your quest, so why can't we do our quest? We've been pretty unhappy about the Silverwing Outpost for a while, so we'll take this opportunity to get rid of it.

Water Fairy (Drizzle Court): You guys are so annoying. Is running your mouth all you can do?

The conversation went on and Lu Li inwardly sighed. They had finally stabilised this region and yet, the Horde was attacking the Alliance's frontline outpost in the Warsong Valley.

The Great Thief

Chapter 217: Warsong Valley Battle

Moonlight private messaged Lu Li and asked, "What should we do?"

"Let's just check out what they have to say for now," Lu Li replied. He didn't want to give up the large amount of EXP here.

At that very moment, an invite to a chatroom called "Protect the Meisnera Outpost Chatroom" popped up. He scanned through the member list and found out that they were all famous PVP players from the Light Faction.

Moonlight was invited as well.

He looked up to the sight of countless death animations in the battle before him, sighed and accepted the invite.

As the saying goes, 'every man is responsible for war and conflict'.

As a member of the Alliance, Lu Li would never blindly kill people, but he knew he would eventually be involved.

Besides, the team of players that were willing to sacrifice themselves for others also impacted Lu Li. He finally understood why the players from his past life were all so passionate about 'Defend the Meisnera Outpost'.

Men will kill.

"Lu Li is here." Hornet's Nest received the notification that Lu Li had joined the chatroom.

"Hey everyone."

Lu Li was quite conflicted, so his greeting wasn't one of excitement.

Everyone in the chatroom greeted Lu Li, but many were unenthusiastic because he had taken so many first clears. He was also notorious for his PK video with the Imperial Secret Service.

Even in the eyes of these experts, Lu Li was on a completely different level.

"We can't allow the Horde pigs to take over the Silverwing Outpost, so we must face them head on there," said a Mage called Lucky Southern Persian. Lu Li had heard of him before and knew him as a PVP expert.

Lucky Southern Persian was rather fond of PVP battles, but he didn't play as much as Moonlight. He wasn't very well known because Mages were naturally bad in PVP.

"I contacted several big builds and they've agreed to send some players to Warsong Valley. I also contacted some other solo players who will be moved over there to help," said Jade Flower Lover, who was from the Blood Red War Flag.

Jade Flower Lover was also a famous PVP enthusiast. He was rather lacking in terms of his individual skill, but made up for this with his leadership.

"Casual players may not be enough to hold off Blood Dagger and the others. This is why we've assembled a small team of skilled PVP experts to attack them strategically," suggested a Berserker called Deadly Gold Underwear.

"We've invited about 70 to 80 players. Is there anyone who is not willing to participate?" Lucky Southern Persian asked.

A few players had declined because they were busy. They apologised and said their goodbyes.

"Then… I won't go either."

Lu Li declined, not because he didn't want to work with this group of people, but because he worked better alone. Besides, not everyone was familiar with each other, so there would be too many disagreements and a lack of team chemistry.

"Lu Li, you're not going?" Hornet's Nest was surprised.

"My group is fighting Water Elementals right now; they can't fight them without me," Lu Li replied.

"Goddammit, can you look at the bigger picture? Why are you still worried about your team? Some people are just so selfish," Swirling Left Eye retorted.

Staring Right Eye quickly followed and added, "Hornet's Nest invited you. Are you going to let him down?"

They were clearly trying to ruin the friendship between Hornet's Nest and himself, which made him feel quite uncomfortable.

However, Hornet's Nest didn't fall for their tricks and coldly said, "Left and Right Eye, shut up or I'll kick you two out. It's not like you guys will make much of a difference anyway."

The two thieves decided to shut up.

They were usually fearless when facing-off against casual players. However, in this chatroom, they at the bottom of the ladder. Even though Imperial Secret Service was a decent-sized guild, they could not compare to the Blood Red War Flag or Seventh Heaven.

If they dared to leave the chatroom, the big guilds would give the Imperial Secret Services a hard time.

Many didn't understand the reason why Hornet's Nest had so much respect for Lu Li. However, Hornet's Nest was extremely stubborn and outspoken, so no one dared to raise up any arguments.

"Lu Li plays this game as a job," Moonlight explained. "Levelling-up is very important for him."

"So he's staying at the outpost just to level up?" Lucky Southern Persian was ticked-off.

"It's just how it is. We have no right to force him to do something he doesn't want to. He's not in a guild and doesn't owe anyone here a favour," Moonlight calmly said.

Lu Li didn't understand why Moonlight had brought this topic up, but he trusted him. All he wanted to do was to leave the chatroom and get back to killing monsters.

"Since you're playing for the money, how about we hire you, on the basis that you wouldn't disappoint us?" Deadly Golden Underwear suggested.

"That could work…" Moonlight winked at Lu Li.

"A Jade Statue and 50 Starwood…" Lu Li said after completing some brief calculations in his head. If they paid him this, it would be worth giving up the EXP from the event.

Most people here were PVP experts and therefore knew very little about Jade Statues. However, a lot of people had heard about Lu Li levelling-up with Starwood.

People in the chatroom began discussing and Hornet's Nest offered, "Seventh Heaven will give you the Jade Statue, but we only have 20 Starwood."

Lu Li had already heard from Sesame Rice Ball that Seventh Heaven had a Jade Statue, but the extra 20 Starwood was a pleasant surprise.

"Blood Red War Flag will provide the rest. Anyone else got any requests?" Jade Flower Lover followed up and waited a few seconds for a response. The silence from the chatroom signalled the start of this expedition.

Lu Li private-messaged Drizzle Court and asked a few players to fill in for him and Moonlight so that the team could continue levelling.

Lu Li and Moonlight then left the battle and made their way to Warsong Valley.

It would be no use if a group of 70-80 PVP players tried to attack Warsong Valley together, because these players excelled at one-on-one fights.

Lu Li initially wanted to work alone, but Lucky Southern Persian stopped him.

His reasoning was simple – what if Lu Li hid somewhere and didn't contribute?

Lu Li agreed and joined his team along with Moonlight.

The team consisted of Lucky Southern Persian (LV19 Ice Mage), Stellar Union Silver Radiant (LV20 Priest), Floral Paralysis (LV19 Thief), Moonlight (LV20 Berserker) and Lu Li (LV22 Thief).

This was a classic, offensive-centred team composition.

"Let's go!" Lucky Southern Persian declared, as Floral Paralysis scouted ahead.

Lu Li stretched his body and went invisible. Lucky Southern Persian used Detection, but he could no longer detect Lu Li, who still should have been nearby.

"I hope I don't bump into Thieves like him in the future," he mumbled to himself, feeling inferior in front of the LV22 expert.

The first Horde players they encountered were a small team of 10 players. Naturally, Lu Li and the others decided to face them head on and immediately attacked.

The battle shortly ended after about a minute or so.

Lucky Southern Persian finally witnessed Lu Li's famous skills and understood why he was so well-respected by Hornet's Nest.

The enemy Paladin continued healing and naturally became a target for Lu Li to hunt. After a couple of stabs, he fell to half HP and was instantly finished by Slit Throat.

After he finished him, Lu Li immediately disappeared again and instantly reappeared behind another healer.

The two healers had no time to react and were quickly finished off.

When his Rager set effect was activated, he basically became a human harvester.

Out of the ten enemies, he solo-killed four by himself.

The Great Thief

Chapter 218: Blood Dagger Great Thief

Lu Li was ridiculously strong in the eyes of Lucky Southern Persian and the others. Lu Li quickly realised that his teammates weren't so bad either.

Lucky Southern Persian in particular had perfect timing for his skills and always maximizing his abilities to their greatest potential. Even when two enemy Warriors and a Paladin were focusing on him, he still managed to stay above half HP.

Additionally, even though Stellar Union Silver Radiant's heals weren't the strongest, he had godlike survivability skills, which enabled him to consistently heal over longer periods of time.

At the beginning of fights, priests were often the ones that were targeted. However, enemies were unable to target Stellar Union Silver Radiant because of how durable he was, which left them no choice but to focus the Mage.

Lu Li portrayed the violent Thief image, able to output a huge amount of damage. On the other hand, Floral Paralysis portrayed the typical stealthy and cunning image.

Warsong Valley's terrain was very complicated and difficult to navigate through. Floral Paralysis was able to help Lu Li and the others with this using his scouting skills.

"I can sense a Thief nearby who has been lingering around the whole time. Should we be worried?" Stellar Union Silver Radiant asked while he brought out his badge and showed the others.

It had no other stats other than Detection 30%.

Normally, equipment like this were useless to other classes. However, a Priest's main goal was to survive and protect themselves from ambushes, so this was the perfect badge for him.

"Floral Paralysis, be careful and protect the priest. Stellar Union, give the badge to Lu Li. If this person is brave enough to come here alone and target us, he must be very confident in his skills," Lucky Southern Persian replied.

Lu Li received the badge so that he could catch the lurker with it.

He was given the responsibility because the unknown Thief may have had escape skills, which would render traps useless against him.

Stellar Union Silver Radiant approached Lu Li, then patted him on the shoulder and said, "They always call you No.1 in the Alliance. Are you feeling the pressure?"

"I have no idea who came up with that. I've never even thought of myself as an expert. I'm simply playing this job for the money," Lu Li replied honestly.

Stellar Union Silver Radiant handed him the badge as they exchanged words.

After equipping it, his Detection stat skyrocketed, which allowed him to immediately detect that someone was about 3 yards in front of them.

Detection 30%. What an overpowered stat. All Lu Li could think about was what he would do if he was facing a priest with this badge.

All of Lu Li's strategy would become child's play if up against this badge.

With the badge, Lu Li was able to accurately approximate the enemy Thief's location. All the team had to do was to cast Blizzard to reveal him from his stealth. After that, he would have no chance. However, if Lu Li was the enemy Thief, he could have Gale-Stepped his way to safety.

"Lure him out when the timing is right. It's all up to you now, Stellar Union," Lucky Southern Persian said as he winked at Lu Li and continued on his way.

The poor Thief was still giving away his position; he had no idea that they were baiting him into a

trap.

Sure enough, the opportunity quickly came.

Lu Li and the others encountered a small team of five. When the two parties noticed each other, the enemy Hunter was already in range for his attacks.

Moonlight shouted and charged towards them.

Lucky Southern Persian quickly followed, preparing for the battle.

Although it appeared that the party had left the lonely priest behind to fend for himself, he was just acting as bait.

The fact that the Mage had charged towards the enemy made it seem extremely fake.

No party would ever simply leave their priest behind like that, especially one that was made up of experienced players.

Lucky Southern Persian was playing mind games with the enemy Thief.

He was betting on the fact that the lone Thieve was over-confident and too arrogant for his own good.

Lucky Southern Persian was right; the Thief was way too arrogant.

As soon as Lucky Southern Persian casted Blizzard, the Thief took action.

He ambushed Stellar Union Silver Radiant and followed up with a few high damage skills. Within a few short seconds, Stellar Union had fallen to half HP. However, he was a tank Priest, so the Thief's skills weren't strong enough to instantly kill him.

"So, it was big boss Blood Dagger," Floral Paralysis giggled as he appeared behind the Thief. He wasn't in a rush to attack Blood Dagger and wanted to savour the moment.

Blood Dagger knew that his ambush had failed and could only watch as Stellar Union healed himself twice back to full HP.

However, he had come prepared and had a backup plan, knowing that he might not have been able to instantly kill Stellar Union Silver Radiant.

"If you don't use Gale Steps, I'm not going to hold back any longer," Floral Paralysis said, beaming. To be able to threaten one of the top Thieves in the game made him feel ecstatic.

Blood Dagger was one of the top 5 Thieves in Dawn. He had specialized in Assassin-type classes in every other game he played and was basically seen as a walking Thief guide.

Blood Dagger stayed in place, not in a hurry to use Gale Steps.

How arrogant.

Moonlight, Lucky Southern Persian and Floral Paralysis simultaneously casted their ultimate skills on Blood Dagger. If he didn't case Gale Steps now, he would fall to less than half HP.

Blood Dagger was waiting for this moment, to bait out all of their ultimates.

He casted Gale Steps before the skills landed on him and disappeared in front of everyone.

"Next time, you won't be so lucky," he haughtily threatened.

However, after this experience, he knew that it would be almost impossible to assassinate one of them alone.

Blood Dagger contacted some experts from the Evil Faction to help him out as he moved towards a safer location.

At this very moment, he felt pain in the back of his head. The pain was almost unnoticeable because the skill had barely hit him.

Normally, the skill stunned for 4 seconds, but this time, it only lasted for 2 seconds.

Blood Dagger realised what had happened.

He had focused most of his Detection behind him, which meant that the person had attacked him head-on. The ambusher was able to predict Blood Dagger's movement and had waited to attack him.

This meant that the person must have had incredible judgement skills and high Detection.

This person must have also been very careful, not wanting to give away his position and scare-off his target.

Before Blood Dagger could finish thinking, he was attacked relentlessly.

Armour Break, Paralysis, Stunned, Paralysis, Bleed…

"Goddammit! Why am I constantly under crowd control?!"

Did he cast all of his skills with high Skill Completion?

Blood Dagger was panicking. He was a pure PVP player and had faced countless Thieves before, but never once had he been completely dominated.

The arrogant and fearless Blood Dagger was honestly terrified.

If news spread that he was killed without even seeing his attacker's face, he might as well resign from the game.

Impossible! Blood Dagger had the best gear available, which had the ability to decrease critical hit damage. If this was a proper one-on-one fight, then there was no way he could be killed in one combo.

It was too bad that Lu Li wasn't planning on fighting him one-on-one.

The Great Thief

Chapter 219: Killing a Centurion

An ice hockey puck hit Blood Dagger, which woke him up, but slowed him as well. Before he could react to anything else, a dagger flew out of the sky and struck him on the forehead.

"Fight me 1 vs 1!"

Blood Dagger helplessly turned his head. Although he had successfully escaped from Floral Paralysis' Gouge, he still hadn't escaped Lu Li's rhythmic attacks from behind.

Lu Li was like a sticky candy that was attached behind him, continuously dealing damage.

Lucky Southern Persian shamelessly used Cone of Cold. Although it didn't deal high damage, it was still inflicted an additional slow.

In a 1 vs. 3 battle, the Evil Faction's Top Thief was being brutally devastated.

He had just used Gale Steps a few moments ago, and his Undead skill could only produce a Fear. He had no way of vanishing.

Moreover, the three players that had surrounded him were no fools either.

However, he didn't stand still to await his death. He tensed himself and pushed clear of Floral Paralysis to stab both of his daggers at Lu Li.

Neither of them had any skills left, so they could only use normal attacks and parries.

Floral Paralysis laughed and put away his daggers, still standing in a strategic position. He didn't want to give Blood Dagger an opportunity to escape.

Lucky Southern Persian had still not used any damage skills. Although all of them could just surrounding Blood Dagger and kill him, they had some pride as experts, so they didn't simply gang up on him.

Lu Li's dagger handling was quite good. The parries from his left hand and the blocks from his right hand looked like a butterfly flapping its pair of wings.

If another expert was present, they would have thought that Lu Li was quite good with them in real life as well.

However, Blood Dagger was quite skilled as well; each of his attacks were made with all of his effort. He pressed forward with an air of dominance, trading blows with Lu Li.

Unfortunately, with his critical HP, his splendid showdown barely lasted 10 seconds.

Lu Li's dagger swiped Blood Dagger across his chest, depleting the last of his HP.

Lu Li caught an item that was falling onto the ground, accompanied by a white light.

System: Kill a Centurion, 100 Glory points gained.

"Congratulations, you just killed the strongest Thief of the Evil Faction. You really do live up to the name of number one player," Floral Paralysis said as he licked his lips. That 10 second duel was an eye-opener for him.

There were no skills or movement, just pure reaction and reflex!

"You're too nice; this badge helped me out quite a bit." Lu Li took off the badge and returned it to the Stellar Union Silver Radiant.

"Stellar Union, I won't be so polite after today. This badge is just far too strong. No Thief that faces it would be able to get away."

Stellar Union Silver Radiant bitterly shook his head and replied, "A thief has turned his attention to me. I really am hopeless."

However, even in saying that, he still had nothing to fear. He had the Detection Badge and wasn't a lone player. He had the support of a large union like 'Azure Guard'.

"This equipment…" Lu Li raised the equipment in his hands and shared its attributes in the Party Channel.

Slayer's Shoulderpads (Silver): Defence 18, Agility 10, Strength 6. Effect 1: Attack Speed 10%. Effect 2: Backhand Backstab Skill 1. Equipment Requirement level 15, Durability 42/42.

Lu Li's eyes lit up at the sight of these Shoulderpads. All the equips that he currently had were for general use, but they were also on the lower-end and were LV10.

"That's pretty good. Too bad it's only for Thieves; you can work it out with Floral Paralysis."

Lucky Southern Persian wasn't interested, especially seeing that there was other competition.

"You were the one who killed Blood Dagger. I just helped you out. I can't bear to take it," Floral Paralysis refused, waving his hands. "Besides, they're not better than the Shoulderpads that I already have anyway. They're a LV15 Silver equip as well. You can keep them."

"Thank you so much. I'll take less next time." Lu Li replaced his Shoulderpads and immediately received a small attribute boost.

The most valuable aspect of these Shoulderpads was the Backhand Backstab 1. He was most impressed with that attribute.

Equipment that increased the level of skills, especially main skills, were never easy to come by. Even Lu Li had never found one until now.

Blood Dagger was the number one Thief of Glory Capital, but how he rose to the top was a mystery.

Swirling Left Eye: How is everyone? Oh yeah, what about that really expensive expert? I don't know if he's dead.

Lucky Southern Persian: Stop it, don't embarrass yourself.

Swirling Left Eye: What do you mean, South? You won't even let me speak?

Lucky Southern Persian: You guys didn't care when you were relying on the guild's strength. The Imperial Secret Service regularly displays their power among the regular players anyway. If you want to keep going on like this, it would be wise to clearly recognize your position. Don't mess with people you can't deal with.

Swirling Left Eye: South you're like an old instrument playing the same tune all the time. I just wanted to know whether we found any valuable materials, but here you are spouting some great truth.

Hornet's Nest: You have nothing to do with the materials.

Floral Paralysis: Oh dear, I can't help but feel a little sympathetic towards these two.

Stellar Union Silver Radiant: Broadcast the situation. South's little party entered the Warsong Canyon for 12 minutes and killed 29 Evil Faction players.

Swirling Left Eye: Our party killed 31 people. Hehe, sorry, but we are first.

Floral Paralysis: Stellar Union, do you want to tell him? I'm not sure if I'll be able to go on within this social circle if I do.

Swirling Left Eye: Don't tell me you all have diarrhea – that's not normal.

Stellar Union Silver Radiant: Dammit, you're just asking for it now. We only killed two less than you guys, but what you don't know is that there was a Centurion among the 29 players.

The chatroom suddenly burst into action.

Magic Cry: A Centurion? Who was it? Surely there aren't many Centurions in Dawn right now?

Swirling Left Eye: No way, I don't believe you. No one saw it anyway, so you can say what you want. If you want to boast about something, at least make it realistic.

Lucky Southern Persian: Yes, if we were making this up, no one would believe us. So, we are telling the truth.

Hornet's Nest: I believe you, who was it?

Holy Thunder: I believe you as well; I just want to know which unlucky player died.

Lucky Southern Persian: Well, if you want to know, you can invite one of us out for a drink.

Jade Flower Lover: Wow, we have to invite you guys out. Wait, is it…

Hornet's Nest: Crap, did you guys kill Blood Dagger?

Lucky Southern Persian: Keke, I didn't have a grudge against him, but he was set on fighting us. After Lu Li butchered him, he even dropped a Silver Equip.

Staring Right Eye: I want to ask, how did you guys kill a Thief with Gale Steps?

Swirling Left Eye: Blood Dagger must have been left alone?

Floral Paralysis: Left Eye, you're really embarrassing yourself. Aren't you a Thief as well? What difference does it make if you are or aren't alone? You really are bringing shame to your party today.

Jade Flower Lover: Alright then, so Blood Dagger was killed by his arrogance. This probably won't happen again. Everyone keep working hard to kill a few more players.

Lucky Southern Persian: Don't forget to invite us out for drinks.

Jade Flower Lover: You weren't even the one who kill him; we should be taking Lu Li out for drinks. Brother Lu Li, I've already sent you the Starwood that you wanted. I guarantee that you'll be happy with the amount.

Lu Li: Thank you.

There were a few more messages directed at Lu Li after that, mostly about how they had managed to kill Blood Dagger.

This time, the questions towards Lu Li were far more sincere.

The rule of strength applied to video games more than it did in real life. Now that Lu Li had killed Blood Dagger, it was sufficient for everyone to admire him, regardless of how he was killed.

Lu Li typed a few short responses before shifting his attention back to killing people on the battlefield.

In another chatroom, Azure Sea Breeze was flaunting the time when he had experienced a surge in EXP. This annoyed Lu Li so much that he considered leaving him behind the next time they went bomb levelling.

The Great Thief

Chapter 220: A Huge Bounty

"Haha, I was almost LV22, while someone else was still stuck on LV 22."

Azure Sea Breeze felt like the cloud that had been hanging around his head had almost been lifted.

As a levelling maniac, how could he let an idle thief out-level him?

"Oh, little insecure one," spat Wandering.

"If I could farm at night, I think I could reach LV23." Azure Sea Breeze disregarded him; he was completely immersed in his own world.

"Oh," sneered Lu Li coldly, "I just asked Blood Red War Flag and Seventh Heaven for quite a bit of Starwood. I'll be turning these into bombs, but if a certain warrior is levelling so quickly, he doesn't need to come with us."

"Lu Li, oh Great Lu, I…. I…." Azure Sea Breeze was dumbfounded.

"You just got hacked…" Wandering maliciously attacked Sea Breeze, who was already down.

"You were tempted by the Rice-Ball-demon's magic and said some things you shouldn't have."

Hachi Chan was legitimately attempting to help Azure Sea Breeze.

In the Protect the Meisnera Outpost Chatroom:

Dancing Star Dream: I found Sorrowless, but I died.

Jade Flower Lover: Where? How many people?

Dancing Star Dream: The coordinates are 78594, 56311, 56. There were so many people who were probably PVP experts just like us. Given the direction they were taking, they are probably rushing towards us.

Lucky Southern Persian: Is it just a few dozen of them? What about their main force?

Dancing Star Dream: They have probably been deployed. I did a big loop around them, but I didn't see any of them. They have quite a few thieves scouting around in Stealth; I got caught because I bumped into one of them.

Hornet's Nest: What good comes from talking about you? You're just one Mage who wanted to do something on your own. I hope you've learnt your lesson now.

Jade Flower Lover: Is everyone hearing this? Sorrowless is coming and we need to unite to fight this war.

Sorrowless wasn't the most skilled among this group, but he still had quite the reputation. Not only was he the president of Glory Capital, but he was also on the top of the Horde's PVP ladder.

Moreover, the Glory Capital's wasn't made up like the other big guilds. They didn't have some big behind-the-scenes financial backer or supporter. Sorrowless himself was a rich second-generation child and thus, was able to effectively speak for Glory Capital.

In other words, he truly was the leader of Glory Capital.

Killing Blood Dagger was a happy occasion that had greatly increased the group morale. However, it would be nothing compared to killing Sorrowless.

If they were able to kill Sorrowless, today's showdown at this camp would be over.

Jade Flower Lover: Our main forces are defending the Meisnera Outpost, so there will be a great difference in strength between us and the Horde. If we let them surround us, we won't be able to stop them. We need to fight them now.

Empty: That is probably Sorrowless' plan. That's why he's only brought a few people. He wants to fight a decisive, high-stakes battle.

Jade Flower Lover: He's too arrogant then. We'll see who wins this fight.

Wild: Actually, nothing bad will happen if we don't fight them. Remember, our goal is just to lead them into the Warsong Canyon.

Empty: The Silverwing Output is not that easy to break into – the NPC there is stronger than we can imagine.

Jade Flower Lover: I'm aware that an open conflict has its risks. But if we, as the top players of the Light Faction, are unwilling to fight now, when will we ever fight? Wild, what do you think?

Wild: Let's do it. It's the Blood Red War Flag's turn to place the bounty right?

Lu Li was curious about this and privately messaged Moonlight about the bounty.

Moonlight vaguely explained, "It's just a way for these big guilds to gamble and show off how much money they have. When doing things like this, they will offer a large monetary reward for the player who successfully completes the quest. This is also how prestige is developed."

Lu Li responded, "Isn't this just bribing the people?"

No wonder people said that guilds were not for poor people – they seemed to find all sorts of ways to spend money.

Moonlight grunted with disagreement, "It's also a display of strength. To be able to pull out such a big bounty and complete the Bounty Quest is a display of strength. You should just consider it as a competition."

While this was going on, Jade Flower Lover had already reached an agreement about Blood Red War Flag's bounty.

Objective: Sorrowless and the other Evil Faction elite players. Prize Money: 200,000 real money for Sorrowless. 100,000 for a Centurion. Prizes for Sergeants are calculated according to their rank.

Moonlight then asked, "Lu Li just killed Blood Dagger. What about that?"

Wild responded after a brief pause, "After the event is over, one hundred thousand dollars will be transferred to brother Lu Li's account. Blood Red War Flag always keeps its word."

Blood Dagger had been killed before the event started, so technically, Blood Red War Flag didn't need to pay him anything. However, the large guilds usually either had a big tolerance for this, or just felt embarrassed for not recognizing it. As such, Lu Li managed to earn a bonus sum of money.

It also likely had to do with Moonlight asking about it.

Moonlight was a seasoned expert, so whatever he said was unlikely to be opposed. Even the left and right eye brothers didn't dare to oppose him.

Jade Flower Lover: Alright everyone, the hunt begins. At the very least, you should kill one other person before you die.

Hornet's Nest: Just fight them one at a time. Remember to take screenshots of any equipment that you drop. Then, you can ask little Jade for compensation. We couldn't properly compensate everyone last time.

Jade Flower Lover: Relax, it's not just for equipment either. If you lose EXP, the Blood Red War Flag will compensate you with gold. This fight is for the glory of the whole faction, so we can't hesitate at all.

The next few messages were just messages of encouragement.

However, Lu Li maintained an uncommitted attitude to all of this. He wasn't a guild player, nor did he care too much about the glory of the factions. In actuality, these faction wars were actually just something coordinated and pushed for by the large guilds. It was something that the ordinary players quickly took on board.

Swirling Left Eye: My brother and I will be assassinating Sorrowless. I hope everyone will cooperate with us.

Normally, they wouldn't aim so high, but their image had taken yet another beating today. After Lu Li had killed Blood Dagger, the Imperial Secret Service was once again put to shame. The little reputation that the left and right eye brothers once had was now a joke. They had to do whatever they could to regain their image.

Hornet's Nest: You two…

Jade Flower Lover: Sure, we'll give you a chance to do it. But the risk is quite high, so make sure you've thought this through.

Swirling Left Eye: We brothers aren't cowards.

Jade Flower Lover: Everyone gather together; let's head towards Sorrowless' coordinates. Send people ahead to scout out the situation. If a large force appears, we'll all have to retreat.

Lu Li didn't rush ahead in an attempt to kill Sorrowless. He had experienced rebirth and knew better than everyone as to how scary Sorrowless truly was. He was a schemer – how could he put himself in danger like this for no reason?

There were a dozen players on each side and a hundred others who had entered the forest.

When Lu Li first started, he got a few easy kills due to the element of surprise.

However, the Evil Faction players were quite conservative, so they didn't suffer too many losses. Soon, they responded with their own attacks.

Both sides had now engaged in a fierce battle in the forest's open area.

In this situation, technique played a smaller role, as anyone could become the target of an attack and die.

Swirling Left Eye, Staring Right Eye and several other thieves slowly crept towards the centre of the Evil Faction players' camp under cover.

Sorrowless – he was a Mage who was responsible for directing the Evil Faction players in combat.

As for Lu Li, he continued to play conservatively as usual. He always stayed close to Lucky Southern Persian and the rest.

He didn't attack unless it was almost guaranteed that he would complete the kill. For example, he would only attack a player who had been left alone, was on critical HP, or was capable of being one-shot.

The Great Thief

Chapter 221: I Prefer To Keep A Low Profile

"Something doesn't feel like quite right," Stellar Union Silver Radiant said, while healing Moonlight.

"Yeah, it really does," Lucky Southern Persian nodded in agreement as he continued to cast his skill. The Cone of Cold revealed a Thief who was trying to perform a sneak attack on Stellar Union Silver Radiant.

"I refuse to believe that Wild and the others don't see it." Stellar Union Silver Radiant casted Shadow Word on the Thief before returning to healing so he couldn't go back into Stealth.

"Even if they do know, what can they do? We can't start so strongly and then retreat. That would look bad for us," Moonlight said as he charged over and stunned the Thief. With a few attacks, the Thief was quickly taken down.

"Dammit, look at those Blood Red players," Stellar Union Silver Radiant scolded.

At this time, Swirling Left Eye angrily asked in the chatroom, "Why didn't you support me Jade Flower Lover? Didn't you said you would support me?"

"I'll support your sister," Empty replied. "Do you even know how to player? The opportunity that you saw wasn't an opportunity at all. Don't drag the rest of us into your death wish, alright?"

"It's a good thing I didn't follow them. It was really sad – a few dozen players couldn't even get close enough to splash water at him," one of the other experts joyfully added.

"Hey you, dumb left eye, next time I see you, I'm going to kill you over and over. I'm going to leave you in the gutter," threatened another angry expert.

What came next was a barrage of messages ridiculing Swirling Left Eye. He was beginning to look quite unpopular.

Lu Li happily watched his bad luck. It served him right for always looking for trouble and being a general nuisance.

However, he didn't stay happy for long, as he heard Right Eye call out, "Lu Li, why didn't you support us? I remember you taking the reward already."

"Would you believe me if I told you that the next time I see some Imperial Secret Service players, I'll kill them?" Lu Li smiled and asked bluntly.

"Did you guys hear that? Did I say anything wrong?" Staring Right Eye shouted.

"Dammit, stop messing around you clown," Hornet's Nest said impatiently.

Elevenless: I finally know what a true villain looks like. I always thought that they only existed in fantasies.

Deadly Gold Underwear: Elevenless, don't you see that this is normal? Lu Li has killed so many Imperial Secret Service players that some animosity towards him was bound to have developed.

Wild: Alright, stop talking about it. Lu Li, put in a bit more effort. You can't just stay out of it while everyone is putting in their effort.

Lu Li: Sorry, I have no intention of being cannon fodder.

Wild: What do you want to do then? Do you want to assassinate Sorrowless?

Lu Li: We'll see. If there is an opportunity, then I might try. Otherwise, you won't see me rushing up and getting myself killed.

Wild cried on the inside. His group had simply charged straight at the Evil Faction players. Had that been a dumb thing to do?

What was supposed to be a zealous and courageous act, had turned into something idiotic in hindsight.

From Lu Li's perspective, the move was stupid, and everyone should have been able to see that. Sorrowless was clearly using himself as bait, tempting the Light Faction players to charge at him and get themselves killed.

Jade Flower Lover: We all need to attack at once and break through the line. We can't retreat.

He hadn't lost heart yet and still held on to the possibility of killing Sorrowless…

However, the full-frontal assault was just becoming desperate, as countless white lights lit up all over the battlefield.

Both sides had experienced losses – the Light Faction side was also made up of experts.

The battle raged on for seven to eight minutes before Magic Cry cried out, "Wild, let's retreat. Hornet's Nest just died."

At this point, the Evil Faction players were dominating. Upon seeing the Light Faction players pull back, Sorrowless waved his hand and commanded, "Pursue them according to the plan. Those lying in wait can come out now."

Lucky Southern Persian cast a shield to protect himself and shouted, "Everyone stay alive. We've lost this round."

"Lu Li, you aren't leaving?" Moonlight had just killed a Druid that was furiously rushing towards them, but he noticed that Lu Li had not started to retreat. It was as if he had no intention to retreat.

"Don't be silly. We're all retreating, so there is an even smaller chance of killing Sorrowless. If you go back there, you basically have a death wish," Floral Paralysis couldn't help but say.

"My guess is that Sorrowless has the same idea as you," Lu Li grinned.

"I wish you good fortune and hope you find success." Lucky Southern Persian obviously wasn't too optimistic about the risk Lu Li was taking.

"Wait!" Stellar Union Silver Radiant took off his badge and threw it at him.

"Use this for now, return it to me later."

Lu Li caught it and put it on, then quickly rushed towards the back of the Evil Faction players. With this badge, he didn't need to fear being caught-out.

In the future, he needed to get equipment with high Detection, but he also needed equipment that would buff his Stealth.

Such a large-scale retreat of the Light Faction players announced the complete fall of the Warsong Canyon. Even the NPCs on the battlefield had to retreat towards the Silverwing Outpost with them.

As the scales began to tip against them, the rate at which the Light Faction players died increased.

Sorrowless had planned ambushes on the retreating Light Faction players, which had the potential to slow them down. As long as they were slowed, the chasing group of players would be able to reach them and deal a little bit more damage.

Hornet's Nest had died in the beginning, which was followed by the Elevenless and Dancing Star Dream. Even Floral Paralysis died in the confusion.

Revive couldn't be used on the battlefield and it took quite a long time for a dead player to run back to the battlefield. As such, their formation had completely been broken.

Jade Flower Lover has died!

The loss of the Blood Red War Flag commander was a huge blow to the Light Faction. If not for the fact that Wild also had quite a bit of prestige, the Light Faction forces would have been shattered.

Sorrowless stood on high ground, observing the chaotic battlefield from afar.

"Start the final ambush. I want them all to be annihilated."

"Boss, we've had major losses as well. If we go on, no one will win this war," said a high-ranking Glory Capital player who was standing beside him and looked quite pessimistic.

"It won't be a mutual destruction," Sorrowless replied confidently. "As long as I stand here, we are the victors."

"Yes, boss, I will pass this on," the player said helplessly.

"Glory Capital, a glorious victory will soon be won. This place is well and truly ours," Sorrowless muttered under in breath, unaware of the Thief in Stealth that was lurking behind him…

It seemed like he was alone in this inescapable trap.

Lu Li slowly approached Sorrowless, but continued to watch him from afar. He dared not to get too close.

Stellar Union Silver Radiant's badge had already helped him quite a bit. Otherwise, he probably would have already been surrounded by a group of Thieves.

Lu Li went back into Stealth, as he couldn't see an opportunity that would lead to a favorable outcome.

However, all he could think about was that he was currently ahead in level, equipment and skills. If he didn't kill him today, then the chance for him to do so in future would only grow slimmer.

"Lu Li, I hear you went back in?" Hornet's Nest sent a message to him.

"Well, there's nothing to do here. I just wanted to admire the big boss' elegance," Lu Li unexpectedly joked.

"When you're done admiring, kill him. Then, we'll throw you a celebration when you get back," Hornet's Nest laughed. He seemed to be have a questionable amount of confidence in Lu Li.

"I don't really want it – I prefer to keep a low profile," Lu Li replied, as he cautiously followed Sorrowless' group. They had finally started moving.

At the bottom of the mountain, another wave of Thieves had joined the fray. This was a total military defeat for the Light Faction.

The Great Thief

Chapter 222: An Epic Fall

At the bottom of the mountain, another wave of Thieves had joined the fray. This was a total military defeat for the Light Faction.

Moreover, as more ordinary players started to join the battle, the scene became even more chaotic.

Dawn didn't mess around with the balance of the game, but there was definitely no single person who was any match for ten thousand people.

In the chaos where skills were just being cast all over the place, even top-level expert players were being killed. In other words, technique didn't matter anymore.

"In the current circumstances, the expert players are at a disadvantage whilst the ordinary players are at an advantage. At this rate, the Silverwing Outpost will soon be in ruins," a paladin said as he walked over. This was Ninja Turtle; he was in charge of leading the ordinary players into the battle.

"Don't be negligent, those Blood Red players will not admit defeat so easily. What is happening over at the Meisnera Outpost?" asked Sorrowless.

"Their situation is dire; over half a million players have been killed. If it weren't for the fact that they can continually reinforce, they would have lost to the Water Elementals a long time ago. Additionally, if we take the Silverwing Outpost, those Alliance dogs will be finished," Ninja Turtle said gleefully.

Sorrowless stared at him. "You idiot. You saw them die, but did you see their levels increase?"

On the whole, countless players had died at the Meisnera Outpost, but they had also earned a significant amount of EXP. Those who died could easily just farm the EXP back, but the survivors in particular earned a lot of EXP.

Ninja Turtle didn't dare to say any more.

Although everyone was just playing a game and didn't need to answer to anyone else, Glory Capital was a corporation. So no one could oppose Sorrowless, they could only obey.

"So what should we do?"

"Just do whatever you need to do."

"Didn't you say they were gaining levels?"

"I don't care what they're doing, as long as you do what you need to do. The game company isn't as dumb as you are; if they are gaining levels then us Horde players will soon get a similar event."

"Yeah, yeah, you're always right," criticized Ninja Turtle in his heart, before heading back to the frontlines.

Lu Li was nearby, squatting on the ground. He was still, like a stone that had been there since the ancient times.

After some observation, he realized that players from all ranks would occasionally report to him. They didn't all have something important to report either, some of them just wanted to show their face to Sorrowless. However, he didn't seem to mind this behavior.

He had likely always lived a life of indulgence, waking up intoxicated with beautiful women on his knees, with enough power in the palm of his hands to command a mighty force.

He must have enjoyed this feeling very much.

When this game reached legendary status, Glory Capital would only be taking in the best of the best. It would no longer go on comfortably like it was now.

This was a game after all, and it was fair because everyone started at the same point. You needed to work hard to get results, otherwise you were likely to fall behind and regret it.

Lu Li pulled up the game rankings and looked for quite a few minutes before finally finding Sorrowless' level.

Level 18!

Considering his own rank, he never imagined that Sorrowless would be so far behind.

Under his command of Glory Capital, he had over 10 thousand players at his disposal. He also had a further 10 thousand players who were smaller organizations that rallied under the same flag. But after the third System Update, the competition between guilds must have gotten fiercer, so he probably didn't have any time to train.

Lu Li was already level 22, so there was a 4 level difference. With a bit of luck, he would be able to kill him in a few hits.

But he first needed to find a way to get close to him.

Lu Li dared to estimate that there was probably no less than 50-60 Thieves just in the surrounding area.

If Sorrowless stood completely still, Lu Li knew he could rush up to kill him because he had the Detection Badge. He would likely bump into quite a few Thieves - that's how tightly packed they were.

This was a game after all, so there wasn't the high-tech security that was available in real life.

Another player just turned up; he seemed to have reported good news as Sorrowless' normally solemn face had a smile. He turned to pat the player on the shoulder before letting him go.

This player seemed to be flattered and was really excited when he was walking away.

Lu Li stared at the player's face before breaking into a smile.

Deception Orb.

Undead, Thief, ID Blank Thief.

At this point it is worth mentioning that the Deception Orb can change a player's identity but not their appearance. You also couldn't use an ID that was already taken, like Ninja Turtle or Blood Dagger.

But, was there a certain appearance that Undead players had?

Lu Li moved his jaw uncomfortably, trying to make sure that the effect wouldn't just wear off. He then revealed himself at a distance and walked towards Sorrowless.

He could feel several Thieves surrounding him as he approached.

If he made any unusual movements, he would definitely be attacked.

"I've never seen you before." It was impossible for Sorrowless to know everyone, but it wasn't enough that he was an Evil Faction player. Regardless of whether it was Glory Capital, Blood Red War Flag, or a smaller guild, they would all be wary of undercover players posing as another faction.

Lu Li stopped moving – continuing to move would have meant death. He then spoke in a hoarse voice that spirits normally use, "The Chrysanthemum Blossom Brigade greets you. My brother is stuck in battle and couldn't leave."

Chrysanthemum Blossom Brigade was a medium sized guild. But it was only medium for now, as it was one of the secret branches the Glory Capital had nurtured.

Only Glory Capital's few trusted players had the opportunity to know about this guild, so the ordinary players had no idea.

Lu Li knew about them because a player called Nightedge had killed Azure Sea Breeze over and over with a few other players.

But of course, that happened in his previous life.

Even whilst they had a hostile relationship, Nightedge was one of the few people that Lu Li admired.

Gossip spread when Nightedge and Sorrowless had a falling out. As Lu Li paid some attention to what had happened, it seemed like he was getting on good terms with Sorrowless.

This effect worked better than Lu Li had anticipated. It was likely that Sorrowless didn't ask anyone too much about Nightedge, so he just waved Lu Li through. Lu Li could sense the ambushing Thieves slowly back away.

"My brother found a piece of equipment and he would like to give it to you. He told me to bring it over." Lu Li reached into his bag and pulled out a piece of equipment – he had killed so many players today, so he had an abundance of equipment.

"Are you his sibling?" Sorrowless' suspicions had mostly dissipated, but he couldn't help but ask a few questions.

"No, he only has sisters in his family; I'm his cousin. He calls me Blank Thief," Lu Li said. He found himself drawing closer to Sorrowless as he tried to give Sorrowless the equipment.

The gossip spoke of Sorrowless liking Nightedge's younger sister, but she unfortunately chose the Light Faction…

How could they get into a relationship if they were different genders? Keke, sorry that was a slip of the tongue, I meant if they were different factions.

In short, it was a very melodramatic and complex situation.

"I see, have you seen Darkness recently? Did she really run away from home?" Sorrowless now had complete trust. Someone who knew that Nightedge only had sisters was definitely a friend or a relative in real life.

"Hehe…" Lu Li retracted his hands and replaced the equipment with a shining dagger.

Gouge!

Backstab!

Ambush!

Shadowstrike!

Slit Throat!

He didn't get to use Cheap Shot. Despite the target being the president of Glory Capital, Lu Li didn't even get through a single rotation of his skills before he killed him.

A level 18 player, especially one that was light armored, was going to be vulnerable regardless of whether they were a president of anything.

Lu Li quickly picked up the equipment and cast Gale Steps to vanish before the group of Thieves approached.

The Great Thief

Chapter 223: Guardian Goddess (Part 2)

70 to 80 Thieves – Lu Li estimated that there probably were more who helplessly watched as Lu Li killed their Boss. They couldn't do anything to save him, even though they were only a dozen yards away.

Before the Priests learnt Mass Dispel, there was nothing they could to stop a Thief's Gale Steps.

The Thieves did try to rush towards him and surround him so that his movement was limited. They were trying to wait for the Stealth to run out and kill him when he appears.

But Lu Li's Detection Badge helped him in this situation as he weaved through the Thieves who were just running around and left the circle.

Lu Li: Pass a video around, Sorrowless is dead.

Lu Li's voice echoed in the noisy chatroom. His tone was calm, like he had just killed some ordinary monsters.

At this moment, everyone was preparing a defence outside of the Warsong Canyon. They expected to be able to hold this location for a little while.

The guild leaders also realised at this point that they didn't have that much commanding power. In the whole game, there were 10 million Light Faction players, but they could barely command 1 million.

Lu Li's voice was being transmitted through this mess of voices.

The chat room then quickly went quiet, not only in voice chat but also in text chat. Those that didn't hear him quickly looked through the chat logs.

Unexpectedly, the first person to respond didn't question the authenticity of Lu Li's claim. After all, he had just killed Blood Dagger not long ago. However, he was unable to accept Lu Li's indifference.

This was Sorrowless, someone who had spent so much effort in games but still lost.

How could he describe it; like he had just killed a chicken!

Hornet's Nest: Sorrowless is dead, haha. Sorrowless is dead!

Jade Flower Lover: The video, the video of him dying - quickly post it onto the forums.

Stellar Union Silver Radiant: Hahaha, it really happened, you really killed Sorrowless.

Lu Li: It was all thanks to your item. Otherwise I wouldn't even have had the opportunity.

Everyone in the chatroom then started talking at once; most of them were just repeated messages.

The Regional Channel also contained these same messages.

The video post also contained the same messages.

Sorrowless died!

It didn't actually mean anything that he died; dying in the Warsong Canyon didn't cost any EXP.

The equipment that he dropped wasn't anything good either.

It was just a level 15 Silver equipment that would cause an ordinary player to jump for joy but was not good enough for a top-level player.

But if someone said something like that, he definitely would be hated.

Because this was Sorrowless.

The Glory Capital God.

It's said that he had been playing games since he was 16 and after a decade of gaming, he was now a legend.

In the game he played, Death Maiden, he had a huge impact on players of both factions.

When the Evil Faction players who were furiously fighting in the war saw the World Announcement, they were dumbfounded. When they turned their heads, they saw him, looking over all the living things, standing where their leader was standing.

Now, this Meisnera fight and the Silvering Outpost destruction quests had both been sidelined.

This day would be written onto the history books.

The legend who had never been killed before had just died.

No one would remember that Sorrowless was only level 18 whilst Lu Li the bounty hunter was level 22. Nor would they care the method used involved tricking Sorrowless into letting his guard down.

But Lu Li didn't care about any of this. After he passed the video to Jade Flower Lover, he immediately went to the Meisnera Outpost.

Lu Li requested an invite. "Add me into the party."

"Didn't you go with Moonlight to PVP? Why did you come back to farm again?" Azure Sea Breeze was once again running his mouth.

"Looks like I won't need to take you to the Revenant Lands then," Lu Li grunted.

Azure Sea Breeze immediately changed his tune. "Sisters, everyone, welcome Lu Li into the party. Our rank 1 player, oh sorry, our former rank 1 player. The rank 1 position has been stolen away."

Lu Li checked the rankings. Although he hadn't fallen far behind, he was now outside of the top ten.

The first ten players were all level 23. Azure Sea Breeze and Lonesome Flower were rank four and six respectively. The first player was Blood Red War Flag's Not An Elementary Student whilst the second and third were players from Seventh Heaven.

Whilst Azure Sea Breeze and the group were farming the whole time, they just couldn't compare to those players who brought along several groups of mages for focused farming.

But now that Lu Li had gotten the materials, he could make a whole bunch of bombs. So the level rankings were not yet set in stone.

The party didn't just contain members from their group. Lu Li had also asked some Drizzle Court players to help them. There was Little Bear Huan Huan, Willow, and Don't Hit Dou Dou. Additionally, there was also Lin, Ling, and Beautiful Moonlight.

These were three Mages that Lu Li had worked with before. When Lu Li was helping Drizzle Court break the record for an Instance Dungeon, he did it with these players.

"How is the tactical situation?" Wandering asked.

"Not bad, we have the perfect number of players. How about we just go back to levelling here," Lu Li's hands were constantly moving, dealing with one Water Elemental after another.

"Has Sorrowless really been killed?" Sesame Rice Ball couldn't bear not to ask.

Lu Li paused before responding calmly, "Should be."

The Evil Faction players likely thought it was an undercover player who had assassinated Sorrowless. It could not have been a Light Faction player.

In the Light Faction, there was just news that Sorrowless had been killed, but there was no indication as to who did it. Hornet's Nest and the others were all backed by guilds with top players; none of them would be willing to advertise that a non-guild player did it.

Guilds usually put in a large amount of resources to create a super expert that would represent the guild. These experts would then help the guild build up more fame.

This kind of game has existed for many years and so it was an interest to countless people.

Even Swirling Left Eye and Staring Right Eye wouldn't reveal this secret, even though they hoped that Lu Li would run into some bad luck. They too were products of this system.

If they left the Imperial Secret Service, they would be left with nothing.

He didn't want to put himself on center stage, so naturally Lu Li must not have any opinion about it.

Before long, the system notified him that he had received 500,000 dollars.

Sorrowless was worth 200,000, Blood Dagger was worth 100,000 and the remaining 200,000 was probably money for him to stay quiet.

He was the one who should be called the legendary gamer because he made 500,000 in one day.

If he wasn't a person of ordinary status, he would have received the title of the game's first assassin.

Instead, Lu Li just farmed and chatted away freely with his friends.

Soon the news came that the Evil Faction troops had retreated. Glory Capital and its dependency's forces had all pulled back, leaving the other scattered players and the smaller guilds. These remaining players stood no chance in breaking the defence line.

There was also news that Sorrowless just revived in their base camp.

Someone who saw him said that his complexion was indifferent. He didn't have the breathless expression like someone who had just been completely destroyed.

Someone heard that…

This was Azeroth, a world of adventure. It was also a world full of hearsay.

System: The quest "Defend the Meisnera Outpost" is complete. EXP has been awarded. Equipment has been awarded. Glory has been awarded.

It wasn't much EXP, but it was enough to take Lu Li to level 23.

The equipment was a level 20 Silver Dagger. Its attributes were decent, but the effect was quite mediocre. It wasn't good enough to replace either one of Lu Li's exquisite daggers.

The Water Elements retreated and returned to the sea. High Disciple Anzelin of the Twillight Hammer was nowhere to be found.

The "Defend the Meisnera Outpost" was over but there were still two hours left in the day; Lu Li was physically and mentally exhausted. He logged off really early to get some rest, not even bothering to count the amount of Starwood he had in his mailbox.

The Great Thief

Chapter 224: Accidental Assistance

Seeing Buggy again made Lu Li feel a little introspective.

Ever since he experienced rebirth, he never thought to look for this person again. In his eyes, it didn't matter to him whether this person was alive or dead.

Buggy was wearing blue work overalls. It looked like he just got out as there was a ragtag band of young people following him.

The people around were avoiding the crowd. A few heavily armed security guards were carefully watching them.

Lu Li couldn't pretend like he didn't see them, so he walked over holding his sisters hand.

"Ah, Xin Xin, it's been a while - you've grown," Buggy was a very charming, mild mannered, and learned person. He even sounded more scholarly then Lu Li, though he hadn't actually read many books.

"Big bro Buggy," Lu Xin called out.

"If you dare touch her, I'll make you talk to her whilst lying on the ground," warned Lu Li.

Buggy, who had planned to touch Lu Xin's head, stiffened for a moment before retracting his hand.

"You aren't supposed to be here; you better leave," Lu Li added.

"Just because we are poor?" Buggy raised his brow; he didn't have a good temper.

"You aren't poor people, don't insult those who actually are poor. You guys are degenerates. Speak now if you want something; Xin Xin's class is about to start," Lu Li was being impatient but he also felt like he was speaking the truth.

"I'm here to thank you," Buggy said as he remembered the purpose of his visit; he appeared weaker.

Lu Li shook his head. "There's no need. I had hoped you would die in jail. If there isn't anything else, I'll be going. You go do your thing; don't look for me or contact Xin Xin again. Otherwise…"

"Didn't you say we are brothers?" Buggy asked while tilting his head.

When he tilted his head, his initially calm look turned stubborn. He was just like his father; Lu Li heard that Buggy's father had been killed because of this same provocativeness.

"I'll acknowledge that we are brothers when you die," Lu Li didn't want to say anymore as he pulled his sister away.

The atmosphere was tense, mostly because Lu Li's words were just too blunt.

Lu Xin didn't dare to say anything either, though she had always felt like Big Bro Buggy was always good to her.

But, she also knew that her brother didn't like Big Bro Buggy. If she talked to him too much, her brother would get angry and he would sometimes hit Big Bro Buggy.

He would actually hit him too with enough force to draw blood.

"Is it not enough that I was wrong?" Buggy called out.

Lu Li's lips twitched but he didn't turn his back.

"I'm here to borrow some money for my underlings," Buggy was getting anxious. His group of followers were following behind him, and the scene was quite spectacular.

A police car drew near and stopped by the road. The window then rolled down to reveal the faces of two policemen.

"I don't owe you any money," Lu Li responded.

"Brother…" Lu Xin was being pulled by her brother but she kept trying to turn back.

She actually knew most of these people. She had grown up with Buggy in Aunty Niu's house and these people were mostly the kids from the area.

They were all children stricken by poverty.

Some of them were the same age or younger than Lu Xin.

"What do you want to do?" Lu Li asked helplessly as he stopped walking.

His sister had a soft heart, but when he looked at his sister, his heart was even softer.

He was going to send her to school before coming back to work something out.

"I don't intend to integrate into society; I want to start a studio – a game studio," Buggy said in an upright posture.

"Will they rely on you?" Lu Li made no attempt to disguise his contempt.

"Yes, these guys are all with me and I can't let them go hungry. Lend me some money and I'll pay it back after some time." Buggy's face went red; he had previously refused to beg no matter what.

Lu Li was silent. He didn't want to do it, but seeing this person had troubled his heart.

But he had to admit that if this was really his plan and Aunty Niu knew about it from the afterlife, she would finally be able to rest peacefully.

"How much do you need?"

"I've already done the research. I need to rent out a small warehouse and each helmet will cost 3000. We have 59 people so I'll need to borrow 250,000…" It looked like Buggy had already thought about this beforehand.

"What else have you researched?" sneered Lu Li.

"I've also researched that you are doing really well in your current game; you're the number 1 expert," Buggy had a weird look on his face. Previously he had always held Lu Li in contempt, thinking that he was useless.

But, he didn't think he was that much different from Lu Li either. Seeing that Lu Li was doing so well, he thought that he wouldn't do too badly if he brought his own crew.

"Do you think the game will be easy?" Lu Li knew him all too well.

"At least we'll be able to feed ourselves," Buggy said firmly as he looked around at his subordinates.

"Brother Lu, please help us out. We'll work hard on earning gold and make enough to return it to you," assured Blacky, who was standing behind Buggy.

"Big bro, how about we just lend him the money first," Lu Xin softly spoke into Lu Li's ear. "If he can make money, then he'll stop doing bad things.

"This has nothing to do with you," Lu Li gently glared at his sister for a moment.

"You can set a deadline and if I don't return the money then you can report me to the police and send me to jail," said Buggy.

"I can lend you the money," Lu Li said after some thinking, "But I have a condition."

"Tell us, I will do anything," Buggy responded as he patted his chest.

"You can do whatever you want in game, but when the time comes, I will need you to unconditionally do what I tell you without any questions."

Buggy's complexion turned a little dark, he knit his eyebrow and asked, "What kind of things?"

"Haha, if you want to continue to have the same kind of authority as a gang leader, I recommend you get out now, Buggy. I, Lu Li, don't owe you anything," said Lu Li coldly.

"I'll… think about it…" Buggy said with astonishment.

"Why should I give you time to consider it? Buggy, everyone has to pay for what they've done. Especially for us who have come out of the Common District, none of us believe that there is such a thing as a free meal."

Lu Li hadn't actually thought about anything for them to do; he just didn't want to let him borrow the money so easily.

He was already riddled with debt. If it weren't for his mother, then Lu Li wouldn't have cared about his attempt at redemption. What did it have to do with him?

Moreover, Lu Li didn't want to be too ruthless in front of his sister.

Buggy looked like a deflated ball as he smiled bitterly. "You're right, Lu Li. I was the one who taught you that truth, and it seems I have forgotten it."

"If you agree, leave an account number and I'll send the money," Lu Li said as he held his sister's hand. "And don't approach Xin Xin again. If I find out that you've contacted Xin Xin, all our agreements are void.

"Lu Li…" Buggy gave Lu Li his account number and wanted to say something else, but he hesitated. He finally waved his hand and left with the group of people.

He knew that Lu Li cared about Lu Xin, but he didn't know that he cared so much.

Many years ago, he had cracked a joke. But he didn't realize that Lu Li would hate him for so many years because of it.

He couldn't even remember how long ago it was but it must have been more than 10 years ago. One day he had ripped some money off their neighbor and bought some candy.

"Xin Xin, if you like the candy so much, you can marry Big Bro Buggy and I'll buy it for you every day."

Xin Xin was focused on eating the candy, and before she could even say anything, Lu Li had already dragged off poor Buggy by the hair. They fought and from that day on they would look for any reason to fight each other.

After the incident with Aunty Niu, the two grew even further apart.

Buggy didn't even dare to look at Lu Xin. When he encountered her, he would just turn and walk away.

It would be a disaster if Lu Li saw him.

But it was clearly just a joke - Buggy wasn't a pedophile.