Rebirth of the Thief Who Roamed the World

Nie Yan had to admit. Like many other players, he was extremely greedy, particularly when equipment was involved.

Even the slightest possibility of top-quality equipment emerging was more than enough to make countless players go frantic.

However, he wasn’t a person without rationale!

With the Fate Dice, he had been both lucky and unlucky. Despite losing ten Strength, he also obtained astonishing benefits—Undead Rite and Pandora’s Box. Considering the events since then, the usefulness of the former spoke for itself. As for the latter, it possessed the overpowered abilities of influencing luck and raising the grade of an item. As such, he was entirely content with disregarding the loss he suffered.

Nonetheless, that didn’t necessarily mean he was willing to repeat such a gamble.

If, instead of him, an irrational person were to arrive here, they would definitely be blinded by greed and open these coffins without much consideration.

On the off-chance a Vampire Prince emerged, no matter how strong the player was, would they be able to run? Of course not! Such a high-level entity would never allow its prey to escape. Therefore, their situation would be tantamount to a death sentence!

From Nie Yan’s perspective, the consequences of dying weren’t something he could brush off. Not only would he fail to retrieve the Chapter of Freedom, he would lose the Chapter of Courage as well.

He might be greedy, but he also understood his limits and only sought things that were achievable with his ability. As for opportunities that led to outcomes outside of his control, he felt better off forgoing them. After experiencing it once, he no longer wished to tangle with the fickle hands of fate.

He walked past the coffins and passed through a corridor sandwiched by iron bars. When he encountered a region with too many monsters, he patiently hid in a corner until the Crawler Ring and Silk Spinner Ring’s abilities were off cooldown before climbing over from a relatively high and hard-to-reach location.

Furthermore, as he grew more accustomed to the Crawler Ring’s ability, he became even more proficient in using it in conjunction with the Silk Spinner Ring. Now, he was able to cross over most obstacles effortlessly.

Without the Silk Spinner Ring, a player who possessed the Crawler Ring, upon arriving here, would have no choice but to turn back lest they be killed in one of these passageways.

After using the Crawler Ring to cross over a mob of Vampires, he carefully scanned the passageway below. Completely empty… I should be safe. He deactivated the Crawler Ring’s ability after which he dropped down from the ceiling and gently landed on the ground, not making a single sound in the process.

However, just as he was about to make his way forward, the sound of a spell being cast, originating from a pile of crates, arrived in his ears.

He spun around in search of the caster and noticed a pale-faced figure with a sinister appearance, condensing a dazzling sphere of lightning in its hands.

Wandering Mage: Level 23

Health 820/820

Many players often underestimated these Wandering Mages because of their low health, but Nie Yan knew better than anyone just how terrifying these monsters were. With their formidable magic power, they were easily capable of emptying his health pool in only two spells. Fortunately, the cast times for their magic was relatively long.

Perhaps he would be able to throw off this Wandering Mage if he ran now. However, there was a good chance that he might alert the monsters up ahead, sinking himself into an even more dangerous situation. As such, the best course of action was to deal with this problem while it was still within his control.

After it finished casting the spell, the crackling sphere of lightning shot towards him.

Nie Yan rapidly retreated. Just as this lightning ball was about to hit him, he rolled to the side and narrowly avoided it.

The ball of lightning whizzed past him, striking the wall, and exploded into a shower of sparks.

After regaining his balance, he retrieved the Crossbow of Blood and fired at the Wandering Mage.

「Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!」Three crossbow bolts streaked through the air and struck their target.

−15

−15

−15

Sadly, if not for the on-hit true damage effect applied to the bolts, he wouldn’t have even made a dent in the Wandering Mage’s health bar. This was also one of the reasons why Thieves only used crossbows to draw aggro instead of farming mobs; they simply dealt too little damage. While it was entirely possible for a Thief to take advantage of terrain exploits to kill high-level mobs, if any player believed one was able to kite a high-level monster to death, they would be a complete idiot.

Nie Yan had no hope of killing the Wandering Mage with his crossbow. The time he spent between shooting and evading was long enough for its natural health recovery to nullify a significant portion of the damage he dealt.

Since that was the case, just how much time would he waste before finally killing it?

However, during that exchange, he was able to figure out the cast time for his opponent’s spell. He promptly put away his crossbow and dashed toward the Wandering Mage with a dagger in each hand. As he closed in on his opponent, he raised one of his daggers and bashed the pommel on the Wandering Mage’s head even though he was unable to stun it.

Undead monsters were highly resistant, if not completely immune, to stuns. For a profession that relied on such effects, this was an extremely depressing problem. It meant that he was unable to interrupt the Wandering Mage while it was channeling its spell.

Unleashing a flurry of attacks, a string of damage values rose above his enemy’s head.

−63, −67, −65…

Despite the gap in levels, the damage was quite decent.

He struck the Wandering Mage with Assassinate followed by Vital Strike. Although it didn’t really have any vital areas to speak of, since it was undead, the damage scaling on the skill was better than a normal attack.

As it was nearly finished channeling its spell, he hastily pulled back. After all, if he was too close, he wouldn’t be able to dodge.

Finally, the Wandering Mage shot a ball of lightning at Nie Yan, who promptly dodged to get out of the way, taking cover behind a pile of crates. An explosion echoed out as the spell smashed into the crates, sending them flying everywhere.

In that instant, without missing a beat, he leaped out unscathed and resumed his assault.

Even though this method was quite tedious, after five minutes, he was able to whittle his opponent’s health away until it finally died.

Seeing the Wandering Mage collapse on the floor, Nie Yan breathed out a sigh of relief. With his current stats, although he was able to kill monsters much higher level than him, the process of doing so was truly exhausting. Spending so much time to kill a single monster was simply too inefficient. Bending down to pick up the items that dropped, he was surprised to discover a recipe.

Junior Magic Resonance Potion Recipe

Requirements: Junior Alchemist

Properties: Magic Power +20

Materials: Rosegem Grass, Powdered Cow Horn, Neutralizing Agent, Sulfur

His luck was surprisingly good. He actually found such a valuable drop. Even though Bird wasn’t able to make use of it for now, he would be advancing to a Junior Alchemist pretty soon. The value of this recipe in the present day market was extremely terrifying—at the very least, selling for one gold.

Rosegem Grass was not at all expensive while the three other materials could be purchased from NPC shops. With regards to the current level of the playerbase, a potion that increased Magic Power by twenty was too frightening. Naturally, if the average player was over Level 20, they wouldn’t think much of these potions since they were drops from Level 25 maps. Furthermore, Level 0–30 Junior Alchemist concoctions had no level requirements.

He stored the recipe away in his bag and proceeded on with his journey through the tomb. Since all of the monsters here greatly exceeded his level, he had a tough time dealing with even the most ordinary of mobs. Henceforth, he took even more care with every step he took forward, spending a significant amount of time.

In the end, he spent nearly two days exploring the interior of the tomb before finally reaching its core.

For the purpose of retrieving the Chapter of Freedom, let alone two days, he was willing to spend any amount of time on it as long he succeeded!

Nie Yan sat on top of a tall pillar as he observed an enormous plaza below. Occasionally, he would spot squadrons of Vampires making round patrols. The existence which they were guarding lay at the very center of this plaza—a huge crystal coffin, the final resting place of Necromancer Abraham.

Legends told that Abraham was sealed there eternally, never to awaken again.

Guarding by his side were two of his descendants, both of which were Level 25 Lord-class monsters.

Not far from the coffin was a stone platform, and placed on top of it was the Chapter of Freedom.

Currently, he was thinking of ways to evade the eyes and ears of the patrolling Vampires.

「Where are you right now?」Suddenly Nie Yan received a message from Sleepy Fox.

「I’m outside of the city, levelling. What’s up?」

「We finally beat Sosil Valley. Of course, we only did it on Easy and Normal. Are you interested in joining us?」Sleepy Fox asked. He was hoping Nie Yan would guide them through Sosil Valley on Specialist.

「I’m busy right now, and besides, I don’t really need anything there,」Nie Yan responded. Although the drops from the dungeon were pretty good, in comparison to the Chapter of Freedom, they weren’t even worth mentioning. With two chapters from the Book of Order, he would never have to worry about his gear not being good enough. Therefore, there was nothing inside Sosil Valley that was capable of attracting his interest.

Sleepy Fox let out an awkward laugh. Just one sentence from Nie Yan had shattered his hopes. Did Nie Yan really have no interest in beating Sosil Valley on Specialist? Could he have already beaten the dungeon with another team? His background really was too mysterious.

Nie Yan thought for a moment and said,「I heard the game’s official website should be announcing a new dungeon tomorrow. Go take a look, the drops there should be beneficial to your team. You guys should also prepare for the Level 10 dungeons. Since the devs have finished working out most of the kinks in the game, they should be releasing a new dungeon every two or three days. That’s why these low-level dungeons don’t really interest me.」Since he already had a set of good equipment, he didn’t mind passing on the current dungeons. Only those who needed to improve their gear would be forced to run dungeons several times over in search of better equipment.

「Also, I heard a new potion shop opened in the eastern slums of Calore. Apparently, they’re selling Black Phenol. Do you know who the owner is?」Sleepy Fox probed. He suspected Nie Yan was the owner of this shop. It was when he recalled Nie Yan selling him so many bottles of Black Phenol at once that he started to connect the dots. Even if this shop wasn’t Nie Yan’s, he was definitely connected to it in one way or another. That shop still hadn’t sold out of Black Phenol, seemingly possessing an endless supply. If there wasn’t a formidable power behind it, how was it possible to run such a large business operation?

「I do, it was opened by one of my friends. Unfortunately, he isn’t fond of being in the spotlight, so that’s all I can say,」Nie Yan answered after thinking for a while. It was better to keep some matters hidden.

「Ah, so it was like this… Oh, I almost forgot, you’re still busy levelling, right? I shouldn’t disturb you any longer then. Let’s talk some other time.」

「Thanks, I’ll see you later.」Sleepy Fox’s call had suddenly reminded him of a certain matter. Since he was so busy dealing with monsters these past two days, which constantly left him on-edge, he had completely forgotten to check up on his shop. Since he was mainly focused on retrieving the Chapter of Freedom, it would be a while before he would be able to return to the city. However, he recalled that there was a section in the chat that automatically posted news from it. He had never opened one in his previous life, so he hadn’t developed the habit of monitoring its progress.

He searched around a bit before finding the shop notice window. When he opened it, a large row of messages covered his vision and left him in a momentary daze.

「02:39 (Notice): Starry Night Potion Shop has sold Black Phenol Recipe for 30 silver.」

「02:40 (Notice): Starry Night Potion Shop has sold Black Phenol x12 for 7 silver, 20 copper.」

「02:40 (Notice): Starry Night Potion Shop has sold Black Phenol Recipe x1 for 30 silver.」

「02:41 (Notice): Starry Night Potion Shop has sold Black Phenol Recipe x1 for 30 silver.」