Rebirth of the Thief Who Roamed the World

At this moment, two crisp system sounds rang out.

You have discovered Kavana’s crystal coffin.

Quest Progress: Search for clues. Find out the cause of Kavana’s death.

Nie Yan examined the crystal coffin. It was tightly sealed. He was unsure of how he should proceed. If he tried opening the coffin by force, it’d surely trigger a chain of dangerous events. He absolutely wanted to avoid such a risk.

The Chapter of Justice hovered in right front of Nie Yan. It was but an arm’s length away, but he was helpless to retrieve it.

He considered the two system notifications. Find out the cause of death? What? Am I supposed to cut open the body and perform an autopsy…? It doesn’t matter. He shook his head. I’ll get the chapter now, then I’ll try to complete the quest if I can. If I can’t, then so be it.

Let’s see… There should be a special mechanism to open this thing. Nie Yan searched around for a bit, uncovering some inscriptions on the side of the coffin.

Nie Yan examined them. This was some sort of prayer!

Dear Sir Kavana, you have the tolerance and kindness of a saint. I hope you rest in peace… As I face the sea breeze of the Silent Gulf, I often think of you. If I had a choice, I wish I could’ve been born as an ordinary human girl instead. That way I wouldn’t have to stay here all by myself. I’d be able to die peacefully by your side. I’d no longer have to abide by my promise to you of staying in exile for several millennia… I ask that you forgive the sins of my clan. I hope that my people can receive redemption.

-Dragon Girl Venita

Nie Yan’s mind trembled as he read through the text. It mentioned a specific location, Silent Gulf!

If he wanted to uncover the truth behind Kavana’s death, that was the best place for him to look.

Nie Yan recalled a legend of the Silent Gulf he’d heard in his past life. It told of a mysterious girl, possessing an otherworldly beauty, who appeared once every ten days on an isle. She would stand near the reefs just before dawn, silently gazing at the horizon until the morning sun arose, whereupon she would quietly depart.

Many players had attempted to acquire a quest from her, but they would always return with nothing to show for their efforts.

After a while, most players gave up, and the girl’s background became an unsolvable mystery.

She had come to be known as Watcher Venita.

Logically speaking, even a dragon would gradually grow old after a thousand years. Yet according to the rumours from his past life, Venita still appeared as young and beautiful as ever.

Venita regularly appeared on the isle, even up until the time Nie Yan stopped playing. It seemed no one had completed the quest related to Kavana in his past life.

Well, considering it’s a Legendary quest line, I guess there’s a lot of connecting quests. I’ll probably have to unravel many mysteries to progress… Huh? Nie Yan was struck with inspiration as he read Venita’s appeal near the end of the text. In keeping with the highest etiquette among Paladins, he expressed his profound respect to Kavana’s corpse by placing his right hand over his chest.

Once Nie Yan completed the gesture, the top of the crystal coffin gradually melted away, and the Chapter of Justice gently floated up.

Success!

Pleasantly surprised, Nie Yan reached out to grab the Chapter of Justice. Its brilliant glow faded upon making contact with his hand.

At the same moment, Kavana’s corpse dissolved into countless specks of light which gently floated up toward the ceiling before finally fading away. Nie Yan could see Kavana’s spirit within the specks. He was shrouded in a divine radiance. A pair of angelic wings sprouted from his back as he disappeared into the light.

After everything was over, a silver-white object fell into the coffin.

It was the Medal of the Ten Holy Paladins!

Nie Yan stored the medal away in his bag. He didn’t bother examining the properties of the two items he had just obtained. Instead, he eyed the scroll clutched tightly in his hand.

“If at all possible, I really hope I won’t have to waste this Unknown Transfer Scroll…” Nie Yan muttered.

The central hall violently shook the moment he aired his thoughts.

“Dammit! Time to run!”

Without hesitation, Nie Yan sprinted toward the exit. He crushed a Haste Scroll and activated Shadow Dance, giving himself a sudden burst of speed. His figure flitted across the red-carpeted floor, leaving behind after-images, as he covered over thirty meters in a short period of time.

A moment later, a black transfer gate materialized beside the coffin, and a figure shrouded in darkness stepped out of the gate. It was an NPC in black armour. He was incomparably ugly. His skin was pale as ash, and inky tentacles sprouted from his skull. He was like an ancient fiend who had awakened from antiquity.

“Wretched fool, you dared to release the soul of Kavana!?” The black-armoured NPC’s voice seemed to come from the region of the damned, sinister and terrifying.

With a wave of his hand, a black aura fell over him, and he gained an explosive increase in speed. He sprung towards Nie Yan, like an arrow released from the bowstring.

The distance between both sides rapidly shrunk.

Nie Yan felt a piercing chill behind him. It seemed like a sinister, frightful aura of death was about to devour all of his strength.

Deterrence!

Nie Yan didn’t know if the skill would have any effect. In any case, it was worth a try.

The NPC only paused for a split-second. His speed didn’t decrease at all. He slashed down with his greatsword, sending a ghastly swordlight flying toward Nie Yan’s back.

Nie Yan shot out a web line from his Silk Spinner Ring which stuck to a nearby pillar. With a jerk of his hand, his body flung into the air, narrowly avoiding the NPC’s attack. He immediately activated the Crawler Ring’s ability and clung on to the pillar. He quickly skittered toward the ceiling like a spider, looking to escape outside.

The NPC arrived at the base of the pillar shortly after. Only then did Nie Yan get a chance to inspect the son of a bitch that was pursuing him this whole time.

Fallen Paladin Brewin (Elite): Level ?

Health: ?

It was Brewin of the Ten Holy Paladins! However, right now, he looked no different from a monster.

It seems the storyline for this quest is a lot more complicated than I thought…

As a Fallen Paladin, Brewin didn’t have many long-range skills, so he had no way of getting to Nie Yan. He gave a mighty swing of his greatsword.「Boom!」The pillar instantly collapsed.

Nie Yan could see web-like cracks spreading where the pillar connected to the ceiling. Chunks of rock began raining down.

Nie Yan felt something suddenly come loose. The section of the pillar he was on had collapsed. It looked like he was going to be crushed among the the falling rocks in the next moment. He leaped to the side, rolling to break his fall, and narrowly avoided being buried under a pile of rubble. He rushed out of the central hall.

Brewin caught up, then slashed down with his greatsword, sending a gigantic crescent wave of black energy flying toward him.

Nie Yan activated the Unknown Transfer Scroll.

In the next moment, he was engulfed by the surging wave of black energy.

However, as the attack sought to obliterate him, his figure completely vanished.

After activating the Unknown Transfer Scroll, Nie Yan didn’t know where he had been teleported to. He just knew there were several dozen Black Bears in the vicinity. He hastily activated Disappear, then began making his way out. When he found a relatively safe region, he took out a Return Scroll.

A bright radiance enveloped him twenty seconds later, and he was teleported back to Calore. As he recalled his brush with death just moments ago, a bead of cold sweat dripped down from his forehead. However, something worth rejoicing over was that he had obtained the Chapter of Justice. In addition, he had also gotten Kavana’s medal.

Nie Yan glanced at the nearby players walking around. Finally, he felt like he had returned to civilization.

Since he still hadn’t cleared his red name, all the players that had noticed him looked on with amazed expressions.

Nie Yan ignored these gazes as he made his way to his personal storage. While he walked, he examined the properties of the two items he had recently obtained.

Medal of the Ten Holy Paladins (Special Item)

Properties: Strength +20

Holy Descent: Grants 3 seconds of immunity to all magic. Movement Speed +20%. Increases the effects of all Holy Magic by 20%.

Cooldown: 2 days.

Restrictions: Righteous Guardian of Order

Nie Yan had believed that the Medal of the Ten Holy Paladins was only a quest item. He didn’t expect it to be an equipable accessory. It was a piece of Paladin equipment that bolstered the effects of all holy magic. However, anyone could equip it as long as they belonged to the Righteous Faction. Even though he didn’t have any holy magic, the other effects were pretty useful for PvP. Three seconds of immunity to magic would allow him to ignore all crowd control effects. When up against Mages, especially those who had many skills that could lock a player down, the first attack had to be a guaranteed kill. While not long, three seconds was more than enough for him to get close to his target. At his current movement speed, he could close a gap of nine meters in around three seconds, and that was excluding the effects of any speed buffs. Unless the opponent also had an escape skill of their own, they would surely die while he was immune to all magic.

Nie Yan shifted his focus to the Chapter of Justice.

-Chapter of Justice

Description: The first chapter of Volume I of the Book of Order. A fragment of a Legendary item. Whoever shall possess this chapter will receive the inheritance of the God of Light. Your mission is to spread the glory of light!

Properties: Receive 2 stat points and 1 mastery point every 5 levels. Focus +15, Willpower +15, Resilience +16, Jump +15, Reflex +15, Movement Speed +16.

Arrival of the Saint: Grants immunity to all debuffs. Increases the effects of all Holy Magic by 200%, and gain 30 Willpower for five minutes.

Cooldown: 10 days (1/10)

Holy Ray Shining: Transforms Holy Ray into a group-target skill, empowering damage by threefold, and increasing cast range to 3030 meters. Purifies all evil creatures.

Cooldown: 2 days (1/2)

Restrictions: Can only be bound by a member of the Righteous Guardian of Order.

Note: Item effects are applied immediately upon entering the player’s bag.