Rebirth of the Thief Who Roamed the World

Upon seeing Nie Yan, Bird promptly came over to greet him. He wore silvery-white Alchemist robes with an ornate design on the collar–a golden redbud beneath a silver feather. This special symbol was the mark of an Intermediate Alchemist.

“Boss, you’ve come!” Bird said with pleasant surprise.

“You’ve been promoted to an Intermediate Alchemist?” Nie Yan was slightly surprised as well. Bird had plenty to do every day just managing the Starry Night Potion Shop, but he somehow still found the time to raise his Alchemy skill to become an Intermediate Alchemist.

“My Intermediate Alchemist proficiency is already at half. In the entire shop, only three people are at a higher proficiency than me,” Bird proudly reported. Considering he had less time to practice than the dedicated Alchemists in the shop, not falling behind the pack was already a remarkable achievement.

The Alchemy King had finally begun to rise. Maybe he would give Nie Yan a nice surprise in the future.

“Business seems to be booming,” Nie Yan commented as he looked upon the hundreds of players crowding the Starry Night Potion Shop.

“Potion sales have been especially high these past few days, netting 300 gold in profits daily. Additionally, we have provided over 600 gold’s worth of potions to Asskickers United. Our three branches in Calore have also begun to earn over a hundred gold each day. According to your instructions, we’ve also begun opening thirty-two Starry Night Potion Shop branches in six other cities. After we contacted the local bosses of those cities, they all agreed to not disrupt our business for now. We’ve already started recruiting Alchemists, but those branches won’t be bringing in profits for quite some time.” Bird diligently reported on the profits and expansions of the store.

Nie Yan nodded and praised, “Very good!” He was extremely satisfied with Bird’s work managing the store.

“You’ve given me so much, Boss, so I naturally have to produce good results,” Bird replied seriously. Solely due to Nie Yan’s benevolence, he had completely reversed his previous situation. The complete turnaround from being cast out from Dark Hero as a failed Apprentice Alchemist to his current position as both an Intermediate Alchemist and the manager of the Starry Night Potion Shop caused Bird to feel deeply grateful towards Nie Yan. Just a few days ago, Dark Hero’s guild leader had come in person to invite him back to the guild, but Bird had unhesitantly refused his very generous offer. People should not forget their benefactors, after all.

“How many Intermediate Alchemists do we have now?” Nie Yan asked.

“We have eleven now. According to my best estimations, there are only sixteen Intermediate Alchemists in all of Calore, so we employ two-thirds of them,” Bird responded. Calore currently had both the highest number of players in the Viridian Empire and the most robust economy. Therefore, even from the perspective of the entire Viridian Empire, the Starry Night Potion Shop was still the undisputed leader of the potion industry. “Do you want to meet our Intermediate Alchemists? They’ve all been extremely curious about the secret backer behind the Starry Night Potion Shop.”

“Not right now,” Nie Yan answered. Nevertheless, he was impressed with how good Bird was at doing business. As long as Asskickers United kept gathering high-level recipes, the Starry Night Potion Shop would continue to grow. “When I have more time in the future, I’ll meet with them.”

“Alright then,” Bird nodded.

Having chatted for a bit, Nie Yan left the Starry Night Potion Shop. He withdrew another 200 gold from his share of the Union of Assassins’ profits and headed to Tasoyi Village, where he bought a thousand Basic Magic Bombs and some Smoke Powder. This time, they would grind Mechanical Golems in Everlasting City to their hearts desire.

「Damn! Undying Scoundrel just got a Killer’s Demonic Medallion! Why is my luck so bad?」Tang Yao sent a message to complain to Nie Yan. He had farmed Scaled Frogs for so long without one ever dropping, but Undying Scoundrel got one to drop almost immediately. How could Tang Yao not feel frustrated? It could even be said he was saltier than the Dead Sea!

「I think your kill count might not have been high enough. Undying Scoundrel killed over a hundred players.」Nie Yan was finally certain that the Killer’s Demonic Medallion required a red named player to have killed over a hundred players in order to drop. Of course, even then, luck still played a factor.

「If I had known that earlier, I would’ve just killed a few more dog bastards from Victorious Return!」Tang Yao sighed. Back when he unleashed a massacre outside the Black Flame Forest dungeon, his kill count had only been a little short of a hundred. Thinking back now, it was really such a pity.

「Share the properties of the Killer’s Demonic Medallion’ for me to look at.」Killer’s Demonic Medallions were different for each class. Because Undying Scoundrel was an Elementalist, his medallion should be for a Mage.

「Mhm.」Tang Yao grunted as he shared the properties of the medallion.

Killer’s Demonic Medallion (Special Item, Magic)

Rank: Junior (Kill 1000 players 2 Levels higher than you to upgrade to Intermediate.)

Description: Level up the Killer’s Demonic Medallion by killing players. The owner will suffer a curse that reduces defense.

Properties: Attack +20%, Defense -20%, Willpower +5, Ignore Level +3, Armour Pierce

Junior Elemental Blast: Fire an elemental missile that deals three times your Magic Power as damage. Cooldown: 10 minutes.

Junior Elemental Drain: Drains 60 mana per second from a single target, up to 50% of their maximum mana. Cooldown: 3 minutes.

Restrictions: Can only be used by the original owner. Automatically bound after being picked up. Cannot be traded or dropped. Can be destroyed.

The Killer’s Demonic Medallion would bind itself automatically, so only the player who got it to drop would be able to use it. Other players could only look on in envy. It counted as an accessory, and took up an accessory slot. This item was very good, and considered by many to be one of the absolute best.

「What a perverted item! Willpower +5 and Ignore Level +3, with an armour-piercing property that deals 120% damage to light armored enemies to boot! Such a pity.」Tang Yao was completely green with envy over this item.

A Thief’s Killer’s Demonic Medallion would be different from that of a Mage. Nie Yan looked at his own killcount. It’s more than enough. I’ll first go to a Scaled Frog spawn area to grab my own Killer’s Demonic Medallion, then.

「You can go with some guild members to kill some more Victorious Return players before you try again at getting a Killer’s Demonic Medallion. Killing some Victorious Return players is nothing to you anyways. We can’t let Unhindered off either. They ought to be slaughtered until they never dare to show their faces again.」After a bit of consideration, Nie Yan advised Tang Yao to go after this highly useful item. The boost to Ignore Level was especially important to him. If Tang Yao could equip more items with Ignore Level, they would be able to jump levels to fight more high-level monsters in the future.

「That works too. Anyways, Heaven Breaker shouldn’t even dream about passing my level anytime soon.」 To Tang Yao, the Killer’s Demonic Medallion was truly a great temptation.

「You be careful then. I’m also going to go grab myself a Killer’s Demonic Medallion.」

「Your kill count is high enough?」

「I killed over a 150 players in Kiln Fire Woods.」

「You sure are fierce. A shame I wasn’t there.」Tang Yao sadly complained.

Nie Yan laughed as he replied,「That was for safety. We still have to go do a quest.」He had been planning this operation, which required the use of both the Adjudicator of God and Steal skills to complete, for quite some time. Now that he had the Kiln Fire Heart, he had even more confidence. It was also a Legendary item fragment, but the Grimmar Soul set was even better. He couldn’t possibly let this opportunity go! As for the Silent Bay and the Ten Holy Paladins Legendary questline, those had to wait until he was a higher level. Trying to complete it now would just be suicide.

Nie Yan exited the city, heading towards the area where Scaled Frogs spawned. After a while, he got another message, this time from Sleepy Fox.

「Your move this time was massive! You sure are amazing, burying over twenty thousand Victorious Return players under Kiln Fire Woods,」Sleepy Fox exclaimed. He had expected Asskickers United to be suppressed because of Victorious Return’s absolute advantage. He hadn’t expected Nie Yan to find a Lava Titan from who-knows-where to completely massacre Victorious Return. It instantly flipped the situation, silencing Victorious Return and setting Asskickers United on track to grow even more prosperous with each passing day.

「It was just luck.」Nie Yan lightly chuckled.

「What are you saying? How could it just be luck? I really admire your ability, especially that part where you dove into that crowd of 600 players to kill Hei Zhuo. You displayed a godly level of skill!」Sleep Fox gave his heartfelt praise. He wasn’t trying to butter up Nie Yan. He sincerely believed what Nie Yan had accomplished in Kiln Fire Woods could be performed by no other.

「With all this flattery, it can’t be that you have some kind of hidden motive can it?」Nie Yan laughed. From his understanding, Sleepy Fox was an extremely cunning figure who would never visit a temple without a cause.1

Sleepy Fox blushed as he coughed to hide his embarrassment before continuing.「I came with good intentions to tell you about some news I got. Victorious Return and Radiant Sacred Flame have been making frequent movements lately. Their leaders are often in contact with each other, and there’s even hints of them being in contact with Angel Corps from the Satreen Empire. Do not look down on Victorious Return.」

Nie Yan, after hearing Sleepy Fox’s information, wrinkled his brows. He wasn’t worried about Angel Corps because the Satreen Empire was just too far from the Viridian Empire. It was simply impossible for them to mobilize a large-scale force here. Radiant Sacred Flame, on the other hand, was truly worrying because it was a major guild comparable to Victorious Return or Holy Empire.

「I contacted you today to talk of an alliance. If Victorious Return and Radiant Sacred Flame make a move, we can stand united, both advancing and retreating together.」Sleepy Fox finally brought up the real purpose behind his words.

Both advancing and retreating together, huh? Nie Yan’s cunning eyes gleamed as he questioned,「Could it be that you’re on bad terms with Victorious Return and Radiant Sacred Flame and are now trying to drag Asskickers United into the mess?」

Having been exposed, Sleepy Fox chuckled wryly and admitted,「Only a minor conflict. Asskickers United can’t just passively defend itself forever, right? I heard they’re going to open a small stronghold soon. Are you guys interested in it?」

Sleepy Fox had taken the initiative to contact Nie Yan about an alliance, showing that Holy Empire had begun to recognize Asskickers United’s strength.

After carefully considering for a bit, Nie Yan responded,「I agree that Holy Empire and Asskickers United should cooperate, but we need to flesh out the details of such an alliance.」

Although Asskickers United was on the rise, the guild was only a single entity. If it could find some trustworthy allies, not only would morale be boosted but their future development would also be smoother.

1. To “never visit a temple without a cause” is an idiom meaning to have a hidden motive. Instead of going to a temple to worship, one would go for some other, secular reason.