Rebirth of the Thief Who Roamed the World

Jebiah the Great was a wizened old man with a hale and hearty complexion. Donned in silver-white robes, he appeared all the more dignified. He was, as were the other six elders, in their late 60s and early 70s.

Nie Yan’s gaze fell on an elder with a hook-shaped nose and sharp, hawk-like eyes. This shifty looking fellow was precisely Elder Redman, who was widely known among players in the previous timeline albeit not for anything good.

Karsi placed his hand over his chest and bowed. “I pay my respects, Jebiah the Great.”

“Karsi.” Jebiah the Great nodded with a faint smile. “What brings you here, my old friend?”

“I’ve come here bearing bad news. Necromancer Vorderman has revived again. He already started raising his undead army in the east of Hiderlocke. If we don’t stop him now, a disaster will befall our entire empire.”

Karsi turned to Nie Yan and had him report his findings.

After listening to Nie Yan’s words, Jebiah the Great sank into deep thought.

Nie Yan gazed at this legendary figure in front of him. Jebiah the Great rarely ever revealed himself to the public eye. Even when Vorderman’s undead army threatened to engulf the Viridian and Satreen Empires in the previous timeline, he never made an appearance. However, at that time, there was never a need for him to take action. The temple’s Paladin Legion and several legendary NPCs were enough to control the situation.

Nie Yan started contemplating. Qin Han was basically digging his own grave. The Vengeance of the Undead was only a small expansion. Even if it propelled him to the forefront for a short period of time, it would be impossible for him to destroy the Viridian and Satreen Empires. Just what was he scheming? If he were in Qin Han’s shoes, he would preserve his own strength. Then in a kamikaze style attack, he would lead the skeleton army into wiping out Asskickers United. Neither side would come out the victor, as both sides would’ve lost everything. Like this, even if he deleted his account and restarted from scratch, it would be worth it.

If this really was Qin Han’s plan, that was all the more reason Nie Yan couldn’t allow him to succeed.

“I sensed a powerful darkness energy to the east of Hilderlocke when I was making a prophecy. That’s why I went over there to investigate,” Nie Yan said, taking the opportunity to mention his Great Prophecy skill.

“Prophecy?” Jebiah the Great finally took notice of Nie Yan’s Grand Scholar title.

“You said you discovered Necromancer Vorderman in Hilderlocke. Do you have any evidence to back up your claims?” Elder Redwin asked. He was trying to cast doubt on Nie Yan.

This hateful old coot! Nie Yan cursed Elder Redwin in his heart. However, his expression didn’t change. He took out the evidence he collected in the Brocchi Stronghold, including the necklace. These items all radiated a powerful dark energy.

“These items indeed link to Necromancer Vorderman, but they don’t proof anything. You can just as well be spouting nonsense for a moment of fame,” Elder Redwin said. He clearly had it out for Nie Yan since the moment he showed up outside the Elder Council.

Nie Yan knitted his brows. There were many unlikeable NPCs in Conviction. However, Elder Redwin definitely stood at the top!

If Nie Yan’s status were high enough, he could completely disregard these hateful NPCs.

Everyone stared at Jebiah the Great, awaiting his decision.

Jebiah the Great pondered for a moment, then said, “Nirvana Flame, thank you for bringing this information to our attention. You should go back first. We’ll look over the matter, and only then make a decision.”

Nie Yan nodded. He expected as much from these NPCs. This was only him giving a warning. Later on, when the Vengeance of the Undead event truly began, they would think back to his words.

“Then I’ll be taking my leave. May the glory of light eternally be with you, Jebiah the Great.” Nie Yan bowed, then turned around and left.

Leaving the hall, Nie Yan happened to catch a glimpse of Elder Redwin’s mocking smile.

Nie Yan’s heart sank.

Karsi also bid farewell to the elders, then followed Nie Yan out.

“Don’t be discouraged. Jebiah the Great will seriously look over this matter,” Karsi comforted.

Seeing Karsi’s warm smile, this was the first time Nie Yan felt like an NPC was alive. However, there was still a big difference between NPCs and players. Unlike players who could speak freely, their dialogue always followed along a certain script.

“Thank you.” Nie Yan nodded.

After bidding farewell to Nie Yan, Karsi headed back to the Temple of Light. Seeing Karsi’s back disappear behind the corner of a street, Nie Yan couldn’t help but anticipate the day when he could have this legendary Holy Magister serve at his side as a servant.

Too bad this wasn’t possible for the time being. Nie Yan estimated he would have to wait until Asskickers United had at least 50 or 60 Master Class players to make this dream a reality.

Nie Yan headed to his personal storage. It was about time to do some spring cleaning, and he needed to make his move as well.

「Guo Huai, assemble all the flying mounts for me,」Nie Yan said. Most of the new flying mounts in Asskickers United had already recovered from their injuries by now. It was time to feed them Life Cores and raise their ranks.

Nie Yan tidied up his personal storage until he eventually received word from Guo Huai that the flying mounts were all gathered in the square in front of the guild headquarters. Putting the Life Cores in his bag, he headed for the Cripps Stronghold.

Outside the guild headquarters was a sealed off training ground. It had room for 6,000 players. At this moment, there were 200 players gathered here. Half of them were flying mount riders while the rest were just here to see what was going on.

Seeing Nie Yan walking over, everyone came up to greet him.

“Boss!”

“Hello, Boss!”

…

Nie Yan nodded back.

They were all wondering why Nie Yan had called them here. Did he have some sort of task for them?

“Summon your flying mounts,” Nie Yan said.

After hearing Nie Yan’s order, the players spread out and summoned their flying mounts.

More than 100 flying mounts instantly emerged on the training ground. The onlookers gasped as their hearts trembled in shock. This was Asskickers United’s air force! Although it couldn’t compare to Angel Corps—after all, the other side had a head-start—it was still quite formidable.

Nie Yan started distributing Life Cores to the riders based on the element of their flying mounts.

“L-life Cores? Boss, just where did you get all these?” a player asked in shock.

Everyone stared at Nie Yan, eager to hear the answer.

“I got them while I was doing my class advancement quest in the Ancient World,” Nie Yan replied. This information was no secret. Even if other guilds knew he had obtained Life Cores in the Ancient World, there was no way they could assemble an expedition team and set out there. So, he didn’t see any harm in revealing the origin of these Life Cores.

Each rider received six Life Cores. Everyone was a bit dazed. This was their first time seeing so many Life Cores.

Nie Yan glanced at his bag. These Life Cores were only the tip of the iceberg, not to mention they were all Rank 4 or lower. The Rank 5 and 6 ones were still all there. He planned to hand them out when there were more high rank flying mounts in the future. For now, these low ranked ones would do, and he still had more than a thousand of them even after giving away so many.

“Don’t feed your flying mounts everything at once. That way they won’t take too long sleeping digesting it,” Nie Yan advised.

“Understood!”

The riders started feeding their flying mounts. They chose the lowest rank Life Cores first, feeding them one at a time.

Nie Yan also fed the Darkwing Dragon a few low rank Life Cores. He didn’t dare to feed it the Sable Dragon Cores for the time being since the energy inside them was too great. If it couldn’t digest them immediately, it would fall asleep and enter a dormant state, during which the Darkwing Dragon would be completely out of commision.

Nie Yan received a report from the Hundred Thieves. He had sent them over to Hilderlocke to monitor the progress of the Vengeance of the Undead event.

The undead were multiplying at a shocking rate. At present, Qin Han had at least 160,000 skeletons. An army of this size was already extremely frightening. If it was allowed to run rampant, things would spin out of control.

What left Nie Yan feeling a bit depressed was that Xie Yao and all of them were currently in the middle of their class advancement quests. He had some of the strongest players in the game on his side, yet none of them could help him right now. If only he could go to Hilderlocke with them to grind skeletons and put a halt to Qin Han’s wicked plans…

Thinking about how he would be facing an endless horde of skeletons in the future, Nie Yan felt his scalp go numb. “Just what can I do to deal with those skeletons?”

Nie Yan racked his brains. He really was out of ideas. He could only have the artisans in his guild prepare some Light-types scrolls, accessories, potions, and other items. Light was the bane of all undead. He suddenly recalled he could still recruit 30 Paladins from the Temple of Light for his own personal use. The Paladins there were all fairly powerful; 30 could already be considered a formidable force, especially when it came to taking care of monsters like skeletons. The light element dealt 200% damage to undead.

These things were far from enough to deal with the skeleton army though. Nie Yan could only slowly think of more ways later on.

Nie Yan headed for the Temple of Light. He planned to see just what kind of Paladins he could recruit. On the way there, he received a message from Tang Yao.

「I finished my class advancement.」

Nie Yan blanked for a moment before his face lit up with joy.「You’re a Magister now?」

「Yeah!」Tang Yao nodded.

Nie Yan didn’t expect Tang Yao to finish his class advancement so quickly. He had come out much earlier than the others. It appeared his quest went pretty smoothly.

「That’s amazing news!」Nie Yan excitedly said. The addition of a Magister would greatly help them in dealing with the skeleton army.

Nie Yan recalled no Master Class players had appeared yet when the Vengeance of the Undead event happened in the previous timeline. Back then, even the highest level players were only around Level 80–90. This was why the Level 100 skeletons had seemed near impossible to deal with.

“Maybe we won’t have to rely on the NPCs after all! If we can get a few more Magisters, we’ll have nothing to be afraid of!”