The Great Thief

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.