The Great Thief

When he first saw the old man, Sesame Rice Ball nearly started a fight.

An Undead!

The old man was incredibly skinny and a dark glow pulsated in both of his eyes; he was clearly an Undead.

The Undead mentioned here weren’t the same as the Undead who had been affected by the Plague and didn’t have their own conscious. The Undead here had their own consciousness; they followed the lead of Queen Sylvanas and referred to themselves as the ‘Forgotten Ones’.

”Who are you all? Why are you wandering around in the kingdom of the dead?” the old man asked with his hoarse voice. He spoke in the common tongue, a language that suited all races.

Sesame Rice Balls only came to notice that the old Undead was radiating a faint yellow glow that was almost unnoticeable. This meant that he was neutral, unlike the other Undead who were hostile units.

”We’re tired adventurers who want to pass through the Plaguelands and into the Scarlet Monastery,” Lu Li replied as he took a step forward besides the carriage.

”Scarlet Monastery...” The old Undead pondered for a while, then asked, ”What are your thoughts about the Scarlet Crusade?”

”After the passing of Sir Mograine, those manic Paladins have become crazed and extreme. I believe they’ve fallen,” Lu Li answered swiftly without hesitation.

A hideous smile crept across the Undead’s fleshless face as he swung the horsewhip in his hands. ”Come, adventurers. I’ll give you all a ride.”

Lu Li instructed the other two to climb with him into the carriage.

As the whip lashed out, the two horses moved their hooves and began their trot.

Lu Li had already messaged the other two, telling them not to say a single word. Even Hachi Chan was given strict instructions to remain silent.

After a while, this old and nameless Undead would be referred to as the ”Coachman of Plaguelands”. Some also referred to him as the ”Scavenger of Plaguelands”. Whether he killed or gave people free rides was entirely up to his own mood.

The few sentences that Lu Li had recited before were all based off guides. It had taken the death of countless players by his horsewhip in exchange for the right answer.

Although Hachi Chan was good with quests, she probably wouldn’t make it out alive either if she ran into an unreasonable, old Undead like this.

Although the two horses looked no different to average horses, they weren’t average horses at all. The land that they trotted past was all burnt black and they left their hoof prints wherever they went. The other level 40-50 monsters ran for their lives as soon as they saw the two horses; those who didn’t run fast enough were trampled to death.

Some claimed that the old Undead and his two horses were all Bosses. Their levels were also undetectable, so there was a good possibility that they come from an extraordinary background.

No matter what the truth was, this wasn’t a combination that Lu Li and his team would want to cross.

The carriage moved fast; it only took around a minute for them to arrive at Western Plaguelands.

The Western Plaguelands and Eastern Plaguelands were split apart by the Thondroril River. After they crossed the river, the environment around them changed significantly. Even though the land still looked dreary, at least it wasn’t as dead.

Not even the slightest bit of green could have been found in Eastern Plaguelands.

”The natural disasters have never stopped; I wonder how long the Western Plaguelands will last,” the old Undead sighed.

Even though the words of the old Undead sounded like the beginning of a quest, Lu Li kept his mouth shut. Hachi Chan and Sesame Rice Ball had been warned repeatedly, so they also remained silent as they stared at the old Undead in fright.

”These Jungle Lurkers… so nasty. Last time, the horses were snuck up by them while they were having a drink,” the old Undead cursed as he saw the spider that quickly dashed past and into the nearby bush.

Any other player would have most likely told the old Undead, ”I’ll gladly kill these monsters for you; just give me some rewards.”

Lu Li and his team didn’t budge a single bit; they squinted their eyes, as if they’d all fallen asleep.

The old Undead continued to ramble, not caring if anyone paid attention to him. After a few minutes, the carriage stopped at Dalson’s Farm. Lu Li handed the old Undead three gold coins and quickly left without saying any goodbyes.

”How rude.”

The yellow eyes of the old Undead flickered, as he continued his journey in his carriage and disappeared into the ghostly farm.

Any wandering spirits in the farm that touched him instantly turned into a shroud of mist.

These spirits were level 45 monsters!

The trip was originally going to be half an hour, but because of their free ride, the travel time had been shortened to five minutes.

Dalson’s Farm wasn’t so far away from Tirisfal Woodland, and there were also less monsters along the way.

Lu Li scouted ahead. Upon running into monsters that were unavoidable, he would turn into a panther and drag them away so that Sesame Rice Balls could walk ahead first. Hachi Chan was sometimes able to help too – at least she ran faster than a Warlock.

After their arrival at the Tirisfal Woodland, the environment changed again.

The shadow of the natural disaster was nowhere to be seen here. This was a forest – the Tirisfal Woodland that had no end.

The monsters here were only around level twenty and posed no threat to Lu Li and his team who were already level 29 and 30. However, they still couldn’t afford to let their guard down yet, because this was a location where many Horde players were active.

It was safe to say that the Tirisfal Woodland was the stronghold of the Undead race. The future main city of the Undead, Shadow City, which still had not been made open to the public, would be located in the Tirisfal Woodland someday.

Lu Li chose a discreet location for Sesame Rice Ball to open the gate.

Opening the gate referred to a summoning ritual of the Warlock. With the help of two team members, the Warlock could summon a gateway. Players who were in the same team as the Warlock would be able to teleport themselves to the Warlock through this gateway.

Azure Sea Breeze, Wandering...

One by one, team members stepped out from the gateway and arrived at Tirisfal Woodland.

”Wow, this is too amazing!” Azure Sea Breeze exclaimed in shock.

”Uncultured.” It was like a natural instinct for Wandering to look down on him.

”As if you’ve used it before,” Azure Sea Breeze retorted before turning his head to ask Lu Li, ”How were you guys so fast? I thought you said that the process takes forty to fifty minutes?”

”The travel time I mentioned was referring to the average travel time by foot. We met an NPC along the way who had his own carriage and gave us a lift,” Lu Li briefly explained.

Hachi Chan dragged along Remnant Dream, recounting the trip in detail as she described how scary the old Undead was. The silly girl was courageous; she seemed to take pride in strange adventurers like these.

Honestly, true horror would be watching the old Undead kill people.

With all ten of them together, they travelled towards the Scarlet Monastery as they followed the directions that the map suggested. Lu Li continued to scout ahead. He had watched out for monsters before, but this time, he was watching out for other players.

Because they were in the territory of the other faction, it was important that they kept their profiles low. If other big guilds found them, they would be more than happy to cause Lu Li some trouble, especially the few guilds that Lu Li had crossed a few days ago.

All ten of them had masks to cover their faces. They sneakily approached the Northeast section of the Tirisfal Woodland.

From a distance, they could already see the old building on top of the hill. That was their final designation – the Scarlet Monastery!

On their way up the hill, the battle was fierce.

With the advantage of land and numbers, the Horde players hunted down Alliance players who were on their way to the dungeon.

This time, there were no shortcuts. They could only fight their way up!