The Great Thief

”Even if we lose one or two First Clears it’s fine. Square Root 3 already said that we’re standing out too much; this isn’t a good thing.” Azure Sea Breeze was serious for once.

”Uhm... perhaps.” Lu Li didn’t disagree.

However, that didn’t mean he was going to stop himself and wait for the other big guilds to catch up. He never felt like he could afford to stop.

All of the First Clears were based on his reincarnation.

However, reincarnation didn’t make him invincible; Lu Li still had to maintain his distance with the others.

He pulled out the dungeon menu and searched the records for the Scarlet Graveyard over the past two days. Quite a few guilds had already formed a guide for this dungeon, and with a guide to help them, most teams were able to complete it.

Yesterday, the Xin Xin Mercenary Group had taken one and a half hours to pass the dungeon.

At the moment, the fastest clear time was held by Blood Red War Flat at 45 minutes. Second place was held by Glory Capital at 48 minutes, with teams after them taking more than 50 minutes.

This didn’t mean that these people were better than Lu Li and his team. Lu Li and his team had actually defeated the Graveyard Keeper and Bloodmage, while the others had only defeated the Bloodmage.

The system for dungeons in Dawn included two things – First Clears and records.

As their names suggested, the First Clear referred to the team that completed the dungeon first, while records referred to the shortest amount of time taken to complete the dungeon.

Taking a look at the previous dungeons where they had taken First Clears, apart from the Howling Caves, the records of the other dungeons had all been refreshed. Big guilds were always able to produce an effective guide after a few dungeon runs. Following this, they would try to send higher-level players into the dungeon and attempt to take the dungeon records.

It couldn’t be helped that dungeon records were being taken.

The current dungeon system was quite troublesome – it didn’t matter which mode you did the dungeon in, as long as it wasn’t Normal mode, there was only one opportunity each week.

Once you did Elite mode, you wouldn’t be able to attempt Difficult or Nightmare mode anymore.

This also meant that you wouldn’t be able to have both equipment and dungeon records. Lu Li definitely wouldn’t give up the profit from Difficult or Nightmare mode for the sake of something like a dungeon record.

Not to mention, dungeon records only showed up on the dungeon menu. Opening a particular dungeon menu meant that you would see the top 100 teams. As such, a record wasn’t as influential as a First Clear.

”Do we have to prepare anything this time?” Azure Sea Breeze asked.

The purchase of supplies was usually dependent on the decision of Lu Li, who was the commander. This includes potions, food, scrolls or even special equips.

”We’ll be attempting the Arsenal in the afternoon. Breeze, see if you can find defense scrolls in the auction. Keep a few spares for everyone; they’re very useful...”

Lu Li suddenly smacked himself on the head and quickly said, ”Never mind. I’ll go myself; there should still be enough time.”

Auction!

After he thought about it, an item flashed across Lu Li’s brain. He was eager to go to the auction to see if he could purchase it.

He took out the Shard of the Defiler from his bag and double checked it. He was definitely happy with the slot that came with the dagger.

Was it necessary for him to wait until level 40 to equip the weapon?

Under normal circumstances, that would be the case, but there were always exceptions.

The current situation was one of the exceptions. Because of the slot, Lu Li had a chance to be able to equip this level 40 dagger while he was still level 30.

The solution to this problem was a simple, little rock.

Level Requirement -x% Synthetic Stones like these were always popular. Lu Li had his hopes up when he walked into the Auction, but he soon came out disappointed.

Synthetic Stones already had a really low drop rate, and the type that Lu Li wanted was one of the rarest among them.

He bought some supplies along the way, including a few dozen scrolls that boosted physical defense for a short period of time.

These scrolls didn’t provide too much defense and were only effective against physical damages. The price was a few gold coins for one scroll, so in total, he had spent a few hundred dollars. Average players wouldn’t bother to spend money on these things.

”Help me find something, and purchase it straight away if the price isn’t too ridiculous,” Lu Li messaged Square Root 3, the manager of the guild.

”What are you looking for? It seems like something amazing.” Square Root 3 was a busy person, but he definitely wouldn’t ignore Lu Li’s requests, because he knew the significance of Lu Li to Ruling Sword.

What they were doing now would decide the heights that the guild would be able to reach.

”A Synthetic Stone that reduces the level requirement of an equipment.”

As Lu Li replied, he also began to head towards the Scarlet Monastery.

”Sounds rare.”

Square Root 3 searched for a bit, but he had no results either.

”It’s something that’s embedded into an equipment; it lowers the level requirement for an equipment. The jewelry-trading skills around our current level wouldn’t be able to produce these stones. Only rare monsters have a chance to drop them; you can try to contact mercenary groups,” Lu Li advised after some thought.

Although the Xin Xin Mercenary Group was also a mercenary group, they were very different from traditional mercenary groups.

The average mercenary group wouldn’t attempt to challenge dungeons – their main income came from helping others with their quests. Sometimes, they would sell equipment too.

There were always some people who enjoyed spending their time around battlegrounds. They hunted for weakened enemy faction players and were often able to obtain equips that were better than mainstream ones.

Of course, not everyone had the ability to do such things. Even if these higher-level characters were near death, they would still be able to easily kill a bunch of average players.

Square Root 3 got the message and began chatting up those who were familiar with the trade.

Lu Li arrived at the outer circle of the Scarlet Monastery and met up with his team members.

It wasn’t easy to take a trip back. Azure Sea Breeze and the others never went back to Grey Valley; they hid in a small Alliance camp at the back of the seashore.

Because the pathways were obstructed, it was a location that was yet to be discovered. Lu Li was able to give the coordinates based off his memory from his previous life. The camp fixed equips, had a mailbox and even sold food. Apart from the fact that it didn’t have a hotel, it was a fine location for people to camp in.

As such, Lu Li and the others managed to save a lot of travel time compared to other Alliance players.

As for Lu Li himself, he ran faster than anyone else on land and could also fly. It would only take around ten to twenty minutes of travel-time for him.

The outer area of the Scarlet Monastery had already settled down. After all, the battle had already continued for two days and many people had been losing experience and even dropping levels. Even with the guilds supporting them, they still couldn’t make up their losses.

However, it would be wrong to think that this peacefulness represented safety in the area.

Glory Capital, for example, would send out some elite PVP players to stay at certain locations. Their task was to hunt down core members of the enemy faction and slow down the others from passing the dungeon.

The team from Ruling Sword was the most important target. Not only did the Horde guilds target them, even the Alliance guilds received commands to target them as well.

Lu Li and the other had already received warnings about this from Square Root 3. They scouted carefully as they travelled, finding at least a dozen spots where Thieves and Druids were hiding.

”We’ll force our way in. Don’t worry about the Scarlet Paladins; kill anything that’s in the way.”

With a wave of Lu Li’s right hand, he charged in first with Moonlight.