The Great Thief

When they got closer, they realised the island was covered in thick woodlands, just as the Gnome Princess had described. The dense trees made it difficult to see the beauty of the island from afar.

The subtle calls of monkeys could be heard as the sound was carried over by the sea breeze.

There were probably a lot of monkeys and gorillas on the island. There was also a giant ape that had a hobby of keeping Gnomes as his pet.

This was the Elite Boss of the island. Lu Li didn’t understand why it liked to keep Gnomes as pets, but he knew that the Monkey King wasn’t a normal monster because it was intelligent enough to have a hobby like that.

When they got even closer, monkeys could be seen jumping around on the beach. They appeared to be smashing seashells and eating the flesh on the inside.

Lu Li docked his boat at a safe and secluded part of the island. He specifically chose this spot so that it wouldn’t be discovered easily, and it would also be easier for him to escape if necessary.

As Lu Li stepped onto the soft beach, the first thing he notice were the countless crabs and lobsters on shore. They were all passive monsters and wouldn’t attack players unless provoked.

However, something made Lu Li’s heart sink.

These harmless passive monsters were as high as Lv40, meaning that the level of aggressive monsters on this island would be even higher. He felt uneasy because he was still only Lv37.

He had to be more careful and plan his escapes when the monsters were too strong.

The beach only occupied a small part of the island. The rest of the island was the perfect environment for large trees and plants due to the humidity. A distinct and thick, rotten smell wafted out from within the jungle.

The monsters that Lu Li had to watch out for the most were the Gorillas. These Silver Back Gorillas were mostly above Lv40.

The scary part was that these Gorillas tended to hunt in groups. When faced with danger, they had the ability to call out other Gorillas for reinforcement. Lu Li watched from a distance as a group of Gorillas took down a two-headed Core Hound.

Working together, the group of Gorillas made the Core Hound look like a small puppy.

After exploring for more than 10 minutes, Lu Li found the location of the Boss by looking at the levels of the monsters nearby. From afar, he saw a giant Gorilla sitting on a flat piece of land.

It was more than 3 meters tall with a dense body of oversized muscles.

Lu Li did not find the boss intimidating because it was doing something interesting.

In his hand was a bamboo woven basket which contained the Gnome princess inside. The Boss was whistling at the princess, trying to entertain her.

He was like an old man playing with his dog in the morning. It looked like he was trying to teach his pet tricks.

Lu Li felt disgusted at whoever designed this Boss to have such a disturbing fetish. Even though he was judging the giant Gorilla, he knew not to let his guard down because the Boss was at a much higher level than he was.

What could he do to steal away his precious pet?

The most direct way was to face him head-on and kill him. However, anyone would know how difficult it would be to deal with him – even his underlings were higher than Lv40. He had to be extremely powerful to be crowned as the king of the island.

Outsmarting him was unlikely as well. Lu Li couldn’t remember a short cut to rescuing the Gnome princess.

On this island, the Giant Gorilla had every advantage over Lu Li.

”Big boss, why are you so quiet? Did you get eaten by a monster?” Laugh Into the Heavens finally asked after holding in his question for so long.

”The Blue Haired Gorilla is an Elite Boss which is at least Lv45. I have a feeling that if he roars, all the monkeys on the island will come and protect him. There’re at least a couple of thousand monkeys on the island, maybe even ten thousand,” Lu Li sighed.

He thought that the quest would be easy.

”What are you going to do then?” A Lv45 Boss wasn’t impossible to defeat with a team, however, if the boss could summon underlings, it would make the fight much more difficult.

Send in the guild to clear the area?

That would take much too long. Besides, in Dawn, the monsters in the area near the boss had an increased spawn rate. This was to ensure that the difficulty of the boss wasn’t lowered.

Of course, this was all Lu Li’s speculation.

Lu Li observed the boss for a while longer and couldn’t find a way to complete this mission alone. As such, he decided to turn around for backup. On the way back, he found the a safer and faster route to the Boss and drew it on his map to show Laugh Into the Heavens.

”I’ll take you there. Wait for me to lure the Boss away, and you can go and save the princess. After that, follow this route back to the ship,” Lu Li said.

”That won’t do. I’ll lure the boss and you can go save her. I’m a Druid, so I run faster…” Laugh into the Heavens stopped and realised that Lu Li could transform like a Druid as well. ”If I die and lose some experience it’s fine. You’re number one on the rankings so it’s important that you don’t lose EXP.

Lu Li didn’t expect him to be this loyal. He thought about it but refused, ”I’ll go lure the boss – you might not be able to lure it away.”

Laugh Into the Heavens began tearing up. Was Lu Li saying that he wasn’t good enough?

However, this was the hard truth. If the Boss was Lv50, then even Lu Li wasn’t confident that he would be able to lure him away. Laugh into the Heavens was only a Lv30 Druid, so it would be even more difficult for him.

They left Hachi Chan behind to look after the ship as Lu Li led Laugh Into the Heavens along the safe route to where the Boss resided.

Along the way, Laugh Into the Heavens’ expression changed.

He did not realise how many monkeys and gorillas were on the island. If they all aggroed onto them, the results would be catastrophic.

”I’ve marked all the coordinates of the monsters on the map. When you rescue the princess, follow this road and you should be fine. Transform into Cat Form and let the Gnome Princess ride on your back. If you encounter any monsters, just ignore them and continue on.”

NPCs were able to ride on the back of Cat Form Druids, but other players could not.

Many people liked to invite Druids for escort missions. Usually, the escorted NPCs were beautiful girls, so the Druids would happily accept.

After everything was set up, Lu Li approached the Boss in Stealth mode.

The Boss appeared to not have an aggro range. When Lu Li was next to him, he was still whistling casually. Lu Li looked at his dagger and thought about slitting his throat with it.

He came across a small bead on the ground and picked it up without hesitating.

Usually, the loot around the Boss could only be picked up when the Boss was killed. However, this wasn’t the case this time and Lu Li picked up the bead without any restrictions.

The whistling stopped, and without making eye contact with the Boss, Lu Li immediately activated his speed boost skills and ran as fast as he could.

The Boss roared loudly and saw the little Thief that had stolen his precious jewel. It got up from its spot and jumped up high into the air, landing right behind Lu Li.