The Great Thief

Balnazzar on Nightmare mode wasn’t easy at all, even for Xin Xin Mercenary Group after their increase in strength. The group was still wiped twice and most of the other teams in the dungeon were stuck in the same place.

Balnazzar didn’t drop exquisite weapons or rare mounts like Baron Rivendare either.

There were many who gave up and used the time to do other things such as leveling up, choosing to come back and do it later after their level increased.

“I’m going to loot. I probably forgot to wash my hands today; so unlucky,” Remnant Dream sighed bitterly. It was rare for her to be so unlucky. Not to mention, they have been taking First Clears so frequently that she had trouble readjusting to the drop rate of a regular dungeon.

To be fair, the other guilds weren’t even doing as well as they were.

In a large dungeon like Stratholme, the other guilds could only loot about two or three Dark Gold equips on Nightmare mode. On Difficult mode, they obtained almost no Dark Golds, while Elite mode only gave them Gold or Silver equipment.

This was why everyone fought desperately over wild bosses; they had an excellent drop rate.

“Hell’s Ghostclaw; what a cool name!” Remnant Dream exclaimed.

“It’s for Thieves; pass it to me,” Lu Li said, his heart pounding. He didn’t expect this to drop; this was an item that really surprised him.

Remnant Dream held the equip and looked at Lu Li with a begrudging look.

This made Lu Li feel a little embarrassed and he took a while to react, before quickly passing up 30 gold coins. Because there were many financial needs for the guild at the end of the year, he was so broke that he almost needed to borrow money to repair his equipment. Thirty gold already accounted for half of his possessions.

Remnant Dream picked up her ‘payment’ happily and passed the Ring to Lu Li.

Hell’s Ghostclaw – there were two items in Dawn that had this name. While the names were identical, one was a Ring and the other was a weapon, but both of them were used by Thieves.

The item that Lu Li had obtained here was the Ring. It was Dark Gold grade and was one of the best Thief Rings before level 60. Some players would rather have this ring over a Legendary equip.

Of course, this was mostly because people had no chance to choose between a Legendary equip in the first place.

Hell’s Ghostclaw (Dark Gold): damage 36-48, Agility +42, Strength +28, Critical Strike +25%. Special effect 1: when your attacks Critical Strike consecutively, the third attack has a 50% chance to deal three times damage. Special effect 2: Slit Throat skill level +1. Special effect 3: Hell’s Ghostclaw, instant cast. Deals 600 points of damage to a target upon use. 50% of the damage dealt is transferred to the user as health. The target’s Armor is reduced by 30% for the next 15 seconds. Level Requirement 50, Durability 215/215.

Below the equipment description, there was a small row of text that read, “The darkness forgives you, lonely soul.”

Hell’s Ghostclaw was a plain metal ring with no gemstone in the front. Instead, the front displayed a making that resembled a broken claw of a Ghoul.

The number of special effects it had was common for an average equip, but rare for a Dark Gold grade Ring. Usually, only Legendary Rings would come with something like this.

It’s ‘3+1’ special effect meant that there were three special effects with an unofficial effect.

The three special effects of the ring were obvious, but the unofficial effect was the Critical Strike +25%. Many equips also counted Attributes like Critical Strike and Accuracy as special effects.

Special effect 1 was an activation-type skill. From what Lu Li knew, there was a hidden activation requisite for the effect. Apparently, the lower the target of the health, the greater the chance of it activating.

The second special effect was obvious; it added damage to the Slit Throat skill.

The third special effect was the reason why the Ring was named this way. The other item with the same name had an almost identical effect.

The requirement for this Ring was level 50. When the Boss was defeated, Lu Li finally reached level 50. The timing of things had worked out perfectly.

Lu Li, who was level 50, was the at top of the rankings.

His reincarnation had changed many things. If the game had continued to develop as the way it was meant to be, the highest-leveled player at the moment would be level 48.

Azure Sea Breeze was also not a part of the rankings.

Originally, at this stage of the game, Azure Sea Breeze’s secret of transforming into a Panther had been discovered and he began his journey of hiding for his life. Lonesome Flower and March Rain also wouldn’t have made any professional appearances; this pair of siblings would still be exploring the game with other ordinary players. It wasn’t until much later when they were picked up by other clubs.

Hachi Chan was well known from a long time ago, but no one ever knew about Remnant Dream and her luck.

Sakura Memories did make it into the top 100 in the level rankings, but she was just a leveling freak. She never would have had the income and fame of a competitor.

Wandering, who never really enjoyed levelling would be impacted by Azure Sea Breeze.

Moonlight would become a murderer. All he would do was chase people around and in return, his enemies began chasing him. He wasn’t a Thief who could run away, so he didn’t appear on the level rankings either.

The others in Ruling Sword would either become ordinary players, or enter other big guilds. All of them would have led a different life.

The biggest change of all was the professional matches.

Lu Li had always thought that the gaming company controlled everything, including the matches.

After they defeated Seventh Heaven, Ruling Sword never ran into any other teams that had a shot at entering the finals. They mostly matched against teams that were much weaker.

Without Square Root 3, Star Moon Union fell from its place and was never as great as Lu Li had remembered.

Before Lu Lin reincarnated, Star Moon Union had made it into the top 50, obtaining the support of I’m Richy Rich’s family in real life. This also formed part of the reason why I’m Richy Rich had the courage to provoke Water Fairy.

In this life, Lu Li’s counterattack damaged Star Moon Union heavily and things became even worse after Square Root 3 left.

At the moment, Star Moon Union wasn’t even in the top 10000 after the first season of the competition. I’m Richy Rich ran into Lu Li once while Lu Li was alone, and although there was a crowd of guild members behind him, he was still frightened.

All the arrogance from the past had disappeared into nothing but a dream for Lu Li.

The Imperial Secret Service was still as strong as usual; this guild had always had a very good foundation in real life. After Dawn became famous, they had also received a few more investments.

In a corner where there were no guilds with clubs around to dominate them, they were doing pretty well for themselves with the money they had. With the players they head-hunted, they even managed to enter into the top 100.

In the second last round from the top 16, the Imperial Secret Service ran into Ruling Sword.

They sent over a huge sum of money – 15 million in total – hoping that Ruling Sword would let them off this time and lose to them in the match so that they could achieve a better placement.

Fifteen million was tempting indeed. After all the changes that had occurred, Lu Li had up to 70% of the stocks in the clubs and he could instantly become a millionaire.

However, Lu Li and Square Root 3 turned down the offer before they even discussed it.

They didn’t want to play a fake match with so much expectation on him. Most importantly, how could a guild like Imperial Secret Service even beat a guild like Ruling Sword? The public didn’t even need to think to know that they were playing a fake match.