The Great Thief

It had been more than two hours by the time they returned to Fahrad’s Garden. Fahrad was still just as beautiful, but her expression… not so much.

“I can’t believe I misjudged you two. You’ve finally returned!”

She gave an entire hour to two level 55 players to complete the quest. If they did so honestly, there was no way it would take more than 2 hours.

“Grand master, please allow me to explain. Even my teacher, Garona, would not deem me guilty before she understands my actions. I have a reason to return at this time, and I believe that you’ll understand after you listen,” Lu Li said with a serious face.

“Alright, you’ve persuaded me.”

Perhaps it was Lu Li’s words, or perhaps it was Garona’s name, but regardless, Fahrad’s calmed down a little.

Although they were both grand-master-tier Thieves, Fahrad was still below Garona, both in terms of their prowess and fame. Even amongst their ranks within the Assassin’s League, Fahrad was only ranked just high enough to know about Garona’s existence.

“We’ve listened to your teachings of Theft and Stealth, and we feel that we have gained a lot from it. Although it was slightly different to what my teacher has taught me, I still thought that it was reasonable theory,” Lu Li explained with a straight face.

Then, he described the problems that he had run into during the process of his experiments, and began to ask Fahrad for help.

Fahrad was only upset about Lu Li being late, but this was enough to cause the quest to fail entirely. As such the rage left as quickly as it had came. The fact that Garona’s student found her theories useful seemed to have pleased her, so she began to teach them her techniques with patience.

If this was any regular Thief, she most likely would have ignored them.

Such teachings were very useful. Lu Li wasn’t just entirely making things up out of thin air. During the listening process, both his and Water Fairy’s profession levels increased rapidly.

After a while, Fahrad finally returned back to the topic of the quest itself.

“Now, pass me your boxes.”

The first fifty boxes that had been opened and checked successfully passed as quest items. The quest rewarded them with some copper. Ravenholdt Manor had been trading their assassin service for years and had gained unmeasurable wealth from it, but they were still stingy with their money.

Fortunately, Ravenholdt was generous with their Reputation rewards.

Although their Reputation reward had been deducted because they handed in the quest late, the reputation they gained from this quest was still much better than the completion of a few quests. Not to mention, the Ravenholdt Manor quests were not easy to initiate or complete, even for someone at Lu Li’s skill level.

“Thank you for your generosity, but I think these Heavy Bin Boxes won’t be enough to accomplish much,” Lu Li said as he passed up 20 gold coins, then continued, “I’ll gladly offer what I can for your research. The same goes for my friend…”

It costed 20 gold coins to refresh the quest, which was no small amount.

Although the rates of the gold coins were still unstable at this time, 20 gold coins was worth at least a thousand dollars in real life.

Fahrad agreed to Lu Li’s request reluctantly and asked them to hand in 20 Heavy Bin Boxes within an hour.

It was a pleasant surprise for Lu Li. Fahrad looked so angry before that he was expecting another 50 boxes. It wouldn’t be impossible, but it wouldn’t be an easy task either.

Regardless of the number of boxes, the reputation they received was set.

The lucky ones might only need 20 boxes, and apparently, some had even obtained a quest for 10. The unlucky ones would just have to keep doing 50 boxes each time.

They only had around a hundred spaces in their bags, so they can’t carry many Heavy Bin Boxes. Not to mention, it was incredibly tiresome to constantly run back and forth.

Because they had saved up the Heavy Bin Boxes that had been opened from before, they could easily hand in 20 checked boxes on time. Lu Li and Water Fairy happily kept the goods in the boxes while they exchanged the junk for Reputation.

Water Fairy opened up another box but was suddenly attracted by the item.

What is this?”

“What’s it called?” Lu Li asked in return.

“Night Walker Emblem… it doesn’t seem like an equipment though,” Water Fairy said, reading out the name of the item.

“Night Walker Emblem!”

All sorts of items could be opened from the Heavy Bin Boxes; Lu Li couldn’t possibly know all of them either. However, he was definitely familiar with the Night Walker Emblem. This was the most popular item for Thieves that stole.

Water Fairy took it out of the box. The Night Walker Emblem was in the shape of a silver-white gem. As a special item, it had its own Attributes.

Use: Increase % Theft success rate by 20%. Also increases movement speed by 20% while in Stealth. Lasts for 3 hours.

There was a certain chance of success for Theft, which was determined by the techniques and level of the user.

Almost all Thieves had their own understanding of the technique, and Fahrad had also taught them previously. In terms of level, the greater the level gap between the user and the monster, the higher the success rate. However, once the level gap grew large enough, all that the monsters would drop would be rubbish. Stealing from a higher-levelled unit meant that the success rate decreased dramatically, and once the level gap grew high enough, Theft became almost impossible.

The failure rate for Theft wasn’t too low for Water Fairy and Lu Li, considering that they were stealing from monsters at their level.

With the emblem, it would greatly increase the rate of success.

“Take it,” Water Fairy said as she passed the Night Walker Emblem to Lu Li and smiled. “You’re seriously so unlucky with the boxes. Perhaps this might help.”

Was this some sort of sympathy? Lu Li laughed bitterly as he tossed the item into his bag.

It was true that he was slower than Water Fairy at obtaining the Heavy Bin Boxes. With this emblem, he would be able to steal from a few more monsters, and their progress wouldn’t be as limited.

For the whole day, they spent their time stealing and killing monsters. They enjoyed each other’s company and didn’t really feel the time slipping away. Sometimes, they would be lucky enough to obtain a Syndicate Emblem, which could also be used to exchange for some Ravenholdt Manor reputations.

By night, the two of them had finally reached their goal.

Once they found the relevant NPC, they would be able to purchase the recipe needed to upgrade their Shard of the Defiler.