The Great Thief

Lonesome Flower was also able to collect the fragments. However, his method was a lot more violent.

He pulled a group of monsters to him, then immediately used an AoE skill and killed them. As for his HP, he had it much easier than Lu Li. He had his younger sister heal him whenever he needed it.

When they all collected 200 Carapace Fragments, they returned to hand in the quest.

Lonesome Flower was Lu Li’s vice-captain, so when he turned in the quest, it also gave Lu Li some Reputation.

After completing the quest, not only could Lu Li appoint a new vice-captain, but Lonesome Flower could also appoint a vice-captain as well. This way, they could have five people in the party altogether.

After five people completed the quest, then there would be ten afterwards.

After ten, there would be twenty…

This slowly snowballed until it involved the guild’s elites. Everyone would collect and turn in their carapace fragments, then exchange for Nozdormu’s Son. Then, they would continue to keep collecting.

As the collection of the fragments increased, more and more players would be involved. This meant that Lu Li’s Reputation was now increasing at a rapid pace.

The day slowly turned to night and everyone was constantly grinding for the fragments. They now realised how terrifying multi-level marketing was.

If Lu Li was the only one completing this quest, it would take him a month.

Even though the number of players involved in the quest was growing, raising the level from Hostile to Neutral was still a huge project. Lu Li even dreamed about killing worms.

They continued to grind for half a day the next day until Lu Li’s Reputation finally raised from Hostile to Neutral. He could now talk to the bronze dragon.

Once again, he came to the Caverns of Time. As expected, the bronze dragon held its head up high, but this time, it wouldn’t attack the players anymore. Then, it slowly said, “We must send out people and not repeat our mistakes.”

“Yes, my lord. The sacrifices of everyone who died will be engraved in the whole land!”

Only the ones who knew of the history would understand what was meant by that. Fortunately, Lu Li already understood the whole history behind the War of the Shifting Sands.

“You are commendable, human. You have endured trials and tribulations just to stand in front of me. However, the trial that you will encounter will be much more difficult than any trial that you have faced. The mark and ring will bring you great strength, increasing your Nature-based attacks. Know that once you choose to go down this path, you will be unable to return,” Anachronos sai.

“Since my predecessors have sacrificed their lives, how can I retreat?”

The dragon sighed and said, “Life. They did sacrifice their lives. In the southern parts of Silithus, close to the barrier, there is a Crystal Tear, which commemorates our losses in the War of Shifting Sands. You can gaze into the crystal and see what happened back then.”

“I’ve always wanted to have a look for myself and find out the truth about back then. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to do so,” Lu Li said with a grateful heart.

He found the crystal that the bronze dragon was referring to and placed his hand on it.

Lu Li quickly found that he was now in a vast battlefield. He was like a god, looking down upon the both sides engaged in warfare. Dragons, Elves, Worms – this was the sight of the war at the time.

The game of Dawn was designed to be extremely heartfelt. The designers poured their hearts and minds into creating many different scenes in the game. This was a perfectly designed scene of the battlefield.

From this vantage point, Lu Li found himself feeling sorrowful.

When the battle began, three large dragons, Arygos, Merithra and Caelestrasz sacrificed their lives to create a large wall of carapace.

Even though the carapace wall successfully sealed the Qiraji worms away, they continued to be threatening.

He slowly retracted his hand. He had to admit that even know he knew that this was a game, he was ultimately affected by the unfolding of the scene. Knowing about it was vastly different to experiencing it for himself.

“I think I understand. The worms are our irreconcilable enemies,” Lu Li said.

Anachronos nodded his head and responded, “Just as I said before, we need to deploy people to take control first. Staghelm has lost his mind after losing his son. He destroyed the Sceptre of Shifting Sands. I have all four of the fragments, so I need to protect this sceptre at all cost. I must not allow it to fall into the hands of those who could harm this world. That is my mission as a dragon.”

“What do you need me to do?” Lu Li immediately asked.

Lu Li found that this dragon was indeed arrogant, but also rather talkative.

“Each fragment of the sceptre has been placed under the care of four powerful dragons by me. If you are not determined…” Anachronos said.

“I am,” Lu Li affirmed.

“Actually, I am too,” Anachronos said, then continued with a darkened face, “If it wasn’t for the Black Dragon pursuing me, I would’ve gone and take them back myself. Eranikus, Vaelastrasz and Azuregos…I think that you know about these dragons. Human, it was not by coincidence that they ended up becoming the guardians.

“What is unfortunate is that their fate was destined to be miserable. They would inevitably be betrayed by the Old Gods or their friends. This contributed to my mistrust of the guardians.”

“Find them, human! Do your worst!”

After listening to the dragon’s nonsense, Lu Li prepared to proceed to the next stage of the quest.

Around that time, most clubs had already completed the materials quest and had begun to the carapace collecting quest. Using his experience from his previous life, Lu Li managed to gain a one-day advantage.

The bronze dragon had a fragment with himself, while the other red, blue and green dragons each had the other three fragments.

However, these three dragons were independent to each other, so there wasn’t a set order for completion. This meant that they could attempt any colour first. The final goal was to retrieve all three fragments, so the order of completion didn’t matter.

Lu Li chose to do the green dragon line first.

Actually, there was already a clue hidden within the bronze dragon’s words. Lu Li, along with his small party, ventured to the Temple of Atal’hakkar. They pushed all the way to Eranikus’ Shade, but Malfurion Stormrage suddenly appeared.

Of course, it was only an image of Malfurion. At that moment, the real Malfurion Stormrage was still in deep slumber.

Lu Li realised that his happiness was wasted. He thought that he could ask about the Ring, but this image could only communicate at the most basic level. It didn’t even react upon hearing about

the Ring.

Malfurion’s message was simple.

The only way to retrieve the fragment was to rescue the fallen Eranikus. However, upon failure, the Tyrant of the Dream would destroy Malfurion’s real body as well as the whole of Azeroth. It was just a way to scare little children, but it still had its effects.