The Great Thief

“Go to Darnassus. You’ll find some of my acquaintances outside of the walls. They will assist us, as well as relay the message to Tyrande without letting Staghelm know,” Malfurion sighed loudly. “The guardian of 1000 years still fell in the end.”

“Stop sleeping! Your mother is calling for you to go eat!”

“The guardian of 1000 years still fell in the end…”

“Dumbass! Tyrande belongs to Illidan. You only know how to sleep all day! Druids are so stupid! Oh, Hachi Chan, I’m not talking about you. Eh? Stop biting! Are you a dog! Let go!” Lu Li wasn’t willing to give up.

“The guardian of 1000 years still fell in the end…”

“Do you dare to level up my ring? Please? Please level up my ring…It’s falling behind already…” Lu Li cried out as he lunged forward to grab Malfurion’s leg, but he passed straight through the image. Then, Malfurion’s image disappeared.

Lu Li’s teammates – well, he couldn’t take down the temple alone – all pretended that they did not see anything.

How shameful. Their leader couldn’t be someone like this.

There weren’t any NPCs outside the walls of Darnassus, but a saddened Lu Li knew who he needed to interact with. He softly touched the World Tree and a small forest Wisp appeared.

“The mighty King of Druids and the heroic leader of the Elves, Lord Malfurion, has instructed me to come here and find a cute Wisp. It’s probably you, right? I think you know why I’m here,” Lu Li said, passionately praising the Lord of the Dark Elves that he had just previously called a dumbass.

The forest Wisp could only let out a sound similar to a newborn baby, but interestingly, it could understand Lu Li’s words.

“We will let Tyrande know. Human, Lord Malfurion has already allowed us to prepare for this. Now, you need to go to Moonglade and talk to Remulos. He will then guide you towards summoning Eranikus.”

Remulos…an old friend.

Moonglade was just as peaceful as before, with Remulos being just as lazy as Lu Li had remembered. Remulos was lying on the floor in front of the entrance of the altar. Even Lu Li’s arrival didn’t wake him up.

“Respected lord guardian of the forest, I bring news from Lord Malfurion,” Lu Li began to say.

He was extremely polite; his words had such a gentle tone that the people with him were disgusted. However, Lu Li was not embarrassed at all. If there was a need for him to be even more gentle, he would be able to do so.

If that stupid Malfurion wouldn’t come out of his slumber, then the only being that could help Lu Li level his ring up was this demigod.

“Oh, my young friend! I’m surprised that we are able to meet again so quickly!” Remulos exclaimed, then slowly opened his eyes and said, “You mentioned Malfurion before, right? It’s been a while since I’ve heard news from him.”

“That’s right. It involves Eranikus. The Qiraji Scarabs are on the move again,” Lu Li responded.

“I understand,” Remulos said with a serious look on his face. “If Eranikus is unwilling, then we will forever be unable to awaken them. His goal is to enter our world, because he wishes to destroy Malfurion’s body.”

“If he succeeds in doing so, then the strongest ally that we have in the Emerald Dream would not exist. If Malfurion dies, then the Jade would devour the whole world…”

“Hmm…That is too terrifying. My friend, what can I do?” Lu Li asked.

“You need to go to the four entrances of the Emerald Dream in Azeroth. At every entrance, you will be able to collect the Fragments of the Nightmare’s Corruption. The Dragon-like creatures of those areas will drop these items. Once you find all of the four fragments, return to me,” Remulos said.

“This doesn’t sound like it would be difficult,” Lu Li responded confidently.

“This is only the beginning. My friend, are you ready?” Remulos asked.

“Of course. I’ll leave now.”

He couldn’t waste any time. They finally had a lead in front of all the other clubs, so if they ran at a leisurely pace, they would be overtaken.

The entrances were indicated in the quest window, so they didn’t need to investigate their whereabouts. The closest one was in Grey Valley, near a corrupted Moon Well. There were many Satyrs in that area.

Similar to the Naga, the first Satyr was once a Dark Elf. However, other races and groups of creatures joined the Satyrs. Now, they were all evil and corrupted.

They enjoyed inflicting pain and drawing blood from their enemies.

These monsters’ levels were quite low; Grey Valley was a map consisting of level 30-40 monsters. Occasionally, there would be a few level 50-60 monsters, but this did not include the Satyrs.

After killing countless Satyrs, Remnant Dream finally looted the item that Lu Li wanted.

The other three were at Grey Valley, Feralas and the Hinterlands. They needed to kill the Elite Dragonkin at the entrances to the Emerald Dream. Lu Li was fortunate enough to be able to summon his guild members to do the work. In his previous life, it had taken him over 30 hours to retrieve all four fragments.

This time, Lu Li only spent around 7 hours to complete the quest.

They returned to Moonglade, whcih was now a battlefield. Previously, only Druid players would come here, so it was usually quite empty.

Now, there were crowds and crowds of people. Besides players from Ruling Sword, there were also many players from other clubs. They wanted to observe the whole process before tackling this quest themselves.

There were also many individual players who were just here because everyone else was.

“We need to try our utmost best to control Eranikus! We want him to be saved and not destroyed. Tyrande is already on her way to assist us. We need to tank the large dragon’s attacks and protect the Nighthaven from damage! Prepare yourselves! You and your allies are our only hope!”

“I understand. My friends will fight alongside us,” Lu Li said.

“Alright. I will trace the origin of the nightmare according to the fragments that you have given me. That way, we will be able to open a rift into the Emerald Dream and drag Eranikus out of there. We must be strong, my friends. We are about to drag the manifestation of a nightmare into our world.” Remulos was now standing on Lake Elune’ara in the Nighthaven, beginning to summon Eranikus.

He held the four fragments in his hands and started to sing, upon which a green light began to emit from his hands.

Once the guardian’s singing ended, an invisible force, as sharp as blade, sliced open the air above the Lake and formed a rift.

This was a time rift, which meant that the Emerald Dream had been opened.

“Be wary, warrior! Prepare yourselves! Eranikus’ arrival will bring chaos and violence into the world!” Remulos roared. “He will do anything he can to destroy Malfurion’s body! We must not let that happen. Tyrande is already on her way. We must gain control of this beast before she arrives!”

The rift grew larger and larger. A clear tremble in the skies above the Moonglade could be felt. Remulos then yelled, “Guard of the Nighthaven, Hero…”

There was no need for him to yell anymore. Everyone could see the silhouette of the beast exiting the rift.

Eranikus was so enormous that this rift was nearly not large enough for him to fit through. Remulos had to continue enlarging the rift.

To the surprised yells and heroic roaring of the players, the green body of Eranikus, the Tyrant of the Dream, flew out of the rift. His large wings seemed to be enough to cover the whole of Moonglade.

“Full concentration on offence! Eliminate him before he breaks the shield!” Lu Li commanded.

Remulos needed to conduct another ritual, otherwise, the Emerald Dream would spread throughout the land. If that happened, then everyone would be living in a dream, which meant that their bodies of flesh would rot and die. Naturally, this meant that the whole Azeroth would be wiped out.

Therefore, when Eranikus appeared in the skies, Remulos had to keep going.

All the Druids in Moonglade instantly summoned a large, Nature attributed-based guard to protect Nighthaven and Remulos. However, even stupid people would realise that this shield would not last for a long time, especially against Eranikus.

The first of the attackers were the Ruling Sword players. They were like a swarm of ants moving towards a large elephant.

However, as the battle raged on, players other than those from Ruling Sword were also involved in

the fight. Those just watching the fight were affected by the atmosphere and decided to join as well.

Perhaps some players joined out of a hope for a reward, while some just joined because they were bored.

The most important thing was the atmosphere.

When faced with powerful enemies, humans tend to be insensitive to everything. This was why many soldiers would courageously charge forward with no notion of life and death. Actually, it wasn’t that they weren’t afraid of dying. In this world, no one was unafraid of death. Instead, it was the atmosphere of recklessness and courage.

The barrier was quickly destroyed. The Druids were all on the ground, powerless, while the players began to take large amounts of damage.

Run?

How could they run in front of everyone here?

Logically speaking, this was only a single death. In this game, no one would be afraid of death, since by now, they were desensitised to it.

Even if their reputation was on the line, they still couldn’t retreat.

As the players were still rushing forward, the scene that Lu Li imagined didn’t unfold. Instead, more people joined in the battle because they heard that there was a huge fight here.

Afterwards, reporters would come here and ask the players as to why they had joined.

The players would all give a simple answer. This was highly unlikely to ever happen again, so they might as well let go of all their worries and charge at the Boss, die, revive, and continue battling.

If something like this happened in real life, it would be a story grand enough to tell your grandchildren.