The Great Thief

“About this quest…” Lu Li lowered his voice and asked Hachi Chan, “Can other people get it as well?”

“How would I know?” Hachi Chan thought for a moment before continuing, “Uncle Stack is not a great person. He is always scolding people, and his quests are always dirty and tiresome, so not many people ask him for quests.”

“So what are you doing?” Lu Li asked curiously.

“I am just helping him watch the fire. He even gave me a plate of dried fruit.”

This little servant girl seemed to be having a good time somehow.

“What about everyone else?” Lu Li continued to ask.

“Washing ores, adding coal, modelling clay… well, there are a lot of little tasks,” Hachi Chan said. She counted with her fingers and found that there were quite a few things.

“Okay, I get it.” Lu Li was a little shocked.

People who had high charisma, like Hachi Chan, were given easy jobs like watching this fire. She was even given snacks while she did it. The other players were given dirty and tiresome jobs that probably didn’t even reward much. It was likely that most people wouldn’t take Stack’s quests.

“In that case, let’s just get some people to pretend to get the quest. Then we’ll let Three bro send some players to confuse the other clubs.”

Lu Li didn’t want the other clubs to know his true intention.

It was hard to keep this kind of secret for a long time, but for every minute the secret was kept, the other clubs would remain stuck for longer.

Lu Li changed his equipment into a red Transmog set, the extremely flashy kind.

This was a level 60 Transmog set that he had recently found in the guild warehouse. The Transmog set had no special attributes, but it was so far departed from his ordinary clothing that he didn’t have to worry about being recognised.

Stack’s blacksmiths, who hadn’t paid attention to much in the past, couldn’t help but notice this today.

At least five or six people entered the blacksmith at the same time. The blacksmith was located in a relatively remote place, so it was obviously not normal for that to happen, especially since the people were all sneaking about.

“Can you guys be a bit more natural? Are you trying to let people know we are here?” Lu Li was the second person, and he reminded the others of their instructions.

“Ahem,” Azure Sea Breeze cleared his throat, then continued, “Uncle Blacksmith, I am an adventurer who participated in the battle against the insects. Is there anything I can do?”

“If you were fighting in the great war with that equipment, you must have just been fighting the old and weak ones.”

Stack was just as offensive as they said. The others had clearly tried to be polite, but he did not respond in kind.

“Haha, there are male ones too. I don’t have much to do, and I don’t mind doing difficult work,” Azure Sea Breeze responded, not choosing to dwell on it.

In fact, it was probably normal for him. He was inseparable from Wandering, who when compared to the sharp-tongued blacksmith, was equally as offensive towards him. Azure Sea Breeze had already suffered under these personal attacks for the past 20 years.

“You are such an annoying waste of space; go smash the coal over there,” Stack said while pointing to a pile of coal in the corner.

No wonder why no one would ask him for quests; that was simply just too much.

“Alright.”

Azure Sea Breeze picked up a hammer and struck a piece of coal.

Lu Li took a breath and stepped into the position where Azure Sea Breeze was.

“Respected master blacksmith. Hello, I am…”

“I don’t care who you are. Go away, and stop bothering me. What are you even looking at?” Stack roared as he waved his hammer around and almost knocked out Lu Li’s brain.

Charisma value was important when talking to a violent NPC like this one. Hachi Chan had an insane amount of Charisma and Azure Sea Breeze had a normal amount. Lu Li, on the other hand, had none, or even negative amounts of Charisma.

Lu Li wasn’t hit on the head because he wasn’t hostile, otherwise, he definitely would have been killed.

“Master, I am actually a blacksmith,” Lu Li said as he quickly took out his own blacksmithing hammer.

Cresso Hammer (Special): Strength +20, Forging Speed +30%, Forging Success Rate +20%, Grade +1, Lu Li exclusive, Durability 100/100.

This hammer was an exquisite blacksmithing hammer, and it had extraordinary origins. It represented the centuries-old glory of human blacksmiths. Stack was a human blacksmith and he didn’t seem ignorant or illiterate, so he was immediately drawn to it.

“Where did you steal this hammer from?”

“Oh… I inherited it. See, I forged this equipment myself,” Lu Li said as he took out a Perfect grade weapon and handed it over.

“Well, it seems like you aren’t a bad young man.”

Stack had a bad temper and was very proud, but he wasn’t an idiot. After Lu Li demonstrated his worth, he finally eased up.

Azure Sea Breeze, who was still breaking coal blocks, was almost in tears.

He had watched Lu Li get completely dismissed as a joke, but now the situation was completely reversed because he had taken out that hammer.

“Is there anything I can help you with?” Lu Li asked, immediately taking the opportunity to ask for a quest.

I’m tired, can you help me create these equipment?”

Stack threw a few Molds at Lu Li before grabbing a cask and having a drink at his work bench.

Compared to breaking coal blocks, Lu Li was happy that he had received a job that involved his technical skills.

The next few players also received quests, but their tasks were miserable. Most of the work was dirty, and someone was even thrown a rag and asked to clean the entire workbench.

The reward for the first quest was some ore.

Those who had followed Lu Li looked at each other. Even if it was a piece of Mithril ore, it was still of a very low quality. It was only worth a few dozen silver coins. No one wanted to keep working for this guy.

The second quest was also received smoothly, and Lu Li was tasked with selling some weapons at a high price.

This quest was actually very difficult because Stack’s asking price for the weapons was too high. These weapons were limited by their material and grades. Even if Lu Li used his exquisite forging hammer, it wouldn’t be worth that much.

Fortunately, Lu Li was quite rich. He casually called a person from the guild who bought all of the weapons on the spot.

The loss was just a few gold coins.

The quest reward was as usual, a level 60 Silver weapon. Lu Li had rarely seen an item like this. These were only dropped in the Wild or from Instance Dungeon mobs. Even if they fell, no one would pick it up.

Then, he asked for the third quest. Stack asked him to go to the mountain and help him dig up some ores of miscellaneous amounts.

These were then processed in a similar way to the second quest, by selling them to someone.

And just like that, Lu Li completed the third quest.