The Great Thief

Every single second of this messy war was precious. If this bow was swapped for an output weapon of his role, the five of them could pick a fight with an even higher-level monster, or they could kill level 5 monsters with greater speed.

It was a shame that in order not to take the risk of losing members, the five of them could only keep bullying level 5 monsters.

This time, an axe and a piece of armor finally dropped. Once Soulless Grass equipped both, they were in a position to challenge higher level monsters.

Of course, it wouldn’t be as hard to level up in the Stronghold map compared to outside. The drops were generous as well. Very soon, everyone had cobbled together some random equipment.

In Lu Li’s hand was a green dagger, and on his body he wore three pieces of leather armor, two pieces of cloth armor, and he had also learnt 4 skills.

Feeling confident, he led a small group of people to go challenge a level 15 Boss. Lu Li and his team were level 12, so it was a risky battle, although there was potential. After it was killed, there was a real chance that everyone would receive quite a bit of equipment. The most important thing was the chance of dropping a Strengthening Skill Book. However, if they were unlucky, they could easily lose a member.

This was where the magical attraction of the Grand Melee was.

Many people enjoyed this Grand Melee style, and looked forward to new map releases.

They felt as though it was even more intense, with even more unknown variables.

If Glory Capital was put into a Grand Melee situation, would they definitely be able to occupy the Stronghold?

Victory was not guaranteed as everyone started completely empty-handed, and it was really hard to say how they would end up developing. If they weren’t lucky, they would lose a few members, and then anyone could bully them to death.

Although the people that Lu Li brought were so-called ‘new’ people, they weren’t any ordinary new players.

They were the cream of the crop in terms of talent, and had been trained to competitive standards. Most of them had been on the stage in a competition more than once.

If a level 15 Boss didn’t do anything unexpected, it would be finished off.

“Two Gold, four Steel, two Strengthening Skill Books, one Blizzard.”

What was more, all of them had levelled up to level 17. They really had struck it rich overnight.

Lu Li received a pair of Gold Boots.

“Alright, we can’t keep fighting monsters – it’s too inefficient. We’ll find other people to trouble.”

There were eight clubs, and 80 people from each club. In total, there were more than 600 people. Sooner or later, they would bump into them, but why keep waiting? Why not just start finding people to fight now?

In the stronghold map, when someone died, they would drop all the equipment and Strengthening Skill Books they had. The person that killed them would also gain the EXP they had earned.

“I’ll go explore that way. You all try your best to follow me down there.”

After speaking, Lu Li transformed into a crow, opening up his wings and flying low.

The Stronghold map prohibited flying mounts. Only ordinary mounts could be summoned for use. However, having your own personal methods for flying around wasn’t prohibited, although Lu Li couldn’t be so open in using this for long.

For one, he wasn’t the only player who could fly. In the future, almost everyone would bring someone to be a scout.

Secondly, Druids would very quickly learn how to fly.

What was more, Lu Li felt that to maintain the audience’s excitement for these Grand Melees, there was a real chance that the game would come up with a policy to ban all flying. In the future, only the Eagle Eye skill of hunters could reveal their enemies at a short distance.

Very soon, he found his first target.

This was a 10-person team that was currently fighting a level 20 Boss.

The Bosses in the Stronghold map were far weaker than those in the Wild. Under normal circumstances, a small group of five people could finish off a Boss of the same level without losing members. If a 10-person team was fighting a level 20 Boss, they would easily be able to defeat it if nothing unexpected occurred.

Lu Li was the unexpected.

He went back down to his own team, then everyone took out their signalers.

A Cloud Arrow was fired, and then a whole army appeared!

The few teams nearby quickly assembled, gathering 20 or 30 people.

By this time, their opponents had already nearly finished fighting the Boss.

Lu Li gave everyone the signal from above. He would sometimes fly in an S shape, and sometimes in a B shape. Wandering had set this up to notify everyone of where their opponents were.

The targeted team was completely confused; they had just happily finished splitting up the loot.

The loot from the level 20 Boss had far exceeded their expectations.

If they kept going at their speed, they would definitely be the quickest team to get to level 70, and there was a real chance they would have the best equipment too.

“Who is it?”

Someone spotted a figure. After all, there wasn’t much vegetation in Winterspring, and the surrounding land was covered in ice and snow.

“There’s someone casting Cheap Shot!”

Unfortunately for them, they had already been surrounded.

Three Mages cast Blizzard, and in an instant, seven or eight of them were dead. What could the remaining people do to struggle?

After killing two players, Lu Li, who was originally level 17, instantly reached level 19.

Moreover, he received two pieces of equipment and quite a few Strengthening Skill Books.

It was simply too exhilarating to loot the corpses. They had never been able to loot so much from one body. Remnant Dream, who surely loved looting corpses, would definitely enjoy the Grand Melee format of the new map.

The players from Judgement Spear got a taste of what it was like to kill someone and take their equipment, nosily urging Lu Li to get back up and look for targets that could be surrounded.

In just half an hour, the players from Judgement Spear had risen to level 60. Moreover, all of them were fully equipped, and they had learned more than half of their skills.

Lu Li’s hands were covered in the blood of innocent players. He had risen to level 68, just short of level 70.

And finally, someone realized that something wasn’t right, and began to gang up together to stay alive.

This made their original strategy of finding lone teams and surrounding them more difficult.

At this time, Lu Li didn’t have them go up to fight hand-to-hand.

There were 72 of them left – they had lost 8 people in the fighting. They might have easily been able to finish off an opponent with the same number of people the first time, but there was no way to avoid deaths.

So after losing people, it would be relatively harder for them to do it again.

And even if they did, they would just be waiting to be eaten up by others. In the case that the other few groups of players did join up, they could completely push Ruling Sword out of the game.

Of the eight clubs, only Ruling Sword was considered a major guild. It wasn’t impossible for an alliance to form.

First, the strongest would be taken out of the game. Then, the remaining few competitors could fight fairly between themselves.