The Great Thief

"Why are you still staring at me? Alright, young man, tell me what you want," the old man joked.

Unfortunately, no one was around to laugh; his only audience found him to be too cunning.

An NPC who dared to hold back rewards from a player? This old man was definitely one-of-a-kind.

"I saw the weapon that the hostess was using before. It seemed very interesting."

Lu Li tested the waters; good things were worth fighting for. It didn’t seem realistic for Duke Ravenholdt to reward him the weapon without some sort of prompts.

"Oh, you must be talking about Shard of the Defiler."

Based off Lu Li’s descriptions, Duke Ravenholdt quickly realized what he was talking about and explained with a pitiful expression, "That was actually a failure. One of the best blacksmiths of the last generation attempted to make a set of weapons that could compete against the Warglaive of Azzinoth. After about a hundred years of research, he discovered in the end that there were a lot of critical parts that couldn’t be completed."

"So it’s a set of failures..." Lu Li felt disappointed.

Mass production and failures too – this was far away from what he had imagined. He had even been prepared to complete difficult quests.

"This plan was stopped a long time ago, so there are only a few Shards of the Defiler left."

Duke Ravenholdt searched for a bit before he pulled out a weapon identical to the one that Lu Li had seen

It was definitely something of little value, or else it wouldn’t have been given away so easily.

Lu Li took the weapon in disappointment as he briefly scanned the attributes...

"Oh!" Only a gasp was enough to portray Lu Li’s emotions. It was though he had been kicked into Hell from Heaven, only to realize that Hell wasn’t such a bad place after all.

"If there’s nothing else, you’re free to leave. If there’s anything else you need in the future, look for the hostess in Southshore. She’s your contact person."

The old man showed a grin as he enjoyed his little prank, then waved his hand before he disappeared from the main hall.

He wasn’t entirely lying though. When the Shard of the Defiler was made, the blacksmith had wanted to forge a weapon that was as exquisite as the Warglaive of Azzinoth, but of course, he failed.

After this, he began his second plan. He wanted this set of weapons to be able to upgrade as the strength of the user grew.

Equipment that could self-upgrade was definitely quite extraordinary, not to mention that this blacksmith wanted to mass produce them.

Lu Li unconsciously walked out of the place, not realizing that the entire island had greatly transformed in such a short amount of time.

The plants were withered, the buildings were crumbling and rotting away, and even the blue sky had begun to turn grey.

The tides were rolling in; it was obvious that a storm was brewing.

Lu Li didn’t care at all; his eyes never left the dagger that was in his hands.

Shard of the Defiler (Dark Gold): Damage 42-56. Agility+20, Strength+12. Slot 1. Special Effect 1: Attack Speed+30%. Special Effect 2: Deep Contamination. Reduces 25% of target’s armor and movement speed, cooldown 360 seconds. Special Effect 3: Fatal Blow. When the target’s health drops below 20%, there is a certain chance to execute the target. Level Requirement 40, Durability 120/120.

Not only were the attributes amazing, but all of the special effects were incredible too. It was hard to imagine that the old man would describe this as a failure.

The two daggers that Lu Li had been using were already of extremely good quality. If he tossed either one into the auction, it was guaranteed that players would go crazy over them. However, with the Shard of the Defiler in his hands, he had an urge to toss them both in the sea.

Needless to say, the damage alone was a great difference. The damage of the Shard of the Defiler was greater than the damage of Moonlight’s level 30 weapon.

Attack Speed +30% was the best that Lu Li had seen so far. Even his Rager Equipment Set, the set that was claimed to be useful all the way until level 30, would only give him a 20% attack speed boost with both pieces combined.

Lu Li finally understood why the hostess was able to attack so fast.

Firstly, the hostess was 15 levels higher than Lu Li and secondly, she was using this dagger.

Currently, Lu Li had a weapon that came with an Armor Penetration effect; it had a certain chance to reduce his target’s Armor by 20%. At the time, he was very excited – he felt like a single hand, level 30 weapon couldn’t be any better. However, now he knew he was wrong. Not only did Shard of the Defiler provide an even better Armor Penetration effect, but it also reduced the movement speed of the target.

What he liked even more about the dagger was the fact that the special effect could be "activated". It wasn’t a special effect that was based off chance.

Speaking of chance, whether it be in his previous or current life, he had always been unlucky.

Finally, there was the Fatal Blow effect.

This effect was more than just a cool name – what it actually did was enough to keep Lu Li’s enemies on their toes.

When the health of his target dropped below 20%, there was a certain chance to execute them. The effect didn’t mean much for players around the current level, because most players at this point had no more than 2000 health points. 20% of this was only around 300-400 health points.

With his ultimate skill, Lu Li would be able to deal around 200 damage to a player of the same level. The damage would be around 400 points if it was a critical strike.

The most important thing was that this target wasn’t restricted to players.

If a boss with 100,000 HP was at 20% HP and the effect suddenly decided to activate, that would be 20,000 health points gone in an instant!

This was not to mention that many bosses tended to keep their stronger skills for the later stages.

Lu Li’s dagger was like a bug. This was a real reward indeed!

Only this dagger would be fitting as a reward of such quest, a quest that required a player to kill a level 40 monster that was as powerful as a Boss.

The only pitiful part was the level requirement of level 40...

Lu Li wasn’t even level 31 yet; he was still at least 9 levels away from level 40. Now that his leveling had begun to slow down, he might not even reach level 40 in a month’s time.

He held a legendary weapon in his hands and yet, he could not use it...

What in the world could be more painful than this!

"Bro, when are we going to do dungeons? You’ve been away for more than half the day. The Graveyard record has been tossed around between Blood Red War Flag and Glory Capital. They’re about to catch up to us."

As Lu Li teleported back to the city, Azure Sea Breeze’s voice echoed in his ears.

This was a message from before – Lu Li had blocked all of his contacts as soon as he entered the Ravenholdt Manor.

He checked the time; the message was sent to him not too long ago.

"Has anyone passed the Library?" Lu Li replied.

"Square Root 3 has already sent people to stay on a lookout outside of the Scarlet Monastery. Around noon, there was news saying that Glory Capital, Blood Red War Flag and Peerless City had already sent people into the Arsenal. Otherwise, I wouldn’t be rushing you either. This place that you’ve found for us is really good for leveling," Azure Sea Breeze said.

The Arsenal and the Cathedral were places in the Scarlet Monastery that required keys in order to be accessed. Even a Thief wouldn’t be able to pick the locks and open the doors.

This meant that completing the Library was a pre-requisite for these two dungeon areas. If someone entered the Arsenal, that meant that they would have completed the Library.

These big guilds all had their own elite teams and guide teams. With the combination of these two, most dungeons wouldn’t be able to hold them back.

"Don’t worry, the Arsenal isn’t as easy as it seems," Lu Li laughed.