The Great Thief

Upon defeating Stellar Union, Ruling Sword had gathered enough points to advance them into the top 100.

Even if they didn’t play their next four matches, they would still be promoted, but no guild would choose this option.

The matches were not long, so it didn’t make much sense to sacrifice that time to go levelling.

Participating in the competition could train a guild’s players, not only in technical skill but actual combat experience. That way, they would now what to do when a problem arose in circumstances that mattered.

Participating in the games was also a good way to make money, as the tickets were a good source of income.

In this era, professional gaming was never about the Championship reward. For most ordinary players, that money was impossible to reach in a life time. Even if they won the championship prize of 10 million, the money had to first be used for the guild. People flocked to players like Lu Li because of their generosity and charisma.

In addition, a sum of money also had to be left behind for the daily management of the guild.

The rest was divided between the various players in the club. The resulting amount was probably not more than 30-50 thousand dollars, which was not nearly enough for the players to fight this hard for.

The real prize was the fame – otherwise the gaming circle wouldn’t be so important to the star players.

The phrase ’star’ was not only a grant of popularity, but also conferred a number of benefits. The way that competitive players gathered fame was different to the way star players did it; they had to continually fight in matches to eventually solidify their stardom.

After the match, Lu Li went with Ruling Sword to start their third expedition to the Trial Tower.

The forest was still just as threatening here, and some players died on the way there. Yesterday, there was a group from a large group that was completely annihilated here. They had unfortunately met a level 60 Boss that was said to be a fallen red dragon.

However, this was not enough to discourage the players. The Trial Tower not only gave them EXP and Prestige, but could also give them great items as rewards.

The biggest advantage that Ruling Sword had compared to the other guilds was Sesame Rice Ball. His summoning skill had played a huge role in transporting the guild to take First Clears. There were only four guilds in all of China that had this skill – Ruling Sword, Drizzle Court, Glory Capital and Wings of Dawn.

These four guilds could easily transport their guild members to enjoy the EXP and rewards of this dungeon.

However, Lu Li knew that this situation wouldn’t last much longer.

The officials wouldn’t allow this to continue – otherwise the distance between the four guilds and the others would grow too far.

This time, Lu Li went into the tower alone. In the first few floors, he didn’t receive anything worthwhile, but after clearing all the monsters on the fourth floor, he got a scroll. It was a quest scroll and its name was ’Hameya’s Plea’.

Lu Li didn’t rush to open it up, and instead continued to fight on the fifth floor.

The fifth floor of monsters weren’t greater than level 40 and were all common monsters. Even the final quasi-Boss wasn’t difficult for Lu Li, who was awarded an SS evaluation for his efforts.

When Lu Li had first farmed the Trial Tower, he received many good items, but his subsequent attempts had not been nearly as good. He just hoped that this last draw rewarded him with something rare.

When the Skill Book ’Rupture’ appeared in his hands, he watched as the points he spent dissipated. This was quite an exquisite skill, so his heart was very satisfied with what he had received.

Rupture was an ultimate skill that could be used after a certain number of combo points.

Its final effect was continuous damage, which was extremely useful for Thieves in certain situations.

Lu Li was not able to farm level 50 monsters yet, so the sixth floor of level 45 monsters was his last opportunity. The last time he was here, he didn’t make it past this floor, but he had learned a few things. This time, he had brought many potions with him.

After a hard-fought battle, the System prompted him that he had received a D evaluation. Although his score wasn’t high, he had managed to clear the floor in time.

Unfortunately, he didn’t receive an item he wanted. To be honest, no other players would think this of the level 45 floor of the Trial Tower. The items that could be dropped were surprisingly good; it was just that the two Gold items weren’t enough to draw Lu Li’s attention.

The Trial Tower reward from this week was not just EXP; he had also received some kind of treasure map.

After opening it up, Lu Li quickly realized that it had to do with Mossflayer.

Mossflayer was a division of the Amani Empire that had arisen after the Troll War. Like other forest Trolls, Mossflayer had formed an alliance with the Horde between the two wars. When the Horde was defeated, Zul’Jin disappeared and the Forest Trolls abandoned their allies.

Because of the Horde’s shameful defeat, the Mossflayers decided to cut off their relations with them.

These Trolls instead concentrated on driving the humans out of Lordaeron.

When the plague of the Undead began to spread over the continent, the Mossflayer quickly tasted the sweetness of the unfolding chaos because the plague only infected humans in the beginning. As the human defenses began to collapse, the Mossflayer slowly began to regain their hometown.

However, as the plague swept across the continent, the Trolls discovered that things were not as good as they had initially thought.

The once green hometown of the Mossflayer was now the northeast corner of the Eastern Plaguelands. There, the Undead Plants and animals were struggling with the plague. Although the environment had turned into a nightmare, the Trolls refused to give up their homeland.

However, they began to panic about their food and their safety.

A group of Trolls left base camp some time ago to find healthy food to bring back as most of the animals had been infected by the plague. Eventually, they came across some animals that seemed a little ill. They slaughtered those animals and brought them back to the camp for a feast.

Unfortunately for the Trolls, those animals had been infected by a powerful Lich.

All living things that ate those creatures soon would soon become Undead as well. Soon, the Lich climbed through the ranks of the Undead Trolls and under its command, a vast majority of Undead Trolls built camps in the Southeast Corner of the Eastern Plaguelands.

These Undead Trolls had accepted a horrible quest from their new owner – return home to infect their remaining companions.

Hameya was one of the most powerful Trolls and the Lich had underestimated his strength. With the last of his willpower, Hameya scribbled some notes on a piece paper to give a reward to the adventurer who could complete his quest.

This was ’Hameya’s Plea’, which was considered to be a quest scroll or a treasure map.