The Great Thief

Lu Li rented a quiet room at Astrana. He had brought along a bunch of ingredients to start his Alchemy journey.

Alchemy could either fail or crit. If it failed, the ingredients used would disappear and the player’s HP would decrease. If it crit, the player’s HP would increase and it would yield double the amount of finished product.

System: You have successfully crafted 1 Intermediate Health Potion, Alchemy Proficiency +1

System: You have successfully crafted 1 Intermediate Health Potion, Alchemy Proficiency +1

The cooldown for using Intermediate Health Potion was, only a minute. Lu Li had been crafting for 2 hours and had more than 100 bottles. Overall, the chance to crit was much higher than the chance to fail. This was why he paid money to rent a room, instead of just crafting in a random location.

Out of his 100 Health Potions, Lu Li took 20 and listed them on the market for 1 Gold each.

What a scam!

Everyone was getting ripped off by him.

In his previous life, Snake Trust Grass sold for 3 or 4 Gold per set. This meant that the cost of making an Intermediate Potion was a little more than 10 silver. At the moment, the Auction Hall was only selling the Grass for a few silver coins per set.

He was spending less than a silver coin per Intermediate Health Potion, yet he was selling them for 1 gold each!

It was a rip-off, targeted at rich guilds.

He wasn’t worried about people not buying his potions, because all the big guilds were trying to clear the Death Mines. They could not wait to get their hands on Intermediate Health Potions. One gold per potion was considered reasonable for them.

Lu Li did not list all of them on the Auction Hall. It was a simple concept of supply versus demand – the rarer the item, the more he could sell it for. He could not let anyone else know that he could mass produce Intermediate Health Potions. Even if someone else were to farm the recipe, they would give it to their own guild first.

If there was demand, then there would be profit.

After he made the batch of potions, Lu Li repaired his worn-out equipment which cost him more than 1 gold. This was a small price to pay for the money he would gain from selling the potions.

After he finished his repairs, Lu Li left to find a Skill Trainer.

He tried to activate the quest, but was ignored many times by the Thief Skills Trainer.

Lu Li decided to give up and unwillingly took out his gold to level up his skills.

At LV14, he had 7 skill points. Previously, he had gained 1SP from the system for being the first player to level up a skill through practice. However, he had spent 1SP on his Unlock Spell so that he could open Steel treasure chests. As such, he was left with only 7 skill points.

Lu Li decided to max out Shadowstrike. It was the most basic skill for the Thief class and was also his most used skill. Shadowstrike would continue to be used later on, even after he learned new skills.

Backstab had to be upgraded as well. Mastery on Backstab had the potential to break armour, which was very useful for fighting bosses. Lu Li decided to add two SP to this skill.

Backhand Backstab was a commonly used ultimate skill. However, Lu Li found that Slit Throat dealt more damage. He decided to leave Backhand Backstab for now, choosing to consider levelling it up when he had received more SP.

He added one point to Slit Throat and saved the rest of his remaining SP for his future skills, such as Gale Step and Shadow Cloak.

“That’s 15 gold all together,” the old thief said expressionlessly.

Luckily, he had saved some money from before. Otherwise, he would not be able to level his skills, even though he had enough SP.

Shadow Strike: Instant Cast, Cooldown Time: 4 seconds. Deals 100 damage to the target, as well as 200% weapon attack damage. Awards 1 Combo Point. Level: 5/5.

This was a massive difference. After he levelled up the skill, the damage had more than doubled.

Backstab and Slit Throat had also become stronger. However, the difference was less obvious when compared to Shadowstrike. No one was willing to spend so many SP points on a single skill.

After he had finished preparing, Lu Li headed off to the Fire Scar Temple.

Azure Sea Breeze and a few other people had already entered. Lu Li saw the remains of dead bodies littered through the temple courts, as he made his way through the area.

Occasionally, he came across some patrolling Hell Hounds.

Hell Hounds were demons that took the form of big dogs and were the untamed version of the Mage’s Hell Hounds.

They were the minions of the Dog King Harka and had very bad eye sight. Hell Hounds could accurately sense any surrounding magic and would use this ability to hunt their prey.

Since Lu Li was a thief, they passed by him unknowingly. This didn’t matter, however, as he killed them because they were good EXP.

Eventually, he came to the place where Demon Warlock Akereus spawned.

Azure Sea Breeze and the others were nearby killing mobs. When they saw that Lu Li had arrived, they quickly finished off their targets and gathered together.

“Aren’t you going to say anything?” Azure Sea Breeze asked.

“I’ve never killed it. What can I say?” Lu Li handed out the Intermediate Health Potions and applied the poison he had found to his dagger.

He had saved this poison for a time of need. Today was that time.

Akereus had a massive body, with hooved feet and crimson wings that extended from his back. He wielded a green, burning sword and wore an Archimonde Insignia Breast Plate. In some ways, Akereus looked more awesome than the Cynocephali Elder.

Azure Sea Breeze approached the boss carefully. Akereus opened his eyes slowly, which looked sinisterly empty and radiated a green light.

“Team, let’s get him!” Azure Sea Breeze cried out loudly and charged towards the boss with his shield and sword.

Lu Li had already snuck behind the boss, and when Azure Sea Breeze had built up enough aggro, he used Cheap Shot.

Immune!

Now he remembered; demon monsters were immune to stuns.

He had no other choice but to fight him head-on.

System: Shadow Strike Skill Completion 91%, resulting in 160% Skill Damage and stunning the target for 2 seconds.

Although the Boss was still stun-immune, the damage that this dealt was still very high. The numbers that appeared above Akereus shocked everyone.

“Why do you do triple my damage?!” Lonesome Flower was truly astonished – he thought that his equipment was a similar level to Lu Li’s. He had Silver Grade equipment, but his damage was much lower.

“Akereus is immune to 20% of magic damage dealt,” Lu Li explained.

“That still doesn’t explain why you do triple my damage, big bro. My magic damage is damn high.” Lonesome Flower felt like he was a failure in the eyes of little sister.

“My Shadow Strike Completion is at 90%, so it deals 160% Skill Damage. Plus, my skill is already maxed.”

In front of his team mates, Lu Li had nothing to hide.

At 160% Skill Damage, his Shadowstrike was dealing the same damage as a critical hit.

“Why did you put all your SP on a trash beginner skill?” Azure Sea Breeze also did not understand.

“There are no trash skills in Dawn; everyone has a skill they use the most. If you want to be a pro, you have to max the skill you use the most,” Lu Li said, as he corrected their misunderstanding.

Traditionally, in online games, beginner skills would be replaced by higher level skills later on.

Dawn on the other hand was completely different. Shadowstrike would always be used by Thieves. A Magician’s Frostbolt would always be their main skill. For Priest’s, Flash Heal was their most reliable healing skill. Finally, if you took out a Hunter’s Arcane Shot, they wouldn’t be able to fight mobs.