The Great Thief

Behind Lake Erie was the Howling Wolf Valley, but despite its name, it didn’t have any wolves. The wind blew around in the Felwood Forest, making it sound like the howl of wolves.

The fire monster Lord Magmasa sat on top of a stone pile within the Howling Wolf Valley, like a silly red quail.

It didn’t have much of a story – it had just lived for a long time.

The system gave the details of the monster, repeatedly showing a life and death story. Now, two players appeared in front of it.

“┗| ‘ O ’|┛ ROARRRR~” The fire monster stood up and let out a massive roar.

Because Lu Li was in a party with the quest recipient, he could also see this monster. He didn’t feel nervous at all – after all, this thing just seemed scary and wasn’t very strong.

Rare monsters were placed in a special category. Some rare monsters were as strong as Bosses or Heroes, while others were even weaker than normal monsters.

Magmasa was in the middle and was slightly stronger than an elite grade monster.

Iron Sword summoned his pet, a jumpy demon that most PVE Warlocks used. Lu Li thought that it would have been better if he used a Hellhound. After all, the fire monster was a melee, magic attacker. However, Iron Sword’s financial status probably wouldn’t permit the purchase of a Hellhound’s Contract.

“Are you in need of money?” Lu Li asked while attacking.

His attack was very high and most of Magmasa’s aggro fell on him. The amount of damage he was taking would be fatal for Iron Sword, but Lu Li didn’t care at all.

“I need money for my father’s treatment. He participated in the Indian War when he was younger…” Iron Sword hoarsely replied.

Lu Li was surprised. Normally, soldiers injured in battle would receive a pension. However, for those who fought in the Indian War, it was different. That massive war had been too cruel and many soldiers had become war criminals for killing civilians.

Iron Sword’s father was probably one of those people. Although they weren’t punished, they lost their status as soldiers and the corresponding benefits.

Iron Sword had previously been quite close to killing the monster and with Lu Li helping him, Magmasa quickly fell.

Two Steel grade equipment, one rare material and a quest item.

“I just want the quest item; you can have everything else. This quest has very good rewards.”

Iron Sword only picked up the quest item and offered everything else to Lu Li.

“I just want this,” Lu Li said as he picked up the rare material. “Helping you kill this monster wasn’t a big deal and this rare material is worth 50 gold coins. Plus, just having money doesn’t necessarily mean you can buy it.”

“Ah, it’s worth that much?” Iron Sword was shocked.

“What, are you regretting it now? If you want it, you can take it and sell it for 50 gold coins. You can do a lot with that money,” Lu Li said as he lightly threw the Lava Essence up and down in his hand.

Fifty gold coins was quite large sum of money for anyone, except for the rich tycoons who viewed money like dirt.

This was especially so for Iron Sword, who didn’t even have enough money to repair his equipment.

Anyone could see his internal conflict and regret.

“Never mind. What’s yours is yours. I never go back on my promises.”

In the end, Iron Sword let out a long breath and lightened up.

“In the future, if you need help with anything, just let me know,” Lu Li said as he sent a him a friend request. He had always respected soldiers and Iron Sword was a man of integrity.

Iron Sword accepted his friend request, but didn’t say much.

Although he had let go of a large sum of money, he was still filled with gratitude towards Lu Li. He felt that Lu Li wasn’t as arrogant or aloof as most people thought.

“Take these two pieces of equipment and sell them.”

Lu Li gave the two pieces of equipment to Iron Sword. He had seen the stats and saw that they were quite good. They could definitely be sold for a few gold coins.

“I’ll return to you the 2 gold coins that I borrowed after I sell them.” This time, Iron Sword didn’t refuse. Just because he had integrity didn’t mean he was an idiot. This was his quest and Lu Li was just helping him. Since Lu Li had taken the most valuable thing, he naturally couldn’t take any more.

“Ah, alright.” Lu Li respected this person, but also felt a bit speechless. He shook his head and started to channel his hearthstone.

If Iron Sword went back on his word, Lu Li would have bought the Lava Essence for 50 gold coins. After all, he required the Lava Essence to level up his Supreme Two Ring.

However, if that was the case, it would have simply been a business dealing between them. After receiving the Lava Essence, Lu Li wouldn’t have added Iron Sword as a friend, no matter how much he sympathised with him.

When he returned to Astrana, Lu Li went to the Exchange Hall and chose a few blueprints, then started forging again.

Engineering had taken up a few days of his time and although Forging was not easy, it wasn’t nearly as time-intensive. However, that was only if one had enough resources.

When Lu Li ran out of EXP from a blueprint, he would immediately switch to the next one. Lu Li didn’t really care that the blueprints were quite expensive.

With Cresso’s Hammer, the chance of forging good equipment was massively increased. He would be able to recover quite a bit of the money with the equipment he sold.

By investing unreservedly into Forging, Lu Li raised his Forging to Intermediate Level (120) in half a day.

In actuality, Hachi Chan’s Mold only required Intermediate Level (95). Lu Li spent hundreds of gold coins to raise his Forging to Intermediate Level (120) to increase the chance of success.

It wouldn’t matter if he failed at creating a normal piece of equipment, as he would just lose some materials. However, if he failed with the Mold, he would lose both the materials and the Mold.

As such, Lu Li was determined to succeed on his first try.

Hachi Chan had originally planned to watch him create her exquisite weapon. She demanded to postpone her profession upgrade quest to watch him forge. However, Lu Li had harshly rejected that idea, as he didn’t like being watched while he forged.

That was a reason a great master would give, and no one could refute it.

All of the materials, including the 2 rare materials, had been prepared. Lu Li rested for a while before starting. The process to forge a Magic Staff was quite complicated, but his hammer was a great help.

“Did you succeed? Did you succeed?” someone would periodically ask in the chat. This wasn’t only Hachi Chan – everyone else was very interested in this weapon.

“All of you shut up, or I’ll mute the chat,” Lu Li replied in frustration.

The chat instantly became silent.

Lu Li calmed down his breathing and used a burin covered with a metallic liquid to continue inscribing symbols on the staff.

He followed each step on the blueprint and soon, he had reached the final stages.

Lu Li’s breathing became ragged. He wasn’t sure if it was because of the heat from the furnace, or because he was too nervous. His forehead was covered with sweat and the thing that he dreaded most was hearing a system notification.

Despite this, there was nothing Lu Li could do to avoid hearing one.

As Lu Li used his forging hammer to do the final shaping for the Magic Branch, a system announcement sounded out after the final strike.

System: You have successfully created Umbranse’s Staff (Exquisite Silver grade), Forging EXP+1.

He had succeeded?

“I succeeded!” Lu Li yelled into the chat.

“Goddamn, the god weapon has been born. Hurry up and show us the stats,” Azure Sea Breeze excitedly said.

“Mine, mine, it’s mine!” Hachi Chan yelled.

Umbranse’s Staff (Exquisite Silver grade): 16-24 Attack, Intelligence+16, Constitution+4, Special Effect 1: Magic Critical Chance+13%, Special Effect 2: when casting a spell on a target, has a certain chance to increase/decrease target’s Defence by 20%, Level Requirement: LV20. Durability: 55/55.

It was actually an Exquisite Silver-grade equipment! The first time he had created a piece of equipment with a Mold had resulted in an Exquisite Silver-grade equipment!