The Great Thief

Anyone could accept a quest issued by the system.

All players who accepted the quest received a buff.

Meisnera’s Blessing: HP Recovery +20%, MP Recovery +20%, Damage to Elementals +20%.

What a buff!

The players all yelled out in joy, completely delighted.

“Everyone be careful. If you can survive, you’ll receive good rewards. If you can’t, you’ll lose EXP.” All of the players were completely confidently, but Lu Li could only coldly laugh.

“Oi, why’s this guy always so pessimistic?” Azure Sea Breeze asked as he nudged Wandering.

“How am I meant to know?” Wandering also felt that something was weird. He wasn’t a prophet, but just from logical reasoning, the game company couldn’t have designed such a massive event to be easily completed.

The Meisnera Outpost was the doorway to Astrana. It faced the southwest and bore most of the pressure from the coastline, Deadwind Pass, Warsong Valley and the Grey Valley.

This was especially so for the sea enemies, the Nagas, which had to be defended against.

The defence line at the outpost was made up of a formation consisting of millions of soldiers. Of course, there weren’t that many Night Elf Sentry Corps from the Grey Valley, but there were masses of players!

Millions of players were transported from various places in order to participate in the largest official event.

The quest was quite simple – it only required them to kill monsters, but even gave a buff.

Soon, their questions were answered. Five minutes after the quest was issued, the sound of a massive wave of water could be heard drawing near.

Wandering looked up and almost dropped his hammer.

The water elementals came from the southwest, but Wandering and the others were facing the east. Logically, there shouldn’t have been too many water elementals, and yet, all they could see in the distance were water elementals. Not even a single patch of grass or dirt was visible anymore.

“Goddamn, why are there so many? What do we do? Run?” Azure Sea Breeze’s legs went soft and he almost collapsed to the ground.

Even if all the monsters only attacked him once, he wouldn’t even be able to last for 3 seconds. No damage reduction skill in the world would be able to save him.

“Run, my ass. It’s all EXP.”

Lu Li, who had been quite serious, now looked relaxed. “March Rain, do your best to control the tempo. Hachi Chan, just use Rejuvenation and stay safe,” he commanded.

Rejuvenation was a heal-over-time skill, which could help keep them at a healthy HP level when they weren’t losing too much HP.

As he spoke, he continuously attacked water elementals.

Although he had lent his Bloodstained Badge to Azure Sea Breeze, his equipment gave him quite a lot of stats. He was also a higher level than the water elementals, so he was even more resilient than a normal Warrior.

Everyone else was dumbfounded.

Surely he wasn’t a Thief that had put all of his stats into Constitution? As they inwardly debated among themselves, they saw him kill a water elemental in 3 hits.

Goddamn, was that water elemental made of mud?

“Ah!”

The Healer of the team next to them wasn’t focusing and had forgotten to heal. Someone in their team had been killed by a water elemental.

Only then did they realise that the massive water elemental army had arrived. Everyone needed to pay attention, otherwise a single mistake could cost them their lives.

Water elementals were melee magic monsters. Their attacks dealt water damage and gave a Movement Speed debuff.

Suicidal people would often rush headfirst into battle and be drowned in the sea of water elementals. Lu Li’s group were more careful, and because they had the advantage of the terrain, they waited for the monsters to charge at them.

Lu Li had chosen this area himself. The slope was steep enough and they were surrounded by massive fir trees.

As such, they didn’t have to face as many monsters at once. In total, there were only 10 or so water elementals attacking Azure Sea Breeze at any given time.

With Lu Li distracting some at the side, the situation was fairly stable.

However, the other players weren’t so lucky. They had thought that they could simply receive free EXP by facing some LV20 monsters.

Because many of the teams were created on the spot and didn’t have good compositions, the players were continuously pushed back.

Capcoman: Blood-red War Flag’s Sixth Unit, shrink down the defence line towards me.

A message came up in the Region Channel. No one expected that the first guild to react would be the Blood Red War Flag.

Although the Light Faction didn’t have a super-guild like the Glory Capital, the Blood Red War Flag was still quite powerful, and was greater than the Gangnam Royals at times.

They had actually retreated against the sea of monsters.

The other guilds all followed suit and shrank down their defence lines. However, many players still turned into orbs of white light from the repeated assaults of the water elementals.

With the players retreating and the monsters advancing, not a single player had the opportunity to breathe in this battle.

“For the Moon Goddess!”

“Long live the Alliance!”

From the crowd of players, groups of suicide squads charged out and yelled as they blocked the monsters.

This was the first clash between the player and monster army, and resulted in tens of thousands of people turning into white light.

However, these people didn’t die for nothing. The players behind them had enough time to get into formation, as if they were attacking an Instance Dungeon.

Warriors, Knights and Druids roared as they advanced.

Flowers and Jade: I’m the commander of the Blood Red War Flag’s Second Unit. All players and guilds are currently facing a great danger. This is no longer EXP farming, but a battle. Behind us is the Meisnera Outpost, as well as our home. For the Alliance, let our clothes be stained with blood. The war flag will not fall!

Hornet’s Nest: The Seventh Heaven will defend the south.

Green Flag Wine: The Seventh Heaven will defend the west.

One by one, the guilds stood out and organised even more solid defence lines. As the solo players cooperated with the guilds’ experts, the players finally found a foothold and stopped retreating.

Vanish!

Lu Li was continuously hit by a few monsters. He almost lost his balance and had to resort to his Vanish skill.

Having lost their target, the monsters sprang towards Lonesome Flower, who was beside Lu Li. Lonesome Flower coldly harrumphed and activated his ice shield.

Lu Li took a few breaths, then dived back into the battle.

There was no such thing as an impenetrable defence line. Even with his abilities, he couldn’t guarantee that no monsters would make it past him. If the monsters charged into the crowd of players and attacked a magic profession player without decent equipment, they would be insta-killed.

Normal players weren’t like them, who were all over LV20.

“There’s something bad happening at the Warsong Valley. Have a look at the kindergarten chat,” Moonlight said to Lu Li.

Lu Li opened the muted chat and immediately heard Hornet’s Nest’s furious voice.

“Twilight, what’s the meaning of this?”

Twilight (Stellar Union): “I had no other choice. The NPC gave the order to destroy the Silverwing Outpost. Otherwise, why would my Stellar Union attack during such a bad time for you guys? We completely respect your bravery and hot-bloodedness.”

“Despicable!”

If the Meisnera Outpost was a doorway to Astrana, the Silverwing Outpost was the frontline of the Grey Valley, which prevented the Orcs from invading. It was also the place where players could buy consumables in the Warsong Valley.

In the chat, Blood Dagger (Glory Capital) cackled, “Our spies said that you’ve been levelling quite happily, so if we don’t do something quickly, we’ll be trampled on by you guys.”

Flowers and Jade: Glory Capital is powerful, but you’re nothing to me.

Blood Dagger: Lil Jade, I’m looking forward to getting hot and heavy with you at the Shadow Cup.

Zurich (Gale Legion): You can do your quest, so why can’t we do our quest? We’ve been pretty unhappy about the Silverwing Outpost for a while, so we’ll take this opportunity to get rid of it.

Water Fairy (Drizzle Court): You guys are so annoying. Is running your mouth all you can do?

The conversation went on and Lu Li inwardly sighed. They had finally stabilised this region and yet, the Horde was attacking the Alliance’s frontline outpost in the Warsong Valley.