The Great Thief

Lu Li decided to focus on the Howling Caves and worry about the future at a later point in time.

Apparently, the fastest team in the Glory Capital had already taken down the fourth boss and was now trying to figure out how to take down the fifth boss. Most of the people from the Blood Red War Flag had either been placed at Meisnera’s Output or the Warsong Canyon. However, their PVE team was not affected by this and were also on the fourth boss.

The first clear not only rewarded better gear, but also represented the strength of a guild.

Guilds were picky right from the start with who they chose to accept. Then, from the thousands of guild members, they picked out the best to form their PVE teams. It would be a real shame if they still couldn’t beat a team formed by random players.

However, there were probably some benefits that could be taken before leaving this place.

Based on his memory, Lu Li assessed the terrain along the Stranglethorn Vale’s coastline. It didn’t take long for him to find a giant statue that stuck out from the waters.

Thousands of years had passed and things had changed as time went by. Only the statue that stood in the center of the city remained standing.

When the tides ebbed as they did now, it would be possible to see a tall Troll standing and looking up to the sky. It was hard to imagine what kind of power drove the barbaric cannibal tribes to create such a splendid piece of work.

What Lu Li had to do was dive under the water from here.

Seal Transformation!

The small seal shook his head, as if to adjust his eyesight, which was different to a human’s.

If Lu Li was only relying on Elixirs of Water Breathing, he would have a much smaller field of vision, unless if he could find some goggles.

Speaking of goggles, this seemed to be another area that an Engineer could greatly profit in.

Goggles were very useful – they blocked the wind when players were on mounts and increased vision when a player was underwater. Goggles of the best quality could even allow you to see in the dark.

Unfortunately, the blueprints for them didn’t drop often. Based on Lu Li’s memories, it seemed like stealing from the goblins was the only feasible option.

Soon, he was unable to think about other things. After diving about ten meters underwater, he saw some monsters – a bunch of Sharptooth Frenzies. These were a type of mutant piranhas and were incredibly ferocious.

Lu Li studied the surrounding environment and realized that there wasn’t a single path for him to cross safely. As such, he swallowed an Elixir of Water Breathing and changed back to his original form.

If he couldn’t avoid them, he would just have to make his way in by force.

Sharptooth Frenzies weren’t high level monsters; they were around LV25, with high Attack and average Defense.

One attack from Lu Li and would deal at least a hundred damage, while a five-star Slit Throat with the combination of a critical strike would deal around six or seven hundred damage.

After taking down a few Frenzies who stood in his way, Lu Li didn’t dare to stay any longer and quickly dived downwards.

Not long after he left, a mob of Sharptooth Frenzies swarmed the area, as they were very sensitive to the smell of blood.

The deeper the sea level, the darker the sea became, and even in the seal form, Lu Li was only able to see approximately ten yards in front of him.

The long bodies of the water plants drifted with the undercurrent, as harmless fish swam back and forth between them. Unidentified objects protruded from the soft sand of the seafloor, like little buildings.

A city had once stood here.

Through the erosion of time and the incubation of the seas, nothing had been left behind.

A few Murlocs swam around here that preyed on the many other sea creatures.

These, however, were not Lu Li’s target. He carefully searched and soon found what he had been looking for behind a building.

A giant clamshell!

It was a mussel that was the size of a house.

Based on how Dawn usually made their settings, the creature would at least be Boss level if it was still alive.

But now, it lay silently on the spot, not moving a single bit. The creature had been dead for many years already and obvious traces of time had been left behind on the surface of its shell.

Lu Li picked up a piece of rock and tapped it along the eroded lines of the clamshell.

It didn’t take long before he knocked off a huge chunk of shell.

He squeezed in from the hole that he knocked out and searched within the soft sand.

Lu Li was overjoyed to feel a sphere-shaped object with his hands, and he promptly grabbed it, then exited the giant mussel.

Blue Pearl: Production material.

Its description was simple, but Lu Li knew this was some good stuff.

Pearls were the most common material for making jewellery, and Blue Pearls were one of the best for this. Equipment made with Blue Pearls not only looked beautiful, but also had comparatively better attributes.

They were not a rare material, but were harder to obtain than average rare materials.

Only these kind of blue mussels would produce Blue Pearls, as the process took at least a hundred years.

Lu Li had wandered the seas outside of the Stranglethorn Vale for a few months in his previous life, which allowed him to gain a small fortune from them.

Currently, no one knew that there were blue pearls hidden within the seas nearby, which meant that he had no competition. Lu Li decided that he would thoroughly search this place.

Unfortunately, the refresh rate of this place was too low and some mussels didn’t even have anything inside of them.

After searching for about an hour, Lu Li had only managed to find five blue pearls, with two of them being average quality.

This was actually a pretty good result. In his past life, it would take him an entire day to reach this number. At that time, Lu Li wasn’t the only one searching underwater and it was quite common to accidentally run into players from the opposing faction.

“Oi, boss, what are you doing?” Azure Sea Breeze called as he logged on.

“I’m searching for pearls in the sea,” Lu Li replied.

“Wow, so much spare time in your hands. Are you finding these pearls to please girls?” Azure Sea Breeze teased.

“No,” Lu Li denied.

“Then are you gifting it to boys? Oh damn, boss, when did you start becoming gay?” Azure Sea Breeze yelled.

Lu Li, “……”

“Who’s gay? Who’s gay?” Judging from the volume, it was Hachi Chan.

“Whoever is gay isn’t even going to be chasing after you. Why are you so excited?” Azure Sea Breeze was left speechless.

“Have you two finally decided to date?” Hachi Chan asked in a hopeful tone.

“Prepare for the dungeon. Stay alert this time – I’m taking off points for every mistake,” Lu Li snapped.

“No way! Taking off points?” Azure Sea Breeze almost fainted on the spot. Whether he had made mistakes or not, he already had plenty of points taken off him.

“Take off points. Take off points!” Wandering had come online.

As the others also started logging on, Lu Li checked the time and started travelling towards the Howling Caves.

Everyone’s strength had greatly improved compared to last time.

Lu Li, Azure Sea Breeze and Lonesome Flower were all now LV23, while the others were all LV22, including Sakura Memories.

Level 23 would be enough to suppress the monsters in the Howling Caves (Heroic Mode).

The monsters that appeared along the way were cleared easily; it didn’t take long for the team to make it to the third boss – Pythas.

Pythas was originally childhood buddies with Naralex. His original name was Areon and he had amazing talent in the path of the Druids. He had even learned some Warrior skills.

This is what was so amazing about NPCs – it was as if class restrictions were only a decoration to them.

However, no matter how amazing he was, Areon had already lost his sanity.

After he fell, he changed his name and was now known as Pythas. With his new identity, he combined his close combat skills with his Druid knowledge, successfully becoming one of the most challenging bosses in the Howling Caves.

His signature skill was Thunderclap.