The Great Thief

”Finally… we’ve got it. You call me unlucky, but your luck is just as terrible,” Lu Li panted as his hands grasped onto their target.

Countless Troll corpses laid behind him, but not a single equip had dropped.

His bad luck, or rather, their bad luck, had been with them during this whole process. Moonlight was quiet; his luck wasn’t any better than Lu Li’s.

”Let’s go.” Lu Li summoned his mount and charged out first. This was a terrible place for them, so he didn’t want to stay any longer.

Moonlight had his own mount too – it was a dark-grey, armored warhorse, and was a reward that honored his champion position in Warsong Valley during the first week.

Not only did he enjoy PVP, but he also had the technique and great team members to support himself with it. His number of kills easily surpassed the average PVP players.

These mounts were limited to one per week, and everyone only had one chance. Fat Monkey had been spending a lot of his time in the battlegrounds and was aiming for the champion position of this week.

Lu Li wasn’t interested – he didn’t have time to go to the battleground anyway.

The second step was to recharge the energy of Zul’Farrak Hammer at Jintha’Alor Altar. Lu Li sent Moonlight to help the others with their quests; it was best that he went to recharge the hammer by himself.

A dark-red crow flapped its wings and rose into the sky.

Moonlight could only watch in envy as Lu Li flew away. He wanted to this skill too, but there were only a handful of players who could fly, and each of them had their own unique story behind their abilities.

Giant Gryphons patrolled the air of the Hinterlands, but these Gryphons had a strong relationship with the Wildhammer Dwarfs. They weren’t wild monsters that would attack him at random, so he could fly straight to Jintha’Alor Altar. Otherwise, he would have to clear his way through the monsters below it.

Of course, he had to watch out for the Troll archers, so he didn’t dare to fly too low.

Some of these Trolls had kept their habits of eating humans, and even though Lu Li’s crow form wasn’t much to feed on, it was still food. These Trolls were savages who wouldn’t give up any prey that came knocking at their door.

It was quite dangerous for Lu Li to fly in crow form since it had zero armor.

Any attacks that landed on him would be equivalent to a critical strike. The Troll archers that were right under him were around level 40 and had high attack attributes. They could kill him within three to five hits.

Lu Li had been hesitating about leveling up his crow transformation skill. Would leveling up the skill give him any extra defense, or should he visit Medivh again?

Although he no longer had his Bloodstained Badge, he knew plenty of excuses that he could use to reach out to the old Mage. Not to mention, Aegwynn’s Enchanting Book was an exquisite item, and contained the knowledge of an Archmage. Its value wasn’t so little that a simple badge and flying skill would be able to compensate for it.

While Lu Li plotted on how he could possibly profit more from the legendary Archmage, he also landed carefully on the altar.

”Friend, have you come to rescue me?” a Troll that had been tied up whispered.

The altar was more of a stone plaza with a stone coffin and a giant anvil in the center. It had a simple design and the NPC that just spoke was linked with a fairly good quest.

This was a Troll Elder, but he wasn’t from the Vilebranch – he was a Revantusk Troll.

The difference between the Troll tribes was a complex thing to understand. If Lu Li hadn’t read enough books in his past life, he probably wouldn’t have understood their history.

As descendants of the Amani Empire, the Vilebranch returned to their ancestors’ home after the war.

They discovered that the Raventusk Trolls had taken their homeland first, so they built Jintha’Alor on the other side. It was a Troll kingdom that was second in size compared to the Amani Empire.

Compared to the other Trolls, the Vilebranch Trolls were more passionate about their worship of Hakkar, the God of Blood. Although they looked down on the Revantusk Trolls, the Vilebranch Trolls didn’t hold too much of a grudge against their homeland being taken by them. It seemed as if they didn’t hold a grudge because they were both Troll tribes, but they actually sacrificed Revantusk Trolls to Hakkar.

The poor Revantusk Troll before Lu Li was about to be used as a sacrifice, and was an elder from his tribe too.

Players would constantly receive quests from this Troll Elder to rescue him. He seemed to be a figure of importance and the Revantusk tribe would do anything to save him.

There were no guards on the altar — the Vilebranch Trolls were confident about their defense.

Lu Li agreed that they had a strong defense; it wasn’t an easy task to make it through the army of Trolls below the mountain. As for the Wildhammer Dwarves invading with their Gryphons...

This was why Lu Li didn’t secretly release the Troll Elder.

Although it seemed like it would be easy to release him, he was actually bound by the spell of the Evil Priestess Hexx. Once the spell was broken, the priestess would suddenly appear.

The priestess was a level 40 Boss of a whole tribe; Lu Li would be killed in an instant.

”Are you afraid of these demons too?” the Troll Elder asked, then continued as if he was about to cry, ”Brave one, what changed your fierce passion into cold ice?”

”Don’t be hasty,” Lu Li said as he pulled out the Zul’Farrak Hammer and charged it using the giant anvil. ”I’m not strong enough to save you right now. Let me go and find some of my friends. We’ll return to save you,” he comforted.

Lu Li was worried that the NPC would cause a ruckus and send the guards running here, but he wasn’t lying entirely either.

After the players in the guild levelled up, Lu Li would definitely bring them to slay the Evil Priestess Hexx. They would be able to save this Troll Elder then.

”Will I be able to see the full moon of tomorrow?” the Troll Elder sobbed as he bowed his head in great sorrow.

”Trust me, you can. I promise you in the name of the Moon Goddess that I’ll return as soon as possible to save you,” Lu Li sincerely said.

”I believe you, Elf.” The Troll Elder was touched. There was no need to question an Elf who made a promise using the name of the Moon Goddess.

If he continued to question Lu Li, then Lu Li would have a reason to kill him.

In the background story of Dawn, questioning an individual’s religion was no different to slaughtering their whole family.

Lu Li had finally finished recharging the Zul’Farrak Hammer and was in the mood to make up stories for the Troll Elder.

”I’ll tell you the truth. I have a great bunch of comrades who are also adventurers. We’re plotting to raise a war against these killers.”

”That’s perfect,” the Troll Elder said with hope in his eyes, then hesitated and continued, ”I’ve stayed in a little cave north from here for a while. It’s on a little mountain. You can go and search it; I’ve left a little box there. If the box hasn’t been stolen by beasts, perhaps its contents will be of some help for you.”