The Great Thief

”It must be from a girl then,” Elize said with a smile after a long pause. Lu Li thought that she had seen right through his lie.

How could you possibly tell whether a piece of equipment was crafted by a guy or a girl?

”Yes, Master Elize. Your wisdom brightens the world,” Lu Li said, trying his best to follow up. He even faked an embarrassed expression to make it appear more convincing.

”Love is great, no matter the age or the race. I give you my blessings,” Elize said as she examined Lu Li’s equipment.

”Thank you, and thank the Moon Goddess for blessing me with a reason for my heart to beat.” Lu Li never finished school and had no poetic talent. He had learned a lot of these deep and meaningful sayings from watching TV and managed to memorize them for these kind of situations.

Draenei in Eredun meant ’The Exiled Ones’. The Eredars had been hunted by Kil’jaeden for thousands of years. After running away, they visited multiple worlds and explored the vast universe in order to find a safe haven for themselves.

Their culture became very rich and sophisticated because of their nomadic lifestyle and colorful life experiences. Even though they went through incredible hardship, this didn’t stop their longing to find love.

Although Elize was a Tailoring Master, it didn’t take long for her to become an expert in her field. As such, she appeared to be a quiet, yet charming young lady.

”I can repair this piece of equipment for you, but I will require some additional materials,” Elize said with a serious tone. Even though she felt that this piece of equipment wasn’t worth her time, after hearing its background story, she knew that it would mean a lot to Lu Li.

You had to admit that Lu Li’s acting skills were quite good since he had managed to convince Elize.

”Thank you. Allow me to pay for all the expenses and materials required,” Lu Li said happily.

The quest was very close to being given to Lu Li at this point. After this, he would have to complete some side quests which would be a piece of cake considering his level and gear.

As expected, Elize began to hand out the quest.

”If you don’t mind, can you help me with some things?”

”It’s my honor to be able to serve you, my lady.” These quests were optional and didn’t affect the equipment repair. Many players would hesitate at this stage and miss out on the opportunity.

Lu Li’s main goal from the very beginning was to complete these optional quests. The armor reparation was simply an excuse to start a conversation.

”In Draenei villages, we like to recycle old fabrics and materials for patching up clothes or crafting light armor. However, most of my supplies were either stolen or destroyed in the recent raid,” Elize explained.

”May I ask who it was that invaded?” Lu Li asked as he faked a furious expression.

If a player offered to buy new materials or give their own material to Elize, she would coldly accept their kind gesture. However, she would be quite disappointed and not give any additional quests after she repaired their gear.

The phrase ’old material’ made it sound like trash, but this was just Elize’s way of describing any material that was left over. Leftover Dragon Leather from crafting Dragon Armor could still be classified ’old material’.

Besides, being frugal was one of the defining characteristics of Elize.

”It was those Blood Elves; they ambushed our spacecraft,” Elize said angrily.

When players reached level 70 and stood outside the walls of Stormwind, they could see a giant mothership from afar with three corners. Each corner of the mothership was occupied by one of the spaceships. However, one of the corners would be empty because that was where the Exodar had originated from.

Long ago, when the Blood Elves took over Stormwind, the Draenei attempted to escape on the Exodar. However, the engine of the Exodar was sabotaged by the Blood Elves, causing it to hurtle out of control through the Twisting Nether and introducing a new race to the world of Azeroth.

Lu Li knew about the history between the Blood Elves and Draeneis and decisively said, ”I’ll immediately set out to kill those treacherous Blood Elves and bring back your materials.”

”Umm.. killing them…” Elize never intended for Lu Li to go and seek revenge for them and said, ”There’s no need to kill them, as long as you bring back the materials. I… I don’t want to cause the loss of lives because of some old materials.”

Lu Li saw the grace and mercy that Elize exemplified, but did not agree with her way of thinking, so he decided to remain quiet.

”Ok, I’ll bring them back without shedding a drop of blood,” Lu Li promised as he bowed in respected and exited the Draenei hut. He then summoned his mount and went about his way.

In the more-remote South Western region of Azuremyst Isle was where the Blood Elf camp was situated. They worked as undercover spies and brought intel to Prince Kael’thas.

These Blood Elves were only Lv10 and they posed no threat to Lu Li at all. However, the difficult part of the mission was that he wasn’t allowed to harm them.

Since he had made a promise to Elize, he had to carry it out the best that he could.

To carry out an agreement of a promise was an unspoken rule in the world of Azeroth.

Since he was at a high-enough level, he could sap his target to stun it then use Pickpocket in order to steal the old materials. When the stun duration finished the Blood Elves were furious, but they couldn’t find the Thief because Lu Li had already escaped.

After stealing a few pieces of useless trash, he finally received a piece of ’Old Material’.

The developers were so lazy that they didn’t even give it another name. These items were completely useless outside of the quest.

Elize did not specify how many pieces she wanted and Lu Li didn’t ask. However, he had seen in a strategy guide that acquiring 30 pieces would allow you to proceed with the quest line, while 300 pieces would greatly increase your popularity with Elize. To gather 3000 pieces was completely unnecessary and excessive.

Based on the drop rate, 3000 pieces would take Lu Li more than an entire day.

Lu Li was careful from start to finish and never killed a Blood Elf.

Not being able to kill them and having to Pickpocket level 10 monsters was extremely boring and repetitive. Lu Li now understood why only a few Thieves would bother completing this quest.

The drop rate was low and the quest was unexciting. Besides, not many Thieves would learn Tailoring as their profession.

However, Lu Li’s intention was to impress March Rain – otherwise, only an idiot would bother wasting their time on this.