The Great Thief

After the formalities were completed, Lu Li was informed of where he would be on duty. He was also directed to his dorm in the back of the Professions Hall.

Lu Li didn’t plan to live in that dorm. There were so many people that might blow his cover, because he couldn’t just stay there the whole time like a normal NPC would.

The person in charge of the dorms didn’t mind too much, but he was still happy to assign a room.

Lu Li had rented a house in the residential building opposite of the Professions Hall. The landlord was the owner of the bakery below. The owner didn’t really have much to say to handsome Mediterranean man and was just focused on the bakery.

The place where Lu Li was on duty was in the corner of the Professions Hall.

There was a whole row of professional trainers from various professions, not just Thieves. As such, he could leave at any time, but he needed to make sure that he completed enough work each week.

The main task of a professional trainer was to teach, and issue quests occasionally.

Lu Li’s booklet would constantly refresh with a variety of different quests. Occasionally, there would be places where another NPC-issued quest involved him, and he would be asked to be at those places for the player to continue.

Of course, there was still no obligation for him to go there. The professional trainers generally led a pretty relaxed life.

Lu Li was satisfied with those rules. His only concern was that the quests would affect other aspects of Dawn. After all, he was a very busy person. He had to manage the club and the guild, he needed to level in Instance Dungeons and there was also… Water Fairy.

The players that saw Lu Li entering the city immediately rushed over.

“Uncle, do you need help with anything?”

“Please, I’m not your uncle. Look at you – if anything, you would be the uncle,” he inwardly thought. Lu Li wanted to throw up, but he didn’t reveal anything on his face.

“I’m sorry, if you need to find a professional trainer, then the Paladin professional trainer will definitely be helpful to you,” he said gently.

The implication was that since he was a Paladin, he had no business receiving quests from a Thief professional trainer.

There were a few other non-Thief players that tried the same thing and got the same result. This was unsurprising for someone like Ed Harris, but even when there were some Thieves that expressed their interest, the quests that they received were relatively menial, so they felt like it was a waste of their time.

Ed Harris, who was originally surrounded by a crowd of players, was soon left alone.

“Hello, I want to learn some skills.”

A young Thief had come in from the outside and made a few rounds of the professional trainers before coming to Lu Li.

“Oh, good child, what skills do you want to learn?”

Since it was their first interaction, Lu Li tried to be kind. Thanks to the handsome Mediterranean look he had, he wasn’t too intimidating.

“Backhand Backstab. How much does that cost?” the little Thief asked, trying not to be too nervous.

“13 Silver coins, thank you,” Lu Li said after he glanced at his booklet which read, ‘Backhand Backstab – for a young player – 13-15 silver coins.’

Different Prestige, Charisma and Luck values would affect the final pricing. These were the factors that were considered by the NPCs when issuing prices. The price listed was between 13-15 silver and if he wanted to charge more he could.

Lu Li didn’t really care about some silver coins, so he just charged the lowest amount.

Backhand Backstab was a skill that wasn’t taught by the professional trainers in the beginning. However, as the game progressed, the number of skills that the professional trainers were allowed to teach increased while the amount of gold required to learn them decreased.

Of course, the players who had entered the game earlier were dissatisfied about this, but the customer service reply was quite simple.

“You could have just waited, as the skills you wanted would become cheaper in future as well.”

The young player heard the price and let out a sigh. It seemed as though he wasn’t that rich.

“Here are 13 silver coins.”

Lu Li taught the player Backhand Backstab following the procedure listed on the booklet. It was fairly easy and quick to complete.

There was a System prompt for the young player to learn Backhand Backstab, and Lu Li also receive a prompt to say that it was successful.

The System then prompted Lu Li that he had gained some EXP and Prestige. It wasn’t that much compared to what he had acquired before, but it was still worthwhile considering the effort required.

Lu Li suddenly felt compassionate and called out to the player that had just learned the skill and was about to leave.

“Wait a minute.”

“Is there anything else, Mr Harris?” the little Thief asked as he ran back to him obediently.

“Do you see that wooden stake? Go and attack it with your newly learned Backhand Backstab.” Each professional trainer had a field behind him with four wooden stakes that were designed to measure the player’s DPS, Skill Completion, Skill effects and more.

“Alright, Mr Harris.”

The young Thief was a bit immature, but he definitely wasn’t stupid. When he realized that he was receiving some coaching, his eyes lit up.

The young player was in Automatic Mode. Although Automatic Mode didn’t have the Skill Completion stat, there were some clear upper and lower limits that would be enforced. As usual, a more precise attack would allow the player to deal more damage.

First, the player used some normal skills to gain some combo points before casting the skill for 126 damage.

The face of the young player was clearly disappointed with the damage of this Ultimate Skill. After all, the normal skills that he had cast to gain the combo points also dealt damage like this.

This was his first Ultimate Skill, and it had been quite underwhelming.

His idea of gaining a power-spike had been completely foiled.

“Sorry, Mr Harris, I have let you down.”

At least the young player was polite, even though he thought he was just interacting with an NPC.

“My child, please do not lose hope,” Lu Li said warmly.

He came over and took the dagger from the young player and switched back to Automatic Mode. He used a few skills to gain some combo points before casting a normal Backhand Backstab.

The damage that resulted was so exaggerated that the young player couldn’t keep his mouth closed.

“Did you see that?” Lu Li asked.

The young player nodded dumbly. He saw how Lu Li had moved and had learned a lot from it.

“Go my child. May your dagger be sharp forever.”

Lu Li returned the weapon to the young player and slowly walked back to his position. He had a wise expression on his face as he rubbed his chin of stubble. He had just perfectly demonstrated himself as a master.