The Great Thief

Lu Li did not intend to the correct the Highlord Demitrian’s three views. He wasn’t familiar with the Orcs anyways. He just watched as the Spirit Casting technique was used.

“What do you think of my collection?” Highlord Demitrian seemed quite content with it.

It was large in number, and was also quite diverse. All the items he had collected over the years were stored here. There were some that had been obtained only after fighting tooth and nail to defeat a very powerful monster.

“Well, there is quite a lot.”

That was all Lu Li could say about it.

He didn’t want to deliberately offend the NPC, but he also didn’t want to flatter him baselessly. There were quite a lot of different souls here – after all, it was the collection of a Spirit Casting master.

However, there were many souls that were very low levelled. From the players’ perspective, these were just ordinary monsters. The better ones were just Elite monsters, which was still quite bad.

“Well, I guess I am too timid. I fear death too much to provoke stronger beings,” Highlord Demitrian said with a wry smile. “The one time I had the courage to fight something stronger, I ran into the Wind Wielder, the son of Al’akir.

“That is just bad luck,” Lu Li agreed.

“Even a powerful prince of the wind does not wield a Demi-God weapon. It seems like there is no hope left for me in this life either. I hope you can carry forwards the art of Spirit Casting. If you make a Demi-God item one day, please let me see it. Then, I will know that taking you as a disciple was not in vain,” Highlord Demitrian said.

“I will not let you down,” Lu Li promised, overjoyed.

The System then prompted him to learn Spirit Casting. This artform had three skills. The first was Soul Collection, which could be used after killing a target. There was a certain probability that the target’s soul would be captured.

But why was it chanced based? Lu Li instantly felt like this Soul Collection skill would be very difficult for him.

The second skill was the core skill, which was simply called Spirit Casting. It could inject a soul into a piece of equipment as it was being produced. It was also worth mentioning that this process had a certain probability as well.

In addition to general luck, there were a number of factors that would affect the probability in positive and negative ways. These involved the materials, the technique of the player and so on.

There was also a skill called Soul Synthesis, which combined two or more souls into a more powerful soul. This was also chance based, and was affected by the compatibility of the two souls.

If it was the soul of an Orc being merged with a human soul, the process would definitely fail.

“This is something that our Spirit Casting master has passed down. It has sealed countless souls. I thought I would seal myself in one day, but now that it belongs to you, let me find death in peace.”

Highlord Demitrian was rubbing a badge as he spoke, before reluctantly giving it to Lu Li.

Spirit Casting Badge (Special): All Attributes +200: Spirit Casting Success Rate +50%, Soul Collection Success Rate +30%, Soul Synthesis Success Rate +30%. Exclusive item for Spirit Casting players. Durability 400/400.

Lu Li let out a long sigh of relief.

After learning about the Spirit Casting skills, he had been quite embarrassed. Why were they all chanced based events? Lu Li was always unfortunate when it came to these.

He had already mentally prepared himself for the worst.

If the success rate was low, it just meant that he had to do more grinding. Since he was fighting stronger and stronger monsters, there were plenty of opportunities for him to collect and synthesise souls.

He would have been happy for one to succeed for each 100 attempts.

However, he didn’t expect that this stingy master would actually give him such a valuable item, one that would directly increase his success rate.

In fact, Lu Li thought that the Spirit Casting skills now had a reasonable success rate. There was nothing out there that had 100% success rate anyway. However, before long, he would find out why Highlord Demitrian, a great Spirit Casting teacher, would be enslaved by the winds.

After passing Spirit Casting onto Lu Li, Azure Sea Breeze also gained some equipment and the quest was now complete.

Azure Sea Breeze wanted to show off his new weapon to someone else and Lu Li couldn’t wait to try this great Spirit Casting technique. Neither of the two brothers planned to stay in that place, so both rushed off to do their own thing.

Lu Li wasn’t someone who would bite off more than he could chew. He didn’t think immediately think that he would try to kill Ragnaros the Firelord to capture his soul. He had to become proficient at the three skills he had learnt first. This was equivalent to starting in a new Trade Skill.

As such, he travelled to the Novice Village to find a Shadowmaw Panther.

There was a bit of a ruckus with the team responsible for regulating the game. They weren’t sure if there was anything wrong with Spirit Casting being triggered now, even though it was intended to be discovered a bit later. All they could really do was contact the company.

“Spirit Casting has been discovered by the players.”

This simple statement was enough gain to attention of the higher-ups.

“How did this happen so quickly?! I thought the triggering condition was very difficult. Which professional NPC triggered the quest?”

The design director responsible for Dawn was the last to enter. In a room filled with design experts, it was only now that they found the courage to speak up.

“Highlord Demitrian!” the team leader stood up and reported.

“Isn’t that the Thunderfury Quest NPC?” Isn’t that the hardest one to trigger? Whose luck was that good?” the design director asked with widened eyes.

Highlord Demitrian was a quest NPC that issued cyclic quests.

This kind of NPC would have its memory reset in various stages, so you couldn’t just farm it. It wasn’t even clear that you could learn Spirit Casting from him.

“It was Lu Li,” the team leader answered helplessly. “We thought he was locked in because he was doing the Thunderfury quest.”

“Oh, so he completed the Thunderfury quest?” the director asked curiously.

“Yes, he completed it. Azure Sea Breeze now has the first Thunderfury.”

The monitoring team wasn’t allowed to play given their restrictions, but they were still obsessed with the game. As such, they understood the value of Thunderfury more than ordinary players.

The director began to give his advice.

“It is a little faster than we expected. See if you can increase the difficulty of the Thunderfury Quest. Not all Thunderfuries are Epic equips, right?”

“Director, now is not the time to discuss this. Spirit Casting is the problem. Aren’t you worried about the spreading of Epic equipment or even a Demi-God item? They are only at level 60 right now!”

One of the teams couldn’t hold it in any longer. Thunderfury was indeed an exquisite item, but it was too difficult to acquire so it wouldn’t affect game balance.

Spirit Casting was different. It could produce a lot of Epic equipment.

“There is nothing to worry about. If it was Remnant Dream, I would be losing sleep. As for Lu Li, let him try his best,” the design director yawned, clearly indicating his disagreement.