The Great Thief

Lu Li helped Fred assemble together enough samples, and then they both happily went through the marsh back home. Fred was able to avoid the traps better than Lu Li— being able to avoid all the traps but not the well was a talent.

Seeing Lu Li bring Fred back home, the whole Cenarion refuge erupted with excitement. Their only missing brother had come back, and there was no doubt that Lu Li had become a hero in everyone’s eyes.

Lu Li got another massive heap of XP again.

After a bit of rest and reorganization, it was the afternoon, and Druids who were still celebrating got a report from the sentries— there were Naga all over the place!

“What do they want?” Lethyn Moonfire asked angrily.

Hamoot was a strong, war loving Tauren who had a broken horn. He was the refuge Warden responsible for defending the refuge, while other Druids were busy researching plants and surveying the lake. He jumped right in saying, “I have been telling you, those Naga aren’t going to be peaceful with us. They’re a bunch of people who’ve lost their brains.”

“The Naga are greedy and never reasonable. They’re not coming here to be guests, there’s a real chance they’re coming to attack the refuge. If we don’t want to become homeless, the best thing to do is take up your weapons and kill off the invading enemies. Druids can do more than just magic tricks.”

Lethyn Moonfire gave Lu Li a glare. Evidently, he wasn’t happy with how Lu Li defined Druids. But he still nodded his head, “Hamoot, the safety of the refuge is in your hands.”

There weren’t many Druids capable of fighting. Including Fred, there were only 18 of them, and they were led by Hamoot. Soon, they finished their preparations for battle. Everyone could already see the vague silhouettes of the Naga in the distance. The perimeter of the refuge was very secure. Those Druids who were good at plant-type natural magic were really good at it. The only part which needed to be guarded was the refuge’s main door.

“Elf, are you willing to help us. Help us one more time.” Fred issued a quest to Lu Li.

Of course, Lu Li wouldn’t refuse. He had already gotten XP quite a few times today. Fred gave it to him twice, and he got two more after he returned to the camp. Now, he was about to receive it for the fifth time. Turned out the Cenarion refuge was a really easy neutral camp to earn XP in.

After receiving the quest, Lu Li became the 19th fighting member of the refuge. Generally speaking, the Naga had scaled human bodies and the lower half of their body looked like a python. They could breathe underwater or on dry land.

The first to appear were male Naga. Female Naga were tall and thin, with thin, pointy scales, horns on their head and usually at least four limbs. Because of some unknown reason, female Naga were better than males at preserving their memories and character before the big disaster. Because of this, they were more intelligent and had stronger magic than the males.

That’s why the Naga were a matrilineal race.

Male Naga were physically bigger and stronger than female Naga, and they had more beastly features. They had facial features similar to dragons, and their muscles were strong and tough. The scales on their body were bigger, thicker and heavier than the females.

Like Night Elves, Blood Elves and High Elves, Naga had a long lifespan. Some of them, mostly the female Naga, could even live forever. The male Naga served as cannon fodder, while a few female Naga gave orders to the cannon fodder from a distance.

Most Naga had already lost the ability to use language. When they attacked, they made strange sounds that sounded unnerving and shrill; it was even said that this sound could be heard across the oceans.

Lu Li sneaked out of the refuge. He was a Thief so standing guard at the door wasn’t his strong suit. He noticed that there was a progress bar above his own quest, number killed 0/100. This also meant that he couldn’t just slack off during battle, he needed to kill a certain number of Naga.

In an out of the way place, Lu Li successfully Cheap Shot Naga and realised that their HP and defence was pretty scary.

The monsters in the Outland shouldn’t be messed with unless you reached a certain level, or you had a whole set of Exquisite equipment on you. Lu Li’s equipment was not bad, but worlds away from Exquisite level equipment. So in this difficult situation, he didn’t have much choice but to escape back to the Cenarion refuge.

“Comrade, you’ve got to learn to keep our formation,” Warden Hamoot lectured sternly.

At this, Lu Li saw that Hamoot and the Druids had pulled out crossbows one after the other from the undergrowth next to the fence. If Lu Li had guessed right, these were Draenor’s moderately famous ballistae.

“Two in a group. Listen to my orders,” Warden Hamoot announced.

“Let’s be in a group,” Lu Li took Fred’s arm. When the other NPCs saw this, they didn’t really say anything. It was because Lu Li had once saved Fred’s life that he reluctantly saved him some face.

Fred taught Lu Li how to use the ballista, and Lu Li learnt very quickly.

“Brother, you’re still very weak. You can just be an assistant, let me control the ballista,” Lu Li pretended to really care about him. Actually, it was because he wouldn’t get any XP if he was the assistant. The killing needed for the quest wouldn’t be counted for him.

“Thank you. You really are a good person,”

Whoosh! Lu Li’s first ever shot!

“Nice!” Everyone praised him.

He shot the target with his first shot and killed the target right away. This really changed their impression of Lu Li.

Lu Li opened his mouth, but in the end, he just laughed shyly and modestly. Actually, the arrow was clearly aimed right at a big Naga, but for some reason, the shot landed on one next to it. Good thing it hit, how it got there didn’t matter.

The next few times, Lu Li chose to aim at an area where the Naga were together relatively densely. Though he was randomly shooting, he still killed almost ten of them.

“Mage! A Mage is coming!” The Druids suddenly got worked up.

Lu Li saw that there were a few ones which were relatively petite, they fit the human aesthetics of a pretty girl. These Naga came over while carrying a long staff in their hands. Ice crystals froze on the ground that they walked on; you could see how strong their magic was.

The old Mages had come, and they needed to be killed!

Lu Li adjusted the ballista, aimed right at a mage and shot. Mages were weaker than warriors, it should be a bit easier to kill them.