The Great Thief

Translator: Exodus Tales Editor: Exodus Tales

Alcohol had long been demonised and portrayed as something negative.

However, ignoring all of that, there were still many people who liked to drink. Naturally, people cared much less about getting drunk in game.

Since this big festival was celebrated specifically for the invention of alcohol, then it also naturally wouldn’t be limited to one city or one race only. Although it was the Dwarves who started this celebration, it was now a festival shared by both the Alliance and the Horde. Every skilled alcohol brewer gathered in one place, sharing and comparing their brewing techniques with each other.

Allergic to alcohol?

This was no problem as the players could safely drink in game.

Enjoy being drunk?

This was also no problem. Since it was in game, the players would at the very most drop their equipment on the ground and let others pick it up.

Didn’t like to drink?

If this was indeed the case, then nothing more could be done. However, everyone enjoyed eating, right?

The name of the event was indeed Brewfest, but how could there be alcohol and no food?

This was a festival that celebrated both food and alcohol. Hungry foodies were able to try dishes from all corners of the world here.

Didn’t like to drink or eat?

Then what was the point of existing?

The cities flowed with free glasses of freshly brewed and frothy beer. In the outskirts of Ironforge and Orgrimmar, the tavern’s assistants would immediately refill your glass as soon as you put an empty one on the table. The barrels near the tavern counter could also be drunk from. Players didn’t need to worry about not being able to find a place to drink in an alcohol festival!

During the event, there would be hosts to lead you to the main area to conduct the festivities.

The event this time would reward some valuable items, as well as mounts that could be shown off. Players could undertake quests to experience the joys of the festival, win some gold and accumulate event currency to exchange for what they wanted.

Of course, Lu Li wouldn’t miss out on an event like this. Brewfest still had some worthwhile things to be gained. However, the key point was that there was a chance for skill points to be rewarded.

Besides the mounts and gold as rewards, the skill points alone were enough for players to go crazy.

It was rumoured that even drinking a glass of alcohol would have a chance at rewarding a skill point.

Although players who focused on Trade Professions didn’t need skill points, they would still happily take up the opportunity to let loose.

As for the casual players, they naturally gravitated to wherever there was activity.

The implementation of Brewfest in the game attracted all types of players.

As for Lu Li, his target was the skill points.

Of course, he wouldn’t try and obtain skill points the normal way, which was to drink glasses of beer. For someone as unlucky as he was, he probably wouldn’t even see a single skill point even after drinking himself to the verge of death.

In his previous life, he had already experienced two Brewfests.

Of course, Lu Li wouldn’t let Brewfest slip through his hands. He already knew how to complete the normal quests that were usually triggered by ordinary players.

As for the quest that was the most worthwhile, it was the Ram Racing!

Ram Racing was a quest that would be attempted by all players who participated in the festival. The trigger rate for this quest was almost 100%.

The rules of Ram Racing were extremely simple, to the point where even little children could quickly understand them. If your IQ couldn’t even compare to a child’s, then that was okay too. This quest could be attempted repeatedly without any penalties. On top of that, every completion would give rewards too.

However, the rewards would become worse and worse each time.

Therefore, if he wanted a skill point from Ram Racing, he would need to achieve good results in the first attempt.

In the outskirts of Ironforge, the Ram Racing Master Neill Ramstein constantly gave tips and strategies for Ram Racing. He had a Dwarf-like beard, but it was of a red colour and was so thick that it was almost preventing his mouth from moving.

As such, Neill Ramstein’s words were quite unclear.

There were some players who pushed ahead to the front to listen, but no one could stand the spit that flew everywhere as he spoke, as well as the strong and pungent smell of alcohol.

If he was interrupted to speak more clearly, this emotionally-impatient Dwarf would immediately kick the player away. Although there wouldn’t be damage dealt, no one wanted to try their luck, since no one wanted to look bad.

Therefore, there normally wouldn’t be many players bothering to listen to him.

It was simple enough to know how to do it after trying it once or observing how others did it.

There were also many others who were willing to tell the unknowing players how to control their rams.

Although Lu Li had already tried Ram Racing twice before, he didn’t know if the rules had changed as the game updated. This was why he quietly stood next to Neill Ramstein and listened to him speak over and over again.

There was a small training session before the real Ram Racing.

Neill Ramstein would give the players a herd of rams. Then, the players would climb up onto them, and the System would notify them to then control their own rams at a scampering speed, jogging speed or charging speed for 8 seconds each.

When a player signed up for Ram Racing, he or she would receive a rope for the race. If the player didn’t do anything, the ram would move forwards slowly by itself. If you pulled lightly on the right side once, the ram would start scampering. To enter a jogging speed, the player would need to tug the rope on the right side four times within three seconds of speeding up into a scamper. It was also in this state that fatigue would begin. Using the same system, if the rope was tugged on the right side four more times within three seconds of the slow jog, the ram would then enter a charging state. It was in this state that the ram was the fastest, which meant that the fatigue would set in at the highest rate.

When the fatigue reached 100, the ram would enter a fatigued state and would only be willing to move at a speed slower than the beginning speed. For comparison purposes, the speed would be slower than a player who was inflicted by a Thief’s top-grade disable poison.

To keep a ram at a constant speed, the players would need to tug on the rope every three seconds. This was the same for every speed. If the rope wasn’t tugged, the ram would start slowing down, eventually to a walking speed.

When the ram started slowing down from a faster speed, a tug on the rope every 3 seconds would allow it to maintain a constant speed and not slow down.

Lu Li had already mastered these mechanics and rules in his previous life. Although it had been a while, he just needed a few warmups to get back to his usual form.

Besides the basics, there were also other more complicated mechanics. These mechanics could only be discovered after a long period of research and investigation. Lu Li also had to figure them out slowly.

For example, when the ram was scampering, the increase in speed was approximately 30%, and also slowly decreased fatigue levels. If it was slow jogging, the increase in speed was around 60%, while the fatigue value increased at 1 point per second. If the ram was charging, the speed increase was 150%, while fatigue would increase by 5 points per second.

Besides slowing the ram down to a scamper, eating apples on the roadside also could lower fatigue.

This meant that during the race, if the players were able to control the ram effectively enough, they would be able to eat the apples and clear their fatigue completely.

If they could eat apples the whole way, the ram would be able to charge the whole way as well!

However, if there were no apples to be eaten, transitioning between scampering and slow jogging would be the most effective way of moving.

During training, the ram was given to them by Neill Ramstein. However, in the real race, the players needed to buy their own rams.

Pol Amberstill was a Dwarf with a large red beard. It was said that Dwarves were born with full beards when they exited the womb. Even a few female Dwarves had beards, but everyone was already used to them.

This crafty little Dwarf could earn 40 silver from every ram sold.

According to the current rates, that was around 30 dollars – 0.4 Gold was worth around 12 dollars. This amount of money could be used to go to a theme park and sit on a few of the rides there.

The worst part was that this ram was only usable for five minutes. It was impossible to finish two races in 5 minutes, no matter who was playing. Therefore, this meant that players could only use the ram to race once.

Even if players could somehow squeeze in a second race, it wouldn’t bode well for them. They could be coming first, but the ram would suddenly turn back to its owner.

Of course, Lu Li wouldn’t hold back this little bit of change. To at least break even on his investment into the ram, he would only need to enter top 20 in a race out of 100 players.

“Please give me a ram. Thanks,” Lu Li said as he transferred 40 silver.

“Hehe…Do you want a male or female ram?” Pol Amberstill asked with a laugh. This dwarf wasn’t cute at all. If Lu Li was a female player, he probably would have said a few more lines.

“Male, please. Thank you,” Lu Li replied, expressionless.

Upon seeing that Lu Li did not reciprocate and laugh at his humour, Pol Amberstill decided to just hand the male ram over to Lu Li and also gave him a free rope. Truthfully speaking, the female ram was much easier on the eye. Its wool was as white as snow and there was even a flower collar around its neck. Players could choose to customise its look.

However, people who focused on appearance would only lose money here. This was because the female ram was only for aesthetic purposes and not for running.

There weren’t any lines to separate each racer, so players were able to collide with each other. Therefore, to avoid collisions, players would steal all the apples first. That was simply part of the game.