The Great Thief

After rummaging through two boxes, Solomon picked out a few potions and said, “These are not too valuable, but they should still be useful. Now, I believe I’ve fulfilled my end of the bargain.”

What the hell!

Of course, they wouldn’t be valuable.; he’d probably picked out the most common items for him. But what could Lu Li do? Even if he knew he wasn’t going to obtain anything valuable from Solomon, he could only blame the system. After all, there was no way the system would let Lu Li and his team obtain overpowered potions.

Lu Li doubted he could barter for more potions, so he took a glance at the two opened boxes and saw some formulas and materials that might be useful. “Those seem to be formulas, are they not? Since you didn’t give us many potions, I’m sure you wouldn’t mind us taking a few formulas?” Lu Li requested, carefully observing Solomon’s expression.

“These are supposed to go to base camp.” Solomon hesitated.

“Chief!” Lu Li pressed on forcefully, “I had to gather five hundred of my brothers here, all of them risking the danger of being chased by the Lich. And none of them even had a drop of water to drink this morning. We’ve done all of this just to help you.” The five hundred players had put away the drinks that were in their hands a moment ago, listening intently to Lu Li bargaining with the NPC.

“Look, I can’t give you any more potions but maybe I could give you some formulas.” Solomon wiped off the sweat accumulating on his forehead, damn, even the battle with the Half Lich wasn’t as tiring as this. However, it was true that he did feel a little guilty. After all, he had only asked for two hundred people, and somehow Lu Li gave him more than double the amount of what he asked for. If he were to bring only two hundred people, then the battle wouldn’t have been so easily won.

“Materials are fine too,” Lu Li looked at the second box, there were no formulas in it, but a bunch of materials in plain sight. Lu Li was sure whatever materials that were important enough to be delivered personally by the Half Lich would be very valuable. With Ruling Sword’s recent prosperous growth, the demand for rare materials also grew exponentially.

“Well, the materials are supposed to be taken back for research,” Solomon squeaked. In the end, he succumbed to Lu Li’s pressuring and handed him a potion formula, and about four to five rare materials – since Solomon had multiple copies of a few of the materials, giving away one or two to Lu Li wasn’t going to impede on his camp’s research.

Fourteen potions, one formula and five materials, this mission probably had the greatest rewards Lu Li had ever received for a mission. However, the cost to complete it matched the rewards he received. After all, no regular missions required a five hundred player army.

“Dream, are you done looting? If everyone’s ready, we’ll get going,” Lu Li and the army immediately retreated after receiving his prize. Whether a Boss like Kel’Thuzad would come down to avenge the death of a Half Lich or not, staying in the heart of the Plaguelands was not ideal.

“I won’t be going with you. Whatever happens, I must protect these boxes,” Solomon said. What a typical thing for a noble to do. They might not be tyrants or hacks, but the idea of expecting them to risk their lives to fight with you was laughable.

The problem was, having all five hundred people leave the Plaguelands at once was impossible. Solomon thought the best way was to put the players into ten or so groups and leave the Plaguelands accordingly. He had no idea that players could use Hearthstones – it had only taken players ten seconds to teleport back to their base.

“It was a pleasure working with you,” Lu Li was finally able to catch a breath. He and Solomon were purely business partners. Lu Li had no desire of accepting missions such as escorting Solomon back to the safe zone and Solomon voice would also not voice such a request. He was, after all, a scout skilled in covering his tracks. He would rather travel by himself than have someone escort him. With the battlefield cleared, Lu Li and the five hundred other players vanished from the Plaguelands in an instant.

Kel’Thuzad might not personally come down for the death of a Half Lich, but he did send out a team of Death Knights to the scene of the crime. With the players vanished without a trace, all remaining clues left in the battlefield led to the still fleeing Solomon. He used every skill and every lesson taught at the academy to escape the pursuit of the Death Knights and reached the camp.

Lu Li had disbanded his team as well. The five hundred players he had with him did not require his compensation. They would be rewarded by the guild. Health potions are provided by the Guild, but armour repairs would still cost quite a bit. Remnant Dreams handed in all her loot to Lu Li. About a hundred or so coins which wasn’t bad; it was much more than what they got from the Instance Dungeon last time around at least. Two pieces of Golden Armour, one Dark Armour and an Epic Armour. Not quite as impressive, Lu Li could’ve easily looted three epics from a Boss in Black Wing’s Nest. However, considering a Half Lich like Anglish was only a regular Boss, Lu Li thought to himself that he probably shouldn’t have expected much at all.

The Golden Armour was unimportant, the Dark Armour could be put into the guild’s storage, and the Epic armour was usable. It was an extravagant staff, the Rage of Anglish, and had an interesting special effect — an attack skill could be stored into the staff, and the user could use the skill inconsequentially for two hours. The skill stored will disappear from the staff after two hours. Lu Li thought that this single effect the staff had greatly increased the weapon’s value. Unfortunately, Lu Li doubted that any mages from the Instance Dungeon teams would be interested in it. He would have to give it away to someone in his guild. It may be a decent weapon during Instance Dungeons, but it’d be legendary amongst casual players. However, the loot which interested Lu Li the most was a particular rare material he received – The Heart of the Lich!

Lu Li couldn’t believe that even a Half Lich would drop a Heart of the Lich. It was the kind of material that could only be dropped by proper Lich, and the percentage of obtaining it was infinitesimal; Lu Li couldn’t even get it when he fought Ras Frostwhisper. The item description read – Heart of the Lich: a heart formed by fury, wreckage and madness. Anglish, who was finally able to become a Half Lich, had died in the hands of a bunch of ambushers— Of course, he’d be furious. He even sacrificed his own students just for immortality, that point alone made him mad enough. Not to mention that him being an NPC meant that he would not spawn ever again. Dropping a Heart of the Lich was probably one of the more meaningful contributions he’d made to his world.

Lu Li still had much to do. He needed to deliver the boxes for Solomon, but that was not a priority right now. Solomon was probably still being pursued anyway, and it was the last day of the week. There was no way Lu Li would skip the Instance Dungeon to fight Nefarian.