The Great Thief

Chapter 331: Blackfathom (Part 1)

Translator:Halcyon Translations

Editor:Halcyon Translations

With Thaelrid leading the way, they torturously journeyed through the underground world. Thaelrid should have changed his profession from a Thief to a Scout; it seemed to better suit his role as a Sentinel.

This guy had been here for a long time, so he was very familiar with the terrain and the monsters here. They almost didn’t have to do any fighting before reaching the entrance of the Instance Dungeon.

It was called the entrance, but there wasn’t actually an entrance there at the moment. Lu Li unfurled the Instance Dungeon scroll. A circle of magic appeared before them, from which came Murloc sounds and the pained cries of some other unknown creatures.

"Why are the monsters in the in this Instance Dungeon even stronger than before?" Thaelrid’s expression turned dark.

Lu Li laughed without saying anything. He wasn’t about to tell him that this was the Nightmare Difficulty; he didn’t want to scare away their free worker.

Although Thaelrid was frightened, he drew inspiration from the Moon Goddess and stepped into the Instance Dungeon without hesitation.

This was why everyone said that the craziest people were the fanatics.

The group immediately ran into two Blackfathom Tide Priests. They were holding Magic Staffs in one hand and whips in the other. They were also whipping some human slaves that were howling in pain.

The Twillight Hammer sect believed that a sacrifice who was experiencing pain and resentment was more sincere.

As such, captured prisoners would be looted and subjected to all kinds of torture before they were offered to Aku’mai. The servant of the Ancient Gods would then devour their flesh and blood.

Dawn’s virtual reality was quite realistic and there was no way to lessen the experience. Upon seeing the prisoners being tortured, everyone felt a little uneasy.

However, they felt even more anger.

The result of this anger was the instant death of both Priests.

Even as they died, the Tide Priests did not repent, but yelled out, "All things will perish and the Ancient Gods will rule the land once more."

"Psht, we’ll just kill your Ancient Gods."

Azure Sea Breeze kicked the body of the Tide Priest with disdain. They didn’t care about some god in a video game; all that the players thought of them was EXP and equipment!

The prisoner hadn’t died yet. He struggled to get up and said, "They wanted to feed me to Aku’mai the beast. There are more prisoners in the depths of this dungeon. I beg you, save them."

"We’ll do it. Leave this place quickly," Lu Li promised as he nodded.

It wasn’t a quest and it didn’t have a particularly good reward, but there was no harm in doing it. They needed to fight their way through this place anyway.

System: You have acquired favor from the residents of Stormwind City. Stormwind Prestige +1.

This came as surprise. Stormwind City was the capital of the Alliance and players of all races set up in that city as their home. Lu Li had also planned to settle down there eventually.

Prestige was a very useful thing. Without it, you couldn’t buy properties or mount, even if you had the money.

"Look, more people who do not fear death."

Another two Tide Priests saw them and immediately cried out. They ordered the Murlocs to surround them and "grab them and make them sacrifices."

You could already imagine the outcome. Killing these weaklings didn’t even work up a sweat, even though this was the Nightmare Difficulty.

These Twilight believers were truly fanatics, unafraid of death. Before they died, they cried out, "My death will serve to nourish the Ancient Gods."

The group cleared mobs the whole way and saved many prisoners. Most of them were humans, but there were some Orcs and Trolls as well. Lu Li and the others stayed on guard the whole time, but there was still a great deal of gratitude expressed towards them for saving their lives.

Naturally, it would be unrealistic if Lu Li and the others didn’t receive Aiglima’s Prestige Award.

They reached an underground lake that had a stone tower in front of it. An Orc called Executioner Ghale was standing on top of it. He commanded a few Murlocs to step into the water and laughed, "Come on down; the water is safe. I promise. Hahaha"

"We’re definitely gonna kill you," Azure Sea Breeze yelled out. He was arguing with an Instance Dungeon monster; he had definitely gone insane.

After he had set up the obstacle, he quickly left the area.

"How do we get past?" March Rain asked.

The Murlocs in the water looked fierce; the sight of them was quite scary. The few girls’ faces looked uneasy.

"I’ll go and pull them away so you guys will have the opportunity to pass. Don’t delay – there are a bunch of monsters in the water and I can’t hold them for too long."

Lu Li volunteered himself because he wanted to protect the girls.

If they were all guys, he would have just gotten them to rush together with the Main Tank leading the charge.

Although these Murlocs looked scary, they were just ordinary monsters that would take more than a few bites to kill you.

Moreover, there were also Giant Mussels under the water which could be opened to acquire Pearls. If they collected enough Pearls, a jeweler could make it into a pearl necklace. It didn’t necessarily have great attributes, but it did look very luxurious and elegant. As such, was very popular with the female players.

Lu Li leaped and landed into the water before the Murlocs began to rush at him.

While they were all behind him, he transformed into Seal and started swimming quickly. These ordinary mobs couldn’t catch up to him; he just had to make sure that he didn’t get flanked.

The others took advantage of the opening Lu Li created and quickly passed through.

Occasionally, one or two Murlocs would come in their direction, but Lonesome Flower dragged them towards him with his skills. He had also cast a shield on himself so the Murlocs could barely do any damage to him.

After everyone had safely reached the other side, Lu Li finally came out of the water.

The Murlocs were exceptionally brave in the water, but they were completely different on the shore. They quickly somersaulted back into the water.

"Do we need to jump on these platforms?" With one look at the terrain, a seasoned player could immediately work it out. There were platforms above the water that eventually reached an exit in the cave wall, with each one being higher than the last.

In other words, the players had to jump onto these platforms one at a time to reach the exit.

"Let me try it."

Lu Li remembered hearing that at first, not all of the players needed to jump up the Blackfathom platforms. However, in order to make it more fun, the game company later changed it so that every player was required to do this.

When the others heard that they didn’t need to participate, they all let out a sigh of relief.

Falling from such a great height was already pretty bad. Although there was water below, there were also hungry Murlocs waiting for their food.

However, Lu Li had the Child of the Forest transformation, so his jumping ability was superior to that of a human.

The group watched in amazement as the small leopard leaped into the sky and landed on the platform. The leopard then skillfully jumped from platform to platform.

They all invariably thought that Lu Li must have had some background in the circus.

Everyone was afraid of how high the platforms were, but Lu Li was freely jumping between them. Before long, he was on the last platform, hopping into the exit of the cave.

A new way up was soon discovered – a rope was thrown down with Lu Li holding one end of it.

As long as you had the right equipment, climbing was a lot easier in the game. Each one of them managed to smoothly get up to the exit, even Thaerid. Thaelrid also complimented Lu Li for his skill and eagerly told him that if he ever wanted to be a Scout, he could introduce him to a Scout Master from Tanasus.

Lu Li respectfully rejected the offer; he currently had no interest in being a scout.

Not long after, they saw an island that was surrounded by water. They had no idea why there was still water here as they should have ascended quite a bit in altitude.