Rebirth of the Thief Who Roamed the World

For two months, Nie Yan’s team slowly made their way through the wasteland of the World of Darkness.

Every time Nie Yan gazed up ahead, the volcano was closer in view. It was already within reach now. The journey here took far longer than they originally imagined. Everyone’s levelling speeds had also slowed to a crawl. Nie Yan had reached Level 145 while Tang Yao and Xie Yao were only Level 146.

However, during these 2 months, Nie Yan had received quite a bit of good news. Black Heaven, Hapless Frog, Tyrannical, Monochrome, Edgeless, Happy Hermit, and Sunny South had successfully cleared their class advancement quests, increasing the number of Masters in Asskickers United from 21 to 28. Furthermore, of the three Archbishops in the Viridian Empire, all of them belonged to Asskickers United! Meanwhile, nine new Masters had appeared in the Satreen Empire, only three of which belonged to Angel Corps. 

In terms of number of Masters, Asskickers United had always been far ahead of the rest. With 28 Masters, Lil’ Gold, and Paladin Lafus, Nie Yan had some confidence in taking on the Blood Reaver Corps. In a duel, Masters were far stronger than Silver Wings. However, that meant nothing in a team battle. Teamwork was the keyword here, an art the Blood Reaver Corps had perfected. In the previous timeline, countless teams from the Satreen Empire and Viridian Empire had suffered losses at their hands.

With so many Masters, Nie Yan believed they could repel the Blood Reaver Corps from the Abernathy Great Grasslands. 

Nie Yan had received multiple updates from Guo Huai over the last two months, informing him in detail the endless heachache the Blood Reaver Corps gave to the guilds in the Satreen Empire. Even when the large guilds had dispatched hundreds of thousands of troops to hunt them down, it was to no avail. Instead, they ended up suffering heavy losses with tens of thousands of casualties. The players of the Satreen Empire were terrified, to the extent their faces would pale at the mere mention of the Blood Reaver Corps. Asskickers United’s Thieves had also lost track of them several times.

When Nie Yan’s team arrived at the base of the volcano, they received a notification.

You have discovered Morphest’s Volcano.

Nie Yan raised an eyebrow in surprise. This mountain was actually named after Morphest!

The end was finally in sight.

At this moment, Paternoster’s Warhammer in Nie Yan’s bag started going berserk, spewing out electric and frost energy. He sensed the spirit inside the weapon stirring awake.

You have sensed a powerful darkness energy. The great spirit within Paternoster’s Warhammer awakens. You hear it beckons. This is the willpower of the fragmented spirit of a war god. It lets out an enraged roar, “Brave adventurer, kill him! Kill Drakuru, that eternal disgrace and traitor of a disciple!”

One scene after another flashed through Nie Yan’s mind, narrating a complete story. Drakuru was an orc and was once the leader of the Satreen Empire’s Royal Orc Legion. In a battle against the Demon Tribe, a mistake he made led to the crushing defeat of his forces. However, unlike a man of honour, he refused to accept responsibility and instead pinned the blame on several officers under him. They were executed for his mistakes. A demon was born in his heart and slowly grew up, as his actions became increasingly heinous until one day he tried to overthrow the Satreen Empire’s royalty. After being discovered, he inflicted a mortal blow to the Orc King and fled, from then on walking the path of a traitor. The Orc King eventually succumbed to his wounds and died, leading to a power struggle that lasted over 30 years. Drakuru became public enemy number one of the Satreen Empire. While he was on the run, the demon in his heart eroded what little good was left in him, and he transformed into a Demonified Lord.

Another notification popped up. Nie Yan looked over it.

Kill the traitor Drakuru. But first, find Morphest and talk to him.

It was an assassination quest, but Nie Yan still had no idea about the details. Morphest would probably fill him in on those, and since this volcano was named after him, he was probably somewhere nearby.

“Boss, did you get an update on your quest?”

“Yeah, I have to find an NPC called Morphest.”

“Have Sun, King of the World, Shadow Killer, Mistaken Smile, and One Strike Vow split up and search for him. That’ll speed things up a little,” Smoke Stub suggested. It would take a lot of time for them to explore the entire volcano as a group. It would be more efficient to split up. Naturally, Thieves were the most suited class for this task.

“You should stay with us, Nie Yan. We need at least one Thief,” Bladelight said.

Nie Yan rubbed his chin, then turned to Sun, Mistaken Smile, and the other Thieves. “Then I’ll be troubling you guys.”

“What trouble? Helping each other out is only natural,” Mistaken Smile replied with a smile.

The five Shadow Dancers split up in different directions, disappearing into stealth. They were each in charge of a different region, with Nie Yan and the others going straight up to the peak.

“Boss, what kind of quest did you get?” Undying Scoundrel asked. Over these past two and a half months, they had encountered countless dangers and nearly wiped several times. One could imagine how high the difficulty of this quest was.

“It’s a quest to obtain the Assassin’s Heart. I have to assassinate a Demonified Lord. It’s a pretty high difficulty quest. Worst comes to worst, we’ll have to die to get out. It’s just a shame I’ll lose a few items I worked pretty hard to get. I don’t know if we'll get a chance to come back here again, or if we can even find an exit,” Nie Yan said. If he died, the losses would be serious.

“What kind of items? Guaranteed drops on death?” Summer Bug asked. He had encountered similar items before. They all generally had pretty good properties.

Nie Yan thought for a moment. Since he trusted this group, he didn’t mind sharing. “It’s a hammer.” He shared the stats of Paternoster’s Warhammer in the chat.

The light-hearted conversation came to an abrupt halt. Everyone’s expressions instantly froze.

A moment later, Undying Scoundrel broke the silence and cried out in shock, “Fuck! A Sacred Object! Conviction actually has items like these!? Those properties! Look at them!”

“Too bad we can’t equip it.”

“I think a few of the properties are still accessible. When you were fighting with that Demonified Lord in the Clemenci Stronghold, that skill you used back there was this Frozen Fortress skill, right?”

“Yeah.” Nie Yan nodded.

After the initial shock, everyone became excited. They were all amazed by Paternoster’s Warhammer’s properties. This was a genuine Sacred Object! Even Legendary equipment paled in comparison! Even though none of them could equip it, just looking at its splendor was good enough.

“What is Divine Power?”

“I feel like these Sacred Objects should be classified as quest items. Players will probably never be able to equip them, or else it wouldn’t have a requirement like Divine Power. I've never even heard of this stat before. Not to mention the Strength and Dexterity requirements are ridiculously high. Even if you reach Level 200, goodluck reaching those requirements. It’s probably the same even if you had a Legendary set equipped,” Lei Su said.

“Maybe.” Nie Yan nodded. What Lei Su said made sense.

“Even if it’s a quest item, the quest related to it definitely isn’t simple!” Smoke Stub said. Even though it was realistically only a quest item, the value of Paternoster’s Warhammer was incalculable!

“I still have this Death God’s Edge with me too. Its properties are comparable to Paternoster’s Warhammer. I can’t use it either. It’s related to a quest that has me track down Archangel Talod,” Nie Yan said before sharing the Death God’s Edge’s information in chat.

Everyone glanced at each other in shock. Paternoster’s Warhammer was already shocking enough, but Nie Yan actually had a second Sacred Object!

“No matter what, we can’t allow the boss to die!” Undying Scoundrel shouted. If Nie Yan died, these two invaluable items would be lost.

“We’ll see when we get there,” Nie Yan said. If there was no other way to leave the World of Darkness, he could only return by killing himself.

As they were chatting, a large horde of Dark Hyenas slowly closed in on them.

“Well, guys. Looks like it’s time to get back to work,” Bladelight said. He raised his shield and stepped forward.

No one dared to dally. They all took up their respective positions as they prepared for another long and bitter battle.

The Magisters were already erecting flame walls. Nie Yan had Lil’ Gold guard their flank as they prepared for the assault of the Dark Hyenas.

While they were facing off against the Dark Hyenas, Nie Yan received a call from Guo Huai.

Nie Yan sent a Dark Hyena flying with a kick. He took a step forward, dodging a pouncing Hyena, and then struck it in the neck with his elbow, killing it. As it crashed onto the ground, Nie Yan picked up the call.

「Did something happen?」Nie Yan asked after retreating into the formation.　

The surrounding team members were fiercely fighting, focusing on beating back the Dark Hyenas.

「We lost track of the Blood Reaver Corps again, but this time is different. We lost sight of them near the Krasomu Gull. That’s right near the border with the Viridian Empire. Recently, the Satreen Empire have really upped their efforts on hunting them down. I’m predicting they’ll be doing some killing in our Viridian Empire next.」

Nie Yan’s heart trembled. More than two months had passed without the Blood Reaver Corps coming to the Viridian Empire. He hoped this could continue for a few more days, but he knew he couldn’t delay the inevitable.

With the Blood Reaver Corps arriving in the Viridian Empire, Asskickers United was in a tough spot. Nie Yan and the other Masters were absent, and there were too few experts in the guild who could deal with them. Combined with the fact that they were so well informed, trapping them was going to be incredibly difficult.

「Anything else to report?」Nie Yan asked.

「I just received word that their leader was recently promoted to a General.」

「General?」Nie Yan’s heart tightened. How was this possible? However, it made sense after thinking about it carefully. It had already been close to three months since the Blood Reaver Corps arrived on the surface. The number of players and NPCs that had died at their hands so far was incalculable. As their leader, Blood Devil’s kill count had surely reached a frightening figure. If Nie Yan were to spend that much time killing to his heart’s content in the underworld, he would’ve become a General too.

「Those guys really are slaughter maniacs. The players over in the Satreen Empire were nearly driven mad by them. Even an ambush from the combined forces of several dozen guilds wasn’t enough to kill them. Who knows how many players have died at their hands. Blood Devil managing to kill his way to becoming a General is perfectly normal,」Guo Huai said with a bitter smile.

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Translator: LittleShanks (Follow me on Twitter)
Editor: Sietse

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