Chapter 127 The Trial of a Master

Nie Yan flew forward, running swiftly. His method of combat was another form of kiting, but using bleed and poison damage.

If he faced them head-on, he definitely wouldn't be able to handle these Shadow Thieves. But with this method, it was much easier, just a little more time-consuming.

The Shadow Thieves pounced, seemingly forcing Nie Yan into a corner, leaving him with no way to retreat. He suddenly leaped up, stuck to the nearby wall, and climbed to the top. Somersaulting, he jumped behind the Shadow Thieves, delivering another Assassinate, followed by an Explosion.

The energy explosion from the dagger sent the Shadow Thief flying.

The Shadow Thief staggered and fell to the ground, struggling to get up. As he tried to chase Nie Yan again, Nie Yan was already far away.

Nie Yan continued to kite, slowly grinding down the Shadow Thief's health. The Shadow Thief finally collapsed to the ground.

A silver-gray piece of armor dropped to the ground. Nie Yan picked it up and looked at it, discovering it was actually a Dark Gold-grade Gloom Sanction. Gloom series equipment could reduce the level requirement by 10 if a complete set was collected, allowing it to be worn at Level 60. However, the Gloom series set only dropped during the exploration of certain maps.

The Gloom Sanction Armor added 120 points of shadow damage, as well as a large amount of Strength, suitable for Berserkers who followed an all-out offensive path.

These Elite-grade Shadow Thieves wouldn't respawn once they were killed. He wondered if he could get a complete set of Gloom Sanction here.

If he had a set of Gloom Sanction, it would be quite suitable for Shui Se Yan Tou, Wu Feng, Hei Bai, and others.

Nie Yan rummaged under the Shadow Thief's corpse, but found nothing else. He walked towards the room he had just opened. It was a narrow room, empty and bare. He retreated and continued forward.

Opening these rooms often resulted in one or two Shadow Thieves appearing. Nie Yan used the same method to grind them to death, then examined the rooms. He often found one or two chests or similar items, mostly Silver and Gold grade, with Dark Gold grade being rarer. During this time, he did manage to obtain three pieces of the Gloom Sanction set, namely the armor, gauntlets, and leggings, leaving him missing the shoulder pads, helmet, and boots.

Nie Yan opened a door, preparing to defend. Unexpectedly, he was not attacked by any Shadow Thieves. None came out. The furnishings inside were the same as the other places, but a fat man in a gray cloth robe was sitting beside the bed, with a large, fleshy head and a head of golden hair that looked somewhat disheveled.

Nie Yan cast an Identify on him.

Noble Felbrazer: Level 0, Health 200/200.

"Respected Demon Hunter, Great Scholar, please save me from here, I beg you." This Felbrazer immediately showed a sorrowful expression when he saw Nie Yan.

"This is an Instant Teleportation Scroll, you can use it to leave here," Nie Yan said, trading one of the Instant Teleportation Scrolls to Felbrazer.

"Thank you, Respected Demon Hunter, Great Scholar," Felbrazer said gratefully.

Nie Yan was a little annoyed by this somewhat convoluted title, but the language of NPCs was strictly limited, especially titles, which could not be arbitrarily altered.

After Felbrazer used the Instant Teleportation Scroll, he disappeared from the spot and went back.

Looking at the quest progress, Rescued Hostages 1/100.

Nie Yan scanned the room. There was nothing in this room. Only the rooms guarded by Shadow Thieves would have treasure chests or the like.

He searched the houses one by one and rescued eight hostages. After searching all these rooms, Nie Yan entered a large hall. Pillars stood within, and a red carpet stretched forward all the way to the front, where there was a throne. The place was extremely luxurious. The hall seemed very empty, but Nie Yan felt a sense of danger rise in his heart.

Eye of Truth!

An eerie red light bloomed in Nie Yan's eyes. Gradually, vague figures appeared in his vision.

There were at least fifty or sixty Shadow Thieves active in this hall, shocking Nie Yan.

If he rashly went over, he wouldn't know how he died. Fortunately, he used Eye of Truth, otherwise he would not have been able to detect that this seemingly empty hall was actually full of dangers.

The Advanced-level class advancement quest was already difficult. The Expert-level class advancement quest, its difficulty was unimaginable. Nie Yan's decision to retreat was the right one. In his previous life, most players who advanced to Great Thief did the Simple-level difficulty advancement quest. There was statistical data from his previous life: at most, a few hundred players completed the Normal-level advancement quest, only a few dozen completed the Difficult-level, and only one seemed to have completed the Advanced-level advancement quest. He had forgotten that person's name, but it was said that he was just lucky. Sun, Wang Zhe Tian Xia, and others only completed the Difficult-level advancement quest.

Nie Yan accepting the Advanced-level advancement quest was already pushing the limits. As for the Expert-level, he didn't dare even think about it. Accepting it would be equivalent to courting death.

The Great Thief class advancement quest could be accepted at Level 50, and it was very rare to complete it at that level. One or two out of several thousand would be good. Generally, you had to wait until a very high level to complete it. As for the higher-level Shadow Dancer, it could only be accepted at Level 100, but not many people could complete the class advancement and obtain the Shadow Dancer title. In the eyes of ordinary players, Shadow Dancer was a title almost godlike.

During the time before Nie Yan's rebirth, his level was considered very high, Level 180 Great Thief. At that time, there were only twenty or thirty people above Level 200, and those people were basically covered in Divine equipment, the kind who stirred up storms wherever they went. Nie Yan steadily resided in the second tier.

He didn't know if there were other titles above Shadow Dancer, but it was said that it was very difficult to level up above Level 200. The experience gained from killing any monster was very little. Killing monsters for a few weeks might only increase the experience value by single digits. Faith's experience never had a cap, but the leveling speed above Level 200 was too slow, almost like it was capped.

Leveling up was too difficult in the later stages, which was why he spent so much effort bringing up the Golden Land Dragon's level. Generally, in the later stages, melee units leveled up too slowly on their own, and mainly relied on war pets to kill monsters and level up. Any war pet with good area-of-effect magic growth was being sold for sky-high prices. The Golden Land Dragon's level had to keep up, otherwise he would have to go to low-level maps specifically to level up his pet in the future, which would be too troublesome.

Planning out his development, once the affairs with Zhan Dao Shi Xue were over, he would go back and forth to the underground every ten days, using all that time to level up!

Nie Yan needed to deal with too many things, which distracted him. Otherwise, if he leveled up at full speed, he would be at least around Level 90 by now.

Looking at the group of Shadow Thieves in front of him, Nie Yan thought for a moment and cast a disguise skill. He put on a black cloak, making his appearance identical to a normal Shadow Thief.

He entered stealth and crept towards the throne in the distance.

While in stealth, he felt more than a dozen gazes sweep over him. However, these gazes lingered on him for a long time before gradually moving away.

Nie Yan breathed a sigh of relief, and looked around with Eye of Truth, dodging the Shadow Thieves one by one.

He passed by the Shadow Thieves, and after a while, gradually approached the throne in the front of the hall. This seat was entirely carved from dark gold metal. A thief in dark gold leather armor walked back and forth near the throne.

The thief held two short swords in his hands. He looked like a Combat Thief.

Nie Yan found a suitable position, hid behind a pillar, and cast Identify on the thief.

Bloodthirsty Thief: Level 70 Lord, Health 150000/150000.

Generally, teams would avoid human-like Thief Lords when forming groups to farm Lords, for no other reason than that they were too difficult to deal with. They moved too fast and had skills like ranged dash and stun.

Generally, teams had the highest wipe rate when encountering human-like Thief Lords.

As for trying to solo a Level 70 Lord, that was courting death.

Although there were towering pillars here, Nie Yan couldn't hang on them to kill the Bloodthirsty Thief. Bows and crossbows were essential tools for Thieves, even for Thief monsters. If you hung on them and shot at these Thieves, the Bloodthirsty Thief and the Shadow Thieves might shoot back at you with bows and crossbows.

This plan was basically ruled out.

Nie Yan had been to this hall in his previous life, but at that time the Shadow Thieves and Bloodthirsty Thief here had been cleared out. He remembered that there was an entrance to an underground prison behind the throne, which should be where the hostages were held.

This place was very secretive. Fortunately, Nie Yan was familiar with the map here. If it were any other Thief, they might search this colosseum for two or three days and still not find the entrance.

Nie Yan's gaze searched the hall and found a huge box placed not far from the Bloodthirsty Thief. This box was not a treasure chest, but an ordinary decoration. The box was very large and placed in the corner.

It was different from treasure chests. Treasure chests could not be moved or destroyed, and would disappear after being opened, while this kind of decoration would always be there unless it was moved, like a real-world object.

This box was woven from bamboo strips and had three dagger symbols carved on it.

When Nie Yan came here in his previous life, there was indeed a box in that position, but it was already empty and there was nothing inside. In this life, he was the first person to come here. Before him, no one had touched this box!

This box was not locked and could be easily opened. He wondered what was inside.

It was very difficult to go and open this box without being discovered by the Bloodthirsty Thief.

Nie Yan cast Identify on this box.

Thief's Storage Box: Thieves place all the money and items they have robbed and stolen here.

Nie Yan's heart stirred. When he came here in his previous life, the contents of the storage box had already been emptied. In this life, he was the first person to come here. Before him, no one had touched this box!