Chapter 118 The Beginning

Nie Yan stood up, preparing to use a Return Scroll to head back to town and deal with the equipment in his bag at the auction house. Only seven slots were left. If he picked up anything else, it would be completely full.

A deep roar tore through the sky, causing Nie Yan to pause and put away the Return Scroll. Judging from the sound, it must be an elite or sub-elite Ghoul King! These creatures occasionally roared to assert their dominance over the territory. Weaker players would have to leave quickly.

“After searching for almost two days, I’ve finally run into a monster that’s at least close to being elite.”

Nie Yan followed the source of the sound. Passing through a pile of rocks, a giant ghoul came into view in the open area ahead. This ghoul was three yards tall, pitch black, and covered in bumps that oozed foul-smelling pus. Its front claws were extremely long, sharp as steel knives, and stained with an abnormal crimson color.

He cast Appraisal on the ghoul in front of him.

Ghoul King: Level 10 Elite, 3200/3200

“An elite creature,” Nie Yan muttered to himself. He glanced around. The only usable terrain was the scattered rocks. “Taking it down shouldn’t be a problem. It’ll just be a waste of money using Flashbang Dust and Webbind Scroll, Polymorph Scroll. But the items I get from killing the Ghoul King should be enough to make up for the consumption of Flashbang Dust and the scrolls.” He jumped onto a rock, raised the Bloodstained Crossbow in his hand, and aimed at the Ghoul King. Swish, swish, swish. Three arrows shot out in a straight line toward the Ghoul King.

Thud, thud, thud. They all hit the Ghoul King’s back.

-13, -12, -15...

After being attacked, the Ghoul King turned its head in a rage, its gaze searching through the rocks.

Nie Yan agilely ran through the rocks, constantly firing arrows at the Ghoul King.

After searching for a long time, the Ghoul King finally locked onto Nie Yan and pounced in fury.

Nie Yan turned and ran into the rocks, the Bloodstained Crossbow in his hand never stopping, firing arrows to whittle down the Ghoul King’s health.

The Ghoul King furiously searched for Nie Yan, swinging its sharp claws and sweeping away the nearby rocks, rapidly closing in.

With a whoosh, a cloud of Flashbang Dust exploded in front of the Ghoul King.

The intense light temporarily blinded the Ghoul King, and the pain in its eyes caused it to let out a miserable scream.

Seeing the almost crazed Ghoul King, Nie Yan smiled slightly. He circled behind the Ghoul King, used Backstab, then Eviscerate, dealing 120 damage. Then -10 bleed damage numbers popped up above the Ghoul King’s head.

The blinding effect of the Flashbang Dust would probably only last a few seconds. After attacking, Nie Yan activated Haste and quickly retreated. The bleed damage from Backstab and Eviscerate was cumulative; the longer it lasted, the higher the damage.

Nie Yan continued to shoot with the crossbow. Since it was a creature of the same level, the damage was still quite considerable.

The Ghoul King finally recovered from the blindness and quickly pounced on Nie Yan.

Just as it was about to reach Nie Yan, Nie Yan shook out a Webbind Scroll. The Webbind spell firmly bound the Ghoul King in place.

Nie Yan jumped high, using Weakness Strike. The dagger in his hand slashed across the Ghoul King’s neck. Then he landed and circled behind the Ghoul King. His dagger pierced into the Ghoul King’s back with a Backstab.

After two attacks, Nie Yan didn’t dare to stay in place for too long. He quickly retreated, switching back to the crossbow and firing arrows.

With Nie Yan’s health and fragile leather armor defense, he couldn’t withstand a single blow from the Ghoul King. Ordinary elite creatures required at least a five-person team to deal with, with at least one priest with high healing and a fully armed shield warrior. Antidotes were also necessary, because the Ghoul King’s attacks contained virulent fire poison. Players inflicted with fire poison would lose at least thirty health per second until they died. So Nie Yan had to be very careful not to be attacked by the Ghoul King.

The Ghoul King’s health dropped bit by bit under Nie Yan’s continuous and steady attacks, but it couldn’t touch Nie Yan. Nie Yan’s means of hindering its attacks were endless. No matter how furious it became, it was useless.

“The sound seems to be coming from over there.”

“Let’s go take a look.”

A group of three people was rushing through the rocks. They were all from Victorious Return. Being able to grind monsters and level up in the Blackflame Wilderness at this time was no simple feat. They could be considered elites in the Victorious Return guild.

Among the three, there was a Combat Thief, a Berserker, and a female Arcane Mage. They were grinding ghouls not far away and came over after hearing some noise.

“Nightshadow, hurry up and go see what’s going on,” the Berserker said to the Combat Thief.

“Okay, this kind of hard work always falls to me,” the Combat Thief named Nightshadow said helplessly. Since he was a thief, and an agility-based Combat Thief at that, his speed was more than 20% faster than warrior-type classes, even without considering skills. Therefore, the job of scouting could only be left to him.

Swiftness!

Nightshadow’s speed suddenly increased a lot, like a rainbow shadow streaking forward.

“I think there might be an elite up ahead. Orange, if we run into an elite, Nightshadow and I will hold it back. It’s up to you,” the Berserker said. As a Berserker, it was a bit difficult to tank an elite Ghoul King. Fortunately, he had previously obtained a Life Activation skill, which lasted for twenty minutes and had a cooldown of two natural days. It could barely hold off the elite Ghoul King.

“Should we have the guild leader send a priest? Elite Ghoul Kings seem difficult to deal with,” Orange frowned slightly. She was plain looking, not considered beautiful, but her status in Victorious Return was very high.

“It’s probably too late by the time a priest arrives. Can you use Arcane Awakening?”

“Arcane Awakening has a two-day cooldown. I still have to raid a dungeon with the guild tomorrow.”

“Then forget it. We’ll see how it goes.”

Nie Yan was still whittling down the Ghoul King’s health. Seeing that the Ghoul King’s health was below 20%, a bad feeling rose in his heart. At his current level, his Perception stat was already ridiculously high, so he could keenly sense even the slightest movement nearby. He quickly shook out a Webbind Scroll. A spider web fell from the sky, trapping the Ghoul King.

Nightshadow found it difficult to describe his shock at this moment. People like them were already considered outstanding in Victorious Return. Even if they couldn’t rank in the top ten, the top twenty was definitely no problem. The three of them—he, Orange, and Zang Dao—would still hesitate before dealing with an elite Ghoul King, but this thief in front of them, alone, had ground the Ghoul King down to 80% health, and it seemed like he could easily kill it. This was beyond his comprehension.

After appraising him, Nightshadow discovered that this person was called Nie Yan!

“It’s him!”

Nightshadow remembered this person. When their guild was encircling the murlocs in the Murloc Stronghold, Zihuo had been killed by someone called Nie Yan, and that Nie Yan had successfully escaped from the encirclement of a group of people. After this happened, many people in the guild were talking about it. It was hard for him not to remember such a fierce person.

Nightshadow never expected to meet him here!

As members of Victorious Return, they had always acted recklessly. Once someone crossed them, they would definitely retaliate with all their might, especially in a case like this, where one of their own had been killed and the other party had escaped, causing them to lose face.

Nightshadow smiled slightly. If they killed Nie Yan, they could not only snatch the experience and items from this Ghoul King, but also receive the bounty from the guild. Why not?

As for Nie Yan, no matter how strong he was alone, could he withstand the joint attack of the Ghoul King and the three of them in this situation?

They had to know that all the Ghoul King’s aggro was focused on Nie Yan!

“Come over here quickly! There’s a big fish!” Nightshadow sent a message to Zang Dao and Orange.

“Nightshadow has news.” Zang Dao and Orange exchanged a glance. The two quickly quickened their pace and rushed forward.

It wouldn’t be worth it if the Ghoul King’s health was ground down. Zang Dao and Orange should be here soon. Nightshadow entered Stealth and slowly approached Nie Yan from behind. The back of Nie Yan’s head was completely exposed in his field of vision. He was very confident in his stealth abilities.

Unexpectedly, at this moment, Nie Yan suddenly turned his head.

Eye of Truth!

The blood vessels in Nie Yan’s eyes turned crimson, radiating a soul-stirring divine light. Under the scan of the Eye of Truth, a faint figure appeared in his field of vision, approaching him. A sneer appeared on the corner of Nie Yan’s mouth. “You want to sneak attack? Not that easy.” He produced a handful of Flashbang Dust. With a whoosh, the Flashbang Dust bloomed with an intensely blinding light, and the surroundings became dazzling white.

Nightshadow was gradually approaching Nie Yan when he suddenly noticed Nie Yan turning his head. His eyes were filled with blood vessels, radiating a divine light. This divine light seemed to be able to see through everything, as if he was standing naked in front of Nie Yan at this moment. He was shocked. “Was I seen through?”

Before he could react, a blinding light burst out from Nie Yan’s hand, like a sharp knife, instantly blinding his eyes.

“Not good!” A strong sense of unease rose in Nightshadow’s heart. He quickly retreated, activating Haste. The ground here was very uneven, and coupled with the complete loss of vision, he tripped and fell to the ground.

After all, he was a top player. He instantly understood that the Flashbang Dust was something that caused blindness. He balanced his body, supported himself with his right hand, did a somersault, and steadied himself. At this moment, a sharp, cold light stabbed towards his face.

It was as fast as lightning.

“So fast!”

A trace of despair flashed through Nightshadow’s heart. With such a sharp attack, no one could dodge it. He somewhat understood why Nie Yan was able to kill Zihuo and then escape calmly.