Chapter 10 Master Fraud

Nie Yan followed the group of nobles into the hall and found the Magistrate Kallen. The magistrate's hall suddenly became lively, filled with the noise of voices.

"Honorable Magistrate, we've caught a fraud."

"So Master Kexi is a fraud."

A chubby noble excitedly yanked Kexi's long beard, pulling it off to reveal a clean, white face. It was clearly a shifty-eyed young man in his twenties, not an old man at all!

"No, he's not Master Kexi. I've seen him before, he's that thief!" The noble was stunned for a moment, then suddenly understood. "So he's not the real Master Kexi, he's an imposter!"

"That's right, Master Kexi is an amiable, highly respected man. The equipment he makes sells for astronomical prices at numerous auction houses, including legendary items. How could he do such a shameless thing!"

So this was a fake. They finally understood!

"Damn imposter!" The nobles surrounded him and began to beat the fake Master Kexi, who cried out loudly for mercy.

Magistrate Kallen was also furious, pointing at the fake Kexi below. "Damn fraud, because of you, Hilderlock's reputation has been severely affected, and Master Kexi's reputation has been seriously damaged. Your crime is unforgivable. Guards, drag them into the dungeon!"

Two fully armed guards came forward, picked up the fake Kexi and the other three middle-aged men, and dragged them out.

"Honorable Magistrate, this young gentleman exposed this fraud." An old noble pointed to Nie Yan.

The nobles all agreed.

Magistrate Kallen walked towards Nie Yan and said, "Young man, thank you for exposing the fake Kexi and saving Hilderlock's reputation. We will severely punish those four fraudsters. I thank you on behalf of all the residents of Hilderlock. Your wisdom is admirable. This is a small token of our appreciation."

System: You have completed the quest - The Fake Master's Fraud, gaining 38297 experience points.

System: Hilderlock Reputation +13.

System: Received an additional 20 points of Intelligence.

System: You have obtained the Solitary Leather Armor.

Nie Yan took a look. The rewards were pretty good. His experience had increased to 23% of level 10. In addition, his Hilderlock Reputation had reached 20 points. With 20 points of Reputation, he could get a lot of discounts in Hilderlock City. What made Nie Yan slightly unhappy was that the additional 20 points were Intelligence attribute points, not something else. Intelligence for a thief was a bit useless, but Intelligence had some bonus effects on skills such as lockpicking, and some special scrolls also required Intelligence to activate.

As for the Solitary Leather Armor, he looked at the attributes.

Solitary Leather Armor (Gold): Required Level 10.

Attributes: Defense 51-57, Resilience +9, Perception +15, Agility +13.

Weight: 5 lbs.

Usage Restriction: Thief, all factions can use.

It was a level 10 Gold equipment. Such a reward was already very impressive at the moment. The best dungeons currently, unless they were Expert level, rarely dropped Gold equipment. With so many rewards plus the Eye of Truth, Nie Yan was very satisfied.

Putting on the Solitary Leather Armor, the light blue leather armor, with its simple streamline, gave a feeling of neatness and agility.

He moved around in it, it was not bad.

"Thank you for your generosity, Honorable Magistrate," Nie Yan said with a smile.

There didn't seem to be anything else for Nie Yan to do here. Nie Yan thanked Magistrate Kallen and then walked out of the magistrate's hall. Nie Yan felt a lot more relaxed and happy. He had handled that quest well. He seemed to have found the feeling he had when doing quests in his previous life. In his previous life, he had relied on this momentum to slowly catch up with the elite players from being a nobody.

Nie Yan passed through the bustling streets of Hilderlock City and returned to the central square teleportation array.

Another gold coin for the teleportation fee made Nie Yan feel a little heartache. In the early stages, it was better to run fewer intercity teleports as much as possible. However, this trip to Hilderlock was quite rewarding.

Back in Calore City, Lion King Kardo and Ogre Devourer had probably already respawned. Killing Lion King Kardo and Ogre Devourer at his current level was a bit uneconomical for Nie Yan. The experience he could get was too little, a waste of time. The equipment they dropped was no longer to his liking.

Nie Yan remembered the Thieving skill on Soggoth's Shadow. It seemed that there was a quest related to the Thieving skill in the early stages. He only remembered the general idea, it wasn't very clear anymore, and it required Tang Yao's cooperation. Tang Yao was still leveling, he would wait for another day.

Nie Yan planned to level up first. The most suitable level 10 monster area was the Blackrock Mines. He could go there to farm Ghoul Heads, which gave a lot of experience and dropped good things. The gems and ores he found there could be sold for a good price, and some good level 10 equipment for thieves also dropped there.

The level of Nie Yan's equipment was still too low. Level 10 equipment was not yet seen on the market. Most of the top players who dropped level 10 equipment would not sell them, but would exchange them with others, because they themselves were also short of level 10 equipment. It wouldn't hurt to take a look there first. He knew the approximate locations of the Leader-grade, sub-Elite-grade, and even Elite-grade monsters there.

After thinking about it, he might not have enough items like Flash Dust, Nie Yan bought some more, as well as the Polymorph Scroll and Web Scroll. These things were effective against monsters below level 10.

Leaving the city gate, Nie Yan ran towards the Blackrock Mines, used an Acceleration Scroll, and then activated Shadow Dance to run wildly. Shadow Dance had an additional 30 points of speed bonus, like a gust of wind blowing through, quickly passing through the small path between the jungles.

There weren't many people who dared to go to the Blackrock Mines to grind monsters now, but there definitely were some. Many elite players had already reached level 10 or more, the highest being level 13, and Sosso Valley had improved the equipment of the warriors a lot, so many people dared to go to level 10 monster areas to grind monsters.

After running for more than ten minutes, breaking out of the jungle, an endless pile of rubble appeared in front of Nie Yan. The stones here were all black. It was estimated that in another half month, teams would bring their guild's miners here to grind monsters and mine. The income from mining here was still very good, a beginner miner could earn two silver coins a day. But now there was no one here.

Nie Yan quickly ran and jumped in the rubble, piled on a boulder, and pondered for a moment.

It seemed to be to the east. He forgot how to get there, but he had ground monsters here for a long time in his previous life. He still had a little impression in his head. After a while, he found wandering Ghoul Miners.

Ghoul Miner: Level 10, HP 560/560.

Nie Yan didn't want to waste time with these Ghoul Miners, so he avoided them and searched for five or six minutes, finally finding a huge ghoul. They had some black hard armor on their backs compared to ordinary ghouls, and their claws and teeth were sharper.

Nie Yan cast Detect on this Ghoul Miner.

Ghoul Overseer: Level 10 Leader, HP 1600/1600.

That was what he was looking for! Nie Yan entered stealth and touched behind the Ghoul Overseer. The Ghoul Overseer didn't feel his approach at all. With the bonuses of equipment such as the Badge of Freedom and Soggoth's Shadow, Nie Yan's current concealment and stealth abilities were terribly high. Even monsters above level 15 might not be able to detect Nie Yan sneaking up on them.

Nie Yan stealthed up to the Ghoul Miner Leader, suddenly burst out, and stabbed the Ghoul Overseer's back of the head with the sharp Blood Contract Dagger in his hand.

Muffle!

Taking advantage of the Ghoul Overseer's momentary pause, Nie Yan used a Vital Strike and an Assassinate.

-93, -110, -107...

Nie Yan's damage was considerable. After being attacked by Nie Yan, the Ghoul Overseer turned his head in anger and pounced on Nie Yan, its claws flashing with a red light.

This was the Vampire's Bloodthirst, which could greatly increase damage and had a certain amount of life-stealing effect.

Nie Yan knew how terrifying the vampire's attack was. Once hit, he would lose at least half of his health bar. Currently, the only ones who could withstand the attack of a level 10 Ghoul Overseer were probably warriors with better equipment of the same level.

Nie Yan sidestepped and dodged, then stunned it. Taking advantage of the few seconds the Ghoul Overseer was stunned, he did a Backstab plus Eviscerate, knocking off more than 200 of the Ghoul Overseer's health.

The Ghoul Overseer's skin turned a strange red, and a faint red mist spread out.

This was the Ghoul Overseer's Plague. As long as you stayed near it, you would lose at least 20 points of health per second. Unless you had a priest's dispel and heal, even a warrior with more health would be poisoned to death!

This was also why, in general, only players cooperating with each other could kill creatures above the Leader-grade. Those who could solo a Leader of the same level were basically some extremely perverted existences.

Nie Yan activated Hasty Retreat and quickly disengaged from the battle, took out a Web Scroll from his backpack, and a web fell from above, trapping the Ghoul Overseer inside, preventing the Ghoul Overseer from moving.

Nie Yan quickly ran away, took out a crossbow, and started shooting the Ghoul Overseer.

-21, -23, -21...

Damage numbers floated from the Ghoul Overseer's head.

The Ghoul Overseer kept struggling, finally broke the web, and started chasing Nie Yan. Seeing that it was getting closer and closer, Nie Yan took out a Flash Dust, and with a bang, the Flash Dust burst out with a dazzling light.

The Ghoul Overseer's eyes were blinded by the strong light, and it let out a miserable scream, scratching wildly, scratching deep marks on the nearby rocks.

Nie Yan retreated more than ten yards, and the crossbow kept shooting. The Ghoul Overseer's health continued to drop, staggered, and finally fell to the ground.

"Done." Nie Yan smiled slightly. Although the Ghoul Overseer's experience was more than two thousand, it was nothing to him. He picked it up from the ground, it was a warrior's silver equipment, but it wasn't something for a thief. Nie Yan stood up and walked towards the next target.