Chapter 1 Some Lingering Fears

(The wide paragraph spacing isn't due to the snail's speed, but rather the Qidian typesetting.)

The skeleton warriors seemed somewhat fearful of the Abraham Tomb, never daring to approach.

Nie Yan sat on the upper edge of the tomb's entrance, slowly waiting for his health to recover. Soon enough, his critically low health was restored to full.

Seeing his health fully replenished, Nie Yan felt inexplicably better. He flipped over, jumped down from the top of the tomb entrance, landed lightly, walked into the tomb entrance, and then descended the steps one by one.

Each step had been weathered and smoothed, the edges rounded. Faintly visible were ancient undead markings covering them. Below lay endless darkness, where even the slightest sound was amplified infinitely by the darkness and silence. Nie Yan seemed to hear his own heartbeat.

Descending felt like stepping into the gates of death.

A wave of eerie and decaying death aura wafted up from the depths of the tomb.

Nie Yan lightened his footsteps, sticking close to the wall as he continued downwards.

Although he had been here in his previous life, the Triumphant Empire guild had already explored and cleared this area when he arrived. Exploring a map was as difficult as clearing a dungeon, with many elite and sub-elite creatures appearing. Once they were killed, they wouldn't respawn, like the Skeleton Executioners in Sothgot Ancient City.

For a level ten player to challenge such a difficult map was probably something only Nie Yan would dare to do.

The allure of the Chapter of Freedom was immense.

With his limited vision, Nie Yan gradually penetrated the bottom of the tomb. Some white light appeared ahead, brightening his view considerably.

The walls on both sides of the tomb were inlaid with luminous pearls, the light they emitted hazy and pale, adding to the bleak, mysterious atmosphere of the tomb.

Upon entering the tomb, a sense of familiarity arose from within him. The scene overlapped with some things in his memory. After all, he had spent a lot of time here grinding monsters in the past and had long since mastered the terrain.

Vague shapes flickered ahead, indicating the activity of many monsters. Nie Yan became vigilant. He remembered that when he passed through here in his previous life, there were no monsters active; the monster-spawning area was much further ahead.

Nie Yan's figure slowly disappeared, merging with the shadows, as he groped forward along the wall, concealed in the shadows of the corners.

Ahead was a spacious hall, about 20 by 20 yards, and about 10 yards high. Candelabras were placed around it, their lights flickering, with many figures wandering about.

By the dim light, Nie Yan finally saw the face of one of the monsters clearly. They were zombies dressed in black, their faces pale. Counting them, there were more than thirty, blocking the way forward.

Nie Yan cast an Identify spell on the zombies.

Vampire Baron: Level 25 Elite, Health 3000/3000.

They were Vampire Barons! Nie Yan was taken aback. Some memories from his previous life resurfaced. Vampire Barons were the most difficult elite monsters to deal with at level twenty-something. Their health wasn't particularly high, but they moved very quickly, had high attack power, and also possessed life-steal, making them extremely difficult to handle. He had been killed by a Vampire Baron elsewhere when he was level twenty-seven.

The undead were particularly sensitive to the aura of living beings. Once a living being approached within seven or eight yards, they could keenly sense the other party's specific location.

Therefore, a thief's Stealth was ineffective!

More than thirty Vampire Barons were enough to completely block the path. There was no way Nie Yan could sneak past!

Nie Yan couldn't even deal with one Vampire Baron, let alone so many!

How could he get through here? Nie Yan thought for a moment, then looked up at the top of the hall. The top of the hall was made entirely of stone, covered with various regular painted patterns, colored crimson red, forming a huge circular vortex, with a pale skull painted in the center. In the skull's eye sockets, blue flames quietly flickered, like a lofty god overlooking living beings, making people unable to help but sink into it with just one glance.

The mysterious skull and flickering lights set off an unusually eerie atmosphere in the hall.

Seeing the smooth rock walls at the top of the hall, a smile appeared on the corner of Nie Yan's mouth. He cast the skill on the Weaver's Ring, and a strand of spider silk adhered to the rock wall at the top of the hall. Using this force, Nie Yan soared up, quickly approaching the top of the hall.

Nie Yan then used the skill on the Crawler's Ring, and his palms, like suction cups, immediately gripped firmly when they came into contact with the top wall.

Like a spider, he crawled over the Vampire Barons.

Nie Yan could feel some commotion among the Vampire Barons below. They might have smelled the aura of a living being, but they would never have imagined that Nie Yan was right above them. Even if they discovered Nie Yan, they couldn't attack him.

Nimblely crawling from the edge of the hall's ceiling to the center, he got closer and closer to the skull pattern. As he entered the area about five yards away from the skull pattern, a strong sense of unease welled up in Nie Yan's heart.

There was something strange about this skull!

Nie Yan suddenly thought of something and stopped, going far around the skull pattern.

It was a trigger mechanism!

His keen intuition had saved Nie Yan once again!

Bypassing the skull pattern in the center of the hall, Nie Yan's tense mood relaxed a bit. If he had triggered the detonating mechanism just now, he would not have had time to dodge and would have been blasted into smithereens.

Although thieves have a certain bonus to their Reflex Saving Throws against traps, even if they stepped on a trap, there was still a very high probability of dodging the damage caused by the trap. However, many mechanisms were extremely deadly; once triggered, death was certain. Like the detonating mechanism just now, he could feel the strange energy contained within it from about five yards away. If it had been triggered, the result would have been unimaginable. Fortunately, Nie Yan was more cautious and did not approach rashly.

Sticking to the top of the ancient tomb, he advanced for about ten minutes, and was about twenty yards away from the Vampire Barons, when Nie Yan flipped over and jumped down, landing on the ground.

Having crossed this dangerous area without any mishaps, Nie Yan continued to delve deeper into the ancient tomb.

Traveling in the dim light, Nie Yan was already very familiar with the next section of the road. When he encountered ordinary Vampire Zombies, he carefully avoided them even if he could deal with them. After all, he was not here to grind monsters and level up.

He had only one goal, and that was the Chapter of Freedom!

Following the maze-like tomb passage, he stealthily made his way to the second level of the tomb. During this time, Nie Yan discovered several locked silver chests, one of which was even gold-locked. Without any lockpicking skills or keys, the string of keys in his backpack could only open chests within level 20, while the chests on this map were at least level 25 or higher.

Nie Yan bypassed a prison cell and discovered something placed in the shadows of a corner. Taking a closer look, he realized it was a dilapidated box. This was an unlocked box! He couldn't help but sigh; it was too difficult. He had finally found a box he could open.

Nie Yan bent down, opened the box, and rummaged around inside. It seemed to be a skill book.

He took it out and looked at it.

Skill Book: Grace of the Sylph.

Skill Description: Through excellent coordination, the thief gains powerful athletic abilities, requiring level 20.

Skill Attributes: When falling or tripping, damage is reduced by 10%-50% depending on the height. Climbing ability is increased by 10%, Balance +10, Reflex Saving Throw +10, and an additional Agility +10 is gained.

User Restriction: Thief, usable by any faction.

It was Grace of the Sylph. For ordinary level 20 players, this skill book's Balance +10, Reflex Saving Throw +10, and Agility +10 attributes were considered pretty good, but not particularly outstanding. The first two attributes were used relatively rarely and were dispensable. But for Nie Yan, it was a very good item, because Nie Yan was on a different path from ordinary players.

Ordinary players walked the agility route or the balance route, but Nie Yan walked the agility route while using relatively special items such as the Weaver's Ring, the Crawler's Ring, and the Featherfall Gem, transforming himself into a different kind of thief.

The thief's job was no longer just scouting, disarming traps, and ambushing cloth-wearers. Nie Yan had given this profession a completely new definition.

In his previous life, Nie Yan had thought about creating such a thief, but he simply did not have enough strength to achieve it. First of all, the drop rates for the Weaver's Ring and the Crawler's Ring were extremely low, and they were invaluable. He simply could not afford them. As for the Featherfall Gem, he could not possess it either. In his previous life, he had indeed cleared the Expert-level Treant Forest dungeon with a team and had obtained a Featherfall Gem, but when distributing the equipment, something like a Featherfall Gem was not even his turn to receive. A mage in the team took the Featherfall Gem and only gave them three silver coins each. The Nie Yan of that time was just a spectator.

After his level got higher, Nie Yan no longer met the requirements to enter the Expert-level Treant Forest. Anything with a Featherfall enchantment on the market was priced outrageously, and he could not afford it even more.

As for Grace of the Sylph, it was also a relatively rare skill book. If he hadn't been the first to enter the Abraham Tomb, such a good thing would not have been his turn to get!

Although Grace of the Sylph was not essential, it could at least make Nie Yan's tactics more complete.

Nie Yan put the Grace of the Sylph skill book into his backpack. He could only use it at level 20, so he would save it for now.

Passing through a narrow tunnel, Nie Yan entered a small secret chamber, only about 10 by 10 yards in size. Surprisingly, three stone coffins were placed in the small chamber. These three stone coffins were made of white flagstone and were very simple. Only a twisted rune pattern was drawn at the top of the stone coffins, and the grooves were filled with bright red paint, like crimson blood.

This was a Fate Array Rune!

These three stone coffins were not as simple as coffins. They were a very strange item arrangement. More precisely, they were fate items of the undead race.

When a player opened a stone coffin, they would trigger the Fate Array Rune on the coffin. Many unpredictable situations might occur inside the stone coffin.

If a stone coffin was opened, it would respawn every ten days.

It was said that players who came here had opened extremely rare equipment, such as the Death Helm, or even fragments of legendary items. Some players had even opened a prince-level vampire, who instantly killed them.

The three stone coffins stood there quietly, with temptation and frightening unknowns.