Chapter 1 A New Beginning

A berserker jumped high, using the momentum of his descent to bring his sword down on Nie Yan.

The berserker's greatsword whistled as it fell, already reaching Nie Yan's forehead.

Nie Yan leaned to the side, narrowly avoiding the berserker.

In Faith, ranged attacks had auto-aim, and could only be dodged by rolling. Melee attacks, on the other hand, could be dodged by sidestepping.

This kind of sidestep dodge against an oncoming slash required a quick reaction and precise timing. Nie Yan had practiced it to perfection in his past life. After dodging the swordsman, Nie Yan sprinted towards the lake.

The berserker missed his strike and paused, surprised. That guy was fast, dodging even that.

When the berserker turned his head, he found that Nie Yan had already run far away. He raised his sword and chased after him.

"Old Three, what's wrong with you? You can't even stop someone," the sword-and-shield warrior who rushed over complained.

"That thief is too fast, I couldn't stop him."

The sword-and-shield warrior glanced thoughtfully at the corpse of the elementalist, Zi Huo. Zi Huo was a solitary guy, but his skills weren't weak. Yet, he had died at the hands of that thief. It seemed that the thief was truly not simple.

"Let's stop him together!"

The sword-and-shield warrior and the berserker sped up.

Seeing that he was getting closer and closer to the lake, only five or six yards away, Nie Yan took out a bottle of low-level underwater breathing potion and drank it down.

"He wants to jump into the water and escape!"

"Don't let him get into the water."

The sword-and-shield warrior and the berserker tacitly launched themselves forward at the same time. Both were from the warrior class, and their momentum-assisted attacks after jumping were much faster than other melee classes.

"Assault!"

"Flame Slash!"

The sword-and-shield warrior thrust forward with his sword, forcing Nie Yan back.

The berserker swung his sword, bringing down a Flame Slash.

They were still some distance away from Nie Yan. Nie Yan turned his head to look at them. The flames and sword-slash came head-on. A strange smile appeared on the corner of his mouth, and he leaped backward, diving into Lake Rando.

On the calm lake surface, ripples spread out in circles.

The sword-and-shield warrior and the berserker rushed to the edge of the lake. The berserker was just about to jump into the water, but the sword-and-shield warrior pulled him back. "Forget it, don't chase a cornered enemy, and besides, we don't have underwater breathing potions." The sword-and-shield warrior recalled Nie Yan's strange smile just now. This was why he didn't dare go into the water, fearing that Nie Yan might have something planned underwater, and he would be stuck in the depths.

"Just let it go like this?" The berserker was frustrated.

"Consider Zi Huo unlucky. Who told that guy to be so self-righteous and leave the team? Consider it a lesson for him. There are many experts out there."

Several triumphant players ran up, panting for breath. Most of them were classes like mages and priests. Their movement speed wasn't as fast as warriors, so they had fallen behind.

"How is it? Where is that guy?" a mage asked.

"Didn't catch him, jumped into the lake," the sword-and-shield warrior shook his head.

The mage glanced at the sword-and-shield warrior and the berserker in surprise. Zi Yan and Zi Ming were two of the top warriors in the guild. That thief had first killed Zi Huo, and then escaped from the encirclement of Zi Yan and Zi Ming. What was that thief's background?

"What's that thief's name? Ask Zi Huo, he's already resurrected in the graveyard," the mage said.

"Zi Huo said that thief is called Nie Yan," Zi Ming said. He had firmly engraved this name in his heart.

"Tell the people under you to be careful in the future. If they encounter this Nie Yan, report it immediately," the mage said with some concern. They hadn't gained any advantage against Nie Yan, so if ordinary guild members encountered him, the outcome would be predictable.

After Nie Yan jumped into the water, he swam underwater. The water in Lake Rando was very clear. Beams of light shone down from the surface, creating a colorful scene under the refraction of the water. Aquatic plants swayed with the waves, forming a fantastical and magnificent picture.

While diving to the bottom of the lake and swimming through the aquatic plants, Nie Yan suddenly remembered that there seemed to be a chest in Lake Rando. However, he was a little unsure of the exact location, and his memory was no longer very clear.

It should be around here. The treasure chest contained a supplementary skill book, Gathering. Although Gathering wasn't a rare skill book, it was very scarce at the current level. After players learned the Gathering skill, they could increase their income. Each team should have at least one copy, and every solo player also needed a Gathering skill book. The market demand was large, and the supply and demand relationship was unbalanced, which led to the price of the Gathering skill book being highly inflated.

It would be very good if he could find that treasure chest. The characteristics of the thief class allowed them to reach many places that others couldn't, which could make the Gathering skill more effective.

The low-level underwater breathing potion only lasted for fifteen minutes. He regretted not buying a few more underwater breathing potions, knowing that he would be searching for a treasure chest in the water.

Something slowly dived down from the surface in the distance. Under the sunlight, Nie Yan finally saw clearly that it was a level-three murloc. It had the body of a fish, its limbs constantly stroking, swimming extremely fast. It also held a steel fork in its hand.

Nie Yan quickly hid in the aquatic plants.

If it was one-on-one, Nie Yan could easily deal with a murloc, but one very annoying thing about murlocs was that once they were attacked, they would make a sharp cry, attracting all the nearby murlocs.

For safety's sake, Nie Yan decided not to provoke these troublesome guys.

The murloc swam past not far from Nie Yan, parting the aquatic plants and drilling into them.

When the murloc parted the aquatic plants, Nie Yan's sight passed through the aquatic plants, and he found that there was something hidden in the aquatic plants.

Seeing the murloc walk away, Nie Yan carefully swam over. This was where the murlocs were active, and it would be dangerous if he was discovered.

Nie Yan parted the aquatic plants and searched for a while, finally finding a wooden box in the aquatic plants. It was the lowest-level white box. He didn't know if it was the one he remembered.

Opening the box, Nie Yan felt around inside the wooden box. Surprisingly, what he touched wasn't a skill book, but a bead.

Nie Yan checked the attributes of the item.

Murloc Water-Avoiding Bead: Special item, with attached skill, Underwater Breathing. Underwater Breathing: After activation, you can breathe underwater for thirty minutes, skill cooldown time 12 hours.

It was the lowest-level special item. Although it wasn't anything particularly good, it could at least help Nie Yan save a few low-level underwater breathing potions, and he would be able to use it in the future.

It seemed that there was more than one box here. Thinking about it, such a large lake area, the main brain would not set only one treasure chest. Nie Yan continued to search, shuttling through the grass. With a water-avoiding bead, he had much more time to search for treasure chests underwater.

The aquatic plants not far away moved. Nie Yan was shocked and quickly hid in the nearby aquatic plants.

A murloc drilled out of the aquatic plants and swam slowly through the gaps between the aquatic plants not far from Nie Yan.

After a while, another murloc swam towards where Nie Yan was.

One after another.

The frequency of murlocs appearing was getting higher and higher.

Damn, had he drilled into a murloc nest? Or was it just that a group of murlocs happened to be swimming past here.

A murloc was getting closer and closer to him. Nie Yan's heart was in his throat. He clenched the dagger in his hand. He couldn't hide anymore, he could only find an opportunity to run out. But his swimming speed couldn't compare to the murlocs, and he didn't know if he could escape.

But there were too many murlocs nearby. If they all surrounded him, Nie Yan would only have a dead end.

He could only blame himself for being too greedy, forgetting the danger in order to search for treasure chests.

The murloc swam to about three yards away from Nie Yan. It seemed to have sensed something and stopped, raising the steel fork in its hand.

"Squeak squeak," the murloc made some strange noises.

Nie Yan looked in other directions, and at least a dozen murlocs were surrounding the place where he was hiding. The snow-bright steel forks had completely sealed off his escape route.

Finished, he couldn't possibly defeat these murlocs. The murlocs swam extremely fast in the water, and once their snow-bright teeth bit onto an opponent, they wouldn't let go until they tore the opponent to death.

Running was definitely impossible, and it was impossible to win by fighting head-on.

Nie Yan was mentally prepared for death, and glanced at the bodies of the murlocs opposite him. There was a red spot on their abdomen, which was their weak point. Even if he died, he had to at least kill one!

Just then, a sharp horn sounded from the distant lakeside, the rhythm tense, the loud voice carrying far away.

This was the alarm of the murloc tribe being attacked!

The dozen murlocs surrounding Nie Yan stopped swimming at the same time, listening intently. They spoke gibberish in their mouths, and then uniformly swam rapidly towards the lakeside.

The dozen murlocs swam further and further away, and hundreds of murlocs gathered towards them from all directions, like schools of fish in the water.

The murlocs disappeared from Nie Yan's sight.

Luckily, Nie Yan was secretly shocked. The cause and effect of the situation, the result was unexpected, but it was also reasonable.