Chapter 1 Through the Thicket

Passing through the lush jungle, a white Kamiren structure appeared in Nie Yan's sight amidst the distant greenery. In the ancient common tongue, Kamiren meant purity and light. Holy halls everywhere adopted this architectural style. The most notable characteristic of Kamiren architecture was the use of expensive Kamiren white stone as the primary building material. It was more dazzling and radiant than ordinary white stone, reflecting streaks of white light under the sun, giving people a sacred and inviolable feeling. In addition, the roofs of Kamiren buildings were generally composed of deep red, circular domes.

At this time, the Monastery of Light was old and dilapidated, covered in dust, and dim. It had once been a sacred place of pilgrimage for believers, but it had decayed and no longer possessed its former glory. In front of the Monastery of Light was an open square, and at the center of the square stood a statue of an angel, its lively expression still vaguely visible, though it was severely damaged.

Nie Yan walked towards the gate of the Monastery of Light. The gate was open, and humanoid monsters wearing red cloaks could be faintly seen patrolling the corridors. They were hunched over, wielding two daggers, and were thieves.

Red-Clothed Heretic: Level 30, Health 1200/1200.

Thief-type humanoid creatures often had low health, but their attacks were fierce. Occasionally, they would stun you. At the same time, as humanoid monsters, players who could use the Steal skill could steal coins from them. Therefore, it was extremely cost-effective for thieves at Level 30 who knew Steal to level up in the Monastery of Light.

Red-Clothed Heretics were evil creatures, and Nie Yan's Intermediate Demon Hunter could weaken their attributes by 20%, making it relatively easy to deal with them. Each attack could deal about 300 points of damage.

Nie Yan was only Level 17, and it would take a lot of time to deal with these Red-Clothed Heretics, so he simply used Stealth to bypass them.

As he stepped into the entrance of the Monastery of Light, Nie Yan discovered a boundary marker. It had long been dilapidated, and only some ancient common-tongue characters were vaguely visible on it.

Ten Holy Knights of Light: The age of darkness is about to pass. Let us wait for the coming of light.

Legend of the Ten Holy Knights of Light: In the age of darkness, the legend of the Ten Holy Knights of Light was spread throughout Glennming Province. They resisted the tyrannical rule of the Dragon race, spread the faith of light, and were unyielding warriors. They established the Monastery of Light. From then on, the Monastery of Light became the most important resistance force in Glennming Province. Until the late Dark Ages, when the Dragon race's rule was overthrown, the Monastery of Light suddenly disappeared, and the Ten Holy Knights of Light were nowhere to be found. Some said that they went to heaven to receive God's baptism, and others said that they lived a life of seclusion with their beloved girls on the northern grasslands of Glennming Province.

This Monastery of Light was later occupied by some Red-Clothed Heretics. They drove out the residents living nearby and turned this place into a den of thieves.

What kind of story was behind the legend of the Ten Holy Knights of Light? The history of faith was always so intriguing, making people want to seek the truth of history.

Entering the Monastery of Light, the sounds of fighting could be heard from within.

"Tuoba, why did you have to come to this godforsaken place? There are too many monsters here, all Level 30. It'll be troublesome if we encounter an elite."

A rough voice entered Nie Yan's ears, sounding somewhat familiar.

"If we come late, we won't have a chance at this place. The legend of the Ten Holy Knights, such a big name, this place must be related to the Holy Knights. Maybe we can dig up a Holy Knight quest!" Another voice sounded a bit lazy.

Nie Yan frowned. It seemed that someone had come here before him. There was only one passage to enter the inner courtyard of the Monastery of Light, so it would be difficult to bypass them.

Entering Stealth, he slowly crept over. He glanced ahead, and the scene that entered his eyes stunned him.

Nie Yan thought that other players would need at least a team of five or six to dare to come here, but he didn't expect that there were only two people ahead.

A tall warrior, 1.9 meters tall, with muscles all over his body, wore a set of Dark War Armor, his whole body shining with a dark golden metallic luster. He held a greatsword in his hand, which was completely black, with three azure gems inlaid on the hilt. He was like a steel behemoth, capable of tearing everything apart.

Nie Yan felt a chill in his heart. This guy was awesome. He could actually get a set of Dark War Armor now. The Dark War Armor came from Kalu, the undead blacksmith in Darkwind Canyon. The undead blacksmith Kalu was a Level 25 elite that spawned once a day. The Dark War Armor had five set pieces, including a sword, armor, helmet, gauntlets, and boots, so it would take at least five days or more to collect the entire Dark War Armor set.

Looking at the other Holy Knight, he wore a suit of azure armor, the Holy Knight's Azure Holy Light, also a Level 25 set. The difficulty was not much lower than the Dark War Armor set. It would take a lot of effort to get such a set of armor, at least seven or eight days of management.

The backs of these two people looked a bit familiar. He cast a Super Appraisal on the two of them and took a look.

Tuoba Shi: Level 25.

Shi Fen Haoshuang: Level 25.

Nie Yan's heart skipped a beat. These two were both Level 25, but their names were not on the level rankings. It seemed that they, like Nie Yan, had chosen to hide their levels. He had seen these two people at the entrance of the Starry Night Potion Shop before. He didn't think much of it at the time, but he didn't expect that when they met again, the two of them would actually be wearing such awesome equipment. Level 25, plus Dark War Armor and Azure Holy Light, the strength behind them was quite amazing.

No wonder they dared to come to the Monastery of Light with only two people.

Nie Yan had never heard of these two players in his previous life, but there were many unknown experts. These people were usually not professional players. Playing games was just a hobby. They did not compete for fame or fortune, but many of them were no less skilled than professional players. They usually had better economic conditions, and the gains and losses of equipment in the game were of no importance to them.

If he spent six or seven days, Nie Yan could also get a set of awesome golden-grade equipment for his current level, but for Nie Yan, it was very uneconomical to spend six or seven days getting a set of equipment that would be replaced in a while. Getting six Chapters of Order and synthesizing the first volume of the Chapters of Order was crucial for future development. Even going to get the Soggoth's Shadow Fragments and synthesizing Soggoth's Shadow was much more cost-effective than getting a set of golden equipment.

Next to Shi Fen Haoshuang and Tuoba Shi, a pile of corpses was already lying on the ground.

Shi Fen Haoshuang charged up, and with a Taunt, more than a dozen Red-Clothed Heretics gathered around him.

Whirlwind Slash!

Shi Fen Haoshuang swept his greatsword horizontally, and -200+ damage numbers popped up above the heads of these Red-Clothed Heretics. However, the Red-Clothed Heretics' attacks on Shi Fen Haoshuang only caused twenty or thirty points of damage.

Although the Dark War Armor focused more on attack, its defensive capabilities were also not to be ignored.

At the same time, warriors had a certain damage bonus when attacking leather armor classes, so Shi Fen Haoshuang's attack was quite considerable.

Tuoba Shi cast a Lesser Heal on Shi Fen Haoshuang from the side, and then a Holy Strike, hitting a Red-Clothed Heretic for -430.

The Holy Knight's holy attacks were very effective against evil creatures. After the Holy Strike, Tuoba Shi activated Holy Light Retribution. The light all over his body was like spikes, shining on these Red-Clothed Heretics. Under the Holy Light Retribution, the surrounding heretics lost 20 health points per second.

Shi Fen Haoshuang did another Whirlwind Slash, sweeping up a wave of damage. After a while, a group of Red-Clothed Heretics fell to the ground, a pile of corpses on the ground.

Tuoba Shi picked up the equipment that had fallen on the ground, and the two sat in a corner eating bread to restore their health, chatting.

"Those legends about the Ten Holy Knights of Light are just fabricated background history. Maybe there's nothing here. Is it worth taking such a big risk?" Even though it was just a normal conversation, Shi Fen Haoshuang's voice was still very explosive.

"Who knows? Let's come and take a look. We should be able to deal with elites. If there are more than two elites, we'll go back," Tuoba Shi said casually.

Shi Fen Haoshuang knew that he couldn't persuade Tuoba. This guy looked lazy, but he was actually very stubborn. Once he made a decision, ten cows couldn't pull him back. Originally, there were six people in the team, preparing to team up to level up together. Tuoba Shi insisted on coming to the Monastery of Light, but the others didn't want to come. In the end, only he and Shi Fen Haoshuang were left in the team.

"What can I do with a friend like you? I can only accompany you to the death," Shi Fen Haoshuang said with a wry smile.

Tuoba Shi smiled slightly. Although Shi Fen Haoshuang had a loud voice, he was a true person, which was not bad.

And Tuoba Shi was usually more lazy, but he was also very loyal. This was why two people with such different personalities could become friends.

The two restored their health to full, stood up, and prepared to deal with the next wave of monsters.

Shi Fen Haoshuang was preparing to charge.

Tuoba Shi cast a Prayer on Shi Fen Haoshuang and himself. Strength, agility, perception, and other abilities soared by a large margin. After the perception was improved, an unusual feeling surged in his heart.

"There's a thief, be careful!" Tuoba Shi activated Eye of God. His pupils contracted, and he looked into the distance, discovering Nie Yan about ten yards away from them, but he didn't seem to have any intention of attacking them.

Shi Fen Haoshuang was stunned for a moment. He was a warrior, and his perception was much worse than a Holy Knight's. In addition, he was originally a carefree person. He was good at charging forward, but he wasn't very good at perceiving thieves using Stealth. However, he was a warrior with such good equipment. When leveling up outside, he basically ignored thieves. Thieves wouldn't be stupid enough to attack a warrior with such good equipment. A warrior couldn't basically die from being stunned for a few seconds, but after they countered and used Hamstring, ordinary thieves would be crippled.