Rebirth of the Thief Who Roamed the World

“Y-you! What have you done? I’ll skin you alive and torture your soul for all eternity!” Nadago furiously cursed. After a millennium of imprisonment, he had finally found an opportunity to break free of the shackles binding him and was only moments away from obtaining the freedom he so desired. But this wretched human ruined everything! He had channeled much of his soul into the Staff of Curses, employing Nie Yan as a proxy to shatter the Holy Stones. Its destruction represented a significant loss of his power.

Nie Yan was elated his gamble paid off. Although he had noticed the changes occurring in the Staff of Curses as soon as he entered the barrier, he was walking on a knife’s edge. Nadago could instantly end his life at the first sign of resistance. So, he could only bide his time, patiently waiting for an opportunity to appear. Had he not complied with the orders, he would be a corpse right now.

Impatience was the greatest enemy to achieving one’s own goals. With freedom right before his eyes, Nadago had dropped his guard, giving Nie Yan the opportunity to turn the tide!

Nevertheless, it was a pity such a valuable staff had to be sacrificed!

Nie Yan burst into action as he activated God’s Blessing and dashed toward Nadago with Zennarde’s Sword slashing down.

Nadago was a caster, so God’s Blessing could nullify his damage!

Nadago chanted out a cryptic incantation and cast a powerful curse on Nie Yan as a dark mist tightly wrapped around him.

However, the curse rapidly dissipated before disappearing entirely upon making contact with the membrane of light around Nie Yan.

After being closed in on by Nie Yan, the flames in Nadago’s eye sockets trembled in panic.

Zennarde’s Sword ruthlessly chopped down on Nadago’s chest, shattering two ribs and revealing a beating heart. This was his weak point! Necromancers were still human, albeit ones that endlessly pursued the power of death and transformed themselves into undead. But before becoming Liches, they still couldn’t entirely shed themselves of their mortal coil.

Still, Nie Yan was surprised Nadago was this weak. It appeared the destruction of the Staff of Curses had dealt him a severe blow.

「Pfft!」Nie Yan plunged his dagger into Nadago’s heart. Blood started gushing out like a fountain.

Nadago roared out in pain and unleashed a powerful blast of death energy which sent Nie Yan flying back.

The remaining Holy Stones shone even brighter, melting away the death energy in the surroundings before eventually reaching their limit and shattering into pieces. The stone room shook violently while web-like cracks spread out across the walls.

As the dust and smoke settled, Nadago, drained of all his power, collapsed on the ground.

Nie Yan glanced at his health, roughly 20% remaining. Fortunately, he wasn’t harmed by the death energy thanks to effects of God’s Blessing. He was only injured by the physical damage portion of the blast.

You have gained 2,186,578 experience for killing the Legendary Necromancer Nadago. Take the broken pieces of Nadago’s Staff of Curses to Great General Breakspear.

As three crisp jingles rang out in his head, Nie Yan went from Level 63 to Level 66. The experience reward was quite generous!

Nie Yan opened up his quest window.

Fate of Empress Finas

Follow the soul of Molelord Bennett and help him find out what happened to his beloved Empress Finas.

Objectives

☐ Search for Empress Finas’ Venom Sac, Occult Item: 2/3.

☑ Kill the Legendary Necromancer Nadago and take the Occult Talisman.

Nie Yan walked over to Nadago’s corpse and picked up the loot. He found the Occult Talisman and a mysterious black scroll.

The Occult Talisman is finally mine! Nie Yan could hardly contain his excitement.

Description: Summon a Level 100 Molelord with 2,000,000 health for a maximum of 3 hours. Cooldown: 60 days.

Requirements: 20 Great Mages, 3 Occult Items, 1 Soul, and 1 Magical Array

Nie Yan already had two Occult Items and Bennett’s Soul. He could probably scrape up 20 Great Mages by asking for the help of Sapphire Shrine, Holy Empire, War God Tribe, and Battle Crazed Alliance. As for the Magical Array, his vision fell on the elaborate hexagram array drawn on the black scroll.

Nie Yan would require an experienced Great Mage to set up the array. Furthermore, he’d also need three more Great Mages with the largest mana pools to hold the Occult Items. Together, the 20 Great Mages would have to chant for roughly an hour without interruption to summon the Molelord.

Afterwards, the 20 Great Mages would have to continuously expend mana to keep the Molelord in this plane. If the supply of mana was cut, it would disappear and couldn’t be summoned again for 60 days.

The Occult Talisman was off cooldown and could be used right away. The only thing missing was the last remaining Occult Item, Empress Finas’ Venom Sac!

Nie Yan tucked these items together in a corner of his bag. They had to be treated with great care. If the Molelord was used wisely, it’d be a game-changing trump card! He couldn’t help but wonder if there were others who had similar items. Although the possibility was infinitesimally low, he still had to remain vigilant.

Nie Yan noticed beside the just in his status window, brave was also added. This was the reward for killing Legendary Necromancer Nadago. He had no idea what these two modifiers meant. They required further research.

After searching around the room, Nie Yan didn’t find anything else. He retraced his steps and left the cave.

Bennett’s Soul didn’t appear again. The shattering of the Holy Stones probably had something to do with this disappearance. Without it guiding him, Nie Yan had no way of finding Empress Finas’ Venom Sac.

Looking at the server clock, it was almost time for his meeting with Warlance.

Nie Yan couldn’t use a Return Scroll. So, he could only make the journey back on foot. It took him about half an hour to arrive back at the flight point on the island. He paid the fee and flew back to the mainland, where he then galloped off toward the Ivory Village on his Faulkner Warhorse.

About 20 minutes later, the Ivory Village came within sight. Similar to Graveyard Village, it was also surrounded by a large plain with tombstones everywhere. This was a massive graveyard. Occasionally, corpse-eating birds could be seen flying overhead in the dark sky.

Nie Yan passed by the two skeleton guards stationed at the entrance and entered inside. This place wasn’t as bustling as Graveyard Village. Only a few players were walking on the narrow streets.

Nie Yan found a corner and set up a stall, putting his wares up on display as he waited for Warlance to arrive.

Since arriving back in the Underworld, Nie Yan had killed hundreds of players and filled several of his bags to the brim with their equipment. He might as well put them up for sale in his little stall and earn a bit of money while passing the time.

There weren’t many people in this village, with most of them only passing by. However, all the players here were at least Level 40 or higher. And more importantly, all of them had money to spend. Add this to the fact that Nie Yan’s wares were cheap and the quality high, they sold out fairly quickly. Tallying up his profits, he made almost 3,000 gold.

Roughly an hour and a half later, Nie Yan had emptied everything from his bag, and Warlance finally arrived.

Warlance quickly spotted Nie Yan. After exchanging meaningful looks, the two of them walked into a tavern.

They sat at a table in a remote corner of the room. “We have to be careful. Recently, we’ve entered a war with several guilds. There are players tailing me. The guild leader couldn’t personally come since he’s too big of a target.”

Nie Yan nodded. As long as they remained discreet, everything would more or less be fine.

At this moment, two Thieves in black leather armour walked into the tavern. They found a table not too far from Nie Yan and Warlance and sat down.

Nie Yan discovered these two players were both Great Thieves.

Warlance glanced at them before returning his attention to Nie Yan. “Those two belong to enemy guilds. Let’s use private chat. When you leave the village later, make sure you don’t get followed.”

Nie Yan chuckled. “No worries. If I don’t want to be followed, no one can keep up with me. That aside, back at the Lava Sea, I ended up encountering that Thief you expelled from your guild. Will there be any problems?” He was worried Les would leak his relationship with Fallen Angel to outsiders.

“It’s fine. We have him under our watch,” Warlance said. They naturally wouldn’t leave such a loose end.

“You’ve brought the equipment?”

Warlance nodded. He handed over all the equipment to Nie Yan, along with 50 stacks of Death Wave Scrolls.

“So, how did the equipment I brought you sell?” Nie Yan asked with a smile. He assumed Fallen Angel had made a nice profit.

“We’ve already sold everything. The gold really helped us out of a crisis.”

Since both sides profited, this collaboration could continue smoothly. It appeared Fallen Angel was quite satisfied with their partnership.