The Great Thief

Lu Li took out the ‘Shadow Cloak’ skill book from his backpack and showed it to Water Fairy.

Her face was suddenly shocked and she quickly swallowed.

“Are you willing to sell it me?”

“Yep!”

“Why would you want to sell such a good skill book to me?”

This was too good to be true; Water Fairy didn’t dare to believe it.

In Dawn, less than 10 people would end up learning Shadow Cloak. Water Fairy had been trying to buy this skill book for a long time, but had been unsuccessful so far. She didn’t think that would ever find it, let alone in the hands of Lu Li.

Lu Li laughed at this scene.

The answer was self-evident and as Water Fairy realized this, her eyes widened.

“You actually found two copies of ‘Shadow Cloak’!”

Three, silly girl!

Lu Li was actually quite proud of this, even if his face didn’t show it. He shook the skill book in his hands and said, “If you want it, name your price. I’ll sell it if you name an appropriate one. I can’t really be bothered to take it to the Exchange Hall.”

“One hundred gold!” Water Fairy hesitated for a moment before declaring her price.

When Lu Li first entered the game, he had been incredibly lucky and had managed to find a Mage crowd-control skill book – ‘Frost Nova’. At the time, he had sold it for 20 gold, but the value of gold was $1500:1. The 20 gold he had earned translated to $30,000.

Now, the exchange rate of gold was $300:1. If Water Fairy payed 100 gold, then the value of ‘Shadow Cloak’ and ‘Frost Nova’ would be the same.

However, the price that she had named reflected her sincerity. Lu Li could have pushed to get a little more, but he didn’t do so. Instead, he directly traded the skill book to her.

“100 is fine by me. Just give it to Moonlight. It’ll be tonight’s ante.”

“Thank you so much; I’ll buy you a meal one day if you’re free.”

Water Fairy nodded happily as she grinned. Her whole face seemed to radiate with joy.

She was the kind of person that people couldn’t take their eyes off, but she had a cold demeanor, so most people kept their distance. However, in this moment, her true personality had been revealed. Who would have thought that she had such a pure smile?

“Alright, if there are no other questions, we should get started.”

The more-experienced Moonlight couldn’t help but feel a little embarrassed for him.

This guy deserved to be single for the rest of his life!

Water Fairy nodded and began to paint something onto her dagger.

Lu Li couldn’t help but watch her and sigh. This was a benefit of being a tycoon; she had already started to use poisons.

He had Pick-Pocketed poison from the Undead Herbalist, but had already used it to fight a Boss. Later, he tried to look for poisons in the Exchange Hall but couldn’t find any. He didn’t know if Water Fairy had found hers, or if it had been produced by her guild members.

If it had been produced by Drizzle Court guild players, he could potentially ask about purchasing some after the PVP. For now, he would just forget about it; there was no way she would give him some before the fight.

Lu Li spent a gold coin to construct a common room that was used in Thief vs. Thief battles, before telling Water Fairy the room password.

Before long, the two of them appeared in the competition room.

This map was similar to one that Lu Li was in before; it was just a small circular platform.

Lu Li and Water Fairy made eye contact one last time before almost simultaneously going into Stealth. The two of them immediately lost track of each other, but the arena wasn’t very big. Eventually, they were bound to run into one another.

Lu Li’s footsteps were light, as he floated about.

It wasn’t long before Water Fairy should have been near where he was originally. Lu Li carefully tried to sense any movement in the air. His brain was simulating the field like a net, attempting to sift out any irregularities.

In his previous life, Lu Li also needed to be sneaky, so his Stealthing-ability was very natural.

However, he quickly realized that he had been overconfident.

He felt a movement in the air behind him and his neck hair quickly stood on its ends.

A dagger was moving as quick as an arrow towards the back of his head.

His opponent must have had some kind of specialized Stealth equipment!

Lu Li’s brain reacted quickly. He moved his arms, legs and contorted his body, managing to block the dagger without even looking at it.

Chiang! With that sound, Lu Li knew that he had blocked the attack, especially since he had not been stunned by Cheap Shot.

Water Fairy was not disappointed by this and followed her first attack with an even stronger one.

Lu Li had previously studied Water Fairy’s PVP tutorial videos, but now that he was facing her in person, he could really feel the oppressive nature of her attacks.

There was one word to describe them—fast!

Water Fairy’s attack speed was so high, that for every attack Lu Li got in, she attacked back three times.

However, this kind of speed didn’t come from her high attack-speed attributes. Instead, she had chosen to exchange effectiveness for speed. Her attacks were relentless, but she didn’t pay attention to her Skill Completion, as the damage she dealt was around 30-40.

The poison that she used also wasn’t what Lu Li had expected. It was more of a fast-acting poison that allowed each attack to deal more damage.

On the other hand, when Lu Li attacked her, he would deal 80-100 damage.

System: Shadowstrike Skill Completion 65%, resulting in 72% damage.

This should have had a high Skill Completion, but was reduced because it was blocked.

Overall, Lu Li was losing more HP, but only by a small margin.

Lu Li knew that this was a bad situation to be in, but he didn’t panic. He kept his cool and continued to allow her to come at him.

Even her flurry of attacks had gaps in them. Water Fairy’s attacks were affected by changing positions and casting spells. When Lu Li found an opportunity, he activated the Swiftness effect of his shoes and swept her aside. She tried to turn and follow him, but paused for a moment.

This was the effect that Lu Li wanted.

System: Shadowstrike Skill Completion 89%, dealing 112% damage and stunning for 1 second!

After being stunned, Water Fairy frantically tried to cast Shadowmeld. In the moment Shadowmeld took effect, it could nullify an attack by making it lose its target. She hoped that Shadowmeld would protect her from being stunned by Cheap Shot.

In that short 1 second duration, Lu Li’s attack came and Water Fairy’s Shadowmeld also activated.

It looked like she had had timed it perfectly.

However, things don’t always turn out as planned. Water Fairy was shocked to find that Lu Li hadn’t used Cheap Shot, but a regular attack.

She had been tricked!

As she realized this, she felt the chill of a dagger behind her.

The real Cheap Shot was coming!

Fortunately, she still had another skill – Gale Steps.

This was the first time that Lu Li had seen Gale Steps.

Gale Steps was considered one of the strongest Thief skills. It gave invincibility and dealt high damage, while boosting movement speed and critical chance.

He didn’t know what level Water Fairy’s Gale Steps were, but a max-level Gale Steps gave 2 seconds of invincibility, 80% bonus movement speed and dealt 280% bonus damage when coming out of Stealth.

He now realized out why Moonlight had lost to her. Water Fairy’s skills were far too strong. Her equipment was also very good and he was willing to bet that all her equipment was at least LV15 Steel-Grade.

Now that he had thought about it, this wasn’t outside the realm of possibility. With such a big guild behind her, it would have been strange for her not to have good equipment.

Lu Li pursed his lips and maintained his straight expression while retreating backwards.