The Great Thief

However, the Timbermaw bears were arrogant creatures whose suffering had caused them to distrust all other creatures.

As Lu Li approached Timbermaw Hold, he took the only path that led from Felwood to Winterspring. A huge bear stood in his way, blocking the path.

"Elf, you shouldn’t be here, return to your forest!"

"Fellow protector of nature, I think my abilities will be of use to you," Lu Li said gently. He wasn’t going to give up, but he wasn’t going to kill this bear either.

If he killed it, he wouldn’t be able to do anything he planned to do. This clan wasn’t like the Goblins, who were easily swayed by money. If he killed an innocent Timbermaw clan member, his Reputation would suffer. Lu Li’s current Timbermaw Clan Reputation was Cold, but the next level was Hated.

This was the last bear monster tribe, but they had once been very powerful.

When the Burning Legion began to spread through the forest of Kalimdor, they were one of the first creatures to perceive this horrible power. Temperate animals went berserk and became fierce murderous beasts. Their bodies were corroded and their souls were desecrated until they completely succumbed to the influence of the demons.

Soon after, the Timbermaw Clan also suffered the same fate. Their entire race was violently afflicted by four weeks of this corruption.

However, in this chaos, a bear tribe escaped from the darkness and vanished from the Kalimdor continent. Within the safe Timbermaw Hold, the Timbermaw Bears suffered while they watched helplessly as the forest that they once loved was gradually twisted and corrupted.

When the forest Elves stopped talking to them, the Timbermaw Bears finally realized that their home would never be the same... it was gone forever.

As the last bear tribe, the Timbermaw Clan resolved to maintain their spiritual practices to try and end the suffering of other bears.

"There is a Deadwood Bear camp in the southwest filled with those that have fallen. I hope that you will be able to deal with them before they become a big problem. The Deadwood tribe are very evil as their minds have been corrupted by the demons. They were good by nature, but now, they have been irreversibly corrupted. I am saddened to have to fight my own kind like this. Elf, go and deal with them. Don’t tell me how you do it; I can’t bear to hear something like that."

"Alright. What shall I call you, esteemed one? What do I bring back to prove that the task is complete?" Lu Li asked.

"You can call me Nafien. Bring me the hearts of six Deadwood Den Watchers, six Deadwood Avengers and six Deadwood Shamans. The high priest wants to know what is going on with them," Timbermaw Bear Nafien said before turning back and walking into the cave.

"So stingy. He didn’t even give me a buff," Lu Li muttered. His low charisma meant that he had low starting prestige with this clan.

In fact, his main goal were the Deadwood Bears, who almost perfectly met his requirements. With the exception of a small number of Magic monsters who used long-range skills, all the monsters there had high Defense and average Attack.

No one would reject the extra benefit of gaining some Reputation while honing their skills.

The shamanistic customs of the Timbermaw Clan were still flourishing. They were proficient in their craftsmanship of equipment using a variety of animal furs and were also happy to give their friends special healing buffs.

Of course, the requirement was that he had to prove himself as a friend first.

Deadwood Village had now become a gathering place for monsters. It was hard to imagine that these cruel and irrational bears were once like the proud, but polite Nafien.

The items that these monsters dropped were fairly mediocre, but the EXP was good.

In the following fights, Lu Li used Shadowstrike as often as he could to defeat them. He would sometimes Stun his target first before using Shadowstrike, but more often, he would choose a target that was moving.

The difference was that a large unmoving target was basically the same as a wooden stake. There were many wooden stakes in the city for the players to test their skills on. Lu Li had achieved a 100% Skill Completion on them before and could consistently reach 96%.

The highest number he had recorded on a moving target was 95%, but he had to acknowledge that this was accounted for by luck.

He could Strengthen his Shadowstrike at any time, but Lu Li had heard many mentors emphasize gaining more experience. The more skillful he was at performing the basic ability, the stronger the Strengthened version would be.

This was because the effect of the Strengthened skill wasn’t fixed – each individual player’s Strengthened skills would have their own characteristics.

For example, Lu Li’s Enhanced Stealth had an extra useful effect of turning him into a bat. With Shadowstrike, he hoped to gain an effect that would increase its damage and crowd-control potential.

It was said that these strengthened skills were the only way for the players to complete with the NPCs.

For example, if Lu Li wanted to challenge Illidan, he had to fight the Shadow of illidan or attack an incarnation of Illidan in an Instance Dungeon. If he encountered the real Illidan, there would be nothing but defeat in store for him.

At Lu Li’s level, other than aiming to fight the other players in the expert circle, many players were trying to fight the NPCs of the game.

Typically, their goal was to capture enemy faction villages so they could plunder the resources and train their abilities.

The Deadwood Den Watcher and Deadwood Avenger were both Warrior type monsters that Lu Li was focusing on.

The Deadwood Shamans simultaneously also knew Priest skills. This meant that they could attack from long range and short range, while healing themselves and placing totems. This made them quite difficult to fight, especially at level 50.

However, Lu Li didn’t deliberately avoid the Deadwood Shamans. In future fights, he would likely have to face an enemy like this anyway.

If you always ran away from enemies that seemed difficult, you would never reach the peak of your potential.