Nie Yan dashed forward, running swiftly. His combat method was another form of kiting, but instead of ranged attacks, he used bleeds and poison damage.
If he faced these Shadow Rogues head-on, he would definitely be unable to defeat them. However, using this method made things much easier, albeit taking a bit more time.
The Shadow Rogue lunged forward, cornering Nie Yan with no escape route. Suddenly, Nie Yan leapt up, sticking to the nearby wall and climbing upwards. He flipped over and jumped behind the Shadow Rogue, delivering another assassination strike followed by an explosive blast.
The energy explosion from his dagger sent the Shadow Rogue flying.
The Shadow Rogue staggered and fell to the ground, struggling to rise again. As it attempted to chase Nie Yan, Nie Yan had already run far away.
Nie Yan continued kiting, gradually wearing down the Shadow Rogue’s health until it finally collapsed.
A silver-gray armor dropped on the ground. Nie Yan picked it up and examined it—it was the dark gold-tier Gray Retribution armor. Gray-series equipment, if a full set could be assembled, would reduce the level requirement by 10 levels, allowing it to be worn at level 60. However, Gray-series sets only dropped during the initial exploration of certain maps.
Gray Retribution Armor granted 120 points of Shadow damage, along with significant Strength bonuses, making it ideal for aggressive, damage-focused Swordmasters.
These elite Shadow Rogues wouldn’t respawn once defeated. Nie Yan wondered if he could collect a full set of Gray Retribution here.
If he could obtain a complete Gray Retribution set, it would be well-suited for players like Shui Se Yan Tou, Wu Feng, and Hei Bai.
Nie Yan searched the corpse of the Shadow Rogue but found nothing else. He then proceeded toward the previously opened room. It was a narrow, empty chamber devoid of any objects. He stepped back out and continued forward.
Opening these rooms often spawned one or two Shadow Rogues. Nie Yan eliminated them using the same method and then inspected the rooms, often discovering chests—mostly silver or gold-tier, with dark gold-tier being rare. During this time, he obtained three pieces of Gray Retribution: the armor, gauntlets, and legguards. He still needed the shoulders, helm, and boots.
Nie Yan opened another room door, preparing for defense. Unexpectedly, no Shadow Rogues attacked. The interior looked like the others, but beside the bed sat a fat man in a gray robe, with a plump face and messy golden hair.
Nie Yan cast a Detect skill on him.
Noble Felblazer: Level 0, HP 200/200.
“Respected Demon Slayer and Scholar, please rescue me from here, I beg you,” Felblazer said upon seeing Nie Yan, his expression immediately turning sorrowful.
“This is an Instant Teleport Scroll—you can use it to leave,” Nie Yan replied, trading one of the scrolls to Felblazer.
“Thank you, respected Demon Slayer and Scholar,” Felblazer said gratefully.
Nie Yan found the overly elaborate title a bit annoying, but NPC dialogue was strictly regulated, especially titles—they couldn’t be altered arbitrarily.
After using the scroll, Felblazer vanished from the spot and returned.
Nie Yan checked his quest progress: 1/100 hostages rescued.
He scanned the room. It contained nothing. Only rooms guarded by Shadow Rogues contained chests.
Nie Yan proceeded room by room, rescuing eight more hostages. After clearing all the rooms, he entered a grand hall. Pillars stood tall, and a red carpet stretched forward to a lavishly decorated throne. The hall appeared vast and empty, yet Nie Yan felt a creeping sense of danger.
True Sight!
A sinister red glow shimmered in Nie Yan’s eyes. Gradually, faint, almost imperceptible figures emerged within his vision.
There were at least fifty to sixty Shadow Rogues active in the hall, making Nie Yan’s heart race.
If he had rashly charged in, he wouldn’t have known how he died. Fortunately, he had used True Sight. Otherwise, he would never have realized this seemingly empty hall was actually full of hidden dangers.
Even the Advanced-level class quest was already extremely difficult. The difficulty of the Expert-level quest could only be imagined.
Nie Yan’s decision to retreat was wise. In his previous life, most players who became Master Thieves chose the Easy-level class quests. Statistical data from back then showed that at most a few hundred players completed the Normal-level quests. Only a few dozen completed the Hard-level quests, and only one completed the Advanced-level quest. That person’s name was long forgotten, and it was said he had merely been lucky. Players like Sun and Wang Zhe Tian Xia only completed the Hard-level quests.
Nie Yan had accepted the Advanced-level class quest, already pushing his limits. As for the Expert-level, he didn’t dare even think about it—it would be suicide to accept it.
The Master Thief class quest could be accepted at level 50, but very few players completed it at that level. Having one or two among thousands was already impressive. Most had to wait until reaching much higher levels. As for the higher Shadow Dancer class, it could only be accepted at level 100. However, very few players managed to complete the quest and earn the Shadow Dancer title—only a handful. To ordinary players, the Shadow Dancer was an almost godlike title.
By the time Nie Yan was reborn, his level was already quite high—level 180 as a Master Thief. At that time, only twenty or thirty players had reached level 200 or above, all of whom were top-tier players with legendary gear. Nie Yan was solidly in the second tier.
Whether there were titles beyond Shadow Dancer was unknown, but it was said that beyond level 200, leveling became extremely difficult. Killing monsters yielded almost no experience, and weeks of grinding might only increase experience by single digits. Although Faith had no experience cap, the leveling speed beyond level 200 was so slow it was practically capped.
The difficulty of leveling in the later stages was why Nie Yan invested so much effort into raising his Golden Earth Dragon’s level. Normally, melee units had very slow solo leveling speeds in the late game. They mainly relied on battle pets with strong AoE magic growth, which were highly sought after and priced exorbitantly. Nie Yan needed to keep his Golden Earth Dragon’s level up; otherwise, he’d have to return to low-level zones later just to train his pet, which would be extremely inconvenient.
Planning his future development, Nie Yan decided that after finishing the current Warblade Bloodthirsty affair, he would return to the underground every ten days and dedicate all his time to leveling up!
Nie Yan had too many things to handle, which distracted him. Otherwise, if he focused solely on leveling, he would probably be around level ninety by now.
Looking at the group of Shadow Rogues ahead, Nie Yan considered his options. He activated a disguise skill, donning a black cloak that made him appear identical to a regular Shadow Rogue.
He entered Stealth mode and cautiously moved toward the distant throne.
While in Stealth, he felt over a dozen gazes scanning the area. However, after lingering on him for a while, the gazes gradually moved away.
Nie Yan exhaled in relief and used True Sight to scan the surroundings, carefully avoiding the Shadow Rogues.
He passed by one Shadow Rogue after another. After some time, he gradually approached the throne at the front of the hall. The throne was entirely carved from dark golden metal, and a rogue in dark golden leather armor paced near it.
The rogue wielded two daggers, clearly a combat-oriented rogue.
Nie Yan found a suitable position, hiding behind a pillar, and cast Detect on the rogue.
Bloodthirsty Rogue: Level 70 Lord, HP 150,000/150,000.
Groups usually avoided humanoid rogue lords when farming bosses. The reason was simple—they were extremely difficult to deal with. Their movement speed was too fast, and they possessed skills like long-range dashes and stuns.
Encountering a humanoid rogue lord usually meant a party wipe.
As for challenging a level 70 boss alone, that would be suicide.
Although there were tall pillars in the hall, Nie Yan couldn’t hang from them to attack the Bloodthirsty Rogue. Bows and crossbows were standard equipment for rogues, and rogue monsters were no exception. If he shot at them from above, the Bloodthirsty Rogue and Shadow Rogues might retaliate with ranged attacks.
This plan was basically ruled out.
In his previous life, Nie Yan had visited this hall, but back then all the Shadow Rogues and Bloodthirsty Rogue had already been cleared. He remembered there was an entrance to an underground dungeon behind the throne, likely where the hostages were being held.
This location was extremely secretive. Fortunately, Nie Yan was familiar with the map layout. Other thieves might search this arena for two or three days without finding the entrance.
Nie Yan scanned the hall and noticed a large box placed not far from the Bloodthirsty Rogue. This box wasn’t a treasure chest but a regular decorative item. It was large and placed in a corner.
Unlike treasure chests, which couldn’t be moved or destroyed and disappeared after being opened, decorative items remained in place like real-world objects unless moved.
This box was woven from bamboo strips, marked with the symbol of three daggers.
In his previous life, Nie Yan had come here and found the box in that exact location, but it had already been emptied.
This box wasn’t locked and could be easily opened, though its contents were unknown.
Attempting to open this box without being noticed by the Bloodthirsty Rogue would be extremely difficult.
Nie Yan cast Detect on the box.
Thief’s Storage Chest: Thieves stored all their stolen money and items here.
Nie Yan’s heart stirred. In his previous life, when he came here, the storage chest had already been looted. In this life, he was the first person to arrive here—no one had touched this chest before him!
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