Chapter 120: The Elegant Civet

The skeletal warriors seemed to fear the ancient tomb of Abraham and never dared to approach.

Nie Yan sat atop the entrance of Abraham’s tomb, slowly waiting for his health to regenerate. Soon, his critically low health fully recovered to maximum.

Seeing his health restored, Nie Yan’s mood inexplicably improved. He flipped off the top of the tomb entrance, landed gracefully, and walked through the entrance, descending the staircase step by step.

Each step had been weathered and smoothed, faintly revealing ancient undead markings. Below lay endless darkness, where even the slightest sound was amplified infinitely by the silence. Nie Yan could almost hear his own heartbeat.

Walking downward felt like stepping through the gates of death.

Chilling and decaying waves of death emanated from the depths of the tomb.

Nie Yan lightened his steps, moving cautiously along the walls.

Though he had been here in a past life, the place had already been cleared by the Triumph guild when he arrived. Clearing a map was as difficult as raiding a dungeon, often involving many elite or sub-elite creatures. Once killed, they wouldn’t respawn, like the skeleton executioners in the ancient city of Sogard.

For a level 10 player to challenge such a high-difficulty map, only Nie Yan could be so reckless.

The temptation of the Scroll of Freedom was irresistible.

Guided by his dim vision, Nie Yan gradually descended deeper into the tomb. Ahead, some white light emerged, brightening his surroundings.

Embedded in the walls of the tomb were luminescent pearls, casting a dim and pale glow that added a sense of desolation and mystery to the tomb.

After entering the tomb, a sense of familiarity arose in Nie Yan’s heart, as scenes overlapped with his memories. He had spent a lot of time here grinding for experience in the past, so he was already familiar with the terrain.

Ahead, shadows flickered, indicating the presence of many monsters. Nie Yan became alert. In his past life, there had been no monsters here; the monster-spawning area was much further ahead.

Nie Yan’s figure slowly faded into the background, moving stealthily along the wall, hiding in the shadows.

Ahead was a large hall, about 20×20 yards, with a height of about 10 yards. Candle sconces surrounded the hall, flickering with flame. Many figures wandered around.

Through the dim light, Nie Yan finally saw one of the monsters clearly. They were zombies wearing black clothes, with pale faces. He counted carefully—there were more than thirty of them, blocking the way forward.

Nie Yan cast a Detect spell on one of the zombies.

Vampire Baron: Level 25 elite, health 3000/3000.

It was actually a Vampire Baron! Nie Yan was startled. Memories from his past resurfaced—Vampire Barons were among the toughest elite monsters at levels 20+. They didn’t have high health, but they were fast, hit hard, and had life-draining attacks, making them extremely difficult to handle. Nie Yan had been killed by one at level 27 in another area.

Undead were highly sensitive to the presence of living beings. Once a living being approached within 7-8 yards, they could immediately sense its exact location.

This rendered rogues’ stealth useless!

More than thirty Vampire Barons were enough to completely block the path. Nie Yan had no way of passing stealthily!

If he couldn’t handle a single Vampire Baron, how could he deal with so many?

How to get through here? Nie Yan looked upward toward the top of the hall. The ceiling was entirely made of stone, covered in regular painted patterns in deep red, forming a huge circular vortex. In the center was a pale white skeleton. In the eye sockets of the skull, blue flames flickered quietly, like a god looking down on the living, captivating anyone who gazed at it.

The mysterious skeleton and flickering lights made the hall feel eerily mysterious.

Seeing the smooth rock wall on the ceiling, Nie Yan smiled slightly. Activating the skill on his Ring of the Weaver, a strand of spider silk stuck to the ceiling. Using this force, Nie Yan soared upward, quickly approaching the top.

Nie Yan used the Ring of the Crawler, causing his palms to act like suction cups. Upon contact with the ceiling, they stuck firmly.

Like a spider, he crawled over the heads of the Vampire Barons.

Nie Yan could sense the commotion below. The barons might have sensed the presence of life, but they never imagined Nie Yan was directly above them. Even if they detected him, they couldn’t attack.

With agility, Nie Yan crawled from the edge of the ceiling to the center, getting closer to the skeleton pattern. When he entered a five-yard radius around the skeleton, a strong sense of unease surged in his heart.

This skeleton was suspicious!

Suddenly, Nie Yan realized something and stopped, carefully detouring around the skeleton.

It was a trigger mechanism!

His sharp instincts had saved him again!

Avoiding the central skeleton, Nie Yan relaxed slightly. Had he triggered the trap earlier, he wouldn’t have had time to dodge and would have been blown to pieces.

Although rogues had a reflex save bonus against traps, even if they stepped on one, they had a high chance of avoiding the damage. However, many traps were still deadly—once triggered, certain death. Like the earlier explosion trap, Nie Yan could sense its unusual energy from about five yards away. If he had triggered it, the result was unimaginable. Fortunately, Nie Yan was cautious and didn’t rashly approach.

Moving along the top of the tomb for about ten minutes, Nie Yan was now more than twenty yards away from the Vampire Barons. He flipped down from above and landed on the ground.

He had passed the dangerous area without incident and continued deeper into the tomb.

Moving under the dim lights, the following path was already very familiar to Nie Yan. Encountering ordinary vampire zombies, he carefully avoided them even though he could handle them. After all, he wasn’t here to grind for experience.

His only goal was the Scroll of Freedom!

Following the maze-like tomb passages, he stealthily reached the second level of the tomb. Along the way, Nie Yan discovered several locked silver chests, one even requiring a key.

Without lockpicking skills or keys, the keychain in his backpack could only open chests up to level 20. The chests in this map were at least level 25 or higher.

Nie Yan passed a prison and noticed something in the corner’s shadow. Approaching, he found a worn-out chest—an unlocked one! He couldn’t help but feel relieved. Finally, a chest he could open.

Nie Yan bent down, opened the chest, and reached inside. It seemed to be a skill book.

Skill Book: Elegance of the Nimble Cat.

Skill Description: The rogue gains powerful movement abilities through superior coordination. Required level: 20.

Skill Attributes: Fall and stumble damage reduced by 10%-50% based on height, climbing ability increased by 10%, balance increased by 10%, reflex save increased by 10, additional agility increased by 10.

User Restriction: Rogue, usable by any faction.

It was actually Elegance of the Nimble Cat! For ordinary level 20 players, the +10 balance, +10 reflex save, and +10 agility were decent but not particularly impressive. The first two attributes were rarely useful, but for Nie Yan, it was an excellent item because his path differed from ordinary players.

Ordinary players usually followed either an agility or balance route. Nie Yan, however, used special items like the Ring of the Weaver, Ring of the Crawler, and Feather-Fall Gem to create a unique kind of rogue.

Rogues were no longer just scouts, trap removers, or stealthy attackers. Nie Yan had redefined the class.

In his past life, Nie Yan had dreamed of creating such a rogue, but he lacked the strength to do so. First, the drop rates for the Ring of the Weaver and Ring of the Crawler were extremely low and their prices exorbitant—Nie Yan couldn’t afford them. As for the Feather-Fall Gem, he couldn’t obtain it either. Although he had joined a group to clear the Expert-level Dryad Forest dungeon and obtained a Feather-Fall Gem, during loot distribution, such items were out of his reach. A mage in the team took the gem and each member only received three silver coins. Nie Yan was just a filler back then.

After leveling up, Nie Yan no longer met the requirements for entering the Expert-level Dryad Forest. Anything on the market containing a Feather-Fall device was priced outrageously—far beyond his means.

As for Elegance of the Nimble Cat, it was also a relatively rare skill book. Without being the first to enter Abraham’s Tomb, such a good item would never have been his!

Although Elegance of the Nimble Cat wasn’t crucial, it at least made Nie Yan’s tactics more complete.

Nie Yan placed the Elegance of the Nimble Cat skill book into his backpack. He couldn’t use it until level 20, so he’d save it for now.

Passing through a narrow tunnel, Nie Yan entered a small chamber, about 10×10 yards in size. Surprisingly, there were three stone coffins inside. Made of white stone blocks, they were simple, with only a twisted rune pattern carved at the head of each coffin, its grooves filled with vivid red pigment, like flowing blood.

These were the Runes of the Fate Array!

These three stone coffins were not merely burial places but a strange form of item arrangement—in fact, they were undead fate items.

When a player opened a coffin, they would activate the Fate Array rune on it, possibly triggering many unpredictable situations inside.

Once opened, the coffins would respawn every ten days.

Rumors had it that players had acquired top-tier equipment such as the Helm of Death or fragments of legendary artifacts from these coffins. Others, however, had unsealed them only to encounter vampire princes that slaughtered them instantly.

The three coffins sat silently, offering temptation and terrifying uncertainty.