The Great Thief

Lu Li analysed the map of Undercity and was a bit confused. Why did everyone describe this city as being so scary? Even though he had to go underground, there was an elevator he could take. After descending, as soon as you stepped out, you would see the second area. Following that outside was the third area.

It was so orderly!

He threw the map into his backpack and activated the Deception Orb which turned him into a bony skeleton. The skeleton adjusted itself for a moment and continued to strut into Undercity.

Of course, he knew to at least walk around anyone he saw in case his disguise was exposed.

According to the directions on the map, Lu Li walked into a so-called elevator room. The room was similar to a cylindrical elevator that sometimes went up and down.

Fortunately, the one that Lu Li was waiting for didn’t have anyone inside. He eagerly stepped onto the base of the elevator… but something seemed wrong.

Lu Li felt emptiness at his feet, and the elevator was growing further and further away from his sight.

What the heck was this!?

Why did the elevator fall as he was about to step on it? Did this elevator not wait for people? Plus, why was it falling so quickly? It was much faster than free falling. Was it trying to kill him?!

Ordinary people would not be able to react in time and would probably scream and fall to their deaths.

However, Lu Li was different. He knew what was happening in the first moment, and subconsciously transformed into a leopard.

Leopards were rather immune to falling; ordinary heights wouldn’t kill them.

However, the Undercity elevator was no ordinary elevator.

As such, Lu Li found very quickly that his velocity was beyond imagination. Even if Druids were more immune to falling, there was no doubt that this was still a fall to death.

Gale Steps!

This invincible state saved his life, otherwise, he would definitely be yet another Alliance player who died in the elevator of Undercity.

The bottom of the elevator even had a few illusory gravestones. This meant that there were players who had been killed here not long ago. When people first died, they become corpses. However, once a player is revived and left, it would leave behind a gravestone. In a while, these gravestones would also disappear.

Knowing that he wasn’t the only one who nearly fell to his death made him feel a bit better.

As he was coming out of the elevator, he saw two giant Stitches in his peripheral vision. He stopped suddenly, which was fortunate, otherwise he would have crashed straight into them. The guards in this city were of a high level, so Lu Li was bound to be hammered to death by them.

He hurriedly contacted the Steel Rice Bowl to help him.

Two players quickly appeared in front of him after clarifying his position.

They didn’t ask much and went straight to talk to the NPC. Their purpose was this simple – to distract the guards. They asked the Stitch guard where to go for the hair salon and whether the apothecarist was home.

As a bald guy, why would they ask him about a hair salon?

The two guards were so entangled with these headache-inducing questions that they didn’t even realise anything wrong with the player who had just exited the elevator room.

After getting out, there was a high platform which was connected in the middle to the players’ personal warehouses and the guild warehouses, where many people gathered and stored things in.

Lu Li analysed the next route and chose to enter in from a gap below.

However, he quickly found himself lost.

Map! Where did the map go?!

He looked for ages and went forwards and backwards but still couldn’t figure out where he was situated. With no alternative Lu Li could only continue to ask for help.

 “Bro, what did you wanna find? If you don’t tell us, how can we help you find it?” one of the male players wearing purple robes asked. Lu Li nicknamed him Ol’ Mate Purple in his mind.

Mercenary groups had rules to not seek out their employer’s secrets, but it didn’t make sense for an employer as an Alliance player to come and wander around Undercity.

“Oh, actually I’m not too sure either,” Lu Li sighed.

The diary didn’t clearly record where it was located. Those who picked up the remnant pages would be even more lost. Lu Li could only read and savour the words in the diary slowly as he went, hoping that there would be a sudden moment of enlightenment.

 “Then okay, but this place you’ve been to twice already.”

Ol’ Mate Purple thought he had obligation to inform Lu Li.

 “Ahem, I’m not like some people. How could I not know I’ve been here twice? I just went left then right; how did I get back here?” Lu Li was very confused.

 “Because it’s a circle!” Ol’ Mate Purple was growing annoyed.

 “Then you lead the way. I’ll follow behind you and watch.”

Lu Li finally admitted that this city was insane. Queen Sylvanas probably wanted enemies who infiltrated to lose themselves to death in here.

Fortunately, the two people sent by the mercenary group were locals of Undercity. Apparently, they wouldn’t get lost even with their eyes closed.

They took Lu Li around each area, and Ol’ Mate Purple even thoughtfully gave some commentary as he went.

 “This apothecary specialises in selling poisons. That old mage has a face half-white and half-black. Even his hair was the same. Everyone calls him Yin-Yang Mage. He’s a useless NCP, with not so great quests…”

 “Wait.”

Lu Li finally was enlightened.

This half-white half-black was recorded in the diary. Plus, he had read the strategy in his last life which brought up something like a Yin-Yang Mage, but he couldn’t remember at which section.

Lu Li brought the two with him into the apothecary.

 “Welcome, how can I help?”

He was indeed just as they had described him. He had probably given up on himself and even wore clothes that fit this colour scheme.

 “Um, we want to buy some poison,” Lu Li said as he observed this apothecary, hoping to find some clues.

The counter could be ruled out at a glance. Even the workbench connected to the counter wasn’t very messy. There wasn’t anything that Lu Li was looking for.

 “What type of poison? Rat poison or cockroach? Undercity is good for everything else except these two things,” the Mage sighed. He was an Undead – the type with flesh. He looked as thin as firewood, so he was not too different from humans.

“I’ll grab a bag of cockroach poison too. There’s a few more cockroaches in the house. I just can’t seem to kill them all off,” Lu Li said, speaking nonsense.

“It’s not just a few! It’s a nest! Plus, they generate like crazy, in piles and in generations! I’ll give you a big bag!” the old Mage exclaimed in excitement. He wasn’t providing poison to Thieves to harm in the traditional sense. He only sold poisons to kill pests like rats – who would buy rat poison for special reasons?

As such, he didn’t have good business for the longest time.

Previously, there were some people who thought there were quests here, so they would try to buy things from here. But since people started confirming this Yin-Yang Mage was a useless apothecarist who researched rat poison, there hadn’t been any customers. Lu Li was the first this week.

But in this moment, Lu Li had absolutely no mood to thank his goodwill, because he had found the 4th chapter of “Draconic for Dummies”.

It was under that table leg!

That table leg was probably not very stable, so it was elevated with a wad of paper. The thickness of the scrap was just right.

If it wasn’t for the familiar Draconic writing that Lu Li knew on the outside of the paper, and the fact that he had also collected almost all of the pages, it would be hard for him to believe that what he had been trying to find this whole time was sitting at the bottom of this table.

 “Customer?” the Yin-Yang Mage questioned, raising his voice.

 “Hm, okay okay,” Lu Li said, then pointed to the scrap under the table and asked, “Where did this come from?”

 “I picked it up when I was collecting medicinal herbs. Did you want it?” Yin-Yang Mage offered with a smile.

 “Um, I just thought it looked interesting.”

Lu Li was horrified and felt terrible. He couldn’t have exposed his purpose so quickly. He didn’t check for one moment and was nearly caught. If he had to negotiate then he would be in the passive position.

 “If you want it then you need to pay the price.”

As expected, the old Mage’s revealed his true intentions.

“You can’t just buy cockroach poison; you need buy rat poison too. Then I can give it to you.”

 “Hmph. How much is the cockroach poison plus rat poison?”

Lu Li didn’t dare relax his breathing. He had already been prepared to be bled dry since he had sent himself to the butcher’s house.

 “Cockroach poison is 5 silver coins, and rat poison is not cheap, hehe. It’s at least 20 silver coins, the old Mage laughed sinisterly.

 “Pftt!”

Lu Li and the other two couldn’t get up from off the ground.

“Give him the money!”

Lu Li went to grab the “Draconic for Dummies” so he could hold it in his hands as he commanded Ol’ Mate Purple to pay. He was an Alliance player so he stayed away from the NPC as much as he could, otherwise, it would troublesome if his identity was revealed.

If it were a few thousand or ten thousand, then Ol’ Mate Purple would be worried about Lu Li’s issue of credibility.

Clearly, this issue of 25 silver coins was not even worthy of concern for Ol’ Mate Purple. He had even decided to get rid of this part of the cost. It was really honestly insignificant.

At such a small cost, Lu Li got the quest items. He was very satisfied and used the Hearthstone to go back to his home.

The Hearthstone was useful in this way; he didn’t have to go back the way he came.

If he was killed, he didn’t want to go and find his way back again, neither did he want to touch the elevator that sent people to their graves. Undercity indeed wasn’t an easy place for players. Being inside the city felt 100 times more dangerous than being outside it.

He decided to never step into Undercity again.

After Lu Li left, the old Mage picked up the rest of the rat poison that Lu Li left on the counter and licked it close to his mouth. After a long taste, he sighed intoxicatedly, “So, this is the smell of the Demi-God Ring. Never thought I’d see it without Malfurion.”