The Great Thief

Lu Li didn’t drink in real life, but drinking in the game wasn’t taboo. You could become drunk in the game, however, it was only a brief nervous stimulation. It was not harmful to health, nor would it result in any nerve damage.

After waiting for over 10 minutes, Hachi Chan still hadn’t arrived.

“Go and ask your friend what’s happening,” Lu Li urged Remnant Dream. Although waiting for a lady was a gentlemanly thing to do, there were no gentlemen here.

“She’s probably lost; I’ll go look for her,” Remnant Dream said as she nodded and rushed. She could be heard in the distance loudly talking into her communicator, asking where Hachi Chan was and what kind of landmarks were around her.

Lu Li remained calm, but the others’ expressions were dark. They already had a bad impression of this new player.

“Take this. Look at your rotten equipment,” Azure Sea Breeze said as he threw a paladin equip at Wandering while ridiculing his equipment.

Wandering didn’t mind the insult and happily put on the equip. He rubbed his hands together and said, “The attributes are good and so is the style. This is only just worthy of my face.”

Of all of the players, Sesame Rice Ball’s complexion was the darkest. It was as though he were filled with black sesame paste. He began to wonder if the Xin Xin Mercernary group had any normal people.

Out of the core players, there was one who wanted the make the Mercenary group a home, a slightly foolish leader and an unworthy little hunter. The one called March Rain appeared to be normal, but the brother who always stood by her made them an unusual sibling combination.

The new paladin looked like a transsexual and was a maddening narcissist.

The final player who was about to arrive had three Silver equipment, but a poor sense of direction and was currently lost in the city of Astrana.

If they went out to the wild and came back to find that they had lost a player, it would certainly be her.

As he was thinking this, Remnant Dream came in, dragging a girl behind her. The vulnerable, little hunter seemed like she had suddenly grown up. She was walking and rambling at the girl, “Next time don’t just randomly walk around in an unfamiliar place; there are bad people in games too...”

In fact, the girl she was dragging was actually half a head taller than Remnant Dream. However, she had a confused look and walked into the room absentmindedly.

“Hachi Chan, do you agree to join our Mercenary Group?” Her name was a little awkward to say, but Lu Li didn’t mind. He could still accommodate for her.

The girl’s confused eyes widened, but weren’t focused. Lu Li then repeated himself before she responded, “If I join, will you help me do quests?”

Lu Li glanced at the others before nodding and replying, “Sure thing, but you’ll have to wait for times when we are not doing Instance Dungeons.”

“Alright then, I’ll join. Thank you for accepting me.”

Azure Sea Breeze added the new member while Remnant Dream pulled Hachi Chan onto a seat. Lu Li then began to talk about the profession upgrade.

Level 15 players were now very, very common. Countless people had attempted the profession upgrade quest, however, they had all failed.

Not a single person had completed the quest.

The failure of this quest was costly; it wasn’t as simple as having to redo it again. After leaving the story quest, the player’s current EXP would drop to zero and they would also be unable to re-attempt the quest for three days.

Upon seeing so many people fail, everyone else had started to be more cautious. They were no longer fussed about receiving the first 100 profession upgrade reward.

“The first thing is equipment. If you don’t have more than half a full set of LV10 Steel equipment, you will have no chance in completing the quest...” Lu Li explained, according to what he had read in the forums and from his past experience.

“What about priests?” March Rain was the most worried. She only had heals and no damage skills. She simply didn’t waste any skill points on damage output.

“Dawn will still test healing professions. After you enter, you will need to choose a follower from any profession. A good choice will increase your chances of completing the quest.”

“What should I choose?” March Rain was blindly following Lu Li’s words.

“For a Priest, the best choice for damage output is the Paladin. With your supporting heals, a Paladin can produce the highest damage out of any profession. Once you’ve chosen the Paladin, the system will then generate a few options for you. Here, you just need to choose the one with the highest attack. Don’t worry about their HP.”

In reality, she could also pick Warrior. However, the system’s warrior was aggressive and did not provide sufficient protection for the player. The healing player could easily be killed by a group of small monsters.

“If a Priest should choose a Paladin, then should a Paladin choose a Priest?” Wandering was initially disinterested in Lu Li’s so-called analysis, but after hearing his explanation for March Rain, he thought that it might actually be a little tricky.

“You would be correct in doing so, but because you have put some points into defence, it would be best for you to pick a Shadow Priest. This profession can heal and provide some damage output. If they have a shield skill, that would be even better,” Lu Li said.

“I hear that your upgraded profession is determined after you complete the test. What advice do you have in this regard?” Wandering really knew how to pander to people.

“Depending on your performance in the story quest, you will receive three options. If you can, you should pick Death Raider. Most Paladins will pick this path. Otherwise, you should pick Defence Raider. Death Raider isn’t actually that much better than Defence Raider. It just has a slight higher attack.”

Lu Li wasn’t God; he didn’t know what kind of professions the system would present.

One by one, Lu Li gave them advice for their professions – even Sesame Rice Ball. Lu Li suggested that he pick a Shaman or Druid to heal him.

Finally, Lu Li added, “This quest is a test of patience, so don’t take it too quickly. If there is a chance to rest, you should take it. Finally, don’t worry too much about your followers. If they die, you can go back and re-elect them. If you aren’t happy with your followers, you can just let them die...”

Lu Li’s final piece of advice was unusual. Many players had failed because they refused to put their followers in danger and ended up dying themselves.

“Everyone’s quest will be a story quest. I’ll now go through some forum posts and analyze them; maybe that would be helpful in the future.”

Lu Li took many examples from the forums and analyzed them one at a time. He discussed what they should do if they encountered such situations.

He couldn’t guarantee that everyone from the Mercenary Group would finish their quest, but this could increase the chances of their success.

As long as they understood Lu Li’s explanations, the chance of success was actually quite high. Lu Li was even confident of Remnant Dream because of her pet.