Rebirth of the Thief Who Roamed the World Chapter 783 - Almost Killing an Ally

The Death God’s Edge and Paternoster’s Warhammer both required 300 Divine Power.
Morphest’s Soul Blessing only gave Nie Yan one point of Divine Power. However, this one point allowed him to see a ray of hope. Since the stat existed, he would have an opportunity to slowly raise it later on. These weapons were equipable after all!
Nie Yan examined his character window and noticed some slight changes. For example, skills like Backbreaker dealt additional damage. At the same time, when fighting a demon or boss, regardless of their level, he had a high chance of breaking their armour. Other stats like Jump and Focus also saw huge transformations.
This was quite the harvest.
After seeing Nie Yan come out of the thatch hut and leave the barrier, the others walked over.
“How did it go?”
“Did you get anything good?”
Xie Yao also looked over at Nie Yan with expectant eyes, calmly waiting for his reply.
“I received a quest to kill a Demonified Lord. It’s pretty dangerous, but since we’re already here, there’s no turning back now. If we fail... Well, we can only return by dying anyway,” Nie Yan said. He had already made his decision. A huge weight was lifted off his heart. If he was destined to fail, it just meant the Death God’s Edge and Paternoster’s Warhammer weren’t meant to be his. All he could do was try his best. The rest would be up to fate.
“A Demonified Lord? What level?”
“Level 180.”
“Oh my god! A Level 180 Demonified Lord!? In what world are we its match!? Fuck! That Level 130 Demonified Lord was already strong enough to slaughter its way into the Clemenci Stronghold. I can’t imagine what a Level 180 one would be like!”
They had all seen videos of the battle in the Clemenci Stronghold and knew just how frightening of an existence Demonified Lords were, to say nothing of the fact it was a Level 180 one this time around.
“Since this is a quest and you met the requirements to receive it, that must mean there’s some special method to defeat the boss. Did you find any clues?” Smoke Stub asked.
“Yeah, I did. I think we need to rely on Paternoster’s Warhammer. But as for how, I still don’t know,” Nie Yan replied. He was ruminating over Morphest’s final words, trying to find every little hint and clue hidden in them.
“Let’s look for that Demonified Lord first,” Smoke Stub said.
“You’re right. Let’s find it first, then come up with a plan.” Nie Yan nodded.
Nie Yan called Sun, Mistaken Smile, and the other Thieves back. After which the team set out for the summit. Looking up, large clouds of black smoke were rising up into the sky. This was an active volcano.
According to Morphest, Drakuru was chained up in the crater.
The 21 players trekked their way up the craggy path toward the summit. About 15 minutes later, they arrived at the edge of the crater. Noxious gasses filled the air here. Some of the team members started to feel dizzy and short of breath.
“Quickly! Everyone, drink a Soul Trance Potion!”
Everyone fished out the Soul Trance Potions in their bags and drank them.
Suddenly, their breathing came to a halt. Even if they were walking through the noxious fumes now, it couldn’t affect them one bit. These Spirit Trance Potions were concocted by the several Sage Alchemists in the Starry Night Potion Shop. There were only 70 or so of these potions in total. Dividing them up equally, that was only about three per person. Each potion had a duration of roughly five hours.
After walking around the crater, they gathered back up. The fumes here were fairly dense. Looking down, they could faintly see the lava below roiling around, occasionally burping out bubbles of gas. A scorching heat assaulted their senses.
“I don’t see a path down.”
“Boss, what do we do?”
“I’ll head down and take a look first,” Nie Yan said.
“Big Brother, we can come down with you. We also have Crawler Rings of our own now,” Sun said. Nie Yan always took full advantage of the Crawler Ring’s ability. Naturally, after finding out how useful it was, they set out to get one for themselves; some finding one in the wilderness and others buying it from the marketplace. This item became an essential tool to be a part of this team.
“Sounds good. We’ll split up and search!” Nie Yan nodded. Like this, they would cover quite a bit more ground.
“Well, what are we waiting for?” Mistaken Smile said. He activated the Crawler Ring and started making his way down the crater.
The others quickly followed.
Nie Yan leaped down into the crater as his body rapidly plummeted. Glancing up, he saw multiple silhouettes crawling on the walls like a bunch of lizards.
The crater was more than 50 meters deep. As Nie Yan fell toward the lava, the heat grew more and more intense, threatening to roast him alive. At the last second, he was about to shoot out a web line at a nearby wall, when an idea flashed through his head. He quickly took out the Kiln Fire Heart from his bag, then activated its ability and the ability of his Featherfall Jewel.
Nie Yan’s weight was instantly reduced to almost nothing as his descent slowed to a crawl and he gently landed on the lava. Since he was so light, his feet didn’t even break the surface, allowing him to walk on lava. If it were a normal player, the fire damage upon making contact with the lava would’ve instantly killed them. However, thanks to the Kiln Fire Heart, Nie Yan didn't even feel the lava’s heat. He could move about freely and easily.
Nie Yan felt a cool membrane of energy coating his entire body, isolating him from the intense heat outside.
Looking around, he stood in the middle of a lake of lava roughly 500 meters in diameter. On the edge of the walls, about six meters above the lava, there were more than a couple dozen dark caves leading to who knew where. This was probably the path ahead. Searching these caves was a must. He walked over to one of them.
As Nie Yan set foot in the cave, he felt a voice beckoning to him. It was the sound of a demon, causing him to feel slightly dizzy. He shook his head and maintained his focus.
Seeing Nie Yan walking on top of the lava as though he were some sort of messiah, the others were all dumbstruck. What kind of skill was this?
Just as they were about to ask Nie Yan, they noticed him already entering one of the caves. Thinking for a bit, they decided to hold off the question for later.
Each of them entered a cave and started searching around.
The topography of this place was incredibly complicated with winding passages that all connected together like some sort of maze. To make matters worse, a scorching hot air attacked them and bizarre sounds bounced off the walls.
Relying on his senses, Nie Yan carefully explored around.
A red glow came from the depths of the caves. It appeared there was lava in here as well. When the volcano erupted, these pathways would be filled to the brim with lava, and when the eruption ended, the lava would naturally recede back down.
When Nie Yan was about to head deeper into the cave, a peculiar feeling assaulted him, as if something was slowly making its way towards him.
Nie Yan’s eyes flashed with a cold light. He came to a stop and focused his senses. Before long, he locked onto the other party's position.
That presence was located about a dozen or so meters from him. He had no idea what sort of creature it was.
Before confirming what the other side was, Nie Yan didn’t dare to take any action, nor did he activate Eye of Truth. This skill had its advantages, and that was seeing through stealth and spotting anything hidden in the surroundings. However, it also had its flaws, in that it revealed his whereabouts.
Since Nie Yan had already locked onto the position of the other party, there was no need to activate Eye of Truth.
Sensing the other side drawing closer and closer, Nie Yan suddenly shot forward, Zennarde’s Sword stabbing out at lightning speed.
KLANG! Sparks flew everywhere as the other party parried Nie Yan’s attack.
Nice reaction! Nie Yan suddenly leaned forward and followed up with an elbow strike.
BANG! The other side hurriedly raised their arms to block.
Even though Nie Yan's attack had been blocked, the power behind his blow still sent the opponent flying.
The two materialized out of stealth.
The other side was a Thief? Could it be a humanoid monster?
Within the darkness, Nie Yan could faintly make out the opponent’s silhouette. But he had no way of seeing their appearance.
After the elbow strike, Nie Yan was about to use a crowd control skill to lock the other side down. In order to not give them a chance to escape, his movements were decisive and brutal, leaving not the slightest room for error.
At this moment, a voice rang out. “W-wait! It’s me!”
Hearing this voice, Nie Yan halted in his tracks. It was actually Shadow Killer!
These caverns were interconnected. Even though the two had entered from different entrances, they bumped into each other.
“I thought you were a monster. Sorry. It’s good you called out, I was about to go in for the kill,” Nie Yan said. He had nearly killed Shadow Killer.
Shadow Killer got back on his feet and dusted himself off. At this moment, both his arms were numb. He couldn’t even hold onto his daggers properly, and he had lost more than half of his health. It was only a short exchange, but he nearly ended up being killed. Gazing at Nie Yan, he couldn’t help but inwardly mutter, This guy is getting more and more overpowered by the second. Just now, he was at a complete disadvantage from the start. Nie Yan had noticed him first and had almost killed him without him even being aware of anything. Only in the very last moment did he notice something off and managed to raise his guard in time. In this kind of situation, he couldn’t fight back in the slightest. If he hadn’t called out to Nie Yan, he would probably be a corpse on the ground right now. Thank god he was able to identify Nie Yan through his combat style.
About half-a-year ago, Shadow Killer was still able to exchange a few moves with Nie Yan, but now he was powerless. The gap between the two had grown from a small gap to an insurmountable chasm. He was no longer Nie Yan’s match.
Shadow Killer originally wanted to duke it out with Nie Yan a few times to score some wins back for himself. However, in this single exchange, he completely gave up on the thought. The difference between them was far too great. He’d only get beaten to a pulp if he came looking for a fight. Perhaps, it was better this way. A myriad of complicated emotions welled up from his heart.