The Great Thief

Lu Li also went to the Troll Trial Tower. With his exquisite equipment and having reached level 55, he rushed to the eighth floor and finally encountered a level 60 quasi-Boss which he defeated after a difficult fight.

As for the ninth floor, there was absolutely no chance of him defeating it. He couldn’t be bothered trying and humiliating himself.

Hinterland’s Troll Trial Tower had a total of nine floors. It had become a must-visit location for the players every week. However, the System update had weakened it, which meant that there were fewer good items, but more EXP and Prestige to be earned. After defeating eight floors, Lu Li acquired a Synthetic Stone with a defensive Attribute.

This item was better suited for defensive professions, so Lu Li couldn’t really use it. It only had a limited effect and was much better used on someone like Azure Sea Breeze.

There were also several shipwrecks that Lu Li wanted to visit. This time, he took a few other Thieves from the guild along to clear out the area before looting them. Unfortunately, there were some places which had already been looted by himself previously. As such, if they looted those places again, the items would be much worse.

However, there were a few valuable items that came from the chests that he couldn’t open in the last visit.

A Warrior Dark Gold Shoulderpad was one of them. It had exquisite properties and Lu Li planned to give it to Azure Sea Breeze. After all, it was not much worse than a level 55 Epic item. Using a Level Reducing Gem was not a big cost, and the next Instance Dungeon would place even higher demands on the Main Tank.

There were also Cloth Shoes for Magic Professions, which had the added effect of Rocket Boots, among several other useful effects. It was one of the best Dark Gold pieces of equipment.

Finally, there was an Epic Leather item for Healers. Naturally, this was to be assigned to Hachi Chan. There weren’t many other healers in Ruling Sword to train up. Most of the young girls just liked wearing cute clothing, and they had to keep waiting before more Healers would join them.

( NovelFull )  In the following days, the announcement of the top eight teams of the first professional league was finally made.

In order of points earned, the teams were Ruling Sword, Glory Capital, Drizzle Court, Gale Legion, Blood Red War Flag, Seventh Heaven, Peerless City and Wings of Dawn. All the other clubs had naturally been eliminated.

Ruling Sword was located in Jiangnan, Glory Capital was located in the capital, Drizzle Court was located in Jinling, Gale Legion was located in Chengdu, Blood Red War Flag was from Shanghai, Seventh Heaven was from Lingnan, Peerless City was from Qiantang and Wings of Dawn was from Star City. These eight teams represented eight cities.

The clubs of each guild were generally backed by their respective cities. However, with only eight teams in the quarterfinals, there were only eight arenas to choose from.

According to the new rules, each of the guilds would be assigned a guild to battle with. The four guilds that won would move on to the semifinals while the four that failed would be eliminated. This wasn’t really a fair system, but since it had been set by The Association, everyone had to abide by it.

The status of the players was constantly growing, but it was still not at a point where they could influence the rules of the competition.

Besides, the competition was quite a brutal affair, regardless of what system was used to decide the winners.

Still, Square Root 3 was going to be the one to draw the lots for Ruling Sword. He had been quite lucky, and Ruling Sword didn’t have to encounter any threatening opponents in the previous rounds.

“What if I get Drizzle Court?” Square Root 3 asked Lu Li before he left.

“It would be best if you didn’t.”

Lu Li was a bit worried. Even though he felt like everyone was of equal skill and it would be no big deal if they drew Drizzle Court, Lu Li had a sister and knew that females could be unreasonable sometimes.

In his heart, he also didn’t want Water Fairy to be upset.

“I will try. I wonder when the two clubs will just merge…” Square Root 3 muttered as he left. He had spoken softly enough that Lu Li couldn’t hear what he said.

Before long, Square Root 3 had returned.

His complexion looked a bit strange as he approached the players waiting for him.

“I have two pieces of good news and some bad news. What do you want to hear first?”

“Three Bro, don’t mess with us like this. Just tell us,” Lu Li said impatiently.

If he had drawn an ordinary opponent, or even a guild like Glory Capital, he wouldn’t be saying it like this. In reality, the news was likely to be bad. Lu Li didn’t like where this was going.

“Fortunately, we don’t have to travel too far…”

If they didn’t have to travel too far, that meant their opponent was very close to Jiangnan…

“It’s not Drizzle Court is it?” Fat Monkey asked as he jumped from his seat and looked at Lu Li’s face sympathetically.

“Lu Li will have to choose between one or the other – his career or love. In the many years to come, who knows how Lu Li will think about the choice he made…”

“Monkey, if you don’t want to die, then you should shut up,” Lu Li snapped back at him and signaled for Square Root 3 to continue.

“The other good thing is that your opponent is not Drizzle Court, so Lu Li, you don’t have to worry. Though, I was curious as to how you would respond to that news, and I wanted to see the pained look on your face…” Square Root 3 said as he shook his head.

“Dammit, Three Bro do you want to fight in real life?” Lu Li really wanted to take him out.

Square Root 3 looked at him with disdain before sighing, “Out opponent is Peerless City. Although they are not an easy opponent, it is much better than Drizzle Court. Would you like me to send a message to Water Fairy and Soul Eater? We can all talk about this.”

Soul Eater was the president of Peerless City and he used to be a professional player. After retiring, he liaised with Water Fairy and created Peerless City with her human and material resources.

He wasn’t a particularly strong professional player, but he was definitely an expert in developing a guild. Otherwise, Peerless City would not be among the greatest guilds in just a few years. Peerless City was now an equal match for Drizzle Court in terms of strength.

Deadly Gold Underpants, Half a Smoke, Full-time Assistant, Green Flag Wine, Immortal and Vegetarian Mosquito were players that were no worse than the players of any other club.

Even if Ruling Sword was fighting Peerless City, they couldn’t easily say that they would win.

Lu Li thought about it and decided it was better for everyone to meet and talk about it. After all, they were allies. Regardless of how they were going to deal with the quarter-finals in future, it was best to sit down and communicate their views.

During this waiting period, Square Root 3 reported to Lu Li the draws of the other clubs.

Glory Capital and Blood Red War Flag were up against each other. Both of these clubs were important opponents of Ruling Sword, so it was good that one would eliminate the other. Drizzle Court was against Seventh Heaven. On the guild list, Seventh Heaven was actually higher than Drizzle Court, so they weren’t sure what the outcome would be.

Wings of Dawn’s opponent was Gale Legion.

It was Elevenless that had bad luck this time, because Gale Legion’s composition somewhat countered Wings of Dawn. Even if Elevenless was a powerhouse, there was no way he could defeat Gaze, who was on par with Moonlight.

Moonlight, Gaze, Elevenless, Sea Breaker, Deadly Gold Underpants were the top five Berserkers that were constantly changing positions. However, Gaze was generally in front of Elevenless.

Of the eight teams, Elevenless preferred to fight Blood Red War Flag. He didn’t want to fight Gale Legion’s Gaze or Ruling Sword’s Moonlight. According to Square Root 3, Elevenless’ face was telling; he seemed to have accepted his fate.