The Great Thief
chapter-18

Chapter 18: Superior Quality Copper Ore

Lu Li wasn’t here to kill Cynocephali.

Dawn’s EXP system gave bonus EXP for killing monsters higher than the player’s own level. When killing a monster than was 1 to 3 levels higher, a player would receive an extra 5% to 15%. However, when killing a monster that was more than 3 levels higher, the bonus would be set at 10%.

Moreover, when a monster was more than 3 levels higher than a player, damage dealt was greatly reduced, so it was almost impossible to even damage those monsters. As such, very few people tried to kill monsters that were more than 3 levels above their own level.

This was to prevent rich people from gaining too much of an advantage by hiring people.

After all, if a group of people attacked an incredibly high level monster and let the rich boss deal the final blow, the rich boss would be able to take 20% of the EXP. If the bonus was too high, this sort of method would be game-breaking.

The mine tunnel winded around, and was now very high. There were lots of rocks on the ground, mixed with mottled pieces of ore. These were all the lowest quality of ore, and were worth roughly 1 copper each.

They were also quite heavy, so Lu Li completely disregarded them.

After walking for a minute, his eyes lit up. There was a depression in one of the walls, and there seemed to be something rectangular hidden there.

Nearby, a Cynocephalus was striking the wall with his pickaxe. Every time it had hit the wall a few times, he would turn to look at the rectangular object, as though it were in a hurry.

Lu Li took a few steps back, took off the mask and used Stealth.

This Cynocephalus was LV9, and was a whole 5 levels higher than Lu Li. When Lu Li was close, it stopped striking the wall and looked around, trying to see what was making it feel uncomfortable.

Lu Li did his best to calm down his heart, and silently attacked.

Ambush successful!

He now had 4 seconds, to attack first.

Lu Li didn’t use Shadowstrike, although it was his most used skill. It was no longer difficult for him to achieve a Skill Completion of 80%, giving him a 1 second stun. Instead, during those 4 seconds, he used normal attacks.

-6, -7, -6…

The damage he was dealing was simply pitiful. The current Lu Li not only had the Supreme One Ring, but also had 2 pieces of Steel grade equipment – his Armour and Bow, as well as 3 pieces of Bronze equipment, one of which was his dagger. With this sort of equipment, he should have been dealing at least double digits, but the gap of 5 levels was simply too vast.

However, this didn’t mean that Lu Li wasn’t able to kill this LV9 normal monster.

In less than a minute, Lu Li had killed the Cynocephalus.

The 300 EXP he received was nice, but he had also used a Basic Health Potion in the process.

When he finally retrieved the rectangular object, the Potion he had just used didn’t seem like much anymore.

A treasure box!

There was a pile of coins inside. According to the system announcement, there were 43 silver coins in total.

Clearing an Elite level Instance Dungeon, not including the Boss, would yield about this much money. However, that money would be split among 5 people, so these 43 silver coins was quite a fortune for Lu Li.

Now, Lu Li had 60 or so silver coins.

In real life, this would be worth about $1,000.

Before, even working as a menial worker, he wouldn’t be able to earn this much in a month.

Treasure boxes usually contained 2 items. Lu Li dug around, and found something that felt like a band.

It was a bracelet!

Lu Li was overjoyed. Bracelets were different to Bracers- anyone could equip Bracers, but only female players could wear Bracelets, which replaced Bracers.

Because they were exclusive to only some players, they were much more valuable!

As a gift, Bracers were much better than even Rings.

[Astromancer’s Bracelet] (Bronze): Intelligence+4, increases bag space by 6 spaces. Level Requirement: LV5. Durability: 20/20.

Instantly, Lu Li felt as though a sea of coins was raining down on him.

In the Emporium, a bag with 6 bag spaces could be bought for 80 silver coins. Not only did this Bracelet increase bag space, it did not take up any of the 5 set bag slots that players had. It also gave a bonus 4 Intelligence, which people would go crazy over.

Priests, Magicians, Warlocks, Druids, Shamans… all professions that required Intelligence would want this piece of equipment.

What’s more, this Bracelet looked incredibly beautiful. Astromancers were a specific type of Magician, and the reference to an ‘Astromancer’ was definitely referring to the High Astromancer Solarian. She was an upper-class Elf, and was a noble of nobles who loved beautiful and luxurious things.

The Bracelet evidently reflected this.

Although this piece of equipment was not worth as much as the Frost Nova Skill Book, if he met a tycoon who desperately wanted it he would be able to sell it for at least 5 gold coins.

Think about it: with your girlfriend or wife looking at you with a pleading look in her eyes, would you really be able to say no?

$60,000 in the real world seems like a lot of money, but I’ve lived this life before, and I won’t walk a normal path. I’ll definitely be able to earn that much in a week.

Suppressing the excitement in his heart, Lu Li continued on.

There was definitely more than 1 treasure box in this mine tunnel. In his ‘past life’, Lu Li had read a guide for levelling up the Thief skill Unlock. That guide had mentioned that there were many low grade treasure boxes here.

Not long after, he saw another treasure box.

In Lu Li’s eyes, its crude and dusty exterior couldn’t block the golden light it was radiating!

This treasure box only had Bronze grade equipment. One of them was a pair of Shoes for Magicians which gave 2 Intelligence. It wasn’t too good or too bad.

The other piece of equipment was a Shield for Protection Warriors. Not only did it give a fair bit of Defence, it also gave 3 Constitution. Although it wasn’t as good as the Bracelet, it was still worth a lot.

For a team to take down a Boss in an Instance Dungeon, the main tank’s HP and Defence was one of the deciding factors.

“Lu Li, we’ve obtained a Jade Spider Web. Where are you right now? We’ll take it over.” Drinking Alone had sent him a voice message.

“Just send it over to me. I never thought that you would’ve cleared the Elite level Instance Dungeon again so quickly.” Lu Li replied.

Anyone could mail things at inns. The delivery cost was 5 copper coins, which wasn’t much.

“Eh, you turned off your Friend Function? Our boss asked me to thank you. If it wasn’t for your guide, we wouldn’t have known about the Buff from the brook, or how to take down the Boss at the end. Who knows when we finally could have cleared that Instance Dungeon!” Drinking Alone earnestly said.

“How many teams do you have doing the Instance Dungeon?” Lu Li asked.

“We have 10 in total. All of them are above LV4, but only 4 teams cleared the Instance Dungeon, and only 1 team found a Jade Spider Web. Its drop rate is way too low. Plus, the equipment they got were all quite average.” Drinking Alone was worried that Lu Li might think that they had kept some for themselves, so he explained in detail.

“That’s pretty normal. Keep working hard.” Lu Li didn’t continue to chat, and went back to looking for treasure boxes.

Lu Li soon found that there weren’t as many treasure boxes as he had expected. After having a thorough look, he confirmed that there were only 3 in total.

3 treasure boxes with a refresh time of 24 hours. Only fools with heaps of time on their hands would use this method to level up their Unlock skill.

This was actually due to changes Lu Li was unaware about. What Lu Li was relying on was his experience from his ‘past life’. However, many things had changed from the beginning of the game to when he had actually started playing. For example, in order to calm down the countless protesting Thieves, the company had, later on, increased the number of treasure boxes in many locations. Of course, the treasure boxes in those areas were quite mediocre.

The mine was one of those places.

The current mine only had 3 treasure boxes!

The third treasure box gave an average Bronze grade equipment, as well as a piece of Copper Ore. Its Quality was a whopping 86, and was graded to be “Superior Quality”.

Minerals and ores had 4 levels of Quality: Normal, Good, Superior and Perfect.

Good Quality ores weren’t that hard to come by, but Superior Quality ores and minerals completely depended on luck. If one was lucky, they could find one on their very first swing of a pickaxe. If they were unlucky, they might only find one after 2 years.

With this Superior Quality Copper ore, Lu Li suddenly formed a new plan. With this ore, he would be able to receive a good quest.