The Great Thief
chapter-421

Although their gear was under-levelled, Lu Li had high critical chance as well as a high skill completion rate. Additionally, Mud Monsters were relatively weak for Elite monsters and as such, they didn’t have to worry about their positioning and could solely focus on maximizing their DPS.

He was able to keep up in DPS with Lonesome Flower who was an elite Mage while giving orders to the other members of his team. Water Fairy was not trailing very far behind.

They had a bet between themselves to see who dealt the most DPS after an hour. The poor Mud Monsters were slaughtered immediately as soon as they spawned.

An hour passed by quickly and the time was up. Lu Li glanced at the total DPS chart and his expression changed.

How could he have lost? Although the difference was quite small, it was an undeniable fact that he had lost.

"Give it here." Water Fairy was extremely pleased that she had beaten Lu Li.

Lu Li admitted defeat and handed over the Silver grade equip that he had just obtained. He looked at Water Fairy’s body and asked, "What equips were you wearing? You can’t be wearing a full Silver grade set.

"Not all of my equips are Silver, but most of them are. The thing is, I have different sets of armor for PVP, dungeons and training, so you stood no chance from the very beginning." Water Fairy couldn’t care less about the winning prize; she was more pleased about beating Lu Li.

"…." Lu Li finally realised what pay to win meant.

Her way of playing the game didn’t require skill or hacks for her to be the best. All she had to do was to spend money and pay for the most overpowered gear in the game. She had invested double the time and resources for her gear compared to other star players.

"Should we keep going?" Water Fairy was enjoying her victory.

"Sure, just let me change my gear first." Lu Li threw his level 30 Silver grade dagger back into his inventory and equipped his Polluter’s Fragment.

Polluter’s Fragment (Dark Gold): 42-56 damage, +20 agility, +12 strength, Socket Slot 1(Enhanced). Special Effect 1: Attack speed +30%, Special Effect 2: Pollution, active. Decreases target’s armour and movement speed by 25%, cooldown 360 seconds. Special Effect 3: Fatal Strike, when the target’s HP drops below 20%, chance to kill the target instantly. Requires level 40 (-8), Durability 120/120.

After he equipped the Polluter’s Fragment, his attack and overall stats were all boosted significantly.

Since they were training on Elite monsters that gave about 7-8 times the EXP of normal monsters, Lu Li finally levelled up to level 32 after an hour of double EXP. This allowed him to equip his new dagger.

How much could his new dagger boost his DPS by?

Water Fairy was the first to witness the power of his new dagger. After another hour, Lu Li had overtaken Water Fairy on the DPS chart and had dealt 5% more damage overall.

As time went on, the difference between their overall damage grew.

"Your dagger is so fast!" Water Fairy handed over the item back to Lu Li without hesitating and stared at Lu Li’s new dagger. "Want to sell it to me? I guarantee that the price will be worth it."

"No." Lu Li rejected her straight up.

"Why not? Even if you sold me the dagger, you’d still be better than the majority of top players." Water Fairy had her eyes on the dagger the whole time and was determined to buy it. "I can lend it back to you if you’re worried about the upcoming tournament."

"Not for sale. Simple as that," Lu Li said as he patted her on the head like he did to his little sister.

Water Fairy was shocked. Ever since her parents got divorced, no one had dared to pat her on the head. She couldn’t believe that she was being patted on the head by some random guy in a game.

Although she was slightly triggered, she held in her anger.

After a day of training and quarrelling with one another, Water Fairy had levelled up to level 31 and Lu Li had gained about a third of his current EXP bar.

The next day, the two decided to train together again.

The EXP gained from Mud Monsters was much higher than completing quests.

Lu Li had just completed the Scarlet Dungeon Series and was focused on levelling up before he attempted the next available dungeon.

He was still topping the Level Rankings with several players closely behind him.

Besides Water Fairy, I No Understand and some others from Glory Capital were all level 31. There were players from certain guilds who were focused solely on levelling up and never got involved in PVP or dungeons.

Lu Li found that grinding on monsters was too boring, so he found other shortcuts to level up faster.

The efficiency of training on Mud Monsters was completely unexpected for him. Having a partner like Water Fairy to train with was also a pleasant surprise. Because of this, he decided to stay here for a while.

System: North Point Tower is under attack. Players, please come and defend the point.

The notification was flashing brightly because it was very urgent. Lu Li saw the notification from the system and was hesitant. Although these events were exciting, levelling up was also very important.

"There’s going to be a fight; did you see the notification?" Water Fairy was excited.

"I saw," Lu Li replied.

"I wonder if it’s similar to the Defend the Meisnera Outpost."

Water Fairy was already getting ready to leave.

"Are you going to go and stop levelling up? Most players that participate in the event are quite high-levelled which will bring the monsters up to level 35 or even level 40…"

Level 40 monsters would be too difficult for Lu Li and Water Fairy and they would risk the chance of dying.

There was no EXP penalty for dying in dungeons, however, in the Wild, the penalty for dying was 10% EXP. At their current level, 10% EXP was equivalent to 2 to 3 hours of grinding.

"Of course I’m going to go. We have to defend the North Point Tower for the Alliance." Water Fairy’s adrenaline was kicking in, but she was probably just bored of grinding on monsters.

Not everyone had the patience to grind monsters repeatedly for days on end.

The appearance of the monsters they were grinding didn’t help either. They looked like big grubs wriggling around in the mud.

"Alright, but be careful. If we die then that’s 10% EXP that we can’t get back," Lu Li agreed, hoping that he could obtain some decent items out of this.

The two packed their things and headed to North Point Tower.

The North Point Tower was the Alliance’s first line of defence at the border of Theramore’s Fall.

Captain Darrell and Sergeant Lukas took post at the North Point Tower. The two NPCs were usually enough to fend off most attacks.

Lu Li was hoping that the enemies wouldn’t be too difficult to deal with.