The Great Thief
chapter-74

To upgrade the ring, Lu Li needed to enter the Twilight Valley through the Amisallan Jungle. This was where the Twilight Altar was located, which was looked after by the High Disciple Anzelin.

Lu Li prepared himself, as he began his journey through the Amisallan Jungle.

The Amisallan Jungle was filled with Nightmoon Tigers – cunning beasts that ranged from LV15-20. They often travelled in packs of 3 to 5 and could become invisible. They also had a Counter Invisibility Skill, which meant that even thieves would have trouble getting past them.

Luckily, Lu Li had learnt the Crow Transformation skill.

Crow Transformation (fake): Spend 30 seconds and consume 500 HP to become a raven, allowing you to fly for a limited period of time. Flying consumes 10 HP per second and being attacked while in flight will cancel out the transformation. Level: 1/5.

Lu Li currently had 1480 HP, which mainly came from a couple of equips that increased his Constitution – especially the Bloodstained Badge, which added 10 points.

After transforming, he immediately lost 500HP. This gave him the ability to fly for 3 minutes, however, 2 minutes was probably the safer option for him as it would allow for some landing time. This greatly decreased the chance of him being ambushed by Nightmoon Tigers.

Nightmoon Tiger packs could contain a rare white-coated variant called a Shadowclaw Tiger. These had very fast attack speed and could turn invisible. As such, they were very useful pets for Hunters. Lu Li planned to bring Remnant Dream here when they were higher level.

Lu Li checked his supplies then casted Crow Transformation.

After 30 seconds, Lu Li felt his body transforming into a crow. It was a strange sensation, almost as though his body had disintegrated and reformed back into a crow. After adjusting to his new form, he flapped his wings and flew away.

This was definitely different to the normal Crow Transformation skill. Normally, when the skill was cast, only animations and light effects appeared. He wouldn’t necessarily feel different.

However, compared to the normal Crow Transformation, the skill taught by Medivh was much faster. Flapping his wings took little effort or energy.

Looking down from a bird's eye view, the giant trees looked more like small mushrooms and the monsters on the ground appeared to be small black dots.

From the time he had taken off, his HP had dropped by 10 per second. This loss was slightly alleviated by his badge which regenerated HP, at a rate of 0.1% (14 HP) per 3 seconds.

He calculated that he could easily fly for a little more than 3 minutes.

The deeper part of the Amisallan Jungle contained many rivers and valleys. This seemingly peaceful and quiet area was lurking with dangerous monsters in the shadows.

Lu Li started to look for a landing spot after 2 minutes of flying. This spot had to be an open field, suitable for battle and preferably without any Nightmoon Tigers. With such low HP, it would be impossible for him to withstand an ambush from a pack of Tigers.

Lu Li landed on a rock in the middle of a river. He sat down to recover his HP with bread.

The food that could be bought from the system was a bargain because of its cheap price. It was too bad it could only be consumed outside of battle.

After he recovered, he continued flying, and as he was flying, he spotted a Griffon in the distance.

He immediately headed straight down into the forest, unperturbed by the threat of monsters.

Griffons were often associated with Dwarfs from the Wild Hammer Clan. These savage mounts would tear up any enemies they saw in the skies, except for Giant Dragons.

Grey Valley was still in the vicinity of the Whispering Forest, which was too dense for the Griffon to land and search for him. It hovered over the forest momentarily, then flew away with its magnificent wings.

Lu Li waited for half an hour before he took flight again.

His efforts had paid off; after recalling the route from his memory, Lu Li finally entered the Twilight Valley.

Immediately, he began his search for the Twilight Altar.

The Twilight Hammer was an infamous Evil Cult Organisation within Dawn. They searched ruins and historic relics from around the world to find information that suggested the existence of the Ancient Gods. They firmly believed that Azeroth would one day be ruled by the Ancient Gods again.

As such, they built the Twilight Altar to collect energy from the earth, which they hoped the Ancient Gods would use to return triumphantly from the abyss.

Not long after, Lu Li saw the four tall towers that surrounded the altar.

He hovered over the altar for a while and landed right in front of High Disciple Anzelin. As he transformed back, his body blurred and the outline of his Elf form appeared from within the distorted light.

"Elf, this is not a place you should be."

Anzelin did not summon his Twilight Fanatics to prepare for battle; perhaps Lu Li's entrance was too out of the ordinary. Instead, he only appeared to be slightly alerted.

"Successor of Gujar's willpower, why do you not greet a friend from afar?" Lu Li questioned while laughing, "I bring greetings from Duke Ravenholdt, wishing that your God will return soon."

Lu Li was referring to Gujar, the creator of the Twilight Hammer who had many identities.

Duke Ravenholdt was the head of Ravenholdt Manor. The Ravenholdt Manor that he had established was also known as the Assassin Guild. The Thief Guild consisted of the most powerful Thieves and Assassins. Lu Li was pretending to be a member from the Assassin Guild.

"You? A puny Elf? How did you gain Ravenholdt's trust and grace?" Anzelin was quite intelligent and had been appointed to the role of summoning Water Corps. He was one of the senior members of the Twilight Hammer.

The Assassin Guild was the most mysterious and secretive organisation in Dawn. Few had seen Ravenholdt in person and some did not even believe in his existence. Naturally, many thieves and assassins saw him as their leader who was well respected.

Their standards for accepting members was very high. The fact that Lu Li brought personal greetings from Ravenholdt suggested that he was an official member and not just one of the minions.

Lu Li showed them his ring and said, "My dear Twilight Members, I'm sure you're familiar with this."

"The Supreme Ring! Are you associated with… Malfurion?" Although Anzelin was only a LV50 boss, the sound of his voice was still terrifying. Lu Li was pleased that he had pretended to be a member of Ravenholdt's Manor.

The Twilight Hammer's arch enemy was The Ring of the Earth and the Cenarion Circle. Malfurion was the leader of Cenarion Circle.

He said calmly, "I swear in the name of Ravenholdt, I have never seen Malfurion and have never been blessed by him. I cannot tell you how I obtained this ring, but I am simply proving to you my capabilities."

If Lu Li had Ravenholdt's Badge, it would have been even easier to persuade him. It was too bad that they were so difficult to obtain.

"I acknowledge your strength. Speak, Elf, why did you come here?" Anzelin asked fearfully, his eyes fixated on the Supreme Ring. He wasn’t sure how Lu Li had obtained it, but he could not help but respect him.

Should he steal it? Forget it. The Twilight Hammer hated Druids, so they naturally wouldn’t use the Druid's God Ring. Besides, they did not dare to offend the Assassin Guild in any way.

I wanted to gain powers from the earth, so I brought some gifts," Lu Li said as he pulled out the things he had prepared from his bag.

Upon hearing that Lu Li wanted to use the powers from the Earth, Anzelin hesitated and wanted to refuse. However, after seeing what Lu Li had offered, he began to waver.