A Legendary Thief

"Professional players are indeed different from us amateurs. We will be able to buy some high-level items from him and have some fun with them," remarked the thief of the team excitedly. Xiao Yu was a thief and was believed to possess many items for thieves. All he had to do was buy some from Xiao Yu with Chinese yuan.

"Do you intend to actually buy high-level items and use them or just have fun with them and use them to attract the girls?" The dark wizard chuckled while rolling his eyes at the thief.

The thief cackled while scratching his head. "This game is so advanced, and the virtual world is amazing," he said. "And everybody comes into the game with their true appearances. As such, there are so many beautiful girls here. It would be a pity if I don't try to flirt with some of them, and it's quite natural for me to do so."

Hearing what the thief said, the other four members of the party laughed out loud.

"Not all professional players are necessarily skillful," said the death knight. "And we won't starve if we become professional players."

"We should, of course, enjoy the fun of playing video games since we have money. It's rather tiresome being a professional player," remarked the dark wizard while shaking his head. All five of them held a white-collar job, so none of them wanted to become a professional player, which was a hard and tedious job.

"You're right. We should enjoy the fun of playing games since we already have money," agreed An Yu. "Let's go kill some more monsters to level up."

Xiao Yu found Thief Teacher Ode and walked up to him.

"Young man, you're here again," said Thief Teacher Ode in surprise upon seeing Xiao Yu.

"Yes, I am," replied Xiao Yu. "I'm here to upgrade my evisceration and backstabbing skills."

"Have you collected ten gold coins?" asked Thief Teacher Ode.

"Yes, here are the ten gold coins," said Xiao Yu. Xiao Yu felt troubled when he looked at the glistening gold coins in his hands. How could he part with ten gold coins so easily?

Thief Teacher Ode nodded and looked at Xiao Yu with narrowed eyes. Two white lights swept over Xiao Yu in an instant. Xiao Yu checked the level of the two skills and found that both of them had been upgraded to level 2. The basic skill damage of the two skills had also been increased from 20 to 50 points, but the cool-down time of the skills had only been reduced by about one second.

"Every skill for thieves is a fighting technique that has been inherited and improved upon by our ancestors over innumerable years, and every skill has its own specific features," Thief Teacher Ode said to Xiao Yu. "If all the features of a skill could be employed, it would have a formidable effect."

Xiao Yu wondered if breaking the shells of monsters using the reversed backstabbing skill, making them bleed using the backstabbing skill and paralyzing creatures using the evisceration skill were the "specific features" mentioned by Thief Teacher Ode.

Seeing the expression on Xiao Yu's face, Thief Teacher Ode was a bit surprised and wondered if Xiao Yu had already figured out the hidden features of these skills.

"Next, I'll give you a task to accomplish, which is to collect 20 adder's tongues. The adder's tongue is a sort of extremely poisonous grass, growing in Ghost Valley. You will be able to get to Ghost Valley after you leave the small town of Tabarka and walk north for 20 minutes. The ghost monsters in Ghost Valley are at level 10, so you must be careful when dealing with them," advised Thief Teacher Ode.

"Is there a deadline for completing this task?" asked Xiao Yu.

"No deadline, but there is a limit for levels," replied Thief Teacher Ode with a faint smile. "You must complete it before you reach level 10. Furthermore, the lower your level when you complete the task, the higher the value of the task, and as a result, you will obtain a higher reward."

Xiao Yu wondered why this task had a level limit but no deadline. Was this a test for him given by Thief Teacher Ode?

"Alright," answered Xiao Yu.

"This shouldn't be too hard a task since I'll only be going to an area occupied by level-10 monsters to collect medicinal grass and not fight them.

"Go on then," said Thief Teacher Ode while waving his hand.

Xiao Yu bowed reverentially to him before he headed outside. As he came outside, Xiao Yu opened the bag and found it was empty except for five gold coins, bloody grass, and some bread.

The bloody grass?

"I should make a health potion with it. Maybe I'll need it later." Xiao Yu headed toward the trade union of the pharmacologists.

Tabarka was a rundown small town; as such, the trade union of the pharmacologists was nothing but a few low wooden houses side by side.

"Sir, what would you like to buy?" The speaker was a young NPC girl who was responsible for selling ingredients to making medicine.

"A set of medicinal vials, a vial of dissolving medicine and two pieces of hemostasis grass," said Xiao Yu according to the formula for the instant health potion. These ingredients could all be bought in a NPC shop.

"Okay. Please wait a second." The NPC girl brought out the ingredients requested by Xiao Yu from inside the counter, saying, "Thirty-five silver coins in total."

"They are so expensive! The price is no different from highway robbery," Xiao Yu thought.

However, these were things Xiao Yu desperately needed, and so he had no choice but to pay the 35 silver coins for them. After that, he headed to the lab provided by the trade union of the pharmacologists.

The lab was filled with vials and bottles of all sorts. They were so many that Xiao Yu felt dazzled by the sheer amount of them.

Xiao Yu starting making the instant health potion by putting the bloody grass in the dissolving medicine first.

The process of making an instant health potion was not complicated, but it would take a long time to make.

Xiao Yu was meticulously following the formula when making the medicine, not daring to make even the slightest mistake.

Xiao Yu picked up the medicinal vial and leveled it with his eyes. The deep blue liquid in the medicinal vial was quite beautiful. He slowly put the hemostasis grass into the medicinal vial and then shook it gingerly by twisting his wrist. As the hemostasis grass dissolved in the medicinal vial, the former deep blue liquid gradually turned into a liquid medicine of dark red.

After a few bubbles came up in the medicinal vial, the liquid medicine grew even redder and brighter.

"I've done it!" Feeling delighted, Xiao Yu closed the medicinal vial with a lid.

System: You have made an instant health potion and gained proficiency in mystical pharmacology. Mystical pharmacology is now level 1.

Xiao Yu put the instant health potion in his bag and patted it. This vial of medicine would save his life when he met with a dire situation.

After he had successfully made the potion, Xiao Yu left the trade union of the pharmacologists. After taking a look at the sky, he found it was almost dawn.

"It's time to eat dinner now. I'll go to Ghost Valley after dinner then." Xiao Yu exited the game.