A Legendary Thief

Xiao Yu found another lost spirit after he had walked forward for a while. Searching around, he found, as expected, an adder's tongue near the lost spirit. It was hard to spot at first but Xiao Yu scanned the area thoroughly.

He wondered if he could get another green-level item after he killed this lost spirit. Xiao Yu couldn't help but feel expectant because these special monsters, like monster leaders, had a high chance of dropping high-level items—a 15% to 80% chance. On the other hand, monster leaders and bosses had a 100% chance of producing these items. Nevertheless, the quality of the items would still be random and unpredictable.

Xiao Yu approached the beast stealthily and arrived behind it. His sneak attack was successful!

He danced around the lost spirit while wielding the daggers in his hands, the cold glows of which looked like twinkling stars in the sky. Xiao Yu had generated the highest damage output, as he was accustomed to using the two skills of backstabbing and reversed backstabbing proficiently. Due to all the practice, the evisceration skill was a piece of cake for him by now. As such, he could use it as swiftly as the blowing wind.

As expected, the damage value of the lost spirit's attacks had decreased tremendously after Xiao Yu had leveled up. Xiao Yu would lose 45% of his health each time he was struck by the beast. As such, he could withstand two of its attacks, which meant that he had a much better chance of surviving now. And he could kill the lost spirits more easily.

Xiao Yu had finally finished the lost spirit off after being struck twice by the beast.

However, this lost spirit dropped a silver coin instead of an item.

Unlike monster leaders and bosses, lost spirits did not have a 100% chance of dropping items. Xiao Yu had to accept this fate, and so he started collecting the adder's tongue.

He had collected 13 adder's tongues after he searched the vicinity for more about 30 minutes.

Xiao Yu had killed another lost spirit, but he only obtained a silver coin again. He was so upset that he almost went mad. He didn't believe his luck could be so bad. It was said that special monsters had a 15% to 80% chance of dropping items, which meant that he would get one item on average after killing six or seven of them. But yet, he still hadn't gotten any items after killing 12 lost spirits, save for that Ring of Praying Spirit.

He raised his middle finger toward the sky, showing his frustration at the game designer.

Xiao Yu ventured into the deeper part of the ruins, looking for lost spirits since he had to find and collect 12 adder's tongues in total. He had merely collected half of that number so far.

There was an open ground up ahead. As Xiao Yu was about to move forward, he noticed a figure appear for a brief moment and then disappear into the distant ruins. Xiao Yu stopped short and approached the place slowly and carefully. As he drew nearer, he saw a giant lost spirit about two meters tall that looked hideous. It was holding a large hammer with spikes on its shoulder accompanied by 10 smaller lost spirits.

Xiao Yu was taken aback when he saw this big lost spirit, wondering if the beast was a boss-level monster.

He had no confidence in challenging a boss monster.

Boss-level monsters were programmed for teams, and this boss had 10 more smaller monsters around protecting it. Judging from the circumstance, only a team of more than 20 members had a chance of challenging them.

"I'd better hightail it." Xiao Yu had already collected all the adder's tongues on this path. What he had to do next was go around this open ground and search ahead.

He was intimidated by the sight of the big and tall boss-level lost spirit pacing back and forth in the distance. Xiao Yu thought he would be turned into a pile of bloody pulp if he were hit by its hammer because it had so many spikes on it. This sort of boss could only be dealt with by strong soldiers that had a shield.

Xiao Yu suddenly recalled seeing a forum article that said one could gain a remarkable reward if the position of a boss monster was sold to a team. In the big cities, some teams would like to buy the positions of boss monsters because they could earn at least 30 gold coins after killing it. They could also gain more rewards if the boss dropped a high-level item. The seller of the information could earn five gold coins as a reward, which was the going price according to the information on the forum.

In addition to selling the boss monster's position, Xiao Yu could also hire a team to kill the boss for him, but he would have to pay 30 gold coins for the job. In so doing, he would be taking some risks. Regardless of how valuable the item produced by the boss was, it was uncertain if the hired team could accomplish the mission. If the hired team was not strong enough to kill the boss and gained nothing, it would not be worth it. Xiao Yu was not used to doing something he had no confidence in doing. As such, he preferred to sell the boss monster's position instead.

Xiao Yu made use of a low wall as a screen to hide from the boss in an attempt to go around it. He moved with a great deal of caution to avoid attracting the attention of the beast.

He stealthily traveled 15 meters away from the wandering lost spirits. He was moving under dire circumstances, and though he was quite nervous, he was nonetheless not as intimidated as before. At least, he was not so nervous as to affect his movements.

The boss-level lost spirit seemed to have smelled something. It headed in the direction of where Xiao Yu stood.

He concealed himself in a hurry. Hunkering down at the bottom of the low wall, Xiao Yu didn't dare to even breathe much less move.

The boss surveyed the surroundings with suspicion is its eyes but failed to find anything. But all of a sudden, the beast raised the large hammer with spikes in its hands high up and then forcefully whacked a boulder in the ruins.

Boom!!!

The boulder was smashed by the hammer, and shattered rock chips flew in all directions, even landing on the wall that Xiao Yu was hiding behind.

It was fortunate that he was fully hidden from the monster's view. Otherwise, he'd definitely be hit by that giant, spiked hammer. Xiao Yu stayed in the same spot, not daring to move an inch.

Having smashed the boulder, the boss didn't find anything else and then left the site.

Seeing the disappearing figure of the boss, Xiao Yu felt relieved. He trudged forward, leaving the boss-level lost spirit behind, and resumed searching for adder's tongues. After passing a large section of ruins, he found some more adder's tongues.

He killed another lost spirit and saw a glistening object on the ground. An item had finally been produced!

"Finally, I got an item. Otherwise, I would curse you all to death." His indignation had abated like disappearing smoke, and he picked up the item from the ground.

Praying spirit's leather armor: green-level equipment; defense 22-23; damage value +5; agility +3.

He had finally found a good item after killing so many lost spirits, Xiao Yu thought to himself. He put on the leather armor. After checking the damage value, he found that it had improved a great deal, and so had the defense.