Chapter 818: The Thief’s Nemesis
Translator: Halcyon Translations Editor: Halcyon Translations
Frankly, Lu Li was quite touched by the proposal.
This group was obviously not the kind that liked taking in weak players just to show off how strong they were. They saw that Lu Li was a lone Thief in this high level area, and knew that it would be difficult for him to level.
Unfortunately, Lu Li"s intention wasn"t to train, so he could only disappoint them.
The Lich that Lu Li had chosen to practice on had incredibly high Detection. Thieves that were at the same or lower level had almost no chance of hiding within eight yards of this creature.
Even though Lu Li was three levels higher than it, he still had to be careful.
The Plaguelands Lich was born thanks to Kil"Jaeden, an elder member of Eredar. The wisdom of this Demon Lord was as great as his strength, and his research into souls was particularly appreciated by Sargeras the King of Demons.
He transformed his captive Spell Breakers and turned them into powerful Lichs.
Although they were immortal and could perform powerful magic, they still had to obey Demon"s spokesperson in the Plaguelands – the Plagueland"s Lich Lord Kel"Thuzad.
In fact, Lichs not originally created by Kil"Jaeden.
Over the course of the Spell Breakers" research, some had managed to learn some secrets about the soul. They had discovered a way to prevent the soul from rotting away with their short lives.
One of the people who managed to do this was Meryl Winterstorm.
Being one of Lordaeron"s epic hero Mages, who had received the teaching of the elves in the Troll war 3000 years ago, she sacrificed herself when facing the powerful reborn army of Zul"Aman the Forest Troll. Due to how desperate the fighting became, Meryl was resurrected as a Lich.
Or perhaps, she had understood the critical secrets of her life as she was dying, and turned herself into an Undead.
However, the Lich Meryl and the Lich before Lu Li were completely different. Not only did Meryl gain immortality, but she also retained her original mind. No one was able to control her thoughts.
Lu Li approached the wild Lich in Stealth. He was focused on every step he made and every breath he took.
The Paladin and the others stopped to watch, visibly concerned about this Thief.
Regardless of who it was, there were few players that were able to defeat the Plagueland"s Lich King. Even a party with four Paladins working together might not be able to cleanly kill a level 40 Lich.
The Stealth that Thieves were generally very proud of was useless against the Lich, which was why they were the most vulnerable profession here.
Lu Li"s actions made him seem like he had a death wish.
Perhaps he had stepped on something, but the Lich suddenly looked up. Its eyes seemed to see past the b.l.o.o.d.y fog of the Plaguelands were staring directly at Lu Li"s body.
However, Lu Li didn"t panic.
He bent down slightly and slowly moved sideways, carefully observing his opponents eyes and breathing rhythmically.
Some players claimed that the reason the Lich"s Detection was so high was because it could sense the movement of hot and cold air. That would explain why it was particularly insensitive to Undead Thieves.
In addition, direct eye contact was also a contributing factor when it came to Detection. The experienced Thieves had long since learned to squint and use their peripheral vision.
If you could obtain the legendary Sargeras" Cursed Vision eye patch, you would be able to ignore all monsters that Detected Stealth with their eyes, as they would no longer be able to detect your gaze.
However, Sargeras" Cursed vision was something to be acquired much later in the game, and Lu Li didn"t know much about it. He would need a group of pets or a special item to trigger the quest.
The Lich had not yet discovered Lu Li, even though he was within arm"s length of it.
Even so, it felt uneasy and seemed to know there was a threat nearby, so it raised its Magic Staff and slowly charged up an Ice Skill…
It was time!
Lu Li rushed forward and circled around to cast Cheap Shot. He succeeded in interrupting the release of Frost Nova.
This was the Lich"s signature skill, and was similar to the players" Frost Nova but with a wider range. There was also a certain probability that it would apply the Plague debuff. The only drawback of this still was that it required a short channeling period.
Most players didn"t think that the Lich"s Frost Nova could be interrupted, because the time between the appearance of the ice and the completion of the skill was barely more than 0.1 seconds.
However, Lu Li managed to do it, because he already knew from the experience of his past life that when the first particles started to gather, Frost Nova was being cast. He didn"t have to wait until the ice started appearing, as even Lu Li"s mentor wouldn"t be able to escape in that time.
Of course, a Frost Nova at this level might not even be effective on Garona.
After the Lich had been hit by Cheap Shot, it was no different from the other monsters. At the very most, its resistance was slightly higher, which made the resulting Stun slightly shorter. However, Lu Li"s level was still higher than the Lich"s, which rendered this extra resistance useless.
After successfully casting Cheap Shot, Lu Li followed up with an Ambush and a Backstab. He then took a step diagonally and reached around the Lich"s back to cast Backhand Backstab.
This stunned it for another 2 seconds!
As the stun was about to end, Lu Li casted Shadowstrike to a high degree of Skill Completion.
It was another 3 second stun!
Lu Li had saved his strongest crowd control for last, and used Kidney Shot with a five-point combo for the final stun.
The Paladins weren"t Lu Li"s teammates, so they couldn"t see the damage values, but it was obvious that Lu Li had kept the Lich crowd controlled from the beginning until the end.
The Lich suddenly let out a howl before disintegrating into ash.
The Paladins now felt a little embarra.s.sed and understood why Lu Li didn"t want to join them.
If they had been in the same party, they wouldn"t have been helping him, but holding him back instead. He had killed this Lich so quickly that he was at least as efficient as the four of them.
"Sorry brother, we didn"t know you were so powerful. We must have offended you before," they apologized to Lu Li, who had gone back into Stealth after he was finished.
The candor of the Paladins was surprising. Most players would have continued doing their own thing and pretended that nothing had happened to avoid the embarra.s.sment.