The Great Thief

A treasure chest’s grade could be determined based on its appearance. Its color, adornments and material were all visibly of a higher quality.

Lu Li looked at the monsters in the surrounding area, making sure they were far away before standing in front of the Steel Chest and casting Unlock.

System: Sorry, your Unlock skill’s level is insufficient to open this treasure chest.

Insufficient level?

Lu Li froze for a moment, before realizing that the Unlock also needed a certain level.

LV1 Unlock could only open Bronze chests, while a Steel chest required a LV2 or greater Unlock.

After the System Update, Lu Li received 5 Skill Points – one for every 2 levels he had gained. Fortunately, he still hadn’t used any of them.

Most skills required one to find a teacher to upgrade them, with the exception of original skills. Unlock and Steal were both skills that came with the Thief profession, so Lu Li could upgrade them on his own. If he couldn’t, he would need to leave and make a return trip for this Treasure Chest.

He painfully added a Skill Point and confirmed the upgrade.

Unlock: 10 second cast, 1 minute cool down. Opens locked chests and doors. Skill Proficiency: 2/5.

There wasn’t much change other than the cool down halving, which was a pretty good of upgrade. System: Unlock failed.

After a minute, he tried again but it failed. Perhaps a newly levelled-up skill required some practice, because Lu Li had already used the Unlock skill countless times.

Seven minutes later, on his seventh attempt, Lu Lu finally managed to open the treasure chest.

This was likely the first Steel chest to be opened in the game. Lu Li couldn’t help but feel excited.

He reached his hand in and felt around, discovering a ring shaped item.

A ring!

It really was a ring! Lu Li cried out in satisfaction. As it turned out, people who dared to take the first steps were the luckiest of them all.

It didn’t matter what profession this equip was for, or what kind of properties it had. As long as it was a ring that was higher than Bronze, it would sell.

Lu Li’s current rings were the Supreme Ring on his right hand and an ordinary Bronze agility ring +1 ring on his left hand. In reality, not many people were wearing 2 rings at once.

Sharp Tooth Ring (Steel): Damage 6-8, Strength +6, Agility +3. Equipment Requirement: level 10. Durability 30/30.

The one he had found was a good one and something he could use as well. Lu Li unceremoniously replaced the low level Agility +1 ring.

Lu Li reached in again, filled with hope. This time, he found a blueprint.

Blueprint – Magic Patterned Bag

He was a little disappointed – why couldn’t it have been for an Intermediate Healing Potion?

If he found the Intermediate Healing Potion blueprint, he would have been rich.

Lu Li was apparently an insatiably greedy kind of person. The Magic Patterned Bag was a 20 space bag, with 14 more spaces than the 6-space bag that the system sold. For the majority who couldn’t scrape together four 6-space bags, this magic bag would definitely be very popular.

However, it was unlikely to make him rich, as the income wasn’t going to be stable.

March Rain seemed to be learning Tailoring, so he would give it to her when he got back.

There were only these two things in the chest and Lu Li unwillingly retracted his hand. He memorized the location of the Steel chest and its respawn time, before directly heading back to the city.

After returning to the city, he first went to the Auction House to see if there was any cheap Snake Trust Grass. There was less stock this time and he didn’t have enough money, so he only bought 70 sets.

His mailbox had now accumulated 300 Snake Trust Grass sets.

However, many players from the first group had already reached LV10. Monsters higher than LV10 all had a small chance of dropping the Intermediate Healing Potion Recipe. Who knew how much longer it would be before this secret was known by everyone and the price of the herb skyrocketed?

It was too bad that he didn’t have enough money. Even Azure Sea Breeze and others’ money had all be completely spent. Maybe he could go to the trading platform and buy gold coins.

Suddenly a person’s face appeared in his mind: Shen Wansan!

“Boss Shen, are you here?”

“Don’t ask if I’m here. If you have business then speak; every minute is gold wasted,” Shen Wansan responded cheerfully.

“Really now, I’ve come to borrow some spending money. What do you think?” Lu Li wasn’t too hopeful.

“Hmm...” Shen Wansan hesitated as expected.

“To be honest, I do have a few gold coins, but they have been used to invest in some goods. I’ve also heard some news that many companies are currently trying to enter the game to do business. We small-timers don’t dare to compete with them, but I won’t pass up an opportunity to make some cash.”

This really was an opportunity. While these big companies settled in and catered for high-end goods, they might leave some holes in the market for ordinary players to make some money.

“Lend the money to me for a month at 100% interest. How about that?” Lu Li sweetened the deal.

“We’ll talk in person.” Shen Wansan was immediately interested.

This was Lu Li’s reputation as an expert, figuratively slapping him across the face.

When he reached the designated Tavern, Shen Wansan was already there waiting.

“Expert brother, why is your face covered?” Shen Wansan didn’t understand.

“Isn’t it cool? I see many people covering their faces on the street.”

Lu Li opened his bandana and drank some water.

“Sure, but it’s inconvenient. I guess what Expert brother is doing is justified though. You won’t to be recognized on the street right?” Shan Wansan wasn’t sure if he was supposed to be jealous or pleased at his misfortune.

“Fortunately, this bandana exists and it’s also fortunate that many people wear bandanas,” Lu Li sighed.

Bandanas were made by Tailors. Their price wasn’t very high and those who liked being mysterious would buy one to give off that air. You could often see masked people on the street.

“What are you planning on doing that gives you the confidence to loan with 100% interest?” After a few formalities, Shen Wansan went straight to the main point.

“This...” Lu Li shook his head without speaking.

“Hey hey, I have two gold collection offices under me, in addition to spending all my time collecting goods at the Trading Platform. So far, I’ve gathered around 180 gold.”

Shen Wansan had reason to be proud; to have this kind of net worth only after a week of the game opening was no small feat.

Shen Wansan specialized in short term investments: buying low and selling high.

He also knew that gold could slowly decrease in value, so if he wanted to earn money, investing in goods that were guaranteed to increase their value was the best way.

But what kind of items increase in value?

Equipment was definitely a no go!

His colleagues, in an attempt to stock up in Bronze equipment, had made an absolute mess.

Since the Spider Lair opened, countless strategies have been developed. New players could join an ordinary players’ party to fight the two bosses which caused the number of Bronze equips to surge. What was originally valued at 20 silver coins couldn’t even be sold at 10.

“Lend 50 gold coins to me and I’ll tell you the secret. This is a ludicrous sale, how about that?” Lu Li laughed. He wasn’t worried whether the other side would agree, as he knew this kind of businessman. Once they tasted blood, they would never let it go.

However, Shen Wansan subverted his knowledge, shaking his head with a serious expression.

“Maybe we can cooperate in a different way.”