Chapter Sixty-Nine: The Internationalist Warrior

I must admit that half of my previous description was derived from Fo Xiao, while the other half was born from the irrepressible, romantic, heroic, albeit slightly inaccurate, and yet entirely understandable imagination of a hot-blooded young warrior. Well, I confess, the imaginative portion might be even larger—perhaps two-thirds, maybe even three-quarters—but it certainly does not reach four-fifths. I swear this by the name of the Supreme God.

Regardless, the essence of the matter remains unchanged: a human and a dark elf became friends. Since then, they have kept in touch through letters and embarked on adventures together. Although they frequently wounded each other by accident during these adventures and often caused misunderstandings whenever they encountered other adventurers, their bond only grew stronger.

No matter how you look at it, in my eyes, this is a great friendship. Two bold and resolute young adventurers from opposing sides met, came to know, and learned to respect each other amidst arduous battles, forging a deep camaraderie of war.

I often feel that we live in an era far too immense, where everyone appears so insignificant when facing the colossal wheel of time. This era is playing a main melody titled "War."

Amidst such a melody, filled with the fires of war and billowing smoke, it seems none of us can escape; we are but tiny notes in this piece, destined to become part of the corpses and blood scattered across the land.

Yet, the two people before me gave me a glimmer of hope: war is not the entirety of our lives. Beyond it, there are many other precious and beautiful things, such as friendship. Their fervent bond shattered the shackles of race and tore through the cage of political alignment, intolerable to any moral dogma touted in the name of "righteousness." Though destined to be rejected by the mundane world, it is profound enough to touch the soul and shock the world.

Looking at the dark elf Red Wolf lying dead on the ground, my heart was filled with guilt and regret: we really should have let him finish what he was saying.

Just then, Red Wolf, resurrected from the dead, lifted his head from the ground.

He looked left and right, and upon discovering that the three sinister figures who had taken his life in the blink of an eye were now surrounding him with wide-eyed stares, he let out a shriek of terror. Scrambling on his hands and knees, he hid behind Fo Xiao, trembling as he poked out half his head and shouted at the top of his lungs:

"Don't go too far! Killing me once is enough; corpse-camping is a highly immoral act! I—I—I am this guy's..." He extended his right index finger from behind Fo Xiao and pointed horizontally at Fo Xiao's head, "...friend."

"...I personally fully agree with the rights of ownership and control that all races of the Alliance share over the continent of Falvey. I respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Falvey and firmly acknowledge the principle that there is only one Falvey. I strongly condemn the aggression and separatist actions of the End-Time Empire against Falvey, and I strongly support the just actions of all races in the Alliance to defend their homes and resist aggression..."

Uh... it seems the person we just killed was, unexpectedly, an... internationalist fighter?!

Fortunately, Fo Xiao quickly clarified the misunderstanding, and we offered our awkward apologies to this resurrected victim. He magnanimously accepted our apologies. Afterward, the five of us set off together toward the Holy City of Freisheit.

"...Red Wolf, what are you going to the Holy City for?" halfway there, the dwarf woman "Warehouse is Crazy" suddenly asked in a muffled voice.

"This..." Although we were walking in the vast wilderness where everything around us was clear at a glance—save for a few prickle-bristled boars wandering the grasslands, nothing else moved in our field of vision—the dark elf still subconsciously looked around. Then, he lowered his voice and asked us mysteriously:

"...Do you know that there is a High Priestess in the Temple of Lunbri in the Holy City?"

I have mentioned before that in order to collect the rewards I won in the server-unification campaign, I had been to the Holy City of Freisheit once, and I had also visited the Temple of Lunbri the dark elf mentioned. If I remember correctly, the High Priestess residing in the temple is named Evelyn, a fresh and sweet girl of at most seventeen or eighteen. If nothing unexpected happens, she should be the youngest religious leader living in the city of Freisheit.

The god Lunbri is widely worshipped by the barbarians living in the southwestern jungles, so this High Priestess is also different from other religious leaders I have met. She wears a rough linen robe painted with various runes, a crown adorned with nine colorful long feathers on her head, face paint, a necklace made of wild beast teeth around her neck, and holds a mysterious staff painted with alien totems. She wears no shoes, but wears ornaments carved from magic crystals on her wrists and ankles.

All of this makes this High Priestess not as stern and rigid as other religious leaders, but rather full of a bright, clear, youthful, and wild beauty, which left a very deep impression on me.

"Then, have you checked the equipment she is wearing?" Red Wolf pursued.

As a righteous and heroic warrior, who would do something as unrefined and impolite as checking a girl's clothing?

Therefore, I was too embarrassed to get too close at the time and only took a peek from a distance.

And it was just this peek, born purely out of curiosity, that left me somewhat puzzled...

"Do you know that among all the leader-level NPCs in the Empire and the Alliance..." These "Void Travelers" always like to call the dull natives "NPCs"—this is probably another nickname they are accustomed to, just as they like to call themselves "players"...

"...among all the leader-level NPCs, currently only this High Priestess has equipment levels and attributes that we can view. The highest-level necklace is level 70... Ming, everything Red Wolf said is true. This is exactly what I find strange: even though the High Priestess's equipment is still very high-end for us, and the attributes are enough to be described as 'the best of the best,' for a noble religious leader, the highest level of her gear is only 70, and the lowest is not even 60. This is not a very prestigious matter."

"...You all know that if the level difference is more than thirty, you cannot view the other party's equipment. And currently, the highest-level people are only just over level fifty. That is to say, this High Priestess is the leader-level NPC with the smallest level gap from us."

"What does that have to do with you?" "Yangtze Delta" asked impatiently.

"And you call yourself a shadow thief," Red Wolf looked at the half-orc with contempt. "Do you have no power of association? Let me remind you: the Steal skill only has a chance of success when used on targets within thirty levels of oneself."

"Could it be that you..." Yangtze Delta clearly thought of something and almost screamed out loud, but was promptly choked and muffled by the dark elf assassin.

"Damn it, do you want the whole world to know?" The dark elf carefully looked around. His caution was clearly redundant; even with binoculars, within the range of our vision, there were only a few dozen wild boars, rabbits, and field mice. They clearly wouldn't have any interest in the High Priestess's equipment.

"Mmph... mmph-mmph..." Yangtze Delta's eyes rolled back as he was choked to the point of foaming at the mouth, his hands struggling desperately, pointing at the top of his own head. Above him, the numbers representing his life force were floating away—"-30", "-50"—and he was on the verge of shock.

"Ah, sorry, sorry..." The dark elf, discovering this, hurriedly let go. "...Your position was just too perfect. I accidentally used the 'Garrote' skill. Occupational hazard, occupational hazard..."

Ignoring Yangtze Delta, who was gasping for air, the dark elf assassin cleared his throat and continued to tell us:

"...The level gap is just right. Do you think this is merely a coincidence?" The question posed by the dark elf was thought-provoking.

"...According to reliable, unofficial rumors..." The dark elf's eyes shone like a lynx in the dark, and he said with a ghostly expression: "...As long as you can sneak up to this NPC, it is possible to steal the equipment she is wearing. Furthermore, as our levels get higher, the more NPCs we can steal from. Every twenty levels, new NPC leader equipment becomes stealable—of course, first, you must infiltrate the main city of the opposing faction; you cannot steal from the NPCs of your own faction."

"So you..." Warehouse is Crazy asked tentatively.

"That's right..." Red Wolf grinned slyly, "...I want to try my luck."

"Wha... wha... wha... what?" Although I knew from the start that someone willing to risk being slaughtered time and again to run to the main city of an opposing faction couldn't be doing it for a self-funded sightseeing tour, Red Wolf's answer still greatly exceeded my expectations. The gap between the righteous internationalist fighter and the daring international thief was so excessive that for a moment, I didn't know what attitude to adopt toward this dark elf.

"You won't succeed..." Yangtze Delta, rubbing his neck where a purple bruise had been pinched, poured cold water on him resentfully. "Just the guards at the Holy City are all level 60. They can see through your stealth at a glance; you won't even be able to get through the castle gates."

"Don't compare me to an amateur thief like you..." Red Wolf curled his lip proudly, "...For this, I have made careful preparations—you can tell by looking at the equipment on my body."

His words piqued my curiosity. I carefully examined his gear and found that his armor, cloak, boots, and gloves were a rare set called Night Hawk's Feather, Night Hawk's Wing, Night Hawk's Plume, and Night Hawk's Claw.

This set, called "Night Hawk's Wind-Rider," did not provide a significant increase in defense for the wearer, nor was it much better than a tattered leather robe in terms of increasing life force, defense, or attack power—no wonder Red Wolf seemed unexpectedly vulnerable to our previous sneak attack—but it had an astonishing bonus to the wearer's agility. A single pair of boots provided this dark elf with nearly three hundred points of agility; the four pieces combined increased his agility by at least over a thousand points. I suspect that if this magic set were put on a turtle, it might be able to run at a speed that would make even thoroughbreds and cheetahs feel ashamed.

When all four pieces are worn simultaneously, two hidden skills are activated—"Night's Silence" and "Hand of Shadows." The former does not directly affect others but greatly enhances the concealment effect when the wearer uses the "Stealth" skill, while the latter greatly increases the success rate of the "Steal" skill—it is simply an essential item for climbing walls, entering houses, and skulking about.

"To prepare for this operation, I even spent a huge sum of money to buy this..." As if to show off, Red Wolf revealed a smug expression and pulled a pale gray magic potion from his backpack.

Evaporation Potion: it can greatly enhance the concealment effect for three minutes, making the user harder to detect, while simultaneously increasing movement speed during stealth by one hundred percent. As far as I know, the market price of this small bottle of potion has already exceeded one hundred gold coins, and before this, I could never understand what treasure a thief would need to steal to earn back the one-hundred-gold-coin cost.

"...Not only that, but I specifically spent half a month dedicating myself to training the Steal skill to the maximum level of forty." Red Wolf bragged narcissistically, staring back at our disdainful gazes without a hint of shame.