The Great Thief

The other players generally didn’t have much experience with the Difficult-Level Dungeons. They needed to catch up to the level of the original members of the Xin Xin Mercenary group before they could move on to other things.

Practice was also needed so that they could properly complete the Howling Caves together.

Monsters in the Howling Caves Instance Dungeon ranged from LV15-20, while the Hidden Boss could even be up to LV25.

If they were lucky and the Hidden Boss appeared, would they choose to fight?

Not fighting it would be a waste, but their chances of success depended on the ability of the players.

Lu Li had already decided to let them fight through as much as they could to earn some EXP. He would only substitute players in if they couldn’t get past a certain area.

In reality, farming outside of Instance Dungeons wasn’t that much slower. For Lu Li, Azure Sea Breeze, and Lonesome Flower, who were LV21, LV19 and LV19 respectively, it was faster to farm outside. Lu Li wasn’t able to gain even a single point of EXP within that Instance Dungeon.

However, Lu Li chose not to farm with Lonesome Flower and Azure Sea Breeze. His number one priority was his Engineering Trade Skill.

It was for the bomb!

Once he could make the bomb, farming would become so much faster and more efficient.

If the others got the bomb, they wouldn’t need to worry about levelling either.

Moreover, if he was running short of money to pay for Lu Xin’s treatment, he could easily make a batch to sell.

Lu Li once again stood before his Engineering desk.

Copper Bar, Raw Wood, Wire, Linen...

He put all the materials within reach before taking a deep breath. After this, he started to recall the process of creating a “Maintenance Robot”.

Maintenance Robots weren’t expensive to make, but they sold for a very high price. This was partly because of their large demand, but also because their creation was a difficult, lengthy process that required many different kinds of materials.

But Lu Li wasn’t about to let a robot that was almost finished to fall apart.

With his three years of experience, he quickly fastened the Basic Emerald into the most important part.

This gem could be found alongside Bronze and Iron Ore. Due to how common it was, it’s purity and rarity was rarely discussed. It was barely good enough to be the core of a Maintenance Robot.

Now that he had picked up a good piece of Basic Emerald, he used a Whetstone to carefully grind down the edges and corners.

The shape of it needed to conform to the blueprint and it would be best if the surface was without blemish. After confirming this, he would need to carve some simple runes onto it.

The Rune Writer that he was using had been bought from a grocery store for 10 silver. Although he felt poor as he used it, he didn’t have a choice. He knew how to find better Rune Writers, but it was still too early for that. He needed to at least be LV30.

It was a good thing that the runes required for the Maintenance Robot were very simple. He only needed to write 30-40 strokes.

After carving the runes, Lu Li used a little scrubber to rub some Strange Dust onto the top of the gem. This Strange Dust belonged to the Enchanting Trade Skill and could be obtained by decomposing Bronze equipment.

As the dust entered the carved runes, the Basic Emerald began to glow and pulse with magic.

Now, it was better suited as an energy core.

Lastly, Lu Li needed to build a heart chamber to hold the gem.

He was going to use the Copper Bar and Linen to do this.

In real life, Lu Li was actually quite the handyman. His old house’s table and chairs were all made by him, so this little chamber was no issue.

The Emerald that he placed into the finished heart chamber fit perfectly.

This was the core of the Maintenance Robot; it would provide the energy for its maintenance activities.

Maintenance Robots were very crude machines. When Lu Li attained a higher level in Engineering, he would be able to make Combat units like the Mechanical Gargoyle. Only those machines could be considered as ‘finely crafted’.

Once the power source was complete, Lu Li started to work on the body frame of the robot.

He needed to guarantee that the Maintenance Robot would be able to complete a sufficient amount of repair work, and also that it wouldn’t just fall apart.

For the outer cover, low level materials such as Raw Wood cut into Planks, Copper Bars and Wire were sufficient. Lu Li had even added a bit of adhesive to hold it all together. He was a pioneer in this area; no one else knew about things like this.

Lu Li then carefully placed the core into the robot’s chest, fastening it onto a Copper Bar.

As he did this, he held his breath.

System: You have successfully produced a “Basic Maintenance Robot”. Your Engineering EXP has increased by 3.

The system announcement actually made Lu Li jump, as he had forgotten that the System would notify him of the results. He was so immersed in the production process that he had forgotten he was in a game.

Perhaps it was this focus that led to the finished product having very good attributes.

According to the blueprint, the robot could operate for 10 minutes at a time. However, the robot in Lu Li’s hand could be used up to 12 times in total. This was two times more than usual.

Despite this, he was still more concerned about the three-point increase of his Engineering EXP.

He had risen from Intermediate (87) to Intermediate (90), which filled him with joy.

Although Lu Li found that Engineering wasn’t easy, he was extremely satisfied with these three points and eagerly tried a second attempt.

But alas, his second attempt resulted in a failure.

Other than the materials, he had also wasted 20-30 minutes of his time.

It turned out that the three points were not that easy to gain.

However, after successfully creating another robot, his success rate increased.

As night fell and he was about to log off, he looked at his creations and was surprised to find that he had made 30 of them. His success rate was now greater than 70%.

His Engineering skill had also significantly increased and was now at Intermediate (128). However, the EXP yield had become significantly lower. He had to make 4 products to go from 127 to 128.

Lu Li then left the Engineering Lab and started to sift through his mailbox.

The “low quality stones” from Half Life Crystal had arrived. There were over 20 stacks, which was more than enough for him to improve his Forging Technique.

The next thing he needed to deal with was “The World is so Big”.

Lu Li’s advertising had worked out well. He had used a first-person perspective to tell the other players about the item. ‘The World Is So Big’ wasn’t only used to look cute – it also had practical purposes for their adventures in Azeroth.

As for whether someone would buy it and attempt to use it in the Warsong Canyon, that was beyond his considerations.

There was another reason why business was booming.

Someone had made a post talking about how they had bought a “The World Is So Big” to give to a girl for her birthday and for his confession. He was successful in doing so.

Well, no one really knew the real reason for his success.

He must have already been attractive, and the two were probably interested in each other. Yet, the ‘World Is So Big’ still seemed to serve as a catalyst.

Thus, using ‘The World Is So Big’ turned into the favorite way for tycoons to confess. In a short time, all 70 that Lu Li had posted were all sold out.

Discounting the transaction fee, each one of them was sold for 25 gold.

The seventy of them were sold for 1750 gold altogether.

Currently, the Trading Platform price for gold after taxes was $112:1.

In one transaction, Lu Li had made $200,000.

Although this was less than the Snake Trust Grass profits, it was still a nice sum.

If it wasn’t for the fact that more people were also learning to do this, Lu Li would have made another batch to sell.