411 Chapter 411 - Professional and Amateur (1/2)

These players were split into two different groups, which was unlike any party that headed out to grind. Players that left to grind would usually be in set teams, numbering at most ten per team, yet there were way more than ten in the two groups, with no two groups having more than a single player more than the other.

These two groups noted the presence of one another, but did not bother to think too much about it as both parties went about their own business and headed straight towards the city to sell off their loot.

One of the two groups had returned to attempt to rob Gu Fei, while the other consisted of members from Tanzanite Shade's Blue Umbra Guild. These men had all returned to Linshui City at the orders of their leader.

They had not dared to make a move since Eternal Dominion was present, but they had finally gathered over seventy players for this. Eternal Dominion was rumored to be able to take on twenty people at once, but surely he was helpless against over seventy players, right? This was quite possibly the first time these people had to gather over 70 players just for one target. After investing so many of their men for this, the leader of this group of bandits had already sworn to obtain every single item off both Eternal Dominion and Gu Fei until they were naked.

”Search the entire city for the two of them. Inform everyone once you catch sight of them, and proceed to corner them!” the leader commanded, and everyone sprang into action.

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Over by Blue Umbra, they had a total of 750 players as a level 5 guild. It was a weekend afternoon, which was also one of the peak periods for users in the game, so there were almost five hundred players online currently. Tanzanite Shade had every intention to acquire that Staff of Resurrection by any means necessary, so he decided to go all in and mobilize everyone for this task. There were already nearly four hundred members of Blue Umbra making their way back to Linshui City; if the seventy-man party led by that team of robbers could be called a criminal gang, Blue Umbra could be called a terrorist organization, instead!

However, they were nevertheless still a guild, not a team of professional larcenists. Thus, Tanzanite Shade did not dare to directly order his men to target those men to drop their equipment, but instead told them how they were players who caused trouble in their bar and told everybody to search and slay those individuals in the city. Tanzanite Shade made sure to only inform those whom he trusted about picking up their dropped equipment.

Nobody expected there would be players out there that would dare to act wildly by the bar, everybody in Blue Umbra was riled up by Tanzanite Shade's inciting words as they began to form up in groups of threes and fives and search through the city.

”Southern Lone Blade is the leader of our target, and they have plenty of powerful players on their side. Everybody, do not jump the gun and attack them, make sure to inform me first,” Tanzanite Shade exhorted them.

They all knew their own limits. Upon hearing that their targets were experts, they knew that they would be no match for them, so everyone nodded in agreement.

As for Tanzanite Shade himself? He had brought the trusted core members of his guild and formed a formidable team. The main force had already left to blockade the Priest Academy, and those left were prepared to drown Southern Lone Blade and his squad in their numerical superiority.

The target was a Priest. Tanzanite Shade was certain that said Priest would not have any PK points on him, so the chance for them to obtain that Staff of Resurrection on drop was really low, so the real work would be done over by the Priest Academy. Tanzanite Shade carefully thought through his plan once again, and felt that he had covered most of what he could think of..

Even if those guys want to snatch this kill from me, what can they do against the whole sea of men from my guild? Since I'm already doing this, I may as well go the full distance and just target you guys as well, Tanzanite Shade thought to himself gleefully. He suddenly realized just how exciting it was to target someone for their dropped loot. He was even a little addicted to this thrill, despite not having looted a single thing, and he could barely even hold himself back from wanting to target more.

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The seven man squad Southern Lone Blade led was currently strolling through the city, as he had yet to come up with a plan. The Video Mage and Eternal Dominion were both incredibly frightening targets to confront directly, and Southern Lone Blade was not confident just the seven of them were enough to take them down.

Having been the recipient of a Seismic Toss and a Twin Incineration from the duo, Southern Lone Blade had discovered that the damage from Eternal Dominion's Seismic Toss was not exactly disconcerting by itself, but that Twin Incineration was tremendously powerful. Fire Singed Clothes was ashamed when Southern Lone Blade asked Fire Singed Clothes his own damage, since the maximum damage he could deal with his Twin Incineration was entirely incomparable to that of Video Mage's.

Everybody shuddered at the thought of this. It was the mistake that everybody succumbed to when they first came into contact with Gu Fei: if his Twin Incineration was so strong, would his other spells be even more powerful? They had no idea that Twin Incineration was the strongest spell he had in his arsenal, and the other spells he had were much worse.

”It's difficult to deal with the two of them if they are working together. Our best option is to find some way to split them up,” Southern Lone Blade said.

The seven continued to walk around as they considered a possible solution to achieve this, unknowingly walking two whole streets as a result.

They truly lived up to their name as the elites when it came to larceny. Having frequently done this job of theirs that drew the ire of others, their caution had already pervaded into every aspect of their lives, while a normal guild like Tanzanite Shade's were totally amateurs when it came to spying upon their targets. As such, the seven men actually became aware of their act.

”There's a Thief behind us, possibly following us all this time,” Blackwater said in the mercenary channel.

All of them stopped in their tracks and turned back.

There was no need to search, as that Thief behind had immediately revealed himself when so flustered. He was far too unskilled when it came to the act of spying, so he was actually at a loss at what to do the moment he saw his targets were aware of his presence.

The seven looked at one another. Just from this blunder alone, they could tell that the opponent they were now facing must surely not be anybody threatening.

Southern Lone Blade wanted to step forward to find out more, but the moment he took that first step, the man immediately turned tail and ran. Glue arched his bow and was going to fire, but because there were simply too many other players walking along the street, he found it difficult to get a bead on the Thief and could only watch as he slipped away.

”Who was that?” The seven knitted their eyebrows.

Southern Lone Blade's gaze fell onto Paddy Scent Pastures. Everybody immediately understood what this look meant. They were robbers themselves, after all, so they were quick to realize what was happening upon adopting a professional perspective. It was not that Southern Lone Blade had not considered there would be others that coveted the Staff of Resurrection, he had simply not expected that they would be so quick to strike. He had thought that this information would at least have to spread before requests to acquire it would come in. How could he have guessed that there was someone who fanned the flames of desire in Tanzanite Shade's heart, inducing the idea to pursue Southern Lone Blade so soon?

”But that guy doesn't really seem like a professional,” Blackwater commented.

Southern Lone Blade nodded. The real professional, Southern Lone Blade, would truly worry about the future of this line of work from the standard that Thief had shown when stalking them.

The seven quickly came to the same conclusion from this. Things would be a lot more troublesome if they are not professionals! There were specialists in every line of work, each with their own tricks of their trade. Professionals like Southern Lone Blade doing this work would often remember to keep a low profile; the more elite they were, the more low profile they would be. But for a bunch of amateurs attempting this job, would they even understand why there was a need to keep a low profile, or even how to keep a low profile at all?