Rebirth of the thief who roamed around the world (BOOK 1)

Chapter 178 - Kill

The Holy Priest class's Glimmer Mark skill was the mortal weakness of any Thief. Once marked, a Thief could be easily spotted by the enemy, even during Stealth. Because of this, Holy Priests were often the prime targets for a Thief's ambush. They were also extremely frail, being a class that wore cloth armor. On top of that, they had the lowest health pool of all the cloth-armored classes. Although they did possess a few attack skills, Holy Priests generally weren't proficient in dueling like Arcane Mages, Elementalists, Holy Mages, or even Shadow Priests, all of whom were particularly thorny to deal with.

The group of players near Nie Yan were entirely oblivious to the imminent danger. Since he had erased all traces of himself, unless one of them had especially high Awareness or sharp reflexes, they were completely incapable of sensing his approach.

The higher a player's Awareness, the faster they'd be able to react to danger. If a player's Awareness was pitifully low, they'd only feel a fleeting sense of danger. It wouldn't be enough for an ordinary person to notice. To counteract high Awareness, Thieves focused on raising their Stealth and Cloak. Nie Yan's were already quite high. As long as he paid careful attention to his movements, save for the few players with exceptionally high Awareness, none would be able to detect his presence. Even if they did sense danger, they'd be incapable of pinpointing his position.

They're trying to lure me out? The corner of Nie Yan's mouth curved into a faint smile. They're playing a dangerous game... Skinny Dog and the other players from Victorious Return hated him with a burning passion. It seemed they were determined to take his head regardless of the cost.

Nie Yan closely shadowed them, his movements extremely light.

He loved this type of feeling, sneaking in the shadows while observing the opponent's movements. As soon as they exposed the slightest flaw, he'd rush in for the kill.

The group consisted of a Warrior, Paladin, Thief, Arcane Mage, and Priest, a typical arrangement. It was mostly melee focused. While lacking in burst damage and offensive power, it held certain advantages over other group compositions, specifically endurance. Without expending any mana, the frontliners could keep hacking away at the enemy while simultaneously tanking attacks, allowing the group to preserve important cooldowns and deal consistent damage.

They were still chatting while searching for traces of Nie Yan. This forest was the spawn area of Black Bears. They'd occasionally encounter one or two, and they'd have to stop what they were doing to deal with them.

"I'll go draw the monster's aggro. You guys be careful. That Thief might be near!" said the Warrior as he charged toward a nearby Black Bear, opening with a Heroic Strike.

The Warrior would be under too much pressure tanking a Black Bear alone, so the Paladin followed to support him.

"Understood." The remaining group members all showed somewhat nervous expressions. It was an extremely nerve-wracking situation whenever they encountered a Black Bear because they had to worry about Nie Yan lurking about. They had no idea whether he would take advantage of that opportunity to ambush them. Only when they saw other groups occasionally pass by did they feel a sense of security.

Seeing the Warrior and Paladin leave to deal with the Black Bear, Nie Yan slowly approached the Priest from behind.

The Priest was on high alert. Every time he finished healing the Warrior, he'd reposition himself by a few steps to confirm that he was safe. Unfortunately, his senses weren't sharp enough because this trick didn't deter Nie Yan at all.

The Priest was merely delaying the inevitable. His actions were more or less useless. His movements were too predictable. Nie Yan had long since figured them out. He moved to intercept the Priest on his path. As the Priest approached, he raised his dagger, preparing to stun him with a Smothering Strike!