Chapter 82 - Skeleton Executioners

“Thief?”

“Is that... an NPC?” A Mage stammered in question.

“No, it’s a player!” Cold shivers traveled down another Thief’s body as fear grew in his heart.

“He summoned these skeletons? Is he a Necromancer?”

“No, he appears to be a Thief!”

Nie Yan stood silently with the Dark Gladiator, just looking at them, but also giving them a formless feeling of oppression. This was because he was manipulating the strings of their fates at this moment. If he commanded that enormous skeletal dragon to charge over and added the attacks from the four skeletal mages as well, those assembled would have no hope of survival at all.

The gloomy, cyan flames in the Dark Gladiator’s eyes flared. It was waiting for Nie Yan’s command. It would immediately make a move if he gave the word to attack.

Nie Yan used Transcendent Insight to view the information of these players.

Leader Young Seven, Forgotten, Yi Yan... all sorts of familiar names floated into view. Level six, six, and five. These people were influential personages in their past lives. Although they hadn’t joined any other guilds, they’d formed a team called True Dragon Mark. The strength of this team was roughly on par with the elite teams of the guilds.

It was then that Nie Yan recalled that he’d met these players when he was tracking the Serpentine Lizard.

This made sense when he thought about it. Players who dared come to Sulgata Ancient City at this level naturally wouldn’t be bumbling fools.

Leader Young Seven was a player who would be known as one of the Seven Archbishops in the future. A strong Priest was of utmost importance to a team. They would even have the effect of saving the entire team at critical moments.

As for Forgotten, he’d been superior to Nie Yan in his past life and was also one of the Thieves who received the moniker of Shadow Dancer. While he had been on roughly the same level as Nie Yan in terms of techniques, he had entered the game earlier and had an elite team. His level and equipment were both superior to Nie Yan. However, circumstances were different now. Nie Yan had more than ten years of experience as a Thief over Forgotten, and in this timeline, they both entered the game at the same time. So their positions would be sure to be rewritten in this life.

Perhaps one day, they would be the ones to learn to look up to Nie Yan.

𝒻𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝘯𝘰𝑣ℯ𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝘮

As for the others, they weren’t as renowned as Leader Young Seven or Forgotten, but they had a small bit of fame as well. Yi Yan for instance, was not a bad Fighter. Although he wasn’t ranked in the top ten of the Fighter rankings, he was at least in the top 50. This was still quite a high ranking. After all, the entire Righteous faction would have hundreds of thousands of teams ten years from now.

Although Nie Yan had heard of these people before, he’d never come in contact with them.

They stared at each other for a while, with the hand that Leader Young Seven was using to grip his staff breaking out in a cold sweat. He didn’t display his internal nervousness on his face however. If Nie Yan made a move, the six of them would most likely not make it out alive. They’d naturally be gifting Nie Yan several pieces of equipment.

If Nie Yan made a move, it would be a single sided slaughter.

However, Nie Yan had his own thoughts about this matter. These people weren’t weak, and although their current levels were low, they would be sure to be elite experts in the future. If Nie Yan gave the order for the Dark Gladiator to charge and kill them, he’d at most get his hands on a few pieces of equipment and a red name. Those pieces of equipment weren’t worth much money at all, and he wasn’t short on money. Why make so many enemies? They didn’t know what he had come to Sulgata for, and he didn’t need to worry about someone seizing Sulgata’s Shadow at this current level.

Nie Yan smiled faintly and paid no more attention to these players, heading towards the depths of the city.

The Dark Gladiator looked at Nie Yan’s back, swiveled its head to look at the players, and then turned to follow him.

Several skeletons came pouncing towards Nie Yan. The Dark Gladiator lifted its tail high and sent it crashing down heavily, smashing the skeletons into fragments.

No one dared to follow. Whoever followed Nie Yan was courting death.

Nie Yan walked away quite dashingly. They’d only had one glance at his face, but it was something that Young Seven and the others would never forget.

“Wait!” Forgotten called out towards Nie Yan.

Nie Yan didn’t turn back as he left straight ahead, vanishing at the end of the path.

Countless numbers of skeletons poured in, blocking their line of vision and making it so that even the tall Dark Gladiator disappeared from sight as well.

“Just who was that fellow? He was damn awesome, and he really had summoned those skeletons!” Yi Yan mumbled off on the side. This was too frightening if this was the case.

“Perhaps they weren’t summoned creatures. Didn’t we get a Spirit Summoning Scroll drop too? He might’ve gotten something else.” Young Seven spoke, deep in thought. “Even if this is the case, he’s got some skills to dare come to Sulgata alone.”

“Oh right, Forgotten, what did you call out to him for just now?” Yi Yan asked, perplexed.

“Since he turned to leave, that proved that he wouldn’t do anything to us. It’s a good idea to interact more with someone like that.”

“Other people may not be willing to join our team.” Young Seven said. Otherwise, Nie Yan wouldn’t have turned without another word. It was obvious that he didn’t want to have anything to do with them.

“That’s fine too. We’ll become familiar with each other after some chatting. I used Inspect just now, that guy’s called Nie Yan.” Forgotten didn’t know what he was feeling now either. As a fellow Thief, there seemed to be a great gap between him and Nie Yan.

“Nie Yan? I seemed to have heard this name before. One of my friends said once that someone called Nie Yan slaughtered a lot of people in Radiant Sacred Flame. It looks like he’s the one. I’ve also heard that he has some relation to Sleepy Fox.” Leader Young Seven said. He had friends in all sorts of places, and his sources of news were more timely. He often gossiped when chatting about news, like which guild had gotten a face full of dust from someone, which guilds had fought each other, etc.

“Is he someone from Holy Empire?”

“No idea, I didn’t see him wear a guild emblem just now. I don’t think so.”

Nie Yan had left them with a deep impression with just one glance. A lone Thief had dared to charge into Sulgata—this was why they felt deep respect for him. If they stumbled upon a chance to create good relations with Nie Yan or recruit him into their team, they would definitely jump on it.

Nie Yan moved towards the center of the city following along the passages within the maze-like outer district. He didn’t know about the intentions and plans of those behind him. If he knew that they wanted to recruit him for their team, he would’ve told them to give up. Nie Yan wouldn’t listen to anyone else’s commands. He’d joined the elites of Holy Empire only to get his hands on some equipment. He did want to form a team, but the reigns of command had to be in his hands.

The Dark Gladiator rushed forward fiercely, slamming groups of monsters to death. Under this freakish speed of mob killing, Nie Yan’s experience bar filled up rapidly.

He made his way through a patch of maze and entered an open square. It measured several thousand meters in radius and the tall, rugged pyramid structure was in the center.

Scores of tall and stocky Skeleton Executioners were patrolling around the center of the square. They were at least five meters tall, and were moving skeletons. Their right arms were noticeably thicker as they carried heavy axes. The axes were spotted with rust, but were still quite ferocious.