There were many Great Thief skills. Every player had their own unique understanding of these skills and would use them to different effect. Given that Nie Yan’s comprehension of the Thief class had grown a layer deeper, he would surely be a much deadlier Great Thief in this life.

Nie Yan took out the Great Thief skill book he had previously looted to examine.

Description: Become invincible for 2 seconds after evading an enemy’s attack. Circle behind them and retaliate with an attack. Enhances Backstab damage.

Requirements: Action (Weapon), 50 Rage

Properties: Deal an additional 100%–300% damage. Ignores armour.

Cooldown: 30 Seconds

Restrictions: Great Thief; can be learned by any faction.

Great Thief skills generally carried the label Freedom Skill. If used well, a player could display up to three times their normal combat strength; otherwise, they would be no different from regular skills.

Nie Yan learned the skill and glanced at his skill bar. Reverse Grip Backstab required Rage, which could be generated through combat.

Reverse Grip Backstab was a Combo Skill which built up combo points. The higher the combo, the more damage a Finisher Skill would deal.

Nie Yan would have to acquire the Combo and Finisher Skills for Great Thieves a step at a time. His skill bar would undergo a massive transformation in the time to come. Most regular skills would start being replaced by Freedom Skills while others could be upgraded to Freedom Skills through quests.

Nie Yan was excited to finally be a Great Thief again. There were many facets of the new class he was familiar with, while some would pose brand new challenges.

“Sir Devil Slayer, let me congratulate you once more on becoming a Great Thief. Here is your Medal of Honor. We hope you’ll bring glory to the Thief Association,” Pallot said in a formal tone.

Nie Yan accepted the Medal of Honor. It was crafted out of a dark metal with many mysterious engravings from the Era of Shared Governance. He examined its properties.

Properties: Stealth +20, Awareness +30

Phantom Assassination (Freedom Skill): Slash the enemy’s throat after dodging an attack, dealing additional critical damage for every combo point. Cooldown: 60 seconds.

Death Exemption: Become immune to all crowd control effects and gain 10% movement speed for 2 seconds.

Restrictions: Nirvana Flame; cannot be dropped or traded.

Phantom Assassination and Death Exemption were undoubtedly two powerful skills. Phantom Assassination was similar to Reverse Grip Backstab in the sense that it was also a Freedom Skill he would have to take the time to properly master. Death Exemption wasn’t any less useful. It could save his life at a crucial moment.

Nie Yan equipped the Great Thief Medal of Honor.

“Sir Nirvana Flame, I wish you glory on your journey.”

“Thank you, Sir Pallot,” Nie Yan said. He bid farewell to Pallot and left the Thief Association, deep in thought. It was crucial for him to master Great Thief skills if he wanted to grow. He would gather more Freedom Skills one by one and learn to use them skillfully. Only then would he become truly strong.

Nie Yan walked through the busy streets of Calore and headed to the auction house.

Draped in a large cloak, Nie Yan easily blended into the mass of people flowing down the street. He would attract too much attention without it.

Nie Yan happened to open the Super Trade Channel. The number of concurrent visitors had ballooned to more than 1,000,000. Every day there was a frightening amount of transactions. Thanks to the convenience of the Super Trade Channel, the auction houses in Calore saw a 70% increase in sales. His daily profit from the six auction houses under his control rose from just several thousand gold to over 30,000 gold.

Countless players were paying close attention to the Super Trade Channel for the off-chance Night Vision equipment was put up for sale again.

After a while, Nie Yan arrived at the auction house. He offloaded his final batch of Night Vision equipment, which was of even higher quality than the previous, into the marketplace. The auction house immediately erupted into a bidding frenzy, attracting the attention of every player in Calore. The rich players were frantically bidding over each item while the poor could only look on in envy, praying something within their range of affordability, like equipment with Night Vision +2 or +3, would appear.

The bidding frenzy drove Bloodlust Mad Blade crazy. He understood that all the profits generated from the Night Vision equipment would flow into Nie Yan’s pockets. Even with a conservative estimate, Nie Yan was set to make at least 400,000 gold. How was Bloodlust Blades to survive?

Nie Yan didn’t care. As long as Bloodlust Blades was standing, he would never take down the bounty!

Nie Yan made a trip to the guild office. The players there were smiling from ear to ear. There was nothing more satisfying than knowing their enemies were suffering.

Seeing Nie Yan walking in, all of them rushed up to greet him. His appearance sent waves through the entire office.

“Where’s Bladelight and them?” Nie Yan asked Guo Huai.

“They headed to the Nilan Colosseum like you asked. They’re preparing to clear the whole map. I estimate they’ll be back in about an hour,” Guo Huai replied.

“Alright. When they get back, let them know we’re going to capture an Intermediate Stronghold,” Nie Yan informed. He believed the time was ripe.

“Today?” Guo Huai asked in surprise. He originally wanted to wait a few more days.

“We won’t disturb the people who are in the middle of their class advancement quest. Those under Level 50 will level two or three times by participating in this expedition, much faster than levelling outside. Start looking for people. We need at least 5,000 players over Level 45,” Nie Yan instructed. Capturing an Intermediate Stronghold was a huge undertaking.

Nie Yan started making his preparations. He took out 60,000 gold to purchase a large amount of potions, scrolls, and various other consumables.

Violet Smoke sent over a batch of Magic Bombs. There were more than 6,000 Junior Magic Bombs and 1,000 Intermediate Magic Bombs. Intermediate Magic Bombs dealt 500 area-of-effect damage, and 300% bonus damage to Machine-type enemies.

All of Asskickers United stirred into action. Guo Huai started assembling players as the administrative team busily got to work, spreading Nie Yan’s words to the players of the guild.

When the players of Asskickers United levelling in the various maps surrounding Calore received word that Nie Yan was organizing a guild expedition, they immediately used their Return Scrolls without a second thought. Many abandoned their quests midway, and those who couldn’t contacted the guild higher-ups to let them know.

The transfer points in Calore lit up brilliantly as players from Asskickers United returned in large numbers. All of them rushed to the guild office. A crowd was slowly building outside the entrance as more and more players arrived. Guo Huai and the others were busily doing a headcount. Those who were marked down were told to gather in United City.

Nie Yan was giving orders in the guild office as he received reports from Guo Huai.

On the side, he was also receiving notifications from the auction houses.

Your Frost Condensing Cloak has been successfully auctioned off for 5,200 gold!

Your Boulder Battle Armour has been successfully auctioned off for 5,880 gold!

The equipment Nie Yan listed up for sale today was the best out of the lot. Besides the Night Vision, the other properties were also good. Even without the Night Vision, they would be considered decent pieces of equipment. This sort of equipment was highly sought-after by high-end players.

Before long, Nie Yan received 510,000 gold, more than he expected. He had Ah Chen come over and take away 250,000 gold for the development of the War God Tribe. With this gold, they would have no funding issues for the time being. He also gave 50,000 gold each to Sapphire Shrine and Holy Empire. They had helped out a lot in the conflict with Bloodlust Blades.

Besides this, 60,000 gold was previously used to buy consumables.

Of the 510,000 gold only 100,000 gold remained, which Nie Yan planned to leave in the guild treasury for daily guild expenditures. With all his revenue sources combined, he made over 80,000 gold a day.

Asskickers United currently had about 500,000 gold in the bank. Add this to the profits from the various virtual properties, lasting six or seven days was no problem. By then, Nie Yan would be back with more equipment from the Underworld to sell.

Asskickers United would have no funding issues in the foreseeable future. As for Bloodlust Blades, they were already running on fumes. How much longer they could last, no one knew.

After settling all these matters, Nie Yan relaxed. He glanced at his skill bar. He really had to find some time to master Reverse Grip Backstab and Phantom Assassination, or these two powerful skills would go to waste.

A while later, Bladelight and the others returned. There were over 500 players gathered outside the entrance of the guild office. All of them were either squad leaders or important figures in the guild. The rest of the players were already waiting on standby at United City.