The Great Thief

The runes, hand written by the Azure Dragon Nozdormu, were activated and a portal appeared out of thin air.

It looked just like any other Instance Dungeon, but it had no level restriction, name nor difficulty. The entrance to the instance dungeon was like a giant black hole, waiting to devour everything that came close. The arcane magic flowed through and around the portal as it tore through time and space, creating an entrance to another world.

Remulos explained that there was 50% chance of dying when entering the portal, but he suspected that the chance was most likely higher.

“This is something I got from the Darkmoon Faire. I’ll give one each to all of you, and I hope for a safe journey,” Remulos said took out 10 Darkmoon Card: Twisting Nether. He definitely deserved the title of being the richest man in Azeroth.

When everyone received their card, they were all shocked.

The card granted the wearer a certain chance to revive with 20% health and mana, as well as decreasing EXP loss by 5~10%.

With this item, the seemingly terrifying instance dungeon appeared to be much more tame and the fears of the players in the party were lifted.

These guys were now fired up and recklessly entered the portal. Did they not realize that there was still a chance of losing 5% EXP? Since everyone was a higher level now, player kills in the Wild had become much less common and Major Guilds were much more organized when trying to take down a Wild Boss.

However, the next patch looked to decrease EXP loss in the Wild, which would most likely start a trend and encourage players to be more active.

Lu Li was the last to enter and saw the corpses of his teammates lying on the floor.

There were six that were killed!

Lu Li was one of the four lucky survivors, which included March Rain, Hachi Chan and Water Fairy.

March Rain was able to revive someone since she was still alive.

They weren’t sure whether dying would cause them to lose EXP, but it was highly like that they would. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have been given such an overpowered item.

Those that were dead weren’t sure whether they should revive with the Darkmoon Card or wait for March Rain to revive them.

They would lose less EXP with the Darkmoon Card, but it was probably best to save them for the Boss fights. In saying that, if they got March Rain to revive them, they would lose chunk of their EXP, and no one wanted that.

They had no choice but to use the Darkmoon Card.

Everyone’s EXP increased after reviving; Remnant Dream even gained 9% from the item. The only unfortuante soul was Elevenless, who was the only person to lose 3% EXP.

What was even more worrying was that they had no idea what’s about to happen next. How many more times were they going to die…?

Everyone was afraid that the Darkmoon Card’s five uses would not be enough for the entire dungeon.

Before the universe was existed, there was Light which existed as a boundless sea of energy. As the sea of Light began to expand, pockets of cold nothingness appeared. From this, the Void and the Twisting Nether were born.

The Twisting Nether was vast and held the unknown.

Some said that the Twisting Nether connected worlds of the universe and were the origins of evil, dark energy and Arcane Magic. There were countless evil monsters that resided here and it was the place where the Burning Legion planned their invasion in different worlds.

Visually, the colored clouds mixed with bright sparkles in the sky formed a world of mystery.

There were no days or land, and they just floated in the air. Although they felt the weight of their bodies, gravity was not present in the Twisting Nether.

They couldn’t see very far and darkness enveloped their surroundings. The atmosphere made them subconsciously start whispering when talking.

“Lu Li do you think this’ll be dangerous?” Azure Sea Breeze asked as he clasped his shield tightly. He was the only Main Tank in the party and held the responsibility of being the defensive anchor of the team.

“Not sure. Let me look at the map first,” Lu Li answered, subconciously lowering his voice as well.

The Twisting Nether was a place where demons were free to run rampant and evil could be found in every corner. He had only heard about it in his past life and wasn’t very familiar with this place, but he was sure that they weren’t safe here.

The map was provided by Remulos and they needed to follow it to where Thrall escaped.

Remulos marked out a route that would be safer for Lu Li and the others based on his experience of travelling in the Twisting Nether in his earlier years. However, he made it clear that anything could happen in the Nether and it had been many years since he had stepped foot inside. It was very possible that everything had shifted or changed in the Nether.

The powerful beings of Azeroth would often travel across worlds.

For a normal traveller, the Twisting Nether was like venturing into the unknown where demons and other monsters threatened their safety. It was also very difficult to navigate around inside.

“You done yet? Let’s get a move on because we have a time limit,” Unforgettable Maple said.

He tested his skills and surprisingly, found that his magic power had increased by around 10%. His arcane skills had increased even more than his normal skills.

“Let’s head towards this way first. Everyone be on guard; apparently the monsters here are all really weird,” Lu Li suggested as he examined the map, then warned the Mages, “You can test your skills, but do not open up a Summoning Portal. Otherwise, we might get stuck here.”

Summoning Portals used different locations in the Twisting Nether to teleport certain players to their desired destination.

Remulos had warned them beforehand of an old friend who was an Archmage in Lordaeron. He used the summoning portal skill to head back home and was never seen again.

“Okay, I understand,” Unforgettable Maple agreed.