The Great Thief

Lu Li and the others soon arrived at the main hall of the Interrogation building.

There was even more fresh blood here than outside, and the walls were covered on all sides with skull lamps that had a flickering green flame within them. Tortured yells could be faintly heard, which were either from people or souls from the past.

Interrogator Vishas was nothing like Sakura Memories had thought. He was cute when he was young, but that was no longer the case.

When Lu Li and the other saw him, he had just stripped a prisoner of some skin and was rubbing some salt into their wounds. The prisoner made a shrill cry in agony.

Vishas looked quite elegant and moved with grace; he even had a gentle smile on his face.

However, this wide contrast only served to make the players feel even more uncomfortable.

”The person who designed this character must have been a pervert,” Azure Sea Breeze concluded.

”What kind of game designer isn’t a pervert?” Wandering thought differently.

”My brother wants to study game design,” March Rain couldn’t help but laugh.

Lonesome Flower maintained a cold expression and said nothing. He must have been silently thinking of a way to exact revenge on these two people who had insulted his future profession.

”Alright, let’s not waste time,” Lu Li interrupted them, unable to stand it any longer. ”This is Vishas – he is a Warlock and his most powerful skill is an area of effect burn. It will affect five players each time and if you are hit by it, you need to get rid of it as immediately.”

There were several Magic professions that could instantly remove debuffs. In the Xin Xin Mercenary Group, there was a Priest, a Shaman and a Paladin.

March Rain, Sakura Memories and Wandering were each responsible for two of their teammates. If they couldn’t remove the buff at the time, they were to cast a damage reduction skill instead.

As for Lu Li, he had Shadow Cloak, which not only removed debuffs, but also made him invulnerable to Magic for a period. He also had Gale Steps which gave him a window of invincibility. With both of these things combined, he didn’t need anyone to protect him.

Five minutes after the fighting began, Vishas’ HP had dropped by more than half. He didn’t have that much HP left.

At this time, he began to use his area of effect burn skill.

In Lu Li’s previous life, he had started the Scarlet Monastery when everyone was over level 30. At that time, the game had already been out for a year and the strategies were already solidified. Their higher levels and stronger equipment also meant that they could more easily resist the burn.

Additionally, the game company had weakened all the Instance Dungeons.

To put it simply, the current effect of the area of effect burn was far beyond Lu Li’s expectations. In his previous life, he had no problems with it, but now, he realized that it was going to be a struggle.

The first time it was cast, Sakura’s whole team was burning, including herself. If everyone’s levels were a little higher, they could have just put out the fires one at a time.

However, when Sakura Memories saw that her team was burning as well, she was shocked for a moment and didn’t know what to do.

Sesame Rice Ball was one of the main DPS players, so she reasoned that he should be put out first. However, by the time she came to a decision, she hadn’t put herself out, so she was the first to die.

Remnant Dream soon followed and burned to death as well.

The second time it was cast, the debuff wasn’t removed quickly enough and Wandering died on the last tick of the burn.

The Boss had cast the skill twice and had killed four players. This was just the beginning and there was still a long way to go. The Boss was going to end up burning them all to a crisp.

”Let’s give up and try again,” Lu Li sighed before decisively declaring their first defeat against Vishas.

Persistence was a good trait, but blind stubbornness was just a waste of time.

”Wow, we got wiped,” Azure Sea Breeze whistled as he quickly burned to death as well.

”Looks like there’s something wrong with your strategy,” Wandering’s said as his lip curled slightly. He was insulting him, but he was also slightly relieved. Lu Li wasn’t omnipotent and could still be wrong.

He could believe that Lu Li had a deep understanding of Dawn’s lore and thus understood Vishas. However, he didn’t believe that the information he had would allow him to so easily overcome the Instance Dungeons.

”Yeah,” Lu Li sighed. They had gotten wiped, but it wasn’t that big a deal.

Most of the other guilds were still stuck in the Arsenal Instance Dungeon. They had yet to understand Herod’s positive and negative whirlwind.

”We have to think of a different way; the burn is just too strong. It’s too bad we don’t have any Magic Defence scrolls,” Wandering said sadly. The Physical Defence Scrolls had played an important role against Herod.

”We should just do it at Elite Difficulty. At our current level, there is no way it would burn us to death,” Azure Sea Breeze complained.

He was right. One simple and easy reason as to why the Xin Xin Mercenary Group had been wiped was because Lu Li wanted to do this Instance Dungeon at Nightmare Difficulty.

”Do you know that the probability of an Elite Difficulty Instance Dungeon dropping Gold equipment is very small?!” Lu Li snapped back.

”We’ve received Gold equipment for every Boss we’ve fought at Nightmare Difficulty. Let’s keep going for the sake of Gold equipment.”

Wandering waved his hand, indicating for Azure Sea Breeze to clear out the mobs near the Boss’ entrance.

”This time, we will all have assigned positions so that no three people standing together are part of the same team. When all three people are burning, remove the debuff from one of them, but make sure you don’t panic regarding the other two. I will directly instruct on what to do from there,” Lu Li instructed, making a refinement to the strategy.

”What if the burning person is also the person that is removing the debuffs?”

”Of course, you should prioritize protecting yourself. Sakura Memories didn’t do that very well. And Remnant Dream, you should have cast your damage reduction skills,” Lu Li said.

”Oh, I’ll do it this time,” Remnant Dream nodded pitifully.

Her reaction speed was a little slow. Normally, it wouldn’t matter, as she could just follow. However, in circumstances like this, losing her would not only reduce their damage output, but it would also affect their morale.

”When you’re free, you should find some monsters that require you to dodge. You aren’t dumb; you can get better.”

When Lu Li saw her face, he couldn’t bear to speak harsh words at her because she was still young.

”Okay, I will practice well and next time… I won’t hold the team back.” Remnant Dream was about to cry.

”Don’t scold me; I will practice well too.”

Lu Li had just turned around to look at her before Hachi Chan quickly spoke. She could be quite quick witted at times.

According to normal guild conventions, there was an elimination model.

Those who didn’t perform well were replaced with others that had exemplary performances, but Lu Li’s old-fashioned, idealistic mind disregarded that convention.

However, to inspire the Elite Group, he needed to work with Square Root 3 to establish another core group.

The second attempt at Vishas was about to start.