The Great Thief

”What are you all looking at? You’ve missed the monsters, silly.”

Lu Li was starting to feel uncomfortable from being stared at, so he pointed towards Azure Sea Breeze, an easy target, to deflect attention from himself.

”Lies! That’s one monster; it barely counts as anything. Lu Li, be honest with us – what did you do to make Drizzle Court agree to forming an alliance with us? What strict terms and conditions did you agree to?” Azure Sea Breeze was keen for some gossip.

”Nothing. Water Fairy just told me we should form an alliance. I agreed to it, so now we’re an alliance,” Lu Li said earnestly.

”Get out.” Evidently, no one believed him.

”Guild members are saying that he sold himself,” Hachi Chan quipped.

”What does a little girl know about him selling himself?” Wandering said as he patted her on the head. ”Lu Li isn’t even that handsome to begin with. He would have to at least be half as handsome as me to be able to sell himself.”

”Someday, when we go bankrupt, we’ll sell you. I’m pretty sure both boys and girls will like you since you look so good anyway,” Hachi Chan cursed softly.

”Alright guys, we’re almost at the entrance. Pay attention,” Lu Li had to pull a straight face to keep everyone in check.

The news had caused a lot of commotion within the guild, but a lot of drama had also arisen outside of the guild.

There were no secrets on the internet, and the executives of both guilds didn’t plan to keep any secrets either. A few minutes after their decision to form an alliance, the world channel had already heard of the news.

The average players were only watching the drama from the sidelines, but the big guilds had to pay attention to the influence of this alliance.

Why didn’t we think of forming an alliance? This was the first thought that popped up in the heads of many. It wasn’t about their loyalty to Ruling Sword – their attention was on the dungeon guides.

Without a doubt, the dungeon guides must’ve been included as a part of the terms and conditions for the alliance.

Water Fairy wasn’t the only millionaire, but unfortunately, they had lost their chance to spend their money.

Ruling Sword wouldn’t form another alliance with a guild any time soon. Which guild wouldn’t want to be the one and only when they have a chance to?

However, the big guilds still had their own pride. They didn’t feel like Drizzle Court was ahead of them because of the dungeon guides; they would just invest more into their dungeon strategy groups.

”So this is the Scarlet Cathedral.” Everyone was surprised by the majestic building in front of them.

When they first arrived, they had seen this center building of the Scarlet Monastery from afar, but they only appreciated its splendor after they got closer.

”How many are inside this?” Wandering’s expression wasn’t too pleased.

”Two,” Lu Li replied, demonstrating the numbers with his fingers.

”That’s not too bad,” the others sighed in relief.

For such a big building, it wouldn’t be impossible to fit seven of eight bosses inside.

Although dungeons were a necessity in games, they were never the mainstream.

”Pull those monsters over and we’ll kill them. Make sure to not pull that guy with blue stripes on his collar; that’s the training instructor.”

Lu Li shook his head. Soon, the others would feel the wrath of the couple. There was no way that they would be able to call this an easy dungeon at that point.

There was a wave of monsters at the entrance of the Scarlet Cathedral, consisting of Scarlet Recruits and a Scarlet Training Instructor.

The number of the Scarlet Recruits was slightly outrageous, but they weren’t strong. It wasn’t a problem to drag all the recruits in one go, but the inclusion of the instructor would make them problematic. If the instructor was pulled over with the recruits, it was a guaranteed wipe for the team.

Not only did the Scarlet Training Instructor have good attack attributes and lots of health, but it was also capable of applying a 200% attack damage buff to the Scarlet Recruits.

This was simply a trap placed down by the game designers. Since the uniform of the instructor was almost identical to the recruits, many teams ran into a problem here during their first run.

Azure Sea Breeze followed Lu Li’s instructions and pulled a wave of a dozen monsters. Everyone followed up quickly and swarmed in to wipe out the monsters.

After two or three times, the Scarlet Training Instructor was left by himself at the entrance of the Scarlet Cathedral.

”Oh, where’s my recruits?!” It was as if the Scarlet Training Instructor just woke up from his slumber. ”It must be the work of you intruders! Prepare to die!” he exclaimed.

Despite his zeal, he was quickly taken care of. What could an instructor possibly do without his recruits?

Since he wasn’t a boss, he didn’t drop anything good either. He only dropped a key that allowed access to the cathedral.

The door wasn’t too complex – even without the key, a Thief would still be able to open it.

”Don’t open the door yet. Everyone, take a seat and regenerate first; drink your potions. Scarlet Paladins will constantly swarm out after the door is opened.” Lu Li held back Azure Sea Breeze, who had just picked up the key and was about to open the door.

”Damn, isn’t that the same as Death Mines?” Azure Sea Breeze asked angrily.

”It’s even more troublesome than that. The monsters that swarmed out from the cabin were all normal monsters, but Scarlet Paladins are all elites. It’s entirely possible to wipe if you’re not careful.”

Lu Li applied poison to his daggers and also drank a potion that briefly increased his agility.

”They’re really showing no mercy to the players at all. Aren’t they afraid that people will stop playing the game?” Moonlight sighed.

He was probably the only experienced gamer amongst this team of youngsters. The previous games that he had played all tried to go easy on the players to a certain extent.

It was truly a first for a dungeon run to take days and for players to countless times during the first run.

”It’s not like this in Heroic mode – monsters only swarm out consistently in Difficult and Nightmare mode,” Lu Li explained. He wasn’t the least bit concerned about the game running out of players. In his previous life, it had only taken three years for Dawn to conquer the entire gaming industry.

Countless game companies went bankrupt, and people in the industry either had to pursue a different career or had to rely on Dawn for income.

”Can we finish this dungeon today?” March Rain was worried; there was a big difference between Heroic and Nightmare mode, but Lu Li always insisted on passing Nightmare mode.

”We can,” Lu Li said confidently.

The heavy doors of the cathedral were slowly being pushed open.

”Don’t go inside. Hold and defend here at the door. Breeze, make sure not to miss monsters.”

The sound of heavy footsteps approached as the steel boots trampled the floor. Azure Sea Breeze bent his back slightly and raised his metal shield.

Sparks flew from the metal shield as it came into contact with the long swords. This was the announcement that the battle had begun.

”Don’t panic if you get chased by monster and don’t forget to use your damage reductions.” While Lu Li dealt damage, he also didn’t forget to remind the others of what to do.

There were too many monsters that swarmed out from within and they were all Elites, so it was difficult to clear them out. Fortunately, Azure Sea Breeze followed Lu Li’s instructions and blocked the entrance, so they didn’t have to face as many monsters as they had previously imagined.

It was impossible to not miss any monsters at all, and Lu Li was responsible for killing any that slipped through.

”Flower, go in and snare the monsters at the back.” As the monsters increased in number, Lu Li had to think of ways to take some pressure off Azure Sea Breeze.

Lonesome Flower flashed into a pile of Scarlet Paladins and casted a Frost Nova.

A great deal of pressure was taken off the frontline which bought enough time for the damage classes to clear out this wave.

On the other hand, Lonesome Flower was in trouble. Fortunately, he had Ice Block, which granted him a long period of invincibility.

This time was enough for his team members to push their way towards him.

An average team would have already become a huge mess while they dealt with this flood of Scarlet Paladins.

Even a ten-man team of Level 35 players would still be reluctant to choose Nightmare mode.