The Great Thief

”Uncle, don’t worry. We will avenge you,” Hachi Chan declared as she patted her chest before the dying Troll.

”You must go the Hinterlands and look for the Altar of Zul where there are several Troll Worshippers. Kill them.” Mazoga’s innermost feelings that had been repressed for many years was now being expressed. ”Take the Hammer of Zul from them and go the altar on top of the mountain of Jintha’Alor. Charge the hammer there before sounding the gong by Gahz’rilla. This will summon it from the holy water. Please kill it and make sure you use Evil Essence against it. It hates the taste of Evil Essence…” he erupted with enthusiasm.

Evil Essence was a poison. Considering how much he had taken, it was quite impressive that Mazoga was still around, but his voice was clearly getting weaker.

Then, he suddenly went silent.

His body then turned yellow and crumbled as it was blown into the wind. He had returned to where he had come from; every Sandfury’s fate should be so.

”Let’s go. Let’s fight the next Boss before finding the hammer,” Lu Li sighed.

Hachi Chan seemed a little sad, but she was pulled away by Remnant Dream and was kept from looking back.

They felt compassion for Mazoga, even though he didn’t really tell them much of the details. They didn’t even know anything about Nuoya, other than that he/she had been sacrificed to Gahz’rilla.

Even so, it seemed as if each NPC was alive and had their own feelings and experiences.

Although emotions had now become involved, the Instance Dungeon had to be continued.

Lu Li had the third part of the set and his heart began beating in anticipation at the thought of the last two Bosses dropping the fourth piece.

The power of First Clears was just too great!

He passed on the Boss’ strategy to Water Fairy while she was still stuck at the previous location. In the middle of their fight, a few more little monsters spawned.

When she heard that Lu Li had defeated another two Bosses, she was filled with envy.

She was confident that they would get the First Clear of Zul’Farrak if it weren’t for this Thief. However, she couldn’t stick around congratulating him as two more of her members had just died.

From when they had started the Instance Dungeon until now, it had been a little over half a day. Lu Li and the others took an extended break as they only had two more Bosses left to fight.

In accordance to his agreement with Water Fairy, the last Boss’ First Clear was to be given to Water Fairy.

In order words, even if Lu Li had the ability to kill the last Boss, he would have to give it up so that Drizzle Court could get the kill.

Seeing as Drizzle Court’s progress was so slow, everyone could rest for a while. They could even go offline and eat something. Lu Li went to see his sister and spoke with her for a bit before returning to the game.

The last two Bosses weren’t far away; one could even say that they were basically in the same place. However, the players were lucky that they didn’t need to face both at once this time.

They moved through a series of desert buildings and killed waves of Sandfury mobs before arriving at a Shrine.

This was the place where the Sandfury Trolls worshipped. It was surrounded by ancient and mysterious desert totems, most of which looked like snakes. They were statues of the multi-headed snake Gahz’rilla.

The first thing Lu Li and the others saw was a huge pool.

The cold water shimmered with light and was so deep that the bottom couldn’t be seen. It seemed to be connected to another world.

There was a Priestess patrolling the pool; this was Hydromancer Velratha.

Unlike most Sandfury Trolls, Hydromancer Velratha had travelled the globe to acquire knowledge and artifacts that would help her control Zul’Farrak’s holy water. In her quest to become a Hydromancer, she had made countless enemies in foreign countries, but she considered her amazing strength as consolation for her misdeeds.

In addition to the Priestess, there were also countless Sandfury Troll Soldiers in this Shrine.

”Let’s clear the monsters first. Breezy, make sure you don’t pull the Boss. If you do, we’re definitely dead,” Lu Li reminded.

Players who came here for the first time were often careless – they thought that the mobs were far away and would just attack the Boss. They didn’t know that Hydromancer Velratha could direct all of the monsters to focus the players.

”The monsters are so far away.” Sure enough, the Instance Dungeon had been completed so smoothly that even Azure Sea Breeze was falling for it.

”Well, let’s attack the Boss first then. You can pull it.” As the commander, Lu Li decide to give him a strict lesson as he signaled at the others to hold back.

Additionally, the atmosphere was a little sad at the moment, so sacrificing the Main Tank would hopefully lighten up the mood…

As Azure Sea Breeze charged at the Boss, everyone else ran away. Even Remnant Dream and Hachi Chan followed.

The moment he entered Hydromancer Velratha’s aggro, she started screaming.

As if he suddenly knew what had happened, Azure Sea Breeze stopped moving before realizing that the mosnters were now all heading towards him.

”Everyone… run…” Azure Sea Breeze was taken aback as he tried to warn his companions.

He then realized that his companions had long since taken off and experienced the worst kind of sadness there was. At this point, the main tank was still alive, but was absolutely crushed.

March Rain later rescued Azure Sea Breeze, who had been beaten to death, with her Revive Skill.

Azure Sea Breeze squatted on the spot like he was about to cry. Wandering came over and kicked him, then scolded, ”What are you doing? Go and pull the monsters. We told you to run before, but you didn’t listen.”

”Damn all of you guys,” Azure Sea Breeze silently cursed.

He sighed heavily before obediently heading out to pull the monsters.

The monsters needed to be cleared one at a time, but they also needed to go around Hydromancer Velratha. The Boss’ aggro range was too wide – Azure Sea Breeze’s life had demonstrated that.

Azure Sea Breeze had been made a fool, so he spent the whole time cursing them under his breath, but that greatly improved their efficiency.

After clearing all the monsters, everyone prepared to fight the Boss.

Zul’Farrak wasn’t a difficult Instance Dungeon. There were only a few Bosses that were particularly hard, like Antu’sul, Shadowpriest Sezz’ziz and Gahz’rilla. Hydromancer Velratha was not on that list.

The only thing that was important when killing this Boss was making sure all the monsters had been cleared.

Additionally, the monsters here respawned quickly which meant that the party had to kill the Boss within 20 minutes. Otherwise, they would have to kill those monsters that had respawned. If that happened, the Boss and monsters would attack the front and back line which would throw any team into chaos.

However, Lu Li’s team didn’t need to worry about their damage output.

After clearing out the monsters, Lu Li and the others took another 10 minutes to defeat the Boss. They managed to achieve this despite Velratha constantly using Hydrotherapy.