The Great Thief

Zugra was not easy to defeat. It wasn’t level 50 yet, but there was a huge army of demons that served as its underlings.

These demon soldiers didn’t fully obey it, but they relied on him to resurrect Lord Arethoc. If any intruders tried to attack Zugra, they wouldn’t mind fighting to protect him.

There were players who formed teams to take down this Boss for gear, but they were overwhelmed by the sheer number of demons.

Even teams from the major guilds were slaughtered.

This information was readily available on the internet. Water Fairy quickly found what she needed and pulled Lu Li aside.

”Are you sure you want to take down this one? What about all the monsters it summons?” she asked.

It wasn’t that this Boss was impossible – Drizzle Court and Ruling Sword were both capable of taking it down. They just needed ten hundred-man teams to clear out all the demons on the map, then about four to five elite groups to kill the Boss. It was almost a guarantee that the task could be completed before the other guilds had the time to react.

After all, this was only a level 45 Boss and the other monsters were only a little over level 40.

All monsters were designed to be killed by players and Zugra was no exception to this. The only reason that the other major guilds hadn’t attempted to kill it was because it wasn’t worth the effort.

”We don’t have to take down the small monsters,” Lu Li reassured her.

”How can we ignore all these monsters? Are we just going to start the fight straight away with the Boss?”

If it wasn’t for the amount of trust that Water Fairy had in Lu Li, she would have already kicked him out of the team.

”Do you see those Fireballs?” Lu Li asked as he pointed towards the green sky.

Magic swirled around the altars on the ground as the summoning gate continued to summon stronger demons. These Fireballs were the lowest life form in the other world; they would break apart once they landed or would take the form of an Inferno.

Inferno were monsters made of stones, with spirits formed by demon flames. The slightest spark of demon flame would be enough to transform rocks into these brave soldiers.

However, because the summon gate had been weakened, theses Infernos had also become weaker.

”That’s a second-tier Inferno,” Deep Watersong said, aware of what was around them. ”Level forty-five, super high damage and defense – their attacks also carry a burn effect and they’re not afraid of group spells…”

”Any weaknesses?” Lu Li had to admit he was impressed.

”Their weakness is very obvious – their time of existence is incredibly short. They can only exist for a minute and thirty seconds,” Deep Watersong answered, then added, ”But their disappearance is equivalent to an explosion. They will deal group damage within a massive range.”

”Seems like you’ve done some homework,” Lu Li said, then continued, ”Our targets are these Infernos. We’ve got to kill them before they self-explode.”

”Although there’s only a minute and a half, it doesn’t seem too hard.”

Water Fairy was always confident in herself. They also had a strong damage dealer in Lu Li, so a level 45 elite monster was no match for them.

”Make sure to not attract other monsters; we can’t touch the Infernos that land in a group of monsters,” Lu Li said.

Water Fairy was lost. It was rare for the Infernos to land in isolated spots, and sneaking past the other monsters would take time. The Inferno would have already self-exploded by then.

Deep Watersong was quick to find the answer.

”There’s a certain pattern to how the Inferno drop. There’s about twenty seconds before the Inferno lands on the floor.”

While the Inferno was hurtling through the air, it was actually just a burning rock. When it landed heavily on the ground, it either broke apart or became an Inferno.

”That’s right. Once you see an Inferno land, you need to calculate its landing location. If it’s an isolated area, we’ll go there and wait for it. We can save a lot of time this way,” Lu Li said, then began to assign tasks.

”Left hand, you and the two Druids wait in a more isolated spot. If monsters land besides you guys, kill them. Water Fairy and I will go hunt down those that are further away.”

”No problem,” Deep Watersong said, then asked in confusion, ”But why are we killing these Infernos?”

Wasn’t the goal to kill the boss? He thought he was a smart person, but he really couldn’t tell what Lu Li was trying to get at. He just thought that the entire situation was weird.

”Our goal is to pick up the Infernal Power Core that drops from them. We need at least four, but five would be even better,” Lu Li answered.

The five of them split into two smaller teams. Lu Li and Water Fairy raced towards an Inferno that was just about to land. They were both Thieves who built Agility, so their movement speed was very fast, even if they were in Stealth.

The distance didn’t seem very long, but it was actually much harder in practice.

This was mostly because Lu Li had asked everyone to not disturb the demons. By the time they arrived at the location where the Inferno dropped, it had already self-exploded.

This happened a few times consecutively, until one landed near them. Lu Li and Water Fairy managed to make it in time and quickly killed this level 45 elite monster together

Unfortunately, the Inferno didn’t drop what Lu Li wanted.

”What a low drop rate!” Water Fairy didn’t realize that the item didn’t have a 100% drop rate.

”This is only our first one; it’s too early to say that the item has a low drop rate,” Lu Li said as he rolled his eyes and ran towards the next location.

”Would the boss fight be easier if we collect enough of the Infernal Power Cores?” Water Fairy’s movement speed was slightly slower than Lu Li’s, so took quite some effort for her to chase behind. She would often have to use speed buffs or drink some potions.

This time, they managed to kill another Inferno before it exploded; Lu Li dashed past the and attacked it immediately.

When the Inferno died, it dropped an Infernal Power Core, which was a green crystal with a demonic aura flowing out from it. When you held it in your hands, it made you dizzy, as if your spirit was being sucked into it.

”You’ll know why later. Stop asking,” Lu Li said as he placed the Infernal Power Core into his bag.

Lu Li was probably the only one who dared to talk to Water Fairy like this without getting himself killed.

Obtaining second Infernal Power Core took some time; they had to kill around seven to eight Infernos before it dropped. This annoyed Lu Li as well – he thought that the Infernos were easy kills, but he neglected the fact that their numbers were limited.

It took almost two hours before they collected five Infernal Power Cores.

When they regrouped again, Lu Li handed out the Cores that he had collected. He then brought everyone deep into The Mannoroth Assembly and stood before Zugra’s altar.