The Great Thief

Nerub’enkan was terrifyingly large and emitted a strange metallic light. This Boss was like the kind of monster to descend upon the unfortunate characters in a horror movie.

“I have awakened. Receive my wrath, mere mortals!”

Azure Sea Breeze began to rush towards the Boss, but was suppressed by its claws. Then, Nerub’enkan unleashed a spray of poison directly at his face.

Fortunately, Azure Sea Breeze was wearing a full face-covering mask. Otherwise, he would have been completely grossed out and lost his composure. Even so, he was surprised at the sudden attack and lost his footing.

Nerub’enkan was quite different from a normal spider. It was a Crypt Fiend, which was a hybrid between a spider and a human.

These savage creatures had conquered the Northern Kingdom of Azuo-Nerub through their dominant forces that were led by Ner’zhul.

Now that the kingdom was under Crypt Fiend rule, the original spiders that resided there fought for Ner’zhul.

These creatures had the ability to summon spiders and use webs to ensnare their enemies. In a large-scale battle, Crypt Fiends could use this to their advantage against flying enemies.

It was rumoured that their webs were so strong that they could pull down a Gryphon.

However, these were useless against Lu Li and his party, since none of them were going to take flight.

Nerub’enkan was still a difficult Boss to deal with, and was not to be underestimated. Even many veterans had underestimated it and paid the price for their arrogance.

After a short while, the Boss began to weave its webs, trapping the players in them.

“Look at my webs! They’re so beautiful!”

The whole process had unexpectedly taken place in a blink of the eye. Nerub’enkan was frighteningly stronger than the normal spiders that they had previously faced.

Web Wrap: Nerub’enkan traps a player in its webs, leaving them unable to move or attack for 15 seconds.

This skill was not merely a crowd-control skill, but also had the side effect of decreasing accuracy.

The first one that had been trapped was Sakura Memories.

“Sakura Memories, use Damage Shield!”

The party made sure to closely follow Lu Li’s instructions, as Nerub’enkan would use two more skills in rapid succession after casting its webs.

Pierce Armour: Nerub’enkan pierces the targeted enemy, causing Armour to drop by 50%. Lasts for 10 seconds.

Crypt Scarabs: Nerub’enkan summons a group of scarabs and unleashes them on its enemies causing Nature damage.

While the scarabs didn’t do much damage, they moved quickly and in swarms. A normal player would be easily overwhelmed by them

Furthermore, it almost seemed as though these three skills had been cast at the same time. Sakura Memories quickly found herself entangled in webs, afflicted by Armour Pierce, and had a group of scarabs surrounding her.

Luckily for her, Lu Li’s instructions came just at the right time, so she casted the Damage Shield instantly.

March Rain’s battle mechanics and perception was also gradually improving; she had also instantly healed Sakura Memories. If it were not for March Rain’s quick reactions, Sakura Memories would most definitely have died.

Players would often die because of these three consecutive skills. Many gaming organisations and communities had criticised the game company for designing such powerful Boss mechanic, but as expected, there was no response.

Some players had just accepted this fact – Dawn had never limited how Bosses attacked. The simple tactic of using HP and time as indicators for skills would no longer work against high-level Bosses such as Nerub’enkan.

After saving Sakura Memories, another dilemma quickly became apparent. The aggro of Nerub’enkan had been lost in the heat of the battle. As such, it began on a rampage across the battlefield, pursuing its enemies closely.

Lonesome Flower was positioned the furthest away, but still became the first target. He was instantly killed by Nerub’enkan without even having a chance of deploying his shield.

Some said that Lonesome Flower was not an elite player, and that other Mages with his equipment would have done better.

However, success in gaming depended on luck just as much as strength. Lonesome Flower was extremely hardworking and diligent, as displayed through his ranking of 2nd place behind Lu Li. No one else in the guild could say much about his qualifications.

His PVE skills weren’t that bad either. In fact, they were remarkable. He was just unlucky that the Boss had suddenly rushed at him, which was completely unexpected.

After all, no one had expected that the Main Tank would suddenly lose aggro with the Boss. Furthermore, they were completely unaware of Nerub’enkan’s skills, unlike Lu Li. Any Mage from another guilds would also have died to this.

Lu Li was not going to let another member of the party die in this fight. After he revived Lonesome Flower, the rest of the party continued to fight against the Boss. The last thing that they wanted was to drag out the fight longer than it needed to be as deaths would be a regular occurrence.

Lu Li and Hachi Chan had the ability to revive teammates, but what would happen after they ran out?

The Xin Xin Mercenary Group had an average player level of 46, which was only three levels below the Boss. Individually, they were as strong as any other elite team of a major guild. While the fight would be difficult, victory was almost certain for them.

After a few more deaths, including Lonesome Flower, Remnant Dream, Moonlight, Sesame Rice Ball and Sakura Memories, they finally defeated the Boss.

Fortunately for them, Nerub’enkan did not go Berserk at the end of the fight. Otherwise, they may not have escaped the dungeon alive.

This time, Lu Li did not care about the equipment that were dropped. When the System notified him that he had gained a skill point, he was elated.

He was not the only one who had received a skill point – Sakura Memories had too.

Chance was a huge aspect of the game, and it definitely showed in the inconsistencies between rewards. Baroness Anastari had not given any skill points, but Nerub’enkan had given two.

Of course, Lu Li was not so delusional as to expect a skill point from every Boss, but that didn’t stop him from hoping for good drops every time.

Remnant Dream was restless as she wanted to go see what items had dropped. Although the last Boss had dropped decent equipment, no one could use the Bow and the necklace was only Gold grade. This time, she swore to find something better.

The best items were those that people would fight over as she could get a small reward for looting them.