The Great Thief

After this, they entered the third room. Similar to the previous one, they needed to be much more conservative when battling.

In this area, the small monsters were not to be underestimated. If the Main Tank pulled too many to himself, it would be a guaranteed wipe. There was also the danger of Fear to consider. Azure Sea Breeze stood in the doorway, blocking the barrage of arrows. He pulled four monsters at a time, with one of them being an Undead Summoner.

Undead Summoners were long-ranged attackers, so they needed to block their field of vision to be able to pull one over.

After luring it to its designated place, Jaweika used Shackle Undead to disable its movements and actions. However, if the target took damage while the skill was active, its duration would end.

This skill could not be used on players, even those who belonged to the Undead race. Furthermore, the Priest could not move or perform other actions while the skill was active. While it had its disadvantages, in Scholomancer, this skill was extremely important.

Why? Shackle Undead was long-ranged.

This was also why Lu Li had brought along an extra Priest. March Rain was the main healer, so she could not be assigned the role of controlling monsters.

When Lu Li and his party reached the second Boss, Glory Capital had finally finished the first.

The second Boss was called Jandice Barov.

This lady was the head of the Barov family and the wife of Alexei Barov. Her soul had been contained within the Scholomancer for many years. Currently, she was overseeing the training of the new Mages because she had an excellent understanding of illusions. While she was a gifted teacher, for those who angered her, she would be a terrifying opponent.

Lu Li knew her from his previous life. According to The Schools of Arcane Magic: Illusion book, she was someone not to be underestimated.

In this magic book, there was a section which wrote:

“A previous master at her art, Jandice Barov. Rest in peace. She is the pinnacle of role models for Illusionists. When she was living, she devised a skill which created illusions that were extremely difficult to differentiate from the original thing. These clones were able to exactly copy original actions, so her enemies could not identify her position. However, it was through this that I received a lesson.”

This was basically saying that she was not perfect at her craft. After all, Illusion was an art of trickery.

Illusions of Smoke could render Mages unable to distinguish between what was real and not real. Furthermore, illusions were able to distort areas and landscapes.

This art could be used as a disguise and to control others. However, these illusions were able to be dispelled, so she did not completely rely on them.

Conversely to the traditional thinking towards spells, Illusions were not mere trickery.

Invisibility was a skill that was invaluable to Battle Mages. This was because Battle Mages often found themselves in tight situations where they need to escape. To preserve their lives, they needed this skill.

Illusions could be used to trick opponents of the caster’s position or even their opponents’ perception of who was friend or foe. It was not easy to achieve these things, but a powerful Illusionist would be able to escape easily and turn foes into allies.

Researching into this Instance Dungeon was well worth it, because they now knew of Jandice Barov’s abilities.

Lu Li and his party watched on as the Barov Lady of the House frantically tore apart body after body.

“Souls! I need more souls!”

She was already a Necromancer of the Scourge and was no longer a Master Illusionist, or the Lady of the Barov Family. In her eyes, only the bodies without souls were her allies

Compared to the previous Bosses, clearing Jandice Barov in one try was nearly impossible.

If there wasn’t a bet and livestream of events between Ruling Sword and Glory Capital, ordinary players would spend around one to two days to complete this dungeon. Even after spending that much time in here, they could only clear it with good luck.

Lu Li could not reveal all of this to his team.

He decided that they should wipe a couple of times, to prevent arising suspicion from other guilds.

As an Illusionist, Jandice Barov had two HP trigger points. One was at 66%, while the other at 33%. At these points, she would disappear, then create multiple clones of herself which filled the room.

During this period of time, the real body would be hidden among the clones and unleash AoE attacks.

From the very beginning of the battle, she would use a skill called Wonder Rapidity that had a certain chance of triggering. When she cast this skill, she would swing her staff and unleash a monstrous amount of arcane magic onto her surroundings.

There was no equipment that gave resistance to arcane magic, so this was extremely terrifying for the players. The Main Tank was expected to have enough Armor and HP to tank this hit.

Azure Sea Breeze quickly adapted to the patterns of this skill after being struck a few times.

As long as they did not stand in front of the Boss when the skill was activated, they would be able to avoid a barrage of damage.

Besides this, she also used another skill that was of considerable danger to wiping out the squad. This skill caused players to gravitate towards Jandice, while dealing copious amounts of Dark damage and blinding them for 10 seconds.

Players called this skill ‘Black Water’, because it appeared as though black water was pooling around their ankles.

Who would pay attention to their feet while concentrating on the fight? This was how Ruling Sword suffered their first squad wipe.

Ruling Sword’s wipes were different to Glory Capital’s. Firstly, the pressure was not as heavy because they were not livestreaming their raid. The more Glory Capital did not want to wipe, the more panicked they became.

“I realised that just before we got wiped, black water surrounded our feet. I think this might be the skill that’s destroying us,” Lu Li said straight away.

According to Lu Li’s observation skills, it would be much stranger if he had not realised. After all, Wandering had also realised this.

“I’ll investigate this skill further. When the time comes again, I’ll yell for people to relocate themselves to places without the water,” he suggested.

Before entering the battle again, Square Root came with news in the guild channel.

Glory Capital was also wiped out in the fight against the second Boss. However, they had died to Wonder Rapidity, since their Main Tank was much weaker than Azure Sea Breeze.

When they entered a second time, the black water appeared quickly.

However, because of Wandering’s constant warnings and directions, Ruling Sword was unaffected by it.

When Jandice Barov reached 66% HP, she began to remember that she was an Illusionist and seemingly regained her abilities.

“AoE Classes, speed up your attacks; don’t worry about anything else. Mu Qiu, keep healing. March Rain, use your AoE healing skills. If you really can’t heal, have Hachi Chan use Tranquillity!” Lu Li yelled for the players to hear.