The Great Thief

“Let’s not bother with gold coins. Those things don’t mean much to us,” Lu Li said as he rubbed his hands together. “But Epic equipment on the other hand…”

“You’re kidding. Even though it’s precious, there’s no way it’s worth an Epic equipment,” Water Fairy interrupted fiercely before anyone else had a chance to speak. “At most, we would give you a few rare materials like Hornet’s Nest. The item is a drop from this Instance Dungeon, and even if you found it on your own, you shouldn’t be allowed to take it completely.”

Some of the players that didn’t know better like Sea Breaker and Phantom Gaze immediately felt that Water Fairy seemed quite cool in that moment.

Although the others weren’t particularly cunning, they weren’t dumb either. Most of them suspected that this was just an act between Lu Li and Water Fairy.

They could have just asked for a portion of the wine because it should be a shared reward of the Instance Dungeon, but now that option had been removed because Lu Li had found the item without any help. They could have continued to haggle down the price, but now it was locked in by Water Fairy who referred to the Blood of the Mountain that Hornet’s Nest had given. This ensured that no one could offer any less.

Now that everything was in place, all the other players could do was either accept the price or reject the temptation of an extra 100HP.

After a while, Sorrowless was the first to come over and hand Lu Li a Blood of the Mountain.

Lu Li didn’t say anything more, and just poured 1/20th of the bottle into his cup. It was just enough for Sorrowless to gain the 100HP buff without wasting any wine.

The others soon followed suit and everyone who had one of the materials had given it up for the buff.

The five Bloods of the Mountain that had been dropped from the six treasure chests were soon almost entirely held by Lu Li. He now had all the main materials that he needed for his dagger Mold – Felstriker.

Meanwhile, they others had all received a 100HP buff and were satisfied. After all, this was a permanent enhancement which couldn’t normally be paid for in Rare Materials. There was no resentment against Lu Li, and they were quite happy.

However, just as everyone was in high spirits, they soon got wiped again.

“What an aggressive opening; why can’t it just be like normal? Why do these monsters cast such powerful skills so quickly?” Elevenless complained, unable to help himself from taking it out on the game designers.

“Brother, this is normal,” Azure Sea Breeze said in a comforting tone as he patted him on the shoulder.

“Stop it; you should have pulled the monsters earlier just then…”

“Hehe, how about you try it then…”

“…”

While they were in the Dark Treasure Trove, they suddenly ran into a Mage Boss. It immediately opened with a Frost Nova which froze everyone, then followed with a large area of effect skill. Most the players died after as neither the Main Tank nor the Healer had time to react.

“Don’t fight it yet!” Lu Li called out to Azure Sea Breeze just before he was about to charge in again.

Azure Sea Breeze looked at him blankly.

“Please, don’t you remember how you just died? The Boss uses Ice attacks and you are still wearing fire-resistant equipment. Do you want to die again?”

Lu Li now no longer thought that there was anything special about the star players anymore; they were actually just ordinary people too.

When everyone heard what Lu Li said, it suddenly became obvious that they all had to change their equipment.

Warder Stilgiss was indeed an Ice Mage, which was the complete opposite from the fire creatures that they had encountered in the Blackrock Abyss.

After Stilgiss had remained loyal to Emperor Thaurissan for many years, the deceitful low-profile Mage finally won his trust and was ordered to guard the Treasure Chest of his tribe. His close friend Houndmaster Grebmar then gave him a murderous dog named Verek to express his congratulations.

The Mage made good use of it and took it with him all the time to scare away any Thieves trying to steal his treasure.

After Lu Li explained the origins of Stilgiss, everyone immediately realized they had to deal with his pet as well.

There were very few pieces of Ice Resistant equipment in Dawn.

This was because Ice Skills were generally based around crowd control. There were some equips that could reduce freezing time, but these were so rare that it was better just to wear your regular equipment instead.

The difficulty of Boss Stilgiss was in his various slows and freezes.

Frost Armor: A layer of ice wraps around the caster for 30 minutes. This thick ice increases the caster’s Armor and reduces the attack speed and movement speed of any melee attacker.

This skill was a nightmare for melee professions. The effect of having your movement speed reduced was clear, as you wouldn’t be able to run if you were in danger. However, the most painful effect was the decrease in attack speed, as this would directly reduce your damage output as well.

If you thought that this was all, you would have been very wrong.

Freeze: If an enemy attacks the caster, there is a chance that their movement speed is reduced by 30%

and their attack speed is reduced by 20%. It also has a chance of freezing the enemy.

This meant that there was a further chance of a movement speed and attack speed reduction, in addition to the possibility of being frozen.

Melee Professions would often be frozen while fighting this Boss.

Given their team composition with many melee professions and the fact that Stilgiss would often give himself the Frost Armor, the first phase of this Boss was a slow grinding experience.

Fortunately, the damage output of the Ice Mage wasn’t too high. As long as they didn’t fall for the suddenly attack at the beginning, there was little risk of losing players.

When they reached the second stage, Warder Stilgiss summoned his dog, Verek. It was a rare breed and the tamer had spent a lot of time developing its murderous capabilities. It was quite ugly in appearance and was exceptionally brutal. Its Slash skill could deal an indescribable amount of damage to a Leather Armored Thief.

Sea Breaker, who was responsible for tanking Verek, suffered from its attacks.

“Verek, do what you’re meant to do!” Warder Stilgiss seemed to be quite dissatisfied with his dog.

However, the dog seemed to respond to his words. It suddenly became aggressive and began attacking indiscriminately. In fact, this was when it was at its most dangerous. Lu Li immediately retreated after taking a hit and shouted for the other melee professions to do the same.

Water Fairy knew to immediately retreat when Lu Li said so, but Innocent Child didn’t act as decisively.

The little leopard was slashed by the dog several times. Just as he thought he had retreated to a safe area, he received a System notification tell him that he had died. The Healer didn’t have enough time to heal him.

Lu Li had received two slashes and quickly cast his damage reduction skills while Water Fairy did the same.

Most of the other melee professions were Plate Armored, so they could ignore the Slashes. However, they were particularly effective against Leather Armor.