The Great Thief

“Paladins, stack up on the Blessings. When you think that you’re about to draw aggro, find Mu Qiu and get the Blessing of Salvation.”

Lu Li was responsible for Team 1 and Team 2, while Wandering was responsible for Team 3. Sky Moon was responsible for Team 4.

Team 2’s mission was simple – test out the Boss’ different skills.

While it was simple, this task was difficult to accomplish. At the very least, it would be difficult with Team 2 alone. After wiping seven or eight times, they only managed to discover a few of the Boss’ skills.

Essence of the Red!

This skill was quite…peculiar.

Essence of the Red was a skill that gave the players a buff. It was extremely powerful, with its duration lasting 3 minutes. In this time, the players’ skill cooldowns and rage-based items would recover extraordinarily quickly. It would be completely valid to say that in these 3 minutes, the players would be able to keep cycling through their skills without worrying about running out of mana.

Fire Nova!

This was different to the skill that the players had. The Fire Nova from the Red Dragon was much more powerful and had a much greater range.

Since it was a Dragon, it would naturally also have the signature breath of the Dragons. This attack was dealt in a fan-shape, and the little Red Dragon’s fire breath was quite powerful. Melee classes would die if they were not positioned properly, which would lead to a squad wipe.

There was also Cleave. Similarly, this was also a skill that was lethal to the melee classes.

If the players couldn’t stand at the front, then what about the back?

If they stood at the back, Tail Lash would be waiting. During their attack on the Boss, Lu Li’s team was struck by Tail Lash one time. Many of the players, including Lu Li, were instantly killed.

It wasn’t that Lu Li’s position was wrong, but that the second Main Tank didn’t take aggro from the Boss after the first Main Tank died.

After a few more tries, Lu Li adjusted all the squads. All teams had at least four Main Tanks. Furthermore, all of these Main Tanks had a means that would save their life, such as the binding with a Soulstone, or binding with a Druid. This way, when the Main Tank died, they would immediately be revived.

If the Red Dragon’s arsenal of skills was limited to this selection, he would already be truly powerful, but not to the level where he could kill so many players.

In reality, there was one more skill called Burning Adrenaline, but it wasn’t used in Phase one or two.

After being struck by this skill, the affected player’s skills would become instant-cast, but their HP would be decreased every second. Within 20 seconds, the player was guaranteed to die. After dying, there would be an explosion which would deal 10000 damage to surrounding players. This skill was cast every 30 seconds at the player with the most aggro. The first two would be cast on long-ranged enemies, then the one after this would be cast at a melee player.

Lu Li was actually familiar with all of the little Red Dragon’s skills, but although he knew, he could not tell.

Because of the Essence of the Red, they could freely adjust their equipment. As for their energy recovery, they could get rid of the items that were for battles of attrition.

Essence of the Red was used quite frequently, so players didn’t need to worry much.

The first two phases were somewhat manageable, but the third phase was extremely difficult. In the third phase, Ignite was cast every 30 seconds, so they used a rotation of Main Tanks to deal with this. Eight Main Tanks could only tank for 12 seconds, meaning that they needed to clear the third phase within 12 seconds.

This was assuming that no Tanks would die in the first two phases.

The difficulty could not be described as simply ‘hard’ anymore. Lu Li was leading Team 2 and it was already an insurmountable task for more than half of the Tanks to survive, let alone all of them.

After entering the second phase, Lu Li brought Team 2 out to rest while Team 3 substituted for them.

Some people would try and clear multiple Instance Dungeons at the same time. However, it wouldn’t benefit them in terms of progress. This run with Lu Li and the others had already cost a jaw-dropping amount of money just on potions and repairs. If they were to attempt three Instance Dungeons at once, this number would be multiplied threefold.

The others weren’t usually easily tired. However, they wore out faster in Instance Dungeons mainly because their concentration was at its peak. The Dungeons were also usually quite dark, making it difficult to focus and causing them to be disoriented.

Lu Li was used to complete concentration. This was an expression of his willpower. As for feeling disorientated, he was the only one in the whole team who didn’t feel this way since he knew the strategy like the back of his hand, so he had everything under control.

However, he still needed to give the other commanders opportunities to perform, or else it would be unfair.

There was Wandering, Sky Moon, Drizzle Court and Peerless City, so naturally, there wouldn’t be a lack of commanders. This was why Lu Li could sit back and relax. In his mind, he believed that if they managed to take down the little Red Dragon in three days, gaining the Dragon Slayer’s Roar buff would not be a waste.

“Hoo…Let’s go kill some people.”

Water Fairy had fought PVP with two teams and had just finished. She wasn’t tired, but she didn’t seem happy.

“Where? In the Wild or in the Arena?” Lu Li asked.

“Not the Wild. There’s no reason for that anyway.”

PVP in the wild was quite frequent, but the top players didn’t usually bother with it. Furthermore, there were also the people who were genuinely just doing their quests. Some didn’t even know how to PVP. If you went up to them and killed them, it might not benefit you, but your victim definitely wouldn’t.

For the good of the game, the game company had forbidden these types of killings. The top players also avoided these encounters for such reasons.

After all, everyone was making a living off Dawn with multiple investors. It wouldn’t do them any good if the game’s atmosphere was dark and moody.

“Alright then. Let’s go to the Arena. How about Arathi Basin?

“Yeah, I haven’t been there in a while. Let’s go anonymously.”

Water Fairy didn’t mind letting others know that she was playing the game with Lu Li, but it was still best to avoid it. The angry fans were still prevalent and Soul Eater’s departure didn’t help either.

Lu Li then quit the party. During the beginning stages of the Instance Dungeon, leaving the party was forbidden. However, major players like Lu Li and Water Fairy clearly weren’t restricted by the same rules, so they quickly made another party.

“Eh? Why did those two leave together?” someone asked after noticing them.

“Are they going to do the unspeakable?” Azure Sea Breeze guessed in a serious tone.

“Would they need to leave to do that?” Wandering sarcastically replied while questioning Azure Sea Breeze’s IQ.

“It’s got nothing to do with you! You single people!”

All in all, Lu Li and Water Fairy leaving together caused everyone to speculate as to why. Their departure left all the single people depressed.

Arathi Basin was mainly where people fought over resources. There were five resource points – Beast Pens, Mine, Lumber Mill, Blacksmith and the Farm. The objective was to take control of the resource points while in contest with enemies.

Comparing this to the newer Alterac Valley, the fifteen players didn’t need to work together as much in the Arathi Basin.

The two anonymous Thieves didn’t attract any attention. Both of them didn’t seem acquainted with the 13 players that they were with. As the battle begun, they immediately rushed out of the safehouse and sprinted towards the resource points.