The Great Thief

Actually, other clubs had already started on the new Instance Dungeon.

Only Ruling Sword was withholding its forces until Lu Li had the recipe for Yeh’kinya’s elixir. After receiving this elixir, then they would begin working.

Lu Li then brought this recipe to the club’s main apothecary, Cold Chill.

“Eh? Aren’t you busy? Is there something good this time?”

As soon as Cold Chill saw Lu Li, she was instantly focused. She was buried amongst the mountain of bottles that she had in her room, as she continued to concoct high-grade elixirs.

“There’s something here. I’m not sure if it can help you or not,” Lu Li said as he threw Yeh’kinya’s recipe to her.

Cold Chill reached out and grabbed the recipe. She glanced over the contents of the recipe and smiled in surprise.

“The effects aren’t strong, but the ingredients for it are quite rare. This needs three rare materials just to make a batch! How preposterous! This is a first time for me.”

“What? Three rare materials?” Lu Li was shocked. He took back the recipe and examined the contents. What Cold Chill had said was true.

He was a little taken aback. If he recalled correctly, this recipe should only need one rare material, so why was it three now? Furthermore, more than one was required for each of these rare materials.

This potion needed five Troll Hearts, which was the main material!

“This is probably the highest-level potion in the game as of now. It’s not that surprising that a potion of this level would require three rare materials,” Cold Chill said. She looked at Lu Li’s expression and felt a little weird since it wasn’t often that he made a fuss over nothing.

Lu Li calmed down a little and realised that he might have closed his mind off a little. In his previous life, it was indeed one rare material, but this didn’t mean that it was always the case. Perhaps it was changed after the fact because the developers felt that it was unreasonable.

This was a common occurrence in games like Dawn.

However, this would mean that the usage price of this potion would be extremely expensive. Lu Li looked over the three rare materials needed. Troll’s Heart was an item that was more commonly available, so finding them would be manageable. However, requiring five of them to make one batch was unreasonable. Once the update took place, then they would only need 3 Troll Hearts.

There were some in the guild storage, but the usage rate would be high, so the number that they had now wouldn’t last more than a few days.

After Ruling Sword got the First Clear, Lu Li would allow the elite squads to complete the quests, which would lead to more recipes. Then, these recipes would be given to potion brewers to craft. Once completed, the potions would be given to the elite squads to help them grind the Instance Dungeons for equipment.

Since the cost to craft these elixirs were much higher than what he thought, he couldn’t allow this plan to go ahead. Instead, he decided to bring all those players who didn’t have anything to do to attempt Zul’Gurub.

He could also commission Shen Wansan to buy the materials. However, this had to be done in secret. If other clubs caught wind of this news, none of them would mind interfering with Ruling Sword’s business.

They didn’t care what Lu Li wanted to do with these items. As long as they could interfere with him, they would take the opportunity.

Fortunately for Lu Li, only one of each of the other two rare materials were required.

Lu Li was already feeling a little numb. In his previous life, he had entered the game at a later stage, so he didn’t know anything about the earlier changes in the game. These mistakes regarding the materials for recipes would only cost him more money.

“Please make it now. I’ll give you 1 hour. You can at least make five batches, right?” Lu Li asked.

“Five batches? Are you planning on wearing me out? I can make two batches, max. It’s not like they’ll disappear quickly. Why do you want so many at once?” Cold Chill asked as she looked at Lu Li suspiciously, then said, “You’re not using these to gain favour with your girl again…are you?”

“How I miss the newbie from before…” Lu Li sighed.

Lu Li received the potions, while Wandering also managed to form the teams.

This time, Ruling Sword also brought players from Peerless City and Drizzle Court. This way, the three clubs would show on the broadcast when they get First Clear. This would also create a sense of camaraderie within the alliance.

The Main Tank was Azure Sea Breeze, with Wandering as the secondary-Tank. The Main Healer was March Rain, with Darkness and Hachi Chan playing a supporting role. This was the core of the team, in addition to Water Fairy and Lonesome Flower. There were also a few reserves outside of the Instance Dungeon. All in all, this was incomparable to the Blackwing’s Nest Instance Dungeon from before.

Zul’Gurub, the capital of the Troll Kingdom had been sealed for thousands of years. There were countless treasures hidden within the area. This was proof of the Trolls’ enormous wealth from the past! Furthermore, this was also one of the rare outdoor Instance Dungeons in Dawn!

While previous dungeons were all in dark and cramped spaces, this dungeon was designed to be full of landscape views and was much more pleasant to fight in. According to some of the players, you could even look and admire the view while fighting in the dungeon. At least, this was somewhat possible in the beginning stages. However, most squads wouldn’t be willing or able to admire the scenery.

It was said that those teams who had decided to tackle the Instance Dungeon that afternoon were utterly destroyed.

This was the Trolls’ territory. Anyone who wished to steal their treasures would pay with their blood and gold. After all, repairing equipment was quite expensive.

The Trolls residing in this area were the descendants of the Gurubashi Trolls, who were the descendants of the earliest Zandalari Trolls.

The Zandalari Trolls were the most ancient and wisest race in Azeroth. They had dwelled in Azeroth even before the arrival of Titan. Following multiple civil wars within the race, the Zandalari Trolls were divided into two large branches. One was the Amani Trolls, while the other was the Gurubashi Troll Kingdom.

While the Amani Trolls were diplomatically dealing with problems with the Elven leaders, the Gurubashi Trolls realised that only absolute power would bring them to glory. This was why they looked toward Hakkar for protection.

Hakkar was known as the Blood God. This was because to gain the power of Hakkar, one needed to sacrifice bodies and spirits. It was through this that their power was maintained for thousands of years. As a result, the relationship between fear and power allowed the Trolls to become arrogant and rigidly adhere to traditions.

The Blood God Hakkar became greedier over time as his appetite for bodies and souls grew. This gradually became uncontrollable for the Trolls. As a result, the devoted worshippers of Hakkar protected him, while some of the Zandalari Trolls allied with one another to resist against the Blood God’s rule.

After losing in the war, the Hakkar worshippers fled to the eastern side of Stranglethorn Vale, in the swamp. There, they secretly built a temple to worship Hakkar. This temple was the location of the Instance Dungeon: The Temple of Atal’Hakkar.

However, as it was said before, the Green Dragons destroyed their hope.

Yeh’kinya, or Jin’do, had now retrieved Hakkar’s spirit essence within the Ancient Egg with the adventurers’ help.

The players needed to defeat this Instance Dungeon. Otherwise, Hakkar would once again arrive in this world. If that happened, the whole of Azeroth would become the Blood God’s dinner. Lu Li didn’t even flinch. After all, Hakkar was only a demigod. There were so many demigods in Azeroth and even more who were dead.

Was Hakkar stronger than the top echelons of the Legion?

No matter what, he wasn’t stronger than the Old Gods. The Old Gods were an existence which surpassed the demigods, but they would eventually be defeated and sealed away by Titan. There was also Ragnaros the Firelord and Nefarian. Lu Li felt that all of these figures were much stronger than Hakkar.

However, the Trolls could only attribute their current status to Orgrimmar. The rest of them were wasting away in the mountains and other remote areas.

They could only pray to this figure who had once protected them and helped them conquer the lands.

“Let’s go. Let’s use today and tomorrow to clear this dungeon. I still need to go and be an analyst after.”

Lu Li chose the difficulty, then stepped into the dungeon.