The Great Thief

Translator: Exodus Tales Editor: Exodus Tales

When Lucifron’s HP was just a little over half full, there were a few people who had no mana left.

They seemed to have exhausted all of their means of regenerating mana. These Magic professions with no mana were like tigers with no teeth. At least a tiger could still use their claws, but could you expect these Magic professions to go and attack the Boss with their Magic Staff?

“Lifting the curses is still a problem. Short Road, you need to be faster,” Lu Li said. He had calmed down a little.

“Sorry, my bad,” Short Road apologized softly. It was hard to tell how he was feeling, partly because he was ill, but also because he was good at controlling his emotions. The reason why Lu Li criticized him was not because he was slow, but actually because he kept removing the curses on targets that Star Baby had already covered.

This meant that the work he did was useless and a waste of time.

“It’s Star Baby’s fault – she keeps targeting people she shouldn’t be,” Water Fairy said. She knew what had happened.

“Well, next time I just won’t cast my skills so quickly then,” Star Baby muttered as she stuck her tongue out. She really had been targeting players that were supposed to be Short Road’s. This meant that he had no choice but to cancel his skill and look for other targets. Star Baby should have been the one receiving the criticism.

“I gave you your groups so it would be easier for you to remove their curses. If you do this again I will start deducting points,” Lu Li said.

Among the three Mages, there were bound to be some mistakes. Whether it was the mistake of one or three of the Mages, those mistakes would have implications for the entire team.

In a group of 40 players, the chance of someone making a mistake was higher than in a team of 15 or 10 players.

The team was wiped again and again, and soon, they had already spent half a day there.

“This is the ninth time – the ninth time we got wiped,” Lu Li said blankly. “Thank you for opening my eyes and showing me all these ways mistakes can be made. I think the performance is over; it’s time for us to finish off this Boss so we can have some food!”

“I recommend increasing the damage output at the start,” Wandering interjected.

“Why do you say that?”

“The Mages removing the curse is not such a problem now. No matter how many times we die, we can’t put our complete trust in them. If the fire demons’ charm is such a threat, and would cause us to lose 3-5 players, why don’t we just burst them right at the beginning?”

“That sounds like a good idea. Let’s try to kill these demons first,” Lu Li nodded in agreement.

The role of commander, or the head of a party, was a concept that had proliferated throughout Dawn. If you could take a party through an Instance Dungeon by following a strategy, then you could call yourself a commander. But in fact, a real commander needed to at least know how the game mechanics worked.

After starting the fight, Azure Sea Breeze wasn’t tanking the Boss this time.

Lucifron was handed over to World’s Best Friend. Wandering was still responsible for whoever got charmed, but Azure Sea Breeze was responsible for the two fire demons. His technique, skills and equipment were slightly stronger than World’s Best Friend, so he could quickly take the aggro of the fire demons. In this way, the other damage output players could attack without fear.

The first player to be charmed was Bearded Zaza.

Bearded Zaza was a very powerful Hunter in Ruling Sword. He was very good at kiting and had solo-killed several Bosses by kiting them.

However, no matter how strong this damage output player was, Lu Li had to order for him to be killed.

The second player to get charmed was Lonesome Flower, which was a bit of a tragedy. Ice Mages were really important for Lucifron, so after he was killed, Lu Li immediately told Hachi Chan to Resurrect him.

At this point, the Fire Demons had been killed.

The result of a burst from this 40-person team was quite powerful, but there was a price to be paid. Bloodlust had been cast and everyone had used their most powerful damage skills. This meant that in this next fight, they would have fewer damage skills at their disposal.

Lu Li simply Resurrected Bearded Zaza to fight too.

Having another powerful damage output player could reduce the time a fight took, and possibly also reduce the number of times Lucifron used his curse.

“Hachi Chan, don’t bother healing everyone. Watch the second group; you can help lift curses too. Otherwise, just heal the Main Tanks. Darkness, if you get hit by the curse, then don’t heal. Only continue after the curse has been removed. Mages and Druids, prioritise removing the

healer’s curse.”

So far, they had fought fairly well. Lu Li was constantly adjusting his strategy as they went through their various successes and failures.

Although they had not yet reached the end of the day, everyone’s spirits had been exhausted after such a long time of fighting. This was a natural outcome, particularly after being wiped so often.

Everyone saw Lu Li’s grim expression, and knew that the commander was serious this time.

However, this only served to motivate them. They hadn’t progressed this far before, and there wasn’t one player who wasn’t looking forward to getting this Boss over and done with.

“March Rain, pay attention to your mana. Everyone, take care of yourself so the healers are under less pressure.”

Lu Li had to ensure that the Priest had enough mana to cast the Dispel. If March Rain ran out of mana, then they would have no chance of defeating the Boss.

“I have a special effect here that might help,” Water Fairy said suddenly as she reached for a badge.

Then, a green light shrouded March Rain’s body. March Rain’s mana was being regenerated until it reached about halfway.

“How do you have Innervate?”

Hachi Chan had previously given this skill to March Rain, but Lu Li didn’t expect Water Fairy to have it as well.

“The effect isn’t as good as the Druid version, but it’s not that useful to me. It can also only be used once a day, so I didn’t dare to use it before. But this time I have hope, and I hope it won’t be wasted,” Water Fairy explained clearly. She didn’t want Ruling Sword’s players to think that she had been hiding this skills.

Lu Li seemed to appreciate it.

“Great. Everyone should pull out all the stops now. If we can’t defeat it this time, we’ll have no choice but to fight it again tomorrow.”

Although everyone seemed honest, they would all have some skill or another hidden away. The fact that Lu Li said this in such a relaxed tone made everyone speechless. There were still things he could learn from other commanders.

The heads of other teams, even if they were Wild parties, would try as much as possible to understand what the players had.

This way, they would be able to come up with a specific strategy.

Lu Li never had such a tradition. After all, his fixed group originally had ten players. Everyone had fought together for so long that he had just slowly learned all the skills they had.

But now, the line-up had expanded drastically, and there were three more players from Drizzle Court. As such, they had to come up with some formalised rules.