The Great Thief

Training in the Snake Valley was quite efficient and easy. It was just bad luck that Azure Sea Breeze had drawn the aggro of a massive group of Black Ring Snakes. Remnant Dream, who was the lowest level out of all of them had just levelled up to LV6, while everyone else filled up their EXP bars by around 50% in a mere 2 hours.

After nearly clearing out the current wave of monsters, Lu Li entered Stealth to scout out the Boss and look for more Snake Trust Grass.

Snake Trust Grass was fairly rare and it took Lu Li quite a while to find two of them. There were many Silver Leaved Grass, however, which were an ingredient used in creating Basic Health Potions. These could be sold for 40 copper coins each, so collecting a lot of them could be quite profitable. When they went back, Lu Li planned on buying some Peacebloom Flowers to create Basic Health Potions. He could use them for himself, while raising his Alchemy Proficiency.

Two hours after they had started training, Lu Li finally found the Boss.

Gallaher: that was the name of this venomous python that was covered in colourful blotches. It was as thick as a tire and was about half as tall as a person when it raised its head. Its mouth was extremely wide and contained four pointed fangs, making it look incredibly monstrous.

It was LV12, and had 35,000HP.

“This thing could probably swallow me in one gulp.”

Azure Sea Breeze wasn’t afraid of snakes, but he definitely didn’t want to be eaten by a massive one like this.

“Go and test the waters for us.”

Lu Li only knew that this was a Boss. As for how they were going to fight it, he had no idea.

“Goddamn, so you reveal your true colours! Are you trying to make me commit suicide?!” Azure Sea Breeze felt quite depressed.

“March Rain, stay back. If we can’t handle it, we’ll need you to save us,” Lu Li ignored him and reminded their Priest to keep herself safe.

Azure Sea Breeze could only look at his teammates pitifully, as he heroically charged towards the Boss.

“I dealt 13 damage...”

That wasn’t too bad. For a tank who had put most of his points into Constitution and whose equipment mainly gave Constitution, being able to deal 13 damage to a Boss meant that its Defence was quite average.

“It hit me for 35 damage...”

Its Attack wasn’t very high either. In fact, it seemed quite weak for a LV12 Boss.

“Everyone start attacking!” Lu Li still wasn’t feeling quite confident, but they couldn’t just give up. Thinking of what Moonlight had said to him in the past, he gritted his teeth and rushed towards it!

The Boss roared, sweeping out with its body and dealing AOE damage to the melee attackers. Lu Li’s Defence was much lower than Azure Sea Breeze’s and he lost about 100HP in a single strike.

Luckily, it didn’t attack very frequently with its tail, so their Healer was easily able to replenish their HP.

Lu Li did his best to damage the Boss while observing it. He felt that the Boss was more complex than it seemed.

All the Bosses in Dawn were notorious for being hard to kill. Bosses in the wild were much harder to kill than Bosses in Instance Dungeons. Even large parties could be completely wiped out by a single Boss.

After losing 10% of its HP, Gallaher became furious. It raised its body up and its neck became incredibly flat, as if it was charging something up...

“Everyone run, the Boss is going to release a powerful move!” Lu Li yelled as he ran.

Unfortunately, none of the others had his intuition and reaction speed. Only March Rain, who was focused on healing Lu Li, subconsciously began to run with him.

The Boss spat out a massive wave of venom, which seemed to cover the entire sky. It completely covered all of those who didn’t run, regardless of whether they were melee or ranged.

“Goddamit,” Lonesome Flower only had time to curse before he died.

Next was Remnant Dream. She could only helplessly blink as her world turned black.

The Antidote bottle in Azure Sea Breeze’s hand fell to the ground as he yelled, “Aargh, the Antidotes are useless against its poison!”

Azure Sea Breeze had a lot of HP and high Defence. He was only able to strike an impressive pose before he collapsed to the ground.

Slither, slither, slither. Although the massive Boss didn’t have any feet, it was even faster than Lu Li!

It was coming for them!

As it came closer and closer, they could clearly see its fangs. It was about to catch March Rain.

Forget it. Lu Li breathed in and yelled to March Rain, “Keep running, I’ll block it for you!” He stopped running away and instead fearlessly charged towards the Boss.

“No, I won’t run. If you all die, then I’ll die with you!” March Rain actually stopped running.

Lu Li almost spat out blood as he furiously yelled, “Do you think you’re in a drama or something? You’ve got Revive, so you can save us all. Watch less of those war dramas for goodness’ sake!”

March Rain could only awkwardly smile and continue to run towards the exit.

Lu Li rushed in front of the Boss and was sent flying by its tail. After landing, he only had a third of his health remaining.

In order to give March Rain a few more seconds to run, he took out a Potion and drank it.

Just as he finished drinking it, the second attack came, and Lu Li was once again sent flying. There were many hidden features in the game. For example, having high Constitution gave additional resistance to being sent flying, knocked back or knocked down. As such, Azure Sea Breeze could steadily take hits from the Boss and would at most take a step or two back. Lu Li, who didn’t have a single point of Constitution, was sent flying around like a shuttlecock.

He was lucky that the great system god didn’t let him endure this for too long. He was hit again and glowed white as he turned into a corpse.

If it wasn’t to save March Rain, Lu Li could have escaped. His Child of the Forest transformation would have allowed him to easily outrun the Boss.

After dying, players had two choices: they could either be sent to a nearby respawn point and meet the big sister goddess, or they could be revived on the spot. This was only if they accepted the Revival once it was cast on them.

Lu Li waited for roughly 1 minute before the system asked him if he would like to accept being revived.

After confirming his acceptance, the black and white world was once again filled with colour. However, he had lost 10% of his EXP. Before dying, he would have been able to reach LV8 after killing a few more monsters. What was even worse was that he had actually dropped his Steel grade Armour.

If March Rain had also died, and they were all sent to the respawn point, the equipment definitely would have been erased by the system.

“Thank goodness, thank goodness,” Lu Li and Lonesome Flower, who had both dropped Steel grade equipment cried out in relief.

Lonesome Flower happily hugged March Rain to express his joy and gratitude. Lu Li thought for a few moments before rejecting the idea of doing the same thing. He couldn’t just go and hug someone else’s little sister.

“We definitely won’t be able to kill this Boss,” Azure Sea Breeze said, as he sat down on the grass.

“Actually, we can put up with its normal attacks. The problem is its venom - it’s simply too powerful. It looks like we’ll only be able to deal with it after we have Intermediate Antidotes,” Lu Li concurred. Basic Antidotes were only effective against Poisons from monsters under LV10. This Boss was LV12, so they needed Intermediate Antidotes.

“Forget it, let’s just farm the normal monsters and avoid the Boss.” After nearly losing his precious Steel grade equipment, Lonesome Flower was quite scared.

“Lu Li, try to level up your Alchemy as fast as possible and get the First Clear for this Boss before everyone else,” Azure Sea Breeze said.

“No problem.” Lu Li was all too happy to invest in his Trade Profession.