The Great Thief

The others were dealing as much damage as they could to the Boss, but Lu Li was actually limiting his output. No wonder they had been able defeat it at Difficult level; Lu Li truly was a master.

“When the Armour Pierce is applied, don’t cast any of your skills. Trust March Rain,” Lu Li yelled.

Wandering was just about to cast his damage reduction skill.

March Rain’s heal wasn’t strong enough to replenish his HP, so when he watched it drop below half, he became a little worried.

Lu Li turned to look at him before slowly saying, “Drink your potions.”

Drinking a potion would only replenish 300HP; this wasn’t enough to turn the situation around. Wandering was doubtful about Lu Li’s instruction.

Suddenly, March Rain cast a Critical heal and the Main Tank recovered almost all of his HP.

“You can calculate when a Critical Heal will come?” the proud Wandering asked incredulously.

“You think too much – I only know that March Rain’s critical rate is quite high. If you were at full HP, the critical heal would be wasted. Regardless, a single Armour Pierce doesn’t pose much of a threat anyway,” Lu Li explained as he shook his head.

“You’re just playing with my life now,” Wandering angrily said.

“Hachi Chan, heal him as well. The second stack of Armour Pierce is coming,” Lu Li instructed as he ignored him.

“...” Wandering continued to draw the Boss as he resigned to doing as he was told, casting his Damage reduction skill and taking potions when instructed to. He held back his emotions and watched as Lu Li helped them get through this Boss.

After 10 minutes, the Piercing Heart Wolf General let out a cry before falling.

Wandering was left in a daze. How was this Boss so easy? Was this even the same Boss from yesterday that brought them so much suffering?

“The Difficult Level Boss was much harder than this.”

Lonesome Flower patted him on the shoulder compassionately.

In reality, he didn’t really have a reason to vent about Lu Li. But after all he had seen, it was just a habit.

He felt like nothing was ever difficult when he was following Lu Li. A Boss that was such a struggle for all the other players had not only been killed, but they had done it without any casualties.

Wandering’s pride was crushed. He knelt in the Instance Dungeon in admiration.

He had led the party yesterday and fought for half a day, but they couldn’t even get past the third stack of Armour Pierce.

“Let me just quickly say, Wandering, your grasp of Instance Dungeons is a bit weak. Hachi Chan you need to go online and find a Druid guide for casting skills. Your equipment is good, but your damage is not even half of mine or Flowers,” Lu Li said as he clapped his hands.

“I understand,” Wandering nodded.

“Okay.”

Hachi Chan was extremely ashamed but she immediately agreed.

But why did he say this now? They weren’t finished; there were still two more Bosses.

“I’ll be going now. Riceball will be joining you guys in place of me. I don’t gain any EXP from this,” Lu Li sighed. He was already LV21, so the Instance Dungeon monsters that were a maximum of LV16 gave him no EXP.

He didn’t even look at the equipment that was dropped before leaving. There was just no way that the Elite difficulty dungeon would drop something good.

After leaving the Instance Dungeon, he entered the whirlpool once again to fight Illidan’s Shadow.

Due to the level difference, Illidan’s Shadow no longer gave him any EXP, but he could still drop items.

The respawn time of Wild Bosses had been increased to once per week, so Lu Li couldn’t farm them daily anymore. However, the two Shadow Cloak Skill Books that he had obtained were well worth it.

The first book was sold to Water Fairy for 100 gold, while the second was probably valued at around 200-300 gold. There was no way he was going to sell it now.

Shadow Cloak was an essential Skill for a good Thief and before LV30, was the indicator of an expert. It was much better than a Mage’s Frost Nova.

He had already killed this ghost numerous times and there was nothing out of the ordinary today. The people outside were envious of this Boss, but they couldn’t access it. Most players had now lost hope of ever getting to its spawn location.

Lu Li didn’t get a single point of EXP and he climbed down from the pole, mumbling to himself.

Three items had been dropped: a piece of Steel equipment, a rare material and a ‘Shadow Cloak’ Skill book.

The equipment was quite bad and the rare material was Demon Essence. This material could be dropped by any Demon Boss and was actually quite common. Only the skill book satisfied him.

System: Congratulations to the Xin Xin Mercenary Group with the members Wandering, Lonesome Flower, March Rain, Sesame Rice Ball and Hachi Chan, for breaking the record of the Death Mines.

Lonesome Flower and March Rain were familiar to everyone as regulars of First-Clearing, but the other three players were completely unknown.

The World Announcements instantly buzzed with discussion about this.

It was widely believed that Lonesome Flower and March Rain had left Lu Li to play on their own.

“Lu Li, the Instance Dungeon has been cleared,” Wandering joyfully messaged the Mercenary Group Chat.

“Congratulations,” Lu Li responded.

“Haha, there are many people trying contact me. Some are asking to cooperate and others are asking to join our group. But we’ll talk later, I’m busy right now.” Wandering’s ego had been inflated once again. He was grinning so much that his lips couldn’t turn up any further.

Unusually, Azure Sea Breeze, who was normally against him, hadn’t said a word.

“Just like that, I’ve beaten your score. You should drink some poison...”

An old-sounding voice rang out in the Chat Room, testifying to the speaker’s vile character.

Azure Sea Breeze didn’t allow Wandering’s smugness to last for very long. In fact, it only lasted for seven to eight minutes.

System: Congratulations to Drizzle Court’s Guildmembers, Water Fairy, Azure Sea Breeze, Little Bear Huan Huan, Don’t hit Dou Dou and a Willow Yi Yi for breaking the record of the Death Mines.

The World Announcements started buzzing once again.

Lu Li must have had a bad day and blamed all his teammates, because they seemed to have all run away.

“I didn’t mean to do this intentionally, I just couldn’t stop myself. I wasn’t careful...” Azure Sea Breeze’s singing was surprisingly good. He had a good karaoke voice.

“You dog...”

“Wandering, Sesame Rice ball, Hachi Chan, Remnant Dream and March Rain, you guys go and do the Difficult-Level Instance Dungeon. Everyone else go and find a place to level up.”

Lu Li looked at the time and decided that it was still early.

“What about you?” Wandering asked.

He had been assigned all the newbies! What was this?

“I need to practice my Trade Skill. If you have any questions about the Instance Dungeon, ask March Rain.” Lu Li wisely chose to ignore the presence of Remnant Dream.

“I feel like this composition is unlikely to succeed,” Wandering couldn’t help but admit.

This composition would probably fail to clear the Elite Difficulty Instance Dungeon, let alone the Difficult Level.

I can’t do it!

“No one expects you to clear it. The goal is to clear the first Boss. If you can clear the second Boss, then the third Boss should not be an issue. When you get to Piercing Heart Wolf General, Sea Breeze and I will join you,” Lu Li said straightforwardly, without any hint of formality.

Wandering was just about to cry.

Lu Li’s intention wasn’t to test their abilities. He was already aware of what they were all capable of.

With regards to PVE, Sesame Rice Ball was the most skilled. He had played with Seventh Heaven in a few different games now, so he had excellent game sense and knowledge. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have been promoted by them.

Wandering, on the other hand, had always played in wild parties, so he had his own method of doing things. He just needed to integrate himself with Lu Li’s rhythm.

Hachi Chan had an innate talent for Quests that even Lu Li couldn’t best. She was just like Remnant Dream – an ordinary player, but with a good understanding of her skills. However, even if she just relied on her strong equipment, she would still be much better than an average player.

Lu Li had put them together in the Instance Dungeon for a simple reason—experience.