The Great Thief

Lu Li had to shout to regain everyone’s attention.

March Rain busied herself with healing everyone while Hachi Chan began to Resurrect Sesame Rice Ball. The others quickly focused their skills on the remaining mutated Poison Fang Wind Snake.

While the monster was still alive, everyone remained uneasy. It was no wonder that Lu Li had wanted everyone to kill the Poison Fang first.

Before long, the Sharp Fang Wind Snake began to bite once again. Azure Sea Breeze received another three debuffs, but he was prepared for them this time, so he was largely unaffected.

“Keep at it! We’re almost there,” Lu Li anxious called out.

He was watching the Poison Fang Wind Snake for when it would cast Tainted Blood. Before casting, it would shake its head and select a target.

Special effect, special effect, why isn’t the special effect activating?

Why was it not working at this crucial time?

Lu Li wished with all his heart that the special effect on his two equips could be manually activated.

“Activate your damage reduction skill if you have one. Everyone should drink a potion.”

Lu Li had no other choice. If he couldn’t catch it in time, they would just have to rely on their luck to get past this.

At last, it landed... on Moonlight.

As Moonlight’s HP was depleted, everyone’s hearts jumped.

Had he lost all of his HP?

That couldn’t be the case – he was still standing up somehow.

“Hey, can I get some heals?” Moonlight had an ugly look on his face, but his voice was still calm. He was someone who had experienced much in his life.

“You didn’t die; that’s a surprise,” Azure Sea Breeze said, looking at him curiously.

“I activated a damage reduction skill and took a potion. I’ve only got a few dozen points of life left; I almost died,” Moonlight replied as he wiped off the cold sweat on his forehead.

Fortunately, the target had been Moonlight. He had quite a bit of HP, as well as strong equipment, high defence and a powerful damage reduction skill in Petrify. If this had hit anyone else, they probably would have been killed.

The poor Poison Fang Wind Snake that was already on critical HP was quickly finished off by a furious flurry of attacks from the group.

The Sharp Fang Wind Snakes were strong, but Azure Sea Breeze was a very powerful tank. They simply could not get past him. Soon, they turned into corpses on the ground.

“Don’t loot them for equipment yet; quickly rest up instead. The Boss is about to awaken.”

Lu Li took out a piece of bread that could help regenerate his HP and devoured it.

His authority was greater than Wandering’s, so everyone obediently began to regenerate their HP and MP.

“What a curious outcome.”

Serpentis rose from his testing bench and walked over, saying, “Was my creation not perfect? Were my theories incorrect? No, that’s impossible...”

“Why does he look just like a person?” Azure Sea Breeze asked, his hair standing on end.

“Let me try,” said Sakura Memories as she jumped up and ran to the Boss.

“Hey, what’s your mum’s name!?” she yelled.

“...”

Everyone covered their faces; they just couldn’t bear to look.

This girl had such a strange thought process, to come up with such an unusual question.

“I am the Venom Tongue King. Nothing is impossible for me.”

Fortunately, Serpentis didn’t mention anything about not having a mother and said his original lines instead.

An intelligent Boss was not the same as an actual person. Such a Boss wouldn’t appear in a low-level Instance Dungeon.

“Come back quickly, you silly girl.”

Sakura Memories was so close that the Boss could just one-shot her. Serpentis was rather elegant; he didn’t say anything before he started his attack.

Azure Sea Breeze rushed ahead to intercept him before he could attack.

Serpentis was about to show everyone the full combat potential of a Druid.

He first transformed into a Quail Form. Although his skill damage wasn’t very high, he used AOE skills like Skum. As March Rain had not yet learnt any AOE healing, she had to individually heal everyone.

After getting through the first stage, he then transformed into a big Bear.

The bear was taller than a person when it majestically stood up. Its presence was overbearing and applied a significant psychological pressure on the players.

“Breezy, I think this thing wants to eat you,” Wandering said as he took two steps away from Serpentis.

Azure Sea Breeze put on a sad face. He was the main tank, so he couldn’t hide. No matter what happened, he needed to face it. He had to stay, even if he had to tank while kneeling.

“Careful. Everyone, retreat,” Lu Li reminded.

The players who retreated managed to avoid the ground ripple, which was Serpentis’ AOE stun. An experienced leader would have noticed the signs of this and instructed their party-members to escape.

Lu Li was obviously one of these experienced leaders.

“His defence is too high!” cried Hachi Chan as she threw out a skill which surprisingly only did a few dozen points of damage.

“That’s because you haven’t fought a Boss with an even higher defence.”

Lu Li pushed her to help her avoid one of the Boss’ attacks.

Impact: Targets a random player, dealing massive damage and knocking them up.

Hachi Chan picked herself off the ground and wiped off the dust on her face.

“Why do you always push me? Am I that ugly?”

“Just make sure you dodge; I don’t care about your looks.” Lu Li really couldn’t understand the thought processes of these girls. She didn’t care that she had been pushed over, but was complaining because she thought it had to do with her appearance.

Hachi Chan grunted and turned away, deciding to hate Lu Li from this moment on.

“Remnant Dream, have your pet stay by Breezy’s side. Breezy, when I give the command, run away from there as fast as you can,” Lu Li commanded as he watched the Boss’ HP.

Remnant Dream’s tiger stopped attacking and obediently stayed next to Azure Sea Breeze.

Serpentis then let out a scream which caused the cave to tremble. Lu Li then gave the order to Azure Sea Breeze, who began to retreat while dragging his shield behind him.

The Boss grabbed the nearest target. Damage values began to rise over the tiger’s head.

After a round of attacks, Remnant Dream’s baby tiger had been killed.

“Oh, my Guo Guo...” Remnant Dream was about to cry.

Lu Li patted her head and consoled her. “You can revive him later. If you feed him well, he’ll be happy again in no time.”

The hunter’s pet had a happiness value, which would decrease if it was hungry or if it died, and would increase if it was fed or was played-with. A pet with a high happiness value would become stronger, while a pet with low happiness would put in a minimal amount of effort in fights. An unhappy pet might even refuse to fight for its owner.

Remnant Dream also grunted and no longer paid any attention to Lu Li.

From the team’s perspective, Lu Li had done the right thing. But to the girl, this uncle had been very unreasonable.

After Serpentis finished, he transformed into a Leopard. This was the third stage.

The third stage was quite difficult, mainly due to a despicable skill – Sweep.

Sweep struck in a wide, fan-shape and could be cast almost instantly. It wasn’t affected by aggro either.

This was why most players said that the Howling Caves seemed to hate melee players. Such a skill would cause any melee player to fight in constant fear.

It was already difficult for Azure Sea Breeze to defend against this Boss, let alone the other players.

If a player was hit by Sweep, they could only hope that they were lucky.

“Breezy, you stand in the middle. Wandering, you stand on the left and Moonlight, you stand on the right. I’ll stand in the back. Memories, stand a little further back. If you don’t have any ranged skills, then just use your totems to attack.” Lu Li started assigning positions to his team members.

Sakura Memories was a little confused, but she didn’t know what else to do. Everyone just assumed the positions that Lu Li had indicated.

At this time, Serpentis casted the first Sweep.

“Wandering, damage reduction. Heal Wandering,” Lu Li shouted.

A person giving commands was necessary. This way, the players didn’t have to make a judgement and could follow the instruction as soon as they reacted.

After the Sweep, Wandering was left with over 20% HP. However, he had successfully tanked the attack.

“Memories, move up and attack. Use whatever skills you have. Count until 30 before moving out of the Boss’ attack range.” Lu Li was like a machine, doing everyone’s brain-work for them.

The others didn’t need to think – they just needed to follow his instructions.