The Great Thief

So far, Nuo Yu had played three games and had infiltrated several guilds while undercover.

He had always been able to get close enough to learn the secrets of the guild in a few days. However, this time, it was different. Previously, there always some separation between those who were close to the guild and those who were outsiders. The core players would enjoy the benefits while the outsiders had to work their way in.

Almost all guilds operated in this manner.

Ruling Sword was an exception to this rule. Nuo Yu strangely felt like he had already been a part of this guild for a year or two.

Of course, it wasn’t just the Gangnam Royals who were interested in Ruling Sword’s progress in this Instance Dungeon. Other guilds that had the resources to support a spy had also funded one.

They now all knew everything; they even knew that Lu Li had left the guild to be run on its own.

They were aware that a new Instance Dungeon was about to be cleared and a new record set.

There were some other players who had obtained the Blackfathom Instance Dungeon Scroll, but no one had managed to complete it. In the chronicles of Dawn, the Blackfathom Instance Dungeon had yet to appear.

They also knew that Lu Li and the others were doing this Instance Dungeon at Nightmare Difficulty.

The big guilds were anxious, but they could only helplessly wait. In their hearts, they were continuously cursing Lu Li, hoping that he and the others would be vanquished by the monsters.

Lu Li and the others weren’t thinking about any of this.

Aku’mai’s frequent attacks truly turned the fight into a bitter struggle, especially since they had to dodge the four tentacles. When its HP reached 40%, they faced another big obstacle.

Aku’mai’s head was thrown and attached itself onto Azure Sea Breeze. It started dealing considerable damage, frighteningly without any intervals between each attack.

Two consecutive hits!

Seven consecutive hits!

Lu Li was shocked. The strategy guide that he had read made no mention of an attack like this.

Each attack dealt 600 damage. With seven consecutive hits, Azure Sea Breeze had suddenly lost 4000 HP. He only had between 3000-4000 HP and didn’t have the chance to cast his damage reduction skill so he was instantly killed.

When the Main Tank was one shot, everyone’s hearts sank.

Normally, Lu Li wouldn’t give up if there was even a glimmer of hope.

But was there any hope left?

No...

Even if Hachi Chan could Resurrect, this would take time. With Aku’mai’s attacks, anyone with less HP than Azure Sea Breeze would be instantly killed.

At this time, the quiet Thaelrid suddenly erupted.

His body was enveloped with a layer of dark green light and began to inflate. His originally slender Night Elf hands started transforming into huge claws.

He was a Worgen!

It turned out that Thaelrid was originally of Worgen descent.

He roared loudly in front of Aku’mai and began attacking with a renewed ferocity.

"Hachi, Resurrect Breezy. Wandering, don’t worry about this. Everyone calm down and focus on me."

Lu Li forced himself to calm down and quickly urged his dazed teammates into action.

There was still hope; Thaelrid had just given it to them and it surprised them all.

This NPC had helped them with a lot.

Lu Li was really happy that he had uttered that single line back at the Blackfathom camp. It had led them onto the quest that ultimately allowed them to recruit the help of this NPC.

After Azure Sea Breeze was Resurrected, March Rain quickly filled up his HP. A player that was Resurrected would return with critical HP, so if he was accidentally hit by the Boss, their efforts would have been in vain.

Thaelrid then retreated to make space for Azure Sea Breeze to move back in.

He was an NPC so he couldn’t receive healing or take potions. Every point of HP lost was lost forever, so facing the Boss upfront like that was suicidal.

Lu Li also noticed that the transformation gave him bonus defense and damage reduction, but reduced his damage significantly. As such, it wasn’t worth it to keep attacking anyway.

Accidents were bound to occur from time to time; Lu Li had underestimated the difficulty of the Nightmare Difficulty Instance Dungeon.

Azure Sea Breeze and March Rain were now playing with their full attention, ensuring that another 7-hit, one-shot overpowered skill wouldn’t work again.

Fortunately, that same skill wasn’t cast again for a long time.

In fact, most of Lu Li’s predecessors would have chosen to complete the Elite or Hero Difficulty of this Instance Dungeon. There were few players who cleared it at Nightmare Difficulty.

As such, it wasn’t unusual that they hadn’t encountered something like this.

However, this incident also woke Lu Li up. Strategy guides could be used, but they had to be taken with a grain of salt. Many things planned by humans are destroyed by chance.

At 30% HP, Aku’mai would summon a vortex that could swallow a player into the abyss.

If a player didn’t know that this was going to happen, there was nothing that they could do to stop it.

If the vortex swallowed the Main Tank or the Healer, they basically had to give up. No matter how overpowered they were, all who fell in would die. Even Lu Li’s Gale Steps wouldn’t help.

However, through countless experiences and thousands of defeats, the previous players had summarized a set of rules.

If Aku’mai summoned the vortex into the abyss when its head was crooked to the left, the players on its left were most likely to get sucked in.

The opposite was true for the right side.

Additionally, if Aku’mai summoned the vortex and a player was stunned by one of the tentacles, they

would not be sucked in.

These rules could be used to their advantage.

As such, when fighting Aku’mai, they had to carefully watch its face.

Lu Li squinted his eyes and watched Aku’mai’s HP. He was also trying to calculate the position and timing of the four stunning images. He hadn’t been to school and didn’t know much, let alone the Pythagorean Theorem, but this didn’t prevent his ability to observe.

"Everyone pay attention. Get ready to move to the location I specify."

Lu Li started to allocate everyone to a different location. Even Azure Sea Breeze was assigned a location, despite being unable to move at that moment. He had to wait until Aku’mai moved before he did.

"I am in the middle. When I call left, then everyone on the left will run with me to a place where you can get stunned by the tentacles. If I call right, then everyone on the right will run with me. Wandering and Breezy, you guys take one side each and draw the Boss’ aggro accordingly. Do you understand?"

"What if the images go back into the ground?" Wandering asked.

"I’ve calculated it and we probably wouldn’t be that unlucky," Lu Li replied, then paused for a moment before continuing, "But if that happens, when I call left, Dreamy, Moonlight, Memories and Riceball, you guys should run to my left while everyone else stays on the other side. If I call right, you guys should run to my right..."

This meant that Remnant Dream and the four others, including Lu Li, would lose one player at a time.

Losing a DPS player would make things a little more difficult, but it was better than losing a Healer or a Main Tank. Once the Healer or Main Tank died, there would be no hope left.

Aku’mai’s HP slowly dropped and everyone held their breath as they knew the storm was coming.

"The images are still here. Left side come with me."

Azure Sea Breeze and the four others ran together.

Without any hesitation, the image flapped down twice and stunned them all.

At this time, a rotating object appeared above the top of the team on the left. It had appeared over March Rain and produced a great force that wanted to suck the little Priest away.