The Great Thief

“Druids, revive the Mages and Warlocks and then imbue them with the status boosts that they need. Stop daydreaming and let’s get to work.”

Lu Li closely examined the Boss’ HP and felt that if nothing unexpected happened, then they would undoubtably be able to enter the second stage.

It was unfortunate that two of the main players died, which wasted two revives.

During this time, the Princess’ HP was already less than 40%. Lu Li told Kitty Likes Meat to use Curse of Doom. This Curse dealt a lot of Shadow damage, but the time that it took for it to activate was quite long, so it was important to let the others know to be cautious.

“Breezy, get ready to take the Boss. Flower, go up and tank a Toxic Dart.”

Lu Li felt that it was about time as the Boss’ HP had dropped to around 35%.

Lonesome Flower’s Nature resistance was quite high and his HP was over 4000, so tanking a Dragon Sting was not a problem at all. His name was also quite high up on the aggro rankings, so the Boss’ aggro would easily be on him if he unleashed any skill.

These Boss mechanics were figured out from previous runs. Before the Boss’ HP reached 30%, there would definitely be a Sting.

The Dragon Sting poison could be dispelled, but once dispelled, the Dart would deal 4000 damage. Lonesome Flower survived thanks to the healing provided by his sister, March Rain.

30% HP was the start of phase two.

Upon reaching this phase, the Boss’ difficulty would spike. This was why Princess Huhuran was a difficult Boss to deal with.

Toxic Dart Flurry!

One Toxic Dart was enough to kill everyone, let alone a flurry.

Thieves needed to have enough defense and armour for phase two. The defense and armor from the Priests’ skills were all given to Thieves, because their defence was inferior to Warriors, while Mages could tank lots of damage, and Gale Steps’ duration was too short.

Mages would use Freeze, while Warriors had enough innate armour and HP to tank.

In phase two, the tactics for Priest healing were the same. Each Priest was responsible for healing one Thief and one Warrior. Half of the Druids focused on healing the Main Tank, while the other half focused on the Thieves. The Druids responsible for the Thieves would use Chain Heal, which would also heal other nearby players.

The Druids needed to multi-task here. They also needed to make sure that all Warriors had the buff Abolish Poison, so that they could dispel the poison effect immediately after getting hit with Dragon Sting. At the same time, there needed to be at least two Druids healing the Main Tank, while the other Druids would heal other Warriors and Thieves.

Every healer had to make sure of the Thief and Warrior’s survival before the end of the Mages’ Freeze.

The Main Tank was the same. After dropping to 30% HP, Last Stand would be used. After Last Stand’s effects finished, Shield Wall would be used. After Shield Wall’s duration ended, other skills or elixirs would be used.

 All in all, this difficult phase was something that everyone needed to work together for. If even one of them failed, they would all be wiped.

Therefore, every DPS player unleashed everything they had in their arsenals right after the Boss dropped to 30%. It was also around this time that the Curse of Doom would activate.

After the 20 seconds for Freeze ended, the Boss’ HP was around 15%. During this time, all the Mages would retreat away from the Boss and join the DPS ranks.

Other non-mage, non-healing or melee classes without many skills would then go within the Boss’ range to tank the Toxic Dart Flurry. There needed to be at least 15 people to tank these Darts.

Even Lu Li himself rushed to tank these Darts.

“Rice Ball, go in! Hurry up!” Lu Li yelled.

Sesame Rice Ball hesitated for a bit and reluctantly ran to tank the Darts. He quickly died.

“Bearded Zaza, go! Hurry!” Lu Li yelled again. Rice Ball actually still had some mana left before. However, Bearded Zaza was someone who still had a lot of mana left, yet Lu Li still called him to tank the Darts.

This couldn’t be helped. The players in the inner circles died too quickly, so there was no one to tank.

If there was no one in the inner circle, then 15 players from the outer circle would be moved to the inner circle. If a healer was put among these 15 players, Lu Li would cry.

“Argh. Never mind. Let’s give up.” The Boss still had 8% HP left, but the Darts were already flying everywhere. Some players were even hit twice. After Lu Li said these words, there were no longer any survivors.

“How unfortunate. We’re so close too.” Sky Moon said.

Everyone understood the mechanics. It was just that they couldn’t last until the very end.

“Some people ate their Nature elixirs too early. I won’t name names, but please be careful next time.”

Lu Li couldn’t do anything else. If the elixirs were consumed early, then naturally, they wouldn’t be at maximum firepower at the end. However, this wasn’t the main reason for the wipe, so Lu Li didn’t say anything more.

Sesame Rice Ball’s mood was down and he felt guilty about the mistake.

He consumed the elixir a little too early. He probably could have tanked for a little more. He didn’t

 think that he would need to be one of the players to tank the Toxic Darts.

“When we return, we’ll get Cold Chill to brew up even better elixirs. This one doesn’t do the job.” Lu Li had experienced it himself. He felt that the damage from the Darts this time was a lot worse than in his previous life. This was because the Boss had been nerfed by the time Lu Li fought it in his previous life.

“We’re ending it here?” Azure Sea Breeze asked.

“Well, yeah. You’re free to go.” Lu Li waved his hand.

“Aw yeah!” Azure Sea Breeze was over the moon. He packed up his shield and planned to go out with his friends later on.

“Lu Li, you coming?” Sesame Rice Ball didn’t forget to invite Lu Li. Otherwise he might have sulked. It was rare for them to finish this early. Although the professional players seemed to be free, they were not free at all. In fact, it wasn’t even the weekend yet.

“Not going. I’m going to spend time with my girlfriend.”

Lu Li seemed to be oblivious about hurting the feelings of the single men and women.

Everyone was originally quite happy, but after hearing this, the mood immediately died.

In the blink of an eye, a new week began.

There weren’t any new maps for Stronghold releases, while the old Strongholds weren’t open for battle this week. Everyone kept their territory to themselves.

Therefore, everyone’s focus was on the Instance Dungeons.

The cooldown meant that the Instance Dungeons were refreshed. All progress from the previous week was wiped clean and the monsters and Bosses all respawned.

Everyone had to begin from the first Boss again.

From a superficial point of view, everyone was equal on the starting line again.

However, the experience from the previous week meant that everyone cleared it at different speeds.

 Jade Flower Lover allied with other clubs, so they had a much easier time progressing. After two days, they quickly defeated the first three Bosses, and even managed to figure out a few of the fourth Boss’ mechanics and skills.

However, according to Gale Legion, Glory Capital had already managed to take down the fourth Boss.

This wasn’t good news. Despite being an alliance themselves, they knew that they were unlikely to catch up to Ruling Sword. However, they were even overtaken by Glory Capital.

However, everyone was already used to being neglected by Glory Capital, so one more time wasn’t anything special.

There was one more thing that Wendelian had already confirmed with Sorrowless. Glory Capital didn’t get the first clear for the fourth Boss.

This meant that Ruling Sword had already taken the fourth Boss!

Truthfully speaking, Ruling Sword had already cleared out the fourth Boss by Tuesday. On Wednesday, they spent a whole morning and finally managed to defeat Princess Huhuran.

What they couldn’t complete last week was finally completed this week.

Actually, although they couldn’t defeat the Princess last week, they still managed to take her down to 8% HP. This was proof of Ruling Sword’s strength. Everyone only lacked better elixirs and a little more favourable luck.

Ruling Sword’s main Elixir Master was Cold Chill. Her hands were shaking even until now.

It was most definitely an effect of overworking.

After successfully killing the Princess, there were two players who were rewarded with skill points. Lu Li wasn’t one of them, but he was used to it. Even if there were three players, it still wouldn’t matter to Lu Li.

There were many Strengthening stones this time, even more than the previous Bosses. This Boss who had obstructed their progress for a couple of days was truly a difficult Boss to fight.

If it wasn’t for Cold Chill’s extremely precious Nature-resistance elixirs and the luck that they had in the end of the battle, even Lu Li reckoned that they would take another one or two days to kill this Boss.

There were also many Fusion stones, but there weren’t many especially good ones.

There were two skill books that dropped. Neither was an Enhanced version.

Lu Li stored away two rare materials that dropped. Unless it was something they desperately needed, rare materials wouldn’t be given to Drizzle Court or Peerless City.

Some of the Gold and Dark Gold items were given to the other two clubs. After all, there were indeed middle and low-class players in all clubs. Not all players had Epic items, so these Gold and Dark Gold items had quite a good market.

However, everyone had their attention on the Epic items.

Before this, there was an enchanting recipe that dropped. This was the ‘Formula: Enchant Gloves- Fire Power’. A simple glance was enough to know that this was something good. This was something that added Fire-based magic to your attacks.

Fat Monkey stared straight at this recipe. Unfortunately, he hadn’t learned Enchanting.

He still had to give it to someone professional to do it for him.