The Great Thief

Playing for 100 gold wasn’t a low bet.

PVP battles tended to last from a few seconds to a couple of minutes. To lose $30,000 in such a small amount of time was not something most people could afford.

However, Lu Li had no reason to hesitate, as he was confident he would win.

Of course, he wouldn’t underestimate Hornet’s Nest and Water Fairy. Both of these players were PVP experts, especially Water Fairy. Lu Li had a full set of Steel armor but he wasn’t actually that much stronger than them. It was entirely possible that Water Fairy was also equipped with an entire set of Steel armor that was LV10 or higher.

“How about tonight? I’ll take on one of them. You can help me get either one,” Lu Li said.

“Then, according to Hornet’s Nest, your opponent will be Water Fairy. I’ll send you a video later and you can make your final decision afterwards.”

Moonlight stood by and paused for a moment before continuing, “If the Instance Dungeon drops something that I can use, remember to hold on to it. I’ll buy it at market price.”

“Rest assured, I’ll remember. But when we finish, you should go in and clear it twice. Levelling up in Instance Dungeons is faster than in the wilderness,” Lu Li suggested.

PVPing on your own wasn’t a sustainable long-term practice, as a player’s equipment level would slowly lag behind. Most PVP players would get the support of a guild and follow them on Elite Instance Dungeon runs. Alternatively, they would ask for mages to help them quickly kill groups of monsters.

“Sure, when the time comes I’ll talk to Sea Breeze.”

After Moonlight said this, he terminated the chat.

Lu Li sat by the Instance Dungeon entrance as he waited for everyone else to turn up.

Visiting the Death Mines still made everyone feel uncomfortable. The last time they had faced the Piercing Heart Wolf General, Lu Li had saved their progress. This time, they could start by directly facing the Boss.

Progress in Dawn could be saved, sold or refreshed, but these operations had to be carried out by the party leader.

Generally, as a Boss was killed more often, its drops become worse. For example, once the First Clear had been taken on the normal difficulty of the Death Mines, the next three Boss kills had a 30% chance of dropping a Steel equip. The following three Boss kills would then only have a 15% chance of dropping a Steel equip.

Lu Li had saved their progress so they wouldn’t have to repeat the first section of the Instance Dungeon.

According to Azure Sea Breeze, most guilds were still stuck with facing Helix. The few that could reach the Piercing Heart Wolf General were very highly ranked guilds.

They had so many people, so they could afford to send many elite parties in at once.

It would be a miracle if a small group like Lu Li’s could take out the Piercing Heart Wolf General.

Azure Sea Breeze’s equipment and level made it clear that he was the number 1 Main Tank in Dawn. March Rain’s technique was getting better and better and she was definitely comparable to an elite Priest from a big guild. Lonesome Flower and Lu Li’s damage output could easily be considered to be among the best. As for Remnant Dream, her technique still wasn’t great, but her equipment and pet helped her to keep her ground.

Now that they were freshly facing the Boss again, the players didn’t feel the depression of being killed over and over.

“Sea Breeze, watch yourself. I’ll be dealing as much as damage as I can.”

Lu Li did not intend to issue any instructions. There weren’t any instructions worth giving for this Boss anyway. The Main Tank drew aggro, the Healer healed and the damage dealers focused on attacking. As long as they could kill it in a relatively short amount of time, they would be victorious.

“Don’t worry. As long as you guys fight like you did last time, I’ll be tanking the damage until the very end.”

Azure Sea Breeze waved his hand and placed his shield in front of his chest, before charging towards the Piercing Heart Wolf General.

Lu Li’s figure flashed and appeared behind the Boss, almost before Azure Sea Breeze finished his charge. He then completed a Backstab with more than 80% Skill Completion to the Boss’ spine.

Armor Piece effect!

The Piercing Heart Wolf Generals aggro was then transferred to Lu Li. It turned around and faced Lu Li with its claws. Fortunately, Azure Sea Breeze’s taunt timing was very good, so the Boss was forced by the system to focus its attacks on him instead.

Lu Li only dared to do this because Azure Sea Breeze was skilled. Otherwise, he would have waited for the Main Tank to draw aggro.

Under the Armor Pierce effect, the Wolf General’s HP dropped rapidly. It was much faster than last time and an entire chunk of the Boss’ health was instantly wiped out.

Lu Li made sure that he wasn’t being careless and started to attack faster as the effect on his dagger was triggered.

There were two effects that could activate from his daggers. One was a bleed, while the other was berserk. These were very suitable for fighting Bosses, but it was too bad that the probability of their activation was very low. You never knew when they were going to trigger.

Lonesome Flower stood next to his sister, quietly casting his spells. As a mage, most of his skills required channeling, but his damage was very high. According to the damage statistics, his damage was only 15% lower than Lu Li’s. This was only because Lu Li had just released a quick wave of attacks.

March Rain’s focus was entirely on the Main Tank. She avoided using her stronger spells, as they would be needed at a later stage.

As the Piercing Heart Wolf General’s HP fell to 50%, its damage increased. Its body was shrouded in a light red mist, which indicated that it was a in an aggressive state. However, unlike Berserk, its defence was not weakened.

Lu Li downed an Agility Potion and flicked his wrist, casting a high Skill Completion Shadowstrike.

Without any hesitation, he used up the five combo points he had just accumulated to cast Slit Throat which applied a bleed effect to the Boss.

The Piercing Heart Wolf General’s HP was now at 40%.

Lu Li looked up and saw the damage being taken by Azure Sea Breeze before breathing a sigh of relief.

The damage wasn’t too high yet. Between the strong healing and the Intermediate Health Potions, this Boss no longer posed a threat to their party.

The ever-increasing damage due to Bloodlust no longer out scaled their party, but the fight wasn’t at its end yet. When the Boss reached 20% HP, it used another skill.

Wolf Order: A player is chosen and turned into a Worgen. This player will follow the Piercing Heart Wolf General’s commands.

This was different to Cynocephali Elder Allen’s Charm. Charm retained a player’s skills, while Wolf Order turned a player into a Worgen with only two skills.

The first skill was Dash, which was similar to Charge. It dealt damage and also knocked players down. While this skill dealt high damage, it was unlikely to kill anyone.

The other skill was Corrosion, which cause anyone that was hit to take damage over time and have reduced armor. As long as the Piercing Heart Wolf General was not in its Bloodlust state, this didn’t pose too much of a threat either.

The Wolf Order targeted Lonesome Flower and transformed him for 30 seconds.

Without one of their stronger DPS characters, fighting the Boss was a little more difficult. However, they still eventually managed to reduce the Boss down to 10% HP.

The final aggressive stage was a joke. The Piercing Heart Wolf General actually did less damage in the aggressive form than it did with its regular Bloodlust bonus.

In just nine minutes, Lu Li’s team destroyed the Piercing Heart Wolf General, who had previously killed them five times. Azure Sea Breeze was even lucky enough to be awarded a Skill Point.

For both Remnant Dream and Azure Sea Breeze to obtain a Skill Point as a reward in an ordinary Instance Dungeon must have been because of the First Clear. The chances of this happening otherwise were so low that it was impossible.