The Great Thief

“Your defensive moves are a bit lacking; try to think of how other tanks would face this Boss.”

Lu Li, who was used to playing with the pro tank Azure Sea Breeze, was not used to Leaf Bro’s level of skill.

Defensive moves were related to the Half-Manual mode. If they were executed well, a tank could greatly reduce the amount of damage taken from the Boss and decrease the likelihood of Critical Hits. The reason that Leaf Bro was losing HP so rapidly wasn’t just because of his equipment, but because his defensive moves weren’t being properly executed.

If it were anyone else, Leaf Bro definitely would have ignored them. After all, this was a Thief instructing a Warrior.

However, he was being instructed by Lu Li, the greatest legend in the game.

Leaf Bro was part of the first group of people to enter the game. While he was still marvelling at it and familiarising himself with it, Lu Li had already completed the First Clear of an Instance Dungeon.

He carefully thought back to the actions of the guild’s best tanks and noticed some things that he hadn’t paid attention to in the past.

He bent over a bit more and lowered his centre of gravity, as he slightly leaned forwards. When the Boss attacked, he moved his Shield forwards to meet it, and used its power to move back afterwards.

Just like that, the damage he took from the Boss was greatly reduced. At least for now, the party would no longer be in any danger.

Water Fairy was a carefree person, but was very competitive. As such, she was always looking for ways to obtain better equipment and challenged many people to PVP duels. At the moment, she was competing with Lu Li in terms of DPS (Damage Per Second).

Her equipment was comparable to his and she even had skills that he didn’t. However, she was still unable to match his damage output.

She discovered that Lu Li’s Skill Completion for his skills was astonishing. Although she couldn’t precisely see how high it was, she could make estimations based on the damage he dealt. There was no doubt that she had ever seen anyone deal as much damage as Lu Li.

Could it be that she had chosen the wrong path? Was attacking quickly better, or achieving high Skill Completion?

Lu Li didn’t know that Water Fairy began to doubt herself because of him.

Instead, he was completely focused on the Boss. Their tank’s equipment was quite poor and his skills weren’t that helpful. They had to stop the Gnoll Ording from drawing energy from the altar. Otherwise, they would be finished.

Gnoll Ording appeared to be in a berserk state. Apart from using a few skills here and there, all it did was yell, “Meat, fresh meat!” This caused everyone to shiver in fear that it would leap over and take a bite out of them.

Perhaps he had become tired from being berserk, but the Gnoll stopped attacking and raggedly breathed in and out as his red eyes stared at the intruders.

“Pay attention: Water Fairy, take the first statue. Dou Dou, take the second one. I’ll take the third one. When we’ve finished, we’ll attack the fourth one together. Leaf Bro, prepare to use your damage reduction skills and drink Potions. Huan Huan, be ready to heal whenever necessary,” Lu Li loudly called out.

The Boss was about to start drawing energy.

“Ancestral gods, give your people power,” Ording furiously roared to the sky.

If one was not paying attention, they wouldn’t notice the changes in the four statues, which opened their eyes as they were covered by the thin fog.

As soon as Lu Li gave his orders, the three DPS Attackers started to attack the statues.

The Gnoll became even more furious and began to attack faster. His damage also increased significantly and Leaf Bro hurriedly activated his damage reduction skills.

“Too early. Even if you can’t control the situation, you should at least be able to estimate how much damage you can take,” Lu Li’s called out. Although Lu Li had good intentions, Leaf Bro’s faced burned.

“Sorry, I panicked,” Leaf Bro gloomily replied.

“Make sure you’re focusing from now on.”

Lu Li’s calm attitude encouraged the entire team to keep their emotions in check.

Lu Li was the first to destroy the statue he was in charge of. He didn’t go to help Water Fairy, but instead rushed towards last one.

“I’m at my limit!”

Leaf Bro’s damage reduction skills were far worse than Azure Sea Breeze’s. He had only lasted for 5 seconds, but there were still two statues remaining.

“Retreat only when I tell you to. Retreat… Retreat… Retreat…” Lu Li coolly ordered.

Normally, tanks wouldn’t choose to retreat when facing a Boss. After all, retreating greatly reduced one’s defences and increased the likelihood of the Boss dealing critical hits by breaking through their defences. What tanks feared most were Critical Hits in key moments.

However, Leaf Bro had no other choice. His faith in Lu Li caused him to follow his orders.

One step… another step…

Under normal circumstances, Leaf Bro would have been hit by the Boss 5 times in that period. However, because of Lu Li’s instructions, he had only taken 4 hits. Furthermore, he had been able to block adequately each time, which prevented the Boss from dealing Critical Hits.

After the last statue was destroyed, the Gnoll wailed and collapsed on the ground.

When it came back to its feet, it no longer had the Gnoll God Yenogg’s power, and its strength fell significantly.

“Why have you abandoned your people?!” it cried out.

After a few minutes, they finally defeated Ording.

Even with the EXP being shared among 5 people, Lu Li received 10% of his EXP bar. An Elite-level Private Instance Dungeon gave even more EXP than the Difficult-level Death Mines.

“The Boss dropped 4 things: a Steel-grade equip, a Bronze-grade, a Skill Book, and a material called Barbaric Blood.”

As the team leader, Zhou Huan Huan had gone to pick up the items and equipment.

Lu Li looked at the equipment and Skill Book, but only took the Barbaric Blood.

It wasn’t that the equipment and Skill Book weren’t good enough, but because they were useful for the others.

The equipment was a Hammer, which had decent stats. This was perfect for the Paladin Dou Jing Jing.

The Skill Book was for Shield Wall, which Lu Li agreed to give to Leaf Bro.

Leaf Bro was so moved that he couldn’t say anything. His equipment wasn’t great, his skills were ordinary, and he had nearly let the team down. He never thought that he would also receive something. After all, the normal rules were that those who made mistakes lost the right to receive any rewards. He had never thought that he would receive the Shield Wall Skill Book he had dreamed of.

“Alright, next Boss.”

After obtaining the material he wanted, Lu Li didn’t waste any time and immediately headed off.

The smaller monsters they met on the way were human convicts. They were mostly bandits from the western wilderness who had been locked in this prison for a long time.

These bandits were fairly strong, but posed no danger to Lu Li’s team.

A mere ten minutes later, they stood before the second Boss – the final Boss of the Elite-level Instance Dungeon.

Dangerous Convict Bazil Thredd!

The Death Mines Instance Dungeon was quite close to the Moon Creek Prison. As such, there were a few connections between the Bosses.

For example, Barker Slide was the Lieutenant of Edwin VanCleef, and a member of the Stonemasons.

They had built the Stormwind City together and had rioted together when they both hadn’t received their pay.

However, Edwin VanCleef had escaped from the soldiers, while Bazil Thredd had been captured and thrown into this prison.