The Great Thief

The Piercing Heart Wolf General quickly forced everyone to become serious.

Compared to the last time, Azure Sea Breeze’s and March Rain’s equipment had been greatly upgraded. Azure Sea Breeze now had an extra 4 pieces of LV15 Steel grade equipment, while March Rain had an extra 3 pieces. Considering all this and the Regeneration Skill Book that Lu Li had just given March Rain, their team was much stronger than before.

The other three members had also obtained better equipment, but not to the same extent. This time, no one dared to be stingy with their money.

A few large guilds had cleared the Normal-level Instance Dungeon and were now trying to clear the Elite-level Instance Dungeon.

If someone else obtained the First Clear, all the effort they had put in would have been for nothing.

The First Clear for Instance Dungeons and creating new records in Instance Dungeons were different. As long as a party cleared an Elite-level or higher Instance Dungeon, they would receive the First Clear for that dungeon. Even if Lu Li and his party cleared the Difficult level first, the other guilds would still miss out on the First Clear.

They were sure that if they obtained the First Clear in the Difficult level, the rewards would be excellent.

Lu Li applied some poison to his Daggers. He had bought five bottles of poison from Water Fairy, at 10 gold coins per bottle.

Before the fight started, everyone drank some Potions. Azure Sea Breeze drank a Constitution Potion, Lu Li and Remnant Dream drank Agility Potions, and Lonesome Flower and March Rain drank Intelligence Potions. This time, none of them held back.

Azure Sea Breeze roared out as he rushed at the Piercing Heart Wolf General.

This tragic character was originally called James Harrington. After being afflicted with the Worgen Curse, he had destroyed his family and maritime career in a single, chilling night. From then onwards, he called himself the Piercing Heart Wolf and escaped to the western wilderness. There, he became a subordinate of Vanessa and commanded the Defias Brotherhood’s juggernaut.

According to some of the official lore, Vanessa loved him wholeheartedly, but he did not reciprocate that love because his heart was filled with rage and anger.

Apart from the Armour Pierce that could stack 3 times, the Piercing Heart Wolf General also had new skills in the Difficult-level Instance Dungeon.

The new skills made most players want to give up.

The Piercing Heart Wolf General was probably the most difficult Boss in the Instance Dungeon. Even the final Boss, Vanessa, wasn’t as ridiculously powerful.

Regeneration was an incredibly powerful skill. As long as this HOT (Heal Over Time) skill was cast on the tank, the tank would continuously regenerate HP.

Because of this Regeneration, March Rain was able to easily keep Azure Sea Breeze above 80% HP.

When Azure Sea Breeze had 3 Armour Pierces stacked on him, March Rain began to rapidly heal him, disregarding her MP. With Azure Sea Breeze’s max level Shield Wall, he was in no danger at all.

However, surviving the Armour Pierces didn’t mean that the fight was over. The real test came when the Piercing Heart Wolf General’s HP fell to 30%.

At this point, it howled and disappeared from everyone’s vision.

It was replaced by a few ghost-like monsters. They were fairly slow and did not have very high Attack, so everyone was quite confused as to why they had appeared.

“Don’t look for the Boss; hurry and clear out these smaller monsters,” Lu Li shouted as he quickly attacked.

However, they were not very easy to spot. In the distance, two of these smaller monsters stood together.

A strange scene then began to unfold. The two smaller monsters combined into a new one which had much higher HP, Attack and Defence.

However, this wasn’t too big of an issue – this was still nowhere as powerful as the Boss. The only problem was, that when two smaller monsters combined, another five would appear.

They slowly attacked as they crept closer to the larger monster, trying to combine with it.

Without Lu Li having to say anything, the others began to attack faster. If a few more monsters combined with the larger one, it would probably become as strong as the Boss. Who knew how many more waves there would be?

Lu Li killed off three of the smaller monsters, barely preventing them from combining with the larger one.

After clearing out the second wave of smaller monsters, the team focused their efforts on the larger one. Apart from Azure Sea Breeze, none of them paid attention to the Piercing Heart Wolf General that suddenly appeared. After 10 seconds, it vanished once again and was replaced by the smaller monsters.

“Goddamnit, can you not spawn so quickly?!” Azure Sea Breeze cursed. To give the others more time to kill the smaller monsters, he continuously kited the larger one.

Lady Luck smiled on Lu Li, and his Rager Equipment Set’s Special Effect was activated, significantly increasing his Attack and Attack Speed. He ran straight for the larger monster, trying to kill it before the smaller ones could come near.

Even without the larger monster, the smaller ones did not stop. They still tried to get close to each other to combine themselves again.

This was the most infuriating aspect of the Heart Piercing Wolf General. It summoned the smaller monsters at an absurd rate, which would combine to form larger monsters. If three or more were allowed to combine, they would become incredibly difficult to kill. They would simply absorb more and more smaller monsters until they were able to insta-kill players and destroy the entire party.

This was a true test for DPS Attackers.

Lu Li played a significant role in this crisis. With the Special Effects he had from his equipment, he was able to quickly save the day.

However, he found that he was lacking in something crucial – controlled buffs.

No one could afford to rely on their luck in critical situations.

When the threat from the smaller monsters had been averted, Lu Li sprang over and started to attack the Piercing Heart Wolf General. After its HP fell to 20%, the smaller monsters all disappeared.

The extremely intense battle left everyone both physically and mentally exhausted. It was no wonder that Lu Li had decided to stop that day.

After bringing the Boss down to 20% HP, the fight became relatively easy. Within a few minutes, it fell to the ground as a corpse.

A pair of Steel-grade Pants for Knights, a Steel-grade Necklace for Magic professions and a rare material were dropped. The other three Bronze-grade equips were completely ignored.

Although the Necklace was more suited towards Lonesome Flower, he gave it to his little sister instead. Seeing her so happy, made him extremely joyful.

Lu Li gave the Steel-grade Pants to Azure Sea Breeze.

“When Wandering gets here, you can give this to him as a welcoming gift.”

“No way!” Azure Sea Breeze yelled as he awkwardly continued, “He said that he doesn’t want to join because our Mercenary Group doesn’t have the same benefits that the large guilds provide. I tried to convince him, but he still refused in the end.”

“Haha,” Lu Li laughed, “How about I add him and ask?”

“Go screw yourself,” Azure Sea Breeze cursed, “If you want to give it to him, give it to him yourself. I don’t want to associate with him.”

“You’re the one who knows him, so it should be you who contacts him.”

Lu Li shook his head, as he went on, “When we’ve finished this Instance Dungeon, remember to add him to our Mercenary Group. Remember, you’re the one who knows him, so this responsibility falls on you.”

“……” Azure Sea Breeze was planning how he could kill Lu Li without leaving behind any evidence.