The Great Thief

The first ten-person Instance Dungeon had officially begun.

“You are the party leader; select a difficulty,” Wandering said.

“Nightmare, pick Nightmare!” Azure Sea Breezed egged Lu Li on.

The others were eager as well and even Wandering was facing Lu Li with anticipation.

Lu Li’s PVP ability was quite strong, but not many people cared about that. The people who knew him had predominantly heard about him through the World Announcements for First Clears and Soloing Bosses.

“Your face is a Nightmare,” Lu Li said as he wiped the sweat off his forehead. Perhaps the Death Mines had set a bad precedent, but his friends seemed to no longer have any fear of Instance Dungeons.

The Howling Caves was a 10-person Dungeon with four available difficulties – Ordinary, Elite, Difficult and Nightmare. This was likely to be the first Instance Dungeon in Dawn that included all the levels of difficulty.

Although completing the Death Mines was no easy feat, the Difficult Level was still the highest available.

While the Elite difficulty could be considered as 20% harder than the Ordinary Difficulty and the Difficult Level 30% more, the Nightmare difficulty didn’t follow this trend. It wasn’t even just 50% more difficult – in fact, it was a Heaven-Defying 100% more difficult.

Furthermore, all Nightmare-Difficulty Bosses had super-overpowered area of effect Skills. Only the last two Bosses in the other difficulties had these.

“Elite.”

Lu Li took no notice of the looks of disdain and decisively chose the Elite Difficulty.

“Ah, Elite it is then. We can still get First Clear with that.”

Wandering had a strong fighting spirit and comforted everyone.

After entering the Dungeon, everyone gained +5 to their attributes.

“Can I ask something? Why have I gained 8 points?” Hachi Chan didn’t mean to show off, but everyone else had only gained five points. Her situation was understandably unusual.

“Little one, you truly are the System’s daughter. Was there anything else you wanted?” Azure Sea Breeze had almost fallen prostrate before her. The System was definitely telling them something.

“Keke, little Hachi, do you want to tell us the strategy for this Instance Dungeon?” Remnant Dream also started jealously teasing her.

“Give me two Molds please.” The prideful Flower tried to fit in by making a joke that was unusual of his character.

“Don’t be ridiculous. How could you have gained 8 points? Did anyone else gain 8 points?”Moonlight’s voice interrupted them.

“I think I can explain that.”

Lu Li waited for their discussion to end before speaking confidently.

“Why?”

“Because Hachi Chan is a Druid,” Lu Li explained. “The monsters in the Howling Caves predominantly have Druid canines. They were once part of Cenarion’s circle of life and their goal was to restore the Barrenlands….”

“You mean to say that they’re good guys? We are actually going to kill good guys!?” Hachi Chan’s eyes widened with shock.

“Uhh…” Lu Li hesitated for a second, before continuing, “Archdruid Navarax believed that he could use an underground fountain to restore the Barrenlands into a fertile land, but such a task required energy to be drawn from the legendary world of Emerald Dreams.”

“And then?” Everyone remembered that Lu Li said he spent his time in the library when he had nothing better to do.

“Then there was a tragedy of course. Navarax had accidentally created a living nightmare and the great power changed the Howling Caves. The water became contaminated and the once docile animals turned into vicious carnivores. Now, Navarax is trapped within his own nightmare, waiting to be rescued.”

“Good thing we aren’t going to be the bad guys,” Hachi Chan sighed, as she patted her chest with relief.

Lu Li didn’t laugh at her. It was actually because of her innocent mind that she had gained the NPC’s favor and become obsessed with Quests. Maybe he was also too obsessed about the game?

“So…?” Wandering asked helplessly.

“We aren’t Druids, so we won’t be able to enjoy the Druid benefits. It doesn’t make that much of a difference anyway; let’s just calmly do this Dungeon,” Lu Li consoled them.

“Yeah, you’re right. Let’s all try our best for this Dungeon.” Wandering nodded and quickly adjusted his mood.

After taking a few steps, they were faced with a number of humanoid creatures.

Azure Sea Breeze immediately became alert and raised his shield, but Lu Li quickly reached out and held him back.

“Not yet. They aren’t monsters.”

“Not a monster? But that’s a Tauren!” Azure Sea Breezed exclaimed in a whisper.

Tauren belonged to the Evil Faction. The Evil Faction was not necessarily evil; this was simply what they had been named by the game company. However, to the NPCs, their lifestyles were different because they considered themselves as a part of the Horde.

As the Tauren were part of the Horde and the players were in the Alliance, they were naturally sworn enemies.

“Don’t be silly. It’s a Tauren, but it’s also a Druid. Don’t you see the Night Elf behind it?” Lu Li was afraid that his teammate was about to start a war.

These three NPCs – two Tauren and one Night Elf – were in fact followers of Navarax, and had formidable strength because of the Nightmare’s erosion. As such, if a player picked a fight with them, they were basically asked to be killed.

Lu Li stepped forwards and gave an Elven greeting.

“Upon Cenarius’ name, is there anything I can help you with?”

“Oh, it’s some adventurers. May the light shine upon you.”

The two Tauren reciprocated the greeting, before turning and shouting, “Ebru, these are your people!”

The Night Elf behind them came forward and after a courteous exchange, she began to give them the quest:

“…I need to wake him up from the nightmare, otherwise he will be trapped in there forever, supplying evil energy to the lands. However, I will first need to kill his fallen servants before I am able to perform the awakening ceremony. Can you help me, my people?”

System: Ebru from the Howling Caves has requested that you kill Poison Fang Lord Cobrahn, Anacondra, Pythas and Serpentis. Do you accept?

Lu Li wasn’t the only one who received this prompt; everyone else got it as well. The entire Xin Xin Mercenary Group confidently accepted the quest.

Then, Lu Li brought everyone to talk to the other two NPCs. They picked up two Collection Quests – one to collect ten variants of leather and the other to collect five Snake Flowers from the depths of the cave.

In order to help the adventurers complete the quest, the NPC also gave everyone five Advanced Antidotes and five Intermediate Health Potions. Other parties would have thought that this was quite good, but Lu Li’s party did not lack these things. Nevertheless, it was still better than nothing.

There were many small monsters on the way which ranged from LV18-20. The EXP they gave was not bad, but they didn’t really drop anything.

As the Main Tank, Azure Sea Breeze took the lead and provided everyone with a convenient environment to deal damage. Occasionally, one or two monsters would break through the Main Tank’s defense, but they couldn’t escape Wandering, the Side Tank.

Having two tanks made things quite easy; everyone could just enjoy dealing damage.

However, March Rain had to heal two people. At first, she found this a little difficult, but slowly became more confident over time. Hachi Chan was supposed to help her, but she could never find the opportunity to do so. As such, she acted in DPS role as well.

Her equipment was quite strong and after Lu Li had pointed out some techniques she needed to work on, her damage output was now quite considerable.

The first Boss was not far off and Lu Li was soon able to see her – Poison Fang Anacondra, a female Night Elf who was an Acolyte and a Druid.