The Great Thief

Although Lu Li’s weapon was a little under-levelled, it still had a pretty decent special effect.

However, it was quite problematic for a weapon to be under-levelled, as its damage output would be low. What was the point of a weapon that dealt no damage?

Yesterday’s Meisnera Output Battle event had awarded him with a LV20 Silver-grade dagger. Unfortunately, it came with a terrible special effect. After some hesitation, Lu Li mailed it to Shen Wansan to let him deal with it instead.

Mold: Corrupted Fang (Silver)

Recipe: Forge

Requirement: Journeyman Forging Recipe (100)

Use: Forging “Corrupted Fang”

Corrupted Fang: Attributes Unknown.

When it came to molds, it was hard to know if the gear they produced would be good or bad before it had been made.

However, Lu Li knew.

Every dungeon dropped its own ‘classic’ gear, which would become ‘classic’ because of its attributes, appearance, or even special effects. Some gear would even feature in the lore.

Corrupted Fang belonged to the first type of ‘classic’ gear; it was famous for its legendary special effect.

It came with an Armor Piercing effect, a probability of increasing Critical Strike Chance, and a very small probability of activating a legendary Thief effect – Escape.

After using Escape, the player would randomly appear anywhere within an eight-yard radius.

This was a very rare special effect, even for someone like Lu Li who had experienced rebirth. Apart from the Corrupted Fang, this effect would only appear on high-quality LV40-50 Thief equipment.

Lu Li was worried about the outcome, since he wasn’t entirely sure what the mold would end up producing for him.

“There’s nothing else.” Remnant Dream rummaged for a bit more and was disappointed that there wasn’t anything good left.

“Such a greedy girl,” Lu Li said, unable to hold back his laughter. “A rare material and two Silver-grades from a Heroic-difficulty Boss and you’re still not satisfied?”

“There are still two bosses left, right?” Azure Sea Breeze was at a bit of a loss since the Boss hadn’t dropped any equipment that he could use.

The same could be said about Wandering, which was mainly because he died too early. He also felt like he couldn’t match up with Lu Li’s leading skills.

“Are we continuing?” Lu Li asked as he checked the time.

They had spent around five to six hours in this dungeon, which was a little over half the game time for today.

“Let’s do it, for the first clear.” Azure Sea Breeze was keen and ready.

Humans are very strange creatures – they become easily exhaused if they’re placed in disadvantaged circumstances, but those who are excited will often light up with an unimaginable passion.

Looking at all of the excited faces in front of him, Lu Li waved his hand and said, “Sure, let’s do this. We’ll take the first clear for this dungeon today.”

There were still two LV25 bosses left, but most of them had already reached LV23, so they wouldn’t be limited in any way. They also had the best gear that was currently available, which made completing the dungeon quite an achievable task.

Unlike Serpentis, who was extremely challenging, the two bosses that are left were only slightly troublesome.

The seventh boss was very easy to find – it wasn’t too far away from Serpentis and there were barely any monsters along the way.

“So ugly!”

Hachi Chan said what was on everyone’s minds. The seventh boss of Howling Caves, Verdan the Everliving, was truly an abomination.

Before Navarax had come to the Howling Caves, people understood very little of this creature. Verdan the Everliving was viewed as the original guardian of the cave, who was unable escape the corruption of its home.

However, it didn’t reject this kind of corruption. Rather, it gained a life force so strong that not only granted it immense power, but also allowed it to live almost eternally.

As the corruption continued to deepen, Verdan’s body grew in size and became much stronger.

Now, he stood four meters tall and two meters wide, with arms like giant trees that almost touched the floor when he lowered them. His skin was covered by resin which had been hardened by age, while his facial features were non-existent. It was no wonder that Hachi Chan had called him ugly.

Currently, Verdan had formed an alliance with othe ther corrupted Druids and had become the seventh Boss of the Howling Caves.

“This boss isn’t hard, but make sure to keep this one thing in mind.”

For any normal team, it would at least take one or two wipes before they figured out how to defeat the Boss, no matter how good their gaming senses were.

“Speak. We’re all listening?” Wandering was very curious as to how Lu Li knew about all of these things, but he was a smart person.

If the other person chose not to bring it up, then why would you try to probe through it? Their relationship might not be firm enough to go through such trial.

There would always be some special people in this world. Nobody knew how they gained their information. For as long as this game was designed and managed by people, information could always be leaked.

Dawn was doing quite well in this aspect, but this didn’t stop the normal players from making false accusations that were based on their own assumptions.

“He will randomly throw out two debuffs. Both debuffs are contagious, but they’re treated in different ways,” Lu Li explained. “One of the debuffs is called Corrupted Plague and the other one is called Corrupted Sickness.”

“If you have the Corrupted Plague debuff, you need to stand away from everyone else. As long as the healer heals you, you won’t die. However, if you don’t walk away from the crowd, those who stand near you will take a huge amount of damage, and the team will instantly be wiped.”

“On the other hand, if you have the Corrupted Sickness debuff, someone needs to take the damage with you. There is no way that a healer can out-heal the damage dealt if the player stands alone……”

“Understood?” Lu Li asked after his explanation.

“This is what you mean by simple?” Hachi Chan had a bitter look on her tiny face, while Remnant Dream also had the same expression. Everyone else wasn’t looking too confident either.

One moment, you had to stand apart to prevent the debuff from spreading, and the next, you had to stand together to spread it…

“Just follow my instructions and it’ll be easy; I’ll organize the positioning,” Lu Li said as he drew some markings on the floor. “Later on, everyone stands here. Sea Breeze, you pull the Boss and face everyone. It’s simple.”

“We’re all sticking together?” Wandering expressed his doubt – this wasn’t a game where people could pass through each other and stand in the same spot.

“Yes, the melee classes should stand at the front, while the ranged classes should stand in a semi-circle behind them. This is a very common formation. When I tell someone to go out, that person has to immediately leave the formation, and Hachi Chan will top up their health bar.”

“Sure, but what if the one who has to run out is me?”

“So many questions. March, there’s no way you’d die, and even if you ran out, can’t you heal for yourself?” Lu Li was worried about the little girl’s brain. So stupid. I bet she doesn’t get good grades in school.

Perhaps that’s why the system always looked after her.

Azure Sea Breeze pulled the Boss, and it didn’t take long for debuffs that Lu Li had talked about to begin appearing.

The first victim was Sakura Memories. She seemed to always have bad luck.

“Memories! Sakura Memories, hurry and leave,” Lu Li shouted.

“Sorry,” Sakura Memories apologized.

“Hachi Chan, heal her. March, top up everyone’s health. Everyone, drink potions.” Lu Li had already expected this to happen. He was even glad that the first person to get the debuff was Sakura Memories. Although this girl was distracted, her reactions were still pretty good.

If the target happened to be Remnant Dream or Hachi Chan, they would still be standing on the spot.