The Great Thief

Mutanus was originally a Boss with unnaturally high Attack. After going Berserk, that characteristic was further amplified.

In many cases, clearing an Instance Dungeon required luck.

For example, it would be a disaster if you accidentally healed the wrong person, but you could only chalk that up to bad luck. If the Boss went Berserk right away, that would also be really bad luck.

And now, both of the Bosses had gone Berserk at the same time. What were the chances of that happening?

“Everyone stay calm and take it easy,” Lu Li said cautiously. “We still have a chance. Sesame Rice Ball, don’t attack so quickly. Otherwise, Wandering might not be able to maintain aggro.”

As Berserk reduced Defence, DPS professions could very easily steal aggro.

Lu Li said these words slowly and gently, which rubbed-off on the mood of his party-members. They all slowly calmed down as well.

“March, make sure you watch Wandering’s HP. Don’t forget to activate your equip’s special effect at the critical moments. Breezy, you have quite a few damage reduction skills. Use your judgment and cast them.” Right now, the greatest pressure was on the healers, but Lu Li refused to put that on them.

“…”

Azure Sea Breeze wanted to trade healers, but after seeing Hachi Chan’s puffy cheeks and wide eyes, he didn’t dare to say anything.

As for the others, Lu Li could only hope that the Boss wouldn’t deal a critical hit.

Azure Sea Breeze would be fine – he wasn’t known as Dawn’s number one tank for no reason. However, Wandering had put quite a few points into Strength and his equipment wasn’t nearly as good as Azure Sea Breeze’s. As such, he was actually quite a fragile Tank.

Fortunately, he had good technique. He was able to cast his skills at the right time and position well. Wandering could probably stay alive for a little while longer.

“Those on the left with Wandering, stop attacking,” Lu Li shouted.

“Damn it, this is a bad time. I can’t hold it for much longer.”

Wandering’s face was pale. He saw that his Boss was almost dead, but Lu Li had told him to stop attacking.

“As long as the Boss doesn’t die, it’s alright if you die.” Lu Li’s face was straight and his tone was serious.

Wandering’s expression turned dark as he almost fell over.

He had to try his best to tank this Boss while everyone focused on the other one.

Lu Li’s request was simple – both bosses had to die simultaneously.

“Both of the main tanks, report their HP.” Lu Li was one of the main damage dealers, so he couldn’t keep track of both of the Bosses’ HP bars at once.

“The one on my side has 9806 HP,” Wandering said.

“The one on my side has 12873 HP left,” Azure Sea Breeze followed.

“Memories and Remnant Dream, go fight Wandering’s one. Everyone else, attack Breezy’s one, but stop at 1000 HP,” Lu Li commanded, letting out a sigh. There should be no further problems.

Perhaps it was because of Azure Sea Breeze’s high defence and powerful damage reduction skills, or March Rain’s strong heals that had kept a fragile tank like Wandering alive for this long.

The two Bosses’ HP dropped slowly and soon enough, they reached 1000 HP like Lu Li had said.

“Keep going. Stop at 300 HP.”

As the Mutanus on Azure Sea Breeze’s side reached 300 HP, everyone immediately stopped hitting it. Once the one on Wandering’s side also reached 300 HP, they carefully continued attacking again.

“250!”

“220!”

“Interrupt the heal; don’t forget that.” Lu Li used his Cloak’s effect and appeared behind the channeling Boss before interrupting its healing with a kick.

“I don’t have any mana,” Sakura Memories quietly mumbled.

“Say something earlier next time,” Lu Li replied. His words were not harsh, but Sakura Memories still covered her face.

“Do we keep attacking?” Both Bosses were now at 100-200 HP. If someone dealt a critical hit, the Boss they were attacking would just die.

“Everyone focus your attacks on three.” Lu Li didn’t dare to attack anymore either – it was better to be more cautious at this point.

On his command, both sides attacked with everything they had.

The Mutanus on Lu Li’s side died immediately, while the one on Wandering’s side stumbled, but survived. It stopped attacking Wandering and rushed towards the corpse.

“Ranged players, continue attacking!” Lu Li shouted.

At the speed that the Boss was moving, the melee players were unable to keep up, but this was no problem for the ranged players.

When everyone saw that the Boss hadn’t died, they paused for a moment which almost led to a disaster.

Lu Li activated his shoes to give him additional speed and rushed towards the Boss. Moonlight also rushed towards the Boss with his Whirlwind activated. Everyone else simply used whatever skills were the most convenient.

“Ugh…”

The remaining Mutanus, who only had a few dozen points of HP left, died before he could even reach the corpse.

System: Xin Xin Mercenary Group’s players Lu Li, Azure Sea Breeze, March Rain, Lonesome Flower, Sakura Memories, Sesame Rice Ball, Wandering, Hachi Chan and Remnant Dream have achieved the First Clear on the Howling Caves (Elite).

First Clear on the Howling Caves?

Currently, there was a ten-man party struggling to defeat Skum. Their spirits were high because they had finally defeated the previous Boss after being stuck for two days and dying hundreds of times.

This was the Glory Capital’s best Elite squad. It contained two Main Tanks, two Healers and six of the guild’s best DPS players.

Although a double tank and double healer composition dealt less damage, it was the only way that they could tank this Boss’ shameless attacks.

As they steadily fought, Skum’s HP was slowly brought to a critical level.

They had originally thought that they were going to be the first to kill it. According to all of the information they had gathered, Skum had not yet been defeated. Even the Blood Red War Flag’s best team could only take it down to 30% HP.

Everyone was well aware that the biggest guilds had spies in all the other big guilds.

However, they never would have imagined that a group of players that weren’t from a big guild would not only have defeated Skum, but also achieved the First Clear on the Howling Caves.

They had already completed the final Boss while their own party was still stuck on the fifth Boss. There were still another three Bosses after this one.

There was such a large gap between them despite the fact that they had a guild supporting them with unlimited potions and a team of Instance Dungeon specialists providing strategic advice based on the videos they were being supplied…

Was it because their levels weren’t high enough? Or perhaps, their equipment wasn’t good enough…

Everyone felt a little disheartened.

“Keep it together and defeat this Boss! We have already spent so much effort; do you want to let it all go to waste?”

“Keep your spirits high! Look alive!”

The commander had to encourage them and lift his team’s morale after seeing their expressions.

The Boss had already reached critical HP, so everyone just needed to keep fighting for a few more minutes. This was actually quite achievable, as the Main Tank still had unused damage reduction skills and had more than enough mana.

Unfortunately, morale was one of those things that although was unseen, usually played a key role. It was unclear what went wrong, but soon, one after the other, the players started falling.

One hundred and… they couldn’t even remember how many times they had been wiped.

This affected all of the players who were trying to achieve the First Clear. The announcement that the First Clear had been achieved sent a wave of despair through the ordinary players.

When all of the players saw the string of familiar names such as Azure Sea Breeze and Lu Li, they knew that this wasn’t the first time such a miracle had been achieved. However, this time, there were some new names.

Although Lu Li had previously led parties to achieve the First Clear in two previous Instance Dungeons, he hadn’t addressed one important issue.

Dawn was not a solo game.

His powerful five man party would be in need of more players when they reached a ten-player Instance Dungeon. This was where the big guilds had a significant advantage, as they were able to gather the most talented players.

Everyone felt like Lu Li’s little party wouldn’t be able to transition into Instance Dungeons like the Howling Caves.

But who would have thought that they would achieve the First Clear and leave everyone behind once again?