The Great Thief

Lu Li celebrated a bit too early. He had no idea that Nightmare Herod in Berserk mode would be this crazy.

”He truly is a berserker” was how Moonlight described it.

Herod swung his axe and sent Azure Sea Breeze flying into the wall, which rendered him unable to stand up for a while.

To make the game slightly more realistic, when players received heavy damage, they would be paralysed and debuffed for a short while.

The second swing of his axe instantly killed Sakura Memories as Herod began hunting down each player individually. No one could withstand more than two swings from his powerful axe and the only way of surviving was to run away.

Herod was on less than 10,000HP, yet the tables had been completely turned around.

”Use defence scrolls and stay alive. If the boss aggros onto you, then run away as quickly as possible to buy time for everyone else.”

Fortunately, Lu Li had gathered and distributed some defence scrolls before the fight and it was finally time to use them.

Although they only provided a mere 10% increase in physical defence, they were very useful in key situations like these.

Herod’s attacks were all physical damage and the scrolls allowed the players to stay alive for that much longer.

With the defence scrolls, even Lu Li could withstand two to three hits from Herod. He was ready to use his actives on his chest piece and Gale Steps if he got into a sticky situation.

”Remain calm and output damage whenever possible!” Lu Li yelled as he followed closely behind Herod, stabbing him in the back.

His auto-attacks dealt around 100 points of damage while his skills dealt around 200 to 300 HP. All they could do was continue dealing damage and hope for the best.

10,000 HP would take them around a minute to finish.

The last minute of the fight would be the difference between life and death.

One after another, the members of Xin Xin Mercenary Group were killed by Herod. Lu Li zoned out for a second and his HP bar became empty. Herod was now left with a few thousand HP.

”Who do you guys think the boss will aim for last?” Azure Sea Breeze had pretty much given up and began joking around. As the main tank, he was almost always the first to go down. He was sick and tired of fighting boss battles and not receiving the EXP because he was dead.

”Hachi Chan, revive me. NOW!” Lu Li ordered.

”What?! Lu Li, you’re so selfish. Why not save the revive for me instead?” Azure Sea Breeze yelled back.

”You don’t deal enough damage,” Lu Li replied.

”Money! I’ll revive whoever pays me money,” Hachi Chan said proudly.

Only Xin Xin Mercenary would joke around in a dire situation like this.

The combination of the silly Hachi Chan, the air-headed Remnant Dream and the overly-confident Azure Sea was entertaining enough that they could probably start their own reality show.

Lu Li rose from the dead just as Azure Sea Breeze received an axe to the face. Instead of being healed, his healer was busy reviving Lu Li. ”Hachi Chan, come and save me before I… Goddammit, I hate you Lu Li.”

Although Lu Li would always joke around with his teammates, when it came to serious situations and boss fights, he would always put in the most effort.

The only surviving players were him, Hachi Chan, Remnant Dream and Sesame Rice Ball. Even March Rain, their main healer, had been killed.

Surprisingly, Remnant Dream was still alive. Usually, she was one of the first to go down.

”Hachi Chan, go and distract the boss,” Lu Li said worriedly.

Lu Li hated situations like these, when the boss as about to die but almost the entire team had been wiped out. One more mistake and they would probably fail the entire run.

”Why me?” The little girl was scared.

She was still a kid and thought that she could stay behind Lu Li and heal him.

”Remember to use all your special effects; the boss won’t be able to kill you,” Lu Li comforted.

”Liar! I’m smart enough to know that I’m bait.” Hachi Chan was angry. Even a three-year-old knew that she wouldn’t be able to withstand more than one swing of Herod’s axe.

Lu Li sighed and realised that he had to do this on his own.

Besides Hachi Chan, the only other person that could tank the boss was himself. Even though Thieves had very low defence, he had numerous actives and escape skills available to help him escape.

Lu Li had to rely completely on his own reaction time and mechanics.

Since Herod was already on critical HP, the four of them barely managed to defeat the boss without losing any more members.

System: Ruling Sword members Azure Sea Breeze, March Rain, Lonesome Flower, Sesame Rice Balls…. have completed the First Clear for the Scarlet Arsenal on Nightmare level under Lu Li’s leadership.

The surviving four players received exceptional EXP for finishing off the boss.

Lu Li had finally levelled up to level 31, becoming the first level 31 player on the level rankings.

The most important things were the loot and rewards.

As the final boss in a level 30 Nightmare Instance Dungeon, Herod proved to be very difficult to defeat.

”Mine! Haha, mine!” Azure Sea Breeze was mad for not receiving his share of EXP since he died. However, as soon as he picked up a golden two-handed axe called ”The Destructor”, his anger completely disappeared.

The second piece was the Berserker’s Helmet which was a Gold grade equipment for Warriors and Paladins. Wandering willingly decided to give it to Moonlight.

The third piece was a rare material called Berserk Fragment which was used as a crafting material for various warrior weapons and gear.

Next was a Warrior skill booked called ”Berserker Rage”, which was similar to the Troll’s race skill.

The last item was a Fortified Stone.

Lu Li had about 10 or so of these and had obtained most of them from his Job Advancement quests. He had also bought some from the markets but had never used them before.

Even in his past life, Lu Li never had the luxury to use a Fortified Stone because they were ludicrously expensive. Each costed about $10,000 in real money and you needed at least 10 to enhance an equipment.

A few hundred thousand dollars just to enhance a piece of equipment was something that only the rich could afford.

Besides, enhancing gear wasn’t worth it because each successful upgrade only enhanced the stats by 3%. Each enhancement required three stones, so you were essentially paying a stone for an 1% stat increase.

What was even more outrageous was that the amount of Fortified Stones required increased with each successful enhancement. For example, from +1 to +3, you needed 3 stones per enhancement, but for anything past that, you needed 6 stones per enhancement.

For the first 3 upgrades, if the enhancement failed then you’d lose all the enhancement materials. At anything past +3, you would risk a chance of blowing up your weapon if the enhancement failed.

There were only a few rich players or star players that would spend thousands to enhance an equip. However, when a casual player obtained a Fortified Stone, they would generally sell it on the market to earn some pocket money for the next few months.

Obviously, these stones were very hard to come by. They only had a few in the Xin Xin Mercenary storage space.

Breaking the record time for dungeons rewarded an item to the entire team. However, if it was a first clear, then each individual player received an award.

The best reward was a bonus SP, however, no one was lucky enough to be rewarded an SP this time.