The Great Thief

”The more Burning Legion you kill, the greater the improvement at the next upgrade. I’ll give you a free transport to the Moonlight Forest; this is the Ally of the Cenarion Circle…”

Remulos’ words echoed temptingly in Lu Li’s ears, but he was already in Gadgetzan.

His teammates had been waiting here; they were about to start Zul’Farrak. They wanted to get the First Clear on this Instance Dungeon.

However, they first needed to accept a few quests for the Instance Dungeon. The first one was from Krazek in Stranglethorn Vale, who directed them to Tran’rek in Gadgetzan. Tran’rek owed a shipment of scarab shells which was due a few weeks ago.

Krazek: He is my brother, so I don’t want to send debt-collectors to Gadgetzan. Please help me go and ask Tran’rek what is happening? He’d better send them to me quickly before I really freak out.

The two rogue goblins were basically a perfect pair.

Tran’rek was also a rogue goblin.

He said that the scarab shells were hard enough to sell as building materials. Due to how valuable they were, the scarabs were hunted extensively and almost went extinct.

As such, Tran’rek told the players that there were many scarabs in Zul’Farrak.

Their quest was to gather enough scarab shells in three days. Otherwise, Tran’rek would smash their heads in.

This wasn’t a joke – the penalty for failing this quest was death, which meant 5% EXP.

There were some other quests that Lu Li and his party had accepted as well. Regardless of whether these quests gave equipment, the EXP reward alone meant that they couldn’t be missed.

There was a long way to go from Gadgetzan to Zul’Farrak, but the path was relatively safe with Sandworms rarely appearing.

If the road to the Instance Dungeon was already risky, most players just wouldn’t do it.

This road was a transit route for goblins in the desert who explored ancient ruins, looking for ore. They did what they could for as long as they thought they could make money from it.

As for the Sandworms, if you observed the area carefully, you would notice quite a few goblin devices installed in the sand.

These devices constantly emitted an ultrasonic sound that dealt high damage to the Sandworms and deterred them from the area.

Heavy fighting also occurred on this path, which was perfectly in line with the game company’s vision. From the moment players had access to this place, Horde and Alliance players had been locked in endless battle.

However, for a while now, no one from either faction had been killed.

Lu Li and the others didn’t dare to be too conspicuous. If he openly declared himself to be Lu Li, he probably wouldn’t be welcomed the whole way. There were surely countless players that wanted to kill him.

They would be able to kill him and force him to drop an item without too high of a cost.

There was one Sorrowless fan that worshiped Sorrowless, so much that he had watched each of Sorrowless’ technique videos dozens of time.

However, when he was asked about why he was following a band of players to kill Sorrowless, he innocently replied, ”What’s the issue with worshipping someone and killing them to take their items?”

After clearing out a few waves of players looking for trouble, Lu Li and the others soon reached the entrance of the Instance Dungeon. There was a goblin there that would give them a buff for two gold coins.

The buff was Voodoo damage -20%.

This was quite strong, especially against the Trolls, and had the potential to be life-saving.

Of course, it was unrealistic to expect the -20% damage to negate the entire Voodoo Troll family. Otherwise, teams wouldn’t be getting killed on the second Boss.

”Nightmare?” Azure Sea Breeze, who was responsible for picking the difficulty, turned around and asked.

”Yes, Nightmare!” Lu Li nodded and confirmed.

Zul’Farrak wasn’t a particularly difficult Instance Dungeon. Only the second and last Bosses were considered as demigods, and required all members of the party to be level 35 and higher.

”Gee, this is going to be fun.” Azure Sea Breeze wasn’t afraid of a challenge and was even more courageous with Lu Li around.

The others weren’t too worried either. As long as it was Lu Li who picked the difficulty, they would be able to do it. As for that girl who was obsessed with her pets, she probably couldn’t tell the difference between Elite and Nightmare difficulty anyway.

”Hey, that team that just went in didn’t pick the Elite difficulty,” a Mage in the team behind them said as he saw Azure Sea Breeze making his choice.

The rune that was displayed on the Instance Dungeon for Nightmare was different to when it was Elite difficulty.

Between Nightmare Difficulty and Elite Difficulty, there was also the Heroic difficulty. Most players were attempting the dungeon on Elite Difficulty right now, with others trying it on Ordinary Difficulty to get used to it.

When they suddenly saw that someone had selected Nightmare difficulty, they were completely shocked.

”No way! How can someone choose Nightmare Difficulty?” A Paladin who was holding a large sword was unconvinced.

”I saw it with my own eyes; I can’t be wrong,” the Mage sneered. ”I’ve learned about Runes, and that definitely was one for Nightmare Difficulty.”

Runes were a trade skill that enabled players to be very sensitive to the inscriptions on Instance Dungeon entrances.

”Maybe they just picked Nightmare to get a reaction out of us. I can pick Nightmare Difficulty too.” The Paladin was still too stubborn to accept it.

Everyone was the protagonist of their own fantasy world.

How could they still be playing at Elite if someone else was playing at Nightmare difficulty?

”It’s Lu Li, Azure Sea Breeze and the others. It’s the Xin Xin Mercenary Group. Ruling Sword is finally doing Zul’Farrak,” someone finally realized after thinking about the professions and general appearances of the players who had entered.

For the Wild Bosses, there were a number of competing guilds who would take the Boss 80% of the time. Occasionally, someone lucky could also take one of them.

For Private Instance Dungeons, gaining access was based purely on luck.

On the other hand, Public Instance Dungeons were different. Ruling Sword was dominating the Public Instance Dungeons. From the Spider Nest, to the Death Mines, the Howling Caves, to the Scarlet Monastery… they had gotten First Clears on Public Instance Dungeons many consecutive times.

”Lu Li is doing the Instance dungeon!”

This news spread like a tide throughout all of the player-base.

Regardless of whether they were Alliance or Horde, they all dropped what they were doing and began to discuss counter-measures.

”Ruling Sword cannot get the First Clear again,” declared Dust Dragon, the president of Blood Red War Flag.

”I trust you,” said Sorrowless, who had connected several Instance Dungeons commanders with Glory Capital.