The Great Thief

”Prepare for battle. Everyone, form groups of ten and don’t aggro too many monsters at once. The respawn time is fast,” Lu Li commanded, listing out a series of instructions.

Each group advanced into Jintha’Alor.

This large city was built in the mountains and was divided into six levels. Each level was distinct and housed different Professions, such as Priests, Warriors and normal civilians. The rivers and waterfalls flowed down from the mountains and through the center of the city. If it wasn’t for the skeletons and corpses of the dead, this would be a place beautiful beyond description.

The top floor was the altar and was where Vile Priestess Hex ruled over the city. She led the Vilebranch Trolls to defend against the Horde and Wildhammer Dwarves.

When enemies attacked, loud gong noises would signal the whole city to prepare for battle.

If a player or an NPC accidentally entered the city and triggered the defense system, they would be swarmed by Vilebranch Trolls and killed immediately without being offered a chance of explaining themselves. This made the city difficult to breach, and players could never take over because of how fast the monsters respawned.

Lu Li entered Jintha’Alor along with his own group.

He was surrounded by a sea of other ten-man teams; no one in the guild would want to miss out on a big raid like this.

The Vile Priestess Hex was a level 50 Boss. Lu Li had heard about how annoying she was to deal with from other players in his past life. She would cast Hexes on her targets, along with Shadow Word: Pain, which was a damage over time skill. She could also heal herself continuously and had an army of Trolls surrounding her. Even experts in taking down Wild Bosses would be stumped in strategizing for this fight.

As they entered the stone room and cleared the waves of monsters, Lu Li’s eyes lit up. There were rows of skulls lined up against the wall that they could loot.

Items that could be looted or gathered by players were outlined by the game. Otherwise, the players would be

able to take anything they wanted.

Most Trolls still followed the tradition of eating humans. Trolls tribes such as the Mossflayers and the Vilebranches were infamous for their human eating habits.

Since Jintha’Alor was their main city, there was no reason against eating humans here.

After eating the flesh, the bones were thrown aside and littered the city streets. Even some of their buildings were constructed with human bones for decoration.

Skulls weren’t thrown away because they were hung on the walls of their buildings as trophies of war.

The more the deceased suffered, the more spirituality and magic their skulls contained. Trolls would often use these during transactions and exchanges; top-quality skulls sold for more than live humans.

Lu Li looted the skulls and received three ”Skulls filled with Resentment”.

In his past life, he had fought Vile Priestess Hex with a Boss-hunting team. Back then, Hex wasn’t as popular, so there weren’t many people competing with them. Their strategy was simple – throw the Skulls Filled with Resentment at the boss.

When these skulls hit, there was a certain chance of inflicting the target with a debuff.

The people that the Vilebranch Trolls killed were filled with resentment. Before these people were executed, they made sure to curse the executioners, as well as the Vilebranch Troll tribe. This energy of resentment was absorbed by their skulls and when released, could inflict a great deal of suffering on a target.

Leve 50 was a very important milestone in Dawn. For Bosses, the difference in difficulty between a Lv49 and Lv50 Boss was night and day.

Even though Lu Li’s team could deal with three Lv45 Bosses at once, they would still struggle to deal with a single Lv50 Boss.

Unless… they had a guide.

The Skulls of Resentment would not guarantee success, but they would make it much easier for Ruling Swords to defeat Hex.

Lu Li quickly let everyone know about this strategy and instructed them to collect as many skulls as possible.

Lu Li did not care whether the members of his guild would leak his strategy or not. Either way, he was aiming to achieve the First Clear for this Boss and wouldn’t risk failure simply because he was afraid of his strategy being leaked. Even if he did not reveal it, someone would eventually figure this out.

These skulls were scattered around most of the rooms and everyone quickly gathered a few.

However, Lu Li did not tell them how they were used, and even if someone asked, he wouldn’t let them know.

The group slowly advanced through the city. From a bird’s eye view, they were a little circle that slowly made their way through a sea of Trolls.

Even though they were surrounded by enemies, the members of Ruling Swords never doubted Lu Li’s orders and followed obediently. As they made their way through the city, they left behind countless corpses of Vilebranch Trolls while collecting the Skulls Filled with Resentment.

Besides this, they also gained a large amount of EXP.

If they weren’t so focused on defeating the Boss, this would be a great place to grind for levels.

”We’re approaching the city altar where Hex resides. There are some Lv48 Elite Trolls and four smaller bosses. One of the brothers accidentally aggro’d one and was almost instantly killed,” Cain’s Left Hand reported.

”Wait until everyone gets here,” Lu Li said as he took the high ground and looked back at the other group that was still trying to make it past the Troll swarm. However, he was sure that they would eventually all reach the altar entrance without trouble.

”What are the skulls for? To throw at the boss?” Square Root Three wasn’t worried about how dirty they were as he tossed one up and down in his palm. He seemed fascinated by these skulls as he studied their anatomy closely.

”Well, your guess is right.”

There’s no point of hiding it anymore now that they had reached the altar.

He was worried that someone would leak what the skulls were used for and prompt the other guilds to steal them. However, now that most of the skulls were in their hands, he was much more relaxed. The skulls only respawned once every three days, so no one could steal their First Clear attempt now.

”Nice, looks like we’re about to complete another First Clear,” Square Root Three said excitedly. He had been hoping for a large-scale Boss hunt which involved the whole guild. Instead of fighting with the Gangnam Royals all day, they could finally build some chemistry together with this fight.

Invading and taking over cities was fun and exciting, but it wasn’t something that guilds would often do. If it was so easy, why not just invade Orgrimar and kill Thrall to end the game? Of course, that would be fun, but they would fail miserably and might even be forced to disband because of the consequences.

As for the invasion that Ruling Swords was attempting, it was well-thought out and orchestrated by Lu Li. There were very little risks and it was a great way to earn some honor for the guild.