The Great Thief

“Everyone, drink a bottle of Holy Water and any other potions that might be useful. Even though the Boss isn’t Lv50, it’s probably not much weaker than one,” Lu Li said as he applied the poison onto his dagger and drank a Potion of Dexterity.

These investments were essential for Instance Dungeons – without spending money, achieving a First Clear was just wishful thinking.

“The pills that I’m taking are at least 10 gold each,” Azure Sea Breeze said with a painful expression. As the Main Tank, he was expected to do whatever he could to be at his best condition.

From an outsider’s point of view, Ruling Sword must have been delighted at all the First Clears that they were achieving. However, what they did not see was the amount of effort and resources they put in. It was not uncommon for Azure Sea Breeze to use up almost 100 gold per fight.

“If you don’t take any loot, then I’ll reimburse you when we get back,” Lu Li joked.

“No way! This amount of money is nothing for me.”

Azure Sea Breeze immediately stopped complaining. There was no way he would give up obtaining a new piece of equipment from the dungeon. A new piece of equipment would be worth so much more than the potions that he had used up.

“Stop complaining then and clear out the mobs in the area,” Lu Li said as he pointed towards the wandering mobs in the distance.

“What’s the point of killing them if they’re so far away. It’s not like they’ll interrupt the fight,” Wandering questioned. As one of the commanders in the guild, he needed to understand so that he too could lead others in clearing the same dungeon in the future.

“Do you guys know what a Banshee is?” Lu Li asked.

“You mean female fairies?” Hachi Chan said with a weird expression.

Lu Li decided to ignore her and explained, “Legend has it that when beautiful women were killed, they turned into Banshees. Their restless spirits wandered the world for many ages in silent, tortured lamentation. Over the years, they became jealous of the living and form a deep hatred for all life. When the Lich King became aware of them, he gathered them together and promised them vengeance upon the living…”

“Wait, why are you telling us all this?”

Azure Sea Breeze didn’t like stories like these. Lu Li was interested in the background lore of the game he played, but Azure Sea Breeze found this boring and dry.

“The Lich King gave them terrible voices so that the living would finally hear their timeless anguish. They use their evil shrieks against enemies causing them to scramble in fear. Do you guys understand now?” Lu Li asked, finishing off his story in one go.

Because of the Fear debuff that was used by the Banshees, they had to clear out the monsters within a large vicinity.

Even if Lu Li didn’t know this from his past life, he would have figured it out from his general knowledge.

In reality, this was how strategies were created in games – by thinking outside of the box and taking into account of everything in the surroundings.

Every mob that could be seen in the area was cleared out, then rested for a few minutes. After this, Azure Sea Breeze switched into his magic resistance gear and charged towards Baroness Anastari.

Professional Main Tanks had more than one set of gear. When training alone, they needed a DPS equipment set, but when fighting physical-damage Bosses, they needed gear that specialized in physical defense. On the other hand, if Azure Sea Breeze wore physical defense gear against a magic-damage-dealing Boss, he would be instantly crushed.

“Who dares awaken me in such a lonely night?” the Baroness roared as Azure Sea Breeze slammed into her voluptuous body.

“What is the meaning of this?!” she continued as she whipped Azure Sea Breeze without holding back. Whips were usually used by Hunters to tame pets, but they were the weapon of choice for Succubae and Banshees.

Whips were less predictable and as such, it was difficult for Azure Sea Breeze to read her attacks.

Lu Li blinked behind Baroness Anastari and used Sinister Strike. If his memory served him right, this Boss could be temporally crowd-controlled for a short while in the first stage of the fight.

However, this was implemented a few months after Lu Li had joined the game.

During this time, there were multiple patches that nerfed the Bosses in order to make the game more noob-friendly. As the starting Boss in Stratholme, she too received some nerfs.

Completion Rate 96% – Lu Li’s damage was quite high, but she did not get stunned.

He had a feeling from the start that Baroness Anastari wouldn’t get crowd-controlled. Even Kick likely would not work on her.

“All life shall tremble at my voice!” the Banshee lifted her head and screamed.

“Everyone get back! Run as far away as possible!” Lu Li yelled as he activated the special effect on his boots and ran as quickly as he could away from the Baroness. The others reacted quite quickly, especially the ranged classes who had been standing far away from the very beginning.

The members of the Xin Xin Mercenary Group had their individual flaws, but the reason why they had completed so many First Clears was because no one was bad enough to drag down the entire team.

In the end, the only ones who were feared were the two Main Tanks and Remnant Dream. Even Lu Li himself couldn’t believe it.

In reality, this was somewhat expected. The ranged classes could get away easily because of the head start they had. The melee members were all reliable players; Lu Li and Moonlight were the two best players in the team. Even Sakura Memories, who had been the weakest link of the party, had received intensive training from Father Kitty and greatly improved her mechanics.

March Rain could cleanse Fear and she used it immediately on Azure Sea Breeze.

Since all the surrounding monsters were cleared out, it was safe for Wandering to stray away because he was only a secondary tank.

Even so, March Rain also kindly cleansed his Fear.

Wandering was such a prideful person. Running around like a headless chook would make him lose his usual grace and elegance.

“This is my land. If you dare to challenge me, I will shut all of you up. Everyone, silence!” the Banshee screamed. She had just finished using her fear and began casting another.

Lu Li knew what skill she was going to cast but did not tell his teammates how to react.

This was because the Silence was a large area-of-effect skill. Unless you were to leave the Instance Dungeon, you

would definitely be affected.

Silence: Baroness Anastari silences all players within 10 yards, preventing spell casting for 10 seconds.

10 seconds!

This was quite ridiculous as 10 seconds would be more than enough to wipe an entire team. The next patch would nerf this skill, changing it to only affect Magic classes such and reducing the duration to 6 seconds.

They couldn’t simply sit around throughout the whole duration of the silence.

This was the moment that tested the Main Tank of the party. If he was to fall, then the entire team would be wiped for sure. Many other major Guilds that attempted this dungeon failed at this particular stage.

Azure Sea Breeze continued to attack the Boss to maintain aggro. The others could only sit and watch as their Main Tank fought for his life.