The Great Thief

“I think it’s okay – we can use their strategy to clear this dungeon,” Drizzle Court’s Main Tank Deep Watersong said with a smile.

He had completely disregarded the Strategists that were opposed to the idea. The other guilds might not have operated like this, but Water Fairy had complete authority in Drizzle Court. If she had already made a decision, all they could do was follow her.

“Doing it properly isn’t working either. How much longer do you think it will take the Strategists to come up with a strategy for this Boss?” Water Fairy asked. She seemed disappointed with the Strategists as well.

Most of the Strategists in Drizzle Court were girls. While they were meticulous when playing games, they lacked creative thinking when compared to men.

Although Water Fairy had recruited a few male players that had performed quite well, they wouldn’t be able to solve this fundamental problem for a while. If it weren’t for Lu Li’s previous help, their progress through the Instance Dungeons wouldn’t have been so fast.

“We probably won’t get much further today. Our Main Tank’s level isn’t high enough at level 46,” the chief Strategist sighed.

“Glory Capital has already reached Magistrate Barthilas and their Main Tank is only level 46. Their equipment isn’t even as good as Watersong’s, so the level can’t be the problem. We’re missing something else. You don’t have to say anything else; I have decided to lend the equipment,” Water Fairy said decisively.

The Strategists were ashamed of themselves and didn’t protest any further.

In fact, Water Fairy didn’t want to think about it anymore. The others thought that lending the equipment would affect their ability to clear the Instance Dungeon, but she begged to differ.

Surely March Rain had exquisite equipment as well, so exchanging wouldn’t be that big of a deal. Her equipment could even give them a greater advantage against Ramstein the Gorger. After all, this Boss didn’t seem to have any strong crowd-control skills.

In doing so, Water Fairy had also intentionally humiliated her Strategists; she hoped that this shame would motivate them to work harder. They hadn’t spent so much money on them just for Ruling Sword to give them the strategy.

Before long, Lu Li took March Rain to see Water Fairy at Light’s Hope Chapel.

“There are a total of six Dark Gold equips, each of them geared towards reducing crowd-control. I searched through all of Drizzle Court, Peerless City and even some of the other smaller guilds. Their usefulness isn’t only limited to crowd-control – they have other good Attributes as well. The only thing is that little sister March Rain will have to get used them,” Water Fairy said.

“I’ll just take these five. I have a better option for the last one,” March Rain said as she removed five of her own equips and handed them to Water Fairy, then added, “Don’t call me little sister; I’m one year older than you.”

Water Fairy laughed, “Ah yes, it’s big sister March Rain. I always thought you were younger than me -after all you…”

March Rain indeed looked very young. This was the sentence that Water Fairy didn’t finish; it wasn’t the appropriate occasion to say something like that. The Priest standing next to Lu Li was someone that she had been interested in for a long time. Unfortunately, she also knew it was impossible to steal her away, no matter how much money she had.

“I’ll send the strategy to you when we get back,” Lu Li said, then summoned his mount and returned to the Instance Dungeon with March Rain.

After they returned to the Instance Dungeon, March Rain was given some time to adapt to her new equipment. It was perhaps not enough to completely remove Deep Sleep, but it was no longer efficient for the Boss to use that skill on her.

The only drawback was that this increase in Crowd Control reduction limited her healing capabilities,

“I hope that we can get through it in one go. March Rain and Breezy, this will depend on you guys. Hachi you also need to work hard,” Lu Li said, then mobilized the group and announced the start of the fight.

Balnazzar began by putting Lonesome Flower to sleep, who didn’t hesitate to cancel it before dealing as much damage as he could. He didn’t think at all about what to do if he was put to sleep again.

If they couldn’t even reach the third stage, there was no point in saving his skills.

Moreover, the Boss had a 30% chance of targeting the healer with Deep Sleep. The remaining 70% was split up among the eight other players, which meant that there was less than a 10% chance for each of them.

Lonesome Flower had two skills that could remove crowd-control in addition to his Badge; this was more than enough.

“Rain of Chaos, Hachi!” Lu Li no longer warned his teammates in advance – as the Boss raised his sword, he had already given the command. The moment Rain of Chaos came into effect, Hachi Chan’s area of effect healing began as well.

“Breezy, damage reduction. Mind Blast.”

Lu Li examined the Boss’ visual cues to determine in advance what he was going to do, then shouted out instructions for his team. This reduced the damage dealt to Azure Sea Breeze to a small chunk.

“Deep Sleep – pay attention to March Rain!” Lu Li quickly shouted upon seeing the fingertip of the Boss.

This time, March Rain was ready. She quickly recovered from her Sleep and started healing Azure Sea Breeze again, preventing him from dying after receiving a few successive Critical Hits in a row.

As another Rain of Chaos came, Lu Li gave specific instructions as to what needed to be done.

“Memories, use the Mana Regeneration totem. Everyone else, get ready to use your potions. Hachi Chan, heal the Main Tank. March Rain, heal anyone else that needs it. Don’t let anyone get lower than 30%.”

“We’re going into stage two now. Remnant Dream, you’re too close to the Boss. Make sure you watch out for Psychic Scream; it’s four seconds of Fear. There is also the Earthquake after the Fear, so everyone should make sure they are standing at least eight yards away from it,” Lu Li called out as they smoothly transitioned into the second stage.

During this period March Rain was put to sleep three times, but she dealt with it in stride.

The area-of-effect crowd-control was very troublesome, particularly because Balnazzar’s skills had such a wide range. Even the ranged players had to be wary and ensure that they wouldn’t get hit by Earthquake.

If they were caught within the range of Earthquake, they would be stunned and continually damaged.

If the players were grouped together when this happened, the damage would be even worse.

As such, Lu Li would occasionally ask everyone to stop fighting and disperse in an eight-yard radius. This ensured that there would not be more than three players affected by the Earthquake at any single time.

If there were three or less people affected, the Healers would be able to cope with the situation.

After playing around Earthquake and Deep Sleep in the second stage, there was basically nothing else to it. With the borrowed equipment, March Rain had become an unstoppable force that couldn’t be put to sleep.