The Great Thief

Before long, they got wiped again.

As Ambassador Flamelash’s prized creation and the last obstacle before Emperor Dragan Thaurissan, Magmus, who was able to control the spray of flames, had more than enough firepower to defeat the all-star team.

However, Lu Li had managed to confirm some of his suspicions.

After they all revived and were sitting together to discuss strategies, he was the first to suggest something.

“First of all, there is a sign before the flames start firing. Has anyone noticed it?”

“Yes,” Sorrowless nodded. “The tip of the mouth turns red for 2-3 seconds before the fire erupts to deal damage.”

As one of the best commanders in the current gaming circle, how could he not have seen it? While the others stared blankly, he agreed with Lu Li and knew that this was the next thing they could take advantage of.

“There is also the number of statues that shoot fire at a time, and I think I have discovered the rule. The first and second time will shoot 6 jets of flame while the third time will shoot 9 jets. This pattern just keeps on repeating,” Lu Li explained further. He wasn’t afraid that they would think he was cheating as they could have noticed this for themselves.

It was just that some players would notice it faster than others. There were some groups that needed to be wiped several times before noticing this.

Sure enough, everyone was impressed by Lu Li’s keen observation. Even when Sorrowless was later interviewed by the media, he said that Lu Li was a sharp-minded man with an unparalleled gaming talent.

These two rules were the key to any strategy for Magmus. Now all they needed to do was formulate a strategy around them.

“Since the statues can’t move after they start to fire, you can avoid them to an extent. If you know that the pattern is 6, 6, 9, then you can prepare your damage reduction skills in advance for every third attack if necessary,” Wendelian summed up.

As such, the star players were now ready to fight once again.

The waves of flame jets were not to be underestimated. There was no reason why they couldn’t be aimed at more than a single player at a time. In fact, the flames had a fanning effect which meant the players could take more damage as they were easily stacked. If all 9 jets of flame hit a player, they only thing they could do was cast their damage reduction skills. Even then, they would lose half their HP.

“Breezy, you’ve gone out a bit far… Alright, take a few steps back… a few more…”

Lu Li continued adjusting Azure Sea Breeze’s position just to make sure that he wouldn’t get sprayed by nine of the statues at once.

Most of the other players were also under pressure by the statues, so this in turn placed enormous pressure on the healers.

The benefits of Fire Resistance were particularly evident here. If they were using their normal equipment, Lu Li felt like they wouldn’t be able to defeat this Boss, even if they knew the strategy.

Later, when the System was updated, the game company would choose to shorten the range of the statues which greatly reduced the difficulty of this Boss. If you stood on one side of the wall, you could avoid the flame jets from the other side.

There was a saying that if you couldn’t defeat this Boss, then there was no point into going to the Molten Core Instance Dungeon since you wouldn’t have enough fire resistance to do so.

This stage had also become a standard to test a player’s fire resistance capabilities.

Most of Lu Li’s group had decent fire resistance, and those that didn’t could just use their damage reduction skills instead. After all, what kind of professional player didn’t have at least two or three effects or skills that reduced damage taken?

Besides, damage reduction effects weren’t really something that could be used as a trump card. Everyone could only see that it was a damage reduction effect, and they wouldn’t know the details beyond that. The only thing was that some players might keep track of how many damage reducing effects everyone had.

It was during this attempt that they finally managed to defeat the Boss.

Magmus was a transformed giant, a guard dog for Emperor Dragan Thaurissan. It wasn’t a Boss that was particularly strong, and so its drops weren’t particularly valuable.

After killing Magmus, they could finally enter the last level of the Blackrock Abyss – the Shadowforge City Throne room.

There was actually quite a lot going on here.

Although they had now become servants of the Flame, the Iron Dwarves still retained their original social system – there was still the Emperor, the nobles and the parliamentarians. But of course, these now included some Flame aspects and members of the Twilight Hammer.

In the top and centermost area of the Throne Room, the Emperor Dragan Thaurissan was sitting next to the aristocrats, talking and laughing.

When Emperor Thaurissan began ruling as the puppet of Rangaros, he might have considered restoring his race to the previous glory that their ancestors had. However, in the face of absolute strength, he was just desperately trying to hold on as he reached the end of his reign.

This was the first King-level character that appeared in an Instance Dungeon. Everyone was wondering what kind of equipment he would drop.

Beyond the throne, there was a huge sculpture of Emperor Thaurissan’s father, Old Thaurissan. He was one of the culprits who had summoned Ragnaros with the help of the Seven Sages from the underground.

Underneath the sculpture was a plaque that had an inscription written on it.

“It saddened me to betray you more than it did to destroy my race.”

When the Dwarves left Uldaman and established Khaz Modan, they formed different clans. Mage Prince Thaurissan had planned to overthrow his brothers in the Bronzebeard and Wildhammer tribes, but he failed. Instead, he summoned the Seven Sages of Iron to create a powerful summoning circle. He wanted to use the strength of the Elemental to win the war.

However, he didn’t think that the creature he would summon would be his worst nightmare.

Flame Lord Ragnaros was the King of Fire Elementals who was sealed away by the Titans during creation. He killed Mage Prince Thaurissan the moment he was summoned, and erupted from the ground to form a volcano north of the Searing Gorge and south of the Burning Steppes – Blackrock Mountain.

Then, Thaurissan’s son Dragan Thaurissan grew up and summoned the Seven Sages, who summoned the Elemental. Together, they snuck into the Molten Core to assassinate the Elemental.

However, the young Thaurissan was discovered. Thaurissan was released because the Elemental needed Thaurissan’s power, but the Seven Sages of Iron were not so lucky. Their bodies were incinerated in the flames of Ragnaros and their souls were bound to the Seven Sages Hall to defend it eternally.

It could be said that the entire Iron Dwarf family had been completely destroyed by Old Thaurissan’s decision.

What could have possibly been more saddening than this?

Compared to the others, Lu Li understood because he had read more in Azeroth’s history than they did. He had also read some of the decoded texts of these characters.

In the long-running war between the Three Hammers, the Old Thaurissan did not actually intend to summon Ragnaros at first. However, after continual struggles, Old Thaurissan and his wife Modgud each led an attack on the Bronzebeard Dwarves and the Wildhammer Dwarves respectively.

In the battle, Thaurissan was once again defeated by the Bronzebeards, but in order to survive, he gave up Modgud who was fighting the Wildhammer.

Without Thaurissan’s support, Modgud was defeated by the Wildhammers and was killed by Kurdran Wildhammer in battle.

Modgud’s death led to a lifetime of regret for old Thaurissan. Because of his temporary greed, he had given up his lifelong companion. When he returned to the Red Ridge Mountains, Old Thaurissan lived in painful recollection. His deep love had become the most intense torture. This led to his hatred for the Bronzebeard and Wildhammer Dwarves, which was why he summoned the King of Flames, Ragnaros.

If his wife hadn’t been killed because he had abandoned her, perhaps Ragnaros wouldn’t have existed.

In any case, the Iron Dwarves eventually become famous among the three Hammer Tribes as the ones who had become Ragnaros’ puppets.

Lu Li and the others didn’t have much respect for an Emperor like Thaurissan.

This time, Azure Sea Breeze had finally learned his lesson. In the final battle in Blackrock Abyss, he didn’t rush in on his own, but looked at Lu Li and the others for his orders.