The Great Thief

As for what to do with it after getting it, Lu Li hadn’t thought of that yet.

Now that his status was different, he couldn’t just hoard and profit from it like he once did. In fact, the value of the Cedar Ring was completely determined by hype. If the merchants didn’t have enough, then they wouldn’t push for it as hard.

Even if it did drop, how would it be distributed? That was an entirely different question.

No one in the team would need this kind of item since the Attributes would be quite average. After all, it was just a Gold level item.

“I haven’t played in an Instance Dungeon for a long time so I feel a bit rusty. If you think about it, it’s a little sad that a girl like me has to deal with these bodies for a living,” Remnant Dream sighed after starting to loot the body.

“Quickly loot it. If you don’t do it, then I will,” Hachi Chan said while hugging her dragon.

Her elf dragon still couldn’t be ridden, but it had gotten much bigger. When Hachi Chan held it, its tail would hang all the way down to her feet. If she didn’t hold it high enough, it would drag along the ground. If that happened, the Elf Dragon would spit fire at Hachi Chan.

“I can’t believe you would pressure me like that. If you do that again, I’ll eat your dragon,” Remnant Dream muttered.

“I won’t pressure you if you don’t want me to. Why do you have be so aggressive?”

Hachi Chan appeased her dragon baby, afraid that it would get spooked.

In fact, the Elf Dragon wouldn’t grow much bigger, since it was clearly going to become a flying mount. Since it had taken Eranikus’ dragon blood essence, it had grown bigger, but Hachi Chan’s other methods had failed.

However, it still had quite a beautiful form as it had elegantly stretched out when it grew.

If you really wanted to ride the Elf Dragon, you had to train it and develop its flying and riding skill. Flying was quite different to riding, as the mount needed to hold the player on its back but also change the players’ size so it was proportionate.

Hachi Chan, who was originally about 1.5m, would be scaled down to 1m.

It looked quite cute, which was why Unforgettable Maple refused to show the mount. If you called a little 1m girl cute, then what would you call a little 1m boy?

“Two Strengthening Stones, one Rare Material and a Serpentine Skuller. It looks pretty but it is just a Dark Gold item with average Attributes,” Remnant Dream evaluated as she looted the equipment. She was now quite well-informed about equipment, though her knowledge of other areas probably needed work.

“It looks quite nice. March Rain, do you want it?’ Lu Li asked.

This was a Priest item and he had to ask her even if she wasn’t suited for it.

“Don’t worry about it; the item doesn’t suit me. I’ll let you handle it,” March Rain said, choosing not to bother with it. Although she was a girl, she didn’t care much for the looks of most equipment. What most considered to be beautiful usually didn’t meet her standard for aesthetics.

“If March Rain doesn’t want it, then does any other Magic Profession player want it?” Lu Li asked.

“I want it – it matches my white dress and would look great,” Kitty Likes Meat said sheepishly. This kind of equipment was a little too valuable to be used for purely ornamental purposes.

The items that were acquired by Ruling Sword’s First Clear group became part of Ruling Sword. They would be used to fill the needs of the elite groups.

“If you want it, then you can have it,” Lu Li said, assigning the crystal-clear Magic Staff to Kitty Likes Meat. In fact, the market for this equipment was for women anyway.

Of course, some points were deducted for it.

The second piece of equipment was a pair of Chain Mail Leggings that Sakura Memories could use. Although they didn’t significantly increase her strength, they gave her a little more HP which was very useful for her levelling. As such, she spent some points to acquire this equipment.

There was a third item!

“Cedar Ring. It looks… pretty average. It’s just a Gold item,” Remnant Dream announced disdainfully. Although there were no clear rules, most players expected for the better items to come later. For this last item to be a Gold item was quite depressing.

“Let me have this item if no one else needs it, I have a use for it,” Lu Li coughed.

The boss had already made his judgement, so what choice did the other players have? No one really needed the Gold ring anyway so it was simply handed to Lu Li.

In a month’s time, this ring would be sold for over 100,000 in real money.

If you did the math, this virtual item was actually more expensive than an actual diamond ring in the real world. It was ridiculous, but this game was filled with foolish tycoons with lots of money to spend.

After obtaining all the items, they got ready to leave.

They continued on the stairs on the left and cleared a group of Orcs that were standing on them. Then, they entered the Flame Guard’s room. There was a table in the middle of the room and many mind-controlled Orcs around the table manipulating a Fire Elemental in the middle.

The monsters wouldn’t attack, so long as Azure Sea Breeze didn’t go in to pull them out.

This was how the group quickly got wiped the first time, but it was as expected. Lu Li couldn’t remind Azure Sea breeze that these monsters couldn’t be fought. The normal thing to do was to fight whatever monsters you saw, and there were many teams that died here.

The correct way to fight these monsters was to try and touch the Fire Elemental in the middle. When doing so, these mind-controlled Orcs would arise one at a time to fight them.

When one of them came, the others would remain at the table. This way, Lu Li and the others would be able to manage them. If they still got wiped like this, they could just give up.

Eventually, the warlocks were killed and only the Fire Elemental remained.

The fire elemental wasn’t a monster, or at least, it wasn’t a normal monster. It couldn’t be attacked in its current state and many players didn’t know how to trigger the Boss. In fact, it was quite simple. They just needed to push the Fire Elemental to the altar next to it and ask a few Magic Profession players to cast some skills on it.

It didn’t matter what skills were cast; healing or some damage skills were fine. They weren’t limited to just ice or shadow skills.

When the Fire Elemental was activated by the skills, it would begin to swell up to finally form a cute little fireball with a sinister face.

“Haha, let me eat you as a thank you!” the monster laughed as it was released.

According to the plot, this monster’s name was Emberseer, Pyroguard Emberseer. He was one of Ragnaros’ most loyal servants. In the climactic battle on the Burning Steppes, innumerable Blackstone Orcs were incinerated by him. Unfortunately, he was eventually defeated and imprisoned in Blackrock Mountain. His powerful energy was used to speed up the hatching of Nefarian’s black dragon eggs.

However, he was not what he once was, as Emberseer had been tortured all this time.

These Orc Warlocks had put shadow energy into his body and used it to siphon his energy. This was how the egg hatching process was accelerated.

It was quite unlikely that Emberseer enjoyed this process.

If you ask Emberseer what he hated the most, he would definitely say the Warlock’s abilities. He particularly hated Orc Warlocks, and when he thought about them, he felt like running away.

But before that, he had to deal with this group of people who had saved him.

Hachi Chan shared a quest that she had acquired from the Duke of Hadaksis, who asked her to kill Pyroguard Emberseer.

“Be prepared to fight, and pay attention everyone. Don’t take this lightly just because it is the first Boss,” Lu Li warned in advance. Discounting the previous Hidden Boss, Emberseer was the first Boss of Blackrock Spire and effectively acted as a watchdog for Nefarian.

“It should be no problem. My current Fire Resistance is so good that Fat Monkey can’t even hurt me,” Azure Sea Breeze declared proudly.

“Be careful of its demonic attacks. You need to pay attention and cast your damage reduction skills,” Lu Li instructed. He was revealing a key part of fighting this Boss. Although Emberseer was a Fire Elemental, his attacks had a measure of Fel energy to them. This Fel energy had obviously come from the Warlocks that had imprisoned him.

Since the players were fighting a Fire Elemental, they would subconsciously think that it would be using fire attacks and naturally put on fire resistance equipment.

Fire Resistance equipment could greatly reduce fire damage, but it also reduced their resistance towards other elements. If you weren’t careful, it was easy to get wiped here. If the Fire Elemental cast an area of effect skill infused with Fel damage, the group would be dead in a matter of seconds.

Lu Li’s caution didn’t seem to arouse any suspicion.

Although there was no publicly available strategy for the upper levels of Blackrock Spire, as Blood Red War Flag wouldn’t have shared it so soon after they completed the Instance Dungeon, there was some speculation about Emberseer.

There was previously the group of Orc Warlocks channelling the Boss.

A truly skilled commander would think about this setting in coming up with a strategy to fight this Boss. What was happening in that situation? If you knew the answer, then you would realize like Lu Li that a Paladin should cast a Demon Resistance halo on their teammates.

“Hey, your attacks are giving the Boss HP. Can you please hold back?” Lu Li asked helplessly.

“Oh, okay, I was wondering why his HP was going up as I attacked it,” Fat Monkey said sheepishly before standing aside. He cursed the Boss and the game designers for making it this way. Although they designed the Fire Mage as Dawn’s most powerful offensive profession, there were a number of restrictive conditions. The restriction he faced today was just too much; he was actually healing the Boss when he attacked it.

“If you’re a ranged player, make sure to stand five yards or more away… Hachi Chan, make sure to pay attention to the melee players’ HP. If you start losing too much HP then make sure you retreat five yards or further,” Lu Li said.

Most Fire Elementals were covered by a fire shield. In addition to providing some protection to the caster, it also applied fire damage to units that were within 5 yards. This was a stackable damage over time.

It was possible to continually stack these several layers of fire until the damage was unbearable.

The solution for this problem was easy – all they had to do was leave the 5 yard range and the stacks would eventually deceased until they vanished.

However, this method meant that the damage output of melee players would be affected. Lu Li had to spend so much time running in and out that he couldn’t even match Remnant Dream’s damage output.

It was said that Blood Red War Flag replaced almost all of their melee professions while fighting this Boss.

Lu Li would never do such a thing. He was used to this group of people and he was willing to take it slower. There was no point wasting someone else’s time and opportunity to enter the Instance Dungeon just to fight this Boss. Those who were replaced also wouldn’t be able to fight this Instance Dungeon anymore until the cooldown refreshed.

The first stage of the Boss specifically focused on dealing damage to the Main Tank. As long as the other players didn’t die to the flame shield, there was no danger for them.

“This is a bit difficult,” Azure Sea Breeze said with a forlorn face. He felt like he was outrageously strong, but every time he stepped in front of a Boss he was beaten into a pulp.

“This is just the first Boss. If you can’t tank it, then what can you do?”

“Screw you, how about you come and do it then.”

“Hehe, you’re a tank, so just be ready for anything,” Lu Li sneered. “Don’t say so much and use your damage reduction skills. Can’t you see that you’ve got many stacks of the flame shield damage?”

“Wandering, come swap with me, I’m going to get rid of these stacks!” Azure Sea Breeze screamed.

“I don’t care if you die.”

Although he said those words, Wandering still used Taunt to pull the Boss away so that Azure Sea Breeze had the opportunity to run away and lose some Flame Shield stacks.

The second stage started when Emberseer’s HP dropped below 60%.

In Lu Li’s mind, this stage was very simple as long as they dealt enough damage to the Boss within a certain timeframe.

If they couldn’t do that, the Boss would burn all targets within 50 yards with Flame Nova. The damage was very high and almost no one would be able to tank it, so they had to quickly get to the third stage before this happened.

This was why Lu Li hadn’t asked them to go all out in the first stage.

“Cast Bloodlust, and everyone use all the burst skills that you have. Don’t worry about it going Berserk.”

It would be quite dangerous if this Boss went berserk, but if they couldn’t enter the third stage in time, then it wouldn’t matter anyway.

In the first stage, Lu Li didn’t use any damage reduction skills and would just leave when he received too many stacks.

However, since it was a critical moment, he stopped worrying and cast his damage reduction skill just so he could apply more damage onto the Boss.

In just three minutes, Emberseer’s HP dropped to 30%.

They were two minutes faster than what Lu Li had in mind, and this was a demonstration of the group’s power. Throughout the whole process, Fat Monkey was standing in the distance and yawning at the sight.

“Alright, this is the third stage. We don’t have to fight too hard, so try to save your cooldowns for when it goes Berserk,” Lu Li said.

He didn’t think that they had succeeded yet. Fire Elementals tended to have an aggressive temperament, and they would most likely go Berserk. These kinds of Fire Elementals often also used area of effect skills, so they could still get wiped in a matter of moments.

Even so, as long as they had one strong Main Tank, they would be fine. Azure Sea Breeze could safely pull the Boss away to allow everyone to catch their breath. If their tank was not as capable, the other professions would need to kite the Boss for them to gain the space they needed.

Even for the casual players, a strong Main Tank would often receive invites into a party.

On the other hand, if a Main Tank was too squishy, everyone would avoid them. There would often be forum posts publicly naming some tanks for being too squishy and causing their team to be wiped a dozen times.

After a short two minute break, Lu Li announced for everyone to get back on their feet.

The healers needed to resume healing as Azure Sea Breeze had been taking damage for a while. They couldn’t drag the fight on indefinitely either, as the longer they waited, the greater chance there was for the Boss to go Berserk.