The Great Thief

First of all, Sapphiron’s items needed to be taken; this was the priority.

The first item was a Critical Stone with decent stats, and it was given to a newly-joined player. He said that he was going to insert the stone onto his weapon, since it was still lacking enhancements. All the new players fought over this stone, since Lu Li and the original members didn’t need it.

In this group of newly-joined players, all of them, besides Short Road, were aiming for exquisite Dark Gold items, T0.5 set items, or the stones that the original members didn’t need.

However, the value of these Critical Stones was not to be underestimated. A stone that provided +20 Critical Chance would make it easy to reach 40 Critical Chance. There were some of these stones on the market, but a majority of them were only +10. After all, +15 stones only dropped from Bosses, while the +20 version only dropped from Nightmare Difficulty Instance Dungeons or the highest difficulty Bosses.

This was likely the reason why everyone was happy to join the team, even as a backup, since they could easily receive exquisite items that the club members had no use for.

Some lucky ones even managed to gather all four items to make a set. This gave them a huge increase in battle strength. Furthermore, some also managed to obtain T1 gear.

Stones, materials and skill books – the haul from this Boss was a little lacklustre, since there were no Enhancing skill books. No one had been particularly hopeful for such a drop, so no one was disappointed. After all, the drop rate was low, and even if one dropped, it might not even be specific to them. Even if it was, it wouldn’t be sold at a low price.

At the end, the equipment was revealed. When the Gold and Dark Gold items were distributed, there was the Legendary item.

Shadowstrike – it had a similar name to the Felstriker, but had a longer handle. At this time, the ones who needed these types of weapons the most were Hunters, so it was bound to be either Remnant Dream or Bearded Zaza who would end up it.

After placing two bids, Bearded Zaza began to smile bitterly and shook his head.

His DKP was already running out. As a newly-joined member of this squad, there was no way that he could compete with Remnant Dream, a regular in this team.

Therefore, Shadowstrike was bought by Remnant Dream at a moderate price.

This type of competing was a common occurrence during team activities. If they didn’t consider the squad composition, everyone would want to be the only one of their class in the squad. This was because there would be no competition when getting items. There weren’t many Hunters in the squad; there was only Remnant Dream and Bearded Zaza. There weren’t many Thieves either – only Lu Li and Water Fairy. Truthfully, even if there was one more Thief in the team for this Instance Dungeon, there still wouldn’t be an excess. This could have been planned by Lu Li, but they would never know.

Fortunately, Bearded Zaza still benefitted from this Instance Dungeon. It could even be said that his gains were far greater than the other newcomers.

Remnant Dream’s items were already exquisite. She didn’t require many upgrades, so Bearded Zaza ended up with the items that she didn’t need. The items that he gained from this run of the Instance Dungeon would have indisputably placed him in the top ranks of any elite squad.

The second Legendary item was a T1 set item – a Warlock shoulder armour. This was taken by Sesame Rice Ball.

Just as Lu Li was about to leave with the team, Remnant Dream managed to loot another item.

Ring of Spell Power!

This was a mana-based Ring and the properties weren’t that great. However, since it was a Legendary accessory, it naturally gathered everyone’s attention.

In the end, it was taken by a newly-joined Mage who used all his resources to buy it.

This was his first Legendary accessory. His original Necklaces, Rings and Badges were all of a pitiful Dark Gold grade. This time, he managed to get himself a Legendary ring.

“Well, do you guys want to continue or have free time for the rest of today?” Lu Li asked, wanting to know everyone’s opinions.

“Let’s keep going, since we wouldn’t be any help at the Stronghold anyway. Let’s quickly take down First Clear before the other clubs.”

Azure Sea Breeze was beginning to get used to the dungeon, so naturally, he wanted to keep going. As for the others, once they heard Azure Sea Breeze say this, they didn’t say anything else.

Azure Sea Breeze’s words made sense. If First Clear was stolen, then it would be trouble.

“Well, let’s keep going then,” Lu Li decided.

The 8th Boss was Golemagg the Incinerator, a gigantic Boss with a fierce face. Just from its appearance, you could tell that it would not be easy to defeat. Golemagg the Incinerator had a much higher offensive power than the previous Bosses.

For example, Sapphiron would deal around 400 damage with a basic attack to Azure Sea Breeze.

Golemagg the Incinerator on the other hand would easily deal above 1000.

Azure Sea Breeze was instantly taken aback when he tackled the Boss. It was fortunate that the healers were quite powerful, so it wasn’t an instant tragedy. Instance dungeons were sometimes like this. The players would be too used to a certain level of damage, so they assumed that the other Bosses were the same with their basic attacks. Neglecting this aspect caused them to be utterly surprised when the damage was not what they expected.

Fortunately, World’s Best Friend managed to pull the two dogs to him.

The two hounds beside Golemagg were capable of unleashing Damage Over Time skills. They could also cast spells that slowed movement speed which were quite annoying to deal with. World’s Best Friend had some difficulties pulling both at the same time, so Wandering joined him to help out.

These two Core Hounds were unkillable, so the two Tanks needed to stay there.

Azure Sea Breeze was the only Main Tank in charge of the Boss. This was a display of Lu Li’s trust in him. At the same time, there was also immense pressure.

The first time that Golemagg used Enrage, no one managed to react in time since they were still unfamiliar with the Boss, so they still wiped.

The main test of this Boss was for the Main Tank. If the Main Tank was skilled, things would go smoothly. They needed to keep the two Core Hounds away, so the two Tanks couldn’t die. This was no problem for World’s Best Friend and Wandering. Furthermore, Lu Li also arranged some dedicated healers to watch their HP bars.

The first few Enrages were rather weak, so they were still manageable.

When Golemagg’s HP hit 10%, he went crazy. As a result, the team started began through squad wipe after wipe.

He recalled that the strategy for the 7th and 8th Bosses mentioned that they were easy. Perhaps it was it was more difficult during the early iterations of the Instance Dungeon. The strategies that he looked at were all written later on when the difficulty had been adjusted.

Truthfully, the wipes at the end of the fight were the worst.

If they wiped at the start, then it would be easy to reset and not waste more than a few minutes. However, wiping after reaching 10% HP? That wasted too much time.

After this, it seemed like the team was just doing the same thing over and over again. Even Azure Sea Breeze, who was the most enthusiastic about Instance Dungeons, was beginning to feel frustrated and tired.

They needed fortune to be on their side to clear this Boss.

Hoping for better fortune wasn’t practical. Lu Li gathered everyone together and analysed the Boss’ Berserk with them. They tried to figure out where they could improve, on the Main Tank’s side or the healers’. There was also another problem – what if they ran out of mana? How could they fix that?

The specialised strategists outside of the Instance Dungeon were also trying to figure this out.

One by one, through multiple theories, they eliminated the problems. Lu Li then changed the squad composition around, trying to find the best possible combination to tackle this Boss.