The Great Thief

Ruling Sword won the Black Sea Coast and Drizzle Court won the Western Wilderness, while Glory Capital won the Stranglethorn Vale. These results were expected, but the other two results were more surprising. Tanaris had been captured by Peerless City, which basically meant that Water Fairy had control over two Strongholds.

Although this was somewhat unexpected, it wasn’t an unreasonable outcome.

If Water Fairy dared to use 400 chariots to smash through Western Wilderness, why couldn’t she give Peerless City 400 chariots to acquire Tanaris?

She had immediately acquired two pieces of land!

Another piece of land called the Barrenlands was taken away by Gale Legion.

At this point, the System had opened up a total of six Strongholds – Grey Valley, Black Sea Coast, Western Wilderness, Barrenlands, Tanaris and Stranglethorn Vale. Ruling Sword had control over two of them, Glory Capital had control over two and Drizzle Court had control over two. This situation was far from balanced.

Lu Li instinctively felt like there was reason to be afraid that the System would intelligently try to adjust this.

After the Black Sea Coast had been taken down, Ruling Sword immediately built the wall and overhauled its design. The wall was taller than the stone one used at the Grey Valley Stronghold. After all, the challenge of the sieges next week would be even more difficult.

Right now, the sieges could happen once a week. The conquering of a new map was locked at a certain time, along with the attacking of the players’ Strongholds.

This meant that Ruling Sword had to defend two Strongholds at the same time. A single Stronghold required 80 players to participate while two Strongholds required 160 players to participate. In a five-player fight, Ruling Sword wasn’t afraid of any club. If it was ten players, Ruling Sword could still fend off any other team. If it was 40 players, Lu Li had to recognise that the wider group of his members were a little weak. However, right now, it wasn’t just 40 players, but 160.

If you considered Ruling Sword’s strength at 160 players, their overall power was not that great.

Fortunately, the clubs that came to attack had to abide by the 40+40 principle. The first 40 players were selected, but the last 40 players were drawn from a pool of 200 players. Otherwise, Lu Li wouldn’t dare to try to defend two Strongholds.

Lu Li didn’t need to be present for the Stronghold’s construction. As long as they had the money, Square Root 3 would be able to conduct all the work.

Over the next few days, Lu Li took the team to continue the Instance Dungeon. They killed one Boss after another and on Thursday, everyone had finally arrived at the Molten Core’s final Boss Ragnaros.

There was actually quite a cruel trick in this section. They had to go to Ragnaros within two hours of defeating Majordomo Executus. Otherwise, Majordomo Executus would return to his original position and respawn his eight underlings. This meant that the Boss had to be fought once again.

It was one thing to fight the boss again, but the worst part was that defeating Majordomo Executus a second time wouldn’t yield any rewards.

As such, when Lu Li left Majordomo Executus on Wednesday, they had to defeat him and his underlings again on Thursday morning. Once they successfully defeated him, everyone followed him to where Ragnaros was.

Ragnaros was the King of Flames. He was the leader of the Fire Elementals among the four ancient elemental gods.

Ragnaros the Firelord symbolised anger and destruction, just like the hellfire in the creation of Azeroth. The God of the Ancients had assured Ragnaros that he would have the opportunity to turn Azeroth into the sea of fire and that Neptune and Therazan would be powerless. In order to please the Ancient Gods, Ragnaros had vowed to ignite the World Tree Nordrassil.

However, as history unfolded, the Ancient Gods were suppressed by the Titans and sealed into the depths of the earth. This elemental leader naturally didn’t meet a good end either.

Ragnaros was defeated and sealed until the battle among the three Dwarf factions. The defeated Black Iron Tribe’s Prince Sorensen was eager to acquire Ragnaros’ strength but was killed by him instead.

As Ragnaros was revived, his power pulsed outwards from where he stood and formed a roaring volcano which was now Blackrock Tower.

Most of the Iron Dwarves and Prince Sorensen were imprisoned at Blackrock Abyss in Blackrock Tower as slaves to the flame. All the while, Ragnaros was in a deep slumber within the Molten Core, which was located at the depths of the Blackrock Abyss.

He was accumulating his strength and waiting for the day that he was strong enough to leave this place and take over all of Azeroth.

After his underlings were killed, Majordomo Executus said a few lines before taking the players to his master.

His master was Ragnaros.

The location was in the central area of the magma environment and within the depths of the Instance Dungeon. Ragnaros’ lair was surrounded by magma and had a magma pool in the centre. The magma was clearly bubbling and there was obviously a behemoth lurking inside.

“Ragnaros, King of Flames, one who is more ancient than the world itself! Yield before him! Yield, for your last days have come!”

In every language, Majordomo Executus really meant, “My dad is a big boss and you’re a thief. Now, he is coming, and you are doomed.’

While Majordomo Executus summoned his master, Lu Li began to split the team into groups.

This time he had brought five Warriors – Azure Sea Breeze as the Main Tank and World’s Best Friend as the Tank sub, along with Moonlight and two others as damage output or as temporary Main Tanks if necessary. This time, Lu Li increased the number of Thieves. He had also brought Scarlet New Moon, Cain’s Left hand and White Traveller in addition to Water Fairy and himself to make five Thieves.

It was mainly the attributes of Ragnaros that determined the composition of the players.

Ragnaros was cloth-armored, so some thought of him as a Fire Mage. However, he had a hammer in his hand, so others thought of him as a Priest. In fact, no matter what profession he was, he was actually quite squishy. Berserkers and Thieves were effective against him.

They had four Ice Mages. Fat Monkey had one again been kicked out by Lu Li from the Instance Dungeon. He almost started crying when it happened again.

They had Four Warlocks as per the original line up, along with quite a few Priest and Druid Healers. They also had Tanky Healers and Shamans. The rest of the spots were filled by Paladins and Ranged damage output professions.

“Each healer needs to watch out for their Main Tank. I will investigate any unforced mistakes,” Lu Li threatened. After he finished organising the teams, the summoning had completed and a flaming giant was slowly rising from the lava.

Ragnaros: “Why have you awakened me Executus. Why are you bothering me?”

It seemed like this big Boss was quite angry, but it was understandable. The Boss was focusing on incubating… wait no, regenerating himself, and he was being interrupted. The Boss had already told Executus not to wake up him for anything while he was regenerating. He didn’t care about the black dragon prince or anything like this; he had given instructions for them to be destroyed.

Majordomo Executus: “Because these invaders, my lord, have broken into your temple and want to steal your secrets.”

Ragnaros: “You idiot, how dare you let these unworthy bugs into this sacred place? Now that they are here, you have disappointed me Executus. You have disappointed me!”

What was happening? This situation seemed like a mess.

Ragnaros thought he was an Azeroth powerhouse – someone like Malfurion or Gul’dan.