The Great Thief

“I’ll take it,” Bearded Zaza raised his hand. Zaza’s current armour was not as powerful as Remnant Dream’s, with the latter being equipped with a set of Tier 2 Epic armour. Zaza thought that exchanging points for good equipment was always a worthy investment.

“Alright, I’ll take the points off you. Throw your current armour into the Guild’s warehouse,” Lu Li responded. There wasn’t an official rule which prohibited elite players from selling their equipment. However, Lu Li would always have his players turn in their equipment if they bought equipment at a bargain. And if the equipment wasn’t redeemed, the club would recycle the unused armour and reward the player with Guild points.

“Not a problem, I’ll do that once I finish the exchange,” Bearded Zaza agreed willingly. Zaza did not have to stress about his financial situation, nor was he interested in making money through gaming; all he wanted was to have a good time while he was still in Ruling Sword. Ever since Zaza had joined Lu Li’s club, he was quickly promoted from a casual player to an elite, and swiftly from elite to the Guild’s Hunters Team Leader. As long as the Guild was putting together a First Clear Team and needed a hunter, Zaza would always be at the top of Lu Li’s list. Zaza even had the chance to be part of the competitive team during the Donghua Cup. For Zaza, whether he was allowed to keep his current equipment was unimportant as long as he was able to have fun. After all, to players like Zaza, the club was his second home, meaning even if Lu Li didn’t tell him to store away his equipment, he would’ve willingly done so himself anyway.

“There’s one more here: The Hakkari Bracers, it’s also part of the equipment set,” Remnant Dream announced.

“Good,” Lu Li brightened up instantly. The Hakkari Bracers was nothing impressive, if anything, it was the type of armour that gets quickly replaced when a player’s base points were too low. Lu Li was cheered up by the fact that if the Boss they’ve just defeated had dropped one normal Epic armour and two armour sets, it meant that his team had gotten the first kill. The first Boss they’ve defeated was not the first kill; she had only dropped one armour set, meaning other clubs had gotten to her before Lu Li did. Ruling Sword was late to the Instance compared to the clubs and was lagging behind. However, being able to draw first blood with the second Boss meant they’ve not only caught up with the rivalling clubs, but they were also in the lead.

After Lu Li’s team had finished sharing the loot, they turned their focus back on clearing out the mobs. It was only then that Lu Li realised that some players had died during the fight. “The Big Spider explodes once it’s dead, then a bunch of smaller spiders emerge from its remains. Unlike the snakes, these spiders are quite deadly,” Azure Sea Breeze warned fearfully, having dodged a bullet by activating damage reduction before the explosion.

“Wandering, do you know which type of spiders explode?” Lu Li asked.

“What? Don’t ask me, I don’t know anything,” Wandering looked like he was about to collapse, throwing his head against the wall, it seemed his fear of spiders was getting to him. Despite Wandering switching his graphics to a cute version of the sprites, his paleness suggested that it hadn’t helped much.

“Seems like only the dark red spiders can self-destruct,” March Rain said, indifferent to her creepy-crawly enemies.

“The dark red ones must be female then, only female spiders can self-detonate and create small spiders,” Lu Li responded, quickly drawing to a conclusion, “Let’s finish off the other spiders and leave the dark red, female spiders till the end. Wandering, it’s a joke to call yourself a man, no wonder your parents gave you such a rough-sounding name,”

“As if you guys don’t have anything you’re scared of,” Wandering pouted.

The spiders were easily dealt with, and the team quickly arrived at the third Boss High Priestess Arlokk’s location. Arlokk was difficult to defeat, but the mobs around him were easier. Lu Li wouldn’t be surprised if Arlokk continued to annihilate his team for at least half a day. On the bright side, Lu Li was sure the other clubs wouldn’t easily get the first kill either. Luckily, Lu Li knew exactly how to defeat this Boss. Being annihilated on the first try was anticipated since the Boss would summon four small spiders at random points of the battle. The four spiders were not elites, however, it had frightening movement speed and strength and they only targeted healers. The spider’s Bite skill caused continuous damage over time, and it would also prolong the victim’s casting time of healing spells by at least a hundred per cent. Spells that originally needed two seconds to cast now needed four seconds of casting. If the healers were held up, recovery was a problem. Main Tanks such as Azure Sea Breeze wouldn’t be too bothered due to his large amount of health, but players that were constantly AOE’d by the Boss would be thrown into a dire situation.

The Boss had two special skills: a wide-range, AOE poison attack which could hurt even long-ranged players; and a lifesteal spell that must be nullified as soon as possible, otherwise, the Boss could easily recover its lost health. Lu Li’s plan was simple; he was going to put a mage in between the healers and the Boss. When the small spiders are summoned to attack the healers, the mage would then cast Ice Ring to trap the spiders and the rest of the team focuses them. As long as the spiders didn’t use Bite on the healers, the healers would be able to recover the poisoned players uninterrupted. As for the Boss’s lifesteal, as long as Priests like March Rain kept casting Disperse, the skill could be easily dealt with.

Similar to past Bosses, High Priest Arlokk had two forms. Arlokk morphed into his spider form when his health was down to seventy-five per cent. It was also the part of the battle where Wandering fought with both eyes closed, since he didn’t dare look at his enemies. He also didn’t believe that he would be able to contribute much to the battle even if he did. Contrary to Wandering’s belief, he was indispensable to the team; the Boss required two tanks to work together, so there was no time for him to slack off. One thing everyone would soon realise was the Boss’s signature skill – Web Spray. Whoever caught in the web would lose all aggro, this meant that once the web targeted the Main Tanks, the Main Tanks’ aggro would disappear, and the Boss would start attacking the ranged-players.

Lu Li’s team suffered heavy casualties at the first and second stage. Seeing the skeletons of the crew that remained, Lu Li announced their annihilation for their first attempt. “Wandering, are you sure you can do this? There’s no need to push yourself you know,” Lu Li asked, “This instance requires two tanks to cooperate and I need one that can stand in front of the ranged players so he can Taunt the Boss when it targets them.”

“Yeah, just admit it if you can’t do it. Hah!” Azure Sea Breeze smirked.

It’s hard for a man to admit his incompetence.