The Great Thief

“Just because you haven’t seen one doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. Poverty has limited your imagination, Elf,” Nerain said disdainfully. “Go to Gadgetzan and chat with Dirge Quikcleave; he’ll know where to find this breed.”

Dirge Quikcleave was the head cook of Gadgetzan. Lu Li knew him, and had also once tried the mussel feast there.

In all honesty, the food there was definitely not the best. It could have been because Lu Li couldn’t handle the fishiness of the mussels, or perhaps it was only the Trolls, the race that didn’t really care about what they ate, who would think that this sort of feast was abundant.

Dirge Quikcleave just happened to be teaching a few players the basics of the culinary arts skills.

“Do you want to have a look at my goods Elf? They are certainly the best handiwork on the whole mainland,” Dirge Quikcleave offered.

“No thanks, I’m very full,” Lu Li said politely, then asked straightforwardly, “Do you know about 500 pound chickens? Narain brought it up with me.”

“A 500 pound chicken? There is no such thing; these chickens don’t exist anymore. I’ve heard of them before…dark death chickens…” Dirge Quikcleave said, his voice a little shaky. “No one who has seen such a chicken has ever lived to tell the tale. I have a very good idea for the both of us – how about you forget about the idea of a 500 pound chicken?”

“I can’t – I promised Narain. I can’t just eat my words, and besides, I have a lot of strong allies,” Lu Li said, with a fearless spirit.

“Ok, maybe you can do this. Listen, elf, legend has it that there’s someone called Chimaerok of the Chimaera on that frightening Feralas island. He has the best, absolutely most delicious food! Now, they have a leader called Lackmaeran. After some clever cooking, their meat turns into a top-class feast. I need you to kill Lackmaeran, get Chimaerok’s flesh, as well as 20 portions of the Chimaeras’ tenderloins.”

“And then?” Lu Li asked.

“I’ll tell you when you bring it back. I hope you’ll all make it out alive,” Dirge Quikcleave said, with lingering fear in his heart.

At the westernmost end of the Kalimdor mainland, in the depths of Feralas Forest, there was a Night Elf city – Feathermoon Stronghold. Most of the adventurers came here to learn high-level Enchanting or simply to complete quests to level up. There were very few people who actually came here to ‘explore’.

Feathermoon Stronghold was on a little island called Sardor. To the south of Sardor Island there was a slightly larger island.

This place where the birds didn’t dare to poop on was a place that even fewer people set foot on.

It took half a day to swim there, and when you got there, there wasn’t anything there at all.

In fact, the most interesting thing on this island was probably Lord Shalzaru’s Lair. It was part of the

territory of the Naga, and inside, all sorts of Naga monsters spawned.

If you journeyed to the end, you would see a pond.

If you jumped and kept swimming down, there was a crooked tunnel. After a while, you would see a

light, and when you exited, you would find yourself in a hidden room in a cave.

Here, there was a Boss called Lord Shalzaru.

There was an even more important task today. What Lu Li needed to find was Lackmaeran – the lazy overlord of a frightening island.

Lackmaeran flew high in the sky. He couldn’t fly low, otherwise, he’d be electrocuted by the Chimaera monsters.

The Chimaera were staunch allies of the Night Elves. They protected various forests and the World Tree Nordrassil. They were creatures that lived in seclusion and were filled with emotions, but lacked the ability to speak. Their main struggle was to maintain the balance of the natural world. Chimaeras hated any behavior that harmed natural races and other natural life. No matter who it was, as long as they dared to do such things, they would be asking for the terrifying fire and fury of the Chimaeras.

The Chimaeras of Felaras had a close relationship with the Naga. These scary two-headed monsters flew low above Felaras. Apart from the Naga, all other life on the island was their food. They would strike with fatal lightning at all invading enemies.

It really wasn’t hard for Lu Li to find Lackmaeran, although he didn’t leave consistent tracks.

His giant head could be seen for miles away!

This sort of level 60 Wild Boss certainly couldn’t be dealt with by just Lu Li alone, so he quickly called for his support forces. First was a few Thieves to protect Sesame Rice Ball while he travelled into the enemy Boss territory. Then, he began to transport players on a larger scale.

“Isn’t there anyone fighting this wild Boss?” Lu Li asked.

“Occasionally. The First Clear was taken away by Glory Capital a few weeks ago. Normally, to attack it, you need to clean up a lot of the little monsters. It’s hard to defeat and doesn’t drop much, so usually no one fights it,” came the immediate detailed response from a player who had relatively quick access to information.

Dawn used a lot of maps and Instance Dungeons. There were a lot of Bosses that could be killed, but the truly competitive ones were either First Clears or the Bosses that dropped relatively valuable things, like the blue dragon.

Lackmaeran was located far away from the continent, not to mention he was level 60 and was considered harder to defeat. Major guilds would not waste their time on him, but mid-sized guilds didn’t have the power. As such, he became a Boss that no one really paid a visit to.

“So this is the 500 pound chicken?” Remnant Dream asked, dumbly looking up at the Boss.

“There’s no way. I think just his leg would be 500 pounds,” Hachi Chan said, swallowing some saliva.

“You could eat it for days.”

Then, the both of them gasped in admiration in the same way.

“If you two eat any more you’ll turn into fatty girls,” Azure Sea Breeze said, slapping their heads.

“Hmph, even if we’re fatter, we’d still look better than you,” Hachi Chan shot back.

“Ok then, get ready to work. Clean up the smaller monsters around the place first. This Boss isn’t too hard. There are basically two stages. In the first stage, the Boss is on the ground and it mainly does group damage. Our plan will be to have two frontlines. In the second stage, he’ll be in the sky. Ranged units can start to attack, while melee units can just stand together to take the damage. There’s a walkthrough online. I hope you all had a look already.”

This sort of Boss, which had already been killed many times, had a comprehensive walkthrough written ages ago.

However, they knew that the walkthrough wasn’t very meaningful. For the ordinary players, even if they could follow it, they weren’t likely to be able to fight their way through. After all, Lackmaeran’s area-of-effect damage was extremely frightening, and he specialized in lightning damage. At the moment, Dawn had very little equipment that protected against lightning attacks.

Today, Ruling Sword had come with three Elite groups and one Core Elite group (although not everyone was present). This arrangement was already more than enough to fight against a Wild Boss.

Even so, Lu Li, with great caution, arranged for two more Elite groups to stop others from rushing in and causing trouble.

Ruling Sword had developed to the point where they had three Elite Groups that were more focused on attacking in Instance Dungeons, two Elite Groups that were more focused on PVP, as well as a Core Elite group that hadn’t taken shape yet.