The Great Thief

The battle quickly entered into the second stage. When Venoxis still had about 40% HP, he could change into a snake.

The troll changed into a big snake as he cried out in anger. His ferocious eyes stared directly at Lu Li sending a shiver down his spine. Even though the team mentally prepared themselves, they were still shocked at the transformation.

Whole teams had died at this stage – frightened to death by the boss. Someone had once said that it was one of the most stupid ways in which a whole team died. The designer was probably a horror or disaster enthusiast. “Hey, aren’t you all afraid?” Lu Li asked with puzzlement at the calm girls. Shouldn’t they be screaming now? The only way to tell if they were scared in the game was if they were frantically screaming.

“You’re so stupid. Isn’t it cute?” Hachi Chan stared at Lu Li disdainfully.

“This big snake is so cute. I really want to take it home,” Remnant Dream said, staring at the giant, ferocious snake. Lu Li and the others quickly refocused and continued the battle.

“Flower, Flower! Run to the left, run to where there’s no one.” Venoxis spat at Lonesome Flower, and his body was instantly shrouded in a green cloud which continued to spread.

Lonesome Flower wasn’t that good at PVPing, so his reaction time was slow. However, along with the increase of activities in the game, he had now been playing for over half a year now. He had long passed the initial stage of his immature youth of dying avoidable deaths. Now, when he encountered a normal attack out in the wild, he could finish off them off in just two or three slashes.

Classes had been nerfed or buffed throughout the game, but this old mage had never been weakened. Lonesome Flower ran into a corner where he could avoid spreading the poison to other players. Apart from the poisonous fog, the boss also sent out toxic clouds in different open areas. The range of these clouds were a little further, and it did more damage to those close to him. Basically, don’t stand in the poison clouds.

They were able to react to the toxic clouds without Lu Li telling them. At this stage, Azure Sea Breeze’s work was more difficult. He had to keep the boss from engaging with the rest of the team while pulling the boss away from the poison clouds.

“Why do I keep feeling like there’s something biting at me,” Fat Monkey frowned. “It’s a little snake,” Lu Li commented, having already seen it much earlier.

“We should deal with them,”

“No need. It’s a waste of time. Their damage is just dreadfully low,” Lu Li said, shaking his head. He couldn’t be bothered about the little snakes crawling out of the poison clouds. Of course, it wasn’t that they couldn’t deal with these small snakes.

“There shouldn’t be any problems this time. There’s only about 10% HP left?” Wandering asked.

“As long as the backline doesn’t take too much damage, there should be no problems,” Lu Li said, while using Resurrect on Deadly Green Orange who had just died. They were at the final stage.

 “The Boss’s Aggro is a bit messed up,” Azure Sea Breeze reminded, “Stop healing me for a bit.”

“Breezy, as the number one Main Tank, speaking like that makes you sound like a chicken,” Fat Monkey had listened to Azure but still made fun of him.

“Haven’t you been called the second Sorrowless?” Azure Sea Breeze mocked, not letting himself get beaten. He continued, “If you can, go deal with Sorrowless, then you can be called the number one mage. However, I heard that you met Unforgetful Maple last week and were defeated?”

“You’re the one who has lost. What I did was called respecting the elders and caring for the young. It was just because he’s so old that I let him win,” Fat Monkey laughed, “But you, isn’t Elevenless hunting down Wandering? How come both his attacks led to your defeat?”

“Damn it Wandering, you’re a stupid idiot! You screwed me over, Elevenless was looking for you, and you lured me out to him,” Azure Sea Breeze spat maliciously.

“Cut off your ties with him,” Fat Monkey said, not able to resist sympathising with the guy.

“Memories, a new restaurant opened on the other street. Heard it’s really good.” Azure Sea Breeze suggested.

“Are you flirting with me?” Sakura Memories asked.

“I wouldn’t dare, wouldn’t dare,” Azure Sea Breeze laughed.

“Am I that scary? That you wouldn’t even dare to flirt with me?” Sakura Memories growled.

“Um, little miss, what’s it going to take to let this pass,” Azure Sea Breeze grovelled. He thought that Sakura Memories was even scarier than the hideous High Priest Venoxis.

“If you want me to, it’s actually really simple. Just let me have four dishes at the Rich Blessings Palace and everything will be fine,” Sakura Memories demanded fiercely.

“Hah! Rich Blessings Palace? Four dishes?” It was like receiving a heavy strike from a boss. Azure Sea Breeze spat helplessly right at the boss’s face. Then the boss began to get fierce.

The green poison cloud suddenly spread across the whole field, and everyone’s HP began to drop.

“Stop this idle talk! You’re fighting a boss here. Do you think you’re out shopping or something?” Lu Li ended their little performance. Everyone’s attention was drawn to the boss again. Even if this boss was weak, when it got violent it could kill the whole team.

The healers immediately used their abilities to protect everyone. Hachi Chan’s Enhanced Tranquillity again had a massive effect. At this stage, no one needed to save up their defensive abilities anymore.

“My death, it is insignificant,” High Priest Venoxis sighed. The big snake returned to his human form. Finally, he threw himself onto his knees and he stayed there without moving.

“Dream, loot the equipment. The others should keep moving forward,” Lu Li barked.

“Lu Li, don’t overdo it. You need to let us take a breather,” Jaweika sat down. No one had gotten any rest the whole day.

“If you’ve got time to talk about your feelings, how tired can you be? Think about the mounts, think about the First Clear!”

“Suddenly I don’t feel tired anymore, GO! GO! GO!” Jaweika jumped up. The mount he had was still a basic one. He had been wanting a nice flashy special mount for a long time.

Statistically, having a flashy mount was more effective than having the best equipment when chasing after girls.

Just imagine, when everyone in factions would be riding on the basic mounts on the streets of Stormwind City, you would be riding a fancy mount. You’d stand out like the proverbial crane standing among a flock of chickens. Even guys, not just girls, would be attracted by this.

There was a playboy in the Elite group that always changed girlfriends, each one prettier than the last. The reason that he was able to find pretty girlfriends every single time, apart from the fact that the guy was good-looking, was because he had rare mounts ­and rare equipment.

If a mount came through this time, he might not be able to get it. However, according to the rules that Lu Li set out, if you have a special mount, you couldn’t enter the competition. The next time a rare mount was auctioned, he would have one less competitor.

“Damn, turns out it was a spider,” Wandering mumbled to himself in a low voice.

“The Deadwood trolls followed the Spider God, Shadra. Didn’t you do any research beforehand?” Lu Li asked.

The Deadwood Tribe had split and come out of the Amani empire after the troll war. They returned to live in their ancestral home – that is, today’s Hinterlands and the Arathi Highlands. Like the other forest trolls, during the second war, the Deadwood trolls under the leadership of the Amani Empire’s famous hero Zul’jin, joined the Horde. However, with the Horde suffering a crushing defeat, Zul’jin laid low and the forest trolls gave up on their alliance with the Orcs.

The Deadwood trolls living in the Hinterlands continuously clashed with the Revantusk trolls. However, the power of the dwarves on Eagle Nest Mountain was certainly threatening. At this time, the Deadwood trolls living in the Arathi Highlands lived in unfavourable circumstances. So, they formed an alliance with the Boulderfist Ogres. Together, they attacked a mutual enemy – Hammerfall, part of the Horde forces.

In the background story of Zul’Gurub, Deadwood was one of the major tribes.

High Priest Marlokk represented the Deadwood trolls stationed in the spider area. Here were the Deadwood troll warriors, with their spider underlings that they’d summoned.

 “Hehe, because the little animal that anyone would be afraid of are spiders, once I put a fake spider on his bed and he was so scared he cried,” Azure Sea Breeze laughed, carelessly making fun of Wandering. He’d always suffered under Wandering’s wit and intelligence. The fake spider was one of his ways to get revenge.

“Ho ho, you’re itching for a fight, aren’t you? I don’t mind loosening up your muscles and bones for you,” Wandering said with a disgusted look.

“You damn­-” Azure Sea Breeze stopped firmly. In actuality, he had never been a match for Wandering. It was because Wandering was too pretty when he was young, and so, his parents were worried that he’d get bullied. As such, they sent him to learn taekwondo, judo, Chinese martial arts and many more.

 “How about, you go and await your orders,” Lu Li suggested.

“Sure, wait till the mount gets dropped by the boss, then I’ll come back in?” Wandering said, reluctant to leave.

“Just leave,” Lu Li commanded, making no effort to be polite. Although he had a better relationship with Wandering, for the purposes of keeping things fair, he couldn’t just let World’s Best Friend do it alone. That would be a complete waste of their Instance Dungeon CD.

“Uh, well then I won’t go after all, it’s just spiders,” Wandering stuttered, immediately going back on what he said.

“Ah, I’ve got a bellyache. I’ve got to get some rest, let the backup Tank go first,” Azure Sea Breeze said, taking advantage of the situation. His troubled heart was so obvious; it was obvious that he wanted to resist Wandering.

Lu Li couldn’t be bothered dealing with them. As long as there was someone going to tank the monster, it was fine.

As Remnant Dream looted equipment, the Strengthening Stones were taken first, and the Synthetic Gems were given to whoever that wanted them. If more than two people wanted something, then they rolled dice to determine it. After all, the loot were relatively average, so those who got equipment didn’t get DKP deducted for it. All the Gold equipment was given to the secondary mages to be broken down, while the Dark Gold equipment was kept in the guild’s storehouse.

“Runed Bloodstained Hauberk, Epic Chain Mail Armour clothing,” Remnant Dream listed the attributes. Although she used the Chain Mail Armour, she didn’t show much interest in this piece of equipment. The attributes increased strength and intellect, but she preferred equipment that increased agility.

“This equipment is actually alright. Increases fatal attacks— that’s not all that common. Memories, do you want it?” Lu Li asked.

“No, I’m waiting for a T2 set equipment component,” Sakura Memories rejected firmly.

“Alright, we’ll pass that then,” Lu Li sighed. They could only throw the equipment into the guild storehouse. A lot of ordinary, unaffiliated players would guess that a big guild’s storehouse would have plenty of extra unused Epic equipment. It was like when a poor person imagined an emperor that ate meat buns at night or used a gold toilet.

Right now, Ruling Sword’s storehouse wasn’t lacking in Epic equipment. Most of it were equipment for minor roles like Shamans and Druids, waiting for them to accumulate enough points to exchange for that equipment.

It was especially the case for Shaman roles. There were relatively few Shamans in the game and getting equipment with low points was completely normal. Passing over Shaman equipment at an auction was pretty normal for Ruling Sword now. Lu Li was planning to look for a new Shaman to enter the team, mainly so that the healing Chain Mail Armour could be used. As long as the equipment was good and the skills were strong, healing Shamans could still get participate in an Instance Dungeon.

As the saying goes, another batch of updates, another batch of gods. No one knew when Shamans would improve as a role. Dawn has never had overly powerful roles (apart from the old mages); Dawn was not like the games who set up a wide range of roles with only one or two of them being viable roles. That would result in all the players basically playing the same role.

Sakura Memories moved around, sometimes going down to the Instance Dungeon, sometimes participating in competitions and sometimes going to the arena for some brawls.

She was wearing a complete set of Epic equipment. From head to toe, it was all Epic equipment. What was more, most of it was top level since very few could compete with her.

Lu Li had a look at the group’s DKP. If mounts came out, it was very possible it’d be hers. After all, she had heaps of DKP. If players with low points constantly traded for equipment, then she’d be the only one left dominating in terms of points.

“Primal Hakkari Bindings, something for Paladins, Hunters and Mages,” Remnant Dream said, looting a piece of Epic equipment.

“Who wants it? If no one wants it…” Lu Li was really speechless. Is this going to be passed too? They couldn’t keep going like this; he wanted to force people to auction for equipment. As the commander, he was the one in charge of distributing equipment. It was only right for people to use up their DKP.