The Great Thief

Chapter 1859:T he Caverns of Time

“Actually, the key’s really easy. It’s just that everyone just wants one, so people are a lot less patient. Hachi, go find that Broodmother for a quest. Remember to be a bit more polite; she doesn’t have a good temper,” Lu Li instructed.

The Bronze Dragons really were a patriarchal society. Because of the mystical Lord of Time, all of the managerial work was given over to his consort and sons.

His Prime Consort Soridormi led the Scale of the Sands to be garrisoned in the Caverns of Time.

As for this queen, there was limited information written about her. For now, it was estimated that most of her time was spent managing the Bronze Dragons, and because of this, she didn’t have any time to do other things. Perhaps it was simply because of this that in comparison to other dragon consorts, Soridormi had survived them all. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have gone to bring the children to circle around the Caverns of Time.

Actually, finding her to receive a quest was rather pointless, or at least this was the case in the earlier stage of the game before the players reached level 68. The reason why Lu Li told Hachi Chan to complete Soridormi’s quest was to gain some Reputation from the Scale of the Sands.

As long as she had Reputation from the Scale of the Sands, Anachronos could be found – the Bronze Dragon they had come in contact with during the opening Ahn’Qiraj quest.

Afterwards, this Bronze Dragon would tell the players where Chromie was.

Chromie’s real name was Chronormu. Ever since the day that the king of the gods Aman’Thul had given strength to the Bronze Dragons to protect Azeroth’s timelines, they had been hidden in time, and rarely appeared amongst other people and races. However, there were always a few Bronze Dragon members who were willing to associate with other people, and Chromie was one of them.

In the current patch, Chromie appeared in Darrowshire, but later vanished, leaving no trace of her whereabouts. Evidently, it was to foreshadow the identity of the NPC in the next stage.

Anachronos would tell the players where to find this short-tailed Broodmother. Then, from there, they would receive an ‘advanced’ key to enter the Instance Dungeon earlier. They simply had to pay 100 gold for it.

After getting the key, the players were then confirmed to have the standing to enter into the story. From them on, they entered into the Caverns of Time. Heading for the Black Morass, where the historical opening of The Dark Portal was taking place, they would converse with Sa’at.

He looked like a Blood Elf, but was actually a dragon Keeper of Time.

Pointing to a pitch-black, distant place, he would explain that at the very end of this tunnel of time, the Keeper Medivh was in the heart of the Black Morass. Medivh was bustling with excitement, wanting to open The Dark Portal so that the Orc army could flood through and invade the world of Azeroth.

The Infinite Dragons had sent out the Rift Lord to stir up trouble, trying to stop The Dark Portal from being opened. These Rift Lords were hidden in various places in the Black Morass.

Afterwards, Sa’at gave the players a Chrono-Beacon.

The depths of this pitch-black place were messy with the flow of time, so the Chrono-Beacon was able to prevent the players from getting lost.

As for what would happen if they got lost, it was simple – you would be sent back to where you originally were. It was like being kicked out of the Instance Dungeon.

If they just kept getting kicked out of the Instance Dungeon, then how could they progress through it?

With the Chrono-Beacon, Lu Li and his team didn’t have to worry about this. In fact, this Instance Dungeon was quite small.

Those well-fed, bored Infinite Dragons wanted to stop the Portal from being opened and change history. Lu Li’s quest was to ensure that history would progress on the track it was meant to, even though it was going to be a tragedy…

Since there was no way to try to use words to persuade them, all they could do was kill them off.

The setting of the Instance Dungeon was the day that The Dark Portal was opening in the Black Morass, which was today’s Swamp of Sorrows. Apart from the Infinite Dragon legion, there were quite a few non-Elite crocodiles there too which would also obstruct the players.

The party consisted of the Main Tank Azure Sea Breeze, Lonesome Flower, Lu Li, Hachi Chan and Remnant Dream.

Ice magic was important here. There were many monsters in this Instance Dungeon, so they had to clear them out as quickly as they could with AoE spells. They could only ride their mounts once they exited the battle, which was the quickest way they could go to support Medivh.

After talking with Medivh, an intense battle commenced.

The Infinite Dragon legion would open up four portals on the map at random, and at each portal, there would be one Elite monster along with several non-Elite monsters.

The team had to rush at the portals, pulling the Elite monsters there. Meanwhile, the non-Elite monsters that charged towards Medivh needed to be eliminated by the mages that were next to them. After the Elites were killed, another portal would appear.

The players would then continue to fight in the same way. After four or five waves of enemies, the first Boss would appear.

Before progressing to the stage of finishing off the Boss, they had no time to rest. Lu Li and his party had to keep rushing from portal to portal on the map. It was important for the team to coordinate well with each other. A capable team fighting together made things effortless, but if they didn’t cooperate well, it was easy for things to fall into a chaotic confusion.

Hachi Chan, Remnant Dream and Lonesome Flower were all considered players that specially focused on Instance Dungeons, and they were good at following orders too. Under Lu Li’s command, they executed their duties perfectly.

Hachi Chan was particularly useful here. She really was working hard as she ran around everywhere.

After the Boss died, there was a two-minute break in which they picked up drops, distributed them, replenished their HP and mana, and renewed their buffs. After that, they would ready themselves for the next wave of enemies and the Boss. There were both magic and physical Bosses.

The biggest challenge was maintaining their mana consumption in this sort of continuous battle.

Even though Lonesome Flower had exquisite equipment, he would sometimes struggle because of a lack of mana.

At this point in time, the advantage of being the support in a major club became apparent. Cold Chill’s potions resolved the predicament that the magic roles faced. The one who needed to keep using mana replenishing potions here was actually Lonesome Flower.

After finishing off three Bosses, the final Boss made its appearance. Its physical damage was devastating and it could silence abilities for a limited duration as well.

If they slipped up at all, there was a chance of losing members. Fortunately, after the previous Bosses died, they could pick up a tool to summon the Bronze Dragons. Under normal circumstances, it would be lucky to find one from the three Bosses, but Remnant Dream managed to loot three.

Along with the Chrono-Beacon, they could summon three Bronze Dragons to join the fray.

In this situation, there wouldn’t be any suspense as to what would happen. Although the three Bronze Dragons weren’t all that powerful, at least they had no problem in attracting attention.

In the end, The Dark Portal was opened. The Orc forces rushed through The Dark Portal like a tidal wave, and the disaster of the Azeroth continent began, which lasted to this day…

A group of Medivh’s accomplices received the notification of a First Clear.