The Great Thief

As time went on, the two years of experience that he had from his previous life was now coming to an end.

Once his advantage would come to an end, Instance Dungeons would be much more difficult than what it was. Lu Li didn’t want to taint his reputation as a result of this, which was why he wanted to nurture Sky Moon to be his successor to clash with the other clubs’ commanders.

If Lu Li was unable to compete with them, then it would affect Ruling Sword’s reputation. After all, Ruling Sword was built from the basis of First Clears.

If Sky Moon couldn’t compete, then it would be expected. It would be impressive if he could, and expected if he couldn’t. The commanders from other clubs also couldn’t be too harsh with the new generation either.

If Sky Moon won, then Lu Li would give him words of encouragement. If Sky Moon lost, then Lu Li would comfort him with a couple of words to show how generous he was and how well he treated the younger generation.

Furthermore, the decision to choose Sky Moon wasn’t out of blind judgment either. Sky Moon’s potential for commander was truly better than his.

Looking at the history of his past battles, he had commanded many Instance Dungeon attempts. Although First Clears were usually completed by Lu Li, the process of figuring out quicker ways to clear was mostly done by Sky Moon.

As for Stronghold battles and the arena, he was also a bright star. With a ragtag group of people, he was able to take down a Stronghold.

When the next Stronghold battle came, the main commander would be Sky Moon.

With the encouragement and backing of Lu Li, he was more relaxed and confident now. When he yelled, it was with force and was quite impressive.

“B-boss! Lu Li! Do you not know how to interrupt the skill? Is it because your skills are on cool down or are you b-blind! T-take away 5 points!”

Sky Moon’s eyes were stuck on Lu Li’s face, worrying about seeing a hint of disappointment or anger.

In the end, nothing happened.

Lu Li only calmly replied, “That’s my fault!”

Even the leader was scolded and punished. Upon seeing this, everyone became alert. This was even more impactful than when Lu Li was commanding before. Lu Li became the sacrifice to send the message to everyone else.

Wandering began to mock Lu Li and expressed his contempt at Lu Li’s actions.

He didn’t even need to think about it. He knew that Lu Li had done that on purpose. Lu Li had interrupted all of the Magister’s healing skills and only missed a Shadow Bolt, which didn’t deal that much damage either.

Lu Li did this for the sake of reinforcing Sky Moon’s authority and gave him a chance to take points away even from the leader himself.

Under the instruction of Sky Moon, everyone quickly advanced into Phase 2. Magtheridon had just gained his freedom, and there were still three Magisters on the battlefield.

The key part of this stage was to interrupt the Boss’ skills.

A Thief’s Kick or a Mage’s Counterspell were all useless. After one minute of gaining its freedom, Magtheridon would use the first Fire Nova. Fire Nova was a skill that dealt 10000 damage every 10 seconds to all players. However, this skill was able to be interrupted by using the ‘Box of the Prophets’ that was on the Magisters’ platform.

To successfully interrupt Fire Nova, all five Boxes needed to be used simultaneously.

After striking the Box, a 10 second incantation to control Magtheridon would begin. If all five were struck at the same time and successfully landed on Magtheridon, then it would be restrained again and interrupt his Fire Nova.

When Magtheridon was restrained, he would be dealt 300% magic and skill damage.

The binds would also damage the players who struck the Boxes, dealing 800 damage per second. Any movement from these players would break the control that they had on Magtheridon, which would allow Magtheridon to run free again.

When the Boxes were used simultaneously, it would be lethal to the team if the control was broken. This would mean that Magtheridon’s Fire Nova would not be interrupted. Furthermore, once the control was broken by one player, he or she would be inflicted with the debuff called ‘Mind Exhaustion’ which prevented the player from using the Box of the Prophets in the next three seconds.

This tested a commander’s ability.

The commander had to constantly adjust the team. He needed to arrange for people to hit the Boxes and when they would hit them. This had to be done without mistakes.

He also needed to pay attention to the people who struck the Boxes and also needed to keep them alive.

Even if the extra 300% damage was helpful for the DPS, it wasn’t something that the players needed to risk their lives for. They should immediately stop the control once Fire Nova was interrupted, which would allow the least damage to be done to them as a side effect of using the Box.

During this time, the most likely place for mistakes to happen was the Druids using Revive and the players that the Druids used Spirit Stones on.

All of these required the commander to adjust.

With Lu Li beside him, Sky Moon was quite nervous and many mistakes happened. As a result, they wiped again and again, which took a toll on them mentally.

However, Lu Li pushed him to keep going and didn’t take over the commanding role either.

It was through these trials that Lu Li wanted to keep developing this young man.

In the end, Sky Moon was completely calm. Or, it could be said that he was completely numb. It was through a process of constant exposure that he was able to completely ignore Lu Li’s presence.

Then, they somehow entered the third phase.

When Magtheridon’s HP was at 30%, the third phase began. The Boss would destroy the walls that surrounded him. As a result, the debris would deal five to six thousand nature damage.

At this time, they needed to prioritise healing the Tanks first, then the others.

Using the healing stones and potions were good ideas. Taking advantage of correct opportunities to heal were also important. They stopped attacking when the Boss was at 31% HP, waited to interrupt the next Fire Nova, then made sure that everyone was at near or full HP before continuing their onslaught to enter the third phase.

This was the strategy that Sky Moon figured out after many squad wipes.

When he sought Lu Li’s confirmation, Lu Li just rolled his eyes and replied, “This is your own battle. Why are you asking me?”

It seemed like Lu Li had completely passed the squad over to Sky Moon.

Actually, if Lu Li wanted to take over during the battle, it was likely that they would have already gotten the First Clear within half of the day, instead of using a whole day just to enter the third stage.

They also wiped a few times in the third phase for them to figure that they needed full HP to deal with the third phase.

Entering Phase Three with full HP!

At times, Lu Li also wanted to give him hints and remind him. Although Lu Li was a little fidgety as a result of it, he also understood that if he interjected, Sky Moon’s reliance on him would only grow.

Using the words of Wandering, this battle was a new commander’s growth of independence.

The debris that dealt damage wasn’t a big problem in the third phase. Furthermore, the players who struck the Boxes couldn’t just stand in their place. They also needed to dodge the debris.

Sky Moon began to use large numbers of potions. Each round of battling costed Ruling Sword quite a sum of money. Including the repairs of equipment, the total cost of this Boss alone was comparable to the cost of clearing the whole Karazhan Instance Dungeon.

System: Congratulations to Ruling Sword, who under the leadership of Sky Moon, have achieved the First Clear for Magtheridon’s Lair!