The Great Thief

Translator: Halcyon Translations, Exodus Tales  Editor: Halcyon Translations, Exodus Tales

For a little while, the players would be unable to continue levelling up as there was currently a level 60 cap in place.

This meant that Instance Dungeon clearing would become the most pressing matter for Ruling Sword.

They hadn’t managed to get the First Clear on the higher difficulties of Blackrock Spire. Blood Red War Flag had achieved the First Clear of Heroic Difficulty two days ago. Regardless of whether it was Elite, Heroic or Nightmare Difficulty, the players were less likely to play it if the First Clear had already been achieved.

In order to gain the most equipment and benefits, a guild would most likely choose Nightmare Difficulty when clearing Instance Dungeons. Blood Red War Flag had been eliminated from the competition early, so they had the time to invest a lot money into collecting Fire Resistance potions and equipment. Even then, Nightmare Difficulty was too hard, so they had to settle with Heroic Difficulty.

It had been said that Blood Red War Flag’s returns were quite worthwhile. They had even acquired a few pieces of Epic equipment, but more importantly, they had broken through the idea that only Ruling Sword could achieve First Clears on Instance Dungeons that were higher than Elite Difficulty. No one else had done this before.

Glory Capital had a lot of First Clears, but these weren’t from the public Instance Dungeons. They had purchased scrolls to acquire First Clears from Private Instance Dungeons. These scrolls were expensive, and their rewards were much worse.

Although Blood Red War Flag lost the competition, they achieved the First Clear of a public Instance Dungeon. This was the best result of their failure.

However, Ruling Sword couldn’t ignore Blackrock Spire just because there wasn’t a First Clear anymore. The Instance Dungeon could still drop a number of valuable items and if they wanted to enter Black Wing’s nest, they had to clear it.

Besides, Blood Red War Flag had only cleared the Instance Dungeon on Heroic Difficulty. This meant that the Instance Dungeon at Nightmare Difficulty was still unexplored territory.

The upper part of Blackrock Spire was part of the group of Instance Dungeons in Blackrock Spire. Spire was divided into upper and lower levels. The lower levels were filled with Orcs that didn’t belong to the Horde while the upper layers were controlled by Deathwing’s son, Nefarian. It held many Orcs that submitted to the black dragon.

However, Nefarian himself wasn’t in the upper levels of Blackrock Spire. He was in another place which was even higher than the upper levels of Blackrock Spire and was where research and development took place – Black Wing’s Nest.

The Black Dragon’s forces already controlled the upper levels and were now fighting for control of the lower levels.

For as long as fantasy novels or games existed, dragons had been a part of them. Dawn was also a fantasy game, and not only did it have dragons, but it also contained a wide variety – Black Dragons, Red Dragons, Green Dragons, Blue Dragons and Bronze Dragons.

There were some who preferred to call the Bronze Dragons Gold Dragons instead because it sounded cooler.

According to mythology, the Titans gave this species to the continent to protect it. They were responsible for maintaining balance and harmony.

They created an ancient dragon Galakrond as a prototype to create the multi-coloured dragons. Galakrond then gave up a part of himself to each of five dragons who were known as the guardian dragons.

Not much else needed to be said about these five dragons. They were all so strong that a yawn from them would wipe Lu Li’s team.

Fortunately, the players were inside an Instance Dungeon, which meant that they were only fighting a shadow of what these dragons were like in reality.

“The Fire Resistance potions are really good,” Sesame Rice Ball said after pulling Lu Li through the portal. “I don’t know if you know, but this apprentice is better than I am.”

“I found her in the Novice Village, struggling to defeat the monsters there. The potion seems to be working well. Is it capable of mass production?” Lu Li asked. He checked the potion and was satisfied. Cold Chill the Great really did deserve her name.

“How can we possibly mass produce it? The fact that we can produce ten bottles a day is already quite impressive,” Sesame Rice Ball couldn’t help but respond with resentment.

“That’s a pity. Well, this should be enough to get through the Instance Dungeon today. So, what are you guys waiting for? Breezy go and pull some monsters in, but not too many. If Breezy pulls more than two at a time, then March Rain should stop healing him so he dies faster.”

“You really are evil,” Azure Sea Breeze sighed. He was tired of being sacrificed.

Lu Li didn’t have to threaten to abandon him. He made it seem like Azure Sea Breeze, Dawn’s number one Main tank, was likely to die at any moment.

You didn’t lose EXP from dying Instance Dungeons, but it did cost equipment durability. He had high level Plate Armor that cost several gold coins to repair. These kinds of Main Tanks generally couldn’t be afforded by most guilds because of how expensive repairing their armor was.

“Isn’t that Jed? Breezy don’t fight that guy. Don’t you see his name? We will probably get wiped.”

Lu Li was amazed. Jed was not a regular Boss; he was actually a hidden Boss. He was a Boss that would only appear 20% of the time.

Jed dropped two valuable items. The first was a Cedar Ring which was very fashionable. It had a rose texture on it and could also be engraved. Most of the time, engraving the item would affect an item’s durability.

The Cedar Ring was one of the few items that Lu Li knew could be engraved.

When Dawn introduced the marriage system, they forgot to include wedding rings. As such, the Cedar Ring was decided by tycoons to be the most noble symbol of love.

If you loved her, you would buy her a Cedar Ring.

If you loved her, you would engrave her name on your ring.

If you loved her, you would wear a Cedar Ring just like hers.

In short, this item was not something that was just worth a few dollars. The value of this item could increase twentyfold overnight, especially if the merchants sold out.

There were quite a few hunters whose favourite method of money-making was farming Jed. On Normal Difficulty, there was still a chance to run into him and there was a chance that he would drop the Cedar Ring. This meant that the Cedar Ring’s Attributes would be dismal, but most idiots wouldn’t care. They just wanted it as a prop, so it didn’t matter.

Jed could also drop the Starfire Tiara and Serpentine Skuller, but there were so many people that wanted these items that they were always in short supply.

Of course, these items were not nearly as valuable as the Cedar Ring.

A Boss that could be defeated by regular hunters was not very powerful at all, but that was at Normal Difficulty. On Nightmare Difficulty, Jed’s Berserk state still had the possibility of wiping Lu Li’s team.

Jed looked no different from the normal monsters. If you weren’t careful, you might even pull him as a normal mob.

However, if Lu Li and the others went all out, and the 15 players didn’t make too many mistakes, then they probably wouldn’t lose to the Hidden Boss. If the players left the vicinity without fighting a Hidden Boss, the Boss would disappear. This meant that they only had one chance.

Jed had three stages, but the first could be ignored. In the second stage, he would enter Stealth and suddenly appear behind the players for a series of attacks.

This trick had the chance of one-shotting someone. This was the reason the hunters didn’t dare to fight the Boss at a higher difficulty because they wouldn’t be able to withstand this attack. The effects of your equipment didn’t matter either, because you would be under crowd-control.

Lu Li’s approach to this stage was fairly simple.

Everyone would surround the Main Tank who was pulling the aggro of the Boss. That way, everyone could attack the Boss efficiently and the Main Tank could easily re-draw aggro. This formation was largely unchanged throughout the fight.

The third stage only existed in Nightmare Difficulty, and it was the most difficult stage when fighting Jed.

There were seven doors in this room which were normally close, but when Jed dropped below 30% HP, these doors opened and let out a flood of small monsters. It was a terrifying sight and it was similar to when they were playing in the Death Mines.

However, the monsters in the Death Mines didn’t have any potential to kill you. They just handed the players EXP.

This was not the case in Blackrock Spire. These mobs had killed no fewer players than the Bosses of Dawn. If the swarming monsters managed to surround Lu Li and the others, they might not be able to hold them off.

The solution to this was simple. Lu Li didn’t even need to say it as Azure Sea Breeze immediately identified it.

To the stairs!

They had taken the stairs to get to this floor and now they were returning on them. The passage was narrow enough that Azure Sea Breeze was the only player being hit. The other players could stand behind the Main Tank and cast their skills. They had to spend a bit more time, but it made the monsters manageable.

After clearing the mobs, Jed was now ripe for the taking.

When he dropped to the floor, it was time for Remnant Dream’s performance.

Jed wasn’t a very strong Boss, but he was still a Boss nonetheless. Being a Hidden Boss, there was also a chance that no one had killed him before.

Although the First Clear had been taken by Blood Red War Flag, if Jed had not been killed before, then his drop rate would still be higher than normal. Lu Li hoped that he would drop at least one Cedar Ring as he had been looking for it.

It wasn’t that he had fallen in love, but before he experienced rebirth, he didn’t have any money for things like this.

If he could get a Cedar Ring today, then his wish would have been fulfilled.