Chapter 581: Zul'Farrak
"The more Burning Legion you kill, the greater the improvement at the next upgrade. I'll give you a free transport to the Moonlight Forest; this is the Ally of the Cenarion Circle..."
Remulos' words echoed temptingly in Lu Li's ears, but he was already in Gadgetzan.
His teammates had been waiting here; they were about to start Zul'Farrak. They wanted to get the First Clear on this Instance Dungeon.
However, they first needed to accept a few quests for the Instance Dungeon. The first one was from Krazek in Stranglethorn Vale, who directed them to Tran'rek in Gadgetzan. Tran'rek owed a s.h.i.+pment of scarab sh.e.l.ls which was due a few weeks ago.
Krazek: He is my brother, so I don't want to send debt-collectors to Gadgetzan. Please help me go and ask Tran'rek what is happening? He'd better send them to me quickly before I really freak out.
The two rogue goblins were basically a perfect pair.
Tran'rek was also a rogue goblin.
He said that the scarab sh.e.l.ls were hard enough to sell as building materials. Due to how valuable they were, the scarabs were hunted extensively and almost went extinct.
As such, Tran'rek told the players that there were many scarabs in Zul'Farrak.
Their quest was to gather enough scarab sh.e.l.ls in three days. Otherwise, Tran'rek would smash their heads in.
This wasn't a joke – the penalty for failing this quest was death, which meant 5% EXP.
There were some other quests that Lu Li and his party had accepted as well. Regardless of whether these quests gave equipment, the EXP reward alone meant that they couldn't be missed.
There was a long way to go from Gadgetzan to Zul'Farrak, but the path was relatively safe with Sandworms rarely appearing.
If the road to the Instance Dungeon was already risky, most players just wouldn't do it.
This road was a transit route for goblins in the desert who explored ancient ruins, looking for ore. They did what they could for as long as they thought they could make money from it.
As for the Sandworms, if you observed the area carefully, you would notice quite a few goblin devices installed in the sand.
These devices constantly emitted an ultrasonic sound that dealt high damage to the Sandworms and deterred them from the area.
Heavy fighting also occurred on this path, which was perfectly in line with the game company's vision. From the moment players had access to this place, Horde and Alliance players had been locked in endless battle.
However, for a while now, no one from either faction had been killed.
Lu Li and the others didn't dare to be too conspicuous. If he openly declared himself to be Lu Li, he probably wouldn't be welcomed the whole way. There were surely countless players that wanted to kill him.
They would be able to kill him and force him to drop an item without too high of a cost.
There was one Sorrowless fan that wors.h.i.+ped Sorrowless, so much that he had watched each of Sorrowless' technique videos dozens of time.
However, when he was asked about why he was following a band of players to kill Sorrowless, he innocently replied, "What's the issue with wors.h.i.+pping someone and killing them to take their items?"
After clearing out a few waves of players looking for trouble, Lu Li and the others soon reached the entrance of the Instance Dungeon. There was a goblin there that would give them a buff for two gold coins.
The buff was Voodoo damage -20%.
This was quite strong, especially against the Trolls, and had the potential to be life-saving.
Of course, it was unrealistic to expect the -20% damage to negate the entire Voodoo Troll family. Otherwise, teams wouldn't be getting killed on the second Boss.
"Nightmare?" Azure Sea Breeze, who was responsible for picking the difficulty, turned around and asked.
"Yes, Nightmare!" Lu Li nodded and confirmed.
Zul'Farrak wasn't a particularly difficult Instance Dungeon. Only the second and last Bosses were considered as demiG.o.ds, and required all members of the party to be level 35 and higher.
"Gee, this is going to be fun." Azure Sea Breeze wasn't afraid of a challenge and was even more courageous with Lu Li around.
The others weren't too worried either. As long as it was Lu Li who picked the difficulty, they would be able to do it. As for that girl who was obsessed with her pets, she probably couldn't tell the difference between Elite and Nightmare difficulty anyway.
"Hey, that team that just went in didn't pick the Elite difficulty," a Mage in the team behind them said as he saw Azure Sea Breeze making his choice.
The rune that was displayed on the Instance Dungeon for Nightmare was different to when it was Elite difficulty.
Between Nightmare Difficulty and Elite Difficulty, there was also the Heroic difficulty. Most players were attempting the dungeon on Elite Difficulty right now, with others trying it on Ordinary Difficulty to get used to it.
When they suddenly saw that someone had selected Nightmare difficulty, they were completely shocked.
"No way! How can someone choose Nightmare Difficulty?" A Paladin who was holding a large sword was unconvinced.
"I saw it with my own eyes; I can't be wrong," the Mage sneered. "I've learned about Runes, and that definitely was one for Nightmare Difficulty."
Runes were a trade skill that enabled players to be very sensitive to the inscriptions on Instance Dungeon entrances.
"Maybe they just picked Nightmare to get a reaction out of us. I can pick Nightmare Difficulty too." The Paladin was still too stubborn to accept it.
Everyone was the protagonist of their own fantasy world.
How could they still be playing at Elite if someone else was playing at Nightmare difficulty?
"It's Lu Li, Azure Sea Breeze and the others. It's the Xin Xin Mercenary Group. Ruling Sword is finally doing Zul'Farrak," someone finally realized after thinking about the professions and general appearances of the players who had entered.
For the Wild Bosses, there were a number of competing guilds who would take the Boss 80% of the time. Occasionally, someone lucky could also take one of them.
For Private Instance Dungeons, gaining access was based purely on luck.
On the other hand, Public Instance Dungeons were different. Ruling Sword was dominating the Public Instance Dungeons. From the Spider Nest, to the Death Mines, the Howling Caves, to the Scarlet Monastery... they had gotten First Clears on Public Instance Dungeons many consecutive times.
"Lu Li is doing the Instance dungeon!"
This news spread like a tide throughout all of the player-base.
Regardless of whether they were Alliance or Horde, they all dropped what they were doing and began to discuss counter-measures.
"Ruling Sword cannot get the First Clear again," declared Dust Dragon, the president of Blood Red War Flag.
"I trust you," said Sorrowless, who had connected several Instance Dungeons commanders with Glory Capital.
Chapter 582: The Goblin's Quest
Drizzle Court, who had been quiet for a while, finally began to make their move. With Water Fairy personally leading them, the most elite players were chosen before they entered the Instance Dungeon, not long after Ruling Sword.
"Will Lu Li and the others be able to do it? The other guilds have been going at it for a few days now," Star Baby remarked in worry while she continued her healing.
"I hear that Glory Capital and Peerless City are about to defeat the second Boss." Deadly Green Orange didn't want to spread information about other players, but there were some things worth doing a reality check on. She had always been optimistic about Ruling Sword.
Why didn't she contact Peerless City? Their progress was going quite well and they were also an ally.
"Did I allow the two of you to talk?" Water Fairy's cold glare successfully shut down the conversation between the two star players.
Water Fairy's G.o.ddess status was something that players would kill for at any time.
No matter what the guilds tried to do, it didn't matter. Ruling Sword's Instance Dungeon run could be difficult, or it could be smooth sailing.
The Public Instance Dungeons were independent s.p.a.ces that couldn't be interrupted.
Instead, some players unusually started killing Ruling Sword members. Square Root 3 soon determined their purpose – it was the make sure that Lu Li couldn't complete the Instance Dungeon wholeheartedly.
This was simply an unreasonable situation.
Although he didn't know which guild organized this, Square Root 3 quickly put together a taskforce to retaliate.
Even if the best of their guild had been sent away, a player's mere level could provide some strength. Everyone wanted to be the protagonist of the story, so they were willing to sacrifice themselves.
Moreover, Ruling Sword was not some average guild that could be provoked without consequence.
Lu Li had acquired several First Clears, but what the players of the guild enjoyed more was PVP. They were the Shadow Cup champions and the Magic Cup runners up. Many players who hoped to develop their PVP skills joined Ruling Sword.
The fact that there was a big group of PVP players in Ruling Sword causing trouble all day was a headache for Square Root 3.
However, when these players were provoked, they were relentless.
As such, the game of hunting and being hunted began in full swing. Both sides were just relentlessly killing each other.
Square Root 3 quickly narrowed down the suspects to the Gangnam Royals, given their connections and capabilities. Moreover, their president, Heart of War, had already targeted Ruling Sword twice before.
He didn't have direct evidence, but the PVP madmen found themselves unintentionally, or perhaps intentionally, mostly targeting Gangnam Royals players.
As for the actual elite players that needed to level, they were not affected, as there was the concept of a private land. In his previous life, Lu Li thought that this was abhorrent, but now that he was a guild leader, he had naturally included it as part of the conventional way of doing things.
Whoever had organized this whole thing was an idiot! All of them!
When they entered the Instance Dungeon, they came face-to-face with an NPC.
"Heroes, please help me, a poor little helpless goblin," the small goblin pleaded, trying to gain their sympathy. Unfortunately, he was a male goblin, so most players just didn't care.
"Let go of me, or I'll beat you to death." Azure Sea Breeze, who was walking in the front, was trying to shake off the goblin from his leg.
"Hero..." the goblin continued.
"Dammit, if you have something to say, then say it. Otherwise, I'll actually kill you." Azure Sea Breeze couldn't stand this NPC's cooing; it was so ugly.
Gnomes had smaller heads than goblins, but their big eyes made them look cute. They often looked like small, old men.
"Alright," the goblin shrugged helplessly and began speaking, "One of my good brothers, Weegli, went with Sergeant Bly and his men to attack Zul'Farrak. They wanted to get the legendary Susaus. It was going well until they underestimated Sandfury Trolls. Now, they have been captured, and are awaiting execution!
"If you save them, they could help you blow a road leading into the Ukorz's private Hall, where the last part of the treasured sword is kept. The ones who caught them were Nekrum Gutchewer and Shadowpriest Sezz'ziz. Kill them and clear their disgrace... then I will pay you your reward."
After giving his big speech, the Goblin NPC asked, "Heroes, are you willing to help me out with this small task?"
"Please, how can you possibly call this a small task? It sounds very dangerous." Azure Sea Breeze wasn't so easily tricked; he was actually quite good at driving a bargain.
"Seventy silver coins. I can't give you more," the goblin said, sounding extremely grieved.
"Old man, I make a few dozen gold coins every few minutes. What use do I have for 70 silver coins?" Azure Sea Breeze wanted to spit on the goblin's face before saying to the others, "Let's get out of here."
"Oh, my gold," Goblin Sariko clutched his chest before saying, "I'll give you two explosive packages, no more. Otherwise, I'll just find someone else."
"Alright." Lu Li had been standing there quietly, this was the first time he spoke.
This item was connected to the Instance Dungeon. Without Sariko's explosive packages, the road to Ukorz's private hall couldn't be opened, which meant that they would have no way to fight Boss Ukorz. They would also lose the Treasure Chest that was inside Ukorz's hall.
"In that case, I have a small request," Sariko said as he looked at Lu Li greedily.
He knew that this was the true master of the group.
"I can help, but it depends on your price," Lu Li nodded.
In fact, he didn't really like quests that were given by goblins. They were naturally calculative and didn't know what it meant to be generous.
"I hear that there is a Troll, by the name of Hydromancer Velratha, who owned a rare and beautiful jewel called the Abyss Crown. She used it to control the mighty Gahz'rilla. Yes, and Gahz'rilla's scales are said to be full of energy. Do you know what I mean, friend?"
"I need it! Kill Velratha and take the Abyss Crown. Kill Gahz'rilla as well and bring some of the scales. If you bring these things back to me quickly, I will reward you."
Sariko waved his arms and his eyes were full of longing for wealth.
"I need to know you are sincere, my friend," Lu Li said, remaining unmoved.
Many of the quests could be bargained for in Dawn, especially on Nightmare Difficulty. As long as you had the ability to do so, you could even convince the NPC to help you fight.
"I have four pieces of equipment here. You can pick out one of them." Sariko's heart was conflicted, but he knew the principle of an Emperor not starving his own soldiers. He had had no choice but to reveal the possessions he had.
Chapter 583: Scarabs
"That's no good. You have to give all four of them to us," Lu Li said with bright eyes.
The four items included were Leather armors which were suitable for different professions. They were all Gold-grade equips, and even Lu Li didn't dare to look down on them.
"That is impossible!" Sariko gasped and shrieked, "Greedy, stupid, arrogant..."
"Well, when I get the Abyss Crown, I'll go to your goblin friends who are more generous. I think they will understand its worth," Lu Li said calmly.
His words dumbfounded the poor little goblin.
"You can't do that – you would be betraying your friend." Sariko was angry just a moment ago, but now he was worried.
No one in Gadgetzan knew about the secret of the Abyss Crown right now, but once news of it spread, it would be too late.
"I don't want to do that either, but Mr Sariko, you of all people should know about this quest," Lu Li said as he smiled mischievously. "Or do I need to remind you about your friends who had been captured by the Sandfury Trolls? Were they not encouraged by you to come in here?"
"No, no... you, you're simply a demon!" Although Sariko denied him, his expression betrayed him.
"You need to promise me. None of us are good people; we can betray out friends if we have to. Not to mention, we aren't even proper friends," Lu Li said as he bent down and patted him on the shoulder. "I remember that friends and transactions are the same for goblins, isn't that right?"
"Woo..." Sariko started crying sadly.
"That's a deal then. Quickly release the quest." Lu Li was quite satisfied that he had made this goblin cry. "When you get the Abyss Crown, you might be rich. It's just four Gold Items. O, great Sariko, what would you like to buy from the gold that comes in the treasure..." Lu Li comforted.
"Treasure." This was the last straw the crushed the camel; Sariko signed the contract under Lu Li's persuasion.
Lu Li and the others had now received the quest. They were to give Sariko the Abyss Crown and Gahz'rilla's charged scales. They would then receive four pieces of Gold equipment as a reward, likely in addition to an appropriate amount of EXP and Prestige.
It wasn't that Lu Li didn't want this treasure for himself, but that it was useless to him.
There was no information about the Abyss Crown for the players. It was merely a quest item dropped by Boss Veratha. Even if they got it, it had no value to them, but the fact that they were able to trade it for four Gold equips made Lu Li very satisfied.
Sarika dejectedly left as he needed to prepare the explosive packages.
"Well, let's get started with the Instance Dungeon," Lu Li reminded his friends who had been completely dumbfounded.
"Lu Li... you didn't say anything at first, and now this..."
Lu Li had forced the NPC to give up so much. Azure Sea Breeze had initially tried to do something like this, but had only forced out two explosive packages. However, when Lu Li tried, he managed to get four gold equips.
"That's a.s.suming we clear the Instance Dungeon," Lu Li reminded.
"Alright then, let's start." Azure Sea Breeze was excited by the four pieces of gold equipment. He waved his s.h.i.+eld around and welcomed the first wave of monsters.
There was a Sandfury Witch Doctor, a Sandfury Shadowmage and three Sandfury Bloodthirsters. These five elite monsters formed the first line of defence for Zul'Farrak. If you looked at their composition, it was about the same as the players'.
This city that was under the sun was home to the Sandfury Trolls. They had always been known for their ruthless and dark magic.
The Sandfury Trolls were a capable tribe. They had survived years of sandstorms and other things that covered the place in sand all year round.
These small teams of monsters couldn't be underestimated. When Nightmare Difficulty was compared to Elite Difficulty, not only was the strength of the monsters increased, but also their numbers and their ability to work together.
The Witch would apply debuffs and heal while the Mage would use its skills. Additionally, the three Sandfury Bloodthirsters were very powerful warriors.
Lu Li choose to attack the Witch Doctor as it was the most ridiculous monster – it healed, gave special buffs, and could even drop totems which could heal. The players didn't have a Witch Doctor profession, but it could be seen as a combination of Priest and Shaman.
The key to fighting the Witch Doctor was in its totem.
This healing totem was most troublesome when it was placed at the front. You could spend a lot of time and energy dropping the elite monster to half-HP, but when this totem was dropped, it would be healed back to full in a few seconds.
As such, the moment the totem appeared, Lu Li needed to immediately destroy it. This was his primary role.
This way, the others could peacefully fight the monsters. After all, no matter how strong they were, they ultimately couldn't stand against such a strong team.
"The first Boss is pretty easy to fight. Most players probably already know about it," Lu Li explained as he fought the monsters.
"It's the scarabs, right?" Azure Sea Breeze had studied the other guilds' strategies.
Right now, even the ordinary players were trying to find out the strategies for this Instance Dungeon, but the oldest strategy was to kill the scarabs.
There were at least a few hundred scarabs and just one attack could draw the entire crowd. This tested a team's area-of-effect attacks. If there was a Mage that could perform a large area-of-effect attack, it would make the situation a lot easier to handle.
However, as long as there were two or more Mages or Warlocks attacking, there wouldn't be a problem.
If the scarabs weren't killed first, the Boss would give them special buffs. Those scarabs that were easily killed at first would now become very strong.
After receiving the buffs, those scarabs would be comparable to those Sandfury Bloodthirsters. With hundreds of them rus.h.i.+ng over, even the strongest players couldn't deal with them.
There were lots of teams that had died to the scarabs at the start.
Fortunately, this problem wasn't difficult to solve. Once they had dealt with the scarabs, the first Boss was also quickly dealt with.
However, Lu Li was doing this at Nightmare Difficulty, so the rules of the Instance Dungeon couldn't be interpreted the same. Theka the Martyr wasn't so easy to kill here, otherwise, everyone would be doing it on Nightmare Difficulty.
As for Theka, the description of Zul'Farrak gave him a brief introduction.
A long time ago, Theka the Martyr was unfortunate enough to die in the battle between the Trolls, but due to his heroic sacrifice, Zul'farrak still stands. Even after his death, he still vigilantly guarded his beloved city. It is said that the warriors who killed him were cursed to become brainless Scarabs, forever running around the martyr.
In other words, Seka was an Undead, and had died a long time ago.
This kind of Boss didn't have high intelligence, so the key still remained in the scarabs.
Chapter 584: Exploding Corpse
The monsters were quickly cleared out and they soon reached where Theka was.
It was an open s.p.a.ce among the rubble, but there were scarabs packed tightly everywhere. Those who were afraid of enclosed s.p.a.ces could now rejoice, but those who were afraid of bugs would be terrified.
Among the scarabs, there were also a couple of Sandfury monsters, but Theka was sitting by a slate.
This was Theka's Slate, and was required in a Horde Quest. The quest had decent rewards, but it was inaccessible by Alliance players.
"Kill the Sandfury Mobs, but don't use area-of-effect skills. Turn off anything that can damage in an area." Lu Li had been silent while they cleared out the other monsters, but now that they were before the Boss, he started to exercise his responsibility as a commander.
If this was on Elite Difficulty, the scarabs would be easy to kill, even if the Sandfury mobs were mixed among them. They could just use area-of-effect skills to solve the problem.
However, they had to be extremely careful on Nightmare Difficulty. If anything went wrong, their entire team would be instantly wiped.
There was a monster called the Sandfury Soul Eater that had a unique ability called Exploding Corpse. It waited for a pile of dead Scarabs to collect before raising its hand and exploding them. This ability was fully capable of wiping an entire team.
As per Lu Li's requirements, they led the mobs over one at a time.
The three Sandfury Soul Eaters were specially taken care of by Lu Li to make sure that they were dead.
As this was on Nightmare Difficulty, the Sandfury Soul Eaters, which were elite monsters, actually dropped some exquisite Silver equipment. The properties were very good, and at level 35, it was stronger than level 30 Gold equipment. Sesame Rice Ball was happy to take the equipment.
A special effect on the equipment was the legendary Exploding Corpse.
This was a one-use that allowed the player to explode up to ten monster corpses, dealing 300% of their damage. This effect alone would double the value of this Silver equipment, and made it better than most Gold equipment at the same level.
The only problem was that this was more suitable for players who levelled often. PVP players would never have so many bodies to explode.
Moreover, it could only detonate up to ten monsters. Compared to the Sandfury Soul Eater's skill, this was obviously a weakened version – the monster had no such limitation.
After the few monsters had been dealt with, they prepared to kill the scarabs.
"Flower, use Arcane Explosion and run all the way down and back. Be careful not to pull the Boss," Lu Li indicated at Lonesome Flower after everyone had rested for a moment.
In fact, the Scarabs had a chained-aggro mechanism, which meant that as long as one of them were attacked, they would all flock towards the attacker.
Lu Li told Lonesome Flower to run because the Scarabs needed to be hit by a few Arcane Explosions before they were killed and he would be attacked by too many scarabs if he stayed in one place.
Lonesome Flower didn't say anything, and just raised his hand to release an Arcane Explosion.
The scarabs were rather weak and immediately dropped to a third of their HP when hit by one Arcane Explosion. This meant that Lonesome Flower could deal with a group of scarabs in three to four seconds.
However, what they thought was a perfect plan turned out to have a few flaws.
Lu Li noticed that Lonesome Flower wasn't running fast enough and that he also needed to stop every time he wanted to cast a skill. As such, he was slowly being surrounded by more and more scarabs.
His HP was obviously dropping quite quickly, but what was more troublesome was the Scarab Plague that was being stacked onto him.
The Scarab Plague didn't deal high damage; it was just 4-5 damage for one stack, but they stacked up quickly. This, in addition to the Scarab bites, meant that Lonesome Flower couldn't last for more than 3 seconds.
Lonesome Flower died!
March Rain struggled to break free from Lu Li's hand.
He had stopped her from healing, and made her helplessly watch as her brother died within the swarm.
"You don't lose EXP in an Instance Dungeon," Lu Li said quietly. "You can Resurrect him now. You died to a couple of bugs. Are you sure you're not messing around Flower?"
Lonesome Flower was silently revived before he sat down to eat some bread to recover his HP and Mana. He wasn't angry at Lu Li at all, and instead calmly responded, "I just got the skill yesterday and haven't had the chance to use it yet. When I use it, it feels a little clunky, but that might be because of the Skill level."
"It's not because of the Skill level; it's an Instant Cast skill. Next time, try casting the skill like this," Lu Li had learned a bit about Mages and how to walk while asking Arcane Explosion.
Of course, he couldn't cast Arcane Explosion, but he could imitate the action. When Lonesome Flower saw him, his eyes lit up.
Lu Li knew how to use Mage skills too!
What Lu Li was trying to show was simple. He wanted Lonesome Flower to lift his Magic Staff a bit before he cast the skill, so that when he did cast it, he wouldn't have to do it again. After casting a skill, the Magic Staff would automatically be pressed onto the ground, but at this point, he would immediately cast it again.
This was actually a trick for Half-Manual Mode for Mages. Lu Li had studied a few of these skills in his previous life.
Instant Cast Skills didn't technically exist for Mages or Thieves, as the release of a Skill required an action. These actions were a.s.sisted or forced by the System.
However, if you completed the action before the System forced you to, it would greatly reduce the time to complete it.
All true Mage experts were always exploring the actions that were required for their skills.
"You can go and find a s.p.a.ce to practice. We can wait for you." Lu Li saw that Lonesome Flower already understood and decided to give him some time.
If they didn't wait, they might just fail again, so why not wait and let him get better at it?
Lonesome Flower practiced for a few minutes and was ready to go again. He once again started attacking the swarm and performed much better this time. He didn't pause for as long as wasn't being surrounded.
The Scarab Plague was released at close range, so as long as they were killed before they got close, he wouldn't need to worry too much about them.
After successfully dealing with the Scarabs, Lu Li and the others went to pick up what the monsters had dropped.
The Scarab Sh.e.l.l was a quest item that paid out a lot of EXP. In fact, this quest could be completed multiple times as the NPC was always willing to accept the players' scarabs.
It was around this time that a new phenomenon began to emerge – the sale of Scarab Sh.e.l.ls.
Those who didn't have money would fight these Scarabs for their sh.e.l.ls to sell for gold. They would then convert that into real money for rent and food...
Those who were rich bought Scarab Sh.e.l.ls for the quest which helped them continually gain EXP. They could only hand in 20 a day, but they could usually only gain half a level each day anyway. As such, this greatly accelerated the levelling of the rich.
Lu Li didn't mind this industry and had made a small fortune with it in his previous life.
Everyone started in this game with nothing and was placed in a relatively fair environment, but naturally, the game could never be completely fair.
The world was never really fair to begin with – those who were rich had the resources to make it easier for them to succeed. But did that mean that the average person should just give up?
Lu Li never gave up on himself, and was sure that he would become rich sooner or later.
As the saying goes, "I am not part of the rich second generation, but I hope to be a father of the rich third generation."
Chapter 585: Theka the Martyr
Lu Li collected around forty scarabs, which was enough to complete the quest twice. The drop rate in Nightmare mode was very high – on average, every single monster would drop one quest item. If this was Elite mode, everyone would probably only receive enough quest items to complete the quest once.
These forty quest items were worth about 400 gold coins, or in other words, it was 40,000 dollars.
During the few weeks where this dungeon matched the mainstream player levels, the gold-collecting players would have better income. Unfortunately, players were only allowed to enter Elite mode dungeons once a week, otherwise, they would be rich already.
Azure Sea Breeze planned to purchase some scarabs to level up; he had earned quite a bit of money recently.
Moonlight had similar plans too; he wasn't a fan of leveling. His current levels were mostly gained from his time spent in the battlegrounds, but compared to expert level players, his level wasn't really an advantage at all.
Square Root 3 was busy trying to purchase more scarabs as well. If he purchased enough of these quest items, Lu Li decided that he might take the shortcut too.
There wasn't anything for him to hesitate about the situation. If he didn't partic.i.p.ate, he could likely keep his number one spot on the level rankings.
The maximum number of times that the players could complete the quest was a hundred.
While a player was level 35, they could gain around half a level by completing this quest 20 times. As such, if they handed in the quest a hundred times, they could only hit a maximum of level 37.
For a player like Lu Li, who was almost level 39, he might not even reach level 40 with the maximum number of quests.
Lu Li began instructing everyone on where to position themselves.
"Everyone, position yourselves four yards apart from each other. Remnant Dream, make sure no one is standing between your pet and you, otherwise, the disease will spread to the others when your pet dies."
Theka would be an easy boss, as long as they positioned themselves well.
Its first skill was a debuff that dealt damage every second and reduced attributes.
This wasn't too much to handle, as long as your equipment was decent.
The most important aspects of this skill was that it was contagious. If players stood too close to each other, the debuff would spread in a radius of three yards, and it could also stack.
The situation would become dangerous if a player had more than three stacks.
The other skill was Theka's Summon. When Theka's health reached 30%, it would summon Skeletal Warriors from the corpse of the bugs.
Theka's Summon was a skill that belonged in Nightmare mode.
In Elite mode, Theka would use Theka Transform when it reached 30% of his remaining health.
It would turn into a giant scarab, becoming immune to all physical and shadow damage. This meant that cla.s.ses like Warriors, Thieves, Warlocks and Shadow Priests couldn't deal any damage to it.
At the same time, any scarabs that remained alive would attack the players.
In Elite mode, as long as you killed all the scarabs, things would be fine. However, in Nightmare mode the scarabs would fight for Theka regardless of whether they were dead or alive.
"March, group fear!" Lu Li shouted.
March Rain had a much better game sense than her brother. She walked over to cast a Soul Shriek and all the monsters caught in it began to scatter.
Without the instructions from Lu Li, Lonesome Flower casted Arcane Explosion, while the others helped with their own group damage spells. Even Lu Li used his Fan of Knives.
Countless knives were tossed outwards from him, dealing damage to the monsters that they hit.
Unfortunately, the damage wasn't too significant.
Moonlight's Whirlwind was very useful in a situation like this. This spell dealt high damage and also provided him with good mobility. However, he became the target of the monsters when he got too close to them, so March Rain had to follow behind and heal him.
At this point, the Boss was immune to shadow and physical damage.
The main tank couldn't hold the aggro, so the other cla.s.ses couldn't output damage either. Lu Li and the others gave up on attacking the Boss and started killing the monsters instead.
On the first cast of Invigorate, the strength of the monsters doubled.
On the second cast of Invigorate, the monsters' strength doubled again. These monsters had now grown strong enough to reach the standard of Elites.
If too many monsters remained after the third cast of Invigorate, they were guaranteed to wipe at this first Boss.
"Spread out and try to hit all the monsters. Don't panic – stay focused on your skills and try to hit as many monsters as you can," Lu Li instructed.
Invigorate had already been cast on these skeleton monsters twice. They were only a few dozen seconds away from the third Invigorate, and there were still many monsters left.
"Use your equipment effects, increase your damage, use anything you have! You don't need to hold back anything for later." If the team wiped, there would be no point in keeping these skills.
Everyone understood how urgent the situation was and they all began to use their strongest abilities.
Lu Li didn't have many of these special effects, but his damage wasn't low in the first place. He could kill one monster within three seconds, so he was still positively contributing to the team.
"Thirteen, twelve, ten, alright, nine..." Lu Li kept calculating the time and finally took the monsters down to nine before the third Invigorate was casted. They wouldn't definitely wipe if more than ten monsters remained, but the chances were still quite significant.
"Stop. Wandering, hold onto the monsters. Who's still doing damage? Do you want to lose points?" Lu Li yelled, catching everyone by surprise.
The third attribute that was given to the monsters by Invigorate was critical strike chance.
Wandering was the secondary tank. His equipment was built for defense and he also had damage reduction, so he could tank these monsters.
After this wave of monsters had been successfully killed, Theka became an easy target.
A few minutes later, he became a pile of dust of dust on the floor.
He had already been dead for too long, so his corpse returned to the ground. The only thing that kept him battling was his will. After he died, his will disappeared and his body instantly went through centuries of time.
The experience given was quite decent; this was Nightmare mode after all. However, it still wasn't enough for Lu Li to reach level 39. He probably had to wait for the next boss.
No one received any extra skill points either; skill points were even rarer than rare materials. Moreover, the dungeon had already been previously completed and this wasn't the First Clear.
"Alright, Remnant Dream, go loot the items," Lu Li said.
"Alright, I'll show you guys my magic." Remnant Dream didn't mind how dirty this pile of dust was and eagerly looted the corpse.