The Great Thief

The Gnoll was two meters tall and abnormally large. Its skin was green and gray, and became darker around its nose. It had a full, greyish-red mane and its head looked like a hyena with yellow teeth and blood-red eyes.

Everyone was looking at Lu Li. They had all died the last time they had gotten here and didn’t have high hopes for this attempt either. However, they all wanted to know what the best way to destroy this Gnoll was.

“Compared to the other Gnolls, Gnoll Ording is actually very religious,” Lu Li said.

“Just tell us how to kill him; I know its religious. Last time we fought it, it kept saying something about Yenogg.”

The others who had heard this were amused – they didn’t think that Ording’s belief was useful. Was there a way to use a certain doctrine against it?

“Yenogg is a relatively weak Demon Lord.”

Lu Li looked at them and saw that they were a little disheartened. It was as if he had done something childish.

“Is there a way to work out the strategy with this information?” Little Bear Huan Huan was the one who had set up the studio, so she had some potential for leadership.

“That is correct. This is actually the info you need to be able to deal with it,” Lu Li nodded, before continuing, “But there is someone else that needs to be mentioned—Krasus. This guy was a genius. When he was building this prison...”

“Who is Krasus?” Huan Huan took Lu Li’s explanation like a bedtime story.

Lu Li wasn’t angry that his explanation had been interrupted and further explained with a weird expression on his face, “Krasus should actually be called Claustraz. He is a dragon – one of the youngest spouses of the Red Dragon Queen...”

“The youngest spouse? Does that mean that the Red Dragon Queen had many spouses?”

The female members were suddenly paying attention.

“Hehe, in short, Krasus was a dragon, but he was a genius in the rare Red Dragon magic. By the virtue of his magical power, he became the leader of Dalaran’s strongest group – the ‘Sixth Assembly’. He would normally appear like a High Elf and only used his original form in exceptional circumstances.

“Wow, it sounds so mysterious and magical!”

Dou Jing Jing sighed at the epic-ness of these characters, while the others were shocked by Lu Li’s knowledge.

Lu Li wasn’t just making this up. In his past life, when he wasn’t farming for gold throughout the day, he would be reading in Danassus’ library.

In the end, Lu Li developed a natural desire for knowledge, despite never attending school in reality. Even so, he knew that the game’s so-called literary masterpieces were just fantasy.

However, these books were not entirely useless. One could imagine how much effort Dawn’s development team had spent on developing them. There were probably tens of thousands of fantasy writers involved in a compilation of stories.

There were many hidden secrets among them.

The books had an undeniable role in transforming Lu Li from a Gold Collection Member to a second rate expert in his previous life.

Take the Red Dragon Krasus for example – he knew where to get an Epic Quest, with a great amount of EXP, a legendary Mage equip and a Mage skill book as a reward.

It was too bad that he wasn’t a Mage.

“Where was I up to?” Lu Li frowned.

“You said that Krasus built the prison. I still can’t believe that this prison is run by a dragon.”

Huan Huan looked around the prison for any dragon-related markings, but couldn’t find any.

“That’s correct. Krasus was a genius of a Mage. He created a prison without any guards.”

Lu Li felt a little sympathy for the Gnoll, as he stood in front of it.

“How does it not need guards? Won’t the prisoners just run away?” Dou Jing Jing asked curiously.

“Although there are no guards, there is someone stopping them from escaping,” Lu Li said as he pointed at Ording and continued, “It helps Krasus stop all the foreign enemies who want to come in and all the prisoners who want to get out.”

“Why?” This revelation was even more surprising than the guardless prison.

“Krasus built the Gnoll’s cell as an altar – one that can communicate with the Demon Lord Yenogg. Do you think Ording would leave the place where it can communicate with its god?”

“Probably not.”

Everyone’s eyes suddenly opened.

“Yep, with Ording stationed here, no prisoners are able to leave. If it’s hungry, it’ll eat anyone that comes in, or any prisoners that try to escape. In other words, it’ll eat anyone that passes by.”

“Are you saying that Ording is the Instance Dungeon’s most powerful Boss?”

If the first Boss was already this strong, how could they even stand a chance against the rest of the Instance Dungeon?!

“That’s right. For as long as Ording stands at the altar, it has the skills and strength of a final Boss.”

Lu Li deliberately emphasized the word ‘altar’.

“However, once the place from which he draws strength is destroyed, he can be killed.”

“Are you saying we need to destroy the altar?” Huan Huan and the others were all wondering the same thing.

“It’s a little easier than that. Do you see the four statues? Once the Boss starts to draw power from them, it will gain high attack and defence. During that time, we’ll have a short window to destroy the statue. It is only in that moment that the statues are vulnerable; they are otherwise indestructible,” Lu Li stressed.

“I see that you have studied Instanced Dungeons.”

Water Fairy, who hadn’t been particularly concerned with Instance Dungeons, now held Lu Li in high esteem. “Do you have any interest in Drizzle Court?” she asked.

No wonder there were people who said that she lacked worldly wisdom – how could she be so direct?

“Sorry, I’m not interested in joining any guilds. I’m just trying to help out my friend and claim the rewards.”

Lu Li rejected her even more directly.

“Alright.”

Seeing that Lu Li had refused, Water Fairy didn’t press further on the matter. The reality was that she wasn’t actually interested in building up her guild either.

“Warrior, attack. Don’t activate your damage reduction skills,” Lu Li commanded. Leaf Bro simply nodded and headed for the Gnoll.

“Meat! Fresh Meat!” Ording hadn’t eaten anything for a few years now. Hunger tormented its soul, so it was excited to see the players move closer.

The moment that it started advancing, it casted its spell—Rapid Charge.

Rapid Charge: Charge to a target, causing the caster’s next attack to deal more damage to it.

This was the same skill that they had seen last time. It dealt high damage but was not fatal. The skill that they had to watch out for was Mortal Strike.

Mortal Strike: Inflicts 200% weapon damage to the target and injures it. Any Heal skill cast on the injured targeted is reduced by 50% for 5 seconds.

Not only did this skill deal a lot of damage, it also halves the effects of healing. On several occasions during the fight, Leaf Bro had wanted to activate his damage reduction skills. However, Lu Li had told him not to, so now his HP was critical.