The Great Thief

“I’ve got it,” said Azure Sea Breeze, as he waved his sword and rushed towards the Boss.

“Hey...” Lu Li didn’t have time to stop him and could only watch as the heavily armored Main Tank rushed past him. He was then kicked away by the mechanical monster like a ball. It was really rather pathetic.

“What a strong Boss.” Azure Sea Breeze was visibly shaken and afraid of going in again.

“Go again. Are you going to wait for its cooldowns to refresh?”

Azure Sea Breeze flicked his middle finger at Lu Li and charged at the Boss once again.

Lu Li didn’t bother going into Stealth because the mechanical monster was immune to stuns. Without killing it first, players had no hope of fighting the Boss.

The mechanical monster and the Boss worked as a unit. They could both deal damage to the players while Helix constantly laid down mines. They were about the size of a palm and would spin when they were thrown onto the ground, before slowly drilling their way underground. When a player stood on the ground above one of them, it would explode.

Although the mechanical monster was strong enough to knock back Azure Sea Breeze, it mostly only dealt single digit damage.

Boom!

Lonesome Flower felt something heat up under his foot before he was sent flying.

-425!

Half of his HP was suddenly depleted.

After landing, he staggered backwards for a few steps.

Boom!

Perhaps he was simply unlucky, but as he stepped backwards he triggered another mine. This time March Rain was also knocked up with him.

The two of them flew up and then hit the ground.

Lonesome Flower glowed white. He was unexpectedly killed very quickly.

This was the Boss’ most headache-inducing aspect – the area of effect explosion that could affect teammates within four yards.

If a player was hit by a mine and triggered another one within 30 seconds, the damage they took would be doubled.

“Look at you, cowering like mice.”

The goblin engineer happily ridiculed them atop of the mechanical monster.

When March Rain landed, she quickly started to heal herself.

They had only just begun and had already lost a high DPS player. What a tragedy this was.

“Continue fighting. We have to familiarize ourselves with the Boss. If you trigger a mine, immediately drink a potion. Do not try to save them.”

Lu Li looked at his frightened teammates and spoke profoundly.

The others thought for a while and came to the same realization. They would probably be unable to defeat the Boss this time, but the least they could do was try and work out what kind of skills it had for the next fight.

The mechanical monster had high HP and they had only managed to deplete half of its HP bar after five minutes of fighting.

Lu Li suddenly felt a vibration under his foot and he quickly tried to escape. Unfortunately, the mine had already been triggered. He and Azure Sea Breeze were both caught in the explosion.

“Take your potion!” Lu Li already had a potion in hand and quickly drank it as soon as he landed.

As the Main Tank was knocked up, the mechanical monster charged and knocked back the Healer. When March Rain hit the ground, she triggered another mine. Coincidentally, Azure Sea Breeze landed near her and both of them were sent flying.

It was chaos!

The whole scene was out of control, as the Boss went after Remnant Dream directly. With every swing of its mechanical arm, Remnant Dream lost 300 HP. The little Hunter was scared and tried to escape, but in doing so, she triggered a mine and died before she could even take a potion.

By the time Azure Sea Breeze had regained the Boss’ aggro, the party only had three people left.

Without the two DPS professions, the mechanical monster was losing HP at an even slower rate.

After struggling for some time, a mine was triggered again. This time, it was even worse. The Main Tank stepped on one mine after another until he died. There was absolutely no window for healing.

Without a Main Tank, the other two quickly turned and ran, but the room was closed and there was nowhere to go.

After the group was revived, they all gloomily sat by the door to Helix’s room.

They had all felt very strong; their equipment was good and their level was high. They didn’t expect to be wiped before they had even killed the mechanical monster.

“This is just how it is; we’ll get used to it eventually.” Azure Sea Breeze tried to cheer everyone up but his efforts were in vain.

“The loss of EXP is heartbreaking.” Lonesome Flower put on a long face.

After the update, a few different death penalties had been introduced in Dawn:

The first was for field deaths: Revive in the Cemetery and lose 20% EXP. In addition, the player will be in a weakened state for 30 minutes.

The second was also for field deaths: Your soul runs to the place of death and revives there, but make sure your corpse is guarded. The player will also lose 15% EXP.

The third was also for field deaths: Revive by a spell from a profession and lose 10% EXP.

The fourth was for Instance Dungeon deaths: Your soul will appear in the cemetery outside the Instance Dungeon. Your soul can enter the Instance Dungeon to revive at the entrance of the Instance Dungeon. The player will lose 1% EXP, but these deaths are unlike the others. A player cannot drop a level in this way.

One percent didn’t sound like much, but one still had to kill many monsters to obtain this. The Boss was also extremely hard to defeat, so who knew how many times they were going to die?

Their second attempt was much smoother. Now that they had experience with the explosions, they could balance themselves if they were affected. Remnant Dream didn’t run away this time and they successfully killed the mechanical monster.

All that was left was Helix.

“Well, you’ve succeeded in provoking Helix.”

The goblin engineer angrily stood up from the wreckage of the mechanical monster.

Helix still had a very disgusting skill - Mount.

He could jump onto a person’s head and block their vision. The victim was usually considered dead and attacked by their teammates.

Moreover, the frequency of him burying the mines was higher too. Lu Li’s party was wiped again and again, for a third, fourth and fifth time...

“Stop, this isn’t the way to go about it either,” Lu Li shouted at Azure Sea Breeze, who still wanted to continue.

“There isn’t much time left, so everyone should go and take a break. Think about how we can beat the Boss while you’re at it”

The others were physically and mentally exhausted, so they didn’t object.

In reality, Lu Li already had a strategy; he just didn’t want to say it out loud.

Fighting Instance Dungeons required a great use of teamwork and various focused tactics. There was a strategy and skill to fighting every Boss.

Lu Li knew many strategies because of his rebirth, but they were still very limited. When he eventually ran out of strategies and they had to face an unfamiliar Instance Dungeon, what would they do?

As such, they had to get used to studying Instance Dungeons.

This Boss wasn’t very difficult. Some would even say that it was easy, so it provided a good test.

He logged back on after a meal and the five of them sat in front of the Helix room door discussing tactics.

“Let’s stand apart from each other,” Remnant Dream said.

“Yo, can you not think of something that a rookie would say?” Lonesome Flower mocked.

“The biggest problem is when you get knocked back and you land on another mine. This Boss seems highly reliant on luck.”

March Rain always worked really hard, but she could only helplessly watch as her teammates died.

“Yeah, we can try standing in the corners. If all the ranged players stand in the corners, the wall will block them from triggering any others if they trigger one in the first place.”

Azure Sea Breeze’s experience showed and he quickly found a way to deal with the explosions.