The Great Thief
chapter-29

Chapter 29: Keep Grinding Until It Dies

-7！

The Seal Transformation actually had a very dangerous hidden effect; after transforming, the effects of Lu Li’s equipment would be nullified. This meant that he had 0 armor.

What would happen if you had 0 armor and were hit by a Boss?

Death!

It was only natural that he felt anxious.

The blueish green lake appeared dim and ripples could be seen across its surface. Just as Lu Li thought he was about to get hit, a red light shone down from the setting sun and he broke through the surface with a splash.

An arrow shot through the air, hitting Kleig directly in the head. Although it only dealt a little bit of damage, there was still a noticeable spray of blood. Kleig wailed and abandoned the small seal at the surface, instead charging towards the damned Elf Warrior near the bank.

“Dammit. This monster’s defense is insane; I barely even damaged it,” Azure Sea Breeze cried out in surprise. He changed his weapon from the crossbow to a long sword and shield as the turtle rushed towards him.

While this was happening, Lu Li had climbed back onto shore and stabbed Kleig in the tail.

-7!

He was shocked – what kind of defense was this? When he hit Bosses from Instance Dungeons, he would deal at least 10 to 20 damage. When he PVP’ed with other weaker players, he could deal up to 100 damage. Kleig was only a level 3 Boss, but he could only deal 7 damage.

Kleig sobbed like a baby; its cry was high pitched and sad.

It opened its mouth which was densely filled with teeth and began attacking Azure Sea Breeze. Each tooth looked lethal, like the tip of sharp knife.

“I was scared earlier, but it turns out it has very low attack.” Azure Sea Breeze breathed a sigh of relief after he was attacked, putting away the potion he was about to take.

It was only after Lu Li had checked the Battle Announcement that he understood why he said that.

Battle Announcement: Azure Sea Breeze’s Charge deals 4 damage to Kleig; Kleig deals 8 damage to Azure Sea Breeze…

The damage that Kleig was dealing to Azure Sea Breeze was not Boss-status-worthy.

However, when they saw Kleig’s HP, Lu Li and Azure Sea Breeze’s faces both went dark. 30,000HP!

This was 2 times higher than a level 5 Instance Dungeon Boss!

How many potions would they need!?

No one would give up on a Boss just because they were afraid of using too many potions. They simply had no choice: for the sake of better equipment and materials, they had to do it.

Kleig was powerful in the water, but when it reached the shore, it became somewhat slow and weary. It lay on the ground unmoving, while Lu Li stood still and attacked it. This allowed him to attain an extremely high Skill Completion value, which in turn allowed for the Boss to be stunned often and gave Azure Sea Breeze some breathing space.

After fighting for 30 minutes, Azure Sea Breeze had used 10 potions and the Boss had lost more than half its HP.

In the midst of the struggle, Kleig suddenly moved and rushed towards the lake.

“Dammit, it’s going to recover!” Lu Li really wanted to slap himself.

Most amphibians and other monsters with a similar biology had the ability to return to a more suitable environment and recover large amounts of HP.

Under Lu Li’s and Azure Sea Breeze’s angry stares, Kleig’s HP bar slowly increased by 10. Not only did this mean that they had lost several minutes of their time, but there could be an even greater effect that they didn’t know about.

“It’s okay, let’s pull it to the small forest to fight it.” They both felt exasperated, but the system didn’t make any further announcements. They had already gotten this far and couldn’t give up now.

Kleig was slow in following, as they travelled further and further away from the Moon Reflection Lake.

By the side of the lake, there were many similar trees that were all densely packed together. Kleig was having trouble getting through them, but the aggro system forced it to follow them.

When they felt that they had gone far enough, Lu Li and Azure Sea Breeze once again began to attack.

This time, when it reached 50% HP, Kleig didn’t try anything new. It simply made a futile effort to hit Azure Sea Breeze’s Bronze shield. Not knowing what would happen if it spent too long away from the water, its damaged was reduced by a significant amount. Its HP went from 50% to 30% without taking a single critical hit.

When it reached 30% HP, Kleig began to twist its body and clumsily attempted to return to the lake.

“Block it and pay attention to your positioning.” Lu Li rushed over, blocking the front of the Boss, but the Boss knocked him aside.

Kleig’s knock-aside skill might have had a cool down, so Azure Sea Breeze quickly copied Lu Li. This time they were able to successfully block the Boss.

They didn’t know how long it would stay in this agitated state, but after 30 seconds it calmed down once again. This signaled the continuation of their struggle in depleting its HP.

Azure Sea Breeze’s potions were almost completely used up. He had used 11 potions in this fight alone, and if it weren’t for Lu Li helping him loot the Goblin Businessman, this fight would have been impossible.

“I still have 6 bottles, it should be enough.” Lu Li took a few bottles from his own bag and threw them onto the ground.

“You keep one, just in case the Boss goes berserk. I’m not sure if I can tank it all,” Azure Sea Breeze said.

Victory was in sight, but neither of them could guarantee that an accident wouldn’t happen.

“If we kill the first wild boss, we could get on TV!” Lu Li laughed, his hand movements continuous. He regularly produced an 85% Skill completion on Shadowstrike that stunned Kleig for 2 seconds.

“Ever since I got to know you, getting on TV doesn’t seem like that much of an accomplishment anymore.” Azure Sea Breeze used to think that he was an expert, but now that he knew Lu Li, he realized that were players so strong it was almost unnatural.

“I’m just lucky.” Obviously, Lu Li couldn’t say that he had experienced rebirth, which would be even more unnatural.

“Your luck is one thing, but what is most important is how diligent you are. Every time you fight a monster you are practicing; it seems like every time I see you you’ve significantly improved. With such great leaps of progress, how can you mix with people like me?”

“I have no choice. If I don’t work hard, I’ll be eliminated quickly. To most players this is just a game, but to me this is my job, my hope,” Lu Li responded.

“Work?” Azure Sea Breeze was surprised: “You have to earn money by playing this game?”

“Yep, it looks like you aren’t a newbie yourself – you must have played games for a few years already. What do you think of Dawn?” Lu Li already knew this about Azure Sea Breeze, but he couldn’t show it. The story needed to slowly play out.

Azure Sea Breeze had a shield equipped and struck Kleig on the head with it with a Shieldstrike. The Boss was stunned as he heard Lu Li ask the question and he immediately replied without hesitation: “I think this game is good compared to the others.”

“The business opportunities in this game are finite and the money that can be made is comparable to work in real life. Are you still studying or are you working?” Only someone who had experienced rebirth would know that Dawn’s market was big. In one year’s time, it would expand across the world, spawning a rich professional scene.

“I studied in the big four, and am about to start looking for work.” Azure Sea Breeze was somewhat serious; university graduates were basically just unemployed people. This was a phenomenon that had appeared 200 years ago. With the development of better intelligent systems, finding employment was becoming more difficult.

Welfare had become a large part of people’s living income, which was a severe social problem. That is, until Dawn had appeared.

“How about we band together to make money in this game?” Lu Li was 80% sure that Azure Sea Breeze would agree because most of this generation couldn’t find a job. As such, they spent most of their days playing these video games.