“You despicable Elf, where is your elegance and dignity? You have insulted the great Krolly. Krolly’s items are the best in the entire Continent!” The Goblin was furious, and began to argue with Lu Li.
“What the hell is wrong with your head? And why are you so smelly? I bet you live in the sewers… don’t ruin the word “great” by using it to describe yourself, alright?”
Lu Li didn’t hold back at all as he continued to verbally abuse the Goblin Businessman.
System Announcements continuously rang out in his ear:
You insulted the Goblin Businessman Krolly, Goblin Reputation -5.
You insulted the Goblin Businessman Krolly, Goblin Reputation -5.
…
You insulted the Goblin Businessman Krolly, Goblin Reputation -5. Your relationship with the Goblins has dropped from ‘Friendly’ to ‘Neutral’…
After falling to ‘Neutral’, Krolly’s items would no longer be available for purchase by Lu Li and his teammates. However, Lu Li didn’t show any sign of stopping at all, and began to insult him even more.
“I heard that insulting NPCs can cause them to attack you.” Azure Sea Breeze said as he swallowed a mouthful of saliva and looked at Krolly’s level with fear. It was LV53.
Moreover, any NPC with a name was usually Elite grade, or even a Boss.
“He can probably insta-kill us in 1 hit…” Northern Tang Kitty was on the verge of tears. Her LV4 EXP bar was only 2% full. If she died right now, she would go back to LV3.
“What the hell is Lu Li doing…”
Lu Li’s new teammates all took a step back.
The poor Goblin was at a clear disadvantage in this insult competition with Lu Li. The system only gave him enough intelligence for negotiating with players for money; he had no skill at all in an insult standoff.
“The great Krolly curses you, despicable Elf,” He cried out, “You will be killed like an animal by the Goblins, and your pitiful cries will be heard in every corner of the Continent…”
System: You insulted the Goblin Businessman Krolly, Goblin Reputation -5. Your relationship with the Goblins has dropped from ‘Neutral’ to ‘Hatred’…
“Alright, Sea Breeze, start attacking. Everyone else, follow suit.” Lu Li took a few deep breaths before yelling to his teammates.
Azure Sea Breeze’s face fell as he pleaded, “Big bro, I’ll call you big bro, alright? I’ve never done anything to make you angry. I also saved you 10% EXP today, so why do you have to do this to me?”
“Cut the crap, get to work!” Lu Li said as he stabbed Krolly with his dagger.
-1!
Almost as soon as he was injured, a green +1 appeared.
Although he had barely been hurt, Krolly’s reaction was incredibly surprising. He helplessly started screaming, as if he was a little girl being violated.
Lu Li didn’t say anything as he ran behind Krolly and start stabbing at his behinds.
The other people started to realise that something was off. This Goblin Businessman didn’t retaliate when being attacked, and because of the weight of the things he was carrying, his speed was incredibly slow.
However, he regenerated his HP almost instantly.
“Stop standing around, hurry up and help me. We still need to go do an Instance Dungeon!”
The others all hesitated for a moment before also attacking.
The moment they started attacking, they almost all started crying.
System: Because you have attacked the Goblin Businessman Krolly, your relationship with the Goblins has dropped to ‘Hatred’…
“Goddammit Lu Li, go die!” Azure Sea Breeze inwardly screamed. He had already offended an entire race; how would he survive in this game?!
The Goblins were a neutral faction, and were famous for their business and scroll-making. They were one of the biggest races.
Everyone else’s faces also weren’t pretty, but they held it in.
“Don’t worry, it’s easy to earn reputation with the Goblins. Just find a random Goblin NPC and give him a few gold coins. You’ll be able to get your reputation back up.” Lu Li comforted them.
The others were speechless- he wasn’t sure if they were surprised by what he said, or if they didn’t believe him.
“It’s a small bug. However, getting to ‘Worship’ is a bit hard.” Lu Li quickly explained.
The Goblin race’s reputation was the easiest to earn out of all the different races. As long as you had money, you could quickly raise your reputation with them. It was just that being on friendly terms or being worshipped by them didn’t have much point- the greedy Goblins wouldn’t give you any discounts, no matter what.
“Unbelievable… wouldn’t we be able to kill as many Goblins as we want and earn their equipment?” Northern Tang Dream’s objections were now gone, and was even considering slaughtering Goblins for a living.
“Not every NPC is as easy to bully as Krolly. He’s a special case. In future, we won’t bully any more cute little Goblins.”
“We can’t kill him, he regenerates too quickly.” Drinking Alone yelled.
“The point isn’t to kill him,” Lu Li calmly replied, “Just keep attacking. We’re nearly there.”
After yelling for a while, Krolly finally couldn’t take it anymore. He roared, then took something out of his bag and threw it at Lu Li’s head.
Lu Li quickly picked it up, but didn’t stop attacking.
[Small Health Potion]: Instantly restores 50HP, is not restricted by battle. Cooldown Time: 30 seconds. Potion Resistance: 20.
Potion Resistance can be explained like this: If a Potion has a Potion Resistance of 80, then using the same type of Potion next time will have 20% reduced effects, and the Cooldown Time will be increased by 20%.
Of course, the more Potion Resistance, the better.
A Potion with a Potion Resistance of 20 was simply trash. However, at the current stage of the game, the only option most players had was to escape from battle to sit down and eat Bread. Being able to instantly recover 50HP was already not bad.
When Lu Li shared the Potion’s stats with everyone, they were all filled with motivation.
After throwing out an item, Krolly soon found that his weight was still too heavy to be able to run away, and could only continue to throw items out.
It was a pity that they were all Potions. After a while, he had already thrown out 5 bottles of Potions, but still wasn’t fast enough to run away. He screamed, “Krolly won’t forgive any of you. You will suffer under the flames of the great Goblins!”
After screaming, he threw out an item, which smashed into Northern Tang Kitty’s face. She yelled out, then quickly picked it up, and shouted in joy, “Aiya, it’s a Bronze grade equipment!”
[Whisperer] (Bronze): 10-18 Damage, Intelligence+2. Level Requirement: LV4. Durability: 17/20.
What an incredible Bronze grade Magic Staff!
“Woohoo!” Azure Sea Breeze whooped, and everyone began to attack even more furiously.
After throwing out another few Potions, the Goblin Businessman once again threw another Bronze equipment in front of Lu Li.
[Night Leather Armour] (Bronze): 8 Armour, Constitution+1. Level Requirement: LV4. Durability: 11/20.
The stats of this piece of equipment were quite average, and couldn’t compare to the Magic Staff from earlier. However, none of them complained- this was a piece of Armour, and could save their lives in the Instance Dungeon.
After throwing out 2 pieces of equipment, the Goblin Businessman could finally start to jog.
“Northern Tang Kitty, Bind!” Lu Li called out.
Northern Tang Kitty immediately scrambled into action, and unleashed one of her Druid skills, Bind, on Krolly.
Success, rooted for 3 seconds.
Another Potion!
“Sea Breeze!”
Pa, Charge, stunned for 2 seconds, Potion!
Pa, Shieldstrike, stunned for 2 secoinds, Potion!
Northern Tang Dream’s battle sense was pretty good. Just as the Goblin Businessman recovered from a stun, she immediately stunned him again.
It was a pity that it was another Potion!
Northern Tang Dream and the others all started to give up, seeing that Krolly was about to escape.
At this moment, Lu Li quickly moved. By using Shadowmeld to disappear from the battle, followed by Stealth and Ambush, he was able to stun Krolly again!
Dawn was quite different to other games. To use a Racial Passive to leave the battle, then instantly enter stealth and use the Ambush skill…
This was unique!
No less than expected from an expert.
When Krolly recovered from the stun, he threw out another item. Unfortunately, it was a Potion.
Everyone had used up all of their Crowd Control abilities, and looked at Lu Li helplessly, as if they hoped he would be able to conjure up some sort of miracle.
Lu Li didn’t let everyone down. The dagger in his hand flashed, then spun through the air and stabbed into the back of Krolly’s head.
System: Shadowstrike Skill Completion 83%, caused 95% Skill Damage, target stunned for 1 second.
Although it was only for 1 second, when Krolly recovered, he threw out another item, and then continued to run away while screaming.
Equipment!
[Azure Wolf Leather Shoes] (Bronze): 4 Armour, Agility+1. Level Requirement: 3. Durability: 7/10.
Undoubtedly, this piece of equipment was for Lu Li.
Since the Druid was the only Magic profession out of all of them, the Magic Staff went to Northern Tang Kitty.
Northern Tang Kitty equipped the Bronze grade Magic Staff, and the way she looked at Lu Li became completely different. She had been completely mindblown today - never before had she seen anyone earn equipment like this before.
“This NPC will never appear here again. Don’t ever think of doing this to other NPCs.” Lu Li said as he looked at the disappointed look on Northern Tang Dream’s face. He didn’t want to see this beauty dying a silly death.
“How did you know that this NPC wouldn’t retaliate, and would even drop items?” Having big breasts didn’t necessarily mean one had small brains. Naturally, Northern Tang Dream wouldn’t neglect to ask the most pertinent question.
This was the original place where Krolly was, and after being attacked, he would always change places. That meant that this was the first time Lu Li had attacked Krolly. How did he know all this? This was the question on everyone’s mind.
“I have a friend who joined the beta test, and accidentally…” Lu Li instantly entered ‘I have a friend’ mode. After all, this was the only plausible explanation. Otherwise, how would he know this? He was only a “Gold Collection Unit” member, not a high profile member in his company.
“What was that skill just then?” Northern Tang Dream suddenly asked.
“Which skill?” Lu Li pretended that he didn’t know what she was talking about.
A look of annoyance flashed across the beauty’s face. Evidently, she wasn’t too pleased with Lu Li’s feint of ignorance.
Normally, every man would seize every opportunity to get on her good side, unlike Lu Li who was being difficult.
For example… Azure Sea Breeze. He smacked Lu Li on the back of the head as he stuck up for the goddess, “Stop acting dumb. The skill you used at the end, that stunned Krolly for 1 second. I don’t remember Thieves having a skill like that, but it looked like Shadowstrike.”
“That’s right, it was Shadowstrike.” Lu Li helpless said.
“Are you using Manual mode? If you have a high Skill Completion, will there be a special effect? What was your Skill Completion just then?” As expected from an expert. Drinking Alone immediately got to the crux of it.
Drinking Alone had also tried out the Manual mode, and knew about Skill Completion.
When casting a skill and obtaining Skill Completion over 50%, there would be a system announcement. For a person who had just tried out Manual mode, being able to obtain Skill Completion over 50% was quite impressive. It seemed that he lived up to his reputation.
“83%, Skill Damage was 95%, with a 1 second stun.” Drinking Alone had left a good impression on him, so Lu Li honestly answered him, “If you’re interested in the Manual mode, you should try it out from time to time.”
Their group chatted as they walked towards the entrance of the Spider Lair Instance Dungeon.
While walking, they took inventory of the items they had obtained from the Goblin Businessman. There were 13 low level Health Potions and 3 low level Mana Potions. The Mana Potions were all given to the Druid, Northern Tang Kitty, and everyone received 2 Health Potions, with Azure Sea Breeze receiving the rest.
The Night Leather Armour was also given to Azure Sea Breeze. Since he was the highest level out of all of them and had the Shieldstrike ability, he was the best candidate for being the team’s tank.
The entrance to the Instance Dungeon was on a mountain. It was a hole that was about one and a half times as tall as a person, and behind the light blue energy shield, many large spider webs could be seen.
As the leader of the team, Lu Li tasked with choosing the difficulty of the Instance Dungeon at the Assembly Stone.
The Assembly Stone looked like a tombstone covered with mystical signs and symbols, and sometimes had the background to a quest. It could also assist with finding teammates, as well as choosing the difficulty of the Instance Dungeon.
Very soon, the team heard the system announcement, “Your team has chosen the Elite level Spider Lair…”
Elite level…
There were two types of Instance Dungeons in Dawn. There was one that everyone could enter- it was a Public Instance Dungeon that had a Cooldown Time. The other was an Adventure Instance Dungeon that required a teleport scroll- this was usually called a “Private Instance Dungeon.”
Instance Dungeons had different levels of difficulty. Whatever was written on the teleport scrolls for Private Instance Dungeons, that was what the difficulty would be.
The Public Instance Dungeons had 4 levels of difficulty: Normal, Elite, Hero and Nightmare. Low level Instance Dungeons such as the Spider Lair, they did not have the Hero or Nightmare levels.
“Heavens, the Elite level… yesterday, I died in the Normal level so many times. Wuu… my EXP…” Although Northern Tang Dream usually acted like a cool beauty, she could also be quite dramatic.
“Hey beauty, don’t worry, I’m here…” Azure Sea Breeze said.
“Why did you choose the Elite level? Are we really up for this?” Drinking Alone was much more collected. He wasn’t thinking about the potential EXP loss, but the possibility of them actually succeeding.
“The Elite level Instance Dungeon isn’t that hard; don’t scare yourselves. Our tank is already LV5, and has Shieldstrike and Charge. We’ll be fine as long as we’re careful.” Lu Li refuted.
Everyone had been scared by the word ‘Elite’. The monsters in Elite level Instance Dungeons had an extra 10% Attack and Defence compared to those in Normal Instance Dungeons, and had an extra 20% HP.
The real reason Lu Li wanted to clear an Elite level Instance Dungeon was because the things he wanted to find couldn’t be found in Normal level Instance Dungeons!
If Lu Li wanted to upgrade the Supreme One Ring, he would need lots of precious materials. Most of these materials couldn’t be bought with money- for example, the Jade Spider Web, which was a LV5 Blue Material, could be found in the Elite level Instance Dungeons but had an incredibly low drop rate.
Moreover, the Jade Spider Webs were essential items to Tailors and Craftsmen for Advancement. Teams that were strong enough to obtain these items never had enough for the whole team- who could have any to sell?
As such, Lu Li could only make his own team to find these materials.
“I agree with doing an Elite level Instance Dungeon. I heard that the first team that clears an Instance Dungeon gets to go on the World Announcements.” Azure Sea Breeze excitedly said as he waved the one-handed sword in his hand.
When most players had upgraded their equipment and levelled up, and as long as they had a decent 5 person team, they would be able to clear the Normal level Instance Dungeon. However, this was not the case for the higher difficulty Instance Dungeons. These were mainly attempted by elite teams, and teams would be ranked by their clear times, allowing them to create new records.
Every time a new record was created, or a team tied with the record-holders, the new team would receive an extra piece of equipment, and would have the glory of a World Announcement.