Once, done with the goblin mage, the troll returned to normal from its enraged state. It started using its staff like a mage and began firing shadow bolts like a warlock. Its speed also reduced considerably.
"Dude, you shouldn't have attacked the goblin mage," said Shadow. Being an assassin player, situations where his targets were concentrating on someone else was the best he could ask for. Especially, when his target monsters were concentrating on other monsters were much more convenient. At such times, he could land some sneak attacks on it without much worry.
The troll was in such a state. It wouldn't turn to attack the players as long as they didn't reduce its health by more than half when a goblin mage was still alive. It was a very good opportunity to reduce its health which was lost accidentally. Even Bitter Beast realized it once he heard Shadow.
"Sorry, I wasn't in a proper state of mind after watching that goblin mage die by my side," said Bitter Beast.
"So, any plans now?" asked Merlin.
"The usual. I don't know any weaknesses it might have. I will go close to it. The four of you maintain your distance. The troll is quite faster compared to the previous ones. You guys don't have enough speed to escape its attacks. Bitter Beast you also change to a wand and support from a distance. I will tank it," said Shadow as he ran towards the troll.
"Can he tank it?" asked Bitter Beast sceptically. Though he knew that one can keep a monster distracted by evading and attacking, it was hard task and it would fail once the monster lands a hit. Without a shield the damage of one or two hits is usually clear up all the aggro. So, it was common to wonder if one can tank without a shield, especially he saw the speed at which the troll swung its staff.
"Don't worry. He has very good equipment and allocated a lot of attribute points to agility. He can handle it," said Merlin. He quickly had the other three, move away from him around the troll. They formed a square with the troll at the centre and the four of them at four corners.
This was a good arrangement to handle slow moving, high damage monsters with long distance attacks. Even when, the monster would take cover, it would impossible for it to escape from the attacks of all four of them because of this arrangement. The position of the tank also at the very most would only obstruct one of the four. Thus, it allowed for them to easily reduce its health.
With Shadow tanking the troll, it didn't focus much on the others. Whenever the troll had a player within a certain distance from him, it tried to physically attack. Even though it was using the staff to cast magical attacks at the rest, it tried to kick him and punch at him with its free hand.
Though Shadow had high attack speed and damage, he couldn't deal a high damage rate while evading the troll's attacks, but he still had a high aggro as had continuously maintained a close distance evading its attacks while occasionally using dynamites. His movement speed allowed him to run around it, without receiving an attack.
In five minutes, they soon managed to reduce its health to about 1000 HP. Once, it got into critical health, it got enraged again and started to try and hit Shadow with its staff again. In enraged state, it started holding its staff like a mace again trying to smash Shadow with it.
At this stage, the aggro of Lukriag gets reset. Shadow quickly threw a couple of dynamites on it, to regain its aggro. It was best to use dynamites and firecrackers while running away at this time to avoid its attacks. Even Shadow, with his high movement speed couldn't be sure to escape from all attacks if he stayed close and tried to attack it with his daggers.
Though it was a costly affair for most to use so many dynamites for most, Shadow didn't really care about it as the Cave of Wargs portal, still provided him with a decent source of gold. In a minute, the troll lost the last remaining HP it had and fell down.
"System: You have successfully completed the Caves of Lukriag. Do you intend to provide your team name for the wall of honour?"
This notice along with a text box for team name came up in front of Merlin who was feeling slightly bad that he had accepted Rudra's offer and promised to give out the name of the guild, if they cleared it first. He only waited for a second in thought, but decided to put in the guild name.
"Tcha! I am not going to make such promises again," said Merlin talking to himself loudly as he put in the name "Crimson Realm" and selected enter.
White Heart City Region System Announcement: Congratulations to Shadow Tyrant, Merling Grimlock, Grenadier Mage, Bitter Beast and Psychotic Mob, the members of Crimson Realm for being the first team in clearing the Elite Mode of the Caves of Lukriag. All players of the team will be rewarded with 50 White Heart City reputation points and 10 gold.
White Heart Kingdom System Announcement: Congratulations to Shadow Tyrant, Merling Grimlock, Grenadier Mage, Bitter Beast and Psychotic Mob, the members of Crimson Realm for being the first team in clearing the Elite Mode of the Caves of Lukriag. All players of the team will be rewarded with 30 White Heart Kingdom reputation points and 1 skill point.
Human Territory System Announcement: Congratulations to Shadow Tyrant, Merling Grimlock, Grenadier Mage, Bitter Beast and Psychotic Mob, the members of Crimson Realm for being the first team in clearing the Elite Mode of the Caves of Lukriag. All players of the team will be rewarded with 10 Human reputation points.
"System: First clear rewards will be delivered to you via mail after you exit the dungeon."
"You put in Crimson Realm for a wall of honour announcement?" asked Mob looking at Merlin surprised at the announcement.
"It is a small thing. It is better this way. I don't need the pressure. If those idiots from Magus Shrine think that I have a good relationship with a guild, they wouldn't try something shameless again," said Merlin. "I told them that I would give it to them this one time."
"I don't really care. It is just a 5-man dungeon but let us not make any other such promises. We also need a bit of popularity for our team," said Mob.
"You have used quite a number of those dynamites for this dungeon. Those came from the Crimson Realm guild, right?," said Grenadier Mage. As apparent from the name, he was actually quite fond of using explosive and explosive spells, but even he was amazed as Shadow used 10 dynamites within a minute and wanted to see if he could get a few.
"Ya, I got bored of it and thought that it would be the fastest way to get rid of it," replied Shadow.
Merlin didn't care how it was dead and went to loot the troll. It was the most important thing right now. All the things that they looted till now didn't compare with the stuff they got from the fort and Merlin and Shadow didn't really care about those. Merlin was already feeling bad that they didn't get the third key in the dungeon.
"System: You have obtained all the three keys. You can open the goblin's chest now."
"Yes, the damn troll has the third key," said Merlin as he looted the troll.
"What else did you obtain from him?" asked Bitter Beast.
"Nothing apart from a crystal. It says grim shadow crystal," replied Merlin as he pulled out a football sized crystal from his bag. It was the same crystal that was on top of Lukriag's staff. He was stumped by the small amount of loot that they had obtained from the boss's dead body. Usually games provided most loot from them. This was something that he didn't expect but Balthazar knew that it might happen because he used a lot of dynamites on Lukriag.
"Maybe the best loot is available in that goblin's chest?" suggested Mob as he couldn't find any other reason for the low amount of loot they obtained from the boss's dead body.
"I don't think that is the reason. Have you guys ever observed that if we attack the monsters at only the vital points like eyes and joint, we get more loot. I mean when we forage, we try to peel the skin and take the horns and other things and check their pockets, right? It looks like based on our attacks the loot might get damaged and we don't receive any," said Merlin.
Shadow was shocked by what Merlin just told. In his past life, he knew only that after a lot of repeated requests to the game company, they revealed this. Seeing Merlin already having observed the same in the second day, he was quite surprised.
"Didn't you realize that by now. I don't believe you didn't have any such doubts," he continued looking at Shadow.
"I always attack at vital points. So, even if such a thing was there, I wouldn't have enough data to even make any such kind of deductions," said Shadow. It was a simple excuse which Merlin would have no reason to not believe as he had already given them a demonstration.
"Well, you are a freak and don't spend much time playing. So, you probably didn't realize, but any player at our level would sooner or later realize this. Just keep this to yourself. Even if you don't most would find it very hard to attack only vital points to use it. For the same reason, unless someone is interested in farming with the least effort, it wouldn't be easy to realize this," explained Merlin.
"So, you are saying that me using the dynamites is causing us losses?" asked Shadow as if he didn't already know about it.
"It is a highly possible scenario. We can try a few more times and make sure if my hypothesis is right or wrong," replied Merlin as he started walking towards the goblin's chest in the cage.
"If that is true that is going to cause a lot of problems, especially for mage players whose basic attacks are long distance," said Grenadier Mage as he realized that it was going to be an extremely horrible thing for him.
For elementalists, a large number of their spells cause extra damage to the monsters. Burn damage, frost damage and all the rest would reduce the loot that they receive, if Merlin's hypothesis was true. Apart from that, many of the large-scale attacks would prove to be very inefficient in collecting resources. This would become real headache in taking down field bosses.
"That is partly true. But mage classes always had the advantage of being able to attack from a safe distance compared to others. It was the reason that a large number of players who had strong long-distance attacks are taken by guilds to defeat field bosses. Now, it became a bit harder, stress would be, put on accuracy and precision of our attacks. Moreover, you need to understand that in a game like this such precise attacks are also very hard for physical attacks. If one spends a second or two more to get a better attack, he might be seriously injured," explained Merlin.
"I agree. A high amount of speed is required in real life for close combat. Else, one could be overwhelmed by the opponent's attacks," said Shadow nodding his head.
"He is right. Except for freaks like him and other real-life experts in body training, the challenge is a bit too hard. If my hypothesis is true, we need to have a special kind of practice to hone our skills. It would be too hard to be successful in this game otherwise," added Merlin.
"Let us first test the hypothesis. We can go to a lower leveled region like the BlackRock Town to check it out. Based on that we can have a further discussion later," said Mob nodding at Merlin.
"I thought that we could make another attempt at the dungeon after this. Maybe the hell mode?" suggested Merlin as he considered the rewards for first clear much more valuable.
"We can check it first. If we are sure that it is true, we can make sure we get decent loot from the boss the next time," suggested Mob.
"That is not.." started Merlin.
"Please. Even now, I am not at level 12 and would find it hard to make such precise attacks on the troll boss. It is not going to be an easy task, even if the hypothesis is true. I would rather repeat the dungeon and get more experience," said Shadow.
"How about we first check the goblin's chest," said Bitter Beast pointing at Merlin who was inserting the three keys in the keyholes of the chest in the cage. "Please, let it be something useful."
Merlin quickly opened the rectangular chest and there were three items in it. A crown, a sword and a potion recipe were visible in the chest. "The crown goes to Mob, the sword, we can sell, the recipe is for a lesser potion of heightened perception."
[Spirit Wreath] (Bronze Crown)
Level 10;
Requirement: Intelligence: 30;
Defence +5;
Intelligence +5;
Special Effect: Spirit Mode: Puts a person in a state of being able to perceive spirits faster. In this state, one would be able to cast all spirit skills including summons at double the speed. Duration: 10 seconds; Cooldown: 10 minutes;
Durability: 30/30;
[Bastard Sword] (Silver two-handed sword)
Level 10;
Attack Power +25;
Requirement: Strength 20; Endurance: 20;
Strength +4;
Special Effect: Heavy Strike: Grants a strong push back effect and double damage; Cooldown: 5 minutes.
Durability :30/30;
[Lesser Potion of Heightened Perception]
Increases the perception of a player enabling one to detect beings in stealth for a duration of 30 seconds.
Materials Required: Violet Poppies x 2, Horns of White Horn Deer x 2;