Chapter 105 - Caves of Lukriag - 4 (1/2)
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.
”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.