Dungeon Invasion Successful!Rewards Obtained…
“Hmm… where did I put the list…” I search my pockets. “Oh, here it is!”
I take out a crumpled list and carefully open it. Of course, this is all unnecessary and purely aesthetic. I could make the ga show the list in front of using the ga’s interface.
But I like it best when it matches the roleplay.
I take a pen and scratch one of the elents in the list. “With this, I’ve finished capturing the goblins. It’s a sha I didn’t find any trolls... Well, I did, but it’s useless if the troll is the boss because I can’t capture it…”
If I want to increase the number of Hauntlings, I’ll need at least one troll for the Regeneration skill. I want to create more of them, and with the sa skills, so there’s no other way than to get a troll sohow.
This is why my faction is considered the worst when it cos to efficiency…
Sure, we have the most versatility and can make the strongest units – though it’s only when we reach the maximum level and have an absurd amount of cp to spare – but, and this is a big BUT, it takes so long for us to capture the units we want that it isn’t worth it.
Of course, it’s not worth it for most players. If you want to play as a mad scientist, as I do, there’s nothing better.
But the Flesh Monstrosities being amazing doesn’t make the faction any easier.
“It’ll take a lot of ti to find a dungeon around my level with a troll I can capture… if only I wrote the na of the dungeon where I found the first…”
Ladies and gentlen, please, don’t be like . When you find sothing important after lots of ti looking for it, don’t say ‘This is done, now let’s forget about the pain it was to search for it!’ as I did, and plan for the future instead.
I scratch my furry head in annoyance. “If I don’t want to spend any more ti with this, I’ll have to ask Ricard to help … but I don’t want to do it…”
The problem with asking Ricard is that he’ll treat like a noob. And he’ll start explaining a lot of random stuff about the ga, rambling for hours.
Sotis, it is so bad that it feels as if he is trying to turn you into one of his undead minions, either by brainwashing you or by killing you out of boredom.
“Guess I have no choice, then. I’m going to regret it so much…”
Maybe, I can pull Laura into this ss so I don’t have to suffer Ricard’s ‘wrath’ alone. Yeah… let’s do this.
I’ve solved one of the biggest problematic items in the ‘shopping list’, as I like to call it, so I move on to the next item.
“I’ll have to capture so rabbits too. They're the most common in human dungeons, but there’s no way I’m going into one just to capture so rabbits. Let’s hope I find so sowhere else.”
I’ll hope for the best and ignore them for now. I have to capture a few wererabbits too, and it isn’t unusual for them to be mixed with rabbits. If I’m lucky, I’ll find both at the sa ti.
The problem is going to be to find the wererabbits themselves, but this and that are two different things.
“The next one is… Geodis, the earth elental. This one should be easy to find… yep, let’s go for this one next!”
It should be easy to find because it’s the second tier of earth elental units, the one that costs around 100 cp. There should be plenty of them in any Primordial dungeon around my level.
If I find a dungeon thed on a specific type of elentals, – which are very easy to spot after the teleport if you pay enough attention, – I only need to abandon the dungeon invasion and look for another one. There’s no need to waste ti.
Are you curious about what I’m going to do with them? You’ll have to wait to see it! Fufufu! Hahaha!
Primordial dungeons, get ready because here I co!
I prepare my usual follower mobs, the three Good Followers and Cyam, and select the first Primordial dungeon I find with a similar level to mine.
The dungeon is called ‘Elental Totems’. I don’t know what I’ll find in it, but at least the na promises more than one elental type.
The light from the teleport fades away.
“Uaaa!” I stretch. “It’s been a while since I was last alone in a dungeon invasion… Except for the last one with the goblins, but it doesn’t count because I’d already been in that dungeon before. I hope I didn’t lose my touch.”
I turn to my support mobs and start giving orders.
“For now, you’ll stay on guard mode. And you, Cyam… you do whatever you usually do.”
The guard mode is one of the basic modes available to all units with at least four in the Intelligence stat. When a unit is in this mode, it’ll always stay within five ters of the player they belong to, or the unit you order them to guard.
It might be the mode most used by all players in this ga.
Monsters in guard mode do join combat if the enemies are close, but they’ll never wander away. You also don’t need to worry about them sticking too close to you unless you’re in a very narrow space.
The only drawback is that mobs in the guard mode will never chase or attack ranged enemies unless they themselves have ranged attacks too. They can be poked to death easily. But this isn’t really a problem because you can simply give them the order to attack, and they’ll follow your orders.
The problem with the monster’s AI cos when they have three or lower Intelligence because they don’t have the guard mode by default.
And it gets worse as the Intelligence goes down… The best example of this are the Stitched, with one Intelligence. I’m sure you rember all the trouble I had just to make them move as groups.
Why am I saying all this? It’s because Cyam doesn’t have the guard mode. After all, it only has three Intelligence. It also doesn’t help that I had to use two of the allowed AI changes to make him capture units and never look away from petrified enemies, to prevent the status effect from wearing off.
The only other change I could make to Cyam’s AI was to ‘follow ’. It stays right behind most of the ti and continuously bumps into my legs.
But don’t be deceived, it isn’t as disgusting as with the Stitched.
Cyam is a Cockatrice and Giant Spider chira. It looks weird and funny, but not extrely disgusting – disgusting as in wanting to tear your eyes away, I an.
It isn’t too annoying either, as it’s only about fifty centiters tall. You would imagine Giant Spiders to be the size of a human by the na, but giant spiders are just about fifty centiters tall. And heck if they are giant compared to real-life spiders! I don’t think a spider taller than ten centiters exists in the whole world!
Cockatrices, the weird chicken-like monsters, are a similar size too.
So as much as Cyam bumps into my legs all the ti, it’s easy to imagine it as a chummy, although extrely weird, small pet. A winged giant spider pet with a crest, reptile tail, and two chicken legs, sure; but still a pet.
Cyam is my adored weird pet!
The saving grace is that Cyam can at least understand the simplest of commands. Like ‘stay still’, ‘attack’, and ‘run’. As long as he understands those, I can make anything possible.
By the way… I’m sure you suspect it, but the Stitched don’t even understand those simple commands. They’re the worst in so many ways… So stupid, slow, ugly, disgusting, useless, weak… Did I ntion they’re stupid? They’re so stupidly stupid!
Ah, I’m sorry, I lost myself a little there… Where was I…? I always get sidetracked when I start complaining about the Stitched… Oh, yes. Cyam’s AI.
In short, Cyam isn’t as smart as the Good Followers, but he’s the best!
You can’t imagine how many tis he saved by luckily petrifying an enemy at the most dangerous mont. And he’s captured so many units without having to lift a finger! You can’t imagine how much ti he saved .
Having finished my usual preparations, I take a look around our current position.
“Hmm… there are two paths. On the left one seems like there’s so magma, and… is that snow what I can see on the right path?”
Since I can see two different areas from here, this dungeon has a high probability of having most, if not all, the elental types, separated by zones.
If that’s the case…
“If there’s magma, there must be fire elentals close by. But magma is also related to rock… I’m here to capture earth elentals, so it’s clear which path I need to take.”
Without hesitation, I walk into the left path.
Let’s see if I’m right or not.
“No, no! Please, stop! Not one of you again!”
I stumble, trying to raise my body from the floor. The enemy takes this chance to get closer to . Aaah, this is bad...
“D-don’t co! This isn’t fair, I can’t fight like this! Pfft…!”
This situation is so stupid, I can’t stop laughing. My wobbly legs can’t sustain my weight, and I can’t focus on the fight.
“Hahaha! I never expected this when I ca here, this isn’t fair! There should be a warning sowhere, telling invaders what to expect! Puhahaha! How am I expected to defeat them if I can’t stop laughing?”
Still on the floor, I raise my head to look at the monster once again.
Or should I say ‘monsters’, in plural…? Because there are two of them: one Geodis, the earth elental I want to capture, and one Pyris, a fire elental of similar strength to the first.
But the problem isn’t with the units themselves but rather with what they’re doing.
“Who was so stupid to think it was a good idea to make them walk like this!? I an, I can understand the dungeon is called ‘Elental Totems’, but did you have to take it so literally!?”
Yep, you’re right. The two elentals are walking in my direction as if they were a totem, and with this, I literally an one on top of the other.
“Hahaha! This is so ridiculous! I thought it was a glitch the first monster we encountered, but two in a row it’s impossible. This is designed to be like this on purpose. Who is the player who thought of this? This is an idea worthy of !”
As I laugh on the floor, the Geodis-Pyris totem keeps approaching. Soon, it will engage in combat with the closest Good Follower. They’re currently surrounding on both sides.
This is bad… I can’t allow it to happen again…
Let explain. In the first fight, I had such a hard ti refocusing on the fight that the ‘totem’ managed to kill one of my Good Followers before I could recover. It’ll be really bad if another Good Follower dies because of … I’m not sure I’ll be able to beat the dungeon with only one remaining.
Is this totem thing a ntal attack!? A way to incapacitate your enemies without the need of any skill!?
I must admit it works.
“Hahaha! Ok, ok, let’s focus… Haaa, it was very close.” I manage to calm myself right as the ‘totem’ reaches one of the Good Followers. They start attacking each other. “Go and join the fight, you dumbass! Don’t leave one of you to die alone!” I order the remaining one.
I cast a Chain Lightning, which obviously hits the two elentals, and start to channel the next one.
“This fucking totem is a joke, but a well-thought one. You could expect them to be a prank, but the combination of both and the terrain is quite strong… I could learn so things from this dungeon.”
My dear audience, allow to explain.
I’m sure you rember this is a magma area, right? The thing with magma is that it deals constant fire damage to any unit that touches it. This includes the monsters that protect the dungeon, of course.
Now, what do you think is the advantage of the fire elentals? Their innate skill prevents up to a certain amount of fire damage, completely negating the damage from the magma. So, if you put a fire elental in a sea of magma with small rock islands, it’ll have a trendous advantage over the invaders.
Now let ask, what is the advantage of an earth elental? Their innate skill gives them protection against all damage – and a whopping 50% at that – as long as they don’t move. Don’t move ans not walking around, attacking doesn’t count as moving.
I’m sure you know where I’m going now, right?
Yep. The fire elental is at the bottom of the totem, soaking (ignoring) all the damage from the magma, and freely moving around. And on top of it is the earth elental, sitting still and thus not moving, receiving the damage protection.
And both of them are free to attack as they want. Well, the fire elental can’t use lee attacks because it’s holding its companion, but can still cast spells.
Quite a deadly combination if you ask .
But the reason I’m laughing so hard is because of how they look. Both have humanoid shapes but are quite different.
The Pyris, the fire elental, is about 1,8 ters tall. Its shape is like a triangle, with no legs at all. It can’t fly, but its movent is more like levitating than walking. It has wide shoulders and strong arms. In general, the feeling it gives is that of an inverted fire – you know, because fire is usually wide at the bottom and thin at the tip.
The Geodis, the earth elental, is huge. About 2,5 ters tall. It’s obviously made of rock and has extrely thick arms and legs. It looks as if it could squash a human with a re swing of its fist.
When they’re side by side, they’re fine. The problem cos when you put one on top of the other, in particular, if you put the Geodis on top of the Pyris, because…
It looks like a fucking golem that continuously spews fire from its butt, flying around as if wearing a jetpack!
Can you imagine it? A huge golem spewing fire from its butt? I sure can, I have it in front of right now!
“This isn’t fair… How do you dare to make ntal attacks against , dungeon owner!? I have the exclusivity! I patented it first! Nobody can do it unless I give them permission!” I shout.
Of course, it reaches nobody.
Haa… let’s focus on the fight again… I don’t want to lose a second Good Follower to this stupid gimmick.
The problem is this combination is quite strong…
I’ll start by attacking the Pyris. It’s weaker than the Geodis, and if I kill it first, the ‘raider’ will be forced to move around, losing its damage protection.
It’s also better because I ca here to capture the earth elental. Leaving it for the end will make it easier to capture.
“Eat this! Cold Blast! Cold Blast! Cold Blast!”
Like a gatling gun, I start casting the strongest, as well as the only one, single-target spell I have. It’s more cost-efficient when fighting against few targets than Chain Lightning.
“Ah, man… I really need to upgrade my champion and get another spell… But I can’t decide which one to take! It’s so frustrating!”
The real reason I didn’t upgrade my champion yet is because I forgot. But let’s keep this between us, ok?
“...
Not everything in your dungeon must be there to make it better. Sotis, it’s a good idea to surprise the invaders with sothing they never expected. Sothing they’ve never seen before.
Of course, if it makes the dungeon better or worse it’s up to the players who’ll find it. The objective here isn’t to improve the dungeon, but to make it different from every other one out there.
Maybe the most important is this: by adding a surprise you not only increase the chances the players will rember your dungeon and talk about it with other players; but you also increase the chances of throwing them off, maybe giving you an edge to defeat them easily.
You never know when one such surprise will imdiately, or as an indirect effect, cause the players to die or make a mistake. Don’t underestimate the effects of psychological warfare.
…”
- Fragnt from ‘Surprises and Unexpected Stuff’, one part of ‘The Dark Teachings’ series.
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