“The time has come.”
Hands clasped in front of me, I solemnly raise my head. Inside the Stasis chamber, the aberration’s visage enters my sight and I unconsciously shudder.
What’s terrifying will always be terrifying.
“The time has come to put them to use. I hope I won’t regret my decision today…”
What the hell am I talking about, you ask? Isn’t it obvious it’s about the Abyss monsters? What else could make me shudder just by entering my sight!? Are you stupid or what!?
I create yet another Basic Chimera template and select the monster in front of me, called Vozeves.
As for the second unit… it’s one called Hydris, a water elemental from the Primordials faction.
The elementals from the Primordial faction are interesting in how they can have multiple shapes except for the critters and the most basic ones. When creating one of them, the players can give them a few predetermined shapes, one of which is always humanoid. Though once the elemental is created, the shape can’t be modified again, so no free remakes of units.
You’re right, similar to the Amorphous players, the Primordials players can use almost any unit as a Champion.
As for the other shapes, it depends on the unit and the elemental type. For example, aquatic animals are typical for water elementals, and birds for air elementals. Their strongest units have amazing options too, like a colossal earth dragon or a lightning cloud titan.
I’m sure you’re wondering what happens when I capture them, right?
When I capture them, I can only use them for the shape they have at the moment of capture. If I capture a water elemental that looks like an eel, I’ll have a water eel. If I capture an ice wolf, it’ll be an ice wolf. That’s it.
It means I have to choose carefully if I want a certain shape for my units, but not in this case. The only thing I want from the water elemental is its innate skill: Water Elemental. And I only need a non-humanoid water elemental for this.
Oh, and the shape doesn’t change their stats, only how they look! This is very important!
The Hydris I’m going to use is what you can call one of the ‘starting Champions’ of this faction: units around the 100 cp range, 120 cp to be exact. The ones I captured are 1 meter long fish.
Of course, I could use the cheapest water elemental for this, the Pond unit. But they’re weak, and I want the monster I’m creating to be strong. I can only create two because I only have two Vozeves and I don’t want to waste them.
Enough explanations! Let’s move to the monster creation!
“The Corrosive Chokers will be the assassins and damage dealers of this area, but the genuine unseen danger will be this monster… Hahaha!”
You see… the whole floor is covered in a water film, which means that this monster, thanks to the Water Elemental skill, can change its shape and hide anywhere in plain sight, being almost invisible.
The key word here is ‘almost’. Thanks to it being almost invisible but not actually invisible, the invaders can see its body and activate the Abyss trait, the What Should Not Be Seen skill.
This monster will passively drain the MP of the invaders without them noticing at all! What’s more, if they don’t check their status on time, it might kill them!
“Now, I change the AI so that it moves in front of the invaders so they can see it all the time, and run away if spotted…” I make the corresponding AI changes. “...and finally, if an invader is low on HP, go for the kill and then run away.”
I want them to be as strong as possible, so I level them up to the maximum level I can: level 7. This’ll give me seven skill points to work with.
This reminds me I can level up my champion once again. Well, I’ll do it later. I hope I don’t forget about it…
“Let’s see what I can do with the skill points!”
“Then I spend the last skill point to upgrade God’s Intervention to increase its duration… and this is it! I finished setting the skills!”
I focussed everything on two main points: draining the invader’s MP while staying undetected, and survivability in case they are forced to enter combat or when they go for the kill.
“Now I only need to think of a name for it. Hmm… it’ll be almost impossible to see, and it looks like a transparent version of the Abyss monsters… Invisible Horror? Yes, this name will do.”
As I just said, this monster looks exactly like the basic unit of the Abyss faction: a mix of a squid and a leech. To be more specific, a headless squid with even more tentacles, each of which ends in a leech’s mouth. Though this one it’s transparent because it’s made out of water.
Without further ado, here’s the Invisible Horror’s status.
| Invisible Horror (Lv 7) | |||||
| HP | 304 (190) | STA | 20 (13) | SOU | 24 (15) |
| EP | 176 (110) | MP | 256 (160) | ||
| STR | 17 (11) | CON | 24 (15) | AGI | 20 (13) |
| SPI | 27 (17) | WIL | 22 (14) | DEX | 28 (18) |
| SPD | 5 | INT | 5 | COM | 1 |
| Skills | |||||
| Active: Draining Touch - Lv 2 (Mana Drain). Triggered: God’s Intervention - Lv 2 (Lasting Protection). Passive: Eternal Pain (Innate), Water Elemental (Innate), What Should Not Be Seen (Innate) - Lv 2 (Extreme Horror), Unidentifiable, Weakening Aura. |
So, as you can see, I focussed on upgrading the relevant skills instead of giving it lots of extra ones.
First of all, the upgraded What Should Not Be Seen raises the MP depleted from looking at the Invisible Horror by a substantial amount. Working together with the Water Elemental and Unidentifiable skills, it’ll make it very hard for the invaders to spot them while continuously reducing their MP.
To increase their survivability, I gave them the upgraded God’s Intervention skill, which extends the invulnerability time they receive the first time they would die; as well as the upgraded Draining Touch. The Eternal Pain will at least give them ten seconds of life during the combat, which can be enough for them to run away.
The upgraded Draining Touch is essential because it can not only heal the Invisible Horrors for a part of the damage they deal but also drains MP. What’s more, the invaders might die to this MP drain if they don’t die due to the passive MP drain first!
And no, I didn’t forget about the last skill they have. The Weakening Aura is there to reduce the damage the invaders deal if they’re close to the monster. It’s just a little bonus to make them waste more time and resources when near an Invisible Horror.
I save the Template and proceed with the monster creation.
“I’ll set the two of them to move independently and randomly through this area. I only have two Abyss monsters, so I can only create two…” I hesitate to press the confirmation button. “Come on, Andreu. It’s only a monster, one of YOUR monsters, there’s no need to be afraid of it! Just do it!”
I finally press the button and they join the queue of monsters to be created. They’re right after the Corrosive Chockers and Monster Keys, so it’ll take quite a while.
I’m not sure yet how scary they’ll be when I see them inside the dungeon, but… it might come a time when I can’t come into my own ‘sealed area’... It won’t be only roleplay anymore.
Well, shit happens, sometimes.
With the Invisible Horrors, I finished the most important monsters of this area except for the ‘boss’ I want to create in the future. They’ll be the key monsters. Or those that will define how the area works if you prefer.
They’ll also be the only monsters allowed to roam the area freely. All the monsters I’m going to create next are those that will only appear in the closed containment units and prison cells.
With only two Invisible Horrors and twelve Corrosive Chokers in this area, I don’t think the invading players will die too much.
…Maybe?
Well, anyway! Here are the skills descriptions in case you want to read them! Ain’t I generous!? Hahaha!
| God’s Intervention - Lv 2 (Triggered skill) |
| When you would be killed, you are reduced to 1 HP instead and ignore all damage and status effects for the next 5 seconds. Can only be triggered once per Dungeon Invasion or Dungeon Battle. |
| Upgrades |
| Lasting Protection: Extend the invulnerability time to 10 seconds. |
| What Should Not Be Seen - Lv 2 (Innate passive skill) |
| Other units that can see this unit lose 5 MP per second. If the unit has no MP, the SOU is reduced by 1 every five seconds instead. Multiple instances of this skill increase the MP loss by 1. This skill doesn't work on allied units. |
| Upgrades |
| Extreme Horror: Increases the MP reduction by 2 MP per second. |
| Draining Touch - Lv 2 (Active skill) |
| Cost: 20 EP, 20 MP |
| Reduce the target’s HP by (2 + 0,5 * SPI) and heal by 50% of the HP reduced. |
| Upgrades |
| Mana Drain: Reduces target’s MP by (2 + 0,2 * SPI) and recovers 50% of the MP reduced. |
“Oh, right! I almost forgot about something very important! The thing that will put the most pressure on the invaders!”
What am I talking about? Well, do you remember when I was creating the doors that can be unlocked by the players? Do you remember I said the players weren’t the only ones who could unlock them?
Yes, that’s right! The thing I almost forgot to create was a monster that can unlock them too! It won’t be dangerous to the players by itself, but if it opens enough sealed rooms… Chaos will ensue! Hahaha!
“I want a critter for this. Should I go with the Creepy or the Weirdy? Weirdy, right? I can make it look more amazing like this!”
Luckily, this won’t take me too much time to do. I pick a worm, a bird, and… I don’t know, a rabbit? Yeah, a rabbit will do. I pick those three and go to the monster edition screen to set how it looks.
“Hahaha! This is so ridiculous!” I can’t stop laughing when I save it. “It’s so stupid! I decided this was the failed experiments area, but this might be too much! Hahaha!”
The Weirdy in front of me lives up to the unit’s name. Imagine one of those fat and slimy worms the size of a fist. Then give it wings, big frontal teeth, and rabbit ears.
But! And this is a big BUT!
The wings are reversed and work as legs. Meaning it can fly, but it has to do so by doing it upside down. And even more ridiculous are the rabbit ears that work as its hind legs, allowing it to jump in a similar fashion to a rabbit.
Ridiculous, isn’t it? Hahaha! I can’t stop laughing!
“Hahaha… ok, let’s finish this already… I said it wouldn’t take me long but if I don’t stop laughing I won’t finish it today… B-but it’s so ridiculous! It’s like it’s saying ‘Please kill me!’, hahaha…”
When I finally manage to stop laughing, I open the AI screen. The only thing I do is allow this ridiculous Weirdy to press the buttons that open the doors. It does so randomly, so who knows how many is it going to open, or when.
The only extra condition I add, this one to the doors themselves, is that they can’t be opened unless there are invaders inside this area. I don’t want the little Weirdys opening all of them before the players get here…
I give them the name Blip before saving the Template. Why ‘Blip’? Because it’s similar to the sound the buttons make when they’re pressed and the door opens.
I’ll leave them at level 1, and since they’re cheap and have no combat capabilities, I’ll create a bunch of them! How about… ten? Yeah, it seems like a reasonable amount.
“Let’s do it! Automatic door openers, done!” I say as I press the creation button.
Now, let’s move to those monsters that are going to stay inside the rooms.
“You MUST also take a look at your MP all the time. Especially if you’re inside the sealed area! If you see your MP is being depleted, you have a short amount of time to look for the f*****g invisible monster. Find it, and kill it! Otherwise, YOU’ll be the one to end up DEAD! Bring some kind of detection with you if you can. Or BLAST THE WHOLE PASSAGE with your strongest attacks and hope you hit that f*****g invisible monster. Whatever you do, DON’T LET them reduce your MP for free, or you’ll regret it. Or you’ll die, one of the two.”
- Extract from the Chapter ‘Important things to look out for’ from ‘How to Stay Sane in The Mad Rat’s Lab’.
Radosh
The results of the last poll say you want to see a new unaware victim, the orc player, and a special guest invade the dungeon next; in this order of votes.
Well, you're lucky because I decided to go with the three of them at the same time. I hope you enjoy it when it comes!
“The time has come.”
Hands clasped in front of me, I solemnly raise my head. Inside the Stasis chamber, the aberration’s visage enters my sight and I unconsciously shudder.
What’s terrifying will always be terrifying.
“The time has come to put them to use. I hope I won’t regret my decision today…”
What the hell am I talking about, you ask? Isn’t it obvious it’s about the Abyss monsters? What else could make me shudder just by entering my sight!? Are you stupid or what!?
I create yet another Basic Chimera template and select the monster in front of me, called Vozeves.
As for the second unit… it’s one called Hydris, a water elemental from the Primordials faction.
The elementals from the Primordial faction are interesting in how they can have multiple shapes except for the critters and the most basic ones. When creating one of them, the players can give them a few predetermined shapes, one of which is always humanoid. Though once the elemental is created, the shape can’t be modified again, so no free remakes of units.
You’re right, similar to the Amorphous players, the Primordials players can use almost any unit as a Champion.
As for the other shapes, it depends on the unit and the elemental type. For example, aquatic animals are typical for water elementals, and birds for air elementals. Their strongest units have amazing options too, like a colossal earth dragon or a lightning cloud titan.
I’m sure you’re wondering what happens when I capture them, right?
When I capture them, I can only use them for the shape they have at the moment of capture. If I capture a water elemental that looks like an eel, I’ll have a water eel. If I capture an ice wolf, it’ll be an ice wolf. That’s it.
It means I have to choose carefully if I want a certain shape for my units, but not in this case. The only thing I want from the water elemental is its innate skill: Water Elemental. And I only need a non-humanoid water elemental for this.
Oh, and the shape doesn’t change their stats, only how they look! This is very important!
The Hydris I’m going to use is what you can call one of the ‘starting Champions’ of this faction: units around the 100 cp range, 120 cp to be exact. The ones I captured are 1 meter long fish.
Of course, I could use the cheapest water elemental for this, the Pond unit. But they’re weak, and I want the monster I’m creating to be strong. I can only create two because I only have two Vozeves and I don’t want to waste them.
Enough explanations! Let’s move to the monster creation!
“The Corrosive Chokers will be the assassins and damage dealers of this area, but the genuine unseen danger will be this monster… Hahaha!”
You see… the whole floor is covered in a water film, which means that this monster, thanks to the Water Elemental skill, can change its shape and hide anywhere in plain sight, being almost invisible.
The key word here is ‘almost’. Thanks to it being almost invisible but not actually invisible, the invaders can see its body and activate the Abyss trait, the What Should Not Be Seen skill.
This monster will passively drain the MP of the invaders without them noticing at all! What’s more, if they don’t check their status on time, it might kill them!
“Now, I change the AI so that it moves in front of the invaders so they can see it all the time, and run away if spotted…” I make the corresponding AI changes. “...and finally, if an invader is low on HP, go for the kill and then run away.”
I want them to be as strong as possible, so I level them up to the maximum level I can: level 7. This’ll give me seven skill points to work with.
This reminds me I can level up my champion once again. Well, I’ll do it later. I hope I don’t forget about it…
“Let’s see what I can do with the skill points!”
“Then I spend the last skill point to upgrade God’s Intervention to increase its duration… and this is it! I finished setting the skills!”
I focussed everything on two main points: draining the invader’s MP while staying undetected, and survivability in case they are forced to enter combat or when they go for the kill.
“Now I only need to think of a name for it. Hmm… it’ll be almost impossible to see, and it looks like a transparent version of the Abyss monsters… Invisible Horror? Yes, this name will do.”
As I just said, this monster looks exactly like the basic unit of the Abyss faction: a mix of a squid and a leech. To be more specific, a headless squid with even more tentacles, each of which ends in a leech’s mouth. Though this one it’s transparent because it’s made out of water.
Without further ado, here’s the Invisible Horror’s status.
| Invisible Horror (Lv 7) | |||||
| HP | 304 (190) | STA | 20 (13) | SOU | 24 (15) |
| EP | 176 (110) | MP | 256 (160) | ||
| STR | 17 (11) | CON | 24 (15) | AGI | 20 (13) |
| SPI | 27 (17) | WIL | 22 (14) | DEX | 28 (18) |
| SPD | 5 | INT | 5 | COM | 1 |
| Skills | |||||
| Active: Draining Touch - Lv 2 (Mana Drain). Triggered: God’s Intervention - Lv 2 (Lasting Protection). Passive: Eternal Pain (Innate), Water Elemental (Innate), What Should Not Be Seen (Innate) - Lv 2 (Extreme Horror), Unidentifiable, Weakening Aura. |
So, as you can see, I focussed on upgrading the relevant skills instead of giving it lots of extra ones.
First of all, the upgraded What Should Not Be Seen raises the MP depleted from looking at the Invisible Horror by a substantial amount. Working together with the Water Elemental and Unidentifiable skills, it’ll make it very hard for the invaders to spot them while continuously reducing their MP.
To increase their survivability, I gave them the upgraded God’s Intervention skill, which extends the invulnerability time they receive the first time they would die; as well as the upgraded Draining Touch. The Eternal Pain will at least give them ten seconds of life during the combat, which can be enough for them to run away.
The upgraded Draining Touch is essential because it can not only heal the Invisible Horrors for a part of the damage they deal but also drains MP. What’s more, the invaders might die to this MP drain if they don’t die due to the passive MP drain first!
And no, I didn’t forget about the last skill they have. The Weakening Aura is there to reduce the damage the invaders deal if they’re close to the monster. It’s just a little bonus to make them waste more time and resources when near an Invisible Horror.
I save the Template and proceed with the monster creation.
“I’ll set the two of them to move independently and randomly through this area. I only have two Abyss monsters, so I can only create two…” I hesitate to press the confirmation button. “Come on, Andreu. It’s only a monster, one of YOUR monsters, there’s no need to be afraid of it! Just do it!”
I finally press the button and they join the queue of monsters to be created. They’re right after the Corrosive Chockers and Monster Keys, so it’ll take quite a while.
I’m not sure yet how scary they’ll be when I see them inside the dungeon, but… it might come a time when I can’t come into my own ‘sealed area’... It won’t be only roleplay anymore.
Well, shit happens, sometimes.
With the Invisible Horrors, I finished the most important monsters of this area except for the ‘boss’ I want to create in the future. They’ll be the key monsters. Or those that will define how the area works if you prefer.
They’ll also be the only monsters allowed to roam the area freely. All the monsters I’m going to create next are those that will only appear in the closed containment units and prison cells.
With only two Invisible Horrors and twelve Corrosive Chokers in this area, I don’t think the invading players will die too much.
…Maybe?
Well, anyway! Here are the skills descriptions in case you want to read them! Ain’t I generous!? Hahaha!
| God’s Intervention - Lv 2 (Triggered skill) |
| When you would be killed, you are reduced to 1 HP instead and ignore all damage and status effects for the next 5 seconds. Can only be triggered once per Dungeon Invasion or Dungeon Battle. |
| Upgrades |
| Lasting Protection: Extend the invulnerability time to 10 seconds. |
| What Should Not Be Seen - Lv 2 (Innate passive skill) |
| Other units that can see this unit lose 5 MP per second. If the unit has no MP, the SOU is reduced by 1 every five seconds instead. Multiple instances of this skill increase the MP loss by 1. This skill doesn't work on allied units. |
| Upgrades |
| Extreme Horror: Increases the MP reduction by 2 MP per second. |
| Draining Touch - Lv 2 (Active skill) |
| Cost: 20 EP, 20 MP |
| Reduce the target’s HP by (2 + 0,5 * SPI) and heal by 50% of the HP reduced. |
| Upgrades |
| Mana Drain: Reduces target’s MP by (2 + 0,2 * SPI) and recovers 50% of the MP reduced. |
“Oh, right! I almost forgot about something very important! The thing that will put the most pressure on the invaders!”
What am I talking about? Well, do you remember when I was creating the doors that can be unlocked by the players? Do you remember I said the players weren’t the only ones who could unlock them?
Yes, that’s right! The thing I almost forgot to create was a monster that can unlock them too! It won’t be dangerous to the players by itself, but if it opens enough sealed rooms… Chaos will ensue! Hahaha!
“I want a critter for this. Should I go with the Creepy or the Weirdy? Weirdy, right? I can make it look more amazing like this!”
Luckily, this won’t take me too much time to do. I pick a worm, a bird, and… I don’t know, a rabbit? Yeah, a rabbit will do. I pick those three and go to the monster edition screen to set how it looks.
“Hahaha! This is so ridiculous!” I can’t stop laughing when I save it. “It’s so stupid! I decided this was the failed experiments area, but this might be too much! Hahaha!”
The Weirdy in front of me lives up to the unit’s name. Imagine one of those fat and slimy worms the size of a fist. Then give it wings, big frontal teeth, and rabbit ears.
But! And this is a big BUT!
The wings are reversed and work as legs. Meaning it can fly, but it has to do so by doing it upside down. And even more ridiculous are the rabbit ears that work as its hind legs, allowing it to jump in a similar fashion to a rabbit.
Ridiculous, isn’t it? Hahaha! I can’t stop laughing!
“Hahaha… ok, let’s finish this already… I said it wouldn’t take me long but if I don’t stop laughing I won’t finish it today… B-but it’s so ridiculous! It’s like it’s saying ‘Please kill me!’, hahaha…”
When I finally manage to stop laughing, I open the AI screen. The only thing I do is allow this ridiculous Weirdy to press the buttons that open the doors. It does so randomly, so who knows how many is it going to open, or when.
The only extra condition I add, this one to the doors themselves, is that they can’t be opened unless there are invaders inside this area. I don’t want the little Weirdys opening all of them before the players get here…
I give them the name Blip before saving the Template. Why ‘Blip’? Because it’s similar to the sound the buttons make when they’re pressed and the door opens.
I’ll leave them at level 1, and since they’re cheap and have no combat capabilities, I’ll create a bunch of them! How about… ten? Yeah, it seems like a reasonable amount.
“Let’s do it! Automatic door openers, done!” I say as I press the creation button.
Now, let’s move to those monsters that are going to stay inside the rooms.
“You MUST also take a look at your MP all the time. Especially if you’re inside the sealed area! If you see your MP is being depleted, you have a short amount of time to look for the f*****g invisible monster. Find it, and kill it! Otherwise, YOU’ll be the one to end up DEAD! Bring some kind of detection with you if you can. Or BLAST THE WHOLE PASSAGE with your strongest attacks and hope you hit that f*****g invisible monster. Whatever you do, DON’T LET them reduce your MP for free, or you’ll regret it. Or you’ll die, one of the two.”
- Extract from the Chapter ‘Important things to look out for’ from ‘How to Stay Sane in The Mad Rat’s Lab’.
Radosh
The results of the last poll say you want to see a new unaware victim, the orc player, and a special guest invade the dungeon next; in this order of votes.
Well, you're lucky because I decided to go with the three of them at the same time. I hope you enjoy it when it comes!
