The Mad Rat’s Lab

 

Today, after the class, I start talking with Ricard.

“You see… I’ve already reached player level 3!”

“Is that so…? That was fast! Didn't expect you to reach level 3 in, like… a week later. Maybe even more since you’re playing the Flesh Monstrosities…”

“Fu, fu, fu! Surprised? I told you that I’m going to surpass you! And at this speed, it’s going to be soon!”

“Alright… you got me there with your leveling speed… But how did you manage to get to the next level so fast? Did you use a game cheat? Did you hack the game? Or maybe pay some other player to keep diving into your dungeon and then dying?”

“Nuh-huh! I didn’t do anything shady! It’s just that for some reason, there’s a decent amount of players invading my dungeon.” I shrug my shoulders. “Though I don’t really understand why.”

Ricard puts his hand on the chin and says. “Maybe it has to do with the ‘Whac-A-Zombie’ video? It wouldn’t be so weird for players to dive into your dungeon after watching your video… But it doesn’t make sense that after a week they continue to dive… the video heat is gone by now…”

I, too, put my hand on my chin. Then I nod sagely while saying. “Yeah, I think so too… Well, anyway. Are you free today to play together?” I ask.

“Today…? Today I had an invasion planned for a new dungeon I discovered… But I can play with you if you want. Don’t you think I’m very generous? I’m willing to cancel a great plan to play with a noob like you…” Ricard starts spouting bullshit.

“Yeah, yeah… I’m sure you were planning to dive into a human dungeon…”

 He puts on a surprised expression and asks. “How did you know?”

As if it wasn’t obvious. Do you really need to ask how I know? Ricard: the player with only a 97% human invasion statistics. And he still asks how I guessed it…

*Sigh!* “It’s because of luck. Pure and sheer luck. I’m the luckiest person on this planet!” I say, sarcastically, while rolling my eyes.  “Now, pleeeease, let’s forget about it and focus on today’s invasion.”

“Ok! Then let’s make plans for today! Preparation is the key to success!” He’s really excited about playing together, even if he wants to try to hide it by calling me a noob and talking about previous plans.

“So, I already know that your Champion is a spellcaster. Do you want me to use a melee and tanky one to compensate and balance things? This way I’ll be in the frontline and you can be safe in the backline, you don't need to worry about dying. The perfect way to carry you through the dungeon!”

“Carry me? I don’t need you to carry me!” I retort. “Though I would appreciate it if you can take the frontline and the brunt of the enemies’ attacks. Because I have the Maniac skill, and this way I won’t need to worry too much about getting low HP and killing myself... Not that I’ve ever killed myself before with this skill… hahaha!” I look away. I almost exposed my best kept secret here!

Ricard looks at me with suspicious eyes. Did I manage to fool him? “Hmm… so you picked that skill… Quite a dangerous one, but it does fit the roleplay you told me that you are doing. Any other important things that I should know?”

“Only that I have the Shared Voltage skill for stunning the enemies and that I mostly use Chain Lightning as the way to trigger the stun and later capture them.”

“Oh, yes… you need to be able to capture the enemies… You’re incredibly lucky that my Revenant already has a way to facilitate you to capture units. As a tanky unit, I’ve set it so that the enemies take constant damage from the Ice Aura skill and I also have this skill called Eternal Chill that increases the damage they take. As a side effect, they can’t die from ice damage. This won’t enable you to capture units, but at least the enemy units won’t be killed by the Ice Aura, but will still have their health reduced by staying close to me.”

“Ah, I almost forgot! Because of this Ice Aura and Eternal Chill combo, you and your mobs should stay away from my Champion unless you want to take lots of damage! I recommend that you don’t take weak melee mobs, stick to ranged mobs. Or if you can’t, at least make them stay near you.”

“Now that you say it… I don’t have any ranged mobs yet. Ahaha!” I scratch my head, ashamed of not thinking about it until now.

Note to myself: ‘Create some ranged mobs in the future’. Let’s see how much time passes before I forget about ranged mobs again.

I try to justify myself. “Well, I don’t have any true ranged mob. I have a few that can use some ranged attacks, though it isn’t the same... But I can make them stay close to me, so it’s no problem!”

“No ranged mobs… You truly demonstrate your lack of knowledge and experience with these things… Even I, with the undead faction, one of the most melee focused factions, have lots of ranged units…”

The only thing that we still need to talk about is the dungeon we are going to invade. Ricard is the one that takes the initiative.

“So about the dungeon… How about this one called ‘Adapo Fort’. The reviews are quite nice, and they say there are a lot of weak mobs, ideal for my soul farming!”

My instincts sound an alarm at what Ricard is saying. “Hmm… is it an Iron Shield (humans) dungeon?” I say while staring at Ricard. “It isn’t, right?”

He looks away and stammers. “No, ummm… you see…”

“Discarded!” I interrupt. “I don’t mind going into any other faction’s dungeon, but no humans. Didn’t we already talk about this!?”

“But…”

“No buts!” I don’t allow him to continue talking. “If you want some faction with lots of weak units we can go to a Savage Horde (orcs) dungeon! There are usually lots of goblins in their dungeons! Even goblin bodies are more useful to me than humans, because of the innate skill they have!”

Goblins have an innate skill called Slippery, which is quite good for weak units. And I can even get a better skill if I manage to capture some orcs with the Bloodlust skill.

Ricard finally surrenders. “Ok! We will go to a Savage Horde dungeon! But I am the one to choose which dungeon! I won’t concede this!”

“Sure! I don’t mind, feel free to choose the dungeon you like.” He knows a lot more dungeons than me and is very active in the forums. So as long as he doesn't pick a human dungeon, he is going to pick a better one than any dungeon I could think of. “Then, let’s see you again later in the game! And don’t forget to send me a friend request!”

“I won’t forget. And you’ll see! I’m going to pick a dungeon so amazing that you won’t be able to close your mouth from the shock! A dungeon so epic that you’ll be compelled to call me master and become my disciple! Hahaha!” He spouts some more nonsense. “See you later!”

Become your disciple? I shudder. Please, spare me from this nightmare.

 

---

 

I know what you are thinking… Yes, TheGreatBaldSage. This is Ricard’s nickname. Lame. Extremely laaaame! I’m ashamed to call him a friend at times like this. Couldn’t he pick a normal nickname like mine?

I accept the friend request. Now we only need to create a party and start the dungeon invasion.

Since I shouldn't bring with me melee mobs to prevent them from dying to Ricard’s Ice Aura, I need to change a few things about the mobs I’m going to bring with me.

“I can bring units of up to 300 cp value, since I’m level 3. And I must take the Kidnapper, for obvious reasons, which leaves me with 245 cp for other units.”

I start calculating in my head the costs and values of the rest of the units.

“A lab assistant is too expensive, so discarded. Then all the stitched have the same problem: too dumb to avoid jumping into melee combat and get shredded by the Ice Aura. The only thing I can do is bring with me three Demonic Swarmers and change the AI so that they don’t jump into melee range…”

I create a new subtemplate for the Demonic Swarmers, call it Demonic Follower and only modify the AI so that they stay in the Protect mode and set the target to me. In the Protect mode, they stay close to the target and only engage in melee combat if the enemy gets close and attacks me.

“Hehehe! I’m so good at programming the AI that I don’t even need to touch the Kidnapper AI, because it already is ‘following the closest ally unit’!” I don’t need to worry about it bumping into me, nor jumping into melee range.

 

I tell Ricard that I’m ready to start the dungeon invasion, and only two seconds later I receive a game message asking to join TheGreatBaldSage’s party. Which I accept.

Then he chooses a dungeon and starts the invasion. It’s a dungeon called ‘Kolu’Gar Canyon’, from the orc faction. At least he didn’t try to fool me into a human dungeon again.

After the teleport, I see that we are inside a… canyon. What an unexpected outcome! But there’s no river in this canyon and everything is dry. High rock walls surround us on every side except from the front. The canyon is… about 50 meters wide?

This layout has a good thing, and it’s that it is very difficult to miss any important stuff because you can see quite far away, and everything on the floor level is very flat. But it also allows for hidden ambushes on all sides… and I don’t even want to start talking about aerial attacks.

“Hi there, Andreu!” Says Ricard.

“Please, we are in the game. Call me by the champion’s name: Mad Rat!”

“Huh… Ok, I don’t really mind. I will try to remember, but no promises here!” He says. “Then you should call me by my player’s name. I prefer it to the Champion’s name.”

He wants to be called by that lame nickname? Well, fine by me. “But it’s a little long… Do you mind if I call you Bald Sage?”

“Oh? If you shorten it like this, it actually sounds like the nickname of one of those hidden hermits that teach the protagonist hidden techniques in anime, don't you think? I like it!”

He’s fine with the name. So good for me. But I do think it is even worse than the full nickname… How can he like it?

“As you can see, I bring with me two Skeleton archers as ranged units and two Specters that will join me in melee. Don’t worry about the specters, because they won’t take damage from my Ice Aura with the skills I gave them. Oh, and I already told you, but my Champion is a Revenant. You should take a look at the Return from Death innate skill.”

“That’s why I told you I’m bringing a tanky unit. Even if I die, I return to battle fully recharged. And with the upgrade it takes more than 15 minutes for the HP reduction to put me on 0 maximum HP. Of course this isn’t the only tank skill I have.”

“Isn’t this innate skill a little too op?” I ask.

“Hahaha! It’s a 450 cp unit, and the stats the Revenant has are very low for a unit on that cp range. So one thing compensates the other.”

“Still, returning from death with 100% HP…” I have 572 HP right now, so with this skill it would give me an almost 600 HP boost AFTER being killed. So it’s both a ‘return from death skill’ plus a ‘massive hp recovery’ in one.

What a shame it comes from an undead unit, because otherwise… just imagine what kind of units I would be able to create! My delusions are getting out of control. If I ever got a dragon… A dragon boss that returns from death with 100% HP after being killed… The despair caused to the invading players…

“Huhuhu! Hahaha!” I can’t avoid the creepy laughter from escaping my mouth. “Fufufu!”

Ricard looks in my direction with a worried expression. “Hmm... Are you ok? Because you suddenly stopped talking and now are laughing…”

“Huh!? Ah? Oooh, yes, I’m ok. I was thinking about important stuff. Very important stuff.”

“Important stuff…?” He stares at me with a weird expression. He didn’t read my mind, did he? Because I would die of shame if he knew.

“Well, anyway! Let’s start the dungeon invasion already! Oh, and my mobs will stay close to me so they don’t get exposed to your aura. Just try to not kill this stitched here if it comes close, because it’s the one in charge of capturing units during combat.”

“I’ll do my best! I must demonstrate my skills to the new player, so don’t worry! I’ll keep it safe the best I can!”

 

We finally start advancing. Far away, about 100 meters, we can see the first enemy group. It’s composed of ten goblins and three orcs.

“By the way, what is the level of the player who owns this dungeon?” I ask.

“The level? It’s level 11.”

“Whaaaaaat!? Level 11! Are you crazy!? I’m only level 3! And as far as I know, you are level 5! They’re gonna destroy us!”

“Naaah, don’t worry! This dungeon is a farming dungeon. It has lots of mobs but they are placed in a way that isn’t too deadly. And almost no traps or ambushes. Oh, and I’m level 6. Just leveled up today!”

“If you say so… I’m just interested in their bodies, so as long as I can get some… But I still need to see if it’s true that we can beat this dungeon.”

The enemies have spotted us and are rushing in our direction. We both prepare to start the combat. Ricard is in front with the two specters.

“Please, allow me to capture as many orcs as possible. I want a lot of their bodies for my future, uh… experiments.”

“Do we get the same reward if they are captured instead of killed?”

“Yes, the same cp for each.”

“Then it’s fine.” He says. But he suddenly remembers something and complains. “But then I won’t get the souls because they aren’t killed…!”

“It’s unavoidable so stop complaining and focus on the battle!”

The battle starts and the front line is immediately surrounded by the horde of goblins and orcs. I manage to inspect a few of the goblins and orcs during the chaos. The goblins are level 6, and the orcs are level 7.

“Wow, wasn’t this supposed to be a farming dungeon?” I imagine myself being surrounded by the horde and being torn to shreds. I shudder. “Even with the champion’s buff, I don’t think I would last very long if I were in the Bald Sage’s position.” It’s still very weird to say this name aloud.

What surprises me is that, even without me or my mobs intervening so far, he’s managing the fight quite well. The revenant, with the champion’s buff, takes very little damage from the enemies.

But what is impressive are the two specters. I inspected them before, and they manage to shut the whole horde down with only two skills: Draining Touch and Etherealness.

Even if the goblins and orcs don’t stop attacking, the specters barely take any damage. And when the damage starts to accumulate, they use Draining Touch and ‘Bam!’ full HP again!

And meanwhile, the skeletons keep shooting arrows from far away, eliminating the enemies that get low HP from the Ice Aura.

Ricard is incredibly prepared for this dungeon. Unlike me. Shame on me! But I won’t fall behind any more than what I have already fallen!

The battle has developed to the point where most goblins are at 1 HP, and the orc’s innate skill has already triggered. One orc and three goblins are already dead, their corpses being stepped on by their comrades. The remaining pesky goblins are still alive because Ricard’s Eternal Chill makes it so that the enemies can’t die from the Ice Aura.

“I’m coming! Please don’t kill the two remaining orcs!” I say as I run towards the melee taking place in front of me.

I cast Chain Lightning. As usual, the lightning strikes the first goblin and immediately jumps to the closest one. Then it continues to jump until it has already hit all the enemies, which are all clumped together. But things start to turn crazy due to the Shared Voltage skill.

Because they are very low on health, every time that the Chain Lightning strikes an enemy, it triggers the Shared Voltage skill and creates another lightning streak, effectively multiplying the amount of lighting chains. By the time the original Chain Lightning disappears, for each enemy, there is an extra lighting streak that keeps jumping between the enemies, stunning them again, triggering Shared Voltage again, and again, and AGAIN. They are locked in a never-ending stunning lightning chain.

Now, the whole battlefield looks like a lightning field, the electricity jumping from one enemy to another without stopping.

I must save this replay and upload a new video called ‘Everlasting Lightning Chain’. This is too good and crazy to not save the replay, because… with a single cast of the Chain Lightning skill, I managed to permanently stun eight enemies. And I’m sure that if another enemy came close enough to the lightning chain, it would join the ranks.

“Wow! I can’t see the amount of damage accumulated in the Shared Voltage triggers… but I’m sure that if I could add all of it into a single attack, it would deal more than 1.000 damage! Hahaha!” I say, exhilarated. “Leave four of the goblins alive, too. I’m going to capture them. You can kill the rest if you want!” I say.

“Ok. Then I’ll kill them right away!” Ricard says in response.

After managing to capture two orcs and four goblins in only the first battle, we proceed to move forward.

“Hahaha! Already have half of my objective in only the first battle! I’m looking forward to seeing what else I can capture!” I merrily say.

“Aha… Good for you.” Ricards talks in an indifferent tone. But then suddenly his expression and tone change and he says. “See what I was telling you? It’s thanks to me that you got so many bodies! Now, praise me! Praise me and call me your master! You need to respect your teacher and superior!”

Please spare me from talking about this again…

 

“When playing against the Savage Horde, don’t forget to bring Area of Effect skills. As the faction’s name suggests, they tend to flood the enemy with a constant barrage of melee enemies. Because they sacrifice magic and ranged options in favor of numbers and strength, they tend to clump together and the AoE skills are king versus them.

But if you don’t have any AoE skills, you’re going to face an unending ‘horde’ of enemies that will slowly but surely whittle you down. And if they manage to surround you in melee range, you’ll feel in your own skin what the word ‘savage’ means, as you get pummeled to a pulp.”

- Basic DMA knowledge every player should know.