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."
Eternal Chill (Passive skill)
Increase all ice damage that you deal by 20% and your ice attacks and skills slow enemies by 10%. Your ice damage can't kill other units.
"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.
Slippery (Innate passive skill)
You have a 20% chance to avoid attacks that deal enough damage to kill you. Only works if the attack deals more damage than 30% of your maximum HP.
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.
You have received a friend request from: TheGreatBaldSage
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!"