“STOP! Don’t come any closer Violette. I know you’ll still probably be able to snap me like a twig, but I won’t hesitate to defend myself,” Devin ordered her.
“Devin!! It warms my heart to see you here! I’m so sorry about our argument before, but you’ve obviously forgiven me if you are here now! Come and hug me like we used to, and everything can go back to the way it was before!” Violette said in her bubbly voice, as if she wasn’t just crying her eyes out moments before.
Well, that answers that – she’s still crazy. “What happened Violette? When we were attacked, you were inconsolable, collapsed on the floor complaining about Devin and what he did to you. When you were killed, our Dungeon Core was stolen and if it wasn’t for Devin we wouldn’t be here now. You only had one job and you failed – what do you have to say for yourself?”
Violette’s face fell at the mention of the stolen Dungeon Core and for the first time she actually looked ashamed. Krista waited for her to speak and after a minute she finally told her, “We just had a little misunderstanding and Devin told me he never wanted to see me again. I was losing the person that I was in love with and I didn’t know why. I kind of broke down completely after that. It’s not my fault – if Devin hadn’t said that I would have been fine.”
Krista turned her attention on Devin and asked, “Is this true – did you tell her you didn’t want to see her ever again? Why would you do that?”
Krista had never seen Devin so furious – he normally had an easy-going if shy attitude and the look on his face kind of scared her a little. His mouth kept opening like he was going to say something, but he seemed to be struggling to get out what he wanted to say. He finally seemed to get his thoughts in order and practically shouted, “You’re forgetting about the part where you threw me on the ground, ripped off my clothes, and tried to take advantage of my inability to fight you off. Once you finally stopped and I was able to get away from you, I told you I didn’t want to see you again because it was true – I didn’t ever want to see you again after what you did. If it wasn’t for the fact that I needed to prove to my true love, Krista, that it wasn’t my fault that the Dungeon Core was stolen I wouldn’t even be here now.”
Krista’s thoughts almost shut down after hearing what Violette did to her Devin. When she could finally form a coherent thought, she started yelling at her with the loudest voice she could project. If she had the physical ability to hurt her, she would have ripped her pretty little head off her shoulders. “YOU TRIED TO RAPE HIM? ARE YOU INSANE? WHAT AM I SAYING, OF COURSE YOU ARE! I CAN’T BELIEVE I LET YOU BACK IN HERE NOW KNOWING WHAT YOU DID TO HIM!”
Violette just stood there, looking more and more sad until she collapsed to her knees and started bawling. Krista stopped when she saw this, unable to continue shouting at the already broken individual. She didn’t have any sympathy for her, she just felt that whatever she said would have fallen on deaf ears.
Between sobs, Violette started asking Devin for forgiveness and for him to keep her company again since she was still lonely. She said that she would behave herself and nothing like that would happen again. Krista couldn’t believe the gall of the woman, thinking that they would just brush off what she had done without any consequences. She wasn’t surprised when Devin finally answered her pleas, “No, Violette, I will not be back after today. I can’t trust you, I don’t like you, and you hurt me more than you can probably comprehend in your twisted mind. I may eventually forgive you for what you did – but I’ll never forget. Goodbye, Violette.” He turned around and walked out of the room without looking back.
Violette just knelt there, uncontrollably sobbing, with – damn that woman, ADORABLE – hiccups occurring every couple of seconds. Krista just watched her with indifference, secretly glad that she was taking Devin’s departure so hard. She didn’t deserve pity, so Krista wasn’t going to give her any. When her crying didn’t look like it would be stopping anytime soon, she addressed Violette with an emotionless voice, “Despite your broken emotional state right now, I still need you to defend this place against the players coming to steal the Dungeon Core. Fortunately for us, you are not the final protection we have in place. If you aren’t able to function properly, we have a backup Guardian that has a room just behind yours. He’s been doing an awesome job on the previous floor and he’ll be here to save us if they get that far. If you have any desire to meet him, you can see him through the exit doors at the top of the temple. If you need anything else – don’t call me. Goodbye.”
Krista found Devin angrily walking up the pathway that wound itself around the volcano. She followed him for a while, not sure what to say to him after the previous revelation. Finally, she decided to ask him, “Do you want me to respawn you somewhere?” She had to ask him twice, he was so entrenched in his own angry thoughts. He nodded in the affirmative, apparently not trusting himself to speak quite yet. She removed him from the floor and placed him back inside the dungeon entrance, trusting that he would respawn when he was ready.
She had a lot to think about as she made her way to the first room to finish the stairway leading down to the new floor. Despite the uncomfortable situation back in that room, it certainly cleared up a lot of things. I should have trusted Devin when he said that it wasn’t his fault that the Core was stolen. I should have known that he wouldn’t do anything deliberately to jeopardize what we have here – our way of life. I should have known how he felt about me before all of this. I should have known a lot of things…
Chapter 27
Devin laughed as he watched as another Goat Sucker caused an unprepared group to start screaming and attacking each other as much as the goats around them. He cast another low-powered Grasping Vines I spell that caused vines to sprout from the ground, encircling the players’ legs and trapping them in place. Since it was such a low level, the spell would only keep them immobilized for a couple of seconds but that was enough for the hallucinations and remaining goats to get their work done. When they were freed from the vines, their tank was the only one still standing. Before the hallucination wore off, Devin used Major Rot III to inflict massive amounts of damage-over-time effects on his health points. He hid again before he was seen but was able to see the almost-dead Defender on his last legs as the hallucination dissipated. A couple of seconds passed as his spell continued to affect the player, until he finally collapsed in death, surrounded by the monstrous-looking mushroom goats.
He heard an almost imperceptible *ding*, and thought, I did it! Finally, Level 40! Since the new floor opened almost a day ago, he had been gaining experience and levels hand over fist. Their higher levels – coupled with their unfamiliarity of the new floor and monsters – allowed Devin to participate in their slaughter without too much danger on his part. Early on, when he was using a Rogue-Archer build, he got caught by an extra-sneaky Assassin when he ventured too far out of hiding. He ended up dropping back down to level 33 from 35.
After that, Devin started staying farther away and only appearing when there was very little danger of being snuck up on. He also created a Druid-Warlock build that focused on crowd-control spells as well as damage-over-time (DOT) spells that would allow him to stay out of combat. He discovered that even a simple paralyzing spell would give him experience from a player death – which meant he was able to cast and run away. It wasn’t the most honorable way of fighting, but he was a doing it for a good cause. He needed the experience to level up and keep the Dungeon Core safe. He knew they still had Guardians (well, at least one good one), but he still considered himself the first line of defense.
The different groups of players that were entering the dungeon were having a hard time of it – the learning curve was steep. When compared to these others, Domn3r’s group looked like experts. He was sure that higher quality groups would be incoming, but these first groups were a good enough judge on how challenging this floor was. It wasn’t impossible, but it would be some time before they learned how to navigate their way through without dying aro
und every corner. Hopefully by that time, they would have accumulated enough resources and the dungeon leveled up enough to build a new floor and the cycle would start again.
After watching the bodies of the dead players dissipate into thin air, he called out to the air around him, “Krista! I’m ready to respawn – I finally made it to level 40!” Krista offered her congratulations and within seconds his viewpoint changed, and the character selection window was in front of him. Now that he was finally able to choose some advanced classes, he was excited to see what he had available. He had learned earlier that if he had the base class unlocked, the advanced classes would be available to him.
Normally, each base class – such as Archer or Defender -- had two possible advanced classes that were unlocked by the player through a lengthy quest that could involve days of preparation and traveling to accomplish. Since he was technically a monster, Devin lucked out because he wouldn’t be able to do them. Therefore, the system automatically made these advanced classes available to him without all the trouble of completing each individual class quest. He could imagine De4th and his guild good-naturedly calling him a cheater and overpowered again – but there wasn’t anything he could do about it. There were rumors that master classes were available after level 150, but as there was no one even close to that it wasn’t something they had to worry about now.
Dungeon Upgradeable Mobile Boss
Character Creation
DUMB Level:
40
Available Races
Human
Orc
Goblin
Elf
Troll
Ogre
Dwarf
Undead
Dragonkin
Gnome
Available Classes
Base Class
Advanced Class
Fighter
Warrior
Knight
Brawler
Monk
Berserker
Archer
Ranger
Hunter
Rogue
Thief
Assassin
Sorcerer
Conjurer
Illusionist
Mage
Wizard
Elementalist
Paladin
Crusader
Holy Knight
Warlock
Necromancer
Death Knight
Healer
Battle Priest
Cleric
Druid
Witch Doctor
Shaman
Defender
Barbarian
Commander
Pet Trainer
Beastmaster
Summoner
He dove into the details of each of the advanced classes, spending what seemed to him like hours learning about what the advantages and disadvantages were for each one. While he could specialize with one class and min/max his stats with more flexibility than a normal player, he had the advantage of being able to pick two classes with his dual class upgrade. He already knew that he wanted to choose the Dragonkin race – because, seriously, who doesn’t want to be able to fly? The Dragonkin race only had a small additional bonus to fire-based magic resistance, but the other benefit was well worth it.
Based on his own experiences with what worked for him both inside and outside of the dungeon, he chose as his two classes a Necromancer and a Hunter. He loved being able to direct pets against his enemies as a Pet Trainer, but he was unable to do it in the dungeon because he couldn’t “tame” the dungeon monsters. The Necromancer class didn’t care where the monsters came from, just that they were dead. The disadvantage of this class was its lack of ranged attacks – it relied solely on its undead pets.
To get around this lack of ranged damage, the Hunter class would allow him to use a bow to attack from afar as well as set traps. He would be able to set additional traps in the dungeon, surprising the incoming players with unexpected obstacles that he could throw out on the fly. With his choices made, he spent another hour allocating his stat points and picking his skills and spells. There were massive amounts of skills to choose from since many of the base class options were still available. He ended up boosting his Agility and Wisdom scores based upon a couple of key skills/spells.
Raise Undead Scout IV
Bring target back from the dead under the Necromancers’ control for a limited time, increasing its speed and Agility while also decreasing its Constitution. Undead Scouts are best used for hit-and-run attacks and should be rarely used in stand-up fair fights.
Undead Scout Limit:
5
Duration:
300.0 seconds
Casting Time:
1.5 seconds
Agility Increase:
30%
Constitution Decrease:
15%
Mana Cost:
200
Raise Undead Behemoth V
Combine and raise from the dead multiple targets under the control of the Necromancer for a limited time. The resulting Behemoth has stats equal to a portion of every target combined but loses a portion of its Agility Stat due to its increased size. Because of the strain upon the Necromancer keeping the various body parts together, a sizable mana upkeep is necessary to maintain its structure.
Targets Required (minimum):
3
Stat Point Portion:
75%
Agility Stat Decreased:
70%
Casting Time:
5.0 seconds
Mana Upkeep:
5 mana per second but increases by 1 each second
Initial Mana Cost:
800
Snareshot III
The Hunter fires an arrow that snares and pins the target to the ground for a limited time. Success is based upon the Agility stat compared to the target.
Success Chance:
Hunter Agility > Target Agility
Duration:
20.0 seconds
Cooldown:
60.0 seconds
Now that he had chosen his buildout, he appeared at the entrance of the dungeon and looked around. He needed some gear that would increase his Agility, Intelligence, and Wisdom. He almost had enough Wisdom now to keep a potential behemoth alive for almost five minutes based upon his mana regeneration. A little bit more would cover the upkeep while also allowing him to cast any additional spells that were needed. He took a couple of other Hunter-based utility skills to help deal some damage from range, but his main focus would be his undead pets.
After a couple of minutes, Krista found a decent bow and a combination of Archer and Warlock gear that made him look unique. He was a little worried at first whether he would be able to wear it, but Carl told him that any advanced class could wear the same gear as its base class. Just after he finished equipping the last piece of gear, Krista told him that there was a situation outside that he needed to look at.
He was still momentarily stunned every time he exited the dungeon as he took in all the buildings around him. Getting accustomed to the town being outside was going to take some getting used to. He rushed toward the closed gate – which had previously been open letting all players enter the town and dungeon as they wanted – and he saw De4thfrmbeh1nd and a couple of other guild members talking in a group. As he got closer, he must have startled them because they almost pulled their weapons before they saw his name, Dragonkin Hunter/Necromancer [Reckless]. Now that he was in their guild, he found that he could choose to display his guild affiliation. This helped calm some of the new guild members that had seen him without having met them before.
“That’s so not fair – two advanced classes? That is so OP – it took me days to unlock the Assassin class,” De4th commented. “Hunter/Necromancer, huh? Well, I’m sure you have a good strategy in mind. Anyways, enough chitchat – we have a situation. Come up to the walls and take a look with me.”
Devin followed De4th up the small staircase leading to the bat
tlements atop the wall. As he looked over the edge, he saw what looked like hundreds of players arranged outside the wall in scattered camps. He looked closer at the individual players and found that they were a mixture of the Divine Truth and Guiding Light guilds camped outside. Worried, he looked over at De4th and saw the same sort of worry etched on his face. All Devin could think was, this isn’t good.
“Divine Truth started arriving about an hour ago with Guiding Light following soon after. From what we can tell, they somehow learned about the properties of the town and how to go about capturing it. I would normally say that we have a mole somewhere in our organization, but I don’t believe they counted on us already being here. When the Dungeon Core event first started, they were the first guild to become entrenched around the entrance and had to have been moving before it was announced. I have a friend that works for Wexendsoft and he let me know about it just moments before the patch notes were released – but he is just a lower-level coder. Divine Truth must have someone on the inside higher up in the organization to be able to take advantage of upcoming news. That’s the only explanation that I have for this,” De4th told him.
Dungeon Guild Page 17