In this case, the “Dragon” in question is the Dragonkin – so it refers to the “Dragon” being a rider, instead of it riding a Dragon. I think you should just be thankful it was not named “Drake-riding Dragonkin”. That would have been a little confusing and unnecessary.
Krista couldn’t help but agree, she was happy all the same with her creation. Wishing to see these Dragonkin in action, she switched back to viewing the current group inside the Dragon’s Lair dungeon. They had made it to the fourth floor and were being attacked by the Hearthfire Dragonkin populating the environment. If these are a playable race for Devin, he’d going to love being able to fly, she thought.
She watched the Dragonkin’s attempt to ambush the players from above or behind something with little success. They had the advantage of being able to attack from the air, but they were so noisy that they rarely got close enough before they were heard and spotted. Now what do I have that is stealthy? Oh, yeah, that could work…
Death’s Roar (Advanced Monster)
In order to become sneakier, this hybrid of Hearthfire Dragonkin and Starving Mountain Lion is the epitome of stealthiness. Although the Death’s Roar is smaller than its normal Dragonkin cousins, it makes up for it by being covered head to wingtip in short, soft black fur. This black fur allows it to blend into the shadows and attack in near silence. It also dual-wields two sharp knives that are perfect for assassination attempts.
Backdoor Assault
Current level description:
Although the Death’s Roar doesn’t use magic, it has the skill to move through the shadows to teleport behind an enemy to attack from behind for physical damage. It also has a greater chance for a critical strike.
Physical Damage:
250
Additional Critical Strike Chance:
20%
Cooldown:
180.0 seconds
Distraction
Current level description:
The Death’s Roar isn’t the best in a straight up fight – therefore it likes to retreat to find a better avenue of attack. It uses an illusion skill to project an image of itself where it is currently standing and disappears to an area away from the nearest enemy.
Retreat Distance:
20 feet away
Cooldown:
Once per battle: Can be used if it takes 20% or more damage from a single hit
Krista was ecstatic upon receiving her first “stealth” mob – previously she relied on brute force or surprise attacks from unsuspecting directions. Now, though, she could place these around and treat them almost as traps to catch non-attentive players. Placing these mobs singly or in pairs would be just as effective as a whole room full of them, she thought.
Now that she had seen done what she could to create some new additions to her bestiary, Krista now needed to focus on a new level for her main dungeon. The deadline for the increased level cap was coming up soon and she had to prepare quickly. She looked at her available resources and was flabbergasted at the amount she had accumulated over the last couple of weeks when the Dungeon Core was missing. Even though she hadn’t leveled up, she was still able to accumulate resources. Now that the Core was back, she had leveled up to Dungeon Level 13 and was well on her way to 14. When the new floor was done, she figured she would level up even quicker.
Dungeon Player Administration Toolset
Available Resources:
2435050
Additional Resources:
Yes
Dungeon Level
13
Dungeon Experience
200300/240000
She figured she had “carte blanche” when it came to creating the new floor – she had so many resources that it might be impossible to use them all at this time. She knew she would need to save some for when she was able to look at the Building and NPCs options but that was for after she finished securing the Dungeon Core from potential assault.
* * *
After almost a full day of creating the new floor, it was almost complete and in about eight hours the level cap would increase by 5 for the third floor. Until she placed the Guardians and connected the two floors, however, the fourth floor would stay incomplete until she was ready. Before she did that, she wanted to have Devin run through it with some of his guild friends to test it out before it was complete. Now that she had expanded her dungeon territory, she found that she could create a long slide from outside of the entrance behind a hidden door. This door would allow someone to travel down to the fourth floor without having to officially enter the dungeon (since they were over the level cap). Once it was tested, she could delete the slide and then open the floor for the general public. She was going to call them her “beta-testers”.
A couple of hours ago, when she knew she would finish in plenty of time, she had asked Devin if he could contact the group that had helped him acquire the Dragon’s Lair dungeon. He had asked about a suitable award for them and although she still had some ideas how to compensate them, she figured this would help tide them over until she was able to do it. Krista had lowered the levels of the mobs she had placed down there to better match them – she would raise them up again later. Devin was as excited as she was to see them try it out – he hadn’t seen it yet, so it would be new to him as well.
Chapter 19
Devin slid down the slide that Krista had created, leading Domn3r’s group down to the new fourth floor. When he had told them of this unique opportunity, they dropped everything they had going on and jumped on it immediately. They all lived for this type of thing – being able to test out a new section of a dungeon that had never even been seen before was too good to pass up. When they got there (in record time no doubt), they were all eager to get started.
He met them outside the dungeon in a different guise than they had seen him in last time. This time there was just a small shock since he looked quite different, but at least he was a little more familiar-looking this time. He had chosen to be a High Elf Healer to be able to resurrect his friends in case they died. What am I thinking – of course they are going to die! Krista always makes the deadliest dungeons – it’s almost a guarantee.
He didn’t have to worry about being attacked since he was part of the dungeon, so he put very little consideration into defending himself. Because of that, as part of his build he maxed out his Intelligence and Wisdom, took a couple of low level healing spells, and boosted his Resurrection spell up as far as he could take it in order to reduce the cooldown time. He also got a couple of key items from Krista for his level that would further reduce the cooldown time on all his spells. In effect, this meant that if the entire party wiped he would be able to get them all up within a couple of minutes.
Once they arrived at the bottom of the slide – which gradually leveled off until they slowly slid to a stop – they found themselves in a small room about 50 feet wide and long. They ended up near the corner of the room where, Devin suspected, the stairs from the floor above would be located. In front of them they were greeted with the familiar sight of Magma Shroombas (Level 32) – although this time there were about 30 of them all grouped up together near the center of the room. They weren’t moving so they obviously hadn’t been aggro’ed yet.
Once Domn3r and his group had gotten their bearings after the long slide down, they considered the Shroombas before them. Mac spoke up and said, “I got this – step back and get ready just in case.” Everyone – including Devin – stepped back and watched as Mac started casting a spell. It was a powerful one, based upon the five second casting time. Devin watched as shards of ice rained down from the middle of the room and impaled the entire group of Magma Shroombas. Instantly, the mobile mushrooms woke up and turned toward Mac – before they could take more than a step they were dead.
I think they were holding back when they helped me out with that dungeon, he thought. He again appreciated the way they had helped him – if they hadn’t held back then he wouldn’t have gotten enough practice before he took o
n the Mighty Flame Dragon. Now Devin was looking forward to see what they could actually do.
Mac smiled and fake-roared, “Take that Ice Storm, muthafuckas!” Maxinista, their designated looter, shook her head and looted all the corpses of the Shroombas. She found that their loot was very similar to the other dungeon but of a higher quality. It made sense because they were pretty much identical – other than being a higher level.
“Hey Krista, if you’re watching I would suggest spreading them out a little more – that was entirely too easy,” Devin told the air around him.
“Yeah, I saw that – I’ll change it once you guys are done. Do you think they would be better near the walls or just scattered in groups?” Krista asked him.
Devin noticed the group had gone silent around him and was looking around in confusion. “Who is that?” Ambrose asked for the group.
“Ah…that’s Krista – I wasn’t aware you could hear her. It must have been a something she had unlocked recently to be able to talk to players. She couldn’t before the Dungeon Core was stolen – she used to warn me when groups of players would get close to my hiding places. Anyway, Krista, I want you to meet Domn3r, Ambrose, Bolt3n, Mac which is short for Macgowenishburt, and Maxinista but she goes by Max. Everyone, meet Krista!”
They all told her hello and Ambrose added, “It’s so good to finally talk to you – Devin has told us all about you and your situation. I would love to talk to you more about the whole dungeon building experience because it sounds so much fun.”
“I would love to talk sometime – probably when we aren’t under the imminent threat of death and have time to breathe. Hopefully in the next couple of days if everything goes well,” Krista responded. She then asked the group again for any suggestions for placement of the Magma Shroombas.
Mac had a suggestion, “The only way I was able to kill them all so quickly was because they were so bunched up together. If they were along the walls then we could make our way around the perimeter, only taking on those in aggro range – this wouldn’t work be good for you. If they were spread out throughout the room I wouldn’t be able to hit them all and the ones I didn’t hit would aggro straight for me. If we went straight melee, there would only be a small possibility that most of them would aggro as soon as we attacked one.
“Your best bet is to have three groups of ten that are separate but within aggro range of each other – this way I wouldn’t be able to hit all of them with a spell and if we attacked only one group the others would aggro immediately. Huh…I can’t believe I’m telling you the best way to kill us.” The other members of the group looked at Mac, surprised at his thought-out explanation.
“I agree that it’s weird, but it’s also kind of neat – we can help shape this place in order to make it more effective against Dungeon Core thieves. Which is kind of the entire point of what we’ve been doing the last couple of weeks. Of course, that means we’ll know how to defeat everything – easy farming here we come!” They all laughed at Maxinista’s statement, including Devin and Krista.
“That’s fine, you can farm the dungeon all you want – it doesn’t cost me anything to restock it after it’s looted. The only cost is with the initial setup,” Krista told them all.
With the extra incentive of being able to help fine-tune this dungeon floor, they eagerly moved onto the next room with a spring in their step. “I hope you have something deadlier than those Shroombas – they are kind of weak,” Devin had fallen back behind the group and spoke softly to the air.
“Don’t worry, that room was basically a friendly ‘hello’ compared to the rest of it. It was just something familiar to lure them into a false sense of security,” Krista whispered back so that the others couldn’t hear her.
“Oh, you’re a devious one you are. That’s what I love about you,” Devin responded automatically, not thinking about what was saying until it came out.
“That’s another thing I want to talk about…” Krista started.
“Not now, let’s wait until this ‘beta-test’ is done and you can bring back Violette to clear matters up. I think you said that you’d be able to do that when you are ready to open the new floor and it’s almost time for that. If everything goes well, we’ll have plenty of time to talk.”
Krista agreed hurriedly because Domn3r’s group had just entered a dark hallway that had high ceilings and seemingly random side alcoves that held statues of grotesque monsters. Devin could hear Krista whisper right next to his ear, “Stay back, I want to see how these guys do – you may have some work ahead of you.”
He stopped and watched as they entered the dark tunnel, anticipating a good show.
Chapter 20
Max led the way as the rest of them followed, with Ambrose safely out of harms’ way in the rear. Domn3r watched as she checked for traps, knowing that this dungeon was notorious for having hidden traps where you least expected them. After Max crouched down to disable an obvious tripwire hidden near the floor, he heard Ambrose cry out in pain behind him. He spun around, only to find her on the ground, bleeding out with two stab wounds in her back. Looking further behind, he saw Devin standing about 30 feet away with a shocked look on his face. Looking all around him, he couldn’t see anything that would have caused her death.
“What happened?” Max came running back, looking around at the shadows near the alcoves in the walls. She had better dark vision than the rest of them, so they would have to rely on her to find whatever had killed Ambrose.
“Not sure, I heard her cry out and by the time I spun around she was dead. I didn’t hear or see anything – it was like a ghost. From the stab wounds, it looks like she was attacked from behind. Hey – can you res her?” Domn3r shot this last request toward Devin who was speaking softly to the air. Once he got his attention, Devin walked over and started casting his Resurrection spell – which didn’t take long. That’s the fastest I’ve ever seen that spell go off – he must’ve put all his points into just that one spell. It was good to see because if they all wiped it meant Devin could get them all back up before time ran out.
As Ambrose got to her feet, she asked in confusion, “What happened? Last thing I knew I was watching Max disarm that trap when I heard a very soft sound behind me and then suddenly I was dead. Did you kill whatever got me?”
“Nope, we have no idea what got you – we were hoping you could tell us,” Max told her.
“I didn’t see anything – hold on, let me check my combat log…it says that ‘Death’s Roar’ hit me with a critical hit that basically one-shotted me. Never heard of that before,” Ambrose informed them.
“Well, I don’t see it now, let’s get a move on – everyone stay close and Ambrose you’re now in the middle. Everyone keep an eye out and call out if you see or hear anything,” Domn3r told the group as they started progressing forward again. Within a minute, Bolt3n – who had been in the rear of the group now that Ambrose was in the middle – cried out and they all turned to see him fighting a shadow. Or at least that’s what it looked like, since the skin or fur on the creature was so black that it blended into the background and was hard to follow.
Bolt3n was still on his feet but he was hurt bad. Thinking she was far enough to be safe, Ambrose immediately cast one of her instant heals on Bolt3n – not wanting him to die as well – when the shadow creature turned its aggro on her. Domn3r was running to head it off in case it went for Ambrose when he watched it launch itself from the ground and fly – yes, FLY – over Bolt3n and went straight for their Healer. As it approached, she put her staff up in front of her to block its attack. Ambrose was a capable defensive fighter and knew how to block most attacks until help came. She blocked its first two strikes, getting a small nick on her hand from one of its knives, when Domn3r saw it disappear and then instantly appear behind her back.
Two quick strikes and Ambrose was down again without being able to turn around. This time, at least, they saw who did it and Domn3r used his taunt to gain its attention. It immediately heade
d in his direction and he defended himself easily against its knives with his sword and shield. He could hear Mac casting a spell behind him and as it went off he saw some ice shards appear to the side of the shadow and impale it in multiple places. Its health dropped more than 50% and he saw it stop moving in front of him. Must be weak to ice – those ice shards must have stunned it or something. Taking advantage of its paralyzed state, he slashed his sword in a horizontal cut that would take its head from its shoulders.
At least, that’s what it would have done if it was real. As he watched his sword cut right through it without resistance, he lost his balance and fell to a knee. When he looked up he saw the shadow about 20 feet away launch itself into the air and disappeared into the shadows near the top of the hallway. He glanced at Max and saw that she was tracking it with her enhanced dark vision. He looked again at Devin and with an unspoken request, asked him to resurrect Ambrose again. Devin promptly Resurrected Ambrose again and then backed up, looking to see what they would do now.
“Do you see it Max?” Domn3r asked her. “Yep, it’s hovering in the air about 20 feet above us. I can hit it with one of my ranged attacks, but it won’t do enough damage. It looks like it is waiting for us to move and lose sight of it again,” she replied.
Domn3r switched to party chat just in case the shadow creature could hear and understand them, “Keep an eye on it and let me know if it moves from that spot. Mac, can you cast a non-targeted AOE that would reach that far?”
Dungeon Guild: A LitRPG Dungeon Core Adventure (Glendaria Awakens Trilogy Book 3) Page 12
