Chapter 396

James had decided upon the, er, Sither Whal option for his upgrade tree on his Darth-Whals. The upgrade, which changed their cybernetic coloration to better fit those of the old Killer Whales, which, granted, weren’t technically whales, but were dolphins, led to quite a few interesting features that he was eager to see in action.

First and foremost, by unlocking the Sither Whal Tree, his Darth-Whal’s gained a passive increase in their mana pool and mana recharge rate. By putting three, which was the max, points into that ability, known as Cyber-condria, his Darth-Whal, as long as it was in sunlight, could recharge more mana per second than it spent using its Force Filled ability. Which meant it could now freely permanently buff itself in combat. This upgrade, visually, had made the now all black top of the Darth-Whal gain slightly reflective solar panels. It also increased the max MP of the creature by 15 percent, 5 percent per level of the skill upgrade.

From there, with his remaining five points, he’d gone for the skills that had first tempted him into this Sither-Whal tree. A single point went into a skill that reminded him of his favorite ambush predator from his second floor.

Forced Stealth- The Darth-Whal is able to mask its presence from enemies. Unless actively engaged with enemies, The Darth-Whal is able to keep itself completely hidden. This skill prevents Darth-Whals from showing up on player radars, as well as grants it the ability to completely hide itself within its snowy terrain when hunting prey.

That tree, unlocked for him another single point skill, which he gladly selected.

Ambush- As long as the Darth-Whal has not been spotted, it can make a single target attack on an enemy of its choice. This attack will impale an enemy as the Darth-Whal leaps high into the sky from the snow. The enemy of its choice will be flung even higher into the sky after being skewered. The initial attack ignores 50% armor, and deals a total of 15% of the Darth-Whals attack as damage. The enemy is further flung up to 10+.1lvl feet into the air, resulting in additional damage.

The concept of this massive, whale like cybernetic creature shish-kabobbing a player and then sending them flying into the air, which James know knew would result in fall damage, was too good not to pick. It also made the largest mob on his floor an ambush predator, which he felt was on par for what he knew of the extinct species.

After that, with three points remaining, he put a single point into each of the cybernetic ‘force’ upgrades that were available to the Darth-Whal. Given how deadly his Pall Sheep already were, he felt it was safe, in this instance, to give this mob in particular more of a variety of action, rather than hyperfocusing it on a single job. He also, may have just wanted to apply these upgrades to see how the mob would utilize them, and to keep adventurers on their toes.

As such, his Darth-Whal gained three more force skills, one that gave it the ability to create a barrier around itself which would divert 50% of the damage it was taking to its mana pool, instead of health pool. Not game breaking, but with its increased mana regeneration, still a helpful shield for the creature

Next was a passive healing ability that gave the Darth-Whal back an additional 2% of its HP every 5 seconds as long as its solar panels were above the snow. Again, not crazy OP, but enough to give the mob more survivability, and to help it survive if players were trying to CC it to death or such.

The final ability he’d been torn on, but had decided to go with the Force Push option for this upgrade, and the Force Grab would be the next upgrade he selected. With the Force Push, the Darth-Whal was able to utilize its mana to emit a powerful pulse of energy from its cybernetic body. The pulse was essentially a powerful magnetic field, and it would push everything around the Darth-Whal back by. The distance and force they were sent backwards at was dependent on how close the individuals were to the mob when it activated this skill. If they were directly on it, they would be sent flying backwards. If they were say, twenty feet away, the max distance of the blast, they would just feel like someone had shoved them, and maybe would stumble back a few feet if they were caught off guard by the attack.

All in all, James found himself more than a little proud of his new and improved Jedi of the Sea, and he was eager to see it in action. He also knew he needed to hurry up and finish modifying the rest of his mobs, if he were to enjoy the show. After all, his top players had been in the skirmish, and following it, he knew they’d been pushed out of the dungeon and returned to the dungeon town.

Many, best he could tell, were celebrating their victory and still figuring out their rewards to snag from Vinnie at the Warmonger station at the Adventurers Guild. That being said, they would be returning to the dungeon sooner rather than later, and he really, really wanted to see a good show of action from his fifth-floor mobs. Up until now, there had just been small skirmishes here or there, and no real good battles. Especially considering the, er, floor trains people were paying to be a part of in order to get to his safe zone and unlock it as a location they could teleport to at will.

James already had his alerts set up for the next time Z and his guild entered the dungeon, same with the Boss Slayers, Alex, and a few other parties he’d taken a liking to. They were all, he knew, looking to farm his fifth floor for gear and experience, and he was all about watching these battles take place. Which was why, he stopped patting himself on the back with his Darth-Whal upgrades and went to town on his other mobs. Because the next time one of those parties entered the dungeon, he knew, they would be working to not only clear the fifth floor of mobs, but also, to try and stand against the boss. And he needed to make sure, they were given the best he had to offer.