Chapter 413

“So, at first, as you can see, the mob isn’t THAT terrifying.” Steve said with a chuckle. He’d had James pull up the information on the boss mob, to correspond with his explanation. As far as bosses came, it was definitely a powerful one, but initially, yeah, nothing too crazy.

Stat wise, it would be classified as a neutral mob. It’s attack and defense stats were practically the same, and its health pool, while large, given its starting existence as a level 100 Boss mob, nothing seemed, over the top. If that was all there was too it, really, it’d be a pretty standard, run of the mill boss.

However, these were just it’s starting stats. The real wonder of the level 100 Boss, that gave it the five-star rarity, was what it could do. And that, was where things really got crazy. The only thing this version of it had, were Unique Traits. Which were definitely…unique.

Unique Traits:

Unwavering Hunger: The Jormun-grander does not see friend, nor foe. It will consume all things in its path.*

For each regular mob consumed by the Jormun-grander, it will gain 0.01 of their stats.

For each mini-boss consumed by the Jormun-grander, it will gain 100 percent of the mini-boss’s stats, and its remaining stats will increase by 10percent. Additionally, depending on the mini-boss consumed, additional effects may be gained.

For each player consumed by the Jormun-grander, it will gain a 2 percent increase to all of its stats.

*This skill resets each time the Jormun-grander is summoned, or when a new instance begins

Indomitable Will: The Jormun-grander has a single goal. Anything in its path, will be attacked and consumed. This single-mindedness makes the Jormun-grander immune to all immobilizing status ailments. Non movement impairing status effects, have a 50% reduced effectiveness, against the Jormun-grander

World-Gorger: When the Jormun-grander reaches its tail, it will have completed its task, and the world will be consumed. This will result instantly in a floor wide wipe.

“I wouldn’t say it isn’t terrifying Steve,” James commented, motioning especially towards the Indomitable Will skill “just, not overpowered.” At first glance, that wasn’t something that could be taken lightly. Not only would it make a tank’s job more difficult, given the immunity to stuns and snares, but halving taunt times, could be problematic. And, Steve had confirmed, it halved the time of effects such as poison, meaning trying to apply DoTs would be less effective against the boss. That, would be difficult for groups who focused around DoTs, such as the Boss Slayers with their Plague Doctor skills.

James, had honestly been secretly happy seeing that particular skill. Given, er, the fact he’d grown a bit tired watching the Boss Slayers use The Biggest Blackest Pearl to just kite undead and murder them with DoTs. It felt sportsman like, to some degree. Then again, farming undead fish, wasn’t really a sport. And James knew in their shoes, he’d do the same thing. But, he found himself more and more looking at DCO properly from the Dungeon side of things, and he’d noticed he was getting a little more sensitive when he saw players abusing obvious flaws, or cheesing mechanics. Something, he figured, Steve and the others had been feeling since Day 1.

“Fair,” Steve said, appraising the miniature image of the boss. Having not summoned it yet, considering its skill set and such, they were limited to seeing the small, digital model of the boss. Which showed a serpent, who knew how long, with a colorful feathered plume, wicked, deadly red eyes, and a mouth filled with constantly rotating, drill like teeth. The devs had, gone a bit on the nightmare fuel side with that last bit.

“Obviously,” Steve continued, motioning again at the sheet, “you can figure how quickly its stats will grow, and how what you populate your labyrinth with, will affect the Boss’s actual stats. Fill it with a crap ton of Solems, and well, this boss will never die. Fill it with J-Kappa’s, and, good chance it goes down in an epic, J-pop rock show fashion. Which, I would totally pay to see, mind you.”

Steve’s comment brought an image to James’s mind that he never knew he needed. The giant, world eating serpent, surrounded by players who were all launching various attacks and abilities at it, all while they were being cheered on, buffed, and essentially given background music to their fight, by an army of J-Kappa’s they’d paid off. James would totally pay to see that too.

“Noted.” James said, motioning for Steve to continue.

“Right, well, moving past the mini bosses for the moment, we get to the stat gain from eating adventurers. Arguably, part of what will make or break the boss fight on this floor, is if someone snags a fresh instance, or they’re say, the last 5 players in an instance filled with 50 players. That 2percent increase in its stats, are based off its current stats, not its base stat. The longer it consumes, the more detrimental such a thing will be.”

“Question,” Rue piped in, raising her hand. Both Steve and James shot her a look. She’d been strangely quiet.

“Uh, go ahead?” Steve said, motioning at the fairy. James couldn’t help but notice Rue had changed her outfit. It looked, somewhat Viking-esq?

“When it consumes things, does it heal?” She asked simply.

“Does it…” James trailed off, looking back at Steve. That, was a really good point. Like, really really good.

“Uh, no, well, yes, but no?” Steve replied, just as caught off guard by the practical question as James was. They were over here, nerding out about the boss, while Rue was asking the important questions.

“Without gaining a skill from a mini-boss, the Jormun-grander won’t heal in the practical sense. That being said, each time it consumes something, its maximum health pool will be increased by the appropriate amount, and it will gain whatever that amount was, to its current health pool.”

Steve glanced from Rue, who was nodding like that made all the sense in the world, back to James, who he realized, was likely a little glassy eyed. He was caught somewhere between impressed and proud of Rue, while also wondering how far that body paint she’d someone covered her body with went…and what it would… erm..

“In James terms,” Steve said, grabbing James’s full attention. “Let’s say the boss has a simple, 1000 HP max, but it’s down to 900. If it eats an adventurer, meaning its stats will be increased by 2percent, then its max HP will go to 1020, and it will be sitting at 920 current HP.”

“Neat.” James said with a nod of his own. In that example, the increase wasn’t that crazy. But Steve had done it to be simple. The level 100 boss started with 100,000 HP, meaning a 2percent increase, would mean the boss would have just jumped to 102,000 HP, and gained 2,000 HP to whatever its current health pool was.

Even if the adventurers were all level 100 when they faced the boss, and that was assuming they found it at the very start of the map, and it hadn’t eaten anything else, a quick 2,000 HP gain by the boss, was nothing to sneeze at. That could have been a very valuable cooldown, or critical, or such by the players. To have it undone, and lose a player in the process, could be very, very damning. James loved it.

It also made another question pop up in James’s mind.

“How does the boss, eat things?” He asked. The mouth was definitely terrifying, but it didn’t have any arms, or legs, or…

“Tentacles.” Steve said with a chuckle. He waved his hand towards the display, and from deep within the creature’s mouth, large, fleshy appendages appeared. They lashed out of the mouth, like some horrifying mimic bullshit amped up to 11, before sliding carefully back into the mouth, avoiding the swirling, gnashing, ring of teeth.

“It’s not in the stats, since it counts as a basic attack, but the tentacles will grab ahold of players, and work to pull them towards the mouth. The tentacles all have a set amount of HP, based on the boss’s maximum, and their defense is pretty low. So, players just have to keep themselves free of tentacles, and out of the boss’s way, while it moves about. IF,” Steve stressed that part, “the players make contact with those teeth, they are instantly killed and absorbed.”

James went quiet. Rue went quiet. And Steve clapped his hands together.

“Now, with that image in your heads, who’s ready for the best part about this thing?” Steve’s grin was splashed across his face, and with a motion of his wrist, a new screen appeared for all to see. A screen with the colors of the rainbow running down it, each color indicating a different mini-boss name and type.

“Oh, hell yeah.”