Chapter 72

The group made decent head way into the random spawn dungeon. By unanimous agreement, they decided to kill off all the mobs in the dungeon. They didn’t want mobs coming from behind them and causing a wipe.

Leviene had died once already. She doesn’t want to die a second time. Although the talk with the system was interesting.

After 2 hours of constant fighting, the party finally had their teamwork down to an acceptable level.

The group also arrive at the lair of the first mini boss of the random spawn dungeon, the Ugly Toad Lizard.

The Ugly Toad Lizard, as its name implied is a mob that had the body of a lizard, but the strong hind legs of a toad. It also has the horrible conditions associated with ugly toads - warts. Every available surface area of the Ugly Toad Lizard is covered with bumps.

On Earth, warts on toads aren’t likes the warts human gets. Warts on toads are not caused by the human papillomavirus, or HPV, family. Warts on a toad are actually concentration of granular glands, which produce a variety of bad-tasting, poisonous or an antibiotic compounds. These warts are the toad’s first line of defense against predators and pathogens.

Regardless of its purpose, it is not pretty to look at.

“Do we have to fight that ugly monster?” Erica asked the group, her voice held a squeamish undertone.

“It’ll be a waste to bypass it. Who knows what kind of loot the boss drops.” Leviene answered casually but her voice leaves no room for arguments. She came here for the loot and loot is what she’ll get. She’ll even sacrifice her cousin for loot.

Leviene tossed a side eyed glance towards Erica then another towards Sylphie and her new boots. Definitely willing to sacrifice relatives for loot.

“But can you imagine fighting that.. that… that giant acne?”

“As long as it drops loot, yes.” Leviene answered truthfully. Fighting against the somewhat realistic monster in a virtual reality world doesn’t bother Leviene. Despite Arashia being a new world with its own rules and laws, in the end, it mimics a virtual reality game, and Leviene is an experience gamer.

“Is there no end to your greed?”

“When I have all the best loot for my class, I shall be satisfied.”

“Children, quit with the squabbling. I can get tired of stopping you,” Sylphie cut in. “Besides, we’re already here. If we don’t kill the walking treasure chest, Leviene will never let you live it down. I don’t want to mediate between you anymore than I have to. Despite appearances, I am NOT your babysitter.”

“Fine.”

“Egarious, you are tanking. Leviene, you are healing. Pull when ready.”

“Autocratic dictator.”

“I heard that Erica. Keep it up and you’ll see what happens when you push me too far.”

Leviene laughed in her heart and began to plots of ways to annoy Erica so she can annoy Sylphie. With all their years together and all the hijinks Leviene pulls, she rarely sees Sylphie loose what she calls her CEO composure. Leviene wants to see Sylphie lose it so she knows when to back off.

Leviene realize her plotting is amateure at best. She immediate gave up her scheming to focus on the situation at hand, the adorable walking treasure chest.

“Ready.”

“Okay, then pull.”

Egarious rushed up to the Ugly Toad Lizard, using his skill Holy Retribution to pull the mini boss.

Five seconds later, Erica pulled aggro off of Egarious.

Erica… Erica is freaked out by warts. They didn’t realized the depths of Erica’s irrational aversion to warts because she was bickering with Leviene like always.

When she was attacking the Ugly Toad Lizard, Leviene heard screams of fear, hatred and rage coming out of Erica’s mouth. She also heard about acne, pus and a giant cyst that burst on her face, of which Leviene prompted tried to wipe out of her brain.

Suffice to say, Erica wanted the Ugly Toad Lizard dead, fast. She put in all her effort to ensure it happens.

Leviene couldn’t really fault her as they haven’t fought a boss before. Erica didn't know how to pace her damage to keep her aggro under the tank.

They’ve been working under the notion of once the tank has aggro, down the boss fast and quick. This is the principal for all tank and spank fight.

It actually works too… under the theory that you have a good tank.

Egarious, no, Paladins in general, are not the best tanks out there. Leviene can’t tell which class is the best, or the most overpowered class in Arashia. It is too early in the game to tell.

When she was playing Dark Drake Kingdom, the developers would try to balance the game by fixing each class one by one which leads to the class being overpowered for a time, then the new changes to the game empowered the other class, reducing the strength of the class they just fixed. It was a vicious cycle Leviene complained about all the time. No one really listen to her. They just accept the changes as a part of life.

Leviene was tempted to get her family to buy out the company and take over the game!

Sylphie just smacked her on the back of the head and said making a new game is cheaper than buying an existing game.

Still, the hybrid dilemma exists. It is basically a specialist verse the jack of all trade dilemma. If a player assigns all their stats and skills into one focus, be it tanking, healing or damage dealing, it stands to reason the player would be better in their field than the player to divides their skills and talents.

A Guardian is a defensive tank. Given equal gear, Rayael should be a better tank than Egarious, who is a tank that can heal.

Rayael is a better tank than Egarious. It is a fact Egarious won’t deny. Rayael knows how to tank, how to draw aggro on one or multiple mobs and Rayael is just plain better than Egarious. The reason why Egarious is tanking instead of Rayael is that Sylphie said he needed the practice or else he’ll never improve.

In her zeal to destroy the monster invoking her nightmare, she used her damage skill, Piercing Heart to attack the Ugly Toad Lizard.

Piercing Heart, as the name implies, is a piercing attack that thrust the swords into the opponent's weak spot. The Piercing Heart skills do regular damage but have a very good secondary effect, amplify the critical damage dealt by X amount depending on how many points the player puts into the skill.

Erica’s analytical ability was compromise due to her aversion towards the Ugly Toad Lizard. She should not have used a pierce attack.

Anyone popped a balloon with a needles know what happens. The balloon shatters with a loud bang instead of slowly dying a slow death as all the air inside leaks out.

Now imagine instead of the balloon, Erica popped a giant acne. The giant acne burst and release a pus like substance right into Erica’s face.

The attacks also draw the attention of the Ugly Toad Lizard.

Erica screamed, ran like a headless chicken to the nearest water source and washed away the gunk by diving right in.

The Ugly Toad Lizard chased after her since she has the aggro.

Leviene knew things were going downhill fast, so she changed into Rayael and pulled aggro off the her cousin with her snap aggro skill Intense Aggravation.

Like her erstwhile cousin, she too, got shot at with the pus like substance. Unlike her cousin who went scuba diving in a pond, Rayael had enough sense to block it with her shield. She was able to avoid most of the foul smelling gunk sent her away, but a few splashed onto her gear.

Egarious switch to healing as Rayael continued to tank. Sylphie could have taken over the healing aspect, but Paladins are the unwanted child in the hybrid family for a reason. Sylphie can out damage Egarious with one hands tied behind her back.

They were able to down the Ugly Toad Lizard with four people because once Erica got the pus like substances washed off, she stayed far away from the first mini boss as she could.

Her exact words were, “Do that shit yourself. I’m never getting near that mob ever again!”

Rayael sympathize with Erica to a point. She didn’t want to get hit in the face with goo either. Her sympathy for Erica diminished as the fight wore on.

Of course it is because by the end of the fight, Rayael was no better than Erica. She was covered with the pus like substances from the waist down and she too swore she’d never tank a toad again.

She was so happy she didn’t get it in the face like Erica did.

The experience should have pulled the two cousin’s closer, but Rayael blamed Erica for her circumstances, as she should have been healing instead of knees deep in slime and Erica hate blame Rayael since she was the one who found the random spawn dungeon in the first place.

The good thing Rayael can say about it the experience was the loot. The Ugly Toad Lizard dropped a plate chest piece Rayael didn’t care about and the her shield.

Shield of Amiegon

Rare

+10 Constitution

+10 Agility

+10 Strength

Seeing Rayael go googly eyed over a new loot made Erica angrier than she had before because she had to relive a horrible experience only for Rayael to receive the benefit.

Erica immediately slaps Rayael in the back of the head. When Rayael continue to ogle her new shield with like the forty year old virgin watching porn, Erica couldn't stop herself and smack Rayael some more.