Chapter 453

James made quick work of the rest of the mobs on the first floor. Partly, because he still wanted to finish as quickly as possible, so he could start adventuring with players. And, partly because he’d been dreaming of ‘what if’ scenarios for his mobs from day one, and now, he got to really experiment with them. He was no longer leashed with worries of scaring players off, or making his dungeon fail. This mode was expected to be difficult, and James was doing just that.

Following the success of the Dickens, James focused first on his Sacrificial Lambs, the logical step as he worked on the mobs. From day one, the two cost explosive sheep had been extremely valuable to James, and its Damage Over Time effect, thanks to Blood for the Blood God, had helped may parties wipe early on. Hell, he’d even used that skill during Dungeon Wars, when he’d catapulted the mobs at the Candy Dragon. Now though, with the freedom to recreate the mob within the unique Augmented Instance, James went a little less ‘practical’, in favor of something more… demonic.

First, he maxed out the move speed of the sacrificial lambs, making the level 50 mobs move ridiculously fast, by rolling around. The adorable, black and red wooled mobs would roll up into a fluffy ball, and move with crazy agility around the floor. He’d then upgraded their wool’s defensive properties, leaning into not just the Steel Wool Upgrade, but the Demonic Wool upgrade past that. This jumped the mob’s defensive abilities, both against physical and magical skills, by quite a bit. When moving, the mob could now ignore 75percent of all damage it took. Which, was a blessing, given the mob’s low health, and its tendency to detonate itself upon nearing critical health.

Then, James got to work with the true upgrade to the mobs. Originally, they were built to create a wide blast that would shower parties with the Damage Over Time effects, forcing healers to have to spend valuable time on cleanses. Now, instead of a widespread blast, the Sacrificial Lambs had a singular, powerful blast. A blast needed direct contact with an adventurer to activate, but one that would all but ensure their target, was doomed.

Cult’s Wool-Aid- (Max) – Upon contact with a nonbeliever, the Sacrificial Lamb will activate the sacred ritual of the demonic sacrificial lambs, calling upon their ancestors, to see their will complete. Activating this skill results in the following:

All Sacrificial Lambs will begin targeting the afflicted, until the afflicted is either dead, or all sacrificial lambs have been wiped.

The Afflicted will gain a weakening debuff, decreasing their damage output by 1% per second. This effect cannot be cleansed, but each additional sacrificial lamb killed, will reset this debuff to 0, but will add one stack of ‘CULT-ivation’.

The Afflicted will begin taking 1% more damage, per second, from all sources. This effect cannot be cleansed, but each additional sacrificial lamb killed, will reset this debuff to 0, but will add one stack of ‘CULT-ivation’.

The Afflicted will begin having their maximum life and mana reduced by 1%, per second. This effect cannot be cleansed, but each additional sacrificial lamb killed, will reset this debuff to 0, but will add one stack of ‘CULT-ivation’.

The Afflicted will gain 1 stack of ‘CULT-ivation’, for every 15 seconds they go without attacking a mob.

If the afflicted dies with CULT-ivation stacks, these stacks will be spread, evenly, across their party members. Those with CULT-ivation stacks, will gain all the effects of ‘Cult’s Wool-Aid’.

CULT-ivation!- At 50 stacks, the Afflicted becomes the chosen one. All Sacrificial Lambs on the floor will die, and their blood sacrifice will call forth their god. Afflicted One will die, and their body will be possessed for 0.5s per level of player sacrificed, + 0.5s per sacrificial lamb remaining when the sacrifice occurs. The Demonic Lamb, will come for his dues…

With his sacrificial lambs now a problem that he figured, even the level 50 and higher adventurers would have issues dealing with, he’d moved on to the swiners. Those bipedal pigs, that looked like things straight of a horror film. It was…quite easy to level them up. All the upgrades went into their size and stats, extending out their pestilence, disease causing aura, to create monstrous, fifteen foot, animate debuff monsters. Nothing crafty or too exciting, but their sheer size, and the stacking debuffs they could cause, would make them targets that needed to be dealt with. Somewhat stationary, sure, but on a floor full of fire breathing dickens, and the rapidly moving Sacrificial Lambs, it seemed only fitting.

Past those, James got to his Scapegoats. The new ones on the Augmented Floor, he had to admit, weren’t inspired from his own mind. Instead, he’d taken a page out of Steve’s book. Or, more appropriately, Steve’s Spanker class had heavily influenced his changes for the Scapegoats. The mobs, naturally tanky, had upgrade trees to make themselves even more survivable, which James had gone down a bit. But then, he’d pivoted, focusing most fully on what it was that would make them effective tanks. That is, how well they could draw aggro.

With a little bit of finessing, and healthy dash of cussing, and the occasional glare as he reran the numbers in his head to make it work, he finally managed to create something Steve would be proud of. The Scapegoats now had a randomly generated cycle of screams they could release, with enhanced distance for the calls. Each scream, slightly different from the others, could apply a multitude of things: Taunt, Fear, Debuff, Damage Over Time, and Silence. All of which, players would have to deal with, while fighting the other mobs on the map, and trying to burn through the Scapegoat’s defenses. Simple, and effective.

The final mob James had to deal with, before he got to upgrading Old Man Jenkins, was the Mad Cow. He’d originally upgraded them to be just all around, offensive beasts. Their ability to aggro onto anything with the color red, and the stats boosts they gained to their attack skills, in exchange for less defensive protection, had seemed par for the course. Now, reading through their skillsets, he realized that, with everything else going on with the Augmented Floor, that path still seemed the most appropriate.

Instead of creating them in a completely new and unhinged way, James just continued them down the path they’d been on, using the extra upgrade points to really just further optimize them. In doing so, he boosted the offensive gains they got when aggroed onto targets, increased their pierce damage, and gave them more natural defensive stats, to keep them from spiking too hard in one direction. The result was bulls with horns adorned in infernal flames, and dark fur that seemed to be composed of an outer layer of obsidian.

“You’re being lazy with them.” Rue commented as he finished his final stat point into the mob. The Mad Cow he’d summoned shook its head and angrily pawed at the ground, as if aware it hadn’t gotten the full treatment that the other mobs had.

“Am not.” James muttered as he prepared to unsummon the mob. The obsidian like skin seemed to reflect the infernal glow from the horns, and he could see his visage staring back at him, and the accusatory look on Rue’s face. She may have been somewhat right…but he had a good reason.

“Besides,” James unsummoned the mob, and immediately summoned Old Man Jenkins. The Demonic Farmer appeared, standing 10 foot tall, basic like the day James had first saw him. This time around, the Demonic Famer was going to get prime treatment. “We still have to see what the special boss will be for the floor.”

Rue’s eyes widened with excitement at that comment, and he couldn’t help but wonder if she’d forgotten about that aspect of the Augmented Floors. Suddenly, she seemed less annoyed with his handling of the Mad Cows, and much more interested in what was going to come next. As James started applying points to Old Man Jenkins, she was quick with her recommendations, and even reminded him that the boss needed, above all else, to be protected from cheese tactics. Never again fairies…. Never again.