Chapter 458

“Well, this definitely increases our chances of survival.” Rue said with a slight whistle as more and more figures emerged from the swampy, fog ridden zone. The once dark swamp flickered with the hungry reds and yellows of flames, as the woods around them continued to burn. The sickly green light from Fel’s summoning had faded to nothing, and her skeletal army, once many, was now one. Yet, it was definitely quality over quantity with that summon, as now, knee bone deep in the swamp, a skeletal dragon roared indigently towards the flames.

“Who knew so many people would come.” James said with a shrug as he eyed all the players. From his internal clock, it had been close to two minutes since the Special World Boss summoning event had occurred. From what he remembered of the summon, Patches would appear after 100 mobs had been slain, or after 2 minutes of no mobs being slain, once 50 mobs total had been slain. James should have asked Steve if Patches would summon regardless after a timeframe, but he didn’t feel he had the time to waste on such things. Instead, he’d decided to focus on how best to not only survive, but beat, Patches. Because if they were going to get to the fifth floor this run, they needed to survive.

“Obviously it wasn’t for your personality or charm.” Rue said with a chuckle.

“And you’re definitely not Z.” Fel pipped in. “So they didn’t join you because of any special achievements of yours.”

“Thanks for that.” James muttered, his excitement over so many players responding to his all-chat message in the instance waning instantly. With a World Boss coming, it was only natural for players to try and form larger parties to survive. The difficulty with Patches was his fog effect, which rendered maps useless, and made gathering difficult. Combined with the swampy terrain, it was a perfect storm of bad luck, and part of what made the third floor so…terrifying.

James, in a moment of brilliance, had taken a play from Ifrit’s book. He had the Djinn set the literal forest around them on fire, the Molten Djinn’s powerful flames having no issue burning the damp wood and overgrown moss. In fact, with the noxious, flammable swamp gas in the area, Ifrit’s fiery attacks had consumed even more of the trees around them than intended and lit the area up like some sort of Pagan festival to a volcano god. In short, he was pretty sure their location could be seen, even in the foggy air, for hundreds of yards in all directions, making it extremely easy for the players to swarm.

Now, with easily over a dozen players around them, not counting James and the party he was a part of, they waited, air charged with excitement, for the boss to make his presence known. Not only would the increased numbers help burn down the bloated health pool of the World Boss, but it gave the group more healers, which meant more cleanses. One of the biggest threats from Patches, especially if he summoned with 100 zombie mobs, was the risk of the zombie virus spreading.

Additionally, the more targets in the area, the less likely anyone would get singled out and burned down. Combined with Trogdor’s Warlord AOE buffs, the raid group, for lack of a better term, was as well positioned as possible for an impromptu World Boss battle.

But James wasn’t one to hold his breath and hope. If there was one thing he’d learned through a lifetime of gaming, it was to expect the unexpected. And, after all of his time within DCO as the Dungeon Core, he knew full well this place, especially, could be filled with the unexpected. However, with his ‘privileged knowledge’ regarding Patches, and the design of the third floor, he also had advantages of his own to level the playing field and turn it into an almost guaranteed win.

“Make sure to focus on ranged attacks. Headshots if you can land them. Fire and holy skills do extra damage as well.” James called out to the group around them. It was a mismatched group of adventurers, ranging from the 40s, all the way up to Fel and Alex, who were the highest leveled players. With James’s status as a ‘developer’ the players, while reluctant given his level, were willing to listen to him, considering they figured he had a bit more in depth knowledge than they did. It was hard to not overly show his hand though, and he was being careful as his mind worked on the plan.

“Ideally,” James continued, “watch for bubbling pockets of swamp gas. If Patches, or other mobs go near them, hit them with a fire or lightning attack to cause some extra AOE damage.” Players nodded at that, and he saw a ranger switch to fire arrows, the weapons fletched with dicken feathers.

“What if he gets too close?” One of the players asked, raising their hand awkwardly as they spoke. “What happens then?”

“Then you need to reevaluate your positioning.” Rue said dryly. “The only people who should get close to Patches, or the mobs, are the tanks. Melee dps needs to stay in the reserve to target lone mobs and keep the casters and ranged players safe.”

The player’s hand dropped down, and their face flushed with embarrassment. James shot Rue a look, but she simply shrugged. Her point was valid, and really, it was disturbing that they needed to address that fact. Still, as James had noted previously, none of these players were the top tier for his dungeon. These were people having fun at their own pace, so they needed to be understanding. Rue though, he knew, generally didn’t have the patience for explaining things. It was part of why she’d been such a terrible ‘AI helper’ early on.

“What my fellow developer is trying to say,” James said, clearing his throat, “is that if we do this right, we should be able to keep as few of you as possible from getting attacked. Between our tanks and summons, we’ve got enough bodies to keep Patches away. If we do this right, we can clean this World Boss up with relative ease, even if our levels aren’t where we’d want them. Remember, even if your levels are low, true damage and pierce effects can get through his defenses. Using type advantages and weak points as well, are key to overcoming foes like this. It’s something we focused on a lot when we were working on DCO.” James added the last part in as an offhanded statement, just to try and better sell the story of who and what he was.

“And what happens if he doesn’t come?” Another player asked. They looked around as they spoke. About twenty five yards in all directions had been burned away, leaving an empty expanse of swamp. The players themselves were doing their best to stand on the wooden walkways, but a few of those had been charred too, making it dangerous. Still, by clearing out the trees, James had prevented any surprise attacks from the Jolly Dollies. Especially the Annabelle variants. At the very least, since this was a random summon of Patches, James didn’t have to worry about, oh, he didn’t know, something about a massive swarm of dolls.

“Whatever happens.” Alex pitched in. “Keep an eye out for those damned dolls, and monkeys. The rest of the mobs shouldn’t be a problem, even undead. The swamp will slow them down, and our summons will keep them back.” He motioned towards his summon as he spoke, and the sight of it still made James well up with pride. Apparently, Alex had been paying attention to James’s shenanigans from the Dungeon Wars.

As a level 64, Alex had access to 64 summoner points. With enhanced summon, which James knew Alex had, each summon point was actually worth 1.5 points mob wise. Meaning, if he summoned 64 dickens, the 1 cost mobs would still summon as level 2 mobs. Alex had opted to go big though, and summoned two mobs total. One, was a Giant Plaython, just like what James summoned during Dungeon Wars. The bare minimum needed to summon a Giant Plaython, was 15 summon points, which would summon a level 15 mob. Alex had dumped half his summon points into that singular mob, and summoned instead a level 48 Giant Plaython. Judging by its appearance, Alex had unlocked the Upgraded Summon skill at level 60 as well, as it seemed he’d managed to upgrade the mob into an even stronger, tankier variant.

The second mob Alex had summoned, had confused James for a split second, before his confusion was replaced with respect for the choice. While Alex ordered the Giant Plaython to spread its body out wide, in an effort to create a physical barrier that would need to be crossed, his other mob had been released into the swamp water, as an offensive beast. Now, completely invisible save for the rotting, skeletal fin, a level 48 sharkie was prowling the swamp.

“Kind of wish you’d summoned a ghost ship.” James said as he came to stand next to Alex. He was scanning the swamp, looking for any sign of Patches, a look of determination on his face, and the fire of revenge in his eyes. James still felt terrible about what he’d done to Alex with Patches. Especially considering what Alex had been through in the real world because of James. Yet, he couldn’t help but feel excitement flowing through him as they prepared to take on Patches. It was a chance for Alex to get his revenge, and James was going to make sure he did everything in his power, to help Alex get it.

“Do you have any idea how many of those things I have to kill to unlock them as a summon?” Alex grinned at James, then laughed. “Wait. Of course you do.” His voice went lower. “I’ll gladly summon one, if you can uh, give me the ability to.”

James shook his head and laughed in response. “Wish I could. But that’d be cheating.” He couldn’t, anyways. But Alex didn’t need to know that.

“Fair.” Alex let out a sigh. “A man could dream though.”

“Even without the ship,” James continued, “good call on the sharkie. I’d never have thought of summoning one of those here.”

“The fact it has laser beams, makes it total worthwhile.” Alex said with a laugh. “Seriously, sharks with laser beams. Whoever made that an option, make sure you give them my thanks.”

James opened his mouth and closed it. He’d seen that upgrade path on his sharkies, but he’d never selected it. Alex, with Upgraded Summon, had apparently decided that was the path he wanted to go for his mob. And now that he’d mentioned it, James was even more eager to see how the sharkie performed in this fight. Because honestly, he’d not seen a laser on the sharkie when it was summoned. But then again, he’d been a little bit preoccupied with committing arboricide in the swamp.

“Have you ever fought patches before?” James asked, feigning ignorance. He caught a smirk on Fel’s face at his comment, her eyes staring accusingly towards him. Before she could say anything, or even if she was going to, the swamp around them suddenly became intensely quiet. All the players, who’d been chatting amongst themselves, stopped, as a shadowy figure began to appear in the distance. A giant, undead bear, with wildly swinging strands of thread flowing about it as it floated silently, ominously, above the swamp, passing through trees as if they weren’t even there. Behind him and all around him, and undead army surged. It was time.