I stare at the screen with dead eyes. The failed clones continue to try to climb over the shield one of Marta’s minions created.
“Fufufu! Hahaha!”
They laugh, cry, and fumble around, randomly casting spells from time to time.
I continue watching everything without reacting. It’s as if my soul left my body.
“Pfft, hahaha! This is so ridiculous!” Marta laughs.
Right next to her, Clara clenches and unclenches her tentacle fist. She’s intently watching the failed clones as if about to pounce on one of them.
After a while, one of the clones is hit by a Chain Lightning, followed by a Cold Blast. It dies. Why are they killing each other now!?
“Lo, look at this! We don’t need to do anything, they’re killing themselves! Hahaha!”
Marta finally stops laughing and orders her minion to release the shield. She then proceeds to kill the failed clones. The remaining ones, I mean. She chuckles from time to time.
As soon as the shield disappears, Clara jumps at one of the clones.
Why did she jump on top of the one that’s already dead…? You know what? I think I don’t want to know…
“Good job there, Andreu!” Shouts Marta. “It’s amazing how you managed them to behave so much like you! Pffft! Like this, all invaders will know how stupid you are!”
“Most players are afraid of them, you know?” I reply in a monotonous voice.
“That can’t be, it makes no sense. They’re so useless…”
“My precious. It’s mine and only mine…” Both I and Marta shudder and decide to ignore Clara. For our own sanity.
After this absurd situation caused by my failed clones concludes, my sisters continue the exploration. The only difference from before is that Clara is now dragging three corpses, and Marta chuckles from time to time, recalling the last fight.
Three Corrosive Chokers drop from the ceiling at the same time, aiming for the first three victims in the group. Which happen to be both my sisters and one of Marta’s mobs.
“Ambush!” Shouts Marta, immediately turning around and slashing right through the one that was aiming at her.
She then proceeds to kill the remaining two, not giving them enough time to stick to the victim’s faces.
Well, I say kill, but it isn’t as if they could die so fast thanks to the chimera’s innate skill: Eternal Pain. What she does is slash them once, with enough damage to kill them, before ordering one of her minions to put them to sleep and let them ‘bleed’ to death.
If you’re asking why the sleep status doesn’t disappear when they take damage, it’s because they don’t take damage. The ‘pain pool’, the accumulated excess damage dealt in the next ten seconds, doesn’t count as ‘damage’. I’m sure it’s to avoid abuses with resistance skills, or skills that trigger when damage is received.
And that’s all the Corrosive Chokers can achieve: to die a slow, silent, and painful death. How ironic.
Maybe it’s because of what has happened so far, but I was kind of expecting this to happen. With something stupid or unexpected, like monsters that teleport through walls, I might be able to upset Marta. But when it comes to a common thing like an ambush, she’s unstoppable.
I keep looking at the screen, a blank look on my face.
“Aaah, I wish this ends soon… I want to forget about my clones and the shame they brought me...”
Unaware of my struggle, my sisters meet the next monster obstructing their way. It’s one of the Invisible Horrors, my abyss near-invisible creations.
The ‘fight’ starts. Well, I say ‘fight’, but can you call a staring contest a ‘fight’?
My monster moves at the same speed as they do, keeping itself in the general direction where they’re looking.
I notice Marta turning her head for a moment before returning to look at the front.
Did she notice the monster? I’m sure she did. Then, why didn’t she attack it? She must’ve thought something like ‘Why should I care? It’s like an ant to me.’
In fact, Marta and her minions barely feel the MP drain. It’s Clara and her minions that do. But at the same time, the Invisible Horror’s MP starts to fall too. And at a very fast speed.
Why? That’s a very easy question to answer, my friend. It’s because Clara’s minions are from the Abyss too, so they share the MP draining skill.
So the abyss monstrosities unknowingly stare at each other, slowly getting drained of all their MP. And yes, this is for both parties.
The staring contest continues until my monster falls, dead, with its mind shattered because of looking at too many abyss horrors.
Ironically, the ones to suffer the most from this are my monster, who died, and Clara’s support mobs. Marta and her minions, with their stupidly high stats, almost didn’t notice. The mind-shattering monsters are the ones who have their own minds shattered! What an irony!
Nothing interesting happens for a while. Only a few more Corrosive Chokers get themselves killed, and another staring contest occurs. My sisters also find another sealed room and massacre the monsters inside it.
They were the Kidnappers No. 2. They stood no chance against my overpowered older sister and my tank-killer little one.
*Blip!*
Right when they’re about to leave the room, another Blip opens one of the remaining cells.
What will it be this time?
I’m kind of curious, but I can’t find the drive to search them. I still have to recover from my trauma.
I’ll wait for them to show themselves. Marta announced she wanted to see the whole area and find and kill all monsters, so it’s a foregone conclusion they’ll meet at some point.
----------------------------------------
It doesn’t take long for the escapees to show themselves. It doesn’t take long for them to die, either… However this time, it isn’t a consequence of Marta’s actions.
*BOOOOM!*
Right behind their group, there’s a very loud explosion, followed by a few more of similar intensity.
*BOOOOM! BOOM!*
The culprits? The Bombers. Who else could it be?
“Oh, they managed to kill some of Marta’s mobs, I didn’t think it was possible. Hmm… I see, it’s two of those ‘squishy’ mages.”
The total death count of Marta’s support mobs has now risen to a total of three.
“Noo! My poor minions!” Marta shouts as soon as she sees the corpses. “Who dared to attack us from behind and kill some of my precious minions!?”
In her angry outburst, she doesn’t see the corpses of the culprits, which are right next to her own minion’s corpses. It’s Clara who points this out.
“I don’t think you’ll find them. They’re dead, after all.”
“Dead?” Marta finally sees the corpses of the Bombers. She inspects them. “Are you fucking kidding me, Andreu? Why the hell did you give them those skills!? And you also upgraded them!? How much do you want to upset your invaders?”
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
A lot.
I want them to cry or overreact, if possible, similar to what you’re doing right now. But thanks for your concern.
“How dumb can you be? If you put something like this, players will complain about how difficult it is, and give you bad ratings! I knew it, you don’t have any idea of how to design a dungeon!”
Ugh… I want to forget about everything and finish this soon, but I can’t stand her complaints anymore… I’ll have to say something.
“You just need to poke them and they’ll self-destruct. You simply need to spot them before it’s too late. Also, they’ll stay inside the cells most of the time, so they won’t appear unless the players open their door or they’re unlucky.”
“You’re right…” Marta lowers her head in defeat after taking a closer look at their HP and skills. “But still… invisibility and charm? Didn’t you go a little bit overboard!?”
I don’t think so.
“Ugh… I hate you and your tricks, Andreu! And what am I going to do with this, now!? The ones I wanted to blow up are already dead!” Marta looks at the light sphere right on top of her head.
I don’t know. Don’t ask me, it’s your skill, not mine.
“I know!” Chimes Clara from behind her. “You can use it in the next room we find! And be like booom!, blowing everything up! Hehehe!”
“...let’s do it. I need to relieve some stress anyway.”
Oi! Don’t use my monsters to relieve stress! What did they do to you!?
…on second thought, blow as many of them as you want. I don’t want you to focus any of that stress on me once we leave the game. Use them as punching bags, torture them, blow them to smithereens… but whatever you do, don’t do it to me, ok?
They turn around the corner and soon find the desired target. Clara opens the door, and Marta throws the light ball inside, blowing everything up.
Poor Mansheep... They were obliterated before they could say ‘hello’.
“Oh, look here! There’s a card here! It must be the key to the dungeon core.” Says Clara.
She inspects the corpses of the Mansheep and finds the key inside the room.
This must be the real one. There’s no way one of the Monster Keys would have survived that insane explosion. They’re very resilient, but not immortal.
While Clara is rejoicing, Marta puts a hand on her chin.
“Hmm… I don’t think this is it, Clara. He’s too convoluted to do something so simple. Anyway, I want to see the rest of this area, so we’re not leaving yet.”
“Aww… I wanted to receive my gift soon… Ok, I’ll follow you…”
Like this, they continue their dungeon exploration, murdering anything that dares cross their paths except for the critters.
“Hey, Andreu. I’ve been wanting to ask you this for a while. Are you opening the doors from wherever you are?” Asks Marta.
“No, I’m not.”
“Then… why are they opening and releasing the monsters inside?”
“It’s because of some critters I created. They’re very weird bugs. I think you’ve seen them once or twice already.”
“Oh, so it’s them… It’s nice to know.”
Marta clenches her fists tightly while grabbing her sword. She then releases a flying blade to a faraway location.
“Wow, how did you manage to hit something that small from this distance?” Says Clara.
I can’t see where the attack went, it’s offscreen. Maybe in the next camera… Oh, here it is! Is this one of the Blips? But it was so far away from my sisters that I had to find another camera…
How the hell did she spot and kill it? Does she have superpowers?
“This is nothing.” Says Marta. “This is something that must be done. Now that I know the culprits, I’ll make sure none will survive.”
Marta, are you… Are you still holding a grudge over the Bombers?
----------------------------------------
I continue staring at the screen with empty eyes. I don’t have any motivation or drive anymore, I just want this to end.
Also, I try to avoid looking in Clara’s direction the best I can. I’m sure you know why.
Marta pìcks up a card from the ground. “See? I told you it wouldn’t be so simple.”
“You’re right. But I never expected there would be more than one key! That’s cheating, Andreu!”
Right now, Marta is holding the four cards in her hands – three of which are monsters, but they don’t know about them yet –, and Clara can only agree to her words.
If only they knew the first one they got was the only one they needed…
I kind of want to tell them, but at the same time, I also want to see how they’ll react if I don’t. So I won’t tell them.
Marta hasn’t gone crazy anymore, they fought normally since the ‘bomber incident’. There were no more ‘anger management issues’. This means they didn’t attack the Monster Keys and thus they survived.
It’s also because it’s Marta who’s holding onto them. With Clara’s passive drain, they would die, sooner or later. But her hands are full right now, so she can’t.
Don’t look at Clara, Andreu. Don’t look at her… I force myself to look elsewhere.
“I think this is everything.” Marta stretches her shoulders. “We covered the whole area and searched everywhere. We can finally go back and end this dungeon invasion.”
“Yes! Finally!” Clara spins around.
Don’t do that, please… At least, not while grabbing my clone like that…
My sisters cross the sealed laboratory area and soon return to the ‘already-dead-boss’ area.
It doesn’t take a long time because the sealed area isn’t hard to navigate. Sure, it has quite a lot of dead-end passages, but most of them communicate with the central or main hallways. Unless you have trouble remembering where you went through, you can’t get lost.
Marta spreads the cards and looks at the closed door. “Now we just need to introduce the keys into the card reader, and we’ll be done.”
“Can I do it, please?”
“Sure, I don’t mind it. Unless he put a trap there, it should be safe… Because you didn’t, right, Andreu?”
Hm? Why should I put a trap there? A trap that activates when you put the card? In a place players must activate to reach the dungeon core? It’ll be too nasty.
Though, this does give me some ideas…
Also… you’re wrong, Marta. The trap is in your hands, you’re holding it right now. Well, not exactly a trap but more like a surprise.
I stay quiet and don’t reply. As I said before, I’m not going to give any clues.
It happens when they get close enough. At the same time, the three mimics, transformed into identical copies of the real card, start transforming into their original shape: a Boulder, the smallest earth elemental, with black goo coming out of their joints.
“Gyaaa! W-whats this!?”
Marta shouts in surprise. She’s the first to notice the shapeshifting and quickly releases the cards with a cute yelp.
But it’s Clara, who’s a meter away and can see everything better, the first to understand what’s happening.
“The keys are turning into monsters! I knew it, I knew Andreu would have some hidden trick. It was weird there were four similar keys... Ooh, they’re small chubby rocks! Hehehe!”
After watching her reaction I burst out laughing.
“What a cute yelp, Marta! Do you also shout like that when you play ranked matches?” I mock her.
Aaah, it was worth it. It was worth staying here, after all… I wanted to disconnect to forget about the clone incident, but this was worth the trouble.
“I lowered my guard, and it’s the first time I found something like this…” Marta clenches her fists and lowers her head in shame. “Andreu, stop laughing!”
“N-no, but I’m not laughing at all– Pfft! Hahaha!” I quickly turn off the micro as I burst laughing once again.
“Y-you are! I heard you!”
Oops, I wasn’t quick enough.
“But he’s right. Your cry was kind of cute! Hehehe!”
“Ugh… not you too…”
After a few slashes – three to be exact, one for each Monster Key, – Marta puts the single remaining card into the slot and the door opens. She immediately glares at the dungeon core, ready to destroy it.
“Ah, I almost forgot!” I say. “Clara, do you remember I asked you for help at the start of the invasion?”
“Oh, right!”
“It’s true you did… Whatever you need to do, do it fast. I don’t want to waste any more time here…”
Looks like Marta is still affected by the shame and wants to end this as quickly as possible.
Let’s ignore her…
“In the core room, to the right, there’s a door with a code lock. Introduce the numbers from one to nine three times and it’ll open.”
“Ok!” Clara runs to the door and quickly enters the code. “What do I need to do now?”
“You don’t need to do anything. Just make your support mobs walk inside and I’ll do the rest.”
“Ok! Come on, my cute little minions! It’s time to follow your mother’s orders and make your pappy happy!”
When have I become the father of such dreadful and ugly children!? I shudder at the horrifying image that comes to me.
Marta stares unhappily at Clara as the latter makes her support mobs enter the ‘capture room’, as I like to call it.
“Make it fast, you two. Don’t waste time.” She demands.
“Sure thing!”
“Ok.”
[https://i.imgur.com/ZGSK4Pl.png]
“Act as if you knew everything in advance.
You’re never surprised. You never suffer because of a lack of information. If you die, it’s because you weren’t good enough and never because it took you by surprise. Let your opponents think so. This isn’t only to make you look cool, but to help you rise in the rankings: if your opponents don’t know what you lack, or which are your weak points, they won’t be able to use them against you.”
- The first rule from ‘Do you want to be a pro player?’, a guide some players read in hopes of reaching the top rankings.