“Let’s see what present the game gave me…” I talk to myself as I open the level-up message.
I love the invading players and their steadily increasing numbers! I don’t need to do anything to get xp and reach the next level! Hahaha!
Of course, the ‘shopping trips’ also helped a lot. I’ve gone ‘shopping’ a lot this week, and since every time you complete a dungeon, you receive a large xp boost… It isn’t weird I leveled up so fast.
I say fast, but it isn’t as ridiculous as you might think.
You might have the impression it was recently when I last leveled up, but it isn’t, it was almost two weeks ago. If you’re confused, it must be because I forgot to upgrade my champion until recently.
Reached player level 7!
- Monster arena unlocked
- Safe zones unlocked
- Healing fountain unlocked
- Maximum boss monsters increased to 2
- Maximum invaders in a party raised to 4
- Received 6 x Stasis chamber
- Received 1 x Giant stasis chamber
- Received 7.500 cp
“Oooh, hooooh!” I exclaim. “Interesting, very interesting…!” I stroke my nonexistent beard as I read the new features. “This is… This is…! I’m not going to use any of them, except for the extra boss. But the cp bonus is welcomed, it’ll help me recover from my recent expenditure…”
*Khm!* Fucking mutation vats (slot machines)! *Khm!*
The extra boss monster is extremely welcome. As for the increased invaders… what can I say? Yaaay…?
The monster arena is, as its name suggests, a place where the invaders have to fight against a horde of monsters before they can leave. It can be set so they have to survive for a certain amount of time, so that they have to defeat all the monster waves, or so they have to reach an exit point before they die.
They have a drawback, though. As the dungeon owner, you have to create every single monster that will spawn in the monster arena. Otherwise, the arena will stop spawning monsters in the middle.
If you can remember, my first invasion with Ricard, the one into the orc camp with the Troll that almost crushed us, had one of these.
Also, do you remember the labyrinth with the rising water level and the unending stream of metallic golem-like fish? The fish that I kept at bay thanks to my Shared Voltage skill? That part was also a monster arena.
Monster arenas are one of those topics players will never agree upon. Some hate them, some love them.
I believe the main problem with them is that it’s too easy to make them too deadly, turning them into something bad for your dungeon instead of making it better.
As I said before, I have no intention of putting a monster arena into my dungeon. If I ever decide to use one, I’ll first have to think about it very carefully. I don’t want to turn away all my invaders because of an undesired kill box.
Regarding the other two… do I really need to explain what a safe zone is? Or a healing fountain?
No, right? As I expected.
I don’t want to use them either, but this is more because of personal reasons and player expectations than because I’m afraid to make a huge mistake.
From what I’ve seen so far, and according to the player’s complaints, putting a healing fountain or safe zone in my dungeon in the wrong place would break the immersion. All the random stuff, monster chasing, the poison mushrooms and traps, and even the Monster Train would lose their meaning if the players had a safe area where they could shake them off.
After all, safe zones not only stop monsters from entering them but also remove all damage-over-time skills and status effects.
I need to think very carefully about where to put them, and this is if I decide to use them at all.
One place I think could be a good place for a healing fountain is right next to where the Minitaur Queen spawns. As a reward for those daring to risk their lives – healing fountains don’t prevent monsters and other stuff from attacking the invaders–, or for those who defeat the Boss.
But I’m not sure about it yet.
“Ah! I already have the ‘safe areas’ in my dungeon, so what if I turn them into actual safe zones?”
This is such a crazy idea! The sleep won’t work on enemies inside the safe area, but if they have to cross the sleeping area to go inside, as well as to leave it…
“Fufufu! Hahahaha! I want to see somebody trapped inside! I can’t wait!”
Ok, I take back my words. Just for the laughs it can bring, I’m going to put a safe zone in every Eternal Resting Area in my dungeon.
Maybe… about 2 meters in diameter…? Yeah, it should be enough.
Before I forget, I open the dungeon edition menu and put a small safe zone inside every Eternal Resting Area.
“From now on, players can’t complain about the ‘safe areas’, hahaha! They’re now actually ‘safe’... as long as they’re lucky to reach them before they fall asleep, and never leave! Hahaha!”
I’m looking forward to seeing how this goes.
“Ok, me. Now that I’ve done something stupid, let’s do something useful for once.” This ‘useful stuff’ is, of course, leveling my Champion.
‘But you did it recently!’, you say.
So what? I don’t want to postpone it again and end up forgetting it.
I also know exactly which skill I’m going to pick. I gave it to the Liquid Stones a few minutes ago, remember? It’s the Indomitable Will one, the one that recovers HP the first time it gets below 10%, or the first time you would die.
Since I upgraded the Maniac skill, I haven’t made any blunders called ‘accidental suicide’.
Hahaha… you got me. It did happen, but not many times. But now, with the Indomitable Will, it shouldn’t happen anymore… At least, I will survive the first time it happens every Dungeon Invasion.
Indomitable Will will also help me with the Grand Finale. From now on, there won’t be any chance for me to kill myself with my strongest, last-resource skill… unless Indomitable Will has already been triggered.
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“Level up the Mad Rat… here it is! Ugh…! 175 cp for level eight!? This is getting absurdly expensive! Well, there’s nothing I can do about it…”
I reluctantly press the level-up button. Then, I quickly select the Indomitable Will skill and confirm my decision.
“Aaah, I’m so powerful now! Compared to my early days, I could beat four of me at the same time! Hahaha!”
This is my new status screen. Of course, you must double all the stats except the Speed one when I have the Champion’s buff.
Mad Rat (Lv 8) HP 629 (370) STA 44 (26) SOU 54 (32) EP 510 (300) MP 697 (410) STR 42 (25) CON 59 (35) AGI 59 (35) SPI 71 (42) WIL 52 (31) DEX 54 (32) SPD 7
Mad Rat - Skills Active Triggered Passive
Rat Transformation (Innate)
Chain Lightning
Chaotic Beam
Cold Blast
Grand Finale
Indomitable Will
Lightning Shield
Shared Voltage - Lv 2 (Battery)
Maniac - Lv 2 (Expert)
Mana Attuned (Innate)
Mana Core (Innate)
“Once again, I’m the strongest in my own dungeon! Hahaha! Eat this, you weakling mobs, you can’t do shit against me!”
This only includes my level, so the Minitaur Queen and a few others could still kill me in a straight fight… But who cares? It’s a minor detail, the level is all that matters!
Level, is, POWER!
----------------------------------------
“‘Tunnel’s map, asap!’, ‘(Urgent) Help with the monster train’... nothing new here… Ah! ‘Top 10 deaths’. Oooh, this one promises, I must take a look. I’ll save it for later…”
I scroll down the list of posts related to The Mad Rat’s Lab.
“More of the same… Hmm? ‘TMRL victim association’, what the hell’s this shit!?” Curiosity etched on my face, I open the post and start reading. “Aah, it’s just another post for defeated players to care for their mental health. For a moment I thought I was in deep trouble there… nothing new to see, let’s move on.” I say while dismissively waving my hand.
I didn’t have too much time before supper, so I decided to exit the game and check what the other players say about my dungeon.
The computer’s light illuminates my face.
Although I could do this inside the game too, I like to check the posts in real life because this way, I also do some exercise.
Well… as much exercise as you can do by sitting on a chair! Still, it’s better than laying on the bed, and you can’t convince me of the contrary!
Also, every time I do this I feel like a hidden mastermind, observing what my victims – and the future ones – are saying behind my back to improve my plans and inflict greater pain on them.
Maybe the Evil Mastermind nickname wasn’t as unsuitable as I first thought…
I stop myself from thinking about weird things. “Let’s continue. The next post is… ‘The How to Stay… guide is bullshit, here’s why’, so it’s about that guide, huh...?”
I don’t care about a random player’s opinion about that guide, so I’ll skip it.
Still… the ‘How to Stay Sane in The Mad Rat’s Lab’, huh… As far as I know, this is the most famous guide about my dungeon. As my dungeon gets more popular, so does that guide.
The author keeps it up-to-date, though not everything is covered. It seems he doesn’t know everything, and some well-hidden traps and the best secrets are missing.
I have no idea if that guide helps players to actually clear my dungeon, but it sure is an interesting read.
If there’s a problem with it, though… is it’s writer ImAnOrc. I mean, if the name of the guide starts with ‘how to stay sane’, why does the author sound, you know, like a madman?
If it were me, I wouldn’t trust a guide that is supposed to teach you how to keep your sanity if the guide itself is written by somebody who has clearly lost it!
As I said, I’m not entirely sure of the guide’s usefulness either. But even if so, I’m glad it exists. It’s thanks to this guide that most players dare to dive into my dungeon, hoping to achieve success…
…and die trying.
The players believe knowing about the dangers is enough to surpass them, and they’re wrong. Very wrong. But who am I to take away their delusions and stop them from giving me some free xp and cp?
I’ve even mentioned this guide in one of my videos. To drive more people into my dungeon, of course.
Ok, Andreu. Enough with that guide, let’s continue.
“Let’s see… ‘TMRL’s seven mysteries’. Aha, this one promises!” I start reading the post. “The first mystery is… the claw marks? Well, it won’t be a mystery anymore. I see, the others are the mysterious apparitions that cross the walls, the secret movement patterns of the monsters… What a bunch of bullshit! What’s worse, those that are true, I already knew!”
As the creator, it’s no wonder I know everything in my dungeon, don’t you think?
“What a letdown… I expected something funnier and interesting, but it turned out it was just a bunch of random bullshit.”
I slump on my chair. It’s annoying when you expect something and receive something else.
But there’s nothing I can do about it, so let’s move on.
“The next one is…‘The time has come! - Recruiting for All Shall’–” I freeze in the middle of reading.
I rub my eyes. Then, I close them and grab my head.
“Why? WHY!? Why are they everywhere!?” I start pulling my hair. “Aaagh, I was having a nice time, why did they have to appear!?”
It’s so annoying. Every time I want to know about the player’s thoughts, I end up finding something about the Mad Rat’s Cult.
They’re everywhere!
Shit! If this goes on, I might turn crazy myself… The only sensible option I have left is to deny everything…
“You didn’t see anything, Andreu. What cult? What post? There’s clearly nothing here!”
Ah, yes. I was wrong. What a relief!
For a moment, I thought there was a cult that followed everything I said as if I were a god or something similar… Hahaha… maybe I should spend less time playing the game, I’m starting to hallucinate…
There’s nothing there, so I decide to skip the imaginary post about the ‘All-shall-something’, which is something that clearly only exists in my imagination, and read the next post.
“‘Watch and learn you noobs!’ Hmm… this must be another bragging post. I need to cleanse my mind and eyes, so what a good chance! I’m sure there are funny reactions to this post! Hahaha!”
In response to the players who brag about reaching the end of my dungeon, there’s always a stream of players spouting bullshit and calling each other noob… and way worse things.
They’re my favorite posts.
I take out my imaginary popcorn before I start reading.
image [https://i.imgur.com/ZGSK4Pl.png]
“Reading about other players’ complaints and watching them insult each other, is my guilty pleasure.”