I dump the 46 human bodies into the Meat grinders. This is a special machine to create the Fleshlings, in a similar fashion to the Reanimation machine for the Stitched or the Operation tables for most of the other units.
In short, the Meat grinder, well… grinds all the bodies you put into it and disgusting flesh monstrosities come once the process ends.
Meat grinder Research cost: 1.000 cp, 200 food, 500 metal. Research time: 6 h Unlocks the Meat Grinder, a building needed to create those units that can use any amount of bodies to create them.
It’s something I unlocked immediately after unlocking the Fleshlings because it’s needed to create them, but I didn’t build any until now.
It was so long ago I almost forgot about it all…
I’ve spent a total of 1.000 cp to create two of them, 500 cp each. They aren’t very expensive, but everything adds up. I created two because I have two Lab Assistants, and they’re the only mobs who have enough DEX to operate them.
Me? Nah, there’s no way I’m spending so much time standing there, doing nothing! Each Fleshling takes 30 minutes to create, you know? How much time do you think I would have to stay still to create them all?
As I was saying, I dump all the human bodies into the Meat grinders.
Do you remember how the Fleshlings work? I only need to use bodies worth 200 cp to create them. Any body will do. And from all those bodies, I can choose up to two innate skills for them to inherit.
To make things more convenient, I can create multiple of them at once and only need one body with each skill I want to use.
This means it’s possible to create five Fleshlings with the Stoneskin skill by using a single dwarf, as long as the total bodies used add to 1.000 cp. It’s the perfect way to dump all the useless bodies and turn them into something actually useful.
Furthermore, both Meat grinders are linked. I can create all the Fleshlings I want, and they’ll be distributed among any number of Meat grinders I want.
…It’s somewhat similar to a meat dispenser.
Fleshlings have a fixed cost at 200 cp, as well as fixed stats that don’t depend on the units used to create them. Like the Stitched, but compared to them, they’re stronger, faster, and more intelligent.
The dungeon will be significantly more difficult with them around.
Regarding how they look… you could argue they’re as disgusting as the Stitched, though humanoids tend to be worse because we subconsciously dislike them. I think they call it the uncanny valley.
Fleshlings are a half-a-meter-height mass of flesh, with four ‘appendices’ that work as legs, and no visible mouth or tail. There’s something akin to veins made out of flesh on their surface.
Given their speed and body size, you could even compare them to a headless and aberrant fleshy dog. A dog that can’t bite, nor bark, and constantly drops a reddish substance I don’t want to ever touch.
Hell, I don’t even want to know what it is!
“Beware, unaware invaders, or they’ll bludgeon you to death!”
I laugh at my stupid joke as I prepare the other bodies.
“In total, it’s 1.080 cp. 44 Farmers at 20 cp each, and 2 Soldiers at 100 cp each. With this amount I can make five Fleshlings… but I’m still missing the most important ingredients.”
I prepare the next ‘ingredient’. It’s the troll. I know, I know, it’s a shame to use a monster that it’s so hard to find and capture in the lower-leveled dungeons, most of the time they’re bosses and I can’t capture them, but…
Can you imagine a bunch of fast Fleshlings running through the dungeon, all of them with Regeneration? Crazy, right!? There’s no way I can pass up on this.
“As for the last one… goblin, orc, or elf?”
Each one has its own benefits. The goblin’s Slippery makes them avoid attacks from stronger enemies, the orc’s Bloodlust gives them attack speed when below half HP, and the elf’s Nature Attuned gives them immunity to my mushrooms as well as other irrelevant stuff.
I imagine what role I want them to take.
“They’re fast, and have decent stats. With Regeneration, they could stand their ground against weak opponents, or heal themselves after running away. I could also make them move together, in a pack…” I scratch my head. “This is hard, there are so many options!”
‘Focus, Andreu, focus! What’s their strong point?’
‘It’s their speed.’
‘Then, shouldn’t we be abusing it to our advantage?’
‘We should! (evil grin)’
‘Then, how can we do it?’
‘Hmm… turning them into little sneaking assassins! Well, not exactly assassins but more like disruptors that attack at the worst time before running away. They’ll be similar to the Goblimp Pests, but a lot more dangerous.’
‘Ohoho, I see where you’re going, Andreu… You already got your answer. Now, scram!’
‘Yes, thank you, Andreu!’
‘You’re welcome.’
I grin. I got a nasty idea of how to use them.
“If they’re going to run through the dungeon and pick up on the opponents when they’re in a bad position, the best skill I can give them is Nature Attuned.” It might not seem obvious, but it’s the best choice. “This way, they can attack when the mushrooms activate without any consequences, like the Demonic Swarmers. And I plan to add a lot more mushrooms in the future… Fufufu! Hahaha!”
Having finished my evil monologue directed to the Lab Assistants, who’re looking here without any expression on their faces, I prepare the last ‘ingredient’, the elf, and put it into the Meat grinder.
Oh, yeah, until the creation process ends, both Lab Assistants will be standing in the same room now, the one right before the Minotaur Queen. This means any player who invades the dungeon will have to fight both at the same time…
I wish you good luck with that, unlucky fellows! …A minute of silence for the victims, please.
“With the troll and elf, the total cp from all the bodies is 1.570 cp.” It’s 20 for the elf and 470 for the troll. “This raises the number of Fleshlings to seven. What a shame, I’m 30 cp short of an eighth one...”
I look once again at the available bodies. “The only ones remaining are two goblins and an orc. I can’t use their skills, but I can use them as ingredients too. Let’s do it!”
I don’t think about it anymore and add the two goblins to the mix. They’re easy to find and capture, should I need them in the future. The best use for them right now is this one.
Now the total value is 1.610 cp, enough for an eight Fleshling.
“This is good! There’s almost no wasted cp, and all of them will get the Regeneration and Nature Attuned skills!” I rejoice, spinning around a few times in ecstasy. “Let’s do it! Grinding, START!”
As I press the confirmation button, all the bodies disappear from their respective Stasis chambers.
Oh, I feel incredible! So… liberated! I got rid of 46 useless bodies and freed the same number of stasis chambers.
I can now go and capture actually useful units to further upgrade the dungeon. I also want to create a new area, and it’ll need a lot more bodies to fill it up. I don’t want to create a new area, but not having anything to fill it with… It would be too lame.
Now, I won’t have to worry about not having enough space to capture more units for a long time.
Stolen novel; please report.
Well, just in case, I create a few more Stasis chambers, raising the total to seventy.
Yeah, I know, it seems like a lot, but believe me when I say it isn’t. There are NEVER enough Stasis chambers! Every single time I thought I had enough, I soon found myself crying because I couldn’t bring X or Y units with me after the next dungeon invasion.
It always happens. And I swear I’m not the only one, the other Flesh Monstrosities players complain about the same thing.
As the Fleshling creation process starts, a timer appears on top of the Meat grinders. A total of two hours for each Meat grinder. Yeah, good luck there, Lab Assistants, you’re going to work hard today.
A reminder for you, in case you forgot: work hard = standing still doing nothing. Like a statue.
“Between the Stasis chambers, the Fleshlings, and the Meat grinders, I’ve already used close to 4k cp. Money is always so hard to obtain, but so easy to spend… Though I still have a lot more to spend! Hahaha! I’m rich!”
Oh, yes. Before I do anything else, I should prepare the template and assign all the soon-to-be Fleshlings to it!
I open the Template menu and select the Fleshling type. Then, I raise the level to level 3. This is so they have one skill of each type, and I can freely do whatever I want with them if I decide to level them up in the future.
“If they’re a squad of fast disruptors, a very good skill to give them is Blink. This way they can easily and safely engage and disengage combat at any time… Yeah, let’s give Blink to them!”
The first skill I choose is the active one: Blink. I’ll now have to decide on the triggered and passive ones.
“What do I want? More speed? Nah, they’re already fast enough. Damage? Hmm… maybe? But as disruptors they don’t really need to deal large amounts of damage, only be annoying. Oh, I have a great idea!”
I search for a skill called Pounce. It’s similar to Minotaur’s innate skill, Fierce Charge, but you could say it’s the downgraded version of it.
Pounce (Triggered skill) If you move at least 6 meters in a straight line before attacking, your attack deals 50% more damage and has a 50% chance to stun the target for 2 seconds.
As you can see, both the bonus damage and stun chance are half those from the Minotaur’s skill, and there’s no push or double stun if they hit something.
The only part of Pounce that’s better compared to Fierce Charge is that the unit doesn’t need higher STR than the attacked unit. Though it isn’t really a drawback for Minotaurs because they’re stupidly strong.
“Ahaha, yes, that’s it! Annoying as hell!”
I wanted the Fleshlings to be annoying, and this skill sure will make them annoying. Doubly so if you take into account they have Blink and can thus teleport far enough for the Pounce skill to activate once again after the first strike.
In fact, if somebody is unlucky and encounters a pack of these Fleshlings, he or she might suffer from a permanent stun lock.
A crazy idea comes to me at this moment. “Omg, I must change the AI before I forget!”
I quickly change to the AI edition screen and make the following changes:
First, the Fleshlings will run away from combat if either their HP or their EP, which they need for both Regeneration and melee attacks, falls below 50%.
Second, they’ll only start combat if the enemy is already in combat or has a status effect that incapacitates them, like stun or sleep. Otherwise, they run away if attacked.
Third, they’ll only use Blink in combat if the enemy is stunned to get in position for another Pounce. This doesn’t include when they run away because Combat and Fleeing are two different states.
Aaaaand, that’s all. They have Intelligence 3, so I can only make three changes, but they’re perfect to make them as annoying as possible.
“As for the passive skill… they’re annoying as hell like this, especially if they group up. But I don’t want them to clump up, to maximize the chances of enemies encountering them. Or better yet, them finding the enemies. I’m sure there must be something interesting...”
There are so many skills, that it’s hard to find what you’re looking for. Of course, I could ask Ricard if there’s a skill that does this or that… but then I’ll have to listen to him ramble for at least an hour. I don’t have that much time to waste.
“This is hard… I kind of want them to group up so that they can stun-lock unlucky invaders, but I also want them to spread out… Wait, what if I give them this skill? Fufufu! Hahaha! I found it! This is exactly what I was looking for!”
Shared Senses (Passive skill) You share your senses with every other allied unit with this same skill. This only works if you’re within 100 meters of one another.
This is one of those skills that are only available for common units and not for Champions. I don’t think I need to explain to you why, do I?
I immediately select Shared Senses as the third and last skill. With it, the Fleshlings can roam the dungeon independently from each other while at the same time, joining forces to attack the invaders. As soon as one sees an enemy, all the others within a hundred meters will know about it too.
What’s more, since Blink only requires vision, it’ll be possible for them to teleport through walls as long as the origin and destination are within five meters. In general, this should be impossible, but the Tunnels area is extremely convoluted and there are quite a lot of places where the tunnels cross at different heights, or where their walls touch.
Of course, this combo will only work if they’re close enough to each other and the other fleshling can see the other side of the wall…
Imagine finding one Fleshling, and having a few more appear by teleporting through the walls, ceiling, or floor, before pouncing at you all at the same time. Now add other monsters or mushrooms to the mix too.
Scary, right!?
“What name can I give them? Oh, yeah, I know: Hauntling! They’re Fleshlings that haunt the dungeon and can appear through any wall at any moment! Hahaha!”
I introduce the name and save the template, assigning all the Fleshlings in the middle of creation to it.
These are their final stats.
Hauntling (Lv 3) HP 252 (210) STA 24 (20) SOU 9 (8) EP 216 (180) MP 144 (120) STR 24 (20) CON 22 (19) AGI 34 (29) SPI 13 (11) WIL 16 (14) DEX 12 (10) SPD 7 INT 3 COM 1 Skills
Active: Blink. Triggered: Pounce. Passive: Nature Attuned (Innate), Regeneration (Innate), Shared Senses.
Their MP and other magic stats aren’t very high, but it isn’t important because they can still cast Blink quite a lot of times, which costs only 20 MP. As long as they can cast Blink, I don’t care about anything else. They aren’t magic casters, after all.
“Well, well, well…” I rub my hands together in excitement. “Now that I’ve finished, I only need to wait for, hmm…” I sneak a peak at the timers on top of the Meat grinders. “...I only need to wait for an hour and forty minutes for them to be created. Agh, it’s too long!”
I already emptied the Stasis chambers of useless units. Now, the next step should be to go capture more units! This time, useful ones!
“Hell yeah! It’s capture time!”
To fill the dungeon area I want to create, I’ll need lots of bodies from both weak and strong units. If I take into account the theme of the area, I’m sure I’ll need a lot of slimes to use as the base. I can start with them, and then look for the other units I’ll need…
I open the dungeon menu and browse it. “Hmm… this dungeon looks promising. It’s settled then, let’s go!”
I don’t waste any time before starting the dungeon invasion.
It’s been so long since I last delved into a dungeon by myself… Well, it’s only been a week and a half, but it feels like a lot longer.
“Tremble and shiver, you weaklings! Because I’m gonna catch you all! Fufufu! Hahaha!”
Of course, now that I’m level 6 I’m going to bring the three Good Followers as well as Cyam, the Stone Eye Kidnapper, with me.
Laughing like a deranged maniac, me and my support mobs are transported into the dungeon I selected.
This is only roleplay. Roleplay, of course. I say it twice so you don’t get the wrong idea.
[https://i.imgur.com/ZGSK4Pl.png]
“Sometimes, the success of a Dungeon Invasion depends more on the Champion you pick than you would expect. For example, bringing a mermaid to an underwater dungeon might trivialize or at least simplify some of the dangers in it.
To answer your question, if you want to invade the Evil Mastermind’s dungeon, you’ll have an easier time if you have the Nature Attuned skill. With an elf, a Flesh Monstrosity with that skill, or some other skill with similar effects, you can ignore the mushrooms everyone fears. It’s what I like to call ‘Easy Mode’.
Or you can also look at it this way: the invasion is going to be hell if you use any Champion that doesn’t have this skill.”
- Excerpt of an interview with a high-ranking DMA player. Sometime in the future, it wasn’t weird to be asked these kinds of questions if you were a DMA player.