“Fufufu! Hahaha! Yes! YES! This is it! Hahaha!” I continue laughing for a while. “For now, they’ll have to be enough! And I’m sure more than one invader will die to them! Hahaha!”

I walk through the passage, sealed rooms and cells on both sides. Though not all of them are actually sealed, as some of them have holes in the walls or the door is destroyed.

In my hand, there’s a checklist with several names on it. As I tread through this poorly illuminated passage, I read its contents carefully, putting a tick on the list every time I pass the room containing one of the monsters written in it.

Ok, so let me be clear. I already explained this is the ‘failed experiments’ area, right? Every monster I created and put here can be considered one. This also includes the Corrosive Chokers and the Invisible Horrors, as well as the monster boss I’ll add in the future.

But when it comes to those monsters that will stay inside the sealed rooms… you can say they go a step further into the ‘failed’ department.

“Next, to the right, it’s…” I peek through the glass panel to see what unit is inside. “Hmm, so it’s them. And they’re in a containment unit as they should. Count? It’s… three monsters. Ok, check! Next one!”

What am I doing right now? I’m checking everything is working as I intended. I’m going through the new area, making sure the failed experiments are properly distributed in their rooms.

You see… In general, I don’t mind the monsters spawning always in the same place, because the monsters are allowed to freely move. It’s hard for the players to know what they’ll find. Or when.

Now, if I put monsters into sealed areas, they’ll be completely predictable. And I don’t want that….

But thanks to unlocking the upgraded dungeon elements I can now randomize where and how the monsters are placed in the dungeon, as well as how many of them spawn.

In short, I created six monsters of each template and set them to spawn in a randomly sealed room. Between two and six of the same monster. The same monster can’t spawn in multiple rooms, and only one type per room. And the keys and Monster Keys are distributed randomly inside the rooms with monsters.

What I’m doing right now is checking everything is working properly.

It looks like the first one I checked has spawned in the correct number, and in a sealed containment room instead of a prison cell.

It’s important it’s a containment room because this monster is too dangerous. Too… volatile.

This one, if you exclude the sheer power that comes from higher stats, is, by a very long stretch, the most dangerous creature in my dungeon right now.

I called them Bombers. And yes, as you would expect from a unit called this, they explode. But it isn’t a normal explosion, no. It’s the biggest explosion ever created.

I only need to tell you they are Siamese, both halves have a Death Burst skill – in particular the light and dark death bursts – and both also have the skill called Soul Blast, one of those skills that kill the user when activated.

Each creature can only have a Death Burst skill, but Siamese can work around this because they’re technically two units.

Soul Blast (Active skill) Cost: - Deal (5 + 0,2 * current HP + 0,2 * current EP + 0,2 * current MP) damage to another unit. This damage can’t be prevented or reduced and doesn’t have any damage type. You die.

Soul Blast can be considered too strong depending on the situation. But it being single-target, not dealing high damage, and killing the user means most players don’t use it nor give it to their monsters.

…Well, I did.

Now, if you add the unavoidable damage of this skill the double Death Bursts, and the fact there’s more than one monster in the same room…

I only have one word to describe this situation: BOOOOOOM!

Oh, yes! Did I tell you one of the two units used is a Succubus, and the other is a Fairy? One half has a charm on-demand and the other allows them to fly and can turn both of them invisible while leaving a fake copy in its place for a short duration.

And did I tell you that I upgraded both of their Death Burst skills to deal more damage?

And that I gave them passive skills – which they share, in case you forgot – that increase their stats so they can deal even more damage?

Yeah… I might have gone a little bit overboard.

But do I regret it? Not a tiny bit!

‘Oh, but Mad Rat, what if one Blip, one of those creatures that can open the doors, happens to open this room and they scatter through the dungeon?’, you ask.

Hmmm… good luck, I suppose? It’s the invaders’ problem, not mine. Hahaha!

“The Bombers spawned properly. Then, the next one is…”

There are a few more monsters I created, and I’ll add a few more in the future. But all of them will have something that makes them ‘failed experiments’.

For example, they might be too dangerous and unstable, like the Bombers I just introduced to you. Or they were created for a certain purpose but failed to get there, or they ended up being useless, or maybe they just ended up being ridiculous in how they looked.

There are many ways an experiment can fail, after all.

“Oh, talking about monsters that didn’t achieve the purpose they were created for, here’s one of my favorites! The Failed Clones!”

In front of me, there’s a prison cell with four humanoids. They’re… moving around madly, foam coming out of their mouths.

One is cackling maniacally as it jumps around, and another one is channeling lightning around itself, ready to electrocute somebody. Oh, and the last one is biting on the first one’s arm!

“They’re good to go. Check!”

I believe you might suspect it by now. And yes, you’re right.

They’re MY failed clones. They look exactly like me before merging with the Shadow and have the same skills I do.

But they’re crazy. Completely and utterly crazy. Unable to talk, unable to think, unable to do anything useful. They encompass every part of the word ‘failed’.

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

The only thing they are good at is causing chaos.

I’m looking forward to what they do to the invaders when their time to shine comes; but for now, they’re pretty much useless.

Don’t misunderstand, as crazy as they might be, this doesn’t mean they aren’t a threat. They do have all my skills except for the Grand Finale, the Mana Core, and the upgrade to the Shared Voltage, after all. This means the combo of Chain Lightning plus Shared Voltage exists, and they too have the Lightning Shield to defend against melee attacks.

There will always be a few of them together… I really don’t recommend anyone to fight against them surrounded by weak mobs, but players do not always know what’s best for them…

We’ll see what happens.

The only good thing about them is they’re impossible to miss. Even if the Blip opens their cell and they scatter through the dungeon, all invaders will know where they are thanks to their laughs and cries, giving them time to prepare.

Also… I used all the AI changes to make them act crazier, so they behave like normal mobs in combat. Nothing complicated, I swear.

“The next one after the Failed Clones is…” I continue walking, looking at the list in my hand. “Ah, they’re the Kidnapper No. 2, nice!”

Remember when I created the Silent Kidnappers, the ones half Spider half Small Myconid, to capture the invaders that came into my dungeon?

You do? Nice. Then, you can say the Kidnapper No. 2 are their biggest, stronger, and less useful cousins.

Similar to the aforementioned one, they too come from spiders and myconids, but their stronger and bigger versions: the Giant Spider and the Myconid – the normal one, not the big one.

At almost two meters tall, they would look like very big and scary spiders… if spiders had a mushroom, almost as big as them, growing on their backs.

So yeah, a very big spider, with a very big mushroom.

The idea behind them is a monster I created to capture the invaders and turn them into my future monsters. But they ended up being too expensive.

And WAY too noticeable.

I mean, it’s impossible to not see it when it appears! What am I going to do with a kidnapper that can’t kidnap without being seen!? To capture an enemy, the ‘kidnapper’ must channel for some time, and any damage interrupts the process! It’s useless if they can be seen!

This is why they are ‘failed’.

Yes, they’re failed experiments, but this doesn’t mean they can’t do anything!

I literally gave them every immobilizing, paralyzing, and stunning skill I could think of, to give them more options to capture their targets.

Not like they’ll do it. I didn’t give them the capacity do to so on purpose, I don’t want to repeat what happened with the useless Farmers again. But this doesn’t mean they can’t use those skills to cripple and make things hard for the invaders.

For starters, they have the spider’s Web Throw skill, which can immobilize another unit for up to 5 seconds; and the myconid’s Paralyzing Spores, which can paralyze every unit within a small range.

Then, I gave them the active skill Bash, which deals some damage and might stun; the upgraded Frost Shield, which gives a high chance to immobilize and deals damage every time they’re attacked in melee.

Finally, you add to the mix the passive skill Heavy Armor which reduces the physical damage they take, and the Basic Chimera’s innate Eternal Pain, and you have one of the most annoying fights you can imagine.

They won’t kill many invaders, but they’ll make them despair and cry as the fight drags on and on.

I said they won’t kill the invaders, but that’s only unless something else, – like a Bomber, maybe? – joins the fight. Or the other way around.

“They’re certainly annoying. I would hate it if they happen to be the monsters who’re allowed to roam this area after a Blip opens their door. If it’s the Bombers, it’s ok. They’re dangerous if they explode, but you just have to poke them and they’ll self-destruct. Now, if it’s these baddies instead… you can only hope they don’t intrude in the middle of another combat or you might die.”

I turn around and continue walking. I have to step carefully, I don’t want to fall into one of those hard-to-see holes.

“What will I find next? This is like when you receive a present but don’t know what’s inside! Hahaha!”

I turn to the right and soon reach the next inhabited room. This one, it’s another containment unit.

“And here’s… Pfft! Hahaha! It’s the joke monster! Nice, they appeared as I wanted! They’re so ridiculous…! Hahaha!”

In any way you look at the monsters in front of me, you can only define them in one way: a joke. They’re a joke, no questions asked.

What are they? They’re sheep with a human head. That’s it! And that’s also all they got going for them!

Amazing skills? Nope. High stats? …do you consider 1 as high? Dangerous? Certainly not! Then why the hell did I create them? For the jokes, I guess?

The only thing they can do is say preprogrammed phrases thanks to their human half. They can say stupid things, completely random stuff, and as I couldn’t be in any other way, insults. They can release weird cries too, but that’s more like a bonus.

When I was thinking about the monsters I wanted, I couldn’t stop myself from thinking about stupid combinations, and this was the one I liked the most. I HAD to create them.

Ah, yes, I called them Mansheep. It was the only option, really. I couldn’t not call them like this.

‘What are they going to do?’, you ask. Well… I’m not sure. Maybe somebody will laugh so hard they’ll die? It’s possible they’re forcefully disconnected for health reasons and I’ll have a free win.

“I know they don’t help at all, but they’re funny. I’m here to have fun, so I created them.”

You have to know the Mansheep aren’t the only ones in the ‘man’ collection. There’s also Manchicken and Manpigs…

...for now.

The monsters in the ‘man’ collection are the only ones that might or might not spawn when the dungeon is instantiated. This is so the players never know what to expect from them. Agh, ok, you got me. I did it like this because I could and also thought it would be funnier. There’s no real reason behind it.

I keep checking the spawned monsters as I tour the new area, making sure everything is ok. There are no errors so far, and both the ambiance and the monsters in the passages seem adequate.

“There’s only one monster remaining on the list. If I’m not wrong, it should be in the last available room. The next passage, the first door to the left… Oh, here it is, the Infected!”

The Infected are… Ok, I know I’m always complaining about them, and saying how useless they are, but this time I actually went and captured a few humans for this unit.

Yeah, you can now go and blame me.

Call me whatever you want. I know, I know, it’s my fault. I deserve it. Humans are garbage and should never be used…

So, as I was saying, the Infected is a Monstrous Hybrid of a human and a plant monster. To be more precise, it’s a Soldier and a Strangling Ivy. I really wanted to make a version of an infected human for some reason, and I made it.

It looks like a normal human with roots, leaves, and branches growing everywhere. It’s as if the plant is devouring the human from within, slowly draining it of nutrients until it dies. Also, there are both male and female Infected.

In terms of power, it’s in the middle ground. It isn’t very dangerous, but it’s strong enough to pull its own weight in a fight. It can be dangerous if it manages to grab an enemy and starts to drain its HP and EP and replenish its own; but otherwise, it’s weak to ranged attacks.

“Everything’s ok!” I rub my hands together. “The new area is finished! Finally, it’s time to open it and see how the invaders react to it! Fufufu! Hahahaha!”

The last thing I do before leaving the game is activate the entrance door and save the dungeon changes. It’s time to go to sleep.

“Poor unlucky invaders! Feel free to enter the sealed area! The area where the most terrifying monsters in the whole dungeon are! Hahaha!”

In this dark and mysterious area, filled with the most horrendous creatures, the invaders will never know what’ll happen next. They might find a group of Bombers, find themselves drained out of MP due to an Invisible Horror, or they might find a harmless Mansheep.

But one thing is sure: if they want to reach the end of my dungeon, they’ll have to come inside.

Good luck, everyone! I wish you the greatest suffering! Hahaha!

[https://i.imgur.com/ZGSK4Pl.png]

“You know what’s worse than having to fight a dangerous enemy? It’s not knowing if there’s one such enemy or not.

It’s a psychological factor. Humans fear more what they don’t know than what they do, even if there’s a high chance the unknown is less dangerous.

I’ll now teach you how to use this to your advantage.”

- Excerpt from ‘A journey to the top’, a guide to help players reach the top ranking in DMA.