Chapter 55 - Mad rats (2)

After cleaning up the first level of dungeon (Saachi has to be labelled pack rat, he did not even miss few leaves of Congo grass, common type of grass found in game), the team descended down to level 2. Monsters here were are level 3, size of a labrador, clearly a menace. The bite had bleeding effect and it stacked. They even used rat tails to trip the players. The dungeon had multiple corridors and each one with different dimensions, few narrow, few wide, few circular, few with two or three openings but only one correct pathway. Each corridor had these Level 3 demonified steel rats with sharp steel like tails, numbered 5 to 15.

There physical defense was high too. Royo just turned out to be bait in this segment. Even Bree murdered few rats but Royo suffered. Poor boy.

Leader of this dungeon level turned out to be level 3 - elite Steel rat, which was size of a wolf. It was pure melee fight. It used it's claws to tear out players, with severe bleed effect. On stacking upto 5 times, the player would enter dizzy state and could only retreat. Bree had to drink 2 mana potions just to heal Royo. It was touch and go at one point because the rat swapped it's long tail and it's barbed end struck Saachi who was bombarded it with fireballs and firebombs. If Saachi had not jumped, his heart would have struck with tail end and ended his journey in the dungeon. Most team wipes happened at this level of dungeon. The tail swipe was completely random, not based on aggro or distance or even HP% of monster or player. Only way to avoid it was to avoid it, thus it depended on luck.

This time Saachi went to collect from corpse first, as Royo was still under the belief that best would come last. He prayed and tapped the head and voila, a weapon appeared next to head. Level 3 Uncommon ,Whip . Attack +15, speed +6, 20% chance to cause bleed- lose 30 HP over 5 sec. Can be stacked up to 10 times. The weapon had hidden effect. Though no one in team used it, Bree took it to sell later. Bree was still not ready to touch the rat. Kylie found level 3 Greeves, common ,with defense +20. It was good equipment. Royo, oh poor Royo! He plundered abdomen only to find level 3 trash gloves with defense +4.

Bree laughed at his face. "This is VR. The AI can see and understand our thoughts. Unless you are truly humble and good... you can forget corpse looting. Instead, I will start." Saachi lifted his hand, "I think it's better if I loot corpses all the time. It looks like my luck is good." Bree did not agree directly. She left with "We'll see,". After cleaning mini boss, it was time to make sure whole level was clean. Sometimes a bonus might be hidden somewhere. Well, the three were searching for treasure (the chances of treasure in this level was more because not many had looted this space), while Saachi happily foraged.

After handing over massive amounts of herbs, he had received special bonus of 'Herbs Simplified Vol I to III' which had clear explanation of which parts of herb were useful and how to collect them.

Like he said before, he was a bit lucky. His multiplier bonus effect was working overtime while he was in dungeons. Each foray was equivalent to 5 to 10 entries on an average. Sometimes, the bonus would reach 30 or even 50( though it was mostly during foraging).

The last level, deeper into dungeon, did not have mini boss but boss. Level 4 buffed, demonified stone rats were rulers here. The could use spell petrify to slow you down or turn you into a stone. Thankfully not many stone rats were present, thus running around to escape 'petrify' was seen.

The boss turned out to be level 4 peak boss - mad rat, with berserk skills. His 'petrify' turned out to be AoE spell. As a boss, his defense was unimaginable and attack rate....his normal attacks could half of Kylie's or Saachi's HP. There was no other way. Royo tanked from front. Kylie and he ran to back over right and left side and started spamming AoE skills, large spells, whatever they had. Once the boss turned to their side or even looked like it would run in their directions, they would stop and the other would start spamming their skills and Royo would try pulling the aggro.

The boss, supposingly easiest boss in dungeons, only had 1 transformation in skills near the end - it turned into summoner and pulled stone rats. Kylie started kiting them and occasionally harassing the boss. The remaining three assaulted boss desperately. They could not allow the boss to call out more rats. Finally.... the boss fell and Saachi helped Kylie to kill other stone rats. And there was silence, blessed silence...not really, everyone had ragged breathing due to running around and using skills. The corpse looting .... this time even Bree wanted to try. This is the iconic moment. They immortalised it by taking a pic. Thankfully, mad rat's body was not part of that photo.