Chapter 410

The J-Kappa, apparently, was the pack mob of this floor. True to DCO’s style, each floor had a mob that worked best in packs, and James was more than a little relieved to find the cheapest costing mob on this floor, was the pack mob. Partially because the Chem-Era had made him worried for his players, and the other reason being that, for this instance, the J-Kappa just made sense as a pack mob.

Still, after having summoned the mob, and gone through its stats, he couldn’t help but give Steve a long, stern look. Which the developer simply shrugged and, and looked away, claiming this floor wasn’t one he designed.

The reason for that exchange, was what the mob was. At its base, it had been crafted after a mythological creature called a Kappa. In mythology, according to a quick web search James had done, the creatures were an amphibious imp type creature from Japanese folklore. In mythology, they had a dish of sorts on their head, which would hold liquid in them. The stories involved the creature being tricked to bow its head, causing the water to fall from the dish, and weakening the creature.

Whoever it was that had come up with this floor’s creatures, had decided to, be a little crazy with their creation. For every bit of awesome, dangerous, death machine that was the Chem-Era, the J-Kappa was just…ridiculous.

The J-Kappa appeared to be a three-foot tall creature that seemed a cross between Pop star, and imp. They were stylishly dressed in vibrant colors, and instead of dish shaped depressions on their heads, they had bowls filled with coins.

From the skills the creature had, they focused around status ailments, and when in groups of four or more, gained increased chances at applying these ailments. Similar to the Funky Monkey’s of James’s third floor, they used music to apply these ailments. When they were in groups of four or more, they would create a… J-Pop band, and take on different personalities of sorts, which would adjust the type of debuff applied.

For instance, there was a ‘bad-boy’ persona, which would apply a buff that increased the J-Kappa’s damage, while also decreasing the defense stats of players who were hit with its musical attack. The ‘pretty boy’ J-Kappa personality would increase the evasion of the J-Kappa’s, while applying a chance to charm an adventurer, making their attacks deal decreased damage.

What persona’s were applied to the J-Kappas was random, and there was a list of nine different persona’s that could be selected randomly. While all of that was ridiculous, the most interesting part of the whole mob, and the only aspect that kept James from just deciding to not use these mobs whatsoever, was the final Unique Passive they had.

It was a Unique Passive called ‘Sellout’, and if a player could toss a coin to land in one of the J-Kappa’s heads, they could temporarily ‘hire’ that mob. Doing so would reverse the skills of the J-Kappa’s they’d managed to hire, meaning the players would gain buffs, and enemies would gain the debuffs. Depending on the donation, the service had differing amounts of time. A copper coin, bought them a second, a silver coin, 10 seconds, a gold coin, a minute, and if they threw a platinum coin and got it to land, the mob would stay with them for the entire duration of the floor.

Needless to say, for that aspect alone, James decided he would indeed put those mobs on his floor. In part, because it was ridiculous, and also, because after a quick check with Steve, it was confirmed James would be the one gaining the coin from the mobs that players threw at them. And he was not about to turn down a chance at free coin.

After the moments of…difficulty that came with the J-Kappas, he finally moved onto the other mobs of the floor. The 27-point mob was called a When-Wolf. Which had made him facepalm, and double check that Steve actually hadn’t been the one to make this floor. Because that totally felt like a Steve thing to do.

Steve insisted he’d not made the floor, though his shit-eating grin implied he may have helped. Still, James resigned himself to DCO madness, and looked over the mob. The When-Wolf, it seemed, was a werewolf at first look.

It stood at roughly 8 feet in height, with dark black fur, massive teeth and claws, and glowing red eyes. It even had an ability that gave it a chance to inflict lycanthropy on players it bit, which could temporarily turn them into a creature similar to itself. There was a chance, on affliction, that the player would either auto-die when they turned, creating a new When-Wolf for players to fight, or the player could retain control over their body, and gain access to some of the When-Wolf’s stat boosts and such.

Aside from those werewolf styled aspects, the When-Wolfs differed in the fact that they had a mechanic James hadn’t encountered yet. The When-Wolfs, seemed to have a time dilution ability. They could increase their movement and attack speed, like a haste effect, or slow down time around players. Additionally, upon receiving fatal damage, there was an ability to proc an effect that could reverse the last 10 seconds of time for the When-Wolf, completely erasing any damage that had been done to it. That skill, at the very least, had a smaller chance to proc, at just 1% + 0.1lvl, meaning at level 90, it had a 10% chance to proc.

Interestingly, there was also a chance at a similar rate, that upon death, the creature could create a time ripple, which would instantly undo any damage players had taken over the last 10 seconds of the battle as well. While he’d groaned at the name of the creature, the time mechanics of it, did make it a unique mob that could play interestingly into the labyrinth. It also wasn’t too op, meaning he’d feel less bad about filling the dungeon with When-Wolfs, compared to Chem-Eras. Which, James realized as he looked over them, were slightly disappointing.

Now that he knew time-based skills could be a thing, something called a Chem-Era, certainly, should have had a time-based skill. Though, maybe that was why its breath attacks had different durations to them? He made a mental note to scroll through their skill tree, just to see if the developers had added in some hidden time gems. Otherwise, it would just feel like a grievous missed opportunity.

He shook his head and moved down the list, knowing there was a time to worry about such things later. For now, he needed to finish looking at the mobs, figure out how many of each to summon, and then get around to the boss mob summoning and such. James took a glance at the remaining two options, the 29 point summon called a Fogeyman, and the 30 point summon called a Solem. He groaned internally, looked at Rue and Steve, who were both waiting patiently, and continued on his task.

It was hard to believe, but James felt like whoever had designed this floor, was even more cringy than Steve. Meaning he had absolutely no idea what to expect. And that, was saying something.