Chapter 414

There were six initial mini bosses for James to choose from, though Steve did mention there were ways to unlock even more. If he had to guess, the ‘additional’ options would be from finding ways to either combine the colored mini bosses, or create unique options that pulled from the current ones. Either way, considering he could only select two for now, having to pick between six, was more than enough. Especially given what they each offered to his boss. More and more, James was loving this sixth floor. He couldn’t wait for players to finally dive into it, and he was torn between this floor, or his siege events, on what he wanted to watch most.

That being said, James did have a singular issue with the mini bosses, right off the bat.

“Really? They’re just orbs.” That was what they were. Each and every one of the options, was a simple, glowing, orb.

“Says the guy who used to be a floating orb himself.” Steve said with a joking huff. “I tried to argue for them to be different fruits, but apparently, people claimed that was a little too retro.”

James looked at Steve, then Rue, and shook his head. “If the mini bosses are orbs, are they really that, formidable?”

“You ever seen Indiana Jones?” Steve said, raising an eyebrow. “Giant rolling balls are pretty dangerous in dungeons, ya know.”

“Is that what they do?” James asked dryly. “Roll around and crush people.”

“Yes.” Steve said, then shook his head. “No.”

“So, what do they do? Other than obviously buff the boss?”

Steve motioned towards the selection of mini-bosses. “Pick a color, any color.”

James sighed and pointed towards one. If he was going to play along, he was going to choose his favorite color, at least. “Blue.”

“Really?” Steve asked, even as he enlarged the information on the Blue one. “I took you for an orange kinda guy.”

“Is anyone an ‘Orange’ kinda anything?” Rue piped in. “Besides, blue is best. Well, at least of what’s listed. I’m more partial to a pretty teal, perhaps with some splashes of fuchsia.”

“Now you’re just making up colors.” James said, turning his focus away from the pixie, and back to Steve. Though, he did make a mental note of what her favorite colors were just in case she wasn’t. That knowledge could be helpful.

“Skobeloff is good for me, with Feldgrau as a close second.” Steve said with a chuckle, his full focus on James.

“Now I know you’re just making words up. But, regardless, mini-bosses?” There was no way those words Steve said were real.

“Fine.” Steve said, “though really, you should make yourself a little more exciting, than sticking to a basic color.”

“Steve.” James said with emphasis. He was pretty sure Steve had just called him basic.

“Right, right.” Steve cleared his throat, though James noticed the developer had changed the color of his shirt to a strange mixture of blue and green that James had never seen before. “So, as you figured, each mini-boss, has a different type of special buff it gives to the boss.”

“All in all, the mini-bosses serve the sole purpose of buffing the boss on this floor. They don’t move, they don’t attack. What they do have, though, are aura’s that will apply different effects to anyone within a certain range of them, as well as passives which negate damage to a certain degree, and a healthy HP pool. Players, will obviously have the chance, and the want, to burn these down, before the Jormun-grander gets to them, but it will not be an easy task.”

The blue orb floating before them enlarged even more, to show it was putting off a light blue aura that seemed to extend around it. While the orb before them was roughly two feet in size, for the demo of it, the aura extended an extra two feet in radius around it.

“The blue orb gives the Jormun-grander an icy AOE, which will apply a slow to any creatures within a certain range of it, dependent, of course, on level and such. From there, it also applies an additional 10 percent magic resist.”

“Not bad,” James said, noting the increased magic resist would be important. Once players were able to reach his sixth floor, they’d be at, or past, level 100. That meant they’d have quite the number of skills and stat increases. Combined with the unique multi-classing system of DCO, it also meant every single one of them, at that point, would likely have abilities that could do massive magical damage, on top of other types of damage. Being able to increase those defenses on his boss, without having to use his upgrade points on the boss to do so, was a nice bonus. Though, 10 percent did feel a tad low for this stage in the game.

“Not bad.” Steve said with a dark chuckle. “Not bad he says.” Steve motioned with his hand and pulled up the actual stats on the blue orb.

“I’ll have you know, that aura is wickedly good, and extremely dangerous, given the boss, and your floor design. And 10 percent additional magic defense, that’s crazy.” Steve shook his head. “Seriously James, don’t underplay how awesome this thing is.”

“I’m not,” James said, holding up his hands towards Steve, while doing his best to read the stats before him. “I’m sorry. Just trying to take it all in.”

Orb of Frost

Type: Power Gem

Lvl 95

HP: 30000

MP: 30000

Atk: 0

Def: 500

Unique Traits:

Power Gem- The Orb of Frost is one of a unique set of gems, imbued with immense powers. Adventurers capable of destroying a power gem, will gain 25% increased experience for the remainder of the instance (up to 100%), as well as an increase in passive HP and MP recovery, dependent on the number of Power Gems they have destroyed. (1= 15% increase, 2= 30% increase, 3= 50% increase…)

Frozen Blessing*- Destroying the Orb of Frost will additionally grant players with the Frozen Blessing. Players with a Frozen Blessing will emit an Aura of Ice in a 1+(0.1xlvl) sphere around them. Additionally, players with a Frozen Blessing take 5% less damage.

*Players must have a frost charge on them, when the Orb of Frost is destroyed, in order to gain these benefits.

Apocalypse Stone- The Orb of Frost is a gem of the apocalypse. If consumed by the Jormun-grander, it will hasten the destruction of the world. Additionally, the Jormun-grander will gain the following unique skills, by consuming The Orb of Frost.

Creeping Frost- All creatures within 0.5xlvl feet of the Jormun-grander gain a 30+ (0.1 x lvl)% decrease in movement speed. Additionally, mana and health regen is slowed by 5+ (0.1 x lvl)% while in this aura.

Frozen Armor- The Jormun-grander gains an icy layer of mana over its body, reducing incoming magical damage by 10%.

Unique Skills:

Aura of Ice- A frozen mana circle with a radius of 10 foot + 0.1 lvl radiates outwards the Power Gem. Any players within this zone will lose MP at a rate of 1% per second. Additionally, players within the zone will gain a level of frost for every 10 seconds within the zone. Each level of frost doubles the effects of Aura of Ice. If a player spends five seconds out of the aura, the frost charges will begin to fade.

Shield of Frost- All damage applied to the Orb of Frost is first removed from its mana pool, before its health pool. Once mana is depleted, the size and effects of Aura of Ice will be halved.

James finished reading the stats on the ‘Orb of Frost’, and then reread them, just to make sure he was reading that correctly. As it stood, the aura on the Orb would be nearly 20 feet in any direction from the orb, meaning melee players would be a big disadvantage trying to fight it. Those frost stacks, additionally, could increasingly grow to be problematic.

In an open environment, the skills wouldn’t be too hard to work around. However, in the labyrinth, depending on where James set up these mini-bosses, such aura’s could prove extremely dangerous. Not only that, it was clear players would need to do a lot of damage, meaning spend a good amount of time, trying to chunk away at the HP of these orbs. The danger being, of course, that time, skills, and mana spent trying to destroy these orbs, was time that the Jormun-grander had to consume other mobs on the floor.

However, the increase in gained experience players could get from destroying one of these mini bosses, was definitely worth the squeeze. And, if the different orbs gave players additional buffs similar to what the Orb of Frost offered, then players had quite the incentive to try and get to the orbs before the boss. Other than, of course… the whole boss getting stupidly buffed by these things. James could only summon two of these mini bosses as it stood, but once he was able to summon 3…they’d practically double the boss’s HP if it managed to consume all three, not to mention the boost it would receive to its defense, and other stats. Something, that would make these orbs extremely important to target for players.

All of that was fine and dandy with James, and he’d already decided he really, really liked how this floor was playing out. It had already been a massive labyrinth that was going to be filled with a ton of mobs. But now, James literally had ‘treasures’ to spread across the dungeon floor, which would push players to explore as quickly and thoroughly as they could, to try and reach these gems of power, before the boss did. It was turning into a high stakes game of capture the flag on the floor, which he’d never even thought of before, but was loving.

And this was just the first orb he got to look over. There were still five other basic orbs to read up on, and then of course, he could start looking into their upgrade paths, and…just, there was so much James loved about this floor, and he was really grateful he had the chance to build it. His players had no idea what was in store for them. Honestly, James had no idea what exactly was going to happen on this floor when players did begin swarming it, but hopefully, his expectations would be met, and the reality, would be epic. This was, after all, DCO.