Episode 111. Sudden difficulty increase
“Ugh… I’m dizzy.”
Our party was hit by a scythe wielded by the Nightmare of Rest.
Well, it was intentional.
The rapidly distorted vision slowly focuses.
This place was no longer inside the catacombs.
“This is…?”
“Are you lucky?”
Very lucky.
Why did you fall here?
At my remarks, my colleagues all turned their eyes to me.
I smiled lightly, and just then a message came through.
[You have entered the stone chamber of Esparadion.]
[This dungeon is an instant space. It is forcibly destroyed when all enemies are defeated or all adventurers inside die.]
[You cannot use movement magic, portals, or return scrolls in this space.]
Instant dungeons that are forcibly entered by dropping nightmares are randomly generated by default.
However, by default, a space related to the dungeon that was attacked is created, and it is created within several patterns.
“I don’t know who Espradion is, but in dungeons, stone chambers are the best to stir-fry.”
“Do you stir-fry?”
“It’s said that hunting is easy. It’s easy to gather mobs as the space is small. Instead, it’s narrow, so if you make a mistake, you’ll get stuck and be surrounded.”
There are various types of space in Fallen Nightmare, from an open space in the form of a forest to a closed place like a dungeon.
Among them, the stone chamber is surrounded by walls on all sides, and its structure is also very simple and above all, narrow.
As long as you have to hunt all the monsters without leaving a single monster behind, you can return to the original place, so the situation isn’t too bad.
‘What’s not the ancient city?’
Remembering that in the past, it took dozens of minutes to search all the buildings around the ancient town to find the hidden monsters, the stone chamber is truly heavenly.
“What do I do now?”
Mumu looked around and asked.
Other people were behaving similarly.
Even though it is a stone chamber, it is not a situation where you can clearly see the end of the space.
There must be several rooms called stone chambers somewhere, and the place we are standing now must be some part of the passageway connecting the stone chambers.
The surroundings are covered in thick darkness, and only the surroundings where we are standing are illuminated.
“There is still time. A full-fledged wave will start a minute after we enter.”
“A wave?”
“Yes. You can think of it as a kind of defense game.”
“A defense game?”
“What is that?”
Ah, Mumu and Melissa may be hard to understand when they say that it is a defense game.
So I continued the explanation step by step.
“Wow, 5 levels?”
“Yeah. Originally, it ended with stage 1, but we fed Nightmare four mid-bosses.”
“The man fed it… We just watched.”
“Anyway! So the monsters are getting stronger step by step?”
“That’s right. Instead, it gives you a lot of EXP per level.”
This is also the reason why I couldn’t give up on the last Dark Priest.
2X in level 2, 4x in level 3, 8x in level 4.
And in the last 5th stage, you can acquire 16 times more experience than you can get in the 1st stage.
“H, sixteen times?”
“Hey, wait!”
While the children were playing, Lemon interrupted the conversation with a worried expression.
“Sixteen times? Couldn’t monsters be that strong?”
“Ah. How do we hunt when we get that strong? Monsters only get stronger by stage. Five stages is five times the first stage.”
“…What?”
“Everything, is it five times?
“Quaaagh! Look at this! I knew this would happen!”
Rachel, who had been silent in the background, suddenly started having seizures.
“Hey, hey, Rachel. Calm down…”
“How do you calm down!? How do you hunt something five times stronger!”
“Ha ha… That doesn’t mean that the attack power of five badges is 5 times stronger. The attack power will be about twice as strong, but instead, the health and defense power will be higher, and the number will increase. 5 Times means that the difficulty is 5 times the difficulty. And sometimes enhanced monsters appear…”
“Quaaagh! That’s what it means!”
“It’s definitely different. Besides, we have this too.”
I pointed to the crown I was wearing on my head.
All eyes turned to the crown.
“I’ll take this off now. There’s no fog here anymore.”
[Party member ‘Jeon Tae-min’ has unlocked Emmanuel’s crown.]
This crown is not only used to brighten the sight or to turn off Nightmare’s aggro.
[Number of curses stacked by the wave of rest: 5]
Rather, it’s just a minor bonus.
This is the real ability.
[Emmanuel’s crown has absorbed all stacked curses.]
Absorb curses. And.
[Blessings are granted to all party members equal to the number of curses stacked.]
– Duration 30 minutes.
[Physical and magic attack power increases by 5 times]
[Maximum HP and SP increase five times.]
[Physical defense and magic defense increase by 50.]
[All status ailment resistance increases by 5%.]
[Specific blessings are granted randomly when commander monsters are defeated.]
In this game, the hidden boss is a kind of bonus concept.
It’s just that the way to destroy it is hidden, but it’s not that difficult to defeat it if you know how to do it.
People who don’t know this say that the hidden boss Nightmare is harder than the 4 bosses of Nightmare Dungeon.
‘That sounds funny.’
From my point of view, it’s just a comedy.
It’s almost like scooping and feeding them.
I had already briefly explained the crown buff in advance, but the reaction of the party members seemed shocked as if the feeling was different after actually experiencing the great blessing.
“What the heck…”
“Everything, five times… Isn’t it a complete scam?”
“It’s only 30 minutes. What?”
“But…”
“What! You all have plans? Tell me quickly!”
“I explained it earlier…”
Michael and Rachel seemed relieved now.
“As expected, my uncle! Melissa believed it! Oooooh! Five times more powerful Arcane Storm!”
“This should be enough to deal with monsters that are five times stronger.”
Mumu calmly grasped the situation, and Melissa was excited as usual.
And lemons.
“Haa…”
He let out a deep sigh.
I said, ‘You explained everything beforehand. Did I do something wrong again?’
It’s thrilling! Lemon glared at me with a look that seemed to make a sound.
“Why?”
“No.”
“You explained it this time.”
“It’s okay. You’re like that.”
I cross her arms and turn her head. Sorry, but this is not the time to cheer her up.
[A monster has appeared.]
Because the first wave has already started.
“You don’t need to move. There are no obstacles here, so if you stand still, they’ll all come here. You just need to gather them in moderation and hunt them all at once with the scope.”
Now, the time has come for our children to level up in earnest.
* * *
[You have defeated the commander.]
From noble mtl dot com
[Luck increases by an additional 500 while Emmanuel’s Crown buff is active.]
The first wave is over.
After defeating the commander who appeared last, a new blessing has been added.
“500 Luck. The monsters here don’t give you gold or items…”
“There’s nothing to be sorry about. As Luck increases, the chance of a critical hit increases to some extent, so it’s not a loss.”
“Yes!”
Everyone has bright expressions.
That’s because he showed off his five-fold increased attack power to his heart’s content.
Nightmare difficulty The mulberry must have been properly filled with firepower that melted monsters in an instant.
“Uhehehehe. Did you see Mister? Just melting under my magic?”
The typical guy is this guy.
“Yeah. Well done.”
Melissa was so excited that she was bulging up her nostrils.
I spoke after dealing with him moderately.
“Now let’s move.”
“Aren’t you doing it here?”
“Yeah. Looking at the amount of monsters coming in, this place isn’t good. They’re coming in from one direction only. I don’t know about it now, but it’ll be difficult to deal with after the third stage.”
“Really?”
“As expected… It’s amazing. Do you think you know everything?”
“That’s right. It’s amazing! I’ve believed in you from the beginning?”
Suddenly, Michael and Rachel’s words and actions became disgusting.
It seemed to have started again.
Matching my taste.
It’s a trick to gain points from me and join me as a fixed party member.
Since there was nothing to lose, we dealt with it moderately and moved the location.
“I think this is the right place. I don’t know how many stone chambers there are in total, but this should be enough to balance the left and right.”
It is easy to deal with monsters when they attack from both directions.
Because of that, I moved to the center of the dungeon with a rough sense.
Moving to one end is also an option, but then it takes too long for the respawned ones to appear from the other end.
‘Since the firepower of the party is good, the center is just right.’
“Now, Phase 2 will start soon. They will come out from now on, so be careful.”
From the 2nd stage, reinforced monsters appear.
Strengthened monsters with modifiers such as ‘hard’ or ‘sharp’ don’t matter, but monsters with ‘explosive’ will self-destruct if not dealt with quickly, causing wide-area damage.
If two or three of them pile up, the party could be in trouble.
No matter how blessed your defense and stamina are, the self-destruct attack of a monster with stronger attack power is always threatening.
‘Still, you don’t have to worry until stage 4. That guy who appears from level 5 is the real problem.’
[A new monster has appeared.]
The second wave started after about a minute.
The buff I used for the cooking buff.
With the blessing of the crown added to it, we were able to defeat the attacking monsters in an instant.
“Huh? Mister! Suddenly, no monsters are coming from this direction?”
“Hmm?”
We are standing in the middle of the aisle.
While arranging the monsters from both sides in turn, the monsters did not appear in one direction.
“Huh? Why doesn’t it suddenly die?”
And another one.
Perhaps the HP of the monster I was dealing with on the other side suddenly increased, and the speed of defeating it noticeably slowed down.
It wasn’t even a reinforced monster with a modifier like ‘hard’.
It wasn’t that the party’s firepower was reduced.
The numbers displayed on the system remained the same.
‘No way…’
Then, belatedly, a system message was heard.
[The difficulty of the Esparadion Stone Chamber has been greatly increased.]
The moment I checked the message, I could roughly figure out the reason.
‘He said he was strangely lucky today.’
It was the worst.
It seemed clear that the dungeon, which was a 6-player mode, had been changed to a 12-player mode.
“Everyone, stay alert! Uninvited guests have appeared.”
But, can they survive here?
Without the crown buff.
In the 12-player mode dungeon.