Vol. 4: Chapter 12
Their playful squabble ended, as it usually did, with Orion's sincere and heartfelt apology.
Afterward, he took control of Norlun and the ants. As he began to expertly maneuver them, he started explaining his process to Rena.
"First, you have to look at each summon's skills and stats to understand their role."
"The [Stonejaw Ant Chieftain] has high defense, so he's our tank. He's got a [Stonearmor Aura] that needs to be activated; it gives a passive physical armor buff to all nearby friendlies. You can also cast it on a single target for an even bigger boost, but we don't need that for trash mobs."
"Once you've set his aura, you pick a target and make sure to toggle on his auto-attack. That way he won't just stand there like an idiot."
"Next, the [Carrion Ant Chieftain]. He has a passive skill called [Corrosion] that needs to be toggled on. It lets his attacks shred the target's armor. To maximize this, you want to have him attack different targets to spread the debuff. Ooh, wait a sec. He also has a skill called [Raise Carrion Ants], lets him summon ten [Undead Carrion Ants]. It's greyed out right now... probably needs corpses. See? Now that there are bodies, let me try... yep, there we go. Instant [Undead Carrion Ants]."
"The undead ants have pretty low attack and defense, so you'll need to give them a group [Inner Fire] buff."
"Then there's the [Acid-Spitter Ant Chieftain]. It's a ranged unit, so you park it in the back. It has a [Bow Enhancement] skill. You can choose between [Armor-Piercing Shot] or [Explosive Shot], but you can't have both active at once. Piercing for bosses, explosive for clearing trash..."
Under Orion's control, the five summons moved with a terrifying, coordinated purpose. They fell into a rhythm, systematically clearing the swarms of rats. Rena watched his focused expression, the way his fingers danced across his controls, and found herself completely captivated.
He had told her before that his micro was insane. At the time, she'd thought he was just bragging, exaggerating the difficulty to show off. But after her own disastrous attempt, she realized he hadn't been exaggerating at all. If anything, he had downplayed it. The reality was several times harder than he'd described. Things he considered routine were, from her perspective, practically impossible.
How can he remember all those skills at once? How can he deploy them all so perfectly?! she wondered. She sometimes fumbled just controlling her own priest. Managing this many units at once was the stuff of nightmares.
"Rena, don't zone out."
"Where's that [Inner Fire]? They need it now."
"Group heal, quick! The [Carrion Ants] are about to die."
Orion's voice snapped Rena back to reality. She lifted her staff and cast a heal... on him. A soft glow enveloped his body.
"Hey, you healed the wrong person," he said, not looking back.
She healed him again.
"For God's sake, would you..." Orion finally spared a glance over his shoulder to see what was wrong.
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He saw her gentle, adoring gaze fixed on him.
He stopped giving commands, letting the five summons and their minions continue on auto-attack. Rena moved closer...
For a moment, in the middle of a dingy, rat-infested tunnel, the game ceased to exist. When their passionate kiss finally ended, they looked up to see a field of dead rats. The five main summons had taken some damage, but nothing serious. The ten poor [Undead Carrion Ants], however, were nowhere to be seen.
Orion, feeling a deep sense of satisfaction from the unexpected kiss, happily continued directing the summons forward. Against the high-level mobs, Norlun and the ants' individual damage wasn't spectacular. Their true power was in their synergy of auras and skills, which made clearing the ordinary rats a trivial affair. Whenever his AoE abilities were off cooldown, Orion would have Norlun pull a massive train of rats, group them up, and wipe them all out at once.
System: You have slain [Brown Rat]. You have gained 160,000 EXP.
System: Norlun has devoured a [Hamster]. You have gained 180,000 EXP.
...
Technically, they were in a three-person party with Kael, which meant they were getting significantly more experience than Lila's group. Kael himself was too far away to receive any, so his share was split between them.
Orion and Rena hadn't had much time to play recently and were lagging behind Hazel's group in levels. Rena was level 33, and Orion was only 32. Thanks to the rat farm, they both dinged, hitting level 34.
The tunnel was incredibly long. After more than two hours of clearing, they finally reached their destination:
[The Rat King's Den]
Orion parked Norlun and the other summons outside. He took control of the [Myrmidon Ant] and sent it in to scout.
The Rat King's Den was massive, but barren. There was almost no scenery. In the very center, a truly enormous rat was sleeping. Next to it sat a battered old chest. The contents of that chest were their objective.
Orion carefully maneuvered the Myrmidon Ant closer to the giant rat. Soon, its basic stats came into view.
[Rat King Jerry]: Level 39
HP: 90,000,000
Physical Attack: 22,500
Magic Attack: 22,000
Physical Defense: 15,010
Magic Defense: 12,000
Seeing the boss's stats, Orion felt a headache coming on. What made it worse was a debuff icon that had appeared on his Myrmidon Ant's status bar.
[Jerry's Dominance]: Having spent so much time near the Plague-Heart Rat, Jerry's power has grown. Biological summons of a lower level deal 20% less damage to Jerry and take 20% more damage from him.
"Holy shit, the boss is an anti-summon specialist!" A cold sweat broke out on Orion's brow. "Dawnbreaker, you son of a bitch, you set me up."
Staring at Jerry's 12,000 magic defense, Orion took another long look at the stats of his summons and began to formulate a plan.
Norlun: Main role: CC, summoning.
Stonejaw Ant: Main role: Physical defense buff.
Acid-Spitter Ant: Main role: -4000 armor debuff, rapid attacks.
Carrion Ant: Main role: Various other debuffs.
Myrmidon Ant: Main role: CC, speed buff.
Okay, he thought. The two armor-shredding skills should stack. That's -8,000 physical defense, bringing the boss down to 7,010. After Rena's buffs, my summons should have between 15k and 20k attack. Factoring in Jerry's 20% damage reduction... each full rotation should still deal forty to fifty thousand damage. We can down him in under an hour.
The plan was solid.
Having worked through the math, Orion relaxed. After Rena applied a full round of buffs to Norlun and the ants, he sent them charging in.
Once the [Stonejaw Ant] had locked down aggro, the [Acid-Spitter Ant] activated [Armor-Piercing Shot] and fired at the boss. Based on his calculations, the hit should have done around 800 damage.
The actual number that popped up was a soul-crushing blow.
-8
It had barely broken through his defense.
Orion frantically checked the boss's status bar. The armor-piercing debuff was there, but it wasn't what he expected.
[Armor Break]: Physical Defense -3200
His mind went blank for a second, then exploded with rage.
"WHAT THE FUCK?! THE DOMINANCE AURA NERFS OUR SKILLS TOO!"