Chapter 70
Three players survived the LMFAO Party shots. Three. Oak and Skar, both of who had special cooldowns that made them practically unkillable for a short amount of time. Oak, in his massive electrical Indra form, tanked the damaged, his health pool dropping dangerously, but leaving him still standing. Skar’s cooldown, on the other hand, made him turn incorporate, and he seemed to shimmer out of existence, avoiding all of the incoming damage.
The third player was SoulDemon. Somehow, when the explosions started, he moved away from the erupting mobs. While he’d been beside the mobs, putting him at the literal epicenter of the blasts, the moment they started, he was no longer on the second floor at all. Instead, he was back on the first floor. He’d blinked out of existence from the second floor, appearing midair in the first floor. From there he activated his racial cooldown, spread his wings, and flew lazily towards the ground, calmly acting like nothing happened, as the near party wipe continued. James had a feeling the teleport ability he was using had a range to it, and he could blink in and out of that range at will, based on a cooldown. He’d used it to teleport under the floor, to completely avoid any damage. No matter what had happened, SoulDemon had already had an escape plan ready, and had been perfectly fine putting the others at risk.
“He’s such a dick.” James commented for what felt like the hundredth time as the party finished regrouping. With all of the healers dead, they’d returned to the start of the floor, and waited for the death timer to finish counting down on the players to allow them to respawn normally. Well, Skar and Oak had waited. SoulDemon had taken the time to explore the first floor properly, using his class skills to solo mobs as he came across them. With his ability to go completely invisible, and the crazy burst damage at his disposal, it was clear SoulDemon’s class was still the perfect PvP build. He had evasion, he had speed, accuracy, crit chance, and blinks to use as ‘Oh Shit’ buttons to get to safety. He was the ultimate ambush predator, and as long as it was a one-on-one fight, James doubted there was anyone that could take him down.
Watching him cemented in James’s mind just how powerful the level 100 benchmark was. Given time, Z and the others would hit that mark. And doing so would no doubt jump their skills as well. James was pretty sure at least one of the skills SoulDemon was using came not just from the class, but as a reward for hitting the 100 benchmark. Or maybe it came with some other potent effect. Perhaps a cooldown reduction? Or a stat increase. There was something more to SoulDemon’s strength. It had jumped in a way that was drastically more impressive than any of the other class up benchmark’s James had seen. It was also probably why his class shimmered in gold now as well. To show its unique status.Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.
The reason for James’s most recent utterance of SoulDemon being a dick, was because of what he had done, before he went off to slaughter mobs. He’d left the party, meaning all the creatures he was killing, while the others waited to respawn, he was getting the sole experience for. Skar and Oak, both tanks, and both under level 100, didn’t have the explosive damage needed to try and take down the level 115 mobs on the floor. Nor did they have the want to. They were proper players, who respected their party, and were waiting for their friends to respawn. All the while, SoulDemon was farming experience, gear, materials, and money. Of which James had no doubt he’d share none of with the others.
“Too bad you can’t do anything about it, huh.” Rue said as she watched SoulDemon continue his free for all rampage. He had just used his blink ability to dodge an incoming explosive round from a flying Jaeger Bomb, teleporting himself onto the back of the red bull, to drive his formless blades into the back of the creature. The strike landed as a critical hit, and he shoved the old-school hunter off the back of the Red Bull, as the creature bucked mid-flight to try and dislodge him. His swords silenced that portion of the mob a few seconds later, once it got close enough to the ground for him to leap safely from its back and avoid taking a massive amount of fall damage.
“Exactly,” James said with a sigh, watching the event unfold. He didn’t have any cool trump cards on this floor. Didn’t have any over-powered tricks or mobs or anything that he could think of to punish SoulDemon. And punishment, no, justice, was what was truly needed for the cocky player.
The feeling of Rue’s gentle touch on his hand pulled his gaze away from the scene unfolding below him. He looked at her, and she smiled at him, devilishly. “Surely the mighty Glyax isn’t unable to do anything here. You can’t say the dungeon core is unable to handle a pesky blight in their own dungeon?”
“What do you,” James started, as he noticed the twinkle in Rue’s eyes. “You’ve got a plan?” he asked, feeling his excitement grow. “A way to deal with SoulDemon?”
“Something like that,” she said, nodding back down to the seventh floor. “If there’s one thing that’s unique about our hotel, it’s in what types of reception we can give our guests, and where.”
James’s grin grew to match Rue’s, as he watched his love plot. She had a plan. A devious one. And he was all for it. SoulDemon needed to be brought down a peg.
“I’m all ears, Rue,” James said, “what exactly do you have in mind?”