NOVEL WEB Chapter 21 - A Mole, a Bat, and a Worm
Dungeon Day 31 - Continues
“Hey Itsy! Good to have you on board! How are you feeling?”
“Doing great boss! Happy to be here! What do you need from little ol me?”
“Well, you are going to be part of the stationary defense force. I suggest webbing up the trees and making it harder for us to be invaded from above. Go meet up with George over there so he can give you the rundown.”
“You got it, boss!” The spider answered before slinging away.
Watching the spider swing away, Dan couldn’t help but smile inwardly at the tiny yet insanely deadly creature he had created. It made him question whether he should give Hawk the Eagle and Eagle the Hawk a full proper upgrade and make them more deadly in the sky. Honestly, he needed to upgrade many of the old minions as well, but as they had been handling everything rather well so far, he was not yet wholly inclined to do so.
Looking back at his mana, Dan grimaced at his lowly 40 mana and settled down to wait until some more started coming in.
Thankfully, only an hour or two passed before his mana quickly reached 400 as more enemies were taken out. From what he felt, his monsters had taken out another five teams, though they had been on the weaker end, which was why he had only gained 360 mana from the entire thing. However, 400 mana was more than enough to finish creating his new bosses, and he quickly got started.
First up was going to be a mole. The mole would be his underground defense and offense monster, along with the eventual worm mini-boss. It would be a relatively straightforward creation and partially copy the original mole that attacked him back in the cave all those days ago. Naturally, this meant giving it the Metal Affinity along with the obvious Earth Affinity. Following that, and for obvious reasons, it would get the all-so-common Metal Enhancement that so many of his creatures had, along with the Earth Control ability. Then, he would add some basic agility and speed enhancement and two other offensive abilities to let the mole pack a punch. With all that completed, Dan paid the 112 mana and saw the mole come into existence near his crystal.
🔷 Crystal Notice 🔷
🔷 Monster Statblock 🔷
Rank: Common.
Name: Jamole the Mole.
Type: Beast.
Size: Tiny.
Hierarchy: Boss.
Mind: Intelligent, Sapient.
Arcane Mana: 100/100.
Arcane Mana Regen: +3 (0 Outside of Dungeon)
Pure Arcane Mana: Locked.
Pure Arcane Mana Conversion: Locked.
Order Mana: Locked.
Abilities: 8.
Metal Affinity. Earth Affinity. Metal Enhancement. Earth Control. Body Enhancement - Agility and Speed. Bullet. Pierce.
Innate Abilities: 5.
Tremor Sense. Stealth. Mental Resistance. Regeneration. Share Sense.
Respawn Timer: 5 Hours (10 Hours if Death is Outside Dungeon.)
Respawn Cost: 56 Mana (112 if Death is Outside Dungeon.)
Original Creation Cost: 112 Mana.
🔷
Jamole was a mole, but not like a usual mole. His fur was dark silver, and his little nose, often pink, was now a much lighter silver that matched his claws. Also, he didn’t have eyes and had an incredibly smooth appearance. It was as if the creature in front of him was made to surf through the ground at the fastest speed possible, which was precisely what Dan wanted. Dan had made Jamole with the specific intention of being an absolute speed demon capable of piercing through any monster defenses. In fact, thinking back, Dan should have given the mole the Stalker ability and something like Kinetics charge-up to make the mole even deadlier. Alas, what was done was done, and it’s not like Dan couldn’t always go back and upgrade his new pal even further.
Watching the mole finally come to, he heard it in his mind.
“Hey boss! How ye be?” The mole spoke in a gruff voice and with such a tone that Dan could not be convinced the mole was not a dwarf at some point in its life. He really needed to ask the World Crystal if it was just recycling souls or something, but that was something for another time, and he quickly regarded the dwarf mole.
“Hey Jamole, do you know what a dwarf is?”
“Ay boss, I do. Why do you ask?”
“Nothing, just curious. Please go speak with George over there and he will give you a rundown of how things work around here.”
Then, with a simple grunt of agreement, Dan saw Jamole dig downwards and disappear into the earth. Dan could, of course, could still feel the mole underground and was surprised at how the mole didn’t leave a tunnel but instead shifted the earth back behind him.
Moving on from the dwarf living inside a mole's body, Dan looked to make the mini-bosses to accompany Itsy and Jamole. The first one was Itsy’s mini-boss, another addition to Dan’s aerial forces.
If Itsy was the artillery, then her mini-boss would be the jet interception. In terms of combat prowess, Dan was planning to lean toward a bat's natural capabilities. The Wind Affinity was an obvious addition, and so was the Sound Affinity. From there, it would have some agility and speed enhancement along with the usual Wind Control Dan gave his flying monsters. Finally, Dan was going to give it some offensive capabilities in terms of sound attacks, a sort of stealth amplifier, and a possible spell counter to help silence possible mages in the future.
🔷 Crystal Notice 🔷
🔷 Monster Statblock 🔷
Rank: Common.
Name: Balbatzar the Bat.
Type: Beast.
Size: Tiny.
Hierarchy: Mini-Boss.
Mind: Intelligent, Sapient.
Arcane Mana: 50/50.
Arcane Mana Regen: +2 (0 Outside of Dungeon)
Pure Arcane Mana: Locked.
Pure Arcane Mana Conversion: Locked.
Order Mana: Locked.
Abilities: 8.
Sound Affinity. Wind Affinity. Wind Control. Body Enhancement - Speed and Agility. Sonic Boom. Sonic Resonance. Silent.
Innate Abilities: 6.
Echo Location. Keen Hearing. Stealth. Mental Resistance. Regeneration. Share Sense.
Respawn Timer: 2 Hours (4 Hours if Death is Outside Dungeon.)
Respawn Cost: 42 Mana (84 if Death is Outside Dungeon.)
Original Creation Cost: 84 Mana.
🔷
Balbatzar appeared on top of Dan, looking a lot like a regular bat with brown leathery skin and the usual size to match. Oddly enough, and like Jamole, though they were both considered tiny, they weren’t as tiny as Itsy, which showed Dan how big the difference between the different creatures was in terms of size. Once the bat came to, it fluttered its tiny eyes open, revealing light green orbs for eyes, which was something Dan wasn’t expecting. The bat then released a wave of sound, which Dan assumed was done to get an idea of its surroundings. Soon after, and once it seemed to be satisfied, his new boss finally regarded him.
“My liege, how may your humble servant serve?” Balbatzar’s voice and tone reminded him of Fir and Fur’s noble demeanor, except it was more like a butler. The bat’s voice was smooth and flowed easily, and his little winged half-bow sold the image of a butler.
“Hey, Bal, I'm glad you're here. You and Itsy will be our main aerial defense force. Just help her out and make sure you guys coordinate. Now, please head over to George so he can help you set up.”
“Very well, Lord Dan, as you wish,” Bal answered with another cute bow before flying off.
Dan liked the bat. It made him want to make a human with dead parents who happened to be rich. Then Dan would give Bal over to this human as a butler and see what would happen. Well, either that or a vampire.
Anyway, it was time for the last mini-boss, at least for now.
The worm was going to be the complete opposite of Jamole. First, it was definitely not going to be tiny, and Dan enlarged it to be large as he wanted the freaking thing to be able to swallow stuff in one gulp.
Much like the mole, the worm would have the Metal and Earth Affinity; however, Dan would also give it the Space Affinity for one particular purpose. Dan wanted the worm to gobble up things without issue, so he was going to give it the ability to distort its maw and intestine to fit things much larger than it would typically be able to eat. Moving on from that, the worm would get a basic enhancement and a way to strike stuff without breaching the surface.
🔷 Crystal Notice 🔷
🔷 Monster Statblock 🔷
Rank: Common.
Name: Chomp the Worm.
Type: Beast.
Size: Large.
Hierarchy: Mini-Boss.
Mind: Intelligent, Sapient.
Arcane Mana: 50/50.
Arcane Mana Regen: +2 (0 Outside of Dungeon)
Pure Arcane Mana: Locked.
Pure Arcane Mana Conversion: Locked.
Order Mana: Locked.
Abilities: 8.
Metal Affinity. Earth Affinity. Space Affinity. Earth Control. Metal Enhancement. Body Enhancement - Speed. Earth Spike. Consume.
Innate Abilities: 5.
Tremor Sense. Stealth. Mental Resistance. Regeneration. Share Sense.
Respawn Timer: 2 Hours (4 Hours if Death is Outside Dungeon.)
Respawn Cost: 60 Mana (120 if Death is Outside Dungeon.)
Original Creation Cost: 120 Mana.
🔷
Chomp appeared wrapped around Dan’s tree. The worm was incredibly large and could swallow a normal bear in one go if it wished. Its skin was brown with specks of white here and there, giving it an odd polka-dot appearance. Additionally, it had a ringed body like most worms do, and its massive maw was easily identifiable by the thin slits on one of its ends that would probably open to reveal an incredible number of teeth eager to devour anything and everything.
The worm took a minute longer than most creatures to come to, but it eventually did. However, when it did, it plopped to the ground, causing it to tremble a bit. Additionally, Dan noticed something interesting. Unlike Jamole, who had to dig through the ground using its claws and Earth Control ability, Chomp sort of just phased through it. Looking into the odd ability, Dan figured it had to be some interaction between Earth control and the worm's Space Affinity. That made him wonder if he should give the mole the Space Affinity to achieve even faster speeds underground.
Dan’s thoughts were broken when Chomp finally reached out to him telepathically.
“Master? What is my purpose?” Said Chomp with a bit of a gruff yet rather monotone voice, and Dan got the feeling that the large worm wouldn’t be much of a talker.
However, as he had done with Bal, Dan told Chomp about his much smaller boss and the worm's purpose, which was to act as a defensive and offensive force, depending on what Dan needed. Then he told Chomp to speak with George for further instructions, and the worm was quick to swim away through the dirt and join the small meeting that George was having with the rest of the freshly created bosses.