On the other side of the TV, “I’m…tired…” I know Yang told me to speed up the video, but I just want to rest. So, instead of speeding up Yang’s experiments, I slowed them down to one-fourth the speed. If I didn’t, I probably wouldn’t have returned to the Skeleton General by the time he finished. With the extra time I gave myself, I’ve been binging the comic where the phone's from and added a couple more of the other dungeons.
The first is The Underground Buddha City with a Pink Lotus Flower icon.
Spoiler
[colpse]Once you spawn, you start inside a winding underground cavern atop a stone-brick bridge atop a ke of green water. The water permeates the entire area and is highly corrosive, dissolving flesh in moments. After following the path towards the end of the bridge for a while, you arrive at an open area with soft green cavern walls and a rge Lotus Pond.
The Lotus Pond for its name’s sake looks pretty with various Lotus flowers and Lilypads growing from the corrosive green waters.
From the pond sprouts the test mob: Buddha Heart Lotus. Don’t let the name fool you as they're hardly peaceful, sprouting from the water like rge eggs with mask-like features on their outer petals, and once they bloom, you need to be ready to dodge. From the ordinary Heart Lotus’, they either shoot you with their seeds, unching with bullet-like speed. Or they attack you with poisonous purple spit unched from a strange bck toad that lives within the bud of rger flowers. Said toad seems to be a skill that some may or may not possess.
This wasn’t the only difference between the lotuses. They also varied in size, ranging from head-sized at the smallest to human-sized and beyond. They also had a few colors (White, pink, and yellow), making it somewhat hard to distinguish them from the normal lotuses blooming by the bank.
As for attacking them, while my Ki stat was halved due to division, my other stats were unchanged. But instead of approaching the water, I found it easier to direct the Bloodborn to attack the Lotus flowers. Since the flowers ck the hard carapace of the Ants the Bloodborn could attack with a high chance of killing them in a few hits. Tearing through their bodies with a swift ssh from its bloody form. Though its lethality could be improved, the rge-sized lotuses didn’t take nearly as much damage.
Wandering the bank of the Lotus Pond there were two paths forward. One leads around the area and likely towards the mutated version of the Buddha Heart Lotus, the boss monster with a popup window to alert me of its discovery. The comic dubbed it:
Blood-Striped Buddha Heart Lotus.
Unlike its ordinary counterparts, it was several times rger practically a tree as just a bud. While keeping their simir rge egg shape, the Blood-Striped Lotus had additional rge petals on the bottom that stuck out prominently. On the central petals, the blossom was adorned with several white mask-like protrusions across its surface. At the top of these masks were red gems that sat above a red pattern and repeated across the many faces. Unlike the ordinary version, this flower does not blossom to attack. Instead, the mouths of the masks open to reveal a dark bck and red eye.
Even as a game model it had a surprising level of detail.
From there it shoots its seeds in the same manner as the ordinary Lotus’. Though they appear to be different instead of green seeds, they shoot as blood-red balls that can kill the avatar in a single shot. I think these seeds might be some kind of skill.
Killing it might be possible, but the max range my Bloodborn can travel in game still limits me within its attack range. So, if I wanted to kill it, I'd be stuck dodging salvoes of red seeds through the fight. And it's too far away from the bank for the avatar to approach, so backup is impossible.
I don’t know if there are other zones in this dungeon, but there is another area, an ornate stone bridge. Once across, you can find a Small Buddhist Temple, but if you cross the threshold, you die instantly. No messing around to find out what did it, just instant death. (According to the comic, the specific cause is organ failure).
The only way to cross safely is through the Heart Meditate skill crystal that Buddha Heart Lotus drops. Or the upgraded version, Blood Meditation dropped by the Blood-Striped Buddha Heart Lotus. Without either, I’ll just die on the spot the moment I cross the bridge. I doubt I can get it to drop in one or two kills. I'd have better luck looking for the Silver-Winged Flying Ant in the Ant Nest killing it for an egg drop to gain a flying pet.
The other Dungeon I added was, Tiger Cage Pass with an orangey-yellow Tiger Head icon (It looks more like a bulldog in my opinion)
Spoiler
[colpse]Spawning here you get dropped on top of a rge stone fort or a ‘Cheng’ (fortified wall). The area forward leading into a vast desert gives a pretty clear path straight to the next zone. The only problem, once you're close enough they start sniping at you with arrows. Even if you could dodge one the second and third are right behind it, and each of them can kill you in one shot. That leaves the only choice to explore the rest of the desert area to the right of the main path.
The desert was home to new ‘Demonized Soldier’ mobs. They were humanoid creatures with short horns on their heads and shoulders and dehydrated reddish-cy skin. (Though the game made them look like bobbleheads). Each one has varying weapons and desert wear. They usually have a ripped cloak wrapped around their shoulders, a skirt/kilt tied around their waist, and a helmet. Unlike the Skeleton’s each one carries a weapon of some kind. They also all boasted the Legendary level even if they weren't all that strong.
Hidden off somewhere in this desert were three unique mutated ‘Demonized Generals’, with strength at the peak of Legendary level. Since we haven't even finished the Skeleton General, these three were more than I could handle at the moment. And I’m just not feeling like exploring a vast desert.
Besides that, I learned a little more about the rank system. In the mortal stage, you're nothing special, basic, ordinary. But once a creature reaches the Legendary level things can get weird. At the Legendary level, the stats cap out a 19/20 instead of the Mortal level’s limit of 9/10. Additionally, anything at the Legendary level gains a unique 'Numerology' or fate, a sort of special ability unique to the individual that can be a boon or a hindrance. Especially for the pets that can be hatched from the eggs. Some might even make the pet in question more of an anchor than a boon.
There were also a few more things I learned about the phone’s functions.
First, was a fusion system where two pets could be fused to create a stronger variant. The resulting fusion had a chance to gain all the skills of the consumed pet. The only problem was the percent chance of a successful fusion. Alternatively feeding a pet and eggs was also a viable option for it to obtain skills and boost its stats.
While I can take out an egg from the comic and scan it with the camera to add it to my inventory (another feature I learned), I don’t think either of us would want to do that. At least until the first couple dropped naturally then I think I might cheat a little. “If only something would drop…”
The phone then solved another problem. If the egg that eventually drops happens to be at a legendary level, if I try to hatch it outside, I might just die, as it drains all of our Ki and then vitality. If the user is unable to provide the necessary energy, the phone will hatch legendary-level and higher creatures immaturely sidestepping this problem.
As I started to ze around my progress started to slow. It was at the point where I didn’t even want to sit up or move the controls on the screen to move my avatar. But as I watched the screen and thought about moving, my avatar would make the exact movements I wanted. Through sheer ziness, I learned that I didn’t even need to touch the phone to control my avatar.
"Have we been kneecapping ourself?" I wondered seeing the controls appear and disappear at will. Without them, I thought to move left my avatar would move left. I thought to jump, and my avatar would jump. Everything felt more fluid but there was a hint of g between my actions. "It's because I'm the Yin half."
As the Yin half, I felt strange. My actions were dictated more by emotion than choice, and I felt sluggish. My motivation and energy levels were at an all-time low. But as the character moved by my will on the screen, I started to think, (Can I do it?) Psyching myself up I took out a chocote bar from the computer screen and had the Bloodborn add another drop of blood to the phone screen.
Spawning outside the gates of the Ancient City, the blood-colored avatar took off at full speed. Running down the first street making rapid turns in the direction of the Skeleton General. As it turned the next corner it came upon the first group of skeletons. I only had one thought in mind; (destroy them).
As the avatar met the group, a punch was thrown, destroying a skull from the first chibi skeleton. The skull shattered as the wispy blue fme lingered before a swift kick was unched at the next member of the group. The rest were soon torn apart before the avatar quickly continued forward towards the next group. Once this group was quickly destroyed, the blood-colored avatar continued on its merry way, quickly tearing through the ancient streets shredding one group of skeletons after another.
It appears we very much were holding ourself back by using the controls. I don't think we have ever seen it move like that before.
As the avatar rounded the next alleyway crushing another group of skeletons, I got another idea. Since the skeletons never drop anything but bone, perhaps...
I had the avatar move towards the pile intending to cut its hands on the sharp shards, a small amount of damage appeared on the HP bar as blood was drawn. "Now..." I tried thinking about what I wanted it to do with the blood. Forming the image in my mind, my avatar did the same. Additional blood was drawn from the wound, causing a little more damage to the HP bar as a red crystal knuckle duster formed. I can't bring weapons into this game, but it appears I can create them. "Hehe~ HAHAHA!!"
With the new equipment in hand, the blood-colored avatar continued tearing through the streets of the Ancient City before finally arriving.
The Skeleton General sat atop its skeletal steed surrounded by the other skeletons who formed the arena. When the avatar was close enough, the General shrieked as its eyes glowed before unleashing a thrusting attack. Before the attack met its mark, the avatar closed the distance quickly, sliding underneath the skeletal steed and dodging out of the way of the strange beam, the fight had begun. Now on the opposite side of the steed, the avatar jumped up delivering a punch to the rider's head.
Cracks formed on its unprotected skull and on the crystal knuckle duster. The force from the blow was enough to push the avatar away before the General swept its nce towards the side. Even so the attack didn't do too much damage to the Skeleton General's HP bar.
"Next was..." After this, its next attack was either a stomp from the horse or another thrust. The blue fmes surrounded the Skeleton General's skull starting to surge as energy began to build up on its nce. "It's another thrust."
Diving closer to the skeletal horse, the thrust attack again missed as my avatar delivered a flurry of blows to its right leg and ribs. The steed was brought down from the damage allowing me to deliver another punch to the General's skull.
An idea occurred to me as the punch connected but I was unable to complete it before the General and its mount recovered.
The horse charged forward while I kept the avatar out of its path. The general gave a wide swing of its nce as they turned around. The pair began charging back and forth around the arena, I was doing the best I could to stay out of their path.
When they finally came to a stop I unched the avatar towards the Generals head. With the third punch connecting dealing another substantial amount of damage, but not enough to kill it.
This time I implemented the idea, the blood crystal knuckle duster in the avatar's hand began to reform, HP was drawn from the bar as a blood-red orb took shape inside the Skeleton General's skull. Another sizeable chunk of HP disappeared from my avatar as the ball grew inside its head before crystalizing shattering its skull mold, dealing critical damage to the Skeleton General's weak point. The HP bar above the Skeleton General's hit zero as it crumbled to dust, leaving behind a single red crystal.
With the boss dead, a sound effect pyed followed by an announcement appeared on top of the screen.
“Killed Legendary Skeleton General. Discovered Skeleton General Dimensional Crystal.”
Or that's my interpretation of the indecipherable writing.
With the boss dead, the surrounding skeletons closed in before they were equally subsequently dealt with, leaving me with just the crystal in the ancient street.
"Now what?" I don't think I should absorb this thing alone. Who knows what sort of effect that might have?
END
