The Mad Rat’s Lab

“Strategic retreat!”

At my signal, everyone starts retreating, running away from the Calamity seated on the majestic throne. I’m not sure if they’re following my orders or if they’re just doing their best to stay alive. Nobody wants to die a pathetic death, after all.

“Kyaaah! I don’t want to die yet!”

“Is that a fire skill? Which skill is it? I’m curious.”

“This is one dangerous attack, moooohahaha!”

It’s been confirmed. They don’t give a shit about my orders. Well, as long as we survive, it’s all good.

Since our reaction was swift we might be able to escape unscathed... As long as the Calamity doesn’t give chase.

After all, when we were found, we were right next to a corner in the tunnel. Most skills require line of sight to control, there aren’t many skills that auto-target, and I don’t think an area of effect skill will have a big enough area to hit us after impacting the wall.

I exhale, relieved. “Haa… we survived. We retreated in tim–” As per usual, as soon as I open my mouth, the worst ends up happening. “Nobody told me about this shit!”

Multiple red bolts appear from the opening to the lava area, leaving fire trails behind them. Instead of hitting the wall directly as you would expect from a skill like that, they turn to the left and start chasing after us.

A few of them do hit the walls, creating burning surfaces, but the rest of the fire bolts continue flying in our direction. This is a sign that the Calamity can only control them for as long as he has line-of-sight. 

If there’s one problem, it’s that there’s no way we can evade all the remaining bolts in this straight passage.

“Do something, Evil Mastermind. I thought you were famous for your impeccable plans, why are we in so much trouble, then!?”

The annoying Fairy shouts right next to my ear in her annoying high-pitched voice. Since I’m faster than her, she has grabbed my fur and uses me as a free ride. Nothing new here.

“Didn’t we agree you’d stop calling me like that?”

“I-it doesn’t matter right now!”

“To me, it does!”

Dying a horrifying and pathetic death is acceptable. Being recognized by my crazy followers isn’t. The main difference? The latter can negatively affect my mental health while the former can’t.

Not anymore, I mean. I’ve died too many pathetic deaths for it to affect me.

“Koala, do you think there will be mooooooore attacks to follow? I can try something but it’ll leave me exposed.” Moo asks me a question.

“Hm… No, I don’t think so...” Unless it follows after us, the Calamity shouldn’t have line-of-sight to us. It shouldn’t be able to target us after this. And if he does chase after us… Um, good luck, I guess? “Do what you can Moo, we’re relying on you.”

Finally! Finally, someone who’s helpful! I was starting to lose hope in my team.

“Leave it to Mooooooo!” He pats his chest and turns around, facing the incoming attack. “Hide behind me.”

“Uh, sure.” I don’t see any reason to deny him.

Balmy and I hide behind his enormous back as quickly as we can. But Muribelle, mesmerized by the incoming fire, doesn’t move, leaving me any option but to pull her in.

“Are you crazy?” We all know she is. This is what experts call a ‘rhetorical question’. “Come here!”

Sizzling sounds are produced as soon as I touch her.

“W-whaaaaa…!?”

There’s a moment where only Muribelle’s surprised shout breaks the silence, followed by a large fire burst. Fire expands, covering the whole passage. But for some reason, it doesn’t expand behind Moo. It’s almost as if he were an indestructible wall.

After the intense visual effects calm down, we find ourselves surrounded by a sea of fire. The only place not covered by fire is the triangular area behind Moo, where we are standing.

“As expected, it counted as a single attack! Moooohahaha!”

Moo laughs, observing his surroundings. For some reason, there’s no fire sticking to him either. Everything the fire touched is now burning except for him. The only difference between now and then is that half his HP bar has vanished.

Exactly half, to be more precise.

“How can this be possible… Ah! This is… this must be…”

It must be the combination of the Impenetrable Wall and Health Trick skills. The first is indispensable to be able to block AoE attacks and skills with your body and protect your teammates.

The second, you can see here:

Health Trick fully negates the damage and effects of any skill, but it has two significant drawbacks: it costs 50% of your HP to activate; and can be activated a single time in the same battle, realistically speaking.

Being one of the ‘last resort’ skills, it requires impeccable timing to execute properly. The cost is steep but allows for recovery, and it has no limit of uses or permanent drawbacks. It’s also possible to pay the activation cost beforehand if you know you’ll be attacked.

Negating all status effects can be more important depending on the situation than the damage reduction. Hard crowd control can force you out of a fight.

The two skills synergize perfectly well to protect your team. More so if your Champion’s body is big.

As good as they are, I’d never pick either of those, though. I’m not a tank, and I’ll never be.

“Good job, Moo! I knew you were reliable…” I pat his shoulder. “...unlike those two.”

I say the latter part in a low voice so they can hear me. Nobody can’t convince me of the contrary. After all, Balmy is still grabbing onto my fur with her whole body. And Muribelle is… she’s… better see for yourself.

“Wow. That was AMAZING! What skill was that? Can we see it again? Do you think that player will show it to me if I ask nicely? Yeah, let’s go! Let’s go and ask him. Come on, everyone, we must– Mfhghft…!”

“Shut up. Are you crazy!?” Again, this is a rhetorical question.

I grab her and cover her mouth with my hand. I do so because she’s too loud, and to prevent her from running back to that Calamity.

The sizzling sound of my burning flesh reaches my ears.

“Why don’t we familiarize ourselves with the dungeon first? I believe we should take a look around, defeat some monsters, maybe find another player team to help us… and then, we can take another try at approaching a Calamity.” I propose. “What do you say?”

 

---

 

“Chain Lighting! Chain Lightning!”

The plant slime swarm succumbs to my amazing lighting show and scatters into a carpet of leaves, leaving my teammates astonished.

“My spells are unstoppable, fufufu. Hahaha!” 

What is a plant slime? It’s a monster that has the shape of a slime, the speed of a slime, and the behavior of a slime… but is made out of leaves.

As I explained before, the monsters in this Mystery Event look different from usual, making it harder to identify them. The group of plant slimes I defeated is just one of the weird monsters inhabiting this labyrinth.

By the way, I was the one to give them that name. We don’t know what’s their actual name because monsters in this dungeon don’t have anything displayed on top of their heads.

“It feels great to be able to kill my enemies…” I wipe away my nonexistent tears. “... I’m so, so, so, so happy…” I’m not exaggerating, this is how I feel. “... It’s been so long since I could enjoy it so much…”

Now that I think about it, isn’t this the first time? The first time since I started playing DMA that I can kill my enemies with Chain Lightning.

The upgrade I took for Chain Lighting, Conductivity, makes it so the damage isn’t reduced after every jump. It is as powerful as I expected, further expanding my power against hordes of monsters.

What I’m not so sure about is the Capacitors skill. I was so sure it’d be broken! But in fact, it’s a waste of MP. It forces me to use the skills consecutively, possibly wasting a lot more MP than required. The bonus damage is nice, but it isn’t worth it. It’s a good thing I tried before committing to it.

I’m sure Capacitors is one of those skills that work better on monsters, which don’t have to worry if they use all their MP in one battle. After all, for them, it’s usually either win or die. They don’t care about saving resources for the ‘next battle’.

Also, from the few times I’ve used Chain Lightning, I discovered I actually miss Shared Voltage. The excess damage being transferred to a close enemy is invaluable.

They do say you don’t know what you have until you lose it, don’t they?

Although missing Shared Voltage doesn’t mean I can’t enjoy killing my enemies with Chain Lightning, my main skill. It’s the contrary. Knowing how it feels to be forced to leave all enemies alive, I appreciate it all the more.

“This isn’t fair! You didn’t allow me to show off my skills. And precisely now, that we’ve found monsters made out of plants, perfect for my fire spells…!”

‘Scram, Muribelle! I want to savor this moment!’ I shoo her away with my hand.

“Aaah, I feel like crying… this fulfilling sensation…”

“Koala. I never expected you to act like this. From laughing to crying, to behaving like a maniac… It’s so different from the image I have of the famous Evil Mastermind…”

Now it’s time for Moo to interrupt me. And I don’t want to be called like that by a masochist like you!

“...I thought you would be cool, calculative. Always a step ahead of the others. What I’ve seen so far couldn’t be any more different.”

Can’t one enjoy this beautiful moment? Ugh, fine… I suppose I should defend myself.

“You’re wrong.”

“Wrong?”

“Yes. That’s just the image everyone gets for some reason I can’t understand. I’m not a mastermind, I’m a mad scientist. And as a mad scientist, I roleplay like you’ve seen so far. Everything other players say about preparing everything so they fall to my traps, or that I anticipate their actions, or that I know everything… That’s bullshit they make up.”

“Is that so…?” Moo doesn’t look convinced.

“I’m in a similar position as you,” I continue. “I can’t understand why they see me like that either… I go by three words: random, unexpected, and fun. Everything else is just the invader’s delusio–”

Balmy interrupts me with one of her usual shouts. “Kyaaaah! Stop lying! There’s no way what I experienced was random!”

“Aagh! Can you stop shouting right next to my ea–”

“It simply can’t be. I refuse to accept you weren’t watching us and manipulating everything from the back.”

“But it’s the truth… I’ve never done that before…”

…except against that orc player or when I’m bored and want to mess with people. Of course, I keep the last part to myself.

“Stop lying!”

“I’m not lying.”

“Kyaaaaaah!”

Ah, here goes my eardrums. If this were reality, I’m sure they would have burst.

 

“Don’t assume all you see is designed that way, especially when it comes to the bad parts. It’s possible the player made a mistake when creating the dungeon and he or she didn’t expect that part to be so difficult. Or that they didn’t take into account the possibility of you bringing a certain type of support monster that messes up all the dungeon’s plans. Be lenient when it comes to evaluating the dungeons you step into.

This applies unless you’re inside The Mad Rat’s Lab.

There, there are no mistakes. Everything is meticulously planned and prepared to inflict as much pain upon you as possible, both physical and psychological. The Evil Mastermind spares no one.”

- Tip from an anonymous DMA player.