132 Chapter 132 (1/2)
Chapter 132
The moment the announcement occurred a bright red portal appeared next to the portal that was the entrance to his third floor. It swirled with a chaotic energy, very obviously different from the normal portals players took. James watched, half expecting players to burst through the portals, as Stryke force and Axel's duo made their way to the portal. They had been given a five minute warning to the portal, and all turned back towards the entrance to the floor. However, both parties had been a little further away, so they still had some time to travel.
While they were making their way back to the portal, James began scanning his other instances. Surely, given the fact that portals would be being created across all of his instances and floors, someone, somewhere, was already getting invaded. James was pretty certain given the nature of BLANK's player base, that there had been more than a few that would have been actively waiting around within close proximity of their floors portal, in hopes that the invasion gates would spawn in the same location.
Sure enough, James noticed a few of his low level instances were flashing red. Considering they normally did not do that, he was pretty sure those were the instances that had invasions ongoing currently. Well, that and the large red 10/10 above it that he guessed denoted the players that were invading his floor already.
”Right, let's see what this is about.” He said, excitement flowing as he pulled up the first instance that caught his eye. It was an instance for his first floor, and showed it currently had 10 invaders, along with 37(10*)/50 for the base player count. Ever since James had unleased Charles the Dicken on the adventurers in the mass world boss wipe, he had left his instances at max. Meaning 2,000 players could currently be on his first floor alone.
”What type of players do you think-” Rue started as he pulled up the instance in question, before she paused, her lips pursed. When he pulled up the instance, he had done so in a zoomed-out form. From there, they were able to make out the extremely familiar open world expanse that was his first floor. He was also able to see a mass of players standing around the front entrance to his dungeon. The invasion gate that existed for this instance was no longer swirling a chaotic red, but instead was a solid black. He figured that meant the (10*) he saw for his instance count was that 10 of his players had already invaded the enemy dungeon as well.
His thought was confirmed as he saw an additional screen option for the instance. Even as he scanned the floor, wondering just where the invaders were, he grabbed the additional instance with a tentacle and pulled the window up. Right beside the instance window he was currently viewing, another one popped up, showing 10 of his players, evident by their mismatching demonic gear, completely out of place in a new dungeon.
As much as he wanted to look at that instance, commotion suddenly broke out on his instance with the invaders, pulling his attention back to that screen. The chaos that had caught his attention, was a massive fireball erupting over the cluster of players. Off in the distance, James could make out a party of five players rushing towards the invasion gate. These players were definitely not from his dungeon. These players were definitely not here to play nice.
The party in question moved rapidly towards the larger mass of players, completely undaunted by the overwhelming number of players they were facing. As James pulled up their information, he understood why. All five of the players were in the high 20s, whereas James's players in this instance ranged from level 10 to 20. Most of his higher-level players were currently on the second floor, as most players decided to transition to training on his second floor just as they hit level 20. Afterall, their growth usually slowed quite a bit on the first floor, considering Old Man Jenkins capped out at level 15.
As such, the fireball that erupted over the mass of James's players managed to wipe out a good amount of the lower leveled players, who just didn't have the defenses needed to survive an attack like that. The others turned towards their attackers, but their reflexes and responses showed they were strangers to PvP. The invaders were not.
After the initial fireball, meant as an AOE attack to take out the weaker players and apply a good amount of damage across the board, the mage of the party slowed his approach, allowing the two tankier members to step forward, placing themselves in the way of any and all attacks. One of the tanks, covered from head to toe in what appeared to be armor fashioned after a…gummy bear, let out a loud roar towards the crowd of adventurers. From his form, waves of visible energy flowed towards James's players. The move was a taunt, and James saw a few react quick enough to avoid. Those that didn't, began attacking the tank with everything they had.
Of course, the man knew that was coming. He was a tank, and that was his job. With a dark smile on his face, he lifted his shield, a bright, multicolored circular shield that seemed to be fashioned after a jawbreaker. The shield and his form glowed once more. James checked the man's stats, and confirmed he was a shielder. The skill he was activating, was his cooldown that was going to greatly reduce the damage he took. It was something James had watched Oak do multiple times.
The man beside him began glowing as well, and James watched as a glowing eyeball appeared on the center of the man's shield, which was also formed from candy, though shaped like a tower shield, instead of the circular shield his ally was using. The eyeball on his shield seemed to blink for a moment, as light encapsulated both himself, and his friend. It seemed that man was playing as a Paladin, and had used his own cooldown, which linked himself to an ally. As long as they were linked, until the cooldown ended, he and the ally he was linked to would share the damage that was received. Meaning they would both essentially be taking half damage from the attacks. At the same time, the golden light would begin healing them both at a rate of 1% of the Paladin's hp per second.