Dungeon Day 261 to 343 - Continues

  Aside from the beasts that would roam the Rolling Hills, the only things in the zone would be ogres and trolls. There would be some variety in their combat style as adventurers progressed from camp to camp, but they would still be ogres and trolls. Dan hoped that sticking with the same enemy types and their large sizes would give adventurers a small amount of leverage to use.

  Even so, Dan didn’t plan to make the zone easy at all. In terms of difficulty, the Rolling Hills would be one of the most difficult areas. He planned to make sure that message was passed across nicely by having the town folks, and even the giant family warn adventurers of the fact. The warning wouldn’t be direct but more subtle warnings of the dangers of trolls and ogres.

  Of course, if these subtle warnings weren’t enough for adventurers, they would find out the hard way when they began fighting the ogres and trolls. The fact was that even a low-ranked ogre was still a difficult fight for an adventurer of an equivalent rank. Adding to this fact was that the ogres wouldn’t be traveling around alone. The majority of the ogres would travel around between groups of two to five. Which would hopefully force adventurers to group up or at least fight with more tactics.

  Now, why was Dan focusing on ogres so much? Well, the first camp and its surrounding area were only going to be patrolled by ogres. It was a way for Dan to limit the difficulty of the fights and hopefully give adventurers a taste of what would follow.

  To make things even fairer, Dan didn’t plan to give these starting ogres armor. Otherwise, he feared they might crush the adventures too easily. Also, he planned to throw Low and Mid D Rank ogres at the adventurers compared to later on where they would only find Mid D Rank enemies.

  The final aspect adventurers wouldn’t realize was of concern until later on was that the starting camp and its spawns would have less mana. After the first camp, Dan planned to ensure all monsters had Mana Storage, further extending the fighting prowess of his monsters. Was it a bit much? Yes, but that’s what Dan needed. He wanted the area to be a real challenge, and that was one of the best ways to make it happen.

  Looking to make the basic ogre minion and start his creation spree, Dan was incredibly amused by what he found and was thankful he could fix it.

  ?? Crystal Notice ??

  ?? Humanoid Statblock ??

  Rank: Low D Rank.

  Name: Kajuk.

  Type: Humanoid - Ogre.

  Choice: Troger Clan Fighter.

  Size: Large.

  Hierarchy: Minion.

  Arcane Mana: 150/150.

  Arcane Mana Regen: +6 Per Minute.

  Pure Arcane Mana: 75/75.

  Pure Arcane Mana Conversion: +3 Per Minute.

  Innate Abilities: 7.

  Darkvision. Legendary Stupidity. Giant Blooded. Flesh Gluttons. Furious Temper. Presences. Increased Intelligence.

  Proficiencies: 4.

  Club. Experienced. Basic Tactics. Body Enhancement.

  Spells: 2.

  Body Enhancement - General and Strength.

  Techniques: 3.

  Tough Skin. Deafening Roar. Brutal Smash.

  Respawn Timer: 2 Hours.

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  Respawn Cost: 30 Mana.

  Creation Cost: 61 Mana.

  ??

  One thing Dan hadn't been expecting from the large, tanned skin and ugly humanoids was to find out they were legitimately stupid. Even more hilarious was the title the system had given this lack of intelligence. Apparently, something had gone wrong when they were originally created by whatever mix of giants and other creatures gave birth to them because their brains were not there at all. Thankfully, Dan could give them intelligence to counteract this and cancel out the stupid factor. Their new Increased Intelligence didn’t do too much for them, but it was something. Also, it's not like Dan hadn’t planned for it to some extent.

  Dan had figured they would have some giant ancestry or something else, and they did via their Giant Blooded ability which caused their inherent size and power. Dan also knew they would probably have some intelligence deficiency from how some had acted in his fight with them so long ago. He even suspected they had temperament issues, but what he didn’t think about was the Flesh Glutton's ability. That particular ability made them completely okay with chomping down on any type of flesh, even their own.

  To further help his creations and further ensure they gave the adventurers a good what for, Dan had given the ogres the Basic Tactics proficiency. The proficiency wouldn’t do too much due to their intelligence, but Dan had pushed it to work with Experienced to make the ogres very competent fighting machines because that’s all Dan needed them to be.

  The first camp was an introduction to what would follow, and hopefully, adventurers realized things would only get harder. As such, he didn’t need the ogres to use many tactics or anything else. All they needed to do was be a wall of fighting ferocity for adventurers to climb over at their own risk.

  This wall of ferocity would come to an intense end when or if the adventurers finally managed to approach the camp. The first camp wouldn’t be as defended as the other two but it still wouldn’t be a joke. All three camps would only have one entrance, which would force adventurers to at least secure their route of escape. Of course, Dan hoped they would use their brains and maybe dig their own tunnel. Now, that would be interesting. Sadly, Dan doubted they would do that since it was simply too time-consuming.

  Inside the cave, they would find a tented area with large makeshift walls preventing them easy access. This small, fortified fort would be filled with the ogres they had fought so far, and a few new armored ones hinting at what was to come.

  Naturally, the adventurers would need to raid the fort, which would be a grueling fight. And for balance and safety sakes, Dan would have one or two mini-bosses who, upon defeat along with the final camp boss, could cause all other ogres to flee. Obviously, adventurers wouldn’t know that the first time around unless they actually used their brains.

  Dan planned to give hints about such things via conversation patrolling ogres would have and also by allowing adventurers to speak to each other about it afterward. It didn’t really matter to him if they knew that bit of information because they still had to get to and defeat the bosses. Also, it’s not like knowing the young giant wasn’t in the first camp would help them because nothing would progress system and quest-wise without the defeat of the first camp. Finally, it's not like the first boss was going to be a piece of cake.

  ?? Crystal Notice ??

  ?? Humanoid Statblock ??

  Rank: Mid D Rank.

  Name: Okug.

  Type: Humanoid - Ogre.

  Choice: Troger Camp Leader.

  Size: Large.

  Hierarchy: Boss.

  Arcane Mana: 2000/2000.

  Arcane Mana Regen: +8 Per Minute.

  Pure Arcane Mana: 1000/1000.

  Pure Arcane Mana Conversion: +4 Per Minute.

  Innate Abilities: 10.

  Darkvision. Legendary Stupidity. Giant Blooded. Flesh Gluttons. Furious Temper. Presences. Increased Intelligence. Increased Vitality. Mana Storage. Trogrer Leader.

  Proficiencies: 6.

  Medium Armor. Great Axe. Veteran. Basic Cunning. Advanced Tactics. Body Enhancement.

  Spells: 2.

  Body Enhancement - General and Strength.

  Techniques: 4.

  Piercing Blade. Thundering Stomp. Whirling Axe. Deafening Shout. Cleave.

  Boss Phase 1: Unhindered. Partial Heal. Full Cleanse.

  Respawn Timer: Conditional.

  Respawn Cost: 101 Mana.

  Creation Cost: 203 Mana.

  ??

  To begin with, Dan had made sure the boss had plenty of vitality to tank all sorts of hits and plenty of mana to spam his abilities. Then, he had given it some nice armor to make it that much tankier and plenty of combat proficiencies to make it an absolute threat. Typically, Dan pushed for his monsters to give adventurers a good what for and target those pesky casters or healers when needed, but for the most part, he didn’t want to cause many deaths.

  However, the boss would be different. There would be plenty of targeting and significant injuries, which could lead to death. Dan really meant for the Rolling Hills to be incredibly difficult compared to other areas in his dungeon, and the boss would be one of the best ways to show that. Even if it didn’t have many techniques, the ones it did have were enough to destabilize adventurers, chop through defenses, and deal massive damage.

  Finally, the last thing Dan had done was the Boss Phase. If the boss got too debuffed or when it lost too much vitality, the phase would kick in. The phase would remove all debuffs, restore a good portion of its vitality, and give it a decent bit of resistance to certain types of magical debuffs.