After finishing the creation of the Chosen One, I went to ‘buy’ more ‘supplies’ and then remembered to open the remaining mutation capsules (presents). As I had expected, the rest were failures, so I didn’t miss anything important anyway.

  It doesn’t matter. What matters is that today is a new day, and it just happens to be the day I can start to create the new monsters.

  “Let’s start with the WDU units.”

  I’m itching to create a new monster, but if I were to start somewhere else, I would have to spend time designing and preparing the layout first, and I don’t want to waste time with that right now.

  If I create the monster first and then think where to put it, I tend to run into… let’s call them ‘unfortunate mismatches’. It happened a few times before, and I’m not proud of it. I think it’s better to go the other way around, to create the dungeon first and then fill it with monsters, because I can use it as inspiration.

  “This way, the monsters end up being more interesting.”

  I convince myself, ignoring the fact that I always change my reasoning to fit my current mood.

  Anyway. As I’m sure you all know, the first monster I’m going to create is the one that will appear in the house-sized incinerator right next to the mountain of chunk meat. But unlike any other monster I’ve created so far, this one will be very unique.

  …I know I say it often, but I swear it’s the truth!

  Why will this one be ‘unique’, you ask? Easy answer, my friend! It’s because this will be the first monster that will infinitely respawn! You’ll see what I mean later.

  “I’m sure the invaders are going to love it… Fufufu! Hahaha!” I burst out laughing, imagining their faces when they discover the truth.

  As always, I start by opening the dungeon menu and creating a new Hybrid Template. This time, the two units I’m using are the Ventis, a 120cp unit from the elementals, and the Shadow, from the demons and with a similar cp range, which just happens to be the same unit I used on my Champion.

  Furthermore, unlike almost every single unit I’ve ever used in my creations, this time I didn’t pick the two for the innate skills they possess—though I’m not going to deny the fact that they’re pretty good—, or their stats, but for how the units look.

  Yeah, baby. Aspect over mechanics, looks over functionality, hahaha!

  …I never thought I would ever say this.

  Oh, well, everyone matures as they grow older. Even me. Or should it be the other way around, that the older you get, the more you start to understand that what matters is what’s inside…?

  You know what? I don’t know, nor do I care.

  I had a very clear idea of how I wanted the unit to look, and the Ventis and Shadow combo were the units that better fit the theme.

  Having the image so clear, the first thing I do is set up the unit’s looks.

  The Ventis, as its name suggests, is a wind elemental. It looks like a small, chubby humanoid surrounded by wind effects, spinning around it in circles. The Shadow, on the other hand, is… well, it’s a shadow. A humanoid shadow with sharp claws, red eyes, and smoky tendrils coming out of its body.

  By combining the two, I achieve my objective: a small humanoid creature that’s pitch black and looks like it’s constantly spewing ash, dispersing it around itself.

  The fusion of the two looks exactly as I envisioned.

  “Hahaha… coming out of the incinerator, it couldn’t be anything but a monster made out of ash, don’t you agree?”

  Despite the theme, the monster ends up looking quite cute: small, all black, and with red eyes. I’m sure Clara will like them.

  Next, choose the skills.

  “It can only be that one, right? Yeah, only Ignite makes sense.”

  Many people think smoke and ashes produced by fire aren’t hot because they don’t burn. Many people are wrong. I remember reading somewhere that volcanic ash can reach several hundred to a thousand degrees Celsius…

  Equally hot as actual burning fire, if not more.

  Anyway, what I’m trying to say here is that it makes perfect sense that my ash monster will use Ignite to burn the invaders. And not only any Ignite, but the Ignite.

  Do you remember when I was upgrading my Champion a long time ago and wanted to upgrade Chain Lightning? There were several upgrades, and picking them all would have made the skill absurdly powerful, but it would have reduced the options available to me at the same time.

  If I had, my Champion would have turned into an hyper–specialist of sorts, something that isn’t a good idea for a Champion unless that’s your gimmick. But dungeon monsters don’t care about that shit. You can do whatever you want with them without consequences, and that’s what I’m going to do.

  Before I can upgrade any skill, I must give the monster one skill of each type, so… Let’s search for a fitting triggered and passive skills.

  I have somewhat of an idea what I’m looking for, so it doesn’t take much time to find good skills.

  Preparation is as straightforward as it sounds, and a perfect match for a unit that relies on a single skill. It’s even better than it sounds because I’m going to upgrade said skill to the limit.

  As for Weakening Aura… The monster is supposed to constantly emit ashes and smoke. That smoke makes the invaders choke and distracts them, reducing their damage… or something like that…?

  I don’t know, okay!? I just thought it would be cool and fit the theme, so stop glaring at me!

  “Khm! Let’s move on to the main topic. Ignite… Let’s pick all the possible upgrades! Hahaha!”

  Most DMA skills have many upgrades available, and several upgrades can be further upgraded after the first. For example, when upgrading the damage of a skill, it usually unlocks another, even more powerful upgrade that increases the damage even further.

  I start to excitedly pick one upgrade after the other, when I realize that the cp cost is growing too much.

  “Aaah, what a shame…” I shake my head, “...this won’t do.”

  The final cp cost of this unit is very important; you’ll see why soon. That’s why I must keep it within a reasonable margin, and why I can’t upgrade Ignite as much as I wish to.

  In the end, I have to settle for just four upgrades, raising Ignite’s level to five, and the monster’s total level to seven.

  Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

  The Intensify and Persistent upgrades need no explanation.

  Propagate is also easy to understand, but has something that must be noted: it can spread to allied units, or even to the unit that used Ignite in the first place. Oh, and also that when it spreads, it’s as if the skill was just activated, which means it deals the full damage and lasts for the full duration.

  Cursed can be considered a drawback, but I think it’s the most important upgrade of all. After all, who wants to see their cherished unit become useless just because its one-trick-pony nature gets countered?

  “And with this, it’s finished. The ultimate Ignite user! Fufufu! Hahaha!”

  I envision my monsters spreading terror throughout my dungeon. A single touch from them can spell doom to unprepared visitors…

  …Or to anyone, if they’re unlucky and the fire starts spreading.

  Other than these skills, my monster also has the innate skills of the two units. Wind Elemental, which has a 10% chance to negate any attack, and Mana Core, which regenerates MP. Both are nice, but not indispensable additions.

  I finish the Template by writing the name and saving it. I call it Ash Fiend.

  “It’s alive! It’s ALIVE! Hahaha!”

  Well, not yet, because I haven’t even started the creation of the unit, but it’s as if it were. I start the production of a few Ash Fiends and move on to the next point in the list.

  Now comes the troublesome part. What troublesome part, you ask? It’s, of course, to put them into my dungeon.

  I talked about the cp cost quite a lot today, a stark contrast to my usual monsters, where I don’t care much at all about their cost, but there was a solid reason for it. And that reason is none other than…

  “My first monster arena! I’m so excited!”

  Yep, that’s right. It’s because of the monster arena. Although this isn’t the first monster arena I’ve ever created, it is the first one I’m going to put into my dungeon.

  Monster Arenas are expensive. It depends on several factors, but those that infinitely respawn monsters are crazy expensive. The cost of the units put into them is multiplied severalfold, which means a single level difference can raise the total cost by thousands of cp.

  I do have a mountain of cp at hand, more than enough to cover the cost, but I can’t spend too much on just one dungeon element, can I? I have plenty of other stuff I want to create!

  After fiddling with the monster arena options for a while, I settle on the following.

  Once at the start of the Dungeon Invasion and again every ten minutes, an Ash Fiend will be born from the incinerator. Then, through a set of ventilation conduits connecting to the rest of the dungeon, the Ash Fiend will leave the incinerator and start roaming the dungeon randomly.

  The cycle will repeat until the players deactivate the incinerator by pulling a massive lever I’ve just created, placed right next to it, ‘clearing’ the monster arena.

  “Ah, shit! I forgot to modify their AI…!”

  I quickly make the necessary changes and return to the monster arena.

  Usually, a monster arena is limited to a single room, but by increasing the cost, I can make it so that the whole dungeon is included. Yet another reason why I couldn’t raise their cp cost… Sigh.

  After a lot of fiddling and over 20% of my cp gone, I finally get the monster arena to work as I want to.

  “That’s one thing done,” I say, wiping the non-existent sweat off my eyebrows. “The next is the slimes near the rainbow pool—”

  I stop mid-sentence, a sudden crazy idea coming to mind.

  My whole body reacts as if by instinct, an influx of images flashing in my mind as my hands and feet bring me to a certain storage zone.

  This is where I save the rarest and most special bodies, which I got by chance during Dungeon Invasions. They have the most powerful innate skills, but are too rare or high-level for me to normally capture, so I save them for a special occasion.

  I still wasn’t completely sure how to improve the slime pool zone, but I’ve come up with an idea so crazy that I have no option but to implement it.

  It came thanks to having worked with the monster arena.

  “Fufufu…” My eyes are glued to two of those bodies, scanning them expertly. “Your time has finally come, my dear babies.”

  What comes next is blurry. In a frenzy, I forget about everything else and just create the most ridiculous of silly monsters I can think of.

  What monsters am I using? It’s the Swarm Slime and the Dragonborn.

  “A little bit of this, a little bit of that… Alarms in all laboratories… the pool as the origin…”

  As my brain works, there’s a single word that keeps repeating itself, over and over: slimelanche. Slimelanche, an avalanche of slimes.

  Slimelanche. Slimelanche. Slimelanche…

  The product of all my effort is pure art. Something so ridiculous that only a mad scientist like me could have created. Slimelanche, a laboratory accident went terribly, terribly wrong.

  “Hahaha…! This is going to be amazing!”

  The idea goes like this. I’ll explain it as concisely as I can.

  Among all the laboratory systems, the most important and complex is the stasis capsule liquid production and recycling. It is indispensable to keep the captured bodies alive, after all.

  But precisely because of how important it is, if something goes wrong with it, it goes very wrong. By very wrong, I mean an apocalyptic game-ending scenario where everyone dies.

  From now on, after about thirty minutes after the invasion starts, there is a chance the system will ‘malfunction’, starting a Slimelanche.

  What is a Slimelanche, you ask? I’m glad you asked, my friend.

  A Slimelanche is a catastrophe of epic proportions. From the rainbow pool, an endless stream of self-replicating Dragon Breathing slimes is born, flooding the entire dungeon until everything else is devoured. And the only way to stop it is to destroy the rainbow pool itself, placed right at the origin.

  Can you imagine it? A never-ending flood of slimes, all of which can share their HP with nearby slimes—you have to kill them all at the same time—and breathe fire like a dragon?

  Basically, the Slimelanche is a death sentence to anyone who encounters it.

  To warn of the incoming danger, as soon as the Slimelanche starts, alarms will start blaring all around my dungeon, and all monsters will switch to ‘hibernation mode’, which means the dungeon will disable their AI, making them incapable of doing anything.

  Those outside of the player’s view will instead despawn, and will respawn in case the Slimelanche is successfully overcome. Something that will most likely never happen.

  I do this because when the Slimelanche comes, I want the invaders to be able to focus all their attention on it.

  “Unless they’re usual customers, most players won’t ever find it, but if they do… Fufufu! Hahaha!”

  I know I said that monster arenas are extremely expensive and whatnot, but there’s a way to make them cheaper. If the chance for them to activate is low, the cost is reduced by a proportionate amount.

  The last thing remaining is to adjust the Slimelanche probability. “Hmm… How low is too low, and how high is too high…?”

  I must find the perfect balance between cost and triggerability.