The Mad Rat's Lab

Chapter 291 - I don’t like meat


"La, la, la…!" I happily sing, stopping to point at the meat grinder. "Throw more trash into the meat grinder, guys, hahaha!"

What am I doing right now? I'm glad you asked, my friend! I'm getting rid of some trash, as I promised.

What kind of trash? Human trash.

"La, la, la…! Happy, empty stasis capsules, ridden of the human plague… La, la, la…!"

Do you know what's the worst part of not being able to throw away all the bodies we, the Flesh Monstrosities, don't want? It's when they're full of useless humans. The purest, most useless trash of all units.

And as you might imagine, the best feeling is when you get rid of them to make space for actually useful units.

"Hahaha! Look at this! The body list is so small now!"

Although it makes me sad that I've almost completely emptied all my stasis capsules, it's still better than having them filled with trash.

Aah… I'll have to go for a 'harvest session' soon…

'I don't want to!'

'Shut up!'

I observe with glittering eyes as the grinding machine keeps absorbing body after body, and the list of all the useless humans I've dumped inside it, mostly Farmers, vanish into nothingness.

"Haha, get lost, human trash! Nobody likes you!"

Well, Ricard does. But he's crazy, so that's why. There's no need for further explanations.

After all the 'meat' is processed, I'm going to create two new monsters. Monster types, I mean. The number will, hopefully, be a lot higher.

Using the meat mountain I just created as the base, I'll introduce units that have a similar theme to them. I don't know if you remember or not, but there are very few units I can create using the meat grinders.

One of those is the Fleshlings, the headless, meat-like dogs; and this is in fact one of the two I'm going to create.

As for the other one…

"Fufufu! Hahaha…!" I start drooling. "My first real giant is about to make its appearance…!"

It isn't a real giant, but it is indeed larger than any of the units I've created so far.

Except for those with the Enlarge skill, but those don't count for obvious reasons… Oh, no, I'm wrong! The Overgorger, the Sealed Area's boss, is more or less as tall as this one… Well, it doesn't matter.

"My first real giant… fufufu…!"

I'm talking about none other than the Flesh Golem!

Standing proudly between three two four meters tall – I can adjust the height a bit –, the Flesh Golem is truly a giant made out of chunks of meat. At 1.000 cp to create it, I had to use a lot of bodies to reach that number.

And I mean A LOT.

Now you understand why I'm so happy. Processing such an amount of 'trash' into an incredible unit feels great.

As for any amount of cp over the 1.000 mark, I'll use it to create a few Fleshlings. Nothing is wasted. Here, we recycle everything.

Oh, and let's not forget I can give the Flesh Golem not only one or two, but three innate skills from all the units processed to make it!

Strength-wise, it'll be similar to the Amalgalms I've created, the three Hunters. But unlike with them, I can't fully customize its appearance, and the stats are fixed, regardless of which units I use.

"Now I just have to think about what skills I want to give it…"

Yes, you're right. I didn't think about it at all. My thoughts went from a giant pile of meat to 'let's create meat monsters', and from a disposal area to 'let's get rid of some trash'. That's as far as I've gone.

Still, I do have a tiny inkling of what I want to do with the Fleshlings, so I'll start with that.

"It doesn't matter if you start with the big monster or the adds as long as they complement each other, right?"

I open the Template menu and create a new one. After selecting the Fleshling as the unit, I immediately start selecting the skills. Their purpose is but a single one: to distract the invaders by being as annoying as possible while the Flesh Golem does the actual work.

So I obviously start by choosing skills that fit the theme.

Yelp (Active skill) Cost: 5 EP, 5 MP Release a pathetic yelp that makes the target unit deal 20% less damage the next time they target you. The effect of this skill doesn't stack, and its effects end after 5 seconds.

Roar (Active skill) Cost: 20 EP, 20 MP Release a taunting roar that affects all enemy units within 10 meters. Until the affected units target you, they deal 10% less damage with all attacks and skills. The effect of this skill doesn't stack, multiple instances of this skill can't stack, and its effects end after 5 seconds.

These two skills, Yelp and Roar, serve opposite purposes. One to avoid being attacked, and the other to incentivise it. By putting the two together, the invaders will never know if it's best to attack the closest Fleshling, another one, or simply ignore them altogether.

This is any perfectionist player's nightmare. I know of a few players that would truly hate it if they had to fight against them because it prevents efficiency, Ricard being a prime example.

In general, Yelp is considered a dead skill. One that's useless regardless of the situation. The damage reduction is percentual, which doesn't help against weaker units, and only affects a single enemy. Of course, this should be an advantage against stronger opponents, but… does it make a difference if you take 20% less damage when the damage you take is higher than your maximum HP? Furthermore, it has a set duration, unlike other skills like Fortify, which can be used once and last until the unit takes damage.

But not here. Here, Yelp isn't useless. Not when its purpose isn't damage reduction, but psychological warfare.

But, of course, I can't give a unit two active skills until it has one each of active, triggered, and passive skills. For the remaining two types, I choose Indomitable Will to ensure they'll survive at least one lethal attack, and Too Gross to Look At for the same reason I always give my monsters said skill.

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

Oh, yeah! And let's not forget the two innate skills!

Although the useless humans, especially the Farmers, are always accumulating in my stasis capsules thanks to my Silent Kidnappers doing their jobs, they aren't the only ones. Basic units from every faction get captured too, although most of them come from the other newbie-friendly factions: the dwarves, elves, orcs (goblins in this case), and demons.

The undead should be included in the list, too, but since I can't capture their units…

It's thanks to this that I can keep increasing the number of my basic mobs passively, without having to lift a finger. The Goblimp Pests and Demonic Swarmers are the ones benefiting the most from this.

You might think this is completely unrelated to the Fleshlings I'm creating, but you're wrong. Because it's thanks to this that I've gotten my hands on an indispensable unit with a very annoying skill…

Yes! I'm talking about the Goblin's innate skill: Slippery!

Slippery (Innate passive skill) You have a 20% chance of avoiding attacks that deal enough damage to kill you. Only works if the attack deals more damage than 30% of your maximum HP.

Which, paired with another extremely annoying innate skill called It Wasn't Me, from a spare Pixie donor left over from when I created the Beexies, will make the Fleshlings very, VERY annoying to deal with.

"That's their purpose, so all's fine, right? Hahaha!" Regardless, the ones to suffer will be the invaders and not me.

Oh, by the way. If you're curious about how the Fleshlings will use Yelp and Roar without a head or mouth… Dear friend, some things are better left unknown.

Now I just have to come up with a name for them.

It's tricky. Since they should be naturally occurring monsters (lore-wise), I can't give them a complex name. But I can't leave it as 'Fleshling' either, because it'll cause problems down the road…

"Meatlings… Too lame. And I already have a critter called Annoyer… Hmm…"

Don't you find it funny when the biggest hurdle is the name? You've finished everything else, which is a lot more work in comparison, but the name is what stops you from continuing.

"Rotling sounds nice, but it makes you think of poison, or at least a horrible stench, which doesn't fit the– Ooooooh…! I know what to do!"

I can solve this very easily, can't I? I just need to make them smell, hahaha!

Stench (Passive skill) Other units within 10 meters are slowed by 20% when moving closer to you. This skill doesn't stack and doesn't work on allied units.

Since the Rotlings will likely move around, trying to surround the invaders, Stench will probably slow them all the time, regardless of where they are or where they try to go. And let me tell you: 20% sounds like nothing, but it's very annoying when you're trying to fight and dodge attacks.

This is how the Rotlings end up looking after I save the Template.

Rotling (Lv 5) HP 294 (210) STA 28 (20) SOU 11 (8) EP 252 (180) MP 168 (120) STR 28 (20) CON 26 (19) AGI 40 (29) SPI 15 (11) WIL 19 (14) DEX 14 (10) SPD 7 INT 3 COM 1 Skills Active: Roar, Yelp. Triggered: Indomitable Will. Passive: Stench, Too Gross to Look At, It Wasn't Me (Innate), Slippery (Innate).

"Now for the big bad boss!" Boss-like monster. Stat-wise. For my current level. "Hmm… huh…"

The main purpose of all this was to get rid of all the trash. Although using one or two good units with the desired skills to create the Flesh Golem would make sense, I didn't have the time to go get them. So I'll have to make do with what I have at hand right now.

"If the Rotlings are here for stalling and disturbing, the Flesh Golem must be the main fighting force. Killing machine or inevitable death? Hmm… which one will be better…?"

I kind of like the idea of a giant meat golem smashing the invaders with its huge fist and turning them into part of the meat pile. This means burst damage.

Now I just need to decide on the innate skills, as well as the normal ones, and the AI.

So, basically, everything but the looks. Which doesn't mean much when the monster's aspect is already decided by the game.

Oh, right. Did I tell you? The Flesh Golem looks exactly like you would expect. A giant humanoid made out of chunks of meat.

Unlike the Stitched, it doesn't look like it has body parts of different creatures stuck together, though. Instead, it's like all the meat has been smushed into burly muscles and a wide torso, with bones showing below in various places. It has no skin, but it isn't as disgusting as you would expect. Somehow, the lack of skin fits the golem and makes it look menacing instead of disgusting.

Well, it is somewhat disgusting, but not human-without-skin disgusting levels.

"Let's focus, Andreu. Focus!" I slap my cheeks. "Alright! Let's go!"

For starters, I select a random orc's Bloodlust skill. Perfect to give the Flesh Golem an enraged-like behavior. I'd love to give it the Divine Mark skill, but alas, I've got no spare celestial right now. Or none at all, to be more precise, spare or not.

It's the same for the Unstoppable innate skill.

This leaves me a few choices, but the elves' skills aren't appealing to me. The dwarf's innate is useful, but do I want to give my Flesh Golem a tank skill? I'll leave it as an option for now…

"...oh? What about this one…?"

Scorching Body, from a random slime I had stored, is pretty decent. It'd also make sense since there's a house-sized incinerator right next to the place where I'll put the golem.

I continue scrolling throughout the list of all available skills, compiled by the game from all the units thrown into the meat grinders, when my eyes suddenly start glowing.

"No way… I had a body with this innate skill!?"

Since when!? Why didn't I realize I had something like this in my stasis capsules until after shredding it!? I could have created something amazing with it! I wonder, though, where this skill came from. I don't remember getting my hands on such a unit…

Well. Now, it's too late. But this also gives me a perfect excuse to give the skill to my Flesh Golem.

This will be the first time I'm using this skill, a skill I've been looking forward to for a while. A skill perfect for large units, like the Flesh Golem, especially in relatively enclosed spaces where mobility can be an issue.

It's a skill called Trample.

Trample (Innate triggered skill) You can move over units significantly smaller than you. When moving over another unit, it takes (3 + 0,2 * STR) physical damage per second, and there's a 10% chance the unit gets stunned for 1 second. This skill can only trigger when moving at least at speed 5.

What can be better than literally trampling over your enemies?

"Fufu… Hahaha!"

"The sign of a great player is that they know when to use underappreciated skills. The weakest and most useless skills can be gold in the right hands and situation, but only the best players know how to properly wield them. Players who keep themselves to well-known and generally powerful skills will never reach those heights."

- From an unknown source.

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