Dice In The Darkness: Cthulhu Calls

Chapter 59: Unique Trait

Tina, squatting in front of Nan Xiaoniao with a smile, began to gesture to her. Since Nan Xiaoniao was temporarily deaf, she couldn't hear what Tina was saying. Tina's gestures were effective, however, as Nan Xiaoniao obediently handed over her small bag to Tina, who couldn't resist giving Nan Xiaoniao a kiss, causing her cheeks to flush red.

Tina took the bag and opened it to find only a bamboo comb inside, shaped exactly like a sliced bamboo shoot.

The group nodded silently; it seemed they had found the second sacrificial item.

Placing the comb on the altar, KP Cao announced with a smile, "OK, you've found the second sacrificial item, so you get an extra thirty minutes in the Mirror World. You now have an hour to find the third item – grapes. Keep up the good work. Considering you've already crippled the Formless Offspring, finding the grapes should be easy."

"Easy, my foot," Tina retorted. "The Formless Offspring might be slow now, but its other attributes and skills are still intact. As long as it guards the grapevine corridor, we can't bypass it to get the grapes."

Liu Xing nodded in agreement, adding, "Tina's right. The Formless Offspring's attack range is too broad, probably over ten meters. Given that the path to the grapevine corridor is only seven or eight meters wide, attempting to rush in will inevitably trigger a battle with the Formless Offspring!"

"We'd surely lose such a fight," he continued. "Apart from Liu Xing's Qingming Rain, we have no means to harm the Formless Offspring. According to the rulebook, it has five attack methods. The first is to bind and capture its prey with tentacles. Although it doesn't inflict damage, escape is nearly impossible. This attack has a 90% success rate, so we can only hope for a lucky dodge."

"The second method," he went on, "is devouring the prey, an instant-death skill. Thankfully, its success rate is only 30%, but if it gets to that point, we're as good as dead, caught and unable to escape."

"As for the third method, it's whipping its prey with tentacles, dealing 1d6 plus bonus damage. The Formless Offspring's bonus damage is also 1d6, with a maximum of 12 points, enough to kill us instantly. It can attack up to three targets simultaneously with this method, preventing us from overwhelming it in a battle of attrition to buy time for someone to dash into the grapevine corridor. However, this attack has only a 60% success rate, so perhaps we could take a chance on it?"

"Next, we have the Formless Offspring's fourth method of attack: pounding. When the Formless Offspring employs this attack, its base damage is its damage bonus. However, there's a 20% chance of receiving an additional 2d6 damage bonus. This attack is particularly effective in causing severe injuries to its prey, although the success rate is only about 20%. As long as we're not terribly unlucky, we should be fine."

"As for the Formless Offspring's final attack method, it's a spell attack. But no one knows what spells this particular Formless Offspring can cast. Personally, I think this is just a low-level regional promotion game, so it's unlikely that the Formless Offspring will have very powerful spells," Akira Akashi analyzed, leaving Liu Xing and others bewildered.

"Akira Akashi, did you memorize the entire rulebook or something?" Tian Dao asked, completely baffled.

Akira Akashi shook his head with a smile, "Not really. I just did some research on the lesser servants in the Cthulhu Mythos before participating in this promotion game. I thought they might be set as the final bosses in this game. Knowing your enemy as well as yourself ensures victory, so I thoroughly studied these lesser servants."

Hearing Akira Akashi's explanation, Liu Xing couldn't help feeling a bit embarrassed. During the past few days of rest, he had only casually read a few pages of the rulebook, thinking he had understood enough, and hadn't looked at it since. So, when facing the Formless Offspring, Liu Xing could only remember some expected values of the Formless Offspring's attributes, but had totally forgotten its skills.

Thus, Liu Xing felt his preparation for the game was rather perfunctory. If he encountered a mythical creature he was unfamiliar with and knew nothing about, he would be perilously close to death.

So, Liu Xing decided that after this promotion game, he needed to return to the real world and thoroughly memorize the rulebook, especially deepening his understanding and knowledge of these mythical creatures.

"In that case, our only option seems to be luring the Formless Offspring away from the grape corridor, so we can have a chance to search for the grapes," Tina said somewhat dejectedly. "But, considering the Formless Offspring's speed, we don't need to worry too much about being caught. However, it seems we can only use Nan Xiaoniao as bait to distract the Formless Offspring."

"No, I won't allow you to do that," Akira Akashi sighed helplessly. The "I" she referred to was her character card. "My character card acquired a trait in the first two Cthulhu RPG Games due to certain events. The trait is 'protecting children', so I can't just watch you put Nan Xiaoniao in danger, unless you can convince me otherwise."

Traits, similar to titles, are acquired by players after a Cthulhu RPG Game if they trigger certain specific plotlines.

Unlike titles, traits impose certain restrictions on the player's character card. For instance, Akira Akashi's trait of 'protecting children' prevents her from acting in a way that harms children and from ignoring others who might harm children.