Dungeon of Chance:

Even Odds

A Dungeon Core Novel

Serious Probabilities Series – Book 1

Jonathan Brooks

Cover Design: Yvonne Less, Art 4 Artists

Edited by: Celestian Rince, Ellen Klowden

Copyright ©2020 Jonathan Brooks

All rights reserved.  No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

The following is a work of fiction.  Any names, characters, businesses, corporations, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner.  Any resemblance to any actual persons, places, or events is purely coincidental.

Cover Design Copyright ©2020 Yvonne Less, Art 4 Artists

Acknowledgements

I want to thank everyone who has believed in me and has supported my writing endeavors!  In addition, I want to especially thank my editors, Celestian and Ellen, for helping my books come together and be better than even I thought they could be!

To my beta-readers – you’re the best!  Thank you for helping to improve this book!

Aaron Wiley

Brian O’Neil

Brian Oles

Christopher Burr

Grant Harrell

Joshua Chausse

Josiah Myers

Karel Young

Nate Martin

Pat Goodwin

Rickie Brown

Scott Killingsworth

Sean Hall

Steven Gene Mills

William Faughnan

Zack Devney

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Chapter 26

Chapter 27

Chapter 28

Chapter 29

Chapter 30

Chapter 31

Chapter 32

Chapter 33

Chapter 34

Chapter 35

Chapter 36

Chapter 37

Final Stats

Author’s Note

Books by Jonathan Brooks

Tables

Chapter 1

“Did you fill that order from Perkins?” a voice asked him from across the room.  “It was due this morning, Clay.”

Clay nodded in his mother’s direction, his dark-brown hair in need of a trim falling over his eyes.  He flipped it out of the way with a free hand while responding, “Of course; I got it ready last night.”

She should know by now that I can’t sleep unless everything is prepared for the next day.  His family ran a small general store in their little town of Renton, providing basic goods for the locals. Most of the residents had standing orders every month that were automatically fulfilled and delivered to them as a free service, which they appreciated.  His family also appreciated it, because they were guaranteed sales, something that they could count on to get them through the current drought of Heroes passing through their town.  Granted, it wasn’t like we had a lot in the first place.

After his father had severely hurt his back trying to lift a crate of iron ingots, putting together and delivering all of the orders had – for the last few years – been the job of Clayburnside Shuntwise (a name that he despised, so he often went by Clay instead).  Now, his old man was in charge of the supply chain, which meant that he was frequently traveling in order to secure the best prices and choicest goods.  His injury turned out to be a blessing in disguise, since diverting his focus had allowed their profits over the last year or so to steadily increase.  They were by no means wealthy, but they were secure enough in their business that even the loss of income from Heroes hadn’t affected them enough to really hurt their bottom line.

It was one of the reasons that Clay couldn’t sleep unless everything was ready to go for the next day, because he usually spent the time in the morning with his mother going over their books – which he enjoyed immensely.  Numbers had always been easy for him, and by seeing how the store’s financials were broken down – especially looking at historical accounts – he could see what sort of benefits his father’s efforts had yielded for business.  Eventually, if things kept going as they were, his mother was planning on letting Clay take over all of their bookkeeping once he learned everything he needed from her teaching.

Not that he asked to do it, because it added to his responsibilities, but he could tell that she didn’t care for it.  She was more of a brisk saleswoman, which was why she primarily ran the store for any customers who came in person, her dark-brown hair the same shade as his own in a ponytail that showed she was ready to do some business.  His little sister, 7 years younger than him at age 10, helped with stocking their few shelves, cleaning, and any miscellaneous duties, though that usually only took a half-hour each day.  The rest of Nina’s time was taken up with “boring” studies and playing with her cat, Spark – who was a mean little ball of fur to anyone other than his sister.

In fact, Clay still had a small scratch on the back of his leg from when the black and red-patched cat had practically attacked him the other day.  Apparently, the nasty ball of fur had been affronted at his passing in front of a window in their family’s small 2-bedroom apartment above the store, blocking the sunlight warming Spark as he sunned himself on the floor.

After placing the Perkins order into his handcart out behind the store, Clay went back inside to tell his mother goodbye.  They had gotten through the accounting in record time that morning, as there hadn’t been many sales or receipts of new product the day before; now all he had to do was make his singular delivery for the day, re-organize a section of the cellar shelves located beneath the store, and then…he’d have some free time.  It was a rarity, unfortunately, but that rarity rendered even more special those times he could spare to be a very late-blooming 17-year-old and pursue a few romantic prospects he’d just recently become interested in.  Hmmm…I might even see Shara Perkins today—

As he was walking out the back, preparing to grab the handles on the handcart, the ground shook so hard that he tripped and fell right into the side of the cart, spilling its contents of mainly groceries all over the dirt, breaking a glass jar of pickled beets that Jered Perkins absolutely loved.  Oh, no – I don’t think we have any more of those until next week—

The ground shook again, though less violently than the first time, and Clay could hear screaming coming from the direction of town.  All thoughts of the tipped-over handcart shot right out of his head as he picked himself up and ran back inside, stumbling a little at another minor quake.  “Mother!  What’s going on?” he shouted as soon as he ran in, but there was no need: She was at the front of the store standing at the window looking out into the town proper.  It took Clay a moment to realize that she was standing on the remnants of the window, which had likely broken from the first quake.

“Are you ok?  These aftershocks are brutal—” he complained, nearly tripping over a bunch of uncoiled rope that had fallen off a shelf, but Clay’s mother wasn’t listening to him.

“Go get your sister – we need to evacuate,” she cut him off with a stern tone to her voice that he’d never heard before.

“What?  Why—?” he asked, before his voice was stolen away from him in shock.  Out the window, in the distance, Clay could see something moving in the early morning light.  For him to see it above the rooftops of the nearby buildings, it had to be extremely tall – and it was.

Giant Ogress ★★★★★★★★★★★

World Threat Level: Low

“Wh-what is that?” he finally managed to squeeze out of a throat that had seemed to close up.  This was the first time he’d ever seen the Star-rating of anything before, though he knew it was a normal part of being a Hero who delved through dungeons.  Everyone in the world could see the rating appear over any monster’s head, apparently, but it was rare for a non-Hero to actually see it happen because they weren’t allowed to venture into a dungeon.

“It’s a World Threat, Clay.  There hasn’t been one around here in at least 50 years,” she said softly, her voice nearly drowned out by the sound of the enormous monster stomping down, creating another minor quake.  It was a pale-green and sickly pink-colored figure at least 250 feet tall, with enormously muscled arms connected to a portly body, though Clay didn’t think it was all fat.  He couldn’t see its legs, but he suspected they were as heavily muscled as the rest of its body, which when he looked again, he realized that it was a her.  A Giant Ogress?  And its World Threat Level is Low?!

The humongous wooden club in her right hand appeared capable of flattening half of the town of Renton in one smash, the validity of which was only punctuated the next moment when he saw the Giant swing the club as if trying to hit something.  It slammed into the ground to the sound of breaking trees in the Hideaway Forest south of town, and moments later another violent quake shook the entire house.

He held onto his mother as she stumbled and nearly fell into all of the broken glass from the window.  “Hurry!  Get your sister from upstairs!” she yelled at him and pushed him toward the back of the store where the staircase leading to their apartment was located.  He watched her in shock as she started grabbing the extremely expensive storage bags from their secured inventory and shoved in supplies by the handfuls.  “GET MOVING!” she screamed again, panic newly evident in her voice.

His feet seemed to carry him autonomously toward the stairs, but he stopped halfway up – Nina was already coming down with wide eyes framed by two strands of her dark-brown hair hanging limply across her face.  “C-Clay?  I saw—”

“I know, Nina; Mother is getting stuff together so that we can evacuate,” he replied, leading her downstairs.  Now that he had something to focus on – namely, helping his sister – Clay’s mind was finally starting to function again.  He grabbed one of the storage bags from his mother and passed it to Nina, then taking one for himself as he started to stuff it full of supplies, groceries, and anything else he thought might be useful.  The storage bags weren’t bottomless, but they were the same bags that Heroes created to supplement their inventories, which meant that they could hold dozens of different items.  And these were actually of the lowest quality; there were some expensive bags out there that could hold thousands of items, perhaps even tens of thousands.

He’d handled these bags before, but they were too expensive to mess with on a normal basis – even if they would’ve made his deliveries much easier.  Now, though, their value was in how much they could hold for him and his family and not in how much they could sell them for.  I just wish Father was here, as he could use the bag he carries with him to fit even more.  Unfortunately (or fortunately, considering what was happening right outside town), his father was on another trip, so the 3 bags they currently had on hand would have to do.

When they were all full, which took a grand total of just over a minute of scrambling and another few falls when the ground shook again, they raced outside of the store, joining dozens of other people from the town fleeing towards the north.  As they got outside, Clay could hear multiple explosions coming from where the Giant Ogress was slowly making her way towards Renton, which caused everyone to yell out in surprise and duck down as if to avoid them.

What was that?

“Keep moving!  We have some of our Support members directing the evacuees to a secure location a dozen miles up the road!” he suddenly heard a strong male voice yell out ahead of them.  A man was standing there in a full set of some sort of metal armor, covering his body from head to toe with only his face exposed, with a massive battle axe attached to his back without any visible means that Clay could see.  Next to him was a woman in brown leathers holding a bow in her left hand as naturally as an extension of her arm, who was watching the Ogress in the distance with intense focus.

“Meltar – it’s getting too close to the town.  We need to hurry this evacuation up,” the woman said loudly enough to the armored man that Clay could hear it from where he was in the crowd.  The man nodded, but didn’t immediately do anything other than turn towards the World Threat that continued to advance towards the town.

“You’re right, Shock – we need to slow it down even more before the others arrive,” the man finally said.  The next moment, the battle axe was in his hand and the man and woman took off like a shot, racing across town in the space of a couple of seconds.  Clay couldn’t see where they went after a few moments as they disappeared out of sight, but he knew they would be fighting the gigantic monster ravaging the forest…somehow.

That was what Heroes did, after all.

There was a deafening bellow of garbled pain that Clay figured came from the Ogress; he looked back as he ran, and saw above the rooftops that the Threat had taken some serious damage to her belly, with a large patch of her skin and flesh almost melted away.  However, instead of slowing her down, the Ogress only seemed to be enraged as she picked up and slammed her club down from side to side, destroying hundreds of trees in the process.

Another minute saw them running down the road towards Chespine, the closest town to Renton.  The energy of many in the town was beginning to flag already from the sudden evacuation, and Clay stopped to help Ms. Wenderlynn, an elderly widow who normally ordered from their store in the middle of the month, up from where she had tripped over the uneven road.  A sound made him look down the road they were traveling, and he was amazed to see a massive group of people, armed and armored in a multitude of different materials and designs practically flying down the road, their feet barely touching the ground as they ran.  They passed the evacuees without saying anything, practically blowing them over with the wind of their passage, and Clay started to think that their town just might be saved with so many Heroes appearing.

“Clay, where’s Nina?” his mother said from next to him in a panic.

“What?  She’s right—” he began to say, when he saw her bag sitting on the side of the road.  Looking back towards Renton, he could barely make out her small figure running towards town, her mimicry of her mother’s ponytail bouncing as she ran. Oh, no…

“I see her.  I’ll go get her before she gets hurt,” Clay said to his mother, knowing that he could run much faster, as she had hurt her right knee a couple of years ago.  My parents are falling apart, he couldn’t help but think as he pulled his bag off his back.

“No!  It’s too dangerous!” she cried, though she didn’t expressly forbid him.  He could tell that she was worried for his sister, but knew that she wouldn’t be able to catch up to her in time before…something bad happened.   “Why did she run away?”  Clay’s sister had never been one to be disobedient before, other than for small things that really didn’t matter; this, however, was quite different.

“It’s that stupid cat; I better go get her before she gets herself killed!” Clay said, giving his bag to his mother and taking off down the road.

“Be careful, Son!” she shouted after him, even as he pumped his fists and ran for everything he was worth.

I’ll try, Mother, I’ll try.

Chapter 2

Nina was faster than he gave her credit for, but he was always faster still.  Plus, Clay had longer legs than his little sister, and his strides ate up the distance between where he left his Mother and the rest of the evacuees on the road and the town of Renton.  He couldn’t see her after she disappeared behind the first building – which just so happened to be the home of the Perkins family, in fact.  He knew where she was going, however, so he took a shortcut to arrive to the west of the store, keeping his eye on the battle now raging against the World Threat, the Giant Ogress.  The Heroes who had passed them on the road at full speed were now laying into the massive monster, and he had to admit that the sheer power they presented was a bit intimidating.

He had seen hundreds or possibly thousands of Heroes passing through Renton on their way to other towns and cities throughout the land, but none of them had used their abilities that came with their Classes in town – other than the occasional Fast-travel ability, like what they had used to zoom by the evacuees on the road.  They didn’t have that kind of swiftness in combat, he was told, though the Scout-based Classes did move faster than most people – or so he had observed.  Use of any other type of ability was forbidden and strictly enforced by the Hero Guilds, who took abuse of abilities very seriously. Clay had heard about Heroes being executed for using harmful abilities in a non-dungeon setting, though most minor violations came with heavy financial penalties, instead.

But what he saw now scared him a little.  With their previous restraint from using their abilities now lifted so that they could combat the World Threat, which he had heard about but never actually seen before; there was no holding back.  Magical spells he had no name for zipped through the air, slamming into different parts of the Ogress’ flesh; arrows that seemed to be lit up with some sort of inner fire impacted and exploded on the monster’s skin; and the sounds of screams and heavy impacts could be heard down below, though they were currently out of sight, still being inside the Forest.

The deafening noises of the attacks were only worsened from the shouts of anger and pain from the Ogress, and Clay fell on his face twice when the monster’s club slammed down, trying to kill the Heroes.  He didn’t know if the Ogress had succeeded in killing anyone yet, but a break in the houses along the town’s outer perimeter allowed him to see a huddle of more Heroes sending out flashes of bright white-yellow light towards the battle, which he recognized as a light indicating healing.  Healers were the only Class allowed to use their abilities in limited quantities outside of dungeons, and he vaguely remembered seeing a healing being performed in Renton when he was very young.  The light looked exactly the same as it had back then, though there was so much more of it going on.

Tearing his gaze away from the battle, while doing his best to keep his suddenly full bladder from emptying in terror as he basically ran toward danger, Clay finally ducked between two houses and ran inside the town proper.  Their store was only two streets over, which meant vaulting a small fence surrounding someone’s back yard (twice) before he got within view.  Just as he burst out into the cobblestone street, he saw Nina disappear into the front door of their store.  Almost caught up to her…

His lungs were burning by the time he got inside, and he had to put his hands on his knees to catch his breath for a moment.  “Nina!  Where are you?  We have to go!”

“Clay?  Help me look for Spark – I can’t find him!” he heard shouted back at him from upstairs.

“Leave the stupid cat!  He probably ran away from the giant monster right outside, which is exactly what we should be doing!”

“No!  He’s got to be here some—aaah!” she was saying, but Clay was having none of it.  He had recovered enough to race upstairs and grab his sister, picking her up and throwing her over his shoulder.  The last few years of packing and delivering heavy loads had strengthened his muscles considerably, but it was hard to keep ahold of a squirming 10-year old.  “Put me down!”

“We’re leaving, Nina!  Your cat will likely be perfectly fine even if the Ogress tramples Renton; we, however, will not.”  He rushed downstairs and ran towards the door, when another quake seemed to shake the entire world.  Clay stumbled, fell, and ended up launching his sister ahead of him and out the door.  He was getting to his feet when he saw Nina look back at him with anger, though her eyes quickly widened so far he thought they were going to pop out of her head.

“Clay, move!” she shouted, but he could tell it was already too late.  Some shouted celebrations – likely from the Heroes fighting the monster – were the last things he heard as a shadow fell over the front of the store.  Nina backed up out of the way, but Clay wasn’t as lucky.

The Giant Ogress had been defeated, but as she collapsed in death, she fell over on her front side, flattening half of Renton as the massive monster fell.  Nina was hurled away at the impact even as Clay was flattened to an unrecognizable pulp, the young girl knocked unconscious but otherwise okay.  Within moments of the last of the Ogress’ death throes being played out, she disappeared in an explosion of multicolored light motes that seemed to float away into nothingness, leaving behind a half-destroyed town where she had fallen.

And from the front yard of the house next door to the general store, came a black and red cat, sniffing his way over to his destroyed home.  It happened upon the remains of the poor young man that used to live in the building; and since the cat didn’t like him, he lifted his leg like a dog marking its territory, peed onto the flesh and blood that used to be Clay, and then trotted off in a good mood, looking for the girl that gave him such wonderful scratches.

*          *          *

Stupid, blasted cat!  Even when I’m dead that thing can’t help but torment me—wait…I’m really dead, aren’t I?  Clay’s world had gone blank the moment the building and who knew how many tons of dead Giant Ogress slammed down on his body, turning it into a paste that was entirely unrecognizable.  And he had seen it underneath the mass of the disgusting monster, too, because his “blankness” hadn’t lasted long; a second or so after his life ceased to be, his awareness came back above the now-destroyed town, where he could look around him with just a thought.

Is this my…soul? he had pondered, but nothing had really answered him.  He instinctively knew how to look around the town, and he quickly found his sister where she had been blown out of the way from the impact of a 250-foot Giant Ogress crashing down only feet away from her.  He was instantly relieved to see that she didn’t appear to be seriously hurt; she was unconscious, but still breathing.  That was honestly the best that they could hope for, and looking around at the celebrating Heroes, he knew she could get healed up quite quickly by them.  His own body, however, was just…done.

Clay watched as the monster’s form seemed to disappear right before his eyes—do souls have eyes?—and he found his remains amid the wreckage of their store, the only home he had ever known.  He thought that he would’ve felt…something…when he saw his dead body, but it had been so flattened and torn apart by the building being slammed into him that there was nothing he recognized.  It was like looking at a pile of blood and flesh that didn’t really fit together; disgusting, certainly, but he didn’t feel any sadness or sorrow at seeing it.

What he did feel sadness over was never seeing his family again.  Well, not in any meaningful way, of course, because he was seeing his sister right now and…with a thought, he was looking at the evacuees on the road, who were already heading back to town.  His mother was traveling with them, moving as fast as she could, tears running down her face in worry.  He felt horrible about leaving her right now, especially with the destruction of their store.  At least I was able to save Nina….

Thoughts of his sister caused his viewpoint to transfer back to her still form, but he wasn’t too worried; he saw that one of the Heroes had already seen her lying there and was calling for a Healer.  While he was glad that she had survived, and while he didn’t blame her for his death, Clay just wished that she had just left Spark there in town, because at that moment he was probably sunning himself halfway across the town without a care in the world—

The next second, he spotted the black and red-spotted cat peeing on what he estimated used to be his face.  His anger rose to a crescendo, and all he wanted to do was wrap his insubstantial and non-existent fingers around the cat…but he let the anger slowly leak out of him like a pierced waterskin.  Hating a cat for being a cat was a fruitless endeavor, and he’d rather not leave his last few moments of the world with hatred in his heart…even if the cat seemed like he was half-demon at times.  It was at that point that he finally acknowledged his own demise, as before it had seemed somehow surreal.

Goodbye, Nina.  Goodbye, Mother.  Goodbye, Father.  At the thought of his Father, Clay abruptly found his viewpoint whipping through the world until it settled on a small warehouse dozens of miles away.  His father was there, entirely oblivious to what had just happened to Clay and their store, negotiating a deal with a maker of various leather goods.  Clay wished he could’ve seen him in person one more time, given him a hug to tell him how much he appreciated everything he had ever taught him about being a man…but it was too late for that.  It was time to move on to the afterlife, where everyone’s souls ended up after they died, waiting for a time when they could be reborn into the world.  At least, that was what he had been taught.

But…nothing happened.  I’m ready!  Take me away!  Nothing seemed to answer, nor was there any type of light that supposedly awaited souls to take them to the afterlife.  What do I do—?

Suddenly, there was a wrenching of his vision as he felt something ripping at his soul.  It felt like someone had taken knives and was chopping his ethereal spirit into pieces, before gathering them up and shoving them into a deep, dark hole.  He tried to scream in pain, imagined or otherwise, but nothing seemed to erupt from his consciousness; instead, it was as if his thoughts just drifted into an endless void.  And then abruptly, as quickly as it had come upon him, the pain and horrible sensations he had felt faded away in an instant.

The deep, dark hole was still there, but it turned out to be just his imagination.  He opened his “eyes” and looked around, seeing that he was inside a small rocky cave…somewhere.  I’ll just go back to my family and—

Clay tried to move his viewpoint back to his mother and Nina, but it slammed up against the wall of the cave and wouldn’t move any further.  He tried going a different direction and was stymied by every inch of the rocky walls of his prison – I can’t get out!  All of that pain and now this?  Is this some sort of punishment?

“Oh, quit your whining.  I’m sure you’ve felt much worse dying inside of a dungeon, and it didn’t even last that long!”

At the sound of a voice, Clay whipped his viewpoint around, seeing the entire cave for the first time.  In the center of the cave was a tiny red gem floating in the air, suspended by some sort of mysterious means he couldn’t fathom.  And next to the red gem was…a dragon!

“I’m not a dragon, though I do appreciate you thinking me of one.  I am a dragonling, though – so, fairly close.  A baby dragonling, not like the ones you’ve seen in dungeons before; I’m so much smaller than they are, and I’ll stay this size forever.”

The dragon is talking!  What is going on?

“Again, I’m not a full dragon—oh, never mind,” the dragon responded, as if it were reading his thoughts, looking directly at the red gem in the center of the room. The deep-red colored, scaled, and winged lizard was flapping its wings leisurely, easily keeping itself aloft as it stared at the gem like it was going to eat it.  “What I am isn’t important.  What is important is that I’m here to help you get acclimated to your new job.  I’m Dwight, by the way.  What’s your name?”

Dwight?  What kind of name is that for a dragon?

The dragon *hmphed* and a small spark of a flame burst out of its mouth.  “For the last time, I’m not a dragon.  I’m a baby dragonling and I was designed to take the appearance of a monster that looks fierce but is actually quite gentle, so as to help Heroes acclimate to their new life as a Dungeon Core.  Oh, and DWIGHT is actually an acronym for Diminutive and Winged Interactive Guide, Helper, and Teacher.  That’s essentially what I am: your Guide as you transition to your current state.”

Clay was speechless and his thoughts had ground to a halt.  Much of what the dragon was saying was unfamiliar to him, but he at least knew what Heroes were.  When he could finally put some thoughts together, he thought towards the dragon, hoping it would hear him since he hadn’t found a way to speak otherwise.  Yet, at least.

You said that you help Heroes acclimate to their new life as a…Dungeon Core?  We’ll get back to what exactly that is in a moment; but I have to tell you, I am not now nor ever was a Hero.

“Impossible,” the dragon said immediately, and it was only when Clay was looking at its mouth as it spoke that he realized that the sound wasn’t actually coming from its mouth – but was directly implanted in his mind.  Freaky.  “The only souls that inhabit Dungeon Cores are those of Heroes that fall in defense against a World Threat.  So, as you are obviously here, then you must be a Hero.”

While he could sort of consider himself a “hero” for saving his sister from the same fate that befell him, Clay could hear the emphasis on the word Hero that the dragon was talking about.  They were two different things; one was a title given to normal people who performed actions that could be considered “heroic”; the other was an individual who absorbed a Tier 0 Class Orb to become a Hero – and that was about all Clay knew about the subject of Heroes.  He knew, without a shadow of a doubt, that he wasn’t a “Hero”.

Unfortunately, someone must have messed up.  I think I was supposed to move on to the afterlife, not end up here as a…Dungeon Core, whatever that is.  So, if you could kindly send me on my way, I would appreciate it.

“There is no way to send on a soul that has been recreated as a Dungeon Core.  Your soul is no longer recognizable as a Human soul, so you will no longer be transferred to the afterlife.  This is your life now.”

Clay couldn’t believe it.  Some mistake had landed him as this Dungeon Core thing, and now he’d never be able to move on.  Anger surged up in him again, though it wasn’t directed toward Dwight or whoever messed up and put him there by mistake; no, he was mad at a black and red-spotted cat.

Blast you, demon cat!  Your torment knows no end!

And then, despite not having done it since he was a young child, Clay wept internally, sorrow finally filling him as he acknowledged what had been done to him…and what had been taken away.

Chapter 3

Clay wasn’t aware of the passing of time in his current form, but he figured it had been at least a month of internal weeping at his fate.  The extreme length of his weepiness was only overshadowed by the fact that he apparently didn’t need to sleep—

“It has been a total of 6 minutes and 34 seconds since you started to sob uncontrollably inside your Core.”

What?  That was impossible. It felt like it had been even longer than a month to him – not just a few minutes.  Regardless, his temporary depression over his current state seemed to have passed; of course, Clay was still angry at what had happened to his soul, so he took it out on the only thing he could.   Yeah, and who asked you?  Why don’t you just leave me alone?

“No one asked me, I’m here to help guide you and teach you in your new stage of life.  As to your second question: No, I can’t leave you alone, because I am intrinsically a part of you.”

That made Clay pause in his scathing reply.  A…part of me?  What does that even mean?

“It means that I’m not actually here; I’m an internal component of a new Dungeon Core, and only appear as an image to your mind,” Dwight, the baby dragonling, responded.  “And before you go trying to turn me off, I have to let you know that until you reach Core Stage 20, I will remain visible and audible to your senses at all times.  If you reach that point, however, you can decide on whether to discontinue my services…but until then, you’re stuck with me.  Get used to it.”

Clay was still livid, but knowing he was being unfair to Dwight, he…sort of…apologized.  Oh.  Okay.  Fine with me, I guess.

He was quite aware that it was a pretty lame apology, if it could even be considered one without actually saying sorry, but he didn’t want to argue with a figment of his imagination that was destined to stick with him until whatever this “Core Stage 20” was.

“Again, I’m not a figment of your imagination – I’m a part of your Dungeon Core.”  The dragon—dragonling—flapped its wings angrily, letting out a tiny jet of flames and a puff of smoke at the same time.  “Which brings me back to your job.  Are you ready to listen, or are you going to continue arguing with me?”

Clay couldn’t help but think that Dwight sounded a lot like his mother when he was younger and didn’t like to listen to her explain his duties in the store.  It wasn’t that he didn’t want to listen to her, but he had been quite immature and wanted to play outside instead of working.  Looking back, the “work” was just a series of simple tasks that would’ve taken him at most 15 minutes to complete, but when he was 6 years old it seemed to take forever.  His mother would get mad at his inattention, though she wouldn’t yell at him; instead, she would speak in a low, soft voice that he immediately knew was something he should pay attention to or else he’d get into real trouble.

In fact, the tone of voice was similar enough that he had a thought.  Hey, are you a…girl?  It didn’t actually sound like his mother, but the tone was distinct enough that he couldn’t help but think that was the case.

“Obviously, I’m not a girl.  I am, however, female,” Dwight, the female baby dragonling, said matter-of-factly. “I would think that would be common knowledge to all Heroes; monsters – one of which I am patterned after – that are found inside of dungeons are always female.”

That was certainly news to Clay.  Instead of reiterating that he wasn’t a Hero, he instead asked why he was there in the first place, if only Heroes were supposed to be shoved into this “Dungeon Core” thingy.

“Heroes have an intrinsic knowledge of how the dungeons they grind through operate at a base level, so they are uniquely qualified to run one themselves.  It has been this way for as long as there have been Humans and Heroes, though this relationship between Heroes and Dungeon Cores is not something that is shared with Humans, for reasons I will go into later.

“As for why you, I have no idea.  The highest-Tiered Hero that perished during a World Threat attack should have been the one here instead of you.  This makes no sense.”

Thinking back on what he had seen of the battle – which wasn’t a whole lot, since it had mainly taken place outside of Renton – a theory emerged in Clay’s mind, but he wasn’t sure if it was wholly correct.  And what would happen if no Heroes died during the attack?

“That is extremely unlikely, as at least one Hero always dies while repelling a World Threat. The monsters that they fight are much too powerful for there to be no casualties. It is their duty and reason for existing, after all.”

To…die?

“Of course not.  Their duty is to keep the rest of the world safe; sacrificing themselves for the greater good so as to ensure that safety is a well-known caveat of becoming a Hero.  How do you not know this?”

Uh…because I’m not a Hero?  That would explain a lot, wouldn’t you think?

“B-But—” The baby dragonling’s speech began to sputter as she began to work through all of the information; it showed Clay that Dwight wasn’t just a set of instructions inside of a Dungeon Core designed to help him, but was actually a personality that could reason and think.  “Hmmm.  If you are correct and not a single Hero died during the attack, then that would make sense that you might have taken the slot open at the time.  This isn’t good.”

Yeah, you’ve got that right.

“There is nothing in my stored knowledge that indicates this has ever happened before.  There is no protocol that I can fall back on to teach you the necessary elements of dungeons and Heroes,” Dwight said slowly, as if talking to herself.  It was strange watching a little dragonling cock her head to the side like a dog—  Clay stopped himself from thinking any more along those lines, for fear that Dwight would inadvertently be offended.

Either she chose to ignore it or hadn’t heard, because she didn’t make any mention of it when she spoke next.  “Hmm…unless…you happen to know what you don’t know?”

Uh…no?

Another snort came from her mouth, though there wasn’t any flame this time, just a tiny puff of smoke – that Clay just realized completely disappeared as soon as it got a couple of feet away from the little dragonling.  Huh.  You really aren’t there, are you?

“Correct.  I was created to inhabit all Dungeon Cores as an extension of the help system, and having a physical representation of a guide was thought to help with acclimation.”

Who was it that thought it was a good idea?  Not that I think it’s a bad idea, he hastily added.

“I do not contain that information,” Dwight said curtly.  “Besides, that really isn’t important right now.  What is important is that you get started on your duty.”

Why?

“I don’t understand your question.  Why is what you asked not important?  Why is getting started on your duty important?  Please elaborate.”

Clay actually wanted to know both of those things, and a whole lot more, but what he really meant was why this was his duty.

She answered him before he could even ask.  “It is your duty because as a Hero—” Dwight stopped herself, obviously realizing that what she was saying was wrong.  “I have no additional answer to that question that you shouldn’t already be well aware of by now.  Let me attempt to explain, however.”

For the first time, the baby dragonling stopped her constant flapping to keep herself stationary in the air.  In a few seconds, she was on the dirt and stone floor of the small cave, wings folded and lying flat against her back, and tail curled around her front legs as she took on a lecturing tone.  “From the information I have, which is scanty at best for some reason, Heroes and Dungeon Cores were both created…by someone or something…as a way to combat the emergence of World Threats, such as the one that killed you.  Before that, Humans were a savage race, more willing to kill each other than to help defend their own people.  When these World Threats started to become more and more common, Heroes and dungeons also came into being.”

He wanted to stop her there, because something seemed a little fishy about her lack of knowledge.  Either that, or she was deliberately keeping things from him; regardless, he took one look at her little lizard-like face and rethought his idea of interruption.  She appeared ready to chomp on the red gem floating in the middle of the room; the red gem that he supposed was his new form, if he was understanding everything correctly.  He doubted it would hurt him, since Dwight was technically insubstantial – but he didn’t want to take the chance.

“Becoming a Hero was considered to be a sacred calling, a choice to become more than they were before so as to help their people.  To achieve the sort of strength that would allow them to combat a World Threat – without tens or hundreds of thousands of Humans dying, which was how they had been forced to fight the massive monsters without Heroes to help – Dungeon Cores built dungeons to help train the Heroes, making them stronger, faster, deadlier, and desensitizing them to pain and death.”

He couldn’t hold it in any longer.  Yes, but who was it that created—

“Again, I don’t have that information.  All you need to know is that they exist, and now it is your duty to help.  I know that you were not a Hero before this, but surely you can see why it is important to do your job?”

So…that…I…can train Heroes?  Dwight nodded in response.

That seemed easy enough, he supposed.  It wasn’t like he could go back to his family at that point since his soul had been essentially torn to shreds. And he figured arguing and complaining to Dwight for eternity – or however long he actually lived – would probably get boring.  Okay, then – where do I start?

“Excellent!  Now, the first thing I need you to do is answer the question I asked you before.”

Clay wracked his mind, trying to figure out what question he was supposed to answer.  Which one?  There were…uh…so many!

“A simple question, my new Dungeon Core.  What is your name?”

Oh.  It’s Clay.

“Thank you, Clay.  I need that information so as to give you access to your Dungeon Core commands; otherwise, you’ll be locked out from doing anything.”

That seems strange.  Shouldn’t I already have access to them?

“Well, occasionally, a soul does not survive entirely…intact…when they go through the process of becoming a Dungeon Core and are unable to think coherently.  Being able to state their full Hero name when prompted is the only way to unlock—uh, oh.”

CHOSEN HERO NAME INCORRECT

Starting self-destruct sequence now.

Time remaining for correct input: 30 seconds

Whoa!  Does that mean what I think it means?

“Yes.  In 28 seconds your Dungeon Core will be destroyed.  ‘Clay’ was apparently not the correct name.  What is your full name?”

Clayburnside Shuntwise.

INCORRECT INPUT

“No, what is your Hero name?”

I don’t have—  But he did, though he had never actually said it out loud before.  All children dreamed of being lucky enough to become chosen to be a Hero one day; the choice was entirely random, it was believed, based on probabilities that were unknown to everyone in the world.

Suddenly, one day, a special Tier 0 Class Orb would appear by your bedside and you would know from that moment on that you were destined to become something greater than you were before.  No one knew how it happened, nor who or what put these Orbs there, but there was no denying who they were for; people had rejected the offer to become a Hero in the past, but the Tier 0 Class Orbs were keyed to a specific person and couldn’t be traded away.  Everyone knew this, which was why Clay knew it, but there was very little else he knew about Heroes and exactly what they did.

But that didn’t mean that he and every other “normal” person out there didn’t dream about what they could be some day.  And those dreams, inevitably, led to potential names for themselves when they became a Hero.

Time remaining for correct input: 7 seconds

“You better hurry; you’re running—”

The Denominator.

There was a brief pause as Clay could almost feel Dwight being confused by the name.  He waited for the end, for his whatever it is self-destruct and kill him…but it didn’t happen.

Access Granted

Phew!  That was close—

“The Denominator?  Really?”

The question took him by surprise, though it probably shouldn’t have.  His “Hero” name had changed over the years from Turbo Boy and Wonder Kid when he was a lot younger, to Deathstrike and Shadow Killer when he was a bit older; when he had begun really learning his numbers and started helping with the bookkeeping for the store, he realized that he enjoyed math and numbers so much that his Hero name changed as well.

What’s wrong with that?  I thought it sounded dangerous; “The Denominator will divide monsters into so many pieces, they won’t know what hit ‘em!”  On second thought, when he actually said that to another person for the first time, it sounded quite silly.

“Fine, fine.  Whatever works for you,” Dwight said in what sounded like a sincere voice, moving on as if it wasn’t important.  “Now we can get to work.”

Chapter 4

“First things first, we need to verify that everything has been set up properly,” Dwight began.  “Open up your Dungeon Core information by thinking, ‘Transcribed Status’.  Should be pretty straightforward from there.”

Sounds easy enough.  Clay did what the little dragonling said and—

Dungeon Assessment and Transcribed Status

Core Name:

Clayburnside “The Denominator” Shuntwise

Core Stage:

1

Core Structure Health:

20/20

Crystal Chips:

50 (500 to next Core Stage)

Star Limit for Placement:

15

Available Monsters:

0/50

Available Traps:

0 (No Limit)

Available Dungeon Spells:

0 (No Limit)

Summoning Portal

Dungeon Interface

Sacrificial Altar

If he had a body, it would’ve reeled back in surprise as the strange screen popped up in his vision.  What is this?  What does it all mean?

“This should all be relatively familiar to you from your Hero Status—” Again, Dwight cut herself off before she continued.  The baby dragonling must have been automatically set up to teach a former Hero, and shifting her thinking to the new situation was something that took some effort.

“That’s right, this is all new to you,” she finally went on after a few moments.  “Okay.  So, the most important things on here are your Core Stage – which is similar to your current Tier if you were a Hero – and the number of Crystal Chips that you now have in your possession – which are used as a sort of currency.  Since you have this Transcribed Status open, I am able to view it as well; fortunately, despite your abnormal origins, everything looks as normal as it should.”

Clay expected her to continue, but she seemed to be having issues adapting to his former “non-Hero” status.  And…?

Dwight was visibly startled, flapping her wings a few times before she answered.  “I apologize.  I’m not being a very helpful guide or teacher, am I?”

That’s okay; this is an unusual development for both of us.  Just try to explain what all of these different things mean, alright?  For instance, what are these Crystal Chips?

The little dragonling settled back down, already looking a little more composed.  “Sure, I can do that.”  She paused for a moment before the lecturing tone came back.  “The Crystal Chips in your possession are used for a variety of purposes.  First and foremost, they are used to expand your dungeon by creating rooms, hallways, and environmental attributes.  Luckily, doing so only takes a few of your Crystal Chips to build a basic dungeon, so that you can use the rest of them on the second use for these Chips: Summoning monsters.”

What?!  That shocked him more than a bit, because that seemed highly unsafe.  The fact that he had just been squished by the dead body of a massively giant monster probably had something to do with his surprise and confusion.  Isn’t that a bad idea?  What if they try to kill me?  Or worse, what if they try to escape and attack a nearby town?

“Don’t worry about that,” Dwight scoffed.  “Your monsters cannot hurt you, and having them in your dungeon is all about defense; if they were to pass over the threshold of your dungeon entrance, they would dissipate into energy, only to be reabsorbed into your Dungeon Core.  Not that they would try to escape, anyway, because you control them utterly.”

That’s great news.  He had always wondered why there weren’t monsters roaming the land outside of dungeons, and now there was finally an explanation for it.  What do I do first?

“Well, first you’ll need to build out your dungeon so that you connect to the surface.  This should be fairly easy for you, especially if you remember back when you first became a Hero and—” Dwight was quicker this time to adapt to the situation.  “You don’t have any previous knowledge of what a dungeon looks like, do you?”

Nope, he replied, glad the little dragonling was slowly catching on.

“Well then, we are going to make a very basic 3-room dungeon so that you can connect to the surface.  Only by being “open” will you begin to accumulate additional Crystal Chips; as there is no benefit to being inaccessible, this will result in the best start for you.”

Wait.  Won’t being open make me vulnerable?

“Technically, yes…but no, you’ll be fine.  As long as your Core Structure Health is at 20, your Dungeon Core is invulnerable.”  Another good thing to hear; he didn’t want to die so soon after being reborn into a dungeon-creating gem.

There was so much more that Clay needed to learn from Dwight, such as everything else on his Core Assessment and Transcribed Status, but he also didn’t want to get overloaded.  He had always been one to learn better by doing than by having someone tell him what to do, especially when fulfilling certain tasks in the store or manipulating numbers with bookkeeping; Clay figured this couldn’t be so different that he couldn’t learn on the job.  At least, I hope not.

What do I have to do?

“I will help you with this first part, because otherwise you might get lost on your way to the surface,” the baby dragonling stated.  “My information tells me that your Dungeon Core is located near the edge of a cliff that looks off into an ocean.  Which ocean it is I am not entirely sure, because I don’t know exactly where in the world we are located.”

Nowhere near Renton, I can tell you that; there weren’t any large bodies of water around for at least a few hundred miles.  A few small lakes and ponds, but no oceans.  I’m actually looking forward to sea-ing it…get it?  Sea it?

Just like the rest of his family, Dwight completely ignored his attempt at humor, but at least she didn’t ridicule his efforts like his sister usually did.  Probably prompted by her demon cat!

“Anyway, the cliff face is located off in this direction,” she continued, turning her body until her face was pointing towards a particularly rocky wall.  “If you concentrate your vision where I am pointing and stretch your awareness in that direction, you should be able to temporarily see what I am talking about.  It isn’t permanent, however, as only by increasing your Core Stage and expanding your dungeon will you be able to see more of the world around you.”

Taking her directions and applying them, Clay attempted to look through the wall where she was pointing.  At first, all he saw was the same wall made of rock, but by concentrating hard enough, he was able to start pushing at his boundaries.  It felt extremely…weird; it was almost as if he was enclosed in a large bubble that he could start to expand in one direction, but the rest of it began to collapse on him.  The more he pushed, the more he felt closed in on all sides except where he was pushing.  It wasn’t uncomfortable, necessarily, but it was difficult.

Even when he strained with all of his concentration, all he could expand his “bubble” out was maybe 50 feet.  Any more than that appeared theoretically possible, but wasn’t something he could achieve.  I can’t do it!  I’ll just have to take your word for it that the cliff face is there.

“Try again.  This should be an easy accomplishment for a Hero—.  Ah, never mind.  I keep forgetting that you’ve never had the opportunity to fully incorporate the mental fortitude needed for adapting abilities and spells for a Class.”

Yet another thing I’m a bit deficient in, I see.  Clay was feeling a bit despondent with one thing after another hampered by his lack of Herohood, but he wasn’t one to give up easily.  There had to be a solution, even if that solution was as simple as practice, practice, and practice.

“Now that you know in which direction to dig, you can start to hollow out your first hallway in preparation of making your Dungeon Boss room.  This is the easy part, Clay; all you have to do is mentally reach out to the stone in front of you and imagine it disappearing in the shape you’d like it to take.  You don’t have to worry about structural supports like Humans need to with their own buildings, as your presence alone is enough to sustain perfect integrity and extremely high resistance to external manipulation.”

There was a lot that Clay wanted to unpack in what Dwight had just said, such as what a Dungeon Boss was and what she meant by external manipulation; however, he was also thankful that he didn’t have to worry about structural engineering, because that was something he hadn’t ever studied.  And the thought of doing something that seemed impossible – like drilling through rock with just a thought – was enough of a draw that he ignored those questions for the moment.

Staring at the rock wall in front of him, he imagined it being eaten away in big chunks, hollowing a hole into his stony prison…and it worked!  As if some giant had taken a big bite out of it, the rock slowly disappeared, leaving a depression created with sizable furrows in the wall nearly a foot deep.

“You know, it doesn’t have to look like some monster literally ate its way through the stone,” Dwight interrupted his achievement.  “You can make the angles and architecture as precise as you want.”

Oh.  Taking her advice, he imagined the wall smoothing out and made the furrows disappear, so that the hole was starting to flatten out like a strange doorway.  Nice!  This is easy!

“I told you that was going to be the easy part.  Now, keep going for a few dozen feet and then make a room; make it at least 50 feet wide and long, and 20 feet high, so that you can fit just about anything in there at this stage.  Later on, you can physically move your Core deeper and further away from the entrance, allowing you to expand the rooms you already possess, as well as adding additional ones.”

Following her instructions, Clay kept going, expanding the hole straight ahead so that it formed a hallway of sorts.  He was originally going to make the hallway square, since that would make it uniform, but before he got too far he added a curved arch along the top.  It looked better to him because it wasn’t so austere, and he was pleased with the result.

After only a couple of feet, the new Dungeon Core realized that his awareness was expanding along with his efforts of a hallway.  Why is it doing that?

“Remember, I told you that your ability to sense things further away would increase as your Core Stage increased, as well as when you expand your dungeon,” Dwight replied.  “When you create rooms and hallways, and any other alcoves that you may wish to form in the future, your Dungeon Core will automatically expand your vision to encompass those areas.  This will also help you stretch out to see things further away, like you attempted to do earlier, though the distance will still be limited due to your inexperience and lower Core Stage.”

All that really meant to Clay was that his world was beginning to open up.  He hadn’t realized how confined he had felt inside the small cave before, but now that he was opening up a way out, it suddenly hit him.  He wasn’t normally claustrophobic and wasn’t necessarily afraid right now, but he also had a driving need to see the sky again.  Is this a normal feeling?

“No.  Heroes tend to spend a lot of time inside dungeons, which are primarily underground, so any type of claustrophobia is driven out of them quite early in their calling.  You are experiencing abnormal behavior…but it is also expected due to your status as a non-Hero.”

Regardless of his “abnormal behavior”, Clay was able to keep from panicking and freaking out too much; he was still eager to open up a way to the outside world, but he also knew that there was no rush, and that his new abilities would eventually allow him to break through quite easily.  Well, as long as the baby dragonling was telling the truth about being close to the cliff face, of course.

Within minutes of steadily progressing down an arched hallway for an estimated 30 feet, a curious thing happened.  A shining rainbow-colored mote drifted out of the tiny red gem floating in the original cave, moved a foot away…and then disappeared in a brief flash of light.  What was that?!

“That was your Dungeon Core using up one of your available Crystal Chips.  You’ll find that you’ll use more of them before you reach the cliff face, but I estimate that it won’t be more than 10 in total.”  Dwight hesitated for a moment before she went on.  “Don’t worry, this is a normal part of the process.”

He had to admit that he had been a little worried at first, but the explanation made some sense.  Clay had worked in a general store, after all, and exchanging one thing for another was an important part of the business.  In fact, it would’ve been strange if what he was doing hadn’t required something in exchange, because that would have seemed unnatural.  As if burrowing through solid rock is natural, but doing it for free would just be wrong.  He chuckled internally at the thought of what his new “normal” was swiftly becoming.

When he judged he had gone far enough, Clay started working on the room the dragonling had mentioned.  Instead of the precise measurements she had rattled off, all he did was expand out his digging until he made a fairly large space.  It was probably larger than it needed to be, but he wanted it to look as natural as possible; he left the walls looking unfinished with sharp edges here and there as if it were formed that way by nature, and the ceiling he made a bit uneven.  At one section it was only 15 feet or so tall, whereas the majority of the room was between 25 and 30.  It wasn’t perfect, but it felt right to him rather than a strange uniform box, which was what he pictured that Dwight was describing.

“Excellent job, Clay.  Now, all you need to do is make some more hallways, two more rooms – which don’t need to be nearly as large as this first one – and you’ll be done!”  For the first time, the baby dragonling had moved away from the floating red gem once he had finished his efforts in the room.  She had taken off from the floor where she had been sitting patiently while he worked, and now she glided effortlessly around the room he had constructed, looking it over with a critical eye…and he preened internally a bit when she approved.

Watching her glide around the room, her wings extended to their fullest of nearly 3 feet, Clay was suddenly confused.  He knew birds could glide over wind currents in the air, so he assumed dragons and dragonlings were the same – but there was no air movement inside of the enclosed cave system he had created.  So how was she gliding so effortlessly?

The answer was a simple one, which didn’t even need to be answered by Dwight.  She was a product of his Dungeon Core and didn’t really exist, so she could theoretically do whatever she wanted.  And breathing air was something that wasn’t necessary, either, because she didn’t have lungs with which to breathe.  Yet, something else occurred to him; I understand that there is no air in here, so you can fly and glide around however you want – but how do you see?  Better than that, how can I see this place, since there shouldn’t be any light?

“I can see this through your own senses, which don’t require actual visible light to ‘see’.  You’ll have to add some sources of illumination later, through a process which requires some more Crystal Chips to create, but that can wait until you open up to the outside.  It will likely be weeks or months before your entrance is discovered, so you have some time to accessorize, decorate, and properly defend your dungeon.”

Huh.  Ok, note to self: Add some torches.

“It doesn’t have to just be torches—but we can get into that later.”

Tabling that discussion until it was relevant, Clay moved on with his construction efforts.  He had noticed that 3 of his Crystal Chips had floated out of the red gem while he was finishing that first room, so in total he had used 4 of his 50 Chips – which was what his Transcribed Status backed up.  As he spent even more of his resources to create the next hallway leading further towards where Dwight had pointed earlier – and staggering its positioning so that there wasn’t a straight line from one room to the next – he finally decided to ask a little more about what exactly the red gem was, since he had some spare time while he was working.

I’m given to understand that the red gem floating in that cave is…me?  What exactly is a “Dungeon Core”, anyway?

The baby dragonling didn’t hesitate to explain.  “You are absolutely correct.  Your soul has been transferred to the ‘red gem’, which has a crystalline structure created by condensing ambient energy over the course of hundreds of years.  The cave that you began in used to be entirely solid stone, but the creation of your Core has eaten away at the fundamental nature of matter in such a way that it was transformed into what you see now.  As you increase in Core Stages, the consumption of these Crystal Chips – which are tangible manifestations of this condensed energy – are applied to your structure; by consuming these Chips, the process builds upon what is already there, increasing both the size of your Core and the number of your abilities.

“Those abilities,” she continued, “are important both to your own defense, and to providing an adequate challenge to Heroes delving through your dungeon.  Don’t forget that all your efforts, as fun as they might be, are to fulfill your Duty to protect the entire Human race.”

Her words seemed as if they were recited by rote, as she had mentioned his “Duty” again, but what really caught his attention was that she had said it might be “fun”.  He wasn’t sure exactly what that meant, so he asked her.

“You’ll just have to wait until you finish this; then I will explain.”

With renewed determination, Clay continued to work, removing dirt and stone at a faster rate.  In less than an hour, and with a total of 9 Crystal Chips in total consumed by his efforts, he was nearly done.  With 3 bare rooms, 4 hallways, and a quick stretch of his awareness past the end of the final hallway, he could see the open air behind a few more feet of rock.  As he removed the last little bit of material blocking him from the outside world, he saw and felt another Crystal Chip float away from his Core and disappear – but that wasn’t the only thing that happened.

Your dungeon is now open!

Crystal Chip replenishment is now activated!

Time until replenishment: 23 h 59 m 59 s

Core Stage 1 replenishment: 1 Chip

What?  Only 1 Crystal Chip every 24 hours?  Looking at his Transcribed Status again, Clay could guess that he needed to accumulate 500 Chips in order to move on to the next Core Stage, which seemed extremely time-consuming.  Even if he saved the 40 Chips he still had after constructing his dungeon, it would still take over 15 months of waiting to get to that point.

Dwight had ventured to the end of his newly constructed entrance in her baby dragonling form, and stared out beyond the confines of his dungeon.  Instead of answering his question, her thoughts were in a different direction entirely.  “I really think you should look at this.”

Since there was nothing he could do about his replenishment – nor his lack of a good amount of replenishment – Clay brought his vision to the edge of his “domain”.  While he couldn’t stretch his awareness far to see hundreds of feet through solid rock, as soon as there wasn’t any impediment to his vision, the new Dungeon Core was easily able to look out to the horizon.  And what a horizon it was.

He’d heard stories of the ocean before, but had never thought to see it.  He almost couldn’t believe there could be anything as what had been described to him: Water as far as one could see, and not a bit of it you could drink because it was full of salt, seemed far-fetched.  However, looking at it now, Clay had to admit he was wrong – totally and completely wrong.

It was…magnificent.

If he had still been able to breathe, his breath would’ve caught in his throat – it was that beautiful.  The sun was just starting to set on the horizon, painting the undulating waves with a mixture of blues, oranges, and reds, creating a stunning vista that seemed otherworldly.  Clay thought he could just stare out into the ocean for days or perhaps weeks, and never get bored of—

“That’s not what I was talking about.”

Hmmm?  What?  Clay was confused for all of a second, before he started looking around at anything but the vast ocean stretching out to apparent eternity.  It didn’t take long to comprehend why Dwight had been so insistent, fortunately.

It turned out that the cliff face that Clay had just busted out of hadn’t been on a deserted stretch of beach, where his dungeon was hard to find or difficult to reach.  All of the dungeons that the former general store worker had heard of were located in hard-to-reach areas, which made travel by Heroes around their country of Ardheid essential.  Clay’s dungeon, on the other hand, was certainly not hard-to-reach; the exact opposite, in fact.

His entrance sat approximately 50 feet up the gentle slope of a cliff face, easily in reach of a sprawling town just a half-mile or less up the beach.  There were piers and boats jutting out into the ocean, hundreds of buildings that he could make out from his position, and dozens of visible people going about their business of creating a bustling atmosphere even late into the day.  Worst of all, there seemed to be a small group of people heading along the beach in the direction of his newly created entrance.

Didn’t you say that I’d have weeks or months until my dungeon was found?

“Apparently not.  This situation is becoming more and more unusual as it goes on.”

I’m beginning to hate the word “unusual”. That was all he could say as he watched the group of 3 people advance upon his dungeon, completely unprepared for what they would bring.

Chapter 5

“Don’t blame me if you can’t haul a line properly, Arcen,” she laughed at her large friend good-naturedly.  “It takes something that you apparently don’t possess: skill.”

“Whatever, Jeska,” Arcen replied as he rolled his eyes dramatically.  “It’s not my fault; just because I tend to tear the exceedingly thin wires of these nets with my bulging muscles, that doesn’t mean I don’t have skills.”  He demonstrated his bulging muscles with an equally over-dramatic flex of his arms over his head.

It was Jeska’s turn to roll her eyes, as she hid her smile by turning away.  Her brother was ridiculous sometimes—scratch that, most of the time—but she had to admit that he was strong.  Like, obscenely strong; Arcen could practically lift the large skiff (that they were using to pull in their catch) while she was inside of it with one arm.  Therefore, it wasn’t a surprise that the delicate netting, which they were using to pull up the Golden-scaled Hornblower fish so prevalent around Chardelia, had torn when it got caught on something.  He tended to solve his problems with his muscles instead of using his brains. That didn’t mean he was stupid, though; far from it, actually – he was quite intelligent when he wanted to be. Sadly, that was rare, as evidenced by yet another net Jeska would have to mend that night.

Thankfully, her own net had held up under her ministrations and her catch was sufficient enough for a decent day’s work.  Using the delicate nets to trawl through the water was the only real way to catch the Hornblowers, which were attracted to the sparkly thin wire they were constructed from, since they completely ignored any type of bait dangled in front of their wide-open mouths.  It had taken years of experimentation by her father to develop the trawling nets so that more than a few of the fish could be caught every day, and now everyone was using his technique.

Fortunately, despite the “gold rush” on the delicious fish, their numbers never seemed to shrink.  In order to keep up with the ever-increasing demand for the Hornblower on other parts of the island, more and more were being caught every day.  That number had stabilized over the last few months, luckily, because otherwise the market would’ve been flooded.

Looking at their catch, the dozens of fish now secured in a large bin in the center of their skiff, she couldn’t help but think that their name was a bit of a misnomer.  Even though they were called “Golden-scaled”, their scales weren’t actually gold – more of a pale-yellow color – and they certainly weren’t made of the precious metal.  Despite that, they were prized for their delicious, mouth-watering flavor when cooked, fried, pureed, and even eaten raw (which Jeska thought disgusting, but she wasn’t going to tell other people how to eat it – as long as they bought it from her).

“Alright, you muscled-brained idiot – stop flexing and get us back to shore.”  She slapped him on his stomach with the back of her hand with force, causing him to double over in mock pain.  She knew it was fake because hitting him felt like hitting a brick wall, so it was her hand that hurt a little bit.

“Ha ha!  To shore we go!” he rang out in a sing-song tone of voice, before quickly grabbing the oars and getting to work.  Their small boat rocked with the sudden acceleration and she nearly fell off the side, but she managed to hang on with a scowl at her brother’s smiling face.  Jerk.  He did that on purpose.

In less than 10 minutes, far faster than any other vessel could travel amid the Farvale Ocean, they were nearing the thriving city of Chardelia.  Because all of the piers along the harbor were full – which seemed to be the norm now that there was a surplus of available Hornblowers available to ship to distant places – Jeska and her family were forced to beach their skiff outside of the city proper.  However, that was more than fine with them, because their house and attached warehouse/workshop were located near the south side of town, right off the beach for easy access.

As they prepared to beach their boat, Jeska pulled the stray locks of pale-blonde hair away from her face and gathered them up behind her head, tying them in a loose knot.  Ever since she had gotten a chunk of it caught in a jutting splinter on the side of the skiff when disembarking, she had automatically tied it back whenever she was ready to jump off.  The rest of the time, she usually let it flow free with the smell of saltwater winds blowing through—

“Whoa!  Slow down, Arcen!” she yelled back at him, the distraction with her hair causing her to forget to warn him when they were getting close.  Again, her brother was strong, so it was barely any effort for him to reverse his wide strokes and slow them down in time; therefore, instead of slamming into the sand of the beach like they were hitting a wall, they glided in smoothly and settled into their customary groove.

“Thanks for the timely warning, sis!” Arcen joked, before stowing the oars away.

Jeska ignored him and jumped off the side, looking towards their house for some sign that their father was home.  Nope, doesn’t look like it; his workshop is all closed up.  That didn’t really concern her, though, because Rosara was coming their way with a predatory grin on her face.  I don’t envy Arcen; that woman is a handful.

“Arcy!  You’re back!  I’ve been waiting forever for you to come home.”

Her brother whipped around from pulling the skiff further up the beach, where it would sit securely in another depression that typically held it there until they went out the next day.  “Oh. Hi, Rosara.  How are you today?”

The other woman pushed out her already-overbearing chest when Arcen turned towards her, the buttons holding the fabric over her cleavage threatening to pop off.  Jeska gagged internally at how obvious the other woman was being at trying to gain his attention, though she grudgingly admitted that Rosara was somewhat attractive – and not just because of the way she flaunted her bustline.  Of course, her brother wasn’t entirely immune to her attempts at charming him, but he also was smart enough to know what she was doing.

Whether or not he appreciated the attention was something she couldn’t quite gauge, however.

Rosara got close enough to peer inside of their skiff, seeing the box of fish being kept alive by the saltwater inside.  “Oh!  You have so many of those golden fish!  I bet you caught all of those by yourself, didn’t you, Arcy?”

He just shook his head, not being one to take credit for something he didn’t do.  “Nope. I actually didn’t catch any of these, Jeska did.  I accidentally tore—”

“Oh, I’m sure you tried your hardest, Arcy dear.”  A casual hand placed against his chest when she spoke was enough for Jeska to nearly laugh at her brother’s face.  He was doing his best not to look annoyed, but after knowing him her entire life, his sister could read his facial expressions better than she could read her own. She had to rescue him before he said something he couldn’t take back; it wouldn’t do to have the daughter of the Mayor mad at the richest family in Chardelia.  They both had enough influence and power that a conflict between them could quickly escalate into dangerous territory.

“I’m glad you’re here, Rosara!” she exclaimed with feigned excitement.  “We were just about to start bringing our catch into the warehouse – would you like to help us?”

The other woman looked down at her frilly, lace-bordered, and nearly sheer clothing and recoiled in horror at the prospect.  While her clothing wasn’t necessarily inappropriate in their hot and humid climate – it was probably cooler than her own durable-but-worn off-white cotton shirt and loose-fitting capri pants – it wasn’t exactly made for doing work.  Straining too much might tear the already-tight fabric, and getting it wet or dirty from handling fish that liked to squirm out of your grasp at the first opportunity wasn’t the best idea to keep it looking pristine.

Jeska knew that.  So did Arcen.  And Rosara quickly figured it out, as well.

“Uh, I’m so sorry, Arcen.  Jeska.  I forgot I have to see to the arrangements for the party at the villa tomorrow—” Rosara began to apologize, when there was a strange sound behind her along the cliff wall about a quarter of a mile down the beach.  About a quarter of their large island was ringed in tall cliffs that reached at least 300 feet tall in areas, and they had been such a constant presence ever since she could remember that she barely looked at them anymore.  However, she couldn’t help but look now, as the sound of falling rocks was loud enough to hear even over the hubbub of Chardelia and the crashing of waves against the shoreline.

Is there a portion of the cliff wall falling?  That worried her quite a bit, since a section of the cliff had broken off the face about a mile and a half down Sunfall Island about a decade ago; luckily, there had been no one and no structures nearby to be crushed by the gigantic slab of stone that had become unattached, though the impact of it against the water had sent a fairly large wave towards her city and caused a few boats to break free of their moorings.  Again, no one was hurt, but most just attributed that fact to the distance it had occurred from Chardelia.

But if there is some indication that a piece of this cliff is going to break off, we need to warn—what is that?!

“What is that?  Arcy?” Rosara asked, echoing Jeska’s thoughts.  “It looks like some sort of doorway inside the cliff.  I don’t remember seeing that before, do you?”  The conniving woman sidled up against Arcen’s side, pressing herself up against his arm as if seeking comfort – though it was obvious that she was fine.  At least, it’s obvious to me; he doesn’t seem to mind.

On a second look, it appeared as if he wasn’t even paying attention to Rosara; instead, he was totally focused on the strange hole in the cliff that appeared perfectly chiseled out from the hard stone, with a smooth arch along the top of the “doorway” and straight angles along the bottom corners.  The darkness emanating from inside the mystery tunnel allowed them to see it quite clearly against the stark whitish-grey of the surrounding stone, and she shivered even in the hot late-day sunlight at the thought of what evil presence could be lying in wait for them if they were to go in there.

“I think we need to go in there.”

Of course her brother would want to investigate.  “Uh, no, Arcen.  Let’s go tell the—”

“Ooh, yes, let’s go inside and investigate.  And if it gets too scary, you’ll be able to protect me, won’t you, Arcy?”  The other woman looked up into Arcen’s face and batted her eyelashes playfully, but Jeska’s brother only then tore his eyes away from the cave.  He looked down at his left arm in surprise, as if just now realizing there was a woman practically draped across it.

Extricating himself gently by firmly pressing against her shoulder, Arcen said with a distracted tone, “Yes, sure, whatever.  You can come with me, but for some reason I feel that I need to check that place out.”

Now that she thought about it, Jeska could feel a strange pull towards the strange cave as well, but she wasn’t about to let curiosity get the better of her.  “Arcen, we have no idea what could be inside; there are people who are much better equipped to investigate something like that.”

For the first time since the mysterious cave had appeared out of nowhere, her brother looked at her with a grave expression on his face.  She immediately knew what it meant.  “I’m sorry, sis, but I want—no, need—to go.  You can stay here if you want to; there’s no reason for you to risk yourself, as well.”

“Arcen—” she started to argue, but Jeska could tell he had already made up his mind.  He abruptly started walking towards the hole in the cliff face, not looking back.

Rosara, momentarily startled by his departure, hesitated for a moment before she ran after him.  “Hey, wait up.”

Jeska stood there, looking between their catch from the day inside their skiff, to the warehouse where they stored the Golden-scaled Hornblowers before they were sold, and finally to Arcen determinedly walking toward…whatever it was…with Rosara hot on his heels.  She sighed heavily, knowing exactly what she was going to do, but not liking it one bit.  Strangely, she wasn’t worried for herself, but for her brother.

Someone’s got to protect him from danger…and I’m not talking about the mysterious cave.

Mind made up, Jeska trotted after her brother and the other woman, knowing the whole time that this was a monumentally stupid idea.

Chapter 6

Uh…what do I do?  You said that I’m safe?  For some reason, Clay wanted to panic, despite the fact that he didn’t know what to panic about.  It was probably because, as strange as a sensation it was, his dungeon felt bare and naked; he was reminded of his nightmares when he was younger—ok, a year or so ago, if he were being truthful—of arriving at his daily deliveries without any clothes on. Except, those had been dreams; this was reality.

“Yes.  Your Dungeon Core is currently invulnerable to any attacks,” Dwight quickly responded, before turning and flying back to what he was considering calling his BOO, or Base Order of Operations.

Hehe, another math joke.  You know, because I make all the decisions from here, based on—

“This isn’t really a joking matter, Clay.  There should never be any Human habitations this close to the entrance of a new dungeon.  As in never; either something is even more wrong than I had first believed, or there is some sort of purpose to all of this – of which I am wholly unaware.”

The baby dragonling seemed extremely worried, which didn’t help his own anxiety.  Whereas his dungeon had felt naked before, now it felt as if he was standing there naked while his invited guests arrived.  They weren’t invited, of course, but that didn’t seem to matter to his sudden panic.  So, what do I do?!

It took Dwight a moment to answer.  “There isn’t enough time to summon any monsters and place them accurately for defense; your best chance of making a good impression right now is to present your dungeon as empty, but preparing to become operational as soon as possible.  As a former Hero, you should know—no, you wouldn’t.”

Know what?

“That it is extremely rare – practically unheard of, in fact – for a dungeon to start seeing Heroes before they are prepared.  What is more common, though, are dungeons going through a transition to a higher difficulty; at that point, while rooms, environmental décor, monsters, and traps are rearranged, the dungeon will be temporarily shut down.  It usually doesn’t take more than 24 hours to complete a transition, however, so all that Heroes need to do is wait for a short time before they can start delving through again.”

So…you want it to look like I’m going through one of these transitions?

“Yes, essentially,” Dwight responded when she arrived in his BOO, which didn’t take all that long.  He was halfway convinced that she probably could’ve just disappeared from where she was near the entrance and appeared near his Dungeon Core whenever she wanted, but he didn’t say anything.  Now that it seemed like the little dragonling had some sort of plan for him concerning the unexpected visitors, his panic and anxiety began to subside.  “I think that all you’ll have time for is to add some illumination so that they can see that there is no immediate threat to them.  Anything else will take too much time, and trying to add any quick defenses is a poor idea without at least 5 monsters in the first room.”

Clay didn’t bother asking about why that was a poor idea, because he decided to trust that Dwight had his best interests at heart.   Or illusionary heart.  Or whatever.

Therefore, using a total of 1 whole Crystal Chip, which seemed expensive compared to all the construction he had done earlier on the dungeon, Clay added torches secured to the walls of each hallway, spaced apart as evenly as he could.  All it took was a simple thought about where he wanted them, and they appeared; he could instinctively tell that they would continue burning forever, without any maintenance needed on them.

“You can add torches to your rooms, as it will help illuminate them in the future without giving everything away.  For your Boss Room, I would suggest something a little different: Glowstones.  All you have to do is concentrate on any small sections of stone you want and imagine them glowing; you can dictate the amount of ambient light you want within the room at any given time.  The best part of Glowstones, which you cannot do with torches while there are Heroes present anywhere in your dungeon, is that you can adjust the light at any time, other than when there is a Hero directly in the same room.”

That seemed somewhat useful, though because his lack of experience meant he couldn’t come up with any scenarios in which they might come in handy, he declined to comment on them.  So, like this?

He looked at the entire ceiling of the Boss Room and thought about them glowing—and they lit up so brightly that even he, as a Dungeon Core that didn’t have physical eyes, could barely look at them.

“No, not quite like that.  And…not quite that much Glowstone.”

With a mental command and a supreme force of will that prevented him snapping back at Dwight, he reduced the brightness to a level that seemed consistent with the light level coming from the torches in the hallways.  Ok, I think I can see where that could prove useful.  He was feeling quite proud of himself, in fact, but then he saw a larger than normal mote escape from his Core, only to disappear into nothingness.

“I thought I made it clear that you only need to turn a small section of stone into a Glowstone; to do otherwise is a bit more expensive.”

What?  You didn’t say— Clay started to complain, but then he remembered that she had stressed the word “small” earlier, but he had obviously misunderstood.  It was an expensive mistake, too, because when he looked at how many Crystal Chips he had left, he found he only had 30 – which meant that the glowing ceiling took 9 Chips!  Almost as much as the entire cost of constructing my dungeon.

It felt like he had just got cheated on a deal, and he was a bit angry with Dwight.  And himself.  Actually, mostly himself, because he had just rushed in and did it without consulting the baby dragonling on the place to set the Glowstones.  But still, he thought she could’ve been a little more clear next time something important like that came up.

“I will try to inform you of the exact costs of your actions next time,” Dwight said without prompting, having listened to his internal conversation with himself.

Thank you, Dwight.  I really do appreciate your help.  His parents had always taught him to be polite, even if you were seething inside about something.

By that time, there was no more chance to do anything – because his visitors had arrived.  He had been keeping an eye on them as he worked, which felt weird at first because he thought he might go cross-eyed; after a few moments, he realized that he wasn’t constrained by such biological limitations anymore, so looking in two different places at once wasn’t that much of a struggle.  An attempt to look in three or four places at the same time ended with everything becoming a bit jumbled, however.

“As you increase your Core Stage and become used to your new existence as a Dungeon Core, you’ll be able to view more and more without your mind temporarily collapsing at the influx of information.”

Uh, ok; I would guess that my mind collapsing is a bad thing.  Good to know.

Regardless, he knew precisely when the three people arrived at his entrance, and for the first time he was able to get a really good look at them.  Whoa.  I don’t remember the Heroes back home looking like this; in fact, I don’t think I’ve seen anyone quite like them.  Where did they get that color of hair?

Clay himself had dark-brown hair like the rest of his family, which wasn’t all that uncommon where he lived.  Some had lighter-brown hair, some even darker, but most people – including Heroes he had seen in the past and just recently – had black hair.  Some Heroes he had seen dyed their hair into some obviously unnatural colors like green, orange, or purple; some had even dyed it all grey or white.  But he’d never seen such pale-yellow color hair on a person before, looking nearly like old bleached bones left out in the sun.  Despite the analogy, it wasn’t disgusting – more like exotic.

The skin color of two of them, on the other hand, was quite the contrast to their hair.  There was a man who looked as big as some of the Heroes he had seen before, though he wasn’t wearing any armor or even carrying a weapon, and he had darker, tanned skin that appeared as though it saw a lot of sun.  There was a woman, much smaller than the behemoth of a man, that had hair tied up in a messy knot on her head – completely unlike the neat ponytail his mother typically wore – and she had skin of a similar shade.  Both of them appeared a bit sweaty according to their simple lightweight clothing, which was damp in a few telltale places.

The third person was only like the others in her hair color; otherwise she stuck out a bit.  She was wearing sheer enough clothing that would’ve made him blush had he still had cheeks, and her skin was lightly tanned, as if she didn’t spend as much time out of doors as the other two.  Oh, and she had some big—

“What is this place, Arcy?  Did someone commission this place built?  I’m sure my father would have heard of it, so why haven’t I?” asked the same woman who Clay was thinking had massive—

“I have no idea, but I think there is someone or something in here.  We all saw that flash of light, correct?”  That was the man this time, who looked around suspiciously – but with an air of curiosity that was plain to see.  He took a step forward, but was hindered a little by the woman with giant—

“Rosara, leave off my brother for a moment while he foolishly investigates this mysterious hole in the cliff…that just so happens to have torches burning inside it,” said the other woman, shaking her head in a gesture that Clay immediately recognized as disappointment.  He had seen it enough from his mother when he was younger that it was easily identifiable.

As she shook her head, some stray strands of the pale-yellow hair fell out of the messy knot on her head, falling into her eyes—which she immediately blew out of the way with a quick puff of air.  Tucking it behind her ear, she tapped her foot impatiently on the ground and asked, “Okay, Arcen.  Have you seen enough?  Now, let’s go report this to the guard, and Rosara can tell her—”

“I’m not done exploring yet.  Something is telling me to keep going.”

Is this normal, Dwight?  Do Heroes feel a calling to delve through dungeons?  He had never heard such a thing, but he was finding that his knowledge of Heroes and dungeons was like a tiny drop in the ocean.  And now I can finally comprehend what that means, having seen an ocean with my own two eyes…or whatever it is that enables me to see.

“You should know—no, you don’t.  I keep forgetting that you were never a Hero,” the baby dragonling replied, sounding exasperated.  “As to your question, no, Heroes do not feel a ‘calling’, though there are a few Classes that can use abilities that help them locate other dungeons.  And from what I can see through your Core, I don’t believe these are Heroes.”

How can you tell?  The man certainly looked like one, even if he wasn’t wearing any type of armor or carrying weapons.

“That is precisely how I can tell,” Dwight answered, having read his mind again.  It was annoying how she could do that, because it didn’t seem like he had any privacy, but it also helped to speed up their discussions.  “No Hero would investigate a mysterious hole in a wall without fully equipping themselves first.”

Clay supposed that made sense.  The fact that these people seemed more curious – well, the man named “Arcen” did, at least – than ready for battling through a dungeon was more than obvious.  They also didn’t appear to have any idea what a dungeon might look like, making them practically as ignorant as Clay himself.

“I’m also beginning to think that this isn’t a good idea, Arcy,” said the woman practically hanging off of the man’s arm.  She also looked relatively curious, but Clay could tell that she was a little nervous…or excited?...from her rapid breathing, and by the way her voluptuous—

“See, bro – that’s the first good advice I’ve heard all day.”

“Leave off, Jeska.  I just want to go a little further inside and check it out.  If we see anything dangerous, I’ll hold it off while you two run, okay?”  Without waiting for a reply, Arcen kept on walking, essentially dragging the woman in the sheer fabric clothing along.

“This is stupid, Arcen; if you get yourself killed, I’m telling Father that it was all your fault,”  said the man’s sister – who Clay deduced was called Jeska – as she followed behind, which caused Arcen to pause momentarily.

It didn’t last long, though, as he kept on going down the short hallway and arrived at Clay’s first room.  “See, sis? Nothing to worry about.”  They all looked around at the relatively small room with torches burning on the walls, the curiosity of their situation breaking through even the sister’s caution and reluctance.  In fact, she approached one of the torches hanging on the wall sconces and even tried to lift it out of its ring-shaped holder, but was immediately rebuffed when it didn’t shift at all.

“Those torches are a part of your dungeon, so there is practically no way they can be removed or even picked up,” Dwight told Clay as a way of explanation.  “It would be like trying to lift this entire cliffside.”

Glad to hear that.  I wouldn’t want to have to spend more of my Chips on replacing these torches every time someone walks through.

“I think these things are permanently attached, though I can’t see how.  And—” Jeska said, peering at the torch a little closer— “I don’t think this is…real.”

“How so?  What do you mean?”

The sister looked around at the other torches in the room before turning back to the one she was nearest.  Before anyone could stop her, she stuck her hand inside of the flames burning on top of the torch.

“Jeska!  Are you crazy?!”  The man reached out and yanked her hand out of the fire, but his sister just laughed.

“No, I’m not crazy.  See?” Jeska held her hand up, and Clay could see that it was completely undamaged.

How?

“The torches you created don’t give off any heat, because as the woman said, they aren’t technically ‘real’.  The flames are illusion-based, giving off light – but that’s about it.”

Clay listened to Dwight’s explanation even as the woman was describing how she hadn’t felt any heat coming from the torch, and how the flames didn’t seem to consume any of the torch itself.  The others looked a bit shocked, before testing it out themselves by placing their hands inside the flames and taking them out unharmed.

Suddenly, Jeska turned to the others with a serious look on her face.  “I think this place might just be…a dungeon.”

There was an awkward silence as Clay wanted to start shouting, “Yes!  This is a dungeon!  Even if I don’t know exactly what that means!”, but he knew he wouldn’t be heard.  Instead, the silent moment was shattered by the other’s laughter.

“Oh, c’mon, sis.  That’s ridiculous.  Everyone knows there aren’t any dungeons on Sunfall Island; it’s the same reason there are no Heroes from here.”

No…dungeons?  Despite not seeing one in person, Clay knew of at least a dozen within 100 miles of Renton, if not more.  For there not to be any dungeons on an island made little sense to him, unless the island was so small that it wouldn’t even fit.  That didn’t seem to be the case here, though.

And for them to have no Heroes was even stranger.  Even in his hometown, a new Hero might be selected every couple of years, if not more frequently, but they still had Heroes that came from Renton.  They rarely ever visited, and the normal passage of Heroes through their town to other places around the land had waned in the last couple of years, but they still existed in quite large numbers elsewhere.  The response to the World Threat that had ultimately smooshed his old body was evidence enough of that.

Rosara, which Clay presumed was the name of the other woman, chimed in.  “Why would we need dungeons or Heroes?  It isn’t like those…what do they call them?  World Dangers?  Well, whatever they are, they don’t ever show up here.  Father says that’s the reason we rarely ever see Heroes here in the first place, though a few have stayed at our villa for a night or two before moving on.”

Wait.  No Heroes, dungeons, or World Threats?  This place sounds like paradise.

“It does, Clay.  But I have a feeling all of that might change soon.”

What?  Why?  The newly formed Dungeon Core couldn’t fathom how she could possibly know something like that.

“Because, Clay, where there are dungeons, such as yourself, Heroes will inevitably follow.”

So?  That doesn’t necessarily sound like a bad thing.

“While it is possible that your…abnormalities…are the root cause of your strange location, I don’t believe that to be so.  Do you remember me telling you how long it takes for a Dungeon Core to be formed?”

Uh…hundreds of years?

“Precisely.  And from what I know, Cores cannot be moved from their location of origination, so the Core you now inhabit had likely been forming for a while now.  And, historically, Dungeon Cores have shown up in places in response to external threats.  Emergence, which is what the inhabiting of a new Dungeon Core is called, usually occurs before Cores are known to be needed.  Occasionally, it happens afterwards, but that is also rare.”

It took Clay only a second—okay, more like 5 seconds—to understand what Dwight meant.  You’re saying that I’m here in response to a threat that hasn’t happened yet?  And I can only assume by “threat”, you mean World Threat?

“Exactly.”

That was a lot to put on his shoulders.  It was a responsibility he didn’t want, knowing that he was there to help these people prepare for a future calamity – and he had no idea how to go about it!  How…how long do we have?

“There is no set time, unfortunately.  The fact that there hasn’t been a World Threat here on this island yet means that you didn’t show up after the fact, but there is no way to tell how long before this threat shows up.  Could be 50 years away; could be next week.”

So, I’m supposed to be some sort of savior to these people?

“No, Clay.  You’re a Dungeon Core; you’re here to help these people become Heroes that turn into saviors.”

But if there aren’t any Heroes here on the island, how am I supposed to do that?

The baby dragonling was silent, apparently not having a good answer.  At least, not one that encouraged him.  “I don’t know, Clay.  I don’t know.”

That makes two of us.

Chapter 7

This mysterious cave was becoming more and more strange, especially when she thought it might be a dungeon.  Not that she was an expert in dungeons, but she’d heard the tales of them from the few Heroes she had met over the years.  A series of rooms filled with traps, monsters, and apparently governed by their own rules sounded like an adventure to a young Jeska; as she grew older, however, they sounded like old fishermen’s fancy tales designed to make the world a more exciting place.

She had her doubts that this was a dungeon after Arcen and Rosara both mentioned there not being any dungeons on Sunfall Island, as well as there not being any Heroes born there.  Those things she already knew, of course, but she couldn’t think of any other explanation for the sudden appearance of an obviously newly constructed cave system; nor could she explain the magical illusion torches that were permanently attached to the walls and gave off no heat.

“Fine.  You’re probably both right, but what else could this place be?” she finally asked, after her brother also pointed out that there were no monsters inside the “dungeon”.

For once, Rosara wasn’t all over Arcen, but instead stood inside the room looking thoughtful.  As much as she liked to portray that she was all “beauty” instead of “brains” – which seemed to attract most men to her like sharks to chum – Jeska knew the Mayor’s daughter had a fairly smart head on her shoulders.  “I don’t know, but if we can somehow figure out how these torches work, we could make a fortune.  When the sun goes down in the evening, it feels like our villa shuts down; keeping the place illuminated with flames and fires – even inside lanterns – makes it unbearably hot.  I know my father would pay good money to have a few of these heatless torches – and he wouldn’t be the only one.”

Jeska had to agree, though she was thinking of fishing vessels.  Fire on board a boat was practically a death sentence if it wasn’t handled right away.  For those venturing out over the ocean on longer journeys to better fishing spots, lanterns were a good way to illuminate the deck of their boat; if there was heavy weather, though, the chance of those lanterns breaking, spilling the Jujera Whale oil over the wood construction of the boat, and catching fire was a real concern.  She’d heard of a few vessels catching fire and burning down to their keels even in a sky-shattering rainstorm, as the oil-fueled fire spread uncontrollably.

“Yeah, I can see the potential for these, but how they were made is still a mystery.  We should continue looking to see if we can find out any more information.”  Arcen tried to sound as if he was willing to investigate the cave further because he wanted to find out the secret to the torches, but she knew the real reason.  Mainly because she felt it, too.

“You still feel an urge to walk deeper into this place, don’t you?” she asked, but was surprised when both her brother and Rosara nodded.

“I can’t explain it, but it feels like I need to keep going, too,” Rosara said after a moment.  She was looking around at the cave as if confused why she should feel that way; Jeska could sympathize, which was a strange feeling when it came to the Mayor’s daughter.

“I…feel the same way, strangely,” she admitted, and now it was Arcen’s turn to look surprised.  “Not that any of this is a good idea, of course.  We still don’t know what is further inside here; what if it’s a Siren calling us to our deaths?”  Stories of ships full of men running aground near scattered islands came back to her; she shivered at the thought of their watery deaths.  It was one of the reasons why most sailing vessels had nearly a 50/50 split between male and female sailors, so as to prevent that from happening in the future – despite there not being any actual evidence (just stories) of a Siren ever existing.  Couldn’t be too careful, though, and those who made their living on the ocean were a superstitious bunch.

“Don’t be silly, sis.  Those are only stories; besides, even if they did exist, why is it calling out to you two.  It’s only supposed to be men, from what I understand of those tales.”  He paused for a second and grinned slyly.  “Unless you’re both not telling me something—?”

Jeska hit her brother in the shoulder at the same time Rosara hit the other, and he pretended to be hurt while giggling in the annoying way he did sometimes.  She gave the other woman a long-suffering look, which was returned just as quickly.  For the first time – and it felt extremely weird – she felt a little bit of sympathy and camaraderie with the Mayor’s daughter, at least when it came to Arcen.  I used to not envy my brother for all of Rosara’s antics, but he can be just as annoying.

“Whatever, let’s just go and leave this fool to giggle by himself,” Jeska said, wanting to get away from her brother when he was like this.  It usually took him at least 10 minutes to get rid of his giggles after making a stupid joke like that, and she’d rather face the potential danger that this cave represented than to wait for it to end.  Rosara seemed to agree, and took Jeska’s arm in her own; there was only the slightest hesitation on her part at being so close to the other woman – who was equally as annoying as her brother, though in different ways – before she walked quickly out of the room with the Mayor’s daughter and practically marched down the next hallway.

Jeska could hear her brother still giggling as he followed behind them, and it was only as they appeared to be coming up on another room that she realized it would probably be safer if he were in front of them.  Oh well, too late.  Fortunately, the next room – looking almost identical to the first – was equally as empty with no visible dangers.  Still, before they went on with their exploration (as stupid as she still found it, she just wanted to get on with it and get out of there), Arcen moved to walk in front of them.

“Just in case, I think I better take the lead from here; again, if there is anything dangerous in here, I want you two to run while I hold…whatever it might be…off.”  Neither of them protested, and though Jeska was accustomed to dangerous situations on the ocean, sailing out by herself on occasion, she had to admit that her brother was probably better equipped to handle anything they might encounter.  She had seen him rip apart a section of an extremely well-built boat before with his impressive strength; it wasn’t because he was mad or anything, but he had done it in order to save a little kid who had gotten trapped in a section of the hull that was generally inaccessible.

Therefore, she thought he would be a bit better suited to tackling dangers of a physical variety.

The next hallway looked identical to the others they had traveled down, with the heat-less magical torches spaced evenly along the way, but the next room they encountered was quite different. Instead of torches, the entire ceiling glowed with a faint light, illuminating the entire space with a gentle brightness.  The room itself was similarly constructed, however, though it was at least twice as large as the first two rooms.

“Okay.  Now I know that something is extremely strange about this place,” Rosara said, staring at the ceiling with her mouth open in awe.  Jeska had to agree with her, and forced herself to shut her own mouth from the surprise.  “Those torches I could see being created by someone, perhaps a Hero, but this…I have no words for this.”

Jeska didn’t have any either; all she could think was that it was extraordinarily beautiful.  While the overall shape of the ceiling was a bit irregular, the glow enhanced its look, making it appear like a chunk of a star fell from the heavens and implanted itself inside this cave.

“Very pretty.”  Arcen’s words were more than an understatement, but suited his personality well enough; he wasn’t as dazzled by breathtaking sights and beautiful artwork as some people were.  The way he dealt with Rosara, who seemed to have a natural charisma about her that enhanced her beauty, was proof enough of that.  “Let’s keep going; I have a feeling we are near the end.”

Now that he mentioned it, Jeska felt the pull, the drive, to explore even more ardently than she had before.  It almost felt as though she was getting close to cresting the rise of a large wave, as the anticipation and thrill of succeeding was mixed with worry that her boat might tip over in catastrophe.  Might as well get it over with.

It was tough pulling her attention away from the gorgeous ceiling, but she somehow managed it; she pulled Rosara along when the other woman still seemed entranced by the soft glow, and the movement finally brought her back to the world.  “Hey, do you think we could break off a piece of that and take it home as a gift to my father?” she asked, shuffling along after Arcen, shyly smiling at his form.  Oh, goodness; she’s talking about a courting gift!  That sneaky—

“I doubt it; I have a feeling that stuff is as permanent as those torches, and besides, I don’t have any tools to do any mining with me.  I might be strong, but I’ve never really had any luck breaking rocks with my fist; the one time I tried it, I broke my little finger,” he said matter-of-factly, shrugging at the same time.

“Oh, ok.  I guess we can think of something else.  How about—oh my!  How about that?”  Rosara seemed very excited as they approached the last of the hallway, but Arcen was blocking her view of whatever was ahead of them.  When he moved to the side and ducked down into a vastly smaller space, her own breath caught in her throat.

There was a red, shining gemstone floating in the middle of the small space, suspended by some unknown force.  It was relatively tiny in comparison to the extravagant glowing ceiling from the previous room, but there was a strange allure that made her think that the gem was even more precious than plain glowing stone.  “It’s…beautiful…” she found herself whispering, which was echoed by the others in similar statements, all in a whisper.

“Please, Arcy, I would love to…no, even I can’t think of possessing such a thing,” Rosara said softly, shaking her head in what appeared to be regret.  “It feels like something too precious to want to remove from the world, though I would love to at least touch it.”  As if by her own volition, the Mayor’s daughter squeezed past Arcen, crouching down and stretching out her hand towards the shining red gemstone.

A part of Jeska oddly urged the other woman on, as if it were the right thing to do; another, saner part of Jeska, couldn’t help but shout, “NO!  You don’t know what that will do!”  She pushed at her brother, who was closer than she was to Rosara, but he was frozen in place like a statue.  “Stop her!”  Neither of them listened to her, so she started to move forward herself…but it was too late.

As soon as Rosara touched the red gem, there was an explosion of force that erupted from inside the core of the gemstone, slamming into her like some sort of shockwave.  She felt herself flying backwards down the hallway they had just traveled through, hitting the hard floor with her butt, and then sliding all the way back into the previous room.  I think I’m okay, I think I’m okay.  Jeska didn’t feel like she had hurt anything, at least, though she thought she might have a bruised backside.

She went to get up to check on her brother…and she supposed Rosara, as well…since they didn’t appear to be near her, but then her body started to go numb.  Every effort to move felt like her muscles had just liquidated inside of her skin, and it was an effort to even keep her eyes open.  Collapsing on the cold stone floor of the illuminated room, the last thing she saw before her mind blacked out was the beautiful glowing stone ceiling.

*          *          *

No no no no no—what is she doing?  Can she take me from here?  The thought of being removed from his dungeon sent a spike of unfamiliar terror running through his mind.

“No she can’t, so calm down,” Dwight said calmly, which was a bit infuriating to Clay based on the situation – because he just wanted to scream in fright.  “You’re an intrinsic part of this dungeon, so just like the torches, she would have to be able to move the entire cliffside to move you.  Even if she found some way to do that, she would transport everything you’ve built here; you can’t have a dungeon without a Dungeon Core anchored in place.”

Her words didn’t really do anything to lessen his panic, especially since he found that they appeared like literal giants to his vision inside of his tiny Core.  The perspective change probably wasn’t the best for his psyche, since the last time he had seen something so large…well, the Giant Ogress had crushed him.  Simple as that.

As to why he was cowering inside of his Core, he found that he initially felt safer when his immediate vision was coming out of his little gem-like form.  Whether or not that was the case was hard to determine, unfortunately, but it had felt right at the time.  And then the woman with ginormous—

“Again, Clay, you’ll be fine.  She might touch you, but she can’t harm you or take you away.  You’ll see—” the baby dragonling, who apparently only Clay could see, started to tell him right by his side.  And then the giant fingers touched his outer surface…

…and an upwelling of some unrecognizable-but-powerful force blasted out of his Core in a sphere-like shape, slamming into the three people that had invaded his BOO.  Luckily, it didn’t hurt him in the least, or he didn’t think it did, but it certainly hurt the two women and the man that were nearby.  The man was smashed up against the corner of the wall separating his BOO and the hallway, tumbling at least a dozen feet down the torchlit tunnel before coming to a stop and lying there without moving.  The woman in back shot back down the hallways unimpeded, sliding on her rear end all the way down to his “Boss Room”, before collapsing back in apparent exhaustion.

As for the woman that had caused the reaction, she was crushed up against the ceiling of his BOO from the force of the explosion for just shy of 5 seconds, her head hitting so hard against the stone that he wouldn’t be surprised if she had cracked her skull.  She fell back to the floor with a *thud* that seemed overly loud to his senses, and lay there completely unmoving.  Just like the others.

What…was…THAT?!  Did I just kill them all?

Clay looked to Dwight for an answer, but the baby dragonling had frozen in the middle of the air in mid-flap, as unmoving as the people that had been affected by his unexpected explosion of…whatever that was.  When she didn’t answer, nor looked capable of answering, Clay ventured out of his Core and took a closer look at his visitors.  He instantly reeled in shock when he noticed that they weren’t breathing, though none of them appeared too hurt – even the woman who had slammed against the ceiling of his BOO.  Looking at the back of her head, he couldn’t see any particular damage to it; then again, he wasn’t an expert in head wounds, so there might be something seriously wrong.

Regardless of that woman, the other two had barely impacted against anything when they were pushed away, and he doubted they had hit their heads hard enough to knock them out, let alone kill them.  How am I supposed to help these people if the first ones that visit me I kill without even trying?

Looking around his dungeon in desperation, Clay basically wandered around lost and confused.  What am I supposed to do now?  It was only when he got to the entrance and looked out that he noticed that the sun was still setting outside, so he reasoned that it hadn’t been that long since the visitors had arrived at his dungeon.  He went to turn away, trying to figure out a way to clean up dead bodies, when he noticed something strange: The water in the distance wasn’t rippling like it did before.

Now, he was probably the farthest thing from an expert on oceans and large bodies of water, but he couldn’t understand how the water had stopped its movement in such a short amount of time.  Even the boats he saw in the water near the city had to make a few waves when they bobbed up and down in place, but he couldn’t see anything moving.  In fact, is that a kid jumping off the side of that boat and frozen in the middle of the air?  There were a few other children underneath the jumper in the water, and though it was quite a distance away, he didn’t think they were moving either.

Everything…everything…was frozen in place as if time had stopped.

What have I done?

As if it were waiting for him to acknowledge the phenomenon, Clay sensed a sudden change fall over his little world.  The waves in the ocean started to move infinitesimally at first, though it slowly began to speed up.  The kid that was jumping from a boat in the distance started to fall down into the water below, and a sudden rush of sounds suddenly crashed into his awareness, making him wonder for the first time why he didn’t notice it had been entirely silent.

“—that you will be fine.  WHAT HAPPENED?!” he suddenly heard shouted by his Core, and he sped his focus back to his BOO.  Dwight was unfrozen, flapping her wings steadily to keep her afloat and was looking around in shock – which looked very strange on the face of a flying lizard.

That’s what I would like to know!  That woman touched me, and something erupted out of my Core, and now I think I killed them—  He couldn’t help the whine that seemed to accompany his voice, but he shut up when the woman who touched him began to stir.

She abruptly sat up, her eyes open wide but unfocused. She got to her feet in a crouch and started leaving his BOO without a word, and it was at that point that he saw that the man, Arcen, was doing the same.  The woman that had slid all the way down to his “Boss Room” stirred last of all, but by the time the others arrived near her, she was on her feet and joining them as they walked back down the hallways and other rooms toward the exit.  Clay could only watch in confusion and mounting horror as they continued not to say a word to each other or acknowledge in any way what had happened to them.

Ok, Dwight, I need some explanations.

“So do I, Clay.”

Chapter 8

Strange dreams filled with visions of ever-burning torches and strange glowing stones plagued Jeska’s sleep, though what finally woke her was something even more odd – and frightening.  She dreamt that she was running along the beach right outside of Chardelia, and something massive was slowly making its way over the horizon, set on destroying her beloved city…and the rest of Sunfall Island afterwards.  While she wasn’t quite sure exactly what this threat to her city and island was, what was even odder was the sense that she was running toward this threat, instead of away from it like any sensible person should do.

It was all too much for her mind to comprehend, and she found herself waking up in her bed drenched in sweat – and it wasn’t from the constant heat that wafted through their open windows, even in the middle of the night.  Looking down at herself, she realized she had slept in her clothes last night, which probably had something to do with her current sweaty condition, as well as stinking like a catch left out on the dock for a few days.  What in the world happened last night?

Jeska wasn’t one for drinking spirits like many of the sailors working out of Chardelia, so she doubted she had blacked out after too much drink.  Besides, her head felt fine, unlike the one time she had experimented and indulged a bit too much one night; when she had woken up on the floor of her room in the morning, having very little memory of the night before, her skull had felt like it had been trying to explode.  Seriously, though, I don’t even remember coming home.

As she sat up in bed gingerly, worried that staying still had kept a potential headache at bay, she tried to go over what she could recall of the day before.  I remember coming back to shore with our catch of Golden-scaled Hornblowers – after Arcen destroyed another one of our nets accidentally – beaching our skiff, seeing Rosara coming towards us, and then…nothing.  Everything that had happened after seeing Rosara was just gone, like it had been stolen away. Flickers of…something…flashed through her mind, but when she tried to grab onto them to analyze them a bit more, they flittered away out of reach.  It was frustrating and annoying, so she did what she normally did when in any frustrating and annoying situation: She ignored it and hoped it would solve itself in the future.

Sliding her feet off her bed, she looked back and saw she would probably need to wash her sheets before she used them again – they were soaked with her sweat and what appeared to be dirt and sand.  Was I up near the cliffs?  The thought of that nearly triggered a memory, but it too flittered away without coming to light.

She quickly stripped and walked sleepily inside of the shower she shared with the rest of her family.  They were among the lucky ones who had a special reservoir of rain water atop their modest house; being amongst the richest residents of the city came with some perks.  As the cool water fell over her in a refreshing rainfall at the flick of a lever, the rest of her sleepiness washed away with the dirt and sand covering her body.  Thank goodness for small things like this; and also thank my father’s discovery of the nets used on the Hornblowers, because as a family we’ve made more money than I think we could spend in two lifetimes.

Sure, they could’ve afforded to buy or construct a villa up near the cliffs that would rival the Mayor’s abode, but none of them wanted that kind of life.  Jeska would rather spend time sailing on the ocean for days at a time, or even work to prepare and ship out their catch for the day, than to hobnob with the fancy-pants snobs who ran in those kinds of circles.  It was bad enough that Rosara had the hots for Jeska’s brother, but the Mayor’s daughter didn’t put on airs like some others she had met…not much, at least.

It didn’t take long to get clean, so within a minute of starting her shower, Jeska shut off the glorious rainfall and started to dry herself off as she went back to her room.  She was just beginning to dry her hair when she walked into her room…and stopped in surprise.

On the floor, next to her bed, was a strange glowing ball of light that floated a few inches off the wooden baseboards.  Was that here earlier?  She couldn’t believe she had missed it, as it was so bright and slowly bobbing up and down like it was trying to catch her attention, but she remembered she had still been a little sleepy when she stood up – and had other things on her mind.

Jeska finished drying her body and slipped on some lightweight clothing similar to the outfit that had become extremely soiled from the day before, as she sat down again on the edge of her bed – in a clean spot, of course.  She finished drying her hair as she stared down at the ball of light bobbing near her leg, trying to figure out exactly what it was.  Logically, I should probably be a little more cautious about some strange floating light that shouldn’t be here in my room, but for some illogical reason, I don’t think it’s harmful.

After drying her hair as much as she could, which never felt like enough due to their humid climate, she pulled it all up to the top of her head and tied it in a quick knot to keep it out of her face.  Then she reached down to touch the ball of light—

…“NO!  You don’t know what that will do!”  She pushed at her brother, who was closer than she was to Rosara, but he was frozen in place like a statue.  “Stop her!”  Neither of them listened to her, so she started to move forward herself…but it was too late….

Jeska’s mind reeled in shock as the memory slammed into her like a crashing wave among the breakers, causing her hand to freeze in mid-motion.  What…was…that?!  She tried to make sense of what she had just experienced—or re-experienced—but it quickly faded from her memories, nearly as fast as it had arrived.  Is that what happened last night?  Where was that?  What was that…thing…Rosara was reaching for?

Unfortunately, the more she tried to make sense of it, the more mysterious it became.  After sitting bent over for at least 5 minutes as she tried to work through what was left of her fading memory, it eventually became so distant that she couldn’t recall more than being alarmed at something.  Another few minutes went by, and even that faded from her mind, as if it were being washed away like drawings in the sand when the tide arrived.

What was I doing again?  Jeska’s mind seemed to snap back into place as she found herself on her bed, bent over with her hand outstretched towards a glowing ball of light bobbing up and down near the floor.  With only the slightest hesitation at her interrupted thoughts, and with a quick flash of curiosity at why she felt a little stiff, she finished her motion and grasped the ball of light in her hand.

She felt a flash of satisfaction suffuse her body, and she pulled the light ball closer to her face to get a better look at it.  As soon as she uncurled her hand, the ball pulsed once and lifted off her palm, floating above it like it had on the floor.  She gazed at it, mesmerized by its simple beauty; the color was hard to define, as it appeared a bit pearlescent at times and full of color at another.  She tried to look a little closer to see past the light emitted from the ball—

Congratulations on being chosen to become a Hero!

Would you like to absorb Class Orb Tier 0?

Yes / No

Warning: This Class Orb Tier 0 is keyed to you, and you alone; this Orb cannot be absorbed by anyone other than yourself.

A Class Orb?  Jeska had heard of them from a few of the Heroes who rarely visited their island, but she had never actually seen one before.  She had heard that there was a fairly large trade of a specific type of Class Orb on the mainland, but there was no market for them on Sunfall Island.  There were no Heroes who called the island home, and none of those who visited stayed more than a few days, if that.

Except that now there is one…me.

But did she want to become a Hero?  Of course not.  Sure, it sounded like some sort of wonderful opportunity on the surface, but all of the Heroes she had met (which, admittedly, weren’t very many) said that it was a lot of work; not only that, but they were constantly on the move.  One of them had mentioned that they hadn’t been home in years, and even when they had gotten the opportunity, it was only just for a brief visit.

Family meant everything to her.  Since there weren’t any dungeons or Heroes on Sunfall Island, Jeska figured she would have to leave to become a stronger Hero – if that was what she decided, of course – and it was possible that she might never come back.  That alone was something she didn’t think she could live with, so it was with more than a little reluctance that she—

A loud *thump* from the other side of the house shook her room a little bit.  Jeska smiled, knowing that Arcen was awake; his favorite way of waking up was to literally roll out of bed and fall to the floor.  He said it ensured he woke up, because otherwise he was likely to sleep way past when he should probably get out of bed.

She heard him mumble something, his deep voice relatively audible even through the multiple walls in between her room and his.  Just as she turned back to the Class Orb in her hand so as to say “No” to absorbing it, Jeska heard Arcen shout in surprise, followed quickly by stomping footsteps running in the direction of her room.  Quickly, she covered up the glowing ball of light with her other hand; she didn’t want it known that she had declined becoming a Hero, because she wasn’t sure how her brother and father would receive that kind of news.  Better that no one but me knows.

Her door slammed open – Arcen’s normal disregard for her privacy evident when he didn’t even knock – and he rushed into the room, a look of wonder on his face.

And a glowing ball of light floating above his right palm.

Huh.  Despite the fact that Jeska had been planning on denying her call to become a Hero, she now felt a bit cheated.  I thought I was the only one; now it doesn’t feel as…special.  As crazy as that sounds, especially since I wasn’t going to—

“Jeska!  Look!  It’s a Class Orb that will allow me to become a Hero!  I found it next to my bed when I rolled out.”

Jeska sighed and started to uncover her own Class Orb, but Arcen wasn’t done yet.  “I’m going to do it, sis.  It will suck royally to have to leave, but this is an opportunity I can’t pass up.”

“Wait, hold on—” she started to say, but suddenly the light orb floating above her brother’s hand drifted down toward his palm and seemed to melt into it.  In less than a second, it was gone, having been absorbed by the impulsive fool, and Jeska waited to see what it would do.  Will he look different?  Is there some sort of mark that identifies him as a Hero?

While there wasn’t any obvious mark or immediate difference in his appearance, something did happen to him.  Arcen’s eyes opened wide as if he were looking at something only he could see, and then he started to twitch and shake violently. Luckily, it didn’t seem to last long, so Jeska had just barely begun to be concerned when he stopped.  Her brother sagged in place, looking exhausted…but he was smiling.

“That…was intense,” he finally said after a few moments, his voice a little hoarse.  “I don’t think I can even explain what just happened—but it looks like I don’t have to.”

Jeska was confused at what he was talking about, but then she saw where he was looking.  In her shock over what he had done – and the aftereffects, of course – she had uncovered her own Class Orb, leaving it floating above her hand.  Ah.  Whoops.

“But I’m not sure I should—”

“Sis, you should do it.  I—” Arcen said, cutting her off, before uncharacteristically hesitating in what he was about to say.  “I think, for some reason, that this is more important than just you and me, or even Father.”

What does he mean by that?  Family was all they had, especially after their mother had passed away when Jeska was very young.  She nearly shook her head and denied the calling to become a Hero despite her brother’s insistence, but one look at his eyes changed her mind.  It wasn’t often that he was serious about something, since he liked to joke around a lot (she did as well, so she figured it must be a family trait). Right now, though, she saw deep sincerity in his eyes.  It was in that moment, the moment when she knew her life was going to change forever, that she couldn’t help but get in one last dig.

“Fine.  Someone has to keep you out of trouble, after all.  You’d probably be lost without my help, anyway – even if we have to leave here,” she replied with an overly dramatic sigh, before saying “Yes” to absorbing the Orb.

“Luckily, I don’t think we’re going to have to leave.”

What does he mean by that? she wondered, just as the ball of light melted into her own hand.  Seconds later, she didn’t have to wonder anymore.

As soon as the Orb was entirely absorbed into her body, there was a sudden rush of knowledge being pressed into her mind, and streams of confusing informational images zipped through with alarming speed.  She could only get glimpses of them, though she now somehow knew that she could pull them up later to peruse them at her leisure.  However, that wasn’t the only thing that was being forced into her mind, and it was the next thing that made her twitch and shake like she had seen her brother do only moments ago.

Memories of the day and evening before were shoved into her consciousness so fast she could barely process them.  She saw herself, Arcen, and Rosara venture into a mysterious cave that had appeared in the cliff face; she saw them discover the strange torches and glowing ceiling inside of that cave; and she saw the glowing red gemstone at the end of their journey, which Rosara touched, despite the inherent danger in doing so.  That was a Dungeon Core.  She wasn’t sure how she knew now what it was, but it seemed to come from her new knowledge – just like she now knew that the cave was indeed a dungeon.  I got that right, at least.

Jeska saw the explosion of nearly invisible force erupt from the Core, pushing her back down the hallway, and her weakness as she tried to get up to check on the others…but everything after that was blank.  She still didn’t exactly know how she had ended back at her house, in her bed, still in her dirty and stinky clothes from the day before, though.

That wasn’t all.  Vague recollections of her dreams last night came back to her as she felt the presence of a gigantic threat to not only Chardelia, but her entire island.  Her new knowledge indicated that it was a World Threat, something that she had heard mentioned before, but had always dismissed as something irrelevant.  They didn’t have these massive monsters attacking Sunfall Island, after all – it was something that the mainland had to deal with, but it didn’t really apply to her, her family, and their business dealings.

But now it felt like there was a real looming threat to her island, her city, and her family.  It wasn’t defined, per se, but she couldn’t help but feel that some sort of catastrophe was on the horizon if she didn’t step up to the challenge of being a Hero.  At least I’ll have my brother with me.

Suddenly, the knowledge flood stopped, and her head felt full – though not as pained as she thought it would feel.  She opened up her eyes after she realized she had closed them, only to find herself looking up at the ceiling of her room, the wooden beams and dried palm thatch staring back at her like they did when she couldn’t sleep at night.

Her brother’s face abruptly appeared in her vision, startling her for a moment.  “That was intense, wasn’t it?” he asked, an even bigger smile than before stretching across his face.

Jeska could only nod, still trying to filter through all of the new knowledge she had gained.  “You could’ve warned me, you jerk.”

“Ha, what’s the fun in that?” he laughed. “Besides, I don’t think I could’ve accurately portrayed all of that information without sounding crazy.”  As he offered his hand, she gladly took it as she sat up, feeling a bit disoriented from the whole experience.

Jeska begrudgingly agreed with him; if he had mentioned dungeons and Dungeon Cores and World Threats before she had absorbed the Orb, she would’ve thought he was nuts.  Now, though, she had experienced all of that information for herself, and it was hard to deny the truth of it.  She still wasn’t convinced about all of it, but enough of it made sense that she would take it as fact unless told otherwise.

“I guess we should probably tell Father.  Do you know if he’s here?” she abruptly asked, worried about how their remaining parent would take the news.  “I remember him being gone when we came back yesterday afternoon.”

“I think I heard something downstairs while you were spasming uncontrollably like a fish flopping around on the deck of a boat,” Arcen said nonchalantly as he turned away, though she could see the hint of a smile on his face.

Great.  To think, I’ll be spending even more time with him and his attempts at humor.  What have I gotten myself into?

Chapter 9

Clay took some time to explain to Dwight what he experienced when time had suddenly stood still, but even that didn’t seem to help either of them understand what had actually happened.

“Nothing like that should have happened in the first place,” the baby dragonling concluded.  “Touching or trying to damage a Dungeon Core should have elicited absolutely no reaction from either party.  What happened here is unprecedented, as far as I can tell.”

Yay!  More unusual stuff! he replied sarcastically.  Clay was really getting tired of all this stuff happening that shouldn’t be happening; he figured that if he was in this situation against all reason, the least the world could do was accommodate him with a “normal” development.

“That is true, and I have no explanation.  But now we have to consider what this means.”

I’m assuming you mean the fact that what happened here will likely be seen with some mistrust?  I would certainly understand some distrust; if a dungeon had popped up next to Renton and something like this had happened to people I knew, I would’ve felt that kind of distrust.  I’m just glad that they seemed relatively fine when they left – except for the whole dead-behind-the-eyes look they had when they marched out my entrance without a word or other reaction.

“Yes and no.  Typically, the discovery of a dungeon is seen as something to celebrate, as it allows for unique challenges and an enhanced potential for helping Heroes get stronger.  Here, though – if those visitors can be believed – there aren’t any Heroes or dungeons, so I’m not sure exactly what the reaction will be.  What I can tell you with certainty, however, is that eventually Heroes will come when word gets out about the presence of your dungeon here.  Therefore, we need to prepare for that eventuality.”

From all that he knew about Heroes, Clay was fairly confident that Dwight was right about their inevitable arrival.  Which meant….  Ah, you mean monsters, correct?  He still wasn’t sure how he felt about having monsters of his own – from the whole being squashed by a giant one, obviously – but he knew it was his duty to help his fellow people.  Even if it wasn’t something he had chosen to do in the past.

“Correct.  Now that you have a dungeon, as relatively small as it is at this point, you need to start filling it with defenses.”  Clay took a little bit of offense at her comment about his stuff being “relatively small”.  He didn’t say anything, though, because he didn’t really have anything to compare it to.

Fine; how do I do this?

“First, open up your Transcribed Status—

Core Assessment and Transcribed Status

Core Name:

Clayburnside “The Denominator” Shuntwise

Core Stage:

1

Core Structure Health:

20/20

Crystal Chips:

30 (500 to next Core Stage)

Star Limit for Placement:

15

Available Monsters:

0/50

Available Traps:

0 (No Limit)

Available Dungeon Spells:

0 (No Limit)

Summoning Portal

Dungeon Interface

Sacrificial Altar

Clay opened it up, finding it as easy as he did the first time.  He was disappointed to see that he was still at only 30 Crystal Chips, but he knew that it had only been a little over an hour since he had opened.  His replenishment took 24 hours for a single Chip, so even if it had been longer he wasn’t sure if it would’ve made any difference.

“—and select the Summoning Portal option near the bottom.”

The Transcribed Status was floating in front of his vision and moved with him wherever he looked, which made it convenient; what wasn’t convenient, though, was the fact that he didn’t have any hands with which to “select” the Summoning Portal option Dwight mentioned.  After struggling to reach out and touch it somehow, he suddenly realized that all he needed to do was treat it like everything else and use his mind.  You could’ve told me that’s how to do it, he remarked at the baby dragonling after she saw him struggling without offering a single word of advice.

“I figured you’d get it; it’s not that different from your Hero interface—oh.”

Yeah, “oh”.  He didn’t say anything more to her, but instead took a look at what his efforts had produced.

Summoning Portal

Available Crystal Chips:

30 Chips

Common Spawn Egg

5 Chips

Bundle Pack #1 (Good Deal!)

10 Common Spawn Eggs; 1 Guaranteed 3-Star!

45 Chips

Mystical Spawn Egg

1000 Chips

Bundle Pack #2 (Great Deal!)

10 Mystical Spawn Eggs; 1 Guaranteed 6-Star!

9000 Chips

Epic Spawn Egg

10000 Chips

Bundle Pack #3 (Best Deal!)

10 Epic Spawn Eggs; 1 Guaranteed 9-Star!

90000 Chips

Convert Core Structure Health (CSH) to Chips?

10 Chips per CSH at Core Stage 1

Clay’s memories were transported back to his old life in the general store his family operated when he saw what appeared to be some sort of market for “Spawn Eggs”.  Every year in the spring, they would clearance out the majority of their small selection of winter clothes stock, both as a way to gain sales and to make space in their limited back room for other items.  Heavy, fur-lined coats, thick head coverings, and wool-filled boots were placed on an “End-of-season Deal!” rack near the front of the store, which always brought in extra customers who usually ended up buying something else.  They would do the same thing in the early autumn, getting rid of certain summer items that didn’t sell at all when there were a few inches of snow on the ground (such as sandals and sun hats).

While they didn’t usually sell those items more than 50% off their normal price, they didn’t lose any money on their sales.  At the least, they broke even; most of the time, though, they made a tiny little profit.  The point was, Clay was well aware of the different methods that stores used to sell their products, making their customers feel like they were getting a great deal; needless to say, he was a bit wary himself when he saw the same thing on the Summoning Portal menu.

Granted, he had to admit that it looked like a good deal; each of the different types of Spawn Eggs were sold in a Bundle Pack of 10 that was 10% off what it would normally cost if purchased individually, and they had a guarantee of receiving…something.  He wasn’t sure what it meant by 3-Star, 6-Star, or 9-Star, but something about that tickled his memory a little.

Before he dug into that, though, Clay needed to figure out what all of these Spawn Eggs meant.  Dwight?  Obviously, I can tell that some of these Spawn Eggs are more…uh…powerful? than the others, based on their price, but what is the difference?

The baby dragonling took on a lecturing tone again, as if reciting information.  “Common Spawn Eggs are more likely to provide 1 to 3-Star-rated monsters and traps; Mystical Spawn Eggs are more likely to provide 4 to 6-Star-rated monsters and traps; and Epic Spawn Eggs are more likely to provide 6 to 8-Star-rated monsters and traps.”  And that was it; she didn’t bother to explain any more.

All of which didn’t really help him understand.  What do you mean by these Stars?  It sounds a little familiar for some reason, but I can’t place it.

“As a former Hero, this should be common—oh, never mind,” Dwight started to say, before cutting herself off again.  At least it felt like she was catching on to the change in her explanations a little faster than before.  After a very dramatic – and unnecessary – sigh, she went on to explain:

“Star ratings are a way for Heroes to understand the general difficulty of a monster or trap that they may encounter.  They tend to coincide with the Tiers of Heroes, so that a common cluster of 1-Star monsters can easily be defeated by a standard group of 5 Heroes that are Tier 1 Classes.”

That made a little more sense to Clay.  While he wasn’t very knowledgeable about Heroes, he was aware that they were ranked by different Tiers, with Tier 0 being a brand-new Hero without a Class quite yet, and Tier 10 being exceedingly powerful.  Other than knowing that they somehow increased these Tiers by fighting through dungeons, he was totally ignorant of the process.

“10-Star monsters are some of the most powerful, fiercest, and deadliest creatures ever created, and are usually a difficult fight even for a full group of Tier 10 Heroes.”

The mention of a 10-Star monster brought that inkling of a memory back to the forefront of his mind; after a half-second of contemplation, he figured out why it was familiar.

That Giant Ogress that killed me was a…11-Star?  I think?  Everything was happening so fast at that point that I may not have remembered correctly.

“You are absolutely correct.  All World Threats are classified as 11-Star monsters, but once you progress past 10-Star – which is the maximum that exists within a dungeon – many of the rules that govern dungeon-based monsters are null and void.  It is difficult to assess how powerful these World Threats are, because of their different natures.  Instead, they are evaluated on how much of a potential threat they might be for the current area.  If I remember correctly, a Giant Ogress is considered a ‘Low’ threat, which could account for the fact that no Heroes died while fighting it.”

If that was a Low threat, I absolutely do not want to see what a High threat is.

“No, you do not.”  Dwight got back to her explanation after his interruption.  “As for traps, which are designed to test the strength, speed, and smarts of Heroes, their difficulty is also ranked by Stars.  For example, a 1-Star Pit Trap will be extremely obvious to just about any Hero looking at it, whereas a 10-Star Pit Trap might be absolutely invisible to all but the highest-Tier Scout-type Class using their abilities to search it out.  In addition, while the 1-Star Pit Trap might just be a simple thin layer of stone that collapses when enough weight is placed upon it, the 10-Star Pit Trap might have an effect on it that draws its victims near and then sends out stone hands to drag them down inside a deeper, deadlier pit.”

Sounds…great.  He still wasn’t quite down for attempting to kill people, but if it made them stronger and capable of defeating a World Threat, he supposed it was necessary…if distasteful.  And how does all of this work?  When I “purchase” one of these spawn eggs, is everything random chance?

“Not precisely.  There are different likelihoods of something appearing when you open a Spawn Egg—"

Wait; do you mean probabilities?

Dwight paused for a moment, apparently confused at his interruption.  “Well, of course.  Everything is determined by probabilities—”

I love probabilities!  I never really got a chance to use them too much in the store, but I’ve always had a fascination with them.  For instance, I had a theory that the chance of someone receiving a Tier 0 Class Orb was based wholly on probabilities instead of some random occurrence—

“It is,” Dwight said, cutting him off with a bit of an exasperated tone.  “It’s based on a massive amount of variables that I’m not going to go into because it’s not important right now, but the appearance of Tier 0 Class Orbs is wholly based on probabilities, rather than on entirely random chance.”

Now, that was awesome to hear.  He had always suspected that was the case, though he didn’t have nearly enough information to hazard a guess at how the probabilities worked.  That, and he’d never had any formal training in probabilities or statistical analysis, but that didn’t lessen his fascination with the subject.

“Right, now, as I was saying—”

Do you know the probabilities for each Spawn Egg?  Clay thought it would be nice to see something like that, so that he could make a better-informed decision in the future.

“What?  Well, yes, but it’s not something that is typically shared…”

Well, as you well know, this situation we’re in isn’t exactly typical.

The baby dragonling actually froze in the middle of the air again and Clay thought that time had frozen again; a quick check outside showed that not to be the case, however, and only a second or two went by before Dwight was back to normal.

“Fine, if it will make you happy enough that I can proceed with my explanation…here.”

Suddenly, an image appeared in his vision of its own volition, and he stared at it, highly fascinated.[1]  To think that such seemingly simple acts can be broken down by complex calculations is amazing.

The chart he was looking at had a breakdown of each Spawn Egg and the probability of a certain Star Rating being summoned for each one opened.  For instance, with a Common Spawn Egg, there was nearly an 85% chance that a 1-Star monster would appear; there was also a 0.00001% chance that a 10-Star monster would appear, which meant that while possible, he could buy millions of Common Spawn Eggs and never get a 10-Star monster.  Or he could get lucky and buy a single Common Egg and get a 10-Star monster, though the probability of that happening was so low that it was nearly impossible.

The two other Spawn Eggs, the Mystical and Epic varieties, had a higher probability that they would summon a 5-Star and a 7-Star, respectively.  Even the extremely expensive Epic Spawn Egg, however, only had a measly 1% chance that a 10-Star monster would be summoned.

Are these independent events?  He wanted to make sure that they weren’t conditional on prior summons, as that might change the result for the next summon.

“Yes.  Now, can I continue with my explanation?”

That meant that he didn’t have to worry about the probabilities changing between each summons, which could get complicated if the variables weren’t listed.  For instance, if he were to put 1 white pebble and 4 black pebbles of the same exact size and shape into a bucket and then blindly draw one out, there was a 20% chance it would be white.  If he instead drew a black pebble and didn’t put it back, the next time he drew there would be a 25% chance it would be white.  From there—

Dwight made a strange noise that broke Clay’s thought processes.  It was only when he considered what it sounded like that he figured it was the baby dragonling trying to clear her throat.

“Ahemmmm?  Are you ready to listen?”

Yes, yes, I’m sorry.  I just got so caught up in the probabilities and—no, never mind.  I apologize; continue, please.

“Thank you,” she replied, before taking on her lecturing tone again.  “Now, hopefully you have a decent enough understanding of the Star-ratings that I can move on?”  Clay indicated that he did, though he could think of a dozen questions that could probably wait.

“Okay, then,” she continued.  “Each type of Spawn Egg has a different chance to summon a monster, trap, or even a Dungeon Spell.”

Uh…do you—?

“Yes, yes—here!  But don’t get sidetracked, because I’m not going to repeat myself,” she said angrily, even as another chart popped up in his vision.[2]  She paused for a second before adding, “Well, actually, I will repeat myself if you ask, but I won’t like it!”

Looking over the chart, he worked it out like this.  Each time he bought one of these Eggs, it would first determine what type of result it would be: Monster, Trap, or Dungeon Spell – and then it would move onto the chart he saw before, though he suspected the Star-rating didn’t apply to whatever these “Dungeon Spells” were.  For the Monsters and Traps, however, he saw that with a Common Spawn Egg, there was nearly a 90% chance he’d get a monster and 10% chance he’d get a trap.  A Dungeon Spell was theoretically possible, but even more unlikely than getting a 10-Star monster with a Common Egg.  From there, both the Mystical and Epic Spawn Eggs were approximately 60% monster and 40% trap, with the likelihood of acquiring a Dungeon Spell up to 1% with an Epic Egg.

Her lecturing tone came back even as he was looking over the chart.  “Before you ask, because I can sense you wanting to, a Dungeon Spell is a very rare ability that a Dungeon Core can employ in their dungeon, allowing them to do a multitude of different actions even while Heroes are inside.  They can range from periodic damage to anything within a room, to temporarily enhancing the strength of monsters or the effectiveness of traps, and even laying down a blanket effect that cancels all healing done by Heroes; in the end, however, most Dungeon Spells are usually based on the personality and proclivities of the Dungeon Core.  I won’t go into too much more detail than that, because it is highly unlikely that you will see one of those until you’ve been around for a while.”

Clay didn’t see any reason to refute that, because if the probability charts were accurate, then it really was highly unlikely he’d obtain one of them.

“And now I think that it’s about time for you to start summoning.”

Chapter 10

Just like that, huh?  Okay, here we go.  Looking at his available options, there really wasn’t any other choice but to purchase a Common Spawn Egg for 5 Crystal Chips.  Since he only had 30 Chips, that meant he could only get 6 of the Common ones – because the other types seemed nearly impossible to acquire.  Clay thought accumulating 1000 Chips for a single Mystical Spawn Egg was going to be impossible, though he had been told at some point that as his Core Stage increased, so would his daily accumulation of Chips.  There had to be some other method of gaining more Chips, but he figured he would find out about whatever that was later.

Therefore, he went back to the Summoning Portal and mentally selected Common Spawn Egg from his choices.  As soon as he did that, the menu abruptly went away; simultaneously, he could feel a small mote of light he recognized as his Crystal Chips emerge from his Core and disappear in a burst of brighter light.  The next moment, a small rainbow and a pearlescent-colored blob seemed to explode into existence a few feet in front of him near the floor of his BOO.  A few seconds later, the blob was sucked into itself, essentially imploding, leaving behind a very small, glowing, yellow, egg-shaped object.

“As soon as you mentally ‘tap’ on the Spawn Egg, it will open up and your summons will be revealed.”

Huh?  Is it like I’m actually hatching an egg?  How can a monster or a trap fit into something like that?

For the first time, Dwight seemed genuinely amused.  “You’ll see.  Go on, ‘tap’ it.”

So, he did.

The Spawn Egg immediately cracked down the center in a jagged line, all the way to the bottom and on both sides, and then the two halves fell apart.  As soon as they separated, Clay could see a sparkly fog emerge from the inside of the Egg; it swirled around the now-empty shell pieces before drifting above it until it was around the same level as his Dungeon Core, and then condensed in place.  That lasted all of a moment, and then it seemed to gently explode with a tinkling sound, shooting out insubstantial multi-colored streamers in all directions, leaving something behind that floated in the air opposite of his current Core-based vision.

It looked like a rectangular glass plate an inch thick, a foot and a half wide, and a foot tall.  Painted or imprinted inside the glass was a lifelike picture of a light blue-ish colored bat of some kind, with its wings spread and with its deadly-looking fangs bared towards him.

As he was staring at it in confusion, words started to appear underneath the glass plate, giving him a little more information.

Ice Bat ★

Attack Type: Aerial

Rarity: Common

Element: Water

Moments after the words appeared for him to read, they disappeared just as the glass plate exploded and shattered into countless pieces.  Clay freaked out for a moment because he thought something happened to it and was coming for his precious gem-like Core next.  He panicked even more at what happened next, even if it turned out that it was something that was supposed to happen. The shattered pieces were contained in a small explosive radius, gathered up by some external force, and then streamed toward him.

Aaaaahhhh!  What went wrong?!

However, instead of slamming into him, his Core seemed to suck up the glass fragments in less than a second; he supposed they were absorbed into his gem-like form, but he couldn’t feel exactly what it did.

“Excellent!  You now have access to this Ice Bat to place in your dungeon.  You can find more information about it in your Available Monsters section of your Core Assessment and Transcribed Status.”

What…the…HECK…was that?

“Congratulations on your first summoning!  Each time you purchase a new Spawn Egg, this process will repeat, creating an exciting experience for every new summons!”  Dwight suddenly sounded like some of the hawkers he had once seen the one time he had visited a big city, as they shouted to be heard about some fancy product or another.  It also sounded like something rehearsed or required for her to say, as it didn’t really sound genuine.

He had to admit, though, that – apart from being freaked out because he had no real warning of what was going to happen – it was actually kind of fun seeing what kind of “prize” he would get from opening up the Spawn Egg.  Of course, he had no real idea how…well, “good” was a relative term…his new Ice Bat was.

Dwight?  What do those things that accompanied the name mean, exactly?  Like Rarity, Attack Type, and Element?

“The Rarity you saw refers to how likely it is for you to receive a certain monster,” the baby dragonling promptly answered, using her instructor tone of voice again. “There are Common, Uncommon, Rare, Ultra Rare, and Legendary monsters; as you can probably assume, Common monsters are much weaker than Legendary, even if both have the same Star rating.  I’m sure you have seen this in your own delves through—” Dwight stopped her lecture in mid-sentence, and adopted the slightly annoyed voice he was growing accustomed to, but hoped would fade over time as he eventually learned how everything operated.  “But you wouldn’t have, of course.  And yes, there are probabilities for these Rarities, which are chosen after the Star-rating is determined; I’m giving that data to you now so that you can peruse it while I explain what the Elements are in relation to your monsters.” [3]

Another chart popped up in his vision, and he looked at it while still listening to Dwight speak.  From what he could see, it was obvious that he would probably be acquiring quite a lot of Common monsters, since there was an 80% chance each would be that rarity; on the other end of the spectrum, with a very low chance of 0.1% of getting a Legendary monster, he figured that he would be lucky to ever see one.  Thinking about it to determine how hard it would be to get a Legendary 10-Star monster from an Epic Spawn Egg, there was a 1 in 100,000 chance that it would appear.  With a Common Egg, that number went up to a 1 in 10,000,000,000 chance of occurring.  Wild.

“The Attack Type refers to how each of the monsters perform the majority of their attacks.  They come in 5 basic Types, though there are some monsters that encompass more than one Type depending on certain factors.  The 5 Attack Types are: Melee, Stealth, Aerial, Ranged, and Magical.  I will explain each one if you require a deeper explanation; if not, I will move on.”  Dwight waited for a few seconds, but when Clay didn’t say anything, she moved on.

“The Elemental affinity of each monster not only affects some of their attributes and attacks, but also plays a part in facing off against opposing elements in Heroes.  For instance, most Fighter-based Hero Classes have a Fire Element associated with them; your Ice Bat, in this case, would be able to inflict 10% more damage to the Hero than if it were a different Element.  However, if instead you had a Leaf Bat – which has a Nature Element associated with it – the Fire Element Hero would do 10% more damage to your Bat.  Before you ask, these amounts are always 10%, but some armor or weapons that Heroes use may have additional attributes that can lessen or entirely negate these Elemental strengths and weaknesses.

“There are 6 Elements,” she went on, when Clay didn’t interrupt her—for once.  “Water, Fire, Nature, Air, Light, and Dark.  Water is stronger than Fire, which is stronger than Nature, which is then stronger than Air, and finally Air is stronger than Water.  Light and Dark are separate, and each are both stronger than the other while also being weaker; a Light-element Hero will do more damage to a Dark-element monster, while the Dark-element monster will also do more damage to the Light-element Hero.  Do you understand?”

Yes, yes, Water…Nature…Light….  Sure, sounds pretty easy.  It was a little tough to follow without seeing examples, but he was also positive that it would make sense…eventually.

Dwight was silent, and after nearly a minute Clay realized she was done with her explanations.  Now that he had a moment to concentrate on something else, he looked at his Transcribed Status again, saw that he was down to 25 Crystal Chips and that his Available Monsters now said 1/50.  He mentally selected it and a new menu popped up, though it was quite bare.

Available Monsters

Name

Rarity

Quantity

Required for Evolution

Ice Bat ★

Common

1

10

What is this Evolution thing that I see here?

“Simple, really,” Dwight responded matter-of-factly.  “If you collect 10 1-Star Bats, you can combine them together in an Evolution to produce a new 2-Star Bat, which will look different and have heightened abilities.”

Huh.  Interesting.  Collecting 10 of a single monster seemed difficult to do, especially since they had different Elements—wait.  Did you say just “Bats”, or does it have to be only Ice Bats?

“No, any Elemental type of Bat can be used for Evolution; however, you may find that you will obtain different results depending on which Elements are fed into the Evolution.”

This is just getting more and more complicated as we go, he complained.  It wasn’t Dwight’s fault, he knew, because it was likely that a real Hero would’ve had most of this knowledge beforehand.  Still, he felt like he was getting a bit overwhelmed with information, and everything just seemed so difficult and foreign to him.

Whether it was this frustration over his lack of prior knowledge or the way the baby dragonling seemed annoyed at his inept abilities, Clay ended up doing something reckless and stupid – but he only knew how monumentally dumb it was afterward.

Going back into the Summoning Portal to purchase another Common Spawn Egg, he thought that having more monsters to look at might help him acclimate to all of the strangeness.  However, just as he was about to purchase it, he saw something at the bottom of the list; just past Bundle Pack #3 was something that said, “Convert Core Structure Health (CSH) to Chips?”  Just after that, it said that he would get “10 Chips per CSH at Core Stage 1”.

He figured that if opening up a few more Spawn Eggs would help him learn more, then opening up dozens of them would really help him learn.  Seeing that he had 20 Core Structure Health, he decided that he might as well “convert” some of it to Crystal Chips.  Without asking about it, or retroactively wondering if it were a good idea in the first place, he mentally selected the option and another menu window popped up asking how many CSH he wanted to convert.  Selecting 16 CSH – since that would give him 160 Chips and still have plenty CSH in reserve – he confirmed his choice and then heard a sudden *crack*, followed almost immediately by pain, which he wasn’t even sure how that worked since he was a gem and all.

“WHAT DID YOU DO?!” Dwight immediately shouted in response to the cracking sound coming from his Core.  Clay barely even heard her, though, because he was still reeling in pain; he looked outside of himself to see what he had done to himself, expecting his Core to be shattered into pieces…but it looked whole.  A bit less substantial-appearing, maybe, but whole.  Therefore, he reasoned that the pain he was feeling was more mental than anything, but that didn’t mean it didn’t hurt.  A lot.

When the pain finally started to subside a little, either that or he was getting used to it, he finally answered the baby dragonling.  I converted some of my Core Structure Health to Chips, so that I could purchase some more Spawn Eggs.

“Well, that’s not so bad; converting a couple of CSH points into Chips is a frequent strategy used by Dungeon Cores to temporarily increase their Crystal Chip count,” Dwight returned, a little bit calmer.  “Though you need to make sure you don’t convert too much at one time, for a multitude of reasons.  How many did you convert?  2 or 3?”

Uh…16?

Clay was expecting her to rave and scream at him, as it was obvious that he had done something wrong, though other than the annoying pain that still lingered, he wasn’t sure what that might be.  Instead, she was silent for nearly a minute, and then slowly settled on the floor, shaking her head sadly; while it was hard to evaluate facial expressions on a dragon, even a baby dragonling, she exuded so much sadness in the gesture that it was hard to miss.

“I only have myself to blame for this.  I should’ve taught you more and warned you about the dangers, but I’m still having difficulty adjusting to the fact that you weren’t ever a Hero before,” Dwight said slowly.

It’s not your fault—

“It is my fault; I was designed to be the best guide, helper, and teacher to a Dungeon Core, but I have failed in almost everything up to this point.  And now you might be destroyed, making this probably the shortest life of any Dungeon Core, ever.”

What?!  I thought you said I was invulnerable?  He was relying on his invulnerability to keep him alive, but if that was gone…what happened?

“Yes, you were invulnerable…at a full 20 Core Structure Health,” the baby dragonling replied, a little of her previous annoyance coming back into her voice.  “But as soon as a Dungeon Core drops below a CSH of 20, they become vulnerable to being shattered by a Hero’s weapon.  At 18 or 19, the only thing that can hurt a Core would be a Tier 10 weapon, which would be something I doubt you would see anytime soon; but as the CSH drops even further, so too does the weapon Tier requirement.  At CSH 1, for instance, all it would take is a simple Tier 1 weapon and you wouldn’t survive more than a single strike.”

That was not good.  His recklessness had inadvertently put his life in danger, and by extension Dwight’s life, and all because he didn’t stop to consider the consequences.  And what would it take to destroy a Core with a CSH of…4?

“At a CSH of 4, all it would require is a Tier 3 weapon, or perhaps a very strong Tier 2.  Now can you see why I’m worried.”

Not…really.  I don’t understand enough about these Tiered weapons, but if they are anything like my 2 and 3-Starred monsters, I can only assume that they will be relatively common.  Is there any way to…I don’t know…request a refund and get my Health back?

She shook her head.  “No, there are no ‘refunds’ for this conversion.  The only way to get your CSH back up to safe levels is to wait.”

Wait?

“Yes,” she explained, “your daily accumulation is put on hold while you are under a full 20 CSH, and each day it will slowly increase your Health back up to 20 – 1 point at a time – before returning your daily accumulation to normal.”

So…I have to wait 16 days?

“Correct.”

That just means that I have to be careful for a little over 2 weeks, right?  That doesn’t seem so hard.

“Normally, no, that wouldn’t be too difficult…in a much larger dungeon.  Right now, though, your Dungeon Core is so close to your entrance that you will have difficulty keeping Heroes away from your location.  And it isn’t so much the distance, but the defenses that are lacking; there is very little right now keeping even a single Tier 1 Hero away from your Core.”

I think that I can at least work on that, but I have one more question, he replied, knowing that he had some work ahead of him.  Why would any Heroes want to destroy me?  Don’t they know we are here to help them?

“You should know—no, I keep forgetting,” she answered, before sighing dramatically again.  This time, though, it felt like she was annoyed at herself, rather than at him; it wasn’t a big difference, but it was enough of one that he strangely felt a little better.  “While Heroes use dungeons to help make themselves stronger, they aren’t aware that you are—or were—a person, a Hero…usually.  They don’t even know that Cores are sapient at all, but think that they are just mindless constructs designed for them to take advantage of their presence.

“As for why they would destroy something that is helping them, it has to do with probabilities again.”  Dwight hesitated for a moment before continuing.  “Are you sure you want to hear this?”

Uh…yes?

“Okay.  Well, when a Dungeon Core is shattered, there is a 95% probability that they will drop a full set of Tiered armor for a specific Class that participated in the Core’s destruction, as well as a weapon of the same Class.  How high of a Tier depends on the Core’s Stage of development, so for you it would be a full set of Tier 1 armor and a weapon.”

That doesn’t seem worth it.

“Oh, it’s not.  Cores aren’t destroyed because Heroes want or need more armor, because they get plenty of those from your monsters.  No, they shatter Dungeon Cores because there is a 5% chance that they will drop something else, something that is normally a very, very rare drop and can be extremely valuable to them: A Reclassification Orb.  What the Reclassification Orb actually does isn’t really important to you, but it is to them – which is why Heroes are willing to destroy Cores with barely a second thought if given half a chance.”

Great.  So, I’m a dead man.  Or Core.  Or whatever.

“Not…necessarily.  From what we’ve overheard, there aren’t any Heroes on this island; the best you can hope for is that no one who is powerful enough to harm you will learn of your existence before your CSH replenishes back up to safe levels.”

Ok, I think I can do that. Now, since I can’t really take back my stupidity, what do you say we spend some of these ill-gotten gains?

Chapter 11

Since Clay now had a veritable treasure trove of Chips at his disposal, he chose to pursue the special Bundle Pack #1; as it said in the description, it was a “Good Deal!” that he couldn’t pass up.  It was the original reason he had opted to convert 16 of his Core Structure Health, so that he would have at least 180 Chips.  He now had 185, which was enough to purchase the Common Spawn Egg pack costing 45 Chips a total of 4 times!  He would have 5 Chips left over for…emergencies, he supposed…but 40 Spawn Eggs should be enough to get him by for a while.  He hoped.

Fortunately, the pain he had experienced earlier had subsided to a low ebb, so he was actually able to enjoy what came next.  As soon as he selected the Bundle Pack for the Common Eggs, he felt 45 Chips spill out from his Core in a much larger ball of light, before disappearing.  Then, like before, a multicolored blob appeared near the ground in front of his Core – ten of them, in fact!  They were spread out in 2 neat rows of 5 and arranged equidistant from each other, allowing only enough room between them that the blobs didn’t cross into another’s space.

The blob contraction for all of them happened at the same time, as did the explosion of glittery light, and he had to admit that it was an even prettier sight to watch when there were 10 of them doing it at the same time, as opposed to just the 1.  Soon enough, the theatrics were over (he thought he might eventually get tired of them, but for now they were an enjoyable experience to watch), and there were 10 egg-shaped vessels waiting for him.

The difference from the first time he purchased a Common Spawn Egg, however, was that he could see a difference in the coloring in 2 of the Eggs.  While 8 of them were the plain pale-yellow color as he had seen before, 1 of them was a slightly darker yellow…and another one was practically golden in hue!  Wanting to leave those for last, he started “tapping” on each of the pale-yellow Eggs, watching them crack open one-by-one and displaying a familiar rectangular glass slab with a picture embedded in the middle of it.

Ember Boar ★

Attack Type: Melee

Rarity: Common

Element: Fire

Bilge Rat ★

Attack Type: Melee

Rarity: Common

Element: Dark

Jumping Spider ★

Attack Type: Stealth

Rarity: Common

Element: Air

Ice Bat ★

Attack Type: Aerial

Rarity: Common

Element: Water

Ember Boar ★

Attack Type: Melee

Rarity: Common

Element: Fire

Glowing Slime ★

Attack Type: Magical

Rarity: Common

Element: Light

Stone-tipped Fern ★

Attack Type: Ranged

Rarity: Common

Element: Nature

Tree Rat ★

Attack Type: Stealth

Rarity: Common

Element: Nature

The bounty reaped by opening all his Eggs included a variety of Common Rarity 1-Star monsters of different elements, though it was interesting to see that he received another Ice Bat.  In addition, he also received two Fire-element Ember Boars, which had looked like normal boars he had seen in the forest near Renton, though these looked mean; oh, and they also had red and orange streaks running through their brown fur, and a slight burning look in their pupils.  It was frightening, really.

There were also 2 large Rats, which were nearly the size of the Ember Boar, though they were different elements.  The Bilge Rat looked to be covered in some sort of slimy, nasty black substance and had a Dark element associated with it; the Tree Rat was Nature-based – which Clay was beginning to understand meant, like, plants and dirt-like stuff – and had a greenish tinge to its brown fur.  The attribute that set it apart, however, was its much longer tail that Clay figured was helpful in…navigating tree branches?  It was hard to tell without actually seeing it in action.

There was a creepy Jumping Spider that was at least 2 feet across in size, and being an Air Element, he wouldn’t be surprised if it could jump and practically fly across one of his rooms in an instant – all while doing it as silently as possible.  Though, based on its attack type of Stealth, that was likely the case.

The Glowing Slime was a blob of, well, glowing slime.  It was nearly transparent but hard to see through because of the glow emanating from it, but Clay could see what appeared to be a dark sphere the size of his fist—or what his fist used to look like—embedded in the middle of the monster.  He assumed, since the slime was just a squishy mass, this sphere was what acted like a brain…or something.  The new Dungeon Core was definitely not an expert on dungeon monsters.

Lastly was…a plant.  It seemed rather innocuous, actually; while the Stone-tipped Fern seemed relatively large in comparison to the other monsters he had received, it appeared as if it would be planted in the floor of his dungeon and couldn’t move.  Still, the thin stone slivers on the ends of its fronds appeared to be dangerous enough – and there were hundreds of them – so it was possible that Clay was wrong about it not being very effective.  That, and the fact that it said that it was a Ranged Attack Type, made the monster a little confusing.

Once all their glass slabs broke apart and were absorbed into his Core, he turned to the last two Eggs.  First, he “tapped” on the darker yellow-colored one and watched it open up, revealing another glass picture that made Clay inwardly smile when he saw what it was.

Flame Kobold ★★

Attack Type: Melee

Rarity: Uncommon

Element: Fire

The Flame Kobold was unlike anything he’d ever seen or heard of before.  All of the other monsters he had received seemed to be just more-dangerous versions of creatures he had seen or knew about, but the Kobold was entirely unlike any of those.  The closest thing he could compare it to was actually Dwight, the baby dragonling, though it was fundamentally different.  While the red-scaled figure he saw had a similar reptilian head shape as Clay’s guide, it was standing up on two feet like a Human would.  In fact, it had two powerful-looking legs and arms, feet and hands tipped with sharp-looking claws, and…it was wearing armor.  It was a bit ragged-looking leather chestpiece and short skirt, but it was armor, nonetheless.

And it had a wicked-looking pair of knives in its hands.

“Her hands, Clay.  All of your dungeon monsters are female, remember?”

Oh, yeah.  Forgot.  Now that he was looking, he could see that there was a bit of a swell in her chest region, but thankfully before he could attempt to look for any further signs of her being a female like a pervert, the glass slab shattered and was absorbed into his Core.

Now it was time for the final Spawn Egg, the one that nearly looked golden in color.  With anticipation flooding his mind, he tapped the Egg and watched it break apart, until the glass slab appeared…and he was severely disappointed.  Not only that, but he was also more than a little irritated.

Shadow Cat ★★★

Attack Type: Stealth

Rarity: Common

Element: Dark

A cat?!  Seriously?  Granted, this cat was a lot larger, deadlier, and scarier than Spark, his sister’s cat, but he couldn’t forget what had ultimately led to his death and current state of existence.  Stupid cats!  Following me around even in death to cause me no end of misery!

It was probably unfair to the sleek-looking black-furred cat monster, but he never wanted to see it again if he could help it.  And to think, that was my “guaranteed” 3-Star from the Bundle Pack!  Wasted, I’d say.

“You truly do not care for your newest monster?”

I do not.  I’d rather fill my dungeon with a million of those creepy Spiders I received a moment ago than use even one cat.  Blasted things.

“If you truly do not want it, despite it currently being the most powerful of your monsters, you can always sacrifice it.”  Dwight said those words as if it were no big deal.  However, the only thing he could think of when he heard the word “sacrifice” was a strange cult he had heard about when he was a lot younger.  They weren’t around long, because a group of Heroes hunted them down and…ended…their gatherings, but they were scary to think about.

Mainly because they took people and “sacrificed” them in some scary ritual; he didn’t really remember or perhaps even knew about the ritual details because he was just a kid when they were around.  What he did remember, though, was that they supposedly sacrificed people in order to somehow become Heroes themselves.  He wasn’t sure how that was supposed to work, especially given that he now knew that Hero selection was probability-based, which also might account for how literally short-lived their cult was – because it obviously didn’t work.

Sacrifice?  What exactly does that entail?  Is there some sort of ritual, or…

“No, it’s quite simple and painless.  And sacrificing your dungeon monsters, which aren’t exactly real until you create them inside of your dungeon, is nothing at all like sacrificing people.”

Oh…you heard that in my mind, didn’t you?

“Of course,” Dwight said smugly.  “Anyway, if you’re set on sacrificing your Shadow Cat, all you have to do is open up your Sacrificial Altar from your Core Assessment and Transcribed Status.”

Still a little wary, Clay did as she said and mentally selected Sacrificial Altar from the menu; the Transcribed Status quickly disappeared, and a low stone table appeared in his vision.  It wasn’t…quite…real, he discovered, because he found that he could move his perception around and the stone table would move with it; it was sort of like the time he got a hair stuck on his eyeball and he could see it blocking his eyesight wherever he looked.

“Excellent!” the baby dragonling said a few seconds after the table appeared, and her familiar lecturing tone resurfaced.  “Now, all you need to do is select from the options the monster you would like to sacrifice, and the Sacrificial Altar will take care of the rest!  Keep in mind that this process is permanent, so carefully consider your options before confirming your selection.”

Hmm…okay….  Unseen before, his Available Monsters menu was on the left edge of his vision, and he easily located the offending cat on the list.[4]  As soon as he selected it, the glass slab that contained its picture appeared above the low stone table and then proceeded to lay itself upon what he now knew was the actual Sacrificial Altar.  An iron hammer appeared above the Altar, wielded by an invisible hand, and it abruptly slammed down into the slab containing the Shadow Cat with shattering force.  The glass flew apart in an overly dramatic explosion, though the shards didn’t get far before they seemed to get absorbed into the air in a flash of sparkly light.  When it was done, he couldn’t help but think that it had been therapeutic—

Suddenly, above the Altar, a little ball of light appeared and shot towards his Core, where it was quickly absorbed.  What?  What was that?

Fortunately, Dwight was quick to answer.  “Every time you sacrifice one of your monsters on the Altar, you receive a small amount of Chips in return.  Keep in mind that this is only a fraction of what each monster is ‘worth’, so the amount can be fairly insignificant.  What the Altar is primarily used for,” she paused, shaking her head, “when it isn’t being used to get rid of monsters you don’t personally like, is to free up room in your monster inventory.  For instance, at Core Stage 1, you can only possess up to 50 monsters; if you try to purchase a Spawn Egg at that point, the purchase will fail.”

Clay looked at his Transcribed Status and saw that he was now 3 Chips richer than he had been before he sacrificed the Cat.  And how are these returns assessed…? he asked, hoping for another chart of probabilities.  But he wasn’t in luck, because it was easier than that.

“Simple.  Common monsters give back their Star value in chips; Uncommon are worth 2 times the Star value; Rare are 4 times the Star Value; Ultra Rare are 16 times the Star value; and Legendary monsters are 256 times the Star Value.”

Yes.  Simple, he said sarcastically.  In truth, it was a fairly simple system, and she was right: The amount returned was fairly insignificant, but at least it was something.

With that darn cat out of his available monsters—good riddance!—Clay could get back to what he was doing with his Chips.  Without too much hesitation, he bought another Bundle Pack #1 for an additional 45 Chips, watched the whole flashing and glittery light show (he still wasn’t tired of it), and started to tap on the pale yellow-colored Spawn Eggs.  This time there were 7 of them, with 2 of the darker yellow and a similar golden-colored one he assumed was going to be the guaranteed 3-Star again—it better not be another cat!

After 6 of the pale-yellow Eggs he opened – with more 1-Star Common monsters inside (no cats, thank goodness) – the 7th Egg contained something different.  It still had a glass slab being presented to him, but it wasn’t a monster of any sort: it was his first trap.

The image inside of the slab was of a hallway not too dissimilar to his own; near the ceiling of the hallway there were holes that had what appeared to be sharpened wooden stakes protruding and pointing towards the floor.  For some reason, Clay got the impression that they were moving at high speed, and were meant to impale whoever passed beneath it.  The description below certainly implied that, as well.

Vertical Impalement ★

Type: Piercing

Material: Wood

Location: Hallway

Damage: Low

Low damage?  I would think that those would hurt quite a bit, even if they were only dropped from a few feet.

“You should—never mind.”  This time, there was very little time between Dwight starting to admonish him for knowing something as a Hero and stopping herself in mid-sentence.  And, even better, her annoying tone was nearly gone when she explained further.  “Heroes are a lot more resilient than your normal Human, as their Classes afford them a measure of damage and pain mitigation, even in some of the physically weaker spell-casting Classes.  You’ll find that if you raise the Star rating of this trap, the material will begin to change, the speed of impalement will increase, and the trap will become much harder to detect – among other things.”

Before he opened up the rest of the Eggs, Clay looked at his Available Traps through his Transcribed Status.

Available Traps

Name

Location

Quantity

Required for Evolution

Vertical Impalement ★

Hallway

1

5

Unlike his monsters, there wasn’t a Rarity to the trap, and it only required 5 of them to go through an Evolution to the next Star rating.  What was more, there wasn’t a limit to how many he could possess at one time, so he wouldn’t have to sacrifice them to the Altar to make room for additional traps.

Of course, the whole idea of traps still made Clay a little squeamish.  His monsters could potentially be used for anything, but this trap was made specifically to kill people.  The impression he got was that unless there was a threat of potential death for the Heroes, then they would never really face a challenge, never get stronger as a result, and then when a World Threat emerged, they would be ill-equipped to kill it.  That logical reasoning didn’t really help to ease his mind, however.

Egg number 8 was another Kobold, though it had a Dark Element rather than a Fire one.

Gloom Kobold ★★

Attack Type: Stealth

Rarity: Uncommon

Element: Dark

The other dark-yellow Spawn Egg, however, was something new…and disturbing.

Explosive Shambler ★★

Attack Type: Melee, Magical

Rarity: Uncommon

Element: Fire

It was a dead Human.  Walking upright.  And apparently it could explode?

All in all, it was disturbing looking at the image of what he assumed was some sort of undead monster, and calling it Human might have been a bit of a misnomer.  If it had been Human at one time, it certainly wasn’t anymore – for at least a number of years; its flesh was dried and rotted on its bones, the clothes that it had worn at one point were no more than scraps. And it had no eyes, it bore no nose, and it only possessed half an ear.  The main difference between this undead thing and a Human, however, was the fact that its fingers were at least twice as long as “normal” and had sharp fingernails attached to the ends of them.  In reality, they were more like claws than anything else.

Moving on, Clay opened up his golden egg, hoping and praying that it wouldn’t be another cat…

Leaping Cat ★★★

Attack Type: Aerial, Melee

Rarity: Common

Element: Air

NOOOOO!!!!!  WHY!!!!!  If he could cry, his BOO would be full of the tears born of his frustration.  I swear that blasted cat is doing this somehow!

Immediately opening up the Sacrificial Altar, he got rid of his new cat monster without hesitation, netting him an additional 3 Chips in the process.  Then, he turned back to the Summoning Portal and figuratively crossed his toes in a gesture of good luck as he bought another Bundle Pack #1….

Chapter 12

As strange as the whole situation was, it turned out that Jeska and Arcen weren’t the only ones to acquire a Class Orb Tier 0 in their city.  In total, there were 28 additional people between the ages of 19 and 34 that woke up that morning to find a strange ball of light floating near their beds.  Jeska and Arcen – at ages 20 and 22, respectively – were at the younger end of the spectrum of new Heroes, but overall, the age difference didn’t really matter.  What did matter was the giant upheaval that was going through Chardelia at the sudden emergence of their new presence on Sunfall Island.  Not just because of the overarching reason they might be needed, but on a socio-economic level.

Or that was what Jeska was told by their father later that day.

There were new Heroes that came from almost all walks of society, including 3 beggars, 2 sailors, a seamstress, the only child of the owner of the largest shipping conglomerate, 2 prostitutes, a handful of merchants, a fishwife, 2 shipbuilders including one Master-skilled shipbuilder, 3 fishermen, and a variety of different professions throughout the city.  While there were thousands of people living in the city, the loss of some of those people from their positions, all of a sudden, was enough to slow down some of the progress the city had made over the last few years to become as economically stable as possible.

Granted, it wasn’t anything that would have enough of an effect on the economy of the city and even the island as a whole, but that wasn’t really the issue with the situation.  The issues came from the influential families of those directly affected by the new Heroes, such as the owner of the largest shipping conglomerate on the island, Sunfall Transportation.  Bertun Hadrix, the owner of the shipping concern, protested wildly at the injustice; his only son born from his long-dead-yet-beloved wife had become a Hero, and he had no one to pass along the conglomerate to when he died.

Unfortunately, his protests were taken up and encouraged by a number of other families that didn’t want to or couldn’t afford to lose their family member to Hero-hood (or whatever you call it), and protests were brought right to the Mayor…who agreed with them.

Because his daughter, Rosara, had also been greeted with a Class Orb Tier 0 when she woke up.

It was no surprise to Jeska that the Mayor’s daughter hadn’t hesitated to become a Hero, just like everyone else in the city.  It also wasn’t much of a surprise that she got an Orb, especially based on the fact that she was there with us when we explored that empty dungeon.

In fact, the way word got around, Jeska seemed to be the only one who had hesitated and had “technically” refused to become a Hero; if it hadn’t been for Arcen busting in like he had with his own Orb, that probably would’ve been the result.  Of course, that didn’t automatically mean that there weren’t a dozen people or more who received the Orb and then denied it without telling anyone; but for some reason, she didn’t think that was the case.

“…and I say we tell them to forget that they were ever Heroes and we can continue our lives as it was!”

That was Bertun yelling in the meeting hall located in the Mayor’s villa, the shipping conglomerate owner’s son looking highly embarrassed by his father’s vehemence.  Jeska sat back in her seat and lounged a little, trying not to fall asleep…unlike her brother, who was softly snoring in the seat next to her.  All around the hall, the other new Heroes from the city were in various states of boredom or distress, though there were quite a few who looked extremely uncomfortable.  Very few of those from the lower echelons of society appeared to be happy to be there where there had been arguments thrown around for the last few hours, though it could also be because they felt out of place.  The 3 beggars, for example, looked like they thought someone was going to catch them and throw them out, as if they didn’t belong.

But they did belong, because they were Heroes, now. It didn’t matter who they were before.  At least, that was what all of the information that had poured into her mind that morning made it seem, though she was still trying to process all of that knowledge and her experience from the night before.

“That’s right!  There isn’t even a Hero Guild here on the island, so we would have to send them to the mainland to get the training they would undoubtedly need.  I will not lose my daughter to those mainlander brutes – I don’t know if I would ever see her again!”  That was one of the merchants, though she couldn’t see him or identify which one it was by the voice alone, and she didn’t feel like adjusting herself in her seat to see better.

“But there must be a reason we were called to become Heroes—” one of the sailors started to argue, which made Jeska perk up a little.  Did the other Heroes not receive that glimpse of a future threat like we did?  She and her brother had compared their experiences and found that they had both seen and felt essentially the same thing; a quick and whispered conversation with Rosara earlier in the day – before she was whisked away by the Mayor – revealed that the other woman had experienced something similar, if not exactly the same.

She hadn’t really considered that the experiences of the other Heroes might differ, but if that were the case…why were Jeska, Arcen, and Rosara different? Was it because they were in the actual dungeon earlier in the evening?  And what happened to them after Rosara touched the Dungeon Core?

There were just too many unanswered questions, but now that she knew that it was likely the others were ignorant of what she and her brother…and Rosara, I guess…saw, she needed to speak up and let everyone know about it – if they even believed her.  In the middle of Bertun arguing that there didn’t necessarily have to be a reason for the sudden appearance of all new Heroes, Jeska saw her chance.

Standing up from where she was sitting near the back of the new Heroes, she looked at her father, his messy medium-length blonde hair looking even more disheveled than usual, but it matched his wrinkled, dirty, and slept-in lightweight clothing.  He didn’t pay much attention to his looks. While it felt weird to even think it, because he was her father, she had to admit that he still looked good for a man in his 50s.  Even though he looked as though he had slept on the street the night before, everyone knew who he was and respected both his ingenious discoveries and his business savvy.  Therefore, when he saw Jeska stand up, he raised his hand so that the Mayor could see it, and then pointed straight at her.

“Thank you, Bertun; I completely agree with you, but it seems as though one of our new ‘Heroes’ has something to say.” Rosara’s father cut Bertun off short with exaggerated sarcasm at the word ‘Heroes’, and he didn’t look especially pleased with having to do that.  While Jeska’s own father didn’t hold any political power, he was still a very highly influential member of the city; in terms of wealth, their family was probably wealthier than anyone else in attendance, but they also didn’t flaunt that wealth.  It was that last fact (as well as her father being quite generous with that money) that endeared all of them to the majority of the people of the city, whom the Mayor wanted to keep on his side; and if he wanted to keep them on his side, he was occasionally forced to accede to the whims of the eccentric entrepreneur.  Up to a point, of course.

It didn’t take long for her to feel more than a bit self-conscious as everyone turned to look at her with varying expressions on their faces, ranging from curious to bored to angry.  That last mainly came from those that were most opposed to the introduction of Heroes to their community, including Bertun and the majority of the wealthier individuals in residence.  Well, sorry to break it to all of you, but the world doesn’t revolve around you and your concerns.  We’ve got bigger fish to catch.

“Yes, thank you, Mayor,” she started, her voice a bit quiet to her ears, so she tried to increase in volume so everyone could hear.  “I’ve heard tell that you all are unaware of what new Heroes popping up here should mean…not only to Chardelia, but to all of Sunfall Island.  Does anyone know why there are Heroes in the first place?” she asked the crowd.

As expected, she could see that everyone had some sort of vague idea, but no one spoke up…except for one of the beggars.  She didn’t know his name, but she vowed to learn it as soon as possible.  “My mother always said it was to combat some sort of threat, but I’ve never seen them.”

“That’s true—none of us have.”  She was starting to warm up to the crowd, and now that she had their attention, somehow a good portion of her nervousness drained away.  She started walking around, bringing herself to the front as she spoke so that everyone could see her better without having to turn around.  “Scarlete,” she asked one of the sailors she recognized, “you’ve visited dozens of ports around the mainland, I’ve heard tell – have you seen one of these threats?”

“Nah, I ain’t seen them – but I’s heard about dem from hundreds of people who has,” she said, a bit of an accent from someplace Jeska knew not coloring her voice.

“Exactly,” she said with emphasis.  “I would wager to guess that very few non-Heroes have seen these ‘threats’…but that doesn’t mean they don’t exist.  I’m sure you’ve all heard the stories of giant monsters descending upon unsuspecting towns and cities, destroying buildings and killing hundreds or even thousands of people.  Heroes, including myself and those here who have accepted the position, have the duty of preventing these ‘World Threats’ from wreaking uncontested havoc over the land.  Deep down, I can feel it.  Can you feel it?” she asked of the seamstress, who reluctantly nodded.  “Can you feel it?” she asked again of one of the merchant sons, and then one of the sailors, who all nodded or acknowledged it verbally.

“Yeah, so what?  Are we just supposed to sit by while our family members are taken away to the mainland to fight these ‘World Threats’?!” Bertun stood up and shouted, startling Jeska for a moment.  “We don’t have these Threats here, so why should we care?  They can take care of themselves!”

She turned around and nodded at the shipping businessman.  “You’re absolutely right – we don’t have these Threats here, do we?”  She shook her head thankfully, which was echoed by most of the crowd.  But then she hardened her eyes as she looked at Bertun and said, “But what if our presence here isn’t just some sort of accident?  Don’t you think it strange that so many of us became Heroes essentially overnight?”

“What are you getting at, girl?” the Mayor asked testily.  Jeska wasn’t intentionally trying to be dramatic (she hated that kind of thing), but she needed them to understand a little more of where she was coming from.  If she had just stood up and shouted, “We’re all doomed!”, that probably wouldn’t have gone over well.  As it was, she had to improvise, but it seemed to be working.

“What I’m saying, Mayor, is that like what was mentioned earlier, there has to be a reason for all of this.”  Here we go….  “And there is: A World Threat is headed to Sunfall Island.”

As she had also expected, there was an uproar in the room, though the nature of it wasn’t exactly what she thought it would be.  A third of the people in attendance were angry and dismissive, calling her ridiculous and a fool; another third were panicked, screaming in hysterical nonsense as they took her words for truth; the last third were nearly silent, and were composed mainly of the new Heroes as they contemplated what she said.

“Young lady; you can’t go around spreading these lies, or you’ll start a riot!” the Mayor angrily shouted when the hubbub from her announcement simmered down to a murmur.  “Where did you get this false information, anyway?  Or are you just making it up?” he accused savagely, practically frothing at the mouth.

She answered as promptly and as truthfully as she could.  “I saw the looming presence of this Threat when I accepted the position of Hero, along with all of the other information that the Class Orb imparted to me.  And before you dismiss that as some sort of fancy hallucination,” she continued, seeing that the Mayor and many of the others were already doing just that, “I wasn’t the only one that sensed this presence.”

All eyes then turned to her brother, who stood up promptly as if they had rehearsed this whole thing.  “It’s true, I felt this threat coming to our island; I couldn’t tell when it would arrive, but it will come eventually.  Of that, I have no doubt.”  Arcen crossed his arms, as if daring someone to refute his statement.

Bertun obliged.  “This must be some sort of scheme cooked up by their father to…to…well, I don’t know, but they’re all working together to trick us somehow!” he accused.  His son now looked extremely uncomfortable and scooted a little further away from his father as if afraid to be associated with him.  Jeska couldn’t blame the young man, because such unfounded accusations could cause trouble to those that had wealth and influence backing them up, like her father.

Fortunately for Bertun, Jeska’s father wouldn’t take offense at something so ridiculous.  “I don’t believe that it was just my children that sensed this threat, as much as you’d like to blame me for it, Bertun,” he said calmly in his usual manner.

“What do you mean?” the Mayor chimed in, for once seeming a bit apprehensive.

“If you look towards your own, your question can be answered quickly enough.”

The Mayor whipped around and looked at his daughter with a shocked expression on his face that even Jeska could see from across the room.  Rosara looked back at him with a smile and a shrug.  “Yes, it’s true, Father.  I sensed this World Threat coming for our island, and if we don’t do something to prepare for it, the Heroes on the mainland will be too far away to react in time.  All they’ll find is a destroyed Sunfall Island with the only ones alive the few who managed to escape via the ocean.”

The room was silent, as the picture Rosara painted with her words resonated with everyone.  It certainly resonated with Jeska, as it just made the inevitable arrival of a World Threat even more of a catastrophe unless they did something about it.

“I…can’t believe this.  My own daughter….”  The Mayor shook his head in disbelief, which caused a low murmur to spread through the Hall.  For all that Rosara’s father was politically greedy and a bit overprotective of his daughter most of the time, he also held the lives and livelihoods of those in his city in his hands.  And those hands would do anything to keep them safe, even at the expense of his own life.  That’s why he was a great Mayor, for all of his other faults.

“But…how are we supposed to train these Heroes?” he finally asked, looking around in confusion.  “Now, I’m not saying that you’re wrong, but how is this even supposed to work? There aren’t any dungeons on the island, and I’m not the only one that doesn’t want to send their family off to the mainland. On top of that, if we don’t know when this World Threat will arrive, how would they even come back in time?”

“Don’t worry, Father, I’m pretty sure that is already taken care of,” Rosara said with a smirk.

“What?  What are you—?”

“You’re wrong, Father,” she said innocently.  Oh, she’s enjoying getting one over on him, Jeska couldn’t help but think as she watched the byplay.  “There didn’t use to be any dungeons on the island, but there is one now.”

Rosara winked at her and her brother, and Jeska suddenly realized that she had been set up.  The Mayor’s daughter somehow knew Jeska would stand up and start the discussion, and it was Rosara’s intention to then turn all of the attention on herself.  Heck, I’m not even mad.  If she wants all of the attention – which she loves – she can have it.

As she sat back down in her seat next to Arcen, he just shrugged, likely figuring out the whole thing as well.  And that was when the real panic began, as people discovered that there was a dungeon right outside the city.

This is going to be a long day….

Chapter 13

The results of the next two purchases of Bundle Pack #1 evoked a mixture of disappointment and elation.  Out of the 20 new Common Spawn Eggs that Clay opened by using an additional 90 Crystal Chips, 15 of those were Common-rarity 1-Star monsters.  It was no big surprise to the Dungeon Core, however, since they had the highest probability of occurring.  Those weren’t necessarily a disappointment, since they were basically expected; no, what was a disappointment were the golden-colored Eggs that contained the guaranteed 3-Star selection.

Because…they were all CATS!

Granted, they were all different kinds because of their Elemental affinity, but the fact remained that they were all useless to him.  He got rid of them immediately using the Sacrificial Altar, though by the time he did the fourth 3-Star Cat, he was beginning to re-think his priorities.  What if there is a greater reason for my receiving all these Cats?  He dismissed that almost immediately, not because he didn’t think it was true, but because he didn’t care if there was a greater reasoning behind their appearance.  He wanted absolutely nothing to do with them.  Period.  End of story.  Not happening.

Assuaging most of that disappointment, however, were his other Spawn Egg results.  Three of the Eggs weren’t Cats or Common 1-Star monsters, at least, which made him happy to see.  The first was a darker yellow color that he now intuitively figured was a 2-Star monster, but it wasn’t – it was a 2-Star trap, instead.

Sliding Puzzle Door ★★

Type: Magical

Material: Wood

Location: Room Exit

Damage: Average

It took a little investigation by digging into his new trap on his Available Trap menu, but he quickly discovered that the Sliding Puzzle Door was a wooden door that blocked off access to the rest of his dungeon unless the puzzle was solved.  It didn’t actually hurt anyone…unless they tried to open up the door without solving the sliding wood puzzle that made up about half of the door itself.  If they did that, the door would explode into hundreds of wooden fragments, impaling anyone caught within the room with a hail of sharpened projectiles.

And how is this supposed to help train Heroes to fight World Threats? Clay asked Dwight, a bit confused.  He could see the potential education of his Impalement trap, because they would have to learn how to spot and avoid deadly attacks…but the puzzle thing was beyond his understanding.

“Any of the puzzle traps – yes, there are more – are designed to test Heroes’ critical problem-solving skills,” she explained patiently.  It was certainly a nice change from her annoyance of earlier.  “It’s all about finding an answer to a problem when there doesn’t seem to be a solution.  This can be applied to a World Threat that may seem unbeatable; there is always a weakness or specific strategy that can be exploited, but Heroes have to be able to think quickly to solve the problem or else they could fail.  And if they fail, it wouldn’t just be their own lives that would end, but those Humans that they are duty-bound to protect.”

I never thought of it that way, but I guess that makes sense.  Clay hadn’t seen the Heroes employing any specific strategy against the Giant Ogress that ultimately crushed him, but they must have had one; for all of its size, they had taken it out quite quickly and without any casualties among the Heroes.  Which was also likely the reason why Clay ended up where he was, after all.

Two of the other Spawn Eggs yielded monsters, but they certainly weren’t like his others.  One of them was a 1-Star, but it seemed to be leagues above the Common ones in terms of difficulty and deadliness.

Swamp Troll ★

Attack Type: Melee

Rarity: Rare

Element: Water

The Swamp Troll was, honestly, huge.  From what Clay could tell, the Troll was a hulking humanoid-looking beast that was at least 8 feet tall and 6 feet wide. It was mainly that wide because it had massive arms and legs, and it carried a rotting tree trunk in its beefy hands, which he assumed was to be used as a club.  It—she, actually—was wearing animal hides grotesquely stitched together, some with heads still attached, and had long, stringy hair covering her face.  That face was somewhat deformed, with a jaw that appeared a little too low for symmetry’s sake, and her nose was so large it comprised nearly half of her entire visage.  Added to that, the image he had seen in the glass slab made it seem as though she was constantly dripping dirty water from her clothes and body, as if she had literally just wandered out of the swamp.

“Very formidable, though slow,” the baby dragonling commented after seeing it.  “Even this Swamp Troll, however, will be vulnerable to Air-based abilities because of its Water element, which will cut down on its natural regenerative abilities.”

Wait—this Troll can regenerate from wounds?  That seemed like it would be impossible to kill his monster, if that was true.

“Up to a point, yes.  At only 1 Star, minor wounds will be healed within about a minute of them being inflicted, so any Heroes facing against it will have to be quick to take it out.  Major wounds, such as the loss of a limb or mortal injuries, need at least a day to regenerate, so that wouldn’t really apply to a fight.  Higher Star ratings can change that, though.”

It was amazing what Rarity could do to make monsters more difficult to kill, even within the same Star rating.  As the Swamp Troll was only a Rare, he wondered what an Ultra Rare or Legendary monster would look like.

His last Spawn Egg was the darkest-colored of them all, appearing orange-like in hue, without even a hint of yellow.  When he opened it up with a tap, the lights, glitter, and swirling colors seemed to be even more impressive and grand than the others.  When he saw what it was, he was briefly disappointed by the fact that it was Common; however, when he saw the Star rating, he was instead ecstatic.

Colossal Serpent ★★★★★

Attack Type: Melee

Rarity: Common

Element: Nature

If Clay thought the Swamp Troll was large, it couldn’t compare to the monstrosity that was the Colossal Serpent.  The Nature-element serpent was approximately 80 feet long, was 3 feet in diameter for the majority of its body, and it had jaws wide enough to swallow a person.  Clay doubted that would be necessary, because its fangs were sharp, like swords that could likely impale that person without too much difficulty.

This thing is incredible!  How in the world is this serpent only 5 Stars?  I would think this would be 9 or 10 Stars based on its size alone!

“Size isn’t everything, Clay – even in a massive serpent like this,” Dwight said with a chuckle, apparently pleased with his enthusiasm.  And he was excited, especially since he had received a 5-Star monster from a Common Spawn Egg, which only had a 0.35% chance of happening.  “If you look closer at the Colossal Serpent, you’ll note that it doesn’t have any additional damage mitigation to its scales, doesn’t have any venomous effects to its bite, and it moves slower than you would assume.  Many of those issues would be remedied when it goes through Evolution to the higher Star ratings, as well as adding to its size quite a bit.”

When he re-evaluated his new acquisition, Clay could see what she was talking about…but it did little to reduce his enthusiasm.  It was still an enormous serpent, after all.

Ok, Dwight, I think I’m as ready as can be.  What do I do now?  He had some monsters and traps now, but he had no idea what to do with them.

“Now all you need to do is fill in your dungeon rooms.  Pick and choose what you want to use from your Available Monsters and Available Traps menus, and visualize them inside each of the rooms you have.  There is no defined rule against putting monsters inside hallways, but it is also considered bad form to do so – traps are fine, though.

“As for other rules, there are 3 that you need to follow in order to be successful.  Number 1: Place 5 – and exactly 5 – of your weakest monsters inside the very first room.  This is to allow brand-new Heroes a chance to grind upon the weakest of your monsters without risking too much.  It wouldn’t do to kill them all before they get a chance to do anything, don’t you think?

“Number 2: Your Boss Room, which for right now is the one nearest your Dungeon Core, should hold your strongest monster, or monsters, plural.  Keep in mind, though, that if you place a monster too powerful for any of the Heroes nearby to defeat, the room will essentially be wasted until they get much stronger.  You can always change things up whenever you need to, so you aren’t limited to what you choose right now.

“And Number 3: There is a limit to how many monsters and traps you can place inside of your dungeon.  If you go to your Transcribed Status, you will see that your ‘Star Limit for Placement’ right now is only 15. This limit will increase as you advance your Core Stages, however, so it hopefully won’t be that restrictive for long.”

So…I’m assuming that I can only place 15 Stars-worth of monsters and traps inside of the dungeon?  And if I were to place my Colossal Serpent, that would eat up an entire third of what I can place?  His previous excitement was dimmed a little as he began to see the problem there.  He was suddenly glad he hadn’t obtained a 10-Star, as great as that would’ve been, because then he would be severely limited in what else he could place in his dungeon if he had wanted to use it.

“Yes, precisely.”

Clay was thinking that he was starting to get a hang of things, finally, though he knew he still had a lot to learn.  Of course, that was until he had to decide what to place in his dungeon, because now there were way too many things to choose from.  Perusing his list, he decided to work on one room at a time, which helped to narrow down his choices. [5]

According to Dwight, the first room near his entrance needed to have 5 of his weakest monsters in it, though how he was supposed to intuit whether they were weak was a bit of a mystery. He was able to eliminate his 2 and 5-Star monsters, at least, as well as his Rare Troll, but from that point it was a bit of a tough decision.  Since he had no idea how each would fare in a fight, having never seen any of them other than in the glass slab, there was no determining how well they would work together.  So, he surmised that the only way he could select among them at present was based on appearance.

Clay mentally selected a representative of each Common 1-Star monster he had and placed them in the first room to look at them.  He didn’t really worry about their Element, because other than a few changes in each type of monster, they were essentially the same as far as he could see.  So, he had a Bat (which wasn’t large but could attack from above); a Boar (which was formidable-looking though slow); a Rat (large for their kind, but not appearing too dangerous); a Spider (they creeped him out a little, but he could see their potential as they seemed capable of moving quickly); a Slime (slow and ponderous movement, but difficult to harm because of their jelly-like form); a Fern (a stationary plant with different attributes); and a Serpent (relatively small compared to his Colossal Serpent, but still 8 feet long and 5 inches thick).

Is there any way to…I don’t know…see these in action?

“Why would you want to…oh,” Dwight responded, confused for a moment.  As a former Hero, he probably would’ve been able to tell right away what was the best option, but since he wasn’t a Hero….  “No, unfortunately you cannot.  Your monsters cannot be directly controlled by you, and their only purpose is to challenge Heroes; they will not attack anyone or anything, except for whoever comes through the entrance of your dungeon.  And don’t worry: If they, or one of their attacks, even try to get near your Core, they will disappear, leaving you completely safe.”

Hearing that he couldn’t control them was a bit worrying, but it seemed as though he was safe from harm.  From them, at least; what Dwight also implied was that if Heroes managed to get through all of his rooms and intended him harm, he was essentially defenseless since he couldn’t have any monsters near his Core.

Seeking the weakest of his monsters for the first room, he started to eliminate the candidates one by one.  Boars were out, because they seemed powerful; Serpents were also out, because these ones looked very quick to strike and could prove deadly; Bats he passed on, because they were too unpredictable attacking from the air; the Spiders he thought were too creepy to be used first thing when a Hero walked in; and the Slimes seemed a bit difficult for a beginner to effectively kill consistently.  That left the Rats and the Ferns, both of which seemed not too powerful for his first room.

He was tempted to just put all Rats inside, since he had amazingly collected the entire Elemental set!  However, he decided to mix it up a little, since he didn’t want a Hero to be overwhelmed by 5 rodents of unusual size, each the size of a medium-sized dog, all at once.

Clay’s first dungeon room consisted of:

- 1 Bilge Rat★

- 1 Flare Rat★

- 1 River Rat★

- 1 Stone-tipped Fern★

- 1 Shining Fern★

It wasn’t quite a full set of Elemental affinities, but he liked the variety.  Placing the Ferns right in the middle of the room, he stuck the 3 Rats just behind them to act as a bit of cover, so they weren’t just sitting there as soon as a Hero walked inside.  Still, though, they weren’t really camouflaged, and the Ferns were clearly not normal; one had greenish-brown fronds with sharp stone slivers stuck on the ends of its leaves, while the other glowed with an internal brightness that lit up the room even more than the torches lining the walls.  As for his Rats, one looked dark and slimy, one had little flare-ups of flames all over its fur (which looked neat, but didn’t seem as though they would burn anyone), and the last looked perpetually wet.

“Since you have some Chips left over, you might want to add some décor to this room; nothing extravagant, but it would probably do you well to have some additional non-monster ferns in the room, and possibly some tree trunks lining the walls for effect,” Dwight suggested.

Good idea.  Mentally picturing some more “normal” ferns, he placed about a dozen throughout the room, which helped to fill in the otherwise-empty spaces.  It did nothing to really hide his monsters, but it did help to highlight the area where the Heroes would likely fight his monsters.  After that was done, he looked to the walls and imagined them having half a tree trunk spaced out at irregular intervals, so that the torches weren’t blocked and could still give off enough light to see by.  All told, it cost him only 1 Crystal Chip to complete the environmental décor, which wasn’t that bad considering all that he put into it.

Nice; on to the next, I guess.  Since Dwight didn’t mention any problems with his selections – despite flying inside the room and checking it out herself – he supposed he had done alright for not really knowing what he was doing.  He briefly thought about adding his 1-Star trap to the hallway connecting the first and second rooms, but decided against it; as soon as I have more Stars I can use, then I’ll put some traps in.  Until then, I want to reserve them all for my monsters.

His decision for the next room was a bit easier.  Looking at what he hadn’t used before, he decided on “creepiness” for this one.  First, he used another one of his Chips to decorate the room with what appeared to be threadbare grey fabric, torn apart with strips hanging every which way from the ceiling.  Then, because of what monsters he was going to place inside there, Clay stuck moderately sticky spiderwebs extending from the floor to the walls, wherein some of his Spiders would lie in wait.  Finally, he removed two of the torches that lit up the room, making it that much darker and giving more than a few spots enough shadow to make it “spooky”. In addition, there was enough of a breeze coming in from outside the dungeon entrance that everything would slowly flutter a little, giving the illusion of something moving behind them.

“This is very strange-looking, Clay,” the baby dragonling remarked when he was finished setting it up.  “What made you decide to do this?”

If he’d had a body still, Clay would’ve shrunk back in embarrassment.  “Well…,” he started and then pretended to clear his non-existent throat, “when I was a bit younger, I had a delivery to this strange old man – who later passed away – and he wanted me to drop off a portion of his order into his cellar.  If you’d ever seen our cellar,” he continued with a bit of pride in his voice, “which was immaculate in comparison, you’d probably understand why I didn’t hesitate.

“However, as soon as I got down there with the first of the load, I was surrounded by darkness, cobwebs, and discarded clothing that had seen much better days.  Especially since they seemed to currently be used as nests for some mice, and were torn apart as if some monster had jumped the last person to venture into the basement, devouring their body so completely that there was no trace of it anywhere.  And the spiders I saw were probably the size of my hand, or that’s what I told myself, which caused me to immediately drop what I was carrying – which broke most of the jars inside – and run away without looking back.  I could’ve sworn that something was following me all the way back home, and it was only when I reached our front door that I knew I was safe.

“Looking back on it, though, I realize that none of that was real; the mice had just torn up some discarded clothing to use as bedding, the spiders weren’t any larger than normal, and there was nothing waiting to jump out at me.  There was even plenty of light to see by from the cellar entrance alone, but my observation at the time was that it was dark as pitch inside, so that only enhanced my fright.

“Therefore, knowing how scary and creepy I had found that situation, I figured I could do something similar for the Heroes.  They will have to face something even scarier and deadlier eventually, if the World Threat is indeed coming here, so I figured I could turn my childhood trauma into something positive.”

That was a lot more than he had wanted to share, but he found that the more he explained himself, the less he was frightened of the whole thing.  By the time he was done, the room didn’t scare him in the least, especially considering that he could add and eliminate his monsters inside it, any time he wanted.  Clay ended up spending another 5 Stars of his 15-Star maximum, but it was worth it, he thought.

- 2 Jumping Spiders★

- 1 Cave Spider★

- 1 Explosive Shambler★★

He thought the undead monster would be a horrific surprise, and it seemed to fit the theme of the room enough that he placed it near the exit leading to the next room.  The 3 Spiders were placed on a few of the large webs he had created in the room, where they were able to stand incredibly still until they were ready to move.  The Shambler, however, gently swayed back and forth, and a horrid sound emitted from its rotted throat, as if it was trying to say something – but all that came out was the sound of death.

“A bit dramatic, but I like your use of a theme for your dungeon room.  From the information I possess, it’s rare for dungeons to set up a ‘theme’, instead relying on environmental décor to either help their monsters or slightly hinder Heroes as they make their way through.  I have no objections to this, however.”

It was nice having Dwight’s approval, as that meant he could move on to the next room – the so-called Boss Room.  At first, of course, he placed his Colossal Serpent inside to see how it looked…and it was so cramped inside of the room that it essentially took up about half of the floor space alone.  He thought that he could probably expand the room so that it would better fit, but then he remembered what the baby dragonling had said about having a monster too strong for the Heroes.  At 5 Stars, it was quite possible that his massive Serpent was beyond the skill level of whoever visited in the near future; therefore, with great reluctance – since the giant monster was actually quite hypnotic to watch as it slowly slithered around and around in circles through the cramped space – he got rid of it, and instead turned back to what else he had available.

This was the “Boss Room” and the final defense between Heroes and his Dungeon Core, so it still had to be formidable.  While he was a little bit worried about his current vulnerable state due to using up his Core Structure Health, he thought it was nonetheless more important to provide a challenge to Heroes that ventured inside of his dungeon than to make it impossible.  He wouldn’t be doing his job if he only thought about protecting himself, after all, and as much as he wanted to be selfish, he didn’t want to let this island full of people suffer the same fate as Renton…and himself, of course.

Keeping that in mind, he looked at his 2-Star Uncommon monsters: Flame and Gloom Kobold.  They were more formidable than many of his other monsters because they could actually fight with weapons, and…probably?…had some sense of tactics.  The only problem was that the Gloom Kobold appeared to want to use dark shadows to assist with a stealthy approach, and the Boss Room just so happened to be lit up nearly as bright as it was outside in the sun. He knew he could turn down the brightness so that it was quite dim, but that still wouldn’t help.

“Despite your accident with changing too much of your ceiling to Glowstone, you might be able to take advantage of it.  I believe you can change only some portions of the Glowstone so that they are brighter than the others and focus their light in one direction, and you can completely eliminate any light coming from the rest.”  Clay followed her instructions and thought about “turning off” one corner of the room and…it worked!  Further experimentation allowed him to focus the light from a strip of the Glowstone so that it shone brightly downwards instead of suffusing the entire room, and once he got the hang of it, he spent some time having fun turning on and off the Stones in random patterns.

Finally, though, he ended up making a very bright strip of light, 4 feet wide, that ran from the entrance of the room to the exit, leaving the rest of the room completely dark.  Well, not completely dark, as it was still possible to see a little bit out into the shadows; but for any Heroes inside of the light strip, they would have trouble adjusting from the bright (but not blinding) illumination in the middle.

He placed the two Kobolds on either side of the light strip in the darkness, where they could attack and ambush those who chose to challenge the Boss Room.  The Flame Kobold was much easier to spot in the darkness, but that couldn’t be helped. To distract Heroes from seeing it right away, Clay placed a very obvious distraction near the exit leading to his BOO: the Swamp Troll.  In all, he placed only 3 monsters:

- 1 Flame Kobold★★

- 1 Gloom Kobold★★

- 1 Swamp Troll★

Despite that, it would likely be a challenge to most Heroes, especially when he spent another 2 Chips (more than he wanted to spend, but he found it necessary) to add some stone cylindrical columns throughout the shadowed parts of the room, allowing his Kobolds to close with the entering Heroes a little more circumspectly.  At least, that was his intention; he wasn’t really one for battle tactics, after all, but he’d played hide and seek with his sister enough times when he was younger.  Line-of-sight advantages could be the difference between success and failure.

With that complete…he was done.  Now all he had to do was wait for some Heroes to arrive.  So he waited throughout the night, the morning, and the afternoon, constantly looking out to the nearby city to see if anyone was coming.  He thought that the 3 people who’d been there the evening before might make an appearance, if only to show others what they had found, but there was…nothing.

It was only when it was a few hours away from sunset that he finally saw a group of people heading toward his dungeon entrance.  A very large group of people.

Chapter 14

The discussion, freak-outs, and arguments went on for some time, but Jeska could tell that most people had already accepted that what had been discussed was the truth.  Or at least as close to the truth as they were going to believe, which was the best that she and the other Heroes could hope for.  Ultimately, though, it really didn’t matter what most of the population of Chardelia or even the rest of the island thought, because she was already committed to doing her part as a Hero, whether she originally wanted to or not.

But having the Mayor and the influential people of the city on their side, supporting rather than hindering them, would help immensely.

“I think what helped us is the revelation that there is a dungeon nearby, as scary as that sounds to most people,” she told her brother as they all started to break up into groups, where those who wanted to discuss things further could congregate without having to involve everybody.

“How so?”

Sometimes he could be extremely smart and intuitive; at other times, like right now, he could be deliberately dense.  “Because it means that we—as in, Heroes—don’t need to leave the island.  I’m sure that most of the objectors at the beginning only objected because they didn’t want to lose their family members to the mainland, never to see them again.  Now that we’re staying here, they’ll try to keep their claws on them, but we’ll see how well that works out for them,” she finished, grinning secretly as she saw many frustrated faces.

It wasn’t as though she was happy for their misfortune, because having one’s plans for life go awry was never something to be cheerful about; it was because in many (or even all) of those who been chosen to become Heroes, Jeska could sense a kindred spirit.  From what she could observe, every single one of them wanted more out of life than what was planned out for them.  Even in Bertun’s son and those who lived the life of veritable luxury as part of wealthy merchant families, she could sense that all of them wanted something more.

Just like Jeska wanted something more, some purpose to her life.  Sure, given her family’s wealth, to which she and her brother had contributed to over the years by fishing, helping to create more of his special fishing nets, and other odd jobs, she technically didn’t have to work.  At least for as long as she lived, and perhaps for as long as her children – and even her children’s children – lived, they would be able to live comfortably, if not lavishly.  Of course, that would be boring, and Jeska (and Arcen, even if he didn’t want to admit it) had never really had a specific purpose, nor calling that she thought would satisfy her.  Becoming a Hero, however, was something she had never envisioned possible.  Yet, now that the responsibility had been thrust upon her, she couldn’t imagine anything else.

And she hadn’t even done anything yet.

That was all about to change, however.  Along with the Mayor and another few dozen interested parties, even her own father was planning on checking out this “dungeon” they had found, to determine the validity of their claims.  She didn’t blame them, because it was strange for something to just “appear” out of nowhere; unlike their rise to “Herohood”, a dungeon was a lot bigger than a little glowing Orb of light.

“Are you two ready to go?”

She looked up from where she was talking with her brother, joined by the awkward silence of all of the other new Heroes, who had been grouped together like outcasts for some reason, to see her father talking to her.  He looked excited, like he usually did when it came to investigating or learning something new, and he was practically bouncing on the balls of his feet in anticipation.

“Yep!  Now, when we were there last night, there wasn’t much inside of it, but I suspect that was because it is brand-new.  We may have to keep checking back to see if it is up and running and then…well, I’m not actually sure,” she admitted, loud enough for most of the other Heroes crowded around to hear.  She didn’t really care if she showed her ignorance, because none of them really knew what they were doing.  There was a lot of information dumped into their minds when they absorbed the Class Orb Tier 0, but much of it was locked away, for some reason or other.

“That’s fine, my dear.  I have some thoughts on the subject; I have spoken to dozens of Heroes over the years, after all,” he replied assuredly.  One might think he was bragging, but her father was just stating a fact.

So, they all left the Hall in the Mayor’s villa as one big group of nearly 60 people – with approximately half of them the new Heroes – a few hours before sunset, heading out to the southeastern part of the town nearest the cliffs.  It didn’t take long for those to see the hole in the face of the cliff, now that they knew what they were searching for, though Jeska had to admit that it was a bit difficult to see it from their positioning near the city.  It blended in quite well with the jagged cliffs, but since she knew to look for it, she was able to pinpoint it within a couple of seconds.

Once they left the city proper, it only took about 25 minutes of walking across the rocky beach to reach their destination, and everyone – including the normally vocal Mayor – was silent as they approached within 100 feet of the portal into the cliffside.  Suddenly, as if they had triggered something by proximity alone, Jeska could hear and feel something *click* in her mind, and she was again flooded by information, though this time it was available to her.  Looking around, she saw the same shocked expressions and cries of startlement and amazement as the rest of the Heroes experienced the same thing.

“What’s wrong, Jes,” asked her father, worriedly.  He put his hands on her shoulders to take a good look at her, but she waved off his concern while still getting adjusted to…whatever this was.

“I’m fine.  I think we’re all fine.  Somehow, being this close to the dungeon has…activated…something within us,” she said, before holding up her hands for him to stop.  “No, it isn’t something bad, but it definitely confirms that this is a dungeon, for me.”

“And me,” her brother said from beside her.

“Me as well.  And…I sensed the threat coming this way, just like you said.”  That was from one of the sailors who had become a Hero, which was echoed by pretty much all of the others that she could see or hear near her.  Good.  They finally understand what is at stake here.  It’s one thing for fancy words to convince them partially; it’s something else entirely to have that knowledge come to them from another source altogether.

When all of the other Heroes now claimed to have sensed the future threat to their island, most of those who had come along grew pale and started to cry; they literally just heard that their doom was coming from their loved ones’ own mouths, and they were the only ones that could prevent it.  Jeska felt sympathy for them, but she had already come to terms with what felt like the inevitable, so it wasn’t that big of a deal to her anymore.  She just knew that she was determined to get better and face the challenge with the same vigor she applied to everything else she did in her life.

“What did it…activate?”

She tried to tell her father exactly what it was, but she had yet to actually look at it quite yet.  Or at least what felt like the most important parts.

Hero Status

Name:

Jeska Porter

Hero Name:

(None Chosen)

Class:

(None Acquired)

Tier:

0

Health:

10/10

Attack:

1

Speed:

2

Defense:

1

Inventory

Class Orbs Available

Class Skills

“It seems as though it’s some sort of…status…detailing my attributes in numerical form,” she slowly explained after getting over the shock of the Hero Status chart in her mind.  It felt like it was floating a few feet in front of her face, but when she tried to reach out and touch it, her hand went right through it, as though it weren’t even there.  It soon became apparent that everyone else was checking out this…Status…as much as she was, and she couldn’t see theirs.

“Ooh, check this out, Father!” Arcen said from next to her, and suddenly he had changed clothes in a flash.  Instead of his lightweight clothing that nearly all of them wore because it was so hot, he was wearing a plain, white, heavy cloth tunic and brown pants; where the rest of his clothes and the sandals he had been wearing had gone, she didn’t know, but he was now sporting some thin leather boots…and was suddenly holding a stout-looking wooden stick.  It was small enough in his meaty hands that it could theoretically be considered some sort of crude club, while in hers it would probably be a staff.

As if her brother’s sudden change in wardrobe started a chain reaction, one after another of the new Heroes standing near them changed into an identical outfit and held the same staff/club in their hands.  Fortunately, they were all wearing clothing that fit their bodies, because if the uniform had all been the same size as Arcen’s, they would’ve had some difficulty moving through so much fabric.

Intuitively, as it came with the new knowledge that had been imparted to her and the others, Jeska saw the option for “Inventory” near the bottom of her Hero Status chart, so she immediately touched it with her mind.  Her Hero Status went away, only to be replaced with something else.

Inventory

Tier 0 Tunic

Tier 0 Boots

Tier 0 Pants

Tier 0 Training Weapon

(Equip Best Available?)

Surprisingly, there was actually something in her “Inventory”…wherever that was.  Jeska expected some sort of bag or pouch to show up on her hip or something, but it appeared as though whatever inventory she had access to was, well, somewhere else.  She didn’t think about it too hard, because something at the back of her mind told her that it wasn’t really important; that same “something” also hinted that it was part of the same interdimensional spatial void capacity she would also use for storing the Tier Orbs she would pick up along the way…so, yeah, there was that.  She hadn’t a clue about what all of that meant, but suffice it to say that as long as it worked, she wasn’t going to complain.

Because carrying around a wardrobe that draped itself over your body at a mere thought was just too good to question at that point.  Not that she had a lot of normal clothing changes that she wanted to carry around (because she didn’t own more than a half dozen outfits, anyway), but because she had the distinct feeling that she would be acquiring a whole lot more “Hero” clothing in the future.

Instead of trying to put on each item of clothing automatically, she did what most of the others had likely done and mentally selected the Equip Best Available? option—and suddenly she was standing there with a very similar outfit as her brother and the rest of the Heroes around her.  Oh, and she was holding a wooden stick, or “Tier 0 Training Weapon” according to her Inventory.  Speaking of that, she saw that her old clothes were now inside of her Inventory chart, labeled as Plain Shirt, Plain Pants, and Dirty Sandals.  Hey!  They weren’t that dirty!

“These things gave me an extra point in my Attack and Defense!  So that’s how all of this works,” her brother mused, which prompted her to look at her own Hero Status.  Sure enough, instead of those two stats being 1, they now both read 2.  Curious, she mentally selected the option to see her Class Orbs Available,[6] and a new chart appeared, detailing how many Class Orbs Jeska had available.  There were options for five different Classes: Fighter, Scout, Mage, Healer, and Support; those were further broken down by how many of Tiers 1 through 10 she had available, which all read a big fat 0.  As for Tier 0, she knew that those were unobtainable and non-transferable, so only people like her – and the other Heroes of the world – would ever be able to use one, and one only.

She also investigated the Class Skills option, but since she didn’t have a Class, the list was entirely empty.  Moving her attention back to the world around her, she could see that most of the other Heroes had finished looking through all of their different charts and were looking at each other in confusion as to what should be done next.

“Do you think we should investigate this dungeon tonight?” she asked, though she immediately knew that was a stupid question.

As she had thought – a half-second after she finished her inquiry – Arcen promptly answered.  “Yes, absolutely!”  His enthusiasm stood out a bit from the others, who appeared a little apprehensive about going into a hole in the cliff face, which her brother saw and amended his statement.  “You know, so we can make sure it’s up and running…and all that.”

“My son has a point,” her father said before anyone else could say anything.  “But Arcen, I don’t think you should investigate any further than whatever is right inside of the entrance tonight,” he added.

“What?  Why?”

“Because you don’t have a full group, that’s why,” Jeska’s father said matter-of-factly.  “There are three main things that I’ve learned from the various Heroes I’ve spoken with over the years.  One, you always go into a dungeon, even what you think might be an easy one, with a full group of 5 – no more, no less.”  He started to tick his points off on his fingers for all to see, while raising his voice so everyone could hear his words.  “Two, if you decide to flee for any reason, the monsters inside will not chase you outside of the dungeon itself; from what I learned, they physically can’t, so there is no shame in running to save your lives.”  Another tick.  “And three, the only way to get stronger is to acquire Class Orbs, which have a chance of dropping from the monsters once they are killed.”

“Drop?  What does that even mean?” the Mayor asked, which for once Jeska echoed the question in her head.  She had some knowledge of how her mind charts worked…sort of…but as far as what they needed to do inside of a dungeon and how it all worked, she had very little clue.  I’m guessing this is why the mainland has so many Hero Guilds, so that new Heroes aren’t left floundering about without knowing what they’re doing for long.

“I…” her father started, before shrugging helplessly, “have no idea, actually.  There are a few other tidbits I’ve learned, but as for the specifics of how everything works…well, I’m nearly as ignorant as everyone else on this island.”  Jeska could tell that it hurt him to admit that, because he was always so proud of his knowledge, and would share it freely with whoever needed it.

“So, it looks like we should probably just go take a peek, then head back to the city for the night and figure out these ‘full groups’ you mentioned before,” Jeska said, doing some quick mental math.  “And since there are exactly 30 of us, that would perfectly make 6 ‘full groups’ of 5; it seems to me that precise number isn’t just coincidence.”

“I believe you are correct, Jes,” her father said, smiling at her fondly.

Her brother started to move toward the dungeon with a purpose.  “Alright, enough talk—let’s go!”  When nobody else moved, Jeska sighed and quickly joined his excited march towards the hole in the cliffside.  And no surprise, Rosara was close behind.

“Rosara, what are you doing?” the Mayor shouted after her, shocked at his daughter following after Jeska and her brother.  “It could be dangerous!”

“I know, Father – that’s the whole point of this!” she shouted back.  “Besides, if Arcy can’t protect me during a quick look, our little group of Heroes here will be doomed from the start.  I’ll be fine!”

As much as Jeska thought Rosara shouting about how they were all doomed was a poor choice of words, she also had to agree with the statement.  If Arcen, the biggest and naturally strongest of all the new Heroes, couldn’t protect them for a brief look, then that didn’t bode well for the others to even start their journey as Heroes.

No one else joined them as they closed the distance to the dungeon entrance, which wasn’t surprising, though looking back at the assembled group in matching outfits she could see that some appeared just as eager to investigate as her brother.  Most just looked curious and thoughtful, however; with all of the changes lately, it was probably a good thing that they didn’t just rush into danger without really understanding what their new abilities as Heroes were, as well as fully comprehending what was at stake.

Unlike some people she knew.

“Remember, we’re not going in too far—” Jeska reminded the other two as they walked cautiously through the entrance.  As soon as she passed the threshold, however, she could feel something different than what she could now remember of their first visit there.

“Do you feel that?” Rosara asked, her mouth wide open in either shock or excitement.  It was hard for Jeska to tell.

Arcen just nodded, gripping his wooden club a little tighter and positioning it in front of him, ready to smack into anything that attacked them.  None of them really had any particular training with weapons, though she didn’t think that using a stick to bash something’s head in took much skill or training – especially when wielded by her brother.

It didn’t take long for them to discover the first major change to the dungeon.  Ahead of them, the first room – which had been completely empty – was now filled with scattered plants, ferns if she remembered correctly.  As they got closer to the entrance of the room, Jeska glimpsed what appeared to be a glowing fern near the middle of the space; she instinctively knew that it wasn’t a normal fern, but most likely dangerous…in some way.  Whether it was a monster or not, she didn’t know, because a plant being a monster seemed odd to her.

“I think I see a giant rat or two underneath these plants,” came a voice from behind and below, and she let out a little squeak in surprise as she whipped around with her wooden stick prepared to hit whatever had snuck up on them.  Arcen and Rosara also turned around in shock, though they saw the source of the voice before she did.

“Who—?”  Her heart was trying to beat its way out of her chest as she looked around and then finally down, only to see one of the former street dwellers who had become a Hero lying practically on the floor of the torchlit hallway, peering ahead into the fern-filled room.  He looked up at her and smiled shyly, his eyes widening a bit when he saw that everyone had their weapons raised as if to hurt him.

“Whoa, whoa!  I was just curious what all of this was about!  There’s no need to hurt me—”

Jeska lowered her weapon to her side immediately.  “We’re not going to hurt you...but you scared the crud out of us,” she said, her breathing a little labored as she attempted to recover from the shock.

“Oh,” remarked the valiant vagabond as he got to his feet.  Looking at him close up, Jeska thought that he was perhaps a year or two older than she was, as well as being about 3 inches shorter.  “Sorry about that; I thought you heard me approach, but I guess some of my older…skills…have transferred to my new profession.”

It took Jeska a few moments to understand what he was talking about.  “You’re a…thief?”

“I was a thief, actually.  Pickpocket, mostly, and only on those who could afford to lose a few coins.”  There was no shame in his admission, just a statement of fact.

“How dare you sneak up on us like that, trying to steal—” Rosara started to shout, but Arcen put a hand on her shoulder, silencing whatever she was going to say.

“Now, now, Rosara; cut the guy some slack.  Not everyone has the same skills, and while I don’t condone thievery or pickpocketing, he was obviously good at what he did.  I didn’t hear him until he spoke, which meant that he was probably quite skillful at his profession.  Skillful enough that he never got caught, at least,” Jeska’s brother said, smiling at the smaller man.  “What’s your name?” he asked.

“Pascale, sir.”

“There’s no need for that sir nonsense, Pascale.”  Arcen held out his hand towards the former pickpocket for a shake.  “Name’s Arcen.”

Pascale took the proffered hand and shook it, his own basically lost within Arcen’s beefy appendage.  “I know who you are, as well as your sister and the Mayor’s daughter.  You’re all famous in your own ways.”

That was news to Jeska; oh, she figured Rosara was well-known because of who her father was and by the way she looked (she definitely stood out a bit for her looks), but as for Jeska, she wondered what she was famous for.  Probably for having a giant of a brother and an eccentric rich father.

“How would you like to be our fourth?” Arcen suddenly asked, which prompted Rosara to turn on him in surprise.

“You aren’t seriously thinking about having this…thief…join our group, are you?” she snapped out.  Oh, so we’re a group now, huh?  Makes sense, I guess; there’s no way Rosara would consent to not being in the group with my brother.

“Rosara.”  Her brother’s voice had gone deeper, more serious, and Jeska immediately recognized it as extreme irritation and the first warnings of impending violence.  He was normally an easy-going person, but on those extremely rare times he was riled up, it wasn’t pretty.  “He’s not a thief anymore—he’s a Hero, just like us.  And I don’t know about you, but I’m sure that having someone who could sneak up on any opponent as effectively as he snuck up on us – without seeming to try, grant you – would be highly beneficial.  I certainly don’t have any skills in that regard, nor do I think you do; Jeska could probably sneak around a bit better than us two, but Pascale has trained to be silent for most of his life, unless I miss my guess.”

“But—”

“But nothing, Rosara.  What are you afraid of?  Are you afraid he’s going to try to steal your stuff?”

“Well—”

“I don’t think we have to worry about that, do we, Pascale?  No offense meant by it, but I’m sure you’ve already tried to take from someone else’s Inventory, haven’t you?”

The smaller former pickpocket looked a bit uncomfortable, which was evidence enough for Jeska, but he shrugged in response to the question.  “Of course.  It’s kind of what I used to do, after all, but it didn’t work.  I can’t even see where this magical Inventory is – not even my own, technically – so trying to steal from something that basically doesn’t exist is impossible.  Besides, I wouldn’t steal from friends.”

Friends, now?  I like this guy.  “I second the offer, Pascale.  What do you think?”

Rosara still looked like she wanted to object, but she held her tongue.  Pascale smiled and nodded, before saying, “Sure, why not?  I’m looking forward to exploring this place with you.”

“And speaking of that, we should get back,” Jeska said, before quickly adding, “And no, we can’t go any further, Arcen, as much as I can see you want to.  We need to let everyone know we aren’t dead—especially Rosara’s father—and that the dungeon is open for business.  Plus, we still need to find our fifth member.”

Now it was Arcen’s turn to object, but the sudden appearance of Rosara’s hand on his chest stopped him.  “No, she’s right, Arcy.  This has been a long day already, so I think it’s best that we get some rest before we attempt to tackle this place.”

Very sensible of her—

“Besides, I want to help choose our fifth member, who I suspect will have a bit more…refinement…if I have anything to say about it.”  She smiled at them with a bit of a predatory grin, and Jeska could tell that they would have a real fight on their hands if they tried to argue with her.  Fortunately, their newest group member didn’t seem offended by his lack of “refinement”; instead, he looked proud of his lack of such sophistication.

I guess that it’s only fair, since we basically bullied her into accepting Pascale.  “That’s fine, Rosara; just make sure it’s someone we can work well with,” Jeska added with a little sigh, already worried about who the Mayor’s daughter would invite to their group.

“Oh, don’t worry, I will.”  Ok, now I’m worried.

Without even taking a full step into the first room, Jeska and the others left the dungeon and informed those waiting for them what they found.  As it was decided that the dungeon was now ready for them, they went back to the city so that they could finish up their preparations for the next day.

Strangely enough, Jeska was looking forward to it.

Chapter 15

Clay was looking forward to the next morning – mainly because it couldn’t seem to come fast enough.  He had listened in as best he could from the entrance of his dungeon when the large group of people had approached, and from what he could gather from comments and exclamations of surprise from them, there was a brand-new group of Heroes who had no idea what they were doing.  That makes two of us.

“Don’t be ridiculous, Clay, you’re doing just fine.  These new Heroes, though, you’re absolutely right about.”

What do you mean?

“Well, from what we overheard before, it’s obvious that there wasn’t a large or even existent Hero presence here on this island before.  Since there are no Guilds, nor even a single Hero here to give them advice or instruction, they’re going to be diving into this blindly.  Also, did you see how they were all Tier 0?”

Clay had, in fact, seen that – which had come as a surprise.  He had seen them approach looking somewhat normal, but as soon as they got within about 100 feet or so of his entrance, that all changed.  Within a few seconds, about half of the people started to change into very similar-looking outfits, held identical weapons, and had a bit of a glow about them.  When he looked closer, all of the people who’d morphed into wearing identical clothing in the blink of an eye now had—

Class: None

Tier: 0

Primary Element: None

—floating above their heads.  They were all brand-new, as of that morning he assumed, so they had all suddenly received a Class Orb Tier 0.  And he didn’t have to venture far to pinpoint why they had all obtained the Class Orb: his sudden appearance and whatever had happened the night before when the woman with the large—

“It isn’t often that a Tier 0 will stay that way for long.  Hero Guilds are specifically designed to speed up the process of obtaining their first class, which is done by absorbing a Class Orb Tier 1 of a specific type.  Of all of the Orbs, only those which are Tier 1 are not bound to the one person picking them up. By design, Tier 1 Class Orbs can be traded or given away, which then makes Class selection even easier.  But with these Heroes, they are going to have to do it the hard way.”

And the hard way is…?

“By grinding inside of your dungeon, of course.”

Oh, of course.  He had an idea of what that meant, from his previous knowledge about Heroes and dungeons, but it wasn’t exactly complete.  Nevertheless, he understood that they would have to fight inside of his dungeon quite a few times to receive what they wanted when they killed his monsters.  How common are these Tier 1 Class Orbs?

“They aren’t necessarily common, but they aren’t rare either.  If you remember from when you were a—oh.  Yes, of course.  To answer your question, there is a 5% chance for a Tier 1 Class Orb to drop from one of your 1-Star monsters.”

Is there a—wait, there seems to be some people coming inside. This is it!  Despite the fact that his dungeon was designed to do its best to kill Heroes, he couldn’t help but feel a little bit of pride in what he had accomplished so far.  He was well aware that it was small in comparison to what other Dungeon Cores could likely produce, but as a start…it wasn’t bad. At least in his own estimation.

Clay recognized the three who had visited his dungeon the night before, despite their changed clothes, and he was pleased to see that they didn’t look any worse for wear.  He had been worried that he had done some sort of irreparable damage to them, based on how they appeared when they had left without saying a word – along with their vacant gazes, and the appearance of no one being inside their heads.  He was also pleased to see that they had all become Heroes, though of all the people assembled in front of his entrance, he instinctively knew that those 3 probably had been the most likely to have been chosen because of what they had done.  The probability factors were weighed heavily in their favor.

Once the trio of familiar Heroes arrived at his dungeon, their conversation was enlightening…and disappointing.  Dwight was correct in assuming that the 3 of them didn’t know what they were doing. Their awareness of their surroundings were so poor that they didn’t even notice the fourth person sneaking up on them.  Clay wasn’t sure if the three he recognized – Jeska, Arcen, and Rosara, if he remembered correctly – were in danger, but it seemed as if the extra person was just there to check out his dungeon.

The revelation that he had previously been a thief was a surprise, but Clay realized that, just as his own past did not limit him – now that he was a Dungeon Core – this person’s former occupation did not define him, now that he was a Hero.  Moreover, maybe there would be some advantages: In the same way that Clay’s hours calculating expenses for the grocery store helped him acclimate to the Dungeon Core math, perhaps some aspect of stealth and cunning required to survive as a pilferer would give this individual a boost in his dungeon exploration.

Clay had been so excited all evening that he actually felt disappointed when they left.  He understood, though; one of the non-Heroes had mentioned, loud enough for Clay to overhear, that every group venturing into his dungeon would need to consist of precisely 5 Heroes – just as his first room needed to provide exactly 5 monsters – and this crew, thus far, had only 4. Still, as they left, he couldn’t help but want them to return so that he could see how his monsters would fare against them.

“Don’t worry, you’ll have plenty of time for that.  Now, I suggest you shutter your Core until the morning and take advantage of this period of inactivity.  You don’t technically need to sleep – and you are not physically able to, even if you wanted to – but since, unlike all the other Cores, you haven’t trained your mind to withstand the normal rigors of being a Hero, it’s going to be a little more difficult for you to adjust to everything.”

Now that she mentioned it, he realized he had been going for more than a full day at that point – and yet, he didn’t feel sleepy.  In fact, like she had mentioned, sleep didn’t seem possible for him, as the unique visual and audible stimuli of his dungeon were constantly being fed into him.  He could sense where all of his monsters were without having to actually look at them, the sounds of the ocean wafted inside of his dungeon from outside, and his mind seemed as if it were on high alert the entire time.

After asking what the baby dragonling meant by “shuttering” his mind, he learned that he could mentally place a block that seemed to shroud his mind, shielding him from all but the tiniest trickle connecting him to his dungeon.  And it was, to put it succinctly, divine.  He hadn’t realized that his mind was being bombarded by so much information until it was curtailed, and having so much less stimuli bombarding his attention was almost as good as getting some sleep.  Even Dwight was shut away, leaving him stranded all alone with his own thoughts, but it was a welcome relief.

Clay tried to mute even that trickle still feeding through to him, but he couldn’t; upon investigation of what it was, he quickly learned that it was the tiniest thread connecting to his dungeon awareness.  He intuitively determined that if he were able to figure out a way to sever it, he would lose all connection to his dungeon – which he posited would be a very bad idea.  Luckily, it wasn’t enough to really distract him in the void of his own thoughts, and he sensed that it would also serve to warn him if something entered his dungeon.

Now that he had some time to himself, he found that all he wanted to do was…nothing.  The dragonling was right; I need some time to relax before all of the excitement tomorrow morning.  As he blanked out all of his thoughts and gave in to the general lack of sensations, time seemed to pass in a flash.

Faster than he expected, the little trickle of awareness connecting him to his dungeon alerted him to a change that he needed to address.  “Unshuttering” his mind, the world crashed back into him all at once, disorienting him for a few seconds.  I should probably do that a little more gradually next time.

“Welcome back, Clay! And I agree, there isn’t a need to release the shutter so quickly next time.  Now that you’re aware of the world again, though, you’ll be happy to know that your first group of Heroes has arrived!”  Dwight seemed annoyingly chipper to him, especially as he was still trying to get his bearings after his little “nap”.

Once he could orient himself again, he focused on his entrance, which currently had 5 Heroes walking down the hallway.  Focusing on them, he could see that they were the same 4 he had seen the day before, with an additional member of their little group – a young woman who looked extremely nervous compared to the others, all of whom appeared…eager…for what was to come.

As they approached his first room, he listened into their conversation….

*          *          *

“I can’t believe none of my peers wanted to join our group!” Rosara complained, not for the first nor twelfth time.  Jeska couldn’t help but smile inwardly at the situation, because it meant that the Mayor’s daughter didn’t get her way, though she was being a bit unfair.  It wasn’t any of their fault, after all – even Rosara’s – because certain circumstances led them to their final group member.

When they had left the dungeon the night before, it seemed as though the rest of the new Heroes had taken the time they were inside to mingle and talk with one another.  Without the focus being on them, and likely the stress of the situation, that led to groups being formed quickly amongst the majority of the Heroes.  What Jeska thought amazing was the fact that they weren’t even formed upon social strata, which was what she would’ve expected.

Merchants’ sons and daughters had grouped up with sailors and beggars. Ladies of the evening were grouped up with shipbuilders and semi-noble offspring (on Sunfall Island, some families were wealthy and had been around a long, long time; so, while not technically nobility, they basically functioned the same).  Even Bertun’s son, Bernard, had joined up with one of the former beggars and a fishwife, among others of different professions.

Asking about it later, one of the merchant’s sons revealed that he had felt a resonance, or so he called it, when interacting with the other Heroes outside of the dungeon.  It was this strange feeling that led him to his current group, who all admitted to feeling a bit of the same type of sensation.  I wonder if it had to do with proximity to the dungeon, as well?  It certainly seemed to start a lot of the other processes within us when we got close, after all.

As a result, there were already semi-formed groups awaiting them when they headed back to the city…except for one lone Hero who hadn’t found a group yet.

Kelty, former seamstress.

Neither Jeska nor any of the others in her group necessarily felt a resonance with the young woman, but then again, they hadn’t been looking for her specifically when they had left the area around the dungeon.  As soon as it was evident that she was their only option, though, Jeska felt a bit of completeness, upon inviting her into their group.  And when they arrived at the dungeon the next morning, the “resonance” that was hinted at before was there, though somewhat muted – probably because of her excitement.

Rosara, predictably, didn’t care for the fact that she hadn’t been able to choose their last group member, and had started to badmouth Kelty almost immediately, causing the poor woman to tear up – until Arcen brought Rosara to another room and spoke sternly to her about her attitude.  At least, that was what she hoped had happened, because when the Mayor’s daughter came back about an hour later, she was all smiles and had a much better attitude.  Any other alternative concerning her brother was something she didn’t want to think about.

From then on, Rosara wasn’t mad at Kelty anymore, but she certainly wasn’t happy with some of her friends among the merchants and semi-nobles.  As for the former seamstress, she still was a little wary around the Mayor’s daughter, but Pascale had taken it upon himself to make her feel welcome among their group.  They were fast friends right away, which led Jeska to believe there might be a little more in the future between the diminutive seamstress with short-cut, dark-blonde hair and the pickpocket with such average features that he could easily blend into a crowd.  I’m feeling a little left out, to be honest.  Whatever; this is about saving the people of this island, not about finding my soulmate.

“Just give it up already, Rosara,” Arcen said from up front.  “We’re with exactly who we should be with, and they are with exactly who they should be with.  We’re better off without them, anyway.”

“Yeah, I know, I can feel what they were talking about before, you know.  Still…ah, you’re right.  Screw them.  We’re going to be awesome in spite of their insult to my person.”

Jeska supposed that was a step up from being resentful of Kelty’s presence in their group, and hopefully it meant she would stop complaining, but it was more than silly for Rosara to keep thinking about everything in terms of her former life.  Ah, well, she’ll learn eventually.  For Jeska and her brother, there really wasn’t a significant change in their lives or the way they interacted with people when they became Heroes, but it was also probably because they had a very supportive father who encouraged them.  It must be hard being the Mayor’s daughter and being thrown out of everything you knew before; I guess I shouldn’t be so hard on her.

“We’ll just have to shove it in their faces, how awesome we are.”  Or maybe not.

Arcen stopped them all before they entered the first room, as they went over the plan they had concocted that morning once everything was settled.  Since they had the most experience, they had volunteered to be the first group inside the dungeon, and even now the 5 other groups were waiting outside for them to emerge.  The Mayor had objected, since his daughter was in the experimental group, but Rosara had easily turned it around to his advantage.

“Father, won’t it seem like you’re totally invested in the well-being of everyone on this island – not just Chardelia – if you allow your only daughter to brave the dangers of this dungeon first?”

That was all it took.  Jeska had to grudgingly admit to being a bit envious of the way Rosara was able to manipulate people in a way that had nothing to do with her looks; she just had a natural charisma, a natural charm, that allowed her to twist them around her little finger.

“Ok, we all know the plan, right?  I go in first and draw their attention, and then you come in afterwards to—safely—help me finish them off.”  It was an extremely simple plan, though Arcen didn’t mention that she would be going off to his left with Kelty while Rosara and Pascale would go right.  It sure beat his first plan, which was for him to just rush in and start smacking things all by himself while the others sat back in safety; they were a group, and it was necessary for them to work together.  Besides, as strong as he was, he could still die if he were to end up surrounded.

“Yes, and don’t forget—I’m looking at you, Arcen—if it looks like we are outmatched, we need to run.  No being stupid.”  Jeska looked at her brother, who glanced away with a nod, refusing to meet her eyes.  He better not be reckless and get someone killed, least of all himself.

“Fine; as long as we’re all in agreement, lead on.”  Jeska tightened her grip on her Training Weapon, wishing she could have something a little more sharp.  Unfortunately, when they had tried to bring some knives and a couple of old swords that had been forged long ago from someone’s attic, those items were not accepted into their Inventories.  And every time they tried to hold a different weapon, it seemed to want to jump out of their hands of its own accord.  The same went with anything resembling armor of any kind; it felt itchy and extremely uncomfortable, even if they were padded and custom-fitted to a person before they became Heroes.

With a squaring of his wide shoulders, Arcen took the first step into the unknown…with four uncertain Heroes right behind him.

Chapter 16

Almost immediately, there was a rustling of the ferns in the room, located just behind the glowing fern in the middle.  Arcen quickly stepped forward a few steps so that he wasn’t blocking the entrance anymore, and readied his weapon to attack.  Jeska and Kelty swung left but stayed out of the fight for the moment, while Rosara and Pascale did the same on the right.  The rustling got closer to her brother when something finally emerged from the ferns at about knee-height on him: three extremely large rats.

She had seen some big rats before, of course; they liked to smuggle aboard large shipping boats and feed on just about anything they could find, which produced some scary-looking rodents when they were finally tracked down and exterminated.  They didn’t hold a candle to the dungeon rats, however.  These were literally monstrous.

Knee-height on Arcen meant that they were nearly waist-height on Jeska – and they were odd-looking as well.  One of them appeared as if it were literally on fire, with little flashes of flames covering its body in quick intervals; another seemed to have just come out of a pool of water or something, as it was dripping water as it ran; and the third was hard to make out in the shadows created by the ferns in the room, as it was covered in a dark, sludge-like substance.  Oh, and it smelled, which she caught a whiff of as it sprinted for the largest target in the room: her brother.

Getting a better look at them also granted her something else, something that distracted her just enough that she stopped moving while she figured out what it was.

Bilge Rat ★

Attack Type: Melee

Element: Dark

Apparently, it was information about the dark-colored rat, though very little of it made any sense to her.  The other two rats had a similar bunch of information floating above their bodies, but other than different names – River Rat and Flare Rat – the only thing different was their “Element”.

Movement out of the corner of her eye caught her attention, and as she glanced over, Jeska saw one of the ferns in the middle of the room—not the glowing one—moving.  She looked closer at it, trying to get some more information about it, and was rewarded after less than a second.

Stone-tipped Fern ★

Attack Type: Ranged

Element: Nature

Unfortunately, it was still moving.  It looked like someone had bent back one of its fronds, as if they were pressing it out of the way to get by; the next second, the front whipped back into place…and a dozen sharp stone fragments broke off of the frond and flew ahead of the fern – right toward Arcen.

“Look—” she started to shout, but it was too late.  All but a couple of the stone shards smacked right into her brother’s chest, only somewhat deflected by the thicker cloth tunic he was wearing.  Even as he cried out in pain, the three rats arrived, jumping at him as he scrambled to defend himself after being surprised by the projectiles.  The wet rat managed to hop up and bite onto his thigh, holding on even as Arcen moved around.  The dark gunk-covered rat got a face full of wooden club as her brother swung wildly in a slight panic, knocking it away but not killing it, while the rat on fire landed on his other thigh.

Instead of biting, however, it just sat there…and his pants started to catch fire.  Luckily for him, Rosara and Pascale were there, frantically beating at the two rats, inevitably hitting Arcen at the same time.  “Ouch, don’t hit me – hit these darn rats!”  As Jeska got ready to join in on the fun, she glanced above her brother’s head and saw something alarming.

Health: 6/10

Oh no!  She wasn’t sure what had done more damage to his “Health”, but she was worried that it was the 10 or so stone slivers stuck in his chest.  When she looked over at his tunic, she could see red splotches where they had impaled him, though she doubted they had gone too deep; nonetheless, he was hurt, and Jeska and Kelty were just standing there and doing nothing.  Time to change that.

“Kelty!  We need to take out that Fern!”  Without checking whether the former seamstress was following her, Jeska sprinted through the other ferns in the room, uncaring as she recklessly floundered through.  Ahead of her, she could see the Stone-tipped Fern bending back another of its fronds, even as the previous frond was apparently starting to regrow its stone projectiles.

“Nooo!” she screamed, at the same time using her long training weapon as a sort of vault.  She slammed it into the dirt-covered floor, propelling herself the last few feet between herself and the plant, before whipping it around and pounding it into the Fern to stop it from hurting her brother.

Well, she tried to, but ended up missing the frond about to launch its stone shards, instead hitting the one that was somehow regenerating its stock of stone shards, shattering the entire frond in the process.  Unfortunately, she was positioned in such a place that she was right in line for the bent-back frond ready to launch, and she had a split second to brace herself and partially turn away.

The sound of stone hitting wood startled her for a moment as she closed her eyes to the impact, just as pain sliced through her back and side.  She rolled with the impact of stone hitting her, only to see Kelty standing there breathing hard with her eyes wide, her Training Weapon embedded with half-a-dozen stone shards that she had stopped from hitting Jeska at the last moment.  Of course, another half-dozen shards had hit Jeska, and she looked down to see sliced rents in her tunic, which were quickly being stained with her blood.  Looking through the holes, she winced as she saw the wounds…but they weren’t nearly as bad as they could’ve been.  They had barely penetrated the first few layers of flesh, but they still stung – and bled profusely, of course.

“Thanks, Kelty—watch out!” she yelled, as another frond was being pulled back.  Kelty, the shock of having stopped the previous attack wearing off, started beating at the Fern with her stone-embedded Training Weapon, destroying the frond about to launch another attack.

That was when a flash of bright light came from the glowing fern next to the Stone-tipped Fern.  It partially blinded her, but not before she got a look at its information.

Shining Fern ★

Attack Type: Magical

Element: Light

Magical?  What does that—?

“What’s going on?  These stupid rats are somehow healing themselves!”

Jeska couldn’t look back at her brother and the others battling the rats from where she lay on the ground, but she could see the same thing happening to the Stone-tipped Fern as its fronds seemed to glow with an inner light as they rebuilt what Jeska and Kelty had done and were still doing to it.  The same glow now pulsed out from the Shining Fern, and it didn’t take a genius like her father to figure out what was going on.  I need to destroy that other Fern!

Climbing to her feet, pushing past the pain in her side and back, she noticed for the first time some numbers at the bottom-right corner of her vision: 8/10, similar to what was above Arcen’s head.  Ignoring that for the moment, she ran awkwardly forward, raising her Training Weapon above her head (which hurt as it stretched her wounds, but not as badly as she feared).  As soon as Jeska was within approximately 3 feet of the Shining Fern, there was another blast of light, this time so powerful that it did blind her temporarily.  However, knowing where she was in relation to the plant, she stepped forward another time and then slammed down her wooden Weapon, hearing the cracking of fronds in the process.

Still blind, she picked up and smashed her Training Weapon again and again, hearing more fronds and leaves breaking in the process and then—

Her vision cleared in an instant.  One moment, everything was basically white in her vision; the next, she could see clearly again.  And below her on the ground were the now-dead remains of the glowing Fern she had blindly smashed into broken pieces.

Looking around, Jeska could see Kelty finishing off the rest of the Stone-tipped Fern, which didn’t seem to have any real defenses against someone so close by.  Turning completely around, she saw Arcen raise up his Weapon again and then pound it into something below him, followed by a wet squishy sound.  The Health above his head read 4/10, while both Pascale and Rosara were at 8/10 – and all of them were breathing hard and sweating, as if they had just run a mile in full sun.

As for herself, she was still at 8/10, but she could feel the wounds on her body stinging and potentially still bleeding.  “Is everyone alright?” she asked, now that it seemed as if everything attacking them was dead.  She saw Kelty with wide eyes still, but she didn’t have any Health numbers above her head, so Jeska assumed she hadn’t been hurt at all.

“Ouch.  Those little buggers have a mean bite,” her brother said, even as he was inspecting his chest.  As he started pulling out the imbedded stone shards, he winced and commented, “And who knew that plants could throw sharp rocks at you?  I certainly didn’t.”

“Here, let me help you with those, Arcy.” Rosara quickly stepped up to Arcen and slapped his hands away.  “You’re going to tear your flesh even further if you keep—what the?” the Mayor’s daughter said, before getting distracted.

It certainly was distracting, Jeska had to admit.  Looking at the two destroyed monster Ferns they had killed nearby, and she assumed the three Rat corpses, a sparkling light floated above them for a few seconds before seeming to infuse the remains of their group’s victims.  That only lasted for a moment before the Ferns disappeared, and a sudden *pop* startled her, followed by 4 more around the room.

In the place of each monster was now a simple floating brown box, lit on all sides by some sort of glowing aura.

They all stood there, panting either in pain or from the adrenaline still coursing through their bodies, as they each stared at a different box in wonder and curiosity.

“Wha—ugh,” Arcen started to say, before he coughed and winced at the pain in his chest.  “What are these?  Are these the ‘drops’ Father was talking about?”

“I’m assuming so,” Jeska replied.  “Well, I guess we all get one, yes?  And then we need to leave, because you’re extremely wounded, oh brother of mine.”

“Ha!” he laughed, before wincing again.  “You’re one to talk; I can see the holes and blood on your own clothes.”

“’Tis but a scratch…well, scratches, truthfully.  I’ll be fine.”

Rosara hadn’t said anything since the corpses disappeared and these boxes appeared, but she was the first one to move.  She walked up to the box nearest to her and reached out to touch it; remembering the last time she had done that, Jeska was tempted to shout for her to stop, but she stopped herself. There didn’t seem to be anything to worry about here, and it felt like it was the right thing to do.

As soon as her fingers brushed the edge of the box, its lid popped open and a shining light emerged – as well as something else floating above it.

Drop Chest

Contents:

1X Health Band Tier 0 [All Classes] (BoundOnAquisition)

1X Iron Sword Tier 1 [Fighter Classes] (Unbound)

“Health Band?  I don’t know what that is exactly, but I think you should have it, Arcy,” Rosara immediately mentioned, gesturing to the big man.

“Thanks,” Arcen said, walking forward and touching the floating information where it said 1X Health Band.  Immediately, she could see a strip of white light appear on his left wrist, before seeming to sink into his skin and disappearing.  “I think…no, I know that this thing is already starting to heal me!” he said, staring down at his wrist in wonder.  The next moment, one of the stone shards was miraculously pushed out of his chest, where it fell to the ground with a small *thud*.

“Looking at its description in my Inventory, it seems as though it will only work…‘outside of combat’, so I’m assuming that means it won’t work if there is a Rat hanging off of me and trying to light me on fire.  In addition, it seems like I’m stuck with it, as it is ‘bound’ to me and can’t be given away; I guess that’s what Bound On Acquisition means.”

“That’s good information, but I believe there is something more pressing that should concern you…where are your pants?” Jeska asked with a chuckle, noticing for the first time that he wasn’t wearing anything below his tunic.  She felt enormous relief that her brother was going to be fine, so she couldn’t help but mess with him a little.

“Uh, I had to rip them off because that flippin’ Rat set them on fire.  Luckily, I saw something in my Inventory—” he replied, looking off in the distance for a moment, before his pants reappeared as if by magic.  Which I suppose it is.

I wonder…  Jeska opened up her own inventory and looked to see that her own Tunic was greyed out, which she assumed meant she was wearing it.  Mentally selecting it…was a mistake, because she was suddenly topless.  Scrambling to select it again even as she covered her chest with her arms, now that it appeared to be available, she felt herself fully clothed – with a wholly repaired Tunic!

Pascale was just staring at her in shock, before Kelty walked over and smacked him on the back of the head.  “Hey, don’t stare at ladies while they’re changing.”  The former pickpocket just rubbed his head and looked away, chagrined.

“Anyway,” Arcen said suddenly, breaking the odd mood in the room and deflecting attention away from his sister (for which she was thankful). “Can I have this sword, too?  You can have something from my box, Rosara,” he promised.  Jeska looked above his head, and was pleased to see that his Health was already at 7/10.

“Sure!  I can’t see myself swinging a heavy sword around, anyway.”  Arcen touched the “Drop Chest” information again, this time on the 1X Iron Sword Tier 1, and a little light like a shooting star slammed into his stomach.  The next moment, the brown box disappeared into nothingness, leaving nothing indicating that it had ever been there before.

“Argh!  It says I can’t equip this because I don’t have the proper Class and Tier.  Sorry, Rosara; you can have it back if you want,” he offered.

“No, keep it; you might need it in the future.  I’ll just compensate myself by opening up your box, if that’s alright,” she said quickly, smiling at Jeska’s brother with a grin.  She walked over with a limp to the one nearest Arcen, and touched it.  Not wanting to be left out, Pascale did the same with the one nearest him, followed quickly by Kelty; Jeska just shrugged and did the same.

Drop Chest

Contents:

1X Health Band Tier 0 [All Classes] (BOA)

1X Support Class Orb Tier 1 (Unbound)

“I got another Health Band if anyone wants it,” she heard Pascale mention from behind her, which was repeated almost word-for-word by both Rosara and Kelty.

“It looks like we all got one, so grab it for now,” Jeska said absently, looking at the other item in the Drop Chest.  Before she could dig into it any more, she touched the Health Band and felt it appear—and then disappear—on her left wrist, and she immediately started to feel better.  Feeling under her shirt, the sting was starting to fade, and the wounds were starting to clear up.  Ah, now this is nice.

“I have some Tier 1 Scout Class Leather Chest Armor,” Kelty said with a disappointed tone.

Rosara was the next to be disappointed.  “I got some disgusting bleached bones,” she said in a huff.  “When I look at it closer, it says that it is a ‘component’ of some sort.”

“And I have some sort of…stick weapons?” Pascale wondered.  “Nope, just some broken branches.  They say exactly the same thing as those bones.”

“Great.  None of the things we got – other than these nifty Health Bands, of course – do us any good right now – and half of them are just basically trash…that might be able to be used later?” Arcen questioned.  “Jeska, what did you get?”

“I’m not quite sure, but I think this could be good.  I think Father said we need a Tier 1 Class Orb to obtain a Class, right?”  Without waiting for anyone to answer, she went on, excited.  “I think this might be what he was talking about,” she said, before moving out of the way so that everyone could see.

“Nice!  That’s exactly what we need…but who gets it?”

Now, that was the question.  And one without an easy answer.

Chapter 17

This is much more exciting than I thought it would be, Clay admitted to the baby dragonling near his Dungeon Core.  I still don’t feel right about the possibility of killing these Heroes, though. It seems like such a waste.

Dwight just looked at his Core like he had said something stupid, but she didn’t say anything.

I also really like those “Drop Chests”; it seems like those are a good way to remove my dead monsters as well as providing rewards for the Heroes’ efforts,” he continued.  Are those all set up on the same probabilities you were talking about earlier?

“Yes, they are.  I’ll send you a condensed version of them, because otherwise it can be a little overwhelming.”[7]

As the Heroes were still discussing what they were doing with the Class Orb that had dropped, Clay looked at what Dwight had sent him.  Whoa!  You weren’t kidding!  He had received a large chart full of different probabilities of what would show up in one of the Drop Chests…and it was a lot of information.  Thankfully, she had truncated it so that it only pertained to what would drop from 1 and 2-Star monsters, because that was all he had in his dungeon at the moment.

In short, whenever a monster was killed, the Drop Chest could contain 1 of 6 different categories: a weapon, a piece of armor, a skillbook, a Class Orb, a potion, or a trash item.  He supposed the old bleached bone and broken branches this group of Heroes had received were examples of trash items, which wasn’t surprising since there was a 70% chance of that occurring with a 1-Star monster.  It went down to 60% with a 2-Star monster, but it still meant that more than half of those they killed would likely just produce trash.

“Much later on, Heroes can use certain trash items as ‘components’, though their purpose and exact use is unknown to me,” Dwight added when he was thinking about the trash items.  It was good to know that they weren’t completely useless, though it didn’t seem as though the items they acquired right now would be of much use until a much more distant date.

What was surprising was the fact that they had received a piece of armor and a weapon, which were both a 5% chance for a Tier 1 item.  The probabilities were even less for a Tier 2 or 3 piece of armor or a weapon, and anything above that was apparently impossible to obtain from a Tier 1 monster.

In addition, they had managed to find a Class Orb Tier 1, which also had only a 5% chance of dropping in the Chests.  Are there different probabilities as to which Class the Orb will be?  I see that this one they got is for something called Support.

“No, they are all equal since there are 5 base Classes – so 20% for each if a Class Orb is going to drop.”

Uh…what are the 5 Classes again?  You mentioned a Fighter before and now a Support, but what are the others?

“How do you not—?” she started, before smoothly transitioning into an explanation.  “There are 5 base Hero Classes: Fighter, Scout, Mage, Healer, and Support.  They are the only ones that are available inside of the Drop Chests, though Tiers 1 through 10 have the potential to drop at some point with higher-Starred monsters.”

Dwight didn’t bother to go into detail about the Classes, but Clay figured he would learn more about them as time went on.  It wasn’t really important at the moment, anyway, since it seemed as though the visiting Heroes had finally figured out what they were going to do.

*          *          *

“Well, I think we have to consider this both strategically and with thoughts about the future,” Arcen said, which surprised everyone except Jeska.  She knew he was intelligent when he wanted to be, despite the front he put on sometimes when all that people saw were his massive size and enormous muscles.  “When I was looking at my Hero Status earlier, the ‘Class Orbs Available’ chart listed out the different kinds of Classes that are available.  I don’t think that it is a coincidence that there are 5 Classes…and 5 of us.  And that the requirement for Hero groups going into a dungeon needs to be 5, no more and no less.”

That’s quite astute of him to notice that.  I was thinking the same thing, actually.  “So, what my brother is trying to ask is: Who is going to be which Class?”

Pascale snorted in a short laugh.  “I think it’s obvious who the Fighter is going to be, don’t you?”

Jeska smiled, acceding the point.  “Yes, I would think that my brother fits that role quite well.  And you, I think, with your background, would probably do well in the…uh, Scout Class,” she replied, trying to remember all of the Classes. “But I think the real problem is figuring out what the others actually are.  There’s Support, uh…a Mage, and a Healer, I believe.”

Kelty raised her hand shyly to talk, as if she was a small child trying to get a schoolmistress’ attention in school.  There was no real need, but Jeska nodded to her to speak, anyway.  “I…well, I always wanted to study the healing arts, but it was too expensive for my family to apprentice me with someone willing to teach me.  I would be interested in being a…Healer?  If that’s okay with everyone else, of course,” she finished up quickly.

“Absolutely.  That doesn’t really call out to me, so I think you’re welcome to the job.”

Rosara shrugged, showing that she didn’t really care about the Healer Class, either.  “Well, then, what does ‘call out’ to you, Jeska?” she asked, honestly curious.

Jeska froze in place while she considered the question.  What calls out to me?  I have no idea what either of the two Classes do, but I can make an educated guess.  A Mage would probably have some form of spellcasting ability, while a Support would help…support?...the group?  I think I’m drawn more to being a Mage because I can picture myself flinging around spells, rather than the unknown aspects of whatever a Support Class is.

“I think…I’d like to be a Mage—”

“Perfect!” Rosara abruptly shouted, cutting Jeska off.  “If you had said Support, I would’ve beat you over the head until you changed your mind.  Gimme!”

As greedy-sounding as her words were, there wasn’t any reason to deny the Class Orb to Rosara.  Jeska moved aside and let the Mayor’s daughter touch the floating words above the Drop Chest; she noticed that the limp in the other woman was gone, and looking around at everyone she saw that all of the “Health” numbers above their head were gone.  Bending to the side, she found that she was completely healed as well, though whether she would have a bunch of scars there later would have to wait until later to investigate.

Rosara touched the Support Class Orb Tier 1 from the last Drop Chest and Jeska could see it shoot into the other woman, before the brown box disappeared.  “Now, how do I…?  Oh, I think like this—” the Mayor’s daughter mumbled, before there was a sudden flash of blue that seemed to erupt out of her entire body.  It wasn’t blinding, however, so she was able to see what happened next – and her jaw practically hit the floor.

Rosara lifted almost a foot off of the ground and threw her head back, her eyes and mouth wide open in a silent scream that frankly terrified Jeska.  Then, to make it worse, her clothes suddenly disappeared, the white tunic, brown pants, and boots nowhere to be seen as she floated above the ground.  Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Arcen take a worried step forward, but then a second, brighter flash of blue emanated from Rosara, now blinding Jeska temporarily.

When she was able to see again after blinking for a few seconds, she saw Rosara lithely landing back down on the ground with a smile on her face – and fully clothed!  Instead of the plain clothes from before, however, she was dressed (though she used the word loosely) in a skin-tight, full-body, multi-hued blue outfit that sparkled a little in the light of the nearby torches.  On her feet were thin-soled shoes of the same color as the rest of the ensemble, so they blended in well enough that it was hard to identify that she was even wearing shoes.

And her hair…was gorgeous.  It was nicely put together before, but now there was something about it that set it apart – and made Jeska mightily envious…and something else.  In fact, the whole package seemed to incite some sort of reaction to seeing Rosara, though she couldn’t put her finger on what exactly it was—

“Oh…my…goodness!  Arcy, that was the most awesome thing I’ve ever felt—wait!  Did my voice change all of a sudden?”

It certainly did, Jeska couldn’t help but think.  Rosara’s voice before had been grating and a little whiny-sounding at times, but now it had smoothed out to the point where it was…pleasant…to listen to.

“And what am I wearing?!  This is entirely too revealing—my other outfit is gone!  And my Inventory says I can’t equip my other clothes until I’ve left the vicinity of the dungeon…and now my Hero Status says something about ‘Charm’?  What is going on?”

Jeska couldn’t help but laugh at this point, because seeing the other woman so flustered and sounding so…and looking so…it was just too much.

“What are you laughing at—?” Rosara asked angrily with her hands on her hips – accentuating her bodily details – and even that sounded so nice that it made Jeska laugh harder.

“Uh…Rosara?” Arcen said, cutting the woman off from angrily demanding Jeska to stop.  As she was laughing, nearly bent over and in tears, she looked to see that Kelty was laughing as well, though she was trying to hide it behind her hand.  Pascale…well, he looked as if his eyes were going to either pop out of his head or dry out; he didn’t look like he’d blinked since Rosara had transformed.  “I think you’ve changed a bit.”

“What?  How?”

“You’re more…beautiful now, I suppose.  It might have something to do with this ‘Charm’ thing you were mentioning before.”

“I’m more beautiful?  How is that even possible?” Rosara asked, genuinely confused – which made Jeska laugh all the harder.

“I don’t know, but it happened,” Arcen replied, doing his best to take control of the situation.  Jeska appreciated it, because any moment she was prepared to get hit over the head with a Training Weapon….

The thought of the wooden weapon made her realize she didn’t see Rosara holding one anymore.  That sobered her up a little, so that she was reduced to just sporadic giggles by the time she asked, “What happened to your weapon?”

“What—oh.  I’m not sure.  I don’t seem to have a weapon now.”

“Well, what do you have?”  This could be a problem; if they all got new Classes without any weapons, then they would quickly become useless.

“Nothing!  All I have is this outfit I’m wearing which is called ‘Basic Support Package Tier 1’ which seems to be a set,” Rosara complained.  Jeska could see her gesturing to the empty air in front of her, as if she was pointing out how she didn’t have anything in her different charts.  “My Class Orbs say I have 1 Support Orb ‘absorbed’ – whatever that means – and my Class Skills—oh.”

“Oh, what?” her brother asked.

Rosara was silent for a few moments as her eyes seemed to flicker all over something that only she could see…before she started to grin with a mischievous glimmer in her eyes.  She shook her head abruptly when she glanced away, only to see everyone staring at her.  “What?  Oh, sorry; it seems as if I have 2 new Class Skills.”

“Really?  What are they?” Arcen asked.

“Oh, well, a lady doesn’t reveal all of her secrets, you know.  Suffice it to say that they will likely come in handy in the next room.”

Oh, that little—

“No, tell us now, or we’re not going any further,” her brother demanded.  Jeska was proud of him; despite Rosara’s sudden enhancement in her looks…and voice…and smell, now that she thought of it…he wasn’t swayed in his normal treatment of her.

Their new Support Class folded her arms across her body with a pout on her lips, likely intending to look angry, but she only appeared a bit constipated for some reason – which nearly made Jeska start giggling again.  When she didn’t seem to get the reaction she was expecting, Rosara sighed and gave in.  “Fine.  It appears as though I have a skill that will enhance the attack power of two of my group members.  And another one that will let me temporarily stun monsters.”

That was…impressive.  It seemed as though a Support Class was just that; they supported the group by enhancing group members and by helping to dictate the cadence of a fight.  We could’ve really used that with this last fight; if she had been able to stun that Stone-tipped Fern, we could’ve easily finished off the Rats first and then moved on to the plant monsters.

But there was still one thing they had to figure out…

“Are we seriously going on?  Isn’t this enough for one day?”

Arcen, as predicted, was all for moving onto the next room, despite nearly dying.  What surprised her was that both Rosara and Kelty seemed like they wanted to, as well.

Pascale…was still staring at Rosara as if he couldn’t believe what he was looking at.  Until Kelty smacked him on the back of the head again, at least.  “If you can’t handle it, avert your eyes, Pasc,” she said, which caused him to blush and look away.  When he seemed to be back to normal – though still clearly avoiding looking at their new Support – Pascale expressed his desire to keep going.

“I don’t see why not; we can always run away if we need to; there’s no shame in escaping to try again another day,” he reasoned.

Since Jeska was outvoted, she decided not to rock the boat with the voice of reason.  And so, despite some misgivings on her part, they headed toward the hallway leading to the next room.

Chapter 18

Clay wasn’t surprised when the Heroes decided to push on, as they had succeeded in the first room despite not knowing what they were doing.  It was a familiar feeling for him, so it felt nice seeing that he wasn’t the only one struggling.  While they were making their way down the hallway, he looked back and evaluated how well his monsters did in the first room, which had honestly been a shock.

As he had expected, the three Rats had attacked and had been moderately successful, though he was sure it was due to the Heroes’ inexperience and confusion more than anything. What he had not expected was for his Stone-tipped Fern to be able to toss the stone shards on the ends of its fronds like knives.  Nor was he prepared for the healing effect of his Shining Fern, which was a bit of an advantage he wasn’t even aware he could have, let alone make use of.  It seems as though these plant monsters are much more useful than I had first thought.

Thinking of the healing capabilities, he asked Dwight about the item that seemed to be in all of the Drop Chests.  What’s with all of the Health Bands?  Will they drop in every Chest?  Are they based on probabilities, too?  And are there usually 2 items in every Chest like they were here?

“Of course not,” she replied stiffly, annoyance creeping into her tone again.  “All Drop Chests only contain a single item, except for the ones in the very first room.  The Health Band is a 100% guaranteed drop rate there, which is why it’s best to put the weakest monsters you have inside that room.  We’re here to help the heroes, after all; it would be positively monstrous of us if we didn’t provide a means of healing themselves between fights.”

Did you…did you just make a joke?

“A joke?  I have no idea what you mean,” the baby dragonling said seriously in Clay’s head.  He couldn’t tell if she was telling the truth or not, but he forgot about it when she continued of her own volition.

“One thing with these Drop Chests that Heroes wouldn’t necessarily know is that there are different probabilities as to how many Chests will drop from a single monster,” she informed him.  “While each Drop Chest only contains a single item – the first room with the Health Bands aside – multiple Chests can drop from the death of a monster.  Here, take a look.”[8]

Clay received another probability chart, which was a little more complicated than some of the others he had seen.  From what he could understand, and with a little help from Dwight to clarify some things, there were two things that happened when a monster was killed – before anything else occurred.  First, there was the probability that multiple Drop Chests would, well, drop; with a 1-Star monster, this probability was very low at only 0.5%; a 10-Star, on the other hand, would have a 95% probability of having multiple Drop Chests.

If it was determined there were no multiple Chests dropping, then that was it and a single Drop Chest would appear.  If, instead, the probabilities said that there were multiple Chests, then it moved onto step 2.  Step 2 included probabilities of how many Chests would drop, with the probabilities over all of the Star Ratings primarily stacked towards just 2…but there could be as many as 5 Chests at once!  As one would think, that sort of probability was very low for a 1-Star – only about a 1 in 20,000 chance for 5 Chests – but a 10-Star was much higher – at a little less than a 1 in 10 chance.

Thank you for this information, Dwight.  Clay really was thankful, too, because every little bit of information he received from her was helping to make sense of everything.  The processes behind his dungeon were starting to be revealed, and it certainly made him feel like he was getting the hang of how things worked on a larger scope.  He was more than aware that he still had a lot that he needed to learn – but he was getting there.

“You’re welcome, Clay.  I had hoped that would help with your other…distraction.”

That was the other reason he was thankful.  When the quite attractive woman had absorbed the Support Class Orb, had floated above the ground without any clothes, and had ended up being even more attractive at the end of the process, Clay’s mind had practically shut down.  Now, he didn’t think of himself as a lecherous teenager like some of his peers back in Renton, but the sight of all of that was a bit much for him.  He was just glad that he didn’t have an actual body to embarrass himself, because when he saw the woman’s massive—

“This place has certainly changed from before,” he heard from where the Heroes were located.  He was so distracted looking at the new probability chart that he hadn’t noticed that the group was already assembled inside of the next room.  All but the new Support Class groupmate in her tight-fitting outfit were looking a little apprehensive; his “creepy” room was already having an effect on them.  None of them had ventured more than a step or two inside, and the hanging strips of ragged cloth and random placement of spiderwebs made it impossible for them to see the exit at the end of the room.

“I have to agree, Arcen.  I have a very bad feeling about this room…” the woman named Jeska said slowly as she tried to peer around the place to find any threats.  Clay’s Spiders were well-hidden and completely still, however, and would be hard to pinpoint unless one knew exactly what they were looking for.

Suddenly, his Explosive Shambler near the exit of the room decided that it was a good time to let out its low moan of expressive death, which Clay could see set the others even more on edge as a couple of them shuffled backwards a step.  “What was that?!” whispered the new member of their group – Kelty, if he had heard the name correctly – as she looked around with wide eyes.  Her breathing had quickened, and she looked ready to bolt; since this room was based on his childhood experience with a creepy cellar, he certainly understood the feeling.

“I don’t know, but I think it’s about time we found out.  If things get too rough…run,” the large man called Arcy or Arcen (Clay wasn’t precisely sure, as he had heard him called two different things) replied confidently.  He took a step forward, but he was stopped by a hand on his arm.

“Hold on, Arcy.  I want to activate one of my new skills first,” the Support Class woman said abruptly.  “This one is called ‘Dance of Strength’.”

She stepped back from the big man and started to dance…distractingly.  Her hips moved in a way that made Clay a bit uncomfortable, and her hands roamed over her blue outfit as if trying to smooth some wrinkles out of the skin-tight fabric – but there were none, of course.  A few seconds into her strange dance, a red aura surrounded her entire body, becoming brighter and brighter as time went on; after only about 10 seconds, it had gotten bright enough to become a little blinding.

Fortunately for the other Heroes, the red aura chose that moment to detach from the woman and float in front of her, before rapidly condensing down into two red spheres the size of a fist.  She finished her dance and the spheres shot out at the big man and Jeska, hitting them in their chests, though there didn’t seem to be any physical impact.  Instead, as soon as it hit them the sphere disappeared, and a familiar red aura surrounded them both.

“Seriously?  Your skill is a sexy dance?” Jeska asked with a shake of her head.  “And why me?  Why not Pascale or Kelty?”  Ah, now I remember his name!  Clay was sure he had heard it at some point, but he had either ignored it or forgotten the former pickpocket’s name by the time they had come back that morning.

“Yes, don’t be jealous,” the woman…Rosara, I think…replied haughtily.  “As for why you, I saw what you did in the last room when you faced off against those plants; I thought it fitting having you as a direct backup to Arcy.  Now, don’t waste my efforts, because this skill only lasts 3 minutes and has a…cooldown?...of 10 minutes, so it will be a while before I can use it again.”

Cooldown?  Is that how Hero skills work? he wondered curiously, forgetting for a moment that Dwight could hear his thoughts.

“Obviously, you should know—yes, that is how Hero skills operate,” she answered his question, the transition from confused guide to teacher relatively smooth.  “Some Classes can use their skills multiple times during a fight, as their cooldowns are short, while others – like this Support here – can only use them every 10 minutes or more, which is usually too long for the majority of fights.”

Ah, ok.  He didn’t ask any more about them because the Heroes started to move – even Pascale, who had been staring at Rosara with a stunned look on his face since she danced.  The big man stepped around a few of the hanging sheets without issue, Jeska close behind him, when he stepped on the edge of one of the webs Clay had placed around the room.

“Hold on, my boot is stuck—” he whispered as he extricated his foot from the web, but that was when two of Clay’s Spiders struck.

His 2 Jumping Spiders practically flew across the room at high speed, 1 landing on The Fighter’s back and the other on the front of his waist.  Immediately, they bit through Arcen’s (or Arcy’s?) tunic and deep into his flesh beneath, causing him to scream out in pain.  That scream was echoed, sort of, by Clay’s Shambler still hidden from view, which made the scene amusing to the Dungeon Core watching it all unfold.

It wasn’t so amusing for those in the room, however, because Kelty, Jeska, and even Rosara started screaming at the Spiders’ appearance.  Jeska was the first to react, however, as she swung her wooden stick thing at the Spider on her brother’s back…only to have it jump straight up before it was struck.  It jumped so high that it flew all the way up to the ceiling; somehow it turned itself in mid-air, landed its feet up against the surface of the ceiling, and then jumped again, aiming for the one who’d just tried to hit it.

The whole sequence of events happened so fast that Jeska didn’t have time to react, and the Spider slammed into her head, causing her to fall backwards in fright, the back of her head smacking into the floor as she fell.  Fortunately for her, and unfortunately for his Jumping Spider, the fall also caught 3 of its legs underneath, which immediately snapped from the force of the fall.

That didn’t keep it from attacking, as it started to bite her face over and over, causing vicious wounds to open up on her cheek and forehead, and it looked like one of her eyes might have been poked out.  Jeska appeared disoriented at first, as smacking her head against the floor had likely knocked her out for a second or so; however, the pain as her head got ravaged caused her to scream into the grey-colored Spider that was now doing its best to kill her.

As for the big man, he was having troubles of his own.  While the Spider on his back was dislodged with the help of his sister, the one that had landed on his front was proving troublesome.  An attempt at smacking it away with his own wooden weapon proved just as ineffective as Jeska’s efforts, as it jumped away to his front, landed gently on one of the fabric panels hanging down from the ceiling, and then jumped on his chest again.  It bit him twice in quick succession, before dodging another awkward swing by jumping off in a different direction – and then jumping right back onto him.

Are they…uh…poisonous?

“You mean venomous?  A poison takes affect by being consumed, as in ingested, inhaled, or absorbed.  By contrast, a venom takes affect by being injected, through a bite or a—you know what?  Never mind.  But no, these Spiders aren’t venomous at 1-Star, or even 2-Star ratings.”

It took a couple of seconds, but the other Heroes had finally recovered enough from the initial attack to come to their groupmates’ rescue.  The crippled Jumping Spider on Jeska’s face was knocked off by a well-aimed smack by Pascale with his own wooden weapon.  The monster tried to avoid it but couldn’t, so it ended up slamming against the nearby wall after it flew through the air; it seemed that the Spider was rather lightweight (probably due to its Air Element, the Dungeon Core reasoned), so it didn’t do too much damage to itself from the impact.

Before it could get up and try to attack again while only having 5 legs, Kelty rushed over and started to beat the crud out of it, breaking even more legs in the process.  In less than 10 seconds, the monster was reduced to a disgusting mess on the floor.

As for the big man, he had finally recovered enough from the abrupt attacks that he was able to fend off his own Jumping Spider.  By watching it jump back and forth, grunting in pain every time it landed on him and took a few bites before hopping away again, he had learned its timing.  Taking a two-handed grip on his wooden weapon, he swung with all of his might when it jumped at him again.

Unlike the other Spider that had been knocked off of his sister, this one didn’t even survive long enough to hit the nearby wall in one piece.  The swing had done so much damage that the giant arachnid basically crumpled around the weapon, practically blasting apart upon contact, slinging Spider parts and other disgusting innards all over the hanging cloth and webs.

“Jeska!  Are you alri—aaah!” he asked as he was turning around to check on his sister, but Clay’s room wasn’t done with him.  The other Spider in the room, a Cave Spider, had slowly emerged from the shadows where it had been hiding and crept up on the distracted Hero.  Even while its brethren was being obliterated by a powerful swing, it had approached undetected; as Arcen turned around, he was bit on his butt, and he screamed out louder than he had before.  He fell to his knees as his strength appeared to give out, and his breathing became labored.

The baby dragonling next to his Core abruptly spoke up.  “Now that Spider is venomous.  Slow, with a weak defense, but its venom can reduce a Hero’s strength – and consequently their Attack power – down to 0 for a limited time.”  I really need to dig into all of these attributes of my monsters at some point, he told himself.  But not right now.

Pascale was fast to react, hitting the black arachnid with his weapon, mimicking what had happened to the previous Jumping Spider as it was flung away, though this time it was further into the room…which was all the Explosive Shambler needed to prompt it to start its own attack.

“Arcy, what’s wrong?” the attractive Support Hero asked, slipping by his side and wrapping her hands around his arm worriedly.

“I’m…so…weak.  I can’t ever remember feeling this we—” His explanation was cut off as a loud “groan of death” erupted from behind him.  The Explosive Shambler…shambled…into view, its arms raised out in front of it as if seeking something to grab and tear apart.

“I can’t see!  What is that?!” Jeska screamed from the ground as she tried to pick herself up.  Blood covered her face, and Clay couldn’t tell if her lack of vision was because she had indeed lost both her eyes to the Jumping Spider’s bites, or if her eyes were simply too coated in red-colored bodily fluids.

“It’s…it’s…I don’t know!  We need to run!” Kelty shouted, grabbing onto Jeska and helping her to her feet.

“Arcy?  You need to get up – we need to go!” Rosara shouted, doing her best to lift up the big man, but he barely budged; he was way too heavy for any of the Heroes to lift by themselves, and even if all of them pitched in, it was doubtful he could be shifted enough to escape.

“Can’t…go on…save yourselves,” he panted out, glancing behind him at the undead thing getting closer.

“No!  I’m not leaving my brother!” Jeska shouted out, even as Kelty was pulling her away.

“Hold on, let me try something,” Rosara shot back, before standing up and facing the Shambler.  It groaned again, only about 5 feet away now, and she answered it with…a song.  What in the world is going on?  A beautiful, wordless melody emerged from the Support Hero’s throat, though that wasn’t the only thing that emerged; a blue light seemed to spring into being, as if created by the sounds she was making, and it floated towards the Shambler.  When the brutal monster was only about 2 feet away from grabbing onto the weakened man, the blue light of the song seemed to envelop the monster, practically freezing it in place.

As soon as that happened, her song stopped and Rosara snapped her mouth shut before turning to the others.  “Hurry!  I got some sort of message about this monster being stronger than the others, so the effect won’t last too long.  And don’t touch it!  That will break my ‘Captivating Melody’ skill if you do.”  She bent down to put her shoulders under Arcen’s left arm, and tried to lift him again without much difference.

However, Pascale was quickly there and got underneath the other arm.  Kelty even joined in and helped to lift him up from his knees from his front, gripping onto his pants of all things.  Jeska wiped some of the blood from her face, revealing that one of her eyes was still intact, though the other was…a mess.  She quickly moved behind her brother and did her best to move him as well, lifting him up via his butt cheeks.

They managed to get him to his feet and even moved a step forward.  Suddenly, he stood upright under his own power and his breathing immediately returned to normal.  “Hold on, I think the spider venom has worn—what’s that sound?”

The “frozen” effect of Clay’s Shambler had ended a second ago, and it was free to move again.  As it slowly shambled forward, there was a hissing noise coming from it completely unlike the death-like moans from before.

All of the Heroes turned around to see the monster almost upon them, and this time they reacted more quickly than they had before.  Wooden stick weapons were wielded against Clay’s slow Shambler, hitting it hard enough to break bones, and even the weaponless Support Hero kicked it with vengeful glee.  The undead monster was too slow to grab onto anyone, but it also could take a pounding from them without seeming to really feel it.  I guess that makes sense, it being undead and all.  Despite not feeling pain, it was obviously getting damaged, because one of its arms was lying limply by its side, and its head had been practically caved in.

“Keep it up, I think it’s almost dead!” the big man shouted with encouragement.  Clay seemed to think he was correct, but then something unexpected happened.

“Hey, why is this thing called an ‘Explosive Sham—‘?” Jeska suddenly asked…and then the monster EXPLODED.  And not just a little explosion, as if it had just burst and fallen apart, flinging a few body parts around.  No, it was an enormous ball of fire that started in its chest and then expanded outwards with tremendous force, completely obliterating the monster in the process.  The Heroes didn’t fare much better, unfortunately; as the wave of the explosion hit them, they were practically torn apart as their skin melted away in places, legs and arms were detached, and their heads snapped back so quickly that he could see the former pickpocket’s neck snap in the process.

Their bodies (or what was left of them) shot out and impacted the walls and even the ceiling of the room with enough force that their bones crumpled inside their mangled flesh.  Their corpses lined the walls of his dungeon, scattered pieces of them burning up as the webs and fabric were incinerated from the explosion, and all that could be heard was the sound of crackling as one web near the entrance continued to burn away.

What happened?  I killed them?  How is that supposed to help anyone?  I thought that I was here to help train them with potentially deadly scenarios, so that they could get stronger—

“Yes, absolutely.  It’s unfortunate that they didn’t have very good armor; if they had Tier 2 – and even some Tier 1, perhaps – gear, they probably would’ve survived the explosion.  Then again, if they had better weapons, they probably would’ve killed your monster before it exploded, so….”  Dwight shrugged her baby dragonling shoulders as if it wasn’t a big deal.

Clay couldn’t believe what he was hearing.  But…but THEY’RE DEAD!  I killed them!  I don’t understand how this helps—

“What are you so bent out of shape about?  So what if they died?” she asked, completely confused.  “That’s just a normal part of being a Hero, after all.  Besides, they’re fine.  A little disoriented – which is only natural, I suppose – but fine, nonetheless.  Look.”

Chapter 19

Things seemed to be going from bad to worse in the second dungeon room.  After being attacked by some sort of large spider, there was now so much pain in her face that she wondered why she was still conscious; not only that, but her left eye was numb and dark – not a good sign.  Jeska wanted to inspect it to see if it was actually missing completely, or if it was just a little injured, but she didn’t have time for that.  She wiped her right eye to clear the blood from it enough to see (hopefully) and she was rewarded by a partial return of her vision.

Looking around, she saw the most disgusting thing she thought she’d ever see: A walking corpse.  It was right behind Arcen and reaching out like it wanted to strangle the life out of her brother, though at the moment it was frozen into immobility by the song Rosara had sung a moment ago.  I cannot believe her skills are singing and dancing!  What’s next?  She didn’t really have time to contemplate that any further, however, because she needed to help her brother, who seemed like all of his strength had drained out of him.  Above his head, she could see that he was still okay on Health, but there was something called a “Debuff” affecting him.  It seemed as though the enhancement from Rosara’s dance “Buff” was being suppressed somehow.

Health: 7/10

Buff: Dance of Strength +1 (Suppressed by Debuff)

Debuff: Weakness

Jeska ignored that for the moment as she got behind her brother and helped him to his feet, when there was a hissing behind her.  Seeing that the undead creature was starting to move toward them again, and the sudden Weakness “Debuff” fading from Arcen, they attacked the monster with all they had.  It was probably foolish because they should’ve just run away, but other than her own wounds putting her at 6/10, they were relatively unhurt and they both still had their “Buff” from Rosara’s ridiculous sexy dance. After a few seconds of fighting through the pain still stinging her face, she couldn’t help but think, this thing is much harder to kill than the others.  That was when she looked up above its head for the first time.

Explosive Shambler ★★

Attack Type: Melee, Magical

Element: Fire

Oh, this thing has 2 Stars next to its name; I wonder if that makes a difference.  Then she really looked at the name, and a bout of concern flitted through her head.  “Hey, why is this thing called an ‘Explosive Sham—‘?” was all she was able to get out before the monster seemed to burn from the inside at a rapid pace.  The next few moments were a blur of sharp pain, unbearable heat, and…nothingness.

What happened?  Am I dead?  Jeska couldn’t feel anything, and it felt like her consciousness was just floating around in some sort of void.  Everything around her was devoid of color; not black, necessarily, but almost like it was completely clear like the stillest ocean, though there was nothing behind the clearness – as if it went on forever.  Well, no one can say we didn’t at least try—

With no warning, she felt a wrench in her consciousness as if it had been picked up and shoved inside somewhere that there wasn’t enough space.  It didn’t take long for sensations to come back, and they were familiar and strange at the same time.  She opened the eyes that she just realized she had and looked up at the roof of a torchlit stone hallway, with sunlight streaming through from behind her.

Jeska groaned with pain as she sat up; she found that she had been lying stiff as a board on the cold stone floor of the hallway, and it was rough on her body.  Thinking about the pain as it faded, she reached up suddenly and felt around her face, finding that it didn’t hurt anymore, there was no stickiness of blood, and her eye was…back.  Healed, as if nothing had happened.

It took a moment to recover from sitting up, as her mind was more than a little disoriented. When she could see again, she saw that her brother, Rosara, Pascale, and Kelty were all inside of the hallway as well, and they were all waking up with very similar groans as hers.  “Is everyone—?” she started to say, before she was interrupted.

Unfortunately, you did not succeed on this particular dungeon delve.  In other words…

YOU HAVE DIED

Fortunately, you had obtained the Health Band that drops from the first room in every dungeon.  This Band has now been consumed in your Resurrection; if you wish to challenge this dungeon again, only by exiting and entering again – as a group – will Health Bands drop from the first room.

In addition to the Health Band being consumed, you have permanently lost 1 random item you had equipped that was of Tier 1 quality and above, as well as any Drop Boxes left behind if you suffered a full-group wipe.

You have permanently lost from your inventory: N/A

Resurrection?  Does that mean what I think that means?  It was difficult for her to think clearly enough to dismiss the message from in front of her face, but when she did, she saw the others sitting up and looking around in wonder and confusion.

“Uh…I think we died, everyone,” her brother said unnecessarily.  Jeska was pretty sure that everyone else had gotten the same message.

Rosara managed to scoot her way over to Arcen, before draping herself over his lower body as her own shook with sobs.  “That was…so scary, Arcy!  I thought I’d never see you again.”

She would make this all about her, wouldn’t she?  She ignored the rest of the exchange between her brother and the Mayor’s daughter, and instead concentrated on getting to her feet.  She was a little dizzy and uncoordinated at first, but after 30 seconds, she felt a little better.  It felt like her mind was getting used to being in her “Resurrected” body again, and there was an adjustment period.

Flopping down next to Pascale and Kelty, she saw some haunted looks on their faces that she was sure was mirrored on her own.  “Are you two alright?”

Kelty sighed heavily.  “No…but I will be.  That was just a lot more intense than I could’ve imagined.  What does all of this mean?”

That isn’t an easy question to answer.  “It means that there is a lot more to being a Hero than I knew.  It also makes a lot more sense, too.”

Pascale spoke for the first time since their resurrection.  “What do you mean?”

She wasn’t sure where to start.  “Well, from the various Heroes I’ve spoken with over the years – not nearly as many as my father, of course – the stories they tell are of delving through extremely dangerous dungeons…and yet they never spoke about anyone dying on those ‘dangerous’ expeditions.  Not once did they go into detail about any of this,” she said as she spread her hands to encompass the entire dungeon.  “Whether it’s a secret we’re not supposed to share, I can’t answer, but all of them had been rather closed-mouthed about their normal everyday life as a Hero.  The only stories they really shied away from were the ones when they were fighting giant monsters across the mainland, only mentioning it in passing.  I think it had to do with the fact that some of them actually died during those battles.”

“But…what about these Health Bands?” Kelty asked, confused.  So was Jeska, in all honesty; she didn’t have an answer.

Luckily, their former pickpocket did.  He cleared his throat and said, “Well, when we first received the Bands, I was able to sneak a better look at it for a split-second before it was absorbed into my body. All I remember seeing of it was it saying something about it being deactivated as soon as it passes the threshold of the dungeon where it was obtained.”

“And if it’s deactivated,” Jeska said slowly, “then it obviously won’t work outside of a dungeon.  If there is a monster big enough to destroy a city, then it wouldn’t be in a dungeon; if it isn’t in a dungeon, Heroes can’t obtain one of those Bands—”

“—and hence they can die,” Kelty finished for her.  “So, what I think you’re saying is that this dungeon – and others like it – are designed to…what?  Train us to fight the big baddies without the fear of permanent death?”  Is that what this is all about?  Jeska saw movement out of the corner of her eye and stiffened for a moment, but it was only her brother shaking his head.

Arcen, having obviously eavesdropped on their conversation now that Rosara had composed herself, spoke up.  “No, I don’t think that’s it.  Or at least, not all of it,” he said with a serious tone to his voice.  “It isn’t to train us to not fear permanent death in a dungeon, but to make us immune to the fear of death at all.  What better way to fight these ‘World Threats’ than to have a group of people who are literally fearless, because they’ve died so many times that they’ve lost count?  Sure, if they die fighting one of these enormous monsters, it will be permanent; but they’ve lived more than a normal person could ever hope to live, no matter how hard they tried.”

That was a sobering thought.  And quite astute, even for her brother.  Maybe dying has finally matured him and perhaps even cured him of his recklessness.

“Anyway, enough talk of death…who’s up for another run?”  Nope, never mind.

Needless to say, there weren’t any takers.  Jeska herself was still trying to get adjusted to being alive again, and had no desire to get into another fight at that moment, even if she knew she wouldn’t die permanently.  Well, as long as they got through the first room again and received new Health Bands.  She felt this was definitely the kind of information that should be shared with the rest of the new Heroes.

Walking out of the dungeon entrance, Jeska somehow expected the sun to be already setting for the day, as it felt like they had been in the dungeon for most of the day – or floating around as a disembodied consciousness in some sort of colorless void.  Rather than nearing the end of the day, however, the position of the sun in the sky indicated that only an hour had passed.  Actually, it’s probably a bit less than that.  Maybe 40 minutes or so.

The sun was overwhelmingly bright after the darkness of the cave even so early in the morning, and it took her eyes a while to adjust.  It’s as if they are brand new and haven’t seen the sun before.  Fancy that.

“My daughter!  You’re alive!  And—what are you wearing?!”  Jeska heard the Mayor shouting clearly as he rushed up to the entrance, seeing his offspring safe and whole; she was still adjusting to the light, but she could squint and see him practically sprinting from the crowd nearly 100 feet away. If he only knew….

“Rosara,” Jeska whispered to the other woman, “I would keep quiet about our…uh…deaths?  At least to your father and any non-Heroes; I think it might be taken badly, and they wouldn’t understand.”

“What?  Why not?” she thankfully whispered back.

“I don’t know, it’s just a feeling I have…but you can do what you want.”

Jeska wasn’t sure why she even said that, but she realized it was true.  Maybe this is why it’s such a secret.  I can’t even imagine if someone had told me (when I was a non-Hero) that they had been “resurrected” after dying inside of a dungeon.  I think I would consider them to be, I don’t know, not the same anymore?  As if they weren’t Human, but some sort of copy of who I was before – not the real thing.

Her eyes had cleared enough to see Rosara looking thoughtfully at her, and the others were as well.  They were close enough to hear the whispered conversation she had with the Mayor’s daughter, and seemed to be contemplating what she had said.

“Oh, Father – I have the best news!”  Rosara went from contemplative to excited and boisterous in less than a second.  “I have a Class already!  Do you like my outfit?  It came with becoming a Support Class.”

The Mayor had quickly arrived near them, as they had started walking down to meet him.  Jeska saw her father leisurely walking towards them with a big grin on his face, and there was an older woman behind him that she recognized as Kelty’s mother.  Unfortunately, there wasn’t anyone in the crowd arriving specifically to see Pascale, but Kelty dragged him along with her as she ran towards her father.

“What?  You look…different, Rosa.  And you even sound a little different; what happened to you in there?” the Mayor said, stopping in front of his daughter as if afraid to touch her.

Jeska waited for Rosara to blurt out that she had died…but nothing of the sort happened.  “Oh, you know, this is just what comes from being a Hero!  And all we did was kill some monsters—and I’m fine,” she said, putting her hand on her father’s arm in reassurance.  He pulled it away with a jerk, appearing confused about why he even did that.

“Sorry, honey, I’m not sure why…come here,” he said, pulling her into a hug.  Jeska could see his face, though, and he looked terrified.

Before she could see what happened next, they were approached by their father.  “You two made it!  I knew you would, of course,” he reassured them, before he got close enough to whisper so that only she and her brother could hear.  “You two died, didn’t you?”

Shock ran through her body as she stiffened up.  How did he know?  “I…I have no idea what you’re talking about—”

“Oh, don’t worry, it’s probably best that you don’t tell anyone.  In fact, it will be better for everyone, that you don’t,” he chuckled, though he looked sad.  “I bet you’re wondering how I knew?”

Arcen answered, “Yes…is it something obvious?”

Her father shook his head slowly.  “No…and yes, it is to me.  I told you that I’ve talked to more Heroes than you have, and that was the truth.  What I didn’t tell you is that I got one of them to reveal a little secret when he had a little too much to drink.  I know that it is possible to die inside of a dungeon and be brought back to life afterwards – which you obviously found out.”

Jeska looked at her brother, only to see that he was looking back at her.

“What you and very, very few non-Heroes don’t know, however, is that something…changes in a Hero when they are brought back.  This change isn’t visible, but is instead felt in other people as a sense of wrongness or revulsion.  But not all people, unless they are specifically told about it happening; anyone who is related to them by blood, though, will automatically feel this.”

Oh, no….

“So, you’re saying…?” Arcen asked, sadly.

“Yes, I could feel it as soon as I got close enough.  I’m sure you saw how the Mayor reacted—”

“But if you knew, why didn’t you say anything?!” she whisper-shouted at their father, angry and close to tears by that point.  If he’s correct, all he feels is revulsion when he gets near us!  Why?  Why is this necessary?

“Why do you think, Jes?  Use that smart brain of yours that I know is in that head.”

Of course.  Their father was always a champion for the greater good, even when it cost him money or support from certain people.  Even then, it usually worked out for the best, which was why he had been such a successful entrepreneur over the years.  He knew that if he told us before we went in there, we probably wouldn’t go; family is everything to us, and it would be like losing him, like we had lost our mother all those years ago.  It wasn’t fair; it wasn’t just him losing his children, but they were losing their father.

“I can see that you both understand.  Don’t worry; I can handle it for now. But as time goes on – even if you don’t perish inside again – it will get stronger.”  He looked down at the ground and mumbled, “I’m sorry.”

As much as she wanted to blame him, it wasn’t his fault.  In fact, he had done the only sensible thing in not telling them, even if she hated it.

“Why?”

He knew exactly what Arcen was asking.  “I think it is some sort of built-in protection to ensure that Heroes are…free, I guess?  That they don’t have anything tying them down, no reason for them not to venture out all over the mainland, delving through dungeons and fighting World Threats – all for the sake of the duty to save everyone, not just their family.”

“But that doesn’t make sense.  Wouldn’t wanting to protect your family help that sense of duty?” her brother asked.

“Well, tell me this.  If there were two of these Threats attacking this island at the same time – one here and one at Bellington on the opposite side of the island – and you were in Bellington, what would you do?”

“I would rush back here immediately, to save you and…oh.”  She was pretty sure she understood now, but Arcen was apparently clueless – so, she explained it to him.  “But if we left Bellington unguarded and rushed back here, then the other city could be destroyed; and if everyone did that, we could have Heroes from all over rushing away from the Threats nearest them to save their own hometown.  From what I know, on the mainland Heroes are from all over, so that would mean splitting up groups, abandoning their protection of certain areas…it would be chaos.”

If she were being honest, it probably wouldn’t affect them too much there on the island, because you could travel from one side to the other in an hour if you were really determined. She figured that this “effect” of their Resurrection couldn’t be turned off for their special cases.  As cruel as it seemed to her and the other Heroes…it was also necessary.  And she hated it.

Worse than that, they couldn’t tell the other new Heroes about this family revulsion, either.  The same thing that their father had worried about with her and her brother might happen with them, and they would lose their newest protection against World Threats.

All around, this sucked.  My world really did change once I became a Hero, didn’t it?  Nothing is ever going to be the same.

With a shake of her head at the regret in her heart, yet with resolution in her mind, she nodded towards the group of anxious-looking Heroes waiting for information about the dungeon.  At least we can make it a little easier for them to survive in there.  And she thought that they could probably tell them about the resurrection part of the Health Bands, so that they didn’t freak out if someone managed to get themselves killed.

Ah well, might as well delay the inevitable as long as possible….

Chapter 20

Clay had no words.  He supposed that it was his fault for not asking; but then again, it was one of those things where he didn’t know what he didn’t know.  Former Heroes would’ve known that any Heroes going through their dungeon after they became a Dungeon Core would come back to life if they died; seeing such a thing himself was mind-blowing.  Yes, sure, he had somehow been reincarnated into a small red gem and could create monsters just by buying Spawn Eggs, could hollow out dirt and stone with ease, and then could decorate what he had hollowed out basically however he wanted to – but seeing someone come back to life – specifically because of items he bestowed upon them – was wild.

Which was why he had no words.  He didn’t know what to say, what to think, or what to do.  So all he did was listen.  What the big man said about eventually making themselves immune to the fear of death made Dwight’s first words to him finally make sense.

“…I’m sure you’ve felt much worse dying inside of a dungeon…”

In fact, that should’ve probably tipped him off to the fact that the Heroes could resurrect if they died, as well as the baby dragonling’s callousness towards them being killed. Clay could only assume that the suddenness of his transition into a Dungeon Core and the information overload had made him miss those obvious clues.  Oh well, nothing I can do about it now.  This just changes a lot for me, though.

When the group of Heroes left, he extended and stretched out his awareness so that he could hear what they were saying to what appeared to be family. He still wasn’t all that good at expanding the reach of his sensory capacities, but luckily the 4 Heroes had stopped within range of his extension. Therefore, he could hear the exchange between Jeska, Arcen, and a man who, by resemblance and caring demeanor, appeared to be their father.

For the first time in his short life, Clay actually felt sad for Heroes.  Here he was, thinking that they had an awesome life that was full of powerful skills and spells, where they could adventure through dungeons and kill monsters, tackling World Threats and be, well, Heroes – when they were forced into doing that because their family, their loved ones, didn’t want to be around them anymore.  Never did he think that would be the case, but all that he knew of them (which, even now, was still a tiny amount) seemed to coincide with that.  The few Heroes who had come from Renton rarely visited, and even when they did it was for a very short time. He had thought it was just because they were super busy saving the world.

Now he knew the real reason why.

“I was not made aware of this, Clay.  This isn’t something that is talked about while Heroes are inside of dungeons, after all,” the baby dragonling said softly, breaking the silence.  “I also have to apologize; I didn’t realize you had no idea about any of the resurrection properties of the Health Band.  That being said,” she continued, “I have to agree that the system in place is probably the best for everyone.”

Clay wanted to argue, but he could see the point in it even if he didn’t personally agree.  Thanks, Dwight.  I know it isn’t your fault that I didn’t know, but if you think I should have knowledge of something that seems obvious, please think about it for a moment and consider if a non-Hero would know it.

“I…will try.  I’m not sure if my help will work that way, but I will do my best.”

That’s all I can ask.

Meanwhile, this new knowledge had changed the way Clay was beginning to think about his new life as a Dungeon Core.  Previously, he was going through the motions of setting up the dungeon because he wasn’t sure what else to do, as he didn’t have the same devotion to “duty” that Heroes seemed to have.  Seeing the point of everything was difficult, as it was hard to comprehend why everything was done the way Dwight said it was, but with the introduction of Hero resurrection, it all suddenly made more sense.  And so did the duty of Heroes and, consequently, Dungeon Cores.

Heroes literally gave up their old lives to protect the world, and the one group of people who should be appreciative of the individual Heroes…didn’t want anything to do with them.  Even beyond death, if they became a Core, they still fulfilled that duty to protect the world, utilizing their skills and knowledge from countless fights to ensure the next generation of Heroes got stronger and became powerful enough to protect everyone.  It was, Clay realized, because they had left their old family behind – and found a new one among comrades with shared intention.  In short, all of the Heroes were like one giant, extended family, united with the sole purpose of safeguarding the world.

He had only begun to start getting to know these new Heroes here on the island, but that didn’t really matter; by his own deliberations, they were his family now.  Family was important, and since he couldn’t help his old one – he didn’t even know where they were, after all – he would do his best to help his new family.  Clay would do his duty, now that he knew what it was all about.

So…what now? he asked eagerly.  I’m guessing that I need to put those monsters back into my dungeons, as well as replace those things burnt by that explosion – which was crazy, by the way—

Dwight laughed at him, equally excited at his change in attitude.  “Take a look, Clay – it’s all back, already.”

He had been so distracted that he hadn’t even looked. When he did, he saw that everything was as she said.  The monsters were back in place inside both rooms, exactly where they had been before the Hero group had walked inside; all of the environmental objects he had placed previously – including all of the destroyed webs and ratty cloth hanging from the ceiling in the second room – were fully restored. As if nothing had happened.

What?  How?

“As soon as a Hero group leaves your dungeon, everything is restored automatically to the state it was in before they arrived.  You can change things any time there isn’t a group delving through, of course, or just leave it as it is now.”  She paused for a moment, as if considering something.  “Given what we’ve seen, I might suggest lowering the difficulty of the second room a little.  Typically, new Heroes already have some advantages because they have joined a Hero Guild; this usually grants them at least a Tier 1 Class and potentially a piece of Tier 1 armor or weapon, which are extremely common.  These Heroes, however, are all Tier 0 without a Class. Your 2-Star Explosive Shambler was way above their abilities to kill easily, if at all.”

Clay had to agree.

“But—” she continued— “I would wait to make any changes in there until tonight.”

Why?

“Because if this previous group is telling those other new Heroes out there what to expect, which is extremely common for Heroes to exchange knowledge, then you might confuse them if you make any changes,” she explained.  “Altering your dungeon is normal and imperative, of course, but there is usually a little time between changes; not only that, but there is usually an indication that the dungeon has changed, so that the Heroes will be ready for it.”

What kind of indications are you talking about?  Can I communicate with them?

The baby dragonling laughed, a small puff of smoke coming from her mouth.  “Oh, heavens, no.  The indication could be as simple as an obvious rearrangement of your non-monster fern plants in the first room, or as complicated as an entirely new collection of monsters and environmental objects.  To make changes without these indicators can sometimes be good to keep the Heroes on their guard, but it is usually disliked and not really beneficial for either party.”

So, no changing things unless I let the Heroes know there is something new to expect.  Got it.

“Well…not necessarily.  You can make some small changes and adjustments to balance the difficulty of a room if it proves not to work quite right; these changes may not even be noticed by any of the Heroes, but they could have a significant effect on the outcome of a fight.”

Oh, no…I feel something else that I have to learn coming up…

“Oh, yes, but this will be easy enough to learn,” Dwight said, smiling sadly at his core with her little dragonling lips.  “I’m here to teach you, after all, and I’ve already failed once; I’d rather not have that happen again.”

Clay felt like he should assure her that she hadn’t failed him, but she didn’t give him a chance.

“Now, you may have noticed that the monsters in the first room did quite a bit of damage to the Heroes.  This is normal, especially since they were Classless Tier 0 Heroes without any experience. Fortunately, they also got lucky that they identified the dangers in the room quick enough that no one died.  It’s poor form to kill a Hero in the first room, as well as being a waste, because they won’t have their Health Bands yet; that’s why I suggest you change the Elemental Resonance in your first room’s monsters.”

Elemental…Resonance?  What is that?

“Well, take a look at your Rats and Ferns in the first room.  What do you see as relates to their Elements?”

- 1 Bilge Rat★

- 1 Flare Rat★

- 1 River Rat★

- 1 Stone-tipped Fern★

- 1 Shining Fern★

Clay looked at them again, but didn’t understand what he was supposed to see.  Yeah, I see their Elements…what of it?  They are all different.

“Exactly.  There are different Elemental Resonances you can achieve with the monsters you place inside of a single room.  If you…hmmm, how to explain this…back out of your vision of the room and look at it as a whole, you’ll be able to see what I mean.”

The Dungeon Core tried to do what she asked, but couldn’t really grasp it right away.  Trying to look at the room as a whole seemed impossible, because he could only look at specific things.  After a few minutes of trying and encouragement from Dwight, he nearly gave up…and then figured it out.  He had been trying so hard to move his vision so that it encompassed the entire room, but when he nearly gave up and relaxed, his vision expanded ever so slightly.

It was almost like letting his eyes go unfocused when he still had a body, just relaxing them and sort of letting his mind and vision drift away wherever they wanted.  With his Core senses, however, what his mind and vision wanted to do was expand so that he wasn’t focused on just one thing, but on all of his awareness, instead.

When he had finally relaxed enough, his expanded vision now encompassed his entire dungeon – all three rooms and his BOO, as well as the hallways.  He found that he couldn’t manipulate anything while relaxed like that (probably because he wasn’t actually focused).  Nonetheless, he could immediately see what the baby dragonling was talking about. Around the second and Boss rooms, there wasn’t anything of note; around the first one was a barely visible aura that encompassed the entire thing, and when he concentrated on it (which was hard to do, since he needed to stay unfocused), he learned what it was.

Elemental Resonance: Multi-Element Burst

(Have at least 5 monsters with different Elemental Affinities)

Damage +10%

Health +10%

Speed +10%

Skill Effects +10%

He understood what it was saying, but all he really took away from it was that there was now something else that he needed to think of when he was placing monsters inside of a room.  As if there wasn’t enough to consider before.  And I’m sure there is even more I don’t know about, but hopefully that will wait until I’ve gotten the hang of all this new knowledge.

As if not hearing his thoughts, but recognizing that he had finally seen the Elemental Resonance of the room, Dwight went on.  “As you can see, by having 5 different Elements in the room – which I’m assuming was done completely by accident – you inadvertently increased the danger for Heroes coming through,” she said, before pausing again for a moment.  “Now, this normally wouldn’t matter for the first room, as you have all Common 1-Star monsters inside – which was why I hadn’t mentioned it before – but seeing as all of these new Heroes are ill-equipped to handle anything more than the bare minimum, it would probably be prudent to change the Resonance so that there is none.”

Clay thought it through for a moment and tried to figure out how to do that.  I just need to replace the ones that are there so that they aren’t all different, right?

“Essentially, but then you have to make sure you don’t create another Resonance.  If you replace just one so that there are 2 of the same Element, though, you should be fine.”

What are the other Resonances?  It would probably be good to know for later, so he could either intentionally make one or get rid of one that was already there.

“Well, you now know about the Multi-Element Burst, which is 5 different Elements, but there are 2 other basic types.  The first revolves around having a single Element for all of the monsters in a room, as long as there are 5 or more; for example, if you had all Fire-Affinity monsters, you would create an Elemental Resonance called Flame Explosion, which would increase the Damage of those monsters by 40%.

“The second needs to have at least 6 monsters in a room, and having an exact 50/50 split between two Elements; this would only work if you had 6, 8, 10, or any other even-numbered amount of monsters together in the same space.  An example of this is the Resonance called Unholy Radiance – which is composed of half Dark and half Light monsters – that increases Skill Effects and Defense by 20%.”

This…is way too complicated.  Clay decided that he would dig into that more when he had time, but a quick look outside of his dungeon showed that was something he was quickly running out of.  There had been a large group meeting between all of the new Heroes and the group that had just died and then departed his dungeon, but it seemed to be breaking up.  Now it appeared as though there was a brand-new group coming inside, and they looked extremely nervous.

Before he ran out of time, Clay looked to his first room and took out his River Rat, quickly replacing it with another Bilge Rat.  When he let his focus go to see if it had worked, he found that the aura around the room had disappeared, meaning that there was no longer an Elemental Resonance to worry about.  Good; hopefully, this means I won’t have to worry about them dying.

“Don’t be too sure about that, Clay,” the baby dragonling warned him as the group started to enter his dungeon.  “Accidents do happen, but there is only so much you can do as a Dungeon Core to prepare them for any eventuality.”

True.  As he watched the Heroes pause in uncertainty before stepping into his first room, he thought a little more about the immediate future.  After I make a few changes to the second room tonight, what do I do after that?

“I don’t think you’ll have to wait for too long, Clay.  You’re already progressing.”

…er, what do you mean?

“Have you checked your Transcribed Status lately?”

No, hold on.

Core Assessment and Transcribed Status

Core Name:

Clayburnside “The Denominator” Shuntwise

Core Stage:

1

Core Structure Health:

5/20

Crystal Chips:

164 (500 to next Core Stage)

Star Limit for Placement:

15

Available Monsters:

37/50

Available Traps:

2 (No Limit)

Available Dungeon Spells:

0 (No Limit)

Summoning Portal

Dungeon Interface

Sacrificial Altar

Right away, he saw that his Core Structure Health had gone up, which had happened sometime during the night before; 24 hours had passed, and his accumulation had repaired some of the damage he had done to his Core by using it to convert them into Chips.  However, he also saw something surprising.

How did I get…what?...150 more Crystal Chips?

“You didn’t notice it at the time, because you were a bit…distraught at the Heroes dying, but you received them when they perished – 25 Chips apiece, since they were Tier 0.  For the Support Hero, since they were Tier 1, you received 50 Crystal Chips.”

Ah…so that’s how this works.

“Precisely.  They come into your dungeon to get stronger, and when they die – which they inevitably will as they push themselves – they help contribute to your development.  Now, are you ready to see how much these new Heroes will contribute?”  The baby dragonling looked excited, and Clay couldn’t help but be infected by her enthusiasm.

Absolutely.

Chapter 21

The next group of Heroes entered Clay’s dungeon, proceeding cautiously down the hallway to the first room.  They were all wearing clothing identical to that of the first group, and brandishing weapons akin to theirs. They had one benefit over Jeska and the others, however: Knowledge.

Knowing what they would face, and what his monsters could and would do, was a major advantage.  After looking inside of the room from the entrance, the 4 women and 1 man had a quick discussion, readying their weapons as they prepared to attack.

“It looks exactly how Arcen described it,” one of the women mentioned in a whisper.  Why she was whispering was a mystery, since Clay could hear them no matter how low they whispered; and if it were for the benefit of not alerting his monsters to their presence, that really didn’t matter since his Rats and Ferns wouldn’t attack or even acknowledge their presence until they stepped foot inside the room.

“I concur; are we prepared for this course of action?” the man asked, the lilt and sophistication to his voice – even in a whisper – suggesting a higher social status to the Dungeon Core.

“Yes, we’s know da plan,” said another one of the women, her vocal tone and accent the complete opposite of the man’s.  It’s interesting how there doesn’t seem to be any particular contention between them; being a Hero must eliminate many of those social hierarchies, since they are all equal now.

“Alright, let’s do it,” said the fourth member of the group, just before she took the lead.  When she was in position, with the others in tight formation behind her, she slowly counted down from 3.  “3…2…1…GO!” she shouted, before rushing inside.

She dodged around one of the normal ferns in the room even as Clay’s Rats started moving towards her position, and his Stone-tipped Fern let a wave of sharp stone shards fly.  Likely aided by the knowledge gained from the previous group, the leader knew the attack was coming; she tried to avoid the stone barrage by moving off to the left as quickly as she could, but was unable to avoid them all.

“Ow!  Ow!  That hurts!” she screamed – but didn’t stop.  There were 2 stone shards embedded in her side, having cut through her tunic and penetrated a few inches into her skin and flesh, though from Clay’s perspective it didn’t seem more than a minor wound.  After a brief pause to check herself, she kept running.  Within a few seconds she was on the projectile-flinging monster, beating it with her wooden weapon, breaking the frond that was attempting to launch another volley.

As for the others, they traveled a different route.  A pair of women ventured far to the right, running for the Shining Fern; when they got close enough, they shielded their eyes with raised arms to the defensive-type blinding flash ability of the Fern.  Clay could tell that they were still slightly affected by the bright light, but they were able to see well enough to completely destroy his glowing monster within seconds.

The other 2 Heroes, the sophisticated man and the woman who hadn’t spoken yet, ran to intercept the Rats before they could attack the leader, who was in the process of destroying the Stone-tipped Fern.  Smacking the rodents on their backs a few times with their weapons was enough to get their attention, and then the novices spent a few seconds just running around and trying to avoid getting bitten – to a modicum of success.  They were both bitten at least once, eliciting cries of pain, but they kept up their weak attacks and dodging out of the way before the Rats could retaliate.

After approximately 20 seconds from the time the first woman ran into the room, the Shining Fern was dead, its healing properties shut down; the two Heroes moved to help finish off the Stone-tipped Fern, which didn’t take long with 3 of them now attacking it.  “Plants are down!  Coming to help!” the leader yelled, before rushing to assist the 2 Rat-wranglers who had taken 1 or 2 more bites each.

With 5 of them now attacking the 3 Rats, Clay’s monsters didn’t stand a chance.  Beaten and bloody within seconds of the concerted attack, they fell without having done any more damage.  As the Heroes stood there panting and more than half of them groaning in pain from their wounds, the monsters disappeared and turned into Drop Chests, which elicited cries of surprise from the group – despite likely being told of the process.

“That…is crazy.  How does that even work?”  Clay couldn’t help but wonder the same thing; even though it was his dungeon, he still didn’t know exactly how everything operated the way it did, but he was just happy that it did without needing more intimate knowledge.

“I have no idea; it doesn’t make sense, but none of this really does.”  The leader strode up to one of the Chests and touched it, showing its contents inside…

Drop Chest

Contents:

1X Health Band Tier 0 [All Classes] (BOA)

1X Steel Sword Tier 2 +2 Power

[Fighter Classes] (BOA)

“Whoa!  What does this mean?” the leader asked as soon as she saw what was in the Chest.  None of the others seemed to know, either…which was echoed by Clay.

Dwight?  What does “BOA” mean?  And I saw that some others from before were “Unbound”…would you care to explain?

“Are you telling me you don’t—no, of course you don’t.  I’m sorry,” the baby dragonling said, before she started to explain.  “Unbound means that a particular item is not ‘bound’ to a person’s Inventory and can be traded with other Heroes or other people through their Inventory system, though there are exceptions.  BOA stands for ‘Bound on Acquisition’, meaning that as soon as they pick it up, they are stuck with it, indefinitely.”

Huh.  I guess that explains why I never heard of any Heroes selling weapons or armor found within dungeons before.

“Very true, and even if they did, they couldn’t be used by non-Heroes.”

There was only a slight discussion between the group inside the first room, where nothing was really decided, but the leader took the Steel Sword and the Health Band in the end.  The others opened up their own Chests, but they were all filled with currently worthless Trash Items – other than Health Bands for them all.

“So, according to Jeska and Arcen, we should be…safe?  With these Health Bands, now, we can die and come back?” one of the women asked.

“Supposedly…but let’s try not to die, okay?”

“Yes, I would prefer that outcome, if given the choice,” the man said gravely.

The next room, in which Clay had made no changes, was a bit more interesting than the first.  Not that he was sad about the fact that they had torn through his Rats and Ferns with minimal injuries, because he wasn’t; in fact, he was glad of that, because it allowed them to easily get their Health Bands, their “safety net”, so to say.  But it certainly wasn’t a challenge, which was the ultimate point of what Clay, as a Dungeon Core operating a dungeon, was supposed to be doing.  As much as the first room provided them with easy Drop Chests and the necessary items inside, it didn’t allow them to learn to survive against seemingly impossible odds.

And a World Threat – even the “Low” Threat Level Giant Ogress that had ultimately killed Clay back in Renton – was the epitome of impossible odds.  Only by working together, having faced extremely tough challenges inside dungeons, would they be able to see past the massive exterior of the monster and determine how to beat it – all without freaking out, which was what Clay had done when he saw his first World Threat.

Tackling the Spiders first, they grouped up in a circle facing outwards, so that they were covering all angles.  It only helped a little as Clay’s Jumping Spiders sprang out from ambush, and twin screams of pain rang out as two of the women were bitten.  The Spiders jumped away immediately, but the group was ready for them, swinging and hitting them with glancing blows that sent them spiraling in a different direction.  The Air-Element Spiders were light enough that they didn’t crash-land, but the hits had managed to break a few legs in the process.

“Where is it…where is it?” asked the man, looking down towards the ground as the others fended off another attack by the Spiders, with one taking another bite to her shoulder before the monster was knocked away by one of the others.  A groan of death signaled that the Explosive Shambler was alerted to their presence and on the way, and Clay saw the Heroes shudder.  No doubt they were told about what happened when it exploded.

“There it is!”  A hefty *thwack* by his wooden weapon on the body of the Cave Spider caused it to collapse in place, snapping one of its legs – but it kept coming.  “Hey, need some help here!”

One of the women turned to assist him, but the Jumping Spider near the ceiling – even with 2 broken legs – took advantage of her inattention and landed on her back, biting down on her neck and opening up one of her arteries.  As she screamed in pain and blood practically fountained out of the wound, the other women hit the Jumping Spider at the same time, crushing and killing it.  They were able to turn back in time to hit the other one jumping at them, killing it within a few blows as well.

The heavily wounded Hero wasn’t done yet; even as she was losing a lot of blood, she still managed to slam her weapon down a few times on top of the Cave Spider, before falling to her knees in weakness.  Her wooden stick clattered to the floor just as the Explosive Shambler “shambled” into sight.

“Sasha!  We need to get you out of here!” the leader said, rushing by the dying woman’s side.

“No…kill this thing…and this Health Band should heal me…”

Clay had to agree with her about the healing, but actually defeating the Shambler would be extremely hard.

“Do you think the Band will work if we drag you out of the room?” asked the man, watching the Shambler get closer.  When it was about 5 feet away, with the Heroes standing around their heavily injured group member in a defensive posture, the undead monster started to hiss internally.

Uh, oh – they better hurry….

“It’s too strong!  The other group had all 5 of their members attacking this thing and almost made it, but we’re down 1 – there’s no way we can do it.”

The others saw the truth of this and grabbed the wounded Hero – who was now unconscious – and dragged her back through the hallway leading to the first room.  The Explosive Shambler continued to follow, but as soon as they were past the threshold it stopped…and disappeared from their view.

None of them saw any more than it stopping, however, as they were more worried about their friend.  As soon as they were out of combat, the gaping wound on the Hero’s neck sealed up, and color started to come back to her face.  After about a minute, she opened her eyes to see everyone smiling down on her.

“Did I die?”

The leader laughed.  “No, we just dragged you away so you could heal.  When you’re all better, we can finish off this monster and see what else this place has deeper inside.”

I would advise against that, but it will be nice to see if my BOO is protected enough.  The baby dragonling next to his Core nodded in agreement.

A few minutes later, the nearly dead Hero was all healed up, showing how miraculous the Health Bands could be.  Clay watched them walk inside the second room again, just now noticing that the Shambler wasn’t nearby anymore.  When the Dungeon Core looked to see where it had gone, he was surprised to see something else.

“Wait…where are those Spider corpses?”

That was what Clay had seen – or hadn’t seen, as it were.  The corpses of the Spiders that they had killed had disappeared, but they didn’t leave behind a Drop Chest.  Instead…the 3 Spiders were right back where they were before the Heroes walked through the entrance of the room the first time.

Dwight answered his thoughts before he could ask the question, finally catching on to him not knowing how things operated.  “If the Heroes all leave a room before the monsters are defeated, it will be reset to how it was before they arrived.  Leaving combat heals them via the Health Bands, and the same thing essentially happens to the monsters in the room; this prevents them from attacking and killing one or two monsters in a room, then ducking out to heal, and then coming back to finish the job.  It’s all or nothing, which is what these new Heroes are now learning.”

It was a lesson they didn’t care for, based on their complaints, but Clay thought it was entirely fair.  A World Threat wouldn’t allow them to hide away for a little bit to heal up, after all, so this was a lesson they needed.

The leader was walking inside, looking around in confusion.  “What happened to our Drop Chests?  We killed those things, so we should get our reward; this is complete bull—”

Suddenly, she was attacked by 2 Jumping Spiders, who tore into the unsuspecting Hero.  She was so unprepared that she didn’t even think to protect herself with her weapon, and just screamed as she was torn into from rapid Spider bites.  Individually, they didn’t do a whole lot of damage, but if allowed free rein, they could kill someone quite quickly.  The group leader was a bloody mess, and her Health was down to 2 by the time her groupmates had arrived to help, but by that time it was too late.

In addition to the damage the bites had done, she had the same “Debuff” he had seen on the woman that had nearly died not long ago.

Class: None

Tier: 0

Primary Element: None

Health: 2/10

Debuff: Bleeding

Worse than that, as the other groupmates attempted to get rid of the Jumping Spiders, the Cave Spider snuck up and managed to bite 2 of the Heroes in quick succession – giving them a Weakness Debuff, before it was flattened by the attacks of the 2 Heroes still on their feet.  The 2 Heroes that were Weakened were immediately attacked by the Jumping Spiders, though all they got in was a single bite before they were swatted away and killed.

And then the hissing started from the Shambler, who was almost upon them.

“Run!  Save…yourselves…” said one of the Weakened Heroes on her knees.  The man and one woman that were still unharmed looked at each other in indecision, before they shook their heads at the same time.

“No, we’re a team, and weaaaahhhh—” said the man, before a half-dead Jumping Spider landed on his head, only to be smacked with force by the weapon the woman was wielding.

The Shambler was upon them now, and despite its shambling nature, it was quick enough to attack once it was in range – especially against a stationary target like the Weakened Heroes.  It fell upon one of the kneeling women and started literally ripping her apart, tearing off her arms and grabbing her head as if it was going to decapitate the Hero, but it paused as it started to get beat upon by the two still able to put up a fight.

Clay was impressed by how quickly they started to whittle the Shambler down; within a few seconds, the Weakness of the woman with 2 whole arms wore off, and she joined back into the fight, while the armless Hero fell on her side with a “Severe Bleeding” Debuff that ended her life not too soon after.  As for the leader, she was already down to 1 Health, and unconscious on the floor.

“We can’t do it; they’re dead already. It’s time to run,” shouted the man, pushing the two living women towards the entrance, following behind – but he was knocked backwards as the last remaining Jumping Spider chose that moment to attack.  The impact wasn’t that significant, but the surprise attack was enough to make him stumble backwards – right into the waiting arms of the Explosive Shambler.

“Go!” he shouted at the two women who turned to help him, before he was torn apart by the undead monster.  Knowing there was no hope for him, they left, filing into the hallway at a run.  Just before the last one passed the threshold, the Explosive Shambler finally exploded, sending a massive wave of force and heat throughout the room, finishing off the leader and extending its reach into the hallway.

The last woman took the brunt of the heat and was burnt to a crisp in less than a second, dying nearly immediately.  The Hero in front took a bit less damage, but she also got hit hard, propelling her forward with tremendous force, impacting the stone wall of the hallway and hitting the floor with a *crunch* that promised many broken bones.

But she survived, with a Health of 1/10.  Luckily for her, the explosion and subsequent injuries knocked her out, so she didn’t have to experience her body in such pain while it was healed by the Health Band.  Only partway through the recovery process, though, she woke up and screamed – her ribs and shoulder were in the process of being rearranged into what they should’ve looked like.

Her group had already resurrected, looking shocked, haunted, and disbelieving all at once; when they heard the scream, they rushed forward, through the still-empty first room, only to find their injured group member still in the process of being put back together.

“Next…time…” the poor woman said through gritted teeth, “I…think…I’d…rather die.”

“I never thought I would say something like this, but I’m glad I died so quickly,” the woman who had been scorched and killed within a second whispered to one of the others.

“Oh yeah?  Well, I guess that’s better than getting your arms ripped off.”

Strangely, against all logic and understanding to Clay, the silence after that statement was interrupted by uproarious laughter from them all – including the still-healing Hero on the ground.

Oh, my…have they lost their minds along with their lives?

“It’s called ‘gallows humor’, Clay, and you’ll probably be hearing a lot of it from now on.  Nothing to be worried about.”

That was easy enough for Dwight to say, but it was disturbing to say the least.  Whatever gets them through the day, I guess.

The group left a few minutes later once the severely injured woman was fully healed, though she also had a haunted look in her eyes that matched the others’.  Even though she hadn’t died, she probably felt as though she had – and expressed the wish that it had happened instead of having to experience that torturous healing.

The next group entered his dungeon and had a similar experience, though they nearly managed to kill the Shambler…before it exploded in their faces.

The group after that lost 3 of their members to the Spiders and to being ripped apart by the Shambler, which they couldn’t seem to get a handle on.  Two of them ran from the room before the Shambler could explode, and they met their resurrected party members near the entrance.

The fifth group tried something different in the second room; instead of trying to kill the Spiders first, they ran ahead to the Shambler.  This method was so different from the others that his Spiders actually missed their ambushes, letting the Heroes through unharmed.  Of course, while they were doing a great job killing the 2-Star monster in the room (Clay thought they would’ve had it, too), they were attacked from behind, by the recovered Spiders.  The attack threw them off balance, allowing one to get bit by the Cave Spider, while another was impacted from behind by one of the Jumping Spiders – right into the arms of the undead monstrosity.  The group didn’t live long after that, and were incinerated in a now-familiar explosion.

The last group…didn’t even attempt to tackle the second room after looking at it, instead leaving after the first room.  What they did do was re-enter the dungeon (though they found they had to wait about 5 minutes before it was ready for them again), attacking and clearing the first room again; then they did it again and again, quickly clearing the first room over and over at least 6 times in less than an hour.

“That, my Core friend, is what this is all about,” the baby dragonling said with something that sounded a bit like pride.

What are you talking about?

“Grinding, obviously,” she said, then paused.  “One day I’ll remember…” she mumbled before continuing in a normal voice, “When Heroes find that they can’t pass a certain point in the dungeon, they fall back and continuously defeat what they can complete, which will eventually give them what they need to progress.”

Clay thought about that for a moment, recounting what the last group acquired from the first room with their repetitious clearing of it.  Approximately two-thirds of everything they got were Trash Items, but of the 30 Drop Chests they opened, they did happen to acquire 4 different pieces of Tier 1 armor for different Classes, a pair of Tier 1 Iron Daggers for a Scout, a Tier 1 Pinewood Staff for a Mage, a Skillbook that taught a Healer spell, a Minor Health Potion, and – at the very end – a Fighter Class Orb Tier 1.

And all of that in about an hour, without dying even once.  To get better equipment and Tier 2 Class Orbs, they would have to start tackling harder monsters for a much better chance of acquiring them, so this wouldn’t last forever…but it was a good way to get them started.

After their sixth visit to his dungeon, the group finally left for the day, off to the city in which the others had already departed.  Clay was surprised to see that the sun was getting close to setting; he hadn’t been aware of the passing of time while consumed with watching the goings-on of his dungeon.  Now, though, his fascination with watching the Heroes struggle and fail (or persevere, like the last group) was at an end for the day – and it was time he did some restructuring of his rooms.

Chapter 22

Whoa!  How did I get so many Chips?

It was a silly question.  Dwight didn’t even deign to answer it, instead looking at his core with an “Are you serious?” question in her face.  It was amazing that he could even identify that type of expression on a baby Dragonling’s face at all, but it was almost like it was being conveyed to him through some sort of mental link.  Come to think of it, it probably is.

Clay looked at his Transcribed Status and saw that he had acquired a lot of Crystal Chips from the deaths of so many Heroes in his dungeon.  With a total of 22 deaths at 25 Crystal Chips apiece (plus a Tier 1 death at 50 Chips), he had acquired 575 Chips; added to what he had before, he now had 564 Chips!

Core Assessment and Transcribed Status

Core Name:

Clayburnside “The Denominator” Shuntwise

Core Stage:

1

Core Structure Health:

5/20

Crystal Chips:

589 (500 to next Core Stage)

Star Limit for Placement:

15

Available Monsters:

37/50

Available Traps:

2 (No Limit)

Available Dungeon Spells:

0 (No Limit)

Summoning Portal

Dungeon Interface

Sacrificial Altar

“There is something that you should do before you spend any of your Chips, but whether or not it would be wise is something you need to consider very hard.”

He was already thinking of how many Spawn Eggs he was going to buy, but Dwight’s words halted those in mid-thought.  What are you talking about? Clay asked, but he thought he already knew.  It required 500 Crystal Chips to advance to the next Core Stage, but he wasn’t exactly sure how to do that – or why it wouldn’t be wise.

“Exactly, your Core Stage,” she responded to his thoughts.  “The only way to really develop yourself is to increase your Core Stage, which will help you place more monsters and traps, build and actually stock more rooms, and increase your Daily Accumulation.  The problem with this is that there are some risks involved.”

Risks?  What type of risks?

“Well, normally, I wouldn’t be too concerned with them, but since your Core Structure Health is so low, you could make your problem worse,” Dwight explained.  “You see, when you increase your Core Stage, there are even odds that you will lose some Core Structure Health in the process.”

What?!  That’s…not good.

“Yes, though fortunately for you, you can’t lose more than you currently have.  Depending on probabilities[9], it could send you all the way down to 1 CSH, which will make you vulnerable to a single strike by a Tier 1 weapon…possibly even one of those Tier 0 wooden weapons I’ve seen used by these Heroes – though I’m not sure anyone has attempted that.”

So, the way he was understanding it, he could wait until he was nearly restored as far as Core Structure Health and then increase his Core Stage, minimizing the risk.  Or, he could gamble on the even odds that he wouldn’t lose any more CSH and be fine right now.  Doing what she had recommended, he thought hard about the choice, spending nearly an hour going over the pros and cons in his head about waiting and taking a gamble.

What finally decided it for him, however, wasn’t thoughts about the risks to his Core, but the benefits to the Heroes delving through his dungeon.  He had seen how almost all of them had been overmatched by a single 2-Star monster, and having more experience killing 1-Stars of different kinds could only be an asset, both in terms of learning their capabilities, and also in terms of items from Drop Chests.  He wanted them to get as powerful as they could, as fast as they could; the only way to do that was to expand his dungeon, thereby enhancing his capacity to fill it with monsters.  He still needed to protect his Core, of course, so he would pack his Core Room with the strongest monsters he had (at least until his CSH was at a better level); as for the rest, though, he would make it challenging but rewarding.

It wouldn’t be easy, necessarily, but he also didn’t want them to keep blowing up every time they traveled inside of his dungeon. Don’t get him wrong, it would be nice to keep raking in the Crystal Chips, but his development couldn’t come in at the expense of the Heroes.  It was like charging exorbitant prices at his family’s store for staple grocery items, knowing that they were the only place in town that the residents could buy it. Sure, that would have given them a lot of money, at first – but soon enough the residents wouldn’t have been able to afford to eat.  If their customers starved and died, or got so sickly they couldn’t work, that would eventually lead to their own financial ruin, as no one would shop there anymore.

Besides, he had seen first-hand that even a simple Jumping Spider, when used in conjunction with its fellows, was powerful enough to kill a Hero. What it might require was some strategic arrangement of 1-Star monsters to provide a challenging experience with the real threat of death, but the rewards would be worth it in the end.  The more that they could potentially kill on a run through the dungeon the better, because he didn’t expect one group to be able to constantly go in and out like the last one had.  They had to share, after all.

I think I’ve made my choice.  I’m going to increase my Core Stage and take the gamble that I’ll be fine.  How do I do it?

“Let’s see.  First, you need to concentrate on the Core Stage element on your CATS, and when it asks you—”

I’m sorry, what?

“That’s what I’m trying to explain, Clay.  Now, don’t interrupt me until I’m done—”

No, no – that’s not what I’m talking about.  What is this “cats” thing you mentioned?

“Oh, well, that’s just short for your Core Assessment and Transcribed Status.  You know…CATS.”

If Clay had still had a head and a body, he would’ve shaken it in disbelief.  What is with all of these cats invading my life?  I swear this is some sort of conspiracy by those devious creatures.

“Anyway,” Dwight interrupted his musings, “all you need to do is concentrate on your Core Stage in your…Transcribed Status…and follow the directions from there.  Fairly simple, overall.”

Still thinking about cats with less-than-pleasant thoughts, Clay looked at his Status and concentrated on his Core Stage.

Would you like to increase to Core Stage 2? Yes / No

Crystal Chip cost: 500

Available Crystal Chips: 589

Warning: There is a 50% chance that you will lose some of your Core Structure Health during a Core Stage increase

Having been previously warned by Dwight, the prompt wasn’t as alarming as it would’ve been otherwise.  Since he’d made his decision already, Clay chose Yes and waited for a moment as the prompt disappeared.

The next moment, he heard and felt a *crack* coming from his Core, and there was a brief thrum of pain running through his mind.  Clay’s thoughts were a little disoriented from whatever just happened, so it took him a moment to focus on what he was being shown.

Your Core Stage has been increased!

Current Core Stage: 2

Unfortunately, during the process you have lost some Core Structure Health!

CSH Lost: 9 (This has been reduced to 4 : CSH cannot fall below 1)

Current Core Structure Health: 1

Remaining Crystal Chips: 89

New Star Limit!  15 --> 25

New Monster Limit! 50 --> 75

New (Crystal Chip) Daily Accumulation!  1 --> 2

Ouch!  Well, so much for hoping some luck would come my way.

“That’s for sure, Clay; you are extremely vulnerable now,” Dwight said worriedly.  “Any of these Heroes could probably destroy your Core with a single blow.”

I know…but hopefully no one will be able to reach me.

The baby dragonling nodded, blowing out a puff of smoke that dissipated shortly after it left her mouth.  “Yes, that’s the only thing going for you.  If you were on the mainland, with the Hero Guilds there, I wouldn’t put your survival odds as very high; as it is, with only new Heroes here, you should be fine as long as your Boss Room is adequately defended.”

I agree…so let’s get to it.  Before he did anything else, Clay wanted to see if he could acquire any new, powerful monsters – that weren’t stupid cats – from some Spawn Eggs.  With his new Star Limit of 25, which was 10 more than before, he could afford to place more monsters, which would benefit everyone.

Once that was done, he would use a portion of his remaining Chips to expand his dungeon – adding at least one more room – while keeping his Boss Room stocked with strong defenders that the new Heroes shouldn’t be able to defeat.  As much as he wanted them to increase in their abilities and get stronger, he also wanted to survive long enough to get that done.

Therefore, using 45 of his remaining 89 Crystal Chips, he bought another Bundle Pack #1 from the Summoning Portal.  Once again, the glittery light show was a wonder to behold, and soon enough there were 10 Spawn Eggs sitting on the floor of his BOO, waiting for him to crack them open.  As had been fairly typical before, there were 7 pale-yellow Eggs, which he assumed were going to be 1-Star monsters or even traps. There was also a darker-yellow Egg (that he assumed was a 2-Star), as well as a golden-colored Egg that he figured was his guaranteed 3-Star (he was crossing his non-existent fingers that it wouldn’t be another cat) – but that wasn’t all that awaited him.

In the back row in between two of the pale-yellow Common Spawn Eggs was a pink-colored one that appeared highly out of place.  It was certainly one that he hadn’t seen before, at least.  Leaving that for last, he started opening up all 7 of the pale-yellow Eggs, receiving an assortment of Common 1-Star monsters.

Shade Cat ★

Attack Type: Stealth

Rarity: Common

Element: Dark

Heat Slime ★

Attack Type: Magical

Rarity: Common

Element: Fire

Spitting Serpent ★

Attack Type: Ranged

Rarity: Common

Element: Nature

Bog Boar ★

Attack Type: Stealth

Rarity: Common

Element: Dark

Gust Fern ★

Attack Type: Magical

Rarity: Common

Element: Air

Now those cats are invading my 1-Stars!  He was planning on sacrificing it later, but he wanted to finish opening up his Eggs first.  With the pale-yellow Eggs were two surprises; they were 1-Star, but they weren’t Common.

Forest Wolf ★

Attack Type: Melee

Rarity: Uncommon

Element: Nature

Weak Light Elemental ★

Attack Type: Ranged

Rarity: Ultra Rare

Element: Light

Ultra Rare!  It was his first monster of that Rarity, and…well…it didn’t seem all that great.  Especially since the name literally said “Weak”, he wasn’t sure what to expect with it.  Inside of the glass slab, it looked like a glowing orb that had projections on its sides – almost as if they were supposed to be arms – but they were so short that Clay wasn’t sure what they were supposed to do.

“Elementals are particularly powerful, especially when used in conjunction with traps and other types of monsters,” Dwight added for clarification – which really didn’t clarify anything at all for Clay.

As for the Wolf, it was definitely a step-up from the Common monsters he had now in his possession.  Nothing particularly impressive, but certainly more of a challenge than anything but his Swamp Troll in the 1-Stars.

That was it for his pale-yellow Spawn Eggs, so he moved onto the golden one and…yes!!!

Nether Mage Slime ★★★

Attack Type: Magical

Rarity: Common

Element: Dark

It didn’t really matter that it was a Common 3-Star – he was just happy that it wasn’t a stupid Cat again!  The Nether Mage Slime appeared to be about twice as big as its 1-Star cousins, but it also had a vaguely – very vaguely – humanoid shape; it had an obvious protrusion on top that appeared to be its “head”, two short bumps on its sides that he thought were supposed to be “arms”, and a split on the bottom of its form that created extremely wide “legs”.

Clay moved on to the last Spawn Egg, the pink-colored one that he hadn’t seen represented before.  He knew from experience that a dark-orange color was likely a 5-Star, from his Colossal Serpent monster he received, but a pink one was a mystery.

Moving Walls ★★★★

Type: Crushing

Material: Reinforced Stone

Location: Room Center

Damage: High

It turned out that pink was the color for something that was 4-Star, and this one happened to be another trap.  Based on the glass slab with an indication of what it was, it appeared as though the trap was composed of two opposite walls coming together rapidly, crushing any Heroes – or monsters, he supposed – caught in between.  The image showed that these walls weren’t large enough to completely encompass the entire side of a room, only a portion, but it seemed extremely deadly, nonetheless.

Better yet, when he dug into it a little more, he found that he could either place the trap with a trigger or have its walls continuously activating, creating a pinch point in a room that the Heroes would have to navigate their way through.  Either way would be deadly, and would also be a great addition for some extra security.  He wasn’t sure where, or whether, he was going to place it right now, because of the high Star cost, but he kept it in mind for the future.

With all of his new additions, Clay figured he was ready to start remodeling his dungeon.  Shall we?

“It’s about time,” Dwight commented with an endearing dragonling smile.  He now knew why the dragonling was chosen to be his guide – it lifted his spirits every time he looked at her, because she was just so small and…adorable.  “Let’s see what you’ve learned.”

Chapter 23

Jeska woke the next day expecting to be sore from the previous day’s events, but instead she woke up feeling refreshed.  Like, very refreshed, unlike what she’d felt for a long, long time.  While she wasn’t necessarily a morning person, she didn’t normally hate getting up out of bed; many of the activities she typically participated in – such as fishing for Golden-scaled Hornblowers – required her to be up early.  Therefore, she was used to it…but rarely, if ever, had been woken up so alert, and feeling as if she had gotten the perfect amount of sleep.

Not only that, but she had expected to have nightmares that would’ve kept her awake for most of the night, but she didn’t remember her dreams.  Nor remember dreaming at all, in fact.  That was a little worrisome, but it was also a blessing; so much had happened in such a short time that she wasn’t sure she’d have been able to sleep, otherwise.

There had been a brief meeting among all of the Heroes last night, after the last group finished their delve inside the new dungeon.  Or I should say, delves.  It had been revealed that the group that included Percy, the former sailor that had taken leadership of the last group to go yesterday, hadn’t even ventured into the second room. Instead, they had cleared the first room, left the dungeon, and then cleared it again – multiple times!  Not only had they not died, but they had also accumulated quite a few worthwhile items from their Drop Chests, including a Fighter Class Orb Tier 1.

They were the only ones who had actually received a Class Orb at all other than Jeska’s group, but it quickly became obvious that they all needed to acquire these Orbs as soon as possible.  Not only were the skills that came with a Class important to their survival, but it would also mean that they could venture deeper into the dungeon and defeat even harder monsters – like the Explosive Shambler.  Jeska didn’t vow undying revenge on the undead monster that had blown them (and most of the other groups) up, but she really wanted to become strong enough to take it down.  While she didn’t know for sure, she was convinced that the Drop Chest from a 2-Star monster would have even better items than one from a 1-Star; it was only logical, after all.

It was going to take some work to get to that point, however.  Which was why all of the groups were going to adopt Percy’s group’s technique and rapidly clear the first room in order to maximize their drops from Chests.  It was easy enough to kill the Rats and Ferns inside the room, especially since they knew what to expect, so there shouldn’t be too much danger.  The only thing they had to figure out was the way to do it, since only one group could be inside the dungeon at a time.  Percy’s group had free rein to do what they wanted yesterday because there was no one that wanted to get into the dungeon at that point – which wouldn’t happen if everyone was trying to get as many items as possible.

The first proposal that they just take turns – one after another – was almost immediately shot down, because it would require a lot of waiting around for the other groups to be done, which no one wanted to do.  To be fair to everyone, they instead adopted a new strategy that would maximize each group’s time, both to maintain their momentum and to reduce the waiting times.

Starting at 8am this morning, the first group of 5 Heroes would have 4 hours to do whatever they wanted in that timeframe.  After those 4 hours, they would leave and another group would have 4 hours to do their thing in the dungeon, and then after 4 hours another group would enter, and so on and so on.  Since there were 6 groups, each group would have an equal share of time each day to do what they wanted during every 24-hour period.

They had randomly determined the order before they all went to bed last night, and Jeska and her own group were again the first to tackle the dungeon.  What it basically meant was that they would be allocated 4 hours of intense monster killing, be done by noon, and have the rest of the day to do whatever they wanted.  Pretty sweet deal, if she said so herself.

It didn’t take long to arrive in front of the dungeon that morning, slightly before their allotted time.  Jeska had seen her brother that morning, of course, and he looked as bright and chipper as she felt, but the others weren’t looking so great.

“I hate this!” Rosara said suddenly, her face scrunching up with unshed tears.  “My father can barely stand to be around me!”

“I know exactly what you mean; my mother was actually frightened of me,” Kelty commiserated.  The former seamstress turned to Jeska and Arcen.  “Thank goodness you told us about the reason for that, but it doesn’t make it any easier.”

No, no it doesn’t.  Their own father hadn’t treated them too differently yet, but Jeska and Arcen could see it coming – and she hated it, too.  It was a major sacrifice for all of them to have to endure, but she knew that her father would always love them, no matter what happened in the future. Knowing that their familial love was eternal was the only thing that kept her from quitting right then and there.

“Well, we’re a little early, but…I don’t think it will matter too much.  Shall we do this?” Arcen asked.  There were some nods all around, though their affirmation was signaled more by their transformation into their Hero outfits.  “Outfits” was probably not the right word, since all but Rosara were still wearing their Tier 0 Tunics and Pants, but it worked well enough.  Rosara, as she had been yesterday, was again wearing the skin-tight blue one-piece she got as part of being a Support Class…and it still disturbed Jeska a little to look at her standing there with what looked like absolutely nothing on.  At least this time she didn’t undergo a wardrobe change first during her transformation, so Pascale was able to keep his mouth from hitting the floor.

Without wasting any more time, they moved up to the entrance and down the torchlit hallway, until they approached the first room.  Arcen stopped for some reason.

“Hey, bro, I thought we had already made a strategy for—” Jeska complained, ready to get started, gripping her wooden Training Weapon tightly in her hands.

“Something’s changed – look.”

Her brother moved out of the way by pressing himself up against the hallway wall to let the rest of them see, which was difficult with him taking up nearly two-thirds of the passageway.  Jeska immediately noticed what he was talking about, as the room looked a bit different from what it had the day before.

There were still ferns dotting the room, but instead of them being randomly placed, they were set up in straight lines, almost like they were forming 4 barriers running from left to right.  They weren’t really barriers, however, as they were just plants and they could easily pass between their fronds; regardless, the fact that they had been moved around had to mean…something.

“Those Rats are still in the same place, I think,” Pascale commented from down below, having gotten down on his stomach like the first time they had met to look ahead underneath some of the normal ferns. Jeska looked above and saw that the Stone-Tipped and Shining Ferns were in approximately the same place, as well, so now she was confused.

“What do you think is going on here?” she asked the others, who didn’t seem to have an answer, either.

“No idea, but I think we need to be a little cautious – but not too much,” her brother said quickly.  The experience of death had tempered his recklessness a little, but he was still willing to rush headlong into danger if he felt like it.  “Stick to the plan, and I think we’ll be fine.  Watch each other’s backs.”

She nodded along with the others, seeing the sense in his words.  They had a plan already, and since it didn’t appear as though anything had changed about the monsters in the room, they might as well execute it.  If there were any obstacles that came up, they would have to address them as they went.

“Ready…and…go!”  Jeska ran inside first, ducking to the right and rolling on the stone floor a few feet.  She heard the clatter of sharp stone chips impacting the wall behind her, the Stone-tipped Fern having launched its first attack.  She was just getting up as she looked up to see Pascale flying through the air, having been picked up and thrown by her strong brother.  The smaller man landed right on top of the attacking Fern, breaking multiple fronds upon impact, and the former thief rolled with the crash landing, coming up entirely unharmed and already attacking the plant monster.

Arcen stepped inside, heading off the rats that were heading towards Jeska since she was the first one in the room, accompanied by Kelty; Jeska stood up and prepared herself for the attack, while Rosara sprinted ahead, stopping a half-dozen feet from the Shining Fern and activating her Captivating Melody skill.  Blue light emerged from her throat as she sang, enveloping the Fern as it attempted to start healing the rest of the monsters in the room.  The glow faded around the plant as the Support Hero’s skill took effect, and the rapid healing of the Stone-tipped Fern Pascale was destroying stopped abruptly.

“Let’s do it!” Arcen screamed, before laying into the Rats attacking him, Jeska, and Kelty with his own wooden weapon.  Jeska and the former seamstress managed to get bit once, and her brother got bit twice, but the rats were dead within about 20 seconds, just as Rosara’s skill was winding down on the “Captivated” Fern.  Luckily, Pascale had finished his own work, even after having been hit by a last-second slap against his left leg by a partially broken frond of sharp stones.  He limped over to the other Fern just as the effect from Rosara’s Melody faded, and the Support stepped forward.

“Watch your eyes!” she said, triggering the monster’s defensive skill.  Rosara screamed a little as she was partially blinded from her proximity, but fortunately Pascale was there to start destroying the plant, joined soon after by Jeska, her brother, and Kelty.

All told, from the moment they stepped into the room, it took them all of a minute and a half to finish them off.  All but Rosara had suffered a little damage, but their wounds were nowhere near what they had been on their first foray into the dungeon.

Another few seconds passed as the monsters’ corpses disappeared, bringing out the Drop Chests they had come for.  As before, they all acquired Health Bands, and a tightness in Jeska’s chest that she hadn’t realized was there abruptly loosened, and she went a little weak in the knees in relief.  Looking around, she saw she wasn’t the only one.

“It’s funny; when we were here before and didn’t know we could be resurrected, I don’t think I had been this worried during our first fight,” her brother remarked.  “Now that I’ve got one of these Bands, it doesn’t seem so scary anymore.”

Her brother…scared?  Arcen had always seemed so reckless, as if he didn’t care, but seeing that side of him was enlightening.  The fact that he had felt the same way all along made him more “normal,” if that made sense.

The rest of the items they received from the Drop Chests were disappointing: 4 of the Chests held junk – a dirty rag, some more bones, a piece of scrap metal, and a bunch of dried flowers – but there was 1 that could prove useful.

Drop Chest

Contents:

1X Skillbook – Rear Strike Tier 1

[Scout Classes] (Unbound)

It was a skillbook for Scout Classes, which apparently taught a skill called “Rear Strike”.  There were no other details, unfortunately, but Pascale – as their future Scout Class – took it.  He tried to use it, but just as the other Tier 1 armor and weapon they had acquired, it wouldn’t work unless he was already a Tier 1 Scout.

“Alright, everyone – are you ready to head out, wait a few minutes, and then go again?”  They had learned from Percy’s group that there was some sort of warning that appeared to them when they had tried to immediately walk back in; it seemed as though they had to wait 5 minutes after leaving before venturing into the dungeon again, but that wasn’t too long.

If they spent 5 minutes killing the monsters and collecting what they dropped, then 5 minutes waiting for the dungeon to let them in again, they could get 6 visits done in an hour.  In 4 hours, that meant 24 times going through the room, which then equaled 120 Drop Chests; with that many, the group was hoping to acquire more Class Orbs so that they could all start using what other gear they had accumulated.

“Not…quite yet,” Arcen said.

“Why am I not surprised; I do not want to get blown up again—”

He cut her off.  “Oh, don’t worry – I don’t, either.  But since this room has changed, I want to check out the next room to see if that has changed, as well; if that Explosive undead thing is still there, then we run, and no harm done.”  The others didn’t seem convinced, so Arcen pleaded with them.  “Oh, c’mon, it won’t take more than a few minutes and then we’ll know to keep avoiding it.”

Jeska wanted to say no, but she figured it couldn’t hurt too much to check it out.  From the stories of the other groups, she knew that they could all run back to the hallway and heal up if it proved to be too dangerous.  “As long as we play it very safe and run at the first sign of that thing, I’m…okay…with at least looking.”

Without the threat of permanent death, the only real consequence of dying would be a temporary halt in their Drop Chest collection, so it didn’t take long for the others to give into her brother’s plea.  Besides, they had started about 15 minutes early, so they had a little extra time.

It turned out that the room had been changed dramatically.  No longer were there spiderwebs and ragged cloths hanging from the ceiling; instead, the room had been widened and redecorated with a utilitarian flair to it.  Instead of the eerie environment from before, where things could be hiding around every corner, this one felt more like a miniature arena of sorts, with slightly elevated platforms rising up from the floor in sloped protrusions.  On the walls of the room were thick stone spikes sticking out, and Jeska knew that if she were knocked into one they would do quite a bit of damage.

What was most interesting, however, was the fact that there were monsters waiting patiently on top of each of the stone platforms.  Instead of lying in wait to ambush them, there were 3 monsters each, for a total of 9 monsters, just staring in their direction as if daring them to enter and face them.

“Okay, I think I’ve seen enough,” Rosara said, turning around to leave.

Arcen grabbed her arm gently to stop her.  “Hold on, I think this could be doable.  Look at them – I don’t see that Explosive whatsit this time.”

Jeska saw that immediately, which was encouraging, but the fact that there were 9 monsters in the room sounded more than a little difficult for them to face.  On the left-hand side of the room, 3 Boars that were just under waist high on her were waiting, ready to attack.  Two of them were called Ember Boars, which had what appeared to be flickering flames running down their fur, while the other was a Glimmer Boar, which reminded her a little of the Shining Fern from the previous room.  It glowed slightly, but the information over its head said it wasn’t magical in its fighting type, so she doubted it would be healing all of the other monsters in the room.

The second platform had a trio of relatively large serpents, all of different kinds.  There was a Pond Serpent that had a blueish sheen to its dark-black scales; a Gliding Serpent had greyish scales and was slightly smaller than the rest, but that didn’t mean it was any less deadly; and lastly, there was a Spitting Serpent, a dark-brown serpent with a greenish tint to its scaly skin.  That one worried her the most, because the information above its head said that it was a Ranged attacker, so whatever it was spitting was probably venomous – at the least.

Lastly, the third platform contained a wooden structure that almost looked like a large “T”. Hanging down from the arms of the “T” were large bats the size of her thigh, though their wingspan was probably much larger. All of them were named Ice Bats, blue in color, with accents of white; they looked so abnormal that they almost appeared as if they had been painted.

There didn’t seem to be any monsters with attacks that were magical in nature, but that didn’t mean much – there were still 9 of them.  With an assault by large boars at waist level, slithery attacks from foot level, and strikes from above – not to mention the ranged attacks by the brown and green Serpent, it didn’t look good—

“I’m in.”

Now that is a surprise.  Kelty, the last person she would’ve thought would have been reckless, shocked everyone else – including Arcen – when she spoke up.  She just shrugged when everyone looked at her, which caused Jeska’s brother to smile.

“See?  We can do this!” he said encouragingly.

Against her better judgement, Jeska couldn’t help but agree; or at least, she thought it would be good to at least try it, even if they all ended up dying.  Her father always told her, “You don’t know what’s possible unless you push yourself to be more, encourage the people near you to be the best they can be, and discover all of the potential out in the world.  You might be surprised at what you are capable of when stretching past your pre-conceived limits.”

“Fine, I’m in, too.”  Jeska couldn’t believe the words that came out of her own mouth, but she didn’t take them back, either.

“This better not hurt, or I’m going to be very mad.” Rosara pouted, which instead of looking snobbish like it had before, it now looked deliberately staged to be as endearing as possible.  After some conversations with their new Support Class, the group had discovered that her new stat, “Charm”, was the reason she had been transformed so thoroughly.  I can’t even imagine what she will be like if she’s able to increase her Charm even more.

“Oh, it’ll probably hurt before we’re done, but it will be worth it in the end,” Arcen said.  “Trust me.”

Jeska did trust him in many things, but knowing his way around surviving in a dungeon wasn’t quite one of them.  “How about we test the waters first,” she ventured.  “I wouldn’t jump into the ocean without knowing exactly what the sharks swimming around will do, so I think the same could work here.  Since they aren’t attacking from ambush, it should be easy enough to see how they will react to our presence.”

“What, like run around real quick and see what they do?  I can do that—”

Pascale cut him off.  “I’ll do it, Arcen.  I’m the ‘Scout’ after all, even if I don’t have the Class Orb for it yet.”  He paused for a moment, before muttering loud enough that everyone could still hear him, “Besides, I’m much faster than you.”

“Ha!  So you are,” her brother said, not taking offense in the slightest.  He was very strong, but he wasn’t very fast – and he was well aware of his capabilities.  “Go for it.”

Moving to the front, Pascale stood on the threshold of the room for a moment, before taking off at a sprint.  How does he move so fast from a stationary position?  It wasn’t something that Jeska could do, for sure, but she supposed it was something a former pickpocket needed to learn to get away with ill-gotten gains.

Crazily, instead of just running in front of the platforms to see the monsters’ reactions, Pascale ran behind them, making a full circuit of the room at full speed.  He went to the right, at first, where the Ice Bats were hanging on their wooden “T”, and Jeska watched as they dropped from their upside-down perches, extending their wings and frantically flapping to gain altitude.  It was only by the time Pascale had rounded their platform and was halfway to past the center platform that they were actually able to attack.  They dove at the future Scout Class but missed him as he dodged out of the way. As they flew through where he had been, she saw what appeared to be a mist-like smoke trailing in their wake.

It took her a few seconds to realize that it wasn’t smoke, but instead was cold ice reacting with the warmer air.  There were a few times when she had been sailing that she had ventured a little further south than she was used to, and the mornings had been extremely chilly; she remembered being fascinated at how her breath had caused clouds of smoke to emerge into the frigid air.

The Serpents were in the middle, and they immediately went after Pascale as soon as he entered the room.  The bluish-scaled Pond Serpent slithered quickly after him, but Pascale was much too fast for it to catch up with him.  The Spitting Serpent – as she had suspected – slithered a little forward before stretching the forward half of its body upward, so that its head was elevated.  It opened its jaws, showing shockingly small fangs; but the next moment, a green glob of spit was expelled, It missed the quick Hero, however, and landed against the stone wall of the room, where it sizzled and hissed.  Hmmm…not venom, but…acid, maybe?

The Gliding Serpent was a little more of a worry.  Its speed was more than double that of the Pond Serpent, as it almost seemed to, well, “glide” over the ground without even touching the ground. While it wasn’t necessarily flying, it wasn’t landbound, either.  It was on Pascale’s heels almost immediately, but it didn’t really have enough inherent tactics to cut the Hero off, instead trailing behind as their future Scout ran fast enough to avoid being attacked.

As for the Boars on the left-most platform, they didn’t move, other than to rotate their positions so that they were facing Pascale as he ran around the room.  As he neared their platform, however, they charged ahead almost as one, having enough smarts to predict where he would be, instead of where he was at that moment.

“Look out!” Kelty shouted from the hallway, her hands in front of her mouth in worry.  It was unneeded, though, because Pascale was well aware of the danger. However, instead of stopping or trying to avoid the 3 Boars, he jumped and dove over them, landing in a tumble from which he was able to rise without stopping.  After the tumble, he ran the rest of the way to the awaiting group members.  As for the Boars, they ran into the wall when they didn’t hit the Hero, and they seemed a bit stunned for a moment.

“Phew!  I haven’t had to run like that since the time I swiped—er, never mind,” Pascale said as soon as he was back, though he looked at Kelty and stopped what he was about to say.  He was only breathing a little hard from his run, which led Jeska to being impressed by the former pickpocket.  “Did everyone get a good look, at least?”

“Oh yes, excellent job, Pascale.”  Jeska was replaying how the monsters had reacted in her head, and she already thought she had a plan.  “Okay, this is what I think we should do….”

Chapter 24

With the last of her strength, Jeska swatted at the Ice Bat diving for her face, hitting it squarely in its lower body. Instead of the sound of her wooden weapon impacting flesh, a *crack* echoed through the room as the Bat shattered like ice under one last blow.  As the pieces of the monster landed like shrapnel around her, she fell to her knees, the numerous wounds all over her body srapping her energy.

What little vitality she did have gave out and she fell forward on her front, her head turned to the side to see the bodies of her brother, Pascale, and Kelty.  Rosara was unconscious behind her, having had her head impacted by a charging Boar as she had bent over in pain, but she was still alive.  Jeska wouldn’t be for long, though, as the venom coursing through her veins from that stupid Pond Serpent bite was finishing her off.  In the corner of her vision, she saw that she was down to 1/10 Health – and her body certainly felt it.

It had started so well, too.  They had rushed inside as a group, taking position behind the Ice Bats’ platform, as they braced for the incoming attacks.  Rosara had already done her sexy dance to boost Arcen and Pascale’s Attack, and she immediately began to sing for her other skill, which froze the Spitting Serpent and prevented it from attacking.

But it was all chaos from there.

The Ice Bats had risen into the air and swooped down on them as one.  Two lucky hits batted an equal number of them away, only slightly hurt; Jeska had hit one of them, and it had felt like smacking into a stone wall.  The third Bat had managed to land on Kelty and bit down once before taking off, which had some unexpected side-effects.  While it did damage, it also conveyed a “Debuff,” called Slowing, and the former seamstress had shivered as if she were suddenly super-chilled.  Her movements were only about half as fast as before, which was why she had been bitten by the Gliding Serpent as it arrived and attacked.

Fortunately, the quick Serpent’s bit was not venomous.  It was, however, rather painful – especially when the bites came in rapid succession.  Pascale was there to smash his weapon into the Serpent, but not before Kelty was more than half-dead.

And that was when the Boars, who were waiting to see if the group of Heroes would move, charged across the platforms.  That was the plan, however, because they did exactly what Jeska had hoped: They trampled over the “Captivated” Spitting Serpent, damaging it extensively, but they unfortunately did not kill it.

Arcen braced for the Boars’ charge out front of everyone else, slamming into one of the Ember Boars with his body in turn, picking it up and then slamming it against the floor.  He had yelled out in pain, however, as his hands were burnt from handling the flaming fur of the Boar, but he kept going and pushed through the pain, nonetheless.

From there, it had turned into a chaotic melee of bites, blows, gores, and death.  Kelty got a glob of acid spit to the face from the not-quite-dead Spitting Serpent, even as she swung her Training Weapon around in blind fury as the Slowing effect from the Ice Bat bite wore off.  She managed to hit another Bat that was trying to hit her, slamming it against the wall behind her, where it shattered upon impact.

The Boars, now that they didn’t have room to charge, gored Arcen in the legs. Retaliating, he grabbed the other Ember Boar and started to crush it with his enormous strength, eventually breaking its back as he literally squeezed it to death.  Unfortunately, he suffered tremendous burns all over his arms and chest, and was gored again by the Glimmer Boar in his hip.  Jeska had come to his rescue by knocking the Boar’s head away with her own weapon, but then she found out what made it special: It disappeared from where it had been knocked, only to reappear next to Jeska.

Surprised, it took all her fledgling skills to defend herself, doing a bit of damage to the boar – but taking a significant amount of injury to her body in the process.  Meanwhile, Rosara went for the Spitting Serpent herself, using her hands to grab it and turn it away from the group, stomping down on its already-trampled body to kill it.  Unfortunately, she was bitten by the Pond Serpent in the process, and when she bent down to check herself and suffered the first effects of the venom, the Glimmer Boar broke off its attack on Jeska and charged the Support member of the group, hitting her hard enough in her head to knock her out.

The next minute was a blur as Pascale attempted to save Kelty from the other Ice Bats, but she was blind and couldn’t defend herself. She fell not too long afterwards, and their Scout was bitten once from behind, which slowed him down considerably.  A bite from the Pond Serpent – who seemed to be making the rounds of all of the group members – was enough to finish him off after he suffered a few more bites.

Arcen was also struck with the venomous Serpent, even as he tried to fight on his knees because of his damaged legs, facing off against the last Boar, the Bats, and the Gliding Serpent. A few powerful strikes of his weapon were enough to take out the Boar, and he finally nabbed the super-quick monster with a lucky grab, tearing it apart with his superior strength before his body gave in to his numerous wounds and the venom wracking his body.

Which left Jeska, who got bit by the Pond Serpent as she was defending against the last Bat.  As soon as she was bit, however, she reached down and picked the Serpent up by the tail as it tried to go for Rosara again. Jeska slammed it against the ground, stomped on it, and finally shattered its skull with her weapon – just as she was bit by the Bat.  The icy coldness radiating from the bite actually helped to cool the heat from the venom in her blood, which was the only thing that allowed her to strike back at the Bat, crunching her wooden weapon into its body as it attacked.

Now, though, she was going to die – and all their efforts would be for naught.  Rosara was unconscious and at 3/10 Health, but she also had a “Venom” Debuff, so she probably wouldn’t live long.  Just as Jeska was closing her eyes to the inevitable, she suddenly saw the body of her brother disappear in a bright flash, followed by Kelty and Pascale.  Then the corpses of the monsters near her dissipated into nothing, leaving behind Drop Chests.  9 Drop Chests, in fact.  Better than that, she felt a healing energy running through her body, and her Health ticked up a point.

We…we did it?  It was almost impossible to believe, but since she was still alive and now healing, that was the only thing that made sense.  She lay on the floor while her Health continued to improve, the painful lacerations from being gored and the bites from Serpents and Bats closed up, and the venom was removed from her body.  Looking at Rosara, Jeska could see that their Support member was waking up from her forced nap, holding her head.

“OUCH!  That hurt!”

“What hurt?” Jeska heard from behind her, only to see Arcen standing there with a slightly disoriented look on his face.  Pascale and Kelty were behind him, also looking a bit out of sorts, but that was understandable – they had just died and been resurrected.

“Wait – did we win?”  Rosara suddenly sat up, looking around her, the headache she must have had forgotten by the appearance of the Drop Chests.

“I guess so, if you call it ‘winning’ even with 3 of us dying and you and I nearly dying,” Jeska said, finally ready to get to her feet.  Arcen, bless his heart, came over and helped her up.  She was still a little woozy from the loss of blood, which she just noticed was no longer pooling around where she had fallen, but it was rapidly getting better.

Her brother smiled.  “See?  I told you we could do it.”

“Yes, yes, but we almost didn’t,” Jeska acknowledged.  She quickly cycled her clothes while facing away from everyone, and the Tunic and Pants that had been torn up and bloody were replaced with a fresh set.  Pretty convenient, even if it causes me to become embarrassingly unclothed for a moment.

It didn’t take long for her and Rosara to be well enough to start opening up the Chests with the others, because they were excited to see what they would get from killing so many monsters.  They weren’t disappointed.

Drop Chest

Contents:

1X Linen Robe +1 Intellect Tier 1

[Mage Classes] (Unbound)

Drop Chest

Contents:

1X Minor Health Potion Tier 1 (Unbound)

Drop Chest

Contents:

1X Scout Class Orb Tier 1 (Unbound)

A third of the Chests actually had valuable items; the other two-thirds had worthless junk.  The real prize, however, was the Scout Class Orb Tier 1.  Pascale had already picked up some Leather Chest Armor and a Skillbook, and now he could finally make use of them!  In addition to that fortunate acquisition, Jeska got a Linen Robe that added +1 to something called “Intellect” – which she assumed was a special statistic for Mages, like Charm was for Support Classes – but, of course, she couldn’t wear it yet.  They also received a Minor Health Potion, which – when Kelty picked it up and inspected it in her Inventory – would help to regenerate up to 5 points of Health over 30 seconds in the middle of battle.  That would’ve helped extensively in the last fight, as it probably would’ve saved either Pascale or Arcen from dying.

Pascale didn’t hesitate to take the Scout Class Orb and absorb it, and everyone looked away as he went through the same process as Rosara; well, everyone but Kelty, who watched him lift up into the air and scream in pain at his transformation, his clothes gone.  When Jeska looked back after a few moments, Pascale was on the ground with a faint smile on his face, dressed in simple dark-brown and grey lightweight clothing from neck to feet.  It wasn’t skin-tight like Rosara’s outfit, but it was cut in a way that it was close to his body, leaving very little hanging out to snag on anything – or allow a monster to grab hold and catch him that way.  It also blended in with the surrounding stone and dirt of the room, which she assumed was the point.

“Wow.  That was intense…but also amazing,” their new Scout Class said with bits of wonder tinting his voice.  “Hold on—” he said, before a snug, soft-leather chestpiece appeared on his body, sporting the same color combination as the rest of his outfit.  He moved around and stretched his arms, bent over, and even hopped in place once – and Jeska didn’t hear the leather make a sound.  “This is nice; it’s not constrictive and doesn’t make a sound when I move.  This would be perfect for moving around the streets at night—”

“You’re not part of that life anymore, Pascale.”  Kelty smiled at him, apparently liking the way he looked now with his new Class.  He wasn’t physically changed like Rosara had been, but he certainly looked more capable than he had before.

“I know, it’s just that it’s sometimes hard to forget—hey look!”  A short knife suddenly appeared in his hand, copper or bronze by the look of it.  He held it up and slashed it around a few times, before making it disappear back into his Inventory.  “And even better, I have a Skill!”

Suddenly, his form blurred to Jeska’s vision, almost like trying to look at him through some very poorly made glass.  She could still see him, especially as he started to move around, but when he stood still he was hard to discern with the stone and rock behind him.

“It’s called ‘Concealment’, but it only lasts 15 seconds,” he said as he abruptly popped back into focus.  “It has a 5-minute cooldown, which means I can probably only use it once per fight, but it could be a good way to sneak inside a room without being chased all over, like before.”

“That will definitely come in handy, Pas,” Arcen commented.  “Do you have any other statistic enhancements, such as Rosara’s Charm?”

Pascale looked blank for a moment before answering.  “Yes, it looks like I have something called ‘Reflexes’; even more than that, it appears as though my Speed has increased.  I must be even faster now!”  Before anyone could say anything, he ran around the room a little bit, and while he was noticeably faster, it wasn’t by a lot.  Still, it was even more of an advantage that could be useful for the future.

He also used the Skillbook he had in his possession, which was a strange process.  A book appeared in front of Pascale, floating about a foot away from his chest.  There wasn’t anything that Jeska could see on the pages, though, but that didn’t seem to matter; the pages of the book rapidly flew by, as if someone were speed-reading each page in a fraction of a second, and then a dark glow emerged from the book when it was finished.  The glow shot from the book and into Pascale’s head, where he rocked back in surprise at the sudden impact, and the book completely disappeared.

The Scout laughed off his shock.  “That was unexpected, but quite easy,” he said.  “And now I have a skill that allows me to do a whole lot more damage when I attack something from behind.  I’m not going to demonstrate that…unless someone wants to volunteer?” he asked innocently.

“Uh, yeah, I’ll pass,” Jeska said with a laugh.  It was awesome that he had gotten all of his powerful new skills and a weapon other than a wooden stick, but she had to admit that she was a little envious.  “So, shall we keep going and see what’s further inside—ha!” she started to ask, before cutting herself off with another laugh.  “I’m just kidding; I think that’s enough for this run.  Three of you are missing your Health Bands, if I remember correctly what that message said when I died before.”

There was no argument from anyone, so they left the dungeon not long after that, the wounds on Jeska and Rosara having been completely healed after another minute or so.  When they got outside, Jeska was surprised to see that the sun hadn’t moved all that much in the sky.  It sure feels like a lot longer when you’re dying.

“How long do you think that took?” she asked her brother.

He looked up in the sky as well, before thinking about it.  “Hmmm…maybe 20 minutes, all told.  Some of that was Pascale ‘investigating’ the second room with his run, as well as coming up with a plan, so maybe 15 minutes for the actual fighting, collection of items from the Drop Chests, and your healing.”

Jeska did some quick calculating in her head.  “So…we received 14 items for 15 minutes of work, whereas we would get 5 items for 5 minutes in the first room.  It doesn’t seem worth it at first, but then if you factor in the 5 minutes we have to wait outside for the dungeon to be ready for us again, that all changes.  Over an hour, we would get 30 items from only doing the first room over and over; in contrast, we would obtain 42 items from finishing off both rooms.”

That was quite a significant difference, and they hadn’t even seen the 3rd room yet; it was always possible that it would be a viable means of gaining even more items.

“But…are we going to die every time?” Kelty asked, worry painting her face.  “I know that we will be resurrected, but it isn’t what I would call a pleasant experience.  Neither is the pain that leads to that death, of course.”

Jeska shook her head.  “No, not if we can help it.  Now that Pascale has his Class, and we’ve seen what these monsters in the second room can do, I’m hoping we can minimize casualties and come through unscathed.”  It was a reasonable assumption, anyway.

Unfortunately, that didn’t match reality.  The next time they went in, they practically breezed through the first room, with Pascale demonstrating his new skills and the use of his knife – which cut through the Ferns and destroyed them much faster than beating them with a stick.

The second room went much better, as they revised their strategy a little, but they still took massive amounts of damage and Rosara, Jeska, and Pascale died.  When she and the others who had died woke up in the entrance hallway, they discovered one of the drawbacks of dying when they got more powerful.

“My Chest Armor is gone!” Pascale shouted in frustration when he saw the message after he was resurrected.  Jeska still didn’t have anything that she could lose, since she couldn’t equip anything but her Tier 0 clothing and Training Weapon, and Rosara – despite being Tier 1 – didn’t have anything but her base outfit that came with her Class; it seemed as though those things were always going to be with them, no matter how many times they died.  Pascale, on the other hand, had been equipped with something that ended up being lost when he died, and he was understandably upset.

“I’m sure we’ll get some more at some point,” Jeska reassured him, but he was still grumpy – especially when the next round of items proved not to have anything for his Class.  In fact, they got unlucky with most of this current run through the dungeon, as 12 of the 14 Drop Chests were full of useless junk.  And the two things that they did receive that weren’t junk, they couldn’t use quite yet.

Drop Chest

Contents:

1X Skillbook – Remove Single Debuff Tier 2

[Healer Classes] (Unbound)

Drop Chest

Contents:

1X Iron-banded Shield +1 Toughness Tier 1

[Fighter Classes] (Unbound)

Arcen took the Iron-banded Shield, which would be useful at some point – if he ever got his Class, of course.  Kelty acquired the Skillbook, which was actually encouraging; the fact that she could eventually remove a “Debuff”, with which they all had been inflicted multiple times, was sure to be a life-saver.

But neither of those really helped them right now.

What they did do, however, was encourage them to get better, to keep going and acquire more items so that they didn’t feel like toddlers going up against a full-grown adult.  An accurate description, she thought, because with their “Training” Weapons it felt like they just couldn’t do enough damage to even the weakest monsters.  Sure, they eventually killed them, but it was usually through brutality instead of skill or finesse.  Seeing what Pascale could do with his Skills and his simple bronze knife was evidence that they could be better with the right equipment.  But he was only one Hero, with basic equipment. Although Rosara was their Support with powerful Skills of her own, she didn’t have any weapon other than her fists and her feet.

So they left the dungeon, waited 5 minutes, and did it all again.  They changed up a few of their tactics on their third run – which was nearly a disaster, but luckily Kelty managed to survive when everyone else died.  They collected the items from the Drop Chests…and did it again.

And again.

And again.

By the time they had finished 10 runs, Jeska was exhausted.  She had died in 6 of those fights, and it was wearing on her mind a little.  With a little more than 40 minutes to go in their allotted time, there was a general consensus between everyone that they were done for the day, with regard to the second room.  The wear and tear of experiencing serious injury and death was especially evident in her brother, who had died more than everyone else; he had only survived in 2 of the fights, whereas most of the others like her had only perished about half of the time.

They were improving, though.  In their last battle against the Bats, Serpents, and Boars, only Jeska and Rosara had died; it was through a measure of learning what worked and what didn’t that they were starting to get better.  That, and the fact that after opening over 100 Drop Chests, the squad had finally acquired another Class Orb Tier 1…for Arcen.  They now had a full-fledged Fighter, Scout, and Support Class in their group, and her brother was a beast.  With a few random pieces of equipment, including a shield and a sword to accompany his stiff dark-red outfit and heavy-duty leather boots, he was better able to withstand the Boars’ charges – and able to kill them faster with a weapon other than a blunt object.  But he was still only one Hero and couldn’t be everywhere, which was why 2 of them still died.

They spent the last of their time obliterating the first room over and over again, completing it 4 times by the end.  When they walked out of the dungeon for the last time that day, they found Percy’s group waiting for them.

“You guys don’t look so hot,” he said when he saw them, trying to be diplomatic.

Jeska couldn’t help but laugh.  “Oh, come off it.  We look like we just washed up on shore, don’t we?”

“Well, I didn’t want to say—”

She waved him off.  “No, it’s okay.  That’s what happens when you die so much.”

“What?  Don’t tell me you tried to kill that exploding monster again.”

Jeska just shook her head, not knowing exactly what to say, and Rosara took over.  The Mayor’s daughter had died the least of them – by 1 – and Jeska was finding it hard to talk to people right now.  “Listen up, before you go inside, there’s some things you need to know….”

Chapter 25

I’m not sure I can handle all of this death, Dwight.

The first group with Jeska and the others had just left the dungeon for the day, and it had been difficult to watch them continually coming inside and dying so much.  Over and over, only to do it again.

“This is the way it’s done, Clay.”  The baby dragonling looked apologetic, yet firm.  “Unless you can think of another way that benefits you both, this is the way it has to be.”

I know, but it’s…a lot.  He could tell that the constant death and resurrection had been bothering the Heroes, but they were already marginally used to it. By the end, they appeared a bit worn and ragged, which was why they had only tackled his first room during the last few visits, ending up without too much risk to themselves.

Clay was positive that if he had been a Hero before this, watching them dying over and over wouldn’t have fazed him.  Maybe that’s why it’s only former Heroes that end up as Dungeon Cores; no one else could handle it.  Except, of course, that he had to handle it, or else he wouldn’t be any use to them.  He had attempted to look away while it was happening, but it was always somehow in his periphery. The Dungeon Core could avoid directly watching, but he was somehow hyper-aware of it happening, anyway.

Regardless of his feelings, his second room had been a success.  An “unorthodox approach” – which was what Dwight had called it – but a success, nonetheless.  Not only were the Heroes gaining more items for their use, but they were also dying, giving Clay more Crystal Chips to work with.  If he had his choice, he would just make a few rooms full of extremely easy monsters – to give them the items they needed to get stronger – but that wouldn’t benefit anyone in the long-run.  The Heroes were learning to work together as a team, figuring out strategies that worked or didn’t work, and were becoming used to dying (which sounded very strange to his mind); if he made it easier, they wouldn’t gain those valuable experiences he knew they needed – and Clay wouldn’t get any Chips from them to develop himself.

Watching the drop rates of the different items that appeared, he saw that they were fairly consistent with the probability charts that Dwight had supplied to him.  There were a few outliers, such as more than a few extra weapons and armor compared to the other types of items that weren’t classified as Trash; with such a small sample size, however, those types of things could happen.  Once he saw more, he was sure the distribution would be more consistent with the figures he had seen.

“Clay?” Dwight asked, as he was listening to Jeska’s group talk about the changes in his dungeon to the next group.

Hmm…yes?

“You’re doing exactly what you should be doing.  I know this will be hard, but what you have created here is working very well – better than I was expecting, I’ll be honest,” she admitted.  “Especially based on your history as a Hero – or lack thereof.”

Thanks…but I still don’t like it.

“Just wait until they all acquire their Classes.  That’s when things will start to change.  It’s only right now that there is so much need for Resurrections; what you’ve seen here today is certainly not typical.”

Oh, yeah?  What is typical, then?

The baby dragonling settled down on the floor of his BOO, sighing heavily and expelling a little belch of flame in the process.  “It varies, of course, based on the current Core Stage of a Dungeon Core, but the range at your current Stage is usually between 10 and 30 a day.  You’ve already surpassed that within the first 4 hours. Like I said, this is not typical.”

I’m guessing that the difference is because these Heroes didn’t have a Guild to give them a head start, am I right?

“Precisely.  Once they get rolling, however, this period of time will have been very beneficial to them. Knowing themselves to be overwhelmed and outmatched by a monster or group of monsters will help when they go up against World Threats.  You can see that by their tenacity and determination to get better and deduce a way to beat your second room without dying.  One day, that will come, and it will be easy for them – and then they will move on to your next room, and the room after that, and so on and so forth.”

That sounded about right to Clay, but he realized that he had neglected to ask one important question.  Dwight?  How long does this process usually take?  A few months?

She was still for a moment, before a genuine laugh erupted from her lizard-like throat.  “What?  No, not a few months.”

That was a relief.  Oh, good; I was worried that I’d have to watch them for—

“Years, Clay.  Or more accurately, decades.  Most Heroes who are Tier 8 and above have been Heroes for upwards of 100 years, if not more.  There are exceptions, of course, but I highly doubt that any of these people will be ready to take on a World Threat – even in conjunction with each other – for at least a decade, and that’s being generous.”

…Why?

“Why, what?  You’ve seen the probabilities of the Drops, or at least the probabilities from your weaker monsters.  It gets a little better as they kill stronger monsters, but there is still a lot that needs to be collected by them in order to advance in their Tiers. Not only that, but they need to collect all of the equipment and Skills for their current Tier, in order to be effective.  Then they need to practice with those Skills and weapons until it becomes second-nature, so that when they finally tackle a World Threat, they don’t freeze up against impossible odds.”

Decades….  He thought he might be able to handle watching all of this death for a couple of months, even if it were hard, but years or decades?  It was an extremely daunting task.

“Then even if they are successful in eliminating a World Threat, there will inevitably be casualties, which means that more Heroes will be selected.  And where will they need to go to learn how to be a Hero? Your dungeon.  Plus, after a while, the Heroes won’t want to stop improving; they will continue to visit your dungeon to get even stronger—”

Ok, Dwight, you’re not helping.  If Clay could have had a panic attack, he would have been hyperventilating at that point.  What the innocent-looking baby dragonling was proposing was that Clay would be stuck there as a Dungeon Core indefinitely, watching people die over and over and over for as long as he survived.  But, if he refused to be what he was, he was dooming thousands or perhaps millions of people around the world, starting with the island he found himself on.

I never wanted any of this.

“I know, Clay, but you’re stuck with it.  You’ve done an excellent job already, and these people are counting on you.  Not just these new Heroes, but everyone else who is relying on them to save them when trouble comes knocking on their door.”

I’m well aware of that; but the problem is, I don’t think we have a decade to prepare these Heroes for the inevitable World Threat coming this way.

“What do you mean?  Have you sensed something?” she asked frantically.

I’m…not sure, he responded truthfully.  I can sense that it will eventually arrive, but I can’t tell you when.  Just that your timetable isn’t going to work for everyone.

Dwight was silent for a while after his revelation, so Clay watched the new group in action in his first room.  Just as they had the day before, they easily killed his monsters and only suffered some minor injuries in the process.  After they were done and finished picking up their drops (which had a single Skillbook for a Support Class as the only non-Trash drop), there was a discussion among all of the group members that got a little heated.

“No, I don’t think we should keep going, Percy.  I really don’t want to die,” whined one of the male Heroes, sounding quite un-Heroic at the moment.

“But we’ll be resurrected – you all know that!  I don’t see the harm in at least seeing if we can kill—

“I’ve heard things, Percy!  If we die, things will change!”

Percy – who Clay was assuming was the leader of the group based on how the others deferred to him – looked confused.  “What are you talking about?”

“Don’t tell me you didn’t see how people reacted to most of the others last night and this morning, Percy,” the other man scoffed.  “Even the Mayor looked distressed about being near his own daughter, and I could’ve sworn he looked frightened of her!”

The group leader just shook his head.  “You’re being ridiculous, Crade.  I think you’re misinterpreting things.”

“I think he’s right – I’ve heard some things, too.”  This came from one of the women in the group, who looked legitimately scared.

“Look, I don’t care what you’ve heard; there is no way we can get stronger unless we take some risks.  I’ve already gotten my Fighter Class, and it’s only a matter of time before you all get yours.  Do you think we’ll just continue killing these rats and plants for the rest of our lives?  We’re Heroes, so we better act like it!  All those people who you’re worried about being scared of us will die if we aren’t ready when a Threat appears.”

The others looked ashamed for a moment – all except for Crade, the one who started the argument.  “You knew about this, didn’t you?”

Percy was silent for a bit too long, and even Clay could tell it was an admission of guilt.

“I knew it!  What was your plan, Percy?  Were you going to lure us into the second room and then let the monsters kill us all?”

“NO!  That’s ridiculous!” the leader shouted.  “I had no plans for any of us to die, but we need to do this if we are going to be Heroes.  There isn’t any other choice – this is just the way it is.”

The others in the group looked resigned, but Crade was having none of it.  “I don’t think so – I’m not living the rest of my life this way!  I wish I had never become a Hero in the first place!”

That was apparently the worst thing he should’ve said, because what happened next disturbed Clay more than he wanted to admit, especially after the death he had witnessed from the previous group.  Crade suddenly started to shake uncontrollably, his face becoming dark red at the same time, and he lifted off the ground a few inches.

“Crade, what’s wrong?  Did he have a Class Orb I didn’t know about?”  Percy and the others tried to pull him back down and stop his shaking, but even with 4 of them helping it didn’t do any good.  Clay had to admit that it looked similar to the Class change he had seen undergone by a few Heroes by that point, but it was all wrong.

It was almost like the Hero process was reversing, instead of progressing like the others.  And it felt wrong, as if there was something unnatural about the whole thing.  As he watched, he noticed that the shaking of the man stopped, his face went back to normal, and then he drifted back down to the room’s floor.  When Clay looked at him with his Dungeon Core senses, he couldn’t see anything above his head like he could with the others, where the information he could see denoted their Hero Tier.

No, I was wrong – there is something there.  It was a few numbers that kept counting down, starting with 0:10, then 0:09, then 0:08—oh, no.

“Crade, are you okay?  What happened?”

He looked groggy, like he had just woken up from a long nap.  “I don’t…know.  I…it feels like something just got sucked out of my entire body…my Hero Status is gone!  Do you know what this means?”

“No, what?”

“I’m no longer a—”

Crade didn’t get a chance to finish his statement, because the Health Band that was still on his wrist flared up brightly; instead of white like it had been before, this time it was deep red.  Before anyone could react, Clay saw the red Band flare up, similar to how the Explosive Shamblers detonated from the inside; the next moment, the former Hero was blown to pieces starting near his wrist.

The explosion was great enough that it slammed into and killed the rest of the group, sending pieces of them all around the room, painting the once-green ferns in the room red with flames and blood.  Clay watched in shock as their bodies and bodily fluids were removed automatically by his dungeon, and he saw them resurrect in the entrance hallway moments later…missing one former Hero, however.

Dwight!  Clay had trouble even articulating a question; he was in more shock than even watching Jeska’s group resurrect for the first time.

“Being a Hero is an all-or-nothing duty to the world, Clay,” the baby dragonling said softly.  “There’s no going back once the decision has been made.  I’m sorry you had to see that.”

B-But he exploded!

“Not quite; it was his Band that exploded, which cannot be worn by a non-Hero.  Otherwise, it does…that.  If he had proclaimed his desire not to be a Hero anymore outside of the dungeon, he simply would have passed away in his sleep the next night.”

That’s insane!  All he wanted was not to be a Hero – what’s the harm in that?

“Yes, it’s not fair, but the world isn’t always fair, Clay.  There is something that you may not know, as it isn’t thoroughly known in the Hero community,” she continued, still speaking softly.  “There can only be a limited number of Heroes in the world at one time, and when someone chooses to become a Hero and then renounces their calling, they are…eliminated…so that another one will be able to take their place.”

So…he was killed to make room for another?  That is…that is…I don’t even have words for it!  Who made all of these rules?

“I do not possess that information.  What matters is that this was his choice, even if he didn’t know the consequences at the time.”

Clay was silent, as he processed everything that had happened.  Listening to the baby dragonling’s reasoning, he could see the purpose behind the practice, but it didn’t sit well with him.  It seemed like too harsh of a punishment for changing your mind, as it seemed simpler to just remove the Herohood from whoever wanted to leave their new profession.  As the 4 remaining Heroes woke up and questioned each other over the absence of Crade, he couldn’t help but feel sorry for them.  They had died unexpectedly, their group member had died permanently – and none of it had been their choice.

Can they still visit my dungeon?

“Yes; technically, groups of any size 5 and fewer can visit your dungeon – though that is not well-known and is generally discouraged.  Anyone trying to exceed that limit, however, will be expelled immediately.”

There was that at least.

“Look, Clay, I know that was a traumatic experience, but I’ve thought about what you said earlier.”

It took him a few seconds to remember what they had been talking about before…all that had happened.  What about it?

“There is a way that you might be able to speed up the process of training, and it also has to do with your previous question.”

Clay was so scatterbrained at the moment that he couldn’t understand what she was talking about.  Huh?

“It’s a major risk to you and your Core, especially right now with your Core Structure Health being so low, so it is entirely up to you whether you want to chance it.  No other Dungeon Core would risk this in your position – and it has never actually been done before – so you have a unique opportunity to be the first.”

Out with it – what are you talking about?

She told him, and he took some time to think about it.  Meanwhile, it appeared as though the group of Heroes – minus 1 now – had finally decided to continue their efforts to gather items.  Weeping and arguing were involved, but after about 15 minutes, they finally came to their inevitable conclusion.

“There’s nothing else for it now; unless we want to end up like Crade, this is what we have to do.  I still believe this is what we were meant to do, and I’m going to throw myself into this wholeheartedly.”  It surprised Clay that it wasn’t the leader, Percy, doing the talking; it was one of the others who had previously objected to moving on.  Whether or not they had a genuine change of heart, or were now resigned to being what they had chosen to be because they had died and been resurrected, the Dungeon Core didn’t know.  He assumed it wouldn’t matter in the end, though, because according to Dwight, it was either do this – or actually die.

He still didn’t like it – and he assumed that the Heroes that had seen one of their number explode didn’t like it either – but he understood it.

They had a little more difficulty killing all of the monsters in the first room with just 4 group members, but they had done it enough that they weren’t in too much danger.  With Percy outfitted with his Fighter Class, he was able to withstand more damage somehow and had a simple bronze short sword as part of his basic kit. Therefore, it wasn’t necessarily as easy as it had been, but they were able to clear the room without too many issues.

Needless to say, they didn’t even attempt the second room.  All they did was collect their items from the Drop Chests, leave, and then come back inside to do it all again.

Three weeks.  I want to see how they do before I act on what you suggested.

The dragonling nodded her head in confirmation.  “Very prudent of you, and it will allow them to acquire the basics of what they need, at least.  Plus, it will give you the opportunity to prepare for it by raising your Core Stage – which shouldn’t take long if the other groups are like the first.”

That was undoubtedly true.  Already that day, the Heroes in Jeska’s group had died 30 times over the 4-hour period; he had expected to receive 750 Crystal Chips from those deaths, but it was 125 Chips more than that.

“You were only getting 25 Crystal Chips from the deaths of the Tier 0 Heroes; they had a Support Class Tier 1, remember, and you received double that amount.  This will only increase as they get stronger and increase in Tiers.”

Ah, ok.  Regardless, he nearly had enough to increase his Core Stage again (which required 1,000 Chips) or go on a shopping spree of Spawn Egg buying; he expected that by the end of the day, he’d probably be able to do a little bit of both.  As he saw Percy’s reduced group leave his dungeon for the day and the next group come inside, a bit rattled-looking after hearing what happened to Crade, he settled in for the long haul.

And he did his best to try to ignore the Heroes’ deaths as they tackled his second dungeon room.

Chapter 26

“We’ve been doing this for 4 days, and no one knew about this?  I’m glad there aren’t any other Heroes from the mainland here, because they’d look at us like a green deckhand on their first voyage.”

Granted, Jeska had to admit that a lot had happened in those 4 days and it all sort of blended together in a bit of a blur, but how is it that only now are we figuring this out?  She felt foolish and extremely ignorant, which weren’t normal feelings for her, but at least they were trying to rectify the situation.

It all started when they were finishing up their 4th “shift” inside of the dungeon, which was going extremely well – just like everyone had experienced so far.  Even Percy and his group were challenging the 2nd room now, especially since they woke to find that a brand-new Hero had been chosen (via the appearance of another Class Orb Tier 0) to join their ranks in the morning.  Sarah couldn’t replace Crade, who had apparently blown up when he had renounced his desire to be a Hero, but the former merchant’s daughter was already getting integrated into the group.

Wow, had that been a shock.  When word got out to the other Heroes about what had happened to Crade, it had sent waves of apprehension and even panic through them all.  “What if it happens to us?” and “Will I just blow up one day?” were whispered among many of the new Heroes, but when another Hero was “found” the next day, they all understood what it meant.  If they didn’t want to be a Hero, they had better buck it up and do it anyway, because once they had chosen the duty, there wasn’t any way to back out.  If they chose to renounce that duty, the world would choose another.

It was harsh, but it also sadly made sense.  If they didn’t work to get stronger to defend against the inevitable Threat that was coming their way, if a Hero skimped on the duty that they had taken on to save their fellow people and the world, then they were worse than useless – they were obviously taking up a spot on the Hero team that could be filled by someone who would do their duty.  Why it had to result in someone dying for that to happen, Jeska nor anyone else knew, but that was apparently the way it was.

Instead of scaring them even further or causing them to hesitate in their journey to get stronger, this news actually invigorated all the Heroes – including Jeska.  Yes, the fate of Crade was horrible, disturbing, unfair, and completely unnecessary – in her opinion – but it also inspired her to strive to be the best she could be.  Not because she was afraid of any type of retribution if she didn’t do her best, but because she had been given this duty to succeed, and the only one holding her back from being great was herself.  Well, herself and her group, of course.

And her group was doing quite well, if she could be so bold as to brag a little.  All of the groups were, in fact, though it had taken a couple of days or “shifts” in the dungeon to get a lot of the challenges figured out.  But her group, in particular, was leading the way as far as progress, as they had just reached the third room of the dungeon – after finally managing to have everyone survive against the onslaught of monsters in the second.  All it took was a ruthlessness that none of them thought they had in them; but when they brought it out, something changed in the way they fought.

It feels…insane sometimes, the way we’ve been forced to fight.  But I guess that is exactly what we should be feeling.  It all stemmed from the abandonment of fear.  It sounds simple, but having died dozens of times by that point, Arcen showed first what it meant to just…let go.  He let go of any fear of pain, any fear for his own life, and concentrated on what he was there to do.

“Alright, I’ve had enough of these defensive strategies—it’s time to take the fight to them,” he had said near the end of their 3rd “shift”, before running inside ahead of them, completely disregarding their plan.  Jeska knew exactly what they were talking about. Almost all of their plans to that point had largely been to run inside as a group, and then defend against the monsters as they came to them. There were alterations to this strategy, dependent on their placement in the room, or even having 1 or 2 of them break off to attempt to attack from behind; for the most part, though, it was all based on one strategy: defense.

There were more of the monsters than there were of them, so it had made the most sense – and it had worked…for the most part.  Even by that point someone would die – or even 2 of them – when they cleared the room.  Not even the addition of Kelty as an actual Healer Class, via a Class Orb, they had picked up as a drop recently was enough to prevent it.

But Arcen changed all of that when he charged into the room, taking the fight to the monsters instead of waiting for the fight to come to them.  He had a Skill that he hadn’t really had a chance to take advantage of, called “Rush”, which allowed him to hustle across the floor of the dungeon at incredible speed – faster than Pascale, in fact – and slam into a monster, stunning it.  When her brother used it, he shot across the room and hit one of the Boars, knocking it off balance; from there, the entire fight turned into a chaotic scene with which Jeska and the others were barely able to navigate.

Every monster in the room targeted him, but Arcen didn’t care – he, in fact, welcomed it.  He no longer had a shield or powerful weapon, upon losing them mid-resurrection, but he still did have his basic Bronze Sword – which he used like a madman as he shouted some sort of incomprehensible growl, cutting left, right, and above him, hitting anything that came within range.  He didn’t care if he was getting gored, bitten, envenomed, or slowed because of the Ice Bats – he just kept going.  And it worked…sort of.

The abrupt change in plan was too much for Jeska and the others to quickly adapt, so they got there a little too late.  Jeska and Pascale tried to help by attacking the monsters from behind, while Rosara managed to “Captivate” one of the Serpents.  Neither of those actions was enough to save her brother, who was rapidly losing Health.  Kelty tried to use her one healing Skill called “Minor Mending“ on him, but there were so many monsters around that she couldn’t safely get to him; for Minor Mending to take effect, the new Healer would have needed to be within 3 feet of her target.

And that was when they came to the realization that it was never going to be safe.  If Kelty had waded into the fray, jumped over a Serpent or 2, then she might have been able to save him.  If Jeska and Pascale had thrown themselves at the monsters with abandon, without fear of getting bit or gored, then perhaps they also could’ve allowed Arcen an extra few seconds to defend himself and survive.  Even Rosara, having no weapon other than her singing and dancing, could’ve gone in and distracted a monster, giving him the extra chance to recover from the onslaught.

Arcen ended up dying, but he had killed 3 monsters – 1 of each kind, in fact – and damaged the others so much that it was easy enough for the rest of the group to finish them off. But it was the way he had gone in there, let all of the fear of pain and death go, that inspired the rest of them.  Basically, it came down to it not really mattering in the end; they would either die and be resurrected, or have their wounds healed – even the most grievous were no match for the Health Bands.  A Boar even ripped off half of Kelty’s hand once…and it regrew!  Quite disgusting to watch, but remarkable, nonetheless.

It took until their 4th shift in the dungeon before they managed to eradicate all of the monsters in the second room without anyone dying, though they were all at least half-dead.  Still, it was a remarkable accomplishment; it was especially remarkable because they still didn’t have 1 of every Class.  All they were missing was Jeska’s Mage Class, but even after over 400 times opening up Drop Chests, none had dropped.

Sadly, as far as Jeska was concerned, they had acquired multiple Class Orbs for each of the other Classes – Rosara even had 4 Support Class Orbs Tier 1 that she had picked up – but not a single Mage was to be found.  The same thing was happening with the other groups; they had acquired all but one of the Classes, but it wasn’t the Mage Class that they didn’t have – it was one of the others.

The problem was that they hadn’t discovered how to give an Orb that someone had picked up to someone else.  Despite trying multiple ways to open up each person’s Inventory and exchange them that way, or even thinking about giving them away, nothing worked; it seemed impossible.  Until they were preparing for their latest attempt at defeating the 3rd room, near the end of their 4th shift, circumstances amid which revealed the simple means of doing so.

The third room wasn’t what they had expected, because it wasn’t the same room with the glowing ceiling that Jeska, Arcen, and Rosara had seen when they visited the dungeon before they were even Heroes.  Instead of the hallway going straight ahead after the second room, it made a 90-degree turn so that it led off to the left quite a way, until it opened up in a large room that was quite dark in comparison to everywhere else.

They had soon found out that this was where the Debuff-causing Spider from the original second room had gone.  Fortunately, the Explosive Shambler – which had caused so much death all by itself – wasn’t there; unfortunately, the Cave Spider had brought some scary friends.

Cloth hung from the ceiling again, and spiderwebs cluttered up the edges of the room, but there were other things this time. There were only 2 torches in the entire room, one near the entrance and one near where she assumed the exit was, leaving the rest of the room in darkness. In that darkness, they had come to find out, were small depressions in the floor that were seemingly randomly placed – and virtually impossible to distinguish.  One misstep, and a Hero’s foot would fall inside, above the knee.  Many a broken ankle or wrenched knee resulted from these pits of despair, albeit that they weren’t deep enough to kill anyone.

There were also pools of slimy, unidentifiable goop lying on the ground, which was simultaneously disgusting, slippery, and distracting.  All of which contributed to the difficulty in determining what was safe and what was dangerous – because so much was perilous inside the room.  It was hard to fully evaluate what that was, however, because they still hadn’t identified exactly what all was in there other than the Cave Spider they had seen before.

They knew for sure there was another Boar, which could strike out of the shadows suddenly and then retreat, breaking bones or tearing large gashes in their legs as it went by.  How it moved so silently was a mystery, but it seemed to just appear out of nowhere with its dark fur, and they had no means of illuminating the darkness; they had tried to bring some torches or an oil lamp, but it disappeared from their hands as soon as they entered the dungeon, becoming inaccessible in their Inventory.

There were also more Bats, but whether there were only 2 or a dozen was difficult to tell in the darkness.  All they knew was that they were constantly attacked out of nowhere, and the flap of wings a split-second before they were scratched or bitten was the only warning they got.

It wasn’t as though they didn’t have any successes; a few times they were able to kill a Bat or the Cave Spider, and they thought they had killed the Boar – but all that was essentially inconsequential.  It was for another reason that they hadn’t been able to survive, and they were beginning to suspect that it was a monster a lot stronger than the others – a 2-Star monster like the Shambler, perhaps.  The problem was that they couldn’t even see it, and it arrived and attacked so quickly that there was no retaliation possible.

Jeska, herself, had gotten her throat slit by something sharp – likely a knife of some sort – and was stabbed in the back another time.  Each of those attacks was something that she could heal from, if Kelty was able to get to her in time; but the problem with a lot of their Skills was there needed to be a valid target for them. When you couldn’t see your target, they were basically useless.

So, they were trying a bunch of different tactics and continued to try using some sort of outside source of illumination, which led to their fortuitous discovery.

“Are you sure you can’t get that Lanternfish out of your Inventory,” she asked Pascale.  They had given up on torches and normal lanterns working in the dungeon, so they had resorted to trying to carry a live Lanternfish (which had scales that glowed similar in effect to a lantern) in a small box with seawater in it, but that didn’t seem to be working, either.

“No, it’s still doing nothing whenever I choose it,” he said, frustrated.  His face was blank for a moment – true for them all, as they perused their Hero Status – before he said, “Uh-oh, Rosara.  I think I accidentally picked up your Support Class Orb that dropped from the last room.  I wish there were some way I could just hold it in my hand and then give it to you—”

He cut off as a small red Orb appeared in his outstretched hand, startling them all.  “Wha—?!  What just happened?” he shouted, staring in confusion at the object in his hand.

Jeska couldn’t believe it was that simple.  They had tried opening up Inventories and moving things that way, opening up their Class Orbs Available chart and attempting to trade Orbs with someone else, and any number of other things…but no one had tried to simply imagine an Orb in their hand that they could give away.  Probably because of all the items we’ve picked up in here, we’ve never actually seen these particular Orbs other than as words in the Drop Chests.

From there, it was easy enough for Pascale to give the Support Class Orb to Rosara by literally handing it to her.  Some experimentation revealed that they could do the same with Tier 1 weapons and armor, as well as potions and Skillbooks they had picked up over the last 4 days.  Anything Tier 2, however, was apparently “bound” to their Inventories as soon as they were picked up.

“We’ve been doing this for 4 days, and no one knew about this?  I’m glad there aren’t any other Heroes from the mainland here, because they’d look at us like a green deckhand on their first voyage.”

It was a joint decision by everyone in the group to end their time in the dungeon a little bit early.  Rounding up all of the other Hero groups took a little time, since some of those that had been inside the dungeon last night were sleeping, but their grumbling at being woken up was soon put to rest when they found out about the technique Pascale had inadvertently discovered.

“Does anyone have any extra Mage Class Orbs?” Jeska shouted, trying to be heard over the excited crowd of Heroes.  They had gathered together in one of the strangest trading experiences she had ever seen, mainly because there was no currency being exchanged.  Weapons, armor, Skillbooks, and Class Orbs were being exchanged at a rapid rate, and people were getting what they needed – so Jeska thought it was about time for her to get what she needed, too.

“I have an extra Mage Orb,” she heard from behind her.  Jeska turned around and saw a man she recognized as a former merchant and he smiled at her; uh-oh, this could cost me.

“What do you want for it?”  It was an important question, because almost everything from the dungeon was potentially valuable, but the Orbs were especially valuable.  Not just because Orbs bestowed a Class, but because – as had been discovered – they were needed to improve your Tier.  If someone were to collect 20 Mage Class Orbs that were Tier 1, they could be combined somehow to create a Mage Class Orb Tier 2.  While it only required 1 Tier 1 Orb to gain their initial Class, it required 2 Tier 2 Class Orbs in order to advance your to Tier 2; that meant that you’d need at least 40 of the same Class Orb Tier 1 in order to advance.

Or, as one group had obtained, you could just get lucky and find a Class Orb Tier 2 in one of the Drop Chests – and be halfway there.  It was apparently an extreme rarity, but it was possible.

“For all the monsters we’ve killed, I can’t seem to get any gear for my Class.  I’ll trade you a Mage Class Orb for…2 pieces of armor and a weapon.”

Jeska didn’t know how he knew, but that was exactly what she had collected over the last few days.  She had a Linen Robe, a Copper Circlet for her head, and an Oak Staff – all of them giving bonuses to Intellect.  The Mage Class – so she had observed in the other groups – came equipped with a simple Pine Staff that had no bonuses, so anything that improved that was powerful.  Intellect, she had learned, was what made their spells more powerful – not that there were many that they had access to right away.

After asking around for the last 15 minutes, she knew that this was her last chance to acquire a Class for herself, unless her party got lucky over the next few shifts and obtained an Orb from a drop.  Still, she wasn’t going to give up so much of her hard-earned gear so quickly.

“How about this…”  Jeska negotiated with the former merchant, and she was pretty sure she still got taken advantage of; it ended up costing her the Robe and Staff, as well as a Minor Cooldown Potion she got from Kelty’s Inventory.  The Minor Cooldown Potion was incredible, as it immediately cut down active cooldowns for all your Skills by 35% – and it had 5 charges before it was completely consumed.  They had already used 3 of the charges, so it wasn’t that much of a loss in the end.

She couldn’t wait, just like the handful of people at the impromptu trading extravaganza; she had already seen those that had acquired the Class Orb they needed to use them.  Seeing their unclad bodies rising in the air as they screamed in both pain and excitement barely fazed her by that point, as she had seen so much death over the last few days that very little shocked her.

Jeska opened up her Class Orbs Available selection on her Hero Status, located the single Mage Class Orb, and then concentrated on it.

Would you like to absorb Mage Class Orb Tier 1?

Yes / No

Warning: Absorbing this Class Orb will consume it entirely.

Selecting Yes, she immediately felt as though she had been punched in the chest.  The next moment, she felt an unimaginable pain shoot through her entire body, and she felt the clothes on her body disappear.  The visual aspects of her transformation were of a much less concern, however, as the agony shooting through her body – and her head in particular – was so powerful that it blocked everything else out.

It seemed to last an eternity.  After what felt like decades of constant pain, she found that the pain was gradually replaced with a feeling of contentment and…completeness, if that made any sense.  It was as if she had finally become what she was meant to be, and through her painful “rebirth” she had found her true calling.

She was a Hero; more than that, she was a Mage.

Jeska nearly stumbled as her feet touched the floor of the Mayor’s meeting hall, where they were conducting their get together.  Opening eyes that she hadn’t even realize were closed, she looked around and saw her group smiling at her.  Arcen reached her first and slapped her on the back, causing her to stumble, which also clued her in to the fact that she was newly outfitted.  Looking down, she saw she was dressed in a simple black robe, cut to fit her perfectly; it was comfortable without being unbearable even in the heat of the day, and it was loose enough in places that she didn’t feel confined.  Opening her Inventory, she saw that it was called a Basic Mage Robe – the same kind that all of the other Mages possessed.  There was also a Pinewood Staff, which she immediately chose to equip, and it appeared in her hands.

This…this feels right.  Hefting it in her hands, she smiled as she looked down at it.  The weapon wasn’t necessarily something that she would use like she had her Training Weapon, though it could certainly be used to bash at a monster or two if necessary. Instead, it felt more like a focus than anything.  Jeska also equipped the one piece of armor she had saved from having to trade away, her Copper Circlet, and she felt its weight settle on her head; at the same time, her mind felt even sharper than it had just a moment ago.  In fact, her mind seemed to be racing in all sorts of directions all at once, so she had to spend a moment reining it back in.

Looking at her Hero Status certainly helped.

Hero Status

Name:

Jeska Porter

Hero Name:

(None Chosen)

Class:

Mage

Tier:

1

Health:

10/10

Intellect:

3 (+1 equipped)

Attack:

1

Speed:

2

Defense:

1

Inventory

Class Orbs Available

Class Skills (New)

There it was: Intellect.  She wasn’t quite sure if “4” was a good Intellect to have or just average, but she could see that her Copper Circlet was adding +1 to what she had already.  The statistic was higher than any of the others, at least, so that had to be a good thing.

She also saw that she finally had a Skill!  She wasn’t sure what Skill she would get, since it appeared as though it wasn’t a set Skill or Skills that you received when you obtained an actual Class. Jeska opened up her Class Skills to take a look.

Class Skills

Name

Cooldown (secs)

Base Class

Tier

Upgrade

Dazzle (New)

20

Mage

1

1/5

Ice Shard (New)

15

Mage

1

1/5

Awesome!  But what do they do--?  She didn’t have to wonder long, because as soon as she looked at each Skill on the list, she intuitively knew what they did – and how to perform each of her new Skills.  She had wondered how her groupmates had known how to use their Skills so quickly, as well as their limitations, but now it made more sense.

Ice Shard was what it sounded like: Using some sort of inner energy, she could form and propel a small shard of ice about 4 inches long and an inch wide at great speed towards a target.  The keyword there was “target”, which made using it in the 3rd room nearly impossible.  It would certainly be useful elsewhere, though, because it was a ranged attack that she could activate every 15 seconds.

To help with seeing in the 3rd room, her other Skill – Dazzle – might work, but she’d have to see it in action before she could guarantee that.  What it basically did was create an extremely bright flash of light within 20 feet of her position; it would potentially “dazzle” the eyes of those who were near it, blinding them for a short time, though that could also include her and her groupmates.  The best part of it, however, was that it didn’t require a target; she could use it in any space she designated in her mind.

“Things are going to change now, guys,” Jeska finally said when she saw the others looking expectantly at her.  “I think this is actually going to be fun.”

Chapter 27

Clay was finally enjoying himself, watching the way the Heroes were surviving longer and longer in his dungeon.  Yes, he was receiving a smaller influx of Crystal Chips every day –  instead of a flood, it was more of a steady contribution to his growing accumulation of resources; regardless, he would rather them survive longer instead of being slaughtered over and over and over.  It added some variety, at least.

Near the beginning of the 4th day of the constant visitations by the Heroes, an event happened that Dwight mentioned as a turning point that he needed to be aware of.

“I had been wondering why they didn’t all have their Classes yet,” the baby dragonling mused.  It was just after Jeska’s group left the dungeon a short time before they were scheduled to leave.  It had been mentioned by more than one group of Heroes that they only had 4 hours in which to enter Clay’s dungeon, and a pattern had emerged by that time that was fairly obvious to the Dungeon Core.  So, when they left early, that also had caught his attention.  “I would use this time to make some changes, since you really haven’t had an opportunity.”

Why?  What did all of that mean?

“It means that if they didn’t know that they could trade Tier 1 Class Orbs and certain other items before, they do now.  When they come back, they will be stronger than ever.”

He intuitively knew exactly what she was talking about.  Over the last few days, he had seen all of the groups become better, either through simple experience with fighting against monsters, through stronger weapons and armor, or when they finally acquired a Class.  The jump in their effectiveness would at least double from their Classless state before, and that made a huge difference.  If all of them had Classes, he could finally see them tearing through his 1-Star monsters with ease.

“That’s exactly how it should be; this was a unique situation because they all started without a Class.  Having built themselves up from nothing, however, will probably make them that much more effective.”

He had certainly seen as much.  No one had managed to get through his 3rd room to his Boss Room yet, but they had been close.  Clay had made the room difficult on purpose, because he wanted to challenge them…but he had been limited in how many Stars he could use in the room.  After using 9 in the room before, he was left with only 6 to make use of, in fact.

Therefore, he had basically just moved his former 2nd room to his new 3rd, which he had created after he achieved Core Stage 2.  It had the same spiderwebs and hanging cloth to make it spookier, but he had also added some obstacles.  The slippery goop was actually spoiled jam, though not made from any particular fruit; he had slipped on some when he was younger and had fallen down some stairs, so he knew exactly how annoying it could be.  All he had to do was imagine how much of it he wanted and where he wanted it, and it appeared.

The holes in the floor weren’t a trap or anything – they were more of an environmental hazard; he found that he could shift these small gaps in the flooring (and the spoiled jam) around when the Heroes were outside, though only a slight bit.  Since he wasn’t adding or taking anything away, it didn’t cost any Chips, but there was only so much he could do without more time.

For the monsters in the room, he currently only had a total of 5 – but they were particularly effective together.

- 1 Cave Spider★

- 1 Bog Boar★

- 2 Shade Bats★

- 1 Gloom Kobold★★

It didn’t seem like a lot compared to the 9 monsters in the 2nd room, but this group had 2 advantages.  One, there was a 2-Star monster, the Gloom Kobold, that he exchanged for the Explosive Shambler in his Boss Room; as had been seen before, a 2-Star monster was particularly powerful and was a force to be reckoned with all by itself.  However, the second advantage the room had made it even more powerful.

Elemental Resonance: Shadow’s Embrace

(Have at least 5 monsters with a Dark Elemental Affinity)

Debuff Effects +30%

Stealth +30%

The stealth bonus to the monsters in the room made them even harder to detect, even more than the simple darkness imparted by the lack of light.  It helped to muffle the sounds they made as they moved around, and allowed them to effectively sneak up on the Heroes even when they were being especially vigilant.  Of course, even this room wouldn’t be enough of a challenge for long.

There was a reason Dwight had mentioned using this time to enact some changes, because anything significant was essentially impossible when there had been Heroes in his dungeon within 15 minutes.  Since there really hadn’t been much of a break since they had started 4 days ago, those 15 minutes had never materialized; the most time his dungeon had been left alone was a little over 10 minutes – not nearly enough to do anything, even to increase his Stage or summon more Spawn Eggs.

“You can always shut down your dungeon for a limited time, like I told you, but this way you don’t have to interrupt the flow of Heroes coming inside.”  Dwight had mentioned that, especially when it became obvious that he wasn’t going to have a moment to himself and his dungeon anytime soon, and he had been accumulating so many Chips that he felt, honestly, rich.  Or at least rich in terms of Dungeon Cores, though he imagined that his current amount of Chips was paltry in comparison to Cores that had been around for decades or even centuries.

Core Assessment and Transcribed Status

Core Name:

Clayburnside “The Denominator” Shuntwise

Core Stage:

2

Core Structure Health:

5/20

Crystal Chips:

14363 (1000 to next Core Stage)

Star Limit for Placement:

25

Available Monsters:

46/75

Available Traps:

3 (No Limit)

Available Dungeon Spells:

0 (No Limit)

Summoning Portal

Dungeon Interface

Sacrificial Altar

There had been exactly 337 deaths over the last few days since he had increased his Core Stage, and he had kept track of them; he wasn’t exactly sure why he decided to first tally them, but he found that it was somehow therapeutic and helped him cope with all of the death.  Fortunately, as time went on, there were fewer and fewer deaths as the Heroes got stronger and learned from their mistakes; even given that, the tide of Chips had only diminished a little bit.  The reason for that was because many of the recent deaths were Heroes with a Tier 1 Class, which was worth 50 Chips.

In all, 201 of the deaths were Tier 1 Heroes with a Class, as opposed to 136 that were Tier 0 with no Class; Clay gained a little over 3,000 Chips from the Tier 0’s and over 10,000 from the Tier 1’s. Added to what he had before – which wasn’t all that much after increasing his Core Stage, summoning more Spawn Eggs, and building his new 3rd room – he now had a whopping and unprecedented 14,363 Crystal Chips.

I still don’t want to enact the idea you had earlier, but I agree about needing to act fast.  I have a feeling they’ll be through my 3rd room very soon, and it’ll only be my Boss Room in between my BOO and them.  And based on how insatiable some of these Heroes are in gaining more item drops, I don’t want to take a chance that they get through that and try destroying my Core in the hope of finding better gear or another Class Orb.

Before he ran out of time, Clay started to create hallways leading from his 3rd room in 3 different directions.  He had a lot of time to think while seeing so many Heroes dying over the last few days, and he realized he didn’t want things to be so linear anymore.  He wanted them to have options in where they chose to go, depending on how much of a challenge they wanted.  He had thoughts of rooms varying in difficulty, from easy to average to nightmarish – so that’s what he built.  He spared no expense in creating these three rooms, using just under 100 Crystal Chips (which would’ve been a lot only a few days ago).

The “Easy” room was relatively small compared to his other two new rooms, at only 50 feet long and wide, with 20-foot ceilings.  The “Average” room was twice as large, with 30-foot ceilings and 100-foot-long walls.  The “Nightmare” room was even larger, though this one was set up more as a rectangular box rather than as a square cube; it was 50 feet wide and 400 feet long, with Glowstone patches on the ceiling.  He didn’t make the same mistake of doing the entire ceiling like he had with his Boss Room, and he found that if he just made a small section every couple of feet, it worked just as well – at a fraction of the cost.

Before he added any type of environmental décor to the rooms, however, he had to find something to fill them with.  He still had some monsters to choose from even after stocking his other rooms, but not quite enough for what he had in mind.  Therefore, he needed a lot more to pick through, which was easily possible with his large store of Crystal Chips, but there was a problem – he could only have up to 75 monsters right now.  When he added in his Star Limit of 25, he was at a standstill until he did something to change that.

Obviously, it was time to increase his Core Stage again…perhaps even more than once.

His daily accumulation had been converting into Core Structure Health over the last few days, which was why he was back up to 5/20; going through the Stage increase process could potentially eliminate all that he had restored.

“You’re going to have to risk it, unfortunately; if you wait any longer, you could still have the same problem in the future.”  Clay knew what Dwight meant; even if he waited another few days when his CSH was higher, there was a chance that he could still lose it all.  A lesser chance, granted, but still a possibility according to the probabilities.

So, he spent 1,000 of his Crystal Chips and braced for the ripping pain of Core Structure Health loss…and nothing happened.

Your Core Stage has been increased!

Current Core Stage: 3

Fortunately, during the process you did not lose any Core Structure Health!

Current Core Structure Health: 5

Remaining Crystal Chips: 13363

New Star Limit!  25 --> 40

New Monster Limit!  75 --> 100

New (Crystal Chip) Daily Accumulation!  2 --> 3

Yes!  None of my CSH was lost!  He was very glad he hadn’t lost any more, because he didn’t want to be reset back down to 1; that, and the pain was not fun from the process, so in his book it was always good to avoid it if possible.

But now that I’ve increased my Core Stage, I see that the next one only costs 1,500 Chips…should I go for it?

The baby dragonling by his side snorted…adorably.  “You’re still facing the same even odds as you just were, so there really isn’t any point in delaying it.  Having a higher Core Stage is always better, as it will give you more to work with.”

Good point.  He knew that it was a gamble, but he didn’t really have too many other choices that would benefit him more.  So, he spent another 1,500 Chips and did it again.

Your Core Stage has been increased!

Current Core Stage: 4

Fortunately, during the process you did not lose any Core Structure Health!

Current Core Structure Health: 5

Remaining Crystal Chips: 11863

New Star Limit!  40 --> 60

New Monster Limit!  100 --> 125

New (Crystal Chip) Daily Accumulation!  3 --> 5

It worked!  Again, he didn’t lose any of his CSH and he was now Core Stage 4!  With a new Star Limit of 60, he figured he could do a lot with that.  However, when he saw how much the next Core Stage was – which was only 2,500 Chips – he had to stop and think about it for a second.  It was much less than he thought it would be, and he had more than enough to afford it, but he had already gambled twice and come out on top of the probabilities.

That wasn’t the biggest deal, however, because he had to think about the Summoning Portal and its different Spawn Eggs – and the Bundle Packs that were offered.  He technically had enough Chips at the moment to purchase, believe it or not, an Epic Spawn Egg!  It cost 10,000 Chips, but it also provided the best opportunity to obtain an extremely powerful Monster, which would help him feel more secure about the safety of his Dungeon Core.  The downside of purchasing the Epic Egg, however, was the fact that there was still a 1% probability of getting a 1-Star monster; even if that 1-Star was somehow Legendary in Rarity, it still wouldn’t make up for the 10,000 Chips he spent on it.

A step down from the Epic Spawn Egg was the Mystical Spawn Egg, and he could afford to purchase Bundle Pack #2 – 10 Mystical Spawn Eggs!  The Bundle Pack came with the guarantee of something 6-Star, which could mean either a monster or a trap.  That was the sticking point for Clay when it came to the Mystical Eggs; there was approximately a 60% chance that it would be a monster and just under a 40% chance that it would be a trap.  While he was planning on putting some traps in the “nightmare” room and even the hallway leading to his Boss Room, they weren’t as important to Clay’s plans as monsters were.

For one, traps didn’t provide any type of “reward” for getting past them safely; two, the purpose behind them (from what Dwight had implied) was to teach Heroes to stay on their toes, figure out how to solve problems, and to be ready for the unexpected – none of which were going to help right now.  In the future, the benefits they could provide would be invaluable, but for now Clay was going to use them only as a means to keep the Heroes away from his BOO.

Then there were the Common Spawn Eggs and the Bundle Pack #1 – which he could buy hundreds of, if he chose to do so.  While the majority of the Eggs would undoubtedly be Common 1-Star monsters (other than the guaranteed 3-Stars), that wasn’t necessarily a bad thing.  If what Dwight had mentioned about each of the monsters were true, he would be able to “evolve” the monsters if he had enough of them.  For instance, he currently had 7 different Common 1-Star Rats; if he obtained 3 more, he could somehow combine them together to create a 2-Star Rat.  Then, if he obtained 9 more 2-Star Rats (either through the evolution of 90 more 1-Star Rats or by finding them inside of Spawn Eggs), he could create a 3-Star Rat.

Whether it would be worth collecting so many of these monsters in order to do that was a whole other matter to consider.  Right now, with his current Monster Limit, he could hold up to 125 monsters. That seemed like a lot, but if he were trying to accumulate enough of the 7 different kinds of Common 1-Stars (technically 8, but he wasn’t holding onto Cats) to evolve into 2-Stars, he would need at least half of his capacity to accommodate them.  Then, if he did want to evolve them even further, he would need to have more space to hold those….

Pretty soon, he would be out of capacity, and forced to sacrifice some to the Altar.  Unless he specialized and only kept certain types of monsters, for instance only keeping Serpents and Boars, then the rest could be sacrificed each time he got them.  But what if all of the Spawn Eggs start giving me loads of the other monsters, and I rarely get any more Serpents and Boars?  There were a lot of factors to consider, and to the forefront of those factors was what he wanted to achieve—

“Wow, you certainly do think a lot about this, don’t you?” Dwight said with an edge of impatience.  “You had better hurry in whatever you choose to do, because you’re running out of time.”

She was right, as usual, and he was wasting time.  Besides, he had already thought about all of it while he was waiting for this opportunity, so there was no use rehashing his thoughts on the fact that the probabilities (in general) weren’t all that much better with a Mystical Spawn Egg than a Common Spawn Egg for better monsters.  Yes, they were certainly better if he wanted a 4, 5, or 6-Star monster, but those weren’t precisely what he needed right now.  They would be nice to have, but he needed quantity over quality – and the best way to do that was to purchase a whole bunch of Bundle Pack #1s.

But first, to gamble with his Health again…

Your Core Stage has been increased!

Current Core Stage: 5

Unfortunately, during the process you have lost some Core Structure Health!

CSH Lost: 3

Current Core Structure Health: 2

Remaining Crystal Chips: 9363

New Star Limit!  60 --> 85

New Monster Limit!  125 --> 150

New (Crystal Chip) Daily Accumulation!  5 --> 8

Owwwwwww!  The sharp spike of pain reverberated through his Dungeon Core as Clay experienced another loss of his Core Structure Health.  It took him a moment to stabilize his mind after the experience, and when he did he saw that he had lost most of his CSH – but not all of it.  I don’t think I’ll ever get used to that…nor would I want to, I suppose.

That was just the first step, however, because he wasn’t done yet.  Now that he was nearly at the point of having nothing to lose, he spent another 4,000 Crystal Chips to increase his Core Stage for the 4th – and final – time.

Your Core Stage has been increased!

Current Core Stage: 6

Fortunately, during the process you did not lose any Core Structure Health!

Current Core Structure Health: 2

Remaining Crystal Chips: 5363

New Star Limit!  85 --> 115

New Monster Limit!  150 --> 175

New (Crystal Chip) Daily Accumulation!  8 --> 13

He had tried to brace himself for the potential of another bout of damage to his Core Structure Health, but it was thankfully unneeded.  The cost to increase his Core Stage was now at 6,500 Crystal Chips – out of his budget for the moment – so now it was time to purchase some Spawn Eggs.

Common Spawn Eggs, of course, in the Bundle Pack #1.  And not just a few like he had before, but a whole bunch of them.  He quickly purchased his first Pack and started to tap them open, one-by-one in rapid succession….

Chapter 28

As he had predicted – and generally how the probabilities were explained to him – most of what he opened up in the first 10 Bundle Packs he purchased with a total of 450 Crystal Chips were Common 1-Star monsters.  There were a total of 13 Common 1-Star Cats of different kinds, which he promptly sacrificed to the Altar (which he had yet to tire of, since he still really didn’t like any type of cat), which left 87 other monsters and traps for him to work with.

Of those 87, 56 of them were Common 1-Star monsters that were composed of Bats, Rats, Spiders, Boars, Slimes, and Ferns. For some reason, there weren’t any Serpents as part of that group.  In addition, unlike his expectations, there wasn’t a single 1-Star monster that was anything but Common in Rarity – so, no Uncommon or Rare or anything better than that.

That left 31 other selections, 7 of them being 1-Star traps of different kinds.  Of those 7 traps, 4 of them were repeats of his previous 1-Star trap (Vertical Impalement) or multiples of the new ones he received; in all, only 3 were brand-new traps.

Deep Pit ★

Type: Falling

Material: Cracked Stone

Location: Room Floor

Damage: Low

Arrow Barrage ★

Type: Piercing

Material: Wood

Location: Hallway

Damage: Low

Burning Flares ★

Type: Magical

Material: Fire

Location: Room Ceiling

Damage: High

Basically, what Clay received was one trap that was a poorly camouflaged hole in the floor of one of his dungeon rooms, another trap that launched arrows at a Hero who might accidentally trigger it in a hallway, and one that spouted a gout of flames from above for a few seconds.  All of them had extremely obvious triggers, either with a tripwire, a raised section of the floor, or in the case of the Deep Pit – a plainly evident discolored thin stone cover that would collapse as soon as someone stepped on it.  Nothing he wanted to use in his Easy or Average rooms…but perhaps his Nightmare room could find a use for it.

That left 24 other things he received from his 100 Common Spawn Eggs.  Most of the 3-Star-guaranteed selections (8 of them to be exact) weren’t overly exceptional, as they were Common in Rarity; 2 of them were Cats – which were sacrificed at the Altar – and he received a 3-Star Bat, 2 Ferns, a Boar, a Serpent, and a Rat.  As for the other remaining 3-Stars, they were much more exciting.

Stone Golem ★★★

Attack Type: Melee

Rarity: Rare

Element: Nature

Mist Demon ★★★

Attack Type: Aerial, Magical

Rarity: Ultra Rare

Element: Water

Demons?!  Seriously?

“Yes, demons are extremely powerful Ultra Rare monsters that typically need to be defeated by magical attacks,” Dwight said matter-of-factly.  It was almost as if she thought there was nothing wrong with dealing with demons.  “There’s no point in worrying about them; all of your monsters are bound to your dungeon, so it’s not like they can escape.”

But—

“You used that Undead monster and didn’t think twice about it, so…what’s the issue here?”

That was the question, and it was one that he had difficulty answering.  When he was a child, Clay had heard of demonic entities as being the epitome of evil, as they came from the mysterious Underworld; they were said to possess people and make them do awful things, or else just kill them if they felt like it.  He thought they were just stories, but to actually see one available for him to use as a monster brought back those memories of hearing them from the other children in Renton.

I…don’t know, actually.  When he finally thought about those stories, he realized he never actually heard them from adults – and certainly not his parents.  He was sure there was some sort of reason it was only circulated among the children, but the only one he could think of was that demons weren’t real; the stories were spread around either as a way to scare others for fun, or to keep the other children in line.

Except that it seemed that they were real – or at least real enough to be used as a monster.  Thinking about the other types of monsters he had in his dungeon – that weren’t just deadlier versions of real creatures, like the Bats and Serpents – he realized that monsters like the Troll and Kobolds, as well as his Shambler, weren’t present in the “outside” world.  Stories of what they were and how they looked had likely only come from dungeons, so it must have been Heroes that had first spread their knowledge of their existence.

“Exactly.  There are many things that a dungeon can create for a monster that have no relationship to the ‘normal’ world,” Dwight said, responding to his thinking process.  “The only exception is when a World Threat appears, as they are usually an insanely powerful version of a dungeon monster.”

Huh.  I didn’t know that.  That was news to him, but then again, he had only actually seen the Giant Ogress near Renton, so his knowledge was a little limited.  He had heard about others, of course, but other than them being massive and destructive, he couldn’t remember what shape they had possessed.

The discussion helped him to reconcile with the fact that he had a demon in his employ, but he wasn’t planning on using it unless he needed it.  Call it superstition, call it incompetence – he didn’t care; it was just too strange for him to contemplate for the moment.

After opening up the guaranteed 3-Star golden-colored Spawn Eggs, he turned to the remaining 14 Eggs in different colors.  He could already see that 10 of them were 2-Star somethings – either monsters or traps – by their darker-yellow color, so he opened up those first.  Half of them were Common in Rarity: 2 Bats, 1 Boar, 1 Serpent, and 1 Fern.  The other half, however, finally had some of the Uncommon Rarity that he hadn’t seen in his 1-Star selections – as well as something even better.

Frigid Kobold ★★

Attack Type: Melee

Rarity: Uncommon

Element: Water

Radiant Wolf ★★

Attack Type: Melee, Magical

Rarity: Uncommon

Element: Light

Goblin Dancer ★★

Attack Type: Magical

Rarity: Uncommon

Element: Air

Resplendent Shambler ★★

Attack Type: Melee

Rarity: Uncommon

Element: Light

Lamia Flameweaver ★★

Attack Type: Magical

Rarity: Rare

Element: Fire

For his Uncommon Rarity monsters, not only did Clay receive another Kobold, another Wolf, and another Shambler, but he also acquired something called a Goblin Dancer.  That combination of words seems…wrong, somehow.  The Goblin Dancer appeared to be a short, green-skinned, gangly armed, humanoid monster with wide jaws and scary-looking teeth – not quite what he would expect of a “dancer”.  Regardless of his expectations, the female Goblin was dressed in practically transparent diaphanous clothing that left very little to the imagination.

Another of his 2-Stars was something else entirely – and a Rare, as well.  The Lamia Spellweaver was a red-and-brown-scaled…serpent…person…of some kind.  It was very strange to see it, as it defied all logic in his mind, because it was essentially a human woman from the waist up, stuck on top of a serpent’s lower half; the “woman” portion looked relatively normal, other than the fact that she was covered in scales instead of skin, though her eyes looked more serpent-like than human.  She had bright-red hair that hung down in waves down her head and back, and a thick strip of reddish-brown cloth covered her chest completely; the glass slab that showed her image also had her mouth open partially, and long fangs could be seen inside, as well as an obviously forked tongue.

What in the world am I going to see next?

“There are quite a few monsters that you haven’t even seen yet, Clay,” Dwight responded.  “But you had better hurry up with what you’re doing, or else you’ll run out of time.”

Turning back to what else he had to open up, that left 4 Spawn Eggs of completely different colors.  One was light pink, one was orange, another green, and a final one was a deep red.  From prior experience, he assumed that the pink and orange ones were 4 and 5-Stars, respectively, so he opened those up first.

Sly Fern ★★★★

Attack Type: Stealth

Rarity: Common

Element: Dark

Giant Bush Spider ★★★★★

Attack Type: Melee, Stealth

Rarity: Common

Element: Nature

While not spectacular, with them being Common in Rarity, it was good to be able to add some more higher-Starred monsters to his repertoire.  The Sly Fern was an all-black plant that seemed somehow difficult to make out even in full light (at least, that was how it seemed in the glass slab), while the Giant Bush Spider literally looked like a giant bush.  Its legs were covered in green leaves, and the legs themselves were brownish-colored, making them look like the branches of a bush.  In the glass slab, it was positioned in a way so that it was scrunched up on itself, camouflaging it next to another bush that appeared almost identical; it was hard to tell exactly how large it was due to that, but Clay assumed it was quite large based on how much of it was folded in upon itself in the image.

And finally, that left his last 2 Eggs – the red and green ones.  Not knowing what to expect, he opened them both up to see what was inside.

Divine Cat Duchess ★★★★★★

Attack Type: Melee, Magical

Rarity: Common

Element: Light

Magma Cat Princess ★★★★★★★

Attack Type: Melee, Magical

Rarity: Common

Element: Fire

No, no, nooooooooo!  Why?!  The red Egg ended up being a 6-Star, while the green was a 7-Star…but they were both Cats!

“Hold on, are you sure you want to do that?”  The baby dragonling moved so that she was in his direct field of vision, interrupting his immediate response to seeing the Cat monsters by opening up his Sacrificial Altar.

Yes.  They’re cats.  The fact that he didn’t like them should’ve been obvious by then.

“But these could potentially be used to protect your Core, better than anything else you have access to.  Why get rid of these, when they could do you so much good?”  Her logic was sound – but his hatred of cats wasn’t logical.

Don’t care.  I’d rather be destroyed than use one of these darn Cats as a monster in my dungeon.  Even using that Demon I acquired earlier is preferable to having to deal with any pesky felines!  Again, it was illogical and probably foolish, but he only hesitated for no more than a second before sacrificing them to the Altar before Dwight could do any more to try to convince him.  At least he got 13 Crystal Chips in exchange for their sacrifice.  Strange; I also had 13 Cats in my Common 1-Stars, too.

“Clay,” the baby dragonling began slowly; Clay thought she was going to reprimand him for sacrificing his most powerful monsters, but she had something else in mind.  “I think something is affecting your monster probabilities.”

What?!  What are you talking about?

“I’ve been noticing that you’ve received more than your fair share of these Cats, especially the more powerful versions of them.  It wasn’t obvious at first – even when the majority of your first guaranteed 3-Stars were Cats – because it was all based on chance; the more Spawn Eggs that you’ve opened, however, the more I’m convinced that something is altering the type of monster you’re receiving.”

While he had been thinking that he had been getting an inordinate number of Cats, Clay hadn’t really thought anything of it.  It was all based on probabilities and chance, after all.  Right?

How is that even possible?

“I…don’t know, but it shouldn’t be possible.  Or it could be that I am unnecessarily correlating random chance with causation.”

Clay wasn’t exactly sure what she meant, but he got the idea: She might be just imagining things.  I will keep that in mind, but as much as I would like to blame my horrible luck on some external source, so far everything seems to be on the up-and-up.  It really had, too, because most of what he had obtained thus far had been within the statistics of the probabilities he had been given.  There were outliers, of course, but they could be explained by chance.

He began to change his mind with the very next Bundle Pack #1 he bought and opened.  A full 8 of them were Cats, including the guaranteed 3-Star, leaving him with a Common 1-Star Fern and Boar.  The next Pack after that was worse, with 9 Cats and a single 1-Star Serpent.  The next…all 10 were Cats.

I think you were correct, Dwight.  It’s almost as if actually acknowledging it has made it true. Thanks, he said, his mental voice dripping with sarcasm.

“You’re welcome.  I’m glad that I could bring this to your attention,” she responded to his tone neutrally.  Either she was being deliberately obtuse, or she didn’t understand sarcasm.  “What are you going to do about it?”

Do?  I don’t think there is anything I can do, honestly.  What I’m going to do now, though, is stop buying these Spawn Eggs and figure out how to use what I’ve already acquired.

“Well, you better act fast,” the baby dragonling warned.  “I think you might be running out of time.”

Clay could only concur with her.  He had been monitoring the view outside of his dungeon, preparing for when the Heroes came back.  Luckily, he had been given more time than he expected, but that time was soon to come to an end; there was a group heading out from the city nearby, which appeared to be an entire group of Heroes with Classes.  They seemed to have figured it all out, just like you said, Dwight.

“True, so I would hurry up.”

Clay didn’t have a lot of time, so he looked at what he had available as far as monsters went.[10]  He had a total of 134 monsters, most of which (117, to be precise) were Common 1-Stars; he had complete Elemental sets of Bats, Boars, and Rats in the 1-Star category – though the other types were fairly close.

While he also did have enough of nearly all of the Common 1-Stars to Evolve them into a higher Star, what he needed right now was quantity, not quality.  Therefore, he stocked his “easy” room with 20 – yes, 20 – monsters, 10 Bats and 10 Rats; he didn’t want to make it too difficult with an Elemental Resonance, so he made sure to include only Fire, Light, Dark, and Nature Elements in the room.  Then, to aid his monsters, he used some of his Chips to place stalactites coming down from the ceiling, where his Bats could lie in wait for the Heroes to enter, as well as stalagmites sticking up from the floor, spaced wide enough apart that even the largest of Heroes could pass in between them.  Those would aid in camouflaging his Rats just enough to allow them to approach without too much warning.

He wanted the room to be easy, but not too easy.  It was a simple design, and with some torches spaced unevenly around the room, throwing shadows around because of the protrusions sticking up above and below the floor and ceiling, it provided a challenge without being too hard.  At least, he hoped.

Next, he turned to the “average” difficulty room, which he wanted to have a theme of sorts.  Looking at his list, he saw the 3-Star Nether Mage Slime and decided to use that as a base for the rest of the room.  For this one, he wanted to make it a test of the Heroes’ ability to overcome ranged and magical attacks; to prevent easy access to his monsters, he carved out a large pit that bisected the room near the middle, and then he spent a whole 10 Crystal Chips to fill it with a lake of lava.  It was an expensive material, to be sure, but most of the cost came from a layer of freezing cold air that he had to place directly over the lava to prevent the room from becoming an oven.  Unlike his torches, which didn’t produce heat and were essentially an illusion, the lava was real – and would quickly burn anyone who decided to take a dip in it.

Opposite from the entrance of the room, he created a series of stone risers, onto which he placed a pack of monsters.  The Nether Mage Slime was in the center, prominently up front, but it was flanked by the presence of Ranged or Magical monsters on either side.  They included a Spitting Serpent, 3 Stone-tipped Ferns, 2 Gust Ferns, a Weak Light Elemental, the Goblin Dancer, and the Lamia Flameweaver.  The biggest surprise of all of the monsters he placed out there was the size of the Lamia; he had expected it—her?—to be larger, but she was apparently only about as tall as a 10-year-old, though the “human” part of her body was obviously a mature woman.

He wasn’t exactly sure what all would happen with all of those unique monsters, but he was excited to find out.

In front of the lava – and there to harass the Heroes while they tried to defend against the attacks from the back – was a small horde of 13 Slimes of different kinds.  While none of them were particularly dangerous to any Heroes that were challenging the room, they were there to distract and annoy them; the Slimes were relatively small blobs of gooey substance, and hopefully difficult to defeat quickly because of their flexible forms.  At least, that was the impression he got from them as they were placed and made ready.

To make access to the other side at least possible, especially if the Heroes were able to kill all of the monsters at a distance and then needed to collect the Drop Chests, Clay carved several handholds and footholds along the walls on either side of the lava pool.  If any of the Heroes tried to use them when there were still enemies firing on them from afar, they would be extremely vulnerable while they were in the process of crossing; one wrong move or decent hit with a projectile or a powerful gust of wind could end up with them falling in the lava.

When all was said and done, he had used 27 Stars’ worth of his Star Limit on the room and had all of the Elements represented, which gave it a Multi-Element Burst Elemental Resonance. It would certainly be a challenge to any groups that wanted to attempt it, but how much of a challenge it actually was, that had yet to be seen.

The group of Heroes outside was rapidly approaching, so he turned to his “nightmare” difficulty room.  There wasn’t a lot of time yet to perfect it the way he wanted, so all he basically did was throw inside his most powerful monsters, add a few random traps in the room and the hallway, and then used up the rest of his Stars he was allowed to use in his dungeon.  He was going to decorate it with environmental décor, but he ran out of time; instead, he used the last few seconds before the Heroes walked in his dungeon to place 3 things on the floor where the main hallway branched out to the different rooms.

For the “easy” room hallway, he placed a single square patch of Glowstone on the floor; for the “average” hallway, there were 2 square patches; for the “nightmare” hallway and the path that led to his Boss Room and BOO, he placed 3 patches.  He thought that would be simple enough, especially as he had attempted carving something on the walls of his dungeon before, but it wouldn’t appear.  Dwight said it was to prevent interspecies communication, whatever that was.

And with that, his free time had come to an end.  He had plans to redo his nightmare and Boss rooms whenever he got the chance, or else he would be forced to close the dungeon for a little bit in order to do that; regardless, it wasn’t going to be needed for a few days at least, because none of the Heroes were getting through that room right now.

Because at the moment, it was time to see how much the Heroes had changed – and to see just how dangerous the new rooms were.

Chapter 29

For those who hadn’t progressed through the second room by the time they had their big Class Orb exchange on the 4th day they had been going to the dungeon, something as seemingly simple as having one of each Class in their group was nothing short of a miracle.  Having magical support in the form of a Mage, healing from a Healer, quick and precise up close attacks from their Scout, the ability to manipulate monsters and improve the other group members from the Support, and one who could take the brunt of the monsters’ abuse – the Fighter – was like nothing that Jeska could’ve predicted.

The 2nd room, which had been so difficult at first, was now relatively easy.  Jeska could attack from a distance with her Ice Shard Skill, which helped immensely.  It took a little practice to figure out how to use it, however.  What the others hadn’t mentioned, because it was apparently so innate and part of their Skills that they hadn’t bothered to tell her, was that she could bring up a set of transparent boxes at the bottom of her vision. In each box – there were 5 in total – she could place one of her Skills.

The first box was lightly colored in by a bluish color which indicated that it was her Ice Shard Skill, whereas another box was filled with a pale-yellow color – her Dazzle Skill.  Whenever one of them was ready to use, the box would flash (not distractingly, she was happy to find out), and all she would need to do was think about the Skill activating.  Jeska found that she needed to designate a target or an area where she wanted it to activate (in relation to her Dazzle Skill), or else it wouldn’t do anything.  Once she used one of her skills, a faint number would appear in the Skill box, counting down until she could use it again.

All of the Mages in the other groups had at least 1 ranged spell they could use: Some could send out balls of flames, some could form sharp rocks and shoot them at high speed like her Ice Shard, and others could form a fist of compressed air that could “punch” a distant target with more effect than she would’ve expected out of simple air.

As for the other spell they received with their Class (such as her Dazzle Skill), it seemed to be entirely random, though there were some repeats.  She knew that the Mage in Percy’s group could levitate herself or another person a foot or so off of the ground for a limited time; a different Mage could bring up a glowing shield around their or another’s body that could block a certain amount of damage; and another could touch a monster and poison them by activating their skill.

Regardless of what the other Mages received, Jeska used her own to great effect.  Walking into the 2nd room, she could Dazzle the Boars, blinding them for approximately 10 seconds, and then send out an Ice Shard that slammed right into the Spitting Serpent as it was trying to spit up some acid toward them.  Only once did she actually kill it in one hit when the Shard went into the Serpent’s open mouth; normally, though, she did enough damage to it to either cripple its ability to stand up far enough to launch some spit, or hurt its jaw in a way that made it impossible or difficult to attack.

The rest of the group weren’t idle, of course; Rosara would Captivate another one of the Serpents, Pascale would sneak up and take out the remaining Serpent with a sneak attack from behind, and Jeska’s brother would start attacking and getting the attention of the Boars before they could charge.  It was then left to Kelty to heal Arcen when he started to take damage from Boar tusks, and to join in with Jeska in smacking the Ice Bats out of the air.  They had found that, while annoying with their ability to slow them down from cold, the Bats were actually the least dangerous of the monsters in the room – as long as the others were handled appropriately.  By the time that her Ice Shard Skill was back up and ready to use, she was usually able to send it toward one of the boars, impaling it in the side and doing massive damage to it – if not killing it outright.

She tried to hit a Bat with one and actually succeeded in hitting the moving target – only to be disappointed when all it did was hurt it a little, and certainly not kill it. She supposed it made sense; ice against ice probably wasn’t the most effective of attacks.  I’m sure a ball of flames would’ve been much better.

In all, they only took minimal damage as a group in the 2nd room now – but it was the 3rd room that was still causing them problems.  Jeska couldn’t use her Ice Shard without being able to see a target, and the first time she tried to use her Dazzle Skill, it had blinded everything in the room, including her and her groupmates.  Before she was blinded, she was able to see what appeared to be a humanoid-looking lizard person, which she instantly knew was the culprit that had accounted for so many sudden deaths in the room in the past.

While they couldn’t capitalize on that information right then and there, the next few attempts at killing everything in the room eventually allowed them to concentrate on one monster at a time.  Jeska would pop her Dazzle Skill, everyone would try to find where one of the monsters was located as well as the holes in the ground that could trip them up, and they would all attack while everyone was still blinded.  The lizard-like humanoid monster tended to move even after being blinded, but the others stayed in place until their blindness ran out, affording them all an opportunity to take them out.

It took the deaths of three of her group – herself included – to finally kill the monster, which Arcen managed to luckily corner and knock into the light of one of the torches.  After that, despite the 2-Star-rated Gloom Kobold being a deadlier adversary, her brother and Pascale were able to take the monster out.

They didn’t bother to move on further into the dungeon at that point, because they didn’t have a full group with Bands anymore.  It wasn’t until Jeska found something in a Drop Chest as they made their way through the first room on the next run that everything changed.

Drop Chest

Contents:

1X Skillbook – Darkvision Tier 1

[Scout Classes] (Unbound)

“What is that?” Pascale asked, intrigued.  Without hesitation, Jeska stepped back and gestured for him to take it.  As soon as he did, he used it, and the familiar book appeared in front of him floating in the air.  When the process of absorbing the knowledge was complete, Pascale smiled at them all in a way she was beginning to recognize as him planning something devious.

“I think it’s time to teach that stupid Kobold a lesson.”

And a lesson they did teach.  Pascale could activate his new Skill, Darkvision, and then – as the name implied – see in the dark.  It only lasted 20 seconds, with a 2-minute cooldown, but that was enough for him to point out where the holes in the floor were as well as the monsters lying in wait.  It took some effort to follow his directions and attack the monsters before they could attack in turn, but they quickly got the hang of it.  Jeska’s Dazzle Skill was useful in finally killing the Gloom Kobold; she would blind it while Pascale looked away, and when it tried to move, their Scout would use his Darkvision to hunt it down and kill it.

Overall, it took 3 of their 4 hours from their 5th shift to finally pass through the 3rd room without anyone dying, and it had been profitable.  From just that day’s efforts, they had acquired:

- 3 Mage Class Orb Tier 1

- 1 Fighter Class Orb Tier 1

- 2 Support Class Orb Tier 1

- 1 Skillbook – Darkvision (Scout)

- 2 Minor Health Potion Tier 1

- 1 Minor Cooldown Potion Tier 1

- 1 Hollow Iron Mace +1 Clarity (Healer) Tier 1

- 1 Belt of Minor Intellect +1 Intellect (Mage) Tier 1

- 1 Helmet of Minor Defense +1 Toughness (Fighter) Tier 1

- 1 Iron-spiked Boots +1 Power (Fighter) Tier 1

- 1 Cracked Harp +1 Charm (Support) Tier 1

It was strange how the bonuses on the weapons and armor worked.  For things like Kelty’s Hollow Iron Mace, it added +1 to her Clarity stat – which was apparently what Healers used as the primary source of their power, just like her own Intellect; with that bonus, she was able to heal Arcen with her healing Skill for an additional point of Health.  With her own bonuses, it was hard to tell if it actually helped to do more damage, but once she had two pieces of armor with bonuses, she found that the cooldown on each of her Skills was reduced by an entire second!

For Rosara as a Support Class, Charm helped to extend the time her Skills would last.  “Plus, I think it will help with monsters that are more dangerous, so that my effects don’t wear off as fast,” Rosara added when Jeska asked about her new “weapon”, the Cracked Harp.  It was a musical instrument, not a weapon by any definition, but when she strummed on the – admittedly out of tune – strings, the sound it made seemed to join in and enhance either her song or her sexy dance.

Then there were the Scout stats. Speed lived up to its name, of course; Reflexes was a bit harder to ascertain, but it appeared to help with Pascale’s ability to strike monsters in just the right spot to deal maximum damage.

Finally, Arcen benefitted from Power and Toughness stats.  Power helped him to deal even more damage, almost like a boost to his strength; Jeska had felt it herself due to Rosara’s song skill that increased her Power, but it was essentially wasted on her now that she primarily stayed near the back of the group and flung out spells.  Toughness was the opposite side of the coin, as it allowed Arcen to shrug off many wounds; it both somehow made his skin a little thicker and lessened the pain from any attacks he actually did suffer.  He was still wounded, of course, but it didn’t hurt him quite as much.

Of course, they had all decided not to use anything but their base weapons and armor when they were tackling rooms that they hadn’t defeated without anyone dying before, just so they wouldn’t lose any of them when they resurrected.  It made things more difficult in defeating new rooms, but it sure helped to get them through the easier ones; they would just use them through the point where they knew they might die and then unequip them.  After a point, it almost felt like they were cheating as they zipped through the first 2 – and now the first 3 – rooms without too much trouble.

“Are you all ready to check out the 4th room?” Jeska asked excitedly, after their second time finishing the 3rd room – this time without dying.  The drop from the Chest coming from the Kobold was disappointing both times, with just some junk instead of anything good, but they were well aware by that point that the drop rate of trash items was fairly high.

“Oh, you’re finally getting into this, are you?” her brother teased.  She punched him in the shoulder, but it was like punching a rock; it was even worse than it had been before he became a Hero.  She shook her hand to get some feeling back into it as she nodded.

They walked down the hallway leading further into the dungeon, and it took another unexpected turn.  I guess we really weren’t supposed to see that Dungeon Core, were we?  She didn’t know enough about dungeons and their Cores to know, but she supposed that they weren’t typically visited and touched like Rosara had done.  I’m guessing that’s why what happened to us…happened.

They soon came to a spot where the hallways branched out in 3 different directions: Left, straight ahead, and right.  In front of each hallway was something different from anything she had seen before on the floor, some of the glowing stone that she remembered seeing in the original 3rd room of the dungeon, just before they reached the Core.  The left one had a single square glowing stone, the center 2, and the right passageway had 3.

“Where to?” Arcen asked.

Jeska was stumped after looking at them for a moment.  “I have no idea, but I’m guessing that these are some primitive form of numbering.  So…hallway #1, #2, or #3?”

“Well, you know, 3 is my lucky number,” Pascale offered.  “Good things always happen in 3s, right?”

Rosara snorted.  “Uh, no, I’ve always heard that it’s the opposite.  Like people you know dying in 3s and all that,” she stated with a superior tone of voice as she tossed her hair out of her face.  “At least, that’s what Father always said.”  Her tone lost a little of its superiority when she mentioned the Mayor, because her father was currently doing whatever he could in private to pretend that she didn’t exist.  Fortunately, Jeska’s own father was still managing his own disgust and distrust of his children, but she could see it steadily getting worse as the days went by.

Jeska knew about some superstitions when it came to odd numbers that sailors tended to swear by – positive superstitions.  Something about the duality of even numbers didn’t sit well with them, so they always had an odd number of crewmen on board, had an odd number of masts and sails, and carried an odd number of pieces of cargo.  So, if she had her vote, it would be either 1 or 3.

“I think we should check out 3 as well,” Kelty said, which caused a smile to form on Pascale’s face.  Jeska knew they had been getting a little closer to each other as the stress of the days wore on, but she thought it was a good thing.  As long as one of them didn’t mess up their relationship and ruin their group, it should be fine.  Yep, fine.

She wasn’t jealous or anything—

“Okay, I guess 3 it is.  Let’s check it out.”  So, they did – or at least they tried to check it out.

Just as they saw the entrance to the new room, some noise above Rosara’s head made Jeska look up, only to see what appeared to be wooden spears falling towards their Support member.  “Look out—” she began to advise, but it was already too late.

Rosara had heard the noise as well and looked up – only to get a face full of sharp wooden projectiles falling from the ceiling, impaling her body in multiple places. Normally, that wouldn’t have been so bad, as each of them had experienced worse injuries in the dungeon; unfortunately, in this instance she had her mouth open and…well…suffice it to say that it wasn’t pretty.

“What—?” Arcen yelled, turning around a moment too late.  Gone were the times when they would bemoan or cry about a death, so they all just stood there looking at Rosara’s impaled and skewered body, trying to figure out what happened.

Pascale was the first to move; he looked around and noticed something immediately.  “It looks like this stone – right where her left foot is located – can be depressed.  This is some sort of…trap, maybe?”

“Great – so now we have to look out for traps?” Kelty complained.  “Aren’t the monsters enough for us?”

Jeska just shook her head, realizing immediately why there were traps in there in the first place.  Whether it was her “Intellect” having an effect or not, but she was able to piece things together.  “I think in the future there will be more and more traps; what better way to train for an unknown ‘Threat’ than to be ready for anything, not just learning how to beat these monsters.”

Arcen shook his head, as well, but he wasn’t disagreeing with her.  “More and more about this Hero business I find that I don’t like, but I know it is necessary.  I guess that just means we have to be on the lookout for—hey, I wonder if that’s your job, Pascale?” he asked, pointing to the smaller man.  “You’re a Scout, after all, and you did find that moving stone.”

Pascale just shrugged.  “So I did.  I guess I can do that; my prior occupational experience can probably aid in that, as well.”

“Wait…I thought you said you were a pickpocket?”  Her brother was confused.

He just shrugged again.  “I was.  But I wasn’t always just a pickpocket.”

“Don’t tell me you used to break into places…you did, didn’t you?”  Pascale was silent, with just a small smile on his face.  “Did you ever break into the Mayor’s villa?”  Again, the former pickpocket and thief was silent.

Jeska had to wonder why he asked that, but it was soon made clear he was just looking out for their group member.  “Because if you did…I would keep that to yourself; Rosara will have your hide.”  That’s for sure.

Because they hadn’t seen the room yet, they continued on down the hallway, Pascale in the lead this time.  It didn’t take long before he found an identical stone to the first in the middle of the passageway, and when he pointed it out to Jeska and the others it was extremely obvious; she had to admit to herself that she probably would’ve missed it the first time, however.

When they arrived at the entrance further unscathed, they stopped before they ever entered the room.  There were…dozens of monsters around the room, some she had never seen before nor could even identify, but that wasn’t the major reason they stopped.  No, that had to do with the massive 5-Star Colossal Serpent taking up what felt like a third of the room by itself, and it stared in their direction as if daring them to walk inside.  There were even things behind its gigantic bulk that she couldn’t even make out, but all of it was frightening.

“Okay, I think we chose wrong.  Who wants to bet that #3 was the hardest of the bunch, and #1 is the easiest?” Arcen said.  No one took him up on that bet.

They backtracked to the entrance, picked up an annoyed Rosara as they waited the requisite time for the dungeon to be ready for them again, and then made their way through the first 3 rooms again.  This time it was even easier, mainly because they knew what to expect, and the general placement of the monsters was basically the same.  Even though they couldn’t see the monsters, they were able to take them out, with some additional help from Pascale.  There’s that saying that you might know something well enough to “do it with your eyes closed”; I think that sums up the situation quite well.

Regardless, it only took them another 20 minutes to find their way into hallway #1.  Pascale was looking out for traps, but he thankfully didn’t find any.  When they got to the entrance of the room, they were greeted with a space filled with stalactites and stalagmites coming off the floor and ceiling.

“Are those Bats?” Rosara asked, though everyone could see that they were.  “This should be much easier than the other room you told me about.”

And so it was – though not quite as easy as they first expected.  There were a total of 10 Bats of different kinds inside, though thankfully there were no more Ice Bats – she’d had enough of them. In addition, there were also 10 Rats down among the stalagmites on the floor.  Being assaulted by 20 monsters in the same room was overwhelming, and they nearly lost Kelty when she was attacked by 2 Bats and 2 Rats at the same time. Thankfully, Pascale was there to help fend them off, so that she could drink a Minor Health Potion and heal herself while her healing Skill was on cooldown.

But they did it.  On their first try.

“Look at this!” Jeska exclaimed.  She was helping to open up the veritable treasure trove of Drop Chests after the intense fight, and something dropped that she wasn’t expecting.

Drop Chest

Contents:

1X Mage Class Orb Tier 2 (BOA)

In just one short day, they had gone from not being able to find a single Mage Class Orb Tier 1, to finding 3 of them earlier – and now this!  It was their first Class Orb Tier 2, which meant – from what they had learned previously – that she was only 1 more Orb away from gaining what she needed to increase her Tier.  Things were certainly looking up for her and the rest of the group, especially now that they had access to…room #1?  She wasn’t sure how to designate it, but they had gained more Drop Chests in this room than the previous 3 rooms combined.

“Shall we see what’s inside hallway #2?” Arcen asked.  Riding on the high of being able to defeat #1 without anyone dying, they marched out and quickly found the hallway marked with 2 glowing squares.

“We’ve got this – nothing can stop us now,” Pascale said as he led the way.  His sentiments were echoed by the others, and even Jeska was looking forward to testing themselves against another room.  I hope it’s a challenge this time.

Chapter 30

Okay, that was a bit more of a challenge than I was hoping for.

To say they were slaughtered would be putting it mildly.  As soon as they looked inside, they knew it was going to be a much tougher room than the last, but they still had hope.  There were some slimy-looking globs of goop called “Slimes” waiting for them in front of what appeared to be a small pool of lava that was blocking them from moving further into the room.  Past the lava was an assortment of monsters – most new to Jeksa, though there were some she was familiar with – that looked ready for them to step inside.

Aside from there being a 3-Star Nether Mage Slime in the center, the most dangerous part of the monsters on the far end of the lava pool were their Attack Types according to the information floating above them: Ranged and Magical.  As their group’s only real “ranged” option via her Ice Shards and even her Dazzle Skill, it was going to be up to Jeska to take them out.

“Okay, Arcen will guard against these Slimes while Pascale and Kelty take them out one by one.  Rosara, I need you to use your sexy song—”

“It’s called ‘Captivating Melody’,” Rosara interrupted.  Jeska already knew that, but it was more fun to call it a sexy song.  Like her sexy dance, only audible.

“—on that Nether Mage Slime in the middle, because it will likely be the most dangerous,” Jeska went on despite the interruption.  “I’ll start to take out the other monsters one-by-one, and then we’ll just have to work together to finish off the rest.  Sound like a good plan?”

No one had any objection, so they rushed inside…

…and Jeska found herself waking up inside the dungeon entrance hallway moments later.  All she remembered was being hit by a barrage of different things, but it was all over so fast that it was a blur.  Looking around, she saw her other groupmates waking up as well, so it appeared as though it was a full-group wipe.

“Wow.  Did anyone see what actually happened there?”

Her brother nodded, but the others looked a bit clueless.  “I lived just barely longer than you all because of my Class’ resistance to damage, but we’re talking about only an extra second or two.  That black-colored Slime on the other side of the lava did something that covered all of us in this dark cloud – and it hurt!  I saw all of you fall nearly at the same time as you were pelted by stone shards and other things I couldn’t make out, but then I took something to the face…and that was it.”

They were all silent as they contemplated that.  “Okay, I guess that means it’s a little too hard for us right now,” Rosara interrupted the silence.  “At least the first room was easy enough – and it will provide us some much-needed items.”

That’s very true.  Jeska stood up and looked outside, seeing where the sun was in the sky.  “Looks like we’ve got time enough for one more run – shall we?” she asked.  “Minus room #2, of course.”

She didn’t have to ask them twice, as they jumped up and followed her outside.  A little over 5 minutes later, they were ready to go.

*          *          *

The sharing of information about the new rooms was invaluable to the other Hero groups, and there was steady progress made in the number of items they obtained.  The way that Jeska calculated, most of the groups were able to open up 39 Drop Chests from the monsters they slayed inside the dungeon every 25 minutes – and that was including the 5- minute wait outside while the dungeon reset everything.

The reason that they got through all 4 rooms so quickly was the fact that they elected to wear all of their gear, all of the time.  While it wasn’t impossible for one of them to die, especially when the 4th room got a little hectic at times, it was rare – and they inevitably picked up another piece of equipment that could replace what was lost.  When, during an entire shift, they opened up over 350 Drop Chests, options of what to wear or use as a weapon were becoming more and more prevalent.

After a week of a constant grind against the monsters in the dungeon, everyone had acquired so many pieces of equipment that they practically had a back-up set in case they lost it all. Jeska even had enough multiples of her robe, circlet, belt, shoes, rings, and her staff weapon (which was essentially all that could be equipped) that she could completely outfit two other Mages.  Not only that, but her group had acquired Skillbooks up the wazoo, giving them more ways to attack, defend, sneak up on enemies, control them, and heal.

It turned out that there was a relatively limited number of Skills that could be acquired for Tier 1 Classes, and that everyone could acquire them for their Class if they found the Skillbooks.  Mages had the most diverse Skills, numbering 8 in total, though Jeska could only ready 5 of them at a time in the boxes at the bottom of her vision.[11]

All of the other Skills she had seen the other Mages possess were available to her now, which meant that Jeska now had many options to use when fighting; the days of only having 1 ranged spell – Ice Shard – were over.  Now she could fling out sharp rocks at high speed, shoot out balls of flames, and even strongly “punch” a distant target with a fist of condensed air. The best thing about it, though, was the fact that she could chain all of them together, so that every few seconds she was sending out another blast of something – there was very little downtime.

As for her groupmates, their Skill list was a bit shorter, but still impressive.  For Arcen and the other Fighter Heroes, they received Skills that helped to do more damage with their weapons; they could better mitigate additional damage to themselves, and they even had a crazy Skill called “Shouting Taunt” that seemed to tick off every monster in a room.  When they were angry, they all attacked him at the same time, no matter what they were doing before, for 10 seconds; needless to say, he had to be a little careful with it, since he did it once in the 4th room and was immediately overwhelmed and killed.  Still, it was useful to have.

Pascale and the other Scouts all got their attack-from-behind Skill, as well as Darkvision, and something called “Blend” that let them escape notice by the monsters for a limited time (though only 1-Star monsters; he tried it against the 2-Star Gloom Kobold in the 3rd room and was almost immediately hunted down and killed).  He also received a Skill that increased his chances of making a monster suffer a “Bleeding” Debuff, which helped to damage them over a longer period of time.  It didn’t really work against Ferns, though, and she doubted it would be useful against the Slimes down hallway #2 in the future.

As for healing, Kelty got the worst break as far as additional Skills.  She had her Minor Healing spell that she had from the beginning, of course, but she only managed to secure two other Skillbooks for her Tier.  One was a Skill called “Minor Regeneration”, which was an effect that lasted 1 minute and would heal 1 point of Health every 15 seconds – and the cooldown for that was 2 minutes.  The second, “Repel” was relatively useful for her, because it allowed her to live a little longer; it was basically the opposite of Arcen’s “Shouting Taunt”, as it prevented any monsters from targeting her for 10 seconds.

Rosara…oh, Rosara.  She was having a blast with her new Skills, and they were very useful for the group as well.  The Mayor’s daughter had already mastered her sexy dance that made two of them more powerful and her song that held a monster frozen in place; but now she had two new songs and an additional dance that had other effects.  One song was for a single groupmate, which would decrease cooldown timers by 10% for 2 minutes; the other song was something that slowed down every monster in the room by 5% of their normal speed.  The effect was noticeable, but only just; it wasn’t significant enough to really affect most fights by that point, but it was nice to have, if Rosara wasn’t doing anything else.

That was unlikely, though, because her new dance was something she wanted to use all of the time.  While her “Dance of Strength” was a sexy dance that Buffed the Power of two members of the group, her new “Puppet Master” was targeted towards monsters.  Instead of freezing them in place with her “Captivating Melody” song, the “Puppet Master” Skill – which was more of a sedate formal dance than her other raunchy sexy dance – allowed her to take control of a monster and move it around the room based on her own movements.  She couldn’t get it to attack or anything, but she could (with a bit of practice) cause the monsters she controlled to get in the way of other monsters, even slamming themselves into their forms.  It was somewhat limited: Because it only worked on 1-Star monsters, she had to be able to see her target and her target see her, and she had to literally move around the room – which the “puppet” would mimic.  So, if she wanted to make it smash into a wall, she would need to smash herself into a wall…which was unlikely to happen, voluntarily.

Despite all of these advantages, they still weren’t powerful enough to advance.  Intuitively, she knew it was because they were all still Tier 1 Classes; even their Skills, as powerful as they seemed, were only Tier 1.  Even accumulating enough Skillbooks to “Upgrade” them wouldn’t help them – as she had found out the hard way.

“Look!  I have enough Poison Touch Skillbooks to upgrade it!”  Jeska had been ecstatic at the time, even though it was one Skill she rarely ever used.  She didn’t want to get close to the monsters if she could help it, and actually touching them to use a Skill wasn’t the easiest thing to do; the few times she had tested it out, however, showed that whatever “Poisoned” Debuff they acquired from her touch was powerful – it killed most 1-Star monsters within seconds.  She was hoping that it would be even more effective if it were Tier 2.

“Go for it!  I think you’re the first one to accumulate enough Skillbooks to upgrade it, so I want to see what happens,” her brother told her, equally excited.

In her Class Skills chart, she concentrated on the Upgrade column and saw that Poison Touch now said 5/5; when she focused on it long enough, something finally happened.

Do you wish to upgrade Skill: Poison Touch?

Yes / No

Warning: This will consume the pertinent Skillbooks in your Inventory.

She chose Yes, obviously, and she felt as if something were being ripped out of her mind. It only hurt as a temporary spike of pain, however, and she was so fascinated by what she was watching that she forgot about it.  A small orb of greenish light appeared from the middle of her forehead, before floating 2 feet in front of her chest. Suddenly, 4 Skillbooks appeared (from her Inventory, she assumed) next to the green light orb and opened up.  The pages started riffling through the books, similar to how they all learned their Skills; this time, however, they closed when they were through, morphed into another green orb of light, and then combined into the existing orb.  Once they were together, they expanded a little before contracting back down to its original size…and then it shot back into her forehead.

“AAAAHHHHH!” was all she could manage to get out as pain slammed into her head, radiating out to the rest of her body and causing her to fall to her knees as her legs became weak.

“Are you alright?  What happened?”  Her brother was by her side in an instant, helping her to her feet.

She held her head for a few moments before responding, and already the pain was starting to fade.  “Yes, I think so – that was just unexpected.”

In her Class Spells chart, she now saw that her Poison Touch was Tier 2 – so it had been more than worth the pain.  “It worked!  Now, I want to try this out—”

Unable to equip Skill.

You cannot use Tier 2 Skills without the appropriate Tier 2 Class.

“Noooo!  I can’t use it anymore!”

It should’ve been obvious, because they had managed to acquire a few Tier 2 Skillbooks but were unable to use them.  Jeska had figured that it had been a Tier 1 Skill before, so it should still be accessible; unfortunately for her, that clearly turned out not to be the case.  She attempted to play around with the Skill in order to reset it back down to Tier 1, but it didn’t seem like it was possible.

“Hey, at least it was one that you didn’t use all that much,” Rosara unexpectedly comforted her.  “That would’ve been bad if you had used it on your Ice Shards or other ranged spell.”  She had a point, so she wasn’t too broken up about it – but it was also a phenomenon she needed to make sure to share with the other groups.

Again, it was yet another reason they needed to get to the next Tier.  The problem with that was finding enough Class Orbs; obtaining 20 of a single Class was proving to be difficult, and they only had the 1 Mage Class Tier 2 from all of their drops so far.  Rosara had been relatively lucky, finding a total of 23 additional Tier 1 Support Class Orbs – 20 of which she combined into a Tier 2 – but her progress had stalled a bit.  The others were close to 20, but of them all, Jeska was the closest.

At an additional 19 Tier 1 Mage Class Orbs, she was anxious to get the last one that would get her over that hump.  Finally, nearly 2 weeks after becoming a Hero, that time came.

“Yes!  There it is!” she said as soon as she saw it appear in the Drop Chest that she, herself, was opening – almost as if it were fate.  Jeska touched the words with something approaching reverence, and she felt it being brought into her body and fit in wherever she stored the other Orbs.  Opening up her Class Orbs Available chart[12], she saw that she now had enough Tier 1s to combine them together to make a Tier 2.

Do you wish to combine (20): Mage Class Orb Tier 1 to create a Mage Class Orb Tier 2?

Yes / No

Warning: (20) Mage Class Orb Tier 1 will be consumed in the process.

Without hesitation, she selected Yes, and she felt something going on within her body.  Similar to how it worked with Rosara when she combined her Support Orbs, there were no visual effects, but it certainly felt a little funny inside her chest.  Not painful, but more like her organs were rearranging and then being put back.

Suddenly, the strange feeling stopped.  Without any other indication, she figured it was done – and so it was!  She now had 0 Tier 1 Orbs and 2 Tier 2 Orbs – so now it was time for the next step…or at least she hoped so.

Tier 2 Orbs Available: (2) Mage Class

Hybrid Classes available with current Tier 2 Orbs: 0

Note: Acquiring additional Class Orbs of other Classes will allow you to create a Hybrid Class.  Warning: Obtaining a new Hybrid Class will always reset the Hero back to Tier 1; further increases in a Tier will require Class Orbs of the same Classes in the same ratio

Do you wish to absorb (2) Mage Class Orb Tier 2 to become a Mage Class Tier 2?

Yes / No

Wait—what?  Hybrid Classes?  What does that even mean?  Before she confirmed what she wanted to do, she told the others about what she had seen.

“That could be interesting,” her brother said with a smile.  “Imagine me being able to sling spells like you can while still destroying these monsters with my sword.” That’s a frightening thought, but it would be interesting to see.

“Or you could heal yourself if you were part Healer-Class,” Pascale mentioned.  The possibilities seemed endless, though she was sure there had to be a catch somewhere; otherwise, why not make a Hybrid of all 5 Classes and be able to do everything.  She was sure it had to do with the “Warning”, but it didn’t make a lot of sense to her.

“Whatever we decide to do in the future is for a later date,” Jeska said while the others discussed the possibilities.  “Now, though, I’m going to become a Tier 2 Mage.”  Without waiting any more, she selected Yes…and felt like she was being torn apart.

She was vaguely aware of herself being lifted off of the ground again – mainly because she couldn’t feel anything underneath her feet – but all she could really focus on was the pain radiating throughout her body.  Her clothed body, thankfully, as she wasn’t aware of being stripped again like the last time she had increased her Tier.  The agony seemed to last for hours, but soon enough the torment soothed to a small simmer; eventually, her vision came back after being reduced to the red haze of torturous pain, and she felt herself back on solid ground.

“Are you okay?” her brother asked from closer than she expected.  Jeska felt his hand on her shoulder, concern radiating from both his voice and his touch.  “That seemed a bit more intense than when we first received our Classes.”

Jeska nodded, for the first time realizing her throat was a little sore.  Was I screaming?  That was the only explanation she could think of, but she couldn’t remember doing it.  Fortunately, her Health Band got rid of the soreness in a matter of seconds.  “You’re right, that hurt quite a bit,” she said once she could talk easily again.  “Regardless, it was only temporary – and I’m a Tier 2 Mage now!”

Hero Status

Name:

Jeska Porter

Hero Name:

(None Chosen)

Class:

Mage

Tier:

2

Health:

15/15

Intellect:

6 (+5 equipped)

Attack:

2

Speed:

3

Defense:

2

Inventory

Class Orbs Available

Class Skills (New)

Looking at her updated Hero Status, she saw what might be an explanation for the pain.  “I now have 15 Health compared to the 10 I used to have…and my Speed, Attack, and Defense all increased by 1.  My Intellect, on the other hand, appears to have gone up by 3 points.”

Such changes in her body could certainly account for the agony she just went through; she twisted her body around in different directions and jumped up and down for a moment, trying to see if there was any physical difference.  Surprisingly, she could feel a slight difference in how her body felt, as if her skin was just a little bit tighter over her frame than it had been before.

“Is this how it felt for you, Arcen?”  Jeska knew that her brother was the only one of them to have a small increase in his Health and Defense when he gained his Class; she explained what she was experiencing, and he slowly nodded.

“Sort of; I was already a bit…uh…enhanced in terms of my physical condition, so there wasn’t a huge change.  Talking with some of the other Fighters, though, I’ve learned that they went through a similar transformation to your own.”

Great, so every time we increase in Tier, it’s going to hurt.  It didn’t last long, however, and they’d all felt horrible injuries while going through the dungeon – so it wasn’t that big of a deal.

The only other change to her Hero Status was in her Class Skills – it said (New) next to it, which was a surprise.  Opening it up, she found that there was indeed a new Skill there, which must have come with the increase in Tier: Ice Barricade.  Concentrating on it, she found that it was a spell that created a thick wall of ice 5 feet tall and 5 feet wide, and she could place it anywhere within 30 feet of her position.  It would last for 2 minutes or until it was destroyed, and it had a 3-minute cooldown.

It wasn’t necessarily something that could be used to kill monsters; but thinking about hallway #2 and the room at the end of it, she could certainly see some possibilities….

Chapter 31

As Clay had hoped, his new rooms were working spectacularly.  His “easy” room was working as intended, giving the groups of Heroes the items they needed to improve themselves, while also giving them enough of a challenge that it wasn’t necessarily a waste of their time.  Theoretically, everything they did within his dungeon was supposed to prepare them for the future – but they also needed to have a firm grasp on their basic skills as Heroes in order to get there.  By having access to basic Tier 1 items by the dozen as they constantly cleared out the initial trio of rooms and his “easy” room, they were gaining those much-needed items that only he could provide.

It was almost like he was back in his family’s store, “selling” all of the staples that most people bought every week.  Loaves of bread, bottles of milk, packages of dried fruit – all common sundries that were their most common purchases and the groceries that Clay remembered delivering day in and day out – were like the Tier 1 items that the Heroes were obtaining in his dungeon.  Once they finally acquired those items (their basic needs), then and only then could they look towards the future and obtain more expensive “luxury” items.

Those luxury items would be costly, though, either through hard work and luck by killing thousands upon thousands of 1-Star monsters, or through the expense of multiple deaths when trying their hand at something harder.  Two weeks went by from when he had constructed his easy, average, and nightmare rooms; he was now beginning to see a real push of the Heroes to attempt his average room, as most groups had finally acquired enough Tier 1 Class Orbs to ascend to Tier 2.

They seem to be progressing quite well, but I can’t seem to shake the feeling that we’re running out of time.  Clay had no way to judge the progress of these Heroes compared to if they had been on the mainland, but he thought they were doing an excellent job.

Dwight seemed to concur.  “I have to agree; you have set this up perfectly with how they can easily access the tools they need to get stronger, but I can see that some are becoming a bit complacent.”

Clay had seen a little bit of that, as well.  Well, can you blame them?  Now that they finally have what they need to feel powerful, they want to just…what did you call it?  Grind?  They just want to grind through my easier monsters and keep acquiring the less-powerful items that way.  It’s “safer” and almost a guaranteed win, after all.

To label all of the Heroes as complacent was a bit unfair; out of the 6 Hero groups, only 2 of them had barely even attempted the “average” room, instead electing to continue grinding through the other 4 rooms at an ever-faster rate.  When all of the members of those 2 groups reached Tier 2 in their Classes, they were able to almost speed through the rooms without stopping; they all did more damage from their skills, their Fighters could withstand many basic attacks without suffering too much in the way of injuries, and Clay’s monsters rarely ever differed in their attacks and strategies.  In fact, they got to the point where it took longer to wait for the dungeon to reset itself while they stayed outside than to actually clear all of the rooms.

It had been beneficial for them to continue doing that, as they managed to find enough Skillbooks to fully equip their group members with all of the Skills they could acquire for their Tier 1 Classes, as well as some for their Tier 2. Their equipment was a scattering of Tier 1 and Tier 2 armor pieces and weapons, from lucky drops from Chests, and they had enough Potions of different types to keep them alive in most easy battles, even without their Healer healing.  For all of that, though, they were soon to reach a point where they would only progress if they got extremely lucky in their Drop Chests, or if they accumulated enough Class Orbs to reach Tier 3.

If his overheard conversations gave him accurate information, then they would need to acquire 400 Tier 1 Class Orbs to create 20 Tier 2 Class Orbs; those 20 Tier 2 Orbs then could be used to create a Tier 3 – and they would need 3 of those to ascend to a Tier 3 in a Class.  If his calculations were correct, then they would need 1,200 Tier 1 Class Orbs to reach Tier 3 in Class; that was only for one Hero, as well, so 6,000 would be needed for the entire group.

Of course, there was always the possibility that they could obtain Tier 2 Orbs from Drop Chests, but in all of the battles and Chests opened in nearly 3 weeks since he had first welcomed Heroes, he had only seen about a dozen scattered across all of the groups.  In addition, although he hadn’t kept an accurate count, he estimated that – at most – each group had only acquired 200 Tier 1 Class Orbs across all of their different Classes; at the rate they were clearing his dungeon, and if nothing changed, it could take at least a year to obtain enough Tier 1 Orbs to progress to Tier 3 – if they were lucky and got exactly what they needed.

“It might be ‘safer,’ like you say, but it won’t benefit them in the long run,” the baby dragonling commented.  “If those stragglers don’t move on soon, I don’t think you’ll have any other choice but to implement those changes we discussed.”

He was somewhat loath to do that, mainly because the other 4 groups were actually doing what they should be doing.  In fact, as he looked inside the average room, his “favorite” group was currently trying to tackle the room again – and this time he had a feeling they would succeed.

Jeska and her group were briefly discussing what they needed to do in the room, though it seemed that it had all been arranged beforehand.  Nevertheless, Clay was interested in their strategy, so he listened in.

“…then make sure to heal him if he starts taking too much damage,” the Mage-Classed woman was saying.  “Rosara, make sure that—”

“Yes, I know,” the woman that Jeska named said shortly, as if not wanting to be reminded of what should be obvious.  She huffed impatiently and continued, “We’ve already been over this.”  Ever since the Support Hero had increased to Tier 2, her already-impressive endowment had increased significantly; when she huffed in exasperation, it made her gigantic—

“It’s important to go over this, Rosa,” Arcen mentioned, putting his beefy hand on Rosara’s shoulder.  “We want to survive this time, don’t we?”

The Support Class’ arms were obscured as she crossed them underneath her chest.  “Yes, well, let’s get on with it already,” she sniffed.

Clay watched them all look at each other and nod, as if any more words were unnecessary.  Then, without further ado, they began.

The most problematic issue that the Heroes had with the room so far was surviving long enough to actually fight back.  In addition to the projectiles from the Ranged-type monsters in the room (3 Stone-tipped Ferns and 1 Spitting Serpent), there were Magical attacks from the Gust Ferns, the Weak Light Elemental, and the Lamia Flameweaver.  Powerful gusts of wind, beams of searing light, and streams of “weaved” flames were bad enough, but weren’t really the issue; no, the problem came from the Nether Mage Slime – which was much more powerful than even Clay expected.

As soon as Arcen stepped into the room, the Fighter was hiding behind his large shield he had positioned out in front of his body, deflecting or absorbing the attacks unleashed in his direction.  Stone shards from the Fern slammed into his protective wooden and iron-banded shield. Some impaled themselves into the hard wood, but most bounced harmlessly off; a spit of acid splashed over the wood and started to eat the material of the shield away very slowly; a few impacts against the defensive equipment from orbs of condensed air created by the Gust Ferns caused it to shudder slightly, but the shield was held firm by the enormous strength of the Fighter.

Then there was a beam of focused light that started to burn a hole through the wooden structure of the shield, along with a stream of flames from the Flameweaver monster that caused the entire thing to catch fire.  Before it could burn away and be destroyed, the shield abruptly disappeared – back into Arcen’s “Inventory” (or so he had heard it called) – and he was hit by the focused beam of light for a second before it blinked out of existence.  His Weak Light elemental wasn’t exactly weak; its attacks could cause quite a bit of damage, even at a distance.

During that entire barrage, however, the Fighter had been eclipsed by a large cloud of roiling darkness that Clay’s Nether Mage Slime had caused to form the instant the Fighter entered the room.  The dark cloud didn’t just obscure the vision of those that entered, but it also did periodic damage to anyone caught inside of the effect.  To just about anyone but a Fighter, it would kill them within moments. Even Arcen wasn’t doing so well against it, but increasing to Tier 2 had done a bit towards toughening up his resistance to both physical and magical damage.

“And…now!” the Fighter suddenly instructed, retrieving his newly completely undamaged shield from his Inventory and advancing into the room.  The darkness cloud wasn’t yet gone, which hurt the other group members as they rushed inside, but after a second the Nether Mage Slime’s attack dissipated.  It seems as though they are cutting it close and taking advantage of their past experiences in the room.  They had attempted it enough times (and died, unfortunately) to get the timing down to the second, evidently.

Kelty, the Healer, immediately used one of her Skills to heal the Fighter, while the others went on the offensive.  Clay’s Ranged and Magical monsters were “reloading” their projectiles and effects, so the Heroes had a few seconds to spare to set up a defense.  Jeska produced a large wall of thick ice that everyone huddled behind; at the same time, the curvaceous Support started to sing a song that produced a white fog that hovered over the pit of lava bisecting the room.

It was an exceptional idea, because if his monsters couldn’t see the Heroes, they couldn’t bombard them with their projectiles and magical effects – including the Nether Mage Slime.

“We’ve got 28 seconds until the Fog of Harmony disappears – get to work!” Rosara, the Support Hero, shouted a few seconds after the fog was in place.  At her order, the others got to work on the 13 Slimes Clay had placed in the room, who were now moving around the barrier of ice that the Mage had put up moments ago.

Weapons slammed into the wave of Slimes rolling towards the Heroes, as blades, a staff, and a mace pierced through or slammed into their bodies in an effort to find their internal nuclei.  The Slimes weren’t without attacks of their own, however, as small globs of fire, ice, and poison slime flew out from the monsters; the Floating Slime was surprisingly nimble and dodged a few attacks before Pascale, the Scout Hero, managed to score a hit on its nucleus with a quick strike.  Worst of all, the Glowing Slime was able to heal any Slime that had its nucleus destroyed, as long as it was within 10 seconds.

But for all of that, the Slimes were all 1-Star monsters. Having persevered through more than enough practice killing 1-Stars over the last few weeks, the group easily took them out – though it took some time.  As the last Slime collapsed into a pool of slimy jelly when its nucleus was destroyed, the fog separating the group from the rest of the monsters started to dissipate.

“Get ready!” Rosara shouted.  “3…2…1…Go!”

Arcen ran out from the wall of ice with his shield facing the incoming onslaught of projectiles and magical effects, shouting and using a Skill that “taunted” most of Clay’s monsters in the room to attack him.  While the Fighter was enveloped in the cloud of darkness, Jeska peered out from behind the wall of ice, flinging out some magical spells of her own.  In rapid succession, the 3 Stone-tipped Ferns were destroyed with a ball of flames, a shard of ice, and a small boulder.

That was when Clay’s Goblin Dancer finally had a chance to “attack”, having been largely unaffected by the Fighter’s “taunt” for some reason.  It was likely because instead of doing damage, the Dancer was a bit like a Support Hero.  It—she, Clay supposed—gyrated to some unheard music; before Jeska could retreat back behind the wall of ice, she was entranced by the dance of the Goblin and was frozen into place.

The difference between the monster’s and Rosara’s Skills, however, was the fact that the Dancer’s effect needed to be maintained; the Support Hero saw what happened to the Mage and immediately used her own singing skill to halt the Goblin’s dance.  Jeska was able to move again and ducked behind the wall of ice again, a second before another barrage of ranged attacks could reach her.

Kelty was keeping Arcen alive at a distance with her healing Skills, while Pascale had snuck off and was nearly across the pit of lava.  His Skill use made the Scout seem to blur to Clay’s vision, and the rest of the monsters completely ignored his presence as he made it across to their side unhindered.  While his monsters couldn’t see the Scout, the Dungeon Core had no problem watching as Pascale snuck up behind the Lamia Flameweaver and stabbed deeply into her back, killing her almost instantly.

The act exposed him to the others, however, and he barely avoided being hit with a beam of focused light from the Weak Light Elemental by rolling to the side.  Unfortunately, as soon as he ended his roll, he was smacked with two condensed balls of air from the Gust Ferns. He was hit backwards, taking a little damage, but the worst of it was his precarious position – he nearly ended up in the lava below.

“Pascale, stay down!” Jeska yelled, which was quickly followed by an enormous explosion of flames as the Mage used one of her recently acquired Tier 2 Skills.  The explosion enveloped the Gust Ferns and the Spitting Serpent, completely incinerating them; it also hit the Nether Mage Slime, but only seemed to wound it slightly as a few chunks of its gelatinous body were blown off.

This left the wounded Mage Slime, the Dancer, and the Elemental.  Clay watched with rapt attention as the Heroes prepared to wrap them up, and he couldn’t help but feel a little bit of pride; this was the first time that none of them had died this far into the battle, and it was looking as if they could actually complete it successfully.

Pascale was back on his feet and he rushed the Dancer, who was just then shaking off the effects of the Support’s song, and he practically decapitated the poor Goblin with crisscrossed blades over her throat.  The Scout turned to attack another monster, but then he suddenly hit with something Clay hadn’t seen before: a close-range attack by the Nether Mage Slime.  Twin beams of the darkest black shot out of the wounded monster and seemed to seek out the eyes of the Scout. Pascale screamed as they tore into his face, blinding him with a band of painful-looking shadowy smoke covering the upper portion of his face.

“Hold on, I’m coming!” Kelty screamed, before sprinting for the side of the room where the handholds were to get across.  Clay knew she had a healing Skill that could eliminate Debuffs, the “Blinding Agony” of which the Scout was currently suffering from.

At the same time, Arcen, no longer the target of any attacks, was already making his own way over the opposite side of the room and lava via the handholds there, and he was ready to come to his teammate’s defense.  Jeska also tried to help out by impaling the Slime with one spell after another, though her Tier 1 Skills were largely ineffective against the 3-Star monster.  That wasn’t to say she didn’t do any damage, but it was barely enough to be noticeable.

The Weak Light Elemental was ready with another barrage, however, and as Pascale knelt on the ground, screaming in blind pain, he was shot in the chest by a beam of piercing light, which only served to increase the volume of his screams.  Before he was killed outright from prolonged exposure to the light, however, Rosara came to his rescue; she danced her Puppet Master Skill and took control of the Elemental, directing it to move out of the way so that its beam pointed somewhere else.

After that, the battle was nearly over; Arcen arrived and relentlessly attacked the Nether Mage Slime, slicing it apart with great swings of his swords, using Skills to do even more damage.  It didn’t last long under the onslaught, even though it tried to defend itself with another cloud of darkness – but the Fighter continued through the darkness and pain.  He ended up needing to drink a Potion to restore some of his health, but he eventually killed the Slime without any other help.

The Light Elemental didn’t last long after that.  Even as Kelty arrived to help Pascale, Jeska bombarded the brightly glowing monster with everything she had, and the spells slammed into its form in rapid succession, finally killing it.

The room was silent for a moment, before everyone started squealing in joy at the same time.  Even Arcen and Pascale, who Clay didn’t think could get their voices up that high, joined in with the squealing.

“Yes!”

“We did it!”

“Woohoo!”

“I told you we could do it!”

The celebrations were only beginning, however, as they all recovered from the fight by opening the Drop Chests.  Whereas the 1 and even 2-Star Drop Chests had been a simple brown wood color without anything fancy to them, the 3-Star Chest from the Nether Mage Slime was a lighter-colored wood in a fairly well-made Chest – complete with golden accents around the trim.  After opening up the rest of the Chests (which were relatively disappointing, with only a single Tier 1 Scout weapon in the whole bunch – the rest being essentially trash), Arcen took the liberty of opening up the 3-Star Drop Chest.

Drop Chest

Contents:

1X Mage Class Orb Tier 3 (BOA)

A Tier 3?  What’s the likelihood of that appearing just as I was thinking about it earlier?  To say that the group was shocked was also an understatement, as they were literally speechless.  Jeska finally walked forward in the silence and reached out to touch the Drop Chest, absorbing the Mage Class Orb Tier 3 into her body.  It was only a third of what she needed to advance to Tier 3, of course, but it made her smile anyway.

See, if they keep up like this, I won’t need to implement the new function you told me about—

Clay cut off what he was saying as a deep…thrum…shot through his Core, making his entire form vibrate.  It was so intense that he thought his Core was going to shatter, but fortunately it stopped before that happened.  Thankfully, it wasn’t necessarily painful – but it was worrying, mainly because it was so strange, and he had no idea what it was.

What was that?

He could see that something had affected the Heroes as well, as they stared off into nothing.  Clay could only assume that if he felt it, and the Heroes felt it, then something big was happening.  His suspicions were confirmed a moment later.

“That, my dear Clayburnside Shuntwise, was an indication that a World Threat is approaching within 10 miles of your dungeon.”

Chapter 32

What?  Nonono – that can’t be!  I haven’t had enough time!

Warning!

A Regional Threat is approaching nearby; your dungeon will be closed to Hero interaction within 5 minutes.

Danger!

Regional and World threats can destroy your dungeon and Core if allowed enough time.

Currently assessing Threat Level in comparison to local defenses…

My dungeon can be destroyed?  I know that my Dungeon Core is vulnerable at times, but I thought you said that my dungeon itself is basically invulnerable.

“Normally, that is true; a World Threat, however, is so large and powerful that it could destroy this entire cliffside if it chose to.  And dungeons and their Cores are typically targets for these Threats, as they are the source of Hero training; somehow, they know that if they eliminate Dungeon Cores, there will be fewer ways for the Heroes to become stronger.”

But this says that this is a “Regional Threat”, not a “World Threat”.

“What?  Read that notification again; I’m sure you’re mistaken,” she asked, sounding confused.  Clay obligingly read it again, out loud this time, and Dwight shook her lizard-like head.

“I’ve never heard of something like this before; there are a lot of new things that seem to spring up around you, Clay.  I have no answer for what that could be talking about.”

Regardless of what it was, the local area being attacked already wasn’t good; there was no way that any of the Heroes – even grouped up all together – could hope to take down even a Low Threat Level monster like that Giant Ogress that had destroyed half of Renton and killed Clay.

And there was nothing that Clay could do.  Even thinking about the last few weeks, there was very little that he could’ve done that would’ve made a difference.

The baby dragonling agreed.  “Had you known this would happen, there is very little that could’ve been done; the Hero infrastructure here on this island was basically nonexistent, and you basically did all that you could do to prepare them – though I think it will be futile, in the end.”  Dwight seemed sad, like she had given up already.  “If only you had more time.”

I wish I had more time, too; but it isn’t over yet—

Regional Threat Level assessed!

Current Threat Level for locality: Very High

Never mind.  It was nice knowing you, Dwight.  Clay was disappointed, and a bit despondent, because he really had been trying to do everything he could to prepare these Heroes for the eventual appearance of a Threat.  But less than 3 weeks for these Heroes who hadn’t known what they were doing and had just recently become Tier 2 Classes was a recipe for disaster.

But all of his and their hard work, their repeated deaths and grinding of his 1-Star monsters, might all have been for naught.  Clay had doubts that they would live more than a few minutes against something like the Giant Ogress, but against something even more powerful…it was likely they would die within seconds.  I’m guessing that a Very High Threat Level is bad?

“You would be correct.”  She was quiet for a few moments before she continued.  “It was nice knowing you too, Clay.  I originally thought you might be useless since you were never a Hero, but you’ve proven me wrong.”

It was a bit of a backhanded compliment, but he’d take it.  Clay watched with sorrow as Jeska, Arcen, and the others left his dungeon at a run, knowing that this was likely the last time he might see them alive.  As they exited through the entrance, he knew he’d miss them – all of the Heroes – but the teenage and lecherous part of his mind naturally also miss watching the Support Hero, Rosara, dance; the way she bounced in just the right way—

Attention!

Current Threat Level exceeds local Hero population by more than 10X!  As a result, your Dungeon Seal has been temporarily lifted to aid with defense.

What does that mean?  What is a Dungeon Seal?

Dwight had him read out the notification to her, and she immediately perked up; the despondency wasn’t completely gone, but it was pushed out of the way by something else: Hope.  “Your Dungeon Seal is what keeps your monsters inside of your dungeon,” she said pointedly.  As if he was supposed to know what that was supposed to mean.

How does that help?  If they’re not in my dungeon, then how are the Heroes supposed to kill them?  Wouldn’t that defeat their purpose—oh.  I think I understand.

“Exactly.  You can send your monsters out to help aid the Heroes against this threat,” the baby dragonling confirmed.  “This has happened in the past, though only 2 occurrences of a Dungeon Seal being lifted have been known to have transpired.  There is something that you need to know about this, however.”

And what is that?

“Just like the Heroes can permanently die outside of your dungeon, so too can any monsters you send out.”

That isn’t good.  It really wasn’t, but then again, if he refused to send any monsters out and the Regional Threat ended up killing everyone and destroying his dungeon and Core, then it really wouldn’t matter.  It doesn’t really change anything; I need for this Threat to be eliminated, and I’ll do everything I can to ensure that happens.

Since he had constructed his rooms of varying difficulty, Clay hadn’t been able to spend any of his Crystal Chips. He had been contemplating closing down his dungeon for a short time so that he could finish up his “nightmare” difficulty room, especially once the groups were able to complete the “average” room without dying (like what had just happened); now that he was looking at his Chip count, he was suddenly glad that he hadn’t used any of them yet.

Core Assessment and Transcribed Status

Core Name:

Clayburnside “The Denominator” Shuntwise

Core Stage:

7

Core Structure Health:

14/20

Crystal Chips:

23845 (6500 to next Core Stage)

Star Limit for Placement:

115

Available Monsters:

134/175

Available Traps:

11 (No Limit)

Available Dungeon Spells:

0 (No Limit)

Summoning Portal

Dungeon Interface

Sacrificial Altar

While there weren’t nearly as many Hero deaths as there had been within the first few days, those who did die were worth a whole lot more.  Most of the Crystal Chips that he had accumulated came from the deaths of Tier 1 Heroes (which gave him 50 Chips each), but at least 20% of his total came from Tier 2 Hero deaths – which provided 100 Chips!  He really didn’t understand at first how Dungeon Cores accumulated so many Chips to be able to afford some of the more expensive Spawn Eggs, but now it made sense.  When the number of Chips doubled with each Tier death, a Tier 9 Hero would provide 12,800 Chips, while a Tier 10 would provide 25,600 – an insane amount to Clay at that point.

Of course, the Chip requirements for increasing a Core Stage only became more expensive, so it all sort of balanced out.

Now that he had plenty of Chips to spend, he could theoretically use them to increase his Stage again – probably multiple times – but that wouldn’t necessarily help at the moment.  What he needed were Monsters that could go toe-to-toe with a Threat – Regional or otherwise – and the only way to do that was to summon some more Spawn Eggs.  He was about to attempt another Bundle Pack #1 and hope that its penchant for spawning Cats had passed, but he was interrupted.

Regional Threat has arrived!

Identifying…Threat identified!

Tornado Cat Champion ★★★★★★★★

Regional Threat Level: Very High

A Cat!  Why?!  Everywhere he turned, it seemed as though Cats were there to plague him with their presence, and he couldn’t get away.

“I think I understand now.”

Understand what?  That the world is out to get me?  That these stupid felines are the bane of my existence?

Dwight shook her head.  “No.  What I understand is that whatever was making all of those Cats show up in your Spawn Eggs was doing it deliberately.”

Deliberately?  Why?  It didn’t make any sense, unless it wanted to torture Clay – in which case it was doing a great job of that.

“Think about it for a moment, Clay, and stop letting your prejudice and hatred of any cats cloud your mind.”

It was hard for Clay to do that, however, because all he could think of was how he had died because of his sister’s stupid cat, Spark.  And from then on, it almost seemed like the Spawn Eggs were deliberately mocking him by providing Cats as his most powerful monsters –the thought of which finally gave him pause enough to consider it. What if I wasn’t meant as a mockery…but as a warning?

“Precisely what I was thinking,” Dwight immediately corroborated his musings.  “All of those Cats coming from the Eggs were meant to prepare your Heroes for the fight that they were going to face.  How this mysterious entity was able to manipulate the probabilities like it did, as well as knowing exactly what this Threat would be, is somewhat of a mystery, though.”

Clay had a horrible realization; by sacrificing all of the Cats he received to the Altar, he effectively removed any chance of them practicing against one of their kind.  As much as he had wanted to prepare them for the future, he had handicapped them by taking away the one thing that could’ve helped them right now.  Not that he expected them to do much against an 8-Star monster—

Wait.  This Threat isn’t an 11-Star like the one I saw before I died – it’s only 8 Stars.

“What?  That’s impossible.” The baby dragonling seemed flabbergasted.  “…Unless that’s what the Regional Threat means?  That’s the only explanation I can think of.”

Clay didn’t care what the explanation was, only that he thought that they actually had a chance of winning.  Against an 11-Star gargantuan Cat half the size of the island, trying to kill it even with his monsters helping was probably impossible; with it only being 8-Stars, there was a much better chance of succeeding.

But his measly little 1, 2, and 3-Star monsters wouldn’t be much help against a powerful Cat like what they were facing.  Even his 4 and 5-Star monsters – of which he had a total of 3 – probably wouldn’t be very effective; what he needed were some much more powerful monsters, such as the 6 and 7-Star Cats he had sacrificed.  I should’ve listened to you, Dwight, and kept those in reserve just in case.

“Well, it’s too late now; not only that, but you’re running out of time.  It’s more than likely that this Threat is already approaching populated areas, which means that the Heroes are going to try to stop it; you need to send whatever you can soon, or else all those Heroes will die.”

She was right.  Clay could practically feel the Threat prowling around above his dungeon…somewhere…and he needed to think fast.  Potentially, he could summon hundreds more of the Common Spawn Eggs via the Bundle Pack #1 and hope that some were powerful – but that would both take a while and wasn’t a guarantee.  Plus, in order to summon that many, he would have to either sacrifice or evolve some of the monsters already available to him, because he was nearing his limit.  From experience, he knew that all of that took some time to complete, so that didn’t seem like the best option.

Looking at Bundle Pack #2, he could spend 9,000 Crystal Chips to buy 10 Mystical Spawn Eggs…but from the probability chart Dwight had shared, that there was only about a 33% chance that he would receive something that was 6-Star or higher. That probability dropped down to 11% for something 7-Star or higher – which was really what he needed.  When he added in the fact that there was a 40% chance that it could be a trap for use in his dungeon (which wouldn’t do any good at the moment), it was a hard decision – even when there was a guaranteed 6-Star as a result of buying Bundle Pack #2.

Which left the Epic Spawn Egg, which he previously had barely even considered because what he needed before was quantity, not quality.  Now, unfortunately, he needed something powerful; and he couldn’t afford to wait for a lucky spawn from either the Common or Mystical Spawn Eggs.  The Epic Spawn Egg had nearly even odds that the result would be 7-Star or higher – but again, it could end up being some sort of trap that would be useless.  It was a gamble, but it was one that he thought he needed to attempt – or else all was lost.

In the end, it was the 1 in 5 chance that his result would be 8-Star or higher that decided him; the Epic Spawn Eggs were his best chance of acquiring something that could be effective against the Threat.  All of those contemplations and calculations Clay did in his mind within seconds, so it didn’t take long for him to implement his plan – and Dwight agreed with him.

“Go big or die trying.”

I’m not sure that inspires a whole lot of confidence, but I appreciate the encouragement, nonetheless.

Without any more than a moment’s hesitation, Clay bought an Epic Spawn Egg from the Summoning Portal.  The usual light show and production occurred, which made him happy to see, and when it was finally done, there was a familiar-colored green Egg sitting in front of him.  Yes!  A 7-Star, at least.  He mentally tapped on it and watched it open up, figuratively holding his breath in anticipation.

Elemental Impedance Puzzle Floor ★★★★★★★

Type: Magical

Material: Magistone

Location: Room Floor

Damage: Variable

NO!!!!  Waste of an Egg!  Clay couldn’t believe it – 10,000 Crystal Chips for a worthless trap!  Well, not necessarily worthless, because it would likely be very useful in the future…if there was a future for him and the rest of the inhabitants of the island.  The likelihood of that happening was looking pretty bleak at the moment.

He hesitated even more before purchasing another Epic Egg. Should I get Bundle Pack #2 instead?  It will give me more chances to get something good, but I may end up with nothing but a few 5 and 6-Star monsters.  Then again, what if I purchase another Epic Egg and get another trap?  If that were to happen, he would’ve then wasted most of his Chips on basically nothing that would help him.

He wavered back and forth for a few seconds, patently aware of the desperate need to hurry and make a decision.  Just do it! he told himself abruptly.  In the next moment, Clay bought another Epic Spawn Egg – and he looked away from the light show, suddenly afraid of what he had just done.

“I think you may have gotten lucky, Clay,” Dwight said after the Egg had time to form.  “Well…maybe.”

Clay turned back and saw what the baby dragonling was talking about.  The Epic Spawn Egg he had purchased appeared completely different from what he had seen before.  Instead of yellow, golden, orange, pink, red, or green, this one was a glittery deep purple color.  He could only assume, after seeing 1 through 7-Star Egg colors, that this was an 8, 9, or even 10-Star…but whether or not it was a monster or a trap was yet to be seen.  He tapped it open – and sighed in relief.

Creeping Fern ★★★★★★★★★

Attack Type: Melee, Ranged, Magical

Rarity: Common

Element: Nature

Finally!  A monster…but a Fern?  He couldn’t tell from the glass slab that presented the image of the Creeping Fern, but he thought that it might actually be mobile.  Instead of his simple 1-Star Ferns that were a little over chest-high to most of the Heroes and appeared relatively “normal”, this 9-Star plant monster appeared massive.  The fronds of the Fern were vine-like in appearance, so much so that it looked like some sort of multi-tentacled monstrosity more than the plant it was originally based upon.  It also didn’t appear to be actually planted into the ground at its base, which led Clay to suspect that it would be able to move.

Hopefully.

Screams from the city outside of his dungeon alerted him that he was running out of time. Technically, Clay still had some Chips he could spend on some Mystical Spawn Eggs, but it would take too long right now.  Therefore, he eliminated all of his monsters in his dungeon rooms with a thought, before stretching his awareness a short distance from his entrance and onto the beach.  First, he experimented by imagining placing a simple Ice Bat in his expanded awareness.  The very first monster he had ever summoned amazingly popped into existence and flapped leisurely in place.  And then did nothing.

“You need to send it after the Threat,” Dwight suddenly spoke up.

But I can’t see it!  I think it’s on top of the cliff.

“Doesn’t matter; it will adapt to your order while it is still inside your awareness.  Unlike those inside of your dungeon, you will have slightly more control over your monsters’ directives.  As soon as it leaves your awareness, however, it will continue to obey the last order you gave it.”

Clay thought about his need for the Bat to attack the Cat Threat, and it took off into the sky without hesitation.  That was easy—ouch!  It felt like something pricked his Core with a needle; it wasn’t necessarily painful, but it was so unexpected that he involuntarily cried out.  What was that?

“I believe as soon as that Bat left your awareness, it was ripped from your Core.”  Sure enough, the baby dragonling’s assessment was correct; looking at his Core Assessment, he now saw that he had 1 less monster available and 1 of the Ice Bats was missing from his list.  Not only that, but he had also lost 1 point of his Core Structure Health in the process.

This…hurts me?  Why didn’t you tell me, Dwight?

She was silent for a moment before responding.  “I didn’t know.  There isn’t a lot of information about Dungeon Seals being down, and this was obviously one of those things that was never known.”

Great.  Well, I’m glad I didn’t do what I had first thought to do, which was to swarm the Threat with hundreds of little monsters that I would continue to summon over and over.

Mainly what it meant was that he had to be a little more discerning with what he sent outside.  His 1-Stars were pretty much out of the question, because they wouldn’t do much good; the same went with his 2-Stars, as they were little better.  Instead, he concentrated on his stronger monsters first, sending out his Stone Golem, Mist Demon, Nether Mage Slime, Colossal Serpent, and Giant Bush Spider.  One by one they appeared, and he sent them their orders; they walked, floated, skittered, or slithered away out of his awareness, each of them doing a little pinprick of damage to his CSH.  He tried to send out the 4-Star Sly Fern as well, but it appeared that it was immobile – that wouldn’t really do very well.  The Nether Mage Slime was a bit slow, and he almost reabsorbed it before it could vacate his awareness – but he figured he could use all the help he could get.

Finally, he placed his 9-Star Creeping Fern—and was shocked at how large it actually was.  It stood at least 50 feet tall and the same amount wide, looking partially like a gigantic ball of greenish vines and partially like an actual fern.  He estimated that there were dozens of fronds, each with “leaves” that were filled with vines, numbering in the hundreds or possibly thousands.  It was hard to tell exactly what was what, but at least he was right about its mobility; as soon as he gave the order, it used its vine-filled fronds to basically roll itself along, moving faster than nearly all of his other monsters.

And with that…it was out of his figurative hands.  He couldn’t see what was happening, nor could he control his monsters anymore; they weren’t really a part of his Core once they passed his awareness, after all, so they were on their own—

Uh…Dwight?

“Yes?”

What happens if they win?

“Well, they should come right back here and—.” She paused.  “Please don’t tell me you forgot to tell them to come back here after the Threat was eliminated.”

Um…okay, I won’t tell you that.

Chapter 33

Jeska was ecstatic to have finally defeated the room that had been a bane of their existence for the last couple of days.  There were just so many moving parts and things that could go wrong that it was difficult to time everything correctly, coordinate plans so that everything was executed in order – all while doing their best to stay alive.  She thought that their whole plan was going to be for nothing as she was caught by the disgusting moves of the Goblin Dancer and frozen in place, but Rosara used her own Skills to save her from being slammed by some sort of projectile or magical effect.  She already knew that most of the ranged attacks from those across the way could kill her in as little as 1 hit, though most took 2 or more.  Her brother called her “squishy”, which was an apt description – especially since he seemed to absorb damage like some sort of sea sponge did water.

Not only did they defeat the Nether Mage Slime, which had been a pain in her aft quarters, but in its Drop Chest was something no one else had seen to that point – a Mage Class Orb Tier 3.  She absorbed it from the Chest in the shocked silence coming from the others, and she smiled as it was absorbed into her body.  Yes!  It’s only a matter of time before we get even more of these, and then we can become more powerful!  Thoughts of moving on to the next room were tempting, but she knew that until they had perfected their Skills in the current room, any contemplation of completing the next room was a bit premature.

Suddenly, in the continued silence as they all looked at each other with the same silly smile she felt on her own face, Jeska felt a shiver run through her entire body.  At first she thought it was a side-effect of her minor healing by the Health Band, but after seeing the others feeling the same thing, she intuitively knew that it didn’t have anything to do with healing.

Heroes!

A Regional Threat has been detected entering the local vicinity; prepare to defend the people in your community!

Warning: This dungeon will be closed in the next 5 minutes; vacate or risk being trapped within, unable to help your people.

She felt like her heart was going to pound right out her chest when she saw the message pop up in front of her face.  She immediately dismissed it when she was finished reading, only to find shocked looks on everyone else’s faces.  “Wha—?” was all she could get out, before Arcen started moving towards the handholds on the side of the wall.

“We need to move – this is what we’ve been preparing for.”

She wanted to argue, to say that they were by no means ready for whatever this Regional Threat was, but everyone – even Kelty, who was usually the most cautious of the group – followed after him.  Sweat popped out all over her body as she made her way over the side of the lava pit, so much so that she worried for a moment that her fingers would slip off.  We’re all going to die, we’re all going to die, we’re all going to die….

The way Arcen strode ahead without hesitation helped to calm her nerves a little; he was always so steady and brave – sometimes foolishly – that she couldn’t help but think she was lucky to have him in her life, as well as being part of their Hero group.  Her brother might not have flashy Skills such as her being able to fling out spells left and right, or dance and sing to affect the people or monsters around him, or sneak into the shadows, or even miraculously heal mortal wounds with a wave of a hand – but their group’s Fighter was the one that kept them all together.  Not to mention voluntarily taking much of the damage meant for them.

She barely saw the rest of the dungeon as they rushed outside, not wanting to be caught inside and unable to escape in time.  Her own breathing had steadied, despite the run, by the time they exited, and Jeska was starting to come to terms that this was really happening.  They immediately angled for Chardelia, hoping to warn everyone there before it was too late.  However, even at a distance it seemed as though the place was in an uproar; there was an audible murmur coming from the city, and Jeska could see that multiple boats were already launching from the docks.

The explanation came a moment later, as one Hero group after another streamed out of the city towards them.  They got the word around fast!  It had only been a few minutes since they had gotten the message, but it only proved the old idiom – ill news spreads apace.  While gossip and other important information was passed around quickly in a city the size of Chardelia, nothing traveled faster than bad news.

And this was really bad news.  Potentially life-ending, catastrophically bad news.

Before her own group and the others could meet, another message flashed across her vision, nearly causing her to trip and fall on the rocky upper beach.

Regional Threat has arrived!

Tornado Cat Champion ★★★★★★★★

Regional Threat Level: Very High

(Note: Due to the extremely difficult nature of this Threat compared to the local defenders, certain restrictions have been lifted.)

The sight of an 8-Star monster in the message finally did make her trip and fall on the beach.  As she sat there staring at the words Tornado Cat Champion★★★★★★★★, her knees bloody, she knew they were done for.  Even though they had managed to take down a 3-Star monster in a room full of other monsters, they weren’t in any way ready to tackle an 8-Star monster.

The last part of the message didn’t make any sense to her, but she figured it really didn’t have to – they were dead, anyway.  With a lot less resolve than just a few seconds ago, she got up off her hurt knees and mentally got rid of the message, only to see the others looking as despondent as she felt.  She didn’t have time to feel sorry for them, however, as a sudden screaming from the city caught their attention.

Above Chardelia, looking down the side of the cliff, was the largest creature she had ever seen.  It was literally monstrous, which was an apt description of the monster Threat looking to attack and kill everyone in the city.  It was cat-shaped and grey-furred, but as far as any other felines she had ever seen, that was where the resemblance stopped.  Jaws filled with sharp teeth opened and closed in anticipation, even as its frightening claws dug into the side of the cliff; the 100-foot-long Cat also had a faint swirl of air rotating around its body, picking up dirt and small stones as it went.

Tornado Cat Champion ★★★★★★★★

Threat Level: Very High

She knew what a tornado was from descriptions, though she had never seen one.  She had seen a hurricane, which was just as destructive as a tornado – or so she had heard.  If that was the case, then they were in some real trouble.  Not that they weren’t before.

Strangely, the Cat seemed hesitant to jump down from the cliff – unlike every other cat she had seen in her life, which seemed not to care about heights and were ready to jump on just about anything.  Instead, it looked around for a way down and finally found it; there was a crevice in the cliff that led upwards onto the plateau that made up the majority of the island, which was just wide enough for the dangerous monster to easily defend.

Arcen saw it at the same time.  “We can’t let it get down here!  If it does, there’s no stopping it from killing our family and friends!”  He took off for the crevice, followed quickly by the rest of the group, including herself.  Looking towards the other Hero groups that were heading for them, she could see that they were doing the exact same thing.

Despite the insanity of it all, Jeska felt…uplifted…for some reason.  Maybe it was the shared purpose she had with the other Heroes; maybe it was that she was going into a serious battle that they probably had no chance of winning, alongside her brother; or maybe it was because she had died and been resurrected so many times within the dungeon that she didn’t know any better.  Regardless of the reason, it finally felt good to put their Skills and experience – albeit minimal, at that – to use in their chosen purpose: To defend the people of this island, with their dying breath if necessary, no matter what their families thought of them.

That had been the hardest part of everything. Losing the easy familiarity and camaraderie of their father had hurt, but they knew that even if he did everything he could to avoid seeing them, he loved them in his heart of hearts.  It was a massive sacrifice on both sides of the situation, and Jeska and Arcen, just like all of the other Heroes, would do everything they could to ensure that such a mammoth sacrifice was not in vain.

At least Jeska would go to her grave knowing that she had done everything she possibly could to save them all.

Time seemed to advance quickly as they ran for the crevice, while at the same time it seemed to take forever.  Her brother reached the base of the incline, heading upwards, and sprinted ahead, though he was quickly overtaken by both Pascale and 5 other Scouts, whose speeds were extraordinary. Jeska and the others just arriving at the crevice watched as they reached the top in record time, only to be swiped away by the back of a furry paw the size of all of them put together.

“No!  Hurry, everyone!” Jeska yelled as she imbued as much speed as she could into her legs.  The rest of the Fighters were out front, leading the pack with their longer and stronger legs, and they reached the top just as she saw the face of the cat appear.  With a lightning strike, it bit down on the first Fighter to reach the top – Percy, it looked like – and it was only a hastily raised shield that prevented him from being killed right then and there.  Instead, the impact against his defense was so powerful that he was knocked back down the crevice at high speed, flying past her and the other Mages, Healers, and Support Heroes.  Percy’s Healer, Margarite, broke off and ran back down to him, and Jeska was glad to see that he had survived – though he was banged up pretty bad.

The rest of the Fighters – including her brother – were in a fight for their lives…and they were losing.  She couldn’t see who it was (though she could see that it wasn’t Arcen), but one of them had tried the same tactic of keeping his shield up in defense.  Tragically, it did absolutely nothing about the paw with 2-foot-long claws stomping down at him.  His shield, his iron armor, and his body were all vertically sliced cleanly into four different pieces, and the Fighter was dead before the formerly whole parts hit the ground.

She and the others were nearly in range, but it wasn’t looking good.  The massive Cat was just too fast, as it bit down on another Fighter – Freida, this time – and the poor former sailor couldn’t get her shield up fast enough.  The lower half of her body stood upright for a few seconds before it finally collapsed, as her upper torso was flung away by the monster as if being discarded as something nasty-tasting.

“NOOOO!!!!” Jeska heard from her side.  She recognized Tercel’s voice, Freida’s lover and their group’s Mage, as he somehow put on even more speed and rushed ahead of the pack.  She could readily understand his feelings, as it appeared as though Arcen was next up on the chopping block as he rushed forward and attempted to stab the Cat in the left paw.

Suddenly, there were 6 blurs that assaulted the back of the monster, the knives of the hurt-but-not-dead Scouts who had been knocked away earlier flashing out and scoring some hits to the rear of the Cat Champion.  A red bar appeared at the top of her vision and wouldn’t go away no matter how much she tried to dismiss it; after a moment, just as she got into a range that her Skills might actually work, she realized that it was the Health of the Regional Threat.

Despite some surprise attacks on its back legs by their Scouts, which she knew from experience did a lot of damage to weaker monsters, the valiant Heroes’ collective actions barely even made the red bar deplete.  She couldn’t see the wounds they made from her position, but she doubted they were more than tiny scratches that barely broke through the fur of the gigantic beast and to the skin beneath.

While there was a lack of significant damage, the Cat Champion didn’t like the surprise attacks.  Just as Jeska and the other Mages started launching their ranged attacks towards the Threat, she found out why it was called a Tornado Cat Champion.

An extensive and powerful whirlwind of air suddenly sprang up around the monster, picking up all 6 Scouts and flinging them off across the plateau and out of sight.  There was no way to know if they survived their flight or not, because they were so far gone that she couldn’t see them.  The whirlwind started to pick up the remaining Fighters, as well, but she could see that they had all activated their Stonewall Skill; they all seemed to sink into the stone and dirt of the plateau with their shields raised, and they stayed rooted in place.

As for the Mages’ attacks, none of them even got close to hitting, as they were bounced away. Some were reflected back towards the still-racing group, but fortunately, they were dodged by some quick footwork and frantic diving to avoid being hit.  Needless to say, the barrage of attacks from Jeska and the rest of the Mages stopped – at least until the powerful whirlwind stopped.  At least she hoped that it would stop; if it didn’t, then she would be practically useless.

The Supports attacked in unison next as songs rang out, concentrating on the Cat Champion.  Jeska saw the effects of their Skills slam into the monster as the tornado surrounding the feline beast didn’t affect them – and saw the Cat pause for about a half a second as it stalked the Fighters rooted in place.  A Puppet Master dance was next, which caused the Champion to freeze for a full second before the dance was rendered ineffective.

“This thing is too strong!  None of our Skills are doing anything!” Rosara screamed in frustration as she watched the Cat approach Arcen. Her brother was trapped in place by his Skill, which was the only reason he hadn’t been flung away.  In desperation, Jeska used her Fiery Explosion Tier 2 Skill which she gained from a Skillbook just a few days ago, causing an explosion to appear in front of the face of the Cat Champion.

As she had feared, her spell didn’t even make it through the wind, rendering it useless as a way to damage the humongous beast.  What it did do, however, was cause the Cat to pause for a moment in surprise before continuing its way forward towards Arcen.  A second and then a third explosion erupted in the face of the monster, which made it pause even more – but it was only delaying the inevitable.  Another few explosions occurred, and when they were done Jeska attempted to create an Ice Barricade – but it was blown apart in less than a second, sending shards of ice everywhere.

“Oops.”  That was an understatement, but she was desperate to save her brother with whatever options she had at her disposal.

Suddenly, the tornado-like winds around the Cat settled down to a gentle breeze, the monster’s Skill or whatever it was having been expended for the moment.  That didn’t mean it wasn’t still deadly, but now they could actually attack it!

Checking her cooldowns, she saw that her Tier 1 Skills like Ice Shard were already back up and ready to use, so she and the others started to launch a new barrage of spells at the Threat.  Sharp rocks, spears of ice, balls of flames, and fists of air impacted the head of the Cat, which shrugged off the attacks without even seeming to feel them.  At most, she saw a few streaks of red blood coloring the fur of the monster, but they were more likely from superficial scratches than actual wounds.  And the gigantic red bar of Health that was superimposed over her vision had barely even budged from the attacks.

“Arcen, run!  We can’t—” she shouted, seeing that her brother was seconds from death.  She knew he was strong, but she also had seen him killed dozens of times in the dungeon and knew that even strength was no match for the deadliness of monsters out to kill him.  Her shout was cut short, however, as a blur of blue streaked across her vision from the air and abruptly impacted the forehead of the Cat.

It only took her a moment as it bounced off for her to recognize it, as a thin sheen of frost covered the Cat Champion’s fur for a moment before disappearing.  Jeska and the others had seen it hundreds of times over the last few weeks, so the blue form was unmistakable – though she never thought she would see it outside of the dungeon.

It was an Ice Bat.  The accuracy of that was confirmed moments later when she saw its name above its head, just like she saw down in the depths of the dungeon.  “What?  How?”

Her confusion was echoed by the others, but it was short-lived.  A quick swipe of a paw into the air, as if swatting a fly, was all it took to kill the Ice Bat.  It hit the ground with tremendous force and was basically obliterated, so completely destroyed that it was unrecognizable.  My brother is going to look like that if we don’t do something soon!

“It’s an ambush!  Defend from the rear!” Jeska suddenly heard the roar of Percy’s voice, coming up from behind the group.  She whipped around and saw the mostly healed Fighter racing up the crevice with his Healer in tow, but he was focused behind him.  She couldn’t blame him, because there seemed to be a force of more monsters following him up the incline.

Jeska was torn between helping from behind and saving her brother.  Making a decision, she grabbed Rosara and Kelty and raced towards Arcen, hoping to arrive before he was killed; it wasn’t entirely through a desire to escape that fate, but more of a thought of retreating and regrouping when they could face their challenges on better footing.

“Fall back onto the plateau!” she heard from the larger group.  Good, at least I’m not the only one that had that idea.  “We need to regroup and concentrate on one threat at a time!”

“You all go, I’ll try to hold this thing off while you figure out a way to kill it!” Arcen shouted to the other Fighters, heroically yet foolishly sacrificing himself so that others would live.  Tears sprouted in her eyes as she ran for her own life, refusing to watch her brother be killed; as much as she wanted to scream at him to run, she knew it would be futile.  He was just too devoted to helping other people for his own good and would refuse.

She ran with the rest of the group of Mages, Healers, Supports, and the remaining Fighters onto the plateau, putting a little distance between them and the monsters in order to give them time to plan.  All while trying not to listen to her brother being killed behind her – and not having the power to do anything about it.

Tears were streaming down her face at this point, and she wiped her eyes with the sleeve of her robe as she skidded to a stop with the others.  She nearly refused to turn around to see what had happened to Arcen, but she knew she would have to see what was going on so that she could plan their final defense.  Jeska looked to where the Tornado Cat Champion had been stalking her brother—only to find that he was still alive and backing up towards the large group of Heroes.

Because, contrary to their assumption, the monsters coming from down below weren’t there to ambush them; instead, they were there to ambush the Threat.

Chapter 34

Jeska recognized the gigantic Colossal Serpent from the one look inside of the room at the end of hallway #3, which let her know that it, and the few other monsters she saw, was from the dungeon itself.  Just like the Ice Bat they had seen earlier, it seemed as though the dungeon was coming to their rescue – as insane as that sounded.

“What is going on?” Arcen shouted back at them as he inched closer to the group, keeping his shield raised and towards the other monsters as he moved.

“I have no idea!” Jeska shouted back, a mixture of confusion and relief flooding her voice.  She was happy that her brother wasn’t dead, but she wasn’t sure what was going on.  I wonder…is this what that other part of the message meant by, “certain restrictions being lifted”?  She had no way of knowing for sure, but she assumed that it was likely the case.

Staying out of the fight seemed like the best idea, especially since they were outmatched by both the Cat Champion and the new dungeon monsters.  As Arcen finally reached them, everyone just stood there and watched the events unfold, as there was no point in trying to plan until they knew the outcome.

In addition to the Colossal Serpent, there were 3 other monsters that arrived with it.  One was a Giant Bush Spider, which was a large green-and-brown-colored spider, even taller than Arcen, covered in small bumps that fluttered just like little leaves.  It was currently in motion, but she could see how it could pull its legs in and camouflage itself so that it appeared just like…well, a bush.

The second monster was a collection of large rocks held together by some magical force, looking vaguely humanoid in appearance.  The Stone Golem was perhaps a little shorter than Jeska’s brother, but what it lacked in height it made up with width – its “arms” were so large that it was basically as wide as it was tall.

Coming up behind them was the last of the monsters, though this one floated above the other three and was insubstantial-looking.  The Mist Demon – a demon?! – was an amorphous mass of bluish water droplets a little smaller than the Stone Golem, and it floated forward at tremendous speed, aiming for the Regional Threat without wavering.  She wasn’t sure what water droplets could do against a massive Cat, but that didn’t seem to sway it in its purpose.

The Colossal Serpent reached the ferocious feline first, and it slithered up to it with its mouth wide-open, intending to bite its face.  The Cat wasn’t having any of that, however, as it agilely leapt backwards with a near-deafening hiss – and Jeska finally got to see the sheer speed of the Threat at work.  It…it was playing with us before, like a smaller cat would if it caught a rat.  There was no hesitation, no stalking of the new monster attacking it like it had with the Heroes.  Either it was more afraid of her and her fellow Heroes, or it considered them something unworthy of a challenge.  It didn’t really matter, though, because it had abandoned any pretense and now was fighting back without reservation.

Missing its initial strike, the Serpent slithered after the Cat, but the 8-Star Threat was already pouncing.  A quick hop forward was all it needed to sail past the head of the Serpent with claws extended; it landed on the back of the giant reptile and immediately began to shred its body with its deadly paw weapons, scratching so fast that within 2 seconds the Serpent was practically cut in half.

A sudden flexing of its body was all the warning the Cat had as the Serpent’s head whipped around and struck at the Threat.  A quick turn to the side prevented the Colossal snake from striking the Champion’s face, but their nemesis wasn’t able to leap away entirely unscathed; the fangs of the Serpent struck deep into the flesh of the Cat’s shoulder, and Jeska saw the large red Health bar in her vision reduce another sliver.  Not even that is enough to really harm it.

Unfortunately, the Serpent’s strike was costly, as it couldn’t extract its fangs fast enough; the deadly teeth of the Cat chomped down on the “neck” of the Serpent cutting through the thick muscle and bones with an ease that was truly frightening.  The next moment, the Snake was spasming in both its lower half and its head, shaking so much that its fangs slid out of the Cat’s shoulder.  The head fell to the ground, and Jeska could immediately tell that it was dead – decapitation tended to do that sort of thing.

But the assault wasn’t done yet; the Giant Bush Spider was then near enough to spring up from where it was skittering closer.  It landed on the back of the victorious Cat and immediately bit down deep into its fur. There was an immediate change in the red Health bar in Jeska’s vision, as it started to flash red and green.  A tiny sliver of the bar ticked away, and there was a small message underneath the bar that said, “Debuff: Envenomed”.

Ha!  Let’s see how this Cat likes getting Debuffs!  All of the Heroes had suffered from some sort of Debuff at one point or another, and it was quite annoying – and deadly.

Unfortunately, it didn’t seem like the Envenomed part of the Debuff was all that effective, as the Health bar ticked down another sliver and then the flashing green disappeared.  The Giant Bush Spider didn’t have a chance to attack again, either, as the Cat Champion yowled in pain and then jumped straight up into the air about 200 feet.  At the peak of the jump, the Threat somehow managed to turn itself over in a flash, leaving the Spider floating above it – and within range of the Cat’s deadly claws.  As the Cat fell, it systematically sliced apart the legs of the green-and-brown Spider, though it did manage to get bit one more time.  The envenomed status lasted just long enough for it to do another few slivers of damage to the Threat’s Health bar, but the Debuff disappeared as it turned back around before it hit the ground.

Landing smoothly on the top of the plateau, the Cat deftly hopped a short distance away, avoiding the severed legs of the Spider as they fell like confetti all over the ground.  The body of the monstrous arachnid landed soon after, hitting the ground so hard that it splattered and died upon impact.

The Mist Demon was next on the attack, and the Cat’s deft hop placed it within range of the strange-looking monster.  Jeska watched as half of it seemed to detach itself and shoot towards the feline’s face; the Cat Champion tried to rear back to avoid it, but the misty water droplets were too fast as they sped up the nose of the Threat.  Immediately, a small chunk of Health disappeared from the red bar – the largest impact she’d registered thus far – and Jeska silently cheered.  The celebration was short-lived, regretfully, because the Cat sneezed, blowing out the portion of the Mist Demon that had invaded its sinuses, and that did…something.  The portion that was blown out combined with the rest of the misty substance still floating outside, and the Mage could tell that approximately half of what went into the nose didn’t come back out.

As the Mist Demon attempted another sort of attack, it was pre-empted by the rise of another tornado-like whirlwind from around the Cat’s body.  The Mist Demon, despite somehow being powerful enough to actually do a significant amount of damage, was literally ripped apart by the insanely strong winds.  Where its “body” ended up, Jeska couldn’t tell, but after a few moments it was nowhere to be seen.

The Stone Golem seemed largely unaffected by the wind as it stomped ahead, though it was visibly slowed in its progression.  Nevertheless, it got to the side of the Cat without too much trouble and punched out with one of its massive arms of stone; the Threat was too fast for it, however, and it lithely jumped to the side and out of range.  The Golem tried to follow, but a paw filled with deadly claws sliced into it from the Cat in response to the initial attack, and Jeska heard a screeching as they bit into and tore off large chunks of the hard stone of the animated rock monster.

And yet, it wasn’t dead quite yet, so the Golem toddled forward on half-destroyed stone legs.  Just as another paw full of claws was about to strike again, the stone monster paused, shook violently, and then exploded into dozens of sharp, jagged pieces.  All of the Heroes near Jeska dropped to the ground upon seeing this, their reaction to unexpected explosions and attacks heightened from their time in the dungeon.  The fragments of propelled stone shards sailed harmlessly over their heads – but the Cat wasn’t so lucky.

The massive Threat was too close to the explosion to get away unscathed, plus it didn’t really understand what was happening; as a result, the feline got a face and chest full of sharp stone fragments, one of which pierced through its sensitive nose.  When Jeska was able to concentrate on it, she noticed that its Health bar had taken another chunk of damage – but she estimated that it was still at least at 95% of its original amount.  Entirely too much for them to try to succeed in killing it – especially if those other monsters failed so spectacularly.

But they still had to try.

“We have to wait until that wind goes away!” she shouted to the group, which was acknowledged by the nodding of multiple heads.  “Fighters, up front to keep that thing off of us long enough for—what is that?!”  Jeska sucked in her breath in fright as a new monster appeared from down below – one that appeared even worse than the Tornado Cat Champion.

Creeping Fern ★★★★★★★★★

Attack Type: Melee, Ranged, Magical

Element: Nature

A 9-Star?  This is from the dungeon?  As much as she appreciated the dungeon helping out (which was still almost impossible to believe), she was suddenly worried that the cure could be worse than the disease.

The Creeping Fern was a disorganized ball of fronds and vines, looking like a mess of confusing and tangled appendages.  It practically rolled up the incline as if someone had bowled it up through the crevice, though Jeska was sure that it had needed to slow down at some point; it was too wide to get through the rocky passageway without needing to squeeze through.  Although the massive Tornado Cat Champion was half again as long as the Fern, it was much narrower and wouldn’t have had any issues getting down below.

Just as Jeska and the other Heroes had noticed the new monster, so too had the Regional Threat.  However, despite it being a higher Star rating and likely more powerful, the Champion looked at the ball of vines with a strange expression in its eyes.  The Cat crouched down in what looked like an anticipation of attack as it faced the incoming dungeon monster, but then Jeska heard a deep rumbling coming from the Threat.  At first, the Mage thought it was a growl of aggression, though it didn’t really sound…aggressive.

As soon as the Fern was close enough, the tornado-like winds surrounding the Cat threatened to toss the plant monster away, but it immediately shot dozens of vines connected to its form down into the dirt and stone of the plateau, keeping it in place.  Its speed slowed considerably as a result; nevertheless, it continued to advance by picking up a vine near the back and then planting another one out front to keep it anchored to the ground.

When it was close enough, the Fern shot out a dozen more vines from its fronds towards the Cat, but before they could reach the Regional Threat, the giant feline finally responded.  Pouncing forward and avoiding the vines aimed at it, the Cat quickly closed with the vine ball and smacked it hard with its paw, for some reason with its claws retracted.

The powerful impact of the paw against the ball of vines was so great that the vines holding the Fern in place were ripped off of the monster instead of the ground, and the plant was hit at least 150 feet away down the plateau.  It bounced a couple of times before finally coming to a stop as additional vines shot out of the Fern when it hit the ground, again anchoring it in place.

The Tornado Cat Champion had completely ignored the rest of the Heroes as it turned and sprinted faster than Jeska thought possible after the Creeping Fern, chasing it down.

“Was it…purring?” Arcen wondered out loud, and Jeska intuitively knew he was right.  The low rumbling wasn’t a growl – it was a purr.  The Cat, just like a normal-sized cat, was treating the dangerous 9-Star monster like a ball of yarn.  Similar to how it had played with the Heroes a short time ago, it was playing a game with the Fern.  If it hadn’t been a life-and-death situation and if the Cat hadn’t already killed some of her friends, she would’ve thought it was funny.

Unfortunately for the Regional Threat, it didn’t seem to realize that it had made a mistake underestimating the ball of vines it was playing with.  As it neared the 9-Star dungeon monster, the tornado-like winds surrounding the Cat settled down again, its ability back on cooldown.  Whether it had planned for that or not was irrelevant, because the Creeping Fern was done playing games.

One of its fronds stretched backwards, similar to how the Stone-tipped Ferns acted when they were preparing to launch stone shards at Jeska and her party.  Instead of sharp pieces of rock, however, when it flipped the frond forward the entire frond detached.  A flying web of vines shot towards the racing Cat, who realized its mistake too late.  The Cat tried to stop and dodge the projectile, but the plant’s momentum was too great; the vine frond hit the Regional Threat with enough force to stop it in mid-stride and even knock it slightly backwards.

“Look, it’s like a net!” Pascale shouted excitedly from her right.  Wait…Pascale!  Jeska whirled around to see their group’s Scout smiling at her and the others.  He looked beat up and he was favoring his left leg, but he was alive – and at 2/13 Health.  Kelty immediately ran up to him and threw her arms around his neck, kissing him deeply – while at the same time using essentially every single healing Skill she had to bring him back to normal.

“I thought you were dead, Pas – good to see you made it,” Arcen said softly, which was unusual for him.  Looking around at the rest of the large Hero group, Jeska thought she knew why; only 3 other Scouts had managed to limp back to them, and she couldn’t see any more heading their way.  Either they were so hurt that they couldn’t walk…or they were dead.

A primal-sounding feline scream came from the other direction, and Jeska quickly turned back to the more pressing concern.  The Cat Champion wasn’t looking so powerful now, as it was currently on its side, surrounded on all sides in a net of vines that appeared to be rapidly constricting.  In addition, blood was running out from where the vines were touching its body, so Jeska could only assume that the vines were either sharp or had some sort of thorns attached to their undersides.

The massive feline’s entanglement was short-lived, however, as it managed to squeeze one of its paws out from the vine net.  The next moment, a quintet of sharp claws were tearing at the restraints, easily tearing through the plant matter with the same efficiency Jeska had earlier seen used on stone and iron armor.  Within seconds, the Cat had managed to get itself free and back on its feet, but it had lost track of its plaything; while it had been struggling to release itself from the vine net, the Creeping Fern hadn’t been idle.

A slight rumble from underneath it was the only indication that it was in trouble, but again the Cat reacted just a split-second too late.  Hundreds of vines shot out of the ground below the giant feline, many of them impaling the Champion even as it tried to move away.  The vines didn’t penetrate all that deeply, but where they did, they seemed to pump poisonous fluids directly into the Cat’s bloodstream.

The Regional Threat’s red Health bar started to pulse black and red, and Jeska saw “Debuff: Poison” underneath it.  Within moments, the damage from the net and the impalement of vines through its body had reduced the Cat’s Health down below 50%, and the poison Debuff was doing another small chunk of damage every second.  As the full Creeping Fern emerged from below the Cat where it had sunk down into the ground, it held the feline above it in some sort of strange victory pose.

The Cat wasn’t done, however; the gentle breeze around the Threat suddenly stopped as the giant monster struggled to free itself to no avail.  Instead of there being another sudden localized “tornado”, a rush of air seemed to start being sucked into the Cat at a rapid speed.  Jeska, even 200 feet away with the rest of the Heroes, could feel her ears pop as if the very air were getting thinner around her.

Then the sudden inhalation of air stopped for a moment, just as the Cat’s Health dropped to approximately a third of the red bar.  The next thing that the Mage knew, she was flying backwards through the air as a powerful blast of air slammed into all of the Heroes.  Jeska hit the ground hard at least 30 feet from where she stood, and she felt something wrench in her left knee.  Looking at her own health, she found that she had lost 5 points from her landing – and then the pain in her leg struck her, and she screamed. Lifting herself up on her arms from where she had landed, she looked down at her lower half and saw that her left leg was bent in a way it really shouldn’t bend.

Breathing heavily to work through the pain, she looked around at the groans and screams of pain from the other Heroes, and a flash of relief cut through her misery when she saw that no one else had died.  Many were hurt, some seriously, but none were obviously dead.  As Kelty went around and healed the others after fixing herself up, Jeska pulled a Minor Health Potion from her Inventory and started the healing process on herself.

Healing turned out to be even more painful, as it straightened her leg back out in the process.  When she was finished being blinded with pain and she could think again, she looked over to where the fight between the two behemoths had been happening – and was shocked at the devastation.  Large furrows in concentric circles around the pair of monsters had been torn into the plateau, evidence that the concussive release of air around its origin point had been significantly worse than what the Heroes had experienced.

As for the two monsters, they were still alive – if barely.  The Tornado Cat Champion’s red bar of Health in her vision was blinking slowly, having settled down to approximately 10%.  The Creeping Fern was in a little better shape, though she couldn’t tell how much Health it had; what she could tell, though, was that many of its fronds and vines had been shredded from whatever the Regional Threat had done, and it was a mere shadow of itself as it sat about 20 feet away from the struggling-to-rise Cat.  Even as she watched, however, the Fern started to move, pulling in its remaining vines and consolidating them into brand-new fronds; when it was done, she estimated that nearly three-quarters of its previous size had been lost.

The recovery from the explosion of air over, the two monsters stared at each other for a few seconds (though to be fair, it was hard to tell if the Fern was staring), as they readied to attack.  The giant Cat was favoring its right foreleg, but it still managed to close the distance between the two of them within a second as it suddenly bounded forward, claws extended in preparation of attack.

Vines flicked out in response, acting almost like whips as they smacked against the Cat aiming for the plant.  Solid thuds were heard even from the distance separating the fight from the Heroes, and so was the sound of impact as the two became one frantically attacking mass of claws, sharp teeth, and green vines whipping around.

“Should we help?” Jeska ventured as the rest of her injury finished healing itself via another hastily swallowed Minor Health Potion.

“Maybe – but help which one?” her brother asked.

That was a good question, but it might be a moot point.  The two monsters were so entangled together that it was hard to pinpoint just one.  That, and the Health of the Regional Threat was steadily dropping to the point that if they just left things alone, it would die.

Of course, just as she thought that…tragedy struck.

Chapter 35

One moment, it appeared as though the Fern had the upper hand in the fight, and the next moment all of its vines suddenly spasmed and dropped to the ground, lifeless.  Worse than that, as the Tornado Cat Champion extricated itself from the tangle of vines and frond pieces, Jeska saw that it still had at least 5% of its Health bar remaining.

“Everyone up!  This fight isn’t over!” Jeska yelled, which caused some frantic movement all around her; it seemed as though everyone had been so focused on their own healing that they hadn’t been paying attention to the fight.

She did what she advised the others to do and got to her feet, and there was only a slight twinge in her leg that indicated that her healing was still ongoing and not yet complete, despite her Health being back to full.  Fighters – 4 of them, including her brother – passed in front of her and the others, their shields out and ready for the already-approaching Threat.  Rosara and the other Supports began to sing, strengthening Arcen and one other Fighter, which was good to know, as it seemed as though they could combine these Buffs together to really enhance a few people.

For her own contribution, Jeska used her Lesser Mage Shield on Arcen – which would reduce a small amount of damage; she had exchanged out her Ice Barricade for the Mage Shield onto one of her quick-use slots.  Every time she did that, however, it reset the cooldown for that Skill.  Fortunately, the cooldown was only 45 seconds for the Lesser Mage Shield, and she had done it as soon as she had seen the two massive monsters fighting.

What was also fortunate was that there didn’t seem to be a swirling of air around the Cat anymore; either its “tornado” ability only had a limited number of uses, or else that explosion had used it all up.  Nevertheless, the Regional Threat didn’t bother to stalk the Heroes anymore or play with them.  At a steady pace, still favoring its front leg, it walked towards them – which meant that it would reach them in seconds.

“Now!” she shouted, but it was relatively unneeded.  Jeska and all of the Mages unleashed their entire arsenal of ranged attacks, and orbs made of flames, sharp rocks, and ice shards slammed into the face and chest of the Cat – who didn’t even bother to try dodging.  Even with all 6 of them hitting the giant feline in a barrage, the red bar barely even moved. Jeska could tell they were doing damage, but it was so insignificant to whatever this thing’s Health pool was that it didn’t seem to matter.  At most, she thought they removed another 1% of the bar, but even when they added in some Fiery Explosions, it wasn’t enough to shift it down another sliver.

The explosions did make the Cat pause, though, as did a few of the dances and songs that the Support Heroes used on the deadly monster, but it was ultimately futile.  Jeska still had 5 seconds left on her first cooldown – her Ice Shard – when the Cat reached the line of Fighters.  With almost a lazy swipe of its claws, it raked across all 4 of them, slicing through their shields and armor like they weren’t even there, causing the Fighters to fly backwards.  One of the Fighters, Ralven, was shorter than the others and was ducking beneath the top of his shield; when the swipe raked across his body, it ended up decapitating him instantly.

As for Arcen and the other 2 Fighters, they flew backwards into the middle of the Hero group – which was fortunate.  Jeska looked back at her brother and saw that he was grievously wounded and would die if he didn’t get some help, but Kelty and the other Healers were luckily there to help him and the others, saving them with their Skills before they could succumb to their wounds.  Breathing another sigh of relief at the close call, she was glad she thought to place her Mage Shield on him, mitigating a little of the damage; otherwise, it was possible that he would’ve died from the initial hit.

Limping and bleeding from dozens of wounds across its own body – but still advancing on them – the Cat kept coming for them.  A familiar blur from behind the Threat let her know that the Scouts were readying the attack, but it seemed as though Jeska wasn’t the only one who knew they were there.  Both back legs kicked out in rapid succession, smacking into 2 of the Scouts with claws extended, piercing them through their bodies before they were flung off of the plateau.  A sob escaped her mouth as she thought one of them might be Pascale, but he appeared less than a second later as he stabbed the meaty side part of the Cat’s left leg, while the other Scout popped up stabbing the other leg.

A yowl came from the feline as it rounded on the two Scouts, who were rapidly backing away – leaving a perfect target for Jeska as her Ice Shard came off cooldown.   She wasn’t the only one to have something ready, as stones and flame orbs smashed into the Cat’s sensitive rear end at the same time.

Unfortunately, as anyone who had ever accidentally touched a cat near their…uh, “booty”…would know, this was a very poor idea.  The Tornado Cat Champion – despite having a hurt foreleg – shot into the air with a painful screech.  Whether it was because of that hurt foreleg or some other reason, the feline didn’t jump straight up; instead, it jumped backwards…right where all of the Heroes had grouped up to combine their forces.

Jeska’s shout to “Scatter!” was too late, as the move by the Regional Threat was extremely unexpected.  Jeska and the rest of her group managed to move in time, but they were some of the lucky few.  When the Cat landed with claws extended, back arched, and hair standing straight up, its paws squished or completely sliced up 2 Mages, 3 Healers, 2 Supports, and a Fighter who was still trying to recover from her wounds.  A hiss coming from the Champion so close by nearly deafened Jeska as she helped to drag Arcen away so they could regroup, even as she tossed out more of her projectile Skills.  Her Fiery Explosion was unfortunately still on cooldown or she would’ve used it too, so all she really had at the moment were Rock Strike and Flame Orb, which the massive monsters didn’t even seem to notice as those Skills impacted it.

When she and the other survivors – the fractured groups now scattered in different directions – were far enough away, various other Skills were used to try to finish off the Cat Threat, but nothing seemed to do more than superficial damage.  After another 15 seconds of ineffective attacks, Arcen got to his feet after being healed, and Pascale joined his side.  “We need to attack now before it recovers.  We can’t let this thing survive, even if it costs us our lives.”

Jeska hefted her own staff, more than willing to do her best at bashing the Cat, but Arcen shook his head.  “Stay back and attack from a distance; if we fall, you and the other Mages are our only hope.”  He didn’t say no to Kelty and Rosara coming, mainly because the Mayor’s daughter looked determined to stay with Arcen until the end and most likely wouldn’t be persuaded otherwise.  And Kelty would be there to heal them if possible, so Jeska was on her own.  She wanted to argue, but she knew it made the most sense; they needed to strike now while the Cat Champion seemed still frozen in its shocked state.  Even now, its hair was starting to fall back down flat, and its back was starting to collapse from the extreme arch it had.  “Fine.  Go!”

She only had a few seconds until her next cooldown was done, so she readied herself as they rushed ahead. In her peripheral vision, she could see that the remaining groups had the same sort of idea, as they also rushed forward with their Mages in reserve.  As they closed in on the Regional Threat, something else at the edge of her vision caught her attention, and it was so out of place that she actually turned to see what it was, breaking her concentration and her intent to use another one of her Skills.

“HOLD!” she shouted at the top of her lungs, and all of the Heroes still alive blessedly heard her and froze in place.  The next moment, a cloud of darkness obscured two-thirds of the Tornado Cat Champion; she saw the Threat’s red Health bar start to deplete, until there was just a little sliver of it left.  There was another howl that came from inside of the cloud and the Cat finally moved, stumbling out of the darkness in obvious pain.  As soon as it was clear, its vision centered on the Nether Mage Slime that had unexpectedly appeared on the edge of the battlefield.

No, not this time!  “Now!” Jeska screamed, unleashing the three Skills she had off of cooldown.  Another ball of flame, a shard of ice, and a chunk of rock she shot towards the Cat were joined by others from the remaining Mages, doing very little damage…but a little was all that they needed.

The red Health bar at the top of her vision completely emptied and disappeared, and the Regional Threat fell over on its side before it could take more than a couple steps towards the black-colored Slime.  Jeska couldn’t help it; she fell to her knees in exhaustion and relief, and she saw that many of the other Heroes had done the same.  We…we did it?  Yes, we did it!

But at what cost?  As much as she dreaded it, Jeska looked around the plateau, counting those still alive. Out of the 30 Heroes who started the day alive on the island, they were down to exactly half of that: 15.  And of those that were left, only Jeska and her own group were whole – they somehow hadn’t lost a single member.

As she stared around at the carnage, tears sprang to her eyes again at the devastation.  How did it come to this?  Is this what it’s going to be like every time?  How much stronger do we need to be to survive?  And was this the only Threat we’ll see – or was this just the first of many?

Deep down, she intuitively knew that this was just the first and perhaps the easiest of the Threats that they would face in the future.  All of which meant that they had to step it up and get much stronger as fast as they could.  The problem with that was the fact that they had taken some serious losses from just this one battle, and it would take more than a little while to recover from that.  At least, as morbid as the thought is right now, there should be some Drop Chests from these monsters that will help us get there—wait.  Why aren’t they disappearing?

Some part of her knowledge as a Hero knew that World Threats – and by extension, she assumed, Regional Threats – left behind Drop Chests when they were killed, just like the monsters in a dungeon.  In fact, it was strange that none of the monsters that had participated in the battle and been destroyed had disappeared.  Inside the dungeon, that only happened when they had forgotten to finish off one of the monsters in a room, which occasionally happened; however, all of the monsters out here had been utterly destroyed—

“It’s not over!” she shouted hoarsely, turning towards the one non-Hero that was still alive: The Nether Mage Slime.  Almost as if it could sense her attention, it turned towards her and started to raise its pudgy little “arms” – a sure sign that it was going to cast the deadly cloud of darkness over her and her group.  Looking at her Skills, she saw something she was hoping to see – her Fiery Explosion was off of cooldown.

Activating the Skill, she directed the explosion right on top of the Slime, knocking it back a little and burning off a portion of its slimy form – but it wasn’t nearly enough to stop it.  She frantically sent out an Ice Shard that was off of cooldown, but she also braced herself and readied to run—but 3 other Fiery Explosions rocked the front of the Slime, blasting holes in it that it couldn’t recover from.  Her Ice Shard slammed into it last, piercing its nucleus cleanly. As Jeska toppled forward in exhaustion and from the stress of the day, she managed to see the Slime collapsing into a formless pool of goo.

Okay, now we did it….

Chapter 36

The anticipation and worry were almost too much for Clay as he listened to the battle against the Regional Threat from the entrance of his dungeon.  He couldn’t see what was happening, of course, but he could piece it together well enough from what he heard; not only that, but a small part of his Dungeon Core could tell the exact moment when the monsters he sent out to help had died.  It was like there was a tiny little string running from his Core to each monster; it wasn’t enough to communicate with, control, or even tell their precise location, but it was enough to know that they still lived.

“Those connections were what allows the monsters to reintegrate with your dungeon if they succeed and return,” Dwight explained.  “They were created by you, so there is a permanent bond that nothing but death can eliminate.  Of course, you didn’t give instructions for them to return, so that is basically a moot point.”

When each of these little “strings” were cut, he grew more and more worried.  Eventually, even his 9-Star Creeping Fern was somehow killed, and Clay became concerned that he hadn’t done nearly enough to stop the Cat Threat.  When he saw 2 Heroes come flying off of the plateau up top and land in a lifeless heap on the beach, the worried Dungeon Core was convinced that all was lost.  Especially since the only monster he had left was his Nether Mage Slime, but against something that could kill his only 9-Star monster, he doubted it would do much.

Soon after, he felt even that small connection to his Slime monster disappear.  Well, Dwight, I tried; I’m sorry—

Congratulations!

With your assistance, the local Hero population has succeeded in ending the Regional Threat!  For your participation in the Regional defense, you have been awarded 10,000 Crystal Chips!

Battle Statistics:

Defeated:

1X Tornado Cat Champion★★★★★★★★

Losses:

1X Ice Bat★

1X Nether Mage Slime★★★

1X Stone Golem★★★

1X Mist Demon★★★

1X Colossal Serpent★★★★★

1X Giant Bush Spider★★★★★

1X Creeping Fern★★★★★★★★★

15X Tier 2 Heroes

They killed it?  And it looks like all of the monsters I sent out died, so I won’t be getting them back for use in my dungeon even if I had instructed them to—wait…15 Heroes died?  That’s…horrible.

“True, it is a higher percentage – I believe 15 Heroes would be 50% – of their total local population than normally perishes during a World Threat (or in this case, this mysterious Regional Threat), but there are always losses of some kind or another,” the baby dragonling said matter-of-factly.

It was as if she wasn’t speaking about the lives lost, but was instead only concentrating on the numbers. While he loved math and probabilities as much as he did, he couldn’t help but think that considering people as being “normally” expendable was not the way he ever wanted to be.  Granted, he knew he didn’t have the experience with personally dying dozens or hundreds of times in a dungeon that most Heroes did, but something sat wrong with him from her seeming flippantness.

Yes, well, it obviously doesn’t always have to result in Hero deaths – such as what happened in Renton.  No Heroes had died in the Giant Ogress attack that he could tell, which meant that it had been a very successful defense.

“While that is correct, look at where that brought us, with you being the only one that died,” Dwight responded.  “As much as I can hear you disagreeing with my evaluation of the situation, there are reasons why it is necessary.  I hope you can see that.”

He could—he just didn’t like those reasons.

Estimated time until next Threat appearance: 6 months+

Warning!  Threat difficulty will likely exceed potential defenses.  Find a way to ensure victory at all costs.

What exactly does that mean?  All he could understand from the unexpected message was that they had at least 6 months this time to prepare, but the “Warning” was unclear.

Clay relayed what he had been shown to his guide; it took nearly a minute for her to respond.  “I think what it’s saying is that you have some work ahead of you.  This Regional Threat, for all that it was powerful and deadly, was only an 8-Star monster; yes, it was likely enhanced to make it even more powerful, but it was still manageable.  But on the mainland where most of the Hero Guilds exist, this Threat would’ve been eliminated quickly and without much trouble – perhaps by a single group, even.”

It was hard to believe that a single group of Heroes could “easily” kill a Threat like this one, which had killed half a dozen of his monsters and killed 15 Heroes.  However, considering that these Heroes were all only Tier 2, a much higher-Tier group just might make the difference.

That all might be true, but what am I supposed to do?  From what I understand, there might not be another opportunity for me to help out; this whole thing with sending forth my monsters from my dungeon to help with the defense may not happen in the future.

“Exactly.  This happening is extremely rare, and I can’t see it occurring again when the next Threat shows up,” she confirmed.  “Dungeon Cores aren’t meant to fight the battles against these Threats, after all; they are meant to be the ones to train the ones responsible for fighting those battles – the Heroes.  As for what you can do, I think it might be time to implement what I told you about before…once the Heroes have recovered enough from this recent battle.”

What do you mean by “recover”?  15 of them died – there’s no recovering from that.

“Yes, but remember what happened when that Hero rejected his duty and died permanently in your dungeon?”

He did.  He didn’t think he’d ever forget that.  Of course, but what does that—oh.  He was replaced the next day with another Hero…so that means that we’re going to have some brand-new Heroes here soon, aren’t we?

“Precisely.  As soon as they learn the ins and outs of being a Hero, you can implement the large raid function; it’s the only way I can see being able to train them for harder fights while still allowing them to gain the necessary items to improve themselves.  Unlike most defenses against Threats on the mainland – which usually consists of hundreds or even thousands of Heroes all battling within their smaller groups – there are a limited number of Heroes on this island.  They will have to learn to work together as a whole in order to succeed.”

He had seen the potential for it before, which was why Clay had already been considering it, but with everything that had happened, he saw even more reason to implement it.  Changing the restrictions of his dungeon to allow up to 15 Heroes at a time seemed insane, but it could also be very useful; upping that limit to 30 in the future was even more crazy – and yet he was planning on eventually doing that.  Because Dwight was right about all of it; Clay needed to train the Heroes to combat threats with just the few in number that they were, and what better way than make them fight as a large cohesive team.

As she had told him before, it would be a first for Dungeon Cores to implement something like that – but Clay and his unique status was all about world firsts.  Not intentionally, granted, but being the first in something wasn’t a singular experience for him.

Therefore, in only a couple of weeks – which should be long enough for the existing Heroes to recover and get whatever new Heroes were chosen up to speed – the Dungeon Core would enable what Dwight called the “Raid System”.

I agree.  In the meantime, however, having lost many of my most powerful monsters to the defense against the Regional Threat, I need to figure out what to do with some of my rather empty rooms.  I think it’s about time I go shopping; and wouldn’t you know it, I seem to have acquired another 10,000 Crystal Chips.

I just hope we’ve gotten past this entire “Cat” thing, however….

Chapter 37

The few days following the attack by the Regional Threat and subsequent loss of half of the Heroes set to defending against it were filled with sorrow, regret, and – strangely – joy.  Jeska, for one, was saddened by the loss of so many of her fellow Heroes; while she hadn’t known many of them before they all accepted their new duties, the last few weeks had let her come to know them on a more personal basis.  Most she would consider friends, comrades on the same mission to save the world from the inevitable Threats that would arrive to destroy everyone and everything that they loved.

Their loss was heartbreaking.  It was only after the battle that many of those that had lost group members (which was all but Jeska’s group, unfortunately) had broken down and cried right there, even as the corpses of the monsters disappeared and left Drop Chests in their wake.  As for what was inside those Chests, they had all contained viable items that would be useful in the future, though none of them at the moment.  Both the Threat and the Creeping Fern had dropped multiple chests, in fact – 3 and 4, respectively.

There were a smattering of random Tier 3 and 5 weapons and armor from the weaker dungeon monsters that had died, which went to those in the fragmented groups.  It wasn’t as though Jeska and her group were opposed to acquiring them, but they had quietly agreed to let those that had lost the most take what they could to help get them back on their feet.  As for the Cat and Fern, their spoils were a little more difficult to allocate.

Drop Chests (Tornado Cat Champion)

Contents:

1X Support Class Orb Tier 7 (BOA)

1X Mage Class Orb Tier 8 (BOA)

1X Fighter Class Orb Tier 8 (BOA)

Drop Chests (Creeping Fern)

Contents:

1X Scout Class Orb Tier 9 (BOA)

1X Healer Class Orb Tier 8 (BOA)

1X Skillbook – Meteoric Devastation Tier 9

[Mage Classes] (BOA)

1X Mysterious Scroll (Unbound)

With an extremely high Tier Class Orb for each Class, as well as a Skillbook for a Tier 9 Skill (which she couldn’t even imagine using), it was determined that each group would get 1 – either an Orb or the Skillbook.  It was actually simple to choose who got what after that, mainly because of so many missing Heroes; sadly, Percy the Fighter was the only one that had survived from his entire group, so he ended up getting the Tier 8 Fighter Class Orb.  The others all had one or more Classes missing from their groups, so it was relatively easy to divvy out the other Class Orbs.  Jeska’s group – and specifically Jeska – ended up with the Skillbook.

Perhaps in about a decade or so I’ll be able to actually use it.

The last item was something that they didn’t know what to do with.  The “Mysterious Scroll” was Unbound to anyone, so they were able to pass it around – for all of the good it did.  When Jeska opened it up, all she saw was gibberish and unknown symbols written all over the rough parchment; she was sure it had a purpose, but for all of her and the other Heroes’ efforts, none of them could make heads or tails of it.  Even their father, who was the smartest person alive that any of them knew, had no idea what it was when they showed him.

“I have no idea what that is…now, please get away from me.”  At least his worsening disgust for them was polite.

Once all of the Drop Chests had been allocated, they had gone back to Chardelia; exhausted, depressed, and wanting to forget what had happened…only to find that there was an impromptu celebration going on in their honor.  The residents of the city were extremely thankful for their sacrifices and treated them to a day and a night of feasts, music, dancing, and (for those old enough) lots and lots of alcoholic drinks.  While some of the Heroes that survived imbibed in enough of the latter to temporarily forget their heart-breaking losses, Jeska and the others in her group weren’t in the mood to celebrate.

“I think they are only doing this because they feel obligated and to forget that they were almost destroyed today,” her brother said a short time after they arrived back at the city, only to find the entire city having a party.  Well, not the entire city; most notably absent were the families of all the Heroes, not just the ones that had perished – including their own father.  “Maybe they feel guilty for treating the whole situation as a joke, and this is their thought on how to make up for it?”

Jeska knew exactly what he was saying.  Ever since they had become Heroes, they had been a bit of a joke to the rest of the city, who – for the most part – didn’t believe that there was any Threat coming their way.  Now, though, there was no denying that they were in danger, and drinking their new knowledge away was perhaps the only sensible act they could think of to cope with the information.  She didn’t approve, but she understood it.

Added to that, the loss of so many of their fellow Heroes was disheartening – and really didn’t put her in the mood to celebrate.  In fact, she was a bit depressed, especially considering the message that had appeared in front of them all when the last of the monsters had been killed.

Congratulations!

You have defeated the Regional Threat!

Estimated time until next Threat appearance: Unknown

Warning!  Threat Level will be significantly increased in comparison to this recent Regional Threat.

Not only had it been confirmation that they weren’t done with Threats – which Jeska had been fairly sure of before the message – but they didn’t know how long they had before that happened.  And if the Threat was even stronger than the Cat they just killed, then they were in some major trouble.  For some reason, the message also gave the impression that they couldn’t count on the dungeon helping them in the future, which she was actually glad about; if that Creeping Fern or some of the other monsters had survived, then it was quite possible they would’ve had to kill them after the Cat was dead.  Or likely die in the attempt, because they barely had enough strength to kill the weaker 3-Star Slime at the end.

Not to mention that they had half the amount of Heroes they used to have.  There was a discussion about trying to combine the fractured groups that was quickly tabled for the next day, but even if they somehow put together 2 unbalanced groups from those who had suffered losses, Jeska doubted it would be enough.

A bit of a miracle happened the next morning, though she was sure that the 15 new Heroes who were chosen to join their ranks didn’t think it was a miracle.  Instead, she heard from a few of those that woke up to find a Tier 0 Class Orb near their bedside that it was more of a death sentence than a blessing – but not a single one of them refused to take the duty given to them.  Whether they had secretly wanted to become a Hero, or the appearance of a Regional Threat had solidified the need for them, the brand-new Heroes were resolved to carry out their duty despite not being overly happy about it.  Regardless, enthusiasm for their new status – if it ever materialized – would come later.

Fortunately for the newcomers, they didn’t have to start from scratch, like Jeska and the others had.  Her own group, feeling responsible for ensuring they started out a step above their own experiences, contributed Tier 1 Class Orbs and extra sets of weapons, armor, and Skillbooks for the new Heroes, meaning they would have an advantage over their own relatively confusing and disastrous start to Herohood.

It was also a good thing that they hadn’t discussed combining groups, because the new Heroes slid into the positions held by those lost in the Threat battle without too much difficulty.  Just like before, each Hero group instinctively knew who they belonged with, as well as what Class they were drawn towards.  It made things easy to sort out at least, and as simple as that they were back to 6 balanced groups of 5 Heroes.

They all took the day after the Threat attack completely off, both as a way to rest and recover from the ordeal and to get the new Heroes used to their new positions – both in their new groups and their status in life.  Jeska and her own group took an additional day, while the others used their normal time within the dungeon to get acquainted with each other and to begin the process of “rebuilding” – as in gaining enough Class Orbs to advance to Tier 2.

“Well, shall we?” Arcen asked on the 3rd day, standing outside of the dungeon when it was finally their turn again.  While Jeska wasn’t necessarily eager to get back inside, she more intimately knew the stakes if they didn’t manage to get stronger, fast enough.  The Regional Threat had scared her—scared a lot of people, truth be told—and she didn’t want the fact that they didn’t work hard enough to be the reason everyone on Sunfall Island was killed.  As a result, she was looking forward to getting back into the swing of things and finally earning enough Class Orbs to advance her Tier up to 3.

“Let’s do it,” she said, nodding to her brother as he took the lead as always.  “But let’s be careful towards the later rooms; we don’t know if everything is still the same.”  The other groups had reported that everything up through the 3rd room was exactly as it had been, but none had advanced past the dark room with the Gloom Kobold quite yet.  The new Heroes were still getting used to their Classes and Skills, but once they did, they would be able to advance even further inside the dungeon.

The first room with the Rats and Ferns seemed extraordinarily easy this time, though she couldn’t see that anything had really changed.  Maybe it’s us.  Fighting against an 8-Star Tornado Cat Champion made everything else seem harmless and almost insignificant in comparison; not only that, but watching the monsters from the dungeon fighting the Threat had been enlightening.  Everything that Jeska and her group had fought up to that point seemed tame by contrast, and certainly not as dangerous as it had before.

The Drop Chests from the first room were a bit of a bust, as only a single Minor Health Potion dropped – the rest was just junk and Health Bands, of course.  “Jeska, why don’t you take it; I think you used 2 of yours a couple of days ago, didn’t you?” Kelty mentioned as she and the others started moving towards the hallway leading to the second room.

Jeska shrugged and quickly touched the floating words above the Drop Chest, feeling the Minor Health Potion slip into her Inventory.  Speaking of that, how many do I have left with that one?  3?  4?  Opening up her Inventory as she walked behind the others, which was difficult to get used to at first, but was doable after a little practice, she went to check, but was met with something unexpected.

She had forgotten that the Mysterious Scroll they had picked up from the Creeping Fern’s Drop Chest was still in her Inventory.  Jeska had been the last to try her hand at deciphering it, as well as showing her father, and so she had held onto it after no one else wanted a go.  And now it seemed to flash in her Inventory chart.

“Hey, guys; something strange is going on,” she called up to her group, who stopped before they got to the 2nd room and turned back towards her.

Arcen rushed up to her worriedly.  “What’s wrong?  What happened?” he demanded, looking around for anything that might be a cause for worry.

“Settle down, bro – I don’t think it’s dangerous,” she assured him.  “It’s the Mysterious Scroll; it’s flashing in my Inventory.”

“Well, take it out; the worst it could do is blow up and kill us all, but we all have Health Bands equipped.”

A month ago, that statement would’ve seemed insane, but the nature of their profession made such things commonplace.  Without any further ado, she mentally tapped the Mysterious Scroll and it appeared in her hands, replacing the Staff that was there a moment ago.  She was disappointed at first, as it looked exactly the same as it had before, but after a moment it started to shine.

The glow it emitted brightened considerably, though it wasn’t enough to blind her as she stared at the scroll’s parchment in fascination.  Where there was just gibberish and strange symbols before, they now seemed to morph and change into legible text and charts that described—

“Do you know what this is?!” Jeska shouted in wonder as she started to comprehend what she was seeing.

“No, we can’t see it.  Why don’t you tell us?” Rosara asked snippily as she folded her arms beneath her chest impatiently.

Jeska ignored the other woman’s attitude, since she was used to it by that point, as she continued to read what was in her hands.  “This is a scroll detailing every single hybrid Class that can be obtained through the use of various Class Orbs, as well as a sampling of the types of Skills that they will have access to,” she explained.

“What good does that do us?” Pascale asked.

What good?  Oh, he just doesn’t understand, does he?  Looking through the different Classes, she saw one that might make him understand a little bit better.  She flipped it around so that he could see it.

Class:

Dark Blood Assassin

Class Orb Requirements:

3 Scout – 1 Mage – 1 Healer

Class Skills (Sample):

Execute

Shadowstep

Siphon Health

Weaknesses:

Speed Reduction, Light Elemental Attacks,

“That’s…I don’t even know what to say…but I think I want it,” their Scout said wonderingly.  Jeska couldn’t blame him, because with this knowledge, they could start to customize their Classes to be more effective.  This was only 1 of the Hybrid Classes listed on the Scroll – there were dozens more.

As she continued looking, she saw something at the bottom that made her smile even more.

All Base Class Skills and equipment are still available when switching to a Hybrid Class, as long as those Skills are a part of the new Class.  (For example, becoming a Spellblade – 2 Fighter and 2 Mage Class Orbs – will allow you to use all Fighter and Mage Base Class Skills and equipment, but if you were a Scout before, those Skills and equipment would be unavailable for use.)

The possibilities blew her mind.  She relayed this note to the others, whose faces lit up with excited expressions.  “We’ve got to tell the others.  This is something that they need to know before they become too high of a Tier.”  Arcen didn’t even wait, he just marched out of the dungeon without seeing if anyone else was following.

She eventually did, but the others had to direct her because she was too busy looking at the Scroll to take too much notice of her surroundings.  This could really change things.  With this, we might just have a chance.

Things were a bit desperate before, but suddenly their prospects were looking up.  She wasn’t sure what the Scroll ultimately meant for the Heroes of Sunfall Island, but she sure was excited to find out.

As daylight hit her face as she walked out of the dungeon, she couldn’t help but smile and think towards the future.  And as much as she hadn’t been eager to delve through the dungeon again before, now she couldn’t wait to get back in there and start the next stage in her journey as a Hero.

The End

Final Stats

Core Assessment and Transcribed Status

Core Name:

Clayburnside “The Denominator” Shuntwise

Core Stage:

7

Core Structure Health:

7/20

Crystal Chips:

13845 (6500 to next Core Stage)

Star Limit for Placement:

115

Available Monsters:

128/175

Available Traps:

12 (No Limit)

Available Dungeon Spells:

0 (No Limit)

Summoning Portal

Dungeon Interface

Sacrificial Altar

Available Monsters

Name

Rarity

Quantity

Required for Evolution

Ice Bat ★

Common

5

10

Shade Bat★

Common

5

10

Camouflage Bat★

Common

3

10

Flaming Bat★

Common

4

10

Shimmer Bat★

Common

2

10

Wind Bat★

Common

3

10

Ember Boar★

Common

5

10

Hydro Boar★

Common

3

10

Breeze Boar★

Common

1

10

Truffle Boar★

Common

3

10

Glimmer Boar★

Common

2

10

Bog Boar★

Common

3

10

Bilge Rat★

Common

6

10

Leaf Rat★

Common

4

10

River Rat★

Common

3

10

Skimming Rat★

Common

3

10

Glint Rat★

Common

2

10

Flare Rat★

Common

2

10

Jumping Spider★

Common

5

10

Tree Spider★

Common

4

10

Cave Spider★

Common

6

10

Ash Spider★

Common

3

10

Sea Spider★

Common

2

10

Glowing Slime★

Common

4

10

Raindrop Slime★

Common

3

10

Heat Slime★

Common

2

10

Poisonous Slime★

Common

3

10

Floating Slime★

Common

1

10

Stone-tipped Fern★

Common

5

10

Burning Fern★

Common

2

10

Shining Fern★

Common

4

10

Gust Fern★

Common

3

10

Shadow Fern★

Common

3

10

Pond Serpent★

Common

3

10

Gliding Serpent★

Common

2

10

Spitting Serpent★

Common

2

10

Forest Wolf★

Uncommon

1

8

Swamp Troll★

Rare

1

6

Weak Light Elemental★

Ultra Rare

1

4

Flame Kobold★★

Uncommon

1

8

Gloom Kobold★★

Uncommon

1

8

Frigid Kobold★★

Uncommon

1

8

Radiant Wolf★★

Uncommon

1

8

Goblin Dancer★★

Uncommon

1

8

Explosive Shambler★★

Uncommon

1

8

Resplendent Shambler★★

Uncommon

1

8

Lamia Flameweaver★★

Rare

1

6

Sly Fern★★★★

Common

1

10

Hero Status

Name:

Jeska Porter

Hero Name:

(None Chosen)

Class:

Mage

Tier:

2

Health:

15/15

Intellect:

6 (+8 equipped)

Attack:

2

Speed:

3 (+1 equipped)

Defense:

2

Inventory

Class Orbs Available

Class Skills (New)

Inventory

Tier 0 Tunic

Tier 0 Boots

Minor Health Potion X3

Tier 0 Pants

Tier 0 Training Weapon

Skillbook: Ice Shard Tier 1 X2

(M) Tier 1 Basic Mage Robe

(M) Tier 1 Copper Circlet X4

Skillbook: Dazzle Tier 1 X2

(M) Tier 1 Linen Robe X4

(M) Tier 2 Silver Circlet of Intellect

Skillbook: Lesser Mage Shield

(M) Tier 2 Cotton Robe of Intellect

(M) Tier 1 Belt of Minor Intellect X5

Skillbook: Meteoric Devastation Tier 9

(M) Tier 1 Coarse Slippers X6

(M) Tier 1 Simple Wood Staff

Mysterious Scroll (Hybrid List)

(M) Tier 2 Sturdy Slippers of Speed

(M) Tier 1 Pinewood Staff X4

Material Components (Details)

Class Orbs Available

Tier

Fighter

Scout

Mage

Healer

Support

Tier 1

0

0

13

0

0

Tier 2

0

0

1

0

0

Tier 3

0

0

1

0

0

Tier 4

0

0

0

0

0

Tier 5

0

0

0

0

0

Tier 6

0

0

0

0

0

Tier 7

0

0

0

0

0

Tier 8

0

0

0

0

0

Tier 9

0

0

0

0

0

Tier 10

0

0

0

0

0

Class Skills

Name

Cooldown (secs)

Base Class

Tier

Upgrade

Ice Shard

15

Mage

1

3/5

Wind Punch

15

Mage

1

1/5

Rock Strike

15

Mage

1

1/5

Flame Orb

15

Mage

1

1/5

Dazzle

20

Mage

1

3/5

Minor Levitation

60

Mage

1

1/5

Lesser Mage Shield

45

Mage

1

2/5

Poison Touch

120

Mage

2

1/10

Ice Barricade

180

Mage

2

1/5

Fiery Explosion

120

Mage

2

1/5

Stone Emergence

300

Mage

2

1/5

Author’s Note

Thank you for reading Dungeon of Chance: Even Odds!

This book is loosely based on “Gacha”-type games, which use mechanics similar to “loot boxes,” which awards a prize that can help the player.  Most times these prizes are common or normal, while other times luck plays a factor on the chance to get something rare and powerful.  Most of these chances are purely based on probabilities (such as there only being 0.0001% chance to get the best Hero/Weapon/Card/etc., in the game) though not all of them expressly post those probabilities.

There are a lot of these types of games out there, many of them mobile games, that use these types of mechanics.  Collecting a rare item is usually only the start, however, as many of the games want you to spend in-game currency to collect even more of that rare item in order to combine them together to make something even more powerful.  These in-game currencies are usually gems, diamonds, or “points” of some sort – which I introduced as Crystal Chips for the Dungeon Core to use.  And if a Core wants more of these Chips but doesn’t want to wait for them to accumulate either over time or through killing Heroes, the Core can spend money (Core Structure Health) to purchase more Chips.

In the future, there are even more mechanics I’d love to introduce, but first and foremost I’m going to introduce raiding in Clay’s dungeon for larger groups!  If everything stays on schedule, I’m hoping to have the 2nd book in this series out in April 2021.

Again, thank you for reading, and I implore you to consider leaving a review – I love 4 and 5-star ones!  Reviews make it more likely that others will pick up a good book and read it!

If you enjoy dungeon core, dungeon corps, dungeon master, dungeon lord, dungeonlit, or any other type of dungeon-themed stories and content, check out the Dungeon Corps Facebook group, where you can find all sorts of dungeon content.

If you would like to learn more about the GameLit genre, please join the GameLit Society Facebook group.

LitRPG is a growing subgenre of GameLit – if you are fond of LitRPG, Fantasy, Space Opera, and the Cyberpunk styles of books, please join the LitRPG Books Facebook group.

For another great Facebook group, visit LitRPG Rebels or LitRPG Forum.

Also, on Amazon, check out the LitRPG storefront for a large selection of LitRPG, GameLit, and Dungeon Core books from the biggest authors in the genre!

If you would like to contact me with any questions, comments, or suggestions for future books you would like to see, you can reach me at jonathanbrooksauthor@gmail.com.

Visit my Patreon page at https://www.patreon.com/jonathanbrooksauthor and become a patron for as little as $2 a month!  As a patron, you have access to my current works-in-progress, which I update with (unedited) chapters every Friday.  So, if you can’t wait to find out what happens next in one of my series, this is the place for you!

I will try to keep my blog updated on any new developments, which you can find on my Author Page on Amazon.  In addition, you can check out and like my Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/dungeoncorejonathanbrooks

To sign up for my mailing list, please visit: http://eepurl.com/dl0bK5

To learn more about LitRPG, talk to authors including myself, and just have an awesome time, please join the LitRPG Group.

Books by Jonathan Brooks

Glendaria Awakens Trilogy

Dungeon Player (Audiobook available)

Dungeon Crisis (Audiobook available)

Dungeon Guild (Audiobook coming soon)

Glendaria Awakens Trilogy Compilation w/bonus material

Uniworld Online Trilogy (2nd Edition)

The Song Maiden (Audiobook coming soon)

The Song Mistress (Audiobook coming soon)

The Song Matron

Uniworld Online Trilogy Compilation

Station Cores Series

The Station Core (Audiobook available)

The Quizard Mountains (Audiobook available)

The Guardian Guild (Audiobook available)

The Kingdom Rises (Audiobook available)

The Other Core (Audiobook available)

Station Cores Compilation Complete: Books 1-5 (Audiobook coming soon)

Spirit Cores Series

Core of Fear (Audiobook available)

Children of Fear (Audiobook available)

Carnival of Fear

Dungeon World Series

Dungeon World (Audiobook available)

Dungeon World 2 (Audiobook available)

Dungeon World 3 (Audiobook available)

Dungeon World 4 (Audiobook available)

Dungeon World 5 (Audiobook available)

Dungeon World Box Set: Books 1-5

Dungeon Crafting Series

The Crafter’s Dungeon (Audiobook available)

The Crafter’s Defense (Audiobook available)

The Crafter’s Dilemma (Audiobook available)

The Crafter’s Darkness (Audiobook available)

The Crafter’s Dominion – Early 2021 #1

The Hapless Dungeon Fairy Series

The Dungeon Fairy (Audiobook available)

The Dungeon Fairy: Two Choices (Audiobook available)

The Dungeon Fairy: (Book 3) – Early 2021 #2

Serious Probabilities Series

Dungeon of Chance: Even Odds

The Body’s Dungeon (with Jeffrey “Falcon” Logue)

Bio Dungeon: Symbiote (Audiobook available)

Bio Dungeon: Parasyte (Audiobook coming soon)

Bio Dungeon: (Book 3) – Early 2021 #3

Tales of Dungeons Anthology

Tales of Dungeons Vol. 2

Tales of Dungeons Vol. 3

Tales of Dungeons All Hallows 2020

Tables

[1]

Spawn Egg Probabilities

Star Rating

Common Spawn Egg

Mystical Spawn Egg

Epic Spawn Egg

1

84.999999%

3.00%

1.00%

2

10.00%

8.00%

2.50%

3

3.00%

12.00%

5.00%

4

1.50%

18.00%

7.50%

5

0.35%

25.50%

15.00%

6

0.10%

22.49%

20.00%

7

0.0498891%

7.00%

30.00%

8

0.001%

3.00%

15.00%

9

0.0001%

1.00%

3.00%

10

0.00001%

0.01%

1.00%

[2]

Type of Result

Common Spawn Egg

Mystical Spawn Egg

Epic Spawn Egg

Monster

89.999999%

59.9999%

59.00%

Trap

10.00%

40.00%

40.00%

Dungeon Spell

.000001%

.0001%

1%

[3]

Rarity Probabilities

Common

80.00%

Uncommon

15.00%

Rare

4.00%

Ultra Rare

0.90%

Legendary

0.10%

[4]

Available Monsters

Name

Rarity

Quantity

Required for Evolution

Ice Bat ★

Common

2

10

Ember Boar ★

Common

2

10

Bilge Rat ★

Common

1

10

Leaf Rat ★

Common

1

10

Jumping Spider ★

Common

1

10

Glowing Slime ★

Common

1

10

Stone-tipped Fern ★

Common

1

10

Flame Kobold ★★

Uncommon

1

8

Shadow Cat ★★★

Common

1

10

[5]

Available Monsters

Name

Rarity

Quantity

Required for Evolution

Ice Bat ★

Common

2

10

Shade Bat★

Common

2

10

Camouflage Bat★

Common

1

10

Ember Boar★

Common

2

10

Hydro Boar★

Common

1

10

Glimmer Boar★

Common

1

10

Bilge Rat★

Common

2

10

Leaf Rat★

Common

1

10

River Rat★

Common

1

10

Skimming Rat★

Common

1

10

Flare Rat★

Common

2

10

Jumping Spider★

Common

2

10

Tree Spider★

Common

1

10

Cave Spider★

Common

1

10

Glowing Slime★

Common

2

10

Raindrop Slime★

Common

1

10

Stone-tipped Fern★

Common

2

10

Burning Fern★

Common

1

10

Shining Fern★

Common

1

10

Pond Serpent★

Common

2

10

Gliding Serpent★

Common

1

10

Swamp Troll★

Rare

1

6

Flame Kobold★★

Uncommon

1

8

Gloom Kobold★★

Uncommon

1

8

Explosive Shambler★★

Uncommon

1

8

Colossal Serpent★★★★★

Common

1

10

[6]

Class Orbs Available

Tier

Fighter

Scout

Mage

Healer

Support

Tier 1

0

0

0

0

0

Tier 2

0

0

0

0

0

Tier 3

0

0

0

0

0

Tier 4

0

0

0

0

0

Tier 5

0

0

0

0

0

Tier 6

0

0

0

0

0

Tier 7

0

0

0

0

0

Tier 8

0

0

0

0

0

Tier 9

0

0

0

0

0

Tier 10

0

0

0

0

0

[7]

Drop Chest Probabilities

Star Rating

1

2

Weapon

Tier 1

5.0%

3.0%

Tier 2

1.0%

5.0%

Tier 3

0.005%

1.0%

Tier 4

0.0%

0.005%

Armor

Tier 1

5.0%

3.0%

Tier 2

1.0%

5.0%

Tier 3

0.005%

1.0%

Tier 4

0.0%

0.005%

Skillbook

Tier 1

5.0%

3.0%

Tier 2

1.0%

5.0%

Tier 3

0.005%

1.0%

Tier 4

0.0%

0.005%

Class Orb

Tier 1

5.0%

3.0%

Tier 2

1.0%

2.5%

Tier 3

0.0%

0.0%

Tier 4

0.0%

0.0%

Potion

Tier 1

5.0%

5.0%

Tier 2

0.975%

1.5%

Tier 3

0.01%

0.975%

Tier 4

0.0%

0.01%

Trash Items

70.0%

60.0%

[8]

Multiple Drop Chest Probabilities

Star Rating

Multiple Chance

2 Chests

3 Chests

4 Chests

5 Chests

1-Star

0.5%

95.0%

3.0%

1.5%

0.5%

2-Star

1.0%

90.0%

5.0%

3.0%

2.0%

3-Star

2.5%

85.0%

8.0%

4.0%

3.0%

4-Star

5.0%

75.0%

12.0%

8.0%

5.0%

5-Star

10.0%

70.0%

15.0%

10.0%

5.0%

6-Star

25.0%

65.0%

17.0%

12.0%

6.0%

7-Star

40.0%

60.0%

20.0%

14.0%

6.0%

8-Star

60.0%

55.0%

23.0%

15.0%

7.0%

9-Star

75.0%

50.0%

25.0%

17.0%

8.0%

10-Star

95.0%

25.0%

45.0%

20.0%

10.0%

[9]

Core Structure Health Reduction via Core Stage Increase

Chance of Reduction

50%

CSH Reduction

1

10.0%

2

10.0%

3

10.0%

4

9.0%

5

9.0%

6

8.0%

7

8.0%

8

7.0%

9

7.0%

10

5.0%

11

5.0%

12

3.0%

13

3.0%

14

2.0%

15

2.0%

16

0.9%

17

0.9%

18

0.1%

19

0.1%

[10]

Available Monsters

Name

Rarity

Quantity

Required for Evolution

Ice Bat ★

Common

6

10

Shade Bat★

Common

5

10

Camouflage Bat★

Common

3

10

Flaming Bat★

Common

4

10

Shimmer Bat★

Common

2

10

Wind Bat★

Common

3

10

Ember Boar★

Common

5

10

Hydro Boar★

Common

3

10

Breeze Boar★

Common

1

10

Truffle Boar★

Common

3

10

Glimmer Boar★

Common

2

10

Bog Boar★

Common

3

10

Bilge Rat★

Common

6

10

Leaf Rat★

Common

4

10

River Rat★

Common

3

10

Skimming Rat★

Common

3

10

Glint Rat★

Common

2

10

Flare Rat★

Common

2

10

Jumping Spider★

Common

5

10

Tree Spider★

Common

4

10

Cave Spider★

Common

6

10

Ash Spider★

Common

3

10

Sea Spider★

Common

2

10

Glowing Slime★

Common

4

10

Raindrop Slime★

Common

3

10

Heat Slime★

Common

2

10

Poisonous Slime★

Common

3

10

Floating Slime★

Common

1

10

Stone-tipped Fern★

Common

5

10

Burning Fern★

Common

2

10

Shining Fern★

Common

4

10

Gust Fern★

Common

3

10

Shadow Fern★

Common

3

10

Pond Serpent★

Common

3

10

Gliding Serpent★

Common

2

10

Spitting Serpent★

Common

2

10

Forest Wolf★

Uncommon

1

8

Swamp Troll★

Rare

1

6

Weak Light Elemental★

Ultra Rare

1

4

Flame Kobold★★

Uncommon

1

8

Gloom Kobold★★

Uncommon

1

8

Frigid Kobold★★

Uncommon

1

8

Radiant Wolf★★

Uncommon

1

8

Goblin Dancer★★

Uncommon

1

8

Explosive Shambler★★

Uncommon

1

8

Resplendent Shambler★★

Uncommon

1

8

Lamia Flameweaver★★

Rare

1

6

Nether Mage Slime★★★

Common

1

10

Stone Golem★★★

Rare

1

6

Mist Demon★★★

Ultra Rare

1

4

Sly Fern★★★★

Common

1

10

Colossal Serpent★★★★★

Common

1

10

Giant Bush Spider★★★★★

Common

1

10

[11]

Class Skills

Name

Cooldown (secs)

Base Class

Tier

Upgrade

Ice Shard

15

Mage

1

2/5

Wind Punch

15

Mage

1

1/5

Rock Strike

15

Mage

1

1/5

Flame Orb

15

Mage

1

1/5

Dazzle

20

Mage

1

2/5

Minor Levitation

60

Mage

1

1/5

Lesser Mage Shield

45

Mage

1

1/5

Poison Touch

120

Mage

2

1/10

[12]

Class Orbs Available

Tier

Fighter

Scout

Mage

Healer

Support

Tier 1

0

0

20

0

0

Tier 2

0

0

1

0

0

Tier 3

0

0

0

0

0

Tier 4

0

0

0

0

0

Tier 5

0

0

0

0

0

Tier 6

0

0

0

0

0

Tier 7

0

0

0

0

0

Tier 8

0

0

0

0

0

Tier 9

0

0

0

0

0

Tier 10

0

0

0

0

0