Dungeon Core Online

Chapter 11

"So, I just assign the points as I see fit?" James was looking at Old Man Jenkins upgrade screen, eying the options available to him. When it came to upgrading his boss mob, the developers had apparently wanted dungeon cores to have as much freedom to upgrade as they wanted. That was nice and all, but it meant a boss could either become extremely overpowered, or rather underwhelming, depending on the dungeon core's choices.

"Pretty much." Rue had summoned another table and was pouring herself a drink. If James had to guess, she was probably thinking this process was going to take a little time. She was probably right.

"Can I undo my choices, if I don't like them?" Some games let you freely assign and reassign upgrade points, so that you could try out different builds. Other, less forgiving games, locked in your choice the moment you made it. That meant mistakes you made in your early levels, would continue to haunt you as you moved forward. James had once played a game that had a mechanic like that. He spent 30 levels worth of points going into a tank build, before he decided he wanted to play a mage instead. It took him a long time to get the levels into his magic to make him a formidable mage, but at least he could hold a giant tower shield to hide behind while he was leveling.

"For now, your choices will be locked. As you grow as a dungeon, there will be a way for you to reassign points in your mobs, but that will be later down the road." She took a sip of her drink and smiled at him. "So, don't mess up."

"Thanks." He turned back to the screen, eyeing all of his options. If they were going to be locked, he needed to really put some thought into the process. Some of the options to upgrade were basic, such as increasing his mobs hp, mp, atk and def by a %. He noticed that the percentages for each option seemed to stack though, which would make the boss scale rather quickly. For instance, if he put a single point into the option labeled Improved Health, the hp would increase by 10%. The next level increased it by 20%, the third by 30%, and so on.

For a second, James was tempted to just put a point into each of those options, to increase his bosses base stats another level. However, two things stopped him from doing that. First, he had no idea how adventurers would fare against his boss early on, and he didn't want to increase the difficulty right away on them. Second, the gamer inside of him was screaming that there were better choices to be made, than just improving basic stats.

"Do I have to use all of my points right now?" He saw a few options he liked for upgrading, but he didn't see 5. And if he didn't have to spend all of his points right away, well there was no reason to.

"Ah, are you afraid of commitment?"

"No. But I don't want to make any mistakes if I don't have to." He was trying to approach this task as logical as possible. What was so wrong with that?

"You know the saying, nothing ventured, nothing gained." She took a drink, holding eye contact with him the entire time she did. As she set the drink down, she slowly ran her tongue across her lip. "Why not take a chance? It could be fun."

James was pretty sure his AI was using his teenage mind against him. He was also pretty sure it was working. "You are a terrible influence on me." James grumbled as he turned back to the upgrade screen.

"I just want you to have a little fun. You seem so uptight." Rue let out a light, musical laugh, as she took another drink. "Maybe you should have a drink, take the edge off."

"What exactly are you drinking?" She had been pouring the drink out of a teapot, so he had assumed she was drinking tea. Now though, he wasn't sure.

"Try some, if you're curious." She held her cup towards him, and he just stared. He was a floating orb with an eye. He didn't have a mouth, his voice just echoed from his orb as he spoke. They sat in silence for a few moments, before Rue let out a laugh, and took another drink. "Oh, right." She poured more of the liquid, which he was certain was alcoholic, into her cup. "More for me then."

"I have a drunk pixie. Great." James mumbled as he turned back to the task at hand. Because of how immersion worked, players could actually get drunk in game. A lot of people actually enjoyed that fact, because they could drink, be merry, and get drunk, without any risk to their actual bodies. James had learned to stay away from liquor, after a rather long night of drinking and gambling in Warcraft Universe, that saw him losing a good amount of coin, and his favorite pet. It had taken him three months to get another one of those pets to drop.

"I'm not drunk." Rue took another drink, and a small smile crossed her face. "But I'm sure I'm getting a good buzz right now." Because developers were always trying to make AI completely indistinguishable, James had found that the AI could also get drunk in games. Some players would purposefully try to get NPCs drunk, in order to get discounted prices on wares, and sometimes it was even a required tactic to unlock secret quests. James was pretty sure, his pixie getting drunk while she was explaining dungeon creation to him, was not the best idea.

"How about you try to stay sober until we finish completing the dungeon?" James had been feeling good about his dungeon creation so far and was confident he was going to finish the basic set up of his first floor, before the players started playing. However, he would hate if his pixie got drunk and forgot to mention some important detail to him.

"Buzz kill." Rue waved her hand, and the drink and table disappeared. "Are you happy, oh mighty Glyax?"

"Delighted."

"Well," Rue motioned towards the upgrade screen. "Don't keep a lady waiting. Finish this up so we can move on." Oh, she seemed mad that he had cut her off. Maybe he should let her keep drinking? He eyed the pixie and shook his head. James decided a drunk Rue was not something he needed right now. He needed to focus on setting up his dungeon, and he was certain he wouldn't be able to focus if the cute pixie was drunk

"As you wish." James turned back to the screen and let out a sigh. He had already told her he would use all five of us upgrade points, and so began mentally assigning them. The first three points were easy for him to spend.

First, he improved the Unique Ability Ol' Mcbossy had a farm. By dumping a skill point into it, the aura increased its radius to 20 + lvl yards, and increased mob stats by 110% instead of 100%. He wanted to put another point into it but was afraid that would be a little too overwhelming this early on for players. Next, he used a skill point to unlock a new ability for Old Man Jenkins, called Pitch a Fit. The ability gave his boss the power to summon flaming pitchforks to throw at enemies. It sounded amusing, to say the least.

Third, James unlocked a trait for his boss called Red Neck. The trait was a permanent one, that increased his boss' defense by 5 points, and gave him a 20% resistance to elemental attacks. While he wanted to save his last two points, he had told Rue he would spend them. Sighing, he dumped a point into HP, making Old Man Jenkins health go from 500 to 550 points. His last skill point went into the ATK boost, increasing his attack power from 50 to 55. When he finished, he closed the upgrade screen, to look at his boss one last time.

Tier 1 Boss Mob

Demonic Farmer – Old Man Jenkins

HP- 550

MP- 250

ATK- 55

DEF- 55

Unique Abilities

Donkey Kick- Summons a demonic donkey from the underworld. The donkey will appear beneath an adventurer and kick them, sending them 10 + lvl yards back. Attack will do 20 points of flat magic damage, and cause falling damage. 25% chance to stun for 10 seconds.

Ol' Mcbossy had a farm (Aura) +1- Bolsters demonic farm animals within a 20 + lvl yard radius, increasing their stats by 110%. Any mobs effected by this, will come to the aid of the Demonic Farmer.

Pitch a Fit- Summon a flaming pitchfork that can be thrown. Pitchfork will do 30 points of fire damage. 15% chance to stun for 10 seconds.

Traits

Red Neck- Being a farmer sure is a lot of work. After spending ages exposed to rough conditions and the burning sun, a farmer is bound to become more resilient. +5 to DEF, +20% elemental resistance.

James grinned and closed the screen, looking at Rue. She had her arms crossed and was tapping her foot impatiently in the air, but she had a smile on her face. "What shall we do next Rue?"

The pixie motioned toward the first floor, where the mobs were milling about. "How about you summon Old Man Jenkins, and we can start on the next task."

"Which is?" James asked as he pulled up his boss screen, preparing to summon his demonic farmer.

"Loot."