Dungeon Core Online

Chapter 20

"How's everyone doing?" Z was sitting on a bale of hay, munching on a piece of cooked dicken meat. The adventurer party had set up a small camp for a break near one of the ponds, and were roasting some of their dicken meat. So far, James had watched them take on the dickens, a mad cow, and a few swiners. The scapegoat that had been with the swiners early had wandered away, making the fight much easier on the group. Still, each battle had left the party wounded in some way shape or form, though they always had a grin on their faces. James knew how exhilarating the experience must be for them.

"How long have they been in here?" James really hadn't paid much attention to when the group had entered his dungeon, and he was curious how far away other adventurers were. What would happen when others appeared? How would that work?

"Eh, thirty minutes maybe?" Rue waved her hand, and a timer appeared. 00H 26M 47S. "They have been in here-"

"27 minutes, thanks Rue." James shook his orb, and turned back to the group. It definitely didn't feel like they had been in there for half an hour already. He was really enjoying the whole watching adventurers explore his dungeon part of being a dungeon core. As he glanced at the group, and the mobs around them, he started to grin even more. His life was about to get a lot more interesting.

The pond the group had set up on, was near the corn field. The very same corn field Old Man Jenkins had been heading towards. It seemed the smell of their cooking, had started to attract the boss mob, as the demonic farmer had changed his pace from aimless wandering, to purposeful stride, directly towards the group.

"Hey Z." Elm was facing the corn field, while the others had their back to it.

"What's up?" Z had a dicken leg in one hand, preparing to take a bite out of it.

"You ever read a dungeon core novel with a roaming boss mob?" Elm was staring at the corn field, and his face was starting to pale. Old Man Jenkin's 10 foot form had disappeared among the ears of corn, as James's crop stood nearly 12 foot high. However, he had drawn near enough to the party, that James could see his outline, which is what Elm was staring at as well.

"Hmm," Z bit into his dicken leg, chewing thoughtfully for a moment. "A few, though never on the first floor." He took another bite. "Why do you ask?"

At this point, Old Man Jenkin's had reached the very end of the corn field, and was extremely visible to anyone who would look in his direction. Elm, rising a shaking finger, pointed in his direction. As one, the team turned, and cursed.

"What is that thing?" Z dropped his dicken leg, and the entire party scrambled to gather their things and get on their feet, their rest forgotten. They stared at Old Man Jenkins, and the boss stared back. His eyes seemed to glow with a red fire, and James had to admit, if he were in their shoes, he would have been scared. Black smoke billowed from the farmer's pipe, as he took in the adventurer's appearances. By the way his eyes narrowed, James was certain the boss was not amused by their appearance. By the way Z and his guild seemed to pale, it was likely they had realized that too.

"So, we running or fighting?" Oak's tone of voice betrayed what he wanted to do.

"Well," Z seemed to pull up his screen, glancing over his player information. As he turned and looked at his members, James figured he was also checking all of their information. "We are close to leveling." Z's face showed he was torn on his decision. "But, do you guys think we can take this boss down, at level one?" James had seen that done before, in a few games. It usually required a high level of skill and patience, as lower level players just didn't have the damage output to burn bosses down like others would. That meant they would need to expertly dodge all of the attacks aimed at them, while landing all of their attacks to maximize damage.

"Honestly, we probably can't." Med spoke up as he glanced at Old Man Jenkins. The boss was still glaring at the group, but hadn't attacked yet. James wondered if they would need to agro the boss, before he started his attack. Or was the boss just waiting to see what they did?

"But, what if we could?" The way Z said it made the others pause, and grins started to cross their faces. This was what James had been waiting for, this was the gamer aspect he was sure Rue hadn't planned on. Gamers loved to do things before others. Gamers loved to claim as many first titles as possible. Gamers loved a good challenge.

"Probably get another achievement for it." Faust commented, steadying himself as he turned to fully face Old Man Jenkins. His hands spread, likely preparing to cast a spell. James knew the level 1 mage had a binding spell, he was curious what else he could use.

"Another world first for the guild." Z drew an arrow, as did Elm. Oak let out a sigh as he took up position in front of the group, while Med stood in the back with Faust. They were going to do it. James nearly started crying with joy.

"Besides, what's the worst that can happen? This is a MMO, not a Souls game." Oh the irony. Souls games were related to the Dark Souls style games that came out in the early 2000s. They were the genre of game that James was aware of, that cost people their hard earned souls, essentially experience, when they died. It was a mechanic that was unique to the Souls games and those that followed them, and James couldn't think of any MMO that had incorporated such a mechanic. It was a brutal mechanic, and in MMOs, where players often threw themselves at monsters over and over, regardless of if they died, to level and gain gear, and to chase world firsts, the mechanic was going to cost the players a lot. But it was also going to gain James a lot.

"Let's do this." Oak let out a roar, and started running forward. At the same time, two arrows burst past his shoulders, fired by Elm and Z. The arrows lodged into Old Man Jenkins's chest, but the farmer seemed unconcerned. Meanwhile, Faust began changing, and his hands started to glow a strange blue. If James had to guess, the mage either had a basic magic missile attack, a common level 1 attack spell. A moment later, blue missiles of energy launched towards Old Man Jenkins, confirming James's suspicion.

"I wonder how many of those he can-"James's stopped his comment as he turned towards his pixie. Before, his attention has been focused on the party squaring off against Old Man Jenkins. As such, he hadn't been paying attention to his pixie. Now, looking at her, he couldn't believe what he was seeing. The AI had summoned a bowl of popcorn, and was watching the fight unfurl below them like someone would watching a movie on TV. James didn't know if he should laugh at her antics, or be angry at the developers about his pixie again.

"Magic missile." She said between bites of popcorn. "Level 1 Mage spell. Deals 5 x lvl damage. Costs 5mp per spell. Takes 2 seconds to channel." Wow, she was being surprisingly helpful. James recalled Faust had a total of 50MP, meaning without recharging MP, he would be able to cast 10 Magic missiles, for a total of 50 damage. He seemed to refresh mana at the rate of 1 MP per second. James didn't feel like doing the math, but he could tell it would take a while for the mage to do enough to chip away at his boss's 500 HP.

"So, it's going to take them a while to kill the boss?" James pulled up Old Man Jenkins' information, and paused, as realization dawned on him. His boss was not only a boss mob, meaning he was exceptionally strong compared to the other mobs, but was also level 5. If James had to guess, it would likely be a challenging fight for five level five players to take him on. This fight was going to be nearly impossible for Z and his group.

"Make sure you don't get hit." Z called out as two more arrows blasted into James's boss mob, this time peppering his face. One of the arrows found an eye, causing the boss to roar in rage. If James had to guess, that was a weak spot.

"Easy for you to say." Oak jumped back as Old Man Jenkins swung wildly with his pitchfork, barely managing to avoid the blow. However, he was blasted backwards still by the blast of air that seemed to emit from the swing. "Ooof." James glanced at Oak's character sheet, and saw even though the attack hadn't landed, the warrior had taken 5 damage. Things were not looking good for the group.

"I don't think we are doing much damage here." Faust cried out as he launched a fourth magic missile. The attack hit, but the boss seemed uninterested, as he swung again at Oak. The warrior managed to roll under the attack, this time avoiding the blast of wind entirely, and putting him finally in the range to use his sword.

"Just keep at him. Remember our forty minute fight against that elder dragon in Monster Hunter?" Z called out as another arrow launched, finding Old Man Jenkins other eye. The giant boss roared out and stomped, forcing Oak, cursing, to roll away again.

James had heard of that fight, though he hadn't been a part of it. Apparently a group of 10 players took on an end game monster the day it released. It had been strong enough to one shot a player, and in the monster hunter games, if you or your team died three times, the mission was failed. So, these guys had been a part of the team that brought it down for world first, interesting.

"You know we cheesed that fight so hard." Oak cried out as he came up, sword ready. Old Man Jenkins was flailing about wildly with his pitchfork, as he pulled an arrow out of his eye. James was sure in a few seconds, his boss would be able to see again. "We were all ranged, and just kept stun locking him. Even still, you died once."

"So did you." Z and the others laughed as they continued their attack on the boss. James checked Old Man Jenkins life, amused to find they had only managed about 40 points of damage on the boss so far. It was going to be a long fight for them.

"E" A loud voice echoed out, as Old Man Jenkins slammed his pitchfork into the ground, his eye focusing angrily on Z. The party paled as they started upping their attacks.

"I" Fire started to flow from under the pitchfork, creating a demonic symbol.

"Anyone have a silence?" Z's voice held a hint of panic.

"We're level one, no one has a silence." Faust was backing away, arrow knocked.

"E" The demonic symbol started to appear under Z.

"You need to stop pulling agro." Oak was laughing as Z's face paled. He had a point, Z seemed to pull agro every fight.

"I" Both symbols burst to life, glowing a bright crimson.

"O!" Two hooves burst from the ground, kicking Z and launching him through the air, over Old Man Jenkins, and into the corn field. A demonic donkey appeared for a moment after kicking Z, before it disappeared into a puff of smoke. James was certain he heard the donkey laugh as it faded away.

"Z!" Oak and the others cried out. Elm launched two arrows, again temporarily blinding Old Man Jenkins, as they rushed past the boss, into the corn. James was certain they had made the plan to save Z, and run. It would have been a great plan, one that should have worked, if the party had better luck. However, during the fight, Old Man Jenkins' second ability had managed to snag a few mobs that were within 20 yards of the party.

Z, had landed next to one of these mobs, and James was certain, if he hadn't been stunned by the fall, he would have called out, to warn his teammates. After all, the archer was staring face to face with a sacrificial lamb, while two others appeared near him. He hadn't touched them, and they hadn't died, so their ability hadn't activated yet. However, Oak, smashing through the corn field, searching for his team leader, did. In his haste, he stumbled over the sacrificial lamb that stood just in front of the stunned Z .A moment later, as the rest of the party made their way in, having caught up with Oak, a set of three explosions ripped through the corn field.

"Popcorn?" From the corner of his eye, James could see Rue offering him her bowl of popcorn, her eyes filled with laughter. Her comment came just as the corn field erupted into a mass of explosions, lamb wool, blood, and ironically enough, popcorn, caused James to break out in laughter. He definitely was going to enjoy being a dungeon core.