Dungeon Core Online

Chapter 43

"Annnd, that'll be 50 resources Rue." James was smiling smugly to himself as he watched a group of adventurers walk boldly through his portal. His pixie shot him a glare, before waving her hand, and James watched his resources climb by 50. He now had 168 resources out of 2500. It wasn't much, but he enjoyed the increase, nevertheless. Beating the pixie in a bet had its own satisfaction.

"I'll get those back." Rue replied gloomily, as she turned her attention back to the screens. The moment the group had stepped through the portal, and new instance window had appeared. James quickly enlarged it, and they watched, with bated breath, as the group took a look around.

The group they were observing consisted, as was normal for his dungeon, of five players. They had an orc knight named Skar as their tank and a human priestess, Olivia, for their healer. Their dps consisted of a troll archer, a dwarf warrior, and a gnome thief. As he pulled up the rest of their information, he shook his head. While they were definitely not inexperienced players, they should have known better than to take the portal. They ranged between level 10 and 11, meaning they had spent a lot of time in the dungeon the day before, considering the top adventurers, the Knights Who Go Ni, had just hit level 13.

"You really think we should be here?" The gnome, named Gno-more, was twirling a dagger nervously in his hand, as he glanced around at the others. His short stature meant he stood roughly at waist height for the priestess, with the dwarf only standing a little taller. A stark contrast next to the hulking orc knight, covered iron plate mail, and the troll archer.

"The Knight's just hit level 13 and are locked out for another twenty minutes." Skar had his shield and sword drawn, and was talking down, literally, towards his gnomish companion. "If we want to get ahead, we need a higher level to train. The first floor is starting to fill with more casual players, and they're interrupting our farming."

"Yeah, but-" Gno-more looked at his companions, and then out down the dirt road, lined with the husks of countless cars. Funnily enough, the savannah grass that spread out across James's second floor was taller than the gnome and dwarf, meaning their visibility was greatly impaired.

"No buts." Skar turned towards the road, and James knew he was looking at the desolate city that existed in the center. Off in the distance, James could see a few of his dinosaur mobs roaming about, though he was sure it would be difficult for the adventurers to make the creatures out just yet. "We'll just proceed carefully and take on solo mobs. There have got to be a few roaming about." He glanced at his shorter companions and pointed his sword towards the city. "We can check out the city, since it may suit you better than fighting in this tall grass."

"Ya'll just had to choose short races." The troll, named Troll'd, let out a sigh as he unslung his bow. James noted he had a full quiver of dicken feathered arrows at his side, speaking again to the amount of time the group had spent in his dungeon. James also had to chuckle at the troll's name. All the competitive gamers either made legitimate, role playing esq names, or joke names. There was never an in-between.

"Oy, you got an issue with dwarfs?" The dwarf fighter drew his axe as he eyed Troll'd, who merely shook his head, grinning through his tusked mouth.

"Nah, I got no problems with dwarfs. In fact, I think dwarf women are just the right height." He shot the dwarf a wink, before the troll was promptly slapped in the back of his head by Olivia's staff. The rest of the group broke into laughter.

"You better not be looking at other girls." Her eyes narrowed, though her mouth was smirking as the archer rubbed the back of his head.

"Of course not hun. You're the only girl for me." He offered her a small smile and the priestess nodded, turning back to the group.

"That's what I thought." As she spoke, James couldn't help but notice everyone else roll their eyes. If he had to guess, the troll and priestess were a couple, if not in real life, at least in the game. It was a common enough thing, though it sometimes had dangers for party dynamics. Hopefully these players were veteran enough not to make such rookie mistakes though.

"So, we going to go check out that city?" Troll'd had turned his attention back to Skar, and the orc nodded in affirmation. He turned and began walking down the road. The two short races stayed in the middle of the pack, with the priestess, while the troll hung back, bow at the ready. They were definitely veteran players. Heck, they even stopped at each car, investigating them, and likely scavenging what they could from them. James knew the cars offered up basic crafting materials and metals, that hadn't been available on his first floor, including steel, rubber, and mechanical parts. James was really excited to see what players eventually began crafting out of his second-floor materials. Especially his steampunk mobs' materials.

"Wanna bet who will die first?" Rue was sitting casually in a chair, watching the screen intently. He could tell his pixie was eager to win some more resources. Lucky for her, James was in a gambling mood.

"Alright. I'm going to bet the dwarf dies first."

"Manly the Dwarf?" Rue looked from the party, to James, feigning surprise. James nodded his orb. He was assuming the dwarven player had decided to mimic the old fairy tale Snow White, where the dwarfs had names that described their traits. Manly the Dwarf was what he named himself. James mentally shook his head, freaking gamers.

"Yeah. Definitely going to be him."

"Ugh, that was going to be my bet." Rue scanned the group, before an evil grin crossed her face. "Fine, I'm going to say Olivia dies first."

"Why would you bet the healer-" James paused in his statement, as his mind replayed what he knew of the group. "Shit." The healer and the troll were a thing. Rue was banking on that fact, to assume they would do something stupid. Normally healers, at least good ones, were the last to die. But James could see Olivia or Troll'd doing something stupid and getting themselves killed. Hopefully Manly lived up to his name and tried to keep the priestess safe. It seemed they were both playing on assumed character flaws for their bet. When had they started putting so much thought into their betting?

"No changing our bets now." Rue's comment came just as the group neared the city. The haze of smoke and dust that filled the air kept the massive steampunk dinosaurs that roamed the plains outside of the city a haze, keeping the adventurers from being able to make out what they were. James was sure to the players who could see the forms, their minds were scrambling for some strange demonic animal. Oh, were they in for a surprise.

"Alright, Gno-more, going to need you to start checking for traps." The knight stood aside, letting the thief take the lead. The thief looked down at his screen, and after making motions, indicating he had selected an option, began walking forward. If James had to guess, the gnome had just activated a trap detecting skill.

"Well, that's no fun." James had been hoping his new traps would be able to at least weaken the group, but as they moved forward, the thief appeared quite capable at avoiding his new traps. The saving grace was that James hadn't seen many thief players milling about. That was also evidenced by the fact he was still slowly gaining experience from his first-floor pitfall traps.

"So, the dungeon has demonic farm animals, right?" Troll'd was speaking casually as they walked forward, Gno-more helping navigated the empty streets. So far, they hadn't come across any mobs, but James knew that was going to change soon.

"No shit sherlock." Skar had his shield at the ready, his eyes scanning everywhere. James had to give it to them, they were cautious. They knew they shouldn't be in the location but were taking the risk for the reward of higher experience and loot, in order to try and catch up to the Knights.

"So, what type of farm animals exist in a deserted city?" The troll made a good point. James had to give him that much.

At his comment, the entire party paused, turning to look at the troll. Manly the Dwarf opened his mouth to answer, his hand raised, before he lowered it. Everyone was so caught up in thought, trying to find the answer that they didn't realize they had stopped in probably the worst possible location, a crossroad.

The smoke in the air seemed to part in an unnatural fashion, as a cloaked Spy-nosaurus lunged at the group. The Spy-nosaurus, James had found, used an artificial fin on its back to produce a strange smoke that allowed it to blend in completely to the environment. The moment the mob connected with its target, Gno-more its cloaking ability faded away. Teeth and gears clanked together as the dinosaur raised its head, crunching down hard on the trapped thief. It wasn't enough to kill the poor gnome, but it was doing a good amount of damage.

To their credit, the group didn't panic. They didn't react as fast as James thought they should have, but they also didn't break down in terror and run. After the initial shock started to wear away, they began to fight back. Gno-more was throwing what appeared to be little bombs at the dinosaur's back fin, even while his life was being chunked by the monster. Olivia had her staff raised, and was chanting out a healing spell, slowing Gno-more's demise, but unable to completely stop it.

"I can't out heal the damage." The priestess said between chants, and James guessed her heal was on cooldown.

"Get him free." Skar called out, and as he spoke, Troll'd drew a couple of arrows. With practiced ease, the troll launched dicken feathered arrows at the dinosaur. The arrows impacted against the monster's throat, causing it to roar and loosen its hold on the thief. The moment it did, Skar and Manly rushed forward. Skar smashed his shield into the monster's metal chest, while Manly took up position, swinging his axe at the Spy-nosarur's leg like he would a tree.

"Let him go." Manly chanted as his axe bit into the dinosaur's leg, over and over. After a moment, the thief, with a sliver of life, managed to pry himself free. James glanced at his mob's health, noticing the party was doing a good a job of whittling away at its health. Because it was such a higher level than the group though, they had to contend with its increased defense and attack stats. They would definitely gain a lot of experience fighting these mobs, but it wasn't going to be easy on them.

"Oh, they are an impressive team." Rue commented as Gno-more was freed, and James nodded in agreement.

"True, but they are a bit unlucky." James pointed with his tentacle towards one of the side streets leading towards them. A group of velocity raptors was heading swiftly towards the party, likely attracted to the location due to noise of the fight. Because of their trait ∆D/∆T, they were moving fast.

"Fighting in an abandoned, unknown city, probably not the best idea." Rue was nodding her head, grinning. "If they didn't have the smaller guys, they would have been able to pick off one of the taller mobs out in the savanna in relative safety."

James had to agree with Rue. If he had been playing, he would have stayed in the savanna, at least until his level had grown a little more. The abandoned city just seemed like the perfect place to be ambushed by mobs. Even when he explored dungeons and ruins, he did his best not to put himself in a position where he would aggro a lot of mobs. Though, to be fair, he, and probably every other gamer out there, had gotten themselves killed more than once when exploring new areas, especially if there were new mobs with abilities they didn't know.

"Well, look at it this way." James watched as the velocity raptors drew nearer. They were preparing to exit and alley into the street behind the party, meaning they would have direct line of sight to the priestess, darn it. "They're going to gain experience of a few of the mobs in the area, and I'm going to gain actual experience, from killing them, it's a win-win."

"Well, a win-win-lose." Rue had noticed the same fact he did and was grinning as the raptors broke out into the street. The leader of the pack let out a metallic cry of excitement, before the group rushed towards the adventurers. "It looks like I'm going to win the bet." As she spoke, the first raptor leapt towards Olivia, its metallic claws extending to cut deeply into her. James winced as she burst into an orb of light. Not only were the raptors stats boosted by Steam Powered Pack, the blasted mob had landed a critical strike on Olivia.

"Well, you know what they say." James sighed as he watched his 50 resources disappear, going back to Rue. The pixie was grinning, both from her winning of the bet, and the chaos brought upon the group as their healer fell. The raptors were already heading towards Troll'd, who was doing his best to launch arrows into them, but it was pointless. The moment their healer died, their party's fate had been sealed. "You can't win them all."