Dungeon Core Online

Chapter 47

"So, how many resources does that make." James was grumbling as he watched the Knight's respawn on the first floor of their instance. He looked dismally at his resources, he only had 20 left. Sure, he gained resources back quickly enough, but he had been looking forward to winning that bet. It would have put him over 200 resources, and with that, he had planned to put in a new sign on his second floor, and a few more car husks. The sign, he had decided, would read "Welcome to Jurassic City." He figured the extra confusion would be amusing for adventurers, and he was sure sooner or later, word was going to get out about his mobs.

"Enough." Rue had a huge grin on her face, and she drew James's attention to his first floor. Rue summoned her own screen, and with a grin selected an option. A moment later what appeared to be a shrine appeared, right next to his first trap at the start of the dungeon. The shrine depicted….well, it looked almost exactly like Rue, her arms out in an offering gesture, her wings spread wide, a kind smile on her face. Alright, everything but the kind look in her eyes looked like her. James knew just how devious his pixie was.

"What, is that?" Seriously? What the hell was that? And did this break the rules? Wasn't this communicating with the players?

"That, oh mighty Glyax, is a shrine to the Goddess of Luck." Rue stuck her tongue out as James as he stared at the shrine.

"To the Goddess of Luck." He said the words a second time and shook his orb. Just what was the pixie going on about?

"In the game's lore, there are gods and goddess that can offer different blessings to players. They are lost deities, whose shrines can magically appear to aid adventurers."

"Note to self, learn the game's lore." Seriously, he had been so busy building his dungeons, upgrading mobs and generally just trolling adventurers, he hadn't actually looked at game lore. Hell, James hadn't realized there was much game lore. And, as the Dungeon Core, he hadn't actually thought to look it up. Usually world lore was more situated in games that had expansive worlds, not a game where adventurers just had a massive, every growing dungeon to keep crawling through.

"Oh yeah, the developers put a lot of time into game lore. You should really stop slacking and check it out." Rue waved her hand, and a book the size of an encyclopedia appeared in her hand.

"Really? That's all the game's lore?"

Rue glanced at the encyclopedia and grinned. "Nope, this is the Lord of the Rings Trilogy, hardback edition. I've been reading it before bed. You want to talk about a book with a lot of lore." She waved her hand, and a new book, a much smaller book appeared. James had to grin, it looked almost the size of a Dungeon Master manual from DnD.

"This is the lore of the game. There are also developer made videos detailing historical facts on the world, as well as the history of each race, if you were interested in it." She waved her hand, and the book disappeared.

"Honestly though, much of that lore is just for the players that love that kind of stuff. The only aspect I found interesting, was the gods and goddesses." Rue grinned, motioning back to her shrine.

"They aren't detailed in their appearances, and the lore says they can take on any form. So, heck, why not have the Goddess of Luck look like a pixie?" She grinned, and all James could do was shrug his tentacles.

"Alright, so you got yourself a shrine. Not conceited at all." Had she really just been placing bets, so she could make people worship her. The more James thought about it, the more it made sense. She did seem to think highly about herself.

Rue shot James a venom filled look, before motioning towards the bottom of the shrine. On it, a lever, and a slot for what looked to be a coin. Underneath the slot, what appeared to be a poem.

Those who wish to improve their fate

The goddess's hunger you must sate

An offering of coin to test your luck

To receive a blessing, in the form of a buff

Alright, so maybe poem was a stretch. As James read the words over, he glanced at the pixie, had she come up with that poem? By the way she grinned, he guessed she had.

"So, they can put coins in the slot and pull the lever, and then they get a buff?"

"Mhmm." Rue was smiling and did a light flip in the air. "Depending on the coin the put in, and their luck, they can get a buff that increases their percentages for rare items to drop, and also even the chance to receive and extra piece of loot."

"Well, that's neat." James knew adventurers would definitely want to take advantage of that, though he had to feel Rue was giving them a chance to go around his hard thought out loot drop chances. However, every game he had played usually had an item that increased loot drop chances, so he could understand the mechanic.

"I thought so too."

"So, do I get the coins? Since its my dungeon?" If this was a way for him to make some extra coin on the side, he was all for it. Though, he still had no idea what to do with his 5 gold coins he currently had. So far, no one on the Dungeon Core forums knew either. Strange.

"Nope, I get the coins, and they turn into resources for me."

"You can turn coins into resources?" James glanced from the shrine, to the pixie. Did that mean there was a way for him to turn his coins into resources? What was the conversion rate?

"Yup, why do you think I kept betting with you so much? I needed the resources to make my shrine, so that I could start gaining more resources." She crossed her arms and smiled smugly. "Dungeon Pixies can make shrines on each floor, but we need resources to do it."

"You could have just asked." Seriously, James would have helped her. He wasn't that stingy on his resources.

"Nope, I'm a strong, independent dungeon pixie." Her eyes flashed mischievously, "besides, you suck at making bets, so it was easy to win resources off of you."

"Freaking pixie." James grumbled under his breath. Rue's eyes narrowed, and James knew she heard him.

"Any who Rue," time to change the subject, "am I able to convert my coins into resources? You never told me what I could do with my 5 gold coins."

The fire in the pixie's eyes died down, and she let out a slight chuckle. "No, your coins will come into play when the up-" She stopped speaking and smiled sheepishly. "Oops."

"Oops?" Had she just been about to say update? James knew the game developers promised a big update after the first month of playing. What would he be able to use his coins for then? And was that knowledge supposed to be a secret? James looked hard at his pixie, waiting for her to disappear again. After nothing happened, he let out a sigh. If it was a secret, it wasn't as big as whatever she was going to tell him when she had been drunk. Interesting.

"Mhmm. The details of the big update are a secret. Just know you might want to gain as much coin as you can before then." The way she said those words, the way she smiled, made James's mouth go dry. He could guess the answer to his next question.

"And, what's the easiest way for me to gain coins?" Rue's eyes sparkled as he said the words, and her lips curved up in a devilish smile.

"Well, I can trade you some coins for resources whenever you want." There it was. She had figured out another way to keep James from just giving her resources to help her with her shrines.

"Alright," James let out a heavy sigh, but he could understand. Getting freebies in games usually took away some of the fun, and his AI seemed to have a love for games and challenges, just like he did. So, Rue had come up with another way to get resources from James, without receiving charity. And, she had done it in a way that would, in theory, benefit James come the big update at the end of the month. Finally, a win-win for the both of them.

"We can also still place bets with coins and resources." Rue offered as an aside, glancing down at his dungeon.

"We'll see." Alright, maybe his pixie had a slight addiction to gambling as well. In James's eyes, that just made her seem even more like a normal gamer, and thought made him even more comfortable around her. Why couldn't he meet someone like her in real life?