Dungeon Core Online

Chapter 69

The rest of the first day was spent modifying his second floor, which James and Rue managed to finish with roughly 9 hours left to spare. So, no binge watching Supernatural for them, but at least James did manage to get a little rest in.

As such, by the time his alarm was going off, waking him from his sleep, there were just a few minutes remaining until the adventurers would be logging in.

"Bout time you're awake." Rue was sitting comfortably in a chair, sipping easily on her hot chocolate. She shot him a wicked smile while motioning down towards the dungeon entrance. The timer showed just three minutes till it was game time.

"Since when do you ever wake up before me?" Seriously, the pixie had a habit of oversleeping in his opinion. If she was up before him, it was because she had something planned. And as much as James liked dicken racing, he generally didn't like his pixie's plans. They usually cost him resources.

She took a sip of her hot chocolate, as she motioned towards the screen in front of her. On it, she had frozen a scene, complete with closed captions. Though James didn't need to read them to know what was being said in the scene.

"Really Rue? Really?" She had apparently been watching Firefly, since he had mentioned it to her. More specifically, the scene she had stopped it on was from the Firefly movie, Serenity.

"I am a leaf on the wind." Were the words on the screen, one of the main character's last words in the movie. James could feel a moment of sadness well up in him. He really liked Wash's character.

The pixie grinned and took a sip innocently. "I have no idea what you could be implying." She waved her hand, making the screen disappear, turning to watch the dungeon entrance with James.

It was the third real world day in DCO, meaning players would be starting their 15th day worth of game time. The first week, obviously, took them some getting used to. The last log in, they had seemed to have started to figure out their game plans. This third day, James knew they were going to be sinking easily into their routines. That was the glory of games in immersion, it was so easy to slide into them, and adapt them as real life. It was why there was a limit on the amount of immersion you could partake in. Often times, people wouldn't leave otherwise.

James pulled up his profile, choosing to give it a once over, just before the adventurers logged in. He liked knowing exactly what he was going in with each day, so that he could gauge his own progress.

Glyax Tier 2 Rank 5 Dungeon

Mob Type: Random

180,014 xp

19,986 xp to next rank

119,986 xp to next Tier

Resources: 371 of 2800

Currency: 0 copper 0 silver 5 gold 0 platinum

Dungeon Tokens: 7

He grinned as he went over his stats. The last day, he had managed to grow 5 ranks. That meant, if he kept pace, he would be able to hit Tier 3 before this night of immersion was done. While there was still much, he felt he needed to do on his floors, especially with the new unlocks, James was also eager to see what Tier 3 would bring him. Eager, and anxious, who knew what type of floor his third floor would be. Though, as long as it wasn't a water level, he figured he would be happy.

"When did you get another dungeon token?" Rue was glancing over his orb, taking in his character sheet, and her comment drew his attention.

"Wha-" He scanned it, and sure enough, he had 7 tokens now. When he had logged out, he had 6 tokens total. Where had that new token come from? He pulled up his notifications window, scrolling through it quickly. Usually, he ignored the window, because it simply accounted how many resources he was gaining per hour, or laid out in detail the amount of experience he gained from adventurers, etc. A lot of hard data, that just didn't appeal to him.

Besides, achievements, and important notifications, always came with a fanfare of lights and a popup window, so James had really gotten used to not looking at his detailed notifications. However, now he was curious.

As he scrolled through the list, he found what he was looking for. A single line, easy to miss. In fact, if it weren't for the fact the only notifications currently were all for resource generation, he would have missed it completely.

22:00:00- 11 Resources Generated. Congratulations! 1 Dungeon Token found during resource mining.

There it was, a single line, a simple fact that he had nearly forgotten when Rue was explaining Dungeon Tokens to him. A conversation that was only 2 days old but felt like forever ago.

"Seems I got lucky with my resource generation." James responded, flashing a smile towards the pixie as he did. "Maybe you actually are a Goddess of Luck."

The pixie blushed, quickly hiding it with another sip of her hot chocolate.

"You really should be careful with all this flattery Glyax. Don't want to give me the wrong idea." She shot him a mischievous wink, instantly throwing him off his game. He knew she was an AI, but he would be lying if he didn't find her attractive, especially after seeing her during the meeting with Xander. Shaking such ideas from his head, he glanced at the entrance to the dungeon.

During their conversation, the timer had rolled over, and players had begun to populate DCO. While the first two days, there had been a mad rush from the town to the dungeon's entrance, James knew it was unlikely that trend would continue. Players would be meeting up instead, catching up and joking with their friends, and preparing themselves fully before diving into the dungeon.

Generally, hardcore players would still be rushing to the dungeon's entrance, but James knew that wouldn't be the case either. That was because Z and his guild were holding their meeting, preparing for the raid on the Terminus Rex. James grinned to himself in anticipation for that fight. He and Rue had planned a few tricky surprises for Z's Raid party, and if they only got Skar's group to join, James doubted they would be able to take the Terminus down. Though, he was all for a good show, and maybe they could pull it off.

However, James knew he would have to wait for that fight a little longer, though he couldn't help but fight his own grin. There were players making their way casually towards the dungeon entrance, and he recognized a few. The leaders of the groups were the shopkeepers of The Dicken Shack. The group had the owner of the shop, as well as his own personal group of workers, who simply farmed up a bunchy of dicken meat, and shared the profits from sales. It wasn't a bad business plan, and he was certain they were making a decent amount of gold.

The other players approaching were all in the high single digit levels, or low teens. These were players who couldn't hope to be a part of the raid with Z's group, and so were just going back to their normal grind. Of course, they would all be purchasing food from The Dicken Shack before diving, and that was fine. They were going to need those extra buffs, especially now that the dickens had undergone their latest evolution.

He really loved this game.