Dungeon Core Online

Chapter 7

"Mob Generator?" James stared at the words before him. He was going to be deducting points from DCO for originality. First there was the Dungeon Creator, now there was the Mob Generator. Seemed pretty unimaginative.

"Does the Wonderful Glyax have a better name for such a tool?" Rue was smirking again. It seemed she was always smirking. James thought for a moment, but he really couldn't think of anything unique. Everything that came to mind was cliché and over used. Alright, he supposed he could cut the developers a little slack.

"No, it's fine." He looked at the screen, scanning over it. It was pretty basic, with the title above, and then a bunch of rows and columns. Each column had a Tier number listed next to it, while the rows to the right of each tier were currently empty. At the bottom of the screen was a large question mark, with the words Generate Random Mob.

"Not the most helpful screen, eh?" He literally was getting zero information from the screen before him.

"Well, if you could figure everything out from the screens, there wouldn't be any point for me here, would there? Rue hovered over to his floating orb, resting her hands on top of him as she leaned towards the screen. James suddenly found himself extremely uncomfortable and distracted.

"Uh, right." He tried to turn his gaze back to the screen. Having omnidirectional vision was going to be the death of him. "So, what am I looking at?"

"So glad you asked." Rue used her arms to vault over him, somersaulting over his orb to 'land' gracefully next to the screen, motioning towards it like a gameshow host. "As I am sure you have figured out, this is where you generate mobs." She motioned towards the blank boxes in the Tier 1 Row. "Normally, these boxes would be filled with all of the mobs of your chosen type you could summon at Tier 1." She motioned down. "And, you would be able to see their evolutions, progressions, as well as new mobs that would be available to you as you progressed in your tiers."

"Let me guess. Because I chose Random, none of these boxes in the later tiers will populate for me." He already knew her answer.

"Correct."

"And, just going out on a limb-"

"-tentacle" Rue said under her breath, before she started giggling to herself. Who had created this AI.

James narrowed his single eye towards the pixie, though he found himself trying to both laugh and gather his thoughts at her comment. If it wasn't for the constant countdown, he would be more than willing to crack these jokes with her. But seriously, they had things to get done. "I'm guessing I need to hit Generate Random Mob, before my Tier 1 will populate with all my mob choices?"

Rue stopped her giggling and offered him a large smile. It almost seemed like she was proud of him. "You would be correct."

"Well, would you like the honors, Rue?" He nodded towards the button. Rue's eyes flashed with joy, and the pixie's hand nearly blurred with how fast she pressed the option.

"Please no water mobs." James whispered as he turned from the screen to room he had created. For a second, nothing seemed to happen, and James figured the game was trying to not only generate a mob type, but also a tier 1 mob from that type, for his room. After a few silent moments, a single form magically appeared in the room.

"What the hell?" James glanced from Rue to his mob.

"Well, it isn't a water mob." Rue offered up, her face filled with amusement. "I warned you against Random."

"Maybe you should have tried harder." James said through clenched teeth, watching the mob move about.

"I mean, it's not the worst thing that could have been summoned." Rue was laughing as she spoke.

"Really Rue? What could be worse-" James motioned with his orb to the mob, "-than a chicken?" Rue fell to her knees laughing as James said it out loud. Sure enough, the mob that had been summoned, was a chicken. It wasn't even a giant chicken, it was just a normal, unassuming chicken.

James turned from his less than helpful pixie, to the mob, and let out a sigh. He needed to figure out just what he was stuck with. He glanced back at the Mob Generator, curious what exactly he had been stuck with. What mob type even generated a chicken? Underneath Tier 1, in bold, was the mob type.

Demonic Farm

"Demonic Farm?" He turned questioningly towards Rue, but she was still gasping for air, trying to fight the onset of another fit of laughter. James had a sinking feeling that the developers put in a lot of joke mob types, in order to try and encourage V Coin use earlier on. Why had he chosen Random?

"So see, it could have been worse." Rue was standing slowly, her eyes filled with tears from laughter. "At least you got a Dicken."

"A what?"

Rue broke out laughing again, and motioned towards the Mob Generator screen. "A demonic chicken is called a dicken." Sure enough, under the image of the normal looking chicken, was the name Dicken.

"I hate you." James groaned as his eyes scanned the other mob options. Other than the dicken, four other mobs had populated in the row for Tier 1. "Let's see, we have a Swiner that seems like a pig. A-" James let out a sigh before he continued. "Mad Cow. A sacrificial lamb, seriously? And a, ugh I hate this game. A scapegoat." How was the last one even demonic?

His pixie was fighting to regain her composure, as she glanced from the Mob Generator to James. He could tell she was trying her best not to crack any jokes, and he appreciated that. He was pretty sure he was nearing his limit.

"So, Rue." He sighed as he pulled up his Dungeon Creator screen next to his Mob Generator screen. "Is there anything else I should know, before I try to craft a floor for our Demonic Farm mobs?"

"Well, you should know you are limited on how many mobs you can create in your dungeon." James took a deep breath, and let out a heavy sigh. Of course he was. Every book he read mentioned a limit. Why wouldn't the developers put one on him as well? He scanned the Mob Generator Screen, and sure enough, he caught a few details that he had missed in his initial disgust over his mob types.

First, underneath Demonic Farm the number 99 was glowing. Next, for Dicken, there was a 1 x 1 showing. His suspicion on what those numbers meant were confirmed when he looked at Swiner. It had 0 x 3 showing. Logically, that meant the first number was the amount he currently had, and the next number was their cost. By that principle, he guessed at Tier 1 he started with 100 points for his mobs.

"So, 100 points for mobs at Tier 1, and each mob costs a different amount, likely based on strength?" James was going for the abridged version here. He had 21 hours left, and now he needed to try and figure out how to create a floor for freaking farm animals. "You know my next questions Rue." The words came out filled with annoyance, and perhaps a little more venom than he meant.

For a split second, James thought he saw a flash of anger across his pixies face, before it was suddenly hidden in a cold mask. Had he angered his AI? "Your mob points increase as you climb in ranks in your tier, by 10 per rank. When you hit tier 2, your tier 1 mob points will hit a max of 200, while your next tier will unlock a new amount of mob points, for your second floor."

"So, I can't put Tier 2 mobs on my first floor?"

"Correct." Well, that was upsetting. He was hoping he could at least augment his first floor when he hit tier 2. "Each floor is limited to mobs of the appropriate tier. As such, each floor also has its own pool of mob points to summon mobs with."

"So-"

"Shouldn't you start building your first floor?" Rue's voice was pleasant, but her eyes were hard. Yup, he had made her made.

"You're right my wonderful pixie." Flattery seemed to work well in the books. He figured it was worth a try. The moment he said those words, Rue's features softened and her smile returned. Guess the developers were playing the game like a dungeon core novel.

"Want to help me design this first floor?" He turned his attention away from the dicken in his first room, and back to the Dungeon Creator Screen, scrolling through different options as he did. James had no idea how you could create a space in a cave that would work with demonic farm animals.

"Really?" Rue's voice was filled with excitement as she flew over to his floating orb. She leaned over him once again, and started looking intently at the options as he flipped past them. Maybe James didn't have an idea on how he was going to build his floor. Maybe he didn't know how he was going to split up his mobs and create a dungeon adventurers could enjoy. But, the one thing he did know, was that right now, with Rue leaning over his orb, none of those other things bothered him.