Dungeon Core Online

Chapter 77

"Did the boss just talk?" Was everyone's immediate question, as the Terminus began moving slowly towards the exit form his lair. The honey badger, to the little creature's credit, continued to hold its ground, growling at the monstrous boss.

"I think the upgrade may have downplayed just how smart the boss would become." James whispered, watching, waiting, to see how the fight would go. Obviously talking bosses was not a new thing in MMOs. Many final bosses in raids even had monologues which actually helped further the storyline. Heck, even Old Man Jenkins seemed to form slight words and phrases when people were fighting him.

However, the last thing James, and likely anyone else, expected, was for the Terminus, a monstrous mass of steel, leather, gears, and death, to start talking. What's more, the fact he spoke like a villain from a Sherlock Holmes film was just a bit too much.

Rue flashed James a smirk. "You don't say." The pixie waived her hand, making her popcorn disappear, only to be replaced with a box of sour gummy worms. She took one out and chewed on it blissfully, making a wave of hunger wash through James. Damned Pixie.

"The moment you activated that skill on the Terminus, it unlocked a specially generated AI for the boss monster. While all of your mobs generally have basic programming coded into them with simple AI, boss monsters have the opportunity to evolve even more. Old Man Jenkins has been slowly evolving, and with the latest upgrades in your research levels, should have reached a level of sentience which will open up new tiers of activities on the first floor."

She grabbed another gummy worm, savoring the moment of explanation as James kept darting his attention from her to the Terminus. The T-Rex was almost to the end of the tunnel, while the entire raid party was glancing around nervously. They had heard the voice from within and were now feeling a little less confident. Especially because the Terminus was taking his sweet time leaving his lair, whereas he normally came charging out.

"As for the Terminus, by force upgrading him, you fully unlocked his AI, and he is now at his peak intellectual capability." Big words for the pixie. For a second James was wondering if he had upgraded her intellectual capability. "So now, you literally have a boss that is a proper sir." She shoved a few more gummy worms in her mouth as she finished. Nope, it was definitely still his normal Rue.

"Alright, well, what exactly does that mean for the fight…" James trailed off as he heard multiple thunks erupt from within the lair. The Terminus was a few feet away from the honey badger, and had paused, choosing instead to raise his little arms, and launch a trio of his grenades from one arm.

The sudden grenades flying from within the layer definitely caught the adventurer's by surprise, and James couldn't help but chuckle as the tanks, and melee members let out slight curses and back-peddled away from the projectiles. Z had likely informed Skar's group of the AOE range on those specific weapons, and of the damage they could inflict even at maximum range.

At the same time though, James watched the red eyes of the Terminus flash, and it was almost as if there was a deep intelligence in the crimson light. A deep, evil, cunning mind. Without warning, the Terminus shot its head forward, clamping down completely on the poor honey badger before the growling mammal even had time to react. As if on que, the Terminus's inner core seemed to roar to life, and James could tell its Unique Trait, Terminal Fire, had been activated along with Big Head.

Big head was going to keep the honey badger out of the fight for 20 seconds and take away a quarter of its health bar during the entire time. At the same time, by activating Terminal Fire, an additional .5% of the honey badger's current HP was going to be chunked every second. It was a brutal combination, which was going to result in even faster HP drain of the poor, proud creature. It also went to show the Terminus was definitely on a whole new playing field, and that maybe, just maybe, James had made this a little too difficult.

But, then again, was he really to blame? He was just like the players in the aspect of he was still learning, and how could he have predicted the outcome of these new upgrades? This was just one of those moments in a game where the newest skills and equipment just happened to work together a little better than planned. James just hoped it wouldn't keep the Knight's away for too long, if, no when, they party wiped. Because as James watched the Terminus sit there lazily devouring the honey badger, he was certain the Terminus was going to win.

"This is going to be a massacre." James whispered as he, and chat, waited. There was actually a timer someone had placed into the Core Chat for his livestream, counting down both the CD on the Terminus's right arm grenade launcher, as well as how long the honey badger was trapped in Big Head for. The first timer was labeled More Cowbell: 19s, and the second was Om Nom Nomasaur: 8s. On top of those…witty chat titles, there were now active bets going on in the chatroom, with the Dungeon Cores actually setting up V coin bets with each other. While dungeon core players couldn't interact with each other's instances, nothing said they couldn't personally send each other V-coins through their accounts. Currently, it seemed most of the bets were for who would die first in the fight, if they would defeat the Terminus, and how long before the party wiped. Skimming the string of bets, James could tell they were all on the same page, the raid was doomed.

"It could always be worse." Rue, the ever-helpful pixie, grinned as she ate another of her sour treats. James was certain she was purposefully eating them slowly when she spoke to him, knowing he was hungry. He could feel that hangry sensation rise within him, before he pushed it down a split second later.

"Yeah, and how could it be worse?" His irritation came out in his voice, yet all that seemed to do was encourage the pixie, whose smirk grew even wider.

Rue raised two fingers, preparing to count them down. "Well, first, you could have upgraded the Terminus with the Godzilla??!! trait, which would have allowed him to really do some massive damage to the tanks." She lowered a finger. That was a good point, another long-range attack, which the intelligent boss could do from within his lair, seemed even more dangerous now.

"And the second way?"

"The boss could be purposefully stalling if he wanted, to allow for the 10-minute cool-down on the mini boss to finish."

James's entire body went cold as the pixie's smirk grew to fully encompass her face. B.L.U. could respawn? As if reading his mind, the pixie flicked her wrist, pulling up a new timer. A timer only he and she could see.

Mini Boss *B.L.U.* - 1 of 2 remaining (1spawn per 5 players)

Respawn- 3m 28s

Of course, that made sense. Just like the mobs could respawn, James didn't see why the mini boss couldn't respawn. After all, unlike the boss mob, players didn't get a time limit to advance to a new floor or leave the dungeon when they killed the mini boss, which meant it could be killed multiple times by the same party. And, while mobs could respawn once per player in an instance, the once per 5 players in an instance made sense as well. As seemed to be the norm, a 5-player dungeon party was ideal, so the developers figured the majority of players would be in 5-man parties for the floor. It wouldn't be right then, to just have the mini-boss spawn once, eliminating the opportunities of later parties in the same instance to defeat the mini-boss. What concerned James, was if what Rue mentioned was true, his boss might be aware of that timeline as well. And if the Ultimate Cognivore was released again, it was over for the raid party. And probably for James's stream. No one wanted to sit here and watch a boss turtle for 3 1/2 minutes just to one shot the party.

James really needed the raid to do something, and fast. If they had any hope of winning, and if James had any hope of keeping his streams popular, they needed to act.

As if Z could sense his wishes, the elven ranger raised his bow, one of his second-floor arrows nocked. "Alright boys. The moment he releases Badgy, you all know what to do." He drew back his arrow, and the rest of the ranged DPS all prepared their own attacks. Just as Om Nom Nomasaur hit 0, and the Terminus's mouth opened wide to release the trapped, and pissed off honey badger, the entire fight changed.