Dungeon Core Online 44 Chapter 44

"Halfway there." Following Skar's party wipe, James had pulled up his character sheet, glancing at his data. He had been curious to see just how much experience he had, and how close he was getting to his next rank.

Glyax Tier 2 Rank 1 Dungeon

Mob Type: Random

109,861 xp

10,139 xp to next rank

190,139 xp to next Tier

Resources: 119 of 2500

Currency: 0 copper 0 silver 5 gold 0 platinum

Dungeon Tokens: 2

Other than the experience he had gained from achievements, James realized his experience gain had started to slow. Adventurers were spreading the words of the traps, and people had begun to get into the flow of things, at least on the first floor. James was certain his experience gain would continue to slow, until more players actually managed to make it to his second floor. If he had to guess, he might not even be able to hit Rank 2 before the first day with adventurers in immersion completed. Ah well, he figured he couldn't expect to continue growing as fast as he had for his first floor. After all, in most MMOs, progression began to slow as higher levels were achieved, and James was sure DCO wouldn't be any different.

"Good job Glyax." The way Rue responded caused James to glance her way, and he realized she wasn't really paying attention to him anymore. Instead, she was staring at a screen of her own, though James couldn't tell what she was looking at. As he floated silently towards her, she waved her hand, and the screen disappeared.

"What was that?"

"You'll find out eventually." The pixie shot him a grin, and motioned behind him. "Besides, shouldn't you be paying more attention to your alerts?" Sure enough, one of his alerts was going off, and as James enlarged the instance screen, he couldn't help but smile. Z and his group were back. What's more, the group was making a straight line towards the barn, and if James had to guess, they had not only gotten word of the portal, but were planning to go through it. Since they had just reached level 13, they didn't even have any experience to lose. A perfect time to investigate a new floor.

"Betcha they kill at least three mobs." James figured if he made the bets before Rue did, he had a higher chance of winning. He also knew, if he hadn't made the bet right there, she would have. She loved betting against him, and James was curious what exactly she was trying to h.o.a.rd resources for.

"Hmmm. How many resources?" The pixie was checking over the group, and her question caught James off guard. Usually she accepted bets almost instantly.

"Uh." James glanced at his character sheet and grinned. He was pretty confident Z and his group could defeat three mobs. Especially if the mobs were a single pack of velocity raptors. "100 resources."

Rue looked him over, and James could tell she was thinking hard about something. After a moment, she raised her hand, holding up a single finger. "Fine, but-" She shot James an evil grin. "Velocity raptor packs count as a single mob."

"Oh, you caught on heh?" James chuckled, and nodded his...o...b..to her. "Fine."

"You're not as tricky as you seem Glyax." Rue smiled smugly, and they both turned back to Z and his group. After watching Skar's group get decimated, James was really looking forward to seeing how the Knights would do. He was also curious how much experience they would get for felling one of the mobs. Curious, James pulled up Z's character sheet, to check the archer's level information.

Z

Level 13 Archer

9750 xp

1750 xp to next level

HP: 90+23

AP: 90+23

Currency: 89 copper 30 silver 1 gold 0 platinum

As he focused on the increase in health for the archer, he saw the extras 23 points in the stats were coming from the buff of the Demonic Farmer gear set. The set gave wearers a 5% increase in their stats, plus an additional 5% for each member in their party wearing a full set, up to a 25% increase. Because every single member of the party was wearing 6 pieces of the armor that meant every member was getting a 25% increase to all of their stats.

The saving grace keeping this gear from being too op, was that it was a basic set of low level armor, meaning its regular boost to defense was minimal, and it didn't' offer magical defense. Second, the gear looked goofy, making Z's party look like a bunch of farmers armed with various weapons. No matter how good the buff, James was certain players were going to shed that armor as soon as they could. Grinning, he tabbed over to Z's stats, curious to see just how strong the archer was, so he could get a good gauge of how the group would do against his new mobs.

Atk: 60+10+1+15

M.Atk: 0

Def: 24+20+6

M.Def: 5+1

It seemed Z's basic attack had raised to 60 as he levels, and his level 10 bow was giving him a +10 to his damage. He was also still getting +1 for using d.i.c.ken arrows, and was getting an additional 15 points courtesy of his set bonus. After doing some quick math in his head, James realized the bonus appeared to apply 25% based off of the initial stat, without counting in added bonuses. James figured that was another way the developers had decided to attempt to keep the gear from becoming too game breaking. Still, at level 13, Z had a total attack of 86, and a defense of 50.

With stats like that, Z and his group would be able to take on the basic mobs on his second floor, though they did not have damage output yet to even scratch his Terminus Rex. James was okay with that though, because the boss, at level 25, was 12 levels higher than Z and his team. They still had a lot of grinding to do, and would likely need to upgrade their gear, before they were ready for the boss.

The more he thought about, and ran numbers though, James suddenly felt his nonexistent mouth going dry. He may have overestimated Z and the Knight's chances against his steampunk dinosaurs, especially given James had forgotten to take into account his mob's abilities when he made the bet. He glanced over at Rue, who shot him a knowing grin, as if she could tell what he had just realized.

"Ready for this boys?" Z was standing in front of the portal, and the others all nodded, grinning eagerly. The gamers were ready for their next challenge. So far, only Skar's group had gone through the portal, and James knew they hadn't spread word about the mobs yet. In fact, they were currently still waiting for their countdown timer to end, to let them back into the second floor. Interestingly enough, when they had died, they had been kicked back into the first floor, but were still in their unique instance. Because of this, they were currently farming mobs on the first floor, with it all to themselves.

"Let's do this." Oak stepped past Z, and stepped through the portal, the others quickly on his heels. As they ported through, James watched the numbers on the instance screen change. It went from 25/25 max, to 20/25. At the same time, James saw flas.h.i.+ng appear on the instance that held Skar and his team. Their instance number, which had originally been set at 5/25, increased to 10/25. That meant eventually high level players would likely be in their own instances, leaving lower leveled instances to be populated with newer players. James had to admit, that seemed like a nice touch.

James turned his attention back to the Knight's, watching as they all appeared in his desolate savannah, taking in their location. Oak looked back at his team, a grin on his face, even as they looked around, puzzled.

"Well guys, I don't think we're in Kansas anymore." The others all grinned, and drew their weapons. While Skar's group had been hesitant to move forward, needing some additional discussion before making a decision, Z's group acted almost instantly. Following his statement, Oak turned and began walking down the dirt path, and the others followed. James could almost feel their excitement, and Rue's, as they moved closer to the city. Every step they took closer to the city, James felt a sinking feeling in his chest.

Rue had figured it out, even before he did. In that city, against his roaming dinosaurs, the Knights didn't stand much of a chance. At least, not without a good plan. And, given the fact they didn't really have any experience to lose, James doubted they had a good plan. This was just an adventure for them, they had nothing to lose. James, however, did.