Dungeon of Chance: Even Odds: A Dungeon Core Novel (Serious Probabilities Book 1) Jonathan Brooks (book recommendations txt) 📖

opposite side of the room and lava via the handholds there, and he was ready to come to his teammate’s defense.  Jeska also tried to help out by impaling the Slime with one spell after another, though her Tier 1 Skills were largely ineffective against the 3-Star monster.  That wasn’t to say she didn’t do any damage, but it was barely enough to be noticeable.

The Weak Light Elemental was ready with another barrage, however, and as Pascale knelt on the ground, screaming in blind pain, he was shot in the chest by a beam of piercing light, which only served to increase the volume of his screams.  Before he was killed outright from prolonged exposure to the light, however, Rosara came to his rescue; she danced her Puppet Master Skill and took control of the Elemental, directing it to move out of the way so that its beam pointed somewhere else.

After that, the battle was nearly over; Arcen arrived and relentlessly attacked the Nether Mage Slime, slicing it apart with great swings of his swords, using Skills to do even more damage.  It didn’t last long under the onslaught, even though it tried to defend itself with another cloud of darkness – but the Fighter continued through the darkness and pain.  He ended up needing to drink a Potion to restore some of his health, but he eventually killed the Slime without any other help.

The Light Elemental didn’t last long after that.  Even as Kelty arrived to help Pascale, Jeska bombarded the brightly glowing monster with everything she had, and the spells slammed into its form in rapid succession, finally killing it.

The room was silent for a moment, before everyone started squealing in joy at the same time.  Even Arcen and Pascale, who Clay didn’t think could get their voices up that high, joined in with the squealing.

“Yes!”

“We did it!”

“Woohoo!”

“I told you we could do it!”

The celebrations were only beginning, however, as they all recovered from the fight by opening the Drop Chests.  Whereas the 1 and even 2-Star Drop Chests had been a simple brown wood color without anything fancy to them, the 3-Star Chest from the Nether Mage Slime was a lighter-colored wood in a fairly well-made Chest – complete with golden accents around the trim.  After opening up the rest of the Chests (which were relatively disappointing, with only a single Tier 1 Scout weapon in the whole bunch – the rest being essentially trash), Arcen took the liberty of opening up the 3-Star Drop Chest.

Drop Chest

Contents:

1X Mage Class Orb Tier 3 (BOA)

A Tier 3?  What’s the likelihood of that appearing just as I was thinking about it earlier?  To say that the group was shocked was also an understatement, as they were literally speechless.  Jeska finally walked forward in the silence and reached out to touch the Drop Chest, absorbing the Mage Class Orb Tier 3 into her body.  It was only a third of what she needed to advance to Tier 3, of course, but it made her smile anyway.

See, if they keep up like this, I won’t need to implement the new function you told me about—

Clay cut off what he was saying as a deep…thrum…shot through his Core, making his entire form vibrate.  It was so intense that he thought his Core was going to shatter, but fortunately it stopped before that happened.  Thankfully, it wasn’t necessarily painful – but it was worrying, mainly because it was so strange, and he had no idea what it was.

What was that?

He could see that something had affected the Heroes as well, as they stared off into nothing.  Clay could only assume that if he felt it, and the Heroes felt it, then something big was happening.  His suspicions were confirmed a moment later.

“That, my dear Clayburnside Shuntwise, was an indication that a World Threat is approaching within 10 miles of your dungeon.”

Chapter 32

What?  Nonono – that can’t be!  I haven’t had enough time!

Warning!

A Regional Threat is approaching nearby; your dungeon will be closed to Hero interaction within 5 minutes.

Danger! 

Regional and World threats can destroy your dungeon and Core if allowed enough time.

Currently assessing Threat Level in comparison to local defenses…

My dungeon can be destroyed?  I know that my Dungeon Core is vulnerable at times, but I thought you said that my dungeon itself is basically invulnerable.

“Normally, that is true; a World Threat, however, is so large and powerful that it could destroy this entire cliffside if it chose to.  And dungeons and their Cores are typically targets for these Threats, as they are the source of Hero training; somehow, they know that if they eliminate Dungeon Cores, there will be fewer ways for the Heroes to become stronger.”

But this says that this is a “Regional Threat”, not a “World Threat”.

“What?  Read that notification again; I’m sure you’re mistaken,” she asked, sounding confused.  Clay obligingly read it again, out loud this time, and Dwight shook her lizard-like head.

“I’ve never heard of something like this before; there are a lot of new things that seem to spring up around you, Clay.  I have no answer for what that could be talking about.”

Regardless of what it was, the local area being attacked already wasn’t good; there was no way that any of the Heroes – even grouped up all together – could hope to take down even a Low Threat Level monster like that Giant Ogress that had destroyed half of Renton and killed Clay.

And there was nothing that Clay could do.  Even thinking about the last few weeks, there was very little that he could’ve done that would’ve made a difference.

The baby dragonling agreed.  “Had you known this would happen, there is very little that could’ve been done; the Hero infrastructure here on this island was basically nonexistent, and you basically did