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

Dwight shook her head.  “No.  What I understand is that whatever was making all of those Cats show up in your Spawn Eggs was doing it deliberately.”

Deliberately?  Why?  It didn’t make any sense, unless it wanted to torture Clay – in which case it was doing a great job of that.

“Think about it for a moment, Clay, and stop letting your prejudice and hatred of any cats cloud your mind.”

It was hard for Clay to do that, however, because all he could think of was how he had died because of his sister’s stupid cat, Spark.  And from then on, it almost seemed like the Spawn Eggs were deliberately mocking him by providing Cats as his most powerful monsters –the thought of which finally gave him pause enough to consider it. What if I wasn’t meant as a mockery…but as a warning?

“Precisely what I was thinking,” Dwight immediately corroborated his musings.  “All of those Cats coming from the Eggs were meant to prepare your Heroes for the fight that they were going to face.  How this mysterious entity was able to manipulate the probabilities like it did, as well as knowing exactly what this Threat would be, is somewhat of a mystery, though.”

Clay had a horrible realization; by sacrificing all of the Cats he received to the Altar, he effectively removed any chance of them practicing against one of their kind.  As much as he had wanted to prepare them for the future, he had handicapped them by taking away the one thing that could’ve helped them right now.  Not that he expected them to do much against an 8-Star monster—

Wait.  This Threat isn’t an 11-Star like the one I saw before I died – it’s only 8 Stars.

“What?  That’s impossible.” The baby dragonling seemed flabbergasted.  “…Unless that’s what the Regional Threat means?  That’s the only explanation I can think of.”

Clay didn’t care what the explanation was, only that he thought that they actually had a chance of winning.  Against an 11-Star gargantuan Cat half the size of the island, trying to kill it even with his monsters helping was probably impossible; with it only being 8-Stars, there was a much better chance of succeeding.

But his measly little 1, 2, and 3-Star monsters wouldn’t be much help against a powerful Cat like what they were facing.  Even his 4 and 5-Star monsters – of which he had a total of 3 – probably wouldn’t be very effective; what he needed were some much more powerful monsters, such as the 6 and 7-Star Cats he had sacrificed.  I should’ve listened to you, Dwight, and kept those in reserve just in case. 

“Well, it’s too late now; not only that, but you’re running out of time.  It’s more than likely that this Threat is already approaching populated areas, which means that the Heroes are going to try to stop it; you need to send whatever you can soon, or else all those Heroes will die.”

She was right.  Clay could practically feel the Threat prowling around above his dungeon…somewhere…and he needed to think fast.  Potentially, he could summon hundreds more of the Common Spawn Eggs via the Bundle Pack #1 and hope that some were powerful – but that would both take a while and wasn’t a guarantee.  Plus, in order to summon that many, he would have to either sacrifice or evolve some of the monsters already available to him, because he was nearing his limit.  From experience, he knew that all of that took some time to complete, so that didn’t seem like the best option.

Looking at Bundle Pack #2, he could spend 9,000 Crystal Chips to buy 10 Mystical Spawn Eggs…but from the probability chart Dwight had shared, that there was only about a 33% chance that he would receive something that was 6-Star or higher. That probability dropped down to 11% for something 7-Star or higher – which was really what he needed.  When he added in the fact that there was a 40% chance that it could be a trap for use in his dungeon (which wouldn’t do any good at the moment), it was a hard decision – even when there was a guaranteed 6-Star as a result of buying Bundle Pack #2.

Which left the Epic Spawn Egg, which he previously had barely even considered because what he needed before was quantity, not quality.  Now, unfortunately, he needed something powerful; and he couldn’t afford to wait for a lucky spawn from either the Common or Mystical Spawn Eggs.  The Epic Spawn Egg had nearly even odds that the result would be 7-Star or higher – but again, it could end up being some sort of trap that would be useless.  It was a gamble, but it was one that he thought he needed to attempt – or else all was lost.

In the end, it was the 1 in 5 chance that his result would be 8-Star or higher that decided him; the Epic Spawn Eggs were his best chance of acquiring something that could be effective against the Threat.  All of those contemplations and calculations Clay did in his mind within seconds, so it didn’t take long for him to implement his plan – and Dwight agreed with him.

“Go big or die trying.”

I’m not sure that inspires a whole lot of confidence, but I appreciate the encouragement, nonetheless.

Without any more than a moment’s hesitation, Clay bought an Epic Spawn Egg from the Summoning Portal.  The usual light show and production occurred, which made him happy to see, and when it was finally done, there was a familiar-colored green Egg sitting in front of him.  Yes!  A 7-Star, at least.  He mentally tapped on it and watched it open up, figuratively holding his breath in anticipation.

Elemental Impedance Puzzle Floor ★★★★★★★

Type: Magical

Material: Magistone

Location: Room Floor

Damage: Variable

NO!!!!  Waste of an