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

“Oh, ok.  I guess we can think of something else.  How about—oh my!  How about that?”  Rosara seemed very excited as they approached the last of the hallway, but Arcen was blocking her view of whatever was ahead of them.  When he moved to the side and ducked down into a vastly smaller space, her own breath caught in her throat.

There was a red, shining gemstone floating in the middle of the small space, suspended by some unknown force.  It was relatively tiny in comparison to the extravagant glowing ceiling from the previous room, but there was a strange allure that made her think that the gem was even more precious than plain glowing stone.  “It’s…beautiful…” she found herself whispering, which was echoed by the others in similar statements, all in a whisper.

“Please, Arcy, I would love to…no, even I can’t think of possessing such a thing,” Rosara said softly, shaking her head in what appeared to be regret.  “It feels like something too precious to want to remove from the world, though I would love to at least touch it.”  As if by her own volition, the Mayor’s daughter squeezed past Arcen, crouching down and stretching out her hand towards the shining red gemstone.

A part of Jeska oddly urged the other woman on, as if it were the right thing to do; another, saner part of Jeska, couldn’t help but shout, “NO!  You don’t know what that will do!”  She pushed at her brother, who was closer than she was to Rosara, but he was frozen in place like a statue.  “Stop her!”  Neither of them listened to her, so she started to move forward herself…but it was too late.

As soon as Rosara touched the red gem, there was an explosion of force that erupted from inside the core of the gemstone, slamming into her like some sort of shockwave.  She felt herself flying backwards down the hallway they had just traveled through, hitting the hard floor with her butt, and then sliding all the way back into the previous room.  I think I’m okay, I think I’m okay.  Jeska didn’t feel like she had hurt anything, at least, though she thought she might have a bruised backside.

She went to get up to check on her brother…and she supposed Rosara, as well…since they didn’t appear to be near her, but then her body started to go numb.  Every effort to move felt like her muscles had just liquidated inside of her skin, and it was an effort to even keep her eyes open.  Collapsing on the cold stone floor of the illuminated room, the last thing she saw before her mind blacked out was the beautiful glowing stone ceiling.

*          *          *

 No no no no no—what is she doing?  Can she take me from here?  The thought of being removed from his dungeon sent a spike of unfamiliar terror running through his mind.

“No she can’t, so calm down,” Dwight said calmly, which was a bit infuriating to Clay based on the situation – because he just wanted to scream in fright.  “You’re an intrinsic part of this dungeon, so just like the torches, she would have to be able to move the entire cliffside to move you.  Even if she found some way to do that, she would transport everything you’ve built here; you can’t have a dungeon without a Dungeon Core anchored in place.”

Her words didn’t really do anything to lessen his panic, especially since he found that they appeared like literal giants to his vision inside of his tiny Core.  The perspective change probably wasn’t the best for his psyche, since the last time he had seen something so large…well, the Giant Ogress had crushed him.  Simple as that.

As to why he was cowering inside of his Core, he found that he initially felt safer when his immediate vision was coming out of his little gem-like form.  Whether or not that was the case was hard to determine, unfortunately, but it had felt right at the time.  And then the woman with ginormous—

“Again, Clay, you’ll be fine.  She might touch you, but she can’t harm you or take you away.  You’ll see—” the baby dragonling, who apparently only Clay could see, started to tell him right by his side.  And then the giant fingers touched his outer surface…

…and an upwelling of some unrecognizable-but-powerful force blasted out of his Core in a sphere-like shape, slamming into the three people that had invaded his BOO.  Luckily, it didn’t hurt him in the least, or he didn’t think it did, but it certainly hurt the two women and the man that were nearby.  The man was smashed up against the corner of the wall separating his BOO and the hallway, tumbling at least a dozen feet down the torchlit tunnel before coming to a stop and lying there without moving.  The woman in back shot back down the hallways unimpeded, sliding on her rear end all the way down to his “Boss Room”, before collapsing back in apparent exhaustion.

As for the woman that had caused the reaction, she was crushed up against the ceiling of his BOO from the force of the explosion for just shy of 5 seconds, her head hitting so hard against the stone that he wouldn’t be surprised if she had cracked her skull.  She fell back to the floor with a *thud* that seemed overly loud to his senses, and lay there completely unmoving.  Just like the others.

What…was…THAT?!  Did I just kill them all?

Clay looked to Dwight for an answer, but the baby dragonling had frozen in the middle of the air in mid-flap, as unmoving as the people that had been affected by his unexpected explosion of…whatever that was.  When she didn’t answer, nor looked capable of answering, Clay ventured out of his Core and took a closer look at his visitors.  He instantly reeled in shock when