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

off access to the rest of his dungeon unless the puzzle was solved.  It didn’t actually hurt anyone…unless they tried to open up the door without solving the sliding wood puzzle that made up about half of the door itself.  If they did that, the door would explode into hundreds of wooden fragments, impaling anyone caught within the room with a hail of sharpened projectiles.

And how is this supposed to help train Heroes to fight World Threats? Clay asked Dwight, a bit confused.  He could see the potential education of his Impalement trap, because they would have to learn how to spot and avoid deadly attacks…but the puzzle thing was beyond his understanding.

 “Any of the puzzle traps – yes, there are more – are designed to test Heroes’ critical problem-solving skills,” she explained patiently.  It was certainly a nice change from her annoyance of earlier.  “It’s all about finding an answer to a problem when there doesn’t seem to be a solution.  This can be applied to a World Threat that may seem unbeatable; there is always a weakness or specific strategy that can be exploited, but Heroes have to be able to think quickly to solve the problem or else they could fail.  And if they fail, it wouldn’t just be their own lives that would end, but those Humans that they are duty-bound to protect.”

I never thought of it that way, but I guess that makes sense.  Clay hadn’t seen the Heroes employing any specific strategy against the Giant Ogress that ultimately crushed him, but they must have had one; for all of its size, they had taken it out quite quickly and without any casualties among the Heroes.  Which was also likely the reason why Clay ended up where he was, after all.

Two of the other Spawn Eggs yielded monsters, but they certainly weren’t like his others.  One of them was a 1-Star, but it seemed to be leagues above the Common ones in terms of difficulty and deadliness.

Swamp Troll ★

Attack Type: Melee

Rarity: Rare

Element: Water

The Swamp Troll was, honestly, huge.  From what Clay could tell, the Troll was a hulking humanoid-looking beast that was at least 8 feet tall and 6 feet wide. It was mainly that wide because it had massive arms and legs, and it carried a rotting tree trunk in its beefy hands, which he assumed was to be used as a club.  It—she, actually—was wearing animal hides grotesquely stitched together, some with heads still attached, and had long, stringy hair covering her face.  That face was somewhat deformed, with a jaw that appeared a little too low for symmetry’s sake, and her nose was so large it comprised nearly half of her entire visage.  Added to that, the image he had seen in the glass slab made it seem as though she was constantly dripping dirty water from her clothes and body, as if she had literally just wandered out of the swamp.

“Very formidable, though slow,” the baby dragonling commented after seeing it.  “Even this Swamp Troll, however, will be vulnerable to Air-based abilities because of its Water element, which will cut down on its natural regenerative abilities.”

Wait—this Troll can regenerate from wounds?  That seemed like it would be impossible to kill his monster, if that was true.

“Up to a point, yes.  At only 1 Star, minor wounds will be healed within about a minute of them being inflicted, so any Heroes facing against it will have to be quick to take it out.  Major wounds, such as the loss of a limb or mortal injuries, need at least a day to regenerate, so that wouldn’t really apply to a fight.  Higher Star ratings can change that, though.”

It was amazing what Rarity could do to make monsters more difficult to kill, even within the same Star rating.  As the Swamp Troll was only a Rare, he wondered what an Ultra Rare or Legendary monster would look like.

His last Spawn Egg was the darkest-colored of them all, appearing orange-like in hue, without even a hint of yellow.  When he opened it up with a tap, the lights, glitter, and swirling colors seemed to be even more impressive and grand than the others.  When he saw what it was, he was briefly disappointed by the fact that it was Common; however, when he saw the Star rating, he was instead ecstatic.

Colossal Serpent ★★★★★

Attack Type: Melee

Rarity: Common

Element: Nature

If Clay thought the Swamp Troll was large, it couldn’t compare to the monstrosity that was the Colossal Serpent.  The Nature-element serpent was approximately 80 feet long, was 3 feet in diameter for the majority of its body, and it had jaws wide enough to swallow a person.  Clay doubted that would be necessary, because its fangs were sharp, like swords that could likely impale that person without too much difficulty.

This thing is incredible!  How in the world is this serpent only 5 Stars?  I would think this would be 9 or 10 Stars based on its size alone!

“Size isn’t everything, Clay – even in a massive serpent like this,” Dwight said with a chuckle, apparently pleased with his enthusiasm.  And he was excited, especially since he had received a 5-Star monster from a Common Spawn Egg, which only had a 0.35% chance of happening.  “If you look closer at the Colossal Serpent, you’ll note that it doesn’t have any additional damage mitigation to its scales, doesn’t have any venomous effects to its bite, and it moves slower than you would assume.  Many of those issues would be remedied when it goes through Evolution to the higher Star ratings, as well as adding to its size quite a bit.”

When he re-evaluated his new acquisition, Clay could see what she was talking about…but it did little to reduce his enthusiasm.  It was still an enormous serpent, after all.

Ok, Dwight, I think I’m as ready as can