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

“What?  How?”

“You’re more…beautiful now, I suppose.  It might have something to do with this ‘Charm’ thing you were mentioning before.”

“I’m more beautiful?  How is that even possible?” Rosara asked, genuinely confused – which made Jeska laugh all the harder.

“I don’t know, but it happened,” Arcen replied, doing his best to take control of the situation.  Jeska appreciated it, because any moment she was prepared to get hit over the head with a Training Weapon….

The thought of the wooden weapon made her realize she didn’t see Rosara holding one anymore.  That sobered her up a little, so that she was reduced to just sporadic giggles by the time she asked, “What happened to your weapon?”

“What—oh.  I’m not sure.  I don’t seem to have a weapon now.”

“Well, what do you have?”  This could be a problem; if they all got new Classes without any weapons, then they would quickly become useless.

“Nothing!  All I have is this outfit I’m wearing which is called ‘Basic Support Package Tier 1’ which seems to be a set,” Rosara complained.  Jeska could see her gesturing to the empty air in front of her, as if she was pointing out how she didn’t have anything in her different charts.  “My Class Orbs say I have 1 Support Orb ‘absorbed’ – whatever that means – and my Class Skills—oh.”

“Oh, what?” her brother asked.

Rosara was silent for a few moments as her eyes seemed to flicker all over something that only she could see…before she started to grin with a mischievous glimmer in her eyes.  She shook her head abruptly when she glanced away, only to see everyone staring at her.  “What?  Oh, sorry; it seems as if I have 2 new Class Skills.”

“Really?  What are they?” Arcen asked.

“Oh, well, a lady doesn’t reveal all of her secrets, you know.  Suffice it to say that they will likely come in handy in the next room.”

Oh, that little—

“No, tell us now, or we’re not going any further,” her brother demanded.  Jeska was proud of him; despite Rosara’s sudden enhancement in her looks…and voice…and smell, now that she thought of it…he wasn’t swayed in his normal treatment of her.

Their new Support Class folded her arms across her body with a pout on her lips, likely intending to look angry, but she only appeared a bit constipated for some reason – which nearly made Jeska start giggling again.  When she didn’t seem to get the reaction she was expecting, Rosara sighed and gave in.  “Fine.  It appears as though I have a skill that will enhance the attack power of two of my group members.  And another one that will let me temporarily stun monsters.”

That was…impressive.  It seemed as though a Support Class was just that; they supported the group by enhancing group members and by helping to dictate the cadence of a fight.  We could’ve really used that with this last fight; if she had been able to stun that Stone-tipped Fern, we could’ve easily finished off the Rats first and then moved on to the plant monsters.

But there was still one thing they had to figure out…

“Are we seriously going on?  Isn’t this enough for one day?”

Arcen, as predicted, was all for moving onto the next room, despite nearly dying.  What surprised her was that both Rosara and Kelty seemed like they wanted to, as well.

Pascale…was still staring at Rosara as if he couldn’t believe what he was looking at.  Until Kelty smacked him on the back of the head again, at least.  “If you can’t handle it, avert your eyes, Pasc,” she said, which caused him to blush and look away.  When he seemed to be back to normal – though still clearly avoiding looking at their new Support – Pascale expressed his desire to keep going.

“I don’t see why not; we can always run away if we need to; there’s no shame in escaping to try again another day,” he reasoned.

Since Jeska was outvoted, she decided not to rock the boat with the voice of reason.  And so, despite some misgivings on her part, they headed toward the hallway leading to the next room.

Chapter 18

Clay wasn’t surprised when the Heroes decided to push on, as they had succeeded in the first room despite not knowing what they were doing.  It was a familiar feeling for him, so it felt nice seeing that he wasn’t the only one struggling.  While they were making their way down the hallway, he looked back and evaluated how well his monsters did in the first room, which had honestly been a shock.

As he had expected, the three Rats had attacked and had been moderately successful, though he was sure it was due to the Heroes’ inexperience and confusion more than anything. What he had not expected was for his Stone-tipped Fern to be able to toss the stone shards on the ends of its fronds like knives.  Nor was he prepared for the healing effect of his Shining Fern, which was a bit of an advantage he wasn’t even aware he could have, let alone make use of.  It seems as though these plant monsters are much more useful than I had first thought.

Thinking of the healing capabilities, he asked Dwight about the item that seemed to be in all of the Drop Chests.  What’s with all of the Health Bands?  Will they drop in every Chest?  Are they based on probabilities, too?  And are there usually 2 items in every Chest like they were here?

“Of course not,” she replied stiffly, annoyance creeping into her tone again.  “All Drop Chests only contain a single item, except for the ones in the very first room.  The Health Band is a 100% guaranteed drop rate there, which is why it’s best to put the weakest monsters you have inside that room.  We’re