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

her skin and flesh, though from Clay’s perspective it didn’t seem more than a minor wound.  After a brief pause to check herself, she kept running.  Within a few seconds she was on the projectile-flinging monster, beating it with her wooden weapon, breaking the frond that was attempting to launch another volley.

As for the others, they traveled a different route.  A pair of women ventured far to the right, running for the Shining Fern; when they got close enough, they shielded their eyes with raised arms to the defensive-type blinding flash ability of the Fern.  Clay could tell that they were still slightly affected by the bright light, but they were able to see well enough to completely destroy his glowing monster within seconds.

The other 2 Heroes, the sophisticated man and the woman who hadn’t spoken yet, ran to intercept the Rats before they could attack the leader, who was in the process of destroying the Stone-tipped Fern.  Smacking the rodents on their backs a few times with their weapons was enough to get their attention, and then the novices spent a few seconds just running around and trying to avoid getting bitten – to a modicum of success.  They were both bitten at least once, eliciting cries of pain, but they kept up their weak attacks and dodging out of the way before the Rats could retaliate.

After approximately 20 seconds from the time the first woman ran into the room, the Shining Fern was dead, its healing properties shut down; the two Heroes moved to help finish off the Stone-tipped Fern, which didn’t take long with 3 of them now attacking it.  “Plants are down!  Coming to help!” the leader yelled, before rushing to assist the 2 Rat-wranglers who had taken 1 or 2 more bites each.

With 5 of them now attacking the 3 Rats, Clay’s monsters didn’t stand a chance.  Beaten and bloody within seconds of the concerted attack, they fell without having done any more damage.  As the Heroes stood there panting and more than half of them groaning in pain from their wounds, the monsters disappeared and turned into Drop Chests, which elicited cries of surprise from the group – despite likely being told of the process.

“That…is crazy.  How does that even work?”  Clay couldn’t help but wonder the same thing; even though it was his dungeon, he still didn’t know exactly how everything operated the way it did, but he was just happy that it did without needing more intimate knowledge.

 “I have no idea; it doesn’t make sense, but none of this really does.”  The leader strode up to one of the Chests and touched it, showing its contents inside…

Drop Chest

Contents:

1X Health Band Tier 0 [All Classes] (BOA)

1X Steel Sword Tier 2 +2 Power

[Fighter Classes] (BOA)

“Whoa!  What does this mean?” the leader asked as soon as she saw what was in the Chest.  None of the others seemed to know, either…which was echoed by Clay.

Dwight?  What does “BOA” mean?  And I saw that some others from before were “Unbound”…would you care to explain?

“Are you telling me you don’t—no, of course you don’t.  I’m sorry,” the baby dragonling said, before she started to explain.  “Unbound means that a particular item is not ‘bound’ to a person’s Inventory and can be traded with other Heroes or other people through their Inventory system, though there are exceptions.  BOA stands for ‘Bound on Acquisition’, meaning that as soon as they pick it up, they are stuck with it, indefinitely.”

Huh.  I guess that explains why I never heard of any Heroes selling weapons or armor found within dungeons before.

“Very true, and even if they did, they couldn’t be used by non-Heroes.”

There was only a slight discussion between the group inside the first room, where nothing was really decided, but the leader took the Steel Sword and the Health Band in the end.  The others opened up their own Chests, but they were all filled with currently worthless Trash Items – other than Health Bands for them all.

“So, according to Jeska and Arcen, we should be…safe?  With these Health Bands, now, we can die and come back?” one of the women asked.

“Supposedly…but let’s try not to die, okay?”

“Yes, I would prefer that outcome, if given the choice,” the man said gravely.

The next room, in which Clay had made no changes, was a bit more interesting than the first.  Not that he was sad about the fact that they had torn through his Rats and Ferns with minimal injuries, because he wasn’t; in fact, he was glad of that, because it allowed them to easily get their Health Bands, their “safety net”, so to say.  But it certainly wasn’t a challenge, which was the ultimate point of what Clay, as a Dungeon Core operating a dungeon, was supposed to be doing.  As much as the first room provided them with easy Drop Chests and the necessary items inside, it didn’t allow them to learn to survive against seemingly impossible odds.

And a World Threat – even the “Low” Threat Level Giant Ogress that had ultimately killed Clay back in Renton – was the epitome of impossible odds.  Only by working together, having faced extremely tough challenges inside dungeons, would they be able to see past the massive exterior of the monster and determine how to beat it – all without freaking out, which was what Clay had done when he saw his first World Threat.

Tackling the Spiders first, they grouped up in a circle facing outwards, so that they were covering all angles.  It only helped a little as Clay’s Jumping Spiders sprang out from ambush, and twin screams of pain rang out as two of the women were bitten.  The Spiders jumped away immediately, but the group was ready for them, swinging and hitting them with glancing blows that sent them spiraling in a different direction.  The Air-Element