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

monsters and collecting what they dropped, then 5 minutes waiting for the dungeon to let them in again, they could get 6 visits done in an hour.  In 4 hours, that meant 24 times going through the room, which then equaled 120 Drop Chests; with that many, the group was hoping to acquire more Class Orbs so that they could all start using what other gear they had accumulated.

“Not…quite yet,” Arcen said.

“Why am I not surprised; I do not want to get blown up again—”

He cut her off.  “Oh, don’t worry – I don’t, either.  But since this room has changed, I want to check out the next room to see if that has changed, as well; if that Explosive undead thing is still there, then we run, and no harm done.”  The others didn’t seem convinced, so Arcen pleaded with them.  “Oh, c’mon, it won’t take more than a few minutes and then we’ll know to keep avoiding it.”

Jeska wanted to say no, but she figured it couldn’t hurt too much to check it out.  From the stories of the other groups, she knew that they could all run back to the hallway and heal up if it proved to be too dangerous.  “As long as we play it very safe and run at the first sign of that thing, I’m…okay…with at least looking.”

Without the threat of permanent death, the only real consequence of dying would be a temporary halt in their Drop Chest collection, so it didn’t take long for the others to give into her brother’s plea.  Besides, they had started about 15 minutes early, so they had a little extra time.

It turned out that the room had been changed dramatically.  No longer were there spiderwebs and ragged cloths hanging from the ceiling; instead, the room had been widened and redecorated with a utilitarian flair to it.  Instead of the eerie environment from before, where things could be hiding around every corner, this one felt more like a miniature arena of sorts, with slightly elevated platforms rising up from the floor in sloped protrusions.  On the walls of the room were thick stone spikes sticking out, and Jeska knew that if she were knocked into one they would do quite a bit of damage.

What was most interesting, however, was the fact that there were monsters waiting patiently on top of each of the stone platforms.  Instead of lying in wait to ambush them, there were 3 monsters each, for a total of 9 monsters, just staring in their direction as if daring them to enter and face them.

“Okay, I think I’ve seen enough,” Rosara said, turning around to leave.

Arcen grabbed her arm gently to stop her.  “Hold on, I think this could be doable.  Look at them – I don’t see that Explosive whatsit this time.”

Jeska saw that immediately, which was encouraging, but the fact that there were 9 monsters in the room sounded more than a little difficult for them to face.  On the left-hand side of the room, 3 Boars that were just under waist high on her were waiting, ready to attack.  Two of them were called Ember Boars, which had what appeared to be flickering flames running down their fur, while the other was a Glimmer Boar, which reminded her a little of the Shining Fern from the previous room.  It glowed slightly, but the information over its head said it wasn’t magical in its fighting type, so she doubted it would be healing all of the other monsters in the room.

The second platform had a trio of relatively large serpents, all of different kinds.  There was a Pond Serpent that had a blueish sheen to its dark-black scales; a Gliding Serpent had greyish scales and was slightly smaller than the rest, but that didn’t mean it was any less deadly; and lastly, there was a Spitting Serpent, a dark-brown serpent with a greenish tint to its scaly skin.  That one worried her the most, because the information above its head said that it was a Ranged attacker, so whatever it was spitting was probably venomous – at the least.

Lastly, the third platform contained a wooden structure that almost looked like a large “T”. Hanging down from the arms of the “T” were large bats the size of her thigh, though their wingspan was probably much larger. All of them were named Ice Bats, blue in color, with accents of white; they looked so abnormal that they almost appeared as if they had been painted.

There didn’t seem to be any monsters with attacks that were magical in nature, but that didn’t mean much – there were still 9 of them.  With an assault by large boars at waist level, slithery attacks from foot level, and strikes from above – not to mention the ranged attacks by the brown and green Serpent, it didn’t look good—

“I’m in.”

Now that is a surprise.  Kelty, the last person she would’ve thought would have been reckless, shocked everyone else – including Arcen – when she spoke up.  She just shrugged when everyone looked at her, which caused Jeska’s brother to smile.

“See?  We can do this!” he said encouragingly.

Against her better judgement, Jeska couldn’t help but agree; or at least, she thought it would be good to at least try it, even if they all ended up dying.  Her father always told her, “You don’t know what’s possible unless you push yourself to be more, encourage the people near you to be the best they can be, and discover all of the potential out in the world.  You might be surprised at what you are capable of when stretching past your pre-conceived limits.”

“Fine, I’m in, too.”  Jeska couldn’t believe the words that came out of her own mouth, but she didn’t take them back, either.

“This better not hurt, or I’m going to be very mad.” Rosara pouted,