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

with most of this current run through the dungeon, as 12 of the 14 Drop Chests were full of useless junk.  And the two things that they did receive that weren’t junk, they couldn’t use quite yet.

Drop Chest

Contents:

1X Skillbook – Remove Single Debuff Tier 2

[Healer Classes] (Unbound)

Drop Chest

Contents:

1X Iron-banded Shield +1 Toughness Tier 1

[Fighter Classes] (Unbound)

Arcen took the Iron-banded Shield, which would be useful at some point – if he ever got his Class, of course.  Kelty acquired the Skillbook, which was actually encouraging; the fact that she could eventually remove a “Debuff”, with which they all had been inflicted multiple times, was sure to be a life-saver.

But neither of those really helped them right now.

What they did do, however, was encourage them to get better, to keep going and acquire more items so that they didn’t feel like toddlers going up against a full-grown adult.  An accurate description, she thought, because with their “Training” Weapons it felt like they just couldn’t do enough damage to even the weakest monsters.  Sure, they eventually killed them, but it was usually through brutality instead of skill or finesse.  Seeing what Pascale could do with his Skills and his simple bronze knife was evidence that they could be better with the right equipment.  But he was only one Hero, with basic equipment. Although Rosara was their Support with powerful Skills of her own, she didn’t have any weapon other than her fists and her feet.

So they left the dungeon, waited 5 minutes, and did it all again.  They changed up a few of their tactics on their third run – which was nearly a disaster, but luckily Kelty managed to survive when everyone else died.  They collected the items from the Drop Chests…and did it again.

And again.

And again.

By the time they had finished 10 runs, Jeska was exhausted.  She had died in 6 of those fights, and it was wearing on her mind a little.  With a little more than 40 minutes to go in their allotted time, there was a general consensus between everyone that they were done for the day, with regard to the second room.  The wear and tear of experiencing serious injury and death was especially evident in her brother, who had died more than everyone else; he had only survived in 2 of the fights, whereas most of the others like her had only perished about half of the time.

They were improving, though.  In their last battle against the Bats, Serpents, and Boars, only Jeska and Rosara had died; it was through a measure of learning what worked and what didn’t that they were starting to get better.  That, and the fact that after opening over 100 Drop Chests, the squad had finally acquired another Class Orb Tier 1…for Arcen.  They now had a full-fledged Fighter, Scout, and Support Class in their group, and her brother was a beast.  With a few random pieces of equipment, including a shield and a sword to accompany his stiff dark-red outfit and heavy-duty leather boots, he was better able to withstand the Boars’ charges – and able to kill them faster with a weapon other than a blunt object.  But he was still only one Hero and couldn’t be everywhere, which was why 2 of them still died.

They spent the last of their time obliterating the first room over and over again, completing it 4 times by the end.  When they walked out of the dungeon for the last time that day, they found Percy’s group waiting for them.

“You guys don’t look so hot,” he said when he saw them, trying to be diplomatic.

Jeska couldn’t help but laugh.  “Oh, come off it.  We look like we just washed up on shore, don’t we?”

“Well, I didn’t want to say—”

She waved him off.  “No, it’s okay.  That’s what happens when you die so much.”

“What?  Don’t tell me you tried to kill that exploding monster again.”

Jeska just shook her head, not knowing exactly what to say, and Rosara took over.  The Mayor’s daughter had died the least of them – by 1 – and Jeska was finding it hard to talk to people right now.  “Listen up, before you go inside, there’s some things you need to know….”

Chapter 25

I’m not sure I can handle all of this death, Dwight.

The first group with Jeska and the others had just left the dungeon for the day, and it had been difficult to watch them continually coming inside and dying so much.  Over and over, only to do it again.

“This is the way it’s done, Clay.”  The baby dragonling looked apologetic, yet firm.  “Unless you can think of another way that benefits you both, this is the way it has to be.”

I know, but it’s…a lot.  He could tell that the constant death and resurrection had been bothering the Heroes, but they were already marginally used to it. By the end, they appeared a bit worn and ragged, which was why they had only tackled his first room during the last few visits, ending up without too much risk to themselves.

Clay was positive that if he had been a Hero before this, watching them dying over and over wouldn’t have fazed him.  Maybe that’s why it’s only former Heroes that end up as Dungeon Cores; no one else could handle it.  Except, of course, that he had to handle it, or else he wouldn’t be any use to them.  He had attempted to look away while it was happening, but it was always somehow in his periphery. The Dungeon Core could avoid directly watching, but he was somehow hyper-aware of it happening, anyway.

Regardless of his feelings, his second room had been a success.  An “unorthodox approach” – which was what Dwight had called it – but a success, nonetheless.  Not only were the