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

these World Threats started to become more and more common, Heroes and dungeons also came into being.”

He wanted to stop her there, because something seemed a little fishy about her lack of knowledge.  Either that, or she was deliberately keeping things from him; regardless, he took one look at her little lizard-like face and rethought his idea of interruption.  She appeared ready to chomp on the red gem floating in the middle of the room; the red gem that he supposed was his new form, if he was understanding everything correctly.  He doubted it would hurt him, since Dwight was technically insubstantial – but he didn’t want to take the chance.

“Becoming a Hero was considered to be a sacred calling, a choice to become more than they were before so as to help their people.  To achieve the sort of strength that would allow them to combat a World Threat – without tens or hundreds of thousands of Humans dying, which was how they had been forced to fight the massive monsters without Heroes to help – Dungeon Cores built dungeons to help train the Heroes, making them stronger, faster, deadlier, and desensitizing them to pain and death.”

He couldn’t hold it in any longer.  Yes, but who was it that created—

“Again, I don’t have that information.  All you need to know is that they exist, and now it is your duty to help.  I know that you were not a Hero before this, but surely you can see why it is important to do your job?”

So…that…I…can train Heroes?  Dwight nodded in response.

That seemed easy enough, he supposed.  It wasn’t like he could go back to his family at that point since his soul had been essentially torn to shreds. And he figured arguing and complaining to Dwight for eternity – or however long he actually lived – would probably get boring.  Okay, then – where do I start?

“Excellent!  Now, the first thing I need you to do is answer the question I asked you before.”

Clay wracked his mind, trying to figure out what question he was supposed to answer.  Which one?  There were…uh…so many!

“A simple question, my new Dungeon Core.  What is your name?”

Oh.  It’s Clay. 

“Thank you, Clay.  I need that information so as to give you access to your Dungeon Core commands; otherwise, you’ll be locked out from doing anything.”

That seems strange.  Shouldn’t I already have access to them?

“Well, occasionally, a soul does not survive entirely…intact…when they go through the process of becoming a Dungeon Core and are unable to think coherently.  Being able to state their full Hero name when prompted is the only way to unlock—uh, oh.”

CHOSEN HERO NAME INCORRECT

Starting self-destruct sequence now.

Time remaining for correct input: 30 seconds

Whoa!  Does that mean what I think it means?

“Yes.  In 28 seconds your Dungeon Core will be destroyed.  ‘Clay’ was apparently not the correct name.  What is your full name?”

Clayburnside Shuntwise.

INCORRECT INPUT

“No, what is your Hero name?”

I don’t have—  But he did, though he had never actually said it out loud before.  All children dreamed of being lucky enough to become chosen to be a Hero one day; the choice was entirely random, it was believed, based on probabilities that were unknown to everyone in the world.

Suddenly, one day, a special Tier 0 Class Orb would appear by your bedside and you would know from that moment on that you were destined to become something greater than you were before.  No one knew how it happened, nor who or what put these Orbs there, but there was no denying who they were for; people had rejected the offer to become a Hero in the past, but the Tier 0 Class Orbs were keyed to a specific person and couldn’t be traded away.  Everyone knew this, which was why Clay knew it, but there was very little else he knew about Heroes and exactly what they did.

But that didn’t mean that he and every other “normal” person out there didn’t dream about what they could be some day.  And those dreams, inevitably, led to potential names for themselves when they became a Hero.

Time remaining for correct input: 7 seconds

“You better hurry; you’re running—”

The Denominator.

There was a brief pause as Clay could almost feel Dwight being confused by the name.  He waited for the end, for his whatever it is self-destruct and kill him…but it didn’t happen.

Access Granted

Phew!  That was close—

“The Denominator?  Really?”

The question took him by surprise, though it probably shouldn’t have.  His “Hero” name had changed over the years from Turbo Boy and Wonder Kid when he was a lot younger, to Deathstrike and Shadow Killer when he was a bit older; when he had begun really learning his numbers and started helping with the bookkeeping for the store, he realized that he enjoyed math and numbers so much that his Hero name changed as well.

What’s wrong with that?  I thought it sounded dangerous; “The Denominator will divide monsters into so many pieces, they won’t know what hit ‘em!”  On second thought, when he actually said that to another person for the first time, it sounded quite silly.

“Fine, fine.  Whatever works for you,” Dwight said in what sounded like a sincere voice, moving on as if it wasn’t important.  “Now we can get to work.”

Chapter 4

“First things first, we need to verify that everything has been set up properly,” Dwight began.  “Open up your Dungeon Core information by thinking, ‘Transcribed Status’.  Should be pretty straightforward from there.”

Sounds easy enough.  Clay did what the little dragonling said and—

Dungeon Assessment and Transcribed Status

Core Name:

Clayburnside “The Denominator” Shuntwise

Core Stage:

1

Core Structure Health:

20/20

Crystal Chips:

50 (500 to next Core Stage)

Star Limit for Placement:

15

Available Monsters:

0/50

Available Traps:

0 (No Limit)

Available Dungeon Spells: