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

it wasn’t a set Skill or Skills that you received when you obtained an actual Class. Jeska opened up her Class Skills to take a look.

Class Skills

Name

Cooldown (secs)

Base Class

Tier

Upgrade

Dazzle (New)

20

Mage

1

1/5

Ice Shard (New)

15

Mage

1

1/5

Awesome!  But what do they do--?  She didn’t have to wonder long, because as soon as she looked at each Skill on the list, she intuitively knew what they did – and how to perform each of her new Skills.  She had wondered how her groupmates had known how to use their Skills so quickly, as well as their limitations, but now it made more sense.

Ice Shard was what it sounded like: Using some sort of inner energy, she could form and propel a small shard of ice about 4 inches long and an inch wide at great speed towards a target.  The keyword there was “target”, which made using it in the 3rd room nearly impossible.  It would certainly be useful elsewhere, though, because it was a ranged attack that she could activate every 15 seconds.

To help with seeing in the 3rd room, her other Skill – Dazzle – might work, but she’d have to see it in action before she could guarantee that.  What it basically did was create an extremely bright flash of light within 20 feet of her position; it would potentially “dazzle” the eyes of those who were near it, blinding them for a short time, though that could also include her and her groupmates.  The best part of it, however, was that it didn’t require a target; she could use it in any space she designated in her mind.

“Things are going to change now, guys,” Jeska finally said when she saw the others looking expectantly at her.  “I think this is actually going to be fun.”

Chapter 27

Clay was finally enjoying himself, watching the way the Heroes were surviving longer and longer in his dungeon.  Yes, he was receiving a smaller influx of Crystal Chips every day –  instead of a flood, it was more of a steady contribution to his growing accumulation of resources; regardless, he would rather them survive longer instead of being slaughtered over and over and over.  It added some variety, at least.

Near the beginning of the 4th day of the constant visitations by the Heroes, an event happened that Dwight mentioned as a turning point that he needed to be aware of.

“I had been wondering why they didn’t all have their Classes yet,” the baby dragonling mused.  It was just after Jeska’s group left the dungeon a short time before they were scheduled to leave.  It had been mentioned by more than one group of Heroes that they only had 4 hours in which to enter Clay’s dungeon, and a pattern had emerged by that time that was fairly obvious to the Dungeon Core.  So, when they left early, that also had caught his attention.  “I would use this time to make some changes, since you really haven’t had an opportunity.”

Why?  What did all of that mean?

“It means that if they didn’t know that they could trade Tier 1 Class Orbs and certain other items before, they do now.  When they come back, they will be stronger than ever.”

He intuitively knew exactly what she was talking about.  Over the last few days, he had seen all of the groups become better, either through simple experience with fighting against monsters, through stronger weapons and armor, or when they finally acquired a Class.  The jump in their effectiveness would at least double from their Classless state before, and that made a huge difference.  If all of them had Classes, he could finally see them tearing through his 1-Star monsters with ease.

“That’s exactly how it should be; this was a unique situation because they all started without a Class.  Having built themselves up from nothing, however, will probably make them that much more effective.”

He had certainly seen as much.  No one had managed to get through his 3rd room to his Boss Room yet, but they had been close.  Clay had made the room difficult on purpose, because he wanted to challenge them…but he had been limited in how many Stars he could use in the room.  After using 9 in the room before, he was left with only 6 to make use of, in fact.

Therefore, he had basically just moved his former 2nd room to his new 3rd, which he had created after he achieved Core Stage 2.  It had the same spiderwebs and hanging cloth to make it spookier, but he had also added some obstacles.  The slippery goop was actually spoiled jam, though not made from any particular fruit; he had slipped on some when he was younger and had fallen down some stairs, so he knew exactly how annoying it could be.  All he had to do was imagine how much of it he wanted and where he wanted it, and it appeared.

The holes in the floor weren’t a trap or anything – they were more of an environmental hazard; he found that he could shift these small gaps in the flooring (and the spoiled jam) around when the Heroes were outside, though only a slight bit.  Since he wasn’t adding or taking anything away, it didn’t cost any Chips, but there was only so much he could do without more time.

For the monsters in the room, he currently only had a total of 5 – but they were particularly effective together.

1 Cave Spider★

1 Bog Boar★

2 Shade Bats★

1 Gloom Kobold★★

It didn’t seem like a lot compared to the 9 monsters in the 2nd room, but this group had 2 advantages.  One, there was a 2-Star monster, the Gloom Kobold, that he exchanged for the Explosive Shambler in his Boss Room; as had been seen before, a 2-Star monster was