Dungeon of Chance: Even Odds: A Dungeon Core Novel (Serious Probabilities Book 1) by Jonathan Brooks (interesting books to read TXT) 📕

all that you could do to prepare them – though I think it will be futile, in the end.”  Dwight seemed sad, like she had given up already.  “If only you had more time.”

I wish I had more time, too; but it isn’t over yet—

Regional Threat Level assessed!

Current Threat Level for locality: Very High

Never mind.  It was nice knowing you, Dwight.  Clay was disappointed, and a bit despondent, because he really had been trying to do everything he could to prepare these Heroes for the eventual appearance of a Threat.  But less than 3 weeks for these Heroes who hadn’t known what they were doing and had just recently become Tier 2 Classes was a recipe for disaster.

But all of his and their hard work, their repeated deaths and grinding of his 1-Star monsters, might all have been for naught.  Clay had doubts that they would live more than a few minutes against something like the Giant Ogress, but against something even more powerful…it was likely they would die within seconds.  I’m guessing that a Very High Threat Level is bad?

“You would be correct.”  She was quiet for a few moments before she continued.  “It was nice knowing you too, Clay.  I originally thought you might be useless since you were never a Hero, but you’ve proven me wrong.”

It was a bit of a backhanded compliment, but he’d take it.  Clay watched with sorrow as Jeska, Arcen, and the others left his dungeon at a run, knowing that this was likely the last time he might see them alive.  As they exited through the entrance, he knew he’d miss them – all of the Heroes – but the teenage and lecherous part of his mind naturally also miss watching the Support Hero, Rosara, dance; the way she bounced in just the right way—

Attention!

Current Threat Level exceeds local Hero population by more than 10X!  As a result, your Dungeon Seal has been temporarily lifted to aid with defense.

What does that mean?  What is a Dungeon Seal?

Dwight had him read out the notification to her, and she immediately perked up; the despondency wasn’t completely gone, but it was pushed out of the way by something else: Hope.  “Your Dungeon Seal is what keeps your monsters inside of your dungeon,” she said pointedly.  As if he was supposed to know what that was supposed to mean.

How does that help?  If they’re not in my dungeon, then how are the Heroes supposed to kill them?  Wouldn’t that defeat their purpose—oh.  I think I understand.

“Exactly.  You can send your monsters out to help aid the Heroes against this threat,” the baby dragonling confirmed.  “This has happened in the past, though only 2 occurrences of a Dungeon Seal being lifted have been known to have transpired.  There is something that you need to know about this, however.”

And what is that?

“Just like the Heroes can permanently die outside of your dungeon, so too can any monsters you send out.”

That isn’t good.  It really wasn’t, but then again, if he refused to send any monsters out and the Regional Threat ended up killing everyone and destroying his dungeon and Core, then it really wouldn’t matter.  It doesn’t really change anything; I need for this Threat to be eliminated, and I’ll do everything I can to ensure that happens. 

Since he had constructed his rooms of varying difficulty, Clay hadn’t been able to spend any of his Crystal Chips. He had been contemplating closing down his dungeon for a short time so that he could finish up his “nightmare” difficulty room, especially once the groups were able to complete the “average” room without dying (like what had just happened); now that he was looking at his Chip count, he was suddenly glad that he hadn’t used any of them yet.

Core Assessment and Transcribed Status

Core Name:

Clayburnside “The Denominator” Shuntwise

Core Stage:

7

Core Structure Health:

14/20

Crystal Chips:

23845 (6500 to next Core Stage)

Star Limit for Placement:

115

Available Monsters:

134/175

Available Traps:

11 (No Limit)

Available Dungeon Spells:

0 (No Limit)

Summoning Portal

Dungeon Interface

Sacrificial Altar

While there weren’t nearly as many Hero deaths as there had been within the first few days, those who did die were worth a whole lot more.  Most of the Crystal Chips that he had accumulated came from the deaths of Tier 1 Heroes (which gave him 50 Chips each), but at least 20% of his total came from Tier 2 Hero deaths – which provided 100 Chips!  He really didn’t understand at first how Dungeon Cores accumulated so many Chips to be able to afford some of the more expensive Spawn Eggs, but now it made sense.  When the number of Chips doubled with each Tier death, a Tier 9 Hero would provide 12,800 Chips, while a Tier 10 would provide 25,600 – an insane amount to Clay at that point.

Of course, the Chip requirements for increasing a Core Stage only became more expensive, so it all sort of balanced out.

Now that he had plenty of Chips to spend, he could theoretically use them to increase his Stage again – probably multiple times – but that wouldn’t necessarily help at the moment.  What he needed were Monsters that could go toe-to-toe with a Threat – Regional or otherwise – and the only way to do that was to summon some more Spawn Eggs.  He was about to attempt another Bundle Pack #1 and hope that its penchant for spawning Cats had passed, but he was interrupted.

Regional Threat has arrived!

Identifying…Threat identified!

Tornado Cat Champion ★★★★★★★★

Regional Threat Level: Very High

A Cat!  Why?!  Everywhere he turned, it seemed as though Cats were there to plague him with their presence, and he couldn’t get away.

“I think I understand now.”

Understand what?  That the world is out to get me?  That these stupid felines are the