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

Egg!  Clay couldn’t believe it – 10,000 Crystal Chips for a worthless trap!  Well, not necessarily worthless, because it would likely be very useful in the future…if there was a future for him and the rest of the inhabitants of the island.  The likelihood of that happening was looking pretty bleak at the moment.

He hesitated even more before purchasing another Epic Egg. Should I get Bundle Pack #2 instead?  It will give me more chances to get something good, but I may end up with nothing but a few 5 and 6-Star monsters.  Then again, what if I purchase another Epic Egg and get another trap?  If that were to happen, he would’ve then wasted most of his Chips on basically nothing that would help him.

He wavered back and forth for a few seconds, patently aware of the desperate need to hurry and make a decision.  Just do it! he told himself abruptly.  In the next moment, Clay bought another Epic Spawn Egg – and he looked away from the light show, suddenly afraid of what he had just done.

“I think you may have gotten lucky, Clay,” Dwight said after the Egg had time to form.  “Well…maybe.”

Clay turned back and saw what the baby dragonling was talking about.  The Epic Spawn Egg he had purchased appeared completely different from what he had seen before.  Instead of yellow, golden, orange, pink, red, or green, this one was a glittery deep purple color.  He could only assume, after seeing 1 through 7-Star Egg colors, that this was an 8, 9, or even 10-Star…but whether or not it was a monster or a trap was yet to be seen.  He tapped it open – and sighed in relief.

Creeping Fern ★★★★★★★★★

Attack Type: Melee, Ranged, Magical

Rarity: Common

Element: Nature

Finally!  A monster…but a Fern?  He couldn’t tell from the glass slab that presented the image of the Creeping Fern, but he thought that it might actually be mobile.  Instead of his simple 1-Star Ferns that were a little over chest-high to most of the Heroes and appeared relatively “normal”, this 9-Star plant monster appeared massive.  The fronds of the Fern were vine-like in appearance, so much so that it looked like some sort of multi-tentacled monstrosity more than the plant it was originally based upon.  It also didn’t appear to be actually planted into the ground at its base, which led Clay to suspect that it would be able to move.

Hopefully.

Screams from the city outside of his dungeon alerted him that he was running out of time. Technically, Clay still had some Chips he could spend on some Mystical Spawn Eggs, but it would take too long right now.  Therefore, he eliminated all of his monsters in his dungeon rooms with a thought, before stretching his awareness a short distance from his entrance and onto the beach.  First, he experimented by imagining placing a simple Ice Bat in his expanded awareness.  The very first monster he had ever summoned amazingly popped into existence and flapped leisurely in place.  And then did nothing.

“You need to send it after the Threat,” Dwight suddenly spoke up.

But I can’t see it!  I think it’s on top of the cliff.

“Doesn’t matter; it will adapt to your order while it is still inside your awareness.  Unlike those inside of your dungeon, you will have slightly more control over your monsters’ directives.  As soon as it leaves your awareness, however, it will continue to obey the last order you gave it.”

Clay thought about his need for the Bat to attack the Cat Threat, and it took off into the sky without hesitation.  That was easy—ouch!  It felt like something pricked his Core with a needle; it wasn’t necessarily painful, but it was so unexpected that he involuntarily cried out.  What was that?

“I believe as soon as that Bat left your awareness, it was ripped from your Core.”  Sure enough, the baby dragonling’s assessment was correct; looking at his Core Assessment, he now saw that he had 1 less monster available and 1 of the Ice Bats was missing from his list.  Not only that, but he had also lost 1 point of his Core Structure Health in the process.

This…hurts me?  Why didn’t you tell me, Dwight?

She was silent for a moment before responding.  “I didn’t know.  There isn’t a lot of information about Dungeon Seals being down, and this was obviously one of those things that was never known.”

Great.  Well, I’m glad I didn’t do what I had first thought to do, which was to swarm the Threat with hundreds of little monsters that I would continue to summon over and over.

Mainly what it meant was that he had to be a little more discerning with what he sent outside.  His 1-Stars were pretty much out of the question, because they wouldn’t do much good; the same went with his 2-Stars, as they were little better.  Instead, he concentrated on his stronger monsters first, sending out his Stone Golem, Mist Demon, Nether Mage Slime, Colossal Serpent, and Giant Bush Spider.  One by one they appeared, and he sent them their orders; they walked, floated, skittered, or slithered away out of his awareness, each of them doing a little pinprick of damage to his CSH.  He tried to send out the 4-Star Sly Fern as well, but it appeared that it was immobile – that wouldn’t really do very well.  The Nether Mage Slime was a bit slow, and he almost reabsorbed it before it could vacate his awareness – but he figured he could use all the help he could get.

Finally, he placed his 9-Star Creeping Fern—and was shocked at how large it actually was.  It stood at least 50 feet tall and the same amount wide, looking partially like a gigantic ball of greenish vines and partially like an actual fern.  He estimated that there were dozens of fronds, each