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

The smaller former pickpocket looked a bit uncomfortable, which was evidence enough for Jeska, but he shrugged in response to the question.  “Of course.  It’s kind of what I used to do, after all, but it didn’t work.  I can’t even see where this magical Inventory is – not even my own, technically – so trying to steal from something that basically doesn’t exist is impossible.  Besides, I wouldn’t steal from friends.”

Friends, now?  I like this guy.  “I second the offer, Pascale.  What do you think?”

Rosara still looked like she wanted to object, but she held her tongue.  Pascale smiled and nodded, before saying, “Sure, why not?  I’m looking forward to exploring this place with you.”

“And speaking of that, we should get back,” Jeska said, before quickly adding, “And no, we can’t go any further, Arcen, as much as I can see you want to.  We need to let everyone know we aren’t dead—especially Rosara’s father—and that the dungeon is open for business.  Plus, we still need to find our fifth member.”

Now it was Arcen’s turn to object, but the sudden appearance of Rosara’s hand on his chest stopped him.  “No, she’s right, Arcy.  This has been a long day already, so I think it’s best that we get some rest before we attempt to tackle this place.”

Very sensible of her—

“Besides, I want to help choose our fifth member, who I suspect will have a bit more…refinement…if I have anything to say about it.”  She smiled at them with a bit of a predatory grin, and Jeska could tell that they would have a real fight on their hands if they tried to argue with her.  Fortunately, their newest group member didn’t seem offended by his lack of “refinement”; instead, he looked proud of his lack of such sophistication.

I guess that it’s only fair, since we basically bullied her into accepting Pascale.  “That’s fine, Rosara; just make sure it’s someone we can work well with,” Jeska added with a little sigh, already worried about who the Mayor’s daughter would invite to their group.

“Oh, don’t worry, I will.”  Ok, now I’m worried.

Without even taking a full step into the first room, Jeska and the others left the dungeon and informed those waiting for them what they found.  As it was decided that the dungeon was now ready for them, they went back to the city so that they could finish up their preparations for the next day.

Strangely enough, Jeska was looking forward to it.

Chapter 15

Clay was looking forward to the next morning – mainly because it couldn’t seem to come fast enough.  He had listened in as best he could from the entrance of his dungeon when the large group of people had approached, and from what he could gather from comments and exclamations of surprise from them, there was a brand-new group of Heroes who had no idea what they were doing.  That makes two of us.

“Don’t be ridiculous, Clay, you’re doing just fine.  These new Heroes, though, you’re absolutely right about.”

What do you mean?

“Well, from what we overheard before, it’s obvious that there wasn’t a large or even existent Hero presence here on this island before.  Since there are no Guilds, nor even a single Hero here to give them advice or instruction, they’re going to be diving into this blindly.  Also, did you see how they were all Tier 0?”

Clay had, in fact, seen that – which had come as a surprise.  He had seen them approach looking somewhat normal, but as soon as they got within about 100 feet or so of his entrance, that all changed.  Within a few seconds, about half of the people started to change into very similar-looking outfits, held identical weapons, and had a bit of a glow about them.  When he looked closer, all of the people who’d morphed into wearing identical clothing in the blink of an eye now had—

Class: None

Tier: 0

Primary Element: None

—floating above their heads.  They were all brand-new, as of that morning he assumed, so they had all suddenly received a Class Orb Tier 0.  And he didn’t have to venture far to pinpoint why they had all obtained the Class Orb: his sudden appearance and whatever had happened the night before when the woman with the large—

“It isn’t often that a Tier 0 will stay that way for long.  Hero Guilds are specifically designed to speed up the process of obtaining their first class, which is done by absorbing a Class Orb Tier 1 of a specific type.  Of all of the Orbs, only those which are Tier 1 are not bound to the one person picking them up. By design, Tier 1 Class Orbs can be traded or given away, which then makes Class selection even easier.  But with these Heroes, they are going to have to do it the hard way.”

And the hard way is…?

“By grinding inside of your dungeon, of course.”

Oh, of course.  He had an idea of what that meant, from his previous knowledge about Heroes and dungeons, but it wasn’t exactly complete.  Nevertheless, he understood that they would have to fight inside of his dungeon quite a few times to receive what they wanted when they killed his monsters.  How common are these Tier 1 Class Orbs?

“They aren’t necessarily common, but they aren’t rare either.  If you remember from when you were a—oh.  Yes, of course.  To answer your question, there is a 5% chance for a Tier 1 Class Orb to drop from one of your 1-Star monsters.”

Is there a—wait, there seems to be some people coming inside. This is it!  Despite the fact that his dungeon was designed to do its best to kill Heroes, he couldn’t help but feel a little bit of pride in what he had accomplished so far.  He was well aware that it