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

the Bat.  The icy coldness radiating from the bite actually helped to cool the heat from the venom in her blood, which was the only thing that allowed her to strike back at the Bat, crunching her wooden weapon into its body as it attacked.

Now, though, she was going to die – and all their efforts would be for naught.  Rosara was unconscious and at 3/10 Health, but she also had a “Venom” Debuff, so she probably wouldn’t live long.  Just as Jeska was closing her eyes to the inevitable, she suddenly saw the body of her brother disappear in a bright flash, followed by Kelty and Pascale.  Then the corpses of the monsters near her dissipated into nothing, leaving behind Drop Chests.  9 Drop Chests, in fact.  Better than that, she felt a healing energy running through her body, and her Health ticked up a point.

We…we did it?  It was almost impossible to believe, but since she was still alive and now healing, that was the only thing that made sense.  She lay on the floor while her Health continued to improve, the painful lacerations from being gored and the bites from Serpents and Bats closed up, and the venom was removed from her body.  Looking at Rosara, Jeska could see that their Support member was waking up from her forced nap, holding her head.

“OUCH!  That hurt!”

“What hurt?” Jeska heard from behind her, only to see Arcen standing there with a slightly disoriented look on his face.  Pascale and Kelty were behind him, also looking a bit out of sorts, but that was understandable – they had just died and been resurrected.

“Wait – did we win?”  Rosara suddenly sat up, looking around her, the headache she must have had forgotten by the appearance of the Drop Chests.

“I guess so, if you call it ‘winning’ even with 3 of us dying and you and I nearly dying,” Jeska said, finally ready to get to her feet.  Arcen, bless his heart, came over and helped her up.  She was still a little woozy from the loss of blood, which she just noticed was no longer pooling around where she had fallen, but it was rapidly getting better.

Her brother smiled.  “See?  I told you we could do it.”

“Yes, yes, but we almost didn’t,” Jeska acknowledged.  She quickly cycled her clothes while facing away from everyone, and the Tunic and Pants that had been torn up and bloody were replaced with a fresh set.  Pretty convenient, even if it causes me to become embarrassingly unclothed for a moment. 

It didn’t take long for her and Rosara to be well enough to start opening up the Chests with the others, because they were excited to see what they would get from killing so many monsters.  They weren’t disappointed.

Drop Chest

Contents:

1X Linen Robe +1 Intellect Tier 1

[Mage Classes] (Unbound)

Drop Chest

Contents:

1X Minor Health Potion Tier 1 (Unbound)

Drop Chest

Contents:

1X Scout Class Orb Tier 1 (Unbound)

A third of the Chests actually had valuable items; the other two-thirds had worthless junk.  The real prize, however, was the Scout Class Orb Tier 1.  Pascale had already picked up some Leather Chest Armor and a Skillbook, and now he could finally make use of them!  In addition to that fortunate acquisition, Jeska got a Linen Robe that added +1 to something called “Intellect” – which she assumed was a special statistic for Mages, like Charm was for Support Classes – but, of course, she couldn’t wear it yet.  They also received a Minor Health Potion, which – when Kelty picked it up and inspected it in her Inventory – would help to regenerate up to 5 points of Health over 30 seconds in the middle of battle.  That would’ve helped extensively in the last fight, as it probably would’ve saved either Pascale or Arcen from dying.

Pascale didn’t hesitate to take the Scout Class Orb and absorb it, and everyone looked away as he went through the same process as Rosara; well, everyone but Kelty, who watched him lift up into the air and scream in pain at his transformation, his clothes gone.  When Jeska looked back after a few moments, Pascale was on the ground with a faint smile on his face, dressed in simple dark-brown and grey lightweight clothing from neck to feet.  It wasn’t skin-tight like Rosara’s outfit, but it was cut in a way that it was close to his body, leaving very little hanging out to snag on anything – or allow a monster to grab hold and catch him that way.  It also blended in with the surrounding stone and dirt of the room, which she assumed was the point.

“Wow.  That was intense…but also amazing,” their new Scout Class said with bits of wonder tinting his voice.  “Hold on—” he said, before a snug, soft-leather chestpiece appeared on his body, sporting the same color combination as the rest of his outfit.  He moved around and stretched his arms, bent over, and even hopped in place once – and Jeska didn’t hear the leather make a sound.  “This is nice; it’s not constrictive and doesn’t make a sound when I move.  This would be perfect for moving around the streets at night—”

“You’re not part of that life anymore, Pascale.”  Kelty smiled at him, apparently liking the way he looked now with his new Class.  He wasn’t physically changed like Rosara had been, but he certainly looked more capable than he had before.

“I know, it’s just that it’s sometimes hard to forget—hey look!”  A short knife suddenly appeared in his hand, copper or bronze by the look of it.  He held it up and slashed it around a few times, before making it disappear back into his Inventory.  “And even better, I have a Skill!”

Suddenly, his form blurred to Jeska’s vision, almost like trying to look at him through some very poorly made glass.