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

so much was perilous inside the room.  It was hard to fully evaluate what that was, however, because they still hadn’t identified exactly what all was in there other than the Cave Spider they had seen before.

They knew for sure there was another Boar, which could strike out of the shadows suddenly and then retreat, breaking bones or tearing large gashes in their legs as it went by.  How it moved so silently was a mystery, but it seemed to just appear out of nowhere with its dark fur, and they had no means of illuminating the darkness; they had tried to bring some torches or an oil lamp, but it disappeared from their hands as soon as they entered the dungeon, becoming inaccessible in their Inventory.

There were also more Bats, but whether there were only 2 or a dozen was difficult to tell in the darkness.  All they knew was that they were constantly attacked out of nowhere, and the flap of wings a split-second before they were scratched or bitten was the only warning they got.

It wasn’t as though they didn’t have any successes; a few times they were able to kill a Bat or the Cave Spider, and they thought they had killed the Boar – but all that was essentially inconsequential.  It was for another reason that they hadn’t been able to survive, and they were beginning to suspect that it was a monster a lot stronger than the others – a 2-Star monster like the Shambler, perhaps.  The problem was that they couldn’t even see it, and it arrived and attacked so quickly that there was no retaliation possible.

Jeska, herself, had gotten her throat slit by something sharp – likely a knife of some sort – and was stabbed in the back another time.  Each of those attacks was something that she could heal from, if Kelty was able to get to her in time; but the problem with a lot of their Skills was there needed to be a valid target for them. When you couldn’t see your target, they were basically useless.

So, they were trying a bunch of different tactics and continued to try using some sort of outside source of illumination, which led to their fortuitous discovery.

“Are you sure you can’t get that Lanternfish out of your Inventory,” she asked Pascale.  They had given up on torches and normal lanterns working in the dungeon, so they had resorted to trying to carry a live Lanternfish (which had scales that glowed similar in effect to a lantern) in a small box with seawater in it, but that didn’t seem to be working, either.

“No, it’s still doing nothing whenever I choose it,” he said, frustrated.  His face was blank for a moment – true for them all, as they perused their Hero Status – before he said, “Uh-oh, Rosara.  I think I accidentally picked up your Support Class Orb that dropped from the last room.  I wish there were some way I could just hold it in my hand and then give it to you—”

He cut off as a small red Orb appeared in his outstretched hand, startling them all.  “Wha—?!  What just happened?” he shouted, staring in confusion at the object in his hand.

Jeska couldn’t believe it was that simple.  They had tried opening up Inventories and moving things that way, opening up their Class Orbs Available chart and attempting to trade Orbs with someone else, and any number of other things…but no one had tried to simply imagine an Orb in their hand that they could give away.  Probably because of all the items we’ve picked up in here, we’ve never actually seen these particular Orbs other than as words in the Drop Chests.

From there, it was easy enough for Pascale to give the Support Class Orb to Rosara by literally handing it to her.  Some experimentation revealed that they could do the same with Tier 1 weapons and armor, as well as potions and Skillbooks they had picked up over the last 4 days.  Anything Tier 2, however, was apparently “bound” to their Inventories as soon as they were picked up.

“We’ve been doing this for 4 days, and no one knew about this?  I’m glad there aren’t any other Heroes from the mainland here, because they’d look at us like a green deckhand on their first voyage.”

It was a joint decision by everyone in the group to end their time in the dungeon a little bit early.  Rounding up all of the other Hero groups took a little time, since some of those that had been inside the dungeon last night were sleeping, but their grumbling at being woken up was soon put to rest when they found out about the technique Pascale had inadvertently discovered.

“Does anyone have any extra Mage Class Orbs?” Jeska shouted, trying to be heard over the excited crowd of Heroes.  They had gathered together in one of the strangest trading experiences she had ever seen, mainly because there was no currency being exchanged.  Weapons, armor, Skillbooks, and Class Orbs were being exchanged at a rapid rate, and people were getting what they needed – so Jeska thought it was about time for her to get what she needed, too.

“I have an extra Mage Orb,” she heard from behind her.  Jeska turned around and saw a man she recognized as a former merchant and he smiled at her; uh-oh, this could cost me.

“What do you want for it?”  It was an important question, because almost everything from the dungeon was potentially valuable, but the Orbs were especially valuable.  Not just because Orbs bestowed a Class, but because – as had been discovered – they were needed to improve your Tier.  If someone were to collect 20 Mage Class Orbs that were Tier 1, they could be combined somehow to create a Mage Class Orb Tier 2.  While it only required 1