Dungeon Core Online 22 Chapter 22

"And there goes another one." James glanced at the flashing screen, and by focusing on it, enlarged it. It had been almost an hour since Z's group had party wiped, and since then, more than a hundred adventurers had entered his dungeon. Because of this, James now had six screens floating before him in his instance tab, five of them showing they were full with 20 out of 20, while the six only had seven players so far.

Without Rue to help him, James had resorted to his gamer instincts, and the moment the Instances windows opened, he began searching around it for settings and information. He hadn't been able to gather much, but had found a setting that would activate a notification for him whenever adventurers engaged in a boss fight. As such, a flashing screen meant another group was foolishly taking on Old Man Jenkins. James had yet to grow tired of watching such fights.

He scanned the screen, noting that the instance was one of the full instances, though only a party of five seemed to be engaging Jenkins. The others were spread about farming against various mobs. James was curious if the players coordinated enough, if a 20 man party of level 1 players could take on Jenkins. He knew it was only a matter of time before players grouped to bring the boss down, though first he was certain five man parties would try to race for the instance first achievement.

"That's not going to work." James watched as the party, three mages, a cleric, and a knight, faced off against Jenkins. The knight steadied himself, holding up a basic iron shield, as he tried to get the bosses attention. Behind him, the three mages were all beginning to channel their spells, unsurprisingly, magic missile.

James had watched half a dozen boss fights already, and while all the teams seemed to be competent players, utilizing tried and true team tactics and party compositions, they had all failed. No one seemed to realize just how much stronger Old Man Jenkins was. Ah well, each party wipe was earning him around 100 exp, so he was sitting happy at 3600 experience right now. If this kept up, he was sure he could hit a new rank by the end of the day. Hopefully before Rue woke back up.

Movement on the screen pulled James from his thoughts, and he couldn't help but grin as he watched the events unfurl. The group was fighting Old Man Jenkins near the barn this time, and the boss had just launched the knight flying with his Donkey Kick. To the group's credit, no one seemed to panic, and they all moved as a team near the knight. However, just around the corner, moving speedily towards the knight, who was slowly standing back up, was a flock of d.i.c.kens. It seems there had been five of them in one of the coops, and Old Man Jenkins's aura had summoned them to his side.

A normal d.i.c.ken had an attack and defense of one. In groups of five or more, their stats doubled, giving them an attack and defense of two. Old Man Jenkins's aura doubled those stats again, meaning these d.i.c.kens had an attack and defense of 4, and 40 hp. Needless to say, the adventurers were doomed.

The group reformed as the five d.i.c.kens descended upon them, and as the knight did his best to swat the demonic poultry away, he really just made matters worse. There was no way he could 40 damage to a d.i.c.ken before their ability activated, and sure enough, his form was quickly covered with a glow, a feather hanging above his head. The moment it did, the knight was doomed. As one, all five d.i.c.kens launched themselves at him, knocking him off his feet as they pecked and clawed all about him. He let out a single scream before he died, and the d.i.c.kens turned to the rest of the party.

Achievement Unlocked- The Great d.i.c.kening- Defeat an enemy with a flock of d.i.c.kens enhanced by two buffs.

Reward: 400xp 1 upgrade point for d.i.c.ken

"Sweet," James checked his character sheet just as the d.i.c.kens finished off the cleric and a mage, leaving them only two targets remaining. With the achievement, and three enemies defeated, he was sitting at 4067 experience. He was definitely liking his progression. Grinning, he turned back to watch the fight, noticing the d.i.c.kens were swarming now one of the last two mages, who was panicking so much he couldn't cast a spell. Old Man Jenkins was amusingly standing back, smoking on his pipe as he watched his d.i.c.kens in action. It seemed the boss was aware of the fact that his mobs could handle this fight. James had to wonder how much AI the developers had put into the boss mobs in the game.

"And that makes five." The fourth mage had just fallen, and the fifth, who had turned and started to run away, leaving the four glowing orbs of his buddy, had just taken a d.i.c.ken to the back of his knee, bringing him stumbling down to the ground. A moment later the other four descended on him, and he too burst into a flash of light. As the group of five orbs moved towards the entrance, where they would have to wait another hour before entering, James had another flash of light go off, with another message.

"A second one?"

Achievement Unlocked- The Birds- Wipe out an entire party with a group of d.i.c.kens

Reward: 500xp, 1 upgrade point for d.i.c.ken

Two achievements earned in the span of a few minutes? James was really liking how his progression was going. He was sure it would slow down as players learned and began to level properly, playing smarter and safer. For now though, James was content to watch them flounder as his precious mobs decimated them. Besides, he was now sitting at 4600 experience. He was definitely going to reach 10,000 experience before Rue woke up. James couldn't wait to watch his mobs level, and a.s.sign their upgrades.