Dungeon Core Online 65 Chapter 65

The rest of James's day was spent watching firefly, followed by watching the movie for the show, called Serenity. He gladly took it easy, like Z had suggested, and did his best not to move around too much. The throbbing in his head died down, but any sudden movements made it spring back. What really got him though, was his jaw. Sure enough, when the pain blocker wore off, James's jaw erupted with pain. Eating was practically out of the question, so he reluctantly took to drinking water and a supplement drink, called Soylent Blue, through a straw. Pleasant, not in the least. James was pretty sure Soylent Blue tasted about as good as rotting flesh, but it had all the nutrients in it needed for the body.

In between episodes and pained consumption, James was also gleefully plugging away at Dungeon Simulator, errr, the DCO app. By the end of the day, James had earned 3960 resources, having gained 11 resources per hour of in game time, instead of his 10, thanks to Steve's achievement. When he hit rank 5, his max resources had become 2500. So, he had waited till he had 2500, and bought the next level of resource storage. While the first cost 1000, and only increased his maximum by 100, the 2500 option increased his maximum storage by 300. It seemed with the higher cost, came an increase in efficiency, which James was all about. As such, he now had 2800 maximum storage, and 1584 resources to play with when he logged in. Though, he planned on likely just saving up, and continuing to increase his maximum storage amount more. He was planning ahead for his third floor, and really wanted to take advantage of his dungeon tokens when the time came.

The other benefits of the day were his research growths. Courtesy of Steve's achievement, James now had Rank 6 Event Research completed, as well as Rank 5 Instance research completed. James had started Rank 6 for Instance research the moment it was done, and it now had roughly 90 hours remaining on the research. It would have been less, but the whole getting knocked unconscious bit of his day had cost him some precious hours. Luckily, Steve had saved James even more hours with the loopholes of the achievement. Since all of his other research levels were already rank 6, James had decided to begin researching Rank 7 in Enhanced Research. He figured getting that as close to level 10, before he hit Tier 3 as a dungeon, would be in his best interest. That 10% reduced research time would be greatly beneficial, especially since he figured he would also be working on new research options when he hit Tier 3, since Tier 2 had given him 2 new options.

Rue had gotten back to James's message early in the day, and so he had been waiting to upgrade his mobs for when he logged back in, so the pixie could help contribute to his options. He had plans for some of his mobs, but a few of the others, mainly his first-floor mobs, he really didn't have plans for. He had thought them maxed out the moment he hit Tier 2, so honestly, the extra point for each of them was more likely going to be used for shenanigans, rather than actually making them much stronger. At least, that was his game plan, and he was sure Rue had a similar plan in mind.

As such, James found himself grinning as he set himself into his immersion pod, preparing to hop once again into DCO. Given how his day had gone, he really was looking forward to spending the whole night immersed. Not to mention, thanks to Z, James now had a few really good bets to place, that he was guaranteed to win. If you were going to place a bet against someone claiming to be the G.o.ddess of Luck, it definitely helped to already know the outcome.

Closing his eyes, James's grin grew even further, but turned into a grimace even as his mind was pulled into the virtual world. He was not looking forward to waking up with his bruised jaw.

"Glyax!" James's thoughts of his jaw quickly disappeared as a winged figure wrapped its arms around his blobby self. He was back to his floating eyeball shape, and Rue had thrown herself at him, her thin arms clutched around him. He quickly grew two tentacles to hug her back, trying to avert where his eyeball was placed. Since his whole body was a singular orb, and Rue had wrapped her arms around him…. Well, needless to say, she definitely knew how to greet him. Ha.

"Did you miss me?" James was reluctantly releasing his grip on Rue, pushing the pixie back, while he tried to regain his composure. She had managed, in perfect Rue fashion, to throw his train of thought off the moment he arrived. Durned pixie.

"Mhmm." She nodded her head, and waived a hand, summoning her cla.s.sic hot chocolate, while placing her other hand along her hip. "Do you know how boring it gets without you here? Like, I can only go on so many d.i.c.ken races before I get bored."

d.i.c.ken races? "I'm sorry, what?" He was pretty sure she had just said d.i.c.ken races. What in the world were those?

"Oh, right… erm." She glanced around sheepishly, before offering him a wide grin. "I may have tweaked your first floor a little bit."

"YOU What?" That was, what, no, wait? She could do that? She had done that? She had messed with his floor? Thoughts raced through his head, and it was all he could do to try and calm his breathing as he quickly pulled up his screen, flicking to his first floor and bringing he and Rue to it.

"Well, I have been stockpiling resources. And, I couldn't resist, especially after you hit Rank 5 in Events. Though, I do need your help to really make it shine…" She trailed off as James took in his first floor, not believing what he was seeing. He knew the AI had the ability to interact with all of his options, h.e.l.l, she had been the one to guide him through everything in the tutorial. But, he didn't think she had retained that control. Had she messed with anything else while he was gone?

"Rue, you can't just mess with the dungeon while I'm-" James paused even as he spoke, anger fading. Alright, so maybe, just this once, he could forgive the pixie. Besides, she had used her own resources for this…

Sprawling around his first floor, starting near the entrance to the dungeon, was what looked to be a ma.s.sive cleared track. It zigged and zagged all along the floor, creating what appeared to be a race track. Simple wooden fences lined either side of it, with gates near the entrance providing a way for players to simply bypa.s.s it. Standing idly near the gate, was, what appeared to be, a small version of Old Man Jenkins.

"Is that an…NPC?" James hadn't heard anything about NPCs in DCO. He thought everything was supposed to player run?

"Yup. At rank 5 event research, NPCs are unlocked. I only activated them on your first floor, so that I could create d.i.c.ken racing…" She smiled sheepishly at him, motioning next to the NPC, where five d.i.c.kens clucked about. Because of the upgrades James had given them, including a second upgrade in Growth Hormone, his d.i.c.ken's were four foot in height. Large enough for the pixie to ride, but he was having a hard time picturing players riding on them.

"You do realize the d.i.c.ken's aren't large enough for players, right?" James shook his head, his excitement fading for d.i.c.ken racing. It had been a great idea, but there was no way-

"Well, I need your help to make my dream a reality." She offered him her greatest sad puppy eyes look, even managing to make her eyes start to water. "If you use your last d.i.c.ken upgrade point on Growth Hormone again…"

Even as Rue trailed off, James was already in the d.i.c.ken upgrade screen. After all the work she had put into making d.i.c.ken racing a thing, how could he not oblige? He dropped the glowing skill point into Growth Hormone.

Growth Hormone (Max)- +25 to HP, +5 all other Stats, d.i.c.kens grow to 6 foot in height.

No sooner had he confirmed the upgrade, a flash of light crossed his vision, and two more screens popped up.

Secret Achievement Unlocked

James had been partially expecting an achievement of some sort, for maxing out a skill. Though, he hadn't known until just now that 3 was the max for Growth Hormone. The only reason he hadn't made his d.i.c.ken's larger than 4 feet before, was because he had been focusing on giving them more…interesting abilities. Such as…. Giving his Gren-eggs? The ability to hatch baby d.i.c.kens upon explosion, which did a small amount of damage over time as they angrily pecked at any and everything near them. They were adorable, and rather destructive. Excitedly, he opened the achievement up.

Secret Achievement- My Other Ride's a d.i.c.ken – Fully max out Growth Hormone for d.i.c.kens

Reward- Unique Pa.s.sive- Mount This!- Unlocked for d.i.c.kens, New loot option for d.i.c.kens unlocked

James shook his head, fighting a grin, as he pulled up information on the new pa.s.sive.

Unique Pa.s.sive- Mount This!- d.i.c.ken's can now be ridden by adventurers.

Whelp, he had just made d.i.c.ken racing possible on his first floor. He couldn't stop chuckling as he pulled up the d.i.c.ken loot table next. He had a suspicion Rue had known exactly what she was doing by creating the racetrack, and pushing James to apply that final upgrade point to the d.i.c.kens. Tricksy Pixie.

As he pulled up the loot table, he couldn't help but smile even more to himself. There it was, a single new loot option. d.i.c.ken Reins.

d.i.c.ken Reins- Allows the user to summon a d.i.c.ken from the demonic realm to bind permanently to themselves. 1 in 6666 chance to summon an infernal d.i.c.ken. Single use item, account bound.

And, with that, James's dungeon now had mounts for players. He was already imagining players riding around on d.i.c.kens into battle. Oh man how he loved DCO, and he hadn't even been back in the game for 15 minutes yet. He still had over 23 hours of fun shenanigans to go, before the adventurers even arrived again. Time to get to work.