Dungeon Core Online 68 Chapter 68

The worst, it would seem, was the creation of a world boss that simply had James staring blankly, dumbfounded, at the floating screen.

What…the actual…Cluck?

When James had selected the world boss option, he been greeted with a simple screen, extremely similar to his Boss Mob creation tab. Rue, feeling helpful, had explained to James the basic mechanics of how the World Boss would work. Though, he was no stranger to such a concept.

According to the pixie, World Boss's unlocked when a dungeon had Event Research, Instance Research, and Boss Research all at level 5. The Event and Boss research levels made sense, but he had questioned the pixie about the instance requirement. Her response had been rather short, and yet helpful. The more players allowed in an instance, the higher chance they can take down the World Boss mob. It also meant a higher amount of food…er experience, for James when the World Boss struck.

James had accepted her explanation, noting that his instances, at Rank 5 instance research, could now hold 45 players if he wanted, across his 35 instances. That meant, if both of his floors were filled to max, his dungeon could support 3150 adventurers, if he let the max amount into each floor. He wasn't sure how hard the World Boss was going to be, but he also didn't want to have his floors flooded with players. Crowding was a big problem in MMOs, and he didn't want that to be an issue. If that meant players wouldn't be able to bring down the world boss on the first try, so be it. More experience for him, and hey, it encouraged player growth and strategizing…right?

James had adjusted his maximum number of players in an instance down to 30, where he had been keeping it. This still allowed for 2100 players in his dungeon at one time, if they completely spread out across his first and second floors. h.e.l.l, if they just stuck to his first floor, that was still 1050 slots, which was still a lot higher than the initial 200 he had started with, just two days ago. At this rate, James was going to be able to accommodate the entire server of players in his dungeon in no time. He would need it though, because he was certain his experience was going to be a lot harder to come by, the stronger the adventurers became.

After his discussion about what exactly unlocked the World Boss option, and a quick chat confirming his feelings towards his floors and their capacities, something he was sure he would keep playing with a later date, it had been time to create his World Boss.

At that moment, Rue's eyes had flashed with excitement, and the blasted slot machine had once again appeared.

"Seriously?" James groaned. Of course, it was RNGesus, why wouldn't it be? James had found a new way to make currency, and the developers were of course going to try and capitalize on that. He had a feeling this durned 'experiment' as Xander called it, was paying for itself and then some. b.a.s.t.a.r.ds.

Sighing, James made a motion with his tentacles towards Rue, and the pixie, eyes burning with excitement, had pulled the lever. He watched as the machine played its musical tones, flashing lights and all, before it stopped. Whereas he usually received three options to choose from, sadly, it seemed the developers had chosen to only allow one option per spin for the World Boss.

"No." James had simply said at the option. Rue had nearly fallen to the ground with laughter before he could even fully read the selection.

Big Gre'ed Tractor

The name was as far as he got, before he was looking at the cost for a reroll. There was no way in h.e.l.l he was having a giant piece of farm equipment as a world boss. Seriously.

At that moment, he also felt his irritation with the developers rise. Not only had they made it so the World Boss generator only gave one selection at a time, they had upped the requirements for a reroll. He was sure that was in part due to the fact by the time a Dungeon Core reached this level, they would already have their NPCs up and running, and be generating a stream of currency. That, or they would have dungeon tokens to throw at the machine. Though, he was also certain his random dungeon nature, and ridiculous floor type, was hurting him as well.

However, thanks to Steve, James was certain he was the only dungeon core with the World Boss option, simply because there wasn't enough time yet for other dungeons to have fully gotten all three of the research options required to level 5. So, while that was a plus for him style wise, it also meant he didn't have a stream of currency running back into him yet.

He did, however, have a small fortune of V coin he had gained through his hard efforts, and while he had initially decided he wasn't going to tap into it for DCO, opting normally to simply use Dungeon Tokens for rerolls, this, the world boss, had finally made him break.

"Reroll." He said, okaying the screen that appeared in front of him, and selecting the V coin option. It would cost him 5 Dungeon tokens to reroll once, or 5 V Coins. A single Dungeon Token converted into a V coin currently, so the conversion was at least fair. However, Dungeon Tokens were much more useful to him as resource generation tools. So, he spent some V coins.

How many became a problem.

"Again." He grumbled, watching the slot machine whirl once more. It was the 7th time he was rerolling. That meant 35 V coins, gone in the span of what, three minutes? Needless to say, he wasn't amused. V Coin's translated to real world currency, based on an ever-fluctuating virtual economy…and while it didn't hurt his horde of the virtual currency, it was still irritating. Currently, V coins translated to 10 dollars in the real world. He had just spent 350 dollars rerolling a stupid world boss… probably not the best choice, but he was committed now.

"" he started, but paused. He had been about to reroll once more, when he finally decided this option, at least, could work. Plus, he really didn't think it was wise to spend this much on a single boss. He may have gotten a little carried away. Surely the Lamb G.o.d that appeared on the third roll wouldn't have been terrible. He had just hated its name… Baaaaaaaaab, the Blood G.o.d.

"You like this one?" Rue, dried tears from laughter coating her cheeks, was grinning manically. He was certain the pixie was running on a lack of oxygen, based on how much she had been laughing.

"It'll have to do." He let out a sigh, and the pixie clapped her hands in delight. He selected the option and pulled up the information on it.

Charles the d.i.c.ken

d.i.c.ken Based World Boss

Lvl 20

HP- 10000

MP- 10000

ATK- 60

DEF- 30

Unique Abilities

Great Eggspectations- Charles the d.i.c.ken likes to make a spectacular appearance. He will fall from a demonic portal in the sky, in a giant Egg. The Egg will sit for 5 minutes, before hatching and Charles emerges. While the egg is active, it has 5000hp, and 200 Def. If the egg is destroyed, Charles will emerge with ½ his stats.

A Clucky Carol- When Charles emerges from his egg, he will let out a loud cluck. This cluck will instantly enrage all d.i.c.kens on the floor and give them +30% to their base stats. d.i.c.kens will begin to aggro the nearest adventurers

Fowl Twist- Every 1000 HP Charles the d.i.c.ken loses, causes him to gain 6 more ATK, but loses 3 Def

James read over the abilities once more, simply shaking his head. This, this was the worst that could happen, he supposed. He was out 35 V coins, and now had a giant d.i.c.ken as his world boss. What really irked him, was he could see the image of the d.i.c.ken, but couldn't actually summon the world boss. Instead, it gave him a timer option, where he could manage its appearance rate. He decided to set it to appear once per every hour. Because it was the first world boss he had, he wanted to make it relevant. He was certain in his later floors, he would spread out the sp.a.w.n times of world boss events, to make them even rarer, and to encourage longer dives by groups.

He also realized he couldn't adjust Charles the d.i.c.ken's loot table, which Rue told him was because his loot research was still too low. He grumbled at that fact. How high did it need to be for this option? It was currently at 6, that should have been enough in his opinion. But it was fine. He would just have to wait for a group to fell the giant d.i.c.ken, so he could hear what they got. He had a feeling, based off of what he knew of MMOs, that Charles would have to drop at least a pet or mount version of himself. He just had to.

"So, what's next?" Rue took him from his internal grumbling over the World Boss efforts, and he finished confirming the summon time, sighing as he closed out of the screen. He had been able to set an alarm for his instances, to trigger whenever Charles the d.i.c.ken randomly appeared, so at least he would get to watch the very first World Boss fight, well, he and every other dungeon core. There was no way he wasn't streaming that fight.

"Well, now that that's done… I figure it's time I let you in on what I found out while I was logged out." And with that, James went into a brief detail about his meeting with Z, and the upcoming Raid. Of course, he kept a few details from the pixie. He was going to win a few bets from this raid. There was no doubt in his mind about that.