Dungeon Core Online 82 Chapter 82

James loved ranking up. Honestly, it was probably one of his favorite parts of the game, other than, of course, watching adventurers get eaten by mimics. That just never got old.

As was normal for rank ups, James watched as his tier 2 mobs, including the bosses, all leveled up. As a Tier 2 Rank 6 dungeon, his basic mobs on his second floor were now level 20, B.L.U. was level 25, and the Terminus had reached level 30. Given the fact Z's team was only level 24, it was still going to be a while before the adventurers were easily farming his second floor. Even longer if James left the second floor as it was, but he felt that just wouldn't be right.

For this reason alone, James resisted the urge to upgrade all of his tier 2 mobs with the skill points that unlocked for each of them. Sure, it would mean more death and destruction, but James needed adventurers to venture into the second floor, and at least feel like they had a chance. Otherwise, they would all just stick to the first floor and grind out as much as they could, which would severely limit the amount of experience James was gaining. And that just wouldn't do. He wanted to hit Tier 3 this immersion, and he knew it was possible.

Along with resisting the urge to upgrade his mobs, James looked at the primary version of his second floor and began tweaking it once more. The first thing he did, was decrease the amount of Philosoraptors roaming around the map. He didn't completely eliminate them, but he decreased the packs to a 3 and 1 split, so three velocity raptors and 1 Philosoraptors per pack.

James also moved the packs around a bit for their starting points. Of course, they would continue to have the ability to roam, as they seemed to really enjoy doing, but they would at least start further away from the other packs, meaning less likelihoods of the barrages like what the raid party faced.

Finally, when it came to his second floor, James used his additional 20 points to add in another two breakers. These mobs proved as good training enemies for the parties, in James's opinion, as they were not only ma.s.sive and tough to damage, but there was always the opportunity for a roaming raptor pack to join in the fight as well. Add in the archeao-repairers that would do fly by healing, and adventurers would need to work on their teamwork and tactics to bring these mobs down. Of course, since they were the highest cost basic mob on the floor, the experience reward would help players attempt to level faster and give James a potential larger experience reward if or when they fell.

And, even with the nerfs to his floor, he was sure he would still average one or two deaths from each party that stepped foot on his second floor. Decent odds in his mind, and also odds that weren't so overwhelming players would outright avoid his floor. He found himself grinning with antic.i.p.ation as he rubbed his tentacles together. He saved his changes and closed out of the optimization tools for his second floor.

With his mobs taken care of for his second floor, the next task with his rank up was to take a quick note of all his gains.

Glyax Tier 2 Rank 6 Dungeon

Mob Type: Random

210,060 xp

9,940 xp to next rank

89,940 xp to next Tier

Resources: 1649 of 2900

Currency: 84 copper 19 silver 5 gold 0 platinum

Dungeon Tokens: 9

He did a double take as he took in how much experience he had actually gained from the party wipe. Because Skar's party members hadn't managed to level up before the Terminus fight, James netted all of the extra experience from the achievements they had been gaining. He also netted the experience the survivors had received from defeating the terminus before they died to the Terminal Core. Unlucky for them, considering those who were dead when the Terminus had fallen got to keep the experience they gained from the fight, as well as the achievement experience, they likely received. James couldn't help but feel sorry for Z and the Knights, if at least just a little. Talk about bad luck. He had a hard time believing Z would be entertained by that turn of events. Oh well.

With his experience gain, and seeing he was already over halfway towards his next Rank, James couldn't help but feel giddy. He didn't care how good Blank was, there was no way-

Incoming PM Request from BLANK

A window popped up in from of James, pulling him from his victorious mullings. Confused, he glanced at Rue, who it seemed was playing...some sort of card game against a holographic projection of the Terminus? For a second the two of the AI just stared at James, before the Terminus tipped his hat, somehow, towards James, and flickered away.

"Don't judge me." Rue said haughtily, before she turned her attention to the notification in front of James. He hadn't been under the impression dungeon cores could send and receive private messages while logged in. Even more concerning, why would Blank be messaging him? He had never seen a single post from the mysterious top dungeon.

"What do you think Blank wants?" The pixie shrugged her shoulders at his question and motioned towards the accept b.u.t.ton.

"Won't find out till you open it."

"You don't say." James sighed and moved his tentacle towards the option. For some reason, a sense of dread filled him as he accepted the message. The dread was confirmed as he read through the message. Oh no.