Dungeon Core Online 146 Chapter 146

"This dungeon is ridiculous." Spin to win was watching as grenades rained down against his swirling shields from the thick grass that covered James's second floor. It seemed the strongest of BLANKs players hadn't been idle following their less than elegant defeat at the hands of James's dollies. All three of the main group had broken past level 40, meaning Crikey and SpinToWin now had a new class. CheapHealz and BurningJazzHands meanwhile, were each level 37. They had not been idle at all.

"It's still weaker than our Candy Dungeon." SoulDemon was wading through the sea of grass, killing every Philosoraptor he came upon with ease. He paused after the latest batch, looking down at the steampunk creatures. "Though, these items can probably be combined with our candied ones to create much stronger gear."

James stared hard at the Phantom Blade as he watched SoulDemon flip through his inventory list. While James had no idea what he was looking at, he could only wonder what the player was thinking. So far, James's players had only been crafting gear according to what was dropped on a particular floor. How had no one thought to combine the materials across multiple floors? Come to think of it, why hadn't James thought about that…

"Hey Ru-" James stopped himself. The pixie was still asleep, and he was still upset with her. So, instead of asking her to take a note for him, he set up a quick personal message to send to her. He delayed the send time for another 10 hours, so that she would receive it when she was likely awake, and he was freed up. He doubted his attention would be needed much in his dungeon after the next 10 hours. After all, his main adventurers will have been in and likely doing their invasions by then, and if not, James was certain all of the gung-ho players from BLANKs dungeon will have completed their day 2 invasions by then. Meaning it would a perfect time for him to see about crafting some new items. Hell, maybe he could make some unique gear before the battle started on the fields of battle even.

"Well keep your eyes out for that mini boss." The group had slowly been making their way closer to James's massive city scape, while systematically killing every single mob they saw. SpinToWin had chosen to continue his tanky path and was now classified as a Phalanx. It was an upgrade from Centurion, that increased the size of the swirling shields he could summon. Not only that, the number of them increased, creating a nearly impenetrable wall of shields that he could focus in various areas around the party as needed. His defense stats had also increased, and he had changed out his candied sword for a spear instead. The shaft of the spear seemed to be carved out of a…popsicle stick, and the bladed portion was made from a hard, colored, clear like substance. After observing BLANKs dungeon, James was guessing it was formed from Jolly Rancher candy.

"You mean the one with that awesome chainsword for a tail?" Normally, James would be concerned that SoulDemon's team had that information already. However, two things prevented James from being surprised. First, 10,000 people had invaded his dungeon. That meant 10,000 players had begun spreading and sharing all the information they had on the other dungeon. James's players had been doing the same thing. He had confirmed by checking out the player reddit during some of his down time the day before.

Second, James happened to know, firsthand, that SoulDemon's team had learned about the chainsword weapons from Z's team. The Knights Who Go Ni had invaded the third floor of BLANKs dungeon the day before. Because they had invaded the third, and hardest, of BLANKs floor, only a few players from BLANKs player pool had been able to join the instance to stop the invasion. Those players, of course, had been SoulDemon's team.

The fight between the two groups had been epic. At the time, only SoulDemon had been above level 40, making the fight really rather interesting. While BLANKs players had the level advantage on three of their players, all five of the knights were level 37 when they invaded. Not to mention, all five of the knights had their teamwork down. SoulDemon and his party were really centered just on SoulDemon, SpinToWin, and Crikey. The two level 35s at the time had actually made some mistakes that nearly cost them the win.
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During the fight, both parties had come to acknowledge the other's skill, and they had actually been chatting, mid battle, about each other's gear. In particular, SpinToWin had been calling out to Oak while they parties were battling. Oak had been happy to share details, even as he was fighting for his life against SoulDemon. Indra versus Phantom Blade had been a truly awe-inspiring fight to watch. Sadly, the fight had come to a rather swift end before it a true conclusion could be decided. BLANK had dropped some upgraded 'Da Breakers' from the ceiling of his dungeon on top of Med Ic and Faust. Essentially, BLANK had dropped the candy mob version of a boulder on top of The Knights Who Go NI's squishy party members. With both down, it had been a quick battle for SoulDemon and his party to clean up.

Though, just as James watched Z get brought down, he was pretty sure he saw more Da Breaker's drop down on SoulDemon's party, killing them and likely snagging any extra experience they had earned from them for BLANK as well. Xander's kids had been doing their best to keep their level advantage after all. While James had managed to hit Tier 3 Rank 6, last he checked, BLANK had hit Tier 3 Rank 8. Ugh.

"Yes, that one." SoulDemon finished another pack of Philosoraptor as they finally reached the entrance to James's steampunk town. "We need to kill it before it can combine with the Terminus. After that, we can take on the boss and free farm some." The others nodded and they began walking casually into the Steampunk City.

"Think the others will be able to keep the players at bay?" Crikey, whose class had upgraded to Expert Trapper, asked as he set a tripwire trap at the entrance to the town. His subclass option increased the lifespan of his traps, the number of traps he could set, and their power. James had to admit, between Crikey, SpinToWin, and SoulDemon, that trio was definitely a threat to be worried about. He would be keeping an eye out for them on the Fields of Battle.

"They know what they're doing. Besides, I doubt we have to worry about anyone that gets past them." SoulDemon paused as he eyed the path they were walking on. A sound could be heard from one of the other alleyways, a grinding sound James knew all too well. B.L.U. was approaching rapidly, along with his pack of velocity raptors and philosoraptors. Of course, James had been the ones to send them towards the party. This was all part of James's evil plan. Which had been developed the moment he heard about SoulDemon's party's plan.

They had invaded alongside another party of five, which consisted of two healers, a paladin, and two assassins. They were going to set up near the entrance to the floor, and just murder every party that stepped in to stop the invaders. Kind of a dick move, but something James had expected. At the same time, SoulDemon and his party were going to take down the mini boss and main boss and farm the mobs up for core essence and materials. After 30 minutes, they would retreat back to BLANKs dungeon and trade in the essence for Dungeon War gear. It was a solid plan.

Of course, James had also learned that players couldn't leave a floor during the dungeon war while they were engaged with a boss mob. MercerEffect's team had been lucky, as they had bailed the moment the boss mob showed up, without attacking it. Some other teams James had seen had been less fortunate, finding that while they were engaged with a boss mob, they could not leave a floor. Which James had to admit, was a nice mechanic thrown in. It meant people couldn't try and challenge a boss, and then just use their ability to leave the instance and head back to their dungeon as an escape route to conserve their experience and dungeon essence.

As such, James had purposefully sent B.L.U. towards SoulDemon and his party. While James had debated summoning the Terminus and having him combine with B.L.U., he was sure SpinToWin would draw the aggro in order to let his party members escape from the massive secret boss and teleport out. And since SoulDemon had the majority of their dungeon essence, he was the one James really needed to shut down.

So, he was baiting them. He was going to let them kill B.L.U., and then star the battle with the Terminus. The moment the boss fight started; James was going to summon his world boss. Between the world boss, and the Terminus, well the invaders were going to be stuck between a literal incoming rock, and a hard place, being the Terminus coliseum. Worst case scenario, SoulDemon and his party beat the Terminus and retreated. Best case scenario, they got wiped. Either way, James got to see his M.I.N.E. Craft in action. So, it was still a win for him. And, while he was certain he would pay for it later, he was going to make sure not to wake Rue for this fight. Sure, he would show her the recording later, but after all, the saying 'You snooze, you lose,' existed for a reason.

Chapter end