Dungeon Core Online 16 Chapter 16

Achievement Unlocked- I feel Pretty- Populate a dungeon floor with 6 different types of plants.

Reward- 200xp, 50 resources.

And that completes the last of them. James was grinning as he closed out of the achievement screen.

"Finally finished Achievement hunting?" Rue looked up from the table, which now had a small slot machine on it. The pixie had been playing with the slot machine and drinking the whole time he had been messing with achievements. James glanced at the clock and was startled to see he had just under 2 hours remaining. Had he really wasted that much time?

"Hey, it was worth it." James pulled up his character sheet to show her.

Glyax Tier 1 Rank 1 Dungeon

Mob Type: Random

2500 xp

7500 xp to next rank

997,500 xp to next Tier

Resources: 50 of 1000

Currency: 0 copper 0 silver 0 gold 0 platinum

Dungeon Token: 7

"I'm not going to compliment you, if that's what you're looking for." She stuck her tongue out at him, as she took another drink. Sure, she seemed to have been pacing herself, but James could tell she was definitely buzzed. At least the AI wasn't flat out drunk.

"Guess I'll just have to step up my game." He grinned to himself as he flipped through his Dungeon Creator screen, finding more fencing to spend his final resources on. The moment he summoned an expanse of fencing for 50 resources, he dumped a dungeon token into his resources, instantly refilling them. "This isn't even my final form."

"Oh, good, because I was a bit underwhelmed." She took another drink, and glanced down at his floor. "I was expecting it to be, bigger." Well, apparently his AI was a mean drunk.

"Alright, how about you stop drinking, and try to sober up before the adventurers arrive." Seriously, sober she was constantly making sexual innuendos and flirting with him. Drunk she was acting uninterested and bored with him. Was the person who designed this AI purposefully aiming to make her bipolar? Sheesh.

"As you command, Glyax." She did a fake curtsy, stumbling slightly, as she waved her hand and made the table, slot machine, and drink disappear. "Glyax, the all powerful buzzkill." She laughed as she flew unsteadily towards him. "So, two hours left, hurry up."

"I would be, if I didn't have to argue with a drunk pixie."

"I'm not-" she started before she crashed into his orb. "Okay, maybe I'm a little drunk." James wanted to be mad at her, but the moment she crashed into him, he broke out laughing. Served her right.

"Just don't get sick all over me." He had seen that happen in a bar once. It wasn't a pretty sight. And he was pretty sure there wasn't an achievement for having your pixie throw up on your orb. If there was, James didn't want it.

"Not making any promises boss." As she spoke, James promptly floated his orb away from her. He needed to focus now, so he could finally touch up his floor.

During his achievement hunting, James had spent a total of 740 resources, thanks to both the resources he was generating per hour, and the rewards he was gaining from the achievements. He had chosen which order to do the achievements in, based upon the rewards they gave, and the amount of resources he had for each achievement. Planning them out, and waiting for resource generation, where the two factors that took the most of his time. However, it had definitely been worth it, and it had helped James develop his floor a little.

The first achievement was titled Pick Me!, and had required James to set up a mining area in his dungeon. Luckily for him, he had already thought of doing just that, based off of what he had read in Dungeon Core novels prior. Unfortunately for him, he had to resource points to spread his influence all the way to the start of the cave, so that he could add ore veins into the rock. The achievement gave him 400 experience, 75 resources, and a Dungeon token though, so it was definitely worth it.

After he completed that, he proceeded to work on the next achievement, titled Feeling Moist? This achievement had James establish at least three bodies of water on his first floor. He spread three ponds out around the floor, the bare minimum for the achievement. After it unlocked, he was rewarded with another 400 experience, and 75 more resources. He had to resist adding small creeks and streams running from the ponds for added effect, and made a mental note to touch those up later. His first floor was going to be magnificent, but he had to focus on his current tasks.

When he completed Feeling moist? James had to slowly wait for his resources to generate, because after completing the first two achievements, he only had 100 resources remaining, and he needed at least 150 to complete the next two achievements. Five hours later, which gave him an additional 50 resources, putting him at 150, he was able to work on the next two.

These achievements went hand in hand, and were titled. Does the carpet? and Match the drapes? James had noticed a theme with a few of these, the innuendos were strong with the developers, which also explained Rue's gutter mind. The dual achievements required him to have a source of lighting in his dungeon, that matched the majority of the floor. Luckily, grass was rather inexpensive resource wise. It was the lighting that he needed to wait on. It cost him 9 resources to cover roughly 450 square yards of dungeon floor, minus of course his ponds. Grass was practically free.

It cost him 140 resources to create a massive glowing red orb that hung from the ceiling, spinning slowly. It cast the most light directly beneath it, but bathed the entire area in varying hues of bright and dull read. To James, it almost looked like a disco ball, but hey, it served it's purpose. The Dungeon Creator allowed him to change the color of his grass, and he gave it a bloodstained red color to, feeling that helped accent his demonic farm feel. With the completion of both, he was rewarded both achievements, netting an additional 600 experience, and 125 resources, putting him at 126 resources total, with 3 and half hours left.

Another hour of working and waiting saw James with his fifth achievement completed, titled Cooped Up. The achievement required him to build living spaces for livestock. Conveniently, his mobs were farm animals, so he had that achievement serve a dual purpose. He spent 100 resource points on this achievement, making 4 chicken coops, which cost him 10 resources a piece, and cold hold 5 dickens, as well as creating a fenced in area for 50 resource points, to hold his sacrificial lambs. When that was finished, he received 400 more experience, 75 resources, and a dungeon token.

He had then used around 30 minutes to complete I Feel Pretty, and was now ready, with less than 2 hours remaining, to finish up his floor to the best of his ability.

The first thing James did, was create a large barn in the middle of his floor. This barn cost him 200 resources, and was large enough to not only allow Old Man Jenkins to walk in, but also could hold some of his mad cows. Next, he created a few smaller buildings, spread out to the best of his ability, around the area. He wanted to make it feel as much like a farm as possible. After the buildings, he added a few pieces of farm equipment, as well as hay bales, and even a wagon full of hay.

Next, James grew more of his crops, which he had started in order to complete I Feel Pretty. Because of his farm theme, James had set up different areas on his dungeon floor, to house different crops. He dumped resources into these now, pleased with the effect it was having. He had fields of corn and wheat, as well as small rows of potatoes, pumpkins, and carrots. His final plants were apple trees, which he started to grow along the very back portion of his farm, away from all the other plants. If there was a single piece of food he was sure adventurers would savor, it would be those apples. They would have to work to get those.

"Ugh, I hate time gates." James groaned as he looked at his dwindling resources. His fields were only a fourth of the size he wanted them, though they were definitely putting on the farm vibe he was looking for. He had 200 resources left though and had wanted to created areas for the rest of his mobs. He used those last resources to create a few smaller pens, which he dispersed around the area. All of his fenced areas, as well as his chicken coops, were meant to serve his mobs, but he made sure they were not locked in any of those buildings. It would be pointless to have roaming mobs with a roaming boss mob, if he locked all of his mobs in.

"Well, you could always spend another Dungeon Token." Rue was sipping on what James was sure was tea, as she glanced from the timer to James' floor.

"No, I don't want to waste those." Every game always encouraged the use of special resources whenever you had them. However, James knew better. Especially since they could instantly refill resources, meaning as his max resource count increased, the dungeon tokens would be worth even more. Plus, James wasn't certain if there would come times when he needed to shave 12 hours off of research. That definitely seemed like something to have handy, just in case.

"Well then, I guess you're done for now." She flew took a sip from her tea, and looked at him, offering a smile. "Good job."

James glanced at the timer, noting there was only a few minutes left before players would be let into the game. Grinning, he pulled up his research timer, noting he had about 45 minutes before his trap research would be done. He was excited to see what trap research unlocked for him, as well as to start his loot research.

"Let's see." James pulled up his character sheet, deciding to check if there was anything else he could do, before the adventurers appeared.

Glyax Tier 1 Rank 1 Dungeon

Mob Type: Random

2500 xp

7500 xp to next rank

997,500 xp to next Tier

Resources: 0 of 1000

Currency: 0 copper 0 silver 0 gold 0 platinum

Dungeon Tokens: 6

With 0 resources, and not wanting to spend dungeon tokens, James definitely had nothing else he could do. He doubled checked all of his mobs making sure they were milling about as they should, while Old Man Jenkins seemed to wander aimlessly around from group of mobs to group of mobs. James had done everything he could in 24 hours, to prepare himself for the adventurers.

"Here we go." Rue's comment was accompanied by a giant red number that appeared in front of James, a countdown.

3- Rue's wings were quivering with excitement

2- James' mind was racing with mental checks.

1- James could feel butterflies in his stomach. Do orbs have stomachs?

Brace Yourself, Adventurers are Coming Seriously, an old-school meme? Ugh.

Chapter end