Dungeon Core Online 26 Chapter 26

"Am I seeing things?" Oak had pulled up short from the mobs, as the group all paused. "Or did the dickens get bigger?"

"That's what she said." Rue broke into a fit of giggles, and James found himself chuckling and blushing at the same time. Alright, so she hadn't been the most helpful during the tutorial, he found her company was definitely preferred over the silence of loneliness. He was all too used to that in the real world.

"Yeah, they definitely got bigger. If I had to guess, I'd say they are now African Dickens, instead of European Dickens." The entire party, and Rue, broke into laughter. Whatever Z was referencing, was apparently funny. James made a mental note to look it up later. Z stepped up next to Oak, and slapped him on the back. "Maybe try not to get pecked to death." He pushed the poor tank forward, as Oak shot Z a pained look.

"Why do I always have to be the tank?"

"Well, you actually have a class that can play the tank role. Plus the most hp, and the highest defense…you kinda did this to yourself buddy." Z shrugged his shoulder as he spoke, and the others nodded in agreement. "My highest stat is dexterity after all. Do you really think I could be a tank if all I did was dodge?" The rest of the group chuckled as Oak started muttering under his breath.

"You all owe me a round of drinks." Oak, finally resigned to his fate, grumbled as he stepped forward, raising his shield.

"We aren't stopping for drinks till Old Man Jenkins is dead. So yeah, I'm sure we will have plenty of copper to buy ya drinks by then, especially as you keep us safe." The rest of the group broke out in laughter as the ranged dps member took up their stances, preparing to launch their attacks.

"I hate you all so much." He took another step closer, and all five dickens turned to look at him, stopping their mindless pecking of the ground. The dicken closest to Oak cocked its head to the side, and let out a questioning cluck.

"You guys are going to kill that lamb first, right?" Oak was of course referencing the sacrificial lamb that was absentmindedly chewing on some grass at the back of the dicken flock. Oak hadn't drawn near enough to it to draw its agro.

"Eh, we can try." Z was glancing from the dickens, who were still staring at Oak, to the lamb. "Though it might be easier to-"

"Moooooooooooooooooooo" The unmistakable cry of a mad cow caused the group to flinch, and James watched, amused, as Oak's face drained of color. Well, all the color save for the blood still splashed across his face. The group had forgotten to clean him up in their excitement to continue farming.

"New plan." Z started running to the side, as he bow leveled at the first dicken. His arrow flew true and smashed into the dickens chest. The dicken let out an angry cluck, and scratched at the ground, its eyes narrowing as it viewed Z. The rest of the flock began ruffling its feathers.

"You keep the Mad Cow busy, and we will clear these mobs." James could tell Oak wanted to complain, but he shook his head, resolve crossing his face as he turned towards the sound of the Mad Cow. The beast was steaming, heading full speed towards Oak and his group. With one last sigh, the warrior ran towards it, a battle cry ripping from his mouth. James was torn between which fight he wanted to watch more. The one on one against a mad cow, or the new and improved dickens and lamb. The dickens and lamb won by a small margin.

"Bet you 10 resource points he solo's that cow." Rue was grinning as her eyes flicked towards Oak, who had just slammed into the mad cow. The warrior was level three, James wasn't sure he could take on a Mad Cow all by himself.

"You're on." James accepted the bet mainly because he was curious what exactly Rue would do with resource points. It was also only an hour worth of resources, and James had just hit climbed over 100 again. He could risk 10.

"Try to restrain some of these." Z cried out as he let another arrow fly. It grazed the lead dicken's wing, and James could guess it hadn't done much damage. That was two strikes on the front dicken. Z needed to be careful.

"On it." Faust started chanting, his hands moving in an intricate design, and a few seconds later, vines shot up beneath the flock of dickens that had been chasing Z. The fines snagged three of dickens, who promptly began pecking and slashing at the accosting vines. Their larger beaks and claws were going to make quick work of that snare.

"Thanks." Z paused as the lead dicken neared him, and he and Elm both launched arrows at the dicken. Just as the arrows neared, the dicken spread its wings and its powerful legs launched it off the ground. The arrows both sailed underneath the dicken, barely grazing it. That was four.

"What the-"

"Cluck?" Rue replaced Z's comment with her own as the dicken, followed by the remaining un-snared dicken, both took flight. James broke out in laughter, both from her comment, and the anticipation. He knew what was going to come next.

Just as the two dickens soared over Z, two eggs dropped onto the poor archer. The eggs both smashed into his face, and open mouth. They exploded in yolk and fire, doing 5 damage a piece to the archer, and leaving behind scrambled eggs across his face. Devastating and tasty.

"You chose gren-eggs?" Rue was laughing hysterically as they watched Z turn and blindly launch another arrow. It sprouted out of the first dickens chest, dealing a good amount of damage James could tell, but just falling short of killing the dicken. On top of that, it activated Flock Together. Poor Z.

"Hey Z." Med Ic's hands were glowing as he looked at his leader, and a golden light surrounded the archer, healing him from his damage. To James's amusement, the scrambled eggs remained for the archer to wipe off himself.

"What?" The leader was glaring at the dickens, who were all glaring back. The other three had nearly freed themselves, and their eyes were fixated on him. Above his head, a glowing feather showed he had their agro.

"Guess you do get to be a dodge tank." The rest of the group broke out in laughter, as Z's face paled. Cursing, he broke out in a run, launching arrows blindly towards the dickens as the entire flock took flight, chasing after him. With their attention solely focused on Z, Faust and Elm were taking turns launching attacks into the flock. Wisely, they targeted the lead dicken first, as it was the most damaged. Once they brought it down, the other dickens lost their buff, and they became much easier to kill.

"Good job-" Z had paused to catch his breath, as he turned to watch the group picking off the dickens. Faust had landed another snare on the 2 foot poultry, making them even easier to take down. "-baaaaa".

"Seriously?" Z sighed as he turned in time to see the sacrificial lamb, which he had accidently agro'd head-butted him. The attack made him stumble back towards the snared dickens, who started pecking excitedly in his direction. They were just shy of being able to reach him.

The glowing sheep erupted, sending blood and wool flying everywhere. Z was drenched in blood, activating the dot, and absorbed the entire blast from the sacrificial lamb. Because the lamb was level 2, baa baa boom did 10 damage before defense was applied.

"God that hurt." Z was standing slowly as he looked at his character sheet, paying no heed to the dickens that were fighting to get to him. He likely figured he was safe. He wasn't.

The wool that had been blasted into the sky, large clumps of it, were slowly raining down around him.

"Are these new drops?" Z held a hand out to a piece of wool as it was falling, his eyes looking at it with wonder. The moment his hand touched the wool, it detonated. The archer cursed just as the rest of the wool continued to fall around him. If James had to guess, at least 10 clumps of wool landed on the poor archer. At 3 x lvl damage, that meant the archer had just been blasted by over 60 points of damage. Needless to say, his form disappeared, mid curse, into an orb.

At the same time, the other clumps of wool landed on the three trapped dickens, activating tiny explosions, creating a cloud of feathers as the dickens all died.

"What the Cluck?" Oak's voice was laughing as he neared the group. The warrior was bleeding from multiple wounds, and obviously injured, yet he had somehow survived his encounter with the Mad Cow. The others were glancing down at their own screens, and if James had to guess, they had just gotten an achievement.

"What the Cluck. Defeat three or more dickens using another mob. Reward, 100xp." The others started grinning as they all broke out in a cheer, before they glanced at Z's orb. "Think he gets the experience, or did he lose it?" Faust's comment made the group wince, and James excitedly pulled up his character sheet. A moment later, he let out a sigh. It didn't seem like he had gotten a 100xp boost. He guessed since the dicken deaths came after Z's death, he didn't have the experience to lose when he died. Lame.

"Well, if he did lose the experience, he's going to be really mad at me." Oak was grinning as the others turned at him. "Check out my character." Curious, James pulled up Oak's character sheet, scanning through the warriors stats. To his surprise, the warrior was now level 4. That was strange, they should have all been level three. Also, just before the warriors name, in glowing black letters, was the word "Matador."

"Matador?" Elm's words echoed James's question, and Oak broke into a grin.

"It was an achievement I got for soloing the Mad Cow." James flipped quickly to Oak's achievement tab. Sure enough, Oak had three achievements unlocked. James scanned them quickly. Try hard and What the Cluck? He knew about already. The third achievement, made him laugh. Rodeo Clown- Defeat a Mad Cow or higher tiered demonic farm animal.

"It gave you 200 experience, and a title?" James's attention was pulled away from his laughter, and he glanced at Rue.

"Are titles in DCO beneficial?" He had come across both types of titles. Some gave benefits to players, whereas others were just a means to show off.

"Aren't you inquisitive?" Rue offered him a sly grin. "Should I really share the information with you, or make you wait and see?" Wow she turned that around on him quickly. James was once again back at her mercy, or was he?

"Well, either you tell me now, or I'm sure Oak and the others will mention it in a second." It was a gamble, but James figured his AI would rather be the one to tell him things, instead of learning from adventurers. That was after all part of purpose she served.

"Fiiinnnneee." She crossed her arms as her face took on a pout. James knew it was fake, but it was still extremely cute. Even with her attitude, times like these made the 16 year old perfectly happy with his AI choice. Who didn't want to a cute pixie companion?

"Titles are beneficial in DCO, and can only be unlocked via certain achievements." James's opened his mouth to speak, but was stopped by the pixie's hand. "In Oak's instance, his 'Matador' title will give him a 10% increase in damage to Mad Cows and their evolutions, and a 10% decrease in damage from mad cows and their evolutions." The pixie had once again read his mind, or at least predicted what he was going to ask. Was she psychic? Or was he just that predictable?

"And, one last question?" He glanced from Rue, the group of adventurers, who appeared to have decided to rest after looting the bodies, while they waited for Z to return. The guild leader had respawned at the entrance to the floor, but had his 5 minute cooldown to wait until he could rejoin his friends.

"What's that?" Rue cocked her head to the side a small grin playing across her face.

"Did you enjoy my rank up choices?" James couldn't hide the amusement from his voice, and Rue's grin spread as she let out a chuckle.

"They were eggcelent."

Chapter end