Dungeon Core Online 60 Chapter 60

It took James a few minutes to regain his composure following the forced logout. Waking from immersion was generally a peaceful experience, a slow transition, as if waking easily from a long, restful night of dreaming. Forced logouts were sudden, jerking, and hard on the mind, akin to waking from a nightmare. Which, given the conversation with Xander, and all that James had just learned, was fitting.

James laid in his immersion pod for a few moments, letting the warm gel like substance retract back into the pod. After a minute or two, the lid opened up, releasing him from his pod.

"Whelp, might as well get ready." He glanced at the clock near his bed, noting it was just a little after 6am. Given the fact that normally, immersion ended at 7am, James did indeed have an extra hour to himself. He begrudgingly shrugged off the clothes he had fallen asleep in, tossing them into his laundry hamper. The hamper had been nearing full, and as his clothes landed in it, the machine recognized it was at capacity.

Instantly, the lid on the hamper closed, and the entire metal container sunk into the ground. Technology had greatly advanced, and as Xander had mentioned, James's parents were brilliant when it came to robotics. As such, there was practically a robot for nearly every task in his house, that he didn't wish to do. The laundry hamper was what one would consider 'smart tech.' It recognized when the laundry was full, and would instantly begin washing and drying it. The whole process would take a little over an hour, after which, the clothes would be returned, completely clean, dry, and folded, placed back in his dressers and closets according to the type of clothes that were washed. Technology definitely made life easier.

With his laundry going, James began his morning routine. He of course didn't take Xander at his word, and had checked his computer to see if he could access his DCO app. Unfortunately, a message had appeared, showing he was banned from the app, with a countdown timer showing he would have to wait until after 7am, to hop back on. Frustrating, but expected.

After he finished showering, he grabbed a pair of clothes, simple jeans and a t-shirt, and went about grabbing breakfast. Since he had the extra time, James decided he was going to cook himself Belgium waffles instead of his normal pancakes. He still intended to fry up some bacon as well.

The process of making the batter from scratch took longer, but James actually secretly enjoyed cooking. Well, at least, he did now. He may have spent over 300 hours of in game time honing his cooking skills just to get a legendary piece of gear, just so he could get the achievement for it. After that much time working on cooking skills, James had found he actually enjoyed it.

After preparing his batter, James glanced at the time. He still had about 15 minutes before he could even log back onto DCO through the app, plenty of time to cook his waffles and enjoy his breakfast.

He did just that, choosing not to grab his AR glasses just yet. Normally, he would have been browsing the web as he ate, or watching a show, but James was finding the realization of the amount of surveillance ability technology gave Xander, and the government, a bit perturbing, to say the least. As he ate, he couldn't help but feel like he was being watched. Chances were, he was. How had he not thought about such things in the past? James supposed because of how prominent technology was, how integral it was in life, people just choose not to focus on such things. What did thinking about such matters achieve, after all? You couldn't escape technology.

Once his breakfast was done, he let out a sigh, and walked back to his room. Taking a deep breath, he picked up his AR glasses, and slid them on. He had been so proud of these glasses, had loved the freedom they put at his fingertips. Now, he knew they partially a prison. But he would not let Xander take the fun out of his life. Xander may have an unfair amount of power in DCO, but James would not let him take over James life.

"Now, let's see just what Steve managed to give us." James spoke aloud, knowing now that Xander could hear everything. He was going to poke Xander at any chance he had.

James opened up the DCO app, quickly running through all the information before him.

Glyax Tier 2 Rank 4 Dungeon

Mob Type: Random

179,999 xp

1 xp to next rank

120,001 xp to next Tier

Resources: 120 of 2500

Currency: 0 copper 0 silver 5 gold 0 platinum

Dungeon Tokens: 6

It seemed when Xander forced James out of the game, it was a complete force out, meaning James needed to wait till 8, to hit Rank 5. That was fine, since James still had a few other things to check on.

Dungeon Research

James pulled up his research tab, nearly licking his lips in anticipation. He was remembering what the achievement for Highlander had detailed, and was rather excited for the results. If he was correct…

Enhanced Research – Rank 6

Boss Mob – Rank 6

Mob – Rank 6

Loot – Rank 6

Trap – Rank 6

Event – Rank 5 – 179hr 37m 12s till next rank

Instance – Rank 4 – 9hr 48m 39s till next rank

He couldn't help but grin as he glance over his research stats. Just before he had gained Steve's achievement, James had finished Rank 4 research on Event, and had started it towards Rank 5, a task that would take 182 hours and 24 minutes to reach rank 5, his enhanced research time taking 5 percent off the normal 192 hours it would take to reach rank 5. However, courtesy of Steve's achievement, all of his research ranks had instantly been increased by 1 level. On top of that, since Event and Instance had already been started, it seemed they were still ticking away towards their next research level, regardless of the fact he had just magically gained a level.

Meaning he would have Rank 6 Event research and Rank 5, maybe even Rank 6, instance research by the time he logged back into DCO after day. Even though Steve had just caused James a world of inconveniences, the gamer in him couldn't help but appreciate the achievement. He really was looking forward to logging back in with all his new research levels, and his new Rank 5 stats. James was going to be busy.

Once James had finished glancing at his research options, he hovered over the Mob feature on the app. James had a mob point to assign to ever single one of his mobs, as well as a boss mob point for his bosses and mini boss. He really wanted to assign all of those points immediately but decided he would wait. The moment he got his rank 5 level, he would back into their skills with another skill point. He could wait an hour to assign those points all at the same time. He was all for efficiency if he could manage it.

Having finished scanning the app, James glanced at the time again. He really wasn't used to having so much free time before he headed to school. He figured he could catch an earlier train, and get to the school ahead of time, but he was not looking forward to giving Dwight any extra time with which the bully could harass James. Speaking of… James made a mental note to see about protecting himself from the bully.

Setting that plan aside and choosing to spend more time at his house before heading into class, James flipped up his wrists and summoned his virtual keyboard. He realized there was something he had been neglecting to check, what with all the time he had been spending on the Dungeon Core Chat.

He quickly used his AR mouse and keyboard to navigate to his bookmarks, pulling up the Reddit page for his town's DCO instance. James felt his eyes go wide as he started to scan the list of topics, as the very first one, posted less than an hour ago, was already the most active on the page. The poster? Z, from the Knights Who Go Ni. The topic? The Terminus Rex.

Chapter end