Chapter 12
Five minutes. That was the death timer allotted to players who fell in the dungeon and couldn’t get respawned. A timer that had been extremely damning on the first floor, considering players only had a maximum of 1-hour to explore it. On the sixth, the five-minute timer, at first, didn’t seem all that painful. What was five minutes, after all, when you had a total of six hours to explore the floor?
However, those five minutes were in fact even more vital, in James’s humble opinion, on the sixth floor than the first. Every minute was a minute the Jormun-Grander advanced. Every minute, a moment in time for the boss to get larger, more powerful. And, more importantly, every minute was a minute that the boss drew closer to its greatest source of power, the Orbs. One of which the Jormun-Grander was extremely close to now. Earlier James had predicted an hour, now, he was pretty sure it was under 30minutes. Courtesy of a size boost the boss had gained by consuming a Solem while the Knights had been battling the J-Kappa’s.
“The next time we see those mobs, we kill them from a distance.” Oak growled as he rejoined his teammates. The Knights Who Go NI, well, Elm, Z, and Faust, had all been waiting back at the entrance to the dungeon. Med Ic, who’d died first, had just rejoined them. And now Oak, whose tanky nature had held out until the Fogeyman finished off Med Ic, had finally respawned as well.
“That’s probably a better plan,” Z said with a nod, “and we should ensure they don’t have any allies hiding in the shadows. Either way, the battle was valuable for information,” he looked at Oak, grinning, “and entertainment. You think we can request different songs from them in the future? Or, how about autographs?” He winked at Oak, “the Idol you’d been focusing on seemed especially interested in you.”
An object appeared in Oak’s hand, and the tank chucked something at Z’s face. The laughing elf dodged the object, and it splattered harmlessly on the stone floor behind him. James looked at it and mentally pulled up the information on the item before he found himself chuckling.
“Spoiled Painguin Eggs?” He eyed Steve. “Since when have the food drops been able to spoil?”
Steven grinned, “since the latest update. We snuck that one in. The higher ups wanted to add a bit more realism in. And we weren’t opposed, since too many players had begun hoarding basic food items for buffs and healing. It… gets a bit ridiculous when someone’s running around with one hundred wheels of cheese to just hastily consume mid battle. And, if I’m being honest,” he gagged slightly, “it’s really disturbing to watch happen. Even if it is all virtual, bleh.”
“So now the food items can spoil.” James shook his head, “how do you think players are going to take that?”
He pointed at the spoiled egg splatter, which likely smelled given how the Knights were looking at it, and wrinkling their nose. “Well, it gives them a free item to throw at each other. And, harder to gather ingredients take longer to spoil. The players get warnings too, with countdowns, for the length of time an ingredient has before it goes bad. They can also store them in special units back in town in their houses, to prevent or slow the process.” Steve shrugged. “Not to mention, some of the materials now can actually improve over time as they age, opening up a whole new realm of possibilities and flavors.”
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“Still feels a bit unnecessary.” James commented as the Knights finished fooling around in the dungeon, preparing to begin their adventuring of his sixth floor once again. “I’m sure the reddit is going to be filled with people complaining.”
“With all the hype about the upcoming mass Dungeon Wars, we figured no one would complain. Everyone’s too hyped and excited. By the time they finish their full, 48-hour dive, well,” Steve chuckled, “I highly doubt anyone will complain. After all, that’s like 48 days in game, they’ll have forgotten all about their gripes with the slight change and will be chomping at the bits for even more content. Every good developer knows you slip possibly unfavorable updates into the game when you’re dropping something massive, new, and exciting. That way, all the complaints get buried and forgotten.”
James shook his head, wondering what other subtle updates and changes had been implemented since DCO’s release that he’d not noticed. They’d had a few massive updates already. The Dungeon Wars, the introduction of the Coliseums, the Dungeon Gates, and of course, the Skirmishes. Each and every one of those had immediately become the talk of the forums. The rate of new content was honestly staggering, all things considered. And now Steve was saying those updates had the potential to have hidden other changes and features. James was again hit with the realization there was a lot that went on with regards to DCO that even he, as a Dungeon Core, didn’t know.
Considering how close he felt he was with Steve, and of course BLANK, aka Rachel and Matthew, the adopted children of the game’s original creator, Xander, who were now in charge of the game, it made him wonder. Just what was DCO all about? And what else was going on? Why were his parents involved with the project? Why was Rue’s father involved with it? Why did the government have so much interest in the game itself? And was it all connected with how many liberties and special permissions the game seemed to be getting? After all, the upcoming 48-hour immersion was going to be the very first event of its kind. And unheard of, never before granted right for everyone to stay immersed for longer than 9 hours.
James shivered and pushed the growing unease from his mind. Those thoughts, which had plagued him ever since his encounter with the hacking group Cyberu5, never led him down any good paths. They just made his mind spin and worry. Not everything good in life needed a monster in the shadows waiting to ruin it. And DCO was arguably the best thing to ever happen in his life. After all, he thought as he looked at Rue, her smile making his heart flutter, DCO was where his heart truly belonged. Whatever was going on behind the scenes, it didn’t matter to him, as long as DCO itself, this world, this life he was building, wasn’t affected.
He found himself smiling as he focused on those thoughts, pushing aside the creeping darkness, and turned his full attention back to his favorite guild, and their trek through his Sixth Floor. They’d seemed to have been discussing a plan and had just finished making a decision. With renewed purpose, and a few more spoiled eggs thrown about, Z and his guild were once again heading into James’s Sixth Floor. The dungeon dive was back on. And James was here for it.