Chapter 67
They tuned in just in time to watch Z and the others reached the seventh floor. It wasn’t an accident, of course. He’d set up an alarm to trigger when their party reached the seventh floor. Considering how few parties had made their way to the sixth floor, when Z and the others stepped through the portal, they created the first, and only, instance of the seventh floor currently up in his dungeon.
“Well would you look at that,” Z said aloud, letting out a whistle as he and the others took in the hotel lobby. The portal placed them at the base floor of the hotel, nestled back near the ‘entrance’ to give the illusion they’d just walked into the space from outside.
“When did we leave Colorado for California?” Elm asked, causing the Knights to laugh. Skar and his group, who James felt were closer to his age, rather than the Knight’s, looked around.
“Is this based on a hotel in California?” Troll’d asked. James felt the urge to facepalm on the player’s behalf, and half the people in the ten-man party actually did.
“Seriously, you’re lucky you’re cute.” Olivia said to Troll’d as she grabbed his hand. Her telltale red orb was hovering over her shoulder. She’d been becoming quite the popular streamer from what James had been able to find. Being in the second strongest guild in his instance meant she got a lot of high-level content others didn’t’ get to experience yet. And of course, their friendly relationship with the Knights Who Go Ni meant a lot of ‘collaborations’ that many people really enjoyed watching.
Likewise, James was streaming the feed from this seventh-floor instance to the other Dungeon Cores, while Rue handled the comments as always. It was nice, losing himself for one last time to life as an actual Dungeon Core. If only this was all there was. It would have been nice.
“We’ll make sure you guys get a proper education on the classics a little later,” Z said, smiling kindly at Troll’d. “For now, we’ve a hotel to check into.” There was some snickering from his teammates, “and then, well, we’ll see how long we can enjoy our stay until we leave.”
The party fanned out, with Skar and Oak taking the lead, the healers and magic users staying back and in the center of the party, while the DPS fanned out. The lobby itself didn’t have any mobs. James had designed it that way. It would give the players a chance to decide if they wanted to go up the stairs or investigate the doors that flanked the massive marble counter. Which decision they made would dictate the types of mobs they faced.
“Bet you they go up the stairs first.” Rue said, flicking a platinum coin in the air as she spoke. James grinned at her, remembering fondly all their bets in the past. And also, the fact that she had a very, very, very high rate of winning said bets.
“Deal,” James flicked his wrist, and willed a platinum of his own into his fingers. “Betting against the Goddess of Luck seems ill advised, but what can I say,” he smiled at her, “today I’m feeling lucky.”
If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.
Even as he spoke, he shot Z a quick message. All it said was, door.” Technically, that was probably cheating, but hey, he didn’t specifically tell Z to go through the door. It was up to the leader to decide what to do with that single word message. Not to mention, Rue had, er, been less than fair quite a few times in their early betting, as well as her actions that had netted her a ton of coins from her Goddess Statue on the first floor.
“Might as well help ourselves,” Z said boldly as the group continued walking through the massive lobby. “Doesn’t look like there’s anyone on duty. But who knows what the dungeon will throw at us.”
“Who knows indeed,” Elm said with a knowing smile Z’s way. “I’ve always marveled at just how crazy and full of surprises these dungeon floors are. Truly, some inspired AI work from the game.”
James couldn’t help but smile at the compliment from Elm. At least, he hoped it was a compliment. He took pride in his dungeon design. And working with the mobs that he’d been given, he felt he did a good job. He could stand criticism of the mobs themselves, since those weren’t his fault, but the dungeon layout, the design, the traps, and all those other features, he’d always done his best to give the adventurers the best experience he ever could. As much as he’d wished for time as an adventurer, James loved his role as Dungeon Core.
“I’m just curious to see what types of mobs are on this floor,” Oak said as they walked closer to the check in counter. He was looking all around, his shield partially raised, ready to intercept any attack that may come their way. “Just once I’d love to not have to be surprised each floor by something new. It’s so nice diving some of the other dungeons.”
“Only because you can over prepare for them.” Med Ic pitched in. “Other dungeons make your life easy. Fire dungeons, you know it’s all fire mobs, so you can stack fire resistance. Same with wind, or water, or so forth. Whereas the Random Dungeon, well, it keeps you on your toes.”
“I’d prefer my feet firmly planted at times,” Oak said bitterly, “seriously, the random nature of everything makes it so much harder to properly tank, and our gear is always so, random.”
“You just wish life was easy,” Z slapped Oak on the back with a laugh. “You know as well as I do that’s never the case.” He looked over at Skar. Now level 91, thanks to their grinding on the fifth and sixth floor before heading to the seventh, Skar’s body was swirling with gray whisps of energy. His class had changed, once more, and was now listed as an Ethereal Champion of the Void. “You don’t have any problems with the mobs changing every floor, do you Skar?”
Skar shook his head, a smile on his face. “The challenge is nice,” he said, hefting his own shield in hand. It wasn’t a Unique Item like Oaks, and instead seemed to be made of cybernetic armor plating from the fifth floor. “Tanking in other games gets boring when things are the same too often. I like the challenge, though,” he looked longingly at Oak’s shield, “I wouldn’t mind some better gear every now and then.”
“Spoken like a true gamer,” Z grinned. “Since my tank apparently is afraid of the unknown,” Z looked at Skar, “I’ll let you pick our next option. Do we go through one of the doors? Or head up the stairs?”
“How about we—” was all Skar got to say, before a ball of crackling energy soared over their party, erupting in a blaze of colors.
“How about you let me decide.” A haughty, arrogant voice said. “You all owe me that.”
James groaned as he recognized the voice. He’d been so fixated on Z and Skar, and winning the bet, that he’d not had his focus zoomed out. Meaning he’d missed the new party that had entered the seventh floor. A party that, by all intents and purposes, didn’t belong. SoulDemon and friends, from the Candy Dungeon, had returned to James’s once more.