40 Chapter 40 (2/2)
The warrior took a step towards the chest, grinning at the others, before he lifted the lid. The moment he did, wooden spikes shot up from the ground into him, digging in deep. The poor warrior cried out in surprise, and started cussing up a storm. Once again, his friends just stood and laughed.
”That's it.” Oak growled as he freed himself from the spikes, heading away from the group.
”Someone else gets to open these durned chests.”
”Ah come on, you're the punching bag for a reason.” Z was gasping for breath as he fought to stop laughing. He was trying, and failing, to regain his composure.
”I'm the tank, I've resigned myself to that. I'm not the trap dummy.” Oak looked at the group, and James could tell his anger was already fading. You couldn't become top level adventurers in MMOs if you didn't have a good sense of humor, after all.
”Well, who do you suppose should open the traps then?” Z was glancing at the rest of the group, and James could see the point Z was trying to make. You wouldn't have your healer risk getting damaged by a trap, and the other three were all DPS players, with lower defense and hp than the warrior. Logically, Oak was the only choice.
”Don't you guys get a ranger subclass at level 20? I read in the notes that class has a detect traps option.”
”Subclass?” James turned towards Rue, and the pixie nodded. James had to admit, he had been so caught up reading the dungeon core forums and working on his pop culture knowledge, he hadn't had much time to learn much of the game from the player point of view. James opened another window, quickly heading towards the DCO home page. As a gamer, he had a terrible habit of jumping around countless internet windows.
”From level 1 through 19, players have just their regular class, such as warrior, archer, cleric, etc. When they hit level 20, and every 10 levels after, they are able to pick up a subclass. With these subclasses, they gain access to additional skill tress, and special boosts to their character stats. Some subclass combinations can actually unlock secret classes as well.”
”Gotcha, so it's just a way for them to broaden and create their own individual characters, via a way of multiclassing.” James had seen that in a few games, and had to admit he liked the idea. It felt much more DnD, and pure, than a lot of the games he played now. Most claimed you had complete optimization, but you were usually trapped in a set class, and at max level it was likely every player of that class was running some variation of the same skill set and gear. This subclass option for the players, combined with the potential to unlock secret classes, was extremely intriguing. For a moment, James was kind of jealous he wasn't playing a character in DCO. He could only imagine what he could have become as a summoner.
”Well, I had planned on becoming an arcane archer.” Elm looked to Z, and James saw the archer was pleading the team leader. Time to see what type of leader Z was.
”I,” Z paused as he looked at his team, before his shoulders dropped slightly. ”Ah, why not. I'll take ranger at 20.” His comment brought a smile to everyone's faces, and the tension James had started to feel around the group lifted. ”Besides, I think rangers can get an animal companion. If I get a black panther, you guys have to call me Drizzt, at least for a day.”
”Psh, you'll never be as cool as Drizzt.” Faust cut in, and the group let out a light laugh. James turned to Rue, seeing if she got the reference. For once, it seemed like the pixie had no idea what was being talked about. James ran a quick google search for the name, and found it was from an old book series. He quickly added it to his to read list, before turning back to his instance screen. Just as he was about to listen in on their next conversation, a flashing light from one of his other instance screens caught his attention. His alarm was going off, a group was near his mimic. Oh yes.