42 Chapter 42 (1/2)

Chapter 42

”I get more instances?” James had just finished creating a post on the Dungeon Core forum, letting other cores know what he had just found out about mimics, as well as the achievement for wiping a party with a mimic. He figured it was only fair to share his discovery with the group and knew the better relationship he gained with those gamers, the more secrets they would learn together. During that time, his rank 1 instance research had finished. To his surprise, the moment it did, more instances began to populate, surprising both him, and the adventurers.

”Mhmm. Each rank in instance research will increase the number of instances you can create by 5. It also increases the number of players that can populate an instance to 25.” So, instance research not only was a way for him to unlock some really spiffy special mobs, but also to increase the number of instances, and therefore adventures, in his dungeon. More instances meant more experience, James was all for that.

”So, in theory, I can have an unlimited number of instances.” James had gotten used to having 10 instances with 20 adventurers in each, for a total of 200 players at a time. This upgrade had just increased it so that now a total of 375 players could enter the first floor of his dungeon at a time. What's more, Rue had mentioned when someone entered his second floor, it would create a new instance of its own. So, did that mean he now had access to 15 tier 2 instances as well? While it would be a while before there were enough able-bodied adventurers to take on his second floor, James couldn't wait.

”In theory. The developers did give dungeon cores the option to manually set their limits on floor instances, both in how many are created, and how many adventurers can be in an instance at once. You obviously don't want a floor being overrun with more adventurers than you have mobs.”

She had a good point, and James was glad the developers had implemented such a feature. He had played more than a few games where popular areas became oversaturated, usually making it less fun for lower leveled, casual players. The last thing James wanted in DCO was for players to stop having fun. Well, everyone but Dwight and his team. They were currently still on their penalty, and James had already set a dungeon alarm, to let him know if they reentered his floor after their hour penalty was up. He had more plans for them.

”I love this game.” James whispered, grinning as he watched the instances continue to grow. Outside of his dungeon, he could see large groups of players rushing towards the dungeon entrance. Word had likely been spread that it was letting in more players. As he scanned the crowd, he couldn't help but laugh. Somebody had created what appeared to be a little shop at the entrance to his dungeon.

”What is that?” He turned his focus to it and had to fight back a laugh. At the top of the shop, the name The Dicken Shack was spelled out in bright letters. Sure enough, it looked like the shop was selling fried and baked dicken. Leave it to players to create a fast food restaurant at the front of a dungeon. Sheesh.

”How'd they make that shop so quick?” It definitely hadn't been there when they first all started entering less than an hour ago.

”Remember those building tokens that mimic bait group mentioned?” James grinned, the fight replaying in his mind.

”How could I forget? I wish I could watch that fight again.”

”You can.” Rue commented nonchalantly, before continuing. ”Anyways, every player that loads into DCO, gets 1 building token. A building token can create a single story, single roomed building. Essentially, it gives players the ability to make themselves a tiny home.” That makes sense. Because of the duration players were in the game, they would need places to relax and sleep. A lot of games had started implementing camping sets and other options into games, mainly because inns tended to fill up way too quickly.

”So that person used their token to create their house right outside of the dungeon, and turned it into a business?” That was actually pretty smart. Cooked dicken had healing properties, and oddly enough, carried a small buff if your entire party consumed some together. From James had seen, it was a 5% increase to atk and def for all party members in parties of 5 or more.

”Yup. And, as,” Rue grinned, ”D-Man, mentioned, you can combine building tokens in order to create larger structures.” She pointed towards the trees, where a massive structure towered over the rest of the town. It had grown quite a bit since players started playing DCO, but nothing matched the size of the massive building. ”That is an Adventurer's Hall. It's a special building that takes 50 building tokens to create. However, because they were the ones to build it, now all quests, and job postings, will go through that building. Whoever teamed up to make that, likely isn't worrying about coin anymore.”

James nodded as he looked at the building. If he had to guess, that was a corporation or group of city officials that created the building. In almost every game, people raced to establish control on that level. Whoever controlled the jobs, controlled the wealth. Even if they were only taking a 10% cut of everything off players who accepted quests and job offerings, they would be making a pretty penny. Though, James was curious what type of quests existed currently. Did they auto populate based on the dungeon's mob types?

”You mentioned quests Rue? How do those come about?”

”Worried your second floor might be given away?” That was exactly what he was worried about. If quests populated the moment his floor was made, then they would know the mob type had changed. Where would the fun be in that?

”Don't worry, quests don't populate until the boss of a floor has been defeated. So, until the Terminus Rex falls, adventurers won't know what is on your second floor, save for from word of mouth.” Ah, that made James a little more relaxed. He had an alarm set up for the portal and was still waiting for a group to pass through, so he could win the bet. Z's group had just finished off Old Man Jenkins again, but they hadn't passed by the barn, so it seemed they didn't know about the portal. As such, they had waited their five minutes, and been teleported out of the dungeon. James knew they would be back in an hour though, so he really needed some other unlucky group to stumble through.