65 Chapter 65 (1/2)
Chapter 65
The rest of James's day was spent watching firefly, followed by watching the movie for the show, called Serenity. He gladly took it easy, like Z had suggested, and did his best not to move around too much. The throbbing in his head died down, but any sudden movements made it spring back. What really got him though, was his jaw. Sure enough, when the pain blocker wore off, James's jaw erupted with pain. Eating was practically out of the question, so he reluctantly took to drinking water and a supplement drink, called Soylent Blue, through a straw. Pleasant, not in the least. James was pretty sure Soylent Blue tasted about as good as rotting flesh, but it had all the nutrients in it needed for the body.
In between episodes and pained consumption, James was also gleefully plugging away at Dungeon Simulator, errr, the DCO app. By the end of the day, James had earned 3960 resources, having gained 11 resources per hour of in game time, instead of his 10, thanks to Steve's achievement. When he hit rank 5, his max resources had become 2500. So, he had waited till he had 2500, and bought the next level of resource storage. While the first cost 1000, and only increased his maximum by 100, the 2500 option increased his maximum storage by 300. It seemed with the higher cost, came an increase in efficiency, which James was all about. As such, he now had 2800 maximum storage, and 1584 resources to play with when he logged in. Though, he planned on likely just saving up, and continuing to increase his maximum storage amount more. He was planning ahead for his third floor, and really wanted to take advantage of his dungeon tokens when the time came.
The other benefits of the day were his research growths. Courtesy of Steve's achievement, James now had Rank 6 Event Research completed, as well as Rank 5 Instance research completed. James had started Rank 6 for Instance research the moment it was done, and it now had roughly 90 hours remaining on the research. It would have been less, but the whole getting knocked unconscious bit of his day had cost him some precious hours. Luckily, Steve had saved James even more hours with the loopholes of the achievement. Since all of his other research levels were already rank 6, James had decided to begin researching Rank 7 in Enhanced Research. He figured getting that as close to level 10, before he hit Tier 3 as a dungeon, would be in his best interest. That 10% reduced research time would be greatly beneficial, especially since he figured he would also be working on new research options when he hit Tier 3, since Tier 2 had given him 2 new options.
Rue had gotten back to James's message early in the day, and so he had been waiting to upgrade his mobs for when he logged back in, so the pixie could help contribute to his options. He had plans for some of his mobs, but a few of the others, mainly his first-floor mobs, he really didn't have plans for. He had thought them maxed out the moment he hit Tier 2, so honestly, the extra point for each of them was more likely going to be used for shenanigans, rather than actually making them much stronger. At least, that was his game plan, and he was sure Rue had a similar plan in mind.
As such, James found himself grinning as he set himself into his immersion pod, preparing to hop once again into DCO. Given how his day had gone, he really was looking forward to spending the whole night immersed. Not to mention, thanks to Z, James now had a few really good bets to place, that he was guaranteed to win. If you were going to place a bet against someone claiming to be the Goddess of Luck, it definitely helped to already know the outcome.
Closing his eyes, James's grin grew even further, but turned into a grimace even as his mind was pulled into the virtual world. He was not looking forward to waking up with his bruised jaw.
”Glyax!” James's thoughts of his jaw quickly disappeared as a winged figure wrapped its arms around his blobby self. He was back to his floating eyeball shape, and Rue had thrown herself at him, her thin arms clutched around him. He quickly grew two tentacles to hug her back, trying to avert where his eyeball was placed. Since his whole body was a singular orb, and Rue had wrapped her arms around him…. Well, needless to say, she definitely knew how to greet him. Ha.
”Did you miss me?” James was reluctantly releasing his grip on Rue, pushing the pixie back, while he tried to regain his composure. She had managed, in perfect Rue fashion, to throw his train of thought off the moment he arrived. Durned pixie.
”Mhmm.” She nodded her head, and waived a hand, summoning her classic hot chocolate, while placing her other hand along her hip. ”Do you know how boring it gets without you here? Like, I can only go on so many dicken races before I get bored.”
Dicken races? ”I'm sorry, what?” He was pretty sure she had just said dicken races. What in the world were those?
”Oh, right… erm.” She glanced around sheepishly, before offering him a wide grin. ”I may have tweaked your first floor a little bit.”
”YOU What?” That was, what, no, wait? She could do that? She had done that? She had messed with his floor? Thoughts raced through his head, and it was all he could do to try and calm his breathing as he quickly pulled up his screen, flicking to his first floor and bringing he and Rue to it.
”Well, I have been stockpiling resources. And, I couldn't resist, especially after you hit Rank 5 in Events. Though, I do need your help to really make it shine…” She trailed off as James took in his first floor, not believing what he was seeing. He knew the AI had the ability to interact with all of his options, hell, she had been the one to guide him through everything in the tutorial. But, he didn't think she had retained that control. Had she messed with anything else while he was gone?
”Rue, you can't just mess with the dungeon while I'm-” James paused even as he spoke, anger fading. Alright, so maybe, just this once, he could forgive the pixie. Besides, she had used her own resources for this…
Sprawling around his first floor, starting near the entrance to the dungeon, was what looked to be a massive cleared track. It zigged and zagged all along the floor, creating what appeared to be a race track. Simple wooden fences lined either side of it, with gates near the entrance providing a way for players to simply bypass it. Standing idly near the gate, was, what appeared to be, a small version of Old Man Jenkins.
”Is that an…NPC?” James hadn't heard anything about NPCs in DCO. He thought everything was supposed to player run?