DCO- Dungeon Core Online

Chapter 38

Oak’s new weapon was, of course, classified as a Unique Item. Because James wasn’t in his Dungeon Core form at the moment, he couldn’t easily pull up the information on it. Be that as it may, Oak was more than happy to brag about it. Shortly after leaving Hard Mode first floor, as they walked from the fifth-floor safe zone town towards the shack that housed the portal to the sixth floor, Oak filled them in on everything they could possibly want to know about it weapon.

“It’s called Olmac Don’ald’s Tuning Fork,” Oak said excitedly as James walked beside him. The words turned to frost from the chill of the fifth floor. The others all huddled close to the tank as they made their way to the next floor, knowing full well the dangers of the fifth floor. Even though level wise they didn’t have much to worry about, considering the mobs were level 75, a lucky critical from a Painguin shot could prove fatal. Especially for James and Rue, who were both, arguably, squishy classes.

“The set it’s a part of is called The Arch Demon’s Possession set.” Oak continued. “Base stat wise, it gives me a boost to my attack, mana, and evasion chance. And just like my shield, it is immune to effects that destroy gear.”

“Which is good, considering your tendency to be eaten.” Elm quipped. “Gotta protect your gear from the digestive acids, huh.”

“Hey Nyx,” Z cut in, obviously still salty about not receiving a Unique Item yet, “the boss on the sixth floor, what are the chances it can eat Oak?”

“The sixth floor boss?” James tried to play coy.

“Yeah, the Jormungrandr.” Z replied, fixing James with a knowing smile. “It’s a giant level ending snake, isn’t it?” He looked at Oak, “so, technically, it can eat players, right?”

James shrugged in as noncommittal a way as possible, though he felt his lips tug upwards at the thought of Oak getting eaten by the massive sixth floor boss. The poor guy, with his fear of snakes, would surely curse his luck if that were to occur. Still, he’d conquered his fear enough to deal with the Giant Playthons on the third floor, so James had no doubt Oak would prevail. Even if it involved a good bit of screaming and protesting.

“If you purposefully try to feed me to a giant snake, I’m uninstalling the game.” Oak countered, shooting a glare at Z. “Don’t test me. There are plenty of other games I can play, that don’t involve me getting eaten by giant snakes.”

“Yet dragons are totally fine.” Faust added, tone sarcastic. “No problems getting eaten by that massive dragon in Monster Hunter.”

“Dragons have legs.” Oak said matter of factly. “And wings, and proper bodies. They’re not like snakes… that just,” he shuddered, “slither around.”

“Can we stop talking about things that slither, and get back to your new pokey stick?” Rue cut in. “What else can it do? What special properties does it have?”

Rue, just like James, was eager to know more about the Unique Item. They were the only types of items the two of them couldn’t create or modify. Everything else, from basic, common items, all the way up to legendary items, they could preview, customize, and even tweak drop chances for. But the Unique items generated on their own, and were special and well… unique, to certain types of monsters and situations. Like there was an overarching AI somewhere within the game as a whole that could also impact gameplay and the world to some degree. A small degree, sure, but still, to a degree. Which, now that James knew the government planned to trap everyone within DCO, was a little unsettling. What if something happened? What if the AI got out of control? He pushed the thought from his mind, as Oak continued his explanation of his newfound weapon.

“Let’s see,” he glanced down to the side as they crunched through the snow, his eyes likely reading the information on the weapon that only he could see.

“It has the ability to temporarily charm any demonic based creatures I hit with it, though it says the rate varies by the strength of the demonic creature.”

“Any demonic creature?” Rue asked, raising an eyebrow. She looked over at James. “Do you think that includes Devilkin?”

“Wouldn’t you two know as developers?” Z asked.

“There are a ton of aspects to DCO,” James replied. They’d practiced this type of scenario with Steve. “Something like this wasn’t in our line of expertise.”

Z nodded, “that’s fair,” he then looked from James, to Rue, smiling. “What was your area of expertise?”

“We’re not supposed to say.” Rue said matter of factly. Technically, their area of expertise was the dungeon…considering their actual roles. But Steve had told them the safe, political statement that the Dungeon Cores were supposed to use, when masquerading in a developer avatar, was that they couldn’t say what they worked on specifically, for privacy reasons.

“But you did know about the Demonic Lamb,” Med Ic mused, suddenly besides James.

“Back to the pitchfork,” James said hurriedly. He forgot how sharp the Knights could be. They always acted so relaxed, laid back, and goofy. Yet at their core each and every one of them had sharp wits and a good bit of crazy accurate intuition.

“Right, past that,” Oak’s mouth moved silently as he read. “It looks like is has two unique abilities. One is called Demonic Parade. Any enemies I kill with my pitchfork have a small chance of being twisted by demonic power and resurrected for a matter of time based on their levels and my own, to serve as my pets. The other,” he smiled widely as he spoke, “is called Demonic Tuning. I can infuse myself with demonic energy to boost my stats to an increasing degree for every five seconds the skill is active though…”

“Though…” Z pressed as Oak trailed off.

“Though the longer I channel it, there’s apparently an increased risk that I can be possessed by the Arch Demon Olmac Don’ald.”

There was a sound of flesh on flesh, and James saw Faust had just face palmed. He let out a sigh, shook his head, and looked at everyone.

“Seriously…” Faust sighed heavily. “Olmac Don’ald?”

“That’s what it says.” Oak said, before he trailed off again, and began shaking his head. The others, a split second later, all started laughing.

“Olmac Don’ald.” Z chuckled, “And Hokey Pokey eh?” He looked back at James and Rue. “To bad Steve’s not here right now.”

“Why do you say that?” James asked.

“Because I’ve got a feeling Steve knows full well whose department that Unique Boss was, as well as probably a good bit regarding the Arch Demon Oak just mentioned.”

“What makes you think that?” James had a feeling he already knew the answer though.

“Because from our time adventuring with Steve, it was made extremely clear that his humor is… well,” he looked at the others, then back at James and Rue. “Unique.”

James had no counter to that. It was something he’d learned almost immediately upon meeting Steve. The man who was behind the Toilet Mimics. The man who had created a flip book for ridiculous monster type creation. The man who’d created a tank class called a Spanker, that focused on yelling insults at your targets while hitting them with debuffs. There was no better word to describe Steve, and his sense of humor, than Unique.

“He’s definitely quite the character,” Rue said with a chuckle, as the party continued deeper into the woods of the fifth floor. They’d caught glimpses of monsters here and there, but the Knight’s Who Go Ni’s levels meant the basic mobs were giving them a wide berth. Still, James was hoping they’d come across the Predator before they reached their target. Killing the fifth-floor boss would definitely help them get closer to level 80. And more that that… James wanted another shot at more Unique Gear himself.

“That he is,” Z let out a wistful sigh. “I really hope we can game with him again soon.”

“So do I.” James answered truthfully. He really wished he could just go back to gaming, without any worries in the world. But, sadly, that wasn’t the case. And with each step through the snow, he imagined himself sinking deeper into the snow from the weight of what was about to come. From the weight of the secrets he was holding, and the truth’s he soon be revealing to Z. He prayed silently, wishing the Predator would ambush them. Anything, to distract the group, buy them a little more time, to put off, what must be done.

Sadly, the gods of the game, didn’t listen. Fitting, in a dark way, considering the main God, Yarx, was based off Xander himself. And the original developer of DCO, the man who’d spearheaded and created this game, was…gone.