Chapter 404: Error- 404 not found…lolz

“Well, that was neat.” Steve said as the battle wrapped up. The developer took a long drink, and turned his focus back to James and Rue. With the boss battle out of the way, James toggled the screen off that he was using to observe the fight, and focused back on the developer and the hot spring area. He figured The Knights Who Go Ni would continue to work on his fifth floor, and with their interaction with Sergeant Jenkins out of the way, he was certain they’d be able to farm with relative ease. He was hopeful without the threat of Sergeant Jenkins, and the aliens, that they would be able to hit level 70 this dive, so they could get their next multiclass option.

At the very least, that shield looked awesome, and James was going to have to figure out how to find out what all the specs were on a piece of gear like that. Since he hadn’t created it, and it had instead been generated as part of a secret quest, and by Sergeant Jenkins, he couldn’t look at it himself. Though, he had a feeling Steve could tell him, if asked. After all, the developer surely had that type of power.

“Yeah, what’s the shield he got?” James asked, deciding to feed his curiosity. Rue nodded eagerly beside him, the motion drawing James’s attention for a split second and making him smile.

“Hmmm, good question.” Steve made a few motions, and James could tell he was running through whatever databases he had access to. “We put in the ability for things to be auto generated or created depending on situations. Obviously, as the Dungeon Core, you have a lot of power, including the ability to create unique loot and such depending on your research levels. That being said, as you know from your mimics, there are other special loot tables that generate gear and such on their own. Secret quests, like the one just triggered, come with their own uniquely generated items and gear. In gamer terms, that shield, is a unique drop. While something similar could be dropped, they will never be the same. Such things are, extremely rare, but their drop rate, as well as their powers, will increase as adventurers continue to climb higher floors, and their levels grow. You know, to help feed that never ending chase for better, rarer, gear.”

“Loot crack.” James said with a knowing grin. He’d spent quite a bit of time on his own farming for special and unique drops.

“As for the shield,” Steve paused, then waved a hand, and a prompt appeared in front of them. “Here it is.”

Predator’s Shield

Unique Item

Predator Armament Set Piece

+15% to Defense

+10% to HP

-5% to Mana

+15% Block Chance

This Shield is immune to effects that destroy gear

This Shield has a 25% chance to launch acid at any foe who strikes it. This Acid deals 25 damage per second and will destroy gear effected by the acid after 10 seconds of exposure

Alien Rebuttal- This shield has a 5% chance to attack any foe near it, that has struck it in the past 10 seconds, with a stunning strike. This strike has a range of 5 feet, and will temporarily stun the foe for 2 seconds, and apply caustic venom.

Caustic venom deals 25 damage per second, doubling every 2 seconds the target goes without cleansing the venom

Set Bonus’s

1 piece- Gain a 1% chance to permanently gain 1HP and MP upon killing a foe equal to or higher level than you* (0/250)

2 pieces- Gain a 5% chance to gain 1HP and 1MP upon killing a foe equal to or higher level than you. This chance increases by 1% per level above the wearers level the foe is. * (0/500)

3 pieces- Gain a 10% chance to gain 5HP and 5MP upon killing a foe equal to or higher level than you. This chance increases by 2% per level above the wearers level the foe is

Gain a 1% chance to gain 1HP and 1MP upon killing a foe 5 levels or less lower than you.* (0/1000)

*Maximum gains capped dependent on number of set pieces used.

James took a few moments to reread the stats on that shield. Sure, it wasn’t game breaking. But, holy fuck. A piece of gear like that definitely earned the right to be unique. And, considering what it had taken to acquire that piece of gear, James had a feeling it wouldn’t be an easy feat collecting two more unique pieces for Oak. Still, he had no doubt the Knights would be keen to try and get each member at least a single piece of unique gear from the Predator’s apparent arsenal. Because those set bonuses, especially if they differed dependent on the class using them, were way too good not to chase.

“Do those bonuses remain if they aren’t using the gear anymore?” James asked.

“Mhmm. It’s an account bound item and applies permanent buffs. Once they’ve completed farming the stat bonuses, they can stop using the item, and the buffs will remain. If they discard the gear before they’ve fully gained the bonuses though, they will lose them. Meaning Oak’s going to be hanging onto that shield for a good while. Unique gear, after all, is meant to scale for a good chunk of time with the players using them.”

“Man this makes me want to play the game even more.” James said with more than a little hint of jealousy in his voice. Seriously, finding an item like that, he would happily grind for a good amount of time chasing a prize like that shield. And honestly, it looked hella cool for a tank.

“Matt and Rach are working on that.” Steve said nonchalantly. “So, I’m sure it’s only a matter of time before they figure something out. Till then, you’ve got something else spiffy to be doing, if you want. Up to you.” Steve shrugged, though his eyes flashed knowingly. “If you just wanted to sim for a bit, I wouldn’t blame ya.”

James shook his head, excitement already flowing through him. Part of him, was more than a little tempted to just sit back and let time pass by, maybe even force sleep a bit, to get to his six floor faster. But, that would be a waste of time, and if he wanted to stay on top, he knew he couldn’t get complacent.

“Whatcha got for me?” James asked.

“Might want to wait a little longer before you activate one, but how would you like a tutorial in how the town siege event works?”

“For the safe zone town, yeah?”

“Mhmmm.”

“I was actually planning to look into it after that battle. So, obviously, tutorial away.” James had already been eagerly thinking about that horde mood that Steve had teased him with earlier. Now, seemed like the perfect time to look into it. And if the developer was going to offer him some extra information on it, so be it. Though, like Steve said, he would probably hold off on triggering one…if he could even trigger them. Because, as it stood, there weren’t enough players on his fifth floor safe zone, of appropriate level, to really feel like the event would be welcome.

And, as much as he wanted to unleash new content on his players, he knew there was a fine line between going hardcore candy crush bullshit on them, ala pre Dungeon Wars BLANK style, or Great Dickening them. One pissed off the player base, and made them hate the dungeon. The other generated hype, and if done correctly, could not only encourage more players to rush his dungeon and keep climbing as fast as they could, but also, could net James the experience needed to hit Tier 6. In other words, it was a win win.

“I figured as much.” Steve smiled knowingly at him. “Truly, you continue to live up to all my expectations. You really are your parent’s kid.”

“Thanks?” James responded, noticing a strange shift in the mood as Steve spoke. For a long moment, there was an award silence in the area, Steve’s words lingering in the air. Why did the developer have to make it weird?

“No problem buddy.” Steve cleared his throat. “Now then, about Siege Events.”