Chapter 71


    SoulDemon, in his infinite arrogance, set himself up for the trap James began to put into play. First and foremost, by splitting off of the party, so he could hog experience, he lost the ability to track the status of the players. That included their locations, and their own party status.


    Second, because he’d been the party leader, leaving the party had disbanded it entirely. Obviously, his arrogance likely made him believe everyone would wait for him to return, and then they could all party back up, and continue their handling of the seventh floor. And, to be fair, Z and the others were the type of players who normally would do such a thing. Not because they condoned SoulDemon’s actions, but because they were just nice, honorable people.


    However, SoulDemon deserved to be taught a lesson for his crimes against the party, and just overall lack of regard for other players, and the game as a whole. And, of course, he made the ultimate mistake, not on purpose of course, in pissing off the Dungeon Core… who happened to also be friends with the very adventurers that SoulDemon had threatened.


    A few quick messages to Z put Rue’s plan into motion. Oak started a new party, and invited Skar, and then the rest of the their respective players, into the party. Once the ten of them, the two players alive, and the eight dead, were in a party, Oak and Skar had left the seventh floor. That brought their slain comrades with them, and after their death timers were done, they would respawn on the sixth floor, instead of the seventh.


    This action left only SoulDemon’s players in the seventh-floor instance, the four of them dead, while SoulDemon himself continued to push further into the first floor of the hotel. He had made his way past the courtyard full of Jaeger Bombs and was now fighting Dirty Shirley’s in the ballroom.


    As all of this was happening, James put the rest of the plan into motion. Unlike in the Dungeon Core novels, he couldn’t actively make a floor just collapse, crushing players to death. He didn’t have that level of control when it came to individual instances and the objects within them. He could, however, manually control mobs. Which was what he started doing, even as Z and the others had begun their operation to flee the floor.


    The mobs from all of the top floors rushed down to the second floor, moving with impressive speed, to obey James’s command. He held them there, so many mobs that had it been a realistic setting, the weight of all the creatures gathered together surely would have made the ceiling collapse and waited, watching the countdown timer on SoulDemon’s party members with care.


    If they’d told SoulDemon that the others had left, it didn’t seem like the bloodthirsty PvP player cared. He continued his slaughter of mobs with reckless abandon, likely feeling like a god as he slaughtered mob after mob. He’d gone through so many, James had noticed, that he had actually managed to level up to level 105. Then again, killing mobs that were 10 or more levels above yours, did grant a crazy bonus to experience. It didn’t hardly manner though. No matter how deadly he was to basic mobs, what he was about to face would no doubt end him.


    As the last mobs reached the second floor, there was just under a minute of time remaining before SoulDemon’s friends respawned. It was at this time, that James sent all of his mobs down the stairs. The wave of creatures rushed down the floor, swarming it, all rushing towards the entrance of the lobby, with a single-minded goal. They were to overwhelm the space entirely, to make it impossible for a player to reach the portal, and teleport out of the seventh floor.Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.


    With the basic mobs swarming the floor, James grinned as a single figure, different than the others, made itself known. The mobs parted like the red sea before her, as Elliot Jenkins followed different orders. She moved past the mobs, past the portal, past the area that SoulDemon’s players would respawn at, if the game even let them spawn in that congested area, towards the front desk, and the doors beside it.


    The boss, still looking the picture-perfect bartender, shook a cocktail mixer masterfully with one hand as she walked, while holding two martini glasses in the other. She kicked the door open with enough force to knock it off its hinges, and the mobs that had respawned within the courtyard took that opportunity to exit the area, moving dutifully into the lobby proper at Jame’s mental commands.


    Then, in the courtyard, besides the fountain that bubbled happily in the middle, Elliot sat down. She placed the glasses onto the stone, and waited, her eyes turned towards the door that led to the ballroom. With the patience that could only belong to an AI, the boss watched, calmly, for any sign of SoulDemon’s approach.


    James split the screen he was watching into three different views. One to watch the entrance, curious to see what would happen to the other players from the Candy Dungeon when they spawned. He personally had nothing against them, and he hoped the game would force them down to the sixth floor. Otherwise… well, since it was just a party of four now… if they all wiped the game would likely remove them from the seventh floor entirely, locking them away from it for a certain duration. A dungeon mechanic meant to punish entire party wipes, that they’d just avoided earlier because their party had been alive when they’d wiped, before it had been disbanded.


    A tactic some people used, James knew, to avoid the death penalty entirely. You could use one anchor player, who was either extremely strong, or just stayed in a safe spot, to keep the whole party from ever wiping, which meant you could avoid the harsh party wipe penalty, while farming a floor with somewhat more safety and peace of mind. Of course, that would require one player to have a very, very, very boring time at it. Usually they were paid, or were getting power leveled though, so James figured they never actually cared.


    The rest of the Candy Dungeon players aside, James’s other two screens were watching Elliot, of course, and the SoulDemon. He’d given his boss express details to engage the player the moment he appeared. SoulDemon, being the person that he was, wouldn’t pass up the chance at a boss fight. James knew that. SoulDemon was too proud. Too full of himself.


    And Elliot, well, she was a boss that James really wanted to see in action. At least once. He’d originally dreamed he would see it in person, alongside Z and the others, in an epic last battle, perhaps with the piano playing and someone singing cabernet. A fitting, dreamlike final hoorah. Alas, it wouldn’t be so, so he figured watching the level 125 boss solo Soul Demon would have to serve as a proper, next best thing. After all, her unique abilities and skills made her a nightmare of a boss to try and solo, but SoulDemon’s pride would likely ignore those facts, until hopefully, it was too late.


    That was the other reason for James’s wall of creatures within the lobby. If SoulDemon tried to flee, if he did try to leave the battle against the boss, or hell, if he somehow won… well, SoulDemon wouldn’t be leaving the hotel on his own accord. James, personally, er, through his mobs, was going to see to it that SoulDemon was properly checked out of the hotel… as a death orb, paying for his stay with whatever experience he had collected, before his untimely demise.