《Dungeon’s Path》
Just Like Community Service – Chapter 2
Doyle Huxley wakes up to screaming. The confusing part for him is that one scream sounds like him, but he cant feel himself screaming. Then he wishes it had stayed that way. His senses return to him and the pain of a throat torn up by what must have been hours of terror filled screams bashes into his mind. This puts him under once again.
Next time he wakes up there are fewer voices screaming but whether that is from them stopping or just losing their voices is up in the air. Then the pain returns and ckness takes him again.
Third time the charm as Doyle wakes up to silence. The pain is there right at the start, but not at the level to knock him out again. Now that the pain is no longer an all-consuming thing, he can feel other bodies around him. None of them are moving, and the chill he can feel from them doesnt provide any hope. He tries to yell for help, but all thates out is a croak. Good thing that is enough to draw attention to him. A door opens and light much too bright for him filters in. Someone blocks the light as they enter the room, and a gruff voice enters his ears.
Well, what do you know! Someone is still alive in here. Took you long enough to synchronize with the tutorial. Most whost this long end up dead or worse. The boss will not be happy so bad luck for you. She already started teaching the others in this batch and she hates having to start over.
He picks Doyle up and toss him over their shoulder and hauls him out of the room they stored him in. At first the light is too bright for him to see where he is but when he can see the sight stuns him. Thend is normal enough, just a t field of grass. Up in the sky, though, are numerous chunks of dirt. From the size of a fist up to a single mountain like mass in the center. All of them floating through the air without a single sign of support. Doyle can barely make out people on top of the numerous hill sized chunks.
This view soon is broken though as the man tosses him to the ground. Now that Doyle can get a look at him, a few things stand out. The wild beard is as brown as freshly turned earth. Eyes like chunks of coal without a single bit of white to them and leather armor with visible signs of active use. Most of all though is the fact that while he is wider than Doyle, the man is half his height.
The man sighed, normally at this point I would ask you if you had never seen a dwarf before. The other people had to go and ruin it. I understand them. Really, I do. But I am a DWARF. Not a short human with a disease. Now drink this. The dwarf grabs Doyles jaw and pours a vial of dull red liquid down his throat.
Doyle sputters on the liquid but tries to keep it in. Whatever else was happening, the vial looked like a ssic healing potion. A soothing sensation flows through his body right after as he expected. Best of all, it started with his throat, which right away removed much of his pain.
The dwarf nods, good. You kept it down. Too many fools decided I was poisoning them. We didnt ask to be here, but it would only be worse for us if we tried to kill you all. Oh, and it looks like my boss is heading over, so stay right there and keep quiet. The less she has a reason to dislike you, the better for both of us.
Doyle turns his head towards where the dwarf was pointing. At first he sees nothing, but then from some of the furthest floating inds he spots a dot. This dark spot in the distance appears to be approaching quickly, hopping from one floating mass to another. Momentster he can confirm it is a person as they make it past the center mountain.
They get close enough to Doyle that he can start to make out some details when they jump. A small whistle approaches as the person flies towards Doyle and the dwarf. Behind them the elephant-sized mass of dirt they jumped off of explodes from the force. Doyle doesnt have enough time to parse this though as a loud crash and a cloud of dirt bursts forth right next to him.
Stood in a new hole deeper than Doyle is tall, he can see the dwarfs boss. He doesnt want to assume, but she looks like a modern depiction of a buff orc female. The only thing that separates them from any ssic fantasy game is the fact she is properly armored. No leather bikinis in sight.
She pulls her feet out of the ground and hops up next to Doyle. With a snort of disgust, she looks down at him. Easy for her to do being head and shoulders taller than him. From this distance he could see that engraved on her tusks is a battle scene. The deeper lines filled in by some green gem that matches her skin tone, an angry deep green. As she speaks up, it shocks Doyle that her voice sounds like a normaldy, if a little deeper. The expectation of another gruff voice almost distracts him from what she has to say.
So this is the idiot without themon sense to stay dead? Took him so long to sync I doubt he will survive the first day out of the tutorial. Hey Mud, have you tested his connection yet? The dwarf shakes his head no. Well aint that lovely. You left all the fun work to me. Stand still. Doyle doesnt have much choice with that order. She reaches out and grabs him faster than he can react and jabs him with a needle attached to a small pearl. Moments after she inserts the pin, the pearl shes through a multitude of colors. At first just the more normal ones, but soon weirder and more arcane shades and tints appear.
After a full minute the pearl shines ck for a second then all color fades away. The orc taps her foot as an amount of time that is clearly much too long for her taste goes by. A silvery ding can be heard and the pearl stays dark. That does not please the orc at all. She pokes the pearl, an excruciating experience for Doyle. When still nothing happens, her hands blur and another spot of paines from his other shoulder. She had taken the pearl needle out and reinsert it in his other shoulder without his notice.
The same series of colors happens again, and still the pearl is dark at the end. She throws her hands up in disgust. Welp, I wasnt wrong. Boy, youre a waste. Now that youre out of the entryway, we cant kill you. Be brought back again and again till we get you to finish the tutorial.
The dwarf shakes his head and speaks up, Just a rumor, but I heard that if we dont get all these fools through this course. We are stuck forever as well.
The orc smacks him on the head and sends him back a few paces. She raises her hand again but before she can smack him again; The dwarf falls to the floor and kowtows to her. While down there he babbles out an apology. She spits on the dirt in front of him and turns back to Doyle.
As I was saying, youre a waste.This little bauble, and she plucks it out of his shoulder, detects what youre most suited to learn. Whether it is magic, qi, crafting, or any of the weirder aspects, it can detect it. It isnt perfect, but even if it cant tell us what it is the pearl will glow ck to show you have something. Youck any connections. Not even the gods on high or devils below want you.
Maybe you could survive in your world before, but now things just will not work out. Its like you just dont care about anything! Anyway, this wont stop you frompleting the tutorial. Also, as myckey over there spilled the beans already, yes, we are stuck here as long as you are. Dont think this means you can hang around forever to stretch your life out a little longer. I know all kinds of ways to force yourpliance.
Now onto the tutorial! Your small world which was so pitiful as to only host humans got torn apart at the atomic level. That included you and everyone you ever knew. This happened because of a bunch of science nonsense, but the gist of it is your world wasme. The very rules of existence did not support things like magic in your local space time. When someone popped into your universe way back after the first generation of stars they polluted the ce.@@novelbin@@
Just a whiff of what was to your universe anomalous energy and it all started to change. Universes are somewhat big and yours was very much against going anywhere at a reasonable speed so it took a while to spread. Consider it your luck that the guy who stopped by noticed what he had caused and left behind a seed to bnce his karma.
That seed was the System. It will eventually be a quantumputer that spans the universe. Wherever the change passes, the System follows close behind and puts it all back together. Problem with that is sentient beings dont transition all that well. Without a connection, it is extremely hard to even exist. You beat those odds, but you really shouldnt have bothered. Dude who set the System up knew this as well and so here we are! And I do mean we. Everyone who isnt a person from your world including the very terrain itself are here to make up for some wrong. Some that woke up firstpared it to court orderedmunity service.
Anyway, it presses us into service to teach all you noobs how things work now. Top of that list is the System itself. Yes, just like in all those stories and video games. Dont try to open your status yet because I want to exin what I need to first so I can get back and supervise the others. Next is monsters. They exist now in the first ce. Honestly, your Earth is quite unlucky with this. Even though stuff like magic didnt exist before, other worlds would have super fauna so they would already be used to it. All of yours got a bad case of the dead before humans could evolve. Oh, and yeah, dungeons are a thing too. Youre in one right now. Though of course this one isnt a native.
There is some other stuff, but I cant bother to exin it to you. Mud here can do that after you finish looking through your stats and what not. Wont be much use to tell a dead man walking after all. Though I guess I should give you a little hope. While the System restricts extra-universal visitors, there will be a few people setting up shop from nearby dimensions. If you can find something worth their while they might protect you for a smidge of time. Not forever, but every second counts, right? So yeah, thats all I have to say to you. Have fun and dont take too long toplete the rest of the tutorial. I would hate to have to unpack all my fun-time tools.
With one final sneer she jumps back up towards the inds. Doyle hadnt noticed when but the hole she made had fixed itself, but all that work just got reversed by her. Another hole marks the field of grass. This one even deeper than thest.
A Giant Ritual Circle – Chapter 5
Doyle just stands there for a moment after the dungeon core, Flisle, finishes his rant. He rubs the back of his neck, So youre asking if I want to be a dungeon? That actually sounds interesting enough and I never went out much anyway. Sure, I can go along with your n. Admittedly, I should think it over more. This is a big choice after all.
Z looks away awkwardly while Flisleughs, You think you have a choice? Your choice was whether to ept me as your tutorial guide. We are way beyond choices at this point. The only thing left before I turn you into a dungeon core is a ritual. Z will exin it while I go to prepare the ritual ingredients. and with that the golem slumps over.
Z bows to Doyle, I am sorry about that. Please forgive him. He has never been the most personable person, even among other awakened dungeon cores. Before he became so powerful he at least attempted social niceties.
Doyle sighs, that was about what I expected anyway. He has this whole mad scientist vibe going on and those types don''t tend to take no for an answer. I guess at this point you should lead us where we are going and maybe exin this ritual?
Z gestures to the stairs behind and flies through. As Doyle follows her down the stairs and through the field beyond she exins. The tutorial is an amazing thing. You can learn and advance skills at an incredible speed. Death wont even hold you back as it will bring you back over and over until youplete it. Thatst one could be seen as a dreadful thing for some, but hey, thats just life sometimes.
The two of them reach a rough circle of packed dirt. Z floats to the center before she continues, you wont get to take advantage of it. As many a magic user who thought being a dungeon core was a shortcut to immortality have found. Normal skills and abilities dont transfer very well. Even something as simple as meditation to regain mana faster doesnt work. After all, a dungeon core has a distinctck of a brain or nervous system for that to work on.
Under the System, it is easier to exin. The ritual resets everything. Your skills are gone, your level is zeroed, and it sets your birthday to when the ritual finishes. Besides that, as long as you get the general detail of the ritual right, it cant fail in the ssic sense. Instead, the farther from perfect it is the less memories you keep.
Millenium old magic users have a bit of leeway here. You, however, dont have to worry about it because Flisle will be the one doing the ritual for you. Dungeon cores are one of the few species capable of drawing all the diagrams exact enough to not lose your memories. Not even the gods can im that. My opinion is they cheat somehow.
Doyle shrugs, fair enough, but why cant I just do the tutorial after the ritual?
Z gestures around, everything you can see here is inside of Flisles dungeon. A dungeons domain is only theirs, and so you could not im any territory. While your core can chill around as long as you want, you wont be able to train your skills. In fact, if it wasnt for Flisle taking over as your tutorial guide, you wouldnt be able to finish here at all. As it is, he was able to add an alternative method toplete the tutorial.
Anyway, it looks like he almost has all the materials gathered. For normal materials Flisle would have been able to just pop it all into existence, but this stuff is rare. She points behind Doyle and he turns to look. There are a mountains worth of a variety of materials.
Z points out one material after another. That there is a world jewel, forms in the center of an eon old and a big reason more people dont try the ritual.s that old tend to be well guarded, so while not the rarest material here, it is the hardest to get. Those bonese from a variety of high level creatures, each one aligned with a single element like water. He provided those himself.
Under the bones is a literal ton of monster cores. Not locally sourced though, as the ritual needs it to be natural cores and there is no way we would use our own. Takes too much effort to develop them. Though I will have to cut this short as he just pinged me that he is about to set it up. We need to leave the area so as to not get in his way.
As they leave, Doyle takes a nce back. The entire stack of material is now floating in the air, weaving an intricate dance. The two walk for a long while before Z stops. She looks at where he stands and gestures for him to take a couple of steps further. Then they both just stand there and watch. Now that the area is clear, the action picks up.
All the grass in a giant circle that reaches right up to Doyles toes falls over dead. He takes another step back out of reflex. With the grass dead a wind sweeps through and carries it all off. Now bare dirt the ground shakes and sinks down as itpacts. The base now prepared a stream of metal shards flow out of the portal they entered the floor by. Each shard flies with a purpose to various parts of the cleared area where they carve out lines. Some lines are straight, others curve, and each line at a specific depth.
As a line gets finished, the metal shard that dug it melts down and flows into the massive circle in which they have drawn everything. While the circle is wide, it is also very shallow and so the metal shards are enough to fill it. Z points at it as the metal cools and exins that, that metal ring around the ritual is used to keep the energy inside. It uses a special alloy made of various metals that restrict the various mystical energies plus some lead.
You dont need a special material for smaller rituals. Some human practitioners even do without the circle. Now I dont advise that, but you can. Once a drawn ritual is bigger than a general human can make without moving, it needs something even if it is just a circle carved in the dirt.
While she exins, the other materials up in the air fill the inner lines. Each skeleton gets ground against itself into a fine dust. The world jewel floats down into the center of the ritual. All the monster cores position themselves at various points where lines intersect or dead end to modify the flow or store power. Precious jewels shatter, rare silks unravel, gasses turn into liquid, potions sprinkle themselves, and herbs nt themselves at auspicious locations.
Even with so many things happening at once, it still takes over an hour to ce all the materials. After they finish being filled, the ritual still isnt ready. The herbs need to grow and various materials have to settle as the magic cycles. While they wait, Z continues to point out the various materials used to make up the ritual. The part that interests Doyle is all herments on what could have reced each material.
Apparently stuff like potions and rituals dont depend on specific ingredients so much as specific elements of the ingredients. Sure, some of the highest level recipes have required elements like how this ritual needs a world jewel, but that tends to be the exception.@@novelbin@@
Half a day passes by before it is all ready. A small sphere with mechanical arms attached to the side floats over to the two. The faceless drone, amon sight throughout the deeper floors, is currently being directly controlled by Flisle. First thing he does is pinch Z for being such a bbermouth. While he doesnt mind Doyle learning so much he would have preferred she sells the information instead of just giving it away. With that done, he turns to Doyle and has him follow the drone into the ritual.
As they travel over the various lines, Flisle forms force fields so not a line is out of ce. Now closer to the center of the ritual, Doyle notices the world jewel isnt in the direct center but offset by a pace or two. Across from it is a leather mat, pinned to the ground with spikes made of jewel shards.
Flisle exins that, the leather is where you will sit. You dont need to be entirely on it. However you must never leave the area marked by those spikes that hold it down. To be honest, the leather isnt an actual part of the ritual. But after enough time people realized it was easier to know you are in the right spot with it. That and people tend to fidget less with something padded to sit on.
Now you will sit on that for a good long while. For the first couple of hours you can do whatever you want within the spikes. At some point I will use a sh of light from outside the ritual to alert you to sit down. Within a few minutes of my warning your body will lose all ability to move and it willpletely rx you, barring vital things like your heart. You must make sure when that happens you will not fall outside of the spikes.
That wont be my problem, of course. I wouldnt bother with all this nonsense if the System didnt require I actually have your best interest in mind while I am your tutorial guide. But yeah, fall out of that area and you can expect to lose anywhere from 10 to 20 percent of your memories depending on how far out of the area you fall. Anyway, no time to waste. Go sit there and we can begin the ritual!
The drone flees the area as Doyle sits down. A final yell from Flisle informs him that once it starts, it will block mostmunication. Then a shimmering globe of energy epasses the ritual. More colors than natural flit across the surface, but soon Doyles attention attracted elsewhere. Ever so slowly a silvery white gleam leaks out of the world jewel.
Over the next few hours, this gleam travels through each line of the ritual. At one point it goes out of sight and Doyle stands up to check on the progress. It would have been mind numbing if not for the asional excitement. At almost regr intervals the gleam would reach a dead end and the monster core located there would re up. Doyle would guess at what materials had gone into making the color. Sometimes it was easy. One core glowed a bright ruby red after the gleam traveled through a length of bone dust. The illusion of mes that apanied it pointed towards a beast of the fire element. Another however shifted between a hot pink and clear sparkles. Even after half a day of Zs exnations, he couldnt guess what had caused that.
The ritual finishes warming up and Flisle signals him with a nice big shing light disy. The fact it yells in all caps at him to sit down and shut up makes it ever so clear this isnt just another light disy from the ritual. Doyle sits down cross-legged and hunches over with his arms crossed. He rxes himself to test it and has to shift his legs so he doesnt fall on his face. A few minutes pass before painnces through his body. If he hadnt gone ck moments before, he would have likely iled about from it.
What Type are You? – Chapter 8
Doyle mentally shrugs and thinks [show dungeon type options]. This is enough for the system and a gigantic screen with a scrollbar appears. They both look it over, but 99 percent of the options are grayed out. Options like Dragon Bone Mountain and Sun Orbital. All of them have various requirements which lock them off. Such things as already having the bones of a dragonrge enough to be a mountain or your starting location being in close orbit to a sun. With this amount of nonsense Ally suggests they put some filters on it. Doyle agrees and sets it to [remove locked options]
After a moment, all the locked options are gone but the list is still many pages long. Much too much to sort through, and Doyle had to admit to himself he was never good at choosing from so many choices. For the next couple minutes he brainstorms some more filters with Ally. In the end they add on the restrictions of [remove options that humans cant survive in], [remove options with a religious theme], [remove options any intergctic organization is bent on destroying], and [remove limited options]. Sure, they lost some things like anythingva based, devil themed, and all undead options, but Doyle wasnt particrly sad about that. The few interesting ones like solid clouds were not worth sorting through the others. Of course the number of options left still shocked him, but Ally had an excellent suggestion.
Instead of trying to filter something else, they both just read over the list and handpicked options they didnt like the sound of. Stuff like Sludge Swamp and Searing Desert hit the cutting room floor with this step. After a couple rounds of this, it left them with a much more concise list to go over.
{Basic Dungeon
Description: Basic caves and caverns setup with stairs leading ever deeper. Even terrain meant to look worked will be rough. At deeper levels, the option for undergroundkes and ravines will open up.
Changes: Everything is cheaper depending on how generic it is to appear in a dungeon
Verdant ins
Description: Instead of ustrophobic corridors, the dungeon is made of enormous fields of tall grass. There is a false sky that at deeper levels will be higher up and more realistic.
Changes: Remove underground structures, Earlier unlocks for all surface based monsters and traps, Surface buildings avable right away, Skew random rewards toward surface and sky themed options
Dwarven Mountain Home
Description: While simr to the Basic Dungeon every surface is smoothed and rooms are precise rectangles and squares. It will generate ornate carvings in special rooms and along oft traveled hallways. These carvings will be based upon what has happened. At deeper levels, undergroundkes and ravines still appear as well as magma chambers and massive caverns whiche with a special mushroom based environment.
Changes: Creating spaces costs more, Dwarven equipment bes avable without having examined them before, Dwarven traps will rece the generic equivalents, Earlier unlocks for all engineering based structures
Animal Den
Description: As Basic Dungeon but all monsters are animal based.
Changes: Complete removal of sapient monsters, Only worked terrain avable are those dug out by animals, Object creation restricted to things directly rted to animals, Much earlier unlocks for all animals, Ecosystem will naturally fill in, Animals evolve into a wider selection of creatures
War Camp
Description: Based around a central location in which semi-sapient monsters have built a base. The surrounding terrain has little effect and can vary greatly. While the monsters will form patrols, most will gather at the base. Deeper floors will have sub camps develop around the main one.
Changes: Limit monster selection to semi-sapient monsters and those tamed by them as work and war beasts, Semi-sapient monsters develop a culture right from the start, non-sapient monsters may only be summoned if a handler type monsters exists, Semi-sapient monsters rank up easier to fill in the basemand structure though after those spots are filled it bes much harder, Crafting structures manned by monsters will cause newly summoned monsters to be better equipped
Abandoned Space Station
Description: Everything is made of metal and artificial materials. The environment will cater to whatever party has entered the earliest and is still in the dungeon. High levels of technology, either science and/or magic based, will be everywhere.
Changes: Limit monster selection to robots, All traps are mechanical, Costs of everything is much higher than average, Advanced technology unlocked from the start, Holes in outer dungeon walls open up to a void and airlocks will m shut as the room evacuates, Basic dungeon structures unable to be removed from dungeon
Infested Space Station
Description: As Abandoned Space Station but a single selected species of invasive monsters will have invaded it. Depending on the selected monster, organic structures may be avable.
Changes: Limit monster selection to robots and a single species of monster, All traps are mechanical or bio based, Advanced technology unlocked from the start, Holes in outer dungeon walls open up to a void and airlocks will m shut as the room evacuates, Non-bio based dungeon structures unable to be removed from dungeon@@novelbin@@
Cityscape
Description: A city that has been abandoned, either recently or ages ago. From floor to floor it can vary whether it is a burned out husk or a pristine city, though not within the same floor. This type of terrain has a high degree of verticality.
Changes: Buildings can be marked as flimsy which makes them easier to copse, Sewers are avable as separate floors that directly follow a city floor, Mutated monsters are cheaper and unlock sooner, Normal monsters are more likely to evolve into a Mutant}
And it goes on and on like that. They might have cut a lot out but there are still just under 60 distinct dungeon types to choose from. Besides that there are some basic types like the space station which just had modifiers added. If counted, they would inte the number well beyond a hundred to choose from.
Ally and Doyle debate what to go with for a while. At first Ally had wanted one of the more exotic options but Doyle talked her down from it. Space stations are cool, but the costs are too great, especially for a world new to the system. Who knows how many people will explore a dungeon when things are still in flux. Plus he had a very good point that his entrance is a portal. Whatever type they choose, it will be set dressing. If he was a space station dungeon, he wouldnt be literally floating out in space.
What was at the core of their choice was variety. While a dungeon can use other types, it is very hard to do. So instead of something like a cityscape which was always just one city after another, they chose a mod of the basic dungeon type.
{Strange Caverns
Description: While simr to a basic dungeon the deeper a floor is the stranger the options be. Giant caverns, ancient ruins, mushroom forests, regr forests adapted to be underground, and more can be used once deep enough.
Changes: Rare and strange monsters are weighted in random draws, Monsters that evolve and rank up are more likely to end up with lessmon options, Areas of the dungeon can be stranger over time}
Ally ps, that is a good one and it should provide fun some optionster on while still having a vani start. For a world new to the system, it should be the best at attracting people. A simple corridor and room based floor is easier to deal with. Now dont tell him I said this but Flisle took so long to grow not just because of the cost of his floors. Rather, unless a race has some innate flight ability, his dungeon is terrifying. Only high level adventurers would trek through him and a sub ten floor dungeon didnt attract them.
Anyway, next up is to choose our starting monsters. Should just be themon spread as it sounds like things only get strange after the first few floors. Also, when ites to monsters, there are a few things to be aware of. First is that you only choose monsters that are an actual threat. While horned rabbits could stab a child they wont be on the list. Instead, when you pick a monster, you also receive the patterns for some of their supporting ecology. For instance, if you get a wolf then you might receive the pattern for a horned rabbit and clover. It is not enough to make a real ecology but provides the start of it.
After your starting monsters, you get a new choice of monsters when you reach a certain number of floors. This however is not the primary way to gain new patterns. Instead, you can gather them from the animals and nts that may enter your dungeon alive and dont make it out. That method will dry up as well, especially if your entrance is somewhere more popted.
Though I should mention, yes system I see the note on the quest screen, is you cannot spawn sapient creatures sorta? Anyway, all the mystical energies make it a lot easier to judge if a creature is actually a person or just an animal or thing. It boils down to if it has a soul or not. The only beings out there that manage to call it into question are some of the AIs. Especially since when an AI advances enough it can gain a soul, so what do you call the AI just moments before it gains a soul? How about a day before it gets it a soul? Quite the blurry line for them.
Back to dungeon spawns. In general they do not have a soul no matter how clever they seem. Goblins are a good example of this. They can create vast empires if an infestation isnt taken care of. If you look closely, it is all the same thing over and over. Their so-called society is very strict, not because of a totalitarian leaning. Instead, they are on a very basic level subservient to higher rank goblinoids. Sure, sometimes a high level goblin can evolve into having a soul, but that is rare.
With all that I said you only sorta couldnt have sapient creatures. You have three ways to gain monsters with a soul. Either a contract to bring a sapient into the fold. A monster lives long enough to be recognized and gain a name from the system. Mostmon is to make a boss monster. That first one on the other hand is the leastmon way to gain a monster with a soul. It is important though, because that is the only way to have any of the ssic sapient races join you. Humans and other simr races require a soul to live and so a dungeon is unable to ever spawn them.
The one way that you cant get a monster with a soul is evolution. Out in the wild, like I mentioned with the goblins, monsters can evolve into having a soul. To gain a soul during evolution, there needs to be a soul nearby to get mixed in. In dungeons, the souls of dead adventurers are drawn out and unable to stick around. Since you cant create souls, this puts a damper on gaining monsters that are able to take initiative instead of just following orders.
The only reason your bosses and named monsters can get a soul is that when one is created, your dungeon sends out a lure. That lure pulls in a soul which will match the monster. After all, it would suck to create a giant-sized boss monster only to have the soul of a pacifist mouse take up residence. That and the other upside is because your dungeon hooked the soul you gain the ability to re-summon them. In fact, if you do it quickly enough the memories impressed on the soul wont have faded much. This can end up a problem if a boss bes too powerful for the floor it is on but this doesnt happen often. Even with theirbat experience a low level body is still low level. Named monsters can of course just move to a new floor.
Calling Mother and then Tech Support – Chapter 10
Ally ps her hands, good choices all around there. As for the question about main and secondary monsters? That is purely a system rted matter. Without a system, dungeons start with whatever walks into their territory and dies. This causes young dungeons to grow especially slowly unless they get lucky. After all the most likely creatures to die first are insects and of those the prey. To jumpstart dungeons that develop on newly integrated worlds, every dungeon gets three monsters to start. The difference between your main and secondary starter monsters is how much info on them the system shoves into your head. After you choose your main starter monster, it will be a creature you know inside and out. This not only makes it much cheaper to summon but also modify in the future. Secondary monsters are purely given to you as a pattern. There is a slight discount to summon but it is on the same level if you had many of them die in your dungeon.
Doyle thinks over this for a moment, Okay that make sense. Now my first instinct is to take the assassin vine as my main monster to make them cheaper. On the other hand I dont exactly know how this works. I assume with how you talked about it the system isnt unique to this dimension and you have some knowledge of how dungeons deal with it elsewhere.
Ally nods, yeah, while instances like this where the rules of a dimension are idently changed by a visitor is rare, systems are not. A niche of creators like to add them to their worlds as it makes management easier. As for having the vine as you main monster that can work. However I dont advise it as your world has just been integrated. In a world with a more robustmunity of adventurers it might even be the best choice.
For a new world like yours though I would advise the goat. Early on most adventurers will avoid your stronger monsters so the higher price doesnt matter as much. On the other hand there will be quite a few who linger around on the early floors just grinding out xp. Goats will be the bread and butter of your early floors so you need them to be as cheap as possible. It is assured that you will be bulk summoning goats at a crazy rate. Though I will leave it up to you how you want to pick your choices.
Doyle takes some time to think it over. In the end though what Ally said makes sense, so he chooses, [goats as my main monster and assassin vines along with kobolds as my secondary monsters]. With that chosen, sparkling lights appear all throughout his territory and Ally upon noticing them speaks up, youve chosen. Now just be ready for some pain. Doyle manages a quick, what pain? before a sledgehammer of info is shoved into his mind.
Along with that informationes wave after wave of pain. His mind fills up and the pain crests only for the current batch of info to settle itself and the next arrive. He struggles to hold on to his consciousness if only because he does not want to ck out again.@@novelbin@@
Assassin vines are one of the few nts to develop a non-growth method of movement without the use of any mystical energy.
They hunt by vision and are worse than humans in the dark.
Their vines are a specialized type of root.
And more gets burned into his memory but it soon slows down. Now he knows more about assassin vines than he did about humans. It does take him a moment to realize the pain is gone. Just enough time for it to start again and he gets a crash course on kobolds.
Their tails are prehensile despite being thick enough to not be useful for much.
Both males and females develop bright colored scales as they grow in power.
Females are more likely to develop qi while males tend towards mana.
The pain recedes again and this time he braces. The kobold info almost knocked him out as he wasnt ready but this time will be different. Or so he thinks as once the goat info dump deluges his mind it dwarfs the previous two. Itprises every species of goat native to earth and even some that arent.
Doyle is mentally drowning in the sheer volume of information the system provides. The details go down to the sub-cellr scale and even atomic in some special cases. It forces him to watch literal lifetimes of goat experiences from birth to death. The only thing that holds him together is a deep-seated uncaringness. It had gued him all his life. No matter what, things didnt matter, but now that quirk preserved him in whole. So what if Im a goat? I am Doyle. It doesnt matter. Through endless lives he lives, some of the goats from others even advance into sentience while he rides along. There are even a couple goat gods.
All the while this happens Ally floats to the side. Time passes for her and she worries. Systems in other dimensions dont have a problem but it shouldnt take this long. After a couple days pass she knows there must be a problem. She pulls out a small circr stone with a fae message rune carved on it. This is the only one like it that she has but there isnt a choice. The tutorial blocks mostmunication that tries to enter or leave it and to crack it is difficult. This naturally formed rock which had bathed in a magic spring for a thousand years barely had enough oomph.
When she chose her path, the fae queen of the autumn court had gifted it to her. A very high honor despite the disgrace her choice caused. This dimension was too new to magic for these wonders to form often and their stock was limited. Now though she had to make use of it and so with a wisp of her remaining mana activates the natural rune stone.
A swirl forms in the air above it as the fabric of space around her warps. The light despite not changing directions is woven into a colorful image quite familiar to Ally. It is the queens court, eternally in dusk as fae magic holds the very it is on in ce so the sun is always just about set. Around the court giant pirs crafted in the image of mushrooms to invoke the ssic image of a fairy circle yet made from unspeakable materials brought from the cracks between space and time. A bevy of eternally young court officials are just now reacting to the runes magic. All the while there are a handful of high nobles sneering in Allys direction as they had sensed the magic and its source long before it formed.
Then an imperiousmand echoes forth from behind a curtain weaved with the final rays of a dying sun as it sets on thest world not swallowed when it expanded to go supernova. In words that are barely mortal the figure sat behind those curtains hasmanded HER court be cleared. Two of the nobles looked ready to stick around but their bodies marched themselves out of the room.
[So you have finally called my child? It has been millennium since We gifted that trinket to you. The court was quite displeased when they received word of you being called. Some hadnt even expected you tost a thousand years if the bets are to go by. Now you wouldnt use that rune unless you had to, so speak up. With the inherent promise in Our gifting it to you We will assist as reasonable.]
Your majesty I, [Now child, We might have only adopted you but We still consider you our child. Say it like you did when you were young.] But, youre, [Your mother]. The nobles will, [Now now my child. They are for Us to deal with, not you.] Ally sighs, fine. Mommy, I got chosen as thepanion to a young dungeon. We are in his tutorial but the main monster is taking too long to download.
[Hmm, that is troubling. Can you exin his circumstances? You specified a gender, so this isnt your usual dungeon core as they dont develop a gender identity easily.] Ally exins who Doyle is, how his pre-dungeon tutorial went, and what choices they had made so far in the tutorial.
[You have stumbled into a problem. The dungeon tutorial isnt meant for a sentient turned into a dungeon core. In this system you can only take one tutorial. In the normal flow of things a sentient would have already taken their original species tutorial and so the dungeon tutorial would not be an option. For the first time in eons I will get to file a bug report on an immortal created system.]
[If Doyle had left the human tutorial at any point, he wouldnt have gotten the option. However because his condition toplete it was switched to seed as a dungeon core he never actually left. In fact, I bet if his entrance wasnt a portal type this wouldnt have happened either as it would have had to ce him somewhere. Of course all this spection wont help you so stop fretting.]
[His problem is they set the dungeon tutorial up to provide a basic framework for a core. It sounds like neither of you thought on it but simple knowledge of a creature doesnt make it easier to summon. Rather how deep a dungeon cores connection to the creature is what matters. A naturally formed dungeon under this system is more likely to stick with the original main monster or some rted creature because their very minds are warped by the tutorial.]
[Now this alone wouldnt cause Doyle to spend so long on the goats. A normal sentient would have finished it on schedule but you would have soon noticed they had taken on many goatlike qualities. Even to the point of identifying as a goat instead of a human. Not necessarily a bad thing as for most sentients the tasks of a dungeon core is hard if not impossible to ept. This can cause a mental breakdownter in life when they can no longer handle it. Many good-hearted mages have found their minds split in twain as what they call their evil side takes over the dungeon. They are fools of course as they are still one and are just pushing off what they see as bad onto a self-made scapegoat.]
[From what We can divine from here yourpanion differs from those mortal mages. Some of my younger colleagues would say he has an immortals soul.] [Hey, dont you roll your eyes at Us. They are younger than Us. Just because they have all lived longer than the current ORDER doesnt mean We dont remember when they came about.]
[Anyway, where were We? Right, the immortals soul which is a stupid term for it. All souls are immortal and in fact beyond that, eternal. Rather it refers to how well a soul can handle the passage of time. Some core part of your partner would have raised him up within a few thousand lives under the system to the point of being a self-made god. Quite quick, though most gods from non-system based dimensions would debate if it really counts. After all, unless the system is specifically designed to prevent it they do make the path easier.]
[Now I cant divine what this core to him is but it has let him stay himself through what he is currently experiencing. More qi based societies would refer to it as samsara. His worlds Buddhists have a very close concept to this. Their wheel of existence which is the sufferingden cycle of life, death, and rebirth, without beginning or end. Only in Doyles case more goat centric. I dont like to mince words like that so suffice to say he is experiencing the lives of many a goat.]
Dungeon Skills – Chapter 11
The fae queen pauses to let it sink in. [Yeah, this system integrates the main monster into a dungeon core by making the core ride along through the lives of monsters of that type. How the system knows to stop this is it detects the core has fallen fully into the monster. That is why he is still stuck in it. That core of his identity wont fall. Good for him as he wont lose himself. Bad for him as he will be stuck until an outside force interferes or it overwrites his entire personality. Doyle is lucky to have you because We just submitted the bug report and they have decent response times. This should be fixed in the next couple hours.]
Ally doesnt know how to deal with this. She throws her hands up in the air, okay, what now? [Why we catch up of course! Dont think We would let you get away with how long you went without calling. We dont me you for not wanting to be around the court but that is what regrmunication runes are for.] Cornered Ally has no choice but to talk about her life. Not that she doesnt like it but the court nobles will hold it against her. Just another thing to target her over.
Doyle on the other hand has gotten into the stranger range of goats. The system has run out of normal earth goats to show him and so it is all about other-wordly or even other-dimensional goats. It shocks him how many goats end up taking on the fire element. In his opinion that isnt a goaty element. Something like earth sure, but fire is just weird. Best he can tell, whatever dimension the system pulls from had some fire god with goats who pulled their chariot. The number of goats being raised by temples with that sort of imagery points to that at least.
It took well over five hours for someone to show up to help. When they did, it was quite spectacr. The systems designer sent along an intern but their biology didnt match up with this dimension very well and they werent powerful enough to ignore it. Instead, they showed up like one of those ascended energy beings you would see in earths science fiction. It first showed up in the queens court and after they learned the basic details stepped through themunication portal.
The being exists next to Doyles core and pulls up a system panel. Yep, theres the problem. Stuck in a life loop. He has gotten deep into it. Though I guess the system is new here and there are few local lives to pull from so having to reach into the backup database would make sense. Okay, dont want to force quit the current life or things could get messy. Going to put a short circuit in the loop before it starts the next one. Yep, right there and he should finish up his life soon enough. And he is done, out like a light as well. He wille to in an hour or so as his core settles. Anyway, time for me to head off. Have a nice day! and the being blinks out of existence.
The fae queen has watched this all through themunication portal and now speaks up. [Huh, I did not know you could travel through these portals. You learn something new every year. Guess I have something else for my security to worry about. The good news is your friend will be up soon. Bad news is we will have to cut our chat short. You will keep in touch with me after this. There will be no hiding as the mail service delivers to dungeon cores and you gave me his name already.] Ally pouts, yes mother. They continue to talk for the remaining hour. Though once Doyle stirs the queen closes the line and the natural rune stone crumbles in Allys hand.
Doyle lets out a long suffering mental sigh, I really need to stop this ck out thing. This is like the third or fourth time I woke up like this in thest. In thest. Actually, you know what? I have cked out so many times I dont even know how much time has passed. How long was I out this time and what in the world was that?
Ally sighs in relief. The intern and the queen had both told her that Doyle would be fine but to hear him and have him sound just like before was a weight off her shoulders. You were only out for a few days. As for what happened, well congrattions, you found a bug in the system. She then goes on to exin what the queen had told her. And then the energy guy kicked you out of the loop and an hourter here we are.
Doyle can understand some of what she exins and epts he cant deal with what he couldnt. Well, I have my starter monsters now. Though I think I got more out of the main monster choice than intended. Bet it costs me half of what they intended it cost me to summon one. Now though we need to move on. It would be nice to rest but I assume we are on some sort of clock?
Not a strict clock mind you. Ally admits, but it isnt like you stop using energy. Our situation is like a human stuck in an airtight room. This hypothetical room is quite big and with you not having much to maintain will let us squeeze out some more time. Overall, I would give us a solid eight to ten days of time. Technically, it is more like two weeks but we have spent some time already. You really shouldnt cut it so close to death when you dont need to.
As for whats next, well we get to choose your first path. Though by choosing I mean you get to pick the Dungeon Core path. It will be your only choice and required to live. It is considered a ss path. You will have seen on my status page the path Dungeon Companion one. It is a ss path as well and shows off their special feature. Instead of cluttering your path section it just keeps advancing when you fill it. When I next put a point into a path there will be the option of Dungeon Companion two with ten out of probably 25 points already in it. My fae magic one path despite looking simr will instead stay on the list with a fae magic two path showing up and starting at zero points in it. One final interesting fact about a ss path is they will always be listed first on the list in order of which has the most points in it. Regr paths appear in the order you get them.@@novelbin@@
Now to pick your path you call up your status. You should have one path point given to you for taking part in the tutorial up to this point. Select the path section and it will bring up the screen that lets you pick your path. The Dungeon Core path should bepleted with a single point. Doyle pulls up his status page.
{Name: Doyle Huxley
Race: Dungeon Core
Companion: Ally Huxley
Paths: [1]
Level: 0
S[6] A[7] C[9] I[10] W[9] P[5] D[12] K[20] L[16]
Skills:}
Yep, theres a point there. [Paths]
{Path Points: 1
Completed Paths:
Invested Paths:
Avable Paths: Dungeon Core 0/1}
Very empty but Ally said this was to be expected. [Put a point in Dungeon Core] please.
{1 Point applied to Dungeon Core path...
You have earned 2 Stat Point, Constitution set to 10, +2 Strength, +2 Intelligence, and +2 Destiny
Dungeon Core pathpleted...
Completion Bonus: Territory Control lv0, Dungeon Rules lv0, Universal Deconstruction lv0, Dungeon Pattern Database lv0, Creation (Energy Powered, Pattern Based) lv0}
Ally takes a nce over the screen and nods, okay, everything that should be there is. I would say as expected but we just had a bit of a snafu so it is nice to see everything is back on track. As a side note so that next time youplete a path you arent disappointed. The number of skills you got forpleting the path ispletely out of whack with the norm. ss paths do generally give skills but not that many at once. A good example is my ss of Dungeon Companion. For taking it I got the skill tutor and uponpletion of Dungeon Companion one I got fae mor. The fact I got a second skill right away is also somewhat rare. Most sses give one to three skills when taken and stat points afterwards.
The skills you received are all needed to run your dungeon and that is the only reason you get so many freebies. Universal deconstruction does what it says on the tin. Territory control lets you shape your dungeon how you want to and dungeon rules will then let you make things stay that way. A good example of the two is you can use control to make a room freezing cold and then set a rule which keeps it that way. The rules only let you keep things the way they are. Without control you can make the room stay the current temperature. The control is an active thing so without the rules when you make the room freezing it only stays that way until you stop controlling it. At which point it would warm up again.
Now wee to thest two skills. Dungeon pattern database and creation with the pattern modifier are special. Creation is easy enough to exin. It has two modifiers, what it uses and what it creates from. In this case it uses energy to make things and what it can create is based on whatever patterns you have. Patterns which will be organized under the, you guessed it, dungeon pattern database. Of course if you get another method to store patterns you can use that as well but for now we can focus on your database.
Long story short, databases are special collections which prevent crafters from ballooning their path points while also preventing someone from just grinding out nails then making a legendary sword on their first attempt. If you pull up your status panel now the database skill will not be at level zero. Instead it will be, at the moment, the level of your best pattern. Later on once you get a lot more patterns you can level up the skill even if you are unable to improve your best pattern. I dont really know the full rules for that but then again no one really does. It takes everything from how many patterns you know, to how those patterns rte to one another into ount. This also means you will get some path points right away. Not that you can use them as even dungeon cores are restricted to a single path during the tutorial.
Anyway, that is a general rundown of your skills. Each of them have some quirks to them and that is without getting into the concepts of skill splitting,bining, and altering. About the only other important thing to note about skills is the limit. Without a ss you can get up to five skills at once. A ss path will start let you get five additional skills which fit it. For instance, a warrior could learn dodge and it would count towards his ss skills and not his general skills. The only problem is that it is criminally hard to remove a skill and ss paths have requirements to both gain and advance. Of course since you received 5 skills from you ss it is a bit of a wash. You got five extra skill slots only to have them filled right away. But let''s go back to the warrior example.
Cubes for Days – Chapter 13
Doyle rotates his core to the side, so we can just call it world energy? Because not having to pussyfoot around what to call the stuff would be nice. Ally rolls her eyes, sure fine, we can reduce thisplex subject with so many implications down to a simple two wordbel. Sigh, anyway now that you freed your territory I advise you shape it into a ball centered on you for now. Later on you will have to focus in certain directions but territory is your early warning system. That and since your territory forces reality on the unreal it will also hold back some of the void beings.
At the moment you''re too small to be noticed so are safe in obscurity but once you get adventurers that wontst. Once you have your territory expanded out big enough to fit a handful or so more rooms in any one direction, we can continue.
Bit of a schr are we? Anyway you can teach me all thatter. If I am guessing right that denseyer of territory was a lot more like an eggshell than you implied. Ally is about to speak up but Doyle continues, dont worry about it. Knowing or not wouldnt change anything for me so you want to keep it on the down low. At least part of the secret is somewhat obvious when you think about it though. That denseyer kept bad things out and forck of a better term my scent in. Now theyer is gone and we need to work at some actual defenses. I wont rush because a stable foundation is more important than short-term safety. Now I should get to work
Ally settles down on the floor muttering about uppity cores while Doyle focuses on his new territory. At the edge, the density is so low a thought is enough to move it. Much easier than when his territory was stuck in his core room. With this greater control he is able to cast a out and reign in the expansion. As it is, his territory is shaped like a cube with a water spouting off of one corner.
Instead of taking back his control Doyle focuses on smoothing out the shape first. A little workter and his territory is now egg shaped but he doesnt stop there. Now that he has the hang of it he pushes his territory outward. At least that was the n but he quickly stops. Actively taking over territory is quite wasteful. Besides that the void resists him which is more rming than wasting his territory. Resistance means a sh which might be visible to others. For someone whose only defense if obscurity this is quite rming.
Not ready for trouble Doyle sits back and lets his sphere of control expand on its own. Soon though hees upon a problem. There is only enough space for a couple of rooms but his excess of territory has run out. The sphere continues to expand of course. However this is at a much reduced rate as it takes time for his core to generate more.
Hey Ally, I have a sphere of control now but it is still kind of small. Problem is I ran out of spare territory. Ally wakes up and shakes her head, huh wah? Ran out already? Oh right, your expanding into the void. Takes a lot more to do that so that is a decent size. I guess the first thing we should start on while we wait is to create your first room. You are a cave type dungeon but I advise you control the first few rooms to be normal rooms.
Because of your type if you order up a room it will end up themed like a cave with rough walls and such. This isnt a problem but forcing the rooms into a shape right now has two benefits. The first is it provides you more room to work with. You can fit more squares on a piece of paper than you can squiggly shapes. Most important though is the practice you will get. Later on such simple maniption of your dungeon wont do much but at the moment this will rocket your territory control skills level up into the stratosphere.
To get started though you need to do a little work first. Normal dungeon cores would simply dig around with deconstruction but you''re in a void. That means you need to create everything you want to fill your dungeon with. This includes the rock and air. In fact, if it wasnt for me being prepared you would be stuck with just the rock and air your chamber is made with. Sure adventurers will drag stuff in with them but that only goes so far. First though we need to deal with universal deconstruction. Lets pull up your status real quick and check on your current patterns. They sit there for a moment before Doyle remembers he has to be the one to pull his status up.
{Name: Doyle Huxley
Race: Dungeon Core (Strange Caverns)
Companion: Ally Huxley
Paths: [9] Dungeon Core 1/1
Level: 0
[2] S[8] A[7] C[10] I[12] W[9] P[5] D[14] K[20] L[16]
Skills: Territory Control lv0, Dungeon Rules lv0, Universal Deconstruction lv0, Dungeon Pattern Database lv9, Creation(Energy Powered, Pattern Based) lv0}
{Dungeon Patterns: goat lv9, kobold lv3, assassin vine lv3, shrubbery lv2, vines lv2, horned rabbits lv1, clover lv1}
Allys eyes go wide at the goat pattern. Well, there is your silver lining for getting trapped. Most people dont get out of the tutorial with a skill higher than level ten. Not that it is hard to get to ten but the System puts a soft cap on such things while in the tutorial. I bet the pattern gains levels like crazy once we are out of it. Anyway move those windows to the side and focus on the air. Not all the air, just the smallest section of you can and it still is just air. We dont want molecules and atoms.
It takes Doyle a moment, not because it was difficult but because he felt the need to perfect it. There is a breakpoint where his senses go from seeing the air as air and then flips to being a mix of stuff like oxygen and nitrogen. Got it. Ally nods, Okay now activate your skill Universal Deconstruction on just that spot.
A couple triester and Doyle activates the skill. For just a moment the space was empty. Not like the void he sensed outside his walls but just a vacuum. Though the surrounding air soon fills in the pocket of space. He can sense the air pressure had dipped but this soon corrects itself as well.
He is about to ask Ally about this but she beats him to it. You just noticed the air pressure fixing itself. Every dungeon starts with their core room under some dungeon rules that keep it stabilized. But now that you have done that check your system messages
{Universal Deconstruction level up
Earth standard air mix pattern gained at level 1}
Good, now do the same thing for your wall. Be careful though as the dungeonw wont rece material if you make a hole to the outside. Just try and skim some stone off the inneryer. This is actually why I had you start with air. They limit the shape you can deconstruct at level zero to a sphere. Once you have an actual level in it though you can take what you want. Now get to it. Some more focusing on Doyle''s part and this task is soonplete as well. With it deconstruction gained another level and the volcanic rock pattern is added to his library.
Perfect, we can start on your creation skill and a room. Imagine a cube of rock about the size of my fist. Small, I know, but what do you expect from a level zero skill? Though once you do create it I want you to focus on your core. I know you cant actually sense it but treat it like you were still a human meditating on your own body.@@novelbin@@
One perfect cube of volcanic ster and Doyle has centered himself. While a human he had dabbled in meditation so ites easily enough but he still cant sense anything. Then Ally interrupts him, have you noticed anything yet? With Doyles negative response Ally sighs in relief, at least you arent that much of a monster. Genius can only take you so far. Up till now you have picked things up much too quickly. Anyway, whenever I say cube I want you to form another and try to sense again. We will continue until you can sense the change. Cube.
Another cube and more sensing. More cubes until there enough that Ally has built a small castle out of them. Cubes, cubes, cubes and the castle has a nice wall and the start of a vige around it. Cubes for the cube god. The entire floor is littered with cubes before he senses it. A single particle of quintessence was being used. In fact, now that he can feel it Doyle gets the sense he could have made the cube a good bit bigger without using more.
Ally swipes her hand, knocking over her castle. Since you stopped making cubes, I have to assume you got a feel for the energy use and it only took you a few short of a thousand cubes to do it. That was an important milestone for any being that uses energy under the System. Look over at your status and you will see the change this has caused
{Name: Doyle Huxley
Race: Dungeon Core (Strange Caverns)
Companion: Ally Huxley
Paths: [13] Dungeon Core 1/1
Level: 0
[2] S[8] A[7] C[10] I[12] W[9] P[5] D[14] K[20] L[16]
Quintessence(/R per hour): 512/10(.01)
Skills: Territory Control lv0, Dungeon Rules lv0, Universal Deconstruction lv2, Dungeon Pattern Database lv9, Creation(Energy Powered, Pattern Based) lv2}
Yep, you now have quintessence listed on your status. Also, youre reading it right. You have a few hundred stored out of a possible ten and you only recover one every hundred ish hours. The system might round up there as it doesnt like to deal with smaller numbers for energy pools. Oh, and by hour it means the system standard hour. Luckily what you used was already based on it though days and such go world by world. One of those conveniences built into it as the wavefront of dreams also nudges people to use simr measurements.
Another thing to note is that your creation skill is still only level two. That stems from you not really creating things so much as just copy pasting a cube. From how I understand it the first level is for the use of the skill period and the second because you have shown enough skill to repeat it perfectly. Now if you make enough stone cubes, you would eventually get a third level and maybe even the pattern. Though the pattern is less likely as the system doesnt really bother with normal shapes. You''re either able to make a cube or youcant no matter how much work you put into it.
Now dont get used to quintessence being on your status. Once you spawn a critter or nt, it will all start to convert over to world energy leaving you with only thatst ten points of it. This is fine as your stockpile of it will stick around until you have used it all. Just a little bonus the multiverse gives to dungeon cores when they first open up their territory. Once it is gone though your status will no longer show it as it will just end up as one of the hidden resource pools everyone has. After all, a human doesnt need to know how many calories they have stored up and it is the same with you and quintessence.
Soul Deep Relaxation – Chapter 14
Ally picks up one of the stone cubes. Now there are a few things we could do with these things. Deconstruct them, move them around, or throw them at intruders. What we will do however isbine them with your current walls. Dungeons are known for their near imprable walls. In the older dungeons the walls can even heal faster than some gods can damage them. This doesnte from nowhere.
There are innumerable methods to store stuff from shrinking the item to some vor of dimension magic. Dungeons, especially those who unlike you start in the ground, end up with immense amounts of rock. To store that through conventional methods is impractical. Instead, what every dungeon stumbles upon to where it is probably some deep instinct is topress the walls.
Because you are out here in the void, youre actually a bit at a disadvantage with this. Many dungeons will form new rooms by starting in the center and pushing material outward. This provides some basic toughness but afterwards most go farther. Some dungeons even go too far with it and copse into a ck hole. So yeah, dont do that. It wonte up for a while but something to keep in mind.
Honestly, you can just thicken the walls after a certain point, especially since all you have is space. Oh, and the healing thing is a dungeon rule. Get it high enough and low level adventurers wont be able to fight their way out of a paper bag as it heals around them. But yeah, use your territory control skill to add to your core room. These few cubes wont do much but it is a start. Now give it a try.
Doyle had gotten the hang of using skills so it wasnt hard to activate. Though once it was active, he was a bit stumped. To create the cubes was a matter of imagining it, same with deconstruction. Well, he activated territory control and was thinking real hard at the cubes. Ally floats, Doyle floats, the cubes sit.
A little time has passed, when Ally facepalms. Right, didnt tell you everything you need to know about the skill. All the skills up until now have been very imagination based. You want to make a cube of stone? Just imagine one. Need to remove some rock? Imagine it gone! Territory control falls more in line with another style of skill. They have a lot of different names. Hydrokinesis, earth bending, fire shaping, air control, and so on. What ites down to though is you are taking a pre-existing object and moving it around.
Each of the skills have a pre-defined limit. Most are restricted to a material as their names make obvious. Yours is as obvious but the limit is everywhere you have spread your territory. So now that I have informed you of all the details give it another try.
Doyle activates the skill no problem. Though now that he knows what to do he notices something else. When he focuses on his walls or any other feature a faint 3d grid appears. In fact, the more he focuses on the grid the more pronounced it bes. Doyle looks at one cube and it has its own grid not connected from the walls.
He sighs, upside is I wont have to worry about everything snapping to some universal grid. Downside is of course everything wont be snapping to some universal grid. I will have to twitch things back and forth to get it perfect. Though can I make the grid smaller? As smartphones had taught him, he poked two spots and then pinched his mental fingers.
Good news is he was able to use his skill. Bad news is this just deformed the cube and did not change the grid size. More pokester only results in a messed up cube. Doyle figures it out soon after though. The grid worked on the same controls his previous skills, imagination. With that he can soon change it up with a triangle based grid and some wireframe sculptures. This will be a great help with nning out stuff.
Done ying with the grid he moves on to merging cubes into the floor. This shift from ying to work definitely had nothing to do with Allys scowl as she taps her foot on the floor. It seems being able to deform the cube tipped her off that he had figured out how to use the skill. Yes, best to ignore her so he can focus on the cubes.
First, he ttens one. It doesnt merge with the floor so he stops when it has more inmon with a pancake than a cube. A couple pokes at the te just deforms the floor as well. This has the amusing affect where the te gets raised up like a small table when the room fixes itself. Not merging though so he continues. To be a bit more cautious and not rupture his core room''s wall he tries to put two cubes together.
Turns out the skill is still very intent based despite what Ally had said. Likely just a matter of either the system being used or some things being more instinctual for normal dungeons. After all, think of how hard it would be to exin breathing to someone who doesnt even have lungs.
Once he has the rightbination of the intent tobine and the desire topress the process goes smoothly. One cubebines with another leaving the second cube looking almost the same but with twice the mass. The only visual difference was the grains of mineral in the stone had shrunk. This actually disappointed Doyle, he had liked the courser pattern. A few morebined cubes and he cant seem to stop this change.
After some consideration Doyle decides he could figure out a way to prevent this. However he has also figured out a better option. Maybeter on when his skill levels slower he cane back to this but for now a simple facade will do. He shrinks one of thebined cubes by a smidge and creates a coating of stone over the outside. The test cube now restored to its original appearance.
The test cube does however tick him off and it takes some investigation to figure out why. Despite the cube appearing to be normal the inner and outer parts are still separate. On a human level this doesnt bother Doyle that much but something about his dungeon core side can not stand this. It is easy enough to fix though as just a touch of territory control welds the two pieces together as if they had always been a single piece.
This annoyance spurs him to try something else with creation. It would annoy him if every time he made a facade he would have to go and fuse it afterwards. So Doyle takes a few moments to see if he can create material pre-fused. Though now that he actually intends for it to happen it does. This ease of use makes him question how much other control skills rely on intent without people realizing it but he doesnt have a way to find out.
Plus at this point Ally figures he has practiced it enough and speaks up. Okay, you figured out how tobine stuff so how about you work on doing so with the walls? It might not be any harder in theory but you have to make sure the material is dispersed. One section of wall be extra dense doesnt do you much good if invaders can go a couple feet to the side and dig through there. So many young dungeon cores fall prey to the illusion that a strong door will keep anything out. Only for them to be disabused of this notion by a dwarf with a pick.
Not saying your doors and their frames shouldnt be marginally tougher than the walls. Adventurers have the same hang-ups with trying to go through them first as well so a little investment isnt bad. Just dont make diamond doors while you make your walls of chalk or some other sillybo. Ally now having said her piece goes back to using a few of the blocks to build things.
Doyle on the other hand is back to work. Once again not wanting to mess with the walls the test cubese in handy again. It seemed like he had it down already but a quick test proves him wrong. Up till now he had used cubes of matching sizes so it seemed the mass was evenly spread. However when hepressed one cube down to half the volume and stuck it in another Doyle notices, he was wrong. The only part of the bigger cube that had a greater density was where the smaller cube would have ended up.
He tries to swirl the mass around but that doesnt work. Well, it sort of works except it causes the same mental twinge that the un-melded facade did. Now though he knows what the twinge is and lets it guide him. The mixed up cube seems to be mixed but in reality his dungeon senses can tell otherwise. There are denser sections mixed with regr rock and on some level that just will not do.
Doyle figures since his dungeon side knows what is wrong it might also know how to fix it. He lets go and rxes. In fact, as he does he realizes this is the first time since he has had his own territory that everything isnt being held in ce by his will. A sense of relief washes over him. As if he had been flexing his leg and a doctor had been attempting to get a response from him with that little rubber mallet.
Now that he has let go a few things all happen at once. First is that the facades he had done all melded on a deeper level. Instead of being welded each connection turns into a smooth density gradient. In fact, now that he has rxed he can tell that those welds he had done were bothering him like the mixed up cube had, just not to such an extent. Speaking of the mixed up cube that was also fixed. Though instead of a gradient the density of the cube equalized.
The most important change however was the one that happened between him and Ally. Before he rxed, there was a connection but it had felt like they being handcuffed together. Now though it is as if the link melded into his soul like how the facadebined to the cube. No longer was it him and Ally but rather it was they. Ally was still Ally just like the facade still kept the amazing patterns. Doyle was still Doyle, keeping his inner strength like the cube had stayed dense. Together though they were the dungeon and he had to wonder how some cores went without apanion.
To say that Ally noticed this change is an understatement. She knocks the block tower she was working on over as she sprawls out. She stares at the ceiling in a daze and asks, What was that? Doyle absentmindedlybines one cube with the floor and answers that, I rxed for the first time. Ally snorts, this is a bit more than rxation, mister. In fact, it feels an awful lot like how a soulbond would. We were alreadypanions so this really shouldnt have happened. Shezily waves her hand in the air and calls up her status panel.
{Name: Ally Huxley
Race: Autumn Court Dungeon Fae
Soulbond: Doyle Huxley
Paths: Dungeon Companion I 10/10, Fae Magic I 10/10, Autumns Jester 3/100
Level: 10@@novelbin@@
S[12] A[9] C[12] I[15] W[7] P[9] D[7] K[18] L[10]
Skills: Tutor lv10, Fae mor lv10, Courtly Manners lv3}
Dungeon Design – Chapter 16
Ally ps, roomsplete and you started them with some denser walls. Convenient as the system seems to have set that as your basic room setup. You do have a bit of space left to make a few more small rooms but we can wait till you have more space. Lets work on connecting the rooms together. While they share sides, you havent opened them up so someone could move from one to the next. For this we can cheat a bit. Instead of cutting each doorway yourself just let the system do it. Think about how big you want the passage and tell the system to connect the small and medium-sized rooms. When youve done that do the same between the small and therge room but instead of a doorway just imagine the wall gone.
Doyle thinks about it and order the system to [from the small room make a doorway to the medium room and remove the wall to the big room]. With the order input into the system he can feel his skills being used. Not quite the same as it was much quicker than he could use them and all at once. There is now a hole and a missing wall.
Unlike the rest of the rooms though these passageways are rough. The doorway is like someone hacked their way through with a hammer and where the wall had been was even stranger. If the doorway at least looked normal the now meter of ground between the big and small rooms looked out of ce. It is as if someone had transported a small slice of a natural cave in between the two rooms.
This is your dungeon typeing through. Ally gestures at the rough stone. Whenever you create terrain without being specific on how it should look the system will automatically style it like a cave. This design can even be forced upon you in special instances. A good example of this is those space station types you could have chosen. While the inside of the rooms is under your control, the system would force a space station like design on the outside of the dungeon.
However these styles are not the end all be all of your future dungeon. As you did with the three rooms, you can design each room. Also, the more floors you get more options be avable. With those space station dungeons as an example theter levels allow for them to create attached asteroids and other such features. The strange caverns option you chose mentions a few styles. Ancient ruins, mushroom forests, and even regr forests. Beyond that it inherits ravines and undergroundkes from the basic dungeon style. Now focus on your existing rooms and think about changing them to the cave style.
[Change these rooms to cave style.]
One simplemand and everything changes. What was once simple rooms with smooth walls are now caves. As if plucked from the remains of a volcano. In fact, the small room looks more like ava tube connecting the other rooms.
This change takes Doyle some time to process. While the actual change happened in less than a second itgs his mind out as it goes through each change. The rooms stayed the same size on the outside with only some material flowing inward. This means that he will have to add more ster but most important to him is it solved his one problem with creation. The only reason he had gone through the effort to create the facade on the outside of those cubes was to keep the stones natural grain. To put all his work to shame the system just styles it. Doyle can feel how it happened. Cant make heads or tails of what the system did but there it is. Best he can figure is with a few more levels under his belt for the creation or control skill will do it.
Ally is oblivious to his annoyance so after the system alerts her that he has seeded she continues. You can use the styles like wallpaper as well and just color walls like any of your stone patterns. At the moment it bases your style on a volcanic region so lots of obsidian and stone bubbles. A nice starting option as most people expect the ssic limestone variety of caves. Might attract more people for the novelty.
That aside your territory has expanded. Not by much but enough you could fit anotherrge room to any side. This should be just enough to create the first level. You will just have to spiral around your core. Oh, and by just enough I mean on a 2d ne. My advice and themon wisdom is to keep your floor design free of massive changes in height untilter. You arent designing for birdfolk. Just fill the rest of the area in with stone. Honestly, this is a safer design for you anyway as the voidbeings will have a harder time phasing through solid stone.
A good ten to twenty rooms depending on how big you make them should do for the first level. Once you have them setup, give me a heads up and we will continue. Oh and dont open up your core yet. We want that closed off as long as possible. Instructions done Ally sits down on his core again.
Doyle takes a step back and observes his rooms so far. The core room is surrounded on three sides. There is the medium-sized room to what he has taken as the front, the small room to his left, and therge room at his back. The medium room leads into the small room which acts more like a tunnel to therge room.
This setup looks fine to him but he feels a bit exposed on the right so the first thing he does is add a medium-sized room except it extends to match his other medium room so half again as long. Though he can see this way of describing the rooms to be confusingter on. While he has a perfect mental sense of his floor, a way tomunicate it to Ally would be convenient.
Hey Ally, from now on I am going to take the small rooms as a basic unit of measure for everything else. Just ignore the core room, going to expand the walls out to match a small room. That means a medium room is two by two and therge four by four. She rolls her eyes and goes back to reading her book. Doyle does a double take as he didnt notice when she took it out but ignores it for now. He cant read what the title is anyway.
Back to room design that means his new room is two by three. Now Ally had suggested a spiral but Doyle has other ns. Instead of continuing his counter clockwise direction he ns for a more u shaped design. Next room is anotherrge one lined up with his previous but with an actual hallway. By his unit of measure the hallway was two long and puts the new room right at the edge of his territory.
From there he ces four medium-sized rooms. The first four to the right and the rest going down with hallways two long and alternating the side the hallwayes from starting on the right. Off thest room a short hallway leads to a small room on the left and then into a two wide but twelve long hallway of a room. A medium room above that which opens at the bottom left and then opens into anotherrge room to the top right. Thisrge room from the center leads to a winding hallway and his final room, anotherrge three above thest.@@novelbin@@
This brings him to 14 rooms which with the size of them he figures will match what Ally wanted. It was quick to exin but the actual creation took a couple hours toplete. Now ready to show her what he has done Doyle shapes some white and ck stone into a blocky representation of theyout. A little C to show his core room and everything was ready.
A couple pokes with the little stone square gets her attention and she takes a look at it. Decentyout. Did you have any ns for the various rooms? Doyle bobbles, lots of goats? The long room I made sure had a bunch of protrusions so it is a good ce for an assassin vine or two. A kobold tribe at the center might work out as well. Otherwise just goat it up.
Ally shrugs, eh, not much else you can do. Maybe have a rare chance for one of the assassin vines to end up in that twisty hallway to mess with people but good enough for the first level. Now though you are ready for one of the few things the system let me keep to gift to you. She reaches into her leaf dress and pulls out a small pinch of dirt. With care she ces it in a pile.
This portion of dirt is worthless to anyone else but to you is worth more than any precious metal. More scientificmunities have special names for it but dont they always? Dont be a snob and just call it dungeon soil. All it does is turn small amounts of world energy into nutrients. A useful feature for anyone but especially so for a dungeon. While your energy field will feed and care for every living creature that is a part of the dungeon it isnt the most efficient. Dungeon soil on the other hand is specialized for it and for a fraction of the cost keep any nt or fungus growing on it alive.
There are of course some nts, most notable ismon dungeon moss, that does this as well. However you dont currently have ess to any of them. Instead, you will want to put down ayer of this stuff everywhere. In fact, that long room could do with a double coating of the stuff or even more. If youre going to stow your assassin vines in there you will want it to be a veritable jungle with vines hanging down everywhere. Now deconstruct the dirt and spread it out.
Doyle tilts his core back in exasperation. I will bute on. This is a two-way rtionship yet you just seem to order me around. Sure you have to give me the tutorial but would a please here and there kill you? In a huff he takes apart the dirt adding another entry to his database. Ally flies up and backward away from him.
With her hands held out in front of her, Ally apologizes. Sorry about that. A lot of this is from a script and I might have fallen into it. However there isnt much we can do about it at the moment. During the tutorial I give the orders because you dont know anything yet. Plus there are only so many ways I can ask you to do a thing before it sounds impolite. Now have you spread the dirt around? We are so close to summoning your first monsters and from what I have heard that is a lot of fun.
Doyle rolls his core some, fine. I can see where you''reing from. Just give me a moment to track dirt all over the ce. Whatever it is made of has a butt load of meaning behind it and will take me awhile to ce. Ally nods, yeah it does. While no one knows the exact origin of it at this point, it is tightly bound to dungeons now. This is both good and bad. Good, because as a dungeon you have a deep connection to it so will be cheaper. Bad because all that meaning increases the creation cost so high even with the nice discount you get it still sucks you dry.
Monster Layout – Chapter 18
Ally conjures up an illusionary horned rabbit, Critters are any lifeform which isnt a monster or sentient in your dungeon. Not harmless. Regr bees, for instance, are a nice inclusion with all this clover and they count as a critter. Still, they are not a threat to anyone with somebat experience.
You dont even technically need them, just like you dont need the nts. However anything you can do to remove your monsters reliance on your energy the better. A horned rabbit will eat the clover and the kobolds and assassin vines will prey on them. You dont have to worry too much about keeping their numbers up because as I mentioned I have a trick for you.
In a number of ces hollow out small warrens for your rabbits. Not in the dirt like a normal rabbits home. Any that survive long enough will do that. No, into the very rock of the walls create their homes and put in ce rules that keep out other animals and monsters. Now you have a safe ce for them to breed. You do have to wait till they you get a pair that are real enough to do so but like rats it is easy for them. Once there is a breeding pair in a warren p on a rule that prevents rabbits from leaving if there isnt enough to keep going.
Now that will get you a normal amount of rabbits. Still a lot, but not enough to deal with the predation of monsters and adventurers. This is partly fixed as critters grow at a sped up pace when there are no invaders, just like nts. However if you''re popr enough, they might not have a chance to do so. To fix it, you have to use one more rule. Set each warren to be a safe room. Not the room you attach them to but rather just each warren separately.
There is a lot to go over with safe rooms but what you need to know for now is they section off whatever area you set them in and your creatures cant attack anything when in one. What is important for your rabbit warrens is that first thing. A safe room will allow nts and critters in them to grow at a sped up pace as long as there are no invaders in any room connected to it. This means any warrens in your long room will produce copious amounts of horned rabbits when the long room itself is clear of adventurers. Now ce some rabbits. This will take a while to do as you have to wait for the warrens to be ready but it will be worth it.
And she wasnt lying when she said it would take a while. Five dayster Doyle finishes with all the rabbits. It would have taken longer but he decided he did not need them in any of the medium-sized rooms or the first tworge rooms. Goats dont need rabbits after all. A few wandered into those sections but never more than a couple at a time.
He turns back to Ally only to find her sprawled out on top of his core with another book. This one more familiar to him as it is one of the dungeon core novels he had read in the past. Hey Ally, Im done with the rabbits. She loses grip on the book and it falls to the ground below him. She snorts, a little warning before you sneak up one would be nice. Anyway, after perusing what your worlds fiction has been up to they are still missing some critical parts of how a dungeon works.
Mainly the differencees from monster cement. In other universes dungeons can ce them willy-nilly but with the system ours is under that isnt true. Some stories do have it right and if you know anything about wargaming, you should be good. Monsters are point buy on a floor by floor total. This isnt for bnce mind you though it does generally end up causing it.
Rather while flora and fauna can survive on the energy that naturally escapes, your monsters cannot. They have to be hooked into the floors energy cirction to live. Sure if you could setup aplete ecology it would allow you to breed more monsters but at least for the first few floors that isnt possible. Part of the reason is because this is all you have to work with. Look at the edge of your territory.
Doyle does so and right away is shocked. Before his sphere of influence had been steadily expanding. Now however it had almost stopped in its tracks. Sure he could tell there was still some growth going on but it would take years to add enough space for another small room.
From your silence I take it you noticed. A dungeons floor count is more than just how many stairs an adventurer has to go down. Sure after enough time your first floor will have expanded. Flisle in specific now has a first floor bigger than most young dungeons one hundredth floor. All it means for you though is that we need to open up so you can advance.
As for how many points you have to spend on the floor? Later on it will be under a floors specific page. Until you get another floor or level though it is easy enough. 1000, your current world energy max amount. What this means for you is if a party full clears the first floor it would take four hours to regain all the energy used in spawning new monsters. With the right paths your levels will increase both the max and the regen rate however to start new floors will be the biggest boost.
Now we still have the pattern database open. I guess we didnt have a reason to close it yet, huh? Anyway, with that open, select one of your monsters. I advise not the goat as they arent a good reference point for you. With goats out of the way Doyle settles on the kobolds and pulls up their screen.
{Kobold
S[4] A[7] C[4] I[6] W[6] P[6]
Skills: Heavy Bash lv3, Improvise Trap lv3
Cost: World Energy[50]}
Ally gestures towards the bottom of the status sheet. There we go, a kobold costs you 50 world energy to create so you could technically fill your dungeon with 20 of them. Obviously this isnt what we will do but make more than just a couple. They are social creatures after all. Anyway, this is about what I expected them to cost. They arent a mammal so you arent fully attuned with them. However they are a social omnivore with the potential for a society so ticks in your favor. Also, for some reason you''re attuned to them especially well in a way I cant pinpoint. The average for a secondary monster under this system is around 60 to start. Now pull up the other two.
{Assassin Vine
S[10] A[2] C[8]
Skills: Grapple lv5
Cost: World Energy[300]}
{Goat
S[6] A[4] C[12] I[2] W[2] P[5]
Skills: Charge lv3
Cost: World Energy[5]}
Okay, the goats cost is half of what it should be but not a bad thing. Besides that though everything is in line with a new dungeon. Cheap primary monster and two more costly secondary ones. Especially that assassin vine. Being a nt did it no favors in itspatibility with you. Now you might ask yourself, what about the levels the patterns have?
Those will influence the cost, eventually. The level however cant more than halve the cost and that is when it gets in the hundreds of levels or even thousands. Levels in a pattern will instead provide options and quality at no extra cost. It is like the cksmith example. A thousand levels in the nail pattern wont let them pull iron out of thin air. Instead, they will be able to make those nails faster and with a higher quality. The angle on the point will be perfect for whatever they intend it to be used for and it will stay straight when being hammered in. Now how do you n to fill out your thousand points?
Doyle takes a moment to look over his map and the costs again. He already knew he wanted two assassin vines in the long room. The remaining 400 points were more up in the air though. After going over everything one final time Doyle went with six kobolds and a whopping 20 goats. He turns to Ally and exins theyout.
Of course the two vine assassins go in the vine room. No question about that though I will allow one of them to wander a little. Though only into that early winding hallway and that small lonely room connected directly to the vine room. Kobolds are also easy. I want them defending my core so five of them go in thestrge room and they can wander into the two by three room as well.@@novelbin@@
As for the goat cement? That took a little math to work out but I think I got it. The firstrge room will stay empty. Not a safe room but more of a gathering room with horned rabbits. The nextrge room will have four goats and the medium room right after that a single one. No goats in the vine room or the small room attached to it. Then on that strip of medium rooms they contain two goats, one goat, two more goats, and the final room has three goats. Next is anotherrge room and I will put five goats in it.
Now all that is left is two more goats and a single kobold, no I didnt forget it. The three of them go in the final medium sized room before my core. You havent told me anything about how bosses work but I figure a kobold with a couple pet goats wouldnt go wrong as core defenders. I will allow them to wander into the main kobold camp but once the fighting starts they have to retreat.
Ally looks over his n and gives a thumbs up to it. This is decent enough and I like what you did with thest room. You dont get a boss till floor five but you might be able to swing a name for the kobold. The only thing missing is traps and you werent getting them yet anyway. Traps are the one thing the system gimps us on. We just cannot ce any trap like structures until after the first boss.
Oh, but dont think because this is a good setup it will work. Youre missing a couple of things with it that are quite important. Going to be upfront with you on it but I wont tell you what these problems are. Not cant, wont. Study after study has shown that these are basic mistakes that dungeons will always make within the first few floors. Furthermore, it is one of those lessons you need to learn the hard way so you dont forget it in the future. I can tell you one thing that needs fixed right away though.
Put in some lights. As a dungeon you can see everything just fine but everyone else is a little in the dark. I would have mentioned it sooner but your core has a glow to it so I could see just fine. To make lights you have a couple of options. Diffuse light that just covers the room. A single source or the realistic option with a few torches. They dont have to be torches, just some light source you would expect but that is the ssic option. This isnt a permanent choice but whichever you use first is what the system info dumps you on. The others you will have to learn on your own.
Opening Up for Business – Chapter 19
Doyle rolls his core. As if I have a choice. The diffuse one is just silly and my vine room would be in darkness with a single source. Realistic it is, though a torch isnt really my speed. Let me try something.
Doyle settles down and imagines an LED light strip. When he tries to ce this in the entry room nothing happens. Not that he expected it to work but it should be possible. In fact LEDs are incredibly simple in concept. Just power passing between two bits of metal through a semiconductor. He had wanted a light strip because those always looked neat but a single LED isnt bad. Of course a single LED doesnt work either.
At this point though he knows what to do. There is no reason a torch would work and an LED wouldnt. He just isnt thinking of it right. A torch likely works because it is so obvious. Fire on the end produces light. With that in mind he just has to imagine the inner workings of an LED more.
That does it. Doyle is now the proud owner of a single LED light. Then of course the system sledge hammers another data dump into his brain. He had expected this, Ally had told him it wasing after all. Though now that he has it figured out it seems obvious. That and the fact that the system had to have electric lights or simr as there was the abandoned space station style. He just has to cover his dungeon in lights now.
Or that is what he thinks when Ally interrupts him, oh yeah, dont forget to spawn your monsters. I might have sidetracked you with the lights. He wasnt going to tell her he had been sidetracked. Two assassin vines, six kobolds, 20 goats, and an absurd number of LED lightster and the floor is mostly finished. For the lights he actually got a bit clever with it. Most rooms would work better with a single light source so he just made a big pile of LEDs on the ceiling. He only made three exceptions for the moment.
The vine room was all shadowy because he hid the LEDs in alcoves and behind nts. For the two by three room with the orderly bushes he had a small group of the lights over each bush. Thest exception was the pseudo boss room. He raised a stone throne for the kobold to sit on and has the lights all behind it. He still has onest monster based thing to figure out now with the lighting done. Which kobold to have in the boss room. He remembered that the males were more likely to develop mana and the females qi. Hey Ally, should I stick a girl or a guy in thest room? Do you think qi or mana would work out better?
Ally cups her chin, hmm, that is a good question. If you just had a single goat with them, I would say go with mana. Mana users tend to develop familiars and a goat might work. With two of them though I would advise a girl. That way she makes the best use of both goats you provide her with. Plus magic based mobs arent the best for important monsters this early. A well-ced firebolt can turn the tide but you really want a monster with more sustain. Qi users are less bursty in general.
Doyle tilts his core, good enough a reason for me. One of the girls gets to sit on the throne. Though I guess I should have thought of this before. I currently have an even split but it sounds like I might want to rece a male kobold with a female one. As it is the kobolds home room has more potential mages than martial artists.@@novelbin@@
Just rece one, Ally shrugs, ter on once you get named monsters it will matter but right now everything is a clean te. Since you arent open to the outside at the moment just like your world energy pool isnt emptying, you wont lose any energy when you deconstruct stuff. More so than even other dungeons youre a bit of a closed loop. Sure energy ising in but thats it. A brief pause for Doyle to switch his kobolds around and Ally continues the tutorial.
Now that you have everything ready we can finally get around to busting open your core room. The first step to that though is designating your dungeon''s entrance. If you just tried to open up your core, it would ce an entrance without your input and that could be terrible. No one wants adventurers to spawn in their core room even for a minute. As a dungeon in the void it is easy enough for you to reposition the entrance but more dimension bound ones are not so lucky.
Doyle rolls, as if I have much of a choice anymore. I had already decided when I ced one room farthest from my core. Maybe if I had enough room for multiple branches, there might be somewhere else to put it hell, I was already calling that room the entryway. [Set dungeon entrance there in the center of the left wall of thestrge room]. With thatmand a circle of crystals burst out of the rooms wall. At the center a ck dot forms and expands to fill the crystal structure. As if a never ending hole the ckness of the portal seems to eat everything that touches it, even the light. Only the fact that the crystals themselves glow keeps that side of the room lit. This darkness isnt ack of light but rather an object of its own.
{Time Until Core Breach: 1.00.00
0.59.59
0.59.47}
Doyle has other things to worry about though as a timer popped up with thepletion of the entrance. Ally nces at it and sighs, dont worry about the wording. All it means is that unless you open up your core room within the hour, the system will do so for you. More because to not do so would cause a much more catastrophic breach. Since your dungeon is ready, though just create some door between the core and yourst room. Try to hide it a little so people cant just sneak past your monsters but it has to open enough to allow people through. Something about how dungeons are formed requires it. Oh, and once you do create the doorway, you will be open to people. Specifically, because of the nonsense with Flisle there will be people from yours tutorial tromping through.
I looked at the conditions and dont expect to finish by having a single person try to brave your dungeon only to fall and break their neck. The group you defeat has to be a party of at least six people and of them three have to be defeated by your monsters. Also, dont worry about them messing with your core. The system will put up another portal in the doorway which will take the winners back to their tutorial instance. Finished Ally sits back down on the core and takes out yet another book. To himself Doyle wonders if the reason she only brought a single pinch of dirt was because all the rest of her storage was filled with books. That wasnt important though, so he refocuses on his core room.
Where to put the door? Well, okay that is a stupid question. I ce it on the wall next to the boss room. The real question is what kind of door. It has to open but I really would prefer if a single person could not do so. Unless of course they had enough stats under the belt but not much I can do about that. For now, I think just making the door require three normal people to open it should be enough. Someone should be able to double their strength easily enough during the early game as humans arent exactly the best weightlifters.
In fact, anyone who specializes in brute force might easily have a raw power well above that. However once again, if they can reach my core room with strength alone not much I can do. Instead, I have to hope that stealthy types will focus agility early on so even if they do make it to the door unnoticed they cant open it. With that in mind a big rolling stone block might be my best bet early on.
Not much room so I will have to have it roll to cover the entrance to the boss room. I am okay with that but how to get it to roll back? Right, of course. Just [set boss room to be smooth again]. That leaves a ledge and if I [adjust the rock here] to make the slope steeper. Almost done now [smooth the ramp] and [put in some guides] so they cant just knock the rock over and finished. [Create the rock door] and [remove a circr plug of stone] from my core room opens my dungeon for business. Now how much time did that take? He looks over at the timer which is now just blinking on the same number.
{0.21.33}
Once he has read it, the window closes itself and a new one opens up.
{Searching for Challengers}
Ally looks up at the window and nods, ah the joys of being in a tutorial. The system brings challengers right to you and then gives you a break after they leave. Once we are hooked up to your world, there will just be an open door for people, animals, and monsters to wander through. Not so bad for you as dungeon cores dont need to sleep but until we are safer, I will be a nervous wreck. Now for the fun part though, the waiting!
And waiting there was. After the first hour Doyle was worried about it and asked Ally but she can only shrug. At this point as far as the tutorial is concerned we are second-ss citizens. Not only does there need to be someone ready to do their dungeon run. They also have to choose the option to try our dungeon instead of just the one they had been training in. With how big earth was you wont need to worry about no one choosing us but it could take a while. Proper tutorial guides will try to get their trainee to soft cap five skills and train with their group for at least a week. Even with the learning boost in the tutorial this can take a while.
Of course the bad tutorial guides will just try to shove people through as quickly as possible. We have probably missed that deluge of newbs though and I half bet the system wouldnt count it anyway. Just wait a few days and if by then we still have gotten no one I have some options.
The first group showed up just shy of three days. Though calling it a group would be a bit of a misnomer. Yes, under the system it counted as a team but a single sneaky boy does not a party make. Doyle informs Ally right away about this event and she quickly demands he brings up a view. He rollspletely to the side tipping her off and asks, What are you talking about? This is the first I have heard of being able to share a view.
Ally flies back up to his core, oh right. We didnt really need it so it just slipped my mind. The system provides a nice feature to help dungeonpanions. Just focus on one wall intending to show me something that is happening in the dungeon and you will act like a magical projector.
Doyle does so just in time for them to watch the adventurer step right back through the portal. Ally nods, yeah he was probably a scout for his party. Give it an hour and he will be back with his party. This first trip was just to test the water. He left right away so a healer could check him for any disease, parasite, or poison that might have been around. Though the fact that we didnt greet him with ava pool makes it likely his party will be the first to face us unless some other group sneaks in.
A Groups First Dungeon Dive – Chapter 20
An hourter a group of six people wait before a portal. Antonio stands at the front of his party and fidgets his heavy leather armor. Come on, I have the skill for it. Why doesnt this gear fit better? Off to the side leaned up against a wall Jeremy smirks, Because you have the skill for heavy armor which means metal and sh *bonk*
From the side a girl in white robes with a metal heart protector smacks him on the head with a shillgh. Just cause mother isnt here doesnt mean I will let you get away with cursing. Jeremy rubs his head, Come on Jess. No harm no foul. By her re though he can tell that even after the end of the world he will have to watch his mouth. With a shrug he continues, As I was saying your skill is for metal armor like te, not some trumped up leather. What you have is at best medium armor.
Antonio sighs and turns to the team''s leader. Kyle is over by the parties mage, Fern, trying to hit on her. Antonio rolls his eyes, Yo Kyle, time to go. With what the guide said and Jeremy saw we should be in for an easy clear against a baby dungeon. Now that Jeremys retry timer has expired we should get a move on.
Kyle coughs, Right, onward to victory! By the way where is Cas? Antonio rolls his eyes and Kyle spins around. Behind him is anky girl in light leather armor, a bow on her back, and with a great big grin. Why behind you baby brother! What better ce to watch a train wreck?
Fern shifts her blue robes a bit, Well you could have stopped the wreck in the first ce. Now we need to get a move on. The other groups might be behind us but will catch up soon. Plus, I dont think the guide can actually stop people from trying a dungeon run before they get all their skills to level ten. That was more of a threat enforced thing.
Kyle perks up, true. I dont know if there is a reward for being the first group in a tutorial instance toplete it but if there is I want it. Now me and Ant through the portal first, Jeremy and Jess second, and you enterst with Cas. Orders given he grabs Antonio and charges through the dungeon portal.
Cas just sighs as Jeremy and Jess saunter through. Fern giggles, Dont worry about your brother. He''s harmless though we should think of how to bring him down lightly. Cas shakes her head and grabs Fern up, clueless is more like it if he cant put the clues together. We arent exactly hiding it, and she kisses her. Once back on the ground Fern holds Beths hand as they walk through the portal as well leaving an empty stone hallway.
On the other side the rest of the group have spread out to check therge room they find themselves in. clover covers the floor with a couple bushes in the left back corner. Off to the right is the only other way out, a rough tunnel carpeted with even more clover. Cas nces upward and notes that there seems to be a single light source. While there arent any threats in this room that she can see she brings out her bow, ready for a fight.
Jeremy with daggers already drawn ducks into the tunnel to do a little exploring as the rest ready themselves. Jess sighs, You know we should have already been armed and ready for a fight when we came through? Antonio shrugs at herment, Why bother? Jeremy had already checked it out for us after all. She shakes her head, But what if something had changed or there was a hidden monster? It is fine to make mistakes like this in the tutorial but once we are out this kind of carelessness could be our death.
Kyle speaks up at this point. To be fair talking aloud is also somewhat of a no no. But yes, I agree with you. If weplete the dungeon there is only another day we get to stay in the tutorial so we should spend it questioning the guide. She seemed quite experienced in this sort of career.
Over at the tunnel Jeremy rolls his eyes as he steps back into the room, Of course she does. Best I can tell she was some sort of bandit who preyed on new adventurers inside of a dungeon. You and everyone else got warned right when we arrived that this whole tutorial gig is likemunity service for them.
Antonio ps his chest. A move that would be much more impressive with a metal te instead of leather. Thats perfect then! She would know exactly what we have to be careful about. Just likepanies would hire hackers to test their setups. Who better to learn what not to do in a dungeon from than someone that took advantage of people doing all the wrong things.
Fern steps forward and ps her hands, Okay, enough of this jibber jabber. We are here to run the dungeon. Not debate the virtue of our guide. Jeremy what did you see through that tunnel? Leaned up against the wall again Jeremy shrugs, Just a handful of goats
Fern res at him, A handful as in five? Or are they micro goats and you meant a literal handful of them? We live in a fantasy novel now so be specific. Jeremy throws his hands up, Fine, there are four normal goats. In fact, my observation skill justbeled them goat. Nothing fancy and in fact once again, if what the guide told us is true we might not even have to fight them. Fern sighs and turns her re on Kyle. He fidgets, Okay party, time to move out!
All six of them gathered together. Antonio in front with Jeremy, Fern and Jess in the middle, with Kyle and Cas taking up the rear. As they make their way through the twisting hallway Antonio swipes at the various vines, good thing these are only along the walls. This would be frustrating if they blocked our way.
Then Jeremy holds up his hand and the party stops. With a couple gestures hemunicates that the next room is just around the corner up ahead. Antonio centers his stance and advances forward. At the bend he sticks his sword out and waggles it, not a bull fight then. Jeremy half smiles, since when did a normal goat be a bull? Antonio scoffs, Since magic, genius.
Fern facepalms so hard, We are literally just around the corner from potentially mortal danger. Can you save your quips for after the fight? Antonioins under his breath, he started it Kyle shakes his head, well dont make me end it. Everyone around the bend we cant keep the goats waiting now can we?
As a whole the group sweeps around the corner ready for battle. In the room which looks quite simr to the first they find exactly what Jeremy had said. Four goats, all of them munching on clover and currently gathered in along the left wall. This makes them a little closer to the group than either side isfortable with so the goat meander their way towards the back of the room.
Jess scratches her head, Well I guess that proves it then. We are in a baby dungeon who hasnt even figured out how to order its own mobs around. Antonio shrugs, Im not going toin about not being hit. The rest of the group nods in agreement.
Kyle walks out into the center of the room and while the goats give him the stink eye still nothing happens. He shrugs, just remember everyone. Predators will still attack us so this wont be too much of a cake walk unless goats is all there is. Anyway, from here I can see that the next room is just a smaller version of this one with a single goat. Beyond that I can see a lot of vines so you might just get your wish Ant.
Antonio grouses that he, didnt want the vines in his face. Everyone else has a goodugh at this as they make their way through the two goat rooms and into the vine-covered room. Jeremy ducks down to try and see under the vines, drat, thend isnt t in here so watch your step. I cant make out more than a handful of paces.
Fern grins, again with these handfuls? How would you even measure your sight range with a volume-based measurement? Jeremy scrunches his eyes shut and rubs his temple, You bloody well know what I mean by it. About five of something. It isnt an exact measurement because I havent taken a f, Jess taps her shillgh, ine ruler to the ground.
Cas gives Jesss shoulder a squeeze, Thats a never ending vigil youve set for yourself. But yeah, Fern, give him a break. This is only the second time today but dont make us add up how many times you have ribbed him for it in thest week. I know it has been stressful for you but who hasnt been stressed?
Kyle nods, Right, she is quite right. Now Antonio, let Jeremy lead till we are out of the vines. We will need his detection skill on full st just in case there is some real threat here. Antonio gives a thumbs up and takes a step back with a smile.
Jeremy rolls his eyes then starts the group moving forward again. About seven paces into the room he stops everyone again. He points up towards the ceiling off to the left side but no one else can see anything. He shakes his head then grabs Antonios and points his face right at the spot. It takes Antonio a moment but then his eyes go wide, Wowee that is a giant vine monster.
Now that everyone else knows what to look for it takes only another moment for the group to all see the nt monster. Kyle with his chin in his hand ponders for a moment, Well I dont think it can be that fast? Hey Jeremy, now that youve had your fun what does your observation skill say about it?
Jeremy has the cockiest grin as he exins that, its an assassin vine. You''re both right and wrong. The thing cant change locations fast but it is an ambush predator. If we had stumbled under it one of us would be off the ground before they knew it. Least that is what the description says. This is another threat we can just walk around. Still need to be on the lookout for others in this room. You can tell that the room was set up just for them.
With more caution than probably needed they pass the assassin vine single file, hugging the opposite wall. Past that monster the group continues on through the vines. Farther in and Jeremy once again stops the group, that must have been the halfway point back there cause I see the exit. Bad news is I also see another assassin vine and this one is chilling right over the doorway to the next room. I dont think we can avoid this fight.
Cas shrugs, I bet this wouldnt count for our dungeon run if we didnt have to fight. Plus the guide said to expect three different monsters, so this is only the second type. You never know what could be around the next corner. Anyway, let me take a few shots at it. I have this fancy new bow yet there has been nothing to use it on till now.
Kyle repositions to the front with Antonio while Jeremey gets behind them. The other three line up behind them with Cas in the center. Everyone in position Cas puts an arrow on the bowstring and draws back. With careful aim she lines up a shot on the center of mass. A twang and an arrow sprouts from the assassin vine.
All the motionless vines that cover the doorway lift up and il about. Antonio lifts his shield up and steps forward into range of the vines. They strike his shield one after another creating a horrendous noise but his strength is enough to stand his ground. Kylees up on his side and swings his morning star down on a cluster of vines near pulping them.
The shock from this attack freezes the assassin vine for a moment. Just long enough for Fern to get off a sharp st of wind targeted at the stilled vines. Three of them fall away from the main body andnd on the floor. They thrash around but are clearly no longer a threat.
Antonio braces his legs and then thrusts forward. His short spear pierces through a couple vines and into the main body the nt monster. Another arrow from Cas follows soon after and the monster loses grip on the ceiling temporarily held up by Antonio before it crashes to the floor.
Jeremy and Jess both stand there and p. There wasnt much call for healing or a dagger in this fight so they had stayed back and watched the rear. After all, they left another one of these monsters behind them. Now with the fight over Jess pokes Antonio and sends a short burst of power through him to heal any bruises from the fight. As she focuses on that the dead assassin vine dissipates, leaving behind a small bunch of berries.
Fern picks them up and bags them. She wasnt the person they intended to hold the loot but the berries were less likely to be squished in her pack. The monster in and everyone ready to continue they proceed onward. First, they have to pass through four medium-sized rooms of nothing but more goats. Then anotherrge room with even more goats but from there they could see an actual challenge.
Jeremy saw a kobold two rooms away. Their eyes met and it dodged out of his line of sight. He sighs, Well we werent exactly going for a stealth run anyway. Not the room with the orderly bushes but the one after that has kobolds in it. Oh and Fern, before you ask, no I dont know for certain that they are kobolds. However that is what they look like to me. Until my skill says otherwise, that is what I am calling them.
Kyle frowns, I already told her toy off but thats a two-way street. Keep your snide remarks on the down-low as well if you would. Jeremy waves him off, fine. Anyway, everyone group up. We have a real fight ahead of us. Kyle raises an eyebrow, yes an excellent n. I agree, everyone group up.
Through the short hallway and the room with bushes the party advances. Antonio nces around the corner into the room with the kobolds and sees them. Okay, five kobolds gathered against the right wall around the corner. They seem to be defending the way to the next room. From what the guide has told us about young dungeons we should be near the end so that might be our way out. Also, they dont seem to be armed with anything so it looks like we can deliver her gift package. Kyle nods, then we are good to go. Everyone around the corner!
Kyle and Antonio both advance around the corner at the same time with their shields locked together. Once the kobolds glimpse them with a smattering of growls, they charge only to be rebuffed by the shields and a light shove pushes them all back. One kobold even falls over. With the group now engaged Cas pops around the corner with her bow drawn and lets loose an arrow towards the center of the kobold group.
Even though she didnt aim at a specific enemy, they are bunched together tightly enough that the arrow catches one in the arm. That kobold falls back and scratches at it. The monsters now distracted miss it when Jeremy stealths into the room and nks them. Before he attacks though Fern finishes a spell from around the corner and both Antonio and Kyle glow as a wind wraps their bodies.@@novelbin@@
The both of them swing their weapons in unison the spear piercing forward and the morning star crashing down. Most of the kobolds scramble out of the way but the one that had been knocked over didnt make it in time and died with a crushed leg and pierced stomach. The two kobolds on the left side might have dodged out of the way but this brought them right into Jeremys range.
His two daggers swipe out and angry red lines are drawn on both of them. However they werent as oblivious to his presence as the party had thought as he catches a couple w attacks in turn. One w is blocked by his armor but the other scours his hand forcing him to drop his dagger.
As the unsessful kobold goes for another shot though an arrow sprouts out of its shoulder. Cas having taken the time to aim hits it right where it would disable the monster from attacking. Then the wound bursts open as the arrow head explodes into shrapnel, her skill having sessfully activated. With this half a chance Jeremy swings his remaining dagger at the kobolds leg, hamstringing it, as he picks up his dropped dagger.
While this happens Antonio sends out a flurry of stabs at a kobold that dodged into the wall. The monster is agile but Antonios strikes speed up as he activates a skill which stacks with his already enhanced speed from Ferns buff spell. The kobold never stood a chance and it falls to the floor with more holes than it can survive.
Kyle steps over the dead kobold on the floor and brings his morning star up and across. Bashing the kobold that had dodged backwards into the wall where it gets sliced by a st of wind from Fern. Meanwhile Cas finishes off the one she sted and Jeremy gets his daggers into the hamstrung kobolds heart.
With the fight over Jess enters the room. She looks a little ill from the bloody mess but gets down to work and heals Jeremys cut hand. Cas not having been too active in the fight looks through the hallway to see what she can see while everyone else recovers. It might not have been a long fight or all that tough for them. However, it was one of the first real fights in which the enemy had intended to kill them.
Through the tunnel she sees one more kobold just sitting on a stone chair with a couple of goats. Hey Kyle,e look at this. I think this is thest room. Want me to finish it for us? Kyle walks over and takes a nce, Sure, why not. I will stand here just in case something happens.
Cas aims carefully but the first shot is a miss. The kobold that had been sitting still chose just the right moment to dodge. Its luck didntst though as the next arrow catches it in the leg and the third ends its life with a headshot. The goats scamper into the corner bleating in fear.
Cas stretches, well that wasnt fun at all. Once we are out of the tutorial if we ever find this dungeon again I hope it has cleaned up its act. Kyle nods, This was more dangerous in theory but it was missing something.
The kobolds had all faded away by now so the rest of the group gathers some packaged horned rabbit meat of all things and gathers on them. Formed up they move into the next room which proves to be thest as they thought. There is a giant circr stone door that looks like a pain to roll out of the way. However right in front of it is one of the tutorial portals. With one giant sigh of relief from everyone in the group they step through leaving behind their first dungeon experience and stepping into whatever future the changed earth may hold for them. All that is left behind is an awkwardly shaped package which Kyle had dropped right before he stepped through. On it is a small note, From The Dungeon of Never Ending Caves, Here is a care package just in case you didnt start with any good stuff. I expect nothing in return but consider paying it forward next time you''re able to help another new dungeon core.
Goat Armor – Chapter 22
Doyle takes another nce over what armor he has avable. I dont really want to deck the kobolds out. That would cost too much and not fit what I feel my first floor should be. Ally shrugs, so keep it light then. It isnt like those two dagger kobolds would fight better with more encumbrance. They only have three strength after all. Doyles core dims, hmm, youre right. Actually, now that I think about it, let''s bring up the kobold status.
{Kobold
S[4] A[7] C[4] I[6] W[6] P[6]
Skills: Heavy Bash lv3, Improvise Trap lv3}
Wait a second! You were going to let me fall into another mistake. They have the skill for heavy bash and here I am trying to give them swords and daggers. Ally smiles but doesnt say a thing so Doyle continues, You were! Switch out the daggers and swords for maces. Gah, and I forgot to let them wander around andy out traps!
Ally interrupts him and points out that, they need to gather some excess energy for the traps so they couldnt have set traps. Since you didnt tell them not to they will when possible. Doyle brightens up again. Well, I did nothing wrong then. But yeah, any kobold with a melee weapon should now have a single mace. Maybe once the pattern levels up more I will get other weapon skills to put on them.
Anyway give the shieldless kobolds some greaves except the wand using one. Also, dont think I missed the clothes pattern. They are absurdly cheap as long as I dont do anything fancy with it, right? Ally nods, yeah. Regr clothes generally cost a single point for the whole suit. Mostly because that existed in societies your earth pushed the meaning of normal clothes into the gutter. When there are people who find it easier to just buy new clothes instead of washing old clothes, you know something is going wrong.
Doyle shifts around, not everyone was like that. Anyway, throw shirts, pants, and underwear on them all. Six world essence isnt worth quibbling over. To finish up with armor, I really want to deck out the boss. Ally interjects, not a boss. Doyle rolls to the side, meh, the leader should be well armored. She can have a tunic, gauntlets, greaves, helmet, and a pair of boots. Actually no, cut the boots and greaves. They seem like the kind of race that goes around barefoot anyway and five items is enough. I am tempted to cut the gauntlets as well but protecting her hands so a lucky shot doesnt drop her shield or mace sounds like a good idea. Also can I armor the goats?
Allyughs, of course you can armor the goats. You justck any good armor to put on them except maybe the helmets. Once you get some more proper main armor pieces, it should be possible to make something work. Doyle sighs, dont bother with the helmets. I will just give them cors and be done with it.
Ally frowns and looks down for a moment but cant keep it going. She brightens up andughed some more, fair enough. Though the helmets would have looked cool, I think they should be fine without. Now lets take a look at the butchers bill. [System what are the temp and loot prices for the items we want?]
{Clothes for six kobolds and two goat cors: 6
Wooden Wand: 10, 100
Wooden Shield: 2, 20
Bronze(9:1) Mace: 5, 49
Leather Greaves: 2, 20
Leather Gauntlets: 2, 16
Leather Helmet: 2, 19
Leather Tunic: 2, 17}
With her eyebrows raised Ally clicks her tongue, quite the spread there. I was expecting the armor to all cost the same. Also before you ask, the wand costs so much because it is magical. For basic magic items like a wand or a sword enchanted to be sharper the price is generally double. Though of course its magic. You can never quite pin it down.
Doyle does some math in his head, looks like arming my kobolds will cost only 67 world energy if I dont make any of it loot. I do want some of it loot though so let me think. At least one wand being lootable is a must. Only the leader should have a chance to drop a mace as well. So that would bring us up to 201 points. The mace and shield girl can drop the shield, same with the shield and wand guy. The mace and greaves kobolds I think willck any loot. So what? A total of 237 points on arming them? I wanted to keep it down but I still spent almost as much on their gear as I did on the kobolds themselves. The leader kobold doesnt have all the loot I wanted her to have.
Though that reminds me. For stuff like their gear loot is mostly self exnatory. The monster dies and all the energy goes into the item instead of some random drop. How would it work if I wanted something they dont carry to be loot? I noticed the metal coins in the pack so they are probably themon currency under the system.
Thats a good question. Ally thinks about her answer for a second before she continues. There isnt really a set way to do it to be honest. Some dungeons literally ce all loot options on their monsters somewhere. A coin in the pocket or the stomach. This obviously bes less viable for the more extreme rewards you might give out.
You can also set it to them without spawning the item. This means you could do silly things like having a bee drop a chunk of ore three times its size. A very useful method if you have a normal animal but want them to drop leather clothes. Though mentioning leather brings us to the third mostmon way to do loot drops. You can select parts of your monster to be their loot. This means you can have your goats potentially drop a nice hide when defeated even if they got hacked apart and then burned.
Suffice to say each method has its own upsides and downsides. As for the metal coins you might want to set a couple copper on your leader kobold. Now your world might not switch to using system currency. Some never do. However it is the only universally epted currency. Even the worlds that dont adopt it use it. This mostly stems from it not being counterfeitable.
Only entities like the system and dungeon cores can make it because at the center of each coin is a quintessence signature. The higher grade the coin the more quintessence in that signature. This stored quintessence is used by the system when anything is directly bought from it. As a side effect of this coins always cost the same amount of world energy. Copper at ten and silver 100. Of course there are higher tiers of coin, some even valuable on their own for the metal they are made of. You dont have to worry about it though as after the next coin, gold, the cost balloons.
Hmm, Doyle tilts forward, Three copper coins as loot then. This raises the cost up above what I earn in an hour but everyone loves coins. Also, you said it had a signature in it. Is that my signature or a generic this is a coin signature?
Ally makes a number of illusionary copper coins all of them different. Not only is the signature uniquely yours but their design depends on the dungeon as well. We wont know what ours is until one gets dropped.In fact, you cant even use gold coins until the fifth floor boss so I guess it is a good thing you didnt want to use it. Not that we are likely to see them in the tutorial. Your kobolds arent likely to survive long enough for any loot to drop. Good news about that is you only need to pay the loot cost the first time or after it has been looted. Otherwise you just pay the basic cost.
Of course that is only if you spawn the same setup. If you try to change equipment or creatures, the pattern holding the loot in ce falls apart and you have to set it up again. Train your rules enough and you can automate the respawning of things. Honestly, a lot of this is provided by the system to promote growth in dungeons. Without a system to handle it dungeons tend to stick to fewer but deadlier floors.
This works in systemless universes. Systems however change the game as it smooths out the progression of adventurers. You want level one to five threats on the first floor. Second floor can then be level three to nine and so on. That way people can level up. Without levels though the tiers of strength tend to be more exponential if harder to progress. Oh, and your monsters are all level one at the moment. Youre limited to monsters equal to or less than your level and the monster itself can have limits built in as well. For instance, you cant spawn a real dragon under level 1000.
Doyle nods his core, good to know. Though I have to ask, if monsters dont have paths how do levels work for them? Ally shrugs, I dont know the details. Even though we have all these dungeons like Flisle and the Infinite Caves to do tutorials, they didnt start under the system. Their floors and monsters had already been setup and they dont exactly have leeway to set up new ones. I am sure we will find out soon enough.
Doyle sighs, we are in a tutorial. Shouldnt there be some kind of quest or text about it? Allyughs, as if the tutorials are really going to set you up for the world. For people born under the system they already know most of the extra stuff from living their lives. You knew people wouldnt be able to learn what you really need in less than a few years. Instead, the tutorial is entirely there to get you ready to live life. If the tutorial actually was here to get you system ready it would let you experience leveling up and more paths.
It packs people full of just enough false confidence that you dont all die. When the system reforms your world it takes years for it to stabilize. Most buildings with more than a couple stories will have copsed. Animals will have limatized to the energies in the air and some will have changed into monsters. While major cities and important buildings get some protection, your world has well and truly ended.
Ally closes her eyes and rubs the bridge of her nose. Hah, sorry about that rant. In my years I have seen a good number of worlds introduced to the system. Helped in protecting those important ces. The peoplee back from the tutorial and see that for the most part everything looks the same. Governments try to regte levels and paths. Extremists deny it all and kill the strongest to try and prove in some twisted way it isnt real. Dungeons and monster dens get quarantined so no one can enter them for their own safety.@@novelbin@@
We can only do so much without turning entire species into our dependants. Even then it doesnt work all the time. Some godlike beinges along and tries to handhold a civilization through the change. No good everes of it. Governments crumble, cities burn, and whole societies die out. Everyone has to take that first step into the new system based reality and some species just cant manage it.
Luckily I havent personally experienced it but entire species have died. Something in their core existence that denies the system. The Alilloou in particr are a poster child for it. Anyone that helps with new worlds is required to read the ount. They at first seem to be adapting perfectly. No chaos and they banded together right from the word go. Within a couple years everything seemed at peace like they had always had the system. The team, happy with the progress, left before the century of observation was even a tenth of the way through.
They got sent back when nomunication or travelers came from the world. It was a tomb world when they arrived. Every Alilloou, old and young, had simply stopped living once they were alone. It took millennium to find the answer. As a species at some basic level they couldnt handle the mystical energies. While the observers were around, they acted like observers in the quantum sense of the world. Once they left, well, yeah. Whats worse is this was likely the best oue for them. To never know they are trapped and can never leave the presence of someone of another species or they may just die without notice.
You Can Get A Ne – Chapter 25
Of course a dungeon monster as simple as a regr goat cant be scared. Rather that was what Doyle had ordered the goat to do. As the group goes to fight the goats in the next room, it lines up a charge with the person at the back of the party which is of course Daisy. Not making a sound the goat takes off and rams into her back, sending her flying into the room.
She slides across the dirt, knocking up clovers as her nice white sundress gets messed up. The room goes silent as all the guys turn to look at what happened. As Daisy gets up Doyle can just barely see a shimmer in the air next to her skin as she spits out dirt. There is a fire in her eyes as she shouts to, KILL THEM! They ruined my dress! If it wasnt for that idiot Jay giving up his free weapon for this defensive ring I might have been hurt. and she holds up her hand showing off a copper ring with small runes inscribed on it.
With a vengeance they butcher the goats in that room and the next two. Then theye upon the kobold rooms. With a cocky swagger the guys enter to weapons drawn. The kobolds hiss at the group but hold their ground. Jerry rolls his eyes and shoves his dual wielding minion at them starting the fight. Of course the poor guy that just got shoved isnt doing too well. One of the kobolds gets a good shot on his head before continuing on. This might not have finished him but both the mage kobolds send a spell his way. Maybe with the right skills and stats someone could survive an ice spike through the heart and a rock through the eye but that wasnt an option here.
Jerry sighs in mock disappointment, good help is so hard to find these days! And he takes a swing at one of the charging kobolds bringing it down. Despite the group now being down to only three people who can fight things arent going badly for them. The mage, having had a lot of practice with it, is slipping the kobold mages left and right so they cant get another spell off.
John and his axe are even worse as one shot bisects the kobolding at him. This is too much of a cakewalk for them and it activates one of Doyle''s earlier rules for the leader. Since the fight was too one-sided, the kobold charges out of her room with her two goats and joins the fight.
This addition throws a wrench in the works. The groups mage gets distracted by a charging goat and misses his timing. Suddenly not being slipped up the left kobold mage is able to get his second spell of the fight off. Daisy screams as a fist-sized rock shoots at her head. Jerry who had been covering John''s side rushes back and blocks the shot but isnt strong enough to stop it. His shield crashes back into Daisy causing her to fall and twist her ankle.
All the while one kobold gets in and sinks a w into Johns side. Then another spell flies their way. One goat shouldnt have stopped the mage so Jerry nces over. He is just in time to see the leader bash the mage''s head in. All Jerry can do is scream for everyone to retreat.
Daisy is the first out of the room, reasonable as she had already retreated when she first got knocked down. Jerry is next leaving John to bring up the rear. Not that John has much of a choice. The wound in his side stops him from using his axe and forces him to retreat slowly or be hit again.
Once everyone is out of the room they dont even regroup, instead just hoofing it towards the entrance. Soon though Daisys twisted ankle causes her to fall behind and she curses up a storm at the two guys for abandoning her. The fear of death, even if temporary, though is enough to keep their heads forward as they act like they cant hear her. With their greater strength and body size in general the two are through the portal before Daisy is halfway through the vine room and that is when disaster strikes.@@novelbin@@
The assassin vines might not be able to move fast but that isnt the same as not moving at all. While the group had been fighting further in the assassin vine that killed Jay had decided to move. Slowly but surely it moved to the side of the room that John had cleared. When the two fighters had ran past it wasnt able to make a move at them as it wasnt secured yet and they had run by too fast. Daisy on the other hand was slowed by her ankle. As she limped past the still vines coiled up around her and dragged her to the ceiling. The guys already through the portal didnt even have a chance to hear her call for help and so there she died, another victim of the assassin vines.
In the core room Ally has fallen off of Doyles core as sheughs. Doyle shakes his core, Well I dont mind killing people like that. The only sad thing is someone like her wouldnt be caught dead in a dungeon. That and she isnt actually dead. I feel bad for the two victims but not much we can do about. There will always be people like that who let themselves get walked on. Though going by what we just saw the poption of them might end up shrinking at an astonishing rate.
Ally gets herself back under control. That stuck up shrew got her just deserts there at the end. Even better, we just cleared the tutorial with room to spare. Going from having a hard time killing two to almost getting a party wipe. Wow, what a thrill. Anyway, now that we have finished the tutorial the system will give us 30 hours to prepare. Guess what that means!
Doyle doesnt even pause, I can get a new path? Just as he says that Ally chimes in, You can get a ne, and she stops. Yes, a new path. How did you know? Doyle bobbles, well the tutorial is over. The limits on paths was only during it.
Ally rolls her eyes, fine, ruin my fun. Now lets take a look at your status. More specifically if you want me to keep seeing it you will have to share it with me now. Once again the tutorial is over so I cant anymore. Doyle doesnt find the request unreasonable and closes all the open screens before reopening status with the intent to share it with her.
{Name: Doyle Huxley
Race: Dungeon Core (Strange Caverns)
Soulbond: Ally Huxley
Paths: [28] Dungeon Core 1/1
Level: 0
[2] S[8] A[7] C[10] I[12] W[9] P[5] D[14] K[20] L[16]
World Energy(/R per hour): 1000/1000(250)
Skills: Territory Control lv4, Dungeon Rules lv5, Universal Deconstruction lv4, Dungeon Pattern Database lv10, Creation(Energy Powered, Pattern Based) lv5}
She whistles, doing fine there. You even got the database up a level though now that, once again let me restate it, we are out of the tutorial things should speed up. Anyway, you have 28 path points to use and two stat points. The stat points you can just keep for now as there isnt any urgency to upgrade something except maybe to get presence up. Doyle nods his core, yep, fine for now. Though lets see what I have earned path wise. [System, show avable paths]
{Points: 28
ss: Dungeon Core I 1/1
Completed:
Started [0/3]:
Avable: Dungeon Core II 1/10, Goat Herder 0/10, Kobold Community 0/15, Vine Warper 0/15, Goat Supremacy 0/20, Kin yer 0/100, Voidborn 0/250}
Ally ps, thats impressive as well. Though I guess I should exin a couple things. The ss and avable sections are self exnatory. Completed is for any path youpleted except your ss. Started are the paths you currently tread. You can have three at once. Though few people make full use of it. Most have a special path they want to walk but costs too much, such as your Voidborn path, which they will asionally put a couple points in. About the only other use I know for it is if you start down a path but cant or dont want to continue it.
Now as for your paths in specific I have no clue what they do or mean. The unlock requirements are at least guessable. Your ss can obviously advance and you have at least one path for each monster. Kin yer probablyes from killing humans which you still identify with even if you arent one anymore and of course voidborn because you got reborn in the void. But dont let me cloud your thoughts. Paths are quite personal so what do you think of them?
Doyle reads each avable path again. I dont want kin yer. Whatever it does or means has little to do with the current me. Even if it gave me a boost to attacking humans, it isnt worth it as far as I am concerned. He pauses again. Kin yer was the only one that stood out to him as negative to him.
After that? Well, I do want to see what voidborn has to offer but it costs too much. This early on I need to be finishing paths. Maybe in the long run voidborn might be better but I have to live till then first. I want goat supremacy but it costs too much. With 28 points I should be able toplete my ss path and another path. Actually, that raises a question. Can apleted path remove avable paths?
Ally nods, they can yes. For instance, a lot of god based paths are mutually exclusive with each other. Your fear that taking goat herder might remove goat supremacy is valid. Doyle sighs, then adding to my goats can wait. Instead, I thinkpleting the ss path and koboldmunity is what I will do. [System, put 9 points into dungeon core two and 15 points into koboldmunity].
{9 Points applied to Dungeon Core II path...
2/10 - You have earned +1 Strength, +1 Agility, +1 Constitution
4/10 - You have earned +1 Strength, +1 Agility, +1 Constitution
6/10 - You have earned +2 Stat Points
8/10 - You have earned +2 Stat Points
10/10 - Pathplete, You have earned +9 Floors, +1 Wisdom/Level
15 Points applied to Kobold Community
5/15 - You have earned +1 Karma/Level, Kobolds get +1 Karma/Level
10/15 - You have earned +1 Wisdom/Level, Kobolds get +1 Wisdom/Level
15/15 - Pathplete, You have earned minor Information on Koboldmunities, +1 Agility/Level, Kobolds get +1 Agility/Level}
{Kobolds as a species are focused on the finesse stats. This has caused theirmunities to flourish. Greater karma leads to sentient kobolds gathering others and their boosted wisdom makes sure these gatherings tend to avoid notice. Compared to other monstermunities like goblins their leaders are more likely to be sentient in general. Rumors of apletely sentient sub-species of kobolds while exaggerated are not without basis.}
Huh, hey Ally, is there anyway to see how many points in a stat you will gain per level?, Doyle asks. Ally nods, You just have to ask the system. Basically anything about your status can be queried. Now you might not be able to, for instance, ask it when and why you gained a specific addition to a stat but the overview is possible. Not that the info isnt stored in the system somewhere but it does at least a minimal amount of work to obfuscate how everything goes together. For instance a path, as far as anyone can tell, will give the same rewards to anyone that takes it. Except of course when it doesnt.
Tale of Two Towns – Chapter 27
The rest of the preparation time that the tutorial gave them passes slowly. Doyle tweaks a few things about how his monsters fight but overall just focuses on filling in his territory with stone. Ally takes the time to read more while ncing at the countdown. She asionally gives Doyle an update. When it gets down to only having an hour left Doyle has filled all the excess space and put into ce aw so that as his territory expands the new void gets filled as well. With not much else to do but a good bit of world energy left he goes into overdrive. Focusing intently on his core room walls and their toughness. Without the tutorial holding him back these efforts manage to raise his creation skill by two levels.
With only a minute to go Ally counts down the seconds. At 30 seconds the entrance portal and the temporary tutorial portal both flicker out of existence. At 15 Doyle gets a sense of movement despite all his senses telling him that his dungeon hasnt budged. At zero everything goes ck, even Doyles sense of his territory is gone.
Only a moment passes though it feels like an eternity and then everything is back including the entrance portal. Though the portal is now changed. Before it was as if looking out into deep space but now a different scene greets them. A wide ne of grass spread out on the other side with the asional tree to break up the view. Though to the right a forest can just be seen on the edges of his view. To Doyle it appears they are either on the top of a small rise or on the edge of a hill as while there are ups and downs to the terrain his portal sits above it.
Doyle shows the scene to Ally and sheughs, I hope we are just on a hill or something. We wouldugh about itter but at the moment it would be frustrating if we miss out on a lot of adventurers just because our entrance ended up floating in midair.
Doyle shes a darker shade for just a moment, eugh, that would be annoying. Though from what I can see, even if we are off the ground it shouldnt be by much. More important to us is I think we are in vision range of a couple towns. See over there by the forest? Those dark smudges might be houses.
Ally nods, could be but whatever else that on the other side is definitely some sort of town. Those blocky tall shapes should be multistory buildings. The only question is if either have people in them yet or ever will. While the system attempts to save everyone it can, the poption will have taken a nosedive. Plus it has been anywhere between one to five years that humans have been gone and things arent going to be where people left them. Either from time or the fact that terrain shifts around when the world gets remade.
Huh, Doyle thinks on it for a second, that would make sense. The system only arrives as magic does so wouldnt have much time to record what things are supposed to look like. And it would exin two towns being so close together. We are only just far enough away from either to make walking to us inconvenient though with stat boosts even that isnt quite true.
Ally grimaces, Yeah, this is closer than I would prefer we start. Later on when we get popr a dungeon town could pop up and with not one, but two towns right next door might stunt the growth. Then again, who knows how your people will handle dungeons to start with. The tutorial tries to instill a general message of dont mess with a dungeon unless it messes with you but people are greedy.
At least we are close enough to the forest that we should get some critters in before any sentients make their way out here. The dungeon pulse should have happened when we were nked out and most nearby animals wille because of the energy released. While over all animals wont be more aggressive, you could say they have an agenda now even if it is more of an instinct. They will seek sources of power so they can potentially grow into a monster or at the very least a magical beast.
Doyle tilts to the side, what is a magical beast? I understand monsters well enough but you just made a distinction between the two. Ally shrugs, even under the system it isnt that well defined. You can just assume that if the system doesnt recognize the animal as a monster but it has some magicalponent then it is one. Horned rabbits are a good example. While they are pests their horns form from the energy they cant use. This means depending on what energy they take in will alter their horns properties. A rabbit that develops one from snacking on a mystical herb that helps with burns will have a horn that soothes burns when applied to them.
Useful yes but not economical. A lot of the energy goes to waste so it would always be better to just harvest the herb than to feed it to a rabbit. This is a big reason they are a pest. Dungeons like you are one of the exceptions as your herbs grow back fast enough for everyone to share. Though it will take you having mystical herbs in the first ce before people go after your rabbits as well.
Doyle nods, hmm, makes sense. Though I am sure as with anything that involves magic there are exceptions to the rules. Ally smirks, Well of course there is! What fun would magic be if it couldnt break its own rules asionally.
And with that they both quiet down to watch the surroundings. Their first visitors are simple insects and other such things. They dont even count as invaders so Doyle is able to station a goat at the entrance to stomp them. Because even if they arent invaders he cant just deconstruct them. This gains him another pattern but it is clear the system doesnt note them as worth a dungeons attention. The pattern doesnt even mention what it can summon with the simple name of prey insects.
It even includes the insects which eat other insects and the bees that came in for the flowers. With that oddity Doyle turned to Ally who assured him that if any of the insects ever mutated into a real threat, the system would recognize it as a separate pattern. While having the bees count as harmless doesnt feel quite right to Doyle it doesnt stop him from spawning a couple hives around the dungeon. He has clover all over the ce so it only makes sense to him to have a few bees. Though he doesnt want invaders to keep smashing his hives so creates them set into the walls like his rabbit warrens.
The excitement of stuff entering his dungeon even if they are just bugs soon wears off though and so Doyle and Ally turn back to the dungeon proper. He still is getting 250 energy an hour and the walls wont thicken themselves. A couple days pass like this and besides a couple of rabbits that oddly enough added to the horned rabbit pattern nothing else has shown up. Doyle has even started to question if the towns in the distance are empty.
Finally three days after he opened up shop they can see a small group of people approaching. The group is dressed in an odd mix of sports gear and leather armor but despite that do not look ready for a dungeon dive. They jump at the slightest rustle in the grass and more than once someone tries to head back towards the town next to the forest before being stopped by the others.
As they get closer, the situation bes clearer as Doyle picks up snippets of conversation. It took so long for anyone toe check him out because the two towns had argued over who got him. Only once they realized neither side was backing down and both were equally close did they decide on a joint venture. The weak group of chaff now approaching him wasnt a representation of the local level of strength. Rather, they were the weakest people from both towns who still wanted to be adventurers just so neither side would get a leg up on the other.
Ally and Doyle both groan at these revtions. If there is one thing they dont need, it is politics stopping people froming around. Ally rubs the bridge of her nose with one hand while waving the other around. I left court to get away from politics for a while. Not that I didnt expect it toe about after a while with a dungeon. In fact, it was inevitable. Dungeons are too important of a resource. But not this early on!, She whines. We will have to give them something good so others are willing to go against whoever is in charge over there. Any other world and I would say drop more coins but who knows if they even realize how important they are yet. Look at them! They look half starved so how could they even worry about a copper coin. Goodness gracious, the people in charge might even be blockading the system generated shops for all we know making coins worthless.
Doyle brightens up as something she said clicks, they do look half starved, dont they? In fact, I bet if someone is ying tyrant over there, a lot of people probably are. And you know what? Everything in our dungeon can drop food people wont mind eating. Even the kobolds tend to just drop horned rabbit meat most of the time.
Ally covers her mouth with her hand, Oh, oh youre right. Her mouth curls into a slightly sinister smile, we are a decent food stockpile at the moment arent we? How could I forget that part of why cities form around dungeons. A dungeon that drops food and has water avable removes a lot of threat from a siege. Not much of a problem right now but it works just as well to provide food in hard times as well. Which this definitely will be for most of the world.
Any livestock would have died or be able to defend itself while humans were away. That and with how new adventurers can strip a region bare of low level food monsters things must be tight. Until someone steps up to prevent over hunting and some people get enough levels to go after more dangerous prey, not even farming will work out so well.
Doyle nodded his core, just the fact that the first room has horned rabbits hopping around might be enough to attract people to us. However I dont trust whatever fools are in charge over there. We need to do something so the news of food being here spreads to the general popce. From the sounds of it we are dealing with two groups of bullies over there so we need some of that group to make it out. Though not just anyone but rather those who wanted to escape earlier.
Ally ps her hands, yeah they at least look willing to go against whatever orders the group has been given. Though we need some way to let them escape. Doyle shifts back and forth while he takes a closer look at the group. Hmm, it looks like the ones trying to escape are dressed a little better? None of them are in full leather but they at least have good boots. Actually, those three who have tried to escape are the only ones with leather boots. I guess I could get my monsters to prefer attacking those that dont have them?
That would work, Ally agrees, but you cant make it too obvious. If anything, we might just want to split them off from the group and have them run away first. We just have to make sure they get some meat before then. You might even want to get the assassin vines to let the group pass through without any attack so people feel safer. You do that and we can focus on our visitors, they are almost here after all.@@novelbin@@
Inspirational Speech Time – Chapter 31
Doyle pauses for a moment before continuing. Though speaking of a dungeon town that brings up a question I have had at the back of my mind. Is there anyway to see what is around me? As it is, we are quite restricted by only being able to see through my portal.
Ally recognizes that he is just trying to change the topic to cheer her up but it is a legitimate question. So legitimate in fact that there is a tutorial pop up for her to read. After ncing over it she nods to herself, so once again, you''re different. Most dungeons have more sense of their area because they actually are there. A dungeon in a tree can see from any part of the tree for instance.
You, however dont technically control any territory on earth. Your portal is just an opening that things can pass through to get into your dungeon. This is both easy and hard to deal with. Wait long enough and you will be able to form more portals and control them. That is a way off though so your only current option is to spread your territory out into the world a little. Just the vaguest film over your portal will do. However, that will make it much harder and possibly painful if you ever have to move or adjust this specific portal.
An analogy is you only opened the door, not stepped through it. What I am suggesting is like poking your finger through. Given time you can pull your finger back in with you then close the door. However, in an emergency you might just find your finger mmed in the door, maybe even losing said finger.
Doyles core cringes, eugh, well thats a pleasant thought. Still, it isnt like I can do anything with the portal at the moment so I might as well look. He focuses on the portal and feels around. The divide between his and not his is much starker than even when his territory was still stuck in his core room.
With some effort though Doyle can just barely expand his territory through the portal and his world opens up. He goes from being like a horse with blinders on to a full spherical view. Below him the grass grows to just below his portal. The forest to the left sweeps arounding behind him right up to the small rise he is on. Next to the more hills climb higher until you start to question if they should instead be called mountains but never quite reaching that point. To the right of the one town he can now see a stream or small river is flowing.
By that river a much smaller group of people has gathered around a rough dock. Likely built in thest week. Doyle cant quite make out if there is a boat there or not but he assumes there either is or will be soon. Well, thats quite the view, and he turns back to Ally.
Why yes Im sure it is, and she res at him, how about you give me a look? I know you got lost in it there but the waiting wore thin ten minutes ago.
Doyles core sinks down, Ooh augh, sorry? And Doyle opens up a number of screens to show the full panoramic view.
Ally rolls her eyes, you better be mister. This is a lovely view and it would be a shame to keep it all to yourself. Though back to business I am d they have a river. Though I would be careful about those guys gathered at the dock. To have people starving despite being right next to such prime fishing real estate means it was locked down hard. Those people gathered there are probably the remaining thugs.
I doubt they have a leader anymore. Mobs dont tend to stop until they put those types down. Especially when in a town that size there has to be at least a few people with some form of tracking skill. My guess is those are the opportunistic types who joined just for the benefits while keeping a packed bag under their bed to leave at a moment''s notice. Likely the lot of them will leave for greener pastures now that the towns are being burned down.
If most of the thugs are leeches than those guys are the rats. The ship is sinking and so off they go. Though no matter how much I hate their type these specific rats are probably good for us. Until now those two towns have probably been separated from the world atrge. After all it is hard to control a poption that thinks they have a choice. Now though with those guys heading... Oh and theres a ship taking off so that just proves it.
Anyway, as I was saying, with them leaving others will hear about this ce and of course us. Word of mouth will be an important factor for us until someone gets one of the many massmunication methods up and running. Your world was tech based so likely some magitechmunicator. Magic makes radio waves a little uncertain formunication but someone always finds a way around that
Doyle wobbles back and forth, fair enough. Though I think the bigger group is now heading our way. Thest group through was weak but I have to assume not everyone is. What can I do to prevent being bum rushed by a ton of people at once?
Ally shrugs, rules, rules, and more rules. Later on you will have better options but the biggest thing protecting you at the moment is that the system punishes people for killing newborn dungeons. My advice is to put in a rule where the more adventurers involved in killing a monster the lower a chance there is for loot to drop. Dont make it too low though. Just enough that it is noticeable.
Doyle tilts to the side as he thinks about it for a moment. That is a decent rule though I probably have to set the invader count. Wouldnt want someone to bring a ton of people in with them and killing them only to reap the rewards. If I understand how the loot system works the more energy, the monsters get the more likely it so that would be a valid tactic.
Allys eyes open wide, oh yeah, that is a good catch there and it would work. You wont be able topletely stop abuse like that as someone could just run the dungeon after a sacrificial team enters and dies. Maybe just have rewards be held for the day and release them the next at a random time.
Doyle nods, that would work better. We can probably revisit this at ater date when we have more options. For now, though that should be good enough. Then again, I bet once the dungeon is bigger that sort of thing wont be as noticeable. Anyway, our visitors are almost here so lets focus on them for the moment. Both him and Ally turn to watch the disys.
A ragged group of about a hundred people can be seen just a stone''s throw away now. Most people have burnt clothes or soot on them and a few are nursing serious injuries. Overall, the only part of the group that looks fine are the small contingent of children who nheless look quite dour.
As they get closer to the portal, a few of the adults stay back with the kids while the rest cautiously approach with a variety of items which if generous could be described as clubs. Only a few carry actual weapons. They surround the portal and wait. After a good ten minutes though most of the group rxes and head off to the children leaving only about ten.
Of those ten, seven of them take up guard positions around the edge while the remaining three enter the dungeon. They kill the first goat quickly enough, leaving behind a decent chunk of meat. As if it has lifted a burden from their shoulders the three start tough. They grab the meat and leave.
Outside when the three reappear with meat cheers ring out. People start to cry from joy and exhaustion, many of them copsing to the soft grass unable to hold themselves up. The person who took point on entering the dungeon lifts up the meat and shouts out, Jim spoke the truth! This dungeon can feed us! Beyond that we met a goat, one of its monsters, right in the first room. The dungeon has restocked itself and do you know what that means? That means no one is left from those horrible gangs! WE ARE FREE!
The whole crowd yells out as one and afterwards a silence falls over them. More and more people end up on the ground until only the ten strongest remain standing. The leader, for that must be who he is nods to the others before turning back to the people. Rest! We will take care of guard duty for tonight. Tomorrow though be ready for some hard work. Both towns have been reduced to ashes along with half of our numbers. Some of us will have to stomach going back to bury the dead.
The rest? Well, we need to build a new town, a new hope! From what I managed to learn in the tutorial, dungeons are an excellent ce to build around. Never having to worry about food or water is an important part of modern life. We had that stripped away by the apocalypse but now we can take it back!
There is some more cheering but for the most part people dont have the energy left to do anything except sleep. The ten heroes of the town split into two groups, one stays by the dungeon portal and the other splits off to guard the group as a whole.
Back in the dungeon Ally is pping, Bravo! Bravo! An excellent speech sir. Doyle, that is exactly the man this group needs. It doesnt matter if he turns out to be just as evil as whoever had been in charge back in the towns. His ability to raise them up will work wonders for our dungeon. I bet within the next couple days they will have some temporary homes set up and after that start cycling people through the dungeon.
I just hope they dont send any kids in. Awkward when that happens. While ces without a system that wouldnt change anything unless you cared to do something about it. Under almost one hundred percent of the systems out there, including this one, children get a few nice protections and dungeons are a part of it. They drag one of those brats in here and we will feel the need to protect it. Especially from horrible adults who dont realize what a bad idea it is to bring children into dungeons.@@novelbin@@
Youre an awakened sentient so we can probably pawn the kid off onto one of those ten hero types out there at least. Non-sentient dungeons just bring the child to their core and an automatic response teleports them to the nearest authority set up to take care of such things. Normally not too much of a problem but I doubt anywhere on earth has such a ce yet.
Would be pretty hard on the kid to be suddenly whisked away to another world and leave us in a pickle. Few people know exactly what happens as overall we try to make sure people arent using dungeons as a safe ce to dump children so the locals tend to assume the worst. After all, what would you think if anytime a kid went into the local dungeon anyone with them is viciously attacked and the kid never seen again.
Doyle glows darkly, I would think the dungeon liked to eat kids. Is there any kind of thing in ce to circumvent that instinct? Taking the kids is all well and good if some crazy parents thinks they are going to power level the child but entirely another thing if a town gets pushed into the dungeon by raiders.
Ally grimaces, youre it? Honestly, some of the unawakened dungeons are worse at thinking than a good calctor.
Doyle sighs, Well hopefully they arent idiots... Yeah that isnt going to happen. Heres to hoping they arent that brand of idiot. Though I guess the question now is when they will next enter.
Jack Hammer – Chapter 32
Next day around noon we find four people gathered next to the portal in the middle of an argument.
The shortest person in the group sighs as she rubbed her temples, I know our fearless leader suggested we should do a quick run but we dont really know what is in there.
A man with what could technically be called a mace but most would just admit it was a pole with a clump of concrete on the end of it rolls his eyes. Well duh, we dont know whats in there, we havent been yet. Never will too ifn we keep standing here arguing. Ace suggested it partly as an exploratory mission anyway. Plus I know you enjoyed having that bit of meat inst nights stew. You cant fool me Jan.
Jan shakes her head, You actually believe his name is Ace? My bet is he just went and changed it the first chance he got. A bit on the nose too. Then again, I would believe his name more than yours Mr. Jack Hammer.
The other girl in the group steps in at this point. Now you can just shut up Jan. Just because he isnt interested in you doesnt mean you get to assume his sexuality. And Jack here really is called that. I knew his family since before the end. When their family migrated theirst name was different and the customs officer mistranted it something bad. As for his first name? Thats all on his parents.
Jan rolls her eyes, Oh so Ruby decides to step in and defend their names.
Ruby snorts, Hell yeah I changed my name. Maybe everyone else has some sort of special connection to who they are from before. Not me, my family never liked me and the feeling was mutual. All I ever cared about was my geology studies and rubies always attracted me the most. Seemed like a fine name to start over after the end. Though Jack showing up was a bit unexpected.
Thest remaining member of the party sighs and crosses her arms, All of yah just shut up wouldja? Ace wants this ce figured out and is too polite to order us around despite being the leader. Jan, you''re only around because we need a healer on the first go around at least. If you werent the highest leveled healer, you wouldnt even be one of us ten founders. The other two might still be level one but at least they arent so argumentative. And just for the record my name wasnt Sammy originally either so get off your high horse. The system gave everyone a chance to change their name and some of us took it. Now get a move on everyone!
Sammy grabs Jan by the cor of her robe and drags her through the portal. Ruby and Jack stand there in shock for a moment but soon follow. They didnt take long to follow but what greets them on the other side is a dead goat. Sammys shield has a new dent to it and her sword newly blooded, so how it happened isnt hard to guess. Off to the side they spot Jan crumpled against the wall in fear.
Jack raises an eyebrow, Welp, I guess we know why you didnt want toe.
Thisment galvanizes Jan and she stands up in a huff, I was just knocked over when that barbarian pushed me away.
Sammy rolls her eyes, And no thanks for saving your hide from an unnecessary injury. Plus if any of us would be a barbarian it would be Jack over there. Seriously Jack, did you rip that pole out of the ground yourself or something?
Jack scratches the back of his head, I needed a big mace and those thugs had sold all our old weapons to the system shop. They even had the nerve to close the shop when we came for them so we couldnt get anything back. Going to suck not having that avable.
Sammy ps her hands, Okay folks, we can work out our problems when not in a murder pit. I didnt want to mention it yesterday but from what little the team before told us that goats shouldnt have been here. They reported that this room waspletely clear of anything besides some horned rabbits. Now there were a couple rabbits but they escaped into the tunnel over there.
Basically, what I am trying to say is we dont know what we might find. The tutorial guide I had said new dungeons should always have three monsters and we only know of two here, goats and kobolds.
Jan dusts herself off and scowls, Maybe we just got a special needs dungeon?
Ruby ps her knee andughs, Well it would fit since we already have a healer going with that theme. But my guess is either the dungeon has some sort of super buffst boss type thing going on or an ambush predator that thest group got lucky with and missed.
Jack throws his hands up, We wont find out just standing here. Now I wouldnt mind leading but you seem to enjoy being in front Sammy.
She rolls her eyes, And that has nothing to do with being the only one here going sword and board. Whatever, onward! Thatst goat didnt drop any meat and I am feeling hungry.
Sammy heads down the twisting hallway closely followed by the other three. At thest bend she holds up her hand to stop them. With a peak around the corner she nods to herself, Okay, looks like the next room does only have three goats as reported. That is both good and bad. Good, because our info isnt all wrong. Bad because that means the first goat was new and not just one that wandered from here. Anyway, lets go! And Sammy walked right out into the room.
The three goats charge at her but a side step with a light shove of her shield knocks one of them into the other two. The goatsnd in a pile and Jack takes the chance to do an overhead swing of his mace squashing all three to death. Blood is sshed all around and Jan squeaks as it gets on her.
A few momentster the bodies fade away including the blood stters, leaving behind two chunks of meat. Jack smiles, nice! Two drops is a decent haul. And he takes out a stic bag and packs away the meat.
While he is taking care of that and Jan is freaking out Sammy takes the chance to look into the next room. It is empty but she can see the next ce after is filled with vines. Turning back to the others she shrugs, even if the monsters have changed it looks like theyout hasnt. The vine room is up ahead. Though as the guide pointed out, when the terrain seems to change for no reason, look for the reason. I bet that room is where the mystery monster is.
Jack nods as he picks Jan up off the floor, seems likely.
Ruby steps into the next room, let me take a crack at it. And she throws a hand up in the air. In the palm of that hand a small spark of fire appears. From that small spark it grows into a boiling ball of fire and she tosses it into the vine filled room. The ball hits a vine and instead of exploding it sshes. The me stters all over the nearby vines which start to smoke and sputter. These vines catch and the fire spreads. Ruby pumps her fist in the air, Hell yeah!@@novelbin@@
This excitement doesntst long though as while the area hit by the spell burns the fire stops spreading. The vines are just too moist to catch. Soon enough the spell runs out of juice and even the vines that had been sttered start to go out. Jan watching this sneers, well that definitely helped.
Jack, who was still holding her up, lets go and Jan tumbles to the floor again. He stretches and yawns, Welp, guess we have to do this the hard way. I think we should stick to one side of the room.
Sammy shrugs, sounds like as good a n as any. Ill go first again, Jan you''re in the middle. And once again she heads off without waiting for the others. Jack shrugs and grabs Jan again as he heads off. Ruby stands there for a moment but with a little hustle on her part catches up. No way is she going to end up at the back of the party.
Sammys choice of following the far wall soon brings them to one of the assassin vines. She even manages to step on it before noticing the monsters. When the vine tries to pull back, she reacts and stomps down. A swing of her sword is enough to lop off that limb causing the monster to il all of its other vines in pain.
Then she gets knocked into the center of the mass. A goat having charged out from under a small bush, taking her by surprise. The vines wrap around her and start to squeeze. Jack drops Jan once again and swings out with his mace, ttening the goat.
Ruby traces a line in the air and a thin ribbon of me takes form before slicing forward. The ribbon of fire isnt the most sturdy construct, only able to cut through a single vine before parts of it start to fade. That is enough though as the me is able to lop off a few of the vines holding Sammys sword arm in ce.
Sword now freed, she is able to slice herself the rest of the way out. Once she is away Jack takes his chance and pulps the center of mass with his concrete mace. Now dead the monster loses grip of the ceiling and falls to the floor.
Sammy stretches her arms, well that hurt. I could hear my bones creaking from that. Anymore and something would have broken! Thanks for saving Ruby. Anyway, could you give me a bit of healing Jan?
Jan rolls her eyes, You arent bleeding so live with it.
Sammy sighs, Well yah just a little you know what. Fine, if you want to y that way we can y that way. Just be sure that you arent going to join our team again.
Jack rubs the bridge of his nose, That is a bit rude Sammy. Plus you dont have the authority to kick her out. Jan sneers at Sammy when she hears that but her face goes ck with Jacks follow up. He shakes his head, That would be my job. Jan, you arent going to be in our team again. Anyway, look at that! The vine monster dropped some berries for us. A bit of fruit to add variety to our diet isnt a bad thing. Though the next team whoes through will need a scout of some sort. I can definitely see why the guides had us going in groups of six.
Ruby nods, Yeah, with the four of us we have a good number of roles covered but what weck has already shown itself to be important. I wish Jim wasnt such a loner. Be nice if he would join us over here instead of staying inside his forest. He could be the mysterious eleventh member of the ten founders. Still cant believe the system recognizes that nonsense.
Sammy shrugs, Paths are just weird. Half of them seem cookie cutter and the other half are totally out there. Doesnt help that everyone and their mother that knows about them has the same song and dance about them. Dont share them even with your own mother or whatever person they think you might spill the beans to. Nevermind the fact that to know all they do about them means someone shared at some point. Plus I dont see how people knowing us ten have a path for saving the towns would do anything.
Behind Sammy Jan grimaces at the mention of the path but nobody notices. At the same time off in the forest Jim feels a shudder go up his spine and he mutters to himself how he is d he didnt share the fact he got the founders path as well.
You’re A Healer, Heal Already – Chapter 33
After a moments rest the party gathers back up and continues down the vine room. Forewarned is forearmed and so they easily spot the next vine assassin. What they almost dont spot are the three little goats hidden nearby. Though almost in this case just means Jan being sttered by goat''s blood as Sammy spins around and decapitates it before it can charge.
At the back of the party Ruby waves her hand behind her and a ribbon of fire streams out behind her. Taking care of two more goats in a much cleaner fashion. Honestly, it looks like the only person truly taken by surprise is Jan. The shared look when her back is turned wouldnt disabuse any onlookers from this notion either.
Two more pieces of meat go into Jacks pack and the group continues on past the second assassin vine. Jan grumbles a bit about how they should, just kill the thing, but the others disagree with her opinion.
As Sammy puts it, were only here to check the ce out and get some food. A bunch of grapes isnt worth the risk. And so they make it to the first room in goat row. At least that is what the previous group had called it. Nevermind that from a certain gem''s point of view it would be more appropriate to call it a column, goat row it was.
The first room only has a couple of goats which they kill easily enough and they store away another bit of meat. Then Sammy gets rammed in the back as the goat from the next room charges in. She isnt hurt much except for her pride. Stupid gosh darn grarr damn goat! Stay in your own room yah walking piece of dinnah. And she rounds on it, dropping her sword and shield, then grabs the goat by its neck. Now yah going to be a nice goat and take a little nap fah all time. She flexes her hands and with a sickening snap the goat flops over.
Jack leans back with his eyes opening wide and whistles, well now, overreacting much? Its just a goat like any other.
Ruby cuffs him on the back of the head, She doesnt look very happy so if I were you I would zip it. We dont want to have to exin how you got a ck eye becausest time I checked, this dungeon doesnt seem to have any stairs to fall down.
Sammy shakes her head and snaps out of it, Thats not a funny joke Ruby. I knew someone that had a friend who kept falling down the stairs and it isnt aughing matter. As for the goat? Just took me by surprise and I reacted a little harshly. We were going to kill it anyway.
Jan stands off to the side and rolls her eyes. Idiots, everyone get back on your feet so we can finish this up as soon as possible. At this point I just want out of here.
The rest of the group ignores herint as they get themselves back under control first before continuing. Once they do move on, they find the next room empty. Jack shrugs at this discovery, well it was to be expected. Though the fact the goat from here came and attacked us differs from the report. When Jim and the weaklings came through here, it had just cowered in the corner waiting to die.
Ruby nods, just another thing to report when we get out. Who knows, maybe the goats in all four rooms can move around a little.
Sammy agrees with this idea but instead of adding to the conversation heads off to the next room. Jack just shakes his head, you know we should stick together?@@novelbin@@
In the next room they can hear the fight starting as she yells back, Well then what are you doing back there? Come on over, got some more fun ahead! Of course by the time everyone has reached the next room both goats have already died.
Lucky me! Sammy smiles, both my goats here dropped a piece of meat. Maybe I should just solo the rest of this dungeon?
Jack snorts, You and I both know the next room should have three goats in it and you cant manage that many enemies at once, even if they are just goats. If you want, though, we can let you try. After all Jan hasnt wanted to do anything yet so a real injury might force some magic to happen.
Jan res at him, Nothing has needed my assistance yet!
Sammy puts her hands on her hips, Oh yeah? I am going to have some serious bruising if I dont see one of our other two healers. Plus you would think that any excuse to use your skills would be appreciated. Levels are nice and all but without the skills and paths to back it up the number is hollow.
Jan turns her re on Sammy, Dont tell me how to live my life! I had enough of that before this mess and I wont deal with it now.
Rubyes between them, woah now! She isnt trying to order you around but her point still stands. Skills are the key to a good life now.
Jan just ms up and turns away from the group in a huff. Tired of the nonsense Sammy grabs Jack and drags him into the next room. The three goats there hardly stand a chance with her tanking the hits and Jack squashing them one by one.
Well, thats sad, Jack mutters, only one piece of meat from these three goats gruff.
Sammy shrugs, random drops are random. The kobolds might be our best chance for anything fancy though I do have to wonder where the rabbits are.
Ruby shakes her head, who knows. The previous group only found them in the first room so maybe they were just critters from outside.
Jan humphs, with our luck that probably is what happened or they lied. Dont trust them as far as I can throw them.
Sammy raises an eyebrow, well I can throw them pretty far nowadays so I trust them. No reason for them to lie about something like that. The goats are already enough to get our attention. Adding on some rabbits wouldnt have changed much. Plus they had the meat in nice little chunks just like the dungeon is dropping the goat meat.
Jack nods, If anything the condition the meat was in is enough of a tipoff. We might have just gotten unlucky. Maybe the rabbits roamed around and happened to be in the entrance room when the others showed up. I bet there are probably some rabbit burrows hidden around that they all have retreated to. We arent exactly sneaking around after all.
Jan rolls her eyes, well then we can just send in all our thieves to sneak around stealing the meat.
Ruby res at her, rogues Jan, theyre called rogues. A thief is someone who steals stuff. A rogue is a person skilled in sneaking and trap detection.
Jan rolls her eyes again, Whatever, just because youre friends with a lock monkey doesnt change the truth. Where else would they get the skills?
Rubys re intensifies, he was a locksmith. His job was to help people get open things when they forget their keys inside or some such. He has even had the police use his services.
Jan is about to speak up again but Sammy yells, Off to the next room! Hear it is a doozy! And she charges off closely followed by Jack. Ruby takes one final look at Jan before she follows them. Jan just scoffs and saunters off after them.
In the next room the party is finally having a legitimate hard time. Unlike they had heard there were six goats in the room, not five. Plus they are all wearing helmets which the other groups hadpletely failed to mention. The goats could use their fancy headgear as well.
Most of Sammys shes were getting blocked by the metal horn guards. Only Jack was having any luck with his concrete mace having already knocked one goat out. Now though three of the five goats have focused him down forcing him to dodge instead of attack.
Ruby joining the battle helps some but her fire ribbon attack proves less than able to get through the helmet as well. It leaves a nasty burn mark on the helmet but that is about it. Jan just stands back andughs.
Still despite their troubles this stalemate with the goats doesntst that long. It just takes one good shot from Ruby across a goat''s eye to swing the battle in their favor. That goat screams in pain which opens it up to an attack from Sammy which finishes the job.
Sammy does take an attack in return but she was ready for it. While metal covered goat horns to the side aren''tfortable she soldiers through the pain and rams her shield in thest goat attacking her.
To her other side Jack winds up and swings his concrete mace around in a low sweep knocking the two goats on him over. This lets Ruby sh out with her fire ribbon spell and gut them both. With only two goats remaining the fight wraps up quickly.
Enemies finished Jack props himself up with his mace, whew, that was something. Lucky us though, each of them dropped some meat. Now the question is do we want to fight the kobolds? Also Jan, heal Sammy.
Jan scoffs, its just a bruise.
Jack levels a stare at her, Jan, heal Sammy
She stares right back but cant hold it. With a pout and a sigh she mumbles, [Minor Heal], and when she touches Sammy a small burst of white light can be seen. Sammy stretches and smiles, Wow, you actually can heal. It''s like nothing ever happened!
Jack nods, Good, now once again, should we face the kobolds?
Ruby shrugs, We should at least take a look. The goats were already enough of a challenge so I would like to pass on any greater challenge. Especially with only the four of us.
Sammy stretches some more, yeah. We dont really have any info on them except they are there. Let me go take a peek. And she walks through the rectangr room. One look at the kobolds though sends her right back to the group. Well mah vote is resoundingly no.
Jack stands up and picks up his mace, slinging it over his shoulder. I dont mind one way or another but how about you tell us what you saw?
Sammy scratches her head, You know how these goats had helmets? Well, the kobolds are even better geared. Plus I saw a glimpse of a couple at the back in robes. If the tutorial has taught me anything, robes mean magic. There are only five of them but that means they still outnumber us and they have a goat with them. Honestly, we have grabbed enough food on this trip to make the soup bearable tonight. Tomorrow we can run a few groups through up until maybe the room before this one just fine.
Ruby shrugs, sounds like a decent n. Maybe if we leave some of the food scraps in tonight, there might be more things to harvest. Clover is edible but I would prefer some more ssic food stuff. Plus herbs mixed with magic might get us some interesting results. My guide said it wasnt likely for us to find any mystical herbs this early on but the dungeon might get around that.
The rest of the group, even Jan, agrees to leave and they start to make their way back out of the dungeon. As they move around the assassin vine Ruby nces at it and ponders for a moment. You know what? I bet the berries from it might have a more mystical use than just being food. Is there anyone with alchemy knowledge among the survivors?
They all think about her question until Jack speaks up. I know the forest town had a guy who knew nts. Dont know if he survived the chaos but that is a good enough ce to start. Everyone but Jan agrees to look into it as they leave the dungeon.
Outside a couple of regr guys are standing guard and they turn to the group with weapons raised. Once they notice who it is though they drop their weapons and cheer. Jack rolls his eyes but humors them and opens his pack, showing all the meat they had gotten on the trip. Not far off in the distance, a group of people are setting up some basic fences but they drop what they are doing to join in on the celebration. With that it doesnt take long for the news to spread through the rest of the camp. It takes Ace personally showing up and requesting everyone get back to work before things calm down and the meat can be handed off to the two people who have cooking skills.
All The Herbs – Chapter 34
Well, that was a sessful run! Doyle brightens, I know we sort of talked about how the peopleing through from the tutorial being different but I was still worried. While the party dynamics there left something to be desired, the group waspetent. We might not get many deaths at first while it is just the locals but I think in the long run even the first floor can get a couple people.
Ally rubs the back of her head, yeah I didnt go into who would be sent through from the tutorial did I? Well betterte than never. Anyone that was given the option to test us out will have been the cream of the crop. Compared to other worlds they would match the children of merchants in power. Good skills that are well leveled before they start leveling. Not quite the best but not what you would find regrly.
Doyle nods, good to know. Anyway, I dont think I need to change up much right now. The goats can be a threat, especially thatst room of them.
He is about to say something else but he can detect something going through his portal. They both look over and notice a small grocery bag of stuffying on the ground of the empty entrance room.
That empty bit kicks Doyle in the head, oh right, need to refill the dungeon. Those guys gave me a bit of energy overflow so I better use it before I lose it. Besides that they mentioned a n to leave some goods so I guess that would be it. Doyle spawns some goats and an assassin vine before he deconstructs the bag. Now lets see what the logs says.
{Minimal experience gained
ckberry pattern lv0 derived from dehydrated ckberries
Blueberry pattern lv0 derived from dehydrated blueberries
Strawberry pattern lv0 derived from dehydrated strawberries
Raspberry pattern lv0 derived from dehydrated raspberries
ckberry, blueberry, and raspberry patterns merged into shrubbery pattern
Shrubbery pattern goes from lv2 to lv4
Shrubbery gains ability to grow berries
Bread pattern lv1 acquired
Wheat pattern lv0 derived from bread pattern
Waste stic pattern analyzed and discarded
Sugar pattern lv0 derived from candied lemon
Lemon pattern lv0 derived from candied lemon
Pepper pattern lv1 acquired
Mint pattern lv0 derived from dried mint
Sage pattern lv0 derived from dried sage
Rosemary pattern lv0 derived from dried rosemary
Tea pattern lv0 derived from tea leaves
Lavender pattern lv0 derived from driedvender
Peppermint pattern lv0 derived from peppermint essential oil
Aloe vera pattern lv0 derived from Aloe beverage
Pepper, mint, sage, rosemary, tea,vender, peppermint, and aloe patterns merged into herb pattern lv3
Olive pattern lv0 derived from olive oil
Bread, wheat, sugar, salt, olive, strawberry, and herb patterns merged into food patterns lv3
Deconstruction goes from lv7 to lv8}
Ally whistles, Well thats a few herbs there. Sad that we had to derive the patterns from most of it. Then again, not much fresh stuff sticks around after the restructuring that happens. Either it gets destroyed or animals end up eating it. Still it was enough to up your deconstruction which is nice.
Doyle nods, yep. Kind of them to provide me with all of this foodstuff. Of course it was for a selfish reason but that doesnt change what it does for me. Most important though at the moment is those berries as they will let me finish my rectangr room. I always meant for it to be a berry garden. A little sad that they are level zero but thats life.@@novelbin@@
Ally shakes her head, while that is nice it is by far the most important part. While a few mushrooms would be excellent we can wait on that. For now, those herbs will be an amazing help for us. Remember what I told you about the horn on our rabbits picking up effects from mystical herbs? Well, the first step towards mystical herbs are regr herbs. I advise you dont nt all of them though. Rather pick a couple so they can be leveled up quicker. Do any of them feel important to you?
Hmm, Doyles core dims as he thinks on it. Sage is obviously first on the list. I like it as a herb and I know it has some decent mystical meaning behind it. Aloe might not be something I was hot on eating but I love the nt. Plus even without magic it does wonders for a burn. Saved me a lot of pain that one summer. I had got my hair shaved really short and my head sunburned something fierce. Finally, I think I will nt an olive tree in the kobold room. I love olive oil when cooking and it has heavy connections to protection and the gods.
Ally raises an eyebrow, well that is an eclectic collection of herbs. I was expecting tea and mint to be honest. But yeah, the olive tree is good. That was going to be a suggestion of mine no matter what you chose. After all, gods will be a bit more active now that magic is a thing. While we are sort of beyond that stuff given our unique circumstances the people out there will probably get into it hardcore. That and a magic circle drawn in olive oil will provide a weak defense against outside influences even without the olives being magical. But yeah, you have a good spread there.
Doyle takes a nce around his dungeon. Okay, like I said, an olive tree in the kobold room. Back left corner will do. Sage likes drier soil so can I, hmm. [Dungeon Rule, keep three sage bushes on the first floor, recing harvested bushes with regr shrubbery and changing a new random shrub to be sage].
He nces around the floor and notices one bush ended up in the vine room. Well, that isnt quite what I wanted. Also, now that I look at it there should always be one in the big goat room. [Dungeon Rule, dont ce sage in the vine room, the entrance room, or a room that already contains sage except in the big goat room]. [Dungeon Rule, always keep at least one sage bush in the big goat room]. Doyle checks again and the vine room bush is now in therge goat room like he wanted.
Good, that will let people gather some earlier but to get it all will have to go through some risk. Though if I ever get a mystical variant, I should probably keep it to thest few rooms of the dungeon. Now where to put the aloe? It is another nt that isnt too fond of wetter soil. In fact, they like a simr environment but I dont want the vine room empty of tempting prizes. Hey Ally, do I have to care too much about the actual requirements for my nts to grow? I want to stick the aloe in my vine room but it is a bit too moist for them.
Ally nces up from a book she had pulled out at some point. Oh, uh Hey tutorial screen, how convenient of you to show up. Lets see what it says. I know that you can nt things in the wrong ces for them but I dont know what that does. Hmm, okay it looks like the closer the nt is to its preferred habitat the better the harvesting results will be. Your sage bushes should allow anyone to just pick a few sprigs and a person with a harvesting skill might even get fifty percent of it before it wilts away.
cing your aloe in a damp room will mean most people without the skill for it wont get anything. They will pick a leaf and it will wilt in their hands before disappearing. With a skill someone should be able to pick a few leaves. Even then though the unfavorable cement will mean you are likely to only see them grow to housent sized. Not the forearm sized leaves you can get from a properly raised nt.
Doyle nods, that actually works out perfectly for me. The sage can be my more general herb, the olives are my fancy harvest, and the aloe a specialty harvest. [Dungeon Rules, randomly keep three aloe nts in the vine room with at least one before all the assassin vines and one after them]. He checks on their cement and nods. This should be decent enough. Now what else to do while I wait?
While Doyle ponders other changes to make Jim is exploring deep into the forest. Until now he had kept to the outer regions. Out there he was only finding some horned rabbits, fanged deer, the asional slime, and even normal critters.
Jim wasnt in a rush to level up, preferring to work on his skills but his tracking skill had teaued. Combined with his herb skill not having raised at all since he raided the grocery store meant he needed more fertile territory. That and a dash of danger to add a bonus to skill growth was just what the deeper forest would provide him.
He had just seen what the system called an ironside boar and he was now backtracking its path. While he had faith in his archery skill, his stone-tipped arrows did not fill him with confidence. Instead, his n was to see what it had been doing.
Jim didnt have a trap skill but his herb skill contained the knowledge that magical beasts tend to hang out around them. He hoped that this boar had just visited some sort of mystical herb so he could train the skill. As he creeps through the trees, he can see other animals. A deer with crystal antlers, some rats that seem to sink into the shadows, and a couple of ducks with horns for some reason.
Those are all ignored. To change his target now would just be throwing away his work. Sure he knows this might just be the lost cost facy rearing its ugly head, but the current tracks arent heading deeper into the forest so he would keep to it.
Jims perseverance was soon rewarded as he finds an area at the base of an oak tree that the boar had torn up. Most of what had been there was gone but with a little rummaging around he was able to find some shredded mushroom pieces. With great care he picks out each shred. Whatever had been here before had to have been giant as far as mushrooms go.
With the pieces secured in his pack Jim retreats to the outer forest and heads toward his closest campsite, a small nook on top of a broad tree. On the way he picks up a rabbit for dinner and a couple of sprigs of various edible nts, always careful to leave enough to let them regrow.
On top of his tree Jim pulls out one of the mushroom pieces. With some concentration he can tell it had been torn apart long enough ago any world energy it once contained had been lost. He expected this oue though it made identifying it harder. From the cement he assumed it was an armiria mushroom. Edible, though it was a sign that that oak was dying from root rot.
What was more important to him was how mystical it was when alive and the skill gains. Jim takes the smallest piece and rubs it on the back of his hand then waits. After time passes and his skin doesnt react, he moves on. Jim takes another piece and touches it to his tongue. The sweet and nutty vor points towards his guess of the species being correct. A few test chews of the piece show it to be slightly crunchy.
Along with that though there was the slightest hint of green. Not the color but that is the closest he can get to describing it. The power is gone but scars of its presence remain. While he hasnt personally experienced it yet the information given by his skill tells him all he needs to know. The mushroom had contained more world energy than others but it had only been directed at growth. Only useful as a generic energy source and not a good one at that. It was however just what he needed to push his herb skill to the next level.
Because Doctor Said So – Chapter 35
Next morning dawns with a group of six people standing outside of Doyles dungeon. This reminds Doyle that he hasnt set up his berry bushes. In a rush he just cuts the number of bushes down to six with two of each berry option for his shrubs. He neednt have worried though. This group does much worse than thest one. Their power levels arent too far off but the coordination and general ability to use skills was like night and day. They make it through the vine room purely by chance and stop afterpleting goat row.
Luckily for Doyle, despite not much happening he stilles out ahead. With only goats dying the cost to refill the dungeon is below what he received from the groups presence. Though it helps that the group doesnt even try to harvest any herbs. In fact, they dont even seem to pay attention to them except to point them out. They just loaded up on meat and left.
Outside the group confers with a guy who seemed to stand guard at the portal or maybe just waiting for them toe out. He nods when they report their haul but his stoic mask cracks with the mention of the sage bushes the group had seen. The man waves the group off towards a small covered area with a variety of cooking pots.
Once the group is gone, the man breaks into a full-fledged smile, almost maniac, and he runs off towards a small knot of people. Doyle shrugs at this and focuses on his dungeon. Outside though the group breaks up as the man rushes through, revealing a few of the founders at the center.
One of them would be familiar to Doyle as she had just been in his dungeon yesterday. Specifically it is Ruby, the person who had suggested leaving food in the dungeon. When she sees the man rushing over with a giant grin, she gestures people out of the way and smiles herself.
The man slows down and as he reaches the inner ring of people Ruby asks, so what are the results ofst nights experiment? As if your smile wasnt enough to tell me it at least partly seeded.
Coming to a stop the man nods, The first group just came out. They where loaded down with what I am sure will be the standard haul of meat. Besides that though they mentioned that some of the bushes had been flowering.
Ruby ps her hands and rubs them together, purple right? When the man nods sheughs, Wonderful! At the very least we now have ess to sage. That will be good news for all the women in our town. While it wasnt ever proven people liked to believe it helps with the pain during One man nearby turns bright red as she starts to talk about the uses and covers her mouth at this part.
She res at him but he just smiles, yes it is believed that it helps when aunt floes around. Now we have a number of younger men here who prefer to avoid such topics. As the only trained doctor and one of the three healers I promise to look into this further.
Most of the other men in the group pick up on what is being talked about and show various levels of embarrassment but over all the topic is glossed over as the man continues. Besides that though there is a more important property in our new world. In mysticism, sage is connected to longevity, wisdom, and protection. Dont give me that look, everyone goes through a magic stage in their life. Though I guess with the world how it is, that isnt so much a stage anymore than it is life but whatever.
We need to harvest it so our magic users can experiment with it. I wish Jim was around as he seemed to have some form of herb lore but thats life. We have a couple in our group who like to grow their own organic food and managed to get a harvesting skill which might be important. You, he points at a young man nearby, go get the Barrai couple. We need them to continue this talk further. The man runs off towards what is clearly the start of a garden.
Five minutester the couple saunter over. The man steps forward, Well hello Doctor, Ruby, andpany. Doctor, I still cant believe you changed your name to that but I guess you didnt call us over to debate your name choice. My name is Jeremy and this lovelydy is my wife Susan. How may we be of service?
Doctor steps forward, ahem, yes. The name is just from another phase I went through. Moving on we need one of you to go into the dungeon. Last night Ruby here left a small bag of food and herbs in the dungeon. To the surprise of our first group through the dungeon today that has resulted in some sage bushes appearing in there. You can stand back and let the group we send you with do the fighting but we need to know more about those nts.
Susan rolls her eyes, You think we cant handle a fight? All those idiots crowing about their levels have nothing on us. Still, we will take you up on that. Let them rush ahead in levels while we sit back and n for the future.
Doctor waves his hand, Dont care, just get in there and harvest some sage and anything else you can find. That cant be the only thing in there. Actually, Ruby! Gather a full party you can work with and take them all the way through. Yesterday your group didntplete the floor. We dont even know if there is a second floor or not. Oh, and Iming with you. Jan might be a good healer but she is a horrible doctor and our other healer is too skittish.
Hands on her hips Ruby raises an eyebrow, Do we get a choice in the matter? Doctor nces over at her and responds with a single word, No.
Before it can go further Jeremy steps in, I think the n is good but we can wait till tomorrow. Not everyone can just drop what they are doing. Ruby, you can go and ask four other people you think would get us through the dungeon. Me and Susan need to make sure our helpers know what to do if this takes longer than expected. And you Doctor, you need to learn some manners but that might be a lifelong struggle so you might as well make sure youre ready for tomorrow. I advise we dont start this early, maybe heading into the dungeon around noon. With that the couple saunters off towards the farm area.
Inside the dungeon Doyle isughing at the shocked look on Doctors face. Ally just rolls her eyes, well we better be ready for them. What do you need to get your second floor up and running?
Doyles core bobbles, way more energy than I have or could gather between now and tomorrow. I should have already started putting some overflow towards it already but I had focused on strengthening my walls. The way it works is there is a pool at the center of my core that I have to fill with energy from sentients outside of my control before the next floor can form. It actually feels like if I didnt use the overflow the system would channel it into that pool. My guess is that is to prevent something like Flisle where he sat around at sub ten floors for multiple forevers.
Ally nods, so how much energy do you need? Oh wait, tutorial to the rescue again. It costs the floor number to be made times a thousand. So the second floor costs a straight 2k. That doesnt seem right though? If it was that simple why are dungeons with a thousand floors or more so rare? Thats only five billion or so world energy to get there. A lot for us at the moment. When you have archmages roaming around your dungeon, it wont be that extreme of an amount.@@novelbin@@
Doyle shifts his core side to side, probably because once someone gets to the level of being an archmage they dont die so easily? You do get some energy from them just being in the dungeon but not quite the boost we get when one of the idiots die. Also, while the cost to create the floor isnt that much, dont forget you have to fill the actually floor. More floors doesnt strengthen me from what I can tell. It is what is in those floors so creating a spiral staircase directly down to the thousandth floor wouldnt do anything except make people walk a lot.
Ally shrugs, fair enough. So I assume from what you said you dont have any energy in the pool?
Doyle nods, pletely empty at the moment and I dont think their visit tomorrow will give me much at all. They will probably do a full clear. Hopefully more people are sent through today. Then he turns his attention to the portal for a moment, nevermind the hope. It looks like they n to send teams through spaced about an hour apart. At least that is what I am assuming as the next team is getting ready right now and it would line up with about that sort of schedule. Anyway, just so we can keep track of it here, let me disy the total. [System, disy how much energy I need to form my next floor on the wall for me and Ally]
{0/2000}
Ally nces over at the wall. Convenient that. Now though we need to talk about a more important matter. Mainly our avable monsters. There are three and I dont see that increasing anytime soon without outside help. Getting a town is always good for the dungeon in the long run. Short term though it will prevent other creatures from wandering in. We did get some insects but that wont help too much.
Doyle dims for a moment, that could be a problem. Goats will be our bread and butter for a while but being limited to just them as our main defense isnt something I am keen on. Is there some kind of dungeon shop I can buy from?
After taking a moment to read another tutorial page Ally rubbed her temples. Technically, there is. When you get a new floor, you can buy an extra random monster. Think loot boxes but limited. Still gambling though so not really dependable. We could pull a fish when we dont even have a pond yet. Though that is a good point. Why dont we have a water pattern yet?
Doyle freezes when she asks that. Huh, that is a good question. I might be able to cludge something together but my guess is that I havent ever specifically deconstructed some. Doesnt look like it is going to rain anytime soon so we might go a while without it. Our dungeon just isnt long enough for people to bring water with them. Anyway, the next group is here so lets watch them.
Outside the dungeon six people are ready to enter. It is almost hard for Doyle to tell it is a new group though. It seems they only have a limited selection of armor and weapons because they are wearing the same stuff thest group had. If it wasnt for there being threedies instead of thest groups two, he might not have been able to tell right away.
They enter the dungeon and make their way through the first couple rooms easily enough. Doyle has for the most part given up on those first rooms being a challenge but every time a group strolls through he cant help but feel disappointed. In the vine room things are a bit more exciting as they stumble upon one of the vine assassins which cuts their delve short. While they do in the end defeat it, two of the members have been hurt something fierce. On their way out to make up for it they try and grab the sage in the first room. Of course none of them have a harvesting skill so only three of the sprigs actually stick around. The rest of the nt fading away like the monsters do when defeated. This angers them a bit but without any recourse they just exit the dungeon and go to report their failure.
Doyle sits back and shakes his core. The death of the assassin vine had put him back in energy as it was the most expensive monster in the dungeon.
I Didn’t Plan the Number Out – Chapter 36
Ally hums as she looks at a rey of thest group of the day. Yeah those first rooms are just a loss. Though the biggest problem isnt that. With the current situation outside they need the free meat and as long as they continue to try and go further things are fine. The problem is the vine room. Because the early rooms arent that dangerous, we arent getting much cruft off of them before things go sideways. If people started dying to the assassins, we would be fine but despite being randomized they are a trap which people have already figured out.@@novelbin@@
Doyles core dims as he thinks, Hmm, lets remove one of the assassin vines and rece it with a couple kobolds geared up for stealth. Even with adding two kobolds and gear I will still be up a hundred and change points to spend. The kobold room is tough so I think adding a touch more loot isnt out of order.
Ally nods, true, we have a couple female kobolds there without any potential loot and none of them in that room can drop their greaves or mace yet. Set those two to drop them wouldnt be out of ce.
Doyle makes the change and then looks at the leader''s room. More loot and goats for the leader as well. Her tunic and gauntlets would be nice. Cant be too mean though so the two extra goats will only have the regr helmets instead of the spiked ones. Hell, add another goat to the kobold rooms as well, why not?
Ally adds it all up and sighs, We still have 115 points to spend before we hit the cap again. Though dont forget the new kobolds in the vine room. They arent geared up yet.
Doyle pulls up a picture of his kobolds, They are already green so adding too much would make them less stealthy. Lets throw a helmet on the both of them. Besides that I think they can have a dagger each and one of them can drop it as loot. That should leave us with Huh, exactly enough points for one more goat. Lets throw it in the entrance room. A little extra bit of threat at the start should help our profit margin.
Ally scratches her head, honestly, you couldnt have nned it out better there. I was expecting us to end up with a few points to spare. Not that that would be a bad thing either. A little wiggle room can be nice.
While the dungeon plots the adventurer n. Outside around a campfire the ten founders have gathered and Ace is trying to get a handle on what tomorrow will bring. So Ruby, tomorrow Doctor has decided you and a group will try andplete the dungeon?
Ruby nods, Or so he has told us. I already tapped in Jack and Sammy. Jan of course, yes I am talking about it, and she res at Jan, will Never be a part of my team again. Luckily Doctor is alreadying so we have a healer. I think that while any of you could join in on this and improve our odds. I want to bring in the Barrais since we need them to try and harvest some herbs anyway. They dont im anybat abilities but we all know they are lying.
Ace nods, I am d you pulled together a team. It looks like a well rounded. A couple fighters, two magic users, and I know the Barrais and can safely say you''re covered with rogues. Now the question is, do we want to keep other teams from going in before you?
Doctor buts in at this point, Let them enter, just stop letting them in about an hour before our slot. A dungeon is a living creature and I dont want to enter what is basically its mouth before it has had breakfast. My guide mentioned they dont need to kill to survive, but it is their best source. That we have had no deaths in the dungeon means it is on half rations just as much as we are. Until we get some dumb outsiders wanting to rush in uninformed, we need to be extra careful.
Ace frowns, humanity is in a bit of a situation at the moment so I want as few deaths as possible.
Doctorughs and ps his knee. Haha The human race hahaha isnt in any danger. Ooh ha sigh, you might not have been informed in your tutorial but Earth isnt the only ce with humans. Now us Earth humans might not do so hot but knowing us we will manage to spread our genome around given half a chance.
On the upside if we manage to tough it out long enough then from my understanding we will have enough ways to mitigate further losses. Just getting a proper adventuring guild set up to allow a limited form of death insurance. Not the ssic type but the insurance that in some cases of premature death you can be brought back. Sadly, not a fix for murder victims or even all dungeon based deaths.
It only insures against deaths not caused by sentient beings. Luckily most of the dungeon monsters dont have a soul and the dungeon itself doesnt count as the killer. Despite you know, ordering it to happen. Oh, and it doesnt fix death by disease and old age so thats the thing.
Ace rubs the bridge of his nose, and how difficult is it to set up such a guild?
Doctor shrugs, We need the dungeon to grow to be five floors deep and have a boss. Once that happens whoever conquerors it first gets to be the local guild leader. I actually advise against any of you founders doing so because the main guild doesnt allow their leaders to be a part of the local power structure.
Ruby frowns, that sounds a little easy for something so important. Also, how do you know about this when none of us, even the ones from your tutorial have heard of it?
Rolling his eyes, Doctor scoffs, Because none of you asked the right questions or got in good enough with your guides of course. The person in charge of me was also a more traditionally trained healer along with their magic training and so we got along quite well. With my past knowledge of how stuff like this worked I picked up a few choice tidbits of knowledge.
Oh and beating a dungeon boss is just the requirements for a new world and only works if there isnt any nearby guilds set up already. The only reason I am so sure we can get it because there likely arent any other nearby dungeons. The system tries to space them out a bit at first as none of them will have naturally spawned yet.
Ruby rolls her eyes, not all of us got lucky enough to have a guide who fit us like a glove. Now do we have anything else to go over? I want a good nights sleep. Going into a death trap tomorrow and all.
Ace waves her off, yeah, youre fine to go. Doctor, you need to stick around as there are some concerns rted to health and our current diet. After that most of the group wanders off to and the nightes to a close.
Next day and the first group starts their dive. Doyle and Ally watches on with bated breath. With all their changes this group is the best chance to get a good chunk of energy for the next floor. Once someone notices what has happened and leave with the info others will be ready for it.
The extra goat in the first room however throws a bucket of water on their excitement as the group wisely leaves to report this finding. This turn of events is almost enough to dy the next team. That is, it would have if they werent a little too brash and decided to just push ahead. They even convinced the guard to let them in earlier though as thest group hadnt actually done anything.
In fact, Doyle hadnt even gotten around to spawning more goats in the entrance room so the group got a free ride there. The second room makes Doyle and Ally extra hopeful about this group being the ones to finally lose a man. Three goats versus six men should have been an easy fight. They still manage to win of course. No one who couldnt win in those circumstances will have likely survived to this point.
Then it happens. The vine room finally delivers. Two of the men trip over the assassin vine. As the other four close in to bash it apart the guy farthest back gets jumped. Out of the shadows the two kobolds grab him. The guy yells in panic distracting the rest of the group. This pulls them away from the assassin vine fight. Seeing the savage kobolds being this early in the dungeon the group seems to decide as one that it was time to leave.
The three guys that are still unmolested grab the closest one wrapped up by the assassin vine and give a mighty tug. The trapped guy is free of the vine monster as it focuses on the other. Those four men turn towards the kobolds but it is already toote. At least that is what they assume when the spot the dagger stuck in the guys throat.
Under the attention of so many invaders the kobold without her dagger stuck in anything turns skittish and darts into the foliage. All alone the remaining kobold is soon bashed into the dirt. There isnt anything suspenseful about it or the fight as a whole. With that done and the guy in the assassin vine also expired, they decide thest group wasnt a bunch of cowards and follow their example.
Back in the dungeon Ally is doing a fist pump. Boyah! We got them Doyle.
Eh, Doyle tilts to the side, do they count? Any decent team would have done a lot better.
Ally rolls her eyes, well duh, but we still got two of them in one group. How are we doing with getting a second floor off of this?
Doyle shakes his core at her question. As if they could provide all that much. If it wasnt for the pool needing specifically energy gathered from people, I would have filled the pool many times over by now. Plus why ask? I still have the count disyed on the wall over there.
{52/2000}
See? Not that much. I even used half energy from my pool when respawning my creatures. When more of those founderse through, we will probably get more than that in the same amount of time.
Ally shrugs, sure. But that is a given as those guys and gals are probably the strongest people for hundreds of miles. About the only way someone woulde out ahead of them is if they killed their whole starter town. Wait, now that I think about it there is probably one guy stronger around here. That ranger dude in the first group.
Doyle shifts side to side, You know what? I really just want a group who can fight my kobolds. No one has even gotten to my berry bushes! Those are supposed to be the prize for people who make it that far but cant fight the kobolds. Of course now there are those twodies in the vine room so they have little choice in whether they fight them.
With a grin Allyughs, yeah, thest group found that out well enough. The goats didnt even have a chance to join in. Maybe we should move them elsewhere?
Hmm, Doyle pokes the goats, I want to leave one in there for now. Move another goat to the previous room with goats bringing it up to four of them. The remaining two I will use to bring the two two goat rooms up to three each. Though it almost makes me feel bad about that single goat room, it must be lonely.
Ally nods, now we just have to wait till the next groupes through. With the changes shocking those outside no one enters until noon.
Breakdown After the Dungeon Crawl – Chapter 37
Ruby looks over her team. Jack and Sammy had been with her for a while, Doctor was solid, and Ace had vouched for the Barrais. It should have been an easy walk to the end of the first floor so of course the dungeon changed on them. The deaths were just a cherry on the top of this mess.
She nces at Doctor with a scowl, Well the dungeon has had its breakfast now.
Jackughs and ps Ruby on the back, And here to it not getting lunch!
Susan nods, that would be preferred. It would be a little hard to study the nts in there if I die. However, it is also quite hard to study them from out here as well. I dont have all day. Now lets fight some goats. Then she grabs her husband and pulls him through the portal.
Not wanting to split the party already everyone else is quick to join them. Lucky for them Doyle wasnt too cruel so the goats in the entrance room dont attack right away, instead giving groups a chance to all enter.
Once inside Sammy takes the lead with her shield in front. The first goat charges at her and is fended off. From the side Jeremyes in and slices its throat with a dagger which brings it down.
Off to the side Jack stops the second goat from even attempting a charge as he counter charges with his mace a swinging. This attack misses but the goat is in no position to avoid Rubys follow up attack and is sliced to death by her me ribbons.
Jack rests his mace on his shoulder, welp, two goats in the first room is a nice warm up.@@novelbin@@
Ruby rolls her eyes and Susan ignores them all, not even having bothered paying attention to the fight in the first ce. Instead, she is off to the side kneeled down by a clump of the pink clovers. Hey J, stop ying with the livestock. We have a new species of clover here and why hasnt anyone told us the soil was so bangin?
Jeremy rolls his eyes, You think anyone has had time to check the dirt? Give them some ck.
She res at him, Clover, now. I know red clovers arent new but look at the leaves on these. In traditional medicine they get used in treating respiratory problems. When the cold seasones around, it would be nice to know if a herbal tea made with them will help. I have the red so you can get some white. Since these arent meant for harvesting, we might be the only ones at the moment who can grab them.
Doctor raises an eyebrow and ducks down to pick one flower. Clover in hand, he smirks at Susan only for it to disintegrate right from between his fingers.
Jeremy shrugs at him, there is a reason the skill for harvesting exists. You dont know how to keep the herbal essence inside the nt. Outside you would just end up with a useless if pretty flower. In a dungeon everything is created of energy so you get left with even less.
With a chuckle at the back and forth Ruby gestures for everyone to continue on.
Through the twisting hallway the group passes and into the next goat room and makes short work of them as well. Four goats versus a well put together team like this is nothing. Though Susan is disappointed on not finding a sage bush yet. The previous day some groups had reported a bush in the first room but it seems like after they harvested it the sage had disappeared.
Jack on the other hand is having a great time. We are getting lucky today! Every single one of them has dropped some meat. Might even break the record for the quantity retrieved today. I just wish we would see some of those rabbits. Goat isnt my first choice for dinner.
Jeremyughs at this, Oh god yes, what I wouldnt do for some chicken. Think of that, chicken! Used to be I would head down to the store and have my choice of what I want.
Ruby nods at this, True, though everyone needs to wrap it up here. The next fight will be in the vine room. If thest group through wasnt lying, we have a couple kobolds to deal with in there now.
The group gathers up and they head into the next room. Nothing much has changed but they dont get that far into the room. Not from any danger but because Susan notices something. Thats aloe! What in the world is it doing in this mess of a jungle?
Her husband shrugs, Its a dungeon and is under no obligation to make sense. Still, that will be nice in case anyone gets burned. That and theyer oftex in the leaves is a good fix for constipation. Though that is a small specimen of it so another thing we are the only ones able to harvest I bet.
She nods at hisment and kneels down next to the nt. From her back pocket she takes out a small pair of shears and clips off the biggest leaves right at the base. Finished she stands back up and packs the three leaves away in her pack. Susan had been nning on leaving the rest of the nt to grow some more but it melts away soon after she stepped away from it.
Jack sighs, well it looks like we cant just farm the herbs in here.
Doctor nods, they probably get randomized after being harvested. Now are we going to do something about that goat over there that has been staring daggers at us? And he points at a nearby bush in which the others can make out a goat.
Moments after everyone else notices it a dagger sprouts from the goats left eye and it falls over dead. Welp, thats taken care of, and Jeremy walks over to retrieve his dagger. Now lets find out what is up with the rumored kobolds.
He stretches and starts to stalk forward, followed by the others. They make it over halfway through the room when he spots an assassin vine just chilling in the center of the hallway. Jeremy gestures to his wife and she steps forward.
The rest of the group takes a moment to find it and only because the duo was pointing at it so animatedly. Ruby facepalms when it looks like the two nt idiots are going to approach it. She points at Jack then Sammy and gestures the two at the couple. A shared grinter and the two have a grip on the couple by their cors. Then with a little persuasive tugging the group retreats to the beginning of the room.
Ruby stands with her hands on her hips and res at the two. I have no clue what you two intended but you better not attempt to approach any monsters like a pair of rubes to a shady market stall. The monster won''t have time to kill you before I do.
They try to speak up but Ruby isnt having any of it. No, I dont care if one of you can kill it with both hands tied behind your back. When we are here, we are a team and I am the leader. I can respect your curiosity, but you havent been here before. The problem isnt just the nt monster.
She ps Jacks pack, That goat we killed in here? From everything we have learned until the change about four of them lived here. We have only seen a single one so far not to mention the kobolds. Do you know what their favorite trick to y is? Wait until someone is right near those vine monsters and pushing the person into it.
Ruby shakes her head at them, Ace said nothing. However from what I have seen you two have serious training. Congrattions on being prepared for the new world. Now knock off your smugness and pride. Did your training teach you to deal with magic? Skills that input how to defeat mundane detection on an instinctual level? The very terrain being able to warp at an alien intelligences whim?
The answer to her questions was clearly written on their faces. Ruby nods, I thought not. Now I will admit the goats arent likely to surprise us at all. My problem is the kobolds. We have no clue what they can do except what the original party has reported. How I wish Jim would at leaste around and tell us his experience but that can be for the future.
What we know is that thest room that dive reached had mages in it. In fact, a number of people fell to ice magic. Hearsay of course but I believe it. Plus besides that they dont even need magic. If the dungeon resets the area at all between dives, then a kobold could be hiding on the other side of a clump of dirt with no sign it is there.
Ruby rubs her eyes, Not saying that you wont notice them. In fact, you can drop the sad eyes act. I dont think the dungeon will be that tricky. If I had to bet on if you could spot something on this dungeons first floor, I would bet on you two every time. Now lets go kill an assassin vine and find some kobolds.
Everyone else nods but no one moves. They stand there for a moment longer before Jack brings up the question on everyones mind, So, how are we going to fight it? My mace did well enough against the one fromst time, but the kobolds have daggers. Now I dont mind getting hurt but who knows if they are poisoned or some such.
Ruby throws her hands up, Fine, let me work my magic. I wanted to save up for the final room but sure I can blow it on a nt.
Sammyughs, Boy we all sure are being a bunch of scaredy cats!
Doctor shrugs, No matter how much training in the tutorial or whateverbat experience we might have had before, this is new. The system has taken the monster in the closet from our childhood and made it real. Some of us, and he stares pointedly at the Barrais, have morebat experience from before the end than the rest of us since. Others might not have ever gotten into even a scuffle.
None of that matters anymore, we can now gain the training of a lifetime through a skill and magic exists. Dont let the reminder of what has happened stop us. Ruby, you and the others have killed one of these before. Hell, some of the other groups have killed the things and I wouldnt have trusted them to fight their way out of a paper bag before the end.
Ruby sighs, Youre right. She rubs the bridge of her nose, Lets just fight this thing and get it over with. Afterwards once we are out of here feel free to breakdown but for the moment, we have a job. Sammy, you go in first and distract it. The Barrais can nk the monster, scouting for the kobolds. Jack, follow Sammy in and go for the core likest time. Doctor, we can stand back and be ready to support them.
The team moves as she finishes. Sammy, having fought one before, is able to aggro it without getting caught providing a clean start to the fight. Jeremy goes to the left but sees nothing, it is his wife who has the honor of spotting the kobolds. The two monsters are hidden just off to the right, ready in ambush. Once Susan spots them, though, she retreats a couple of steps and signals their location to her husband who sneaks around the back of the assassin vine.
Back in front, Jackes in behind Sammy on the left and takes a swing. He doesnt miss but it isnt a clean hit as most of the vines are still protecting the core. However with him making his presence known more of the vines go on the attack. Ruby sees this and gets an idea. She calls out a warning then sends out a small puff of fire. Nothing serious, just enough to be noticed when it smacks into the left side of the monster.
Someone Finally Gets Some Berries – Chapter 38
The small puff of fire barely warmed the monsters vines, but that didnt matter to the assassin vine. As far as it was concerned this was the end of the world and sent a good two-thirds of its vines in the direction the puff came from. Jack takes this as an invitation and takes a swing with his cement mace.
A solid thwack and many of the assassin vines tentacles are pulped. The monsters let out a gurgling noise and tried to pull back the vines it had sent out at the fire. Sammy will not give it a chance though and with a slice of her sword lops off even more vines. This reveals the assassins core body for the first time and Jacks reaction described it the best, the hell, thats a watermelon someone stuck too many stems on!
This doesnt stop him from attacking again though and the group finds out it smashes like a watermelon as well. Though the insides are more green than red. This finishes the main fight but behind it another has just begun.
The Barrais had gotten into position around the kobolds but they kept back watching the main fight. When it is clear how that fight will go, they attack. The others arent watching and the couple knows it.
Not holding back, the two surge forward in silence. The kobolds dont even get the chance to make a noise before the Barrais cover their mouths. This is soon followed by both kobolds being forever silenced when the Barrais daggers make a smooth glide motion across their respective preys throats.
In the dungeons core room Ally ps andughs, who would think we would have real assassins in the dungeon this early. Maybe we jinxed it by having assassin vines? And she ps the core.
Back in the vine room the others dont even get toe down from the fight. Now that there arent any visible threats, Susan is on the assassin vine corpse and Jeremy is bemoaning how they should have kept it alive. As he put it, they arent that dangerous once you remove the vines.
On a time limit there is no delicacy in Susans actions. She doesnt even bother taking out a more appropriate tool, using her dagger instead to hack the body apart. All the while she mutters to herself.
Look at these structures here! I bet the vines move by hydraulics. But how would that work? Jeremy, you chop them apart and figure it out. Now what is over here? It looks like a brain analogue. Then before she can continue the corpse fades away. She was a bit angry.
It took a while before Ruby was able to calm her down. The words she said and in so manynguages! The others all expected that if the dungeon walls had been painted they would have peeled. All that brought her down was the assurance another would be hereter for her to y with. Though for some reason none of them, not even her husband, was willing to promise toe back with her to the dungeon.
That taken care of, they continued onto the series of goat rooms. In the first room Sammy rolls her eyes, wooo, three goats instead of two. Quite the change here.
Jack smacks the back of her head, You want more change? Why notin that the kobolds dropped rabbit meat? How does that make any sense? Honestly, if nothing else changed besides maybe more herbs like the aloe, I would be fine.
Susan perks up, wait, right, the aloe! Just a second please. And she rushes back into the vine room, leaving the group fighting the goats. Her husband can only sigh. The fight wasnt hard, so no one said anything.
Two more aloe nts harvested and the rest of the normal goats taken care of the group is at the entrance to therge goat room. Jack smirks at Sammy, it added another goat! This one evenes with a hat. How do you feel about it now?
She just rolls her eyes, more meat for therder.
Banter over, they line up just outside of the room. Melee in front, the Barrais next, and the magic users in back. As they stroll into the room, two of the six goats charge them right away. Sammy and Jack move further into the room, intercepting them as the Barrais move out to nk them.
In the back Ruby sends out a ribbon of fire to keep the remaining goats back. Doctor fires off a minor heal at Jack as the goats helmet allowed it to tank the ncing hit of the mace. Head lowered, it ducked under his guard toy the hurt on his gut.
Rubys fire ribbon sears a line in the ground and catches one of the rear goats on the leg setting it on fire. It doesnt have long to worry about that though as Jeremy puts it out of its misery on his way by. The next goat in line who had reared back from the fire in time wasnt as easy to take down.
Helmet lowered the bronze-covered horns raise a screech as they ward off a dagger and another goat ms into his side. Jeremy goes with the blow and turns his fall into a roll away from the monsters.
Back with the others, Jack gets his revenge as his mace ms down on the goat in front of him. This once again leads to him being hit by the next goat in line. This attack actually draws blood, though more as an ident. Its head nces past Jacks body and when it pulled back the horns left a bloody scratch.@@novelbin@@
This led to a lot of cursing and a mace being swung around a tad more haphazardly than the others would prefer. It does take out another two goats though and ending the fight as Susan has mopped up the back line and Sammy finished off hers. Another couple of heals from Doctor to patch up Jeremy and Jack before they are ready to move on.
That is they would be if it wasnt for the two sage bushes in the room. The Barrais both take one and harvests them. However their attention is soon drawn away, Jeremy even fails to harvest one of the possible drops. This is because over in the next room Jack stumbled upon the fact that the bushes now had berries. Oh, and there are bees and honey, not that the Barrais care about that bit.
Finished the sage they move onto the berries with only minor heckling from Susan for Jeremys failure. Though they arent needed as the bushes are quite normal as evidence by Jack snarfing down some raspberries. Susan still does some tests on the bushes but the results are all normal. Well, as normal as any dungeon nts. While the berries seem tock the normal chance of failure when harvesting the rest of the nt isnt so protected. Jack is actually taking advantage of it as he can just grab handfuls of the berries and the stems just disappear before they reach his mouth.
Ruby is off to the side shaking her head. Werent you worried at all about poison?
Jack looks up with berry juice staining his mouth and does a slow blink then looks back down at the bush. Ah, well, hmm. He grabs another bunch of berries and munches them down. I gave myst raspberries for the bag we left here. Never had any vices. Didnt smoke or drink. Hell, I stopped drinking soda when my dad ended up developing diabetes and then caffeine in general.
Berries though, where a hobby of mine. Never made a lot of money at my regr job, but I devoted most of my house to a series of greenhouses just to grow them. Cost me a pretty penny but I eventually made it back as I technically raised them organically and my setup kept me in berries all year round. You could say I am a bit addicted to them. These are the same cultivar as the ones I gave up so I sort of just assumed it was safe?
Ruby rubs her eyes but Doctor speaks up in his defense. I bet these bushes are here for the kobolds so I doubt it would poison them. He turns to Jack with a raised eyebrow, though it was stupid since you didnt think about that. However I do have a simple detox spell in my repertoire. Any serious poison would be beyond me, but I dont think the dungeon is to the point of being able to make such a thing yet. Basically, the berries are fine but dont eat any strange mushrooms you find. Now what do we do about that honey over there?
Ruby sighs, eugh, whatever. Jack, actually all of you, I better not hear about any founder or central figure of our buddingmunity getting poisoned from something so stupid. As for the honey, we cant do much with it right now. Any group in the future who ns toe this far should carry some jars with them. Now we have to deal with the next room and I am sure they know we areing.
Jeremy shrugs, Its a dungeon. Our very presence crossing the portal might have alerted them to us. Let me go look around the corner to see what there is to see. When everyone agrees with this he pulls out a small makeup mirror and uses it to look into the next room.
Huh, Jeremy scratches his head, Well I can report there is another goat in the room. Also, there is, well. He nces at Ruby, can you restrain my wife for a moment, please?
Ruby shrugs at this but has to act fast as Susan almost rushes past her. Once she is restrained Jeremy nods, good. I dont think she would survive rushing in there. Anyway, there is a nice olive tree in the back corner that is currently fruiting.
Doctor ps, Yes! Wonderful! Cooking oil, magic circles, and all other sorts of things are within our grasp. Though one tree wont produce that much. We can only hope it is more like the berry bushes so we can get arge harvest every time a group makes it here. Not that many can do this at the moment but give it time.
Ruby rolls her eyes, we have to kill the kobolds first and they have mages just like us. Anyway, same formation as thest room but I want the two of you. And she points at the Barrais, to stick closer to the group this time. Doctor is a good healer but he cant do it from across the room. Now everyone, get ready. With all the side stuff that has happened we have been here for a long while. Though this time I want Sammy first and only then followed by Jack. Jack shrugs.
Sammy ps him on the shoulder as she goes past him and enters the next room with her shield raised high. A good idea as she catches an ice shard with it right away. She rushes forward and swings low, catching the charging goat on the legs, bringing it low.
Behind her Jackes along and finishes the goat off before dodging back behind her as another bolt of ice shoots towards them. At this point the Barrais quietly moves along the right wall as the three melee kobolds move forward. The one with a shield moved up to face Sammy while the two without head towards the couple as they had been deemed a threat to their casters.
Ruby sends off a couple of fire ribbons towards those two but is soon distracted by said casters. One of them was firing off a heal towards the shield kobold while the other decided ice could beat fire and sent their next bolt towards her.
Thats a Nifty Spell – Chapter 40
Take those greaves and be thankful! Didnt your tutorial guide teach you about gear? Not the random scrap we are wearing but true blue magical equipment? Jeremy pauses and looks at Ruby, but she gestures for him to continue. He shrugs, Guess I get to be your guide while my wife finishes with the olives.
From behind them Susan shouts at them that, it would be quicker if you helped!
Jeremy ignores her, so anyway, for an item to be magical it needs to be a masterwork. That requires a couple of things such as, you know, a master crafter. Dungeons cheat, though. Notice how the description has that little bit about being enchantable at the end? That means that once the system recognizes our ce as a town and we get another system store setup, you can make it magical. Anyway, do you at least know about equipment slots?
Jack shakes his head.
Sigh, of course not., Jeremy facepalms, long story short youre being can only handle so much active magic equipment. If you ever yed games andined about how you have more than two fingers to put rings on, this is the cause. A little more free-form as if you want to deck yourself out in just magic rings that is fine. All that matters in the end is the power of the persistent magic youre decked out in.
The system simplifies it and gives a nice round number to represent how many slots you get instead of you having to feel out your limit. How many slots do you get? Take the three categories of stats you have and add them together separately, then divide by three and round down. Add the three numbers together and boom, you got your limit. Yes, you can have a negative number and more powerful items can take up more slots. Paths muck with it, but you would already know this if you were even within a light year of such a thing. Now lets fight that kobold I spotted in thest room and her goats.
Susan smacks him on the back of the head, yes, now that I have harvested all these olives By Myself we can move on. That should be thest room up ahead before the core.
Ruby ps to get everyones attention, almost done everyone! No need to sit around. Jack and Sammy, both of you get your butts into the next room. I took a nce myself and it looks like we have one heavily armoreddy and her retinue of four goats. A little disappointing as ast fight, but if my guess is right, the dungeon has ns for her. Though that might just be the throne she sits on.
She continues to b on but has to stop so she can catch up to the others as they have gone ahead. The tunnel between the two rooms isnt long and Sammy now stands just outside the small room inhabited by the kobold andpany.
The armored kobold gives her a hard stare before it motions its goats around to the side while taking position behind the throne.@@novelbin@@
Jack ps Sammy on the shoulder and they both enter the room. Sammy with her shield turned to the side to defend against the goats. A good thing too, as one with a spiked helm had edged right up beside the door and mmed into her as soon as she entered.
The Barrais slip in past her while she holds back the goats and Jack ms his cement mace into the back of the stone throne breaking the back off. After the dust settles on the first exchange Sammy shouts back at Ruby that, there seems to be some sort of stone door.
Ruby nods and gets up right at room''s entrance and chants out five sybles. A small ribbon of fire forms in her hand and the ends connected. With her other hand, she gives it a spin and tosses it around the corner.
Back with Jack, the kobold is doing quite a number on him. Unlike the previous kobolds, she seems to be freer with her smash attack and has forced him back. Then a sh of fire draws their attention.
That circle of fire Ruby had thrown outnded behind the goats. After the sh of fire that attracted everyones attention, the circle expanded outward, slicing and dicing the goats. The fire isnt strong enough to cut all the way through, but all the goats are now covered in a chaotic pattern of burns.
The closest goat doesnt survive the magic, and the rest are in too much pain to defend themselves. Sammy and Jeremy are kind enough to put them out of their pain.
The kobold over by Jack was far enough away to be outside the magic, but now has something else to worry about. While the magic distracted everyone, Susan decided to join in on the fun. Being armored prevented an instant kill, but being hamstrung isnt any better for its health.
Jack thenes in with an overhead swing to cause some fatal blunt trauma to its head and the fight has ended.
Doctor enters the room with his hand over his mouth. After he observes the room, he lowers his hand and sighs, a bit of an anti-climax, but we expected that. Sammy, Jack, and Jeremy. You three should have the best strength in the group so how about you roll that door out of the way?
Jeremy turns to the rolling stone door and squints, We open that and it will block our way out. Is everyone okay with that?
Jack shrugs, we need to open it if only to check if there is a second floor. Who knows, there might even be even more dungeons after it.
Ruby shakes her head, there were enough monsters that I bet what is behind that is the core or the way to the next floor. But yeah, we are here to check on the dungeons state. Open it up.
The three struggle for a moment to get a grip on the door, but after that they open the door easily enough. Rolled out of the way reveals a tiny room. Inside of which all they can see is a fist-size purple crystal floating in the center of the room.
Ruby gestures for everyone to stay back as she enters. Inside the core room she nces around but sees nothing of interest. With a shrug she turns around and leaves. Nothing else in there, guys. Looks like we are stuck with only a single floor for the moment. Not that I can reallyin about it. We can get meat to supplement ourselves, and anyone who can fight thest goat room can pick some berries and harvest some honey. Plus the chance of loot drops and those olives I think we are golden in fact.
Doctor nods, That and we are sending enough people in that give it a week and I am willing to bet we see a second floor has formed. Hell, with our time in here it might even form over the night.
Ruby nods, now lets head out shall we?
Everyone agrees and so they make their way back out of the dungeon. The only event on the way is right before they leave. Jack cocks his head to the side when they get to the entrance room and points at the portal. Since when has it had those carvings there?
Of course none of them had the answer to that, so Jack gets volunteered to check into that once everything else is settled and the group all step through.
Back in the dungeon Ally flies out into the core room after having hid in her room while the group scoped it out. So, now that youve seen a Real loot drop do you understand?
Doyle nods, that was a thing. When he reached into the swirl, I could feel my territory connect to him. There was arge rush like I was trying to chug a drink and in the background it was like I could almost hear someone exining the exact dimensions of his legs. Not that I can recall a single thing, quite odd.
Ally grins and exims, exactly! When someone gets a loot drop, their soul connects to us. Then in exchange for arge quantity of their energy cruft, the item is finished to their dimensions. There are enchantments to let gear size itself but none of it works quite as well as dungeon fitted stuff.
Doyle rolls back, huh, well that is impressive. You would think magic could do something like that easily. Anyway, I do have a question. How does that magic gear slot thing work? The exnation wasnt the best and I cant exactly wear rings.
Ally grimaces, yeah, that was a bad exnation. Though it is really quite simple. Take your body stats, add them together, divide by ten, and round down. Then do that with your mind and soul stats and add the three results. Their exnation was so close to but so far.
Doyle tilts to the side, So I would have 11 slots? That seems like a lot
Ally shrugs, Well just look at your basic gear setup. A weapon, shield, helmet, chest piece, pants, boots, armguards, gloves, a couple rings, and an amulet. That is eleven pieces of gear right there. Actually, you have exactly enough slots, dont you? Plus you can always enchant underwear, piercings, tattoos, and all other manner of things. Though the big thing is that better enchantments take up more slots.
Though that brings us to what you as a dungeon core you can use. For instance, you can totally wear a hat. Though that brings us to the rub. You are a dungeon core. While the dungeon is technically a part of you. Gear has to be worn on your actual core to work. A little out of your range at the moment, but ion stones are a popr option. Plus they look sweet. Youre already a magical crystal so having a bevy of smaller magical crystals orbiting you would look amazing.
As it is though, there arent really that many enchantments just lying around that would benefit you. Most cores just end up with a bunch of magical shields. Your monsters are a different story though. You can fit them out with all kinds of magic gear. Not that you have that option until they bemon enough for parties to lose them in you.
Though I guess I should mention the one weakness almost all of your monsters will have. No matter how much cool gear you want to give them, they will be quite limited. After all, most of them dont have a soul stat. Youre honestly impressive 11 slots drops to only six if we remove your soul stats. Even worse are the mindless ones like the assassin vine. Sure you likely werent going to p magic rings on it, but with only body stats they have two slots avable. Now how are we doing on that next floor?
Doyle bobbles, oh, right, new floor. Well, if you would look at the wall over there you might notice a full bar.
Ally ps and giggles, awesome! We can start on that then. Though I do have to shake my head. An idiot literally dying barely moves the meter and then those guys traipse through us and fill the tank.
Meh, Doyle shakes his core, it was mostly the loot drop. I wasnt paying all that much attention, but that really filled the bar up. Though since most of their energy went to that and they did a full clear, it will take me a couple hours to respawn everything. They even got some loot, which takes a nice chunk to reinstate as well. Though before that lets check the message log.
{Sage goes from lv0 to lv3
Aloe goes from lv0 to lv3
Herb patterns go from lv3 to lv4
Food patterns go from lv4 to lv5
Shrubbery goes from lv4 to lv6
Greaves go from lv3 to lv5
Armor Patterns go from lv4 to lv5
Kobolds go from lv4 to lv5
Dungeon Pattern Database goes from lv13 to lv14
Level Gained!
Level goes from 0 to 1, Agility goes from 11 to 12, Constitution goes from 14 to 15, Wisdom goes from 9 to 14, and Karma goes from 20 to 21}
Oh, huh, I gained a level.
Momentary Breakdown – Chapter 41
So uh, what do I do with this fancy new level?
Allyughs, Absolutely nothing! You already got everything you are going to get with it. Your stats went up for all your per a level stuff. Nice wisdom gain by the way. What does that do for you anyway?
Doyle pauses, huh, I dont actually know. I havent checked all the stats ever since I turned into a dungeon core. [Show us the description of wisdom please].@@novelbin@@
{Wisdom: The finesse of ones mind. Your races crystalline mind can result in impressive non-standard results. Most important though is this increases the flexibility of your thoughts. This stat will increase your ability to connect disparate facts that others might not as well as form a mental defense of much greater strength than normal sapiants. What it does not do is make your judgement any better. One side benefit of wisdom for your race is that every ten points allows for the automation of a floor. Thises from warping a segment of your unconscious mind and setting the new pathways in crystal perfection.}
Nice! Ally nods in appreciation, So this is the stat that does that. I figured it would have been presence. Though that does make a perverse sort of sense. Wisdom lets you flex your mind into the right shape. Then the fact you have a brain of crystal and quintessence instead of flesh and electricity means you can lock it in the new shape. I bet the limit of one floor every ten points is to prevent you from using up too much of your brain space.
Doyle tilts to the side, that is interesting, so how do I use it?
Tutorial time! Ally waves her hands in the air, with perfect timing as well since you just had a full clear. Anyway, have you ever done one of those trick pictures where you cross your eyes and it makes a 3d picture?
Doyle nods and so Ally continues, you need to do a simr thing. A little hard to exin, but you need to look at the floor you want to automate. Then you need to look at it again without having stopped looking at it? Once you can do that, use the first vision to also see the second along with the floor. As you spectate that second view, use your
Ally slowly blinks and runs her finger along an invisible screen. Then she runs over it again. Okay, this is just a mess. From now on the first view is v1 and the second is v2, got that? Good. Now lets just start from the top.
Create v1 and then v2 keeping them both up at the same time looking at the floor. Use v1 to also look at v2. Then through v2 use creation to restock the floor. Sadly, you will have to set all the gear up as well, so this will be costly. Whenever you create or do something with v2, you will be able to see it happening with v1 and that is where the trick is. As your skill from v2 takes effect you need to
Ally rereads the line a few times, Hmm, forck of a better word put a finger on it to keep it in ce? Anyway, after you finish stocking the entire floor with v2, you will have everything being held down by v1. Now create a third view, v3 if you will, and take an overview of the floor and the other two views. With all that nonsense in ce, use dungeon rules through v3 to crystalize v1 in ce. V1 now locked down you can release v2. At that point from v1 you should see v2 still but not see it with v3.
Hopefully that is the case or you have to do this all from the top after clearing the floor. Lastly, if v1 can still see v2 but v3 cant, you can release v1 and then v3. Finally when you look at your floor again, you should see phantom-like crystal outlines of everything you spawned while doing that. If you focus on one of the outlines, you will be able to sense what spawned from that point and you can alter it to some extent. Basic things like removing the spawn or changing out gear on a monster.
Oh, and to add more stuff you just need to do the same thing. The guide here says it should be second nature with practice. Though if you attempt to do it on more floors than youre allowed, it just wont work. So did you understand that all?
Doyles core lulls to the side, huh wah? I think you might need to walk me through it as I attempt to do it.
Ally sighs, fair enough, faaair ee nough. Though it seems like the hardest part is just that multiple view thing. How about you try to look at your first floor twice over to start?
Suffice to say it takes a good long while for Doyle to get it. Luckily after the next group toe in finds the dungeon empty people stoppeding in for the day. Late into the night Doyle works at it.
An hour past midnight Doyle manages it. The only thing he can say to Ally is that he couldnt have even thought in the manner required when he was a human. At that point, it is all easy sailing. Ally reads through the directions step by step as hepletes them, and in only twice the time it would take him to restock the floor before it is done.
Doyle sighs in relief, Well, I can see how that would be second nature. Because it certainly isnt like my first nature. Unnatural finicky process. There has to be an easier way to do that!
Ally pats his core, at least you got a couple levels in both creation andw!
Doyle dims, dont try to cheer me up. I am happy it is over with but I have something even harder left to do and I need it done before tomorrow. After all, my second floor isnt going to create itself.
Ally tilts her head to the side, why would you need to rush it out before tomorrow?
Doyle sinks down for a moment, because while I can work on the second floor just fine once I have it. Until I do have it, everything I would do is on the first floor. If I dont get it before tomorrows adventurers start to enter, I will have to wait for the next night.
Ally shakes her head, dont worry about being quick. If it takes another day, we can afford that. Haste makes waste and we have all the time in the world.
Doyleughs, We are having trouble with a group of under armed nearly gearless level five people straight from the tutorial. Not everywhere will have their people get such a slow start. What if just down that river over there a ce is set up where even the weakest people are like those founders? With the right attitude, a ce like that might kill me just so no one here can grow into a real threat to them.
Ally shrugs, there is nothing we can do about what ifs and anything beyond the horizon. For now, we have a small town developing outside of our entrance and they need food so they wont kill us. Lets just make our dungeon, maybe not as if no one is out to kill us. That would just be stupid. However, make it without the assumption that some elder god is going to sit on us identally and snuff the dungeon out. It isnt impossible but it is out of our control.
Doyle whines, but I like when things are under control! Why cant we just have a schedule and keep to it? Thats what I hated the most about my job, you know? The fact that my schedule seemed to be made by throwing darts at the wall. And he lets out a stressed sob.
Ally rubs his core, its fine. Life threw you a serious curveball and doesnt seem to want to stop. A few floors under our belt will make us safe enough for a new world. At that point you can schedule things or whatever else you want.
Doyle leans back, I dont even care about the damn schedule, you know? Its just the person in charge of, well, who was in charge of it before the end, sucked at it. I say I have a preference and suddenly it is like I told them I never wanted to work at those times. I say that I prefer to do a certain job and for some reason other people, half of whom hate that job, are suddenly doing it instead of me.
Ally shrugs, thats just middle management for you. Not enough power to actually do anything, but just enough to make those below them miserable. Now if you want to get started on that second floor, we should get around to it. You had mentioned it was like making a new dimension inside your dungeon?
Doyle just sits there for a minute to gather himself. Yeah, that is about it. I looked at the directions again. There is the pool of sapient sourced power at the center of my gem. Since it is full, all I have to do is wrap my core in it and squeeze. My core will literally pop into a new dimensionalyer. The problem is that while that is happening, I have to do all kinds of funky things with my territory control. General poking and prodding at space as well as stretching it out and bending it into intricate designs.
Once that is done though, it is easy enough. My territory will just spread outward like normal and a whole new space to y with is created. Only the fact I am treating my first floor like a balloon as I inte the next floor inside of it worries me. Not literally of course, bending space isnt that simple but the best I can do to exin it.
Ally nods, I can see where you worryes from then. Even the best balloons only stretch so far before bursting. Do you have any hints on how to fix it?
Doyle brightens up, I dont actually have to do anything about it. The balloon metaphor was a bit of a stretch. While it exins some of the difficulties of doing it, there is no need to worry about my floors bursting. I might create new space at the center of my dungeon, but it goes inward? Kind of hard to exin, especially when that exnation sort of makes you think of a ckhole, what with putting all that mass in one spot.
Ally grimaces, yeah it sounds like that but I trust you. How about you start on that new floor instead of hemming and hawing about it? A little dy to settle yourself is fine, but youre pushing it at this point.
Doyle rolls, fine, its off to work I go. Now a moment of silence as I concentrate.
Ally considers making a cheeky reply but in the end obliged his request and so Doyle focuses on his core. At the center, the pool of power pulses to an unheard tune. As he looks closer, small ripples dance across the silver surface. Its a peaceful scene, especiallypared to before he filled it and the space just looked like a hole into the void.
So of course he has to disrupt it. With a mental finger, he pokes the sphere and more ripples form. Just as he had expected and so with a sigh he pokes straight through the outside and into the core. At the very center still exists that void he had seen when the space was empty. This small point is where he has to start.
She was Worried – Chapter 42
Doyles concentration is on a single point of void at the center of his core. All around him is a sea of power and he has to move it. The void is his potential to expand, while small the space within has no conceivable limit. So if it wants to expand, Doyle just has to encourage it in a more literal sense.
He pushes on that void and without changing expands outward to cover his core and pushing the sea of power outward. Now all he has to do is use that pooled potential to squeeze the void back down as far as he can. In fact, the better he does the better.
From outside Ally fidgets as watches Doyle. An hour passes without any reaction, but she trusts him. Half an hour more goes by, but then a glimmer expands out of the core. The speed it grows is slow, but at least something is happening now.
After a few more minutes, there is a globe of liquid power encapsting the core. Inside Ally can just make out a ckness coat Doyles core. She isnt sure what that is about, but it doesnt feel bad through her link to him so she can only sit back and watch. Then the sphere of power starts to shrink.
The outer surface of the liquid power crystalizes and contracts. Thisyer of crystal grows as it shrinks, absorbing more as the liquid bes unable to stay liquid from the pressure. The process continues until the crystals reach the shifting ckness around the core.
From there the facets of the crystal coating shrink. Each moment that passes makes it harder and harder for Ally to see the core as it bes like frosted ss. Then the crystal reaches the size of the core and continues to shrink.
Inside Doyle is ignorant of what has happened on the outside. From the center of the void he can no longer see out and there is only his core. He can feel that there is still room left to contract the power outside though, and so continues. Tighter and tighter as if without end he draws the power towards him.
Eventually he reaches a point that his mind can no longerpress the power further. One final push from Doyle and there is a pop. With a suddenness that shocks him, the surrounding void retracts right through his perception and back into the center of his core. All around him is the familiar site of his core room, but that is it. His perception stops at the edge of his room like when he had first woken up in it. Though he notes that Allys room was included, so that was a thing.
Ally on the other hand is quite worried. The crystal sphere had shrunk down until she could no longer see it, but that didntst. There was a sound like a bubble popping but drawn out and then the sphere expanded outwards again. This time though it didnt stop and it forced her out of the core room. Once the crystal sphere had covered the entire core room, it shrunk one final time. Though with much greater speed and taking the room with it, leaving just a hole in the ground.
For both Ally and Doyle it seems that everything has stopped, but there is one final surprise left. As they rx and start to worry about one another, the final remnant of the power bursts out. Though instead of a sphere it takes the form of a disc, and through it the two can see each other again. With that, a system message appears before both of them.
{Second floor dimensionally anchored
World Energy cap +1500 [Constitution(15) * 100]
Second floor spending limit set to 2200 [Previous floors limit(1000) + Intelligence(12) * 100]@@novelbin@@
Random monster package purchasable for 500we
Monster level cap updated}
Ally flies through the portal without reading the message and looks around. I guess you have to fill in the stone out there. But hey, at least you can improve the walls of your core room without worry.
Doyle nods as she goes on but she can tell he isnt paying attention. She sighs, here she was worried about him and he has his nose stuck in a blue screen. Allynds on his core and sets about reading it with him. After Doyle has had a few more moments to digest what he is reading, he asks the system to [please show me the monster level cap].
{Monster Level Cap: 3 [Level(1) + Floors(2) + Path Modifiers(0)]}
Ally notices this and nods, their level cap only goes up when you get a new floor, so that is why you got nothing from leveling up. Also, each floor has an internal level range. As you have nothing modifying it yet, it is easy to figure out. First floor can have monsters from level one to four and the second floor can have level two to five.
Then she pokes the line about the monster, that will actually affect what possible results you can get for your random monster. Your starting monsters were all things that could be level one. Some creatures are so powerful at maturity that the system starts them at a higher level.
You might have noticed none of your options had any one stat above ten and that is why. Ten is the generic human starting point for stats and because this is a humanocentric dimension that is what the system took as normal. The random monster you will get starts at the second level and so at least one stat will be 11.
Doyles core shes to get Allys attention. Uh, quick question. My goats start with a constitution of 12. Whats up with that?
Ally pauses then pulls up some screens, I guess that is another thing you got from dreaming of goats. I had taken a snapshot of the monsters you got offered and there goats only had a six. Cant believe I didnt notice that. Doesnt really change much about what I just said though.
Honestly? Your goats are probably just an example of why adventurers shouldnt blindly trust any published stat sheets. Just like not all humans have straight tens when they be an adult, everything will have some variance. This is best seen in mounts as their strength has been trained so they can carry their owner.
Doyle nods at this and asks, so does it cost more to spawn higher level monsters?
She shrugs, sorta? How it works is that spawning a monster at the floors minimum costs the default. So whether it is a level one goat on floor one or a level two goat on floor two it will cost you, what is it now? Four, yeah, it will cost you four world energy. To spawn a higher level monster or raise the level of a pre-existing monster will cost you. In fact, it will hurt you bad.
Each level higher than the starting point costs you the same as it would to summon another. That means even if you wanted a level four assassin vine on your first floor, it isnt possible. You dont have 1200 world energy to spend on the first floor after all.
There is a catch to this though. Whatever the difference is between the min and max level for a floor is the number of free levels you can hand out. That means you could have one max level monster on a floor or a few slightly tougher enemies.
Hearing that Doyle sighs, I really want to make my kobold leader level three as I assume the general level cap is still in effect. Ally nods at this.
Doyle tilts back, figured as much. Anyway, I would like to max the leader, but I dont think I should. Kobolds are awesome, but my goats get the most from levels right now. Five extrapared to two. I guess I will up the three goats in her room with my free points and remove the goat in the vine room to up thest one as well.
Ally chuckles, yep, the plus three strength they get is worth it. Plus your kobold is supposed to be a leader. Let her lead the goats. A general doesnt need to be the strongest. They only need to know where best to use those under them.
Doyle bobbles for a moment, there is more about that message and the two parts annoy me. I didnt know my intelligence and constitution would affect my floors.
Ally shrugs, same here. I knew that stats had various things they did, but I thought it was like what wisdom did. An effect that gets better with more points. I guess you live and learn. What are you going to dump those stat points in now that you know this?
Doyles core dims and he hums. You know we havent looked at all the stats for me yet? I havent even checked half of them yet. The thing is we dont really have the time tob through it all. On my side adding the new floor didnt seem to take much time, but from the entrance I can see it is almost dawn. For now [system, show me the descriptions for intelligence and constitution, please].
{Intelligence: The power of ones mind. Your races crystalline mind makes great use of intelligence and each point is five times as effective at shrugging off mind affecting abilities. However, on a basic level this increases the speed at which you can think through things and remember stuff. The crystal structure of your mind is particrly good at storing information and so when you put effort into recording something it bes stored perfectly. This stat also improves how much you can squeeze down the void when gaining a new floor as thates from the sheer power of the mind.}
{Constitution: A bodys specialty is maintaining itself. While this can represent greater regeneration from damage, there are many paths this can take and your race is known for its focus on structural integrity. Each person can have something different affected by constitution. Some heal faster and others be impossible to poison. While the other two body stats can change the body when high enough your constitution will change you with the first added point. Because of your races nature this stat also represents how much world energy you can hold as your body stores the energy instead of some metaphysical space created by the mind or soul.}
Well, that exins it then. I guess it would make sense that when I am a literal magic gem my body would determine how much power I have. Doyle sighs, So how does mana work with you fleshy sorts?
Ally chuckles, for me, because my race is soul based the power gets stored in my soul. Humans are an odd lot as there isnt a specific ce for them. It really just depends on what type of energy they use and where they think it is stored. A fighter with qi likely has it stored in his heart or in his soul if his specific variant of human doesnt have a literal dantian.
Human mages are even more of a tossup. Your ssic wizard will have their mana collect in their soul and then lock it into their mind in specific patterns for each spell. Sorcerers store it in their blood by default, though being one of the more chaotic professions dont take that as gospel. Though speaking of gospel there is one more example.
For humans, the most stable storage ce is those who worship a higher power and get abilities from said patron. In those cases it gets stored in the soul, period. In fact, with a great enough energy sense, you can spot those types easily. The greater power is able to give them spells and abilities because they have a conduit hooked up to their soul that you can detect. This conduit allows the believer to directly channel their faith to the being without any loss and the being to give them power in return.
Though speaking of greater powers are you going to buy that random monster? Ally tilts her head and looks at Doyle expectantly.
New Worries for Ace – Chapter 43
Doyle looks at the option for a random monster again. Eh, the first floor is stocked up and while I should probably use my world energy on the second floor why not? [System, I want to buy the random monster package].
{Selecting random monster
Axe Beak Selected}
{Axe Beak
S[11] A[9] C[10] I[1] W[4] P[6]
Skills: Blunt Trauma Resistance lv3
Description: An axe beak is a tall flightless bird with strong legs and a heavy, wedge-shaped beak. It has a nasty disposition and tends to attack any unfamiliar creature that wanders too close. While they can be found in groups if there is more than five, they will ostracize one until it leaves and the size of the group is small enough. Their natural habitat is in the small valleys between mountains.
Ecology: goat, horned lizard
Cost: World Energy[60]}
{Axe Beak gained at lv5
Ecology Updates...
Goat already exists in the database
Goat goes from lv9 to lv10@@novelbin@@
Dungeon Pattern Database goes from lv14 to lv15
Horned Lizard gained at lv1
Prey Insect goes from lv1 to lv2}
Ally tilts her head, welp, we got another big dumb monster. Though this one is more ptable than the assassin vine. Odd that it only costs 60 but that might be the intelligence dragging it down. To have a score of one means this thing would barely even count as sentient. I mean really, there are slimes with a higher intelligence.
Doyle chuckles, Oh goodness gracious, that is a silly creature. Though I let it distract me. I need to throw the six stat points I have somewhere. I was tempted to sink it all in constitution. It would limit how much world energy I lose when adventurers are stomping around. A higher cap means I can store more after all. But looking over my stat line I dont think so.
With the second floor I will be able to dump the energy there for the moment so it isnt as critical. However I noticed that my presence isnt even a ten yet. Since I dont have enough points in my soul stats the description probably wont tell me much. However, if the average is a ten at maturity I dont feel good having it below that. [Hey system, stick all six of my stat points into presence.]
{Presence raised from 5 to 11}
Ally nods, That is an excellent idea. Would have been nice if you had run it past me first, not that I would have suggested different.
Doyles core takes on a gray shade, it felt straightforward enough. I only had six points.
Ally shrugs, eh, its your dungeon. And honestly? Points like that are generally better used on stats you arent getting per a level bonuses to. Though depending, you might end up with all your bases covered. Most people end up focusing on one type of stat but a dungeon seems to take it all. Now time to work on your second floor. Do you have any ns yet?
Doyle returns to his normal color and wobbles, not much to n with yet. How big do you think the new floor will be?
Ally rests her chin on her fist, There isnt an exact form for it even under the system. This early on each new floor will probably add on space equal to your first floor. It will seem like a lot here on the second floor. After all that is twice the size. The third floor will disabuse you of that notion.
Doyle does some quick math in his head, yeah I can see that. If we take the standard small room as the unit of measure the first floor is a bit more than 17 to a side. The second floor will only add seven rooms to a side. Still good enough and paths will probably help with that. Though speaking of paths, where will I get all the skill levels I need?
Allyughs, Now that you have a second-floor things will pick up. Before you got limited by not being able to do anything for most of the day. If anything territory control and creation will skyrocket as you will be able to use them constantly on the second floor. That and you just need more skills.
You only have six at the moment. Most people cap out their skill slots early on. Even those who n ahead and save some slots in case of something special popping up generally only save a slot or two. Your only problem here is we dont have any list of viable skills you could pick up so I say just let nature take its course.
Doyle sighs, I guess that is true. Though lets look at the avable paths. At the least the axe beak should have added its own path to the list. [System, list my avable paths please].
{Avable Paths: Dungeon Core III 10/100, Vine Warper 0/15, Kin yer 0/100, Voidborn 0/250, Axe Sharpener 0/5, Commanding Subordinates 0/12, Energy Well I 0/3, Vegetation Variety 0/20}
Ally pauses, huh, well you werent wrong. In fact, you could finish two of those with your current point total. Though I dont know if you would want to invest in the bird yet. We dont really know how it will do.
Doyle nods, Going to hold off on that for the moment. Energy well on the other hand is cheap enough I dont mind it even if it isnt the best option. If anything, I want to know what it came from. Plus it might help with my passive world energy generation.
Ally shrugs, possibly. Though I am at a loss for where you would have gotten it as well. For such a cheap path I cant imagine what it is for. The name isnt ominous or anything so it shouldnt be a dangerous path.
With her opinion Doyle goes ahead with purchasing it, [System, put three points into energy well].
{3 points applied to Energy Well I
1/3 - You have earned +5 passive World Energy recharge rate
2/3 - You have earned +5 passive World Energy recharge rate
3/3 - Path Complete, You have earned +10 passive World Energy recharge rate, Sapients near an entrance portal but outside of your dungeon gain a buff to the recharge rate of any energy pools they have}
Ally smacks her fist into an open palm, I get it now! I dont know if you have been paying attention to those outside your dungeon but they have been doing more than just guarding the portal. Those on guard duty have been exercising their skills whenever their pools were full. Being so close to the portal they probably pulled some of the purified power out when gaining the power back. As a big part of your purpose is to put that energy back out in the world, the system must have made the path really cheap for you.
Doyle sighs, I am just happy it limits it to those outside the dungeon.
Allyughs, the system isnt stupid. I bet you get higher versions of it easily enough. The people outside should notice the difference soon enough. A passive recharge bonus is a massive boon to them. Though if you like the people currently in charge out there I advise you hold off on the higher versions. Whatever effect it has at the moment is minor so others wont covet it too much. Boost it up enough and you would call down every nearbymunity on their heads. That is the sort of thing they fight wars over.
Doyle sighs even harder, that just makes me even happier that it only works outside of my dungeon. Now though I need to expand this second floor if I want to get anywhere.
Ally nods, true that. And she goes to her room. Though once there she requests Doyle puts up a couple of screens there for her to watch what is happening in the dungeon. Just basic stuff like the view out the entrance, an overview of the first floor, and the energy count till the next floor.
Finished with Allys requests Doyle gets down to expanding the second floor. With the experience from his first time bursting out of the core room is easy enough. The biggest difference this time is there doesnt seem to be an outside. Rather his influence creates space wholesale. It doesnt cost more to do so but still an odd experience to top off all the rest he had had over thest day.
Now he knew that pushing his influence into the void space would use more but at this point he just wanted something to do. The size of the floor balloons outward until he runs out of spare influence. At that point it drains his world energy but he doesnt have much to do with it yet anyway so he keeps pushing.
Doyle kept up with it well into the next day. The first couple groupse and go but being on the second floor none of this disturbs him. He only slows down when his avable energy gets close to 1000 so he has enough for his first floor to restock itself.
While it distracts Doyle, there is a bit of a kerfuffle going on outside his entrance. While the buff from energy well wasnt noticed right away, it just took one of the guards checking his stats to notice it. Ace, Ruby, and one other member of the founders all stand around the portal to the dungeon.
Ace sighs, So Kelly, youre the researcher of our group. I know you dont have enough information to have a proper opinion yet but I need something to go off of. People will notice. A plus one an hour to mana or qi isnt much but it adds up.
Kelly goes to push up her sses before she remembers that the system had healed her eyes. She sighs and rubs the bridge of her nose instead. You know, I almost miss my sses? I was one of the lucky ones. My vision problems stemmed from actual damage and not just a gic problem or birth defect. Though I have to wonder why those dont count. Probably just a matter of them happening before birth or something arbitrary like that.
Anyway, my one skill gave me some clue as to what happened. Now as I am sure you both know a dungeon is actually a living creature. Specifically the core crystal is a sapient being just as much as you or I. With sapiencees a soul and more importantly for this matter, paths.
She turns to Ruby, With the full clearst night the dungeon should have gained quite a bit, just as your team did. That means path points to spend and our group does something others dont that probably resulted in this change. As we dont have any real fortifications yet our guards on the dungeon have to stand right up close to the portal.
My skill tells me the plus one recharge ratees from a path the dungeon has taken. In other ces from what we know people only get close to the dungeon when they are entering it. I say from what we know because this is a straightforward path to trigger. We havent even been around this dungeon for a full month yet. Now maybe it is only avable to new dungeons but my bet is that out in the universe there are organizations which have built their primary locations around such dungeons.
Ace nods, That would make sense and we have already tested it, the bonus doesnt work inside the dungeon. Now that I know it isnt temporary or with a downside I can make a decision. I am stuck between trying to keep it a secret and only letting those we trust stay by the dungeon. This wouldnt be hard, we would just say something happened and we were worried about a change to the dungeon. Not a lie, I am very much worried about this. The other is to make the area around the portal a giant training field. The more skill levels we can get on our defenders the better. First though let me hear what your opinion on it is? And he gestures towards Ruby for her to speak.
Basic Layout for the Second Floor – Chapter 45
Doyle nods, that is good to know. For the near future, we can easily avoid it. Plus it is cheap enough I can pick it up whenever I need to.
Ally shrugs, dont assume it will stay cheap. It might be one of those paths that scales quickly like the ss paths. Maybe the points needed double every time you take it?
Doyles core shifts back and forth, eh, true enough. It doesnt matter too much at the moment, though. I am still sitting here in the middle of a void that needs filling. Let me run my idea by you.
Ally pauses, I would be morefortable if the portal from thest level didnt dump right out into the core room. Tell me what you n to do and I will weigh in after.
Doyle brightens, So the small rooms tend not to do much in slowing down enemies. This is fine for the first floor, as it is honestly more of a soup kitchen for the town outside at this point. I want my second floor to at least prove more of a barrier to those who can beat the kobold room. Since I have over double the energy limit on this floor as I did thest, I want a couple huge rooms.
Important to this is that the second floor has enough space for it. We had small, medium, andrge rooms so going by that pattern the huge room is 12 small rooms wide. The floor size is 24 to a side which lets me fit two of them perfectly.
Ally raises her hand and Doyle nods at her. She lowers her hand and asks, what about all the extra space you have? I mostly ignored it on the first floor, but you have a sphere of space to use. Other dungeons tend to make floors t because they are building one floor on another. Your dimensional shenanigans makes that not the case for you. Hell, even if you limited it to a 2d ne you still have a circle to work with, not a sphere.
Doyle coughs, well, hmm. I do n to use thatter on. In fact, for the huge rooms I n to have the terrain more hilly than a three meter height would allow. I must admit though that an enormous part of me doing it like this is so I can disy it on an easy-to-understand grid. Also, something I just thought of right this moment! That extra space leaves me room to do non-adventurer rted thingster on. For instance, I can use the edges as a space for people to dig mines into for ore. It also provides ces for me to have a breeding area soter levels dont depend on me spawning stuff. Though now that I think about it, would that work? How would that interact with my point limit?
Ally ps, That is easy enough to answer! Anything native to your dungeon that has levels has to be paid for. From the newborn baby goat to the eldest kobold, you have to pay for them. You dont even get a discount if their level is lower than the floors minimum. Though they do mature to the floors minimum, so thats nice.
Doyle tilts to the side, ah, best used forter levels then. Even with a couple thousand energy to use on the floor, that doesnt leave me space for a kobold vige to feed the floor. Maybe a goat farm. Anyway, I want two huge rooms to the right of my core. That will take up half the floor. Those rooms will be extra hilly and hide a bunch of herbs.
The entrance will be in the upper left like on floor one. To the right of it arge room. Below those along the left side another pair ofrge rooms. Connect the upper one to therge room on the right by way of a medium room. Maybe stretch it a little so it is wider. To the right side of the left tworge rooms add in another really long hallway like from floor one. In fact, add another below that to connect the lowestrge room to the huge rooms on the right.
Though now that I think about it therge rooms are a bit too open in some ways. Mostly in how they let people just walk across them. I can throw some terrain to break up openness a little. The huge rooms will have enough terrain to make up for it. Yeah, that sounds about right. Though I will mention that the long hallways are for the axe beaks before you judge them. Those things seem to like to charge straight towards their enemies and I figure giving them some room to get up to speed isnt a terrible n.
Ally stretches out and squints, hmm, That could work. The tworge rooms would be a marvelous ce to put most of your goats. It would let you have that goat breeding farm you wanted off to the left.
Doyle brightens up, Ooh yes! That works doubly well. The assassin vine kills a horned rabbit every once in a while, but the axe beaks will hunt them more aggressively. Of course I will have the horned rabbits hopping around. Plus the horned lizards. Wait a second. Are these just normal horned lizards? Like, the ones with spiky scales or is it horned as in like my rabbits?
Ally shrugs, I have no clue. My bet would be on the normal one just because reptiles tend to grow in power a lot faster and a horn might put it over the critter limit. Pull up its stats and check what the preview shows.
Doyle nods, thats a good idea. Why try and guess when the answer is literally just a thought away? [System, show me and Ally the preview of the horned lizards].
In front of them both, a window opens up with an image of the lizard and answers their question. It is the boring option, though with a slight twist. The lizard on disy is a ssic horned lizard with its squat round body that has given it the nickname of horned toad.
Different from expected is the size and color. Horned lizards tend to be small, hold in the palm of your hand small. This lizard however is quiterge. In fact, going by the reference it is likely a smidge bigger than the rabbits. As for the color? The main body is still a sandy brown, though maybe darker. The lizards limbs and spikes however shift over to a deep forest green.
Ally tilts her head, it looks odd, but I can see how the color would blend in. The axe beaks description mentioned living in the valleys between mountains. This coloration sort of reminds me of some sparse grass growing on a patch of dirt. Not by much, but likely enough to fool the idiotic axe beaks. For everything else they have those giant spikes of theirs.
Doyle agrees that, yeah, those spikes are big enough to warn off most predators. The axe beaks are probably one of the few that can eat them in their natural habitat. Anyway, before I get too distracted by the lizard, I should start actuallyying out the floor.
Ally nods, true that. I will monitor the first floor in case anything happens.
Doyle sighs, it will probably take me a good long while. I n to make full use of my concept skill.
Ally shrugs, take all the time you need. There isnt really anything else to do. Then she flies back into her room and watches the disys for the first floor.
After Doyle sees her off, he turns back to his second floor. The first thing he focuses on is the skeleton of the floor. He can fill in the detailster but the sooner he has the nk rooms out the sooner he can move the portal out of his core room.
A few hours pass as Doyle creates room after room. The only limit is the speed of his creation skill. This makes it dead obvious when the skill levels up. Once right at the start and a second time bringing it to level 11 when he is almost done.
Besides that, his basic room pattern adds on the huge room. Though unlike with the other patterns, it didnt create another collection under it. Instead, the pattern just removed all mention of room sizes. Doyles best guess is that once he has other room types, they willbine. Still, he was happy with the basicyout of the level.
This seemed like a wonderful break point. So he decides to show off what he has done. Hey Ally, I have the nk rooms all set out. Want to take a look at it?
In her room Ally stretches out and yawns, Sounds like a n. The adventurers have been boring today. No one has even attempted the big goat room. I think the founders out there have gotten more restrictive till they can get some oaths about the energy well stuff.
Doyle sighs, I dont me them. It hasnt even been what, a month, since the whole end of the world thing? Then I go and throw a new curve ball at them.
Ally shrugs, honestly, I am impressed they realized the implications of it right away. Those who havent grown up with the system dont always understand the importance of such things. A single plus one can seem tock luster even at lower levels, but the boost it gives you long term is critical. Especially when you consider that even with nothing fancy, most humans under the system can live to one hundred years old easily. But all that aside, show me what you got!
With a chuckle, Doyle opens up another screen in her room that disys a top-down view of the second floor.
Ally whistles, ooh nice. I can see what you meant with those tworge rooms. With the difficult terrain there you can force adventurers to either go the long way around or tempt fate. I assume those are boulders stacked up? Because that is brilliant! The goats will be able to climb all over it easily, and anyone that wants to shortcut will have to deal with them on their own terrain. And I guess those tunnels off to the left of those rooms lead to the goat farm?
Doyle nods despite Ally not being in the room to see him. Yes, exactly. Also, the two long hallways are for the axe beaks and therge room just before will feed prey to them. By doing it that way and ordering the birds to stay at the far side they should get some training in on charging. And the boulders will provide a ce for the horned lizards to live.
Ally smiles, youre right. I almost forgot about the lizards. Though I do have to ask about that huge room before the core. There isnt anything that would stop people from just following the wall and avoiding whatever is in the room. After you went through the effort to prevent that with therge rooms, I guess you have a n?
Doyle chuckles, Since it worked so well on the first floor, I n to have a koboldmunity there. With the terrain I n to put down, adventurers wont be able to just snipe them and the extra space will let them cause more havoc. It wasnt obvious at first, but believe it or not, kobolds arent the best in a straight up fight. The ones that did the best in thatst fight where the mages because they could stand back. I figure a sizable room will let them really show their worth.@@novelbin@@
Ally traces the outline of the room with her finger. Hmm, that is true for the moment. However, you shouldnt get stuck in that thought process. While the mostmon view of kobolds is sneaky trap makers that isnt the end all be all of their species. They might not be the spawn of dragons, but kobolds have a primal heritage. The fact there arent that many monotremes left around doesnt mean they are weak.
Goat Farm – Chapter 46
Ally turns back to the map, So how do you n to ce your monsters? Oh, and what is the n for separating the goat farm from the main dungeon area?
Doyle highlights the two connecting tunnels from the offscreen goat farm. Notice how the tunnels dont break through to the tworge rooms? One way heavy stone doors go there. I have some ns for that and will use vines on the wall to hide it for the moment, as no one seems to be searching for hidden doors yet. Not that I care too much if adventurers find it, as I n to abuse the fact that my goats are cheap. The goat farm is bigger than a huge room and will be packed with goats.
Though I do n to ce the rest of my monsters first. Dont want to spawn hundreds of goats only to have nothing in the actual dungeon. However, I dont think there is anyone from Earth who can manage a room of that size full of goats. Anyway, that room does double duty. A farm for goats and a defense in case some group decides they want to kill us. Just order the goats out to swarm the enemy.
Ally tilts her head, huh, that is a splendid n. But yeah, get the rest of the monsters down. A final defense isnt very final if you dont have a first defense.
Doyle bobs the screen she is viewing, plus the whole designing the environment thing. At the moment I have the rooms in ce but it is all nk stone walls.
Ally shrugs, fair enough, and she goes back to watching people stumble through the first floor. The town had upped the rate at which people entered the dungeon so she had a lot to watch.
Doyle notices this and nods to himself, that should let me build the floor faster.
Allyughs, true enough. From what I have overheard, they are shoving fresh groups in as soon as thest leaves.
Doyleughs as well and then takes a moment to switch off his mentalmunication with her. He hadnt meant to say thatst bit out loud. Welp, better be careful about talking to myself from now on. That or get rid of my lifelong habit of talking to myself when alone. Anyway, the entrance is an excellent ce to start.
He focuses on the floors entrance and does the first thing thates to mind. Doyle moves the gate from his core room to the entrance. It wouldnt stop anyone from getting to his core, but maybe they would get bored and turn back after all the empty rooms? One can always hope.
With the gate in ce, Doyle sits back and considers the room. I had a very basic room for floor ones entrance. Do I want to do the same thing here? He nces at the old core room through the portal and shakes his core.
No, while I dont think I will have enemies here so people have a chance to rest I wont make it a soft room. In fact, is anyone on the first floor? There is a team but they are about to leave so Doyle leaves a view on them as he waits. The second they leave the dungeon he moves the gate in the old core room.
It had been floating in the center of the room like his core had been. Now it is up against the back wall. The gate still looks like a rough tear in space, but he will have to work on that at night when people arent entering.
What he can work on is the other end of the portal. If carved lines can change the first floors entrance gate, then it can work here as well. This time, he wants to shape it instead of following the natural lines. Doyle starts from the edges of the portal.
At the farthest spatial crack, he strikes a line across it. Then another line across the next. He works his way around the gate. Each line carefully struck. For the first floor a rough hole in reality worked because outside the gate was just floating in the air. Now that he has the portal against a wall, he wants a more door-like opening.
As each line goes in, reality ripples. When he started, each of the lines seemed random, but as more went down they connected. Around the gate he has carved a vaulted doorway into the wall and the cracks pull away from it. Doyleys down thest mark and a thrum spreads out through the fabric of space.
The cracks pull apart and the edge of the gate expands outward to the edges of the carving. Then a grinding sound can be heard from the other side of the portal. Doyle shifts his view to the old core room and is surprised.
He had expected the portals shape to change, but it had gone beyond that. The grinding noise was from the lines he had drawn on the second floor being carved on the first floor. An interesting thing, seeing as he wasn''t supposed to be able to change the first floor when people were in it. In fact, the system noticed this as well.
{System Error: Changes detected on inhabited dungeon floor...
Analyzing error...@@novelbin@@
Source: Conceptual Reinforcement used on dungeon portal
Error elevated to AI support...
System AI has determined no error present
Exception to restrictions on changing inhabited dungeon floor updated for dungeon designated Doyle
New Restriction: Changes to any portal requires all floors connected to said portal be empty first
System AI Decision: Error within allowed margins and no widespread changes needed}
Doyle reads the system message as it updates andughs to himself, fair enough. This probably isnt the first time this has happened. Though maybe the first in this universe.
He can only shrug and move on. There wasnt much left he wanted to do in the room, but it still needed lights. On the first floor he had gone with a single light in big rooms and small lights for the hallways. Maybeter that could be changed, but for now it fits his current nts.
Doyle looks up at the ceiling and ponders on it some. Even if Im not going to change the basic design there I can mess around with it a little. Instead of just cing them on the ceiling, he carves out an inset area. The inset starts as a cylinder about as big around as a human head and it extends upward about a fists width. Above that the radius triples but the inset only goes about a fingers width deeper into the ceiling. Around the edges of that inner area he ces enough lights that it illuminates the room as if it was twilight outside.
The indirect light creates an interesting look in the room below. Doyle doesnt intend for the rest of the floor to be in twilight, but he had wanted to see what it would look like. With the light in ce, Doyle carves out images of clouds on the ceiling. Oncepleted, the scene causes the light from the ceiling to shift and dim randomly as if clouds were passing over.
With the second floor entranceplete, Doyle moves on to therge room it connects to. He didnt want to ruin the twilight of the previous room and takes time to consider what he has to work with. A look over his avable materials when it hits him. Vines are perfect for it. He just has to string them up at the entrance.
Now what to do with the room itself? He doesnt intend to leave any of the other rooms on this floor as bare stone like the entrance. The basic covering of dirt and clover goes down and he stops to ponder the room. In the end he fills the room with boulders, rabbits, and horned lizards. There isnt any particr pattern to it. Doyle figures he will just end up sticking some goats in it. Though as an afterthought he sets a mint nt to grow behind one of the boulders so it isnt visible unless looked for. Not hidden so much as out of the way. Doyle nods and ces one of his light blobs on the ceiling.
The small room between therge room Doyle had justpleted and the next is almost breezed over. He doesnt even n to put monsters in it, so he just throws down the dirt and clover. The only thing different from the others room is he puts the light in the north-west corner.
This brings him to the first split room. First thing he set out to do is improve the boulder blockade. At the moment he had ced down a few to denote where it would go. Now he really piled them on. In some ces the boulders even touch the ceiling three meters up. After he has a good pile of them, Doyle fuses the boulders together. Connected up Doyle is then able to clear out the center. A perfect ce for his lizards to live.
Out in the main area of the room, Doyle throws down the dirt and clover. He even ces patches of it on top of the boulders that were closer to the floor. It looked nice, if not quite natural yet. Then he ps the rooms light in the center over thest boulder. Doyle takes it all in, but it still feels empty and so more mint goes down. The rabbits wouldnt like it, so for them he also ces a sage bush down. Now on the second floor, he doesnt feel the need to be too stingy with the herbs. As ast artistic touch, he crafts the walls to look like fully connected stgmites and stctites, then moves on.
He considers the passage to the goat farm but shrugs. It can wait forter. Instead, he turns to the first hallway. Honestly? There isnt much he can do with it. The entire hallway is just a long runway for his axe beaks to run down. Doyle just coats it in dirt and then clovers. Then the walls are roughed up and he vaults the ceiling, giving it a nice rounded look.
Now though, he goes into the one trick he had thought of for this. With great care, Doyle carves arrows and lines along each wall. Each one blends in with the rough walls so as to not stick out unless looked for. Then with great ir he boldly carves simplistic representations of his axe beaks running at great speed towards where the adventurers would be entering. When finished, the only hint he gets that it might have worked is a slight air flow from one end to the other.
The next room he does take it easy on. Just mirroring therge room to the north. Though he ces the boulders randomly, it ends up looking about the same. Then he repeats hisziness in the hallway thates after it.
Now that those are taken care of, he doubles back. The huge rooms will need a lot of work, so he wants to devote the right amount of time to them. Before that, Doyle decides to finish up the goat farm. The space he has cleared out for it is an enormous half moon room. Of course the floor gets the ssic dirt and clover make over and the ceiling has a basic light blob. To go with that, he ces a number of nts for them to eat. Pepper, wheat, strawberries, mint, rosemary,vender, and peppermint are all ced randomly. He even throws down a couple of olive trees and a lemon tree in case that catches their fancy.
At the center of the room goes a spike of salt to provide a salt lick. Though once he remembers he has salt, Doyle has to go back to the entrance for onest touch. Using the salt like it was ss, he covers the hole to the light, so some idiot doesnt stick his head in the hole or some such.
Levels of Knowledge – Chapter 48
Ally double checks the patterns but can only shrug. Just use creation with the intent of making a tree. You should be able to throw up a good oak or two with no trouble.
Doyle sat still for a moment. Okay. Not much else I can do about it at the moment anyway. Plus creation has a bit of that intent based nonsense going on anyway.
Ready to try, he shifts his view back to thest huge room. No obvious ce to begin, so he starts small. In the area at the bottom of the wooden tform, Doyle focuses and activates creation.
And a tree pops into existence! Not really though, it cant ever be that easy. Doyle thinks to himself. Before him is a block of wood in the shape of a tree. Even the leaves are made of wood. If he had seen something like this on the inte, he would have been impressed by the makers woodworking skill. Since he had created it with no genuine effort it had little value to him, so with a moment of thought he deconstructs it.
Okay, now what did I do wrong? It feels like I am doing this nearly right. I thought of an oak tree and tried to infuse that into my creation skill. What came out was close, oh so close. It wasnt even a copy of the tree I imagined, but an entirely new shape.
Doyle shakes himself and then tries again. He thinks of an oak tree and activates creation. Another wooden tree takes shape and he deconstructs this failure as well. I dont have a bark or leaf material, so what is wrong? Actually, can I make leaves and what not?
A good question, that. To answer it, Doyle tries to create a single leaf. Wait that worked? Why can I make a leaf when doing just that, but my trees have wood for leaves? How about bark? One use of creation to make a section of oak barkter and Doyle is more confused than ever.
Do I have to make my trees bit by bit? That doesnt make sense at all, especially since that would really be a tree. It would be the same sort of thing as when I was fumbling around, coating my walls with a fancy stone facade. Is this another one of those let my instincts do it situations?
He didnt have a better idea at the moment, so that is what he tries to do. It doesnt work. There is progress, though. Instead of a tree made only of wood, he makes one made only of bark. Not really a step forward, but at least a step to the side instead of backwards.
Though since he managed to change the material used, Doyle attempts a tree made of leaves. This works but was more important is a sudden rush of information that flows into his mind. Something had changed and Doyle now knew what he had been doing wrong. First though, he wanted to know where this info came from. Hey Ally, I just had a bunch of info put into my mind. Whats up with that?
Ally raises an eyebrow, congrattions then. What you just experienced is a skill level where you didnt already know everything it offered. If you bring up your character sheet you probably hit some milestone. In fact, why dont you bring up your skill list so we can check how you have been advancing since you started making the second floor?
Doyle groans, I forgot that skills would give an info dump. But yeah, lets [see how I have done with my skills].
{Skills: Territory Control lv10 > 15, Dungeon Rules lv9 > 13, Universal Deconstruction lv8, Dungeon Pattern Database lv15, Creation(Energy Powered, Pattern Based) lv11 > 20, Conceptual Reinforcement lv2 > 12}
Ally taps the projected screen. Yep, right there. Your creation skill hit level twenty. The rest of the skills have been leveling, but besides conceptual reinforcement it advanced the most. My bet is whatever you were trying to do was beyond your skill, but you were going in the right direction. That always helps with leveling a skill. What did it teach you anyway? You were just trying to make a tree, right?
Yep, just trees, Doyle sighs. Apparently living creations actually need special handling. Monsters I got by making because of the shortcut that the database is. Since I dont have a temte for an oak tree that doesnt fly. The trick is simple enough though. I just have to imagine the living creation growing up. With an oak tree that means starting with an acorn.
Not that when I create it, the thing goes through growing up. Apparently by doing it mentally, I can skip that step. When I make stuff from a temte, it runs a simtion of growth near instantly. With trees I dont get that so it will probably take a few minutes to create one just because of the detail I need to go into.
Ally bites her thumb. Hmm, that is annoying. Do you think you will get a tree temte from this at least?
Doyle scoffs, as if it was that easy. Even after I create the tree it isnt really a tree. You can think of it as more of a living sculpture. If a limb gets knocked off, or the leaves burned off, the missing bits will grow back. Actually, this is a pleasant thing for me. Even if a tree gets destroyed, as long as there is a single bit of root still stuck in the ground, it will grow back. Not having to worry about regrowing a forest if someone gets a little too loose with their fireballs will definitely help.
They arent trees though. My oaks will never grow a single acorn. Extra branches wont grow. In fact, even if I put in seasons, the leaves wont turn brown ande off when it gets cold. To get a tree pattern I would need to deconstruct an actual tree.
I cant even abuse this to spawn animals I dont have a pattern for. Sure, I could create the body of a cat, but it would soon die. The brain wont ever fire off a single neuron, even if I include that as a starting state in my mental model. Quite annoying.
Allyughs at thest bit. Deconstructing things likely does more than just take it apart. Youll just have to level it up and find out!
Doyle sighs and rolls back his core. Always more grinding to do. Though I should get back to my tree nting.
Ally nods, sounds like a n. We are about halfway through the day after you started on the floor and I bet those founders will find out soon enough. If I was them, I would send apetent group to check on what we have been up to.
Doyle shifts around for a moment, then settles down. I dont like the idea of someone who can make it through my kobolds getting into my second floor when there is nothing there. Not that I can do much about it, so back to the grindstone with me. Be back around if something else stumps me.
With his answer Doyle heads back to the huge room to popte it with trees. The recent knowledge from his skill allows him to not only ce trees but have more control over it. While his previous attempts technically made a tree, those trees had varied by quite a lot. Now with Doyle imagining the trees growth from seed, theye out exactly how he wants. His mind isnt quite at the level of imagining it down to every single leaf. But the branches are all where he wants them if he bothers to be that specific.
He even has a n for how to ce the trees. The wood tform is high enough that an inventive adventurer could skip the room. To prevent that, Doyle covers an eight by eight square with densely ced trees that reach the ceiling. With that area covering the tunnel to the core room, even someone with the ability to fly would have an arduous time.
For the rest of the room, however, Doyle goes with much shorter trees ced sparsely around. While he could have kept the heavy tree cover there was another purpose for this area. He wanted the adventurers to see the cliff that separates the room as well as the rtive bounty of herbs he ns to ce up there.
Though thinking of it reminds him to actually do so. First thing is to remove a few trees from the teau, and in their ce Doyle makes four olive trees and a lemon tree. The two olive trees in the previous room are nice, but he wants to provide a bit more for those outside. After that Doyle isnt too sure what to ce. Eventually he gives up trying to figure it out and decides to try something else more inventive.
[Dungeon rule, store the following list of nts. Sage, pepper, mint, tea, peppermint, strawberry, and wheat. Popte the teau with from four to ten nts, one of which must be within sight of the wood tform and the rest out of sight. For each nt to be ced randomly select which one from the stored list. Prevent more than half the nts to be of a single type.]
The rule in ce a handful of nts pop up all over the teau including a small plot of wheat. It seems that when he was making the list, his concept of what the wheat should be had transferred over.
Well, that is convenient enough. I hadnt thought of it, but a single stalk of wheat would not have been that useful. With the rule in ce and the forest grown, I should be able to start cing my monsters. Though I feel like I am forgetting something. Wait, I didnt carve anything in either of the huge rooms!
That just will not do. Though speaking of the skill, so far on the second floor I have strayed from what the skill is best at. Conceptual reinforcement is meant to reinforce what already exists. However, so far I have used it to change the shape of a door and speed up some birds. Now how to use it?
Doyle looks through the two huge rooms and stacks his stone cubes absentmindedly. I think I have it for the huge ramp room. I ced those boulders to hide my monsters behind and I can take it a step further with this.@@novelbin@@
The first thing he does to the boulders isnt actually carving them. Instead, Doyle creates a depression in the back of the boulders. This would provide a space for his monsters to hide without any fancy skill being needed. Now though, he is ready to carve.
First, he begins with a stroke down each side of a boulder and another across the top to create a rectangr space. Within that space Doyle carves out a scene, one he had doodled many times before back in school. The illusion of a 3d space, a room extending back into the boulder. Within this room he scratches out shading to make it appear as if in deep shadows. A simple picture, yes, but it got the point across that he wanted. More space for his monsters to hide in, which was in a deeper shadow than would be possible otherwise.
As Doyle draws back from the work, he can see the shadows darken and the cubby deepens. Honestly? He wasnt expecting it to work that well. He had just wanted space to provide a better hiding ce in general without actual physical changes. Not that Doyle was going toin. Though it made applying it to some of the other boulders much more important.
In the end Doyle applied this change to three other boulders spread out along both ridges. While he could have done it to all the boulders, he felt it was better to space them out so as to surprise others. Though speaking of surprise he adds onest trick. A simple dungeon rule that moves the boulders around so adventurers can never be sure which could hide more than it should.
Eternal Hivemind – Chapter 51
They both stare at his paths for a moment more and then Doyle asks, so any opinions on this? I have 51 points to spend.
Ally stretches out before looking back at the list. Hmm, your ss path is never a terrible choice. The cost skyrockets crazy quick of course, but the bonusese often and fit what your corepetency is. If anything ten or so points into it so you can start on it wouldnt be out of ce. At this point you likely arent going almost 100 points lying around. The fact you hit fifty is only because you did the entire floor all at once.
Doyle rolls back and forth as he thinks on it. Eugh, this is one of those things where there is never enough. Though ten points into DC three wouldnt be too restrictive. Especially if it is going to keep giving me bonuses every couple points.
Ally shakes her head, not quite that easy. You get the bonuses at breakpoints equal to whatever number follows the path. So with your next ss path being dungeon core three, you get stuff every third point. Total points mind you so at 12, not 13. Also, you always get apletion bonus so you do get something at 100.
Doyle nods his core, fair enough. Though knowing that I will put 11 points in because one more point hits a breakpoint. Besides that, themand path seems good either way it goes. Commanding Subordinates could either mean my kobolds get something for being inmand of the goats or I get a bonus for giving my monstersmands. And to be honest? I would prefer that first one because the goats themselves already have a bonus so stacking that wouldnt be out of ce.
Ally tilts her head to the side, wait, your goats get a bonus from the kobolds? I dont remember that.
Doyle nods again, yeah. Got it as part of the capstone bonus for goat supremacy. They get a bonus to agility if beingmanded by another. Excellent bonus too when ites to my kobolds because it adds half the kobolds wisdom. That means that all those goatherds on the second floor almost doubles their charges agility from six to ten. I figure the chance that my kobolds can buff them even more is worth the twelve points in it.
Huh, Ally takes a look at therge number of goats on the second floor. I can see that being quite the boost. That bonuspletely slipped my mind there and with it even the unarmored goats will be a threat if not handled carefully.
Doyleughs, thats an understatement. But yeah, after those 23 points I still have 28 to spend. Though I guess we can knock that down by 15 because the ants thing is also a reasonable gamble. After that though I have 13 points and none of the low-cost paths really attract my attention at the moment.
Ally shrugs, well, the three points you can just throw right into your ss path. For the ten remaining you probably should choose between expansionist and the veggy one. Though I would like to hear why you are skipping the biomes aplenty path.
Doyle takes a moment to get his thoughts in order but cante up with anything. I dont have a specific reason? I could waffle on about how this early in I dont want to mix it up too much. But already on the second floor I have introduced a forest area. The path didnte from nowhere after all. This morees down to a gut feeling than anything else I guess.
Ally waves her handzily in the air, good enough for me. Sometimes the best path is the one yourefortable with. Paths are a very personal experience and enough people have ended up in a critical situation after not following a hunch on what to do. Of course if there is a good reason to do something dont just let a nebulous desire get in the way but we dont really have anything else going on at the moment. We can let the situation develop some and see what happens. Now how about we spend those points?
Doyle sighs, well if I am going to be following gut feelings I guess that means throwing the points into the veg path. Not only does it feel right, but honestly? I dont really need all that much more space for the moment. Plus feeding the masses is like my day job, so there is that. [System, how about 14 points into Dungeon Core three, 12 points to Commanding Subordinates, 15 in Ageless Queens, and ten points for Vegetation Variety.]
{14 points applied to Dungeon Core III path...
12/100 - You have earned +1 Intelligence, +1 Wisdom, +1 Presence
15/100 - You have earned +1 Intelligence, +1 Wisdom, +1 Presence
18/100 - You have earned +3 Stat Points
21/100 - You have earned +1 Stat/Level of your choice
24/100 - You have earned +1 Destiny, +1 Karma, +1 Luck
12 points applied to Commanding Subordinates...
3/12 - You have earned +1 Wisdom/Level
6/12 - You have earned +3 Karma, Correction applied to your monsters understanding of your orders
9/12 - You have earned +1 Intelligence/Level
12/12 - Pathplete, You have earned +1 Karma/Level, Monsters capable ofmanding others receive: +3 Karma, +3 Wisdom, and +1 Intelligence/Level; Monsters beingmanded by other receive +1 to all stats and an additional bonus to their highest stat equal to a third of whichever is higher of theirmanders Wisdom or Karma capped to to their base stats total
15 points applied to Ageless Queens...
5/15 - You have earned +1 Destiny/Level, One ant queen of choice no longer has a max lifespan
10/15 - You have earned +1 Destiny/Level, One ant queen on each floor will be mentally joined to the previously chosen queen to form a true hivemind, Previously chosen queen receives +1 to their currently lowest mental stat for each other queen in the hivemind
15/15 - Pathplete, You have earned +1 Destiny/Level, The ageless ant queen has an adjusted chance to be a roaming boss which increases with age and other queens in the hivemind
10 points applied to Vegetation Variety...
1/20 - Normal edible nts now have a chance to grow randomly in your dungeon
3/20 - nts in your dungeon that go without being harvest can now go to seed
6/20 - nt based monsters now automatically change to match their surroundings
10/20 - You have earned +5 Constitution, Higher chance of gaining nt patterns from their derivatives}
It takes the both of them a good bit of time to process what it all did, especially that second one. Doyle finishes some mental math and pretends to whistle, manding subordinates was well worth the points. Like crazy worth the points. Not only did it give me stats per level but the swing on my goats is amazing. Just the bonus to the kobolds wisdom boosted the goats agility bonus by one but the across the board plus one and an additional four to con is amazing. Thats a 11 point improvement!
Ally shakes her head, that is so powerful, though you have to be careful. All of those stat bonusese from the goats being ordered around by the kobolds. It wont take long for the adventurers who make it to the second floor to start targeting them down. I am more impressed by that per a level bonus stat you get to choose in your ss path. Bonus points arent that rare. Youve gotten a few of them already. This is different though. Not unheard of, but even the people who get the choice generally have a limited selection such as only body stats or only finesse stats. What do you figure would be best to put it in?
Doyles core dims, If I hadnt gotten that plus five to my con I might have put it there but as it is destiny is interesting. The ant path gave me plus three a level for the entire thing. [System, give me destinys description please.]@@novelbin@@
{Destiny: The power of ones soul. The System restricts info on this stat for those with a soul stat total less than 1000. Those with a greater destiny have an easier time advancing. This takes on an even greater meaning for dungeons. Like and with a great destiny will more easily develop heros, destiny will allow a dungeons monsters to more easily develop beyond their starting point.}
Doyle brightens right up after reading the description. Well I can see why the ageless queens path would give me destiny per level. Though I dont think I want to put my free per a level into it since I already have three. I will however put the three regr stat points there. [System, ce my three stat points into destiny please.] It seems like one of those good in the long run stats but a few extras early on wont hurt.
Now for the free per a level bonus there are really only two stats to choose from, strength and luck. Mostly because they are the only stats I dont have a per a level bonus for yet. I already know what strength does for me, but I havent looked at luck. [System, show me the description for luck please.]
{Luck: A souls specialty is connections. The System restricts info on this stat for those with a soul stat total less than 1000. Even reality itself will bend for those connected to it but what about a dungeon who is their own reality? Dungeons must put up with invaders with luck stats of their own, and the best counter is their own luck.}
Huh, Doyle tilts to the side. Well I guess that decides it. [System, put my free stat per a level into luck please.
Ally nods, most definitely. You can improve your strengthter. There wont be ater if some lucky viines along wanting to kill you.
Doyle sighs, it makes me want to take back all the free points I have used so far and put them in luck. Chance is a nasty thing when your opponents stack it against you. Though thinking about the ant path, that brings one bit of that to mind. What is up with the roaming boss thing?
Ally with a wide smile exins that, it is a powerful tool! First, as with a normal floor bound boss, they are sapient. More important though is that unlike every other monster they can travel between floors. That has a couple of special circumstances attached to it. You can move the boss to your lowest floor and level it up there. Then move your now max level boss to an earlier floor to take care of any pests.
Not advisable to be too obvious about that one mind you. People tend to get jumpy if they realize you can have a level 100 boss on the first floor. Beyond that though you might wonder which floor has to pay for the bosses upkeep? The answer is none of them! They can be very expensive to respawn but you can bnce that out by not letting them die.
Also one little twist to the ant queen you choose as the prime queen. Even if the ant isnt technically able to order other monsters around like a kobold can, it does technically give orders to the other ants and so qualifies for themander bonus. Sadly the system doesnt count that as being given orders for some reason and so wont get the across the board bonus of beingmanded.
I am looking forward to getting ant based monsters. A nest of them on each floor being controlled by a central intelligence will be amazing. In fact, depending on what future paths you get for ants, they might overtake your goats. Only your kobolds might have a chance of keeping up if you guide them down the path of intelligence. Though that reminds me, make sure your kobolds have a leader so they can get the extra stats from beingmanded by others.
Commanding Limits – Chapter 52
Doyleughs at her suggestion, I guess having that leader on the first floor is panning out! Though I assume the monsters beingmanded by someone has to be close enough to get orders. Otherwise I could just say that a single kobold hid away in a cubby somewhere was the leader so the rest of the monsters have a perma boost.
Ally shrugs, There should be some sort of limit to it and not just the monsters being ordered around. Otherwise you could just give that hidden kobold a radio or some equivalent and be done with it. Likelymands structures cant pass through floors and you might even need them to be within a certain number of rooms of one another. Easy enough to test of course. Just position your goats and kobolds around on the second floor so you can test it.
Doyle nods, that is a good idea and there isnt anything else too pressing. Lets give it a shot right now. Though I dont need to go too overboard. I can start with the forest room and work my way out. First though, I need to set up the first floor leader. [First floor kobold leader, youre in charge of the others in the room before yours. Now system, show me the stats for the kobold healer before and after that change.]
{Male Kobold: S[4 > 5] A[8 > 9] C[4 > 5] I[6 > 7] W[10 > 14] P[6 > 7]}
Good, it works for that. Also, it looks like it goes off of the adjusted stats, maybe? The healer there gained four to wisdom, which is the general boost of one plus the specialty boost. A plus three means that it counts the kobold leader as having either nine or ten wisdom. That would include the plus three from being a monster capable ofmanding others. How does that work Ally?@@novelbin@@
Ally ps, a good question and I dont even have to cheat by reading off of a tutorial screen! Your base stat score is equal to all your permanent bonuses. A bonus from being under someonesmand doesnt count because you lose it if they die or stop being inmand. On the other hand, your path is a permanent part of you and a kobold wont suddenly be unable to order others around so that plus three cant go away. There are a lot of other things that go into it, but we arent likely to be bothered by it. After all, if a kobold was cursed to lose their mind we dont need to mind that it loses the plus three because you can just spawn another.
Huh, Doyle mutters almost as if to himself, that does make sense. Though I do have to wonder about the systems order of operations for that kind of thing. Then he chuckles, Well, not that it matters! Lets get down to some science! Maybe with double exmation marks bracketing it.
[System, wait until I finish speaking beforepiling all the answers at the end. Healer kobold in the forest room, you havemand of all the other kobolds in there with you. Did the goats in the forest room have any stats change? Same kobold, youre now in charge of the kobolds in the ramp room. Did those kobolds have any changes happen? Goatherd kobold in the secondrge room, move to the ramp room with your flock and once you arrive you no longer have control of the goats. Once the goatherd is there, healer kobold, you havemand of her and her goats. Did the goats experience a change when the healer took charge. Now goatherd kobold and goats, move through the rooms away from the forest room and stop for a moment in each one. For each time they stop did their stats experience a change? Finally, goatherd, you have control of the goats again, go back to your original room.]
{The goats did not change, The kobolds changed, The goats did not change, The goats experienced no change in any of the rooms, and The kobolds experienced a change during the first stop.}
Doyle is quiet while he parses the results while Ally flies out into the core room. Once there she smacks him, dont do that! While what you just did was simple enough the system can be quite literal and chainingmands like that can cause problems. More than enough people have tried to program the system to do things for them and after a certain point it never turns out well for them.
Doyle shifts his core back and dims, I could see how that could cause problems. Though I wont avoid doing so if it seems like the best option. Having to micromanage those goats and kobolds around to do that would have been annoying. That and we got exactly the information I need to know from it!
First, if kobold A is in charge of kobold B who is in charge of others the others still get the same boost. Second, while I am not too sure, it seems that those who can give orders can themselves take orders from a room next to them. Everything else can only take orders from the room they are in. Lastly, if monsters move around, they can leave the influence of theirmander.
Ally bites her thumbs, well I guess as long as you dont abuse it. Plus the system is slightly more lenient on newly integrated worlds, but still! Keep it under control. Besides that, I think your second guess isnt quite correct. My bet would be that it has to do withmanding their own species aspared to another.
This sort of thing can be seen in armies all the time. A human with amand skill will always be able to give bonuses to other humans at a further distance than to, for instance, dwarves. Though we wont likely have to face anything like that. Those kinds of skills tend to be more geared towards massbat. Also, be careful about thinking in terms of rooms. While it breaks down to that right now,ter on if you have more open floors you might find the effects be radius based.
Doyle tilts to the side, wait, it actually does go room by room?
Ally nods, yep! One of those strange things thates from all those special energies being based on intent and sapient observation. There is no good reason a spell would spread to cover exactly a room, but they do. Only once you get to the point that a ce bes less of a room and more of an area do spells start to have a more uniform spread. Helpful for security spells though, as it makes setting their boundaries a lot easier.
Doyle sighs, and I bet a huge room is just about the edge of what would be considered a room.
Ally shrugs, maybe? Since humans are the main species on the that is probably true, though making that assumption isnt always a good idea. For instance, more than one group of humans have been taken by surprise when a giants spell covers an entire room despite it being much bigger than how they defined a room.
Doyle nods, got it. Magic is wibbly wobbly and what I might consider big isnt what someone bigger than me would. Now for an even more important question! How are your path pointsing along?
Ally squints, hmm, not much should have happened? I havent really been doing anything recently to grow my skills.
Doyle wobbles around andughs, you might have forgotten but you dont exactly have all that high of a level in your skills. In fact, most of what you have been doing is teaching me things and that is one of your skills, isnt it?
Allys eyes go wide, Ipletely forgot I got reset! Now I still havent done all that much, but at least some of my skills will have gotten a nice boost. [System, show us my status and paths.]
{Name: Ally Huxley
Race: Autumn Court Dungeon Fae
Soulbond: Doyle Huxley
Paths: [41] Dungeon Companion I 10/10, Fae Magic I 10/10, Autumns Jester 3/100
Level: 10
S[12] A[9] C[12] I[15] W[7] P[9] D[9] K[20] L[12]
Skills: Tutor lv14 > 21, Fae mor lv13, Courtly Manners lv3 > 5, Telepathy lv3 > 15, Soul Sight lv1 > 11}
{Points: 41
ss: True Dungeon Companion I 1/1
Completed: Fae Magic I 10/10
Started [2/3]: Autumns Jester 3/100, Dungeon Fae Legacy I 1/120
Avable: True Dungeon Companion II 1/10, Royal Tutor 0/25, Fae Magic II 0/50, Scryer 0/10, Hidden Advisor 0/15, Fount of Knowledge 0/30, Soul Chanter 0/100}
Ally floats there stunned for a moment. Well, that is more than I expected. Though I guess telepathy was a given since that is the only way I talk anymore. I dont much like those paths though. They are all about being some secretive informer. I even have the Scryer path! Not that it will stop me from taking said path. Not the mostmon but generic enough that I know some of what to expect from it.
Doyle shrugs, soul chanter sounds fun at least. I wonder if it means you can talk directly to souls or you get some form of soul based magic?
Ally scoffs, there isnt any soul based magic. Some things like my soul sight skill gives you the ability to observe them. But overall any form of mucking about with them is rare enough the system might not even have more than a handful of skills for it. More likely soul chanter has something to do with allowing people to pass on peacefully. This is a dungeon after all and people tend not to be dying of old age in their sleep.
Doyle nods, we havent really had all that many deaths yet so I doubt that but anything is possible I guess. Anyway, do you have a n for what to pick yet? You arent exactly gaining levels at the moment
Ally nces over the list of avable paths again. Nothing really calls out to me except that legacy path I gotst time. I dont want to just throw all my points into it though. So I am thinking of upping my ss, getting scryer, and only then dumping the rest of the points into my legacy.
Doyle lifts up one of his stone blocks and shapes it into a hand. This takes a moment to do and Ally just floats there and does a slow blink before asking, and what pray tell are you doing?
He waves the stone hand around then lifts and lowers, eh, just raising my hand to ask a question.
Ally stares at him a moment more, okay, change the question. Why are you doing that?
Doyleughs, well I wanted to ask why you werent going to do anything with autumns jester and felt like being a bit of a jester myself.
Ally rubs the bridge of her nose while squeezing her eyes shut, euugh, fine, sure. Perfectly normal way to ask a question.
Doyleughs some more and nods, but of course it is! Every kid that went to school in my country would be familiar with raising ones hand to ask a question. How else are you supposed to get the teacher''s attention without interrupting them?
Shaking her head Ally sighs, well ignoring the local customs how about I answer your original question? Though it isnt so much that I am trying to avoid autumns jester as it is I somewhat know what it has for me. I dont need it at the moment so it can safely be put off. As for the path itself? The word autumn in it refers not specifically to the season but rather the idea behind the season and even more specifically to the way the fae courts connect to it.
She pauses but then continues, my connection to the fae court of autumn is special. I dont want to deepen that connection again until we have more power. There is more to it but I would like it if you dont dig too deep into it until I am ready to talk more about it.
They Noticed – Chapter 53
They both sit there in silence for a moment. Then Ally ps her hands, enough of that! I have some paths to invest in! [System, put nine points into true dungeonpanion two, ten points into scryer, and 22 into dungeon fae legacy.]
{9 points applied to True Dungeon Companion II...
5/10 - You have earned +3 to each soul stat and +1/Level to each soul stat
10/10 - Pathplete, You have earned +2 Intelligence, +1 to each soul stat, and +1 Constitution/Level; Gained Soul Form skill
10 points applied to Scryer...
1/10 - You have earned +1 Wisdom and Presence
3/10 - You have earned +1 Wisdom/Level and +1 Presence/Level
6/10 - You have earned +5 Presence and your minds eye can be jolted once upon request
10/10 - You have earned +2 Presence/Level and gained the skill Scry I at level 0
22 points applied to Dungeon Fae Legacy I...
20/120 - Fae Magic I path overwritten by Primal Magic I path, Fae mor lv13 skill overwritten by the skill Primal mor lv2}
They both look over the results and Doyle is the first to speak up. So whats this about paths being permanent?
Ally lets out an awkwardugh and exins that, no matter what rules the system might have it isnt the end all be all. So while I said you couldnt lose a path, like most absolutes that isnt entirely true. In this specific example, my legacy path overwrote the fae magic I use with primal magic.
That doesnt happen in most cases because magic paths tend to stack on top of one another. You get the magic paths for fire, water, earth, and wind. Then you can get an elementalist path. It doesnt rece any of the four paths leading up to it. If you had the skill fireball, you would still have it afterwards. This shifted everything rted to my fae magic into primal magic.
More interesting though is the fact that primal mor has a lower level. Much moremon of an urrence, but oh so handy. You mostmonly see it with martial arts skills. Someone will gain a bunch ofponent skills and thenbine them into a single skill to represent their style ofbat. If I had known this was going to happen, I would have grinded my mor more because with the level resetes easier leveling.
Doyle nods, fair enough. Though it looks like the legacy will be a bit of a point sink as you only got a bonus at 20. Also what is with the six of ten scry thing?
Ally nces back over the system message, ah, you mean the minds eye thing? That is a bit of a misnomer, to be honest. Should probably be called the souls eye, but once a name sticks, it can be hard to change. Anyway, you know how I have soul sight as a skill? Well, all that represents is my physical eyes being able to see souls and doesnt have anything to do with my soul.
The minds eye represents when you have connected a special part of your soul to your mind. This does a few things but the primary purpose is to keep an eye on your own mental health. While meditation and introspection can help you monitor it, there is a reason a good therapist is so sought after in the wider universe. When a being can have the power to destroy a on a whim, keeping them stable is an important task. Not that they are inherently unstable or anything, but they do tend to live long enough to gain some baggage.
Of course that isnt why scryer gives the reward it does. Instead, thates from one of the secondary benefits. When you use scrying, a lot of information gets dumped into your mind. For most people what this means is they get a scene like watching a tv and a headache to end all headaches. Opening the minds eye, as it is called, allows a scryer to offload the initial load onto the soul. This allows the person in question to examine what they are looking at as if they were there in person as the soul filters out what cant be experienced.
Now because it deals with the soul, the system isnt quite able to do it for you. Like how it couldnt connect our souls, it cant connect my soul with my mind. Instead, what it can do is send a jolt into my soul at the specific site I need to connect to my mind. Very important because the soul tends to shift around so connecting it up would normally require years, decades, maybe even centuries of soul searching.
A lot easier to find it when the ce is smarting from the system poking it. Though I think I will wait until my soul stats are all over twenty. That isnt some watershed mark or anything, but a soul tends to stabilize when your stats are in the 15 to 18 range. Sort of like puberty for the soul. It isnt finished growing, but that is when it matures the most and separates your current life from any previous ones.
Doyle rolls to the side and his core dims for a moment. Huh, that is interesting. Maybe I should try and get my destiny two more points because otherwise the rest are there.
Allyughs, it isnt really important for most things. It will just make dealing with the minds eye easier.
She is about to say more, but Doyle suddenly smacks one of his stone cubes against another. I got it!
Ally raises an eyebrow, what do you get?
Doyles core pulses and heughs, I get why it is called the minds eye! Or more properly minds eye without an apostrophe. It isnt saying that it is an eye belonging to the mind. Rather it is you keeping an eye on your mind.
Ally sits on her bed stunned for a moment, huh, that almost sounds sensible. Still a stupid name, but if that is true it isnt as nonsensical as I thought.
This minor revtion is enough to knock the conversation off track. The two of them start down the road of talking about words, trantions, and how in the world the system manages it in the first ce.
While that is happening Ace is getting some annoying news outside and he is not happy about it. What do you mean the kobolds are cleverer?
The leader of one of the morepetent teams shrugs, We took a quick look into the kobold room after snaffling up all the berries and honey.
Ace raises an eyebrow, and by a quick look you mean trying to beat the floor because you dont want to fall too far behind us founders?
The guy smiles, yep, that exactly! Unlike most times we try them, it was odd. Youve been there so you know the usual flow. The team enters and that has the melee bolds charging on up. If my team had any sneaky types that would let us send them around to paint a few red smiles for the caster bolds in back.
Ace nods in confirmation and gestures for him to continue.
Well, that didnt happen today! Those melee types stayed back and the group actually used the terrain to screen my ranged dps guy. We just turned around at that sight and got out of dodge. Real strange, that.
Ace sighs and waves him away, Thanks for the report. I am sure your team has already started their fun. Go on and join them.
Once the man has left Ace turns back to the small council of people. Only two other founders are there at the time. Kelly to report on some minutia her research had discovered. Jeremy because it was a wonderful excuse to be away from the fields while his wife goes crazy on them. He looks at Kelly. So, your opinion on this development?
Kelly looks down at the construction paper she had written out her notes on and sighs. She puts them back in a beat up suitcase with a forced lock, then looks back up at him. You do need to listen to my discoveries at some point. Oh well, guess I should help you decipher your pet dungeons recent vagaries.
She pulls out an actual piece of paper from the suitcase and takes a minute to read it over. The other people wait patiently as she refreshes her memory. She shakes her head and scribbles a few more notes onto the paper, then puts it away again. There are two possibilities. The most likely one is that the dungeon leveled up. While the limits arent proven, most people believe that dungeon monsters are limited by the cores level. With levelse stats such as more wisdom to make ns.
At this point one of the listeners interrupts, Wait a second! You mean to tell me that our teams have been having trouble with level one mobs?
A re from Kelly shuts him up, though she does answer his question. Yes. We have been fighting level one monsters but you need some context for that. Levels mean a lot less for monsters unless they are sapient because they dont get paths. Dungeons mess with this as some seem to provide a boost but that isnt important.
Whether we are fighting level one, level ten, or level 100 monsters. Them getting smarter depends on the dungeon itself improving in some manner. However, as I said, there were two things this could be. Though the second one is a bit wild and I dont want any of you to spread this. In fact, Ace, you should send away those you dont trust or we should wait.
Ace rubs his eyes and sighs, now everyone is going to wonder about what your guess is. Is it really that important that the others dont know about it in spite of the rampant rumor mongering that will go on about it? Kelly simply nods in response so he rolls his eyes and gestures for the others to leave.@@novelbin@@
Once everyone besides Ace and Jeremy have left Kelly sighs, the core might be awake.
Ace stares at Kelly waiting for her to continue and when she doesnt he res at her, is that all? I dont see why I had to send the others away for that.
He is about to go on but Jeremy interrupts him byughing. Well, that is a jolly good time! Ace, you need to calm down. If what she just dropped on us is true, then we really dont want the others to know about it.
Ace shakes his head, why does it matter if the dungeon is awake? All dungeons are sapient already. Whether it has an ego to go with, it shouldnt change much at this stage of development.
Kelly sighs, it is exactly because the dungeon is this early in development. We arent dealing with a newly born core if it is awake. The dungeon might be new but the mind behind it isnt. This is one of the least likely options. It would require a lot of work on the systems part and I got the feeling that it doesnt do that whenever possible.
Ace rubs the bridge of his nose and scrunches his eyes closed. I do not want system nonsense in the center of the settlement.
Jeremy shakes his head, with that effect from the dungeon, you know which one, we dont really have a choice. Either hold it or die because no one would let us live with that knowledge.
Ace throws his hands up, Fine, we are between a rock and a hard ce already. I just didnt want to add something pointy to the mix as well. Kelly, please tell me there isnt anything else?
Kelly nces away from his gaze. He squints his eyes, Kelly?
She purses her lips and then sighs, whatever else has happened the dungeon should now have a second floor. My bet is that it finished it which led to the first floor improving.
Ace looks like he is about to copse when amotion attracts their attention towards the edge of theirnd.
The Start of Ace’s Dive – Chapter 56
Ace lets out a long-suffering sigh and shakes his head at Kellingers answer. Whatever, as long as your secrets arent a threat to our settlement. Anyway, I see one of the toadies that popped up like toadstools after we settled down. Likely they want my opinion on some unnecessary nonsense. Gods, I hope they all leave. I know some amount of paperwork is needed to keep a ce like this running but they take it too far and want me to praise them for it.
Far as I am concerned the settlement can run on two rules that I read in a book once. If it harms none, then do it. You must act to protect the weak from the strong. Bam! There are the rules. Want more titudes from me? I got an important one that so many people dont seem to realize, though it fits under the other two. Your freedom only extends as far as to not affect others. Now time to skedaddle before they catch me. Come on team, in we go. And Ace grabs Jacks arm then pulls him through the portal. The two are soon followed by the rest of the team as the sycophant spots them and looks just a little too happy to have found most of the founders in one ce.
Once inside the dungeon Ace stretches out andughs. Goddess bless, I have been under way too much stress as ofte. Now Ruby, Jeremy, and Jack have all been through this first floor so they can guide us through it. Pay attention to the kobolds, though. I want to know how much trickier they have gotten.
Ruby nods, The first floor shouldnt be a problem for us. Youre a decent nature-based melee mage so the vine room wont cause a problem. Though we dont have a designated tank at the moment which might be bad on the second floor if it exists.
She turns to Bill and Tess who are in a world of their own and she sighs. Hey lovebirds, can either of you work as a tank? Jack is too offensive focused to do it.
Bill shrugs, either of us can do it though my cute little sugar puff here is better at it.
Tess shakes her head, no you silly! For this sort of thing, youre the better choice. My staff is the best defensively one on one but there are multiple enemies in here. Your clubs will let you block more effectively even if it doesnt have the range.
Bill is about to disagree and praise Tess some more when Ace interrupts. Got it, Tess you lead us into rooms and once the fight starts switch out with Bill. With all the goats being able to stop their charge at a greater range is preferred.
Ruby shakes her head. More than enough meetings had gotten thrown off by the couple until Ace had realized the first thing both talk about is the most important bits. Another shake of her head and she ps her hands. Okay people, time to get a move on!
The team then proceeds to steam roll through most of the first floor. The kobolds in the vine room even try to run away from them. Ace puts a stop to this as he dashes forward and ps the two of them back towards the group. They try to stop themselves by grabbing onto some vines, but that proves to be the wrong decision. With a sh of green light, the curse Ace had ced on them when he pped them goes off. All the surrounding vines animate and tie up the kobolds, ending the fight.
Ace groans, well I guess they are a good bit smarter. I bet they could tell that we outssed them and the duo wanted to retreat to the kobold room.
After that, the group only stops when they reach the berry room. Even that is just so Jeremy can harvest everything. Room stripped bare, the group gathers up and readies for thest major fight of the floor.
Ruby scratches out an outline of thest two rooms in the dirt. From what thest group has told us the number of monsters hasnt changed. There is still a goat, a trio of melee kobolds, and two casters. A healer and an ice caster. Last time I was through here the melee advanced forward. This lets the more stealthy types sneak around the side and gank the supports.
Be prepared for this but that pattern has apparently changed now. They might send the goat forward, but otherwise the melee stays back to defend their mages. That means the ice caster can attack us while they all get to chill behind cover. I can counter the magic, but that leaves us at a stalemate.
Jack, I want you to charge forward while I cover you. Ace, team up with the couple. They will advance at a more defensible rate while you cover them from any stray magic. I want them to not realize you are anything more than a mage. Jeremy, do whatever you think is best. I n to stay near the trio but behind Jack. With this n, even if they still have the option to advance, they shouldnt.@@novelbin@@
The group position themselves and go to charge into the room. Of course no n survives contact with the enemy and they hit a stumbling block right out of the gate. Quite literally as Jack steps on a stay vine that was positioned across the room''s threshold. He can hear a quiet snap as a thicker vine rises off the floor.
Jack trips over that vine as he tries to run into the room. His concrete mace makes it impossible for him to catch himself, forcing him into an awkward roll so as to not facent into the floor.
The rest of the group is able to avoid this trap but any thoughts of charging in have left their heads. A pair of ice shards fly over at the grounded Jack, but from outside of the room Ruby puts together a fire shield spell at thest second. The shield can barely absorb the first shard and the second shatters it, but this is enough as Jack uses the time to roll out of the way.
Another volley of icees along and Ruby shields Jack again. But she had misjudged the situation. Instead of targeting Jack, it aims the ice at the rest of the party who have entered the room. Luckily the ice is aimed at Ace, who had prepared some emergency options.
As Ace dodges one shard he ps a woven bark wristband which instantly expands into a wooden buckler. With that buckler he is able to deflect the other shard giving Ruby enough time to catch up with the situation. Now steadied, she takes up what might be the only part of the n still going forward as she counters the next spell before it can reach them.
Ace shakes his head, Jeremy, youre on trap duty. We cant ck on that anymore. A trip vine isnt bad, but who knows what else might be around. Bill and Tess, you both guard Jack as he gets up and then the four of us will advance on their position!
Jeremy slips to the side as Bill and Tess step up. It wasnt needed as Ruby was on the ball with countering, but better safe than sorry. Now ready, they start to advance on the kobolds. The closer they get the harder it is for Ruby to counter the spells on time and so she has to focus on the more dangerous attack.
Of the few ice shards to slip through, Bill is actually the one to keep the group safe. His two clubs blurring around his body as the system-provided strength allows him to meet the shards head-on and not be pushed back.
They reach the first stgmite and Ruby ducks behind it for cover as she provides spell support. At this point Jeremy pops up next to them and gives the go ahead. He had spotted no other traps in the room.
Encouraged by this Jack charges forward again and reaches the melee kobolds. His muscles strain as he hefts his concrete mace directly at the closest enemy. It clips another stgmite but instead of slowing down the mace smashes through it blowing shards of rocks at all the kobolds. The strike hits and his target goes flying into the back wall where it dies.
A point nk shard of icees screaming towards him, but Ace spins in from the side with his buckler raised. The impact forces him back into Jack, but the shard is redirected away from the party. Jack steadies him as the couplee up from behind him as well.
The pair flows around the next obstacle and Bill goes low, his two clubs knocking thest two melee kobolds down. Tesses in from up top and knocks the goat silly. It had tried to charge in from the side but slides to a stop only a pace away from them.
The group is tearing through the kobolds, but not quickly enough. In thest room of the floor, the kobold leader notices how badly the fight is going and shrieks. Ruby turns towards the door at the noise only to see the leaders four goats charge out at the group. rmed, she alerts the group that, the leader and pets are joining in!
Hard for them to miss, especially with how the four goats are faster than any of the others they had fought. Ace steps up and ms both fists into the ground. In front of the goats a field of vines erupts from the ground which tries to tie them up. With the time this buy Ace fires off a quick analysis spell and he frowns at the results. The new goats are all level two! I dont know what thest kobold will be like, but we need to be ready.
Jack curses and exims that, it isnt fair that we have to struggle against enemies a fourth our level!
Jeremyughs, levels mean nothing except having had more time to grow strong. Stats and paths are all that matter. I could have killed you as you are now when I was ten. Now brain some mage types so we dont have to worry about losing a war of attrition. Their healer already got the other goat up again.
Jack grumbles at this but with Bills support he does just that. The melee kobolds are being held up by Tess and so he barges past them. With a twirl of his mace an ice shard is shattered andpleting the swing he brings it up over his head. The healer kobold tries to escape but Jeremy throws a spike piercing its foot and stopping it in its tracks. The kobold doesnt stand a chance to survive when taking the concrete mace head on. It crashes down through its body like a bolt from the heavens.
At this moment the leader kobold enters the room. Seeing her healer being downed, she lets out a sad hiss and tightens her grip on her mace and shield. With a steady purpose she advances towards the group. There is an invisible momentum building up behind her movement as the mace and shield both seem to change. They stay the same, but the shadows on them seem to be thrown into a sharp contrast.
First she reaches the vine field that Ace has been channeling. As those vines coil around her legs, she swings the shield down and bashes the ground in. All around her the vines shred, unable to stop her. Ace meets her at this point and he blocks a swipe from her mace with his buckler.
This wasnt the best n as the shield started to shatter under the force. To absorb more of the force, he hops backward with the hit while channeling mana into the shield. This is barely enough to save it and his arm as he ps into the wall and gets the breath knocked out of him.
How to Leave the Dungeon – Chapter 57
Knocked away from his spell, Aces vine field fades away and releases not only the kobold leader but the four goats as well. His vines did enough though and the rest of the party is ready. Bill and Tess have backed up to guard Ruby and Jeremy has met up with Jack to press the offensive.
Then the kobold leader throws the group for a loop. She points at Jack and shouts an unintelligible hiss. This causes all the goats and the two melee kobolds to focus on him and attack.
Jeremy covers for Jack as he retreats under the pressure. On his way through, he slips a knife between the kobold mages ribs. It doesnt kill the mage, but without the healer it debilitates them enough to give Ruby a chance to help as well.
Without the kobold mage casting spells that she has to counter, Ruby has a chance to use some offensive spells. The first one is her favorite, the fire ribbon, and she sends it careening towards the goats. It drops the goat that was already in the room while the level two goats are only injured.
The two melee kobolds jump at Jack and swing their maces wildly. What theyck in weapons training is made up for by their enthusiasm. Jack blocks one side with his maces handle but from the other a nasty hit ms into his braced arm and he yells out. Jeremy is there though and prevents the follow up swing through the expedient measure of killing the kobold.
Jack knocks over the kobold he blocked by shoving the head of his mace up into the kobolds legs. He continues the swing up and then brings his concrete mace down on the monster and smashes it apart.@@novelbin@@
Off to the side the leader is being held down by Ace. After experiencing the first hit he has kept to deflecting and dodging. Though he notices that the mace has lost its hard shadows and isnt hitting as hard. This gives him an idea and he waits for the kobold to use whatever that skill is again. He doesnt have to wait long as the mace takes on that unearthly shading again and the kobold takes an exaggerated swing at him again.
This time, Ace was expecting it. He dodges in under the blow and tackles her. The mace ms into the ground sting a hole and the kobold gets pinned up against the wall. Ace ms his palm onto her head. The helmet she is wearing protects from the blunt damage, but that isnt what Ace is depending on. Instead, his actual attackes from his magic which bursts out as a giant thorn which pierces through the helmets leather and kills the leader. As this happens one of the remaining goats falls over as it can no longer keep going from the serious burn across its throat.
At this point only three of the level two goats and the injured kobold mage are left. These enemies are easy enough for the team to clean up and they dont notice that the monsters all have gotten weaker without their leader.
With the current room clear, Jeremy takes a peek into the next one. Turning to the others he shrugs, that looks to be all the monsters on the floor. I dont know about the rest of you but now is an excellent time to take a quick break.
Jack nods, that definitely is on my agenda. That blow broke nothing, but my arm still feels numb. Going to have to get Doc to look at it after the run. Though I just realized something. Did we actually confirm there is a second floor? Be kind of stupid to just wait here only to find out we are done. We even killed that vine monster, which hardly anyone bothers with.
Jeremy opens his mouth but pauses, then looks to the side and whistles. Ace rolls his eyes at this, well lets go take a look. Will be easy enough to tell if there is more for us to do.
With that said he walked into thest room followed closely behind by Jeremy and Bill. With some effort on the trios part, they open the stone door. Beyond it instead of the purple crystal they find another portal into a new region. After they let the door roll back into ce the three join the others.
Ace gestures towards the other room, looks like were going to be taking that break. The core is gone and instead another portal is there. More door-shaped than the original one but I guess that happens.
Some of the tension they all felt goes away as they confirm the change. New things happening in a dungeon isnt strange but if it doesnt include a new floor, that would be worrying. With that out of the way they all settle in. Ace counts their drops as Jeremy gets even more food by piging the olive tree. Jack isid out on the floor, though he puts some space between him and the couple who are aggressively snuggling in one of the corners. Finally Ruby mediates to recover her mental strength.
After the group has rested up, they gather and move into the next room. The three open the door up again and they move into the portal room as behind them the stone door rolls back into ce. Ruby looks back with a frown, so I guess this is a one-way trip? We should probably try and open that up again just in case.
Ace face palms, should have seen thating. I can probably prop it back open with some magic, but we need to make sure people know about it. You could almost call it a gear check. Cant lift the giant stone? Dont bother trying to proceed. Either have the magic, might, or mind to proceed or get out.
Ace and the other two brace against the door. With a shove it rolls back, but the difficulty is much higher from this side. Though just the fact they can leave rxes the group and they turn back to the portal.
Jeremy scratches his head, so do we want to go through all at once or send one person through first? I could totally see us being trapped on the second floor.
Ace shakes his head, we all go at once. I wont leave it to chance. We dont need one of us stuck on the second floor. Everyone ready? A round of nods and they all step through the portal.
On the other side they are greeted by a barren stone room. The lighting is diffuse and the only way forward is through a vine covered opening. After the group has soaked in the area as one they turn back towards the portal which gently glows behind them.
Bill nces at the others, so we should probably test what happens when someone travels back through.
Ace nods, true enough. Everyone form up again and back through.
As a group they go to step through but stumble when Jack is unable to just walk through. The others are worried about this but he tells them all to calm down. It isnt what you think. I can go through, but there is a twist. The portal is giving me an option to go back to the first floor or just leave the dungeon entirely.
The others all sigh in relief. Ace is especially relieved. When the others look at him in confusion he exins, even if it just spat us out on the first floor we currently can get out easily. However what happens if a party makes it this far but loses most of their members on the second floor? What if Ruby was the only one left from our group and she tried to leave the dungeon by herself? How would she lift up that stone door by herself?
Because it allows us to just leave the dungeon that cant happen. Even someone who was brought along just to harvest herbs can now leave by themselves. Gods above and below, this might even allow an easy shortcut toter floors. Once we leave that is something to test. It would be nice if we could just skip right to the second floor.
When the others hear this they realize exactly what this discovery means and it takes them all some time to think about it. In the end Jack shakes his head, thats all well and good, but we have a dungeon to dive. Our path of retreat is safe so we can go ahead with a sense of security.
Ace shrugs, true enough. Bill and Tess to the front, me and Ruby behind them, and Jack and Jeremy can nk us and roam around as needed. Now move out. We need all the skill ups and paths we can get for what ising.
They get into formation and head through the vines. As the group enters the next room most of them rx a little. The barren stone room had them on edge after the rest of the dungeon had been covered in clovers. This room went back to being green even if there are a few boulders breaking it up.
After a nce around the room everyone is ready to move on but Jeremy holds his hand up to stop them. I smell mint. Let me check around real quick. A new nt would be an amazing find and my wife will be so jealous that I got it first.
The others have nothing against this and so wait near the room''s exit as he sweeps around from the entrance. However as he reaches the back right corner, he turns around and shouts a warning. Almost toote for the others to react, two kobolds wielding daggers jump out from the boulder closest to the exit.
Jeremy whips out a throwing dagger, which takes the kobold closer to him in the shoulder. The kobolds arm goes limp as it drops the dagger and Jack is able to knock it away with the handle of his mace.
The other kobolds attack is more sessful but still a failure. Ites down on Bill, but he crosses his clubs, blocking the blow. He still receives a scratch from the dagger as he cant stop all the kobolds momentum. Angered at this Tess takes an overhead swing at it as Bill keeps it in ce. A bone cracking smashes down and finishes the kobold off. At the same time the other kobold is finished off by Ruby before it can recover its dagger. A double dose of fire ribbons being enough to burn through the kobolds throat.
They all stand ready in case anything else attacks until Jeremy breaks the tension. Oh hey, theres the mint! And he kneels down next to the boulder he is by and harvests the herb.
Ace shakes his head, well thats a thing. Not only are there traps but ambushes. Though I guess those technically happened in the vine room. Still, this was more of an actual threat for some reason?
Ruby shrugs, The vine room kobolds seem to be more focused on getting people trapped in the assassin vine. These here are instead focused on being the assassin.
No one else has an opinion on it and so once Jeremy is done they gather up again and move on. They dont get far though as Bill is wrapped up just as he enters the next room. An assassin vine having been hidden just to the left of the entrance. The rest of the party try to charge into the room but have a hard time joining in because of the proximity.
Bill is lucky though as the monster doesnt get a firm grip around his neck. After the ambush in thest room he had kept his clubs up and they were wrapped up as well. With the clubs able to hold off the vines from his throat the attacks arent as serious but he also doesnt have a good way to counterattack.
Tess who was right next to him tries her best to free him, but her staffs reach means nothing when the vines have an even longer range. Still she beats at the vines, both distracting the vine assassin and protecting herself from being grabbed.
Jack squeezes past her and brings his mace up in an underhand swing. He doesnt have as much wind up time but still pulps a number of vines that moved in to protect the core. In the end though, his attack was never meant to be more than a distraction. Ruby used this cover to send one fire ribbon after another into the center mass. Vine after vine falls from the monsters body until she cant fire off anymore without fear of burning Bill.
Then the core of the nt monster bursts open. At some point Jeremy had gotten in close and with a cross slice from his double daggers has opened up the core. Onest stab from him is enough to finish off the assassin vine and Bill is released from the vines. His fall to the floor is less than graceful, but it will likely only result in a few bruises.
Derp Goes the Axebeak – Chapter 58
Ace calls a stop for a moment to let Bill catch his breath. As they wait, Jeremy saunters over to the room''s exit and takes a peek through it. Huh, there is a short hallway and it looks like a handful of goats are grazing in the next room. Though I cant see all the room as there looks to be a pile of boulders splitting up the room. With how many ambushes we have experienced I would bet there is more behind the rocks.
Also, there are a few rabbits nibbling the clover and I think a lizard of some type is sunning itself on those rocks I mentioned. We already know the rabbits arent an actual threat, no matter how sharp that horn looks. That lizard though I dont know. If I was to ce it that would be a horned lizard but who knows.
Rubyes over and takes a look as well. Yeah that looks just like a horned lizard if a little different in color and such. While we shouldnt let our guard down, I dont think it will be a problem. As for the rabbits, I think I will lead our entrance with some fire. While the times I have dived, weve gotten some rabbit meat from the kobolds. I dont think any of my groups have killed any rabbits.
The rabbits hide when we enter the room after all and I have heard some groups have been sessful in bagging a few. Our team might not have a ranger to provide a more stealthy attack. My fire should be able to kill at least one of them.
Jeremy shrugs, I could probably kill most of the rabbits without being noticed but I only have so many throwing daggers. They arent exactly in stock at the local sports store and I prefer to keep them for emergencies like with those ambush kobolds.
Ace nods, they are a suitable weapon to counter surprises with how fast you can use them. Now let me take a look at what we have to work with. He walks over behind the other two and takes a look into the next room.
Hmm, definitely more to this room behind the boulder wall. The rest of youe over here, and he gestures to the other half of the group. Once they are there he points into the next room, whatever is behind those boulders could be a significant danger to us. Because of that, I say we hug the right wall as we enter.
The goats should charge over and I know we have been keeping Tess in front because of her range but there is enough I want Bill leading this time. Now lets go out there and see what we can see.
Ruby sends out a handful of fire sparks that manage to down two of the rabbits. Then in a single file line they rush into the room while keeping to the wall. As they get further into the room, Bill shouts a couple of numbers to update them on how many goats he sees. 4, 5, 6, and okay thats it for the goats but I see a kobold as well! Its wielding a club of some sort.
Thest part is unheard though as he shes with the first goats charge and the sound of his clubs meeting its horns head-on drowns out his words. The others see it soon enough but only the goats have charged over so they ignore it for now except for Ruby. She fires off a double-length fire ribbon at the kobold but it ducks under the spell.
As it rises up again it lets out a chittering hiss and gestures with the odd club it holds. As it does this the goats which had been charging directly at Bill curve their path and aim toward Ruby.
Tess brings her staff around low and trips up the first couple of goats before they can attack. Behind them it forces the rest of the goats to take an even wider route and it gives Jack enough time to reposition. Now behind Jack, Ruby sends out a flurry of small fire ribbons. They arent able to kill a goat, but the fire gives them pause once again as it burns their hides.
Behind them all, Jeremy decides to follow the other wall when he sees what is happening. Up along the boulders he moves, keeping out of sight of the kobold. Once at the edge of the barrier he surges out and brings his daggers up under the kobolds weapon. It however is able to counter this attack with a twirl of the weapon and a back step.
Jeremy takes a closer look at the weapon andughs, thats a shillgh! Fun weapons and it looks like the kobold has a sense of how to use it too. Perfect weapon for someone herding goats.
Then he steps past the kobold as if it wasnt there and a line of red blossoms from the kobolds throat. He shakes his head, only a little bit of knowledge though.@@novelbin@@
The others can hear what he is saying but are a bit distracted by the goats. However they notice right when the kobold dies because all the goats lose a good portion of their maneuverability. The goats are still more agile than on the first floor, but the difference is obvious. What is more obvious though is when one of the goats that had gotten hit by more than a couple fire ribbons just keels over.
Ace groans at this, the kobolds have a leader buff! Thats annoying beyond all else. Even worse, it buffs their toughness as well. Now we are going to have to be on the lookout for any leaders in general.
He has time to go over this because the fight wraps itself up soon after the kobold dies. Even if the goats are a higher level they arent that hard to kill without the constitution buff. Though before thest goat dies Jeremy is already bouncing around the room as he harvests the mint and sage. Ruby rolls her eyes at this though once she remembers the rabbits she took down joins in on the gathering.
That taken care of, Jeremy walks over to the wall the others had followed in and taps it near the back of the room. Theres a hidden door of some sort here. I cant see any mechanism to open it though. Let me take a closer look around the room.
Worried about this discovery, the others let him take all the time he needs. However in the end all he finds is another hidden door which cant be opened. Jeremy shakes his head, without any way to open them I would guess these are a method the dungeon uses to move monsters around. I bet this second door has a matching one in that first kobold ambush room. At the very least they arent meant as traps to take us by surprise. While I cant see how to open them, I can tell that when they do open the doors will make a horribly loud noise. Also, I just looked in the next room and that is one strange bird.
The others gather up on him and take a look as well. The rest of them are stunned at what they see. Jack shakes his head, looks like someone mixed an ostrich and one of those drinking bird desk toy things then strapped an axe to its face.
Ace raises a single eyebrow at this description but shrugs, while odd, what is more worrying is that the room continues out of sight to the right. That one probably isnt the only one so we need to be ready for more. I actually want you to lead, Jack. Your mace has enough oomph behind it to stop one of those dead in its tracks. Now lets see if they taste like chicken.
Most of the group groans at this, though Jeremy has a good chuckle. With that out of their system, Jack raises his concrete mace onto his shoulder and charges in. One well-ced swing into the belly of the bird they could see is enough to end any chance of it contributing to the fight. On the other hand, the other three birds the party can now see are charging over at a much faster speed than expected.
The first two get an appreciable amount of speed up before they hit. One is stopped dead in its tracks as Jack gets another swing in. Though he drops his mace from the impact. The other bird rams into Ace with its face axe and shears through his buckler. Across his shoulder it carves arge angry wound as the birds momentum keeps it going on past him and into the wall at a bone-breaking speed.
Right after it thest bird in the hallway arrives but everyone is ready for it and those who are in its way all dodge to the side. Unable to stop in time, thest bird pancakes into the wall like the one that had hurt Ace. Only the very first one is left alive. Though even if they dont help it along that likely wont be the case for long as it twitches on the floor while gasping for breath. Unwilling to get close to a cornered animal, Jeremy throws a couple daggers to finish it.
Fight over, everyone turns to Ace. There is an angry red wound across his shoulder that should be pumping out blood like crazy. It isnt though as he has broken one of his emergency charms on it. The stored spell coats his wound withyer afteryer of sap, which hardens into a flexible amber substance.
Ace shakes his head, well thats the closest Ive gotten to death in a while. Nature bless that I was ready for this sort of thing. I had nned to only carry stuff for broken bones because of the prevalence of blunt damage in here. This could have gone a lot worse too. If we hadnt been right up on this wall, who knows how much damage the birds could have done.
Tess shakes her head, I honestly dont know if it would have been. These birds must be a high quality of stupid to kill themselves by charging into a wall. I could probably have taken them just with trip attacks.
Jeremy nods, they dont seem ready for the amount of speed they built up. Now I noticed that there is a decent slope here, but that shouldnt be enough. Just look at the walls of the room. Along with some primitive carvings of them, there are also a ton of speed lines. I think this entire room might have some form of enhancement on it.
Bill takes a closer look at the carvings and nods, that is possible. Here, let me test it.
Before the others can disagree, he jogs towards the back of the room. About halfway, he turns around and jogs back to the group. That second part of the journey though proves that something is going on as he travels noticeably faster despite not trying to do so.
Ruby sighs at this, I cant detect any active magic going on so whatever is causing that is weird. Ive noticed that there are carvings tucked away all around the dungeon. That could have just been some decoration, but this points towards another possibility. Though of course the other carvings could be red herrings to distract from the real ones.
Ace shrugs, just another bit of evidence to throw on the growing pile of proof that we have an awakened dungeon on our hands. He looks up at the ceiling. And I dont want to deal with that right now. Nothing answers him but there is a palpable release of tension as if two people had just been in a stare down only to both back down.
Should We Turn Back – Chapter 59
Ace ps his hands, Well I think we can move on now!
Tess shakes her head andughs, not before we harvest our rewards. You talked about them tasting like chicken. But going by the size of that drumstick, I think they might be more like those novelty turkey legs you get at a ren faire.
Jeremy has for the most part ignored the others once he was certain Ace was fine and had gone down to check on the next room. Seeing that the others are as ready as they could be expected to be, he calls down to them. It looks like we have a repeat. More goats and I would bet myst dor on there being a hidden kobold goatherd.
Bill blows a raspberry at this. As if your dor has any worth. Even if the government still exists out there their money isnt good anymore. The paper they print it on is nice and I am sure someone will bleach them to make talismans. But the gov cant promise value anymore. I am sure there are a thousand and one ways to counterfeit them now. Even if they try to add on magical security features, our world is a baby. Just one drop of alien knowledge can invalidate all their attempts. Only the systems money has any worth beyond the material used.
Jeremy shrugs, well a man has to try. Now lets go beat up some goats. Though I can see a few lizards in there so Ruby, try and fry them before we enter. If they die like the rabbits we get an answer and another type of meat.
Rubyughs at this and walks over. One nce in to pinpoint them and she sends out a handful of sparks. It hit only one of the lizards, but the critter dies right away. Relieved that the lizards arent some kind of hidden monster, everyone else charges in to meet the goat''s head on.
This time Ruby holds off on attacking the kobold so as to not draw aggro, but besides that things go in a simr direction. If anything, it ends even quicker as Jeremy already knows to target the kobold. Then the room after is even easier. While there are more of the axebeaks they already have a strategy, just send Jeremy in alone.
The birds charge at him, but with his training he easily dodges them. Six thuds against the wall behind him and the fight is over. The rest of the group can only shake their heads while Jeremy sighs, I hope the dungeon does something about this. An easy fight is nice, but this is just silly. Now lets take a look-see at what we have next.
As a group, they saunter down to the hallway''s exit and take a look at what is toe. When they do get a look though they all freeze up. Jack as he is wont to do breaks the silences. So thats a sizable size of a room.
Ace can only nod while Rubyughs at it. Tess on the other hand holds her staff up and uses it to visually measure what she can see. She shakes her head, about four times the size of thergest square rooms so far and the ceiling is five stories up. Though it looks like the dungeon needs that space for its ramps. Oh, and more birds, because of course there are.
Jeremy shrugs, size doesnt bother me unless we are talking continental scale. What worries me is I can spot a few kobolds peaking over the boulders up there. More important though, I can see two olive trees. That is twice the first floor and will help quite a bit with our cooking supplies. There might even be enough left over after we run this a few times to use with magic research.
Ace rubs the bridge of his nose, I cant predict what those kobolds will do. Jeremy can bait the birds before we enter and then I guess we y it by ear. If they dont have any sort of ranged weapon all the better. We can only hope that the dungeon hasnt loaded this room down with mages.
Jeremy nods, that would be bad. Especially as I am going out there first. And he gives a crooked smile before stepping through the short connecting tunnel into the new room.
Predictably, the axebeaks charge at him. What they didnt predict is that without the speed boost from the carvings, these birds dont m into the back wall as hard. The two are only stunned instead of dead. However this doesnt help them as the rest of the group is already filing into the room and easily dispatch them before they can recover.
At that point a rain of rocks tter around Jeremy as he twists in ce. One particr rock passing just a fingers width away from his forehead. He nces up towards the top of the ramps and sighs. Well, I guess we know the answer to what kind of ranged ability they have. Lets get a move on. I dont like the idea of just sitting here being target practice. That and I dont think the rest of you have quite the experience in dodging as I do.
The others agree with this and so they rush up the ramp only to be greeted by another set of charging birds as they round the first olive tree. Tess is the first to react as she dives forward out of the way of one while thrusting out her staff to trip the other bird. This works and the second bird breaks its neck after a high speed fall.
The first doesnt get off any better as Ace is ready for it this time. With his arm injured he most definitely cant block them, so instead slides to the side and casts his vine field again. This time though, the vines dont try to grapple the enemy and instead focus on tripping it up. Another broken neckter and the group continues on towards the first three kobolds. All of which are wielding clubs while only the middle one has a sling.
This advance on them though isnt free of trouble. The kobolds at the top of thest ramp section continue to rain stones down on them. Jeremy dodges them easily enough while the rest of the team just have to deal with it in their own way. Jack even gets knocked in the head before he can engage the nearest kobolds.
A good thing the team doesnt need him to deal with three kobolds as the blow leaves him a bit dazed. The fight is harder for it, but Jeremy is able to get a knife into one of the kobolds and the others fall soon after. This just leaves thest six kobolds as the group once again has to advance up a ramp. They are all in good shape but this constant hustle up slopes is wearing them down.
Facing six kobolds at once, all of whom now have their clubs out, proves to be more difficult than the first floor yet in the end a lot quicker. Without a mage to hold down Ruby, she stands back and rains fiery death onto them. Though the fight doesnt end before Jack takes another hit, this time to his arm. The same arm that had been banged up on the first floor.
As thest kobold falls the others can see that he doesnt have full use of the arm anymore. Ace shuts his eyes and sighs, should we turn back now? Im dangerously hurt and Jack has lost a good bit of hisbat effectiveness.
Everyone else shuffles around a bit before Jeremy shrugs, we should at least take a look at what we might be missing. Through that opening I can see a lot of green and it isnt just clover.@@novelbin@@
The others have nothing to say about this so they all trudge up thest bit of ramp and look through the opening. Bill shakes his head at the sight as Ruby whistles. All they can see is a forest. Sure to the right there is a stone wall, but that could easily be mistaken for a cliff like the one they see two-thirds of the way back.
Ace sighs, well, that changes things. With a forest we wont have to worry too much about ranged attacks. Though it might hold you back, Ruby. We cant exactly have you burning the dungeon down around us.
She tears her eyes away from the scene and turns to Ace. I shouldnt be a problem. While my magic burns, the effect seems quite localized. You might not have noticed but despite leaving burn marks nothing actually catches fire. As far as Kelly can tell, part of what makes my fire ribbons work and why they are ribbons has to deal with how the heat is being contained. Now if I was tossing around the ssic fireball, we would be in trouble. As long as I dont stretch out a stream of fire big enough that I cant fully control it things will be fine.
Jeremy interrupts at this pause and points towards the top of the cliff, no fire when we go up there. I know you say it wont burn but I see a number of herbs and I think even some wheat. That upper area has more herbs than the rest of this floor. Now I know we arent ready to charge in right away, but we wouldnt be doing that anyway. I have to go and harvest those two olive trees. Now I did bring some lightweight equipment to help with that which is why we finished up on the first floor so quickly but it still takes time. How about you all rest up while I go harvesting?
Ace starts to shake his head but stops. You know what? I dont have to decide right now. You can harvest those olives and only after that do we need to make a choice. Once youre done if even a single on of you doesnt feel up for it we leave. Dont prop yourself up with misced bravado. We could all die if you lie about being able to continue. Im looking at you, Jack. You have suffered a good bit.
Jack scoffs and looks pointedly at Aces shoulder, but he waves it off. Yes my arm is out ofmission but that doesnt really matter. While I am somewhat more melee than mage, I am still a magic user. Vine fields will be even more effective in there as they can pop out of the trees as well as the ground. Probably about the only ce the spell would be more effective would be the vine room, but I didnt really need it for that fight. Now everyone rest up. I do want toplete the dungeon but our health and lives are more important!
Not quite half an hourter, Jeremy finishes his harvesting. Quite quick for not having specialized tools but being strong enough to shake the olives off by hand goes a long way. After he picks up thest few from the ground, he walks back up to the rest of the group and nces at each with an inquisitive look.
Ace taps the flexible amber and shrugs. The spell is holding so I am fine to go on.
Ruby and Tess both shrugs as neither of them had been hurt.
Bill rolls his head back and rotates his shoulders forward. His run in with the assassin vine would probably leave him with bruises, but otherwise he was fine. A little tired from what seemed like a constant uphill battle, but that is to be expected.
Finally Jack shakes himself. His arm still hurts, but after the rest he can move it without hindrance. He sighs, should be fine. Also, I plotted this all out in my head and I am going to guess this is thest room. This floor is a bit bigger than thest but with how long it is across a side there shouldnt be much more.
Ace res at him, are you sure youre fine?
Jack sighs, of course Im not fine. My arm hurts like crazy. The actual question you wanted to ask is can I finish this and my answer is the same as yours. If you can be up for a fight with that gash then a little pain wont stop me.
Ace shakes his head, the situation is a little different, but fine. We can explore thest room.
Half the Final Encounter – Chapter 60
The group gathers on the wood tform right at the rooms entrance and they take a better look around. A couple stories below them is the room''s floor and directly in front of them is a number of small trees which peak just under the tform. To their left is an overgrown forest with trees that touch the ceiling and are close enough that you could touch two at once without stretching too far.
As the others take this all in Jeremy only has eyes for the back of the room. Now with a better view he can catch a glimpse of more herbs besides the one sprig ofvender in in view. Then Ace smacks him in the back of the head.
Dont get distracted by the nts. I bet there are a good number of kobolds and goats in the heavy forest and there are ranged weapons in y. You try to climb that cliff without first taking care of that and youre just target practice. Plus who knows what monsters might be up there. We are much better off hitting that cest right before we leave.
Jeremy sighs, I know youre right, but still. Look at it! There are even more olive trees up there.
Ace shakes his head, well the faster we clear the dungeon the faster you can get to harvesting. We wont stop you because leveling any type of skill will let you travel farther. He turns to the others, Now there are a couple of spiral staircases here, but I think we should stick to the one in the rooms corner. That keeps us a distance away from the denser trees.
Jeremy, you get to lead us down on this one. In fact, you can go all the way down before the rest of us get started. The staircase looks solid enough but I dont want it dropping out from under us because we all tried to go down it at once. You at least have the training tond safely if it cant even take one person.
Jeremy shrugs and heads down the stairs. The rest of the group wait at the top with bated breath, but nothing happens to him. There arent even any monsters at the bottom waiting for them. Relieved at this they proceed down the staircase one at a time, still cautious of any weight triggered traps.
Gather once again at the bottom of the stairs, the group cant see much that they didnt already know. About the only new thing is they can more clearly see that the trees in the heavy forest are spaced to prevent vision. That happens anyway in a thick enough wood, but with how soon vision is blocked this appears purposeful.
Ruby finishes her observation of the area and gestures to the wall behind them. I think we should follow the wall to the left. My guess is that the cliff area is an optional reward area of sorts. The core might even be in the corner over there. I know we want to full clear the area just to see what all there is but at least this way we know what is up.
The others dont really have a better n, so Ace shrugs. I guess thats the n then. Even better is we will get to keep a wall to our side. Fewer directions to be ambushed from is always nice.
Now with a n, Tess and Bill lead the way into the dense forest area. Not far into the area though the n falls apart. Right in front of them is an area of raised stone about a story tall and right on top sits a single kobold. Once it sees them it chitters and hisses loudly before using a sling to pelt them with stones.
Ruby fires off a couple ribbons, but the kobold ducks out of the way and doesnte back. Onest spell still in hand, Ruby sighs. Well, I guess we just lost any possible element of surprise. The kobolds are probably gathered on the other side of this hill and I dont feel like climbing it when a kobold could just pop out and push me off.
Jack shrugs, we only need one melee type up there first and the rest of us can follow. Even you mage types tend to be stronger than the average person from before. This small climb should be easy enough for all of us.
Ruby shakes her head, I worry that there might be a lot of kobolds up there waiting. Weve already seen that they canmand the goats, so ordering around other kobolds shouldnt be out of the question.
Ace nods, that is a reasonable worry. For now, lets just follow the hill around.
Cautious of any kobolds that might attack them from up top, the group continues along the mound. When it turns they easily spot more kobolds as no trees are ced right up on the edge of the hill. Just across from the group are a couple well equipped kobolds. The twoden down with full sets of leather armor, a wooden club, and shield. Both groups pause for a moment, neither side truly surprised by the other.
Jack breaks the stillness with a whistle, well I guess this is thest encounter then.
From around the hill more melee kobolds swarm out at them and the hilltop kobold also makes an appearance. More worrying is a trio of wand wielding kobolds at the back. Ruby shakes her head at the sight, I dont think we can keep the mages countered in this fight.
Then the sides sh. Three melee kobolds lead the charge with wooden clubs raised high and shields readied as another three wielding daggers scamper around the group to nk them. Ruby sends out a stream of fiery sparks, less to damage and more to keep them away.
At the front of the group Tess sweeps low with her staff and knocks one of the kobolds over while the other two try to double team Bill. He keeps one of them off with his own clubs while Jack roars and smashes the ground with his mace, throwing the other kobold off bnce.
Rebuffed the three club wielding kobolds back up while the three dagger wielders shriek as they try and avoid the fire. From behind them, one of the kobold mages casts a healing spell andmands them with a series of hisses.
Chastened, the dagger kobolds retreat behind an impromptu shield wall. Just in time too as ribbons of fire join in on the fun and thest one to retreat just barely avoids getting scorched. Now organized the three kobolds in front advance as one while two shards of ice scream over their heads.
Ruby counters the one while Ace steps forward and deflects it with his buckler. Though this action sends a crack running down the shield''s center. He tries to channel more mana into it, but the spell that conjured it has run out of steam.
Ace clicks his tongue and throws the buckler at some motion he had just seen to the group''s right. After the thunk of his shield hitting something, the group hears a furious bleat as an entire herd of goats steps out of the trees. Ace gestures at Ruby, you keep the goats upied and just let us handle the ice. I dont think we can manage that many goats charging at once.
Ruby nods and goes back to dishing out fiery sparks. Less powerful than her fire ribbons, but so much easier on her mental power. She hasnt tested it, but Ruby has suspected for a while that she could keep a stream of sparks going for over an hour.
The herd is frightened by this disy of firepower but behind them stands their goatherd, the tenth and final kobold in the room. She hisses at them and whacks the goat farthest back over the head with her shillgh. This gets the group moving as they try to nk around the fire.
Back with the primary kobold force, things are going a lot better. With the suppression of the two ice mages, no one in the party has yet killed a kobold. The healer in back just makes it all the tougher as under itsmand they retreat whenever hurt to be healed.
Now without a shield Ace has to focus entirely on the enemy''s attack spells and even then he cant block them all. Luckily Bill has been taking up the ck. Focusing on knocking any shards that get near him out of the air. This is easier said than done, but with two clubs he has a backup in case his first attack misses. Though it doesnt leave him much time to react, leaving with a number of bleeding scratches.
Tess continues to try and trip up the kobold front line but now organized they easily defeat her attempts by bracing against one another. Then they would separate and allow their dagger using friends to slide through and sh at the team.
The situation cant go on forever though and Jack provides the breakthrough. Even braced for it when he ms a full force attack home they all stumble. Being so focused on the attack however leaves Jack open and one of the dagger kobolds gets in close to him and slices up his legs. Though his greaves and boots are able to protect him somewhat and prevent the kobold from hamstringing him.
As the kobolds are thrown off bnce Bill darts in and with a precise strike knocks the middle ones shield out of its hand. Then with a blow from the club in his offhand Bill is able to push the kobold back into the dagger kobolds behind it.
More shards of icee in while Bill is distracted and Tess has to sweep her staff over to block them. In turn the kobold she was facing pounces forward and ms its club down on Tess shoulder.
Off to the side Ruby isnt doing much better. While she has held off the goats, with the kobolds orders she has started to mix in some me ribbons. If things go on like this not only will she have a massive headache from overusing her magic, but she will start to lose control of the spells. A nasty proposition when that control is an enormous part of why the forest isnt burning around them.
It also doesnt help her that the kobold up on the mound has decided she is the one to target. With the goats on one side and a sling sniper on the other, Ruby has definitely gotten her workout in for the day.
Though that brings us to someone who has been keeping their head down. Behind the melee fighters, Ace is sitting on the ground muttering under his breath. He ignores the decaying situation with Ruby. He pays no attention to the minor sess or failure of his frontline fighters. Those situations continue, but he stays focused. Then it alles together for him and he shouts, from the earth to the heavens, pierce and strangle those who oppose me like a world tree reaves a mountain range!@@novelbin@@
From the ground under all the enemies a dense, vibrant green glow erupts as a swarm of roots dash upward through the soil. Most of the kobolds are decked out in basic armor and so the vines can only grapple them. The unfortunate goatherd and their flock, not so much.
While the blow isnt enough to kill all the goats, none of them are in any condition to continue the fight. Even their goatherd is brought down by this attack. In fact, it hurts her much worse as shecks the thick hide and boosted toughness. Though once she dies the goats all bleat out in pain as that boost vanishes and wounds once bearable be much less so. Ruby smirks at this and goes about finishing them off. No reason to leave them in pain.
Nice Goat – Chapter 62
After Jeremy catches his breath he gets up only to see a goat munching on some grass off to the side. He freezes, but the goat ignores his presence. After a few minutes Jeremy steps back and goes into a defensive stance, but still the goat ignores him. He creeps toward the goat only to be ignored even harder. Eventually he even gets so close that he pokes it. All the goat does is give him a side eye before going back to munching on the grass.
Jeremy is tempted to shrug and go away, but something sticks in his mind. He turns back and examines the goat closer. It was a doe, but that isnt unique in the dungeon. Then it hits him. Maybe it is just the fact those other goats were aggressive, but this one seemed like an older adult instead of some rambunctious youngling.
He takes a chance and goes right up next to the doe and pets her until she goes back to grazing. Then, in what might be the craziest thing Jeremy has done yet, he takes out a bucket and milks the goat. The first couple squirts he fires off into the dirt just to make sure everything is clean but the rest goes into his bucket. By the time he finishes, Jeremy has a good gallon of milk in the bucket. From there he harvests the rest of the teau before the group heads out.
Back in the core room, Doyle and Ally watch them leave. Well, thats a thing, Allyments, when did you go and make the goat up top there peaceful?
Doyle tilts to the side, thats what you ask about and not the amazing performance my cliff had?
Ally shrugs, I expected the wall. Though yeah, that wall is a lot nicer than I bet either of us expected. Now that it has activated, do you have a better understanding of what it does?
Doyle wobbles around andughs, so you are interested in the wall now? Ally pouts but doesnt say anything, so he continues, the wall is tall enough so the person climbing it has to exceed their limits. The funniest thing about that is if someone is incredibly weak, the wall will be shorter than the actual height. Also, time is apparently a bit wibbly wobbly around it so no climb will ever take more than an hour. Dont ask me how that works, I can see the magic warping around it but I definitely can not parse it yet.
Oh, and the goat thing is ast-minute change I made. Now I am not going to go easy on them, but those founders are sort of important to me at the moment. I didnt want one of them to climb the wall only to die from the goat, so I turned it passive. The milk thing is a coincidence, though I will probably keep it in now. That climb is enough of a challenge so the goat isnt needed. Besides that though, we still have one big sore thumb to talk about.
Ally groans, the birds.
Doyle nods and sighs, yeah, the birds. They did exactly what I wanted them to do, but it sucked. There must be some way to make them not derp so much!
Ally shrugs, they are just dumb. Like, really super extra dumb. Your best fix will be to control them like puppets. Even golems arent this bad because at least they pick up some of yourmon sense when you make them. I swear, those axebeaks would probably run themselves to death if you put them on a treadmill with prey in front of them.
Doyles core dims, I wouldnt put it past them. They act more like feathered missiles than sentient animals. The idiots couldnt even stop from bashing into the walls. I will admit that is partly my fault. I didnt provide them with any area to stop behind where the adventurers enter.
Though that gives me an idea. As it is I have them just charging right away or more correctly I leave it up to their instincts. With my carvings, the birds already get a decent amount of speed over a short distance. To keep any changes simple I can just restrict the aggro range of the birds and move them all to the back of the room. If they only start to charge after the enemies have moved further into the room they wont go st.
That and adventurers wont be able to just nip back out of the room. Especially important in the ramp room where they got baited into just charging down by a single person. I dont want to make too many changes so I can tell what my changes actually do, so this seems like a good start. Just move all the birds to the back of their rooms. Now limit their territory. Though there is one special touch I want to do. In the ramp room for the second set of birds I will only have them charge after the kobolds below them enter meleebat. Hard to dodge a bird when a kobold is trying to kneecap you.
Ally nods, that seems fine. Though I do have to ask how the goat farm is doing? They just did a full clear of your second floor. Not that they really have a choice of it? But did you get enough new goats to rece them, or was it up to respawning?
Doyles core shes for a moment, that is a good question. I got caught up in talking about the rest of the stuff and forgot. Now lets see what we have. Four screens pop up showing an overhead view of the goat farm, the two mirrored rooms, and the forest room.
Doyle takes a moment to count the goats in each room and sighs. The forest room is fully restocked but thats it. The other two rooms dont even have half the numbers. I need 20 goats to refill the floor if they dont kill the milker and the farm only holds 30. Luckily goats generally have twins so the ten extra can handle it. It might strain us once people be able to quickly clear these early floors, but that is for ater date. Plus hopefully people will just skip the early floors in favor of a greater challenge.
Allyughs at this, as if! Once you get a few people able to clear things quickly, the settlement will probably farm your early levels regrly. They might even set aside a period just for their higher level groups to run through the early stuff. After a certain point you are probably better off not bothering to restock this level beyond what the goats can naturally refill. Not only will that be cheaper, but push the stronger parties deeper. Once you get a bit more space on the first floor, you might want to do the same thing there as well. Remove one of the kobolds and make another goat farm.
Doyle takes a quick count of how many goats are on the first floor and shakes his core. There are 27 goats on the first floor and four of them are level two. The mob cap is too restrictive there to set up a big enough goat farm. Even with nine goats having twins on the second floor I cant quite keep up with the floor and I have less space to work with on the first.
I will probably put some sort of limit on how quickly I respawn the goats. Maybe hook it into how much world energy the floor generates on a run. That way if they send a high-level group through that can trounce it all without breaking a sweat I wont go into the negative.@@novelbin@@
Ally shrugs, you basically volunteered to feed them so you probably shouldnt be too stingy.
Doyle bobbles up and down, I didnt say I was going to change it right away. For now they dont even have a group capable of making me go negative, so that isnt a problem. What is a problem is potentially those wolves. They are clearly being drawn to me. What happens with that?
Ally ps and smiles, you kill them! This is an excellent chance to get a couple wolf types under your belt. To be honest? It is actually odd that you havent had one or two filter in already, even with the new settlement out there. There is a reason starving wolf is an early floor trope. Your entrance is right next to a forest and there are always some wolven outcasts just scraping by.
Though if you meant to ask, what happens if the wolves get to your core? Since this is a new world, not a lot. There arent any monsters currently on this world that can kill a dungeon core. The only reason adventurers even have a chance without a hundred or so levels is because the system provides them a way so people can take care of problem dungeons. It does get abused, but overall everyone agrees that a gue dungeon isnt the best of neighbors.
Doyle tilts to the side, Jim mentioned the lesser shadow wolf being lesser because it wasnt sapient. What if that has changed? Also, as my kobolds have shown, you dont have to be sapient to have a mind.
Ally crosses her arms in an x shape, not possible. Maybe if you give the wolf a decade or so to gain knowledge and wisdom. Though this doesnt even include whatever life it has already lived. Without the boosts the shadow wolf species provides, a normal wolf cant keep the needed knowledge in its head. Shadow wolves are one of the types that builds enormous packs. Their children are born as lesser shadow wolves and the parents will keep them around till they be sapient. This can lead to a pack thousands strong as being a lesser shadow wolf doesnt stop them from having kids. Though you only find packs of that size in true wilderness areas because of the needed space.
As for your kobolds? Part of that is them being your monsters. Like I said with the golems earlier, they pick up a bit of yourmon sense. Also, kobolds are one of those monsters that always teeter on the edge of being just another sapient race. The same thing is true with goblins, though kobolds tend to be farther along that track. In fact, in older dimensions kobolds tend to evolve into sapience as a race while goblins tend to be a coin flip on if they do.
Doyle wobbles a little, So I dont have to worry too much about the wolf pack?
Allyughs but halts and puts on a serious face. I didnt say that. They arent sapient so you arent going to gain any world energy from them. That means if they beat a floor and just settle down you cant do anything until someonees and clears them out. If the wolves are tough enough to beat the town and they settle in on the first floor, it would screw us.
At least you have a second floor so you could in theory still figure something out. On the other hand, it would leave you vulnerable if some adventurer with less than peaceful intentions came around. Of course they would have to be able to kill the creatures that took over, so this is more of a threat for new dungeons. For instance, if the wolves had shown up right at the start.
Huh, Doyles core sinks downward for a moment, well we go off lucky. Now lets ignore this bit ofte onset dread to go look at the next group. Ace and co seem to be done with informing Jims party about what they found. With Jim being one of the first people to try out our dungeon here and being one of the key people, I want to pay special attention to their dive as well.
Leave the Goat Alone – Chapter 63
Jim, Sammy, Susan, Kelly, Kellinger, and Og stand in front of the dungeon portal. Ace and his team had juste out not a half hour ago and briefed them on what to expect. Though Jim was taking it all with a grain of salt. Whether the others noticed, he had. The dungeon changed quickly. Maybe for the people who dived it regrly it was gradual, but the early floor might as well bepletely different now. With that in mind the only thing Jim trusts is the actualyout details.
Still, it needed to be done and done often. Those wolves werent going to wait for them to level up at a leisurely pace. With a sigh, Jim turns to the rest of the group and ps his hands. Well, what are we waiting for? Our group might be more lopsided than theirs, but we should be able to get through this. And he steps through the portal.
Once through Jim darts to the side and ducks down with his short bow ready. Not his main weapon of course, but a longbow isnt exactly made for cave tunnels no matter how big thest couple rooms might be.
The two goats in the entrance room turn towards him and paw at the ground. Before they can charge though, Sammy bursts through the portal at a full charge. This shocks both Jim and the goats. Jim even yells at her to be careful.
With augh, Sammy ms into the farthest goat and keeps moving. The goat was already near the back wall and in no time is a lot more up close and personal with it. Jim can only shake his head, though only after letting fly an arrow at the other goat. This shot gives proof to all the time he has spent training in the forest as it strikes true. It spears the goat through the eye and falls over dead before it can even realize they hit it.
By this point everyone else has entered the room. Most of them give a nice round of apuse for his feat of skill but Kelly has other things on her mind. With a ground eating stride shees up behind Sammy and tells her not to kill the goat yet. Just break its legs. I havent had a chance toe in here and test some of my theories about these dungeon monsters.
Jim steps up behind her and coughs to get the twos attention. While I can appreciate wanting to explore the bounds of our settlements centerpiece, now might not be the best of times or ce.
Kelly spins around to face him and res down at him, what better time or ce? How could I not try some experiments here? What better ce than such an easy to ess dungeon?
Jim meets her re with ease and shrugs, it is exactly because of how easy it is to get here. This ce is literally the center of our world right now. I dont want to think what might happen if you mess with the dungeons monsters. Dungeon breaks are a thing and mostmon in young dungeons.
During my time under the tutorial guide, I picked up a few tidbits. Things such as how scaring a young dungeon with a high level adventurer is likely to lead to a death trap as it tries to counter that greater threat. Though most relevant to this is the fact that the dungeon cares about the monsters in it. Sure, once a dungeon gets big enough the early floors are less important, but this ce only has two right now.
Please dont make it so we have to deal with a death trap. There are more dungeons out there and one or two should be close enough for a research trip. We want to handle this ce with velvet gloves until it is sturdy enough.
Kelly and Jim stand there ring at one another in a standoff until Susan interrupts. Why is this the first time Ive heard about that? Isnt information like that something that should be spread out so others dont do something stupid?
Jim turns away from Kelly and shrugs, in a normal dungeon dive it wouldnte up. In fact, I dont even know if anyone else here has a clue about it. The only reason I know is because one of the guides in my instance was a professional dungeon diver. And to be honest? This is one of those things that should be kept secret, if only because you just know someone would try and see how far they can take it.
I wouldnt have said anything if not for Kelly going all mad scientist. And he turns back to Kelly, like seriously? The first thing you ask for isnt to keep it alive but to break its legs! Not only dont we have time to faff about torturing goats, but you dont even have any anesthetic. It might be a dungeon monster, but it can still feel pain.
Kelly crosses her arms and frowns, Im not going to be able to get any work done in here, am I?
Jim sighs and shakes his head, if by work you mean cutting up dungeon monsters or otherwise interacting with them outside of the social norms of fighting, then yes. You wont be getting any work done. In fact, once we leave here I am telling Ace what restrictions to put in ce to keep the dungeon a safe... Hmm, well not safe but a safeish ce to gain experience and meat. Especially thatst one.
We dont need the dungeon recing the goats with slimes or the undead. From what I understand, this ce supplies all the meat for the settlement. We need to diversify that, but for now that isnt an option. Especially once the wolves have gone through the forest. 96 wolves need a lot of food.
Then he shrugs and turns to the rest of the group. That all aside, I have to reiterate. Our group is lopsided. For instance, we dont have enough frontline fighters. I can sub in during a pinch, but most of us are ranged damage. Sammy, from what I have heard, youre a great tank. To clear the second floor though, we need more than just one tank.
Besides you, Sammy, the only other person here that mains melee in our group is Susan and shes a more rogue style fighter. Compare that to everyone that went with Ace and the disparity bes clear. Jack, Bill, and Tess all are front-line fighters. Besides that, Jeremy and even Ace are melee. Our team? Four of us are ranged.
I noticed this right away and I am sure Ace knew what he was doing but that doesnt make our job easier. What Ace did was take almost all the people who can take a hit so they would survive. We didnt know what was on the second floor or even if it existed. Now though not only do we know it exists but we know what is there.
That however only makes our dive possible. We need to y smarter, not harder. He turns back to Kelly. Now Kelly, if you dont think you can hold yourself back you can always leave. Since we know what to expect the chances of us getting a terminal case of death is low. I dont know if we need you to clear the dungeon but I would rathere out alive than deal with you not ying your A game.
Kelly sighs, science waits for no man, but I guess Im not a man.
Jim smiles and pats her on the shoulder, there are plenty of things to experiment with now. The subject of dungeons can wait for now.
Drama over the team makes quick work of most of the first floor. The assassin vine fell easily and even the room with six goats wasnt too much of a problem. Though, as Jim predicted, theck of front-line fighters was quite the hindrance.
Now though, they have made it to the first floors kobold room. After Susan has finished harvesting all the berries, everyone gathers up, just out of sight of the monsters inside. Jim points at himself, Og Pwner, and Susan then across the room at one stgmite. Then he points at Sammy and motions her to just enter normally. Jim holds up his hand with three fingers out, two fingers, one finger, and finally just his fist.@@novelbin@@
With a shake of said fist, he charges out into the room towards the stgmite for cover with Og and Susan close on his heels. Moments after that Sammyes in behind them. She stands firm right out in the open as she pounds her sword on her shield to draw attention to herself.
The kobold mage takes a potshot at Jim, but he didnt expect the ranger to keep moving so the ice boltpletely misses. This gives the two enough time to duck behind cover once again before a follow-up shot is cast. Frustrated, the mage sends his second shot at Sammy but with a well-practiced motion she dips down and angles her shield, sending the bolt off course.
Presence established in the room Kelly and Kellinger enter, using Sammy as their shield. The ice mage tries another shot, but Kelly stops that nonsense right in its tracks. She isnt the best mage at dealing damage but her ability to counter is second to none.
This is fine though as it leaves Kellinger open to send some spells down range. His first spell though isnt some ssic damage dealer. Rather it is one of his favorite crowd control spells, grease. The enemy mages dont even have a chance to counter it as a thin film of oil coats the ground under their feet.
As they arent moving around this normally wouldnt cause too much trouble. Sadly for the kobolds, Og and Jim arent going to give them a chance. Jims wless archery tags a shieldless melee kobold center of mass knocking it over while Og takes the shotgun approach and rapid fires some metal ball bearings he had salvaged. While he could have been just as urate his flurry of projectiles forces the other two melee kobolds and the mage to dodge out of the way only for them to slip and fall as well.
At this point the only enemies on their feet are the goat and the healer. This one sided fight however is more than enough to draw out the kobold leader who charges into the room. Luckily for her the kobolds had been grouped closer to the olive tree and so her entrance isnt spoiled by a pratfall.
Her goats on the other hand are not so well off. Og had continued toy down suppressing fire with some gravel and so they targeted him first. This brought their path directly through the edge of the grease spells area and half of them took a dive. In fact, the only reason the other two remain standing is the first two gave them enough warning and their impressive agility allowed them to hop over not only theirrades but the oil slick. This allowed them to continue their attack.
Though this turns out to be to their detriment. While Og was busy suppressing the main group of kobolds, Jim had been ready. An arrow drawn and ready, the edges of the arrowhead glinting with a blue sheen. He releases and as it flies; the arrow splits in half. One half flies true and takes the closer goat in the throat. The other piece, while off course, still scores a hit on the other goats helmet. The armor protects, but there is still enough blunt trauma to stun the goat for a moment. That moment is just enough though as Susan ghosts out from a nearby stgmite and with a thrust pierces the goats throat before she withdraws back to cover.
Axebeak Redemption – Chapter 65
Jim peeks into the next room and shakes his head. More nonsense ahead. I cant spot the bird that is supposed to be just inside the next room. With how badly they did against Aces group, the dungeon must have switched things up right away. Though the room looks to be about the same from what I can see without entering it.
Kelly shrugs, likely the birds are a wandering mob instead of any actual action from the dungeon. It should have just ced a flock in the room and Ace got lucky having one of them down by him.
Jim shakes his head. He hasnt delved this dungeon except for that first time, but he had a feeling about it. That aside though there isnt much he can do about it so he gestures for the others to form up and enter the room.
As soon as they spot the wayward bird at the back with the rest of the flock. The axebeaks dont even seem to notice the group down by the entrance. Kelly whispers, see? They are just gathered together at the other end. We arent exactly prey nor are we close enough so the flock ignores us for now. Ace just got unlucky that the one bird was able to alert the rest.
Jim raises an eyebrow but otherwise lets her opinion pass. He only has his own hunches and while he trusts them more than Kellys the opposite would probably be true as well. For now, all they need to do is clear the floor. Mysteries can be unearthedter. He gestures to Kellinger toy down his favorite spell. After all, whats more fun than a grease spell right in front of an enemy that likes to charge?
Trap in ce, the group cautiously approaches closer to the flock. Jims n is to get close enough to attack them once they fall over. A decent strategy he had used in simr situations out in the forest. Doomed to fail though as once the team had advanced further into the room all the birds as one turned towards them.
Jim sighs as he pulls an arrow out of his quiver, I guess we know their aggro range now. And the axebeaks are off running.@@novelbin@@
Jim and Og both manage a single shot before the birds are upon the grease. Susan and Sammy tense as they prepare to assault the birds while they are down, but once again Jim is disappointed. The axebeaks do squawk as they move over the grease. They do not however slip and slide.
Missed by everyone so far is the fact that axebeaks have very rough and spiky feet. Like natural cleats, this feature is useful for getting up to speed quickly and they now serve double duty in providing grip on the slippery surface. Quick on the uptake, Susan withdraws so Sammy can shield everyone. Behind them Og decides now isnt the time for uracy and once again fills the air with stones.
Kellinger on the other hand is slow to react at first but his second is well worth the wait. He drops the grease spell and goes for another ssic, stone shape. Kellinger kneels down and with his palms on the floor raises up a misshapen knee high wall a few paces in front of Sammy.
The first couple birds dont even have a chance to react. Their attempts to nk just end up with them sprawled on the ground to either side of the party. Thest twoing down the center have just enough time to hop over the wall, but this prevents them from gaining too much speed.
Sammy yells out, dodge left! and does so, blocking the left bird head on. Quite literally as the axebeak ms into her with its beak and the shield she was using shatters and the others can hear an off-putting crack. To the right, the other bird that is still on its feet doesnt get to stay that way. As it runs past the group Susan ducks down and swipes out with a dagger, cutting the tendons and effectively removing it from the fight.
As everyone had dodged left, this put Jim in a position to take care of the downed bird right there. From a sheath on his back he drew out a kukri, then drew it across the birds throat. While the axebeak tried to il about, Jims experience out in the wild both before and after the system let his strikend true.
With the nearby birds under control, Kelly fires a couple bolts of rocks at the downed bird on their right. While not killing the axebeak the birds attempts to stand back up are prevented. As this works she continues to pound it into the ground with rock spells. She figures either it will die eventually or be held down long enough for someone toe help her.
That help isnt going toe from Sammy. With her arm useless at her side, broken from the blow with the remnants of the shattered shield Sammy isnt in much of a position to help anyone. That doesnt stop her from raging at the axebeak. She rains blow after blow down on the bird with her sword. Though having lost all thoughts of proper form none of the hits leave a wound worth talking about. Still, like with Kelly, the constant barrage of attacks confuses the bird, keeping it in ce.
Susan sees the state that Sammy is in moves around the left nk to attack from the side. A front assault would have worked as well, but for some reason she doesnt trust Sammy to not hit her. This dys her attack but allows her to hamstring this bird as well. The axebeak doesnt fall over right away as it shifts to bnce on the other leg. A move destined to fail though, as Sammy is still attacking wildly.
The axebeak falls to the side right into Susan. As a final attack, it tries to drive its face into her but she slides under the attack while leaving a throwing dagger lodged in the birds throat. Susan trusts this is enough to take the bird down so turns to the two remaining monsters only to find them dead as well. Og had joined in on stoning the far away bird, and after enough rocks to the head it died.
And the bird she had hamstrung at the start? Jim plied his throat slitting ways on it as well and had an even easier time. The other bird had just fallen so well and ready to kick around. Thisst one had been bleeding heavily out of what must have been a major artery, and so Jims actions tasted more of mercy than an attack.
With all the birds dead Sammy calms down enough to feel the pain from her broken arm. It was a clean break from what Jim could see, but that doesnt make it any better. He sighs as she grimaces while holding the arm tight to her chest.
Jim ps his hands, welp, our dive ends here. Our only true frontline fight not only lost her shield but broke an arm as well. We need to get her healed up quickly so we can try againter.
Og sighs, Bill is going to tease me something fierce for not being able to clear the dungeon.
Susan pats him on the shoulder, you think thats bad? My husband wont let me live this down. Hees out with these tales of all the stuff to harvest in thest room, and I cant even make it that far. Still, I cant exactly solo these early floors or anything silly like that. Better to know our limits than die finding them.
Kellinger sighs, even if we continued, I wouldnt be of much use. It would take me much too long to cast anything else. That stone shape shouldnt have taken so much out of me, but it felt like the dungeon resisted the changes I was making to it. Beyond that, even if we wanted to use it to skip to the end I cant do that. Just below the surfaceyer of dirt and stone there is a hard barrier. The rock stops being just rock and bes fully a part of the dungeon. Felt like I was trying to shape an earth elemental like one of the people in my tutorial could summon.
No one is happy about having to give up but they all know their limits. After moving much of the weight out of Sammys pack they go back to the second floors entrance portal and choose to leave the dungeon.
Once outside Jim turns to Doc who is waiting at the side and points to Sammy. She broke her arm. Should be a clean break so see what Doc can do about it.
Worried, Ace walks up to him and opens his mouth. Jim stops him, no, we didnt clear the second floor. The axebeaks got moved to the back of their hall. Kellingerid down an oil slick, but the birds apparently can just run right over it. Quick thinking on his part saved us with a stone wall, but Sammy ended up taking one of them head on. Her shield and arm broke. Though I have to say we are lucky, that is all that happened.
We need real gear. She was using a decent pre-system shield and it still shattered like ss. The bird didnt even use a skill or anything. Just rammed right into it. In fact, if it wasnt for the fact it had to jump over Kellingers wall, she might have lost her hand. I cant be certain, but stuff made from the start with mana is different. Even if the item or animal isnt using some sort of power, the fact it has it changes the equation.
Ace frowns, that... that might actually solve a problem I have with the people who n to leave before the wolves. They believe that we dont have a chance here and now that your group has failed to clear the second floor it will only reinforce the belief. Because of this Jan has been pushing me to give them the better gear. We have some stuff crafted by a couple woodcarvers in their off time, but no one wanted it. If what you just said is true, we can probably trade all our pre-system gear for it.
Jim facepalms, of course she would want to strip us of any chance to survive. Though I should point out that any wood we have is pre-system as well at the moment. If they have a skill for wood craft though then it should be fine. I made my bow and it is quite the fine weapon. Originally, my assumption was my skills just guided me right. However it might be because by using a skill I infused it somehow.
Ace shrugs, because of all the guides warning against it, no one is too keen on sharing their skills. I dont me them either, though we might have to change that for those of use who n to stay behind. We are already nning on sharing a life-threatening secret, so whats another? Though for those wood carvers I am willing to bet they all have some sort of skill for it. Neither of them had any skill with it when they started, and now they are carving like old hands at it. Sadly, neither of them n to stay
Jim sighs, well, I at least can help with bows. Though we can probably scam them for good gear. I bet Jan would cozy right up to them and put them in positions of power if we start trading pre-system stuff for their best efforts.
Ace frowns but then just shakes his head. I dont want to scam them but we cant let them know the actual value of their work either. At this point, including us, I have thirty people who will stay and a handful of maybes. Once we start trading for carved gear I dont think any of the maybes will stay. We cant chance them not trading their work with us, so an unfair trade is all we can do.
Jim shrugs, meh, we can make it up to them when we survive. If they return that is. Though of those thirty you really should angle five or so towards crafting skills. I can identify and use some of the herbs out there but Im not an alchemist. Of course, the Barrais might have us covered on that front.
Sammy’s Back – Chapter 67
Doyle floats his view through the dungeon as he ponders. What can I do to improve the kobolds teamwork? They already fight together decently enough but there needs to be more. The leaders dont lead enough. Especially on the first floor. Despite her being the first leader and me even having a couple paths devoted to it, I could have designated any of the others to lead and nothing would change. She just charges in if things are too tough for the others.
Then again, there isnt really a need for her tomand them at the moment. Most everything has already been nned out. What could she even order them to do at the moment? Thest room is already a challenge at about the level I want. Plus with such a confined space except for the asional trap they couldnt really do much else.
I need to give her room to work with and that just is not possible with the current roomyout. The final restricted hallway was, at least in my mind, important for defense. Now that I have a second floor? Not so much. I dont even have to change much. Just extend the wall of both her room and the connecting hallway out to match with the kobolds room.
Hmm, okay that doesnt seem too bad but the middle hallway still makes it feel disconnected. Remove that entirely and turn it into an open room so there is only one room now. Looks good though I need to move that throne over to center it again. Anyway, now that the kobolds are one big happy family, how to encourage them to do their own thing?
First letsy down some extra necessities. Things like pots to store the berries in and what not. Even if my leader kobold wont be able to do much in battle, she should be in charge during down times. Especially important overnight when the settlement gives me a break.
Though speaking of the settlement, why hasnt anyone entered the dungeon yet? I was expecting to be interrupted halfway through messing around here.
Doyle takes a look outside and the answer is simple enough. Ace had apparently reserved the dungeon just for them, yet he didnt want to dive while unsure about Sammy. Though at this point with how Doctor is acting, he is being more of a worrywart. Doyle rolls his core and goes back to nning.
I have more time than expected but it still wontst me. Whatst touch should I top this off with? Oh right! The kobolds are basically a primitive society, yet they arent able to decorate their cave. I already have a carving skill myself, so I might as well let them fancy up the walls. I wonder what they will draw when they win a fight? Oh well, the only way to find out is to give them some time.
Doyle gives them the correct permissions and goes on to the second floor. Once there though, he doesnt see much to mess with. I already adjusted the birds and only a single group making it through isnt exactly enough data to work off of. Hell, I dont think I could change the climbing wall at this point without messing it up. The kobolds are even all together already, so not much to do there.
Then it hits him. The two huge rooms are already fine, but what about the goatherd twins? Jims group managed the first one easily. So something needs to change. Going with the theme of giving his kobolds more control, Doyle lets the goatherd kobolds have more directmand. Maybe now the goats wont just rush into a defended bottleneck.
After that, though, there isnt really much else Doyle wants to mess with. Not that there isnt anything to do. Just nothing interesting. Though Doyle had noticed that his ability to grind away at the simple things had improved. He chalked that change up to no longer having a chaotic mix of chemicals puppeteering his mind through the medium of his brain. That or being a dungeon core had changed something about his core self, though he doubted it.@@novelbin@@
Another peak at the surface and it looks like Ace is going to let others delve into the dungeon with the founders going again tomorrow. Though he ns to bnce the teams better as Jimsint about team bnce was spot on. Doyle shakes his core at how overconfident they had been. Just throwing together two random groups and expecting they could just stomp his dungeon. Nevermind that Aces group did.
Doyle refocuses on his ever present grinding objectives. First he focused on the first floor. He had filled the entire space outside of the rooms up with stone by now, but he wanted to refine the room borders. Kellinger had bumped into the borders on the second floor with his stone shape spell but that was just a magical boundary. Someone with a pick and time could in theory tunnel all around the ce.
With that in mind Doyle pumps his world energy into increasing the density of the meter or so at the edge of all the rooms. Though he leaves the inner cave features as normal rock, counting the edge of the room as if they had been in rectangles. While he doesnt want them tunneling all over the ce it just wouldnt be fair hardening all the stone with people like Kellinger out there. Plus if he tried to take that away there would be a lot more effort put in to try and get around his restrictions.
By the time the first group enters and stops him from going further, Doyle has made some decent progress. There is a lot of space to cover so he hasnt doubled the density or anything, but the rock has be much tougher.
He takes a moment to watch the group start their dive, but it is clear they arent there to even attempt clearing the first floor. Doyle can only sigh from what he overhears. Apparently more spots are being given to farmers under Jans orders. Seems she wants to gather arge stockpile of food for when she runs away.
With a shake of his core, Doyle focuses back on the second floor. No one is likely to get there tonight anyway. First on the menu is improving his core defenses again. While part of his energy does go to filling in the nk spaces, he put much of his gains towards the density of his core walls.
In a grove time passes for Doyle and before he knows it, the next day has arrived and Sammy is back in the dungeon having reced her destroyed shield. Though besides her the founders have rebnced the teams. As noted Sammy is a part of the first group, but Jack hase along for the ride and is acting as a second tank. Besides them, the group also has Ace and Susan as melee damage plus Og and Ruby as ranged threats.
They stomp through the first floor and not even the kobolds havingid out two traps, or the changedyout for the final room phases them. They take longer to loot everything than it did to defeat the monsters. Then with her game face on Sammy leads the group through the portal and into the second floor. Ace having already cleared the level knows what to expect, so with a few orders everyone is ready to continue.
The first room is a solved puzzle to them. Two kobolds who like to sneak attack arent a threat, and the group roots them out with ease. Next is the assassin vine but that monster only has the location going for it. Jack strides into the nts room with his mace held parallel to his body. After being wrapped up, he doesnt even need the others all that much as the system has been kind to his strength. With a roar and some effort, Jack is able to burst out of the vines. The others still finish the monster off as his hammer is out of position, but in theory he could have taken it.
In the next room, things finally stop going the way they expect. After hearing Jims strategy, they decided to give a try and just stay at the entrance. It even looks like it would work as the goats all start to charge towards them. Then from behind the boulder walle a rattling hiss and all the goats freeze. Og and Ruby both manage to take down a goat, but the remaining four all retreat behind the boulders.
Ace shakes his head, well, I guess this confirms the dungeon is changing way too fast. Though I disagree with Jims conclusion. This looks more like the kobolds might have some sort of memory. After all, they have started to set up traps and do a better job atmanding. The only real change I have seen with the actual dungeon is the kobold room on the first floor, and that happened overnight.
He sighs and orders the group forward. While having to fight the goats out in the open is more of a trouble, there are only four and the kobold left. With six people in the group, they clear the room and are ready for the next.
Ace turns toward Sammy, so are you ready for this?
Sammy is about to say something when she pauses. After a couple of slow blinks, sheughs and it almost turns hysterical before she reins herself back in. Ace looks at her with worry in his eyes. You okay?
Sammy sighs and shakes her head as she grins, the system just gave me a quest. Apparently I get a reward if I can beat the bird that beat me. So yeah, I should be good.
Jack rubs the back of his neck, well, thats a thing. Does it say how you will be able to tell which is your target?
Sammy shrugs, of course it doesnt. Though there should be something to indicate it. I guess we will find out once we enter the room.
Ace gives Sammy a once over but she seems fine so he gets everyone back in formation and through the short hallway.
Now in the axebeak room again, Sammyughs quietly to herself. Well, I guess that answers the question of which bird I have to kill. Looks like defeating me did the bird some good. Went from a normal-looking kind of thang to that. Seriously? Taking the name a little too literal now. And did it have to have the red edge to the beak? Bird didnt even make me bleed yesterday so I dont know where it got that nonsense.
Ace sighs, was the dungeon not hard enough already? Did the system have toe in and buff our enemies? Whatever, since we know there isnt much we can do, lets just pull aggro from back here. Sammy and Jack up front with me. Ruby and Og, let me summon my vine shield then you can pull. Susan? Do whatever you feel best.
Ace steps forward and uses his charm to summon a shield again. To his sides, Sammy and Jack brace themselves for the charge. Then once Ruby sees the frontline is ready, she calls up a blob of fire and starts it spinning. Faster and faster until it deforms and bes more like a disc. With a flick, she sends it flying between the two in front of her. Og has just been waiting for her. With the fire disc off, he rapidly throws a handful of lead balls at the birds.
At the end of the hall, the four birds all turn as one towards the oing threat. The lead barrage has spread out some and prevents the right-most bird from dodging, even clipping its friend. On the other side it looks like the left-most bird would be able to dodge, but at thest moment the fire disc spreads out and cleanly beheads the bird.
Sammy’s Redemption – Chapter 68
Enraged at the sudden death, the three remaining birds charge down the hall. Well, the right-most one tries to but it took one head-shot too many and only goes a third of the way before it falls over.
The remaining two make it to the front-line. Sammy meets her target first and it looks like she learned more of how to use a shield over the night. Instead of meeting it head on she shifts slightly to the side and has her shield at an angle to the beak. As she feels the impact Sammy puts her shoulder into it and with a shove forces the bird into the nearby wall.
To her right Ace shes with the other bird in a simr fashion, except instead of a wall it throws the bird into the business end of Jacks concrete mace. With a sickening crunch, the axebeak dies. After Ace is certain Sammy will be fine, he sends Jack down the room to take care of the conked out bird. It hasnt died yet, but even if it is a monster there is no reason to let it suffer.
Back with Sammy, thest bird is looking worse for wear after having mmed into the wall. It turns to her and whips its head forward. She didnt expect this attack, but Sammy isnt one of the founders for no reason. Knowing that her shield wont be able to take the attack, she instead falls over backwards to get out of the way and brings her other hand up and around.
The axebeaks head swishes over her body and it goes to pull back but is unable toplete the action. As Sammy was falling down and swinging her body around, her sword came up. Then it came right back down on the birds neck with all of her weight behind it. While this didnt take the head off like Ruby managed with her magic, a broken neck does just as good of a job at finishing the axebeak off.
With the strike taking away most of her momentum, Sammy is able to safely fall on her shield. Resting on her shield sheughs, though this time the other can hear the relief in it. A familiar swirl of light appears next to her as she stands up. The second confirmed loot drop for the dungeon has appeared. Though this swirl of light is different from the one they saw when Jack received his bronze greaves. It has a gold and blue tinge to it.
Off to the side Rubyughs, Well I guess we know what your quest reward is. Kelly would know more about this but from what Ive heard a blue and gold loot drop means it is the system doing it. Not only that, but only Sammy will be able to get it. Even if we all tried to reach in it would be like trying to grab a rainbow.
Sammy shrugs, the best reward is killing that bird before I get nightmares about it. Still, I wont turn down some loot. And she reaches into the swirl of light. After a few moments of feeling around, she grabs something and pulls. Out of the swirles a pair of iron gauntlets that are long enough to count as armguards as well. Across the metal are delicate engraved feathers and along the edges of all the pieces the metal picks up a hint of deep red.
Ruby whistles, well now arent those high quality. Now the question is, do we wait for me to ID them or does Sammy just throw them on and we continue on with the dive?
Sammy with a wide grin goes to put them on but Ace puts his hand on her shoulder and shakes his head. If they had looked like normal metal gear, I wouldnt mind you wearing them right away. They are a system reward after all. However that red edge makes me question if they are all that normal. Let Ruby check them out first.
Sammy lets out a sad sigh but she knows it is a valid worry and so hands them over to Ruby who has already gotten her chalk out. After a bunch of chalk circles and chanting, she finishes the ritual.
{Iron Gauntlets of the Defender
Description: Gauntletsmissioned by the system from a master smith who wishes to remain unnamed. The system has awarded them to Sammy of Earth for oveing the Axebeak which had brought her low before. The crafter has engraved feathers on them in memory of the Axebeak and they have tinted the edges of the metal red through an alchemical process as part of quenching it. This process provides the metal with superior toughness and aligns it with elements that represent life. Will heal strain to the arms slowly while resting. Any enchantments meant to heal or protect life will be easier to apply to the gauntlets.
Material: iron, cow leather, modified health potion
Craftsmanship: Low Masterwork}
Jack ps, well you one upped my loot. It even seems to have a passive effect.
Ruby nods, quite the rare bit of gear. Slotless bonuses like this are quite rare. After all, who wouldnt want an extra effect that doesnt count towards your magic gear limit. Since it doesnt work duringbat or even just while doing stuff in general it would be worth more as a collectors item. Whoever the system got to make it must have some special identity.
Jack scratches the back of his neck, so yeah, I have a question about that. My greaves are just marked as dungeon spawned while these are actually crafted. Whats up with that?
Ruby shrugs, while we got the gauntlets in this dungeon they are not from the dungeon. The system rewarded Sammy and while it could spin up a pair no problem why bother? It has ess to all kinds of resources and can literally pop quests for people to make stuff, so it does just that.
We dont have any decent crafters in the settlement or this sort of thing would have happened from the other end. A quest will pop up for the creation of some specific item. Complete the quest and the item disappears and what it promised shows up. A popr reward for that sort of thing is to have the system retrieve sentimental items that are lost.
Ace sighs, I can definitely see that being a widespread thing ons like earth. With how many people we have lost, the system must have a glut of potential rewards for us. Anyway, once Sammy gets her new gear on we can move out. After the next room we have more birds to pluck and not only is the room shorter but there are two more axebeaks.
After Sammy equips her gauntlets, they move into the next goatherd room. This time though the kobold is on alert for them and so only loses one goat before she calls them back. Of course an even fight isnt very even when the enemies have a good number of levels on them. Though they do manage to get a few more shots in on Jack and Sammy.
In the next room the team line up like in the previous axebeak room, but this time they dont get a chance to shoot first. With the axebeaks being closer to the group, they notice them and start to charge right away.
Ace had worried about this though, so he was prepared. He drops and ps his shield into the ground. In front of the group, arge patch of vines spring up and coil around the charging birds. Two of them fall while the other four struggle to move through the area. This dy gives Og and Ruby time to kill the fallen birds from range.@@novelbin@@
Still four of the axebeaks crash into the front line. However, the vines had slowed them enough that not only was Ace back on his feet and ready, but all three of them held their ground.
Jack had blocked one bird by himself, but without a shield he wasnt able to counterattack. Susan who was right behind him though was up for it. She slips in around his side and sinks a dagger right into the birds throat.
With a gurgly squawk the bird kicks out and sends her flying back. Susan hits the ground and tumbles back safely. The only thing hurt is her pride at being hit by such an obvious attack. Still her distraction gave Jack enough time to pull back his mace and give the bird a grand ol whack to the noggin. The neck wound might have eventually killed it but the mace left nothing to chance.
Off to the side the other three birds are in a bit of a tangle. Ace had dropped the vine field as soon as the birds passed it and instead channeled it through his shield. As the birds hit him and Sammy, the vines burst out from the shield and wrapped them up so they cant move away. With the vines reduced to such a small area, they easily held on this time.
Behind the two Ruby is careful with her shots so as to not burn the vines, but Og is having a field day of it. Sharp pieces of scrap metal are slicing the birds up left and right. Then from the side Jackes in with a powerful swing of his mace and takes out another of the birds. This loss marks the end for them as with only two left they dont stand a chance. Ruby, tired of holding back, releases tworge whips of fire and strangles both birds. Sure, it burns off most of the vines, but that doesnt matter when both of the monsters are dead.
Fight over they collect the loot. Some of the birds had even dropped feathers, which Ace was certain Jim would find a use for. Fletching has toe from somewhere. The rest of the group has gathered up and are read for the next room but he stops them.
So there isnt anything new in the next room. Problem is there are a lot of old enemies all jumbled up. We have two waves of axebeaks and two waves of kobolds. Worse yet, the kobolds have ranged options. Sure they dont have any magic, but a sling bullet will kill just as dead as the spell stone bullet.
Sammy, I want you to guard against ranged attacks. Og, you provide suppression so there is less for her to guard us from. Ruby, while I am going to be the tank I wont be using my vines so feel free to let loose. Jack, without my vines I can only take one bird so pound the other. And Susan? Once again, do your thing.
n in ce, they advance into the ramp room. The axebeaks charge down as soon as everyone has entered and the closest kobold slinger fires off a shot she must have had readied.
Sammy nts herself in front of the others and blocks the rock. Behind her Ace sets up as one bird ms into him and knocks him back a few steps. Jack has a better time of it as he instead dodges, swinging his mace around. With a solid thwack he caves in the back of the birds head and knocks the axebeak over dead.
Ruby sends out fire ribbon after ribbon, killing the other axebeak after the third shot as Ace holds it off. All the while Sammy is moving back and forth to block the kobolds potshots. With the birds dead the five of them charge up the ramp and around the corner to face the three kobolds.
Five versus three isnt the fairest of fights, and so the kobolds soon fall. Ahead of the group are two dead axebeaks so they keep charging up the ramps and right at the distracted group of six, no, four kobolds. Susan is on the other side of them holding off thest four kobolds while twoy dead at her feet. The group continues their charge right into monsters. While the kobolds noticed them approaching, they had too much of their attention on Susan and so died between the two fronts.
Following the Other Wall – Chapter 69
With the ramp room finished the group all gathers on the wooden tform in the next room. Across the way Susan can see the teau that her husband had told her about with all the nts, but that would have to wait. With how he exined it, any attempt to climb it before they cleared the kobolds was pure folly.
Ace lets the people who havent been to this room yet take it in. All the trees and the cliff across from them looks quite impressive to see inside a cave. He ps his hands to get their attention, then exins to the new people how the room went downst time. Ace had already gone over it this morning, but a quick reminder doesnt hurt anyone. Okay, now that I have gone over that again, does everyone remember the n of attack?
After everyone answers positively, they head down the spiral staircase closest to the wall. On the floor, the group goes in the opposite direction Aces group had taken yesterday. They follow the wall around to the cliff and then into the heavy forest.
Just a few short strides in, theye across the goatherd and her goats. Ace nods and motions to Og and Ruby. Og pulls out a water balloon filled with something milky white while Ruby channels her magic. As she prepares Og watches the goatherd kobold carefully. Once she is closer to the group than any of her goats, he throws the balloon.
It strikes side on to the kobolds face and bursts. The white fluid wraps around her head and right away hardens and turns a deep grassy green. Shocked by the attack, she tries to scratch off the mess but is unable to free her face. Though she doesnt get much of a chance as momentster a dull red line flies through her neck.
As their goatherd falls over without a head, all the goats panic. A couple try to charge the group while most of them run off deeper into the trees. Those two chargers soon join their fallen leader.
Ace gestures onward, okay, first part of the n worked. We should have been noticed by now and less goats than I had hoped attacked, so lets hurry. Maybe we can catch more of them in the corner up ahead.
As one the group rushes along the cliff, deeper into the dense trees. Aces hopees true when they arrive at the corner where the cliff meets the wall. Three of the goats had ended up there and were huddling up. Now cornered, the goats attack. Too little toote as three goats against six adventurers is not a fair matchup in any sense of the word.
Ace nods as they rush along the wall, there should only be three more goats and nine kobolds. If the one kobold is still on that hill then we should be able to count them out for the start of the fight.
They pass through more trees and then suddenly in front of them are the kobolds and what is left of the goats. One of the caster kobolds at the back points at them and shouts. The threest goats all perk up at this and charge. Close behind them follow the three kobolds with clubs while the dagger kobolds break off to the side away from the wall.
Susan nods, three nkers, I have them. And she fades into the trees to meet them. Ace trusts her to take care of them so stays in position at the front line with Jack in between him and Sammy.
As the goats bang into their shields, ice shards scream towards them. Behind the frontline Ruby finishes a spell and a red film pops up over the top of the group. As the shards impact it, they sh boil in a bright sh. This leaves a small hole in the film, but as she puts more mana into the spell the holes fill in.
Between the two shield users, Jack takes his time and with a mighty overhead swing crushes two of the goats. Not normally possible, but Ace and Sammy had forced them together. With only a single goat left, Sammy is able to easily skewer it on her sword and pull back in time to meet the charging kobolds.
The mace kobolds saw how the goats ended up though, so stop short of the group and try to approach more defensively. Their shields raised the three separate a little and tried toe at Sammy who was closest to the wall. This however just lets Ace move around to nk them, forcing them into the wall.
Seeing things are under control, Jack disengages from the mace kobolds and then rushes around Ace towards the casters in back. His sudden charge disrupts the healers concentration, causing it to drop the spell it had channeled. On both sides of the healer, the ice mages redirect their magic from the rest of the group, but they are a little toote.
Jack barrels into the left ice mage and knocks it over. The remaining ice mage doesnt fare much better either as a small ribbon of fire burns across its hand, Ruby now able to do something besides maintain the shield.
The healer kobold backs up behind the burned kobold and quick casts a heal on it. Burned scales ke away, but this is a temporary respite. With no kobolds to hold her down, Ruby has started to pump out her fiery ribbons. One or two have gone towards the mace kobolds, but the lions share are all aimed at the ice mage that just got healed.
While the ribbons arent too powerful as Ruby had focused more on cast speed there is enough of them. Within a few moments of being fully healed, the kobold gets mmed with five ribbons of fire. They slide along the scales, not quite having the power to prate, but it is enough. After seven more ribbons and the healers frantic attempt to save it, the ice mage dies.
As soon as it falls over the healer isnt long to follow. Off to the side Jack had easily dealt with the other ice mage and was just waiting for the right time. Thus ready he was able to pounce in and with a deft swing of his concrete mace he smashed the healers head in.
Back with the mace kobolds Ace and Sammy have held them off with their shields and suppressing fire from Og. Now though the mage kobolds are all dead the duo goes on the offensive. It starts with a well-aimed lead sphere from Og which takes out one of the kobolds eyes and they follow it up with a synchronized shield bash.
They bash the three uninjured kobolds back into the wall, leaving the half blind kobold to stand alone. It doesnt do a good job of it though, and another shot from Og drops it to the floor. Ace charges at the other two with Sammy just behind him. She just had to take a moment to coup de grace the fallen kobold.
The two have barely picked themselves up from the wall when Ace ms them into it again. Worse for them, Ace has charges his shield with some mana and the vines spring out and grapple them. As they struggle in the vines Sammy slides her sword home into the heart of one while Ruby decapitates the other with a well-ced fire ribbon.
With all the enemies dead the group holds themselves battle ready. Only once the monsters start to dissipate do they rx. Ace shakes his head, that went better than yesterday. Plus it looks like nothing has changed in this room, which is nice. The only shame is that the hill kobold either doesnt always spawn up there or it had enough time to get down.
Ruby shrugs, you win some, you lose some. What is important is to make sure the winning outweighs the losing. Now all that is left is to loot it all.
Ace shakes his head, no, we need to check on the core again. Chances of it having a third floor are slim to none, but who knows if it added something new between it and us.
At this point Susan ghosts out of the forest with a smile. What? You arent going to wait for me to confirm I finished my job?
Og rolls his eyes, after what you showed in thest room? You and Jeremy are way above our skill level if not level level. If you couldnt handle those three de boys, I would be highly disappointed in you.
She shrugs, whatever, Im going to go and climb that cliff. My husband cant be the only one who can get up there.
Ace ps his hands before she can walk off. Let me repeat. We Are Going To Check The Core. We, as in all of us. Not only can you climb the cliff afterwards, but we all will. It was unbelievably tough for Jeremy to climb it and I want to know if it is the same for everyone or just matched to the person. I have a hunch on how it works going by how he described it. If my hunch proves true, then I might just require all of our core members who make it here try and climb it.
Susan sighs, but what Ace said made sense so she cant really go against it. That sorted out they all head towards the forest rooms exit to check on the core. Though once they confirm that yes, this is the end of the dungeon. She runs off to give it a go, with the group following behind at a more rxed pace.@@novelbin@@
By the time they reach the cliff, Susan has already climbed up a third of the way. Og is about to start his climb when Ace shakes his head. No, wait untilst. Youre the only one of us who could reasonably attack while climbing.
Then he turns towards Sammy, you can start your climb now, Ruby will follow you once youre about as far as Susan is. He nods to Jack, I go after Ruby and you can keep Ogpany. Dont start your climb until three of us have either made it up or given up. If anyone falls, youre in charge of catching them. I dont think the space will warp the falling distance so even if you cant catch them, it wont be too bad but still, better safe than sorry.
He ps his hands, I want all of you to try your hardest to reach the top. I dont know if Jeremy told Susanst night, but after talking to him we suspect you can get a very nice reward for climbing this cliff.
Everything nned out the group sits back to wait their turn. One by one they all start their climb until only Jack and Og are at the bottom. The four climb and climb and climb until finally one of them reaches the top. Not Susan, she is still only at the halfway point, but rather Ruby.
At the top of the cliff Ruby dredges up ast burst of energy and drags herself over and onto t ground. Minutester she is still there out of breath when Ace pulls himself up as well. Layed out beside her, he pants, I didnt think I was this out of shapepared to the others.
At this point it takes a good ten minutes before Sammy reaches the top and for Jack to start his climb. Ace leans over the edge and shouts down, Og, you might as well start now. No reason to hold us up at this point. I was worried something might have changed up here, but it seems clear.
More time passes and everyone besides Susan has made it to the top, though she isnt too far behind. Just a few more minutes and she too is able to pull herself up over the edge.
Time and More Runes – Chapter 71
Ally nods, your stats areing along quite well, especially your agility with those runes. Though now that I think about it we havent checked the description for it yet.
Hmm, Doyle thinks about it and nods, I think youre right. [System, can you show me the description for Agility please?]
{Agility: The finesse of ones dungeon. Your basic ability to have things like moving bits and pieces. Whereas normal creatures agility will represent their ability to dodge, dungeons instead gain the ability to move their territory in the outside world. Enough points in agility will allow a dungeon to shape their influence and even move depending on entrance type.}
Ally ps, now that is interesting! Go take a look at the area outside your dungeon. We might have just gained some ability to help those founders keep your energy well secret.
Sounds like a n, and Doyle shifts his view to just outside the dungeon and he could feel the difference right away. Before the border of his influence was like a mist wall, constantly shifting. Now though, it has solidified enough that he could draw a line where it ended. This sudden rity reveals and yet at the same time provides a solution to a new problem. The area is expanding.
The founders had already put up a basic earthen berm beyond where they thought his energy well ended, but Doyle can see the range has already reached that wall. His increased agility allowed him to pull the edges inward. Not by much, but enough that there was a handspan distance between it and the berm.
Doyle turns his attention back to Ally. Okay, just headed off a potential problem. The range of my energy well was expanding, but with the increase in my agility I was able to pull it back. The only downside is I wasnt able to control my energy well and influence separately. Maybe with more agility that will be possible, but for now my sight will be limited to the dirt berm they made.
Ally shrugs, we dont really need to be some all seeing being on the outside. For now, I am more interested in why your pattern database went up so much. You havent done much with it that would boost it like that. Databases tend to be some of the slower growing skills in the first ce, and we are past the point of elerated growth.
Okay, Doyle nods, lets take a look then. [System, show us database please.]
{Dungeon Patterns: goat lv11, material patterns lv7 > 9, armor patterns lv5 > 8, food patterns lv6 > 7, shrubbery lv6 > 7, kobold lv5 > 7, axe beak lv5 > 6, clothes lv5, Basic Rooms lv5, assassin vine lv4 > 5, weapon patterns lv4, vines lv2 > 3, clover lv2 > 3, horned rabbits lv2, prey insects lv2, horned lizard lv1 > 2
Weapon Patterns: axe lv4, sword lv3, dagger lv2, bow lv2, arrow lv2, mace lv2, staff lv1, wand lv1
Armor Patterns: gauntlets lv1 > 8, greaves lv5, boots lv4, tunic lv3, helmet lv3, shield lv2, cloak lv1
Material Patterns: metal patterns lv2 > 8, dungeon soil lv5, leather lv5, cloth lv5, Earth standard air mix lv2, volcanic rock lv2, wood lv2, wax lv1
Metal Patterns: iron lv1 > 5, copper lv2, tin lv2
Food Patterns: herb patterns lv6 > 7, olive lv3, bread lv1, salt lv2, sugar lv1, wheat lv1, lemon lv1, strawberry lv1
Herb Patterns: sage lv6, aloe lv5, pepper lv2 > 4, mint lv1 > 3, rosemary lv1 > 3,vender lv1 > 3, peppermint lv1 > 3, tea lv1 > 2}
Ally whistles, your herb patterns are doing well for such passive options. Of course, the real star is how gauntlets and iron have skyrocketed. I guess you got something out of Sammys quest after all. With iron at level five you should probably put some ore for it on your next floor. It should have enough density that it is actually worth mining. Making steel is a lot easier with magic involved, so the settlement should be able to use it.
Doyle nods, giving them some metal to work with would be a good way to keep those founders in control. How long until I can make a third floor?
Ally shrugs, you could do it right now. You left the counter up in my room and I have been keeping an eye on it. Since you funneled all the sapient sourced world energy into it and how they have been frantically diving for food, it didnt take long. Most dungeons are slow to grow not because they couldnt grow faster but because without being awake things are done instinctively.
Of course I dont advise you to do it right now. Wait until after the wolvese through. Too much change would probably cause problems for the settlement and tip your hand on the fact that youre awake. Honestly? I dont care if those founders find out. They are going to find out soon enough anyway. What I think we should prevent is outsiders knowing. The outside settlement is well on its way to being an insrmune or some such, so they arent a problem. However someone might notice from simple things like making a floor too quickly. And yes, I am being paranoid.
Doyle chuckles, fair enough. Im sure we will get more than enough nonsense in the dungeon during the wolf horde to exin gaining a third floor. Now the question is what do I do?
Ally shrugs again, wait? There isnt really much more for us to do. Just keep improving your walls, maybe tweak your mobs, you could even go and carve more things up like you did the cliff.
In the end Doyle didnt have a better answer, so settled in for a wait. At first, time seemed to drag, but at some point it was like a switch flicked in his head. The world flowed by outside as he slowly improved the minor things in his dungeon. Stone got denser, monsters would be nudged around the floor, and as people delved bits and pieces got streamlined.
Throughout this the settlement developed. They firmed up the dirt berms at first. Then the settlements only carpenter went around and made an actual wall out of logs and rough nks. All the while the founders cycled through the other twentyish people who nned to stay. One by one they were sworn in. One by one they were sent into the dungeon to test themselves on the cliff and train theirbat skills.
In the end only 27 of the people decided to stick around and swear the oath. Of them, not a single one failed toplete the cliff and gain the limit breaker path. Ally to the side only shrugs andments, the difficulty ispletely a matter of willpower. It doesnt require you to exceed your actual limits, just your perceived limits.
Doyle can only shake his core as he goes over the list of new runes.
{Least Personal Rune of Jim: +1 Destiny
Least Personal Rune of Bill: +1 Strength
Least Personal Rune of Tess: +1 Strength
Least Personal Rune of Kellinger: +1 Wisdom
Least Personal Rune of Kelly: + Intelligence
Least Personal Rune of Doctor: +1 Intelligence
Least Personal Rune of Zachariah Treeman: +1 Destiny
Least Personal Rune of Jimmy: +1 Strength
Least Personal Rune of Sarah Bell: +1 Luck
Least Personal Rune of Josh: +1 Intelligence
Least Personal Rune of Justin Smith: +1 Wisdom
Least Personal Rune of Annie: +1 Presence
Least Personal Rune of Dan TheMan: +1 Strength
Least Personal Rune of Garry Johnson: +1 Constitution
Least Personal Rune of Billy Brown: +1 Karma
Least Personal Rune of Lucy Miller: +1 Agility
Least Personal Rune of Nancy Williams: +1 Agility
Least Personal Rune of Mos: +1 Wisdom
Least Personal Rune of Larry Davis: +1 Destiny
Least Personal Rune of Daisy Peachblossom: +1 Luck}
He doesnt even have a chance to figure out who any of them are except Jimmy and even him only because he was the carpenter who built the walls. When he checked his stat line, this was an impressive boost.
{S[16 > 20] A[19 > 21] C[21 > 22] I[15 > 18] W[17 > 20] P[13 > 14] D[18 > 21] K[26 > 27] L[17 > 19]}
The biggest winner being his strength, but every stat gained at least one point. Presence stillgging, but he can work on itter. For now, he sinks back into what Ally called immortals passing. As she described it, it is a state of mind most immortals innately can go into that lets time pass by for them. An important thing to keep their minds as stable as any long lived being can be.
Finally all the settlements preparations have beenpleted. There is an inner wall around the gate and an outer wall, both with an opening lined up to lead directly to the dungeons portal. They armor all 27 of the people who n to stay in crafted wood gear. Most important though is that Jan and everyone else who doesnt want to stay are now standing just outside of the outer wall.
Ace is at the gate along with the eight other public founders, and of course Jim is there as well. Jan is standing in front of all the others who n to leave, and at this point she drops the mask. With a sneer a mile long sheughs, well I dont think we will be seeing you allter. Once the wolves are gone, we will be back to salvage whatever can be saved. Please dont lose anything too good in the dungeon when you inevitably retreat into it.
Ace sighs but keeps on a diplomatic smile. He still cares for the rest of the people who n to leave so can only keep up a front for them. Well, good luck to you all. We n to live through this but I dont know how much will survive the fight. If you doe back here, n to have to start from zero.@@novelbin@@
Jan rolls her eyes, as if you can live through what is toe. I had some people go out and double check on what the forest hobo said. That horde of wolves is exactly what he said it was. Good luck killing even half of them!
With a sad smile, Ace shakes his head, I hope all the people behind you stay safe.
Jan sticks out her tongue, without you nine, I finally have full control! I wille back to dance on your graves. Dont think I didnt notice you pushing me away from the group. How you could do that to one of the founders is beyond me. We all saved us from those thugs after all.
Ace points out away from the forest, just leave already. Watching you pretend you actually care about others sickens me. When youe back, we will be standing here strong. Be ready to get your butt kicked if you think youll be weed back into the council at that point.
Jan sneers, Of course I wont be on any council. Why would the queen need to be on a council? Then she turns away, putting on a stic smile. The people behind her seeing this believe she is putting on a fake smile to hide the sadness of leaving herpanions.
This is almost enough to break her mask, but in the end she just waves at them and yells, time to leave! The other founders promise to kill as many of the wolves as they can to keep us safe. After talking with Ace, we both agree that going out three days should be enough. Once we get there we send back a couple scouts and if things are safe, we can return. Now MOVE OUT!
As therge crowd of people turn to leave, Jan cant help but cackle in her mind. As if I didnt realize that scum, Ace, had put some spies in my group. Going to send them back to scout and then intercept them with my own people. A day after their return date, I can send out one of my trusted people to check on things. It will be too perfect of a chance to remove traitors.
Ace stands back by the wall and shakes his head as the people leave. He stands there with a solemn look on his face until everyone has gone out of sight over a distant rise. Ace turns back to the settlement and smiles. Now we can really have a fresh start. We might have killed the thugs, but the rot remained.
He looks over his shoulder one final time and sighs. He really did worry for the ones who left, but they made their choices.
Ten Wolves Enter – Chapter 72
Morning dawns bright and early, not a cloud in the sky. Ever since Jan and the others had left Ace and the others had been putting the finishing touches on their defense. The walls went higher and the moats lower. The only way into the dungeon now was through a straight corridor about the size of a twone road that faced the forest. They didnt want to take the chance that the wolves would choose to nk them.
Besides that, everyone had been spending as much time as possible within the final circle to take advantage of the power regen. It wasnt much, but all of them had raised their active skills a level or two. Some of the people had even gotten enough to finish out some paths. Now though, it was just a matter of waiting.
Ace has gathered everyone about halfway to the entrance. Today is the day and by Jims calctions the wolves would be here around noon. A little odd that they would attack by day. His best guess is this is to help the lesser shadow wolf.
While a shadow creature attacking in the middle of the day might seem odd, his skills all tell him that is actually the best time for them. As the saying goes, the brightest light casts the darkest shadows. Now if it had been a darkness wolf or some such, it would be different. But for now, everyone is just thankful that they dont need to light the entire area.
The sun climbs higher in the sky until it reaches the peak. As if this was a signal, numerous wolves flow out of the forest. At the front though not for long are some wolves withrge bs of stone covering their weak points. Right behind them and quickly overtaking the stone wolves are the much smaller wind wolves. They are being led by thergest wolf, the packs father. Despite being a wind wolf like the others his size far outsses even the next type people notice, the dire wolves. The magical extension of a normal wolf, the dire wolves are all chest high behemoths and yet still looking well proportioned. They guard thest member of the pack. A normal enough looking wolf if it wasnt for the shadows wafting off her and fur, which is a shifting shade of ck and gray.
From the back row of the defenders a girl armed with a bow yells out, 50 wind wolves, 38 stone wolves, 7 dire wolves, and 1 lesser shadow wolf for a total of 96 wolves!
Ace nods, Thanks, Annie. Now you all heard her, Jims count was right, so we are in for a tough fight! Since Annies skill has confirmed this I want everyone to stick to the primary n. Doctor and Kellinger, you both retreat to the side wall now. The rest of you remember their position and if any of you get hurt badly or feel unwell retreat to them! Youve all been sworn in, so I dont want to lose a single soul here.
Kellinger grumbled about being on the sideline but had to agree with Aces decision. With his ability to shape the earth he would be able to save more people by lifting them out of harms way and up to Doctor so he can heal them.
When they get to the wall, he cant help but take a moment to admire his work. For the rest of the walls everyone had done some work, but the corridor was all him. Three days of nonstop work and the use of the only mana regen potion anyone had found yet to make it. Two walls made of stone and silky smooth, they are masterful examples of what magic can do even at lower levels. He had even made them bigger at the top by a slight amount, so the walls had a slight overhang to them. If the wolves couldnt jump over it in one go, they just werent getting over it.
Back with the others, the first barrage of ranged attacks goes out. Arrows carved by thest remaining carpenter fly out. Though while Jimmys work was decent, wooden arrows arent all that effective against stone and the smaller wind wolves are more than able to dodge. A few of the people do have skills to boost their uracy or damage, but for now they hold off. Better to save their resources for defense.
The wolves get closer and a second wave of arrows falls upon them. This time the wolves are close enough for passive skills to really show their stuff. Arrows under the correction of skills are shifted slightly before release. Almost like magic they find gaps in the stone wolves defense ornd right where a wind wolf dodges. Still not enough to bring any of the wolves down, but in a battle of attrition every little bit counts.
At this point Ace gives an order and allows the archers to fire freely. Some of the more skilled can now really let go, creating a rain of arrows, though these have little effect. On the other end is Jim. He is standing back with bow drawn, just waiting for the right moment. Then ites and with the slightest movement of his fingers releases the bowstring. The arrow, made through the cooperation of Kellinger and Jimmy with a stone tip shaped right into the shaft, streaks out. With an almost imperceptible whisper it flies past the frontline and sinks into the eye of one of the closest stone wolves, dropping it dead.
With the first wolf dead they all howl out and the rest of the stone wolves pick up the pace. Now in a full out charge, they close in on the frontline when a field of thorny vines springs up around them. The stone wolves pure mass allows them to continue on but they cant help but be slowed down by this. Especially when a few of them have the thorns wiggle in between their rock defenses.
At the front-line, ten people brace their wooden tower shields. While there isnt much technique put into their construction, the door-like nks of wood are able to hold against the collision. A couple of the originals creaked and showed signs of cracking, but Ace had positioned them between theter models and so held up.
To the sides ten of the wind wolves ignore the frontline and attempt to nk. With the assistance from their wind magic they easily scale the outer walls but are stymied by Kellingers stone fortifications. Unable to make a quick nking attack, they continue along the outside of the corridor and make it into the inner ring.
Back at the battle, the father wolf howls at them to attack, but they hesitate. When they were with the rest of the pack it was easy to do what was needed, but this close to the portal? It called to some primal instinct, the desire to advance and grow. Maybe if they had been born in a world of magic, the wolves would have been able to resist, but that just isnt happening here. They take one final nce back at the pack and then run into the dungeons portal.
Once through, they are greeted by a pair of goats. Not much of a challenge for ten magical wolves, in fact it only takes a handful of wind des to bring the two down. The wolves now inside are no longer drawn to advance deeper quite as strongly, and so they settle in to feast.@@novelbin@@
Of course being in a dungeon they dont have much of a chance to take a bite before the goats fade away, leaving only a single portion of meat. This angers them and they let out a savage howl and the oldest in the group eats the piece in one bite.
Now pulled by their anger at whatever has taken their prey, the wind wolves charge through the corridors, wiping out the next room of four goats. Once again the goats fade away and a couple more wolves get a bite to eat, but this doesnt quench their rage.
Into the vine room and for the first time since entering, the wolves face a challenge. From the underbrush the kobolds dash out and jump on the backs of two wolves. With a death grip on their daggers, the two start to saw away at their unwilling mounts necks. The other wind wolves are quick to respond, but not before the two that got ambushed had died. Then there were only seven wolves left.
Seven wolves? They looked around. Where was the other? Then they look up. Above them, the assassin vine had grabbed the frontmost wolf while the others had gotten distracted by the kobolds.
Now noticed it reaches down with a few more vines to grab some more snacks. Now alert to the danger, only one more wolf falls to the monster. Freaked out by the nt, the six remaining wolves hug the walls to get past it and run deeper into the dungeon.
Over the next four rooms, they regain some of their confidence as the small groupings of goats are still no threat to them. In the next room they no longer outnumber them. Not worrying about this the wolves stream into the big goat room and attack.
With all the noise they had been making, the goats knew something wasing and were ready. Onees in from the side and rams into thest wolf through the entrance and keeps on going until it ms into the wall. The other five wind wolves dont notice this though and continue their attack on the rest of the goats. Air des whipping out ahead of them as they close in to finish their targets with their teeth and ws.
The five goats have a hard time fighting thisbo, but they hold out long enough. The sixth wolf is now dead against the side wall. Angered even more by this the wolves soon kill thatst goat but the damage is done. There are only five wolves left in the group.
A little skittish now but still angry, they move into the next room. Seeing it empty, they take a moment to nip a few berries before they continue. Though as they enter the kobold room, a trap goes off. It wasnt exactly well hidden, but the wolves didnt know to look for traps in the first ce.
From up on the ceiling, a small log swings down and knocks over the first two wolves. If they had been humans, the log would have likely kept going but with the size difference the wolves instead take a direct hit to the chest, stopping it.
Then, as the rest cautiously enter the room, a storm of hail pelts down on them. From the back of the room, the ice mage kobold and healer kobold have cast a spell together under the orders of the leader. Whereas before the ice mage could only manage some icicles, she is able to create a much more impressive spell with a mana infusion from the healer.
The three wolves still on their feet decide this would be a good time to leave. Sadly, that option is taken away from them as they stumble over the hail on the floor. With the wolves controlled, the leader orders the goats and melee forward.
With a charge, the five goats take on the two wolves that had fallen for the trap while the melee goes at the other three. There isnt much suspense to the fight though, as with magical support the poor wind wolves dont stand a chance. The kobolds all cheer with the defeat of the wolves as Doyle watches on.
Though once the fight is finished, he turns his attention to something else. With amand, the system throws up a couple blue screens for his perusal.
{Wind Wolf (lv4) pattern acquired at lv4}
{Wind Wolf (lv4)
S[6] A[15] C[3] I[3] W[5] P[10]
Skills: Teamwork lv5, Bite lv3, Wind de lv1
Cost: World Energy[75]}
All the Wolves and Stats – Chapter 74
{Wind Wolf (lv4) pattern goes from lv4 to lv6
Stone Wolf (lv4) pattern acquired at lv4
Lesser Shadow Wolf (lv9) pattern acquired at lv2
Wolf patterns consolidated into Wolf Patterns at lv8
Dungeon Wolf pattern derived from Wolf Patterns at lv5@@novelbin@@
Level Gained!
Level goes from 1 to 2, Strength goes from 20 to 21, Agility goes from 21 to 23, Constitution goes from 22 to 24, Intelligence goes from 18 to 20, Wisdom goes from 20 to 27, Perception goes from 14 to 15, Destiny goes from 21 to 25, Karma goes from 27 to 30, Luck goes from 19 to 21}
{Stone Wolf (Lv4)
S[8] A[3] C[18] I[3] W[3] P[5]
Skills: Teamwork lv5, Steadfast lv3
Cost: World Energy[75]}
{Lesser Shadow Wolf (Lv9)
S[5] A[23] C[6] I[4] W[10] P[10]
Skills: Teamwork lv5, Bite lv3, Shadow Phasing lv1
Cost: World Energy[500]}
{Dungeon Wolf
S[5] A[7] C[3] I[3] W[5] P[8]
Skills: Teamwork lv5, Bite lv3
Cost: World Energy[50]}
Ally whistles, 24 point increase! Your stat growth is getting to the level of a promising child from a world level group. Admittedly, the points are more spread out than they usually have. Those kids tend to go for at least 15 or 16 points in their main stat.
Doyle tears his attention away from all the new wolves he has gotten. So, whats a world level group? On one hand, I assume that means an organization that has global reach. On the other hand, that is going by my background, which is based on a civilization which was is limited to a single in the first ce.
Allyughs, A little of column A, a little of column B. It isnt good enough to just be all over a world. That isnt hard with magic around. Rather, you need to be recognized by the system as a major power on said world. It basically represents that if you want something that is on your world, you can likely get it.
What is important about this is that their direct descendants will have training such that gains like yours would be fairlymon. I expect you to smash past them though as you level slowly and they only count as children if they are below a certain age and under level ten.
Doyle nods, That makes sense. Now, though, I have to ask. Do you think I should start work on my next level right away or wait?
Ally gestures out towards the people taking care of the wounded. The founders out there will want to know if the wolves are well and truly dead. I would wait to change anything until they can do that. Though speaking of wolves, look at the lesser shadow wolf! It doesnt have the best stat line for that level of monster, but the shadow phasing makes up for it many times over! The simple ability to move through shadows will be so powerful in our dungeon if only because we can design ces in a way to provide the perfect shadows. Sad that we wont get it for a few more floors.
Doyle sighs, The price is a little up there as well. I guess it is to be expected from a monster which starts at level nine. Though that brings up the whole stats thing. I remember you saying something about ten being the baseline stat based on the human average. And the fact that most level two monsters will have a stat at 11. With that in mind, when I look at the wolves it seems a little odd.
The stone and wind wolves are both level four to start and cost the same. On the other hand, the wind wolfs main stat is only at 15 while the stone wolf goes all the way to 18. Since the skills can affect this, I guess it mighte from that, but it still seems weird.
Ally shrugs, There isnt really a guideline for monster stats. The only reason for level two having a stat of 11 is because that is the one point anyone has been able to really pin it down. While an 11 in a stat isnt a feat that is beyond humanity, even without the system and magic, you can get some high stats just through training. Rather, it is the point where you end up on the good side of the bell curve of unassisted human ability.
However, even then, it isnt all that cut and dry. After all, how in the world does a wolf only have 5 strength? Humans are an endurance based race that developed to chase their prey to death. Or rather, that is how it is here on your. While this universe you live in tends to develop a lot of humans, they dont all develop like they do here. The whole ten is average thing is one of those interesting results you get when you average stuff. After all, the average of ten people where nine have five points of strength and the tenth has 55 is still ten.
Humanity is just so diverse that despite the crazy examples of how high a stat can be, there are just as many shockingly low examples to counterbnce each other. It doesnt help that this number justes from the optimal stats of a person when they be an adult. Technically, humans on your should have a constitution nearing 20 when they reach adulthood. None of you are endurance hunting anymore, so it rarely happens, but thats life.
Doyle shakes his core, That makes it sound like the whole ten thing is more of a gimmick than actually useful.
Allyughs, You arent entirely wrong there. However, it is a good watershed moment. Getting to ten in every stat is generally seen as important out in the wider world. That is actually what most people use their stat points on when they get them. Focus on per level bonuses for the main stats while putting the loose points into those that dont matter as much. Of course, reality isnt like your worlds roleying games. There are no dump stats.
Doyle nods, That never made sense, anyway. Especially with how some things are connected to one another. What good is being super strong if you cant hit anything?
Ally smirks, Exactly! Though there are still those who feel they can get away with aggressive specialization. Particrly if they decide to go with a specific set of stats. The most popr of course being the so-called body cultivators. They throw all their focus on only getting points in their three body stats.
This is popr because early on it works. In fact, not only does it work, it works extremely well! A true body cultivator would be able to steamroll your dungeon by themselves. Of course, they soon stall out. Being able to bash every normal monster will get you levels quickly but without mental stats you will soon find yourself charmed and without any soul youll find curses sting all the more. That aside, we should go and watch the founders for a bit. Ive monitored them while we went over all of this and theyve gotten to an important thing.
Doyle turns his attention to a gathering of the 27 people who stayed behind. Ace is at the front of the group and all around them are the butchered remains of the wolves they had killed. Stretched out over stone frames are pelt after pelt, all in the process of tanning.
Ace clears his throat, So we lived. Just look around and you can see that. We now have enough food tost us for a while and technically dont have a reason to dive anytime soon. Problem is that this isnt the end. There are a lot of loose threads out there still. Jan and her cronies have control of most of the normal people from here. Even before that, we had those small time thugs escape by the river. Besides, anyone who thinks those wolves will be the only ones toe here has their head in the sand.
Now, more than ever, we need to get stronger. We need to dive into the dungeon over and over to train ourselves. However, we need to be smart about it. Levels mean nothing without the skills and paths to back it up. I dont want a single one of you to be diving into the dungeon more than once a day. If youre just bored, stick to the inner circle and train any skills that need to be powered.
Besides that, even the wolves might not be finished. We need arge group of people to delve into the dungeon and make sure they have all died and we need to do it now. If the dungeon killed even just those first ten wind wolves, it likely has enough to gain a new floor. Who knows what kind of floor it will make if there are still wolves atrge. Now who wants to go in? I n to delve in and want at least two other founders with me and a total of 12 people. Anyone want to volunteer before some of you get voluntold?
The gathered peopleugh at thest bit before they settle in to decide who will go. Doctor bows out right away and points out a couple of people to not be allowed to go. They still need healing and Im the one who can do it. With that announcement, Doctor grabs the two people and drags them back to the medical area.
After that, the first person to volunteer is actually Kelly. As she puts it, she, wanted to study how the dungeon is reacting to the wolves invading.
With another founder signing up for the delve, the rest of the people all start to volunteer and soon Ace has enough people to delve the dungeon. He even had to turn down a few. Thank you all for wanting to join me in this delve, but we need people out here even more! We are at our weakest right now and it is the perfect time for something to swoop in and take advantage of us. There is a reason I restricted the number of founders who could join me.
That settled, Ace and the other 11 people entered the dungeon. With twice the number of people than a normal party, the first floor loses all challenge. The only difficultyes from the logistics of getting so many people through the hallways in time to join the fight. In the Kobold room, they dont even need a n. Instead, they just pour into the room. With two magic users to counter the kobold mages and a third to dish out some crowd control, the melee fighters easily clean up the enemies.
Without pause for loot or to harvest the nts, they enter directly into the second floor. Through the entrance and into the second room, one of the magesys down a cloud of dust. From behind one of the far boulders, the group hears coughing. The other two mages in the group fire off some explosive magic, taking out the two kobolds that had been hiding there.
Ace advances on the boulder and, after finding them dead he sighs, We cant be sure yet, but it seems likely that the wolves have all died. If the dungeon has a third floor, they might be there instead. Even with the mobs respawned, we still need to clear the floor so dont let your guard down!
Of course, there arent anyone actual threats for their group on this floor either. In fact, the forest room is even easier for them to fight in as it gives them enough space to properly spread out. With all the enemies dead they check on thest room on the floor. Seeing the core there Ace lets out a long sigh, Okay people, were done here! The wolves are all dead. We should get out of here so the dungeon can process whatever gains it might have made.
New Floor, New Monster – Chapter 75
Doyle watches them leave and sighs. Well, thats taken care of. I have a few things I would like to tweak on my current floors, but first, making my third floor. Unless you think I should do something else first? And he nods to Ally.
Ally shrugs, A third floor isnt exactly the single most important thing at the moment. However, it shares that spot with a few other things so why not? Do you have a n for it now?
Doyle rolls his core back, Well yes, but actually no. Both my current floors are linear. You fight through all the monsters and then you end up at my core. Thats more of abyrinth than a maze. Now it isnt a bad thing. Not enough space to really make a bunch of twisting corridors.
With the third floor, the amount of space I have to use is much bigger. Just the square of space I have been limiting myself to will fit almost 30 small rooms across. On the second floor I made use of multiple levels, but in more of an afterthought. While I wanted to make a proper maze of the fourth floor for the wolves, I think number three will be the start.
Ally nods, You do have a bit of space to mess with. Of course you could start using that extra area for farming goats, but actual floor space works as well. And sheughs.
Doyle shakes his core, Fair enough, though that reminds me of something I wanted to do. At the moment, my current goat farm has an equal number of guy and girl goats. That isnt exactly needed. I had it there for variety, but lets change the ratio. One guy to every four girls. Being dungeon monsters I can keep their instincts in check so having multiple guys hasnt been a problem but faster restocking is important.
After he changes that one thing Doyle focuses on his core room once again. As he starts to form the third floor, it seems almost the same yet still different. The pool of energy harvested from sapient beings still sits at the center of his core, pulsing to an unheard tune. Now though, the soundless sound is closer to the surface. Not by much, Doyle isnt even entirely sure if it is real and not his imagination, but there it is.
Doyle once again dives into the pool of power and towards the center. There he finds the same void which is at the same time immeasurably vast yet constrained to a single point in space. With a sustained push the void remains unchanged, yet his core is now inside of it. Once he can no longer press the void out further therees the contraction.
Using the pool of energy outside of the void, Doyle presses down, condensing it all as far as he can. He can tell the pool is shrinking down, bing smaller, and yet the void never changes. Then, as it reaches the point that he cant press on it any harder, the pool of energy shivers. From the edges, he can feel the crystalline structure that had coated it liquify once again and join with the rest.
With a soundless explosion of potential, the liquid joins with the void and the infinite bes reduced to finite. The outer edges of the void gain substance and the center most point detaches before reality can taint it. Thisst seed remains as the rest roars outward like the rushing rapids from a burst dam.
Then Doyle is once again in his core room. The torrent of liquid potential and immaterial void having stabilized another floor. On the edge he can see the true void between dimensions but also the second floorsst room pressing down on the edges.
{Third floor dimensionally anchored
World Energy cap +2400 [Constitution(24) * 100]
Third floor spending limit set to 4200 [Previous floors limit(2200) + Intelligence(20) * 100]
Random monster package purchasable for 1000we
Monster level cap updated}
As Doyle looks over the message, Ally flies in through the portal and joins him. Once she has settled on his core though he has a question. What happened to the random monster package? It doubled in price.
Ally looks at the message and nods, Okay, it looks like the price keeps doubling every time you used. Also, you only get a new random monster package if you use thest one. That means it will get to the point where you cant just buy it every time you make a new floor. However, on a good note, the price only goes up when you do buy it. So if you didnt buy it now, the price wont jump to 2000 when you get the next floor.
Doyle sighs, Fair enough I guess. This is probably to keep things in check soter on a dungeon doesnt have an endless list of useless summons. Of course, that is under the assumption it stays random. Would a fire focused dungeon still have a chance of getting water monsters?@@novelbin@@
Allyughs, It says random! What do you think? Just give it a roll and we will see what you get. It might answer your question. Of course it might not. Once again, random!
Doyle rolls his core to the side, [System, I want to purchase the random monster package]
{Selecting Random Monster
Myconid Sprout Selected}
{Myconid Sprout (Lv3)
S[4] A[4] C[15] I[1] W[10] P[4]
Skills: Summon Paralysis Spore lv2
Description: The ssic mushroom men found in any worlds darker corners. While it is possible for them to develop sapience, this is a racial feature which can take millennium to evolve. Even then the Myconid Sprout is patently incapable of having a soul and so are generally considered as fodder and pets to Myconid Adults. Any travelers should beware, while a single sprout is harmless you will never find just a single sprout. Their spores can cause the growth of not only normal fungus but new sprouts.
Ecology: water, dirt
Cost: World Energy[100]}
{Myconid Sprout gained at lv5
Ecology Updates...
Water gained at lv1
Dirt already exists in the database...
Dungeon Soil goes from lv5 to lv6}
Allyughs, Well that wasnt how I was expecting you to gain water. For a that is supposedly mostly water you just couldnt seem to get any sizable amount. You would have eventually once people started to need supplies to delve deeper, but still.
Doyle sighs, So what is with the cost? The stat line is horrible and yet the sprouts cost twice what a kobold does.
Ally points to the description. Notice how it mentions growing new sprouts? Myconid Sprouts should be amunal monster. You cant summon just one of them. If your ants were a monster, they would be the same sort of thing. Not the queens, of course, but the same would be true for different types of Myconid.
Also, since it doesnt mention a specific number of sprouts, my guess is that stat line is for the smallest possible myconid you can summon. Mushroom monsters have this annoying quality that they can grow to ridiculous sizes and their stats will grow with them. One summon of sprouts will likely get you a random selection of sizes. Of course, that doesnt mean you can get lucky and have a single sprout summoned with overpowered stats. My bet is each summon will you at least ten of the critters.
Doyle nods, So what about the mushrooms it mentions them growing with their spores? I didnt receive a mushroom entry in my database.
Ally shrugs, They arent technically real mushrooms. You get someone with an analysis spell to check them and the mushrooms will show up as myconid mushrooms instead of something like Amanita or Death cap. While they might grow to look like natural shrooms, that is just an affection they put on to blend in. Plus the paralysis isnt a normal poison. Ites from the spores touching you, unlike how with most mushrooms you have to eat them.
Now while it is interesting to dive into these info dumps. Really happy that the system is still feeding me them by the by. But I think you have a third floor do build. The founders outside have decided to keep people out for a while, but that wontst forever. You should have the new floor finished before peoplee through again.
Doyle had some more questions but had to agree with Allys point and so turned to the third floor. He wanted a more maze-like area but a normal maze would soon be boring so he had to figure out a way to make it interesting. The only constants would be where the entrance and exit were.
First heid out a very basic branching maze. That got thrown out quick, though it reminded him of one handy ability he had. The ability to move around the rooms on a floor for free. With that, Doyle takes some time to y around with basic shapes to make the maze out of. A special bit of fun is that he has threeyers to work with on this floor and so could throw in a bunch of up and down ramps. It was even possible to make it so that the old trick of following a wall wouldnt work. Not that he nned to do that. The third floor is much too early for that.
But even with this it alles back to needing to keep the maze exciting. Doyle coulde in and change it once a week or so. With being able to move stuff around so easily, it wouldnt be too much of a problem. The question is what happens when he has tens or hundreds of floors? He cant exactly be changing all the maze floors at that point.
There should be a method of making this work. Probably rted to automating the floor. As luck would have it though, he currently has enough wisdom to automate another floor. In fact, after he checks his stats Doyle is only one point away from hitting 30 and getting a third floor to automate.
For now he focuses on how to automate the shuffling of the floor. When he tried just doing multiple actions, the automation would just repeat all the actions in order. Doyle clears the automation and takes a step back and asks himself what exactly did he want from this floor?
A maze of tunnels stretched over threeyers was the obvious first step. He also wanted to add some mining nodes. The people outside had started to work on crafting and with magic it wouldnt be too hard to smelt the ore. Besides that, he wanted the entrance and core room to be at the same ce on the centeryer.
After he puzzles over it Doyle figures, he might have thought of a way. Off of the entrance room Doyle makes a small square bubble and creates a six-sided die. Though instead of numbers he puts the letters U, D, N, E, S, and W for each of the directions. This die will allow for a randomized map and he even has a n for how it will work.
Starting at the core, he rolls a random direction. If the space is open, he moves a random unused room there and connects it up. However if the space isnt open, Doyle rolls a new direction to try, ignoring invalid directions. If this check ever fails three times in a row, it backtracks to the previous room. Then just repeat the steps at the current room until the entire space is connected. Onest pass is used to remove connections to short dead ends and the space will be ready. Now with the regr rooms ced, he just adds copper and tin deposits on opposite sides of the room so people would have to actually work for it.
Variable Sprouts – Chapter 77
Doyle takes another look at how many points he has to spend. 4200 is quite a sizable amount to work with. A little too big with how much most of his monsters cost. Easy enough to take care of with his decision to add assassin vines in the center.
Doyle cuts the amount in half and the result conveniently divides by 300 cleanly. That means seven assassin vines get thrown in the middle region. Though depending on how the kobolds work out he decides that cutting one or two wouldnt be out of ce.
Speaking of the kobolds, Doyle shifts over to deciding on how many should protect each ore vein. Any group that has made it this far arent pushovers or they have a ton of people. Extra numbers wont necessarily challenge them. Not that he doesnt n to throw all the goats at them, but honestly, thats just his theme at this point.
He sits back and thinks about what would challenge the groups that get here. There are still 2100 points to y with so splits off 1000 to use on myconid sprouts. Ten summons of the mushroom men should cover the lower floors and if not. Well, thats what the extra assassin vines are for.
Hmm, with 1100 points I have enough to have a decent group for each vein. So four kobolds each costing 50 points would be 200 and by four veins add up to 800 and I would have 300 for goats. Upping it to five kobolds a group would only leave me with 100 points for the goats and I dont like that.
Now to make groups of four kobolds a challenge I need to equip them right. They have an alright stat line at level 3 with wisdom well ahead of the others at 12. Not the most useful stat for a bunch of miners. Though it might help them spot ore in the walls. The big problem with them is that I dont have any picks for them to mine with in the first ce.
Sigh, I guess I can use spiked maces? After all, whats a pick besides a two spike mace? But really, I only want a couple kobolds in each group to be miners. One of them should be an earth mage. No questions asked there. After all, what other kind of mage would you want when mining?
Well, okay, maybe an air mage to keep things fresh. Luckily this is my dungeon so I dont have to worry about that. Now what should the fourth kobold be? Heh, as if that was even a question. Shillgh time! There will be goats, so there has to be goatherds. And since they will already be in charge of the goats, they can also lead the other kobolds.
Now I have a good 300 points to throw at my goats. That gives me 75 goats to y with and I dont think my kobolds need quite that many. Though if I throw a bunch into another goat farm, it cuts down on how many I can use. Putting 40 into the farm would leave 35, but that doesnt divide by four all that well. Just slip one of those 40 back into the pool though and that gives 36 goats which splits into nine goats a group.
Doyle pauses, Wait a second. I just realized the best thing ever. I can clothe the goats just like I do the kobolds. That means I can give them bags to carry the ore in. I was somewhat joking before, but this will be perfect. They can have the spiky bronze ented helmets and awesome saddlebags. As for the kobolds, I dont think I will give any of them a shield. The goatherd gets a sling and all of them can be decked out in leather gear. No point not to.
Though now that I have finished the rest of the regions all that is left are the myconid sprouts. Lets summon up a batch to see what I have to work with.
One summonter and there are ten myconids on the edge of a puddle. All around them a carpet of mushrooms spreads out with each of them matching other nearby fungi. The myconids themselves are all different sizes, though most average around knee height.
Doyle isnt certain if he got lucky with the draw, so goes and summons another batch. This one has 18 of the sprouts and except for one waist high specimen the rest are all more matched in size to the other shrooms in the area.
Well, lets see what we get out of it when I summon the rest then. No reason to hold back. And he summons group after group of myconid sprouts. In the eight groups that follows he gets 5, 23, 17, 12, 7, 20, 15, and 14 sprouts. That group of five in particr is interesting, as only one of them is actually big. The rest are knee high. That one though, it isnt quite as tall as a person but the sprout is likely taller than some of the shorter people in the settlement.
Doyle shakes his core, To think that every time I summon a new batch in it will be this variable. Now I do get the feeling I could tweak it so things turn out more stable, but I dont really want to. A little chaos wont hurt. Plus it will keep the maze fresh. Who knows if you will face a few big boys or an absolute swarm of the knee highs. Though I think with this I am mostly done. I just need to shuffle the rooms a few times to get a feel for if there is something wrong.
With that in mind he settles in to test it. The monsters wont be able to keep up with the rooms being repositioned, but they can find their way backter. Now Doyle just wants to spot all the potential problems that will arise from letting the floor shuffle around randomly.
After a few shuffles the first problem crops up, which makes the maze too easy. Doyle doesnt want to force people to travel through all the areas, but he wants them to experience a taste of the floor. This side tangent brings Doyle back to theyout at hand. Nowhere in his rules did he say that there couldnt be a direct shot from the core room and the entrance. And it shows.
Doyle sighs and fleshes out the rules he hadid down. The first refinement is that the path between the entrance and core must include all regions of the floor. After all, it isnt any fun if you popte the bottom with mushroom men if no one sees them.
The next change he makes is to deal with a pattern that had been forming. For some reason, the random cement kept putting the ore veins together. Now Doyle has made it so there cant be a direct path between any of them on the top region.
Finally Doyle does what could be seen as undoing the first thing. He puts in ce a rule that the path between the core and the elevator cant be too long. I mean for this floor to only be partially explored. Sure some adventurers would try to full clear it, but nothing is stopping you from going up and down a couple times and finishing the dungeon.
With the ns for the floor figured out Doyle turns toward Ally. At the moment, the poor fairy looks absolutely bored out of her mind. Without adventurers to annoy, there really isnt much to watch, so she jumps on the chance to do something interesting. Over and over she shuffles the floor just like Doyle had done. Yet this time even with fresh eyes on the situation, they cant spot anything that jumps out as wrong.
Doyle is certain he has missed something or other, but for now the floor is ready for people toe traipsing through. Though that brings up the question, how is he supposed to attract new people? Only the founders have made it to Doyles core recently, so it really shrinks the pool.
Finally though, Doyle throws in the towel. The earlier floors are just too dangerouspared to his third floor. He could go back and switch things up. In fact, that is a future n of his but for now he wants to get his fifth floor so he can see what his first boss choice will be.
Frustrated, Doyle turns to Ally. So my first two floors are too tough. They are just one winding hallway, which I admit has to do with the space constraints. The real problem though is the monsters. Not only do adventurers have to fight them all one after another, but they are strong for this early. Any tips?@@novelbin@@
Ally takes a moment to observe the first two floors andpares them to his third. I can see why you are nervous about this. Your third floor is perfectly serviceable, but it feels like it should be the first floor instead. Really, all you can do now is thin the numbers up there. Though look at the bright side, you will probably be able to add a goat farm up there as well.
With a sigh Doyle nods, I figured as much. Do you have any advice on what to remove?
Ally shrugs, I guess the first thing is to get rid of the goats in the entrance room of the first floor. In fact, you probably want to make it a goal to never put a monster in any entrance room. Dungeons that do that tend to get angry people after them right quick. After all, no one wants to hear about some farmer being ravaged by wolves because he took two steps inside the doorway.
Besides that, though? Hmm, do something about that assassin vine on the first floor, I guess? It hasnt been a threat to the founders, so a few more kobolds instead would probably work out for the better.
Doyle pauses and tries to think of a better idea, but falls short. I didnt really want to put more kobolds on the first floor. And dont you dare mention goats. We both know how many goats that would be to rece the ntpletely. Even if I use that extra space to throw on a goat farm, there will still be a good number of points left. Still, not much of a choice. And you know what? It ispletely my fault.
I want to keep the first floor restricted to monsters that I had there to start with. Not that it matters too much. After all, the only other requirements free monster I have at the moment is the dungeon wolf and I wanted to keep them a secret for another week.
Ally raises an eyebrow, Does it really matter all that much if they find out? Youre going to be pping up a floor for them anyway. Showing off the fact you have wolf summons now wont be too out of ce. Plus they should expect it. How many wolves ended up dying in you? Any half smart person will be able to figure out that you probably have wolves now. I wouldnt even be too surprised if the next scouting team is disappointed at theck of wolves.
Doyle shakes his head, You are right. Still, I want to stick to my goals on this one. At this point my dungeon is very much themed around my goats and the kobolds, and it would just feel wrong to put something else there. Even just the assassin vine feels out of ce at this point. Though I guess that decides me, doesnt it? Im going to remove everything from the first floor besides the bread and butter of my dungeon.
Cliff Goat Buff – Chapter 78
Putting his words into action, Doyle goes back to his first floor and gives it a once over to get a feel for what needs changed.
The first thing he notices is the two goats right in the entrance room. They had been there since Doyle had realized he needed a way to kill any bugs or small animals that might wander in. Now though, with the settlement outside, all it does is force people to be ready for a fight as soon as they enter. Not exactly what he wanted, and so he moved the goats over to the second room after the vine hall, which only had a single goat.
Next thing Doyle changes is in the vine room. He has been holding onto the room as being for the assassin vines. Now with a floor that properly uses them, he can finally admit to himself they dont really work. There just isnt enough space to hide them on the first floor unless he turned it all into a mess of vines. So with that in mind he removes thest assassin vine from the room. Then a quick backtrack to straighten out the curvy hallway between the entrance and the second room. Assassin vines were supposed to show up there asionally, but with such a tight space no one ever fell for it.
After the vine room is the row of medium sized goat rooms. Or rather directly after the vine room is a small room attached to the vine room but that feels stupid now so he removes it. Now the next thing is the row of goat rooms. Except he isnt really feeling that setup anymore. Basically all the groups that delve now have settled on six man teams and three goats just is not doing it. With that in mind Doyle connects up the first two and the second two rooms. That way there are now two long rooms with six goats a piece.
Of course, that makes the big goat room out-of-ce now with only six goats. Luckily, Doyle has 300 points to spend because of removing the assassin vine. So with those extra points he throws in three more goats and he doesnt forget to give them matching helmets. Almost finished with the room, he adds a finishing touch by making one of the helmets lootable. Since drops resize for the recipient, there should be any problem and Doyle kind of wonders what it will end up looking like.@@novelbin@@
That still leaves him with 288 points to spend on the floor. Then as he is giving the floor onest look, Doyle realizes he has forgotten something. He can level up the monsters on a floor. That and he has free level ups equal to the difference between the max and min level.
Welp, going to have to go and hand out the free levels on the second and third floor now. Plus now that I am looking at thest room here I realize I havent really added ast room boss thing on the third floor. Though now that I think about it that isnt really in line with what I wanted in the first ce.
Doyle takes some time to ponder over his level design so far. Originally he had wanted to make a more friendly dungeon but his paranoia sort of took over. Now here he is with a final room on the first floor that practically takes a group that are on the high end of hiss people. He shakes his core and recenters himself. This isnt what he wanted, and so it has to change.
First thing he does is separate the olive tree and throne room again. The kobold leader stays in the throne room with all five goats and the other kobolds get pushed into the olive tree room.
That should push the difficulty down a bit. But. But I still want the leader to be a challenge. Right now I have the free levels on her goats. How about I shift them over to her, raising her level to 4. That pushes her agility, intelligence, and wisdom up so she should be a better opponent without being too overpowered. Honestly, the goats get a lot more oomph from leveling anyway, what with that 3 point growth on strength.
Now what to do with the other kobolds. I wont have the leadere and help anymore, but they still feel a little powerful for the first floor. Sigh, I know exactly why. They have two casters. That practically requires the adventurers to have two casters as well just to handle them. I guess I cant help it, Im going to have to remove one of them and I think it will be the ice mage. With just a healer, even groups without decent ranged support will be able to stand a chance.
With a sad heart, Doyle changes the ice mage into another melee fighter. Though first he shifts the lootable wand over to the healer. No point losing that. Then with the new female kobold, he gives her the healers lootable shield to spread the gear out some more.
He nods to himself, That should do. With five kobolds and none of them ranged, a group of six people should be able to handle this. If only because there should be one person free to do what they want. Still doesnt take care of my extra points. There are 72 goats worth of points left.
I guess one thing I can do is up the level of the one goat with the loot. Just bumping it to level four uses 12 more points, so thats a thing. I can also go and up a goat a piece in the two side rooms. The top one can have a level 3 goat and the bottom one a level 2 goat, so there is progression.
Hmm, that puts us at 66 goats left. On the rest of the floor there are 30 goats. Wait, really? Huh, there are exactly 30 goats. I was expecting less round number. Anyway, lets throw three goats in the vine room. Not working with the kobolds this time though, just grazing. Still way too many goats to ce and they just dont have anywhere to go.
Guess I get my goat farm. Goodness gracious, I am going to have so many goats. Welp, 63 goats going to be chilling in the farm. To be fair, I probably will still have to spawn in goats on asion. Though I guess it will depend on if they will go back to the previous farming runs. Without all those weak people around, they wont bother for at least a little while.
Of course I wouldnt be in this situation if my goats werent so cheap. Maybe once I have more space, I can move more into the main floor. For now, lets take a step back and look at what the floor is like now.
Okay, seems good. I can change things upter if it doesnt work out. For now though, I just have to wait and see what the settlement thinks of it. Not that it will do much for the people who stuck around. They all for the most part could beat the floor already. Now how is the second floor looking? I just made it so not much should need changing, but there are those three free levels to use.
Doyle goes over all the monsters on the second floor. However after a quick once over the numbers dont add up right. There just seems to be too many monsters on the floor, even if you dont count the goat farm.
Ally, I have a problem!
In her room Ally stretches and yawns. Werent you just messing around with the third floor or something?
Doyle brings up a screen with his second floor monsters listed out and their costs. At the bottom in red is the number 2494. There are too many monsters on my second floor. I think I forgot to count the assassin vine when adding up the points. Why havent I been warned or smacked upside the head by system?
Ally pauses, reads over the list a couple times and does the math herself. That isnt good. First things first, nuke enough monsters to bring you under 2200.
Doyle doesnt even have to think about it. Just like on the first floor, the assassin vine has be more of a newb gotcha trap. With a simple flex of his mind the assassin withers away. Nothing much else happens, but having it gone does make him feel better.
Ally nods, Okay, now that it is gone lets see what the system has to say about this. I know that you have a little bit of leeway in monsters but definitely not nearly 200 points worth. There should be something in one of the previous tutorial screens. Im going to have to go and read through a lot of stuff. I guess you can go and work on your floors. Just dont overspend again?
Doyle sighs, I didnt want to in the first ce.
Though Doyle does take Allys suggestion and goes back to working on the floors. There arent really any changes that need to be done to the floors structure, so instead he focuses on the monsters. With the assassin vine already gone, one of the major changes has already gone through and now he just has to tweak some of the line up.
First things first is to reduce the number of axebeaks. Three in the first room and four in the second. Now that Doyle had figured out how to use them, their performance had improved by arge margin. In the ramp room, those four are good enough.
Though speaking of the ramp room, Doyle decides to remove a couple of kobolds from the topmost area. One of each loadout and then removes another kobold from the middleyer, one of the ones with just a club.
Then in thest room he takes out one of the ice mages and two of the dagger kobolds. Those monsters removed, Doyle goes back and recalctes the total whiches out at 1594. That leaves him with 606 points to work with, ironically just enough to put in twice the number of assassin vines as he had to remove. Not that he ns to do that.
Instead, Doyle turns toward the goat farm. There are already enough enemies on the floor so decides to add onto the farm. No more goats, though. With 30 in the farm it is enough to rece every goat except the cliff one and still have ten left over to make more. To expand it, he ns to add another monster to the farm. Specifically he ns to add a small kobold vige. There are enough points left over to add in 12 kobolds. Not enough to rece all the kobolds on the floor, but if a group doesnt finish the floor, it will do.
Then to finish off the floor, Doyle dumps all his free levels onto the cliff goat. A level five goat has 21 strength and 20 constitution so normally he would avoid this but the cliff goat is supposed to be peaceful. If someone wants to get violent, then it could be considered as their own fault.
Happy with his second floor, Doyle moves onto the third. Yep, not much to do here. Then again, I did literally just make the floor. Though now that I look over it I have missed one thing. I have carved nothing on the third floor yet. It will be harder here if I want to keep the whole maze thing. Any distinctive art could make it easier to find a way through. I could lean into it. If every room is distinctive, then none of the rooms are.
Doyle sits back to think about it some when Ally whistles to get his attention.
Just a Little Debt – Chapter 79
Ally crosses her arms and nods. Ive figured it out! Back when I was exining the whole monster per floor limit, I skipped a number of screens marked specifically for dungeons that arent awake. Basically, it would have turned a slightly lengthy exnation into me reading a textbook at you. I only found what I needed so quickly because there are some very convenient search tools built in.
Anyway, the answer is simple enough. The system provides some leeway on the early floors so as to allow a dungeon to defend themselves better when they are at their weakest. The subtext to it is that all dungeons will end up overshooting their limits on the early floors. Though that is mostly my guess as the window for it didnt fit the rest of the content and was titled So your dungeon spent too much. Whoever wrote it probably hid it there, so wed only find it when needed.
Now the downside because of course there is a downside. Luckily for us we caught it early because for every time a floor is run and it has too many monsters we go into debt. Not for world energy as that would be too easy. Rather, because the system has to support the monster, we get to pay the cost of it in quintessence. Yes, that absurdly useful and expensive thing that is literally your lifeblood. So lets see how much we owe. [System, disy the quintessence debt].
{Quintessence Debt: 94.08}
Doyle nods, Well that doesnt look all that bad.
He is about to add more but Allyughs and motions for him to stop. Did you forget how much quintessence you were earning before it turned into world energy? You only earned .01 quintessence an hour. That means it would take you a little over four days just to generate a single quintessence. If you threw your entire quintessence generation from then at it, you would need nearly 400 days to pay that off.
Just think of how long that is! It would take you more than a year on your to pay it off, and if I remember correctly, youve only had 32 attempts at your second floor. Now consider a dungeon that might not find out they did this for years! We caught it early and still owe the system so much. Plus it isnt like we can just sink all of your quintessence into paying back the debt. After all, you need it like a human needs water.
Luckily most of our world energy nowes from people delving into the dungeon instead of our regen. My advice is you throw half your quintessence at the debt for now. Sure, that will increase the time to pay it back from 392 days to 784, but you cant really spare much more of it. Besides that, you will be able to generate more quintessence through a few other means.@@novelbin@@
The first is simple enough. Have more people die in our dungeon. And yes, I do mean actually die. Unlike with the world energy you need for the next floor, this cant just be provided by a sapient. Only in death will the small threads of quintessence that hold a persons soul to the mortal coil be freed up. Dont think this is too much of a shortcut, though. Unless you have some ridiculously strong being die in here, most people will only provide dribs and drabs. Likely two to three deaths for just an hours worth of your regen. Of course once a person reaches level ten they should each provide about an hours worth, but they arent exactly falling over themselves to die in your dungeon.
The second method is to recycle system rewards and loot. Generally part and parcel with option number one as people dont tend to willingly part with the stuff. Examples of it would be those gauntlets that founder called Sammy got. Rarer than dungeon loot but seeing as this is a new world there will be more of it than normal. The system has to inject more of it into cirction as there arent enough trained crafters yet.
Third and while not thest is thest semimon option. You can throw your lot in with some god in exchange for help. This doesnt mean you fall under their jurisdiction, mind you. Rather, you can agree to set up something in your dungeon that can help their faith spread. You could think of it as a referral program that not only can get you the quintessence you need but other things depending on how well you do.
Now let me preface what I am about to say about that third option with my opinion. That is to not do it right now. Even though 784 days seems like a lot, you dont have a natural end to your lifespan. While being in debt to the system will make some things harder, it wants you to pay it back. As long as you continue to put in quintessence often enough it will leave you alone and it isnt like there is any interest piling up.
My opinion on it aside, I looked up some stuff because of your early mishap with the goats. You didnt really talk too much about what you experienced, but from what I gathered you have likely gotten a lot of goat experiences from a very specific breed. While basic unaligned animals like a goat can be found with almost any elemental or metaphysical alignment. There are limited examples of fire aligned ones in rtion to religion.
I wont refer to the god by name. We dont want to draw their attention yet, but lets just say they werent from the most popr religion in the area you lived. Anyway, they are a fire god and a guardian deity whose mount is a red goat. While the red goat is a species of goat. The specific one you experienced would have been an offshoot that through their connection with said god gained a strong alignment with fire, lightning, and the sun. And before you ask, guardian deity just means that they are a part of a pantheon and have the role of defending some element of said pantheon.
Doyle sighs, Ive only been on the referred side of those referral programs. To refer others I would first need to know people to refer. Do you have any other specific reasons to not go with this mystery god?
Ally shrugs, The biggest upside to them is also the biggest downside. Since it isnt a local religion, there are many people who could convert to it. On the other hand, it isnt a local religion, so you have an uphill battle. Especially since the roots of the local religion is a wee bit monotheistic. A little hard to keep up now that all the gods are around to muck things up, but it is well rooted.
People are more likely to convert to a religion that isnt already present here before they would convert to one that existed before the system came along. It has been proven time and again. People more easily ept a religion they didnt know about pre-system. Though going by what I have seen of your world pre-system, the olympian pantheon might bag a good number of converts. But they tend to manage that nonsense anyway.
Doyle nods, Slow and steady it is. Though what are the penalties I get for having the debt?
Ally brings up a screen. You actually manage to dip in under a few of the fun penalties. For instance, at every power of ten starting at 100 you gain 10% more experience. As for the stuff you do qualify for? There are 3 so not too heavy. For anyone that owes the system any amount of quintessence they will experience a slower skill growth.
Next for those who owe 10 or more quintessence and are a dungeon core. You get to experience a slower world energy gain from invaders. So weve been actually experiencing this one but we havent noticed because the adventurers who actually dive have grown as well and offset the loss.
Finally at 50 points it hits you where it hurts. Not really, though. You just have to pay more for anything you buy from a system store. Maybe if there was one nearby that would matter. Really, you can just ignore that one as traveling system merchants isnt likely to get around to use anytime soon. Those buggers do like to hit up new worlds to try and scam people but this ce isnt exactly a metropolis or anything.
Doyle takes a moment to think it over and then shrugs, Yeah, most of that doesnt really penalize me all that much. Though if I had to guess they expect to have dungeons owing quite a bit by the time they realize what has happened. Me figuring it out so quickly is probably a rarity.
Ally nods, Just the fact they bother to have the experience penalty scale off of debt based on powers of ten would point to that. My best guess is that most unawakened dungeons will summon monsters until they cant. Though the more I think about it, the sleazier this is. I would bet that most unawakened dungeons in this universe owe the system massive amounts of quintessence.
Doyleughs, Nevermind the fact that not having any interest on the debt is a lie in and of itself. You said quintessence is what keeps your soul anchored? Well, I bet part of skill growth uses miniscule amounts of the stuff and look, the system somehow slows skill growth. An odd thing when skill growth is actually just a presentation of you learning how to do a thing better. Plus where do you think the energy Im not getting from the invaders goes to or that extra charge at a system shop? The system is taking its cut of meat every day that I havent paid it back. Not that I can help it at the moment.
Ally sighs, Youre right. The system is just taking everything it can from you. Not enough to make it harder to pay back the debt, but it is still there. At least, like you said, we caught it early. Now we just have to slowly grind away at it. I guess you can go back to messing with your floors. I n to go over more of this material I had skipped in the past. Its like until now I was studying for a test only to find out all the information was actually used when on the job.
Ally closes all the screens she had brought up while Doyle turns back to the third floor. Even with all those revtions, he still remembered that it hadnt been carved up. Though here isnt much for him to carve. The rooms get shuffled all the time and it removes the ore veins, only to add them back elsewhere.
Then it hits him on what he can carve. While the rooms are random, the monsters are not. More specifically, the goats are all wearing leather gear he can carve into. Doyle even has some inspiration to go off of for the saddlebags. So far he had dealt with space that was bigger on the inside than the outside, and of course he wanted to see if he could simte bags of holding.
The biggest probleming from the design being in multiple dimensions. A little hard to even just doodle something when your canvas is very much not to shape. Still, he soldiers through and after a number of practice attempts manages to draw together all the disparate advice.
With a sampleplete, Doyle focuses on applying the diagram to one of the saddlebags. On the test square, nothing happened when the pattern waspleted. But the real world isnt always so kind.
Shadow Bag – Chapter 80
Just to be careful, Doyle creates one of the leather packs in an unconnected room. No reason to try something dangerous around his other things. He debates having a goat wear it while he carves the design into the saddlebag. Doyle in the end decides that how it is held up shouldnt change anything, so goes with just a protrusion of rock.
With strokes both confident, he already had a design to follow, and cautious, he had no clue how it would go, Doyle carved into the saddlebag. And it fails. The leather was too thin in some ces.
Doyle sighs and whips up another bag with thicker walls. This one he manages to carve all the way but still it fails to do anything. Not sure what is wrong Doyle deconstructs the bagyer byyer. Once he gets to the more delicate parts, the problem bes obvious. While the carved lines are smooth, there are stretches of ckened leather in between some of the closer lines.
I bet if I had a higher quality leather this wouldnt be a problem. My current materials just arent able to quite contain what I want them to. I guess I cant just use the cheapest goat leather on this then. Though that will shoot up the cost that shouldnt be a problem as long as I dont make all the saddlebags lootable.
Now what kind of leather do I want to use? Wait, thats a silly question. I have only one monster whos natural abilities might help make this work. Though can I even use lesser shadow wolf leather when I cant even summon one yet? Doyle shakes his core to clear his thoughts and decides to just give it a try.
The first attempt to create a scrap of shadow leather fails. The second as well, but Doyle can feel that there should be a way to create it. Though that feeling reminds him to stop being so dense. If his instincts say there is a way to do it, let the instincts just do it.
With that in mind Doyle takes a moment to settle his mind. Then once settled he just activates creation with the desire for some shadow leather. Nothing more, nothing less, just a request. That simple request though is enough to do it. As Doyle follows along he even gets a sense of what is happening.
Instead of trying to make just any leather from a lesser shadow wolf, the skill is creating leather from a young lesser shadow wolf. Doyle can feel that this is just on the edge of what is possible. If he didnt have the level cap of 5 for his monsters then it wouldnt have worked. The lesser shadow wolf just doesnt get any lower in level, even when newly born. But this points out something he had missed with his creation skill.
Of course, the first thing he does with this discovery is try and summon a young stone wolf. This however doesnt work. While creation will let him create leather as if the monster was lower level. It very much does not let him summon monsters that are not an adult for its species. Or at least that is the feel his skill gives, which confuses him quite a bit. After all, he has myconid sprouts running around the third floor. Sprout doesnt exactly scream fully grown to him. Hey Ally, why can I create material from younger monsters than I can summon?
Ally looks up from a screen she was watching. Wanting to dip into the wolves are we?
Doyle shakes his core despite her not being in the core room. Not particrly. I was just working on some equipment and figured out I could make leather from stuff I cant summon.
Ally nods, Fair enough. Anyway, that has to do with how a dungeon cores creation skill works in respect to monsters. More specifically, the difference between natural monsters and dungeon spawned monsters. Weve already gone over how the monsters you spawn are like balloons with a thinyer of quintessence covering a blob of world energy. That outeryer is the concept of the monster. The primal idea that makes the monster a stone wolf or a wind wolf. You can pump more world energy into it, raising the monsters level. However if you try to under fill it the outeryer isnt able to stay together and pops. Under the system it prevents you from creating patterns that wouldnt work unless you put a lot of effort into bypassing the safety checks. Ergo, no teen stone wolves to mess with people.
Huh, Doyle rolls to the side, That does make sense. But what about my myconid sprouts? They arent exactly adults.
Ally smiles at the question, I didnt say that it created adult monsters. Rather, it creates a monster from a concept. You cant make a younger wolf because that is still just a wolf and is subsumed by the concept of a wolf. There are however creatures that have distinct life stages. Insects are amon one for this. You have therval stage, which goes through a number of changes to reach the adult stage.
Myconids are simr. Their sprouts are that first stage. In fact, most sprouts never go beyond the stage. What is weird about them is that they never stop growing despite this. That means that a sprout left alone will not only fill the area it lives in with other sprouts and mushrooms. It will also eventually grow to fill the area if it doesnt change into an adult. One of themon end of the world scenarios for younger worlds actually involves uncontrolled sprout growth. Luckily the system helps with this by making it more likely that the sprouts will grow into adults.
Once there is an adult myconid thingse under control. An adult will immediately takemand and work towards forcing other sprouts to mature. While not sapient the adult myconid has an innate sense of how to bnce their ecosystem. That and theck of any higher myconids will eventually force that original adult to develop a soul and thus sapience. Of course, the system isnt going to stop the sprouts if they do get out of hand. In your gxy alone there are five sized sprouts being contained.
Doyle sits there for a moment before responding. Huh, he pauses again, Well... Well thats a thing. Luckily, I wont have to worry about that in my dungeon.
Allyughs but doesnt add anything else, so Doyle goes back to his experiments. Failure after failure piles up, or they would if Doyle wasnt deconstructing each one to figure out what went wrong. Finally though thest saddlebag had just the barest scorch mark in the mostplex section of the design and with that fixed the pattern should work.
For this next test Doyle carves out the leather with twice the caution and half the speed. Slowly the designes together as he carves out the intricate runic design that covers every depth of the shadow leather. Thest line goes down and Doyle sighs. Nothing happened.
Nothing happened at first that is. Moments after his sigh warning bells go off in his head. Off the edge of all three floors the barest amount of space has been removed, just a dusting of atoms off the outeryer of his influence, but each one is felt. Then the saddlebag glows with a light more made of darkness than color as Doyle feels the inside of the bag grow deeper and disconnect from the surrounding area. Yet despite this disconnect, he can still feel a personal connection. With this a blue screen pops up for both Doyle and Ally.
{Prototype storage device created using the dungeon core Doyles dimensional fabric
Device ssified as an anchored sub-dimension storage space with innate protections against void interference
Method of creation determined to be conceptual reality tinkering@@novelbin@@
Inner space of device tested as being stable even if source dimension was to fully disconnect or be destroyed
Device found to not allow stacking, any simr device ced with in another will take up space of the outer device as if it was the size of the inner space
Identifying device statistics...
Shadow Leather Saddlebag of Holding
Description: A saddlebag designed for a goat with bronze buckles. It has been created from leather of a juvenile lesser shadow wolf and was enchanted through a mystical process. Space inside of the saddlebag is three times what the outside would indicate and items inside the space will only transmit 1% of their weight to the user. If ced inside another device of holding it will take up space equal to the inside space and not the bags outer size. While capable of recovering from minor damage if pierced through or sufficiently damaged, the inner space will copse and everything inside has a small chance of being lost in another dimension.
Material: Juvenile Lesser Shadow Wolf Leather, bronze (9:1 copper tin ratio)
Craftsmanship: Mid Masterwork
Hidden: Items lost when the bag is destroyed will appear in the dungeon controlled by the Dungeon Core Doyle. If the bag is damaged enough topromise the inside space, the bag can not be repaired without bringing it to the dungeon of origin as the dungeons dimension is used to set up the space.
Cost: 132 temp, 1317 loot, 131,723 real}
Ally whistles, Well now! Youve made quite the breakthrough with this. If my guess is correct, you rarely see a device like this except among the followers of those gods that have their own heavenly realm. Even though there are many types of storage devices, themon dimension based ones arent very popr because they tend to cause problems with things from the void.
Only someone like you who has their own dimension can make the safe variety. Mostmon types involve shrinking the items which doesnt really do anything to the weight. The only thing missing here is that it isnt a temporal storage device. Everyone loves a bag that keeps milk fresh and pre-made meals piping hot. Though that is more of a pie in the sky wish sort of thing. Even dimension based devices dont easily get that trait. You usually have to find one of the tech versions that digitizes items. Those freeze the items time by default, as they just dont bother to simte time passing for it.
Doyle nods, If you say so. I cant really judge it because popr media for my is strife with bags of holding and storage rings. Makes them seem like you would be just tripping over them in the street or some such. Im more interested in the fact that when the bags get destroyed, I apparently just get some of the items.
Allyughs, That is a handy thing. Spread the bags around enough and after enough time you will start to see just a passive ie of random items. As for rarity? Thats a bit of a tricky situation. Enchanted items of all stripesst longer than normal items. Partly because to be enchanted the item has to already be of really high quality so wouldst anyway. However, the major reason is that with the flow of power going through them, their materials are naturally resistant to decay from the passage of time.
The best way to destroy a really powerful piece of gear tends not to be with force but just not letting anyone use it. If the enchantments dont get used, the power stops flowing till the point that the underlying material can finally start to decay. There are of course ways to store stuff so that doesnt happen, but who would bother to do that for low tier stuff?
On the other hand, this means that as long as someone is using a magic item, even just asionally, they tend not to break down. Give your a few thousand years to grow and normal people will have storage devices. If only because at some point in the past an ancestor got one and it has been passed down ever since. They never tend to end up being a thing you can just buy, merchants snap them up too quickly for them to ever truly be on the market. But enough people have them that they arent rare.
Then again, I guess I should prepare you for what rare actually means in the greater universe. Anything you dungeon can drop as loot? Not rare. What rare really means past a certain point is those things that you cant buy with money. Rare items can only be bartered for, taken by force, or discovered. The System actually protects new worlds by stopping outside forces froming in and taking them. Someone that finds such a thing has it bound to them until they find a good use for it. Oh, there are so many powerful factions that whine about that feature.
Take a Sniff – Chapter 82
Kelly ps her hands, Well we wont ever find out what is there if we dont go and find out, now will we? Jim, dont you think it is about time we go check it out? With what little I can see from here, it is just anotherrge room.
Jim shakes his head, Whatever, lets head in everyone!
They all enter the next room. At the center of it is a stctite grown into the stgmite below. Water can be seen oozing out of the stctite and pooling at the bottom of the stgmite before dribbling out into the trickle of water they had seen running across the previous room. All around this small pool of water are a collection ofrger than normal mushrooms.
Jim whistles, Well, those arent natural.
Then several mushrooms stand up and charge the group. Jim backs up and draws his bow while Bill and Tess step forward. Though as they meet the myconids release puffs of spores.
Tess with her staff was further back so had time to hold her breath. Bill is not so lucky. Being up close to use his clubs does not give him a chance. Instead he gets a face full of spores and his charge turns into a forward flop as paralysis catches hold. This sudden change causes Tess to yell out in shock. Not the best choice as this allows the spores to infiltrate her as well and she joins her boyfriend on the floor.
Kellinger is the first to react to the scene. He drops to the floor and shoves his hands into the rock itself. Below the couple, a pair ofrge stone hands rise up and lifts the two out of harms way. Jeremyes in right after this, the spores unable to affect him as he shes the myconid sprouts apart.
Kelly has a spell ready but shakes her head and cancels it. A fire spell would be more likely to do harm than good. No one wants a dust explosion right now. Jim also stands to the side. He fired his first arrow, but without any skill the regr arrow doesnt do all that much damage. Jim can only shake his head and mumble about needing a better variety of arrowheads.
Of course it was only a single group of myconids and all the sprouts had been quite small, so the fight was soon over. Kellinger lowers Tess and Bill to the floor before turning to Jim. So, can we leave now?
Jim massages the bridge of his nose. Yeah, sure, we can leave. Can anyone detox the two of them?
Kellinger shrugs, Healing magic isnt really my thing.
Jeremy shakes his head at Kellingersment. Learn a healing spell. Doctor is nice and all but with how magic works anyone that can use it should have a basic one on tap. Luckily, I have a few things on hand. The spores tasted odd, but since my resistance kept me up, my stuff should work.
He took out a little pouch filled with vials as well as a tiny mortar and pestle. With care, he pours small amounts of various herbs into the mortar and grinds it up. Jeremy pokes the dust with his pinky and tastes it. He shakes his head and taps some of the contents of two other vials into the powder before grinding it together again.
Another taste and he nods. Okay, this should do. Jeremy then takes out a tiny spoon and fills it. He grabs Tess mouth and dumps the powder in, then repeats that with Bill.
It takes a moment, but first Tess and then Bill sit up and try to spit out what is in their mouth. Sadly for them, the powder had fully dissolved on their tongues and the vor wasnt going anywhere.
Kelly hands them both a small bottle of water to clean their mouths out before turning to Jeremy. So Im guessing that isnt exactly something you can whip uprge batches of?
Jeremyughs, It uses a number of rtivelymon nts. At least they weremon before all this nonsense. Now we cant exactly pop over to the local Asian market to grab a few of the odder ones. So I have to go with no, no we cant make more of this. I dont mind using this right now because who knows if anything came up behind us. Otherwise I would have just hauled their butts out of here myself instead of using my supplies.
Dont worry though. Me and my wife have been working on a small garden when not trying to feed the entire settlement or building walls. We wont be to the point of mass producing anything, but our supplies shouldnt run out.
Jim nods, That is good to hear. Now how are we going to deal with the fact that the third floor is apparently infested with paralyze causing mushroom monsters.
Jeremy points at where the monster bodies had been. Though now in their ce was a couple of blocks of mushroom and a small wrapped up package. So I suspect that package has a sample of those spores in it. Ie to that conclusion because of how it is wrapped. When thrown against a hard surface that package wille apart in such a way as to dispense whatever is in it. Basically a little paralysis consumable.
While those kinds of things are always nice. Though of course potentially usable for some nasty stuff as well. I believe the best use for those packages is instead to concoct antidotes or some kind of protection against the effect. I do have to admit that my wife is better at mixing these sorts of things up and we will probably need more than one packet anyway. So yeah, lets grab the loot and leave. I dont want to find out paralysis isnt the only poison we have to deal with.
Jim grabs up the packet and sighs. We are going to have to be careful with these. Ace is going to hate us for dropping this problem in hisp. At the moment it wont be a problem because we can trust everyone. Once the otherse back or strangers visit, these little packets are going to be an eternal source of troubles.@@novelbin@@
Jeremy shakes his head, Luckily I dont think it will be that bad. Spores shouldnt be able to cause paralysis that quickly and yet at the same time be fixed just as quick. I suspect magic has arge part to y in this. Depending on how it works, that might mean these spores dont stay effective for long. They might even lose their effect when we leave the dungeon. Hopefully not their medicinal value, though.
Kelly raises an eyebrow, Why in the world would they lose their ability to paralyze but not their ability to work as a cure?
Jeremy waggles his fingers at her, WoOoOo MaGiC!
Then he coughs into his hand and clears his throat. More seriously, the answer actually is magic. Specifically the pre-system idea of sympathetic magic. The thought that like things can affect one another. Mostmonly seen being portrayed with voodoo dolls and the like. Good news is it isnt quite as simple as shown in popr media. Someone cant just find one of your stray hairs and curse you.
These spores are deeply connected to all other simr spores in this dungeon. By using them in a cure or preventative measure, even after they lose the paralysis magic, you can shortcut a lot of things. At least that is what my wife tells me. Once again, she is the one that knows all this. Spent way too much time grilling her guide for this kind of thing.
Kelly nods, Even in modern science you see simr concepts such as quantum entanglement. Though that doesnt exin why the spores would lose their effect when taken out of the dungeon.
Jeremy shrugs, Meh, it isnt the spores that are causing paralysis. Now they might have some small amounts of poison in them that would numb you some, but you just dont see a full body lockup like that with mundane poison. At least not without it going right to killing the person dosed with it. Even then the cure doesnt just fix the paralysis.
The reason that matters is because you have to remember where that magic came from. Yes the monster technically is the source, but in reality it all springs forth from the dungeon. Without the dungeons presence stuff like this either stops working instantly or quickly loses its effect. Of course, we can only really know the answer once we take a sample out and test it. So yeah, lets move out before more of those things show up.
Kelly grumbles, wanting to ask more questions but Jim agrees with Jeremy and gets the group moving. With caution they backtrack to the floors entrance and then use the portal there topletely leave the dungeon.
Once outside they are met by Ace who is doing paperwork on one of those stic folding tables. Ace turns to them and gestures for them to take a seat. Once everyone is settled he sighs, So what went wrong?
Jimughs, Did you see something off about us that would point to something being wrong or are you just ying the odds?
Ace res at him, I dont think you can go in there without causing some sort of problem. Even when we were ferrying people to the cliff something always seemed to go wrong on your turn. Now tell me what new hot mess you n to dump on myp.
Jim turns his head to the side and looks away while Jeremy just shakes his head and takes over. After exining the changes they had seen and narrating their experience on the third floor, the grouppses into silence.
Ace rubs the bridge of his nose, So, are the spores still potent? Yes, I know you havent checked yet but get on that. Also I have to ask, What About Taking No Chances Did You Not Understand!?
Ace leans back in his cheap office chair, The second you saw there was a new floor you should have left. Hell, I wouldnt have been down on you if you had turned around the second you realized the usual goats werent in the entrance room. It isnt like you couldnt just go right back to your dive after that. I just want to know what changes you have seen in the dungeon.
Kelly interrupts his rant at this point. Yes, yes, care more about our own safety. That aside I just checked the spores. Weve ended up with a little of column A and a little of column B here. The stuff can still paralyze someone. It just has lost the magic. That means it isnt some instant knockout drug anymore. Still nasty if slipped to someone, but stuff like that isnt hard to find. If anything, the fact that these spores can somehow do this withplete safety makes me want it to be the main poison for this sort of thing.
Aces face just goes ck and he lets out a heavy sigh. Oh goodness gracious, thats a weight off my shoulders. Still useful without being so problematic. Though I do have to ask, what happens if youre poisoned by it and then are brought out of the dungeon? Do they instantly stand up, cured? Or is it one of those things that you just have to let run its course if you dont have an antidote?
Jeremy grabs the spore pouch and uses his pinky to get a taste of it. Hmm, tingly. Anyway, I suspect that once a person leaves the dungeon under the effect, it will wipe away the magic and so the person can recover naturally.
Ace shakes his head, Good news, now we just have to find out what else the third floor has in store for us.
Jimmy! – Chapter 83
Ace shakes his head, If the spores arent magic, why dont the effects just go away?
Jeremy shrugs, I just know how the poison works, not why it works. Kelly, do you have an idea on this?
Kelly nods, I actually do though in a roundabout way. My guess is that the skill used to create most of the spores is a summoning type as opposed to a creation skill. Many people seem to assume that summoning is a powered up version of creation. Mostly because the quantity you can summon far out sses what you can get with creation. For many skills this starts at a magnitude more. So where one person can create a pound of rock, they could instead summon ten pounds.
Most people know about the time limit on summoned objects so I shouldnt have to go into why eating and drinking summoned food is a bad idea. For most, though, this isnt even much of a tradeoff as they use the skills forbat. After all, who cares if a fireballs fire would onlyst a few minutes at most if you can make it ten times bigger.
My research however has shown that creation and summoning spells are very much equal to one another. They just have different benefits and creation will only start to shine in the future. As it is there just arent enough people and items capable of countering and banishing. Though the real breakthrough for creation spells will be when anti-magic zones be easy enough to set up, that people start using them in war.
Summoned material disappears if countered, banished, or it enters an area that its magic cant exist in. Thatst one doesnt even have to be a true anti-magic zone. Instead, if someone saturated an area with enough fire attuned mana, then ice magic will treat it as an anti-magic zone. This means that while summoning spells are good for adventurers, creation magic is where strategic magic lives. From a simple spell that creates water to keep a person hydrated to creating defenses.
Honestly, what we need more of at the moment is creation magic. Look around us, we have stone walls only because we scored thend around us for the material. With Kellinger here being able to shape stone we dont need whatever we use to be giant blocks. This means that all we need to do is have someone using magic to create rocks nonstop.
Kellinger frowns, I dont mind shaping stone but how is being able to literally create stone sustainable?
Kelly shrugs, No clue. Im sure someone knows, but the tutorial guides werent exactly schrs. They knew more than us just by having lived a long time with the System.
Ace shakes his head, Okay, sounds like trying to figure out anything more at this point would just be going in circles.
Kelly interrupts him, Wait a second, I didnt get to exin why even after people leave the dungeon they would still suffer some of the effects of the poison.
Ace raises an eyebrow at her. Kelly notices his displeasure at being interrupted but honestly doesnt care all that much and continues. See, its a really clever poison and this is connected to why the stuff hits you instantly instead of spreading through the body. Now for anyone that wants to put spells into little boxes, this will be annoying, but spells arent just one type. They might have a dominant type like summoning, but.
Ace snaps his fingers, We have more to get to. This is really interesting, but your info dump would be better done on paper so more people can benefit from it. Now whats the tldr of it?
Kelly snorts, If I put a tldr in my paper no one would read the paper. Anyway, the spore skill has a minor amount of transmutation in it which alters free chemicals in the body into more of the poison. Not a lot, but enough to shock the body stiff all at once while the summoned stuff has a chance to infiltrate. When most of the poison vanishes that small amount remains and needs to be processed normally.
Ace nods, There we go. Thats what I needed to know! Now going by the fact we can dispel it, I will guess that means that you can resist this not only with poison resistance but magic resistance as well? Dont answer, I can see it on your face. And yes, I know magic resistance is a lot rarer, even the bad version of it. I definitely dont want any of us to get theplete magic resistance and start having buffs and healing fail on them.
Now you and the Barrais can take the spores we have and go figure out what we can do with it. If possible, I want an antidote and a resistance potion. It wontst forever, but I want a monopoly on such things for our dungeon. Not only will it be good for our core group, but the money we can get from outsiders is important to grow our town as well.
Though that brings up a good question. The system recognized the two old towns. How do we get that here? I want system shops and services to be avable before any outsiderse here. It would suck if someone in the know created a nearby town and stripped us of the ability to do the same somehow.
Silence stretches out as none of the founders know the answer to this. They have some guesses, but it wasnt exactly something they had asked their guides about. Finally Doctor shrugs and suggests, Why dont we ask the others?
With no one having a better idea that is exactly what they did and not ten minutester all the founders had gathered again. This time with the addition of Jimmy, the settlements only remaining carpenter. He hadnt been the best but when told about what was toe with the wolves he had only scoffed, Not like its a dragon, and stayed behind to help build the walls.
Now he stands before the ten most powerful people in the area and potentially the world, depending on how things panned out elsewhere. The only thing keeping him steady under their gazes was that he knew something important. Of course that didnt stop him from freezing until Ace coughed and asked, So you said you knew about founding a system town?
Jimmy snaps to attention, Yes sir! I dont know if anyone noticed, but by the end of our construction work I wasying out where stuff should go and deciding on what designs to use.
The other founders mostly nod at this. Only Kellinger realizes how deep this went. Looking back, even he had been taking orders from him.
Jimmy seeing that they agree he continues, I gained a skill andpleted a path. The skill is architecture and while I wont share the entire path title, part of it was civil engineer and it cost a lot of points. I had been saving those up for another path rted to crafting, but honestly? With what I have learned, it was worth dying that.
Part of the reward forpleting the path was some info and a lot of blueprints. Like, all the blueprints we could want for a new town in the wilderness, including a town center. In our previous two towns, the system retro-fitted the town halls to be this. In my opinion, we would have wanted to knock them down and start over anyway.
The town center blueprint actually isnt so much a blueprint as a guide for what counts as one but that isnt important. What is important is the fact that this is what makes a town be recognized by the system and opens up system based town management. This is why the old towns would have had to start over anyway. The system provided starter towns cant actually grow. With the management system the people recognized as being in charge of the town can set all kinds of things. This includes stuff like giving out quests for the construction of structures.
Ace nods, Is there a limit on how close towns can be? Basically, can someonee in and snipe our town out from under us?@@novelbin@@
Jimmy rubs the back of his neck, Yes and no. The system does take into ount pre-existing ims to a point. Because we have built up the area then even if someone made a town center literally right outside our walls we could still found our own town. The problem is that they would have priority in iming territory because they are technically the older system town.
Also important is the race to being a system recognized city. Were a town imsnd, a city ims towns. This gives them the ability to do things like apply a tax to system shops and other potentially nasty tricks. Mind you, a citys ruler cant just point at a town on the map and say it is theirs. The city actually has to have some im over it for the system to recognize in the first ce. But yeah, we probably want to fast track upgrading our town center into a city center.
Ace sighs, Even under the system politics can cause all kinds of nonsense. Not, mind you, that I expected otherwise. Now what does it cost to make a town center? Also, why isnt there a vige center? I would think it would have a smoother progression.
Jimmy shrugs, Technically there is a vige center. That would be what the old towns had. The thing is only the system can make them and it tends to be less for the benefit of the vige as it is for outside forces to control the vige. The way one would normally appear is if a vigested long enough the vige heads home or the local gathering ce would be turned into it. Oh, and if the old towns still existed and we made a town hall here, they would instantly fall under our control.
As for making a town center? The building itself is somewhat up to us. It does have to be of a certain size and room count, but as long as it is well made that will do. What is costly is a system anchor which is required to finalize the structure. Normally one of those would require so many system coins that to try and use coppers for it would be best done in outer space, so you had enough room.
Gold coins arent even practical for the purpose of writing out the cost. Side note, there are apparently many higher types of coinage under the system that make our simple metal coins seem worthless.
Ace nods, That is interesting but brings up the question of why tell us about this? How do people even afford anchors on a new world in the first ce? Seriously, are worlds just devoid of towns or some such?
Jimmy had rxed at some point, but with Aces pointed question, he straightened up again. Ah, right. That cost is just if you are buying one. We would have to pay that because we cant exactly go out and find the rare materials. Also, a city center can slowly form new anchors in prepared structures to form new towns as long as it doesnt control too many already.
Ace frowns and Jimmy tries to stand even straighter, What I mean is normally people have to pay, we dont. We dont have to pay the full price at all. Because we are a newly integrated world, there are a hundred cheap anchors avable to people with the right paths. Still expensive for us mind you at 1 gold coin, but there it is.
Ace rubs the bridge of his nose and waves Jimmy away. d to be dismissed, Jimmy stiffly walks away so as to not look like he is running. Ace turns to the others and groans, We really need to stop this hero worship, at least for the other people who stayed behind. We might be the founders, but they are a part of the settlements core.
I Didn’t Mean For That to Happen – Chapter 86
Sarahughs again, Makes sense! Ie to him already anyway for my practice arrows. Oh, and call me Bell. Sarahs my moms name and while I respect the origin of the name and all that history it has in my family it isnt for me. Now when are we going? I cant wait to use my bow on some monsters!
Susan coughs, I nned to head down in ten minutes so everyone had a chance to gather their stuff. The others already know. Now what did you mean by soul bow?
Sarah pounds her fist against her chest, The Soul! Like, that core part that makes us human and ording to my overly confused guide who assured me what I did shouldnt work, it is what makes us sapient. Luckily, some of the other guides in my tutorial had heard things about people using their souls.
Anyway, you probably already know, but there are a lot of different types of mystical energies out there. What you might not have known is the three main ones represent. Mana, the all powerful source of magic. True magic, mind you, not all the things people call magic because they cant be bothered with finding out the real source. But yeah, mana is of the mind! The stereotype of smart mages isnt wrong, though of course you can power it with any mental stat.
Qi, that ever popr eastern energy is power from ones body. While it is connected to wisdom in our mythology, thats just hogwash rted to only the wiser practitioners survive long enough to be recognized. Qi is the energy in your blood and of swinging your fists till either you cant or your enemy is gone.
Finally is what I use. Some religions would call it Prana. If youve heard of yogis and chakra points, this is it. It is also another reason Qi gets connected to wisdom. But yeah, your souls power to change the world in the most literal sense. I dont actually call it Prana though as that gives it connotations that just arent there in reality. Something bound to happen when you connect it to a religious system without having ess to the actual energy in the first ce.
Im still trying to figure out all the differences. Most interesting about that though is that once I figured out that I dont need to mess around with the whole chakra thing, the system even changed what it was called in my status. I cant tell you what it is now called, though. Not because I dont want to but because I would need telepathy or something simr. Its true name isnt something you can speak. Isnt that awesome? Im practicing something that words cant even describe!
Susan blinks, Oookay. Well, be ready in ten, wait, no, seven minutes. Well head out then.
Bell gives a thumbs up and runs off to grab her bow. Once she is gone Zachughs at Susans reaction, Dont worry, whatever Bell is doing works. She is just a bit worked up over it. She is literally too lucky, so this was her best path to take.
Susan shakes her head, Ace suggested her so thats all I need. Just make sure youre at the dungeon entrance in time.
Seven minutes pass and we find the six gathered up. The Barrais arrived first as they had been ready before Susan went to talk to Ace. Right behind them was Doctor as he had figured this would happen when Susan ran out of spores. Then Zach shows up, dragging Bell behind him. Last to arrive is Kelly, notte but exactly on time as she used as much of her time as possible in advancing her research.
With everyone together, Susan ps to get their attention. Okay, everyone is here. All of you should havepleted both the original floors so the newyout will be a breeze. Lets use it as a chance to make sure our teamwork gels. Now lets start our dive!
The six of them enter the dungeon and note that the first room is still clear of goats. Bellughs, This will make organizing parties a lot easier at the start! No need to try and get in formation before you enter.
That out of the way they continue onto the first encounter. Of course at this point four goats wouldnt cause problems for any random group of six people in the settlement, so the Barrais just wash them.
In the next room there is even less challenge. Though this time because of the two core members and not any of the founders. Zach waves his hand and the vines all swing up and out of the way to reveal both kobolds and the three goats. Then next to him Bell shots off five arrows in rapid session, each one glowing with a slight yellow radiance.
The arrows all hit the stunned monsters in rapid session. This isnt enough to kill the goats in one hit, just stun them, the kobolds dont even get a chance to make a noise before they die. Then with the goats stunned, Zach slices down with his hand and the vines above the three descend like spears, creating a bloody mess.
Doctor whistles, Id put you up there with Jim on the list of people I dont want to fight in a forest.
Zach shrugs, There isnt much power behind it. I just have a high skill level that lets me control a lot of them at once.
Kelly frowns, Why did you just go and take care of the wolves when they were still in the forest?
Zach sighs, You probably have the wrong idea of what I can do from watching Ace and his vines. I am just controlling nts. They are still just normal nts, so even if I threw all the trees at them it would do nothing. Those wolves would have just swiped once or twice and absolutely destroyed the trees. Ace just calls up vines out of the ground that can somehow grab and hold onto any enemy for at least a few moments. My abilities are much better for farming and crafting right now. Maybe in the future I will be able to raise up forests to drown out my enemies. For now just let me process some logs into nks. I cant even strengthen them all that much.
Kelly nods, Reasonable. A control skill is different from an attack skill. Though speaking of strengthening the wood, can you do that while they are alive?
Zach tilts his head to the side, Huh, I havent actually tried that. Going with how my skills and paths seem to be themed, that might actually be the better way to do it. I might even be able to strengthen the wood more if I grow the tree myself. Though that would be a longer term goal. Which I guess is inline with how Ive been building myself anyway.
Bellughs, Youre just going to end up a forest hermit, arent you? That fits you so well!
Zach rolls his eyes, Maybe I would get some peace and quiet.
Bell shakes her head, Silly boy, forest hermits are only second to mountain top sages in being bothered by young heroes!
Zach lets out a long-suffering sigh, Lets just move to the next room already.
No one else had anything to add, so they formed up and moved on. In the next room, things didnt exactly get harder either. With the party so heavy on ranged attackers and with even the frontline being more burst damage, six goats just arent going to be a challenge. Still, that room and the next allow them to get used to working with one another.
Now though, they reach the main goat room for the first floor. The Barrais enter with confidence and all the goats charge. From back in the hallway, an arrow and three spells fly. First to strike is the arrow which pierces a goats skull in an impressive disy of strength.
As Susan and Jeremy face the first couple goats, two of the spellsnd to the sides. Kellys spell is what has quickly be a standard of the settlement, the fire ribbon. It slices through the neck of not one but two goats as it arcs off into the left wall. Doctor hasnt done too much with attack spells so his is something most people would recognize, an untyped magic missile. A guided spell which is best known for basically always hitting. This time is no exception, though the spell trades pure damage for this feature. While hit, the goat isnt stopped let alone killed by the attack.
Slower than the rest, Zachs spell hitsst but has a significant effect on the battle. Like the rest of them he had been wearing a light pack and from it he had grabbed out a bundle of cotton rope. With an almost half-hearted toss, he had pitched it into the room. Once in the air, it starts to unwind until the mass smacks right into the boss goat and the rope sprays outward. While the rope is a pre-system product that doesnt change the fact it was well made and is able to restrain the much stronger monster.
Normally a single monster wouldnt change the fight too much, but the whole party is basically a ss cannon. Even the Barrais and that goat was the only one that could survive an attack or two. With it tied up, everyone else is able to clear out the room while Zach continues to channel his magic. Things wrap up cleanly once only the lead goat is left.
With the room free of enemies, Zach calls the rope back. As ites to him while winding itself back into a bundle, the blood also is pushed out of it. Not that it matters too much as the blood evaporates just like the rest of the monster, but it shows how great his control of the rope is.
When they enter the next room Zach turns to the Barrais. Let me harvest the berries, I have a skill for it and with my magic can do it a lot faster.
Jeremy shrugs, Long as they get harvested. Though I have to ask, if you have the skill why havent you been helping so far with harvesting the herbs?
Zach rolls his eyes, Maybe if there was ever more than a couple herbs in a room. By the time I spot them, it is just because you two have already gotten down next to the herb to harvest it. Im more of a farmer than a forager.
Susanughs, Fair enough, now let us see what you can do with the berries. The olivese up next and I suspect youre the source of all the high quality olive oil that has been going around.
Zach shrugs as the bushes all extend the berries outwards, dropping them into his held out pack. Well, youve already seen me process entire trees into perfect nks of wood. If I can slough off a trees bark and straighten out knots, there isnt really anything stopping me from extracting the olive oil.
Susan ps, Oh, me and you are going to be good friends from now on!
Bell coughs, We need him over at construction.
Susan looks over at Bell with a wide grin, Oh dont worry deary, I just want him to help process our herbs. He can be all yours.@@novelbin@@
Bell turns beet red but grabs Zachs arm, Fine!
Zach stands there as wooden as the trees he deals with and coughs, So uh,st room to the floor next? Also, anyone getting the honey? I cant really do much with stone and wax.
Jeremy holds up a jar sealed with beeswax. Dont worry, I got it while the drama was happening. We can go and y around with thest bit of the floor. Though just as a reminder, it is back to being two rooms. The kobold camp and the leader with their five goats. Shouldnt be much of a problem, especially since there is only the healer mage left.
Easy Olive Harvest – Chapter 87
Susans walks over to the opening into the next room and does a quick check for traps. Okay, looks like they havent saved up enough for another trap yet. Everyone ready? The others nod. Good! Let''s get the fight started!
Susan and Jeremy rush into the room. They dont exactly have the element of surprise but they dont exactly need it either. With the only magic user left on the monster side being the healer the two dont have to worry about ranged threats.
Right behind them the other four enter the room with a little more grace. Each of them charging up some action or another. Doctor holds, having readied up a healing spell in each hand. Bell makes up for this by having two arrows strung up at once. Though with the invocation of [multishot] it bes clear she is using some system skill to do it. Still the arrows fly true with one being blocked by the lead kobolds shield and the other mming home into the left kobolds throat.@@novelbin@@
Susanes in right after the kobold blocks the arrow and slips behind the shield. One well ced daggerter and she is past it and moving towards the kobold healer that is frantically trying to save the two.
On the right the second shield kobold has blocked a vine thrown by Zach. Not that Zach hadnt nned on it doing so as the vine sts against the shield and wraps around, grabbing the startled kobold. On the far right Jeremy ignores the shield kobold to take out thest melee kobold that hasnt been attacked yet.
He didnt need to bother with the shield kobold anyway. While it took her longer to charge it up Kellyes in with a de of fire that sweeps through the kobold, shield and all. This fire de continues on towards the healer.
The kobold healer nces to its right and sighs. With Susan on the way he couldnt see any way this was going to end. Certain of defeat he chooses the way that seems most painless. As the fire de sweeps in on him he headbuts it.
Susanes to a halt with a confused look. Well. I wasnt exactly expecting that to happen. Anyway, Zach can deal with the olives. The rest of us can go and deal with thest room. If things go bad he cane help but I dont see that happening. The kobold is tougher than the others but the goats are the basic ones for the floor.
Zach shrugs and goes over to work his magic on the olives. Though before he starts he turns back to Susan, Do we want the actual olives or should I just render it down to oil?
Susan just waves absently in his direction as the team lines up outside of thest room. Keep the olives for now. You can oil themter if we start to run out of pack space.
Zach shakes his head and sighs. I only needed one level anyway. The less experience I get the better for my n. Now how do I want to do this? Behind him he can hear thebat start but he ignores it. I could throw them in one of the bags but that if the bag gets ripped at any point they will go everywhere. I wonder if I use the wood, will it stick around? I guess this is a good time to test that.
He gestures at the tree and channels his magic. From the trunk of the tree the wood bulges out with the bark sloughing off. A box starts to take shape and as the inner space deepens branch after branch of the tree bends over and drops the olives in. Once the box is full another has already formed enough and the olives continue to harvest themselves.
All the while the noise ofbat goes on behind him. With the tree half harvested he does consider checking on if they need help but shrugs. If they need him they will call for him. Zach just buckles down and finishes the harvest. Luckily the fight ends during the time it takes and so he doesnt have to worry about it.
With four small boxes of olives he turns around and asks, So what took so much time?
Susan shakes her head, So apparently, while the kobold leader isnt all that much stronger physically, more mental stats let itmand the goats better. This isnt much of a problem. That is, isnt much of a problem if you have a proper stand there and take it type of tank. With five goats while we could dodge the goats we couldnt kill them as easily.
Zach shrugs, Still, you beat them quicker than others probably can.
Susanughs, We arent founders just for show! What is more impressive is how quickly you harvested the olives. I dont think pre-system tech could harvest them that fast. Now let''s move onto the second floor. and she ps her hands.
With how easy the fights had been no one needed a rest so they trundled through the gate to the next floor without pause. On the second floor while the monsters are tougher the group has gelled. They breeze through the first half of the floor. The two dagger kobolds are a joke, the goatherds and their flocks are easier than the first floorsst room, and the axebeaks cant manage to stand up to the party.
In the ramp room they see the first bit of difficulty. While the enemies arent all that much harder the fact they are spread out and have ranged attacks. Thatst one makes all the difference when none of the tanks have a shield. Especially since the slinger kobolds have rocks to hide behind. Still the room doesnt hold them back and the group heads into thest room on the second floor.
Most of the group had beat thest room multiple times so they ignore the sights and the Barrais lead them directly to the kobold tribe. Knowing what ising Kelly has a special spell readied and once they spot the monsters she releases it. A shower of sparks explodes outwards, catching the entire herd of goats. While the spell doesnt kill any of the goats it does set them on fire. This freaks them out greatly and they start rampaging around.
Being closer to the kobolds they are the first to be affected by the goats. While the group hadnt exactly nned for this specifically, Bell and Zach were ready. Zach had grabbed out three vines from his pack before hand and so a simple toss spread them among the melee kobolds.
Bell on the other hand had her eye on the prize. Ever since the group had gotten down wooden stairs she had been charging an arrow. Now she releases and the arrow flies so fast no one is able to keep track of it. One moment it was drawn back on her bow, a yellow glow pulsing dangerously. The next moment the arrow is sunk deep in the ice mage kobolds eye. Though only for a moment before the dangerous looking glow turns explosive. With a sharp bang the arrow shatters and a crater is left in the very much dead kobolds face.
The Barrais on the other hand are reaving through the goats that have made it over to them as they advance towards the melee kobolds. Not that they are much of a threat at the moment as Zach has managed to tie down three of them. In fact, one of the tied up kobolds has been stomped to death by a crazed goat.
All the while Bell is sending more arrows down range at thest kobold mage. The healer isnt as defenseless as the one on the previous floor though. With a wave of his wand a barrier springs up before him and blocks arrow after arrow as he channels his magic into the spell. Bell isnt having it though and spends a moment to channel more power into an arrow before releasing it. This time though instead of the glow being spread over the entire arrow it has been condensed on the arrows point.
She releases the string and the arrow flies out. While still fast the arrow is going much slower than even the normal shots Bell had been firing off just moments before. Then the arrow connects with the kobolds barrier. Without any loss of speed the arrow continues on its journey while leaving behind a shattered barrier.
The kobold panics and throws up barrier after barrier but without even a pause the arrow continues through them, shattering them one by one. At thest moment he tries to dodge out of the way but the arrowhead explodes taking the kobold out. Bell is proud of this but with how worn out she looks it isnt likely she will provide much else this fight. Not that it will matter as the rest of the group is easily cleaning up the remaining melee kobolds. With the Barrais slicing in and Kelly releasing a fire ribbon or two the fight is soon finished.
Susan nces over the battlefield and nods. Okay, so weve cleared the second floor. Do we want to go harvest the teau? Me and my husband personally are all for it but you could have guessed that already. That ce has all the herbs weve seen in the dungeon so far and a nanny goat to milk.
Zach shrugs, There are some more olive trees and a lemon tree up there I could harvest.
Kelly nods, Plus we need the milk. While it isnt too much of an emergency. A bnced diet with some source of calcium is probably still needed. Or at least that is the assumption we are going by right now. Who knows what the system might do tobat mineral deficiencies.
Doctor sighs, There are so many things we might have to change our way of thinking on. Though I do believe we need to save the old knowledge. After all, the system isnt everywhere. Who knows what our future might hold?
Susan smiles, Then let''s go harvest! Kelly, Doctor, and Bell can stay down here or I guess you can go and climb the cliff again or something. Really, just do what you want while I get to go y with the nts. And with that she hurries off towards the cliff. Jeremy shakes his head and follows his wife while Zach goes at a more sedate pace.
Bell doesnt even wait for them to reach the cliff before she gets bored. Im going to go and climb a tree or something!
This leaves Doctor and Kelly by themselves but this doesnt bother either of them. In fact they like it that way. With no one to interrupt they get down to discussing some of Kellys recent discoveries about how magic interacts with chemicals on a macro scale to cause alchemy to work.
Time passes and the three up on the teau finish harvesting the nts and milking the goat. After theye back down they find Doctor and Kelly right where they left them but cant see Bell anywhere. Zach just shakes his head and looks up. Yep, there she is up there.
Everyone else looks up and finds that Bell has managed to settle on afy branch. The others dont want to shout at her because she appears to have fallen asleep. Zach sees this and sighs, Dont worry, she will be fine. Then he yells up at her, Time To Leave! Get Down Here Bell!
The shout wakes her up and she rolls off the branch. Everyone else is shocked by this but Zach motions for them to wait. As Bell falls she doesnt seem to react to the sudden plummet. Instead she stretches and yawns as if she was still on the branch. Just before she hits the ground though Bell curls up and her body glows. With a thump Bell sinks into the ground without any rebound. Then she stands up and stretches again. Well what is everyone waiting for? Let''s head out!
Dead End Room – Chapter 88
The group steps through the portal and enters the third floor. Jeremy steps in front of the others and nods. So you should all remember my briefing on how thest run here went? We should follow the same path just because the room with the monsters was a dead end. A chance to fight them without any interruptions is quite useful for us at the moment. Now lets move. The sooner we finish here, the sooner I can y with the new samples we get.
With great enthusiasm he leads them through the next room, down the stairs, through the next room, and into the room with the small stream of water running from the right to the left. Jeremy points to the tunnel on the right. Right through there should be the myconids. Me and my wife will lead the way. I want the rest of you to stay back at the rooms entrance so you dont get caught in the spores.
With that he enters the room, followed closely behind by his wife. Everything inside looks about the same, except the mushrooms are different. Jeremy does a quick count and shakes his head, The number of myconids might have changed. Everyone be careful and Doctor, keep an eye on our backs.
Jeremy isnt going to let this stop him though, and he continues on to the center pir. Of course, as expected, the myconids attack when he gets close enough. A cloud of spores puffs out and the sprouts charge at him. Specifically him because Susan has let him be the main tank while she swings around the side to nk them.
Not the best n. It turns out as the myconids just throw themselves at Jeremy. He dodges them, of course, but as the mushroom mennd headfirst on the ground, even greater clouds of spores fly up. While Jeremy is to an extent resistant to poisons, his body isnt able to handle such a massive attack and freezes up.
Susan reacts first but her efforts to get into the thick of things to help isnt the first assistance to arrive. Doctor had assumed something stupid would happen, so when he saw the myconids throw themselves he cast an antidote spell at Jeremy as a precaution. This preemptive assist proves valuable as it allows Jeremy to get control of his body back before the myconids manage to pile on him.
Of course once the cheeky pre-fire was finished Susan barreled into the mess. The short lived spores already cleared up enough to not paralyze her as she crashes into the nearest myconid. While not quite a tackle, the myconid is small enough for it to be sted away. Not facing any resistance, she keeps her momentum up and passes right through a new giant cloud of spores her collision had released from the myconid.
A shame for the myconids that her resistance is a good bit higher than her husband. While the poison went to work on her it only slowed her down. Learning her lesson, Susan stomps on the ground to force herself out of the way of the next myconid. Still she didnt let it go. With a backhand sh, she opens up the main stem.
With a spin she resumes her forward movement towards her husband, but the slowdown from the poison means someone else gets there first. Not in person, of course. Rather, Kelly has cast out numerous fire ribbons. Each of them looks weak, weaker than even a mages first attempt at the spell.@@novelbin@@
It was enough though as her sloppy quick cast spells eviscerates the myconids closest to Jeremy. Those that were farther away survive this but by just a thread. Almost as an afterthought, Susan sweeps through with her daggers. Then as thest myconid falls her body freezes up as her rxing lets the poison finish its job.
Doctor walks over and with a glowing hand taps her shoulder. As her body rxes he nods, Healing magic does seem to be easier through touch. Silly restriction, and I need to look into why. After all, ranged attack spells work just as well as touch ones. Now lets see how much these myconids have dropped.
Susan shakes thest dregs of the poison off and looks around with him. Though what catches her eye first is that Jeremy is over by the mushrooms but not harvesting anything. Saving the harvest for me?
Jeremy looks up and shakes his head. The mushrooms here are fakes. They look like real species bute over here and take a look at this. He uses his knife to slice into the mushroom. The look is only skin deep as it were. This specific type of shroom should have a much tougher flesh but it is exactly the same as the myconids.
Jeremy holds up three mushrooms. These are the only real mushrooms out of the lot. Or rather, I guess I should say these are the only real mushrooms of any worth. The rest are just the usual, not quite edible, yet not really poisonous enough to be worth it. I figure either the dungeon has put most of them as decoration or the myconids spawn their own shrooms to hide in. Thatst one is what I would angle towards being the case. After all, the spores they keep releasing have to go somewhere. Not all of them are summons that go poof once the magic runs out.
Doctor walks over and looks at the mushrooms he had picked. So yeah, I guess I should have expected it from you, but those mushrooms are quite deadly. I hope there are some more edible ones on the floor. The myconids drop blocks of edible mushrooms, but they arent exactly vorful. Some nice vors would be a pleasant addition to our diets. Oh, and we finished picking up the drops.
Only got two packets of spores, but six mushroom blocks. As I said, vorless but a good edition to our diet. Though the nearby forest should be a good source of mushrooms, it isnt exactly safe at the moment. Not that I believe the forest is likely to ever be safe again either.
Jeremy grabs the spore packs and shakes his head. Our forest may or may not end up being safe, but I dont doubt some will be safe in the future. While with how I understand it there is the possibility of monsters popping up out of thin air, it isntmon. Just gotta clear the dangerous monsters out and patrol the border. Not likely to happen all that often, though. Forests are just too good a ce to let monsters gather at. The others nod at this.
Jeremy shrugs at this, Well, we need to head towards the other direction now. Two packets is very much not enough for our research.
The group heads back to the previous room and keeps heading down. In the next room there are more mushrooms growing along the edge of the stream, but no myconids. Still, the Barrais were able to find more mushrooms to harvest. What was of actual interest was the rock stairs going upward.
Jeremy stealths up the stairs and peaks his head into the room above. And once there is promptly attacked by an assassin vine without a chance to look around. He lets himself fall backward. Just before he hits the stairs, Jeremy breaks his fall and rolls the rest of the way down without a single bruise. He looks up and shrugs, Well, theres an assassin vine up there. I dont think the room goes anywhere. But that just seems weird, so we should probably take care of the monster and take a closer look.
Kelly shakes her head, There isnt a good way to assault the room.
Susan smiles, Of all the people you should have been the one to think of the straightforward answer. Assassin vines are a nt monster, and they have an obvious weakness. You just need to dump a bunch of fire magic up the staircase till it dies.
Kelly blinks and scrunches her eyes shut as she massages the bridge of her nose. I guess that is a bit obvious. Let me give it a try.
She walks up under the stairs and starts tossing small explosive balls of fire. Not quite big enough to be called a fireball, though the assassin vine above would have liked to debate that. Past tense because before it has a chance to file aint, the monster dies.
Ambush predator gone, Jeremy and Susan head up the stairs and sorts the room out. Though besides the berry drops from the vine nothing else is found. No extra monsters, no more rewards, and not a single hidden doorway.
Theye down the stairs and Jeremy shakes his head. Literally just a dead end. I have no clue what is up with that. Up till now most of the dungeon design has been decent, but this is just stupid. It isnt even maze-like. It should have had at least another room beyond the first for that. As it is if it wasnt for the assassin vine I could have checked the ce out without fully entering.
Kelly shrugs, Probably just doesnt realize no one else will ever go up those stairs. No matter how good the floors so far have been, it is still a new dungeon. Maybe the system tweaked things or some such.
Bell shakes her head, Meh, from what I heard that shouldnt be the case.
Kelly sighs, True, but I would like an exnation for why this floor sucks so much. There has to be a reason for it. Now I dont need a good reason, just a reason.
Jeremyughs, Neither life nor the system owe you that right now. Maybe in the future you will get a skill that will change that with the system, but life isnt going to change. Even now in the after system times people have fallen back into theirfortable rut. Our core people are basically those who buck the trend.
Sure, some of the people that left tried to better themselves. Most of them though just figured out what job we expected them to do and did the minimum needed for it. The old nine-to-five grind. Did you know? Some of the people actually stalled out at level ten in their main skill. Level ten! I would put money on everyone left, our core members, all got to level ten in their main skill before we even left the old towns.
If it wasnt for the fact we didnt have any pre-existing stuff, I doubt most of them would have hit ten in a skill. So much nonsense! As the wolves should have shown, you need to grow in our new world. Even if they didnt want to fight their nonbat skills should be growing.
Zach raises an eyebrow, Bit of a rant there. Let me guess, youve had to deal with ckers before?
Jeremy shrugs, You find those types of people everywhere. Though I expect most of them to die out until society has stabilized again. A little harsh, but I really do have to wonder how many of those who left are still alive. I give it a fifty-fifty shot that fifty percent of them are still alive.
Zach sighs, Yes, that is harsh. But I have to agree with you. Though I would put it more at theming back with three fourths of them surviving. I suspect that while they wont necessarily learn their lesson, any hardship will cause them to stop in their tracks and turtle down.
Bell bonks Zach on the head. Be more optimistic! Im sure a good 80 percent of them can survive. They are way too cowardly to move fast enough to lose more than that.
Jeremyughs, Well, however many survive doesnt matter to use right now. We need to solidify our base here. Our base, not theirs.
And Then Spikes – Chapter 90
Jeremy and Kelly stand right below the edge of the next room with the others lined up behind them. Jeremy raises his hand with all the fingers out. One by one he lowers his fingers and on zero everyone covers their eyes as Kelly releases a spell up into the air.
The monsters can hear a slight whistle as a dull grey ball rises over the edge and into view. All the kobolds and goats look over at the strange sight, just in time for the spell to go off. There is a bright double sh of light that leaks through into the eyes of even the group who had been prepared for it. Up above them the kobolds and goats never stood a chance to avoid the near blinding light.
Without a seconds notice, Jeremy leads the others up into the room. Being the first up, he charges at the enemy mage with both daggers out. Kelly enters next and sidesteps out of the way as Susanes charging in. After that, the rest of the group climbs the staircase at a more leisurely pace. Though this doesnt stop them from firing off spells and arrows.
Two goats fall in the first moment before the monsters can recover from the sh, but that is it. The kobold mage panic casts a spell that raises up a stone wall in front of the four kobolds. This stops Jeremy from a quick behead operation. The wall doesnt look too sturdy, but he doesnt know what the kobolds are preparing behind it, so he diverts to attack the goats.@@novelbin@@
Unlike on the previous floors though, his drive by throat slitting doesnt provide the same oue. While it hurt the two goats, they dont drop right away and instead can counter attack. Jeremy crosses his daggers to block, but more than just the goats toughness has gone up. The two of them bash him back with just enough extra force from the second floor to throw him off and knock him over.
Then the wall falls. With only one mage who had been in charge of the wall, the kobolds didnt get to prepare anything too crazy. Still, this changed the fight from an ambush to a straight up fight, and the group was discovering they werent quite ready for that. The two kobolds wielding pick-like weapons put pressure on Jeremy as they try to spike his knees. More troubling for the group though is the goatherd now being free to takemand of the fight.
The five uninjured goats ignore Jeremy and all gang up on Susan, who was in the middle of trying to nk the mage. She jumps over the first, dives through the next two and just rolls away from thest two. Supporting her Bell goes into rapid fire mod, shooting off arrow after arrow to suppress the goats. This doesnt do as much as she would like. The goats, clearly much tougher than the ones on the previous floor, can shrug off the arrows with them stuck harmlessly in their sides.
Worse yet, Zach notices something worrying as he prepares a spell. Heyo, just in case you didnt notice, the goats seem to have a wee bit of regen going on!
And he isnt wrong about that. The two goats with slit throats arent bleeding anymore and as he watches, the arrows stuck in the other goats are being squeezed out. It isnt a quick heal, but enough to stabilize them if they arent finished off.
Still rolling around on the ground, Jeremy curses. How much con do they have? Even our more body focused people havent hit regen yet!
Kellyughs as she releases a devastating fire spell. Theyre goats, what do you expect? Of all the farm animals, theyre seen as some of the tougher ones. I bet that nonsense kicks in below twenty for them. Plus, the dungeon buffs them. While I still havent quite detected exact levels from range. It is easy enough to tell that there are a range of levels among the goats on the first floor.
While she is talking Kellys fire spellnds. From what looked like a small red crystal, a shower of fire shards cascaded outward, flying just over Jeremy on the ground and delivering severe burns to the goats and kobolds attacking him. The goatherd frowns at this and with a bark the four goats change their targets and charges at the groups back line. Two of them however dont make it as the fire shards are just too much, having already had their throats slit.
The two that lived long enough to reach the back line do little better as Zach releases his spell. From a seed he had gotten from a pouch on his belt, a green vine shots out. Within moments this vine has grown around the two charging goats, tripping them up. Of course such rapid growth isnt sustainable, and the vine turns brown and crumbles away in the same amount of time.
Still, it didnt need tost long and had done its job. Along with stopping the charge, those vines had grown wicked sharp thorns of amazing length. Unable to break free from the vines, those two goats were pin cushioned, which along with the damage from the fire shards was enough to down them.
Not enough to kill the goats as their regen kicks in to stop the bleeding and continue working on the burns. But the party isnt going to give them a chance. Bell steps up next to them and with two well-ced shots kills them.
Back with Jeremy, he still cant manage to get himself off the ground, which at least Susan hasnt had to deal with. Whenever he attempts to get up the pick wielding kobolds will go for sweeping attacks to keep him down. This doesnt mean he is defenseless, though. With wild spinning kicks, he is close to knocking the kobolds over. Then the spikes happen.
At the back of the room, everyone had ignored the earth mage. Not on purpose. There was just enough elsewhere for the group to deal with. This wasnt a good thing though as he had been channeling a spell and that spell has gone off. From the floor jagged spikes burst upward everywhere at odd angles. One of the goats near Susan even gets caught up in the mess.
It knocks everyone in the back line except for Bell over with serious wounds to their feet and legs. Bell avoids the spell with a quick hop and getting lucky with the spike cement. Still, she isntpletely able to avoid damage because she does have tond somewhere and everything is covered in spikes.
Susan does better by making use of the goat that got hit as a tform, but her left leg is still ripped up something fierce. On the other hand, Jeremy gets out better than anyone else in the group. Having beenid out on the ground and with the spikes all bursting out at the same time, it raises his body up instead of piercing him. While a little pointy, he is able to spread his weight out enough to not be pierced. The closest to being hurt is when one spike grows up at an angle and almost pincers him.
This however does not help him get up. If anything this new terrain feature makes it even harder for Jeremy as it prevents him rolling around to dodge the pick wielding kobolds. In the end, those same kobolds are his breakthrough point. The kobold mage was careful to not hit them and so there is a decent sized ring around the two free of spikes.
Once Jeremy notices this he is quick to take advantage of it. While the rolling around on the spikes isnt very kind to his skin, he soldiers through it and ends up in one of the spike free circles. This crowds out the kobold that was previously there, knocking it over. As the kobold falls Jeremy pops up andnds a palm strike on its chest, mming it down on the spikes. While not dead the kobold isnt going anywhere and will bleed out if not helped.
This distresses the other pick wielding kobold, who tries to sweep Jeremy onto the spikes. Jeremy isnt taking this though and redirects the pick down into the surrounding spikes. The stone shatters against the mining tool, but it dys the attack long enough. He hops up over the intervening spikes and ms into the other kobold. It ils its arms, letting go of the pick but managing to stay standing.
This doesnt save the kobold, though. Now on his feet, Jeremy draws out another set of daggers after losing his first set while rolling around. A quick one two attack pattern and the kobold is bleeding out from the throat and its dominant arm has been disabled. Then a gentle push topples the kobold back, impaling it on the spikes as well.
As this is happening Susan is in a standoff with the goats. She has ended up in arge area clear of spikes but much of it taken up by the four goats still standing. Though the fifth goat that had identally been hit by the spike spell is constantly trying to get free, so could join in at any moment.
Having seen that a simple throat opening might not do it, Susan goes in for the double tap. In one hand she has a shing dagger which she uses to open the closest goats throat, but she doesnt leave it at that. In her other hand is a stiletto style dagger and after getting in under the goat she thrusts it into the goats heart, leaving the dagger in ce.
If she took it out, the goat might end up bleeding more, but just as likely it would have healed up enough to not bleed out. This way even if a slower bleed the damage stays and cant heal back to full without the weapon being removed first. Unlikely to happen though as the goatherd kobold is stuck back guarding the mage.
Then she does it again with another stiletto and again and again and once more to finish all the surrounding goats. Not even sparing the goat impaled on the spikes takes a little bit of time during which Bell is holding down the mage. That kobold mage keeps trying to take control of the spikes to cause some more serious damage, but that would require concentration. Something in short supply when you have arrows falling all around you and you only have a friend with a shillgh to defend you.
All the while Doctor is in the back trying to get Kelly, Zach, and himself on their feet again. Though as all three of them now realize, it is a bit hard to cast a spell when you have literal spikes of stone shoved into your feet. None of them say it, but with a shared look they know that once out of the dungeon some other things will be put on the back burner. They have to find a skill that will let them cast through things like pain or surprise. If anything, just looking at the kobold earth mage being denied spells without even being hit is enough to highlight the problem.
Though even without the three of them helping the other three are doing alright. Bell has evennded some hits on the kobold mage while the Barrais are working their way through the spikes to join in on the fun. Their help doesnt take long to get there and with that thest two threats are taken out and all that is left is the cleanup. This will not be easy, of course. Especially since the spikes dont go away with the mage dead.
Alchemist Vials – Chapter 93
Next morning Doyle watches as the newly healed up team starts another dive. Having the previous days dive under their belts, the first floor doesnt represent any challenge. They take even thest fight with the kobolds apart with ease.
The second floor does a better job of holding them back. This time through isnt without rewards. Now that Doyle has put coin drops on all the kobolds of the second floor, the chance some will drop has skyrocketed. While not much, the group has gained 21 copper coins over the entire floor.
Seeing this Ally nods, A decent haul for a floor people arent visiting that much. Once we start getting more people on it, each kobold should start dropping at least one coin a piece.
Doyle sighs, Doesnt seem like all that much.
Ally shrugs, Yeah, it doesnt sound like much. However, you forget, this isnt the one or two parties through a day situation. Think of how many people were diving your first floor there at the start. You can expect to get at least that many traipsing into your second floor every day. And each of those groups? They will get at least a copper a piece and likely more. It will add up.
Doyle nods, True, but lets get back to watching the party. They seem to be about to head to the third floor and I want to see their faces when they realize the floor has changed.
Jeremy gathers the group together and they head through the portal. At first they dont notice a difference. After all, the entrance room doesnt change and there are only two directions an exit can form. Just by chance the new exit not only leaves from the same side as yesterday but leads directly into the next room.
As Doyle is thinking this to himself Ally smacks his core, Dont think I didnt notice you fooling aroundst night. It doesnt count as by chance if you keep re-rolling the floor until you get what you want.
Doyleughs, Oh look, they are about to move out!
Jeremy seeing nothing is wrong with the first room leads the group into the second room. Or he intended to, but something was wrong to him. Yesterday this room had a staircase going down just out of sight of the entrance room. Now though, there is a tunnel on the right wall.
Jeremy pulls back and talks to the group. None of them are too keen on how things have changed up, but it isnt like they have a choice. Then Susan pulls out six vials and everyone in the group downs one. Now ready, they toss the empty vials off to the side.
Doyle turns to Ally, What was that?
Ally shrugs, Probably the protection potion they had wanted to whip up.
Doyle shakes his core, No, not that. Context clues and basic understanding of the situation told me that. I mean the vials. Those are ss vials and they just tossed them to the side! ss isnt exactly the easiest thing to make. Especially not crystal clear ss.
Ally frowns for a second, then nods. Ooh, thats what you meant! Yeah, I guess it would make sense for you not to know. The vials arent ss. Or I guess technically it is ss, but it is not permanent. There is a technical term, but everyone calls those things alchemist vials. They create the vials through a specialized mix of alchemy and summoning.
They can summon The vials and they will vanish within the hour if not used. However, once an alchemical solution is stored in it, the vial will start to draw in world energy. If there isnt enough world energy around, it will draw on the solution inside for power. Once all the power is gone, the vial will vanish like normal, leaving behind what might as well be dirty water. That or herbal tea I guess, depending on what kind of solution it was.
If there is enough world energy, the vial will maintain itself. Even more world energy? We start getting into the fun stuff. At first it goes from just maintaining the vial to maintaining the solution as well. Shove even more world energy at it and the solution will actually be slowly improved.
Doyle shifts his core to the side, It sounds way too convenient. Whats the catch? You dont get something that will miraculously improve a finished product.
Allyughs, Well, youve thought more about it than most alchemists do. To be honest? I dont know much about this. Though I know a couple things. First, these vials are provided by an association of alchemy gods. Second is that the improvement isnt a miracle but rather a waste.
The amount of world energy used to improve a potion would have been better spent on just making a better potion to begin with. To do that purposefully means the alchemist has hit some bottleneck or there isnt a proficient enough alchemist nearby. Plus, the world energy needs to be dense enough or it doesnt work. No matter how much world energy you shove at one of those vials, there is no ce on this can improve the solution within. Give it a few years, though.
Doyle sighs, There are ces out there that focus on mass producing the lowest quality of potions and letting them sit around for a while, arent there?
Allyughs, You know it! Of course, even if the potions are raised to a certain level doesnt mean they are just as good as a potion made at that quality. But sometimes quantity is a quality all its own. Plus, age can cause strange things to happen. People will pay absurd amounts of money for vials retrieved from ancient tombs. While the resulting solution might not do what it originally was meant to do, through strange aeons the possibility of miracles will grow. That or poison. Always test your ancient potions before drinking.
Doyle bobs up and down, Can I be affected by a potion? Like, I cant drink them or anything.
Ally shrugs, Maybe, maybe not. Not sure about that because it isnt like you consume stuff you breakdown in the dungeon. It might be possible if a potion got dumped over your core. Some beings which dont have the ability to eat things have that backup. You can actually tell a potion made for such a race as it tends to be thicker so it doesnt just run off before being absorbed.
Of course, this doesnt mean it would work for you. There are also races that potions dont work on, even if they can drink them. Though lets go back to watching the party. Weve been waffling around for a little and the first kobold section was rtively close to the entrance.
Doyle turns his full attention back to the party. He had been following them in the back of his head. Not that he had a choice on it. Part of being a dungeon is knowing where all invaders are at all times. Anyway, while Ally wasnt wrong, the kobolds were close to the entrance. This however was only if they went the right direction.
They did though, and now they get to fight the kobolds again. Not the newly spawned group, one of the three surviving groups from yesterday. If Doyle didnt reset the ore, including the ore they mined, this would have been a big harvest for them. Sadly, it is early in the day so there wont be much ore to grab. The only luck they have is that this is the only tin vein today.
As the fight starts, the lessons learned from yesterdaye into y right away. Zach focuses down the enemy mage, not letting it even start casting the spike spell. Then the Barraise in and both attack the goatherd before it can give any orders. At this point, while the fight isnt easy, it is clear the party will win.
At the end of the fight, Jeremy and Sarah have both been injured, mostly by the goats. However, the damage is minor at worst and Doctor is able to patch them up enough they the dive can continue. After that Zach gets quite excited at the ore and goes on about how bronze is such an important alloy.
Neither the rest of the party nor Doyle are interested in this though, so they all turn their attention elsewhere. Doyle in specific turns to Ally, So those alchemist vials they tossed down earlier? There is still some potion in there and going by how the myconids were aplete non-challenge it must have worked. Will the residue be enough for my deconstruction skill to make something of it? Here is what is left. And he pops up six disys that are focused on the vials.
Ally scratches her head and turns to one of the disys. Hmm, there might be a chance. Though I think you would need to gather the vials andbine the residue together before deconstructing it. However, I dont think there is enough time if we wait for them to leave the floor.
Doyle nods, I was afraid of that. While I wouldnt say I can see the energy escaping, I can see it. Odd non-human senses aside though, I have to ask. Can I use one of my monsters on my second floor to retrieve the vials? Really wish I could order the monsters on the same floor as adventurers. Be so much easier to have one of the kobolds in another group do a run around of the party.
Allyughs, Just wait until your floors are bigger. Anyway, you can do that. You would have to give the monster all the orders before it gets onto the third floor. The only catch is the monster cant enter the floor if doing so would put the point count above the max. And not the current point total, but rather the point total for the floor during thest point in time that the floor didnt have invaders on it. So those now dead kobolds and goats still count towards the floors total.
Doyles core dims down for a moment and checks on the third floor goat farm. Okay, looks like I can manage it. While I dont have enough room for a kobold, the goat farm isnt full yet. That means I can afford to send down three goats to retrieve the vials. Two trips because I dont trust them to handle more than one vial at a time. Though this makes me consider leaving some wiggle room in future floors.
Doyle shifts his view to the goats right at the second floors exit and selects three of them. With great care, he gives some very exacting orders to them. The one important point he hammers home is no matter what they need to get back to the second floor if anything goes wrong.
Ally watches on with interest as the goats step through the portal. They walk with stiff steps towards the vials and each of them picks one up. Making certain to grab them by the side with their lips and tilting their heads so none of the contents left inside drips out.
As they make their way back to the portal Doyle turns towards the kobold mage on the second floor and gets him ready to receive them. Once the goats are through, the transfer goes without a hitch and Doyle sends them back on through to get thest three vials. This second trip works just as well, and all that is left is tobine the residue. Of course now that they are on a floor he can control, this isnt a problem.@@novelbin@@
Golden Cow – Chapter 94
Combining the contents of the six vials takes a moment as his territory control scoops up everyst drop from five of them into thest. Gathered together, the bottom of the vial has enough liquid to form ayer instead of a drop. Not much, but Ally nods when she sees it. That should be enough to get something. Probably not the pattern or even the recipe for it, but you might have the chance to improve the myconids poison. Oh, and deconstruct the vials before they can unsummon themselves. Being in your dungeon gives you more time to work with because of all the power in the air, but not that much time.
Doyle nods and gets right to it. First, he deconstructs the five loose vials. Or rather he tries to, but as his skill touches them the vials blink out of existence. Well, that didnt work. Ally, you said they are summoned, would that stop me from deconstructing them or something?
Ally frowns, It shouldnt? It might have to do with them being provided by an associate of gods. They might really want those vials back in one piece. There probably is some giant store room full of empty ss vials somewhere that gets pulled from.
Doyles core dims as he takes a moment to think. Something at the back of his head was ringing. Ally, when a used vial disappears, does it take the residue with it?
Ally takes a moment to think about it but cant remember. I dont know the answer to that. If I had to guess though it should. Ive not heard of anyoneining when people throw used vials to the side. At the very least, some of my aunts would have raised a ruckus when any of their boys would take something and toss the vials on the carpet.
Doyle brightens up and nods, I think I know what the alchemy gods get out of the vials. No one bothers to empty the vialspletely. I bet when a vial goes back to wherever they go the contents get examined. Any new potions, any special recipes, all this and more should be getting analyzed by those gods. Alchemy seems like one of those things where secrets are held so tightly an alchemist wouldnt even give even a hint to their god. Sure this wouldnt provide the techniques used to make the potion. Let me try something.
Doyle focuses on thest vial that has the potion left in it. With his territory control Doyle freezes the space within a meter of it. Next he puts in a dungeon rule that forbids summons from being prematurely dismissed. Okay, that should do it. Ally, can you think of anything more I could do?
Ally looks at the vial and frowns, Not off the top of my head. With the space locked down and a rule in ce that should do the job.
Doyle nods and doubles down on his control. Ready, he first moves the potion to a stone capsule so it wouldnt disappear when he tried to get the vial. Then with a flourish he activates deconstruct on the vial. However, unlike when he normally uses the skill, the vial doesnt get absorbed instantly. It hangs there with sections fuzzing out as it tries to unsummon.
A great pressurees down on the barrier between the void and his first floor. Doyle doesnt give up though and keeps his skill running. The pressure ramps up but slowly, starting at the rim, the vial unravels. It takes time, but he has deconstructed the vial.
A system messagees up but before he can read it there is a loud bonking from outside of his first floor. Ally and Doyle both turn towards the noise as another bonk can be heard. Doyle dims as he opens up a screen to view what is going on. Just in time to see a young lookingdy wearing a leather vest over ab coat with a shocked look. Thedy takes a deep breath and frowns before she tries to enter the floor again but is stopped and there is a third bonk.
The person shakes their head and sighs before knocking on the first floors dimension. Inside they can hear the knocking and in front of Doyle a system message pops up.
{A junior alchemist goddess would like to hold a conversation with you. Would you like to:
Use a portal to allow them in
Turn them away@@novelbin@@
Meet them in a safe neutral ground}
Ally raises an eyebrow, Well I advise we go with option three. Im going to guess they really dont like what you did there. Just include me.
Doyle rolls his core to the side, You think? But yeah, I dont want to let her in, but if I turn her away, the next person whoes by wont be so junior.
Doyle switches to normal telepathy, [Me and Ally want to meet them in a safe neutral ground.]
At first nothing happens but then outside the god nods their head and with a sh all three of them appear in a featureless white room. Ally looks around and nods, Good, we arent here physically but rather as projections.
Doyle frowns and turns his head towards her, How can you tell?
Though before she can answer Doyle brings his hand up to cover his mouth and Ally smiles. Well, first of all, youre not in the shape of a dungeon core at the moment. Here, take a look! And she waves her hand, bringing a mirror into existence in front of him.
Doyle looks himself over and doesnt know how to react. While he has taken on a more human form, he wouldnt call himself human. The first big difference is that instead of skin, his body is still made of the purple crystal that his core is. Besides that, his body is very undefined, more like a manikin. The only defining features are his face, and even that is vague.
He runs his hand down his cheek, Huh, is this a projection of who I am or is the system just projecting a good facsimile to facilitate talking to others.
Allyughs, Ill tell you when we get back to the dungeon. Right now we should probably deal with the elephant in the room, or I guess I should say cow. And sheughs even more.
Doyle turns to the goddess and raises an eyebrow. The goddess who had looked like a well-dresseddy now looks more like arge cow with golden markings. The cow huffs and she shifts back into her human form. Notpletely however as she now looks like an anthropomorphic cow in ab coat. Though the leather vest is gone and Doyle realizes that it had looked a lot like the cows hide.
With a sigh, the goddess shakes her head. Well, a little early for someone like me to show up here. Though seeing as you are an awakened dungeon would exin it. Anyway, Im here to bargain with you over not messing with my associations vials. We are willing to give you a selection of potions in exchange for not absorbing them.
Ally with an angry re is about to go off on the goddess but Doyle holds his hand up and stops her. Then he turns his hand towards himself and stares at it for a second before speaking up. Huh, hands are really way too convenient for gesturing with. That aside, let me take care of this. Before I make any deal, I will run it by you, but I have to stand on my own feet.
Ally rolls her eyes, You arent prepared for dealing with a goddess.
Doyleughs, I would be worried if I was dealing with some ancient being.
The cow goddess crosses her arms and pouts, What do you mean by that?
Doyle shakes his head, Im not the best judge of age, but you arent an elder god and not just because you are a junior goddess. Though mainly Im going by how shocked you were outside my dungeon. You looked genuinely surprised that it was a dungeon you got sent out here for.
The cow goddess pauses and then sighs, I told them I wouldnt be good at this. But still, do you want that deal?
Doyleughs, No.
She tilts her head to the side, Okay? Any particr reason why so I can do a better job next time. Oh, and what would make you be willing to take the deal? The other gods and goddess dont exactly want me toe back without the agreement. It isnt cheap to whip up those vials so we can send them all over the universe.
Doyle rubs the bridge of his nose, Well, first of all I caught the fact you just offered potions without being specific. That could mean anything from arge quantity of godly mixtures or more likely it could also mean three variants of a potion that makes sour food taste sweet.
Besides that, you revealed much too much info, especially with thatst bit. Now I know the fact that you have to make the deal and that me not eating the vials is a very important subject. You even admitted that it wasnt cheap to make the vials, which seeing as you belong to an association of gods, says something despite how many such vials there must be out there.
His cutting critique caused the most pitiful disy of puppy dog eyes to be turned on him. It doesnt bother Doyle, but still he holds up his hands, Now I didnt say I was going to rip you off. I can understand how valuable the vials are by what little I saw of a system message when you showed up.
She sighs, But that means I wont be able to afford whatever you want for your promise!
Ally cant help herself at this point, Doyle, give the girl some ck! She has been put in a very hard spot by this.
Doyle snaps his fingers, That reminds me, we dont actually know what you would like to be called! What would you like us to refer to you by?
The cow goddess sniffs, Why not just ask for my name?
Doyle shrugs, Im new to this whole deity thing and didnt know if it would be rude. Plus, sometimes a persons name isnt what they want to be associated with.
She rubs her eyes and slumps against the rooms wall. Names arent too important to deities. When a person prays to us, all that matters is that they are thinking of use. Anyway, you guys can call me Moota. Thats what all the other gods and goddesses call me. My actual name is a little hard for anyone who isnt a cow to pronounce.
Doyle nods, Fair enough, so did you used to be a cow or some form of animalistic humanoid.
Moota looks up and shrugs, I was a golden alchemy cow that was worshiped by everyone on my. After a while this raised me up to where I am now.
Doyle frowns, With all the gods vying for worship, I figured it would be hard for something like that to happen.
Mootaughs, Not every gets bombarded with dreams from the heavens. My was much worse than the one you are attached to. Even from the void, I could sense that there were already some minor herbs growing on your world. Over a thousand years after the system had integrated my, there still wasnt enough world energy in the air to form dungeons or grow herbs.
The fact I was born there in the first ce is a miracle in and of itself. A golden alchemy cow can turn even normal herbs into potions through our milk. Even the weakest healing potion was a godsend to the natives of my, and so they worshiped me. Sure, a god or two had gotten a following in passing, but my potions were real when the other gods didnt do a thing for the world. Within a few years, everyone on the worshiped me. If it wasnt for how weak my was that would have been enough to rocket me to being a full god. But, well, here I am.
She’s Just Kind Of Lonely – Chapter 95
Ally flies over andnds on Mootas shoulder, then pats her head. That must have been tough. To be singled out as some chosen one might seem nice from the outside but in reality it is only a lonely mess.
Moota starts to tear up, I was so lonely! Even before they figured out what was special about me they took me away from my mom and the rest of the herd to study me. Do you know how traumatic that is? All my instincts scream at me to be in a herd! Me being a part of this godly coalition is the closest Ive ever been to feelingfortable. But you know what? I would really just prefer to be with other cows.
Doyle nods, Being around others like yourself can be an amazing thing. Though from personal experience there can be too much of a good thing. But that isnt important. Why dont you hang out with other cow gods?
Moota sighs, Im a bit of an odd one out. Most beast gods are worshiped by beasts or are the personal beasts of a god. Since I became a god because of human worshipers Im not trusted by the self-made beast gods. And because Im not owned by another god, the domestic beast gods dont ept me either. I only barely joined this coalition as it is, and even then they dont count me as one of them. After all, Im not an alchemist, it is just that my milk bes imbued with the essence of what I eat.
Doyle frowns, You cant exactly help that. Have you tried having a mortal herd of cows to hang out with?
Moota shakes her head, My coalition has rules against being among mortals and besides that they dont want me seen hanging out with normal animals. If I had an afterlife of my own, I could probably swing something, but I dont. Though who am I kidding? To get cows I would need to have cows that worship me in the first ce and if I had that I wouldnt be in this situation.
Doyle smiles, I might be able to help you with that. Though I would have to know how you get a cow to worship you. If they need to be sapient, it might take a while.
Moota doesnt look up but answers that, No, they dont have to be sapient. Not even a percent of a percent of the wild beast gods would exist if it required that. Of course, sapient beasts provide more faith and they more easily spread the religion. It isnt needed though. As long as they are a simr enough species all it takes is someone preaching at them.
Though they dont provide all that much faith. In fact, even if they worship me and I had an afterlife, they wouldnt show up there. What with not having a soul. The only reason a beast can worship a god in the first ce is because of the potential to be sapient. Thats also the reason they have to be of a simr species. Without being closely rted, a beast god cant tap into that potential to gain faith.
Doyle nods, Do the normal animals get any benefit for worshiping you?
Moota shrugs, It depends on the god what benefits an animal will get. With me personally? Cows that worship me produce more and healthier milk for longer. Bulls will be able to sniff out herbs that help them grow. And caffs have a growth correction as well as being less likely to catch diseases. If I was stronger, there would be more passive stuff and I could provide actual active abilities to any sapient magic using worshipers.
Doyle snaps his fingers, That shouldnt be too hard to spread then. Any farmer would dly spread a religion like that to their cattle.
Moota rolls her eyes, As if they would bother with me. Most will worship some sort of farming or herding based god. And while the cows cant worship that god, the provided blessing will prevent the spread of a beast gods religion. And I dont me them for that. After all, an animal that worships a beast god will be much more likely to evolve into a new species or develop sentience. It only makes sense for a god based around a steady status quo of farming to not want fire breathing cows popping up. Only loyal animals like dogs get around this. If only because a supernaturally powerful dog will do their job even better.
Doyle rubs the back of his neck, I can see why that would be the case. Still, I think we can swing it here. The world I am attached to has only just been integrated. That means the religiousndscape is more open and before we integrated, there werent any mainstream farming gods being worshiped.
Moota looks up and frowns, Farming gods are one of the mostmon, right next to war gods. Even after a culture advances they tend not to be dropped.
Doyle shrugs, At the end there the world ended up being popted by a set of religions that all imed their god was the one true god.
Moota spits in disgust, Those fools. Yeah, that would do it. Still, your world is decent so the gods should be fighting over it.@@novelbin@@
Doyle rolls his eyes, Trust in gods was at an all-time low in thest few years. While I am sure people will jump in on worship when they are getting actual benefits. However, the settlement right outside my dungeon wont be one of them. They have an independent streak and wont be putting their faith in some mysterious outside power.
Moota tilts her head to the side, If they arent going to trust in the gods, how would you get them to spread my religion to their cows? Beyond that, theyck cows. Plus, there is the matter of evolution and sapience. Wont they drop it once they get told about that?
Doyle chuckles at her worries, They wont have someonee by and surprise them with this info.
Moota and Ally frown at this, but he holds up a hand and exins, It wont be a surprise because they will know about it from the start. I understand why most people would be against such dangerous oues. Like was said, who wants a fire breathing cow?
Well, the answer to that is the people in that settlement. Specifically, there is a married couple out there that are into experiments and a ranger type fellow who knows how to handle the odder beasts. Now I assume that the farmers you talked about were the ones trying to raise many cattle?
Moota nods at this and Doyle continues, Well, I cant promise many cattle like those farmers. But that is why I can promise they will ept you. The settlement might never own hundreds of cows, but I can see them trying for sapient cows. They are special like that. Though of course I cant promise anything specific, but I have a n to make it work.
Ally crosses her arms, What trick are you ying at? You better not be stringing her along!
Doyle shakes his head, Dont worry, let me exin what I want to do. Now Moota, you are a cow goddess so should be able to control and move around normal cows?
Moota nods to this as well, which causes Doyle to smile. I assume you arent allowed to do this willy nilly by the coalition. Likely a rule put in ce to prevent you and others like you from gathering animal followers. There is a catch in that, though. They sent you out here to get my promise No Matter What. Whoever sent you probably even said something about breaking the rules if needed?
I can see it on your face, they did. So as long as moving some free range cattle to the settlement is part of the deal we make, there wont be a problem. Though that is just the beginning. Im passively keeping the fact I am an awakened dungeon secret from the settlement out there. Now I am sure they have guessed at it already, but we are running on an unspoken agreement to not rock the boat.
Anyway, with you I can pass on some stuff without them having anything about me being directly proven. Of course I cant have you spreading this info. So a part of our deal will be keeping everything about me and the deal, except that I swore not to destroy the vials a secret. From everyone and every god. Because I am sure they wouldnt be too happy if they learned what you agreed to do for me.
Moota looks down and thinks about what Doyle had just said. Not wanting to rush her, he waits off to the side. She takes her time but eventually decides. I want to trust you on this. You seem to want to help me and I dont know why.
Doyle shrugs, To be honest? I dont quite understand it myself either. Despite not being the best at connecting with others, I like to help people. It doesnte up often, but here we are. Also, I suspect Ally wouldnt forgive me if I didnt help you. Though dont think this is for free. Im still going to be getting everything I can out of our deal. You wont just be providing cows for the settlement out there. Now to do this, I need to know what you have to deal with on your side.
Moota sighs, I was told very sternly to never reveal the rules I work under? Of course, that isnt even a rule, so screw it. I guess to start I can just admit we didnt know who you are. In fact, if you never destroy another vial and I dont tell them where I ended up, they could never find you. They actually expected you to be some ancient alchemist trying to find the secrets to the vials through a more destructive means.
Now onto what they provided for me to bargain with. Since they assumed you were an alchemist they gave out arge variety of potions. Mostly basic ones, but so many variants of those basic potions that it is honestly crazy. No herbs though, they dont want to provide a means to make more of the potions.
Of the higher tier potions? Yeah, not going to happen. They expect any alchemist to be super crazed for the variety. Alchemists who have started trying to take apart our vials and actually seed in destroying one? They go crazy for low tier but odd potions. The ability to expand their foundation in the arts by examining potions made with different methods and ingredients is a powerful draw. Besides the potions, though? They left me hung out to dry. Sure, they promised to pay me back for anything I use. But I dont trust them to reimburse me fully.
Doyle nods, So they provided the bare minimum and required you pay for anything more? Im going to guess they trade on being gods to keep this all running. Any normal mortal having a god pop up to chastise them would probably be easy to convince. Now lets put our heads together to figure out the best way to deal with this.
I have a few things I want to get, and Im sure there are some things I can trade to you. I am a dungeon after all. Besides that, there are some more immaterial benefits we can both get out of this. You getting bovine worshipers is just one example of this.
About Godly Skills – Chapter 97
Doyleughs, So many rich people pre-system would have melted away under thatst potion. Though I have to ask, you say it isnt cheap to make, so how would it end up in the hands of the poor?
Moota shrugs, The actual ingredients are stupid cheap to grow. What makes it costly is the fact some of the herbs are highly illegal. As you said, rich people have the money to perfect their physical appearance. Now if what happened is a true polymorph situation, my potion wont do anything because that is their new body.
The rich wont do that, though. They put importance on their bloodline, especially since there are some bloodline abilities which polymorph and simr would remove. Instead, the rich will use magic, surgery, and godly intervention to perfect themselves. A jolly fat merchant looks jolly because their face has been changed, so their face naturally smiles and they are just fat enough to look well off and non-threatening.
This goes doubly so for some nobility out there. Theyve been keeping the bloodline pure for so long every generation will have some problem. Magic of course can fix so many problems, and even if it cant, any of the gods based around nobility can. This is only temporary, as even if they can fix the gic mess, nature isnt too keen on such a break in the natural order.
These herbs used in my paupers fix are one of the counters. You can find a herb or two that does this in every world. It is just that in a world with an entrenched group of people doing so will have those herbs be more and more weed-like. And of course nature doesnt do things in halves. Almost every other ingredient in my potion is to weaken and specialize the poison. In the natural form, the herb kills the changed parts of the body.
That makes healing nearly impossible. Paupers fix guides the poison to break down the areas into usable material to heal with. This, of course, would not make the potion epted by the traditional nobility and those long-lived families. Using those herbs in the recipe jacks up the price on certain worlds.
Ally nods, Yeah, I can understand that. Even the fae would run afoul of it, if only because enough of them would experiment with body modification when they get bored.
Doyle frowns, Paupers fix sounds nice enough, but it sounds more like a potion you created instead of a natural result. Youve said already you are not an actual alchemist, so whats up with that?
Moota smiles, That is easy enough to exin. While the result of what herbs I eat is somewhat random, it still follows a logic. Now, as a god, I even have some control over the changes. Ive mostly used this to assure that when I eat poison, the result will be an antidote. Still, paupers fix took a lot of work to figure out.
Doyle shakes his head, No, I mean you said we could make it. From how I understood it, the potions you created out of your milk was not brewable.
Moota snaps her fingers, Oooh, that makes sense. I can see where the misunderstandinges from. While most of what I can make are impossible potions, not all of them are. This is part of what took me so much effort. I had to figure out the exact ingredients that were needed so it wouldnt be impossible to make.
And that is another reason I find the coalitions view on impossible potions to be nonsense. If even me with myck of general alchemy knowledge can work on getting an impossible potion till I can brew it, they just arent willing to try.
Doyle nods, So how do you know when it became possible to brew? If you dont know alchemy, that doesnt make sense.
Moota shrugs, I shouldnt call it ack of alchemy knowledge. That is just what the other gods tell me, and I shouldnt have internalized it. Theyugh at me because my knowledge is still within the realm of what they consider mortal knowledge. I am after all still an alchemy god. Now the knowledge isnt my own. If I lost my godhood all the knowledge would vanish from my head. Still, with the boost I know enough to craft some higher tier potions. Not create new recipes, the boost doesnt provide inspiration, but once I create a brewable potion with my milk, I can reverse engineer the recipe from it.
Doyle blinks a couple of times when she finishes and then breaks intoughter. Moota is shocked and Ally res at him, Whats so funny about this? Her situation isnt aughing matter!
Doyle rubs his face and tries to get theughter under control. Still, it takes a few moments before he can answer. Ive figured out what godhood does
Ally frowns and shrugs, Not exactly a mystery. Even I could tell you it increases the skills rted to what they became a god for. The more power they have as a god, the bigger a boost they get. Everyone knows this.
Doyleughs again while shaking his head. No, hahaha, no, that isnt. That isnt what it is doing. My guess is it shows up in their character sheet as the skills level just being higher?
Moota nods, Yeah, like I said, it raises them beyond whatever they thought was their mortal limit.
Doyle sighs, Is there equipment that will boost a stat as long as you use it?
Ally makes a face, What does that have to do with anything? Of course there are, though some stats are harder to boost than others.
Doyle smiles at this, Let me guess, they dont provide all the effects an increased stat would provide? And it doesnt count towards any stat requirements, right?
Ally shrugs, Well yeah, why would it?
Doyle lets out a singleugh, So why should the godhood boost be any different? It doesnt increase your skill level. Instead, it gives you increased ability to do what you already know how to do. This is why there are impossible potions. The alchemy gods assume their increased skill level means they should be able to figure out more things. In reality, it just gives them the mechanical ability to craft potions they couldnt before and reverse engineer stuff they have experience with.
They wont ever be able to create a potion beyond their original skill level. No figure out new concepts that might be possible with what their shown skill level would allow them to. Impossible potions are potions beyond what they consider their mortal limit. I bet those gods never try to improve upon the stuff they had been working on before bing a god?
Moota scoffs, As if they would demean themselves on mortal work.
Doyle nods, Exactly! How can they improve if they never work on things at their actual skill level? Those gods assume theyve reached the peak of their skill when they are just trying to improve on something they didnt even understand.
Ally frowns, How would that even work? Like, gods arent unique to system based worlds. Without a system, where would the skill increasee from? Because I know gods get a boost to their skills everywhere.
Doyle shakes his head, No, that would make even more sense. This isnt some system based skill improvement. It is something intrinsic to a god. The system detects an increase in skill so it shows up on their sheet. However, they dont make any actual advancement after because theyck the understanding needed.
Ally''s frown deepens, They should still be able to advance. Skills level up through use, so even if you dont understand the system will level you up and give you the understanding. If anything gods should have their skills skyrocket at first because of them doing things at a higher skill level than their original.
Doyle smiles and asks, But are you sure about that? I dont think skill boosting like this can be all thatmon. All the talk about gaining skill levels by grinding away and yet by talking about the people who be gods, we see something different. If all it takes is grinding, why are these people stalling out? They should be able to continue grinding away at the alchemy skill and get through the so-called bottleneck.
There has to be more to it. What if you need to have the capability to understand the new skill level? Maybe they arent wrong in thinking they had reached a bottleneck in their skill? Not that it excuses the gods. If anything it shows that those who continue to plug away are more worthy of the position. Not that they would bother, there is more to learn, so why interrupt their research time with nonsense political stuff?
Moota has a conflicted look on her face. This kind of knowledge isnt exactly safe to know.
Doyleughs at this, The knowledge itself isnt dangerous. Rather, what is dangerous is too many people finding out it was nned. The system has this grand promise of being able to continue the grind for the rest of your life. We have so many who be gods because they are held back by it. Think of how many people there must be out there who reached a limit and just couldnt do anything about it?
The system isnt our friend. It isnt there to help us understand what rules the universe now runs on. There must be some underlying rule to how skilled someone can be. If I had to bet, it would be connected to their stats. Though it is just as likely some hidden thing. Maybe abination.
Ally shrugs, I guess that could be possible. But how does this affect us right now? You stopped us from going off on a tangent just to do it yourself. What are the terms for this deal?
Doyle rubs the back of his neck, Fair enough. Now how specific do we have to be with this deal? Should we get out some paper and write it all down, or is a verbal agreement enough?
Ally crosses her arms, Hmph, thats more like it.@@novelbin@@
Moota shakes her head, Going to stay out of that. Anyway, we can do a verbal contract for this. You only need a written contract when it is going to be between more than the people signing on. As it is, we can just swear an oath after hashing out the details. Writing out the details would remove some of the actual intent behind our deal.
Doyle shrugs, Fair enough. So going by what we have said, we want mutual secrecy. You bring in some cows for the settlement, provide me with the patterns for cows up to level five, leave them a message, and provide me with the basic potions plus those three special ones. I work on spreading your religion to the cows including those in my dungeon, when I get a world sized floor I theme it after cows for you, and of course I stop destroying the alchemist vials and not revealing the secret of how to do so. Oh, and Ally, youre also sworn to secrecy.
Ally frowns, We arent providing all that much, are we?
Mootaughs, Youre providing something. This isnt my first time making a deal. Most of the time the way this goes is I show up with godly lights. Some old guy fake cowers then promises not to do it again or spread it around in exchange for some potions. Honestly? I will bet there is someone out there that knows how to do it and spreads it around. Way too many master alchemists seem to know the same method of destroying the vials.
Cattle Pattern Bonanza – Chapter 99
Doyle sighs, Well anyway, the people here will not think of it in that way. Just keep the note short and sweet. The cows are a gift. Exin about the difference between the farmer worshiping a god to bless the animal and the animals just worshiping a beast god. Other beast gods have simr things, right?
Moota nods, Those basic increases to mutation and chance at sapience are key features of any beast god.
Doyleughs, Thats good, they will need to figure out any other beasts on their own though. But yeah, that stuff and of course mention the specifics you grant cows. Also, I guess to confirm the note isnt aplete lie, tell them that the dungeon, that would be me, has been granted cows as well. Once I have the patterns, I think I will rece the goat on top of my cliff with a cow. Not only is cow milk a thing they are more used to, but a cow will provide more milk.
Moota frowns, What if they dont decide to have their cows worship me?
Doyle rolls his core, Meh, if that happens I will put some stuff into my dungeon to encourage them but I dont think it will be a problem. They already experienced an evolved wolf pack. Now I am sure some people would take that as a sign to avoid having their own animals evolve they will take it as the opposite. While I dont have the best ability to observe them, the general sentiment is, they arent sure how normal animals will even survive in the world. The idea of not only having cows, but ones that can defend themselves without needing a person to specialize in their care will be quite tempting.
Moota shakes her head, They would still need someone with farming skills. If anything, it will be harder because all the farming skills are based around using things like godly buffs.
Doyle shakes his core, Putting a lot of limits on the system arent we? Just because that is the only way you know of doesnt mean that is the only way. You arent a god of animal husbandry or farm after all. In fact, the heavy dependence on outside forces smacks of a cover up.
This falls under the same sort of thing as the alchemy gods you know not being able to improve. If farmers dont worship farm god, how would those gods improve themselves? How would they have be gods in the first ce? As here proves, not everywhere will worship them. Honestly? This sort of makes me want to limit how much power any god might gain on this.
I know that isnt very likely to work, but I can at least work on it in my own backyard. Besides, I suspect that across all the skills, those who worship a god for it will have a slower, more stable progression to a point. That and any of the true master crafters, even if they were at one point associated with a temple, now be free agents in that regard.
Moota shrugs, I dont have much experience with this. Though I know a god can bless one or two crafters, granting exemry abilities in a skill.
Doyle sighs, Thats even worse! If it is only one or two per a god who gets this divine inspiration, I have to guess they dont improve unless their god does. I bet this ability to bless someone is being used to stifle potentialpetition. It likely works simr to the buff that gods get so those crafters cant improve either. Only the most sensible ones who dont forget the basics will grow and the gods likely encourage them to only work on things of their new skill level.
Moota takes a moment to process what was just said. Why? Why is it the more time I spend around gods and learn about other gods, the worse they seem to be? I got this whole celebration and congrattions when I ascended and it has all been downhill from there.
Doyle conjures up an extra fuzzy pillow for her hold. If I had to guess, it has to do with how being a god isnt about the thing they are a god of. From the sounds of it, you can be a god of anything as long as enough people believe in it. While being a god does, give them some power and skill at their portfolio that isnt at the core of who they are.
At the core of being a god is faith and not in the wishy washy, they believe in you, sense. Rather, I mean that whatever power allows people to be a god. That means that they can be horrible at their portfolio as long as they can trick people into giving their faith.
Now not all gods are going to be slimeball shysters looking for the next patsy. Im sure that there are a lot of gods who sincerely believe in doing what is best for their followers. Though ironically, I am sure more of those types will be gods of stuff like thieves, conning people, and ruling. A little hard to prevent people from seeing behind the curtain when doing so is almost part and parcel with the profession.
Anyway, weve been going on about this for a while and I dont think there is any bottom to this hole in sight. The people on my third floor look like they are about to leave, and Im going to need to make some changes once I have the cow patterns. Exchange contact info with Ally and we will chat more about thister.
Moota scrunches up her face and hugs the pillow tighter, but eventually nods. Fine, once everyone is off your third floor, Ill transfer the patterns into your core. Though dont be disappointed. Im only transferring up to level five cow patterns. That means you wont be seeing an alchemy cow pattern, let alone a golden alchemy cow. Just the regr alchemy cow is a level 100 beast, so you are a long way off from even touching on it.
With that said, none of them have much else to talk about, so Doyle goes back to watching the adventurers while Ally and Moota chat about their experiences with other gods. Suffice it to say, those stories are less than ttering.
The Barrais andpany on the other hand never realized anything had happened at all. Not that they should. Once adventurers are on a floor, it is out of the dungeons hands. Still, they only beat two of the kobold groups today. While Doyle had missed much of the fights, he was able to catch the end of the second.
With the experience from the day before, the group hadnt let the kobold mage get off their big spell. This still didnt stop the kobold from contributing as it turns out fighting an earth mage in a stone tunnel isnt the easiest. While the party had prevented anyrge spells, it could still get off several spikes that could pop out from any of the stone surfaces.
Though while the damage to the party wasnt small, what forced them to retreat was their loot. The ore the party received from defeating two kobold mining areas weighed them down enough that they doubted the next fight would go all that well for them. Plus they had noticed the middle area was the home to multiple assassin vines so even just traveling to the next area could be deadly.
As they reach the exit portal, Doctor shakes his head. I dont know if I will keeping along on these trips if we do them this often. At the very least, I cant be diving in the dungeon every day. While not that many people are getting sick or injured, there is a lot for me to do.
Zach and Bell both in agreement. Zach in particr mentions that he is an important part of processing lumber for the settlement. Jeremy shakes his head at this, but after some talk agrees the group should cut back to diving once a week. Then the group leaves the dungeon.
In the core room, Moota jumps down from the hidden entrance to Allys room, growing to human size as she falls. She looks around and nods, Well, I guess it isnt just her room, which is a bit in. Anyway, I am going to ce my hand on your core. This is required for me to transfer the patterns and also why so few cores like to get their patterns from us gods. While the system doesnt like people destroying cores willy nilly, gods are some of the few with an easy time doing so once at the core itself. On the other hand, gods have a hard time getting into an awoken dungeon. Are you ready?
Doyle nods his core, Ready as Ill ever be. My instincts are going haywire having you in the room itself. I guess when you were up in Allys room it counted as having her in between you and me.
Moota tilts her head to the side, Huh, thats a weird one. Then again, instincts arent known to be the most flexible of things, especially when they are literally carved into you. Well, lets get started. This should only take a minute or two. And with that, she walks over and ces her palm on Doyles core.
Over the next three minutes, a steady stream of information flows into Doyles mind. It feels somewhat like when he got his starter monsters, except more chaotic. Still, it does the job and when Moota takes her hand away from his core, the system pops up a message informing him of his gains.
{Cattle pattern acquired at lv5
Dungeon Cattle (lv2) pattern acquired at lv5
Mad Cattle (lv2) pattern acquired at lv5
Longhorn Cattle (lv2) pattern acquired at lv5
Earthen Cattle (lv3) pattern acquired at lv5
Ashen Cattle (lv4) pattern acquired at lv5
Sea Cattle (lv4) pattern acquired at lv5
Herb Cattle (lv5) pattern acquired at lv5
Cattle patterns consolidated into Cattle Patterns at lv7}
{Cattle
S[7] A[3] C[14] I[2] W[2] P[5]
Skills: Teamwork lv2
Description: A normal cow or bull
Ecology: Grass
Cost: World Energy[8]}
{Dungeon Cattle (lv2)
S[7] A[3] C[15] I[2] W[2] P[6]
Skills: Teamwork lv5, Tough Hide lv1
Description: Like normal cattle except for an increase in their ability to work together and a tougher skin
Ecology: Grass
Cost: World Energy[10]}
{Mad Cattle (lv2)
S[20] A[2] C[8]
Skills: Rage lv5, Charge lv1
Description: Cattle that have lost minds in exchange for immense strength
Ecology: Grass
Cost: World Energy[12]}
{Longhorn Cattle (lv2)
S[10] A[3] C[14] I[2] W[2] P[5]
Skills: Gore lv5, Teamwork lv2
Description: Cattle with exceptional horns
Ecology: Grass@@novelbin@@
Cost: World Energy[11]}
{Earthen Cattle (lv3)
S[8] A[2] C[20] I[2] W[3] P[4]
Skills: Tough Hide lv5, Teamwork lv2, Heavy Foot lv1
Description: Cattle that have tapped into the power of thend beneath them for stability and defense
Ecology: Grass, Rocks
Cost: World Energy[18]}
{Ashen Cattle (lv4)
S[14] A[5] C[14] I[2] W[3] P[5]
Skills: Heat Resistance lv5, Teamwork lv2, Fire Breath lv2
Description: Cattle that lived in a fire aligned area and have adapted to be a dual element beast
Ecology: Grass, Wood
Cost: World Energy[18]}
{Sea Cattle (lv4)
S[7] A[12] C[16] I[2] W[2] P[5]
Skills: Teamwork lv5, Swim lv5
Description: Sometimes a wizard wants fresh milk, even when his tower is at the bottom of the sea. After being changed though they got left behind after said wizard relocated as they had lost the ability to breathe air.
Ecology: Grass, Seaweed
Cost: World Energy[17]}
{Herb Cattle (lv5)
S[12] A[3] C[20] I[2] W[4] P[5]
Skills: Teamwork lv6, Poison Resistance lv4, Rapid Healing lv2
Description: After years of eating various herbs, a cow can evolve into a herb cow. Through the process they have gained a great resistance to poisons and the lingering herbs heal the cattle at a rapid pace.
Ecology: Grass, Herbs
Cost: World Energy[26]}
{Grass pattern acquired at lv6
Volcanic Rock pattern goes from lv2 to lv3
Wood pattern goes from lv2 to lv3
Seaweed pattern acquired at lv1
Herb patterns goes from lv7 to lv8}
Some Paths – Chapter 101
Ally shrugs, misceneous potions wouldnt help all that much, anyway. They tend to be quite situational and you have the best of a bad lot picked from whatever trash the other gods handed off to Moota. Though even then they are less than useful right now. About the only good one for the settlement would be that oil of magic weapon. Eventually some monster will show up that requires magic weapons to damage and it will save their butts. Just add it in as a drop somewhere on the third floor and they should eventually get it.
More important than the potions though is all those skill levels you just received. To be honest? Youve fallen behind the curve on that kind of thing. For a dungeon that isnt too important, but it still isnt fun to hear. Now though, youve shot a head on two of your skills and creation shouldnt be too far behind. Kind of hard to get high-level patterns without an equally high level crafting skill to match. All you need to do is get a few of those potions dropping as loot. Now open up your paths so we can see what you now have! Im excited to see what options are now avable after all that nonsense.
Doyle dims his core, Shouldnt I use the new stuff in my dungeon first? Not only do I have potions for loot now but want to sub in some cows in a few ces like on top of the cliff.
Ally shakes her head, It is exactly because you got all the new stuff to add that I think you should do paths first. Who knows what will change once you invest your points.
Doyle rolls his core to the side and sighs, Fair enough. [Lets see those paths then].
{Points: 53
ss: Dungeon Core II 10/10
Completed: Kobold Community 15/15, Goat Supremacy 20/20, Energy Well I 3/3, Commanding Subordinates 12/12, Ageless Queens 15/15, Earths First Home of the Limit Breakers I 1/1
Started [2/3]: Dungeon Core III 24/100, Vegetation Variety 10/20
Avable: Vine Warper 0/15, Kin yer 0/100, Voidborn 0/250, Axe Sharpener 0/5, Energy Well II 0/6, Expansionist 0/30, Fires Flying 0/7, Biomes Aplenty 0/5, Potion Dispensary 0/10, Deal Broker 0/10, Elemental Animals 0/5, Cows for Milk 0/12, All the Potions 0/60, Divine Border 0/1}
Doyle takes a quick look over the list of paths and bursts outughing at thest option. Ally gives him a strange look, so he points it out, but she still doesnt get it so Doyle borates. The system is giving me a super cheap path that sounds like it will make my dungeon border much harder for gods to go through. Now dungeons already have some natural protection against gods getting into our domain and yet it wants me to improve upon that.
Now think about the skill problem with gods and how much benefit a god would receive if they could invade a dungeon and force the core to customize it for their followers. Just going off that I can guess who ever made the system is low key, not all that fond of gods. The only question left is if I got the path because of the attempt to enter my dungeon or a god showing up in my dungeon. Anyway, most of the other new paths looked exciting. What is your opinion on them?
Ally shrugs, The only one that stuck out to me as clearly bad is deal broker. That is a well-known path because of how easy it is to get. All you have to do is make a deal that heavily favors yourself. If we were being social with the settlement, I would say pick it up right away. As it is though, gaining the ability to slightly feel how whoever you are making a deal with feels about the deal is near worthless.
Doyle nods, Ive made one deal so far and I dont n to make it a habit. Plus since it costs so little, I assume it is quite easy to block. Anyway, out of the new paths Im thinking the border, elemental animals, and of course potion dispensary. Sort of sad that I cant afford all the potions as that path sounds interesting, but you cant have everything. Still, I am somewhat surprised I dont have more options for the assassin vines. Ive made heavier use of them on the third floor.
Ally frowns and looks over the list again. Yeah, you should have. This would point towards our guess, or I think I remember us guessing, that biomes aplenty will do something to them. Though honestly? Even if it has nothing to do with them, you should still take it. I can only see it interacting positively with your biosphere skill.
Doyle nods, That would make sense and since you said nothing against the paths, let''s do some math. Biomes is 5, plus dispensary at 10, add elemental animals for another 5, and of course divine border to include thatst cheeky single point. The total of it alling in at 21 points and leaving me with 32 to spend. With that I could go big and grab up expansionist, but that still doesnt grab me.
Ally rolls her eyes, Unless it does something unrted to increasing the size of your dungeon, there isnt really a point to it for you. Anyway, while I approve of elemental animals, why do you want it? I just see it as being useful when you start summoning all those fun cows.
Doyleughs, I can see why you would think that. However, what I believe it instead means is that I will get elemental variants for any animal a lot easier instead of improving currently known variants. Though this mostlyes from what Ive done so far. In fact, Id give decent odds on me getting some elemental goats within a week of choosing the path.
Ally frowns, Huh, I had not considered that. Though it does make sense. You havent used the elemental cows yet, after all. Now, as for how to spend thosest few points? At least one has to go to your ss path. It is sitting at 24 out of 100 and paths like to reward fractions of advancement and 25 would put you right at a quarter through. A 100 point path is a little low to start giving big rewards at that point, but it is a ss path so who knows.
Besides that, you shouldnt forget toplete vegetation variety. It is sitting there, half done. Who knows, maybe if you hadpleted it you might have gotten some herbs from those potions as well. Im actually kind of kicking myself for not thinking of that. You got an increased chance of nt patterns from absorbing the stuff made from them, so who knows what you will get for finishing it. That''s 11 points there so with thest 21 you could just bank it or maybe throw it all at the ss path. While not always the most exciting option, it will never hurt you.
Doyle skims the list one more time, Im going to grab cows for milk.
Ally raises an eyebrow, Any particr reason why?
Doyle bobbles, I. Hmm, I just. You know what? I dont really have a reason. Im just going to be having cows for milking and it felt right to take that path. Besides that, I am thinking I will just save the remaining 9 points in case another path like the border one shows up. Though if I dont get anything too exciting with a quarter of my ss pathpleted, I might throw another five into that to round it up.
Ally rolls her eyes, Well, I cant think of a reason you shouldnt take it. So we might as well get this over with. Invest your points so we can see what goodies you get to y with!
Doyleughs, Who am I to deny ady? [System,plete the paths Biomes Aplenty, Potion Dispensary, Elemental Animals, Cows for Milk, Vegetation Variety, Divine Border, and throw one point into dungeon core three.]
{5 points applied to Biomes Aplenty path...
5/5 - Path Complete, Dungeon type advanced to Diverse Strange Caverns, Normal monsters summoned in a room will be created to match the area, All rooms scanned and room patterns created for them
Basic Room pattern goes from lv5 to lv20
Cave Room pattern acquired at lv20
ins Room pattern acquired at lv20}
Doyle interrupts the system, [Disy series of patterns acquired at the same level and of the same type all at once!] I didnt bother doing this before because it didnt happen all that often but this is like the third time today.
The systems output pauses and then asks {Restart Message?}
Doyle sighs, [Yes, restart the message, but start at the patterns. Dont go from the very start.]
{Basic Room pattern goes from lv5 to lv20
Cave Room, ins Room, Vine Room, Farm Room, Camp Room, Boulder ins Room, Mystical Mountain Valley Room, Pasture Room, Mountain Side Room, Cliff Room, Forest Room, and Herb Garden Room patterns all acquired at lv20
Room patterns consolidated into Room patterns lv22
10 points applied to Potion Dispensary path...
5/10 - You have earned +2 Intelligence and +1 Intelligence/Level, Monsters capable of alchemy gain +2 Intelligence and +1 Intelligence/Level, Potion loot more able to absorb world energy
10/10 - Path Complete, Potion loot on monsters capable of alchemy develops twice as fast, Potions used in territory have a chance of their pattern being learned, You have earned +5 Intelligence, Monsters designated to perform alchemy gain +10 Intelligence as long as they can actually do so
5 points applied to Elemental Animals path...
5/5 - Path Complete, Animals in your dungeon have a greatly increased chance of evolving into elemental variants, For each animal if no elemental variety is known, gain mostmon elemental variety
Wooden Goat (lv3) pattern acquired at lv20
Windcutter Axe beak (lv14) pattern acquired at lv20}
{Wooden Goat (lv3)
S[8] A[4] C[30] I[2] W[2] P[5]
Skills: Endure lv5
Description: Depending on your magical heritage, wood can either be seen as the living half of earth or its own element. All the same, this goat embodies this and the concept of growing toughness.
Cost: World Energy[14]}
{Windcutter Axe Beak (lv14)
S[27] A[18] C[10] I[1] W[22] P[42]
Skills: Blunt Damage Resistance lv9, Wind Resistance lv6, Read Wind lv3
Description: If an Axe Beak is wise enough and lives long enough they be able to read the air around them and their ability to track prey, even when at full speed, increases dramatically and they race through the air at crazy speeds.
Cost: World Energy[920]}
Doyle interrupts the system once more, [System pause]! What in the world is with that bird? Ally, why did I get such a high level monster?@@novelbin@@
Allyughs at Doyles reaction. 14 a high level? I guess for a slow leveler like you it might seem like that! Give a path or two and a couple more floors and it wont seem so crazy. If a person really wanted to, they could gain their first ten levels in a day, not that anyone would want to. Anyway, those stats are low until you pump it up with some paths. Just look at yourself. I bet by level ten you will have multiple stats north of 50. Early on each single point in a stat seems like such arge amount, but at higher levels people bemoan when a path gives less than 100 points.
Doyle dims, Do stat points grow your ability by a set amount or what? I hadnt really thought about it but your right, my stats will grow to quite a level even at earlier levels.
Ally shrugs, A little of column A and a little of column B. A good example of this is a humans strength stat. Each point adds a certain amount of raw physical get up and go. However, it also adjusts the body to better fit what it is being used for. You dont stop gaining that power but like how adding 1 to 10 is a whole lot different from adding it to 100, the same thing applies to strength.
There is also the fact that after a certain point more raw power isnt worth much. So what if you could technically lift a mountain? try to pull that off and you will just end up with a handful of dirt or maybe arge rock. What bes more important are the special things you get with more strength. For instance, some races gain an innate tactile telekinesis which solves the lifting a mountain thing. It doesnt help them with the actual weight but rather keeps together the thing you want to lift to some extent.
Anyway, Ive gone on about this side bit long enough. How about we resume the path messages? We arent even halfway through them yet!
And Some More Paths – Chapter 102
Doyle rolls his core, We can talk about it afterwards then. [System, resume the message].
{12 points applied to Cows for Milk path...
2/12 - Cows within 10 kilometers of your dungeon territory start producing milk sooner and continue making milk longer, Cows born or created in territory gain +1 Constitution
4/12 - Cows within 10 kilometers of your dungeon territory produce more milk on average, Cows born or created in territory gain +1 Constitution
6/12 - Cows within your dungeon territory will produce higher quality milk, You have earned +5 Constitution and +1 Constitution/Level, Cows in your dungeon gain +5 Constitution and +2 Constitution/Level
8/12 - Cows within 10 kilometers of your dungeon territory more easily follow orders of those that own them, Sapient Cows within 10 kilometers of territory if treated well are more likely to make pacts with non-beast sapients, The milk of variant cows within 10 kilometers of your dungeon territory contain more of their energy
10/12 - Cows within 10 kilometers of your dungeon territory are more able to defend themselves and gain +2 Strength, You have earned +2 Strength
12/12 - Pathplete, Cows in your dungeon always produce milk, Sapient cows within 10 kilometers of your dungeon territory gain +5 luck, Cows in your dungeon gain +5 Strength and +2 Strength/Level, You have earned +5 Strength and +1 Strength/Level
10 points applied to Vegetation Variety...
14/20 - Fungi based monsters now automatically change to match their surroundings
17/20 - Fungi and nt based monsters gain +3 Constitution and +1 Constitution/Level and are more able to survive in extreme conditions
19/20 - Fungi and nt based monsters are more likely to develop into variants
20/20 - Pathplete, Fungi and nts in your dungeon can absorb more energy and are more likely to develop special qualities, When there is energy to spare random fungi and nts will spawn in your dungeon that matches the ce they appear, You have earned +3 Luck/Level
1 point applied to Divine Border...
1/1 - Pathplete, +100 World Energy/Hour from filtering out divine energy and absorbing it, Attacks from divine beings will be absorbed by your dungeons dimensional boundary to a point, Divine beings and their influence within a kilometer of your territory will be reported, Divine beings without personal knowledge of your realm have a much harder time finding or scrying it, You have earned +1/Level to every stat
1 point applied to Dungeon Core III...
25/100 - Gold and silver patterns acquired at lv20, Copper pattern set to lv20, +10 to max floors, Monster level cap now goes up by two per a floor retroactively, You gain +10 to your highest stat (Karma) and +5 to your lowest stat (Presence), +10,000 world energy for creation of new floors}
After reading the rest of the notifications Doyle nods, Welp, Im d I picked up divine border. Though honestly? It looks like thosest two points I spent gave me more than the other thirty plus points. Like seriously? Plus 1 to every stat? Plus 10 to the highest and 5 more to the lowest? Those are crazy gains at this point. Besides that, why in the world would the system just give me world energy towards making new floors?
Ally nods, It seems a little exaggerated right now but ten k isnt all that much in the grand scheme of things. If you hadnt gathered any till now, this would be enough to get your fourth floor. That isnt even enough for your first boss floor. And once again, those stats increases look impressive right now, but I would only call it a good jumpstart. If anything, all your plus per a level stuff will outweigh those numbers easily enough.
Honestly, Im more excited for the capstone on veggie variety. It might not sound too interesting that random stuff will spawn. After all, who cares if you get a specialized variety of grass, right? Wrong! It wasnt specific. Instead, the ability will just spawn in stuff that matches the terrain. Now tell me what you would get if it decides to spawn something in the middle of ava pool? Even if it is a normal nt, that is going to be something amazing. Though some would debate the use of the term normal at that point. Extremophiles tend to stretch definitions.
Doyleughs, I can definitely see that being powerful in the future. For now though, Im excited about potion dispensary and the milk path. I know, plus ten in the long run isnt all that much. However, the ability to spike a casters intelligence on the low floors seems amazing. And those boosts to potion loot? Now there is half a chance some of my fancy new potions will actually be seen.
Like, seriously, Ive had two loot drops and one of them wasnt even my own loot drop? Sure, a lot of money is dropping, but a potion or two would at least help them with staying power. They dont have enough healers to stay in for too long.
Ally shrugs, Meh, the loot drop thing will improve with more people diving. That and once they start throwing their trash into the dungeon. Though if they just dump it on the first floor, it wont help too much beyond that. Some energy will work its way to deeper floors but not that much.
Doyle shakes his core, Yes, I know it is a matter of having more people diving in. And he pulls up a window showing the area around the settlement, Now point to where all these adventurers we need are!
Ally shrugs again, Going with how the system ces people there should be at least three other settlements around whos poption will be equal to or greater than the poption of the original poption of both the old towns. The only reason people havent found us yet is because no one is looking too hard. Just consider the wolves that attacked. The settlement beat them only because they did a suicidal charge towards your entrance. Now consider how well a small scouting group out in the woods would do against them!
Besides that, everyone seems to have forgotten a key thing. We already know about a nearby settlement or something simr. Just up that river over there is somece that can be traded with. Whoever is there probably doesnt even know what went on here at all. After all, if you are some kind of thug, would you tell the neighbors about it? Those few mooks who escaped up that way should have lied about some kind of disaster happening here and are either hiding out or moved on. That ce should be sending someone to check on what has happened here within the month, sooner if the mooks left.
Doyle sighs, You dont seem to be all that worried. Right now my third floor is keeping the people in check, but they will figure it out soon enough. Besides that, the third floor is providing them with material to improve their equipment situation.
Ally nods, True enough. The ore will allow them to advance not only their gear but the skills rted to said gear. Kind of hard to improve an armor skill if you arent wearing proper armor and what not. Though we dont have to rush. It is just a fact of life that dungeons are slower to develop. At the moment we are speeding along, but that is because of how small we are right now.
Dont forget that we are immortal. As long as we survive the first thousand years or so, our lifespan will be measured in how many universes weve outlived. In the normal swing of things a dungeon will get about a hundred floors within the first thousand years and we already have three going on five! Sure the early floorse quickly but still.@@novelbin@@
Doyle dims, I thought being an immortal was special?
Ally sighs, Being a True Immortal is special. What we are is the mortal definition of immortal. The whole not dying from natural causes thing. Unless something kills us, we wont die. Beyond that, youre a dungeon core. That means being immune to some easier deaths like from disease or starvation.
Doyle nods, So immortal like vampire immortal. Though I thought that level of being immortal discounted things like disease and starvation? I dont know how it works in the rest of the universe, but our stories have beings like that being able to survive that kind of stuff.
Ally rolls her eyes, That has more to do with the fact that creatures that are naturally immortal will have those addons. In fact, most beings can be immortal and it isnt all that hard. Just get enough levels under your belt and find some path or outside influence to preserve your life for you.
While some snobbier immortals will sneer at someone for it, being immortal through an outside power is about the easiest path. Heads of wide religions and other simr types of people will generally be immortal as long as they hold that position. Of course, just being immortal wont let a person survive when the dimension they are in dies. Not even you break this rule. It is just that your dungeon is the universe you are in, and it will live as long as you do. All the dungeon types that put you in your own little pocket dimension share this trait.
Doyleughs at this, Well thats just cheating! Good thing I get to take advantage of it. Though I guess this exins why you arent too rushed. Still, I dont want to take chances. If this is my period of growth, I want to take full advantage of it.
Ally shakes her head, It isnt so much a period of growth as it is there being less of you to grow. It is a lot easier to go from one to two than it is to go from ten to twenty. In fact, you will experience more growth in the future because more people will be around. It just wont matter as much once you have ten or so floors.
Though since you are on track to get your first boss floor soon, I cant wait to see what nonsense you get for it. I assume with what youve done until now it will give you a choice between a kobold boss or a goat boss.
Doyle dims, Dont I get to make my own choice on what bes my boss monster?
Ally shrugs, Yes, but no. As per the tutorial box that just popped up, you can make whatever choice you want. However, after you make the choice, the system will sanity check you on the first boss monster. That means you can very well go and choose to make a rabbit your boss monster, but the system will veto it. Though dont think this is purely to make sure you dont have an underpowered boss. The system will also veto any overpowered boss option.
This is only for the first floor though and from reading between the lines, this seems to be because the first boss is where most unaware dungeons mess up. Because by the fifth floor most dungeons dont even have half the variety you do, their options are limited. Maybe an undead wandered in at some point and so when the dungeon chooses a random monster as the boss, itnds on that undead. Now there is an undead dungeon that doesnt know how to keep its head down.
Anyway, you just got a lot of new stuff and the ability to make some more floors. From what I can see outside, no one else ising in for a deep dive, so how about you change up whatever needs changing now?
Doyle nods, I do want to make some changes on the existing floors and the fourth floor isnt going to make itself.
Final Stat Description – Chapter 103
Doyle starts with his change on the first floor. More so because there isnt much to change. The actual floor still does its job just fine. Instead, he implements his n to allow Ally to travel through his dungeon, even if people are diving. This isnt all that hard.
Because of the extra space on top and below the rooms, Doyle can create arge area with fairy sized holes leading to each of the rooms. The only problem he can seeing from this is that if anyone found the tunnels. Of course he adds a trapdoor to the holes so they wont be found just by searching.
However, anyone able to manipte stone or at least break it could find the tunnels. At the moment no one around can mess with his denser stone yet, so he adds a second trapdoor where it starts. And to finish this system of tunnels, he puts in a portal he ns to connect to a simr one on the second floor.
With that finished, Doyle moves onto the second floor and gives the floor a simr tunnel treatment. After that, he has one more change to make. While goats are sort of his thing, Doyle was never a fan of goat''s milk. The clifftop goat he had ced for milking has to go. He had leveled it to five, so when he reces the goat with a cow, he has the points to make the recement a level 3 cow. Though he doesnt know if higher levels change anything for stuff like milk.
Doyle turns to Ally, Is milk from a higher level animal special in any way?
Ally looks up from watching Ace talking to Jeremy and shrugs. Well, yes, and no. This is one of those things where it depends. Specifically, as with most things, levels mean nothing. This alles down to stats. In fact, your cows and their massive amount of constitution will produce amazing milk. Though at this point, this will amount to only being healthy milk. Something you already get from Moota, so I guess you get doubly healthy milk.
Soon enough, the milk should start giving some minor benefits. Not to the point of healing or some such, but as a supplement. For instance, if used as the base of a healing potion, the potion will have an improved effect when healing bones. Even if the milk isnt used like that, if constantly drunk, it will assist a person when healing their bones naturally. Now go back to messing with your floors. Those two are talking about some important things and I want to keep track of the settlements development.
Doyle rolls his core but turns back to his second floor. With the information, he doesnt mind plopping down a level three cow in ce of the goat. Counting the bonuses it gets the cows constitution clocks in at a decent 23 points. A far cry from the 35 his level five goat had. But then again, he doesnt want to give some super milk on his second floor, anyway. Hopefully the settlement didnt notice how good the goats milk was.
Besides the cow though, once again there is not much else to change on the floor. It makes sense as Doyle had recently updated them, even if he did just gain a bunch of new stuff. Though I guess most of the stuff was in potions and such. When I go back and update all the drops, I will have more to change.
With a mental shrug and a bobble of his core, Doyle moves onto the third floor. With the random cement of stuff and multiple levels to the floor, tunnels are hard to figure out. In the end, he can only blindly set each room up with a hidden tunnel on any of the walls without an opening. Then, when the rooms get ced, have those tunnels connect up to a grid of tunnels. Worse yet, he cant even get them to all exit into a safer, dense stone area. He protects them somewhat by dding the tunnels in dense stone, but it wont be as safe.
Tunnels figured out he makes one change to the monsters on the floor. From each of the mining groups Doyle removes three goats and six more goats from the farm area. With that he has just enough points to include some earthen cattle, one to each group. He doesnt equip the cow or anything because he hasnt used them yet.
Better they underperform the first time through. Plus, the mining groups have proven to be just a bit too much of an increase in difficulty at the moment, anyway. Not that this change is going to make the encounter easier. Depending on how good the cattle are, this could instead increase the difficulty.
Doyle takes another look over the floor and sighs, I wanted to change some stuff up again, but I did that recently. There just isnt anything to change at the moment.@@novelbin@@
Doyle shakes his core and moves onto updating all the drops. The first thing he does is add a copper coin on top of everything. In fact, by thinking about it opened up a special loot screen with the coin already filled in.
{Default Loot:
All Floors, Every Creature: 1cp}
Huh, that is convenient. Though I thought I had to spawn stuff myself. I wonder what the catch is. Hey Ally, I just found the default loot option. Do you know what is up with that?
Ally stretches and sits up on her bed, Did you finish updating your floor? It took you a while, we are halfway through the night.
Doyles core dims, and he nces outside, only to find she is telling the truth. Where did the time go? It didnt feel like it took that long.
Ally shrugs, There wasnt anything happening and you arent being rushed or anything. Give it some time and time will fly past for you when nothing important is happening. Anyway, it looks like we just popped another tutorial window.
Default loot is like a more automated version of automating your floors. Apparently it is easier to set up because all the system does is attach the loot to the monster pattern. This is one of the conveniences the system provides. Each rule takes up half a floors worth of wisdom, so what? Five points? Yeah, that sounds about right. You have a lot of control over the specifics of the rule, so it is convenient. That and this gives you a use for all that extra wisdom.
Doyle nods, Interesting, I noticed that I would end up with way too much wisdompared to how much I am gaining. Probably going to be a bunch of other things like this.
Ally smiles, Everyone has stat benefits like this. Ive mentioned about the regen humans tend to get at around 25 constitution, this is simr. Besides paths, stats are one of the mostmon ces for bloodlines to show up. Anyway, If you pull up the description of Wisdom right now it will have been added.
Doyle tilts his core to the side and pulls up the description.
{Wisdom: The finesse of ones mind. Your races crystalline mind can result in impressive non-standard results. Most important though is this increases the flexibility of your thoughts. This stat will increase your ability to connect disparate facts that others might not as well as form a mental defense of much greater strength than normal sapiants. What it does not do is make your judgement any better. One side benefit of wisdom for your race is that every ten points allows for the automation of a floor, and five points allows for dungeon-wide loot rules. Thises from warping a segment of your unconscious mind and setting the new pathways in crystal perfection.}
He rolls back upright, Youre right, the description has and five points allows for dungeon-wide loot rules added to it. Though now that I am looking at wisdom, it reminds me I still havent checked presence. Lets check it now.
{Presence: A minds specialty is projecting. Your race has turned what for most is an external stat into an internal one. This represents a cores ability to affect their own monsters on a mental level. This stat will increase your ability to fine tune the behavior patterns of non-sapient monsters.}
Ally looks it over and shakes her head, Well that isnt too descriptive. It doesnt really tell us more than we already knew.
Doyle takes a bit longer to look over the description again before disagreeing with her. No, it might seem simr to what we knew, but it is different. The description specifically calls out behavior patterns and the fact the stat doesnt work on sapients. We didnt know that before, we knew presence was going to let me control my monsters better. Going by what it says, I feel this mostly affects how stuff acts when invaders are on a floor instead of during down time. Plus, with so little listed, there must be a lot of hidden things still. After all, it is the shortest description. Even agility has more text.
Ally squints her eyes at the screen before nodding. That makes some sense. Though it might also be possible that most of the text for presencees from how the stat interacts with your sapient monsters. But since we dont have any yet, the description doesnt show us anything about that.
Doyle nods, but then realizes something that has low-key been bothering him. I keep nodding and what not and you respond to it, yet you arent in the same room as my core. How does that work?
Ally pauses as the non sequitur washes over her and thenughs. You dont pay much attention to my room, do you?
Doyle bobbles, Well, it is your room. Im not going to creep on you or anything.
Ally wipes a tear from her eyes, Fair enough, I appreciate that. Though the answer falls more in line with me not returning the favor. If you just look across from my bed, you will see one of the screens I have up disys your core room. Youve probably not noticed it because that is also the screen I use when looking around the ce.
Doyle tilts to the side, A little creepy to be watched but fair y. If I had paid attention, I would have noticed. Anyway, moving on. Did you find out anything important from Ace and Jeremys talk?
Ally nods, We might finally see some other people around here. Ace has been sending out scouts to watch for Jans return. While there havent been signs of her return, the scouts have seen some people down that small river over that way. You know, the way those thugs managed to escape. Apparently the people backed off when they spotted the scouts. But if there is one creature that curiosity kills more than cats, it is humans. They will be back.
Doyle beams, I dont know why, but hearing that more people will be around makes me ecstatic.
Ally shrugs, Youre a dungeon core. Of course, the prospect of more divers excites you. So far not much has happened here that would trigger them. There are a few people here and no one of any real threat around. You cant really kill anyone and no one can kill you so you feel safe just spinning your wheels as long as enough people keep diving in.
Doyle dims down for a second, I dont care that Im a murder cave but it still doesnt feel all that good hearing I have instincts about it.
Ally rolls her eyes, You have instincts for it the same way humans have the instinct to kill small animals for food. Admittedly, the instincts you have are stronger in some ways, but youre still a sapient being with control of yourself.
You Can’t Decide – Chapter 105
Ally shrugs, Even with you weighing everything down with loot, that doesnt mean equipment will rain down on the delvers. If anything, having so much loot spread around the drop rate is now slower than before. Though only for a little while. All that loot ispeting for energy. Once they have filled up, the drop rate will increase.
I dont think they mind. None of them expect actual loot and are quite happy that everything drops money. Though speaking of everything dropping money, you made the rule a tad bit too broad. Coppers are dropping from the rabbits. Luckily, your rule doesnt include ants and such as being able to drop stuff or it might have gotten a bit ridiculous. Not that I wouldnt find it funny to watch a bunch of people digging up the dirt to kill bugs.
At least someone finally got a horn drop from the rabbits. It was a big hit as well. These rabbits have been on the floor for quite a while now, so the horns have a decent chance of having a herbal effect. I almost feel bad for adventurers. After this bit of time they will assume rabbits drop herbal horns all the time.
Doyle tilts back and sighs, Well I guess it is good to know how broad the loot rules are. Anything else happening? Its the next day after all, and it makes little sense for them to only be resource gathering. Even during normal times a group or two at least try for the second floor.
Allyughs, Thats because the people from upriver are visiting.
Normally Doyles core will shift around a little, even if not moving. Hearing that causes his core to freeze in ce. The what? When did they show up and why didnt you interrupt me? This is kind of important.
Ally nods, I was going to but then it devolved into a standoff. That is why people are farming. The whole settlement has taken up position on the walls, with only a handful of people leaving at any point in time. But yeah, you could just look outside.
Doyle shifts his view to outside of his dungeon and takes in the view. On top of the wall in front of everyone else stands Ace. Below and a good thirty meters away stands a group of forty people. While these new people have half again as many people as the settlement, neither side has any illusion of how much of a chance they stand.
Ace and the rest of the settlement members are all armored in matching wooden armor, except for Jacks bronze greaves and Sammys iron gauntlets. The new people on the other hand seem lucky to own armor in the first ce. Not one of them is fully armored up, and most of the armor they have is pre-system stuff.
Doyle settles in to watch the situation develop. While nothing is happening right now, this interaction could have major consequences for his development in the near future.
Time passes and a few hours past noon a small boat can be seen speeding down the river. While out of Doyles territory, just the speed alone is enough to tell him that some kind of magic or skill is in use. Even without a motor, the boat is kicking up a rooster tail as the tiny craft approaches.
The boat parks next to arge barge, the vehicle Doyle assumes the new group had arrived on. A young girl hops off her boat as ites to a halt and rushes over to the person Doyle had assumed was in charge. Thedy wearing the mostplete set of post-system armor of her group grabs a piece of paper from the girl and reads what it says. Doyle strains to get a look at the note, but thedy keeps it covered so no matter the angle, no one else can read it.
She crumples up the note and sighs before turning back to Ace. So as you probably guessed after we convinced the idiots to retell their story, we confirmed yours. I wont say Im sorry for doubting you, but I would like to move forward with a better rtionship. Though I have to ask what happened to everyone.
While we have confirmed that you had liberated the two towns from thugs, there should be a few hundred people. You have an order of magnitude fewer people here. And dont say they are hiding inside, weve been observing your ce for a couple days.
Ace stands firm with his arms crossed, Most of our poption has left for their own safety. There was arge pack of mutated wolves attacking our location. Those of us you see here are the ones willing to face said pack to protect our new home. You should already know about the dungeon? Well, we believe the potential of it outweighed the danger. While it is young, it has provided for us.
If you want to wait for maybe a week, the others should being back. But you wont get a better deal talking to them. Those of us who remain here have imed this ce as our own, even above the others. We raised these walls. We protected thend. We have explored the dungeon. We wont turn others away, but this will be our settlement.
Thedy takes a step forward, Will you be letting others dive the dungeon?
Ace nods, We wont monopolize the dungeon. Though we will keep control over how people enter it. Because of the wolves, we have set up a dome around the dungeon gate. After all, maybe the next horde of monsters thate along might be birds or some other type of flier. Besides that, while we dont know if monsters wille out of the dungeon, we figure keeping the area clear is safer for that as well.
Every person who enters will need to register before entering. Besides that, we dont have many other rules outside of not dawdling while in the dungeon. Though that may change. If too many visitors dive the dungeon, we may start giving preference to our own people or requesting a portion of a teams take of meat and money. After all, we depend on it for arge part of our protein at the moment.
Thedy frowns, You would charge us for what we have fought for?
Ace res down at her, Of course we would. The dungeon isnt big enough yet for multiple parties to dive at one time. To be honest? Since you brought this up, Im going to limit outsiders who want to enter. Every other party will be someone from the settlement. Not only is the dungeon a source of food, it is also a source of power. We need to protect ourselves. After all, you would have attacked us as soon as you arrived if we hadnt set up a proper defense.
Thedy scoffs, We could have taken you! I just dont want to lose anyone.
Ace just shakes his head, Everyone here has more stats breaking twenty than not. Do you still want to im you could take us? Look at the scratches on my armor. Notice how clean the cuts are? These are marks from battling the wind wolves that were a part of the wolf pack that attacked us. Besides that, there were stone wolves, dire wolves, and even a lesser shadow wolf! A pack of mutated wolves nearly a hundred strong attacked us, and you think the forty of you could have done what they couldnt?
Thedy crosses her arms, It isnt just us! Our town has thousands of people in it. You take us out and no matter how good you guys are, youre doomed.
Ace rolls his eyes, The worlds a different ce now. How many of those thousand people have killed a monster? Hell, how many of them even own a single piece of armor? Numbers mean just as much here as they did charging against a machine gun nest in the world wars.
Stop posturing. Weve already agreed to let people use the dungeon. We are even okay with others settling here. All we care about is that we stay in control because it was us that put our lives on the line.
Thedy points at him, You think that just because you are stronger that will always be the case? We could just retreat ande back once we have the power to defeat you all. I bet it wouldnt even take a year to build up a force like yours, but with ten times the number of people. My town wants to take control of the dungeon to provide food for our growing numbers.
Aceughs, You think youre going to grow a force that canpare to us without a dungeon?
Thedy snorts, And who says we dont have a dungeon?
Ace shakes his head, If you had a dungeon already, you wouldnt be so weak. If you had a dungeon already, you wouldnt be so forceful in trying to take ours. You want to take a year to build a force to take us? That just means we have a year to grow even faster than you ever could, let alone if you want to make a bigger force.
You want food? Dive for food. We can take coins instead of food. You want our dungeon? All you will get is death. Though I guess that would help with your food issue. Fewer mouths to feed.
Thedy huffs, We just want to control the dungeon. This isnt some matter of life and death. Cant you be civilized?
Jimughs at this. You think he isnt trying to keep things civilized? Fighting overnd and resources is one hallmark of civilization. Plus, while our leader there doesnt want to drag this out in the open, you dont have the power to decide on if youre going to fight us! Otherwise we wouldnt have had to wait around so much. Sure, you needed to get news back and forth about the thugs. But the first message you sent back was asking about what to do.
I wouldnt want to be controlled by your group if this is how you are treating the world. How dare you be out ofmunication range and not have control over the situation. You should be given the power to make decisions while out in the wilderness.
Ace coughs, While a little blunt, I have to agree with him. What in the world are you doing out here without the ability to make decisions? Take your crew and go back to your town. Next time youe back, maybe consider bringing someone that can bargain with us.
Thedy crosses her arms, I can make decisions!
The girl that had delivered the message scoffs, Are you sure you dont need to ask Ben if youre allowed to say that?
Thedy turns with a stomp, And you can shut up!
The girl rolls her eyes, Okay everybody, pack up! Were heading home. I was permitted to read the message I delivered for just this type of circumstance. If things get to this stage, we are supposed to go back to town so we can decide what needs done.
As the rest of the group rxes and packs up thedy sputters. With a sigh, the girl just shakes her head, Youre in charge because of your pre-system rtionship with Ben. He understands what you are like yet still lets youe out here because it wasnt expected that we would find a situation like this. Even if they werent a haven of thieves and criminals, it was thought they would be at the same level of strength as us except with fewer people. Lets just leave so we can figure out how to deal with this.@@novelbin@@
Soon enough the group of forty have loaded up on their barge as the small boat speeds off ahead of them. Back on the wall, Ace shakes his head and turns to the others. Well, at least we know who is in charge of the town and that they should be quite close to us. Not too close, though. Im going to guess the system probably ced us with enough space for a couple of small viges between the starting areas. So say about an 18 hour walk?
Doctor nods, With boats they can probably make that trip in a few hours if they arent pushing it with skills. I almost wish Jan woulde back now. While we are strong, people still look to numbers to determine the power of a force.
Everyone else sighs at this, but no one disagrees.
New Elemental Variant – Chapter 108
Doyle turns away from Ally and focuses on his core. It is once again time to form another floor. He reaches deep into his core, down to that single point of darkness. Around him is a sea of power, however unlike the previous two times there is a sea beyond the sea. Doyle takes his time to examine this before realization hits him.
That sea beyond the sea is the extra power. The overflow of world energy beyond what his current floor needed. Doyle shifts his point of view to look closer at the separation between the two pools of power. At the dividing line he finds a of power, loosely woven of crystalline world energy. Though while he can tell what it is, the construction of the is beyond him.
Doyle stares at the for a few moments more before moving on. While such a device would be useful, he fears that if he touches it, the would disintegrate. Not without reason either. Even just observing the has caused it to wobble. Meh, something to work for in the future.
He turns away from the and proceeds with the usual steps of forming a new floor. From within the infinite void Doyle pushes outwards until the void can be pushed no further. Then the sea of power connected to the void contracts, crystallizing as it goes and taking the core room with it. At the smallest point, the liquid crystal and the void join in an explosion of potential, forcing the infinite to be finite. That final seed of the infinite once again retreating to the deepest point of his core, waiting for the next floor.
{Fourth floor dimensionally anchored
World Energy cap +2900 [Constitution(29) * 100]
Fourth floor spending limit set to 6900 [Previous floors limit(4200) + Intelligence(27) * 100]
Random elemental monster upgrade purchasable for 2000we
Monster level cap updated
Quintessence debt paid back by 5}
Doyle looks at the system message and quirks his core to the side at thest bit. [System, show me the misceneous info from my sheet].
{Max 20 floors
5000/5000 world energy till floor 5
Monster Level Cap: 10 [Level(2) + Floors(4)*2 + Path Modifiers(0)]
Quintessence Debt: 88.61}
Huh, looks like creating a new floor is my best bet at paying back the debt with any decent speed. Without the floor, I think Ive paid back less than half a percent of a point. Though I guess that isnt doing too bad from what I remember of my quintessence regen rate.
Doyle turns his attention to Ally and notices she is in the middle of reading some web novel or another he remembers reading at one point. As it isnt anything too important, he coughs to gain her attention.
Ally looks up with an eyebrow raised, Really? A cough? We talk mind to mind.
Doyle bobbles, It got your attention, didnt it? Anyway, the floor formed and for some reason doing so paid back five of the quintessence debt. Also, instead of a random monster pack, the system gave me an option for a random elemental monster upgrade. Any clue what is up?
Ally shrugs, The elemental thinges from the path you just got. I wouldnt rely on an option like thising up the next time though, so I would advise you take it. While the upgrade says random, my bet is you will get a goat upgrade. Though you can try to query what the system means by random.
As for paying back some of the debt? That is odd. If I had to guess, dungeons put off some quintessence when forming a new floor. Though this might be specific to dungeons that form their own dimension, for you it doesnt particrly matter. All I know is you arent getting the full amount paid off for what the system gathered. Could be the system rounding down to a whole number or the system might even count only half of what it gathered. We will know for certain if the next floor you make pays back the same amount.
Doyle nods, That would make sense. I bet if we didnt know about the debt, the system wouldnt even pay part of it off. Cant be cheap to run the system work. Anyway, [System, show me and Ally what you mean by random upgrade.]
{Random elemental monster upgrade purchasable for 2000we
Random: A monster type is chosen at random from a list of monsters in the dungeon, and a random possible elemental variant is chosen.
List: Created when the option for the upgrade was received. The list has every spawned monster on it. However, if the system has detected purposeful maniption of the dungeons spawned monsters. This includes such things as removing all but one type of monster. The system will take measures to remove the maniption. This can include but is not limited to going back and choosing a list of monsters from before the maniption happened and removing types of monster from the list.}
Doyleughs, Huh, I guess you were right, Ally. Most likely going to be a goat that gets the upgrade. Still, random is random, so lets give it a spin. [System, I will purchase the upgrade.]
{Choosing randomly from 184 monsters...
54th monster in Dungeon chosen...
The chosen monster is the first goat on the second floor under themand of a kobold goatherd
Selecting from possible elemental variants...
Grassen Goat variant chosen}
{Grassen Goat (lv3)
S[10] A[3] C[30] I[2] W[2] P[6]
Skills: Camouge(grass) lv20, Charge lv3, Photosynthesis lv3, Rooted lv1
Cost: World Energy[25]
Description: An ancestor of this goat at some point ate a powerful herbal grass that refused to die and instead grew into it. The ancestor however was strong enough to not die from the invasion. Instead, they formed a symbiotic rtionship that developed to the point that its offspring were infested with a lessened form of the herb. With time, the grassen goat variety formed. Though the power inherited from the two ancestors has lessened to where this variety is simply a goat with grass instead of hair.
Ecology: Water, Sunlight}
{Water pattern goes from lv1 to lv 4
Dungeon Lights upgraded to allow for more natural light output}
Doyle looks over the new variant and shakes his core, I dont know what I am going to do with this. This variant looks almost like a joke, especially since the cost is so much more than a normal goat does. Besides that, I need to ask. What is up with my lights? At first it made some sense that I would get a type and be forced somewhat to stick to it for a while. Now though, I have patterns for everything, including air and water. Why dont I have a pattern for lights?
Ally waves his questions away for the moment as she inspects the new goat type. With great interest she observes the description and mulls it over for a good three to five minutes before she turns towards Doyle. This goat is special for two reasons. The first is its camouge skill. While limited to grassy areas, a level 20 skill on a level three monster is very rare. The real kicker with the skill is I am certain it isnt a magical effect. Since grassen goats have grass for hair, my bet is they just blend in that well.
Besides that though and the reason it costs so much is the ancestry. I dont know about the goat ancestor itself. Could be any high level goat or it might have been some elemental variant that is fully made of dirt or rock. Doesnt matter, what does matter is the fact the herbal grass could survive being eaten and even attempt to take over. Either it was a spiritual herb, IE a herb with a soul, or it was a variety of herb that tries to eat animals. No matter which we hit the jackpot.
While a grassen goat is just a goat with grass for hair, there is still a bloodline connection to those two ancestors. The goat and the grass both will be more likely to advance. More likely to upgrade into better variants. You just need to set up the right sort of location for them to live. Too bad it is a level three monster or I would tell you to put one on top of that cliff. As it is, wherever you ce them, you need to flood the area with herbs. While it does im that they only need to drink water andy in the sun. The goat is just a goat. They should still be able eat nts and I suspect herbs would help them develop faster.
Doyle nods, So the goat is expensive because of potential instead of being worth it in and of itself. Still going to use them. Though at this point all my stealth monsters are specialized for greenery. Be nice to get something that can blend into the rocks. The cattle and wolves arent exactly ambush predators. Admittedly the stone wolfes close if not for there only being tes of stone instead of a full body makeover. Now how about those lights?
Ally scratches her neck, I dont know. The system isnt telling me anything, and it isnt like we have another dungeon to ask. How about you go about building your fourth floor and I take some time to research it?
Doyle nods and turns back to his fourth floor. The territory has rapidly expanded and there is enough for him to ce rooms. Though before that he takes a nce back at Ally, only to find her with her nose back in the book.
Well, thats a thing. Guess I will need to figure the lights out on my own. Not that I dont have a guess of my own. Actually, now that I think about it, I should have also asked about the fact that the world energy towards my next floor ended up capped at the required amount. Though of everything that one, I understand the best. The vanished when I formed the new floor. Without that separation, the pool filled up, and any extra bled away. I bet if I had looked at the info quicker there would have been some overflow still left.
The lights though, that is probably something the system is hiding. Not that I have a clue why. My guess is that the lights are more of an inherent feature of my body. Like stars in the sky, my lights float in the void of my floor. I dont have a skill for expanding the size of my floors after all. There is probably a way to train it, but that can wait forter. For now I need to figure out the basic design for the rooms.@@novelbin@@
If I n to have stone wolves and such at the end, I need to make the terrain more helpful for them. On thest floor I went with rooms on top of one another which could be interesting. Instead though, Im thinking tall rooms. Tall rooms with an absolute ton of stgmites and stctites. Stuff for my stone wolves to y with.
Besides that, I have a lot of points to y with and once the floor finishes growing, it should be 34 by 34 small rooms in size. Wolves and stone wolves only cost 50 and 75 apiece. With 7800 points to y with, even if I only use stone wolves, I can fit 104 of them in. For some reason, I dont think that is quite a survivable situation. Though it gives me wiggle room to up the levels on any monsters, I do ce. Now I just need to ce down thebyrinth to hold them.
Actually, you know what? ssicbyrinth is perfect for this. Lets see how many turn backs I can fit in.
So Many Wolves – Chapter 109
The answer was not many at all. The way Doyle had learned to draw four dots in a square. Then draw a plus sign inside that square. You can make it bigger by extending lines from the dots and the plus then adding more dots at the new corner and so on. Or that is how he remembers it. But once you have that, start at one end of the plus and connect it to the next line or dot over. Either way will work, but you need to remember the direction. Then go to the next line or dot over from the original plus line and connect that to the next one going in the same direction. After that repeat it until everything is connected, leaving only a single way in.
Doyle tried this several times with the lines spaced out different amounts. In the end, though, he wanted enough space to have the rooms move around and vary so he needed five small rooms worth of space. That in mind, he could only fit the basic plus and dots. Still, when he looked over the lines of stone he had used to rough it out, he was satisfied. While a more properbyrinth should be bigger, this will do fine. Now to fill in the rooms and halls.
Though the overview gave him an idea. At the edges, the rooms will have low ceilings. But as it gets closer to the center, the ceiling will get higher. Not just the ceiling, though. The floor will angle downward as well. That way, if the delvers want to retreat, it will be an uphill affair.
n in mind, Doyle ces down rooms. It takes a while with him jostling every room around before he is happy. In the end, the basic outline of the floor ends up with many blind corners and alcoves to hide his wolves in. Though it looks quite artificial with all the sharp edges and t walls. That, however, will be fixed when he applies the room patterns.
Speaking of room patterns, didnt I just get a bunch of them at a high level? I must have been distracted at the time or I would have asked what it does for me. I guess instead of running off to Ally, I can try to figure it out myself. [System, show me my room patterns please.]
{Room Patterns: cave room lv20, ins room lv20, vine room lv20, farm room lv20, camp room lv20, boulder ins room lv20, mystical mountain valley room lv20, pasture room lv20, mountain side room lv20, cliff room lv20, forest room lv20, and herb garden room lv20}
A quick look over the list and Doyle focuses on one of therger rooms and applies the cave room to it. As he watches, things are normal enough at first. However, the changes just dont stop. The room reaches a point that would have counted as finished, but details keep forming.
What is important to Doyle though is the fact that none of the changes are shocking. Every single one of them is something he could have thought of. That is, if he had the time to focus on every detail of the room. Still, the changes stop before everything he can think of has been done. Beyond that, it doesnt include any special features.
Every change is cosmetic. The walls have small cracks and rockyers visible. The floor has the look of being worn down over years. Even the stgmites and stctites have moisture on them with the asional drip of water.
This will make room design a lot easier. Now I just need to figure out how to get more patterns. Though with what Ally said about making my own weapons, I can probably get my own room patterns. Actually, now that I think about it, I got the in room pattern by making the room. Why havent I been getting the pattern for all the rest of the stuff Ive done?
Once again, Ally should know. Hell, she should have told me about this already. Meh, just need to figure it out. Though looking at the way the pattern formed the room, I have a clue. Maybe I didnt go into enough detail before. Next time I n to make a new room design, I should focus on a single room, starting from a nk room and filling in all the details. Might even get higher level patterns for it if I spend enough time on it. Though that is the rub, isnt it? Once I have the time to focus on a single room to the exclusion of all else, it will be a fun project. But I dont see that happening any time soon.
All that aside, Doyle is quite satisfied with the cave room pattern and so spreads it to the entire floor. While this makes the floor seem empty, that is kind of the point. He isnt going to throw up a sign telling any divers that faster clears are better. Instead, he is just going to push them towards the end with constant harassment and nothing else to do.
Sure, it will disappoint people with harvesting skills. Then again, it could almost be said that he had been catering too much to them. By having the monsters drop herbs and stuff, at least anyone has a chance to get them. But that brings Doyle back to the monsters and the 7800 points he can spend.
A dungeon wolf costs 50, while the wind and stone wolves only cost 75. The pricing is a bit confusing for Doyle. The elemental wolves are both level four monsters to begin with, so he would expect them to cost a good bit more. Still, he wontin about it and instead settles down to figure out how he wants the wolves to attack.
As the dungeon stands, he isnt able to have attackse from behind. Yes, there are side rooms that will allow ambushes, but once the floor is mapped out, all the dangers will be known. Doyle sighs to himself, I was pretty cocky when telling my n to Ally. Sure, I could use hidden passages to bring in wolves behind a party, but that feels too much like cheating at this point.
I guess I have to depend on their greed to push them forward. Or more properly, I can depend on the greed of any neers. Anyone still with the settlement out there should have themselves under control at this point. Though I guess I cant know for certain. Once there are system stores avable to use their money, that might change. After all, no matter how much a coin might be worth, if you cant spend it then it has no value to you.
Doyle shakes his core and focuses back on the floor. There are 14 side rooms meant for ambushes. While not evenly spread out, they are along the entire path. Of course, even if the ambush location is set, that doesnt mean the encounter has to be set. On the previous floor he had yed with randomized rooms. For the fourth floor, why not y with randomized encounters?
I guess technically I had it on the previous floor. It is pretty random how you encounter the monsters, after all. But for this I mean for it to be more of a set piece sort of thing. So maybe the ambush location has an extra three wolves, a single stone wolf, or no extra monsters at all. Keep the adventurers on their toes. Still, I need to fill out the normal encounters.
With that in mind, Doyle goes through the floor, marking where he nned to put normal wolves. After having worked through all the rooms, he does a quick count and finds over a hundred markers. That was too many if he nned to have stone wolves and kobolds around as well. Another pass has him removing markers, sometimes just one or two from a group. Other times he would remove entire groups. This brings the number down below 90 normal wolves.
Happy with that, Doyle ces markers to represent the stone wolves. Not too many early on and some of them just reced the normal wolves he had removed. This time though, he has a better feel for the floor and ends up with just under 20 of them. And ast pass for the regr monster ces a dozen kobold markers.
The result is 87 wolves, 19 stone wolves, and 12 kobolds ced normally. That leaves him a good bit of space for the random ambushes. The question is how to randomize it? Though this doesnt stump him for long. If having the rooms pre-ced lets him randomize them, he can ce the wolves ahead of time and then have them sent out. That in mind Doyle creates several empty rooms not connected to the rest of the floor to hold the wolves.
Done with that, Doyle tilts back and considers the 14 ambush locations. How do I want to do this? There should be a few empty locations, but besides that, I just need to use up the rest of my points. Wait, follow kiss. Keep it simple, stupid. With 14 locations I can get a good variety by having seven encounters and double them.
That means an empty room, doubled turns that into two empty encounters, about what I wanted. Now for the normal wolves how about a group of one, two, and three wolves. Then a group with a single stone wolf. Besides that, a mixed group would be nice, so one stone wolf and two normal wolves. Finally, a tough encounter with three stone wolves. Now how do the numbers line up?
After counting it up, Doyle sighs. He had overshot by a few hundred points. With a sigh, he removes one of the triple stone wolf groups so there are now three empty rooms. This still is enough to take the points below 7800 by a 100 points. Since he doesnt n to have any farms on this level, he wants to use it all up so increases the three wolf random encounters to four wolves.@@novelbin@@
There we go, every point ounted for. I think. Okay, so there are 12 kobolds which counts for 600 points. Now how many total wolves are there? The non-random ones add up to 87. Two, four, eight, and another four there. That means 18 random wolves plus the 87 set wolves adds up to 105 total normal wolves or rather an impressive 5,250 points. And finally, the stone wolves. 19 of them ced normally and seven random. So 26 stone wolves which adds up to 1,950 points. Altogether they add to exactly 7800 points, just like I thought. Not going to go into debt again.
Now I need to equip them or more specifically, figure out what in the world they will be dropping. It would be a lot easier if I could just set up a loot rule for it. For that, though, I would need another three points of wisdom. Now that I think about it and If I remember correctly, my ss path gave me some wisdom. How many path points do I have?
Doyle checks real quick and nods. Okay, my territory control went up by one to 20 so I have ten path points to y with. He turns his attention back to Ally, Hey, what are the chances that ten more points into my ss path would give me at least three more points of wisdom? My fourth floor would be a lot easier with a loot rule for all my wolves.
Ally stretches and yawns, Huh, if it is going to give any it should give enough. You can always put the points in one at a time. Though honestly, all ten wouldnt be a terrible decision. Youre going to need toplete it at some point anyway, so why not now?
What About The Spawned Items – Chapter 110
Doyle sighs, I really dont have a reason not to. [System, put ten points into dungeon core three.]
{10 points applied to Dungeon Core III...
30/100 - You have earned 5 Stat points
35/100 - You have earned +50 World Energy/Hour and +1 Luck}
Doyle tilts to the side, Huh, not technically the three wisdom points I wanted but it will work fine. Now where to put the two extra points?
He looks over at his status panel that he hadnt closed yet. Okay, I have 29 constitution at the moment so one goes in there. Other than that, nothing stands out. Since Im using wisdom so much, I might as well put thest point into it as well. [System, put four stat points into wisdom and one into constitution.]
{First constitution milestone reached...
Analyzing dungeon design up till this point...
Diverse Strange Caverns subtype, Massive use of kobolds leading goats, Recent focus on shiftingyouts, Focus on mary loot with an undercurrent of gear, Use of breeding farms...
Speeding up changes brought on by Constitution...
Kobold species shifted from generic dungeon kobold to variant dungeon kobold [3a32z.q5b82.m1e62:COMMUNAL_HERDERS]
Updating Kobold info: Kobolds now have the Animal Handling skill at level 1
Goat temte gains +1 Wisdom across all variants
Spawning examples of lv20 Strange Dungeon Stone, Coin tes, lv10 weapons, and lv10 armor
Early unlock of farm zone}
Doyle tilts to the other side, Well, I wasnt expecting that. Hey Ally! Check this out, I have some questions. and he shares the screen with her.
Ally takes a look, Thats handy. Except for the change to kobolds, none of this gives you something you couldnt get. Rather, like with the farm zone, this is all about getting things early. Especially those spawned items. You will eventually get all your weapons and armor up to level ten, but these shortcut it by letting you eat some examples.
As for your questions? I can probably pre-empt a few of them. First of all is the thing about your kobold species and that number. As you should already know from your experience with goats, nothing is new under the sun and the system has arge catalog of variants. Here, the system decided the generic kobolds everyone gets to start dont quite fit you. Because you did not change them yet, so the system found it easier to change the type you summon to one of the many variants. In this case, one like the old kobolds, except for an inborn knack for handling animals. The scary number is just how it identifies which variant it is using, and normally you wouldnt see it. For instance, your pattern will still be called kobold.@@novelbin@@
Then we have the goats. With them you already know a few variant patterns, so instead it changed them to be a bit wiser so they can more easily follow instructions. This is an interesting change as it is to the pattern temte itself and not a bonus to the stat. The difference there is that even without levels or paths your goats are up that plus one. Or rather, it would be more appropriate to say your goats are now at three wisdom instead of two. Likely if you didnt have the variants it would instead of switched your goat pattern out for another like it did with the kobolds.
Finally is the early unlock of the farm zone. I honestly didnt know this was a thing, but it will be very useful for you. Right now you have those goat farms and while they are useful, it takes up points on the floor. Farm zones dontpletely relieve that burden, but it reduces it to a tenth. Though of course with some caveats.
You can designate an area as a farm zone as long as adventurers cant get to it ever. Once set as such you somehow portion off a section so when adventurers are delving the floor proper it doesnt prevent you from doing stuff in the farm zone. More useful because this means the rapid breeding and growth doesnt stop either. Besides that, any monsters in the area only count for a tenth of their point value rounded up. So not quite useful for you goats, but your kobolds would only count as five towards the floor total. Of course this doesnt change the cost to summon them, but that isnt really the point.
Now the downsides to this. First, the reason they only count as a tenth is that they arent absorbing any world energy beyond what they need to survive after bing an adult. That means every single one of them is like a newly spawned monster. Not too important for you but prevents other dungeons from flooding the surface even if being dived regrly.
The next downside is you cant send them out willy nilly. Monsters in a farm zone can only leave if there is a vacancy for them on the floor proper, and no one is currently on the floor. Right now your farms act as a sort of hidden source of power you can call out if you really want to take down a group and that would no longer be an option.
Last but not least, monsters cant learn anything in a farm. Not too important for your goats, but kobolds will miss it. In fact, it is more like they are automatons when in the zone instead of living monsters. While your kobolds get little time to train or forge bonds normally, they wont even get a quick shakedown of how they will get along. Deeper floors in particr are heavily prone to swings in difficulty because of the monsters learning. Group after group may die on the steel wall of spear and shield your kobolds perfect until the one time they all get killed. Then suddenly that room bes a lot easier than even if you order them to do the same thing, the new kobolds wont do it as smoothly as the old group.
Doyle nods, I can understand the learning thing. Bosses would get around this trouble because they are literally the same monster. Though that does bring up a quick question about learning and bosses before I ask my other questions on the message. How does an early floor boss not be an absolute killer for anyone near it in strength? Immortal fighters end up learning quite a bit about how to fight.
Allyughs, Yeah, you arent the first to ask that and the answer might cause a bit of skeeviness for you. During normal times, sapient monsters will just be doing whatever and living a normal life with memories of all the past fights and what not. When an adventurer enters the floor, though, a change happens. Based on the floor and their level, their connection to your dungeon will restrict their memories to make them an appropriate fight.
While you have a little control over this, you are very restricted in what you can do. This means even with thousands of years of fighting experience, a dungeons fifth floor boss will be just as dense as it has been since the start. About the only upside to this is the memories from such periods dont transcribe quite like a personal experience. Though that might be to prevent bosses from falling one after another to the trauma, so some see even this as a gray area.
Doyles core dims as he thinks about this revtion. Yeah, Im not exactly all that happy about that, but I can understand the need. Cant have a level five goat boss with a charge skill at level 1000. It would be a bit of a ss cannon, but it would be a nuclear ss cannon. Anyway, I also wanted to ask about the strange dungeon stone and the coin tes I just got. No clue what makes them special.
Ally shrugs, Strange dungeon stone is just that, strange. Like most of these rewards, you would get it eventually as it partlyes from your dungeon type being strange caverns. My guess is that it unlocked for you because of your use of shifting rooms and monsters. You can think of it like putty for covering over the cracks in your dungeon design. Maybe you havent noticed yet, but when your rooms move around, they dont perfectly seal up the connection points. At the moment the gaps arent big enough for even a bug to fit through, but with weirder designs that could change. Now you can fix that by pping some strange stone on at any point where the dungeon stone could be open to the area outside of the floor proper.
As for the coin tes? While not rare, they arentmon and count for ten times the cost of the coin it is based on. A copper te for instance is worth ten copper coins. So yeah, just filling in that gap between one copper and the one hundred copper you need for a silver. The biggest benefit of a coin te is the fact that because the value of coinses from the quintessence, the te itself can be small. Without needing the material value to mean anything, each te, while bigger than a coin, isnt all that big. In fact, a coin te is only twice the size of a coin. Oh, and theyre square. An important detail, I guess, though at twice the size I would hope everyone can figure it out.
Doyle rolls his core, If I had to guess, size doesnt mean everything. Like you cant expect a fairy small enough to sit on a humans finger to handle human sized coins. You also cant expect some giant to fumble around with coins that might as well be dust. Likely a coins size depends on who gets it, rather than any intent to focus on humans. It is just that humans apparently make up the majority of sapient life in this dimension so most coins would be human sized.
Ally kicks back and stairs at the ceiling for a moment of introspection. Huh, I guess that would make sense. Plus, even if the smaller fae around the court had gotten smaller coins, it isnt like I would have seen it. Being human sized is almost like a sign of nobility to start with. The only reason Im so small right now is because that is how dungeon fairies are and really about the only fae able to get around the discrimination.
Doyle tilts to the side, Why would being human sized be important? I would think being bigger would mean something or other. And do you mean in this dimension or in general?
Allyughs, You would think that, wouldnt you? It would make some sense. The bigger you are, the more energy you can hold. Of course, that isnt how things shake out for the fae. Most fae are small things with the bigger onesing up to an adult humans knee. They are where all the stories of fairy cobblers and housekeeperse from and they have about the same social standing.
As fae get bigger, their minds grow as well until about chest height. Then all the gradual increases in size drops away. At that point you skip right to fae of human height or at most a head taller. This is where I fit in, fae royalty. Beyond that size, though, things get weird. Fae royalty grow with time and power, so technically my mother would be the size of a moon or small if she let herself go. Sort of like how dragons never stop growing.
However, fae royalty see it as a badge of honor and a showing of their control to remain human sized. That means the only time you will see old royalty be bigger than humans is for a battle where they cant focus on controlling their size or if something is wrong with them. That doesnt mean there arent fae that are bigger, though.
It is just that all the big fae are more like animals than folk. Not necessarily in shape, but in mental ability. A white doe maiden of human size is as much royalty as the part of the court that looks like actual humans. On the other hand there could be a giant fae that looks like the exact copy of some human but they wont have a mind beyond base instincts. Not that they arent powerful, they are. Rather, they are seen more like forces of nature.
Doyle nods, That is interesting and I can see why remaining human size is important socially. Even the smaller fae would likely use human sized coins to look special.
Making A Box – Chapter 111
Doyle is about to turn back to working on the fourth floor when something pops into his mind. Hey Ally, whats up with the coin costs? A copper costs me ten to put down, while a silver only costs 100 and gold 1000. That doesnt make any sense at all. It takes 100 coppers to make a silver, so it costs me the same to ce a silver as it does to ce a tenth of a silvers value in copper. Beyond that, how much does a te cost? As I pointed out, a tenth of a silver in copper, which is what a te is worth, costs me as much to spawn as a silver itself.
Ally nods, You arent wrong there. But that mostlyes from system interference and the coins only being avable as loot.
Doyle shes his core, And why are they only loot? Sure it would end up being super expensive, but I cant just spawn coins and that seems odd to me.
Ally rolls her eyes, Remember? The coins arent what is important or assures their value. Instead, it is the quintessence trapped in them. You could make a piece of copper that looks like a coin, but everyone would know they arent actually money. As for why you cant put the quintessence in the coins? That has to deal with your creation skill.
Specifically, that it works by turning energy into something else. For most things, the skill can seem omnipotent. The problem with quintessence though is there isnt anything you can turn into it. Youre fantastic at putting together building blocks to make something, but quintessence is the smallest building block so you have nothing to make it with.
I guess technically if you got a skill that would let you infuse the fake coins with quintessence that would work. That however would require such a skill in the first ce. Not likely when dungeons and the system itself are about the only people capable of using the stuff in the first ce. Like, I dont think even the system can just make the coins. From how I understand it, the system has to create them simrly to how you do.@@novelbin@@
About the only thing I can say is gather up any coins you get. Soon enough you will get people dying in here, and that will let you take whatever they have on them. For most things that will mean just deconstructing their stuff. Coins and a few other specialties, though? Store them away for when you need them. After all, the system will sell things for coins no matter who you are.
Doyle sighs, So what does this have to do with the coin cost?
Ally wags her finger at him, Maybe if you hadnt interrupted me I would have gotten to it already. Anyway, the energy you put in for the lower tier coins will mostly be going towards the material itself.
Doyle interrupts her, Interesting, but Ive basically figured out that part. What is the system interference?
Ally throws her hands up, Eugh, fine. Even with the material ounted for, the early coins could get away with being much cheaper. The system increases the cost of copper and silver coins, so a single copper doesnt cost less than one unit of world energy. tes also cost the same as their coin counterpart because they are about the same size and material is the biggest consideration. The only difference between a coin or a te is the te takes ten times as long to drop.
This only changes after gold coins. At that point everything increases in cost like you would expect so the next coin type will cost 100,000 instead of just 10,000 which will instead be the cost of a gold te. Of course the material cost is still factored in and such, so I assume the system is padding the number a little to make it so the values advance in lockstep.
Doyle nods, So simply put the copper and silver tes cost me the same as the coins but take ten times as long to mature as loot?
Ally sighs, Yes, if you want to reduce theplex intery of factors to a single sentence.
Doyle rolls to the side, I do, thank you for the information. Im going to finish up the fourth floor now.
Ally rolls her eyes, but Doyle has already turned his attention elsewhere. With his 31 wisdom there is enough to set up his wolves with some default loot, he just has to figure out what it will be.
Doyle leans back and considers his options. I guess first of all I want to include a copper te. Would feel wrong to gain a new coin type and not use it. Though speaking of coin types, I wonder if with gold coins I can use them on the fifth floor or after the fifth floor. Then again, if I remember correctly, Ally said I couldnt use them until the fifth floor boss. Besides that, is the gold te limited as well? I can understand why they have been limited by the system. If a gold coin could randomly drop on the first floor, it would cause a lot of chaos.
Meh, wool gathering can wait. Already decided on a copper te. Besides that, I wanted them to drop herbs. I dont want to set up a bunch of herbs though, so I can do the same thing I did on thest floor with the potions on the kobold mages. And now that I think about it, I didnt even consider that I wouldnt be able to have a random loot selection on my monsters. Convenient, but the question is how it works.
Doyle takes a look at earth mages and pulls up what loot they have. Okay, looks like each of them is listing one potion. I guess that would make sense. Different potions might cost different amounts, so it probably selects a random one when it is attached. Not too important, but good to know.
Now besides the herbs, do I want to also include potions? I do know that I dont want gear on them. All the other floors have gear drops for days, but herbs are only harvestable before now. I dont want to dilute the loot table. Though I must admit, potions arent exactly amon drop. Guess adding some thematic potions to them wouldnt be out of ce.
Oh, and onest thing. I should be able to make a wood box. Another thing I dont have a pattern for, but a box is even simpler than some of the other things I would want to make. If I can craft those trees on the second floor, a box should be no problem at all. About the only tricky part is the lid, but even with that I only need three pieces of wood. Let me try it.
In Doyles core room he creates a long and narrow bit of wood with the center sunken in to form the boxs body. Along the inner edge of the box is a ridge so the lid can be inset and on one of the long sides that ridge extends all the way to the outer edge. For a finishing touch, there are two holes where the inner ridge extends to the outer edge.
To match the body, Doyle creates a simple nk of wood that fits perfectly into the bodys ridge to be the boxs lid. The only fancy bit on the lid is a hole going all the way through the long side that matches up with the two holes on the body. Finally he makes a wooden dowel of the same diameter as the holes on the other two parts and that is as long as the bodys width.
Doyle takes the lid and fits it into the body. Once that is lined up, he slips the dowel into the hole, connecting the two sides. With that, the box is mostlyplete except for one important detail that he notices just now. There isnt really a good way to open the box up. In fact, since the lid is squared off on the hinge side, it cant open, anyway.
After only a moderate amount of embarrassment, he fixes the two problems. To allow someone to open it, he extends a small tab off of the lid opposite the hinges. Then on the body he removes enough material to fit that new tab. Now someone will be able to open it from there, or rather they will be able to once he fixes the hinges. Good thing that isnt a difficult thing to fix either. All it takes is to round out the corner of the lid that is down to the box. With that one one final change to shrink the dowel a little so the hinge isnt too fragile and the box isplete.
Or at least it isplete as far as being a box. Doyle has one final n for it toplete what he wants it for. The whole mess with Moota and the godly alchemy association came about from him deconstructing an alchemist vial so it would be a waste not to use the spoils that he got from it. With a little mental effort Doyle carves the preservation enchantment into the inside of the box. Now the box will preserve things that are put in it, such as herbs.
Then the system dings {Hinged wooden box of preservation pattern created at level 12}
Doyle rolls back, Huh, that will do. Though I wonder what exactly its description is. I dont exactly have a skill to identify things. Maybe my database skill can be queried about it? [System, can I see the description for the preservation box pattern?]
{Hinged wooden box of preservation: An amateurish wooden box with a preservation enchantment carved into the inside. Because the enchantment is only carved into the wood with no supporting materials, the enchantment will onlyst for a year before wearing out.}
After he reads the description, Doyle nods. That is exactly the thing I wanted. I bet I could increase the lifespan by using metals or some such embedded into the wood in the enchantment''s shape, but Im good with this. If they really want a lot of these boxes, they can figure out how to craft them themselves.
Satisfied with his new creation, Doyle turns his attention to the only other things in his core room at the moment. In a back corner is a small chunk of stone, a selection of tes, and arge pile of equipment. He lifts the copper te and observes it. These tes basically arent any bigger than the coins. In fact, it seems like tes have sides the same length as the coins diameter. Welp, better deconstruct all this stuff. Im especially interested in the strange dungeon stone because it definitely wasnt that shape just a moment ago. Guess it lives up to its name.
With a slight bit of effort Doyle deconstructs the pile of stuff and is only slightly disappointed when he realizes that all the equipment exactly matches what gear patterns he already had. Well, almost exactly. He gets a small surprise when he finds a pickaxe among the weapons. Happy with the results, Doyle asks the system to show him the strange dungeon stones description.
{Strange dungeon stone: A rock formed within dungeons with a [strange] modifier in their type. While one of the requirements to start forming this type of rock is a fiftieth floor. The dungeon type required for it to form makes it near certain that such a dungeon will get it before then. By those versed in dungeon structures, this material has beenpared to the magicalbination of spackle, silly putty, duct tape, and WD-40. Highly psychoactive even whenpared to other dungeon based materials, its ability to fix minor problems in a floors design is unmatched. Though do not mistake it for a one size fits all solution. While the uses are quite wide, the actual depth of these uses is shallow.}
Fourth Floor Map – Chapter 112
Doyle leans back after reading the strange dungeon stones description. Well, the description goes a bit farther than Ally exined. I dont think she hid anything, but it does seem I cant trust her information to be all knowing. Not that I particrly did? I figured with basic things like this, her tutorial info would be moreplete. Anyway, lets set up the wolves loot list now.
Doyle spends a few moments tweaking things and ends up with a disy to visually y around with the lootyout. The copper te is easy enough and for the herbs he throws in everything he currently has. But for the potions? He didnt want too many potential choices there, and they should all somehow tie into the wolf theme.
This takes a while, but eventually Doyle winnows it down to six potions. Invisibility to animals was basically required. Cut, stab, and blunt resistance came next. The blunt one was almost skipped, but in the end he shrugged and added the potion. After all, the stone wolves can deal out a decent amount of blunt force trauma. Finally, to top the list off, he goes for the regr coagnt and flesh mending potions. Regeneration had been on the list until the end. A wolf can bite something off after all. But Doyle kept it off for now. And with that he was left with a nice little window containing all the loot any of his wolves would be dropping from now on.
{Wolf loot:
1 copper te
5 (sage, aloe, pepper, mint, rosemary,vender, peppermint, or tea)
1 (coagnt, flesh mending, blunt trauma resistance, stab resistance, cut resistance, or invisibility to animals)}
Doyle sighs, I dont know if a potential for five herbs dropping is overpowered or just right. Ill have to keep an eye on it to start. While giving people without harvesting skills a way to get the herbs is nice. I dont want them to ignore harvest type skills either. [System, set a loot rule for wolves that has them drop all the things listed on this window.]
Okay, with that done, I guess I still have to figure out the kobolds. Kind of sad I dont have a spear. Then again, a spear is basically just a sharp staff. With that in mind, Doyle creates one of his staves. A quick flex of his deconstruct skill sharpens the one end.
{Spear created at lv8}
Doyle dims for a moment, Why only level eight? If the staff was at level ten, it should have stayed at about that ce. I dont think I did that bad at sharpening it. Meh, at least I have spears as an option now. Going to have a lot of the kobolds ride stone wolves so a spear will be perfect for them.
Besides that, though, I guess upper body armor. The legs and such can be protected by the stone wolves and their tes. Though while that will take care of most of the kobolds, there is still some I want going down a different path. And of course what I mean is healers.
The wolves arent the beefiest boys, so healers are a must to keep theter encounters going. Im thinking any ce with more kobolds than stone wolves can have the extras pick up a wand. Though looking over the map again, I only have one spot like that and it has two free kobolds at that. Those two healers will make things quite tough in the boss room. Still, so far the healers Ive used were not much help, so why not. If it is too much, I can just dial it back.
Besides that, I guess I can just make the kobold riders drop their spears as loot. Though kobold riders sound odd. They dont quite live up to it, but Im going to refer to them as kobold knights from now on. Now that everything is in ce, lets take a look at it. Though I guess I should get Ally in on this.
Doyle turns his attention back to Ally and notices that she is onto a new book. Knowing that his tendency to lose time when focused has been multiplied by his species, he checks outside. As he guessed, time had passed and not just a little. At least a day had gone by.
He turns back to Ally, Heyo, how much time has passed?
Ally looks up, Well it has been a few days. I was worried you might end up missing whenever the other town returns. Anyway, since youre talking again, does that mean youre finished with the floor? What does it look like?
Doyle nods, Just finished up. Here let me show you the floor. And he pulls up an overview to show her. Though he does add red Xs to all the ambush locations.
Doyles core glimmers, Well, there you go! The 14 red Xs are the randomized ambush locations, and those separate cells on the bottom are the ambushes. There are only 11 groups there, though. I want to have a few ambush locations to be empty so people stay on their toes. Maybe if I get a stealth wolf of an appropriate level, I will sub out one of the empty slots for that. As it is, though, I am happy. What do you think now that youve seen it?
Ally scrolls around the map and nods. Youve done a good job of bringing your concept into reality. How are your skills doing after that?
Doyle takes a while to respond as her use of the word concept had reminded him of something. Ally snaps her fingers a couple times to snap him out of it. Still, he takes a moment to respond, Well, I guess Im notpletely done with the floor. I forgot to do some carving around the ce and I even have a few perfect locations to do it.
Anyway, you asked about my skill growth? Territory control and dungeon rules grew by a few each. Rules one point more, likely because of my use of that to deal with the ambushes. Deconstruction grew by a couple. But I suspect thates from absorbing those items I got from my constitution hitting 30.
The biggest winner this time however was creation. That leveled up like crazy. Went all the way from 21 to 32. It grew by 11 levels! Some of thates from me creating a spear pattern and a box with the preservation enchantment on it. Though now that I mention it, I forgot to ce them as well. That and I didnt put in the chest thing either. Meh, besides that, what I think did a decent amount was applying the room pattern all over the ce and those things are decently leveled.
Allyughs, At least you remembered all of that before people got to the floor. Youre only going to be getting more things to use on a floor as time goes on. This wont be thest time you let something slip by. Now what do you want to do with that box?
Doyle bobs up and down, Eh, I just have the wolves dropping all the herbs right now. My n was to have the chest include one if there are over ten herbs dropped. That and one when they make it through the floor for the first time in a day. They only work for a year, but I figure that if Im not careful, they can build up.
Ally shrugs, I would up the amount of herbs for the first to 50 and increase the time limit of the other to once a week. For the first it is because most of the cost is going toe from the enchantment which scales slower than it grows. The second is because you dont want to make people feel obligated to run the early floors every day. Once a week is often enough to keep peopleing back, while long enough that the higher leveled adventurers wont skip out on it. Give them a chance to head away for a little as well without feeling guilty or some such.
Doyle brings up the boxs description and shows it to her before asking what she thought of the box itself. A quick readter and she nods, A decent product that will in and of itself attract people. While a dungeon rarely has to worry about trading caravans stopping by. These boxes alone might be enough to put us on the map. Being able to preserve products when on a long trip is very important to merchants and traders.
Doyle rolls back, Yeah, these boxes will be important to the settlement. Even right now, when they dont get any visitors, the ability to preserve all the meat they are pulling out of the dungeon would be a boon. Now if you dont mind, I want to finish thosest two things.
Ally nods, Every little bit counts, and it isnt like Im going to run out of books anytime soon. And she turns back to reading.
Doyle rolls his core but turns to the first ambush point. Nothing he can do will stop people from mapping out the entire floor. It might take a hot second, but once people are on the floor, the surprise element will be gone. With that in mind, he starts by removing the lighting from the ambush room.
Room now dark, he carves into the entrance, removingrge chunks of stone to use the shadows being cast by what is left behind to make his art. Odd squiggles create images of swirls. Deep cuts allow light to almost enter the room before the stone juts out and blocks it. Curving arcs shield areas muchrger than would seem possible, despite being purely a trick of the light.
He draws back his view to see how it looks and is mostly satisfied. All around the opening are dancing shadows designed to distract and misdirect. It isnt perfect yet though, so he dives back in. Further out from the shadows, he uses the more traditional carving method. Here he creates images of hinted at figures turning away from the darkened room.
Then along the ceiling he ces scenes of the sun being eclipsed and on the floor, hedges with animals hidden beneath them. Now when Doyle backs up, he is satisfied at what he sees. The actual shadows in the room are deeper. More important though is that while he isnt affected by it, he can feel the desire to ignore the room. To turn away and focus on anything else.
Doyle can tell that if it wasnt for the fact he was the dungeon, it would have been hard to notice even if he resisted the urges. Heughs to himself, Just what I wanted. If I cant hide the actual ambush locations, why not make them ignore them instead. Sure, such an odd effect will be noticed quickly enough, but that doesnt stop it from working. One of the joys thates with those, Im not here, nothing important going on, effects. Whats the word for that? I know that the general term is misdirection, but I mean the specific effect that causes people to ignore a thing even if they notice it.
Meh, not important. Lets take a look at setting up the rewards chest. Ally said nothing about it. But this very much seems like a system feature instead of a natural dungeon ability. Sure, we probably figure out how to do this kind of thing, eventually. Having the system shortcut it for us is just convenience.
Now to use it, I probably just need to tell the system what I want. Which I guess is easy enough to try. [System, I would like the fourth floor drops to appear in a loot chest. I want that loot chest to appear either at the end of the floor or the entrance to the floor, depending on which adventurers get to first. I also want there to be more drops if they reach the end. This should include a chance at one of my hinged wooden boxes of preservation if no one on the floor has gotten one from reaching the end in thest week. Also, if over 50 herbs are being dropped, there should be a second chance at a hinged wooden box of preservation.]@@novelbin@@
Figuring It Out On His Own – Chapter 113
{Invalid Request
Problems: Source of extra drops and preservation box
Please state a solution or choose to cancel the rule}
Doyle leans back, Huh, fair enough. I guess I didnt question how this all was supposed to get the items in the first ce. [System, can I attach loot options to the floor itself?]@@novelbin@@
{Loot drops may be attached to any number of things, including groups, challenges, and floors.}
Doyle nods, Okay, it sounds like if I can think of attaching loot to a thing, I can. [System, can I store up spawned loot? I want to give the floor a bunch of herbs and then when people dont earn those rewards just store them up so others can potentially win them.]
{Loot attached to monsters must drop when earned. Loot attached to challenges can be stored and only given to those who have earned it.}
Doyle tilts to the side, Oh right, why attach it to the floor when I can attach it to the challenge itself? Plus, now that I think back on what I said, I didnt actually set up the reward forpleting the floor quickly all at once. [System, cancel the invalid rules.]
Now, with the invalid rules taken care of, Doyles core dips as he considers how to word the rules. He was honestly a bit disgusted with himself for how off the cuff he was when trying to set it up the first time. After an hour of thought, he has the rules hammered out.
[System, create a challenge to collect 50 herbs from monster drops alone with attached loot of a box of preservation. Only drop the box if no one on the floor has gotten a box from this challenge in thest seven days. Store any unused boxes.]
[Create a challenge to finish the fourth floor all at once and as quick as possible with attached loot of 50 herbs made of a random selection of herbs pulled from a list created with all my current herbs and scale the rewards to how quickly challengers finish the floor aspared to how quickly their abilities would indicate them being able to. Store any spare herbs and use any previously stored herbs as needed.]
[Create a challenge to finish the fourth floor with attached loot of a box of preservation. This challenge can pull spare boxes from the challenge to collect 50 herbs from monster drops alone.]
Doyle waits for a minute and when the system doesnt yell at him, his core glows bright for a moment. Well, that worked out! Though I do somewhat wonder why this fallspletely under my dungeon rule skill when the loot rules need wisdom to power it. After all, I am attaching loot to things. Maybe I should ask Ally about this one.
Or wait a second. The thing I need wisdom for isnt setting things up. What wisdom is used for is making respawn mechanics automatic. Ten points does an entire floor, including the act of respawning monsters. Loot rules, on the other hand, attaches loot to my creatures when they are spawned.
For the challenges Ive told it what loot it should have. Maybe by creating the rule I added on loot. In fact, looking over at my world energy total, that is the case. However, from now on, Im willing to bet the loot wont automatically get re-added to the challenges. Until I automate the floor, I will need to remember to stock the challenges. Especially the herb rewards, as I can see that being used up quickly.
Though now that Ive done this, I could go back and add on the challenges to the rest of the floors. What would I do for the first floor? As for the second floor, my cliff already is sort of covering it. Third floor? A mess and I dont know what challenge would go there either.
Doyle settles down to consider things when suddenly Ally interrupts him.
Ally is in the core room, knocking on his core. Yo, Doyle! Those river guys have returned. We should probably pay attention to what is going on out there.
Doyle shakes his core and turns his attention to the settlement. Ally hadnt been lying as out past the wall a group of people had gathered. This time, though, a new person is leading them. He turns back to Ally and is about to ask how much time had passed when he suddenly knew that three days had passed since he delved into challenges for his early floors. Huh, okay, I can see them. Lets take a closer look And he pops up a screen to show Ally what is happening.
While that is happening, Ace has taken up position on top of the wall with the rest of the settlement gathered behind him. As he res down at the others, he has a slight worry at the back of his mind. They had almost gathered the 10,000 copper coins needed for the system anchor. Just another three to five days would be enough. With a sigh, Ace yells down at them, So I notice some new faces.
An older looking man steps forward. An oddity in and of itself. Not only did the elderly have a hard time surviving the transition, but those that did all ended up with ten to twenty years knocked off of their looks as the system rejuvenated them. Alsopared to the others in his group, the man is wearing a higher ss of clothes. Not quite a suit, but he had a wrinkle-free button up long-sleeved shirt, a dark blue tie, some brown corduroy pants, and a pair of ck leather shoes.
The man nods at Ace and in a sing-song voice greets him, Hello, sir. My name is Jack Stansible, and I prefer to be called Mr. Stansible. A bit of a step down from being Judge Stansible, butst time I checked there wasnt exactly a court for me to work in yet. That and even before this nonsense I had been retired for a good twenty years or so. How may I refer to you?
Ace raises an eyebrow at his greeting. A bit more info than he had expected. Still, to be polite, he responds in kind, Hello Mr. Stansible. My name is Ace, and that is how I prefer to be addressed. Though Im sure once more people start living here I will end up being called Founder Ace I hope our rtionship can stay good enough to not need that level of formality.
Mr. Stansible sighs and nods, Yes, even though Ben is trying to keep a lid on that kind of nonsense, people are already calling him the savior. Oh, by the way, Ben is the person in charge of our city as he was the one able to organize us against a certain external threat that recently attacked us.
Ace nods, We had a simr emergency here. That is why there are so few of us. Everyone else packed up and ran away under the leadership of a scammer. A cowardlydy who lied about being one of the founders here. Goes by the name of Jan and is a healer. Be careful if you ever interact with her. Like sand, her influence can get everywhere. We expect her to return and have taken steps to prevent her from taking over.
Mr. Stansible frowns, That does sound a bit troubling. He pauses as he considers how his own skills can affect the mental state of others. Not that he would ever reveal this to others.
He coughs, Anyway, I have the power to make decisions so we can hopefullye to an agreement. Particrly we want to make use of your dungeon.
Ace smiles, Not unexpected. In fact, we n to open up the dungeon to anyone that wants to dive it. However, we also thought about how to restrict ess as well.
Mr. Stansible nods, We would like a quota of the delves youre willing to give out. There are several things we can trade for this and ahem, a certaindy fromst time, would like me to remind you that a peaceful resolution isnt the only possibility.
That aside, I honestly dont think there is much need to fight. While everything appears to be reduced to the middle ages, it isnt quite that bad. A lot of knowledge has been saved. A lot of knowledge can be bought. Magic exists now, and a lot of our old concepts can be interpreted through it. There might be a bit of a squeeze while our world gets back on our feet, but I foresee a bright future!
Ace raises an eyebrow, Fair enough, not that I ever doubted that. If anything, the knowledge we had is now only a single drop in an ocean of otherworldly info. Im sure something we discovered is unique. Everyone has their own understanding of the universe after all.
Mr. Stansibleughs, You think were just going to get ess to that knowledge? Just look at the history of our own world! One of the best tools to keep people down is to prevent them from learning. Do you really expect the rest of the universe to be any different?
Ace shakes his head, I see that some of the side effects of the system havent really sunk in yet. That or youre just covering it up for a better deal. Anyway, as a freebie, skills mean that even if we might not learn all the new stuff in a generation or two, there is nothing to stop us from advancing to the same point that everyone else is. It literally downloads the know-how that youre missing when you level your skills.
Mr. Stansible squints up at Ace, I dont trust it.
Ace shrugs, Well, I cant help you with that. But nonsense aside, we should really get back to what youre here for in the first ce. We have a dungeon and you supposedly have stuff we need. Or at least thats what you hope.There isnt much that we need at the moment.
Mr. Stansible smiles, How about skill books? I know they arent dropped in dungeons and there dont seem to be any system stores around here.
Ace shakes his head, No, we dont have any. But honestly? We dont really need them.
Mr. Stansible rolls his eyes, What if we had some skill books for magic? How about some farming? It looks like you could use it. Maybe some crafting books?
Aceughs, Is magic supposed to be special? Over half of us have it. Farming? Ive got a couple of experts. Though depending on what type of crafting, those books might be useful, but thats a single trade. We could give your city a time limited deal, but we both know that wont be worth all that much. After all, your settlement is the only one in contact with us at the moment.
Mr. Stansible sighs, I was really hoping you would be interested in the magic skills. We only have a bone carving book for crafting.
Ace nods, Yeah, bone carving isnt exactly the most mainstream of skills. How about this. You give us the skill book for it, and we go to your settlement first when we need to start making deals rted to dungeon entry. Though I have to warn you. Most of our people are in favor of running it on a firste first serve basis.
Mr. Stansible nods, That would be eptable. Would you ept a team of ours running the dungeon real quick before we leave?
Ace turns to Kyle and whispers, A or B?
Kyle shrugs and whispers back, Theyve done a lot to improve good rtions with us. Go with B.
Ace nods and turns back to Mr. Stansible, We would be willing to let a group of no more than six people run the dungeon.
Psionic Horn – Chapter 115
Jimmy frowns, While I do prefer to tell the truth when possible, you seem to be overly focused on doing so.
Kyleughs, There is a reason for that and I guess Ill need to reveal one of my hidden cards. Though Im mostly certain a few of you have already figured it out. Plus, we are past the point that I need to keep it hidden from everyone here as it has already served its purpose. From my background as awyer, I gained ess to the ability to detect lies. Specifically lies mind you, I can only detect what you believe to be a lie. Im not connected to some deeper fundamental truth or what have you.
If I can do this, others will as well. In fact, Im willing to bet Mr. Stansible has the same sort of ability, if not a more powerful one. After all, he was probably in the legal profession for longer than Ive been alive. I say we y it straight with anyone that a group of people send to handle negotiations.
Ace nods, An important ability that I am sure there are one hundred and one ways to beat. Now we cant keep them waiting too long. They should have figured out who they want to send in. With that, everyone files out of the dungeon and heads toward the wall again.
And while they get that squared away, Doyle has turned to Ally with another question. Do simr skills provide a bonus? On one hand, it would make sense that knowing how to carve one thing would make it easier to carve another thing, there are also differences.
Ally takes a moment to gather her thoughts. I dont have a cheat sheet for this one, but I do somewhat know the answer. A better example of this though would be smithing. Many people tend to use cksmith to mean smiths in general, but that isnt correct. The skill for cksmithing is purely to work with iron, steel, and other simr if more magical metals.This is as opposed to someone who works with brass, copper, and such who would be a brownsmith. Though they could even specialize in copper and its magical alternatives to be a coppersmith.
Though of course the most popr type of smithing skill isnt by metal but rather to work specifically with weapons and so bing a weaponsmith. Honestly, the more you specialize the more specific of a skill you can get.The mostmon specialized smith for instance is the swordsmith. Someone who only forges swords.
Does that mean they cant forge a dagger? No, but they wont be as good as a weaponsmith or a desmith. Better than a cksmith though, as their focus was on a ded weapon so some of that does cross over. Just dont expect them to make a decent hammer.
For a world like this? Such specialization would only hurt them. Even a weaponsmith would hold back the settlement. You need a very developed city to support such things. After all, there arent even fifty people in the settlement right now. There is no way to keep a weaponsmith busy.
There is a benefit to such things, though. Someone with the swordsmith skill will be able to advance the skill quicker than a more general smith and be able to make better swordspared to other smithing skills at the same level. But this brings us back to skills. If a specialized skill is nice but you also want to do more general stuff, why not know both skills?
First is the fact that even if you could, that removes the advantage of specialization. Any work done would send experience to both skills and thus halve the speed of advancement. This can already happen if different skills end up being used at the same time.
Though you might have noticed, I said, even if you could a moment ago. Because you cant, not really. After all, youve already seen the systems answer to this kind of shenanigans. It gives you a main skill and then ces the subskills below it. For you, this is seen with your patterns. For a smith that only does weapons they might end up with the weaponsmith skill.
However, if they start to branch off into tool smithing, the system will at first have their weaponsmithing skill advance at a slower speed. Then once a threshold is passed, their weaponsmithing skill will be a more general skill, maybe even just smithing. And that skill would contain weaponsmithing and tool smithing. As soon as that happens, there is no going back.@@novelbin@@
Doyle nods, That does make sense. How does it work with things like bone carving and wood carving, though?
Ally coughs, For that specific example it would end up as the generic carving skill. For poor Jimmy, though, that wont be the case because he doesnt have wood carving, he has carpentry. Tobine the skills he will need to jump through a few more hoops. First, he has to go beyond carving the bones and get the umbre skill of bone working. On the other side he will need to do about the same thing with carpentry but in reverse. He already has a skill for building with wood so instead will need to get the skill for carving wood and so qualify for woodworking.
Once he has both woodworking and bone working, we reach an impasse. Jimmy would already know both skills and so will have gotten path points for them. Combining them into a more general skill for building with materials would end up with abined lower level. To do that would require him to give up path points equal to the difference between the two. Luckily the system will warn him about this when he intends to go down that path.
Doyle sighs, That sounds reallyplicated. I can see why people would do it, of course. With a limited number of skills you can know, especially if you try to stay on the straight and narrow with a ss path, it would be quite useful. Though it must take more time than most would be willing to devote to it.
Ally shrugs, The very reason I know so much about it is because it takes so long. The higher tiers of doing this are basically limited to creatures like the fae, and so of course it was amon bragging point in court. Smithing, especially since most fae have a weakness to one metal or another. Being able to get the smithing skill is seen as quite the feat.
Of course, the truly ancient people out there will know some super generic skills like crafting. Seriously, a skill to represent that they can craft anything through any method you could interpret as a craft? You arent simply showing off at that point. Youve literally done everything.
Though there is the flip side of the coin. Someone who has trained in a very specific thing for their entire life will end up with a skill that sounds like someone threw adjectives at the wall to see what sticks. Because not only can you generalize a skill, you can specialize it as well. A lot harder, as you have to be careful not to do other things. But if you stick with it long enough, the system will change the name of your skill to match what youve achieved.
You dont really get that chance though. All the skills you were given are already super general. For goodness sakes, you know a skill called creation. Sure, it has the modifiers of being energy based and using patterns, but still. The only thing you can do with that is broaden it even more by learning to create things through other means instead of just energy.
Doyle shes brightly for a moment and mentally coughs. Ally stops ranting and Doyle tilts towards the entrance disy, While what you are saying is interesting, Susan has shown up in the entrance hall. Going by what they nned, I need to assume the outsiders have their party figured out and are about to enter.
Ally shrugs, Fair enough. I wonder who is going to be diving?
Doyle is about to take a peek outside when a group of six people file into the dungeon, removing the need to do so. They form up with one surprising member taking the lead.
Mr. Stansible looks over the other five people with him and nods, Well, they didnt lie about anything as far as I could tell, so this should be too much of a challenge. Jamie, take your hat off, we dont need your abilities stifled while in here.
Jamie takes off his sand colored hat to reveal a small horn growing out of his left temple. The horn curves upward before following the outline of his head. It doesnt go far, but it has been growing longer. He rolls his eyes, Just because my psychic powers couldnt spy on what that Ace was saying before doesnt mean wearing my hat blocks it. In fact, all the leader types were able to block my ability. If I had to guess something about their being the leaders here gave them protection. It is just a guess, of course, but about the only other person Ive met able to do so is Ben, so it would add up.
Mr. Stansible shrugs, Well, we cant help that. At least our more long eared in the crowd managed to catch what was said. Despite how little info it gave us, we at least know they havent found a way to protect against that kind of eavesdropping yet. Except of course entering the dungeon. That worked just fine at blocking everything. Now lets get a move on. They let us in but if we lollygag too much things it will stretch their goodwill towards us and Ben entrusted me with making sure our interests were taken care of here.
The group of six get started on the first floor, but Doyle isnt quite paying all that much attention to them to start. Mostly because of Jamies horn.
Doyle turns to Ally and asks, What is up with that? Everyone on the should be human as far as I know. Well, except you, I guess. And of course anyone else that has managed to sneak in. Even so, it sounds like he was just a normal person who lived on the before the system came.
Ally shrugs, Must have some kind of mutation. Psionic powers are real. In fact, they are one of the few powers besides luck which existed in this dimension before the system, if not to the extent they exist now. From the sounds of it he has a simple far sight ability.
As for the horn? Seeing as it is growing out of his temple, I would guess he had the ability to use psionic powers before, but not the capacity. When the system came along and woke up the power within it needed somewhere to manifest from and be stored. The temples on a human are already somewhat of a weak point, and he only has it worse. That horn likely hasnt grown over the skull but is instead the skull growing outwards. If it gets broken off, then there will be a hole directly into his brain.
It will both limit him and allow him to grow. A normal human capable of using psionics would have a limited amount of power they can store. Sure, that amount will grow, but quite slowly. Jamie there can continue to grow his pool of power just by having that horn grow longer and wider. The problem is his ability will never advance beyond what it is now. Part of what forces psionic advancements is the pressure cooker of power the brain turns into. With Jamie, it is like someone forgot to seal said pressure cooker. Oh, and as a fun little side fact, psionic only refers to sapients. Non-sapients are called phrenic. Anyway, weve already missed them fighting through the first few rooms, so lets refocus on them.
Potion Observation – Chapter 117
The visiting delvers stand on the wooden tform just inside of the second floors forest room. Mr. Stansible stares long and hard at the teau across the way before sighing. While it would be nice to get up there for the herbs that isnt in the cards today. Plus, we dont have any method of getting through the cliff. Weird as it sounds they werent lying when they told me the cliff wont let anyone climb all the way with their stamina. We would need something like a stamina recovery potion or a method of flying to get around it. Plus, we arent exactly out of shape so we could end up climbing that thing for a long while.
The butcherdy shrugs, We arent exactly harvesting the herbs we have found so far, anyway. We dont even have someone to harvest them in the first ce. Im our only person with any resource skills and they are all about animals, not nts.
Mr. Stansible sighs, I guess I knew that all, but that area is tempting. So much in one ce.
The dude taps his spear on the ground, This wont be the only time we delve the dungeon. Lets just finish up as fast as possible so we can get back home.
The guy with brass knuckles nods, Not much we can do about it right now. Maybe by the time we get back someone will have a better way to climb the cliff. If anything, we can ask more about it.
The other guy who had been using kicks, shakes his head, We should at least have one of us give it a shot to check if there is more to it than we were told. But not until after we clear out the enemies in the room. I dont want to be half way up that cliff only to get my rear pelted with rocks.
Everyone else can agree with this, so they climb down the wooden stairs and enter the dense forest area. Of course the room isnt too big and so the group soone across the enemy kobolds. Though not before Jamie warns the group about the two mages.
Then the fighting happens. At the front this time is the dude with a spear. While the trees do a good job of preventing too wide of a swing, he can still hold back the herd of goats that charge at the group. At least long enough for the two guys to nk around to the kobolds.
The no brainer is to target the healer again, but with the additional kobolds the monsters can prevent the decapitation attack. They do not however manage to stop the literal decapitation of the ice mage as the butcher with her long-handled axe jumps down from the rise that used to house a kobold with a sling. Sadly for the monsters, Doyle had removed the slinger, leaving that side undefended.
Two of the club wielding kobolds turn away from the frontline to hold off the butcherdy. Not the best decision though as this leaves the goatspletely unguided as the knife kobold is being sneaky and the other two female kobolds are already holding off the two martial arts guys. All the while the kobold healer is stressing out just keeping those directly defending it healed up.
This situation is not sustainable for the monsters, and soon enough all the goats have been defeated. Finished with what normally would be an area denial spell from Mr. Stansible. The spell lights up an area with searing rays of light. Most of the time this would not be so deadly, but the goats have already all been hurt over and over by the dudes clever use of his short spear and Jamies use of his ability to freeze a goat for a moment. Enough that the monster cant move for less than a second, but not enough to require any build up of power.@@novelbin@@
With the goats finished, this frees up the three of them to pile on the remaining five kobolds. And since four of them are already embroiled in the melee, there is nothing to stop the spear dude from a quick kill on the healer.
The four melee kobolds realize they have lost their healing and go crazy, swinging their weapons and diving at their targets. None of the delvers had expected that. In fact, not even Doyle and Ally far away in the core room had expected this result. Still, Mr. Stansibles group arent a bunch of unblooded fools.
Even if they hadnt expected this sort of result didnt mean they werent at least half prepared for the un-expected. So with great effort, the martial arts guys and thedy with her axe can fend off the rabid attack. And seeing as the kobolds arent exactly defending themselves at the moment, the spear dude is quick to get in a handful of backstabs to finish the fight.
Jamie shakes his head and makes an odd gesture, Well, that wasnt in the report.
The spear dude shrugs, Since we know they didnt lie about what was going on in here, the dungeon must have changed a little. Not that I believe the ce is changing like they seem to think it is, but granting some monsters a new tactic isnt exactly rocket science.
Mr. Stansible nods, Moving monsters around a little and changing up how they fight is well within the norm for dungeons this young. Honestly, I would not be surprised if they did not know about this change yet. Now I guess we should check out that cliff real quick. Any of you want to give it a quick climb?
The guy with brass knuckles raises his hand. Then from behind him the other martial arts guy kicks out and knocks his hand down while raising his own. Brass knucklese flying at the second guys face, causing him to jump back. The two of them square off against each other, but before the fight can really begin an axees thudding down in between them.
The butcher rolls her eyes and lifts her axe back up. We arent sending both of you up. If we did that, neither of you would stop. You over there, you seem grounded enough. Ill hold your spear while you climb up. Just keep track of how much stamina you have ande back down when you have used about a third of it.
The two guysin about this, but a re from Mr. Stansible stops them. All the while, the dude hands his spear over to thedy and proceeds over to the cliff. As the whole group watches him climb, everything seems normal at first. As he reaches the halfway point, it bes obvious they hadnt been lied to about the properties of the wall. The farther the dude climbs up, the less distance he seems to actually travel.
Quite disconcerting for the people on the ground. Eventually Mr. Stansible has had enough and shouts up, Come on down. You arent actually making any headway and our stats it will take you a good long while to start feeling tired. We dont need the herbs, so there is no point trying anything more.
The dude looks back over his shoulder and is honestly surprised at how close to the ground he is. All that effort only to get this far up? I can jump down from here and be fine.
Mr. Stansible hears this and freezes the dude with a look that could peel paint. You better not try that on my watch. Who knows if the distance you see will be all you fall. Maybe it makes you fall the actual distance you climbed and not just the physical distance. Now get down here.
At his side Jamie perks up and taps him on the shoulder, Sir, lets back off and give him some room for him toe down.
Mr. Stansible nces at Jamie, who gestures back at him. With a nod, Mr. Stansible motions for everyone to back off. The dude up on the cliff doesnt really pay attention to this as he climbs down. At first there are a few hups as footholds and such he expects to be below him arent there, but soon enough he is back on the ground.
Then from a nearby tree away from the side that the rest of the group has retreated to a kobold wielding daggers bursts out. The distance is short between the two and it is almost upon him. Anyone who hadnt expected the attack would bepletely unable to react to it.
Of course, that means Jamie and Mr. Stansible both react right as the attack begins. Jamie unleashes his psionic abilities, which freezes the kobold steps away from the dude, causing it to fall over from being off bnce. And Mr. Stansible follows this up with a ray of lighting down from above to fry the monster.
The dude jumps back and tries to grab his spear. This reaction while admirable doesnt do much as the spear is still being held by the butcher. Then he runs into the cliff behind and gets the air knocked out of him.
Seeing this Jamieughs, Well that was a show!
The dude looks over at him and frowns, You both clearly knew that was going to happen. Why didnt you stop it?
Jamie shrugs, While I can sense the general location of monsters and such, I need a much better lock on them to do my paralysis trick. That little sneak wouldnt show itself, likely because we steamrolled the big fight so quickly. This was the perfect time to lure it out so that we wouldnt leave any danger behind us if we have to retreat. Now lets go and see what kind of loot we got at the main fight. This little side adventure should have given everything enough time to despawn.
The dude is about toin, but Mr. Stansible stops him, I approved of his n and do not pretend that you could not have defended yourself. You are on the team because you would not actually drop your guard like that. If that really was enough to catch you off guard, you can expect to not be joining my group in the future.
While this was going on, the guy with brass knuckles had hopped over to the scene of the big fight and is rummaging around. Then he finds something and shouts back to the group, Found a potion!
That instantly distracts everyone from the argument. Mr. Stansible walks over and grabs the potion from him and takes a look at it. The potion is a bright red with metallic shimmers floating in it. He shakes the potion for a moment and observes as it settles. He sighs, I was not nning to use this while here, but this potion could be helpful. [Observe]
The potion glows and the cks of Mr. Stansibles eyes vanish for a moment. Then he shakes his head to clear it and starts to message his temple. Supposedly the damn skill will be easier to use with more levels. But the info rush is way too much to use it often. I would love for us to find more potions like this, but I dont think I can manage to use the skill again today.
Jamie nods, Mental abilities are such a strain. Anyway, what is it?
Mr. Stansible holds up the potions, This here is a flesh mending potion. Does everyone know how the three basic types work?
The dude shrugs, Not particrly.
Mr. Stansible sighs, Basic healing potions are not magical cure alls. Theye in three varieties. Coagnts to stop all kinds of bleeding, including internal. Regeneration which grows back missing bits and pieces. Though of course for the basic one you will not be getting your arm back and rather is used when something takes a bite out of you or to rece all the blood you just lost before you could use the coagnts. Finally is flesh mending which we have right here. It can reconnect bits and pieces that might end up less than connected.
The dude tilts his head to the side, So like, if my arm is cut off?
Mr. Stansibleughs, You think something you can find on the second floor of a dungeon could do that? This is more in line with fixing strained muscles and twisted ankles. Maybe even fix up a hernia if youre lucky.
Well That Happened – Chapter 118
Mr. Stansible stashes the potion away, Now let us continue on our way. The next floor is where we might actually start finding new stuff. Though I guess technically this potion thing might be new as well.
Everyone else in the party is fine with this, and they head through the portal. On the other side Jamie frowns, I can feel some kobold minds above and in front of us and right below us is a collection of minds that nearly arent. It isnt like the mind of a young animal or child though. Rather, there just isnt much of a mind and no chance of more being there. Really freaky if Im going to be honest. I have sensed some minds at a simr level, but none of them feel so close to being an actual person like mind yet not. They are deep in the uncanny valley for minds. Oh, and there are some animals with the kobolds, cant forget that.@@novelbin@@
Mr. Stansible nods, Okay, that means we know where one of the so-called mining areas is located. Now we just need to figure out how to get there. With apletely random floor that could take a while. Plus, it would be nice to find either the core or the portal to the next floor if it has gotten that far. Even the top people in the settlement outside of this ce havent done that yet.
Thedy with an axeughs, While I dont doubt them, I also suspect that has more to do with them not having much of a chance to delve this floor yet. As a whole they all seem strong, but they also dont seem to have all that much time toe down here. There might not be literal paperwork to do, but there sure is enough other stuff. Back home enough other people are around that every task has at least one or two people capable of doing it. Here? They dont even have a hundred people, hell depending on if they are hiding anyone from us or not they might not even have fifty people.
Jamie shrugs, If they are hiding people it isnt in the settlement itself. Though speaking of settlement, they really need to figure out a name for the ce. It isnt like they are the only settlement in the area! If they dont get around to it soon, they might end up with a name pushed on them from outside influences. While I dont n to give them a nickname most other people arent going to be so kind. Even if they dont get a true nickname, that wont stop them from being The Dungeon Settlement or some such.
Mr. Stansible sighs, That is annoying but neither here nor there for us. We spent a good bit of time jawing away, so everyone should be rested. Now get a move one, we dont have the time or supplies to be staying in a safe room for hours.
There is a bit of light hearted grumbling from the two martial arts guys, but soon enough the group has moved forward into the next room. This room ispletely empty except for a stairway downward. Mr. Stansible sees this and shrugs, I guess we arent lucky with those kobolds.
The room below is empty as well, but there are two ways forward this time. One is literally forward, and the other is back, taking them into a room that would be directly under the entrance.
Jamie looks to the right with a frown, Okay, I now sense some more of those semi-minds right over there. This wasnt really a problem in previous floors, but I think the dungeon natively blocks my psionic powers in interesting ways. Feels like I can only sense everything that is directly next to our current room and in those rooms within a certain number of rooms. It was sort of a thing in the previous floors. Just not that obvious though because of the floor designs. Even though they did circle around themselves a little, it only felt natural to sense as far as I did.
I think we should head forward and try to find the connection to the room to our right. If anything, it will give us a feel for what my detection range is. Plus we dont know what is above the rooms in that direction so the chance of a way up isnt low. Going the other way might get us to a fight right away, but at the same time the entrance will be directly above us and we dont know if it connects to anything else.
Mr. Stansible nods, Going forward does give us a better chance of reaching the kobolds. Plus, if you are only limited by how many rooms are in between us and the monsters that would mean the way to the kobolds is close by. If anything, we can go back once we find the monsters you detected to the right if there isnt a way up. Now keep the chatter down, they might not be smart but that doesnt mean they can not hear us.
Jamie shrugs at this as the group moves into the room in front of them. There they find two ways out. To the front once again and another to the right. In front of them they can see that the next room has a staircase up, while to the right is a more hallway shaped room.
The staircase is tempting, but they had already agreed to check out the minds Jamie had detected so the group heads into the room to their right. Once they have entered the room, the group doesnt even stop to check what is down the way on the left as they are focused once again ongoing right.
This brings them into a decent sized room with a puddle in the center, and around that puddle are many small mushrooms. Jamie gestures towards the mushrooms and nods.
Mr. Stansible shrugs. They had already known the identity of the monsters on the lower sections, so only seeing a bunch of mushrooms was to be expected. Though since they arent moving to attack right away, that gives him a chance to take them out with a well ced spell. With everyone backed out of the room, he takes some time to charge up his spell.
Then with thest few sybles of his spell hanging in the air arge beam of light falls from the ceiling onto the mushroom patch. Right away the sprouts that had camouged themselves start screaming and attempt to run away from the light. Bad news for them though, myconids are weak to light, especially the sprouts. The intense light of justice melts through the poor sprouts in no time at all, leaving a room empty of any standing mushrooms.
Mr. Stansible nods, A little costly to cast that. I do not think I could do it too many more times, but boy is it effective. I guess with this we can head back to the staircase we saw. I am quite interested in if there really is a refilling ore mine in here.
Thedy with an axe rolls her eyes, You know there is. They didnt lie about the situation, and it was clearly stated that the orees back. And even if it didnt, the monsters in the area with the mine drop the stuff as well. This floor is a one stop shop bronze factory.
Mr. Stansible shrugs, While they did not lie, they also have not been down here much. The ore they showed me was real and had a high concentration of metal in it but remember, the floor shuffles itself. They might not have been seeing a refilled mine, instead they might have only been finding new mining areas. It is possible that once we reach the kobolds, it is going to be an area that has already been mined out.
Thedy shakes her head, As I said, it doesnt even matter if there isnt an actual mine for the stuff as long as the monsters drop it.
Mr. Stansibleughs, There very much is a difference. If this floor has a respawning mine, that means we can use it to train someone with the mining skill. That is not too important for the tin and copper we can find here. On the other hand, I very much do not want to waste any of the natural resources we might find outside of a dungeon. This is not the only ce with ore after all. Now let us head back to that staircase. We are burning daylight.
Thedy rolls her eyes again but otherwise keeps silent as the group does a little bit of backtracking. They arrive at the room with the staircase and Jamie takes a look up through the hole in the ceiling. Well, I cant feel anything up there. Though that isnt a certain thing depending on how much of a mind the nt monster has.
The guy with brass knuckles shakes his head, It isnt a regr nt. Those things are nt monsters. Sure maybe if it was more in line with one of those passive hunters like a honeydew then it might be mindless. These strangle vine things? Theyre mobile creatures that n ambushes. Im going to head and see what there is to see. And the guy climbs up the staircase.
Everyone else in the party is a bit worried about this, so follow soon behind him. Of course since he didnt end up screaming for help there isnt anything there. The guy is just looking around the room that once again only has an exit to the front.
Seeing this, Mr. Stansible sighs, I guess we arent all that close to the kobolds in this direction. We should probably head back and check the other direction.
The guy shakes his head, We can at least take a look into the next room. There could be a staircase just off to the side.
Jamie shrugs, I can still sense the kobolds except now they are above and behind us so that is possible.
Then without waiting for Mr. Stansibles answer, the guy with brass knuckles sticks his head through into the next room. And yonk. A vine drops down, wraps around his neck, and pulls him up out of view.
Very unfortunate to be caught by an assassin vine like that as when the group tries to enter the next room to help him, the vine can keep them out. Mr. Stansible can only shake his head at this and stand back while preparing a spell.
Thedy with her axe on the other hand makes the most headway into the next room. With a few chops she can clear enough vines that she can get into the room as well, followed shortly behind by the other guy and the dude with a spear.
Jamie on the other hand just stands back and shakes his head. Without a mind, there isnt much he can do at the moment. Though it does make him re-prioritize his future training. Up till now he had focused on his ability to affect minds. While that is what he does best. He also has a slight bit of telekinesis as well which would have helped in this situation.
The three melee fighters try their best with thedy being the stand out. In the end though it takes Mr. Stansible finishing his spell for the fight to end. Luckily his area of effect spell doesnt do friendly fire or it would have been much harder for him.
Though the group soon finds out that it wouldnt have mattered. Even with his body being reinforced by higher stats, the guy with brass knuckles was still weak to having his neck snapped. Not that he had put any points into constitution, having instead focused on agility and strength. Though constitution might not have saved him by itself as a broken neck is still broken. Rather, if he had put enough points to hit 20 to 25, then humans innate regeneration would have kicked in and allowed him to survive long enough to be brought to a healer.
Jamie Takes It Hard – Chapter 119
The spear dude and the other martial arts guy both stood there stunned that someone in the group had actually died. Thedy is taking it better as she had a more realistic view of their abilities from the outset. But it is Mr. Stansible who is taking it the best. While it had changed in hister years, for the first decade of his time as a judge, the death penalty was still very much a thing. He might have never needed to judge such a case, but he had been ready for it. Seeing one of his own fall might be traumatic, but after the horrors that were the early days after the system came and his mental preparedness he was able to keep a handle on himself.
Jamie on the other hand is wrecked. He didnt actively peek into his teammates minds, but he kept a light touch on them like a doctor checking a pulse. To feel a mind just blink out, to know the exact moment someone dies and viscerally feel it? Jamie had known before Mr. Stansible had finished his spell that the guy was dead, but he couldnt react, couldnt do anything.
Mr. Stansible takes a couple steps back from the group before taking a couple of deep breaths. Okay, that was a horrible thing to happen. I am calling an end to our delve because there is no way we could bring the body with us and I am not letting the dungeon take it. The two of you can carry him and the rest of us will make sure nothing attacks.
With that the party starts to move again, even Jamie is broken out of his breakdown. However, Mr. Stansible can see this is only temporary. Still, it is enough to get them out of the dungeon and back to their group. Not much else is said beyond handing over the skill book on bone carving.
As their group sails away, Ace rxes. Well, good thing they didnt me us for the death. That would have been awkward. Though I guess there is a story to hear. Susan, how did their dive go and why did someone end up dead? I didnt consider them on our level, but they werent weak by any means.
Susan steps out of the crowdughing, Oh boy. That guys death is his own damn fault and the result of cosmic irony. Anyway, they actually did better than us because of the guy with a hat. That hat is used to cover a horn growing out of his head, because apparently his psionic powers were too great to stay locked up in his skull. Thought that does make me want to find some of my old associates because I would be able tough at some of them for their new headgear.
But yeah, he had the ability to snoop on surface thoughts though us founders have some kind of protection against it. In the dungeon they used it to pinpoint almost all the monsters. His powers also let him paralyse a single target, so of course they took out the leaders first. That is part of why they did so much better. They hadnt fought any of the monsters without taking out the leader, so I dont think they noticed. Once the leader of a group is dead, the rest of the monsters lose some of their power and dont work together as well.
Now maybe you noticed that I said almost there when referring to how many monsters he could detect. The key there is for him to detect something it needs a mind and guess what those vine monsters dont have? The dead idiot scoffed at the idea and assumed a monster needs a mind.
Inevitably, they reached the third floor and ran into one of them with no preparation. He literally stuck his head through a doorway to check the next room. A vine got him right around the neck. While it wasnt able to kill him right away, with that grip it soon snapped the fools neck. There were so many ways he could have avoided it. If he had taken a peak lower down so his head wasnt high enough for the vine to grab. Or the spear guy could have waved that around in the room first to test for any reactions. And of course the simplest of all, just walked into the room. The vines arent all that deadly if you can protect your neck, but he offered it up to the thing on a silver tter.
Ace groans, Oh gods and goddess, there are going to be so many deaths once people start showing up. I guess we should go talk about what needs to be done now, in the dungeon of course because apparently psychics are a thing. Though before I forget, Jimmy, heres the bone carving book. Then everyone either went back to their jobs or gathered in the dungeons entrance hall.
Speaking of the dungeon, in the core room Ally isughing hysterically. Oh my, that was so stupid. He was asking for it and even worse, those assassin vines arent even too strong. Should have rushed their con stat for that sweet regen if youre going to be so dumb.
Doyle lets her finishughing before he can ask, So what is up with the regen? I didnt think much of it when you first told me, but now I have regen potions.
Ally wipes a tear from her eye, Whew, anyway, yeah, the regen a human gets when their con score is in the lower twenties isnt regen regen. They wont be growing back an arm, well most of them wont be. Rather it more matches the idea you see in some of your worlds rpgs where someone doesnt die the second they are out of hit points. That whole going to a negative number actuallyes from this.
Mind you, some people awaken more powerful versions because of mixed bloodlines or special conditions, which are confusingly named constitutions. So some people can passively regrow limbs. It is just that most people only get enough regen so when in simr situations they will still be alive enough to save. Some actually theorize it has more do with a persons will to live than any actual regeneration, but that is what shows up on the status panel, so that is what Im calling it.@@novelbin@@
Doyle nods, Knowing that, I would definitely want at least a single point of growth in constitution if I were still human.
Ally snorts, You and everyone else. The thing Im more interested in is the failed psionic. How does your world even have someone like that already?
Doyle tilts to the side, Mostly certain weve always had psionics around. While not exactly mainstream, I actually did a paper on for college once. There has never really been any massive amount of proof for it, but several studies were done with statistically significant results. Also you said failed? He seems to be quite good at using his abilities to me. Really stomped the dungeon with his ability to pinpoint all the monsters.
Ally rolls her eyes, That is just because you havent seen what higher grade psychics can do. The horn itself is proof he is a failure. A proper psychic canpress and contain their powers within their body. Because the guy let it burst out and form a horn, his growth is linked to the growth of the horn. This not only leads to simple physical limits on his powers, but also a ring weakness. You chop the horn off and he loses arge part of his power until it grows back.
As for psionics existing on this world before the system? That is stupid rare. While people tend to gain psionic powers with higher stats, even if it ends up being something as simple as the ssic touch TK that allows them to lift things without breaking them. They need either high stats or a rare constitution. For your world to already have them means something here is fostering the growth of psionic powers. Now that people can tap into all the supernatural energies this will only supercharge the emergence of psionic powers.
Luckily for us not many people gain the ability to cheese our dungeon like that guy did. In fact, some ces dont even bother calling them psionic powers and instead just call them talents. Because at a low grade that is what they basically are. One person might gain a passive knowledge of how a piece of wood twists and turns on the inside and can carve it better than anyone else. Another person will be able to tell you what the weather will be like tomorrow with more uracy than a divination spell.
You can test for powers like that, but at the same time most dont bother. A farmer whose family has been farmers for generations doesnt need to know they have a talent for farming. They know it in their bones. Plus people like that tend to be easy to pick out, anyway. Just look for the people who are way too satisfied with their work. While following your dreams or doing something youre good at is satisfying. A talent goes beyond just a physical drip of chemicals telling you that you did a good job.
Doyle nods, Then there are powers like that guy had. Which you also dont need to test for because they are pretty darn obvious. Suddenly able to hear the thought of others? Guess youre telepathic now.
Ally shrugs, Still, I dont expect to see too many of even the low grade powers around here just yet. Even if your world for some reason nurtures talents, the system will have spread them out like they did everyone else. The fact we saw only a single person with a horn in their group means that while they arent rare, they are notmon. Otherwise more woulde along with them to try to spy on the settlement.
Doyle sighs, Im not going toin. While the concept of psionic powers always fascinated me. I did write an entire paper on them after all. But as a dungeon core, it also scares me that he was able to basically walk through my dungeon.
Allyughs, You dont have to worry about that too much. Even just on the third floor, your walls are starting to block their powers. With each new floor it bes harder and harder for someone to juste in and be able to tell where everything is or even worse, kill it all at a distance. Of course, more powerful psychics will be able to still do their thing, but the same is true for any of the more powerful abilities out there.
About the only thing sacrosanct in a dungeon is the separation between floors. Even for the dungeons where the floors arent literally in their own dimension this is true. Something about the difference between floors being a sheer point in reality.
Doyle nods, Fair enough. Now, before I forget to bring this up, that guy died, and I got a nice rush of power from it. Really nice boost to my finances and he wasnt really all that powerful. However, I can totally see someone kicking the bucket and me not having enough space in my pool for all the power. What happens and is there a way to store it for a hot second so I might be able to put it to good use.
Ally shrugs again, Give yourself a couple more floors and a more activemunity of delvers and you wont run into the problem easily. As for storing it? That is both easy and a bit lossy. You can after all create stuff on the floors without delvers on them. With that in mind, all you have to do is find some object with a cheap enough cost to spawn fully formed and that you dont lose too much when you subsequently deconstruct it. I cant tell you what to use for it though as it is different for each person. Who knows, maybe with your hang up over goats you will find that small cubes of goat horn work. Of course nothing is perfect, so dont expect to be saving too much by doing this.
A Goat Drops Some Loot – Chapter 121
Ace nods, Being reckless at this point is stupid. I dont think we are even at the point of being above pre-system human potential. Maybe as a whole our stats are better than possible, but no one stat is beyond what an Olympic athlete or some such would be capable of. Mind you, that still puts those in our settlement, especially us founders, at the edge of magic-less human potential, but thats life now.
Now they didnt go any further than this. With good reason, mind you. Even if you lost a person to being an idiot, that still means you lost a person and so have increased the chance of losing another. Now lets go and see if there is some more ore to bring out. If they want it, we better have a stock of it.
Of course the group has already gone through all the known areas already so can only wander around at random. The myconids pose little trouble for them as they have potions for the poison and another assassin vine falls to them. Though it seems this floor is much better suited to them as it manages to catch Jack.
Catching Jack doesnt do the vine much good as thebined weight of him and his sledgehammer is more than it can lift. Still, Doyle leaving the vines alone to do what they want has allowed them to figure out working chokepoints.
The group ends up going down a few dead ends, but the floor isnt meant to be an impossible maze and so Aces strategy of following the wall soon brings them to one of the dig sites. Both sides can spot one another well ahead of time as the mining area is positioned at the end of a long hallway.
Not only are the monsters shocked to see the group, but the reverse is true. Though on the founders side, it has more to do with the fact there is a brown cow. Susan shakes her head, When were we blind enough to let a cow wander into the dungeon?
Jack on the other hand ms his sledgehammer into the ground and crows, Were having steak tonight boys! Though he keeps enough sense to not just rush in.
Ace shrugs, Maybe the theme of the dungeon is actually something like evil farm animals or some other nonsense. Still, I would have expected an actual farm floor. Anyway, we arent exactly sneaking up on this fight. Formations and then charge. I want at least one spell down the hallway before melee gets up and personal.
With that, the fight starts. Ruby tosses out a set of ten small spheres that fly down the hallway while everyone else starts advancing. Not a charge, mind you, no matter what Ace actually said. Rather, a more sensible speed so they dont run into any rock bending potholes.
Halfway to the room Rubys spheres havee close enough to the monsters to reveal their hidden surprise. Each of the spheres bursts apart into one of Rubys ssic fire ribbons. Except of course for the fact that they have retained most of their power turning what is a rtively short ranged attack into a much more deadly medium range one.
Not only that though, but when bursting apart the ribbons chaotically change direction. Three of the goats and one of the kobolds holding a pick are surprised by this. One goat falls over as the ribbon slices their front left leg to ribbons. Right next to that goat another has all the luck as its helmet blocks what would have been a fatal blow. Ruins the helmet of course but not dying offsets the loss.
Though speaking of dying, the remaining goat and the kobold catch a bad case of it. Unlike the previous goat, this one isnt so lucky and the ribbones in low and slices the neck up. As for the kobold, it just loses heart. Quite literally as the ribbon ends up spiking through the kobolds chest like a javelin. While that sort of damage was going to be deadly anyway, from Rubys perspective it was quite the lucky hit as the ribbon goes right through the kobolds heart.
The other monsters however are further back and have a chance to respond to the spell. Specifically, the earth mage and earthen cow work together to raise up an exceptionally thick stone wall. A good thing they did as even with that defense the ribbons manage to prate a good distance into the barrier before stopping.
Then Jack hits the wall with his hammer. If it wasnt for the fire ribbons, the stone wall would have stood the test. Weakened though, it bursts apart and falls over. The mage still having some control over the stone can redirect the debris to prevent any harm.
While that works, it does nothing against Susan who sneaks in right behind the shower of rocks and dust. Undisturbed by the rocks, she takes out the goat that ended up unhurt by Rubys spell. The injured goat doesntst much longer either as Og grabs a few of the rock shards that blew back and sends them at it.
Ace is through the gap next but jumps to the side and stays away from the forming melee. While he would like to get his hands dirty, there are now two stone shapers on the enemies side and letting them y freely is asking for it. Ruby already has the kobold under control, but the earthen cow isnt really using spells. So instead of the usual counterspell fest, Ace at least gets to practice countering the actual effect of a magical ability. Though this proves to be much harder than taking a spell apart before it goes off.
Sammy steps in front of Ace and engages thest melee kobolds all the while fending off sling bullets from the goatherd kobold who is at the back.
The fight almost looks to be in a stalemate when Jacks sledgehammer introduces itself to the earthen cows skull. Unlike most times hends a shot, the cow hasnt lost its head. Though the blow does stun it something fierce. Enough so that Ace wins in the magical back and forth he was having with it.
With the upper-hand, Ace can now assist Sammy and take out the melee kobold. While the cow recovers quickly enough, its focus is now on defending against Jack, allowing Ace and Sammy to focus down the goatherd kobold.
And of course since the goatherd was the groups leader things quickly unravel from there. Especially the few remaining goats. While the three of them had managed to keep Susan away, without orders this falls apart and throats get sliced.
As the rest of the monsters in the group die, only the earthen cow survives. Thebination of its high constitution, shear bulk, and rocky armor is too much for just Jack to handle. This doesntst long after the rest of the group can focus on the cow as well.
Then as the group rests up and collects whatever drops there are something that hasnt happened in a while shines its light upon them. As the goat fades away, a spiral of light remains. Well there are a few coins as well but everyone ignores that. As one, the group turns towards Ace.
Ace raises his hands and shakes his head, I summon up my own weapons and such. Someone else can get this loot drop. Though I do feel bad for Jims team. Like, we have every single one of the loot drops gathered with us. If it wasnt for the fact that only the people present and actively a part of the fight can gather loot, I would send one of you to grab them. So Sammy and Jack already have something, and Susan and Ruby are both fine. I nominate Og to receive this drop.
Everyone else rolls their eyes, but they cant really deny what he said. After no one else speaks up, Og steps up to the swirl and sticks his hand in. After groping around for a moment, he pulls out a quality leather helmet with a dashing pair of spiked horns protecting the temples and ears.
Og holds it up to show the others before putting it on. Of course through the magic of loot it fits like a glove. He sighs, While I dont mind a helmet, this honestly would have been better on a frontline fighter.
Ace shakes his head, Youre not as bad as Susan, but you like to run around the battlefield so I think it is perfect for you. Though if it will make you feel better, I can take the next drop.
Everyone elseughs and Susan shakes her head while patting him on his shoulder, As if we werent going to force the next drop on you, anyway. Now Ive been to these ore deposits a few times now and I have a feeling about them. The ore right now looks significantly more mined out than it does in the morning. That and the ore drops we got from the pack goats arerger now than in the morning as well.
Ace nods, Kelly has talked to me about this already. From what she has gathered, there is a limited amount of ore avable in a day. The kobolds are actually mining it throughout the day and when the floor is shuffled the ore resets.
Susan sighs, I guess we need to send at least one group through at the end of every day to collect as much as we can.
Jack shrugs, Sounds like a hassle. If the amount of ore is limited, we just need to mine it out ourselves.
Ace shakes his head, Maybe once we have someone with the mining skill and a good pick. There should be some dungeon nonsense going on that speeds up the rate at which the kobolds mine. While the ore deposits arent all that big, there is no way two kobolds could mine it all out in a day.
Jackughs, And why do we need to limit it to just the mining kobolds? There is also that earth mage kicking about.
Ace rolls his eyes, Yes there are spells to extract out ore. You arent exactly the first to think of using earth mages to mine. Problem is that to be effective in a dungeon mine they would need the mining skill as well.
Without the skill, they cant grab everything that is in the deposit. In a dungeon, part of what gathering skills do is increase the amount of product can be gathered. Like how without some kind of foraging skill it is practically impossible to pick any of the herbs without them withering in your hand.
A simr thing happens with ore and such. No skill? Most of the ore will vanish as you pull it out, whether you are using a pick or a spell. My bet is that if we had a skilled minere in here before the kobolds can mine much of it away we could actually gain twice the amount we get from drops.
Jack shrugs, Well, it was worth a thought.@@novelbin@@
Ace nods, It never hurts to try to think of some new angle. And you arent quite wrong with the idea of using magic to extract the ore. It is just that they still need the mining skill and they cant extract the ore faster than they can with a pick. From what Kelly told me, at the higher levels in the mining skill a person can devastated an entire mountain within a day. The only thing stopping someone like that from strip mining an entire down to the core is that they have to go slower when mining ore or it gets destroyed.
If Kellinger decides to learn the mining skill, I would actually consider sending him in early in the morning. While he wouldnt be able to extract ore faster than with a pick, that doesnt mean using magic is useless. Out in the wider universe, it is the preferred method for any mining done on an inhabited. After all, no one wants their home to look like swiss cheese. Magic pulls the ores right out of the ground like plucking rocks from a river.
Oh Look, More Loot – Chapter 122
Ace sighs, The only problem with magical mining is the fact that it doubles the difficulty of advancing. Not only do you need to train the mining skill, but your magical skill as well. Though that is for the future. Right now I would really like to learn how many ore deposits there actually are and maybe find out if there is a new floor. With a death the possibility is there.
The others agree with him and the group moves on. Up and down stairs, back and forth as they stumble into one dead end after another they make their way around the level in a clockwise direction. Jack wonders at one point if the floor always goes clockwise, but Susan smacks that down. She hadnt been paying too much attention to the newyouts every day, but that sort of thing would have shown up.
This is a tedious bit of exploration for the group. Especially when in just hours it will all be made worthless. Of course they are quite unlucky with todaysyout. Any other day they would have found the entrance to the next floor already. Still, it does mean they are doing about the closest thing to a full clear the floor will probably see anytime soon.
Now the group is on their fourth encounter with the kobolds on the floor. Andst though they dont know that yet. While neither of the previous couple encounters with them has been as tough as the first, it still hasnt been an easy thing. If the lost cost facy hadnt sunk its ws into them, they would have likely turned around and let the other team of founders finish the exploration.
The fight is joined much like the first with Ruby throwing her ribbon bombs into the mine area. With experience though, she does a better job of choosing targets and the earth mage kobold dies. It was the only enemy to die, mind you, with only a couple goats injured. However, that one death is worth any two or three other deaths.
The kobolds already down their mage are forced into a corner as without guidance the earthen cowcks the foresight to raise a stone wall. The goatherd orders the goats into a defensive line. A rtively sessful maneuver if it wasnt for the fact that Susan decapitates it a few momentster and the goats all fall back, choosing to defend each other rather than the other monsters.
This leaves the two minerspletely open and shortly afterpletely dead. Soon enough the goats join them, once again leaving the earthen cow alone to face the brunt of six of the more powerful humans on the entire. Yeah, that doesnt end well for it.
Fight over, Ruby looks off to the side andughs, Hey look, I think I can just make out a portal down that stairway. Just the edge, but the glow is hard to mistake.
The others ignore her though, as an even more shocking event is happening. Not one, not two, but three loot drops. Unbeknownst to them, while a lot of the loot was hanging on the edge of dropping, nothing was really ready. Only the fact they had to put so much effort into searching the entire floor tipped thesest three things over the edge.
Ace looks over the options and shrugs, I could use a new hat so Ill take a goat. Ruby, you take the other goat. I dont want the back line to be taken out by a few well ced clubs to the dome. And I guess that leaves Susan to take whatever that slinger kobold has.
Susan shrugs and doesnt waste any time grabbing a good quality sling out of her spiral. Ruby on the other hand is a little hesitant. The helmet Og had pulled wasnt exactly her style. In the end, though, she grabs her reward. Though the magic of loot drops once again proves it isnt some dead function.
Instead of a normal helmet design, her leather helmet is clearly designed to match her tastes. The spiked horns form more of a circlet around her head, and the design itself takes into ount things like her hair.
After Ace sees everyone else has their own stuff he reaches in to pull out his own helmet. Or that was the nt. But whatever is in the loot spiral definitely does not feel like a helmet. Instead, he pulls out a bag made of some form of near ck leather. Fit perfectly for him the bag looks like one of those single strap backpacks with a bronze buckle embossed with the image of a goats profile.
Sammyughs, I guess you can technically put that on your head! Though I dont know how much use a masterwork bag will be.
Ruby on the other hand has a much more serious look on her face. While it has faded now, the bag was releasing a steady stream of magical power when first taken out of the loot spiral. I think that might be a magic item. And not only that, but it has some kind of function which makes it so I cant detect its magical activity anymore.
Ace frowns, he hadnt minded getting a bag but if it was magical that threw a wrench in the works. And one peak inside proves Rubys guess as the inside is so dark he cant see the edges.
He turns to Jack, Let me have a few chunks of ore. I want to see what happens when we put something in it, but I dont want to risk anything too important.
As Jack hands the ore over, Og is practically vibrating. That has to be a bag of holding! I guess technically if it eats the item instead of storing it, the bag would be of the devouring sort, but I doubt one of those would be dropped this early on. That thing is going to be bigger on the inside than the outside. A ssic bit of adventuring kit not only in our rpgs but the greater universe as a whole.
Ace tosses chunk of ore after chunk of ore into the bag. Soon enough the bag fills up, though muchter than would be expected for a bag of this size. Ace hefts it a couple of times before nodding. Definitely a bag of holding. Not sure of what type exactly, except it nullifies some, though not all the weight. Guess we will have to stick some milk in it and see if it goes bad. While I would love it if the bad did preserve food I highly doubt it.
Susan nods, I can see a dungeon that has a dimensional tear as the entrance getting a shortcut to dimensional shenanigans, but I draw the line at time maniption.
Og sighs, A shame too. It would be amazing if we had some sort of time dtion going on here. Being able to dive for weeks in the span of an afternoon would be great.
Ruby shakes her head, While that nonsense sounds cool Im against it personally. If your body still lives through it all, then what is the point? All it sounds like is a good way to burn up your life and have your loved ones watch you age in fast forward.
Og shrugs, I guess most of the stories I read with it involved generally also had the power gained be able to offset or even elongate the users lifespan.
Ace shrugs the bag onto his shoulder and yawns. Dont forget, we also get that nice and juicy life extension here. The more power you have, the longer your lifespan.
Susan smiles, And Doctor is really annoyed it came sote for him!
Og frowns, Why would he be annoyed about it? More years is more years.
Susan shakes her head, It doesnt quite work like that. Lets say you had a lifespan of a hundred years. Reasonable enough for someone to live that long pre-system. Lets say there was a point where would let a person live a hundred more years. Most are going to look at that and think what is happening is the added power has simply added 100 years to the persons lifespan.@@novelbin@@
That is not how it works. Rather, your lifespan is a set amount. So being able to live to 200 doesnt actually mean your lifespan has increased to 200. What has happened is youve gotten more efficient at using your lifespan. So if you were 50 before that increase you would have still used up 50 of your lifespan even though youre now using half as much. From 50 years left to 100 is still a decent haul, but only puts you at 150 years of life.
The only catch to this is growing up. That isnt counted in quite the same way and if you can extend your lifespan before fully grown you get the full effect. So someone like you could live to the full 200 of that example. Doctor on the other hand is not so lucky. Same with me and my husband of course, but we have a bit of a leg up on the Doctor as our prior training still counts from what we can tell.
Now that there are supernatural energies to support us we probably already have a bit of an extended lifespan. Im actually willing to bet there are some old monks and sages out there that experienced a facelift with theing of the system. Magic is just weird like that.
Ace coughs, While interesting, we do have proof of a new floor just down that stairway over there. How about we go check it out?
Susan doesnt have much else to say, so the group continues to the portal. They nce around a bit but find nothing, and Jackughs. I guess there isnt some sort of guardian to keep us out this time. I bet if we get lucky there could be a straight shot from the entrance to the exit.
Ace shrugs, We can only wait on that. For now, though, there is a new floor to explore. I dont want toy down thew, but Im feeling a bit tired. The fights were not exhausting. It is just that we ran through most of the dungeon. I say we head through, maybe fight the first group, and then head back to the surface. While disappointing that we will be leaving the discovery to Jims team we are carrying literal rocks.
Jackughs again, We wouldnt bother carrying just rocks. This is some fine copper ore that Im hauling around. Plus, you have that pack! Just that alone has lifted quite a load off my shoulders.
Ace shakes his head, If anything the fact it is ore makes it worse. Last time I checked, metal was heavier than stone. At least then the stone that mine was made of.
Ruby nods her head, I agree with Ace on this. Jim can have the honor of exploring what is literally a death trap. I wouldnt mind pushing harder if we werent all so tired. Dealing with those fools from upriver was stressful.
After that everyone besides Jack and Sammy side with Aces n and so they go through the portal. On the other side, the group is shocked as a whole. Sammy taps the floor with her foot and sighs, What happened to the nice green carpet? All this rock will be horrible to walk around on.
Jack nods, And it will be that much easier to get tripped up. Without the dirt to smooth over the grounds imperfections, you can really tell how rough the stone is. At least there doesnt seem to be any loss debris either.
Og shakes his head, Speak for yourself. I was hopeful when I first saw the floor. Previous I would need to scrounge for ammo. Seeing all the naked stone gave me hope only for it to be torn away. Without pebbles, I cant exactly act like I have infinite ammo to y around with.
The Start Of Her Troubles – Chapter 124
As the group leaves the dungeon, Doyle isughing. For the first time, his monsters provided a real challenge for the group. Sure, other times they would face difficulties. But this was the closest to death any of them hade except for Sammy, and her thing was a fluke. Though the question is why. He turns to Ally, So whats up with the wolves being so effective against them?
Ally frowns, That is a good question, and the system doesnt seem to want to fill us in. It isnt like the dungeon wolves have better stats. In fact, the goats have more points in just strength and constitution than the wolves do in total.
Doyle rocks his core back, Odd, you arent wrong about that and it makes the mystery even deeper. Lets go spy on Ace to see if he has the answer. And the two of them turn their attention outside of the dungeon.
Ace is next to Jack as Doctor is doing what he can to fix the damage. Seems though that Ace has exactly the same question. Susan is there as well and shrugs, They really werent strong at all. In theory, our group should be able to squash them. Even if I was the only one with extensive experience with fighting wolves that should make up for the difference in stats.
Doctor finishes his fifth healing spell andughs. Im surprised even you got caught up in the illusion of power that visible stats give us. In a fight, who do you think would win? The stronger man or the weaker man?
Susan shrugs, If you can point to one as being stronger than I would say the strong man.
Doctor shakes his head, Well first of all you made a mistake. With the system I can now dere someone is stronger even if it is by a single point. Secondly strength isnt the end all be all. And by strength I dont just mean the specific stat, but rather all of them together. Otherwise you just get the man with a silly amount of agility to beat someone stronger than them and you cry foul.
Now let me put some more detail into the example. What is the stronger man is a body builder who has gained all his strength through working out, while the weaker man was in the military. Who would win?
Susan rolls her eyes, Well yeah, the military man would win. What good is strength if you cant use it. But that isnt really equivalent to what happened in the dungeon. We are all significantly stronger than the wolves at this point and need experience with fighting.
Doctor scoffs at this, You are experienced with fighting. The rest of them got a crash course. The System has not been here for even a full year yet. And those wolves? Maybe the rest of you missed this detail, but the monsters in the dungeon arent nk tes. The goats act like goats, the rabbits act like rabbits, and of course the wolves act like wolves. Where did they get this from? It isnt all instinct, especially not with the wolves.
Clearly a part of monster spawning involves dumping a bunch of information into their heads. And what is it wolves are famous for? Pack hunting and taking out the weaker prey. What did the wolves do to you? They hunted you as a pack and aimed for the physically weakest member of your group.
Susan, even your experience with hunting wolves isnt going to do much good. At least I assume it wont. You dont seem like the type to hunt them with a group. I bet you just got dumped out in the wilderness somewhere ungodly cold and then had to survive. Fighting wolves with guerri tactics is a lot different from a stand up brawl. Now do I need to go on, or do you understand your folly?
Susan squints her eyes at him, but he doesnt back down. With a sigh she looks away, Fine! You arent wrong there. We fought against a pack of wolves and tried to treat it like a bunch of one-on-one fights. They took advantage of that, splitting our group and targeting the weakest. The only reason why we got away with so few wounded is because we are just so far above them.
Doctor nods, Good, and dont forget it. While I do want to practice my healing spells, I would rather be treating minor wounds for now. I am nowhere near good enough for this kind of nonsense. It took me five casts of my heal spell to clear that mess up! The person who taught me in the tutorial could do it in two. Once to make sure it doesnt start bleeding and a second to fix things up from the inside out.
Ace sighs, No matter how strong we seem to be we are still much too weak.
After that they mostly settle into a bit of pointless moaning about the world, so Doyle and Ally turn away from the drama. Doyles core brightens up, Well, I guess we know what is up with the wolves.
Ally nods, And did you notice how the three further away wolves joined in on the fight?
Doyle sighs, Yeah, I half dont want them to do it. I did not n the floor with that kind of thing in mind. Though I guess I wasnt specific enough when I let the ambush wolves do their thing. The only ray of luck is that they dont seem overly motivated. If all the wolves that could hear the howls came along, the party would have had to run away. Some of them could have even died. Though I guess it makes some sense that the call was limited. The ambush behavior was only intended to work from a room away.
Ally shrugs, Emergent behavior is fun.
Doyle rolls his core, Im sure this wont be thest time something like this happens. Anyway, I dont think the fourth floor will actually hold them for long. The third floor only kept for so long because of the random maze aspect of it.
Ally starts to grin as Doyle continues, Since I currently have enough to make it.
Ally interrupts, Then its time to make the fifth floor! Dungeon Boss time, booyah!
Doyle tilts back, I cant see anyway around it. Plus, I already have some ns for the boss.
Ally is practically vibrating in the air, Dungeon bosses are amazing! You need to let me help with this. Ive always wanted to work on one. Few beings can ever create a sapient being on purpose with dungeon bosses being about the only dependable method. Sure, there are things like golems and robots that can with time gain sapience, but that is all up to chance. Sapience isnt even the realm of the gods! You need to be a true immortal to even think of granting souls.
Doyles core dims, And why would I let you help?@@novelbin@@
Ally stops dead in the air, Huh?
Doyle shakes his core, I have no reason to.
Ally frowns at this, What are you talking about? Were partners! Weve even been soulbond, the deepest connection any person can have. I just want help with the boss.
Doyle shakes his core again, Yeah, that is all you want to help with. Everything else has been tidbits of information or system provided tutorial text. And the soulbond? Have you felt it recently? Go ahead, feel it, feel what our bond is like!
Ally backs up, Chill! I will feel it out after we talk about this.
Doyles core loses almost all radiance, You havent been doing anything. In fact, did your level go up? How many skills have you leveled up? Did you do anything besides watching delvers like some survival show and browsing the universal inte? No, there will be no more talking until you actually stop wasting time. Until you pause your roll and feel what our connection is actually like right now. Because you know what? I kept track of it. Not actively, but it is right there at the back of my mind. Just the fact you cant tell off the top of your head shows how shallow our supposed bond is for you.
Ally stops backing up, though only because her back is against the wall. Woah! Fine, Ill give it a look and see what has you all bothered.
She floats down to the ground and sits with her legs crossed. At first she is just mediating, but it doesnt take any guesswork on Doyles part to tell when she gets around to it. Her face scrunches up in disgust, her wings twitch, and she curls up into a fetal position. After this, it takes her a good few minutes to recover.
Ally opens her eyes as tears form, That, that was vile. The connection was there. Though I guess it would need to be for us to continue talking like this. What is that? It is like there is a ck fog wrapping around it, except the fog is made of filth and malignant tumors.
Doyle nods, I would like to me it on youpletely, but that wouldnt be fair. It takes two to tango and I might have been able to head this off at the pass if I had brought it up sooner. Instead, I fell into the same kind of nonsense Ive always done. Sitting in my own corner, trapped in my own designs.
Ally nods, Yes, we need to work on this!
Doyle shakes his core, No, you need to work on it and I will help you with it. While my fault is inaction, that is not what caused the miasma! This isnt some easy fix. We are stuck together and honestly I do like you as a person. Probably part of my downfalles from that. I let things slide that I never should have. You, on the other hand, need to take a hard look at how youve been treating this whole thing.
Ally frowns, But.
Doyle cuts her off, No buts! I want you to grow from this and you wont if I just let this slide. Plus, I dont even know what will fix the bond. Im waiting at the halfway point for you. Not like either of us could leave. For now, though? Im going to design my fifth floor. If I need some information, Ill check on you.
Ally raises a hand, Wait, dont you need some information on bosses first?
Doyle leans forward, If I need some information Ill check on you. And he turns his core away from her. Not that this does anything as the core isnt really sided, but it gets the point across.
Ally hangs her head and drifts up towards her room as he focuses on making the fifth floor. After all, he did have some ns for it. Ever since the start he had a n for the first boss and now, it coulde to fruition.
He dives into his core towards the void and the pool of power sourced from sapience. For the fourth time in his new life Doyle touches on infinity and a literal nothing. A void from which size is an iprehensibly small term for it and yet at the same time only exists because him and those like him force it upon it. That which is tainted by strange forms of life existing only through their paradoxical will to continue on and unlife that should have faded out long ago and yet lives. A non-ce where the cracked remains of fallen gods, dead universes, and ossuaries made from the bones of existence itself long forgotten.
Doyle touches on the edge of these mysteries and more as once again he expands the pool of power within him outwards as far as it will go and then crunch it down as far as he. With effort that is bing familiar an entirely new dimensional space is created within what was his fourth floors core room.
And He Wasn’t Alone – Chapter 127
Finished with the randomness, Doyle turns his attention to creating his first boss. He doesnt know what to do, but he has a clue. Mainly in the fact that it was disyed in ce of his usual random monster choice. [System, I would like to designate my kobold leader as a boss.]
Of course, while this technically works, it isnt that easy. Instead of the system doing it all for him, he gets a metaphorical kick to the mind that forces him to look somewhere within himself that Doyle hadnt even known existed. Then things fall into a familiar groove as he finds a mental tutorial like when he was learning about how to make a new floor.
This one however is a lot moreplex and quite a bit messier. Still, he can understand the reason why. Of all the abilities a dungeon core has he had thought things like quintessence and the skill were the most unique part of the race. Creating a boss however beats everything else by a country mile.
Still, despite all theplexity Doyle feels he can manage it. Plus, it isnt like he can ask someone for help. Though it did exin why the fifth floor is the first boss. Each floor, even in dungeons that arent portal based, is ayer of protection against outer beings and general void nonsense.
Doyle shakes his core and refocuses. The first step is a choice. When making a boss, a dungeon can either channel the captured soul into a pre-existing monster or through the creation skill. Both sides have good and bad points like how when creating a new monster the soul will be able to warp the body to better fit itself.
Doyle mostly ignores it for now as the decision was made long ago, at least for this specific boss. Since he will be using a pre-existing monster, Doyle turns hisplete focus on Her, finding Her on a throne at the center of the kobold vige. Perfect for what is going toe next as She wont exactly be able to stay conscious for the process. With that in mind, Doyle shortcuts the problem and renders Her unconscious.
Target secured it is time for Doyle to finally experience some true life threatening danger. Doyles core extends out a pseudopod made of his soul. Though thinner than the bond with Ally, it contains a mysterious power that stirs up the air itself despite not physically being present. This thread of soul extends outward and pierces through Her on Her throne before it begins to burrow into the very fabric of reality. Floor by floor, the pseudopod transcends physical space and time until it hits the first floor and the movements slow down.
Not from any difficulty in piercing the veil, but rather in caution. From here Doyle focuses on the feel of his first floors dimensional weave, looking for weak points. Because of course, making a boss monster isnt purely about a tougher monster. Though Doyle is mostly certain that in this universe only dungeons and the system probably know of the true reason.
Each boss added to the dungeon is another weakness or loophole fixed in their metaphysical defenses. So with great care Doyle feels across the entirety of his first floors dimension. Over this time he discovers a number of problems with the veil between him and the void. Quite worrying, but not something he can fix at the moment.
Instead, he focuses on the most egregious problem. Small gaps and weak sections are bad, but there is one outright hole, leaking his world energy into the void. Not a lot, anyone else would have a hard time noticing it even if they could examine it from both sides and knew where to look. The problem is that the world energy isnt going to just disperse. Rather, after enough time passes, there will be arge pool of the stuff right outside like a wee mat.
Not an ideal situation when any visitors are more likely going to try and eat him or some such. All Doyle can do is fix this hole and while seeking a soul for his boss, try and clean up any loose energy out there. Of course, the worst part might be the fact that the hole waspletely unavoidable. See, the hole is actually the result of when he first burst out of his core room to create the first floor.
Now though, Doyle really wishes he had known about this all before opening up. Not that he med this on Ally. How could she have known? Only the system and other dungeons would know about it, and they arent exactly going to share it. In fact, just the thought of sharing it with Ally sends shivers of pain through his core. Not imagined pain either. For the briefest of moments, a literal and very physical crack forms along the edge of his core before healing.
This gives Doyle pause. Not that there is much he can do besides keeping it secret knowing that before he could even attempt to let it slip, his core would be reduced to shards. Better to leave such dangerous thoughts forgotten in a corner.
And what better way to distract himself than to continue with making his boss? Doyle refocuses on the hole in his first floor and lets the pseudopod of soul wiggle out into the void. From there things get tricky. No one can really im to understand the void. Worse yet, the void is a cepletely beyond the systems control. In fact, the only reason the system works in Doyles dungeon is the portal connecting them.
If Doyle could figure out how to shut that off, all the systems control over him would drop away instantly. Not that he ns to do that anytime soon. While there are restrictions, they arent pointless. Plus, the system would probably be irked at what could be seen as an attempt to slip away with his debt unpaid. Unless he had a guaranteed new universe, preferably sans any kind of system, to set up shop in it would be a fools errand.
Though one benefit that Doyle notices right awayes directly from this loss of system assistance. While skills and such are mostly a measure of ones own understanding, that doesnt mean there is no assistance. And through this one critical weakness is revealed. Like a switch was flipped his territory control losses cohesion for while not all of his territory has to be covered by his soul, everywhere with his soul is his territory.
Under the systems control, his territory is kept in a nice little package. Now, as his soul extends into the void, this essential part of his being begins to get fuzzy along the edge as it ebbs and flows, just out of his control. Without the system, Doyle does not have any sort of fine detail control. Worse yet, any of the bits that go too far away escape his control and fade away.
If it wasnt for the system, this would be true for the edges of every single floor. This would represent a massive loss of world energy and for a young dungeon would represent a danger of starving if not enough people came along. While now wasnt the time to y with Doyle files it away as something he needs to work on quite heavily. Because while a new dungeon would starve at a rapid rate, a mature dungeon with manyrge floors might just be a desated husk if they werent prepared for it.
In fact, thisck of control puts a limit on how long Doyle can even keep this pseudopod extended beyond his dungeons realm. With that at the back of his mind, Doyle explosively extends the pseudopod outward. After a moment of this, though, it splits into two. Then further extension only for the two to both split and then further out to split again. So on and so forth until A terrifyingly massive area of void has been covered by a formed by his soul.@@novelbin@@
And he wasnt alone. All around him an uncountable number of other dungeons are also extended, searching. Over this area of void thatcks any true way to be measured or understood, there are countless universes. Some smaller than his own, others muchrger and older than Doyle even wanted to believe possible.
Besides fellow dungeons and other assorted dimensions, there are horrors. Beings that no dimension can admit to existing with powers that can snuff out everything that Doyle can currently reach. Only the fact that such beings are incapable of noticing something on Doyles level allows him and his fellow dungeons to reach into the void.
Besides those beings, if things of that scale could ever be considered as such, the smaller horrors of the void are almost unnoticed. While they are the real threats to his existence right now, they just arent capable of doing anything on the scale Doyle is currently working at. Swarms of voidborne beasts that would be capable of consuming his home dimension if they found it are like small specks on the backdrop of the countery between reality assert itself against the void which would reduce even nothing to non-existence.
During this expansion of Doyles awareness that very awareness is simplified and broken down. From a human mind to a being spread out over a distance that defies such origins. A good thing too, as at this point some strange structure within his core joins with his soul. Like the missing piece of a puzzle, this segmentpletes the puzzle that was a human in a dungeon.
Now there is just a dungeon, though some would question if Doyle was still Doyle. This wasnt a problem for him as even before the system this sort of thought experiment had been a simple thing for him. Doyle is Doyle, now and forever. All those stories with evil clones or magical doubles wanting to be the so-called original had never bothered him. Doyle was Doyle, whether there was just one human or an infinite number of copies in any number of bodies. Doyle was Doyle, Doyle is Doyle, and now Doyle will always be Doyle.
This small segment was not some special addition from the core. It wasnt even rted to being a dungeon core at all except for the fact that when the system took over this piece was excised from him, nearly causing his death. The real cause for why he woke up sote. Something that was never supposed to be and yet being a part of him.
Though the segment wasnt some cheesy past life or simr nonsense. No new memories flood his mind, and he doesnt gain some voice to exin the world. It just represented a pure and unstinting belief, no, knowledge of being Himself. Where others might have felt down about how his life was turning out pre-system, Doyle had seen through the nonsense and understand himself in a way that prevented him from getting along with too many others. The masquerade that modern life nurtured was hollow to him in a way that would not allow him to join in.
Now once again this absolute trust in himself, that belief that bordered on being a self actualized truth, had returned to him. For a moment his soul shed in a color representing true understanding of oneself before returning to normal. Of all that was in the void, only his fellow dungeons bore witness. Understanding spread through their own souls and was passed on through the weft and weave created by thisplicatedwork of momentary void delvers. Then as if it hadnt happened everything returned to normal. While other dungeons would know of him, the chances of ever meeting in a way that would allowmunication was near impossible. Besides, with how the void can mess with time and space there is no telling if he might meet one of them before they experienced this. Being an interaction fully of the soul alone, so many restrictions on time and space are lifted that there is no telling what mighte of this.
Between KZZT and Uthlow – Chapter 128
Personal growth aside, Doyle still needs to find a soul for his boss. This is not a matter of actually finding souls, but rather that of sorting them out. In a nimbus that surrounds every universe, there is a dense ocean of souls. Between universes, through whatever symbolical connection that might have been formed are rivers packed to the brim with souls. All around these giant flows of souls are even more souls, the biggest difference is they move slower.
Suffice to say, souls are to the void what space is to a universe. With how much area Doyles can cover, this means the number of souls to draw upon has long ago passed any beings ability to sort through normally. Of course, this is one area where dungeons have developed their own methods to handle things.
The first soft rule is to stay clear of the nimbuses that have formed around the various dimensions. Most of the souls are too fresh, likely having just been a living being within said dimension. While souls dont bother with following sillyws like space and time, that doesnt prevent them from following their own logic. Souls ebb and flow between the universes and lingering attachments create the greatwork that gives the void enough definition to prevent all existences from never having done so.
Those same attachments that keep the soul near a universe also indicates that like a cheap cut of meat, they will be tough to chew. Fragments of memory and shadows of past loyalties, especially if a dungeon is unwise enough to draw from their home dimensions nimbus, will cause cracks in what should have been undying loyalty.
The second rule is to not take from the deepest parts of the great oceans of unmoving souls. With time, all things fade. Even though a soul is one of the few things even the longest lived true immortals would consider a permanent feature, there are essential parts in a soul that will die out. How can a boss monster do its job if it doesnt even have the will to move? Salvaging such a soul would normally be done through nts and other simr low maintenance life forms. A dungeon cant afford what could be centuries, if not millennia of care.
The third and final rule seems to almost go counter to the second rule. Dont pick a strong soul. While that strength might give the boss greater power, a soul doesnt be strong by ident. Something out there wanted a strong soul. Maybe you get lucky and the soul has done its job. What you dont want to find out is that the will of a major universe had ns for it, and now the only way to make use of the soul is if your dungeon doesnt exist anymore.
While the closest thing you can get to a sapient universe would be a dungeon. Sometimes quantity is enough to provide a quality all its own, and it is hard to have more quantity than an entire universe.
Still, these three rules are more of a guideline. There is no hard and fast rule involved here. The intricacies of the soul are more than enough to throw a spanner into onesprehension. Observing this all, Doyle can only shake his core. He doesnt need anything tooplicated. Since he has a chance to improve things, there is no reason not to take it.
Except, of course, for the sheer folly of assuming he could actually do it. Doyle wasnt raised a fool and didnt n to start being one now. Just the fact that he had woken up enough from the stupor caused by spreading out his soul does not mean that trying to control the process is a good idea. In fact, just the idea of doing so could be seen as a trap. And how was he aware right now, anyway?
No, Doyle shakes his core again, why should he try to control the oue now? Hes Doyle, whether human or dungeon core. His soul is the one constant and focal point of his existence. Trying to take control of the process at this step would be denying that. Maybe before he would have gone along with it. Now though, there is no way in any form of afterlife he would betray himself.
If some outside forces want him to make the choice himself, well then he will. Just not how whatever it is out there nned. Doyle sinks his mind into his soul, letting go. He had alwaysughed at all those stories of doppelgangers and evil clones. If it was him, both sides would get along because as long as they are him, he is them. Here something wanted something even sillier, to district his own soul so to spit in the eye of whatever has tried this trick his choice is to leave itpletely to his soul.
In fact, Doyle takes it even further than just releasing control back to his soul. He throws his mind and body at it as well. His thoughts grow slow, fading away while his core dims and only just manages to stay afloat. Across his entire soul web, the trinity merges and at the end of every single strand his soul splits again and again. With each split, the lines fray and fuzz until finally it has faded away. Everyst bit of his presence blinks out.
At this point Doyle has lost his life, his death, his very existence is in question. The only proof of his continued existence is the bond with Ally. Not that this is what has kept him together. No, with or without her, these events would continue down this path.
Time lurches forward in the void as it always does, in spurts and sputters as one temporally bound being or another makes their way through it. Only a short while passes overall, despite the infinite amount of non-time events that happen when a soul on the edge of a flow twitches. Having been pushed to the side as other souls went between the dimension of KZZT. A minor realm where kobolds had managed to raise themselves to the point that with age woulde sapience. And Uthlow, a developing sword and sorcery style universe where while not sapient, the kobolds had managed to make great inroads towards conquering their own territory in the grand caverns of the dimension.
For a timeless span the soul hadin there, not quite pushed into the motionless ocean of souls right next to the flow and yet not a part of the flow either. Kobold in origin for thest thirty rebirths, it had almost lost thatst spark to continue. Now, though, a change urs. Without rhyme or reason, the soul breaks away from the flow. Not just by a little, but to the point of heading off perpendicr to the rest of the surrounding souls. Neither with nor against, but away from.
As this soul approaches a certain dungeon, flickers of a fog-like presence slowly bes visible. Closer and closer the soul gets, and the presence bes ever more solid. From fuzz it copses to near invisible lines and again into threads. Over and over, until all that is left is a single tentacle of soul holding onto the kobolds soul as they disappear into the dungeons realm.
As the soul is squeezed through the w in the dungeons realm, bits and pieces seem to be scrapped off. Though a closer look will reveal that these parts being left behind are not actual parts of the soul but rather shards of the void. In fact, if one was to examine any of the souls in the void, they would find all of them are coated in a dust of primal nothingness.
Why? Because souls are tough, indestructible as far as everyone in the known multiverse is concerned. Even if you did manage to break one apart, a near impossible feat, it would join back together as if never taken apart. So that would bring up the question, if souls cant be destroyed, where do the memories go? Sure, most memories are stored in the mind and not the soul, but not all of them. The answer is that the void wears them down or more urately, polishes them. This dust is the result of the void tearing itself apart against said souls.
This dust is arge part of why natural dimensions are so tough. Every time a soul reincarnates the dust is drawn off of the soul as it enters the dimension and reinforces the border. Dungeon cores use it for much the same thing. Their only limit is souls dont naturally enter their dungeons. And this is where a dungeons intentes in. A natural dimension has no control on where the dust ends up. Wherever a soul enters will be where the dust is deposited. If someone was able to cause souls to avoid a certain part of the dimension, this would create a weakness that could be exploited.
Back to Doyle, he shows why sometimes quality can win out even against an absurd amount of quantity. The void dust that was deposited onto his dungeons exterior is taken in hand by thest bit of his soul right before it re-enters his dungeon. Through instinct and intelligence, the dust is manipted. Like cotton candy it is spun into delicate threads and then those threads are braided together. Those loose braids are pounded out t against the side of the dungeon,yered again with others and forged into a single bar of void stuff given form. A bar that is then halved. One side pounded t and the other half pulled through a loop formed from the tentacle of soul, drawing it out into the finest of threads.
Now massing, if mass could ever be attributed to such a thing, much less than the original dust. The circle of void is ced over the hole in Doyles defense and the thread is woven through it over and over, creating a patch. The only problem is the patch stands out against the rest of the dimensional barrier. And even this is soon fixed by the barrier itself. As thest of Doyles soul draws back into the dungeon, that barrier jolts into motion. Like an ever hungry maw,rge teeth form around the patch and snap shut over it before ttening out again. Once the bulge where the patch was disappears all that is left is a t area, same as the rest of the barrier, except for the fact that a certain w no longer exists.
Back in the dungeon we catch the kobolds soul just as it is about to enter the kobold leaders body. Once again, the soul tentacle goes into action. At the point where it passes through the body it expands outward, covering the entire body in a thin film. As the kobold soul enters the body, this film coats it entirely. While this doesnt prevent it from taking up residence in its new body, it is like a water balloon. While it fills the container it is in, the soul doesnt actually touch the body.
Job finished the soul tentacle draws back, leaving behind a connection simr to the bond between Doyle and Ally. There is one important difference, though. Doyle and Ally met halfway. This bond however ispletely done from Doyles side, his soul reaching out and connecting directly to the kobolds soul. Instead of a bond of equals, this bond is clearly one with a hierarchy and the kobold is below Doyle.
As this finishes up the fifth floor is reduced to stillness, every living thing on the floor including Ally freezes in ce as a great pressure builds. Around the kobold, invisible to anyone unable to view souls, a vast disy of lights is taking ce. Like an aurora borealis, the disy broadcasts aplex interaction between outside influences streaming into the kobold. A normal enough disy as the floors vor, Doyles expectations, and various other ephemeral things slip into the kobold while the body and mind adjusts to fit the new soul, as the soul had fit itself to the body. Then as this finishes up a strange event happens.@@novelbin@@
A Path Not His Own – Chapter 129
Like what Doyle had just done except in reverse, the kobolds soul stretches out. But instead of trying to leave the floor it splits up right away with a small blob at the end of each tentacle. And then these blobs are all thrust into herpanions, the herders, the leaders five goats, and herpanions five stone wolves. Once inside the body, those blobs expand like a balloon, filling their bodies.
At this point Doyle is just aware enough to be confused at what is happening. Then as one all of the beings this had just happened to once again turn towards the kobold leader and bows. This time, though it isnt from some prompting by Doyle, rather it is a spontaneous action and sign of deep respect. Then a barrage of System messages distract Doyle from the floor.
{Soul captured...
Imnt sessful...@@novelbin@@
Altering base body...
Leveling up Boss...
Stats updated...
Remnant skills recorded...}
{Warning: Previous life remnants coalescing
Soulpatibility with chosen role exceeding system control
Natural Path forming...
1%
5%
18%
36%
71%
100%
Foreign Path detected...
New Path being analyzed...
Path database updating...
Path named Soul of the Community}
{Congrattions! You have discovered a Path unknown to the local system.
Rewards: Basic exnation of the path, New beneficial material, Unlocks the Pathfinder path}
{Soul of the Community: Found on members of a species on the cusp of bing sapient. Though not quite there as a whole, some members of such species will gain a soul by chance. After much work to help their fellow species rise up, their soul has developed the ability to reach out and provide pseudo-souls to those in theirmunity. This is limited to 20 others.
Special Note: The memories of the 20 are saved in the bosses own soul. Though only as long as the same monsters are there when the boss is respawned.}
{Synergy detected between dungeonspleted path Kobold Community and unnamed kobolds path Soul of the Community
Stat bonuses provided by both are retroactively doubled}
{Choosing new material...
Material gap [Gems] detected
Creating samples of Quartz...}
{First Boss created...
Dungeon Stability increased...
Instancing for all floors before the first boss unlocked
10 instances avable to be distributed among all unlocked floors
Instances automatically distributed: 4 to 1st, 3 to 2nd, 2 to 3rd, and 1 to 4th}
Doyle takes a moment to go through the seven blue boxes and can only shake his head. Creating the boss did more for him than when he created his first floor and its kind of silly. Though the first thing that stands out is thest message. His dungeon now has instances. Not distributed like he would prefer, but that can be fixed.
In fact, before something else distracts him, he gets right on that. [System, I want the first floor to have five instances, the second floor to have three instances, and the fourth floor to have two instances.] And as he finishes saying that he can feel something shifting. An odd feeling to say the least and he can definitely tell it was something he would eventually learn how to do himself. For now, it is out of reach. Good thing the system can do it for him instead.
While instances are nice, he doesnt want any on the third floor on ount of the mining area. Maybe once he has a better ce deeper in, he can change things up. For now, though, this new setup will have to do.
That finished, Doyle turned towards the pile of quartz that had been dropped in a corner of his core room. The system had been quite generous. While it had said quartz, it hadnt limited itself to just literal pure quartz but gifted him all of the major varieties. With a sweep of his mind, they all get deconstructed.
{Pure Quartz pattern lv30 acquired
Amethyst pattern lv30 acquired
Blue Quartz pattern lv30 acquired
Citrine pattern lv30 acquired
Milky Quartz pattern lv30 acquired
Rose Quartz pattern lv30 acquired
Smoky Quartz pattern lv30 acquired
Green Amethyst pattern lv30 acquired
Pure quartz, Amethyst, Blue quartz, Citrine, Milky quartz, Rose quartz, Smoky quartz, and Green amethyst merged into Gem patterns lv32}
Doyles core glows bright for a moment, Well the system doesnt cheat you when you find something new. Though I doubt it is actually new to the system, as it specifically mentions the local system. Im just the first person in this universe to discover the specific path. There are probably a bunch of generic paths the system already knows, and this just falls outside of it. Now whats up with that path that was unlocked? [System, show me my paths].
{Points: 29
ss: Dungeon Core II 10/10
Completed: Kobold Community 15/15, Goat Supremacy 20/20, Energy Well I 3/3, Commanding Subordinates 12/12, Ageless Queens 15/15, Earths First Home of the Limit Breakers I 1/1, Biomes Aplenty 5/5, Potion Dispensary 10/10, Elemental Animals 5/5, Cows for Milk 12/12, Vegetation Variety 20/20, Divine Border 1/1
Started [2/3]: Dungeon Core III 35/100
Avable: Vine Warper 0/15, Kin yer 0/100, Voidborn 0/250, Axe Sharpener 0/5, Energy Well II 0/6, Expansionist 0/30, Fires Flying 0/7, Deal Broker 0/10, All the Potions 0/60, [UNIQUE] 0/1, Kobold Community II 15/30, Community Driven 0/10, Community Builder 0/30, Boss Builder 0/50, [TRINITY] 0/1000, Pathfinder 0/1}
Doyle stares at the disy for a solid minute before shaking his core. Some of the paths make sense. Some? Not so much. In fact, they are so out of the ordinary the only choice is to talk to Ally about it. While the one is costly enough that he can sit on it, the other costs a single point. Beyond that, the Pathfinder path costs a single point as well, and as far as he can tell, the single point options are all specialty choices of some sort. If the limit breaker and divine border paths are anything to go by.
Though first there are a few things left to check out in rtion to the new boss. The synergy between his path and the bosses path for instance mentions it being retroactive. While it would be a little hard to check on his kobolds, he remembers getting some stats for it as well. Not much but they were per a level type buffs so it should show up. The one he can remember off the top of his head is Karma. Kobold Community had given him a point of growth at every level and he had 40 before this nonsense if he remembers correctly.
After a quick check the message proves to be quite true or he had forgotten what his Karma had been because it was now 42. Thats two points higher, and he had grown by two levels since getting the path. The math checks out and makes him hopeful for any future bosses. Though going by the messages, this whole path thing is out of the ordinary.
Doyle sighs before moving onto the most interesting part of it all. His new boss. [System, show me the status of my Boss.]
{[Unnamed] Kobold Boss lv13
Paths: [5] Soul of the Community 100/100
S[32] A[61] C[32] I[46] W[63] P[34] D[33] K[62] L[33]
Skills: Animal Handling lv28, Teamwork lv22, Mace Mastery lv22, Commanding Presence lv18, Shield Mastery lv15
Cost: World Energy[1500(2250)]}
Doyle does a double take at the bosses stat line. Well, thats a bit extreme. Is the Soul path that powerful? [Hey system, can you show me the path progression for Soul of the Community?]
{Processing request...
Anomaly Detected: Path existing on boss before fully under Dungeons control preventing observation of the paths development
Request deemed valid but abnormal enough to elevate...
Request forwarded to Admin #42,603,518,808,366
Waiting for response...
Request approved}
{Soul of the Community*
5/100 - You have earned +3 Wisdom and +1 Wisdom/Level
10/100 - You have earned +3 Intelligence and +1 Intelligence/Level
15/100 - You have earned +3 Perception and +1 Perception/Level
20/100 - Non-sapient members of your species are more likely to follow your orders, You have earned +3 Karma and +1 Karma/Level
25/100 - Non-sapient members of your species more easily learn what you teach them, You have earned +3 Destiny and +1 Destiny/Level
50/100 - Non-sapient members of your species that have been in yourmunity for over a year have an increased chance of bing sapient, You have earned +3 Luck and +1 Luck/level, You have earned +3 Agility and +1 Agility/Level
75/100 - Non-sapient members that have been in yourmunity for over a year are loyal to you, To properly lead them your lifespan has been significantly extended, You have earned +3 Constitution and +1 Constitution/Level, You have earned +3 Strength and +1 Strength/Level
100/100 - Path Complete, Your soul reaches out to the 20 closest non-sapient members of yourmunity and grants them a pseudo-soul, Non-sapient members of your species that have been in yourmunity for over a year have an increased chance of their offspring being born sapient (both parents can provide the bonus and it stacks), Every ten years someone has a pseudo-soul they have a chance of gaining a soul of their own barring outside influences, You may designate a sapient member of your species as your sessor and they gain ess to the Soul of the Community(Sessor) Path, When you die if you have a sessor the role passes on to them and their path loses the sessor modifier and all the benefits they would have gotten from the Soul of the Community are retroactively applied
*Synergy from Kobold Community path doubles all given stat values}
Doyle shakes his core, Well a lot of those special benefits arent exactly going to help me. In fact, the only bit from the pathpletion part that matters is the pseudo-soul stuff and not even all of it. The thing even specifically points out that they only have a chance to gain a soul barring outside influences. Going to bet being a dungeon monster counts as an outside influence.
Still, going by how things seem to work, the per a level things are counted as having been gained at second level because that is what I am. Eleven level ups with each stat getting two a pop is going to skyrocket the values. Thats 22 points to every single stat. 22 alone is enough to outdo every other monster in my entire dungeon.
Even if it didnt synergize with mymunity path 11 to each would still make it a monster supreme. I am honestly worried that people will die like crazy on the fifth floor. Nevermind the fact that thepanions get to learn from experience like a boss. Because of course with a boss like that I need not one, not two, but five minibosses.
That path is definitely meant for propping up a leader. Though most wont be able to abuse it to quite the degree this mess has. While it only costs 100 points, the description says gain a soul. Not born with a soul. From all Ive heard, getting to the point that something can gain a soul isnt easy. I wouldnt be surprised if in a more natural setting this path would only be avable to monsters well beyond level 100. Sure, they might be able to buy it up all at once, depending. But at that point they wont be leveling all that much.
Especially since the whole theme of the path is to have been working on developing amunity. Not exactly much time to go out and grind experience when youre teaching others how to be civilized. Though at this point I have to admit Im just procrastinating the path thing. I have to work up the nerve and talk to Ally. I hope she can see what I said was to help her. Im not exactly one for speaking up about stuff like that but I also know you need to snip things like that in the bud. Seen way too many kids in my grocery store. Well, I guess the grocery store I used to work at. Anyway, way too many kids who would throw tantrum after tantrum only to consistently get given candy and other such nonsense to shut up. That of course only worked as long as the candysted.
I Shouldn’t Be That Rude – Chapter 131
Ally bristles, Whats that have to do with skipping a challenge in a dungeon? Theyre unrted!
Doyle shakes his core, Au contraire! Not only are these things linked, but I think it is something youre going to have to think long and hard about. Now, mind you, Im not exactly much better off. While I wasnt high on the hog pre-system. In fact, while I was not bottom of the barrel, I definitely wasnt middle ss. Until the system came, all of my experience with this kind of nonsense was through stories, something I believe we have inmon.
Real danger? What a joke. The only danger I faced was driving my car, if you can count that. Sure, it was dangerous, but in a mundane sort of way. And you were royalty with an overprotective mother. Joining up with me is the most danger youve ever been in. And dont try to give examples of when you got away to explore on your own. You and I both know you had a stealthy guard or two nearby.
Those people you deride for avoiding danger arent like us. Yes, they are avoiding danger but that is because they feel death just behind them. You blithely talk about people entering here to die but have never had to experience it. While it might seem like everyone should experience all the challenges in a dungeon, that isnt a rule. If I or any other dungeon cared about such a thing, we have the ability to enforce it. All that matters is that people enter the dungeon and stick around for a while.
Ally slumps, But that isnt how it is supposed to go! None of this is how it is supposed to go!
Doyle sighs, Life rarely goes how things are supposed to. After all, if we want to go by that, you are supposed to be off at the fae court doing your royal duty. In choosing to leave that life, so many things changed for the people around you. How could they not change for you as well?
Ally raises her fist, It needs to go how it was meant to! Ending up with you instead of a sleeping dungeon was unexpected but that should have made it easier. You can understand me! That means when I tell you things, it should be easy to do it.
Doyle shakes his head, It means I can make my own decisions as well. Almost every day for years I would go to my job and do what I was told. No choices to make, no decisions passed onto me, if anything got too big I just called someone higher on the chain to figure it out. Now here I am, with a theoretically infinite lifespan. There was exactly 0% chance of me just following orders.
Not that youve been heavy handed mind you. Im not going to put more on you than was there. You mostly just read from tutorial screens and asked me to show you everything that was happening. Though I guess thatst part was nearly constant and it would have gotten annoying much sooner if I hadnt figured out how to let you control the view screens.
Ally flops back down, But that wasnt how it worked with my friends! I would make the decisions and we would do it. Even when I decided to try and be a dungeonpanion, they supported me!
Doyle sighs, I have some bad news for you. Those werent friends. Wait, I shouldnt be that rude to them. Maybe they were friends, butcked the ability to do anything else. Because a true friend will disagree with you and push back. You might have thought them to be true friends when they agreed with you over whatever your mother wanted but I have some bad news for you. Either your mother wanted that or someone who was against your mother politically had a hand in it.
Ally shakes her head, That cant be true! My mother wouldnt let me so easily be a dungeonpanion and her opponents wouldnt be able to sneak their hands into a situation so close to my family.
Doyle rolls his core, Have you ever considered that your mother genuinely just wants the best for you? With so much power she has to have ess to means beyond my imagination and if she cant realize you werent right for politics, she wouldnt have been able to stay in power so long. Of course she cant publicly be for it, but she must have supported you from behind.@@novelbin@@
Honestly? At this point, there is nothing more I can say about this. You need time to absorb the bombs I dropped. Maybe after you take some time to think it over a call to your mom wouldnt be out of the question either. Im sure she wont be against it. You can even tell her I told you to do it. Anyway, I should figure out my paths.
Ally rolls onto her side and curls up without responding. Doyle waits a moment but when nothing else is forting, he leaves her to stew on the revtions. Turning back to his paths he notices a difference.
{Points: 41
ss: Dungeon Core II 10/10
Completed: Kobold Community 15/15, Goat Supremacy 20/20, Energy Well I 3/3, Commanding Subordinates 12/12, Ageless Queens 15/15, Earths First Home of the Limit Breakers I 1/1, Biomes Aplenty 5/5, Potion Dispensary 10/10, Elemental Animals 5/5, Cows for Milk 12/12, Vegetation Variety 20/20, Divine Border 1/1
Started [2/3]: Dungeon Core III 35/100
Avable: Vine Warper 0/15, Kin yer 0/100, Voidborn 0/250, Axe Sharpener 0/5, Energy Well II 0/6, Expansionist 0/30, Fires Flying 0/7, Deal Broker 0/10, All the Potions 0/60, [UNIQUE] 0/1, Kobold Community II 15/30, Community Driven 0/10, Community Builder 0/30, Boss Builder 0/50, [TRINITY] 0/1000, Pathfinder 0/1, Know Your Enemies 0/10}
There was a new path and more points to spend. Confused by this, he pulls up his skills and notices a new addition to the list, Psychology at level 12. It exins the extra points, but he doesnt feel he exactly earned it. Though as he thinks about it more he had been basically building mental pictures of all the delvers. It was probably just the act of analyzing Allys situation to her that added the skill to his list. As for the path, that was probably from the mental picture thing.
Doyle sits back and looks over the list once again. Honest? He had decided where to put his points when talking to Ally. Now, though, that isnt the case anymore. Know your enemies is tempting. Depending on what it does, the path would be core to his future. On the other hand, it could be something as stupid as just telling him which of a delvers stat is the highest or lowest. An interesting thing to know, but overall useless.
Doyle pauses as he realizes the new path doesnt have to change his ns. The new skill added over ten points already, which meant he could buy it and still have more points left for the rest. He nods to himself before dering, [System, I want to put 10 points into know your enemies, 15 points into koboldmunity 2, A point into unique, another into pathfinder, 10 points into dungeon core 3, and 4 points into trinity.]
{10 points applied to Know Your Enemies...
1/10 - You have earned +2 Karma
5/10 - The weaknesses of your enemies be more apparent, know an enemies highest stat
8/10 - You and those you control gain bonuses to avoid the strengths of your enemies, The better you know an enemy the more effective your luck is at countering theirs, know an enemies lowest stat
10/10 - Path Complete, Predictions of what an enemy will do are more urate, The longer you have observed an enemy the more easily you will notice if they have gained or lost something, You have earned +2 Luck and +2 Luck/Level, You have earned +1 Karma and +1 Karma/Level
15 points applied to Kobold Community II...
20/30 - You have earned +2 Karma/Level, Kobolds get +2 Karma/Level
25/30 - You have earned +2 Wisdom/Level, Kobolds get +2 Karma/Level
30/30 - Pathplete, You have earned information on koboldmunities and sapience, +2 Agility/Level, Kobolds get +2 Agility/Level}
{Kobolds are one of the few non-sapient species that consistently w their way past that. This stems from the kobolds connection to the Karma. Not just the stat, but the Concept. While it might take a while for the first sapient kobold to appear, once one does that world is brought to the attention of the kobolds racial Akashic. Subsequent instances of kobolds reaching sapience will skyrocket. Sadly, because of how dungeons work, a sapient kobold in a dungeon does not count. Though if one should ever leave the dungeon it will be noticed.
Communities that form around a sapient kobold are different. The sapient kobold will not always be the leader but they will always be the heart. Suchmunities are most likely to form in either swamps or rain forests. This is half because they enjoy those areas and half ingrained racial memory. Such areas are simply less likely to be home to other sapients who would hunt them down.
The biggest problem kobolds have in the end is that like most non-sapient species, changing to a species that is born sapient tends to be nearly impossible. Their connection to karmaes into y though, as it allows a kobold raised by sapient parents to have a nearly guaranteed chance at gaining sapience before learning to walk. This however has led to some darker practices where in some harsher areas, any kobolds that learn to walk without gaining sapience tend to at best get kicked out of themunity.}
{1 point applied to Pathfinder...
1/1 - Having found a new path forward you have pulled back the curtain and realized that the system doesnt know everything. The system would really prefer it if you didnt pull back that curtain for others. +3 All Stats/Level, 1 Path Point refunded
10 points applied to Dungeon Core III...
40/100 - You have earned 10 stat points
45/100 - You have earned +10 Wisdom
No paths by the name of unique or trinity have been found}
Doyle sighs, While it is neat that the pathfinder path refunded the point I spent on it, I should have guessed the two special paths would cause problems. After all, no matter how much it reads as unique, the word very much is not that. Though it does bring up the question of how the system is doing it if, like Ally had said, it cant use thenguage either.
Then again, as the kobold boss has shown, paths arent exactly a system creation. Rather, they appear to be more of a realization of what is already there. A little weird that you can get generic points from learning any skill that you can use anywhere. What the system does is probably more like transcribing what possibilities are there and mature enough. Probably way more paths are avable to me at the moment, they just arent real enough yet for the system to do anything with. The only question now is how to select the two. Lets take a quick look at the paths again and see if there is anything I can figure out from there.
{Points: 6
ss: Dungeon Core II 10/10
Location: Kobold Community II 30/30
Completed: Goat Supremacy 20/20, Energy Well I 3/3, Commanding Subordinates 12/12, Ageless Queens 15/15, Earths First Home of the Limit Breakers I 1/1, Biomes Aplenty 5/5, Potion Dispensary 10/10, Elemental Animals 5/5, Cows for Milk 12/12, Vegetation Variety 20/20, Divine Border 1/1, Know Your Enemies 10/10, Pathfinder
Started [1/3]: Dungeon Core III 45/100
Avable: Vine Warper 0/15, Kin yer 0/100, Voidborn 0/250, Axe Sharpener 0/5, Energy Well II 0/6, Expansionist 0/30, Fires Flying 0/7, Deal Broker 0/10, All the Potions 0/60, [UNIQUE] 0/1, Community Driven 0/10, Community Builder 0/30, Boss Builder 0/50, [TRINITY] 0/1000}
Well. The fact that Pathfinder doesnt have any numbers is interesting, but not the point.
Where’d The Text Go – Chapter 132
Doyle leans his core back and hums to himself while considering how to select a path he cant say the name of. This takes longer than he would be willing to admit, but eventually something clicks. While he cant say the name of the path itself, maybe he can identify it by the paths around it. [System, what is the path after All the Potions?]
{[UNIQUE]}
It appears that will work. Though Doyle feels the method is a little clunky. He sighs to himself, A working solution will always be better than an elegant failure. Still, I cant really me the system for this. Since it cant handle thenguage, Im honestly just surprised the System can disy the word so well despite not being able to pack it full of all the meanings. The problem likelyes from the word it ends up meaning to me differs from what the system can understand from it.
Right now, it would not be a problem for the system to figure out what I mean by context clues. On the other hand, that might always be the case and a general bit of careful nning is probably involved. Especially since each word can have so much meaning to it. Meh, [System, I want to put a point into the path after All the Potions and 5 points into thest path, but please repeat the chosen paths back to me and ask for confirmation first.]
{1 point to [UNIQUE]
5 points to [TRINITY]
Confirm? Y/N}
Doyle nods, Yes, that is correct. I confirm the point allocation.
{1 point applied to [UNIQUE]
1/1 - Pathplete, What happened to not caring? Before, the world could have burned down around you and your only worry would be if it would disrupt the release of the stories and weics you followed. In fact, have you read a single thing since you changed? What happened to telling people that you read to stay sane and not entirely meaning it as a joke? Where is your im at being immortal and unique across the multiverse! Sure, your belief in magic was proven true but youve lost so much. Though here we are, talking to ourselves. Still doing that, might I add. Why? Because youve found yourself. It still hasnt sunk in yet (I me the goats) and I dont know if we will remember this for long after reading it, but here we are. Oh, and of course the rewards, cant forget that! You have earned +10 Willpower and +2 Willpower/Level, Substantial increase in soul density detected, More easily notice the limits ced on you by outside sources, First step on the path
5 points applied to [TRINITY]
Another step on the path}
Doyles core dims as he reads the rambling text and then goes absolutely dark at trinity. I guess five points isnt enough for trinity to go anywhere yet. And another step on the path? What path, because it isnt one of the systems paths. Of course I received them from putting points into intent based paths so maybe it has something to do with that. Whatever happened must have been extraordinarily special. Though the bit on unique was strange, what did it say again?
And he looks back at the message for unique.
{1/1 - Pathplete, You have earned +10 Destiny and +2 Destiny/Level, Substantial increase in soul density detected, More easily notice the limits ced on you by outside sources, First step on the path}
Doyle tilts back, Soul density, limits, and stepping onto a path. The soul thing I can just drop for now. It is strange but Ive also gained a bunch of points in my soul stats so that might be the reason. And of course the path Ive alreadyined about so that leaves the limits. What does it mean by the limits ced on me by outside sources? Technically the growth of my dungeon is limited by the void which definitely isnt mine and is literally outside. I have to assume it means something along the line of how I was stuck in the tutorial until Ipleted the thing. A bit odd, but Im sure something strange will be revealed by it.
Of course a prerequisite of noticing something is limiting him is to have that limit not also include limiting his ability to notice being alerted to its existence. Maybe with a bit more power he will be able to break the restrictions currently on him. But until then, things like the strange path text will have to remain forgotten. At least this time he actually got to read it.
Oblivious to what is likely causing someone a bad day, Doyle turns back to his dungeon. The boss is made, and the floor has been dug out so all that is left to do is wait. And of course if there is one thing being a dungeon core has done for him, it is improve his ability to wait. Dawn breaks, noon rolls around and off into the distance before finally Jim leads his team into the dungeon.
With Bill and Tess in front, the team walks through the first two floors. The third floor takes a bit longer because there is a newyout. Though today the path to the center is much shorter and skips all but one of the mining areas, so before long they are stood in front of the portal to the fourth floor.
Jim looks at the portal and sighs, Well, it was inevitable they would show up, eventually. The second the wolves got into the dungeon at all we were doomed to face them repeatedly.@@novelbin@@
Billughs, They werent that hard to fight before and Im sure we can manage it in here. Going by how Ace described their fight yesterday we just need to be careful of the adds!
Tess smacks her boyfriend on the back of the head, Did you fall asleep part way through the briefing? Yes, the support that came in caused problems, but that wasnt the real challenge.
Jim nods, More enemies doesnt always make a fight harder. Rather, what was annoying about the fight the other team faced is how the wolves worked together. In fact, they seem to have better teamwork here than they did outside. Though that probably has more to do with the fact that they didnt particrly care about us and were more focused on getting to the dungeon. Now, are there any other things that need to be said or are we ready to enter and find out if things are randomized with the wolves as well?
No one else speaks up so the six of them enter the fourth floor. Jim then motions for everyone to stay still as he sneaks ahead. Though it doesnt take long for him to return.
Jim smiles, Okay, it looks like this floor isnt randomizing itself on us.
Jeremy sighs, I dont know if that is better or worse? The previous floor must have been random for a reason and to have this one not be random might mean a jump in difficulty. After all, who knows if the randomization took up some monster slots or some such.
Jim shrugs, Just being able to map out the area will be nice. Plus it isnt like the third floor ispletely random. The entrance and exit always seem to be in the same ce. That and I think Ive seen a few repeating rooms, so it is probably a bunch of pre-existing rooms being shuffled.
Kelly nods, It is either that or something simr. Ive examined the records we are keeping for each time one of us founders is a part of a dive and there are definitely repeating elements. It will take some time before we can be fully certain, though. Plus there is nothing to stop the dungeon from adding new rooms and removing old ones.
Though I would like to note, while talking about this kind of thing is interesting we have something more important to be doing. Mainly fighting some wolves. At this point I doubt it will be a surprise attack with how much we are talking but maybe if we head out now they wont be calling reinforcements before the fight starts.
The rest of the group pauses when they realize that they have been talking aloud when right next to a bunch of wolves. After the embarrassment of making such a simple mistake passes, they move out.
Left around the corner and the groupes face to face with the three wolves they expected. As luck would have it, the mysterious behind-the-scenes interactions between the system and the dungeon rules mean that while the three wolves are expecting them, the wolves further in have not been alerted.
Jim starts the offensive with a shimmering arrow which flies towards the middle wolf. That wolf isnt quite able to react to the attack, but the wolf on its left can and shoulder checks it out of the way. This, however, puts its right in the arrow''s path. Though instead of being drilled through the eye, the wolf only suffers a hit to the front shoulder. Of course it isnt just a simple arrow, so the wound is quite deep, the arrow having prated all the way to the fletching.
With that both sides charge, though the damaged wolfgs behind. Maybe not the best for the group as it gives the wolf enough time to howl for backup. Not that the help likely wasnt going to arrive eventually, but this would definitely speed up the response time. Though with the warning from Aces group, the backup wont be quick enough.
For most of the dungeon the founders have ended up holding back. Even when exploring the third floor for the first time, they took it slow and steady. A useful tactic when facing more predictable enemies. Even the kobolds on the earlier floors are rtively dense all things considered. About the only real challenge is the earth mages and even then they arent creative with their abilities.
While the kobolds would fight as a team, the wolves have experience with it. So much in fact that they have the skill teamwork. This makes them much more of a threat as they work together as one instead of as a bunch of individuals. Too bad for the wolves that humans can do the same, but better.
Humans dont tend to get the teamwork skill all that often not because they have a problem with it. Rather, the teamwork skill is just in harder for them as it represents the ability to work together withoutnguage. Teams that have been together long enough will eventually gain that sense of awareness for their fellow team members. But most groups are going to rely on verbalmands and hand signs. And how does this y out?
It starts with Jim calling out, Melee, focus the far right wolf and leave the injured one to me! Kellinger, grease the tunnel then join the melee. Kelly, leave the current wolves to the others and be ready for the backup.
Jim fires off another arrow, not specifically to injure the injured wolf, but rather to keep it away from the other two. All the while Tess and Bill tank the two uninjured wolves. With a quick call of ready from Jeremy, they both focus on the rightmost wolf. Tess swings her staff low, sweeping the wolfs legs out from under it while Bill ys a quick beat on its head with skill empowered clubs.
As one, they jump away from the stunned wolf. Just in time for Kellingers second spell toe flying in between the two of them. Right before it hits the spell bursts apart into a sticky web that wraps around the wolf. Tess steps back in with her staff glowing bright. The group isnt ying around and the far end of the staff sinks a good few inches into the wolfs head. The wolf is lucky as the skill blossoms into its skull, killing it before most of the pain can filter into its groggy mind.
Tiring Fight – Chapter 133
At the same time as the right wolf dies, Jim brings down the injured left wolf. After putting a few more arrows into its hide a quick double shot tricks the wolf into dodging into the second arrow. Now with only one wolf left alive the reinforcements arrive and continue going.
Kellingers grease spell expertly covered the area right where the new wolves entered. As the three of them were grouped together, they all noticed the slippery ground much toote, sliding across the room and bumping into the wall across from them. Though not before they lose a good portion of their fur as Kelly sshes them with some fiery pitch she summoned up.
Thest original wolf tries to back up to support the new wolves but Tess once again makes use of her staff to bring it to the floor. After that it doesnt get a chance to stand up as Jeremy swoops in and cuts an artery or two on its throat as he is moving past to face the new wolves.
Kellinger finishes another spell at this point and ms his palms onto the ground, which jiggles like a waterbed. The stone under the wolves follows suit, making it impossible for the wolves to stand up before the others attack them.
Jim, being an archer of course gets the first attack on the new wolves and despite the wobbly floor jerking the monsters around he manages a clean shot to the next. Jeremy is there to capitalize on the situation and rips the arrow out, leaving a gaping wound.
Kellys spell hits next. Though instead of summoning a new attack she focuses on what burning pitch and causes it all to ignite. This causes small explosions all over the wolves as any significant patch of the stuff suddenly all goes up at once.
Then Bill and Tess join in on the fun, both of them using a skill to increase their blunt damage. Their aim is true and their blows are enough to cripple the two wolves that dont have bleeding neck wounds.
This allows Kellinger to stop channeling his spell. Not that he would have needed to continue for long. With the wolves on the ground and the entire team there to beat on them, the fight ends quickly.
The group stands there, catching their breath as they watch the corpses fade away. Jim shakes his head, Welp, that wasnt too hard. The biggest thing is that it required actual effort on our parts. We all used about three skills or so in the fight and I dont know how long we can keep it up.
Kelly nods, I hate to say it but us founders have been cking. We werent in danger here but if the wolves that attacked had focused on us instead of entering the dungeon we would be dead. And these are normal wolves! They arent even some special evolved nonsense. After this all of us really need to sit down and talk about personal strength.
Ace, despite what he has said about his goals for the settlement, is still holding onto the old world system. Maybe not in the future, but our current world is very much survival of the fittest. Wanting to rule with a silk glove is fine but we need to make sure the iron gauntlet is there underneath.
Kellinger shrugs, It hasnt really been needed. Everyone with us is truly with us, our bonds forged in a fight for survival.
Bill sighs, And you know what? Thats sort of the problem. Everyone who is left right now is following Ace because he is Ace. Our actual strength doesnt matter and I bet there are a few who are as strong as us in the settlement. We have a head start but like the tortoise and the hare we could squander it away.
Tess nods, Ive been cking off. I just leveled up my staff skill, and it feels like forever since thest time that happened. Sure, the higher the level the harder it is to raise. But I shouldnt be facing such an obvious slow down yet. We need to delve the dungeon more actively and face real challenges. Stupid nonsense like running through the earlier floors is exactly that, nonsense. These wolves are perfect. Monsters that can actually stand up to us if we arent careful.
Jim rubs the back of his neck, I should have really thought of this. The time I advanced the quickest was when I was in the forest, living by the skin of my teeth. I havent stopped advancing, but I did slow down by a good bit. Thought it was just the early level rush being over but now that doesnt seem to be the case.
Jeremy nods, We are lucky to be this strong. Me and my wife have kept up our training, but that was for maintenance of a body aged before its time. Now we are able to grow again yet havent tried. Though this is interesting to ponder, we should continue our dive. I suspect there is more than just this floor to explore. I chatted with Ace about the possibility but he didnt agree with me. Too soon, he says. But how do dungeons even form new floors? A lot of wolves died in here and that might have been enough to push the dungeon enough for a fifth floor.
Kelly shrugs, That is possible but I have to side with Ace on this. The chances of a fifth floor is low. Though it would be interesting to see what boss the dungeon has ended up with.
Jim rolls his eyes, Anyway, we should get going. Wait around too long and maybe the wolves will get bored ande looking for us.
The group moves deeper into the floor and enters the room where the backup came from. While it is hard to tell, Jim spots w marks on some of the weaker stone areas. To their right the room lets out into a smaller room, through which the group can make out what might be more wolves in the room after that.
As luck would have it, since they didnt alert whatever wolves are there, they have a chance to ambush them. Kellinger and Kelly both charge up a spell. First goes down a wide area grease spell that extends well out of their vision. This is enough for the wolves to notice something is wrong. The follow up that is a giant ball of mes streaking into the room removes any doubt.
Then that ball of fire explodes and the two wolves in the room try to escape. Of course, a floor covered in what is now ming grease is not exactly conducive to a quick retreat. And even once they do manage to leave the room the first one out gets knocked down as Bill and Tess double team it. The second one doesnt do much better as an arrow is now in its eye and a dagger is in its throat. Suffice to say neither of them live much longer. There isnt even any backup as the mes in the room are enough to prevent that nonsense.
Of course it doesnt stop the three wolves from the next encounter noticing what has happened. They might dislike the fire, but something as simple as a normal fear doesnt do much good at chasing away a dungeon monster. If only they hadnt chosen to pace right at the edge of the fire.
Small rivers of fiery grease flood out around the three wolves, trapping them in a wall of mes. Then Kellyes in again to support Kellinger and the me walls re up, causing serious burns, before the grease is all burned up. This isnt the end for the three wolves either, as the group advances on them.
Another arrow to the eye, some blunt trauma, and well ced daggers take the three down. But as the group prepares to rest another wolfes around the corner. Without noticing it, the party had advanced even further into the dungeon and had ended up inside the room those three wolves had originally inhabited. Or in other words, close enough to call in even more support.@@novelbin@@
This time it is only a single wolf though, so the group charges it, shing in the middle of the room. The wolf isnt going to live long. Just long enough though that another wolf has a chance to attack and the party advances forward once again. Then a third wolf and a fourth wolf as they almost seem to be pulled deeper and deeper into the floor.
They make it into the next section that has a bunch of smaller rooms closely connected, crushing one wolf after another. Right turn, right turn, right turn, but as they enter the fourth small room and another wolf greets them it turns left.
At this point the group is feeling tired so they have no choice but to hold their ground and hope not too many more wolves areing. Then another wolf attacks as they are killing thest. With two wolves stacked up, their killing speed slows down, allowing a third wolf to join in.
The fight continues and as Jeremy gets a killing blow, reducing it back down to only a single monster, one more wolfes around the corner. This time is different, though. All the wolves until now have been normal animals. This one however is one of the stone wolves.
The introduction of this new threat, especially when the party is already tired throws a monkey wrench into the fight. Bill and Tess have been using skills almost non-stop and are running out of juice to power them. Problem is, their normal attacks arent going to do much to a wolf covered in stone tes.
As the stone wolf attacks together, they are able to block it, leaving the normal wolf to Jeremy. At the back, Kelly and Kellinger are holding their spells but like Bill and Tess, they are running on empty. A couple spells would go a long way to killing the wolves but they arent sure if more will being or not.
In the end it is Jim who wraps up the fight. While he isnt exactly overflowing with energy either, an arrow to the face is still an arrow to the face. The stone wolf might have more protection there but unlike the tes on the body, the protection is much thinner. It still takes him ten arrows to take down the stone wolf and by that time the mages felt confident there isnt any moreing. By then, though, there is no point in disrupting the rhythm.
Maybe they could have killed it on arrow seven or eight but the chances of it interrupting the flow Bill and Tess had fallen into was too dangerous. Hard enough to dance with death without someone else trying to cut in.
With all the wolves dead the group is ready to drop but they dont allow themselves that luxury. While they arent torn up like Aces team was, they arent free of injuries either. Scrapes and bruises abound, with Jeremy being the worst off. While thatst normal wolf wasnt impossible to handle alone, the stone wolf was able support it despite already fighting the rest of the team.
They might not be moving fast but they are moving back towards the floors entrance gate. The group doesnt know how far into the fourth floor they are but the rest of it can wait. The group almost doesnt take the time to loot the treasure chest before leaving. Jeremy however knows what kind of things to expect though so takes the time.
Not that anyone is actually against looting the chest. They are all just so tired from the running fight and constant use ofbat skills has their brains a bit foggy. And it would have been a shame if they had skipped it.
Like A Sphere, Not A Disk – Chapter 134
After Jims group leaves the dungeon, it takes a hot minute before they realize there is more to their loot than originally thought. During their running fight with the wolves, the group had managed to kill 19 of them. From a certain perspective, they could be seen as unlucky. Despite every single one of the wolves having a chance to drop a potion, not a single one did. On the other hand, each wolf also had a chance to drop up to five herbs.
The herbs arent that important in and of themselves. Rather it is the quantity of herbs that the group got which mattered. Because of the disastrous run the day before, the floor was primed to start dropping them so the first few wolves all dropped at least one herb. After that though, because of how hard the group had to fight, they started dropping multiple herbs, and it didnt take long for the total number of drops to hit a magical number before stalling out.
From the loot chest, Jims group got exactly 50 herbs. That and a box of preservation. In fact, they could have gotten more herbs if it wasnt for the fact that all the energy had to go to creating the box.
At first no one realized what the box was and just figured it was an oddly convenient drop from the dungeon to hold all those herbs. It wasnt until the herbs were removed from the box that they noticed something carved on the inside. At that point, they knew something was up.
Kelly does a quick scan of the box before sighing, Well its magical. Give me a moment to identify what the box does. Also, separate out the herbs that were in the box. Who knows what it might have done to them. Then she moves off to the side with the box to cast some observation spells.@@novelbin@@
Jeremy scratches his neck, Well, I guess we have to be careful about everything that gets dropped in the dungeon. Though I doubt the box is harmful. Wouldnt be too useful with how you can see the carvings.
Jim shakes his head, If the magic was harmful, all you would need to do is line the box with something. Though Im siding with the box being part of the reward instead of a trap. Maybe if it was a randomly spawning treasure chest, I would be more leery. As it is, that came out of the floors reward chest. I might not know as much as Kelly or Ace about dungeons but I do know that you can generally trust those types of rewards. At least, as long as you didnt break any of the floors rules.
At this point, Ace walks over, Looks like your group had a rough fight in there. Nice to see none of you are heavily injured though.
Jim turns to Ace, We did manage to escape without any serious wounds. Still, I suspect we are going to need a good bit of rest after being healed up. The wolves just didnt seem to let up. We would kill one group and the next would be on their way. Though I suspect that has more to do with us advancing to meet them instead of staying in one ce.
Ace nods, With our fight we didnt hear anymoreing when we retreated so youre probably right. Anyway, did the floor change? It is annoying enough already to have one random maze.
Jim shakes his head, We saw the same stuff you did. Though that wasnt much of the floor so we still have to be cautious. The first area might just be a set piece. Besides that I noticed the floor was going at an upward slope. Not by much but enough so a fight like we had is all the more tiring.
Ace frowns, That means there might be multiple levels to it like on the third floor.
Jim shrugs, Ive been paying attention to theyout of floors and I think the dungeon has more space to y with than traditional dungeons.
Kellingerughs, And what do we know about traditional dungeons? This is only the second one weve been in and the first one we were only allowed to explore the first floor as part of the tutorial.
Jim gestures at the dungeon entrance, That isnt a normal dungeon and I dont need to have delved hundreds of them to know that. Weve mostly pussy footed around the subject, but everything I was taught about dungeons says their entrance will be a part of some physical structure. Something like a tree or even if it is a gate, it will be contained with an arch or some such.
Just a free standing rip in space? Whatever type of dungeon this is, it is so rare the guides didnt even feel the need to mention it, if they even knew this type existed. My guess is that unlike what we were told, the floors arent t. This dungeon isnt building floors in a building. Each new floor is a sphere of space.
Kelly joins them at this point, having finished with the box. She doesnt tell them the results right away, though. The current conversation is too interesting, and she has something to add. Why would it have to be a sphere? I dont know how things were in your tutorial dungeon but the floor my group was on had a ceiling so high it might as well not be mentioned in normal circumstances.
Jim shakes his head, Far as I can tell all the tutorials took ce hundreds of floors deep. Even if the headspace only grew a little bit every floor it would add up. Plus, we dont really know how dungeons work all that well. Maybe with normal dungeons they can choose to direct their growth horizontal or vertical.
The reason I say this dungeon is different is because the increase in floor size isnt growing at the right speed. Im a scout, a ranger, pathfinder. Whatever word you want to use to describe me, part of my job is going ces others havent been and mapping it out. Not only does the dungeon have more rooms than there should be for the current floor, but I dont think the dungeon is even using all the space avable.
Ace sighs, Well thats another thing for me to worry about. Anyway, we cant do anything about it right now, or ever as far as I can tell. Just another thing to look out for on my already full list of potential nonsense. But that aside, it looks like Kelly has something to say. What have you found?
Kelly smiles, Some good news for us. This box is enchanted to help preserve whatever is inside. Well, not quite whatever. The enchantment does have limits on how powerful an item can be before it wont work but the box should be fine for any mundane objects like food. I cant be certain but it should work about as good as a refrigerator in keeping things fresh. You can leave a b of raw meat in the box in the middle of summer and the meat will keep as long as in a fridge despite the fact it doesnt have any instion at all.
As she finishes talking about it, everyone notices that Jeremy is mumbling to himself, so their attention turns to him. It takes him a moment but when he notices that everyone has turned their attention to him, he goes silent as well before fake coughing. Ah, well, I thought of a thing. You say whatever is inside keeps just as well if the temperature is really high which is nice. Does the enchantment reverse that and keep the same amount when cold or if we had a fridge could we throw the box in and have stuff keep for even longer?
Kelly frowns, Im uncertain. It isnt like the system has made everything into a real game. While you can get status screens and such for yourself and items there is a lot that isnt said. Ive analyzed the carving and from what I can tell the enchantment works off of the natural energy in the air to make sure whatever is in the box will be protected from negative effects. If being colder would preserve whatever is in the box longer, I dont see why the enchantment would mess with that.
Really though, the biggest problem is how simple this enchantment is. In fact, I suspect this isnt really a full enchantment and rather a fragment of an enchantment. Im not the most knowledgeable on these things but I feel that some of the rough spots in the design are actually connection points that should be hooked up to something else.
Kellinger sighs, And now the question is where the dungeon even got this enchantment. If it was a normal enchantment, I could ept that exnation. After all, the system seems to feed the dungeon new stuff so it can grow. A part of an enchantment? Why would the system give something like that! There isnt any point to it when the system could just give a normal preservation enchantment. Im sure they exist in many different forms.
Kelly nods, That is a good point. Though we might be missing something. Maybe the dungeon did get the full enchantment but cant use it yet. Seeing as the design can work despite missing parts this might be the core section of the enchantment. While not quite what I would call modr, it could be seen as that by the dungeon. Plus, I dont believe anyone on the right now has enchanted gear. Let alone someone in the area that would be capable of sneaking into the dungeon and yet die in the dungeon.
Ace rubs the bridge of his nose and gestures for silences. Okay, all this is nice and all. Im sure we will spend many nights around the campfire chatting about it. I just have one final question before we should all get back to work. Is it safe for my group to do another dive today?
Jim looks up at the sky, Well, it is past midday and the way through the maze isnt too long so you shouldnt have any trouble getting out before night. Has Doctor given you all a clean bill of health to try again? Because that is about all I would quibble about right now.
Ace nods, While the injury was serious we got it healed soon enough that the trauma faded quickly. If we had to stick around in the dungeon for too much longer, then Jack would still be in bed. As it is though, he needed a good nights sleep to be back in shape. Any advice on fighting the wolves? You did a good bit better than my team did.
Jim scoffs, As if that had anything to do with our actual ability. We just knew what to expect when you didnt.
Ace shrugs, Doesnt mean we cant learn from you.
Jim smiles, You wanted toplete the floor first! Then heughs, Not that I care about that. Anyway, my advice for your group is simple. Dont hold back. Thats what we did and it might have worn us out quickly but it was very good for progressing ourbat skills and surviving the floor in general. With how the wolves get back up you need to clear out the current batch of them before the next can get to you.
Ace sighs through his teeth, That is about what I expected. I should have been able to see that. Hell, I should have given apletely new floor the respect it deserves. The dungeon doesnt have to advance its difficulty step by step. There can be bumps in the road.
Jim pats him on the shoulder, Youre doing fine. Nobody is perfect so dont try to hold the world on your shoulders. In fact, dont even try to hold this settlement on your shoulders either. Everyone is here to help. Now get in there and show those wolves why we won against them the first time round.
New Idiots In Town – Chapter 135
Doyle watches as Ace and his team make it down to the fourth floor and do just about as well as Jims team. Though they do end up less lucky on their drops, only getting around 30 herbs. The biggest difference is that they manage to break the constant flow of support about halfway through. Still though, after finishing the stone wolf their team is worn out.
Having seen this happen twice Doyle can only shake his core. Apparently he has been going too easy on them. In theory, the fourth floor isnt too much of a difficulty spikepared to the third. The only problem is that it forces a team to actually take every fight seriously because of the threat of the enemies getting backup. You know, like there would be out in the real world.
Not that Doyle ns to do anything with this information. His early floors are easy. Even the third floor has its difficultying from randomness rather than any actual challenge.
If anything, they should thank me for the fourth floors challenge. I hadnt meant for it but the floor does a decent job introducing the idea that youre fighting the floor and not just the current room. The boss floor is a lot more brutal as there are less restrictions on who can be called in for backup. Sure, the boss isnt exactly going to mess with people around the edges, but if youre blundering around in the town area there is nothing stopping her.
Satisfied with how things are going, he takes a quick look at his progress towards his next floor. That turns out to be more good news for him. The fourth floors challenge is really wringing the energy out of the delvers. From basically zero the stored energy has just hit 1210 in total. Over a sixth of the way there.
But with how fast the energy is rolling in that does bring up the question of what he will do for the next floor. Since the boss is a checkpoint in the dungeon, he can consider delving into the strange a bit more. And with that in mind Doyle turns towards gravity. Still too early to change the intensity but direction? That would be fine.
The only question is how. Doyle already has some idea, but he wants to be careful. It would probably be really easy for him to just pick up a new skill devoted to manipting gravity. That would be fun but overall a waste of a skill. Either his territory control or dungeon rules skill should be able to manage it. With that in mind Doyle starts to y around with the two skills and lets the world pass him by.
Outside, time passes by just as quickly for the settlement. After Ace had found out their weakness because of the fourth floor, he implemented a new system for delving. No more first floor quickies. Everyone still in the settlement can manage it without breaking a sweat, anyway. Now every dives goal is to fight at least one of the mining groups on the third floor. Not for the experience, but to grab as much ore as possible.
To facilitate this, Ace does three things. The first is to have one of the Barrais do a quick stealth run at the beginning of the day to map out the third floor. The second is to reveal the existence of the bag of holding and make it so every group going in gets it for their run so they can get out with as much loot as possible. Though any group who wants to challenge the fourth floor isnt allowed to bring it along as they only have one at the moment.
Despite this, a good portion of the settlement still wants to give it a try. And they will get that chance because the third thing Ace does is set in ce a new rule. Barring special circumstances, everyone has to delve at least once every other day. No exception. Everyone still in the settlement was strong enough to fight the wolves so as far as Ace is concerned the first few floors isnt too much to ask.
In fact, the only person for whom time drags is Ally. Doyle hasnt taken away her screens so she can still peek in on what is happening but she has pushed all the windows into a corner. Some might see this as remorse for some of what she had done but Ally wouldnt even try to im that. She pushed them to the side purely because she didnt want to see them anymore. Though some of the more astute might follow up by asking why she didnt want to look, but its just her and Doyle.
There is one screen still nearby though not one of Doyles. Rather, she has her magitech phone open and on the edge of her bed. Though she has her back turned to it. Ally feels the need to call her mom but is currently too embarrassed to do so. Not only that, though, it is also the point at which she is beginning to admit guilt. After all, how can she call her mom toin when her skills and paths havent grown yet Doyle is off getting so many amazing things.
Until now she had been getting a vicarious buzz off of seeing him advance. Now all that advancement is like a weight pulling her down. Worse yet is when she checked her status because there was a new path for her. A branch of her ss path even. Problem is the name of it. Her current ss path is True Dungeon Companion while the new path is called False Dungeon Companion.
If there is one thing to really nail home the fact you arent doing fine, it is when the system calls you out on it. While there are uncountable numbers of paths out there, the system has been designed to make it extra hard to pop negative paths. Not evil paths, mind you. Picking up a pick pocketing path is just as easy as actually doing the task a few times sessfully. Rather, it is hard to get paths like depressed, false, and traitor.
The system doesnt judge evil but rather what is damaging for the person. Someone who is depressed is suffering and seeing it in their paths will just drag them deeper. A person who knows they are bad at their job isnt false. Even a traitor will tend to have some actual allegiance they uphold over whatever they are turning against, even if that thing is money.
The fact a false path has popped up for Ally is actually a good thing though she doesnt know it. To gain a false path you have to admit what youve been doing is wrong and have the chance to change. Some may fall into the falsehood. Ally being remorseful shows a chance to grow. She has already taken the first step and now she just has to continue down her path. And call her mom. Not everyone has an understanding parent or friend to talk to but she does.
Still, even for Ally time passes. The settlement is delving deeper, Doyle is nning bigger, and of course something has toe along and interrupt it all. Though it was expected so they cant say much. Down the river floats a boat. Not like the previous boats that had been clearly pre-system. Rather, it was more of a raft being guided along by a guy with a long pole.
Besides the guy with the pole there are only ten other people on it, though that might be more of a limit to the boat itself than how many might have wanted toe down this way. Since they werent exactly stealthy, the settlement had seen theming a way off and so had time to decide what to do about it.
The original n was to have everyone ready in case they meant trouble. Then as the raft got closer and people got a better look that idea was thrown out. The raft was shoddy and the people riding it were all wearing pre-system gear that even in the past would have been considered low quality.
Of course Ace, Jim and the Barrais would stick around to meet them but overall the settlements first opinion of these visitors was outcasts, hoping for a miracle to happen. If it wasnt for the fact that the person guiding the raft was one of the people who had bargained with the settlement, Ace would have suspected that the group either snuck over or were from a different ce all together.
Soon enough the raft docks and the person in charge of the boat leads the others over to the opening in the wall. When he meets Ace and the other three founders he nods to them, Well, these are the first idiots who want to try their hand at delving the dungeon. Ive got more waiting for me back at our city so Im going to leave them to you.
And the guy turns a smidge to give the ten people he had brought a re, And if they cause any trouble, feel free to beat them up a bit. Though of course we would prefer to have them not die by your hands. I didnt want to bring them first, but they caused enough trouble on our end that someone had the bright idea of making it your problem. From what Ive seen of your settlement though that problem would be short-lived if they tried anything.@@novelbin@@
Ace sighs, Well, thank you for the warning. Since it is still early, are you going to pick them upter today or are they staying the night? We have built some extra living space but would have to do a little finishing up on it.
The guy runs his hand through his beard, Well, that depends entirely on them. Somehow they convinced enough people, probably being obnoxious, that they should get three days here. So in theory they could be doing a bit of a sleepover. But just like with a kids sleepover, if they get too rowdy and dont follow the rules I get to be their parental figure and bring them home early. Basically my schedule is going to be to show up around now andter in the day so I have enough time to get home before night.
Ace nods, Fair enough, though I do have to ask who thought it was a good idea to allow troublemakers to be the people who make the first impression on us.
The guy shrugs, Wee to being ruled by a council. We might have our leader who makes sure things are running smoothly but democracy didnt die with the systems arrival. Sadly I suspect we ended up with one of its more problematic variants. Despite how much he tried to get everyone to agree on one of the good groups, these chucklemucks are the only ones everyone could settle on. And thats only because they all had people pushing them to do something about the group. Anyway, I should be heading off before they start wondering where I am back at town. They arent quite timing me but they are making sure nothing happens to me on the trip.
Ace waves him off, Even if you are dropping off some trouble makers we arent going to hold you back. We made a deal and n to stick to it. Though depending on how they pan out, there might be some angry people here if you dont show up tonight and we need to offload these people.
The guy rolls his eyes, I dont me you. Anyway, good luck and I hope you the best. I know some of the people back at town are leery of you guys but I just think its good to know others survived this nonsense. I know the system and guides said we would get spread out but seeing it with my own eyes is better.
Tied Up Like A Holiday Ham – Chapter 136
The guy goes back over to his raft and starts poling his way up the river as Ace is left with ten people who very much do not look happy over how they were just talked about. Not that he cares all that much. While he doesnt have any sort of ability or skill to judge their stats directly, he is more than able to get a sense for how much of a threat they are. And honestly? While he doesnt think he could take them alone, it isnt far off. In fact, he would be willing to throw down with them as long as anyone else in his settlement was there for backup.
Ace shakes his head, Okay, You heard the guy. Be on your best behavior or leave tied up like a holiday ham. Now, do you want to familiarize yourself with the ce a little or skip right to the part where you die in the dungeon?
One of the guys in the group steps forward in a huff, I dont like that attitude. Maybe the other idiot can talk down to us with his connections but youre just a part of this podunk little dead end ce. I know people! Not only at the ramshackle ce Im forced to live at right now but in the Government! People so high up youll be in jail before you even have the chance to figure out which three letter agency is doing it!
Ace rubs the bridge of his nose, Well, I know why you managed to get where you are now. Bad news though, We dont subscribe to your government here. Like, we dont even know for sure that we are on the same continent and you want to im you can get us arrested? By what force? Everyone was scattered everywhere! Of course most of the people seem to be from the same culture group to a certain extent. But in this small group I have at least five who came from overseas.
The guy bristles at this, So youre letting illegal immigrants just live here! Turn them over to me this instant! I am going to frog march them all the way back to my town and lock them up!
Ace shakes his head, You and what army?
The guy shouts back, Our governments army! You need to respect my authority!
Ace raises an eyebrow, I dont see that army backing you up at the moment. In fact, my side sort of out-numbers yours three to one. So, do you want to look around or go into the dungeon?
The guy throws his head back and snorts, Take us to the dungeon! And dont expect us to wait in any lines or what not. Im requisitioning the whole thing!
Ace, clearly fed up with this nonsense, just gestures towards the dungeon entrance. The guy sticks his nose in the air and proudly stamps off towards it while behind him the others follow. The other men in his group flex their muscles and re at Ace as they fall in behind him, looking like a mix between a bodybuildingpetition and a military parade. Behind them the fourdies follow, though clearly with some trepidation.
Seeing how the women are acting makes Ace shake his head again. They clearly fear the idiots threats of knowing someone. Not that Ace necessarily doubts that either. He feels like the idiot son of some politician who thinks that because his daddy makes the rules, he can break them. Ace doesnt even me the other settlement for putting up with his nonsense. If there was even the smallest glimmer of a chance of the old ordering back, those threats would hold a lot more water. At the moment though, there is no way for the old structures to survive in a way that would give the creep any actual power. Hopefully things wont be reduced purely to survival of the fittest and whoever has the biggest fist rules, but things are moving in that direction.
Heavy thoughts in mind, Ace watches the group enter the dungeon. Then promptly leave it in a huff. The guy power walks out of the hallway leading to the entrance and shouts in Aces face, Whats with the funny business!? We all entered but four from my party werent with us!
This surprises Ace and so res at the guy, shutting the idiot down. Ace turns to the side and gestures at Jeremy, Gather some people. We need to figure out what is going on.
The guy catches himself and shouts, Oh, you know whats going on! I demand an exnation for this!
Ace rolls his eyes, We never go in with more than six people. There arent that many of us after all. So if things happen after the sixth person tries to enter we wouldnt know about it. Now let me figure out what is going on. This is probably some new thing. The dungeon is developing at a decent speed so who knows what this means.
It takes a moment for Jeremy to gather enough people, all the while Ace continues to shut down the idiot, but soon enough he has twelve other people gathered. They all try to enter as a group but find themselves split into two parties of six and Jeremy is all alone.
After hearing the other twelve confirm what happened, Jeremy scratches his head before getting five people to enter first, then three, and finally another five. Each of those groups end up in their own instance. After they all leave again, they test all entering at the same time but thinking of themselves as being in those groups. That, however, doesnt work and they end up in two groups of six with Jeremy all alone again.
For their fourth attempt it is exactly like the third except they vocalize their groupings and this time when they enter, the groups are properly split up. After a few more tests in a simr vein, Jeremy nods to himself, Okay, I think we have a handle on how this is working to a certain extent. Just one final test. I want everyone to state they are in a group by themselves and enter the dungeon one at a time. After youve entered, wait for a minute so everyone can get in ande back out.
As they enter one by one, the sixth person ends up in the same instance as the first and so on. Jeremy, upon learning what happened sighs as everyone turns to him to exin.
Jeremy shrugs, So, have you ever yed MMOs?
Ace nods but the idiot who is still standing there in a huff snorts, What even does that mean? Sounds stupid!
Jeremy squints at the guy but decides to humor him just in case someone else was in the dark. Massively Multiyer Online video games. Not exactly my choice for spending time but I try to stay up to date on what is happening in the world. Anyway, with so many people it would be near impossible to have dungeons be a single ce in the world or else the ces would be swamped 24/7. To make up for this the games generally have instanced dungeons. A dungeon where when you enter with your party you get ced into a private space with a copy of the dungeon so everyone can delve into it without fighting over everything.
Apparently that is another thing our games got right, at least partly. At some point the dungeon has developed instances, at least for the first floor. If you try to enter with more than six people, it will split off any extras into a new instance based on the order in which you enter. If groups of less than six enter but are clearly separate groups either by spoken intent or simply enough space between them, those groupings are respected. Presumably once we get a real adventurers guild or what have you there will be more official groups and the dungeon will probably respect that as well.@@novelbin@@
Anyway, there are five avable instances at the moment. This could be some set amount for the entire dungeon, maybe each floor has its own pool of instances, or it could just be the fact that we delved the first floor so much the dungeon developed in a way to provide more of it. What I do know is that overflow will be put into already existing instances. There is of course more testing to be done but I feel this should be enough for the moment. Especially since the next test I would like to attempt is to see what happens when all the instances are full and someone else tries to enter.
Ace smiles, Well thats some good news. Though yeah, we will have to test if these instances go all the way through or some other nonsense. I know that in games the dungeon as a whole is a single instance, but that has more to do with convenience for the developers than anything else. This is a growing dungeon so even if eventually all floors will end up instanced that doesnt have to be the case right now.
And Ace turns to the guy who is very much unhappy with being ignored, Well, it sounds like the dungeon itself is cing a limit of six people in a party. There isnt anything we can do about it so what do you want to do?
The guy snorts, Im sure you could do something about this but I dont want to bother with someone so insignificant as you. The four babes were mostly here for moral support anyway so they can stay out for now. He turns to them, You hear that? The four of you stay out here. Maybe get to know the other chicks and see if any of them want to leave with a real man! Oh, and I expect a hearty meal when Ie out. The guy strides back into the dungeon with the other five guys who, despite Ace not having been paying attention to, had been aggressively flexing at him.
No one really has a chance to respond to this and Ace is left just rubbing his temple, hoping this doesnt cause a stress headache. Still, there is enough stuff to do, so he turns towards the four women that had apanied the guy, So, hes going to likely die a painful death in there. What do you four want to do?
One of them shakes their head and steps forward, Not much we can do, really. His father is someone important, and we had to hang around him since before the system came. Plus, I dont think he is going to die that easily. Those five with him used to be special forces, though if the rumors are true they left not of their own volition. That and the fact they six probably have the highest level of everyone here. He used those guys and the weaker animals around our town to grind out level after level. Last time he showed it off the group had a level average of 15 and by now that might have grown to 20.
Another one sighs, The four of us still havent even had a chance to level and I dont know what good it would do. He loaded us down with housework skills while not letting us get any experience.
Ace rolls his eyes, Well, that just proves how much of an idiot he is. Rushing your levels isnt exactly a sound strategy. You four, even with nonbat skills, will likely end up more powerful than he is given a few paths. Though that is another question, he is using paths right?
The first one shrugs, He should be. At least he has bragged about having paths rted to how much political power his dad had.
That Was Quick – Chapter 137
Ace facepalms, Well that exins why he is getting away with so much stuff.
The shortestdy in the group tilts her head to the side, What does those paths have to do with that?
Ace sighs, If he is getting paths rted to using his dads power then he probably has a few skills and abilities rted to making people believe him. In your town, there are probably people with authority who arent exactly all that powerful. Even with how weak he is, those abilities and skills still let him control them.
The first woman to talk rolls her eyes, And how are we even supposed to trust you if hes been messing with our heads?
Ace shrugs, Well, the fact that you can notice that he messed with your head is a good sign. I might not have skills devoted to that kind of thing but I do have enough authority that his fake power doesnt work around me. Im not saying you should just believe me right off the bat. Rather, he is in the dungeon right now so you dont have much to do. Instead of trying to figure it all out, Ill have someone show you around. Even if he wants to dive all the way to the lowest floor, it wont take him all day to do that so we should know what is up by the time the boat returns. At that point you can decide what to do.
Ace turns to Jeremy, You can hand them off to your wife. Im sure she can show them around and help them figure things out.
Jeremy nods and leads the four towards the gardening area. This leaves Ace alone at the tunnel to the dungeon. He stands there for a few more moments in case the guy chickens out early before returning to managing the settlement. The only thing left on his mind is that it would be nice if thosedies stayed because the settlement sorely needed someone with a cooking skill. Quite the odd gap in skills to have, but there you are. Closest is the Barrais and their alchemy but that doesnt really work all that well.
As Ace worries about what skills the settlement needs, Doyle is watching one of the more ipetent delves he has seen in a while. To start with, he had already doubted their ability to go too far as the group was made entirely of melee fighters. This was working alright against the goats mind you, Doyle just doubted its ability to get them through the dungeon in the long run.
Besides that, though, the six of themcked stamina. After the very first encounter with four goats, they all ended up sitting on the floor, winded from the fight. Sure, they used some shy skills but Doyle can tell by how much energy dissipated into the air it was mostly smoke and mirrors to look cool. Underneath it all, the skill probably started as a simple heavy bash or some such. Now though, they are wasting all their energy on creating a light show.
Next up was the vine room, and this is where they lose their first party member. They fight the goats fine butpletely miss the stealthy kobolds with daggers. As the group ends up huffing and puffing on the ground again, the two kobolds sneak up behind the guy farthest out from the others and do a quick one two stab. Both their daggers went into the sides of the guys neck, resulting in a quick kill.@@novelbin@@
The rest of the group is able to kill them after this but not before they suffer a few shallow cuts. And of course since they are down a guy and only have melee fighters the next couple rooms are terrible for them. Outnumbered by the goats, the group cant help but take some damage in both the six goat rooms. Then in the nine goat room one of the goats manages a good hit, crippling the arm of one of the dudes. Easy enough to fix with some healing magic, if only they had some.
The idiot in charge howeverughs it off. He had heard the report on the first floor and was confident in at least dealing with thest room. Plus, the other guy was the weakest in the group. After all, he insisted on working on his skills more than the others instead of pumping up his levels. Nevermind the fact he was the one who was doing the best against the goats.
Anyway, the kobold camp has little suspense for Doyle. While at first the party seems to do alright as they fight the four melee kobolds. But without a magic user of their own to counter the healer and one of them with a crippled arm it doesnt go well. The kobolds just ousts their pitiful stamina while chipping away at them. In the end, the idiot tries to run away. Normally this would have worked except for one little kink in his n. Doyle didnt like them.
Back right before they tried to first enter the dungeon he had set it so that once they started a fight, the monsters could chase them if the party retreated. Just as a ime thing and now it shines through. The idiot manages to haphazardly run a few rooms before copsing from exhaustion. Without Doyles change this would have been enough as while they can move around a little, the monsters are mostly assigned to their rooms. The idiot doesnt get this courtesy and soon finds himself with a mace through the forehead.
With them dead, Doyle goes and checks if he has enough to start on the next floor. And the answer to that is a resounding no. While whenever the founders did a delve he would gain a good 600 or so towards the goal the idiot andpany barely hit 400 despite them dying. Doyle can only shake his core in derision. Though it does firm up his decision on being a fair dungeon. While quantity can have a quality all of its own, there arent exactly enough people around to get to that point.
While Doyle thinks about bloody matters, back outside the dungeon, not much time has passed. Susan has just finished up showing the fourdies around the settlement and it isnt like that takes much time. At the moment the only impressive thing is the two walls. Besides that, the space in between the walls is mostly filled with partly assembled buildings and a fewpleted houses.
Susan didnt waste the time though and had found out a few things about thesedies. Of course, the first thing was an exchange of names. Amusing all around as one happened to share her first name, Susan. Though herst name was Smithson so there wouldnt be too much confusion and it was inevitable that eventually people would end up with the same or simr names.
Besides her, there was also Jessica Lewis, Pam Stern, and Courtney Williams. Upon hearing Courtneys name, Susan promptly questioned her, as the settlement had someone else with thest name, Williams. Though in the end she was unrted to Nancy Williams as far she could tell.
As Susan guided them around, she was able to ferret out what each of them was good at. Ms. Smithson had picked up sewing to keep the idiots pre-system suits in top condition. Jessica had been a high ss chef even before the system and so doubled down on that. Pam had been a maid since she was a child and could clean and shine just about anything. While Courtney had picked up a bunch of skills rted to chauffeuring and could probably drive any vehicle.
While some of their skills arent instantly useful, Susan can definitely see a future for them at the settlement if they wanted to stay. Courtney alone would be important once they get a boat of their own to see what the next town over was like. Though top of the list to pull over was Jessica and her ability to cook.
And the longer the four are away from the idiot, especially after he died in the dungeon, the less hold he has on them and the more they consider staying. Though this does bring up how they would be included in the settlement. After all, they arent one of the core members nor even one of the original group. Susan isnt quite able to answer these questions so brings them back to Ace so they can find out.
When they arrive, Ace is in the middle of calcting how much money they have. With people from the town upriver starting to send people, the need to turn the settlement into an actual town grows. Not long ago they had barely a quarter of the needed funds. Now though they blew through the halfway mark and it seems the amount of money will only be going up.
Since people started clearing the second floor a lot more coppers had beening in and with the instances Ace is considering having two four or five man parties in the dungeon at all times. Of course this would contradict his most recent changes to the rules but if you cant change with what is happening things wont go well for you. Though just before he can decide on how to announce the change, he sees Susan and thedies approaching what passes for his office.
Standing up Ace nods, So, how did you like the settlement?
Jessica shrugs, Compared to the town we came from it is a little quaint. Though the walls are oddlyforting. Oh, by the way, my name is Jessica, that is Pam, she is Courtney, andst but not least Susan Smithson.
Pam nods, Sorry about not introducing ourselves before. It was frowned upon. Anyway, I agree with Jessica on this. Though going by what you have nned, I think things will be quite nice once everything is built. I do have to ask though, why start on building everything instead of focusing on one building at a time?
Ace sighs through his teeth, Well. Yeah, we probably should have. It is just that we started byying out how we wanted things in the inner circle built and sort of never stopped working on it all. With some magic we should be able to have decent wood and stone buildings up in no time, though. I expect us to be done with everything within a couple weeks and most of that wille from finishing touches. The actual buildings will be fully enclosed within the week as long as there are enough rocks in the area to use.
Jessica nods, Fair enough. I guess you dont feel the need to rush when you already have enough space to sleep. Though I do have to ask, youve set aside way more space than your small group needs. Are you expecting migrants? Because the four of us arent exactly going to fill up all that extra area.
Ace shakes his head, Most of the buildings you see will be empty or have temporary uses. The area between the walls is meant for those of us here that I trustpletely. For the moment, if you decide to join us, you will get a ce inside the walls but that wouldnt be permanent. We n to raise up another wall much further out and to set aside the area in between that new wall and the current outer wall for people to move into.
Courtney frowns, So you would eventually be kicking us out of this inner area?
Ace nods, Eventually. I see this inner space eventually bing more of a management district sort of area. With a dungeon we are going to have way too many peopleing through to keep track of unless we put a lot of manpower into it. Also, we wouldnt just abandon you. Since if you stay there will be time to build up trust once we do move you out we will build you proper houses near the inner wall.
Abusing Restock Rules For Information – Chapter 138
Jessica raises an eyebrow, So you arent nning on building houses out there normally?
Ace shakes his head, We do n to require a certain level of quality for any building within our walls. Besides that though we n to leave it up to the person who wants to build the house in the first ce. I dont know if you learned about our situation but we should have arge group of people who were originally living here with us but abandoned the ce when they found out that wolves wereing.
They should being back soon enough. While as a whole our settlement is willing to take them back in, we arent going to hand them the fruit of ourbors for nothing. If they want houses like what we have, they will have to pay for it in some way.
Jessica frowns at this, And so we dont have to pay?@@novelbin@@
Susan shakes her head, Nope, you are going to be paying for it if you stay. You in particr will be more than worth building a house for. We sort of dont have anyone with an actual cooking skill. Our food isnt bad but you can make it more bearable, as well as adding some more vor variety. The dungeon happens to have a number of herbs in it so you wouldnt be working with nothing.
Ace nods, We have less than thirty people at the moment. There was no way that we were going to have all the needed skills among us. Though of course we dont need the skills as our current ability to cook food shows. However, people with skills will not only improve the quality but the quantity as well. I bet you alone can cook all the food we need instead of the three or so people focused on it every night. So I guess the question is, do you want to stay knowing that you will be working hard and using your skills every day?
The fourdies nce at each other before Jessica answers, I guess once we know if the others lived or not we will have the answer.
Ace shakes his head, No, it doesnt matter if those fools are alive or dead. Do you want to stay? Yes or No. If not, youre going out on the boat tonight. If yes, it doesnt matter if they live. You four can stay because you arent ves. In fact, now is the best time to make the decision. I fear that if they do get out of the dungeon, you wont have much of a will of your own at that point. Tell us you want to stay and you wont have to see them again. It might cause troubles for us but weve had our fair share of horrible people letting the power go to their heads.
The four stand there in silence, not really sure what to do. The subtle mind screw effect has been released by now but they had been under the idiots control since before the system. Ace is willing to give them the time to decide and so stays silent as well.
Susan, on the other hand is not quite so patient so when it seems this will drag on for a while she bonks the four lightly. I dont have all day. You four seem like nice people, if a little weak willed. If anything, at least while you are here they wont be able to get you. Just think about it, if the town you came from could have taken over the dungeon would they have made a deal with us? Sure, everyone wants to be peaceful but that wouldnt stop them from deciding they control the area.
This knocks them out of their indecision and one by one they all answer that why yes, they would like to stay. Ace nods at this, Its decided! Susan, you already know them a bit so you should know where they would fit in. Go and get them settled and what not.
Susan shakes her head, Not tonight. Im going to bring them to one of the four man tents and set them up for an overnight stay. No matter how much of a safe bet it is that those fools will die in the dungeon, I dont want to take a single chance one of them makes it out and uses something to change their minds. By tomorrow I would say it is safe to assume everything is fine but until then Im keeping them under wraps.
Ace sighs, Well, you arent wrong about that. I wish there was some way to keep track of if someone was still alive in the dungeon or not. Would make it a lot easier in theing days to know when to send the next group in.
Susan shrugs, With the instances we can safely have a couple groups running the dungeon at once. Though I guess we should get everyone together and try to test it out. With the 27 of us we will be able to figure out what happens when there are too many people and so on.
Ace nods, Good point, though we should keep one person behind just in case. Now go get them settled.
Susan shrugs again and leads the fourdies out, leaving Ace to himself again. Not for long though, as he calls for Kelly. This isnt too hard, as ever, since she found out about the instances she has been casting spell after spell at the dungeon entrance.
Once she shows up, Ace sighs, So, have you figured anything more out? At the moment our best n is to gather everyone and all try to enter the dungeon.
Kelly rolls her eyes, As if I could get results for something like this so quickly. I would need more people than we have to really test out some of the things and we dont exactly have more people popping out of the ground or some such.
Anyway, my analysis is that the dungeons theme is rted to spatialws in some way and that there should be a boss floor. Other types of dungeons would normally take much longer to gain instances. On the other hand, that also means there arent too many instances yet. My advice is that if you can get us all together for a quick delve, that would answer a lot of questions.
Ace sighs, Ive already got that nned for after tonights boat leaves. Though we picked up four lost little sheep to take care of so someone will have to stay behind. Luckily at least one of them has a useful skill and will be able to cook for us so it is worth the trade off. Do you have anything more you want to do right now with just a handful of people? Because that is all I can spare you.
Kelly nods, I understand that you want to know if those guys from the town up the river are still alive? I cant tell you that exactly but if Im guessing right I can at least figure out if they are on the first floor or not with four other people.
Ace shrugs, Sounds like a n. I dont have much else at the moment as it isnt like the coin count is going to change right now. Lets go grab a few other people and see if your idea works.
Kelly nods and the two of them head out to grab more people. Once there are enough, she instructs them to enter the dungeon one at a time and go to check if there are goats in the second room or not. All five of them enter and after a quick check they confirm there are in fact goats in the second room.
Ace sends the other three off before turning to Kelly, So, what does that prove?
Kelly smiles, It proves that they arent on the first floor. If they could make it to the second floor, then that is a possibility but they can not be on the first one. Sadly, I dont have enough people to test some of the add on questions from this but that can wait tillter. For now though let me exin.
There is one important feature of a dungeon, they cant restock a floor if someone is on it. Since all five of us were able to enter our own instance and each of those instances had a fullplement of goats, any that got killed must have respawned. Also, while I cant be certain yet I have to assume if an instance has six people in it already the dungeon would not have sent someone to that instance until the others are full as well. As we did all get our own instances that points towards either the group not being on the floor or having lost at least one person.
Ace frowns, Close but you missed one thing. I highly doubt it, but if they managed to get through the room killing none of the goats, we wouldnt be able to tell. To be sure we would have to kill at least one of those goats and then exit and re-enter. At that point if the rooms have respawned we can be mostly certain.
Kelly nods, Fair enough. Though honestly, if they can get through the first room without killing the goats, they likely wont have a problem getting to the second floor. I do however have a way to check going forward though. Of course it requires the ones who are going to need the assistance of those who are delving. All we have to do is have them put a chalk mark on the left side of the entrance portal. That way once the floor is clear the dungeon will remove the chalk mark for us.
Ace sighs, Of course that does require them to remember to do that in the first ce and you just know that whether through forgetfulness or malice people will either not ce a mark or put it somewhere else. It would be much better if we could have some kind of linked tag that would let us keep track of them or at least see if they are alive.
Kelly shrugs, Once you have someone able to turn out masterworks on the cheap we can consider something like that. Everything revolves around masterwork quality results. Even alchemy does after a certain point. Sure, to start youre using the nts own magical effects and so dont need to. At the high levels though? Sure, there are nts that will restore someone from ash but you wouldnt need to turn that into a potion. No, at that level you need a masterwork to pour more magic into the potion.
Ace nods, A man can dream. Though I figure if you do it right, you would only need one part to be a masterwork. Its like a ticket dispenser for a subway. The ticket itself is just a piece of paper. Maybe if we figure out the right enchantments, we can make a simr sort of thing. If the base station was able to attune itself to a piece of wood and detect when the wood stopped existing we could mimic the idea. It would still depend on the delver keeping the tag on them though.
Kelly shakes her head, A good idea but it wont work. Any one piece of wood isnt going to be unique enough totch onto like that. Maybe if instead of just sending the whole piece of wood in the machine snapped off a piece to keep track of the other half, it might work. Sadly though you would need each new tag to be from a different tree. Otherwise not only would it detect the piece in the dungeon but every other bit of the tree that hasnt been reduced to sawdust.
Ace sighs, Im actually a bit annoyed at the instances now. Before, it would have been very easy for us to check if someone was still in the dungeon by using one of our teams every other run. If they hit a floor and monsters still havent respawned, then the floor still has the other party on. Now with instances it isnt that simple.
Kelly shrugs, We might not have thought of this method if the instances hadnte along. Thats how science is sometimes. You only discover a better method once it is obsolete.
Technically No Slave Collars – Chapter 139
While everyone else is distracted by the failed delve, the fourdies who had decided to stay in the settlement were in the middle of their own little problem. Specifically, they werent exactly just there to apany the idiot. In fact, most people back at the town up river expected a situation very much like the one that ended up happening. Though more on the side of the girls being sent out of the dungeon after being aplete nuisance. The only catch is no one had nned on the girls wanting to stay afterwards.@@novelbin@@
Their conversation had been going on for a little bit already but hadnt touched on anything important until Courtney sighs, I dont think they even bothered to spy on us. They just took our words at face value and are willing to let us stay. Sure, they dont fully trust us but I can understand that.
Jessica nods, Im a little surprised they offered me the head cook position right off the bat. Sure, we werent exactly advertising the fact we were trying to spy on them, but to let a random person off the street just start cooking for you?
Courtney shakes her head, Ive been watching them work on the buildings and such. My guess is that without an actual skill to create poison most of the people here would shrug it off as just a bit of indigestion. Nevermind the fact that the one married couple could probably spot any attempt to poison the settlement from a mile off.
Pam sighs, And it isnt like there is anything for me to find while cleaning. The only ce likely to have any actual secrets at this point would be their leaders office, which is built into the safety zone around the dungeons entrance. Not only are they unlikely to let me clean there, but I dont want to be that close, anyway.
In fact, I think the only paper this entire settlement has is in there. They just dont have any needs yet to record things on paper. We came in expecting at least minor trappings of pre-system times and yet these idiots have happily regressed to colonial standards! I wouldnt be surprised to see one of them wearing a tri-corner hat or some such nonsense.
Susan smiles, Those would be fun to make. Though I have a different take on the situation. They are not happily regressing or what have you. Rather, they are working with what they have. We know some of what happened here and saw the burnt-out remains of the two pre-system towns over there.
Back up river we have a bunch of infrastructure which is helping us support our old style of living. Here? They dont have that support and I suspect they will be able to build up to what we have easily enough. Worse yet, they will probably be able to maintain it. Our old town isnt going to be able to do that. The old way of maintaining such a lifestyle involved way too much oppression and an advanced supply system.
We no longer can offload the growing of potatoes to people in another state. Our clothes can no longer be made in sweatshops across the sea. Not only because we just dont have the ability to travel like that anymore. But more to the point, it will be a lot harder to convince others to do that kind of stuff when all it takes is a quick dungeon dive to support yourself. Sure, most of them will likely end up dead, but it isnt like people will stop trying.
Courtney shrugs, Well, there was a reason we decided to stick with this settlement in the first ce. Theyre looking towards the future. Our old ce is stuck in the past. And in my opinion? Even if they could perfectly imitate all the past glories, it wont mean much in the long run. Space is a big ce and from how I understand it, magic is what lets people cross it in a reasonable time frame.
At the moment, we are protected here on our little blue marble because the System isnt letting peoplee by. But that wontst forever. All it will take is one ship dropping by topletely upend any efforts on our part. The visitors dont even need to be malicious. I bet they have things out there that make even the height of pre-system luxury seem like roughing it. Just the cheap mass produced gadgets they bring would likely have caused a war or two in the past.
To not be subject to the whims of some rich kid from the stars who happens to stop by on a chance we need to be moving forward. Our old town might have a few people who want that. Hell, even our erstwhile leader wanted it. But the old guard who hold most of the power dont. That ce is going to stagnate and I dont want to be brought down by it. Someday, if they dont get their act together, that ce will be looked down upon like it was a slum.
Susan nods, Im going to throw my full support behind this ce. The only question that remains is what do we tell them? I dont want to cause any of you trouble but Im going to admit to having been sent to spy on them. If the rest of you want to keep your part in it secret, I wont mind too much but you cant stop me from telling my side.
The other three look at one another and shrug. Susan smiles at this, Then it is decided. We should probably go and find Ace real quick to admit the truth. While it was nice being treated so well when they thought we fell for the idiots skills, I dont want to be thought of as that weak willed.
Jessicaughs, Even if the idiot survives the dungeon, he doesnt have long to live, anyway. Seems like he has been on good behaviour but that can onlyst so long. He cant help but try to use his skills on anyone he views as below him. Maybe if he knew that there was a system message which alerts a target when his skill fails he might not be so keen to use it. As luck would have it though, no one has bothered to inform him of this little fact yet.
Pam sighs, I hope all simr skills work in the same method though I suspect they dont. While the system as a whole seems to frown upon such nonsense, it hasnt beenpletely ouwed. Anyway, lets go and figure out how we will get treated from now on.
The four of them wrap up their talk with that and head off towards Ace. Of course Ace and the other founders arent quite so stupid as to actually believe what the four said at face value. While Courtney had a couple tricks to check if their conversation was being spied on it wasnt enough to handle magical spying.
Back in Aces office Josh has been rying everything the four had said through a clever use of air magic. Once the four of them head towards his office, Ace gestures for Josh to leave and is once again left alone with his paperwork. Though the cheeky smile stered on his face shows that things turned out much better than he had ever expected. And knowing how easy it is to spy on others confirms his previous decision to have all secret discussions within the dungeon itself.
When the four arrive, the conversation goes much as they expected. While Ace was willing to trust them more after they admitted their original purpose, he wasnt exactly going to tell them he has people who can spy on them without them knowing. With that in mind he gives them enough pushback that thedies feel they arent getting away with their attempts at spying for free.
Once he sends them off though, Ace calls over Susan, Kelly, Doctor, Kyle, and Jimmy to have a quick chat in the dungeon. Safe from prying ears, eyes, and assorted magics, Ace frowns, We just had the first outsiders join the settlement. The numbers of which will grow over the next week. Those four however werent normal people, but rather spies. Not professional spies, mind you. Rather, there are some powers up the river who arent falling in with Ben and thedies were politely
Ace is interrupted by Susan snorting but he continues, Were Politely asked to keep an eye on us. I am, of course a little worried, as that idiot had some sort of power to warp minds. It would be hard to trust anyone with powers like those being around. Kelly, I assume youve looked into it after the four talked to you during their walk?
Kelly nods, Sadly, I didnt consider asking about things like mind control and ve magic while still in the tutorial. However with what I do know there are some things that can be teased apart as well as some new info that the girls offered. Whoever was behind them was much more knowledgeable on the subject in general and had extracted some key info from the idiot with a little investment of alcohol.
First of all and most important, the system does not permit such effects to be permanent. This means that not only does someone need to keep applying such abilities over and over, but there are no permanent ve cors. Im sure everyone is relieved to hear that.
The problem is that while the mind control might not be permanent, this doesnt mean the affected person will realize they were mind controlled when it wears off. This means that if someone is controlled to do a thing they will rationalize doing it. Maybe once the control wears off, they might decide to tell someone about it but they will truly believe it was their choice. Mind you, not all such abilities are sneaky like this. The idiots ability was apparently very loud about when it wears off. Though even something as obvious as a system message popping up telling you that a mind control power just wore off isnt going to do much good if they promptly control you again.
This brings us to a third thing. It probably only happens with the weaker examples, but at the very least the idiots ability not only announces when it wears off but also when it fails. That means if he had tried it on any of us and we beat it, the system would have popped up a message about it happening. Since such things are frowned upon in the first ce, Im going to go out on a limb and assume that for the moment, all mind control abilities on the will do this. There is no way that the system would allow a more powerful mind control ability to develop naturally.
Ace sighs, Not having to worry about ve cors and other such nonsense is a relief.
Kelly coughs, I said no permanent ve cors. The more powerful the effect, the less time theyst but someone could make a temporary control cor. A form of this is actually how some more advanced worlds handle powerful criminals. Just a cor with suggestion that they cant use more strength or ability than a normal human might notst long on someone with the power to destroy a town single handedly, but it willst long enough to get them into an anti-magic cell or whatever other contaminant is needed. Good news is that it has to be a cor, and it has to be a big bulky one at that. A small ne will not work.
Ace sighs harder, Well. That is at least something we can watch out for. The fact that the system restricts mind control enchantments to being put on a cor is a relief. That is right, Kelly? and he res at her until she nods.
Ace nods back, Good. So what Im hearing is that while annoying and something to look out for, mind control isnt too much of a worry until outside forces join in on the fun. Though I assume if someone worshiped a god of mind control or some such they might have ess to better things.
Kelly nods to this as well and Ace throws his hands into the air, I was trying to make a joke! Why would the system allow gods to very?
Kelly coughs, Well, very in and of itself doesnt need to be magical. Plus from what I understand they tend to position themselves more along the lines of being gods who support hierarchies. This allows them to branch out into things like supporting nobility andpanies. Just because one of the hierarchies that they happen to heavily lean towards being that of master and ve doesnt matter to the system.
That and the system only controls our dimension. From how I understand it, gods arent so limited. They cant actually travel to new dimensions, but if someone worships them in a dimension that allows them to manifest in it. While the system prevents such nonsense here, it isnt everywhere. In fact, I suspect that those gods could bestow something like a ve cor but choose not to. Not because of the system or any of us, but rather out of fear for the person who made the system.
It Is Magic All The Way Down – Chapter 140
Ace face palms, Okay, so we dont need to worry too much about mind control because that idiot true immortal who stumbled upon our dimension bought a system biased against it. Is there anything else worrying you would like to add?
Kelly shrugs, Im sure I know all kinds of worrying things but nothing right now that rtes to mind control.
Ace sighs, I cant even make mind control spells illegal because I dont have some easy line to draw. Is a fear spell mind control? What about when someone tames a monster with a skill? I cant even ouw the use of them against sapients because of all the edge cases! That monster, what if it bes sapient after being tamed? Does a magical instrument that projects emotions count? Whatever, dropping it for now. We have things that are more temporally important.
Just on the first day that weve had visitors, weve already gained four new people and they arent in the know. We arent going to induct them into our group obviously, so with every passing day things edge closer to a breakpoint. We need to be a real town. Ive done the math and we arent making enough with the current delving. It depends on our luck but the soonest I see us having enough at the current rate is maybe a week and a half.
I want 10,000 copper coins A S A P! That means we need to up our delving by a lot. Originally I had half hoped we could let the people from up river do part of the delving for us but if people keep staying here, that is not workable. Doctor, will we be able tomit to some intense delving?
Doctor looks up at the ceiling and sighs, As it is, the thing that will hinder us is stamina. Everyone is stronger than ever but despite humans starting out as a stamina hunter, our modern bodies are not up to the task. I can put people back together as much as you want, but recovering stamina is currently beyond me.
Ace frowns, Isnt tiredness just a matter of acid build up in the muscles or some such? You should be able to magic it away.
Doctor shakes his head, Was, stamina was rted to the build up ofctic acids in the muscles if you are okay with ignoring mental tiredness. However, let me ask you a question. How do you think the human body can suddenly lift absurd amounts of weight when the strength stat goes up?
Ace shrugs, Tougher muscles or maybe a denser body structure.
Doctor shakes his head again, If only it was that simple. Everything is magical now, including physical tiredness. Part of an increased strength score is rted to the muscles being reinforced with mystical energies. Not just the muscles, either. Every part of the body is reinforced. After all, without reinforced bones your muscles would break them and without reinforced skin your muscles would burst out.
As for stamina? Part of bing tired, besides thosectic acids, is the breakdown of the mystical energies. My magical healing should in theory take care of the acids and will if there is enough of a build up. However, it is better to not go overboard. The mystical energies are used up and need to naturally get reced. If you heal the acid build up a person could hurt themselves.
With that in mind Im sure you are thinking, then why dont you rece the energy? I wish it was possible as that would make things so much easier. I cant though as the body breaks down those mystical energies in a way that matches it. So no matter how much I flood a persons body with power, they can only recover at their normal rate
Ace sighs, Anyway, to speed the process up?
Doctorughs, Obviously themon things like resting in an energy rich environment will help. Though ironically enough, the best answer is to rest inside the dungeon. While it is more charged here than anywhere else around. The most important part is that the dungeon seems to suck out the broken down energies allowing for faster recement.
Ace nods, Fair enough, and with the instances we have the space for that. Susan, How much defense do we need on the settlement? I want to send every able hand we have in order to grind out some money.
Susan shrugs, We dont really need all that much outside. Me, my husband, and Jim. As long as one of us is on the lookout, things should be fine. As long as the delves are staggered we should be able to see troubleing and hold it off. Too bad we dont have anyone capable of scribing some scrolls. While the rest of the universe looks at them as a poor mans enchantment, that is exactly the kind of thing we need right now.
Ace holds up his hand, What do you mean by a poor mans enchantment? Wouldnt it still need masterwork paper to enchant?@@novelbin@@
Susan shrugs again, Yes and no. To enchant a piece of paper you would need a masterwork piece of paper. Scrolls, however, are not enchanted pieces of paper. Rather through the use of magical inks in a manner simr to potions you are storing an effect. Also like potions, the scroll will only hold the power for so long before bing useless. Though I guess a masterwork piece of paper would be capable of holding the power indefinitely, ignoring all the better uses for said paper.
Kelly speaks up, Could you use a simr principle to make temporarily enchanted armor?
Susan shakes her head, The reason why scrolls use paper or some simr material is that the magical inks get absorbed into it to a certain degree. I guess you can make a shirt into a scroll but the problem is that scrolls dont survive use. Higher quality paper will limit how much of a scroll is destroyed when used so you can have multiple effects on a single scroll, but that is about it.
Plus, scrolls dont do passive effects. You might have a scroll that shielded a person for a minute but you couldnt have a scroll that automatically shielded a person. Besides that, unless youve trained with scrolls, which is something most dont bother with, you need to actually read off of the scroll to use it. Not just memorize what the scroll says and repeat the wordster. Actually look at the scroll and read the words. It needs that connection to your mind and for humans the eyes are the easiest route. Though I guess someone that was blind could probably read a braille scroll. Interesting area of research but not really important right now.
Ace nods, We will definitely have to look into it. Though I dont think anyone right now has a skill for calligraphy or what have you so it can wait. Jimmy, how are you doing with the bone carving skill book and how close are we to having a proper ce for the system anchor?
Jimmy smiles, Ive gotten the skill. Of course the book didnt survive, but we knew that was going to happen. I guess there is probably some parallel to scrolls. Anyway, I feel a connection between my new skill and my carpentry skill through architecture. I suspect that there might be some sort of synergy that I can work off of. Though that does mean that we need to start harvesting the bones unless the dungeon starts dropping them.
Susan smiles, From my understanding of the situation it should. While the dungeon itself has control over the actual loot items, the regr drops such as meat are more automatic. Since we now need bones and have someone with a skill to make use of them, bones should start dropping as loot. I suspect however that we might want to directly harvest the bones of the tougher creatures directly. Drops dont seem to have as much oomph behind them as what we take using skills. Good thing we have a few people capable of butchering the kills. The question is, do we need them right away? Since you mentioned it, there must be a reason beyond just wanting to try your skill out.
Jimmy coughs, It is partly because I want to use my skill. The reality of it though is the fact that while the building we put the system anchor in doesnt matter too much, using local materials will help the system lock in. The system has to deal with all of the universe, or at least the bits that are magical, and so doesnt pay too much attention to things on an individual basis.
We just make the building out of wood and stone? It wont be bad but this does mean we get a more generic setup. Add in those bones and maybe the system shop will be selling bone carving tools right out of the gate or there might be quests rted to getting more bones. Though just the fact that I have a bone carving skill will angle things more in that direction.
Ace nods, I do see a bright future for your bone carving skill, especially if it resonates with your carpentry skill. Do you need a lot of bones or would just some decorations be enough?
Jimmy shrugs, Im only getting nudges from my architecture skill for this part so I cant be too precise. Somewhere in between is the feel Im getting with the only solid bit being that decorations wont work. The bone needs to be directly included in the building''s structure. This might mean I can get away with some trim but we will have to see.
Ace sighs, How far along are you on setting up the town hall?
Jimmy looks away and lets out a weakugh, Um, well. It was on the back-burner.
Ace stares at him with a tired gaze, Hasnt been started then? Jimmy nods.
Ace shakes his head at this and sighs, Well I guess we can talk more about where to put it. We discussed using it to block off areas and various other things. Anyone have a better idea than what we came up with before?
Kyle smiles, I might have an idea. Everything was about using the building around or as an important building. It isnt really though. Not in the same way a castle would be. Rather, the system protects the building already so we could ce it somewhere unimportant yet odd. As it is, weve covered up the entire area around the dungeon and Im sure no one else is bothering with that.
Right now no one has any experience but given time someone will notice that it is a strange thing to do. We cant exactly change things now as others have noticed it already but we dont have to do much. Since we already have it there, we can keep it as part of our history.
The problem is that people will still feel the need to snoop around. Sure, we will have guards and such, plus people in the area at all times. But all it takes is one extra sneaky fellow to bring the world down on us. With that in mind, we need a diversion. If we build the town hall somewhere within the area, we will enclose it with the next wall and not directly in between the dock and the gate. It will attract attention.
We just have to be cagey with why we built it where we did. Plus it will allow visitors to ess the services without entering our area. Overall a decent use of a system structure. Though we will probably have to bang on the ground every once in a while to check for people trying to dig tunnels under it.
The others take some time to think over Kyles suggestion. While there are a lot of interesting uses for a town hall, everyone will be able to learn the ins and outs of the hall easily enough. It isnt like Jimmy is the only architect on the. With how important the building seems, it would be hard for others not to think they are using the building to hide something. Just the fact that the system protects it to a certain degree is already enough to sky rocket the town halls importance.
Doctor shrugs, We would have to talk to the others but that sounds like a reasonable n.
Susan nods, A good way to hide something others dont know about is to have it right out in the open while pretending to hide something else. Me and my husband once had a very valuable sword in our house for a couple years and everyone just thought it was a disy piece while all our friends would constantly try to crack the wall safe we had behind a picture right next to it. Of course that wasnt going to work as the safe was actually actually welded shut and empty besides.
Jimmy looks a little down before sighing, I did have a nice ce nned out. But yes, I will admit this is probably the better option. If only we could make the entire enclosure around the dungeon the town hall, but the area is too big. Ill figure out where to put it tonight and set things up.
Ace shakes his head, You can figure out the cement after the boates and goes but dont set up anything. Wait until we have the next batch of people tomorrow. I want someone to notice you rushing out there and setting up the foundation. Of course they should think that we havent noticed them doing so and think they saw it all on the sly but Ill leave the details up to you Susan.
No Really, The Dungeon Is Tough – Chapter 142
When ites to the two teams from upriver, Susan isnt wrong about them. While not as decked out as the idiot from yesterday, they still have some of the finest pre-system gear their town has to offer. And while the 12 guys arepetent enough, they arent up to the standards of even the crafters in the settlement. None of them has a skill level higher than ten and despite that their levels are all north of ten.
About the only thing positive someone from the settlement might say about them is that their teams are well bnced. Both teams have a healer, three front-line fighters, a mage, and a scout with a ranged attack. Though when pulling from a poption of hundreds of people such things be much easier to manage.
The first team is the weaker of the two and the one risking the least. While the idiot yesterday got killed on the first floor, these guys know what to expect. Still, even being forewarned about the dangers each fight is a challenge. Even in the first goat encounter, one of their front-line fighters ends up with a heavy bruise.
When they do get to the rooms with goats of equal or greater numbers, they end up requiring a break to let the healer fix them up and then recover mana. Any more of a challenge and the healer would likely end up running out of mana all together. Still, they manage to beat the final goat room and get to the room with the berries and honey.@@novelbin@@
While none of them have a skill for it, the berries dont seem to have a failure chance. The fact that there are a decent number of berry bushes means they end up with a decent sized haul. On the other hand, they arent as lucky with the honey. Luckily, even though the bits that fail to harvest do go bad, it soon after vanishes, so the team ends up with a small container of honey. That and a promise among themselves to not tell anyone about the process of harvesting it.
Goods harvested, the scout goes to take a quick peek into the next room. He stops though as at thest second his skill to find traps finally seeds against the kobolds tripwire. After pointing that out, everyone agrees to not mess with thest couple rooms and retreats out of the dungeon.
On the way though, they do try to harvest the various herbs. Unlike the berries, though, thispletely fails. The five others turn towards the scout who shrugs. He didnt want to waste any of his skill slots on something stupid like a harvesting skill. Still, in the end they did end up with a decent haul of meat and a handful of coins. Coins, which they promptly hand over to the person guarding the entrance of the dungeon so they can keep all the meat, berries, and honey.
With a poption of a few hundred people and none of the pre-system infrastructure to support it, they arent exactly starving but it is closer than anyone wants to admit. Taxes paid, they pack all the food into a crate which the settlement kindly allowed to be stored in a cold room they set up. Then it is back into the dungeon to fight through the first floor again. The healer isnt quite back to full yet but the first couple fights are easy enough to allow them to recover.
While this is happening, the second team is going further. They manage to beat the first floor in about the same amount of time but that isnt because they cant go faster. Rather, they are making sure all of them stay topped up. After harvesting the berry room clean, though, they dont turn back. The second team might not be as strong as the original team from the town to delve the dungeon, they are still top tier for almost anywhere besides the settlement.
Their scout had spotted a trap on the ceiling even before they had finished harvesting all the berries and now goes about taking it down. At first he had considered just disarming it but on closer inspection the whole thing looks like it could be activated by a well-ced shot. No reason to leave a potential danger like that hanging over their heads.
Once that is done, they all enter the kobold camp as a group. Of course having taken so long the kobolds are well and ready for them, hidden behind stgmites. Both sides stand there for a moment, the team standing there behind shields and the kobolds peeking out from their cover.
The scout takes the first shot and puts everything into motion. With a stance that just screams having been in an archery club at school, the scout releases an arrow from hispound bow. While the bow itself is a little worse for wear, it isnt like physics havepletely broken down and so the arrow flies off at a decent clip. The kobolds, however, were ready for it and they all duck behind their pirs.
Not that the team expected anything else, though the scout had aimed at the healer just in case he got lucky. Still, not hitting was a part of their n so seeing the expected result the group charges forward.
At this point the kobolds n shows a weak point. They had spread out, and that allowed the delvers to focus in on the kobold in front of the others. Three melee fighters on one is an easy fight for the party. Before the healer can even get halfway through his spell, the melee kobold is down.
This, however, did give enough time to the three remaining melee kobolds to regroup around the healer. Still, without a ranged attacker they at most are able to bang up the delvers front line a little. Nothing a quick round of healing doesnt fix up. In fact, the healer ends up requiring more time to recover mana than he does to heal them.
Thus readied they enter thest room of the first floor. In there a kobold stands beside a stone throne with four goats around them. Notpletely strange, though, from the groups reports, the kobold had been sitting on the chair previously. Still, it doesnt change the n all that much and so they let the scout start the fight once again.
Without the cover, the scouts arrow is able tond a hit. Not a good hit, mind you. If the kobold had stood still of course, it would have been a heart shot. Instead the kobold dodges out of the way and instead the arrow pierces the leather tunic and causes a heavy scratch.
The goats consider this a good enough of a signal and charge at the team. While this isnt enough to throw any of the teams front line off bnce, the goats helmets with the bronze horn guards are enough to cause some real damage. Though unlike the big goat room, there are only four goats this time.
At this range, though, the scout doesnt have much of a problem hitting a target. Especially when one of the melee fighters manages to lock a goat down. Then even with a helmet things end quickly for the goats. Even with the kobold joining the fight, things wrap up quickly, leaving the portal to the second floor open.
Of course the team isnt full of idiots and so the scout goes to harvest the olives while they wait around for everyone to recover. Those copper horn guards can really cause a lot of damage, even through armor. In fact, while waiting to recover the group as a whole agrees that room with 9 goats, all decked out in helmets, was the hardest fight. The kobolds might have been tricky butpared to fighting nine enemies at once, it isnt that much of a challenge.
As they are saying this though a certain someone takes note of this and makes some changes. Now the kobold in thest room will always lead their goats out to join the fight in the kobold camp. No one is privy to this change and so they blithely head onto the second floor without realizing they had just identally ramped up the challenge for every future delver.
On the second floor, things start to ramp up for them. In the two shepherd rooms, even without helmets the goats put up much more of a challenge. Not to mention the Axebeaks. The altered Axebeak even manages to leave a deep gash across the chest of one of the melee fighters. This not only forces the group to wait around a good half hour as the healer is forced to regen and empty their mana pool over and over, but it also nearly ruins the armor.
While their town has some basic ability to repair things, the armor isnt ever going to be as good as it was before. Which is saying something as the thing is pre-system to begin with. Still, they continue forward with each fight, forcing them to stop and rest. Not just for the healer anymore but also because even with the healing, the melee fighters are getting more and more fatigued.
As the team reaches the top of the ramp room, the healer shakes their head. The goal had been to beat the second floor and take a peek at the third but that just isnt in the cards for today. Their equipment is worse for wear and while he cant heal the fatigue, the healer can very much tell it is there. Even the scout is starting to feel it.
Though the real nail in the coffin is the healer themselves. They had to empty and refill their mana pool so many times today that it is starting to hurt. While the healer isnt certain, his gut instinct is that if he pushes too much further, he will be damaging himself in a way that a simple healing spell or time would not be able to fix.
Upon hearing this, the other four readily agree to turn around. While disappointing to not have reached their goals, a healer is worth much more than getting some ore. So with sadness in their hearts, they turn around and trudge out of the dungeon. And once outside, the other four in the group force the healer to get checked out.
Doctor of course is willing to take a look and quickly finds the problem. Not that the teams healer wouldnt have been able to notice the problem with someone else. This is just one of those things that is hard to see when it is affecting yourself.
Doctor sighs, You need to work on your mana pool size. While it might seem like you can keep absorbing more mana from the atmosphere. Youve just bumped up against the reason that isnt actually an option. Part of absorbing mana is that you make it your own. Doing so isnt free and so you put a part of yourself into your mana. Not too much of a problem if you dont go too far with it.
However the amount of mana you can absorb is directly rted to how much you can store in the first ce. If you had taken it too much further, you would have started using the structure of your mana pool itself to convert the mana. If you had kept going, you would have been spending the capacity of your mana pool. That in turn would mean you had less to change the mana and so you would have spent even more of your pool faster.
My advice is you hold off on using your mana for a day or so. Though you should be able to tell when it is safe again. Your body isnt exactly shy in telling you when something like this is going down.
The healer sighs at this. While they hadnt known exactly what was wrong, this wasnt far off of their guess. Though the biggest disappointment for the team is that they are now stuck not being able to go back into the dungeon. Without a healer, it is doubtful they would be able to even get through half of the first floor. The onlyfort is that they took so long in the dungeon they dont have too much time left before the boat shows up to take them home.
Can You Not Show Up For A Couple Days? – Chapter 143
Over the next few days a simr scene will repeat itself. Every morning, two teams of six will show up. One focused on farming food and the other tried to reach the third floor and the ore. This works decently well despite losing a person on the second day because of thest kobold on the first floor unexpectedly leading their goats out to join the camp fight.
On the fourth day, though, things change. The exploration team had been pushing forward through sheer stubbornness and overuse of their healers. But no matter how many hundreds of people the town up the river might have, magical healers are still a rarity. So after putting almost a third of their healers out ofmission, even the council is convinced to stop with the nonsense.
That doesnt mean they stopped sending twelve people a day to delve into the dungeon. They just shifted their focus entirely to farming activities. While the dungeon isnt able to feed the town at the moment, it definitely takes a lot of pressure off of them. The teams still dont have anyone with a skill to harvest all the herbs so most of their harvest is in meat and berries.
And boy are they jealous of the settlement and their milk. Especially since the goat was reced by a cow. While everyone was willing to get used to goat''s milk, it wasnt what they had grown up with. Not that the settlement wasnt against selling some for a few coins.
A couple dayster Ace pulls aside the captain when the ship pulls in. The two parties seeing this make motions of sticking around to keep an eye on things, but the captain waves them off before turning back to Ace. Dont mind them. We both know neither of us is in a position to do anything. I assume you just have something that needs to be ryed back to the town?
Ace nods, Yeah, Im not even going to try and hide it since the dang thing isnt exactly hidden. Were going to be building something over the next two days and during that time we dont want anyoneing here.
The captain sighs and shakes his head, The council isnt going to like that. Theyve cut back on our own hunting and I doubt they want to go on short rations even for a single day. You better have something on your side to make it worth their while or I cant guarantee what will happen. I wonte by but that doesnt mean they dont send someone else.
Ace shrugs, We expected that. To make up for it, weve had our teams gather up more food than usual. After we are done here, we have a third of it ready to be loaded for your return trip. If they agree to not show up over the next two days, then when youe back tonight you get the remaining two thirds. Though if you would be very loud about how we cant exactly do this again anytime soon. We took many of our builders off their jobs thest few days to do this and even then we went into our back up supply.
The captain rolls his eyes, Ill try but you and me both know they wont take it gracefully. All theyll see is extra fooding in and expect it to stay that way. Though since youre willing to do this, I assume the building is more than a shack to hide something with. Dont tell me though, thats just a guess of my own and whatever skills they might be hiding, none of them can dig out guesses yet.
Ace nods, Fair enough. Now lets go about loading up your raft with some food.
Later that night, the captain returns with his ship and some good news. While the council was a little skeptical about the deal in the end, the milk and herbs convinced them to go with it. Specifically, they made sure the normal citizens in the town didnt know about the milk and the herbs so they could have it all to themselves. Of course the captain isnt too happy about this turn of events but Ben just told him to roll with it. Easy ess to the dungeon is worth more than making sure everyone received some milk and slightly more seasoned soup.
Ace epts the exnation and waves him off. While he does want humans in general to survive this nonsense, the town upriver hasnt left the best of impressions on the settlement. Ben sounds like a nice enough person but he didnt take control. He let people still stuck in the old world ethos set the rules. Ace cant let them gain any more of a hold or who knows what will happen to humans when the system stops quarantining the.
Ace shakes his head and focuses on loading the boat. Once the food they promised is all packed up and the two teams are onboard, Ace waves them off. While there is work to do, he stands there on the dock, watching them vanish into the distance. Still, he waits. While he trusts the captain, the rest of the people are just random schmucks who might be under someones thumb.
It takes a while, but eventually Ace feels they are really gone. Or at least as sure as he can be. The river did bend around a few small hills so they might have dropped a few spies off behind one of them. Ace shakes his head again, down that road lies madness. He could worry over it for hours and not find the answer. Of course the simplest answer would be to have one of the Barrais go and check it out.
Except he needs them working elsewhere. They almost have 10,000 coppers for the system anchor. The rest of the founders are right now delving the dungeon over and over to gain thest few coins needed. He had wanted to put it off until they had the money but Ace didnt trust the council up-river to not start sending boatloads of people to offload any dissenters or some other stupid trick. Any longer and Ace even doubted they would have given them the actual time to set things up.
Not, of course, that they actually needed two days to do everything. Rather, Jimmy had gotten to the point that he needed to start pulling tons of dirt out of the ground to make the secret basement. The actual building can be whacked up within a few hours because of magic and skills. About the only questionable bit is the use of bones.
They had been collecting a few from the wolves and goats over thest few days to add to the structure. Though even if that fails Jimmy had made a few spare wooden features to take their ce. Worries in mind, Ace turns around and heads towards the building site. His magic subbing in until Kellinger finishes his current run.
The next dayes and goes quickly enough. Jimmy, with the help of Kellinger has managed to dig out a truly enormous space underground. Big enough that there are now ns to subdivide it into multiple rooms and floors. At first Jimmy had questioned if such a space would be stable but Kellinger was able to relieve his worries bypacting the dirt into a near stone-like state. Not quite enough for him to trust it even a year, but once the town hall is initialized by the system, that will be out of their hands and well taken care of.
Though the thing that makes Ace the happiest is the fact that they had finally managed to gather the full 10k coins needed for the system anchor. Not only that, but Jimmy had already bought the thing for them. While Jimmy had doubts that anyone else on the could be buying the things yet, Ace wasnt going to leave it to chance. Better to have it in hand now than find outter the discounted anchors had already sold out. After all, they cant be the only ones who know about them.
Ace doesnt stop the frantic diving even though they have already gotten the anchor. Once the town hall is up, system shops and services will begin appearing around the hall. While this doesnt mean they need to start buying things right away, basically everyone else will have had ess to the same supplies for quite a while already.
On the second day, the building for the town hall is thrown up in short order. Jimmy even managed to include all the bone features he had wanted. Well before night the building was finished and everyone in the settlement was gathered around it.@@novelbin@@
Ace pats Jimmy on the shoulder, While it looks a little more hunting lodge than town hall I sort of like it.
Jimmy shrugs, We arent exactly in the age of highrises anymore. This is the best we can do.
Susanughs at this, You do realize that even if in the future we do get back to that point, were going to be stuck with the theme?
Ace sighs, Im honestly just happy that the bones are more of an ent feature. We could have ended up somewhere without easily avable trees or stone. Imagine everything made entirely out of bone.
Susan nods, Be like one of those churches. Cant remember where they were in the world but I am kind of scared of those ces now. I give it good odds that those ces became giant undead or some other simr nonsense.
Ace rubs his eyes, Why do you have to give me other things to worry about? Now Im worrying about things like ancient burial grounds.
Susan shakes her head, Those should be fine. As long as it was an actual burial ground and not some resentment soaked mass grave. Without magic, I dont think any nonsense was going to linger enough to cause trouble. Though I must admit, Im very thankful we arent on one of the continents where the world wars really soaked the ground. Not that any ce is free from some horrible massacres. Our history as a race is a bloody mess.
Ace sighs, Whatever, lets get this town hall setup. Jimmy, you ready?
Jimmy nods, Just have to redeem the anchor. Which before you ask, does not mean I didnt actually buy it. Rather, the system lets me choose when to take it out so I dont have to have the thing lying around.
Jimmy reaches into his pocket and pulls out a human sized crystal. The crystal is shaped like a disco ball and from within a soft glow can be seen, painting the surroundings in a fae glimmer no matter how bright or dark the area is. Okay, Im going to put this in the basement. We managed to fit three floors and I figure the middle of the second is the best option. While I do trust the system to protect the thing, better safe than sorry.
Ace frowns, Does the anchor actually stick around? I was expecting it to diffuse into the building or some simr nonsense.
Jimmy shrugs, A little of column A, and a little of column B. Most of the things will be a part of the structure. But that glimmer you can barely see inside of it? That sticks around. Not as a physical object, but it will be there. I do have some control over where it goes, but it has to stay in the room you activate the anchor in. Since it does put out light, Im thinking I turn it into the rooms light. Later on when we get a better light source it can mask the glimmer. Now let me get this thing ced. Im nervous just holding it nevermind the fact this thing weighs an absolute ton and yet the system is allowing me to lift it.
Jimmy enters the building as everyone else waits outside.
Hexagon Portal – Chapter 144
Everyone at the settlement waits for a few minutes as Jimmy is inside doing whatever needs done. For the first bit there are just sounds of him hitting something, but soon there are strange light phenomenaing out of the doors and windows. Then to wrap it up Jimmy starts cursing and he runs out of the front door while colorfully telling everyone to get back.@@novelbin@@
On the building itself, the strange lights start to cover every surface and takes on the rainbow look of oil on water exceptpletely opaque. Once the building is fully covered, the oil slick colors balloon outwards into a sphere that keeps expanding well beyond the original building. So much so that even after having backed up a good distance everyone has to continue backing up even more until the sphere has covered enough space to fit a few city blocks.
While that is happening Jimmy is bustling around and getting people off of a path only he can see. Though it is soon clear to the others, this path is in line with where the two gates will eventually be for the settlement. Before he can fully get everyone out of the way though, the sphere stops expanding and a blue screen pops up for everyone, though Jimmy ignores it for now and redoubles his effort to move everyone out of the way.
{You have been detected as being a part of a newly formed system town. There are 34 sapient beings detected within the new town and through system polling the leader of the town has been registered as Ace.
For being a part of the first system town created on your, since its introduction to the system, you have gained ess to the Pioneering Settlers path.
A dungeon has been detected within the boundaries of the town. Town type changed to Dungeon town. For being the first locally created town on your, extra starter buildings have been created based on new town type.
Starting Buildings: Town Hall, general store, smithy, leather workshop, system well, gruel dispensary, butchers, basic road, basic dock, deliver supply store, soulmps unlimited, and reinforced dungeon containment}
As people read the message, they almost miss the sphere as it starts to shrink back down, though notpletely. There is still a bit of it left on the ground at first. Though the further the sphere pulls back, it bes clear this is where the road will be. Then more hold outs appear as multiple building shapes stick around.
Once the sphere has shrunk back fully into the town hall, the end of the oil slick road extends outward into the area Jimmy was guiding people away from. Once between the dock and the dungeon entrance, the path splits, one heading towards the dock and the other the dungeonplex.
As the oil slick touches the two structures, it once again expands outward into spheres, covering the entire dock and an area around the dungeon equal to the inner wall the settlement had set up. And once again the spheres pull back like the first, leaving behind buildings seemingly made of the oil slick.
Everyone gathers around Jimmy to ask what is up, to which Jimmy can only shrug. I dont know how the system makes stuff. Give it a little more time to work. From what I can figure out the system shouldnt take more than an hour to finish but my architecture skill is putting some hefty error bars on that estimate.
Ace sighs, Well, at least we didnt have anyone delving the dungeon. Who knows what would happen to them if they ended uping out while the dungeon is still covered. Anyway, the stuff we have been building isnt being changed at all. While the usual way in is a bit covered at the moment, everyone should be able to go over the walls so there is no reason to be standing out here like a lemon. Until the system finishes up we can work on making sure we have actual homes to stay in.
As everyone in the newly christened town gets back to work, Doyle is focused on a certain system message. Because even Ace missed an important detail, the system said there were 34 sapients in town when the settlement only had 32 even with the four newdies. Doyle and Ally were, of course those extra beings.
From Doyles side the oil slick covering was just as opaque, though twice as worrying. As it covered the area around his portal, the stuff was actually able to push back his influence until all that was left was the thinnest of space directly around the portal. Though Doyle wasnt too worried, as some part of his dungeon instincts told him it could have pushed all the way and closed the portal. So since it left him some space it wasnt there to hurt him.
Doyle can only mentally shrug as he turns back to the system messages. The first message was identical to the one everyone else got, including the path which after a quick check, Doyle finds to be a five pointer. This sticks out as being a bit odd to Doyle as it feels more like an achievement path instead of a normal one. But it isnt like he can change anything about it and so he turns his attention to the other blue screen he got.
{Your dungeon entrance has fallen under the control of a system moderatednd control module. Forced negotiations will be opened up with the local module admin.
External Aura detected and parameters added to negotiation options.
Use of dungeon produced bones detected in the module control center. Bones now drop at a higher rate.
Unique structure, Reinforced Dungeon Containment, detected as part ofnd control module starting structures. Additional connections created to provide local module admin with information on conquered floors.}
Yeah, Doyle didnt like any of that. Hey Ally, take a look at this and tell me how screwed we are.
Ally sighs, It seems that no matter how much you want to give me some distance to work through things, the system keeps throwing out stuff that needs me. Anyway, if your worry is about keeping your status as an awakened dungeon hidden none of this should cause any problems.
Doyle tilts to the side, But it is practically all about negotiations. If I start negotiating with them it wont exactly be hidden, now will it?
Ally nods, If it was setting up normal negotiations that would be the case. In this case when the system talks about forced negotiations what it really means is that Ace will be getting a control panel for the town and part of it will allow him to tweak some of the parameters rted to how you interact with the town. He wont be able to stop you from doing stuff in the dungeon proper.
Doyles core dims, That still feels a bit annoying.
Ally shrugs, Honestly it will be pretty limited. You havent really done anything outside of your dungeon so likely the only thing he will be able to tweak is your energy well. Which I am sure Ace will be thrilled about. Having such andmine just sitting there out of your control must have been eating at him. Now at least he should be able to remove the effect from the corridor used to enter the portal. Though I have to ask. Until now Ive mostly gone with it, but why do you care so much about not letting them know?
Doyle sighs, You should realize how messed up humans can be. As it is, they think the dungeon is a bit nasty but otherwise does not care. The second someone figures out Im people, as it were, everything bes personal. It isnt a friend dying against some monsters. It is a friend dying by my hands.
Ally shakes her head, You wont be able to keep this up forever. All it will take is a single person visiting a normal dungeon for it to be obvious something is up. Right now youre getting away with it because they only have experience with awakened dungeons from the tutorial. Far as the settlement. Well, I guess its a town now. But yeah, as far as the town is concerned, you are just a normal dungeon. While dungeons arent exactlymon right now, the system wont let you be the only one within a reasonable distance.
Right now the areas with humans are vastly out weighed by areas without humans. There might even be entire continents void of them. Nevermind we dont have a clue what the system has actually done to your world. Its rare but not unheard of for the system to just squishs together with others while depending on newly magical ores at the core to keep everything stable.
Doyle groans, Youre going into tutorial mode again.
Ally coughs, Anyway, the dungeons will mostly be around human settlements. So while the world isnt overrun with them, it will seem like it.
Doyle nods, I just need to keep it going long enough. Going by how strong Ace and friends are they could probably beat my boss if they had a healer along with them and really tried for it. With a few more floors though? I think I will be ahead of them.
Ally shrugs, You do realize that there is no end? Once you get those few more floors they will have also gotten stronger?
Doyle sighs, Yeah, but I feel that they have teaued recently. Not that I think theyve reached any sort of bottleneck, but rather managing the whole town creation mess has stopped them from reaching as hard. I dont need to get to a point where they cant reach me. I need to be just that bit ahead of them.
With that, everyone settles down both outside of and within the dungeon. All there was to do was wait for the system to finish its work. And while no one could see what exactly was happening there were signs of work being done. The various building shapes shifted in form and size. Though with time the shapes take on shapes more in line with the town hall that Jimmy built.
Doyle is the first to notice when the system finished. One moment nothing was happening and the next his entrance portal snaps into the shape of a hexagon, t side down. This instantly attracts his attention. Just in time for him to see the opaque oil slick recede, leaving behind a frame of giant bones with oddly still runes.
For the people in the town, the first thing they notice is the road. A stark white expanse that is revealed almost instantly stretching from the dock to portal. Of course this doesnt hold their attention long as the system has soon pulled back from the center point, revealing what has happened to the dungeon and their protective infrastructure.
It took a lot of work to fully enclose the area and so they are happy to see all that work hasnt gone to waste. Though the three absolutely massive rib bones holding up the near ck wood that now makes up the dome is a little creepy.
Ace, now a bit worried about what the rest of the buildings will look like, rushes out to see what has happened to the town hall. Though the first thing to attract his attention is the dock. The structure had been one of the first new buildings put up. Originally cobbled together from a bunch of small stic docks it has been fully revamped. So much so it makes Ace question if the system really understands what a basic dock is.
Instead of stic, bones, or treated wood the dock is constructed out of a single living mangrove tree. A sight which makes Ace sigh in frustration. Sure, it should be able to fix itself, but how to add on to it? The system probably has something set up but not having full control over such an important feature is more than just a bit frustrating.
Why This But Not That – Chapter 147
Once the door is closed Ace can no longer hear the Butchers demands and so with a smile he heads over to the well-ced right in front of town hall. It is a quaint little construction looking like a ssic wishing well except for the fact the two poles holding up the roof are made of two big bones. A quick look in shows there actually is water at the bottom and not some System shenanigans. Though that does bring up the question of if the thing has unlimited water or actually plugs into the water table in some way.
Not like the system is just going to tell me. Though as Ace turns away something makes him stop. A slight niggle in his mind that as the person in charge of the town he might just have such knowledge somewhere. [System, tell me about this well.]
{System Well
Provides drinking water for up to 100 beings a day before relying on locally avable groundwater.}
Ace sighs, Well, thats a bit non-specific. Does that mean 100 buckets of water or if we brought in an elephant could we pull out enough for it for the day? Oh well, [system, tell me about the road.]
Ace waits a moment but nothing pops up. [System, tell me about the butchers. Tell me about the Dock. Tell me about Soul Lamps Unlimited, Tell me about the dungeon containment thing.]
{Soul Lamps Unlimited
Soul tes good till the fifth floor avable}
Ace frowns, What decides if the system gives me information or not? It isnt based on if a feature has someone to exin them because the soulmp shop showed up. Id be tempted to say it just showed the things where the system was actively providing a service because that would match except the butchery has that dungeon thing. Unless that is just something the guy can do.
That would actually make some sense and exin why we got him. People capable of pulling stuff out of a dungeon like that cant be toomon so there is probably a very limited number of avable shopkeepers for it. That and the way he talked sounds like this isnt the only shop the system currently has him watching. Meh, Im sure I can ask one of the other people manning the shops. If anything, the Jinn should know.
Ace shrugs and since he has checked out the well enters the so called gruel dispensary. Though even from the outside he can tell it is meant to be able to handle a lot of people. There are two doors on the front but both are marked entrance only with signs telling people to line up and such.
Inside makes the design even clearer. Directly across the ce at the back are exit doors matching the entrance so people can quickly shuffle through and in the center is a sort of kitchen area with lunchroom style counters stopping people from entering. In the kitchen area is a giant cauldron of literal gruel. Some sort of grain bubbles away, thin enough to drink. Though that isnt all there is. A couple of smaller cauldrons around the big one bubble away with various other things such as citrus fruit and meat.
Though the real show stopper is the being manning the ce. A small fairy wearing what appears to be a straw hat and chewing a tiny piece of some sort of grass. The fairy lifts the brim of the hat and raises an eyebrow, You dont seem starving. I guess the shop isnt going to be bum rushed then?
Ace shrugs, We have a dungeon that is dropping a variety of food stuff.
The fairy nods, Figures. Now I dont advise switching out the shop. Least not right quick, you hear? While I cant provide all the food needed for a being, I cover the essentials. No one getting pirates curse when that pot of citrus bubbles deep. That and I can provide for any sapient even if it means pulling out some more. Interesting options. Makes it easier ifn strange ones visit. Though with that I would be depending on system sources so limits abound.
Ace sighs, I didnt even know I had the option to switch out shops. Not that I n on doing that at the moment, anyway. Though I should probably get everyone toe through here to make sure the basics are being met. That is assuming you can tell if someone needs something? It would be a useful thing to have on hand.
The fairyughs, You know something? Very few people ever ask if I can do that. When I first started working for this system, I just did it because I could, but no one appreciated it. So as time went on and I passed the natural lifespan most would get I changed how I did things. Even when providing such services, ces would switch me out after a few months or whatever food crisis they had gotten themselves into passed.
Now I just sit back and hand out gruel. Still everything a person needs but I keep it to myself. Since you asked though, well now, I guess I can provide such a service. Right off the bat though I must say youre doing mighty fine. Not that I mentioned the citrus without reason. You arent without but a bit more in your diet wouldnt do you wrong either. Want me to scoop you up a bowl?
Ace shrugs, Sure, sounds like a n. Weve been a bit busy getting the town hall set up and everything before others decide to shop up and take over. We only have a few people at the moment but that could change soon enough. A bunch of people left right before a bunch of monsters attacked and going by what I know of the person leading them they should be back within the next week. Someone on the walls spotted what might be a scout from them and with her paranoia that about lines up.
The fairy nods, A monster attack in a new world would be a good reason to skedaddle. Though going by your words Im going to guess this little shop will be quite busy when they get back. While talking, the fairy flies over to a stack of strange transparent bowls and grabs one.
Ace frowns, What is up with that bowl? It doesnt really look like anything Ive seen before.
The fairy smiles as he uses a metal scoop twice as long as he is tall to fill the bowl two thirds of the way up. The system isnt going to give out free material a bowl at a time. These bowls arent made of anything, held together purely by system nonsense. They arent strong and once you finish with it the bowl will vanish.
The fairy pauses as he scoops up some of the citrus gruel and a tiny bit of what looks like nuts. Oh, and there is a reason its gruel and not porridge. If you want a spoon, bring a spoon. Otherwise you can drink it down like everyone else. Now Im sure you have all the questions but I doubt this is thest stop you have. Maybe some other time. And after a quick stir, hands the bowl of gruel over to Ace.
Gruel in hand, Ace says his goodbyes and heads over to the smithy. From the outside, Ace can see a number of products hung up on the wall. Then once he is inside, he can see a couple of humans working at making nails next to an active forge. One of them looks up and asks, You here to buy or figure out whats up?
Seeing they arent the chatty type Ace gets down to business. Figure out whats up. Just set up the town and the dungeon provides copper and tin ore on the third floor. Also, there are more than enough random pre-system metal things sitting around. Can you do anything with that stuff?
The guy who looked upughs, Youre better off destroying the pre-system metals. While its not directly one to one, your world is now hooked up to the various elemental sub-nes. When you destroy something, things will try to bnce out. Dungeons of course skew things but if you destroy a pre-system iron knife, then somewhere in the world a bit of iron ore will form. Also, the system will try to keep such things bnced so you might as well gain some value out of the old stuff before it starts to vanish.
Ace frowns, What about alloys and such? We didnt exactly have magic, so much of the worlds stuff is precisebinations of stuff.
The guy shrugs, All of that isnt necessarily moot now. Mixing things like you used to will still work to an extent. The only problem is even if undetectable, magically infused things will have a leaning one way or another. So an alloy that worked without magic might work now, you just have to make sure everything is elementally aligned correctly. Making a super light yet strong alloy isnt going to work if one of the metals picked up an attachment to being heavy.
Plus, there are magical ores now. Did your world get into atomics? Ah, I can see by your face they did. Well magical ores superficially appear to other types of ore except they rece one of the building blocks of an atom with a magical equivalent. So no, you cant just turn iron into a true magical metal just by infusing it. However, destroying iron does give you a chance that a magical equivalent develops somewhere in your world.
Anyway, that is getting a bit outside of the bounds of my job here so lets pivot. Ive not sold myself to the system so neither me nor anyone else working here is likely to stick around long. The system tells me that the best way to exin it to you is to call it an internship. I just finished up learning under my master and so to gain a bit of experience before getting a real job I signed up with the system to be shunted around to a few of these system smitheries.
If you have any other basic production shops from the system, the same is likely to be true. To get a permanent worker you either need to spend a lot of cash or advance the shop which will also cost a lot. On the upside though, while we arent allowed to take long-term projects we do stick around until we finish up whatever we are assigned. Oh, and while people can use the shop to work, that costs a lot more money than just getting us to do the work and we arent allowed to provide any actual guidance beyond the asional tip.
Ace finishes up his bowl of gruel he had been sipping on and sighs. Well, that is interesting. I guess I will hit up the leather workshop next. I dont necessarily see my core group of people using your services too much but others will. Weve got a nearby town that will at least get you to smelt the ore for them to make it easier.
The guy nods, Dont worry about us not having work. The system will provide us with things to make during our downtime and switches us out more often if not being used.
Ace waves goodbye and heads over to the leather shop. Inside is simr to the smithery, with one side taken up by goods for sale and the other devoted to the craft. This time though there is only one person in the shop. Still it is the same song and dance. They are just a temporary worker that will be switched out for another soon enough. The good news is that they also sell the chemicals to tan hides which unlike with the smith is cheaper than having the worker tan it for you. Useful since while Garry Johnson had known how to do so, such supplies were scarce and until now they didnt have a good way to deal with the hides dropped in the dungeon.@@novelbin@@
It’s Lily! – Chapter 149
Ace politely ps as the orc finishes his presentation. A bit out of our price range but Im excited to see my people outfitted properly. With how quick the dungeon is growing, it shouldnt take too long.
The orc nods, I will admit that gold can be tight. But that is why this isnt a farmers store. No! This is a store for delvers. While mostmon folk can live their entire lives using silver, adventurers are a different breed. They might not be nobles or merchants but they are truly a group that epitomizes the concept of boom or bust. One lucky kill out in the field or a decent drop in a dungeon can catapult their worth.
Now, while I would like to talk more, Im sure you have other stores to check out. While this might be my first time taking charge of a store, I know that most cant help but check out anything dungeon rted as soon as possible.
Ace smiles, Youre actually thest shop. I just have the town hall left to check out. While a store devoted to delvers is important, I didnt want to end up stuck in here window shopping.
The orc taps his tusk, Huh, well I hope for a long rtionship then. Few who can afford a town next to a dungeon can hold back.
Ace shrugs before leaving. He had wanted to check things out but no matter what the orc said, the shop wasnt important or interesting enough to check out first. The things directly around the dungeon, now that was what really mattered.
Ace shakes his head and refocuses. The town hall is right in front of him. While from a distance it looks exactly how Jimmy had built it, up close Ace can tell that isnt quite true. Jimmy had used normal wood, bones, and so on to build everything. Whatever the building is made of now that is no longer the case.
The wood grain that Ace can see is oddly twisted in on itself and has a deep warmness to it that well cared for wood will gain over the years. Maybe someone with a decent set of pre-system tools or advanced wood shaping magic could replicate it but Jimmy had neither. Besides that, though, the bones are even stranger. You could almost mistake them for beingcquered but Ace can tell otherwise. Whatever beast the bones came from was a strange one. The very structure of the bones is like a translucent crystal. A jeweler could probably add some facets to them and make them look like true gems in the shape of a bone.
Besides that, Ace notices one other detail. Some might have missed it. Ace, however, had enjoyed reading old books talking about mysticism and such. Before the system it was all forgotten details and half truths tainted by idental lies crafted from mistrantion. Post-system most of it was still nonsense, but he had picked up a few tricks. The important one at the moment allowed him to see flickers of magic out of the side of his eye.
A simple enough thing which likely came from a very natural part of how the human eye works. With how the eye is structured, you can actually see some things in your peripheral vision that you couldnt when looking straight on. Stuff like faint stars in the sky and what not. Some, however, believed you could catch glimpses of the supernatural with the same trick. The fun part is this wasnt wrong.
Whether it was the buildup of magic right before someone cast a spell or the distinction between the edge of the dungeons territory, Ace could catch glimpses of it. Well, he used to catch glimpses of it. Now, with training and a very wee skill, he could pierce the veil at will and see those strange new energies. But that didnt mean he stopped giving things the side eye. Peripheral vision was just so much more attuned to magic that it allowed him to see things he shouldnt be able to.
In this case, it was runes within runes that werent runes. Sigils of power that burned themselves out of his mind no matter how much he tried to hold on to them. Apparently, even the system had to use magic to protect things and it wasnt just a matter of it being a system building.
Then the system bombarded him with a bunch of messages that boiled down to how he shouldnt have seen that and how the town hall would get a free upgrade. Ace smirked at this as the building was quickly covered by the magic oil slick nonsense again. While he couldnt be certain, his guess was that the system cheaped out because it didnt think anyone would notice.
Soon enough the building was once more revealed to Ace and this time he didnt catch anything out of the corner of his eye. Not that he med the system. For a new town in a new world, there was probably a good chance that the ce wouldnt survive long enough to make the investment worth it. Ace of course nned to beat the odds.
Though as he approaches the door Ace notices that he feels rxed for some reason. That shouldnt be the case so he once again dys going in to figure out what is going on. This takes some soul searching but then it hits him. Until now, he had been worried about how the System was giving away the anchors at such a cheap price. Now, however, he knows the reason. It isnt really giving them away for cheap but rather selling cheap knock offs. Since he caught the system instead of admitting to it, the system just spent the extra resources to put in the real deal.
With a smile, Ace pushes open the door and enters. The first room is simple enough. There are a couplerge notice boards up on the walls and the back third of the room is blocked off by a counter, behind which stands a receptionist. Not just any receptionist though but rather a brown rabbit girl and not the ssic inte rabbit girl. Rather, she looks closer to being a rabbit than not.
Sheughs seeing how Ace is a bit stunned. Wee o great and mighty town leader! My names Lily. I bet youre wondering what I am, but dont know a polite way to ask?
Ace nods and Lily giggles before going on. There really isnt a good way to ask. Being a base-line human you wont have too much trouble yourself but Im sure once your starts interacting with the greater universe some things will filter in. To get a head start on it though, consider including your species when introducing yourself. It isnt rude not to, some people do like to keep such things under wraps, but it isnt rude to do it either and people are likely to share their own.
In fact, it could almost be seen as a way of asking without asking. Luckily though everyone the system will bring in to work the town hall will have had proper training in handling your people. Now if youre still curious, how about we give our introductions again?
Ace swallows, Ah, yes, that would be, um. Hello, my name is Ace and Im a human.
Lily giggles again, Hello Ace! My names Lily and Im a rabbit folk. Though that likely doesnt mean much to you either, now does it? The short and sweet of it is that despite how human biased the universe is it is also big enough that every type of animal has at some point fought its way to sapience. Those that end up closer to human than not are the kin so out there are like a number of rabbitkin. Folk on the other hand are those who are closer to their base animal. There isnt really a good dividing line so most just rely on the system to make the decision.@@novelbin@@
Ace coughs, Fair enough. Now do I need to y twenty questions or is there some tutorial speel I get to listen to for using the system to run my town?
As Ace finishes asking, he notices that Lily shifts around and he starts to think again. Before he can say anything though Lily ps her hand paws, First things first, learn to recognize social Skills! And I dont mean being good at social situations but rather with a capital S. Normal social skills wont ever get you to do anything against your best interest. The problem is that your best interest is based on your own perception so the trickier sorts can still get you to do oh so much more.
Until now youve at best experienced someone with sub 30 in a single social skill or maybe a few all below level ten. To say the least, I am well beyond that and the only reason you noticed when I stopped their passive effects is because I cut it off instead of easing it off and I intended you to notice. As luck would have it though, being a town official you do gain some system granted protections to stop some silver tongued sought from talking you into giving them the town or betraying it. While I wont tell you that you need a social skill, sometimes the best defense is a good offense.
Ace nods, I can see what you mean. Though I have to ask, I assume some of the other people brought in to man the stores should have simr abilities. Did they get me?
Lily shakes her head causing her ears to flop back and forth. Like I said, as a town official you get some protection. One of those is that system provided workers are blocked from hiding such maniptions. Also, since your world is still in its tutorial period they are restricted to using the same level and quality of social skill as those talking to them. I was allowed to use my own to the full extent to provide an example of why it is an important thing to protect against.
Ace rolls his eyes, Well if you put it that way. Though I have to ask, can I order them to continue to do that even after the tutorial period is up?
Lily shakes her head again. You can order a lot of things but the system considers the use of their skills a part of their job. It would be like telling a master smith to make crude nails. A cruel and unusual punishment if there ever was one. Some things can be restricted of course like you did with the butcher but just to be careful you should always ask if the order is valid from now on.
Ace sighs, Well, at least that took. Not even going to ask how you know that.
She chimes in, Im the main receptionist! One of my purposes is keeping track of the town to help you.
Ace continues, Fair enough, now is there anything else I need to know or is it going to just be a bunch of spreadsheets and system windows?
Lilly ps her hands and sparks fly out to form a projected map of the area centered on the dungeon. Most things are rtively obvious once you get into the system windows. Just two things to make note of and one has to deal with the size of your town and the dungeon. With most towns, the area of control is centered on the town hall. Since you built your town close enough to that unnamed dungeon, the town will be centered on it instead of the town hall. This doesnt matter as much as you might think as the area extends out quite a bit if not interrupted so you can have farms and such. On the other hand it isnt mentioned anywhere and most literature on the subject will assume any dungeons arent that close because for some reason kings and such dont like it when a single area has easy ess to unlimited supplies.
The other thing is to do with the options you will have in rtion to the dungeon. What you see isnt all you might end up able to do. While the system will control most of it since it is a newborn and so still asleep, that doesnt mean the options update instantly. You could make a selection only to find a weekter that it was undone and the option gone. That or an hourter the yes or no option has turned into a slider for finer control. So check it regrly so you arent caught by surprise.
Doyle Worries About His Presence – Chapter 152
Later on back in the dungeon, Doyle is tweaking a few things on the second floor when a pop up interrupts him.
{Disconnecting Energy Well influence from external Territory...
Town Anchor applying area restrictions to Energy Well influence...
New Options avable for Town/Dungeon interactions}
Huh, Doyle pauses, Well thats a new one. I guess thats a good thing for me as I dont have to hold back my territory anymore. [System, show me the new options.]
{Allow more space to be designated for Energy Well influence than avable: [On] [Off]
Limit allowed area: [Area Restriction] [Clear Restriction]
Energy Well works in Safe Rooms: [On] [Off] [Towns Discretion]}
Well, thats short and sweet. Im sure there will be other options for me to deal withter but for now I wonder what the area restriction does. Set [Area Restriction]
Doyles view is pulled out of his dungeon and into the area right outside the entrance. Except instead of a normal view, anything outside of his actual territorycks detail. No matter how hard Doyle tries to focus on something it is like looking through a badly adjusted telescope. The trade off is that Doyle can now see the generaly of thend for quite a distance around the dungeon, well into the forest and across the river.
After a good look around, Doyle focuses back on the purpose of this view, setting up restrictions on the Energy Well. There is already something set up, likely the restrictions the town had decided on. In fact, Doyle is certain that is what he is seeing because it mostly matches the pre-existing area except the path to the portal and the space in-front of Aces desk are set to not have the Energy Wells influence. Basically everything the town would want. Though Doyle has to wonder if they will change up the whole dungeon containment thing now that they can limit the affected area.
Doyle turns back to his own controls as what they do isnt too important to him at the moment. Instead, he tries to change the restrictions on the area. This throws the area into a stark contrast. The currently covered area is a deep white that, despite the sameness is unable to cover up the details while the rest is all shades of ck yet not grey. Within this realm of colorless purity marred by the limits of reality, Doyle picks out the two areas the town had set up quite easily, both changes being areas of muddied grey and missed potential.
Those areas are where the Energy Well is permitted by him, but not by the town. With the barest of effort, Doyle converts an area of ckness outside of the town into a permitted area. That space loses all color like a sculpture made of the clearest of ss or crystal. Doyle resets it and extends the allowed area around his dungeon all the way out to the current outer wall while keeping the current height. Though Doyle does let the area continue to extend under the ground. He can, of course, do moreter but for some reason he doesnt see them wanting much more than that.
Happy with the results, he exits out of the area restriction mode and is pulled back into the dungeon and closes out the option panel. The other things in there are nice but are fine as is. Though the option to let his Energy Well work in safe rooms is tempting, it could lead to people camping out in them. Doyle had just found out that he can alter a dungeon floor as long as one of the instances is free of people with the newyout taking effect for everyone going forward. But that wouldnt help if enough people stuck around. It wasnt that long ago he was worrying about the wolves camping hisst floor and now the system is offering a way to do it to himself.
With a shake of his core, Doyle turns back to tweaking things in his dungeon. But despite trying to stay focused, something at the back of his mind is distracting him. After half a day, what he was missing finally bubbles to the top. He can now travel further down the Energy Well Path. He doesnt have the points at the moment as except for a few patterns gaining a level nothing else has leveled. While the second stage of Energy Well doesnt cost much, he doesnt have the six points for it at the moment. All he can do is wait, likely until the next floor as many of his skills are based around sculpting his dungeon.
Though speaking of patterns leveling up, an interesting one happened. Even after he had gotten a number of nt collections, his clover pattern had stood alone. Recently, though, it has gained arge number of levels. Not the strangest thing, other patterns had done that. No, what was interesting was the clover pattern moved into the herb patterns at level ten.
Doyle had known that clover was used as a herb for various minor health problems, generally as a herbal tea. The interesting part was how after it gained enough levels, the system decided it now counted as a herb. On one hand, it could just be the system finally getting around to re-categorizing it. More likely from Doyles point of view is that after having leveled up enough the herbal properties had grown to the point that the system recognizes it as such.
While not immediately important, it does mean that not all major changes to a pattern will result in a new pattern. A sneakier wolf wont necessarily turn into a stealth wolf with a separate pattern, but rather just be another form of wolf like how Doyle can create a variety of swords with the sword pattern.
Though Doyle remembers Allys talk about Jimmy trying tobine his skills and a different option springs to mind. Skills and patterns are just the system categorizing what a person knows and providing extra knowledge when needed. The sword pattern might be simr to how people get the carpentry skill instead of a wooden table making skill. While the system does fill in the gaps, the skill is actually made up of infinitely dividing specialty skills and techniques. Evenbat skills should be simr to an extent.
Of course, Doyle already suspected the system had to be cheating with skills in some way. Not that this was proof, but keeping this new guess in mind could provide some interesting insight. Right off the top of his head the pattern collections would be the system attempting tobine them but not being able to. After all, even with clover he doesnt have ten herbs and all of them are from his. To reduce the pattern collection to just a single pattern would at the very least require him to have a majority of system known herbs and examples of all the type of effects that a herb could have.
Just the idea of a single pattern for swords already is a massive simplification and while the system is okay with that, expecting a simr thing for herbs would be silly. Though as Doyle considers it, he realizes that sub-categories of herbs might be possible. Like with how swords are under weapons, it might be possible to gain a pattern for allmon blood thinning herbs or all themon herbs that settle a stomach ache. Only themon ones.@@novelbin@@
Doyle isnt crazy enough to think he could gain the ability to create legendary herbs that just happen to cure a stomach ache and within his patterns there is already proof of this sort of thing. After all, he has the pattern for grass but he cant make bamboo with it. Now, maybe with more levels in the grass pattern, bamboo might be avable. But that alone would point to the same thing. So even if he does get a pattern for herbs that cure stomach aches it would take quite a few levels in it before getting anything more than mundane herbs. In fact, if he absorbed a special herb after getting abo skill like that it would probably stand alone until thebo had enough levels to absorb it.
Satisfied with his current understanding of things Doyle settles back into tweaking minor things on the various floors. While the new adventurers arent much of a challenge, they are providing more than enough lessons on where his floors need improving. And like that, a few more days pass. Outside, there is a bit of chaos when the people from upriver realized the settlement had be a system recognized town but without a true architect they didntprehend the true meaning behind the change.
Still, more and more people began to delve into Doyles dungeon and the twice a day boat trip became four times a day. Then once another couple ships were found they started making trips whenever enough people had gathered who wanted to go. Besides that, not everyone who went wanted to return and so a tent vige popped up right along the section of the outer wall that faced the river.
It isnt even just people from the city upriver. At first they had managed to keep it from the settlement but they were in directmunication with at least three other locations and those ces knew of further towns. Though the ce upriver was the most populous, with both the most initial residents and, of course, many people moving there as they tried to keep to the old norms.
All of this while interesting didnt matter too much to Doyle. He was going to have people visiting from far away no matter what. This just sped it up and allowed him to observe how other people handled his dungeon. But of course, with this, more people ended up dying in his dungeon and that finally pushed him to level up.
{Level Gained!
Level goes from 2 to 3, Strength goes from 21 to 26, Agility goes from 25 to 36, Constitution goes from 30 to 37, Intelligence goes from 27 to 34, Wisdom goes from 33 to 49, Presence goes from 20 to 25, Destiny goes from 35 to 45, Karma goes from 45 to 60, Luck goes from 24 to 35}
It takes Doyle a moment to go over all the changes. Most of them at this point are increasing byrge amounts with his Wisdom the front runner at 16 a level. However, they arent all good. His Strength and Presence are only increasing by 5 a level and more worrying is Constitution only just two more matching along with Intelligence.
The others can be propped up as needed, but his Constitution directly increases how much energy his core can hold and things arent exactly getting cheaper. It is doing alright because of a lot of static boosts but that will hold it back in the long run. Besides that, Doyle is also low key worried about his Presence as it is his lowest score and the current description given by the system isnt exactly informative.
{Presence: A minds specialty is projecting. Your race has turned what for most is an external stat into an internal one. This represents a cores ability to affect their own monsters on a mental level. This stat will increase your ability to fine tune the behavior patterns of non-sapient monsters.}
Though looking over it again makes him worry all the more. While it isnt exactly shocking that the stat which started the lowest besides his Karma was still the lowest, the way a dungeon core uses it hints at some things to him. Specifically, he just gained his first sapient monster and this stat supposedly was how well he could affect his monsters mentally. While he doubts his monsters can rebel against him, that doesnt mean that a monster with a mind of its own wont decide to go and do its own thing.
So far, none of the adventurers had gotten to the fifth floor, not even the founders, despite how far they had gotten into the fourth floor had made it yet. But any day now he expected someone to manage it as the wolves arent exactly figuring out a new strategy to fight and even the random ambushes had partly been figured out. At this point Doyle doesnt have how closely his kobold Boss is going to follow the n and that worries him.
Two Spears – Chapter 153
Doyle sighs, whether he can control his bosses is a question for the future. After all, he would rather be on the side of them being more chaotic. A robot following directions to the letter is going to be a lot easier to beat than something going by whim and whimsy. It isnt like he wont be able to improve it and he has enough things to tweak on the floors being actively used. Though even in this short amount of time, more people have been making it down to the third or even the fourth floor if they get lucky with the mazeyout.
Of course, the ones able to make it the farthest are still the founders and less than a weekter, it seems like they are finally going to attempt to make a concentrated push. Ace is leading his group through the first three floors with more caution than ever. Doyle had seen them almost throw themselves into the early floors and never once did they bother to do more than explore the third floor, turning back the moment any of them got injured.
With this change, Doyle can feel a certain seriousness around them. Not that they were ever careless. All of the founders knew well enough that the dungeon wouldnt coddle them and death was possible even on the earliest floors if you werent careful. But this time it took them twice as long to make it through but they seemed to be more ready than ever as they entered the fourth floor.
As they began fighting the wolves, things went as usual. Decent teamwork from both sides made the fight a bit more even than Ace would want but it is at this point that Ace reveals his ace in the hole for this run. He had always been one for nature based magic and finally that has extended to healing. While it isnt the instant heal that Doyle had seen from Doctors spells, Aces magic got to the same ce if taking a bit more time.
Just a bit of magical word sd and a gentle glow on the wound elerates the healing process to an absolutely magical speed. Cuts close up like a zipper was being pulled and bleeding stopped in moments. While not exactly the best forbat healing, it was fast enough that Aces heal over time spell was at least a match for the rare healing potions that had been dropping.
This new advantage allows the group to finally break through into the final section of the floor, including a really nasty ambush early on where the three stone wolves ended up in close proximity to seven normal wolves. Still, the group manages to win, with only two of them being injured in a way that needed healing.@@novelbin@@
And this brought them to the first wolf rider. An encounter with six normal wolves and one kobold riding a stone wolf. Both of the main teams had already encountered this before but even after having fought here a couple times it was still a hard fought victory. Doyle hadnt meant for it to be so effective but like how the goat herders on the second floor having greater control over their herd, the wolf riders were able tomand their pack.
The kobold and their stone wolf stead dont even join in to start and yet the fight isnt easier for it. By staying back, the stone wolf has a near hundred percent chance to call on the three wolves just a room away. A nasty bit of work as slowly the teams had been figuring out methods to prevent the earlier fights from stacking up. This is particrly true for the eight rooms in a row where each room only has a single wolf.
Of course, the kobold knight doesnt hold back forever. As soon as the reinforcements arrive or a couple wolves die, it joins right in. The stone wolf providing a stable tform from which to assault the enemy with her spear. While not as protected as even some of the earlier kobolds, abination of spear and stone allows for a decent enough active defense that the knight tends to end up being thest enemy standing. Though at that point there isnt a chance to turn things around against any of the founders, Doyle can definitely see them mopping up some of the weaker teams.
Though in the time it takes Doyle to think that, Ace andpany have won the fight and fought their way further into the floor. A bit disconcerting for Doyle, but something he has noticed before and is something he has to work on. Whenever not much is happening he seems to mentally downshift where he takes longer to do things and tends to go with the flow.
It is not that he bes duller or anything. Rather, it just seems like the way a dungeon is able to pass the time without being bogged down by the potentially cosmic scales of time they deal with. The only problem is that Doyles dungeon is small enough that teams can get quite deep before he shakes it off. Plus, it probably doesnt help that even as a human he was never one to wake up quickly.
In fact, just thinking about that has skipped even more of Aces delve. Though Doyle does refocus soon enough to see that they got a lucky roll. The only ce where two ambush locations lead into the same room and one of the ambushes ended up being empty. A wee relief for Ace as that location can be an absolute show stopper if two teams of three show up.
After that, it is mostly smooth sailing as even with the random number of wolves the team is more than ready. The difficulty only picks up on the final stretch as kobolds begin to join in on every fight. Though the final couple rooms, along with thest ambush, is where the difficulty curve is thrown out the window. The main room itself contains four kobolds, two stone wolves, and five wolves.
And of course if there is even the merest hint that the fight wont be a pure curb stomp they arent shy about calling on the next rooms three knights ready on their mounts as well as whatever is in the final ambush room. This time around though Aces group is once again lucky with the roll. Just two normal wolves join in on top of the knights. A much more favorable oue than even a single stone wolf as one of the wolf-less knights is more than willing to mount up.
Outnumbered in ways they havent been since the original wolf pack Aces healing shines. While some might prefer an instant solution, the continued slow heal shows its most interesting aspect. Once all the current wounds are healed, it doesnt just go away. Sure, it wont linger forever but Ace is able to apply it to Jack after a minor scratch and wont need to go back to heal more unless something serious happens. Plus, the magic seems to focus on stabilization rather than fully healing everything. So even if it is already healing another wound, some of the magic will instantly be spent to stop bleeding and all the other small things that continue to add up during a fight.
Still, with five kobolds mounted and two on foot the fight is anything but easy. If it wasnt for the few loot drops that Aces group had gathered, it might not have been possible. The luckiest drop, though, was for Jack. Just the day before, he had gotten a bronze mace as a loot drop from the kobold camp on the first floor. Until then, he had been using the makeshift sledgehammer made from a metal pole with a clump of concrete at the end. Some of the crafters had carved it up a bit and wrapped the handle so it half escaped the fate of all pre-system gear but with that mace he could finally really show his strength.
A very useful thing when your opponents have literal blocks of stone growing out of them for armor. With every swing of the mace, Jack is able to knock off pieces of the stone tes while the others mostly provide backup. Though Susan is making quick work of the normal wolves and the most unfortunate kobold healers who didnt manage to bum a ride. Combined with Ace keeping everyone on their feet the group manages to grind out a win.
And grind is very much the correct word for it. Almost every stone wolf has had their front stone tes reduced to gravel. Jack can barely continue swinging his mace as thest kobold falls. Ace looks at the others and sighs, Two hours, do any of you think it will take more than two hours to be back in fighting form?
Jack giggles as Sammy guides him to the ground, Just a bit tired! What about you? Got enough healing left in ya?
Ace nods, The out ofbat healing takes a lot less out of me far as healing capacity.
Sammy yawns as she takes a seat next to Jack, We had a lucky run this time. I say we check if a chest pops up on this side and after a rest go and check out the boss floor.
Ruby shakes her head, We cant be certain that the next floor has a boss or that there even is a fifth floor.
Susan stands back up and walks into the next room to the protest of the others. She just rolls her eyes, We know this is at the very least thest enemies on this section of the floor. The map doesnt leave any room to the left and there isnt any hallway going straight through. Plus, Im the sneak. Let me sneak.
No one has a good argument against that and so Doyle gets to watch as for the first time the floors true reward pops up. He didnt have much control over the chest design at the moment but even the System realizes that the chest at the end of a floor needs some style. While it keeps much of the design from the one that pops up in the safe room, bronze decorations are reced with gold and silver. Even the wood is special with a pleasing grain pattern.
Of course, Susan ignores it and takes a quick look in thest two rooms. The first one is an empty ambush alcove while the second contains the portal. With clear evidence she yells back, All clear, just a treasure chest and a portal.
Ruby shrugs, Well, I guess there is a fifth floor. Whats in the chest?
Susan shakes her head, not that Ruby can see her, Ill have to open it to find out. Did anyone figure out how potential loot drops work with a chest?
Then before the others can answer she pops the chest open and answers her own question as two loot portals open up next to the chest. Nevermind, they just open up next to the chest. Im going to take a look and see what we have.
This deration grabs Doyles attention. As far as he can tell, there isnt a way to know what is in a portal without reaching into. And she just reaches into a portal and feels around before yelling back, Got a spear in the left! Then, after checking the other, And another spear in the right. I guess there wasnt much variety on those kobolds. Would have been nice if the healers had dropped a wand.
Ace and Sammy walk into the room and Ace sighs, Just because the dungeon has basically made the drops what the monsters are wielding doesnt mean that is the limit. Just look at the coins. You and I both know that no amount of shuffling through their gear would find those things until theyre dead. Anyway, I say Sammy gets one and the other goes to Og.
Everyone On The Planet – Chapter 154
Og turns his head to the side to look at Ace, something a bit hard for him to do as he is sprawled out t on the floor. I dont really need a spear?
Ace shrugs, Well, neither does Sammy. You two are just the only ones that would make any use of them. If anything, I would want you to get both of them as Im sure dungeon loot spears will do a lot more damage when thrown than your lead slugs. Nevermind the potential to pin a monster.@@novelbin@@
Sammy nods, I give up the chance at this to Og. He needs a couple of big guns for his throwing skill. Only so much you can do with pre-system lead.
Og groans, Fine, Ill haul around a couple fancy sticks.
And he hauls himself up and goes over to the loot portals and pulls out his new spears. Though he ends up happier with them than he expected. Instead of short or long spears, what gets pulled out is a pair of proper throwing spears.
Susan shakes her head, That is definitely not what I felt when I was fumbling around in there.
Og shrugs, As long as we get a clue of what is in there. We got lucky finding out you can check the loot portals out as long as you dont pull the item out.
Ruby frowns, I highly doubt that the same would work for the system reward loot portals.
Jackughs, As if it matters all that much. Not exactly swimming in system rewards at the moment.
Ace rolls his eyes, Maybe you might find something if you would check the quest boards in town hall.
Jackughs even harder, We all know that most of those are put up by you. It isnt exactly a secret yet.
Ace nods, But not all of them are. From chatting with Lily, Ive learned that you can sometimes find personalized stuff up there. You have to actually strive for it. The system isnt going to just pop up a quest unless you get in a lot of trouble like what happened with Sammy.
Jack shakes his head, Whatever. Is there anything interesting in the chest?
Ace shrugs before digging through the chest. Well, thats a lot of herbs. Oh, and a single box. Ive got to say, Kellys theory that it only drops a box if no one in the group had gotten one recently was looking solid. With this one though, thats out the window as we got one a couple days ago. Though how she even came up with that idea is a mystery. We havent exactly been delving this floor all that often.
Doyle rolls his core at this point. While interesting to listen in asionally, he had better things he could be doing with two hours than listening in on banter. Though because he looked away, he almost missed when Ace ended the break. As luck would have it, though, Jack wasnt quite ready for it either andined enough to attract Doyles attention back to the group.
Good thing he looked back when he did as it was just in time to see them step through the portal. The safe room isnt anything too impressive but Susan isnt all that happy with the tunnels. After taking a closer look at them, she turns to Ace, These arent dungeon tunnels.
Ace raises an eyebrow at this statement. Last time I checked we hadnt left the dungeon.
Susanughs at that, Fair enough, I guess that wasnt exactly informative. What I meant was these are tunnels created by the dungeon. One of my skills allows me to estimate how long ago something was done and everything else in the dungeon justes up as ineligible. Well, almost everything. The other exception is where the kobolds are mining out the ore.
Ace frowns, You suspect these tunnels have been mined out by kobolds?
Susan nods, I checked both the tunnels and that appears to be the case. Not only that but there are some signs of earth magic being used to smooth out the floor.
Ace sighs, I was half hoping that after thest floor we would have a wolf boss. Those kobold traps are too clever for my taste. With a guiding hand behind their nonsense? A nightmare.
Susanughs, Then you arent going to be happy about the fact they probably are patrolling the area. Not an hour ago, a group almost three times our size went through here. Not directly, thankfully. Going by the options you have, the first room of each floor is a safe room. Though, of course, the system isnt nice enough to force it to be a truly safe room. Any nonsense we drag back with us wont hesitate toe in to chomp on us.
Og chuckles, I wish I was as stealthy as you are! The stories you have to tell from following various undersized groups are hrious.
Ace massages the bridge of his nose, Yes, they are funny but we need to figure out what our n is. This new twist doesnt exactly fit into any of my ns.
Sammy shrugs, Just follow a tunnel and see where it goes. There isnt really any special strategy to it unless we are dealing with a maze.
Jack nods, If they are patrolling we should follow behind them. Either there is a dead end and they areing back towards us or they are going somewhere.
Ace sighs, Fair enough.
And the group moves out. Though they dont have far to go before the tunnel splits off. One way continues along the curve with the other tunnel branching off at ny degrees and through that one the group sees what they are dealing with.
Doyle is quite satisfied at the expressions they make as the giant area opens up. Though he does make note to nudge the kobolds to not put in a straight shot tunnel like that next time. They had apparently wanted to keep an eye on the one area they couldnt enter. As luck would have it for the group, the previous patrol was recent enough the kobolds arent too interested in it.
Ace gestures to Susan before pulling the rest of the group back around the corner. Susan rolls her eyes and walks into the giant domed room. Her stealth skill provides quite the cheat as she takes her time to explore the outer region. While she trusts it to let her infiltrate the inner region of the kobold town. What she doesnt trust is the dungeon to not cheat and just have the monsters automatically be alerted if someone goes too far in. Doyle makes special note of this worry when she brings it up to Ace and promises to put that inter.
With that worry out of the way, Susan gets down to exining what she can see. How there are five groups of fifteen patrolling around, herds of various kinds of cattle, and a wolf kennel. Of course, thatpletely skips the boss but she can only shrug and guess it must be in the center of the town.
Everyone in the group is worried after hearing the sheer number of monsters. Sure, there were a good number of wolves on thest floor, but they had all been spread out. This floor is basically all one big room so who knows how reinforcements will work.
Ace, however, has a n. While I dont think we arepleting the floor today we should be able to get in a few skirmishes. Those patrolse through here at regr intervals so we should be able to fight them without attracting too much attention. And if we fight with the safe room to our backs, we can easily run away as needed.
Ruby frowns, Going by thest floor the monsters should only be able to call help from a couple rooms away. However, I dont have a clue how such a rule will interact with the tunnels. Does it take actual distance into ount or will we have everyone swarm down on top of us because the big room is technically the next room over?
Jack sticks his tongue out, Meh, Meh I say! We fight one of the patrols. Dungeons arent impossible under the system and as far as I am concerned if the dungeon could just call down every single monster on us that wouldnt be possible. Way too much of a jump in difficulty.
Ace nods, I sort of agree with that. Lets retreat to just before the safe room and see whates our way.
The answer to that is nothing for a good fifteen or so minutes. While there are five patrol groups, they arent all out at once and while it doesnt seem like much, there are quite a few tunnels along the edge. The area around the safe room is just a bit sparse because the kobolds were a bit suspicious of the ce.
Once the next patrol doese by, the first thing the group sees is the front lineing around the corner. While not marching around like a military parade, the kobolds are better organized than expected. The five mace and shield kobolds lead with the four spear kobolds right behind them, ready to apply the bronze covered tip of their weapons to whoever they mighte across.
At that point, the kobolds notice the group is there and one of the spear kobolds lets out a squeak. They arent exactly expecting to find anyone after all. With how time is a bit wonky, it has been a while since they had first spawned in. Still, they know what to do and with a roar the kobolds form a shield wall with spears poking through.
Ace and his party ready themselves for a charge but these kobolds arent the only ones and now that the shield wall is ready the malese around the corner. This is important because those are the ones that get magic and each patrol has a couple mages hanging around.
Ace realizes the problem but doesnt get much lead time before sts of rock and fire start raining down on them. There hadnt been too many caster kobolds who werent healers so the slow gain in levels hadnt been overly noticed. Now though, even before any external bonuses, each of the kobolds have 29 agility and, more importantly, 31 wisdom.
While this doesnt necessarily make the spells hit harder, it does increase the difficulty to counter said spells by a lot. With Ruby being the only full time caster in the party, there is no way to lock down the spell casting, let alone do anything about the healer that is with the kobolds. Oh, and that wisdom also means Susan had the right idea to avoid the central area because it greatly increases the chance of her being spotted.
Ace had really wanted to fight them. It isnt like they hadnt just fought a simr number of enemies to finish up thest floor. If anything, the stone wolves riding knights were a tougher enemy. But that didnt involve advancing into ranged attacks against a fortified position. Because while the kobolds arent the biggest of enemies, a shield wall can still work if you do it right.
With a sigh, Ace tosses out a couple of mottled green spheres that burst into giant bushes. There isnt anything special about them and the enemies magic easily prates them but they do block line of sight. At least long enough for the group to retreat through the portal and out of the dungeon.
Outside, Ace leans up against the containment wall and sighs. They had barely made it onto the boss floor and got booted out by the normal monsters. Susan sees this and shakes her head, Dont let it get you down. Were still ahead of everyone else by a country mile.
Ace looks up with tired eyes, Everyone on the.
Upgrade Pack – Chapter 155
Doyle watches as thest person retreats through the portal and nods. The boss fight wasnt going to be cleared anytime soon. While the patrols wont hold them for long, the monsters in the town should do a fine job. But that isnt important at the moment. Just earlier, he had gathered enough sapient energy for his sixth floor. The siren song of building a new floor had called to him but he had wanted to see how people handled the boss floor before getting into it.
Though there is one other thing he has to do before starting on that. Doyle turns toward Allys room but pauses. He hadined about her spying on him and it didnt feel right to just barge in. From the floor nearby, he picks up one of his practice cubes and knocks on the entrance.
From inside a confused Ally asks, Whats with the knocking?
Doyle fake coughs, Well, I felt it would only be polite. I had a question and wanted to know if you would mind answering it for me?
Doyle can just hear Ally mumbling to herself before she answers, Were still in this together. Its about the only thing I managed to do alright.
Doyle responds, You helped with more than just questions and you did legitimately care about my wellbeing. That aside, though, Im about to make my sixth floor and if I remember correctly that will open up the option for people who beat the boss an option to skip to it. Do they have to actually beat the boss or can someone stealthy like the Barrais sneak to the portal?
Ally sounds a bit more upbeat. So yes, once they beat a boss floor they can skip to the next floor when entering the dungeon. A couple things with that, though. The first is that since we dont know when you will be getting your second boss, you could always put your next floor between the current fourth and fifth. This however only works while the boss floor is thest floor but it does let you put off worrying about them skipping for a bit longer. While I wouldnt advise pushing the first boss much further back than the tenth floor, it isnt the worst idea.
As for sneaking past the boss? Technically, at the moment they could do that but once you have an actual floor after the boss, it isnt an option anymore. Bosses are checkpoints and barriers for a number of things and a part of that is people cant get through the entrance to the next floor without the boss being defeated. Also, once you have the next floor, you will gain the option to limit how many people can be on the floor at a time. By default, it will be on and set to six. Thoughter on you might want to make a raid boss and so up the numbers for that fight.
Doyle notices something in what she just said. Raid boss? Whats that?
Allyughs, Im sure youve wondered at how many boss floors you will get in the future. The answer is, of course it depends. Even for a path with the same name, some of the oues will be different so no one can give an exact number. With that in mind, it is possible to end up with more avable bosses than you want to use. With five boss slots, you can make a raid boss. And the power isnt just that of a boss times five. Raid bosses are unique creatures with strange rules that will restrict both you and the delvers.
Doyle nods to himself, That is interesting. Though I dont think I will need anything like that in the near future. Anyway, how are you doing?
Ally stays silent for a time and Doyle is about to say something when she finally answers. I really was a bit of a brat. Its funny, you know? I lived in a Fae court, looked around, and saw how everyone acted. Told myself many times as I watched the stupid drama y out that I was different. I wasnt spoiled and I was going to go my own way. Yet here I was, given the closest to a clean break that is possible for me and I fall into doing simr things. Mind you, I was nowhere near as bad as the other. But that isnt really saying much. The Fae courts are a wild mix of hidebound rules,wyers andwless chaos.
Doyle sighs, No matter how much a child might want to escape the shadow of their parents it can be quite hard. You just escaped from your gilded cage so it isnt too weird that you fell back on something you understood for stability. What is important is that now that you know, to work on it. I wont me you for trying. Trauma isnt something that you just fix. All we can do is continue to live our lives to the best of our abilities. Even if it seems that for every step forward you slide back two that just means there was more to it than you thought.
Ally once again stays silent but this time Doyle can tell she doesnt have anything else to say. Doyle puts the stone block back down and focuses on making a new floor. While the idea of continuing to push back the boss floor is interesting, having the fifth floor as a checkpoint seems like a decent n as well. The first few floors are a decent enough bar for entry to weed out the ill equipped. Nevermind the fact that he would also be annoyed if it would take even longer for people to experience his kobold boss. She was everything he could hope for and her debut shouldnt be pushed back any further.
Decision made Doyle focuses on the pool of power and repeats the steps that have gotten so familiar to him. Expand the power, shrink it down, form the new floor, and push back the void to have some space to work with.
{Sixth floor dimensionally anchored
World Energy cap +3700 [Constitution(37) * 100]
Sixth floor spending limit set to 13900 [Previous floors limit(10500) + Intelligence(34) * 100]
Monster level cap updated
Post Boss floor level range adjustment
Post Boss Monster Upgrade Pack (10000we)
Quintessence debt paid back by 5}
Right away Doyle notices the level range adjustment. That hadnt been mentioned so he was a bit concerned about it but after a quick check things became clear to him. The sixth floors level range is 8 to 11. A bit of a jump, but it would make sense for the difficulty to get a bump after a boss. Especially when considering the kobold boss has a level of 13. He cant even get a simrly leveled monster for a couple more floors.
Though, on the other hand, even if the high end was set to match the boss, it would be a bit much. Going from five to ten would be a doubling of the minimum level. Of course, depending on the stat growth of the monsters that might not be too much but it would definitely make using masses of kobolds harder. Though even the goats would be quite tough at that point.
Doyle gets a bit of augh out of it when he realizes that the weakest enemies would be the assassin vines which just manages to be in the top three most expensive monsters. Though speaking of monsters, the monster upgrade pack being offered costs a good portion of his world energy pool. While cost doesnt have to mean it will be worth it, it also doesnt mean it isnt. The only annoyance is that he had just talked to Ally and doesnt want to return so soon. In the end, he decides to buy it if only because the way it is described makes it sound like he will get more in the future.
{Post Boss Monster Upgrade Pack
Random Quantity: 3
Choosing Monsters...@@novelbin@@
Myconid Sprout (Lv3), Assassin Vine, Wooden Goat (Lv3)
Myconid Sprout (Lv3) variant Lesser Myconid (Lv6) gained at level 20
Assassin Vine gains Rapid Movement skill at level 1 and +5 Agility
Wooden Goat (Lv3) gains improved wood, Wooden Goat Pattern and Wood Pattern both increased to level 30}
{Lesser Myconid (Lv6)
S[10] A[4] C[20] I[3] W[10] P[4]
Skills: Summon Paralysis Spore lv2, Summon Sleep Spore lv2
Cost: World Energy[150]}
Huh, Doyle looks at the monster upgrades and feels a bit sad that the pack can only be purchased after a boss floor. It even improved the assassin vine without increasing the cost or anything. Just directly gave it a skill for movement and more agility. Doyle cant help but imagine the surprise the delvers will experience aftering across them next.
Besides that, though, the other two are interesting in their own right. Wooden goats gained a better wood option but not an increase to their endure skill. Instead, it increased the pattern levels for both the goat and wood in general. Quite helpful as wood had beennguishing at level nine.
Though most interesting for Doyle is the myconid upgrade. Instead of messing with the pattern itself, he directly got a new pattern. And what a pattern it is. The lesser myconid is stronger, tougher, and interestingly enough smarter than the myconid sprout. While this cant be the only way, the upgrade was apparently one of the ways to get ranked up versions of the myconid.
Doyle sighs after thinking that. While true, it depends on the upgrade pack randomly choosing the current end point of the myconid line and then not doing anything else to it. But at least the lesser myconid has a new interesting spore to inflict on the delvers and he can see right away how it would be more powerful.
Paralysis is nice but still allows the enemy to think and potentially cast spells or activate magic gear if that is an option. Sure, right now no one has thought activated safety equipment but with how useful it would be it is only a matter of time. Sleep, on the other hand, removes that possibility. It isnt perfect, of course. Paralysis worked as long as the effect could manage. With sleep, all it takes is someone waking the others.
Satisfied with his purchase Doyle turns towards his newest floor. Going by the pattern the floor should be able to fit a square 42 small rooms by 42 small rooms plus a good amount of vertical space. The question is what to do with all that space. So far, his rooms have been ordinary. The boss floor is the oddest one of the bunch in actualyout, if only because of the giant dome. Everything else is just a bunch of jumbled rooms stacked together.
Most important though as with the creation of this floor something has started to dig at the back of his mind. This was supposed to be a strange cavern. While the cavern part is covered, he still hasnt really gotten into the strangeness. Now though, the system isnt going to be happy if Doyle creates just another series of rooms.
So of course the first thing thates to mind is screwing with portals and such. Already having portals for the entrance and exit the next logical step is to start using them within the dungeon. Of course, that is with the understanding of not using it to cheat too much. While it might be possible, killing someone but mming a portal shut on them isnt exactly in line with what Doyle wants.
Still, if anything, portals would make a new maze level even more challenging. He could retrofit the older levels with this new bit of fun andpletely change how deadly the maze is. No amount of wall following will seed if the ce did it right.
Teleportation Reference – Chapter 156
After some more thought, Doyle has an idea. Not quite a n yet as he has to figure out if inter-floor portals will work right, but that will just take some testing. With that in mind, Doyle focuses on the sixth floor to set things up. The edges had stopped expanding except for the almost passive growth he has going on, leaving an empty sphere that can fit a 42 by 42 square in the center. Though it does look like there is almost enough space to fit another room in but that can wait.@@novelbin@@
With a bit of creation, Doyle makes a square stone tform the size of a small room and after a touch of territory control it continues to float where he left it. A bit away, he creates another simr tform. And it is at this point that Doyle realizes he hasnt ever actually created a portal himself.
Before, it had always been a pre-set from the system. In fact, off floating in the upper region of the floor stands the portal to the fifth floor. Conveniently, the portal doesnt allow the transfer of air from the previous floor or else the current vacuum would have caused havoc up there. Though that might have more to do with the fact that the portals arent actually locked to any other specific portal, instead requiring the user to choose.
Doyle takes a mental step back and considers the problem. He can already make portals in theory. All he needs is to figure out which skill orbination of skills that will allow it. Of course, the obvious answer is territory control. It is what lets him move stuff around and tell the stone tforms to not move around. But it could also be a matter of dungeon rules. In fact, depending on how you look at it, creation might be the answer if he has to literally make them.
After a closer look at the floors entrance portal Doyle crosses off the use of creation. From what he can feel, the portal is more like a hole instead of a doorway that was built into space. So control or rules it is. Though the more he looks at the entrance portal, the more he wants to facepalm as he has clearly not been using the two to their fullest.
Everything in the dungeon could have been done by him and those two skills along with creation and deconstruction are the core skills that every dungeon core gets. Sure, they all have their own starting point but even outside of the system those are the basic features of being a dungeon. And while Doyle doesnt feel he has been under-using creation and deconstruction, the other two clearly are much moreplex than he suspected.
Though in the end, all he can do is try and see what happens. For something as basic as the entrance of his dungeon, now that he thought about the problem, cant be using multiple skills. With that in mind, Doyle guesses it has to be territory control. While maybeter on he can imitate a portal with rules, creation, or even deconstruction, the simplest way is to control how things work.
Enlightened Doyle wills the two edges of the tforms to be connected. And they are. A portal spanning the entire edge of both portals connects the two tforms into one. It cant be seen through and feels like it will act more like the floor connecting portals, he seeded. But it isnt quite what he wants so now he has to take a closer look and change things.
Doyle focuses on the portal and took a glimpse at how it actually worked. The floor to floor portals were simple enough from what he had seen. Just holes directly to another ce, but these cant work that way. A single hole is worthless if there isnt another space to connect it to. And yet the point-to-point portals are, in fact just a single hole! Quite unexpected as Doyle had guessed it would be a matter of two holes being connected except on the same floor.
After studying it a bit more, Doyle really wants to facepalm. He had even read a story before where a man who could speak to the dead and fought vampires used a simr manner of teleportation. By twisting space into a Mobius strip of sorts, a single hole can connect even the farthest points together. An interesting method though, Doyle suspects it would be out of reach for most and generally less useful as it relies on theplete control of the dimensional fabric. It is very doubtful if anyone else could even use this method within a dungeon besides the dungeon itself and even the least bit of spacial lockdown would prevent a connection from forming.
Though Doyle does admit it might be one of the more stable forms of gate if done in the dungeon manner. No matter how closely Doyle looks there isnt a hint of power, control, or rules being used to maintain the connection. Rather, space itself is now just shaped in such a way so that the connection is there. Even if a mage practiced in space magic came along, they would only be able to disrupt the portal itself and once they stop, it would reform.
In fact, the only power use rted to the portal is in making it act like one of the floor to floor portals. A simple act of will and the portal changes so that the ckness that blocked a persons view goes away and you can just step through it like an open piece of ground. No more hiding behind the illusion of there being a difference between one side and the other.
And the best part is that after a bit more testing he figured out that he wasnt too limited on the connections. He was able to make multiple areas connect and through rules decide which portal was open. All he had to do was ce the connecting area the smallest of distance in front or behind the previous, so they dont exactly ovep. Perfect for what has now sprawled out into a full-blown n.
Doyle pauses, Now what monsters to use for this? Im thinking grasnd with the asional tree. Though, do I have the pattern for grass? Ive been using clover for so long I kind of put that sort of thing to the back of my mind.
Doyle checks his patterns. Okay, I do have grass. A little low at level six, but then again a lot of my early stuff is still pretty low. I can tell they have progressed but they very much are a slow grind. It isnt like I am delicately crafting every single de of grass with an eye on improving them. Rather, the opposite, really. I probably get more experience to the patterns when I absorb the bodies as it lets my skill analyze what went wrong with them.
Now, back to the question of monsters. A grasnd can limit me some but I have a decent selection, anyway. Kobolds, hmm, maybe a small group but I have been leaning heavily on them. And of course, like a hypocrite, Im going to throw all the goats at this problem. Though for some variety and the fact the upgrade pack hit them, a few wooden goats would fit with the trees. Oh, and how could I forget? Since Im adding actual grass for the first time, I have to use the grassen goats, if only for their lore.
Then we can add all the appropriate cattle in. Regr, dungeon, mad, longhorn, earthen, and herb. Though just one of the herb cattle as I would feel bad for adding what might be a troll style regenerator in a field of grass. And on top of that variety, a pack of wind wolves because a wide open field sounds like the perfect ce to use them. Now I just need to set up the field.
Doyle nces around the mostly empty space and gives the outer area a nice coating of dungeon stone before pressurizing the area with the standard air mix. For this floor, he has a n to use the entire space and having a livable environment is a good start. After that, he starts to cut up the inner space into a number of levels with a ceiling height of about three times the usual. Even with that, he still has quite a bit of space to work with. Though he does ce the top and bottom level with more normal ceiling heights, as he has different ns for them.
Doyle pauses, Well thats obvious now that Ive thought about it. And then proceeds to reconfigure the space so that the levels are like a pixted sphere, leaving space around the edge so that only the corners get close to the outer region. After thates the clever bit. His n was to use the cut off bits as farm rooms but a lot of the space would have been wasted. Either from there being more room he could have used on the floor proper or from small unconnected bits of farm.
Now his n has a bit more magic in it. Or rather, a bit more dungeon logic. As after cing the levels, Doyle makes the gravity in the outer sphere region pull outward so the monsters can walk on the outside. Turning what might have been a very disconnected farming area into one giant field of its own. He can feel the gravity resisting him but that resistance dulls with time and he is sure that soon enough things will be locked into ce.
Satisfied with the farm area Doyle turns back to the giant levels of stone. For his n, he doesnt really have to break it up anymore but it will make it easier for him to understand things. So after a bit of measuring, he divides the entire mess into medium sized rooms using thin sheets of ss. He had no particr reason for using ss, but it did look interesting, which was enough for him.
With the various rooms marked out Doyle goes directly to furnishing them. A decentyer of dirt goes down first and then the real art begins. Knee high grass with a couple patches of three meter tall grass to break line of sight goes in. With the tall grass Doyle takes extra care to make sure they dont seem to be limited by the room or else things would end up looking like a grid and ruin the illusion.
After that are the trees. He just had the wood pattern upgraded and he wanted to see what that could do for him. Still a bit weird that he didnt have a tree pattern yet but for some reason the system seemed against giving it to him. Though that might have to do with a quirk in wood both being a material and a nt or some such.
All that aside, Doyle begins crafting his first tree. On the second floor, it had mostly been oak-like trees reaching straight up towards the ceiling. That was all well and good when dealing with a forested area but now he wanted that ssic look of a tree in the middle of a field. With that in mind, Doyle decides on a shorter tree, a thick trunk, and a wide canopy.
Now, an oak tree would fit that just fine as well, but Doyle wanted something a bit fancier. And what would be fancier than ebony? Sure, the outer bark of the tree isnt itself ck, it is a nice stately gray. But more importantly, if the town decided to use them it would really look amazing next to their bone theme. Though the fact they didnt try to log the trees on the second floor was a bit odd. Since they arent living trees, the wood is ready to use after being cut down.
Populating The Sixth Floor – Chapter 157
It takes Doyle a few hundred tries to get the ebony tree right. Mostly because he ns to only have one such tree, or rather one design copy and pasted across the floor. There is only so much space to put them so if they were all different people would notice soon enough. By making them all exact copies, people wouldnt be able to easily figure it out. Even if they leave marks, all finding a tree that was already marked would do is make them think they went in circles or something.
But there is only so much work he can put into the tree before he starts to rehash stuff and so with a burning desire to burn it all down and try again, Doyle spreads copies of his tree across the levels as well as a couple backups on the outer shell. There arent too many, but when spread randomly across the rooms he is able to get a good spread of possibilities.
That finished, it is now time for the mostplicated and mind numbing part of the floor. He isnt even going to attempt to do all the work at once and rather is just doing the minimum. What is the least he can get away with at the moment you might ask? Why, of course it is connecting each side of every room to the opposite side of every room. Of course, the end goal is to have every side of every room connected to every side of every room but that would take too long right now.
The only room that doesnt get this treatment is the core room, which is set up much like the other rooms except in the center is a stone cave with a small spiral staircase down to the core. Though this isnt the end of the portals. No, he needs a way to bring in the monsters. As luck would have it, this doesnt take as much work to set up as he can cheat.
All around the outer sphere Doyle ces portals connected to one side of a single small room he quickly whipped up. From there, it is a simple matter of connecting the opposite side to all the ces he wants monsters to be able to appear in. This shortcut cuts down on the actual number of portals by a fair bit. Enough so that it really saddens him to not be able to use the same trick on the room to room portals. It just isnt an option as not only might multiple people try to go through multiple portals but the rules will beplex enough already without the extra step.
That finished Doyle mentally steps back to take a look before sheepishly adding in one more detail. He had forgotten to put in a sky and lighting. While he could see what is going on perfectly fine, no one else would have been happy.@@novelbin@@
The sky itself is just a clear blue expanse without a cloud in sight. Then, with a little bit of work, he spreads out a bunch of small lights with ss set up to diffuse it and create a decent indirect light. But that isnt the end. He has one more fun little quirk for the sky. Doyle creates a ton of lights and sets them up as a pseudo-sun and sets a rule that it follows thergest group around the floor as if it was constantly noon. And just to mess with them more another rule is put in ce to make the area within a decent radius be just a couple degrees hotter. Not much, but enough to be noticeable.
Thenes the rules to make the floor work. This step takes longer than making the tree and that is saying something. Though in the end the idea behind it is simple enough. Connect up the portals in a way that things look like an infinite field. With the use of line-of-sight blockers like the tall grass and trees, it allow the introduction of monsters near the delvers without them being able to notice them popping into existence. And of course smartly reusing rooms so no matter how far in a direction they go there will always be more to explore.
Of course, the system wont let him make it so delvers cant ever actually reach his core. So instead Doyle sets up the rules so all the assigned monsters on the floor have to be beaten and that they are spread out by quite a bit. While with this, the floor takes after the wolf floor; he feels the differences are big enough as this is more of an endurance challenge instead of a race.
And while the system might prevent Doyle from making it impossible that doesnt mean he cant have fun with the delvers. So once a group has beaten all the monsters needed they first will pass by the exit portal. Just a big stone arch filled in with ebony wood standing in the middle of its area with the portal on the side facing away from the group as they approach it.
Doyle isnt too cruel about it, though. The distance to the portal will be just enough to reunite everyone on the floor. That way, they can decide to leave. Of course, the trick to it will be figured out eventually but until then Doyle can just tell there will be quite a few people who decide to finish their run right there. Of course, just a few rooms further would be his core room. The delvers just wont be able to see it though because of strategically ced nts to block that line of sight.
Though they would have to travel carefully or they might miss the core. Just because it was in a ce they can reach doesnt mean he has to force them down the correct path. Still, once again, he isnt too cruel. The exit portal will pop up for them every once in a while if they go the wrong way. If, however, they still wanted to find the core, well they would be out of luck. To reach it, they would have to perfectly backtrack to the original exit portal location that popped up after defeating thest monster and then go the right direction.
Doyle shakes his core and moves onto cing the monsters. He has 13900 points to spend and still no heavy hitters as far as cost is concerned so the farm should be able to keep the floor stocked. And with that in mind, he creates the monsters most likely to need a personal touch to respawn. A group of kobolds consisting of a couple sneaky club and shield users, a couple animal handlers wielding whips, a mage focused on buffs, and a leader with a bow. All of them decked out in leather gear and weapons made of ebon wood because why not. Oh, and its all loot.
Of course, with animal handlers, they cant be alone so besides the eventual pack of wind wolves, the kobold group also gets two to hang out with. Ignoring the wolves Doyle ces ten more kobolds with no specific roles in the farm area to raise the future generations. Then he decides to not ignore the wolves after all and ces a pack of 15. Six of which are an encounter, and another two to apany the kobolds.
Next up, Doyle ces some cattle. Three herb to allow for a single one to be roaming around on the floor. An optional discovery as it wont be counted towards the monsters needed to be beaten. That out of the way, Doyle cuts loose with the cows. 150 regr, 150 dungeon, 150 mad, 150 longhorn, and 150 earthen cattle. Of course, only 100 of each would be roaming around the floor with the other 50 mostly being cows so as to repopte the farm as needed.
Still, 100 of anything is going to be a bit extreme so Doyles splits it up into random groups with 10 to 20 animals each. Adding it all together the kobolds cost 800, the wolves 1,125, and the herb cattle only 78 so all of that spent only 2,003 points. The cows are the big spenders, with every single group costing more than a thousand points. 1,200 for regr, 1,500 for dungeon, 1,800 for mad, 1,650 for longhorn, and 2,700 for earthen cattle.
Those together total 8850 points and added to the other stuff makes 10,853 points spent overall leaving 3,047 points for his goats. To start with, he tried to fit 100 of the three types but strangely enough, the grassen goats cost more than any of the cattle and Doyle didnt have enough points left over for that. From there it took some shuffling but the numbers settled on 100 goats, 75 wooden goats, and 60 grassen goats. With 75, 50, and 40 of each respective type being avable for the floor. And like with the cows, they would be grouped randomly together with between 10 and 20 to a herd.
Though after seeing how beautiful the wooden goats are with ebony armor, he is mighty tempted to shift things more towards them. Still, he holds on and double checks the numbers for the goats. Though in the end, the final total came in under the floors limit. Regr goats together only cost 400 points, wooden goats came in at 1,050, and grassen despite having the least racked up a total of 1500.
Together that makes 2,950 points spent on goats, almost 100 points less than his limit of 3,047. Sure, he could try and spend it all but that didnt really get to him, so Doyle left it as it was. Better to be under than over after all. Though now he would have to think on how to deal out the loot.
The wolves already had some loot because of the rule he put in ce for the wolf floor. While a little stingy for the sixth floor, it should be fine for now. Though thinking about it, after the level up there are 16 points of wisdom not being used to automate anything. Not that he ns to use it on the sixth floor.
While some automation would be fine, the monsters should take care of respawning all on their own. The floor would be a waste to fully automate at the moment so Doyle puts that on the back burner and starts to throw loot at the animals. First is the herb cow, which gets to drop up to five of his current healing and resistance potions randomly including Mootas three special potions.
After that, all the cattle besides the earthen and the regr goats are left alone. Their natural drops and the general coin drop everything gets should be fine for them. Though of course the special varieties get a personal touch.
The earthen cows get to be a bit of a mixed bag. 90 of them are left alone like the other cows. Those remaining ten however get some more expensive loot to drop. Specifically, they can drop any piece of leather gear except made using the earthen cows on hide. While the leather is a bit stiffer, it makes up with how sturdy it is.
After that, the wooden goats are in a simr situation with ten of them dropping an ebony weapon or shield. This leaves the grassen goats. After thinking on them for a while, Doyle is half tempted to add them onto the wolves drop table and be done with. Mind you, he does add them to the auto loot, but that isnt the end of it.
Theyre supposed to have some awesome ancestors and Doyle would like to see how far he can get. To encourage them, he adds his first gold coin drops to them. A little pricey and he cant afford to do them all at once making it another background project. But after the first gold coin drops people will go crazy hunting them.
Lots Of Traps – Chapter 159
Doyle and Ally chat a bit more about his levels but soon enough he is back to finishing the sixth floor. With everything else taken care of and nothing critical happening outside, Doyle decides to focus onpleting all the gate connections. While it works, at the moment, all the rooms can only attach to one another in one direction. With more gates, the floor will be able to rotate each room making it ever harder to tell that it is all the same rooms over and over.
A week passes as he focuses on this before Ally interrupts him. Ace has been making attempts at the fifth floor every few days now, but they havent gotten much further. Today was different though because now Jim is bringing his team in to give it an attempt. While Ally admitted she didnt think they would beat the floor, it was their first attempt so she figured he would want to watch.
And she wasnt wrong. Ace was a known quantity, but Jim tended to keep his cards close to his chest. All of Jims serious training is done in the forest alone. And that doesnt take into ount the fact he has some real wild cards on his team. The only known quality is Jeremy and that is just because he has the same training as his wife, Susan. Bill and Tess at least are melee, which reduces the possibilities.
Kellinger? Aplete mystery. He uses magic, sure. But it tends to not be the mainstream, instead choosing stuff like the grease spell. Then, to really ramp it up we end it with Kelly. A magic researcher so who knows what nonsense she has now. Up till now, she mostly stuck to using magic that Ruby had already figured out.
You would think that with all the magic and weirdness they would outweigh Doyles caution of Jim. It doesnt and he proves right out the gate why this should be the case. He was barely on the fifth floor before he spotted the tracks of thest couple patrols as well an urate estimate of how long ago thest patrol was and how often they patrolled.
A useful thing as it lets him know that the kobolds are due back any moment. While the kobolds wont be entering the safe room, that doesnt stop them from waiting just outside for the party to leave so Jim gets everyone back through the portal to the fourth floor. Annoying for Doyle as it led to him watching them just wait around for about half an hour. They hadnt even been gone from the fourth floor long enough for the monsters to repopte.
It worked, though. About ten minutes before they re-enter the floor, a patrol went by and not just any patrol but rather a very annoying one. Of course, every patrol has a healer with them but this one was special. The patrol they just missed though had a double whammy of two healers and the second one was the bossspanion. To pile it on even more, the boss had ensouled the healers and hispanions.
This allowed them to use the soul stats and excellent Karma progression. An important addition as Karma allows healers to more easily heal their friends as well as increase the distance at which they can heal said friends. Not the most useful for a healer in a hospital or church, but amazing for a healer in a party.
Jim and the others are, of course ignorant of this. Or at least should be and yet Jim seemed to have known something. The way he examined the tracks and the knowing look raises Doyles hackles. Not that he can do anything about it at the moment.
While Doyle was worrying himself, Jims party had begun to explore the floor. Already knowing that the center is arge room they have moved along the edge to map theyout. An act that lifts Doyles mood as the week is almost up and the floor is going to change again. That and the fact that the kobolds just dug tunnels however they wanted so there are a lot of hallways that randomly end.
Then halfway around the edge of the floor, Jim and his party reach a point where no tunnels directly continue the path. To finish circling the floor, they would have to enter the center room. Doyle would have loved for them to try that, but Jim isnt an idiot. Being so far from the portal means there is a very real chance that if they get into a fight, their way out would be blocked by another group of kobolds.
Back at the entrance Jim begins to work. It seems that his time in the forest wasnt just used to improve his directbat ability. The kobolds on the boss floor hadnt even gathered enough energy to ce down traps and here Jim isying out a variety of them. Though the good news is that he isnt being quiet about it. He even pounds a few pre-system rock climbing spikes into the wall to put up ropes for tripping and clotheslining.
With all that noise, the kobolds decide to send out the next patrol early. Sixteen kobolds and a stone wolf head out from the town towards the tunnels. They dont rush but the group is definitely faster than the usual patrol speed. You could even call it arrogance on the kobolds part. If they had gone at a steady pace, the traps wouldnt have caught them. After all, it is sort of their specialty.
But no, they went into the situation expecting a fight like the previous one. In fact, it is the same group that forced Ace to retreat previously so they knew exactly how to go into the fight. Then the entire front row of shield kobolds tripped over one of the carefully ced ropes. The spear kobolds behind them are able to stop in time and the three dagger kobolds could have. Those three however did not, wanting to rush ahead for glory.
One of the dagger kobolds ends up upside down, hanging from the ceiling. Another tried to run ahead and ended up clotheslined. The worst off though is thest as an honest to goodness bear trap snaps shut. Of course, a pre-system trap like that normally wouldnt do too much damage. Except, of course, for the fact that the normal kobolds still only have four constitution. Oh, and Jim had covered the teeth of the trap with specially carved wooden spikes. While the trap isnt as effective as it would be if made now, it still hits above its weight group despite being mostly pre-system in make.
But dont think those shield kobolds are doing fine. Their shields mostly protected them but three of the five have fallen victim to wooden caltrops. Worse yet, most of the wounds are on their head as that was the part not covered when they fell. Sure, they had bronze helmets but that just means what did get through, went through the eye holes. Jims careful nning and knowledge of the enemy has proved itself as even what seemed like randomly ced caltrops are carefully positioned to cause the most damage.
The only way this could have been worse was if Jim had used poison. And he could have. The only reason he didnt was he considered it a waste of material. From his point of view, once the kobolds vanished after being killed he would get back all his traps without even a blood stain. Any poison used would just vanish or stay on the traps causing problems for him.
Of course, this isnt the Jim show so while the traps are effective the groups follow up is what really elevates thebat into a pure curb stomp. The healer kobold is the first to fall as Jeremy steps out from a hiding ce and decapitates the kobold before the first healing spell is even half finished. This isnt the easiest thing for Jeremy though but only because Kellinger was ready and had thrown down a wide swath of oil on the floor.
After the two mage kobolds manage to fall over as they try to back up from Jeremy, Kelly makes her presence known. Her spell finishes and the oil all pulls together towards the two mages, turning more viscous as it does. The movement only stops once it has all gathered on the two and solidified, binding them to the floor. Now, the oil is summoned so it wontst like normal oil would. But it isnt going to vanish before the fight is over so she doesnt worry about the details and instead starts on her next spell.
By this point, though, the shield kobolds have all died. Bill and Tess made short work of them as they advanced through the field of caltrops with flowing steps and urate strikes to the throat and eyes. The spear kobolds put up more of a fight as they were still standing and their spears gave them a bit of distance to work with. Just a bit though, so it doesnt look good for them.@@novelbin@@
The fight might not have been as much of a blowout even just a week ago but everyone is advancing at a high speed, whichbined with the kobolds carelessness made for a deadly mix. As Jeremy is finishing the two mages, the fully geared kobold leader on her stone wolf decides that discretion is the better part of valor. Without even a look back, she rides her wolf back the way she came at full speed.
A terrible decision, it turns out as the wolf does a nose nt and throws her off as it trips on a sneaky bit of rope that had risen up behind them. But even fully decked out in bronze gear the kobold, one of the bossespanions, is agile enough to recover. A simple flip into a rolling fall finds her down the hall and back on her feet. And this time, running away works a lot better as no more traps spring up to catch her.
The stone wolf even manages to escape with her. Though not before taking an attack from Kelly. Luck was with it though as she had been preparing a lightning spell to take on the kobolds and so it isnt as effective against the beasts stone tes as it would have been against the bronze armor. So, with a loud yip, it scurries after its master at full speed.
This leaves Jim and the others to clean up. Quite literally as Jim has to take some time to collect all his traps. Though he is quite satisfied with the results. More than half of them triggered when he had figured only a couple of them would get used. About the only disappointment was how many of the caltrops broke. Jim can only shrug at this as wood isnt exactly the best material to use. Most of them had shattered against the kobolds armor and while metal beating wood isnt as much of a surety with magic around, for the basic materials pre-systemmon sense still holds.
And while Jim is doing that Doyle has focused his attention on the retreating kobold. She wasnt the only one in the group that the boss had gifted with a soul, but she was one of the fivepanions to the boss. And while she wasnt working on a human level, she had improved.
The act of retreating when Doyle hadnt personally given that option was a sign. A sign that she was no longer just another of his dungeon monsters. That in some small way, she had be a person in her own right. And so Doyle watched as she remounted the wolf a few turns down the tunnel. And he watched as she retreated directly to the town.
Doyle Gets Worried – Chapter 160
And once the surviving member of the patrol, one of the bossespanions from the first floor, reached the town something else showed itself. For Doyles normal monsters, when they move around the other monsters just give way when needed. There was no thought to it, an automatic reaction. The kobold town was different.
When the kobolds on watch saw hering, they opened the gate so it was ready when she got there. Normal enough, except that isnt what they should have done. This wasnt one of the ensouled kobolds. It was just a normal member of another patrol and how it should have reacted was to wait until she had reached the gate before opening it.
To preemptively open the gate requires forethought and the mental ability to think beyond themselves. To realize that she was heading towards the gate and would want through when she got there. A strange event that makes Doyle feel sick. On the previous floors, he was fine with everything dying over and over because it didnt matter. The monsters had more inmon with robots than animals even if they did have the natural behaviors down.
Doyle would have even been fine if only the kobolds that the boss had ensouled were acting like this. They would survive being killed. These normal kobolds, though? If they had actually developed a mind of their own, then this became a problem.
With a shake, Doyle refocuses on the kobold as she makes her way towards the boss. All around her, the various kobolds make way while going about their day-to-day tasks. Technically, they dont have to do anything but at some point the pseudo-town had be a real town and Doyles stomach drops again. All around, the kobolds are ying with one another.
A quaver in his voice Doyle calls out to Ally, Hey, I might have a small problem on the boss floor. Can you look at this? The boss, of course, has a soul and her path means twenty of the other kobolds have been ensouled by the boss, but why are all the kobolds acting like kobolds and not dungeon monsters?
Ally sits up from her bed and pulls over one of the windows she had pushed to the side what felt like so long ago. A quick flick and it shows her the kobold town. Once there, she takes her time, telling Doyle to let her have some time to figure it out.
Worried, Doyle focuses back on Jims group. Though not much has changed for them except Jim has set up even more traps. In fact, it appears he is using this floor as an attempt to try out all the various traps he has been working on. A situation that before would have amused Doyle, but now worries him even more.
Then he hears it, from the town a noise made by something if you were charitable could be called an attempt at a horn rings out. Doyle looks over in time to see the gates open and two patrols leave at once, heading towards where Jim is. All Doyle can do is watch as with delvers on the floor he cant give even the simplestmand.
He tries despite having been told this would be the case, despite having experienced it before. Oh, did he try. But sadly, the delvers caused too much interference,pletely blocking out his attempts tomunicate with the kobolds. It is at this point that Doyle realizes that while the system recognizes the restriction, part of being a dungeon just means he wont ever be able to get around this. It isnt some system enforced bit of bncing.
So he watches, watches as things go quite differently. Forewarned is forearmed and the kobolds definitely know that there will be traps. They might not know what type of traps are now there but the knowledge they are there is enough. Despite having more kobolds, not a single one gets caught.
Jim might be decent at setting traps, but kobolds are naturals at it. Maybe if he had time to get it all right he would be able to sneak something by them but for a rushed job when the kobolds are being careful? A fools errand.
The traps do one thing for Jims group, though. It allows them to see what force they are now facing and they arent stupid. They heard how Aces group fared against a prepared patrol and here is double that, ready for the kill. Jim might be cursing about having to leave his traps behind but that doesnt slow him down as his group retreats to the portal and out of the dungeon.
This brings Doyle a good bit of relief. One patrol was already destroyed and Ally hadnt gotten back to him yet. Though thinking about her, he turns his attention back to the town. Not really in the mood to think about it too much Doyle focuses on respawning the kobolds. This, however, just brings his attention back to the problem.
The healer and one of the spear kobolds spawn in and clearly know what is up having been ensouled by the boss. The other 13 kobolds however stand around as if at attention, waiting for an order or the next delvers to arrive.
Freaked out Doyle turns away from the floor and sinks his attention into the sixth floor. Working on the small details and getting the grass to match up at the edge of the rooms. Doyle is so lost in this that it takes Ally yelling at him to get his attention.
With a huff, she exins her findings. So I can see why you are worried. Since you obviously didnt stay around after spawning in the new kobolds, you would have missed what happened with them. It took a while, but eventually the other kobolds interacted with them enough and they started to act like a natural kobold.
Now I can promise you one thing. They arent ensouled, gaining a soul, or even close to having any soul like qualities. I discovered something that I think most people have missed about kobolds, at least the variety you have in the dungeon. Not that I assume Im the first to discover it. Though this might be the result of your bosss soul and not a part of the bloodline you have ess to.
Anyway, your kobolds are low key psychic. Not in the usual manner, though. Rather, the kobolds create amunity around them with the other kobolds. Your normal kobolds arent smart. Rather, your ensouled kobolds are projecting themselves into them. It took me a lot of in-detail observation and I doubt they realize it themselves, but there are only 21 personalities in the kobold town. Each one a near perfect copy of either the boss or one of the 20 ensouled kobolds.
And you know what? I suspect the only reason I was able to notice this is because they are dungeon monsters. Out in the wild, each kobold would have a bit of their own personality just like animals do. I would be willing to bet that a wild kobold affected by one of the ensouled would end up as a mix of the wild kobolds traits and the ensouled kobold. It is just that dungeon monsters are like a nk te. Even if they act natural when delvers are around, your monsters act like mirror copies otherwise.
Doyle sighs, I dont know exactly how to react to this. On one hand, continuing to use them as monsters isnt a moral dilemma anymore. While creepy, they arent people, as it were. On the other hand, knowing the truth kind of takes away some of the magic.
Ally raises an eyebrow, Some of the magic? Youve got psionic monsters on your fifth floor. If anything, there is more magic than ever.
Doyle shakes his core, Literal magic isnt as magical as what had seemed to happen. At our level, magic is a solved thing. Maybe not by people at our level, but those true immortals know enough to make the system. That has to require some in depth knowledge of magic that borders on all knowing.
This, however? I have kobolds that act like real kobolds. As if they had soul kobolds. Instead, it is just a matter of copied material. Sure, it is a mind being copied or at the very least used as part of a temte. But like I said, a known quantity.
Ally nods, I can definitely see that. But I feel this might be the better oue for the floor itself. You have a few kobolds that have been ensouled and those few will be able to pass on theirbat knowledge to the others. You can focus on just training the boss and her twentypanions instead of trying to get every kobold up to snuff.
Doyle thinks about it for a moment. Yeah, I can agree with that. Still would have been cool to have a true vige in here.@@novelbin@@
Ally shrugs, You never know what the future may bring. The boss may advance her path again and gain more slots. In fact, going by how the kobold town has developed that or something simr is almost assured.
Doyle pulls up an overhead view of the kobold vige. That would be nice. They seem to currently have things worked out so I cant exactly go and make changes now.
Allyughs, You can always make changes. The ensouled kobolds wont mind and the normal kobolds will just react in the same way as their copy does.
Doyle sighs, I must admit, Im probably making this a bigger matter than it needs to be. I have been a dungeon core for less than a year and the idea of having sapients just living in my body is odd.
Ally nods, I can see that. Though having a bunch of them this early on is weird as well. A normal dungeon would only have the boss and yet yours brought along family. Really just a strange circumstance as a whole. Anyway, Ill keep an eye on the kobold town for now in case anything changes.
Doyle rolls his core back, Thank you for that. I have tedious work to do on the sixth floor and I cant exactly put as much attention on it as I should. Just the fact I have managed to keep the floors stocked is a near miracle as it is.
Satisfied that the mystery of the kobolds is solved for the moment, Doyle turns back to the sixth floor but cant quite manage to focus in on it. Instead, he felt an urge to check on the town and seeing as enough strange things had happened today, he decided to indulge the worry.
Doyle looks outward just in time to catch Jim talking to Ace about the boss floor. They had apparently already figured out that the floor changed though they didnt know the timing. But that isnt important enough to attract his attention. Still worried Doyle looks further outward, moving his viewpoint to the edge of his influence, a much expanded area since it was disconnected from his energy well.
Then he sees it. Off in the distance, arge group of people can just be seen cresting a hill. While Doyle doesnt have a clear view of who they are, he has a guess. It honestly hadnt been that long, but still felt like forever. It was the rest of the original people returning. Jan was finally back and Doyle suspected she wasnt going to be happy.
Of course, Ace wasnt going to just roll over and give her any position of power. But on the other hand, who knows what opportunities they might have found out there. Most people travel in small groups because with too many people you would just be attracting trouble. And here they are, with hundreds of people all gathered together. In fact, as Doyle watches he has a distinct feeling that there are more people in the group than had left.
Quite A Few “Leave” – Chapter 164
It takes a week after the incident with Jan for things to calm down again. Not that it fully settles, of course. The only thing settled are the few hundred new people as it is amazing how quick magically enhanced crafting is when you arent trying to make the best of the best. So while the less than thirty core members of the settlement are still working on their houses, everyone else is already proud owners of what pre-system would have been considered high quality, if rustic, two-story houses.
Just regr everyday houses that admittedly will likelyst a good bit longer than any pre-system untreated wood structure. Though that would be a bit of an unfairparison. While the people in charge of woodcrafts had found that wood unchanged by maniption magic would create better results, that isnt what they went for with these houses. Instead, they had those capable of wood shaping magic went over all the pieces and did a quick treatment.
It wasnt anything tooplex. They expelled any foreign matter from the wood, straightened the grain, bnced how dry the wood was, and then sealed the outeryer. The wood would never be good for true crafts, but Ace wasnt exactly up for giving the new people something that valuable.
When Doyle had noticed the difference between how the wood for the core area and the outer area was treated, he had asked Ally. However, instead of just rattling off the equivalent of an encyclopedia page, she encouraged him to take a closer look and try to find out the difference himself. Though she did point him towards looking at the flow of world energy through the materials.
With that hint, it still took him a couple days to figure out the difference. Every extra step of magical treatment, the flow would slow and be stifled. As he looked closer, the reasoning became obvious. Just like wood has natural channels for water and nutrients to flow, it also has qualities that allow the world energy to smoothly flow through it as well.
Each new treatment would leave behind the very thing Doyle ate, the magical cruft left behind by the touch of a sapient being. So while the step to straighten the grain might have increased the physical strength, it left a jagged flow as the world energy would be disrupted. The more processed the wood was, the more clogged it became.
This also allowed Doyle to realize what made a masterwork and why everything a dungeon makes, no matter how low quality, is a masterwork. It was all about having as little of that cruft inside the final product. Because while they didnt do all the processing on the wood for their houses, just the act of crafting the nks left behind some cruft. However, the higher the skill, the less there was and what was there acted more like a speed bump instead of a boulder.
So of course everything made by a dungeon would be a masterwork. There isnt any cruft to begin with. Besides that, though, Doyle was most amused by having proved a number of pre-system bits of magical knowledge. All the various things such as adder stones had new meaning when you realized that natural materials would more easily conduct world energy.
Though just because a stick didnt have a craftsman cruft in it, didnt mean it was a masterwork. As long as a universe had sapients in it, the cruft would get everywhere, like sand at a beach. Part of what a crafter does is smooth out the roughness as only dungeon produced goodspletelyck the stuff.
Question answered, Doyle reports back what he found to Ally. With a smile, she congratted him before adding a few things. For instance, the much vaunted natural treasures people find out in the wild are the result of special nts and situations that filter out the cruft. Even something as impossible as a stone sword floating in the center of a giant geode is entirely possible. And the sword, even unrefined, is a high quality artifact. Such urrences are just a universes unthinking reaction to souls.
And while Doyle found this all interesting and would have liked to ask for more information, he controls himself. Ally has been doing good so far but it has only been about a month. While it would be nice if everything could just heal, he can still feel the distance between them. So instead he turns back to the town above as drama runs rampant.
There is no overt violence, especially once the neers realized how powerful even the weakest of the towns core was. But still there is unrest. While Jan and her fighting force had all died, there were still people who believed Jan was the better leader and so they fought back against the town from the shadows. About the only thing safe ironically ended up being the one ce that could be said was the true target, the inner circle itself.
The towns core might not have 24/7 surveince, but as if by magic, anyone attempting to get into the inner area of the town would be met with a guard. And by as if what Doyle means is, through actual magic. It was a bit of abo system. Kellinger had dabbled in fortune telling, which, while very inurate even with magic behind it, had a low enough number of false negatives to be worth checking once a day.@@novelbin@@
The real kicker to the system of rms however is a clever bit of work.While they dont have the money nor skill to make a masterwork wall, that didnt stop them from using a cloth string to channel a simple spell someone picked up in the tutorial. The spell was easy enough to understand. Just have a specific marker around a parameter and the spell will warn you when someone crosses it.
Scale it up and use a few mages to charge it, boom, a city scale warning system that even the weakest user of any supernatural power will notice from a good distance away. Though what do you expect when youre jamming an absolute ton of power into a string? The good news is that none of Jans cultish followers were of the magical bent.
What would be worrying to the rest of the neers is how those caught trying to sneak into the center area would get a one-way trip into the dungeon. For a group of people who avoided magic, this was a quick way to die. Not that the Barrais left any of this up to chance. So, while they didnt kill them, they stuck around to make sure they didnt live. Though being careful such that they wouldnt have to lie about anything if asked.
But through this all, Ace could tell things werent getting better. Even if they had managed to weed out many of the craziest, it wasnt just Jans teachings that caused trouble. The very fact he had separated the new people from the towns core members did exactly what he expected. It caused them to feel like second-ss citizens. With good reason, they were, after all, exactly that.
Ace wasnt going to change it either. He had originally nned to let some others into the inner circle. And while hard on the few hundred new members of the town, they had just been on foot for weeks and so were grumpy. But Ace doesnt want people who react like they do. Sure, it was hard, but Ace is of the theory that how you act in the hard times shows more of a person than how they act during the good times.
Doyle is perfectly fine with how Ace is handling things. Though that might just be with how they kept feeding him the undesirables. Morally questionable? Sure. But Doyle doesnt really have much of a foot to stand on when he is literally a murder hole. Plus, he is killing enough of the neers just from them being forced to enter his dungeon for food or leave.
There are, of course enough people who choose to leave, ironically most of the people that leave were those that had originally been from the settlement. Even so, as time passes even the dungeon newbs have gotten their feet under them. While Doyle hadnt kept an exact count, it was easy to tell that only around two hundred of the neers were left after another month had passed.
Some of them had left, but enough of them had died in the dungeon that Doyle was just a smidge away from being able to create his next floor despite how little the unleveled and unskilled gave him. But with things settled and the discovery of the fact that the first floor suddenly had more instances meant deaths had dropped off to pre-Jans return levels.
Sure, the people in the outer ring still had to send people into the dungeon to hunt. But they had figured out a system so that only the people who want to fight would have to do it. Though even those people arent advancing quick enough to start exploring deeper floors and are overall unwilling to truly risk it. As Ally put it, theyre just another type of farmer. The crop might be monster meat, but at this point with their skill the goats are only about as dangerous as a pre-system goat would be to a pre-system person.
But Doyle had a feeling he wouldnt have to wait long for his seventh floor. While Ace hadnt been the most regr in visiting the dungeon. Jim had been grinding away at the boss floor. And even though his team hasnt gotten much further, they are more than able to handle the first patrol thates by and a significant part of the response before they have to retreat.
Of course, Doyle doesnt want them to beat the fifth floor quite yet. But every time the team puts in so much effort and fails, he definitely gets quite the payday. So even if no one else tries to delve, Doyle estimates it will only take two to three more attempts on the boss floor before he has enough.
For now, however, Doyle forces himself to keep his attention on other things. If only to keep his head on straight. Still, it did mean that he got sufficiently filled in on what they nned to do over theing year. Biggest on the list though wasnt even rted to the dungeon. Instead, they wanted to focus on perfecting the inner ring. Because while that early warning line looks secure enough, the town needed proper magical defenses. Anyone with even a smidge of power would be able to walk right in. though it would take considerably more power to do so and remainpletely unnoticed.
Though for that to really start, Ace would need to force everyone in the inner ring to just leave well enough alone. Every single building could have been finished just over a week ago if that was the case. Instead of being stuck with that new building, everyone was having a fun time altering most things about it. Never before had any of them been allowed to build an entire house, let alone one they are expected to live in.
Start Of The Seventh Floor – Chapter 165
It took three more attempts on the boss floor before Doyle was able to start on his seventh floor. A bit off from his expectations but that is because the Founders changed their goal on the fifth floor. Instead of each dive being a proper attempt to conquer the floor, they instead started to try and feel out how the various enemies responded.
The first attempt by the town at actual strategy instead of depending entirely on tactics. To be fair to them, they didnt need to strategize on the previous floors. They could just roll on through and curb stomp the enemies. Even the wolves were more of a matter of learning a gimmick instead of needing an actual n. After all, there isnt much thought behind kill it before its friends arrive. If the rest of the dungeon hadnt been so segmented by room, they likely wouldnt have had so much trouble on their first attempt.
The change worries Doyle as his sixth floor is technically just smoke and mirrors. Sure, it would take something special to break through the portals but he doesnt put it past them. But overall, that just means he needs to fix that with his seventh floor and he has the right material to do it. The dungeons version of Applied Phlebotinum, Strange Dungeon Stone. Capable of doing almost anything but so gosh darn expensive.
From how Doyle understands it, other dungeons that arent based on twisting space into a pretzel would use it to make portals and such. He, of course, doesnt need it for that, but that just leaves everything else. Over thest week various experiments had been done and the main problem was obvious but also the incredible uses.
A simple enough example is that he wasnt yet able to temp control an area such that magma would stay molten. The SDS was more than capable of putting out heat in any direction he desired such that stone didnt stay solid for long. Try to have more than about a square te with sides a meter long and a floors passive energy use spikes like mad. Worse, it counts all the SDS on the floor so he cant just have a bunch of small hottes spread around to keep a magma pool liquid.@@novelbin@@
That did however mean that certain effects would over-perform on a cost basis. A small marble of the stuff set to continually suck in air could, in theory, reduce any sized space to a vacuum if given long enough. Sure, if someone created a bunch of air it would take just as long to clear the area but it provides some fun uses. And with those limitations in mind, Doyle reached into himself once again and pulled out the power, sunk into the void, and established a new floor.
{Seventh floor dimensionally anchored
World Energy cap +3700 [Constitution(37) * 100]
Seventh floor spending limit set to 17300 [Previous floors limit(13900) + Intelligence(34) * 100]
Monster level cap updated
ssic Mystic Energy Storage pack 50000we
Quintessence debt paid back by 5}
Seeing the strange pack being offered Doyle turns to Ally to ask her about it only to find her in the core room with him. So, uh, do you need something? Youve never exactly been one to leave your room.
Ally shrugs, I noticed the change in scenery. Been a while since yourst floor. Though I guess it was inevitable things would slow down. You cant exactly be making a new floor every few days.
Doyle nods his core, True enough. While the cost to make a new floor isnt rising fast, it isnt the easiest to get the human sourced world energy. At least not as easy as I thought it would be. Seems that it only counts energy gotten by damaging someone and not just the general exertion in the dungeon. And even then, not all injuries are worth the same. Anyway, with the new floor I was offered the ssic mystic energy storage pack for 50k world energy. A bit pricey, but the name interests me.
Ally smiles, As it should. While 50k is expensive, the system should allow you to slowly pay it overtime instead of requiring a lump sum, especially seeing as you cant actually have that much world energy right now, anyway.
But yeah, what it is talking about is stuff like mana crystals, spirit stones, karma stars, monster cores, bloodstones, and the odd lotus that stores prana. You likely wont get everything but If I had to guess the system is likely to just give you what people currently use on earth right now. With that in mind, the likely ones will be for mana, qi, monster, and life. Though depending on how close some of the eastern locations actually were to certain practices, you might something for prana.
Doyle dims, Why does monster get its own category and what is prana specifically? I heard of it in reference to Buddhism and Yoga but there it just means something like life force or breath in general.
Ally nods, Monster is simple enough and has more to do with that being the polite term. Non-sapient monsters arent going to be picky and only absorb mana from the air, or some such. Sure, a few species will be picky but that is the exception. The so-called monster energy is a melting pot of every other energy avable in the area.
Mind you, it is a unique energy type. You cant just mash all the various energies together and expect it to work. But on the other hand, most people will look at it as more of a degraded or corrupted version of world energy. Your world is too new to the mystical powers for natural monsters to have cores yet so dungeons will likely be the only course for the next few decades.
This is important because while they are hard to use for training. The cores make excellent power sources for general purpose magic items that arent enchanted. Want a magic lighter? Only the rich will go through the trouble of getting the body made as a masterwork so it can be enchanted. No, the waymon people manage it is runes and a core to draw energy from. As long as the core isnt used up, it will be able to slowly recharge off of whatever energy is around you.
Doyle coughs, an entirely false construct seeing as he doesnt even breathe, but it gets Allys attention. This is interesting and for cores alone the pack would be worth it. The various uses might even be why the pack was offered in the first ce. But youve not gotten to my second question. While I dont have much else to do for the immediate future as the seventh floor fills out, but I do have other things to do.
Ally nods, Got into my info dump mode again. Anyway, both prana and qi when they coexist on a world will im that their side is the source of the other. The reality of it is something they seem to have a hard time understanding despite a supposed focus on the bnce of things and yin yang. I wont go and say one is the yin to the others yang but only because that would imply things about their rtionship that just arent there.
Sure, there are some generalities to the two that I can mention. Qi tends toward the physical while prana is more spiritual. They both require a bunch of meditation to gather properly. And taken to the extreme both have terrible oues. Unfettered qi is a nightmare of power hungry, self centered, individualism. Unbound prana results in neglect and a sameness that ends in bing one with the universe except what you actually be a part of is a prana fueled afterlife.
But those are just the extremes. In moderation, you have martial artists and monks, wise teachers and preachers, and of course protectors and defenders. Qi and prana, two sides of the same coin and yet eternally separate. Your world should definitely have qi but I will be interested to see if prana is around as another generalization is that young worlds tend towards qi, while the older ones end up favoring prana. Even before the system came, your world would count as quite young and post system? Well, civilization has been set back quite a bit.
Doyle nods, That is interesting. I have to wonder if any surprise powers will pop up when I buy the pack.
Ally shrugs, Chances of you not getting something unique is nearly zero. Those things I listed are just themon ones that you can find on basically every world barring special circumstances. Every ce will have its own unique quirks. Well, not unique per se, but most certainly rare. Hard to get anything truly new under the sun when you start taking into ount the void and how even true immortals traveling at mind breaking speeds cant reach the end.
Not that it will be useful. Despite how games like to portray it, rare does not equal powerful. Youre just as likely to have a couple versions of mana, but not. Mana is an omnipresent power because of how general it is. You can have fire mana, you can have divine mana, and if you really want, you can have anti-mana. But in the end, it all is covered by mana.
An example of what you might get is a mana mimic that only works with fire. You would think that something so specialized would be powerful but it isnt. Mana is a transcendent power in most universes, which means it can take any of its aspects to normal immortality. Even if the specialized copy cat can reach that far it will never surpass mana.
Doyle coughs again, I think you might be a bit wordy after not being able to talk as much. While normally I would be up for listening, the floor has filled out and I want to y. I have a rough idea of how to y with the new floor but nothing is finalized.
Allyughs, You arent wrong about that. Beforeing here, I had no one to really talk to. Well no, talk at, I had no one to talk at. Even the maids would leave if I tried to talk their ears off. Thankfully you dont have ears to worry about losing.
Doyle chuckles, I can see it now. You really get going and the sides of my crystal just fall to the ground and shatter. But yeah, maybeter. As time passes an urge to get going builds. Feels like another instinct I wasnt aware of is kicking in. Would make sense as well. Dont want a dungeon to make a floor and then leave it empty. Even if this isnt a natural part of being a dungeon, the system is doing its part instead.
They go back and forth a couple more times but soon enough Doyle is focused on the vast area he now has to y with. An area that can easily fit a square of his small rooms with 45 to a side. Seeing as each room is about three meters to a side, that means there is 135 and change meters to y with.
This isnt actually all that much space though when taken as a t area. About a fifth bigger than a ball field. Not that Doyle would swear by that. He wasnt the most sports minded of people. But he could fix things so there was a lot more usable space. Not as much as the sixth floor, but that floor cheats for it. Though the answeres from there.
Just Smoosh Them Together – Chapter 167
The only problem with Doyle wanting to use the sound of a hurdy-gurdy was he didnt have one. As luck would have it, though he had at one point got excessively interested in them and their history. So while he couldnt make a perfect copy, what he could make would get the sound he wanted. And it isnt like he would be personally ying the thing. Rather, the sound would mostly be automated and more of a constant drone instead of music.
Doyle takes a dive into his memory to dredge up the workings. The simple shape of it was easy to remember. Like a string instrument that lost most of the neck, and a hand crank at the bottom. Then you stick a box on the front with some key things sticking out of it and a wheel below that.
It was the wheel that mattered and took way longer than Doyle wanted to admit to remember that it was resin covered. Well, rosin covered but all that means is a solid form of resin from pine trees and simr. That was a deep rabbit hole from the past. Anyway, the rosined wheel acts like the bow of a violin. This is actually what causes the creepy droning sound it can make. Unlike a bow that has to be drawn back and forth causing stops in the sound, the wheel just spins. Maybe faster, maybe slower, but never stopping.
Of course, there are other things involved such as the empty space inside that allows it to resonate, plus presumably other noise affecting bits and pieces. But Doyle feels he can ignore most of that stuff for now. In fact, he can ignore the keys as well. All there needs to be is the strings, wheel, and resonating chamber. None of which are of any difficulty for him. Even the wheel spinning is made easy through the use of strange dungeon stone.
Since all he wants is a spinning motion, the stone will be quite efficient, spinning on practically no energy. With that nned out all that is left to test some things. The strings are made with goat gut creating the ssic catgut cord. Yes, the name is catgut and yes they were usually made with goat guts. Then the rest of the body is wood. Not one specific type, but rather a variety to get different sounds out of them. Though for the rosen, Doyle uses simple pine sap with the vtile liquids removed. And for the wheels size? He varies that as well.
The only problem from all his experiments with the pseudo hurdy-gurdies that he made is there are too many for the floor. While there is a decent amount of space to y with, sound can travel quite the distance. Then it hits him. While it can travel arge distance, he happens to have a bunch of fog on the floor already that messes with sound. With a small tweak, any noise made by his hurdy-gurdies will now fall off quite quickly past five or so meters depending on the thickness of the fog. Though even the thinnest amount of fog will still cut the noise off soon enough.
That solved, Doyle begins to ce them all over the floor, using the variability of the drop off to create interesting effects. The nned ovep causing strange shifting areas where you can hear multiple of them fading in and out with the fog. As Doyle takes a mental step back from the floor to observe, he has tough. While he wouldnt ever want to use zombies, a floor like this would be perfect for them. Strange moaning instruments, odd structures, and an omnipresent fog covering the area? Just the recipe for an old fashioned horror movie. Though he admits to himself that the actual structure of the area lends itself more to lovecraftian nightmares.
As he thinks of that, Doyle shifts over to the next part, the monsters. As it is, most of his current creatures dont really fit and that is a problem. He could flood the floor with kobolds but that doesnt feel right. After taking a step back and thinking over his options again, though a few stand out. Of course, the kobolds, but also the assassin vines, lesser shadow wolves, and the myconids.@@novelbin@@
In fact, the lesser shadow wolves and the myconids fit the floor supremely well, at least in his mind. Though for the wolves Doyle does need to finish one other step, the lighting. With all the fog on the floor, he is going to need quite a bit more than any previous floor. Maybe even more than all the other floorsbined if he wants it to be even half lit. The only problem is making sure that when the fog is thin it doesnt look like high noon. An easy enough thing for him to fix luckily as he has to ce even more lights but make them all dimmer than usual. Or rather, just use less of his magical LEDs in each light blob.
Lights out of the way and the floor is even more perfect for the lesser shadow wolves than Doyle had expected. With the odd geometries and strange spaces, the light casts shadows that seem to almost shift despite nothing moving. The very way the light has to travel through some areas warping rays into curves and angles.
As Doyle preens over his work, an idea wriggles into his mind. Every single floor up until now has had kobolds on it. Does he really want to be so predictable? Even his goats arent on every floor.
Doyle shakes his core, of all the floors this one screams kobolds because of the structures. Every other floor was more of a natural setting. Now that he has finally made a ce with actual sapient style structures, it was the perfect time to not use them. At least for the first few dives, theck of kobolds should really confuse the delvers.
Though this does create another problem for him. The only magical support is going to be the lesser shadow wolves and they are quite limited in what they can do. The magic they do uses more instinct than spell. But the more Doyle looks at the floor the he is okay with it.
If he seriously tried to put together an all star caster team for the floor, it would cause a massive difficulty spike. Maybe not as much as the fourth to fifth floor but already building off of the heightened difficulty, it would be a problem. So sticking with just a few magical wolves should be enough.
However, before bothering to ce any monsters, Doyle decides to work on the farm because he has a n for the myconids. And of course, what better ce for the farm than the giant solid sphere in the middle of the floor? So after a little work said sphere has had a number of rooms hollowed out and a proper farm zone put in ce. While the previous floor could handle not having such a thing, everything on this floor is going to be expensive. But first, the test.
Doyle ces down a couple spawns of myconid sprouts and observes them grow. This was honestly a bit like watching grass grow, but much faster and something about being a dungeon core made it interesting. Not exciting or even enjoyable. Rather, just not boring or a drag. Doyle feels like he could watch them grow until the end of time and as long as nothing interrupts him the time would seem to pass without notice.
Odd dungeon quirks aside, Doyle is happy with the results. With more than enough points on the floor, each of the sprouts happily grew up into a lesser myconid. And beyond that, the sprouts and the lesser myconids all released spores that soon enough grew into normal mushrooms and then more myconid sprouts.
Better yet, the home grown sprouts all started at the smallest size and Doyle was able to pause their growth at whatever stage he wanted. This means he is no longer held back by the randomness of the sprout spawn. No more will he spawn in some only to have a few big sprouts when he wants a swarm of them. Now as long as he has some kind of farm area for them he can custom design the 100 point groups.
The only catch is that 100 point group thing. Because even though he can make a single sprout worth single digit points, that one sprout will still cost 100 points. That means while he can have less than 100 points worth of sprouts, it will still cost the full amount. Worse yet, if the sprouts separate by too much, they end up counting as multiple groups, so he cant just have a bunch of lonely sprouts spread through a floor for the cost of one swarm.
Though when Doyle takes a closer look, the identification of them as a swarm begins to have more meaning. Each swarm of sprouts has an actual connection to one another. It isnt magically but rather some strange pseudo power like intangible nerves stretched through the air. As one sprout gets close enough, it will have a connection snap into ce. The only limit Doyle can see is that every creature in the swarm has to be within a certain distance of the rest of the swarm or it cant join. A sprout could be literally touching another but not connected, as another sprout in the swarm is just that little bit too far away.
Satisfied with the limits on the sprouts Doyle begins to fill out the floors loadout. Oh, who am I kidding? Doyle gets distracted. With the realization of how the sprouts work, Doyle tries to test the limits of this. It takes a ton of points but luckily he could cut down on actual points spent by spawning sprouts and allowing them to grow into lesser myconids.
And once he had arge collection of the lesser myconids, Doyle tries to start a swarm of them as well. This doesnt work, sort of. They cannot form a swarm but they did cause another interesting change. When about six of the lesser myconids get a little too close together, unnaturally close as they avoid getting that close without outside urging, they meld.
What they dont do is form the next stage in myconid growth. Doyle tried to grow one already but they seem to get stuck, probably a level limit. This abomination, however, is different. Well, not an actual abomination, rather, the System calls it a Lesser Myconid Troop Guard.
{Lesser Myconid Troop Guard (Lv9)
S[20] A[3] C[60] I[3] W[3] P[12]
Skills: Physical Damage Resistance Lv6, Poison Lv4 Grapple Lv3
Cost: World Energy[600]}
It didnt have a description but from looking at how it fought a dungeon wolf Doyle set against it for testing the purpose was clear. When the lesser myconids start to meld into one, all of their gills fall off, covering arge area in spores from which more than the usual number of sprouts managed to form. Then the mushroom flesh almost seemed to liquify and puff up while mixing until one solid color, shaped like a starfish except with mushroom stalks for legs.
This extra spongy flesh seemed to be the key to the physical damage resistance. Because while the wolf was able to take a bite out of it, the flesh quickly sponged back out and filled in the space. From there, the guard didnt even need to do anything as that flesh was where its poison was located and so the wolf ended up semi paralyzed.
Doyle despawned the wolf so as to not cause undue suffering but could tell that without treatment it would be dead. So, the next wolf was told to not munch on it. This meant the guard was able to make use of its grapple skill. As the wolf wed at the guard, it in turn wrapped its legs around the wolf. Once under control, the guard used one of the legs to tear a chunk of its own flesh out and stuffed it into the wolfs mouth. While this didnt seem like the most effective method ofbat to Doyle, it seemed like something that would work quite well against normal monsters out in the wild.
Author’s Note: I’m Fine Now
Heyo,st month I managed to miss a couple weeks of work. If you''ve been following my Patreon you''ll already know, but I caught Covid. All better now and I''ve been back to my part time job as a cashier, but two weeks is a little much for my bank ount to handle. Now, I don''t want to just ask for donations so after making sure it was okay with my Patrons, I''ve got some bonuses.
For the month of November I''m opening up donations and for every $100 I get, a chapter of Dungeon''s Path and two chapters of NeoRealm extra will be released on the next release day. This is for up to 10 extra D''sP chapters and 20 NeoRealm chapters. This will include moving up the free chapters on Patreon.@@novelbin@@
So if you want to help out, here is a donation link.
They Lose Their Self – Chapter 171
Out in the field in front of the town of Wolfs Rest, Ace is standing with half his core people and a hundredmoners. He watches as thirty some cattle walk in their direction, seemingly not spooked by so many people. In fact, they walk right up to Ace and start to graze with the bull offering its benoted horn to him. Ace shrugs and takes the note off, after which the bull joins the other cattle in grazing.
Jimughs at this, Well that is one way to deliver a note! Looks like quality leather too.
Ace sighs, I interrupted my work toe out and get a note delivered by a small herd of cows. If we get to keep the cattle, then it is just barely on this side of worth it. Only the fact that someone was able to get these beasts right up to our town without being noticed means I had to be out here. If we had noticed them a day or more out, I would have left this to the Barrais, if only because they might have managed to get them here in a quieter manner.
Jim nods, Fair enough, now what does the note say?
Ace rolls his eyes and holds the note up so the both of them can read it.
Hello! Im [Moota], a Golden Alchemy Cow and a Lesser Goddess of Alchemy.@@novelbin@@
The dungeon in your town has a really interesting effect on cows and that dungeon nonsense lets me get this in. Suffice to say, any cows that are born within a decent distance of it will be greater milk producers plus a few interesting kickers. So yeah, I dont want you worshiping me? That wouldnt do much good for me. What I would like is for any cows you raise to worship me.
I know, I know, what does that do for you? Well, cows that worship me develop better. Of course if a cowherd worships a god rted to that they would provide a bonus but it would also prevent the cows from advancing. Sure, cows that worship me have a chance to develop sapience, but they can also develop into better cows! So if the idea of variant cows interests you and you dont want to force your farmers to pledge themselves to a specific god just request my info from your town hall.
Also, while I am a monster god, I do deal with alchemy. In fact, I was the one that deposited a bunch of potions in your dungeon. That waspletely on me, so dont feel you owe me anything as I just wanted it to develop more cows. But part of what a cow can develop to do is produce milk with potion-like effects if that helps you make a decision.
Good luck and you can keep the herd,
[Moota]
Jim blinks, Well that wasnt what I expected.
Ace shakes his head, More paperwork.
Jim nods, So are you going to go with this goddesss suggestion?
Ace sighs, I dont think I can do anything but. First is the issue of the whole religious freedom thing that most people im they believe in. We, of course, will have a bunch of people who wont give up worshiping their pre-system religions, which wont be helped by them being actual religions even if the teachings differ some. Even if I wanted to have our farmers worship whatever god gives the most benefits, I dont have any power tomand people on who to worship.
Besides that, though, I do know a bit about how worshiping a god works because of my position. While you can worship as many gods as you want, you only get one effect. This is partly because no matter how much someone ims to worship multiple gods, faith only goes to those you truly, well, have faith in. But the system is to me for why even those who have faith in multiple gods only get one effect.
Everyone starts with a slot for a single faith effect. Im sure paths or some such can change it, but that isnt really a matter here. Rather, unless someone here is from a family that has been worshiping a proper deity for a few generations we wont get broad enough effects from it. Generational piety goes a long way towards unlocking more powerful blessings
Jim frowns at thatst bit. That sounds like it would trap people into a role. If your family worships a farming god, you cant not be a farmer because of the bonuses. If your family worships a war god, youre going to be stuck fighting things.
Ace makes a face and shrugs, Eh, a little yes and a little no. Generational piety tends to only be a thing for jobs like being a farmer. Stuff that requires patience and taking care of something for long spans of time. A god of war isnt going to provide special bonuses for someone because their family has been worshiping them. Theyre going to provide small bonuses for each of their worshipers.
But that is honestly something I worry about. It might not have been as much of a reality as would have been wanted, we all grew up with the idea that you can do whatever you want. I dont want my childrens childrens children being forced into a bureaucratic job just because I ended up worshiping some god of paperwork.
Someone else in the crowd shouts out the question, Do cows get the generational faith stuff?
Not that others havent, but this one Ace bothers to answer. Honestly, unless otherwise mentioned it is better to assume most faiths dont have it. This is especially true for those gods worshiped by non-sapients and non-traditional sapients. Though that morees from the fact it is hard enough already to gain worshipers in the first ce. But the real importance of this is that we cant trust the gods.
Someone who hade over to see what was going on and clearly part of one of the pre-system religions shouts, And what do you mean by that, huh? I have full faith in my god!
Jimughs, As if that matters! Im not saying your god isnt real. We are well beyond the point of old school atheism. Gods are real, the difference is we know yours isnt the only one out there and they need us. The fact that they have loyalty programs like some kind of credit cardpany? Laugh and a half there. This cow goddess? Were going to get the best deal from her because were equals.
The religious person seems extra salty about this. What do you mean equal! We can never be equal to those on high! Gods are above us mortals.
The founders all turn towards them and re them down. Ace shakes his head, Gods arent at the top of the pile. We know that for certain because that is the source of magic. If you cant ept the reality of our new world, we dont need you here. I dont care if you continue to follow your religion, but you sound like the kind of person who would try to force it on others.
The religious nut screeches, Ive stayed until now to try and save you all from the devils that have infiltrated the world but it seems youre all too far gone! A pox upon you for even considering those false gods. God is the one most high!
Ace sighs, Youre not the first one, you know? Ive had more than my fair share of peopleing to my office toin about all the false gods and magic that Im allowing to take root. Your type all say that, to me, a magic user. I say to you a second time, control yourself or you will have to leave.
They scream back at Ace, Like you have any control over me! My god protects me and I now own mynd! When the governmentes in, they wille down on you if you try to censor me!
Ace starts to smile, And so for a third time I say, slow your roll or were going to roll you right out of here.
The crazyughs wildly, This so-called town isnt even recognized by the government so what can you do? Fools, all of you! If I had my guns, none of you would be acting so uppity.
They rant a bit longer but slow down and stop when they realize Ace is slow pping. With his silence, Ace chuckles, You think a government that wasnt even global can do anything about a truly universal system? You think the government might even still exist at this point? Look around! Look at the ages represented by the people here. Id be willing to bet Doctor is, if not the oldest, one of the oldest people here.
All those politicians and officials? The top level ones were all waiting for the reaper to make a house call. Even your god cant save you even if they wanted to. Though more likely they dont even know who you are. But all that aside, this is my town by the right of founding and supported by my and my fellow founders power.
The crazy tries to interrupt at this point but Ace makes a gesture, and their voice is silenced. Ace sighs, There is a saying Ive heard. To kill the chicken to scare the monkeys. Basically, the idea of taking out a small fry to scare awayrger problems. Rejoice though, for Im not going to kill you. Not because I cant or wont, but because it doesnt make sense and you serve as a better object lesson alive.
No, instead you will allow me to disy one of the powers that someone who truly rules a town has ess to. Yes, those of you from upriver can take that as a ding against your so-called leadership. Anyway, I didnt have to ask three times and could have instead just done this but I feel the ritual of it has power.
So let it be dered. Three times I gave you the choice to stay and follow our rules or leave. Three times you denied my rules. So from this moment onward I banish you from Wolves Rest! I deny you citizenship. I deny you room and board. And most of all, I deny you ess to the dungeon.
Then the unexpected happens. Ace can not actually prevent someone from entering the town. Well, he does have the power to, but the actual enforcement is on him as well. The official banishment just gives town guards a bonus to spotting him and prevents him from using the system facilities in the town.
On the down-low, Ace had already banished a number of people. Some known such as when someone caused a ruckus in the dungeon and brought it out into the town. That one in particr caught even Doyles attention and the System had a fun little answer. Of course, it took Ace a little while to notice the change in his options. Now, though, any person who was banished will find that the dungeon had taken off the kid gloves.
Besides the obvious ones, there were more secretive banishments. Though most of those involved malicious spying. A futile endeavor when none of the ces nearby apparently had anyone trained in it pre-system and Wolfs Rest had the Barrais. While levels in various stealth skills can bootstrap you up, proper training is still important to turn regr memory into proper muscle memory.
But this time, with this particr religious nut, things went differently. Aces insistence on following steps and specifically mentioning room and board had kicked off something no one expected. The crazy started to glow with rainbow sparkles in all the colors of ck, all the while fading away.
With crazed eyes, the person pushed their way through the crowd and made a mad dash out of town. It was only once they had left the boundaries of the town that they stopped fading away, though it didnt seem to bring them back. Rather, they stayed as a half faded outline of a person. Even their name and gender seems to have faded from peoples mind.
Discussing The Afterlife – Chapter 172
Outside of the town border, the crazed being shouts of what might be insults at the crowd. Though this is only a guess as no one physically present can understand them. They do however notice that even if the being isnt fading anymore; they have started to change. The being got quieter and quieter as their limbs and head fold into their torso.
Not in a body horror way, oddly enough. Rather, it is more like a shadow puppet when the hand it is cast from is balled up into a fist. Just a blob of shadow, or in this case light, that is shifting around. Then, with one final shriek the blob of light seems to lose its anger and begin to wander off into the forest.
Ace is the first to react and shares around the system message he just received. While there were a few details in there that he might have wanted to keep secret. This act was much more important than a few secrets as it showed the people the true cost of worshiping a god without knowing all the details.
Back in the dungeon Ally shakes her head, You always get this kind of thing on a new world.
Doyle tilts his core forward, And what might this kind of thing be? The message theyre showing around mentions this being the result of the deity they. They. They. Hmm, I cant even think the beings previous gender. Anyway, this was caused by what deity they followed. Which seems odd as I doubt said deity would care about anything they had just done.
Ally nods, At this point no one and no records, even in other dimensions will be able to hold their name or details. Theyve been reduced to a fae will o the wisp and have lost that privilege. As for who they worshiped? They dont care a single red cent about anything the person did.
Rather, this is the result of being banished while inside the town borders and the god they worshiped. Though god isnt the correct term. They worshiped fae royalty like my mom. While not a god in the traditional sense, they can get benefits from being worshipped. Or more correctly, by stealing worship.
If I had to guess the being was likely a part of a splinter sect, Im sure your world had enough of them there at the end. Not all of them will be puppeted by fae royalty or some other simr level being but that is amon reason for it. Anyway, the specific splinter they belonged to had changed their beliefs enough so as to be worshiping that fae instead of the original god.
This, in theory, should only matter when they die. At that point, instead of the soul taking a detour to whatever heaven the god maintained, it would instead get caught in the fae wilds. But since Ace out there managed to make the beings exile close enough to an actual ritual of sorts, things went differently.
Doyle sighs, Let me guess. The whole three strikes you''re out and mention of things like room and board was close to how you get rid of some fae?
Ally smiles, Right on the money! If you catch a minor fae three times and each time you ask them to leave, the third time you can banish them by denying them room and board. And by banish I mean that literally. They get sent to the fae wilds and arent allowed back to somece near you.
The problem for that cultist is they werent a true fae and rather just worshiped one. However, by worshiping one they did put themselves under the same rules. If they had stuck around in town until they fully faded it would have been a one-way trip to the fae wilds. Instead, by escaping, they have only lost their humanity, mind, and soul.
Doyles core dims, That does make a demented sort of sense. And bing a will o the wisp is good ol poetic justice as their form now matches their function. That of leading people off course. But why would they lose their soul? I thought fae was more soul based than anything else.
Ally shrugs, A squirrel is more body based, is it a human body? It is actually kind of sad they didnt try to run into the dungeon. The moment they changed into a will o the wisp you would have absorbed them. Though this reallyes back to the matter of what is a soul? Youve been out in the void and observed them so you might have realized some truths about them.
Doyles core stays dim and rolls to the side, I didnt really notice too much, though I wasnt there for subjectively long. All I really picked up was that souls in the void lose themselves with time.
Ally smiles, That is a basic level understanding of it. Let me tell you a deeper point. The true soul can not be destroyed permanently. If the soul was what remembered your past life, then no one would ever forget their past lives. Instead, we have to look towards what you eat, the cruft. I should have mentioned at some point how dungeons are about the only thing capable of breaking it back down into energy?
That ispletely true. Dungeons are about the only thing out there that can break it down and return it to basic power types. But, and this is a big but, this does not mean dungeons are the only things capable of making use of it. You know all those stories about devils bargaining for your soul?
Well, we know souls are near impossible to hurt so how could this be? Thises back to what the cruft is. It is power changed by a persons soul. If it was just that simple, though, why does the body hold on to such arge amount of the stuff? The permanent cruft is what most mortals mean when they talk about the soul. It contains the various snippets of a person that has been burned so deep that even death doesnt erase it right away. You just turn it into clean power while all others corrupt it.
Doyle nods, Going by that this soul cruft must be what everything wants.
Ally nods back, Correct, but missing some nuance. What they want is called the souls shell. The cruft put off by people using power is like hair and skining off them to make dust. Even when a person dies, you dont take all of their soul shell. It is more like a hunter taking down a deer and only carving out the meat. What is left goes with the soul into the void. A useful side effect of this is that the soul is ready to reincarnate a lot sooner as it has less to wear away in the void.@@novelbin@@
What the heavens and hells does is more along the lines of a snake swallowing its prey whole, leaving behind barely anything, which in this case is only the soul. Those soul shells they take are, in turn used to make beings without free will. So most angels, demons, devils, fae, and other simr outsiders.
Souls are purely the realm of beings with free will. So no matter how smart a low-ss devil might be in making a deal, they cant actually make a decision. If you take the same type of devil and give it the same choice, they will always make the same deal. Same for low-ss angels, fae, and so on.
Doyle tilts to the side, And what does this have to do with the being losing their soul?
Ally pauses, Ah, right. So for that it has to do with the difference between fae royalty and every other fae. Royalty like me and my mother are born with souls. Every other fae, however, needs to earn a soul. This doesnt mean levels but that can help. That being turned wisp? If they had earned enough merits for their fae royal, they would have kept their soul and likely have be a more humanoid type of fae.
Doyle tilts back and hums, Yes, I can see it. Going to assume most of the other beings you mentioned work in the same way?
Ally shrugs, A mix, really. Archdevils are like fae royalty while Demon Lords alle up through the ranks. The only real rule of thumb you can follow is that those on the top will have souls so they can actually make decisions. But even that has exceptions, like some of the natural purewful construct races where even their god-like beingsck a soul.
After that, Doyle and Ally go back and forth talking about the various examples. All the while back in the town Ace has to deal with the crowd being quite a bit jumpy. Even though the system message showed it wasnt his fault, the fact it happened was a shock.
It took a while but eventually Kelly figured it out and yelled for everyone to be quiet before telling them. Okay everyone! After analyzing the energy signatures, that person was a cultist. He wasnt worshiping a true god, but rather a fae royal. On the upside, we now know how to kick any low-ss fae out. Catch them and tell them to get out, then on the third time also deny them room and board.
Anyway, be careful of the forest for a bit. We now have a will o the wisp out there. So if you see any odd lights off the path, its just that idiot trying to kill you. But the worse news is we will likely have to vouch for every religion being worshiped here. Some of the religions must have been corrupted by various outsiders.
Ace interrupts at this point. And before any of you panic, this does not mean we will stop you from worshiping whoever you want! However, it does mean we wont let you misrepresent who you worship. God good and evil, Archdevils, Fae Royalty, or what have you. Worship who you want. About the only thing we might have to squash is any mythos beings but that is less of a worship thing and more of insanity forcing a persons hand.
And I see some of you religious types out there being angry at us for being okay with worshiping the Devil or what have you. Need I remind you that we just found out what one of you thought was a god was actually a fae. Any of you that were a part of his sect are worshiping fae royalty! So shut up and wait until we confirm who you are worshiping before you start throwing shade.
Yes, I understand that a person who worships an Archdevil or evil God will not be a nice person. But I am very much of the opinion that I would rather see five snakes in my yard than have one snake hidden. So worship who you will but we arent going to have religious exemptions to thews. Worship a god of ughter? We have a dungeon for that. Worship a devil of theft? We will treat you the same as any other thief when you get caught.
That doesnt mean you can hang around here and we will protect you when you go all bandit lord just down the road. If someonees here iming youve done wrong elsewhere, they can totally use thew to get at you. It just means that we wont personally being down on you because of who you worship. Well even put some restrictions in ce so not everyone can just go to town hall and check who you worship.
That is a personal choice, after all. But, and this is a big but, we will not havendmines sitting around our town without knowing where they are. Enough governments pre-system required reporting your religion and we are actually going to looser than that. We will only require you to tell us who you worship if you get a blessing from them.
And yes, I admit that is entirely because that is about all we can monitor. If you have a blessing from a greater being, it will show up when our guards check you at the gates. If youre a citizen, we require you to report it as soon as possible. If youre a visitor, report it at the gate and it will only be kept as long as you are within the town. Of course, if you would prefer not to have to report it every visit you can tell the guard that and they will keep the record like a citizen. But it is entirely opt-in.
Doyle And Ally Have A Visitor – Chapter 173
Doyle has returned to carving up the inner sphere of the seventh floor and more time passes. Outside in the town, the Barrais along with the carpenters have set up a field for most of the cows. Though they do have a smaller field inside the inner ring for their personal experiments and farm animals.
The one important feature at both fields is a small shrine with an Idol of a golden cow. Sure, the Idol isnt actually made of gold but rather carved of wood and painted with some scavenged paint. Maybe the skill behind carving it isnt exactly the best. All of that didnt matter. Rather, despite the somewhat shoddy nature and low-quality materials, it was made by a true idol craftsman.
An olderdy hade in with Jans group. A rarity not only for her age, but also for being from a different continent. Thatst detail was important because where she came from was a religious crossroads and she had made her living by carving small idols for those on a pilgrimage. Not skillfully, but rather with passion and reverence, no matter the deity or saint.
And that was the key. While not skilled, that devotion now tranted into a special quality. That of being able to craft a true Idol without being a follower. In the wider universe, this isnt the rarest of things, but definitely a catch this early for a new world.
For the normal deities people would worship, a true Idol only provides a small boost and allows a church to gain some system based protection. The true need for an Idol onlyes into y at the higher levels. Moota however isnt a normal deity, but rather a beast deity.
That one detail changes the value of a true Idol. Animals that match the portrayed deity will naturally begin to believe in the deity. This wasnt missed by Moota. Not only wasnt it missed though, but it caused a reaction that drew her back to the world.
Why? Because while a true Idol might not mean much to the believers, that isnt the case for the deity. At least not for the first true Idol on a world. Just like how a deity can visit a world as long as someone is faithful there, an Idol is like that but supercharged. Before Moota would have needed to spend some effort and energy to visit Doyles even if every single cow had believed in her.
The first true Idol is like a free ride to a so of course Moota isnt going to turn it down. Though this time she wont have to literally knock on the dungeon to get Doyles attention. A quick call to Ally and she was let in.
Moota takes a moment to look around and nods, Looks like I wasnt wrong to bet on you guys. I admit I had second thoughts when Ally came to cry on my shoulder, but it seems things are working out between the two of you.@@novelbin@@
Allyughs nervously, Yeah, I did kind of use you for emotional support. Not many people on my phone that I could call. It would have just been embarrassing to have to call my mom.
Doyle nods, Im d you did have someone to depend on. Anyway, and he turns his attention to Moota, What brings you here? Not exactly the most hopping part of the universe.
Moota shrugs, Youve got an Idol crafter in town. Why would I turn down a free ride? Though more seriously, it is nice just to be able to skip out on my position as an eternal intern. Oh, and I wasnt expecting to be able to do much here? Like, you cant expect a true Idol to just pop up so soon! Even the pantheons have a hard time getting one this early and Im the first here.
Sure, other gods have their believers, but they arent going to spend the faith to travel here. Though a quick warning. Going to want to keep an eye on those who mightmission that crafter. There are some nasty beings out there. No offense to Ally, but I heard about the fae worshipper the town just had to deal with. If that Fae had gotten a foothold through an Idol no one would be having a fun time. Fae are a pain to deal with.
Ally sighs, Yeah, dont worry about it. I had to live with them, after all. Of all the people, I was in a particrly good position to know all about how annoying it is to have Fae hanging around.
Doyles core twinkles, I know what you mean!
Ally rolls her eyes, Heh, funny. Anyway, the Fae arent the worst things out there being worshiped and not all of them will be limited like others are.
Moota nods, True that. Im sure you have enough stories about outer gods and what not. As it is, your world here is a clean te. Of course, with enough time, most things will manage to sneak in unless one particr religion locks a world down. But I dont see this turning into a shrine world so eventually youll get to deal with those freaks.
At that point, though, there should be enough people able to defend against it. Im going to drop a message to the town about it as well, but if you can, give them the option to let you be less than friendly to those cultists.
Doyleughs, As luck would have it that is already partly in ce to a degree. The town was a little shocked by what happened with that cultist so now is requiring those with a blessing to report it at the gate. Of course that wont catch a passive follower, but I dont think those would be the type to get an idol.
Ally grimaces, That might not be the case. Monitoring who is worshiping which being isnt exactly a new idea so of course there are ways around it.
Moota sighs, You cant really do much about it. But that is why Im going to warn them about the Idol thing. It isnt exactly something Im supposed to be telling the mortals, but they are caring for my followers. Plus, screw those cliquish deities.
Doyle rolls his core back, The more I learn, the more it feels like the world is doomed. Every corner I turn there is a new gotcha.
Moota shrugs, Thats just life. It isnt like your world was necessarily safer before this. Even without magic, a single unlucky event can doom a world. Youve just traded off some dangers for others.
For instance, while you might have to worry about outer gods, the normal deities will be able to prevent random meteors from smashing your face in. A single deity might not be allowed to do much, but with enough of them true miracles can happen. Though you cant expect them to truly fix everything. After all, a desperate person is more likely to worship a deity.
Allyughs, More than just a few of those shrine worlds are constantly on the edge of copse with only their deity keeping things together. Nevermind that the deity might have set the situation up like that in the first ce.
Doyle tilts to the side, Im going to guess there are a million and one ways to set up a disaster that is cheap to just pause.
Moota nods, Just hang a moon in a decaying orbit where it just takes a small shove to keep it stable. As long as the people on the world stay bound, there is no way for them to fix it. Like, that sort of thing is so easy to set up that Im sure there are millions ofs like that out there.
But we have gotten a bit off track. As I already mentioned, Im going to send the town a mention about being careful about who idols are made for. They are lucky in the fact that an idol has to actually represent the being it is for or it wont work. On the other hand, deities can have all kinds of wild forms and so it isnt as easy as just banning idols with tentacles involved.
Beside that mess, I also wanted to bless the Idol. Of course, when I showed up, I found there were two already. While the one out in therger pen has more cows, I highly suspect Ill get a better return on the smaller pen in with those founders.
Ally raises an eyebrow, I must admit I dont know what blessing an Idol will do for it. Though I assume since youre bringing it up, you want our input?
Moota brings up a system screen with a 3d graph, This is a simplified version of what blessing an Idol can do for a deity with around my follower count. Simplified because it is only using 3 axises to disy the variables and isnt constantly in flux. For me personally with that specific Idol? I can think of at least ten options that might be avable but there will be an absolute ton of extras kicking about.
The three Im looking for though are an increased chance of sapience, an increased chance of a bloodline, and the rarest possible oue, which is the ability to appoint one of the nearby cattle as a priest of my religion. Thest one is rare mostly because none of the cattle on the, let alone near the Idol, are anywhere close to being on the evolutionary path to gaining sapience. Kind of hard to be a priest if you arent sapient.
Doyle nods, I would assume so. But none of this matters unless we know what the options are. Can you check it from here?
Moota smiles and pulls up a new screen.
{Choose an Idol Blessing:
Increased chance of cattle having twins
Decreased chance of diseases spreading to cattle
Increased chance of a bloodline
Cattle herds are more cohesive
Symbiotic beings that target cattle have reduced negative effects
...}
Moota looks at the bottom and sighs, Im d the system puts the more beneficial options at the top and cuts off the rest. There are probably a good hundred extra blessings being hidden at the moment. Worse yet, some of them will say the same thing. After all, it doesnt exactly say how much of an increase or decrease the blessings provide. Luckily, it looks like the bloodline chance is in the top five and I dont have to go dumpster diving for it or the sapience one.
Ally frowns, If there are so many options couldnt the priest one be among them?
Moota sighs, If only. That isnt exactly an option that has varying degrees to it. Either you can get a priest or not. The bloodline one could be an increase of either 1%, 10%, or 0.0001% and it wont tell me. Scratch that, technically the really low chance it might add a modifier to the front of it, so instead say it was a slightly increased chance.
Doyle nods, That makes sense. Though it looks like there isnt really a choice here, especially since it is an increased chance of a bloodline. The founders are going to be doing what they can to get something like that already so it would be a multiplicative boost to what they are already doing.
Mootaughs, Im actually a bit torn. The option for more twins is first on the list and would be amazing. After all, the rate of twins being born to normal cattle is about one in 200 so about 0.5% chance. While what goes into the blessings tend to not be a simple percentage increase, as there are so many variables, the twins blessing could mean twins being born one in 50 instead.
If the town was going to depend on raising cattle, the increase that would provide would be astronomical. Like, you couldnt ask for a better blessing. Still, Im going with the bloodline blessing, if only because of how interesting your town already is.
About Bloodlines – Chapter 174
Doyle waits for Moota to finalize the blessing before asking, So, what is a bloodline?
Ally speaks up at this point. You actually have a monster with a bloodline already, the grassen goat. Remember how the description for it mentioned the herb being strong and the goat being just as strong? They both were at the level of creating a bloodline, though dont think that means you now have two bloodlines.
Moota nods, A bloodline at the most basic level is the legacy of a being so powerful it wrote its existence into the very fabric of reality to the extent it can even go beyond the bounds of any one universe. Like, not even all true immortals have a bloodline, though not all bloodlinese from true immortals.
By choosing the bloodline buff over the twin buff I went with quality over quantity. Even just a single bloodlineing about within the next million years would make it worth it. Though since the buff was far enough up the list to be on the first page, I doubt I will have to wait that long. Definitely not with the people in your town.
Doyle tilts to the side, So does a bloodline just make the bearer more powerful? I can understand that it flows from a source, but what does it do?
Allyughs, It would be nice if a bloodline automatically made a being powerful. But youve seen the stats of your grassen goats. A bloodline does not inherently grant power. In fact, because of the random chance needed for a bloodline source toe about, the starting point could be absolute garbage.
Doyle dims, Then what is the point? I highly doubt that having a bloodline gives a direct shot at power equal to the source.
Moota sighs, That is very much the truth. The key behind bloodlines is that it opens up a beings potential. Like, for me this is important because part of an unlocked potential is the bloodline holder has muchxer requirements to gain sapience. In fact, out in the wild for a bloodline holder to survive it is basically assured that they will gain sapience before adulthood.
This, of course, isnt quite the case for livestock and such as the people caring for them does just that. A cow with a bloodline is basically just a walking natural treasure for other animals and monsters. They wont gain a bloodline for eating it, but they will gain a boost to their abilities for it.
Ally sighs, Wolfs Rest is going to have a fun time once they do get a bloodline cow. Though they should be up for it.
Doyle nods, Interesting, but once again, what does a bloodline do? Unlocked potential sounds nice but it doesnt really exin anything.
Ally pulls up a picture of a butterfly and a myconid sprout. For that, we have to delve into magical evolution. Though it isnt strictly magical, just a lot easier with magic. Butterflies and other simr things being an example of creatures capable of it without an outside force. From caterpir to pupa to butterfly, you have a natural example of metamorphoses.
Because without magic, that is about the limit of it and to do so, the caterpir has to sew itself into a bag and liquify most of its body. Otherwise, evolution takes the much slower process that your world was familiar with. Though magic can screw that up as well.
Still, people like to just call it evolution and so to separate it from the slower version someone at some point pped the word magic on the front. Nevermind the fact that it isnt just magic that can do it. If anything, qi is moremon, even if it does mostly result in the ssic dire animal. But at this point Im just ranting over technical terms.
Moota smiles, A popr debate for anyone that studies monsters. Anyway, she brought up a picture of a myconid because I assume you already have them and have had them evolve. From sprout to lesser and so on. While not the most popr example, they are a ssic as you get the things anywhere you have mushrooms and a high concentration of mystical energy floating around.
Going by how Ally is gesturing at me I will assume you only have sprouts and lesser myconids. That change, however, is enough to show the important details of magical evolution. That of the potential for radical change beyond what is possible through normal growth. Specifically, from sprout to lesser a myconid gains a pair of arms.
Your world has frogiods so this might not seem so strange. But their life cycle is just a matter of growing up. While the system does recognize it by changing their names and such, it isnt actually evolution. A myconid sprout, on the other hand, does not naturally be a lesser myconid with age.
Confused, Doyle interrupts, But all I did to get a lesser myconid was allow them to age?
Moota shrugs, Youre a dungeon. With a simple effort of will, you can create monsters that would take chance encounters to develop. Part of the nature of dungeons is that the monsters arent quite following the rules. While myconids dont advance just through age, the condition to advance mostly revolves around power density.
Doyle nods, Okay, that makes some sense. But what about my assassin vines? I did have to use some strange dungeon stone to speed up the time, but it became an elder assassin vine.
Moota frowns for a second before smiling, Im not certain, but I think I might know the answer. nts are generally more capable of evolving with just time, though that generally involves massive periods of time. I doubt you are capable of speeding up time that much. Instead, what happened was your method likely touched on some core mechanic of time and once exposed your nts were able to advance early.
Ally tilts her head to the side, Huh, that would make sense. I guess I didnt really consider the time frame that nts normally need when I learned about his elder assassin vines. Living in the fae wilds can warp ones sense of time. Though to say the strange dungeon stone touched on concepts of time is stretching it.
Moota scoffs, I didnt say concepts of time. It just touches on the mechanics of time. Likely because this world had a fairly robust background in science and even if Doyle didnt focus on studying it, he should have a bunch of random rted trivia. Just a few simple facts can do wonders for a dungeon. Like, most limits on what a dungeon can do is rted to power and a better understanding will reduce the cost.
Doyle sighs, That does seem to be the caveat for most things I can do. No limits but I need to understand it to a silly degree for it to be affordable.
Moota rolls her eyes, Because being able to create things better than a crafting god and stillining about the few limits you do have. Though more seriously, youre a bit of a cheat. You benefited from a science heavy civilizations education system and then became a newborn dungeon.
Most beings who manage to get turned into a dungeon core have been around for quite a long while already. Under our system that trantes into a high level and those high levels trante into a more rigid dungeon. Nevermind how their pre-existing paths likely arent going to fit with being a core.
You, on the other hand, get to start fresh. Your skill slots were even empty, which is basically impossible. To get something like that would require changing a child young enough that not only would it be very morally objectionable, but also lose out on any benefit of turning a person into a dungeon core. That young and the new bodies instincts would take over.
We can look at you for an example of this. You constantly shift your core around like it was your head. A natural dungeon core will stay absolutely still at a steady glow. Because of your human origins though, you cant help but move it around to show your attention. Nevermind that besides Ally and me, anyone else you talk to will likely be entirely through telepathy of some sort.
Ally frowns, That would exin why I hadnt heard of other dungeons doing it. I had thought it just wasnt one of those things generally observed. But weve gotten a bit off track there.
Myconid sprouts will never gain arms with just time and even once all the conditions for one to turn into a lesser myconid are met, that doesnt automatically happen. Evolution in the wild is still somewhat of a mystery. Im sure someone has it all figured out, but whoever that is, isnt sharing. Even with farmed monsters where the specific conditions for certain evolutions have been nailed down there can be variance.
Moota nods, Right, back on my homeworld they tried very hard to make lightning strike twice and get another alchemy cow before I became a goddess. They just couldnt manage it even after spending an insane amount of resources to scry my past. Once they couldnt replicate what brought me about, the worship really kicked into overdrive.
Anyway, a bloodline shortcuts all that mess. It doesnt remove all the conditions to allow for an evolution. However, it does randomly cut the requirements based on the evolutionary path the source had taken. So say there was a monster that needed to eat a literal ton of iron ore to evolve into a metal variant. With a proper bloodline, they might have the amount needed to evolve halved.@@novelbin@@
Not only that, but these reduced requirements dont just count towards an evolution the bloodlines source had gone through. Any evolution that monster might have avable that needs to eat iron ore would have the required amount reduced as well. With that, a bloodline is basically the ultimate cheat when ites to monster evolutions. Especially with how some requirements are near universal and so a lucky bloodline holder that hits one gets an easy path forward.
Ally gestures toward the myconid sprout picture, With that in mind lets look at the myconids again. One of their requirements is that the power density in the air is high enough. That sort of requirement is near universal at the higher ends and so a myconid with a bloodline is almost certain to have that requirement reduced. Quite the powerful bonus already, but there is one more thing a bloodline can do.
A being capable of spawning a bloodline will be a pinnacle of its species. Even if it started out as a normal animal, their very nature can warp their past to a certain degree. Not actually changing it of course, but warping the presents perception of it. This can ripple outward to the various bloodline holders, creating paragons among the bloodline holders children.
While a creature with a bloodline might not be any stronger than any other creature of the same species, paragons are a different story. Not that a paragon is actually system recognized. Paragons are basically as if a creature in an rpg rolled max for one of their stats. Their ability isnt supernatural, but rather just peak performance for that species.
Doyle nods, that makes a lot more sense now. Im going to guess that not only would bloodline cows be more likely to develop sapience, but any cattle that were paragons of the mind would as well. Going by how animals gaining sapience has been talked about, this is potentially the shortcut to end all shortcuts.
Every one of the three desired blessings had the goal of getting that first sapient cow. Dont think I didnt notice the priest blessing. After all, how can something be a priest if they arent sapient? Or in other words, by being allowed to assign a priest, you get to select a cow to gain sapience. Just how valuable is a sapient cow?
Deals Decided – Chapter 176
Jess scoffs, I dont care what she wants. All I need is a recement for the lesser shadow wolf you killed. Once you have one, I dont need you to release into the wilds or anything. Ill just take it from there.
Mootaughs, As if it wont end up in the wild afterwards. They already know we can move members of our species around. Anyway, what I want is a little more hefty, though only because cattle sort of need a herd to do anything in the wild. Im thinking a herb bull and three herb cows. I give them about fifty fifty chances of survival but any more would be stretching things a bit.
Doyle nods, About what I was expecting. Of course, I cant set them up to worship either of you, but that is to be expected. As long as they are still in my dungeon and thus under my control, they dont have the free will to actually worship anything.
Ally frowned, I hadnt heard of that before.
Moota sighs, Its the same reason we cant just force animals to worship us. Well, we could, but it wouldnt be worth anything. Free will is the base for all faith. Even when ites to non-sapients like a regr cow or wolf. You need a sapient who doesnt control them to bring the faith to them.
Ally rolled her eyes, Just another example of why godhood is just a scam. Anyway, what do we get?
Jess shrugs, It looks like she already gave you a bunch of patterns and it isnt like I ever had many personal followers to pull off of. You already have the lesser shadow wolf and that is about the limit for me. Instead, Ive got a bit of captured shadows.
Allyughs, A little bit of captured shadows isnt all that important. Sure, it is quite rare as to capture it you have to get into the concepts behind a shadow. For you, though, it isnt rare at all. Just going by your title it is impossible that you cant gather the stuff. Was it at least captured from deep space?
Jess nods, True, I can easily gather the stuff but you can easily make a lesser shadow wolf. I know it takes time and energy but Im not exactly gaining back the resources I used to gather the shadows in the first ce. Plus, Im sure a dungeon will get something interesting from the stuff.
Doyle brings up a disy showing one of the female lesser shadow wolves that he had set to stick around on the seventh floor. Ive got one that is a good way towards being able to leave the dungeon. The captured shadow sounds fun but I have one other thing I want you to promise. Keep any powerful wolves away from the town for a decade.
Jess sighs, Fair enough, I can work with that. How long do you think it will take for the wolf to be ready?
Doyle closes the view panel. It will take as long as it takes. Though I would say about nine days, give or take a few. The time really depends on how active the dungeon is. If I hadnt already had it around for over a month and been pumping energy into it so it could have pups, you would have been waiting a while.
Now Moota, we just finished up thest deal and we basically tapped you out on what you can provide. While I dont mind providing you with some cattle, I dont exactly have arge backlog of herb cattle. What are you offering?
Moota smiles, I dont have all that much new things. What I do have is a few snippets of info that you should find useful. Though since Wolfy over there offered an item, how could I not? There arent many things in my storage ring that the system would be happy with me giving away, so lets go with a ss of milk and some fresh grass.
Doyleughs, Those items are both useful in their own ways. Though I would have to hear the info before trading for it. With that in mind, Jess, share your contact info with Ally and well get back to you when the wolf is ready.
Jess rolls her eyes, but after exchanging details with Ally sinks into her own shadow. Moota snaps her fingers and releases a sh of light. The light isnt too bright, but it acts almost like a liquid as it fills every corner, flowing around edges until the entire room has been illuminated.
Once the light receded, Moota nods, That would assure she left and isnt just hiding in the shadows. Ill have to look into who she is once Im back. It shouldnt be too hard. While a deity falling isnt the rarest thing, an entire pantheon of them croaking is big news.
Anyway, I promised you some info. Since I want four cattle, I wanted to get four things but that wasnt possible. Instead, I found two high-quality pieces of information. The first has to do with your monsters. Youve likely noticed they arent really leveling up at all, or at least so rarely they might as well not be.
What you have to do to advance the monster patterns is work with them more closely, both when they are fighting delvers and on your own time. When a monster you want to improve is fighting adventurers, get up close to the fight. Dont shy away from it and instead get in close enough to see the monsters muscles tense or look out from the monsters eyes.
Then when you have free time, dont just have themze around. You already have farms and there are even a couple unvisited floors to y with. Without a sapient on the floor, you can truly observe your monsters, but just like looking at a dagger wont help a smith beyond the surface ws, watching a monsterze around wont help you. Instead, you need to have them fight each other. Once you have that going on, you should start to see their patterns level up.
Ally facepalms, We should have realized that.
Doyleughs, The more obvious something seems to be, the more likely you are to miss it. Anyway, I ept that bit of info was worth a couple cows. So Moota, what do you have for me to get the other two?
Moota looks away for a moment but forces herself to look back. Well, I hope the milk and grass will be worth something. Info about dungeons under our universes system is sparse to nonexistent as before you, the only sapient ones were the tutorial dungeons and they dont like sharing. Not that the info Ive gathered isnt as useful as thest. Just not as actionable.
Im not asking what paths youve taken, but the important breakpoint for a dungeons ss is the third rank. I dont know why, but I used some resources such that I can trust this info. So if you havent already gone with an alt ss, stick to the main path till the third rank. After that, feel free to do what you want.
Ally sighs, Im on your side for this, but you arent really giving us much to work with.
Doyle shakes his core, No, this is good info. I assume there must be something special with the third rank. Going by how I am, it would cause me no end of worries when it came time to decide on whether to split off or not. Combined with the items I wouldnt quite call it enough but since youve been friends with Ally, Im fine with saying we have a deal.
Moota lets out the breath she had been holding. I was a bit worried. Sure, I could probably make it work with only three cattle, but four seems to be a breaking point from what I can tell. I did a simple divination and the likelihood of starting an actual herd of herb cattle goes way up at that point.
Ally raises an eyebrow, Werent you just going off on the wolf about using prophecy?
Moota shrugs, For depending on it. Even if a proper prophecy has a 99% chance of happening, there will always be a chance, no matter how small that it doesnt. Comes with that free will thing. It sounded like she did one big divination and went off of that. What I did was a bunch of smaller spells.
Like, so small mortals can use them, though being a god does add a bit more oomph behind it. Anyway, my tactic was to use it after deciding on how many cattle to use. The spell would tell me how lucky the choice would be. Then, of course, I decided on another amount to use and repeated it. A bull and three cows wasnt the best choice, mind you, but I dont have enough things to trade for a herd in the three digits.
Allyughs at that. You arent wrong. Plus, I dont think we would be able to deliver that number in any reasonable timeframe.
Doyle shakes his core, Especially since I cant just supercharge the monsters. There is only so much energy I can pump into them like I am with the lesser shadow wolves and even then it is wasteful. It basically takes flooding the immediate area around the monster with energy and hoping the monster absorbs more than not before it diffuses. Anyway, Im going to go back to working on my seventh floor after juggling my monsters around a little bit so I have enough herb cattle being prepared.@@novelbin@@
Ally nods, Ill take care of things from here.
Of course, Doyle was forgetting something. Moota was currently on the seventh floor so he couldnt exactly do anything. All it would have taken was to ask them to move their conversation elsewhere but he felt embarrassed about the mistake so decided to do something else, that of livening up the sixth floor.
There were only so many critters to add though and his attention soon turned towards that first bit of info that Moota had passed on. No matter how long Moota and Ally chatted they wouldnt be going at it too long though so he decides to focus on his horned rabbits. Doyle starts simple enough with them.
At first, just observing the rabbits live and since no one was on the sixth floor, this was quick enough, what with everything being sped up. In the end, though, there is only so much that Doyle can get from just observing the rabbits. That doesnt mean he didnt figure something out.
Believe it or not, the horned rabbits had a horn that was too long. Doyle could see why this would be the case. They were meant to sacrifice themselves for the well being of the herd. With that in mind, a long horn which could deal fatal damage would be preferred even if it means getting stuck in whatever they hit.
Doyle wasntpletely against this either but it wasnt like he wanted to remove the horn. Rather, if it was half the length, the horn would be much more useful in general. As it is, the horn can only be used to attack. Shorten it and the rabbit would be able to dig through tougher soil and more easily break up grass roots.
A useful advantage for a burrowing herbivore. This change even benefits the delvers if they can manage to kill one. With a shorter horn, there is less material that needs to be saturated. So maybe for once someone will get a herbal horn from a rabbit. Sure, they arent like the mythical unicorn horn, but they should be a lot easier to gather. Who knows what an alchemist will manage to do with them.
Satisfied with his discovery Doyle summons up a new rabbit and is happy to find that it appears with a shorter horn. It isnt exactly how he thought it would be, but that just means that the pattern actually advanced instead of him just making a change to the creature. Though to confirm it, he pulls up the rabbits pattern.
{horned rabbits lv6}
Overturning The Wall – Chapter 179
Despite therge number of cattle and goats trapped in the pits, Aces magic isnt strong enough to trap them all. So while many of the cattle have been stopped, the much more numerous goats find it easy enough to avoid, bound over, and escape. A problem and a half when they are the most numerous monster on the floor.
Sammy, Jack, Bill, and Tess all move to the front of the wall and begin to smack them away. Jack more literally than the rest. Though no matter how hard they try, almost a hundred goatsing at them all at once is more than they can safely handle and the aforementioned Jack is the first to suffer.
With his tendency to take wide swings to sweep the enemies awayes equallyrge openings in his defense. A w that the goats are more than capable of taking advantage and so on the back swing a trio of them spring forward, two bashing his chest and the third his right knee. His wooden chest te cracks apart with the blow but the goat targeting the knee is worse for wear as Jacks bronze greaves do their job quite well.
Still, this pushes him back off the top of the wall and allows other goats nearby to flow through the gap. Right into a web of fire that Kelly had readied. Then Jeremy and Susan step forward to fill the hole as Doctor smacks a healing spell onto Jack.
Back and forth the sides fight with the founders being barely on the winning side as they manage to keep the high ground even as the cattle finally escape the pits. Though this kind of equilibrium is inherently a weak sort of thing, as all it takes is one mistake to copse it all down like a house of cards.
That mistake was on the side of the founders and theirplete focus on the fight against the animals. Up on the kobolds town wall the mages and one archer release their attacks. Good thing that low-level magic tends not to be the stealthiest of things and so the Ace and the other casters have a moment to react. Just as an arrow pierces the shoulder of Sammys shield arm.
Nevermind that moment isnt enough to fully dispel the attack spells either. Maybe if they had all been of the same element, more could have been covered. Sadly, that isnt in the cards as 11 spells rain down on them. Sshes of fire, water, earth, and wind randomly go off around them.
It is at this point that Ace lets out a curse and yells at the others, Weve been had! I didnt even realize it but the earlier fights were too easy, dammit. They kept the mages and healers back. In fact, I think theyve been doing that for days now. Everyone, back to the tunnels!
With that, they evacuate the wall, though they arent done with it. Ace is thest to get off and he does so in style. As goats charge at him, he ps both hands down and sends a surge of mana into the magic; he had left there. This sudden infusion of mana brings about three effects.
The first two are simple enough. A wall rises up behind Ace, blocking the charging monsters. Along with that, thend beneath him springs upward a foot, sending him flying. Something that Ace was prepared for and so turns it into a graceful dive and ends with him rolling a couple times before popping back onto his feet and right into a sprint to catch up with the others.
Last effect, though, is something he had been pouring much of his mana into during the fight. With a rumbling roar, the wall flips up and over onto the monsters and leaves a deep pit behind it. While this doesnt outright kill most of the monsters, it does take many of them out ofmission until they are able to dig themselves out.
Back on the wall the kobolds cheer and urge their farm animals onward as by this point all of their experience points towards the fact that if the humans start to retreat, theyre done for the day. Today, however, this is not the case. Once back in the tunnel, the 13 delvers turn to face the monsters once more. A confusing moment for the kobolds all the way back on the wall and an important learning experience to boot.
The first lesson of which is the fact that only so many animals can fit into the tunnels at any one time. So what was a respectable stampede turns into a traffic jam. This is made worse by Kellinger who drops any kind of offensive casting to focus entirely on his favorite spell, grease. Because if there is anything that would make the goats less threatening, it is to remove their ability to charge.
Though that isnt the end of magic really ruining the animals day. Ruby and Kelly stand next to each other as they chant a spell by alternating lines with a bead of fire growing between them. Once that bead bes more of a tennis ball in size, the spell finishes and the ball is ttened into a disk nearly impossible to see straight on.
Said disk flies forward and grows until it reaches both sides of the tunnel. This disc of fire sweeps through all the monsters currently jammed into the entrance and a fair number of the goats lose their heads over it. Of course, the few cows still around fair better, if you can consider a deep chest wound better.
Still, the monsters pushed into the tunnel as their masters werent able to tell them otherwise. A tactic that while disorganized still does better than expected against the delvers. While the tunnel does prevent the monsters from nking the group, more goats are able to fit side by side than fully equipped adventurers.
Not that Ace hadnt nned for this. While a few things have caught the group by surprise so far, the number of goats able to fit in the tunnel was not one of them. So their group continues to retreat as they work together to take down one monster after another. This fighting retreat goes so far as to almost enter the portal room.
It doesnt get that bad though as they manage to cull the number of monsters enough to reverse the momentum. On a dime, the group turns a fighting retreat into a determined advance. Each step was bought with blood, both of the monsters and their own. The only thing allowing them to keep this wasteful fighting up is having Doctor with them to keep things patched up.
They could have kept this advance up all the way back to the center room but well before then the group stops. Sammy, now free of the arrow in her shoulder, is able to bring to bear her shield once more and so steps forward to block the monsters while everyone else focuses on finishing them.
Of course, near a hundred goats and a decent mix of other monsters isnt going to be finished quickly. While Ruby and Kelly managed to cull the herd by quite a bit with their spell that drained them to the point of only being able to put out fire sparks so there isnt an easy answer to the seemingly unending herd of monsters.
In the end, though, they manage. As thest animal, an earthen cow that somehow managed to survive till the end, falls, so does most of the party. Though in the case of Ace and his teammates, this has more to do with exhaustion than anything else. Only Doctor and Og remain on their feet, ready in case something else attacks them. Unfortunately for the kobolds, they dont know about this and so have remained in their town.
Once it is clear that nothing else ising, the 13 of them manage to drag themselves back into the safe room and Susan passes around a drink. It isnt quite a potion, but at the same time isnt just herbal tea. So while not a miracle in a bottle, the stuff does more than any pre-system energy drink ever could. It supports their natural healing ability as well as helps to purge the built up acids in their muscles. Even the magic users are benefited as it soothes their mind.
This might seem like an all rounder herbal medicine and in a way it is. The only problem is the effects are all too small. It isnt going to close up scratches or allow something to run all day. Still, for something cheap to use in the middle of a dungeon dive, the tea hits just the right bnce.
Even with that though, the delvers are basicallyid out for a good couple hours as they recover, much to the annoyance of Doyle. He wouldnt have minded if they were hiding out in the tunnels. At least that way a kobold might find them and interrupt their rest. By being in the safe room, even if the kobolds do find them they cant do anything about it.
In the end though and despite magic being real now, Doyle doesnt have the power to set people on fire with his mind so the grouppletes their rest safely. Something that wont be the case next time someone as Doyle already has ns on how to prevent this while also not breaking the rules around safe zones.
Turning his attention back to the town it is clear the kobolds have be much too restless. None of them really know what is going on except that the enemy is still out there. That and the fact that things have gone too far for them to abandon the town and try to hunt the trespassers down. The boss knows the only way forward is through the portal she is guarding and so they have to go through them. A coldfort to the rest of the kobolds as they realize all their animals have died by now.
Then an rm is raised by the kobold archer. While he doesnt have a skill for it yet, his constant training of his eyesight and ability to spot things pays off. From a different tunnel than the one they had left through, the delvers had returned.
Without the swarm of animals this time, they are able to approach the walls almost unhindered as a strange, nearly invisible wall of wind seems to be following them and throwing off most of the spells and arrows. Sure, as the delvers get closer more of the attacks make it through, but they are ready for it.
Not only that though, they even return fire. The bow wieldingmander treats this seriously and makes heavy use of the wall whenever another shot flies its way. The kobold mages on the other hand are a good deal cockier. They stand on top of the wall like a king surveying his domain.
This, of course, leads to one of them learning why you y catch with your hands and not your throat. The sight of one of their men tumbling backwards off the top of the wall is quite the shock for thedies below. A healer kobold rushes towards the fallen mage but it is very much toote by that point. A fact the boss knows all too well as she feels his soul fragment return to her, waiting for the floor to be clear so he can respawn.
From there, all it takes is another mage to fall, though this time from a throwing dagger to the shoulder, for the wall to mostly be abandoned. The kobold archer remains up there, though mostly as a look out, barely peeking their head out up over the side. As for the mage with a dagger in their shoulder? Well, what should have been an easy wound to heal from wasplicated by the fact that it was a de from one of the Barrais and the healers arent quite up to detoxing the poison they used.@@novelbin@@
Breaking The Gate – Chapter 180
Now that the mages are off the wall, Ace and the rest are able to approach the wall. Notpletely uncontested, though. The kobold mages might not be on the wall, but that doesnt stop them from arcing a few spells over it with the archer acting as the spotter. Though Ruby and Kelly are more than enough to counter these attempts as only one or two in a volleye close enough to the group to matter.
Once the group reaches the gate, though, the other mages take over as the two ce their hands on the hinges at both sides. Then, after only a bit of charging they release a surge of fire that extends a bit inward but mostly expanding up and down, taking out said hinges. Maybe if the walls had been made of metal, this would have been harder, but the wood stands no chance as it hasnt been magically reinforced at all.
At that point, Jack and Sammy both smash into the gate itself. Jack with his mace and Sammy her shield. Nowcking the hinges to keep it in ce, the gate is bashed backwards a little and falls over, crushing a couple kobolds who hadnt retreated quickly enough.
Of course, the kobolds hadnt beenpletely unprepared and a volley of much more urate spells flew through the now open gate. Ace steps forward to meet the spells with his wooden shield and four of the nine spells ssh against it. This destroys the summoned shield but through the magic Ace had created it with the damage was mostly tanked as he suffered only a few singes from a fire spell that clipped the edge.
The other five spells had gone a bit wider and passed by Ace into the back line. Four more of the spells ended up being warded off through various means with only an ice shard managing to give Bill a nasty slice on the head as he tried to dodge it. From the wound, copious amounts of blood began to spill out as head wounds tend to do and Tess panics as she pulls her boyfriend out of the line of fire towards Doctor.
Ace can hear someone has gotten hurt behind him, though the fact he can hear it at least means the person isnt too badly hurt and so he focuses on what is in front of him. The rest of the kobolds had gathered together in a basic formation with the ranged at the back and the melee in front. A quick count shows a truly stunning number of enemies have gathered in front of him.
With only one patrol taken out there are still about 40 kobolds holding down the fort. Though the one at the back that seems to be slightly taller than the rest and fully armored up raises the hair on the back of Aces neck. That one had to be the boss but it seemed to be holding back to protect the mages and healers. Despite meaning they arent having to fight the boss right away, Ace isnt sure if this is a good thing.
Not that he has much time to think as four fully armored kobolds, each with a different weapon, simultaneously roar out and order as the wall of shield kobolds begin to advance, spear kobolds behind them ready to get their point across to anyone that approaches. More dangerous to Ace at the moment though are the kobolds dual wielding daggers that have begun to nk around both sides.
It is a good thing for him that he isnt alone. From behind him, Sammy and Jack step forward to help tank the crowd while the ones behind them begin to thin the herd with ranged attacks. Except, of course, for the Barrais. They instead split up and move along the walls to y with the dagger kobolds, getting into the thick of things. Not because they have to, but because it prevents the kobolds ranged support from chipping in.
Then a grease slick appears under many of the kobolds. This wasnt the first time Kellinger had yed that card so the kobolds had learned to deal with it. Still, the way to deal with it involves moving slower, which gives Doctor those critical moments to finish healing Bills head wound and allowing him and Tess to join the front line.
Just in time for the battle to truly get underway. Ace summons up a new vine shield and ys interference with the spears as vines from his shield are able to entangle them. Jack isnt exactly one for defense and so focuses on bashing aside the enemies shields. A task that he is more than strong enough to manage all by himself.
With the kobolds shield line broken up by a wide swinging mace, Tess is able to insert her staff deep into the enemy line and poke at the troublesome spear kobolds behind them. Her first attack struck true, smashing through a kobolds eye and into the delicate bits behind it. Though after that, the kobolds were more cautious of her weapon despite theck of sharp points.
The heavy fighting, however, doesnt stop the sides of the shield line from curving inward to try and surround the melee fighters. Not something the kobolds had originally nned to do, but with all eight of the dagger kobolds being held up by the Barrais the boss didnt have much choice. Not that this went to n, either.
The mages on both sides had been squaring off against one another with Ruby, Kellinger, and Kelly managing to just stay ahead of the nine enemy mages. On the other hand, when it came to more physical based ranged attacks the founders had the upper hand with both Jim and Og, while the kobolds only had a single archer. This meant that while Jim and the kobold archer were having a standoff, Og was free to rain down terror on the kobolds.
Sure, the kobolds frontline all had helmets on, but Og had always been one to go for the trickier shots, anyway. He might not have been able to one shot the enemies with the handful of pebbles he had picked up, but the shield and spear kobolds suffered as those rocks seemed to find every gap in their armor, especially the helmet. Even when they hide behind their shields, the rocks still manage to find a way in, bruising up the legs right where the boots and the greaves meet.
Og could have gone for more damage of course. A well-ced rock can kill just as easily as any other properly used weapon. Instead, though, he focused on crowd control since Kellinger had to worry about enemy magic. The impressive part about Og taking up the role is how well he is managing it. All without grasping vines or slick grease. Through just a simple application of rapidly thrown rocks, he is managing to hold back eight or more armored kobolds from nking his teammates.
The kobolds, however, arent stupid, especially not on this floor. So when the kobold archer notices the disruption, she breaks her standoff with Jim by dropping to the ground and rolling to the side. While sudden, the movement doesnt escape Jims eye but his arrow only catches her in the thigh as he misjudges the direction she ns to roll.
It pains the kobold archer to stand back up but she works through the pain and releases an arrow towards Og. He was warned by Jim but the sudden attack manages to hit him in the side. As Og tries to pull back and get healed by Doctor, the kobolds on the side rush in on the nks.
This not only pincers the melee but also works to cut off the Barrais from the rest. Not that they are having any problems with their own fights, with Susan having killed two of her kobolds and Jeremy slicing down three. However, now that most of the dagger kobolds are dead this shifts the priority of the kobold mages.
While it was still four on one they felt that things were going well enough to ignore. Now a couple of them manage to separate themselves from the mage duel so as to try and burst them down. Of course, the mages on the founders side arent going to let this go uncontested. But not having to focus on multiple directions they start to miss their counters.@@novelbin@@
The first spell to get through is blocked by Ace as the ice shard explodes against his shield. Unfortunately for him, this left his side open and a spear mmed into the opening. Aces armor does a decent job of protecting against the bronze spear but it is still enough to open up a cut that begins to bleed.
Jack doesnt let this go unanswered though and with an overhead swing splits the line of kobolds with his mace, knocking more than a few on the ground with broken bones. At this point, though, one of the kobolds biggest advantages shows itself. Six healing spells fall on the injured kobolds, bringing them back to fighting shape as they scramble to their feet.
On the delvers back line, Doctor is doing his best but as small cuts and bruises start to pile up, he is being forced to focus on the serious injuries like Aces most recent stab wound. If this fight stays a battle of attrition, they are going to be on the losing side. Though speaking of Ace, he doesnt n to let things go that way.
With a shout, he redirects the Barrais. Jeremy had just finished his and Susan wasnt far behind but after hearing Aces shout and looking around, they changed targets. The four special kobolds were staying near the center of the frontline mass of kobolds so they couldnt target them. On the other hand, the healers and mages just had the boss to guard them.
Soing in from either side the two go in to thin the herd. Something the boss isnt taking lightly. Though to her distress, she isnt able to be in two ces at once and so has to make a choice on who to face, in the end choosing Susan as her opponent. This leaves the mages to handle Jeremy as the four kobolds in the frontline try and rush to help.
Jeremy isnt having any of it and after dodging through a handful of spells reaches the first healer and slices right through its neck before grabbing its head and pulling back to prevent a quick fix healing spell. Though it isnt just him having luck in his attacks.
You might have noticed that more than a few spells had been thrown his way. At first, the kobold mages didnt pay enough attention to this detail. Though when a nasty fire spell burst in the middle of their frontline, they realized their folly. They hadnt managed to get off those spells; they had been allowed to as the enemy instead focused on a much more destructive joint spell.
Those nks the kobolds had managed to get in ce are suddenly looking a lot less sturdy when the main line isnt quite there to anchor them. Nevermind the fact another healer soon falls to Jeremys de, the fact that the number of kobolds has dropped below half causes them great distress, and rightfully so. About the only thing going their way is the bosses attack on Susan who, despite her many skills, is soundly being driven back.
Along with that, the bosses fourpanions have gathered and are moving to join her. A wise decision as Ace and his team are making quick work of all the normal kobolds. From there, it doesnt take long for the fight to move into its final stage with the boss, her four melee captains, and the healer captain being surrounded.
Dashing Back And Forth – Chapter 181
Both sides square off but despite the numbers advantage, Aces side is tired out from the protracted fight. The remaining kobolds had been fulfilling leadership roles for the most part with only the archer kobold having suffered any serious injuries out of the bunch. Of course, now that the kobolds are surrounded and out of casters the delvers dont have to rush.
The boss realizes this as well and so dashes forward to attack Jack as the rest of the kobolds hunker down to protect the healer. It is unfortunate for the boss that Jack was the expected target because of hisck of a shield and generally unwieldy weapon. On the other hand, it is also unfortunate for Jack as while he expected it; the boss was a lot stronger than him and a magnitude more agile despite the metal armor.
As if dancing, the boss gets right in close with her mace and ms it home for a kidney shot. Then, as the others try to respond she is already back with the other kobolds, just in time to use her shield to fend off a fire spell from Ruby. After that she jukes to the side and sprints back out, mming her shield into Og as he pelts the healer with rocks, knocking him over.
The rest of the kobolds take thisst action as a signal and as one, moves towards the small gap left by Og. Their boss isnt there anymore, though. Susan had tried toe in behind for some payback but the sheer difference in stats between the two allows the boss to out speed her and knock aside the trio of thrown daggers, though one sticks in the boss shield.
As the other kobolds reach the side of the encirclement Og has stood back up. This is unfortunate for him as the kobold archer is able to get a shot off, which sinks into his shoulder up to the fletching with a meaty thunk. At least since he managed to get to his feet, Og is able to retreat to safety.
Back with the boss both the Barrais are now trying to take her on but with little luck. The boss is simply too agile for even both of the highly trained fighters to deal with and the rest of the party notices this. For the first time, they are experiencing the suppression that most of the other delvers have faced in the dungeon. The fact that the monsters are stronger and that they are not the top dogs around.
Intellectually, Ace and the others had known this. But as time had gone on and the only challenge for theming from the sheer numbers being thrown at them it hadnt really sunk in. Now though? As they watch a pair of people that even the other founders admitted were probably the strongest inbat, being handled through a simple difference in stats is shocking. The worst part, though, is they can see the boss is learning.
While they wouldnt im that the other monsters followed some kind of set pattern when attacking. Once you saw what they had to offer, it wasnt going to change during the same run. Sure, maybe next time youe through a new trick might have been thrown in but that tends to involve them not using some other trick. The boss was showing none of those limitations, clearly picking up new ways to attack as she fought the Barrais.
Still, the Barrais arent helpless against the boss or anything and so are able to keep her attention. So while the other five kobolds are tougher than the normal troops, they arent able to stand up to twice their numbers in adventurers quite like their boss can. Of them, the first to fall is the healer.
This isnt because they focused down the healer, though. The three melee kobolds did a good job in keeping him safe. No, it was simply because the healer did such a good job of keeping the others up. So with his excellent healing out of the way the others no longer stand even a ghost of a chance and fall to spells and weapons soon after, leaving their boss alone to face Ace and his team as even Og has rejoined the fight despite his one arm no longer being usable.
She hasnt given up, though. Outnumbered and alone she stops holding back. Before, she had been sparing with her one attack skill so as to save stamina and mana for the long haul. That no longer is an option. With a burst of speed, she retreats from the Barrais and ms her mace into Kellinger who had been behind her. A small sh of light goes off and he is thrown back.
The others see this and go defensive but it isnt quick enough. No longer martialing her stamina the boss is able to rush across the encirclement faster than Sammy can bring up her shield. With a loud crack, the boss ms her shield right into Sammys sternum and releases another Heavy Bash while swinging her Mace to the side and clipping Jacks mace, forcing it out of his hands.
Three spellse down at this point. Kelly and Ruby both fire off ribbons of fire while Kellinger releases a deluge of grease targeting the area right around the boss. She ignores it all, her armor tanking the spells while her three digit agility score easily allows her to keep her bnce. In fact, she uses the grease, allowing her to slide back afternding another blow on Sammy with her shield. Though this time Sammy has her shield up saving her cracked bones from shattering.
Ace steps into the bosses path and blocks with his vine shield, hoping to pin her down and it almost works. The boss, seeing him blocking her path shifts around and meets him with her own shield and tries to bash him away. His vine shield however is able to do its job just fine and wraps around the bosses shield to hold her in ce. It was so close to getting a proper hold on her too, except then she released her shield and spun around to bash her mace into Jeremy as he tried to sneak up on her.
Without her shield, however, the boss is now beginning a quick slide down to defeat. Before she had been managing to use the shield to block or deflect all of the parties ranged attacks. Now, though, Og, Ruby, Jim, Kellinger, and Kelly are able to get in attacks as the melee types take a beating. This isnt fast as the bosss bronze armor still blunts most blows but no longer does it seem like she might pull victory from defeat.
Of course, that wasnt ever in the cards by this point. She only hoped to maybe kill one of them, but now having used her strength and agility to burst around the battlefield so much she slows down and not just by a little. Stamina spent, shield gone, and even her mace has been shattered, leaving only the wooden handle she finally falls. Jim delivers the final blow, an arrow to the back of the head for a quick death.
The founders are left standing there in the middle of a rough town as kobolds fade away around them. It was a hard fought victory that felt like it could have slipped through their hands at any moment and none of them are happy with it. They had cheated and knew it but had felt this was the only way to break through the bottleneck they had all felt. Now most of them werent so sure about this.
Still, the fight was more than rewarding. All around them loot portals can be seen as the only reminder that a being once stood there, fighting back. But the party wasnt quite up for it yet. Most covered in bruises, some with cracked bones. About the only person in any state that could be considered healthy being Doctor himself, and only because he stayed out of the fighting for the most part. Even with that, though, he had a few bruises and a strained mana pool.
So they rested until they felt at least able to move around. During that time, the Doctor did a quick check of the portals so at least they knew about who needed to loot what and so was the first to im a prize. Though soon enough most of them had gotten around to pulling out one thing or another. This included arge number of potions, herbs, and coins of course but what everyone was really interested in was the gear.
Doctor imed loot from two portals receiving a wand and leather boots. Sammy and Jack both passed as they already had loot. Susan pulled from another two portals to get a pair of matching daggers while her husband Jeremy got a pair of leather gloves. Og was forced into taking a leather cloak while Jim got lucky as the only archer actually dropped their bow.
Bill couldnt find any clubs so settled for a leather tunic, though his girlfriend Tess happily imed a bronze tipped spear. After a quick round of rock, paper, scissors, Ruby happily imed the other wand that dropped. On the other hand, Kellinger and Kelly both had to settle for leather boots. Finally, at everyones insistence Ace pulled out A bronze helm, bronze shield, and a leather tunic. Of note, the bronze helm that Ace got was actually dropped by the boss.
{Wooden Wand@@novelbin@@
Description: A delicately carved wand spawned as loot from a kobold in an unnamed dungeon. The length of it is engraved with a repeating pattern of crystals. The grip of the wand has been perfectly sized for the one who imed it and is enchantable.
Material: normal Heartwood
Craftsmanship: normal dungeon loot}
{Leather Boots
Description: A pair of boots spawned as loot from a kobold in an unnamed dungeon. The leather has been embossed with a finely detailed pattern of scales matching the kobold that it dropped from. They are perfectly fitted for the one who imed them and are enchantable.
Material: normal Goat Leather
Craftsmanship: normal dungeon loot}
{Bronze Dagger
Description: A full tang dagger spawned as loot from a kobold in an unnamed dungeon. The de is sharp on both sides with fine scrollwork reminiscent of either vines or scales depending on how you look at it. The handle is masterfully crafted from two sturdy pieces of wood and wrapped with a piece of tanned leather in a diamond pattern. The handle is perfectly fitted for the one who imed it and is enchantable.
Material: normal Bronze, normal Wood, normal Goat Leather
Craftsmanship: normal dungeon loot}
{Leather Gloves
Description: A pair of gloves spawned as loot from a kobold in an unnamed dungeon. The leather has been embossed with the image of a grabbing w and the inside is lined with quality wool. They are perfectly fitted for the one who imed them and are enchantable.
Material: normal Goat Leather, normal Kids Wool
Craftsmanship: normal dungeon loot}
{Leather Cloak
Description: A cloak spawned as loot from a kobold in an unnamed dungeon. The cloak is made from strips of varying colored leather and put together such that it more easily flows with the wearers movement and is less likely to get in their way. It has been perfectly sized for the one who imed it and is enchantable.
Material: normal Goat Leather
Craftsmanship: normal dungeon loot}
{Wooden Bow
Description: A bow spawned as loot from a kobold in an unnamed dungeon. The bow is made entirely of wood but that wood has beenminated together to provide a stronger pull strength. It has been perfectly sized and weighted for the one who imed it and is enchantable.
Material: normal Wood, normal Heartwood
Craftsmanship: normal dungeon loot}
{Leather Tunic
Description: A tunic spawned as loot from a kobold in an unnamed dungeon. The leather has been made from as few pieces as possible so as to maintain its defense and has extra pieces attached over key areas. Over the back of the tunic, there is a scale-like pattern that matches the kobold it dropped from. It has been perfectly sized for the one who imed it and is enchantable.
Material: normal Goat Leather
Craftsmanship: normal dungeon loot}
{Bronze Tipped Wooden Spear
Description: A spear spawned as loot from a kobold in an unnamed dungeon. The spears shaft is made from the center most part of a tree and carved with a repeating pattern of vines that gets denser in areas that a spear would normally be held for better grip. The spears head is made from bronze and shaped in the ssic leaf pattern with some carved lines connecting it to the shafters pattern. It has been perfectly sized for the one who imed it and is enchantable.
Material: normal Heartwood, normal Bronze
Craftsmanship: normal dungeon loot}
{Bronze Shield
Description: A shield spawned as loot from a kobold in an unnamed dungeon. The shield takes after the ssic kite design and each of the four panels has an engraved design. Along the top there is a pattern of scales matching the back of the kobold from which it dropped on the left and on the right a picture of a wolfs skull. Along the bottom there are the outlines of ten figures standing together to the left and to the right a picture of a goat. It has been perfectly sized for the one who imed it, Ace, and is enchantable.
Material: normal Bronze, normal Goat Leather
Craftsmanship: normal dungeon loot}
{Bronze Helm
Description: A helm spawned as the first loot from an unnamed dungeons first boss. The helm has a scale pattern engraved in it matching the boss as well as small decorative horns. The inside is lined with leather to cushion any blows and felted with a fine wool to make it morefortable. It has been perfectly fitted for the one who imed it, Ace, and is enchantable.
Material: normal Bronze, normal Goat Leather, normal Kids Wool
Craftsmanship: first drop dungeon boss loot}
An Open Path Yet Travelled – Chapter 183
Doyle takes a moment to think over what Ally had just told him about raids andes to the crux of the matter. Even if the system doesnt directly recognize raid groups, that doesnt mean I cant. They managed to beat my fifth floor with a minor raid, which I guess should be considered decent enough. Though the amount of loot they got was a little up there, I can see why. They had been consistently delving that floor and mostly getting potion drops because of my one path. This final push was likely all the floor needed to really drop the mother load.
Ally nods, They kind of identally set up the floor into one big loot pinata. Both us and them focused on the gear drops but with your potion dispensary path, if a monster could drop a potion it did. If it wasnt for that bag of holding they got, it would have been very hard to actually take everything out.
But enough about how loot they got. What are your ns for raids? It isnt like you have any pre-built skills or abilities rted to the matter. If anything, you would basically have to be personally paying attention to the intention of each potential raid as your floors are disconnected.
Doyle creates three stone squares, two with six stone discs on top and another with only a single stone disc. This represents their parties. From one perspective, this represents a minor raid and another it could be seen as a half raid as there are technically three parties involved. Jim and Aces, as well as Doctor in a party of one.
Or at least that is how I see it. They havent actually created a party together as far as the system is concerned so in reality it would be more like this, and he removes the stone shapes only to rece them with 13 stone squares, each with a stone disc on top.
This is what the system currently sees, 13 parties of one person each. Over a double raid worth of parties. At the moment, my instincts that are driving the dungeon arent dipping into the system at all and just counting each person. If, however, I was able to hook into that system info and they started using actual parties things would be easier for me.@@novelbin@@
Ally moves over to the stone shapes and pushes most of them to the side leaving only six squares with a disc each. This going by party size is a full raid, are you okay with that being a thing? I would think going by raw numbers is the better solution.
Doyle shakes his core, Ace andpany won that fight because of Doctor being there. If Ace and Jim had both been leaders of their own parties and invited along Doctor as a third party, I would dly call that a half raid. So if there are six, one being, parties out there I dont mind allowing them to face content I would normally reserve for a full 36 man raid. Hell, if one guy wants to face raid tier content I wouldnt mind letting them do so, I just dont have a way to manage that.
Ally shrugs, I can see where youreing from. But how are you going to alert them to this quirk? Like I said, the system doesnt really observe raids except in special circumstances, generally on a dungeon by dungeon basis.
Doyleughs, But thats just it! If the system is treating it differently on a dungeon by dungeon basis, that means it is based on the dungeon and not a widespread rule. My guess is that by default a dungeon doesnt do anything with it. Then, depending on how people treat the dungeon and how the dungeon grows the system likely turns on and off things. So a dungeon that focused on packing in as many swarms of monsters as possible might have the restrictions put in ce by the system loosened to allow for half raids, with no penalties.
Ally frowns, Still, I havent heard of any specific options screen for it from any of the active dungeons. From what I gathered, they all just had some system they made on their own.
Doyle nods, Which makes sense, as any awakened dungeon besides me hase from another dimension. They already had their own systems in ce before being introduced to the system. So likely all that happened was that when the system took note of what was already in ce, it didnt bother doing anything of its own. My guess is that all it will take is someone in an actual party to enter my dungeon for the option to pop up.
With a sigh, Ally returns to her bed. I guess that makes some level of sense. Though with how varied the results are I kind of doubt, it will be some easy options page with a handful of toggles. Though we shouldnt have to wait too long. Since they did beat your boss, one of those 13 are now qualified to start a local branch of the adventurers guild.
Doyle scoffs, I had forgotten about that. The whole raid thing really cheapens that.
Allyughs, Dont worry too much about it. Even on well-developed worlds, this sort of thing is more the rule than the exception. At least the founders are all decent sorts. Anywhere else, it would be some noble or government official paying a full raid to get their child into the position. Being in charge of the local instance of a system backed guild is a good way to advance their sort of skill sets. Even if it does tend to make sub par guilds. Though not too ipetent when ites to the adventurers guild. Those sorts dont tend to live long.
Doyle clears away the stone shapes as he shakes his head. I would expect so. With the kind of jobs adventurers do, they wouldnt take fools lightly. Cant have the guild epting quests from liars trying to get the most bang for their buck. After all, there is arge difference between a few monstrous rats in your basement and a colony of dire rats. Anyway, there is one thing you said early that is wrong. My floors arent disconnected.
Ally shrugs, Well yeah, there are the portals but you cant exactly be using them for much. They dont work like your inter-floor portals.
Doyle nods, Youre right enough about that. I could likely create more of them in secret but that would help, anyway. After all, once delvers are on a floor I cant give new orders. Maybe I could have a message ry system using kobolds or some such but that still would butt up against the problem of a floors points cap. Im not exactly capable of moving monsters between floors willy nilly and I dont exactly want to grow my quintessence debt. Still owe a bit more than 60 of the stuff to the system right now.
No, what I am referring to is something I honestly had forgotten about until just now when I was looking through my various options. Here, let me show you the path Im referring to, and Doyle shares a screen with Ally.
{Ageless Queens
5/15 - You have earned +1 Destiny/Level, One ant queen of choice no longer has a max lifespan
10/15 - You have earned +1 Destiny/Level, One ant queen on each floor will be mentally joined to the previously chosen queen to form a true hivemind, Previously chosen queen receives +1 to their currently lowest mental stat for each other queen in the hivemind
15/15 - Pathplete, You have earned +1 Destiny/Level, The ageless ant queen has an adjusted chance to be a roaming boss which increases with age and other queens in the hivemind}
Ally reads it over and frowns, While this does create a connection between floors, I dont exactly see how it will help. Plus, you never did anything with it.
Doyle tilts to the side, Yeah, I sort of forgot about it. Would have been nice to be reminded of it. Anyway, the important part isnt just the connection, but rather the fact the queen can be a roaming boss. This will not help me short term. I dont even know how long the queen would need to live and how many subordinate queens she would need before gaining a soul.
However, Im not really worried about raids in the short-term. Ace and his friends arent exactly representative of a normal person. What they faced with the kobold boss would have likely caused another simr sized group to fail. No, the queen is going to be my long-term solution.
Once she does be a roaming boss, I will train her to be my spy master. There are ants everywhere and no one notices them. So with the right paths, she should be able to observe through her kin and use the other queens to process it all. She could probably even handle watching the town as my territory does cover it.
Ally frowns, But how does that help you actually deal with the raids? It doesnt matter if you find out about them if you cant respond.
Doyle nods, That is true. Having a spymaster so I know about a raid doesnt in and of itself help. Except that once I have enough floors, I wont be able to always pay attention to everything and maybe I miss something. Im not perfect and will never im to be. However, we arent the only ones capable of responding to these things.
A normal floor isnt likely to hold back a raid no matter what I do so for now Im just discounting them. Sure, a maze floor is going to be hard even with a bunch of people, especially with dimensional shenanigans going on. That isnt where the true stopping power lies, though.
My bosses will be the hard stop. Look at how close the kobolds were to managing it. Sure, it didnt seem close but they didnt have a n on how to react. The boss hadnt had a chance to figure out what works when facing so many enemies at once. Plus, they lost the first patrol. While yes, they did manage to get the mage and healer to safety, that was it.
If, however, I had someone who saw the raiding, they could have informed the kobold boss about it. That patrol could have been called back before it was wiped. The kobolds could have gotten into position sooner. Even something as simple as being able to better prepare the animals could have been enough.
Ally ps her hands and smiles, I think that would actually work! Even if the boss ant is unable to talk directly to the floor bosses, all she would have to do is have some ants move around to spell out the information. Though that brings up back around to what YOU are going to do about raids. You talked about using the system but didnt really borate on it.
Doyle rolls his core, Eh, I was sort of talking a big game with little to back it up. Until I see how the system handles it all, there isnt much I can n for. Not that I dont have a few ideas. For instance, it would be nice if I can get the system to warn any delvers about the dangers of raids. There doesnt even need to be too much behind those warnings as just the warning alone will be like my days working at the grocery store. None of the employees can actually do much of anything if someone walks in, picks something up, and walks out. However, even though everyone knew that, just our presence was enough to make most petty shoplifters decide not to. So yeah, Im hoping a system message will work much the same way.
Ally sighs, Fair enough. I guess you cant exactlyy out a detailed n for the unknown.
Hot Potato Job – Chapter 184
Back in town a couple days have passed and a new building can be seen standing just a few doors down from the town hall and what a building it was. If the town hall had that rustic hunting lodge look with all the bones and woodwork, this thing took it to the next degree. Though just on size alone it already drew attention to itself.
So far, all the system buildings had taken up about the same footprint. This new building imed a three-by-three space for itself, even if the building proper was only about the size of a two-by-two plot. Not that the extra space was wasted. Walls surrounded the building itself, being just a smidge taller than anything else nearby. Not that they hid the building proper though, it was a good three stories tall.
Though back to the walls which matched the buildings shape, that of a hexagon. While everything else in town had taken on a wood and bone aesthetic, the walls mixed in a good quantity of stone with only the crentions at the top being mostly free of the stuff. Then, at each corner, was a proper guard tower that rose up to the height of two stories tall.
Inside those walls was an impressive building, which yes was hexagon in shape, but it didnt match the orientation of the outside walls. No, the buildings corners were to the walls sides. And speaking of those corners, unlike with the wall buildings corners were each made from onerge leg bone.
While that might sound big, it doesnt fully give the disy justice. See, those leg bones were at least half buried into the ground so the three story height was just what you could see. Though they arent the only bones of impressive size. The gate through the wall and both doorways leading into the building are framed by the lower jawbone of some predator.
About the only thing that breaks with the rest of the style, is the gate itself. While the main part is made of wood, the reinforcements very much arent. Instead of bone or wood, the bars are constructed of metal that has a blue-ish tint to it. There isnt a lot of the metal, but even without any observation skills a person would get the feeling of them being an unbreakable defense.
Suffice it to say, the adventurers guild looked pretty awesome and that is without taking into ount the workers that came with it. Sure, there are the usual office worker types, sitting behind the counter. More than just them, though, the adventurers guild came with some defenses which also matched the theme. Up on the walls at any time you could find two parties of orcs, half wieldingposite bows and the other half crossbows.
Those guards seem to be on four-hour shifts, with them retreating to the guard towers and vanishing while the next shiftes out the opposite side. Though they could just be the same orcs moving around as they seem to take great joy in not answering any questions shouted their way. And they are ignoring the people as they do react to the questions, just not with answers.
A good thing the people behind the counter are more responsive to questions, though not by much. Without a local acting as the guild leader, they arent allowed to do much. Which brings us to the current scene with all 13 of the people who just days before, had defeated the kobold boss. They all qualify to take up the position but everyone seems to be ying hot potato with it.
Ace looks around, it had been almost five hours since they started discussing this and still no progress had been made. Okay, everyone shut up. Doctor, you wont be taking the position because we need you dealing with our healers. I, of course, had already decided this as one of the first things, but for some reason it keeps getting brought up. Along with that, I cant be the guild leader either for simr reasons. In fact, everyone who has a lead position in the town is out. That means Kelly and the Barrais are out as well. While this is all smoke and mirror, I dont want the guild leadership to also be town leadership.
Sammy shrugs, I already said I wanted to take up the position of head guard.
Jack snorts, Yeah, but I also said I would be up for it!
Ace ps, Shut up. Weve done this bit already at least twice. Sammy, your sword and board so you get to be head guard. Jack, while you are just as qualified we want someone with a shield to represent the guard. I know it isnt fair, but thats life. So since no one else wants the position, Sammy is out of the running. Anyone else?
Jim raises his hand, Ill be in charge of the scouts.
Ace shakes his head, The scouts are a part of the guard.
Jim shrugs, Then I can handle expeditions. The forest is sort of my thing.
Ace smiles, Now that you mention it, you do seem to be the exploration type.
Jim nods, Yep, Ive probably explored more of the area than anyone else. Being in charge of the exploration would just make sense!
Ace nods back, Then we are in agreement, you get to be the guild leader!
Jim freezes up, What?
Ace shrugs, Exploration basically falls under the heading of adventure.
Jim shakes his head emphatically, Very much no. I cant really be in charge of adventurers when Im out exploring.@@novelbin@@
Aces smile bes wider, But you wouldnt have been able to do that, anyway. You did volunteer to be in charge of exploration, not go on them. Plus, it only makes sense for you to be in charge of the adventurers. Of everyone here, youre the one who can stand up to me, at least from the viewpoint of those outside of our inner circle. Youre just going to have to face it, for at least a little while you will be stuck in town.
Jim turns to the others, Anyone else want this?
They allugh and Bill responds that, All of this arguing was about dodging the responsibility. None of us particrly wanted to be even more closely tied to the system stuff. It isnt that we dont trust it, but rather we dont know enough. So yeah, you get to test this working for the system stuff out for the rest of us.
Ace nods, Now dont keep us waiting. The guild receptionist over there is waiting.
Jim res at the others but ends up sighing. He had thrown his lot in with the town and this was just taking one more step on a long road of them.
Jim turns to the receptionist, Well, looks like I lost the bet so Im going to be in charge here now.
The receptionist wipes one of her antenna andughs, Normally people are fighting to be the master and here I am, a poor little termitekin and youre all fighting so as to not be my master.
Jim rolls his eyes, You stood through that entire argument and know very much why none of us want in on this. While a position like this is fought over, we have other things to fight at the moment. This world is new to the system and we need to be out there raising our levels, grinding our skills, and walking our paths. There is no room for someone to sit on his butt and push pencils.
The termitekin spreads out her four arms, Look at this ce. You think your job is going to be sitting in some office? Youre out on the frontier and rules tend to be enforced at the point of a sword. While Im sure things are alright out there right now, give it a few years and youll wish for a quiet office job.
Jim nods, Im not delusional. Out there is a bunch of trouble just looking for a ce to happen. Much of it is going to find our little town and settle in. I want to be out there to make certain it doesnt get here in the first ce.
The termitekin goes to say something but Jim shakes his head, Yes, I know that this position will allow me to do more. Maybe if I had a decade to prepare for this, I could do more by myself. That isnt the case. So sticking around here and using my political power like a lever will show greater results. Instead of going out and stopping one problem my time is better spent directing ten people to stop ten problems.
The receptionist giggles, At least you dont have a heroplex. Thats amon one if the usual politics arent involved. After all, who else would be diving a dungeon before it gets figured out?
Jim sighs, You definitely dont have to worry about any heroes in our inner circle. Weve fought for our position here and while some of us might have that ssic hero story going on, we are grounded by some harsh realizations. Oh, and before I forget, how would you like me to refer to you?
The receptionist smiles, I was wondering when you would ask. As I already mentioned, Im a termitekin which normallyes with a lot of baggage and a generalck personal identifiers. Seeing as Im working for the system and not my hive that didnt exactly pan out. So of course when I was given the ability to name myself by the system I waspletely serious about it.
She pauses, That was a lie. Im a free thinker so my name is Frink. I dont know if it trantes into yournguage quite as well as it worked in mine, but it is incredibly obvious I smooshed two words together and which words I did it with.
Jim shrugs, It isnt quite that obvious but I can see it. Anyway, do I need to do anything or am I just now the leader?
Frink gestures towards the stairs behind the counter. If you would follow me, we can go through all the paperwork upstairs in the staff offices.
The rest of the group watches the receptionist and Jim go up the stairs. From there, though, only Jim knows what happens. In fact, not even Doyle has a clue as the adventurers guild apparently has some wards in ce to prevent his kind of spying. A totally reasonable thing if frustrating.
Ace was going to wait around for Jim toe back. Was being the key word. After the first fifteen or so minutes, he decides to just have someonee get him once he gets down. A good choice as Jim doesnte down till five hourster. Aftering down though, Ace might as well have not bothered as apparently Jim had to sign a few system enforced non-disclosure agreements.
What Jim could tell him though was that the guild was open for business. Though for the moment, that mostly means dealing with things like forming parties. There arent even quests avable yet as it will take some time for the system to decide what exactly should be offered.
Of course, that isnt how things will stay. It is just that for the guild to offer more, quests need to be done. Not that it is a pure grind fest where more questspleted automatically equals a better guild. Rather from what Jim could gleam it takes into ount all kinds of things like quests taken, abandoned, andpleted. There are even things rted to how many are beingpleted within a certain span of time and the quality of each questpleted. Suffice it to say, things arent going to be easy if the town wants to unlock the good stuff.
Path To Wisdom – Chapter 185
There was one more thing Jim had learned, but he held back on it. You might even call it crucial information. The problem wasnt the non-disclosure he signed with the guild. Rather, he felt the information wasnt something that should be shared, even with Ace. See, the adventurers guild wasnt a universal organization. It wasnt even an organization that just covered everywhere this system was implemented.
The adventurers guild was multiversal in scale. Jim didnt know what this meant except that it scared him. This entire universe was changed at a very core level by a mistake from a single True Immortal and the guild he just joined had to be backed by a simr being. His main receptionist, Frink, wasnt even from this universe. Hell, she wasnt even originally from a universe with a system.
Jim didnt know what to do with this info. In fact, he didnt know if he should do anything with it. Frink said it was up to him but Jim was going to sit on this little tidbit for a while longer. Definitely until after he was able to dig into it more. He knew that this was important and that he probably should tell Ace, but a primal part of him wouldnt let it go. That part which had him alone out in the forest was holding him back.
This was a problem. Jim knew this was a problem. There was a reason he hadnt wanted this position in the first ce. But the others were depending on him, Ace believed in him. Jim could only sigh as he watched the first citizens trickle into the guild.
Doyle was also watching these first few people. The adventurers guild was of particr interest to him and while he wasnt able to see the backrooms, the public areas were perfectly visible. Then absolutely nothing interesting happened. Sure, a bunch of people created teams but except for hearing a bunch of questions being answered by the fact that more details would being, Doyle was soon bored.
So when the first true team entered his dungeon he was easily distracted. Not that it would have taken much, but a system message was more than enough.
{First Guild Approved Team Detected
Adventurers Guild Contract avable}
From there Doyle, of course, had to crack open the contract. This was a mistake. This was an enormous mistake. Whoever the guild got as awyer was clearly well versed in the normal way people handled such things, as in by at most skimming the contract and then signing off on it on a whim.
That wasnt going to work, they made sure of it. As soon as Doyle opened up the contract to take a quick look, he was locked in. It wasnt even the system doing it. The contract itself was forcing Doyle to read it and wouldnt let him stop until he understood exactly what it said.
Not the easiest thing when it seemed whoever wrote the contract must have created words specifically for it. Good thing the contract came with definitions, right? Well, yes, because it allowed him to understand it and thus finish reading the contract. The only problem was the fact that it seemed that every word he had to look up had at least a couple terms in it that also needed to be looked up. It was definition pop ups all the way down.
The worst part, though? The contract basically boiled down to a handful of simple rules that if they werent followed, the guild would make things ufortable. Good news, this would only make it so guild members would avoid him and such. Which while it might sound bad as it looked like basically everyone that nned to delve was partying up, wasnt too terrible at the moment. The guild might provide party creation services but that didnt require joining the guild.@@novelbin@@
In fact, as far as Doyle could tell only Jim was currently a guild member. To actually join the guild required a lot more than the various fantasy novels made it out to be. Even Jim wasnt technically qualified yet to join, only getting in on a technicality. After all, you cant have a guild head that isnt actually a part of the guild. Still, just Jim alone being a part of the guild would make a ton of problems for Doyle if he didnt agree to the contract.
A good thing then that Doyle was fine with agreeing to the contract. The three main terms basically just reinforced the system based stuff, going much deeper into what was and wasnt allowed. Even better? It put a limit on guild members and what they can and cant do about his very existence. Not that anyone on the right could do much about even a newborn dungeon, but that wouldnt hold in the future.
The biggest catch of the whole contract? It required him to give guild members preferential treatment. Not an easier time, mind you. Oh now, it seems they know exactly how bad of an idea that would be. Rather, it required members to be rewarded before and above non-members.
In theory, Doyle doesnt really care about this. If anything, pushing people towards being guild members would be better for him. The actual problem is that to put into ce such a system is going to require most of his Wisdom to go towards making those loot rules and dy further automation of his floors. The only upside was that the guild provided very specific rules that could be slotted into ce.
Of course those required loot rules would cost 40 points of Wisdom. Well, the basic rules cost 40 points. If Doyle wanted to go further, there basically wasnt an upper limit. There were even optional rules. An endless point sink that Doyle could see himself spending literal years on optimizing once he has enough Wisdom.
Anyway, Doyle technically has enough for those basic rules. His Wisdom was 59 points at the moment after all. Its just that he doesnt want to get rid of his two loot rules and to keep the automation of the first floor. Later floors arent visited as frequently, but the first floor is constantly farmed and has most of his instances. Those ten Wisdom points basically took care of 90% of the upkeep and Doyle wasnt willing to drop them.
So there Doyle was, a single point of Wisdom away from being able to sign the contract. Good thing he had a few path points hanging around or Jim would have had a bit of trouble during his regr dives. Of course, the question was, where should he put his points? His normal method of just choosing whatever sounds useful isnt exactly going to gift him a point in Wisdom despite the fact it had workedst time.
This led to a good bit of time spent on calling up his various paths and trying to figure out what would be most likely to give him some more Wisdom. Worse yet, there wasnt even a variant ss path for him to bet on and the thousand point cost for Dungeon Core IV was a little too pricey. The problem with this was that most of his Wisdom hade from his ss path.
In fact, since per a level wouldnt work the only path that had given him Wisdom was specifically Dungeon Core III. The only other source, in fact, was the runes on his cliff. Though if he did extend it to per a level, a few more things popped. Even then, it was mostly just the kobold rted paths and the one god rted path.
With that in mind, Doyle was only able to look over his paths and pick out the most likely options. This ended up whittling the choices down to five paths. Community Driven, Community Builder, Godly Negotiator, Heavenly Gate, and n Head. Each of them had about equal chances of providing a point of Wisdom as far as Doyle was concerned and so he started to whittle them down.
First to go was Godly Negotiator. He kind of wanted it even if he would prefer to never have to deal with gods again. After all, since he didnt want to deal with them, anything that would make it easier would be wee when he was forced to do so again. The problem at the moment was it cost 500 points. If he was going to start on another expensive path, he would go for the gate path. Though he dropped that one as well, 350 points wasnt much better.
That left the paths Doyle figured were directly rted to his kobolds. To be driven by, build up, or create a leader. Whether they meant to improve him directly or themunities was a question that he didnt know the answer to. So with a mental shrug Doyle decided to settle on the only path that could bepleted right away, Community Driven costing only ten points.
[System, put ten points into the Community Driven path, please.]
{10 points applied to Community Driven...
1/10 - Monsters in amunity gain +5 Constitution, +5 Wisdom, and +5 Destiny
4/10 - Monsters in amunity gain physical skills appropriate for their roles, You have earned +10 Constitution
7/10 - Monsters in amunity gain mental skills appropriate for their roles, You have earned +10 Wisdom
10/10 - Pathplete, Sapient monsters in amunity gain soul skills appropriate for their roles, You have earned +10 Destiny}
Doyleughs as his bet paid off. Besides that, the path also gave skills to his monsters. A new thing, but Doyle had a decent understanding of this. His kobold town was the first time that his monsters would need more skills than what they came with. A bit of a shame that it was limited to monsters in amunity but Doyle was sure he could work around it. Plus, as he had already pointed out, most monsters dont really need more than their normal skills.
More importantly though, since all he had needed was a single point of Wisdom, the path provided well more than that. So after making sure all his wisdom was freed up besides the first floor and his two loot rules, Doyle confirms that he epts the contract. Then, just like the contract said, a newbined loot rule was created and instantly used up most of his spare wisdom.
Of course he was still short a single Wisdom point away from being able to automate another floor, but Doyle was fine with that. Not that he had any other choice, what with only a single path point left. So without any other loot rules that Doyle felt like implementing he could only settle back and wait for Jim to enter the dungeon once again.
Well, not wait. Doyle has enough tasks to use up his time. So he knocks on Allys door to get her to keep an eye out for Jim. So much stuff to do and despite having all the time in the world, it isnt like others will let him idle around for that long.
Turn About Is Fair Play – Chapter 186
Ally answers the door quick enough, though she doesnt look all that happy. So I hear youve made a pact of some sort?
Doyles core tilts to the side and freezes, Huh?
Ally raises an eyebrow, You made a pact, without talking to me first.
Doyle tilts to the other side, I was messing with some stuff and the town finally got to put in the adventurers guild. Got some stuff from that. Oh, and I got a path to afford the contract.
Ally sighs and rubs the bridge of her nose, That, that would be the pact. Did it not ur to you what you might be signing?
Doyle, A contract? Sure, it was through the system but Ive signed a bunch of contracts in the past. This one wasnt even all that long. I think reading the entire thing only took a day or two to fully understand.@@novelbin@@
Ally rolls her eyes, You sign a pact with the adventurers Guild. Me thinks your world needs to have their ideas over contracts rewired, especially those through the system.
Doyle rolls his core in return. If they dont have contractw out there then earthwyers are going to eat them alive.
Ally shakes her head, Nah, we havewyers of our own. More of what I am referring to is that you need to be careful about how binding the contract is. The Guild contract should have had something in there about being binding under the authority of the Guilds founder?
Doyle nods, Sure, who else would be the opposing party?
Ally sighs again, Yeah, going to have to teach your world to be extra careful about any contract iming to use somethings power to bind it. I guess I cant me you too much, especially since it doesnt go over who the Guilds founder is, cause that really is the sticking point here.
Since we are already so bound, let me exin who they are. The Guilds founder is something of a mix between a god and a true immortal. You already experienced one of the big boys around, Order. The Guilds founder is the step below that. As far as the known multiverse knows, the founder is the founder of the first true adventurers guild founder, that managed to spread their guild between dimensions.
Though that doesnt really give you the best idea of what they represent, so let me give you another example. Death is the best known personification of some nearly universal constant. Rightly so, of course, as Death is nearly all-consuming. If not for things like Order and Chaos, Death would be like Order and Chaos. A quirky little Catch 22 that Lady Death is quite happy for as being a concept doesnt leave any room for having a personality.
So yeah, the Guild Leader is sort of important. You dont get to have interdimensional business without at least a true immortal behind something and it doesnt get as big as the Guild without more than just that. The only time interdimensional stuff happens without it is within a cosmology where the dimensions are all touching.
Doyle rolls back, Any other levels of power I should know about? Seems I just keep having new levels of beings able to kick my butt popping in out of nowhere.
Ally shrugs, Eh, there arent really any extra names to learn. Either the situation is unique enough that you just call them by name, you know, like Death. Or they just fit under the other two. Good example of that is my mom who is technically fae royalty who gets called Gods more often than not. Well, if they arent being called Arch-Devils or Demon Lords, which at the top end are also Gods, but mortals like to just ignore that detail.
Doyle nods for a second before he notices something. Why are they gods and not immortals? Are they unable to be true immortals or some such?
Allyughs, Not impossible, just so unlikely that there arent any true immortals from their groups currently atrge in the local area. Basically, how it works is that to be a true immortal you need to break away from mortality and what makes you mortal. For beings like fae and devils, that would mean going against their racial nature.
This doesnt mean a devil needs to be good, but rather chaotic. While possible for any being with a soul cause of that free will thing, as a general rule of thumb it does not happen. So what happens when they get to the height of power, the next step is godhood. Fae belong to courts, just another name for a church and devils belong to the nine hells, which is basically just a fancy name for a pantheonic heaven.
Not that any traditional god would admit to this. If they even have toe close to it, they prefer to use the term deity to provide more separation. One of the fun side effects of this non-existent difference is that devil-bane weapons work just as well againstw based angels and fae. Or put another way, they all belong to a ss of being many refer to as outsiders. Not to be confused with outer gods and their spawn.
Doyle sighs, So there are gods, true immortals, concepts, and then just to throw it all off some unique beings?
Ally shrugs, Yeah, pretty much. Once you get to that level of power, things end up simplified. It is only on our end that all those powers seem unique. You in particr should realize this as under the hood youre basically still just using quintessence, the OG power source.
Doyle continues, So what is the problem with me making a deal with one of them? I know its apparently a serious thing but from what I saw I would sort of end up strong-armed into taking the contract eventually, anyway.
Ally takes a deep breath and then lets it out slowly. The problem is not necessarily with you making the deal. The problem is that You made it. I admit, previously I had been acting like a royal brat but I have been working on it. In the same vein, you seem to like decisions that will affect both of us without keeping me in the loop.
Doyles core dims, Oh. Yeah. You do deserve to be informed with this kind of thing. Not to excuse myself for not telling you, but Ive never exactly been one to have people to talk to in general so this is kind of new to me. Ill definitely work on it in the future though I dont expect you to believe me until Ive actually shown you that I can.
Ally snorts, That was said a lot better than I expected. Sounds kind of like youve been practicing speeches like that.
Doyle nods, Basically. Take note of my previous statement. This isnt my first rodeo when ites to ack of social tact. Ive had a bit of time to get used to the fact that Im going to be putting my foot in my mouth more often than not.
Ally sighs, Fair enough. Now, youve already signed the contract so we cant exactly go back on it, but how about you fill me in a little on what it actually entails?
Doyle nods again, It was a really basic contract in the end. By providing guild members, true guild members that is, as the guild lets a lot of people join the local branch without actually joining the guild proper. Anyway, I provide better drop odds and some other stuff to those true guild members and in turn they dont screw me over.
Of the things that would happen for being able to receive the contract and yet not agree to, includes a few doozies. Not going to list them all, you can read over the contractter but to get the point across. To start with, something that would cripple our long-term growth. The guild would make sure to redirect adventurers from other locations away from us using methods up to and including literal hypnosis and hacking ofworks so as to make our dungeon undesirable.
A more instant downside is that any guild members that do find the dungeon, such as a certain Jim who became a true member by being the local guild leader, would have a few kickers added to their and their teams delves. Nasty for me is that they would be shielded and so unable to radiate their power, you know, the stuff I eat? Sure, they cant be prevented from radiating all power and the teammates are shielded much less than the actual members, but a lot of my advancement has been fueled by Jim and Ace, so having it cut in half would suck.
And of course, nasty for them is the fact that Jim and his team would let out a power pulse that would disrupt loot spawns. Not entirely, but it would definitely cut down drops for them by at least half. They are, of course informed of this by the system. Oh, and that cut in drops is on top of an already reduced drop rate because they arent releasing all that power my dungeon uses to create the drops in the first ce.
Though I guess what could be considered the biggest downside at the moment and why I instantly agreed to the contract such that I was even willing to buy a path just for enough Wisdom to fulfill my end of the contract. It promised death. Not right away and maybe not even in the near future. See, I already had a clue of what kind of being was backing the guild. I wasnt totally blind to what being an interdimensional organization would entail.
See, since I was able to understand the agreement enough to ept it, I was instantly put on the guilds list of dungeons to cull. Since Im not some kind of gue dungeon or other simr type of environmentally disruptive ce, it wouldnt be on some kind of rush order. However, anyone who is a part of the guild, including the outer circle that isnt a part of the true guild, would be informed that I needed to be killed and to pass it on it or face penalties.
A truly epic quest with equally amazing rewards, so even if Jim wasnt willing to try for it, someone would. I wasnt worried about people on this, at least not yet. I was worried about Jim being forced to report to some passing powerhouse. Because an organization helmed by someone capable of making it go interdimensional is going to have members more than capable of culling me even once I grow strong enough. So yeah, it would have basically been a death wish to not agree.
Doyle turns his attention back to Ally and notices she has gone pale. It takes her a good bit of time to get herself back under control. We would have died a lot quicker than you thought. We would have died. We would have died within the week. My mom belongs to the Guild, and make sure you say it as a proper noun from now on. My mom belongs to the Guild and she would have been able to tell the next time I talked to her. She might have loved me but the penalties at that level for not elevating the message are dire. Like, racial extinction from the universe dire.
Though maybe it wouldnt have been that dire, as what little experience I do have with thises from dungeons on the rush order list. But Ive seen her receive a message about two such dungeons in all of my life. Both times the court was closed for the day and she passed it on up the chain ofmand. Just think of who she must have been reporting to! Fae royalty, a literal god, having to report to someone higher than them?
Of course, it generally wouldnt get to her. Local guilds have a chance to deal with such things first. So if your guild couldnt do it, then the, then the sr system, and so on. To reach someone like my mom requires it to either truly be a universal threat or near impossible to destroy.
Ally pauses before frowning, That still doesnt excuse you for not bringing me into the decision. After all, I know a good bit more about the universes situation. Even though I would have been on board with you, agreed this time, for obvious reasons, that might not have been the case. Also, something else is bothering me, did you mention something about buying a new path?
Death Worlds – Chapter 187
Doyle nods his core in response to Allys question. Yeah, I didnt quite have enough Wisdom to ept the Guilds contract and keep the first floor automation and the two loot rules I have running.
Ally looks really aggrieved at this. So you, who had just recently reached the limits of your soul, decided to buy a new path? Didnt the pain from before push it deep enough into your mind to not do that? You havent even gained a level! Im surprised you didnt howl out with pain so loudly that I could hear it even if you werent trying to talk with me.
Doyles core shes as the memory of the pain returns to him. It really wasnt that long ago since he hadpleted his dungeon core path and felt that twisted mind rending pain. Then something elsees to mind. I didnt feel any pain this time?@@novelbin@@
Ally frowns, you should have? While your soul does grow with experience, both literal and figurative, the system isnt as kind. Until you get thatst tick of it to push you over into the next level, it treats you like you had the same limit as when you first reached your current level. Were you doing anything special to allocate the path points?
Doyle shakes his head, I was deciding whether or not to ept the contract and so after noticing I could use a few more points of Wisdom I spent the points on the path most likely to give me some. I said it exactly like I normally would and everything.
Ally rubs the bridge of her nose, I suspect I know how it happened and I suspect you might have gotten a bit deeper into debt. What likely happened is that the system allowed you to spend more path points than you were allowed in exchange for increasing your quintessence debt. Hopefully not at too steep of a price.
Doyles core dims, Why would it do that? Like, I know it likes the quintessence and so is all for putting me into debt, but I also dont see why it would still cause all the pain and what not.
Allyughs, Because you were still in the middle of reading the Guild contract of course. Whoever made the system likely had someonee by to talk with them about what should be included in as an exception. Now how about we check on the damages as Im sure the system will be just as recalcitrant on telling us the new debt as it was in telling us the old one.
Doyle nods, [System what was the cost of buying mytest path and what is my current quintessence debt?]
{Thest path cost: 10pp, Quintessence debt where each point spent adds 0 plus 1 after every second point spent
Current Quintessence debt: 82.61}
Ally bites her thumb. Yeah, that could have been a lot worse. If those first two points hadnt been free, it would have cost 10 more quintessence. We probably owe whoever was sent to represent the guild for getting those freebies. It had taken us this long to get down to 60ish and if we had tipped over the 100 point things would have gotten nastier.
Still, as long as we owe more than 10 quintessence were going to be stuck with the slower world energy gain from delvers. Thats basically giving up our energy to the system for free without it even going towards the debt or anything. I cant even imagine how much more you could have done so far if the system wasnt taking some undetermined amount of power from us. Though I guess it is probably better than owing interest on the debt.
Doyle cant help butugh, though stops after Ally shoots him a dirty look. Still, he cant help but shake his core, I hadpletely forgotten about the fact that my debt reduced how much world energy I get from delvers.
When Ally hears that, she cant help but let out a giggle as well. Okay, that does deserve a bit of augh. But increasing your debt isnt aughing matter. Going over a debt of 100 is when the system starts increasing the penalties. I dont know what the dungeon based penalties would be but think along the lines of holding back stat gains from your paths and such. Your grab for more Wisdom would have been quite the failure if at the point when you have gotten it on the path the system had already decided you wouldnt get it.
Doyles core goes almost dark before the glow returns, That, that would have been bad. Why would the system get so persnickety at such an arbitrary point?
Ally shrugs, Cause it can? Other possibilities include that maybe that number was an unlucky amount to owe in the designers culture, someone thought the number was funny, or they rolled dice. Remember, for many of the core functions that dont grow with the system, the reasons will boil down to one person wanting it that way.
Even the fact that it is just the system and not the System tells us something. My personal guess on that one is that whoever designed it originated from a universe that had a System. So when designing their own, it wasnt the System, but rather just a system they were making.
Doyle nods, I guess that all makes as much sense as the next guess. Still, Im d I managed to stay under an arbitrary number. I should probably look into paying it back more actively. If I remember correctly, we had figured it would take something like 4 days of my natural power generation to generate a single quintessence? Though for some reason I feel like were missing something about the debt penalty?
Ally frowns and brings up her notes. After reading them, she sighs, Yeah, I misremembered a few things. It isnt at 100 that the heavy penaltiese in. For 100 and every power of ten, after that you gain 10% extra leveling experience. Also, just for having a debt you experience slower skill growth. The breaking point actually starts at 153 for some reason. Though I wasnt wrong about not knowing what the penalty would be. I just have it marked as being a big breakpoint.
Doyle groans, So my skill growth has been stunted this whole time? That does bring up the question of what I would be doing with all those path points seeing as I already managed to cap that out. But yeah, I really need to pay down this debt if that is the case. Maybe back then I couldnt afford to put in my full natural regen but now I basically dont even use it.
Ally nods, That does sound like a good idea. Though maybe just limit it to when you have your poll capped? Dont want to end up in a situation where you need more and dont have it. As for your skill growth? You have to remember you arent leveling as fast as most dungeons would.
If you were on a that was already integrated with the system, you would be at least level 10 by now, even if a sapient poption hadnt found you. Not many monsters got here not because the draw isnt powerful. Rather, there just werent many monsters in the first ce. On a that has had at least a century go by, you would have had multiple monsters entering every day from the moment you entered. Not to mention if you were anywhere near a sapient poption.
Dungeon deaths are, in most ces a way of keeping their poption and unemployment in check. Fools and their lives are soon parted, which is a quick and easy way for dungeons to level up. You might not have had as many deaths as with the monsters but each sapient death is worth more no matter how grim that sounds.
Doyle sighs, So Im just growing slowly on all metrics?
Ally shrugs, Eh, not much you can do about it. On the bright side, you should have a more consistent growth instead. Dungeons tend to grow to the areas level ofpetence and then stop. If a world rarely gets anyone above level 100, the dungeon isnt going to be getting anywhere above that, with any great speed.
By having a captive audience, as it were, you can continue to grow as they do. Plus, the system tends to give a bit of a boost to the first generation after it arrives on a. Their kids might not be growing like they are, but you only need Ace andpany to keep growing even without the death factor.
Doyle tilts to the side, Why would that matter all that much? Im not exactly rolling in the levels right now and theyve way out leveled me. I have floors they wont get to for a while now.
Ally nods, You arent wrong in the short term. The thing is, each magnitude of levels increases the experience scaling. So while theyre ahead of you right now you will likely catch up at each of those break points. That and the fact that you will stay ahead of them with floors will keep it in check. There is a reason I used level 100 as a sticking point in that example.
Though I suspect that your world isnt going to be one of those stuck there. Youve already got a couple of gods personally sniffing around just you alone. Besides that, I can already feel a level of world energy out there high enough to support higher levels and it is growing.
Doyle tilts back, I can see thatst bit being a problem.
Allyughs, Well, yes, it can be. A world just needs to make sure there are enough high-level people to keep it in check.
Doyle tilts back, And if they dont?
Ally shrugs, Well, we call those worlds, death worlds. Partly because monsters end up gaining the levels through growth and so they kill off the lower level sapient inhabitants. Mostly though because once monsters get far enough ahead they corrupt the local worlds energy. This is technically fixable but it is much cheaper to just move.
See, what that corruption does is increase the chance of monsterification. After all, you can have an animal with mana but it isnt a monster. Once the world energy has monster energy in it, though, that is a whole lot harder. Worse yet, more things can be monsters.
Because normally it takes either some sort of special condition for a stone golem to just form out of a natural rock. On a monster world, it isnt out of the question for a mountain to just stand up and walk away. Extreme examples of this include having any local moons turn into golems. That is only if the other local monsters dont take over the mountain first. A mountain with a dragon living in it isnt going toe alive on you even if that situation might be more survivable.
Doyle sighs, And of course either way I woulde out ahead.
Ally shrugs again, Dungeons just sort of are. After all, eventually even the most monstrous world will end up with sapients, even if they are all monsters. Dungeons are honestly the species that has the hardest time waking up to full sapience. I guess it makes up for their massive innate ability. Gotta keep that soul asleep to keep things fair.
Doyle shakes his core, I dont want fair, I want strategically unfair in my favor.
Ally snorts, Well, you got it. After all, youre an awakened dungeon already. Cant get much more unfair than that unless the rumors of certain monsters being able to naturally grow into true immortals is true.
A New Motivation For The Town – Chapter 188
In the end, Doyle can only sigh and head off to continue his work on the seventh floor. He had other ns but with the increase to his debt he decided to scale back a little for the near future to start paying it off more actively. The upside is that once he stops spending his world energy on everything the amount of quintessence generated ends up being greater than predicted.
Though after thinking about it, Doyle realizes it would make sense. The four days to a point was predicated on his natural regen. With the support of the extra energy from delvers, after restocking costs of course, it actually ends up being more like one a day. Still slow, just not over a year slow.
Of course, life isnt going to be so kind as to allow Doyle to just peacefully exist. It takes over a week before one of the founders gets back to the sixth floor, mostly because the creation of the local Guild branch created a bunch of work for everyone. After that time, though, Jim makes his way into the dungeon once again. By himself this time, as he isnt looking to delve so much as get away from the paperwork.
A frustrating task that only he and Ace really have to deal with at the moment. Sure, others in the town are using paper to record things, but only they are attached to a position that requires it. In fact, Jim has way more paperwork than him. A magnitude of it more. While the system mostly runs itself so Ace doesnt have to do much outside of system screens, the Adventurers Guild seems to have taken after the ssic paper free office design where you still have to fill a form out in triplicate, you just also then have to fill out the form digitally as well.
So there Jim is, at the entrance to the dungeon. His group had done a couple speed delves just to stay in shape so he knows how it is going to work. He steps into the portal and just like when backtracking is given an option.
{Go To: 1, 6}
Really minimal, even more so than the exit prompt. Though Jim suspects this is just future proofing for when a dungeon has a lot more choices on where you can go. Unknown to him or the others that isnt quite true. Rather, the dialogue is personalized to some extent based on what is expected. For instance, a blind person would have the options spoken to them if they expect that or they might have the option disyed in their head.
In this specific case, the simplicity is entirely Jims fault. He went first and so ended up describing what he saw, a simple list based on how he would have done it. So, of course, after hearing him say that, that was how the rest of them saw it as well.
Ignorant of this, Jim stands there with the options as he considers what his n is. In the end, though, he sighs and selects the sixth floor. If he went to the first floor, then someone coulde and get him. Only on the sixth floor would he be free from non-emergency interruptions as only he and the others who defeated the boss with him could currently get there. Far as he is concerned, if they need him enough, then they cane get him.
Though once through, he seriously reconsiders his choice as all around him, an entirely new view wees him. While he doesnt know the extent, he can tell this floor changes itself up just like the third floor. Jim shakes his head and decides to continue. The third floor didnt change with someone on it, so this floor should be the same.
It is, of course, but that is entirely because Doyle chose to make it that way. After all, unlike on the third floor, the actual floor doesnt change at all. Rather, the portals just activate and deactivate as needed to give the illusion of a never ending space. The entireyout of the floor could in theory bepletely randomized even as delvers move through it.
Not that Jim is on the floor long enough to find anything more about it. While he does sneak around to get a feel for the area, he isnt in the same realm of sneaking as the Barrais. So when hees across the first group of 14 cattle all just hanging out, Jim decides to explore in the other direction. That, of course, leads him to a smaller group of just 10 cattle. In fact, no matter the direction he goes he keeps running intorge groups of cattle
Suffice it to say, Jim rethinks his n of going it alone. Though his report of a floor inhabited seemingly entirely by cattle, even if there are a few strange ones, is more than enough to rile up the town. When he reported it to Ace neither of them had thought much of it. After all, they now have a herd of cattle all their own.
What they hadnt taken into ount though is that most people hadnt gotten used to their current diet. While goat is amon enough meat in other areas of the world, their particr culture was very much focused on beef. Sure, there was some seafood that was considered fancier, but a good steak was something everyone could get. This wasnt an option anymore when there werent factory farms able to ship the meat cross country.
So knowing that only six floors down is an endless supply of high quality steak the town was mighty energetic. Sure, the third floor had an earthen cow which ended up tasting amazing if a bit hard to chew for thosecking in strength, but the sixth floor was special.
To get to the third floor required you traveling through the first and second then dealing with the daily changes to the maze. The sixth floor had no such problem as once you beat the boss you can just skip right to it. Doyle hadnt meant for this, but he definitely started to benefit from it.
Whereas before, most people were satisfied advancing slowly if at all, the idea of an endless supply of beef urged many a fool further into the dungeon. Groups that had stabilized on just farming the first or third floor started to once again push their limits. Seeing as a lot of those groups had outgrown their hunting grounds this didnt instantly cause too many deaths.
That particr spike had to wait for when they reached the boss floor. Even without that, though, Doyle benefited. After all, while death was a big boost, he got more just for them exerting themselves. Overall, an idental result that in the end helps both sides. Doyle gets more power while the lower end of the town is no longer stagnating, which could spell disaster in the long run.
Doyle is, of course troubled by this turn of events. He can see how it will help in the long run, but his fifth floor isnt really meant to prevent raids, in fact the more time passes the more he feels like it is fine. Except, of course, now instead of the founders being the only ones threatening to make it to the end of the dungeon, everyone in town seems to have gotten a fire lit under their butts to advance. Their reasoning is simple enough. If the sixth floor has cattle, what mightter floors have?
In the end, though, no matter how much Doyle grumbles about the whole town turning into crazed foodies, it still pushes him to do more. Good thing he has enough sapient energy stored up to create the next floor. So after informing Ally and going through all the steps to once more create a new floor, the usual message pops up as he sits there in empty space.
{Eighth floor dimensionally anchored
World Energy cap +5700 [Constitution(57) * 100]
eighth floor spending limit set to 22600 [Previous floors limit(18200) + Intelligence(44) * 100]
Monster level cap updated
Quintessence debt paid back by 5}
Of course, Doyle goes and checks his debt first. While he averaged about 1 a day, it varied by quite a bit so he hadnt really kept track of it. The result was decent enough at 69.8 and meant he had ended up getting more than one a day, though that might just be from the new flow of people.
With that squared away, it brought a more annoying thing to the front, or ratherck thereof. This floor wasnt offering some kind of package or deal. Every other floor until now had something he could be with some world energy. Whether that was to get a new monster or some item, it had been there.
Sure, it was nice to have his world energy cap increased, monster level cap upped, and to know what his spending limit was. However, he only had so many monsters to pick from right now. While most of them were interesting and there was a lot of variation on certain themes, he wanted more. So of course he goes and asks Ally.
When Ally hears about it, though, she can only shrug. Were you expecting to get cheap options every time? The system must have figured you had a decent enough selection for the moment. Either that or maybe the more floors you have the fewer times you get to pick. It would be kind of strange if a dungeon got something like that for every floor. Just think about it, there are dungeons with thousands of floors out there.
Not many mind you. Generally only a couple in a gxy if that. But they are out there. In fact, I wouldnt be surprised if after a certain point you stop getting options entirely. Dont worry about it for the moment, though. Youre definitely a good way off from that happening. Just dont expect it every floor from now on.@@novelbin@@
Doyle nods, I guess that is fair enough. Not like dungeons that exist in ces without a system are getting anything like this, anyway.
Allyughs and shakes her head. It isnt quite that simple. A lot of things that the system does which arent connected to a path and even some that are tend to be stuff that would happen, anyway. What the system tends to do is regte it. These options are a decent example.
Without a system like this one, a dungeon will gather wisps of thoughts and such from the people that die. Once they have gathered enough of them, it can create a mystery temte that the dungeon will instinctively know is there and they will be able to put world energy into. Once filled, the temte will turn into an actual pattern.
Problem is, this is created from random wisps dropped by the dead. So while the pattern might be quite simr to a wolf it will likely be malformed and based more on the cultural perception of wolves instead of real wolves. Though also very likely is that the dungeon ends up with a strangebination of ideas that the amalgamation is unable to live, even when supported by the dungeon.
With the system, you dont have to worry about it. In fact, you end up with a more perfected monster because the system pools the data. Remember that the monstersbeled with the word dungeon like your dungeon wolf are optimized examples of the species. Not perfect, nothing is after all, but as good at their role as the system feels you should have.
Doyle sighs, I remember. I also remember that if I managed to get better wolves in my dungeon my instance of the dungeon wolf pattern would improve. I guess this exins why I would have such an ability, especially when an unawakened dungeon wouldnt be able to consciously mess around with their monsters so as to let them live.
Ally shakes her head, If anything an unawakened dungeon is better at messing with monsters. Sometimes, actually thinking about something makes it worse. Awakened dungeons just have the ability to n and recognize what a monster specializes in. Now, what are your ns for the new floor?
Doyleughs, No clue!
Another Vine Room Or Three – Chapter 190
Now with the basic structure of the eighth floor set in ce Doyle felt free to y with it and so turned to the first room. He wasnt ready to go full Escher on it so left space itself alone for now. Instead, through the use of unnaturally tough ss, a number of tforms and bridges are formed. Each one is just clear enough that you might lose sight of it if not paying attention.
Doyle wasnt nning on hurting people through tossing them off the side of the tforms, especially since by this point most delvers would be made of tougher stuff than the average human. No, instead he wants to make it so that during a fight a party backed into a corner might identally lose a mage off the edge as they back up. Then, because he cant help it, Doyle makes it so that the various bridges shift around when no one is on the floor.
This wasnt really a randomization of all that much. The tforms stayed in ce and with each one the size of a small room only so many fit in the room. In fact, some of the more physical delvers would be able to hop between the closer ones. This room would hold no mysteries, but that was sort of the point.
Doyle wasying everything out on the table, something that very much was not going to be the case higher in the floor. Because yes, the goal of the floor was to get to the top. After all, what was better for a dungeon, something that ssically went downward, than to go up?
Happy with the stark esthetics of the room with only the entrance portal and a ss staircase spiraling up through a circr hole, Doyle moves on to the next room. For this one, he wanted to showcase the axebeaks. They arent a bad monster, he just didnt have a decent location for them. This room would change that and in spades.
The main gimmick was going to be gravity. The floor would be down, the ceiling would be down, and one of the ss walls would be down as well. Of course, they wouldnt be straight down! Oh no, Doyle had a better n than just that. The floor of the room would be as if slightly nted away from the wall that was down. That wall would be as if slightly nted away from the ceiling and of course from there the ceiling was slightly nted towards that very wall.
This created the illusion that you were walking uphill to the wall and then up the wall and finally towards the opening onto the next room. Said opening was tantalizingly directly over the hole from the previous room. It almost looks like someone could jump the distance with enough strength. This was technically true.
One very important catch was a simple enough feature that Doyle had originally implemented to mess with arrows and spells. The middle third of the room followed the one walls gravity. Sure, someone strong enough or using a flying spell could easily bypass this. It did however add just that little bit extra to the difficulty front without putting up a literal wall, something Doyle wanted to avoid if possible.
In the end, Doyle admitted that this room would be super simple after a certain realm of strength and he was fine with that. Though he suspected that even the strong would have a bit of a problem with the shifts in gravity. While it was manipted to a much finer degree than he had ever done so before, the edges of each gravity field were quite abrupt. Even on the two edges people would be able to walk through to go from floor to wall and then onto the ceiling might cause a problem.
He had wanted it to be more of a gradient or soft border but his abilities still werent at that level. Though now that the basic mechanics of the room were taken care of, Doyle focuses on the look of the room. The wall was going to stay ss because he found the idea of people panicking on it hrious. For the floor and ceiling, though? They both get covered in a healthyyer of dirt and topped off with grass.
Though so as to not take up any extra room space, he actually digs down. Sure, it created a thicker transition between rooms but Doyle was fine with that. Not like the ce was an actual skyscraper where he would have to care about the load. Speaking of which, he then adds in a bunch of small boulders.
These rocks arent really all that big, topping out around waist height. They are however all quite t and squat so they can grow moss. Though their primary purpose is to give the lizards and such a ce to hide from the axebeaks as needed. The previous room might have stripped any semnce of ecology away, but this one would be more in line with his other floors.
That was enough for now though, and so he moved on. First though, there needs to be a better way to get there than just a hole in the ceiling, so Doyle ces a set of stairs that have the gravity flip halfway through. This lets out into the third and fourth room.
Both the third and fourth room because Doyle wanted the two to be devilishly simple. The third room would have the hole to the second room and the fourth room would have the staircase to the fifth room. Both are located at exactly the same ce of course. To get to the fifth room, all you have to do is walk across the fourth room.
What makes this simple is the fact you do just have to walk. There arent any special methods needed. Theplication is that Doyle has put up floor to ceiling gates, simr to the sixth floor except they dont lead to somewhere random. When active, it will send you to the other room in exactly the same location as if you had been in that room to begin with.
So all a delver needs to do to get to the staircase is to figure out the path they need to walk so that they end up there. An invisible maze of simpleplexity. If anyone was able to view from the top, it would be simple to solve. Too bad that isnt an option.
Though Doyle does add one indicator of where they are. The third room has a grass floor with a few clovers while the fourth room has a clover floor with a few bits of grass. Not the most obvious tell, but its there and hes sure that it will be noticed, eventually. Sort of a one-trick pony situation, of course as once someone shares the info everyone will know but hes fine with that.
Satisfied, he turns to the fifth room. Easy enough, so far the rooms have been just exemplifying certain things so this one can be about warping space. The only question is how?
Doyles first reaction is to make it look stupid simple again and he doesnt feel like having a second reaction. So with that in mind, the entire room gets left as stone with a circr hole on the opposite end that has part of a staircase hanging down. From there, he cuts loose.
On thest floor, he limited himself to bending things a little bit, like an elephant walked through a door and everything was bowed out. Now he ns to take it to the next level. The first step is to drag the floor up at a steep angle. Not physically, in fact, anyone looking at things from the entrance to the room would see the room as still being t. No, Doyle was manipting and stretching space itself.
Space did not quite like this, mostly because part of how the floors size was determined was how far Doyle could stretch things. So, like a rubber band pulled tight it didnt have much give left. Good thing he was able to do more than just stretch it. Just like how the spatial bags take a small portion of his space, he is able to move it around some and so that is what he did.
Now with some extra space to y with Doyle is able to get the far end all the way up to the staircase. This created a not so gentle slope that only became noticeable once someone started climbing on it. Doyleughed to himself, it definitely wasnt enough!
So with all the finesse of a sledgehammer Doyle begins to jack up the terrain. Cliffs you only see once you upon them, gulleys that are actually t ground, and a whole lot of extra space that shouldnt be able to fit within the nine meters between the floor and ceiling.
Doyle isnt even certain he wants to add any monsters to this. The simple fact that it looks like apletely empty room with a t floor is an interesting thing in and of itself. Nevermind the fact that the seemingly impossible terrain is probably just as much of a danger, anyway.
That in mind, he moves on to the sixth, seventh, and eighth rooms. Not that he ns to replicate the third and fourth rooms. To copy that except with three rooms would be boring. No, Doyle has another n for these three.@@novelbin@@
For all the previous rooms, there has only been one path. A single entrance and a single exit? Boring! Instead of a single hole between rooms, the way in between room six, seven, and eight will be provided by a multitude of smaller holes.
Of course, Doyle isnt going to have a bunch of staircases for this mess. Instead, all three rooms are filled with extra strong vines. In fact, he had been tempted to just remove the barriers between the three rooms but his vines and dungeon abilities arent quite yet able to be long enough for that and survive being climbed.
That doesnt stop Doyle from turning the way from six to seven and from seven to eight into swiss cheese. The bits of rock still up there are being used as anchor points for all the vines. This has one unnned upside. Anyone trying to climb up will have to switch vines in between rooms as not a single one goes all the way to the top.
Not only that, but Doyle decided on another bit of nastiness for the eighth room. Instead of there being one fixed way through to the ninth floor, there is a hole with adder that changes position after every visit. This wasnt originally a part of the n until he realized that once people figured out where the exit to the ninth floor was everyone would just go right to it.
Doyle had been tempted to make it only change once a day but even that would destroy too much of the challenge. If people didnt have to bumble around to find the way up, his assassin vines would rarely ever get to catch someone. This would have been a real shame when the whole set up basically begged for the camod ambush predators.
In fact, after taking a step back and putting his viewpoint down on the sixth floor he adds even more randomness. After all, even if they didnt know where the exit was, they would soon learn which vines are best to climb. Cant have that! So, with just a small tweak, the holes and vines all move around randomly as well.
Besides that, Doyle also removes a few of the holes. While it was hard to see near the center of the room. Along the edges where all the light was, it was somewhat easy to peek at the ceiling of the eighth floor. With that done, Doyle sits back and feels satisfied that he had closed up most of the obvious shortcuts.
Copy Pasting A Floor – Chapter 191
After a quick break Doyle dives back in and starts to work on the ninth room. A little tricky as in theory the entranceing from thest room could pop up anywhere. Sure, he could make it so that hole was always in the same ce.
Doyle however wanted to keep the feeling of continuity. Anyone that visits the floor should feel that they truly are in a part of an infinite skyscraper. So even if he can, he ns to keep the perceived spatial coordinates the same between rooms.
With that in mind, the question for this room bes what allows for a random entrance? The answer of course is to break one of the soft rules for the floor. So far even with the rooms that are somewhat connected, they arent really. The teleportation twins are both rooms in their own right while the previous three floors were divided despite how interconnected they could be..
Aughter and he reminds himself that he made the rules so he can break the rules. Plus, he was just reminded of a story he had read and felt like liberally borrowing some ideas from it. So without further ado, he takes four of the rooms and puts them together. No portals to glue it together, just a single actual space.
That ready the next thing to go is gravity. He doesnt really have any creatures ready for zero g, but the adventurers arent exactly ready for it either. From there he adds a few squares of rock as well as handholds all over the ce and it is ready. All that is left is to wonder if they realize that up is down. Shame about the author, the shadow was a very formative story for him.
Doyle shakes his core and focuses on the 13th room. He never really felt the number was all that unlucky but his home culture said otherwise. Nevermind the fact that some ces even considered it lucky. Still, he feels like including a little extra mindscrew so adds a fifth side to the room.
Mind you, the room is still a square. It just happens to have a fifth side to it. Otherwise it acts just like any other room Though even as a dungeon who can feel how it works his human instincts are shouting at him. If the other things he had done are strange, this one is down right uncanny. Just what he wanted.
The only question is what to do with it. In fact, as he thinks back on it, Doyle cant rightly remember exactly how he added the new corner. Sure, he could make another square room with an extra side easily enough. All it would take is manipting one of the sides so that it was twice as long and had a right angle in the middle. Easy!
This room however doesnt use that technique. As Doyle examines it closer he cant even tell which four corners are the original ones. Quite the strange experience and he doesnt want to risk ruining it. That of course leads to a simple enough room.
Doyle cant exactly add on grass or some such without knowing how it would work. That left the simplest methods of changing things up, a bunch of objects spread around the ce. It is a happy coincidence that this adds to the strangeness.
Odd arrangements of furniture made of stone, bone, wood, and ss appear across the room. Not normal furniture though, but rather physically warped examples. Doyle left off any spatial nonsense so as to not interfere with the room. Still, a pentagon shaped bed next to a three legged high back chair creates quite the scene.
After that Doyle shrugs and moves on. Maybeter he could iterate on the idea, but for a single room on a single floor? It can wait. Though he was moderately tempted to turn room 14 into the opposite with a three sided square but soon gives up as he doesnt understand the five sided square in the first ce. While he could cheat it would feel right.
So instead the 14th room is devoted to the theme hall of mirrors like you would find in a circus. Except of course Doyle doesnt deign to use mirrors. Instead he makes use of warps in space. A perfect reflection of not just light, but force as well. It wouldnt literally reflect physical things like an arrow or a spell, but more because that would require it to start existing in the same space which doesnt work too well. At least Doyle isnt able to do it yet.
This doesnt prevent him from developing a maze that shifts while being explored. It wasnt even all that hard. Just a matter of turning on and off what was basically a gate that happened to exit the same ce you can enter. To be fair though, Doyle made certain that it was always easy to return to the room''s entrance.
Thats a joke by the way. In fact, Doyle finds it funny enough to need to take a break and get his giggles under control. If there is one thing more frustrating than getting stuck in a maze, it is the feeling of going in a circle while in a maze. Of course since normal portals arent being used they will be able to map out the room. Still, he cant wait to see the expressions people will make.
There is only one teeny, tiny adjustment that he needed to make before moving on. Apparently there is such a thing as too reflective and Doyle had managed it. He wanted confusion, not nonsense so he toned it down. Now it was possible to tell the edges of each panel so it didnt look like there wasnt anything going on.
Final bits of polishing and dulling done Doyle shifts his focus to the 15th room. This one called for some finesse as thest few rooms had been heavy handed. That meant a in room with a hidden catch and he had an idea for what to do.
First he ced down a nice covering of soil and grass. A simple feature meant to obscure the ground. Why? Because through the use of his spatial maniption Doyle had hidden an absurd number of tripping hazards. From a simple hole in the ground and roots to silly things like imitation banana peels.
The entire room was just one tripping hazard after another. Worse yet, at least for any delvers, since it was done through spatial maniption it was going to be extra hard to spot and any monsters wont be affected by it. Such a simple design, yet so potentially deadly.
Not that Doyle expects much from it. In theory anyone that has made it this far should have a better head on their shoulders than not. Of course he wouldnt be disappointed if that turned out to not be the case. The room would instead provide hours of hrity for him, especially when someone hits the rake. Such a ssic pstick gag.
That leaves the final room. While Doyle doesn''t have any specific ns for room 16, he does feel it should be special. The question is how? A simple remix of the previous rooms would be boring and a little bit impossible. As it was he hadpacted down the various gravity fields as much as he could so any more would be impossible.
No, for this it needed something unique to the floor. So far there were ss tforms, odd gravity, invisible mazes, a vine climb, a zero g adventure, odd spatial terrain, and a five sided square. Compared to all the previous floors this was already an absurd amount of variety.
In fact, the more he thinks about it, the more annoying it feels. Do this once and everyone is going to expect that is what will happen from now on. The rest of the floor has already been made so no point in changing it now. Then it hits, something special and yet aplete retread of something already done.
Thest room was going to be a replica of the first floor. There was barely enough room and he was going to have to cut off a row and column of empty space, but it would be worth it. Even if he copied the monster''s whole cloth it would use less than five percent of the floor''s point total.
That was just too perfect for him not to do it. Though the fact that a single room on his eighth floor wasrge enough to contain the entirety of his first floor was a bit worrying. So worrying in fact, that he decided to go and ask Ally about it.
So after being invited in, Doyle brings up his thoughts. So uh, I just realized that my first floor is small enough that I used aplete carbon copy of it as a single room of mytest floor? That reminded me of my time in Flisles dungeon and how the ce my tutorial was taking ce involved a great void with continent sized chunks of rock just floating around.
Sure, he had over a thousand floors and what not. However, even now Im starting to get more space than I expected and it will only get worse. How am I supposed to create these monstrosities?
Ally smiles, You already used a couple methods that are popr enough with dungeons under a system. Theres the random generator, except of course expanded to include making the content instead of just reorganizing it. Then you used the method of just creating a big block of stone and letting your monsters dig it out for you.
Both of those are popr enough, especially the monster one as that also provides amusement for the dungeon. After all, even pre-system your world had stuff like ant farms. This is the same sort of thing but on a muchrger scale.
Besides those though there are a couple others. If youre feeling a little too rich you can always pay the system to design it for you. We are however in debt, so just forget that one. Besides, your method of random generation is simr enough and would allow for greater tweaking.@@novelbin@@
Honestly, about the biggest thing holding you back will always be monster creation. You mentionedrge floating continent sized rocks? Most of them are going to be bare of monsters, at most hosting some traps. This is partly why some dungeons end up going down the trap only path. It doesnt work all that well of course, but someone is always willing to try.
Doyle tilts his core to the side, Why wouldnt an all trap dungeon work?
Ally shrugs, Too static. Monsters are alive or at least a good enough simtion there of. A trap is ultimately limited and even if created purely with dungeon rules and such will end up easy enough to detect. All it takes is one decent trap finding skill to make them painfully obvious.
Much better is the minimalist approach to monsters. After all, while you do have all that space to use, you dont have to. Just look at your early floors. Well less than half the floors volume is used for the actual dungeon. So yeah, instead of trying to fill a floor with stuff, fill it with stone and only use what you need.
Especially useful when you decide to use a bunch of expensive monsters. Though that doesnt mean you cant use oodles of monsters. Even if you dont want to ce each monster in exactly the right spot you can have that randomized. Dont tell me youve already forgotten what you did on the fourth and sixth floor?
Doyleughs, Fair enough. I guess I do have enough options to handle it. I think I was just a little shocked when the sheer amount of space was smacking so soundly in my face.
Ally snorts, What face?
Doyle shakes his core, The metaphorical one that always gets talked about in cultivation novels of course.;
After that they both have a goodugh before Doyle returns to the eighth floor to add some liveliness to it.
Cutting Monsters From The Eighth Floor – Chapter 193
Happy with the kobolds, Doyle turns to the 13th room, the five-sided square with strange furniture. The room is interesting because of the design that he just cant figure out how to repeat, but otherwise theyout is simple enough. A bit of a problem, as that also means it doesnt lean towards any specific set of monsters except maybe kobolds.
That, or maybe wolves dressed up like grannies to y off that old story. Doyle shakes his core and refocuses on the room. Without thinking about it, he starts to list off a few monsters. Wooden goats, kobolds, age the kobolds?, single mad bull but need some y, maybe one assassin vine under a bed?
After a quick look over the list, Doyle strikes off the bull. The room isnt a shop, though some y would be useful. Besides that though, the list is decent enough if a little samey. Admittedly, the idea of aging a kobold is a good idea, with the question being if their level is high enough or not. It might not work, of course, as kobolds arent directly rted to dragons.
Nevermind the fact that Doyle doesnt even know if dragons grow with age either. That is the general trend in their myth, but even with the soul nonsense, myth doesnt always match reality. Which, as he thinks about it, is a very strange thing to think.
Doyle sighs and moves onto figuring out the 13th room. A single assassin vine should be fine and the under a bed quirk could work. There isnt really enough space under a normal bed, but that is easily fixed by hollowing out the strange beds. After all, they are all solid pieces of material without any actual bedding. This leaves enough space for the assassin vine. Just a regr one, the elders cost a bit much for what is essentially a gimmick.
That taken care of, Doyle spreads a herd of 40 wooden goats across the room in random clumps centered around the wooden furniture. No particr reason for that, it just felt right to Doyle. Plus, while the furniture doesnt hide them like grass does the grassen goat, the furniture can hide their numbers to a degree.
From there Doyle throws down 20 kobolds and has them hang around wherever thergest clump of goats is. Not purposefully random, but random enough that the room would change. Or not, he isnt particrly bothered either way.
What is important though, is that with so few of them Doyle feels perfectly fine with making them all mages. To bnce this out, some 20 magic users is a little intense, they get regr clothes instead of leather armor. As a nice kicker for any delvers, Doyle makes it all loot, which should drop quite often. Doyle doubts they are going to run out of clothes in the settlement, but perfectly fitted clothes will probably be popr.
Finished with that room, Doyle moves onto the 14th, the hall of mirrors. This room provides some interesting possibilities, mainly because the mirrors are actually just portals feeding back out the way it came in. That allows any monsters behind them to reach through andunch a sneak attack.
Of course, the best monster for that kind of attack is the assassin vine. Being able to bepletely hidden yet still able to reach out and touch someone is valuable. This move, however, is a little cheaty so Doyle limits it to a single assassin vine.
Besides the assassin vine, Doyle decides to go with the myconids for this room. With the already trippy experience of a mirror hall, a bunch of spores to paralyze and knock out fits right in. The question was, how many? The room was big enough to really pack them in if he wanted to.
It honestly felt like the three vine rooms, though Doyle wasnt going to leave this one forter. If only because he really wants to throw as many assassin vines at the vine rooms as possible. With a sigh, he falls back on the tried-and-true method. That of eyeballing it and adjusting itter if needed, because random is as random does.@@novelbin@@
So without much of a n, Doyle throws down five sprout swarms, five lesser myconids, and a single lesser myconid troop guard. Not that many, but the assassin vine is a bit unfair so Doyle felt it was only fair to reduce the number of monsters in the room. After cing the monsters, he pulls back and is satisfied with the result.
This left the 15th room to fill. There wasnt really a question on what would go there though. He was a goat dungeon and goats there would be! The tripping hazards made it perfect and the cheapness of the units allowed for a decent number of them.
What Doyle meant by a decent number was definitely up there. Of course, the sixth room had more monsters but when you throw 100 goats at a room only 36 meters to the side, it looks impressive. That is smaller than many sports fields. Oh, and it wasnt just normal goats though that was a bulk of it. There were only 20 wooden goats and 10 grassen goats.
Those in ce, Doyle decides to pass on arming them. There were just too many of them to need armor. At least as far as he can tell. Maybe once someone reaches the floor, he can reassess the situation.
This leaves Doyle with 7740 points to spend and a vine room to spend them on. Though at this point Doyle remembers that he really should set up a farm zone to resupply the floor. That causes just a minor headache as he looks back over the floor to figure out where to cut points.
After doing a room by room tally, he finds that most points have been spent on the second room, the Null G area, and the 14th room. Particrly the second room, which spends almost four thousand points by itself. The problem with that is most of those pointse from the windcutters.
In the end, though, Doyle caves and removes one of the windcutters and its kobold, then redistributing the 4 spare regr axebeaks to the other two. This drops the number of points used by 950. From there, he moves onto the Null G area. Then moves right on as he really likes the bnce there.
Instead, he hits the 14th room and cuts the troop guard. 600 points removed but not quite enough so Doyle backtracks a room and removes 20 wooden goats. This leaves him with 9570 points to spend. To make things easier, he decided to hold back 20% of the floors spending limit so the farm can have twice the number of monsters that the floor held.
This meant he had 5050 points to spend on the vine room. A good bit less than he would have liked. One elder alone will blow 750 points, leaving barely enough for 14 normal assassin vines. That might seem like a lotpared to how many have been ced previously, but this is for 3 huge rooms worth of space.
Doyle couldnt help but sigh. He had originally wanted at least three elders, one for the seventh room and two for the eighth. Now he is limited to just a single elder because even a single additional elder would require cutting three of the normal ones. That just isnt sustainable for the vine rooms.
With a shake of his core, Doyle distributes the assassin vines. The elder, of course, goes near the eighth rooms exit. No wandering elders here. As for the normal assassin vines, they get split up between the seventh and eighth room. Four to the seventh room, which made it a bit of a roll of the dice whether a group of delvers would even see them. Then the remaining ten are ced in the eighth room.
It still wasnt certain that a group would run into one of them, but it was better than could have been if he hadnt cut away some of the monsters in the other rooms. Doyle sighed as he set his eyes on the Zero G area again. A fun little ce that was, if anything, more of an experiment.
There are handholds and floating tforms throughout the massive room, but it could be improved. More specifically, this was the room he decided to carve up. It was tempting to mess with the square room with the five corners. Yes, very tempting, but Doyle knew better than that. To mess with reality bending when you are in that reality, tends to be a less than clever thing.
So Doyle chose the room based on a story, not the first, but the shadow. He was actually half tempted to carve the story as he remembered into the walls. That idea was tossed though as he only remembered bits and pieces. Plus, he didnt exactly want to imbue the monsters with that story.
No, Doyle had another n. One beneficial to both his monsters and the delvers. After all, getting used to zero G isnt exactly the easiest thing. The question is how to represent that with a carving?
Doyle decides to start with the handholds. Those are simple enough, a person needs a good grip on them to better traverse the room. That doesnt even need any fancy carving, but rather some simple stippling and or checkering. Whatever you called it, the idea was to carve a pattern of groves so you had something to grab besides a smooth surface. He had learned a bit about it when younger though most of that had fled his mind.
Still, he remembered enough to do a simple pattern across every hand hold. From there, he moved to the floating cubes. There were already some carvings from the handholds and he extended that. The lines extend outward and sy out. If he was still human, the design would have required a lot more work, but as a dungeon he can cheat. Each line is carved at the same time until the cubes arepletely covered with the lines only stopping when they hit another line.
This wasnt the most creative of ideas, but it worked and created a nice design. Doyle turns to the rest of the room. While what he had done so far would make it easier to move around the room, it wouldnt do his main goal. That of improving peoples ability to adapt to the environment.
So with that in mind, Doyle started to carve simple scenes into the walls with the handholds as anchors. From each of them, figures grew that represented outer space and beings of all shapes and sizes existing there. No, not just existing, but learning and adapting.
Doyle fell quite deeply into the task, more so than when he is working on the great sphere of the seventh floor. The sphere has a particr design that, by design allows him to pick it up and drop it at a moments notice. This scene, however, just flows out of him. If he had any presence of mind, then breaking out of the zone would be easy enough. That was the trap though as he had nothing spare for such thoughts.
This meant that once finished Ally shocked him by informing him that a month had passed. The good news was nothing happened. A few groups tried to bash their heads against the boss but Ally hadnt felt the need to inform him as they couldnt even face the first patrol. While a little annoyed by not being informed the first time, he did admit that was fine going forward.
More interesting was that the founders hadnt done another serious dive and Doyle very much wanted to go and figure out what was up with that. So with a thought, he refocused on the settlement itself only to see a very good reason for why they hadnt been in all that much. The settlement had grown.
Aliens! – Chapter 194
Ace had a headache. Over thest few weeks, the poption of the town had doubled. Now, that wasnt really all that much, all things considered. In fact, if it wasnt for the source of these neers Ace would have been ready for them.
The problem was that these new people had just exited their tutorials. Not because they took a long time. Rather, their tutorial had startedter than his owns. These new people had actually been dropped on the settlement upriver and promptly kicked out.
Ben, the guy technically in charge of the ce, hadnt wanted to do that. The council, however, kicked up a decent amount of xenophobia among the popce and managed to overrule the guy. Upon hearing that news, Ace was well and truly disappointed with the man. Though he couldnt entirely me him. It isnt every day that a bunch of near human aliens pop up in the middle of your town.
Not that Ace particrly cares about their species or of origin. He hadnt been expecting extraterrestrials this early, but was willing to go with it. In fact, he had even made a deal with the council to take any future refugees. Because that is what they were, refugees.
The system wasnt all powerful, and sometimes things are just beyond it. Whereas humans have a rtively decent chance of survival, these people went from a poption that broke a billion to less than 50,000. Not nearly enough to keep theirrger than average from turning into a deathworld.
So the system in all its wisdom foisted them off onto this as the number of survivors was a little on the low side. How does Ace know this? Well, the system just straight up told the poor folk.
Ace looks up at the beastkin, a wolfkin with graying fur. She was the person in charge of the group and found great humor in the fact that the ce they ended up was called wolfs rest. Ace sighs, So if Im understanding you correctly, your people kept a bit closer to thend than mine did, so still have a decent grasp on crafting?
The matriarch nods, While all the tech you had here is at least vaguely simr to our stuff, our people never saw a point in excessive automation for the more basic goods. A nice pair of sandals handcrafted by a professional is going tost a magnitude longer than even well-made machine products.
Besides that, our people tend to be more varied in shape so even if we wanted to, it wouldnt really work. After all, while my people are all wolfkin, there was an unknown number of other kin. What might fit a wolfkin might not fit even the closely rted dogkin or foxkin.
Ace shrugs, I can see that. This will definitely be a great help to our town, yes, our town. If you are going to live here, you and your people will be a full part of this.
She raises an eyebrow, Says the person that is a part of the leading faction. The rest of the people out there might not notice it, but Ive seen this enough times before. I cant trust you, especially not after what happened in thest ce.
Ace snorts, Cam, dont try and pull that on me. Yes, they were pretty vile upriver. Hell, this worlds history has more than enough examples of even worse beingmitted because of skin color. Im certain your original world wasnt any better.
As for our little ruling group? Well, after a good long bit of debate and heated arguments, we are willing to let you in on it as well as any direct family you might have. The only catch is to talk about it, we need to be in the dungeon.
I understand this sounds a little sketchy but it is required. You can go and tell your people where you will be going, but even we are required to be in the dungeon before talking about it. Also, there will be contracts and oaths involved. This is not a secret you can share.
Camughs, Everyone likes to believe their secrets are world shaking. Ill y along with you, but if I dont believe it is worth it Im taking my people and moving on. This wont be the only ce that will ept us.
From there Ace and Cam get ready and head into the dungeon, all the while Doyle watches on. Doyle hadnt been expecting non-humans anymore than Ace had, though he was a little more prepared for it. With Ally by his side, it was pretty obvious that the restrictions on othersing to the world werent as watertight as portrayed. Still, 50,000 animal kin showing up is a little more extreme than a fairy being summoned in.
Though he assumes that things will settle down soon enough. The wolfkin were a little stronger, mostly because of having lived on arger world and so more gravity, but otherwise fit in with the humans happily enough. More exciting for Doyle was the fact that Cam had four close family members and all of them ended up climbing his cliff.
{Least Personal Rune of Cam S: +1 Wisdom
Least Personal Rune of Jay S: +1 Strength
Least Personal Rune of Rose S: +1 Strength
Least Personal Rune of Be S: +1 Strength
Least Personal Rune of Kaisy S: +1 Strength}
It had been a while since anyone even bothered climbing the cliff, let alone manage to break their limits. In fact, as Doyle thinks on it, only the towns core members had done so. He would prefer more people give it a try. Sure, the +1 to a stat isnt all that much in the long run, but every bit helps. The problem with trying to get more people to try is that by doing so, it makes it so they dont actually get as much benefit from it.
Back with Ace and Cam, the two of them watch thest of Cams direct family climb back down. After hearing what they had gained, Cam couldnt help but shake her head. I was hoping someone in the S family besides me would gain a bonus to something besides Strength. It just cant be helped, this world has gravity just that bit lower than our original.
Eh, whatever. Im going to have to figure out how to get people to try and climb this in one go without expecting a reward or knowing what is going on all the while not informing others about it if they seed. Maybe make it some sort ofing of age trial? Our ancient history had simr things and I could probably spin it.
Ace sighs, I still havent figured out a way to manage it. Maybe if you can get the ball rolling, I can spread it to the general popce. Of course, it wasnt ever going to be a problem once the others in the core started having kids, but that is still a bit out there yet.
Cam nods, It would be a lot easier if we could just order people to give it a try. Nevermind the fact that this would remove most of the benefits, way too many people would be willing to turn around early. At least with our own, we can just tell them to trust us and to climb it in one go. Hell, once there are enough descendants we might even need to start requiring it to be a true core member.
Ace shrugs, I can see that, but we wouldnt be able to make it a known qualification. Otherwise, we would just be forcing them to do it under a different name and I highly doubt the system wouldnt catch onto that. All we can do is nudge things in their favor.
Camughs, Isnt that just being a leader in the first ce? No matter what you say, people will do what they will.
Ace nods, The nature of free will is to be unpredictable. That aside, lets talk about getting your people doing delves. I know you just settled in but even with your greater strength, all of you are behind the curve. Your people could probably take most of the people upriver, but down here the dungeon means everyone is a good bit stronger.
Cam raises an eyebrow, Ive seen some of the people in the outer ring. Even some of our kids can take them.
Ace waves his hand, They dont count. Im talking about the people who have joined the town. Maybe it will change in the future, but for the moment everyone does at least two dungeon runs a week. Even those who are only farming the first floor are as strong, if not stronger, than most of your people unless they just joined.
But besides that, you dont want your people tog behind. Get stronger and secure your ce here. I can only do so much. If all of your people are weak crafters, then youll be pigeonholed into that role. Yes, we need proper crafters, but I dont want to limit your people because of early choices.
Cam snorts, Crafters can be strong.
Ace rolls his eyes, No duh, especially with the system. However, that isnt how people see it. Even before the system, people would assume a soldier would beat a cksmith despite the strength being a cksmith requires. With the system? People who fight will receive skills and paths focused on fighting.
Even if you manage to raise a crafter who is stronger than anyone else at the same level, people wont see crafters as being strong. Instead, that one person will just be the exception to prove the rule. You would need to turn your whole race into crafters who fight. Though speaking of fighting, why are you fighting this?
Cam looks away and sighs, Were only kin so in theory our origin species shouldnt have too much of a hold on us. In fact, for many kin, you can basically just call them humans with strange ears and maybe a tail. Even before magic, some of the closer rted kin could have kids without any problem.
Now that we have magic avable? I asked during the tutorial, just to cover my bases, but basically all forms of power have a rtively easy option to permit a kin to have kids with basically any other kin or human. Despite all that, my people have a problem.
The red haze, the rage, and so many other names. From what Ive learned, this isnt generally a feature of other wolfkin, we apparently just got quote unquote, lucky. Part of why us wolfkin are known for our crafters is that we needed to avoid any of the more aggressive options.
Ace shakes his head, You arent thinking about this correctly. I assume willpower would allow people to control your rage to an extent?
Cam nods her head, But that only works to a certain extent. Past a point, all things fall away.@@novelbin@@
Ace waves her argument aside, Youre missing an important factor. The system, skills, and paths. There should be a skill to control your rage and paths to temper it. Besides personal growth, the system should have a way to just remove it.
Cam freezes, I hadnt thought of that.
Ace smiles, Why would you? Magic might be a real thing now, but you have all yourmon sense from before. The only reason I even had this idea in the first ce is that your race and simr are only really seen in our fantasy stories.
Now, though, you should see hope for your people. Even if that doesnt work, magic has other options still. You just admitted that magic allows for crazy family nning. I dont expect you to force your people to marry humans. However, watch any kids that might result from such a pairing. Who knows what the result will be!
Cam rolls her eyes, Even though it is possible, I dont particrly see humans being down for that.
Aces only response is tough andugh andugh.
Extra Spicy – Chapter 195
Back in the dungeon, Ally ps, That was quicker than expected! I was going to bring it up in a couple years but I guess your world has stabilized more than normal.
Doyle tilts to the side.
Allyughs, You ever notice how all the fantasy worlds had multiple races? That isnt natural. Sure, sometimes you will get a world that technically has two but this is because elves like to be extra spicy racist. The whole dark elf thing? Theyre just elves. Your world wasnt the best, but at least there was an attempt toe together despite differences in skin color.
Though I guess even more technically, modern day dark elves would count as a different species as an elf cant have kids with a dark elf without magical or technological interference. That is even worse than humans and ancients, what you would call neanderthals. The only hold up, is I dont know if it counts when they purposefully did it to themselves? Wood elves, of course, just live their lives despite being the quote unquote, unholy mixture of both or as others would call them, regr elves.
Never say that around a light elf though, they co-opted the name pretty hard. My mom always loved to tweak their noses over that. I dont really me her on that. She has lived on quite a few worlds and watched the whole thing happen time and again. All it takes is one outside influence to get to an elven before they are powerful enough.
Anyway, I got a bit sidetracked there. Back to why most fantasy worlds end up with multiple distinct species. This happens. Not specifically just from a system cing them, of course, what with all those universes that started with magic and didnt need it.
What it is, is that anytime an end of the world type thing happens you have whoever is in charge spread them around. At the low end of power, this happens through the races themselves traveling through space. At the high end, you have systems and gods ying around with the poption. Gods in particr have a reputation for not even waiting for the world to end before ying with that kind of thing.
Doyle lets the silence stretch for a moment before responding. So wolfkin? Whats up with that? They look human except for what look almost like cosmetic differences.
Ally shrugs, me your universe. This ce loves the human form. Even when it cant manage to copy paste humans to a, you end up with stuff like elves, dwarves, and beastkin. If you want something a bit more divergent, they are out there, just under a different ssification.
Quick, run down, kin are what you have out there. Based on a thing and they have some benefits from that, but overall human. Then you have the folk. Generally, they will have a humanoid form but some part of them is heavily based on their source. It can be as simple as a human body with an animal head, aplete fusion, or anywhere in between. Oh, and there are, of course shifters like werewolves but those are tricky.
Doyle nods, That makes sense. Even in our fantasy the idea behind shifters cant seem to make up its mind. Now lets get into the nitty gritty of it. How often should we expect people like that and simr?
Ally answers him as well as she can but in the end that answer is only the system knows. Though of course with a lot more words. About the only useful bit Doyle got out of it, was rted to her firstment about the world having stabilized.
The basic idea behind it is that the system has a window within which it will introduce new races. This window started the moment a world has settled enough from the introduction of magic until true nations begin to form. That time period is when the world is safe enough to add them but not so settled as to do more harm than good.
All those fantasy stories about demon kings and such were the so-called demons are just living on the same as the others are a good example of what can happen if done wrong, sometimes purposefully so. After all, a god will get a lot more worship if the popce believes they are all that stand between them and the other.
After that was settled, Doyle went back to working on the stone sphere on the seventh floor. He was getting close topleting the outlines when something quite interesting happened. Jim was back in the dungeon but with a new team. Most of the members werent too out there. Susan, Zach, and Sammy had all been in the dungeon enough.@@novelbin@@
Besides them, though, there were two oddities. The first was that Doctor was with them. Sure, he delved with the best of them, but that was generally not with the other founders. His healing was just not all that needed by them whenpared to other core members of the town.
But the person who really threw Doyle for a loop was Jay S, the son of Cam. You know, the leader of the wolfkin that just showed up in town a few weeks ago. Sure, the wolfkin had been delving into the dungeon. Ace even gave them more slots so they could catch up.
It is just that up until now; they had at most included one of the humans in town, instead choosing to fill out their roster with other wolfkin. More than that, from the sounds of it, they nned to go as far as they can. They even seemed to want to break through the boss and hit up the sixth floor.
Now, it had been over a month since the founders had ganged up on the boss and passed through. In that time, with the reward of beef in front of them, the town as a whole had advanced in power. It wasnt an odd day when someone got to the fifth floor. The core citizens regrly would defeat two to three of the patrols before retreating.
Hell, the people farming the first couple floors would sometimes head on down to take a look. The first patrol tended to be too much for them, but they tried. None of them, however, believed they could beat the boss yet. After all, it took basically all of the founders to beat the boss even after she was on her own.
Ally, however, felt this was about the right time for a legitimate boss kill to happen. The town was growing fast both in poption and strength so it was just a matter of time. Time which might have run out.
Jim didnt even bother to do a shakeout run of the first floor. The floor just was not any sort of threat to the group. It wasnt until the fourth floor that they had to slow down as even the maze saw them walk through it without pause. Though that was mostly because todays configuration had a pretty direct route from the entrance to the exit.
Mind you, the wolves on the fourth floor werent all that difficult for them either. As far as Doyle could tell, the team was simply using it to get in somest-minute practice for their teamwork. Not that they needed it. While they hadnt delved into his dungeon with this particr group setup, it was very apparent that it wasnt a quick team up. No, the group had been working together for at least a week.
Not that Doyle minded how quickly they steamrolled through the early floors. There was a reason why the system just automatically gave out teleport checkpoints. When the point of a dungeon is to have adventurers drag out as much loot as possible, you dont want to hold back the stronger ones from getting to the good stuff.
Then Doyle dropped his wool gathering as Jim stepped through onto the fifth floor. They had an unlucky roll of the dice as the patrol was just then passing by the entrance room and saw him. Sure, the kobold patrol cant enter the safe room, but now they know they are there.
In fact, after the town beat, the boss Doyle had to go and order the kobolds to not just station a patrol there. He did notice that they tended to linger a bit longer in the area, but he felt that was fair so left them alone.
Jim and the leader, the kobold with an axe, stared at each other until the rest of the group had entered the floor. At that point, the kobolds retreated a distance and formed up, ready for an attack. Jim just shakes his head and turns to Jay.
Jay takes a couple sniffs and shakes his head. As far as he could tell, there werent any other kobolds nearby. Sure, a wolfkin doesnt exactly have the same ability to smell things like a wolf does, but their sense of smell is definitely well above a humans.
From there, Jim takes a good five minutes or so to watch the monsters. Then, after another check with Jay points out the leader, healer, and the spear kobold farthest to the right. The rest of them had fidgeted and shifted around, only those three had shown signs of extended training. The rest of the group nods as they pay extra attention to the three.
Kobolds who just happened to be the ones ensouled through the bosses Soul of the Community path. It hadnt gone unnoticed by the town that a few of the kobolds seemed to be learning along with them. Not everyone was able to point them out, but Jim, in particr had gotten quite good at it.
Thus prepared; Susan, Sammy, and Jay charge forward and out of the safe room. From the kobolds back line, a ball of ice and de of wind flies towards them. Zach isnt a slouch though and while he cant quite manage a double counterspell yet, a sheet of summoned wood easily took the brunt of the attack, with the rest being deflected to the left.
As that sheet of wood vanishes, an arrow flies out and strikes true, stabbing into the eye of shield kobold second to the right. The shield kobold is knocked over having not expected this and if not for a quick work of the kobold healer she would have died right there. Then the shield kobold dies, anyway.
Doctor didnt have anyone to heal yet, so put into practice a little anti-healing. It wasnt a harm spell like some roleying games like to put as the yin to healings yang. No, this was simply an act of undoing. What once was magically healed returned to its previous state.
At this point, the three melee fighters crashed into the kobolds shield wall. A wall that now sported a hole which Susan took full advantage of to slip in and try to take out the ensouled spear kobold. The kobold leader, however, had seen thising, Jim not exactly being circumspect about pointing out their targets.
Susan dodges back to avoid a bash from the kobold leaders bronze shield. Though she wouldnt be a Barrai if she didnt manage to slip something in. While not killing the ensouled spear kobold, Susan does manage to flick out a throwing needle that lodges in the kobolds shin.
Not the most deadly of wounds, but the poison on the needle is bad news bears. This was a local vintage though, so not a killer. No, it was just created by processing the myconid spores and so the ensouled spear kobolds body locked up, paralyzed. A heal from the kobold healer goes uncontested as while that does remove the needle, it does not take care of the poison.
While magic healing can seem all powerful, you need to use the right magic. A spell to heal a wound would aggravate a cold and simply remove the damage from a poison. No, you need a spell to kill the cold or remove the poison.
Razor Leaf- Chapter 196
To Susans left Sammy and Jay crash into the shield kobolds, Sammy using her shield and Jay the haft of his poleaxe. Through theirbined bulk, the two of them are able to rebuff the shield wall. Not by much as the kobolds had been ready for them. It was, however, enough.
Susan spun out of the hole left by the downed shield kobold and ducks low, shoving a dagger up under a shield. With a ssh of blood, the middle shield kobold loses all ability to stand on one of her legs, a dagger now jammed into the hip joint. Jay, in turn brings his poleaxe up and then while holding onto the end brings it back down.
The momentum behind the blow is more than enough to knock aside the bronze shield and nearly cuts the kobold in half. Still, almost in half is just as dead. The only problem being if the de gets stuck. It didnt.
A good thing that as Jay has to step back right quick as an ice spear tries to skewer him. Zach wasnt quite able to keep the kobold ice mage in check, but this gave him a chance to follow up with his own attack. A spell he had been channeling on the side since the fight started.
From below the ice, air, and healing casters, a number of spear-like roots shoot up. Without notice, Zach had dropped a tree seed and had grown the roots to cover the floor under the mage trio. Of course, the healer had his fair share of experience fighting other casters so was able to respond with a simple shield.
The other two werent as lucky. Since the kobold ice mage had just finished casting a spell, it was unable to even react, being killed right then and there. The air mage, on the other hand, was able to redirect the spell he had been casting into a burst of air. This pushed him mostly out of the way, only mostly though as one of the roots still managed to lock him down by spearing through his leg. Jim wasnt shy about helping either and another arrow soon finds a more fleshy home.
With the back line in chaos, the kobolds in front step up their efforts and take back some ground. The three shield kobolds that still live form up again and with abined shove manage to get some room to breathe. All the while the spear kobolds huddle right up to them and keep the melee delvers from counter shoving.
Then the kobold leader joins the fray. On her stone wolf, she barrels through Sammy and Zachs best attempts to hold the line. Jim however is having none of this and tries to pepper her with a barrage of arrows. She takes this in stride, guiding her wolf to zig and zag with the only arrowsnding a hit bouncing off her mounts stone hide.
When Zach notices this, he half panics. It is only half a panic though as he had nned for something like this to happen. So with only the slightest of fumbling he pulls seed coated in dried blood out of his pocket and tosses it in front of the kobold leader.
As the seed hits the ground, it shatters and a visible plume of nature magic billows out and a tree pops into existence, summoned from some strange corner of reality. Strange because this isnt a normal tree, no. This tree has bone white leaves and bark that looks like dried blood that started to crack.
Not exactly what Zach had been looking for when he figured out how to summon it. Still, it worked fine for blocking a charging stone wolf. In fact, with howst second it was, the wolf doesnt even get a chance to react before mming face first into the trunk. A trunk that sprouts insidious looking hollow spikes. Not a drop of blood falls from the stone wolfs wounds and the trees bark seems to be just a bit closer to the color of fresh blood.
The kobold leader isnt caught by this. She had noticed Zach doing something and so was able to throw herself free of her mount andnd in a roll. Back on her feet the kobold leader swings her bronze axe. Not at the back line, but at the backs of the front line.
Jim yelled a warning, and Sammy responded. Unlike the others, she had some proper iron gear, the Iron Gauntlets of the Defender she had received as a reward from the system. With one smooth action, she brought her arm up over her shoulder and protected her neck while jumping backwards.
The axe hit the gauntlet with neither winning out, but then Sammys back ms into the kobold leader and knocks them both over. Of course, for a kobold to bended on by a well built human is going to hurt. Though Sammy doesnte outpletely fine either.
With her arm up over her back, thending manages to pop it out of the socket. That and the kobold leader is fully decked out in mostly bronze gear while she is still wearing what might charitably be called leather armor. Doctor is there for her though, just like Susan is there for the kobold leader but in reverse. So while Doctor focuses a spell on resetting her arm, Susan slips a thin dagger in between the kobold leaders helmet and tunic.
While this was going on, Jay was holding the line. Though now that their leader is dead, the kobolds take a moment to gather themselves. Good thing they have the ensouled healer and spear kobold. Between the two of them, the kobolds manage to fall back and regroup.
The ensouled spear kobold knows that if they could have pushed at the same time, they could have done some damage. However, she also understands that not only is she paralyzed, the other kobolds arent really under hermand like they were with their leader. She can already feel the weakness sweeping over her as thest of the leaders presence leaves them.@@novelbin@@
Not that Jim was going to let them do what they want. Arrow after arrow rains down on the regrouped kobolds. A serious threat to their lives, though the kobold healer being uncontested means any hits are just temporary for now.
Then Doctor suffers a trio of daggers stabs from the side. At thest moment, Susan notices and manages to kill two of the attackers, but thest dagger wielding kobold manages to retreat to their group. A rookie mistake for Jim and his party over all.
They should have realized that three kobolds were missing. Instead, after not seeing them while they waited, the group had assumed the dagger kobolds werent with this group. Good thing self heals not only are just as effective, but because you dont have to fight your own body, the spells use less power. Otherwise Doctor would have bled out quite quickly, nevermind the dagger to the kidney.
The remaining dagger kobold then falls over as it reaches the rest of his group, a quivering arrow stuck into the back of his neck. Jim turns back to thest eight kobolds and readies an arrow for the next opening. An opening that Jay is more than happy to provide.
One wide swing of Jays poleaxeter and Jim is able to thread the needle through the shields and pin the ensouled spear kobold in the heart. The healer does his best to heal her, but there just isnt anything he can do as the ensouled spear kobolds life slips away. One shotter and he too slips away. The rest of the kobolds do their best, but at this point none of them have actualbat experience and so soon fall to the parties might.
After that it takes Doctor a while to get back to full health, but he manages. While that is happening, though, Sammy gets lucky. The kobold leader ended up dropping some proper loot and she came away with a bronze helmet. Quite the upgrade from nothing.
Though with that settled and the misceneous drops such as potions and leaf wrapped goat meat gathered, Jim cant help but frown. Even if most of the kobolds arent learning from experience, at least not by much, those that do have an inordinate effect on the others. This fight was a lot tougher than when they first started delving into this floor.
Worse yet, Jim knows this shouldnt be happening. Bosses? Sure, they can learn just fine. Normal monsters in a dungeon? Not a chance! Not that he can do anything. Except, of course, hope they cap out somewhere. Still, with nothing to do all that is left is to move on.
Not wanting to run into the next group too quickly they decided to move in the direction that the dead patrol had been going. A decent n, except the next patrol was trying out something new that no one had reported yet, mostly because they would beat the first patrol and leave. Anyway, this patrol was going counterclockwise around the tunnels.
Both sides were quite shocked when they ran into each other as neither expected the other. Jim andpany just thought they were moving away from the next patrol, while the patrol thought it was the other patroling up on them. The surprise doesnt stop the fight of course.
This time Zach releases the first attack, having been low key channeling a spell since they started moving. With a sh of green, a cloud of leaves pop up in front of the group and fly right into the kobolds. A normal cast of the spell would have at most put up maybe 20 leaves, but because of the continuous input of more mana Zach had overcharged the spell. This led to a much quicker fight this time around.
The front line of shield kobolds dont even get a chance to raise their shields as they take the brunt of the spell. Behind them, the kobold healer does his honest best but the razor leaves simply cut too deep and over too much of an area. Even two of the spear kobolds manage to catch a bad slice on the neck and die as well.
That is where it stops, though. One of the kobold mages in this group uses fire magic and a quick screen of fire stops the rest of the leaves cold. And speaking of cold, the other mage deals with ice and sends a flurry of icicles. Much less effective than the leaves, but it had nowhere near enough time to channel the spell.
Susan, a bit ticked over missing the dagger kobolds in thest group, now makes her presence known with her own flurry of attacks. A burst of needles fly out of both hands and peppers the dagger kobolds and like thest, they were all poisoned with the myconid spore extract. From there, Jim makes short work of them.
Then a loud ng rings out, and he looks up. Sammy had just used her iron gauntlet to block an arrow. This patrols leader was the bow user and they made another mistake, leaving it alone at the back of the patrol. Worse yet, unlike thest leader, this one wasnt going to charge at them.
Good thing there isnt all that many kobolds between the group and the leader. Jay leads the charge, using his poleaxe to snap the spears of thest two spear kobolds while Sammyes in behind him to finish them with her sword. All the while the leader tries to get a shot in as her stone wolf mount slowly edges backwards to keep their distance.
No luck with that as all that remains is the leader and the mages. While it isnt a rule that mages are bad at melee, these kobolds wouldnt be the exception if it was. Sammy and Jay make short work of them as Susan runs ahead, throwing needle after needle at the wolf until she hits a gap in its stone tes.
Before the kobold leader can realize what has happened, the stone wolfs body locks up and she is pitched up over its head,nding in a jumble. The perfect ce for Zach to finish her as he once againpletes his root spell and pincushions the kobold.
Ally Feels They’re Missing Something – Chapter 201
Ally pulls up a bunch of screens and begins by pointing out the basics.
So you should already know their team setup. For instance, Jim is a ranger archetype, though tending more towards the nature focused scout side of things from what Ive seen. However, from that alone, people wont be able to tell what exactly he provides in a fight so we need to go deeper.
There are three basic categories that will let you get a handle on a person. Well, technically four, but that fourth thing is whether the person is the groups leader or not and you tend to just point out leaders. Anyway, the three things are range, role, and source.
Im going to assume you have a basic understanding of things so when I tell you that Jim is a martial ranged dps, that should say a lot. Caveats galore, of course, and you can be more specific with things like what actually is their range instead of just melee, ranged, or leaving it off entirely if they cover both.
Of that, only the source bit should be confusing, though before I exin that, have you understood the others?
Doyle nods his core, Range is obvious enough and role is stuff like healer or tank. Also, I assume source is just the source of their power?
Ally smiles, Yes to that first part, though of course people fill multiple roles and we will just be stating the ones theyre actually decent at. Though this group does have a multi-threat with Zach. He gets to be both dps and crowd control. Zach wont ever have a problem finding a group since proper is a godsend.
As for the source? It can be seen as what you said, but isnt quite that. The group has martial and magic right now, but martial isnt technically the actual source and really I should call them martial. Most likely they will end up with Qi as their source but they just havent gotten far enough yet. Technically mundane would be more urate if not for the fact that you can go all the way to the top with it, which clearly isnt simply a mundane thing.
There are people that without a single drop of mystical energy can use a human sized sword to cut suns in half. Some arent even super strong. Their skills are just so transcendent that it doesnt matter. So yeah, out of respect for those types, it is referred to as martial. Though even the Barrais fall well short of a true martial artist.
Anyway, rapid fire. Jim is a martial ranged dps leader, Susan is a martial rogue, Doctor a magic healer, Zach a magic ranged dps, Sammy a martial melee tank, and Jay a martial melee dps. I will note that Susan might switch into a more poison focused rogue variant soon enough if you provide her with enough sources of the stuff. Do you have questions or would you like to debate their roles?
Doyle thinks about it for a moment, They dont have enough tanks.
Ally smiles, Yes, though in the pance what they are missing is an off-tank. Someone to take control of any extra enemies that might pop up and arent the groups main target. Jay and Zach can both help in a pinch, but a proper tank is preferred. Of course this isnt the end all be all of things.
You dont need an off-tank or even a tank at all. In fact, depending on what a teams goal is, you dont need any of the roles specifically. There are more than enough lone wander types in the multiverse. Those types tend to get the role of jack thrown at them being jack of all. Though the sessful ones will tend to have a corepetency. Mostmon being a dps jack.
Besides that, there is the fact that every truly sessful adventurer will to some degree be experienced in every role. Theyll know basic first aid, have both a melee and ranged attack option, know the basics of traps, and so on. It is only when you get into armies and other such groups where you will find purists.
On one of the screens, the two can see that the party has entered the sixth floor. Ally points at how Susan entered first. Despite being a ranger and quite adept at scouting, Jim should never lead the group. Good thing they have Susan to do the scouting. Leading from the front is cool and all, but your team needs to see you for that to be effective. Now, since the floor is so open it wont take long for them to meet up with something.
This proves true enough as the delvers are soon faced with a herd of 12 cattle. Ally nods, For a random selection it is pretty evenly mixed. Five regr cows, two dungeon cattle, three mad, and a couple longhorn. Sure, theyre missing out on the earthen cattle, but that happens.
Notice how Sammy is taking the lead? Dont do that. Call back to thatck of off-tank, but in my opinion she should be bracketed by Jay and Susan instead of being out in front. Though let me restate, that is my opinion. Now lets watch them go through a few fights.
Four fights go by quickly enough before Ally talks up again. You should have seen the reason behind my opinion. In three of the four fights, Sammy was pushed off bnce when the cattle charged her. On top of that, I honestly believe it would have been all four of the fights if not for that first groupcking an earthen bull to lead it.
To be fair to her, those things would count as siege engines with a few more stats added to their Strength and Constitution. Sure, just about anyone can manage that, but the earthen cattle are quite gifted at it. Though beyond that, you really need to figure out a way to use them to form a wall themselves. Cattle tend to be good at charging, at least with this system. Earthen cattle, however, have the heavy foot skill, which greatly increases the difficulty of moving them when they dont want to.
Doyle nods, I can definitely see that once the skirmish line forms. Wherever the line ends up being, the earthen cattle wouldnt be pushed back a single step. They wouldnt always advance at that point, but retreat doesnt exist in their vocabry. A bit of a problem with that, though. When the rest of their herd retreats, they end up alone out front like Sammy was. Sure, they can stand firm, but that doesnt do much good when Susanes around the side and cuts their legs up.
Ally shrugs, A devastating line if enough got ced in one herd. Now though, Jims group ising up on their first group of goats and I want to focus on these fights. The cattle are still difficult for them, of course, but unless they end up facing a herd made up of mostly earthen cattle, there isnt much suspense. Not a bad thing, mind you, it is just that fights of attrition arent the most exciting or informative after a while.
Over the next ten or so fights, there are only three groups of goats but Ally is more than satisfied with the results. I will admit,paring the cattle to the goats is a little unfair. The cows are heavily focused on Strength and Constitution and yet despite this, your goats have a higher Strength. This wouldnt have been too big of a difference except for the fact that theyre also getting points into Agility.
Just the points gained from levels alone is about three times the Agility of your cattle. So while the cattle can stand their ground, the goats can take it. This is exactly why, and I didnt want to keep harping on it, but here we are, they need an off-tank.
Unlike the cattle that charged straight at them, the goats are nking them, especially when their herd has 15 or more in it. The upside for Jims team is that they only nk to one side or the other as the goats continue to stay as a group when possible. A good off-tank would be able to intercept those three to five goats and the back line would be all the more secure.
Right now Zach is ying the role by using wood and vine obstructions. Oh, and pay attention to his vine work. Ace is clearly trading notes with him so the next time we push Ace harder we will likely see wooden constructs popping up. Anyway, Zachs wall and traps arent perfect.
Goats being goats and having all that Agility find it quite easy to go around or over the static ones. This requires Zach to use more active obstructions where the vines are actively grasping at the enemies. Spells like that take a lot more magic and concentration to pull off while leaving him open to a surprise attack. A proper off-tank would be able to both hold them off, while paying more attention to their surroundings.@@novelbin@@
Ally was preparing to go into more detail when something a little more exciting happened on screen. The pack of six wind wolves had found Jims party. To start things dont seem to be going badly, but Ally is grimacing. For good reason too, as the start was the only thing to go well. The six wolves folded like a house of cards.
Doyle shakes his core, What was that? I know the wolves arent doing too hot on the stats front, but I dont want to believe Jim andpany have gotten that much stronger.
Ally sighs, You havent really been paying attention to the fourth floor. The wolves are still a decent challenge for most people. Jims team isnt most people, though. Suffice it to say, you need that level and then you need to figure out a path that will help give a more overall boost to your monsters. Which, as far as my research is concerned, means getting started onto your next ss path.
There isnt really a good way to check, but most dungeons in this universe seem to gain stronger monsters after their third bump in strength. The first should, in theory, represent the 1st and 2nd ss path. The second would then be while they are working on the 3rd ss path and this leaves me to assume the third is the 4th ss path.
As for why the wolves are folding so quickly? Well, every other group of monsters on this floor has at least four more monsters and they all have higher stats by a decent margin. Oh, and there goes the two dagger kobolds with their two wind wolves. Those, at least, were a minor threat instead of just a speed bump.
My advice is tobine the two groups so the wolves at least have the leader buff. Otherwise, your goats are just so much more cost effective it isnt even silly. As it currently stands, a couple kobolds and eight wind wolves should be a decent threat for the floor if only because the wind wolves have magic.
Doyle sighs, Well, this floor doesnt really have much else for them to fight. I might as well take a look over the rest of the floors and patch any gaping holes that have appeared since thest time I checked.
Allyughs, It isnt that bad. If anything, your wolf floor managed to hit the sweet spot where they were still quite a threat because of their teamwork.
Doyle rolls his core to the side, That is going to be the first floor I look over.
Ally shrugs, Well, whatever floats your boat. Ill give you a ring when they get to the seventh floor as it should be exciting. The lesser shadow wolves have enough smarts and ability to make up for their stat line and it is the first the delvers will have seen your elder assassin vines.
Doyle brightens up, And the first time they get to experience spatial distortions. Sure, it is kept to a minimum, but it is still there.
Ally smiles, Thats the spirit. Now be quick about giving the other floors a once over. It shouldnt take too long for Jim and friends to beat the sixth floor.
Sleepover At Doyle’s – Chapter 203
The next day, Jim and his new team are at it again, though this time they were able to skip straight to the sixth floor. The new starting location was a two-fold benefit for them. First was the fact that they didnt have to fight through the previous floors and especially the boss fight. When the main thing that drove them offst time was fatigue, the gain from skipping earlier floors, even if it was basically just a walk in the park at this point, was immense.
Second, and almost more important, was that they didnt have all the previous loot with them anymore. Sure, Jim didnt need tens of goat steaks himself, but the town was still a little too close to the edge for those at the top to feel secure. Of course, the actual weight removed by this isnt all that much, the bulkiness of the whole affair made the fights a whole lot easier.
That and the way they were fighting had gotten better. The group stillcked an off-tank, though Doyle felt that while useful, it wasntpletely necessary for a six person party. Still, he can see what Ally had been getting at.
Of course, the founders werent idiots so could see the problem as well. They just decided on a different solution. Though this mostly came from not having enough trusted people to fill out the roster. The ssic adventuring team setup wasnt a cliche for no reason.
As for Jims solution to thisck of an off-tank? Mobility. It was more tiring, but the charging cattle werent able to change directions. So, while the tactic took longer, it was much safer for the team to kite the cattle around. Though from Doyles point of view, the biggest advantage was that while it caused more physical fatigue, little to no magic was needed, which left Doctor and Zach at the top of their game.
Not that they didnt use magic. In fact, Zach found it a lot easier to handle than the straight up fight. After all, you dont need all that high of a wall or deep of a dip to trip a stampeding cattle if it happens right under their feet. Still, over 500 cattle and all the other monsters on the floor would never be an easy fight.
Today, however, they didnt n on it ending with just the day. Previous attempts at the dungeon had all been basically rushed, trying toplete it in time to be out by dinner. Partly because it was possible and mostly so the raw meat wouldnt go bad. This time around, they had a solution for that problem.
Bundles of beef were all packaged up and a paper talisman like you would see in an anime were applied to the bundle. From the outside it didnt look like much changed, but Doyle was able to tell the inside had been frozen solid.
Ally nodded at that and exined, Dungeon variant freezing talismans. They probably bought them from the dungeon supply store as they are cheap enough, mostly because of them being dungeon variants. A normal talisman or scroll requires more than just masterwork paper to make as it needs to hold the power for the effect. These types of talismans get around it by requiring a very special environment to work.
Technically, that environment isnt just found in dungeons, but any other examples are so rare as to be non-existent. Anyway, it runs off of the purified world energy you put out just like everything else in your dungeon. Within moments of them leaving the dungeon, the talisman will break from the cruft pollution. Also, theyre pretty limited so you wont see someone chain casting fireballs with it or anything. That and I think the system we are under directly limits them to utility, anyway.
Doyle could definitely appreciate the things, though he wasnt likely to pick any of them up in the near future. Those most likely to die would also be the least likely to carry them. Though since the price for them is five or less coppers, it isnt like he wasnt ever going to see them.
That aside, there wasnt much else to see. Jims team had taken the entire day to finish the sixth floor and so had settled down for the night. Doyle was slightly worried about this as they were blocking him from respawning the floor. A problem that would likely be abusedter on. After all, without an instance to prevent it, someone could pay a bunch of people to clear the dungeon, leaving a person behind on every floor so apletely fresh group could just walk to the end.
A problem for the future and likely solved in the future as well when Doyle gets more instances to use. Though he admitted to himself that it was likely the instances would all end up being used on the first floor and every floor right after a boss.
Then Doyle ended up watching the party sleep. He didnt mean to; it was just a task to do and his mind kind of went on autopilot like when he was carving things. Though this time he couldnt entirely me it on being a dungeon. Even in pre-system times, he would asionally see something and nkly stare at it as his mind thought of other things. The only difference was this time he didnt have other things to distract him from it.
So the night passed peacefully enough and early next morning Jim and his team can be found cooking a couple steaks they had saved in preservation boxes instead of freezing. They had enough rations of course, but preserved food was better kept for emergencies when possible. Then, with breakfast over and everyone well rested, they enter the seventh floor.
Right away, Zach feels something is off. The stone ceiling and how it almost seemed to be moving, the strange wailing and creaking noises in the distance, the heavy yet patchy fog, and the odd structures. All of it together weighed down on him, but there was more. A taste of strangeness that he had felt a little on the sixth floor, but oozed out of the seventh.
Then Zach took a closer look at the ceiling and realized it seemed to bend upward and away, how the floor beneath them seemed as if they were in a depression in the ground no matter where they stood. Not even the walls of the almost buildings around them felt right despite looking normal enough.
As the group moved further into the room and the floor and ceiling continued to bend upward around them, Zach was the first to realize part of the situation. Were inside a sphere! This isnt a t floor.
The others had been feeling that something was off as well and only Doctor sided with Zach when he stated it was more than just that. Not that Jim dismissed his concerns. In fact, since both Zach and Doctor felt something was off, it was likely magical in origin. They just couldnt do anything about it until it revealed itself.
That didnt take too long. Zach, being mainly a nature mage, felt a need to be more connected on this floor and so had been running his hand along the wall. The wall was t within reason; it was still a stone wall after all and it hadnt been made perfectly smooth. Then his hand felt the wall pull away from him despite neither moving apart.
This gives Zach quite the spook, so much so he misses the assassin vine hanging out nearby that grabs him. He, however, wasnt so shocked that he couldnt trigger a defensive cantrip that hardened his skin. So while the vine got a good grip on him, he was still able to shout for help.
His barkskin spell almost didntst long enough. That almost was way too close for his taste. While he hadnt been cking off on getting his Constitution up, he was a back line mage. Though the problem this time wasnt his spell. Well, his spell had worked exactly how he had wanted it to and that wasnt enough anymore.
Jim had the answer, That assassin vine was a lot tougher than the earlier ones. Though he also had questions, So Zach, why werent you paying attention? Going by where the vine had been, you should have seen it.
Zach gestures, Run your hand along that section of wall. That was what had distracted me.
Jim raises an eyebrow, but part of why Zach was getting him to feel the wall was that he couldnt really exin it himself.
Jim shrugs and gives it a try only to be just as shocked. The difference is that he has an idea of what is going on. So with great care he goes back over the section of wall, marking out the boundaries and dimensions of the strangeness.
When he finishes, Jim turns to the others and shrugs, Well, we have a strange one. Not that we didnt already know that, but this here is a section of warped space. I have no clue what that will mean going forwards except that we will need to be extra careful about any assumptions we might make when ites to terrain going forward. This section might be small, but who knows what we might findter on?
Zach nods as he takes another look at the warped section of wall. Just looking at it doesnt show anything strange, but the hand can easily feel the difference, which gives him an idea. A crazy idea, mind you, but an idea nheless.
So after warning the others, but before they can stop him, Zach sticks his head into the area of warped space. Jim pulls him back and starts yelling at him for being a fool, but Zach waves it off. Our hands went into the space no problem, while I admit there was a risk, it was well within reason.
Besides, I had to see! And see I did. Because of how it is warped, the wall looks t from the outside, but once you get past a certain point, it opens up. Though I think that might be partly the mind ying tricks on me. Far as I can tell, it probably should be a more gradual reveal instead of all or nothing.
Doctor walks over and casts a quick diagnosis spell on Zach before shrugging, Well youre fine enough. As for what you could see? The way I see it, normal people like us werent exactly designed to deal with nonsense like that. Maybe a race that evolved on a that had naturally forming spacial warps could handle it better, but humans from this and our beastkin friends didnt exactly have that to deal with. If anything, I doubt you will find any races who could originally deal with it because without magic this isnt really normal for a life-bearing.
Jim nods, For all we know, the system might be buffering our minds so things dont go out of whack. I could totally see something like this causing a person to lose it.
The group continues to debate the subject for a while longer as they arent exactly in a rush and Doyle takes this time to ask Ally about it. Though her answer is simple enough. Yes, warped space can drive most mortals some kind of crazy, but no, his would not and that isnt a system thing. Rather, unless he purposely tries to make it harmful, space warping is considered a part of the normal terrain and not a hazard.
Sure, people can still get hurt if theyre stupid, but the same could be said about a campfire a small group of kobolds might set up. It isnt there to hurt, but if you step in it, well, thats your fault.@@novelbin@@
All The Spores – Chapter 204
It doesnt take long after discovering the first bit of warped space for Jims group to find many other examples. Though admittedly that mostlyes from Doyle spreading them around the floor for this exact reason. While he hadnt meant it that way, this was an unconscious action on his part to warn delvers about it being a potential threat in the future.
Back with Zach, the wood mage is getting a bit nervous. For the past few minutes, the group has been stalked by something in the dark. Susan had been the first to notice their unwanted shadows, but had been unable to bait them out into an attack.
This left Zach feeling a bit vulnerable. Sure, he wasnt at the back anymore, Jay had moved to the back of their formation so Zach and Doctor would be more centered. The mage still didnt feelfortable so he decided to channel a bit of his power into some tree pollen, spreading the stuff through the area.
A costly bit of magic, but one that saves him some serious pain as 4 gray ck wolves all jump out of an empty shadow. Sure, the others in the group noticed, but Zach had the earliest warning and because of this had time to get up a quick and dirty wooden barrier. It wasnt much but three of the lesser shadow wolves got caught in what was basically a giant brush pile.
The fourth wolf did get through thanks toing more from the side, but Jay was able to intercept it in time. Sure, it cost him a couple of nasty swipes since he only got his poleaxe up after the first flurry of attacks, but he managed to protect Doctor.
Then the three wolves that were trapped behind the wood jumped into the shadows of said wood. After the first surprise, everyone in the group had expected this sort of thing, but still werent ready for it and so Sammy received all three wolves to her back. Zach saw this happen as well since he hadnt dropped the pollen yet and so was able to once again react the fastest, this time with a summoned b of wood covering her back.
Those first few attacks did some serious damage, Sammys armor likely being the only reason she wasnt out of the fight. Though now that armor was shredded to near uselessness. This didnt stop her from counter attacking though.
As soon as she felt the wood b pop into existence, she mmed herself backwards at full force. The three lesser shadow wolves hadnt expected this, with two of them getting bashed into a wall while the third only barely managed to jump into another shadow.
That third wolf didnt even bother to try and get another surprise attack in, instead regrouping with the other wolf that was having a problem with Jay. Of course, now that the shock has worn off Jim has joined in with Jay and so the extra wolf doesnt add much. As for the other two wolves?@@novelbin@@
Well, Zach wasnt too happy about the surprise and so introduced them to tens of wooden spikes that all popped out of the piece of summoned wood. Maybe, in normal circumstances, the two would have been able to escape into the shadows again. Doctor however, had been quick with a healing spell. Those spells generally had some visual effects in the first ce and Doctor really ramped that part up, chasing away the shadows in a small area as the magical light show seemed to ooze through even the wood leaving no area unlit.
This left the two lesser shadow wolves over by Jay all alone. Well, it left the one wolf alone, the other that had been fighting Jay originally managed to catch a serious case of arrow through the eye. A shocking event that distracted what had been thest wolf. So much so that the wolf soon joined its fellows via a poleaxe through the head.
Zach Stood there for a moment breathing hard as everyone got their bearings. It had been a quick and brutal fight with two of their party being wounded, one seriously. Still, they were in a dungeon so he had to admit this kind of thing should be expected. Until now he hadnt really felt much danger, after all, he was with four of the founders, people who even now felt near mythical. Yet there one of them was, back reduced to bloody shreds.
After the shock wore off, Zach finally got around to pulling back his tree pollen. It had done its job but the magic nearly drained him, especially with all the rapid cast spells he had pulled off in the fight. In the normal swing of things, he would have been able to summon smaller amounts of wood and grow it from there. This fight, however, showed that he would have to focus on making his summoning of pre-formed wood shapes a good bit more efficient.
On the other side of the group, Jim stands over-watch as Doctor and Susan focus on Sammys back. Doctor had thrown down a quick and dirty spell to stop her bleeding, but now it was time to properly look at the wounds. Though Jim has one question for them, Can we continue?
Doctor makes a sour face. He knows that Jim is only asking because his position in the party requires it, that if Doctor was to say Sammy needed to leave the dungeon, the group would in a heartbeat. Still, he couldnt say that. While her back was messed up something fierce, the leather armor had done its job.
Doctor shakes his head, With Susans help I should be able to fix her back to be as good as new, not even a scar to show for it. I will just need some time to work. There are just too many wounds in one ce and I need to more carefully pay attention to how I heal the muscles.
Jim nods, Everyone retreat to the za we passed a few minutes ago. I dont trust the buildings to bunker down in one, especially not with damn shadow wolves prowling about.
Zach felt a little sick upon hearing that, because it was true. If the wolves had attacked while the group was checking out one of the buildings or was forced to move through them to progress, this fight could have been a lot worse. The corners just provided too many locations to escape into.
This fight had mostly been straightforward as the wolves didnt get a chance to retreat after their surprise attack. Zach could just imagine what would have happened if instead the four wolves had retreated and instead fought more of a hit-and-run style battle. Sammy likely wouldnt be the only one with a serious wound.
On the other hand, Doyle and Ally are both ecstatic about the fight. Back in Allys room the two of them are celebrating one of the better fights they have had against the founders in a while. Though Ally notices how the wolves could have done better as well and tells Doyle about it.
Doyle nods, They would certainly be able to do a better job if that was the case. Though if I let them really go at it this floor would be a bit too hard for my taste. After all, the most effective time to attack would be when the group is caught up with one of the vine monsters. Just think of the damage that could have been done if the wolves had jumped in while Zach was caught.
For now, I think I will let them continue as they are. These wolves are more of a spice to kick up the tension of the floor instead of the main attraction. If I really wanted to kill groups, I could have just reced the myconids with them and set a bunch of ambushes involving the elder vines.
Ally sighs, I realized something.
Doyle tilts to the sides, What?
Allyughs, It feels weird advising you because all of my dungeon fairy training was on how to de-escte a dungeons danger. Im full of tips and tricks on how to make sure a dungeon doesnt identally be a death pit and here I am having to advocate for more danger.
Like, even if you were the usual wizard turned dungeon I would have to make use of the training. They would want to make an imprable dungeon to protect their life and here you are worrying about being unfair to the delvers.
Doyleughs as well, I can definitely see that. No matter how you look at things, my situation is an odd one.
The two of them chatter back and forth for a bit more as on the seventh floor, Jims group is taking its time to get back into fighting shape. Jays wounds were quick enough to deal with and Sammys only took another ten minutes to properly sort out, but that still left both Doctor and Zach magically stressed.
Jim didnt even ask them, instead having the group set up for a proper long rest and a meal. A smart choice as Zach hadnt fully realized just how close he had been to running dry during the fight. While this didnt prevent him from casting spells, it would have increased the chances of bottoming out in any future fight until he recovered.
After that rest, the group easily finishes the first half of the floor, only having to fight five more assassin vines. Back with Ally, Doyle is a bit disappointed that the group managed to thread the needle andpletely miss both elder assassin vines, but that is just to be expected when dealing with ambush monsters.
The group only starts to feel the pressure again once they get into thest portion of the floor. There are just too many myconids and those myconids most certainly arent loners so soon enough the group is pulled into an unending fight. More and more myconids are pulled in by distress spores as the group fights its way ever closer to the floors exit.
This running fight reaches a climax within sight of the exit portal as the group faces down the remaining myconids. About 11 swarms with a few hundred sprouts, nine lesser myconids, and all three of the troop guards. The air is so heavy with spores that it is hard to tell where the fog stops and the spores start.
At this point Doctor has six spells up and running just to keep everyones lungs clear even if they had all taken the antidotes. While the spores might not be paralyzing or knocking anyone out, the sheer quantity would be causing respiratory problems simply from breathing them. Zach is assisting in this though because of the more magical origin of the spores, he isnt able to control them, instead being reduced to using his own pollen to fight for air space.
Behind them all, Jim watches with a frown. They hadnt meant to get into this situation and he can only thank his lucky stars that his group wasnt being nked. Still, he felt they should be able to take them, the only wild card being the three five-limbed oddities. Though from his observation they didnt have some new kind of nasty spore based surprise so he was willing to fight.
A quick look at Doctor and Zach though was enough to tell him that wasnt in the cards. We need to retreat! The spores are just too much and we need to figure out a solution for them first.
While the others have their own opinions, no one questions him as they all retreat. The myconids seem fine with this state of affairs, letting them slink off into the fog.
Once out, both Doctor and Zach let out a sigh of relief. Doctor in particr throws a look at Jim who can only nod. With a sour look on his face, Jim addressed the group. We need to leave for now. The mages, in particr Doctor, just got strained way too much. Even without the magical poisons involved, those spores are way too much of a problem. Zach, were going to need you to look into a solution.
Zach shrugs, Obviously fire magic might work, though if you know anything about dust explosions it might not be desirable. I suspect though that the answer is a lot more grindy than we would like. There are so many spores because there are a ton of myconids. Kill more myconids and the number of spores would go down.
A Simple Question – Chapter 205
Doyle watches as the group leaves the floor and cant help butugh. I didnt intend for the myconids to do that.
Ally shrugs, It is kind of their main defense when inrge groups. Though not really something mentioned. In the normal swing of things, myconids are one of the more peaceful monsters, even when not led by a sapient. A normal myconid colony will keep the spore density well below the dangerous level and since you dont have normal people exploring their territories, the visitors constitution will take care of the rest.
That doesnt even get intoter changes, which will happen to people as their stats optimize their bodies. Some people develop the ability to breathe through their skin and other crazy things. At that point, it doesnt matter how many spores are in the air unless they have enough magic to get through.
Even mages who ignore their bodies will generally have some form of magic shield up non-stop at that point. Really, you managed to hit a sweet spot here. Ten or twenty floors deeper, and the only danger the spores would present woulde from their poisons. Something the town is more than ready to handle with potions.
Doyle sighs, So Ive got a random gear check on my seventh floor.
Allyughs, You could look at it like that. Though honestly, a simple damp cloth over their mouths would likely do the job. Its like smoke, you just need something to catch the stuff before it gets in you. Plus, even at their current levels their constitution should be getting up to the point that stuff like smoke inhtion isnt going to cause permanent damage.
Doyle groans, Thats going to bring back smoking, isnt it? I guess at least as a dungeon I wont have to smell it.
Ally snorts, Be honest with yourself, from what Ive seen of your worlds pre-system media, smoking didnt really go anywhere. Even the people who knew with 100% certainty that smoking kills you would still do it.
Doyle sighs again, Fair enough. Anyway, Im going to go back to working on the sphere. I can feel that the outlines are almost done.@@novelbin@@
Ally tilts her head to the side, Arent you worried about them noticing the changes?
Doyle tilts his core back, They didnt really pay attention to the design. Im sure that once I start putting actual pictures and such, it will be obvious. For now, though, I want to see what happens. This is the biggest work Ive done so far and Ive put so much into it.
Ally shakes her head, Im clueless myself. At this point, I half expect whatever you get to be a major disappointment.
Doyle sighs and turns his attention to carving. Throughout his time working on the seventh floors stone sphere, he had felt many things and despite trying to keep the same style of border; the lines flowed with emotion. Besides all that, Doyle and Ally had missed one quirk. Without paying attention to it, Doyles territory had started to mix with the conceptual reinforcement of the design and extended the carvings into smaller and smaller details.
Like a fractal, what had been a decent design had grown inplexity through repetition. Still, Doyle had a way to go before the carving was finished, so the potential stayed dormant. Through the next day and the day after, he continued to carve as Jims group was taking time to recover.
During that time, Ace came in with a somewhat new team. After all, he had to sub out Sammy and Susan. Still, that didnt distract Doyle as they only beat the boss and left. In fact, a few more days passed as the rest of towns core filtered through and beat the boss one after another.
They werent 100% sessful. Some groups required multiple attempts, but it was clear that Ace had ramped up their training as not a single other team had done more than take out a couple patrols. A thing that was getting harder and harder as the kobolds finally were getting a surplus of power. While the earlier floors did have a few kobold traps here and there, the boss floor was finallying into its own with them, especially since the kobolds had the ability to dig out the terrain and shape it to better fit their traps.
One of the groups that came by way of the ce up-river even managed to lose a person to a pit trap. Such a ssic example of dungeon architecture and it took a group of kobolds pooling their trap resources before Doyles dungeon finally had one. Of course, since it was on the boss floor the location had a nasty habit of changing locations whenever the floor got refreshed so it was sure to be a bane for the unprepared.
Two full weekster, Jims group finally re-enters the dungeon intending to beat the seventh floor. Sure, they had been back a few times, but those were more to test some tactics and get their exercise in. Now, though, they had a n. Though it still took them a day to properly get through the sixth floor, something that tickled Doyle pink as it meant that floor was going to be a stumbling block to any group trying to race through his dungeon with harmful intent, at least until the next boss.
Even better, Jims group managed to stumble into one of the elder assassin vines on the seventh floor. They had already fought the lesser shadow wolves, finding them quite early in the floor and so a bit less wary than they should have been. Then, out of nowhere, a couple of long vines dropped in from above and grabbed Jay.
This caused a real shock for the group as the elder had been in a second-floor room back from the window. Much too far away for a regr assassin vine to reach. It took more than a moment for them to find it with only the fact that Jay had protected his neck with his poleaxe allowing him to yell, preventing a disaster.
Though even once they found it, the fight was a lot tougher than they expected. Even the normal length vines had an unnatural toughness to them and Jay was the groups heavy hitter. Sammy did her best, but the vines really called for a two-handed weapon that could put a persons full strength to work. Still, the group won out in the end and received some elder berries. Not literal elderberries of course, rather, just the normal assassin vine berries except with more oomph to them.
Then Jims party was through the stuff they had already fought before and once again faced the myconid menace. To Doyles shock, they hadnt figured out the simple solution Ally had suggested. Sure, a damp cloth wasnt perfect, but with things like this you need to think inyers of protection instead of just stopping the threat all at once.
Still, they did manage to figure out some tricks of their own. Both Doctor and Zach had picked up a mage shield, though Doyle had expected that as the other mages that had been beating the boss started using it. Besides that, the martial party members werent left out in the cold either.
They had figured out a couple of tricks. For those with Qi, it was a simple matter of charging the bodys natural energy field so it repelled the spores. Jim, on the other hand chose the hard way. He didnt stop the spores from getting into his lungs, no, instead he figured out a way to deal with them once there. A bit nasty, mind you, but being able to manipte ones own lungs so that you can cough up any gunk that got in there would likely be a useful skill, especially if it can extend to other things.
Thus prepared, Zach and Doctor werent forced to spend all their mana on spore protection and the fight looked a lot more favorable. Though it definitely helped that they were a bit more thorough in killing the myconids they came across on the way. So much so that there were only a couple sprout swarms left and only five lesser myconids. The guards, on the other hand, still managed to show up in full force.
Not on purpose, Jims group just managed to once again thread the needle when it came to avoiding stuff. Though at this point Doyle was beginning to get suspicious of this. Once or twice was normal enough. The fact Jim kept doing so pointed to other things. If it wasnt for the fact that he genuinely didnt seem to be trying to do so was the only thing preventing Doyle from being certain.
Doyle can only sigh and sit back to watch the fight. A fight that turns into something of a disappointment. The spore cloud really was a gear check as once that problem was taken care of things went a lot smoother for Jims team.
The three lesser myconid troop guards did a fine job of guarding the lesser myconids, sure, but there was only so much they could do. Zachs ability to summon up wooden structures had been greatly improved, and so their attempts at grappling and stomping were all curtailed.
For both sides, the fight was a bit of an anti-climax. Though Jim cut through to the heart of the matter. Yes, it was easy, but that is because we werent stupid. You want an exciting fight, do it on your own time when your life isnt in my hands.
Then he had them set up camp. Sure, it wasnt all that long past midday, but he wasnt about to go to a new floor without everyone being prepared for it. For Doyle, though, this wait was nerve-wracking.
You wouldnt think it would be all that much, except for the fact that this would be the first time in a long while a group had made it to hisst floor. By this point, he had mostly epted Allys assurance that basically no one on the could currently crack his core. That didnt mean he wasnt worried about what else they might be able to pull. A worry so deep that he could only assume it was one of a dungeon cores central instincts.
The most annoying part for him was that he could do what he normally does to rx. They were, after all, camping out on the seventh floor. Kind of hard to lose yourself in carving when your current main project is unavable. So instead he turns to Ally and asks her a question, How are your skills doing?
You could practically hear the sounds of screeching brakes as whatever she had been thinking about grinds to a halt. She knew that up until recently her skill growth had been basically non-existent. It was only after Doyle had blown up at her that she noticed.
Sure, she had a decent enough excuse for it. Up until now, she had always been forced to train her skills so once that force was gone, she didnt even realize she stopped training. That, however, was still just an excuse. Like the college student living on their own for the first time and realizing they could eat ice cream whenever they want, she had lost control of herself.
While Ally wouldnt ssify her mother as having been too controlling, being in a fae court had its own restrictions. So there she was with a metaphorical stomach and a promise not to overindulge again. Yet had she really done much to fix the problem, or was her shelf now just full of instant ramen?
She had been avoiding her status panel, so didnt know the answer. Still, she couldnt avoid it for the rest of her life and with eyes closed, popped it open and shared it with Doyle.
She Did Not Actually Explain Why – Chapter 207
Doyle pauses for a moment, Now, there is just one final thing I want to ask about. What is up with that bit about your soul shell needing repair and your level limit being raised?
Ally shrugs, Remember, before this I wasnt just a nk te. I had a bunch of levels, skills, and paths. Ive lived longer than civilization has existed on your and even if higher doese slower, I was still up there. I cant really remember as after I broke level one thousand, it really didnt matter all that much to me and that was quite a while ago.
Doyleughs, You definitely dont act like some elder being.
Ally rolls her eyes, Anyone who has gone beyond dying by old age will develop some method to live with it. There are countless such ways but the fae as a whole tend towards eternal youth. Of course, some will break the stereotype, but thats life and free will in general.
Fae are rtively simr to dungeons when ites to this. Most beings with lower i immortality tend to always be growing towards being ever more middle-aged. Our races and a few others, like vampires are basically locked to a specific age. This works out alright for some, not so much for others depending on what that age might be.@@novelbin@@
Turned vampires for instance, get locked into the age they are when turned. That could be terrible if the person being turned is way too old or way too young. Another example are the hags. Despite all their strength and magical power, their true form is that of an aged woman.
Ally draws a breath in through clenched teeth. I hope the hags stay away from this for a while. They dont have to be evil. It, however, doesnt help that they are closer to how your worlds roleying games portray them and not how the more ssic myths do. Connected to the winter court through the giants, their very existence is a form of curse. So yeah, they dont have to be evil, but youre better off assuming they all are.
Doyle rolls his core to the side, Well, that sucks for them. Im sure with all the nonsense weve got on them here they will show up at some point, but that is just me being pessimistic. Would I have to worry about them?
Ally bites her thumb as she takes a moment to gather her thoughts. Yes. However, in theory, anyone could be a danger to you with enough power. If someone managed to extend the life of a fruit fly and somehow leveled it up high enough, it could kill you. Hags and a few other entities, however, represent a slightly different form of threat.
Curse magic is both the most and leastmon form of magic. Untrained magic users are constantly causing minor curses. Sometimes by literally just cursing someone. Good thing you cant just damn someone with words, at least not that easily. However, with untamed magic potential, it can cause small amounts of bad luck.
Anyone who actually knows how to properly use curse magic will look down on that though and not call it real curse magic. After all, arge part of the craft is making sure the karmic pendulum doesnt swing back. A curse done by ident or without proper preparation will result in an equal amount of bacsh.
The snobbish sorts who im to have mastered curses will use all kinds of vile methods to avoid the bacsh. Hags? They are a curse and so can use them in truly dangerous ways. As a dungeon, you personally are quite hard to curse and like everything else in life there are exceptions. Hags are one of them. Even without reaching godhood or bing a True Immortal, they can develop cross-dimensional curses because their curse is cross-dimensional.
Good news? Youre in a universe with a rtively low concentration of them as they really favor the three tyrants toys; Summoning, Undead, and Mind Control. Thatst one is heavily restricted by the system and yet is particrly important because to create more hags, they need to do some really nasty things with sapient mortals. Socking the ability to mind trick the local popce puts a major crimp in their ns.
Doyle snorts, Got it, avoid multi-dimensional threats.
They joke around a bit more after that before settling back into the usual grind, Ally surfing the web and Doyle carving on the sixth floor. This continued until the next day when Jims team was ready to head onto what was unknown to them thest floor.
Susan is the first through but even with all her experience the first room of the eight floor causes her pause. While the sixth floor had looked infinitely big, there were trees and such blocking the view. Here? The room was just arge square of grass surrounded by windows that looked out into an infinite space.
With the whole party on the floor, Jim snaps his fingers to get their attention. This floor? Room? Meh, this area is straightforward enough. In theory. We can see all the enemies, a lot of kobolds and goats. Up there? A staircase that must lead somewhere, but Im sure were all more curious about what is quote unquote outside.
Susan nods, Certainly, in fact, I say we check that out first. Normally I would be all for clearing the room of hostiles before searching it, but I dont want to be caught by surprise if something ising our way from outer there. For all we know, there could be a flock of gryphons waiting to break in and attack.
Jim sighs, Zach, whip up something sturdy and rope-like to hold on to Susan with. I wouldnt want to have to figure out a way to save her if that window bursts open and sucks her out or something grabs her. It would be a nasty ce for one of those assassin vines to be hiding.
Susans eyebrows go up, I hadnt thought of that possibility, but yeah, that would suck.
Sammyughs and goes, BaDumTish.
Zach groans but is quick enough to whip up a very sturdy root. It was pretty long on the surface and instead of just wrapping around Susan; the end grows into a loop so there is no way for it toe undone without breaking. Besides that, there is just as much root under the ground except very split up so it would be silly hard to pull out.
Thus prepared Susan makes her way over to the windows closest to the party. Of course, there isnt really anything to see out there. Though now that she is closer, she can tell that it really does seem to go on forever with the only thing getting in the way being the atmosphere itself. She tries to get a look above and below and is only partly sessful.
That was enough though and she could see what looked like a tower extended down and up infinitely. Well, she assumes so as she cant see any ground or ceiling. With a sigh, she turns to the group, Okay, I want you all to hold on to the root and be ready to get through the portal.
Everyone does and Jim frowns, Whats wrong?
Susanughs, One of us would have tested this, eventually! And she smashes one of her daggers into the window with all her strength.
The rest of the party braces, prepared for the worst. Though of all the situations going through their mind, the result was least expected, nothing happened. Sure, the dagger made a hecious noise when it hit the window. It even had the point get turned a bit. Besides that, though, there wasnt even a mark on the window.
Susanughs again, though this time the others can hear a bit of weakness in it. Well, I guess we dont have to worry about hitting them then. Anyway, there isnt anything out there. And she goes on to exin what it looks like.
Doctor squints at her and frowns, Dont do that. Ive done my best to keep us all alive so I dont need one of you throwing your life away for no reason. Besides, you didnt bother to tell us what you saw! If youre going to be terminally stupid, at least inform us of the situation first.
Susan shrugs, Ive trained with long-range weapons in the past and I could tell there was a good bit of air out there. I figured all that would happen is a very open hole into a very open space. Plus, I kind of wanted to get a better view of what was going on out there.
Jim shook his head, That sounds nice, now what was your real reason for doing that? You arent the type to self-sacrifice over something so stupid nor are you one to be that impulsive.
Susan coughs, Ah, mhmm, ssss. Well. Hmm. I have my reasons? And she shrugs.
Jim just continues to stare at her.
Susan sighs, This dungeon is impossible. While in the tutorial I didnt exactly ask about dungeons all that much, but one of my focuses is on gathering intel. You might have noticed that I would asionally not show up for a day except maybe for dinner. Some of that was me in the outer ring talking to people.
Most of that, though, was me heading to the ce up river, an absolute bore as they are trying to make everything like it was still pre-system. Anyway, that at least makes things easier for me because they dont even have the most basic defenses against someone using even peak pre-system human ability. I can basically ghost around even their most secret meeting rooms without a single person noticing me.
So yeah, Ive talked to a lot of people. Side note: Ace already knows this, but in case he hasnt informed you the ce up river is in contact with a few other ces already. They seem to have been set up as a natural trade hub. We should probably conquer them.
Jim rubs his forehead, I dont quite think we need to go that far. Anyway, yeah, Ace and I have talked about the ridiculousness of those people and the fact we should at least shock them into epting what has happened.
Susan shrugs, If we conquer them we have a trade hub and also we control the checkpoint between us and the rest of the world. From what I understand, your scouts havent found any settlements down river from us. Were the end of the line here.
Anyway, Ive been able to talk to quite a few people and have gotten out of them the various questions they asked their guides. Even those who ended up asking the same question were enlightening if they had different guides. But yeah, this dungeon should not be like this. You cant even exin what is going on by saying it was an awakened dungeon.
Even those types of dungeons tend to have a more steady progression from floor to floor. Not all this nonsense. Things are changing too quickly and features pop up and vanish with no rhyme or reason. One floor ends up with a magic cliff and then we see nothing like it again. Another floor is randomized and a third has somewhat random monster spawns.
Then it got worse after the first boss! If anything, you would expect a dungeon to calm down with more floors because they would have used all their tricks already. Here we went from an infinite in to a foggy abandoned city, and now it looks like we are in an infinite skyscraper!
I didnt expect the window to break but I had to try. It doesnt feel like an illusion but how can the dungeon keep creating suchrge spaces? This shouldnt be possible!
Jim sighs, So, Im not going to dance around this too much, but do you have a hard time when reality doesnt match up with what you expect it to?
Susan nods.
Axebeak Plus Kobold Equals A Dangerous Fight – Chapter 208
Jim looks up at the ceiling before focusing on Susan again. With all the strangeness going on the whole system-thing has probably been hard for you. The fact that a centerpiece of our new life seems to break the rules cant be easy, either. That doesnt mean you can be so reckless.
Now, Im not your therapist and you likely already know this, but it sounds like your specialization in gathering information likely has more to do with making sure reality doesnt surprise you. Not to be harsh, but that isnt going to work anymore. There is literal magic being used and gods walk among us, or can, I dont think any are literally walking the right now.
Im going to be honest, at this point you might want to look into system based solutions. Maybe try asking one of the receptionists at the guild if there are any options for getting a therapist. Of course, Im sure there are magical solutions out there, but just like I dont want you to do something like what you just attempted with the window. I also dont want you risking your mind over some magical cure-all, mystery skill, or over-promising path.
The group stays quiet for a while until Doctor points to one of the kobold groups on the grass that is not so stealthily approaching them. So, we should probably do something about that?
Which they do. While the six kobolds are decked out in bows, they arent the most urate at this distance and Zach is able to reuse the root that had anchored Susan to whip out and trip them all. This provided more than enough time for Sammy and Jay to rush up and clobber them.
Of course, things cant be too easy. With the fight started, the other two kobold groups on the grass shift from passively watching to active aggression. Now, their aim isnt any better than the downed kobold group, but twelve enemies all shooting at you isnt anything tough at. Though Zach once again has the answer.
While he wouldnt be able to hold up a block of wood thick enough to block the arrows and cover the group, Zach is more than capable of blocking the sky while the others handle any arrowsing in more directly. Quite a useful addition, especially once the kobolds up by the ss staircase also start taking pot shots.
Then, with the rest of the kobolds on the grass finished, they turn their attention to those above them. Sure, they could get up on the ss tforms and fight them there. That isnt what they do.
Instead, Jim has Zach and Susan take shots at the goats while he himself uses his bow to take out the kobolds at the top. Soon, the first few kobolds and all the goats are taken care of leaving just three kobolds huddled away from the edge. Jim clicks his tongue at that and moves over to the ss tforms close to the floor.
The others follow him as he works his way upward until he once again has a clear shot. The three kobolds know this as well and so start trying to shoot him as well. One of them evenes close before being taken out. Not close enough to be a threat, but at least it showed potential.
Jim shakes his head, I think the kobolds do better with slings than they do with bows. Not that I wouldnt put it past this dungeon to suddenly have sniper kobolds the next time wee through.
Susanughs, That would be something dungeons are actually known to do. Once something proves to be ineffective, they tend towards modifying what is already there instead of recing it.
Jim nods, Fair enough, now lets see what is above us.
The group climbed the ss tforms, up the stairs, and out into the next room. A room where they once again stunned, this time by the fact that there is grass and axebeaks just chilling on the ceiling. Jay points up, What in the world? There are kobolds riding those two birds up there.
Jim, of course noticed this as well but that isnt the immediate threat. Eyes on the ground. We have a couple axebeaks here with us and theyre starting their charge.
Good thing they have a bit of time to prepare as the four axebeaks had ended up towards the edges of the room instead of right by the portal. On the other hand, it also means the birds had a chance to get up to full speed.
As they charge at the group, Zach tries to trip them with some grasping roots. This doesnt work quite so well as the powerful legs of the birds easily break the roots. They do slow down a little, but are soon back up to full speed.
Sammy sighs and rolls her eyes, this isnt her first rodeo with the things and she doesnt believe getting beat down again would result in another quest. Just get ready to dodge. They dont have the best turning ability while charging. I can take out one on the first pass.
Jim nods, Everyone spread out and watch their beaks. If were all lined up, they might have a chance. Jay, with your poleaxe you can probably do some good damage. Just make sure to be holding it with both hands if you dont want a broken wrist. Susan and Zach, hold your ranged attacks until theyre beginning to turn around. They might not have the best turning ability, but dodging isnt out of the question for them.
With the birds two thirds of the way, the group springs into motion and puts a few paces between each other. Irritated, the four birds squawk as they split up to choose their targets; Jim, Sammy, Doctor, and Zach.
Then the birds are upon the group. Jim ghosts around his bird and seems to slip through the space that it slices at with its beak. Sammy has grabbed her sword with both hands and as she moves to the side and ducks down, she shes the sword at the back leg. While as a whole the bird is going quite fast, the back leg is on the ground and so her sword doesnt get bashed out of her hands. In fact, the axebeak is unable to react in time and as it tries to continue its charge; the sword takes off the foot and the bird goes tumbling.
Doctor isnt the most agile and so is the closest to being hit. Good thing Jay decided to be near him as the axebeak ends up distracted by his attempt to slice the thing open. It sadly was only an attempt as like Jim warned, they can do a small amount of dodging and Jay had been a bit too ambitious with trying to decapitate the bird. Zach just used a summoned wood block to take the beak attack as he scrambled to get out from under the birds feet.
The axebeaks go a good bit further before trying to turn around. Not far enough though as Jim is easily able to snipe one of them. Though Zach didnt really need to aim all that much as he just turned the block of wood he summoned into a bunch of nasty splinters and sent it at the one that attacked him. The remaining bird gets turned around, but then flops over.
Jim turns to Susan with a raised eyebrow. Sheughs, I got a scratch on it. Good thing they were running around and had their blood pumping so hard. Really spread the poison out. It should be paralyzed for a good bit of time, though we should probably put it down.@@novelbin@@
Doctor coughs, We might not have the chance as the axebeaks above us are charging as well.
Jay looks up andughs, And what do they expect to do? Theyre on the ceiling!
So with greatedic timing, that is right when the axebeaks reach the edge of the room and step onto the wall.
Susan lightly smacks the back of his head, Dont tempt fate.
Jim lets out augh that turns into a sigh. Those kobolds riding the axebeaks seem to be carrying multiple spears. Be ready for some very dangerous ranged attacks. In fact, lets get behind some of the boulders.
The group spread out even more to take advantage of the rocks. This doesnt turn out to be the best n as instead of spreading out themselves, the charging axebeaks only split up into two groups led by the kobolds. On the first pass, Sammy and Zach who are on the very edges are targeted.
Zach continued to move around the rock while using some more summoned wood to defend himself. It only works so well as even with a thick piece of wood the kobolds spear is able to prate far enough to scratch him. Sammy isnt so lucky as while her shield is actually a shield, it is still just wood as well and the spear prates into it and into her arm.
Doctor rushes over to her as the axebeaks race into the distance and catches another spear for his trouble. He dodges but the thing still leaves a nasty wound across his back. Though it could have been worse as the spearcked a lot of the power it would have had it thrown while charging at him.
Jim readies his bow for when they turn around, except they dont. At least not like axebeaks normally do. No, with the kobolds in charge, the birds instead keep their speed and instead go into a very long turn and are soon heading back towards them from a different direction.
Though the group with the kobold who has thrown both his spears doesnt keep their speed up. Instead, they keep only enough to get to the group right after the other. While the birds are meant for hit and run, their beaks work just as well as a melee weapon and the kobold with them hasmands to do so.
The other group keeps going though to give their kobold another shot at the group with hisst throwing spear. Of course, once again targeting Sammy and Doctor. This time though Zach is worried and puts arge chunk of mana into his spell which brings up a very sturdy and extra thick wooden wall between the kobold and the two, allowing the Doctor to continue his work in healing himself before the wound can bleed him out.
With the other group in melee with Jim, Susan, and Jay the charging group doesnt worry as much about being attacked from range so they quickly dump their speed and charge back to start using melee attacks themselves.
Zach had kept an eye on them so notices, The other grouping in for melee as well. Ill hold them up but I dont know how long.
Jim puts an arrow through the eye of one of the axebeaks before shouting back, Do what you can, but try and focus down the kobold. Weve taken care of two birds over here but the kobold has a nasty tendency to block out attacks on their mount.
Zach rolls his eyes, it isnt like he can so easily just target the. His thoughts pause and he realizes there might be a way. The birds are charging at them, even if not at full speed. Both a good thing for his n, but also a problem as it doesnt give him much time. He shakes his head and throws all the mana he can into a wood summoning spell.
In front of the birds on both sides of the group, two tree trunks connected by a sturdy branch pops into existence. The axebeaks are able to duck under it easily enough. The kobold, however, isnt so lucky as it runs into the branch chest first and gets yanked off the bird as bones break.
On the other side, Zach is gasping for air having thrown his mana around a little too aggressively. Still, he doesnt let that stop him from casting another spell, this one a lot easier on him, a single root spike. Of course, this root spike is going right through the downed kobold and finishing the job.
Ally Lets Doyle Figure Stuff Out – Chapter 209
Back with Jim, Jay, and Susan; they have managed to take down another axebeak. This leaves three of them, one with a kobold. Those three take a lot more effort to kill than expected as the kobold does a decent job of running defense for them. Though in the end there is only so much defense a spear can do and Jim manages to pick the birds off one by one as the others keep the birds in ce.
With the floor clear of enemies, the party regroups around Doctor and Sammy. Doctor looks up from his work for a second and shrugs, Should have us both back together like new in no time. The biggest problem is going to be our equipment. I cant exactly heal the back of my chest piece or the hole in her shield.
Jim nods, That could in theory be a problem.
Jim looks to the others, Do we have a patch big enough to deal with the giant tear on Doctors equipment? I know we have some smaller ones to fix up the asional rip, but for some reason I dont think we quite nned for something that big.
Jay steps up and takes a closer look at the hole before shrugging, We should be able to patch it up. While it does look big, only the first bit seems to be an actual hole. The rest is just a long rip. It looks like the spear pierced into the clothes and as it skimmed along his back the rest of the weapon was able to burst open his close as it continued onward.
Jay pulls out a pack of needles and thread. Just give me about half an hour with the outer armor and we should be ready to go.
Doctor looks up, then back down at what he is doing, back up and then down again. Jayughs, Fair enough, let me help you get the armor off without disrupting your work.
It takes a hot second but they manage to get the chest piece off of Doctor without disrupting his healing. From there it takes Jay two hand sized patches and a few arm length thongs of leather. Thatst bit almost interrupts the healing as Sammy giggles at the term thong, though Zach is quick to ruin the fun by exining the term means a thin length of leather meant for binding stuff together. Sammy, of course knew that already as they had been dealing with this stuff for a good bit by now.
Of course, what they are actually waiting on isnt for the equipment to be repaired, but rather Doctor to finish healing Sammy, which takes almost an hour to finish up. While the spear hadnt pierced too far, it had done quite a doozy on her arm bones and Doctor had to spend a lot of time tracking down splinters. At the end he cant help but shake his head, You arent even in shock after that! Ive seen simr injuries in the past and the only ones still conscious were cold and shivering from the pain.
Sammy shrugs, Eh, I just got really unlucky this time. If it had been to the other side of the shield, my gauntlet would have protected me instead of having all the bones near my elbow messed up. Besides, my job is to tank. Ive invested a fair bit into my Con stat and Im certain that thing helps prevent stuff like that.
Jim shakes his head, Dont focus too much on it. At the very least, you should also go into Strength, with some on the side into Intelligence and Destiny.
Sammy rolls her eyes, Oh, dont you worry. I realize this isnt like those games where you can mono-stat your way to the top. Im just putting any stat points into my Con stat. Everything else is spread out a lot more evenly. I just want to find out if the rumors of regeneration are true. I suspect it will be around 50 because our particr brand of human doesnt do all that well at regrowing important bits.
Jim shrugs, As long as youre keeping things even keeled. I dont want you or any of our core people ending up useless because of unbnced stats. You wouldnt be a good tank if any noob curse caster could throw you into a deep sleep. The same goes for all of you. I dont care what nonsense legends the tutorial guides might have soaked your head with. Sure, you can have a stat you focus on, but I better not hear of any of you attempting to put everything into that stat alone.
From there, Jim and the restpse into silence before they decide to rest for another hour or so. While Sammys wound is all fixed up, that doesnt mean the stress from it all has gone away.
While they are resting though, it isnt like Doyle and Ally are doing nothing. They chat a bit over how the fight went with both of them agreeing that kobolds on axebeaks is quite thebination.
Though Ally points out one thing in particr, Yeah, the axebeak in their natural habitat might hunt by doing a single powerful charge, but I think in a dungeon setting they would do a better job using tactics like they did after the kobolds ran out of spears to throw. Grouped up they can protect one another and while their attacks dont have quite as much power behind it, they can better aim when not running full tilt.
Doyle easily agreed with that though took it further. Besides that, I think both us and the birds themselves have gotten too caught up in their beaks. Sure, having a literal axe for a face does kind of push you in one direction. However, their ws might be just as effective. I didnt really connect it before, but my has ostriches and emus, simrly big flightless birds and if I remember correctly part of their defense is those strong legs of theirs. I dont see why it would work for the axebeaks.@@novelbin@@
Ally agrees with that and they chat some more before she smirks and in a sly tone says, I know you want to know.
Doyle rolls his core, Well if you know, why dont you enlighten me?
Allyughs, You want to know if someone actually does have to spread their stats out.
Doyle nods and she continues, Of course first off, it is for all intents and purposes impossible to not get any points into the other stats. Even if someone decides from the start, they only want to put points into Strength, the various early paths will likely end up getting a few points per level into everything. Thats just how the system we are under works.
After that, though? If they continue to focus only on Strength eventually their paths will follow suit. They will be vulnerable, most people who attempt this kind of thing will die or give up the path. Strength might provide physical defense but when something does hurt them they die easier and without the mental or soul stats, they will be particrly vulnerable to less physical forms of damage.
Maybe only a few tens of people who try that will survive to the end of their universe. Those that do though will be absolute powerhouses. It follows a simr curve to those who follow the same ss path as far as they can, except stranger. You and in turn because of our connection I see the stat as Strength, but that isnt the actual word.
So what is Strength? Ealy on a lot of beings see it as how strong they are and physically sturdy their body is. That isnt always true, just look at how your description of the stat differs as a dungeon and it should be clear that all that is only the surface. In fact, sometimes those cultures where they have a different word used for it will have different effects from the stat to start.
Doyle tilts to the sides, Hm, that is weird. Going by roleying games and such most people are going to assume that Strength literally just means something like how much a person can lift. The fact it also calls out how sturdy the body is probably has thrown a few gamers for a loop as it is.
Ally nods, That is a surface level view of the stat and it isnt wrong. The stat does determine how strong your body is. Except there are other beings who for the most part the stat does nothing for their ability to lift stuff, instead being purely how sturdy they are. Because the stats are like a giant sphere of water floating in space. Right now, you are on the surface and can only see so far.
From where you stand, which is closer to the second example because of being a dungeon core, you can see the sturdiness aspects of the stat and off in the distance you can spot a human standing but you cant see past the horizon to the part of Strength that deals with lifting heavy things. That human, in turn, can see the edge of Strengths sturdiness while mostly being in the part that focuses on exerting Strength with their bodies.
Of course, beyond both you and the humans sight there are other beings who, despite having a physical body dont even think of the stat as providing either of those things. Maybe it is a being made of literal mist and to them the stat means how cohesive their body is, not in a sturdy fashion, but rather just how easy it is for them to keep the water as mist and pull more water out of any pools of the stuff that might be around.
Now with that in mind and to extend the metaphor, adding points to the stat is living diving deeper into that giant sphere of water. Do you understand what that would mean?
Doyle takes a moment to go over what was just said before figuring it out. While that does mean they get better at the aspects of the stat they are close to, it also means they might end uping into contact with other aspects as the deeper they get, the closer they would be to them. My guess is that the human regeneration thing is an example of that.
It was just out of sight on the surface, but going down a little bit puts humans in contact with the concept. Or maybe, maybe it wasnt out of sight. Rather, it was next to them and they could see it, but the concept wasnt close enough to heavily affect them. Hmm, that does sound better now that I think about it. After all, while humans cant regrow limbs, we can regrow some parts of our body.
Ally nods, And of course the sphere of water thing is just a very leaky abstraction, but it is enough to get you thinking in the right direction. Now consider this: there is a limit on how physically strong a person can get, yet Strength can break that limit. What do you think that represents? And Ill head it off at the pass, no, it doesnt mean they start using mana or qi to start moving things.
Doyle hadnt been considering that though hearing thest part does make him more confident in his idea. So I was throwing the word concept around a lot in myst exnation. Ive read a few cultivation novels in my time and Im going to base my guess on stuff from there.
There is a limit on how tough a humans flesh and blood body can get. However, after a certain point, it is being held together through the concept of Strength itself. There is no magic or physical reason for it, they are simply strong like that.
Ally smiles, Got it in one! Now, Jim down there is rightfully worrying about things like curses and what not. I would never suggest a team yer try to go mono-stat. However, if Strength eventually exceeds the physical, what does that say?
Doyle tilts back, That its defense isnt limited to the physical.
Ally nods, With a high enough Strength you dont need other stats because Strength bes everything. I cant even properly exin it because I dont understand it fully myself and likely only those on the path do.
Invisible Corners – Chapter 210
Doyle nods, Well, thats nice. Now, I did ask for it to some extent, but how does this help me?
Ally smiles, It doesnt, at least not directly. You have already gone down the path of an even build to some extent. However, it does teach an important aspect about the stats. They arent some simple thing but rather concepts.
No, let me say that correctly. They are Concepts, with a capital C! And each of them has the capability to show many different aspects with only a core feature being truly unique to any one stat. For Strength that is to strengthen your body. No other stat can do that.
Ally checks the panel showing the party, Im going to be quick since it looks like they are about to start again. While you, as a being, are somewhat locked in on what concepts each stat will be bringing to the forefront, that is not true for your monsters. Through intent, you can guide how each stat changes them for the species, variant, and even on an individual level for the special ones.
Your goats have a lot of constitution and you can decide if that means they end up regenerating damage at absurd speeds or if it means stuff like poisons and various special effects are basically stopped dead. Through paths, you will shape them. As for why I am telling you now? I didnt know about it before we got on the subject. My skill Tutor must have leveled up and I was able to notice something such that I could help you learn this lesson.
So onest thing, youve already started the process with your goats. The path that had you choose between whether you ended up with normal goats or goat-like humanoids had two effects and exins why animals and nts can have high Intelligence yet still be basically the same. By choosing to stick with quote unquote normal goats, youve guided their Intelligence stat towards more animalistic forms of thinking.
On the other hand, you also ced some minor guidance on all of their body stats. Strength will focus on their body bing the peak of what it means to be a goat. Agility will focus on their legendary ability to climb and jump around. Constitution will likely end up more general so as to prevent changes to their body such as through poison or damage. But that is the end of what my skill just force fed me and Jim seems ready to move on.
And Ally wasnt wrong about that. The party was rested and Jim got everyone to double check their gear so not a single piece of armor was out of ce.
Then the only thing standing in their way was figuring out how to stand. Doyle had tried to make the transition between the floor being down and the wall being down as smooth as possible and maybe sometime in the future he could redo it even better. Right now, though, he was basically just throwingrge areas of gravity at the problem without any finesse.
The axebeaks that charged in from the ceiling had been in here for a while and so knew the quirks. Besides that, momentum was still a thing so their act of charging through the transition area helped. Jim and his party were taking a much more cautious approach to things and so got a bit hung up.
Zach was the first through. Sure, the others called it cheating when he used magic to make a wooden harness so he wouldnt fall all over himself, but it worked, which was all that mattered. Though it was a bit tacky when he started to y around, jumping back and forth. Sure, he wasntughing at them. The act really was fun when you didnt have to worry about falling. Still, it didnt really feel like that to the others.
Well, besides Susan. She might have never gotten to experience shifting gravities before, but her training to always be bnced helped a lot. So after Zach showed there wasnt any harm in the crossing, she walked right up onto the window, across the ss, and onto the ceiling. She didnt mind being on the ss, but the appearance of just standing over the void was a little off putting.
This experience was shared across the whole group as no one besides Zach stayed all that long on the window and even he was only there because he trusted his wooden supports. Once on the ceiling though, all sense of difort went away, mostly because it honestly just looked like the floor below. Doyle didnt go all in on making the area look like a ceiling.
Though when they go through the stairs to the next room, Susan gets a bit of a shock when the gravity suddenly flips again. Good thing it was her who went in front because she managed to save herself from falling over with a bit of fancy footwork. Then they entered the next room.
Jim looked around and shook his head, Well, I dont see the way forward.
Sammy shrugs, Im going to guess this room has something to do with that checkerboard pattern on the ground. Up till now, the rooms have either been all clover, all grass, or an even mix of the stuff.
Jim sighs, At least the walls of the area look the same. I still dont trust that ss, but there isnt much I can do about it right now, anyway. Now Zach, you like to live a little dangerously, anchor yourself here and go check out if anything happens when you enter one of the other squares.
Zach gives a half-heartedugh, Well, I guess I deserve that. Still, I want you all to hold on to the vine as well. At least if it gets yanked out of the ground, you would end up wherever I do.
Susan rolls her eyes, The point of you doing this is so that we arent in danger either.
Jim shakes his head again, No, if he does get pulled somewhere we have a better chance of surviving together.
Zach raises an eyebrow, Then why am I going through alone?
Jim shrugs, Bait? Honestly, though, we cant all enter at exactly the same time safely. Having the entire group spread out across the edge there would be even more dangerous.
Doctor raises his hand, Why are we assuming that crossing the edges will do anything at all?
Sammy looks at Jim who nods for him to answer. Sammy licks her lips and res at the border, Ima tank, clear and simple. That, however, doesnt mean I havent picked up an interesting thing here and there. I wont say how, but I do have a bit of a danger sense. It isnt enough to highlight a hidden enemy or even tell me what type of danger. However, what it can do is give a slight nudge towards when a new area is going to be dangerous and that line right there.
She points at the edge in front of them, Has a sense of danger. Not the squares around it, but that specific piece of dirt and nts feels more dangerous.
Jim nods, but then frowns as he takes a closer look at the corner. Are you sure you dont feel anything from the squares next to it? Dont look at the squares, close your eyes and try to feel if the squares connected to that square are dangerous.
Sammy frowns and does as he suggested. Though it doesnt take long for her frown to deepen and her eyes to open again. The square to the left of the one in front feels dangerous, but only from the square in front?
Jim squints his eyes, The dungeon has thrown us another curve ball. If my guess is right, the checkerboard pattern actually represents different rooms and there are invisible portals or some such involved.
Jay scratches his head, Why would you assume that?
Jim holds up one finger, First, if you look really careful the corners have almost a line in the air with the two sides of it not matching up. He holds up a second finger, And second, we already know the dungeon is ying around with spatial maniption. We have the storage bag and now just the floor before there was a minor amount of spatial warping.
So here we are, on the next floor with windows that look out on a sky that appears to go on forever and a nearly invisible line in the air. At this point, I have to assume something is going on there. Hell, the sixth floor likely had something strange happening as well, because it is much too early for seemingly infinite floors.
Jay nods, Fair enough, now what does that mean for our exploration of this floor?
Jim shrugs, Not much, honestly. Sure, we have to be more careful so we dont get split up, but Im sure if anything there will be some fun benefits from having such obvious spatial anomalies hanging around. Now lets stop dragging our feet. Zach, you up for checking out an unknown spatial disturbance?
Zach rolls his eyes and whips up a new wooden harness before stepping over the line. A quick look to the left and he steps right back. Welp, I dont know what it is, but there are four grass bumps to the left and I figure something is hiding behind them.
Jim rubs his temple, That or they are those grass goat things we just two floors ago.
Zach blinks a couple of times, Huh, yeah, I guess they could be that as well.
Susan smirks, That does seem somewhat likely. So, I say we just go and smack them around. The goats in here are pretty tough, but theyre still goats.@@novelbin@@
Jim nods, We just have to be careful about crossing between squares. The fourth floor and all those wolves were tough enough when we first fought them. I would hate to end up aggroing a hundred strong herd of goats just because we kept stumbling into them.
Sammy and Jay, of course you two are in front. I want Zach right behind you this time, though. Zach, if they seem to start to be pulled somewhere or some other odd spatial nonsense, your job is to anchor them whilessoing the rest of us. Also, if those grass bumps arent standing up and clearly goats, you get to pull aggro through a bunch of wooden spikes.
Susan, I know you want to get in there and mix it up, but for this first fight I want you to stick to Doctor. We already have one potential ambush monster and I dont want Doctor to fall to another unseen threat. As for you, Doctor, I dont want you running off willy-nilly. Try and stick to Susan. If you really have to run off, make sure to tell her so she can keep up?
As for me, Im going to move between you all and try to keep a lookout for any other dangers. With how this room seems to work, any misstep could suddenly expose us to more threats. I dont fully know how this room is set up as things dont seem to line up, but I hope there is some sense to the madness. Now lets move out.
The party re-organizes themselves and as one moves into the next square, most turning to face the direction the grass bumps were in while Jim nces around in all directions.
At first they cant see any goats, in fact, they cant even see the grass bumps that Zach had seen. Then, from out of nowhere, a group of four grassen goats being ridden by kobolds in leather gear and wielding bronze tipped spears. Seeing that Jim whips his head around before giving an all clear as he didnt see any other enemies.
Hearing that the rest of the group form up a defense focused on the one direction instead of trying to protect from all directions.
THE Hallway – Chapter 214
New monsters figured out, Doyle turns to designing his ninth floor. Not that there is much to design. He ns to take Allys offhandment about how he cant just have one long hallway and run with it. Not a straight hallway, though, rather a slightly curved to the left hallway.
Doyle doesnt have a particr reason for the direction, but the fact it curves is so adventurers cant see straight to the end in case of things like a line-of-sight teleportation ability. That or the ability to snipe all the monsters well before they can react. While that might be fun from the adventurers view point, he doesnt want the floor quite that trivial.
The only other limits to the floor that he ns is that each segment of hallway will be the same size and unlike the sixth floor, none of the segments will be reused. Because, sure, he could create an infinite hallway with incredible ease. He just doesnt want to this time.
Plus, it makes creating the floor super simple as it just involves digging out a repeating pattern over and over until the space is filled besides for the farm area. Something he might have had a problem with pre-system, but as a dungeon is incredibly simple to manage.
So after some back of the napkin math, Doyle begins to carve out 50 meter long segments which are five meters wide and four meters tall with enough of a curve that at the start of one segment you can only just see the beginning of the next segment. This turns out to be a somewhat aggressive curve when taking into ount the fact he managed to fit in a kilometers worth of segments, though only after he remembered that orientation of a segment didnt matter when you can control the direction of gravity. Sure, he could probably have fit more segments in, but 20 thousand square meters worth of tunnels was enough for now.
With all 20 segments carved out and a small bit of time spent connecting them end to end, Doyle uses one of the system assistance features that had beennguishing. All it takes is a single metaphorical wave of his hand and the long hallway bes one long stretch of the ins room pattern matched with a cave room pattern walls and ceiling. Looking at it, the system even automatically interspersed any naturally urring nts, which happened to include the sunflowers he had just received.
Though Doyle does go back through it and add in spawns of the other various herbs he has. That and three ore spawns. A tin vein at the start, copper near the middle, and an iron ore vein near the exit. There have been more than enough floors since thest mining area. Especially since it had been weeks since the town hadnt managed to strip the third floor of ore. Good thing there isnt exactly all that much ore to begin with or the local market would have been flooded.
That, of course, might change once everyone has proper bronze gear so they can start trading it away. For the moment, though, the town seems pretty focused on using their small supply of bronze to create tools and reinforce their homes instead of using it for equipment. Not that Doyle mes them. A proper bronze ax is going to chop down a tree so much faster than a simr pre-system steel ax can. Though with the recent events in the dungeon, they might decide to start equipping at least the core teams with some bronze defensive gear.
Happy with theyout so far with only a small tweak so the sunflowers will tend to grow in circles, Doyle turns towards popting the space. Of course there is the usual mnge of ants, horned rabbits, and so on. Enough critters that the ce feels alive. Then he turns to his monsters to add a bit of death to the equation.
Sure he ns to include a few udoroots. The problem is that Doyle isnt certain about the two new fungus varieties. The walls and ceiling might be cave-like, but the ground didnt exactly scream mushroom infestation. Plus, as Ally had pointed out, he doesnt currently have any mushrooms that the two monsters would be able to blend in with. They would just be sitting out in the open as strangelyrge mushrooms and in a hallway like this? Delvers would be targeting them down well before getting close. A big problem when their only form of attack is to bash people.
Doyle sighs to himself, no, he doesnt get to y with his new toys quite yet. Though to be fair, if he wanted to, they could probably fit into the eighth floor somewhere. Not that he wants to. So instead turns towards the ninth floor and takes an overview of it. The in terrain seems to havee with tall grass. A useful feature for sneaking kobolds or a pack of wolves.
That or Doyle could just ce a ton of cattle again. This is basically their natural habitat is a little narrower. The thought of doing that is quite tempting, but he takes a step back and begins with some kobolds. Not miners, though. The third floor allowed for a race against time to get to the resources before they got all mined out and thus thrown to the whims of the system and how much of the ore decides to drop.
Here on the ninth floor, even those who have made it past the first boss and so can skip the first five floors will take a decent chunk of time to get to the ore. So no, no kobold miners. Instead, Doyle ces ten kobolds at each ore vein with three earth mages apiece. Mostly because at some point the town had figured out that drawing upon earth near an ore vein will result in higher damage earth spells and Doyle wasnt shy about taking advantage of that.
The other seven kobolds in the group would have one leader with a sling and then be split between spear and shield with a mace. All, of course, equipped with leather gear. At this point, the kobolds basically need the stuff to survive any hits at all since their Constitution hasnt gone up any. Doyle can only shake his head at this and n for when he has to start equipping them in metal gear. Though thinking about that, he also throws on a few extra silver and a handful of copper since he didnt feel like making the weapons into loot drops, just the armor.
Next, Doyle sets ten of his new Udoroots to be dispersed through the floor semi-randomly. Of course, he leaves some space between where they can be and the kobolds, but otherwise just hooks them into the nt spawning so they end up ced around simrly to the sunflowers they look like. Sure, he could have personally ced them, but doing it this way means that even someone clever with recognizing patterns should in theory not be able to tell what is a harmless patch of flowers and what is a phrenic menace.
After thates two packs of wind wolves with 30 members each. While not randomly ced, they are given free range to roam between the kobold camps, with one pack between the tin and copper and the other between the copper and iron. Also, while they dont end uppletely spread out, the packs arent all gathered tightly in one clump.
Doyle takes a look at the floor and sighs. While he had ced a few decent sized groups,pared to a kilometer long tunnel, it isnt really all that much. With that in mind, he doubles the number of Udoroots on the floor. He might as well get as much value out of them as possible. Though that still leaves him with 11,000 points. Sure, he probably wants to keep about 5,400 of that clear for the farm, but that still means 5,600 points to spend.
With a sigh, he starts to ce goats and cattle. Doyle hadnt meant for the floor to be free of them, but he also didnt want to end up being endless floors of livestock. Still, not much he can do when there is a kilometer of space to fill. So first he takes that 600 and turns it into 150 goats. Simple enough, break that into threerge herds in the first section between the tin and copper. They spread out a bit and fill in the space nicely.
After that Doyle decides to get a bit mean and spends 4,500 points on earthen cattle. That meant the second section between the copper and iron ore veins would have 250 of the cattle wandering around. Though that was a little unbnced so he took 50 of them and ced them with the goats.
That still left 500 points or as Doyle saw it, ten more kobolds. This time, though, instead of groups, it represents ten cowboys. Well, cowgirls, seeing as thedies are the ones more suited for using Qi. Not that he has managed to figure out how to get them to use Qi yet, but since there are already mages, it cant be too hard. Anyway, ten kobolds dispersed through the big herd of earthen cattle to provide just that little extra oomph. They get to wear full leather of course, and wield a spear and a sling.
Bows might be powerful weapons, but Doyle doesnt want to mess around with getting the koboldspetent with them quite yet. That done, he had exactly 5,600 points still reserved to fill up the farm. Or in other words, enough to have the entire floors poption twice over. Maybe he could have optimized it more, but at this point the behind-the-scenes stuff vastly outnumbers the actual floor since he can have them at a tenth of the cost.
Though Doyle can definitely see there being a point where at least the heavy hitters of the floor end up being just in reserve instead of in a farm area. Sure, the farm area allows them to grow up quicker and such. However, if they arent in a farm zone, they can be a part of the main floors strength if needed. A useful thing if someonees along with less than upright intentions towards his dungeon.
Doyle shakes his core, that all is for the future. If he really wants to have all the points, he is going to have to up his Intelligence score by a good bit. Especially since he can see some of theter monster options costing an arm and a leg. Even right now whereparatively the monsters are of lower level, he still has a good number of them in the hundreds of points. Just trying to imagine how much one of his worlds mythical monsters would cost is enough to make him feel poor.
Though that does bring up a question and so Doyle turns to Ally. Heyo, finished the ninth floor and after some fluff gathering came up with a question. I know that the gods and such were soul memories or what have you, but what about all the mythical monsters we have? Dragons and such I already know are a thing because of our conversation when I picked the kobolds, but there are so many other mythical beasts out there.
Allyughs, Yes and no. Dont expect to be getting a dragon in your dungeon anytime soon, or ever. Im sure enough of those myths also go over how intelligent those beasts can be? Well, while not all of them are, many so-called mythical beasts are sapient. You can however get lesser versions of them because part of what makes them mythical is that they grew into their sapience instead of just having it.
Sure, every once in a while a dragon couple will manage to have a kid and that kid will start as a dragon. Most of the time, stuff like dragons are the result of a monster growing and purifying their blood until they be some kind of peak existence. Dragons just happen to be the best known of the mythical beasts because on any where one exists you generally cant throw a rock without hitting some half-dragon something or other.
You actually have a decent example of this already, though more on the minor side of things. Dont forget you have the lesser shadow wolves. The second that lesser part gets dropped from the name, you have a fully sapient wolf on your hands.@@novelbin@@
Filling A Room With Sugar – Chapter 215
Enlightened, Doyle turns to something else. The numerous teams flooding into his dungeon. His first and second floors are always filled at this point except during the deepest hours of the night. Beyond that, the third, fourth, and even the boss floor will generally have people kicking about for at least half the day. In an almost ironic turn, of all his early floors it is the third that tends to see the least amount of activity as the main reward there is the ore and the town clears that out early on.
A quick look outside, though, shows that this is only the tip of the iceberg. There are so many visitors that a tent district has popped up in the outer ring. Even after you ount for all the merchants looking to make a quick buck, this mass of people outnumbers everyone from wolfs rest. In fact, people visiting from further away than the ce up river are in the majority. The only thing keeping the area stable is the adventurers guild.
While Ace hadnt yet managed to get a system recognized guard set up, the guild apparently makes allowances for frontier towns and, if asked, will help provide security. For a fee, of course, and it is only normal security. If someone decided they wanted to take control of the ce that would be fine, though the guild might do something if that new owner wanted to kick them out as well. After all, Wolfs Rest is very much far from unique as simr situations tend to pop up all over the multiverse anytime a dungeon pops up in the middle of nowhere.
The middle of nowhere, something both Ace and Doyle separately are having a hard time admitting describes their whole. It hadnt been at the forefront of their minds, but at this moment both of them are having a moment of synced despair. Ace, standing on top of the inner wall, looking out over the sprawl and Doyle looking down from above like he was ying one of those god games he had enjoyed.
Below them, there was such a small number of people. In the past, a city could easily have this many people dropped into it without it being noticed. Now, there likely werent many ces that would qualify as a city anymore.
The moment passes and Doyle turns back to his dungeon. His own little world, though as recently proven, it wouldnt stay little. Though the idea of having thousands of floors is more than a little daunting. A quick mental note is made to go and ask Ally about it, not that he believes he will remember to actually ask.
There are still too many things to do and yet it all involves slow and steady progress. For a while now, he had been carving on the seventh floor stone sphere and was mostly done on the framing. Still, he didnt feel like doing that for the moment. Plus, he had been putting off some of the other stuff he needed to do a little too long at this point. Things all over the ce unused and forgotten.
First on the list at the moment, though, was improving some of his patterns. Not the monster patterns. He has an idea on what that will require, but doesnt have quite the right ce for it yet. Well, maybe the sixth floor, but it can wait.@@novelbin@@
No, even more basic than that, the materials, wildlife, and nts will be his focus. And with good reason, he hasnt taken an in-depth look at them recently, butst time he had checked there were multiple patterns still at level 1. Doyle isnt certain if maybe that has changed or not, so asks the system to bring up a list of them for him.
{seaweed lv1, bread lv1, sugar lv1, wheat lv1, lemon lv1, strawberry lv1}
Doyle sighed, except the lemon he hadnt exactly been throwing these ingredients around, but to still be level 1? They were dragging his pattern database level down. Especially seaweed as he was fairly sure it was still in the main list and not in any specific selection of sub patterns. A little odd as the seaweed had been from seaweed snacks, or at least Doyle assumed it had been, but it isnt like he could ask the system for its reason.
Still, with these level 1 patterns, Doyle would finally be able to figure out how to go about improving them. Sure, he knew that if he was a human baker, he could improve the breads level by baking more and better bread. Problem is, he couldnt exactly do that. Besides, what does a higher level lemon even mean? It isnt like a farmer was going to have a lemon pattern.
That aside, he was going to need a ce to y around. This meant one of his floors with extra space and low likelihood of being delved. Two things which are currently a bit at odds if it wasnt for his ninth floor. The first few floors have a bunch of space above and below the floor proper but people are always there. Theter floors dont have many peopleing by, but Doyle had also more efficiently used the space, to the point that what was free was dribs and drabs spread around.
After all, any big enough area was used for his monster farms and sure, he could have used one of the farms, but Doyle wanted more control over the space. Good thing while the ninth floor had a farm, the simple hallway design meant there was still a bunch of area to use. Though after setting up a decent area to test things in, he realizes he had missed one other option and also fallen for his instincts again.
The easiest solution would have been to just change up a floor. Just because dungeons dont like doing that doesnt mean they cant. In fact, this reminded him of the story about the one elementally aligned dungeon that ended up not being able to stock its earlier floors. That is a stupid thing! It could have just used monsters of the correct level. There had to be some sitting around somewhere. That or using younger versions should have been possible.
Besides that obvious solution, there was also the fact Doyle was the master of space within his dungeon. All those dribs and drabs of space? He could have literally grabbed them all and stuck them together. No need to waste space when you can literally rearrange it as needed. Still, he had already made his new test area so all of that can be left forter.
Well, he does after going to Ally and telling her that if ever heins about space on an earlier floor; she needs to remind him that just changing the floor is an option. Then he turns his attention to the test room. There isnt much to it besides a giant nk stone space, a few lights overhead, and a bunch of stone nters. Oh, and one big tank of sea-like water cause seaweed.
From there, the first test was simple enough and involved the sugar, a whole lot of sugar. For the floors Doyle had been spawning all kinds of things over and over, but it was more like mindless work. As if he was on some factory line adding a piece of siding to a car over and over without thinking about it. So, for the sugar, he tried to do better.
At first he spawned handfuls of the stuff, but soon was making less and less, really focusing on the sugar. Doyle wasnt sure what better sugar would be like, but the system seemed more than willing to help with early levels of stuff. Still, there wasnt much progress made until he got down to making the sugar grain by grain.
It was then that he noticed the irregrities. Sure, he had noticed it before, but not really on a conscious level. Each piece of sugar was slightly different, like you would find when going through some actual factory made sugar. So he tried to control it. No more irregr pieces!
That didnte easily. In fact, it took Doyle five days before he was able to create near perfect duplicates. Then another three days for him to create a pile of sugar all at once that matched. In the end, he felt it was worth it. On one hand, sugars level had gone up to seven. A respectable result which was about inline with the crafters in town from the little he had observed.
On the other hand, it had pointed out another avenue to improve and in which he was shockingly bad. A thing in which he honestly should have been trying to improve from the start. That of control over his creation skill. Sure, the skills level was up there with all the others, but that didnt magically make him good at everything he should be good at. At least these experiments would help with it.
Though at this point, sugar wasnt going to get him anywhere. He wasnt quite certain what was improving about the sugar he made besides the regrity of it and that was blocking him from moving forward. So instead he turned to the wheat. Doyle wasnt an expert on wheat, but he did have some passing understanding of what a good piece of wheat looked like.
So Doyle tried to copy what had worked with the sugar, and what a shock, it didnt work. Doyle wasnt actually shocked by this of course. Sure, with sugar, you could just change the physical form easily enough. Wheat is a nt seed and so cant be squashed up willy-nilly. No, it was going to require a different approach. Thus the stone nters.
nters that Doyle takes a moment to find despite being the dungeon because at some point they had gotten buried under all the sugar he had been making. Sure, for a good while he had been making the stuff grain by grain, but at the end there he was making decent sized piles of the stuff at a rapid pace.
Sugar removed and the stone nters once again visible, Doyle nts some of his normal wheat, spawned like he would for delvers. That, of course, didnt grow. Yes, it was perfectly preserved wheat. They just happened to be as dead as a doornail. This makes some sense as living matter tends to cost a tiny bit more. Sure, for something like a single wheat seed, it wasnt even going to move the bar, but the default method of creation that was drilled into him by the system had dead as the default.
Changing that fact proved the idea that he needed to get better control of creation as such a simple change took days. It really shouldnt have. The difference was almost non-existent. Except for the fact that part of how creation worked was dealing in the more mystical elements of the universe, with life and death being quite heavy concepts within that realm.
Still, in the end, he managed to create living wheat seeds which once nted started to grow with the usual speed of nts on uninhabited floors. Something Doyle is for the first time really taking notice of. Sure, he had always thought of it as quite an oddity, but now it was really being shoved in his face. After all, why would this change when delvers were on a floor?
Except he had an answer for that. The speed up was an active maniption on his part. While maybe he wasnt doing it consciously, the speed up was a function being done by him and so once an invader made it so he could mess with a floor, the speed up stopped. The answer was clear from this: the speed up was time maniption. An act that came as natural to dungeons as breathing and something he would have to ask Ally about.
You’re Still Connected – Chapter 216
Doyle knocked on Allys door and once he was invited in he noticed that she was watching the towns construction team. What are they up to?
Ally shrugs, Not much, honestly. Theyre just interesting because of the differences. Ive always lived in a ce soaked in magic. To build a house you dont cut the wood with an axe, you shape it with magic or just grow a tree into the right shape to start with. About the only thing that needs to be created with tools is stuff made with iron alloyed in. Fae royalty dont get too hung up on the stuff and being a dungeon fae means even that is gone for me.
Oh, I guess you might be interested in what they are building. In the scheme of things the building isnt important, but it will affect the delvers. Theyve decided to centralize all the dungeon loot trading nonsense. So yeah, its going to be this big warehouse where the merchants can set up stalls inside of.
A decent n since so much of your dungeons output is food and raw meat at that. Kind of unhygienic if you have raw meat out in the open. The warehouse will allow them to add cooling magic and other simr effects to allow things to run smoother. That and they will be able to offer a t price well below market value just outside the building and let them do a bit of arbitrage.
Sure, there arent going to be grabbing even most of the meat, but there will be enough delvers who really dont want to deal with haggling over prices. I know that pre-system there wasnt really any actual haggling, but it will be making aeback. If only because it gives experience to a lot of core merchant skills.
Doyle tilts to the side, Huh, I would have expected that with the system backed currency things would be even stabler. My world ended up dropping the whole haggling thing because we didnt have to guess the worth of things. At least not in most ces. The main currencies were stable andrge corporations set the prices.
Ally nods, That does happen on arger scale. You cant exactly im a kilogram of iron is worth too much more or less than its actual value. Sure, on some level you will still have people arguing over the price to save thatst copper, but one sr system trading their excess iron to the next over is just going to go off of the base price.
Sure, they wont get as much, but at that scale, the goodwill and reciprocation is worth more. Because sure, right now they might want to sell iron, but they might end up needing to buy it in the future. Though dont doubt that they still haggle at the top! Not that they didnt in your world pre-system. You were too far from that level of business. Anyway, no matter where you are there will be special materials which will always be haggled for.
Of course they wont be paying in system coins. After a certain point, people will only be trading items for items. Even crafted goods can be so rare that you cant put a price on it. Well, the system is perfectly fine putting a price on it, but that is just asking to get fleeced. Not on purpose, mind you, the system is just paying the true value.
Which if it sounds simr to the true cost you have to pay to fully spawn an item, that isnt by mistake. Not even the system would break down some of those items into quintessence. While it can, in theory, create everything, even the system has limits. Oh, by the way, that means you too have limits. Dont worry, the system will warn you before you identally deconstruct anything that you cant put back together.
Doyle lets the silences sit for a moment before responding, That was interesting to learn. I didnt exactly expect to learn it, but here we are.
Anyway, I came here to ask about something unrted to that. See, I figured out how I do the whole fast growth thing when delvers arent around and also why it does stop when the delvers show up. Im messing with time! And while the effect is basically a passive thing, it is something I actively do to a floor and so cant continue to do when outsiders are around.
Both of Allys eyebrows raise, Huh, that makes a lot of sense. Now, did you actually notice time being manipted or are you just guessing? Because time maniption is a little bit rare, to say the least. Especially since going back in time is limited to dimensions who have never had more than one True Immortal around and definitely never reversed to a point before when a True Immortal was born on the dimension.
Doyle rolls his core to the side and back, Maybe? Like, I have a more active form of time maniption in my strange dungeon stone. After all, Im using that to age my assassin vines into elder assassin vines. Since I have that topare it to, I can safely say they are simr, but I cant im with certainty that it is time maniption.
Ally scoffs, Close enough. If you can actually age stuff with it, then it counts. There are a few spells and such that when discovered by a ce will temporarily be considered time spells, but they tend to just be based around speeding up things like dposition instead of actually aging things. Themon rust monster half the time gets mistaken for doing it when first showing up on a new world.
What you are describing however definitely counts. Of course, this universe has by now had multiple True Immortals here and so no actual reversal is possible. Speeding things up, though? Well within our power, and the systems power as well. The biggest limitation normal mages have with it is that using it doesnt magically make more mystical energy show up in the area.
So theyll figure out a time spell and try to use it to grow magic herbs only for the herbs to die. Sure, when the herb has absorbed all the world energy in the sped up space it will draw in more from outside the effect, but it will be limited by the normal flow rates involved. You generally only see stuff like that being used to grow low end herbs if a ce naturally has quite a high base level of world energy. That way, even though the nt will get less, it will still be enough.
Even then, it doesnt happen often. Instead, theyll just buy the herbs from somewhere else. After all, why waste their natural advantage that could be used to grow better herbs? So that only gets used in dire circumstances and emergencies. That aside, about the onlymonly seen time magic is stasis magic, which is sort of cheating. It technically effects time, though more towards just slowing everything down and time gets dragged along with it.
Doyle nods, So, what does this mean for me?
Allyughs, Eh, not much. Youve had the power since the start and things havent gone crazy. Its just something dungeons have to help them reset. Now, I think you might have a bit more of it than some other dungeons, cant really be certain. Though there should also be dungeons with more of it than you. This is probably all rted back to your dungeon type.
But yeah, you cant control it to any decent degree. On or off only, which I will admit is good to have. Still, if you try to abuse it, the system is going to have words with you, if you survive whatever happens. Before a True Immortal shows up on the scene, time is a lot more fluid. After? Well, it is a lot like how having a delver on a floor messes with your control except permanently. It isnt an exact analogy, but time just sort of gets brittle.
Doyle tilts in the other direction, But Im not my old dimension? Im sort of my own dimension.
Ally shrugs, Youre sort of still connected to it at the moment. That doesnt mean you arent independent, but you arentpletely separate, either. After all, youre sharing the system. Along with that, there are a few base things being shared as well, especially since you came from this dimension.@@novelbin@@
You know, basic stuff like time and gravity. Kind of a basic function to help a dungeon like you ept people from a more diverse range of dimensions. Once you separate from this ce, though, you likely wont be quite as attached to the next. Not that I know anything for certain. Right now, Im mostly weaving facts together from my dungeon studies and things that Ive picked up in the fae court.
Doyle nods, Okay, so I can y with it, but keep a light touch. Now, with that out of the way, Ive finally figured out a method of leveling up my patterns. At least for non-living things. It seems Ive just been relying too much on my skills to create stuff and if I, you know, actually work at creating them my patterns improve. I kind of feel silly looking back on it. Still need to work on stuff like grass, but that cane with time and is part of why I was looking into the whole time thing.
Ally frowns for a moment beforeughing. Well, it does seem a bit obvious now. I really should have realized that though because it isnt like dungeon cores are the only beings with stuff like that. For instance, some cksmiths will develop a skill that allows them to do stuff like mass produce nails and doing so doesnt improve the nail pattern either.
Doyle sighs, I can see why that didnt connect though. With the smith, they have to do something outside of the norm. For a dungeon? Our main way of creating things is what causes it. I know hammering out nails is a ssic way to train a new smith and now consider if doing that didnt level up the pattern. On a certain level, that is how it is for dungeons. Were just hammering out nails by the bucket full and dont get anything for it.
Ally shakes her head, When you look at it that way, it seems a little unfair. Anyway, what have you decided to do about living things?
Doyle pulls up a screen showing his testing room, Let me show you! At first I tried to make a perfectly shaped seed but that didnt work too well. Instead of changing the seed, it sort of just smashed the seed into a new shape. So instead Im going for the ssic method of growing a ton of wheat, choosing the best examples and then repeating.
Of course, as a dungeon, things are a lot simpler for me. I dont need a ton of new seeds to sow the next generation. Instead, I can just deconstruct the good seeds and create a bunch of clones. Now, I suspect when I use creation to make living stuff, there is a small amount of gic drift happening. After all, my horned rabbits might all be white with brown spots, but theyre all unique as if they were natural born.
Though as a caveat, I think I could prevent that if I wanted to as well. It is all new so I havent yed with the possibilities yet so we will have to see. Not that I would without a good reason. Gic diversity is probably quite helpful. It probably stops nonsense, like someone figuring out some voodoo doll trick and taking out all the copies on a floor.
Ally nods, That sort of thing does tend to be a problem when people try the whole clone army gimmick.
That Level – Chapter 218
Well, Doyle was going to let it grind away in the background. That, technically still was the case. The only special thing of note is that on the fourth harvest, two things happened. Over to the side where Doyle was keeping a screen, the level of wheat ticked up by one. Compared to identally raising sugars level by six, a single level doesnt feel like all that much, but it proved the concept even if it was going to be a slow one. After all, it took what would for a farmer be three growing seasons to get it. That all gets pushed to the side though as there is a much more important message from the system.
{Level Gained!
Level goes from 3 to 4, Strength goes from 40 to 48, Agility goes from 46 to 60, Constitution goes from 57 to 67, Intelligence goes from 44 to 54, Wisdom goes from 70 to 89, Presence goes from 35 to 43, Destiny goes from 65 to 78, Karma goes from 68 to 84, Luck goes from 45 to 59}
Doyle had finally reached level 4. Whichpared to even the weakest citizen in Wolfs Rest was quite slow, the lowest level citizen being at least at level 6. Still, as he looks over his stat increases, it was worth the wait.
Of all his stats, Strength and Presence had gained the fewest points at eight a piece. Though Wisdom is the real standout having gained 19 points! Over double what Strength and Presence got, and only one point away from an even 20. Besides that, more than a few of the stats are nearing 100.@@novelbin@@
There isnt anything particrly special about the number, Doyle just ns to check the descriptions at that point. After all, the soul stats have restricted descriptions needing 1,000 points to unlock and more uses for the stats can be unlocked. So while 100 isnt particrly exciting, it is a decent breakpoint to check in at.
Besides all that though, there is one thing Doyle has wanted to get back into doing which the boost to his stats now allowed. The automation of floors. Sure, he had been sidestepping the issue by making all histest floors with massive farms, but that doesnt cover every situation. Because, in the end, the farms still need time to restock.
If arge group of adventurers decided they all wanted to dive one team after another, it is more than possible that without automated respawning a floor could run out of mobs. Anyway, as it is Doyle feels he spends way too much time restocking the second floor. The only thing that disappoints him is that he is so close to being able to automate a third floor!
So after a quick refresher on how to bend his mind around for it, Doyle focuses on the second floor and waits for the current group there to leave. This doesnt take long and from there it is just a matter of doing what he would normally do except with a couple of tweaks. After all, the second floor does have a small farm area that is set up to restock the goats and kobolds. It even still uses hidden passageways to walk the monsters to their stations.
Something Doyle is quick to change, converting it over to use portals like theter floors. Not only is this easier to automate, but it fixes a minor problem that could potentially pop up if enough groups were going through. It hadnte up yet as the second floor still had four instances. Otherwise, it was near certain that eventually someone woulde across a mass of goats and kobolds in the fourth room, which had got stuck there while trying to get to their positions. That would not be a good look for Doyle if the team managed to survive that incident.
Still, there were a few quirks here and there that took him a moment to figure out. For instance, the very existence of a farm introduced difficulty. After all, Doyle wanted to draw from that first, but not down to thest monster, and only then summon in new monsters. While it doesnt really save that much, every bit counts when you have silly expensive things waiting to be bought. Good thing floor automation seemed to handle intent decently enough and so he managed to finish up before the next team was due to enter.
That left Doyle with nine hanging Wisdom points of which he could in theory use five of to put in another loot rule. Which, while tempting, Doyle left alone for now. The stat was only a single point off of getting another floor and, sure, the second floor was annoying because of the frequency of needing to restock it. The third floor, though? That was extra annoying because he had to keep in mind where the monsters went on a day-to-day basis.
Doyle paused after thinking that. He had another solution for the problem. As it was made, the third floor randomized itself by literally moving pieces around. Why bother with that? It isnt like he was doing that on the much moreplex sixth floor.
So Doyle focused on the third floor and started to make changes. This was actually easy enough to do, despite some of the quirks. For instance, the way the tunnels would connect to one another smoothly by morphing the terrain slightly. All of that was taken care of easily enough as the portals he used physically connected the sides so they still changed. That and more was taken care of so it was only a matter of cing so many portals.
It wasnt as many as on the sixth floor of course, but it still took him a good few days toplete. At least all delvers being on the floor did was interrupt him. Since it involved portals that, unless active, werepletely non-existent Doyle didnt have to turn off the normal floor randomization. Then, once the portals were in ce and connected, he was able to go into his previous rules on shaping the floor and rece actual physical re-arranging with turning on and off portals.
Satisfied with the changes to the second and third floor, Doyle took another look over his early floors. Again. Didnt see anything to change of course so all he could do was mentally sigh and turn to something else. At this point he was certain there must be all kinds of things that could be fixed now and are being hidden under a heavy instinct based haze.
Somewhat grumpy, Doyle turns to his ninth floor. While a kilometer long hallway was an interesting thing to find in a dungeon this early on, he felt the need to do something more to take out some of his annoyance on. Which for him meant carving. Sure, the seventh floor was really close to having the framing finished, but the ninth didnt have anything at all yet.
The questions as what to carve? Well, Doyle already had some ideas and a restriction in mind. To be specific, whatever got carved would take up the entire length of the hallway. There was a section of ceiling that for all intents and purposes was an interrupted canvas. Of course, some of the obvious choices were mythological creatures known for their size. Creatures like the World Serpent.
That, however, was quickly thrown out when Doyle remembered what exactly his carvings could do. Now, he wasnt expecting to call out a literal world serpent if he drew one well enough. That didnt change the fact that his conceptual reinforcement skill is best known for its use in religions to create a better idol.
There had to be some kind of serpent god out there that identified with the world serpent just going by what he had learned and Doyle didnt feelfortable with potentially setting up a beacon for it. He already had enough deities to deal with. Besides, ssically, the world serpent was the son of Loki and if there was an entity he wanted to deal with less than a snake big enough to encircle the world, it was a trickster god.
Instead, Doyle decided on something to remind himself of home when in the far future it wasnt there anymore. The idea also required far less carving, which was a nice side effect, there was just so much space between all thes in the sr system.
Thats right, Doyle had decided to carve out the ssic representation of the sr system with the sun at the start and ending with the cloud of icy bits and bobs which had been recognized as the most distant region of the sr system at the exit. Now, he hadnt been too much of a space nerd as a human, but for a while there it had caught his fancy, so had kept up on things. Thatbined with something about being a dungeon core allowing him to dredge up trivia like that allowed for a beautiful rendition.
Yes, he understood that the actual shape of the sr system was nowhere near that neat and tidy. Orbits went at all kinds of angles even if they did somewhat subscribe to the idea of a mostly disk shape and none of them were actual neat circles but rather tending more towards being more egg-shaped, but it got the point across.
About the only disappointment, if you could call it that, was the effect this kilometer long art piece provided. All it did was give anyone who was on the floor a sense of nostalgia for their home. Mind you, this didnt mean where they lived or their childhood home. Doyle had a deeper intent than that.
No, it gave a sense of being homesick for the ce a being feels as their true home. That could be where they currently live or a childhood home. It, however, could also be more general and mean something like their entire country of origin or as specific as a single room they had stayed in for a week one summer while visiting their grandmother.
Maybe if this had been a stronger effect it could have distracted delvers, but in the end Doyles intent wasnt to harm. It was a simple reminder of a ce that still existed, but someday wouldnt. Art for the sake of art and if he had tried anything malicious, it would have been ruined.
So, while somewhat pointless as far as improving his dungeon, Doyle was satisfied with the results. Though his core did dim for a moment as he thought about how none of his various homes over the years had stuck with him as his home. Still, there wasnt anything he could do about that now besides making this dungeon into his true home.
That finished, Doyle turns to his farm setup. The wheat had been harvested many times by now and managed to beat out sugar,ing at level 9. A level that might be a slight bottleneck in progress as it had been that way for longer than the others.
Not that this disheartened him, instead it turned his attention to expanding the operations. This method was proved to improve the level of his normal nts, which mean expanding it to more than just wheat. There were so many nts to level up and each would require some of his attention, which wasnt really what he wanted. After all, it would be kind of a waste if he let an entire harvest of wheat die out because he was otherwise upied.
Good thing he had figured out how the speed up on his floors worked so it was a simple matter to fix. Doyle just had to create 19 separate rooms, one for each nt, andy down some rules. Well, rule, singr. It was a simple enough thing, once all the nts had matured and produced whatever they were meant to produce, slow down time until he reset it. This wasnt enough to stop time, mind you, but it did mean he could leave strawberries on the vine for quite a while before they even started to go bad.
That technically wasnt even needed as all that he required was a viable seed. The only reason to preserve them was so he could judge the mature nts and fruit. After all, kind of hard to tell if one strawberry is better than another if both have mostly rotted away.
What Does Better Mean? – Chapter 219
With the nts figured out and the assumption that the critters would work in a simr fashion, all that was left was the monsters themselves. Which more than the other stuff, Doyle was really curious about what leveling up the pattern would even do. That seemed like a decent enough reason to drop in on Ally and find out if she had found anything on the subject.
A quick knock and Doyles guess is proven true as Ally invites him in and informs him, If youre here to ask about patterns, Ive found a few things.
Doyle nods, Ive got the nts figured out and Im sure the critters will work simrly so Im going to work on monsters next. Have you figured out something about them sincest time?
Ally smiles, That is one of the things. Since you reminded me about all the different sorts of patterns you have, I tried looking into other ways they are used and such. An example of this is a cksmith with a high level sword pattern. Simple enough, right? A higher level pattern means a better quality sword.
Except it isnt really all that simple. After all, what does better mean? Trying to have the most durable sword and you would end up with a metal sphere. If you focus too much on sharpness though and the sword is likely to be destroyed after the first swing either from brittleness or being so thin it doesnt even cut, instead bending out of shape. Plus, all that doesnt even take the mystical side of things into ount.
Instead of a high level pattern making some perfect sword, it instead guides them in making the best sword they can for the situation. For instance, a sword usermissions a sword. The cksmith will have them swing a sword to see how they hold it and if their previous sword is avable, take a look at that and judge things by how it has been worn with use. With that, they will be able to make a sword best for that sword user.
Doyle, Hmm, that makes some sense. Though with that in mind, what does the cksmithing skill do? If the pattern determines how well you can personalize the sword, do you need the other? Also, how about monster patterns? Sort of what I came here to ask.
Ally nods, Good question and the answer is simple enough. You can think of the sword pattern like a skill that lets a person create a blueprint while the cksmithing skill is what allows them to turn it into reality. It doesnt matter how perfect the sword looks in the cksmiths mind if what they end up creating looks like a bent metal stick.
Also, the cksmithing skill allows the use of higher quality materials. Of course, it isnt like the system is going to physically take a chunk of adamantine out of a smiths hands if they dont have enough skill, but that bent metal stick from before is going to look beautifulparatively.
Now, as for your monster patterns? I, hmm, it is tough. You arent like an artificer making a battlebot. With that, while the pattern is important to some degree, the bots depend more on the parts they are made of. Sure, the pattern will let an artificer figure out how to stick one more gun on their bot, but that is just adding the guns damage onto everything else.
About the closest normal profession I could find that used patterns in a simr fashion was the alchemist. Specifically, those who dabble in homunculi and cloning. I had to look into some of the stranger practices to really pin things down. Though you are actually in a good position to see someone using what Ive found.
Doyle sighs, It is psionics, isnt it? Ive yed, well, learned, a few roleying games in my time and while magic generally involved literal summoning of beings, psionics would generally also include constructs of the mind brought into existence.@@novelbin@@
Allyughs, Got it in one! And while they can choose to create any sort of thing they want with that power, they can also solidify certain constructs into an actual pattern. Patterns which are the closest to what you have from what I have been able to research. Now, Im sure there is some creation god out there who, as a mortal had what was basically a unique ss path just for them that allowed the same sort of thing you do, but you dont share paths.
The only reason so much is known about things like this is that while all paths are tailored to the one walking them, there will be simrities that crop up. Anyway, I guess I should tell you what their patterns actually do? Admittedly, I kind of have to point back to my example involving swords. After all, what is a better wolf?
The good news is that, unlike a sword, we have actual status panels to work with when we involve creatures. Of course, with the good newses the bad. Because while yes, a wolf has a status panel, no matter how many you create or how many are bred from the ones you have, theyre all going to be the same. Sure, they wont be literal clones, but the random mutations usually depended upon for natural evolution dont happen to dungeon monsters.
That isnt even a system thing. By creating them, you have basically taken a snapshot of what a wolf should be and they will naturally converge on that. Maybe you get a wolf cub who starts with an extra point of Strength, but by the time it has grown up it will end up matching every other wolf.
The psionic constructs match this limit, though of course they arent actually flesh and blood so I might be off on this. Anyway, the way the construct pattern gets leveled up is to pay attention while it is actually fighting and recognizing the small things. Then, as those small things happen and form a pattern, the pattern skill will start to adjust and level up to fix those things.
With the psionic stuff, the reason they cant just wildly change things is because it will be considered a new pattern, though I suspect the same would work for you. Try and switch out a wolfs front legs for wings and youd end up with a wyvern wolf pattern or some such. Not that you could currently make such arge change, anyway.
Doyle sighs, I might actually be able to. Since we both realized I was forgetting something, Ive been thinking things over while I babied along my wheat. Anyway, I didnt remember what we had been thinking about, but I did remember some things I got onpleting myst ss path. So yeah, Ive got a hundred monster pattern adjustment points. You guess is as good as mine on how much that is worth.
Ally frowns, I hadpletely forgotten those things. Well, youve got the pattern for wings and wolves, so why not give it a go?
Doyle rolls his core to the side, Im not against a wyvern wolf, but I would really like to know what is behind these points. After all, I doubt dungeon cores outside of a system have them, at least in that form.
Ally bites her thumb as she thinks, That is a good point. Plus, you got them from your ss path, which means they should be rted to something core, heh, to being a dungeon.
Doyle nods, And of course the fact that I did manage to forget something that might be important is a little worrying. That and I am still forgetting something.
Ally pauses and then looks a little guilty, I could probably help with that.
Doyle leans his core back, Yes and at the same time you shouldnt have to. It isnt like anyone else has an assistant to keep track of their paths and abilities for them.
Ally, That isntpletely true. Some parents will buy assistants for their children. It just isnt for normal people. After all, such a position is for life and requires some heavy oaths. Oaths that are so heavy that they toe the line with being mind control. Besides that, most people dont need it. A fighter will have a few attack skills and a cksmith might have a lot of patterns but a quick look at their status will tell them what they have. No, this is for stranger professions. So yeah, I doubt there are too many professions stranger than being a dungeon core.
Doyle sighs, Fair enough. If youre willing to keep track of all the strange options I have, that would be a great help. Do you need anything from me?
Ally gestures at all the panels she has up, Ive basically got what I need here. You could ask the system to give me ess to your status. That way, I can start tracking down all the information. To give you a sample and sort things out, I think I will look into all that goes into your kobolds. Anyway, give me some time and Ill work on it. Oh, and since Ive gotten into contact with Z, Ill ask her about the pattern adjustment points as well.
Doyle nods, Sounds like a n. Im going to go and set up the critters first to confirm things instead of heading straight to the monsters. If anything, I might learn something from them since they are still creatures, even if they arent monsters. Oh, and [System, I give permission to Ally to look at my status].
{Permission granted to Ally Huxley to view Doyle Huxleys Status}
Doyleughs to himself over the message. It had been a while since hisst name had been used. Almost felt like the system was telling him he had done something wrong like it was a disappointed mom. He hadnt even been called Mr. Huxley before so the use was apletely foreign feeling to him.
Still, he needed to work on the critters and process any finished nt plots and so turned his attention to the ninth floor and pulled up his patterns.
{Horned Rabbit lv6, Prey Insect lv2, Horned Lizard lv2}
There were three. Sure, the prey insect pattern covered quite arge amount of ground, but Doyle could tell it was meant to be more general. It would likely split into a bunch of sub patterns with the prey insect bing like how he has Wolf Patterns and Herb Patterns if he ever specializes on too many.
For the moment, though, it does make things easier. This was mainly through the fact that Doyle decided to ignore the insects since the only two he is currently using are ants and bees. Both of which have a moreplicated life cycle involving a queen. At least lizardsidrge batches of eggs and rabbits bred like, well, yeah. Of course, the reality of it was that the insects wouldnt have been any more trouble, Doyle just wasnt really thinking about it from the perspective of how much control he had over them.
Still, creating a rabbit paradise full of herbs and such to see what their horns would do took up enough time that Ally was ready to show him what she had cooked up for disying the kobolds. Which was kind of a surprise to Doyle as Ally had said she was just doing the kobolds. There couldnt have been that much to look through, right?
Though now that he thinks about it, there were a few odd bonuses floating around. For instance, he had that one bonus that only took effect when the monster was beingmanded and gave a bonus equal to a fraction of one of the leaders stat. Not the mostplicated, but it could easilyplicate things. Though Doyle assumed that at least that bonus was going to be left off as it was more of a buff instead of an actual bonus.
Even your goats arent getting all that much. Theyre keeping up only because they gained +5 stat points to their body stats each level, but all of thates from a single path.
Figuring Out What To Do With The Ants – Chapter 223
A few days pass and both the town hall and the Adventurers Guild are packed with people looking for answers. Answers which luckily both the System provided receptionists are able to answer. Of course that doesn''t mean they have the answers that people want. For instance, no, the town doesnt have control over the party size. Such answers however do not put a damper on the rumors swirling around among the visitors.
Not that Ace cares. While it does make negotiations a bit harder with some of the merchants, the town doesnt really need anything at the moment. With the dungeon they are actually producing much of what they need and until other ces level up their crafters more, trade is more a matter of gaining more coins.
Now we leave the town to its troubles and focus back on Doyle. He is down on the ninth floor trying to get his ant farms working. While in theory it really is just as simple as that, a bunch of ant farms. The problem with judging the queens is still holding him back. Of course it doesnt help that the system and his skills are trying to standardize the stats.
With non-monster nts, the system and his skills were designed to let them grow without too much interference. Animals and other such critters however are basically stuck into a mold as they grow. Doyle had sort of realized this, but that doesnt make it any easier to deal with.
The horned rabbits just a bit to the side are actually a lot easier to deal with. After all, while their stats might be the same, what Doyle is judging them by for the most part is their horn and how well it picks up herbal properties. Yes, that is somewhat decided by their stats, but most of ites from a sort of natural talent at manipting the herbal energies, at least while being a critter.
It is quite possible that if their stats could ever reach the double digits, that the effect they had would skyrocket. As a non-monster dungeon critter though, such a thing is quite unlikely. Though it isnt like this talent for gathering herbal energy is something directly inherited. Sure, put two horned rabbits together that both are great at it and among their offspring there is a possibility of one of them being even more talented. And sure, it does somewhat raise the floor on how low talent can go, but it is more like nudging a bell curve over a little.
There will still be rabbits born without any talent at all. This required a much more extensive set up than originally nned and sort of drew Doyle away from the ants for a hot minute. Though in reality it basically just meant creating a town of micro-parks. Each area is designed for a single rabbit family with the two parents marked out by cloth ribbons tied around their necks. Yes those ribbons were tied in a bow, but that was unrted.
Anyway, since the children would have a wide range of possible talent, particrly good rabbits would be kept around, unlike with the wheat. And while it wasnt likely that Doyle would ever have some perfect rabbit that could suck all the herbal energy from a nt. As the rabbit pattern increased in level, the chances of them dropping a herbal horn also increased.
In fact the increase was noticeable enough that some of the teams farming for food started to target the rabbits as well. Overall it slowed them down a slight bit as it basically involved their ranged fighters peaking into a room to snipe any rabbits they saw. However the horns sold quite well and Doyle was happy with the results.
After all, the farmers actually had to put some effort in which increased the amount of World Energy that Doyle got off of them. Plus it was pushing the skills of the ranged fighters up more and more. Something that in the short term didnt really cause too much of a change, but both Doyle and Jim are looking forward to seeing what the long term results will be.
In the end though, Doyle turns back to his ant farms. The quick diversion of the rabbits helped him realize he could judge animals by things other than stats. Except that didnt feel quite right so he went and talked to Ally real quick.
Allyughed, Nope, still looking at their stats. It is just that youre looking at how their stats are expressing themselves. Im going to guess that with the horned rabbits horn, we are looking at Constitution or Strength, though it might be both. One of the effects of that stat is allowing their body to process nts and extract any herbal power within then storing that power in their horn.
Though if it is both, then likely one controls the extraction and the other how much power can be stored in the horn. Remember, youll be basically looking for the same thing in the ant queens, except through the lens of some other ability. The good news though is that your guess is correct. Once they can start gaining stats, those innate abilities will skyrocket!
If we take the rabbit as an example. They likely are limited in what kind of herbs they can process. Right now you dont realize that because you only have normal stuff kicking around. In the future though youll end up with true magical herbs and at that point no matter how much a normal horned rabbit eats of the stuff, they wont be able to put a single speck of it into their horn. So yeah, just figure out what you want to try and optimize with your ants right now, everything else cer.
Doyle sighs, So Im right back at the start.
Allyughs, True, but now at least you know where the start is located.
Doyle grumbles but focuses back on his ant farms as he considers what he just learned. Some things started to fit into ce for him such as why humans would gain regeneration at different amounts of constitution. Though it does make him wonder what differences he has since he wasnt originally a dungeon core.
He shakes his core and checks the many ant queens he has at this point. For the most part, they look exactly the same. Of course there are some differences and if he bothered to sense for it, their pheromones would differ enough to tell one nest from another. Those few differences he did spot, however, were cosmetic at most.
With the workers, Doyle had witnessed a wide range of differences. Some workers could lift many times what another could, others could dig better, and so many other minor changes. Taken as a whole though, each nest didnt have all that much of a difference between the highs and the lows.
Then it hit him. While all the ants are worker ants, the queen must be purposefully specializing them. So instead of looking at the highs and the lows, Doylepares the percentage of specialized ants in a nest. The results were shocking.
Sure, every nest had basically every type of specialized worker, but the quantity of special ants varied wildly. Some had almost none and others were almost entirely specialized, but this wasnt enough toe to a conclusion. So for every current nest, Doyle created five farms with clones of the originals queen to man them.
Then Doyle watches aspletely new nests are dug out and new workers are created. Most of those new nests followed the trend of the original, whether that was to nearly no specialized workers, all specialized workers, or somewhere inbetween. A few rare nests however showed a variance.
Nests that originally had almost no specialized ants would have nearly all digging specialized ants while the nest was being dug and then as challenges went away they would be phased out. Others which the original had nearly all specialized ants, would in one of the clone nests have basically none. That and more revealed itself to Doyle, though it was that first one that caught his attention.
The ability to adapt to a situation was important and even though those queens were running on instinct alone, they managed it. If digging was needed, workers more capable of digging would be born. If a bunch of workers died and needed recing, first some ants specialized in caring for the eggs and young would be born, then a ton of regr workers would be born.
It all started to fall into ce for Doyle as he watched those special nests react to various things he threw at them. The specialized ants took longer to mature and required more food so of course if they werent needed, they wouldnt be created. Those nests which had nearly all specialized ants required way more food than the other nests and it just hadnt really sunk in until now. It was like how before the system a nest would only have so many warrior ants because of the resources they required.
This was the key factor that Doylended on. Though not just the ability to specialize effectively, but more efficiently. While most nests had somewhat of a bell curve going on with only a few truly specialized ants, others would tten the curve representing the difference between a normal ant and a specialized one.
To Doyle this represented some queens being more able to specialize. Sure, the peak strength a normal ant could use wasnt exactly going to change easily, but some of the queens were more able to give birth to ants that were at that peak. Not only that though, those same queens were also more capable of creating average workers.
After all, the bell curve went in both directions or else it wouldnt be a bell shape. When giving birth to normal ants, some queens would more often create subpar workers. On the other hand, the queens who were more able to hit the high notes of specialization, also managed to create the most average of workers. A decent bnce between their abilities and how much they needed to eat and how long they lived.
More important than any of that though, was the fact it was reproducible. Sure, the original nest and the clone nests would have some variance, but the general talent stayed in the same ballpark. So with that, Doyle removed all the other nests and had the few nests he had focused on creating new queens and drones.
From there it was just a matter of letting them all swarm together and pair off to create new nests. Now all Doyle needed to figure out was how to judge them. After all, he cant exactly be babysitting them the entire time. There had to be some kind of metric to go off of.
Doyle watched the new nests grow as he pondered on the problem. Though of course not all the nests managed to live up to expectations and were cut. Some queens are too shy about having specialized workers, others the opposite. So nests are constantly removed as the question flips over in his mind a few times.
An idea eventually began to form. While there seemed to be nearly unlimited ways the workers could be specialized, only a few forms kept appearing in nest after nest. The average worker, the digger, the nurse, the farmer, the fighter, and the porter. There were other rolesmonly seen, but Doyle specifically picked these six out because he knew exactly how to prod a nest into making them.
Methods that he could automate to some degree. Not only that, but with the help of Doyles Rules and Control he could have the changes in the nest recorded. A perfect way for him to test them! Though he does slow himself down and look it over again. After all, a nest that can change workers swiftly sounds nice, but what it really means is old workers dying off to be reced by new ones. Some degree of longevity was needed as it would require too many resources if they lived like a mayfly.@@novelbin@@
Covered In Vines, Waiting For Them To Pass – Chapter 224
The average worker ant doesnt actually require anything from Doyle except time, something he is more than capable of providing. Though more appropriately, a good queen will need time to produce an average worker. With the start of a new nest, there is just too much to do. First a nurse or two to help with the eggs, then some diggers, and so on. If within the first batch of eggs a queen has created anything even close to being average, theyre already losing.
Average worker ants are for once the rush has finished and the nest is dug in. At that point theyre useful for conserving food as while maybe they dig out less than a digger ant, once the same amount of area has been dug out, the average worker will have eaten less. Plus, it can do everything else at about the same level of efficiency.
The farmers, on the other hand, is a special role that requires special circumstances that wouldnt naturally show up in Doyles ant farms. Well, technically the farmers are more than capable of showing up, Doyle just has to spawn in the correct ant variety. A detail that he actually managed to stumble into. See, his original ants did not have farmers. Rather, that got added in when he gained the myconids. A shame he hadnt realized the detail as it hinted towards unmentioned changes that could happen with every new addition to the dungeon. Oh well.
Not that any other detail is important besides the fact that now all the types can beid. After all, while those details are important in the grand scheme of things, Doyle does want to keep an eye on what eggs the queen first chooses toy after all. He is perfectly capable of telling the queen exactly what eggs toy and so all Doyle has to do is let the nest run for a while and then get the queen toy ten of each type of egg.
From there, Doyle just needed to figure out how to test them. The porter being the easiest as its job is literally just to move stuff around and so a simple speed test or three will do. One while not carrying anything, another while carrying a piece of dirt of a specific weight, and finally while carrying a dead clone of themselves.
Though while that was the easiest, most of the others werent all that much harder. The only exception ended up ironically being the average worker ant. After all, what Doyle wanted out of them was to be the most average ant and so they not only needed to be tested against everything, he needed more than just ten of them.
This was something that took Doyle a number of days to figure out and until then he kept getting odd results for the workers. With the specialized workers, even if there is some variety among a type, ten was more than enough to find the highs and the lows. For the workers, though, you could pull ten and have them all be nearly the same only for the next ten to vary wildly.
So not only does Doyle need to run them through every test. He also needs to run a ton of them through those tests. Hundreds of worker ants needed to be tested for each nest. Well, only 300 to be exact, but that is still a lot. On top of that, he isnt just looking for the best.
Oh no, Doyle is looking for the most average group of worker ants. Strong or weak, fast or slow, it doesnt matter all that much to him. What he wants is for every single one of those 300 ants to look less like a bell curve and more like a skinny teau. To be honest, if they all ended up being exactly the same he would be ecstatic. Of course, that isnt possible with an animal, even in a world with stats, so he could only settle for them being almost identical.
All that figured out and with a few tweaks, Doyle takes a step back from his semi-automated ant farms and realizes a week and change has passed. Now, that time didnt passpletely free of interruptions. Both Jim and Ace had been to his eight floor. Doyle had even been somewhat excited to see what happened, that is until they turned around as soon as they hit the Zero-G room. They apparently werent quite sure what to do with it yet.
Doyle nods to himself as he observes the ants go about their work. Well, at least he is able to watch their nest grow. With how big the time difference is between the nests and Doyle, it looks more like a timepse. Besides that, once the nest actually does get started, it doesnt take long at all for them to finish up. After all, the part that takes the longest is getting the queen and drones saturated with enough World Energy that the queen cany eggs.
Though once the process is finished, Doyle does still have to personally decide which queens get to pass on their legacy. Sure, he could technically automate even that as the tests do give solid results. The only problem is that it wouldnt help the patterns level quite as much. Without his personal touch, the system just doesnt let the pattern progress. Otherwise, it would be like giving the owner of an automated nail factory levels to a nail pattern.
This little quirk, however, frustrates Ally. Because while Doyle is perfectly willing to ept this limitation since he didnt really know anything else, she knows better. Natural evolution works just as fine for dungeon bred monsters as it does ones in the wild. At least they do when a system isnt involved.
In the end though, there just isnt anything either can do about it and so Doyle turns to one final bit of pattern work he wanted to do. With the critters it was easier to breed them for pattern levels, for his monsters though, that just isnt quite viable. Well, he does admit to himself that it easily could be done on the ninth floor. All it would take is some of the floors points and room in the farm zone, but that isnt what he wants to do.
No, Doyle wants to try and level up the monster patterns in what is technically the correct way for a young dungeon to do so. That of watching the monsters fight and then figuring out what is wrong with them. From what Ally has seen in some of the tutorial text, this should be enough to level up the pattern.
So Doyle turns his attention to the first few floors where he spends much of his time observing the first floor. Not because he doesnt want to observe the other floors. No, it is simply because even the second floor is somewhat of a rare ce for the farmers to head to. For every team that runs the second floor, three or more will have done the first and the rate for deeper floors after that just gets worse.
This of course, led to quite a bit of experience with the ins and outs of how his goats fight. Not even the kobolds on the first floor get all that much of a work out sadly, though at least the goats are Doyles heavy lifter. That and the show is quite fun.
Sure, most of the delvers who farm the first floor know what they are doing by now. Still, there are more than a few amazing disys of skill. About three such situations really stick out in his mind.
First was what looked to be a newly formed group. The two tanks in the group had a nifty n of basically bouncing a goat back and forth between them with shield bashes. Not the worst n Doyle had seen, though it was about the worst executed one he had seen. At first it seemed to be working and if not for the fact both tankscked any actual shield bash skill, it might have gone all the way. Instead, they just batted it back and forth a few times until one of them mistimed their bash and ended up knocked down with a dizzy goat trampling all over them.
The second incident was from a more seasoned team of delvers, which makes it all the more embarrassing. See, the goats have free range of whatever room they are in and may do all kinds of goaty things. This second team marched right into the first room, a room that everyone knows has four goats in it, and proceeded to charge at the three goats. No, that wasnt a typo, the three goats.
The fourth goat was in the room, it had just decided the corner in the blindspot of the rooms entrance looked like a wonderful ce toy down and so managed to get a kidney shot in on the rogue type, you know, the guy who in theory should be good at spotting things? Such a stupid mistake that ended their run early. The rogue didnt die, but he ended up needing some serious healing to take care of that kidney damage.@@novelbin@@
Last, but certainly not least, was a team who broke the rules. Doyle had set up the rules around having a six person party to be a little loose. After all, it wouldnt be fair if someone ran into the dungeon while the first floor was full and there was suddenly an instance with seven people in it. This team, however, didnt identally end up with seven people.
Since the number of instances is known and the rules around how it takes care of overflow have been figured out, they knew how to abuse it. So six of them went in and then waited. After that, the seventh person let a few teams cycle in and out before running through the checkpoint and literally diving into the portal.
Now, the people guarding the portal could have stopped him, but Jim had gotten word that this was going to happen. So, with just a few small nudges and a word with those on guard duty, the incident was allowed to happen. Not only that, but once the guy was through both Jim and Ace walked out of the Jinns shop to address the crowd. Then they waited to see what would happen.
Not that they would ever learn what truly happened. See, with the leniency provided by telling the adventurers guild about the dungeons party size limit, some options opened up to Doyle. Key for this incident is that while he isnt able to order his monsters around like he is able to when the delvers arent disturbing the energy with their presence, he does gain the ability to give them simple orders.
So while the monsters in the first room and the vine room all snuggle up behind the terrain at the start of the vine room, the rest all run over to the back of the vine room and wait. Those delvers proceed to the first room and are confused by theck of goats there, so much so that they almost give up. They dont though and continue on into the vine room, which also looks empty.
This spooked them a good bit, but still they continued. If only they had looked closer or had more experience with the floor. After all, there isnt much room to hide. Except the two kobolds have their daggers and so, with the short amount of time they had, cut down a bunch of vines and piled them on top of the goats and themselves.
Most unfortunately for the cheating delvers that they did miss them as this was basically Doylesst warning for them. At this point, it was more than obvious what they were trying to do and so the jaws of the trap closed on them as they reached the back of the vine room. 26 goats charge at them with the kobolds close behind. As that party turns to retreat, though, the seven goats behind them begin their charge as well. Suffice it to say, that team didnt make it out of the dungeon that day.
Even better for Ace, though, is the fact that they tried this early in the day. If not for that, there would always be the question of whether the group had just gone deeper into the dungeon. But no, the miners were still on the third floor and the path to the exit that day went right past them. So when they returned without having seen them and a number of parties having cycled through, it was quite clear that it wasnt just that day that they wouldnt be showing up.
What Two Floors Of Skills Add Up To – Chapter 225
So a bunch of stuff had happened, but finally Doyle had a bit of free time so he turned to something he had been putting off. Since just before the eight floor, he hadnt really been looking at his skill levels and path points. It hadnt mattered all that much since he was a little capped, but with a new level there was once again room to advance so he opens up his status panel to take a look.
{Name: Doyle Huxley
Race: Dungeon Core (Diverse Strange Caverns)
Soulbond: Ally Huxley
Paths: [187] Dungeon Core III 100/100, Kobold Community II 30/30, Goat Supremacy 20/20, Energy Well I 3/3, Commanding Subordinates 12/12, Ageless Queens 15/15, Earths First Home of the Limit Breakers I 1/1, Biomes Aplenty 5/5, Potion Dispensary 10/10, Elemental Animals 5/5, Cows for Milk 12/12, Vegetation Variety 20/20, Divine Border 1/1, Dungeon Core III 45/100, Know Your Enemies 10/10, Pathfinder, [UNIQUE] 1/1, Community Driven 10/10
Level: 4
S[48] A[60] C[67] I[54] W[89] P[43] D[78] K[84] L[59]
World Energy(/R per hour): 29600(420)
Skills [5/5 ss, 3/5+1 General]: Territory Control lv66, Dungeon Rules lv71, Universal Deconstruction lv59, Dungeon Pattern Database lv36, Creation(Energy Powered, Pattern Based) lv77, Conceptual Reinforcement lv49, Biosphere Bncing lv52, Psychology lv42}
{Points: 187
ss: Dungeon Core III 100/100
Location: Kobold Community II 30/30
Completed: Goat Supremacy 20/20, Energy Well I 3/3, Commanding Subordinates 12/12, Ageless Queens 15/15, Earths First Home of the Limit Breakers I 1/1, Biomes Aplenty 5/5, Potion Dispensary 10/10, Elemental Animals 5/5, Cows for Milk 12/12, Vegetation Variety 20/20, Divine Border 1/1, Know Your Enemies 10/10, Pathfinder, [UNIQUE] 1/1, Community Driven 10/10
Started [1/3]: [TRINITY] 5/1000
Avable: Dungeon Core IV 0/1000, Diverse Dungeon Core I 0/1, Bovidae Dungeon Core I 0/1, Home Grown Dungeon Core I 0/1, Amodating Dungeon Core I 0/1, Trapless Dungeon Core I 0/1, Environmental Dungeon Core I 0/1, Spatial Dungeon Core I 0/1, Awakened Dungeon Core I 0/1, Vine Warper 0/15, Kin yer 0/100, Voidborn 0/250, Axe Sharpener 0/5, Energy Well II 0/6, Expansionist 0/30, Fires Flying 0/7, Deal Broker 0/10, All the Potions 0/60, Community Builder 0/30, Boss Builder 0/50, Engraver 0/5, Godly Negotiator 0/500, Heavenly Gate 0/350, n Head 0/25, Five Cornered Square Initiate 0/100, Raising The Floor 0/100, Into The Infinite 0/60, Floors Within Floors 0/10, Monster Rancher 0/50, Phrenic Friend 0/120, PsiBane I 0/200, PsiBoon I 0/200, Deep Rules 0/500, Extra Amodations 0/75, Time Will Wait 0/500, Spatial Prodigy 0/150}
Suffice it to say, things had grown by a bit more than he was expecting.
Doyle, Hey Ally! Why do I have so many levels in my skills? Also, what is up with all the ss paths?
Ally sighs and invites him in where she has pulled the status panel up as well. Both are easy enough to exin. The skills are because you managed to get over the early hump in difficulty. To put it simply, the system has a difficulty spike in leveling skills early on. From around level ten to somewhere between 25 and 50 depending on the skill, things slow down. This is mostly because it wants to keep people away from just jumping into a skill for easy path points.@@novelbin@@
As for the ss paths? Theyre some of the few paths that will just show up and go away depending. Youll notice that the path Vine Warper is still on your list despite you showing no interest in it. Well, unless you be unable to gain said path, it isnt ever going away, though you can hide it once you have over 50 paths.
ss paths on the other hand tend to only show up when youre in the market for them. So since you decided you were going to likely take on instead of Dungeon Core IV, they showed up.
Doyle tilts to the side, Why would they be so different?
Ally shrugs, ss paths can only be taken one at a time and you have to finish the one you are currently working on. That means that if the system just always showed the ss paths they would be popping in and out as youpleted your current one and so on. It also doesnt help that they tend to be even more personalized than normal paths. So right now you have the option to take trapless dungeon core, but that would obviously go away once you install a trap. And no, the traps from your kobolds dont count.
Doyle nods, Fair enough, now do you have any opinion on the ss paths I have avable?
Allyughs, You should really think about them yourself. Paths in general are pretty personal and ss paths even more so. Though I can easily point out a couple you likely shouldnt take. Not that I should have to tell you that trapless isnt exactly a long term restriction you want to build around.
Doyle sighs, fair enough.
Ally holds up both her hands, Im not saying I wont help. Im just saying you should look over your options first and at the very least narrow it down on your own. After all, while I feel I have a pretty good feeling of what you like, Im just guessing on the fact that you probably want to y with traps in the future.
Doyle nods again and hovers off to a corner where he pulls up a list of only the avable ss paths minus the repeated text so it was easier to take it in..
{Dungeon Core IV, Diverse, Bovidae, Home Grown, Amodating, Trapless, Environmental, Spatial, Awakened}
A few got chopped off right away. For instance, Ally wasnt wrong about him wanting to y with traps at some point and of course the fourth installment of generic dungeon core was off the table. Besides that though, he took his time considering why he had the various options.
Diverse was obvious enough in theory. His type included diverse, some of his paths were about being diverse, and even if he didnt use every monster on every floor there was a good bit of changing things up, barring the goats of course.
Which brought his attention to the next one in line, Bovidae. Doyle wasnt certain, but his guess was that it probably represents the taxonomic family that includes goats and cows. A safe enough assumption when one of his main monsters was the goat and he even had dealings with a literal cow goddess.
Home Grown, Amodating, Environmental on the other hand was likely just the result of how he built his floors. They all tended to have farm zones to restock the monsters from and he had created environments fitting for them. He even had a skill for getting the environment right. Though amodating confused Doyle a little.
Spatial on the other hand made perfect sense to him. Doyle had been making spatially messed up floors ever since the boss floor. To not get a ss based on it would have been shocking. Sure, he didnt have to struggle with it like most sapients did, but that was just an advantage his race gave him. Though of course his peoples look into the subject from a purely physical standpoint helped. Magic messed up all kinds of rules and so having some idea of how the world actually worked without mystical interference was a big help.
Thenstly was Awakened. Cut and dry, a simple path that Doyle put on the same level of his original Dungeon Core path. All it did was designate that yes, he was in fact awakened. Though on the other hand, that very simplicity tempted him.
All the other ss paths have glimmers of possibility that he understood. Better goats and cows, greater spatial abilities, and so on. The simple Awakened Dungeon Core path however had a different kind of promise. It promised a mystery box. Doyle checked with Ally, but she didnt have a better idea so he felt his thoughts on it likely had some weight to them.
In simple terms, the path would likely unlock or grant special features meant for an awakened dungeon. Sounds simple enough, but consider the fact that when a dungeon was unaware they would easily be able to handle their entire dungeon like aputer.
Doyles Wisdom was creeping up there, but it was still a good way off from being able to automate all of his floors. Right now it wasnt as much of a problem, but as more and more outsiders came in to actually try and delve deeper, the easy days wereing to an end.
Besides that though, there were any number of other possibilities of what the ss path could help with. So taking the sheer usefulness the path would likely involve, Doyle began to cut other paths that didnt live up to that potential. That resulted in a much smaller list.
{Bovidae, Home Grown, Spatial, Awakened}
Just four ss paths. Though Doyle admitted to himself that it was really just three. While better goats and cows were interesting, he wasnt willing to use his ss on it. He also ended up axing home grown. It felt to him like a path that would help with his farming, both the dungeon area and the pattern leveling. However, he just had no way to really tell.
That meant it was a choice between Spatial and Awakened. Both very strong contenders and technically he could choose to eventually have picked up both. He just would have to be careful about which one to take first. Either one could be seen as having a lot of potential and yet if he did eventually have both, one would end up cut off.
This thought in the end was what really helped him narrow it down. While the Awakened path was interesting, Doyle just didnt feel like it had the same potential as the Spatial path did. In fact, the more he thought about it, the more it felt like thest ss path he should take. After all, his entire existence was based around literally being his own dimension and so a ss path based on the fabric of reality sounded pretty important.
So after taking a moment to confer with Ally, she ended up agreeing with his conclusion, Doyle settled back to put a few points into the Awakened Dungeon Core path. Technically he could even buy all the way up to the third path, but felt that just the first two would be enough for now. After all, there were a lot of interesting normal paths to choose from. So with a thought he tells the system to buy the first path.
{1 point applied to Awakened Dungeon Core path...
1/1 - Path Complete, You have earned +10 Wisdom and +3 Wisdom/Level, You have been granted the hidden perkary Polyglot, Mental Analysis skill already present in the form of Psychology, Instead granting +20 Monster Pattern Adjustment Points}
Reading over what it did, gave Doyle a slightly cramped smile. While the Wisdom was quite a boon, the other two felt a littleckluster. After all, he could already speak the localnguage and if he didnt already have Psychology, who knows what kind of skill it would have given him?
Though Ally quickly changed his opinion on the polyglot bonus as she exined what it actually meant. That there is probably going to be one of the most beneficial things you could have gotten. Simple enough in theory, the polyglot perk gives you knowledge on one or morenguages, both spoken and written. This knowledge is generally on the level of either native speaker if you already spoke it, or damn near it otherwise.
More important for you though, is the ary modifier. What that means is that the system just granted you the knowledge for every normalnguage on the. Normal in this case meaning those used by sapients tomunicate in an open fashion. So nothing like some obscure thieves cant or any deadnguages.
Maybe that doesnt seem too important, but look out there in the town. Ace is in a meeting with Cam S, a wolfkin, and there are a few other non-human species in the outer ring. Do you honestly think their nativenguage is thenguage you knew? Sure, give it enough time and everyone is likely to pick up some variant of the trade tongue, generally just referred to asmon. For now though, you have a bunch of what to your world are aliennguages.
Spiraling – Chapter 226
Doyle nods in understanding and then turns back to his status and after confirming Awakened Dungeon Core II was an option, put the full nine points into it.
{9 points applied to the Awakened Dungeon Core II path...
5/10 - +10 Luck and +3 Luck/Level, Trap Designer unlocked, Companion dungeon fae already present, Instead adding +5 Boss slots and 1 random Monster with sapience potential
10/10 - Path Complete, You have earned +1,000 World Energy/Hour and +10,000 to World Energy capacity, You have earned hidden perk etiquette and ess to tutorial database}
Doyles core shakes for a second as knowledge is crammed into his mind. If the polyglot perk was like a stream of information, this was a raging river and the more he learns the more cringe he feels about some of his past interactions with the various godly beings. He certainly didnt handle things all that well. On the other hand, all that info felt a little pointless as Doyle wasnt particrly excited to interact with others in the first ce.
Though getting ess to the damn tutorial database tickled Doyle. Then he pulled up the entry on hidden perks since he had just gotten a couple.
{Hidden Perk: A Perk not shown on the status}
So of course he looked up Perk.
{Perk: A Bonus not based on Levels, Skills, or other advanceable system features}
Then Doyle tried to ask how knowing anguage wasnt a skill or at least advanceable.
{Language: There technically is no wrong way to use anguage and so not applicable as a skill}
Doyle stays still for a minute or so as he processes the near uselessness of the tutorial database. Though he cant be too down on it. The thing was clearly designed to be used by an assistant. Especially after he pulled up some of the early tutorial pop ups that Ally had read for him.
They were terse nearly to the point of being useless. The fact Ally was able to expound upon it so much just showed that the text was more like the shcards a teacher would let you use when having to do a speech or some such. Still, as Doyle picked up the various bits of lingo and phrases, it will be more and more helpful. If anything, it would mean Doyle could listen to one of Allys overviews and thenter on dig into the specifics.
Doyle shakes his core and turns back to his Avable paths.
{Points: 177
ss: Dungeon Core III 100/100, Awakened Dungeon Core II 10/10
Location: Kobold Community II 30/30
Completed: Goat Supremacy 20/20, Energy Well I 3/3, Commanding Subordinates 12/12, Ageless Queens 15/15, Earths First Home of the Limit Breakers I 1/1, Biomes Aplenty 5/5, Potion Dispensary 10/10, Elemental Animals 5/5, Cows for Milk 12/12, Vegetation Variety 20/20, Divine Border 1/1, Know Your Enemies 10/10, Pathfinder, [UNIQUE] 1/1, Community Driven 10/10
Started [1/3]: [TRINITY] 5/1000
Avable: Awakened Dungeon Core III 10/100, Awakened Spatial Dungeon Core I 0/1, Vine Warper 0/15, Kin yer 0/100, Voidborn 0/250, Axe Sharpener 0/5, Energy Well II 0/6, Expansionist 0/30, Fires Flying 0/7, Deal Broker 0/10, All the Potions 0/60, Community Builder 0/30, Boss Builder 0/50, Engraver 0/5, Godly Negotiator 0/500, Heavenly Gate 0/350, n Head 0/25, Five Cornered Square Initiate 0/100, Raising The Floor 0/100, Into The Infinite 0/60, Floors Within Floors 0/10, Monster Rancher 0/50, Phrenic Friend 0/120, PsiBane I 0/200, PsiBoon I 0/200, Deep Rules 0/500, Extra Amodations 0/75, Time Will Wait 0/500}
Doyle shakes his core again. He was starting to build up the higher cost paths and there must be something to them. Though now that he has room for five more skills, he should probably figure out what counts as a ss skill as the general slots are worth more in the long run, especially as a dungeon. After all, the ss skills are likely quite focused on being a dungeon so the general skills would be the only way he could branch out.
Meh, Doyle looks past the paths that had been there for a while and focuses in on a handful of the new ones. Some sounded interesting, like Into The Infinite, and others were interesting like Phrenic Friend. In the end, though, the first path he was going to buy had to be Monster Rancher.
{50 points applied to the Monster Rancher path...
10/50 - Monsters in a farm zone more quickly develop the ability to have children, +2 All Stats/Level to all monsters
25/50 - Farm zones now maintain their time differential at a reduced ratio, +2 All Body Stats/Level to all monsters
50/50 - Path Complete, Focused development of non-monster things has a greater chance of said things bing a monster, Monster skills develop faster, +100 Monster Pattern Adjustment Points}
After seeing the results, Doyle quickly goes to show Ally the result. Hey Ally! Got a path with a generic stat per a level bonus and it was even to all stats.
Ally takes a look at the path and nods, Thats a good one. You could probably find a more specific path that would give a better bonus, but for dungeon monsters this is perfect. Not like you can have one kobold have all the strength while another has all the mental stats. Well, not easily anyway.
Doyle nods and is about to ask something else when he remembers something from the ss path. Oh yeah, in my ss path I got ess to the trap designer, whats up with that? Couldnt I have already made traps?
Ally, Eh, yes and no. Nothing was stopping you from making a hole in the ground and covering it in a thin sheet of stone so people fall in. And it isnt like traps are purely the realm of sapient beings or anything. What the designer opens up however is trap patterns.
This hasnt reallye up since youve hadplete ess to all the patterns you needed, but it isnt like some random fighter could bang out a nail and gain the pattern for it. You need the correct database skill to store the patterns. The designer makes it so your dungeon database skill can now store trap patterns.
Though the designer itself is also quite useful as it allows for some flexibility. A good example of this is the above pit trap example. After all, if you just copy and paste that, what happens if you put it somewhere with a different type of stone floor? The answer is that it uses the floors stone to cover the pit. The designer allows you to specify how situations like that work instead so you can just spam the pattern around.
Doyle nods, I can see how that would be useful. After all, a stone floor isnt going to cause much trouble with the pit, but what if the floor was instead made of dirt or sand?
Ally smiles, Exactly! Youd have a prettyme pit trap if the floor was sand. It would just be an open pit with a dusting of sand on the bottom. Plus, I know how you dont exactly want to throw everything at the delvers and a pit trap that perfectly blends into the floor is a little bit of a cheat.
Doyle bobs his core before going off to spend more path points. At the moment, he still has 127 points burning a hole in his pocket. A quick check of the list shows a new entry, Monster Rancher II for 100 points, had shown up. A tempting path, but Doyle wanted to y around with the benefits he got from the first path in the series.
Though thinking about it does make him a bit disappointed that his location path didnt have any advancements yet. He would have bought a Kobold Community III path in a heartbeat, not that he had a heart to beat anymore. What this did however do is pull his eyes towards an older path and it was cheap enough he didnt put too much thought into it before buying it.
{30 points applied to the Community Builder path...
30/30 - Path Complete, For buying the path all at once you have earned +5 Wisdom, Members of anymunity you have built gain +1/Level bonus to the primary stat used in their job while they belong to saidmunity, Members born or created in anymunity you have built gain +1 to all Stats, Members of anymunity you have built more readily follow your orders as long as you belong to thatmunity, As long as you belong to amunity you have built themunity spirit will exist as long as you do}
Doyle takes a moment to read the text a few times and isnt quite certain how he feels about it. Though after firing off a quick question to Ally, he knows at least one bit is going to be amazing, specifically the one about the bonus to members born into one of hismunities. Once he gets his ant queen online, that will make it so that every single ant in his dungeon will start with 2 in every stat they have. And knowing what he does about the variability in having only 1 point in a stat makes the bonus highly incredibly useful.
Though by spending 30 points on the path did mean he had dipped below 100 points. This wasnt a problem, but it did cut off a couple interesting paths. Not that he couldnt start on them, but for the moment he wanted to focus on paths he canplete and then throw whatever was left over into trinity.
So with those 97 points in mind, Doyle goes over the list for the third or fourth time. Two in particr stand out with his current situation, Into the Infinite and Extra Amodations. The first had a theme that matched with his spatial nonsense, likelying from his attempts of mimicking infinite spaces.
On the other hand, Extra Amodations sounds quite in. However, being a dungeon the paths name has different connotations. It could mean having extra points to spend on a floor, bigger floors, or anything in that same vein. The reason these interpretations matter is because of how personal paths are. Even if two people had paths with the same name, they could providepletely different oues.
So the fact that reading the name brought these kinds of things to mind meant something. Since the path was new, that meant it should be connected to what he had been doing or had happened. Stuff like how he just recently noticed that the floors had all gotten bigger because of reaching a checkpoint and the fact that he kept makingrge herds and packs.
It could also be rted to how he was making monster towns or strange environments. So Doyle could only turn towards the other path. So much of his existence currently seemed to be based on delving further into the infinite. His dungeon continued to expand within the void and his floors kept touching on the concept.@@novelbin@@
Doyle kept going around in circles over which to choose until Ally stepped in and knocked him out of the spiral. He hadnt meant to spend a bunch of time on the matter, but since nothing else was happening, his dungeon nature caused him to get too invested.
Ally shrugged at this, Wait until literal years end up passing while you try to decide between carving a spiral going clockwise or counter clockwise. Dungeons tend to be known for their impressive attention to detail in their deeper floors. The only reason early floors tend to be rough is because outside influences force development. Once dungeons get a few untrodden floors between themselves and the outside world, they tend to end up spiraling. Just look at yourself, youve had the ability to build many more floors than you have. Instead, youve focused on perfecting the most recent one.
Well That’s A Trade – Chapter 227
Doyle turns back to the choice between infinite or amodation and flips a coin. Quite literally. He summons a silver coin and gives it a clip. Of course, the first flip was a bit of a whoopsie. Not the flip itself, but rather he had forgotten to assign which path went to which side. So with that fixed and another flip Doyle ends up with Extra Amodations. So before he can have a second thought on the subject, he ms the 75 points into the path.
{75 points applied to Extra Amodations path...
5 - You have earned +1 Karma/Level, Adjusted floor growth exponent by +0.01
10 - You have earned +1 Karma/Level, +1 to Monster Level Cap, Increase the factor of future floor spending limit by +10, Adjusted floor growth exponent by +0.01
20 - You have earned +2 Karma/Level, Safe Zones can now be set to adjust themselves to better fit the delvers currently in them, Increasing effect Agility has on ability to fine tune environments, Adjusted floor growth exponent by +0.01
45 - You have earned +2 Karma/Level and +1 Agility/Level, Communities based in your territory find thend more easily adjusting to their whims, Adjusted floor growth exponent by +0.01
75 - Path Complete, You have earned +3 Karma/Level and +1 Agility/Level, Increase the factor of future floor spending limit by +10, Concepts based upon hospitality can more easily modify the dungeon, Adjusted floor growth exponent by +0.01}
As the path finishes, Doyle can feel every floor after the first expanding in size. He cant tell exactly what the floor growth bit did. Though the fact even the addition of five percent could cause such a change and the use of the word exponent meant it involved something being raised to the power of some number. A number that now had an additional 0.05 added to it.
Besides, there was a less obvious, but arguably more important, change. One which also included actual numbers and yet Doyle still wasnt quite sure what it meant. After all, while it was a simple increase of +10, it was to the factor of his future floor spending limits.
The difference with this one, was that despite not having a visible change yet, Doyle actually knew what the equation for it was. It was even a rtively simple one of the previous limit plus product of his intelligence and 100. Since a factor was a number being multiplied and intelligence likely wasnt being changed, that meant the plus twenty had gone to the 100.
Some simple math said that with his current Int, he would be up to 33,480 points. An increase of 1,080 above from what it would have been. This was probably the most useful of the basic bonuses from the path as it would only grow with time.
That left the more esoteric bonuses. Something all three of theter checkpoints gave. Of which there was only one that he could actually feel a difference with. That of an increased effect from agility when messing with environments. For that, while it wasnt literally these numbers, it felt like before he had an air conditioner that only went up or down by five degrees and suddenly he could change it by three. Still not as nice as it would be to have to the degree control, but much better than before.
Though this wasnt the end of his points spending. There was still 22 path points left to y with and with how things had changed, he had the perfect addition. That of the second step of Energy Well.@@novelbin@@
{6 points applied to Energy Well II path...
2/6 - You have earned +50 passive World Energy recharge rate
4/6 - You have earned +50 passive World Energy recharge rate
6/6 - Path Complete, You have earned +100 passive World Energy recharge rate, Sapients near an entrance portal but outside of your dungeon gain a buff to the recharge rate of any energy pools they have}
Doyle looks at the results and feels quite neutral about it. After all, if he remembers correctly, the path was exactly the same as the first time, except the results were ten times greater for only half the cost. A wonderful result, especially after he confirms that Energy Well III was waiting for him. Though it cost 18 points instead of the expected 9 or 12 meaning instead of doubled, the cost tripled. Interesting, but well within expectations.
There wasnt even a problem with how the higher tiers would affect the outside area as Doyle could feel that each tier of Energy well could be controlled separately. The only caveat being that a little of each had to exist at all times as long as his territory extended beyond his dungeon borders. They could even ovep, though he could feel thatter interactions might not be able to be fully effective if ced in the middle of nowhere.
With what Doyle knows now and the fact that he has gotten better with his territory control means he can feel what is actually happening. The name Energy Well is a bit deceptive of a path name, even if it describes what it feels like to both sides. Instead, it would more properly be called Energy Exchange, because what it does is exchanges some of the energy in his dungeon for some of the energy outside of his dungeon.
The whole sapients outside of your dungeon bit is just a side effect of what is happening. By being within the area of effect, Doyle is literally trading his loose energy for the loose cruft that the sapient has. That is the entire reason it is limited to sapients instead of working for anything with mana or what have you. Only sapients generate cruft, a non-sapient animal isnt putting any special kind of spin on their energy for Doyle to snuffle up.
As for what might be theter limitations on the paths bonuses? Doyles best guess is that it will be based on two things: how many sapients are within the field and how much space the field takes up. A simple enough assumption. After all, the path needs to be taking the power from somewhere.
It did mean that for now Doyle was going to hold off on getting the third tier of the path. Not that he actually could get it yet, he only had 16 path points right now, after all. Still, while Doyle felt the path had some potential to surprise him, he also wasnt going to throw it all onto Ace in one go. Doyle had been watching Ace for a while and some of that Parasocial rtionship stuff had started to crop up and while Doyle wasnt going to let that get in the way of what was best for himself, he also wasnt going to go out of his way to cause trouble.
So of course when deciding where to locate the new more effective Energy Well II effect, Doyle makes sure to go and set a rule that reces the original tier with the second tier in any ce that Ace sets as a room for training while under the effect of the Energy Well field. That decided, he goes and dumps the remaining 16 points into [Trinity].
{16 points applied to [TRINITY]
A few more tentative steps, yet the path is still clouded}
Doyle shakes his core at the result and decides to ask Ally about it. Ally, however, doesnt really have much to add. The Trinity and Unique were well outside of any tutorial text the system was willing to share and she hadnt found anywhere mentioning them. Though not finding information on such unique paths was the norm so that didnt mean much.
However, Ally did have something to say about not gaining anything from it yet. She gestured towards the fact that there were messages, Paths dont gibber mindlessly. The only other time youve gotten a message was when it wanted you to decide which way to take your goats. Besides that, the more points a path costs, the more obvious another quality of paths bes. That of whether the path is devoted to many small rewards or a few big rewards.
Some paths will throw small rewards at you every other point put in, while others will wait for you to be halfway in before giving you the first benefit. With that in mind and the fact the path takes 1,000 points toplete, you might see nothing until 100 points in or maybe even 500. When you do get something though, it should be interesting.
Doyle nods, Well just have to wait and see. At the moment Im only throwing my spare points in and I dont really see that changing. Though maybe once I get it closer to 100 points in, I might just throw enough at it to check if I get something there.
Allyughs, 100 just seems like a round number because the total cost is 1,000 and your number system is based on tens. Though I do admit that in this universe most species use a base ten numbering system, if only because most sapient beings follow the human form.
After that the two joke around a bit more, all the while out in the town a certain someone is developing quite the headache.
Ace sits, elbows on the table as he rubs his temples, So youre saying that specifically within the training rooms and only within the training rooms, the rate of Energy recovery has increased by ten times? A full magnitude more?
Josh nods, I was training my air magic like usual when suddenly I felt an even greater sense of recovery. After I confirmed that the effect was real and not the result of some new skill or path, me and the other people who were training at the time took a quick look around to discover what exactly was happening. Though I can happily report that the sphere hasnt expanded!
Ace leans back into his chair, one of the few pieces of furniture he had that was salvaged from the pre-system ruins as the crafters hadnt yet gotten to designing for ergonomics like some pre-systempanies had, and he sighs before dismissing Josh. Of course, Ace wasnt worried about this news being leaked to those who shouldnt know. Heavy oaths had been traded after all.
No, what was rapidly giving Ace a headache was that there wasnt anything special about the training rooms. Sure, they were reinforced so people could throw around their magic and such, but the entire sphere was reinforced. At this point, they had even turned it into a true sphere by digging out and reinforcing every inch ofnd covered by the effect.
So for the effect to suddenly increase specifically within the training rooms meant Ace was going to have to discover the exact mechanics behind this change. That and set up a new secure room somewhere else. After all, by this point, they had basically confirmed the effect was specific to the dungeon and not just there by coincidence.
Ace wasnt willing to juste out and say they ended up with an awakened dungeon somehow, from everything he knew about the subject, including some special documents. Some of which only became avable to him after bing the ruler of a town and some that came from Jim bing the local head of the Adventurers Guild, all point towards such a thing not being possible in general.
He couldnt even me it on his world being new to the system. Uncountable number of sr systems are being added to the system every day, the only limit being on how fast the st wave of dimension-altering magic was traveling. Among them, not a single awakened dungeon had been found. And while Ace didnt know when this started, he did know that enough time had passed that great gctic empires had risen and fallen in far-off ces.
Still, Ace did have that twinge in his mind that pointed towards the possibility. A twinge that meant he needed to prepare, even if the possibility was simply unimaginable to anyce that had been within the system for uncountable years. As luck would have it, though, this didnt mean having to ce a secret meeting room outside the influence of the dungeon.
After all, that influence was constantly expanding and would continue to do so until it came into contact with another dungeons influence. Instead, all Ace would need to do is set up a meeting room within the town hall. Easy enough as he was the town leader, but it did mean being careful of the receptionists. They had various oaths on them to even serve the system so directly, but Ace wasnt exactly allowed to let hiswyer Kyle peruse those oaths. So sure, he trusted the system to not spill the beans, but better safe than sorry.
Jim Has A Task To Do – Chapter 228
Back with Doyle and Ally, they are considering a certain thing Doyle had gotten from the second tier of his new ss path. Ally looks over at Doyle, So, are you going to spin the wheel now or wait?
Doyle bobs a couple times, Eh, a new monster with sapience potential is interesting, but Im not really certain how the system judges that. After all, my goats technically had a path towards it before I chose to go down the path of more goat.
Ally nods, True, though Im going to guess that what the system means is a monster that will tend towards naturally developing sapience. So more on the side of kobolds instead of goats. After all, it is entirely possible for kobolds to develop to the point that they be innately sapient.
Doyle, So probably looking more towards the humanoid style monsters, if only because of the universe we are in.
Ally, Not necessarily. Remember, the system was developed in another universe. Though yeah, likely humanoid. I, however, wouldnt put it past the System to give us something like your lesser shadow wolves. After all, they just need to evolve into shadow wolves to gain sapience so in theory theyre only one step away. Of course, that one step is quite the challenge and you might never manage it. Plus, as a dungeon, you cant ever summon a sapient monster and so every single lesser shadow wolf would need to take that step.
Doyle sighs, Might as well pull the lever and see what we get. Sure, there is the possibility that we get goblins, but we could also get something fun. [System, select my random monster with sapience potential.]
{Determining random monster with sapience potential...
[Unnamed] monster chosen}
Doyle stares at the result for a few moments before wordlessly turning towards Ally.
She shrugs, It was bound to happen at some point. While the system does tend to pull from a list of monsters and you would think that would mean they all have at least some sort of designation, that isnt always true. Well, I guess technically it has some sort of internal identification? But yeah, this monster likely was never seen by anything even half-way sapient. It is quite possible the system pulled them from some random unexplored world in its origin system. That or the system designer bought a list of monsters from somewhere.
Doyle tilts back, So youre saying that not only dont we have an idea of where this monster came from, but we have no way to even narrow it down?
Ally shrugs again, It doesnt really matter? Just pull up the description and we can give it a name after we take a look at them.
Doyle nods and pulls up the description.
{[Unnamed] (lv20)
S[20] A[100] C[16] I[12] W[10] P[25]
Skills: Acrobatic Flight lv35, Teamwork lv20, w Attack lv20
Description: A clever bird-like being with a small second set of wings that have developed to manipte items
Cost: World Energy[50]}
Ally squints her eyes, Well that doesnt really exin much.
Doyleughs, What were you expecting when the system couldnt even be bothered to name it?@@novelbin@@
Ally sighs, I guess this is better than I should have expected? Worse yet, is that we cant even summon one in to check on it as the ninth floor starts at level 13 monsters. We will have to wait for floor 13. Huh, an odd bit of coincidence there. Anyway, I guess all we can do is wait to see what is up with them.
Doyle nods, While it is interesting to have received a monster with a level higher than I can use, it also doesnt have a high enough of a level to make it too far out of reach.
Ally shrugs, My guess is that because near sapient monsters are a bit rarer than not, it capped things at your monster level cap instead of the max level of any specific floor. Anyway, what do you n to do now?
Doyle tilts back and sighs, I just got a bunch more boss slots and I have to ask, am I just going to have enough bosses to fit one every five floors, or have I just been lucky?
Ally takes a moment to look up a few things before answering. Well, I can definitively say that I have no clue. My guess is that you got the extra slots with yourtest ss path because the system wanted to make sure an awakened core has enough sapients hanging around to stay grounded. Despite what you might assume, dungeon cores arent actually solitary beings. After all, if you were a solitary type all the eventual bosses would be a real pain to deal with.
Doyle nods, I can see that and it makes the extra boss slots make more sense. Any boss created before awakened is going to be at best random and at worst they could all be beasts that are only technically sapient. The extra slots would allow the awakened core to personally choose a few beings to share the dungeon with.
Ally, That does seem likely. Though chances are any pre-existing bosses will at least somewhat match the cores personality. After all, the act of gaining a boss when the core isnt awakened is pretty much just done on instincts.
Doyle, Yeah, but that is more likely to get bosses that will follow all the cores orders or at least will do their job quietly. Being surrounded by the dungeon equivalent of a bunch of yes men isnt exactly a good thing. In the long run, an awakened dungeon is going to need people to have other views or theyll stagnate.
Ally shrugs, Not that we can say anything on the subject since you sort of skipped that step. Anyway, how far can your territory spread at this point? Ive noticed that youve mostly kept it to the area around the town. Not that it matters one way or another, but Ive been listening in on Ace and it sounds like he is going to send some people upriver to start sorting things out. Im uncertain as to what exactly his goals are as he is leaving that up to the people he is sending, but Jim is going to be one of them.
Doyles core dims for a moment, Huh, Im definitely not at the point that I could follow them all the way. My territory seems to need exponentially more effort to spread the farther it gets outside of my dungeon.
Ally, I figured as much. Oh well, Im sure we can listen in when Jim gets around to reporting to Ace on what happened.
Doyle nods, So when do they leave?
Ally points at a nearby screen, Tomorrowish? Theyre gathering supplies and are about ready, though they havent actually gotten a strict timeline for their actions. Ace is basically structuring it as a small group of adventurers doing a little looky loo around.
Doyle, Wouldnt Jims position as the leader of the Adventurers Guild stop him from doing this? I would think the guild wouldnt look too highly on their leaders screwing around too much with that kind of thing. Though at the very least, I would think the system would have something to say about it.
Ally nods, Guild leaders are restricted in various ways, mostly by the system. About the only real limits from the guilds side is that the leader cant hold any other official office as over the years theyve found that just leads to over positions squeezing into the guild leader position instead of the guild leader gaining power elsewhere.
On the other hand, Jim wont really have to worry about that in the ce up river. After all, it isnt a quote unquote real town. In fact, Ive listened to peopleing from elsewhere and it sounds like no one else within a week or so of travel to Wolfs Rest is an actual system recognized town. Guild leaders have arge amount of leeway when dealing with tutorial settlements.
After that, the two of them chat a bit about what Jim actually ns to do. Though in the end nothing muches of it and so Doyle settles in to let things y out. So early the next morning before the first boatload of people came in, Jim and his original team of Bill, Tess, Jeremy, Kellinger, and Kelly set out for the ce upriver. Not by boat, but by foot, so they can show up without a big turnout.
On a hill just outside of town, Jim takes a final look back before leading his team towards the ce upriver. They even made it there before the first boat reached Wolfs Rest. A feat which Jim had on good word that the people actually in charge of the upriver settlement did not believe was possible.
After all, going down river by boat was more about making sure the boat didnt run into anything instead of actually pushing the boat along. Suffice it to say, as Jim walked into the settlement, no one expected them. Not only that, but one on guard duty recognized them, though it likely helped that they circled around the ruined pre-system city and approached from a different direction.
As Jim entered the settlement, the guardsplimented him on his leather motorcycle jacket, though Jim almost misses thement as his attention has been drawn to a wood nk hung over the entrance. He holds it in and manages to make some small talk, but he really wanted tough at their hubris. Even pre-system, you couldnt just plop down a few houses and call it a town. With the system? Not a chance this was going to fly for long.
Why does Jim know that? Well, he is the first warning. It wasnt going to work. Not only was he likely only going to get an audience with the figurehead Ben, but the old guys who actually run things seem to believe life can go back to what it was pre-system if they just hold out long enough. Some of them apparently even believe that the military will be rolling into town any day now.
A silly belief, though Jim cant really me them. Even in Wolfs Rest most of the people arent willing to admit something that was obvious to him. The world had changed. Not in some mystical way, but literally. Thend had shifted and while he wasnt able to be certain; the horizon looked tter.
Jim had brought this up before, but no one was quite willing to ept it. After all, the promise was that even if things had changed; it had all stayed the same. Not that any of the tutorial guides had ever made such a promise. The very fact these cities were located where they were should have been enough of a hint.
Even the so-called cities werent quite right. They were just way too close together. It felt more like someone had grabbed a bunch of cities and blobbed them. This was especially true if they had really been in their original country. After all, their country was known for the car culture because of how spread out everything was.
Jim shakes his head, there were way too many worries to worry about if he let himself get caught up in it. Right now he had a mission, that of delivering an unwanted message to someone who didnt even have the authority to do something about it if they wanted to. Though even as he tried to stay focused, the settlement around him kept pulling at him.
This settlement had gotten lucky as most of the buildings were still solid. The two pre-system cities near Wolfs Rest had more than just a few buildings that had copsed even before the system had dropped them off. On the other hand, this difference had helped push his people to settle around the dungeon. Here, Jim could see ongoing efforts to use bags of pre-system concrete to fix up any damage and various other attempts at preserving the old.
Of Course It Wasn’t An Easy Job – Chapter 229
Not that Jim was against preserving the past, but he very much was of mind that it should stay exactly that, the past. This settlement, so close to his own town, was attempting to bring the past into the present and that wasnt going to work. Even if all the pre-system hot weapons were still around, they would soon be meaningless if only because without some kind of mystical energy in them, even the most basic shield would have an easy time blocking them.
Though Jim almost half hopes someone managed to keep one of the big bombs around. If only because it would be really interesting to see someone take one to the face andugh. Too bad that with time, something mystical would leak into them, otherwise you could set one off in the middle of a field and the grass wouldnt even be hurt.
Jim wasnt certain who had said it, but some minor testing had proved that one of the things stuff like mana does is reinforce reality. So without mana, an item will have a hard time even affecting an item with it. In fact, Ace suspected that was why a dungeons core is so sturdy. The crystal material itself isnt necessarily all that tough. Rather, by their very nature a dungeons core is packed full of some sort of power so dense that Jim didnt even know where to start.
It was going to take a lot of leveling before anyone got even close to being able to break the thing. Not that Jim had any ns to even try. Hell, he would actively work to prevent someone from doing so. The dungeon is sort of a core feature of their town, after all. Jimughs to himself at the idental pun.
He isntughing an hourter. Jims group had managed to find Bens office quickly, but that was where things stalled out. Ben wasnt there and apparently hadnt bothered to show up in thest week or so. Though what did the settlements ruling council expect? Once the cat is out of the bag on how much of a figurehead the guy was, he didnt take it all that well. Worse for Jim was that the council didnt want to meet him.
Sure, Jims job was as simple as just telling someone in an official capacity, but that meant doing more than just shouting the news at them. He needed to get an actual meeting with someone at the top. Ben would have worked if he was in his office. Sure, his words were ignored by everyone except his few trusted followers, but he was technically the one listed as being in charge.
Now though, the fool abandoned his post and so Jim wasnt able to do this the easy way. He shakes his head as he didnt really want to shove the councils noses in how strong his people were. Because there is an easy solution. Just break into a council meeting and tell them that way. Except that would involvepletely ripping the mask off.
Jim didnt want that mask to be ripped off in such a low-impact manner. As it was, the council controlled things and without something to shake things up, that was likely to keep being the case. A situation that Jim very much did not want to continue. To have such a backward settlement as the figurative gateway to Wolfs Rest was an ident waiting to happen.
Not that Jim feared that the council would manage to get Ace or any of the other founders killed. Rather, it is a lot easier to be in themon peoples good grace if you havent just mowed through all their young adult men. After all, war was quite the popr hobby for old men sitting behind the front line.
No, what Jim wanted was a more pyric realization of how reality now worked and he wanted it to be delivered by someone not from Wolfs Rest. After all, right now, the settlement basically approved of what the council was doing. Sure, a few people realized that the good ol head in sand method wasnt going to work, but most of those types arent here anymore. In fact, most of them are back at Wolfs Rest, which is how Ace had been getting most of the more public knowledge about what was going on in the settlement.
So Jim was left with only a few reasonable options and the two at the top of the list were waiting for a meeting and finding Ben and dragging him back to his office. Well, not literally dragging, they did want to keep things peaceful-ish for the moment. Though that was the option he was leaning towards. After all, thest time Ace had sent a diplomat it had taken over a week to meet the council.
Jim sighs, Ben wasnt aplete idiot and hadnt left any indication of where he was going to be hanging out. Sure, he was still in the settlement, a nifty fact confirmed by the system, but this was a literal city. Not the biggest city, mind you. It, however, was still big enough that Ben and his people could be hanging out in some random building and no one would be able to tell. There are way more houses empty than there are with inhabitants despite this ce bing quite the important crossroads.@@novelbin@@
Just thinking about the trouble this might end up being causes a headache for Jim. Sure, he knew how to track things. In the wilderness. There was some crossover, but the skill he had was specialized for a natural environment. That meant he would have to actually talk to people if he wanted to get anywhere. An action which would alert the council.
Not the worst thing, but if Jim had his way, they wouldnt even know that he was in the settlement, let alone that he wanted to meet with someone in charge of the ce. He shakes his head and turns to the person who was keeping Bens office clean. In theory, they should have been one of the council stooges.
The reality of the situation, however, was that Ace had managed to get his own man into ce. A fact that sadly meant they didnt know where Ben was as he had reasonably expected the guy to spill the beans. This all led back to Jim having to both line up a meeting with the council and attempting to find Ben. After all, if he could do the hopefully quicker option without the council finding out, might as welly it all out on the table.
So within a day, the entire settlement knew that Jim was both in the settlement and looking to deliver some kind of message to whichever power would listen to him first. This, however, did not give the council a kick in the butt to hurry up and schedule him in.
After all, they were the important ones here, right? There was no way something one of the savages that had taken up refuge around their dungeon could possibly know that was important enough that they didnt already know it. Though as Jim thinks that, he does backtrack on the mental scare quotes for the savages bit.
Not that he considers their town a bunch of savages, but rather that everyone else does. It is kind of a sad situation, but even those who get what their new reality is about are looking down on making an entirely new town. The fact they are making it around a dungeon of all things doesnt help either. After all, there are not just one, but two perfectly fine cities right nearby.
Nevermind the fact that at this point the two cities are monster ridden death traps. Hell, the two cities are even more dangerous than the dungeon at this point. Not that the council believed this at first. After all, once you lose in power to a group of people, the obvious answer is to try and settle right next to them, right?
Anyway, that foolish attempt ended with only about ten people dead. For some reason, likely a certain pack of wolves charging through their territory, arge family of very venomous snakes had taken up residence in the two old cities. From what Jim had seen, they decided to stay there because the powerless building materials couldnt get in their way. A useful feature for the snakes as it let them create so many ambush locations by simply poking holes into every building.
Even Jim didnt want to hang out in the ce alone. Sure, Wolfs Rest was still extracting things from the ce, but now it was more of a matter of materials instead of items. After all, while the furniture and stuff had managed to stay rtively intact for a long while, at this point every ceiling and floor had at least a few holes to let the rain in.
Jim shakes his head and focuses back on the present. Reminiscing wasnt the worst thing to do, but escaping into it instead of dealing with the upriver settlements politics would just mean having to be here longer. Though it does remind him of something else to tell Ben if he is the first one Jim meets. After all, if a few snakes managed to make two cities uninhabitable, well, there were more than enough uninhabited buildings here for some monster or another to hole up in. So maybe they should consider knocking the worse ones down.
As Jim spends his time searching the pre-system buildings, back at the dungeon Doyle is working on a new floor. After Ally had done some more research, Doyle was mostly certain that while he wouldnt be able to have a boss every five floors, putting another boss on the tenth floor wasnt the worst n.
So far Doyle had created the tenth floor and filled it in with stone, but he wasnt quite certain what the design for the floor should be. Yes, he could make the boss first and design the floor around them, but he was half hoping that the floors design would do the reverse and help him figure out what the monster should be the boss.
Then, as Doyle is taking a look through his previous floors, something jumps out at him. The ninth floor basically looked like one giant passageway. That passage should be going somewhere, right? So taking that idea and running with it, Doyle begins to design the floor. Though first he takes a second to recheck the system message to remind himself of how many points he had to work with.
{Tenth floor dimensionally anchored
World Energy cap +6700 [Constitution(67) * 100]
tenth floor spending limit set to 33480 [Previous floors limit(27000) + Intelligence(54) * 120]
Monster level cap updated
Quintessence debt paid back by 5}
Seeing the new spending limit Doyle cant help but shake his core. Just the boost from his recent path alone added a little over a thousand points, nevermind the fact his Intelligence score had risen by ten since thest time. He was beginning to wonder if there was a point where monsters started to cost more or if every dungeon just ended up with the most sprawling of floors covered in absolute hordes of monsters.
Though thinking back on his short time in Flisles dungeon, Doyle couldnt really say that hadnt been the case. The floor itself was massive beyondpare after all, and it wasnt like they would have let their monsters wander around near the tutorial takers. That would just increase the amount of time it would all take. After all, you cant really learn much beyond the first time of being killed by monsters multiple magnitudes stronger than you and even that first lesson is more along the lines of knowing not to get in the way of stuff clearly out of your reach.
Clever Spot To Hide A Message – Chapter 231
Jim shivers as he remembers the DMV. Some people could go there, wait a few hours and everything would work out. That wasnt his experience. Jims father and grandfather were heavily into the idea of being off-grid in a very toxic way. Not only was a bunch of Jims paperwork missing, some of the stuff he thought he had was actually forgeries meant to throw off the government. So yeah, the DMV was an extra big dose of pain.
As Jim thinks back on his early days, he cant help but sigh. To be honest? He didnt really care all that much about what his dad and grandad did to themselves. It was the fact that they didnt give him a choice to not join in. If it hadnt been for his mom, Jim doubted he would have even been a citizen. How his dad ended up with his mom was a mystery.
Jim shakes his head and gestures to the others. Then as one the team enters the building. The first room looked about what they would expect, but the second proved what a lie it was. Throughout the settlement, the team had seen buildings, lived in and not, at all stages of decay. This room, however, didnt show any signs of decay.
When youve spent so many days in a ce where literally every building looks to be in the middle of breaking, well, suffice it to say this set everyone on edge. Though Kelly was quick to figure out what was going on. They were injecting mana into the building. I hadnt really thought about how quickly the two pre-system cities were falling about. After all, we have monsters literally tunneling through them.
However this might just turn that on its head. In fact, our cities might be surviving better than they should be because of those snakes. After all, if you have a digging creature, it will shore up their tunnels and with magic, monster versions of those critters are going to take it to the next level. Anyway, Ben has someone that figured out how to do the same.
Jeremy runs his hand over the nearby wall, Should we prioritize getting this technique? Like, how good of an idea is this sort of thing?
Kelly rolls her eyes, Do I think this is a good idea? No, if you look at the doorway you can see that some of the decay is creeping in already. Maybe if we had some historical monument next to us, I could justify using a method like on the thing until we figure out a long-term solution. For normal buildings, though?
If what was likely only a couple days is enough for it to already show signs of decay, you can clearly see the folly. Besides, nothing in our town will suffer from any of this nonsense. Even if the wood or stone itself isnt too magical, the use of skills to process the stuff into proper building material will be enough to, forck of a better term, give it a charge.
There is an outside chance that we will need to fix up the town. However, that would require a massive increase in atmospheric world energy over a short period. Otherwise, the fact the material already contains a power means instead of breaking down, it will be able to equalize as the atmospheric power fluctuates.
Kellinger frowns, Why would having a bit of power change anything? I yed around a little with the stuff in the cities before the snakes showed up and I could feel mana in them.
Jim gestures at the decayed building outside the room, The differencees from whether the material was processed or not. The mountains wont be falling down on us anytime soon because there is space within their stone to allow the natural powers to flow in.
The stones used to decorate the outer wall were worked and so have taken on some of the crafter, even if it was cut with a machine. At least that is what I assume is happening? And he nces over at Kelly who nods.
Jim smiles, Okay, with that in mind Im going to guess that some pre-system magical traditions have actual roots in our new reality. They liked to call for unworked materials. Stuff like a river stone with a naturally worn hole or a branch that came off of a tree during a storm.
Kelly shrugs, While that is true and I did grab a ton of pre-system books which were meant to depict magic. I highly doubt much of what was basically pre-system fiction will prove to be anything more even now that we have actual magic. Though of course Im going to be running tests on all those things. With caution, of course. Wouldnt want to summon up a demon when I didnt mean to.
Anyway, why this matters is because if you work a material, those bits act like a sent that will keep out unwanted energy types. This means that a magic wand wont be absorbing qi and if youre just making a brick, it will be able to take in and release any types of power that were there when you made it.
So when you craft something in an environment thatcks any mystical power, well, youve basically got the mystical equivalent of a vacuum chamber, except the material isnt going to survive the pressure. Which in hindsight makes me question why the buildings havent already crumbled into nothing.
Tessughs, Well, a brick isnt literally an empty tube with a vacuum in it. Certain parts are likely weaker than other bits. When those bits break, it might relieve some of the pressure?
Kelly frowns, That is possible.
Jim ps his hands, Okay! While this is interesting, we need to move on. I understand that finding out why even the bits that survived the systems arrival are falling away, but we have a job. This isnt the only room, lets continue on instead of standing around like lemons.
The team focuses back on the job and spends a few hours exploring the whole building including the decayed parts. After all, the maintained parts were a little too obvious so they might have hid things in a decayed part. In the end, though, they did find what they were looking for in a maintained room.
In fact, they found it in the very first room where they had stood around. It was a simple note and it had been wedged into the little hollow where the doors deadbolt goes. As for the message itself? It was a simple hand-drawn map pointing to another building and a reminder to rece the note when done with it.
Of course, the note was a bit of misdirection. The actual message with the new location was on the deadbolt itself. They had almost missed it, if not for Kelly noticing a wisp of magic hanging onto the mechanism. It was quite a clever ce to hide the note, honestly. After all, the bolt is only out when youve locked the door.
Though this did lead them on another bit of searching as the deadbolt had a lot less real estate to write a note on so it was just a shortened address. Simple and yet frustrating as people werent exactly doing upkeep on the various signs around town. That meant quite a few buildingspletelycked any signage to tell you what their address was.
While this new search is going down, back in the dungeon, Doyle had managed to seed with his myconids. Though the only reason he was so quick in figuring it out was because he also tried a variety of situations. Of those situations, only one of them resulted in the myconid growing into a new stage. That wasnt the only reaction, but everything else was a step back at best.
What was the condition that let the lesser myconid to upgrade? A simple enough thing that would be easy for Doyle to handle as well as making some sense. They needed to be in an areapletely infested with mushrooms and myconids. It even needed a certain amount of spores in the air, which meant Doyle had been lucky that there wasnt anyrge-scale air movement on the floor. Otherwise it would have taken a good bit of time for the spore density to get up there.
Of course, going forward he would just be farming them in small cave areas as that would make things easier. Still, it was an interesting condition, especially since as far as Doyle could tell, there wasnt an actual physical need for this. Instead, it seemed that the monsters had simply developed so that they wouldnt evere about by themselves, as there would always be other funguses around.
In fact, beingpletely separated from other mushrooms was one of the states that caused the lesser myconid to basically die of loneliness and turn into around five sprouts. They didnt actually die mind you. After all, if they had the lesser myconids would have vanished like every other monster. Still, the conditions to farm the new monster was well worth the result.
{Myconid (Lv12)
S[25] A[15] C[40] I[15] W[10] P[6]
Skills: Spore Talk lv12, Teamwork lv10, Summon Paralysis Spore lv10, Summon Sleep Spore lv3
Cost: World Energy[300]}
If the sprout and lesser had been the ssic mushroom man, the full grown myconids were that but stretched upward. Their thinner form certainly helped with their Agility and the Intelligence took a big step as well. What really got Doyles attention though was the simple weight of all the stats together.
Compared to other monsters in the same cost band they absolutely crushed. Sure, his kobolds are honestly just toxic with the current stat totals, but their size seemed to limit them as apparently some physics still applied. The myconids, on the other hand, had the size and mass to pull it off. In fact, when Doyle got a sense for them, the mushmen were heavy. Though that did get him thinking about his kobolds.
Like, Seriously, the level 11 kobolds on floor eight have almost three digits in their Agility and they yed like clowns against Jim and his team. Doyle could understand not being able to use their bows all that well. It doesnt matter how agile you are as despite how it looked, reality hadnt actually turned into a video game. That means being agile didnt automatically make you urate.
It all came back to skills if he was to be honest. His kobolds only had the heavy bash skill and that was more of a Strength skill. So sure, his kobolds had some strength, but that was in the low 30s at the same level. What Doyle needed was a way to give his monsters a better skill load out. After all, a natural monster wouldnt just have a small number of skills. They would be filling their load out.
Even the myconids havent filled up the five skills. After checking the other monsters, Doyle only found one other monster with four skills and that was his grassen goats. Though the udoroot technically surpassed this because of their bag of telepathic skills. Not that Doyle was going to count that or else his patterns would make him look like he was constantly switching sses.@@novelbin@@
Still, Doyle needed an answer to skills. The goats should be fine, they might only have a charge skill, but simple physical attacks are easy enough leverage and they have over double the Strength of a simrly leveled kobold. After looking through his options, though, nothing jumps out.
Maybe his still unbought ability to name things would be a solution? But that wasnt likely to do enough. So, for the moment, the only way he had to change skills around was evolving them into a new variant. Still, he knew it was possible to change a monsters stats without changing the monster. He even had an example of this from when the system pulled a kobold variant out of its database that had the animal handling skill.
Bringing Back An Old Screen – Chapter 232
Doyle turned to Ally to find an answer to his skill based problems and she sighs, Do you remember how the skills that your monsters already have increase in level?
Doyle shakes his core and Ally sighs harder, I guess I did sort of sandwich the exnation in when I was exining stampedes. Deeper floor equals higher world energy and the monsters in turn get increased skill levels. Oh, and that isnt a system specific thing, but rather just how it works for dungeon monsters. The system side of things is that a higher starting skill level represents an affinity for the skill and so the skill will increase in level faster.
As for giving a monster a new skill? Incredibly easy, just have them train it. Now if you want to give a monster pattern a new skill? That is a bit more limited and yet there are more options. Well, right now option as you only have one choice. Those monster adjustment pattern points? They can be used to change almost an infinite number of things about a monster as long as the change doesnt actually result in a new pattern.
Doyle nods, Tutorial screen?
Ally, I wont deny that. Can you guess whates up next?
Doyle rolls to the side, Why guess?, and he pulls up the system message. Though after reading the dense text, his core grows dim and turns back towards Ally.
Allyughs, The system can really fit an essay worth of text into a paragraph? That ability will be of more use for simpler subjects and to confirm things. Anyway, a simple example of this is that you can give your goats a fire breath attack, but this wont cause the goat to be a fiery goat or what have you. This sort of thing could make it easier to develop a variant.
In fact, since you have the elemental animal path all youre missing now is more extreme environments. Get ava environment? Pop heat resistance on your goats and it should only take somewhere between a month and a year to gain a fire-based variant.
Doyle rolls back, A month to a year?
Ally shrugs, You have forever, but even then, that is incredibly fast. Most of the time, it takes generations for a variant to actuallye about. Youre basically got a couple of high quality shortcuts to that. First is that path. Sure, it only works on animals, but being able to increase the odds is worth its weight in gold. Even a percent of a percent makes it so much more likely to happen because this is spread out across all your animals.
The second is that being able to just give them a resistance skill as a part of their pattern is the height of cheats. Anyone can learn the heat resistance skill, that however doesnt mean they have a greater chance to evolve. What your adjustment does is make it inherent to your monsters.
Otherwise, when you farm them, the newborn monsters wouldnt have the skill. This is key because having an inherent resistance means they are naturally adapted to the environment. A natural adaptation will mean that they are already closer to the variant than a normal monster without the inherent skill and that does more than just add a greater chance.
It multiplies the chance because it is changing the base chance. That means bonuses from things like your elemental animal path get calcted after the inherent bonus has been calcted. Anytime you can let percent chances apply sequentially instead of all at once, things can get crazy.
Doyle nods, I can get behind that. Now, how do I use the points to give my monsters new skills?
Ally pulls up a new blue screen. Well, Doyle thought it was a new screen, then she started to exin. This should look familiar to you. If not, think back to when we were setting up the first floor, this was the screen you used to modify the clover and then promptly never touched it again. Not that it mattered much until now, as without the points, it can only change cosmetic stuff and not even all that efficiently.
Just look at your wheat farms. It took some effort, but you managed to create a good-looking species of wheat. That could have been a few hours of effort in the designer screen. The catch is that you dont get any levels for your pattern if you do this.@@novelbin@@
With points? Everything changes. So like the best pay to win mobile games, it will allow you to spend your points which totally arent just a way to obfuscate how much quintessence youre spending, because you can buy the points, on making your wolfs ws 1% sharper or some other nonsense.
Doyle pokes at the screen, So how much do skills cost and is there a limit on what skills I can buy?
Ally, When you bring a monster into the screen there will be options that pop up. This includes being able to remove some of the skills already there as long as they arent required for the monster. For instance, Im going to guess that the myconids need the paralysis spore skill, but you could probably remove the sleep spores.
As for skills? Youll have a few avable by default. Basic skills like your kobolds heavy bash. That doesnt mean you can use them, though. By being unlocked, it means you can buy them for your patterns and of course you have to buy them for each pattern. Yes, even the variants. The good news is that when you develop new variants, those variants will inherit the skills you unlocked for the base pattern.
Oh, and speaking of unlocking, if there is a nifty skill you would like to use and dont have? There is a cost to unlock it in the first ce. So yes, you have to buy the skill and then once you own it, you have to pay again to put it on a pattern. The system really likes to double dip on this system as it is all fluff.
After all, dungeons that exist in dimensions without a system are capable of adjusting their monsters. It just normally takes decades or longer for a natural unawakened dungeon to modify even a single monster. With this fancy system provided UI, even those dungeons can make simple instinctual changes rapidly.
Doyle tilts back, You know what? Im actually okay with that. Otherwise, I assume the skills themselves would end up being patterns and each change to a monster would likely result in a new pattern. Even as it is, I have way too many patterns and that giant list will only ever get bigger. Now let me pull in the kobold pattern and give it a look.
Ally pushes the screen towards him and he grabs the kobold entry from another screen listing out his monster patterns before popping it in.
At first, things seemed to be normal enough. A nice little render of both genders is floating in the view box, the base stats at level zero are listed out on one side, and the skills on the other. Then the stats start flowing downward to show each level up while various options begin to appear around the two models. All dwarfed though by a massive and yet still rapidly filling list of potential skills. From obvious ones like throwing, simple ones such as breathing, all the way to very niche options which much to Doyles surprise includes underwater basket weaving. Yes, the joke skill.
Though the only reason he was able to even spot that was because by drawing his attention the skill list temporarily stopped on it before the list began to whiz by again as more got added. Doyle turns to Ally, Well thats a bit much.
Ally chuckles, Dont worry, there are just a ton of unique options in the already unlocked section because most skills of this simplicity arent considered secrets or special so the system is able to slurp them right up out of your head to pass on to others. There are still a lot, but significantly fewer options when ites to unlockable skills.
Doyle nods, I can see that. Amon powered punch will probably be passed onto the system easily enough and so be avable. A unique skill that took decades to develop and perfect? Not so much, especially if it ends up being a family inheritance or some such.
Besides, the list seems rtively reactive to my thoughts and so it shouldnt be too hard to find a skill that matches what I want for my kobolds. Oh, and I should probably buy something for my regr myconids as well.
Ally gestures back at the adjustment screen, And though you didnt ask, let me inform you that doing things like swapping out skills will allow you to basically save a new load out for that monster that you can choose to use when spawning them. That way, you dont have to micromanage swapping in and out skills as you refill floors. Now take your time figuring out what you want to do with your kobolds, though I do advise not swapping out the eighth floor kobolds with ones that can actually use a bow. That would be a deadly surprise no one would be ready for.
Doyle agrees before diving into the list of skills. Though it wasnt even a half an hour before another question pops up when he notices that the heavy bash skill is still on the list of avable skills he could add. Instead of running off to Ally though, he decides to take a quick look at what information he can pull up on his own.
And a good thing too, as the reason was simple enough and had to deal with something Ally had literally just reminded him of. The fact that the higher level a starting skill was, the more easily it advanced. Heavy bash was listed so you could buy it again and boost the skills level.
A useful if expensive option, especially since the system message hinted at the fact that the cost for leveling a skill in this way would increase after every purchase. Doyle knew enough about those ssic pay to win games and so was expecting quite a hefty cost if he ever wanted to really pump a monsters skill.
Still, his question was answered well enough, even if it took a few read throughs to extract the meaning. So, he moved onto ying with the adjustment screen. Things like coloration were easy enough to tweak, though not too far in either direction as apparently the system considers a solid color to be too much of a change.
More interesting to him though was what skills it would allow him to remove. The answer was all of them. This felt weird to him so Doyle pulled up the goats and found himselfpletely unable to remove the only skill they had, charge. He wasnt certain what it meant that the kobolds didnt have a signature move, but for now it meant it would cost less to modify them how he wanted.
Where did those savingse from you might ask? Well, both Doyle and Ally had missed another tricky bit of pay to win. You had to unlock skill slots for your monsters. So the kobold, amazing beings that they were, had three skill slots already unlocked and that meant he could easily switch out the heavy bash for something more Agility based.
Though as he looked closer, it looked like this option was more of a pay to progress form of pay to win as the patterns would naturally unlock more slots as the pattern itself leveled up. So for now Doyle puts aside any thoughts of adding extra skills and instead dives into the massive list of unlocked skills.
Lost Options – Chapter 234
Doyle tilts to the side, Why do these attack skills glow when Ive seen other skills be used and not glow? Like, when Ace uses his wood magic his hands are glowing or anything.
Ally shrugs, The best people can figure out is that it is rted to how the skill is being used. Each of the basicbat skills is meant to jam more power into the attack than is normal. That is why with higher skill levels, the area that glows bes more constrained. The glow is more of a byproduct, which is why it never goes away. Kind of like how when you heat a metal, the metal will glow.
Doyle tilts to the other side, Well, what if they hold off on activating the skill until thest moment?
Ally shakes her head, The reason it takes time to activate is because of the requirement for the power to build up in the first ce. Im sure youve seen the gimmick of the one inch punch? It gives the false image of being able to just punch something without any build up. In actuality, to throw a punch like that requires the person to tense their muscles and such. It isnt pulling extra power out of nowhere.
The same is true for any activated skill. You can hold an ax right next to a person and activate a skill for it just the same as the one inch punch. That is, youll be holding the ax there for a moment as the skill charges up and then you can cut them.
Mind you, the required activation time will shorten, but that tends to also be matched by an increase in the users ability to swing their weapon as well. This doesnt have to be linear, but most likely if a person is able to activate the skill twice as fast, theyre probably also able to swing the ax twice as fast as well.
So in a roundabout way, I guess yeah, you could technically activate the skill at thest moment possible. You would just need someone pretty unbnced for it to matter? Like, the skill will only do so much. There is a reason the timing tends to stay about equal with the swing. The difficulty to increase your strength grows at about the same rate as the difficulty to reduce the activation timing. To focus on one and not the other will just make you weaker than people in a simr ce in their training.
Doyleughs, I could probably make a monster that can do that. Just pump a bunch of mod points into their starting skill level.
Ally rolls her eyes, We both know youre joking with that. Yes, you could, but the resources spent wouldnt be worth it in any way.
Doyle nods, True enough. Now, back to the other part of the question. How did my kobolds know how to use a bow? They only have the active skill and not some sort of bow use skill.
Ally, That is easy enough to answer. By making a skill like urate arrow an innate skill of theirs, you also make the use of whichever weapon theyre using innate as well. It wont ever be as good as a skill for using a bow, but you could think of it as having level zero in a skill like that.
Useful for you and funny when someone tries to cheat in learning a skill. If someone managed to gain a skill without training, if that skill wasnt a proficiency skill like bowmanship, theyre going to be lost. Even a skill like urate arrow can only do so much. It doesnt matter how urate the arrow is if when the person releases the arrow it falls off the string.
Another example of this is with monsters like your wind wolf. I dont know if youve noticed, but their wind de skill isnt ever just fired off. It alwayses from either their mouth or their ws. If instead they had the wind magic skill, or really any magic skill that would allow the use of wind de, your wolves would be able to fire off the skill from any direction without needing a source.@@novelbin@@
They would also be able to change the shape of the de. For that, you can just look at how the core mages in Wolfs Rest all use that fire ribbon spell. While it probably is an actual spell at this point, it likely just started as some kind of fire de spell. So with a bit of control and likely a lot of experimentation, Ruby was able to develop an entirely new and more powerful spell off of one of the generic starter spells.
Doyle, I never really thought about that too much. With the wind wolves, it just seemed natural that it woulde off their ws or from their mouth. Though now I want to go and buy them wind magic. If anything, it would probably open up a nice evolution for them. Right now, though, I need to take a closer look at what skills are avable for the myconids if Im going to make them the focus of my tenth floor.
Doyle is about to turn around and leave when he thinks of something, Would you like to look through the skill list with me?
Ally had been nning on doing something, but the offer shocked her. The two had mostly been like those friends who sit together and enjoy the silence. Not that she was against working together, in fact as she thinks about it, she decides to give it a try and shakes her head yes.
They both settle down as Doyle pulls up the list and if the kobold list was long, this one was even longer. Though some of that was likely because it has the skill for generating basically every type of spore under the sun and beyond it. There was even a skill that made their generic make more mushrooms spores survive in space. Suffice it to say, the two of them got sucked into sorting through that list.
Though they arent the only ones looking through system menus. At the settlement up river, Jim has finally managed to get a meeting with Ben. At this point, however, he has had the spark knocked out of him and instead of trying to take control, Jim and his party find Ben sulking in a room, looking through the small list of settlement options. Most of those options, however, are grayed out as he had been forced to transfer control over to the council.
Jim shakes his head, So are you going to let this ce die?
Ben doesnt even look up, though his few supporters grimace. One of those supporters steps forward, We dont really have any hope? Theyve taken control of the town pretty thoroughly.
Jim snorts, Then what are you all doing here? Either move to somewhere actually trying to survive or work on taking it back. That corner over there isnt going to have the answers. At this point Im expecting to hear about how this ce was wiped out with every new boat thates down river.
The supporterughs, We set up some decent protection and the town is being supported by the system. About the only thing that would wipe us out would be a civil war and, as your group shows, that would really cut down on the poption.
Jeremy steps up next to Jim andughs at them. You think your pre-system junk is going to work? Did the system shop suddenly start selling bullets cheap or something? No, the second any decently defensive monster shows up this whole ce is probably done for! The system wont protect you like youre expecting it to.
Ben looks up, And what do you know? We dont have many guns, but all the monsters weve seen have been either killed or scared off with a shot or two. By the time we start getting low, the council promises the military will be here. Then what? You want us to fight the army?
Jeremy rolls his eyes, Do you really believe the army will being? At this point, you should have had people from all over filter through your settlement. How is the army even going to gather together in the first ce when the system seems to have done an excellent job of mixing everyone up? The only people that end up together are family and not even then sometimes. Though our doctor suspects that it judges that by karmic connections and not your ssic whos married to who nonsense.
Ben sighs, Even if that is the truth, so what? Im sure the system will eventually allow the purchase of bullets, and even if it isnt going to protect us, it should at least give us ess to ammo.
Jim shakes his head, The system isnt there to hold our hands anymore. What being in a settlement protects you from is outside influence, not local monsters or other natives. If you want it to sell you guns and ammo, what youre going to need to do is upgrade to a town and purchase a gun shop. Ace has ess to that option, but it costs a pretty penny and we dont need it.
Ben looks up, Oh, so all theyll have to do is fully take over the town and then theyll get their bullets?
Kelly steps between Jim and Jeremy, putting her hands on their shoulders. They both look at her before nodding. She lowers her hands and focuses on Ben, Okay, youre clearly feeling defeated, but I dont think theyre really impressing upon you how much danger the settlement is in.
This isnt some kind of oh no, maybe a dangerous monster will find us sort of situation. You have already been found. There is no possibility that even monsters from deeper in the forest dont know about your location. At the moment, the only thing keeping them in check is the sense of danger they get from humans and those guns the council is so fond of.
All it will take is some sort of lizard or turtle to break through your defensive line before you get swarmed. Even the monsters that wont survive a gunshot wound will want to get in on the fun. This settlement is on a clock and at this point I personally am more than willing to leave you here to die.
From behind the three, Kellinger grumbles, What happened to the man who was in charge not that long ago?
Ben waves his panel up onto a nearby wall. Im bloody not in charge anymore! Gray option after gray option of things Ive seceded to the council. Worst of all, though, the people love them! I worked to get everyone ready and now they scoff at me! Theyugh at the idea of guns ever not being the absolute king of weapons. Even the idea of running out of ammo doesnt matter to them as the council has promised the army should be here well before their stock runs out.
None of them believe me when I tell them were almost out of that same ammo. None of them believe me when I say that not all monsters will care about those fancy guns! They dont want me anymore. Even to the normal people out there, I was just a figurehead. Now that Ive outlived my usefulness, they dont need me.
Jeremy snorts, So why are you alive? Dont for a second believe they dont need you. Youre the uninvolved third party. If you died, they would argue for hours on end about who should take that seat, because let me let you in on a little secret. All those options you handed over to them? You can just remove their permission. There isnt anything stopping you.
So They Have Been Getting Loot – Chapter 235
Ben stands up with a red face, but in the end cant really get anything out and so copses back into his seat. They beat me, what do you want me to do?
Jim rolls his eyes, You let them beat you. Democracy is all fine and good, but your settlement doesnt run on it. All those grayed out options? You can just take back the rights you gave out. What happened wasnt you giving away the rights, it was you delegating the ability to make those decisions. The options being grayed out is just to show youve done that.
Jeremy nods, Besides, even if you did give them the rights, all it would take to get them back is to strong arm them. I respect that you dream of the ideal of pre-system government. However, youre being blinded by that ideal to what the current situation actually is. That council is more like a feudalistic council than a modern one. None of them got voted in and they dont care about what the people actually want.
Ben snorts, Maybe they didnt vote them in, but the council has popr support. Besides, I really have to question your thoughts on the whole army thing. Those guys had physical training before the nonsense and it isnt like the army was small. There should be a bunch of them around.
Jim and Jeremy share a look before Jim sighs, You do realize that any extra strength or skill they might have gotten before the system came will have quickly been overshadowed? Have you actually tried to lift something heavy recently? Because any pre-system weights are now basically useless to anyone at all focused on Strength.
Jeremy follows up, And even if the army did roll up with all of their pre-system might, one magic user would likely be enough to block them. Like we said, youve only been facing the weak monsters. It might take a little more work than not to make your body immune to bullets, but most defensive skills will stop pre-system weapons dead in their tracks.
With that in mind, let me tell you a little test Jim and Ace had me do. Me and my wife picked up a few pre-system gardening tools from the cities and took them out into the forest. There was quite a variety from old-fashioned push mowers to the fanciest of hedge clippers. All stuff that Ive seen used a hundred times and some that Ive even used myself.
None of them worked like they should have. The push mower couldnt cut grass and the nippers struggled with it! Then I used some tools one of our wood carvers made. It wasnt fancy, just a basic scythe with a wood de. That scythe cut the grass exactly how you would expect it to. In fact, if Im being honest it probably worked better than it should.
Jim nods, I double checked their results on my own time and Im sure Ace had others try it as well. We already knew this would be the case, but the sheer difference between pre-system items and grass with only a wisp of magic in it, is shocking! Your guns are working right now likely through a mix of physics still being a thing and skills. If the wolves that had attacked our town instead targeted your town? None of you would have survived with how youre acting.
Ben hangs his head, And what am I supposed to do about it? We send people to the dungeon.The night watch uses most of our power generation to keep the few flood lights we have going. Maybe at the start I could have rallied the people, but everyone is just fine with how things are!
Look at me! Im cowering in a broken down building. The people who still follow me are forced to either lie about it or are marginalized. Even the regr people who barely have a handful of levels to their nameugh at me!
Jim sighs, I hate to say it, but the rot has set in deep. You could try and pull a reverse of what we did over at Wolfs Rest, though that will involve a lot more deaths.
Ben looks up, A reverse of? What are you even talking about? I dont have any monster horde in my back pocket and Im not going to cause the death of people on purpose.
Tess rolls her eyes and steps forward, Theyre talking about how most of the people left when the wolves were on their way. There isnt any obvious threat to your settlement right now so of course the council wont pick up and move. You, on the other hand should at least see what ising! We did justy out how we believe things will y out and it isnt like you have anything holding you here.
If anything, sticking around is just asking to die. Eventually, one of those old guys in the council will figure out a way to im ownership of the settlement and kill you for it. So gather your trusted people ande back with us to Wolfs Rest. It might take a while, but eventually this ces hubris wille down on them and Ace doesnt want you to end up being a metaphorical pir of salt.
Bill nods, Like my Girlfriend said,e with us back to Wolfs Rest. Even if they dont end up being wiped off the map, the only people this settlement is sending to the dungeon are farmers harvesting the first floor for goat meat. If you put some effort in, all of your people could end up strong enough to juste back and take over no matter how things pan out.
Ben closes his eyes and makes a pained face, I need to warn them about the danger! I protected these people and even if theyve turned their back on me right now, theyre still mine.
Jim snorts, Still yours? What happened to the benevolent leader? All I can see is someone who felt how the wind was blowing but couldnt let himself adjust. You took control once, you can do it again. However, all those people out there under the councils rule? They arent your people anymore.
Since they werent ves, they can choose to follow a new master of their own free will. So, dont try to pull that nonsense. As for warning them? You think we havent? Their damn council is still dying over whether to see us or not. Ive even written out simr predictions of doom and gloom.
Do you know their response? It was to dy even more because they wanted to discuss it more. Sounds reasonable enough until you hear what the secretary added on. Sheughed at our original message and told us none of the council believed our nonsense. They fully believe in the power of their hot weapons.
Mind you, Im not saying guns cant work. It is just that the guns and ammo we currently have avable to use wont work. If you want a proper gun now, youre going to need an actual gunsmith to craft you one piece by piece. Maybe more advanced civilizations will have figured out ways to mass produce stuff of decent quality, but for now the best weapons you can get are ones worked by highly skilled people with the correct paths.
But! And it is a big one, I dont trust your reasons. What is actually holding you back? Ive seen all your close subordinates. What do they have on you?
Ben freezes and one of the supporters steps forward, We arent hiding anything! We could leave anytime we wanted to.@@novelbin@@
Ben lets out a breath and gestures to the supporter to step back. The council doesnt have anything on me.
The supporter that just stepped back looks smug, See!
Ben shakes his head, Let me talk. Anyway, they dont have anything on me, but something is holding me back. At the moment, Im pretty strong. Maybe not as strong as you guys, butpared to anyone else? Heads and shoulders above them. While Im here.
My path is to grow this town. My power, in turn is supported by the town. The reason Ive barely left this ce is because once I leave the settlement, I lose that support. Train in the dungeon? Even the goats on the first floor can probably take me one on one. If I lose this ce, I dont know what will be of me!
Kelly nods, I thought something was odd. Let me guess, you also get stronger the more people are in the settlement as well, right?
Ben nods and then sinks further into his chair.
Jim rolls his eyes at this, So? Even without the buff, you are still stronger than an average person pre-system. Yes, you will lose a lot of strength if the town loses most of the people and to be honest? I dont really want to see all these people die for no reason either. However, you should have realized how important this settlement is going to be.
This ce is going to be a major crossroads as something like five other settlements all have rtively easy paths to here. Nevermind the fact that youre between the other ces and our dungeon. While a little cold, the people in the town right now are too weak to live in the current time.
Maybe if they had been born in a hundred or so years, we would have stabilized enough that people could choose to be weak. That, however, isnt a luxury anyone can afford right now. Over in Wolfs Rest, even our crafters can make it to the boss floor and Ace has ns to get everyone that survived the wolves to beat the floor. Did you know that the sixth floor is packed with cattle? Everyone is ying around with the goats and those of us who stuck to it are eating power rich beef.
We dont even bother picking up things dropped before the fifth floor anymore because it isnt worth it. About the only thing of worth to use from those floors are the rare equipment drops, but even then, most of us could be fully decked out in bronze and leather gear. Weve just been throwing all that loot to our enchanter to practice on instead. Each piece can get him five to ten attempts before the equipment falls apart.
Ben squints at Jim, When have you been getting loot? Ive kept my ear to the ground and none of the people from here ever see any. Plus, some of you are wearing what is obviously loot, so what is up with that?
Jeremy shrugs, We have our ways of bringing the stuff out without notice. It just takes the right kind of bag. As for what we are wearing? Those pieces all came from actual stressful situations and we felt like we earned them. The rest of the stuffes from when we are running through the early floors. Getting a new helmet for killing a goat in passing doesnt really have much meaning.
Ben breathes heavily out through his nose, No, if youre trying to im that magically infused gear is so important, why arent you wearing it? I would presume that gear from the fifth floor will protect you better than gear from the first floor?
Jeremy gestures to Kelly who nods. Technically, that is true. It is hard to get any sort of worthwhile loot from the first floor, mostly because of your settlements people over-delving it. However, we did manage to test a helmet from the first and fourth floor. While we dont have any of the fancy pre-system tools to test the resistance, it was possible to get a feel for it.
So yes, they are stronger, but no it doesnt matter as much. Im sure there is a point at which the difference really shows up again, but for now the big breaking point is pre and post-system stuff. That of going from basically none to even just a little. There is a qualitative change between the two states in a simr way to how water turns into ice when you chill it enough. The water will be able to eventually wear away at the ice, but it is going to take a whole lot more of it.
Lots Of Space To Build With – Chapter 237
Doyle considers the volume of space he has to work with, because at this point that really is how he can look at it. No need to do anything fancy or try too hard to fit in awkward shapes. Just the ninth floor shows how much he can warp things. From a sphere, into a kilometer long tunnel that is five by four in size.
Though all things considered, he didnt really use all that much space. Even taking into ount leaving room for farms, he had plenty of space left over. In fact, he could have made much more than just a kilometer of tunnel. At this point, his limit was more based on the space he could fill with monsters instead of the actually avable space.
This pointed towards more environmental based dangers. After all, 33k points to spend on monsters might seem like a lot. That wasnt even one point per square meter. Not that this was ever the case. Even on the first floor, he technically had more space than that, but it was close back then.
It just seemed like less because Doyle had been using only a slice of the floor. Now that he had nailed down how to connect space seamlessly. Well, now that he realized that he could do it. Kind of not fair to his species if he tries to im it was something he figured out when it just worked automatically.
Doyle shakes himself, no need to get into the weeds like that. The tenth floor is going to be a spectacr cavern and to start the entrance will be a nice corridor of five meters wide by four meters tall. That way it would match the previous floors size. From there, though, it would expand.
As heys out the start of the corridor and ces the entrance portal, something catches his attention. The portal looks wrong. It is the same as any other portal except the first floor, but that is the problem. On one side, the portal is in the center of a big wall and it is the same on the other.
Just looking at it and you would think someone has bricked up the tunnel, leaving only a small door. Doyle was able to change the wall to look like bricks if he wanted to. He didnt. Rather, he grabbed the edges of the portal and stretched. On the first floor, he needed to carve up the wall to change the portal.
Now, while using his carvings would help, the increases in his territory control skill allowed him to change the floor portals without them. Doyle hadnt realized that, but when the disconnect between the corridor and the portal was noticed, he acted without thought and his instincts took over. Though now that he had done it once, something clicks in his head.@@novelbin@@
Doyle takes a moment to look over the portal and nods his core. While carving would have resulted in a cleaner edge, that doesnt matter if the portal extends past the stone walls. Now instead of looking like a portal on a wall, it looks like a portal is covering up the passage. The same was true on the tenth floor as well, and very much fits what he wants.
The only downside was he couldnt make it so you can see through the floor portals. There is just something about the dimensional interference that ruins such attempts. Not that Doyle tried too hard, having opaque floor portals is a good way to differentiate between an inter-floor portal and an intra-floor portal.
Doyle turns to the tenth floor proper and considers how he wants to do this. Caves and caverns are a ssic, but how big does he want it all to be? The ninth floor was long, but rtively thin all things considered.
For a boss floor, Doyle wants to go big! So while the entrance passageway continues with the same size that the previous floor was, he soon has it turn a tight corner and then expand into a modest ten by ten passage. A perfect size to allow some verticality while not going overboard.
From there, Doyle extended the passage, and asionally turned a random direction. This included having the tunnel go in a direction that should technically have it ovep with previouslyid tunnels. Except they didnt, because that would be silly.
Doyle did feel a little bad about making just another straight shot to the end, but it was a boss level and he promised himself to create a maze on the next floor. Despite the fact it was going to be a straight shot, that didnt mean the tunnel would be uniform. Some sections he tightened up, forcing a choke point because he has some ns.
Other sections, however, ballooned outward. Up and down, side to side, and sometimes multiple directions at once. Over the two kilometers of tunnel, there were 23 such locations. Doyle didnt put too much thought into the actual direction, instead just listing off the directions at random.
Those directions and tight spaces were in order down, tight, down, left, up and right, tight, down, left, right, right, up, tight, down, tight, right, left and right, down, tight, up and left, up, left, tight, up, down and right, right, tight, right, left, up and down, and he finished with another down. By themselves, these odd sections dont look like much, especially since he hasnt applied the cave pattern to the floor yet, but they do have a purpose. With all the points he has for the floor, Doyle ns to set up a number of small myconid viges.
For now, though, there is one final section to create. The two kilometers of tunnels took up only about two-thirds of the space Doyle had avable and so there was still something like one hundred kilometers squared. Some of that was technically eaten up by the expanded sections of the tunnel, but he hadnt been nning on using it all, anyway.
After all, something like a square cavern with each wall being 45 or so meters to a side would be a bit crazy at this point. Plus, Doyle needed to set up some farms anyway. So he decided to settle for a rough hemisphere with a max height in the center of around 30 meters and a diameter of around 50 meters. His boss was certainly going to have a bunch of space to work with.
Though with the basic design of the floorid out, it was time to start decorating it with the first step being easy enough. Doyle just selected the entire floor and applied the Cave Room pattern to it. This made it all look close enough to a natural cave, though he did do a second pass over everything to add in a bunch of extra stctites and mites, especially in the boss room.
While therge open cavern area definitely got spammed with the rock features, the pattern tended towards smaller ones and so none except on the edges managed to connect up. Doyle quickly fixed this with the biggest one being in the exact center. One giant dripstone cave feature that connects the ceiling to the floor.
It was still missing something. Despite Doyles best efforts to sculpt the stone, itcked one important feature. A feature that would not only give the ce the right ambiance, but also assist in a flourishing fungal infestation. That of water constantly dripping.
On the third floor he did a little work with this, but that mostly involved having a bunch of water up top that slowly worked its way down before being reset. There hadnt been any effort to make it seem natural beyond the fact it was dripping off the stone and generally went downwards. Besides that, it was basically nearly pure water with none of the dissolved sediment that would be building up the stgmites in the first ce.
That, and it all just flowed on the outside of the rock. The water wasnt draining through pores in the walls. On the third floor, if you wiped off a section of wall and stopped water from flowing down onto it, the wall would dry. For the tenth floor, Doyle wanted to make things mimic reality a little bit more.
Now, he wasnt going to let things get out of hand. With the temporal speed up that happens when delvers arent around, it is entirely possible that too much stone would build up or wear away. Doyle had a n for this though and instead went about figuring out the waterworks first. You would think this step would be simple.
The problem is that not only is the rock Doyle is using not the correct type to let water easily prate it; he doesnt have ess to the correct rocks, either. As luck would have it though, he can cheat. After all, he isnt trying to make a real habitat, just mimic one.
Though Doyles first attempt ended up a failure. His idea was simple enough and someday he might be able to aplish it. After all, if you need the rock to be porous to let water through, All he needs to do is add pores to his rock. A cute idea that probably would have taken way too much time. The reason it failed wasnt that, though.
Rather, it was the fact that with his current control of his dungeon, Doyel was unable to make small enough holes and gaps in the rock. He wanted a slow drip of water, not small jets of water spraying out. So, this turned him to the second n. That one failed as well.
The idea of heating and chilling the rock rapidly to creature fractures for water to travel through was a valid idea. It is however unfortunate that if used as part of a wall; it feels like his dungeon is damaged. The feeling isnt quite pain, more of an itch really, but Doyle isnt willing to suffer from an entire floor constantly itching for a water feature.
That left one final idea. While not quite the correct stone, the cave look he was going for was more of a limestone cave, it was likely Doyle could create a more porous stone, specifically sandstone. That stuff is basically sand which has been pressed together really hard for a long period of time. Though he does somewhat remember there was a pre-system method of making the stuff that involved bacteria? Or was it basically a method simr to cement with different base materials?
Doyle couldnt quite remember and at the moment didnt honestly care. What was important was if he could pressure some sand enough to make sandstone. This was easy enough to test. The hardest part was actually making the sand because sand isnt just ground up rock. It is made of all kinds of minerals that have ended up being eroded by water. Good thing he isnt trying to make literal sandstone or else it would have been even moreplicated.
As it is, Doyle used a few different ingredients to perfect his pseudo sand. Of those, what stood out was quartz, a tiny amount of iron, ss, and egg shells. While the resulting mixture was still mostly volcanic rock ck, the color definitely was more towards gray than not.
It had taken a light hand with the iron dust and powdered egg shell to get a color he could ept as not being too far off. Still, it was finished and so Doyle absorbed some of it. Then was promptly disappointed when he checked his status. The mixture wasnt added to his list of patterns. Though strangely enough, he did feel like he could create the stuff, even if the resulting quality would entirely depend on the patterns used to make it.
This didnt phase Doyle too much. The fact that it allowed him to duplicate it at all was good enough. Though he was certain that someday he would get ess to some sand. After all, there was a river right next to the town. Eventually someone is going to end up in the dungeon with some sand in their pants cuff or at the bottom of their bag.
Intent On A Mushroom Forest – Chapter 238
Happy with his creation, Doyle creates a ton of the pseudo sand inside an empty room. Well, it looks like a room. Viewed from the outside and it showed a different appearance. The walls on the inside all seemed to fit together perfectly, but outside each wall had a bit sticking over the edge of the others.
Since sandstone is in theory a simple enough sediment, Doyle nned to try the simplest method he could think of. Those walls are all put together in such a way that you cant shrink the inner space. A thing that he promptly begins to do at a slow pace.
Doyle isnt certain how strong he is, but the chance of going too far and creating more of a solid block than a porous material was notpletely impossible. It would in theory be hard, but then again, he hadnt ever tested his actual strength since bing a dungeon core. For all he knew, he could have the strength to crush coal into diamonds.
That being an interesting idea, though he put it to the side forter. At the moment he just wants to make some sandstone. Nevermind the failed pile of sand from when he tried to just squeeze it without the stone walls. Now that he has properly secured the sand, applying pressure to any side of the cube is simplicity itself.
So, Doyle presses and presses. This would probably be harder for your average person as they wouldnt know if it worked until they opened up the container. Good thing Doyle can see what has happened inside with perfect rity, turning what would have been multiple tests to get the feel right into a single try.
And by single try, Doyle means he only tried the test once. Yet it failed, but he had totally meant to keep pressing until it became a solid block. It totally wasnt him identally going too far and deciding that screw it, might as well see how far it can go.
Now knowing how hard he needs to press, Doyle makes the perfect example of what he wants. There was one final test to do on it, but first he absorbs the block and once again doesnt get a new pattern. As this was the second time and he was watching for it, there is a bit of a hint as to why this was the case.
While deconstructing the block, even if Doyle does get a sense of how to put it all back together, he also gets a sense of how on a magical level each grain is still a piece of the previous material. This is quite interesting and makes him wonder what one of those machine made diamonds from before the system would feel like.
From what Doyle can tell, certain precious materials do have magical value to them. On top of that, this pseudo sandstone he had just made would not work as a substitute for real sandstone. This points towards natural gems finally having something on the machine made ones besides the mystique that was cultivated by the diamond industry to boost the value of their natural gems.
Not that Doyle particrly cares. As far as he can tell, the material he creates from a pattern counts, so he just needs one speck of diamondrge enough and he can create as much as he wants. Though this does open up another avenue for leveling up his patterns.
Up until now, Doyle had been focusing on the physical aspects of the material. A perfectly shaped grain of sugar for instance. It seems that he doesnt just have to pay attention to the physical shape, but the mystical intent as well. A perfect grain of sugar shouldnt just be the right shape and ingredients. That grain of sugar should also be magically aligned properly as well.
Though Doyle puts that thought aside for the moment. There is too much to look into with that, especially since there are probably near infinitebinations of intent you could say was just right for sugar. Just looking at the four ssic elements of fire, water, wind, and earth shows potential. Water aligned sugar for simple syrup, fire aligned if it needs to melt, wind for cotton candy, and earth for stuff like hard candy.
Even just thinking that though turns his thoughts to the other ssic system of elements which had five. Though there are only two new elements to deal with, which are wood and metal. Wood being easy enough, just a general boost to the various raw sugars. Metal is a little more difficult to figure out, maybe use it for chewing gum? Might make itst longer instead of the usual result of the vor instantly escaping.
Doyle shakes himself again, interesting topic, but not what he is doing at the moment. He now has something close enough to sandstone that water will seep through it like he wanted. Sure, it is very weak, but he doesnt n to make the entire floor out of it. Instead, he does a thin coat of the stuff over any surface he wants watering from.
This mostly meant the ceiling with a focus on the areas around the stctites. Though he does swirl it all along the walls so no section of the cave would ever be truly free of the damp. Then he cheated. Out in the world, water would being from some aquifer and that is technically true for the tenth floor.
Except instead of the water being saturated in the ground, the aquifer is literally just a giant pool of water, which gravitationally is above everything else. Then Doyle sets up a bunch of tiny channels to guide the water where it needs to go. On the third floor he didnt have to worry too much about water running out as even being a maze, people didnt stay too long on the floor. Two kilometers of distance is starting to get up there and people might end up taking a while to clear the floor.
That meant the water not only had tost longer, but it needed somewhere to go. Good thing Doyle had put in those sections where the tunnel expanded down. He wasnt going to make those areas deep pools of water, but they certainly werent going to have drynd at the bottom. Instead, it would be swampy terrain with more of the sandstone to act as a drain of sorts.
All that was left now was getting the water correct. Pure spring water mighte from under the ground, but it didnte from a limestone cave. All that water seeping down through the rock was picking up minerals and sediment. The water was technically picking up a tiny bit of the stuff while going through his sandstone.
Two problems with that, though. One was that he didnt actually want the floor eroding away so there was going to be some rules tweaking to make it so that didnt happen. And two was the fact that even if he did, let it erode the sandstone, it simply wasnt picking up enough stuff.
Instead, Doyle made a little water recycler. A simple enough thing. Water would filter through a block of his sandstone and drip down into a collection funnel. That funnel would then dump the water out right back on top of the sand stone. Because portals.
Then it was a waiting game until the water reached the mineral saturation that Doyle was looking for. This resulted in the level of his water pattern jumping all the way from four to 21. He isnt quite sure why it was such a jump, though he can tell that unlike the pseudo sandstone, this mineral rich water actually counted as something new and not just water and something else. Though sadly the suspended silt still wasnt allowed to count as sand when the water was removed. There seemed to be a step missing somewhere for that to happen.@@novelbin@@
An interesting thing forter, because now that it was finished Doyle couldy on the nextyer of decoration, the soil. While his mushrooms could technically grow on bare rock thanks to this being a dungeon, he wanted to have it be more realistic as well as easier for people to harvest any interesting mushrooms they might want.
First was a goodyer of dungeon soil at the bottom of the variousrge pits. The soil is honestly a little too fertile for this kind of environment, then again it always was. Though at least the nice ck soil matched the stone of the area, even if for different reasons.
After that, Doyle spread the soil around the various areas before dumping a bunch of water all over the ce. Not only did this form some atmospheric puddles and pools all over the ce, but it also washed away any dirt in ces it really shouldnt be. A much easier solution to making the area look natural.
Though speaking of looking natural, the next step is adding in all the shrooms. A task easily aplished by summoning in a ton of sprout swarms. The little things bumbled all over the ce, spreading spores which would grow into random fungi as well as more sprouts asionally as there were points avable and he allowed it. Soon enough, every single bit of soil and sandstone that wasnt at the top of the ceiling was covered in a carpet of fungus.
Not just normal fungus, though. It seems that floor ten is saturated enough with world energy that the naturally grown shrooms started to deviate. There wasnt any change that was too big, except for the fact that many ended up being big. The entire tunnel, especially the boss cavern, turned into a literal mushroom forest like you see in fantasy stories. Convenient since that is exactly the kind of location Doyle had been imagining for his Myconids.
That, however, might not have been an ident. After all, Doyle is the dungeon, and so the very intent for this sort of setting might have been the catalyst for it to form. Not that Doyle thought of this on a conscious level, though it was percting down beneath the surface.
Anyway, whatever the case might be, Doyle is happy with the results and so pulls back to get a nice birds eye view of the floorsyout. Everything is rtively t, though that right away makes him frown. All those pools of water are nice, but the water isnt really draining as well as he would like. This was easy enough to fix though, and didnt require any real changes.
All Doyle had to do was add the tiniest of slope towards the nearest pit. It wasnt even enough for someone to notice unless they were really looking for it. The kind of t where you would put a pencil down on the surface with the expectation of it staying in ce only to be shocked when it rolls away.
After that it was time to n the small myconid viges and how many of the mushroom men he was going to have on the floor. First step is of course to subtract ten percent of the spending limit, that way there would be enough space in the farm to have a recement for every monster. No more than a single recement of course, but with myconids and how they can multiply like crazy there isnt as much worry about keeping a breeding pair.
Though Doyle does take the current batch of sprouts and marks them as separate. Spores might easily turn real enough to reproduce, but it still took time for the sprouts to actually start growing new myconids. Sure, technically, he could probably get away with just one sprout being kept back to repopte the floor. Doyle however wanted to keep at least some of the experience they might develop.
Anyway, after taking out that Doyle is left with 30,132 points to spend on monsters. Except since he isnt using goats or any of the other lower-cost monsters those trailing 32 points are meaningless. After all, the cheapest monster he is going to use is the Lesser Myconid, which clocks in at 150 points.
Ninjas – Chapter 240
Thest group of first floor farmers called themselves entrepreneurs and smirked as they left Wolfs Rest. None of them really talked about their ns to one another, but they all had the same idea. They were already semi-rich and had connections to most merchants that visited Wolfs Rest so the obvious answer was to lord it over less fortunate settlements.
So, one by one they trickled out to find a settlement to call their own. The idiots. Many of them didnt even manage to make it all that far from the ce up river. One man against the wild just isnt what it used to be. Others found splinter settlements. ces that formed when a group would split off from arger group.
The ones who found those groups were both the luckiest and the most unlucky. Some would strike it rich by bringing in beef and other such supplies they bought and then marked up for the locals. Others would find themselves buried in a shallow grave as not all of those splinter groups were nice people. Some were proto-bandits and others were just violently exclusionary.
Then there was thest group which went to the already connected settlements. Those mostly ended up living in mediocrity. Their money was spent to buy goods and then sell them again at a slim margin. After all, the merchants already were selling stuff in those ces piecemeal. So while it was convenient to sell it all to one person, it also wasnt worth too much of a discount.
Though not all of these people were as they seemed. While no new people were allowed into the core group, that didnt mean they hadnt been working to develop people. It would be pointless to try and be circumspect about it, the Barrais and Jim set up their own group of ninjas. Though more towards the ssical covert agent style of ninja than the funny hand signs to do magic ninjas.
Not that they couldnt learn those things, they just focused on stealth, blending in, and gathering information. So yeah, that third group? Every settlement had at least a couple middlemen who were more than meets the eye.
Jim in particr was happy with the oue as it allowed him to set up a bunch of sub-guilds in secret. That way, it will take a bit of time for others to realize just what his position actually entails. Though in some of the tutorial settlements it took all of the training, the ninjas had received to ce the sub-guild without notice.
On one hand, the process itself was simple enough. All it required was an official writ bought from the system for ten gold. Then a person had to bring it to a system recognized settlement and either get whoever was in charge to sign the writ or if no one was in charge, they could use it right away.
The ce upriver ended up being the easiest to take care of since they had Ben around to sign it for them. The others? Well, that is what the ninja skills were for. After all, it didnt involve any sort of system pop-up or anything and the person didnt actually have to read the document to sign it. A bit of a gray area when ites to ethics, so good thing Jim had ninjas doing it and not pdins.
Though even with all the people who left, Jim still had arge problem. It wasnt obvious at first, but when groups started to consistently note back, everyone realized something was wrong. That problem was that the sixth floor had the most effective counter to counter people from winning with numbers. All of the cattle simply stampeded you down if you had more than six people on the floor.
Quite the headache for Jim as they simply had no easy method to tell if someone was left on the sixth floor. Except there was a method and Jim has simply been avoiding it because of the cost. He and the rest of the core remembered how tough it was just to afford the town anchor. Every single writ he had to buy was like squeezing blood from a stone and now he needed to spend 100 gold for a simple option in his guild menu.
That much gold represented a staggering amount of work and the only reason they had the cash was that merchants preferred to pay in coin. Still, even with how much loot flowed out from the dungeon every day, that much money represented a couple weeks to a month of work. If it wasnt for the fact that the dungeon tended to drop more money for guild members, Jim would not have been able to afford it on top of the already crazy amount of money he had to put down for the sub-guilds.
In the end, though, he had to unlock the option. Jim couldnt leave things the way they were as none of the floors starting with the boss floor had any instances. It would be too simple for someone to get another killed by poking their nose in where they should be. At least the option came with a ton of sub-options and quality of life features.
{Disy Instance Avability: [Y]/n
Prevent raiding on non-raid floors: y/[N]
Warn People before they enter an active instance: [Y]/n
Allow People in an instance to prevent others from entering: [Y]/n
Max time people can have an instance to themselves: [3h]/n}
And that was just the first panel of options. There were also a ton of less straightforward ones that allowed Jim to customize how people could handle things. Though for the most part, Jim kept it simple.
People in an instance could prevent others from entering during the first three hours they were on the floor and that was cumtive until they left the dungeon. When someone tries to enter an instance that is in use, those in said instance are polled on if they want to allow more people in. Though they can choose a default answer if they are a guild member.
If people do choose to raid a floor, the guild will be alerted. Along with that, guild officials have the option to enter an instance without alerting those already in it. That and a few other secret functions made for a much better flow of delvers.@@novelbin@@
However, even with all this extra info, Jim was still in the end limited in what knowledge he had. The system would only inform them if an instance had anyone on it. Whether that meant a full team of six or a single person hiding somewhere with both legs broken. He happily epted these limitations as any information was worth it.
There was however one bit of information that Jim would have dearly loved to have. That of how many floors the dungeon had? All the system would tell them was up the farthest floor someone had gotten to, returned from, and reported to the adventurers guild about. So, if Ace and his team ended up beating the eighth floor and there was a ninth floor, Jim wouldnt have information on it until someone from Aces group reported it. An interesting limitation that annoyed Jim quite a bit.
All that aside, the purchase meant that both the town and the guild were going to be tight on coins. Not quite as bad as when they were first starting out, but then again, there was more stuff to be bought with the coins. Jim could only shake his head, they wouldnt have needed to do this if they could have simply unlocked the next rank of soulmp. The damn tes only worked until the fifth floor.
Jim can only shake his head. The ability for him to tell which floors are actively being delved will be useful in the future even if they unlock the next grade ofmps tomorrow. Though if they did unlock it tomorrow, well, he would need some time alone to let off some steam.
It did not unlock the next day. In fact, it didnt unlock until five dayster. That was still way too soon for Jims taste. Not that Doyle even noticed this bit of drama.
Doyle had taken a break only for Ally to inform him about the change with the dungeon. So, after hearing about that had happened, he checked the options he had and was overall happy with what Jim had gotten. Though he did notice the option to unlock the next tier of soulmps had popped up since so many people were delving the post-boss floors..
The upgraded soulmps would have unlocked naturally once the tenth floor boss was beaten, but Doyle decided not to wait. Though much to everyones annoyance, the new soulmps didnt tell them how many floors it would work for. Not even Doyle was informed if they would keep working even past the tenth floor.
Doyle didnt let this get to him, mostly because there was something more interesting going on. Ben had been in town for a good bit at this point and Doyle decided to use the rest of his break on figuring out how he was doing. After all, he would have had time to put down roots in the town and who knew how much Ace might have done to help him so Doyle was feeling optimistic about his situation.
Ben wasnt feeling quite that optimistic. The town had provided a house in the outer ring. Quite a nice house in fact. If not for the fact that he needed all the space to house the people that had followed him. At the start of this whole mess, he would have been sure of himself, knowing why they followed him.
Now? Ben was definitely falling into depression and wasnt sure why they bothered staying with him. Though even talking about it as depression caused problems because he couldnt have that! He was supposed to berge and in charge.
Doyle quickly switched away from watching him as it was clear how things were going. Instead, he switched to one of Bens followers? Friends? Whatever you call them, there was one who was doing more than just hanging around in their house.
Not only that, but Doyle recognized her. It was thedy from the group who had tried to take over Wolfs Rest when it was just Ace andpany. A rtively peaceful interaction if you dont count the threats involved. Anyway, she was the one holding their group together at this point.
The only problem was she still wanted Ben to take charge and lead the group. Doyle could tell that Ace really wanted her taking over, but he wasnt going to force things. Though there was a big difference between not forcing things and a gentle push in the right direction.
Of course, Ace wasnt personally doing this, rather he had handed this duty off to Doctor since he had been dabbling in psychology. It was not enough to offer to help people, but it didnt stop him from pulling the right strings to start her thinking about it. After all, at the moment Ben was still the system recognized leader of the ce up river, but if they let it sit too long, who knows what their council would do if they felt like taking the title?
Doyle didnt even watch this little soap opera y out for all that long and he could already see what was up. Though he would be the first to admit he wasnt the best person to ask about social problems. If it was him, he would have just taken over until Ben was well enough to hand the responsibility back over.
Maybe thedy didnt trust herself to give the power back or that Ben might never be ready if he wasnt forced to recover? Not the healthiest things. Then again, Doyles opinion was that he would rather not be in charge of a group. And yes, he does recognize the irony of saying that when his job as a dungeon is pushing him into that exact kind of position.
New Skill – Chapter 241
What Doyle missed was that Ace was preparing alternate options in case things go south. In Aces opinion, no one else in the little group of rebels was proper leadership material. Ben had done an amazing job of picking up followers, but that is all theyre good for. Give them a task and theyll do it. Ask them to make a decision and they turn it back on Ben or thedy.
All of this and more was extracted from the group within only a few interviews. In fact, the reason they were given a single big house was to centralize them. Ace was actually worried what would happen when they got back to the ce up river.
Then again, Ace was worried about them in general. The others in the group didnt seem to have any mental issues and yet something has caused them to lose some of that spark that makes a person their own being. Doctors best guess is that the systems arrival broke them. Theyre still the people they were before, but with such an unpredictable event they just cant.
Doctor even suspected that most of them stayed with Ben less because of loyalty and more because he asked them to follow him before the council did. Not that all the people were quite in it that deep. In fact, Doctor had managed to start pulling some of them back to reality. Ace, however, stopped him from going too far.
If they fully woke up, as it were, they might want to leave Ben and that could be thest straw. Instead, Ace had Doctor keep them stable and productive. Though thatst one wasnt exactly the hardest. You just give them a task and theyll do it if they feel capable of it. If they dont? Theyll just turn it down until you stop trying to push it on them.
Ace found it somewhat funny that one of the first post-system locks was being used to guard the psych reports of people who werent even citizens of his town. Not that he could control it. Still, Ace was hopeful that thedy would pick up where Ben had left off and Doctor was low key prepping the group for the handover.
They werent in too much of a rush, though. The ninjas had gotten an in with the council up river so there would be a warning if things were going to go down.
And so time passed and six dayster, deep in the dungeon, Doyle finished setting up the tenth floor. It was a tough problem as he really had wanted to put a town in each of the mini caverns along the way to the boss cavern. Nevermind the fact that he wanted a few myconids to go around and build stuff. Except thatst bit ended up solving his problem.
Why limit himself to only making one settlement? There arent any rules saying he cant have abandoned viges. In fact, the fungal construction skill made it so things would work out even better.
So what was Doyles solution? Simple, he would have only a few of the mini caverns be inhabited at once and the myconids would be migratory. As one ce falls apart, a group of myconids would move in and the construction crew would build it anew.
It wasnt fancy and Doyle wasnt going to have to use his dungeon rules to make it work. That, however, was the beauty of it to him. The floor wouldnt be resetting or randomly moved around like some of his other floors. Instead, it would naturally develop.@@novelbin@@
Mind you, he understood this likely wouldnt be noticed by most people. While things would change, it wouldnt be fast and what did change wouldnt mechanically do anything. To Doyle though, it was like one of those ant farms. Fun to watch even if in the end nothing really changed.
That, however, doesnt exin what each settlement would have in it or how many. Because sure, random migrations are cool, but it still has to be a dungeon floor. So with that in mind, the earlier settlements will have weaker monsters.
There were a total of eight groups in the mini caverns, which means a third of the caverns will be inhabited at any point in time. Those seven groups were split into three. Oh, and of course the group of three construction myconids were free roaming.
So, the first of the three types had three groups and was made of three swarms, two lesser, one myconid, and nine shriekers. Next up had three groups and was made of five swarms, three lesser, one guard, one myconid, nine shriekers, and one violet fungus. Thest had the final groups and contained the same as the second except it had three myconids, 30 shriekers, and 3 violet fungus.
All those groups ended up costing a smidge under 15k points. This was a few thousand less than he had originally been nning until he started doing the math for the myconid boss. It of course used the three free levels, but then on top of that it needed five more levels over the floors limits. That added up to 1,500 points, which on its own isnt that much, until you remember that it then got multiplied by five for an actual total of 7,500 points.
Doyle had been ying with the idea of a raid boss, but that would have to wait for quite a few more points to spend. A raid involves six parties and so a raid boss takes up six boss slots. Not a problem at the moment, except each of those slots requires an extra expense. The good news is that each extra slot does not in fact require the amount to be multiplied by five.
While the number of points avable does go up at a decent clip, it would take quite a while before he has almost 23 and a half million points to spend. However, each slot used costs the original boss cost over again. That meant instead of 7,500 points, a raid boss myconid would cost 45,000 points. The floor didnt even start with that many to spend before he took out the farm tithe.
Sure, Doyle could have made it a half raid and it would have only cost 22,500 points or set up another few myconids as bosses. In the end though, that wasnt what he had envisioned for the floor so those nifty options would have to wait. In particr, boosting his Intelligence gained more importances as besides another path to boost the multiplier, that was the best way to get more points on his future floors.
So, along with the boss myconids, the final group in therge cavern was made up of ten swarms, nine lesser, three guards, eight myconids, 34 shriekers, and five violet fungus. This was quite therge number of monsters, but they all fit in the final cavern with room to spare. Oh, and while technically not part of the group, the three construction myconids would walk towards the final cavern and depending on how close to the floors entrance would decide if they made it.
But that was all just the monsters. If Doyle had been only focusing on them, he could have been finished in a short afternoon. While limits can spur creativity, there is only so much you can do with six fungus monsters on a fungus floor. No, where most of his time got spent was on designing the settlements.
Though you might remember that Doyle was going to let the myconids build their settlements, so how could he be designing them? Sure, he could hard-code what the settlements should look like into them. That still wouldnt be in line with his goal.
Doyles answer was simple enough, partly cribbed from Ace, and yet itted him a new skill. At the most basic level it is an extension of that old saying, build it and they wille. Except in this case it was more along the lines of, build a road and theyll build on it. Ace used this idea to make sure people mostly colored inside the lines when building stuff in the second ring and Doyle raised stone in such a way as to leave stone paths.
Though that was just on the surface. A myconid vige was more than just houses on a road. They would be building areas to grow their mushrooms, ces to grow different mushrooms, and of course other ces to grow mushrooms. Yeah, the myconids mostly grew a variety of mushrooms for all their situations.
Going to another old saying, if all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail, except in this case all the myconids had was mushrooms. There were differences, though. Food mushrooms, tree mushrooms, construction mushrooms that somehow differ from tree mushrooms, and mushrooms that get turned into small objects. Thest one in particr needed those shelf mushrooms, which was a little difficult as they generally grow on actual trees and dont quite mesh with the tree mushrooms.
So, after having a small group of myconids build a town for themselves, Doyle got to work sculpting the terrain so the settlements would be built in a way beneficial to the dungeon. Of course, there were the roads. Simple enough to make as all that involved was raising some stone just slightly above the rest and made the stone itself denser. That way they wouldnt gather standing water and mushrooms would have a harder time taking root.
After that was creating some shallow areas for water to pool and raising areas to prevent that. This would cause the myconids to grow food mushrooms closer to the pools and the trees farther. The reason for this is the food required a ton of water. Doyle wasnt certain where they came from or if the food mushrooms even existed on his world before he brought in the myconids, but they seemed to store a ton of water in their stalks.
You could tell the food mushrooms were ripe by when they fell over. The stalk was just so soft that it couldnt hold the fully grown cap up. This was actually an interesting tactic as by falling over it caused arge portion of their spores to puff up into the air.
Doyle ended up having to stop himself, though. Not because he was finished, but because he had a feeling like when using his biosphere bncing skill, yet different. A quick check of his skill list showed he had gained the Vige nner skill and once he realized that he understood. Shaping the terrain anymore and it would change from nning out the myconid settlements and instead turn into him basically cing everything himself and just letting the myconids do a bit of the style.
This realization didnt quite make sense until he thought of two pre-system video games. What the new skill was focused on was like those city sim games where you could zone an area, but the simtion would decide what went where. If he tried to design things further, it would turn from that and into a family sim. While cing every individual wall to a house can be fun, that isnt what Doyle wanted.
Though, of course, with this new knowledge, he couldnt help but take a look at Wolfs Rest. After a few days of observing the ce in action, Doyle decides they did a decent job and likely someone Ace trusted had, if not Vige nner, then at least a simr skill. In fact, Doyle was mostly certain it was another skill, one that is more general.
This was simple enough to see once Doyle let his own skill guide his instincts while looking at the town. At first it had felt like his skill because the second ring area was very much built on those principles. Someone had nned out the area and then others had built it however they wanted.
The inner ring, on the other hand,cked the feeling at first. It was all built off of a single centralized design and people followed it. Except the closer Doyle looked, the more he felt principles of his skill at y there. In the end, while he couldnt feel much from the inner ring, he could tell that both areas were intertwined.
A Monument Appears – Chapter 243
Doyle nods to himself, for good or ill, paths are the time to trust yourself. So with confidence that probably wasnt earned yet, tells the system to put 15 points into Communities of Myriad Heritages.
{15 points applied to Communities of Myriad Heritages I...
5/15 - You have earned +20 Destiny, Beings that are created or born withinmunities that identify themselves as being in and around your location and all monster patterns gain +2 Strength
10/15 - You have earned +2 Karma/Level, Communities that identify themselves as being in and around your Location have boosted Luck depending on how much they identify with your location
15/15 - Path Complete, The more varied themunities that identify themselves as being in and around your Location the more chances there are at gaining otherworldly heritages}
Doyle sighs to himself as he notices the vague wording on what the path effects. About the only clear cut bit that isnt for himself is tacked onto his monsters, and even that is a little wonky. It is easy enough for him to guess that this represents an innate boost like with the one cow path. Though this bonus has the potential to be a whole lot more sweeping in its coverage. So much so that he feels the need to ask Ally what is up with the path.
Ally had a simr reaction to Doyle, though after thinking about it and a few searches she groans. This is a very powerful path which luckily will not be traced back to you. What it represents is that intangible something people connect to ces where you believe certain groups are just better at something because of the location. Maybe one country is believed to have mostly smart people or another is seen as a warrior nation with a bunch of strong men.
They arent always right. Sometimes it is just that the people living in those ces are raised a certain way. Other times, people will just be born with better stats. This boost is one of those known unknowns.
You would think that if being born near a ce gave everyone born there plus two Strength, it would be obvious. That, however, is where the vague condition to get the bonuses into y. For this bonus to apply, the parents have to genuinely be a part of themunity and thatmunity has to view itself as being connected to your location.
So that ce up river wouldnt get this bonus as they see themselves as separate. While on the other hand, a settlement even farther away might actually get it because they see all the locally connected settlements as being one location. This can even extend to the entire and sometimes local satellites, both natural and not.
Doyle tilts to the side, So it is possible that eventually every human born on the will get a two point head start on Strength?
Ally shrugs, Maybe? It all depends on intention. A team of scientists setting up an enve literally right next to your dungeon might not benefit from it because they see themselves as separate. All the while, a family of illegal immigrants from another who end up on the opposite side of the could end up benefiting from the bonus if they believe they are connected and their settlement believes the same.
Honestly, for your bonus to cover the you would need to end up being a World Wonder. Which before you ask, differ from Heritage sites. A heritage site is simply a location that marks important events in history. A World Wonder defines the world. If I had topare it to anything, I would say that World Wonders are to locations what Artifacts are to magic items. Strange things that like to break the rules.
Doyleughs, And what are Artifacts? Though more seriously, I guess it is a good thing that I dont have to worry about this particr bonus being linked back to me. It seems that with every few paths I end up stumbling upon something that threatens to reveal what I am.
Ally, Thats because you are, at least to a certain extent. While paths are personalized, there is only so much they can do. Besides, your path is at odds with how things usually go. Naturally awakened dungeon cores will tend towards being less human and so less likely to get paths that benefit everyone. On the other hand, having lived as a human there is a certain amount of society built into you.@@novelbin@@
Even at your most introverted, you still had a job that involved going out and interacting with others in a positive manner whether you wanted to or not. That means that when you get paths, they are more likely to provide wide spread minor buffs instead of a major self buff. So even if you didnt want this, it is a little toote.
Besides, youve already built both your boss floors intomunities. It doesnt matter if you tried to bepletely anti-social. With those in ce, youve already started down this path with no chance to turn back.
Doyle grumbles about this a little before turning back to the list of paths. After all, he had a good few points left to spend. Though what he sees, surprises him.
{Points: 90
ss: Dungeon Core III 100/100, Awakened Dungeon Core II 10/10
Location [1/2 I]: Kobold Community II 30/30, Communities of Myriad Heritages I 15/15
Completed: Goat Supremacy 20/20, Energy Well I 3/3, Commanding Subordinates 12/12, Ageless Queens 15/15, Earths First Home of the Limit Breakers I 1/1, Biomes Aplenty 5/5, Potion Dispensary 10/10, Elemental Animals 5/5, Cows for Milk 12/12, Vegetation Variety 20/20, Divine Border 1/1, Know Your Enemies 10/10, Pathfinder, [UNIQUE] 1/1, Community Driven 10/10, Monster Rancher 50/50, Community Builder 30/30, Extra Amodations 75/75, Energy Well II 6/6
Started [1/3]: [TRINITY] 21/1000
Avable: Awakened Dungeon Core III 10/100, Awakened Spatial Dungeon core I 0/1, Dungeon Core of Awakened Intent I 0/1, Traditional Kobold Community I 0/1, Heritage Kobold Community I 0/1, Vine Warper 0/15, Kin yer 0/100, Voidborn 0/250, Axe Sharpener 0/5, Expansionist 0/30, Fires Flying 0/7, Deal Broker 0/10, All the Potions 0/60, Boss Builder 0/50, Engraver 0/5, Godly Negotiator 0/500, Heavenly Gate 0/350, n Head 0/25, Five Cornered Square Initiate 0/100, Raising The Floor 0/100, Into The Infinite 0/60, Floors Within Floors 0/10, Phrenic Friend 0/120, PsiBane I 0/200, PsiBoon I 0/200, Deep Rules 0/500, Time Will Wait 0/500, Monster Rancher II 0/100, Energy Well III 0/18}
Doyle hadpletely forgotten about how location paths worked and so had not been expecting to see the koboldmunity paths still on the list. In fact, he was surprised that it listed how many rank one paths he had and could have. That second one in particr would be useful once he had higher rank location paths.
For now, though, it pointed out that he could take the heritage path for the kobolds. A decision which was almost made even before he finished reading the avable paths. Though he did wait to finish reading before telling the system to buy the path.
{15 points applied to Heritage Kobold Community I...
5/15 - You have earned +2 Wisdom/Level, Kobolds get +2 Wisdom/Level, Kobolds within your Dungeons Territory are more likely to formmunities and thosemunities are more likely to be controlled by kobolds with higher mind stats instead of body stats
10/15 - You have earned 5 ssic Kobold Trap Patterns, Kobolds get +2 Agility/Level, Koboldmunities within your Dungeons Territory are more likely to develop rules and traditions which have shown good results
15/15 - Path Complete, Extranar Kobold Heritage stone Monument ced within fifth floor Kobold Community, Kobolds from a simr lineage as the ones in your Dungeon are more likely to appear on any world where you are present, Kobolds on any world where you are present are born with +1 to all mental stats}
{Kobold Pitfall Pattern gained at lv13
Kobold Murder Hole Pattern gained at lv13
Kobold Rock Fall Pattern gained at lv13
Kobold Trip Wire Pattern gained at lv13
Kobold Dart Trap Pattern gained at lv13
Kobold pitfall, kobold murder hole, kobold rock fall, kobold trip wire, and kobold dart trap patterns merged into Kobold Trap Patterns lv14}
Doyle saw right off the bat a major head scratcher of a capstone reward and so focuses on everything else first. Though it looks like this path wasnt going to be helping Wolfs Rest like the previous location path did. Not only are kobolds going to be moremon, theyre going to be smarter as well. Thatst one was honestly going to be a bit of a toss up.
Either the kobolds would be smart enough to not cause too much trouble for the town or they were going to be smart enough to cause a ton of problems. Maybe both, only time will tell. Though the fact thatmunities within his territory, which he had been spreading out since it wasnt connected to Energy Well anymore, would be more organized would help.
Some might see that as a potential negative as well. After all, since they are more organized and more likely to be led by a smart kobold, themunities would be more able to hide themselves. Doyle however sees it as a negative for any overly troublesomemunity that forms nearby. After all, he very much doubts they would be able to avoid Jim tracking down their home location and since theyre all in one ce, theyre easier to take care of all at once.
Though with that Doyle is left with the capstone, maybe quite literally as he hasnt seen it yet, the Extranar Kobold Heritage stone Monument. A monument that the system has already graciously ced on the fifth floor. So, not wanting to take any chances, he calls in Ally before poking at anything or even looking at the thing.
Ally, upon hearing what he received is honestly quite shocked. While the systems source lies outside this dimension and could in fact be called extranar itself, that does not mean it has ess to extranar stuff. So sure, it could make replicas of things its creators have pulled from elsewhere, but they would not be listed as extranar.
Not wanting to dy it anymore and noticing that Doyle isnt doing too well with this revtion, Ally pulls up a screen to disy the fifth floor kobold settlement. Suffice it to say, the monument isnt hard to find. Right in the center of the settlement where the boss throne had been was arge stone structure.
The monument looked like a mix between a step pyramid and an obelisk. Though the steps are smaller than Doyle is used to seeing to make up for the kobolds being shorter than humans on average. The pyramid part actually isnt all that big, just fouryers, so while it does rise above the other buildings, it isnt by much. On the other hand, the obelisk at the top makes up for it by rising nearly to the ceiling.
More impressive, though, is what is carved on the monument. A parade of kobold forms and a writtennguage that mimicked marks you could make with a w. The forms were varied and strange. There were, of course normal kobolds, but beyond that it went off in all directions. Frilled kobolds, crested kobolds, winged kobolds, kobolds with the lower body of a snake, furred dog-like kobolds, kobolds with spikes all over their bodies, kobolds with fire billowing off their bodies, and so many more.
In fact, the farther up you went, the stranger the kobolds got until you got the obelisks capstone. Upon that capstone was only ever one kobold, though the image would change seemingly at random and yet despite each image being crystal clear, they would appear blurred to any viewer. Maybe if Doyle hadnt met Moota or Jess, he wouldnt have realized what they represented. Each image that appeared on that capstone was a representation of a Kobold Deity.
Doyle was feeling really nervous about that up until Ally startedughing. She wiped a tear from her eye before exining, That capstone really gave me a fright. Good thing it isnt actually connected to any of those deities being depicted. Like, maybe our kobolds will be able to more easily reach out and worship one deity or another, but that is it.
This monument was crafted by mortal hands without godly interference and was meant only to record, not connect. Almost a shame as I can tell they put more than 90% of the work into that capstone, carving hyper realistic and highly meaningful images of their gods. However, since this was purely a mortal work it looks like one or more of the depicted deities decided they wanted some privacy and so now you can only see a blur.
Some Of You Have Been Asking For This – Chapter 245
After that, Doyle turns back to his paths, after all, he still has a good number of points to spend.
{Points:75
ss: Dungeon Core III 100/100, Awakened Dungeon Core II 10/10
Location [2/1 I]: Heritage Kobold Community I 15/15, Communities of Myriad Heritages I 15/15
Completed: Goat Supremacy 20/20, Energy Well I 3/3, Commanding Subordinates 12/12, Ageless Queens 15/15, Earths First Home of the Limit Breakers I 1/1, Biomes Aplenty 5/5, Potion Dispensary 10/10, Elemental Animals 5/5, Cows for Milk 12/12, Vegetation Variety 20/20, Divine Border 1/1, Know Your Enemies 10/10, Pathfinder, [UNIQUE] 1/1, Community Driven 10/10, Monster Rancher 50/50, Community Builder 30/30, Extra Amodations 75/75, Energy Well II 6/6, Kobold Community II 30/30
Started [1/3]: [TRINITY] 21/1000
Avable: Awakened Dungeon Core III 10/100, Awakened Spatial Dungeon core I 0/1, Dungeon Core of Awakened Intent I 0/1, Vine Warper 0/15, Kin yer 0/100, Voidborn 0/250, Axe Sharpener 0/5, Expansionist 0/30, Fires Flying 0/7, Deal Broker 0/10, All the Potions 0/60, Boss Builder 0/50, Engraver 0/5, Godly Negotiator 0/500, Heavenly Gate 0/350, n Head 0/25, Five Cornered Square Initiate 0/100, Raising The Floor 0/100, Into The Infinite 0/60, Floors Within Floors 0/10, Phrenic Friend 0/120, PsiBane I 0/200, PsiBoon I 0/200, Deep Rules 0/500, Time Will Wait 0/500, Monster Rancher II 0/100, Energy Well III 0/18}
As he nces over the list, Doyle nods. It looks to be just about what he expected. Though seeing all those early paths cluttering up the list feels a little wrong. Not that he is going to waste points on them. Well, not waste, every path has a benefit to it. However, he isnt the same person he was when they became an option. He had traveled other paths and seen the sights.
Those old paths no longer matched him. Well, most of them didnt match him. A few still felt connected to him. Though with only 75 points to spend, he was focused on two of them as well as trinity.
{5 points applied to Engraver...
5/5 - Path Complete, Some create art by adding and others removerge quantities of material. You, however, with just the lightest touch, leave a mark while maintaining the material. Through this focus, you have felt inspiration as your art flows over the surface and now you feel that with a bit of effort you can have your power flow through those shallow cuts as well.
50 points applied to Boss Builder...
5/50 - You have earned 100 Monster Pattern Adjustment Points
10/50 - When upgrading a normal monster into a boss if there are multiple options for what it can turn into you will be able to choose between the top three
25/50 - +5 Boss Slots, A Boss Slot can be used for multiple non-sapient Minibosses
50/50 - Path Complete, Bosses gain +10 Intelligence and +1 Intelligence/Level, Sharpens your instincts when ites to searching for a new bosses soul, Instead of spending a Boss Slot when upgrading a monster that already has a soul you gain one, When a monster turns into a boss their body more easily shifts to fit its internal image of itself, You can mark a section of your core room as a socialization space which gives your bosses an option to form an avatar there to interact more directly with you and the other bosses
20 points applied to [TRINITY]...
As you walk further on your path, you start to see others nearby, though you choose the lonely road, traveling parallel to them yet never meeting. Dont fear though, for while lonely, your path is not to be alone and though few, those who do join you will be important.}
Doyle sighs to himself, only the Boss Builder path made any sense and at this point he was really questioning why he kept putting points into [TRINITY] at all. Though it does sound like he might be getting close to something. Not that it mattered too much to him, as he did know that whatever it eventually gave him, it would be worth it to some extent.
If he had to pick the weirdest, it would be the engraver path. The only previous times he had such wordy paths was times like when the Goat Path split and of course [TRINITY]. Doyle turns back to Ally as he hadnt actually left his room, half expecting that he would need her help, anyway.
Though she takes one look at the path andughs. Im honestly surprised it took you this long to get a path like this. I Guess since you already have the dungeon stuff the System didnt feel all that rushed about finding your path of power.
Anyway, most people who dont have a specific manner to use the moremon powers like Mana and Qi yet still have ess to something will get a path like this. To be honest, engraving by itself is somewhat rare as people generally end up with sculpting, painting, or some other simr more general skill.
Doyle nods, That does make some sense. Im going to guess they tend to be nonbat paths, if only because fights are temporary enough that power is easier to find a use for that doesnt require a masterwork to use.@@novelbin@@
Ally, Exactly that. These paths are basically meant to break open the barrier between making things and making magical things. In a well-developed world, the mostmon form this takes is scrolls as long as literacy is even halfway spread through the popce. That and temporary potions.
In fact, that is the defining characteristic of these paths at the start. Anything you make will be temporary. A painting of a scared beast might have a fear aura for a few days. A scroll meant to light a fire mightst a month before losing its power. Stuff like that.
Doyle nods, And because of who I am, that all is going to be skipped? After all, I can already use the most basic form of supernatural power and this just came up because even though I use a moremon form, the skills arent technically based on world energy.
Ally smiles, Got it in one! Though I will tell you a bit about the temporary stuff just because it might help figuring out thing.
Doyle rolls to the side, Let me guess, even just drawing in the dirt with a stick would count and it can make some amazing, if very temporary, protection circles.
Ally shrugs, That is part of it, though a person would get better results by directly using their finger to better channel the power. Also, the gimmick for engraving is less specificity than calligraphy, but longersting and with more power.
A temporary firestarter scroll will be able to use its power in exactly the right amount to start a wood fire before running out. If you tried to repeat that with an engraving, youd find you had a lot less control over the strength of the fire and that it kept spewing put mes well past the point that it needed to.
Doyle, That would exin why it works so well with protection circles and what not.
Ally nods, Though along with that, it has a few other fun uses. For instance, if instead of trying to start a fire, you engrave a circle around the fire pit, you can make the firest a lot longer and cause it to burn more consistently.
Doyle, I can see a few uses for this, but the big question is why bother when I have conceptual reinforcement?
Ally nods, I can see why you would think that. What is important to note is that this isnt a skill and it wont show up on your status panel. Rather, this is more in line with stuff like the ability to breathe. Either you can or you cant.
Also, it didnt specify the kind of power you can channel. While a little more ephemeral, conceptual power like what is used in your skill is a power as well. Honestly, I hadnt really thought about it, but you basically cheated to get that skill.
Normally you would need to have something like this already or else how would there be conceptual power in your engravings to reinforce? So with that, maybe things will flow a bit smoother, but you might also not feel any difference.
Doyle, So the ability is like having a piece of y you can shape while the skill allows me to put that y in a kiln and bake it so it maintains its shape?
Ally nods, Simr enough, though for you the biggest gain will be with arrays. Youve already got one on hand and this will let you actually level up its pattern.
Of course, in traditional arrays, or as some call them formations, people tend to use gs and other simr things toy out the array as that is a lot easier than literally carving it into the ground. You will be about the opposite.
Though youll still asionally want gs in the form of carved stone discs. Sometimes you just need the array to be separate from the area youre putting it in. Now, do you want to give it a try? The tiny world energy gathering array you have is about the best practice array there is.
Doyle rolls his core back, How would I even do that? I have the pattern, but I can feel that it is meant for my creation skill and doesnt really have a guide for how to actually draw it out. Want me to ce them around like stamps? No problem. Want me to actually create the array? No clue where to start.
Ally has a strained smile, I. I wasnt expecting that? Let me check my notes real quick.
Ally pulls up another screen and starts scrolling through it. Hmm, okay, I think we can fix this going forward. This is the result of dungeon cores not needing that sort of details, at least they normally dont for a good long while. Sure, setting down an array properly will increase its power, but when you can set down an array that is already activated, why bother with theplication?
Yourparison to a stamp is really apt in this case. Arrays are like cursive or one of thosenguages that uses pictograms. There is a correct way to draw them and a stamp bypasses all that nonsense. Sure, if someone looks closely they will be able to tell it was a stamp, but it works.
Anyway, once you do draw the array you have a time or two you should get some kind of skill and with that your database skill will update. Though this does point out the fact that you would have the same problem with all the other patterns as well. If you ever try your hand at smithing for instance, it doesnt matter how high a level your sword pattern is, youll suck at actually forging one.
Eh, future problems. For now, we are at least somewhat lucky as the one array you do have is somon you can find instructions to draw it for free. Let me just do a little surfing and find the best reviewed open source version of the Tiny World Energy Gathering Array. What level was yours at?
Doyle checks a screen, Looks to be level 14, also, now that Im looking at it, it doesnt say it is a pattern.
Ally nods, Arrays and Enchantments are special. It wasnt technically stored in the database skill because you cant improve them as you are. The level they note is the level of effect. So your level 14 energy gathering array wont do any good for people who are above level 14. Once you can actually draw them out, that is part of what should change.
Going back to the stamp analogy. No matter how you use the stamp, it will always be the same stamp. Once you start writing it out though? Then you can improve upon it!
Deciding The Boss’ Skills – Chapter 248
Doyle still isnt quite happy with skills. Sure, they clearly are designed to exceed the norm, as he had put it, but not in the sense that someone couldnt manage those things. Rather, the system seems more keyed towards lowering the difficulty of those things and opening up the use of mana or what have you even if not directly. Simple stuff like unknowingly boosting your muscles at just the right time to carve a smooth line that otherwise would have required an extra cut.
Doyle shakes his core and turns his attention to thest room of the tenth floor. While the question of how skills worked was interesting and surely a much debated topic across every dimension with a system, he had a boss to make. Though speaking of the boss, he did receive a bunch of adjustment points to y around with and theyre clearly meant for sprucing up his bosses.
Though the hundred points could be gone with a single purchase. All it would take is to unlock the myconids fifth skill slot. Not that all skill slots are that expensive to unlock. Rather, each subsequent slot costs more than thest. The first skill slot is free and from there it costs 10, 30, 60, and of course 100 points to unlock each subsequent slot. Well, Doyle is only guessing that the first slot is free since there hasnt yet been a monster without it. Maybe it costs a point to unlock or some such.
At this point, the n wasnt to open up the fifth slot, not that he wasnt going to spend arge chunk of points. It just wasnt going to be even half the 100 points to unlock the next skill. Though it wasnt going to be cheap either.
There was a skill Doyle had spotted while checking out the various options his monsters had that stood out. Simple enough name, with the only caveat being that despite the skill being in the first ring of skills, it cost 20 points to unlock and another 10 to attach it to a pattern. And what was this skill? Leadership.
Does what it says on the tin. The skill teaches a being how to lead others. Simple enough and you would think something like that wouldnt be all that necessary. Especially with all the monsters kicking around with the teamwork skill. Except Doyle has a different view on that.
Sure, the various monsters know how to work together for the best effect. The only problem is what happens when there isnt a clear best answer. Doyle could, and in fact has, put various monsters in charge of others. In fact, he even has a path called Commanding Subordinates that is based around boosting the followers. Key to this though, is that the path doesnt give the leader any actual skill in leading others.
Now, Doyle wasnt expecting that giving the myconid boss leadership would cause too obvious a jump in ability. What he is expecting though, is for a more basic level of improvement. Even more than kobolds and wolves, the myconids aremunal. In fact, the only monster with a higher teamwork skill was the as yet unnamed and unspawned monster he had just gotten.
Though that does make Doyle take another look through the avable skills of his various monsters. Suffice it to say, that unnamed monster beats everything except maybe the udoroot if you want to count all the sub skills it has for its telepathy. Impressive since, sure, the overall quality of the skills that new monsters have had, have been increasing.
However, this isnt like a monster with a skill. This is about the patterns themselves having an innate high level skill. After all, the level of a skill on a pattern isnt actually the level a monster will spawn with unless theyre a level one monster. No, the level instead represents how adept a monster is with the skill and with each level the skill will grow depending on the starting level.
That meant whatever those unnamed monsters would turn out to be physically, they would be highly skilled. More to the point, the myconid boss wasnt going to be highly leveled. Well, Doyle could spend some more points to level it up, but each extra level would cost ten points. A bit on the pricey side for how many points he had to spend.
Still, he wasnt afraid to spend the points for the first level of the skill to see how it would work out. So after the hefty cost of 30 points, Doyle can create myconids with the leadership skill. The question is, what other skills should he put on the boss?
{Spore Talk lv12, Teamwork lv10, Summon Paralysis Spore lv10, Summon Sleep Spore lv3, Spore Magic Lv1, Fungal m lv1, Spore Grenade lv1, Fungal Farming lv1, Fungal Construction lv1, Leadership lv1}
Another look over the skills doesnt exactly have anything sticking out. Leadership was assured at this point and he needed to include one of the summon spore skills, but after that there are still two slots to fill. Doyle dims as something does finally attract his attention. The boss had to have Spore Talk. It was anguage without anguage.
Doyle hadnt finished buying thenguage pack yet so a method of talking without needing words would be highly important to make full use of the leadership skill. Sure, the wolves would likely be able to make use of it, but a sapient being with the ability tomunicateplex ideas is going toe out ahead. So, with that decided there was only a single skill slot left to fill. A slot which caused him to sigh, maybe buying the fifth one wasnt the worst idea.
It was teamwork. The fourth skill was going to be teamwork. All three of the skills Doyle could choose were going to be directly rted to bossing around the other myconids and working with them. No shy magic. No fancybat abilities. The boss was going to be a simple leader.
Not that Doyle was looking down on pure leader types, especially under the system. He was actually a little afraid of what a high level general could do with even a ragtag bunch of mercenaries. So, he was going to have to roll with it and see how it works out. Maybe the Leadership skill will let the boss get more out of that path or open up new ones.
So with the skill load out decided, all that was left would be creating the boss. Last time he had gone with the option of using a monster that was already in his dungeon and his boss builder path seems to be pointing towards doing more of that. The specific bit is when it says that upgrading a normal monster has a chance to give three choices.
It sounds like Doyle would need to upgrade a pre-existing monster, but it doesnt actually say that, he checked. All it says is normal monster and not some wording like a normal monster in the dungeon. Now, this might end up losing him a chance at a fancy tenth floor boss if he is misunderstanding things.
Doyle doesnt care about that though as the tenth floor is still early. Better to find out now when the stakes are low instead ofter. So, he was going to take the second option. He would create apletely new monster for the boss soul to inhabit. This was mostly because he remembered that the option would cause the soul to have more effect on the monsters body. That sounded quite tempting and so he was more than willing to give it a spin.
So, n in mind, Doyle begins the process of creating the boss. It started simply enough, using Creation to start the process. As that happened, he shoved a pseudopod of his soul through the coalescing power, causing the creation to pause without form.
All the while the pseudopod extended outward, piercing through each floor causing eddies in the air despite theck of any physical form. Then it hits the first floor and Doyle turns it towards the weakest section of the dimensional fabric. Unlikest time, there werent any outright holes to patch up.
Still, the weakest section he could see was like a sheet of tissue paper covering a hole. Good thing his soul is able to move through this weakened point without actually piercing anything. Now free, the pseudopod dives deep into the void as it splits apart like a binary tree fractal.
Around him, as much as positional words could be used in the void, Doyle once again felt his fellow dungeons, each one also searching for souls. And of course, there are also the horrors of the void as well. Beings without form and whose location can not be described as their very nature breaks the very concept of dimensionality.
Their territory is where their power reaches, and their power is their body. Each with a form yet stretched across the unknowing depths of a space, which wasnt a space. Swarms of beasts so called only because they appeared separate, whether that was true or not, shifted through what Doyle could sense.@@novelbin@@
All the while the void once again tries to cause his awareness to simplify and break down. To cover a space that the human mind could never, on its own begin to sense, let alone search. This time, though, things went differently.
Doylesst foray into the void had connected a piece of himself that had been missing, likely because of Flisle and their dungeonafication ritual. This time around though, he wasnt a human; he wasnt truly a dungeon either. He was Doyle. Doyle Huxley.
The void tried to w away his concept of self, reducing him once again to the state of being a pure dungeon core. An effect resistedst time because of being iplete, now resisted because unlike so many, Doyle had connected with the true core to his existence. As the pressure ebbed, the other dungeons once again congratted him as they didst time.
Below that, Doyle felt a deeper level. He wasnt quite ready for it and didnt know when that might be the case, but he could tell. From that deeper level bubbled up, more conceptuallyplete congrattions. An uncountable number, not because the number was uncountable, though it might have been. Rather because by not being ready, he wasnt able to examine it.
Still, he knew what it was. That deeper level was the protected territory of all awakened dungeons within the void. Doyle was not able to enter yet, not because of sapiences, but rather the fact that he was too weak. Though he could also tell that if he was just some wizard that turned themselves into a dungeon, he wouldnt have even been able to sense the non-ce.
To join the others would require the strength to add to the defense instead of adding a weak point. Though with this knowledge also came more chilling news. Doyle had always known there were beings in the void that would eat him like a piece of hard candy if they could find him. So why would awakened dungeons need an area that was protected and not be able to show any signs of weakness? Because there were active predators out there.
Dungeon cores, of course, arent defenseless against such things. In fact, at some point, either the system or a very powerful dungeon had deposited some new knowledge on how tobat those types of threat. Though hopefully such a defense wouldnt be needed anytime soon, as the first step to any kind of defense seemed to be disconnecting from your home dimension.
It made sense once more of this information he had never known before was remembered. A natural dimension was like a bright light underwater. You cant see it from too far away, but once youve seen it, its hard to lose. Dungeons, on the other hand, are dimmer and have a much smaller presence. So if you stick to a dimension, the predators and even just void pests would be able to track you down right away. Only by detaching yourself and basically fleeing into the night can you escape.
This Wasn’t Meant To Be A Reference – Chapter 249
Doyle turns his attention back to finding a soul for his boss. His soul extends across the unknowable depths. Avoiding the halos of souls directly around the various dimensions and the most stagnant parts of the void were souls lose all connection to any reality.
This dive it was even easier to find dimensions inhabited by sapient myconids. The problem ended up being finding a dimension that wasnt only inhabited by fungus based creatures. It seems that some of his thoughts about the mi-go spreading their malignant form of corruption around wasntpletely off. Souls from those dimensions would not do!
While the void could wash away all attachments a soul might have, clearly some elder being had experimented long and hard to make a taint that stuck. So while Doyle didnt notice any beings moving creatures around to corrupt new dimensions. This revtion shows that it wouldnt be needed.
All it would take to infest a new dimension is a soul still carrying the taint to take over a fungus. Though it wasnt quite as bad as it might be. While Doyle could grab one of the souls and use it for a boss, they arent able to fit into just any being. It would be like fitting a square peg through a round hole. Instead of needing a random myconid gaining sapience for a tainted myconid soul to take over, it needs normal fungus to develop to the point that a tainted soul can fit.
Of course, in the infinite depths of the void there are equally infinite such instances happening all the time. Thankfully, from what Doyles dungeon senses tells him, even an entire world that has been taken over by tainted fungoides isnt enough to doom a dimension. You need entire sectors covered in the stuff with even the depths of space infested with Mu spores to change the fate of an entire dimension.
More interesting to Doyle, since he certainly cant do anything about this mess, is that the more corrupted a dimension bes, the closer it gathers towards a central point. Well, as central a point can be in the void. Doyle didnt try to look too closely at that point since the other dungeons, despite being spread across infinite, did not spread in that direction.
Not that there werent dungeons in there. Yeah, not touching that with a ten universe long pole. Their reach was limited to the heavily corrupt area and their soul spread like fungal growth instead of a clean binary tree. It both felt more natural and yetpletely against nature.
Doyle turned away from the fungal growth and searched for a healthier choice. This led him to a rtively empty section of the void, well, as empty or full as the void could ever be. Distances in the void tended to be based on concepts, emotions, and intent.
All that aside, what really mattered right now was a lonely dimension the locals called Um-soo. Unlike the previous nameless dimensions, while there was a decent poption of sapient fungus, they were all connected to myconids instead of the more alien mi-go and mu. Not only does that mean there were more useful souls floating around, but also that there wasnt any taint.
Doyle was mostly certain that not all dimensions with the more alien options were all corrupted. He couldnt quite feel them out there, but there had been a few dimensions before this that he turned down because there was a certain air about them. Not corrupt, but alien. Which, if there were stuff like the mi-go kicking about, would make sense.
That all, while important to a degree, wasnt going to get in the way of him grabbing a proper soul for his boss. So, having found a dimension likely to have the soul he needed, Doyle allowed himself to sink into his instincts. To enter that special state where his soul is unbound by the constraints of a mind and reach out to find what he wants. Maybe at some point he could figure this step out on his own, but for now his instincts with a heavy bit of system shenanigans made it work.
An infinite number of soul threads all ir out as Doyles mind spreads out over them. Each bing as if a new him yet reduced well below any state of consciousness. One after another, thread bumps into loose soul after soul.
Then something changes after a moment of infinite timelessness. One of the souls resonates with the thread touching it. Other threads pull away from their souls and swarm that one and begin to pull it back.@@novelbin@@
This soul wasnt anything particrly special. Unlike thest boss soul, this soul hadnt been living as a specific species for tens of generations and it hadnt floated out in the void after bing worn out and tired of life. It had only lived as a myconid for two lives, having been a random assortment of sapients before that and it certainly wasnt worn out.
In fact, this soul was raring to go and live again. It had just gotten caught in what passes for weather in the void and was drawn away from a small grouping of dimensions that it had called its own. That led to the two most recent lives being in the lonely dimension Doyle had found.
As for what had drawn Doyle to this particr soul? It wasnt the two most recent lives, but rather the lives that hade before. The collection of dimensions the soul hade from. Those dimensions had been held close by a theme and yet kept separate by the same theme.
World after world of deep wilderness. What civilized sapients existed in them barely surviving as savage tribes or trapped behind tall walls in a desperate fight against nature. In the time the kobold boss soul had spent living 30 lives, this soul had lived hundreds of lives! Not as a normal civilized sapient, but rather as a monstrous sapient.
That collection of dimensions were all of a rtively rare sort where, after a certain level of power, basically anything will be granted sapience. Whether it was a powerful goblin, amon wolf, some random fish, an elder tree, or even a simple rock. They just had to gather enough power and a soul would slip in.
In a dimension like that, life is short, and even worlds dont survive for long. While an entire world tends to be toorge to gather the power to gain a soul. Any nearby moons and even more dangerousets, will do so quite happily and destroy the locals for power.
For a world to survive long enough for civilized sapients to even start appearing, you need a sr system simr to Doyles home except a lot fewerets and no moon. Good thing theck of a moon tends not to be a problem with the tides, as deep in any ocean will be countless water elementals stirring things up.
And within this soup of chaos where even gxies coulde alive and devour all life within them, this soul Doyle had grabbed onto had been having a st. Where other newly sapient beings would search for safety, this soul treated each new life like people treat video game characters. Thisparison was particrly apt as since the soul had been going through lives so quickly, it had begun to remember its past lives, not having been dead enough for those experiences to be worn away.
At the end there, it had actually begun to live longer with each life because of this experience. And then it was swept away from those dimensions and that rued experience was wiped away. However, what was left was enough to attract Doyle to it as this was the perfect sort of attitude for a boss.
Well, almost perfect. If the soul had kept what was basically a suicidal tendency, it would have caused problems in the dungeon. As luck would have it though, those two lives as a myconid were both long and more than enough to blunt those urges. After all, if Doyle had just wanted a soul willing to throw its life away, those were a dime a dozen.
No, what attracted Doyle to this soul was the fact that its willingness to die had been tempered by a desire to protect. Those two lives werent as a lone myconid, but rather a myconid that was born into amunity. Not perfect, but better than any other souls avable within his reach.
Soon though, the soul approaches Doyles dungeon and the dust of primal nothingness is scraped off as it enters. Those shards of the void are taken in hand by Doyle to reinforce the weakest points of his dimension and each reinforced point has teeth bulge out around to swallow the patch, returning it to them to the same look as the rest of the dungeons outeryer.
The thread of soul was pulled through the blob of power that will soon be the boss and the soul was left inside. At that point, Doyles creation skill starts up again and the blob of power with a soul begins to take physical shape. Then it pauses again.
{Please Choose what form you want your Myconid boss to take:
Myconid Troop Guard (Requires 4 Extra Boss Slots and Souls, Boss bes a pseudo Raid Boss)
Myconid Troop Lord
Myconid Fungal Lord}
Doyle cant help but sigh after seeing the options. The first was obviously the result of him having the lesser troop guards and also pointed towards the fact he should probably smash five regr myconids together to see what happens. Though since it would be what a pseudo raid boss is, he decides it isnt worth it to find out.
That just left the two lord forms. Forms that might have caused some confusion, except Doyle could tell right away what the two names were getting at. The troop lord form is specialized inmanding myconids and their various forms, while the fungal lord was able to handle anything fungus based such as the shriekers and violet fungus. This was also a simple decision to make.
Without a second thought, Doyle chooses the troop lord option. While having control over all funguses would be interesting, the boss cavern was both too filled with mushrooms and not filled enough. All the mushroom trees and specialized mushroom creations would be hand things to control, even if all they could do is keep an eye on things. However, since the troop lord was more restricted, it would likely pack a bit more oomph.
Of course, the system doesnt wait for him to think it over some more after choosing an option. Instead, it gets right down to forming the new boss into a form most suited for it. Doyle watched as what had seemed like a normal enough myconid went through drastic changes. The boss body grew in size until it was a head and a half taller than any other myconid.
From its back grows foot after foot of mycelium, the branching root-like structure that mushrooms use. As it grows outward, it begins to weave itself together, forming itself into a cape. Then as the bosses form fills in, one final detail forms. A diadem in the form of a in circlet appears above its head as a separate entity.
The myconid boss has finished forming though the circlet, which appears to be made of a golden red mushroom cap still has a moment to go. In the moment the circlet takes to finish, Doyle notices something about the boss. Up until now, the myconids had been a random assortment of browns. The boss, however, was a bold shade of orange.
Then the diadem finished spawning in and it fell a short distance until it was seated upon the boss head. With that, a pulse of orange power flows out across the dungeon floor.
Change In Leader – Chapter 251
Out in the second circle of Wolfs Rest, Ben is moping around. This doesnt really pin down a time frame because that has been his default state ever since fleeing what was technically his town. The tutorial settlement having been taken over in all but name by a group of older men who believed the pre-system government would have their military rolling down the road any time now. An idea that was generally supported as the system doesnt seem to have overly messed up physics as people had understood it to work.
Many even believed that the reason no one had arrived yet was that they were out helping others who needed it more. After all, the council was taking care of things perfectly fine. No one, not Ben, not Ace, and certainly not the council knew the truth. The pre-system government was built upon the elderly. Every position, barring a few rare ces had people who were well on in years.
Now, the system didnt just go and cull people over a certain age like some kind of dystopian novel. Rather, the older you are, the less likely you are to survive. Every country had lost a majority of their top officials. There were a few military types out there trying to pull things together and it might have worked if the system was just cing people down randomly.
Not even Ally knew about one specific quirk of this system. It was designed to disrupt all local power blocks. The original True Immortal didnt particrly care about this, but the original developer of the system had gone through a rough transition from a system that didnt even move people around at all. So to say the True Immortal who developed it had a bit of a bias would be an understatement.
However, despite not knowing any of this, Ace was nning for this exact situation. Why? Because he believed in the saying, Hope for the best, n for the worst. Though somewhat ironically, both the best and the worst situations were likely exactly that. Ace doubted that any pre-system governments would have been able to handle this situation. On the other hand, without any of the support structures from said governments, the world was likely going to devolve to a more warring state sort of order.
Part of his ns involved Ben and getting him out of office, as it were. More than that, he wanted thedy who had known Ben from before the system to take over. While Ace now saw Ben as too fragile, that onedy who had known him before the system was holding things together. More than that, from what Ace had heard from his spies, she was dealing with the stress in a healthy manner. Doctor even spent some time analyzing things and gave her situation a thumbs up and believed she would be a stable ruler.
Sure, Ben had some good ideas and once no longer so stressed would be a useful adviser, but that was the most he would be worth from now on. The only problem with that is thedy is dead set on putting that crown right back on Ben. This was honestly almost enough for Ace to disqualify her for the position, except there wasnt anyone better not from Wolfs Rest.
This left Ace with some rather sneaky and/or nasty options to get his way. A big problem for him because he had noticed things slipping. He would really like to me this on the Barrais as they clearly had at the very least been on the grayer side of the spectrum, but he couldnt. Ace had simply started throwing out pre-system morals in exchange for expediency.
Not that Ace felt any of his decisions had been bad. Some could even be seen as vitally necessary, such as hiding the dungeons aura. The problem was that he didnt want to rule over a feudal society and yet that was the easiest way to handle things. Even the system was pushing things in that direction by requiring only a single person be in charge of a ce. Councils are just a joke when one person can unterally decide everything if they want to.
Over a few weeks, Ace struggled with his own world view as his various people slowly put the n into ce. Here he was, saying he wanted to make a better world and yet acting like some exotic fruit seller making sure the government next door is friendly to their goals. Then everything was set up and all that was required was for him to set it in motion.
Ace looked up from his desk andughed. He knew that what he just realized was amon trap of many a reluctant dictator. The idea that once youre in power, you can fix things. Once you are in control, people will do what you say and all previous decisions can be redone. Without hesitation, he told the person waiting in front of him to set everything in motion.
Over the next week, idents started to happen around Ben. Not big things, in fact they were quite minor. All it would take is a little bit of leadership and Ben was their leader, right? It wouldnt matter if a certaindy was away at the time, right?
So after that week of niggling little things that shouldnt have even been that, a certaindy was more than a little steamed. Maybe if this had happened a month ago and maybe if Ben had at least tried it wouldnt have been a problem. Hell, even if Ben had simply called on one of Aces people to help it would have been all right, after all, Ace had stationed a person nearby in case they needed anything.
Ben didnt even bother telling someone in his retinue. Thedy was less than happy, though a little suspicious that so much was happening. Except all over the outer ring, people were facing simr problems. It seems that a certain pre-system building technique was to me.
This wasnt even a lie. The pre-system method of building a house so that it wouldpletely block off the outside doesnt really work for a normal house. With magic around, the elements are a little more insistent on getting into ces. It wasnt even pests doing it, but rather the wind, water, and earth itself that was getting in.
The only thing is that it would be a bit of a lie to say the house they were staying in used that style. In fact, there werent originally that many ces built in that style at all. After all, you cant exactly expect a weather tight house when building what are basically fancy log cabins. Though something like that isnt enough to prevent Ace from getting his way.
It did however make thedy think about the ce upriver. She knew that some of these problems had been cropping up in the buildings up river, but neither Ben nor the council had managed to figure out the source. Yet here, in apletely new town, she was able to make use of a few people to figure out what the problem was. All it took was some effort and to actually look into how the world worked now.
The thing is, they had been having these problems up river since the start so it isnt like the council had been in charge at that point. Ben was entirely responsible for the problems not being figured out. This, of course, forgets the fact that up river they didnt have easy ess to the information required to figure this out.
In fact, the only reason Aces people had known about this is extensive testing that was done when building up the inner ring. Multiple houses were constructed and torn down to figure this and many other things out. A certaindy, of course, had no clue about this wrinkle or the fact that the people from Ace that helped had guided her towards the correct answer.
Could this backfire on Ace if it was found out? Yes. Very much so. However, the thing Ace trusted in more than her, was the other people living in the inner ring with him. That and the fact that even if she wanted to try and fight Wolfs Rest, it wouldnt be her that won.
But none of that mattered at the moment. Instead, what mattered was the fact that while thedy still trusted Ben, she no longer trusted him to lead. In fact, she had started to doubt if he ever could lead or if he might have just been the most charismatic person in the room when a leader was decided.
She still held out for another few days before she showed up in Aces office. With a sour face she informs him that, Ben cant continue being the leader up river.
Ace folds his fingers together in front of himself on his desk, And Im sure you already know that I thought that ever since he got here.
She sighs, Are you really going to go all I told you so on me over this?
Ace shakes his head, I dont care about that right now. The problem is getting someone everyone will follow and unless youre volunteering, no one else here can handle it.
She recoils a little, I dont think Im
Ace interrupts her, Do you really think so little of my people? Do you think were blind?
She stammers, but Ace doesnt let her speak, You have been in charge already! Ever since Ben stopped leading, it was you who took the reins! If we put you in charge, the only thing that will change is youll be officially in charge.
She backs up, But Im sure there has to be someone else?@@novelbin@@
Aceughs, Which one? Like I said, weve been watching your group ever since you arrived. Yes, Ben would have had the easiest time getting the others to do things, but you arent the only person there. Not a single one of them even lifted a finger to figure out what the problem was, let alone try and fix it. So tell me, who else could step up besides you?
With that, she could only give in and agree. So with that out the way things sped along and early the next morning everyone that hade down with Ben were gathered up in the dining room of their house. Ace and Jim were standing in front of them all with Ben to one side and thedy to the other.
Ace stepped forward, Youve all been informed about what is going to happen, do any of you have any disagreements?
None of the others even bothered looking up from whatever they were doing so Ace stepped back and pushed Ben forward.
Ben looks up at them, ...
Ace nudges him and Ben sighs, Im not a leader. I dont want this anymore! I dont, I dont know what happened. Before this happened, I was always the leader, always the person in charge. Why doesnt things work out anymore? Before this all, I could lead a group of a hundred people and things would just work. Now? It all falls apart.
This isnt fun anymore! Why did things change? People arent different, so why doesnt anything work anymore? Whatever, since this isnt working Im passing on my position to my childhood friend. Shes been doing all the boring stuff around here already so she should be fine enough.
Jim rolls his eyes, but pays attention to thedy, making sure she epts the system prompt. Once she does, he turns to the other people, but they werent alerted to the change. He smiles, Good, it looks like we were able to hide the change in leadership. Im uncertain that would work if the change in leadership was forced in some way, but thankfully that wasnt the case here.
Ace nods and turns to thedy, Anyway, Im sort of embarrassed to admit this, but I dont think Ive ever caught your name. You never really had a chance to introduce yourself and while I could have had my people figure it out, I felt it important that you be the one to do the introduction.
Thedy sighs, So Ben never even bothered to say my actual name? I know youve been meeting with him often enough before this. Whatever, I should have really noticed it before this, but I did always seem to be the childhood friend and not an actual person. I hate saying this, but here we are, I guess.
Ben tries to speak up, but she res him down, No. Ive followed you for long enough to recognize how things work around you. Maybe if you had been more serious in abdicating your position. But no, you had to talk about how it wasnt fun anymore. The whole leader thing wasnt ever something you were serious about, was it?
Ben frowns, Why would it be something to be serious about? A leader should just lead.
Thedy sighs again, I thought so. You were never a leader. I ignored this for so long and maybe if the system had nevere you would have settled into some CEO position with your parents influence. Now though? The world ended and your familys riches from investing in IT mean nothing now.
She shakes her head, Leading isnt supposed to be a fun pastime! It is a tough job and Im going to actually do it. All that boring stuff? That is what real leadership is about.
She turns to Ace and bows deeply, Let me introduce myself. Ace, as the leader of Wolfs Rest, I, Melonie Bet, the new leader of the tutorial settlement just upriver would like to formally greet you.
Melonie’s Reason – Chapter 252
Introductions done, Melonie turns to Ben and the rest with a fire in her eyes.
Ace chuckles at this, When youre finished straightening things out,e by my office. And he waves to Melonie as he leaves the house, closing the door just as she begins to bark orders at the others.
Bright and early next morning, Ace has a report on his desk, transcribed on a tablet of unfired y as good paper wasnt the easiest to produce, of how the people from up river all seemed to have a fire lit under their keisters. The actual text on the tablet is a little small to read normally, thankfully with just a small cantrip someone had figured out, you can manipte the y tablet almost like a digital tablet with pinch zooming. As long as there is enough space, the surrounding text will be shrunk even more and pushed to the side, while the selected area will be expanded. A nifty bit of unspecialized magic that will probably fall to the wayside once technology starts to flourish again.
The thing is, Ace had finished reading the entire tablet a quarter of an hour ago and at this point he was just waiting. Though he wouldnt have to wait much longer. There is a knock at his office door and he invites them in.
Melonie enters the room with a dark look and immediately starts to vent. Did you know about half those people dont actually even care what happens up river? Theyre going to abandon the cause now that Im actually trying to advance things! Those, aaarrgh, yeah, they just stuck around because being a part of our group meant they didnt have to do anything to live!
Ace nods, Thats actually better than we expected. My people predicted that the eventual drop out rate would be closer to three-fourths of them leaving.
Melonie points at him, You saw this alling! Why didnt you help Ben get ahead of it? Now I have to pick up the pieces for him!
Ace sighs, he knew to expect this, but it was still annoying. For yourself.
Melonie frowns, What?
Ace chuckles, Dont try and pretend you dont know what Im getting at. Yesterday, you literally just went through an entire spiel about how he wasnt a good leader. Youre picking up the pieces for yourself.
Melonie rolls her eyes, Im just making sure he develops well. His dad might have been fooled by how things were going, but his mom never agreed. Im not just his friend, but also assigned to look out for him by his mom.
When they show up in the future, I need to have recovered his position or it will look bad. Sure, he really isnt a good leader, but his mom understands that even if his dad doesnt. Still, she wants him in charge of something and the town up river seems good enough.
Ace shakes his head, Theyre dead. Both his parents are dead. Your mom? Alive, but your dad is dead. Every grandparent of all your people here, dead, and arge portion of the parents as well.
Melonie freezes with her mouth open. It takes a moment for her to digest what Ace just said, You cant know that!
Ace closes his eyes and lets out a sad sigh. He opens his eyes again and slides a sheet of paper across the table that Melonie grabs. Within the next week, we are releasing this spell. It is one of the trashiest divination spells youe up with.
The one upside of it is that as long as the system wants you to have the information it ispletely urate. Otherwise, you might as well flip a coin. A good spell to start a kid with the talent for prophecy to start on. Anyway, the system basically posts the list of people who survived and who didnt survive when magic arrived.
As long as you use the hair of someone rted, any divination spell can detect this. We havent even fully checked our own people, but I made sure to check all of you. Mommy and Daddy arent going to be rolling into town expecting to see their boy in charge. Maybe if they managed to properly follow a religious creed, unlikely seeing how rich they were and how all the mainstream religions tended to be the charity type. Maybe theyre looking down on us from one deity or anothers heavenly realm.
Melonie frowns, What proof do you have? While I can confirm this spell should work how you describe, the system bit isnt exactly spelled out anywhere!
Ace hands her the y tablet he had been fiddling with after wiping it smooth. Give the spell a go. Ask it some other question multiple times and then ask it about your own parents multiple times.
Melonie doesnt like where this is going, but she gives it a try. First asking if the weather will be clear tomorrow and getting mixed results, if tilted a bit more towards it being clear. Then with trepidation she asks if her mom died when the system came.
The result was 100% that she survived. Then when Melonie tried asking about her dad, it was 100% that he died. This felt a little strange since her mom was the older of the two, but she also felt the system interact with the spell in a way that didnt leave much doubt.
Melonie wipes the y tablet clear and looks up, How did you find this out? No one Ive talked to has ever mentioned learning anything like this in the tutorial.
Ace, There is a woman named Daisy who dabbled in tarot and simr pre-system. While she seems to depend on what I would describe as reality warping luck, her foundation was strong enough and so she managed to throw together a few divination spells. Spells that she herself ironically cant cast, as her talent with prophecy, is non-existent.
Though I suspect it has more to do with being some kind of fate nexus. Kind of hard to see far if instead of just the ripples of a rock on the pond of time, youre at the bottom thrashing around and kicking up mud. Anyway, she was lucky enough to figure this out. My guess on why the system doesnt juste out and tell us is so that people strive to get stronger so they can reunite with others.
Melonie, But if his parents are dead, I dont have a purpose!
Ace sighs, You know? I wasnt expecting this. I had the information prepared in case I needed it, but you being a part of his parents'' coddling was out of my predictions.
Melonie res at him, her eyes wet, And youre just sitting thereughing about it!
Ace rolls his eyes, Youre their leader now. Not Ben, not someone else, and certainly not Bens Parents. Though I must admit, I was kind of surprised that both his parents are dead. Neither him, nor you, are particrly old. Sure, the others in your group are more middle-aged than not so their parents being gone is more likely than not. Ben though? He should be around 20, if that and youre not much better.
Melonie, Our parents had uster in life.
Ace slides another piece of paper across the table, Speaking of our parents, I was shocked to find that is a little more literal than not. Did you know that Ben is your half brother?
Melonie frowns at Ace, You better not have shared this with him!
Ace, Dont worry, I wasnt nning on bringing it up, but I wanted to clear the air between us. Oh, and dont worry, that spell cant pinpoint siblings of any kind. It can only move down the bloodline and not up.
Though I guess bloodline isnt the best way to describe it? It can inform you if your bio-parents survived or not, but it can also be used to determine if adoptive parents are alive or not as well. It doesnt even have to be an officially recognized adoption. The system just decides if the person had a significant part in raising you. The only catch is you cant then jump to check on the grandparents. That extra step is only through blood rtions. Oh, and you have to ask for a specific person and not just leave it vague.
Melonie, So what do you want? Youve ckmailed me enough. Just tell me how to dance.
Aceughs, On the contrary! Im doing something much worse to you. Im cutting your strings instead. Maybe you thought you could be a big shot by following along with Ben, but that wouldnt even set you free.
There is no ckmail, Im not going to tell anyone else any of this except for the divination spell. If they want to know about their parents situation, they can cast the spell themselves. Weve found this way has a greater chance of being believed, anyway.
As for you? Everything Bens parents wanted to see in him, is in you instead. Youre the leader and going by what you just told me, likely always have been. Just because before this you were leading from the shadows doesnt change that.
Melonie sighs, Fine! Ill run the damn ce. Im not going to give up on Ben though! Ive been watching over him for too long.
Ace lets out a sad sigh, The parentification of one child to help raise another isnt healthy and your parents did you a disservice by forcing it upon you. Ben is responsible for Ben. You are Responsible for you. Mind you, Im not saying you should toss Ben in the bin. Rather, even if you do decide to take care of him, make sure it is for yourself. Because he can be useful. He just needs to find something that interests him.
Melonie rolls her eyes, Any otherrge bombs to drop?
Ace gasps in mock surprise, How did you know?
Melonie closes her eyes for a moment and then res at him, Be serious!
Aceughs, Oh, but I am. Since yesterday, I had time to think about things and thisst tidbit has too much of a chance ofing out in the future and blowing up. You see, it was me! I was the mastermind behind all the problems that were happening to your house.
We knew about the problem that one style of building had before anyone started building stuff in the second ring. The house we gave you wasnt even originally made in that style, either. My people secretly retrofitted it all so it would fail at the same time as the others.
Ive been trying to get you in charge for weeks now! I dont want to start a kingdom or some such, but the ce up river needs someone in charge who isnt going to ignore the fact we have god damned magic! Ever since we found out that Ben just does not want to rule, and dont you try to deny that. Ben does not want a leadership position that has actual consequences attached to it.
Ever since then, weve been pushing you towards taking over. Now, of course, it is obvious why you didnt ever bite. Anyway, we had to push harder! So we sabotaged your house and a hundred other small things. We even asked Ben directly to hand over the power to you, but he couldnt seem to even mentally realize what we were asking. Once again, knowing more about his background makes it obvious why.@@novelbin@@
The only thing we didnt do is push people to act one way or another. We might have set up the dominos, but it was Ben whos inaction knocked them over. Everything that annoyed you till the point of taking charge was 100% legit reactions on their part. Now, was that a big enough bomb?
Melonie takes a couple of stumbling steps back and bumps into the chair behind her, causing her to abruptly sit down on it.
Ace smiles, I hope this doesnt cause too much of a problem with our working rtionship. Be a bit droll if the leadership of two settlements so close together didnt work together somewhat.
Melonie just doesnt seem to know how to react. If youre going through this much trouble, why didnt you just put your own puppet in charge?
Aceughs, People are going to find that controlling things indirectly doesnt work as well anymore. No matter what legal structure you put in ce, the person who owns something is whoever the system says owns it. Try and make a puppet king or a figurehead business owner and youre just giving them those actual positions with which they can do whatever they want. Nows can stop them from changing things or even giving it away to someone else.
So no, I dont want to try and make a shadow kingdom. If I control something, it will be in my own name. The thing is, I dont want to control a kingdom. Ive said it before and Ill likely have to say it many more times in the future. All I want is this town. It will be fully under the control of me and mine from now until the sun expands and eats us all. Though maybe by that time that would be a problem, well be able to stop it as well.
Sunflowers – Chapter 256
Ace coughs awkwardly, Well, I dont intend it as...
Yeah, it is basically a form of ironically non-magical mind control. Magic just makes it a lot easier to reinforce things since it can detect intent and not just actions. Especially since people wont know it is happening. I know there is a better word for this besides mind control as it isnt quite that far, seeing as the system is okay with it.
Jack shakes his head, The fact this sort of training doesnt count as mind control as far as the systems restrictions are concerned is a bit worrying.
Ruby shrugs, Is it mind control if you train a dog so it drools whenever you ring a bell? From what Ive seen of the system, the restrictions on stuff like mind control are a lot more specific than not. It wont stop you from training an animal with treats.
No, what the system cares about are the more ssic examples of mind control you see in fiction. Stuff like ve cors and using multipleyers of hypnosis topletely change a person. Though I do find it interesting that whoever made the system cares about that specifically.
Ace, Whoever made the system is old enough to have seen all forms of nonsense. They must have felt something about mind control was particrly offensive.
Susanughs, That or they just dont like stories that lean on it as a crutch. Why did the friend betray you? Mind control. Why is the king evil? Mind control!
We have to remember, the person who set up the system in our universe did it because they felt bad about what they did. Not because they started a chain event that would have wiped all life and they were forced to make it right, but because they felt bad and had enough pocket change for a bandaid.
With that in mind, think about who would be developing a system like this. It literally gamifies life and it isnt like the person who bought it was going out of their way to buy the best. We basically have the entertainment package deal. Not because wiping out an entire universe is a big no-no, but because doing so made one person feel kind of bad about it.
Og raises an eyebrow, Bit of a rant there. Are you feeling better now?
With that, the group takes a moment to calm down. All the while, Doyle is talking to Ally about what he just heard.
Doyle, Does what she said have any connection to reality?
Ally shrugs, Yes and no. While I wouldnt call it an entertainment package, the system we have is certainly not top of the line. However, it is one of the better ones when ites to helping people advance on their own path. Which is part of why it has paths in the first ce.
The traditional rpg setup from your world with just levels, stats, skills, and maybe the ssic sses is both easier to gain power in and yet harder to advance. In those, youll have lockstep progression and very specific bonuses from, for instance, getting plus one to Strength. They wont even have varied names for the stats, with the most direct trantion being the same across the entire system.
So, while this certainly isnt the most expensive system out there. It is actually meant more to help us than anything else. Now, I wont im that the True Immortal that first stepped foot in this dimension actually cared about the fact their actions doomed an entire universe.
However, they didnt have malicious intentions or even just neutral ones when they bought and installed the system. After all, my mom wouldnt have moved her court here if there was a problem with the system.
Doyle nods, That does make sense. And then the two turn back to Ace and friends. They havent quite finished talking, but are soon ready to continue exploring the floor. Though of course they make sure to harvest all the sunflowers.
An understandable thing that leads directly to their first encounter on the floor. As they approach the next circle of sunflowers, Susan develops a bit of a headache. She motions the party to stop, but it is toote, theyre already within range of the Udoroot.
Susan was just lucky and managed to resist the false sensory input. This meant she was free to spot the fact that the sunflowers ahead have actually all turned to face the group. Not before Og and Jack are hit with confusion, though.
Then before they can recover, the sunflowers seem to release an intense beam of light which wraps everyone in fire. Fire that while it burns, isnt the biggest threat. The entire team feels an intense pressure on their mind that tries to lock them down.
In particr, Jack who unlike Og hadnt kicked the confusion, was overly sensitive to it and is locked in ce.
And at the same time, a stealthily thrown dagger from Susan slows down and stops midair. Good thing the Udoroot can only manifest two abilities at a time though as in stopping the dagger and maintaining the energy stun, it wasnt able to stop Sammy. A thing it probably should have focused on as her sword is more than able to slice off the Udoroots crown of flowers.
Still, the nt monster gets in one final attack. It throws its entire might behind a mind thrust at Jack who still hasnt recovered from the stun and Jack falls to the ground.
Susan rushes over to his side and finds that while he still breathes, he isnt responding. One health potionter and Jack seems to have stabilized, but they cant really tell. So, after collecting up the Udoroots sunflowers, they make haste off the floor.
Back in town, Jack is rushed to Doctor. Though once there, Ace is disappointed that nothing can really be done. Doctor took his time, but in the end he could only shrug as the wound wasnt physical, but rather in Jacks mind.
As Doctor puts away the few tools he has managed to scrounge together, he cant help but sigh. Ace, I dont see any reason why Jack shouldnt recover. However, that could have been instantly deadly. We need to do more research into psionic powers.
Ace nods, We already saw the one guy and now the dungeon has psionic monsters. My question is how we can better protect against it and what stats will that require?
Doctor turns to Ace, Any of the mind stats will help. In particr, though, I would say Presence should be the best. Yes, the description does talk about projection, but I suspect it can help protect against enemy projections as well. Besides that, the other two are likely about even. In fact, we might want to strive for bnced mental stats in general.
With body and soul stats, an imbnce doesnt really cause a problem. For the mental side, though, I can see problems developing in those who are too unbnced. This is only an observation at this point, but those out of towner mages who only focus Intelligence all seem to be falling into the loner wizard trope while the more bnced dont show signs of mental warping.
Ace frowns, That could be a very serious problem. The idea of minmaxing stats is very ingrained from the pre-system game culture so it is quite likely that casters will try and focus on one to the exclusion of others.
Doctor nods, Thankfully that one room on the eighth floor should help a little around here. Plus, while people are willing to throw everything at one stat in a game, I suspect they wont be as willing to do so with this. After all, it is one thing to have a game character with only a few points in Wisdom and an entirely different thing if people see you as a person who is not wise.
And yes, anyone with half a brain will realize the Wisdom stat doesnt actually make you wiser. However, if a person knows enough to realize that, hopefully theyll know better than to neglect their mental stats. We arent even sure what they do exactly after all. Not like we have someone with a thousand points in each to tell us more.
Ace sighs, True enough. Now, how long do you think Jack will be down?
Doctor, Three days at most. While he was hurt, it is a wound he can heal from. Though once he does wake up, well need to lecture him on putting more points into his mind. If anything, this experience should have unlocked a new path that might help him resist such attacks in the future.
Ace, I know I have a new option or two after resisting. Though the fact he wasnt able to resist might be a problem. If anything, I can make something out of the sunflowers from that monster.
Most of them vanished when we left the dungeon. Disturbing as that means we didnt actually kill the beast, but whatever the case may be, those flowers are special. I dont think we can craft them into protective gear, but they should let us develop spells to defend against psionics.
Oh, and we might be able to make a psionics detector with them so we can find people to train. Though from what Ive seen, it wont be any good for general detection and instead focused on finding out if someone has the potential for it or not.@@novelbin@@
Doyle, who had been watching this all, turns to Ally. Well, that was a close one. I thought we were going to lose our first founder. Anyway, got any insight into what they just said? While I enjoyed psionics in a story, Im not exactly knowledgeable on the reality of it.
Ally, Ace mostly has it right. Though I suspect they could probably make something with those flowers that would protect someone, there just isnt anyone skilled enough and material gained from actually killing an Udoroot will work better. As for detecting potential? He is spot on with that. In fact, the most basic method of detecting psionic potential everywhere is to use some part of a psionic monster.
Though a sunflower will certainly be a much better tool. They preserve a lot better than say an eyeball or a tongue, especially when to use them people have to physically touch the part. Still, no matter howmon psionics are in this branch of humanity, Ace will be lucky to find even one in town.
Doyle chuckles, I suspect you will be surprised with us. Not only do we have a lot of literature on the subject, but even before the system we had a ton of people that believed it was real and could be tested. I will admit, those early experiments were probably wed in some manner, but eventer research would asionally show statistically relevant results.
Ally looks at Doyle with an eyebrow raised, A bit attached to the subject, I see? And statistically relevant? That just means they got lucky and the results skewed just enough in one direction to look important.
Doyle tilts back, I will admit to having been a bit into it when younger. Even wrote a paper on it. Given how even people I grew up with would seemingly forget our rtionship after a short period of time, psionics interested me as an answer or a solution.
Mind you, I wasnt thinking of it as a solution to friends or what have you. Rather, the power inherent to it seemed perfect to live a better life even if alone. Though I must admit to having a few really silly dreams about it. Like, if you had telekic powers, but theyre weak, you could still use them when shopping to make the stuff youre weighing weigh less. Nonsense uses like that.
Allyughed at that image, I understand where youreing from, but the thought of a mighty psionicist using his power to cheat the grocery store scale is hrious to me.
That Isn’t Strong Enough – Chapter 257
Ally turns her attention to one of her screens. Anyway, besides silly uses for psionics, you seem to have gained something with your victory. It looks like you went up a level.
Doyle pulls up his notifications, only to find Ally was right, not that he doubted her.
{Level Gained!
Level goes from 4 to 5, Strength goes from 48 to 56, Agility goes from 60 to 76, Constitution goes from 67 to 77, Intelligence goes from 54 to 64, Wisdom goes from 104 to 128, Presence goes from 43 to 51, Destiny goes from 98 to 111, Karma goes from 84 to 111, Luck goes from 69 to 86}
The numbers look impressive with three of the stats already in the three digits, but Doyle remembers that some of the stat descriptions required four digits to unlock a better description. So, what do the numbers actually mean? Like with Strength. When a human has 100 strength, what does that represent them being able to lift?
Allyughs, Well first, you have to remember that each stat represents multiple things about a person. Strength doesnt just mean how strong their muscles are. It can represent the toughness of their bones and how optimized their muscles are.
A man who swings a sword all day will look quite different from someone who focuses on punches. Though up to around 100, most people will see a massive increase in raw ability to lift heavy things. If I had to guess, the unfortunate Jack should actually have a three digit Strength score.
That is likely why he got knocked on his butt. Focused too much on physical stats over his mental ones. Anyway, while I cant be sure, there are some tells that point towards this.
For most of his time delving there has been a general trend of his muscles getting bigger. Except over thest couple weeks, the trend has actually seemed to reverse. This either represents his muscles repositioning or bing denser, both signs of a post 100 Strength on a human.
Of course, this isnt certain, some people are just weird. However, going by what we know of him, my guess is the most likely oue. Jack doesnt seem to be the type to try and restrain his muscles for a slimmer look.
Doyle, So what about when someone gains a ton of points all at once? I think I would have noticed the muscles suddenly expanding.
Ally shrugs, The system might seem to be causing miracle after miracle, but it isnt going to waste power taking someone from ten Strength to one hundred in a moment. It slowly feeds you the points one by one. So for massive gains below a thousand points it is quite possible someone might end up taking days to fully realize the growth.
Doyle nods, I guess that makes sense. Though why specify below 1k?
Ally, Well, it does still hold till the four digits, but at that point things tend to start getting conceptual. You cant just keep building your foundation until youve perfected the concept of Strength or what have you.
Scratch that, you can, technically. Some very rare people manage it. The only problem is they tend to bottleneck hard. Just look at all the gods of Strength out there. For you and everyone in Wolfs Rest? Not an option. Even Jack has spread himself out too much to truly center on Strength.
Anyway, once you get into the four digits, stats be more conceptual. A humans muscles dont be stronger, but rather begin to embody certain concepts of Strength. This is basically when you get into the whole unstoppable object meets an immovable object and the answer of who winses down to which one embodies their concept better. That, however, is forter.
Doyle sighs, Fair enough, now lets watch the town a little to see what kind of chaos this causes.
Ally nods and brings up a few screens showing various ces in town. On them, the first thing to attract their attention is that Ace is in Jims office.
Jim frowns, Do you think we should postpone checking out the new addition to the fifth floor?
Ace shakes his head, Jack is from my team. That means Im not leaving anytime soon, so you should use this chance to go yourself. Besides, you likely have better ways to identify what that monument does.
Back in the dungeon Ally sighs, I really have to wonder what theyll make of it. Even if Jim has some kind of assessment or identification ability, the thing breaks the rules. Then again, you never know what the system will make of it. I guess we have to wait.
Doyle nods, At least we wont have to wait long. Though speaking of the monument, the team which reported it seems to be talking to Melonie.
Ally turns away from the screen showing Jim and Ace, focusing on the one Doyle has highlighted.
Melonie steeples her fingers, For your first time through the dungeon, that is an impressive delve you just described. If not for certain reasons, I would be doubting your tale. Now, as you can probably tell, your chances of being on top of the pile here isnt the best.
Henry scoffs, No matter how strong they are, I can match them!
Melonie raises an eyebrow, I highly doubt that, but just in case. She reaches out her hand across her desk, clearly indicating the desire to arm wrestle.
Henry, in turn is more than happy to oblige and grasps her smaller hand and in a flippant way, tries to m her hand down onto the table.
Melonie stares him directly in the eyes as her hand doesnt even budge. Even when he tries to squeeze her hand, it instead feels like he is trying to squeeze a rock. This turn of events shocks him, but not too much as he wasnt using his full strength yet.
Now knowing this wasnt going to be easy, Henry pulls out all the stops. Veins stand up on his arm and his face turns red as he puts his entire strength and weight behind his actions. In fact, anyone in the know about arm wrestling would be able to tell that this isnt his first rodeo.
Henry had clearly at some point studied the ins and outs of arm wrestling, while on the other side you might even use Melonie of using the worst form possible. Yet there she sits, as if nothing was happening with her arm solid as a rock, not even shaking or quivering from exertion.
On Henrys side, things are theplete opposite. His arm is shaking and sweat is beading up on his forehead. Then, ever so slowly, Melonie brings her hand down onto the table until the back of his hand has touched it.
Melonie then makes sure that when she lets go his hand doesnt release all the tension and break her table. With a sigh, she rolls her eyes, Not bad. Youre probably the strongest normal person here. Going by pre-system standards youre easily beyond the strength of an Olympian athlete.
That isnt strong enough. Ace, the leader of this town and not even a pure physical fighter, is stronger than I am. Theyve had ess to this dungeon from square one, and none of the people in the inner ring have squandered it. Out here? Me and a few of my people are likely the only ones stronger than you.
Of course, Strength isnt everything and if we are just looking for people who can beat you, the number goes up quickly. If you try to bull your way through, chances are you will never catch up. Their paths are just that much weightier than your own.
Im not saying it is impossible, mind you. However, they are the founders of the first true town on the and the first branch of the Adventurers Guild. Theyve been at the forefront of exploring this dungeon from the very front as well and while I cant be sure, there are likely secrets to it.@@novelbin@@
Henry crosses his arms, And what of it? If Im so far behind, dont waste my time, which could be better spent training.
Melonieughs, I want you and your team. Right now, you could look at me as a kind of ruler in exile. The system recognizes me as the true ruler of the settlement just up river and yet a council of idiotic elders have been in charge. Im sure you noticed.
They want to stick their heads in the sand and ignore the system. Sure, theyre more than happy to sell stuff to adventures who are passing through and they let their guards level up. However, that is the end of it. There is a dungeon right next door and they arent making use of it!
So Im going to have to go and take it all back. If I just wanted to do so by crude force, we wouldnt have had to leave in the first ce. No, I need to prove them wrong at a fundamental level and your group would be a great help.
For goodness sakes, you even have a true healer! Even this ce only has one of those as well as a few apprentices. Im sure that if given enough time theyll have more, but the fact that even they only have one shows how rare they are. After all, even if they arent delving into the dungeon, healers should be drawn in from everywhere as there is more than enough healing to be done here.
Henry leans forward, So what, you want to act like figure heads? How will that let me grow stronger? If I wanted to lead some shitty settlement, I could have just stayed at the ce we started.
Melonie chuckles, With that kind of attitude it is a good thing you didnt stay. That path clearly doesnt fit you.
No, you wouldnt work as a figurehead, at least not in the way I would want. Rather, I want you to put on a show! When I roll into town again, I want you to act as my champions when I challenge the council.
Youve already experienced being outnumbered in the dungeon so it shouldnt be that hard to beat every single guard they have all at once. Their minions only take the bare minimum, and the paths they have ess to are thin and weak. I honestly doubt even their highest level guard had more than plus five a level to strength.
Plus, they dont even have any mages. The idiots havepletely foregone magic! This isnt even some religious nonsense, they just mistrust the system so much that they wont even touch the stuff.
Anyway, as you take their guards down in a disy of strength, your healer can be getting them back on their feet. A true one, two punch to their sensibility. All the while we can have your sneaky party member go around and tag the council and other important people with chalk. That way, once the fight is over we can not only prove your groups might and magic, but also the ability to have taken them out without even being noticed.
Henry snorts, Easy! But why dont you do it if youre so strong? Also, you still havent exined how that will help me get stronger.
Melonie rolls her eyes, Like I said, if I just wanted to roll into town and take names, we wouldnt have had to leave. Plus, I want to hide my own power so when they inevitably try something I can surprise them. As for how this will help you?
It will set you on a path that fits who you are. You dont want to stick around setting up all the bureaucracy, you just want to prove your Strength. Doing this will likely result in a path that allows you to truly show off your power.
After all, it will be for an audience of an entire settlement and arge one at that. At the moment, there are few ces where you could show off before arger crowd.
The rest of Henrys team clearly know their boss quite well as they all sigh and get ready to join up with Melonie. As for Henry himself? Hes a little caught up in the ideas that just got tossed his way.
Why They Can’t Remember – Chapter 259
To Kelly, the stepped nature of the monuments lower section was obvious enough, especially after Billys input on what was written there. A simple structural design that ced the most foundational knowledge on the bottom and built up from there. Even the images of the various forms of kobold were dissected and figured out. Though the knowledge of all the different forms a kobold coulde in wasnt the most useful at the moment. She was even able to notice that each section of writing had been done by a different hand with no repeats, something Billy had missed.
Though, as Kelly had suspected, the truly marvelous stuff was on the obelisk section. She wasnt quite certain what most of it meant. It seemed after a certain point even just the more measurements started to slip from your mind in a simr manner to how the writing did for Billy. However, just the lower section was enough to help so many things in town. The only shame is that none of it can be used directly.
Sure, she had basically crawled all over the monument, measuring every bit she could. In the end, though, even without realizing it, Kelly could tell most of the special measurements werent going to work. However, it did open up the avenue of finding what simr things were that would work. The most simple of which was found almost instantly and made her feel like a bit of a dunce.
In hindsight, it should have been obvious something so widespread in nature would have a magical meaning as well. So yeah, the golden ratio had power. Kelly wasnt sure of the details, but that and more opened up before her. Though of course the capstone of the obelisk wasnt ignored by her.
The rest of the measurement and talk of ratios came after she spent way too long trying to figure the capstone out. Kelly could see the most obvious bits, but anyone could. It had kobold gods on it and it didnt act as a proper icon for any of them.
Now, if someone wanted to start worshiping one of said gods, they could likely whip something up using the capstone as a reference. For Kelly, that wasnt the major draw. Rather, even after the forgetfulness enforced by the monument, she did all she could to remember. Not that much stuck. Though afterwards Kellys head was swimming with so many half-formed thoughts and ideas.
So much so that deeper in the dungeon, Doyle just had to ask, Is the monument really that exaggerated? Im looking at it right now and the thing isnt really that mysterious.
Allyughs, Most of what theyre grappling with is the extra-dimensional nature of the thing. I still cant read the thing, but going by how the boy described it, about halfway is where the original creators of the monument failed.
They tried really hard to make the info generic, but past a certain point things begin to mismatch. The whole forgetfulness thing is just an outcropping of it. What he was reading simply doesnt fit with their universe and so the information gets eroded.
Sort of a passive self defense by the dimension. After all, things like this monument are a popr method to try and invade a dimension for a few unsavory sorts. Anyway, you dont have a problem looking at it because you are your dimension. Not like you are going to deny yourself the knowledge.
Doyle tilts to the side, If it is a defense, then why would it be okay for me to take a look?
Ally shrugs, Rules of the game? Like, there are things so corruptive by nature that to have one existing in a dimension is harmful. On the other hand, an item that needs a sapient to do something is a lot safer because you are a dimension. The mostmon such item is going to be some form of demon or devil summoning ritual.@@novelbin@@
Not the usual ones where someone calls up some otherworldly evil and contracts it. Those are to a certain extent safe in that once the contract is broken or the contractor dies, give or take a few conditions, the summoned being will go back home along with any extra beings they might have summoned. Though it also helps that while the summoner is generally calling up something more powerful than them, that summon cant in turn summon anything of equal or greater strength to itself.
Not saying there arent a few dimensions overrun by extranar entities which have managed to set up a self-sustaining cycle of summoners. Though mostmon for that tends to be angel analogues as less backstabbing tends to happen. Not that they arent any less bad for a dimension, but that is neither here nor there.
Anyway, I got a bit off topic there. Simple enough, contract summons or battle summons are cool, even the lowest power permanent summon is bad. If even a single imp is allowed into a dimension, it can cause whole worlds to fall if not more. Mostly because stuff like devils and angels make sure even their lowest or low can summon the next step in the chain.
Doyle nods, I can see how that would be trouble. Im assuming there is some leeway and signs of this happening so we arent going to end up with a swarm of extranar nonsense knocking on our door anytime soon?
Ally grimaces and shrugs, Eh? Maybe? I feel it is rtively safe to assume the dimension doesnt currently have some extranar cancer growing in it? There is a system so it is mostly safe to assume that if we did, there would be more being done to curb it. Stuff like having system events to challenge the locals against some menace or another. That and there would be a lot more elements around meant to counter the threat as the system would loosen the requirements for stuff like pdins if there was a demonic invasion.
Doyle, So the system would act like an immune system for the dimension?
Ally shakes her head, While a dimension does work to prevent outside interference, they dont actually get hurt by them per se. Or rather, for something as simple as an invasion of demons, they dont care. Whether a dimension is filled with humans, demons, devils, angels, or any other number of beings is immaterial to it.
Extranar knowledge is nket blocked because of threats to the dimension itself. There are things out there that eat dimensions and they can start from the most harmless of sources. All it takes is given some civilization a single toehold and even without a True Immortal backing them, some ces have advanced in certain ways to the point that they can reel in smaller dimensions to plunder.
Doyle darkens, I think I might have seen something like that.
Ally raises an eyebrow, Well that is rming.
Doyle shakes his core, Dont worry, it isnt any near here. I had to go pretty far to find my myconid boss and on the way I came across a disturbing little collection of dimensions. It was basically a giant fungal using corrupted souls to try and spread itself to other dimensions through fungal sapients. I made sure to stay away from that mess and double checked the bosss soul before pulling it in. Also, while whatever was being done left a mark on the souls of fungaloids longer than not, it wasnt permanent.
Ally makes a sour face, Yeah, I think you mentioned something about it? Maybe not asplete as that, but Im surprised I didnt react more at the time. I would say that was worrying, except for the fact the void is the most infinite thing we currently know of, so finding stuff like that isnt strange. Since even for you it felt like a good distance away, we should be safe until youre more ready to defend yourself.
Also, since the dimension were attached to is rtively new to magic, the chances of there being any fungal colony old enough to host such a thing properly is doubtful. While sapient fungus doesnt require supernatural powers to exist. Theyre generally going to need it to do anything. Though speaking of fungus and what not, how is your boss settling in?
Doyle pauses for a second, Speaking of the boss settling in, when do I get my new instances?
Ally snorts, Answer a question with a question?
Doyle, More likely than you think! Though yeah, the boss does seem to be settling in alright, but I did just remember that I got my instances right after I made my first boss. It was something about the dungeon being more stable.
Ally, That does sound familiar, lets pull up the message to find out.
{First Boss created...
Dungeon Stability increased...
Instancing for all floors before the first boss unlocked
10 instances avable to be distributed among all unlocked floors}
Doyle tilts to the side, Thatst line doesnt make sense. It says theyre avable to be used for all of my unlocked floors and yet I can very much tell theyre only good for the floors before my first boss.
Ally, That is strange, however I suspect it has to do with the stability part. Maybe once you gain more instances, you will be able to spread even those instances to the deeper floors. Though I must admit, Im a bit ignorant on the subject.
Doyle, So why isnt my dungeon more stable now that Ive gotten a second boss?
Ally perks up, That I can answer! Your first boss was special in a number of ways. First of all, they were your first. Going from zero to one is an infinitelyrger step than going from one to two. Also, your first boss had more intent and meaning behind her. After all, you used the first floor monster that, despite being a new one every time they got wiped, you kept thinking of as the same kobold.
That means your myconid boss is sort of starting from zero itself while your kobold boss already was at one from the get go. If I had to guess, youll likely stabilize floors six to nine after the boss first fights delvers. Oh, and I do mean when the boss fights the delvers. None of that pussy footing around like what happened on the fifth floor. The delvers dont have to win against the boss, but they do have to actually reach the final cavern and attack the bosses direct minions. Though of course that is more of an educated guess, though it should be close to the truth.
Doyle, Why the emphasis on the boss getting into actual battle? Technically, all the myconids on the floor are its to control so the outer towns are just as much under its banner.
Ally, The thing that is stabilizing the dimension is your dungeons native sapients, the bosses. Though now that I think of it, the kobold boss might have also had a leg up because it created those pseudo-sapient friends. While sapients arent required for a stable dimension and they can, in fact, cause a small enough dimension to destabilize, your bosses will always be a stabilizing force on your dungeon.
Now, remember the entire purpose of your dungeons bosses is to defend the dungeon. So while having the myconids on the outskirts of the boss domain might seem like enough, such threats arent seen as significant. Only when the boss itself is forced into battle will its position within the dungeon hierarchy stabilize and in turn, cause the earlier floors to stabilize as well.
Oh, and while I said this was an educated guess, this is the floor for stabilization. So maybe it doesnt happen the instant the fight finishes. However, it wont happen before the fight for certain.
Doyle nods, I guess that does make a certain amount of sense, but how will wandering bosses and the various sapients that arent a boss but could appear in the dungeon affect things?
Ally rolls her eyes, You have to rain on my parade by asking things I dont know.
Maybe This Time Is The Time – Chapter 260
Back in town a few dayster, Kelly was finishing her first experimental rig for testing the golden spiral. The pattern ismon enough in nature and even after the end of the world she still had sufficient ess to a knowledge base that allowed her to study the concept. Of course, it helped that the subject was so basic in nature. The two libraries in the old towns werent exactly college level, but they had more than enough material for this.
As for her rig? It was a simple enough set up. After messing around with the preservation enchantment, the boxes from the dungeon had, the town easily mixed in the knowledge with their spellcraft. Though it mostly came down to the fact that circles are really good for containment as there are no weak points for the power to pressure.
Once that is realized and you learn some of the basic magic runes, you can easily set up a magic circle. Runes and marks on the inside affect the outside and the opposite is true as well. After all, what good is a shield if the runes controlling it are on the outside where the enemy can get to them?
Of course, there are more advanced concepts out there that use other shapes to help concentrate effects and double or greater circles. Because sometimes you want to defend against the outside while doing something on the inside. Though this is a shallow overview, it was enough for Kelly to create a wooden testing rig.
The base is crafted from a single b of stone, about three meters a side, and specially processed by a stone mage to bepletely uniform. There is a ssic magic circle of containment so if things blow up, it stays inside. On top of the stone, are four wooden risers that are used to suspend a square sheet of wood about a quarter of a meter off the stone. That wood and, to an extent, the risers, are meant to be receable.
Partly because of that chance of explosions and partly because Kelly ns to have multiple tests carved ahead of time that can be swapped out as needed. In theory, a stone tile would likely be better as you could make it more uniform, but even with magic, wood is easier to carve and shape.
Now she has everything set up and ready to go, so she ces the first wood tile into ce. Of course, the tile looks a little silly as it is two meters to a side and yet the carving in it half a meter at best, but Kelly wanted to start small. The containment circle was exactly well understood at this point, so better to be safe than sorry.
With the tile in ce, Kelly inserts a small blob of Mana into the circle and connects it to the outer end point of the in golden spiral carved into the wood. If you did this with a normal circle, you would get a light show as the circle lit up in a color corresponding to the type of power and quantity. This is actually the source of the next step up to the basic light spell where you use a hollow sphere instead of a blob of power.
However, when the power was ced in the spiral, it pulsed down the length of carving and basically sh banged Kelly as the containment circle wasnt handling light in any way. A weakness she would have to remedyter. For now, though, she sets about repeating the experiment.
First with four other identical recement tiles and then cycling through all five until the carvings had all degraded into uselessness as it wasnt like Kelly was using masterwork wooden tiles. This process kept her busy for three entire days, though mostly because of the time she spent between tests to examine the tiles.
At least that is what Doyle assumes as he bowed out when the first day started into the second without signs of stopping. Even after that test was done, he decided against watching for now as it looked like Kelly was up for more of the same. He knew this was important work that needed to be done if people from his werent going to beplete barbarians when they finally got out into the rest of the universe. That, however, didnt change the fact that watching it was boring when you werent involved.
Instead, he turned to his own experiments. More specifically, Doyles attempts at improving his ants. Since he hadst actively paid attention to them, it had been arge number of cycles. Each new cycle created numerous nests from which he would choose the queens most capable of specializing their brood, only to start all over again.
At some point rtively early, the prey insect pattern had leveled up a good bit only for an ant pattern to split off. An interesting side effect of this split was that the prey insect pattern had dropped down in level. Not quite to where it started, but level five was a good bit lower than the 27 the ant pattern had managed to reach.
That 27 is shocking in its own rights. Very few of his patterns were at that level and the ones that were, tended to have been gained at that level. To have taken the prey insect pattern from something like level 3 all the way to splitting off ants as their own thing and getting that to level 27 is impressive. Doyle of course had his suspicions on why it worked.
Top of the list is of course the fact that he had figured out an important metric for the queens to focus on. More than enough stories contained the idea of advancing because of a deeper understanding of some concept so it would make sense. Even if there wasnt some sort of mysticism about it, being able to focus on something important would help either way.
Though speaking of that concept, it had started to get very hard to differentiate between the queens. That likely being the reason why leveling the pattern had slowed down. At first, it was easy to pick out the queens that expressed their versatility better. Now an average drone was near perfectly average. The difference is noting from them being slightly better or worse at one thing or another, but rather their overall ability with everything rising and falling in lock step.@@novelbin@@
Even that, however, tended to be more rted to the individual drone, something about their potential, than it was the queens. So, with the leveling slowed and the dronesing out all the same, Jason felt that now was a good time to finally deal with the ant queen path thing. Something that felt so long ago he had to bring it up again just to check that he wasnt misremembering anything.
{Ageless Queens
5/15 - You have earned +1 Destiny/Level, One ant queen of choice no longer has a max lifespan
10/15 - You have earned +1 Destiny/Level, One ant queen on each floor will be mentally joined to the previously chosen queen to form a true hivemind, Previously chosen queen receives +1 to their currently lowest mental stat for each other queen in the hivemind
15/15 - Pathplete, You have earned +1 Destiny/Level, The ageless ant queen has an adjusted chance to be a roaming boss which increases with age and other queens in the hivemind}
Doyle nods, while he hadnt remembered it one for one, the gist of it had stuck with him. One ant queen gets to be the head honcho, while others connect to it. That means first things first, make sure all his floors have a decent ant poption on them. Though not just that, but also high-quality queens.
Which, after a quick check, does not seem to be a thing at the moment. Only the first two floors even have a queen or two, which have bepletely real despite needing a much smaller amount of power to do so. Of course, most of that power thates from adventurers adventuring is going to be taken up by first the dungeon and then the actual monsters. Still, the ants cant really advance or grow on their own if they arent real.
Of course, the worst part from Doyles view, is that those few real queens are some of the ones he first ced way back at the start. He didnt even have the actual pattern for ants until basically just now so those ants are more prey insects than ants. Still, they did manage to survive up until now.
Doyle decided to give them a chance. So, while he removed any ant nest which didnt have a fully realized queen, those few on the first two floors got a pass. Then Doyle went and chose the cream of the crop from hisst set of ant farms and used them as the designs from which he pulled to fill all ten floors with ants once again. Even floors like the third which dont have ssic environments in which ants would stay gets a few nests to see what they would do.
This led to three days of war. The delvers didnt notice anything as most of the action happened when they werent around, but it was wild. After those three days and an uncounted number of experienced days because of Doyles innate time maniption, things finally settle down as the remaining ant colonies finalize their territories.
Oh, and those few original colonies Doyle had left on the first and second floor? All gone. The new queens were simply capable of producing better warriors that were capable of trouncing any of the old guard.
Doyle had suspected this might be the oue of course. When tests on the warrior drones is basically a miniature weightliftingpetition, there isnt much wiggle room. In fact, the only reason the warssted three days was because every one of the new nests was too even. The original queens were taken down within the first day.
Though this was interesting, what really drew Doyles attention was stuff like how the ants adapted to the third floor. A stone maze with basically no deepyers of dirt to dig into. That didnt stop them from digging in. They chose to take over thergest mushrooms and among the roots of the vines.
The vine roots are easy enough to figure out. Doyle had to ce some dirt to get them start and with time they formed a sort of root mat on the ceiling. Underneath which, a handful of ant colonies lived. Not that many, though.
In fact, Doyle predicts that given enough time, there will end up being only one ant nest on the ceiling. Not because theyre hyper aggressive, but rather because of how the floor works. Since the various sections of the floor get shifted once a day, eventually no matter how far apart the two nests started, they will be ced right next to each other.
Of course, a simr thing is likely to happen to the mushroom nests. Though at the moment there are only two of those, anyway. While there are more than enough resources to support more than just two ant nests, there isnt enough living space.
See, at some point the patches of mushrooms in which the myconid sprouts would hide, a few of the mushrooms became more like mushtrees as it were. Not too many. Just one, maybe two at each pool of water. It is inside of these mushrooms where the ants decided to nest. Except, while Doyle wouldpare them to trees, theyre actually quite small evenpared to the tenth floor mushrooms.
So, while a nest can fit, they certainly need more space to work with and so only two nests remain. Even then, that has more to do with their queens having been ced so far apart over thest couple days. All it will take is one day where their nests are even just a bit closer.
Now, Doyle could order them to y nice. There isnt really a reason for them to fight. In fact, with a situation like the third and sixth floor where the number of nests is almost assured to dip to having only one or two hives, it could be seen as a bad thing. After all, only one of his ant queens gets to be immortal.
Maybe in the short term, this wouldnt be a problem. After all, you can easily find ant queens around a decade old out in the wild and scientists have them living up to 30 years in ab. However, Doyle can just imagine some point in the future where he focuses on something only toe back to floors like the third being empty of ants.
However, he wants the hives to be a bit rough and tumble. Level 27 certainly isnt the limit, Doyle just needs to find the next quality to focus on. So instead of a general forced peace, he sets it up so that new nests are given a grace period to set up as long as they start far enough away from another nest.
This does leave him with one final question: which queen to choose to make ageless? After all, with the one benefit from the path, it will be receiving plus 3 to each mental stat.
Queen’s Gibberish – Chapter 261
Doyle stood back from himself and considered the floors. In theory, which floor he chooses doesnt matter as eventually the ageless ant queen will be a wandering boss. However, the system seemed to like to say stuff like that and then under deliver. After all, he had gotten the paths rted to his monsters evolving into elemental variants a while ago and yet nothing. It almost felt like someone out there was rolling dice and yet never getting a crit.
Whatever the case may be, for now he needed to choose the best ce with the assumption that the queen would be stuck there for a while. That basically removed the fifth floor and those that came before it. They werent bad floors, but he wanted the queen to get a few levels under her belt. That would be a bit hard in the early floors as without being a roaming boss, the queen will be level limited based on the floor like anything else.
With that in mind, Doyle soon settled on the ninth floor. Sure, the tenth floor would be better, what with it being one floor deeper. However, if it was there, then whenever a party was fighting the boss Doyle would be semi cutoff from the queen.
On the ninth floor, Doyle would still be able to freelymunicate with her. Sure, even if the floor she is on is being delved, he can pass a message on through the other linked queens. That, however, is much more one way than he would like.
Not that Doyle has any real ns for how he wants to mess with upied floors. It was just better to be ready in case something came up. Though more important was just going to be having the ants look after the small things.
Both in size and subject. Sure, Doyle has a perfect view of his dungeon. However, not even natural born dungeons keep their entire dungeon monitored, let alone a human turned dungeon. There is just too much to watch.
The ants dont suffer this problem as they split the work. As the system shows, it isnt impossible to watch literally everything. Dungeons and in fact most sapients just arent up to it. A swarm of ants, though? Well, now were talking.
So with the ninth floor chosen, it was a matter of choosing which queen. Well, he could have chosen one of the pre-existing nests. Doyle could also make a nest that ispletely separate from the floor. He chose neither.
Instead, he ced the nest in about the most boring location, right outside of the safety zone at the floors entrance portal. Sure, it means they cant do much about enemies that pass them by. However, that doesnt matter to Doyle as he is chasing after different metrics.
That of safety while at the same time allowing ess. ced too close to anywhere else and it might get caught up in some kind of earth magic or an explosion of some sort. Though Doyle did see the irony in the safest ce being where the enemy enters the floor.
Even the exit wasnt as safe as a monster could be chased that way. Sure, that is technically possible at the entrance as well, but that would require the delvers to get behind one of the mobile monsters and then chase it all the way back. Not very practical.@@novelbin@@
So with his choice made and a new ant nest ced, Doyle sits there for a moment. He pauses a moment more. Right, he doesnt actually know how to do this. It would make sense for it to be some kind of systemmand and so a few are tried. Though once he got it right, he did feel a bit silly.
Doyle had been overthinking things. All it took was to think with intent about the queen he wanted and to tell the system, [Assign this queen as the ageless queen]. You know, like the name of the path except not plural. Strange that the path was plural despite only giving a single ageless queen, but it isnt like he can call someone up andin about the name or anything.
Though it might hint at there being something more to the path. Various meanings that quickly pop into Doyles head and flitter around. Stuff like potential follow up paths and the possibility of his queen at some point connecting to a greater ant hivemind. None of the ideas arepletely impossible, it could even just represent amon path for ant hives.
However, Doyle tamps down on those ideas as he observes the chosen ant queen change. At first he cant really tell what is happening as the queens exoskeleton splits, though it soon bes clear. She is molting, which would make sense if she is going to be getting bigger.
This takes a long time. Well, a single molt doesnt take too much time, but it isnt just a single molt. After she finishes one and her shell fully hardens, the process repeats and repeats. Going from the size of themon ck garden ant all the way to the size of a thumb and that doesnt include the legs and antenna. Rather, just the central body and head parts are the size of an adults thumb.
Quite impressive, though through knowledge provided by his ant pattern, Doyle realizes this isnt too far out of range for a normal ant. Well, normal if you include some kind of rainforest ant which held the title of thergest ant species before the system showed up. That ant could be said to be thumb sized, except that was including the legs and only whenparing it against a smaller thumb, but still impressive.
Of course, with how the square cubew works, there is a whole lotta more ant in his queen than in the rainforest species. So while not too out of whack, anyone that sees her will certainly know something is up. Besides, it isnt like there are rainforests around here, so most ants people will have seen are the smaller kind. Good thing the queen isnt meant to be parading around outside of her nest.
However, before he can think on this more, a sort of static seems to invade Doyles head. He can tell it ising from outside. In fact, the source is obvious, the new queen. She is trying tomunicate, but sadly the mental boost from the path isnt quite enough to allow it to start talking moments after gaining them. Though it does make him really wish thenguage pack he had gotten oh so long ago was cheaper.
That or maybe he needs to watch his world energy reserves better. While a million and a half is arge number, when his most recent floor could only have 33k in monsters. The amount also wasnt too big. After all, he is restocking the floors as they get cleared multiple times throughout the day.
It honestly just made him feel like a farmer, rich on paper, but cash poor. Sure, at any one point in time Doyle had a bunch of invested points in a simr way to how a farmer had a bunch of expensive assets, those tractors arent cheap. However, he couldnt use the harvest of points to buy other stuff. He had to reinvest it into the floor that was just cleared including any loot that dropped and needed recing. Same old story, the farmer sells his crops only to need to put all that money back into seed, feed, and repairing or recing equipment.
Thank goodness Doyle switched most of his floors over to, ironically now that he thinks of it with what his previousparison was, farming. That wasnt enough to bepletely self sufficient though, especially on the sixth floor. He had thought having an equal amount of monsters in the farm zone would cover it. How foolish he was.
Even with the farm pumping out cattle nonstop, the town was in the middle of a beef craze. Those cows out in their pastures are safe and some are even providing milk already. Suffice it to say, the town was quite happy with their choice of Moota as the deity to watch over the cows. Sure, a deity for the farmers would work just as well, if from a different direction. The biggest difference is that this way, they dont have to personally worship a deity for it.
The cattle in the dungeon? Suffice it to say, if anyone bothered to actually butcher them instead of letting them turn into perfect cuts of meat, the town would be able to single-handedly supply every settlement that can make it to Wolfs Rest. Though even as it is, theyre basically already supplying all the meat.
Which would be more impressive if peoples consumption was anything like it was pre-system. Not that suddenly people stopped wanting to consume meat for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Rather, most people outside of Wolfs Rest werent ready for their food to try and turn the tables on them. Even the cute little white-tail deer was more than willing to take the fight to the hunters if you didnt take them down with the first shot.
Doyle shakes his core and focuses back on the ageless queen ant. She was still unable tomunicate and no amount of daydreaming will change the fact that he had only half paid for the 1.5mil and change. So, while thenguage pack would be super useful and most likely also speed up the kobolds figuring out how to read the monument. It would have to wait.
Just like Doyle had to wait for the ant to figure outmunication. Because, of course, the static wasnt actually static. Rather, it was pheromones and such being broadcast telepathically. Oh, and the wait was a couple weeks, during which a certain team had been grinding away at the sixth floor. Half because the money from bringing back steak was decent and mostly because they dont quite have the endurance to beat all the monsters on the floor.
Henry sighs as Ion collects thest drop. The herd of 20 cattle had given them quite the challenge. Such an unlucky draw to face a full group just after we get here!
Chad nods as he shifts his backpack to make it morefortable. Seriously! Though all of them dropped somerger cuts like prime rib. There is nothing that sucks more than to kill a cow only for it to drop a single budget cut steak. At least our waiting in line wont have been a waste.
Henryughs, Good chance for me to go get some more lessons from that butcher in town. I dont get why everyone insists on using the much less skilled locals to do the butchering when theyve got a true pro in the system shop.
Susie shudders, That thing isnt right. I dont get why youre so insistent on learning from them. It isnt like you want to be a butcher.
Henry shakes his head, You wouldnt get it. The guy knows stuff! Didnt you see how cleanly I cut that one bull? I can hardly imagine what he could teach me if I could get an entire body to him!
Alive curls her lips, Im the rogue and yet Im not in with this. Like, sneak attacks and hitting weak points should be my jam, but I cant stand the guy. There is just something off about him. Plus, his past is totally locked down. No question works and not because he doesnt want to tell. No, it is because he cant tell. I advise you to give up on his lessons.
Henry snorts, You just dont get it. He knows stuff! Sure, some bits of him are a little unstable, but Im willing to ascribe that to some kind of past trauma.
Susie rolls her eyes and sarcastically quips, Yeah, just a little unstable.
Void, But Not That Void – Chapter 264
Doyle suddenly thinks of something. So, that river over there? We call the next settlement over the settlement upriver because, well, its upriver from here. While I cant be certain, the local settlements seem to be in somewhat of a diamond shape with us, anchoring the one end.
Ally nods, That seems to be the case. If I had to guess, there is probably another dungeon on the other side of the diamond. Though since we havent heard of it yet, we probably wont hear about it for a while. Wolfs Rest is sort of built around you because they had to move and it is sort of hard for them to hide your existence. The other side probably has a more selfish group in control of it that has kept it a secret.
Doyle, While interesting, that isnt what I was getting at. Rather, if we are thest stop on the river, isnt the ocean-going to be just a bit further down the river? At least, isnt that a possibility?
Ally shakes her head. A reasonable worry, but not how it works. See, the system wants the settlements to at least have a chance to live. While the really nasty monsters will stay in the deepest sections of the ocean or at least the most remote sections of said ocean if you have more of a shallow sea sort of situation, there are other threats in the shallows.
More pertinent, magic plus a shore tends to equal a ton of aquatic threats which arent quite so constrained to the water as you would prefer. And that is on top of the already existing nonsense like crabs. Though if you want real horror, starfish tend to take the cake. What with part of their feeding process involving expelling their stomachs onto you and their crazy survival ability.
Doyle, So were likely a respectful distance away from the ocean?
Ally shrugs, Maybe? Either distance or some form of disruptive terrain. While not one hundred percent certain to keep things back, a good sized cliff does a decent job. Though you would be fine. Being capable of leaving the ocean doesnt mean they can survive for too long. Even with magic, gills can only do so much out of the water.
The only reason ocean critters even bother leaving is that, unlike freshwater locations, something about the concept of an ocean causes an absolute non-stop bloodbath. About the only reason most magical oceans arent constantly the color of blood is because the nkton and filter feeders are super charged as well. You only find a true blood ocean when the main species in the area has some kind of blood-based defense. It is a little hard for the nkton to eat it, if the blood is poisonous.
Doyle, Well, isnt that pleasant? So, are the shores just barren wastnds, then?
Ally, Nah, the shores get a boost from magic as well. Theyre just high-level zones. Something people will have to get used to in general. After all, the deeper you get into any contiguous terrain type, the higher levels will tend to be. Combined with how more extreme locations have a simr rise in levels and random danger zones can pop up all over.
The two keep themselves distracted with this topic for a while until something draws their attention. People were challenging the Zero-G room. Not just a single team, but multiple teams in a concerted effort.
They were abusing the fact he didnt have instances that deep by all gathering on the seventh. Doyle wasnt too annoyed by this though, as they werent abusing it to beat the eighth floor through attrition. Rather, after a team would feel like they were unable to continue in the room, they would retreat to the seventh floor and let the eighth reset for the next.
More importantly, the teams werent just trying to get through the room. Their goal was to full clear it. Doyle wasnt certain why, but whatever floats their boat. Plus, it meant he was getting fed a lot of cruft, especially since they still had to fight through all the rooms up till the Zero-G room.
Though it was a bit troubling when night came around and they didnt retreat. Instead, the five parties that were attempting this continued deep into the night. On the upside, it was this continued drive past the point where some of them should have gone to sleep that revealed their goal.
At some point, someone had noticed that the town had a couple of bags of holding. Thatst bit caused Doyle to check on the third floor right away, only to find that indeed, a second bag had been dropped. Anyway, this was a recent discovery and so people figured the bags came from one of the deeper floors, specifically the Zero-G room.
This meant that much to Doyles relief, they werent here to cause mischief. On the other hand, since they were barking up the wrong tree, it was going to take a while for them to realize it would not drop. Though that realization would likely take a while as they still havent managed a full clear of the room yet.
Though their constant hammering on the room finally got Doyle something he had been waiting for. A little odd as it was the kobolds that it happened too when he had expected the goats would get it. Still, it made some sense with the monument.
As for what Doyle got? Void kobolds! His first home-grown variant. Not just that though, but a variant clearly meant for space. They had an extra three Agility and two new skills; 3D movement and pressure sensitivity. Though the biggest thing was what was in their stat block.
{Void Kobold
S[4+2] A[10] C[4] I[6] W[6] P[6]
Inherits from [Kobold]
Required Skills: Pressure Sensitivity
Extra Skills: 3D Movement lv3, Pressure Sensitivity lv1
Cost: World Energy[50]}
The fact that it right out states that it inherits from the normal kobold and instead of the giant list of avable skills, it just has extra skills. Not that he cant use all the skills his kobolds have. He could. It just didnt work in the opposite direction. Though Doyle remembered seeing the 3D movement skill being an option before and when he checked it again, the cost had gone down.
Though this was all just the surface level information. To actually get a feel for them, he summoned a pair on an empty floor and they were beautiful. The regr kobolds look decent enough, of course, but the void kobolds had a certain ir to them.
The male void kobolds are like suns. They could be any color a sun could be and, while not as bright as one, had a pronounced bioluminescence going on. In particr, their eyes were much brighter. And their scales? The edges would asionally re up like it was a sr re.
As for thedies? You might think that since the guys were suns, the girls would look likes or maybe the darkness of space. Of course, since it was brought up that way those werent the answer. Instead, they looked like constetions.
Not ssic constetions, mind you. Well, Doyle assumes that those are an option. Rather, when he says constetions, he means a series of stars connected by lines to form a significant shape. Which could be a problem. That significant shape part is more than just art.
Good news? Since it was the female kobolds, it isnt like their constetions were going to allow them to randomly AoE the delvers. Rather, because they are the ones who have Qi, all the effects are rtively contained whether it was elemental abilities, buffs, or whatever strange effect mighte from it.
In fact, despite being more predictable, the guys will likely cause the most issues for delvers. While regr kobold mages require a wand and are basically assigned a random element unless Doyle specifies, that isnt the case for void kobold mages.
While theyck a skill with magic just like the normal kobold mage, their eyes act as a magic focus, recing the need for a wand. Also, while they could use normal elemental magic if Doyle gave them a wand, theye with a higher tier option, ster magic.
Ally was able to exin how that worked rtively concisely. Higher tier magic doesnt mean better, just that it needs to start at a higher level. Regr fire magic can get there on its own, for instance. Though with ster magic, it is actually an advanced form of basic fire magic.@@novelbin@@
Good thing the magic it has on the low end isnt as bombastic as the name implies. Though what they get is a slight upgrade to the normal elemental ball spell the kobold mages get. Instead, they can cast ster beams.
It looks shockingly like a certain superheros heat vision except in the color of their body instead of just red. Also much weaker, though Doyle could see them being able to better focus the beams with practice. Not that he ns to let them practice that.
Instead, Doyle ns to get them to focus on the opposite, widening the beam. It reduces the direct damage, but allows them to more effectively intercept iing attacks. Now there were just three questions left, only one of which he needed to answer himself.
Doyle turns back to Ally, So uh, whats up with the inherited thing and why do they have pressure sensitivity instead of resistance?
Ally, The pressure thing is simple enough to exin. While they are called void kobolds, theyre even more of a derivative than you would expect from the start. Not only do they have nothing to do with The Void, they also dont live in the void between stars.
Rather, they are a species specialized at living in things in space. They cant survive out in space any better than a human, which is exactly why pressure sensitivity is so important. It allows them to notice even the smallest loss in pressure and pinpoint where it ising from.
You know, like from a pinhole in the side of their space station. Void species and anyone with the pressure sensitive skill is highly sought after among spacefarers. Though void species are preferred. The reason why the pressure sensitive skill is required for them is because they have some kind of organ or change which is specialized to a degree that just having the skill cant rece.
Oh, and the inherited bit? Thats the bonus you get for naturally evolving them. Skills you buy for normal kobolds will propagate to evolved forms.
Doyle, Then why dont the myconids have that?
Ally shrugs, They probably do now. Saying you had to unlock the feature isnt quite right, but it is close. The myconids didnt activate it because they are not an evolution or a true variant. Rather, they are simply the various life stages.
Though it is possible that they dont get it. After all, you cant expect a butterfly to have the same skills as a caterpir. Youll have to check thatter after you decide if you want to use the void kobolds right now.
Doyle tilts back. Right now? Eh, maybe? Like, I really enjoy their design and they fit the room. Plus, they dont cost more.
Ally, Yeah, the cost thing is weird. Im going to guess it is because for kobolds the void variant is more of a side grade instead of an upgrade.
Doyle, Still, why do you think Im nning on using them?
Allyughs, Not only are you thinking of using them, youre likely also thinking of adding a pair to the fifth floor. Id be willing to bet the reason you got the evolution is because of the monument and youll want to have some there.
Maybe The Rules Were There For A Reason – Chapter 265
Doyle sighs, Well, you arent wrong. I did consider adding a couple of void kobolds to the fifth floor. Though even if I dont end up doing that, Im certainly going to have a couple go there for a little.
Ally nods, You basically have to. Who knows if the monument will end up reacting to them or not? While I dont see a direct copy of them on the thing, I see some winged kobolds that might be rted.
After all, space is the perfect ce for wings when not depending on mystical powers. The size you would need their wings to be in regr gravity is silly and so usually in those situations, you need magic. Space, on the other hand, doesnt even require them to have all that much stamina as most flight is really more about slight movements to propel themselves around.@@novelbin@@
Doyle, So do you think the elder assassin vine or the myconids sprouts will evolve in the room?
Ally shakes her head, They dont really have anything to adapt to. This is especially true for the vine. It works off of dragging itself around with pneumatics. There arent any muscles that need to be modified to prevent strength loss. No bones that need to be worried about losing strength.
Theyre basically already perfectly adapted to being in space. In fact, I wouldnt be surprised if they could survive in space if they didnt have to worry about the cold. This is especially true for the much tougher elder vines.
Doyle, Fair enough. Im sure were missing something about nts and mushrooms growing in space, but that is what magic is for. Anyway, Ive decided.
Ill rece the normal kobolds in the Zero-G room with void kobolds and I will ce one female void Kobold on the fifth floor. I dont mind giving people a sneak peek of theter levels, but I want their first experience with the eye beams to be on mass.
Ally, That isnt exactly fair.
Doyle, As if it is fair that they can just go and tell everyone about my dangers. This gives me a bit of a chance at payback. While Im sure there will be videos of this encounterter on. It very much feels like one of those, you have to see it to believe it, sort of things.
Ally shrugs, I can certainly see that being the case. Oh, and before I forget, another thing about the inherited thing that just showed up in my searches. If you, for instance, managed to manually evolve a goat into a wooden goat, it would gain the inherited trait.
Though no, you dont get a refund on any adjustment points you might have used to unlock things. They do, however, end up with skill slots unlocked equal to whichever had more. Which is nice, all things considered.
Doyle sighs, Im going to start integrating the voibolds. Not that I can exactly add them to the Zero-G room at the moment. Well, I could? But those teams are still hitting it over and over. I want more of a break between it being delved so things dont end up half done. Not like they can stay there all that long.
Doyle was wrong about that. The five teams ended up camped out there for three whole days. This would normally not be a problem as time had started to flow strangely to him. Not literally this time, but rather the fact that he can focus on something and end up done before realizing it.
Except, in this case, Doyle doesnt really have much else to distract himself with and is sort of focused on the teams. So once those three days are up, he is more than eager to ce histest and greatest. They did fine.
If Doyle was honest with himself, he had over hyped himself on it. In fact, they did amazingpared to normal kobolds. Their 3D movement gives them a unique feel for the area around them on top of the movement assistance.
So with the voibolds in ce, Doyle turns back to the...
And the teams are back. This time with two more full teams of delvers and a team of logistics on top of the previous five. Theyre also loaded down with enough special equipment and extra supplies that Doyle was mostly certain the first group had been waiting for this.
Good thing the voibolds were now in ce. While it wouldnt stop them. Doyle hoped that the change might chase them off. Then things get worse.
It seems that previously they had been taking it one at a time more for fun and practice. Now, with their entire group gathered, they n to send three teams at a time. Doyle was not having this! The question was, what could he do?
A lot. The answer is a lot. Since he overheard their intentions, he had some time to prepare. Of course, he also has to be prepared in case they do decide to just send only one team in. That meant not just moving things around, but including a method to reverse things right away.
As luck would have it, he now has a certain ant queen now. She still isnt quite up to being a spy master for him, but the ants can be used to pass simple messages. In this case, he had the eighth floor ant queen hang out with the kobolds in the Zero-G room.
Crawl one way? They should disperse. Crawl the other way? Get ready to alpha strike as the enemy is about to enter the room.
While this might seem aggressive, it is basically the more Doyle trying to chase them away. Why, though? Well, outside of the dungeon, there are certain events happening.
Jim sighed. He had hoped that when something went wrong first, Ace would be the one responsible for cleaning it up. He really wanted to know where these idiots got the courage to break the guild rules?
It isnt like you cant set up a raid on a dungeon. Jim had actually considered one for the next boss fight. Yet here these idiots are, sitting on the seventh floor and he couldnt do a thing about it as they technically hadnt raided that floor or the next.
Jim was ready, though. People seem to forget that the dungeonplex isnt some solid block. Well, theyll feel the pain. All that needs to happen is for them to make the first move and break the rules.
Jim sighed again. He got the alert. They just sent a half raid into the eighth floor.
Down on the eighth floor, six mages use magic to wipe the first rooms monsters. As it happens, adyughs, See what I mean! The guild will thank us once we return with a bunch of bags. Why should the town have a monopoly on them?
A guy nods, I dont know if their rtionship is quite that adversarial, but whatever. Break the rules? Heh, havent they ever read any post apocalypse story? Might make a right!
Of course, as theyre crowing about their aplishments, things are going wrong behind them. For the first time, Jim is able to use his authority as thes top guild master.
A team of twenty adventurers, led by a couple from the inner circle, walks through the entrance portal, except they dont show up on the first floor. Instead, half appear at the entrance of the seventh floor and the other half at the exit of the seventh floor.
From there, each side sends out a scout to find the exact location of the four parties that remained on the floor. It wasnt hard, of course, not like they tried to hide or even bothered to set up a guard detail.
Once located, it was just a matter of surrounding them while guarding the portals so they cant get away. Then it was like shooting fish in a barrel. Of course, when they saw it was only about ten people attacking them, they resisted.
Well, most of them did. The logistics team retreated to the exit to warn the delving team. They got captured in record time, as they arent exactlybat focused. Then the rest followed, as Jim had prepared the team with more than enough capture mages.
Once everything was wrapped up, Jims team gathered them all up and left the dungeon. This caused just a bit of consternation among the delvers waiting in line, but Jim was able to calm the situation easily enough. After all, the system did mark them as rules breakers now that they were caught red-handed.
Back in the dungeon, Doyle is only slightly weirded out about how they were able to skip right to the seventh floor. He had read the contract after all. Thankfully, the ability cant be abused and they arent able to do it on what the system considers an active floor.
That term, active floor has all kinds of text to define what it means, but Doyle hasnt seen anything too out there. It basically meant that while the Guild can go in and capture any group trying to camp out on a floor to escape justice. They arent going to be able to interfere with active delving.
That was for him to handle. Which is what is about to happen. The half raid had made decent time, being able to do their own alpha strike in each room. Too bad the loot drops were turned off for them. Kind of defeats the purpose of the unauthorized raid.
Not that they noticed, as after the first few times they had harvested all the loot that was ready or nearly so. Plus, it isnt like the non-loot drops were shut off. They still got goat chops, feathers, and so on.
Now, theyre about to enter the tunnel to the Zero-G room and a certain ant moves. Oh, and it isnt like the kobolds are restricted to the room or anything. So, as the three teams make it about two-thirds of the way through the connecting passage, they get ambushed.
Ten ster beams slice through the forward guards and peppers the back rows where it gets through. This is actually more than Doyle had been expecting, as four of the ten mages still had wands to be healers. Except, they dont need a wand for ster magic and so can pull double duty. A fact that Doyle notes down to limitter. While a good surprise, the eighth floor isnt when he wants to reveal that surprise.
Back to the fight. The six tanks that had taken the lead were hurt, but not taken out of the fight yet. It was a few of the back line that got unlucky, as the tanks hadnt had time to use any kind of blocking skill. One of the mages even got unlucky with a beam sh across the neck, killing them instantly, as they werent wearing any protection there.
To say they panicked would be an understatement. Half the surviving mages in the back, including the healer they had managed to scrounge up from somewhere, all decided to skedaddle. Though they are soon joined by the non-mage back row as well.
After all, they werent there to fight like this. They were scouts and bow users who only wanted to fight from a distance. Having return fire that isnt being countered by the mages? Thats dangerous!
In the end, because of how badly the half raid reacted, Doyle doesnt even get to see the other voibolds fight. The ster mages are more than able to clean up the remaining nine enemies. As for those who retreated?
Well, their n was to meet up with those they had left on the seventh floor. Except they werent there anymore, and the floor had repopted. This meant they walked through the gate and right into a giant gathering of myconids that hung around the floors exit portal. The nine were still in disarray, so they didnt even question this as they backed up, right through the portal and out of the dungeon.
As they leave, theyre met with Jim standing there, tapping his foot. The healer babbles out some kind of warning about the dungeon turning feral or some nonsense.
Jim shakes his head as his team of tenes out of hidden doors on each side of the passage and captures them. You broke the rules. Did you think they were there just to hold you back? They limit the dungeon just as much as they limit us.
Neither Judge Nor Jury, Just An Executioner – Chapter 266
Ace and Jim are sitting in a private room, deep within the dungeon sphereplex. On a table in front of them, are a bunch of system screensid out like so many pieces of paper. Nine of them are grayed out while the other 39 have red marks on them. Though those marks dont quite match the rest of the panel. Sort of like someone had used a simr font, but it wasnt quite the same.
Ace sighs, So how much wiggle room do we have?
Both of them knew that when dealing with the Adventurers Guild, they dont have a lot of say. Theyre only a couple of low-level newbs on a newly initiated. The Guild spanned farther than they couldprehend. So when Jim shakes his head, Ace knew it wasnt good.
Jim, We can save the healer.
Aces face falls, And?
Jim, The only reason we get to keep the healer is because were critically low on them. If we had a sufficient number of them around, even the healer wouldnt be safe. At least we dont have to carry out the punishment. That is about the only upside. Well be having a guild officialing in to pass judgment. I dont know why theyre cing so much importance on this incident, but I feel were about to have our eyes opened.
Ace looks down at the tap and picks up the healers status panel, sans paths, of course. Not even the guild gets ess to that info. Overall, the healer is weak, even more so than you would expect a nonbatant of a simr level to be.
Ace looks back up, Theyre killing the chicken to scare the monkeys. This is the first major infraction the world has had. Maybe if we only had system based ess to the Guild, they wouldnt be doing this. But no, we have an official Guild presence in an official town. So, how do we get this nonsense rolling?
The answer was not all that much. Sure, they had to build a fancy tform able to hold all 39 of the surviving rule breakers. Now, pre-system, this would have been a big ask. There werent any fancy magical runes to worry about, but each of the rule breakers needed a lot of space. That meant it was really just a matter of some magic.
Though they did end up building it outside of the main town gate. Well, Jim convinced Ace to build it there. Ace was certain they would be taking it apart afterwards and Jim wasnt exactly so certain things would work out that easily.
With that set up, it was just a matter of getting all the rule breakers up on stage before noon. This would have been a bit harder, what with everyone basically having super powers. Good thing the town has a few wood mages to keep them in ce. In particr, Ace has taken up the task of holding the five strongest in ce. An impossible task if not for the Barrais work with the paralysis spores.
So there everyone was, waiting for noon. Well, not everyone. The dungeon farmers kept farming and guards kept guarding. But if you didnt have anything better to do, you were at the town gate when it began. Not that anyone actually was allowed to miss the event.
And in this case, anyone meant any sapient being on the entire including a few lucky monsters. At first it was a slight pressure on your ears, like when a ne takes off. Then, if you were flying or moving around in general you got a sense that you should probably find a ce to take a break.
It was at that point ady stepped out from behind nothing and onto the stage. The world trembled as her presence made itself known. Ace stepped back as he felt all of his magic get forced back into his body and his muscles go stiff.
Though unlike how some stories liked to exin the experience of meeting a being so above you, there was no desire to kneel. Just the knowledge that their existence meant nothing in front of this being. Kneel, bow, beg, or defy; it mattered not.
All around the world, ck system screens popped up in front of every sapient and revealed the scene. Thedy smiled, revealing shark-like teeth that were as ck as the void of space. Good job setting this up so quickly! Though it isnt really worthy of such a momentous asion.
The stage warps as the wood used to build it takes on the look of charcoal. One carving after the next begins to glow and rearrange themselves into actual magic runes. All the while the stage extends outwards to make enough room that 60 people could fit.
Then, on each spot where a person would be, a rough bone structure forms. In the ces where the 39 are already standing, the wood being used to keep them in ce flows off of them like water. Though despite their efforts beforehand, not a one attempts to escape while the bone takes the woods ce.
Once all 60 are in ce, the bones glow and reveal even more runes. All the while the 39 rule breakers feel their powers drain away. Mana pools bottom out, Qi disperses, and most devastating is the fact that even stamina depletes fully. At this point, there is no escape as even if they could get out of the bone stockades. They simply had no power left to run.
Thedy waits another minute before nodding, Looks like we can get this event started.
She turns towards the projection, as if looking straight at the viewer, And to start, Ill preface this by noting that me, or someone like me showing up is not how this normally works.
We are not inquisitors or judges. The Adventurers Guild leaves that up to the locals and even punishment for the most part. I am the executioner for the crimes, which there is no doubt about and either breaks some core tenant or a contract with the Guild itself.
These idiots, and she gestures at the 39. Managed to check all three boxes with their crime and so the Guild couldnt not send someone over.
She holds up a finger, One, the system for this universe judged them already and so there is no doubt.
Another finger goes up, Two, management of dungeons has been a core part of the Guilds existence since before this universe even existed and then some.
A third finger, And third, through the system, we managed to get a contract with this dungeon. Rare for one this young as they generally cant figure out what it is enough to agree.
Unnoticed by anyone else, when she says thest part, her eyes nce to the side for just a moment. There is no doubt for Doyle and Ally why this happens. The shark tootheddy took that moment to stare straight at them through the system window they were using in case the ck system screens altered things.
Thedy smiles again as she focuses fully on the regr audience. Now, normally I would just show up, dere the judgment, execute the punishment, and move on. No world spanning audience and certainly none of this talking.
However, part of our charter with the system of this universe is we treat newly integrated worlds gently and exin some things the first time if they havent connected up with the rest of the dimension. Lucky you!
Anyway, let me exin why their crimes are so heavy and why so will their punishment despite any ims of ignorance. They tried to pull a raid on a dungeon that has not agreed to being raised since signing the contract with the guild. What happened before then doesnt matter.
That isnt fair! This is especially true when you consider the fact that those who havent joined the guild arent held to quite of high of a standard. It is worth it though.@@novelbin@@
As long as the contract is maintained, then no matter how much of a death trap a dungeon might be for others, things will be like any other dungeon for us. Not only that, but drop rates are better. However, the reverse could be true, not only for guild members, but for everyone.
She stomps her foot and the world trembles, So we maintain the contract! We keep our word! We make sure new dungeons dont turn into death pits.
I know, your world pre-system was more a ce ofws than of wild beasts prowling the night. This always leads to a certain mindset. You develop sayings like better to ask forgiveness than permission and the idea that something isnt a crime if you arent caught.
You no longer have that luxury. There are now rules in ce that are directly deadly if not followed. Ideas from your past such as not just letting a wounded animal your hunting escape have a deeper meaning now.
Every being can be an existential threat to a ce. The deer you shoot and let run away without following mighte back a yearter with a herd ten times the size of your settlement and wipe you out. It might also juste back alone a magnitude stronger than anyone in your town, and do it personally.
That is a bit extreme, of course, but it should get the point across. Rules andws have meaning now in a way you all honestly arent ready for. Maybe this will be enough of a warning to prevent some of you from signing contracts you really shouldnt.
Remember, magic is a thing for you now and it can extend to contracts. The Guild doesnt depend on magic, but many organizations and beings do. What you sign now might end up haunting you for centuries.
Anyway, that should be enough general info. Now it is time for the judgment! And first on the chopping block, though only for a moment, is the groups healer.
A person with more luck than brains, they manage to escape death in exchange for working and teaching. There are simply not enough healers and so the Guild is suspending their death. Any more infractions, though, or an attempt to escape will have it reinstated.
The bone structure, both holding the healer in ce and draining them of their resources, falls away. After which, they are swept off the stage by a magical force, leaving 38 people.
The shark tootheddy nods, And that was the easy part. You all are screwed, though. Mages and fighters? This is a dungeon town, there is no shortage of people willing to swing a sword or fling a spell.
Even the logistics people are well taken care of at this point. Though knowing this worlds past, that makes sense. There was a lot of logistics that needed to be done before the system came.
So without any wiggle room, I must dere that you have all been sentenced to death. And she ps her hands, causing the bones holding everyone in ce to glow with a greater intensity.
The 38 people all start to mor andin. All of it is the normal sorts of stuff. I didnt do it., I have a family., and of course, I dont deserve this.
As if such things can sway thedies judgment. She wasnt sent here to y around. She wasnt even technically sent to exin stuff, though since the system had a contract for it with them, she did. No, she was here to dere what had already been decided.
Though those pleas and angry denials dontst long. Whereas before, the vines had only been absorbing their resources in moderation; it was now madly sucking even after the people were empty. Those 38 should consider themselves lucky, though.
Thedy wasnt here to torture them and so she wasnt going to use some painful or violent method of sending them off. Instead, one by one, the people feel unconscious as theyck the vitality to stay awake. After which, it was just a short step from a nap to their final sleep.
The shark tootheddy nods, And so the punishment has been administered! May this be a lesson to you all. Then the ck system screens disying this to the entire world wink out of existence.
Aftermath Up Top – Chapter 267
Ace sighed as thedy left, though Jim didnt let him rx long.
Jim, So uh, I dont think were getting rid of this tform any time soon.
Ace frowned, noticing that the changes thedy had made to the tform persisted. In fact, the entire structure looked more stable than the wall behind it. I dont want an executioners tform outside my towns gate.
Jim snorts, I dont think you get a choice about it. Give the town menu a quick check to see if it got added there.
Ace nods, I dont want to, but that is the best way to figure out what is going on.
It takes Ace a few moments to find the tform in the menus, but find it he does. The tform is actually under a special structures menu, which before this only listed the dungeon. Annoying because all the entries give is a description and not even aplete one, but that is more than nothing.
{Masterwork Bone Pillories of Suppression and Execution
Description: a wood and bone tform containing 60 enchanted pillories. Through strange means, these pillories are capable of draining all the power from a person who is detained by then. This drained power first goes towards increasing the structural stability of the tform and then is dispersed into the ground. The ruler of the town this structure is attached to canmand the pillories to suck the life out of anyone contained by them. While the tform and pillories are not indestructible, they draw power from the surroundings to repair themselves, even ifpletely destroyed.}
Ace groans as he shares the description with Jim. I guess were stuck with it. What kind of nonsense enchantment is that? You manage to wipe out the entire structure and all that will happen is it slowly repairing itself?
Jim shrugs, I think we should look at it as a good thing. Right now we dont have any strong trouble makers, but give it a few years. With this, as long as we can catch them, we can hold them.
Ace gestures at it and the gate right next to it. Sure, I understand. This thing is a huge boom. I just dont want it next to our main gate.
Jimughs, Thats your fault. I wasnt the one that had the thing built there. Besides, you could always move the gate.
Ace groans, No, we cant move it now. There is a ton of stuff already built andnd rented based on the current position.
Jim, Rebuild it all and move the ims. We both know those buildings are actually the worst of the lot. We used the bad building specs to handle Ms. Bet. That could totally be rolled into a general overhaul. If anything, the skill experience our builders gain may be worth it.
Ace frowns for a second before pulling out some paper and a pencil. From there, he spent a few minutes of hurried scribbling out notes and math. At first he isnt sure if it would work, but the more things add up, the stranger his expression gets.
Ace, I think we might need more than just that.
Jim raised an eyebrow, More?
Ace nods, Not just this once. Of course, the system buildings arent going anywhere. However, we should set up a cycle of rebuilding. If you were even in a city before this mess, Im sure youve seen it.
Buildings left in disrepair, areas that look abandoned, and just decay in general as even well kept colors begin to fade. We lived in a culture that worshiped capitalism and applied it almost without restraint. Now, Im not against the idea of money.
If anything, it makes it easier to deal with outside powers and for some reason, I doubt we could get rid of coins, anyway. However, it should not be able to reach its hands into stuff like water supply, power generation, medical, and the like. Someone making widgets is one thing, but when that widget is required to live like insulin, its production and sale should not be based on chasing ever greater profits.
Infinite and constant growth is a myth, even now that we, in theory, have an entire universe to y with. To believe otherwise is exactly why beforepanies would fire workers, even if they needed them, at the end of the year. It would make thepanies profits look bigger for when they have to report their ie because they suddenly werent paying all those wages.
Anyway, building maintenance is one of those things that gets left on the wayside and buildings are allowed to sit empty. We cant have that. Instead, while we cant do it to the whole town, we should do renewals regrly. This time would, of course be different as we arent just building back up in the same ce.
Jim rubs the back of his head, That sounds like a bunch of work for you. All those owners are going to scream bloody murder if they learn it will be a regr thing. What is your real purpose for this?
Ace shrugs, Let them scream, this is my town. Though I definitely wont turn my nose up at giving our builders even more experience and skill levels. For a while there, construction skills were the highest level skills we had.
Jim, What kind of effects do you think a high level builder would have?
Ace, Obviously durability, though that will likely make it harder to thenter take it down. Besides that, we dont know how to integrate magic into our buildings yet. While the pillory over there is a masterwork, the system buildings arent and they have enchantments.
That points towards the bottleneck of needing a masterwork thing to enchant not working the same way for buildings. While the current houses dont seem to be an option for enchanting, we might get a jump on things with some slightly better buildings.@@novelbin@@
Jim, While interesting, I think we better wrap this up for now and focus on the crowd. Most of them look alright, but some are riled up in all the wrong ways.
The two of them leave the side of the stage and mingle with the people. Suffice it to say, people were more than a little worried about what had just happened. There wasnt any build up. No trial happened. A strangedy showed up, dered some things, killed some people, and left.
Sure, people realized this wasnt Ace or Jims fault. Most of them were even able to understand why the punishment was so harsh. Though few realized this was actually not all that harsh, but rather more of a finality sort of thing. After all, they just died instead of being tortured or what have you.
Of course, of those who were there, the most worried were the people from up river. Those people all wanted to rush back and rush them, but the town also needed food. So, they nominated one of the teams to head back.
On the way, that team was worried that no one would believe them as they hadnt realized everyone on the saw what happened. Though they would soon find out it might have been better if the council hadnt seen this. At this point, the trip up the river was safe, if slightly slow.
Once they did get there, the widespread nature of the broadcast was revealed to them, though they still headed towards the council to report in person. This in a way proved important as when they arrived at the council meeting, the old men had almost convinced themselves the broadcast was fake. Though in another way, it proved useless.
Unbeknownst to the regr farming teams, Three of the seven raid teams were sponsored by the council. As while they were dead set on denying the system, they werent above wanting a bag of holding to smuggle more supplies out of the dungeon without being noticed. While most of the members on those three teams werent natives of their town, they had spent more than a few coins to hire them. Now they dont even get any extra meat.
Not only that, but the fact that the message was broadcast so far and wide made them feel targeted and besmirched. After all, how dare they judge the councils citizens by some rule the council doesnt even recognize? They didnt break any pre-systemws, after all.
Also, the council was very annoyed at the fake sense of power thedy put off. No one could be that powerful. Projecting that sort of feeling was obviously a tactic to make it seem like the ce had more power than it did, except they went too far. Who could possibly be that strong?
Suffice it to say, the council didnt look too highly on this event. The only thing holding them back from sending more mercenaries to cause trouble was their own disdain for coins. While their steady supply of food might be attractive, for those who could actually cause trouble, food wasnt a problem anymore if they could afford to head out and adventure.
So, instead, the council was forced to stew in their discontent. Oh, and of course they shot the messenger. The farming team was disbanded and given menial tasks around the settlement. Not that any of those six stayed around town long enough to actually do their new jobs.
Maybe the councilors could disbelieve in how powerful thatdy was. Those who had experienced it in person did not have that luxury. Though it certainly helped that they had seen and experienced what power under the system truly meant. No delusions of grandeur from a few rounds of guard duty against small forest monsters.
Though with them defecting to Wolfs Rest, the ce upriver started to lose power over their farming teams. Before, they could hide in ignorance of what the councils policies actually meant. Plus, while they didnt like the council, their friends all lived there.
Now though? Melonie was working overtime, recruiting those she could. Not that she stopped them from sending the food they got back upriver. In fact, she insisted they keep sending the food so her town wouldnt starve. This alone ingratiated all the farming teams to her and made sure that even those who didnt take her up on the offer right away, didnt report anything. After all, at this point, they fully realized the council would rather cut them off and starve some of the poption, then it would admit such a loss of power.
So, after a bit of unrest, things seemed to settle down for the council. Not that this stopped them from throwing a few demands at Wolfs Rest to return their wayward citizens. A request that Ace justughed at and asked when had they ever signed an extradition treaty?
Of course, Melonie was actually using those dungeon farmers to spread her power back into her settlement. Ben had basically uprooted any power he had left, when leaving. This had left their group in a lurch as no one was up there to report on the conditions.
Though once news started to flow back, they all realized things were much worse than even the farmers had known. Any signs of advancing through the system were ostracized. Even just a single extra level, if admitted to, would make someone an outcast.
Nevermind the fact that the council members themselves were looking healthier and younger every day. That must just be the fresh air, said no one ever. However, the people in the settlement had taken a turn for the worse. Melonie wasnt willing to call what was forming a cult, but some of her informants werent so kind.
Though as this had all happened, something else took ce. The shark-tootheddy hadnt just left. She was still around, just taking care of another tasks that happened to require her to go into the dungeon. Not that anyone realized this as Jims surveince stuff came from the Guild in the first ce.
Aftermath 2, Something For You – Chapter 268
The shark-tootheddy stepped into the dungeon and made her way to the second floor so no one would realize she was there. A smart n as soon enough people were back to delving. Sure, the first floor is less popr in theory, however it has more instances so while unable to delve the sixth, people would hit up the first.
After a quick look around, she took out a selection of weapons, each enchanted. Then came a set of five magical herbs, each one recognized andmon as dirt on basically any besides a newly integrated one. She stares at them for a moment before nodding and going to the third floor before returning.
Doyle, of course, absorbed the assortment as soon as she left. Thisted him an upgrade to level 50 for his axe, sword, spear, dagger, bow, arrow, mace, staff, and wand patterns. In fact, the only weapon pattern not upgraded was the pickaxe. Besides that, he got the patterns for the herbs Maidens Tear, Mages Delight, Springleaf, Meditation Lotus, and the Royal Lingzhi all at level 40. Though in the end, what interested him more was the enchantments he got.
They were all straightforward enough and came in two levels, 10 and 20. A good range as it covered the bases for all his current floors. Those enchantments were Sharpness, Impact, Piercing, Unbreaking, and Magical Efficiency. Interestingly, the staff was pulling double duty with both impact and magical efficiency on it. Also, since Doyle had already had the unbreaking enchant, he was able to confirm how the levels would work.
{Unbreaking [lv10, 12, 20]}
Not too exciting, but functional. Though it does make him question how it will look once more are avable. It would take up way too much space if someone had all the enchant levels from one to one hundred.
While that is happening, the Guilddy has taken the time to set up a small chair and table off to the side of the second floor exit. Then, once it is all nice and tidy, she rings a bell. Not a normal bell though, as something about it instantly grabs both Doyle and Allys attention.
The Guilddy, Ahem, if the dungeon fairy in residence wouldnt mind, I would like to have a short talk.
Doyle and Ally look at each other. Ally shrugs, I think she only suspects me and doesnt have a clue about you. Now, I know youre against revealing yourself to the town outside, but how about her? She isnt sticking around after all.
Doyle tilts to the side, She certainly wont attack us, thats in the contract. Outside of that, though, we cant really be sure. How about you go and get a feel for what she wants and if advantageous enough Ill consider it.
Ally raises an eyebrow, Well thats aplicated way of saying no. Though I guess that is probably the best way to go about this. No reason to shock the Guild for no reason.
It does mean that Im going to have to fly my way down there, which will take a while. Though she looks ready for it, already has a book out to read. So, I guess Ill head off then. Not like we cantmunicate as long as Im anywhere in the dungeon.
Doyle, Couldnt you just use the floor portals to skip all the way to where she is?
Allyughs, I could. Except such control over your portals would reveal the truth. No, if we want to keep the charade up, Im going to have to fly all the way from here to there. At least primal mor will get some work.
And with that, Ally begins her journey to meet the Guilddy. Some floors were easier than others. In particr, the eighth was over quickly since she could ignore the dungeon ying around with gravity.
Though the easiest by far was the sixth floor. Being able to choose which portals work on herbined with an instinctive feel for the dungeon made the trip a straight line that was shorter than the first floor. The only way it could have been easier is if Doyle had directly connected the squares containing the entrance and exit.
After that, she makes short work of the fifth through third floors and is soon at the third floor entrance. Okay, has she done anything besides read her book?
Doyle, Well, she is a quick reader it seems and is her third book. That and she seems to have some form of invisibility as when anyone ends up on the floor she would pack up everything and be transparent. After that she would leave and re-enter the floor to let monsters respawn.
Ally nods, Fair enough. Sounds like everything is alright so Ill make contact.
Ally removed her mor and flew through the portal, entering the second floor. Once there, it wasnt hard to find the Guilddy. In part because she hadnt moved from her location, though mostly because while she wasnt shouting to the world, her innate powermanded people to pay attention.
Thedy looks up and smiles, Hello dungeon fairy, please, no names. Consider me just a faceless drone for the Guild. If it bes necessary, a proper political type will be stationed here to deal with things. Now, Im sure youre wondering why Ivee to meet you?
Ally raises an eyebrow, Not particrly, the dungeon just got raided after the first official Guild outpost was set up.
Thedy rolls her eyes, And instantly the script breaks. Whatever. So yeah, those items and enchants should be good fodder for such a young dungeon. Though dont consider them a gift or repayment for what happened.
Sure, the political types back at the office would like you to, but Ive got something else to make up for the raid. Anyway, the fact you got such a young dungeon to agree to the Guild contract is impressive. Do you have anything you want to know in particr?
Ally, As Im sure you know, the system is more than happy to dump info on me. How about some general gossip on this region? Weve already got beastkin from another walking around.@@novelbin@@
Thedyughs, As much good that information from the system will do you. From what I heard, it is like being in the universes biggest library except someone mixed all the books up.
Anyway, something the system wont tell you is that this is one of the first in a new region. So expect some more immigrants as time goes on. That is, if the people of this world prove even halfwaypetent at epting new people.
Of course, as the integration continues it will try to ce the unhomed on other newly integrated worlds. Still, youve got a mostly average world with only minor space-borne threats to worry about.
Though speaking of space, I guess I can mention that both gas giants and the sun already have refugees. A little rare considering the human bent this universe has, but when dealing with such arge space almost inevitable.
Ally nods, Fair enough. Though seeing as this world was only native to humans, why are they sending non-humans?
Thedy rolls her eyes, Strange world, there are more people willing to ept beastkin as equals than those willing to ept humans, but different. Though the ones who are fine with the beastkin would also be fine with other humans, the system is always looking for a ce to move the humanoids that need a new world.
Besides, the local poption managed minor space travel with only non-magical means. Once things calm down, it shouldnt take them more than a thousand years to create usable long distance space travel with magic involved.
My guess is the system expects the people on this world to get out and colonize quickly enough that the additional poptions wont be a problem. Combined with the low density of space monsters, this is the perfect ce to re-home beastkin and such. I honestly expect thes closest to this in nature to be fully terraformed within a few thousand years.
Ally shrugs, Not that Ill be able to y with that. Sort of stuck here for the moment. What with being a dungeon fae and all.
Thedy nods, But it does mean that with how ahead your dungeon is, youll be able to grow quickly. Once long distance space travel is a thing,ary distances be trivial. From there, the fact that your dungeon is likely to be the toughest challenge on will gain you a lot of customers.
Ally, Okay, now that weve chatted a bit, what has the Guild sent over to make up for the raids?
Thedy pulls out a box and ces it on the table. Now, I want to preface this with the fact that the guild is trying to get on your good side. For the dungeon to not only have a fairy, but also have the worlds first true town built around it and the first true guild office on the being located in said town? Suffice it to say, theyre interested.
Sadly, this material might be a little too high level for what youre currently working with. Though even if the dungeon cant use it right away, it will be able to store the pattern for when it can. Besides, a small bit of mithril isnt going to break any banks.
The only reason it will be hard to find on this is because of it being newly integrated. After all, magical ore requires magic. Though I guess calling mithril a magic ore is a bit of a misrepresentation.
Sure, it can be magical, but in the end it is simply a really good conductor of any sort of mystical power. Useful as it seems, this world will have a slightly wide variety of powers kicking around.
Then she opens the box. Inside is a small cube of metal, about a centimeter square. The surface of it appears to be in constant motion despite beingpletely solid and there is a slight dance of world energy that forms around it for just a moment.
Ally flies over and picks the metal cube up. The dungeon might be able to make use of it right away. As you said, it isnt a particrly high level or rare material and while the town doesnt know it yet, there is a second boss on the tenth floor.
Thedy raised an eyebrow, Well arent you the little speedrunner? A second boss already? Since youve managed that already, I really cant wait to see how you guide the dungeon in the future.
As for using the mithril, if you can manage it, a mithril core wand does wonders. If the second boss is a mage, I would suggest not giving it such a wand because that is going to be way out of bnce.
It wont suddenly make spells a magnitude more powerful. In fact, without a special design or an enchantment, it wont improve the power at all. What it will do is let the wielder cast faster and waste less power while doing so.
Ally nods and keeps a straight face. She had already known this, in fact she knew a few ways to use mithril in a wand to increase spell power as well. However, the Guild representative didnt want to share names so revealing that knowledge would only cause problems.
Not that she has to wait too long. There are a few more pleasantries shared and some general info about the itself that Doyle already knew, what with having lived there before the system.
Then the guilddy packed up her table and chair before pulling out some kind of magical or maybe mechanical recorder. Okay, to finish this Im just going to record myself stating that the dungeon is under control and wont go berserk or all death traps because of the raid. After that, I want you to verbally confirm you have it under control.
Ally nods, and thedy presses a button on the recorder. I dere that after reviewing the dungeon who was a victim of an unsanctioned raid that the resident dungeon fae has things in hand. There is currently no chance of the dungeon going berserk or turning into a death trap.
Ally waits a second and then says her part. I, as the dungeon fae, dere that things are under control and that there is no threat of the dungeon going berserk or turning into a death trap.
Thedy clicks the button again and nods, Welp, thats everything. Have fun with the mithril!
And she takes a moment to turn invisible before leaving the dungeon through the second floor exit. After that, she leaves the for real this time with no one being the wiser.
Square Brackets Vs Parentheses – Chapter 269
{Mithril (lv20) pattern gained at lv20}
Doyle spends the time waiting for Ally to get back staring at the remains of the mithril sample. There was only about a sliver of the stuff remaining after he had deconstructed enough of it for the pattern. On top of that, unlike the other samples, this pattern was low level. Oh, and of course the fact it seemed to have two levels attached to it.
Though even without Ally, he had a pretty good feel for what the first level meant. It likely worked the same way as when monsters had it. At least, that is what made sense to him. As for why it would have such a restriction? That would have to wait for Ally. Good thing she didnt take too long.
Ally nods, Correct, works just like with monsters. That means youll have to wait a few more floors. Though you will be able to introduce mithril at the same time as you do the bird monster you wont name.
As for why an ore has a requirement when none of your other non-monster patterns have not? To put it simply, everything else you have is tier zero trash. Though it does make some sense. After all, about the only stuff you do have that wasnt from your world pre-magic is the potions you got from Moota.
Doyle tilts to the side, I have the enchantments and the one array. Things Ive been using before the supposed level limit would allow. I dont even really know why I guessed it would represent a limit.
Ally shrugged, They arent the same. It is a bit nit picky, but the arrays and enchantments use square brackets instead of parentheses. Though you can actually have something with both. As for what the difference is between the two?
Square brackets are requirements ced on those who use it. While parentheses are requirements based on where something can be created. A really simpleparison would be a heavy sword made of steel. There are temp requirements to forge the weapon in the first ce and strength requirements on who can wield it.
Though dungeon cores are some of the few beings who regrly see parentheses. Not that they dont exist, the system just doesnt bother showing them for the most part because it isnt useful information for most. After all, knowing that a specific variety of bird can only give birth when the local world energy is enough isnt going to cause many waves.
Of course people understand the concept and the Guild certainly has people specialized in analyzing how dense the local thaumaturgic levels are and what can be created there. This is especially true for things like magical ores and herbs. After all, if you know mithril needs a level 20 thaum reading to form, you arent going to mine for it in an area below that even if the ce looks prime for it.
Of course a level 20 field isnt all that much. Sure, right now your is averaging more around a five, but that is because it was just integrated. Mosts bnce out around 50 with areas that are denser such as the deep sea or under a waterfall.
Doyle tilts to the side, I can see the sea, but what is up with waterfalls? They are a ssic trope for training, but I always thought that was more learning to resist it or some such?
Ally, Power is sticky. Air that is left stagnant in a dark cave will gather the power of darkness itself if enough is around. Though on a more general level, if you pick up a pile of dirt in an area with a dense thaum field and move it somewhere with less, it will take a while to equalize.
On top of that, the more solid something is, the easier it holds what it has and the harder it takes in new power. Water? That stuff even without magic is magical. Just consider the properties it has when frozen. Normally you freeze something and it gets denser.
Not water! There is a reason ice floats and that little difference is very important. If ice sank, bodies of water would freeze solid a lot easier. So without floating ice, your world would be a lifeless ball of dirt with maybe a few extremophiles hanging out around deep sea vents.
Anyway, water is fun magically because it takes in power easily, holds onto it better than ice, and when disturbed loosens its grip. This means that power will umte at the bottom of waterfalls. On top of that, even if someone has fully absorbed the excess energy there, the flow is constantly bringing in new power and releasing it.
Doyle, If theyre so great, are we going to see a bunch of them artificially set up once people figure it out?
Ally shrugs, Sort of. After all, the water does need to pick up that power in the first ce. You cant have tiered waterfalls, one right after another. Though if there is a stream flowing through a magically dense area, chances are someone will set up a waterfall right after.
Doyle, What about redirecting a river through such an area?
Allyughs, Any ce with dense enough world energy is either going to be tightly controlled by someone or there will be powerful monsters. Neither of those are going to be happy with someone running a river through their home. Though even if you managed to make it work, an actual river is a danger.
While oceans are mostly a danger because they collect a ton of power, but some of it is because creatures in water can grow a lot bigger than not. Now, with magic bigger does not always equal better.
A mouse can beat a lion quite easily if theyre a powerful species of mouse. However, more mass does mean more space to hold power. So a whale with the same level as a human will nearly always have magnitudes more magic to throw around. This is partly why giants tend to always overshadow humans if theyre both in a more primitive setting, even with magic.
So, trying to run a river through an area strong enough to be worth it is just asking for trouble. It might not happen within a decade, but eventually some sort of giant river monster is going to make its way down river and find a bunch of squishies hanging out near the water. And dont think a tall enough waterfall is going to solve anything. After a certain point, the way water monsters can swim bes absolutely supernatural.
Anyway, what do you n to do now? I suspect things outside are going to heat up a bit. With that whole nonsense, the ce up the river is either going to walk away from the edge or throw themselves into the abyss. Either way though, Melonie and her group will be able to use this to make a move.
Doyle sighs, I should work on the eleventh floor. However, I have an itch.
Ally smiles, I didnt know crystals could itch.
Doyle rolls his core, Not a literal itch, rather the artistic type. Ive got something in me that wants to be expressed and Im going to go for it. Good thing I have the perfect ce to carve it.
Ally, So the seventh floor is finally going to get some art on that big ol sphere you sectioned out? What are you nning to illustrate?
Doyle, A duality. The sphere is going to be a monument to my history and two big events just went down in rtive proximity. First was the kobold monument, a sign of hope and uplifting. Then came that whole failed raid and their judgment, a sign of despair and downfall.
Sort of a ying yang, heaven and hell sort ofparison piece. One side showing that even the lowest can be lifted up and the other side warning that even those at the top can fall down. Ive got a rough idea, but to really get it right will take time. For now though, I want to rough it out while I still have the events fresh in my mind.
Ally frowns, What kind of effect are you even going for with this?
Doyle, Im not aiming for some specific effect. Instead, Im delving deeper into what a concept actually means and how that applies to my carvings. Though once Ive got the rough draft figured out, I will probably just hop into making floor eleven.
Ally, What about checking your paths first?
Doyle nods, That is a good idea, though I think Ill do that right before I start the next floor to have the most points to work with. Sorry if you wanted to pour over what I have again.
Ally rolls her eyes and the two go back to doing their own thing and a few days pass as things ferment out in town. The one dungeon farming team was punished and escaped, while Melonie increased her control over the others from up river who regrly visit Wolfs Rest. All she is waiting for is a spark.
Ace in turn, has a few ns to help improve her odds. First was almost ironic. The attempted raid on the eighth floor had all been for some bags of holding when of course they actuallye from the third floor. A floor that regrly got cleared by someone from the inner circle to open up the area to mining.
Within a couple of days of the incident, guess what? A third bag dropped and while the town could always use more. Ace figured two was enough for now so gifted the third to Melonie to help smuggle stuff in and out of up river. The obvious things were weapons and food.
Any uprising is going to need the two. More interesting and beneficial for Ace was the fact that Melonie had decided to pull out every education book still in town. The council wasnt particrly watching those at the moment and no one wanted them to go burned earth.
With each passing day, pre-system knowledge piled up in Wolfs Rest. Most of iting from amunity college library that some teachers had taken over early on. Those teachers hadnt been exactly keen on Ben and so had stayed out of the limelight. A good thing as it left them to study how magic and the system was changing things without the council breathing down their necks.
Now though, Melonie was more their type of leader. Whereas Ben was mostly focused on moment to moment upkeep, Melonie took a broader view of things. While she didnt try to pull out a roadmap for the future, her ns impressed the intellectuals allowing for this transfer of knowledge to take ce.
From there, Melonie was basically nning to just let things ride until noticed. Most people and goods were in ce within a week. After that she had people start to basically hollow out the existing buildings. As a ce that was originally a city, there were a ton of buildings on the outskirts which were deemed too dangerous and unneeded, yet were left to rot.
Melonie didnt even want the material or supplies at this point. She just knew they had to go and so prepared for it. In fact, this was something she had brought up multiple times to the council when she was the leader of the town guard. The buildings only provided cover for potential monster infestations.
The council of course scoffed at this. They saw it as unneeded worry and that they would connect up with the rest of the world soon enough and more people would show up. Though some of their unwillingness came from the perceived loss of power. A big city, even if itcked any really tall buildings, was more prestigious than a smaller town.@@novelbin@@
Now though, Melonies people were working their way through the abandoned buildings and removing everything they could. A task that became easier and easier as mages and crafters honed their skills. In the end, it wasnt any of this construction or the smuggling of weapons that lit the fuse. Melonie and her people werent even involved.
Downfall Of The Council – Chapter 270
You would think that the council would understand how important the traders were. After all, pre-system money made the world go round. Instead, they treated them like pack mules or independent truckers.
Important? Yes, but someone you treated as important? Most certainly not. Though the fact that there were so few of them didnt help. That is, it didnt help either side of the equation.
Pre-system the council could have gotten away with screwing over a small number of workers, no problem. That wasnt the case anymore, as working a few people harder means those few people gain power a lot faster than not. Sure, they werent catching up with Ace or any of the other original members of Wolfs Rest, but sometimes a soft power can get more done.
Now, the farming teams were more on the selfless side. They had basically volunteered to sacrifice themselves to the system so the settlement could be fed. The traders? Not so much. Instead, they were in it for the money.
Money which wasing less and less from the council. Melonie was paying a proper price for the food. Other settlements were paying proper prices for the food. The council? The council looked down their noses at the traders andmented about how they should be happy that theyre being allowed to make any money from food that was rightfully theirs in the first ce.
The funny thing from Aces perspective when he learns about it, is that they arentpletely wrong. Arge portion of the food extracted from the dungeones from one of the councils teams. After all, Wolfs Rest isnt focused on food and other settlements are far enough away that if they dont have to, they arent going to send people.
If only things had stayed like they were before the big dungeon market was set up, there wouldnt even be traders to argue with. Instead, the second the council figured out that they could push everything onto other people and not employ them, they did. So now the farmers sell their haul when they exit the dungeon and traders in turn buy food to move around.
Sure, some is kept to feed the workers and then sent back home, but certainly not enough to feed the entire settlement. This isnt even on purpose. Rather, the poption of the settlement had been growing. Whether it was people wanting to move closer to the dungeon, but not literally right next it or those who believed in about the same things the council did.
So, as time had gone on the council hadnt changed how much food was being reserved for them. Oh, and of course they cut down on how much hunting people in the settlement did as well, so they wouldnt gain levels either. All around a mess that only got worse when they figured out that the traders were willing to trade the food for the system currency and thus they reduced the reserve even further, because why waste proper money feeding your workers when you can use a currency they dont recognize as having value.
Except after a while, the council tightened their wallets and lowered what they were willing to pay. Sure, they had all the excuses. Not having enoughing, the trip wasnt that long, and of course the fact that the traders should be grateful the council paid so much to begin with so they could get on their feet.@@novelbin@@
Well, the traders decided to show their displeasure with those same feet. It started small, but soon enough only one in ten traders would stop at the settlement up river. In fact, they could have likely dropped it to almost no one, except they werent trying to go too far.
They were traders, after all. There was money to be made in the settlement so they didnt want to abandon it. Instead, they would stop in and ask if the rules had changed before selling their goods and leaving.
At this point, a less arrogant group would realize their mistake and try to haggle. After all, the traders were still trading, just not as much. It was clearly an issue that could be resolved.
The council didnt see it that way. To them this was just a few workers rebelling. Sure, a couple of the old men felt sad about not having ess to one of thew firms they had used in the past to bust unions. That didnt mean they couldnt do it themselves. At least, they thought they could.
They couldnt. Not just that, but they even stooped to banditry and still failed. After all, it was their food so there isnt anything wrong with them taking it. Except the traders had guards who were capable of bringing the traders through the wilds. Guards which whenpared to the settlements forces were quite a bit stronger.
And so Melonies chance arrived as the council focused all their forces on trying to capture the traders. They had simply gotten too arrogant and ignored the dangers of an undefended settlement. Not that Melonie was going to let them learn from their mistakes.
Right from the start, her people began to save others. After all, even a squirrel can be a deadly threat to children and unleveled adults. This was also why the council discounted needing guards.
When all you hear about is them killing small woond animals, pre-system sensibility will categorize it all as not being dangerous. Nevermind the stories the guards tell. After all, whats a squirrel going to do to a grown man?
So, for just under two weeks Melonie and her people acted to save people just in the nick of time. After all, squirrel. Unless a person suffers a little, how could they know the danger theyre in?
Along with that, they did more humanitarian work as well, including handing out food. Not that the settlements stockpile was already gone or anything. It was just that the council had decided to ration food a bit so it wouldst longer. Still, for people who basically never felt serious hunger, even a couple missed meals felt like torture.
The council noticed none of this. Why would they? To them, the settlements people were a known quantity, just like people pre-system.
Melonie, of course didnt have to do all this. It was her settlement. She could have just rolled into town with her people and killed the council and all who opposed her. This way, though, she earned the heart of the people.
Well, most of the people. The whole dont use the system nonsense wasnt simple and had a few diehard adherents already, mostly those who had lost family members to the arrival of the system and could let go. If the council had been less arrogant, they would have gotten more than enough warning from their supporters among the normal people.
In the end, though, Melonie turned over 75% of the people in the settlement against the council as well as getting all the traders and the dungeon farmers on her side. Then things got a little bloody. She didnt want it to, but a good number of people who didnt side with her forced her hand. Though ironically, none of the council members ended up dying.
Instead, it was about half the guards and around one in ten or eleven in the general popce. Melonie didnt even have to call on the remaining guards or any of her normal followers for what followed. There were no mages and most of the people hadnt even gotten to level three.
Against her team of dungeon hardened fighters and mages, they never stood a chance. A strange thing, though, was that not a single one of them retreated or surrendered. All those who opposed her with violence did so to the death.
Maybe if Ace or Jim had been there, they would have been able to pinpoint the problem. A nascent cult had formed. After all, it was much easier to manipte people with a lower level. Almost worse was that this cult wasnt even backed by an entity. This was simply some twisted guy who had pretended to be a priest. He did try to escape, but his followers didnt allow him to back out as they pushed him into the engagement without even noticing his desire to leave.
As for what happened to the council? They lived and Melonie banished them. A little anticlimactic, but she had to deal with a poption that for the most part believed they hadnt done too bad of a job.
Well, as far as the settlement and even Melonie knew, they lived. The old men packed up their well earned wealth of pre-system cash. Melonie had even traded them more of the stuff at a good rate for any system coins they might have. Then set out in the opposite direction from Wolfs Rest with their personal guards to keep them safe.
They even managed to get to the next town over, though the leader there knew what they had pulled and so sent them on their way. It was only once they had left the sight of that settlement that things ended badly for them. Melonie might have been willing to let them go, but she wasnt the only one after them.
Jeremy had been following the group the entire time. Neither Ace nor Jim was willing to let their cancer fall somewhere else and potentially regrow. While stuck in their ways, no one on the council had been an idiot. So instead of making it to the next stop, their journey ended short.
News of this never did make it back to the ce upriver. Jeremy paid enough to make sure the original news didnt travel or get written down. A little odd as by now every settlement had started to record where and when monster attacks had happened and it appeared the group had met with a wolf pack.
That wasnt wrong either, it is just that they met that pack after they had already expired. Either way, as far as Ace was concerned, everything worked out exactly as he wanted. Melonie had ascended to her rightful ce in a legitimate fashion and future trouble had been headed off at the pass.
Though back in the dungeon, Ally couldnt help butugh at the hoops they had to jump through for this. She exined it to Doyle, but he didnt see the joke so she exined.
Ally, They didnt have to bother with all that mess. They never did. This was all because theyre still stuck in some of their pre-system ideas.
Theyre clearly not bound by pre-system morals or else the council guys would still be alive. So why didnt they just kill them from the start? All it would take is a bit of stealth and a touch of magic.
Ace alone could have covertly knocked them down, one by one, and made it look like a simple heart attack or what have you. None of the people they truly trusted had any sort of magic to check otherwise and those who could check would be suspect number one.
And all of that? Only necessary if they dont want to be a bit more tyrannical. Dungeon towns all seem to end up like this. Despite the power they could wield, they end up as little inds of independence. All they had to do was show up in that settlement and take control by force. No one could have stopped them.
At first Doyle disagreed with this, but in the end realized he had likely fallen into the same mindset as Ace and Jim. Because, of course, you dont just walk into the settlement next door with your buddies and take it over. That would just be dangerous and short-lived. Now though? Now there was going to be a good bit of chaos in the world until true order settles again.
That Costs A Bit – Chapter 273
{30 points applied to Monster Rancher II path...
10/100 - Farmed monsters can be released early at half their projected level for the floor and for half their point cost though monsters with a minimum level can not be released early if their level would be below that minimum
25/100 - Allows the viewing of a monster patterns stat specialization as well as minor modifications to them with the use of Monster Pattern Adjustment Points, Earned +50 Monster Pattern Adjustment Points}
The Energy Well III path was about what he had expected. While the amount of passive world energy didnt go up for each step, there were more steps. Though Doyle dims after seeing the rancher path only giving two bonuses, neither of which boost the actual stats of his monsters.
Both of the new options are interesting with the first being easy enough to understand. He could already spawn monsters below a floor''s starting point. It would still cost just as much to spawn a level one kobold on the tenth floor as it would to spawn a level 15 kobold. The ten point perk on the other hand allowed him to use a half level monster for half the cost.
Very powerful for his beefier monsters that havent gotten too much of a boost from levels yet. The only catch to that, if you can call it one, is the fact that they have to be farmed and not spawned. An interesting quirk that Doyle assumes has something to do with how natural born monsters form aspared to the ones he summons.
This, however, still left the second perk. Of course the extra 50 adjustment points was nice. He hadnt gone too wild with them yet, but he could see being a bit starved for themter. The real questionse from the first section.
Now, Doyle has an idea of what this is talking about. In fact, if it wasnt for the fact it was limited to monster patterns he would have been frustrated about all the work he put into breeding his ants. So, he pulls up the pattern for his goats and selects their Strength. Then nothing goes as he expected.
Instead of some clean screen of text or maybe a fancy chart, Doyle is dunked into a very much not three dimensional mental imagery where every aspect that he can sense has a dense and rich meaning behind it to the smallest degree. He tries to pull back and get a simpler interface or more systematic view of things as he can feel it exists. However, his existence as a dungeon core seems to drill down into the deepest parts of reality on this matter and refuses to show him something as facile and meaningless as a simple list of percentages.
From there it takes Doyle at least an hour to figure out how to leave the deep pool that is his goats Strength stat. A task that he can feel will be easier next time, but also that if he hadnt already experienced another form of infinity when searching for bosses, it would have taken a lot longer. The good news is that from what he could feel, he had the right idea.
That full sensory and then some experience was a view of how his goats Strength was developing. In the past this sort of thing had been described as a sphere where as you get deeper, the more aspects youe in contact with. Now though, he can see that such a simple analogy is only technically correct and at best a nice cartoon print bandaid pasted over the reality of it.
After getting his mind on track, he took a few days to sort out everything he had felt during the experience and came away with a couple things. First was that the strength of his goats horns and bones was off the chart. He didnt remember their horns ever breaking and this certainly exined it. While they werent as tough as metal or stone yet, just give them time.
The second thing and one which exined why they werent throwing the adventurers around with every strike, is how little of the development goes to the actual physical power. To Doyle, this made more than enough sense. While monsters, they are just goats in the end. They dont need to be able to split boulders or anything and so the stat growth goes to important things like having the best horns and a tough hide.
Though, there was one exception to physical power. The concept of strong legs to move was artificially high. Doyle figured this was going to be a side effect of having the charge skill. Satisfied that he had figured out what was up, he turned to Ally who had been not quite waiting for him to tell her what happened.
Doyle, So uh, monster rancher now lets me see my monsters stat specializations. I tried it out on the goats Strength stat without really thinking much of it and it sort of threw me for a loop there. Anyway, I can also mess around with them now using my adjustment points.
Ally nods, I figured you had got caught up in something. Anyway, what are the percentages on the stat then?
Doyle snorts, As if life was going to be that easy. I can sort of feel that the system has an easy interface most people hook into for this. Except being a dungeon core I get dunked right into the info. Not very pleasant.
Allyughs, That is unfortunate as Im sure it would be easier to mess with things when you could just reduce something by a percentage or some such.
Doyle shakes his core, I dont know if I would want to do it that way, now that Ive seen the reality of it. The whole stat is connected to itself and any simple percentage change the system might do is going to be a ton of behind the scene rebncing. There is no way to just add plus one to muscle power as that cascades out to everything else such as the bones. Cant have someone who is just trying to move snapping their own bones from the force of their muscles. Not that my goats would have that problem.
Ally, Tough skeletal system?
Doyle, You can say that again. Thergest single percentage of their Strength stat seems to be going towards making them really good at bashing things with their horns. Which, seeing as their one skill is charge, isnt exactly the worst idea. Now I just have to figure out what the cost will be to shift things since it is soplicated.
Ally nods, Yep, since youve got the deep dive on stats Im going to assume you could identally rack up quite the bill. Though the basics of this ability should hold steadypared to other monster ranchers, meaning it should let you y around and then tell you how much it will cost and double confirm if you want it.
Doyle sighed, Welp, Im going back in then. Ill try to make the smallest change possible and see what happens. In theory such a small change shouldnt cost more than 50 points since the system gave me fifty with the ability. On the other hand, most people arent dungeon cores.
Ally, Good luck!
And with that Doyle dove into his goats Strength again. This time though it is less disorienting and he has a better feel for what is a part of the current growth of the goats. Though the fact he can recognize that in the first ce is pretty impressive as is.
First time through it was like being shown all the oceans andkes of the world, while now it was reduced to just the small pond that the goats are currently using. Still overwhelming as nothing is just one thing. Horn toughness is connected to bone toughness is connected to tendons and so on and so forth. It is all connected.
Though now that he is here, Doyle realizes he hadnt really thought about what he should try changing. That passed quickly as he wasnt nning on actually purchasing whatever change was made this time so he poked at the strength of the goats hide, adding just a drop more toughness to it.@@novelbin@@
With that, Doyle almost gets kicked out of the view as that one simple change that would be hard to detect ripples outward. Like a rock thrown into a calmke except thekes surface spreads across more dimensions than his mind can currently fullyprehend. Good thing it settles down quickly as at least the changes being made arent rippling back on itself at all.
That done, Doyle takes a few moments to steady himself and then backs out to where he can feel a blue screen waiting for him.
{Concept of a tough hide adjusted on goat pattern, this will cost 68,418 Monster Pattern Adjustment Points
Not enough points detected...
Automatically reverting changes}
To say the least, Doyle was more than a bit surprised at the supposed cost of change. Not that he didnt have a clue on why it cost so much and in the end, it was his fault. Instead of just adjusting how tough the hide was on a physical level, he had somehow adjusted the concept of the hide being tough.
That meant not just the goat being harder to damage with a knife, but also tougher against things like a ghost reaching into it or a deity trying to look in it. High level stuff that he had no right nor need to mess around with at the moment.
So, with failure in hand, Doyle dove back in trying tweak after tweak to make the hide tougher. To start the price did vary, but not in the right direction. It wasnt until he figured out how to think extra t, that progress was made.
Doyles problem in adjusting the hide was that he knew too much and guessed at even more. He had seen too much and knew that toughness wasnt just how well the hide held together. Though even after reducing the height and breadth of the change to a more manageable level, it was still costing in the four digits. Low four digits, mind you, but still four digits.
Then he made a breakthrough after a few days and got it down to the mid three digits as he started to build back up his mental view of it. The change required a careful bncing act between not being too detailed and at the same time, containing the right details. Even a single stray thought could cause waves of change. It wasnt until another day passed that he nailed it down.
{Hide toughness adjust on goat pattern, this will cost 17 Monster Pattern Adjustment Points
ept/Deny}
Doyle of course denied the change as he was sure that he could now do better. Well, do something more effective. The goats already had pretty tough hides and it would be better to adjust their toughness against magic.
Still, going by what he could feel from the change, it would have been an impressive increase in his goats defense. The only problem was it came at the cost of the goats horns. It didnt have to, but everything else was pretty bnced and the section adjusted by the charge skill was being held in ce by the skill.
Thatst part gave him pause as Doyle rolled it around in his mind some more. It was an almost off the cuff observation, but after a bit more testing was proven true. Not just that, but if what most people got from stats added up to 100%, the goat now had their Strength add up to 101%.
Well, not literally one percent, but it was there. This meant that skills could modify the effectiveness of how stats express themselves.
Skills Vs. Stats – Chapter 274
Doyle sat back after that little multi-day diversion and took a moment to think if any of his current monsters could use a nudge.
That didnt take long. Since the beginning his assassin vines have underperformed. So, Doyle set about checking each of the nts stats. Which was honestly one of the reasons he chose the monster besides the whole underperforming thing. After all, it only has three.
This took a few days even after the experience with the goat and a ton of note taking. Though in the end, he reduced it down to a few things from each stat that might work.
Strength - toughness of the vines, grip strength, pneumatic pressure
Agility - grab speed, vine flexibility
Constitution - pneumatic fluid
Thatst one was honestly the most interesting. While Constitution only had pneumatic fluid listed, that actually could go multiple ways. Did Doyle want the fluid poisonous, acidic, sticky, or any other interesting quality? One particr nuisance change was that the fluid could cause a nasty rash like what you would get from poison ivy, except requiring magical healing or a healing factor to go away.
While the rash wouldnt kill anyone, it could potentially be a run ender if the vine grabbed the right person. A tank with a rash running down their back from when the choking vine was shed off of them wasnt going to be doing their best. Though Doyle wasnt too worried about changing those up right away.
After all, those properties would eventually start appearing with points into the stat. In fact, at the moment the rash option was at the front of the line to develop. Though it was a close one with the sticky option. A nastybo as the fluid would not only cause a rash, but it would stick to everything and spread even further.
But no, Doyle was looking at vine flexibility. Toughness, grip, and fluid pressure from Strength were all good. Though fluid pressure would be best for if the fluid had been adjusted. Otherwise, having the stuff spurt all over the ce after people cut the vines wouldnt be doing much.
As for grab speed? The nts werent currently having a problem with grabbing their prey. Rather, they just couldst long enough. That might make others consider the toughness of the vines, except to increase that would overly affect speed and so that would need adjusting as well. No, the most straightforward change to make with the best upside was flexibility.
While blunt and piercing weapons would still st through the vines. With increased flexibility, chopping and slicing weapons would have reduced effectiveness. So n in mind, Doyle dives back into the assassin vines Agility stat and spent a handful of days tweaking things until he got the result he wanted.
{Vine flexibility and resistance to cuts has increased, this will cost 8 Monster Pattern Adjustment Points
ept/Deny}
Doyle nods, [ept].
{Confirm the purchase of increased vine flexibility for the Assassin Vine for 8 Monster Pattern Adjustment Points?
Deny/Confirm}
Doyle chuckles to himself when he sees what the system did. Not only was the deny option flipped to the other side so someone couldnt mindlessly just spam the ept button, but it wasnt even an ept button anymore. That way verbal cues wouldnt work either.
Doyle nods, [Confirm].
With that Doyle feels something odd, as if a part of his crystal had shifted. Though after a quick check, everything looks fine and even the assassin vine pattern was the same level. In fact, even the assassin vines currently in the dungeon didnt experience any change.
That is, they didnt until Doyle ran a quick refresh on any from a floor not currently being delved. So, after removing and respawning the assassin vines, the change was obvious. Not, however, because of how flexible the vines were. Rather, the change in vine structure also caused a change in vine appearance.
From an almost rough and craggy look, the vines now took on a smoother and stic appearance. Mind you, the vines were still rough, otherwise how would they catch prey? Still, this visual change wasn''t what Doyle was trying to judge and so he sat back to watch how they performed.
Good thing that even with them not needing to hit up the boss much, people still needed to get to the third floor. The ore deposits there were perfect bait and so it took only until the next morning before someone got to experience the changed assassin vines.@@novelbin@@
First thing about the fight that caught Doyle''s eye was that the vine did a better job at ambushing the delvers. Before, it would keep the long vines close to the central mass, whipping them out to catch prey. Now, the extra flexibility allowed them to hide their vines on the ground by snaking them along.
Sure, before the vines could choke a man, but that didn''t mean they could follow the contour of a cave wall. Now though, the capture went a lot smoother as the vines whips off the wall and wraps a tank around the neck. Of course, this is to be expected at this point and so the tank had a decent neck guard on his armor, preventing suffocation.
The good news for them is that the armor design still worked. The bad news for that guy is that he was the one in the group with a blunt weapon. Not saying that just 8 points is enough topletely change a monster, but remember that you can get key skills for only a couple points. In fact, if those points had been spent on a skill to resist being sliced, that tank would have likely died.
Which makes its own sense. The vines being more flexible is apletely different matter from just being more resistant to getting sliced and covers a lot more. Though this did bring up a question for Doyle. Ally, I just thought of something. What is the difference between giving one of my monsters the skill Charge and changing a stat so they are better at charging?
Ally shrugs, The fact you can give a monster the skill and not all your monsters of that type? Though more seriously, there are enough differences that this is important. The first of which is that there is no limit on how many changes you can make, whereas unless it is a boss with a path, all monsters are limited to only five skills. You give your goats a skill for charging, tougher hides, tougher horns, better piercing on the horns, and resistance to shing and youll be out of skill slots you could have used on more impactful things like using one of the various powers like Qi or Mana.
Also, the skill charge does more than just make them better at charging. It also bundles in a bunch of tiny bonus effects like a slight amount of protection from any resulting collision and a whole lot of mental and muscle memory on how best to charge. Im sure youve watched your goats charge more than enough and noticed they tend to look the same when charging.
That isnt because theyre all copies or some such. Rather, it is because they have the same level of skill with charge and so when on the same sort of terrain will have simr ideas on what the best way to charge is. Whereas if you just make their bodies better at charging, theyre stuck with whatever instinctual charging style they might have had.
Doyle nods, Okay, but I noticed with the goats Strength that skills can actually add onto the skills expression of legs for charging. If skills are able to not only improve the corresponding stats, but do so above what is naturally possible, why not just find the best skills instead of changing a stat?
Allyughed, Huh, I didnt know that. Though I guess it does make some degree of sense. After all, skills like carving can steady a person''s hands even when not carving. However, while Im not 100% certain, I can guess what is actually happening.
While it might look like the skill is adjusting potential, Im willing to bet that the bit added on doesnt actually grow with the stat, rather with the skill. A good example would be someone young with a prosthetic. As the person grows, that prosthetic isnt and will only match them again when a new one is acquired. The growth is like a stat increasing, while the new prosthetic is like skill growth.
Doyle, I guess it would be too much to ask for skills to pull double duty like that.
Ally shakes her head, Dont get me wrong, that bonus is pretty powerful. The thing is, youre missing that actual y. Yes, that bonus to the stat is just added on top of what is already there, but that means it doesnt count towards changing what is already there.
It would be like trying to build the highest sandcastle and then being allowed to just add a couple inches to the count just because you''re good at building sandcastles. Complete nonsense and I love it. You can modify the goats to be better at charging and reap the rewards of synergy from the stat then capping it off by making the goats better at charging.
The only thing about changing stats is that there are catches. So far you havent run into them as youve kept to the basics. However, even your kobolds are going to be interesting. Theyre mostly the same except the males are good at Mana and the females are good at Qi. Have you considered what that will mean for changing their stats?
Doyle tilts to the side, That is a strange one. Is there a stat for controlling those types of things?
Ally, ''Yes, but not in the way you''re thinking. Rather, you will have to make individual changes to the stats for male and female kobolds. In fact, you''re lucky the goats you have are the type with equal horns on both genders and the fact that the system isn''t cruel enough to split all stats by what''s under the belt, as it were.
''Just look at mushrooms, they can have over a thousand, let alone a simple male/female divide. It would make changing your myconids quite frustrating. Though if you want to, for instance, get more milk from your cows, that is better done through skills so the system doesn''t "remember" to split them up for you.
''Oh, and your ants are a little screwed as well. The queens and each of the different types of worker will have their own statyout to change. Though with that it makes some sense. Each is basically its own thing.''
Doyle, ''Or I could focus all my changes on the queens so anything I do trickles down to the drones.''
Ally shrugs, ''That isn''t wrong and honestly how the sapient hives tend to work. Though as the termitekin working for the system up in the town shows, things don''t always work out the way you expect.''
Doyle, ''How does that work anyway? I''m sort of on my way to that already with my ant hive mind thing.''
Ally, ''As long as your ants stay ant-shaped, at most the queens will gain sapience. The way the drones'' very brain structure is setup makes it near impossible for them to gain sapience. Not impossible, I will admit, but we''re likely to have outlived this universe by the time we get one and at that it would have to be a giant ant drone and not one of the normal sized drones.
''The catch is if they start changing their base shape. With ants that will likely either mean going full humanoid with the kin route or going taur with the folk route. At that point queens are either 100% sapient or at the very least grow into it. Drones though stillg behind as even then a lot of their mental make-up is based on following the queen and not much else. However, at that point it goes from near impossible to about the same chance as any of your other monsters.''
Some Help For Jim – Chapter 275
It took Doyle a moment to process what Ally had said, when a realization hit him. The adjustment points are for exactly that, permanent adjustments. That is why skills and stat adjustment felt so simr. It is just one is more modr than the other.
In fact, I would use a differentparison. The stats are thend and the skills are what gets built on top. Brick by brick, level by level, a skill can build itself up. Thend beneath, on the other hand, silently supports it.@@novelbin@@
Ally shrugs, Eh, thend is also growing, so I still prefer the other analogy.
Doyle, I guess to be fair, neither are perfect fits. Instead, the important thing to take away is that using adjustment points will result in some kind of permanent change to my monsters base abilities. It will be interesting to see if there is anything else that uses those points.
Ally nods, That does seem to be the case.
With that, they go back to watching the various assassin vines, including the elders. Of course, things arent that peaceful outside.
At first people ignored the panicked team warning of tougher vines monsters. After all, those things are known quantities more than anything. And truly they were, as without mind stats unlocked the nts worked entirely off of reactions.
It was only after multiple teams had reported the problem that Jim got involved. Of course, in theory, it should have been someone else who was local and working for the Guild, he just didnt have that luxury yet. So instead he got together a quick team of people who were hanging out around the dungeon and rushed to the third floor.
Of course, the new and improved assassin vine on the third floor isnt any kind of actual threat to him. Even if he let it get a vine around his neck, it would be up in the air on whether it could actually strangle. So, without much worry, Jim is able to get a feel for the monster.
Was it going to be tougher to beat? Yes. However, he could also feel that in exchange for harder to break vines, it traded away some of its uracy, grab speed, and so on. Not a lot, but enough that the growth in flexibility wasnt quote unquote unfair.
Jim got back to his office and let out a big sigh after sitting down. This was going to require a ton of paperwork. Of course, changes happen all the time in a dungeon, but generally not on floors before the most recent boss.
Any such changes in turn was required to be documented heavily for the Guild. A rule that Jim actually was in favor for. That doesnt mean he wants to do the paperwork himself, but some rules requires a local observer to document what happened.
This, of course, brings his mind back to hisck of Guild employees from Wolfs Rest. Not that he couldnt find enough people willing to take up the work. Rather, the other people in the inner circle had all fallen into various important jobs.
Plus, working for the Guild was to some extent like working for some out-of-town business. Useful for the services it provided, but not entirely trusted. Jim sighed again, he was going to have to talk with Ace about vetting some people for work in the Guild, even if they are from the second ring.
Ace, upon hearing this is quite ufortable with the idea. The Guild is in town because of the Dungeon, and the reason he had to set up the whole inner and outer thing in the first ce was exactly because of the dungeon. Not to say he doesnt have candidates. He would, however, have preferred to wait until some people got married or kids were born and grown up enough to start taking up the roles.
Not to say he doesnt have a few people in mind. In fact, he has four people in mind. The fourdies who had been caught up with that one guy that had figured out how to use his dads influence like a weapon.
It had been a while since the four joined the town. Of the four, three settled down easily enough. Susan Smithson with her sewing, Jessica Lewis with her cooking, and Pam Stern with her cleaning had all found ces they fit in town. Though they were still in the awkward position of not really being inner circle while also not quite being epted, Im the second ring either.
This was to some degree, Aces fault. If he hadid out where they stood, things would have progressed better for them. On the other hand, having ess to their skills in the inner area was useful. Though this still left one of thedies.
Courtney Williams was a driver. She ride, drive, or even fly just about anything. If the town ever got a spaceship, she would be the one they go to, to figure it. Problem is, the town doesnt need a driver right now.
Ace originally nned for her to take over the boat he had nned on getting. They never got that boat and so she has mostly been left to herself. The fourdies stuck together after getting out of the near mind control that idiot had been running, so she wasnt nning on leaving.
However, it had been months now and Ace had started to worry. This was, in theory the perfect assignment. After all, while the other three technically found jobs, they certainly werent full time, so working at the Guild wouldnt interrupt anything.
This would be especially true if all four worked at the guild as that would spread out the work. Ace was still worried about them. However, Jim was more than happy to overlook their origins as long as it meant having someone else to help fill out paperwork.
Plus, the main worry with the three would be to some degree negated by having them work at the Guild. After all, the Guild cant exactly have people thinking their personal information is easy to steal. So anyone working at the Guild will have magical contracts and such put in ce to prevent them from sharing information learned while on the job.
This wouldnt protect anything learned while not on the job. A worry, but not a new one. So, in the end, both Ace and Jim agree to let them give it a shot if they want.
Of course, the four were quite worried when called to Aces office. It is like being in school and being called to the principals office. Even if you know you havent done anything wrong, you still worry.
Suffice it to say, they werent expecting a job offer, especially not one so important. At least it felt important to them. The positions were, of course basically just secretary work, but it dealt with a force from beyond their world. As if some aliens had showed up pre-system and you got asked to work in their embassy.
Not that their positions were actually all that important. There wasnt even the usual worry of an embassy about not hiring spies or what have you. After all, the Guild was capable of enforcing secrecy from its workers.
Still, for the fourdies, this was important. A step up in a way they never thought would present itself for them. So, after a few more questions, they epted the offer.
All the while, Ace nned. In theory, the inner circle would expand on its own. There were couples who would eventually be families, of course. Though the most tricky would be when someone wanted to have a significant other from outside their circle.
His stomach churned at the idea of things turning into some kind of noble bloodline nonsense. However, the small number of people here could easily suffer such a fate. Not only that, but on the desk in his private office there was a dangerous report.
The energy field had strengthened again. People were recharging their powers faster than ever. Not only that, but his control over where the recharge field was had been refined. On one hand, this meant they could more easily hide the benefits.
On the other hand? That made the secret much more deadly. Any major force in the universe would kill for a ce like this to train elites. The only saving grace was that the bonus so far was a t one.
That way, at least, anyone that might find out would only be fighting for a ce to raise young talents. A percentage bonus would get the truly old monsters interested. After all, there are beings out there with pools of powerrger by a magnitude than the current pool of everyone on the added together.
Ace shakes his head. The fourdies are gone and he can get back to nning. Specifically, he was nning around Lucy Miller. One of the core members who had almost gotten caught up in the nonsense with the guy that had brought the fourdies. Almost a coincidence, not that he cares about Lucy being from overseas.
More importantly, and why she has basically been living within the field, is that despite how she started, she had a special advantage. Lucy had a natural talent for spatial magic.
It hadnt been noticed at first because far and away her best stat was Agility. That, however, was apparently just an offshoot of her talent. Because she had such a good sense of her surroundings, she ended up extra good at gymnastics and really anything requiring spatial awareness.
Now, though, Ace has a greater purpose for her. One that he did get permission from her before guiding her down it. Still, he felt a little bad about setting her future in stone.
Not bad enough to stop. As he had been thinking, the inner circle would only grow in poption. Yet, where would the spacee from?
Well, Aces answer was to steal the space. More specifically, through abination of studying the dungeon and mind numbing practice, Lucy was training to be a spatial enchanter. That meant that with enough stats and skills, she was going to be able to take space from elsewhere and increase how much room they had.
That might note into fruition for a hundred years, but Ace had hope. Especially with the bags of holding as an example. Though they werent just going to copy them or use enchantments to increase the space. That was just asking for trouble.
The bags literally just connected to another space and so using a simr method would just introduce security risks. As for enchantments? While Lucy would use enchantments to get everything moving. If enchantments were used to keep it all in ce, that would spell disaster if anyone managed to break said enchantments.
No, what Ace wanted was his own realm like in some of the stories he had read. So Lucy and anyone that she might train in the future would be in charge of moving more space to the inner area. There was even the possibility that someday the inner circle might berger than the rest of the.
That, however, would be many millions of years in the future, if ever. For now, Ace just has to scrounge for every scrap of knowledge rted to space there is avable. And for this reason alone, the n to grab all the books possible was already showing results.
Magic might be a mix of nonsense and chaos, but it works better with a framework. So every book that worked to exin what space was and how the very fabric of the universe worked meant a sturdier foundation for her. Ace could even see the potential for her to start making a version of the bag of holding. Not the magical portal into another area style bag, but rather the type that has a stretched inside area and doesnt remove any of the weight.
Sad Wolves – Chapter 277
After talking about psychic powers a bit more, Doyle sinks into carving on the seventh floor. Though the thought of humans on the world outside being psychically charged does give him a sense of satisfaction. He had always enjoyed the thought of psychic powers and had researched it a little.
Of course none of the older research that showed the most positive results really meant all that much. Either it was dependent on one particrly strong person and this not scientifically relevant or it has enough samples, but was only just statistically significant. So basically it could have just as easily been luck instead of actual power.
As this happens, a month passes and the area around his dungeon is turned into even more of a secure location. After all, psychic power is another pool that can be recharged faster in Doyle''s field. A fact that bes relevant when Annie figured out that her skill to count things quickly on sight was based in psychic power. Well, it wasn''t the that ability being psychic that did it, rather the fact that along with it she was also telepathic.
A very useful thing to have when a bunch of people want to practice their mental defenses. Even more useful when in an area that refreshed psychic power, a very rare thing to find. Though some would consider Annie a bit pitiful now as she basically lives in theplex around the dungeon gate 24/7.
She might not be forced to use her powers every waking moment. In fact, she takes great joy in practicing them. However, unless you''re the type who doesn''t even want to leave the house, her position would certainly seem like torture.
Though her presence did cause one thing of importance to Doyle. With her help, the emergence of at the very least, psychic defenses, was elerated and Jim''s team was ready to find out what was past the Udoroot.
At first Doyle ignored them as they delved. Then he started to nce over as he worked. Until finally he was paying full attention as they sted through the zero-G room and onward.
After that, they easily advanced to the ninth floor and prepared to face the boogieman. Well, what had felt like the boogieman to them after thest encounter almost turned deadly. Jim and Ace both had gotten a bit cocky.
Not that they weren''t powerful enough to match it. Anywhere else in the world except the sea and they would be top of the food chain. Doyle, however, didn''t y by the rules.
So with great care, Jim and his team snuck up on their prey. All of them had by now developed some form of mental defense and so we''re ready. Then as one the team let loose with a number of cutting attacks. In particr, Kelly had developed the fire ribbons into fire chakras that spin like buzzsaws.
This alpha strike was impressive and managed to fell every one of the normal sunflowers that Doyle had nted in a circle. Ally who had joined in on watching them really enjoyed that and almost fell off her bed fromughing so hard. They had been so serious about the approach and yet had let their worries distract them from important things like checking if there actually was an enemy in the first ce.
Suffice it to say, the group was more than a little embarrassed over the matter. In fact, there wasn''t a single Udoroot until after the first ore vein. Though they found the fight with the kobolds guarding the tin ore more than a little dangerous.
The kobolds easily fell into a mini phnx with shields in front and spears behind them. Though with only three of each to a rank, it should have been easy to nk. If only it wasn''t for the three earth mages.
While Jim''s team had a couple mages, it proved near impossible to stop the kobold mages from manipting the earth around them. If they had attempted to fire rocks at the team, that would be one thing. However, the kobolds were instead sending the magic through the ground beneath them and never too far from themselves.
In the end though, the fight ended in Jim''s favor. Bill, Tess, and Jeremy held their own in the melee fight, protecting their own back line. While Jim, Kellinger, and Kelly overwhelmed the kobold''s ranged options. In particr, Jim lucked into a bullseye. Well, more of a kobold''s eye, but who told it to duck at the wrong time?
Though that shot to the eye really spelled the end for the kobolds. They were tenacious enough, but being a mage down when three already wasn''t quite enough wasn''t going to cut it. Then Jeremy started to cut through the defensive lines after the kobold mages stopped being able to reinforce the dirt walls with magic.
Fight over, Jim takes his time to examine the kobold''s camp, especially the ore. He shakes his head and calls Jeremy over to check it as well. Of course tin isn''t anything new and at this point metal has started to flow outward from the town.
This was different though. Jeremy frowns and turns it over a few times before cursing. "We just got all our gear done up nice! Now we''re going to have to redo it all."
Jim sighs, "So I wasn''t just crazy."
Jeremy scoffs, "If by crazy you mean the fact that this ore has a lot more magic in it, you certainly aren''t. This thing is packing so much densitypared to the stuff from the third floor, we might as well not bother with the stuff."
Jim shakes his head, "People know we have mines in the dungeon and where they are. We can''t exactly abandon them without people getting suspicious. Besides, we''re going to have to get some samples to the crafters before we know the full extent of what needs to be reced."
Jeremyughs, "Everything, everything will need to be reced. This stuff is a substantial step up. Don''t forget that I''m a crafter as well.
"From what samples I can get, more power always equals better for base ingredients. As long as things stay bnced of course. You can''t throw a newly sprouted herb in with a hundred years old herb and expect good results."@@novelbin@@
Jim shrugs, "I just can''t help but be annoyed at how hard extracting this stuff will be. Besides, this is only one vein and I''m sure there will be more if this floor is anything like thest mining floor. I don''t even know if we can get proper miners to this spot and it is only the easiest to get to."
Jeremy rolled his eyes and went about collecting a number of ore samples. It was actually quite easy to dig the stuff out of the walls. So much so that some might question the need for proper miners.
Doyle sure did and Ally had the answer. Just as with crafting, collection professions are needed to properly extract the full potential of a resource. A truly high level miner can not only extract entire veins in one piece, but all the power inside of that ore will be sealed in. Collecting it like Jeremy was doing at best keeps half the power.
With samples secured, Jim and his team move out. The strange structure of the ninth floor caused confusion, though only in the fact that it was too straightforward. To Jim andpany, the fact it was literally a slightly curved tunnel with no side passages or anything felt odd. Even the technically straightforward eighth floor involved a bunch of nonsense.
Then they met up with the first pack of wind wolves. After the interesting, if a little bit of a softball, kobold fight. This really got dropped on them like a bag of hammers. Sure,rge groups of goats and cattle were dangerous.
However, there is something special about a pack hunter like the wolves, especially when you add on magic.The pack dashed at the party and through there magic came at them from every angle. They came from the ground itself, as well as from the walls and ceiling.
Mind you, the wind wolves werent capable of flying or even true wall running. However, with a bit of a boost from their magic, they were perfectly capable of using just about any surface as a ce tounch from.
And so the pack of 30 wind wolves converged on Jim''s party of 6. Then got ughtered. Doyle hadn''t yet taken any paths specific to the wolves yet.
Sure, it was a tough fight and everyone in the party ended up with their fair share of cuts, some that would have been quite serious pre-system. Yes, the pack gave them a special kind of challenge. It could even be said to be tougher than the kobold fight the party just faced before this.
However,pared to the first Udoroot fight? The wolves are ironically about the weakest monsters on the floor. Well, if you count numbers as well. The goats and cattle are quite strong, but numbers really cements them as being a tougher fight.
The biggest challenge the wolves represent is a form of attrition. That of damaged gear and clothes. In fact, Jim''s team suffered quite badly from this. Most of their normal clothes that were visible outside of their armor was shredded and one of their backpacks had a strap cut clean through.
Jeremy is able to fix up the strap, but a permanent solution will need to wait for after they leave the dungeon. An option they aren''t quite ready to take. Though Jim is half considering it, if only so they cane back with a sewing kit on top of everything else.
However, they still have faced another Udoroot, the target of today''s delve. Though they don''t have to wait long as right after the wolves are two sunflower circles to each side of the hallway, one slightly ahead of the other. Still cautious despite the previous experience, the party sets up to take on the front most target.
This time though, the target is actually a monster and it doesn''t let them fully get set up, instead firing off a couple fiery energy stuns. These attacks get farther than expected when the two mages fail to stop them in time. After all, while magic can affect psychic powers, it isn''t a one to one analog.
No matter how they try, neither Kelly nor Kellinger can dispel the stuns. Though as the next barragees in, they do figure out how to redirect the attacks. Just in time for the Udoroot to switch it up, sending some rocks over at high speed with its telekinesis.
At that point Kelly ignores the attacks and tries her fire buzzsaw again. This time facing some resistance as the monster tries to cloud her mind and make the attack miss. It is unfortunate for the Udoroot that it can''t really move to dodge the attack which razes off a couple stalks.
This doesn''t stop the monster''s attacks though as it scrapes its mental attacks against the entire party. A party whose minds are doing a good impression of a brick wall right now. All them sporting some kind of defense or another.
The party isn''tpletely safe, of course. Same with any kind of defense, there are weaknesses. In particr, the Udoroot''s mind thrust attacks are more than capable of causing a ton of difort. Each thrust striking their defenses and making them ring like a bell.
Still, despite a little confusion and some thrown rocks, the party is able to chop off all the sunflower stalks. With that the party watches the other patch of sunflowers with care as they wait for the sunflowers to fade away. This doesn''t turn out all that easy.
Even without any sunflowers, the main body is still alive beneath the surface. Jim wasn''t a fool though and so had Kelly send a spike of fire into the ground. It is at this point that the Udoroot is truly dead and it despawns, causing a sinkhole of sorts to appear.
Oh Hey, Equipment – Chapter 279
Doyle sighs, How long till they get to the second boss?
Ally stopsughing and shrugs, If I had to guess, you have two to two and a half weeks.
Doyles core brightens for a second after hearing that. I wasnt actually expecting them that soon. It feels like a month or more on the inside. Why so quickly?
Ally pulls up a screen showing a workshop on the surface. They need magical defenses. Not just because of the Udoroot, but it certainly is giving them a kick in the keister about it. If I had to guess, the as a whole is only three months out from having monsters on the surface that use active power based attacks.
Generally, that will mean Mana and Qi. Anyway, this is because the concentration of world energy on the surface is about to hit the first major teau. That of being a tier one world.
With that? Well, there is a reason the system didnt bother doing things like expanding the surface area or anything. It is going to be rough. To go from a tier zero world to a tier one world is like night and day.
Doyle, That is only slightly frightening, what with how Im a dungeon that is disconnected from the world Im on. Now, how is all that rted to them messing around there and needing protection from magic?
Ally focuses the view on an unassuming helmet. This piece of equipment takes up an equipment slot.@@novelbin@@
Doyle tilts to the side, Yes, it is a helmet.
Ally giggles, Sorry, I let you walk into that. Anyway, under the system there is a stark difference between regr gear and equipment. Then again, I think you only heard about it through someone exining it in the dungeon.
So yeah, equipment is active power gear of which you can only have a limited amount based on your stats. For how many slots you get, all you need to do is ask the system. Though if you care about forms, here it is!
{ RoundDown[(S + A + C) 10] + RoundDown[(I + W + P) 10] + RoundDown[(D + K + L) 10] }
Ally nods, Would be a lot morepact, but I dont think there is any operator that represents rounding down in a single symbol. Probably is, but that seems like something most would know, anyway.
Doyleughs, I actually know this one! Though only because I went on a wiki dive for what a certain symbol meant. The equation would look like this!
{ ?(S + A + C) 10? + ?(I + W + P) 10? + ?(D + K + L) 10? }
Which certainly looks cleaner. Though just as much as it looks confusing if you have no clue what it means. The forward and backwards L-like symbols represent the floor function or some such and you can represent rounding up with upside down L symbols.
Ally nods, Fair enough. Anyway, this helmet. and she pulls attention back to the blue screen disying the helmet in a workshop up top. Is equipment.
Doyle, But it isnt masterwork? At least, from what I can feel I dont think it is?
Ally, Of course it isnt masterwork. They want that, theyve got more than a few pieces from us already. Im kind of surprised that at least Jim doesnt already have some enchanted gear.
While rare, I suspect were dropping around one piece of equipment a day and that mostly goes to Ace and friends since they actually kill things other than cows. Anyway, while the helmet isnt actually magic equipment and if analyzed wouldnt disy any effects. It isnt truly powerless.
The thing is made of leather from a sessful predator that someone hunted out in the forest. In here? The power a creature can have is inherently limited. Outside?
Doyle nods, Of course, but does it just have more magic from being bigger or some such?
Ally, Well, that is where fun things like Bioumtion kicks in, though size does help. Anyway, a fox isnt inherently more magical than a rabbit. However, the rabbit will gather magic naturally and through the food it eats. Then, when the fox eats it, all the magic the rabbit had gathered will be absorbed.
It isnt a perfect transfer of power, of course, but the same was true for the rabbit eating the grass. This is why only herbs tend to be rated by age. Their only option is to sit around and slowly absorb power, so while a hundred years ginseng means something, it wouldnt for a fox.
That all to say, there are reasons most mythological monsters that arent a deitys pet tend to be at least omnivores, if not outright carnivores. It is to the point that in most monster ssifications you have air,nd, and sea monsters, then the fourth category of prey. Thest one is generally championed by Elephants, Unicorns, and Qilin. Notice theck of flying and sea monsters?
There is a reason for that. Both the sky and the sea are too open for prey animals to survive well and be shy. Dont assume there arent herbivores in those ces with a lot of power. They just arent going to stand out. Also, there are whales in the sea which some count as prey. Except for the fact they eat krill just as easily as nkton, so technically dont count.
Doyle nods, Yes, now about the helmet?
Ally coughs, Right, so yeah, I think that leatheres from a bear. One of those pre-system apex predators. It will have eaten enough by this point to be truly magical. Maybe even almost to the point of evolving into something like a hindbear.
So when killed, all that magic doesnt just vanish. At least not if properly processed by someone with the right skills. Something the town finally has. That means while the helmet doesnt have some realized defense, it is equipment and stuff like the Udoroots mind st will have a harder time going through it.
This isnt a solution to their need for true magic gear, but it will tide them over until sometime next year when people who were crafters pre-system manage to figure out making masterworks.
Doyle, Will it really take a year? Getting a crafting skill to a hundred shouldnt be too hard, at least going by my own skills.
Ally shrugs, Theyre limited by their resources. That and there is a bottleneck at 99, though it shouldnt be too hard for this town to manage. Though a year is actually quite short.
Without a dungeon to provide energy soaked materials, five or more years wouldnt be seen as slow. While your drops take away some of the skill needed because theyre all in perfect condition, the extra power in them makes up for it.
Doyle sighs, Guess I should start on a new floor. Though for some reason, this feels way too fast.
Ally, It is! Though not because you are an awakened dungeon or anything. Rather, it is because youre in a newly integrated world. In a more settled world, the people delving you would be a little too strong for you.
When there are more dungeons to choose from, fewer people woulde and they would be more discerning. Why challenge a dungeon you cant beat if there is an easier one a few days away? That means the people delving wont be facing as much of a challenge and thus feeding you less.
There would still be deaths, but more a fools death than the end of their rope style deaths. Anyway, what do you n to do for your next floor?
Doyle sighs, I think Im going to be boring. It isnt until floor 13 that I get my new bird monsters or mithril. So instead of going all in on designing things, I want to take the myconid design and make it stranger.
Ally snorts, You say boring and then talk about making the myconids stranger. A bit of a contradiction there.
Doyle nods, I admit it is. Though so far Ive messed with space and I know that isnt the only vector avable to me. I am a diverse, strange cavern dungeon, after all.
Ally, You just want to y around with environmental evolutions after the voidbold thing.
Doyle, Im not going to deny that. Now let me focus on forming a new floor.
Like riding a bike, Doyle sts through the creation of a new floor. At this point, squeezing arger area into a much smaller area feels old hat. Though that realization tempted him to change up his eleventh floor.
After all, the delvers dont realize what artistry and technical skill was needed to create a new floor, so why not make something more obvious? But no, that could wait.
{Eleventh floor dimensionally anchored
World Energy cap +7,700 [Constitution(77) * 100]
eleventh floor spending limit set to 41,160 [Previous floors limit(33,480) + Intelligence(64) * 120]
Monster level cap updated
Quintessence debt paid back by 5}
Doyle knows exactly what the floor will be used for and he doesnt want to waste a clever trick on it. Well, a trick that doesnt further what the floor will be used as, that of a ce to farm. Same as the first and sixth floor.
Being right after a boss, this is where most people will end up working out of. Doyle had stumbled into making the sixth floor a good farming floor, but this time it would be on purpose and without all the bells and whistles. That meant using the raw area instead of taking so much time to link portals.
So Doyle waited, he needed an idea of what he had to work with. Then, after a bit of time, the expansion of the floor slowed to a crawl. That meant this was all the space he was going to get in the near future so he did his usual measurements.
Simple enough, he just visualized a square of small rooms and judged how many could fit. If Doyle would be honest with himself, it isnt exactly the best way to do things anymore. What with how he can repositionrge blocks of space.
Still, knowing that a square of small rooms with 64 rooms to a side would fit put things in perspective for him. Other measurements, like meters and such had always started to feel a bit abstract after a point. Though he did do the calctions and based on the diagonal of the square, he could fit a sphere with a circumference of a little more than four-fifths of a kilometer.
Of course, Doyle could have just cheated and used his natural sense for how big the floor was. Except he had a couple reasons not to do that. First was that the actual size kept expanding, bit by bit.
Second and more important, he wanted a buffer. So far, the void hadnt noticed him, which was honestly the most likely oue. However, given enough time, the chances of being noticed will eventually catch up to him.
When that happens, Doyle wants each floor to have a section of solid stone or better, between the dungeon proper and the outside. It isnt a surefire solution, but will keep the weaker pests at bay. Especially once the stone starts getting dense enough.
Doyle takes a nce at the first floor. It is the outermostyer, the thickestyer of stone, and the smallest surface area to find and attack. Of course, size is more of a function of power in the void than it is an actual solid thing you can measure. Though to attack him will require whatever it is to enter his dimension where space and time are proper rules.
Besides all that, Doyle is currently snug up against his original dimension. That means if anything powerful enough out there wanted to swallow his dungeon whole, it would have to scrape him off the dimension like some kind of barnacle. Not impossible, but dimensions dont like being scraped.
Time For The Eleventh – Chapter 280
Still, looking at the first floor made him realize how important his method of floor creation is. Not only does it keep his core at the center of his dungeon. It also helps hide himself from the outside.
After all, when your rtive size and visibility ispletely determined by how powerful you seem to be. The act of wearing his weakest floor as a disguise is brilliant. If instead of expanding inward, he had created the floors next to each other, it would be like broadcasting his existence to the void. A horrible idea when distance and time are more of a suggestion that exists only when something powerful enough decides they do.
Doyle shakes himself and turns his attention back to his new floor. A floor important because ites right after a boss and thus will be visited a ton. Somewhere for people to grind out their skills and levels, especially if they got carried past the boss fight.
With that all in mind and a slight n he had already had, Doyle decides on more of an arena style design. In this case, half a sphere. Though not the top half, but rather the bottom half, so that the roof is t and the ground is curved.
After roughing it out with stone and dirt, Doyle adds water. Not just a little either. The bottom third of the area by height is filled with the stuff. That meant that at the deepest section the water was around 15 rooms deep!
Water in ce, Doyle adjusted the sides of the area. Dirt and rock was added to make the middle third more walkable. The upper third he didnt even bother with as while maybe a goat could take advantage of it, the area was too steep to reasonably expect delvers to mess with.
Of course, after all that, the hemisphere is looking less like a part of a sphere, but people would still get the idea. Now all that was left was to decorate and popte. Though there was onerge half terrain, half decoration that he wanted to add before anything else.
While not impossible, Doyle doesnt expect anyone to have a method to deal with the water so it could be a dead zone on the floor. That isnt the n, though. Instead, Doyle wants a giant mushroom.
Not just big like the mushroom trees the myconids have, but truly enormous! Specifically, Doyle starts with the stalk in the very center of the floor. How big was it?
Well, the area taken up by water was already quite big and the stalk was as big as a third of the water pools entire surface area. This did require the removal of a lot of water to Doyles embarrassment. He really should have ced this first.
Anyway, with the stalkid down, Doyle added the cap. An impressive specimen that covered the entire ceiling. In fact, the ceiling was being used to cheat.
In a deeper floor with more levels in the mushroom pattern, Doyle might be able to create a free standing mushroom of this size. For now, though, the ceiling is actually what holds up the mushroom cap because the stalk certainly cant. Especially since the cap itself is sort of thin, not really having the room to expand upwards like a normal mushroom cap would.
Then with the giant mushroom ced and water level back to where Doyle wanted it, he turns his attention to exactly that. After all, it is a quiterge area of water and with no one swimming, it would be quite a waste. So from the mushroom stalk to the shore, he builds up a fungal bridge.
Not something that is floating, but rather a solid structure made with the same mycelium as the main stalk. Then within said stalk, Doyle creates a spiral ramp upward about a third of the way from the waters surface to the ceiling. He shakes his head, lots of thirds being used on the floor, but it works.
Though once there Doyle realizes a problem. He ns for his core and eventually the exit portal for the floor to be located there. Except, while the stalk is tough, it is only on the level of a tough wood. Someone could, in theory skip everything by busting through the side.
That would not do, so Doyle is forced to encapste the entire inner area with dungeon stone. Though he does leave a thinyer of mycelium so it looks thematic. To finish the stonework, he sends a thick spike of stone from the top and bottom of the hollowed out area to connect to the top and bottom of the hemisphere.
Doyle takes a step back and looks at the floor to try and notice anything he missed. First was the entrance, which was somewhat randomly ced because of how the floor got formed. That got moved to the side of the hemisphere opposite of the mushroom bridge.
Then there was the lighting issue. Well, it would have been an issue, except Doyle had a sudden bit of inspiration. While more simcrum than living mushroom, glowing spores would be a fun light source.
It took a few tries, but eventually Doyle got the cap to release regr mushroom spores. Well, regr except for the fact that some of them contained a single light source. Also, instead of that light source being hooked up to the floors world energy, it instead ran off of the spores natural supply of power.
Combined with some alterations to make the spores fall even slower, the lights stayed in the upper section of the floor before burning out. This was all mostly so that Doyle wasnt dumping a blizzard of spores on the delvers. The limits meant the cap only had to release a light dusting.
This was probably not healthy to anyone with a Constitution closer to the pre-system norm. On the other hand, Doyle honestly felt that if you managed to get to this floor with any stat close to pre-system levels, they would either have a solution or were too weak to have gotten here normally. So, while he did prefer keeping his dungeon fair, it was only fair that on the eleventh floor, someone should be able to survive a light dusting of spores.
Though speaking of spores, their presence did ease his next task. That of spreading mushrooms around the floor. Through the magic of being a dungeon, the spores being released were of all types of normal mushrooms and so with the time speed up, every bit of solid ground was soon covered.
The only change Doyle had to make was disable the mushroom tree spores from being released. This floor was meant to be open and those trees could end up blocking offrge areas if he wasnt careful. Not that he wasnt going to use them.
Oh no, the mushroom trees were very important. They would block the line of sight so people couldnt snipe all the monsters. It was just that the mushroom trees were going to be personally ced by Doyle, instead of randomly grown.
Though the spores ended up helping with blocking the line of sight more than Doyle had expected. While only a light dusting, since they hung in the air so long, it created a pretty effective sight blocking haze. Of course it didntpletely block sight, but when the scenery is mushrooms and the monsters are going to be mushrooms, even a little bit goes a long way.
All that was left was to popte the floor. Well, Doyle did spend a quick moment duplicating the entire set up on the flip side as a farm area, but at this point that was second nature. Though if Ally was feeling spicy, she might have categorized it as him dying having to choose how heavily into the mushroom theme he was going to lean.
After all, Doyle could make an entire floor of myconids again. It wouldnt be hard. Though this thought sends him down another dying tactic of trying to figure out if a new myconid form was avable. It wasnt.
That means as far as fungus monsters go, Doyle has the shrieker, violet fungus, and the four types of myconid. Not a veryrge selection. Then again, the first floor only has goats and kobolds.
Though as Doyle thinks about the first floor, he cant help but want to include those monsters. Well, maybe not the normal goats, but those grassen goats might end up alright. Just pair a couple small herds with a kobold shepherd and the starting monsters on the floor would be covered.
Just the starting monsters, though. Doyle already has some practice with beaming in new monsters once the floor has been started and he ns to do something simr here. So instead of packing the floor to the gills with monsters, he instead ns to have a steady stream of them.
Doyle nods to himself as the n starts toe together. He can see it now, the goats and kobolds are chilling on the floor. Then when delvers enter, the center stalk starts spewing out myconids thate at the delvers nonstop from both sides.
He turns his attention to the entrance and steals a bit of space from the farm to make an entrance hall. Then with a rule makes it so none of the fungus or spores can enter that area. A decent, safe space, though Doyle doesnt want delvers hanging out in there while recovering.
Another rule is ced. The room is safe as long as they dont leave it. Once they do, they have only half an hour of cumtive time before it stops being safe. That way they have time to recover from the boss fight, but cant cheese the floor.
After all, the monsters areing to them, not the other way around. Of course, Doyle decides to ignore the fact that for every previous floor they could back off and recover. That wasnt what floor eleven was evolving to be about.@@novelbin@@
This time the delvers can choose to stand in ce, and the monsters woulde to them! All that mattered was if there was enough points to really drive the point home. Though with that, another idea came to Doyle.
Instead of having the entire thing start when they enter the floor, let them make their way around the water and to the bridge. Then use an unending swarm of monsters to push them back. The monsters dont even need to be that tough.
After all, it is kind of hard to stand your ground when monsters are literally piling up to get to you. Doyles core glows brightly as he considers how many sprouts he can send out at once. Technically, a swarm costs a hundred points, but that swarm can in turn have a hundred sprouts in it.
Plus, while adding more points to a sprout does indeed increase the size, even a two point sprout is already less mass than two one pointers. That meant Doyle had to figure out the other monsters and then spam sprouts. An easy enough task and a decent point sink for 41,160 points the floor can contain.
Though Doyle right away cuts down the spendable number of points to 36,000 to save a bit over a tenth of the points for the farm. Plus, the number felt rounder to him. Though he keeps in the back of his mind that there are about a thousand points in reserve if he really needs them.
Now it was a question of what bnce of monsters he wanted. Right away, he cuts out the shriekers and violets. While decent monsters in other situations, Doyle doesnt need stationary mobs on this floor when it is possible that the delvers skip half the floor.
Then he looked at the grassen goats. They only cost 25 a pop, so two herds of eight each with a 50 point kobold goatherd would end up costing only 500 points. Double that so there are two herds to each side and Doyle feels that should be more than enough goats and kobolds for the floor.
I Forgot – Chapter 281
As Doyle starts to do the math, Ally knocks on the wall. Doyle bobs his core, Yes?
Ally rolls her eyes, You dont exactly have a door to knock on. Anyway, I was watching you make the new floor and wanted to know how youre going to get the adventurers into the water?
Doyle tilts to the side, No real n for that. Why?
Ally shrugs, I figured you were trying to make use of your sea cattle.
Doyle pauses for a moment. I hadpletely forgotten about them, to be honest. Though I still dont think Ill do anything specific to push people into the water. The sea cattle are rtively cheap at 17 points each so Ill just add a small herd of ten of them. That way, people dont think of it as a shortcut. Not that they would after the myconids flood the water.
Ally nods, Fair enough. That should provide an interesting surprise for when someone gets clever.
Doyle nods in return, Ill be excited to see who tries it first. Now I just need to finish with the myconids. Even after that 170 points, I still have 34,830 to go.
For Doyle, that meant more math and a little bit of testing. To be specific, he needed to test what ratio of sprouts to everything else provides the best bang for his buck. After all, his monsters get a boost for beingmanded, but there had to be a limit.
So Doyle pulled in a bunch of sprout swarms and a few of each of the other. With that, the first truth revealed itself. The lessers and the guards couldnt be leaders.
Fair enough, they both started with a base Intelligence of 3. One more than his goats started with, but still not at the level that the dungeons leadership bonus would kick in. This was interesting because it pointed towards another aspect of the system.
Greater mental stats do not make a greater mind. Doyle had seen simr concepts in various stories. The whole idea that pumping an intelligence stat doesnt make you actually smart.
Except Doyle was able to look into what the stats could actually do. Sure, the description he got when he asked the system as a human pointed towards this sort of thing. Something he double checked by pulling it up.
{The power of ones mind. Your race does not understand the mind enough to exin fully what this stat does. However, on a basic level, this increases the speed at which you can think through things and remember stuff. It will also allow you to remember more details of what you purposefully memorize, providing a major boon to certain schools of magic and other power usages.}
And there you go. Clear as day, on a basic level, it ups your thinking speed and memory. Doyle had seen beyond that.
Intelligence as a stat can improve your mental state. A normal animal can boost their mind. In fact, this is a key part of animals developing towards natural sapience.
As for the other mental stats, you might consider something like Presence being the key tomand. Except the troop guards have much better Presence and still cant swing it. This led Doyle to dive deep into the lesser myconids Intelligence stat.
This was a trippy experience. He could see that at a deeper level, they would begin to develop more of a sense of self, a mind fit for sapience. Not a human mind, mind you.
Doyle knew this universe preferred the human form, but as a dungeon his origins exceed such limited concepts. Yes, he could tell that it would have a harder time attracting a soul, but that was just the unfairness of life.
The problem is how deep that light dwells. Like how humans have a point in Constitution where they gain at least a limited form of regeneration. However, the lesser myconid wasnt some shallow fifty point goal, but rather multiple magnitudes deep.
Not that Doyle could really be sure. That was just his best guess as even stretching his ability as far as he can, he couldnt budge the point. So with that in mind, he moves to check the other myconids.
The sprouts? Maybe there was a point, but Doyle couldnt see even a glimmer of it. The troop guards, in turn, had it worse than the lessers they were made from. It seems that bing one, sacrificed the mind in favor of being more able to defend the troop. Stuff like being able to process a battlefield faster.
It was only with the myconid that things were different. Doyle could tell that they needed work to be able to house a soul. However, it was disconnected from any of the mind stats or more properly they had already reached the mark. In theory, any myconid could be sapient.
Also, much more useful for Doyle is that they can be leaders. Now the question is how many can they lead? Good thing Doyle had already checked their mental stats.
While you needed a certain mental structure to provide the leadership bonus. The quantity was based on Presence. This was quite the relief to Doyle as it fit his mental image of what the stats do.
It is unfortunate though for his myconids as they have quite the low Presence. If only the troop guard could do it as their base Presence was already twice of the regr myconids.
The good news is that the monster rancher path helped fix things to a point. It added 26 more points to the myconids Presence. Enough to get over the first hump, though Doyle was tempted to tweak the stat to allow more minions.
In the end, Doyle decided against it as while not the cheapest at 300 a pop, the myconids could cover quite arge number of sprout swarms. Though he suspected that the whole swarm thing might have something to do with it. It wasnt quite as if it was treating the swarm of one entity to lead, but it certainly wasnt counting it as anywhere near 100 individual sprouts.
On top of that, Doyle wasnt trying to nket the entire swarm he envisioned with themanded bonus. After all, while the lesser and normal myconids could be outfitted with ranged attacks, the sprouts were all melee. That meant he only needed those closest to the enemy to have the bonus.
Sure, it would be nice to have the 14 bonus constitution spread to all the sprouts. It is just that Doyle wants a massive swarm instead of a tough swarm. The trade off being a greater weakness against a well-ced fireball, but in theory he can field enough sprouts to make it less of an issue.
It is okay to have hundreds die if youre fielding thousands. And he could. Doyle has enough points right now to field just a bit over 34,000 sprouts. That would provide a true fight of attrition and an absolute money farm.
Doyle however wants some muscles involved. That meant myconids and troop guards. The lessers would be nice, but for this theyre less effective for his n.
So Doyle got down to figuring out how best to use the two. Well, how best to use the myconid. The guards have their role right in the name, so despite the steep cost; he decided to have a couple guard each myconid.
That meant a myconid with guards was going to cost a hefty 1,500 points to field. Though, in a way, the price tag made it easier for him to bnce. After all, he wants enough sprouts that the myconids cant possiblymand them all.
This limited the amount to less than 20 myconids. After all, with 20 of them, he would only have enough points for 90 swarms. Sure, 9,000 sprouts was a decent quantity, but at that point he might as well add another couple myconid groups so that all sprouts can be covered.
Themand bonus doesnt stretch quite as far as it used to, but was still worth it. After all, being able to add a third of amanders Wisdom to the highest stat of every monster they control isnt negligible. Still, Doyle wants to stay true to his n. So if not 20, maybe 10?
He does the math and frowns at the result, 198 swarms. That was a good number of sprouts, but a ratio of one myconid to almost 20 swarms felt like it was still too far. So, he does the math for nine myconids. Still not right! Maybe eight? No, seven?@@novelbin@@
Maybe! That raised the number of swarms to 243 and the ratio increased to one myconid per almost 35 swarms. Though one final test was required. Doyle flooded the eleventh floor with swarms.
Enough swarms to cover everything besides the water. Seeing the results, Doyle sighed and decided to settle for seven myconids and their guards. It is easy to forget how small the one point sprouts are.
Sure, theyre a lot bigger than a normal mushroom by mass, but that isnt saying much. This is especially true when much of their extra size goes to having a thicker trunk instead of a wider cap. While 24,300 sprouts covered everything, it wasnt a tight fit.
Even adding in the seven myconids and their guards wouldnt do much. Though those troop guards do take up a ton of space. Still, it doesnt mean the n wont work.
There are a few tricks Doyle starts to implement to make them stretch farther. He makes the side walls steeper and sinks some of the beachfront. This reduces the walkable space by an appreciable amount, especially the changes to the outer wall.
After the basic terrain changes, Doyle gives up on one of his goals. He wanted the area to be mostly open, only using the mushroom trees to loosely block the line of sight. Now those mushrooms are packed together.
Not tightly, but enough that it bes hard to see the ceiling for all the caps. Though to maintain some of the feel, Doyle does have a gradient of density. With the mushroom trees much more loosely spaced near the entrance.
All together, these changes are enough to make it so not all the sprouts can fit. More importantly, with the thicker tree coverage, Doyle doesnt have to pack the entire floor. He can instead have a dense mob of sprouts right up close and hide the fact that the entire floor isnt like that.
The only catch is the opposite side of whichever way the delvers go. Doyle also has to send some sprouts that way so people dont get confused when they reach the safe zone and realize there arent any myconids in the other direction. This caused Doyle to make one final change to theyout.
He took a bit more space from the farm area and extended the tunnel area the safe zone was in. That way, there was a small hallway of regr space. This area was tighter than the area out on the ring ofnd so the delvers should be tempted to retreat into it to defend.
Then it doesnt matter where the sproutse from, as long the pressure is kept up. A perfect area to grind out system money for the delvers since the war of attrition will certainly have them releasing all that cruft for the dungeon to take. Combined with the massive number of sprouts, the only challenge will be handling all the coins.
In fact, after thinking about it, Doyle adds one more feature to the safe room and the room that will have the exit portal. A simple chest that when closed will fill up with any drops. A little kindness for the delvers so they can retreat at any moment and still pick up their winnings. That is, if they havent used up all their time in the safe room.
The only things left to do is handle the farm area and how to get the myconids to swarm out of the center stalk. Both are easy enough to do. With a copy of the floor, there isnt quite enough space, but cutting the air space in half and adding an extra floor up there does it just fine.
Then Doyle hollows out the stalk into multiple rooms which he excluded from the farm area. That will be where the myconids will wait until the delvers reach the bridge. Then theyll just flood put into thest room and down to meet them.
More Spores – Chapter 282
With all the monsters for the eleventh floor ced, Doyle mentally takes a step back and looks it over. The design n he originally had was a little lost. While you could see that the ceiling was the cap of a giant mushroom, technical reasons forced him to make things less clear.
On the other hand, the nned fight for the floor should turn out exactly how Doyle wanted it. Except he wasnt quite able to fit as many monsters as he wanted. An honestly wonderful feeling as before, he was starting to worry about even using all the points without having the monsters packed shoulder to shoulder.
That clearly isnt a problem. Rather, his early monsters are just really cheap. Which makes sense. Most of them are normal animals.
Maybe a bit optimized, but a dungeon cow is just a well bred normal cow when ites down to it. Even the more elemental varieties will be normal enough. Doyles only early stand outs for magical variety are the lesser shadow wolves and the wind cutter axebeak.
Both of which cost hundreds of points. Though even in his original monsters, the assassin vine cost hundreds of points. An amount that back then felt almost unusable.
Now? Not so much. However, it did point Doyle towards how he needs to work on his monsters. For his iconic goats, he has the grassen goat to work on.
The other monsters, though? Even the void kobolds? Doyle needed to add a concept to the element or use a higher tier element. He isnt quite sure if either of those ideas are correct, Hell ask Allyter, but for now it is a direction.
A direction that can wait as there is still one thing left on the eleventh floor to do. As is traditional, Doyle ns to add a carving. Better yet, he doesnt have to ponder on the subject as he already knows what he wants.
An effect that will boost the myconids spore generation. As it is, even with all his work, people will notice there arent quite an overflowing amount of sprouts. Get all those myconid sprouts to puff out more spores?
Well, they might just make the smokescreen Doyle needs. After all, he had already adjusted the massive cap to put out more spores. The only thing stopping him from actively doing it to the myconids is that part of their ability is caught up in a skill and uses Mana.
So instead, Doyle begins to carve up the side wall that has developed for the area. Though he goes farther than just carving a design. He carved out literal bricks that are fully separated from the wall proper.
Why does Doyle bother with this? The atmosphere and because his vision of the design requires it. Sure, he could just make some shallow cuts to ape a giant brick design. This way, though, it allows his various nts and vines to take root.
Then, with the brick retaining wall in ce, Doyle starts on the artistic part. From his time looking for the myconid boss, he has gathered some ideas of what a normal myconid civilization looks like. So with that in mind, he begins to carve out small scenes on each brick, representing a myconids life.
This doesnt take too long, just a week, as he isnt trying to make the most detailed carvings. Instead, going for a more tribal style. Though once that is done, nothing happens.
Why? Because he hasnt yet added the intent to it. As it is right now, there would be a rtively low power and quite general buff for the myconids. After all, it has scenes of all aspects of a myconids life.
What Doyle needs is specifically the parts about spore production. His solution? Well, it is already meant to have a ruin feel to it, so through nts and elerated weathering, the various pictures are rendered iplete.
Whether it is from being worn down or a nt literally cracking the stone itself, all of Doyles works are reduced to a broken indispensable mess. That taken care of, he doubles back around and touches up the scenes depicting spore creation. Lines are dug a bit deeper, cracks closed, and roots removed.
With that done, Doyles conceptual reinforcement kicks in as even the normal mushrooms begin to put out just a few more spores. The only problem is that his touch up of those specific bricks has made them stand out. Good thing this is easy to fix as all he has to do is get more vines to grow over them.
Sure, if a delver sts away all the vegetation, it would be revealed. Except Doyle is using his toughest, woodiest vines to do the job. Plus, they are putting out a ton of air roots to anchor themselves to the wall as a whole.
It would take a lot of work to clear things enough to notice the difference. Doyle is a bit worried still. Some of the people up top are a wee bit crazy about this kind of thing. For now, though, he has done what he can to make it seem in line with the kobold monument to obfuscate things.
Though there is a downside, if you can call it that, to what he has done. Even with a skill, the spores that the myconids let off tend to spread out. Because Doyle carved the scenes on individual blocks and had the intent of those blocks being self contained, the effect was altered. The extra spores would not spread out like they used to.
Instead, they would have a tendency to remain in the area around the myconids. This waspletely idental, but the more Doyle observes it, the happier he is with it. While it does mean the entire ce wont fill up with magic spores.
He hadnt really wanted that, anyway. Now, the spores will instead hang heavy around the monsters, further confusing the delvers. An excellent trade off as far as Doyle is concerned.
All that is left is to wait for delvers to finally make it here so Doyle can watch how they break it. There are a lot of moving parts involved on this floor and he is certain something wont work right. That worry, though, is for the future.
At the moment, since he has the time, Doyle has a few questions for Ally. It had been a few days since he originally thought of the question, but it was still fresh in his mind. So he knocks on her door and waits to be invited in.
Ally tells him to enter and then asks, The floor seems finished, do you want my opinion on it?
Doyle tilts to the side, Sure, though that isnt what I came to ask. While working on it, I noticed something.
Ally nods, Well lets get the floor out of the way first then. It is an interesting design and probably looks great as a drawing. Like one of those self-contained terrariums.
Of course whether it looks good or not is immaterial. The question is will it work? Im leaning towards yes. You normally dont see reverse floors where the monsterse to you, so it should at least be semi-unique.
If I was to change anything, it would be to figure out an aquatic kobold to handle the cattle. Wouldnt cost too much and I know that just like with goblins and other simr low level humanoid monsters, they tend to have a water form. Got to fill all the niches after all.
Doyle nods, I will look into it. Though I kind of like them, so I dont exactly want to make a kobold drowning machine or some such.
Ally, You probably wont have to have. In the next water floor, just have a bunch of kobolds near the shore and make it so they retreat into the water when attacked. That might not result in fully aquatic kobolds, but you should at least manage something like those diving lizards your world has.
Doyle, Except that kobolds arent lizards, but I get what you mean. Besides, there are already typuses kicking around so it shouldnt be too hard. Anyway, onto my actual question.
Do monsters with intent based orplex element names make a better monster? The wind cutter axebeak and the lesser shadow wolves cost more than other elemental varieties I have.
Ally, Eh, yes and no? The shadow wolf thing is throwing you off a little. That one costs more because a full shadow wolf is automatically sapient. Shadows in and of themselves arent going to make a powerful monster.@@novelbin@@
There are some elements that tend to have some base level of power, but that has more to do with the fact that a creature that can live in Magma has a leg up on things that dont. For every environment, there will be those weaker and stronger. Youre more looking for monster varieties thate from extreme environments like a never ending hurricane or a mountain peak that is constantly being struck by lightning.
Your void kobolds are a good example of this. Space is one of the more extreme environments out there and yet kobolds arent that much more powerful. This is because theyre adapted to living in space stations and such, not the hard vacuum of space. On the other side, you have space whales. Those suckers are Powerful!
Doyle, That does make some sense. Though does that mean there is a more powerful version of kobold out there that is adapted to hard vacuum?
Ally shrugs, Anything is possible, however, none are known to me at the moment. With that, youreing up against the problem most nearly sapient monsters tend to have when adapting to other environments. After a certain point, they stop changing.
Well, okay, sometimes they do keep changing, but at that point they stop being what they used to be. You can only change them so much before they arent what they were anymore. What tends to happen instead is that their elders gain skills and stats so they can venture into those extreme environments.
After all, most humans cant touchva without being hurt. However, a strong enough adventurer or one with the right skills can swim in the stuff. The same would happen with the void kobolds.
A powerful elder of a n will be able to exist out in space for limited periods of time. Those that manage this serve a very important role in theirmunity. After all, theyre living on what is likely an abandoned space station. Someone needs to be able to go out and repair things. The only kobolds of simr importance will be the gardeners and the air mages.
Doyle nods, You seem to know a good bit about void kobolds.
Ally shrugs, You ever look something up on the inte only to end up deep down a rabbit hole hourster after following link after link? Thats what I did when you first got them. There are entire day time television level dramas that follow non-sapient void kobold ns. It is like some unholy mix of a soap opera and an animal documentary.
Doyle cant help butugh. That sounds amazing! Anyway, what about the intent name thing?
Ally shrugs again, Another yes, but no sort of thing. Those names do represent more powerful varieties. However, it is because those monsters got named after their powers. Now, if it was the system naming them, you could predict more from it. However, the names are just whatever is the mostmonly recognized name for the things so you have to be careful.
A monster with something like magma swimmer in its name will likely be able to swim in magma. However, you got semi-lucky with the wind cutter axebeak. It actually has some ability as a wind cutter instead of just being named for running really fast and having an axe for a face.
Smaller Bags – Chapter 283
Ally sighs, I wont deny. A good elemental focus or intent for a monster will increase the power it has. However, the names can sometimes be almost coincidental.
And of course, you can be strong without anything fancy. Even this early on, some of the stats will have gone past what is possible without outside help. Human regeneration being a good example.
Unless you have some sweet tech or decent magic, none of those guys out there are regrowing a finger, let alone an arm. Put enough in Constitution though? It might take a while, but that arm will grow back no problem.
Because of this, being an adventurer is one of the most deadly professions for a human or any other species with regeneration. Can you guess why?
Doyle takes a moment to think. Is it because it is inherently deadly to begin with and regeneration gives a false sense of security?
Ally shakes her head and smiles, Nope! Time and time again, civilizations discover this little quirk. All regeneration does is make it so there arent too many injuries that are career ending. That means even age doesnt require you to retire from adventuring as youll heal damage from aging as well.
Of course, regeneration doesnt make you immortal or anything. Theyll still get old and die. It is just that up until their veryst day, theyll be in their prime condition.
And considering that the stronger you get, the longer you can live? Few who taste the fruit of adventuring ever truly retire. Yes, crafting and what not can help you level, but deathly danger will always be faster with the biggest boost. So to outrun death, sometimes you have to face it.
Doyle, And of course as lower case I immortals we dont have to worry about that.
Ally shrugs, Though we do have an even worse statistic. All un-aging eventually get killed.
Doyleughs, Because we arent truly immortal and if we cant die peacefully in our sleep from age, all that is left is for some outside force to kill us.
Ally nods, Got it in one. It is really fun to watch a civilization find the cure to aging only to be shocked when death by ident and murder suddenly surges. Most eventually figure it out, but political pundits tend to milk it for years.
Doyle, I am sure once the gets its feet back under itself, all these things will end up causing uproar after uproar.
Ally shrugs, Or maybe not. At least not in the next few thousand years. Well, maybe the adventurer thing. Even if it isnt bing a True Immortal, the step into being un-aging isnt a small one.
A race is either naturally un-aging like the fae and dungeon cores or you need some real serious tech and magic. Worse, such things dont actually cross over that well with other species or even others nominally in the same species.
There are un-aging humanmunities out there. It is just that their method wont work for any other humans. Sometimes, if the method is particrly sloppy, they even lose the ability to reproduce. Though the stronger you are, the harder that is, so most dont mind it.
Doyle, Well, good thing I skipped that step and went right to being un-aging. Though I noticed that while youre saying un-aging, that doesnt feel quite like abel. Is there not a specific term for it?
Ally raises an eyebrow, How in the world did you pick that up?
Doyle snorts, We are speaking through a link between our souls. If I couldnt get some kind of feel for this stuff, wed need to revisit our rtionship.
Oh, Ally sits up, Yeah, youre right. I guess I just havent noticed that part because I already know this type of stuff and you arent shy about asking questions first.
Anyway, un-aging isnt a proper title. This is partly because some debate whether each example actually is truly un-aging or if they just have an absurdly long life span. Though mostly because there are so many paths and methods to be some form of immortal, people use the word for everything.
I was just specifically saying un-aging, because it described the specific situation we were talking about. I didnt mention it, but the first level of regeneration that humans unlock isnt going to make them un-aging. That would be a bit absurd.
So instead, normal people find all kinds of other options. From more benign methods like uploading your consciousness to aputer or golem core. To more malicious methods like body hopping into someone else or bing a lich.
Doyle nods, So basically there are an infinite number of ways to be immortal?
Ally nods, And even True Immortals, beings whose minds are already better than the best supeputers just to be able to remember their life, arent sure. Some even theorize that each soul requires a unique method that can change over time and the whole species limitation is because certain souls are attracted to them.
Doyle, What about non-sapient immortals?
Ally shrugs, Eh, they dont really count? Mostly because part of what makes an immortal isnt just not dying, but being yourself. If you fall asleep and the next day wake up as apletely new person, I wouldnt exactly call that being immortal.
This, of course, angers some of the non-sapient golem poptions out there. Too bad for them. There is a reason a True Immortal has a mind capable of remembering their entire life. Anyway, non-sapient animals and machines might be capable of having their bodies live forever, but without a soul to act as an anchor for their memories and mind theyre a bit out of luck.
Doyle nods, I can understand that. Now, how have the delvers done? Ace andpany have to have gotten further while I was making the floor.
Ally pulls up a number of screens. On each of them is either Jim or Aces team fighting their way through the ninth floor. From left to right, you can tell the delvers are getting better, even so, the Udoroots cause a bit too much attrition.
Though on the screen farthest to the right, theyve made it to the third ore deposits. Of course, since they dont actually know how much farther it is till the exit, that is where they stop. Of course, it didnt help that they loaded up on iron ore. That stuff is a bit heavy, after all.
Ally, I predict that within two weeks theyll make it to the tenth floor.
Doyle tilts to the side, That feels a little long. I didnt take all that much time to make the floor.
Ally nods, I suspect time slipped by you a bit there. While the actual crafting of the floor didnt take too long, you spent a good bit of time nning. And that doesnt even count the time it took you to get the floor up to size.
These clips? Im only ying the highlights. There are a ton more where they came from. Just not as meaningful. I figured you wouldnt want to see the many daily trips they did at the end of the day to take the fruit of the kobolds mining efforts.
Doyle, How are people reacting to the increased supply of ore?
Ally shrugs, They would need to know about it to react. Remember, the inner circle isnt open to the public except for the small strip needed to get to the dungeon. Ace just has them using one of the bags of holding which they hand off to someone before leaving out the front.
That bag is then transported through a side door to the personal forges. Once the ore is dumped out, it is returned for whoever needs it next. Though speaking of the bags, we have another wave of farmers.
All the easy bags are gone and people now know that they drop from the third floor. The only upside is we didnt ount for something when we made it loot. Well, I say upside, to the delvers it is only disappointment.
Doyle, What happened?
Ally shrugs, I am surprised you havent realized it sincest I checked, the third floor isnt automated yet.
Doyle, Well, it might not be automated, but I dont exactly need to pay too much attention. It would be impossible to make new floors if every clear required my full attention. Thank goodness the sixth floor has enough animals in the farm to keep up.
Otherwise keeping up with that nonsense would be a pain. Though I need to fully automate it at some point. Way too many people farm it right now.
Allyughs, You practically have it automated already. The way you have the floor be able to reassemble itself and pop in monsters means it is only when the farm gets low that you have to be involved.
Doyle nods, That is true, but I could do better. Anyway, we are getting off track. What is up with the bags of holding?
Ally shrugs, Not too big of a deal, but if you arent putting your full attention on making the loot, theyre smaller. Still double the interior size, mind you, but not like those original four. Ace was partly happy and mostly super disappointed when he discovered this.
Doyle, That is probably for the best. Toorge of a bag on the third floor would just be a pain.
Allyughs, You arent wrong! Especially once the opens up to outsiders visiting. You think people are going crazy over the sixth floor? If they had stayed the same, it wouldnt hold a candle to what the third floor would be.
While not the hardest thing to make, bags of holding are still valuable. And the size? That just magnifies the price! Youd run out of space to spare if you werent careful.
Doyles core darkens, Hmm, that could be a problem.
Ally shrugs, With just the asional drop on the third floor, you arent going to run out.
Doyle shakes his core, But that wont be the only ce in the future. Ill need to make a new limitation on them. The only question is what limitation?@@novelbin@@
Ally, How often they can drop? Only set the next one up a few days after the previous one was looted.
Doyle shakes his core again, No, because who knows what might happen to my growth speed in the future. Instead, it should be directly connected to the growth speed.
Ally nods, Good idea, maybe have the bag siphon off a small portion of the floors growth until it has enough?
Doyle, Perfect! And I have more than enough Wisdom to automate the floor, so I might as well get it over with.
With that said, Doyle focuses on the third floor and after making sure no one was nning to head there, begins to work. And there certainly was work to do. As it was one of the earlier floors, the farm space it had didnt cover the entire floor.
In the end though, even the bag of holding automation wasnt too hard. It just required an extra rule or two. However, while he was doing so, Doyle noticed something strange.
All the previous bags, since they used the space on his floor, still could be felt. Except the oldest bag didnt feel as real anymore. This could be a problem as Doyle didnt want to be known for giving fake loot.
Doyle finishes up quickly after that discovery and turns to Ally. So something feels wrong with the older bags?
Ally takes a look and frowns, Yeah, theres definitely something odd there. Lets take a look at Ace and see if the bag is showing any signs of having a problem.
They both turn their attention to the town. Ace is in his office with the bag on his belt, normal as you please. In fact, Doyle can reach his senses into the bag from that direction and see what is in there. A vulnerability he notes down to fix when he next has a floor with a bag drop.
Besides that, though, he cant feel anything wrong with it, which in itself is wrong. Quite the conundrum.
Who To Ask? – Chapter 284
Doyle and Ally turn their focus to the newer bags. Those, while still easily felt, werent free from problems. If the old bag felt like it was covered in a fog, the new bags had the barest wisps of mist.
Still there though, which meant figuring out what was going on ramped up in importance. Doyle started byparing all the bags in town. Though not much came of it, besides the fact that the smaller bags seemed more susceptible to whatever this was.
Ally, on the other hand, had dived into the intergctic web. Not the best source for this, as clearly the bags werent being damaged, at least not as some results posited. That and there wasnt some void critter attached to the bag, eating most of what gets put into it.
Maybe a regr dungeon would have a hard time telling with that one, but Doyle has the outside perspective needed to see one way or another. The only thing close was a few hits about weird stuff happening when extranar pocket dimensions break down. That didnt seem right though as it isnt like these bags are disconnected from their source and floating free.
Back with Doyle, he has carefully observed things and all that has managed to do is double confirm that the smaller bags are being changed quicker. This leads to a few guesses, stuff like maybe the smaller the space the less resistance it can put up. Overall, though, Doyle is stumped by what is happening.
Even more so when he reconvenes with Ally. She hasnt done much better. There are things that can happen to bags of holding and space rings, but this doesnt seem to match any of them. That and the fact it isnt inherently reducing the amount of space in the bag leaves her stumped.
Every single something has happened to my bag result is always connected with at least a small decrease in internal size. After all, whatever is doing it, needs some ce to exist within the bag so as to affect the bag. Doyle even did an in depth double check of his own floor in case something was hiding out, but there wasnt anything.
Both of them sighed as they sat back and watched a timepse of the original bags progression over the week and change they had spent researching things. Why did they stop? Nothing too important, Ace had just reminded them of the time.
Maybe not as monumental as some future important dates, but the town decided to celebrate it being six months since the system came. Well, saying it like that makes it sound like they are celebrating the system apocalypse. No, rather, they are celebrating their survival.
To the crowd Ace readily admits that in the future theyll likely celebrate only on the anniversary. However, he felt that surviving half a year in this mess was worth being happy about. So the town set up a nice little event with all kinds of food and decorations and everyone had a fun time.
Some, a little more forced than others, seeing as Ace shut down ess to the dungeon for the day. Cant exactly grind away at farming if the farms closed. Still, one day of not farming isnt going to starve anyone at this point so not many truly mind.
Though this does bring another thing to light. They were likely returned at the height of spring. So while the leaves havent yet started to change color, the winter months would soon be upon them.
Wolfs Rest was fine. They had everything they could need to survive the winter and their houses were built of sturdy post-system wood. The problem would be any ce that didnt either make new homes or use the tutorial settlement controls to upgrade the existing structures.
Why? For the same reason all the buildings that werent being maintained were starting to fall down. Weather was now magical. Sure, an average rainfall wasnt anything special, but it would still manage to leak through what would have been perfectly fine roofs.
Now that winter ising? Well, those cold winds would pierce the vinyl siding and brick walls alike. Nevermind the fact that central air on those buildings wasnt exactly working.
If it wasnt for the fact that wind would find a way in, the old buildings would have been near unlivable. What with their designs being based around sealing off the outside. They needed the fans of central air to blow air around.
Sure, there were some older buildings which had been built before that was the craze and even a few newer designs meant to take advantage of the outside instead of ignoring it. That wasnt the majority though and winter was going to freeze anyone inside of those pre-system buildings.
Ace is thankful that they had gotten Melonie early enough. At this point, while still leery of it all, the ce up river had people leveling up and crafters working on their skills. While they wouldnt be able to build a house in moments, they should have enough time to set up proper winter shelter.
Though if worsees to worse, Ace was willing to send some of Rests people over to speed things up. After all, they had much more experience with building wood houses. Well, wood and bone houses, but the ce up river doesnt have an infinite supply of bones next to it, so at most they would be bringing their bone glue.
Ace smiled when he remembered that development. It had happened early on, but snuck under the radar until muchter. A man had moved into town who used to work for a ce that did restoration projects for just about anything you mightbel as heritage. A part of that was making and using stuff like the hide, hooves, and most importantly the bones of horses to make glue. Now, the town doesnt exactly have any horses lying around, but beef bones? Well, the dungeon can provide an infinite supply of them.
At this point, Ace has a small team of crafters working on the matter so the town always has a good supply of the stuff. Plus, much to Jimmys delight, creating the glue allowed his bone carving skill to evolve into bone working. One more step on his path tobining his carpentry and bone rted skills together.
Though he is still a bit off as Jimmy still needs to get wood carving,bine it with carpentry for woodworking, and then finally he canbine it with bone working. And all those steps that require skills tobine? He needs to make the skill levels equal or have an epiphany.
Not an easy goal at all, but seeing as Jimmy also has architecture to take up his time, a decent hobby. Besides, bone scrimshaw and wood carvings when integrated into a house properly improve the structure. So either way, he isnt wasting his time.
Nor is he the only crafter taking up this sort of path in the inner ring. Even the Barrais are getting into it, using their acids to etch and color metal. Not that they have a lot to spare. Most of their crafting time is devoted to either making poisons, antidotes, or acid for the bone glue production.
Still, to the outside world, no one would have noticed a thing. Sure, there are a few decent carvings avable in the small market just outside of dungeon road, that being the unoriginal name for the path leading to the dungeon. However, once you get past the facade they have around that road, every house in the inner circle has be a work of art.
Doyle and Ally hadnt really noticed it until now with the decorations as it was a slow process. Now though, any worry about the discovery of Doyles awakened status through the carvings is gone. A dungeon takes from their surroundings and Doyles? Well, even a normal run-of-the-mill cave dungeon would start having intricate carvings appearing on the walls.
Though it does make Doyles efforts to hide the eleventh floor carvings somewhat pointless. The only thing the inner circle is missing at this point is someone with a skill like Doyles conceptual reinforcement. Least until the crafters get good enough to start making masterworks. Then theyd probably just enchant everything.
After all, while conceptual reinforcement can be powerful, it tends to work more in broad terms and subtle effects. That is how it can be done even on things that arent of masterwork quality. Enchantments, on the other hand, concentrates the power.
This reduces the more esoteric effects it can potentially disy, but allows for a more controlled oue. Which is honestly more what the town would want, anyway. There is a reason conceptual reinforcement is mostly seen among religions. They have enough faith that the effect will be beneficial.
That isnt hyperbole or a sense of false security either. Their faith as a concept guides the result. Without faith or the single mindedness of a dungeon core, the skill can result in some nasty surprises.
A good example of this being from the carvings on the eleventh floor. If a normal sapient had worked on that, either the skill would have failed or each individual carving would have had its own minor effect. Not only that, but the same stray thoughts which resulted in the spores being contained around the myconids, might have instead contained the myconids.
Of course, all the tangents are exactly that. Doyle and Ally are at the end of their ropes when ites to the bags of holding. What is happening to them doesnt seem bad, per se. Rather, it just seems that something is removing them from his control.
Doyle ispletely out of ideas and Ally is down to dire options like calling in one of their deity friends or asking her mom. In that order, of course. Both would rather interrupt Moota or Jess over asking Allys mom.
Not that she would be angry, but her nature as a Fae Queen would require something in return. The first time was free because of their rtionship and the fact it was an emergency. This time? Ally doubted it.
Besides, even if their deal was long done, there was something in town that Jess might be interested in. There were wolfkin now and while not as close as wolf folk would be, potential sapient followers would always be of interest to any deity, let alone one that was losing control of her old faith.
Not that Moota wasnt on their minds. It is just that they didnt want to have her over too often in case the alchemy deities got curious. Better to go through a loner like Jess.
The only question was how to introduce the two sides. Doyle couldnt just pop a bible for wolves into his dungeon and call it a day. Maybe he would even need to fully realize another lesser shadow wolf to allow Jess to pass the message on herself.@@novelbin@@
Though that would be hard as it would need to get to the wolfkin without being killed by the town guard. A challenge on the best of days and with how close they are to the inner circle, all the more so. However, Doyle felt it might be worth it so he adjusted the seventh floor just a little bit.
Now, instead of pulling from the farm automatically, Doyle has to personally create new lesser shadow wolves when theyre killed. This means that ones in the farm have a chance to absorb energy and be real enough to leave. Though since he is going for all four of them, this takes a couple weeks to finish.
Which is honestly shortpared to the first one he did. That took a week and change just to fully realize a single lesser shadow wolf. This time, though, Ace andpany are much more active on the deeper floors.
After all, theyre only days out from reaching the tenth floor. They just need to make it through the ninth floor with a little more steam in the tank. Sure, resting at the end of the ninth floor is an option, but they want to be fresh enough that resting doesnt need to involve a good nights sleep. The town needs them up top on a regr basis at the moment.
More Popular Than Expected – Chapter 287
Next morning, it is safe to say the town noticed the new instances on the sixth floor. Jim was thankful that he had been burning the midnight oilst night after the delve and caught it. That allowed him to get ahead of it ande up with some sort of story.
Not that the story was all that good. Jim had basically med his party reaching the tenth floor on there being new instances avable. Maybe somebody in the Guild hierarchy knew how it worked, but Jim wasnt one of them, so for now, the excuse would work.
Good thing no one really cared what the story was as long as there was one. After all, they were too busy delving the sixth floor to care. Jim saw a copse of the meat marketing soon. A thing that Jim was actually happy about. Sure, the town was making a ton of coins off of all the steak flowing through. However, Jim would prefer people have food over making a little more money.
And they would certainly have food. Jim hadnt really considered how much food a dungeon could output. Sure, it wasnt hard to understand a dungeon feeding a town and he had expected it. This, however? Even with the current output, they were well on track to provide at least one meal a day to everyone in this cluster of settlements. He could hardly imagine what it would be liketer on once the dungeon is bigger and there are more teams to farm food in it.
Down in the dungeon, Doyle is actually less prepared than Jim was for the sudden increase in delvers. There had always been a bit of a line, but never more than a handful of teams at a time. And that was when only one team could be on the floor at a time.
What Doyle had missed was that the line never went down. There were a ton of people in town at any point in time that were waiting to delve. They just only came out once it was close to their turn.
In fact, with the double digit instances, more people would be streaming into town over the next week. Most of the nearby areas had multiple farming teams, but they only kept a couple in the town at any point in time. There just wasnt a reason to have them all be there. Another thing that would be happening is more actual delvers.
Before, the sixth floor was basically a bottleneck for people that wanted to do a proper delve. Not only because you had to wait in line for most of the day, but also because the need for food meant they couldnt just leave drops behind. So with how much food was being dropped on the sixth floor, most teams ended up with full bags before they evenpleted the sixth floor, let alone get to any of the deeper floors.
Oh sure, there was more than one team who didnt bother with that kind of thing. Some even entered while fully loaded down with their only goal being of racing ahead of the Wolfs Rest natives. Theyre dead though. Not to say that the sixth floor farmers dont die, they do.
It is just that the reason Jim and Aces teams manage to get so deep is theyre heads and shoulders above everyone else in power. Maybe their levels werent massively higher, but their paths were of a higher quality. That whole strength through adversity sort of thing. Oh, and using the fact they got ahead to get even further ahead.
After all, if youre stronger, you can get into more dangerous situations which lead to stronger paths and so on. Just the fact that everyone from the inner circle of Wolfs Rest had made it to the eighth floor already meant that they had a head start in delving rted paths. And the ones who were collecting the ore from the ninth floor? Well, theyre the cream of the crop, only beaten out by Jim and Aces teams.
However, by this point, Aces team was starting to fall behind as Ace was finding it hard getting enough time in the dungeon. Not that Ace wasnt growing in other ways, it is just that diplomacy and organization arent quite as important as personal power at the moment. The only upside is this difference has more to do with levels instead of a weaker foundation. If anything, Ace and his team would likely pull ahead once they realize the tenth floor was the boss floor as they had worked more on their skill levels.
Though speaking of levels, Doyle got a small surprise even before Jim and his team re-entered to face the tenth floor again.
{Level Gained!
Level goes from 5 to 6, Strength goes from 56 to 64, Agility goes from 76 to 92, Constitution goes from 77 to 87, Intelligence goes from 64 to 74, Wisdom goes from 128 to 152, Presence goes from 59 to 67, Destiny goes from 111 to 124, Karma goes from 111 to 138, Luck goes from 86 to 103}
It seems that the sudden influx of delvers on the sixth floor was enough to push him over the tipping point. Not unreasonable seeing as more people were going through in a few hours than normally went through in multiple days. Though what really caught his attention was his new Wisdom score.
At the moment, Doyle was only using 95 points to automate things. That meant he had six more floors he could automate, enough to fully automate all floors up to the tenth if he wanted to. He doesnt, but the option was there.
In fact, the only reason he denies the idea of automating the floors was that he wouldnt have the Wisdom left to automate the eleventh floor. In theory, it should take a while for people to get there regrly. However, with how he has the shortcuts set up, all it would take is a few managing to beat the tenth floor for it to potentially get crowded.
So with that in mind, he only automates the seventh and eighth floor for now. Both floors that would likely be seeing a ton of new delvers in the near future. This would be especially true once they find out about the ore veins on the ninth floor. The system hadnt added more ore back into the ground after all. Of course, who knows what might happen in the future, but for now the dungeon was the only reasonable ce to get metal.
What happened to the massive amounts of metal things found in towns? Stuff like vehicles, tools, and soda cans? Yeah, that stuff was sort of notsting. Metals which were supposed to be rust proof were rusting and the stuff that wasnt rust proof? You need to refer to it in the past tense.
The wood and concrete structures were surviving so much better. It was sort of ironic, though also scared the people as there werent any skyscraper style buildings nearby. Just considering how unsafe those things must be now was horrifying.
Why were the various metals going bad so fast? The same reason everything pre-system was breaking down except with a twist. Wood is wood, but metal? It is all alloys or coated in something. Except that didnt work for the pre-system stuff.
Was alloys a dead science now? Of course not, but they were going to have to make it with magically infused metals. Without it, the magically infused elements would simply slip in between the metals and tear it apart. Same with stuff like how cars where they are painted to prevent rust. That doesnt work when magical water basically just leaks through the paint and rusts the metal at an elerated pace.
Oh, but stics were likely dead for at least a little while. Not because they werent possible. Rather, the current supply of oil and petroleum was all going to break down quickly and you need very specific conditions to have it form. That and time, a lot of time.
All of that to say, Doyles dungeon was the only reasonable source of metal at the moment. Nevermind the fact it was the only source of magically infused metal. Though that specification wouldnt exactly mean much within a decade. Rather, by then, the ore wouldnt even be considered magical in the same way metal isnt considered electrically charged when grounded.
Sure, everything has electrons, but it is only once there is an imbnce that things be charged. In the same way, magic will be everywhere and only once there is enough of it in something will it truly be seen as magical. Any pre-system artifacts that survived a few decades likely will end up being seen as uniquely unmagical.
Of course, that is only for Doyles early floors. Not only will he soon enough have mithril kicking about, but even normal metals spawned on a deeper floor will inherently have a higher concentration of magic. Sure, leave normal metal in a lower magic environment and it will equalize, but if you craft something with it before then? Thats when you get some good stuff. You can think of the magic already in the metal as raising the cap on what can be done to it while crafting.@@novelbin@@
All that will have to wait forter, though. Right now, the town has only just managed to get to the tenth floor. Though speaking of which, Jim and his team have just reached the tenth floor for the second time. There was a bunch of paperwork which needed to be done, but Jim was able to delegate some of it to the off-world guild officials that were there to help him.
After all, the Guild of all ces knows how important it is for an organization to have powerful people in charge. Their main backer being a True Immortal is the only reason theyre a multidimensional juggernaut. A thing that is normally restricted to churches.
So there Jim and his team are, back at the first carved out section of the tunnel which dips down into a marshy area. This time, though, they brought ropes with them to help climb down. Jeremy and his wife had even whipped up some makeshift repelling gear. The only problem being the fact they didnt really have a chance to practice with the stuff.
Still, it was simple enough to understand and soon the party touched down on some not so solid ground. It is at this point they find signs of the myconids. There are half decayed mushroom huts gathered on the opposite wall of the pit. Not that they take much from that. After all, a dungeon can just as easily make a decayed hut as it can a pristine castle.
Though it is at this point that they are faced with the challenge of climbing back up. Jim stares up and shakes his head. This is going to be a problem.
Jeremy shrugs, I can climb it and attach the rope. That or someone can magic the rope up there, though while Im okay with using magic to untie the rope, Im not sure I trust it to tie it in the first ce.
Jim shakes his head again, Not about that. All of us could easily climb up this cliff if given enough time. My problem is if we have to retreat. Say someone is injured, how are we going to manage to get them across this?
Kellinger nods, That would be a problem. Plus, if we leave something here to assist with thatter, what about when we are going to beat the floorpletely? Are we just going to let the dungeon take its due? Plus, how many pits like this are there? We need a better method.
Kelly sighs, I bet if we were stronger this wouldnt be a problem. Whether that is with magic or might. As a more magical type, all I can think of is the ssic fantasy spell, feather fall. A simple spell to cushion your fall. Though Im sure that with enough Strength someone could literally make their own handholds and climb down with ease.
Jim, Now the question is, should we continue right now or wait until we have a solution?
Bill snorts, Weve already been turned back by these cliffs once. We should at least give it a try while were here.
Jeremy Likes The Unplanned Supplies – Chapter 288
While the party wasnt 100% on board with continuing, in the end they hade prepared to scale a cliff or two so turning back now would feel bad. In particr, Bill pointed out the fact they should have already known all of thising in today. Nevermind the fact that no one had really considered what the cliff actually meant for the group.
Either way, they ended up pressing onward. Because honestly? The cliff was nothing to them. The only reason they turned backst time was because they didnt want to be climbing the damn thing only to get pelted with rocks by some monster down below.
So the group easily climbed up the otherside using the rope once again. The only difference being that Jeremy made the climb first to attach it. From there the group kept their heads on a swivel as their line of retreat, while not cut off, was severely limited.
Not that they needed to worry too much as there didnt seem to be any monsters, only a bunch of mushrooms. Though they almost turned around again when they reached the next feature, a section where the tunnel squeezed down until it was so tight that someone in metal armor would likely need to go through sideways. The whole group looked at this feature with a good amount of suspicion.
In fact, Bill right out said what the rest were thinking. This feels like the ce where we get ambushed by some burrowing monster.
Of course Doyle doesnt have anything like that yet, though just like what the others in Jims team were worried about, he marked it down for future use. After all, even if the dungeon isnt awakened, no need to start giving it ideas.
Though once the party is through that tight section they end up right at another section that dips down. This one however was a lot more waterlogged. Jeremy took a moment to observe. A worthwhile endeavor as he managed to figure out why.
Jeremy points towards the other side where a much more active waterfall is present. Whatever is toe, the passage must continue upward without another pit like this for at least a while.
Jim, Can you be sure of that? There might just be a more active water source.
Jeremy shakes his head, Ive been paying attention to tunnels. I guess there could be something like that, but I bet it continues on in the same way. The walls arent just wet, theyre oozing water. It''s a little hard to see around all the fungus, but it is there.
Jim shrugs, Fair enough, now will that cause any problems for us to get up on the other side?
Jeremy, It shouldnt. We just want to climb up the side instead of the center.
From there the party descends into the swamp below. Though this time at the bottom they find a much more recently lived in vige. Kelly in particr is interested in it. Top of her mind was how it was formed.
Kelly turns to Jeremy, Do you notice anything that would indicate an artificial origin to these huts?
Jeremyughs, This whole ce is artificial in origin. I bet a dungeon could create something that would carbon date as millions of years old despite just being spawned. The real question is, did the dungeon make them and if so, why?
Kelly snorts, And you understood what I was asking. While Im sure the dungeon could make things like that. Im assuming they arent artificially making rough tool marks on things.
Tess holds out her spear, This piece of work was loot and it has signs of being created with a hammer. Im going to guess that the dungeon just makes replicas and it doesnt matter what the source looks like, it can just copy it.
Kelly shrugs, But those marks arent rough tool marks. It isnt like I havent observed the various pieces of loot slowly flooding the market. The only reason we arent all fully decked out in loot is because we are using crafted gear to help our crafters. Maybe if we could get enchanting up and running it would be worth switching, but for now it isnt really all that much of a difference.
Bill scoffs, Rough tool marks? Whats next, cold fire? A visible tool mark is clearly a sign of imperfection and these are supposed to be masterworks!
Kelly shakes her head, The tool marks have a purpose. You can tell that because not all ces where there would be a tool mark, is there one. A good example being the various bits of leather gear.
It should have all kinds of markings from scissors and such. Instead, the cuts are even more perfect than what you would get from a machine. On things like the spear head, the marks of a hammer are instead there to enhance the final product for things such as disturbing force through the weapon.
It might not be big, but a perfectly smooth surface isnt always the best option. Though I will admit, it might be possible that the dungeon simply doesnt have a better model to work off of.
Bill rolls his eyes, Then what was all that nonsense about?
Kelly, Not nonsense, if it was better, I am sure the dungeon could just smooth it all out and yet it doesnt. Anyway, this has gone on long enough. Jeremy, what have you found?
Jeremy steps forward, I took a look around the various huts and found the answer. Well, maybe the answer. I guess it would be more correct to say that I dont know if the huts are dungeon made or not, but they have been lived in, likely by those mushroom people.
Kind of funny, it actually has to do with the whole masterwork thing. As pointed out, everything the dungeon creates is a masterwork. So the fact that I found carved household items which arent masterwork items, shows something besides the dungeon has been making stuff.
Jim nods, Good to know. Now, are we ready to continue? I dont begrudge us the time to figure stuff out, but I dont particrly like standing around on soggy ground.
Kelly nods, Im sure well find more stuffter. In fact, it is likely well find more mini viges like this that arent so uninhabited. Though it was better to find out now rather thanter.
With that Jeremy once again is the one to attach a rope so the party can get out of the pit theyre in. After that they dont have to wait long to finally face some monsters. Though it seems that the ninth floor isnt the only ce that can catch the group off guard.
Despite Jeremy keeping an eye, they manage to miss the shrieker mushrooms that the myconids had set out as a warning. This would honestly be more embarrassing, what with them not even having a hiding skill, if not for the fact that they werent just hiding.
The shrieker mushrooms had been hidden and not just in a normal way. Not even Doyle and Ally had noticed what happened so it was fair enough to miss the fact that the shriekers had basically a facade of other fungus around them. The three myconid construction crew really did a good job.
Though better for them to be caught by a trap like this, than something deeper in the dungeon once the stakes are higher. All shriekers might do is burst an eardrum if youre really unlucky. Well, it also means the monsters know where the party is, so they lose all chance at stealth. A potentially deadly result in and of itself.
Still, this isnt the group''s first rodeo. While the shrieks are certainly annoying, it doesnt prevent them from readying themselves. Which in turn gives the myconids a chance to get ready as well.
Oh, and Jeremy kills the shrieker. Right away, the moment it starts shrieking. Almost a shame as the sudden silence tells the monsters more than if it was left to shriek or was killed after a moment as if the party had backed off.
Not that this first group of monsters was too big of a threat. While hundreds of sprouts covered a good bit of ground, there were only three bigger myconids herding them towards the group, not even one of the guards was present. Still, having to face them all at once certainly wasnt a fun time.
Bill and Tess stood in front, with Tess doing most of the work in keeping the sprouts away. Her spear sweeping out in broad strokes, cutting down many of the monsters. Behind her, Bill stood guard to take care of any that leaked through her defense.
For the first few moments of battle, the two did a decent job. In the end though, hundreds of sprouts was just too many for them to effectively contain when the terrain wasnt in their favor. Good thing the others werent just standing around.
Jeremy wasnt anywhere to be seen, which honestly meant he was doing his job pretty well. Jim had already taken out one of the lesser myconids with his bow. Not that the lesser was his target, but rather the lesser did a good job at defending the regr myconid.
Though without the lesser there to guard it, another arrow soon finds its way down field and into said myconid. Too bad for Jim that there arent exactly too many vital points on a mushroom and the myconid had twice the constitution of the lesser so it easily survived the blow. As for why the other lesser wasnt there to defend?
Well, that was Jeremy doing his job. Then all the sprouts to the left of Tess fall over as Kellingerys down a grease spell. This is soon followed up by a bit of fire from Kelly, roasting nearly a hundred of the sprouts.@@novelbin@@
Not that the center and right side get off easy either. Down the middle, Bill and Tess reap a path of destruction. No longer needing to hold them back, the two show their offensive capabilities in spades.
The right side fairs a little better, though only because Jeremy is more of a single target type of guy. Still, with his impressive speed he is able to shred through the shin height sprouts. As for Jim? Well, the myconid in the back wasnt going to fill itself with arrows.
So to no surprise, the fight is soon over and most of the group is cleaning up the drops. Jeremy and Kelly however have gone to explore the much more lived-in collection of huts. Not only that, but there are many things to harvest if one was of the mind to.
It hadnt been intended, but the farms didnt exactly vanish once the myconids were beat. Even if you didnt want to bother with harvesting the grown mushrooms, the myconids had some stockpiled supplies. So whether it was the wood substitute or the dried mushrooms for food, a person would have more than enough supplies.
In fact,pared to another piece of masterwork equipment, Jeremy is much more excited about the food. In particr, while he would have to test them, the frilly mushrooms drew his attention. See, not all mushrooms have a lot of vitamin C, but one type that he does know of is the maitake, otherwise known as the hen of the woods.
At the moment the town doesnt have too many ptable sources of C that keep. So while everyone else is able to get by on leafy greens and such, Jeremy needed a lightweight source that would keep during travel. Sure, he could easily forage off thend, but the people he is training to help keep an eye on stuff arent exactly brought up like he was.
Then here he was, on the tenth floor only to find the solution to his problem. And not just the start of a solution either. The dried mushrooms are already perfect trail rations you can throw in boiling water with some jerky.
All The Pits – Chapter 289
Of course the prepared mycelium pseudo-wood was a wonderful thing as well. Though that kind of stuff would be left to others to care about. Jeremy didnt really have a hand in building the actual town so ready made building supplies arent exactly in his remit.
Still, whether it was the food or the building supplies, the group only took a small sample of them. After all, they still have to finish the floor. So after doing one final look around the small bit of cave that extended out to the left of the main tunnel, the group continues onward.
Through a section that ballooned out both to the right and upward then through another tight section until they arrived at another pit. Jeremy looked down and sighed, Well, we must have used up our luck. Seems the pit is currently inhabited.
Billughs, I could tell.
Tess raises an eyebrow, How in the world did you manage that?
Bill points across the pit, Well, you can see that they have an actual set of stairs leading out of the pit over there. It seems that they use those mushroom trees on the wall to create it.
Kelly nods, That does seem to be the case. I hope that sticks around after we defeat them. Would be annoying to have to climb a rope when we shouldnt have to.
Kellingerughs, A little exercise never hurt anyone.
Kelly frowned, Just because it doesnt hurt, doesnt mean I enjoy it. Now how are we going to handle the monsters at the bottom of the pit?
Jim scratches the back of his head, Well, I would like to say I could just snipe them from up here. However, the caps of those giant mushrooms do a much better job of screening them away than a trees branches does. It certainly doesnt hurt that there is a ton of ovep in the areas where they arent farming them. Too bad they seem to have been alerted already to our presence or I could have gotten a few in the area where they''re farming the food mushrooms.
Jeremy nods, I think we either need to figure out a way to stealthily get down there or we need to basically do abat drop. Good thing were dealing with the mushrooms and not the lizards. Those myconids dont seem to have too many truly ranged attacks. That and it looks like the poption of this vige matches thest one.
Jim, Okay, with that in mind I think that Jeremy, you get to free climb down while being stealthy. The rest of us will stay up here on overwatch. Kelly should be able to use her match to intercept any thrown rocks, while Kellinger can work on preventing them from attacking in the first ce. I in turn can reach out and touch any that decide standing around in the open is a good idea. After that the rest of us rappel down while you guard the bottom of the rope.
Everyone agrees with the n and Jeremy walks over to the side of the tunnel. The others expected this as trying to climb down the center would just be asking to be seen. Though he doesnt quite do the expected either. Instead, he first climbs out a distance on the side wall of the tunnel, over the pit.
It is only then that he begins his descent. This is not only a good n, but it saved him from alerting the myconids below as once he got down a bit, he could see that there were shriekers hidden underneath the giant mushrooms sticking out. It took a little work, but he was able to pass this message along without shouting. From there it was just a rtively easy climb to the bottom.
Of course, the others wouldnt be able to avoid the fungus based rm systems unless they decided to free climb down as well. A thing that they were capable of, but not in a manner as stealthily as Jeremy managed. So instead the original n of repelling down took on a bit more urgency.
The only good thing was that the rope didnt set off the shriekers. Well, the first rope. From one of their packs, they took out their back up rope and set it up as well. Then as fast as they could, they used their makeshift equipment to do a controlled slide down the wall as a couple mushrooms started to scream.
This brought them to the attention of the monsters below. Though the myconid who was leading them had a different battle n from the first group. Instead of heading out to meet them head on, the myconid led the two lesser and the three swarms into the denser wild fungus. Once they felt secure, all of them began to pump out paralysis and sleep spores.@@novelbin@@
While the cloud of spores was annoying, you better believe that everyone was packing the medicine for it. If anything, the party was more than happy that the myconids didnt try to bum rush them as they came down. Though once they had to try and dislodge them from their secure location, they started to have second thoughts on that.
In theory it shouldnt be all that hard to get to them. While there were some giant mushrooms with a toughness of wood, most of the fungus was of the soft and spongy type. Except this very sponginess proved quite the impediment.
With magic involved, normal mushrooms became more than tough enough to survive at least a couple swipes. And so the party had to wade through ankle-high water and mud, while swiping at waist high mushrooms that just dont want to break. Jim wasnt even able to snipe more than a few of the sprouts as the ground cover did a more than good enough job to keep them hidden.
This left most of the fighting to Kelly and Tess. Not even Bill was capable of doing more than killing them one at a time as they came at him. Only Kellys magic and Tess spear managed to pierce through the fungal mess they found themselves in.
So despite having the same number of enemies, this fight in the pit turned out a ton harder than expected. The only saving grace as far as they were concerned is that the mushroom staircase did stick around so they could walk out of the pit. In fact, four sectionster when they faced the next vige, it was easier than even the first group.
Though it certainly helped that Jeremy was able to spot the shriekers ahead of time and took all nine of them out with thrown daggers. Well, saying that he took them out makes it sound like he killed them. That isnt quite correct, though a few did die. Rather, he used the daggers to silence them by taking out their mouths.
After that things go downhill again. Quite literally as after another squeeze through a tight section, they find themselves in front of another pit. A pit in which they for the first time are able to observe the myconids going about their usual lives.
Oh, and this pit also had a ton more monsters in it. From on top they can see an extra lesser and a couple hundred more sprouts. Though it is rtively rxing to watch them go about farming. Kind of like watching an ant farm except many times more deadly.
Kellinger sighs, Would it be wrong of us to cheese things and skip the pit?
Jim sighs as well, We certainly could. All it would take is for us to climb across and leave them none the wiser. However, I doubt they would stay none the wiser. Then it would just be a matter of them walking up some stairs to show up behind us. And if we tried to destroy the stairs? Well, they got there somehow in the first ce and for some reason I doubt they would miss the fact that we had done so.
Jeremy nods, Down into the pit again. Same n asst time?
Everyone nods and so Jeremy begins his descent. This is thankfully unseen as the myconids are only watching the one wall, not expecting someone like Jeremy toe around. Of course on the way down Jeremy spots more hidden shriekers, just likest time. Worse, the mouths were facing away from him so unless he managed to kill them instantly, the rm would go out.
So without any choice, everyone else uses their two ropes to rappel down once again. This time they are much better at the task, having ironed out most of the kinks on the previous pit. However, the myconid in charge down below had a different ybook from thest.
Instead of hiding off somewhere, they had actually used some of the pseudo-lumber to set up simple barricades. All to force the party toe at them from a single direction. Sure, not quite as useful as full enclosed space, but they dont exactly have ranged attacks to take advantage of such a situation.
Still, the party is making decent headway in the fight. That is until the myconids trump card shows itself. As the group fights their way into the entrance, the wall of a hut that was right there bursts outwards. From within the group''s lesser troup guard emerges to attack the group.
Tess is on that side and grabs her spear with both hands to block the blow. This works to a degree, but she is thrown onto her back from the force. It doesnt quite knock the wind out of her and the others are easily able to step in to defend her. Though this does open them up for the sprouts to swarm in.
From there it is Jeremy who saves the day. He had been off doing his sneaky stuff, not even having met up with the group once theynded. Instead he snuck around the back of the build and in themotion that just happened, took out the myconid in charge.
Without the myconid putting out spores tomand the others, the sprouts and guard show their weakness. It takes them way too long to switch back to working on their own volition. This left the guard in particr wide open for a counter attack.
A thing that Tess was more than willing to do, with her spear sinking deep into the center of the guard. It doesnt quite get pushed back, but just as equally, it stops advancing. Then Billes in to finish it off with a series of lightning fast ps from his clubs.
After that it devolves into a matter of cleaning up the sprouts as Jim and Jeremy finish off the three lesser myconids. Though suffice it to say, this was the most danger any of them had experienced in the dungeon in a while. In fact, Tess decided to take one of their lower quality healing potions.
Sure, it only felt like bruising, but better safe than sorry. Though seeing this, Kellinger did sigh. He had been considering whether to learn some healing magic and had been putting it off. Not that he was going to be able to do more than cure small cuts and bruises, but sometimes that''s what you need. Better to have a spell for it than use a limited consumable on it.
From there the group continued on only to be faced with yet another pit a tight pass and two cavester. A pit that yet again held more myconids in it. Suffice it to say, the party was not happy with how things were panning out.
Though in the core room Doyle and Ally were having a fun time of it. The fact that so many of the pits were inhabited was honestly astounding. Sure, Doyle had put in a good few pits, but just as equally he had put in other areas. It was just random chance that the myconid viges had happened to mostly decide that now was time to live in a pit.
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