《Dungeon’s Path》


 So the World Ended – Chapter 1

    So the world ended. Whoopsie? We didn¡¯t even see iting. Quite literally as it came at us faster than the speed of light. Don¡¯t worry though, it got better. Also, I am not joking about the world ending. Most people say that and mean humans are inconvenienced for some reason. Nope, all matter disintegrated at the atomic scale there for a few moments. Apparently the local universe wasn¡¯t actually stable? Don¡¯t ask me to go into too much detail. It would require both of us to have a few more college degrees than sense, and I at leastck them (both the degrees and the sense). Anyway, the energy/matter/wibbly wobbly strings were at a local minimum and not the universal minimum. Basically, what we took for sea level was actually a nice little mountainke and when the dam busted so did, well, everything.


    Now here is where things go a bit off track with what normal meant before. You see magic is real, qi is real, gods are real. Not on old Earth mind you but souls pay little attention to time and space so we dreamed of it. In fact, the closer the shift in reality got to Earth, the closer our dreams got to the new reality. This is basically me tip toeing around the fact that it was a ¡®System Apocalypse¡¯. Reality became a video game, I became a dungeon, and this is my story.<hr>


    [BEEP BEEP BEEP]


    ¡°Gah, okay rm, I¡¯m up. Why did I ever turn the memory puzzle on for the app?¡±


    [BEEP BEEP BEEP]


    ¡°Gah, what time is it? Ack! Almost two pm, I must have slept through the first three rms. Thank god I set up multiple rms. Then again, sometimes it would be nice to sleep through my shift. Not for my wallet, but my health.¡±


    ¡°With my luck, Karen will be in charge today. I don¡¯t care about much, but she rubs me the wrong way. All I want to do is my job and read some books when the customers don¡¯t need me. Sure it''s against the rules, but dang it, I do my job! Hell, I do twice the job most of those school kids they hire.¡±


    Doyle Huxley gets out of his bed, slides his sses on, and staggers into the bathroom. He checks the mirror. ck hair, green eyes, and a paleplexion so nothing new. He runs his hand through his hair and sighs, ¡°dang it. Didn¡¯t I get it cut recently? It is long enough I have to do more than run ab through it.¡±


    He rolls his eyes and brushes his teeth. Supposedly his electric toothbrush does a better job than using a normal one. Though that would require more regr use. ¡°At least I brush more than I floss. The joke about how the dentist must be going senile because he keeps asking thest time you flossed when he was therees to mind. Not quite that bad, but not good. Now scale, can you lie to me today?¡±@@novelbin@@


    Of course the scale can¡¯t lie let alone understand him so once the numbers stabilizes it reads just over 250 pounds. ¡°Eh, not the worst height to weight ratio. My slight attempts at dieting would get more results if work stopped putting out free donuts. I can¡¯t help myself with free food. There is just something about it.¡± His mind slips to the fact that at six foot tall this means he is obese by some standards, not that he looks it. This wouldn¡¯t bother him at all except his job is 100 percent on his feet and his feet don¡¯t like him afterwards.


    After Doyle finishes his morning ritual, there is still a good couple hours left till work. With his paranoia about beingte, this means he only has maybe an hour to chill. Not much else to do, not that he ever does much else, he pops on a lets y he has been following and reads a book on his cell phone. However half an hour in his cell phone is running low on batteries so he has to plug it in.


    ¡°Really? I know the battery is dying, but this is silly. It shouldst a couple hours of use!¡± Then the inte cuts out. He doesn¡¯t notice at first because for once the video he was watching had buffered, but that doesn¡¯tst. A quick nce over tells him everything he needs to know. The light that represents the inte connection is dark. He facepalms, ¡°really really? This is how we¡¯re going to y it world?¡±


    Not even bothering to take his clothes off, Doyle flops back onto his bed. This lets his mind wander, dangerous at the best of times. The thing thates up is his friends, orck thereof. Not that he ever had too many. However moving from one state to another cut off the few he had gained. They stayed in touch and yed some games over the web, but that didn¡¯tst. To earn his rent the store basically required an open schedule from him or they wouldn¡¯t schedule him enough hours. Difficult to n a game when the hours he worked changed from week to week at random.


    He didn¡¯t really mind it that much. Once again, not the most active at seeking friends. ¡°Still would be nice to have a gaming group again. Starting to miss roleying games at this point.¡± He knew people could make friends while at work, but that didn¡¯t seem to, well, work for him. When at work he worked and any social cues outside of the customer service script flew out of his head. Not that his position allowed much socializing.


    The rm on his phone goes off, disrupting his introspection. He stuffs his pockets with all the random things he is convinced are needed. He pays special attention to include the phone power pack, so when his cell dies he can revive it. This reminds him, so he checks the charge. A wordless growl escaped his lips when he saw it barely went up to 20 percent. Frustrated at theck of the so-called fast charging, he plugs it into said power pack and pockets them both. ¡°Guess I am not listening to my podcasts on the way to work today. I could charge it with the charger in the car but that is too much work for such a short drive.¡±


    Still, time is ticking and he only has an hour left before work. Of course the drive is only ten minutes tops, but he likes to have a little time to adjust when he gets there. One final stretch and he tugs his dopey work shirt on. As he leaves the house things are crazy windy and it looks a little red so he nces up. Just some clouds in front of the sun. Not even a proper overcast day. While some people don¡¯t like that, Doyle very much prefers a day of cloud cover.


    Once in the car, he tries to start it up. With how things were going it couldn¡¯t be that easy. He inherited the car from a rtive and it could start with the press of a button. Of course that was predicated on his fancy key fob not running low on batteries. He spends more time than he would like to admit on fumbling for his keys before he takes off the seatbelt. Now out in public he has to stifle his vocalmentary on his life and so can only think to himself, ¡®leastwise I can just stick this in the slot to turn it on. This was myst recement battery too so I can¡¯t go and pop another one in.¡¯


    With the key fob inserted into the slot, the car turns on right away. That was a joke by the way. Life just isn¡¯t going that well today, so of course it takes a good minute of heart stopping car noises before it takes. ¡®I do NOT need a car bill right now. Though mom will cover it, I can¡¯t keep going to her whenever an emergency pops up.¡¯ With the car going he pulls out of the apartmentplex. Traffic is lighter than usual, so things aren¡¯t too bad. It only took him eight minutes to get to work.


    Once out of his car he fast walks into the building with his head down. Not just the traffic was light but the customers hadn¡¯t showed up either so he got to the break room without interruption. They usually ignore him if he has his headphones in, but he didn¡¯t have that shield today. As he slips into the employees only section, he has to do a bit of stealth. Some coworkers had decided to no-call no-show and Doyle did not want to start early. He would have if asked. His willingness to cover for people made sure management liked him. However Karen was, as he predicted, the coach today so while he doesn¡¯t want to burn any bridges he wasn¡¯t volunteering.


    Up in the break room, no one was there. Not that people generally were. It was actually one thing he couldn¡¯t decide if he liked or not about the job. The schedule being what it was, there generally wasn¡¯t more than a couple people on break at any one time. With his introverted tendencies, this was just fine for him. Plus they can¡¯t turn on the damn tv, which he hated more than anything else on break. It was always the news, a soap, or sports. He already didn¡¯t watch tv in general and those were his least favorite shows. On the other hand, all those office tropes of gathering around the watercooler or having lunch together looked tempting.


    With no one in the room Doyle¡¯s first action is to turn the tv off because it was always on. Also, there was no giant box of donuts, a nice turn of events. That squared away, he takes the coveted seat by the wall outlet and plugs his phone in there. The stories aren¡¯t going to read themselves after all.


    Time flies by and well before he would prefer it is time to head down to work. Not exactly on time. The time keeping system lets you clock in a few minutes after you are scheduled to start and not be countedte. He didn¡¯t enjoy making use of this knowledge to such an extreme, but once again, Karen.


    Moments away from needing to clock in and he is standing around the corner from the time clock. Phone out he watches the seconds tick down and with less than a minute to spare he heads out. Of course the machine doesn¡¯t ept his thumbprint first time, but that is why he gave it a little leeway. Second time he fails as well, so he goes for his secret weapon. Third time and his index finger gets epted. Yeah, his index finger. The print of his thumb, mind you. But he had made the startling discovery that it worked with his index as well. Not only that, but it had never failed to recognize it. A few of his coworkers he told about this got a goodugh out of it. Especially as none of his other fingers worked at all. Just one of those strange things that happens.


    The moment it dings eptance, Karen is there. Before she can ask why he iste, the lights dim. Karen curses and mes the wind. They both wait and the lightse back up. As Doyle is about to shrug though, the lights go down again. Far as it concerns him, they can stay off so he can go home. Up again, but the power fails even quicker. One of the other employeesing over to ask Karen a question starts a countdown with his fingers. At zero, the distinctive sound of the generatoring online greets them. Some lightse on but only the bare minimum.


    Doyle shrugs to Karen, ¡°Guess I can sign right back out then!¡± Karen is about to say something in response when the world gets fuzzy. Doyle reaches up to his sses, expecting them to be gone. However the move feels like he is underwater. Then things aren¡¯t just fuzzy but literallying apart like clouds of dust. Thest thing he sees is the suning apart like a cloud of fireflies in the night as the ceiling can no longer block the view.

 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 can¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t 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 didn¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t 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 dwarf¡¯s boss. He doesn¡¯t 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 ain¡¯t that lovely. You left all the fun work to me. Stand still.¡± Doyle doesn¡¯t 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 wasn¡¯t wrong. Boy, you¡¯re a waste. Now that you¡¯re out of the entryway, we can¡¯t kill you. Be brought back again and again till we get you to finish the tutorial.¡±@@novelbin@@


    The dwarf shakes his head and speaks up, ¡°Just a rumor, but I heard that if we don¡¯t 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, you¡¯re a waste.This little bauble¡±, and she plucks it out of his shoulder, ¡°detects what you¡¯re most suited to learn. Whether it is magic, qi, crafting, or any of the weirder aspects, it can detect it. It isn¡¯t perfect, but even if it can¡¯t 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. It¡¯s like you just don¡¯t care about anything! Anyway, this won¡¯t stop you frompleting the tutorial. Also, as myckey over there spilled the beans already, yes, we are stuck here as long as you are. Don¡¯t 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.¡±


    ¡°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 don¡¯t transition all that well. Without a connection, it is extremely hard to even exist. You beat those odds, but you really shouldn¡¯t have bothered. Dude who set the System up knew this as well and so here we are! And I do mean we. Everyone who isn¡¯t 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. Don¡¯t 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 didn¡¯t 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. You¡¯re in one right now. Though of course this one isn¡¯t a native.¡±


    ¡°There is some other stuff, but I can¡¯t bother to exin it to you. Mud here can do that after you finish looking through your stats and what not. Won¡¯t 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, that¡¯s all I have to say to you. Have fun and don¡¯t 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 hadn¡¯t 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.

 His Soul has WiFi Turned Off – Chapter 3

    Doyle and the Dwarf called Mud both stand there for a few moments. Then Mud ps Doyle on the shoulder andughs. ¡°Congrattions! You didn¡¯t die a single time there. I was expecting her to do you in at least once to get the point across. Anyway, she left basically everything for me to exin. However to start we might as well familiarize yourself with your status. Just say the word status with the intent to view your status or you can try to say it in your head. That works too, but when you say it aloud, the System adds some reverb to it so people can tell you¡¯re using a Systemmand. Like this, [status].¡±


    The dwarf then swipes his hand in front of his face. ¡°Unless you share System screens or they mention being shared only the person who calls them up can see them. To move or get rid of them, you can use any sort of voiced or motion basedmand. It all works if you put some intent into it, like how I just swiped away my status. Now you try.¡±


    Doyle tried saying themand in his head. It didn¡¯t work and from Mud¡¯s smirk Doyle got the impression he wasn¡¯t the first to do so. He however is somewhat past caring about minor things like that and vocalized themand, ¡°status.¡± Tried to vocalize it, that is. After a couple more attempts, he feels he has it pinned down. With onest attempt he gets it right, ¡°[status]¡±.


    {Name: Doyle Huxley


    Race: Human


    Paths: 0


    Level: 0


    S[6] A[7] C[9] I[10] W[9] P[5] D[12] K[0] L[16]


    Skills: }


    Mudughs at the look on Doyle¡¯s face, ¡°just filled with info isn¡¯t it? Don¡¯t worry, give it some time and you will be willing to pay the System to move stuff off the main page. Now the most confusing part for people seeing their status the first time is the stats. There are nine of them and everynguage or sometimes even subgroups of thatnguage will have them called distinct things. The reason for that is all mortalnguages suck.¡±


    ¡°You can¡¯t expect a mortal to remember trillions of words. Instead, in a mortalnguage, words can mean many things and epass different meanings from person to person. That guy who popped into this universe was an immortal and used anguage which had been in use for longer than most universes currently around have existed. Each stat was a single word that describes what it did perfectly. Some of those words would rend your mind apart just to hear them so they dumbed them down for us mortals.¡±


    He turns and picks up a rock. Doyle decides to just ignore the fact it wasn¡¯t there just a moment ago and listens. ¡°Everyone in the current tutorial has strength as their first stat. In a previous group though half of them it was called might. The thing is, these words bring to mind specific aspects of being able to lift heavy things.¡± Mud tosses the rock away. ¡°It is of course all nonsense to limit it like that. After I exin a little bit more, you should read through the description of each stat.¡±


    ¡°Before that, there are a couple other things on your status. Name would seem self exnatory. It is, the only catch being you get one name change for free after your race¡¯s age of majority as determined by the System. This brings us to your race. Should say human, but don¡¯t tell me if it doesn¡¯t. In fact, don¡¯t tell any of your status screen to others. Some people like to say that you can tell it to someone if you trust them with your life. Bet you they would like you to trust them that much, you get me? Skip the next and move right on to your level. Yours is zero and you don¡¯t get to leave the tutorial until it is otherwise. Levels do not provide any innate bonus for that we need the previous entry.¡±


    ¡°Paths are now the most important thing in this universe. Tell no one what your paths are and how far along you are in them. Even the idiots that say you can tell your status to those you trust will single out paths as being something you keep secret from everyone. During the tutorial you get to choose a single path to start with. The paths on offere from what you have gone through. What these paths do is increase your stats, give abilities, and just generally provide you with power. They do this in two ways. First by breakpoints in a path and second is stat ups every level.¡±


    ¡°Now what are those breakpoints I mentioned? Simple enough every path takes a certain number of points toplete and at specific intervals you get stuff. An example of this is the Path of the Tutorial. That¡¯s all of you will get if you can¡¯t manage anything better. Gives a single point in one of the physical stats for every point you put in it based on whichever is the lowest.¡±


    ¡°What¡¯s that look for? Oh, right! I forgot to mention the categories to your stats. There are three types and three styles of stats. Body, Mind, and Soul are the types. Strength is a body type. The styles are Power, Finesse, and Specialty. Strength, using it as an example again, is a Power style stat. You can get a better exnation of this when you read the descriptions of your stats.¡±


    ¡°Anyway, where was I? Ah, the points. No you don¡¯t get points every level up. You get a point for every skill level you get, which brings us to thest thing on your status. It is currently empty because the System will only give you them when you perform the skill under its influence. Nice thing about skills is that they provide some info when you level them. Because the universe didn¡¯t have any magic or such the guy who set up the System, provided some starter info to get us off our feet. What this means is that after a certain point that handy info dries up as there are no level caps on skills and there is only basic info in the System.¡±


    ¡°I sneer at calling it basic as some of the topics we haven¡¯t even found the end of the info yet despite eons of time. There is some more stuff left, but I will leave that to the actual tutorial. Now go and check through the stats. A single letter doesn¡¯t tell you anything. Oh, and while silentmands are hard. Physical ones like poking an interface are easy so try that or something.¡± Finished with this nonsense Mud walks off to watch the rest of the people in the tutorial. Doyle can only shrug and start poking each of the stats.


    {Strength: The power of one¡¯s body. This does represent how much weight you can lift, but it goes much further than that. On a very basic level, your body will be stronger. You be harder to bludgeon or damage in general. Muscles will also shift around to optimize themselves for the things you most often do. The body of someone who chops trees all day will look much different from one who spends the time running messages. Beyond these aspects, strength affects a number of small misceneous things in your body.


    Agility: The finesse of one¡¯s body. Your basic ability to bend and move around. Besides the obvious damage reduction of just not being where the attack is, agility also provides protection against cuts. Enough points in agility will alter your body¡¯s joints to allow a greater range of motion as well as provide flexibility to bones as to prevent breakage. Amon misconception is that agility directly increases your movement speed. It does not.


    Constitution: A body¡¯s specialty is maintaining itself. While this can represent greater regeneration from damage, there are many paths this can take. 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.


    Intelligence: The power of one¡¯s 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.@@novelbin@@


    Wisdom: The finesse of one¡¯s mind. Your race does not understand the mind enough to exin fully what this stat does. 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. What it does not do is make your judgement any better. One side benefit of wisdom is it increases your ability to spot things.


    Presence: A minds specialty is projecting. Your race does not understand the mind in most things but have excelled in this aspect of it. This represents a person¡¯s ability to affect others on a mental level. On a personal level this is how well you can project yourself to or hide from others. It is very important to those in a position ofmand as it increases the chance that subordinates understand your orders in not just the word but the spirit. A side benefit is that when high enough it will fix various speech impediments that are not from physical mdies.


    Destiny: The power of one¡¯s 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.


    Karma: The finesse of one¡¯s soul. The System restricts info on this stat for those with a soul stat total less than 1000. This represents the power of your connections to others, both good and bad.


    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.}


    Doyle dismisses the screens and then takes a nce around. Mud is out of sight at this point, so he was without a guide. Frustrated, he almost yelled but then thought better of it and whispered, ¡°what do these numbers even mean? What is the starting number supposed to be? What does it mean that I have no karma?¡± For onceining to the world works. Though this has more to do with it being a tutorial than anything else as right after he asks those questions a series of system messages pops up.


    {Starting stats for those integrated into the systemter in life are based on their natural body, mind, and soul.}


    {Humans have an average starting value of around ten in body and mind stat at maturity. No uniform starting value found for soul based stats. Common range for soul stats of humans vary from 3 to 18}


    {Your soul¡¯s natural ability to connect to anything outside of yourself has been judged as negligible.}


    Doyle slowly blinks, ¡°Okay, so what do I do next?¡±


    {Tutorial guides should provide information on the next goal.}


    {ERROR: Guides appear to have abandoned tutorial participant. Contacting nearest tutorial guide with a viable connection to the participant.}


    {ERROR: No present guides have any connection to participant. Search for a matching guide in progress.}


    {QUERY: Individual in current tutorial instance has volunteered to work as your guide. Do you ACCEPT or DENY this offer? WARNING: Individual offering assistance is a non-standard sentient.}


    Doyleins, ¡°really? I already knew I wasn¡¯t good at making friends, but this is ridiculous! My soul is unable to connect, and that is why? I bet that orcdy didn¡¯t kill me because of this as well. Why bother to kill something so unconnected to you after all? You know what? Sure, I ept whoever offered assistance.¡± He presses the button and at first, not much happens. That is until the verynd beneath him opens up and swallows him into the depths.

 Meeting the Boss – Chapter 4

    Doyle falls and falls and falls. Above, he can hear the passage grinding shut behind him. After what feels like hours but was probably minutes, a light bes visible beneath him. This dot growsrger and within moments he is through. It is now visible to him that what he was on before was another muchrger floating ind. Off in the misty distance there are other massive inds floating. Though at this point he is tempted to call them continents. Below him is a void he can not see even a glimmer of an end to.


    At first this view frightens Doyle. To fall forever was not high on his list of things to do and as luck would have it this wasn¡¯t on the dungeons to-do list either. For that was clearly who directed his travel n at this point. The surrounding gravity shifted and shunted him towards another ind. As he got closer, though, the actual destination became clear.


    In between the two continents sized inds there is a much smaller one, only about the size of a mountain. Before it was hidden against the backdrop of the ind behind it but there is one enormous difference. While all the other inds appeared to contain some stone. The dungeon had constructed those inds of dirt. This mountain of an ind however bucked the trend by being made of stone and ore. The brown splotches that helped it blend in were actually iron deposits that had rusted to a dirty brown.


    Closer still Doyle flies, and now he can see there is one obvious feature on the mountain. A gloomy cave shaped like a mouth leads inward. Beyond fear at this point, Doyle flies right in without a sign of worry. After he enters the mouth, though, he soon finds himself at what must be his destination. There is a stairwell that goes down a short distance to an open field. This field from what he can see stretches on well beyond what the ind could epass. It would be so easy to walk down into this unknown area. That is if it wasn¡¯t for the slight shimmer in the air which is most likely a barrier. Oh, and the giant golem standing in front of the stairs.


    It hovers there inert, but Doyle can feel if he took a single step towards the stairs that would change. It floats there, made of segments shaped like stctites. The ends of its legs and arms positioned with the spike facing outward. Instead of a head there is a ring of smaller spikes in the shape of a crown. Doyle and the golem stand there motionless, in wait of some active party to break them out of their deadlock.


    This third partyes in the form of a small fae creature which flies out of a hidden alcove up in the ceiling. It flits down through the golems spike crown andnds on the t top of the main body. The fae sits there cross-legged and giggles. It stretches a little and questions the two of them, ¡°Hey there boys, just going to keep standing there like two lumps on the log? You¡±, and she points at the golem, ¡°extended a helping hand to our little friend there.¡± She points at Doyle, ¡°you on the other hand ept his offered help, though I can forgive you for not realizing it. Let me introduce the two of us!¡±


    The fae flies up in a spiral, ¡°I am the amazing Z! A fairy and dungeonpanion. This lunk here is the 1250th floor guardian, what you would term a dungeon boss. It is currently being controlled by my friend, my boss, the person who offered to be your tutorial guide, and most importantly the consciousness behind this entire ce. The dungeon core, Realm of the Floating Isles, or as I call him Flisle!¡±


    A sigh that sounds reminiscent of tumbling rockses from the golem, ¡°why do you insist on that nickname? I control a mighty dungeon with over 2000 floors. That name was cute when we were starting out but it got old eons ago.¡± Z shakes her finger at him, ¡°as if after millennia of calling you that I would change. Let the outsiders call you all those pompous titles.¡± Then she turns to Doyle, ¡°you are no longer an outsider, so call him Flisle. We see tutorial guides who personally take an interest in someone as being connected to that person. It goes off that whole one day as a teacher, like a father for life thing. So whatever the two of you might want to believe, those on the outside will see us as a family.¡±


    The golem¡¯s arms float downward in a clear slump. In defeat he waves Z off, ¡°fine he can call me Flisle. I guess I knew what I was getting into when I made the offer. But he has a starting stat of zero karma! Do you know how rare that is? Not only that, but most people know not to talk about that kind of thing while in a dungeon since we can hear everything in our domain. Oh right¡±, he turns back to Doyle, ¡°note that bit of info. It will be both more and less important for you in the future.¡±


    Doyle takes his sses off and massages the bridge of his nose. ¡°I can ept this. Not like anyone else wanted me, but what does having no karma actually mean. Sure, I have troubles connecting to people. I never had many friends, but that doesn¡¯t mean I had no friends. You probably already know, but the System has restricted the description of the stat down to basically one line. This represents the power of your connections to others, both good and bad.¡±


    Both Z and Flisleugh at this description. Z wipes a tear from her eye while Flisle starts to exin. ¡°It doesn¡¯t say your ability to make connections though having low karma does make it harder. What it said is the power of your connections. I bet you had no bosom friends and that you haven¡¯t once worried if those few you still had were all right after the System came. You don¡¯t have to answer, I can see it in your eyes. Now that I brought it up, you worry about one or two of them.¡±@@novelbin@@


    ¡°This is what karma is about. Not the breadth of your connections, but the depth. However there is more to it than that. What the System currently measures is your connections to those outside of yourself. The minimum to this is a one. This is because at the most basic level a human will have at least that humanness to connect them to another of their kind. Even psychopaths have this connection if perverted at some level.¡±


    ¡°You, however, do not. This isn¡¯t a terrible thing, and it doesn¡¯t stop you from making deep connections. It just ramps up the difficulty of it and the time it takes. What it means though is you fit a very narrow condition that will let me make you an offer. This however gets into what I am, a dungeon. An awakened dungeon. Everywhere with mystical powers of some sort will have dungeons develop. These natural dungeons are very limited. It can take longer than the lifespan of a universe for those dungeons to develop their own mind.¡±


    ¡°The fae at some point took notice of this. Thus was born the dungeonpanion. Not every dungeon has apanion, but those who do have a greater chance of developing beyond their simple beginnings. I was not so lucky and it took me a long time for Z to find me. In fact, the only reason I survived to meet her was my dungeon type. Most dungeons start with a deep connection to the ce they form at and so die with their universe. I however started out disconnected from my original universe with only a simple portal to my floating inds. It took at least three universes before I met Z. Not sure of the exact number as I wasn¡¯t aware yet so my memories are dim from that time. I was only about six floors at that point despite my age, so when Z found me she thought I was a newly formed dungeon.¡±


    Z interrupts him at this point, ¡°Well, what do you expect me to think when most dungeons develop their first ten floors within the first year of life? Just because you were a special floor type dungeon that took way more energy to develop isn¡¯t exactly obvious. Even with me interacting with you, it still took most of the rest of that universe¡¯s life for you to wake up. I was in despair at that point because you had only grown to have nine levels. I remember my shock when your first words where, oh, the lights are about to go out again in reference to the universe¡¯s death. A death that was still millennia away.¡±


    Flisle shrugs, ¡°Eh, I wasn¡¯t aware of what people would refer to as a normal day-night cycle. Anyway, that brings me to the second type of dungeon, the ones that have a mind. They form in two ways. The evolution of a natural dungeon or a person in some manner turns into a dungeon without losing their minds. You can probably guess at this point what I offer you. But there is more to it than just the offer to turn you into a dungeon. You do not need ack of karma for this. Why not having karma is important to me is because I don¡¯t want to put the effort in only to have you die with this universe.¡±


    ¡°As that orc said, you have no connections. That is possible at one karma but with no karma it means something else. You are disconnected from the universe as a whole. While most people fail at turning into an awakened dungeon, there have been enough to notice a trend.¡± Z smacks him then interjects, ¡°don¡¯t forget all your horrific experiments. You know the reason we are stuck ying host to tutorials for newly introduced worlds.¡±


    He doesn¡¯t have eyes, but somehow Flisle rolls them and then continues. ¡°Yes, and my horrific experiments on people enlightened me to this subject. Though I will say we are not here because I did that, but rather because I used the wrong person in myst test. He was just too perfect a fit not to use. Anyway, what I was trying to exin is that each element of a person affects the kind of dungeon you turn into. It is still very random and you can change most things if you haven¡¯t created your first floor, but there is one condition that is set.¡±


    ¡°How connected a person is to their universe determines what sort of dungeon entrance you have. This doesn¡¯t sound that important. After all, what difference does it make between stone pirs or a tree as your entrance? A lot. Even those two examples have a big effect on a dungeon¡¯s lifespan. The dungeon that forms in a tree will die if the tree dies. You would think this means it has a shorter lifespan, but you would be wrong. Dungeon entrances are absurdly hard and only get sturdier the more levels it has. That tree can survive the local star going supernova if they reach 1000 levels. Not that most can, but there it is.¡±


    ¡°Why the tree has a longer expected life is because the entrance can still be broken with the right conditions. This is where the difference is. If the entrance made of a tree gets broken, the tree will grow a new entrance. Even to where a stump can grow back into a tree and then grow another entrance. That stone pir entrance? Even a bad enough crack can destroy the whole dungeon.¡±


    ¡°But that all gets away from the important part. Most dungeon entrances can not survive the end of a universe. There are a few random ones out there that can do it, and a portal entrance is one of them. Naturally formed dungeons arepletely random and I got lucky with having one. A person turned into a dungeon however has everything already decided by their stats. Specifically, what you call karma decides the entrance type. I bet you see where this is going right? Portal entrances are so rare because it requires a stat value which is mostly impossible. You, however, fit this very rare requirement for a portal entrance.¡±

 Wait, You’re Not Insane? – Chapter 6

    As Doyle is about to lose consciousness onest thought passes through his mind, ¡°why does this hurt when being atomized didn¡¯t?¡±


    An indeterminate amount of timeter Doylees to. All he can see is darkness and when he goes to stretch, he can¡¯t feel his legs or arms. This of course freaks him out and he would have iled about if not for the aforementionedck of limbs.


    His state of panicsts until he can remember what had been happening. Others might have fallen into the trap of believing this was all a dream, but that doesn¡¯t matter to him. He never understood other¡¯s problem with it either. After all, even if this was all a dream, the safest thing to do is take it at face value until he wakes up.


    With that in mind he must be a dungeon core now. Why can¡¯t he see anything? Well, he was told that he could not im any territory in Flisle¡¯s dungeon. If the stories he read were anything to go on, he can only see with that territory. No territory means no sight. Where are his limbs? What limbs? He is a small magical gem now. Onest thing to confirm it. Now is a good a time as ever to try a mentalmand, ¡®[status].¡¯


    {Name: Doyle Huxley


    Race: Dungeon Core


    Paths: 0


    Level: 0


    S[6] A[7] C[9] I[10] W[9] P[5] D[12] K[20] L[16]


    Skills: }


    ¡®Yep, my race is now dungeon core. Besides that, though, my karma is now through the roof? Now how can I check it. Before I just used my finger to press on the K. Can I just mentally press it?¡¯


    {Karma: The finesse of one¡¯s soul. The System restricts info on this stat for those with a soul stat total less than 1000. This represents the depth of your connections to those inside your territory. A vital stat for dungeon cores as it affects one¡¯s ability to interact with their dungeon¡¯s structure.}


    ¡®Quite the change in description there. I wonder how the rest of my stats have changed? Flisle should notice I am up soon enough so I probably don¡¯t have the time to go through them all. Strength is an excellent ce to start, I guess.¡¯


    {Strength: The power of one¡¯s territory and core. This does represent how much weight you can lift in your territory, but it goes much further than that. On a very basic level, your core will be stronger. You be harder to bludgeon or damage in general. Materials that are a part of your dungeon will also shift around to optimize themselves for the things you most often use them for. A stone wall meant to contain others will differ greatly from a sheet of stone meant to break so as to drop people into a pit. Beyond these aspects strength affects a number of small misceneous things in your territory and core.}


    ¡®Strength didn¡¯t actually change all that much? The biggest change is to rece mentions of a body to the territory and core. This would make it quite important if you were going for a maze dungeon, I would guess. I do wonder how much and to what degree it can tou¡¯


    Flisle interrupts his thoughts at this point, ¡®hey, you don¡¯t seem to be mentally breaking down? I guess you could just be one of those types who break down quietly. If not, think a response to me.¡¯


    One mental sighter and Doyle responds, ¡®doing fine here. What¡¯s up?¡¯


    The shock is obvious in Flisle¡¯s response, ¡®wait, you¡¯re actually sane at this point? It hasn¡¯t even been a full week yet! Most people take months to regain their minds stability in such aplete state of sensory deprivation. Some never recover. It is not a clean process to take a fleshy brain and squeeze it down into a fist-sized crystal.¡¯


    More sarcasm leaks into Doyle¡¯s voice than he meant to as he replies, ¡®that doesn¡¯t seem like a safe process there. What was that you said about being in my best interests?¡¯


    Flisle coughs, ¡®from a certain viewpoint it was. Better than my original intentions anyway.¡¯


    A silence ensues broken only once Z butts in, ¡®the System would have stopped him if the ritual would have broken you. We still are in the tutorial after all!¡¯


    You can almost hear the record scratch for Flisle, ¡®wait, it would have? You mean I didn¡¯t find a loophole?¡¯


    Doyle can hear a bit of scorn in Z¡¯s mental voice as she responds, ¡®please sit down in the corner dear. We both know if you were stronger than the guy who set up the System, you wouldn¡¯t be here right now. I let you go through with your little y so let me fix things up.¡¯


    Flisle sulks, ¡®but it wasn¡¯t a y! I am doing an experiment here. Just some of the start conditions were out of my expectations.¡¯


    Before he goes silent and Z takes over the conversation. Doyle feels the sensation of movement and it turns his non-existent stomach before it stops. ¡®Sorry about that. I just moved you from the ritual to a nice pedestal. I know dungeon cores have a severe case of motion sickness, but the residual mana from that ritual could mess you up after you¡¯ve regained your sanity. Helps with restructuring your mind but at this point I advise you not take a blender to your mind any time in the future.¡¯


    ¡®Anyway, as I just said, you were never in danger. While the System isn¡¯t omnipotent, it might as well be in the tutorials it sets up. Now to exin how things will go from here. You¡¯re a dungeon core stuck in another dungeon¡¯s territory. Doesn¡¯t get much worse than that. Since Flisle is your tutorial guide, though, it only limits you from doing the general tutorial new humanoids get. It would not be of much use for you with how non-humanoid you are at the moment.¡¯@@novelbin@@


    ¡®The upside is you get to be a part of the tutorial! How this thing usually ends is a group gets ported to the first floor and have to bumble through until they survive to the second floor. Not that hard as the first floor is mostly critters on small floating inds. Though the number of deaths to people being spooked off the edge is non trivial. The critters aren¡¯t even scary! It is just rabbits and such. Anyway, your tutorial trial will be to stop at least half of a group frompleting your first floor. What first floor you ask? Simple enough, we kick you out of here and the tutorial pairs you up with some fae to be yourpanion.¡¯


    Doyle speaks up at this point, ¡®so in the end I still get a tutorial?¡¯


    Z snickers, ¡®yeah, but don¡¯t tell Flisle. He has been a bit obsessed with getting one over on the System ever since he was put inmunity service here. He isn¡¯t the only dungeon tasked with this job, but he has been here a while and is honestly getting a little fidgety. Sure before he gained awareness he would just sit in a universe till it died around him. After he got a bit of control, though, he has been flitting around the multiverse. He could barely stay in a universe for a thousand years, let alone the billion year sentence he is currently only a quarter of the way through.¡¯


    Z pauses long enough for Doyle to ask, ¡®is that a lengthy sentence or a short one? You know what, I don¡¯t care. When you outlive universes that is functionally immortal from where I stand.¡¯


    Zughs, ¡®that is one of the requirements.¡¯ Doyle cuts her off, ¡®once again, don¡¯t care. When do I get to start and who gets to hand hold me?¡¯


    Z huffs, ¡®you don¡¯t need to get snotty about it. If you get off the ground, this sort of timescale will matter to you as well. Dungeon cores are not technically immortal, but their crystals don¡¯t degrade much either. As long as you keep advancing in floors and levels, the slight amount of decay will be fixed. If it wasn¡¯t for the fact you need adventurers to enter you and some of those might just try and kill you, I don¡¯t think any dungeon would ever die.¡¯


    ¡®Oh, and you¡¯re about to ask why you need adventurers, right? Your culture hadn¡¯tpletely developed the dungeon core genre, but some got close enough. Every living creature takes in some form of energy and then puts out something else. Most humanoids do this by eating other animals and some nts, and well, we both know the next step to that. Dungeon cores don¡¯t eat physical materials but rather mental detritus and release mystical energy.¡¯


    ¡®All the magic, all the qi, and every other mystical energy out there once used has a trace of the person who used it. That is why, even with a constant supply of potions, a magic user can¡¯t just keep casting spells. They need to recover their mental state to control more mana. These mental traces add up over time and make the energy harder to use. This doesn¡¯t matter all that much. Sure weaker magic users could no longer use magic but after a certain step in power the detritus doesn¡¯t stop them.¡¯


    ¡®However nature is loathe of such imbnces. If you have a field of rabbits then some foxes will tend to show up for dinner. Dungeon cores are the foxes to the mental dust bunnies that clogs up mana and such. They are actually one of the few species to generate spontaneously. Up there with things like True Dragons, World Golems, Primordial Prokaryotes, Fae Royalty, Creator Gods, and Sun Crows. All other creatures are born from something. Though that is getting off track.¡¯


    ¡®As I said, dungeons eat the traces people leave on any energy they control with their minds. This happens passively with the energy flowing into the dungeon. But that could be seen as breathing and not eating. To get something to chew on you need people to go into your dungeon influence and be in danger.¡¯


    ¡®See, while the traces do float around, the people who can leave those traces or the target of mystical effects are like electro-mas for the stuff. Once they are in danger, it loosens the traces up as if you cut down on the power to thepared ma. Death of course is cutting the powerpletely free and then some, but you need to be careful with that. Yourpanion will take the time to exin the pros and cons of thatter.¡¯


    ¡®Though there is one pro I will go over. A reason to let some people leave besides to attract more to you, that is. After you eat all those traces on the energy what it leaves will be some grade A pure energy. Problem is pure energycks all those mystical calories you need, so how to get rid of it? Sure, some will leave naturally, but that is not fast enough, especially for deeper floors. Instead, you get those same adventurers to haul it out for you.¡¯


    ¡®Your was advanced enough in physics to brush up against the whole <em>energy is matter</em> thing. Dungeons at their very core are a crystallization of this principle, literally. Natural dungeon cores form over millennium as mystical energies with excessive amounts of mental traces collect deep in the ground. The traces will reach a critical mass and coalesce into a perfect jewel while the previous encumbered energy breaks out.¡¯


    ¡®This is how the first room forms, an explosion of magic which separates the dungeon from strictly physical dimensions. But that coalescing is the act of turning energy into matter. Those mysteries of the universe are now baked into your being.¡¯

 Dungeon’s Tutorial – Chapter 7

    Z flies behind Doyle. There is a stone statue replica of her on a marble pedestal. Shends on the pedestal and continues, ¡®This wasn¡¯t here a moment ago. In fact, it did not exist at all. While I am not a dungeon core myself by being apanion to Flisle, I can tap into some of the abilities, including this most iconic of traits. Dungeons are an eternal spring of loot and that alles from their ability to turn energy into material.¡¯


    ¡®What better way to get rid of the pure mystical energies than to have all those adventurers walk it out for you? Better yet, unlike with normal energy to matter, mystical energy doesn¡¯t directly turn into mass. The more significance what you convert the energy into has the more energy it takes. A mass of iron in the shape of a sword will cost more than the same mass shaped as a block of iron. p some fancy scrollwork and design it after a historical weapon and the cost just balloons. You can tell when a dungeon is overfed by how fancy their loot is.¡¯


    ¡®Anyway, I think we might have gotten a little sidetracked there. Where were we? Right, you wanted to know when you start and who guides you. How about now and a random fae?¡¯


    Doyle was not paying much attention and just letting the info sweep over him, so it took him a moment to realize what she just said. In a panic he perked up, ¡®wait, what do you mean by that?¡¯ Then he cked out.<hr>


    Doyle slowly regains consciousness, ¡®Yep, tired of this whole cking out thing.¡¯ This time he can actually see where he is. Of course, that where is an entirely boring andpletely square stone room with a fist-sized purple crystal floating at the very center. The only thing that broke up this scene is a system window.


    {Start Awakened Dungeon Core Tutorial?}


    ¡®Yes? Yes, please? Okay, not reading my mind so probably like with status, [yes]¡¯


    {Tutorial Starting...


    Detecting Entrance Type: Portal


    Detecting Dungeon Type: [Choice]


    Detecting Companion: ...


    <No Companion Detected>


    Pausing Tutorial}


    {Summon Companion?}


    ¡®I guess it requires apanion for this. Probably it assumes that if a dungeon became awakened in this universe, it was because of apanion and was written for that. It might even assume I am a bit dense. Welp, not going anywhere else without this so [yes]¡¯


    All the system screens vanish and a series of circles made of runes appear on one of the walls. They rotate and form a bigger circle as lines of power form between them. It spins faster and a small dot of light appears at the center. As the outer circles stabilize in their speed, this dot grows. Once the light is about shoulders'' width across, all motion stops and it dims. A ripple spreads from the light and across the walls as space itself bends. He can hear a pop as a small winged form shoots out of the light.


    The rune circles on the wall fade away as the figurees to a stop in front of Doyle¡¯s crystal core. Curled up in the foetal position, they float there as thest of the glow dissipates away from them. As they be visible they very much fit the ssic fairy look. Crystal like butterfly wings with a dress made of leaves. And a girl, of course, because why not?


    She stretches out and yawns. Then with a surprised yelp shemented, ¡°oh, an actual dungeon core summoned me?¡± She floated around the room and crowed that, ¡°they didn¡¯t believe it would work! They imed this universe didn¡¯t have magic for long enough for dungeon cores to summon apanion.¡± All the while Doyle is just surprised that he can understand her when she isn¡¯t speaking English.


    The fairy turns to him and asks, ¡°So how aware are you? My frienemies weren¡¯t exactly wrong on it being too early for an awakened dungeon core. From what the queen of the court said, we should still be a couple million years from that point at least.¡±


    Doyle mentally tells her, ¡®good news for you is that I am as good as a human. Mostly because until recently I was one. Then the system came and stuff happened.¡¯


    She does a double take, ¡°wait, you¡¯re actually awakened? I expected you to be a baby that stumbled into summoning me. Though with you having been human, that could carry some baggage. How do you feel about killing people?¡±


    ¡®Eh¡¯, Doyle shrugs, ¡®I guess it is a thing. If people don¡¯t want to die, they can stay out.¡¯


    The fairy rxes, ¡°good, I don¡¯t want to die this young. Anyway, my name is Ally and if you have ast name, I get it. One perk of being a dungeonpanion for us fae. After all, names are power. Oh, and how did you end up summoning me? Since you¡¯re new to this whole thing, that is probably a superb ce to start for the both of us.¡±


    ¡®My name is Doyle Huxley so I guess that makes you Ally Huxley. An interesting thing is at least with my culture the wife would take the husband¡¯sst name when they marry. Then again, I guess we are together from now on so it isn¡¯t too far off. Anyway, I started the tutorial for dungeon cores and while it was checking stuff noticed I didn¡¯t have apanion. When it asked if I wanted to summon one I answered yes and now here we are. Besides that, the previous two things it got to check was my entrance and dungeon type. The entrance I already knew what it would be, portal, and my dungeon type was marked as choice. Though actually I should probably say [choice].¡¯


    Ally rubs her hands together and chuckles, ¡°you¡¯re perfect! Do you know how rare a portal type entrance is? Plus being early enough to choose your options is always wee. Since you got paused in your tutorial to summon me, there should be an option for me to start it again. Probably something like continue? Resume? Activate? [Proceed]? Ah, there we go. That was the intent I needed.¡± She continues to talk, but Doyle is a bit distracted by the System windowing back.


    {Dungeon Companion Resumed Tutorial...


    Detecting Companion Fae Type: Autumn Court


    Restricting Dungeon Choices...


    Detecting Entrance Location: Task


    Override Starting: Tutorial Entrance Instantiated


    Setup Paused Till Tutorial Completion


    Tutorial Finish Condition Change: Prevent over 50% of a Humanoid Tutorial Team from Completing Tutorial Dungeon Setup on First Life


    Passing Tutorial Over to Companion}


    A soft pinges from next to Ally. She waves her hand and nods, ¡°nice! Since you became a dungeon core in the tutorial, we get to ease you in with some newb parties. Plus you can prove what you said about not minding if you had to kill others. Anyway, first up the tutorial wants us to do a trust exercise. We need to both agree to share our status panels with each other. Since you did at least some of the regr tutorial, your guide should have exined how important it is that you don¡¯t do that. To show the whole trust thing it won¡¯t show you a quest for it, but honestly, who else could you trust? I will start this off, [share status with Doyle].¡±


    The dwarven guide had warned Doyle against sharing his status, but he had to agree with Ally. If he couldn¡¯t trust his system providedpanion, then who could he trust? ¡®[Share status with Ally].¡¯ In front of them both their respective panels pop up.


    {Name: Doyle Huxley


    Race: Dungeon Core


    Companion: Ally Huxley


    Paths: 0


    Level: 0


    S[6] A[7] C[9] I[10] W[9] P[5] D[12] K[20] L[16]


    Skills:}


    {Name: Ally Huxley


    Race: Autumn Court Fae


    Companion: Doyle Huxley


    Paths: Dungeon Companion I 10/10, Fae Magic I 10/10, Autumn¡¯s Jester 3/100


    Level: 0


    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}


    Ally does a loop de loop in the air and cheers, ¡°YES! I got a reset, a bloody system reset! All those wasted skill slots they forced on me, gone. All the paths I never wanted to travel, erased. Everything I wanted out of this came true. I escaped the court and get to start with an almost nk te. Sure, I got loaded with a few skills and paths, but I would have needed them anyway. Now what have you got going for you? Thepleteck of skills is to be expected. Chances of someone new to the system being able to pick up a skill that would work as a dungeon is near non-existent. Your strength and presence are quite low and we need to work on them. Especially presence as you need that tomand your monsters. Karma on the other hand is out of this world. How did that happen?¡±


    Doyle goes to shrug, not used to hisck of body, and his core bobbles in the air. ¡®That wasn¡¯t my original karma. In fact, that is how I ended up here. Apparently zero karma sets a dungeon¡¯s entrance to portal, and that is why Flisle stepped in. Once I woke up as a dungeon core it had changed to what it is now.¡¯


    Ally scrunches up her face, ¡°the floating inds dungeon? I guess that would exin you bing a dungeon. Though that little fact about a dungeon¡¯s entrance is dangerous. Just going to forget I heard that and you should do the same. Not that it would help much as a zero in any stat is rare enough to begin with. Most die before they are able to call up their status to check. With that karma, you are perfect to be a dungeon core. Your soul must be very focused and contained.¡±


    A natural breakpointes in their conversation at this point, and the system takes the chance to insert another window.


    {Quest Complete: Trust Exercise


    Reward: Tutorial Continues}@@novelbin@@


    Ally takes a moment to read the next quest and frowns. She has a look of concentration and then she speaks to him telepathically, ¡®Can you hear me?¡¯


    Doyle confirms he can and she continues, ¡®the system wants me to practice my telepathy skill to unlock the second dungeonpanion path. I was never a fan of it since at least when a fae speaks aloud they have to speak the truth. Direct mind to mindmunication gets around that restriction. The upside is fae are not as tricky as the myths but I preferred to avoid court politics in a situation they can lie. First skill level should pop, easy enough.¡¯


    ¡®Anyway, next up is to guide you through the choices you have for your dungeon. Just a side note. You can really tell the system has this setup so apanion can deal with a slow core. It says it has changed your settings so all your screens will be visible to me and it can¡¯t be changed until after the tutorial. I also have permission to let the system choose a random option if over an hour has passed since it disys a choice.¡¯


    ¡®I am definitely lucky to get you. Just the thought of having to wait hours as someone bumbles around with some simple set up options. Even after the hour I wouldn¡¯t be able to choose a suitable option, but rather be allowed to leave it up to luck and not the stat kind. Anyway, first up is to choose your dungeon type. Though now that I think about it, how would apanion be able to force the dungeon to open the choice in the first ce? Wait, here it is. I can force the option to open up from the quest screen I have. But yeah, just say something about choosing your dungeon type so we can continue.¡¯

 Starting Monsters and Their Stats – Chapter 9

    Doyle interrupts Ally at this point, ¡®yep, I got it. Souls are cool and what not. Let¡¯s look at what options I have for starting monsters. [Show starting monster options.]¡¯


    {Choose 1 main and 2 secondary starting monsters


    <b>Dungeon Wolf</b>


    S[5] A[7] C[3] I[3] W[5] P[8]


    Skills: Teamwork lv5, Harrying Bite lv3


    Description: A wolf adapted to live in the early levels of a dungeon. While simr in most ways to normal wolves, they are smaller and have traded strength for agility. The smaller size also reduces their constitution and presence. One interesting quirk to them is they are randomly colored like any other species of wolf.


    Ecology: horned rabbits, clover@@novelbin@@


    <b>Kobold</b>


    S[4] A[7] C[4] I[6] W[6] P[6]


    Skills: Heavy Bash lv3, Improvise Trap lv3


    Description: One of the ssic humanoid monsters. Some im they are dog like and others that they are rted to dragons. An easy mistake to make as the truth is weirder. They are actually a branch of the monotremes, most famous for the typus. What appears to be scales is actually a type of specialized quill. Though as always when ites to dragons, there may be some truth to them being rted. The kobolds ability to improvise traps will be limited because of the nature of dungeon monsters. Each trap has an energy upkeep cost paid by the kobold.


    Ecology: horned rabbits, clover


    <b>Giant Rat</b>


    S[2] A[4] C[2] I[1] W[1] P[3]


    Skills: Swarm Sense lv2


    Description: Giant as in the size of an average cat. A weak swarming monster most useful in tight corridors. One of the easiest starting monsters to create a breeding poption as they require the least amount of energy to start reproducing.


    Ecology: giant cave cricket, dungeon fungus


    <b>Goat</b>


    S[5] A[6] C[6] I[3] W[5] P[5]


    Skills: Escape Artist lv3, Climbing lv3


    Description: It¡¯s a goat. Unlike what some may believe, both the males and females have horns.


    Ecology: shrubbery, vines


    <b>Assassin Vine</b>


    S[10] A[2] C[8]


    Skills: Grapple lv5


    Description: Arge and semi-mobile nt known for making its own fertilizer by force. While capable of moving, they will tend to stay in the same ce for days at a time. The berries produced by the nt grow in bunches and make a fine wine with uses in potion brewing.


    Ecology: shrubbery, vines


    <b>Giant Centipede</b>


    S[3] A[10] C[7] I[1] W[1] P[5]


    Skills: Venomous Bite lv3


    Description: A centipede of impressive size. The venom in their bite is unlikely to kill anything bigger than a horned rabbit, but can paralyze a human. While not a social insect, they can end up in swarms if no easy prey are in the area.


    Ecology: horned rabbit, clover


    <b>Raven</b>


    S[2] A[10] C[3] I[4] W[5] P[6]


    Skills: Mimic Sound lv5


    Description: Themon raven, while not the biggest threat to adventurers their ability to mimic sounds has found many a party confused. Best used with ambush monsters and traps or as a swarm if you have an open enough area.


    Ecology: mice, millipede, shrubbery


    <b>Giant Weasel</b>


    S[5] A[7] C[4] I[2] W[2] P[3]


    Skills: Keen Hearing lv3


    Description: A big weasel which has kept the exceptional hearing ability of their smaller cousins. Rarely one will spawn with a pure white winter coat which is quite prized. The current season has no effect on this chance.


    Ecology: horned rabbits, clover


    <b>Copper-hide Boar</b>


    S[8] A[3] C[10] I[3] W[2] P[4]


    Skills: Charge lv4


    Description: Boars already have a tough hide and this dungeon monster doubles down on it. The hide has a toughness simr to copper armor, though at the cost of maneuverability.


    Ecology: shrubbery, clover


    <b>Violet Fungus</b>


    S[2] A[2] C[5]


    Skills: Disguise lv4


    Description: A fungus able to grow to man size. While capable of moving, it prefers to stay in the same ce if there is enough prey. It uses tentacles covered in a poison that causes necrosis to hunt. When still it appears like a normal fungus.


    Ecology: fungus, horned rabbits, clover


    <b>Venomous Snake</b>


    S[3] A[10] C[3] I[1] W[3] P[8]


    Skills: Venomous Bite lv4


    Description: This snake once was recognizable as a surface species, but over the years many dungeons have added bits of other venomous snakes to it. Now it is a unique species all of its own. A very handy species at that as this mixed origin allows this small snake to evolve into almost any higher ranked venom based snake.


    Ecology: mice, shrubbery}


    Ally nces over the list, ¡°ooh, nice selection you have there. There are even a nt and a fungus based monster right off the bat! Those things are rare this early on.¡± Doyle was reading the entries one by one but jumped to the Assassin Vine when she mentioned it. He noticed something and had to ask, ¡®what is up with their stats? Most of them have six, while this nt only has three. Also, what is up with the kobolds traps?¡¯


    She ps, ¡°Good catch there though you missed something else. They allck destiny, karma, and luck. This is because they don¡¯t have a soul, and those are the stats that represents the soul. The thing you missed was that there are no paths. This also connects back to theirck of a soul. Only sapient creatures can travel their own path after all. Of course any monsters you get with a soul will gain those stats and their own paths.¡±


    ¡°As for the kobolds traps? That has to do with how monsters in a dungeon work. Same with the giant rats mention of a breeding poption. You create all of your summoned monsters from pure energy. The problem is that living creatures are crazyplex and there is a massive amount of meaning put into them. If a new dungeon tried to summon anything bigger than a single cell organism, it would take more energy than they could control. Instead, what dungeons create could bepared to a balloon except in four dimensions.¡±


    ¡°This is why when a monster is defeated, their body will disappear and leave behind their loot. It will condense all its energy down into that drop. Rare lootes about when a monster survives for a time in your dungeon. See, your monsters will passively absorb energy to reinforce their pattern. Along with that, if they battle an adventurer, it will funnel some of the resulting purified energy to them. This is where the traps and breedinges into y.¡±


    ¡°A balloon can¡¯t breed, obviously. To get a breeding poption, you need the monsters to absorb enough energy so they be close to real. Giant rats are easy because a core part of their identity is how fast they reproduce. This means their pattern is primed for it already and a lot of their absorbed energy goes to getting that working.¡±


    ¡°The kobold¡¯s traps are an extension of this concept. To make a trap, you need materials and you don¡¯t exactly have that stuff just lying around in a dungeon. For kobolds to use their improvise trap skill, they pull upon their excess energy to materialize what they need. This means a newly summoned kobold cannot set a trap yet. Even with energy though, they generally can only manage a single trap each. A side effect of this is that when a kobold that was maintaining a trap dies, the trap goes away. Of course, these are just for the traps your kobolds make. Any traps you personally ce will be there till you remove them.¡±


    As Ally exined that all Doyle had taken the time to finish reading the list. Another quick once over but he still can¡¯t find something vitally important to his decision, ¡®hey Ally, what does it cost to summon them? In fact, what do I use to summon them in the first ce? You said energy but you also mentioned stuff like mana and qi.¡¯


    Ally shrugs, ¡°for you they might as well be the same thing. There are innumerable types of energy out there with their own unique twists and turns. For instance, there is mana and then there is fire mana which is different from sun mana and neither are the same as yang mana. Luckily your world delved deep enough into science that this is easy to exin to you. Mana and qi along with all their variants are made up of a base energy. This is like how all matter is made of atoms with different amounts of protons, neutrons, and electrons. The biggest difference is the base types such as mana act more like light. So through the prism that is the universe you get the rainbow of mana types or qi types.¡±


    ¡°What you on some unconscious level y around with is that base energy. Dungeon cores are actually one of the few to do so. This is because part of what the mental cruft that gets left on energy does is form the energy into stuff like qi. Not even gods can get around this and in some ways they have a harder time if they try. Their mere presence converts any free energy around them into some divine variant.¡±


    ¡°As for what summoning various monsters will cost you? It depends on so many factors that the system is unable to figure it out till you finish your setup. Oh, and just to note, Systems are one of the other entities able to use pure energy. This is how they are able to provide rewards to anyone and power everyone up. Anyway, you already know of an option that can change the cost of summoning monsters. A few of the dungeon types while not specifically mentioning it do so. For instance, the animal den type would reduce the cost of natural animals.¡±


    ¡°The reason this happens though is not a system effect. Rather, the more you align with something on a conceptual level the easier time you will have forming energy into it. Think of it like making a crystal. If you start with a seed crystal to grow it from, things will be a lot easier. On the other hand, the less like something you are, the more energy it will take. This can get to where some older dungeons are just not able to summon monsters that don¡¯t fit their theme.¡±


    ¡°We can see an example of this in the universe my court came from. There was a fire dungeon there that used to spawn some rock based monsters early on to ease adventurers into the environment. After they developed past a few hundred floors, the cost to summon those early rock monsters ballooned. Right at the end before they just could not summon them anymore it would cost them more to summon a small rock hound than a patriarch smander.¡±


    ¡°We can actually see this as a warning for you. After they couldn¡¯t keep low threat monsters stocked weaker adventurers stopped showing up. Sure, strong adventurers provide a lot of cruft for you to take, but there are less of them and their visits sporadic. If it wasn¡¯t for a local sect of fire cultivators who used them as a training ground, they would have starved to death by now. Morale of the story? Don¡¯t make your early levels inhospitable. In fact, you should probably do stuff to encourage low level adventurers to keeping back. But all that aside, have you decided what monsters you want?¡±


    Doyle bobbles in the air, ¡®yeah, I think I have. Out of all those options I want kobolds, goats, and the assassin vines. Though I don¡¯t know what the difference between a main monster and a secondary one is so if you could exin that it would be nice.¡¯

 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 don¡¯t exactly know how this works. I assume with how you talked about it the system isn¡¯t 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 <i>can </i>work. However I don¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t 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, ¡°you¡¯ve 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.


    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 wasn¡¯t 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 aren¡¯t.


    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 didn¡¯t matter, but now that quirk preserved him in whole. ¡®So what if I¡¯m a goat? I am Doyle. It doesn¡¯t 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 don¡¯t have a problem but it shouldn¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t 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.@@novelbin@@


    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 queen¡¯s 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 rune¡¯s magic. All the while there are a handful of high nobles sneering in Ally¡¯s direction as they had sensed the magic and it¡¯s 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 <i>called</i>. Some hadn¡¯t even expected you tost a thousand years if the bets are to go by. Now you wouldn¡¯t 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, you¡¯re¡±, [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 <i>his</i> circumstances? You specified a gender, so this isn¡¯t your usual dungeon core as they don¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t 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 wouldn¡¯t 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 wasn¡¯t a portal type this wouldn¡¯t have happened either as it would have had to ce him somewhere. Of course all this spection won¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t make it easier to summon. Rather how deep a dungeon core¡¯s 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 wouldn¡¯t 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 immortal¡¯s soul.] [Hey, don¡¯t you roll your eyes at Us. They are younger than Us. Just because they have all lived longer than the current ORDER doesn¡¯t mean We don¡¯t remember when they came about.]


    [Anyway, where were We? Right, the ¡®immortal¡¯s 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 can¡¯t 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 world¡¯s 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 Doyle¡¯s case more goat centric. I don¡¯t 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 won¡¯t fall. Good for him as he won¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t know how to deal with this. She throws her hands up in the air, ¡°okay, what now?¡± [Why we catch up of course! Don¡¯t think We would let you get away with how long you went without calling. We don¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t 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 system¡¯s designer sent along an intern but their biology didn¡¯t match up with this dimension very well and they weren¡¯t powerful enough to ignore it. Instead, they showed up like one of those ¡®ascended energy beings¡¯ you would see in earth¡¯s science fiction. It first showed up in the queen¡¯s court and after they learned the basic details stepped through themunication portal.


    The being exists next to Doyle¡¯s core and pulls up a system panel. ¡°Yep, there¡¯s 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, don¡¯t 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 <i>will</i> 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 Ally¡¯s 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 don¡¯t 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 can¡¯t deal with what he couldn¡¯t. ¡®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 isn¡¯t 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 shouldn¡¯t cut it so close to death when you don¡¯t need to.¡±


    ¡°As for what¡¯s 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.¡±


    ¡°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, there¡¯s a point there. [Paths]¡¯@@novelbin@@


    {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 aren¡¯t 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 don¡¯t 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.¡±

 Dungeon Territory – Chapter 12

    Ally uses her mor to create an image of a warrior in leather armor. ¡°Let¡¯s take the dodging warrior as an example. He gained his ss and filled up all his skill slots.¡± The illusionary warrior goes through a few actions to show his ten skills. ¡°Later on though he gets drafted and ends up on the front line and shoved into heavy armor. Not something his dodge skill would be useful for. When hepletes his current warrior path all he can choose is the next warrior path.¡± The little warrior looks happy but then another illusionary warrior appears next to him. This new warrior ps his full te armor in glee. It looks to fit much better than the original warrior who now has his face turned down.


    ¡°His friend there had almost the same paths and skills. The only difference was he never learned dodge. This gave him the chance to learn the skill for his full te. Now instead of just getting an ever increasing number added to the warrior path he had the option to instead chose a better path. He was able to receive the heavy warrior path. While not some legendary path it does two important things. One is it resets how many points it takes toplete the path. Along with the fact that better paths provide more stats he will be able to learn more skills. That¡¯s right, he gets more skill slots.¡±@@novelbin@@


    ¡°When you open the skill panel, it will normally note how many skill slots you have and of course your skills. The exceptions to this is that skills like your database will expand to show what they contain and when you have advanced a ss. The heavy warrior will find that despite the warrior path being gone in his paths the skill screen still lists the warrior skill slots.¡±


    ¡°However advancing your ss like this is not some easy path to power. While the higher on a path you go the more it costs it also increases the rewards.¡± The original illusionary warrior is now living through a sped up life and never changes from his warrior path. Then what must be yearster Doyle watches the scene of the warrior meeting the heavy warrior again. The heavy warrior gloats at the regr warrior and shows a system panel which says he is now a Heavy Chaotic War Infantry II. The regr warrior takes a nce at his ss path which is still warrior but it has advanced to Warrior X. They fight it out and despite all the skills the heavy brings to bear on the warrior he loses. The warrior showing greater power and skill in what he knows.


    ¡°Some of the most powerful beings under the system have only a single path which they never upgraded. Mind you, this is somewhat a matter of survivors bias so don¡¯t think you shouldn¡¯t. Rather, the takeaway is that they focused on what they are good at and became masters of it. If you get the choice to upgrade your dungeon core path don¡¯t turn it down without at least a look. Read the description and see if it goes with what you believe fits you best. After all, while those powerful beings didn¡¯t they are also the oldest beings born in this dimension. All the other powerful ones who did not take just a single path are all much younger. Slow and steady will get you there but it takes a long time and is filled with more danger.¡±


    Doyle nodded his core, ¡®that was interesting. So what¡¯s next? I have a path and skills. Do we just start building now?¡¯ Ally flies over to a wall and touches it. ¡°This is as far as you can currently see and you can only build in your territory so we wouldn¡¯t have much we could do. No, first you need to expand. This will be both easier and harder for you. A dungeon more rooted in their dimension would have somewhere to dig into. You, however are floating next to your dimension in the void between. What you see is all there is so while you aren¡¯t limited by physical matters like having to dig down because the surface is above you. It limits you as it will cost a lot more to expand. It is much harder to create a literal space from nothing than convert some that is already there into your own.¡±


    ¡°To expand your territory will be one of the few things you can do that is not a skill. Simr to how humans don¡¯t get a skill for growing up. The expansion is your natural growth even if you can control it on a conscious level. Now to get this right will take some time. In fact, I expect you to spend the lion¡¯s share of the time we have left on this. The first step will be easy enough, you need to sense your territory. Go ahead and give it a try. Meditate on yourself and try to sense not just the material the room is made of but the level below that.¡±


    Finished with her instructions Ally settles down on top of his core and mediates while she waits. Doyle doesn¡¯t pay much attention to this as he has gone into a state of meditation as well. As his thoughts fall away the first thing he notices is how much he knows about the room. Everything from theposition of the air which is being kept at the earth standard mix to how the walls mimic ava tube even if they are a little too uniform and t. But that isn¡¯t what Ally told him to look at so he goes deeper.


    There is what almost seems like a breeze but isn¡¯t. This too isn¡¯t what he is feeling for but after he meditates on it for a few hours, he realizes what it is. This flow is the mystical energies from outside his territory. Weak to the point of unnoticeable. If there had been any stronger stimulus, this influx of energy would have been lost. Now though it provides a clue for Doyle. As the energyes in from each of the walls, he can sense it slowly be whittled down until none of it reaches his core.


    This siphon in the space muste from his territory and so he focuses on it. More hours pass until he can pinpoint where he stops and the material begins. Now that he can feel the difference it is like one of those 3d images where you have to cross your eyes. Even though it is all lined up, he can still tell it isn¡¯t one image.


    Hees out of his state of self exploration to Ally having just gotten up again. She nods and with a big smilements that he was, ¡°rtively quick for an intelligent dungeon. Most of the time you lot get caught up on something that blinds you to what is right in front of you. Though it helps that your dungeon territory is so dense right now. You need enough to spread out a good bit if maybe not a full floors worth and it is all stuck in this one room. A small room at that. There isn¡¯t anything for you to judge it against so you might not have noticed. An average sized human would need to duck to stand in here.¡±


    ¡°Anyway, now that you have a feel for your territory you need to let it disperse outward. Later on you will be able to control the direction but for now an even expansion is more than enough. It is all kept together at the moment or else newly born dungeons would all die as their territory tries to just keep expanding. In the normal course of events a newly born dungeon core would just sit around until the density reaches a point that it explodes outwards. You can¡¯t do that as to support your mind you need more energy than you take in. Quite fatal for those who turn into a core without any guidance. But enough about that, measure the edge of your territory. There should be ayer that is denser. You could look at yourself like an egg and now you need to hatch. There is no wrong way so just try a lot of different methods.¡±


    Doyle bobbles and then focuses again. He had already felt along the edge of his territory. The room that he was is a perfect square which would help him. His territory was already trying to push outward. While somewhat evenly spread this attempt to move outward gathered more of his influence at the corners. This would be where he started.


    Doyle could not move his territory yet but in such apressed area he would have more to work with. A poke here, a prod there. Try to twist it and twirl it. Though what finally worked was a simple push. The territory wanted to go outward so while the other attempts would make it twitch, a good shove proved sessful. This shove at the lower corner opposite of Ally exploded outward. Not literally, the stone stayed where it was, but his territory flooded out.


    At first it sprayed out like from a hose but soon this wanton spray petered off. Instead, at the dense border this bound up territory started to ooze outward. Now that it wasn¡¯t streaming out so forcefully Doyle was able to see what was happening. While his territory could move through itself any ce that wasn¡¯t his already would absorb it like a sponge. After enough of his territory disappeared into the void, it would instead be a part of him.


    This discovery was almost enough for him to miss the other big change. The burst corner allowed a stream of mystical energy to enter his realm. It was a mix of all kinds of things but once within his territory all these energies soon broke down. Before he didn¡¯t notice because the inward flow of energy was so slow but it seemed everything ended up as the same thing when he was done with it.


    ¡®Hey Ally, I did what you said but I also have a question. I have all this mystical energy flowing inward like you said but it all seems to turn into the same stuff. Is it all the same or am I missing something? You seemed to be very careful to call it mystical energy or some specific type like mana.¡¯


    Ally forms a circle with her thumb and finger then nces through it. Doyle is able to notice a glow to them before she stops though the purpose is clear. She easily points out the opened corner and flies over to it. With her hand t against the ground an invisible pulse radiates out from her along the ground. As this pulse passes around the room all the territory still caught up in the older border bursts as well. She ps the nonexistent dust off her hands and turns back to Doyle.


    ¡°A little of column a and a little of column b. At the moment what your making is quintessence. All mystical energies break down into it, however the conversion rate is abysmal. You do need quintessence to run your core but that is like a ss of fresh waterpared to a sea. That fresh water is needed for a human to live but if all you want is to put out a fire either works just as fine. As all you need at the moment is quintessence, that is what gets made. Once you have some monsters and other such consumers of energy, your core will only create as much as you need.¡±


    ¡°Instead, it will reduce all the mystical energies to basic types. Stuff like mana, qi, and prana. Then that will be mixed up nice and fine into what the System will call world energy. Ipared created monsters to balloons. Quintessence would be the thin rubber wall while the air is the world energy.¡±

 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 won¡¯tst. 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, ¡®don¡¯t worry about it. Knowing or not wouldn¡¯t 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 won¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t 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 won¡¯t do much but at the moment this will rocket your territory control skill¡¯s 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 wasn¡¯t 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. Let¡¯s 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}


    Ally¡¯s eyes go wide at the goat pattern. ¡°Well, there is your silver lining for getting trapped. Most people don¡¯t 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 don¡¯t 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 won¡¯t 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 can¡¯t actually sense it but treat it like you were still a human meditating on your own body.¡±


    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 can¡¯t sense anything. Then Ally interrupts him, ¡°have you noticed anything yet?¡± With Doyles negative response Ally sighs in relief, ¡°at least you aren¡¯t 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@@novelbin@@


    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, you¡¯re 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 doesn¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t really bother with normal shapes. You''re either able to make a cube or youcan¡¯t no matter how much work you put into it.¡±


    ¡°Now don¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯te 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, you¡¯re 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, don¡¯t do that. It won¡¯te 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 won¡¯t 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 won¡¯t do much but it is a start. Now give it a try.¡±


    Doyle had gotten the hang of using skills so it wasn¡¯t 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, didn¡¯t 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 won¡¯t have to worry about everything snapping to some universal grid. Downside is of course everything won¡¯t 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 Ally¡¯s 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 doesn¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t 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 can¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t 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 shouldn¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t bad. Just don¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t 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 shouldn¡¯t 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, Autumn¡¯s Jester 3/100


    Level: 10


    S[12] A[9] C[12] I[15] W[7] P[9] D[7] K[18] L[10]@@novelbin@@


    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. Let¡¯s work on connecting the rooms together. While they share sides, you haven¡¯t 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 you¡¯ve 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 stone¡¯s natural grain. To put all his work to shame the system just styles it. Doyle can feel how it happened. Can¡¯t 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 aren¡¯t 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.¡¯@@novelbin@@


    ¡®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 don¡¯t 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 didn¡¯t notice when she took it out but ignores it for now. He can¡¯t 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.


    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 don¡¯t they always? Don¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t 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 don¡¯t 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 you¡¯re 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 isn¡¯t much we can do about it at the moment. During the tutorial I give the orders because you don¡¯t 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.¡¯

 Placing Plants – Chapter 17

    With Ally¡¯s confirmation that everything is alright Doyle gets down to spreading the dirt around. Almost every room gets a good hand length of soil along the bottom along with any nooks and crannies being filled in. The only exception being his core room and the medium size room right above it which he leaves dirt free and the long room. That hallway gets jam packed with the stuff. Even beyond that he shifts the stone around to make some ces on the ceiling to put dirt in for when he ces the vines. He piles the dirt up along the walls in some ces so high as to block vision from one end of the room to the other.


    That done Doyle turns back to Ally. ¡®I ced all the dirt and it only took me half a day. Crazy long whenpared to the fact that all the stone for the rooms took a few hours but I guess that¡¯s my life now.¡¯ Ally ps her hands, ¡®wonderful! Time for nting and sowing. You have only a few choices for flora but what you do have is a nice selection. If I remember correctly, the three normal nts you have are shrubs, vines, and clover. Now you don¡¯t need my advice for this but shrubs are good for breaking up yourrge rooms. Vines can block sight and mess with ranged attacks. Finally clover just goes everywhere on the floor that you have dirt but no other nt. Your walls look nice enough but mud floors isn¡¯t attractive to adventurers.¡¯


    ¡®Before you go off to do it know that when creating your nts you have some control. In your patterns it just lists the nt or animal. Don¡¯t assume this means you just throw energy at the creation skill and boom, you have a shrub. There is arge amount of control on how old what you create is, the coloring, and with more levels in the pattern the species.¡¯


    ¡®For instance, you have shrubbery at level two. With that you just have one species avable and the ability to make it a brighter or darker shade of green than natural. As people track in misceneous seeds and bits of greenery, you will collect more shrub species and level the pattern up allowing for a more diverse dungeon biome.¡¯


    ¡®Anyway, got a bit sidetracked there. Creation of life is a bit harder than rock or air. With the system though you have a shortcut. Use the database skill and select the pattern you want to create. Oh and that was a request for you to do that. Easier to exin with a visual.¡¯


    Doyle bobbles, ¡®okay let¡¯s start with the clover as I have to ce that everywhere. [Dungeon Pattern Database]¡¯ This does nothing though. He tries it again only to notice something important. It was already active. His status screen and the list of patterns are still on disy off to the side as he had never closed them. ¡®Okay, just ignore that. [Select clover].¡¯


    Front and center a new window pops up for him and Ally to look at. On it are a couple of images and a barebones stat panel. They ignore the images for the moment and focus on the stats.


    {Species: Clover


    S[3] A[20] C[10]}


    Despite only having three stats it has amazing values in two of them. Doyle quirks his core to the side, ¡®what¡¯s up with the crazy agility? None of my monsters have a value greater than ten.¡¯ Ally shrugs, ¡®It is just the difference between what is being represented. If you check the images above while there is a picture of a single clover the main image is of a field of the stuff. The image of a singr clover is for messing around with the looks of it.¡¯


    ¡®What the stats are for is the field though. Agility is so high because it is a nt and not something like arge tree. Think about it, when you step on grass does it not just spring back up afterwards? And the constitutiones from how hard it is to kill a whole field of clovers. The only stat that has anything to do with one piece of clover is the Strength. In fact, the only reason it is so high is because of the roots.¡¯


    ¡®The stats don¡¯t actually matter much and can be ignored until the system decides whatever your dealing with is a monster or sentient. For now, y around with the design of your clover. This specific species should be the one native to wherever you came from. A good starting point but maybe add a ssh of color or something?¡¯


    Doyle focuses on the image of a single clover. A little misleading as it includes not just a leaf but one flower as well. His focus is enough to bring up a disy reminiscent of some 3d modeling program. Not as powerful though as he gets the feel that he is quite limited in what he can do. What he can do is shift the color a little. There is a little mark on the leaf which is a bit lighter. Doyle expands the area it covers and lightens the center even more. Now each leaf will look like they have a small dot. Besides that Doyle notices the flowers have a chance to turn a bit pink. Instead of making it a chance he just cranks it up so about one in five flowers are a bright pink.


    Ally nods at his changes, ¡®good now don¡¯t even think of touching the other nts. You can go back and change themter but if you make your dungeon look like some alienndscape, it might hurt you. For the moment the clover will add a mystique to the dungeon and it is well within the realm of possibility. Oh, and your assassin vines are matched to the current vines you have. While changes to foliage and critters costs nothing, messing with monsters does.¡¯


    ¡®Anyway, now that you have the clover figured out just confirm this variant is your default clover type.¡¯ Doyleplies, ¡®[Make this the default clover]¡¯. With that the image of a field of clover shifts to be popted with the new type. The lighter dots on the leaves creates an interesting look to the field. However the weird part is that the pink flowers are not evenly spread. Instead, they are clumped up in groups of ten to over a hundred blooms. The effect looks quite striking to Doyle though he has to wonder about the behavior.


    Ally nces at the field, ¡®very nice. Humans will love it. Now for the easy part. Since clover is a normal type of nt, you will not be cing each leaf yourself. You can of course but that would be stupid. Instead, just imagine where you want it in a room and clover will fill the space. In fact, once you have it ced I advise you to put down a rule to keep the ce filled. Otherwise after a few fights your rooms will end up like mud pits and that doesn¡¯t evene close to what happens when a fire magees through.¡¯


    ¡®Oh, and that rule is only temporary. Once enough energy has been absorbed by the clover to make it real, the stuff will grow back just fine on its own. When a floor is clear of adventurers, the nts will grow back at a faster speed. You still need to worry about animals but I have advice for that as well. Now spread the clover and I guess the rest of the nts as well. You will feel a change once you ce it. That is natural and we can talk about after you finish.¡¯


    Doyle quirks his core to the side, ¡®it¡¯s the change of my quintessence to world energy isn¡¯t it?¡¯ Ally holds both hands up, ¡®well yes, but once again we can talk after your done. Not much we can do until it finishes and that should be around when you¡¯re done with the nts.¡¯


    Instructions over Doyle refocuses on his dungeon as a whole. Clover is easy enough. Mass select all the dirt areas and point his creation skill at it. Starting with the centerrge room nts spring up through the soil and grow to maturity. In a wave the clover spreads outward until it covers every nook and cranny of the floor. Next up is the bushes. The medium-sized rooms don¡¯t need it and he has other ns for the long room but the rest get at least one nted to break up the terrain. Especially the two by three room next to his core. He has ns for that one and nts a couple rows of bushes which are all trimmed up.


    Last thing for him to ce are the vines. Mostly he keeps them out of the rooms, instead nting them in hallways. Doyle actually ends up adding some more dirt in them so he can give the walls a bit more cover. However the main center for his vines is the long room. With ns of this being the ce he keeps a couple assassin vines there needs to be a massive amount to provide cover. Vines on the walls, vines creeping across the ground, vines hanging from the ceiling. He just coats the ce with them.


    And all the while this is happening he can feel a foundational shift in his dungeon. With the clover ced Doyle felt his quintessence drop as another energy takes it ce. In fact, for each drop of quintessence a flood of world energy inaduates him. This feeling of changests even beyond cing hisst vine so he waits another moment for it to finish. Ally however notices when it is done first and attracts his attention to his status.


    {Name: Doyle Huxley


    Race: Dungeon Core (Strange Caverns)


    Soulbond: Ally Huxley


    Paths: [21] 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): 31,200/1000(250)


    Skills: Territory Control lv4, Dungeon Rules lv2, Universal Deconstruction lv2, Dungeon Pattern Database lv9, Creation(Energy Powered, Pattern Based) lv4}


    In ce of quintessence he now has world energy and its regeneration rate is much greater. What hasn¡¯t changed though is the overflow. The amount of stored up energy is still much greater than the pool should be able to hold. Doyle doesn¡¯t even have to ask about it though as Ally exins.


    ¡®Normally when you overfill an energy pool something happens. On the low end of the scale the excess just dissipates. Too much though and you¡¯re liable to burn yourself or have some other nasty side effects happen. However as a dungeon who isn¡¯t open to the outside, yet this is dyed. Once you do open up the energy will burst outward alerting those in the know to your presence. There is no stopping this. Until you do open up, there is a limit to how much territory you can control and none of your monsters are expensive enough to use it all either.¡¯@@novelbin@@


    ¡®Using too much would be a bad thing on more developed worlds anyway. There are tools to detect a new dungeon and the less energy one puts off the tougher, stranger, or annoying it will be so they send out the A team right away. On the other hand when a dungeon bursts out so much that even the nearby farmers notice it likely only those farmers will care. You don¡¯t have to worry about this too much but you never know what someone might learn in a tutorial. Anyway, now that you have nts down we are onto critters.¡¯

 Monster Layout – Chapter 18

    Ally conjures up an illusionary horned rabbit, ¡®Critters are any lifeform which isn¡¯t 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 don¡¯t even technically need them, just like you don¡¯t 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 don¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t 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 can¡¯t 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 wasn¡¯t 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 don¡¯t 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, I¡¯m 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 world¡¯s fiction has been up to they are still missing some critical parts of how a dungeon works.¡¯@@novelbin@@


    ¡®Mainly the differencees from monster cement. In other universes dungeons can ce them willy-nilly but with the system ours is under that isn¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t 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 dungeon¡¯s 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 didn¡¯t have a reason to close it yet, huh? Anyway, with that open, select one of your monsters. I advise not the goat as they aren¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t 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 aren¡¯t a mammal so you aren¡¯t 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 can¡¯t 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 can¡¯t 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 won¡¯t 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.¡¯


    ¡®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 didn¡¯t forget it. The three of them go in the final medium sized room before my core. You haven¡¯t told me anything about how bosses work but I figure a kobold with a couple pet goats wouldn¡¯t 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 don¡¯t 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 weren¡¯t 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 don¡¯t think because this is a good setup it will work. You¡¯re missing a couple of things with it that are quite important. Going to be upfront with you on it but I won¡¯t tell you what these problems are. Not can¡¯t, won¡¯t. 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 don¡¯t 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 don¡¯t have to be torches, just some light source you would expect but that is the ssic option. This isn¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t bad. Of course a single LED doesn¡¯t work either.


    At this point though he knows what to do. There is no reason a torch would work and an LED wouldn¡¯t. He just isn¡¯t 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, don¡¯t forget to spawn your monsters. I might have sidetracked you with the lights.¡¯ He wasn¡¯t 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 aren¡¯t 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.¡¯


    ¡®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 aren¡¯t open to the outside at the moment just like your world energy pool isn¡¯t emptying, you won¡¯t lose any energy when you deconstruct stuff. More so than even other dungeons you¡¯re a bit of a closed loop. Sure energy ising in but that¡¯s 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 room¡¯s 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 isn¡¯t ack of light but rather an object of its own.


    {Time Until Core Breach: 1.00.00


    0.59.59


    0.59.47}@@novelbin@@


    Doyle has other things to worry about though as a timer popped up with thepletion of the entrance. Ally nces at it and sighs, ¡®don¡¯t 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 can¡¯t 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 don¡¯t 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, don¡¯t 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 wasn¡¯t 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 aren¡¯t 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 can¡¯t 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 can¡¯t 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 don¡¯t 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 won¡¯t 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 wouldn¡¯t 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 didn¡¯t 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 didn¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t here doesn¡¯t 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 Jeremy¡¯s 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 don¡¯t 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 don¡¯t 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, ¡°Don¡¯t 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 can¡¯t put the clues together. We aren¡¯t exactly hiding it¡±, and she kisses her. Once back on the ground Fern holds Beth¡¯s 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 aren¡¯t 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. ¡°That¡¯s 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 don¡¯t make me end it. Everyone around the bend we can¡¯t 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 hasn¡¯t even figured out how to order its own mobs around.¡± Antonio shrugs, ¡°I¡¯m 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 won¡¯t 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, ¡°didn¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t t in here so watch your step. I can¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t an exact measurement because I haven¡¯t taken a f¡±, Jess taps her shillgh, ¡°ine ruler to the ground.¡±


    Cas gives Jess¡¯s shoulder a squeeze, ¡°That¡¯s a never ending vigil you¡¯ve set for yourself. But yeah, Fern, give him a break. This is only the second time today but don¡¯t 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 hasn¡¯t 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.@@novelbin@@


    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 Antonio¡¯s 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 don¡¯t think it can be that fast? Hey Jeremy, now that you¡¯ve had your fun what does your observation skill say about it?¡±


    Jeremy has the cockiest grin as he exins that, ¡°it¡¯s an assassin vine. You''re both right and wrong. The thing can¡¯t 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 don¡¯t think we can avoid this fight.¡±


    Cas shrugs, ¡°I bet this wouldn¡¯t count for our dungeon run if we didn¡¯t 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 wasn¡¯t 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 wasn¡¯t 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 weren¡¯t 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 don¡¯t 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 that¡¯s 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 don¡¯t 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 didn¡¯t 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.


    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 didn¡¯t 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 Jeremy¡¯s range.


    His two daggers swipe out and angry red lines are drawn on both of them. However they weren¡¯t 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 Antonio¡¯s 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 Jeremy¡¯s 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 didn¡¯tst 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 wasn¡¯t 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 didn¡¯t 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.¡±

 Clothes for the Kobolds – Chapter 21

    Doyle sits there in stunned silence as the adventurers leave. Ally, not so much. ¡®Oo Oo Oo, care package, care package, what¡¯s in the care package? I¡¯ve heard good things about the endless caves dungeon.¡¯


    Doyle takes another moment toe out of his daze, ¡®what was that?¡¯ Ally shrugs, ¡®from my count about three critical ws and one very well trained party. You didn¡¯t order your monsters around properly. Missed some side effects of their abilities, and as a bonus didn¡¯t give your kobolds anything to use. Thatst is why I want you to open the care package. If anything, you will at least get the pattern for leather! The naked kobold thing isn¡¯t really your fault as you had nothing to give them. Sure you could have fashioned some stone tools but without leather or bark to wrap the handles with it would have done more harm than good.¡¯


    Doyle shakes his core, ¡®Gah, whatever, sure I will open the dang package. Though I am going to rece the dead monsters first. At least they left the one assassin vine alone, so I didn¡¯t lose too much.¡¯ Seven new monsterster and Doyle turns to the package. The leather is wrapped tightly around whatever is inside with a rough cord and the note is made of paper. Strangely the cord isn¡¯t tied on but rather one piece so he has to resort to deconstructing it.


    With the cord gone the sheet of leather falls to the side revealing the package''s contents. Before him in a small pile is a collection of simple clothes and weapons plus two little coins. All of it sized for either a child or a small race. Ally ps her hands, ¡®Yes! This is exactly what we need. Don¡¯t mind the size or fit, we can change that as needed. For now, just absorb everything and get the patterns.¡¯ Doyle rolls to the side but does as she says.


    The pile deconstructed Ally points at his character sheet, ¡®You now have some sub tables to your database! I was expecting to first get around to this with your rooms but this is fine by me. Open up the weapon and armor pattern tables as well.¡¯


    {Name: Doyle Huxley


    Race: Dungeon Core (Strange Caverns)


    Soulbond: Ally Huxley


    Paths: [27] 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 lv4, Universal Deconstruction lv4, Dungeon Pattern Database lv10, Creation(Energy Powered, Pattern Based) lv5}


    {Dungeon Patterns: goat lv9, dungeon soil lv5, clothes lv5, kobold lv4, assassin vine lv4, weapon patterns lv3, armor patterns lv3, shrubbery lv2, vines lv2, clover lv2, horned rabbits lv1, Earth standard air mix lv1, volcanic rock lv1, Basic Room(Small, Medium, Large) lv1, leather lv1, cloth lv1, metal(copper, tin, silver) lv1, wood lv1, system coins(copper, silver) lv1@@novelbin@@


    Weapon Patterns: sword lv3, dagger lv2, bow lv2, arrow lv2, mace lv1, staff lv1, wand lv1


    Armor Patterns: tunic lv3, greaves lv3, helmet lv3, boots lv3, cloak lv1, gauntlets lv1, shield lv1}


    She traces the armor patterns with her finger, ¡®you got lucky. So many level three patterns just from deconstructing the things once. The level five clothes is to be expected with you having worn them all the time as a human but your world wasn¡¯t very up on more ssical weapons and armor. You must have at some point had some experience with the stuff though. My guess is a fascination with swords and some light use of daggers and bows.¡¯


    ¡®Anyway, sub tables in your database skill work just like the database itself. They tend to form when you get enough patterns in a specific category. Overall, better to have the one sub table than each of the contained patterns in your actual database. Some testing has been done and we at least know that under this system one higher level pattern is worth more to your databases level than a bunch of low level patterns.¡¯


    ¡®Also, you might have missed it but your world energy is full but not overflowing. While you aren¡¯t technically open to earth yet adventurers can now enter and leave so it would skew the energy released when you do open up there. Instead of messing with it the system has just stored all the spare energy and will release it when appropriate. This is also so you don¡¯t cheese the tutorial as having all that energy would let you refresh your monsters too quickly and allow you to arm them better than expected.¡¯


    ¡®Speaking of arming stuff lets do that with your kobolds. Not too much as depending on the material and item it will cost you world energy. You need to find the right bnce so you can keep your monsters armed but not at a deficit. At the moment you have copper and tin so that means bronze weapons. I advise the ssic mix of nine copper to one tin. There are other ratios for stuff like armor but a ten percent tin alloy will do you with weapons.¡¯


    Doyle bobs upward, ¡®but what about the fact my goats didn¡¯t attack at all?¡¯ Ally¡¯s face goes ck and in a monotone voice says, ¡®well they¡¯re goats? What did you expect?¡¯ Her voice returns to normal as she rolls her eyes, ¡®Sure they can attack but if left alone they will generally leave you alone. You already knew you could give your creatures orders such as getting rabbits to stay in their burrow. Not to be rude but I basically said that already just moments ago. Though I guess to be more specific here are your three problems again.¡¯


    ¡®One, goats are passive animals so you need to tell them to be otherwise. I advise you to be specific so they don¡¯t just attack everything. Two, the assassin vines can¡¯t move around that quickly. You need to somehow set it up so it is harder to just walk around them. If that one vine hadn¡¯t setup right at the doorway the group wouldn¡¯t have had to fight till the kobolds. Finally number three, arm your kobolds. Luckily the little blighters are already semi aggressive and territorial so they fought back but that only goes so far. Also, your lone kobold will be a good fight once it gets a name. For now, it is just target practice. Maybe let it join the others of the fight is going against them. Oh and order her goats to follow her orders. Hard to work as a team when no one follows orders.¡¯


    Doyle sinks downward, ¡®yeah I guess that does make sense.¡¯ He sighs, ¡®well I have an idea on how to fix the assassin vines. I take a goat from the secondrge room plus that lone goat right after and put them in the vine room. Order the vines not to attack them and have the goats try and push people into them. As for the gear I think I will keep it simple. Though how do I check the cost of equipment anyway?¡¯


    Ally smiles, ¡®excellent n. As for the equipment cost that is easy enough. Just query the system about it. The price can change depending on so many factors. Though a in dagger will generally be worth about the same every time. As apanion I can actually help with this so let¡¯s bring up a bronze dagger as an example. [System, how much does a bronze dagger cost?]¡¯


    {Bronze(9:1 copper tin ratio) Dagger


    Temp cost: 5


    Loot cost: 43


    True cost: 5,000}


    ¡®Notice how the system specifically calls out the alloy? Thates from me having a specific intent for how I want it mixed. Let me show you that again but without the specificity. [System, how much does a bronze dagger cost?]¡¯


    {Bronze Dagger


    Temp cost: 4


    Loot cost: 98


    True cost: 10,000}


    ¡®Most of the prices around double while that first temp cost actually went down. The more specific you are when making things the less it will cost as world energy doesn¡¯t have to fill in as much. Now for what each of those numbers represents. The temp cost is what you pay to equip a monster with the dagger but without the intent for it to drop. You put basically no effort into making it a real item. The loot cost is, appropriately enough, how much it costs if you want the dagger to drop as loot. Barring other adjustments the price will generally be ten times the temp cost. Then we have the true cost. That¡¯s what you pay if you just want to make the item for realsy.¡¯


    ¡®There is a reason it costs so much more but it will make more sense to you if we wait until someone gets a loot drop.¡¯ Doyle tilts to one side, ¡®but didn¡¯t thatst party get some loot? There was the berries and rabbit meat that dropped.¡¯


    Ally shakes her head, ¡®nah, that was incidental stuff. If you had rabbit meat set as loot for the kobolds it would count. As it is, though that meat was just their energy copsing into something. If you didn¡¯t have the rabbits for the kobolds to hunt the result could have been quite random. Though speaking of rabbits, they all just hid when the party came through. You need to force excess horned rabbits to stay out or you will develop an overpoption problem.¡¯


    Doyle nodded his core, ¡®that all makes sense and I think I have a n for how to outfit the kobolds.¡¯ Ally brings up an illusion of a kobold and gestures for him to continue. ¡®We have two potential magic users so a wand a piece should do. Actually, how would magic use work for my monsters? They can¡¯t really learn much if they keep dying.¡¯


    Ally waves it off, ¡®If you give the male kobolds wands they will use them. Unlike sentients who have to learn magic most monsters have instinctual spells they can use under the right circumstances.¡¯ With that exined she waves at the kobold illusion and two wands appear next to a hand. Doyle nods again, ¡®fair enough. Anyway, I don¡¯t want too many back-line fighters so the rest will get melee weapons. I think two with double daggers and one going sword and board should work.¡¯ The kobold image updates to include two sets of daggers and a sword next to the wands with the shield at the other hand.


    ¡®Decent enough¡¯, Ally admits, ¡®but you might want to throw a dagger or shield at the two mages. Don¡¯t take that human mage as an example of how they should be setup. A kobold¡¯s instinctual spell can be done one handed so allowing for a backup weapon is a good idea.¡¯ Doyle pauses for a moment before he continues, ¡®you¡¯re right. To even it out one gets a dagger and the other a shield. As for the boss kobold I am thinking of giving her the ssic sword and board as well.¡¯


    The illusion updates again and Ally smiles, ¡®well that¡¯s their weapons ounted for. It could cost you a pretty penny though if you''re not careful.¡¯ Doyle agrees, ¡®if I tried to make it all loot the gear might end up costing more than the kobolds. I think a single loot item for the five regr kobolds will be enough though. The boss I will spend a bit more on though. If anything, by having more potential drops, she might earn herself a name quicker.¡¯


    Ally nods, ¡®that is true enough. You can¡¯t be too generous though. Might not want to have all the regr kobolds drop loot. For the moment you will have to re-arm them every time they die so it is easy enough to change up their loadouts. Later on after you gain the ability to automate it things won¡¯t be so easy.¡¯ Doyle thinks on what she just said, ¡®should I have the other monsters have actual loot?¡¯ Ally shakes her head, ¡®the only ones that might be worth it are the assassin vines and they already are almost guaranteed to drop their berries. I hate to repeat myself but once you see how real loot works, you will understand how to use it better. Now let¡¯s focus on the armor. The system won¡¯t put us back out there for adventurers until we are ready.¡¯

 Goat Armor – Chapter 22

    Doyle takes another nce over what armor he has avable. ¡®I don¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t like those two dagger kobolds would fight better with more encumbrance. They only have three strength after all.¡¯ Doyle¡¯s core dims, ¡®hmm, you¡¯re 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 doesn¡¯t 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 couldn¡¯t have set traps. Since you didn¡¯t 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, don¡¯t think I missed the clothes pattern. They are absurdly cheap as long as I don¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t drop her shield or mace sounds like a good idea. Also can I armor the goats?¡¯@@novelbin@@


    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, ¡®don¡¯t bother with the helmets. I will just give them cors and be done with it.¡¯


    Ally frowns and looks down for a moment but can¡¯t 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 let¡¯s take a look at the butcher¡¯s 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 it¡¯s 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 don¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t 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 don¡¯t carry to be loot? I noticed the metal coins in the pack so they are probably themon currency under the system.¡¯


    ¡®That¡¯s a good question.¡¯ Ally thinks about her answer for a second before she continues. ¡®There isn¡¯t 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 don¡¯t 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 don¡¯t 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 won¡¯t know what ours is until one gets dropped.In fact, you can¡¯t even use gold coins until the fifth floor boss so I guess it is a good thing you didn¡¯t want to use it. Not that we are likely to see them in the tutorial. Your kobolds aren¡¯t 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. You¡¯re limited to monsters equal to or less than your level and the monster itself can have limits built in as well. For instance, you can¡¯t spawn a real dragon under level 1000.¡¯


    Doyle nods his core, ¡®good to know. Though I have to ask, if monsters don¡¯t have paths how do levels work for them?¡¯ Ally shrugs, ¡®I don¡¯t know the details. Even though we have all these dungeons like Flisle and the Infinite Caves to do tutorials, they didn¡¯t start under the system. Their floors and monsters had already been setup and they don¡¯t exactly have leeway to set up new ones. I am sure we will find out soon enough.¡¯


    Doyle sighs, ¡®we are in a tutorial. Shouldn¡¯t 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 wouldn¡¯t 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 don¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t real. Dungeons and monster dens get quarantined so no one can enter them for their own safety.¡¯


    ¡®We can only do so much without turning entire species into our dependants. Even then it doesn¡¯t 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 can¡¯t manage it.¡¯


    ¡®Luckily I haven¡¯t 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 couldn¡¯t 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. What¡¯s 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.¡¯

 Jock in Charge – Chapter 23

    Doyle dims, ¡®Well that¡¯s a heavy subject.¡¯ Ally sighs, ¡®not much you can do about it. Even the creator of the system can¡¯t make it work for everyone. Since you likely woke upte at your original tutorial, you should already know that not everyone can survive even in races that fit the system. Having started as a human you are incredibly lucky.¡¯


    ¡®Your fiction probably has humans as a very generic race with nothing special besides maybe your adaptability. That isn¡¯t just the usual trap species get into where they only know themselves so of course they are generic. In this universe, humans are the third mostmon sentient lifeform. Even then you''re not first just because two insectoid races walk the line of how they count their poptions.¡¯


    ¡®The universal constants, even after the change, heavily favors intelligent creatures about human size and shape. Other universes are different but here humanoids rule the roost. Though you do have to be a little loose on what you call a human. The gics generally line up but most else can vary wildly and magic hasn¡¯t helped much. All that aside, you just need to make sure everything is spawned and hand out the gear. It has been long enough that we will be right back in the queue. Oh and tell your goats to attack this time.¡¯


    Doyle spins andughs, ¡®Already ahead of you. I did it all piecemeal whenever you paused to gather your thoughts. I even remembered to tell my goats to attack and the leader to help the other kobolds if things are too uneven.¡¯


    ¡®Fair enough¡¯, Ally shrugs and taps a screen he can¡¯t see, ¡®and we are back out there for raiding. My bet is we will see more people from the tutorial instance that team came from. They already have information on us so it will be easier to make that choice. Groups from other ces will show up of course but you can expect most to know our basicyout. And here we are, another team right away. With them joining so fast they must have been waiting to enter.¡¯


    Through the entrance portal another group of six people step into the dungeon. First through a rogue who right away follows the wall to the tunnel. Next two fighter, both in light leather armor with small shields and short swords. Then thest three memberse through all at once. A trio of magic users of some sort. Doyle assumes the one wearing white is some kind of healer but otherwise it is up in the air. The only other things to note about the group is that unlike thest this one is entirely men. In fact, if Doyle had to guess from how they jostled each other and got along this group had been a part of some sports team together. Even the roguish type wasrge and well built like you only see with people who work out regrly.


    The biggest difference between this team and thest is theck of chatter. Only the leader seemed to talk much with the others responding with a nod or shake of the head. Not much happening in the entrance room Doyle shifts the view to follow the rogue. The sneaky fellow had made it to the next room already and was peeking around the corner at the goat. This time though the goats aren¡¯t just passively weary of him. Instead, two of the three back away while thest turns and faces the intruder. Ally seeing this response nods, ¡®good. Did you specifically tell them how to attack or just rule that they should attack intruders?¡¯


    Doyle opens up another view on the wall that shows the rest of the group before he responds. ¡®Yes and no. I did put in a generic rule that monsters should attack intruders in the way they felt best suited them. For these goats it is all the instructions they get, same with any normal room with only one or two goats in it. Of course the vine room goats have orders to hide and bash invaders into the assassin vines and the leader¡¯s goats follow her orders. As for the other two rooms with three or more goats. Well, you get to watch and see!¡¯ Ally rolls her eyes at this but the rogue has made it back to his party so refrains from saying anything else. Doyle rolls slightly to the side and makes a view to show an ovey of the dungeon. The invaders marked by red dots, goats in brown, assassin vines green, kobolds blue with females a darker shade, and of course the leader gets purple.


    The rogue confers his findings to the group''s leader. This results in said leader going on a bit of a tirade about misinformation and faulty scouting. Just about confirming this group came from the same ce as thest. The other fighter tries to calm him down but all this leads to is more cursing.


    Doyle tilts forward, ¡®You know what? I really don¡¯t like that guy. What is he even yelling at his teammates over? If he wants toin then wait till they are done and do it to the other team.¡¯ Ally giggles, ¡®he can¡¯t. They might all be levelless newbs but thest group is still stronger than this one. Just look at how they stand. The mages look like lumps on a log without any preparation in-case they have to move and don¡¯t get me started on the rogue. You won¡¯t be able to see it yet but he is suffering from overreliance on his skills. I¡¯ve seen oak golems less wooden in their sneaking, non-sentient ones at that.¡¯


    She goes on to point out a few more things but is interrupted by the leader finally calming down and getting his group moving. Confident in their information still despite already having discrepancies he marches forward without fear of the goats attacking. All this gets him is a belly full of goat horns as the lead goat charges him as soon as he enters the room.


    He falls over with more cursing as the rest of his team surrounds him to guard against the goats. Once back on his feet he finally pulls out his weapon. The others have rtively normal gear. Wands for the magic users, daggers for the rogue, and the other fighter with sword and board. He however seems to have decided topensate for something as he wields in both hands a giant b of metal with only a passing resemnce to a sword. Ally had beenmenting on some small things but the sight of the sword stuns her silent.


    Despite the ridiculousness of his weapon what follows is a ughter. The rogue doesn¡¯t even try to get involved as the mages get to work. The one in white started to heal the leader as expected. What wasn¡¯t expected was that both the remaining magic users were earth-based. Raising two walls to force the goats into fighting the leader head on.


    The other fighter then gets into position slightly ahead of the leader and starts to tank, letting only a single goat through. This predictably leads to said goat getting crushed into the ground by a poundersly slow overhand swing. For a moment there Doyle even doubted if the guy could lift it over his head. One goat down they repeat the process until the room is empty.


    What is left of the goats soon evaporates leaving behind only a single pelt. The leader promptly picks said pelt up and wears it like a cape, crowing about his mighty conquests. Back in the core room Ally is just ck jawed at this disy, ¡®are they serious? Why would anyone even pick a weapon like that if they aren¡¯t even able to wield it properly.¡¯ Doyle mutters something about a popr video game but overall is clueless how anyone would think it was a good idea as well.


    Then the invaders heads into the vine room and both of them are stunned into silence again. The idiot leader just starts swinging his b of metal at the vines in his way. This of course doesn¡¯t work very well. The edge isn¡¯t very sharp to begin with and he can¡¯t swing it fast enough to get around it. All he manages is to tire himself out.


    Now worn out he just gestures to the other fighter to lead them. For the first time this causes everyone else to speak up in opposition. The rogue in particr is vocal about it, ¡°but captain! You heard what to expect in this room. Big ol vine monsters! We need me leading so I can spot em.¡±


    The captain gives the rogue the stink eye, ¡°I barely epted when coach put Olly in as my backup. No way am I letting a skinny nothing like you even vaguelye close to leading me. Now stand in the middle until we need your fancy finger work for something like a locked door or a trap. Good luck finding one in this cave though.¡± And he lets out a raucousugh while the mages soon join in if half heartedly.


    Order or as much as this group ever has of it is restored and the backup fighter goes to the front of the group. Their brave captain leading from the rear as they proceed forward. By luck they meet the first goat and after quick ughter continue on past the assassin vine without noticing it. The next assassin vine however did not do as good a job at hiding having just moved from the room''s exit.


    With the enemy spotted the group attempts to walk around it. The captain muttering something about how bloodless foes just didn¡¯t do it for him. Once the group is halfway past it though things go wrong. The goat Doyle had paired with this assassin did a better job at hiding and so got a good headbutt in on the person in the middle. This hit sends the thief flying into the vine assassin¡¯s arms.


    A quick jerk and he disappears up into the assassin¡¯s main body while his team panics. The captain ispletely worthless, half stunned and halfughing at what happened. It takes the other fighter a few moments to rally the mages but by that time the rogue was tied up with a vine around his neck.


    The mages under the other fighters orders rapid fire rocks at the monster while said fighter charges up to hack at it. The fight goes on for a bit more before the captain finally joins in. His massive sword not doing much as its way is blocked by normal vines. With an angry shout he orders the mages to stop attacking and focus on holding it down so he can get a kill shot in.


    This doesn¡¯t go over well with everyone else but after a few threats they do so. It takes a few swings and a lot of work on the other fighters part to defend the captain from the goat but the assassin is soon defeated. However, it is toote. The rogue is dead and they can only watch as his body dissipates along with the monster.


    Doyle back in the core is uneasy, ¡®I knew I would be killing humans but this doesn¡¯t feel right.¡¯ Ally grimaces, ¡®you¡¯re right about that. This wasn¡¯t a good fight at all. You don¡¯t have to feel too bad though. Invaders don¡¯t actually dissipate like your monsters normally. Instead, that was the tutorial saving him and returning him to his guide. Also from the looks of it that so-called captain is about to get hiseuppance.¡¯


    Back at the group an argument has started between the captain and the mages. The mages aren¡¯t happy that the captains ipetence killed their friend. All he does isugh at their anger. Then with a smirk he stares down at them and asks, ¡°what you gonna do about it pipsqueaks? He¡¯s back with the guide though I don¡¯t know about him anymore. Probably going to kick him off the team like I should have before this mess. We don¡¯t need such a worthless waterboy who manages to get himself killed in his first big fight.¡±


    At this point the other fighter has just finished off the goat and so walks up behind the captain. Thinking the fighter is there to back him up he puffs out his chest and his smirk bes even nastier. It doesn¡¯t stay there for long though as the other fighter runs his sword through the captain''s back. Strength leaves his body and his ridiculous sword pulls him over.


    The other fighter leans over him, his face t. ¡°You might wonder why I did that. Don¡¯t worry I¡¯m not betraying the team. Rather ever since I joined, coach had been working on getting me the captain¡¯s seat. Just because your dad kept the sports program afloat with his donations doesn¡¯t mean we could put up with your nonsense forever. The next game was going to be yourst but with how things panned out let me send you off with a message from the coach. You¡¯re Dismissed!¡± The other fighter, no, Olly the captain pulls his sword out as thest bit of life drains out of the idiot.


    Olly turns to the mages and sighs, ¡°I didn¡¯t want to do that but we better hurry back. There is only ten minutes before that idiot respawns and we can¡¯t leave Ed alone with him. We probably can¡¯t finish the dungeon in that amount of time with just us so let¡¯s go back the way we came. Anyway, I need time to gather the rest of the team and inform them of the change in leadership. That and kick his toadies out. That toxic spoiled brat better not darken our sights once we are out of here. He gets to live this time because of the tutorial but next time he won¡¯t have that to fall back on.¡± The four invaders then head back the way they came, once again avoiding thest assassin vine. At the entrance portal the three magic users leave right away while Olly turns back to the dungeon. ¡°Next time¡±, he clenches his fist, turns around, and leaves.@@novelbin@@

 That Girl You Hate – Chapter 24

    ¡®Huh¡¯, Doyle pauses, ¡®well that was an interesting group. Give me just a moment.¡¯ He reces the goats and vine assassin that got killed. ¡®And there we go. Everything back in order and ready for another round I guess? Since they left by the entrance and didn¡¯t kill much do we still have to wait?¡¯ Ally is sprawled back over his core. She lifts one hand and waves it around. ¡®Only a short amount of time. Just like when the previous party sent their rogue in first to check on things.¡¯


    ¡®While we wait though I do have something for us to do. It would be nice if you could make me a room. Not a room room but rather more like the rabbit burrows. Just a space off of the core room with a bit of furniture and a bed. With two dead, even if they aren¡¯t actually dead you should have some surplus energy to throw around. Might as well use it before you lose it.¡¯


    Doyle takes a look around the core room. ¡®Sure, plus I should do more with this ce anyway. Just bare stone is a little nd for my taste. I was never one for decorating but even I have my limits. First though, let¡¯s get you a ce to rest or you know, go to when someone actually gets to our core room.¡¯ He had enough room to work with so Doyle settled down to decide where to put Ally¡¯s room. In the walls would be fine as around the core there was more than a meter of rock but that didn¡¯t feel quite right. Instead, he went up. Down was an option but regr humans are more likely to check the floor than the ceiling.


    That in mind he decides on the entrance being above the doorway into the core. ¡®Anyone who gets this far will focus on me in the first ce so that was rtively safe. Out of sight is out of mind after all. From above the door we can put a short staircase up to the space above the floor¡¯syout and you get as much space as you want. To start with just a simple room will do and we can expand itter as you want.¡¯


    Doyle molds the stone out and up. Soon there is a nice cubby for Ally to stay in and he turns his attention to decorating his core room instead. Not much has happened to him yet so there isn¡¯t any reason to get too fancy. Instead, he decides on a repeating pattern that he felt looks nice and stamped it all around the core. Then below him he formed the rock into spiral pedestal that came a hand short of where his core floated. The pattern he hadid down stretching and twisting its way up the pir of stone.


    He moves his core around to test the clearance and lowers it just a smidge before he is happy. ¡®There we go. I haven¡¯t made you bed or anything yet but you have a room and my core isn¡¯t the most boring ce in the dungeon.¡¯


    Ally thanks him as she flies over to the hole near the ceiling and up into her room. ¡®Well, you weren¡¯t lying when you said you had made nothing yet. Not that I expected you to and honestly this is more than enough space. Mostly wepanions hang out in the core room anyway. Though maybe a light or two?¡¯


    Doyle¡¯s core dims, ¡®oops. Sorry about that. I am not doing a good job in remembering to ce lights around.¡¯ Ally smiles, ¡®it isn¡¯t your fault. How can you expect to know about lighting when you see everything perfectly well with or without light. Anyway, that was about enough time wasted. We should have more adventurers soon.¡¯


    And boy she wasn¡¯t lying. They had gotten off to a slow start but the very next group came from another tutorial instance and the one after as well. Of course, all the new groups kicked his dungeons rear. In fact, over the next twelve groups none of them ever lost more than a single member.


    After a couple more changes though, Doyle made headway. First, he made it so the goats in the vine room stayed slightly behind the assassin vines. While well hidden the vine monsters were big enough to be spotted well before the goats and let them take any group not in the know by surprise. This allowed an extra kill or two every few groups.


    What most consistently got him kills though was the kobolds. Now armed and armored they could generally manage to down at least one invader. However this still put him short. All the groups still only had six people in them and with just a third kill the dungeon tutorial would beplete. Even his tricky nning for how the goats would attack amounted to nothing. Sure having one goat hide at the side of the door would asionally knock someone for a loop but there weren¡¯t any surprises he could keep a secret. Allyforted him that once he had another floor to work with and especially after the fifth floor, things would be different. After all, there is only so much you can do without proper traps.


    Now another group enters his dungeon as he watches to see what happens. So far the results were split. Either they made it to the kobolds andpleted the dungeon or they lost someone before then and retreated. This time though he had given new orders to the single goat in the second medium room after the vines. Doyle had high hopes for the change but he had thought that about thest tweak as well. This new group in his dungeon was once again made of six people. An oddity as there was a single girl. Most parties tended towards either an equal split or all of one gender. However he soon got a feel for what was up.


    Thedy exims in a loud voice, ¡°OH MY GAWD, why do I even have toe in here? There¡¯s dirt everywhere and that vine room will simply Murder my hair. Why wouldn¡¯t that cow of a guide just let me pass?¡± A guy wielding the ssic sword and boardbo turns to her and smiles, ¡°Don¡¯t worry Daisy! I can carry you on through here no problem.¡±


    A guy in a white frock sneers at the fighter, ¡°And don¡¯t you worry about when Jerry there lets some monster through. The other can block it while I put up a protection barrier around so nothing can ruin your clothes.¡± Jerry scoffs at him and turns to a small guy at the back of the party, ¡°Hey shrimp, go check on the next room while we let Daisy rest here. Don¡¯t know why they forced her to walk down that long hallway. It¡¯s a god-damned portal, just open it up next to her¡±


    With everyone turned away from her Daisy sneers at their fighting but then smooths her face and puts on a smile. With a few steps she is next to the small guy and pats him on the head, ¡°Now, now, Jay is an important part of the party. I have no clue why none of the actual rogues wanted to join our group¡± (Being an overall observant group of people the rogues had all noticed what she was trying to pull and wouldn¡¯t touch her with a ten-foot pole) ¡°but Jay was willing to sacrifice two of his skill slots for things that would help with scouting. Now if you¡¯d please, go and see what is ahead of us Jay? Make sure to check if they are aggressive now!¡±


    Jay smiles and Doyle could practically see hearts in his eyes as he trounced off down the hallway. Once he was around the corner everyone else in the party broke into a bout of nastyughter, though they did try and keep it quiet. Then the groups other magic user stepped forward and iced the floor in front of the hallway. This brought another round ofughter as everyone made fun of Jay for being a chump.


    Out of earshot Jay bumbles through the hallway without a single shred of stealth. Without notice he is around the corner and into the goat room. Only to be knocked back into the hallway. Having made no efforts to hide the goats heard himing all alone and were ready for him. He lies against the wall for a moment groaning before standing back up. ¡°Well, I guess they are aggressive!¡± Happy with having done as requested he heads back to the group.


    Then as he enters the room, his foot slips right out from under him. He crashes to the ground again and almost knocks himself silly. He sighs and thinks to himself that, ¡®ever since I joined Daisy¡¯s group I¡¯ve be a klutz. What is wrong with me?¡¯ Of course nothing was wrong with him except maybe his ability to judge social situations. Anyone would slip and ice when it wasn¡¯t expected but the mage would always remove the evidence before he could notice.


    Now informed that nothing had changed the group goes forward with Daisy at the center and Jay in the lead. Once they reach the goats Jay gets pushed into the room first while the other guyse in behind. Daisy on the other hand stays in the hallway and shouts encouragement.


    Five men against three goats isn¡¯t really a challenge. Especially when three of them are melee fighters. Besides Jerry and his sword and board there was his minion with two short swords. Though he wasn¡¯t ambidextrous or all that well trained with it so most of his attacks were either iling with both or just using his dominant hand. Thest guy had a big axe. Not like the nasty captain''s giant sword. This axe while big was properly sized for its wielder. It just happened that that guy was a giant. A head taller than anyone else in the party and built like a brick house.


    Goats finished they head on towards the vine room. Before they enter though Daisy cozies up to the axe guy and pouts. ¡°You won¡¯t mind chopping the way through for us would you John? Those nasty vines would ruin me!¡± John smirks and puffs his chest out while the other guys all seethe at him getting Daisy¡¯s attention.


    Of course there is nothing they can do about it. His axe is perfect for the task and soon he is chopping his way through until theye across the first assassin vine. His axe strikes one of the outer tentacles and sets it iling around. Daisy pouts again, ¡°well look what you did. I don¡¯t really want to mess with this beast but it''s much too near the center of the room.¡±


    Then with a sly look she nces at Jerry and nods at Jay. A really nasty smile spreads across Jerry¡¯s face when he realizes what she wants. With a quick grab he picks up Jay and chucks him at the assassin vine. All the tentacles coil around him and the group takes this chance to hurry past the monsters. Its attendant goat unable to even slow down John as his axe slices it just as easily as the vines. Behind them Jay lets out a final whimper as he dies and his body fades away. The saddest part for Doyle was that Jay looked happy that he was of use for Daisy.


    The next assassin vine is way off to the side so they don¡¯t even have to slow down. The goat doing less than a speed bump might have and the same goes for the next rooms two goats. In fact, they progress so quickly it appears to square the goat all alone in the next room which hides in the corner. The group has a goodugh at it as they go into the next room.@@novelbin@@

 You Can Get A Ne – Chapter 25

    Of course a dungeon monster as simple as a regr goat can¡¯t 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 wasn¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t 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 wasn¡¯t 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 aren¡¯t going badly for them. The mage, having had a lot of practice with it, is slipping the kobold mages left and right so they can¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t 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 John¡¯s side. Then another spell flies their way. One goat shouldn¡¯t 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 don¡¯t even regroup, instead just hoofing it towards the entrance. Soon though Daisy¡¯s 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 can¡¯t 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.


    The assassin vines might not be able to move fast but that isn¡¯t 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 wasn¡¯t able to make a move at them as it wasn¡¯t 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 didn¡¯t 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 don¡¯t mind killing people like that. The only sad thing is someone like her wouldn¡¯t be caught dead in a dungeon. That and she isn¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t 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 let¡¯s 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 can¡¯t anymore.¡¯ Doyle doesn¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t 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, ¡®that¡¯s 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 can¡¯t or don¡¯t 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 aren¡¯t one anymore and of course voidborn because you got reborn in the void. But don¡¯t let me cloud your thoughts. Paths are quite personal so what do you think of them?¡¯


    Doyle reads each avable path again. ¡®I don¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t 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¡­@@novelbin@@


    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 isn¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t.¡¯

 Spiky Goat Helmets – Chapter 26

    Doyle checks his status, ¡®Okay, I have 3 path points left and I know what I want next. Goat supremacy only needs 20 points so I won¡¯t get anything for it but might as well throw them in. [System, put 3 points into goat supremacy]¡¯


    {3 Points applied to Goat Supremacy}


    ¡®That taken care of we have a few things to go over now. Most important is thatpleting the 2nd dungeon core path gave me 9 more floors. How does that work? I felt something form in my mind when I got it but haven¡¯t poked it yet. Also, you probably have some points so we should check what you have avable as well. After all, you¡¯ve been tutoring me a good bit.¡¯ Ally puts her hand on her chin, ¡®true. I might have gotten enough for something. Let¡¯s take a look, shall we? [System, show me and Doyle my paths].¡¯


    {Points: 10


    ss: Dungeon Companion II 10/10@@novelbin@@


    Completed: Fae Magic I 10/10


    Started [1/3]: Autumn¡¯s Jester 3/100


    Avable: Dungeon Companion III 10/100, True Dungeon Companion I 0/1, Royal Tutor 0/25, Fae Magic II 0/50, Dungeon Fae Legacy I 0/120}


    Both her eyes go wide, ¡®well my luck has definitely taken a turn for the better since I met you. Look at that, I got an upgraded version of my ss and I n to take it. Besides that there is a legacy path. Going to throw at least one point in that. I guess this is a good learning opportunity for you. Legacy paths are unique stuff. When someone dies if they do it right they can leave behind an echo of them in the system. Because it is rted to the soul only one person can have it at a time and if theyplete it, the legacy is gone from the system forever. So yeah, [System, put 1 point in true dungeonpanion 1 and 1 point in dungeon fae legacy 1]. I will just keep the spare points for now.¡¯


    {1 Point Applied to True Dungeon Companion I¡­


    1/1 - Path Complete, You have earned +2 Destiny, +2 Karma, +2 Luck, +1 Luck/Level, Soul Sight lv0


    1 Point Applied to Dungeon Fae Legacy}


    ¡®Well, what do you know! Got a skill out of it. I don¡¯t know how useful being able to see souls will be but there it is. Presumably it will be useful as it was the starting skill for the ss. Though now I do have two of three slots taken up. Guess that means I need more skills to level.¡¯ Doyle nods his core, ¡®sooo, with that new skill of yours, what do I look like?¡¯


    Ally takes a look at him with glowing eyes and shrugs. ¡®You look like you always do, a sphere of crystal.¡¯ Doyle tilts to the side, ¡®you checked my soul with the skill right? Because until recently I was a human. While I don¡¯t know much about souls, there is enough fiction that has it at least humanoid shaped.¡¯


    Ally looks up sharply and whispers, ¡°[Soul Sight]¡±. Her eyes glow again and she gets right up close to his core. ¡®You¡¯re right. Souls should match the shape of your body you were born in. I guess the ritual does more than we thought. Not sure what it means. Few people get close enough to a ritual created core to have info on this. But hey, the skill is now level 1, so that¡¯s a thing.¡¯


    Doyle floats down and dims, ¡®Yeah, not much we can do about it. So what do we do now?¡¯ Ally gestures at the walls, ¡®use up your world energy. Remember that giant overflow you had? It all gets pumped back to you. That means you should keep the tank empty cause you will get a refill. Maybe fill in all the spare space you have with rock? I know we talked about that at some point but never got around to it.¡¯


    ¡®Though I just realized we sort of glossed over your previous questions and something else important. Let¡¯s start with your kobolds. That path gave your kobolds, not just you, stats per level. All your kobolds are getting more agility and wisdom as they increase in level and any sentient ones also get karma. This is how your monsters can get stronger with levels. Even if they don¡¯t have paths, your own paths can buff them. This makes your goat''s path so much more important than before.¡¯


    Normally Doyle¡¯s core has a bit of a wobble like a person¡¯s chest moving as they breathe. This little fact he missed stills his movement entirely. ¡®Oh wow. I need more skills as well. Though I don¡¯t know where to begin with dungeon skills. The ones I already have are very broad, seemingly they cover everything.¡¯


    Ally shrugs, ¡®There is more out there to being a dungeon than you can do at the moment. Though thebo of control and rule can be somewhat omnipotent. That isn¡¯t a bad thing because when you do get more specific skills they can level up together. Don¡¯t worry about ovep because it will all work out.¡¯


    ¡®Now for your other question on the floors. First of all, don¡¯t worry about it holding you back. This one it is nine floors, next 90, and so on. What you feel in your mind is a data packet like with the monsters. Difference is instead of some foreign experiences, this is pure dungeon. Not even a conscious one but one of the dumb dungeons without a mind yet. All automatic responses. It won¡¯t st you out. Like waking up from a dream instead of a sledgehammer to the skull.¡¯ Doyle pokes it and Ally grimaces as she feels pain through the soul link. Sheughs weakly, ¡®I could be wrong?¡¯


    She was. Now the pain wasn¡¯t as bad as the monster info was. Still not a fun time though. It also didn¡¯tst as long and Doyle¡¯s mind cleared up after only a couple of minutes. Ally rubs the back of her head, ¡®so yeah. What did you learn?¡¯


    Doyle¡¯s core wobbles as he recovers. ¡®Guess what? Same old song and dance. I know Iined about you constantly bringing up the fact that I was a void dungeon but this is a major difference. In other dungeons the concept of floors is more literal. A cave dungeon goes downward, a tower dungeon builds upward, however as a void dungeon I go inward. My next floor forms where the current floors core room is. Some dimensional shenanigans go on with that because it isn¡¯t just a portal to the next floor. That floor is literally contained entirely within the core room. All that pain was from an absolute beastly amount of math being crammed into my head.¡¯


    ¡®I can understand why Flisle took so long to get to 7 floors without a system to help. Even with the instincts for making a new floor. The concept of putting a bigger box into a smaller one without damaging either takes a bit to wrap your head around. Not that I have. I am going to slide by on system based training wheels for a long while.¡¯


    Ally nods, ¡®well thats. Well yeah. Space based magic does tend to be limited to the truly powerful or those with an inborn ability. You would fall under that second one. Even without the systems help you would have gotten around to it within an eon or two. Yes, space magic without the system is something you learn in geological time spans.¡¯


    ¡®You basically have to be immortal to learn it. The system shortcuts it by doing the math behind the scene. Even then space mages under the system can¡¯t truly use its strong points. For instance, it sounds like you are basically turning your core room into a bag of holding or storage ring. Except of course at a much higher level. Cause, you know, you apparently will be doing this recursively? If you do this for every floor, then you are making a storage device within a storage device.¡¯


    ¡®Now you can put a bag within a bag and unlike some of your worlds fiction. However there is a catch. Well, normally there is a catch as you apparently break that rule. Space bes less stable inside storage devices that are inside another. This means if you put nine bags of holding inside a tenth one you¡¯re all right. Stack them though and things get a little chancy. You might just get a tear in a dimensions fabric, sucking everything within a decent distance into the void.¡¯


    Doyle tilts to the side, ¡®you bring up storage devices but also mention space magic being uber rare. How does that work? On one hand, the idea of the ssic bag of holding being a thing pleases me. On the other, no there isn¡¯t another side to it. If I wasn¡¯t basically already one I would want one.¡¯


    Ally puts up a single finger and shakes it at Doyle. ¡®You forget the whole system assist thing didn¡¯t you? That would exin it easily enough. But yeah, storage devices are semimon. To actually learn space magic is an arduous task. To use predetermined runes and enchantments is a different story. Bags are the mostmon though most limited. Instead of creating space it just stretches it.¡¯


    ¡®Now while it is interesting to go over this with you we have other matters to attend to. For instance, can you start on your next floor right away or does the system have some sort of limit? Once again most of our knowledge on how the system does dungeonses from transnts and not natives.¡¯ Ally goes quiet and looked expectantly at Doyle.


    ¡®Let me check real quick¡¯, and Doyle tries to form his next floor. Tries being the operative word as a system message pops up instead of a new floor. ¡®Nope, can¡¯t make my next floor yet. Apparently we don¡¯t count as having opened up yet and the system restricts you to only making the first floor before then.¡¯


    Ally leans back, ¡®huh, I guess with the system some dungeons could keep building even without opening. That rule would limit any runaway dungeons. Though it means that wherever we end up, we need to rush it. As we are, there will probably be a group or two who could kill us. You haven¡¯t even managed to advance the levels of your monsters. I guess just spend your world energy for now.¡¯


    ¡®Maybe equip your goats with something? Not as a permanent thing but just so we have a little more defense for the first few runs. Even if the groups thate along are stronger than any we have seen they shouldn¡¯tplete the floor in one go. The threat of actual death tends to hold back people. In fact, there is a good chance that most groups might turn away even before they enter thatrge goat room at the end there.¡¯


    Doyle¡¯s core dims as he concentrates on the suggestion. After some thought he had an idea that might work so he brought it up to Ally. ¡®Hey, the goats aren¡¯t really able to wear most of the armor or use weapons but I thought of a possibility. A helmet with metal horn guards should improve a goats attack potential. In fact, for the two goats under the leader some spikes might not be out of ce.¡¯


    Ally nods, ¡®that is a good idea. Their horns might be sturdy but it is a rtively blunt affair. Likely for the best on the first floor and the helmets would let you keep the same type of goats while adding better offense. Though helmets are still armor as well so it isn¡¯t like you¡¯re ignoring their defense either. Yeah, I think it could work out real well. [System, what¡¯s the cost of goat helmets with bronze horn covers and what if you add spikes to them?]¡¯


    {Leather helmet with Bronze(9:1 copper tin ratio) horn covers: 3, 15, 3000


    Leather helmet with Bronze(9:1 copper tin ratio) horn covers studded with spikes: 4, 20, 4000}


    Doyle brightens at the sight of the cost. ¡®That is well within reason, likely because of my connection with goats. They might cost more than the regr armor but less than most bronze items. Plus I don¡¯t need to make them loot unless some horned races show up. I think we can throw the first version on the five goats in thatrge room and the second version on the leader¡¯s goats. Really, I could give all my goats helmets but that would be excessive. Just the final few is enough for now.¡¯

 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 hasn¡¯t budged. At zero everything goes ck, even Doyle¡¯s 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 shouldn¡¯t 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 aren¡¯t 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 wouldn¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t 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 don¡¯t 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 won¡¯t 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.¡¯@@novelbin@@


    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 isn¡¯t that well defined. You can just assume that if the system doesn¡¯t 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 can¡¯t 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 couldn¡¯t 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 don¡¯t even count as invaders so Doyle is able to station a goat at the entrance to stomp them. Because even if they aren¡¯t invaders he can¡¯t just deconstruct them. This gains him another pattern but it is clear the system doesn¡¯t note them as worth a dungeons attention. The pattern doesn¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t feel quite right to Doyle it doesn¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t 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 won¡¯t 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 wasn¡¯t 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 don¡¯t 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 didn¡¯t 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, don¡¯t 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 won¡¯t 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 you¡¯re right.¡¯ Her mouth curls into a slightly sinister smile, ¡®we are a decent food stockpile at the moment aren¡¯t 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 don¡¯t 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 don¡¯t have them?¡¯


    ¡®That would work¡¯, Ally agrees, ¡®but you can¡¯t 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.¡¯

 Jim Causes A Ruckus – Chapter 28

    A group of twelve guys all armed with small utility axes make their way towards a rip in reality. The gruffest looking guy yells at one of the people in front, ¡°Jim, don¡¯t you dare try running back to your forest again!¡±


    Jim sighs, ¡®as if I could, you idiot. Not like I am at the front of this disaster because I want to be. This whole end of the world thing isn¡¯t all it¡¯s cracked up to be. The tutorial was nice enough but getting my weapon and most of my gear confiscated the second I get teleported to town wasn¡¯t any fun. How was I supposed to know the guy in a police uniform was actually just some random thug? Dressing up like that has to be the cleverest thing those idiots have evere up with.¡¯


    ¡°Head out of the clouds you numb nut!¡± The gruff guy grumbles, ¡°Be d we gave you that hatchet to fight with because if I see you hesitate in the slightest I get to duel wield today. You got that? Frank has your little forest town under his thumb and I¡¯m not afraid to lie my butt off when we get back to put all the me on you. You don¡¯t want to know what Jay and his gang would do to my group if things go south.¡±


    Jim rolls his eyes, ¡°yeah, yeah, we all experienced a dungeon before and that one¡¯s new. We should be able to walk through it. Especially since we have like a dozen men here and that ce shouldn¡¯t have any measures in ce to stop that kind of nonsense.¡±


    The gruff guy scoffs, ¡°Just remember that anything that drops goes into my pack. That goes for all of you. Neither town would be a nice ce for us if even a single drop of monster blood gets out to the popce.¡±


    Jim rolls his eyes again, ¡®Wouldn¡¯t want the sheep to get any ideas, would we now? Sure we all got training but so many just cked off I am surprised the gangs even gathered as many as they did. Seriously, they even epted you who hasn¡¯t raised his level since getting out. Not that you¡¯ve told us you work for them bute on. You¡¯re so obviously just one of their thugs.¡¯


    ¡®First chance I get, I¡¯m leaving your butts behind and doing just what you expect. That forest is calling my name and my ranger ss path will let me survive just fine out there. Good thing they believed me when I said I had just taken the tutorial path like every other idiot in town seems to have done. No one back there in either town stood a chance against those bullies. I would like to help but for now there isn¡¯t much I can do without some more skill levels under my belt.¡¯


    Then the group is upon the new dungeon''s entrance, a ck hole with jagged edges floating just a hand span off the ground at the top of a hill. An ominous sight especially when the group notices that you can¡¯t even see it from the side or back. Then the gruff thug pushes Jim and a couple other people through the portal.


    Once through the two nobodies both stumble around while Jim hugs the wall and takes stock of what he can see. A couple of bees are buzzing around some clover and a trio of horned rabbits are across the room.


    The nobodies notice those rabbits and go for them like rabid dogs. This doesn¡¯t work out too well as alerted to their presence the rabbits begin to easily dodge their wild swings. All that however gives Jim the time to notice one other thing in the room. Right next to him is a fourth horned rabbit, frozen in ce from fright.


    Jim nces back at the two fools to confirm they haven¡¯t noticed anything and then with great care takes a swing. The horned rabbit doesn¡¯t even have time to make a sound as it dies from the terminalck of a head. Near the portal the clover is long enough to hide the now dead rabbit so Jim positions himself between the idiots and his kill.@@novelbin@@


    Even being idiots the other three rabbits don¡¯t have anywhere to go and so they start to fall. This however takes enough time for the rabbit Jim had killed to despawn and leave behind a small piece of meat. With great care as to not attract attention Jim sits down with his back to the meat and takes out a broad leaf from under his shirt. Hands behind his back he fumbles for a moment but manages to wrap the meat up getting no blood on his hands. Now wrapped up and not likely to leak through his clothes Jim slips it up the back of his shirt and under a band of cloth he has wrapped around his chest, hiding his loot.


    ¡®As if I am going to give up food to those idiots back at town. Not much but this little bit should be enough tost me a couple days if I find some veg in the forest. Wish I had my bow back but at least I finagled the skills for bow and arrow making out of my guide so a little time and I can make another. Though I do want to rain on those thug¡¯s parade. I guess I can pop by both the towns before I make a run for it. Just the knowledge that there is a source of food over here that won¡¯t run out should get a few people¡¯s attention. I couldn¡¯t be the only one who pretended to be weak.¡¯


    The other two finish up before he can n much more out and Jim can only shake his head at their luck. He killed a single rabbit and got a good chunk of meat. Those two idiots butcher three rabbits and only get a couple slivers of it. Still enough to add vor to the gruel they hand out back at town but it isn¡¯t like they will get to keep it.


    First room cleared the three of them exit through the portal and report to the gruff guy. The two idiotsined that Jim had done nothing to help them but he justughed. ¡°As if I was going to join the fray with how you two were swinging your axes. I am surprised one of you didn¡¯t lop the others nose off.¡±


    The gruff guy grumbles a bit but doesn¡¯t really say much about the incident. He knows just as well as most of the others what those two idiots are like in a fight. Though at the sight of meat he perks up. ¡°Wonderful! Now none of you can tell anyone about this you hear? I can¡¯t even imagine what kind of pain you would go through if either of the two lords found out you let loose this bit of info. Now that the first room is clear and we know there is something of worth to be had, everyone in!¡±


    All twelve of the men shuffle through the portal and are soon making their way into the dungeon. A couple of themin about people holding up the line as they bump into those in front being unable to see into the dungeon through the portal. This doesn¡¯tst long as the gruff man gives them both a thwack to the head with the blunt side of his axe.


    The group heads through the hallway and into the goat room. While it is a bit chaotic, there was no way three goats were ever going to take out a group of twelve armed men. A couple more rabbits escape into the next room but are soon dispatched as well. The gruff man is over the moon at this point with how much meat they will bring back. Thoughts of actually getting some causes him to urge the group forward.


    In the vine room they kill the two goats but can¡¯t seem to find anything else and head into the line of medium sized rooms killing as they go. The lone goat doesn¡¯t even have a chance to sneak attack them from behind as the two idiots charge it right away. Past those rooms and into the big room the five goats with helmets do cause a bit of trouble.


    Jim stays back for a moment when the group enters and face palms. The two idiots as ever charge forward without a care. This worked until now as there was never more than a few enemies in a room. Therge room they now found themselves in on the other hand has five goats and they even have helmets. For once the goats have the upper hand and make great use of their helmets to counter charge the two bringing them down to the ground. Once there it is a matter of moments before they both die as the goats headbutt and stomp them to death.


    A grisly sight but somewhat expected. Even the others who had gone into the room right behind the idiots have stopped their advance and just watch, unable or unwilling to help. A silence filled the room as both sides just stand there only to be broken as the gruff man orders everyone to attack.


    Despite the goats'' sess there still isn¡¯t much they can do against the ten men left in the group and are soon dead as well. At this point even with the goats only dropping a little bit of meat each the gruff guys pack is stuffed. He nces around and nods, ¡°We should almost be through this ce. Just got to see the core and we can head back for my reward. A goat and rabbit dungeon will make the lords very happy!¡±


    With another order everyone proceeds through a hallway and rectangle room into anotherrge ce. Jim holds back again and the othersugh at his cowardice. At least they do until the guy in the lead eats a face full of ice and falls over dead. The panic that follows almost causes the group to run away but the gruff man, now holding two axes with a third on his belt, menaces them and orders them into the fight.


    This moment of panic however is enough to get another man killed, this time by a goat with a spiked helm that ms into him. Now caught in the entrance to the room the group can¡¯t take advantage of their numbers as five kobolds all attack together. Another man falls as the gruff guy gives up on the group and makes a run for it. Jim not far behind followed by the rest. They just don¡¯t have the discipline nor armor to manage the fight.


    Despite the appearance of being a cave most of the floor space has been smoothed out by the carpet of dirt and clovers so they have little trouble fleeing. That is until the vine room. Jim had already scouted out the terrain when they came through the first time so was able to avoid much trouble. The gruff man, not so much. He twists his ankle on a divot in the ground and takes a fall face first into the ground.


    Jim sees his chance and as the man starts to get up, he feels a sharp pain as an axe slices through his Achilles tendon. Then a couple snaps and his back feels lighter. Through the pain the gruff man looks up just in time to see Jim run away with the pack full of meat.


    Once out of sight Jim starts to run for real. Out of the dungeon he goes and towards not the forest but the town which is farther from it. With his new speed Jim reaches the town just as a crowd has formed. A couple of toughs are standing out front with grim looks on their faces. Jim slows down to a walk and heads towards them with the pack held against his chest. His face tight and his eyes dart back and forth.


    The two thugs start to grin at this and one steps forward to receive the pack. However right before he gets it Jim kicks out and brings him down with a groin shot. A deep breath and Jim shouts, ¡°The dungeon is full of goats! Lots of meat can be had by everyone there!¡± And he opens up the pack and tosses half the meat into the crowd.


    Before the other thug can react Jim is off running towards the other town as a small riot forms behind with everyone fighting for the meat. The town by the forest is more ready for him with a small contingent of ten thugs waiting and the popce being held back by more. This doesn¡¯t stop him and after a failed grab he vaults over them and repeats what he had said at the other town. Then once again he throws out the meat.


    This time though he is a bit surrounded and his escape is trickier to pull off. Jim still manages it though and before backup can get there he has disappeared into the forest. It pained him a little to give up so much food but he didn¡¯t have anyway to preserve it so this was a better use for it.

 Artistic Expression – Chapter 29

    Back in the dungeon Doyle and Ally are a bit stunned at the turn around that just happened. The six remaining guys all stumble out of the dungeon, leaving the gruff man behind. Once they are gone Doyle gains back direct control of his monsters despite the one guy still being inside. So after a quick order to the closest assassin vine he turns to Ally.


    She shrugs, ¡®the system does put some limits on what you can do while people are inside but only to a point. He is clearly disabled enough to not count as a threat. Now if he pulled out a health potion or some such and healed up the restrictions would be back in effect but that isn¡¯t very likely at this point. Anyway, they might not have provided much but you still have the energy from those four other guys. Use it or lose it!¡¯


    Reminded of his now overflowing pool of energy Doyle gets down to spawning more goats starting with therge room and working his way to the entrance. Right as he is about to run out of overflow the gruff man dies providing him a bit more. Still to rece all the goats takes a little more even beyond what he had gotten. He can only sigh at how pitiful that group was. If they had challenged him with a normal-sized party most of them likely would have even struggled with the goats. Still there was loot to process and so he deconstructs everything before checking his system prompts.


    {Axe pattern lv4 acquired


    Weapon patterns goes from lv3 to lv4


    Iron pattern lv1 acquired


    Metal upgraded into metal patterns


    Deconstruct goes from lv3 to lv6@@novelbin@@


    Boots pattern lv4 acquired


    Armor patterns goes from lv3 to lv4


    Leather and cloth patterns goes from lv1 to lv5


    Wood pattern goes from lv1 to lv2


    New soil pattern lv1 acquired


    New soil pattern merged with dungeon soil pattern


    Pattern Database goes from lv10 to lv11


    Five humans defeated - threat level pitiful


    Minimal experience gained}


    Doyle goes over it and doesn¡¯t find anything too shocking. Those new patterns starting out at a greater level makes some sense to him as Earth had a decent level of manufacturing before the end happened. What in the end annoys him though is thatst bit. ¡®Why am I still level zero?¡¯


    Ally smirks, ¡®you have to either kill a lot of people like that or, you know, fight someone who is an actual threat to you? Don¡¯t worry about it though. You should focus on getting your skills up so you can purchase the rest of the goat path you want. Any stats you get per level don¡¯t boost things retroactively and I have no clue how that works with your monsters.¡¯ She gets a faraway look on her face for a moment, ¡®actually scratch that.¡¯


    ¡®I have been informed by a helpful little tutorial screen. Yes, we are apparently still getting them. Wait there¡¯s another. Okay, we will keep getting them until they run out. Anyway, your monsters count as having gotten the stat per level boost at the same level you did so yeah. Finish that path before you level. Not that you can prevent levels now that we are likely to be getting visitors but that¡¯s life. Anyway, the system tends to react negatively to people who try to grind out skills without leveling.¡¯


    Doyle nods his core, ¡®Sounds reasonable enough. Plus even if it didn¡¯t matter for the monsters it would still matter for me. Now you can watch for anyone that seems like they want to pop in for a visit and I will go and putter around the dungeon some.¡¯ Doyle sets up a view of the entrance and shifts his attention to what he can change around the ce.


    First thing hees up with is an alteration to the kobold room. A few stctites and stgmites here and there to provide cover should shake things up. He takes a quick look at the rectangr room with the bushes and shakes his head. There are things he needs before he canplete that.


    Beyond that the physical setup of the rooms are good enough as is. Only the kobolds can really take advantage of such niceties so instead he has to focus on other things. Rules already are keeping most things in ce but Doyle is certain they can do more.


    Then it hits him. If there are bees, he should have some honey. In the center of the rectangr room he grows a stgmite and then hollows it out. With the addition of a few small holes and one big hole it is ready and he spawns another queen and some workers. As they get to work building their hive, another thought bubbles up, so he shifts to one of the existing hidden hives. Inside it is everything you would expect to find. Bees,rvae, honey, and wax. Thatst one is what he wants. Doyle deconstructs a chunk of the wax much to the displeasure of the bees but he couldn''t care less. With the addition of wax his database skill goes through a major restructuring.


    {Wax pattern lv1 acquired


    Material patterns lv0 table created


    Dungeon soil lv5, leather lv5, cloth lv5, Earth standard air mix lv2, volcanic rock lv2, metal patterns lv2, wood lv2, and wax lv1 moved to material patterns


    Material patterns goes from lv0 to lv7


    Dungeon Pattern Database goes from lv11 to lv13}


    ¡®I wonder if the monster patterns will eventually go under their own category? It would make sense for that. I probably just don¡¯t have enough or the right variety for it at the moment. Oh well, what is important is that it raised my skill two levels even though I only gained a level one pattern. Ally was definitely right that quality is important here. Two levels just from removing a handful of low level patterns is impressive. Though I do have to wonder what it would have been like if I could keep the level five patterns separate. Anyway, I should have over ten points at the moment so a few more should get me enough to finish the path.¡¯


    Goal in mind Doyle focuses on just grinding out his skills. First for him to work on is the control skill which is still only level four. He hadn¡¯t been using it all that much as until now everything has been more of a matter of creation. There still isn¡¯t much he can think of using it for so instead Doyle decides to get artistic with it.


    Now he wasn¡¯t exactly the best artist around but he had always liked scrollwork with the vines and such. With his dungeon already having somewhat of a vine theme that would make perfect decorative engravings for the ce. There is a lot of room to work with so Doyle limits his artist endeavors to the entry room for now.


    First around the portal he extends the more jagged edges into swooping curves ending in loops. Off of those loops he extends vines and leaves. Just the most basic kind but soon he is adding flourishes and faded edges to the leaves. After a couple hours he stops. There is more room around the portal that he could work with but what is there should be enough for now. Instead, he focuses on the light source on the ceiling.


    Where with the portal he had used curved lines, the light received a much more sharp treatment. Straight lines and acute angles are the name of the game up there. His carvings spread out like a starburst until lines fill a third of the ceiling. There are three more walls to y artist with but it is at this point that he stops. Not because he is done but because Ally is poking him. ¡®Hey Doyle, hey, did you do that?¡¯


    Doyle focuses back on his core room to see what she is going on about. Nothing has changed in the core room itself but rather she is pointing at the disy showing the entrance. Not really paying attention Doyle bobbles, ¡®I just carved some lines around the portal.¡¯


    Ally thwonks his core, ¡®Not the lines, I watched you make them. Rather, the portal is different.¡¯ That grabs Doyle¡¯s attention and he takes a closer look at the entrance only to be shocked. So far he has seen three styles of portal. Flisle¡¯s which was more like an open doorway. The tutorials portal that was just a circle in space and of course his, a jagged tear in reality. At least that is what his portal had been like.


    Now however, while the edges are still uneven, they are smooth and flowing. Less like a rip and more like a mirage or the edges of a puddle. In fact, as he looks closer the edges ripple and shift around. Beyond that even the lines he had drawn moved along with these changes. ¡®Huh, yeah I have no idea what happened to my portal. All I did was some art? Plus whatever is going on has even integrated that as well.¡¯


    Ally holds her chin, ¡®hmm, since your art is the only change that has to be the source. How did you draw the lines anyway? That could be part of what has happened.¡¯


    Doyle shifts side to side, ¡®I just drew them with the control skill. It was the lowest skill I had and so wanted to improve on it.¡¯


    Ally nods, ¡®that might do it. After all the skill might generally be used to shape things but at higher levels, it can do more. You just finished engraving the ceiling so if control is the source maybe there will be a change there as well.¡¯


    They both look up and notice a change has happened. Before the light was made up of multiple tiny lights. Now though even Ally can tell it has be one whole. Then Ally facepalms, ¡®doh, open up your log to see what has happened.¡¯


    {Territory control goes from lv3 to lv5


    Conceptual reinforcement lv1 acquired


    Territory control goes from lv5 to lv7


    Conceptual reinforcement goes from lv1 to lv2}


    Ally excitedly points at the log, ¡®There! You got a new skill and it sounds like a good one at that! Whatever happened must have been because of that. Have I told you how to open up a skill description yet? Wait, no I haven¡¯t because a tutorial screen just opened up. Anyway, it is easy enough. Just ask the system for a description of the skill. Though don¡¯t let what you see limit what you think can be done with a skill. The description it gives is only for the skill at its current level.¡¯


    Doyle nods, ¡®good to know. I guess if I had check deconstruction before I leveled it the description would have said it could only target a sphere?¡¯ Ally gives him a thumbs up and smiles. He nods again, ¡®fair enough. A good reason as any to avoid them when possible. Anyway, [System, give me a description for Conceptual Reinforcement please]?¡¯


    {Conceptual Reinforcement lv2


    The ability to reinforce and alter the very nature of an object. This skilles about through abination of a domain and belief channeled through art. Most often gained by craftsmen who are devout followers of a god while creating representations of said god within a true temple. A rare skill generally kept secret as the crafter only has to be in a domain and believe in what they are crafting. This quirk has resulted in many crafters who have admitted to owning this skill being kidnapped by Devils as it is rarely hard to convince the crafter of their evil.}


    ¡®Huh¡¯, Doyle tilts to the side, ¡®well good thing people aren¡¯t able to recognize it through the art. I don¡¯t feel up to being somehow kidnapped by a devil at the moment.¡¯


    Ally turns to him, ¡®what do you mean people aren¡¯t able to recognize it through the art? It doesn¡¯t say that anywhere! We need to remove your lines right now. Devils are not to be messed with. In fact, since we have brought it up, never make a deal with a devil. They follow the contract to the T and people who have gotten one over on them are legends for it.¡¯


    ¡®Hold up there¡¯, Doyle brightens, ¡®it doesn¡¯t say it right out but there are some big clues in the description. First of all it is only a rare skill. From the description most real churches, whatever that is, should have a couple people with this skill hanging around. Second is that it specifically calls out that only the crafters who have admitted to having it get kidnapped. Now if I had to guess there are skills for art and crafting that allow magic to provide some corrections to their work right?¡¯ Ally nods her head.


    ¡®Good. Likely I got the skill through a shortcut then. My control skill probably has a bit of correction added to it as well and so I skipped having to get a magical art skill high enough first. Plus I¡¯m a dungeon. People expect us to be able to shift around our very structure on a whim so whatever changese from this skill would be easily exined away. Now what is a real church?¡¯


    Ally takes a deep breath and lets it out slowly. ¡®Okay, you''re probably right. But never mention this skill out loud. In fact, never mention it unless we are talking over the soul link, you hear me? Anyway, a real church, or really any ce of worship, is easy enough to define. If the thing, and no it doesn¡¯t have to be a god though that helps, has their domain anchored there. Technically, if you had people worship you in your dungeon, then it would count as a real ce of worship. Gods just have an easier time with having decentralized domains. All they have to do is get a spiffy statue made of themselves and fill it with their divine energy. Then when people worship near enough, their faith is gathered.¡¯

 Path Divergence – Chapter 30

    Allypse into a moment of silence as she finishes her exnation. Then she looks up, ¡®so you probably have enough points for that path now. What with the new skill and all.¡¯ Doyle calls up his status to check.


    {Name: Doyle Huxley


    Race: Dungeon Core (Strange Caverns)


    Soulbond: Ally Huxley


    Paths: [18] Dungeon Core II 10/10, Kobold Community 15/15


    Level: 0


    [6] S[12] A[11] C[14] I[12] W[9] P[5] D[14] K[20] L[16]


    World Energy(/R per hour): 836/1000(250)


    Skills: Territory Control lv7, Dungeon Rules lv6, Universal Deconstruction lv7, Dungeon Pattern Database lv13, Creation(Energy Powered, Pattern Based) lv7, Conceptual Reinforcement lv2}


    ¡®Huh, you would be correct. In fact, I have an extra point to spare. First though, [System, put 17 points into the Goat Supremacy path]¡¯


    {17 points applied to Goat Supremacy¡­


    5/20 - You have earned +3 Strength, Goats get +2 Strength/Level


    10/20 - You have earned +1 Constitution/Level, Goats get +3 Constitution, and the Path diverges


    Goats are hardy creatures with a long history of being kept by sentients. They have risen up to be gods and bowed to devils. Before you now stands a choice. On one side you have a ssic goat yet better. This is the mighty creature which in myth has fed newborn gods with both its milk and flesh. Many smaller sentients have gone on to conquer great swaths ofnd upon the back of these mighty animals. However on the other side is another goat. This one has the flicker of a true mind behind its eyes. While they can give freely of themselves it takes more than just being an animal to truly rise or fall. Choose your path.}


    Doyle pauses, ¡®Uh, Ally, it just gave me a choice? Here look at this.¡¯


    Ally reads the message and nods, ¡®good. I was wondering how long it would take for you to find a diverging path. This one is straight forward which is nice. Some of them can get pretty abstract. All this one means is that you get to choose between more physical goats or more intelligent goats. Likely the smart path will lead you to having some form of goat sentient. This could mean goat people, goatkin, goat folk, satyrs, or any number of strange goat themed beings like a goat based centaur. Not sure about the other exactly but it might focus on either body stats or some sort of adaption like letting them live in a freezing wastnd. Pick whichever you like as neither are putting up any warnings.¡¯


    Doyle ponders on the choice for a moment. ¡®I think I will go with the physical path. While it might be all about strengthening them it also sounds like it could deal with domestication and I already have a pair of goats being led by the kobolds. Plus I have the kobolds in the first ce. Maybeter I can get some other awakened monsters but for now I should be good. [System, I choose the ssic yet better goat].¡¯


    {Path Chosen¡­


    You are their shepherd and they your flock. Guide them wisely and their very presence will be a great boon to those around you.


    15/20 - You have earned +3 Wisdom/Level, Goats get +1 to Body Stats/Level


    20/20 - You have earned a reduction of 1 to the cost of goat based monsters, Goats under themand of another monster receive a bonus to Agility equal to half that monsters wisdom score rounded down and capped at the goats base Agility}


    Ally whistles, ¡®well don¡¯t expect that with every path. Dang, it even reduces the cost of your already insanely cheap goats. You can fit five more goats into your dungeon with that! Though that agility boost will make your kobold leader all that much more dangerous. It isn¡¯t that much of a bonus at the moment. Probably only one or two but once you get a few more stats for your kobolds, it should do some amazing things.¡¯


    Doyle nods, ¡®don¡¯t worry. That is beyond anything I expected anyway. Though I guess I should ce some goats while I am thinking about it. Lets see, one goat in the entrance on a more permanent basis. A couple more in the vine room. Another in therge goat room, and a single goat with the regr kobolds. Plus add some helmets to thosest two goats and we are good. Now do I have anything to spend my remaining point in?¡¯


    {Points: 1


    ss: Dungeon Core II 10/10@@novelbin@@


    Completed: Kobold Community 15/15, Goat Supremacy 20/20


    Started [0/3]:


    Avable: Dungeon Core III 10/100, Vine Warper 0/15, Kin yer 0/100, Voidborn 0/250}


    Ally nces over, ¡®looks like the answer is no. In fact, the goat herder path is gone as well which is kind of sad. It would probably have some synergy with supremacy. You probably need to do more things or possibly level up the patterns more? You have goat at level nine so something might be avable at ten.¡¯


    Doyle closes all the screens, ¡®true enough. Though I think the next path I go down will deal with my assassin vines unless something else interesting pops up. They are being a bit neglected at the moment and the sooner I get something for them the better.¡¯


    Doyle¡¯s words seem to remind Ally of something and she mumbles under her breath and tap the air a few times. ¡®Okay, while that might be a good way to go, it might not be the best. What you just said got me thinking. Dungeon cores are very unique in the Multiverse but other people can travel simr paths. What I just thought of was those who focus on monster taming.¡¯


    ¡®I had to double check but they can get paths that boost their monsters in a simr way to thatst bonus from goat supremacy. A temporary boost to stats thatsts only as long as the monster is under their orders. Thing is ites in two vors. The specific and the general. What your goat path provided was a scaling and potentially quite hefty bonus to goats, a specific. The general paths on the other hand will tend to give limited boosts but to everything.¡¯


    ¡®I bet if you either advance down your ss some more or do some other more general work with your monsters simr options will show up. Your focus on goats and kobolds is a decent idea. Goats are your go to at the moment and kobolds have a lot of potential. Plus with your supremacy path you need someone to lead the goats anyway. Assassin vines are powerful but not that versatile. While the points seem to just be rolling in at the moment that won¡¯tst. Thatbined with when you get more monsters means you can¡¯t specialize everything. Even just a single plus one a level to strength across all your monsters will eventually be worth much more than even plus five per level to your assassin vine¡¯s strength.¡¯


    Doyle¡¯s glow fluctuates for a moment as he absorbs what she just said. ¡®Garrr, your right. I probably just need to put in ce some more general rules for my monsters or something. The vines are cool but they don¡¯t really defend me enough anyway. Any point I spend on them would get more return spent on the kobolds or goats and who knows what else I will get. Plus we already have seen some more general rewards. The cost reduction wasn¡¯t to goats but goat based summons.¡¯


    Ally nods, ¡®good catch on that one. In fact, we can get a bit more out of that little snippet than just it being general. I think if you had gone the other path you might have gotten even more general rewards. This also means you aren¡¯t cut off entirely from stuff like goat folk. Rather, you will just have to get them yourself rather than have the system assist you.¡¯


    At this point they don¡¯t really have much else new to add and for the next hour or so they specte on it. As that winds down Ally nces over at the screen showing the entrance and lets out a yip. ¡®Doyle I think you might want to take a look out our front door. Something is going on at the towns!¡¯


    Doyle looks over as well and is shocked. Great plumes of smoke are rising from both towns and not the clean smoke of a wood fire. Rather it is the nasty ck choking smoke you get when stic and other nasty things are all burned together. ¡®Well, I guess that one guy stirred up some trouble?¡¯


    Ally shakes her head, ¡®I don¡¯t know if this is a good or bad thing. Those towns are burning and there is nothing we can do about. Hopefully the forest doesn¡¯t catch fire.¡¯


    Doyle¡¯s core dims, ¡®Eugh, a forest fire so close would not be good at all. Who knows what it might drive out of the deeper parts. Plus those guys over there are sort of my customers at the moment. It would set us back quite a bit if they all died.¡¯


    Ally settles down on his core to watch. ¡®It was somewhat inevitable. I have seen enough petty tyrantse about right after the system hits. Some just take to violence and bullying more than others. Never ends well for them of course. Everyone is on an equal footing after the tutorial so their scare tactics only work so long before either a hero takes vengeance or mob justice. Going by the mes this is probably an example of that second one.¡¯


    Doyle¡¯s core sparkles, ¡®look on the bright side, we might get an actual dungeon town a lot sooner rather thanter. Far as I can tell a dungeon is a much surer and safer bet than the forest when ites to food.¡¯


    Tilting her head down Ally sighs, ¡®well you''re more ready to be a dungeon core than I am apparently to be a dungeonpanion. After having to take care of so many messes like this it hurts me to see it happen just outside our home.¡¯


    Doyle bobbles, ¡®There is a saying for this sort of thing. You have to break some eggs if you want to make an omelet. The tyrants had to be taken care of for people to have a better life. All that would have happened if they weren¡¯t taken out is people wouldn¡¯t be able to level enough to stay safe in the new world. I bet you have seen more than enough ces that have fallen to some horde of monsters only for the leader to be the only one that escapes.¡¯


    ¡®If they build a town around us that would be the omelet. Sure that nasty hard shell is gone but everyone gets tougher by facing my monsters. A town where everyone is level ten has a better chance of survival than one where the ruler is level 20 and everyone else level one.¡¯


    Laying back on his core Ally sighs again, ¡®your right. Much more than you would believe. But still it hurts me to see them go through the pain. Worse yet, even when I was out helping with this kind of thing there was nothing I could do then either. This is just one of those things people have to experience to realize how the world works. Having someone swoop in and fix what ails them doesn¡¯t make them appreciate how bad the world is now. Until you get a few truly powerful organizations set up and a couple individuals with enough power to matter on a gctic scale nothing is really safe.¡¯


    Doyle nods, ¡®Telling someone the stove is hot will never be remembered as well as actually touching the stove. Though thinking about the potential town it looks all that closer to being a reality. If you squint, you should be able to just make out a gathering of people between the two towns. They are closer to us than the forest or anywhere else of important so will probably head this way. At the very least we will likely have a temporary camp around us for a while.¡¯

 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 don¡¯t 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.¡¯@@novelbin@@


    ¡®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.¡¯


    Doyle¡¯s core cringes, ¡®eugh, well that¡¯s a pleasant thought. Still, it isn¡¯t 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 can¡¯t quite make out if there is a boat there or not but he assumes there either is or will be soon. ¡®Well, that¡¯s quite the view¡¯, and he turns back to Ally.


    ¡®Why yes I¡¯m 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.¡¯


    Doyle¡¯s 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 don¡¯t 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 there¡¯s 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. Don¡¯t 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. Wouldn¡¯t 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.¡¯


    Ally¡¯s eyes open wide, ¡®oh yeah, that is a good catch there and it would work. You won¡¯t 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 won¡¯t be as noticeable. Anyway, our visitors are almost here so let¡¯s 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 don¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t 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 don¡¯t send any kids in. Awkward when that happens. While ces without a system that wouldn¡¯t 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 don¡¯t realize what a bad idea it is to bring children into dungeons.¡¯


    ¡®You¡¯re 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 aren¡¯t 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, ¡®you¡¯re it? Honestly, some of the unawakened dungeons are worse at thinking than a good calctor.¡¯


    Doyle sighs, ¡®Well hopefully they aren¡¯t idiots... Yeah that isn¡¯t going to happen. Here¡¯s to hoping they aren¡¯t 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 don¡¯t 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 don¡¯t know what¡¯s in there, we haven¡¯t been yet. Never will too if¡¯n 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 night¡¯s stew. You can¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t interested in you doesn¡¯t 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? That¡¯s 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 weren¡¯t the highest leveled healer, you wouldn¡¯t even be one of us ten founders. The other two might still be level one but at least they aren¡¯t so argumentative. And just for the record my name wasn¡¯t 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 didn¡¯t take long to follow but what greets them on the other side is a dead goat. Sammy¡¯s shield has a new dent to it and her sword newly blooded, so how it happened isn¡¯t 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 didn¡¯t 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 couldn¡¯t 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 didn¡¯t want to mention it yesterday but from what little the team before told us that goats shouldn¡¯t 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 don¡¯t 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 won¡¯t find out just standing here. Now I wouldn¡¯t 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 didn¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t all wrong. Bad because that means the first goat was new and not just one that wandered from here. Anyway, let¡¯s 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 hasn¡¯t. 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!¡±


    This excitement doesn¡¯tst 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. I¡¯ll 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.


    Sammy¡¯s 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 isn¡¯t 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 Sammy¡¯s 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 aren¡¯t bleeding so live with it.¡±@@novelbin@@


    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 aren¡¯t going to join our team again.¡±


    Jack rubs the bridge of his nose, ¡°That is a bit rude Sammy. Plus you don¡¯t 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 aren¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t 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 wasn¡¯t 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 can¡¯t 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. Doesn¡¯t help that everyone and their mother that knows about them has the same song and dance about them. Don¡¯t 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 don¡¯t 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 didn¡¯t share the fact he got the founders path as well.

 You’re A Healer, Heal Already – Chapter 33

    After a moment¡¯s 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 don¡¯t 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 wouldn¡¯t disabuse any onlookers from this notion either.


    Two more pieces of meat go into Jack¡¯s 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, ¡°we¡¯re only here to check the ce out and get some food. A bunch of grapes isn¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t 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? It¡¯s just a goat like any other.¡±


    Ruby cuffs him on the back of the head, ¡°She doesn¡¯t look very happy so if I were you I would zip it. We don¡¯t want to have to exin how you got a ck eye becausest time I checked, this dungeon doesn¡¯t seem to have any stairs to fall down.¡±


    Sammy shakes her head and snaps out of it, ¡°That¡¯s not a funny joke Ruby. I knew someone that had a friend who kept falling down the stairs and it isn¡¯t 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?¡±


    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 can¡¯t manage that many enemies at once, even if they are just goats. If you want, though, we can let you try. After all Jan hasn¡¯t 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 don¡¯t 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, ¡°Don¡¯t tell me how to live my life! I had enough of that before this mess and I won¡¯t deal with it now.¡±


    Rubyes between them, ¡°woah now! She isn¡¯t 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, that¡¯s 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. Don¡¯t 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 wouldn¡¯t 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 aren¡¯t 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, they¡¯re 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 you¡¯re friends with a lock monkey doesn¡¯t change the truth. Where else would they get the skills?¡±


    Ruby¡¯s 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 Sammy¡¯s 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 doesn¡¯tst 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, ¡°it¡¯s just a bruise.¡±


    Jack levels a stare at her, ¡°Jan, heal Sammy¡±


    She stares right back but can¡¯t 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.¡±@@novelbin@@


    Sammy stretches some more, ¡°yeah. We don¡¯t 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 don¡¯t 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 wasn¡¯t 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. Don¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t 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 didn¡¯t 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 don¡¯t 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@@novelbin@@


    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 that¡¯s 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 doesn¡¯t 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 that¡¯s life.¡¯


    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 don¡¯t 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¡¯, Doyle¡¯s 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 isn¡¯t quite what I wanted. Also, now that I look at it there should always be one in the big goat room. [Dungeon Rule, don¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t too fond of wetter soil. In fact, they like a simr environment but I don¡¯t 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. Let¡¯s see what it says. I know that you can nt things in the wrong ces for them but I don¡¯t 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 won¡¯t 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 wasn¡¯t 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 didn¡¯t 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 aren¡¯t heading deeper into the forest so he would keep to it.


    Jim¡¯s 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 doesn¡¯t 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 hasn¡¯t 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 Doyle¡¯s dungeon. This reminds Doyle that he hasn¡¯t 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 needn¡¯t have worried though. This group does much worse than thest one. Their power levels aren¡¯t 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 group¡¯s presence. Though it helps that the group doesn¡¯t even try to harvest any herbs. In fact, they don¡¯t 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 night¡¯s experiment? As if your smile wasn¡¯t 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 wasn¡¯t 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. Don¡¯t give me that look, everyone goes through a magic stage in their life. Though I guess with the world how it is, that isn¡¯t 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 that¡¯s 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.@@novelbin@@


    Five minutester the couple saunter over. The man steps forward, ¡°Well hello Doctor, Ruby, andpany. Doctor, I still can¡¯t believe you changed your name to that but I guess you didn¡¯t 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 can¡¯t 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, ¡°Don¡¯t care, just get in there and harvest some sage and anything else you can find. That can¡¯t 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 didn¡¯tplete the floor. We don¡¯t even know if there is a second floor or not. Oh, and I¡¯ming 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 you¡¯re ready for tomorrow. I advise we don¡¯t 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 Doctor¡¯s 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?¡¯


    Doyle¡¯s 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 didn¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t seem right though? If it was that simple why are dungeons with a thousand floors or more so rare? That¡¯s 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 won¡¯t be that extreme of an amount.¡¯


    Doyle shifts his core side to side, ¡®probably because once someone gets to the level of being an archmage they don¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t that much, don¡¯t forget you have to fill the actually floor. More floors doesn¡¯t 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 wouldn¡¯t do anything except make people walk a lot.¡¯


    Ally shrugs, ¡®fair enough. So I assume from what you said you don¡¯t have any energy in the pool?¡¯


    Doyle nods, pletely empty at the moment and I don¡¯t 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 don¡¯t 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 won¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t 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 don¡¯t even have a pond yet. Though that is a good point. Why don¡¯t 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 haven¡¯t ever specifically deconstructed some. Doesn¡¯t look like it is going to rain anytime soon so we might go a while without it. Our dungeon just isn¡¯t 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 wasn¡¯t 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 can¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t 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 aren¡¯t that dangerous, we aren¡¯t 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.¡¯


    Doyle¡¯s 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 isn¡¯t 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 wouldn¡¯t 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. Can¡¯t 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 don¡¯t forget the new kobolds in the vine room. They aren¡¯t geared up yet.¡¯


    Doyle pulls up a picture of his kobolds, ¡®They are already green so adding too much would make them less stealthy. Let¡¯s 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. Let¡¯s 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 couldn¡¯t 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 <i>Never</i> 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 Barrai¡¯s since we need them to try and harvest some herbs anyway. They don¡¯t 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 Barrai¡¯s 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?¡±@@novelbin@@


    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 don¡¯t want to enter what is basically its mouth before it has had breakfast. My guide mentioned they don¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t in any danger. Ooh ha sigh, you might not have been informed in your tutorial but Earth isn¡¯t 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 don¡¯t have a soul and the dungeon itself doesn¡¯t count as the killer. Despite you know, ordering it to happen. Oh, and it doesn¡¯t fix death by disease and old age so that¡¯s 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 doesn¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t any nearby guilds set up already. The only reason I am so sure we can get it because there likely aren¡¯t 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 night¡¯s sleep. Going into a death trap tomorrow and all.¡±


    Ace waves her off, ¡°yeah, you¡¯re 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 weren¡¯t a little too brash and decided to just push ahead. They even convinced the guard to let them in earlier though as thest group hadn¡¯t actually done anything.


    In fact, Doyle hadn¡¯t 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 couldn¡¯t 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 guy¡¯s 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 isn¡¯t 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 wasn¡¯t 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 wasn¡¯t 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 can¡¯t 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 didn¡¯t 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 Barrai¡¯s. 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 don¡¯t have all day. Now let¡¯s 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 wasn¡¯t too cruel so the goats in the entrance room don¡¯t 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 Ruby¡¯s 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.¡±


    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 hasn¡¯t 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 aren¡¯t 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 aren¡¯t 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 don¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t my first choice for dinner.¡±


    Jeremyughs at this, ¡°Oh god yes, what I wouldn¡¯t 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 wasn¡¯t 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 don¡¯t get that far into the room. Not from any danger but because Susan notices something. ¡°That¡¯s aloe! What in the world is it doing in this mess of a jungle?¡±


    Her husband shrugs, ¡°It¡¯s 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 can¡¯t 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, that¡¯s taken care of¡±, and Jeremy walks over to retrieve his dagger. ¡°Now let¡¯s 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 isn¡¯t having any of it. ¡°No, I don¡¯t 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 haven¡¯t been here before. The problem isn¡¯t just the nt monster.¡±


    She ps Jack¡¯s 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 intelligence¡¯s whim?¡±


    The answer to her questions was clearly written on their faces. Ruby nods, ¡°I thought not. Now I will admit the goats aren¡¯t 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 don¡¯t 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.¡±@@novelbin@@


    Ruby rubs her eyes, ¡°Not saying that you won¡¯t notice them. In fact, you can drop the sad eyes act. I don¡¯t 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 let¡¯s 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 everyone¡¯s 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 don¡¯t 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 Barrai¡¯s, ¡°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. Don¡¯t 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 wouldn¡¯t have trusted them to fight their way out of a paper bag before the end.¡±


    Ruby sighs, ¡°You¡¯re right.¡± She rubs the bridge of her nose, ¡°Let¡¯s 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 Barrai¡¯s 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 doesn¡¯t miss but it isn¡¯t 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 monster¡¯s vines, but that didn¡¯t 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 vine¡¯s 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 assassin¡¯s core body for the first time and Jack¡¯s reaction described it the best, ¡°the hell, that¡¯s a watermelon someone stuck too many stems on!¡±


    This doesn¡¯t 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 aren¡¯t watching and the couple knows it.


    Not holding back, the two surge forward in silence. The kobolds don¡¯t 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 Barrai¡¯s daggers make a smooth glide motion across their respective prey¡¯s throats.


    In the dungeon¡¯s 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.@@novelbin@@


    Back in the vine room the others don¡¯t even get toe down from the fight. Now that there aren¡¯t 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 aren¡¯t that dangerous once you remove the vines.¡±


    On a time limit there is no delicacy in Susan¡¯s actions. She doesn¡¯t 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 wasn¡¯t 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 goat¡¯s helmet allowed it to tank the ncing hit of the mace. Head lowered, it ducked under his guard toy the hurt on his gut.


    Ruby¡¯s fire ribbon sears a line in the ground and catches one of the rear goats on the leg setting it on fire. It doesn¡¯t 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 wasn¡¯t 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 Jack¡¯s body and when it pulled back the horns left a bloody scratch.


    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 wasn¡¯t 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 Jeremy¡¯s failure. Though they aren¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t 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. ¡°Weren¡¯t 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. Didn¡¯t 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 didn¡¯t think about that. However I do have a simple detox spell in my repertoire. Any serious poison would be beyond me, but I don¡¯t think the dungeon is to the point of being able to make such a thing yet. Basically, the berries are fine but don¡¯t 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 can¡¯t 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, ¡°It¡¯s 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 don¡¯t 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 won¡¯t 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 can¡¯t 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.

 Loot Time – Chapter 39

    Ruby waves her hand and with a three syble chant a small disc of fire forms in front of her and catches the ice spike. As the kobold mage prepares another shot, she reaches out and presses a finger into the center of the disc, stabilizing it. In her off-hand another ribbon of fire forms but at a much slower pace.


    To the side the Barrais meet the two melee kobolds who don¡¯t have shields. They get the first round of attacks in but are interrupted when the kobolds swing their maces down and a visible glow coats the weapons. Not wanting to find out what that means personally, the Barrais slide back and let the weapons m down in front of them.


    A wise decision as chips of stone are sted away from the spot those maces hit. The floor now sports a couple of divots but the kobolds had over extended on the attack and Susan hops forward between them. A quick slice to both kobolds is enough to distract them as Jeremy continues further into the room and towards the casters in the back.


    Now the center of attention for the two Susan shouts back, ¡°They have active skills! Qi attack with their maces.¡±


    To her sides the two kobolds make an odd croaking trill sound. Their damaged arms no longer able to hold on to the maces, it forces them to use their weapons one handed. Then to the back of the room, the kobold healer finishes its spell and a cloud of white zips across the room. The spell however isn¡¯t aimed at the shield kobold. At thest moment it was able to redirect to the closer kobold that had just been hurt.


    The white cloudnds on the kobold¡¯s injured arm, and the bleeding stops as it forces ck blood out of the wound. Susan turns around to re-engage just in time to see this and she curses, ¡°their healer can handle poison!¡±


    Back at the front of the room, Sammy and Jack are having a hard time with the shield kobold. It should have been easy, but anytime they start toe out on top an ice shard gets redirected at them. Ruby is doing her best to fight the kobold mage, but maintaining her shield slows her casting down. The kobold mage doesn¡¯t have that problem as it stands next to a stgmite and can duck behind it for cover.


    Doctor shakes his head, ¡°Don¡¯t you have some form of counterspell?¡±


    Ruby rolls her eyes, ¡°Not in a practical sense. Plus look at that wand. I bet it doubles the dang things mana pool or some other nonsense. Just look at it! It has glowing runes when he uses it! My fire shield is more conservative in its mana usage than just trying to counter everything he throws.¡±


    ¡°Well, think of something¡±, Jack groans as he is forced behind Sammy¡¯s shield again. ¡°I can¡¯t exactly move out and help like this. One good shot to my leg and I¡¯m dead.¡±


    Doctorughs, ¡°Just go for it. What do you think I am here for?¡±


    Jack responds with augh of his own, ¡°fair enough! If you can¡¯t trust your healer, who can you trust?¡± And Jack charges out from behind Sammy.


    Back with Susan, she is having some trouble with the two kobolds, but Jack is able to tip the bnce. He rushes in and ms his body into the injured kobold, knocking it head over heels.


    Susan takes three steps and seems to ghost through the flying kobold, leaving behind a red line across its neck. The koboldnds in a heap, unable to stand up as blood flows freely from its newly slit throat.


    Jack¡¯s words were prophetic though as the kobold mage takes the chance to m an ice shard home into his upper leg. Already off bnce from his m attack, he goes down hard. Worse yet, the ice shard fades away, allowing gouts of blood to escape as the shard has sliced the legs major artery. He drops his cement mace and applies pressure to it while shouting for help.


    Doctor shrugs and flicks his finger at Jack. No one had noticed, but since the start of the fight he had been dual channeling healing spells, one in each hand. Unlike the kobold healer¡¯s spell, Doctor¡¯s spell looked like a burnished pearl as it sped across the field.


    When the pearl reaches Jack, it phases through his hands and dives deep into the wound, healing from the inside out. This doesn¡¯t stop the bleeding as fast, but the results are moreplete and allows Jack to get back to his feet so he can retreat to safety.


    Doc ps him on the shoulder with his now free hand, ¡°see, that wasn¡¯t too hard was it? Now just stay back for a bit as your blood regenerates. I have quick patch spells like the kobold used but those are better used in more dire emergencies as they eat mana like nobody¡¯s business.¡±


    Then at the back of the room a warbled scream draws everyone¡¯s attention. Jeremy has reached the kobold casters and managed to sneak attack the healer, forcing it to drop its next healing spell. The kobold mage turns and flings an ice shard at him, but it explodes harmlessly on a stgmite when he ducks behind it.


    The kobold healer though hurt steps in front of the kobold mage and raises its shield. Just in time for Jeremy to pop out from behind another stgmite on their other side. Now behind the kobold mage, he sticks his daggers deep into the shoulder joints.


    The kobold mage¡¯s arms fall useless to its side as it drops its wand and mace. The healer spins around in rm, missing when Susanes up behind it and she slits its throat as well. She hadn¡¯t finished off the other kobold, but with a couple of steps she passed it by like a cloud to back up her husband.


    Ruby ps and her fire shield drops, ¡°There we go!¡± And then with another three syble chant fires off a double long fire ribbon with both her hands. It hits the shield of the kobold fighting Sammy and wraps around. The kobold tries to bat the magic away, but it is toote as the ribbon constricts on it. The fire burns through the shield and back of the kobold, dropping it to the floor.


    Jack takes this as a sign and charges back out. With a quick duck down he retrieves his mace and brings it up in a swing, busting thest melee kobold in the thigh. It goes down with a shrill warble but is shut up with a boot to the throat courtesy of Susan who had followed close behind. This just left the kobold mage, but without its arms the Barrais have no trouble finishing the fight.


    Ruby rubs her arms, ¡°We shouldn¡¯t have had that much trouble.¡±


    Jack nces over at her, ¡°And why shouldn¡¯t we have had trouble? That big ol¡¯ hole in my leg wasn¡¯t exactly a cakewalk. Plus if you count the goat they matched our numbers.¡±


    Doctor waves his hand, ¡°I agree with Ruby. All of us are what, level fiveish? This dungeon should be brand new and that means if the monsters aren¡¯t level one its level two. Sure we had to traipse through the rest of this dungeon to get here and why the dungeon can get away with it but still.¡±


    ¡°I didn¡¯t even gain a level from the fight. Sure, I got one earlier in the dungeon, but that doesn¡¯t mean much. A big fight like this against even leveled opponents should always us a level till the fifties or so. We just have to admit these dang kobolds were the underdog of this fight and did exemry. I can¡¯t even imagine doing this fight at level one. I know dungeon monsters can hit above their weight, but still.¡±


    Jack looks like he is about to argue when a swirl of light attracts their attention. The other kobolds have all started to fade away like normal, but the kobold next to him is different. Jack backs away from the sudden change before his brain catches up to what is happening. ¡°Hoooooly, it¡¯s a real loot drop! Anyone mind if I take it?¡±


    Everyone else is simrly shocked by this turn of events, and Doctor is the first to recover. ¡°Go ahead, you¡¯re the one who got stabbed. Plus if their gear is anything to go off of you¡¯re the best choice anyway. No one else uses a mace here.¡± The rest of the group mumble their agreements with this.


    By this point all the kobolds have finished fading away. All that is left is the usual stuff and that spiral of light. Jack steps back up to it and reaches into the swirl. After grabbing around in there a bit, he pulls his hand out holding a pair of greaves. Not just any greaves, though. These bronze greaves are perfectly fitted for him, and though they seem tock any enchantments, the workmanship is of a high quality.


    Ruby walks over, ¡°Here, let me look. I got a spell to let us check their stats.¡±


    Jack shrugs and holds them towards her, not willing to let them go. She facepalms and motions for him to wait a moment. From a small pouch on her waist, she pulls out a piece of chalk and draws on the floor.


    While Ruby draws, she exins, ¡°I am going to need to actually take them from you. This isn¡¯t like my fire ribbons. I called it a spell but I have to cast it through a ritual. It will take me like five minutes to do, and your greaves need to be in the center of the circle. In fact, it is only that short because we haven¡¯t left the dungeon. Once we leave the connection between your greaves and the dungeon would be gone and like most other rituals we would be in for at least an hour of casting. As it is I can piggyback off of the dungeon already knowing what they are.¡±


    She finishes the ritual circle and grabs the greaves from him. Then with great care so as to not smudge the chalk, she ces them in the center and sits down next to it. Light pools around her as she starts to chant. At first it almost sounds like a differentnguage, but after the first minute any resemnce to such trappings drop away as the sounds she makes grow wilder.


    While this is happening, everyone besides Jack collects the rest of the drops. Mostly leaf wrapped chunks of rabbit meat. The Barrais are focused on what they consider the real prize of their loot. The small olive tree at the back of the room. There aren¡¯t that many olives on the tree, only a pound, but that is enough to make some oil for magical purposes. They know it takes about 12 to 14 pounds of olives to make a liter of oil, so with luck and stronger adventurers a good supply shouldn¡¯t be too hard. Especially if the dungeon has more trees on theter floors.


    Back at the ritual Rubypletes thest few sounds and the greaves glow like when they first came out of the loot spiral. Once that dims the chalk circle is gone and an info screen has popped up for everyone to see.@@novelbin@@


    {Bronze Greaves


    Description: A pair of greaves spawned as loot from a kobold in an unnamed dungeon. The sides are engraved to match a kobolds pseudo-scale pattern. They are perfectly fitted for the one who imed them, Jack Hammer. It is enchantable.


    Material: normal Bronze Alloy, normal goat leather


    Craftsmanship: normal dungeon loot}


    Jack looks at them and frowns, ¡°well, those seem normal enough. I guess real armor being perfectly fitted for me is something.¡±


    Then Jeremy smacks him upside the head.

 Thats a Nifty Spell – Chapter 40

    ¡°Take those greaves and be thankful! Didn¡¯t 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 you¡¯re 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 you¡¯re 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 let¡¯s 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 everyone¡¯s 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 isn¡¯t 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.


    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 everyone¡¯s attention, the circle expanded outward, slicing and dicing the goats. The fire isn¡¯t strong enough to cut all the way through, but all the goats are now covered in a chaotic pattern of burns.


    The closest goat doesn¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t 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 let¡¯s 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 you¡¯ve 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 wasn¡¯t the best and I can¡¯t 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, don¡¯t 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. You¡¯re already a magical crystal so having a bevy of smaller magical crystals orbiting you would look amazing.¡¯


    ¡®As it is though, there aren¡¯t 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 don¡¯t have a soul stat. You¡¯re 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 weren¡¯t 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 wasn¡¯t 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@@novelbin@@


    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.¡¯

 She was Worried – Chapter 42

    Doyle¡¯s 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 Doyle¡¯s core. She isn¡¯t sure what that is about, but it doesn¡¯t 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 Ally¡¯s 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 didn¡¯tst. There was a sound like a bubble popping but drawn out and then the sphere expanded outwards again. This time though it didn¡¯t 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 floor¡¯s limit(1000) + Intelligence(12) * 100]


    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 isn¡¯t 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.¡¯


    Doyle¡¯s core shes to get Ally¡¯s attention. ¡®Uh, quick question. My goats start with a constitution of 12. What¡¯s 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. Can¡¯t believe I didn¡¯t notice that. Doesn¡¯t really change much about what I just said though.¡¯@@novelbin@@


    ¡®Honestly? Your goats are probably just an example of why adventurers shouldn¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t possible. You don¡¯t 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 don¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t 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 didn¡¯t 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?¡¯


    Doyle¡¯s core dims and he hums. ¡®You know we haven¡¯t looked at all the stats for me yet? I haven¡¯t even checked half of them yet. The thing is we don¡¯t really have the time tob through it all. On my side adding the new floor didn¡¯t 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 one¡¯s mind. Your race¡¯s 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 body¡¯s 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 race¡¯s 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 isn¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t 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 don¡¯t 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


    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 don¡¯t think so.¡¯


    ¡®With the second floor I will be able to dump the energy there for the moment so it isn¡¯t as critical. However I noticed that my presence isn¡¯t even a ten yet. Since I don¡¯t have enough points in my soul stats the description probably won¡¯t tell me much. However, if the average is a ten at maturity I don¡¯t 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.¡¯


    Doyle¡¯s core takes on a gray shade, ¡®it felt straightforward enough. I only had six points.¡¯@@novelbin@@


    Ally shrugs, ¡®eh, it¡¯s your dungeon. And honestly? Points like that are generally better used on stats you aren¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t 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 don¡¯t 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 let¡¯s 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 weren¡¯t wrong. In fact, you could finish two of those with your current point total. Though I don¡¯t know if you would want to invest in the bird yet. We don¡¯t 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 don¡¯t mind it even if it isn¡¯t 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 can¡¯t imagine what it is for. The name isn¡¯t ominous or anything so it shouldn¡¯t 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 don¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t 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 won¡¯t 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 Ally¡¯s 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 doesn¡¯t seem to be an outside. Rather his influence creates space wholesale. It doesn¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t 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 wasn¡¯t 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, you¡¯re the researcher of our group. I know you don¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t 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 don¡¯t 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 don¡¯t that probably resulted in this change. As we don¡¯t 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 haven¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t work inside the dungeon. Now that I know it isn¡¯t 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 wouldn¡¯t 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.

 A Stats Worth – Chapter 44

    Ruby thinks over the problem of the dungeons new quirk. She has already decided she is going to be hanging around the portal every moment she can. Magic skills are really hard to level up early on because of the limited mana. One more mana an hour could cut off days of time even in the short term. Then she thinks of all the others they had saved, and she sighs.


    ¡°We can¡¯t just keep this to ourselves. That sort of thing is the very reason we could get everyone behind us in the first ce. Hiding this would set us in a direction to being just like the thugs we put down. However that doesn¡¯t mean we don¡¯t keep this a secret. That this isn¡¯tmon knowledge tells us something important.¡±


    ¡°Even if a group controls one and is free in sharing the knowledge the person who eventually stays in control of such a dungeon will wipe that information from history. I am not saying we can¡¯t let outsiders into the dungeon. We just can¡¯t let them find out about the bonus.¡±


    Kelly raises an eyebrow at this, ¡°and how are we supposed to keep this a secret? The fact all of our people spend as much time as possible around the dangerous dungeon portal might tip them off. If not, the first one to check their status before entering will.¡±


    Rubyughs, ¡°you missed it then. The bonus isn¡¯t instant. In fact, it doesn¡¯t show up on your sheet until either an hour has passed or you know about it. While I was confirming it I had the relief guards check their sheets and it wasn¡¯t there. I had seen it right away because I was looking for it.¡±


    ¡°Because I was there I then sent one of the guards to go and grab the two that had just gotten off duty. It had been a hot minute since the change so I told the guy to let them eat first and what not. By the time they got back the remaining guard had been there long enough to see it. The other guard that returned knew about it from talking to the others so could also see it.¡±


    Kelly ps her head, ¡°So that¡¯s why you only told us to check for a buff on our sheets!¡±


    Ruby nods, ¡°yep, because you couldn¡¯t see it when just looking for a buff it requires looking for this one specifically. Ace, you didn¡¯t even see it when I told you to look for something affecting your energy recharge.¡±


    Ace smiles wide, ¡°This is perfect! We just need to map out the extent of the aura and put up a wall around it. Those who want to dive aren¡¯t going to just stand around idly in that space, too dangerous. Until then we can exin away our people all being there because it is too dangerous.¡±


    Kelly nods, ¡°Yes, and once we have time to fortify the area, we can make a building around it. No one will question why we have the building there. A single corridor is the best defense and no one will be able to see the rest of our people training in the rest of it.¡±


    Ruby licks her lips, ¡°That would be the perfect setup. Though like I said, we need to keep it a secret. All the people in ourmunity at the moment are ones we can trust thanks to Ace.¡±


    She turns to him, ¡°Your skill was key to being able to overthrow the tyrants. Now it will be the key to keeping our new home. The town will grow but we can only let those living here and people we vouch through you in on the secret. In fact, we should still get some system backed oaths out of everyone, including ourselves. Who knows what might be out there. I know that I specifically asked my guide about mind control.¡±


    Kelly grimaces, ¡°luckily that doesn¡¯t quite exist, but mind-reading does. Though you really have to ask how far being able to force someone to stand still with a spell like hold person is from it. For now though, an oath to not even think about it unless it is your turn should work. Honestly, I foresee the council meetings taking ce up here from now on. Only public audiences need to happen away from here and it isn¡¯t like we can just be firing off spells and skill during then anyway.¡±


    Ace sighs and stretches, ¡°Well it sounds like we have a n.¡± He turns to the guards, ¡°I will need oaths out of you both and the other two soon enough. I trust you will keep this on the down-low till then?¡±


    They both nod but he shakes his head, ¡°I want to hear you swear it. This matter could bring a horde of evil upon us.¡±


    The guards grimace but both swear to it. This might not be as secure as an oath but the system will at least let Ace know if they break their word. He turns back to the others and signals to Ruby. She sighs and chants four sybles. A half globe of swirling air epasses them and she res at him, ¡°I can¡¯t keep up the noise shield long, air just isn¡¯t in my wheelhouse.¡±


    Ace shrugs, ¡°a real shame. Air can boost fire something fierce. Anyway, don¡¯t trust Jan, she is no longer one of the inner circle. Ruby, I know you have had suspicions about her and I can confirm she isn¡¯t actually one of the founders. Jim will never admit to it but he is the actual tenth. Don¡¯t harass him about it if he ever shows up. I honestly think we are better off with him in the forest.¡±


    Kelly rolls her eyes, ¡°As if both those things weren¡¯t obvious from the start. The paths verbiage said nothing about being a coward and selfish above all else. Quite the opposite really. Also, your connection of fire and air are only true at the low levels. With a higher skill fire can mphphhm...¡±


    Ruby covers her mouth to stop her, ¡°Is that all? I really don¡¯t have the mana to keep this up much longer.¡±


    Ace nods and she drops it before he can even finish the motion. He rolls his eyes at this, ¡°So anyway, Kelly I need you to figure out the oaths we need. Talk to thewyer, he isn¡¯t a founder but you can trust him. Kyle was my families contractwyer for over three decades and the system has given him a second wind. Ruby, I know about the discontent you have been stirring up. Bring it to a boil so we can weed out undesirable elements. Not just your target though. We could trust everyone here at the moment with our backs in a fight, but I wouldn¡¯t trust all of them with my life.¡±


    Ruby and Kelly both head off with their tasks while Ace stays behind. At this point he can¡¯t trust anyone else until they have made oaths. His skill might allow him some leeway when trusting others but it isn¡¯t perfect as he well knows.


    Back in the dungeon Ally has been watching this exchange with interest. Doyle is still busy so she can only muse to herself.


    It takes Doyle until noon to finish expanding his new floors territory. A glorious 24 by 24 small rooms worth of space at the center. And he has ns for it. He¡¯s going big. First though is to check in with Ally.


    He finds her engrossed with a group of adventurers bumbling through the dungeon. Not wanting to interrupt her fun he sits back and watches as well. He doesn¡¯t have to wait long though. The group runs away from the big goat room. Though it isn¡¯t quite over as they almost manage to trip over the assassin vine in the vine room.


    Once they are out of the portal though he chimes in, ¡®hey Ally, you were right. I got three levels in territory control just for pushing it. Anyway, I am going to start work on the floors design. I am thinking fewer but bigger rooms. I noticed that in the first floor people had more problems with therger groups. If I had stronger monsters that wouldn¡¯t be as much of a thing. On the other hand my main monsters are goats. Cheap and best used in mass, at least for the moment.¡¯


    ¡®Though I guess with my paths, their stat line is going to get silly. The plus three strength a level alone is going to make them beasts. With how cheap they are, I could fill the floor with level three super goats. Once I can reach the full potential for this floor, the level five goats would have over twenty strength. Even their constitution will hit twenty at that point. I have to ask though, what does each point in, for instance, strength, do?¡¯


    Ally flies out of her room and she has him bring up the stats for a level one and two goat.


    {Goat Lv1 S[9] A[5] C[16] I[2] W[2] P[5]


    Goat Lv2 S[12] A[6] C[17] I[2] W[2] P[5]}


    ¡®Those two stat lines don¡¯t look that different does it?¡¯ Ally gestures at it, ¡®only strength shows any significant change at first nce and even that is just because it goes from one to two digits. To be honest, we may never know exactly what that does for a goat. After all, you and I are not goats. Just take the example of your wisdom stat. For dungeon cores, every ten points is another floor you can automate. How does that trante to how wise you are?¡¯


    ¡®Strength would seem to be a more straightforward stat right? How much weight can you lift? But wait a second you might be thinking, your stat now talks about making your dungeon¡¯s material stronger. Also, even in a human the body¡¯s strength isn¡¯t uniform. The legs are stronger than the arms for instance. Do you go off of the legs lifting ability or the arms? How does the system decide this?¡¯


    ¡®Short answer is that anyone who doesn¡¯t have half a foot into immortality is likely clueless. Most people prefer it this way anyway. How boring would it be if instead of arm-wrestling people just pulled up their strength scores to see who won? In the end strength is more of a suggestion until the difference gets big enough. What tends to be more important is breakpoints in a stats progression like with your Wisdom.¡¯


    ¡®A well-known example is that humans tend to develop a low level of regeneration somewhere from 20 to 25 constitution. Not enough to regrow limbs but enough that they tend to stabilize when downed even if not helped. Because of this you will rarely meet a human from a developed world who doesn¡¯t aim for that. Mostly because it adds a good hundred years to a human¡¯s lifespan.¡¯@@novelbin@@


    Doyle tilts to the sides, ¡®guess we aren¡¯t through with the info dumps.¡¯


    Ally chuckles, ¡®we will never be done with the info dumps. Though it depends on what you ask about. Stats just happen to be one of those vague open-ended things. I could go on for hours about various examples. What I just told you is the minimum. Most schools out in the greater universe have a ss devoted to the system and students get a lecture on stats every few months.¡¯


    Doyle rolls back, ¡®fair enough. I guess I can¡¯t really say much when I have avoided going over the description of all my stats.¡¯


    Ally rolls her eyes, ¡®yeah, you really need to get around to that. Those same students are checking the full description of all their stats whenever something changes including just getting a year older. For now, you need to build your second floor. You should be full up on world energy by now so you can really get elbow deep in it.¡¯


    ¡®Oh, though I guess I should mention I learned what your energy well path did. Ruby and a couple other founders were talking about it. The path gives them a plus one to power regen an hour. That isn¡¯t bad. In fact, it is quite good as it won¡¯t temp any visitors from beyond Earth. If it had been a percentage, we would have to worry. Plus one means nothing to someone with pools in the millions or even just thousands. One percent however will pull them in even if the greatermunity would frown on it. My advice is we go slow with it. Wait till they have the area locked down and definitely not take more ranks if the name changes to something other than energy well.¡¯

 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, ¡®don¡¯t 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?¡¯


    Doyle¡¯s core shifts back and forth, ¡®eh, true enough. It doesn¡¯t 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 didn¡¯t 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 don¡¯t 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 don¡¯t even get a discount if their level is lower than the floor¡¯s minimum. Though they do mature to the floor¡¯s minimum, so that¡¯s nice.¡¯


    Doyle tilts to the side, ¡®ah, best used forter levels then. Even with a couple thousand energy to use on the floor, that doesn¡¯t 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.¡¯@@novelbin@@


    ¡®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 isn¡¯t 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, ¡®that¡¯s 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 lizard¡¯s 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 beak¡¯s 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 isn¡¯t 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 didn¡¯t create another collection under it. Instead, the pattern just removed all mention of room sizes. Doyle¡¯s 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 don¡¯t me them. It hasn¡¯t 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 haven¡¯t grown up with the system don¡¯t 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, ¡®you¡¯re right. I almost forgot about the lizards. Though I do have to ask about that huge room before the core. There isn¡¯t 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 won¡¯t be able to just snipe them and the extra space will let them cause more havoc. It wasn¡¯t obvious at first, but believe it or not, kobolds aren¡¯t 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.¡¯


    Ally traces the outline of the room with her finger. ¡®Hmm, that is true for the moment. However, you shouldn¡¯t get stuck in that thought process. While the mostmon view of kobolds is sneaky trap makers that isn¡¯t 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 aren¡¯t that many monotremes left around doesn¡¯t 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 don¡¯t 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. Don¡¯t want to spawn hundreds of goats only to have nothing in the actual dungeon. However, I don¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t very final if you don¡¯t 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 hadn¡¯t 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 floor¡¯s entrance and does the first thing thates to mind. Doyle moves the gate from his core room to the entrance. It wouldn¡¯t 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 one¡¯s 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 don¡¯t think I will have enemies here so people have a chance to rest I won¡¯t 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 aren¡¯t entering.


    What he can work on is the other end of the portal. If carved lines can change the first floor¡¯s 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 portal¡¯s 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...


    Source: Conceptual Reinforcement used on dungeon portal


    Error elevated to AI support...


    System AI has determined no error present@@novelbin@@


    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 isn¡¯t the first time this has happened. Though maybe the first in this universe.¡¯


    He can only shrug and move on. There wasn¡¯t 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 I¡¯m 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 fist¡¯s 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 doesn¡¯t 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 didn¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t 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 room¡¯s 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 wouldn¡¯t like it, so for them he also ces a sage bush down. Now on the second floor, he doesn¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t stick his head in the hole or some such.

 What About the Hills – Chapter 47

    Doyle nces over his goat farm and nods. It turned out exactly how he wanted it, if a little opulent. He has onest thing to do in the room. While he had said he would wait to spawn monsters Doyle still ces down a breeding pair of goats. As with the rabbits the goats will need some time to be real enough to have kids so he wanted to get them started on that.


    Doyle creates a couple of cubes in his core room and cks them together. He only has two more rooms to design. Of course that is ignoring that those two rooms are almost the same amount of space as the rest of the rooms on this plus the first floor. He counted! The two huge rooms could hold 288 small rooms worth of space while everything else can hold 299. Just 11 small rooms difference.


    The simple way would be to just punch a bunch of depressions and hills in it and then cover it in clover. He wasn¡¯t going to do that, of course. After he considers the two rooms as a whole, what hees up with is crib notes off of his tworge rooms. Notpletely, of course.


    Well, at least not for the second huge room. The first huge room gets a double dose of boulder fun. To make corridors about four small rooms wide he ces down two columns of boulders like in therge rooms. The biggest difference is he doesn¡¯t make the piles go all the way to the ceiling. This will allow the adventurers to climb over the barriers if they desired to.@@novelbin@@


    He couldn¡¯t leave it at that, though. While it was somewhat of a theme on this floor, he didn¡¯t just want to make rooms broken into corridors. After he looked the entire floor over, it hit him. First, he sunk all the other rooms down as much as he could without touching the outer edge of his territory. This pushed them down about two stories, which was just enough for his n.


    Back in the first huge room, Doyle stretches the ceiling back up to previous height. From there he changed the t terrain into upward ramps with the boulder piles as the borders and even grew them higher. Now instead of just a stack of stones, the rocks form more of a cliff but not enough.


    Not for Doyle, at least. To fix this he fills in the gaps created by his boulders, then smoothes out any excessive protrusions. Now happy that it looks like a cliff and not just a hodge podge of loosely piled stones, he repeats it with the second line of boulders. This brings the exit of the room back in line with where the original floor was at.


    Doyle just puts down one extra addition. He ces even more boulders on top of each cliff face. Just a single file line of them so that if he puts kobolds in the room, they have something to hide behind. Not quite the nned room of hills, but close enough. He still isn¡¯t done with it.


    He wants to leave the cliffs as bare rock but, and he sighs, Doyle needs to put down his dirt and clover. ¡®I really need more variety. The clover looks nice, but being the only groundcover makes it dull.¡¯ Not much he can do about it at the moment, so instead he nts a couple olive trees at the ends of the two boulder cliffs. Not that a three meter drop is all that exciting, but it will prevent the weaker sorts from just passing through the room in a straight line.


    Another nce over the room frustrates him though as he realized a mistake in his design. In therge rooms the hollowed out boulder piles had created the nesting ground for his lizards, and here he was filling it all in. Now instead of having some naturally formed areas Doyle has to go through and dig out the areas he wants the lizards to live in individually.


    This final bit is enough though, and Doyle is happy with the design. To wrap up the first huge room, a sizeable collection of lights are ced in the lower left corner of the ceiling. Now the boulders throw a shadow behind them for things to hide in.


    Tired of the nonstop creation, Doyle turns his attention back to his first floor. Just in time to see another group of adventurers turn around after the vine room. The fact that a couple of kobolds with daggers are hiding in there is well known at this point. This doesn¡¯t make it any easier for groups without a spotter. Sadly for them, the person best suited for teaching others that skill is off gallivanting in the forest.


    While the kobolds aren¡¯t killing people, their sneak attacks are enough to injure someone and battle ready healers are another one of those rare birds in the settlement. Not from ack of instructors this time. There just aren¡¯t enough people in the group who want to learn healing and go out and dobat. Most are just fine staying safe while earning paltry amounts of experience from healing. Even if the skill growth is slow without stress, they feel threatened by the dungeon in a way thebat types don¡¯t.


    Doyle actually gets lost in watching the never-ending stream of invaders for a while. Some groups don¡¯t even attempt to enter the vine room, being fine with just killing six goats. The realization that those groups aren¡¯t in it to dive his dungeon but rather just harvest food finally drags him out of the experience. To see his first floor work like clockwork as the adventurers and harvesters enter and leave had put him in a Zen-like state.


    ¡®I have to be careful about that. Sureter on being able to zonk out might be nice to pass the time but I have a floor to build. Just one more huge room to design and I can ce monsters down.¡¯


    Mentally, he ps himself in the face and goes to thest huge room. The ce is a giant nk canvas and all he has to do is fill it. Boulders to funnel people around is sort of the theme for this floor, and he ns to do more with it here. He doesn¡¯t however want to force people to travel through the entire room. Instead, Doyle wants to tempt them to try and full clear it with herbs ced towards the back of the room.


    He needs more space. Doyle raises the roof and lowers the floor a couple stories each. This gives him the biggest possible space to work with. ¡®Now how to get them down from the entrance to the room which is six meters up? I could just raise the floor up, but do I want to? This room is going to be another kobold hang out so some more trappings of a civilization of sorts would be nice. What do I have avable?¡¯


    Doyle goes over his ever growing database of patterns and settles on wood and leather. First, he puts down two pirs made of tree trunks that rise up to the entrance. A crosspiece is connected to them with leather bindings. Then from the entrance heys out a floor of rough nks, using more strips of leather to weave them together.


    It looks secure, but he isn¡¯t quite sure how much it can support. To answer that question, Doyle creates blocks of stone on the tform until it breaks. A little too soon for his taste, so he thickens the nts and crosspiece. Another round of testing and Doyle is much happier with the results. The nks should be able to hold a party of six even if a couple have metal armor on. Too many more at once or a few too many tanks though and crash boom bang, they get an express trip to the ground floor. Happy with the tform, Doyle makes a couple spiral staircases, one to each side.


    Now that the adventurers can make it to the floor, Doyle is back where he started. Wondering what he should fill the floor with. He basically wants the room cut in pieces. It should be a minor hassle to get to the back half of the room, as well as having a lot of hilly terrain. To start, he creates a smattering of boulders throughout the room to mark where he might put a rise.


    That done though, he realizes there isn¡¯t all that much space. Now there is a good 36 or so meters a side to the room but he can¡¯t really do any sweeping vistas with that. Just a tad defeated, Doyle decides that maybe he should follow the type of design he used in the first huge room. Not entirely though, as an alternative n forms in his head.


    Doyles rises the back third of the room up two stories and unlike thest room this is more of a sheer cliff face. Someone can work their way up if they want, but it won¡¯t be fun for those wearing restrictive clothing or armor.


    For the front two thirds of the room Doyle raises up a strip ofnd a single story. This time the sides are a more gentle slope. Not really meant to stop people, but discourage those with bad bnce or a pack full from running around. With that, all he needs to add is the finishing touches. Dirt and clover goes down easy enough but the thing he really wants requires him to ask Ally a couple questions.


    Doyle¡¯s view shifts to her room, where he finds herying back on the stone bed. A quick nce outside is enough to realize the time is now past midnight, and so of course no one is currently traipsing through his ce. ¡®Hey, Ally. I have a question for you.¡¯


    Ally stretches out and yawns, ¡®huh? A question? Sure, what do you want to know? Not exactly much to distract me at the moment.¡¯


    With an awkwardugh Doyle starts with something he just realized, ¡®how would you like me to cover your bed and chair with a cushion. I do have a pattern for cloth after all.¡¯


    Ally stands up and rolls her shoulders, ¡®that would be nice. The stone isn¡¯t bad as my connection to you makes it so it can¡¯t hurt me. However actualfort would be nice.¡¯


    Doyle whips up a quick set of padding and set of sheets. That out of the way he gets down to what he originally wanted to ask. ¡®How can I nt some trees? I don¡¯t have the pattern for them, but I do have the olive tree. It is just I don¡¯t want to fill a room with them and I do have a more generic wood pattern. My idea didn¡¯t pan out as despite being a huge room it isn¡¯t enough.¡¯


    Ally rubs the bridge of her nose, ¡®show me your database. Actually, just project it on my wall here so I can keep track of what we have avable.¡¯


    A decent idea, so Doyle sets up a view of this in her room. Through this screen he sets up on another wall. He is sure there will be more things to disy, so organizing them now isn¡¯t a terrible idea.


    {Dungeon Patterns: goat lv10, material patterns lv7, food patterns lv6, shrubbery lv6, clothes lv5, kobold lv5, armor patterns lv5, axe beak lv5, assassin vine lv4, weapon patterns lv4, vines lv2, clover lv2, horned rabbits lv2, prey insects lv2, Basic Rooms lv5, horned lizard lv1


    Weapon Patterns: axe lv4, sword lv3, dagger lv2, bow lv2, arrow lv2, mace lv2, staff lv1, wand lv1


    Armor Patterns: greaves lv5, boots lv4, tunic lv3, helmet lv3, shield lv2, cloak lv1, gauntlets lv1


    Material Patterns: dungeon soil lv5, leather lv5, cloth lv5, Earth standard air mix lv2, volcanic rock lv2, metal patterns lv2, wood lv2, wax lv1


    Metal Patterns: copper lv2, tin lv2, iron lv1


    Food Patterns: herb patterns lv6, olive lv3, bread lv1, salt lv2, sugar lv1, wheat lv1, lemon lv1, strawberry lv1


    Herb Patterns: sage lv6, aloe lv5, pepper lv2, mint lv1, rosemary lv1, tea lv1,vender lv1, peppermint lv1}


    Ally reads through what they have avable and nods. ¡®Okay, it looks like some of your food patterns are leveling up. That is good and we should see them grow once more people be able to harvest them. As for your question though, I think you should be able to grow any tree you have the wood type for. Though there is one caveat. I don¡¯t think the trees will grow fruit like your olive tree does unless you set it to. Also, a littlete with this but we should change it so the screen shows us the change in level whenpared to thest time we looked. All your herb patterns might have gone up, but I can¡¯t really tell.¡¯

 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 can¡¯t 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 maker¡¯s 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 wasn¡¯t 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 don¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t 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?¡¯@@novelbin@@


    He didn¡¯t have a better idea at the moment, so that is what he tries to do. It doesn¡¯t 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. What¡¯s up with that?¡¯


    Ally raises an eyebrow, ¡®congrattions then. What you just experienced is a skill level where you didn¡¯t already know everything it offered. If you bring up your character sheet you probably hit some milestone. In fact, why don¡¯t 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 don¡¯t have a temte for an oak tree that doesn¡¯t 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 don¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t 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 aren¡¯t trees though. My oaks will never grow a single acorn. Extra branches won¡¯t grow. In fact, even if I put in seasons, the leaves won¡¯t turn brown ande off when it gets cold. To get a tree pattern I would need to deconstruct an actual tree.¡¯


    ¡®I can¡¯t even abuse this to spawn animals I don¡¯t have a pattern for. Sure, I could create the body of a cat, but it would soon die. The brain won¡¯t 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. You¡¯ll 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 don¡¯t 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 tree¡¯s growth from seed, theye out exactly how he wants. His mind isn¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t 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 hadn¡¯t 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 didn¡¯t 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.¡¯


    The first thing he does to the boulders isn¡¯t 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 wasn¡¯t 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.

 Second Floor Monster Placement – Chapter 49

    ¡®Now for thest Huge room. What should I do?¡¯ Doyle moves his view back to his new forest. ¡®There aren¡¯t that many ces to carve into. Maybe the tree bark?¡¯


    Doyle thinks of a couple other things but none of them satisfy him so he goes through the whole room, piece by piece. The wood tform was a suitable ce to carve something. Trees he had thought of already and didn¡¯t want to. Dirt and clovers aren¡¯t the most permanent of things to carve. The ceiling was already scheduled for his sun carving. He paused on the walls, but they didn¡¯t serve much of a purpose except to hold up the roof. A good purpose, but they covered that already. Thest piece of the room was almost glossed over, but good thing it wasn¡¯t.


    ¡®The cliff! I want people to climb it already so a little bit of enhancement isn¡¯t out of ce. The question is, what do I want to enhance? As it is, the cliff serves one major purpose. To prevent easy ess to the herbs above. Thing is that I don¡¯t want to make it impossible. That would be too easy, just making the cliff mirror smooth would prevent arge percentage of people from climbing it early on.¡¯


    ¡®Besides that, I don¡¯t want there to be a right way to climb it. The cliff should be just that, a rocky wall. How can I improve upon that? It already is just that.¡¯


    Doyle settles down and considers the cliff for a while. The difficulty of the cliffes from both the climb and the possibility that a koboldes along and throw rocks at whoever decided to climb said wall. Unlike the boulder walls in the earlier rooms, he made the cliff look more like one of those rock climbing walls you find in fancy gyms. Rougher of course so it wasn¡¯t too obvious but anyone that had seen one would notice this simrity.


    ¡®I really can¡¯t think of anything right now but I also want to carve something in it.¡¯ Doyle sighs, ¡®for now I should keep it simple so I can easily change itter if somethinges up. That and this is only the second floor so I shouldn¡¯t really do anything too fancy yet.¡¯


    Without a n, Doyle carves into the cliff face. He wanted a cliff that was cliffier. A line over here to make it sharper. A Gentle curved arc that almost seems to grow off of a protruding rock. Scratching a pre-existing line deeper to enhance a shadow. Doyle even adds on more material to certain parts to match other parts.


    He doesn¡¯t go fast, in fact it could be seen as quite slow. Night passes before he finishes with it. As Doyle pulls his view back, he is greeted with an impressive sight. The cliff hasn¡¯t grown taller or even shifted around all that much, but at a special level something has changed. He can¡¯t put his finger on it, but he really wants to see the first party to experience it.@@novelbin@@


    After that, the rest of the carving to do in the room is easy. The lights be a single sun analog and the wooden tform doesn¡¯t even have what some would consider a carving. Just a simple crosshatch pattern on the surfaces people would walk on. It doesn¡¯t even need his skill to do its job. The pattern itself will provide enough traction. While Doyle considered making the edges slippery. He decided that the trust of those diving his dungeon is worth more than the hrity of the first few people falling off the edge.


    ¡®Now I can work on the monsters!¡¯ Doyle rolls back and closes all his views for a moment. He sighs and then opens up an overview of the second floor. There are already a pair of goats hanging out in the farm so that was eight points ounted for. Eight points out of 2200, so nothing too serious.


    The entrance room he had already earmarked to be empty, so he skips it. In the next room he has a bunch of boulders, a mint nt, and a rabbit warren. Simple and clean, so Doyle wants to keep it that way. Goats wouldn¡¯t be able to make full use of the terrain, so that means kobolds. Two of them with daggers like in his vine room seemed appropriate.


    They could hide behind the boulders however they liked and keep anyone who made it through the first floor on their toes. Though he left off giving them any armor. ¡®Wait, no. Even with two kobolds, there are still over two thousand points left. Let¡¯s throw in a third kobold.¡¯


    Next is a small room and Doyle decides to give the assassin vine another chance so throws one in the lower right corner. With that cement, people won¡¯t have a chance to avoid it.


    Then Doyle is onto one of his fancyrge rooms with a boulder wall. There are rabbits and horned lizard dens in ce along with some sage and mint sprinkled in. His choice was already predetermined here. Seven goats to make the room somewhat spicy. Then for even more vor Doyle drops down another kobold to act as a goatherd. They get a big ol¡¯ shillgh to wield. Doyle had always liked the word, though it was basically a fancy Irish way to call a walking stick mixed with a club. With that done because he already knew what he was going to do with the other, Doyle just mirrored the monsteryout down to the otherrge room below it.


    ¡®Hmm, that brought me down to only 1586 points left to spend. Heh, only. Over fifty percent more points than I had to spend on the first floor and I amining. Now though, I can y with my new monsters.¡¯


    Doyle backtracks to the long hallway. Specially made for his axebeaks, there isn¡¯t really anything else he can ce there. ¡®The question is how many to ce in this and the next long room. They cost ten more points than a kobold with a better stat line. Dumb as a rock, but that shouldn¡¯t matter.¡¯


    ¡®Hmm, this first room is longer than the next so I think spreading them out a little might be an excellent way to introduce them. One right at the start that people can see even if they don¡¯t enter the room. Two more about halfway back so they don¡¯t build up too much speed. Finally another axebeak at the very back which can really get going.¡¯


    ¡®Now for the second room I think a couple more birds will work. Three halfway back and three more at the back. Mostly because I don¡¯t really know how well they will work. Do they really need all that space to get up to speed? Whatever, I will see once someone gets here.¡¯


    Doyle shifts to the huge room with the ramps and looks it over. ¡®Simple enough in theory. Kobolds can hide behind the boulders if I want. Axebeaks have the ramps to run down. Hell, goats can climb up and down the boulder walls to mess with people. Though I think I will keep the goats out of this room.¡¯


    ¡®There are lizards so I might as well put down a couple groups of axebeaks. Two at the top of the first ramp and two more at the next will cover that. Have to set down rules though so they don¡¯t bother the kobolds. Though speaking of kobolds I want a handful in this room. Three on the second ramp and six at the very top.¡¯


    ¡®Have I put in any normal ranged weapons yet? Hmm, no, no I haven¡¯t. The first floor has the mages which is nice but if my only rangedbatants are magic based, it will be easier to counter. [System, how much would a goat leather sling cost and how would the ammo work?]¡¯


    {Goat Leather Sling; Temp 3, Loot 24


    Ammo based weaponse with five uses worth of ammo. You may purchase more with varying cost. A sling can add five additional uses for a single point.}


    ¡®Fair enough. I bet it says uses because of things like guns with burst fire modes. What good would five bullets be when a gun shoots them in bursts of three or even five? Though with a gun, only five shots isn¡¯t exactly all that much. A sling on the other hand is perfectly fine. If the adventurers are fast enough the kobolds in the middle might not even get to use all of them.¡¯


    ¡®Now how many of those kobolds do I want to arm with the slings? The three in the middle get a single sling because they have little time to use them, but what about the back six? If I give too many of them slings, it wouldn¡¯t be all that fair. Let¡¯s go with giving half of them slings and of course all of them get clubs.¡¯


    ¡®That is the ramp room done so now I get to y with the forest room. Though there isn¡¯t much to y with, all things considered. There are 656 points left to work with and I want to spend most of that on kobolds. I am thinking ten as that would leave me enough points for 39 goats. More than enough to for the farm and to keep the kobolds herepany.¡¯


    ¡®The real question is their load-out. Three mages with one of them as a healer will work for this floor. Ice magic again though because forest and fire aren¡¯t the best matches. Going to suit them up in helmets and tunics. The rest of the kobolds will be melee. I did just get slingers but, well, a dense forest isn¡¯t the best ce for rangedbat.¡¯


    ¡®Of those seven melee kobolds I am tempted to make another leader. However, I don¡¯t feel I can really get that done properly yet. The first floor leader, I must admit, is a bit of a folly. Not that I will admit that to Ally. Instead of a leader I will ce another goatherd with just a shillgh.¡¯


    ¡®Three of the remaining kobolds get to duel wield daggers. In a dense forest such a short-range weapon will be of benefit even if they can¡¯t use their only skill with them. They also get tunics and helmets to go with that, to keep them light on their feet. Thest three will go club and shield with a full load-out of armor to guard the mages. That will be costly at first but worth it for thest fight of this floor.¡¯


    ¡®With those 39 goats I can ce, I want one up on the teau to go with the horned rabbits up there. Eight more with the goatherd, all helmeted with the horn covers of which half will be half spiked. And actually I think I will also give that gal a sling. I know I said a heavy forest isn¡¯t the best ce. But if I have the herd move about the room, she might end up in ce to hit a climbing adventurer.¡¯


    ¡®That still leaves me with 30 goats and a need to connect my farm with thest room. I won¡¯t have to rece the goats there as often, but as time goes on wipes will happen more often. I don¡¯t want to connect it through the shortest path of the long hallway. That would work, but I want the goats to cycle through asionally to feed the axe beaks on something besides lizards. I guess I will need another hidden hallwaying off the firstrge boulder room. It cane off of the top right of that room.¡¯


    ¡®Then after that the rest of the goats get to be tossed in the farm. Not all 30 of them, though. I want some space to start the farm going as I will need young goats growing up so things don¡¯t get cleared out too easily. Maybe ce down 16 more but reserve the 56 extra points for goats.¡¯


    ¡®Now to set up the hidden hallways. I must admit the idea of some hidden mechanism got me excited, but now that I have stewed on it I don¡¯t think I will. It is possible, but I want to save stuff like that for hidden doors that I want people to find. For this I will just use a dungeon rule. That and the hallways can be much smaller. Only goats should ever enter them so I have no clue why I ced human sized tunnels to start with. Oh well, that should do for the second floor. I wonder how Ally will judge it?¡¯

 Second Floor Complete – Chapter 50

    Doyle yawns, not tired but more out of habit. ¡®Still one thing left though before the floor is ready for people. Don¡¯t want to forget about setting up their behaviors again. Now lets see.¡¯


    ¡®Hmm, the first two kobolds can be hiding behind random boulders. Besides that, let them follow their instincts. For the tworge rooms with shepherds have them keep the goats around until one gets too old and then send it into the next room for the axe beaks. The goats can follow their orders as well to give them a slight edge on adventurers.¡¯


    ¡®Those axebeaks can just stay as they are for the moment. I want to see how they actually react. Though for the ramp room lets make sure they aren¡¯t aggressive to the kobolds. Speaking of, those kobolds can just hang out as well so no problem there.¡¯


    ¡®Now in the forest room the shepherd should wander around a bit and once again if the goats get too old send them to y with the axebeaks. This time in the previous room. The goats should be able to climb up the wooden stairs, so no problem there. She should also keep an eye on the cliff just in case someone climbs it without clearing the rest of the room. The other kobolds can just chill how they want as on the first floor they seem to have a decent set of instincts.¡¯


    ¡®Besides that, I have the goat farm. Since this is being done with dungeon rules I can just set it up so whenever a room with goats gets low on them, the oldest goat is sent over to rece the losses. That and keep five breeding pairs in the farm no matter what. I can always overrule that if some major threates through that I want to goat swarm.¡¯


    ¡®In fact, if I do want to goat swarm the forest room is the best ce for it because the trees break up the line of sight. I can just send all the goats and kobolds from the entire floor over there using hidden passageways. Though if I n to do that, I should put in another secret entrance. This one in the firstrge room so the two kobolds there can easily retreat as well.¡¯


    ¡®Still, I feel like something is missing. There are lizards and rabbits in every room without predators. Though the ramp room is an exception as it has both. Clover is everywhere for the rabbits and goats to eat and cover the floor in general. Axebeaks can eat the critters and an asional goat. Kobolds will do as kobolds want.¡¯


    ¡®There are now trees, though they don¡¯t really grow so that should be fine. It would be nice to have some actual sunlight, but that just isn¡¯t an option. Though who knows, my lights are magic so they might just cover the nts¡¯ need for photosynthesis. Wait. Wait a second. My nts in theory have something to eat. Because of that, my goats and rabbits have things to nom. Those in turn give my kobolds, axebeaks, and vine assassin dinner.¡¯


    ¡®I am missing a creature there! My horned lizards have nothing to eat. Stupid of me to miss that. I even have prey insects as its own database entry. Though that is a bit of a misnomer as I am sure I got some spiders in there. Not only aren¡¯t spiders a type of insect, but they are predators as well.¡¯


    ¡®Now where to ce them? I have beetles, flies, butterflies, ants, bees, and the aforementioned spiders. Hell, not that I list them, I have even used some of them already! I have that whole bee hive up on the first floor. Though I guess people don¡¯t get to it often enough to stay on top of my mind.¡¯


    ¡®Anyway, I have a couple ideas for what to do. I¡¯m going to put a beehive up on that little ind, the one kobold seems to have taken a liking too. Though this one will be more natural, ced on a tree instead of inside a custom-made stgmite hive. That won¡¯t take care of my lizards though.¡¯


    ¡®My next cement won¡¯t help the lizards either, but I feel the need. It isn¡¯t very specific on what beetles it means so lets see, [system, popte the heavy forest with fireflies].¡¯


    Momentster flickers of light appear inside the dark forest and Doyle is happy.


    ¡®Okay, now to feed my lizards. For that I want regr beetles and ants. Add in some spiders to keep their numbers in check in case the lizards aren¡¯t that greedy and I should be good.¡¯


    ¡®With beetles I can just ce them around and they should take care of themselves. Even if the lizards manage to clear them out of the rooms, they are in the predator rooms and will provide overflow to repopte. Now I already have the fireflies and I don¡¯t want too much variety so three more types? Yeah, that feels about right. A ck beetle, click beetles, and green June bugs.¡¯


    ¡®As for the ants, I will have to help them set up at the start. Though with luck the queens might live long enough to do something. One nest to each room ofrge size or bigger. Just have to ce them away from any lizard dens.¡¯


    ¡®Though onest touch. A bevy of spiders in the forest. The fireflies are nice and nostalgic for me, but I don¡¯t want them taking over too much. Plus a web in the face is such a ssic freak out.¡¯


    Everything nned out insects pop up all over the floor and one of the lizards gets its first taste of beetle. With this a ding rings out in Doyle¡¯s head as a system message pops up.


    {Biosphere Bncing lv5 acquired}


    He pauses for a moment. A skill was not something he had expected to receive for cing some bugs, but he wasn¡¯t going toin. Instead, he just skips straight to pulling up the skill description to find out just what it does.


    {Biosphere Bncing lv5


    To take a contained environment and allow the creatures living within to survive or even thrive. Currently, the skill is focused on bncing a few creatures against each other though with time and levels even manipting a¡¯s biosphere isn¡¯t out of the question. After all, what else would you call a except a contained environment?}@@novelbin@@


    ¡®With that as the cherry on top the second floor is well and truly finished. Though of course I need some adventurers to muck around with it all. No n survives first contact after all. Plus I haven¡¯t really given my axebeaks much guidance beyond staying in their rooms. Whatever, time to go and do some show and tell.¡¯


    Doyle shifts his view to Ally room again, ¡®Hey Ally! I finished the second floor and got a new skill. Here¡¯s the finalyout.¡¯ And he projects the second floor map to a nk space on her wall.


    ¡®The letters should be self exnatory though I will note that capital K is for female kobolds and lower case is for male. Also, the gray hallways are the hidden ones and green is for forest areas. The lighter green for the sparse trees and darker for the dense trees. What do you think of it?¡¯


    Ally turns away from another screen that is set to follow the current group in the dungeon and takes a look. ¡®Hmm, theyout looks decent and I see you still haven¡¯t given up on the vine assassins. That¡¯s a suitable ce for it as it can¡¯t really be avoided there. Besides that, therge rooms that you almost cut in half don¡¯t seem to do much. The idea is good but I think at that size you don¡¯t quite get enough bang for your buck. Now with your ramp room it works out as you can snake them along better and spread out the enemies. Though I guess we¡¯ll just have to wait for someone to get through and check it out. Now you mentioned a new skill? What did you get?¡¯


    Doyleughs, ¡®It is perfect for what I am doing or at least will beter on. The skill is called biosphere bncing and it helps with getting all my critters ying off each other. Not much guidance from it yet, but it popped when I added in some bugs for my lizards to eat. Once I have more regr creatures to y around with, it will be a big help.¡¯


    ¡®Sure, I could just use rules on everything so things work out but I prefer it this way. I don¡¯t know why, but something tells me that relying on rules too much for such basic things won¡¯t be good in the long run.¡¯


    Ally smiles, ¡®I don¡¯t know what your feeling about rules is. Most dungeons seem to use them heavily, but I guess time will tell. What I do know is that skill will be an enormous help at higher levels. Even if you didn¡¯t want to use it to bnce your creatures against themselves, the skill will help set up good creaturebos. Common things like how some crustaceans will put filter feeders on their shells as protection. Plus of course the simple fact that more skills will mean more paths points. Though speaking of that, how many are you up to now?¡¯


    They both turn to the disy with his status.


    {Name: Doyle Huxley


    Race: Dungeon Core (Strange Caverns)


    Soulbond: Ally Huxley


    Paths: [51] Dungeon Core II 10/10, Kobold Community 15/15, Energy Well I 3/3


    Level: 1


    S[15] A[12] C[15] I[12] W[14] P[11] D[14] K[21] L[16]


    World Energy(/R per hour): 2500(270)


    Skills: Territory Control lv15, Dungeon Rules lv13 > 19, Universal Deconstruction lv8 > 10, Dungeon Pattern Database lv15, Creation(Energy Powered, Pattern Based) lv20 > 21, Conceptual Reinforcement lv12 > 17, Biosphere Bncing lv5


    Dungeon Patterns: goat lv10 > 11, material patterns lv7, food patterns lv6, shrubbery lv6, clothes lv5, kobold lv5, armor patterns lv5, axe beak lv5, Basic Rooms lv5, assassin vine lv4, weapon patterns lv4, vines lv2, clover lv2, horned rabbits lv2, prey insects lv2, horned lizard lv1}


    ¡®Oh hey¡¯, Doyle mutters, ¡®the goat pattern leveled up! I guess enough of them have been dying on the first floor.¡¯


    Ally rolls her eyes, ¡®while true the more important thing to take away is 51 points you have avable to spend. Lets pull up your paths and take a look at what we can splurge on!¡¯


    Doyle chuckles at this but since he wants to see it as well he doesn¡¯t dy.


    {Points: 51


    ss: Dungeon Core II 10/10


    Completed: Kobold Community 15/15, Goat Supremacy 20/20, Energy Well I 3/3


    Started [0/3]:


    Avable: Dungeon Core III 10/100, Vine Warper 0/15, Kin yer 0/100, Voidborn 0/250, Axe Sharpener 0/5, Commanding Subordinates 0/12, Vegetation Variety 0/20, Energy Well II 0/6, Expansionist 0/30, Fire¡¯s Flying 0/7, Ageless Queens 0/15, Biomes Aplenty 0/5}


    Ally smiles, ¡®three new paths! Though only the biomes one makes sense to me. What¡¯s up with the other two?¡¯


    Doyle brings up a couple scenes directly from his second floor showing off his fireflies and ants. ¡®Well, I have these two lovelies now. Going to go out on a limb that the fire one does something nasty to the fireflies. Not taking that one because I don¡¯t want a forest fire. Ageless Queens on the other hand is high on my list of desirable paths.¡¯


    Ally nods, ¡®ageless anything is amazing. Just living long enough can raise some creatures up to sapience, even in a dungeon. Though my guess is that the effect will centralize on one of your ant queens. The others might not die, but even the chance at sapience is a rare chance for any dungeon. Cores like Flisle only have a lot because of umtion over time.¡¯

 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 wouldn¡¯t be out of ce. At this point you likely aren¡¯t 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 wouldn¡¯t 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 wouldn¡¯t be out of ce.¡¯


    Ally tilts her head to the side, ¡®wait, your goats get a bonus from the kobolds? I don¡¯t 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, ¡®that¡¯s 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 can¡¯te up with anything. ¡®I don¡¯t have a specific reason? I could waffle on about how this early in I don¡¯t want to mix it up too much. But already on the second floor I have introduced a forest area. The path didn¡¯te 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 you¡¯refortable 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 don¡¯t just let a nebulous desire get in the way but we don¡¯t 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 don¡¯t 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 kobold¡¯s wisdom boosted the goats agility bonus by one but the across the board plus one and an additional four to con is amazing. That¡¯s 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 won¡¯t 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 aren¡¯t that rare. You¡¯ve 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?¡¯


    Doyle¡¯s core dims, ¡®If I hadn¡¯t 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 destiny¡¯s description please.]¡¯


    {Destiny: The power of one¡¯s 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 dungeon¡¯s 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 don¡¯t 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 won¡¯t 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 don¡¯t have a per a level bonus for yet. I already know what strength does for me, but I haven¡¯t looked at luck. [System, show me the description for luck please.]¡¯


    {Luck: A soul¡¯s 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 won¡¯t 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?¡¯@@novelbin@@


    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 isn¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t count that as being given orders for some reason and so won¡¯t 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 can¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t anything else too pressing. Let¡¯s give it a shot right now. Though I don¡¯t 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, you¡¯re 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?¡¯


    Ally ps, ¡®a good question and I don¡¯t 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 someone¡¯smand doesn¡¯t 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 won¡¯t suddenly be unable to order others around so that plus three can¡¯t go away. There are a lot of other things that go into it, but we aren¡¯t likely to be bothered by it. After all, if a kobold was cursed to lose their mind we don¡¯t 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! Let¡¯s 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, you¡¯re 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, ¡®don¡¯t 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 won¡¯t 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 don¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t 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 won¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t always a good idea. For instance, more than one group of humans have been taken by surprise when a giant¡¯s 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 isn¡¯t 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 haven¡¯t really been doing anything recently to grow my skills.¡¯


    Doyle wobbles around andughs, ¡®you might have forgotten but you don¡¯t 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, isn¡¯t it?¡¯


    Ally¡¯s eyes go wide, ¡®Ipletely forgot I got reset! Now I still haven¡¯t 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, Autumn¡¯s 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@@novelbin@@


    Started [2/3]: Autumn¡¯s 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 don¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t 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 haven¡¯t 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 aren¡¯t 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 don¡¯t 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 weren¡¯t going to do anything with autumn¡¯s 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 one¡¯s 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 isn¡¯t so much that I am trying to avoid autumn¡¯s jester as it is I somewhat know what it has for me. I don¡¯t 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 don¡¯t want to deepen that connection again until we have more power. There is more to it but I would like it if you don¡¯t dig too deep into it until I am ready to talk more about it.¡¯

 Yes, You Can Leave Jan – Chapter 55

    After more time than Ace would have preferred, Ruby speaks up. ¡°I know we talked about this when the whole aura thing came out at first but this feels like taking it too far. I thought the oaths would be something limited to those who would train in the aura and not much else. This whole second-ss citizen thing rubs me the wrong way.¡±


    Jack nods, ¡°what¡¯s next? Do we enve the people who don¡¯t agree with us or something? I know that is taking it a bit far, but things can start with the best of intentions. Who knows if generationster it ends up being used for something like that?¡±


    As he stops talking, there is a moment of quiet only broken by a muffled noise from Jeremy. When he notices that everyone has turned to him Jeremy can¡¯t hold it in any longer andughs out loud. ¡°Oh, goodness me! You¡¯re worried about the whole second-ss citizen thing. And here I thought it was going to be something of actual importance.¡±


    Ruby gives him a sharp look but he continues, ¡°What do you call the billionaires from before this whole mess? What about the numerous and powerful dictators? I get it. You lived in the so-called center of the free world and what not. Was it really free though? Pull yourself up by your bootstraps and what not? At least that is actually possible now. Originally that saying was like saying when pigs fly. Most of the people espoused to have done it in modern times are like the magic trick of the levitatingdy. No matter how much the magician waves the hoop around her to show there aren¡¯t any strings attached, there was always some device behind the scene lifting her up.¡±


    ¡°If before this whole mess I offered you a few billion dors on the condition that you lose it if you told anyone how you got it. Would you have taken it? I can see it on your face. A damn the consequences sort of look. Right now you are being offered something better than even a trillion dors. This is the path to eternity and power beyond mortal concerns.¡±


    ¡°There are beings born out in space that are bigger than our sr system! They have powers beyond what most of the ssical gods were said to have. A thousand levels wouldn¡¯t be enough for most people to catch up and guess what? That¡¯s the low end out there. Our is less than a rounding error to most movers and shakers on even just the gctic scale. If you even hint at giving away this drip feed towards that, well, I wouldn¡¯t be happy.¡±


    ¡°Oh, and my mention of gods? Those powers they are rumored to have? That is just how ancient humans interpreted what they saw in their dreams. They have that much power in their pinky nail. A strand of their hair is enough to start a cataclysmic crusade on any it falls on if there aren¡¯t other gods around to do damage control.¡±


    ¡°A newly integrated world like ours? The best chance at skipping hundreds of thousands of years of work. Not because what we have here is super powerful, but because in a more developed world any new wonders will get swallowed by those higher up. A herb that might give us ten points of strength? When consumed by some higher leveled beings they might need tens of them just to raise their stat by one. And even then only after they are mixed with other herbs and concocted into a pill while wasting so many other resources.¡±


    Jeremy is breathing hard at this point and everyone else is giving him strange looks. Susan coughs, ¡°ahem, well yes. What he said isn¡¯t wrong, though he did get a bit passionate there at the end. The only other thing I have to add on to that is the old ones aren¡¯t just a dream. Luckily the names we carelessly have scrawled in our books aren¡¯t the genuine ones or our world would be a lifeless field of dust. Don¡¯t search for what should stay hidden. We need this power if only to seek out those dangers and erase them from history. Our brand of humanity needs to grow in numbers and spread to the stars or we won¡¯t even be a footnote in history.¡±


    As she finishes one person after another reaches for a pen but Ace stops them. ¡°Just to note, like most of the really fun magical contracts you need to sign in blood or your equivalent.¡±@@novelbin@@


    Under Jeremy¡¯s gaze, the others all grab daggers or bite their fingers and sign the contract. Ace nods, ¡°good, now we can go into the details of how I want to deal with the issue. Though I guess I should ask. Jim, how long till they arrive?¡±


    Jim takes a nce towards the forest and cocks his head to the side, ¡°hmm, I would say we have three days? So tomorrow and the next will be fine but as the sun goes down the day after that they will arrive.¡±


    Ace sighs, ¡°that doesn¡¯t give us much time then. Now hear me out. We had nned to build around the dungeons aura already and this is a splendid chance to speed up that n. Likely most future monster based dangers wille from the forest anyway so we can spin it for the people easily enough. Think of our settlement as a giant circle and for this we are going to cut a slice out of it. Setting it up to funnel monsters towards the dungeon entrance. That way we can ce more permanent traps that we won¡¯t have to take out when this is all over.¡±


    ¡°With the outer wall and an inner wall which we will conveniently have built a little ways out from where the dungeon¡¯s aura ends and things should be good. For the moment we just leave a direct shot to the entrance open, butter on we can build some more walls and gates. When ites time for the fight, we can position people in that area to fight the wolves after they get past the traps.¡±


    ¡°Yes, I know it sounds stupid to build all those defense and then not use them but I have a reason for it. As it is too many people would stay. A wall sounds like enough of a defense. Many of those people were worried at the moment, but tomorrow will be different. Once they sleep on it, they will think the wolves to be just normal animals. Winds wolves should be able to just jump right over the walls. Stone wolves? Our walls are just dirt and we don¡¯t have enough earth mages to hold against them.¡±


    ¡°Once Iy out how much danger everyone will be in and what others will call my suicidal n things will be set. I hope that besides us, we keep fifty people around. Though I would settle for as little as twenty others. I know more people have shown up and bolstered our original hundred. But too manyck the drive we need. We are making history, not being swept up in it.¡±


    All around the campfire, the others nod their heads and sigh. While each one of them differs from the next they all share one thing. That fire in the soul to go toward, grow stronger, and show the world that their survival wasn¡¯t a fluke. Each one of them has been into the dungeon every single day. Multiple times if their duties haven¡¯t gotten in the way. Even Kelly has gotten her time in despite not currently researching dungeons.


    They bounced around between groups. Not because they didn¡¯t want a steady team, but because they delved too often. Except for the foragers who only killed some goats, the people who truly dived would go in once a day, if that. It looked like good public rtions, but really they all just strove to advance faster. With steel in their eyes now that the ufortable decisions are out of the way everyone gets down to tweaking the n.


    The next day they gather the entiremunity together and make an announcement. First the timeline, then the worries with how walls wouldn¡¯t actually defend them, and to wrap it up the actual n though carefully censored to keep the true intent hidden. There are many questions about why even bother, but Ace waves it away with how important the dungeon was to them.


    Then he slips the bait in. ¡°We don¡¯t need everyone, I guess. I would like it if everyone possible stayed to help the odds. However this likely is a death sentence so I won¡¯t chain you to our folly. Jan, I know you aren¡¯t a fighter so as one of the founders I task you with guiding any who don¡¯t want to stay and defend our livelihood away from here.¡±


    Silence follows what seems to be an off-the-cuffment. Jan quickly hides a cruel smile, but not before Ace can see it. Her n is clear enough, once the other founders are dead she would be the only leader. She steps forward and bows, ¡°I would dly help ferry away those who don¡¯t want to stay on this deadly mission.¡±


    Ace nods, ¡°good, now since we still have three days I would like it if everyone stays for today and helps ready the walls. After that though, you can head off bright and early tomorrow. We don¡¯t know what the wolves will do after they get here if they win. I advise you to keep moving in the opposite direction for a few days, then send a group back to check if we won.¡±


    He sighs, ¡°now the thirteen of us would like to help you all and will for the first bit. However, we need more power and so after we lunch all of us will start to delve into the dungeon. If anything, with a better clear of the ce we can build up a supply of food for those of you leaving.¡±


    With the n allid out the crowd disperse. Some to the river to get more y, others to the forest for timber, and ast group stays to help clear out the area nned for the traps. Things actually proceed with an eerie smoothness. No arguments and little discussion is had as everyone works with an almost manic determination.


    Sure some of them were stillzy about it but most of themon people really hoped for the best even if they didn¡¯t have the drive themselves. They weren¡¯t terrible people and every civilization needs them. What Ace needed though where those who would stand with him through thick and thin. Especially with how the future wasn¡¯t going to get better in the short term.


    Then as lunch finishes, the thirteen gather at the dungeon portal and team up. Doctor decides to sit out so as to be ready with a heal if needed and the Barrais are split between the two teams so each will have someone who can harvest. After some more discussion the first team has Ace, Ruby, Jeremy, Jack, Bill, and Tess. While the other team has Jim, Sammy, Susan, Kelly, Kellinger, and Og.


    Ready they all turn to Kellinger and Ace asks, ¡°so uh, how do you fight?¡±


    Kellinger tilts his head to the side and then raises both his eyebrows. ¡°Oh right, no one has seen me fight have they? I guess my clothing would sort of lead to certain guesses. I just like the gi because it reminds me of my childhood. I¡¯m actually a magic user. Not specialized in any element, though.¡±


    Sammyughs and ps him on the back, ¡°well you just blew everyone¡¯s expectations out of the water! Let¡¯s just keep this little fact between us in the inner circle. A secret mage can be a powerful surprise!¡±


    Off to the side the guards chuckle as Kellinger shrugs, ¡°no one ever asked?¡±

 The Start of Ace’s Dive – Chapter 56

    Ace lets out a long-suffering sigh and shakes his head at Kellinger¡¯s answer. ¡°Whatever, as long as your secrets aren¡¯t 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 don¡¯t 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 Jack¡¯s 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 shouldn¡¯t be a problem for us. You¡¯re a decent nature-based melee mage so the vine room won¡¯t cause a problem. Though we don¡¯t 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, you¡¯re 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 doesn¡¯t 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.¡±@@novelbin@@


    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 hasn¡¯t 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 shouldn¡¯t.¡±


    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, you¡¯re on trap duty. We can¡¯t ck on that anymore. A trip vine isn¡¯t 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 wasn¡¯t 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 leader¡¯s 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 don¡¯t know what thest kobold will be like, but we need to be ready.¡±


    Jack curses and exims that, ¡°it isn¡¯t 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 don¡¯t have to worry about losing a war of attrition. Their healer already got the other goat up again.¡±


    Jack grumbles at this but with Bill¡¯s 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 doesn¡¯t 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 wasn¡¯t 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, Ace¡¯s 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 mage¡¯s ribs. It doesn¡¯t 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 kobold¡¯s legs. He continues the swing up and then brings his concrete mace down on the monster and smashes it apart.


    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 isn¡¯t hitting as hard. This gives him an idea and he waits for the kobold to use whatever that skill is again. He doesn¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t what Ace is depending on. Instead, his actual attackes from his magic which bursts out as a giant thorn which pierces through the helmet¡¯s 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 don¡¯t 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 don¡¯t 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 let¡¯s 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 we¡¯re 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 isn¡¯t strange but if it doesn¡¯t 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. Can¡¯t lift the giant stone? Don¡¯t 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 won¡¯t leave it to chance. We don¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t 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 can¡¯t 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, ¡°that¡¯s 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 kobold¡¯s arm goes limp as it drops the dagger and Jack is able to knock it away with the handle of his mace.


    The other kobold¡¯s 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 can¡¯t 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 kobold¡¯s throat.


    They all stand ready in case anything else attacks until Jeremy breaks the tension. ¡°Oh hey, there¡¯s the mint!¡± And he kneels down next to the boulder he is by and harvests the herb.


    Ace shakes his head, ¡°well that¡¯s 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 don¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t 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 aren¡¯t as serious but he also doesn¡¯t have a good way to counterattack.@@novelbin@@


    Tess who was right next to him tries her best to free him, but her staff¡¯s 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 doesn¡¯t 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 can¡¯t 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 can¡¯t 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 aren¡¯t an actual threat, no matter how sharp that horn looks. That lizard though I don¡¯t 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 shouldn¡¯t let our guard down, I don¡¯t 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, we¡¯ve gotten some rabbit meat from the kobolds. I don¡¯t 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 aren¡¯t exactly in stock at the local sports store and I prefer to keep them for emergencies like with those ambush kobolds.¡±@@novelbin@@


    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 let¡¯s 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 that¡¯s it for the goats but I see a kobold as well! It¡¯s wielding a club of some sort.¡±


    Thest part is unheard though as he shes with the first goat¡¯s 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 aren¡¯t 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 kobold¡¯s 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, ¡°that¡¯s 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 wasn¡¯t there and a line of red blossoms from the kobold¡¯s throat. He shakes his head, ¡°only a little bit of knowledge though.¡±


    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! That¡¯s 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 aren¡¯t 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. ¡°There¡¯s a hidden door of some sort here. I can¡¯t 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 can¡¯t 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 aren¡¯t meant as traps to take us by surprise. While I can¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t 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 bird¡¯s 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 don¡¯t help it along that likely won¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t 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 that¡¯s the closest I¡¯ve 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 hadn¡¯t been right up on this wall, who knows how much damage the birds could have done.¡±


    Tess shakes her head, ¡°I honestly don¡¯t 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 don¡¯t seem ready for the amount of speed they built up. Now I noticed that there is a decent slope here, but that shouldn¡¯t 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 can¡¯t detect any active magic going on so whatever is causing that is weird. I¡¯ve 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 don¡¯t 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.

 Climbing the Cliff – Chapter 61

    Then a fountain of blood appears in the kobold¡¯s back row. The healer now dead stays upright only through the efforts of the vines now wrapping him up. Behind him stands Jeremy, though not for long as he quickly dashes towards one of the other mages and goes for a repeat performance.


    Now alerted to his presence the kobold mage throws up an ice wall but on such short notice Jeremy barely has to exert himself to crash through. Thus another mage dies under his de.Though the other one takes this time to free itself by freezing the roots solid. As they shatter, it throws itself towards the melee kobolds for safety.


    It doesn¡¯t find that though as without the boosts from their leader the already crumbling shield wall disintegrates. Jack and Tesse in from the sides and they both swing their weapons out with all their might. The two shield kobolds on the edges both get knocked flying, though it is a quick trip as they bash into one another.


    Between them the other shield kobold receives the full brunt of both attacks and the force alone is enough to kill it. Behind them the dagger kobolds fare better, but only by throwing themselves to the floor. Bill figures this is a suitable ce for them to stay as well and with a flourish ms both clubs down two of the kobold¡¯s pelvises.


    Ruby at this point has finished putting down the goats, so she turns her attention to the kobold slinger up on the hill. This little irritation had been pelting her all fight and now was the time to get revenge. She ps her hands together and as she pulls them apart an enormous mass of me appears between them in an arc in front of her.


    As if lifting a colossal weight, Ruby pushes the mes toward the slinger. Once the me leaves her hands, a startling change happens to it. From an indistinct mass of mes it springs outward, creating a collection of ribbons that stretch twice the distance of her outstretched hands.


    The kobold tries to dodge the spell but as the ribbons near it they start to twist and spin around as if someone was spinning multiple jump ropes. The kobold doesn¡¯t stand a chance and even the dirt below it shows scars from the spells passing. Rubyughs at this but then like Ace beside her she staggers and has to sit down before the option is taken out of her hands.


    At this point only a dagger wielding kobold and the ice mage can still fight back, but this doesn¡¯tst long. With both the kobolds prone and fighting twice their numbers, the two don¡¯t stand a chance or even have a chance to stand. With that, everyone joins the two mages on the ground.


    Jack flexes his arm and nods, ¡°well this better be thest room for the floor. I can¡¯t go through another regr fight let alone one like that.¡±


    Bill nods, ¡°if I had known what was in here I would have voted against exploring it. This was a little more than I was expecting.¡±


    There is a moment of silence before Jeremy scratches his head and shakes his head. ¡°We should have expected it. On the first floor there were more enemies in the kobold room than had been in the goat room right before it. Now here the same thing holds true. In fact, those goats showing up is exactly like the first floor even if they didn¡¯te from another room.¡±


    ¡°The numbers actually match up well enough. On the first floor there were six goats in the goat room and then the kobold room ended up having 11 enemies. Here we have the ramp room which if my ability to count hasn¡¯t failed me had 13 enemies. In this forest room there were 18 enemies. Now that I think about it, the numbers are an exact match. Both room counts go up by five between the second tost room and thest.¡±


    Ruby shakes her head, ¡°you¡¯re putting too much thought into it. Likely this is just a matter of how much juice the dungeon is able to throw at a room increasing or some such.¡±


    Jeremy shrugs, ¡°not much else we can do at the moment besides specte. Though speaking of spection, hey Ace! What¡¯s your chances of developing some healing magic? You¡¯ve got that nature theme going on and at the least you should pick up some stamina restoring power or a spell to speed up natural healing.¡±


    Ace rolls his eyes, ¡°nature isn¡¯t really a healing element despite what some fiction would tell you. It is more of a survival of the fittest sort of thing. While there is technically healing in my repertoire it is more personal. Just look at my shoulder, the wound has already scabbed over even with my amber coating. I expect that with enough time I will develop spells to heal others, but for now my magic is quite selfish.¡±


    Jeremy sighs, ¡°If nature magic can¡¯t heal my stamina, what kind would?¡±


    Ace didn¡¯t exactly focus on magic so looks over at Ruby to see if she knows.


    Rubyughs at this but she does have the answer, ¡°acid magic. Muscle fatiguees from a buildup ofctic acids, so being able to magically remove it will do wonders for your ability to continue fighting. Now of course, that doesn¡¯t deal with all fatigue rted matters. Some pure healing magic would also be needed for the micro-tears in your muscles and I don¡¯t know of anything at our level that could deal with the mental fatigue.¡±


    The group falls back into silence after this revtion. Then after a good bit of time passes, Jeremy jumps up off the ground and stretches. ¡°Well, those herbs aren¡¯t going to pick themselves. Though we should probably go check out if this really is thest room. That and I think there is another beehive on top of the little hill. While we rested here, I¡¯ve been hearing them buzz around and the ones I¡¯ve seen all return to up there.¡±


    Everyone else sighs, but after a little effort they all stand up. After that it doesn¡¯t take the group all that long to find the exit to the room. The tunnel out is right in the room''s corner, as some of them had guessed it would. When they enter the hallway, the group discovers that much to their relief the core room is right there. It doesn¡¯t even have a stone door this time.


    Satisfied that they had reached the end of the dungeon the group returned to the forest. Then, with a little help from Bill, Jeremy climbs up on top of the hill. Once up there the beehive isn¡¯t hard to find and he soon returns to the group with a pot of honey.


    He smiles and points toward the back of the room, ¡°now it is time to go and check on what nts there are to harvest.¡±


    Bill shakes his head, ¡°don¡¯t expect me to help you climb that cliff.¡±


    Jeremyughs, ¡°don¡¯t worry, I n to climb it myself. Though I would much appreciate it if Ruby would return to the top of the wooden staircase at the room¡¯s entrance. I don¡¯t want anything to be waiting for me at the top of the cliff and she has the range to attack anything that might try something.¡±


    Ruby waves her hand, ¡°I don¡¯t have much magical oomph left in me. Though as long as there isn¡¯t another tribe of kobolds chilling up there I should be able to at least give you a chance to retreat. I think Ace being at the bottom of the cliff will be of much more help as I assume his vines can break your fall.¡±


    Jeremy rolls his eyes, ¡°hey, hey, hey! What¡¯s with the assumption that I will fall? Even before the end I could climb a cliff like that in my sleep. There are enough handholds on it that unless oil pours down the wall, I will be fine.¡±


    Ruby shrugs, ¡°no skin off my nose. We are going to have to climb the staircase again anyway to leave. The portal might let us directly exit the dungeon but we have to get to it first.¡±


    Jeremy nods, ¡°to the cliff it is then!¡±


    Ace res at him for a moment. ¡°You can go to the cliff with me. I support your harvesting, but I want the rest of the group with Ruby. Who knows if we missed something.¡±


    Jeremy sticks his tongue out and then jogs off towards a spot he had noticed while on the wood tform. There wasn¡¯t anything special about except you can see it from said tform. An important feature if he wanted Ruby to provide over watch. Ace sighs and walks after him while the rest of the group heads off towards the wooden tform.


    After the two groups are in ce Jeremy does a few stretches and climbs the cliff. With all the handholds, he zips right up the cliff face. Up and up he goes and that is what tips him off to the fact that something is wrong.@@novelbin@@


    Jeremy looks up and sees that he should be halfway up. Looking down shows the same thing to be true. Below him Ace shouts up that, ¡°something¡¯s strange with the cliff! Pay more attention as you climb it.¡±


    Jeremy scoffs, as if he wasn¡¯t already going to do that. He reaches up and grabs the next handhold, then looks up and down again. New handholds, but he doesn¡¯t seem to have moved at all. ¡°Interesting, now what happens if I stare at the ground.¡±


    Jeremy memorizes the position of the next couple handholds and then looks down at Ace. Not taking his eyes off of Ace, he climbs up those memorized holds. This action gives him a bit of a headache. ¡°Well, that¡¯s trippy. Hey Ace, you get a headache while watching me climb? When I stare at you, you both stay the same distance away and get further away. Quite trippy.¡±


    Ace shakes his head, ¡°I can tell something odd is happening but it is more like I am following you up. Then when I look away there is just more cliff for you to climb.¡±


    Jeremy sighs, ¡°well let¡¯s see how far I can get then! This isn¡¯t some illusion so I am traveling the distance. If anything, this wall is a free climber''s dream course. The ability to climb forever yet never be more than a story off the floor is amazing.¡±


    He shakes his head to clear it and starts to climb again. This time he pays more attention to his progress and at some point he realizes what is happening. It isn¡¯t that he is stuck in the center of the wall. Rather, he is climbing higher, but the distance he actually goes on the wall is a fraction of what it should be.


    Taking this as a challenge, he continues to climb ever upward. He had been willing to climb a two story cliff for the herbs. What¡¯s a few more storiespared to being able to harvest the nts before his wife? Slowly he makes progress and he reaches a breaking point. His body is about to give out from exhaustion, but that doesn¡¯t stop him. The top of the cliff is only a few handholds away, or so it seems. Hand over hand he climbs the cliff and just as he breaks through the limits of his body Jeremy crawls over the top of the cliff.


    He flops over onto his back and waves his hand over the edge to let Ace know he is fine. Across the way Ruby has been watching the entire thing and she can only shake her head in amazement. Ace might not have had the best view of it from the bottom of the cliff, but from her position it was obvious something had been going on. She can only sigh to herself and hope that the cliff isn¡¯t so soul breaking or the Barrai¡¯s might be the only ones able to harvest from that teau. They would definitely have to do some tests.

 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 weren¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t 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 haven¡¯t 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 two¡¯s attention. ¡°While I can appreciate wanting to explore the bounds of our settlement¡¯s 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 don¡¯t want to think what might happen if you mess with the dungeon¡¯s 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 don¡¯t 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 I¡¯ve heard about that? Isn¡¯t information like that something that should be spread out so others don¡¯t do something stupid?¡±


    Jim turns away from Kelly and shrugs, ¡°in a normal dungeon dive it wouldn¡¯te up. In fact, I don¡¯t 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 wouldn¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t to keep it alive but to break its legs! Not only don¡¯t we have time to faff about torturing goats, but you don¡¯t even have any anesthetic. It might be a dungeon monster, but it can still feel pain.¡±


    Kelly crosses her arms and frowns, ¡°I¡¯m 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 won¡¯t 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 don¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t 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 don¡¯t have enough frontline fighters. I can sub in during a pinch, but most of us are ranged damage. Sammy, from what I have heard, you¡¯re 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 she¡¯s 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.¡±@@novelbin@@


    ¡°I noticed this right away and I am sure Ace knew what he was doing but that doesn¡¯t make our job easier. What Ace did was take almost all the people who can take a hit so they would survive. We didn¡¯t 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 don¡¯t 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 don¡¯t 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 I¡¯m 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 wasn¡¯t 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 floor¡¯s 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.


    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 didn¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t some ssic damage dealer. Rather it is one of his favorite crowd control spells, grease. The enemy mages don¡¯t even have a chance to counter it as a thin film of oil coats the ground under their feet.


    As they aren¡¯t moving around this normally wouldn¡¯t cause too much trouble. Sadly for the kobolds, Og and Jim aren¡¯t going to give them a chance. Jim¡¯s 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 isn¡¯t 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 spell¡¯s 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 goat¡¯s 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 goat¡¯s throat before she withdraws back to cover.

 He Has a Reason – Chapter 64

    With all the attention turned towards Jim, Og Pwner, and Susan the others get another chance to y with the battlefield. Kelly and Kellinger nod to one another and smirk. With the kobold ice mage iling around on the floor, it freed them up from counterspell duty so they whispered to Sammy their n.


    Kelly starts it off with a cloud of fiery motes that descend on the enemies. Normally not too damaging of a spell there are certain conditions currently that change that. Specifically the fact that not only is the floor covered in oil but all the enemies that have fallen down there have kindly smeared themselves in it as well.


    Those motes of fire set the entire area aze. This fire doesn¡¯tst long as there really isn¡¯t that much oil but the damage is done. While all the room¡¯s original inhabitants have suffered some damage the mage in particr has been well and truly burnt.


    The kobold leader is a mite bit distracted by the sh fire and in shock drops her club. At least that is what it looks like. In actuality, Kellinger had used a more targeted version of the grease spell to coat the club. As she wasn¡¯t paying attention at the time even the leaders gauntlet weren¡¯t able to keep a hold of it. The club just slid right out of her hand.


    This version of the spell does have a downside. If he wants to keep the weapon slippery he has to concentrate on the spell. Else the oil wouldn¡¯t stay on thick enough to prevent someone from picking the weapon up again.


    The leader crouches down to pick up her club but only manages to fumble with it once before Sammy ms her shield into the kobold. Unprepared for this she is flung into the wall behind her. With a smirk, Sammy takes the time to kick the club back towards the two casters.


    This gives the leader enough time to gather herself and lift her shield up, but Sammy isn¡¯t here to y fair. Despite motioning with her sword, what Sammy actually does is swipe her front leg out in a low kick, knocking her over. At this point she isn¡¯t even able to react as Sammy drops the shield and with both hands on the sword drives it home through her skull.


    Off to the side the other kobolds and the goats aren¡¯t doing much better. Despite the fire clearing away the oil, they don¡¯t have time to recover. Susan dodges past the standing goat and scissors her two daggers through the healer¡¯s throat, beheading him.


    That standing goat? Being the only target not iling around it doesn¡¯t even get a chance to turn towards Susan before Jim puts it down with an arrow to the eye just like his first kill. All the while Og is pelting the enemies on the floor. One particrly sizeable piece of stone even manages to take out one of the other goats. Suppressed and without magic support, the remaining kobolds and goats are soon dead to abination of spells thrown from afar by Kelly and Kellinger.


    Room cleared, they all settled in to recover. The fight wasn¡¯t the toughest, but with all the fighting the first floor had taken it out of them. Even more so than the first group as theirck of melee fighters once again shows a w. Without enough people up front to defend they end up having to nuke heavily popted rooms quickly or they would get overrun. This worries Jim, but he still believes they aren¡¯t in danger of anyone dying.


    Once all the olives are harvested, the group heads on through the leader¡¯s room where they find what Jim had feared. A change that Ace¡¯s group hadn¡¯t reported. The big heavy stone door is just gone now. They can just enter right into the old core room and on through the portal to the second floor. The changes don¡¯t stop there though. When they go to enter said portal the system pops up a box that asks if they want to go on to the second floor or just exit the dungeon.@@novelbin@@


    Everyone else is meh about it. More convenient, and this isn¡¯t the first time the dungeon has changed on them. The only two who are at all perturbed by the change are Jim and a certain fairy off in the core room. Jim is just worried about what changes might have happened to the second floor. On the other hand, a certain fairy in that far off room smacks a certain crystal whileining about not being kept in the loop. The only response she gets is a bobble equivalent of a shrug and an offhand remark about it being more convenient for everyone.


    No one else in the group cares too much about this change. They had expected new things in the first ce so Jim can only select to go to the second floor as everyone else has already done so. Through the portal he again dodges to the side with his bow at ready only to be met with a room empty of anyone besides his own teammates. With a sigh, he rxed. The report wasn¡¯tpletely invalidated.


    ¡°Okay everyone, I have a n to deal with the next room. We know already that there should be two stealthy kobolds in there who are ying at being assassins. Instead of just going through the room, all we have to do is sweep along the outer edge.¡±


    Kellinger nods at Jim¡¯s suggestion but has a n of his own. ¡°I could just cast grease again.¡±


    Jim opens his mouth but then closes it again as he furrows his brow. ¡°Hmm, that could work. Is there any limit on how often you can do that? I know the little firebug, Ruby, can keep casting her ribbon but your grease spell creates a lot more stuff.¡±


    Kellinger shrugs, ¡°I can get two in rtively rapid fire before I need to rest. If I use one in the next room, then I should be good for the birds as well as thest room after that.¡±


    Jim shrugs, ¡°well it is worth a try. If no one else has any other ideas, we can go and give it a try.¡±


    None of the others can think of a better n, so they go through the vines and into the next room. Everything looks like they expected, so Kellinger throws down a grease spell to the right of the group as Sammy sweeps out along the wall to her left.


    One of the kobolds was over there and outside the grease spells radius but Sammy had expected an attack so her shield easily blocks the kobold¡¯s daggers. To her right in the area covered in grease, the second kobold tries to jump out attack from the side. The grease over there isn¡¯t quite as effective as it was on the stone floor, but the kobold still does a facent. Now without the element of surprise, not that they really had it anyway, the two kobolds are finished off.


    Everyone is technically ready to head on but Jim stops them and he turns to Kellinger. ¡°So it looks like your grease spell isn¡¯t quite as effective on greenery?¡±


    Kellinger shrugs, ¡°literally just coating something in oil. If they were standing on a sponge or some simr nonsense, I can¡¯t really do much about it. Some clover? That still gets ayer of oil and because there is more surface to cover there is more of it. I just can¡¯t wait to use the spell on something like a saddle so I can make some valiant knight slide right off their horse!¡±


    Jim rubs his eyes, ¡°I think I liked you better when you kept up that stoic look.¡±


    Kellinger shrugs again, ¡°eh, don¡¯t expect me to be like this all the time. I am just tickled pink to be able to test out my favorite spell from when I yed pen and paper roleying games. Grease is just such a versatile spell and I can cast it so much more now than any of my characters could.¡±


    Jim sighs, ¡°whatever. The next room should have an assassin vine hidden up in the corner right as we enter. Anyone have a good idea on dealing with that mess? While I am sure Ace handheld his group through this floor, I want to give you all a chance to do some nning. With how the town is developing, you¡¯re all going to be leaders of some color.¡±


    The rest of them are silent. Well Kellinger was going to suggest using grease again but Jim stared him down from it. Jim is about to give up and tell them what to do when Susan beats him to it. ¡°Despite being called an assassin vine it isn¡¯t really all that deadly, at least not for a party. Og¡±, he grimaces as she pronounces it oog, ¡°your arms should be quite strong. I say we send you in first with your arms up like a boxer. That way when the nt wraps you up your neck is protected and we can then take it on with ease.¡±


    Head down, Og uses his thumbs to rub his temples, ¡°well yes, I could do that. In return could you please pronounce my name right?¡±


    Susan shrugs, ¡°you can¡¯t name yourself that and expect me not to have a little fun with it.¡±


    Og looks up at her, ¡°I have a reason for my name. Please respect my choices just as much as you respect Ruby or Ace and their choices.¡±


    Susan looks like she is going to say more but Jim interrupts. ¡°Everyone has some tragic personal story right now. Maybe after the world settles down, we can go back to the more normal drama. Respect his choice or you¡¯re going to soon lose everyone else¡¯s respect. Ace has basically made all of us promise not to dig into you and your husband¡¯s past, so I thought of all the people you would understand.¡±


    As he says that to her, Susan¡¯s face drops and she can only nod in agreement by the end. With this the group has taken on a more sullen mood so Jim puts his fingers in his mouth and lets out one of those ear piercing whistles. Before the others can cover their ears, he stops and nods. ¡°Well, the dungeon isn¡¯t going to clear itself. Og, lead us into the next room and show us what all your training has done for you.¡±


    With a more confident look on his face, Og nods. He enters the next room with his fists up and the n works like a charm. The assassin vine focuses on him but despite his slight build Og¡¯s arms are solid like a rock, not budging an inch. Everyone is impressed with this while Og smiles at the praise they give him. Sure most of thises from one of hispleted paths giving his arms a percentage increase to how effective strength is for them. But that was why he traveled the path he did in the first ce. He might not havepleted as many paths as others, but he already knew his goal and quality over quantity was going to get him there.


    After thest couple rooms, the goatherd and her flock is almost a disappointment. Unlike Ace¡¯s group, everyone stayed back in the tunnel with Sammy blocking the way. Though the kobold is out of sight so they can¡¯t remove it and the buff, that doesn¡¯t matter when they can pick off the goats at range. Even when they all charge at once Sammy is able to hold the line while Susan cripples the goats that try to get around the shield.


    Once the goats are cleared, the kobold is easier still. Without its herd and all alone, she stands no chance against the six adventurers that have invaded her pasture.

 Axebeak Redemption – Chapter 65

    Jim peeks into the next room and shakes his head. ¡°More nonsense ahead. I can¡¯t spot the bird that is supposed to be just inside the next room. With how badly they did against Ace¡¯s 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 hasn¡¯t delved this dungeon except for that first time, but he had a feeling about it. That aside though there isn¡¯t 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 don¡¯t even seem to notice the group down by the entrance. Kelly whispers, ¡°see? They are just gathered together at the other end. We aren¡¯t 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 Kelly¡¯s 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, what¡¯s 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. Jim¡¯s 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.


    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 isn¡¯t 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 don¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t 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 bird¡¯s throat. While the axebeak tried to il about, Jim¡¯s 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 isn¡¯t going toe from Sammy. With her arm useless at her side, broken from the blow with the remnants of the shattered shield Sammy isn¡¯t in much of a position to help anyone. That doesn¡¯t 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.@@novelbin@@


    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 doesn¡¯t trust Sammy to not hit her. This dys her attack but allows her to hamstring this bird as well. The axebeak doesn¡¯t 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 bird¡¯s 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 Jim¡¯s 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 doesn¡¯t 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 that¡¯s bad? My husband won¡¯t let me live this down. Hees out with these tales of all the stuff to harvest in thest room, and I can¡¯t even make it that far. Still, I can¡¯t 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 wouldn¡¯t be of much use. It would take me much too long to cast anything else. That stone shape shouldn¡¯t 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 can¡¯t 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 Sammy¡¯s pack they go back to the second floor¡¯s 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 didn¡¯t 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 didn¡¯t even use a skill or anything. Just rammed right into it. In fact, if it wasn¡¯t for the fact it had to jump over Kellinger¡¯s wall, she might have lost her hand. I can¡¯t be certain, but stuff made from the start with mana is different. Even if the item or animal isn¡¯t 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 don¡¯t 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 <i>better</i> 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 don¡¯t 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 what¡¯s 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 don¡¯t want to scam them but we can¡¯t 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 don¡¯t think any of the maybes will stay. We can¡¯t 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 I¡¯m not an alchemist. Of course, the Barrai¡¯s might have us covered on that front.¡±

 Why Pre-System Stuff Sucks – Chapter 66

    Back in the dungeon Doyle is exuberantly happy. ¡®My axebeaks actually did a good job! Obviously they wouldn¡¯t be too weak or they wouldn¡¯t qualify as a level two monster, but still. Their first showing wasn¡¯t exactly ster and just a couple minor changes turned them from sham to wow!¡¯


    Ally nods, ¡®that went a lot better than I expected. Sure, we can expect other groups to get defeated, but those were the settlement¡¯s top yers. Though Jim had a point. His group only had a single front-line fighter. If there was another the two might have been able to stop the charge without injury. Still would have lost a shield. They aren¡¯t called axebeaks for no reason. That Sammy needs some more lessons on how to fight different weapons. Don¡¯t face an axe straight on. You have to angle your shield.¡¯


    Doyle nods, but then remembers what Ace and Jim had just been talking about. ¡®Is what they said about pre-system stuff and magic true?¡¯


    Ally shrugs, ¡®eh, sorta? Magic, qi and all the other mystical energies do reinforce stuff. A tree grown in a high magic area will produce better wood than one in a low magic area. Though the way mystical nonsense reinforces materials and animals is more in line with concept skill. Grow a tree in a swamp heavy with the dead and it will end up twisted and mushy. Grow the same type on a natural iron deposit and you get ironwood. A raremodity, if only because humans tend to find more value in the iron itself. Short sighted and stupid that. Trees are renewable, even if it does take decades.¡¯


    ¡®Anyway, the real factor in why her shield shattered is crafting skills. While there are all kinds of mystical techniques involved, especially at higher skill levels, the real foundation is in the basic work. Skills make this easier. A little nudge to hold the knife just a degree higher, the whisper that the paint could use a smidge more blue to really capture the sky, and that hint which really breathes life into a character. You don¡¯t need skills for that of course. There are always talented people out there and that is why not all so-called <i>pre-system</i> items are trash.¡¯


    ¡®Powerful items are beautiful not because someone wanted to make them beautiful to match the power. Rather, it is the other way around. Of course, beautiful isn¡¯t quite the right word as a Hideous sword can be just as powerful as a Beautiful one or even a Simple one. What matters is the quality of the work.¡¯


    ¡®If you would think back on when Jack had received your very first true loot drop? Jeremy berated him for not appreciating it more and the reason he gave was simple. <i>For an item to be magical it needs to be a masterwork.</i> A masterwork! Even the simplest magic dagger enchanted to keep its edge needs to be made by a master smith. In fact, the creation of a masterwork is what divides a journeyman of a craft from a master on many worlds. After all, if you can make a masterwork then you¡¯re a master.¡¯@@novelbin@@


    ¡®So yeah, the better the craftsmanship the more power an item can fit. Better materials can increase this limit, but it is all for naught if the item isn¡¯t a masterpiece. This brings us to that shield. No mass-produced item can be a masterpiece. Some really advanced societies have tried. Scanning down below the subatomic level and then aplete recreation of the item still doesn¡¯t work.¡¯


    ¡®Your world had the concept of an artist putting their soul into their work. That isn¡¯t entirely wrong. Beyond magic, beyond science, beyond even the collected knowledge of all the immortals in the local area, is the soul. That spark that separates those who are sapient and that which is not. Through its interaction with the world, items be receptive to enchantments.¡¯


    ¡®Of course those tech based societies are always finding corner cases and loopholes so they can push forward with mass production. One of my favorites is aser weapon, which is almostpletely mass produced. The only masterpiece in the whole weapon is a single crystal lens, which the beam goes through as thest step. They don¡¯t even need it in most cases, however a non-magicalser is so much easier to block than a magical one.¡¯


    ¡®Anyway, I went on way too long there. The short and sweet of it is all your so-called <i>high quality</i> weapons and armor from before the system are machine made. Your monsters are made of world energy. A power that can be considered above mana and that shield didn¡¯t even have mana. Against dungeon monsters a sweater knitted with love by a grandmother would provide more defense than a machine-made leather jacket.¡¯


    Doyle sighs, ¡®okay tutorialdy. Handicrafts good and machine made bad. Got it.¡¯


    With a smile, Ally crosses her arms and turns up her nose. ¡®Humph, this is important for you to know. While a magic item¡¯s aura can be hidden, the craftsmanship is much harder to hide. Even if they cover it with an illusion, you would at least be able to detect the illusion. Now you know to be careful if you ever see someone raggedly dressed yet has a suspiciously fine piece of gear.¡¯


    ¡®Though I guess the actual bit about making a masterwork doesn¡¯t apply to you directly. After all, a dungeon¡¯s loot always counts as a masterwork and actually where you would get most of your eversharp daggers from. This is because unlike a normal crafter, your drops are formed directly from world energy through the lens of your soul.¡¯


    Doyle nods, but then stops as he thinks of something. ¡®Hey Ally, is there a way to make an item specifically drop for someone? Those founders seem to be doing all right on normal gear, but I would like to help them a little. For instance, my kobold mages can drop wands and I figure Ruby having one would make things a lot easier for them.¡¯


    Ally sighs, ¡®yes it is possible, but no you can¡¯t. If you would refer back to the item costs, you might remember there being a third one besides the temporary and loot options. That is the <i>real</i> cost. What it takes to just spawn an item wholesale and is about a thousand times the cost of the temp option.¡¯


    ¡®Now you could spawn them some armor, I guess. Each piece would only cost you about 2k world energy but you aren¡¯t exactly making enough to do that. You have to keep the dungeon stocked after all. That doesn¡¯t mean you don¡¯t have any options. While even you can¡¯t tell when a loot drop will happen, there is a way to favor them.¡¯


    ¡®In this case, favoring Sammy. The system likes to give out quests that push a person forward. What could be better for that than defeating a foe which has defeated you before? All you have to do to trigger such a quest is make a bird stand out and dere it is the one who defeated her. Make it the leader of the pack or something.¡¯


    ¡®While the group killed the bird in the end Sammy wasn¡¯t really in her right mind and was at best a distraction. Once she travels back to the second floor, the system should pop up a little solo mission quest for her to whomp it good. Likely to earn herself a new shield from the quest and you won¡¯t even have to pay for it.¡¯


    ¡®This sort of thing is something to be on the lookout for in the future. On the flip side you need to be careful that people you don¡¯t like miss out on such opportunities. Someone you don¡¯t like gets rebuffed by the ice mage? Make the mage cast rock shard spells the next time they face it. Simple things like that can show your displeasure to others without tipping your hand.¡¯


    Doyle shakes his head, ¡®that sounds delightfully abusable. Though I would assume that I can¡¯t artificially set up such conditions?¡¯


    Ally shakes her head, ¡®sadly not. If the situation doesn¡¯t arise naturally, it doesn¡¯t work. No putting down rules to let your favorites farm quests. This though? The pieces are already in motion and you would just be pointing the way for her.¡¯


    Doyle pulled up a view of the first axebeak room. He had gone through and re-summoned everything already as Jim and crew hadn¡¯t cleared all that much so the birds were back. Focusing in on the center-left bird.


    ¡®Now what am I going to do with you? Your im to fame is shattering a shield with your beak, so maybe give it a touch up?¡¯ The beak while vaguely axe shaped isn¡¯t quite there. It angles down all right but the top but is just a curve. Doyle is sure some axe out there must be shaped like that, but he is more familiar with the ssic full crescent shape.


    ¡®So your beak will be the target, now how to change it? I can see two practical ways of doing this. Either split the axe in half with the toe and heel of the de being on the upper and lower mandible. The other way is to keep things as they are but extend the toe of the bit off the top so the bit is all one piece. Hmm, actually that is a good point. If I split it, the strength could go down. Second option it is then, and I might as well sharpen it a wee bit while I am at it. Then for a bit of dramatic ir let¡¯s turn the edge a nice ruddy red.¡¯


    Doyle pulls up the editor he hadn¡¯t used since messing with the clover and loads in specifically the chosen bird. After he tweaks a few settings, it bes clear this isn¡¯t exactly a new idea. There are even a couple presets hidden away, one that fits his current needs perfectly.


    Doyle unsummoned the bird and then summoned the altered recement. The bird looks almost the same, though having summoned it now he can see some other parts have changed. While this new bird can do most of what the others can, it won¡¯t ever run as fast. Instead, it has traded out some of that frightening speed for the ability to swing its head back and forth with great force.


    ¡®Well, that is a wee surprise¡¯, Doyle murmurs to himself. This new variant of axebeak should be made to engage even after the charge. It should do even better against front-line fighters. Once stopped it just has to haul back its head and start pounding away at the enemy. No need to retreat for another charge.


    Doyle looks over the rest of the floor and does a mental shrug. ¡®So Ally, anything else I should be doing at the moment? The second floor is in ce. Anything I need for the wolves or what not?¡¯


    Ally takes a moment to go over the floors and his monsters. Then, with her chin on her fist, ponders for a moment more. ¡®We want a couple wolves to get in. Preferably at least one of each type. Besides that maybe work on your kobolds? If more than a handful of wolves make it in, they are just screwed. While the kobolds in theory work as a team, they don¡¯t do as well on that front as a wolf pack.¡¯


    Doyle nods, ¡®hmm, yes I could work on getting them to be more of a team. As it is only the first floor has anything close to a true leader despite me assigning supposed leaders elsewhere. Thank you for the idea. Let me go think it over. If Sammy shows up again, make sure I notice. Whatever happens with her I want a front-row seat. This incident shouldn¡¯t break her but who knows? It could always be the straw that breaks the camel¡¯s back.¡¯

 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 Jack¡¯s 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 hasn¡¯t 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 didn¡¯t expect this attack, but Sammy isn¡¯t one of the founders for no reason. Knowing that her shield won¡¯t 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 axebeak¡¯s 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 bird¡¯s neck with all of her weight behind it. While this didn¡¯t 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 I¡¯ve 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 won¡¯t 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 aren¡¯t 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?¡±@@novelbin@@


    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 wouldn¡¯t 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 wouldn¡¯t want an extra effect that doesn¡¯t count towards your magic gear limit. Since it doesn¡¯t work duringbat or even just while doing stuff in general it would be worth more as a collector¡¯s 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. What¡¯s 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 don¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t 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 don¡¯t 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.


    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 wasn¡¯t 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 bird¡¯s 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 can¡¯t 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 don¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t 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 don¡¯t 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 won¡¯t 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 bird¡¯s 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 isn¡¯t 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 haven¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t 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 Ace¡¯s 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 kobold¡¯s 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 doesn¡¯t 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 let¡¯s 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. Ace¡¯s 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 healer¡¯s 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 doesn¡¯t 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 lion¡¯s share are all aimed at the ice mage that just got healed.


    While the ribbons aren¡¯t 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 healer¡¯s frantic attempt to save it, the ice mage dies.


    As soon as it falls over the healer isn¡¯t 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 healer¡¯s 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 doesn¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t 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 aren¡¯t 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 couldn¡¯t handle those three de boys, I would be highly disappointed in you.¡±@@novelbin@@


    She shrugs, ¡°whatever, I¡¯m going to go and climb that cliff. My husband can¡¯t 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. <i>We</i>, 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 can¡¯t really go against it. That sorted out they all head towards the forest room¡¯s 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.


    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. You¡¯re 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 you¡¯re about as far as Susan is.¡± He nods to Jack, ¡°I go after Ruby and you can keep Ogpany. Don¡¯t start your climb until three of us have either made it up or given up. If anyone falls, you¡¯re in charge of catching them. I don¡¯t think the space will warp the falling distance so even if you can¡¯t catch them, it won¡¯t 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 don¡¯t 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 didn¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t too far behind. Just a few more minutes and she too is able to pull herself up over the edge.

 Collecting Runes – Chapter 70

    While the group had been waiting for others to climb up Ace had been quietly asking each new arrival to describe their experience. Everyone of them mentioned a feeling of having exceeded themselves or going beyond their abilities. After hearing Susan¡¯s descriptions, Ace nods.


    ¡°Okay, now I want to invoke the use of our oath rted to dungeon based secrets. After talking to Jeremyst night and all of what I heard here, we have uncovered another horrible secret to take to our graves. All of you check your paths. There should be a new one called <i>Limit Breaker I</i>, which costs only a single point. Buy it now and share what it tells you so we canpare. Here¡¯s mine.[System share Limit Breaker message.]¡±


    {1 point applied to Limit Breaker I


    1/1 - You saw a path beyond your means and because of a hunch that did not stop you from attempting it and in doing so have gone beyond what you thought were your limits. For doing so you have earned the recognition of the system. +1 general skill slot, +1 to All Stats/Level}


    Susan follows suit and shares hers, which reads exactly the same. Sammy is the next to share, but there is a slight difference in the wording and rewards.


    {1 point applied to Limit Breaker I


    1/1 - You saw a path beyond your means and yet that did not stop you from attempting it and in doing so have gone beyond what you thought were your limits. For doing so you have earned the recognition of the system. +1 general skill slot, +1 to All Stats/Level, +5 Constitution}


    The rest of them soon follow and their messages match Susans, though the extra stat points go to whatever they considered their prime stat. Og received agility, Ruby got Intelligence, and Jack of course had his Strength upped.


    After seeing them all, Ace sighs, ¡°I was afraid of that. I think we might have just found another reason not to talk too much about paths. By having it revealed to us, me and Susan got less rewards. I bet if you didn¡¯t manage this on the first try without attempting to cheat, you wouldn¡¯t get the path from the cliff ever. All we can do is hope the rest of the core group can manage it without too many prods. Jeremy, that lucky dog, even got a special path about being the first on Earth as well as five more stat points to another stat.¡±


    ¡°Anyway, the path is marked as just the first and yet for only a single point it gave us all an extra skill slot. My bet is that in the future, when we do something beyond our means, more of this path will open up and likely diverge. This first part had a generic message, and I bet it isn¡¯t too rare for people to get. Though the fact that we have a cliff capable of doing it automatically on just the second floor of our dungeon probably isn¡¯t asmon. So once again to remind you, keep it a secret.¡±


    ¡°In the future we should focus on finding ways for people to cheat at climbing the cliff so only the people we clue in will attempt it. The cliff can¡¯t be some all powerful thing, so likely even just a grappling hook will get around it, but that is for the future. Right now Susan can go and harvest all the nts while we take a break.¡±


    While they are talking about this a certain fairy is celebrating in the core room. ¡®Woot! I can get the limit breaker path again! Thank all the gods I haven¡¯t leveled up yet. Limit breaker is one of those limited, heh, paths. You have to be level ten or below to receive it, otherwise the system considers you to be too enhanced by it to count. Soon as they have left the room, I am going to climb that cliff. Sadly, I won¡¯t get the extra buff for not knowing about it, but that bird flew the coup a long time ago.¡¯


    Ally turns to Doyle but he seems a bit distracted so she flies over and knocks on his, ¡®what¡¯s up? Sad that you can¡¯t climb the cliff yourself?¡¯


    Coming out of his daze, he shakes his core, ¡®I don¡¯t think I need too. I checked my avable paths when they did and found my own version. It wasn¡¯t there yesterday so I must have needed multiple people to breakthrough in my dungeon. Anyway, the path is called <i>Earth¡¯s First Home of the Limit Breakers I</i>, and it only costs one point as well.¡¯


    Allynds on his core and rolls aroundughing. ¡®Oh, that is wonderful! I haven¡¯t heard of that one before. Though it isn¡¯t like ces that let you break your limits tend to be sapient and those that aren¡¯t too talkative. Now put the point in it and let¡¯s find out what you get!¡¯


    Doyle nods his core, ¡®[System, apply one point to Earth¡¯s first home of the limit breakers please].¡¯


    {1 point applied to Earth¡¯s First Home of the Limit Breakers I


    1/1 - Not only have five sapients broken through their limits within you, but you are the first ce on your to have this happen. For providing a ce that others can exceed themselves, you have earned the systems recognition. +1 general skill slot, +1 to All Stats/Level, any who break through their limits within your dungeon will leave a mark}


    Ally reads it over and tilts her head to the side, ¡®I wonder what it means by leaving a mark?¡¯


    Doyle hums as he feels around the cliff for an answer. Then he finds it, ¡®oh, here it is. There is a literal mark for all seven of them hidden on the cliff. Also, they seem to be special in some way. After you climb the cliff, maybe you can take a look at them and see what is up.¡¯


    Ally quickly agrees as she flies out of the room. Ace¡¯s party had just left the forest room, and she wanted to get started as soon as possible. She wasn¡¯t the toughest of fairies so it shouldn¡¯t take her long to reach the top, but she really doesn¡¯t want to be interrupted.


    When Ally has almost gotten to the cliff, shends on the floor and walks over, not taking any chances. Up the cliff she climbs, one hand over the other, and before she knew it she was halfway up. Doyle just keeps to himself that she was the fastest person to reach that point. No need to talk about that.


    As she gets to the top sweat pours off of her and she is breathing like a bellow but onward she pushes. One hand over another until she is right before the top. Her arms are shaking and by this point she has almost fallen off twice already, but she won¡¯t let some stupid wall beat her. She pulls from deep within herself and reaches up again, but she is still a short distance from being done.


    Ally hangs there for a brief moment but forces herself to push again. Waiting too long is the same as admitting defeat as far as the system is concerned, so she has no choice. Palms sweat, her one hand reaches upward, the shaking almost makes her miss the top of the cliff but she forces it still. Onest pull and her small body goes up and over onto the t ground above. It takes her more time than she would like to admit to even be able to tell the system to finish the path.


    But she did, and the path is hers. Ally is a little disgruntled thatpared to the others she put in such a bad showing. On the other hand, she has to admit her life has been somewhat pampered, so it isn¡¯t like she can do much about it.


    After some time to rest, she remembers her ability to fly isn¡¯t rted to actual physical exertion, so she rises up off the ground and stretches. ¡®Well, that felt like more effort than the first time I did this. Though admittedly at that time I did it through magic, so I spent most of the recovery knocked out. Anyway, let me go check out those symbols. How about you lead me to them?¡¯


    Doyle takes another look over the cliff and yes, there was now an eighth symbol, though the closest one was almost directly under her. ¡®Okay, can you see that pebble on the edge of the cliff that looks like a rounded square? No, not that one, the squarer one a little further on. The symbol is about halfway between the third and forth handhold directly below you. No, don¡¯t count the handholds to the side of you, just the ones directly in line with where you started.¡¯


    After a little more guidance, Ally manages to find the symbol. ¡®I have to admit, if you hadn¡¯t directed me towards this thing I wouldn¡¯t have found it.¡¯


    ¡®But you have found it now so what is it?¡¯ Doyle shifts his view to the side as Ally gets up close to it.


    She traces the symbol with her finger, ¡®is there more to this symbol below the surface?¡¯


    Doyle takes a quick look, but there isn¡¯t anything below the very surfaceyer. ¡®No, I don¡¯t see anything more. Even the carved lines are exactly the same depth from what I can tell.¡¯


    Ally nods, ¡®that¡¯s a shame then. This is a person¡¯s personal rune or rather the start of one. Now don¡¯t think of this like some sort of truename nonsense. That stuff is devil¡¯s magic used to enforce contracts. These symbols? They are an innate part of a person without being connected to them. There are a lot of uses for them, but my guess is that they provide you with bonuses of some type. Check your logs. The system should put something there now that we¡¯ve figured it out.¡¯


    Doyle shakes his core, ¡®hopefully. It would be annoying if it kept trying to hide it.¡¯


    Ally shrugs, ¡®well think about what it would be like without a system. You likely would not even notice they existed until they covered quite a lot of the cliff.¡¯


    Doyle sighs, ¡®whatever, [system, tell me about the personal runes on the cliff].¡¯


    {Lesser Personal Rune of Jeremy Barrai: +5 Agility


    Least Personal Rune of Ace: +1 Wisdom


    Least Personal Rune of Susan Barrai: +1 Agility


    Least Personal Rune of Sammy: +1 Constitution


    Least Personal Rune of Og Pwner: +1 Agility


    Least Personal Rune of Ruby: +1 Intelligence


    Least Personal Rune of Jack Hammer: +1 Strength


    Least Personal Rune of Ally Huxley: +1 Karma}


    Ally looks over the list and nods. ¡®That exins the very in runes on your cliff. If you look over them all I bet one of them will have more depth to it and that would be Jeremy¡¯s rune. You likely got a lesser rune from him because of him being the first limit breaker on earth and the first for your dungeon.¡¯


    ¡®Least and lesser¡¯, Doyle sighs, ¡®is this another measure outside of levels and paths? Because things seem to be stacking up. I don¡¯t mind a few modifiers, but you would think this would be more streamlined.¡¯


    Allyughs, ¡®was life streamlined before the system? Why would you assume it would suddenly fit in one nice little box now? Anyway, those are part of the quality rating for stuff like runework, gems, and artwork. Technically, it also counts for stuff like the craftsmanship on armor, but there it only really matters when it hits thest step.¡¯


    ¡®The qualities from worst to best are least, lesser, simple, normal, detailed, and finally masterpiece. Though you can get things better than a masterpiece, but at that point you move into the realm of gods and the supernatural. It is like how without magic there is a minimum temperature, but magic lets things get colder. Real physics breaking stuff. Anyway, a lot has happened since youst checked your status. Let¡¯s take a peak at them and see how your stats are doing.¡¯


    ¡®It has been a while¡¯, Doyleughs, ¡®and to think in most games I yed I would check the character sheets constantly. [System, show my status to me and Ally, please.]¡¯


    {Name: Doyle Huxley@@novelbin@@


    Race: Dungeon Core (Strange Caverns)


    Soulbond: Ally Huxley


    Paths: [61] Dungeon Core II 10/10, Kobold Community 15/15, Goat Supremacy 20/20, Energy Well I 3/3, Commanding Subordinates 12/12, Ageless Queens 15/15, Earth¡¯s First Home of the Limit Breakers I 1/1, Dungeon Core III 24/100, Vegetation Variety 10/20


    Level: 1


    S[15 > 16] A[12 > 19] C[20 > 21] I[14 > 15] W[16 > 17] P[13] D[18] K[25 > 26] L[17]


    World Energy(/R per hour): 2500(270)


    Skills [5/5 ss, 2/5+1 General]: Territory Control lv15, Dungeon Rules lv19, Universal Deconstruction lv10, Dungeon Pattern Database lv15 > 17, Creation(Energy Powered, Pattern Based) lv21, Conceptual Reinforcement lv17 > 24, Biosphere Bncing lv5 > 7}

 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 haven¡¯t checked the description for it yet.¡¯@@novelbin@@


    ¡®Hmm¡¯, Doyle thinks about it and nods, ¡®I think you¡¯re right. [System, can you show me the description for Agility please?]¡¯


    {Agility: The finesse of one¡¯s 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 wasn¡¯t 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 don¡¯t 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 haven¡¯t 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, ¡®let¡¯s 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 Sammy¡¯s 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 didn¡¯t take long. Most dungeons are slow to grow not because they couldn¡¯t grow faster but because without being awake things are done instinctively.¡¯


    ¡®Of course I don¡¯t 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 you¡¯re awake. Honestly? I don¡¯t 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 aren¡¯t 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. I¡¯m 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 isn¡¯t 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 didn¡¯t 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 settlement¡¯s 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 doesn¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t 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 immortal¡¯s 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 settlement¡¯s 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 dungeon¡¯s 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 doesn¡¯t 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 don¡¯t think we will be seeing you allter. Once the wolves are gone, we will be back to salvage whatever can be saved. Please don¡¯t 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 don¡¯t know how much will survive the fight. If you doe back here, n to have to start from zero.¡±


    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. Don¡¯t think I didn¡¯t 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 you¡¯ll be weed back into the council at that point.¡±


    Jan sneers, ¡°Of course I won¡¯t 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 can¡¯t help but cackle in her mind. ¡®As if I didn¡¯t 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 didn¡¯t 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 wasn¡¯t 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 Jim¡¯s 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 don¡¯t 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 pack¡¯s 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 wasn¡¯t 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, Jim¡¯s count was right, so we are in for a tough fight! Since Annie¡¯s 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! You¡¯ve all been sworn in, so I don¡¯t want to lose a single soul here.¡±


    Kellinger grumbled about being on the sideline but had to agree with Ace¡¯s decision. With his ability to shape the earth he would be able to save more people by lifting them out of harm¡¯s way and up to Doctor so he can heal them.


    When they get to the wall, he can¡¯t 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 couldn¡¯t jump over it in one go, they just weren¡¯t 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 Jimmy¡¯s work was decent, wooden arrows aren¡¯t 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 can¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t 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 Kellinger¡¯s 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 isn¡¯t happening here. They take one final nce back at the pack and then run into the dungeon¡¯s 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.


    Of course being in a dungeon they don¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t 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 mount¡¯s 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 don¡¯t 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 wasn¡¯t exactly well hidden, but the wolves didn¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t much suspense to the fight though, as with magical support the poor wind wolves don¡¯t stand a chance. The kobolds all cheer with the defeat of the wolves as Doyle watches on.@@novelbin@@


    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]}

 The Wolves’ Breakthrough – Chapter 73

    Doyle turns the screens toward Ally and asks, ¡®So what¡¯s with the whole level four thing being repeated so much? I can appreciate the wind wolves, but it looks different from usual.¡¯


    Ally takes a look and nods, ¡®Oh good. It started to show that. I was a little annoyed when you got the axebeak and it didn¡¯t have the information there. Maybe it was just waiting for you to try putting one on the wrong floor or getting a monster you couldn¡¯t spawn?¡¯


    She shakes her head, ¡®Anyway, the level four bit in parentheses is the monster¡¯s minimum level. That means you can¡¯t actually summon a wind wolf yet. You¡¯ll have to wait till you make the fourth floor.¡¯


    ¡®Hmm¡¯, Doyle rolls to the side, ¡®Any particr reason it has the min level in the name? Seems like something you could have as its own category.¡¯


    Ally shrugs, ¡®Not all monsters are made equal. You might get a strain of wind wolves that matures into level ten monsters instead of level four. The two types of wind wolf could bepletely different species from opposite sides of the gxy, and yet in themon tongue both might be called wind wolves. Instead of listing them under the native tongue or using special identifiers, the system will just package them under their level. If you got a level four wind wolf pattern from the system, then you would be creating a wind wolf from any number of possible worlds.¡¯@@novelbin@@


    ¡®What is more interesting is how the stats differ from the generic dungeon wolf we had as an option at the start. Plus one strength and two perception is nice, but the real kicker is the agility going up by eight whole points. Of course wind variants tend to be more movement focused, but that is quite the bump.¡¯


    ¡®But that isn¡¯t really all that important at the moment. Those founders are still fighting outside and we need to be ready for whatever else leaks.¡¯


    Doyle nods at this and turns his attention back to the outside and takes stock.


    First off, five of the stone wolves had died, though the hardest hit was the wind wolves. Even with the pack father in charge of them, they had lost 21 of their numbers. Along with the ten that entered the dungeon, that brings them down to just 19 left. From the looks of it, the ranged fighters did most of the damage once they got in close enough. Without the range to dodge, the wind wolves were just targets.


    Things aren¡¯t goingpletely fine, though. Up on top of the side wall there are six people, two from the front line. Those front-liners are a particrly big hit against the founders as it is letting more wolves get through to the back-line. Still, they are putting up quite the fight. The only thing is that the dire wolves and the lesser shadow wolf have made no moves yet. There at the back the pack mother sits, waiting.


    As the fight continues the numbers start to even out. While the defenders do lose two more back-line fighters, that was from a risky gambit by Ace, and it paid off. With a sly use of his vines, Ace was able to open up 11 stone wolves to deadly attacks. Besides that, the ranged attackers are still ying havoc with the wind wolves, having dealt with 7 more. With that, there are only 41 wolves left in the pack.


    At this point, the dire wolves go crazy. From their positions guarding the pack mother, they charge out and into the now spotty shield wall. With a series of loud crashes, they barrel through, even breaking two of the tower shields.


    Things aren¡¯t all good for them, though. Ace had nned for this and the second he saw theming he yelled an order. The middle supports and ranged back-line fighters dropped what they were doing and with a jerk of a foot brought a long spear up to their hands. As the dire wolves crash through the frontline, they are met by a wall of points. Two of them die right out from spears going through vital areas. The other five are all seriously hurt.


    Still, this opens up the way and the stone wolves are soon to follow. Their rocky hides prevent the same strategy from working as well. One does still die from a lucky shot directly through its eyes while the rest take ncing blows.


    Then the firees. Ruby had been unnoticed at the back, not doing much. Now though was her time and all the power she had been channeling is released. Her customary ribbon of fire now looking more like a sma arc scythes through nine stone wolves and the rest of the dire wolves. This attack however takes it out of her and it forces her to retreat to the wall to join the wounded in resting up.


    Along with her, another five people are forced to retreat as well. Ace shakes his head and orders a retreat. The whole group falls back while angling towards the wall that the others are on. Upon reaching it, Kellinger raises up short walls of stone to keep them safe.


    While some of the wolves continue to attack them, most now ignore the group and head directly towards the dungeon portal. In passing they kill three more wind wolves and a single stone wolf. This leaves exactly 20 wolves to enter the dungeon.


    As thest of the wolves enter Jack turns to Ace and asks, ¡°So why did we bother to defend in the first ce? I bet we could have all just hid inside the wall and let them on through.¡±


    Ace opens his mouth but then closes it with a thoughtful look on his face. Jim who had noticed the conversationes in at this point. ¡°We could have. In fact, from the viewpoint of someone like Jan, that would have been the correct answer. Keep that in mind and now look at your status.¡±


    Jack takes a peak and his eyes go wide. Jimughs, ¡°Yeah, death defying situations tend to be conducive to learning. I bet there isn¡¯t a single person here, including Kellinger and Doc, who hasn¡¯t gained at least ten levels between their skills. Those wolves pushed us to our limits, not past it sadly or we could have opened up more of that path, but that¡¯s life. Oh, and if we couldn¡¯t at least deal with some of the wolves, they might have ended up camped out on the second floor. Would stifle our growth until we grew strong enough to take care of them.¡±


    ¡°Huh¡±, Jack rubs the back of his neck, ¡°Fair enough that. Though a good few wolves still got through. Is that going to cause problems?¡±


    Jim shrugs, ¡°Possibly? Both the parents made it in. If they live long enough that could develop into a big problem. The other side of this is that we reduced the almost hundred strong pack down to a fifth the size. I figure the dungeon should be able to handle them. My only genuine worry is those parents I mentioned.¡±


    ¡°A wind wolf bigger than the dire wolves? A lesser shadow wolf? Those are serious threats. Even if just that shadow wolf lives we could be in trouble. It all depends on if the dungeon beats them and we won¡¯t know until we get a team together to do a dive.¡±


    With a gesture to the wounded Jim sighs, ¡°I don¡¯t think that will be an option today, maybe not even tomorrow. We all lived. That¡¯s a powerful thing. At this point we can probably take everyone that left together with just the what? 27 of us? But hopefully it won¡¯te to that. Now there are wounded that need help. Let¡¯s go see what we can do.¡±


    Back in the dungeon the wolves have been doing a lot better this time. With twenty wolves, the first floor has little to challenge them. Even the vine assassin only manages to bring down one of the wind wolves before the father strikes it down with a barrage of wind des. From there they make it to the kobold room in record time.


    Since the kobold who set it wasn¡¯t defeated the same trap is there to greet them as thest group. Once again a couple wolves fall to it, but this time that doesn¡¯t help as much. The hail storm spell is still effective in chilling the wolves, but the kobolds are on the defensive.


    As soon as the leader realizes how many wolves there are she calls a retreat. As a whole, the goats and kobolds swing around into the tighter area that used to be the leader¡¯s room. From there the melee kobolds hold off the wolves in front, while the mage raises walls of ice to provide a chokepoint.


    This strategy works well enough though both the magic users have to focus on maintaining it against the wolves attacks. During this sh, five stone wolves die as the goats exchange their lives to distract them.


    The leader isn¡¯t able to help much during this. She has taken it upon herself to contain the wind wolf father. Their fight goes back and forth as they take up one entire side of the line of battle. Neither side got close to their fight to avoid coteral damage. This stalemate can¡¯tst though and after the rest of the kobolds kill four more wind wolves and another stone wolf, the lesser shadow wolf gets involved.


    Until now she had been sitting back in the shadow of a stgmite. Then she wasn¡¯t there. Instead, she is attacking the kobold leader from her mate¡¯s shadow. With one sh, she cripples the kobold¡¯s leg and brings it down. This one attack is the death knell for the kobolds, and soon the remaining wolves manage to finish the fight. One of the mage kobolds even leaves a drop. Though of course none of the wolves know what that is so just avoid the glowing light as they make their way to the second floor.


    Through the stone entry room, the nine remaining wolves make their way into the kobold ambush. At least the kobolds dream of being able to pull off an ambush. The lesser shadow wolf is able to detect them hiding in the shadows and spikes them through with ssy shadow tendrils. After that, the vine assassin in the next room does an even worse job than the one on the first floor. Papa wind wolf, having already seen the trick, is quick to cut down the captured wolf and finish the nt monster off.


    As the wolves enter the next room they be confused. There is the scent of many goats having been in the room just recently, but it is empty. The scent even ends right at a rock wall. With no clue what is up with that, they head into the first axebeak room.


    From across the room the birds are easily seen, and the wolves advance to attack them. The axebeaks don¡¯t even stand a chance. With the agile wind wolves acting as bait, the stone wolves easily m into them with leg breaking force. Without their legs, the birds don¡¯t stand a chance and the wolves easily advance through another empty room and into another bird encounter.


    This time though the birds are ready for them, having heard the fight with thest group. The moment a wolf pokes its head around the corner, the axebeaks are charging. As a one the six of them ram into the stone wolves. They still die but manage to take two of the wolves with them. The wolves continue into the next room and besides a few more birds not much happens.


    Then they enter the next room. The staircase down isn¡¯t too hard for them to navigate, and once on the floor the wolves wander deeper into the forest. As they enter the denser part of the trees, the end for themes. Out from behind the trees, goat after goat arrives until there are about fifty of them. Thenes the kobolds, 21 in total. The lesser shadow wolf freezes in ce before it chuffs and epts what is toe.


    The goats all charge at once. Under the assault of so many goats with the support from all the kobolds, the wolves are soon dead.

 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


    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, what¡¯s 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 isn¡¯t good enough to just be all over a world. That isn¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t 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 won¡¯t 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 wolf¡¯s 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 isn¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t 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 don¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t 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 that¡¯s life.¡¯


    Doyle shakes his core, ¡®That makes it sound like the whole ten thing is more of a gimmick than actually useful.¡¯


    Allyughs, ¡®You aren¡¯t 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 don¡¯t matter as much. Of course, reality isn¡¯t like your world¡¯s 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 can¡¯t 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 you¡¯ll find curses sting all the more. That aside, we should go and watch the founders for a bit. I¡¯ve monitored them while we went over all of this and they¡¯ve 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 don¡¯t have a reason to dive anytime soon. Problem is that this isn¡¯t 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 don¡¯t want a single one of you to be diving into the dungeon more than once a day. If you¡¯re 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 I¡¯m 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 don¡¯t 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 can¡¯t 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 don¡¯t let your guard down!¡±@@novelbin@@


    Of course, there aren¡¯t 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, we¡¯re done here! The wolves are all dead. We should get out of here so the dungeon can process whatever gains it might have made.¡±

 More Mushrooms – Chapter 76

    Eventually Doyle gives up on trying to automate the room reshuffling and asks Ally about it. She thinks about it for a moment. ¡®Huh, I don¡¯t think you can do that? But on the other hand, I know it can be done, or at least what you want to do is possible. Wait, I might have it. What you want to do isn¡¯t automate the maze building. You want to be able to shuffle the maze randomly and have that shuffling happen automatically.¡¯


    ¡®That¡¯s actually two separate things. To build the maze you can probably get away with just using dungeon rules because you aren¡¯t creating the rooms, just moving them. Dungeon rules can totally do that and then you can have your automation trigger it at midnight. Or the soonest possible time after that, if people are still on the floor. Important to remember that, or they could freeze theyout. Not that they can¡¯t but at least now they would have to keep someone on the floor constantly and the monsters wouldn¡¯t be able to respawn then.¡¯


    Doyle nods, ¡®That sounds like it would work and it isn¡¯t midnight yet. Let me go test this out and see what happens.¡¯


    With Ally¡¯s suggestion, Doyle goes back to the drawing board. His maze construction stuff was good. In fact, once he attempts to use it with dungeon rules, everything falls into ce. Now that he thinks about it, the automation wasn¡¯t even needed for the next part. Since he already had it making theyout, it would be much easier to automate it with rules as well. Once he thinks of that it takes only moments to put the rules for it into ce.


    While he will have to wait a little for midnight to see if it works the third floor should be mostlypleted. Well, the structure of it is. Doyle has more rooms than he can even fit in the threeyers he set aside for the floor. Now what needs to be done is adding in features and creatures.


    So far his floors had been overall an inviting ce. There was clover covered dirt and brightly lit halls. Now he was going to change that. With the myconids and water Doyle had at some point decided to go with a much more cave style of floor. Of course he would still ce some goats and kobolds. They were sort of his theme at this point, and who was he to disappoint the adventurers?


    Instead of clover, Doyle was going to use mushroom patches and water pools as the main decor. Now he doesn¡¯t actually have any mushroom patterns at the moment, but that was easy enough to work around. All it would take is a little work. After all, spores are just in the air, so why couldn¡¯t he grow some?


    Up on his first floor Doyle sets up a damp loose mesh over the entrance portal. While the air from outside didn¡¯t exactly flow into the dungeon that didn¡¯t stop particte froming through. Part of that dust and debris would be fungus spores. On their own the spores are too small to give him a pattern, but once he has them, he can cheat through a dungeon¡¯s naturally enhanced nt growth.


    At first though, this doesn¡¯t work. He can see the spores being caught and even start to grow. Then they would disappear before even having a chance to grow big enough to be seen by the naked eye. Doyle looked at the problem from every direction he could, and the only thing that made sense was his territory naturally controlled the growth of things.


    Thinking about it, he has to agree that this is for the best. With how dungeon nts seem to work, Doyle could see even a single mushroom spore bing a disaster. A dungeon packed tight with mushrooms was the only future he could see if they were left alone. That of course doesn¡¯t help him with the current problem.


    Since it does seem to be a dungeon territory thing Doyle feels he should be able to turn it off or at the very least be more selective with how it works. With that in mind he pokes around with his territory skill.


    At first not much happens. Spores are caught by his mesh and promptly get destroyed if they even attempt to grow. He can catch a few with a dry mesh, but there is no way he could gather enough in just a night. Plus who knows how many different types of fungus, yeasts, and other such things are in the air to muck up his attempt.


    Midnight passes by unnoticed as he focuses on the mesh and his skill. As luck would have it though, nothing goes wrong with the rules he put in ce and it randomizes the maze. Totally hands off, which is lucky with how Doyle ignored it, beingpletely taken in with his tests.


    More time passes, but then sess. From what Doyle can tell, his territory would limit the growth of anything not a part of the dungeon. A reasonable thing and something he would have to be careful about ying with. For now though, he had his in.


    The next mushroom spore to sprout Doyle was on it before his territory could snuff it out. With a singlemand his territory shifted and that one spore was now recognized as a part of the dungeon. This wouldn¡¯t have worked with a moreplex organism, even a grown mushroom likely wouldn¡¯t be possible. For just a newly sprouted spore? Not a problem. And now that it was a part of his dungeon it grew unhindered.


    With a thought, Doyle forms a shallow stone tray with damp soil in it and plonks the growth into it. From there a small forest of mushrooms pops up, as the fungal threads infiltrate the entire tray. As they grow up Doyle is able to identify the type, just amon puffball, but that is just fine with him. Though before they can puff out he deconstructs the entire tray. Doyle wasn¡¯t nning on infesting his first floor with mushrooms. Still, he was quite pleased with the message he got.


    {Puffball mushroom pattern acquired at lv1}@@novelbin@@


    Apparently the tray had enough mushroom mass to count. He had a little bit of worry over that, but with it confirmed to work he sets about growing some more spores. The more he grows, the more often he gets duplicates, but eventually he reaches his goal. None of the mushrooms had been anything special. In fact, none of them had even been terribly poisonous. This was by design, though. While he couldn¡¯t quite tell what any specific spore might turn into he could sense the special ones. The mushrooms either deadly, magical, or somebination of the two. What was his goal?


    {Multiple Mushroom patternsbined to form Mushroom pattern at lv6}


    A generic pattern. He had already seen it with his prey insect pattern and suspected it would be possible here as well. Since none of the mushrooms were anything special Doyle had bet they wouldn¡¯tbine into a sub-table of patterns but ratherbine into one pattern and they did! His bet paid off and the knowledge of manymon mushroom types local to the area flood into his mind, including ones that he hadn¡¯t even grown. Though now that he knows them it is easy to see they are a part of the air and his territory has been deconstructing them already.


    With this his cave maze is possible. Going back through all the rooms, pre-formed with the cave pattern, and added dirt to all the nooks and crannies. Then since he now had it avable, all the depressions in the floor have standing water added in. Right away the moisture content in the air elevates as the water cycle speeds along in the same way nt growth does. Seeing this Doyle sits back and just watches the water condense on the walls and roof only to fall down in drips and drops from the stctites.


    Before long, all the currently connected rooms in the maze start to form small trickles of water going down to the bottomyer. This is almost perfect, but Doyle feels a nudge at the back of his mind. His biosphere skill is nudging him towards one slight change.


    Not seeing any reason not to, Doyle uses his territory control to create a temperature differential. At the deepest points of the floor, underneath the bottom-most rooms, he ces a gentle heat source. With that, the gentle trickles of water thicken into proper rivulets and a nebulous power descends on the floor.


    Where before everything was just somewhat faster the water is now visibly eroding through the stone of his rooms. In just moments what had looked all right now lookedpletely natural. As if the caves had been left alone for hundreds of years to weather. This was well beyond anything Doyle had expected, but he wasn¡¯t going toin. His only worry was what would happen next time the maze shuffled?


    That could wait. The dirt he had ced at the start was not only there but spread out much better as well as forming silt ts on the lowestyer of the floor. With the stage set how could he not add in the actors? So with a flex of his mind mixed clouds of spores appear throughout every room on the floor, including even those not currently connected to the maze.


    With the magic of his normal sped up nt growth, the sporesnd everywhere and start to grow. Every patch of dirt sprouts up with numerous types of fungus. The mushrooms more suited for ground cover carpet the lower rooms in particr. Doyle looks it over and shakes his core, ¡®Perfect¡¯!


    Now with the mushrooms in ce, Doyle decides to try a simr approach with his insects. Just spawning clouds of them through the level. Not as thick as he did with the spores, though. A few insects for atmosphere is nice but you can overdo it. Now he just has to decide where to ce the monsters.


    Or rather, he had a n for the goats and kobolds. In the previous floor he had already connected the goats to the kobolds and this floor would just deepen that connection. Doyle wasn¡¯t quite ready for goat based cavalry, and a cave wasn¡¯t exactly best for that anyway. But what they could be used for is as beasts of burden.


    This thought reminds him that he had nned to spawn in some copper and tin veins. With that in mind he looks over the floor for where would be best to ce the metal. The lowest section is crossed off right away. He has other ns for that. In the middle could work, but the water was really the dominant feature there and he didn¡¯t really want to hear the minersin nonstop about wet feet. So that just left the upper section.


    That works fine for him and so he looks at theyout. It is at this point that he notices that the floor has changed. Even when the massive speed up had happened, it hadn¡¯t quite clicked in his head but now there it is. However since nothing seemed to go wrong this only distracts him for a moment before he notices the feature he wanted to take advantage of.


    The way his rules create the dungeonyout leaves a number of areas that would have had a room, but because it didn¡¯t go anywhere was removed. From there it was a matter of fine tuning how his rules took advantage of this feature. The most important parts were that he wanted four ore deposits with at least one of each type, and the veins couldn¡¯t be too close to the entrance.


    These four mining nodes would be where the kobolds on this floor would congregate. The goats would munch on the mushrooms and act as beasts of burden to carry the metal wealth. On the lowest section would be swarms of myconid sprouts. And the middle? While some dungeon wolves would fit he didn¡¯t want them quite yet and the axebeaks clearly wouldn¡¯t be able to handle it so that leaves the assassin vines. More important to this decision is that he has almost twice the energy budget for monsters on the floor.

 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 wouldn¡¯t 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 aren¡¯t pushovers or they have a ton of people. Extra numbers won¡¯t necessarily challenge them. Not that he doesn¡¯t n to throw all the goats at them, but honestly, that¡¯s just his theme at this point.@@novelbin@@


    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, that¡¯s 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 don¡¯t 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 don¡¯t have any picks for them to mine with in the first ce.¡¯


    ¡®Sigh, I guess I can use spiked maces? After all, what¡¯s 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 don¡¯t 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 don¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t 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 don¡¯t 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. Let¡¯s 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 isn¡¯t 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, let¡¯s 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 isn¡¯t 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 don¡¯t really want to. A little chaos won¡¯t 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 won¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t 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 couldn¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t 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 can¡¯t 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 can¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t 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 can¡¯t 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 Doyle¡¯s 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?¡¯


    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 hasn¡¯t 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 didn¡¯t really want to put more kobolds on the first floor. And don¡¯t 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? You¡¯re going to be pping up a floor for them anyway. Showing off the fact you have wolf summons now won¡¯t 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 wouldn¡¯t 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, doesn¡¯t it? I¡¯m going to remove everything from the first floor besides the bread and butter of my dungeon.¡¯

 Just a Little Debt – Chapter 79

    Ally crosses her arms and nods. ¡®I¡¯ve 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 aren¡¯t 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 didn¡¯t fit the rest of the content and was titled <em>So your dungeon spent too much</em>. Whoever wrote it probably hid it there, so we¡¯d only find it when needed.¡¯@@novelbin@@


    ¡®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 let¡¯s see how much we owe. [System, disy the quintessence debt].¡¯


    {Quintessence Debt: 94.08}


    Doyle nods, ¡®Well that doesn¡¯t 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, you¡¯ve 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 isn¡¯t 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 can¡¯t really spare much more of it. Besides that, you will be able to generate more quintessence through a few other means.¡¯


    ¡®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 can¡¯t just be provided by a sapient. Only in death will the small threads of quintessence that hold a person¡¯s soul to the mortal coil be freed up. Don¡¯t 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 hour¡¯s worth of your regen. Of course once a person reaches level ten they should each provide about an hour¡¯s worth, but they aren¡¯t 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 don¡¯t 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 aren¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t 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 don¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t 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 didn¡¯t 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 won¡¯t refer to the god by name. We don¡¯t want to draw their attention yet, but let¡¯s just say they weren¡¯t 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, ¡®I¡¯ve 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 isn¡¯t a local religion, there are many people who could convert to it. On the other hand, it isn¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t 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 didn¡¯t 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 <em>fun</em> 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 we¡¯ve been actually experiencing this one but we haven¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t exactly a metropolis or anything.¡¯


    Doyle takes a moment to think it over and then shrugs, ¡®Yeah, most of that doesn¡¯t 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 can¡¯t. 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 I¡¯m 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 haven¡¯t paid it back. Not that I can help it at the moment.¡¯


    Ally sighs, ¡®You¡¯re 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. It¡¯s 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 hadn¡¯t been carved up. Though here isn¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t 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 shouldn¡¯t 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 wouldn¡¯t be a problem. My current materials just aren¡¯t able to quite contain what I want them to. I guess I can¡¯t just use the cheapest goat leather on this then. Though that will shoot up the cost that shouldn¡¯t be a problem as long as I don¡¯t make all the saddlebags lootable.¡¯


    ¡®Now what kind of leather do I want to use? Wait, that¡¯s a silly question. I have only one monster who¡¯s natural abilities might help make this work. Though can I even use lesser shadow wolf leather when I can¡¯t 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 <i>young</i> lesser shadow wolf. Doyle can feel that this is just on the edge of what is possible. If he didn¡¯t have the level cap of 5 for his monsters then it wouldn¡¯t have worked. The lesser shadow wolf just doesn¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t 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 can¡¯t summon.¡¯


    Ally nods, ¡®Fair enough. Anyway, that has to do with how a dungeon core¡¯s creation skill works in respect to monsters. More specifically, the difference between natural monsters and dungeon spawned monsters. We¡¯ve 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 isn¡¯t able to stay together and pops. Under the system it prevents you from creating patterns that wouldn¡¯t 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 aren¡¯t exactly adults.¡¯@@novelbin@@


    Ally smiles at the question, ¡®I didn¡¯t say that it created adult monsters. Rather, it creates a monster from a concept. You can¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t 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 that¡¯s a thing. Luckily, I won¡¯t have to worry about that in my dungeon.¡¯


    Allyughs but doesn¡¯t add anything else, so Doyle goes back to his experiments. Failure after failure piles up, or they would if Doyle wasn¡¯t 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 Doyle¡¯s 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


    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 bag¡¯s 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 dungeon¡¯s dimension is used to set up the space.


    Cost: 132 temp, 1317 loot, 131,723 real}


    Ally whistles, ¡®Well now! You¡¯ve 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 aren¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t really do anything to the weight. The only thing missing here is that it isn¡¯t 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 don¡¯t easily get that trait. You usually have to find one of the tech versions that digitizes items. Those freeze the item¡¯s time by default, as they just don¡¯t bother to simte time passing for it.¡¯


    Doyle nods, ¡®If you say so. I can¡¯t 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. I¡¯m 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? That¡¯s 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 don¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t 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 aren¡¯t 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 can¡¯t 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.¡¯

 Stairs are New, Right? – Chapter 81

    Doyle sighs, ¡®Yeah, it would be nice if I could spread these bags around. Cost too much to do much of that, though. Just setting one as loot costs more than a fourth of the floors total. Like seriously, 1317 world energy! Not that I am going to stop from putting one on the floor. Loot isn¡¯t dropping that often yet so it shouldn¡¯t be a problem. I really wish the real cost wasn¡¯t so high or I would have made sure one of the first groups to the floor would get one.¡¯


    Ally shrugs, ¡®It would be nice but seriously, you¡¯re tearing a part of your territory out to develop these bags. I bet even the non-loot bags will have that cost. Of course they won¡¯t be leaving the dungeon so they won¡¯t matter as much.¡¯


    Doyle shakes his core, ¡®I¡¯m not too worried about that part. In just the time we¡¯ve been talking, I¡¯ve expanded outward by five times the amount used to make that bag. Now that sounds like a lot, but honestly the bags don¡¯t take much at all.¡¯@@novelbin@@


    Allyughs, ¡®You just cheat. Creating literal space? Thats crazy! Most mortals don¡¯t even get a chance to touch on that unless they specialize in dimension based magic. You know all those stories that have some hidden realm opening up or being controlled by some sect or kingdom?¡¯


    ¡®Yeah, there are a lot of those things around but that isn¡¯t because they are easy to make. Rather, they just tend to collect as it takes a while for them to go away. After all, they are technically separate dimensions, just like your dungeon is. The dimension they are originally spawned in can die, and they will just drift around in the void until something catches them.¡¯


    ¡®This is also why they tend to have such amazing treasures. Not because the items are particrly rare where it was from, but extra-dimensional materials tend to behave in odd ways. A normal knife made of the equivalent of iron could end up being an indestructible god weapon. It could also end up exploding in atomic fury when taken out so a coin flip there. Still, people crowd into them.¡¯ She shrugs.


    Doyle tilts to the side, ¡®Huh, fair enough. Though not much I can do with that at the moment. In fact, there isn¡¯t much else I can do right now.¡¯


    Ally looks over to one of the windows. ¡®I guess that is a good thing because dawn ising and with it more groups. They aren¡¯t too likely to make it to the third floor this early but you never know. The settlement has cut away a lot of dead weight.¡¯


    Doyle bobs his core, ¡®Yeah, not much we can do about that.¡¯


    Time passes and they are both proven wrong. Noones and goes without a single one person approaching the portal. Not that they aren¡¯t around the area. At any point in time there are about ten people training their skills. That means over a third of the remaining people in the settlement are there.


    It isn¡¯t until dinner that he finds out what is going on. Ace had set everyone to modifying the walls. They worked just fine for some wolves, but he was nning ahead. Jan and her group hadn¡¯t disappeared, and there had been those few thugs that escaped by the river. Ace wanted to be ready for human opposition. The founders and the new core members had put their life into the ce and they didn¡¯t want to lose it.


    This time the walls were going to be proper monuments to the effort they have put in. The walls are being built up out of rubble from the town and then Kellinger would stone shape it all together. Besides that, they are building wood houses between the inner and outer wall. They do n to delve the dungeon in a couple days but for now they are focused on developing the town. Ace was only going to let them back in so soon because skills had sped up the construction work.


    The few days pass quickly for him as he zones out. Doyle looks over his floors, but all he changes is adding a few more lootable storage bags. Not as a permanent thing, he just wanted to up the chances of one dropping. Besides that, he enjoyed watching the work that was done on the inner wall.


    Though it isn¡¯t much of an inner wall anymore. Ace had gone through with making it a giant building. Over the course of the afternoon Kellinger shifted stones non-stop until they formed an enormous dome over the entrance portal, covering the entire area affected by the energy well.


    There aren¡¯t even holes to let light in. Instead, the settlement has gone through a lot of effort to bring in some pre-system lights. To power them, they spread all of the sr panels they scavenged across the top of the dome.


    Now bright and early the next day, a group has gathered in front of the entrance once again. Jim, Bill, Tess, Jeremy, Kellinger, and Kelly all step into the dungeon ready for the first couple goats. Of course those goats aren¡¯t there anymore, and that makes the group quite worried. They needn¡¯t be though as they stomp through the rest of the floor easily.


    With Doyle¡¯s changes to the floor, there isn¡¯t anything to resist them. The closest to danger theye is in the big goat room. Even then that mostlyes from the unexpected strength of the high level goat.


    The second floor hasn¡¯t changed all that much, which is a relief to the group. Then they reach the end and Jim facepalms. ¡°Of course there¡¯s a third floor! That could exin the reduction on the other floors. The dungeon must have moved stuff around to make it or something. Anyway, I know I¡¯m the nominal leader for the group, but what are all of your opinions on exploring the third floor?¡±


    Kelly is the first to speak up. ¡°I¡¯m sure you all know my answer. There is something new to explore and I wouldn¡¯t mind being on the forefront of it. Though of course this is with the understanding that Ace would probably want us to retreat ande back with a bigger group.¡±


    Most of the others agree with this. Only Kellinger has a different opinion. ¡°I don¡¯t mind if we pop into the first room, even if there is something too much for us, we can just retreat through the portal. I however do not think we should explore it. While the first floor¡¯s change might seem to make it easier, that is only because we can take goats no problem. I counted and there were more goats in bigger groups. Normal groups would have a moderate problem. About the only thing easier is thest fight and removal of the gotcha assassin vine. Also, some of the goats had clearly received a non-standard power up. Just that alone threw us off so who knows what might be on this next floor.¡±


    After some more debate, the rest end up agreeing with Kellinger at least a little bit. They head into the third floor where they are met with another empty room. Jim looks around, ¡°Well, this looks more like a cave than any of the other floors. A little moist though, and I think I can hear running water. Kellinger, can you do anything with water or are you limited to stone?¡±


    Kellinger shrugs, ¡°I¡¯m not limited to stone but I¡¯m not able to deal with water. A little too loose for me to control at the moment.¡±


    Jim shakes his head, ¡°Fair enough, hopefully this isn¡¯t some sort ofke or river we are dealing with. Now lets move out.¡±


    The team leaves the entrance only to be greeted by an empty room with a staircase down. Jim stops anyone from getting close to the stairs. ¡°Let me take a look. This is the first time something like this has happened. It should be another floor because it isn¡¯t a portal but even with the ramps the previous floor was just a ne of rooms.¡±


    He crouches down and stalks over to the hole, a rough almost staircase is all he can see. Jim tosses a small pebble and it tters for a little before stopping out of sight at the bottom. ¡°Well it looks like the lower part of the floor is lit up as well. I do have to wonder what is up with this but I guess we will find out.¡±


    Kellinger speaks up at this point. ¡°Didn¡¯t we agree to turn back at anything too out of the ordinary? I think this counts.¡±


    Jim shrugs, ¡°There were the ramps, so it isn¡¯t too much out of line.¡±


    Kellyughs, ¡°You¡¯ve both forgotten about the second floor¡¯s staircase already? It isn¡¯t quite one to one being made of wood and part of a single room, but still. Are we really going to turn around just because of some stairs?¡±


    Kellinger sighs while Jeremyughs and volunteers to go first. As he freely admits, ¡°I am sort of trained for this kind of thing. I doubt anything on just the third floor of the dungeon would be able to stop me from escaping.¡±


    With Jim¡¯s permission, Jeremy glides down the staircase, silent as a whisper. At the bottom, most of the room is dry, but at the corner opposite the stairs is the room¡¯s exit and a small puddle of water with some mushrooms growing. Satisfied the room isn¡¯t too much of a threat, he retreats a short distance up the stairs and gestures for the others to join him.


    Once grouped up again Jeremy points towards the mushrooms. ¡°I don¡¯t like that. Most of them are normal, even edible, but that one at the edge is highly poisonous.¡±


    Jim also isn¡¯t too happy about the fungus growth. ¡°Poisonous mushrooms are all fine and dandy, but they shouldn¡¯t be growing like that. The walls and the floor have dirt packed into the crevices, yet this is the first sign of mushroom growth? We should have seen some upstairs.¡±


    Kellinger sighs, ¡°Yet this still isn¡¯t enough to turn around, is it?¡±


    Both Jim and Jeremyugh. Jeremy wipes away a tear, ¡°Of course not! I don¡¯t know about Jim over there but these valuable ingredients for me and my wife. She would tan my hide if I didn¡¯t try and collect as many samples as I can manage.¡±


    Kellinger shakes his head but as a whole the group proceeds. The next room is the same size, but there are puddles all over the floor. In fact, they can see a small trickle of water flowing from a hallway to the right and down into a hallway at their left. That and a lot of mushrooms growing from all likely locations, even a few on the ceiling.


    Jeremy looks around and shakes his head. ¡°This is a bit more than I expected. There is something not right with all the mushrooms though.¡±


    Jim nods his head, ¡°I just tried to analyze a few and while most just show up as normal mushrooms, some failed to be IDed. They aren¡¯t even special ones. Something is up and I want to know what it is.¡±


    Bill and Tess who had mostly kept to themselves until now interrupt. Tess speaking up first, ¡°I can feel something to the right.¡±


    Bill nods, ¡°The water source should be there instead of the trickle continuing on through another room.¡±


    Jim raises an eyebrow, ¡°Well, good to know. I guess finding the source wouldn¡¯t be too bad of a thing.¡±


    Tess shakes her head, ¡°There is more than just a water source, no matter how useful that sort of thing could end up being.¡±


    Kellinger rolls his eyes, ¡°I would be worried if we found nothing. We¡¯ve already gone four rooms without finding a single monster. The less monsters there are the stronger they will be. Just think of how many goats are being thrown around! I don¡¯t want to fight something that can rece the deluge of horned furballs without some info.¡±

 Take a Sniff – Chapter 82

    Kelly ps her hands, ¡°Well we won¡¯t ever find out what is there if we don¡¯t go and find out, now will we? Jim, don¡¯t 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, let¡¯s 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 aren¡¯t 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 harm¡¯s 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 doesn¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t really my thing.¡±


    Jeremy shakes his head at Kellinger¡¯sment. ¡°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 wasn¡¯t going anywhere.


    Kelly hands them both a small bottle of water to clean their mouths out before turning to Jeremy. ¡°So I¡¯m guessing that isn¡¯t 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 can¡¯t 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 can¡¯t make more of this. I don¡¯t 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.¡±@@novelbin@@


    ¡°Don¡¯t 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 won¡¯t be to the point of mass producing anything, but our supplies shouldn¡¯t 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, let¡¯s grab the loot and leave. I don¡¯t want to find out paralysis isn¡¯t 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 won¡¯t 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.¡±


    Jeremy shakes his head, ¡°Luckily I don¡¯t think it will be that bad. Spores shouldn¡¯t 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 don¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t quite as simple as shown in popr media. Someone can¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t exin why the spores would lose their effect when taken out of the dungeon.¡±


    Jeremy shrugs, ¡°Meh, it isn¡¯t 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 don¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t 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 dungeon¡¯s 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 floor¡¯s 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 don¡¯t 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 haven¡¯t 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 wouldn¡¯t have been down on you if you had turned around the second you realized the usual goats weren¡¯t in the entrance room. It isn¡¯t like you couldn¡¯t 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. We¡¯ve 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 isn¡¯t some instant knockout drug anymore. Still nasty if slipped to someone, but stuff like that isn¡¯t 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.¡±


    Ace¡¯s face just goes ck and he lets out a heavy sigh. ¡°Oh goodness gracious, that¡¯s a weight off my shoulders. Still useful without being so problematic. Though I do have to ask, what happens if you¡¯re 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 don¡¯t 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 aren¡¯t magic, why don¡¯t 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 shouldn¡¯t have to go into why eating and drinking summoned food is a bad idea. For most, though, this isn¡¯t even much of a tradeoff as they use the skills forbat. After all, who cares if a fireball¡¯s 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 aren¡¯t 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 can¡¯t exist in. Thatst one doesn¡¯t 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 don¡¯t 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 don¡¯t mind shaping stone but how is being able to literally create stone sustainable?¡±


    Kelly shrugs, ¡°No clue. I¡¯m sure someone knows, but the tutorial guides weren¡¯t 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 didn¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t care all that much and continues. ¡°See, it¡¯s 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 aren¡¯t 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 what¡¯s 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. That¡¯s 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? Don¡¯t 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 don¡¯t want any of us to get theplete magic resistance and start having buffs and healing fail on them.¡±


    ¡°Now you and the Barrai¡¯s 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 won¡¯tst 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 wasn¡¯t exactly something they had asked their guides about. Finally Doctor shrugs and suggests, ¡°Why don¡¯t 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 settlement¡¯s only remaining carpenter. He hadn¡¯t 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 didn¡¯t 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 don¡¯t 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 won¡¯t share the entire path title, part of it was <i>civil engineer</i> 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 isn¡¯t so much a blueprint as a guide for what counts as one but that isn¡¯t 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 can¡¯t 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?¡±


    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 city¡¯s ruler can¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t 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 head¡¯s 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 aren¡¯t 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?¡±@@novelbin@@


    Jimmy had rxed at some point, but with Ace¡¯s 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 can¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t control too many already.¡±


    Ace frowns and Jimmy tries to stand even straighter, ¡°What I mean is normally people have to pay, we don¡¯t. We don¡¯t 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 settlement¡¯s core.¡±

 Lets Keep this to Ourselves – Chapter 84

    Ace sighs, ¡°So, does anyone have some actual cash on them?¡±


    Kelly nods, ¡°I have two copper and one silver coin, no gold though. Even the silver was a lucky catch someone found in one of the thug¡¯s pouch. Without a system store to sell to or the quest board, the system currency isn¡¯t exactlymon. The only current source is actually the dungeon. My second copperes from one of the dives we did to get everyone their limit break path. Apparently the first floor kobold leader has a chance to drop copper coins.¡±


    Ace shakes his head, ¡°Much too rare then. We need ten thousand copper coins to buy the anchor. Does anyone else know a good way to get some coins?¡±


    Doctor knocks on the table to everyone¡¯s attention. ¡°First of all, from what I heard of thest trip, the early floors are easier. That means everyone should be able to deal with the first floor increasing our odds of getting coins. Also, not that many people have grinded on the second floor. It is quite possible that we can get coins from the monsters there and just not know it yet.¡±


    ¡°As for alternate methods of gathering coins? I think we should instead ask if we need to use coins directly. While we can¡¯t sell stuff to the system without a system store, we might be able to barter our goods directly. Of course, to find out we would need to ask Jimmy about it. Though I feel we should let him rx for a second.¡±


    Susan shrugs, ¡°Do we have anything of worth to trade? It isn¡¯t like the System needs what we can make. At most, it could probably sell it back to other people on our.¡±


    Ace turns to Kelly, ¡°I know you have a certain theory about dungeons. While you haven¡¯t been able to prove it yet, now would be the time to share.¡±


    Kelly looks away from the gathering twists in her chair, but with everyone staring at her she eventually sighs. ¡°I really didn¡¯t want to talk about this till there was more proof. Especially since part of this is built upon the bodies of all that have fallen to the dungeon so far. I could see that in the wrong hands things could turn very grim.¡±


    Ace nods, ¡°From what you have shared with me, I am sure certain human elements could gain a lot of power at a horrific cost. I was willing to let you study it in secret, I even made sure you alone had ess to all the counts of what came out of the dungeon. Now I won¡¯t try and im some <i>for the greater good </i>junk to you.¡±


    ¡°The ten of us should all very well know we aren¡¯t the best of people. To gain power like we did requires a drive beyond what society has beaten into our world¡¯s more civilized regions. I want this knowledge so we can dominate our area. Yes we probably aren¡¯t the best choices to lead our world into the future. Problem is I don¡¯t trust anyone else to do it for us. Now tell us what you¡¯ve found out.¡±@@novelbin@@


    Kelly lowers her head and takes a shaky breath. ¡°I haven¡¯t always been the best at interacting or rting to other people. Still, what I have found could cause a loss of human life on a staggering scale.¡±


    She looks up, ¡°When someone dies in the dungeon the next group will have better drops. I¡¯ve coted all the resources we have extracted from the dungeon and on average the dive after someone has died in the dungeon will get twice as many resources. After that the amount quickly dies off, but that doesn¡¯t matter.¡±


    ¡°We knew that people dying in the dungeon would feed it. However, never once did any of the tutorial guides mention the fact that it also improves loot. What I have been researching is if it has to be a death. While all signs point to no, a person dying in the dungeon, especially those with higher levels, will instantly upgrade what we get. Now that you all know this I can be more open with my testing. After all, I couldn¡¯t exactly have people leaving perfectly good gear in the dungeon to be eaten.¡±


    ¡°I have some guess on this but nothing to prove it yet. First is that near-death experiences improve the drops. This points toward it not being the death itself that matters, but rather something released by us when in danger or even just when stretched to our limits. That second one is particrly likely as while we didn¡¯t exactly scour the dungeon when doing our limit breaking the amount of goods retrieved was quite decent.¡±


    ¡°The other guess I am willing to share is that while items being left inside help, garbage does not, or at least not all that much. Now I haven¡¯t had much luck in testing this one as people rarely leave stuff in the dungeon. We don¡¯t even throw garbage in because about the only waste we have is being put towardspost. However, going by what we know when ites to pre-system equipment, I have a suspicion.¡±


    ¡°The more an item has been processed by crafting skills, the more an item has been used with someone''s skill, and even just the more an item has been around skill use will increase its value to the dungeon. As it is we aren¡¯t making all that much. In fact, I¡¯ve heard some of the others haven¡¯t been picking up all the dropped meat because we just don¡¯t need it. If my guess is correct, that needs to stop.¡±


    ¡°Everyone that has a crafting skill should be practicing it, even with poor materials. Beyond that even things like our cooks should be continually using as much of our supplies as possible. Then anything that isn¡¯t needed should be tossed into the dungeon. This even includes the ash from the cook¡¯s fire. Every single bit of waste that has had a skill used on, through, or around needs to go in the dungeon. Too much goat meat? Cook it up right before it goes bad and into the dungeon with it!¡±


    Kelly is breathing heavily now as she finishes. When she doesn¡¯t continue Ace slowly nods, ¡°Yes, that info could result in the rise of a horrible culture of sacrificial excess. Now, does stuff being dropped off on the first floor affect the second floor? Also, are there any downsides to doing this? It can¡¯t be all sunshine and bloody roses. What¡¯s the catch?¡±


    Kelly takes a few more moments to catch her breath. ¡°It does seem floor dependent. While all deaths have been on the first floor and most don¡¯t even go to the second one anyway, the data I got from the limit breaker runs is enough. We can probably get away with just dumping stuff like the cookfire ashes on the first floor. For more skill intensive things like high quality gear that has broken, we probably want to figure out which floors give the best loot and drop it there.¡±


    ¡°As for a downside? Yes, there is one. Some of you might have noticed how inconsistent the kobolds are with their traps, right? Well, there are two triggers for a trap appearing from what I can tell. The first is if a trap was there on a previous run but not taken care of, it will be there the next time as well. The other is that the same energy used to drop more loot is also used by the kobolds to ce their traps.¡±


    ¡°There has been little experience with the traps, but I noticed something in every story that involves them. Once the trap is taken care of and no longer an active part of the area it is in, they just stop being talked about. Not as in, yeah the disarmed trap is over there but we don¡¯t have to care about it. Rather no matter how much I questioned the people about it they just can¡¯t remember the trap being there.¡±


    ¡°Unlike dungeon traps, the kobold traps act just like defeated monsters. Once it is disarmed or destroyed, it will fade away. In fact, I am willing to bet each trap is connected to a specific kobold. So yeah, more randomly ced tribal traps to deal with.¡±


    Ace leans back in his chair and hums while he thinks over this new information. The other founders wait for a minute or so but he seems to be lost in thought for the moment so they start to talk among themselves.


    It takes Ace a good ten minutes to figure out what he wants to do with all this nonsense. He ps his hands, ¡°Alright everyone, I have a n. We need one gold to make a town and to be honest? I doubt even if we had quests and system stores to earn money, this would be an easy amount to earn. Normally I would say this means we don¡¯t have to rush it.¡±


    ¡°This isn¡¯t normal. The very people we least want to gain any control over us would be the ones who could earn that amount of money. Those thugs from the old towns didn¡¯t have much money, but that was just because they spent it all on drugs and alcohol from the system stores. All it would take is one dictator with a n and some impulse control to wreck our day.¡±


    ¡°Worse yet, we don¡¯t know how likely this is to happen. There could be a burgeoning ve empire, a hop skip and a jump in any direction from here. For instance, those few low level thugs that escaped down the river. No one hase back the way they went, and we have no clue why. Supposedly there is some kind of town off that way but they kept to themselves what kind of ce it was.¡±


    ¡°With that all in mind we need to maximize our chances of getting money and I want to take a chance on the second floor. Right now the third floor is a mystery and maybe it has wealth beyond our wildest dreams but those mushroom monsters.¡±


    Kelly coughs, ¡°They¡¯re myconid sprouts. While we waited, I took some time to examine them closer.¡±


    Ace raises an eyebrow at the interruption. ¡°Anyway, those myconids are a hard stop right now. Even if a group can manage to deal with them, we can¡¯t exactly grind the floor. On the second floor, we can easily clear out the kobolds. With that in mind all of our trash will be deposited on the second floor for the near future, even the ash. If after a few days of this there still aren¡¯t coins we will focus on the first floor.¡±


    ¡°Now for a more long-term thing. We know that more drops happen after someone dies in the dungeon. As it is, death is very rare because we all have a handle on the dungeon and have trained to delve into it. That won¡¯t always be the case. Some point in the future we will see peopleing from all around to give it a try. This means more people dying than ever before. Right now we can only realistically have one group delve at a time. From now on after every delve with a loss of life, a group made of our core members has to delve. We can me it on how often the dungeon changes. Just say that any death could represent a sudden change in the dungeon that needs to be explored by professionals.¡±


    ¡°The goal of this requirement is to hoard as much of the drops and loot as possible. We won¡¯t be able to monopolize it all, of course, but no reason to make it easy on any outsiders. The only problem that coulde up with this is how few people there are in our core group. Not even 30 people isn¡¯t exactly enough to cover it as much as we need to. But we can deal with thister. For now I don¡¯t want anyone to check out the third floor until we have the medicine to counter those myconids.¡± Ace ps his hands and gestures for everyone to go back to work.

 Everyone Thinks of That Nickname – Chapter 85

    Back in the dungeon Doyle turns to Ally, ¡®So I forgot to make my other monsters drop coins. Also, do I need to make the kobolds on my third-floor drop ore or will they automatically?¡¯


    Allyughs, ¡®Well, it isn¡¯t toote. You could technically make every monster drop coins, the lower value one¡¯s cost hardly anything after all. My advice is to keep the first floor like it is though. That way people who don¡¯t want to actually challenge the dungeon and are just in it for food aren¡¯t rewarded too much. As for the kobold miners, do you have them actually mining?¡¯


    Doyle nods his core, ¡®Yeah, I wanted it so that as the day progressed, there would be less ore for adventurers to mine. After all, the map changes every night so I wanted to reward those who explored the floor instead of just following a map someone else made.¡¯


    Ally gives a thumbs up, ¡®Good n and it works out even better because that means the kobolds and the goats will have a chance to drop ore. Don¡¯t worry, there is a cap on it so they can¡¯t just let the kobolds do all the mining for them.¡¯


    Doyle sighs in relief, ¡®Well, that makes things easier. Now let me just go and throw on some coins so the settlement can actually be a town. I assume that will have some benefits for me?¡¯


    Ally shrugs, ¡®I actually don¡¯t know the answer to that. My guess is there will be paths opened up because of it. We will just have to wait and see. After all, there has to be <i>something</i> that you get for a town being built around you.¡¯


    Doyle focuses on Ally, ¡®Normally you have more to say on this kind of thing. Why theck of info?¡¯


    Ally shrugs again, ¡®Meh, there wasn¡¯t any tutorial text for it.¡¯


    Doyle shakes his core, ¡®The tutorial stuff won¡¯t be around forever.¡¯


    Allyughs, ¡®We¡¯ll cross that bridge when we get there.¡¯


    Doyle epts this and focuses on his second floor. ¡®I don¡¯t want to add coins to the animals quite yet so that leaves the kobolds. The two sneaky kobolds in the boulder room can have a copper each as loot. Those goatherds can have up to five because they are strong, independent kobolds with their own jobs. That can include the goatherd in the forest room.¡¯


    ¡®Now for most of the rest let¡¯s say two coins each. Copper coins only cost ten energy as loot anyway, so spreading the wealth isn¡¯t a bad thing. The only other kobolds I want to change up are the magic users. They are special so let¡¯s give them ten copper and a silver. A little pricey at 200 a pop but they shouldn¡¯t be dropping it all at once anyway.¡¯


    ¡®The third floor already has metal ores, so I don¡¯t want to turn it into a coin farm as well. The earth mages can have a silver coin each, while the rest can have the same two coppers of thest floor. Still a bit much, what with four silver pieces as loot. Hopefully earth mages in a mine will be enough to make the risk be worth the potential reward.¡¯


    ¡®Also I don¡¯t think I actually set any other loot on the floor. There are only the four saddlebags of holding. The pseudo picks can be dropped, though I hope someone brings in a real pick and loses it soon. Besides, that let¡¯s make the wands loot in every group except the one with the saddlebag loot. Oh, and throw non-loot armor on them all as well. Just gear each of them with a tunic, helmet, gauntlets, and greaves. Outside of that the other monsters already drop what I would want them to drop, so I guess for what is it? The third time? Yeah, something like that. For the third time the third floor isplete. Maybe for real this time.¡¯


    Doyle settles back to rx, he isn¡¯t expecting anyone for the rest of the day. Susan Barrai has other ns, though. With the single packet of spores used up, she goes to Ace. ¡°So I need more spores.¡±


    Ace looks up from the pile of books he had been sorting through. ¡°Do you at least have something to test? I¡¯ve had some of the strength types raiding the two towns of all the books, and I really need to get them sorted. Even the fantasy books could have real world use now.¡±


    Susanughs, ¡°That would be nice. Sadly there is more to this more magic based medicine than I was ready for. Some of those fantasy books might actually be helpful for me right now and I wouldn¡¯t mind assisting you. Though what I really need is just practice material, in other words, those spores.¡±


    ¡°Now while I would like to have you along the people I really need are my husband, Kelly, and Doctor. We¡¯ve all looked at the spores and should be able to all deal with anyone that gets paralyzed. Plus me and my husband are partly resistant to the things which will allow us to be the front line. With that in mind I think the other two in our party should be ranged fighters as well.¡±


    Ace rests his chin on his fist while he goes over all the people in the settlement. ¡°You don¡¯t get any other founders, that¡¯s for sure. In fact if it wasn¡¯t for Doctor needing thebat for experience and to train some of his skills I wouldn¡¯t let you take him with you either. With that in mind go ask if Zachariah Treeman and Sarah Bell would like to go with you. Zachariah is a mage of some vor and Sarah full on archer, though I think she uses some form of power. They make an excellent team because Zachariah can make arrows for Sarah to use.¡±


    Susan shrugs, ¡°That will work. Do you know where they might be at the moment?¡±


    Ace points towards where new houses are being made. ¡°They are both working on construction,st I heard. Now get out of here so we can focus on the books again. I¡¯ve only gathered three others to help me on this task, and I feel the knowledge will be important for us in the long term.¡±


    Susan rolls her eyes and walks off while Ace gets back to sorting through multiple libraries worth of books. She heads over to the construction site and finds Zachariah easily enough. Hisst name was his actual family name but fate likes to y tricks so of course he would be talented at wood magic. So there he is, taking freshly cut trees and magically curing them before turning them into nks. Even the knottiest scraggle trees are straightened out under his care.


    This almost makes Susan change her mind on inviting him. Sort of an important job, but then she looks to the side. He had apparently been at this for a while, as the giant pile of treated nks will attest to.@@novelbin@@


    Freed of her worries, she approaches him, ¡°Hey, Zachariah! I could use your help in the dungeon. You want toe?¡±


    Zachariah finishes the tree he is on before turning towards her. ¡°I wouldn¡¯t mind a trip into the dungeon but why? Don¡¯t you founders usually go in together? Also, call me Zach, everyone else does.¡±


    Susan raises her eyebrows, ¡°A little nonchnt of you. Most of the others like to stand at attention when we call out to them.¡±


    Zach shrugs, ¡°Meh, you founders are just the people with either the right training or the right chances that managed to get on top early. No matter how much I hate the pun myst name has be, I believe that my power will grow like a tree. Slow at the start, butter on I will tower over everyone. You guys are on top now but who knows if any of us are doing it right. Out there¡±, and he gestures towards the sky, ¡°are people who have lived in this system for generations.¡±


    ¡°There will be people who have had their skills nned out since before they were born. Lucky chances manufactured to provide the strongest foundation so they can rise above the rest in ways we can¡¯t even imagine. Beyond that? Well, the system isn¡¯t the end all be all. Our dimension is a tiny little tide pool that idently got connected up to the greater sea of magic.¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t have the best n for my skills. I don¡¯t know if one path will be better long term than another. However, I have been nning for the long term. Now once again, why do you want me along for your dungeon dive? I do need to get in there as I can feel the system straining against how many skill levels I have gotten and need to level.¡±


    Susan just sits back for his mini rant and as he finishes she whistles. ¡°Well now. Respect. Most people are just trying to gain power anyway possible. Of course for everyone that is left here that isn¡¯t as much of a problem, but still. Anyway, I already n to bring my husband, Kelly, and Doctor so Ace isn¡¯t letting me take any other founders with me. Have you heard of the third floor?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m sure most have but just in case you haven¡¯t there are myconids down there with paralysis spores. We got a pack of spores as a drop and I was trying to make some antidote out of it, but we need more. Can¡¯t really open up the third floor for people to explore if one breathe at the wrong time can freeze a person near instantly.¡±


    ¡°As for wanting you specifically, you can thank Ace for that. Me and my husband will be the front lines so we needed a couple more back line fighters. After Ace thought about it for a little he chose you and Sarah. You are a caster so make an excellent choice in general and you can whip up arrows for Sarah to use if she runs out.¡±


    Zach nods, ¡°If Ace suggested it then I¡¯m in. Of everyone here, I trust his ns the most. Let me get Sarah over here.¡± He turns toward the work site and yells, ¡°Sarah! We got a founder over here that wants help in the dungeon.¡±


    Most of the construction noise continues, but the loudest hammering stops. Then out from behind one of the moreplete buildingses a shortdy with a sledgehammer over her shoulder. She meanders over to the two of them and sets the hammer down. ¡°So what sort of help do you want? I¡¯m all up for a real dungeon dive, but if you¡¯re just wanting to quick clear the first floor for food, you can find someone else.¡±


    Susan shakes her head, ¡°No we want to head to the third floor and y with some mushroom me. I know Ace suggested you, but can you handle an enemy that isn¡¯t too affected by arrows?¡±


    Sarah puts her fists on her hips and lets out a loud series ofughs. ¡°Ho boy, I don¡¯t have to worry about nonsense like something being resistant to arrows. Really, thest thing on my list of worries at the moment. Do you y many role ying games? Cause I did and I went for one of my favorite builds, the soul bow!¡±


    ¡°So many things have be real and I felt I needed to give it a shot. Guess what? It worked! I didn¡¯t even have to y around with the soul knife, just skipped right to the bow. The only downside at the moment is I can¡¯t just form an arrow wholesale yet. Still have to use wooden ones, in fact I can only use wooden arrows. More specifically, the arrow has to be made of something that was once living. Though I guess that would be why you¡¯re over here with Mr. Zach Attack!¡±


    Zach cringes at the nickname everyone seems toe up with at some point, but nods that her guess was correct.

 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. Sarah¡¯s my mom¡¯s name and while I respect the origin of the name and all that history it has in my family it isn¡¯t for me. Now when are we going? I can¡¯t 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 <i>soul </i>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 shouldn¡¯t 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 can¡¯t be bothered with finding out the real source. But yeah, mana is of the mind! The stereotype of smart mages isn¡¯t wrong, though of course you can power it with any mental stat.¡±


    ¡°Qi, that ever popr eastern energy is power from one¡¯s body. While it is connected to wisdom in our mythology, that¡¯s 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 can¡¯t or your enemy is gone.¡±


    ¡°Finally is what I use. Some religions would call it Prana. If you¡¯ve heard of yogis and chakra points, this is it. It is also another reason Qi gets connected to wisdom. But yeah, your soul¡¯s power to change the world in the most literal sense. I don¡¯t actually call it Prana though as that gives it connotations that just aren¡¯t 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.¡±@@novelbin@@


    ¡°I¡¯m still trying to figure out all the differences. Most interesting about that though is that once I figured out that I don¡¯t need to mess around with the whole chakra thing, the system even changed what it was called in my status. I can¡¯t tell you what it is now called, though. Not because I don¡¯t want to but because I would need telepathy or something simr. It¡¯s true name isn¡¯t something you can speak. Isn¡¯t that awesome? I¡¯m practicing something that words can¡¯t even describe!¡±


    Susan blinks, ¡°Oookay. Well, be ready in ten, wait, no, seven minutes. We¡¯ll head out then.¡±


    Bell gives a thumbs up and runs off to grab her bow. Once she is gone Zachughs at Susan¡¯s reaction, ¡°Don¡¯t 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 that¡¯s all I need. Just make sure you¡¯re 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. Let¡¯s use it as a chance to make sure our teamwork gels. Now let¡¯s 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 wouldn¡¯t cause problems for any random group of six people in the settlement, so the Barrai¡¯s 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 isn¡¯t enough to kill the goats in one hit, just stun them, the kobolds don¡¯t 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, ¡°I¡¯d put you up there with Jim on the list of people I don¡¯t want to fight in a forest.¡±


    Zach shrugs, ¡°There isn¡¯t 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 can¡¯t 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 haven¡¯t 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 I¡¯ve been building myself anyway.¡±


    Bellughs, ¡°You¡¯re just going to end up a forest hermit, aren¡¯t 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, ¡°Let¡¯s 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 didn¡¯t exactly get harder either. With the party so heavy on ranged attackers and with even the frontline being more burst damage, six goats just aren¡¯t 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 goat¡¯s skull in an impressive disy of strength.


    As Susan and Jeremy face the first couple goats, two of the spellsnd to the sides. Kelly¡¯s 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 hasn¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t stopped let alone killed by the attack.


    Slower than the rest, Zach¡¯s 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 doesn¡¯t change the fact it was well made and is able to restrain the much stronger monster.


    Normally a single monster wouldn¡¯t 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 haven¡¯t 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. I¡¯m 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 you¡¯re 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, you¡¯ve already seen me process entire trees into perfect nks of wood. If I can slough off a tree¡¯s bark and straighten out knots, there isn¡¯t 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 don¡¯t worry deary, I just want him to help process our herbs. He can be <i>all yours</i>.¡±


    Bell turns beet red but grabs Zach¡¯s 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 can¡¯t really do much with stone and wax.¡±


    Jeremy holds up a jar sealed with beeswax. ¡°Don¡¯t 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. Shouldn¡¯t 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 haven¡¯t 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 don¡¯t exactly have the element of surprise but they don¡¯t exactly need it either. With the only magic user left on the monster side being the healer the two don¡¯t 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.


    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 hadn¡¯t 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 hasn¡¯t been attacked yet.


    He didn¡¯t 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 couldn¡¯t 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 wasn¡¯t 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 don¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t all that much stronger physically, more mental stats let itmand the goats better. This isn¡¯t much of a problem. That is, isn¡¯t 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 couldn¡¯t kill them as easily.¡±


    Zach shrugs, ¡°Still, you beat them quicker than others probably can.¡±


    Susanughs, ¡°We aren¡¯t founders just for show! What is more impressive is how quickly you harvested the olives. I don¡¯t 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 can¡¯t manage to stand up to the party.


    In the ramp room they see the first bit of difficulty. While the enemies aren¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t 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 hadn¡¯t 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 kobold¡¯s 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 kobold¡¯s 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 isn¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t 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 we¡¯ve 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 we¡¯ve 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 isn¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t even wait for them to reach the cliff before she gets bored. ¡°I¡¯m going to go and climb a tree or something!¡±


    This leaves Doctor and Kelly by themselves but this doesn¡¯t bother either of them. In fact they like it that way. With no one to interrupt they get down to discussing some of Kelly¡¯s 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 can¡¯t 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 don¡¯t want to shout at her because she appears to have fallen asleep. Zach sees this and sighs, ¡°Don¡¯t worry, she will be fine.¡± Then he yells up at her, ¡°Time To Leave! Get Down Here Bell!¡±@@novelbin@@


    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 doesn¡¯t 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 let¡¯s 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 room¡¯s entrance so you don¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t 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 didn¡¯t 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 mage¡¯s first attempt at the spell.


    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 aren¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t 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 don¡¯t 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 isn¡¯tmon. 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, there¡¯s an assassin vine up there. I don¡¯t <i>think</i> 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 isn¡¯t 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.@@novelbin@@


    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 isn¡¯t even maze-like. It should have had at least another room beyond the first for that. As it is if it wasn¡¯t for the assassin vine I could have checked the ce out without fully entering.¡±


    Kelly shrugs, ¡°Probably just doesn¡¯t 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 shouldn¡¯t 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 don¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t 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 wasn¡¯t for the fact we didn¡¯t 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 didn¡¯t want to fight their nonbat skills should be growing.¡±


    Zach raises an eyebrow, ¡°Bit of a rant there. Let me guess, you¡¯ve 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 won¡¯t 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! I¡¯m 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 doesn¡¯t matter to use right now. We need to solidify our base here. Our base, not theirs.¡±

 Fire Blender – Chapter 89

    With the idle chitchat out of the way the group goes into the next room. As they could see from the previous room, there isn¡¯t anything in this one but it seems to lead everywhere else. There are three different ways out of the room. On the opposite wall is a hallway, to the left the room opens up directly into another, and finally a second hallway is further along the same wall the entrance is in.


    Susan walks out into the middle of them and looks around. When nothing attacks her the rest of the group moves out to join her as she points at the various exits. ¡°I say we go down one of these two close together exits. It looks like they might be connected to each other as well, and there are a lot of mushrooms in the one. I don¡¯t feel safe leaving that behind us. Now the lonely exit at the bottom does seem to lead to a mushroom room, but that is far enough away I don¡¯t think they have noticed us.¡±


    Doctor shrugs, ¡°I don¡¯t think the myconids are the most active of hunters so there shouldn¡¯t be a problem either way.¡±


    Jeremy nods, ¡°Neither direction is better than another, so let¡¯s just go into the room that is directly connected to this one.¡±


    As they move out Kelly nces to the side and down the hallway. Like they had seen already the ce was filled with mushrooms but she feels something is staring at her. As if below the caps there were small beady eyes ring out at her. But the feeling recedes as the group leaves the room and enters the next. She sighs and keeps this minor revtion to herself. No point in saying anything when they already know the monsters were against them.


    In the next room there are three columns, and in between them is a small pool of water being fed by a streaming down from the left. Around this pool is a chaotic gathering of small mushrooms. Most of which turn towards the group.


    Jeremyughs, ¡°Kelly and Zach, you ready up some AoE for us. Me and Susan will keep them back.¡±


    Then from their packs Jeremy and Susan bring out paper tubes. With a quick twist, they open the packages up and a flick of their wrists sends out a controlled shower of dust. As the mass of small myconids reaches the suspended powder, the frontmost ones convulse and fall backwards. This brings the sprouts to a halt, though not before a couple more end up partly inside the danger zone. They too convulse, joining the previously affected ones on the floor.


    Susan sighs, ¡°Good thing we prepared that antifungal medicine. Admittedly, I was more expecting to use it to treat someone being parasitized by shrooms, but honestly? I prefer this. Less body horror is always a good thing.¡±


    Jeremy nods, ¡°Though it is a good thing these aren¡¯t the only enemies on the floor because we definitely didn¡¯t pack enough if we face more situations like this. Stuff isn¡¯t exactly cheap at the moment to make.¡±


    Behind them Kelly is about to finish her spell when she asks, ¡°Is that powder mmable?¡±


    Susan shrugs, ¡°Ish, if you are worrying about a dust explosion you don¡¯t have to. Though the stuff will burn, it isn¡¯t able to burn fast enough.¡±


    Kelly shrugs, ¡°Well, you¡¯re the ones right up next to it. Zach, if you would be so kind as to hold them down now.¡±


    Zach sighs and tosses out apressed ball of nt fibers instead of one of his ropes. It arcs over the dust andnds in the center of the myconids who are milling about, unable to reach the group. The ballnds and bursts outwards into a haze of almost microscopic fibers, tangling up all the sprouts. ¡°Be quick about it. The fibers aren¡¯t exactly the strongest things.¡±


    Kelly doesn¡¯t need to be told twice as she tosses a ball of her own out, though hers is made of fire. The fire falls through fibers as if they aren¡¯t even there andnds on the cap of one of the bigger sprouts at the center of the myconids. For a second the ball of fire smolders there as the myconid tries to remove it.


    It doesn¡¯t get much of a chance at it though as the ball shrinks down and burns through the sprout¡¯s body. As it shrinks, the ball burns brighter and even as it sinks into the myconid the group can see where it is. Then once it has burnt down so far it is almost about to fall through the main stalk and onto the floor, four spears of me stab outwards.


    The ming spears pierce a few other sprouts, but this damage is more incidental. The main force of the spell bes clear as the spears suddenly spin, though not t like a top. Instead, each spear waves up and down, slicing through the myconids at random heights. The spell onlypletes a few rotations, but by then the job is done. Only the sprouts farthest out are still standing. It has reduced all the rest to smoldering chunks of mushroom.


    With that the group is able to easily clean up thest survivors. The Barrais don¡¯t even have to worry about the spores, as those that remain are so small and scattered they aren¡¯t able to summon a dense enough cloud of them.


    After grabbing the few drops, they move into the room on the left and the prediction that it was connected to the room beforest is proven true. Through the short hallway they can see down towards the hall they had decided to not take. But that isn¡¯t what interests them. Instead, they look ahead. Across from them is an entrance into another room, and they can just make out another stone staircase going up.


    Jeremy shakes his head, ¡°I hope this isn¡¯t another dead end. This floor would suck if there are too many like that. Though I guess the dungeon was bound to have some kind of maze-like floor, eventually. So far they have all been very straight forward.¡±


    Jeremy shrugs, whatever there is toe he can¡¯t really do much about it. Instead of thinking about it deeper, he sneaks up the stairs with the others gathered around the bottom. This time though, he can just call them up as the room above is empty except for the small stream of water which had been flowing into the pool below. Different from thest room, though there is another way out. Directly in front of the group is a short hallway into another room. This one is empty as well, but instead of just another hallway it has a staircase that goes up.


    Doctor shakes his head, ¡°This will take us above the original entrance. I really do have to wonder how much up and down there will be here.¡±@@novelbin@@


    Kelly hums for a second and taps the wall. ¡°I have a suspicion. On the second floor, there is actually a good bit of travel. The ramp and forest room both have very high ceilings. This should be as high as the floor goes because with the three floors they add up to about the same height.¡±


    Jeremy frowns, ¡°While that would make sense, it doesn¡¯t particrly mean too much until we have explored the entire floor. Lets just see how far this goes.¡±


    Once again Jeremy climbs up a staircase alone. This time though, he finds apletely different scene. The room above isn¡¯t empty and none of the previously seen enemies are there but what is there makes him slowly lower himself down in hopes of not being detected.


    Back in the previous room, he gestures for the others to stay quiet and retreat into the previous room. Once there he sighs, ¡°Well the dungeon is back to its old games but with a twist. Right above us is a group of kobolds and goats. The catch is they aren¡¯t just some savages in a campsite or some such. Instead, the kobolds appear to be mining out the wall and the goats are equipped with saddlebags.¡±


    Kelly frowns, ¡°Did you see anything actually getting mined or is it just setting? Because we could very much use some kind of metal. The towns have a lot of it, but most is high temp stuff we can¡¯t do much with at the moment. Except I guess the copper wiring we could strip out.¡±


    Zach shakes his head, ¡°All of that stuff isn¡¯t worth it anyway. I specialized a bit in acquiring resources, and all that processed stuff is going to be pre-system metal. The stuff still raw and in the ground will slowly be changed. But once it has been worked by sapient hands, the structure gets locked in and protected by our souls. If this is a real mine that will be amazing for our settlement. Dungeons rarely develop ore until after the first boss.¡±


    Jeremy nods, ¡°Thats nice. Now how are we supposed to deal with the fight? There are only four kobolds up there, one of which is a magic user and nine goats. However we have to enter the fight by climbing some stairs. Not the worst problem, but it doesn¡¯t really allow us enough room for more than one person at a time.¡±


    Sarahughs, ¡°We just have to y it simr to how we did with the assassin vine! Sure, we won¡¯t be able to clear them all with this tactic. It isn¡¯t like they will just stand around at the top of the stairs. But we should be able to stun them for a few crucial moments as we all climb up.¡±


    Kelly tilts her head back, ¡°Hmm, I don¡¯t think I can manage a stun and still damage them. Still not a bad idea. I could throw the magical equivalent of a shbang so we can all at least get up there before they can respond.¡±


    Jeremy raises an eyebrow at this. ¡°Do you already have a shbang spell you can use for this? I don¡¯t really want to take chances on this sort of thing. After all, it would only stun them for a few moments so we can¡¯t exactly wait to see if it works. The moment your spell goes off, we need to be hustling up those stairs. Plus you can¡¯t be in the back. To get the spell into ce, you¡¯re going to have to join me at the front of the group for this.¡±


    Kelly shrugs, ¡°Give me a year and I should be able to have guided spells even if they leave my line of sight. For now though, you aren¡¯t wrong. Still, while I haven¡¯t practiced this specific sort of spell it isn¡¯t hard to manage. I just need something simr to the spear ball, except more condensed. Shrink the ball of mes down as small as possible and put more of the magic into the light show and pressure wave aspared to the fire. This is actually why I won¡¯t be able to deal damage. All the magic will be going towards enhancing the sh and bang parts of it instead of stuff like mes and damage.¡±


    Susanughs, ¡°Why not just pump some magical napalm up there? Flood the ce in a thinyer of sticky fire.¡±


    Kelly shakes her head, ¡°As I hinted at, there is only so much magic I can use for any particr feature of the spell. Napalm like spells should require much higher skill than I have as well as being multi-element. After all, where do you think the stickiness woulde from? Because my guess is I would have to team up with Zach over there to evene close. Nevermind the fact he isn¡¯t a summoner type so he would have needed to bring tree sap along with us.¡±


    Jeremy ps his hands together lightly, though it is still enough to make everyone else shut up. ¡°I think the shbang idea will work fine for this. Now let¡¯s head back in there and line up. Once we are ready none of you can slow down. We need to be up there pronto!¡±

 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 second¡¯s 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 doesn¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t look too sturdy, but he doesn¡¯t know what the kobolds are preparing behind it, so he diverts to attack the goats.


    Unlike on the previous floors though, his drive by throat slitting doesn¡¯t provide the same oue. While it hurt the two goats, they don¡¯t drop right away and instead can counter attack. Jeremy crosses his daggers to block, but more than just the goat¡¯s 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 didn¡¯t 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 weren¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t 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 didn¡¯t notice, the goats seem to have a wee bit of regen going on!¡±


    And he isn¡¯t wrong about that. The two goats with slit throats aren¡¯t bleeding anymore and as he watches, the arrows stuck in the other goats are being squeezed out. It isn¡¯t a quick heal, but enough to stabilize them if they aren¡¯t finished off.


    Still rolling around on the ground, Jeremy curses. ¡°How much con do they have? Even our more body focused people haven¡¯t hit regen yet!¡±


    Kellyughs as she releases a devastating fire spell. ¡°They¡¯re goats, what do you expect? Of all the farm animals, they¡¯re 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 haven¡¯t 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.¡±@@novelbin@@


    While she is talking Kelly¡¯s 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 group¡¯s back line. Two of them however don¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t sustainable, and the vine turns brown and crumbles away in the same amount of time.


    Still, it didn¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t 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 can¡¯t manage to get himself off the ground, which at least Susan hasn¡¯t had to deal with. Whenever he attempts to get up the pick wielding kobolds will go for sweeping attacks to keep him down. This doesn¡¯t 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 wasn¡¯t 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 isn¡¯tpletely 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 isn¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t 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 goat¡¯s throat, but she doesn¡¯t 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 goat¡¯s 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 can¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t 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 don¡¯t go away with the mage dead.

 Daisy’s Tarot – Chapter 91

    Jeremy looks around the room and sighs. ¡°Well, this has been the hardest floor yet. Doctor, I¡¯m not stupid enough to think you can heal you three enough for another fight, but will everyone at least be able to walk out of here?¡±


    Doctor looks up from Kelly¡¯s left leg, which has a decent chunk of flesh ripped off. ¡°Unassisted? No. However, everyone should be able to hobble out with some help. Since only half of us have been done in, we should be able to leave just fine.¡±


    Jeremy nods, ¡°Good, I don¡¯t even know how I would exin this to Ace if we needed others toe in here to help us get out.¡±


    Zachughs as hezily waves his hand in the air whileid out on his back. ¡°Long as Doc can kill the pain, I can whip up some wheelchairs or some such for us to leave. Though not actual wheelchairs, they don¡¯t do well with stairs. Rather some golemish chairs that can walk around.¡±


    Doctor coughs, ¡°I would prefer people use my full name. I know it is a little odd, but that is how I want it. Anyway, even if I could kill the pain, I wouldn¡¯t. Pain is an important warning and we have some serious injuries here. I need to know the instant the pain increases or, even worse, goes away. This isn¡¯t funny business, even if chances are just about any normal physical wounds can now be healed. We aren¡¯t quite at that level of healing magic and can¡¯t afford to lose any of our current group.¡±@@novelbin@@


    Zach nods, ¡°Can do Doctor. Though once we get new people in I don¡¯t think you will be able to stop it. From what I hear we should see outsiders inside of a week.¡±


    Doctor, Kelly, Susan, and Jeremy all jerk their heads around to stare at him and they try to all talk at the same time. Jeremy raises his hand to stop the others and asks, ¡°Where did you get this info?¡±


    Zach pales, ¡°Auh, um, well, everyone knows back in the settlement. Or at least I thought everyone did. Maybe it didn¡¯t get to you founders or something.¡±


    Jeremy raises an eyebrow, ¡°And how does everyone know about this fact?¡±


    Zach sniffs, ¡°Well, it isn¡¯t so much a <i>fact</i> as it is a very high possibility.¡±


    Jeremy shakes his head, ¡°No, you said that with certainty. It might not be a <i>fact,</i> but it is a truth for you. Now what is your source. This is critically important information.¡±


    Zach props himself up and looks each of the four founders in the eye. ¡°More than a few of the people who stayed didn¡¯t do it because of your promises. We stayed because of Daisy Peachblossom. Few people noticed, but she is the sort of person who could be called blessed by the universe. Besides Bell here, she is the only other person who got a luck increase from the cliff.¡±


    ¡°Now Bell is lucky, no one will deny that. Compared to Daisy, though? Bell is nothing. Daisy¡¯s luck is so high that it almost seems like she can see the future. She is someone I knew pre-system and let me tell you, even without magic, her existence warpedmon sense. On a whim, her parents bought her a tarot deck as a birthday gift when she was nine. First reading she did that day scared her because it predicted a threat in the near future. When she didn¡¯t want to head out and visit the rtives at first her parents wanted to force her but gave up. Not an hourter, the news was sting out about how a wild car chase had ended in a police shootout. All happening right along the route the family would have taken.¡±


    ¡°After that she didn¡¯t feel like doing anymore readings until she did. She interpreted what she read that day as meaning she should pester her dad to go through with a deal at work he was waffling over. A yearter, her family were millionaires. Time goes on and asionally she would decide to do a reading. Not all of the situations would turn out big, sometimes she would just read where her friend would leave her wallet during recess the next day.¡±


    ¡°A week before the system came, she did a big reading. See, her parents and friends had noticed the odd happenings so every birthday multiple tarot decks would be gifted. Daisy would appreciate the art, but the decks would tend to get lost until the moment she needed them. This had been happening for years. Me and Bell saw her go into the college gym with multiple bags stuffed to the brim.¡±


    ¡°Every single tarot deck she had ever owned showed up. Even ones that people had imed to throw away, damage, or in some way dispose of was there. Apparently she found them under her bed and decided toy them all out at once. This is why I don¡¯t have to worry about my family.¡±


    ¡°In a giant array centered on her original tarot deck, sheyed out readings for every single person who mattered to her and those close to them. Now it wasn¡¯t all good news. My parents are dead, they just couldn¡¯t adjust to magic. But back to her original tarot deck. Up till then she had never done a reading for herself, and I guess you could say she didn¡¯t this time either. It was thest deck sheid out that day and without noticing she had ced almost all the cards face down with only the fool at the center visible.¡±


    ¡°To start fresh. A new beginning wasing for her. That day she picked up her original deck and wandered off. I stayed in that gym with Bell for hours just watching what happened next. With no n, with no order, every single person who had a reading there would show up along and find their reading and then take their deck. Even people who should have been out of state at the time ended up there that day. All of us who survived till now still have our deck.¡±


    And having said that, Zach pulls a small box out of his pocket. It is a small nature themed tarot deck. With a shake of his head, Zach puts the box away. ¡°I didn¡¯t n to bring my deck with me today. Most days it just stays in my backpack that I keep sentimental stuff in. Yet here we are, without thinking about it, I brought it with me today.¡±


    ¡°She had quite the collection of decks, each one themed differently. Mine is nature themed, Bell¡¯s has the Hindu gods, and my mom¡¯s deck was themed on Halloween skeletons. Thinking back on it, Daisy¡¯s birthday being near Halloween is ominous for everyone else. Lots of death themed tarot decks to be had.¡±


    ¡°So yeah, now know why we trust Daisy on some things. One such thing is that just a few days ago she did a reading for the dungeon itself. New challengers were predicted and that can¡¯t mean us or the ones who left with Jan. None of us would qualify as new. Of course nothing was said about our dive right now because where would be the fun in that?¡±


    Jeremy frowns, ¡°Wouldn¡¯t something like tarot be more of a destiny thing?¡±


    Doctor shakes his head, ¡°Destiny is a personal force. Those with great destiny have an easier time themselves. Opposite it is karma which deals with the other, that connection to people besides yourself. Plus, I don¡¯t think she is predicting the future.¡±


    Zach frowns, ¡°If she isn¡¯t predicting the future, how does all this stuff keep happening?¡±


    Doctor shrugs, ¡°Well I guess you could call it predicting the future but it seems more like altering the future. She predicted the car chase and shooting, so her luck stopped her from going. She saw her dad ending up sad for not investing and changed it. Only thatst reading before the system would seem to be closer to the traditional fortune reading. Even then it probably nudged more than a few people into better positions.¡±


    ¡°As for the visitors? Luck as described, as little as it says, could do any number of things to nudge people towards our settlement. It could be as simple as a group catching a fish in the stream, so they decide to follow it. Or it rains and one particr dropnds on their hand-drawn map smudging the ink causing them to go off course and arrive here. On the other hand, it could be that no matter what the group was going toe here.¡±


    ¡°Instead, this reading is to make sure we are prepared to meet them. Maybe even it is meant to allow the dungeon to be prepared for it. After all, we ended up talking about it here in the dungeon itself instead as a line item at the nightly meeting. None of that matters at the moment, though. We need to get out of here first and then tell Ace so it can be out of our hands. Now hold still while I try to fix up your feet.¡±


    With that decided, everyone goes back to clean up after the fight. Most important is the slight noise Jeremy heard when the kobolds faded out. One kobold had dropped a couple copper and almost as exciting as the other kobold had dropped a chunk of copper ore. Of course, none of that couldpare to how much ore the goats had dropped.


    While not as pure as the chunk from the kobold there was a lot of it. There had to be about 50 pounds of the stuff. Zach does a quick check with his magic. While not unnaturally good, the ore was at the high end of copper content. About a percent being metal, meaning they just got half a pound of copper. While not much that sort of output would add up quickly if it was consistent. That doesn¡¯t even count how much ore might still be in the vein the kobolds had been mining in.


    Jeremy holds up the chunk of ore that the kobold dropped. ¡°Well, this changes things for us. Though this means we have even more production skills that need to be trained. Not that I think it will be hard to find someone that wants to try their hand at smithing. Still will be nice to get some metal weapons. The post-system wooden stuff is amazing enough, and I can¡¯t wait for proper gear. Now are we ready to leave? The coins and ore should offset our embarrassing disy here.¡±


    Susan nods, ¡°A source of coins and metal will go a long way to getting the settlement, well, settled. Still need an absolute ton of the system coinage to set up our town all official like. We killed a lot of kobolds on the second floor and still no coins there. Then again, we haven¡¯t tried throwing away our garbage on that floor yet, so we might just be unlucky. It isn¡¯t like the second floor gets all that many people, even when all of us can reach it.¡±


    Doctor ps his hands, ¡°I¡¯ve finished with what I can manage here without my assistants and equipment. We need to get a move on so I can treat these wounds some more. We need to be up and running as fast as possible. The world will not wait for us to recover and I don¡¯t want to get behind the curve.¡±


    Jeremy helps Zach up, ¡°Anyway, my goal for the trip isplete. We have a good handful of spore packets. There should be enough to experiment with until we can make another dive. Though next time Ace can be the one zing the trail.¡±

 Luck and Plans – Chapter 92

    With everyone up on their feet, Doctor looks over at the ore vein. ¡°So, are we going to finish mining out the copper?¡±


    Jeremyughs, ¡°If we had Kellinger with us to cheat on the extraction. But no, we won¡¯t y at being miners. Though even with Kellinger, that might not be the best way to do it. While slower I bet someone mining the ore will give better results just like how someone with a skill crafting an item has better results.¡±


    Susan nods, ¡°Plus, who knows what knowledge someone with a mining skill will gain. Though you are missing the possibility were using magic to dig out the ore would grant a mining skill. With that in mind, I don¡¯t know if Kellinger would want to chance it. Skills are too limited and he seems to want to go for the toolbox mage build.¡±


    Jeremy shrugs, ¡°Skills might be limited at the moment, but none of us have even reached level ten yet. This is still the early game, and none of us know what lies ahead of us. At the moment everything seems to be set back to pre-industrial times, but we know space travel is a thing. The biggest difference is mass produced stuff will be worse than trash. Give us a few years as well as the right people being saved and we will be right back where we started with technology.¡±


    This conversation goes on but without any desire to actually mine the ore they do so while hobbling back to the floor¡¯s entrance portal.


    Doyle continues to watch the group for a while longer before turning to Ally. ¡®That Zach has a harvest skill and could have just told them is using magic to harvest things would be affected by it. In fact, didn¡¯t he use it to harvest all those olives and such?¡¯


    Ally shrugs, ¡®Mostly certain he just isn¡¯t too social of a person. They didn¡¯t ask, so he didn¡¯t volunteer. Though I can confirm that harvest skills work with magic and sometimes you can even get a specialized skill for it.¡¯


    Doyle nods his core, ¡®Makes sense. Now what do you think of my third floor? None of them havepleted it yet, which I think says good things.¡¯


    Ally gestures at the wall where Doyle has projected an image of the third floor¡¯s currentyout. ¡®Your random generation seems to throw in a good number of dead ends at the edges. Since it is random though that isn¡¯t a problem. In fact, I have to say it is a good thing because they can¡¯t be certain if a ce leads somewhere or not at the start of the next day.¡¯


    Doyle sighs, ¡®I could do more to remove the dead ends because some of them are a little nonsensical. For instance right now that one passage they didn¡¯t go to just ends in a small room. It is too easy to see the room is a dead end. Same with the deadend room with a vine assassin. They didn¡¯t pay too much attention, but there it is. I think with a little tweaking I can add hallways going nowhere to the dead end rooms. That way it will look like the room isn¡¯t a dead end. Plus a hallway which goes nowhere is a much better indicator of a dead end as well, which is a nice signal. While I do want them to end up in the dead ends, I don¡¯t want it to frustrate them too much.¡¯


    Ally shrugs, ¡®I say let things ride for the moment. We don¡¯t know how it will work out and it sounds like we will be having some fresh blood soon enough.¡¯


    Doyle¡¯s core dims, ¡®So how bad is it that they have a super lucky person?¡¯


    Ally grimaces, ¡®I can¡¯t really say. Of all the soul stats, luck is one of the harder to pin down. As a dungeon your own luck stat will work to counter those with extraordinary luck once they are inside. Mind you, this doesn¡¯t give them bad luck, it just works to prevent the so called <i>lucky encounters</i> that plucky heroes seem to stumble into left and right. If this was a story, your luck would help in removing others¡¯ plot armor.¡¯


    ¡®However, from the sounds of it, Daisy should have a luck stat of 50 or more. Mostly because it was able to affect your world even before magic arrived. You¡¯ve just broken 20 so it would still be like she was rocking a score north of 20. The good news is that you are your own dimension, so while her luck will work once she is inside. It won¡¯t be able to direct her toe in to snatch all the good stuff.¡¯@@novelbin@@


    ¡®That is also why I don¡¯t think she has too much more than 50. She would have ended up in a better starter town near a normal dungeon. With this in mind, I say having her in the settlement can only be a good thing for us. Mostly because they decided to align themselves with us, even if it isn¡¯t anything official. Since their future is predicated on us doing well, her luck will shift the odds in our favor out there. Though of course if she ever decides to leave the settlement, we need to go defensive. However, I don¡¯t see it being likely in the near future. She would have left before now if that was the case.¡¯


    Doyle brightens up again, ¡®Fair enough. Now what else do you have to say about the floor?¡¯


    Ally rubs her chin, ¡®If I had to point out one thing? I would say that you need to deal with the earth mage kobolds. While the spike field was impressive, it caused a lot of problems. Sure, it did stop themselves from proceeding, but next time they will be ready for it. You got lucky this time with them not paying attention to the mage.¡¯


    Doyle shakes his core, ¡®It should be fine how it is. They won¡¯t always do that move for one. Plus, I can¡¯t really judge how effective they will be against normal delvers. I might have to stop or limit the spike move if only because I can see it destroying groups, even once they are aware it can happen.¡¯


    ¡®Though now that I think about it, I will change the kobolds so they don¡¯t spike the entire room. That sort of attack isn¡¯t a smooth difficulty curve whenpared to the previous floors. The kobold groups do have the best loot but the spikes are a bit much.¡¯


    Ally nods, ¡®Good point, I should know this, but it is kind of hard to keep grounded when the only people delving on the regr are professionals at it. Anyway, besides the kobold mages I don¡¯t see much else to change about their groups and the assassin vines are doing their own thing. That leaves the myconid sprouts. I suggest doing something to make them less obvious. Sure, a room or two with all the mushrooms crowded around a central pool is fine. Don¡¯t have all the rooms be like that.¡¯


    Doyle sighs, ¡®It is so much easier to have the water pool at the center. I will have to go through and figure out how to shift that around. Might be able to do something with the applied cave style. After all, despite connecting up at random, the styling smooths out any obvious edges, so it looks natural.¡¯


    Ally gestures at the map again, ¡®It isn¡¯t like you¡¯re making random rooms every time. It is all plug and y with pre-existing stuff. Just change a few to not be centered. As you said, the styling will fix any oddities when it matches up with other rooms and halls.¡¯


    ¡®Besides that, the floor looks good. A little hard to fully judge it after only a couple runs on one setup. But this is sort of one of the downfalls of a randomly designed floor. You can¡¯t really judge them easily. Maybe everything looks to be going fine when suddenly there is a direct path from the entrance to the exit. Though you¡¯ve put in some safeguard against that specific sort of thing. I¡¯m sure we will have nonsense popping up for years toe. That¡¯s fine, though. Just get the fourth floor soon and it won¡¯t matter too much.¡¯


    Doyle sighs, ¡®That might take a while. I only have, let me check.¡¯


    Doyle looks at his stat sheet, ¡®Oh, nevermind. I actually have 1051 world energy already saved up for my next floor. Over a fourth of the way there. Huh.¡¯


    Ally shrugs, ¡®You literally just caused so much damage to the previous group that they had to retreat without fully healing up. Though don¡¯t expect it to go too quickly. This was gained from a trio of near-death experiences, and I don¡¯t see them making that mistake again. Still, you should be able to gain enough in the next few days. Especially since I don¡¯t think they will slow down their exploration, what with the discovery of ore in here.¡¯


    Doyleughs, ¡®I can¡¯t wait until the first pack drops. I almost wish one of the peopleing from outside loots one so the news would spread. As it is, the settlement is on the path to collect the four I set up. Once those are gone the chance of an outsider just getting one drop.¡¯


    Ally nods, ¡®Especially since goats are the most likely in the kobold groups to die. The kobolds manage to survive, but the goats just don¡¯t stand a chance. With them not surviving, it will be very hard for the one with the lootable pack to gain enough energy in any reasonable timeframe. It will happen, but they will basically have to wait for you to ce them onter floors to have any sort of stock of them.¡¯


    Doyle tilts his core to the side, ¡®While I will probably be cing a lot more of them onter floors. That doesn¡¯t feel like the reason you say they will have more of a stock of the bags. Is there something special aboutter floors?¡¯


    Ally ps her hands, ¡®Good question! And yes, there are actually a few special things rted toter floors. Specifically with loot drops, the lower the floor, the more loose energy is in the air to realize items. Of course, stuff you specifically have for theter floors will still be just as rare. That however will have more to do with the cost. At a certain point you could make stuff like your wooden shield drop and it will drop every time as long as you haven¡¯t literally just spawned the monster.¡¯


    ¡®At the moment, this is hard for you to detect. A toss up between the difference not being all that much at the moment and you not being skilled enough at detecting such things. Get your territory control up there in level and it will be a lot more obvious.¡¯


    ¡®There are other things which will change withter floors besides that. Though the extra energy is worth it alone. You will have high level adventurers nning out multi-day trips to the deeper floors to train and cultivate. On a like yours there will only be one, maybe two, ces with a concentration of natural energy equal to a dungeon¡¯s lower floors.¡¯


    Doyle nods, ¡®I assume there are reasons to not just flood people with low quality loot on the deeper floors?¡¯


    Allyughs, ¡®No, but actually yes. There is no mechanical reason to prevent you from just creating a bunch of low level loot on any of your floors. After all, once you get floors that can instantly spawn low level loot you can probably just summon it whole cloth. The thing which stops you from doing that is people won¡¯t bother taking the loot out of your dungeon. This causes all kinds of trouble for a dungeon as getting the processed energy out of the dungeon is sort of your purpose.¡¯


    ¡®Not that you can¡¯t do that, mind you. It is just that dungeons which do spam low quality loot tend to be located inrge nations and get used as an easy supply for basic soldier gear. You don¡¯t have that option at the moment so we can ignore it. Later we can revisit having a bunch of basic gear to supply the settlement in some fashion.¡¯

 Alchemist Vials – Chapter 93

    Next morning Doyle watches as the newly healed up team starts another dive. Having the previous day¡¯s dive under their belts, the first floor doesn¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t 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 aren¡¯t visiting that much. Once we start getting more people on it, each kobold should start dropping at least one coin a piece.¡¯


    Doyle sighs, ¡®Doesn¡¯t seem like all that much.¡¯


    Ally shrugs, ¡®Yeah, it doesn¡¯t sound like much. However, you forget, this isn¡¯t 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 let¡¯s 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 don¡¯t notice a difference. After all, the entrance room doesn¡¯t 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, ¡®Don¡¯t think I didn¡¯t notice you fooling aroundst night. It doesn¡¯t count as <i>by chance</i> 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 isn¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t exactly the easiest thing to make. Especially not crystal clear ss.¡¯


    Ally frowns for a second, then nods. ¡®Ooh, that¡¯s what you meant! Yeah, I guess it would make sense for you not to know. The vials aren¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t 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. What¡¯s the catch? You don¡¯t get something that will miraculously improve a finished product.¡¯


    Allyughs, ¡®Well, you¡¯ve thought more about it than most alchemists do. To be honest? I don¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t a proficient enough alchemist nearby. Plus, the world energy needs to be dense enough or it doesn¡¯t 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, aren¡¯t there?¡¯


    Allyughs, ¡®You know it! Of course, even if the potions are raised to a certain level doesn¡¯t 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 can¡¯t drink them or anything.¡¯


    Ally shrugs, ¡®Maybe, maybe not. Not sure about that because it isn¡¯t like you consume stuff you breakdown in the dungeon. It might be possible if a potion got dumped over your core. Some beings which don¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t just run off before being absorbed.¡¯


    ¡®Of course, this doesn¡¯t mean it would work for you. There are also races that potions don¡¯t work on, even if they can drink them. Though let¡¯s go back to watching the party. We¡¯ve 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 wasn¡¯t 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 didn¡¯t 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 won¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t easy, it is clear the party will win.@@novelbin@@


    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 don¡¯t think there is enough time if we wait for them to leave the floor.¡¯


    Doyle nods, ¡®I was afraid of that. While I wouldn¡¯t say I can see the energy escaping, I can <i>see</i> 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 can¡¯t 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 didn¡¯t have invaders on it. So those now dead kobolds and goats still count towards the floors total.¡¯


    Doyle¡¯s core dims down for a moment and checks on the third floor goat farm. ¡®Okay, looks like I can manage it. While I don¡¯t have enough room for a kobold, the goat farm isn¡¯t full yet. That means I can afford to send down three goats to retrieve the vials. Two trips because I don¡¯t 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 floor¡¯s 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 isn¡¯t a problem.

 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 myconid¡¯s 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 didn¡¯t work. Ally, you said they are summoned, would that stop me from deconstructing them or something?¡¯


    Ally frowns, ¡®It shouldn¡¯t? 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.¡¯


    Doyle¡¯s 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 can¡¯t remember. ¡®I don¡¯t know the answer to that. If I had to guess though it should. I¡¯ve 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 wouldn¡¯t even give even a hint to their god. Sure this wouldn¡¯t 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 wouldn¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t get absorbed instantly. It hangs there with sections fuzzing out as it tries to unsummon.@@novelbin@@


    A great pressurees down on the barrier between the void and his first floor. Doyle doesn¡¯t 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 floor¡¯s 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


    Meet them in a safe neutral ground}


    Ally raises an eyebrow, ¡®Well I advise we go with option three. I¡¯m going to guess they really don¡¯t like what you did there. Just include me.¡¯


    Doyle rolls his core to the side, ¡®You think? But yeah, I don¡¯t want to let her in, but if I turn her away, the next person whoes by won¡¯t 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 aren¡¯t 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, you¡¯re 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 doesn¡¯t know how to react. While he has taken on a more human form, he wouldn¡¯t 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, ¡°I¡¯ll 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 cow¡¯s 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, I¡¯m here to bargain with you over not messing with my association¡¯s 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 aren¡¯t 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, ¡°I¡¯m not the best judge of age, but you aren¡¯t an elder god and not just because you are a junior goddess. Though mainly I¡¯m 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 wouldn¡¯t 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 don¡¯t exactly want me toe back without the agreement. It isn¡¯t 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 <i>potions</i> 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 wasn¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t bother Doyle, but still he holds up his hands, ¡°Now I didn¡¯t 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 won¡¯t be able to afford whatever you want for your promise!¡±


    Ally can¡¯t 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 don¡¯t 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, ¡°I¡¯m new to this whole deity thing and didn¡¯t know if it would be rude. Plus, sometimes a person¡¯s name isn¡¯t what they want to be associated with.¡±


    She rubs her eyes and slumps against the room¡¯s wall. ¡°Names aren¡¯t 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. That¡¯s what all the other gods and goddesses call me. My actual name is a little hard for anyone who isn¡¯t 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 wasn¡¯t 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 didn¡¯t do a thing for the world. Within a few years, everyone on the worshiped me. If it wasn¡¯t 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 Moota¡¯s 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.¡±@@novelbin@@


    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 I¡¯ve 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 isn¡¯t important. Why don¡¯t you hang out with other cow gods?¡±


    Moota sighs, ¡°I¡¯m 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 I¡¯m not trusted by the self-made beast gods. And because I¡¯m not <i>owned</i> by another god, the domestic beast gods don¡¯t ept me either. I only barely joined this coalition as it is, and even then they don¡¯t count me as one of them. After all, I¡¯m not an alchemist, it is just that my milk bes imbued with the essence of what I eat.¡±


    Doyle frowns, ¡°You can¡¯t 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 don¡¯t want me seen hanging out with normal animals. If I had an afterlife of my own, I could probably swing something, but I don¡¯t. 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 wouldn¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t look up but answers that, ¡°No, they don¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t needed though. As long as they are a simr enough species all it takes is someone preaching at them.¡±


    ¡°Though they don¡¯t provide all that much faith. In fact, even if they worship me and I had an afterlife, they wouldn¡¯t 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. That¡¯s also the reason they have to be of a simr species. Without being closely rted, a beast god can¡¯t 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 shouldn¡¯t 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 can¡¯t worship that god, the provided blessing will prevent the spread of a beast god¡¯s religion. And I don¡¯t 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 weren¡¯t 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.¡±


    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 won¡¯t be one of them. They have an independent streak and won¡¯t be putting their faith in some mysterious outside power.¡±


    Moota tilts her head to the side, ¡°If they aren¡¯t 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. Won¡¯t they drop it once they get told about that?¡±


    Doyle chuckles at her worries, ¡°They won¡¯t have someonee by and surprise them with this info.¡±


    Moota and Ally frown at this, but he holds up a hand and exins, ¡°It won¡¯t 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 can¡¯t 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 can¡¯t 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, ¡°Don¡¯t 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 aren¡¯t 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 won¡¯t be a problem. Though that is just the beginning. I¡¯m 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 can¡¯t 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 wouldn¡¯t 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 don¡¯t know why.¡±


    Doyle shrugs, ¡°To be honest? I don¡¯t quite understand it myself either. Despite not being the best at connecting with others, I like to help people. It doesn¡¯te up often, but here we are. Also, I suspect Ally wouldn¡¯t forgive me if I didn¡¯t help you. Though don¡¯t think this is for free. I¡¯m still going to be getting everything I can out of our deal. You won¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t even a rule, so screw it. I guess to start I can just admit we didn¡¯t know who you are. In fact, if you never destroy another vial and I don¡¯t 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 don¡¯t 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 don¡¯t trust them to reimburse me fully.¡±


    Doyle nods, ¡°So they provided the bare minimum and required you pay for anything more? I¡¯m 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 let¡¯s put our heads together to figure out the best way to deal with this.¡±


    ¡°I have a few things I want to get, and I¡¯m 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.¡±

 Three Special Potions – Chapter 96

    Moota sighs, ¡°Even if you are a dungeon, what can you provide me I couldn¡¯t get elsewhere? And more cow worshippers is nice but that settlement won¡¯t move the needle.¡±


    Doyle smiles, ¡°I can give you the world! By which I mean I will eventually have floorsrge enough to count as at least small worlds. At the moment, I am locked down as a goat dungeon. They are my bread and butter. Don¡¯t think that will change either. Had a run in with the concept of goats that locked that in.¡±


    ¡°That however doesn¡¯t stop me from having cows. Now I¡¯m sure the normal dungeon monsters won¡¯t do much for you. They aren¡¯t real. However, arge part of my goats are just off to the side of my floor in pastures. I assume that once my monsters are able to breed, they are real enough to worship. Part of what I want in the first ce is cows to add to my dungeon.¡±


    ¡°Like I said, I have goats. At the moment I there is one of my goats set up for adventurers to milk, but I¡¯m going to be honest. In this world, cow milk is what everyone has gotten used to. Plus, you¡¯re an alchemy cow. I¡¯m sure with your blessing and the cows eating herbs I can provide some interesting products.¡±


    Moota shrugs, ¡°I don¡¯t even need to give you actual cows. Once we make the deal, I can dump the pattern for a variety of cows of level five and below into you. In fact, now that I remember that is a possibility, I can do the same with a few higher quality potions. Though by higher quality, I mean mid-ranked and only in a new world like this. In the greater universe they would more qualify as peak of low rank.¡±


    ¡°The difference is because with better techniques and more in depth training, a low rank alchemist can make them. Without those advantages, it takes a more advanced alchemist to brew. I just have them because of how my species works.¡±


    Then Moota frowns, ¡°Though I don¡¯t know if a dungeon monster can worship a god. In theory, it should work once they can breed? I know enough worlds get repopted by dungeons. A core is one of the more durable species even against world killing events. And at least under the system in this dimension any surviving cores get low level species pushed on them to help with it.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ve heard that in other dimensions that either have a different system or no system at all, you can find countless worlds overrun by a single species. Without the variety our system provides, that is what happens. You can see it in this dimension, though on moons or simr small ster bodies. The system just doesn¡¯t feel a need to add variety to those ces. Plus all the variety in the heavens won¡¯t help much on a so far out there is only ice or so close to a sun the surface is molten.¡±


    Ally ps, ¡°Interesting, but we can¡¯t be here all day to listen. I would like to hear more, so maybe I can get your number. It would be nice to have someone new to talk to.¡±


    Moota smiles, ¡°I¡¯m sure the both of you have enough on your hands out there. A dungeon next to a developing settlement? Things must change on a weekly basis! But yeah, we need to get the details hammered out.¡±


    ¡°To head towards that, let mey out what potions I can provide. There are healing potions of the three primary specialties. Coagnt, mending, and regeneration. An absolutely silly amount of antidotes for every non-magical poison or venom and even a few minor magical types. Cure disease potions and like the antidotes, there are variants for all non-magical options and a few minor magical diseases. Resistance potions because being able to hold a fire in your hand is a great party trick.¡±


    ¡°Then of course there are all the misceneous potions. Want a potion that will hide you from the sense of mindless undead or normal animals? How about a potion that improves your ability to jump or climb a wall? There are an unlimited amount of potential low rank potions out there and I only have a few of them. Though even then <i>a few</i> doesn¡¯t mean a small number of them.¡±


    ¡°My favorites are the oils. Because we brew them in the same way and require the same knowledge, they count as potions. You don¡¯t want to drink them though. A popr one for low level adventurers is the oil of magic weapon. All it does is make your weapon count as being magical for a short while. That way you don¡¯t have to buy a magic weapon. Yet you won¡¯t be screwed when they meet something resistant to normal damage.¡±


    ¡°And of course every single one of those things I just listed has at least five variants. The gods in my coalition weren¡¯t expecting a dungeon. Give those potions to a regr alchemist and they might improve a recipe or two or maybe decipher one of them. You¡¯re just going to deconstruct them all and end up with a range of impossible potions in your dungeon.¡±


    ¡°Goodness, just the antidotes you¡¯ll be able to create alone would make the other gods pull their hair out. Sure most dungeons get that way. Time has a quality all of its own. A dungeon that lives long enough will gather many varieties of the same potion. If only because the surrounding mortals will develop new recipes and forget old ones given enough time.¡±


    Ally holds up a hand to stop her, ¡°Wait a second, impossible potions? If they exist how can they be impossible?¡±@@novelbin@@


    Mootaughs, ¡°Because of the arrogance of alchemist god association. This is another reason they hate me. I can produce the so-called impossible potions. Not like a dungeon can, but still. Anyway, an impossible potion is any potion they can¡¯t make with their godly powers and isn¡¯t a natural treasure.¡±


    Doyle frowns, ¡°Wouldn¡¯t your milk count as a natural treasure?¡±


    Moota sighs, ¡°It doesn¡¯t count because it can be controlled to an extent. So yeah, they get butt hurt when they can¡¯t reverse engineer a potion with their powers. Dungeons are a major sticking point for them because of this. You cores justbine simr potions into one super potion. Early on, they can still figure it out. After all,bining potions isn¡¯t a new thing. Any of the alchemy gods canbine three to five of them depending onplexity. Dungeons just throw it all together with no limits.¡±


    Ally shrugs, ¡°It makes sense. Dungeon touches on a deeper part of creation than a god can.¡±


    Mootaughs at this, ¡°Everyone knows that, but it doesn¡¯t mean they need to like it. At the very least, those in charge of the coalition believe they should haveplete control over everything rted to potions. Impossible potions aren¡¯t under their purview and that sticks in their craw.¡±


    Doyle nods, ¡°I can see that. If the stories my world has about gods are anywhere near true, then most of them are delusional about their own power.


    Rolling her eyes, Moota sighs, ¡°I wish I could tell you something different. Sadly, gods tend to get an inted sense of self worth and I don¡¯t see how you can prevent it. After all, they get their godhood through being worshipped. Me bing a god almost by ident is a very rare thing now, even on worlds like mine.¡±


    ¡°To be a god you need a few things. First, you need someone who has reached as high as they can. If a person can continue to gain power, why would they bother with the normal people? Some of them believe they reached the peak of what a mortal can do. Others believe they have reached some personal limit, a self-fulfilling prophecy if there ever was one.¡±


    ¡°Anyway, after that you need a person able to market themselves. This needs a specific type of person. The ssic quiet schr who has shut themselves away from the world to study won¡¯t be a god, or at least they won¡¯t on their own.¡±


    ¡°So that means you get people with a glib tongue and that thinks they reached the peak of mortal ability. They spread their names and with some time it proves their delusions as it raises them to godhood and the secrets of their craft are further opened to them.¡±


    Ally fake gags, ¡°Yeah, most gods are like the one guy back in the tutorial. The guy you called a jock. It is what you get when power is gained from poprity instead of actual ability. They aren¡¯t even that good at the whole poprity thing. The people who train in social skills tend not to be so obvious about it.¡±


    Moota shakes her head, ¡°Eh, even with that you get the slimeballs.¡±


    Doyle rubs the bridge of his nose. ¡°Okay, while it is interesting to listen to how much of a slimeball most gods are, once again can we get this done in a timely fashion? You both are going to share contact info. That means as much girl talk as you can stomach.¡±


    Ally looks annoyed at his interruption but Moota nods and gets back on track, ¡°Anyway, I¡¯veid out the basic potions I can provide. Now for some of my specialties. These aren¡¯t quite impossible potions, but they are my own special make. I can give you three of them because of some binding promises I made when joining my coalition.¡±


    ¡°The first is a coagnt. What is special about it is that it alsobines the effect of nulling most outside influences that would prevent it working. Get cursed so your wound bleeds forever? Have a poison that thins the blood? Struck by a weapon that prevents healing? My potion can cure what ails you and stop the bleeding dead. Of course this isn¡¯t perfect. With enough power, the bleeding effect will keep it at bay. But more importantly, it won¡¯t be able to fix things that aren¡¯t on the bleeding person. For example, if there¡¯s a magical effect on thend that causes wounds to bleed more, my potion will only be as effective as a normal coagnt.¡±


    ¡°The next potiones from my earliest days. The people of my world would feed me the closest thing to magical herbs to me, whatever they may be. This resulted in a so-called cure all. Take all the mostmon tribal medicines and pack it into one potion after cutting the effectiveness in half. The other gods jokingly call it the minor cure all, and I¡¯ve rolled with it. Cheap to make and it will take care of things like themon cold and minor aches and pain. I¡¯ve found healers love it because the potion lets them focus their healing magic on those with actual problems.¡±


    ¡°Finally, I have a real oddball potion. Once again popr with healers, but it is not cheap to make. It uses some ingredients that are very much illegal in almost every world. What it does is solve a problem all low level healing spells have. The problem that once a wound has healed your body can lock in the new body state. Break an arm and have it heal crooked? You¡¯re going to need to get someone powerful to heal it.¡±


    ¡°My potion goes in and dissolves the area that has healed wrong, while resetting your body¡¯s image of itself. This means it will heal scars and fix that crooked arm I talked about. I haven¡¯t ever given this potion to the coalition. Thank goodness the old fools want to keep their own secrets, so don¡¯t require anyone to divulge their own.¡±


    ¡°Of course, such a nifty potion doesn¡¯te without downside. If a person has gotten any voluntary modifications, those will also dissolve away. I¡¯ve called it the pauper¡¯s fix. After all, not only would a person with money be able to afford healing in the first ce, but they are also the ones most likely to be modified.¡±

 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 isn¡¯t 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 won¡¯t do anything because that is their new body.¡±


    ¡°The rich won¡¯t 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. They¡¯ve been <i>keeping the bloodline pure</i> for so long every generation will have some problem. Magic of course can fix so many problems, and even if it can¡¯t, any of the gods based around nobility can. This is only temporary, as even if they can fix the gic mess, nature isn¡¯t too keen on such a break in the natural order.¡±


    ¡°These herbs used in my pauper¡¯s 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 doesn¡¯t 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. Pauper¡¯s 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, ¡°Pauper¡¯s fix sounds nice enough, but it sounds more like a potion you created instead of a natural result. You¡¯ve said already you are not an actual alchemist, so what¡¯s 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. I¡¯ve mostly used this to assure that when I eat poison, the result will be an antidote. Still, pauper¡¯s 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 wouldn¡¯t be impossible to make.¡±


    ¡°And that is another reason I find the coalition¡¯s 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 aren¡¯t willing to try.¡±


    Doyle nods, ¡°So how do you know when it became possible to brew? If you don¡¯t know alchemy, that doesn¡¯t make sense.¡±


    Moota shrugs, ¡°I shouldn¡¯t call it ack of alchemy knowledge. That is just what the other gods tell me, and I shouldn¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t 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, ¡°What¡¯s so funny about this? Her situation isn¡¯t aughing matter!¡±


    Doyle rubs his face and tries to get theughter under control. Still, it takes a few moments before he can answer. ¡°I¡¯ve 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 isn¡¯t. That isn¡¯t what it is doing. My guess is it shows up in their character sheet as the skill¡¯s 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?¡±@@novelbin@@


    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 don¡¯t provide all the effects an increased stat would provide? And it doesn¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t 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 couldn¡¯t before and reverse engineer stuff they have experience with.¡±


    ¡°They won¡¯t 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 they¡¯ve reached the peak of their skill when they are just trying to improve on something they didn¡¯t even understand.¡±


    Ally frowns, ¡°How would that even work? Like, gods aren¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t 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 don¡¯t 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 don¡¯t 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 don¡¯t 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 aren¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t exactly safe to know.¡±


    Doyleughs at this, ¡°The knowledge itself isn¡¯t 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 couldn¡¯t do anything about it?¡±


    ¡°The system isn¡¯t our friend. It isn¡¯t 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, that¡¯s more like it.¡±


    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, you¡¯re also sworn to secrecy.¡±


    Ally frowns, ¡°We aren¡¯t providing all that much, are we?¡±


    Mootaughs, ¡°You¡¯re providing something. This isn¡¯t 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.¡±

 Goat Licks Cow God – Chapter 98

    Doyle shrugs, ¡°I¡¯m sure someone has figured out the secret and let someone else try it first. Though that doesn¡¯t matter to either of us all that much. Now is there anything special we need to do for this oath or does it go into effect once we all agree to it?¡±


    Allyughs, ¡°It would be a little unfair if just agreeing put into ce a binding agreement like this.¡±


    Moota nods, ¡°Yeah, we need to all agree those terms are fair and then with some intent agree to the oath. Now to get it started, I agree to those terms.¡±


    Doyle sighs, ¡°That is still way too simple. Though I agree to the terms.¡±


    Ally rolls her eyes, ¡°It might seem easy, but that is because we have a god and a dungeon core in on this. Normal people need oath magic or some intense rituals going on for it to work. But yeah, I agree to the terms.¡±


    In front of the three of them, a system screen pops up.


    {Do you swear to keep the Oath?}


    Doyle raises an eyebrow, ¡°Short and sweet, though it gets the point across. [I swear to keep the oath.]¡±@@novelbin@@


    Ally nods, ¡°[I to swear to keep the oath.]¡±


    Moota pokes the message, ¡°Would it hurt the system to put up a summary of the oath? Meh, whatever. I¡¯ve done this enough to know what to expect. [I swear to keep the oath.]¡±


    And with that the screen fades away and a sense of some piece of their soul being locked down. Moota rolls her shoulders, ¡°Yeah, never going to get used to that feeling. Now let¡¯s get out of here so I can pass on the patterns.¡±


    With her wanting to leave the meeting room, a system message pops up for Doyle asking if he would like to finish the meeting. Not having anything else to do here, he agrees to close out the meeting. The system doesn¡¯t waste any time and everyone is thrown out, back to their bodies.


    Back in his core, Doyle takes a moment to get situated. Having a body, even if only for a moment, threw him for a bit of a loop. Still, he recovers and selects the option to let Moota into the dungeon. Though he wondered what would happen if he had re-selected the safe meeting option again. Then the system interrupts him by asking where he wants her to be ced.


    Outside of his dungeon, a portal opens up in the void and draws Moota in, depositing her next to a pregnant goat in Doyle¡¯s second floor goat farm. Not seeing anyone around, she shrugs and sits down. The goat looks over at her and licks her hair. Not finding anything wrong or tasty, the goat goes back to munching on the grass.


    While this is happening Doyle and Ally are a little stumped on what to do. The group they had been following was still on the third floor, and now Ally needed to get to the second floor. With how maze-like the floor is, it wouldn¡¯t be a problem. She could go a side route to get out and once in the goat farm she would be safe.


    Doyle shakes his core, ¡®I need to put in some secret passageways so you can get around the floors even when busy.¡¯


    Ally nods, ¡®Yeah, that is amon enough thing for dungeons to do. But now that I think about it, we don¡¯t need to do any of that right now. Tell her to shrink down to my size and then teleport her to my room.¡¯


    Doyle¡¯s core dims, ¡®Wait, I can teleport people around?¡¯


    Ally shrugs, ¡®Sure, you have portals. You just can¡¯t set up new portals when an invader is on a floor. Because of your oath with Moota she no longer counts as an invader so we can portal her in.¡¯


    Doyle tilts to the side, ¡®Why would the oath make her no longer be an invader? We didn¡¯t swear to be friends or anything. Also, how would we put up a portal on this side?¡¯


    Ally waggles her finger, ¡®Remember, while we didn¡¯t say it, what was our intent behind the oath? It was to work together. Now, since it wasn¡¯t said out loud, the oath won¡¯t stop us from fighting. It will however prevent senseless violence. This means you will be safe as long as we don¡¯t disagree enough to trigger a fight. As for setting up the portal on this side? You have more leeway in the core room. If someone was in the core room, it would limit you.¡¯


    Doyle nods, ¡®Fair enough,¡¯ and he turns his attention to Moota. ¡®Hey Moota, if you shrink down to Ally¡¯s size I will open a portal to her room.¡¯


    Back in the goat farm, Moota is petting the goat when he interrupts her. With a shrug, she shrinks down and walks through the portal that opens up in front of her. On the other side is a stone room. The walls are stone, the decorations are stone, even the bed is stone.


    Moota turns to Ally, ¡°Isn¡¯t that bed ufortable?¡±


    Doyle dims, ¡®Yeah, you said nothing about stuff being stone, now that I think about it. We even have fabric and stuff now I could pad it with.¡¯


    Ally shrugs, ¡°Eh, I¡¯m like a druid in their home forest. No matter how cold or hot. No matter how soft or hard. As long as I am in the dungeon, wherever I am is asfortable to rest on as the fluffiest bed at the perfect temperature. Convenient as I can justze around however I want and nothing will cramp up or go to sleep on me. I don¡¯t even have to eat as the dungeon sustains me.¡±


    Moota frowns, ¡°That doesn¡¯t mean you shouldn¡¯t have an actual bed to sleep on.¡±


    Doyle agrees with her, ¡®Not only should she have a proper bed, she will have one. Bam, there it is.¡¯ And deconstructs the stone bed before recing it with a wood and wool one.


    Moota nods, ¡°Much better. Now I can¡¯t say much about your decorations. It looks like you haven¡¯t been here long enough to get any knick knacks. I am sure with the various victories the two of you will decorate it with trophies and such.¡±


    Ally crosses her arms and frowns, ¡°Nice having a choice about it.¡±


    Doyleughs, ¡®You had the choice when we got clothes in the database. Since you didn¡¯t speak up on preferring it please just ept it. If what you said is true, this changes nothing. A proper bed will make me feel better, so even if it means nothing to you, can we do it for me?¡¯


    Ally throws her arms up, ¡°Fine, whatever. It doesn¡¯t even matter. I don¡¯t know why you both are making such a fuss over it.¡±


    Moota raises an eyebrow, ¡°Because we care?¡±


    Ally rolls her eyes, ¡°Moving on then, we should figure out what Doyle¡¯s message to the settlement should say. Cows showing up out of nowhere isn¡¯t the mostmon thing, even with magic.¡±


    Moota nods, ¡°I want to hear how you n to get them to let the cows worship me.¡±


    Doyleughs, ¡®Honestly, it is stupid simple. We just tell them exactly what the benefits are for them worshiping a farm god aspared to the cows worshiping you. No tricks, no subterfuge, just the straight unvarnished truth. You increase milk production, bulls can sniff out rare herbs, and calves have growth protection along with disease protection. Oh, and of course the fact worshiping you increase the chance of the cows evolving and gaining sentience.¡¯


    ¡®I don¡¯t think either of you realize how much video games prated my world¡¯s culture and what that means. We have video games for everything. Dungeon crawling, empire founding, space exploration, and most important for this is the farming game. More specifically, there are several games that focus on raising monsters.¡¯


    ¡®There are people that spent thousands of hours raising slimes. You tell them that using a farming god¡¯s blessing will lower the chance of the cows evolving and they will be yours. In fact, the only bit of annoyance that coulde of this is they might harass you to connect them with other livestock based gods.¡¯


    Moota frowns, ¡°That is odd. Even in the more advanced worlds, they don¡¯t seem to go too hard on that sort of thing.¡±


    Doyle sighs, ¡®My world can¡¯t be unique about this. That would just be silly with how big the universe is. Like, besides the more farming based games, we also have monster training games where the goal is to improve tamed monsters and get them to evolve. And now that I mention it, that seems like a more direct example. Even so, we have two different genres of video games that cover the subject.¡¯


    Ally shakes her head, ¡°While monster taming is popr it goes in two directions. Either the army build or one to three soul bound monsters.¡±


    Moota nods, ¡°If a tamer is going for an army, they aren¡¯t trying to improve the individual monster. Instead, they use the army to gain control of stronger monsters that they then add to their army. This style of taming is a noble¡¯s pastime because the cost in food and the area to keep the monsters when not in use will skyrocket.¡±


    ¡°A pack of wolves is easy enough to take care of if you have a forest to keep them in. A pack of fire wolves needs either a fire attuned area or constant fires going. Even a noble won¡¯t want one of those fire wolves to evolve into something like a raging fire wolf because the requirements ramp up from there. In fact, the reason nobles even bother with it is that the lower range of monsters are cheaper to raise then an actual army of the same level.¡±


    Ally continues, ¡°And the soul bound monsters? First is that the name is a bit of a misnomer. You can¡¯t bind a sapient monster. What it refers to is binding the monster¡¯s body with a wisp of your own soul. You do this by cursing the monster, then killing it. The body will disintegrate and enter the tamer¡¯s body. From then on, the tamer can summon out an avatar of the monster. This is like how sapient monsters work in a dungeon except that because the only thing stored is the body, it can¡¯t learn. While the body can improve and evolve, it is limited by the tamer¡¯s own body.¡±


    ¡°The monster¡¯s body stat total can¡¯t be more than the tamer¡¯s body stat total. While even the poor can use this method you tend to find bad knights using this method as it gives them the <i>perfect</i> mount. Perfect because no matter how many times it dies on them, they can just re-summon it. The real perfect mount is a sapient monster who can be a brother in arms with their own paths.¡±


    ¡°Anyone that can keep their mount alive will avoid this because the monsterck a mind. You can control it like a limb, but you miss out on even a normal horse¡¯s ability to avoid troubles. It has its uses, but remember how I said they would have one to three bound monsters? The stat total limit is cumtive. So if someone had tens across the board, they could either have a monster with 30 points across their body stats or three with ten a piece. Now three isn¡¯t a hard limit either, but for 99 percent of people their body can¡¯t handle more.¡±

 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, ¡®That¡¯s 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 isn¡¯t 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 don¡¯t 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 don¡¯t 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 don¡¯t have the best ability to observe them, the general sentiment is, they aren¡¯t 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 aren¡¯t we? Just because that is the only way you know of doesn¡¯t mean that is the only way. You aren¡¯t 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 don¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t 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 don¡¯t have much experience with this. Though I know a god can bless one or two crafters, granting exemry abilities in a skill.¡±


    Doyle sighs, ¡®That¡¯s even worse! If it is only one or two per a god who gets this divine inspiration, I have to guess they don¡¯t 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 can¡¯t improve either. Only the most sensible ones who don¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t at the core of who they are.¡¯@@novelbin@@


    ¡®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. I¡¯m 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, we¡¯ve been going on about this for a while and I don¡¯t think there is any bottom to this hole in sight. The people on my third floor look like they are about to leave, and I¡¯m 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, I¡¯ll transfer the patterns into your core. Though don¡¯t be disappointed. I¡¯m only transferring up to level five cow patterns. That means you won¡¯t 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 dungeon¡¯s 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 hadn¡¯t let the kobold mage get off their big spell. This still didn¡¯t stop the kobold from contributing as it turns out fighting an earth mage in a stone tunnel isn¡¯t 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 wasn¡¯t 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 don¡¯t know if I will keeping along on these trips if we do them this often. At the very least, I can¡¯t 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 Ally¡¯s room, growing to human size as she falls. She looks around and nods, ¡°Well, I guess it isn¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t 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 I¡¯ll ever be. My instincts are going haywire having you in the room itself. I guess when you were up in Ally¡¯s room it counted as having her in between you and me.¡¯


    Moota tilts her head to the side, ¡°Huh, that¡¯s a weird one. Then again, instincts aren¡¯t known to be the most flexible of things, especially when they are literally carved into you. Well, let¡¯s get started. This should only take a minute or two.¡± And with that, she walks over and ces her palm on Doyle¡¯s core.


    Over the next three minutes, a steady stream of information flows into Doyle¡¯s 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


    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}

 And Now Some Potions – Chapter 100

    Doyle takes a moment to recover before shaking his core and sighing. ¡®Welp, that always knocks me for a ringer. Still, I¡¯m uncertain if that is a lot of cow patterns or a few. On one hand, that was probably enough patterns that I won¡¯t get a random one for my next floor. On the other hand, I¡¯m certain what you gave me isn¡¯t even scratching the surface.¡¯


    Moota shrugs, ¡°I put in as much as I could. I¡¯m actually surprised that you got the aquatic one even. You don¡¯t have anyrge bodies of water or anything. Though arge part of it also has to do with the fact many of the stranger variants getpacted down into archetypes. For instance, you got the ashen cattle. That is a stand in for every cattle type that mixes fire and earth. You could have a desert cow, a cow that lived near a volcano, or even cattle a person heavily aligned with fire has raised.¡±


    ¡°If you get any cows to bepletely aligned with fire, you would get fiery cattle. So yeah, there are a variety of cattle, but the system chunks them together. To get a new pattern, something strange has to happen to them. I¡¯m impressed you got both the cattle and the dungeon cattle pattern. Generally, a core would get only the dungeon specific one. Though this probably has to do with you raising your goats instead of spawning them in. Now I¡¯ve been talking your ears off for a while, so I really should get going. The other gods will expect me back and I need to set up the cows for the settlement out there.¡±


    Doyle nods, ¡®Fair enough, will the cows show up right away or are you just going to be guiding some to the settlement?¡¯


    Mootaughs, ¡°I wish I could just poof cows around like that. While I do have some ability to move them around, it isn¡¯t quite teleportation.¡±


    After a few more goodbyes, Moota teleports away. With her gone Doyle rxes and sighs, ¡®Well that was stressful. Also, I just realized. What about the potions?¡¯


    Ally shakes her head, ¡®She really threw you off bnce didn¡¯t she?¡¯


    Doyle¡¯s core wobbles, ¡®Bleh, I haven¡¯t ever been the biggest fan of being social and she very much is the kind of person that drains my batteries.¡¯


    Allyughs and points at the back left corner of the core room. Up against the wall are sevenrge stacks and three fancy bottles of various potions. ¡®She pulled them out of a storage device. Pretty fancy model as well, since it let her ce them directly over there all piled up. Now absorb them all so we can see how much of a haul this is!¡¯


    Doyle shakes his core, ¡®First I want to check on the messages I got when I absorbed the vial. A few things popped up, but I pushed them to the side. Seeing as I found out I was dealing with a god, I felt it more prudent to just not know whatever it was telling me.¡¯


    Ally shrugs, ¡®I don¡¯t think much nonsense can happen in one of those system provided rooms, but that isn¡¯t a bad idea. Now what does it say?¡¯


    Doyle rolls his core, ¡®Just let me pull it up.¡¯


    {Divine energy interference detected with Deconstruction


    Multiple pseudo-divine signatures woven into enchantments on vial


    Deconstruction level too low to analyze demigod powers


    Deconstruction level too low to analyze demigod powers


    ...


    Deconstruction level too low to analyze demigod powers


    Pseudo-divine powers analyzed enough to separate from enchantments


    Acquired Preservation [lv12] enchantment


    Acquired Unbreaking [lv12] enchantment


    Acquired Tiny World Energy Gathering [lv14] array


    Divine signature found protecting hidden enchantment


    Deconstruction level too low to analyze god powers


    Divine energy surge detected on hidden enchantment


    Hidden enchantment destroyed by divine energy


    ss pattern acquired at lv27


    Vial pattern acquired at lv27}


    Doyle just stares at the results and goes, ¡®Huh¡¯.


    Ally shakes her head, ¡®Well. That¡¯s a thing¡¯


    Doyle nods, ¡®Very much a thing. Do you have any clues into what type of thing it is, though?¡¯


    Ally frowns, ¡®I might have an idea. Let me take a quick look at your skills real quick.¡¯ And she pulls up one of the windows she had hidden at some point.


    {Skills [5/5 ss, 2/5+1 General]: Territory Control lv15 > 19, Dungeon Rules lv19, Universal Deconstruction lv10 > 27, Dungeon Pattern Database lv17 > 28, Creation(Energy Powered, Pattern Based) lv21, Conceptual Reinforcement lv24, Biosphere Bncing lv7 > 16}


    Seeing the jumps in skill level, she smiles. ¡®I can¡¯t be one hundred percent certain, but I¡¯m close to it. When the vial was resisting you, it was helping you train your deconstruction skill. At first there was just some power left by a few demigods keeping you out. While you still can¡¯t do anything about their power at level 27, your skill could separate their power from the enchantments protecting the vial.¡¯


    ¡®However, after you got the three more normal things on the vial, there was an enchantment protected by a full god¡¯s power. Beyond that, there was a self-destruct mechanism built into it. So not only didn¡¯t you get the enchantment, likely the one to improve stuff. But it destroyed itself when it detected your attempt.¡¯


    ¡®Now those vials are high quality work. Both the material and the design. Chances are the limit on the pattern level you could get from the vial was more on the side of your deconstruction skill instead of the object. If deconstruction had been level 100, you would have gotten the patterns at level 100. Honestly? This is a convenient boost that in a more developed world you wouldn¡¯t need. All the patterns you knew came from the system or pre-system stuff.¡¯


    ¡®If you had spawned on even a backwater world that had been in the system for at least a hundred years, you would already have patterns in the fifties. You just get nothing to test the limits of your skills. In fact, now that you have a high level pattern, you should be able to grind out a higher level of creation as well. Level 27 still isn¡¯t in the territory of energies bing a part of the materials structure, but there should be some interesting techniques used to make the vials.¡¯


    Doyle nods, ¡®Okay, that makes some sense. I can¡¯t learn something that I can¡¯t detect. Now how about those enchantments and the array? What¡¯s the level attached to them because it isn¡¯t like a pattern¡¯s level.¡¯


    Ally smiles, ¡®While the quality of an array or enchantment can affect it, that doesn¡¯t matter for a dungeon. You aren¡¯t carving out the design with a chisel. Instead, what matters to you is the quality of the design itself and you can¡¯t improve that through practice. For you, it just shows the upper bounds of the effect. For instance, the preservation enchantment there only works on material and products created with a skill level of 12 or below. That is a little low, but I¡¯m guessing they tailor what level of vial they send out depending on who is summoning it.¡¯


    ¡®Now that energy gathering array there is of a higher level. The reason for that is it should be what was powering all the enchantments on the vial, including the one you couldn¡¯t get. At level 14, it wouldn¡¯t havested more than a year before the vial would stop working. They¡¯ve really cheaped out on these vials. I would more expect you to not be able to get the pattern for them rather than them being so low level. Though it would exin why they bothered obfuscating them with the divine stuff.¡¯


    Doyle dims, ¡®That doesn¡¯t seem like it would work too well. Like, what if someone with a high skill level creates a simple item? His level is high, but he could make the item at a lower level. Plus, what about things like art? I don¡¯t see how being a better painter would make a person¡¯s painting any different when ites to preserving.¡¯


    Ally nods, ¡®I can see why it would seem that way and it is partly my fault. More properly, it takes a lot of things into ount. For instance, your question about art? At low levels, a preservation spell works more like putting the work into a good case. Higher levels will bring more to the table because art is a lot deeper than you think.¡¯


    ¡®In fact, you should have already known this. Just look at your skill, conceptual reinforcement. While you are a bit special, the core of it is using art to bring concepts into reality. Now here in your dungeon you don¡¯t have to worry about what you create. People need to worry about things like that fading with time. Preserving a painting would be worthless if you couldn¡¯t keep the painting¡¯s mystical side intact.¡¯


    ¡®And of course a lower level enchantment will wear out faster. A historically valuable painting might be kept in a very high tier preservation case even if the art was drawn without skill. Though I will admit there is a lot of wiggle room involved in this. The system likes to put numbers on everything, but even the true immortals admit not everything works that way. For this specifically you can query the system if an item will be preserved or not.¡¯


    ¡®Oh, and preservation can be an array as well. The key thing about it is what you want preserved goes inside the array or enchanted item. You have a case enchanted with preservation that you put stuff in. Something about the effect prevents it protecting the item directly enchanted. If you try to stack preservation with multiple containers, it just takes the highest level of preservation.¡¯


    Doyle nods, ¡®And unbreaking is one of those straightforward enchants. This makes more sense, and I can now see how it probably works. Though I think the using levels gimmick is all nonsense but that is neither here nor there. I¡¯m going to deconstruct all those potions and it looks like she was kind enough to have them packed in normal bottles.¡¯


    With a thought, Doyle activates deconstruction and sweeps over the piles of potions. Everything works fine until thest three. The special so-called impossible potions that Moota provided. While nowhere near as annoying as with the alchemist vials, there is still a slight dy. Though this feels less like when he was fighting the vial and more like trying to eat too much at once. Still, they all get absorbed and a nice list pops up for Doyle to check.


    {Coagnt potion pattern acquired at lv27@@novelbin@@


    Flesh Mending potion pattern acquired at lv27


    Regeneration potion pattern acquired at lv27


    Healing potion pattern derived from Coagnt, Flesh Mending, and Regeneration potion at lv27


    Antidote potion pattern acquired at lv27


    Potion of Cure Disease pattern acquired at lv27


    Potion of Fire Resistance pattern acquired at lv27


    Potion of Cold Resistance pattern acquired at lv27


    Potion of Wind Resistance pattern acquired at lv27


    Potion of Poison Resistance pattern acquired at lv27


    Potion of Lightning Resistance pattern acquired at lv27


    Potion of Thunder Resistance pattern acquired at lv27


    Potion of Blunt Trauma Resistance pattern acquired at lv27


    Potion of Stab Resistance pattern acquired at lv27


    Potion of Cut Resistance pattern acquired at lv27


    Potion of Climbing pattern acquired at lv27


    Potion of Jumping pattern acquired at lv27


    Potion of Invisibility to Animals pattern acquired at lv27


    Potion of Invisibility to non-sapient Undead pattern acquired at lv27


    Oil of Magic Weapon pattern acquired at lv27


    Oil of Silver Weapon pattern acquired at lv27


    Moota¡¯s Coagnt pattern acquired at lv27


    Minor Cure All acquired at lv27


    Pauper¡¯s Fix acquired at lv27


    Potion and Oil patterns consolidated into Potion patterns lv30}


    Doyle nods, ¡®That is a few potions. Though once again a little underwhelmingpared to what I expected. While the main types are well represented, I was hoping for more of those misceneous potions.¡¯

 Some Paths – Chapter 101

    Ally shrugs, ¡®misceneous potions wouldn¡¯t 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? You¡¯ve fallen behind the curve on that kind of thing. For a dungeon that isn¡¯t too important, but it still isn¡¯t fun to hear. Now though, you¡¯ve shot a head on two of your skills and creation shouldn¡¯t 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! I¡¯m excited to see what options are now avable after all that nonsense.¡¯


    Doyle dims his core, ¡®Shouldn¡¯t 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, Earth¡¯s 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, Fire¡¯s 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 doesn¡¯t 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, ¡®I¡¯ve made one deal so far and I don¡¯t 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 I¡¯m thinking the border, elemental animals, and of course potion dispensary. Sort of sad that I can¡¯t afford all the potions as that path sounds interesting, but you can¡¯t have everything. Still, I am somewhat surprised I don¡¯t have more options for the assassin vines. I¡¯ve 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 doesn¡¯t grab me.¡¯@@novelbin@@


    Ally rolls her eyes, ¡®Unless it does something unrted to increasing the size of your dungeon, there isn¡¯t 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 I¡¯ve done so far. In fact, I¡¯d 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 haven¡¯t 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 shouldn¡¯t 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. I¡¯m 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, ¡®I¡¯m going to grab cows for milk.¡¯


    Ally raises an eyebrow, ¡®Any particr reason why?¡¯


    Doyle bobbles, ¡®I. Hmm, I just. You know what? I don¡¯t really have a reason. I¡¯m 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 don¡¯t 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 can¡¯t think of a reason you shouldn¡¯t 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 didn¡¯t bother doing this before because it didn¡¯t happen all that often but this is like the third time today.¡¯


    The system¡¯s output pauses and then asks {Restart Message?}


    Doyle sighs, ¡®[Yes, restart the message, but start at the patterns. Don¡¯t 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?¡¯


    Allyughs at Doyle¡¯s 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 won¡¯t 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 hadn¡¯t 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 human¡¯s 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 don¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t help them with the actual weight but rather keeps together the thing you want to lift to some extent.¡¯


    ¡®Anyway, I¡¯ve gone on about this side bit long enough. How about we resume the path messages? We aren¡¯t 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, I¡¯m 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 isn¡¯t all that much in the grand scheme of things. If you hadn¡¯t gathered any till now, this would be enough to get your fourth floor. That isn¡¯t 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, I¡¯m 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 wasn¡¯t 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 <i>normal</i> 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, I¡¯m excited about potion dispensary and the milk path. I know, plus ten in the long run isn¡¯t all that much. However, the ability to spike a caster¡¯s 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, I¡¯ve had two loot drops and one of them wasn¡¯t 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 don¡¯t 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 won¡¯t 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 who¡¯s poption will be equal to or greater than the poption of the original poption of both the old towns. The only reason people haven¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t 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 don¡¯t 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 aren¡¯t wearing proper armor and what not. Though we don¡¯t 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.¡¯


    ¡®Don¡¯t 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 we¡¯ve 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.¡¯


    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 won¡¯t die. Beyond that, you¡¯re 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 don¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t 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 won¡¯t 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 that¡¯s just cheating! Good thing I get to take advantage of it. Though I guess this exins why you aren¡¯t too rushed. Still, I don¡¯t want to take chances. If this is my period of growth, I want to take full advantage of it.¡¯


    Ally shakes her head, ¡®It isn¡¯t 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 won¡¯t matter as much once you have ten or so floors.¡¯


    ¡®Though since you are on track to get your first boss floor soon, I can¡¯t wait to see what nonsense you get for it. I assume with what you¡¯ve done until now it will give you a choice between a kobold boss or a goat boss.¡¯


    Doyle dims, ¡®Don¡¯t I get to make my own choice on what bes my boss monster?¡¯@@novelbin@@


    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 don¡¯t think this is purely to make sure you don¡¯t 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 don¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t going to make itself.¡¯

 Final Stat Description – Chapter 103

    Doyle starts with his change on the first floor. More so because there isn¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t 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 won¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t 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?¡¯@@novelbin@@


    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 isn¡¯t 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 settlement¡¯s development.¡¯


    Doyle rolls his core but turns back to his second floor. With the information, he doesn¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t want to give some super milk on his second floor, anyway. ¡®Hopefully the settlement didn¡¯t notice how good the goat¡¯s 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 can¡¯t 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 won¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t equip the cow or anything because he hasn¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t anything to change at the moment.¡¯


    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.¡¯


    Doyle¡¯s core dims, and he nces outside, only to find she is telling the truth. ¡®Where did the time go? It didn¡¯t feel like it took that long.¡¯


    Ally shrugs, ¡®There wasn¡¯t anything happening and you aren¡¯t 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. I¡¯ve 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 one¡¯s mind. Your race¡¯s 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, ¡®You¡¯re right, the description has <i>and five points allows for dungeon-wide loot rules </i>added to it. Though now that I am looking at wisdom, it reminds me I still haven¡¯t checked presence. Let¡¯s check it now.¡¯


    {Presence: A mind¡¯s specialty is projecting. Your race has turned what for most is an external stat into an internal one. This represents a core¡¯s 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 isn¡¯t too descriptive. It doesn¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t work on sapients. We didn¡¯t 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 don¡¯t have any yet, the description doesn¡¯t 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 aren¡¯t in the same room as my core. How does that work?¡¯


    Ally pauses as the non sequitur washes over her and thenughs. ¡®You don¡¯t pay much attention to my room, do you?¡¯


    Doyle bobbles, ¡®Well, it is your room. I¡¯m 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. You¡¯ve 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 Jeremy¡¯s talk?¡¯


    Ally nods, ¡®We might finally see some other people around here. Ace has been sending out scouts to watch for Jan¡¯s return. While there haven¡¯t 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 don¡¯t know why, but hearing that more people will be around makes me ecstatic.¡¯


    Ally shrugs, ¡®You¡¯re 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 can¡¯t 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 don¡¯t care that I¡¯m a murder cave but it still doesn¡¯t 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 you¡¯re still a sapient being with control of yourself.¡¯

 Setting Up More Loot – Chapter 104

    Doyle nods, ¡®Fair enough. Though I guess with that figured out I should get back to updating my drops.¡¯


    Ally waves her hand, ¡®You have a bit of time before the next groupes in so take your time. I¡¯m just going to be here reading some news if you need me for anything.¡¯


    Doyle tilts to the side, ¡®Reading some news? Where is thating from?¡¯


    Ally shrugs, ¡®While the system cut me off during the tutorial, that isn¡¯t the case anymore. Not that I can talk to anyone else. Your is still being cut off from the rest of the universe, but I can receive things. For instance, the eastern dragons just had a big win over the western dragons. When one of the rare reptile controlleds ended up being ruled by serpents instead of lizards. With how humans pop up everywhere in this dimension, such a is a rare sight and now they have another world to recruit from.¡¯


    Doyle nods, ¡®That sounds interesting, if disconnected from our current situation. Anyway, I¡¯m going to mess with the drops.¡¯


    He turns his attention away Ally and focuses on his first floor once again. Few drops exist on the floor, and Doyle wants to change that. Especially since the settlement ns to feed his dungeon with trash. He needs to have something for them to receive if they are to keep doing so.


    In the first room Doyle attaches wooden shields to each of the goats as loot. In the vine room he makes the second kobolds dagger loot as well, and the goats get to drop goat leather slings. In the next two rooms he gives out a full set of leather gear and a shield to the five normal goats, one each. And to the leveled up group leader goat, he hands out a bronze mace.


    In the final goat room there are nine of the critters, so he has to add a bit more on. For the leveled up goat he gives a wand along with the horned helmet it already had. Then the rest of the goats get all the defense gear, a mace, dagger, and a silver coin. After that, the rest of the floor is mostly taken care of. Though Doyle does make all the helmets worn by the leader¡¯s goats into loot as well.


    However, as he is about to move onto the second floor, he remembers the potions. Now for the first floor he doesn¡¯t want them to be toomon, so drops a minor cure all on the healer kobold. Then counter to his just stated goal of making potions not all thatmon, he ces a small bronze cauldron on a campfire for the healer to brew with. Though that is mostly for the juicy plus ten to intelligence that will give the caster. Maybe it will be able to keep the other kobolds on their feet now. But thatst addition well and proper finishes the floor.


    On the second floor Doyle starts with the two assassin kobolds and he makes their daggers into loot. Next he looks at the goatherds and their charges. On the first floor he has already divvied out a bunch of gear so doesn¡¯t want to do quite the same thing here. Besides, with hisst pass through he had made this floor the money floor, so why stop?


    To the goatherds he adds an extra silver coin and an antidote potion. Then the goats get three coppers each before he turns to the axebeaks. ¡®Welp, I can¡¯t help it¡¯, And he throws an axe at each of them for loot. After that, he makes all the clubs and slings loot for the kobolds in the ramp room.


    Thest room is just as easy, only requiring him to turn the goat helmets into loot. Though he does once again adds some potions to the kobolds. The lone goatherd gets the same treatment as the previous two, and the wizards receive one of each normal healing potion. Though he does fiddle around with it so they can only drop one at a time. That way there is a random chance to get coagnt, flesh mending, or a regen potion, but not multiple from the same mage.


    Onto the third floor, Doyle tosses ten coppers to each of the assassin vines and a chance at a random piece of leather gear. On the sprouts he can¡¯t imagine them having much loot but decides to get a little fancy with them. Instead of giving loot to the group, he sets it so each individual sprout has a couple copper as loot.


    That leaves the mining groups to gear up with loot. Some of it was already taken care of, but Doyle decides to follow how he has been handing out potions. That means the goatherds get antidote potions and the earth mages get an interesting mix. Instead of healing though, Doyle goes for a more random mix of climbing, jumping, invisibility to animals, and oil of magic weapon. To wrap it up, he makes a few more pieces of gear into loot and tosses a silver each earthen cow.


    Finished, Doyle takes a step back and sighs, ¡®The loot is now worth way more than the actual monsters by far. I don¡¯t even want to calcte it. In fact, how did I afford it all?¡¯


    He turns to look outside, and it is well past midday. Besides that, he can tell the settlement has gone into overdrive in diving the first floor. Both to loot coins and dump any random trash they have. This constant influx of adventurers being the only reason he could continue his work on the lower floors.@@novelbin@@


    Ally in her room notices that Doyle¡¯s core has started to move again, so she ps her hands to get his attention. ¡®You back? I know that I said you would get into the flow, but I expected you to wake up when people started diving again.¡¯


    Doyle rolls his core, ¡®They¡¯re only diving the first floor. Even when I only had one floor, it didn¡¯t feel like my dungeon proper. Now did anyone get a real loot drop?¡¯

 You Can’t Decide – Chapter 105

    Ally shrugs, ¡®Even with you weighing everything down with loot, that doesn¡¯t 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 don¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t include ants and such as being able to drop stuff or it might have gotten a bit ridiculous. Not that I wouldn¡¯t 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.¡¯@@novelbin@@


    Doyle tilts back and sighs, ¡®Well I guess it is good to know how broad the loot rules are. Anything else happening? It¡¯s 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, ¡®That¡¯s because the people from upriver are visiting.¡¯


    Normally Doyle¡¯s 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 didn¡¯t 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 Jack¡¯s bronze greaves and Sammy¡¯s 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 Doyle¡¯s 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 <i>convinced</i> the idiots to retell their story, we confirmed yours. I won¡¯t say I¡¯m 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 don¡¯t say they are hiding inside, we¡¯ve 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 won¡¯t 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 won¡¯t 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 won¡¯t 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 don¡¯t 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 don¡¯t 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 team¡¯s 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 isn¡¯t big enough yet for multiple parties to dive at one time. To be honest? Since you brought this up, I¡¯m 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 hadn¡¯t set up a proper defense.¡±


    Thedy scoffs, ¡°We could have taken you! I just don¡¯t 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 couldn¡¯t?¡±


    Thedy crosses her arms, ¡°It isn¡¯t just us! Our town has thousands of people in it. You take us out and no matter how good you guys are, you¡¯re doomed.¡±


    Ace rolls his eyes, ¡°The world¡¯s 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. We¡¯ve 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 wouldn¡¯t 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 you¡¯re going to grow a force that canpare to us without a dungeon?¡±


    Thedy snorts, ¡°And who says we don¡¯t have a dungeon?¡±


    Ace shakes his head, ¡°If you had a dungeon already, you wouldn¡¯t be so weak. If you had a dungeon already, you wouldn¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t some matter of life and death. Can¡¯t you be civilized?¡±


    Jimughs at this. ¡°You think he isn¡¯t trying to keep things civilized? Fighting overnd and resources is one hallmark of civilization. Plus, while our leader there doesn¡¯t want to drag this out in the open, you don¡¯t have the power to decide on if you¡¯re going to fight us! Otherwise we wouldn¡¯t 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 wouldn¡¯t 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 don¡¯t need to ask Ben if you¡¯re allowed to say that?¡±


    Thedy turns with a stomp, ¡°And you can shut up!¡±


    The girl rolls her eyes, ¡°Okay everybody, pack up! We¡¯re 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, ¡°You¡¯re in charge because of your pre-system rtionship with Ben. He understands what you are like yet still lets youe out here because it wasn¡¯t expected that we would find a situation like this. Even if they weren¡¯t 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.¡±


    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. I¡¯m 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 aren¡¯t 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.

 What Jan Bought – Chapter 106

    A short whileter everyone in the settlement has gathered. Ace looks around at the group and sighs. ¡°It looks like we might need to speed up our growth.¡±


    Kelly shakes her head, ¡°We are already going as fast as we should. Any faster could jeopardize our foundation. Really, we should slow down! If it wasn¡¯t for the third floor¡¯s metal ore, I would suggest we limit ourselves to the first floor. With how low the levels are there, our experience rates would plummet and push towards the money we need for the system anchor. That is the thing I am most afraid of with those people. They im to have thousands of people. Even if they only have a single k of people, each would only need to chip in ten copper to buy one.¡±


    Kyle raises his hand to gather everyone¡¯s attention. ¡°This seems like a good point to update everyone on this issue. I have been collecting up all the coins and am happy to report that counting all the copper and silver coins together adds up to 2,585 coppers¡¯ worth. Just over a quarter of the way there.¡±


    Ace frowns, ¡°That is a lot more than I expected. What happened?¡±


    Kyle nods, ¡°I understand your caution, but most of thises from my efforts. While the thugs had decent control over both the towns. They could not stop people from doing minor quests provided by the system stores. Most of those quests provided small amounts of copper as a reward.¡±


    ¡°Once the thugs fell, and we set up the new settlement, people saw little use for their coins. That, of course, is a stupid view. The system is here to stay and its coins are recognized as having inherent worth everywhere else. Not recognizing it would be like living in a small country and not recognizing the dor.¡±


    ¡°I put out the word that I was collecting them and was willing to trade for small things. Ironically, Jan can be thanked as the biggest provider of coins. Right before they left, she gathered all the remaining coppers from her group. Then she handed them all over to me in exchange for a bunch of pre-system stuff for the trip.¡±


    Ace nods, ¡°Good job on that. What things did she want? I can¡¯t think of much she would need for her group.¡±


    Kyleughs and shakes his head. ¡°You still want to think she can¡¯t be that bad. What she bought from me at a ridiculously mark up was scented soaps and other toiletries. Not for the group, but for herself. I asked around and apparently she was iming the coins she gathered were a part of the deal to gain the pre-system armor.¡±


    ¡°Anyway, that only ounts for 1,394 of the coppers, of which 924 came from Jan. The other 1,191 coins are from dungeon diving. At first the dungeon was dropping mostly meat, but as time has gone on more and more coins are dropping. At this point even the horned rabbits and other such creatures are dropping them. Of those thousand and change coins, well over two thirds of them have dropped in thest week. Luckily the food drop rate hasn¡¯t dropped by too much. Going by the current drop rate, we should be able to afford the system anchor within a month.¡±


    Ace sighs, ¡°Any way to speed that up?¡±


    Kyle shrugs, ¡°The second floor. At the moment, most of the harvesters stick to the first floor. While thest fight on the second floor is a little tough, everyone is perfectly capable of fighting through the smaller rooms. Not that they can¡¯t fight through the rest of the room, it just isn¡¯t quick to do and farming a dungeon is about speed.¡±


    Ace rubs the bridge of his nose, ¡°How much faster?¡±


    Kyle smiles, ¡°Despite there being fewer monsters to kill in, they drop a lot more. Just hitting up the small rooms should triple our coin collection speed. What was a month toplete would be shortened to between a week and a week and a half. Of course this depends on luck, but I would pin it on the shorter end.¡±


    Ace smiles, ¡°You hear that everyone? I don¡¯t want a single delver to turn back until they beat the first half of the second floor.¡± Then he frowns, ¡°Don¡¯t take this as an invitation to be stupid though! If anyone gets hurt you turn back, no questions asked. Now Jimmy, do you need to do any prep to set up the town center? What things do we need to do with it?¡±


    Jimmy coughs and steps forward, ¡°The system anchor just needs a building to take over. This is quite literal by the by. We will lose all control over the building, including the ability to renovate or remove it. It is possible to do soter on, but it will cost a pretty penny to do so.¡±


    ¡°As for what we will need to be doing in the building? Part of why it needs a system anchor is the fact we won¡¯t have to do anything besides use it. Since it will only be a town center, the ce will be run by system based non-sapient AIs. If we upgrade to a city center and our world graduates from being coddled by the system? There will be actual people certed by the system working the counters. With that all in mind, I say we just put up a decent building outside the current wall in line with the dungeon entrance.¡±


    Kelly interrupts him at this point. ¡°Who can enter a town center? What tasks are done there? Also, how much control do we have over it and how does it decide who is in control of the town if it even does such a thing?¡±


    Jimmy frowns as looks up and considers the questions. ¡°There can be restricted areas, but that doesn¡¯t prevent someone from entering it. Rather, people will be alerted when someone does so. An example the skill gave me was when a town leader made their own house into the center. They set up a foyer for system stuff while they restrict the house proper. This does double duty of keeping most people out and alerting the leader to unskilled burrs. As for who is in charge of a town? That is decided by the people who live there when the center is set up.¡±


    Ace had been looking off into the distance, but when he hears thatst bit he jerks his head back towards Jimmy. ¡°How does it decide who lives there? Does it consider Jan and her people as still living here? If not, how long would they have to be living here before they count again?¡±


    Jimmy squints his eyes before they go wide in shock. ¡°Yeah, that could have been bad. Luckily, them abandoning the settlement in a time of need means they aren¡¯t members anymore. Outside of that, the rules are a bit flexible until we set up the town center. For instance, if we have proper homes and they are only in tents, it may or may not count them as refugees.¡±


    ¡°Once we have the center up, whoever is in charge of immigration can decide on the rules for joining the town. That includes all kinds of silly restrictions based on almost anything under the sun. Besides that, you can have multiple levels of being a citizen. The only catch is after a couple of each the restrictions and ranks cost money to implement. Luckily, if all we want to do is separate us from them, it won¡¯t cost anything. An inner circle of citizens is easy enough to set up.¡±


    Ace nods, ¡°That¡¯s good to hear. Now you talked about how the people in control are decided. What form of government does it require?¡±


    Jimmy shrugs, ¡°How do you want to rule? While the rules of joining a town are restricted, even if only by cash. Who is in control and how is pretty open. Of course, since towns tend to be set up by someone, that person or group of people tend to elect themselves as the rulers. The othermon power structure is a council of elders. While I respect democracy, our secrets are too heavy to let someone not in the know rule us.¡±


    Doctor sighs, ¡°I¡¯ve served in several ces ruled by fools that believed themselves to be god among men. Now we live in a world where the gods are truly among us men. Who knew that I would one day stand against what I considered vital to amunity? We need full control of the area around the dungeon and the only way to do that is make everyone else second-ss citizens to us.¡±


    ¡°We already have the ten founders. We can make them the current rulers with one of them voted by the others as the head. My only problem is how to deal with things past our own generation? At the moment, we trust everyone here. That can¡¯t always be true. Even if we pass our positions down personally, that could lead to snakes and brown nosers getting into the position.¡±


    Ace shrugs, ¡°One thing another important founder from history once said has always stuck with me. I can¡¯t remember the exact quote, but the sentiment was that the rules should be torn down every once in a while and redone. At the moment we are trying to duct tape everything together. In a decade or maybe even just next year, the situation will have changed. I say whatever rules for leadership we make right now are for this year alone. After that, the council expands to include all core citizens and new rules can be decided then.¡±@@novelbin@@


    Jim raises his hand, though what attracts everyone¡¯s attention is the awkward look on his face. ¡°So uh, no one has probably thought about this, but we will probably end up as a n. We all share a heavy secret that can¡¯t be shared with an outsider, even if they are a significant other. Not only that, but we will have all gone through many hair raising events together. Chances are we¡¯ll end up findingfort with one another. Give us a few generations and all core members might be part of one family.¡±


    Many of the others end up looking just as awkward, but Susan steps forward and breaks the moment. ¡°Well, I¡¯ve got my part covered!¡±


    The rest of the group has a chuckle before she continues. ¡°So I agree with him, but there is one detail beyond that which we are missing. There are literal gods and immortals out there. Now I¡¯m not saying we will all end up that way. However, if there are immortals, then I¡¯m willing to bet our lifespan isn¡¯t as limited as we might assume. A million years from now we might be sitting around a table in a pceughing about how short sighted we were right now.¡±


    ¡°Ace¡¯s idea of a year trial period is good. But we need to keep in mind that while we might be dead tomorrow, we also might be alive to see the sun die. I can see it now, uncountable years in the future. We all are standing here with our much extended families looking up as the sun slowly expands and then we file into the dungeon. Who knows how many years we live within it till one day the gate out shows a whole new world to explore.¡±


    Ace rubs his eyes, ¡°Thanks for reminding me of that. Not like I was trying to put such long term things out of mind so I could focus on the now. Anyway, it seems like we agree on all of us being core citizens and the founders are provisional leaders with an elected head.¡±

 About Recharge Bonuses – Chapter 107

    Doyle turns to Ally after having watched the settlement¡¯s meeting and asks, ¡®Can they do that?¡¯


    Ally shrugs, ¡®Well, if they live long enough to be here when the sun goes kablooey there is nothing stopping them. Of course, there are all sorts of caveats like them deciding to not leave. At the moment they feel trapped on the, but well before that time people should be able to just abandon ship.¡¯


    Doyle levels his core and does a good impression of a stare. ¡®You forget why they are going to try so hard to keep charge of my dungeon entrance. I never really got a good feel for it, but how rare is my energy well again?¡¯


    Ally grimaces, ¡®Rare-ish? It depends on how your energy well works. All it said was that sapients get an increased recharge rate. It gave you a static increase, but that doesn¡¯t say much about others. It might be as simple as plus one an hour. It could instead be either a scaling bonus or even rarer a percentile increase.¡¯


    ¡®A static plus? Semi-rare for an area, but only good for the low levels. You can easily get equipment that does this, though the price for any passive recharge is always much more than someone who needs it can afford. Basically, rich ns will have such a bauble for their top talents. The other two on the other hand are near impossible to find, even for powerful groups. They are extra important for people of all levels.¡¯


    Doyle tilts to the side, ¡®What is the difference between scaling and percentile? Also, could you find a ce that gave a sillyrge static bonus?¡¯


    Ally nods, ¡®Thatst question? Easy enough to find, but not as useful as you would think. Mostly because if the static bonus exceeds a person¡¯s natural recharge, it can damage them. In fact, at a big enough of a difference, people will just explode. If your energy well gives a static plus one, it is safe. Even if someone doesn¡¯t have a recharge rate, a single point is low enough that at most it will strain them a little.¡¯


    ¡®I, I suspect your path doesn¡¯t provide a static bonus. And I guess I should rephrase it when I say a static bonus is buyable with cash. What I am referring to is when an item or ce gives a plus one to mana regen or a plus one to qi regen. You give a t bonus to all energy types, which is why I don¡¯t think it is static. After all, not all energy types are made equal. How crazy would it be if someone could get plus one to quintessence regen? Not that anyone besides another dungeon and the system are likely to have quintessence, but the point stands.¡¯


    ¡®My guess is that you provide a scaling bonus, though a little different from most cases. Which brings us to your first question. What is the difference? Percentile is easy enough to exin and debunk on your path providing. An example of such a bonus would be one percent to mana regen. That means that for someone with a mana pool that can contain 100 mana, that bonus would let you recharge an extra point of mana.¡¯


    ¡®This is the rarest type of bonus, and you won¡¯t ever find one. Why? Because for someone with 100 mana, it doesn¡¯t mean all that much. For those with thousands of levels and over a million mana, this bonus suddenly provides more mana recharge than that guy with 100 mana has by more than a magnitude. Even an item with a percent of a percent recharge bonus will draw out the oldest beings in the universe. Moremon though not by much are items that provide a percentile bonus based on your recharge rate, which while less powerful is just as silly on high level beings.¡¯


    ¡®This is not the type of bonus that energy well provides. They wouldn¡¯t have noticed it yet if you did. The chances of someone in the settlement having enough of any energy type to be able to get a per an hour bonus is non existent. Plus, I have never heard of any location providing this type of bonus. There are two known items with this type of bonus in the entire universe at the moment and not even my mom has a hope to see them.¡¯


    ¡®Sure there are some percentile items out there with caps on the recharge rate, but people don¡¯t count them. If the recharge per an hour is capped at 100, then people call it a finicky plus 100 item. The only real use is to give to young geniuses as the percent provide tends to be much higher.¡¯


    ¡®Anyway, the other type is scaling. This is a much broader category, so I¡¯m only going to go over what you probably have. Your path is likely providing a static bonus that increases based level. So say at level one to nine it provides a plus one. Then from level ten to some higher number it gives plus two. Step by step it increases, but there are limits and is never a direct connection.¡¯


    ¡®Still very rare to find though, as once again, it doesn¡¯t count if there is an upper limit. They are not, however, fought over by the super powerful. The number of known scaling items is much higher, in the hundreds of thousands. Beyond that, there are locations that provide a scaling bonus as well. Much fewer of course and lining up with your situation as most of the locations are around dungeons. Though they tend to be limited to ten or less power types, I would have to guess any unlimited areas like your dungeon are the secret ones.¡¯


    ¡®My bet is you have the mostmon scaling regen rate. Plus one at level one, plus ten at level ten, plus 100 at level 100, and so on. Powerful when you are close to the break point, but it quickly loses its shine. Especially when you can buy a ring of plus 200 to mana regen for less than a ring that scales. Locations are more important though, as it provides this bonus to arge number of people. One more mana an hour to youths first learning magic is super important. Especially when it goes up to ten.¡¯


    Doyle nods, ¡®Another info dump there. Was that tutorial driven?¡¯


    Allyughs, ¡®This one was all me! Or I guess I should say mostly me. I might have searched up a few encyclopedia entries on the subject recently. There isn¡¯t exactly going to be tutorial entries on such niche subjects.¡¯@@novelbin@@


    Doyle sighs, ¡®I could understand it with the tutorial entries. But please, be a little more sinct? I feel like half of what you say to me is an info dump.¡¯


    Ally shrugs, ¡®You just keep asking for info so info I give. Anyway, you¡¯ve done the drops, so are you going to work on your next floor?¡¯


    Doyle rolls his core, ¡®Not much else to do at the moment.¡¯


    Ally rests her chin on her hands and leans forward, ¡®So what design are you going for? You now have ess to the stone and wind wolves on it after all.¡¯


    Doyle rolls back, ¡®While I was never one for making too many friends, I wasn¡¯t always so lonely. Sometimes you can join a group by osmosis. I hung out at a local game shop for card games and such. For a while there was a group of pen and paper roleyers that would run their campaign at the shop. Because they did it between the two tournaments I would y in that gave me a chance to hang around them and watch.¡¯


    ¡®Long story short, they invited me after a while. And a while after I was able to run a couple of sessions. The favorite thing I did was a wolf cave. Instead of a bunch of encounters, it was a running battle. The yers had to make their way through the wolves¡¯ den while constantly being attacked. Not giving them a chance to rest. I want a simr experience on the fourth floor. Not a tough floor, but a tiring floor. After all, number five is going to be the boss floor. Have to make them sweat a little for it.¡¯


    Ally frowns, ¡®How do you n to make them move around instead of bunkering down?¡¯


    Doyle tilts to the side, ¡®Well I can¡¯t <i>force</i> them to move, but I can encourage them. Overall, I y fair. More than fair, really. In fact, I keep making the floors easier. So what happens if I don¡¯t keep the gloves on? Though I have one question. I can¡¯t remember if I asked this before, but can I change where drops, well, drop? Can I make it so whatever would be dropped instead appears in a treasure chest?¡¯


    Ally shrugs, ¡®There are some limits but as long as you have it drop in an essible ce you should be fine. About the only problem with your running battle idea is that if you spawn the chest at the end, they can¡¯t really reach it. At least not fairly. The system doesn¡¯t always take kindly to that kind of trickery.¡¯


    Doyle shakes his core and scoffs, ¡®Just having a chest at the end of the floor is too simple. The entrance room and the room before the core will be safe rooms. Once a team enters the floor proper, everything they kill goes on their tally and a chest will spawn when they once again enter one of the two safe rooms. At least that is how I n for it to work.¡¯


    Ally frowns as she thinks it over. ¡®That could work. Since a party can always elect to retreat to retrieve a fight¡¯s loot, I don¡¯t see why it wouldn¡¯t. Though if there is the possibility to always retreat to the safe room that doesn¡¯t exactly scream forcing them forward.¡¯


    Doyle brightens, ¡®They might just try that, but they would lose out. Now I don¡¯t have all that much control over the real loot. However, I get the feeling the same isn¡¯t true for regr drops and the coins. I¡¯m going to make it so the more they fight continuously, the more they get with a nice bonus forpleting the floor in one go.¡¯


    ¡®Sure, I can¡¯t force them to do it. Hell, it will take them noticing the increase in rewards before it even urs to them. But still, once the settlement notices? Then we will be good. Anyone capable of fighting on the fourth floor should be able to continue through at least a few non-stop fights. And you know what this will me? A whole lot of energy! All that effort to continue pushing forward at a decent clip will be able to offset the increased rewards. Or at least I n to make it so the increased rewards do scale with that.¡¯


    ¡®The only thing is that the fourth floor will be one of the more boring ones. After all, just wolves to fight? Not much variety there, even including the two elemental wolves. There isn¡¯t even all that much room for other stuff. I can¡¯t exactly add herbs when picking them would be counter to the point of the floor. Well I could, it just wouldn¡¯t be fair or at the very least cause annoying backtracking.¡¯


    Ally shrugs, ¡®You can just add the herbs as a part of your wolve¡¯s drop table. Besides that, you don¡¯t need to be stuck with only wolves. The stone wolves are big enough tofortably seat a kobold on. Too bad we didn¡¯t get one of those dire wolves.¡¯


    Doyle tilts to the side, ¡®Yeah, that could work. If anything, the stone wolves can shape their rocky exterior to provide a better seating arrangement for the kobolds. Too bad I don¡¯t have spears for the kobolds to wield.¡¯


    Allyughs, ¡®What is a spear if not a pointy stick? Sure you might face some troubles if you wanted a proper metal tip on it, but you should be fine for an extrarge toothpick.¡¯


    Doyle brightens, ¡®I thought I had to absorb a weapon to be able to make it?¡¯


    Ally shrugs, ¡®Not particrly. There is just a limit when ites to gaining a pattern. You can turn out simple wooden spears from dawn till dusk and the system won¡¯t care. You would have to personally improve them to get something better than a level one spear. It is like your attempt at a pick. Not bad, but if you keep working on it, you might eventually get a pick pattern. Though the thing holding you back is the fact you don¡¯t actually make the things. You aren¡¯t smithing metal or carving wood. Forming something whole cloth or using your territory to shape it makes the system a lot less likely to give you the pattern for it.¡¯


    Doyle sighs, ¡®Fair enough.¡¯

 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 floor¡¯s 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 I¡¯ve paid back less than half a percent of a point. Though I guess that isn¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t 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, didn¡¯t 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 wouldn¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t particrly matter. All I know is you aren¡¯t 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 didn¡¯t know about the debt, the system wouldn¡¯t even pay part of it off. Can¡¯t be cheap to run the system work. Anyway, [System, show me and Ally what you mean by random upgrade.]¡¯


    {<b>Random </b>elemental monster upgrade purchasable for 2000we


    Random: A monster type is chosen at random from a <b>list</b> 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 let¡¯s 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@@novelbin@@


    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 don¡¯t 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 don¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t 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 don¡¯t 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. Doesn¡¯t 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 aren¡¯t 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 don¡¯t know. The system isn¡¯t telling me anything, and it isn¡¯t 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, that¡¯s a thing. Guess I will need to figure the lights out on my own. Not that I don¡¯t 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 don¡¯t 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.¡¯


    ¡®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, I¡¯m 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 don¡¯t 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. Let¡¯s 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, didn¡¯t 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 don¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t 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 haven¡¯t I been getting the pattern for all the rest of the stuff I¡¯ve done?¡¯@@novelbin@@


    ¡®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 didn¡¯t 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, isn¡¯t 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 don¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t 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 won¡¯tin about it and instead settles down to figure out how he wants the wolves to attack.


    As the dungeon stands, he isn¡¯t 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 can¡¯t 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 can¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t 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.


    ¡®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 wouldn¡¯t be a terrible decision. You¡¯re going to need toplete it at some point anyway, so why not now?¡¯

 What About The Spawned Items – Chapter 110

    Doyle sighs, ¡®I really don¡¯t 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 hadn¡¯t closed yet. ¡®Okay, I have 29 constitution at the moment so one goes in there. Other than that, nothing stands out. Since I¡¯m 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 wasn¡¯t expecting that. Hey Ally! Check this out, I have some questions.¡¯ and he shares the screen with her.


    Ally takes a look, ¡®That¡¯s handy. Except for the change to kobolds, none of this gives you something you couldn¡¯t 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 don¡¯t 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 wouldn¡¯t see it. For instance, your pattern will still be called kobold.¡¯


    ¡®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 didn¡¯t 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 didn¡¯t 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 don¡¯tpletely 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 can¡¯t get to it ever. Once set as such you somehow portion off a section so when adventurers are delving the floor proper it doesn¡¯t prevent you from doing stuff in the farm zone. More useful because this means the rapid breeding and growth doesn¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t change the cost to summon them, but that isn¡¯t really the point.¡¯


    ¡®Now the downsides to this. First, the reason they only count as a tenth is that they aren¡¯t 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 can¡¯t 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 can¡¯t 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 won¡¯t 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 monster¡¯s 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 won¡¯t 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 aren¡¯t 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 dungeon¡¯s 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 don¡¯t 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.¡¯


    Doyle¡¯s core dims as he thinks about this revtion. ¡®Yeah, I¡¯m not exactly all that happy about that, but I can understand the need. Can¡¯t 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 haven¡¯t noticed yet, but when your rooms move around, they don¡¯t perfectly seal up the connection points. At the moment the gaps aren¡¯t 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 aren¡¯tmon 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, isn¡¯t all that big. In fact, a coin te is only twice the size of a coin. Oh, and they¡¯re square. An important detail, I guess, though at twice the size I would hope everyone can figure it out.¡¯@@novelbin@@


    Doyle rolls his core, ¡®If I had to guess, size doesn¡¯t mean everything. Like you can¡¯t expect a fairy small enough to sit on a human¡¯s finger to handle human sized coins. You also can¡¯t expect some giant to fumble around with coins that might as well be dust. Likely a coin¡¯s 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 isn¡¯t like I would have seen it. Being human sized is almost like a sign of nobility to start with. The only reason I¡¯m 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, wouldn¡¯t you? It would make some sense. The bigger you are, the more energy you can hold. Of course, that isn¡¯t how things shake out for the fae. Most fae are small things with the bigger onesing up to an adult human¡¯s 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 can¡¯t focus on controlling their size or if something is wrong with them. That doesn¡¯t mean there aren¡¯t 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 won¡¯t have a mind beyond base instincts. Not that they aren¡¯t 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, what¡¯s up with the coin costs? A copper costs me ten to put down, while a silver only costs 100 and gold 1000. That doesn¡¯t 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 silver¡¯s 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 aren¡¯t 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 can¡¯t just spawn coins and that seems odd to me.¡¯


    Ally rolls her eyes, ¡®Remember? The coins aren¡¯t 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 aren¡¯t actually money. As for why you can¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t anything you can turn into it. You¡¯re 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 don¡¯t 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 hadn¡¯t 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 I¡¯ve 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 doesn¡¯t 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. I¡¯m 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 <i>on </i>the fifth floor or <i>after</i> the fifth floor. Then again, if I remember correctly, Ally said I couldn¡¯t 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 don¡¯t 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 didn¡¯t even consider that I wouldn¡¯t 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 don¡¯t want gear on them. All the other floors have gear drops for days, but herbs are only harvestable before now. I don¡¯t want to dilute the loot table. Though I must admit, potions aren¡¯t exactly amon drop. Guess adding some thematic potions to them wouldn¡¯t be out of ce.¡¯


    ¡®Oh, and onest thing. I should be able to make a wood box. Another thing I don¡¯t 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 Doyle¡¯s core room he creates a long and narrow bit of wood with the center sunken in to form the box¡¯s 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 body¡¯s ridge to be the box¡¯s 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 body¡¯s 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 isn¡¯t really a good way to open the box up. In fact, since the lid is squared off on the hinge side, it can¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t 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 don¡¯t 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 I¡¯m 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 aren¡¯t any bigger than the coins. In fact, it seems like tes have sides the same length as the coin¡¯s diameter. Welp, better deconstruct all this stuff. I¡¯m especially interested in the strange dungeon stone because it definitely wasn¡¯t 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 stone¡¯s 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 stone¡¯s description. ¡®Well, the description goes a bit farther than Ally exined. I don¡¯t think she hid anything, but it does seem I can¡¯t 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, let¡¯s 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 didn¡¯t 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 don¡¯t know if a potential for five herbs dropping is overpowered or just right. I¡¯ll have to keep an eye on it to start. While giving people without harvesting skills a way to get the herbs is nice. I don¡¯t 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 don¡¯t 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 don¡¯t 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 aren¡¯t the beefiest boys, so healers are a must to keep theter encounters going. I¡¯m 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 I¡¯ve 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 don¡¯t quite live up to it, but I¡¯m going to refer to them as kobold knights from now on. Now that everything is in ce, let¡¯s 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 you¡¯re talking again, does that mean you¡¯re 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.


    Doyle¡¯s 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 you¡¯ve seen it?¡¯


    Ally scrolls around the map and nods. ¡®You¡¯ve 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 <i>concept</i> 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 I¡¯m 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 didn¡¯t 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. You¡¯re only going to be getting more things to use on a floor as time goes on. This won¡¯t 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 I¡¯m not careful, they can build up.¡¯@@novelbin@@


    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 don¡¯t 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 won¡¯t 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 box¡¯s 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 don¡¯t get any visitors, the ability to preserve all the meat they are pulling out of the dungeon would be a boon. Now if you don¡¯t mind, I want to finish thosest two things.¡¯


    Ally nods, ¡®Every little bit counts, and it isn¡¯t like I¡¯m 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 isn¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t 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 wasn¡¯t 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 can¡¯t hide the actual ambush locations, why not make them ignore them instead. Sure, such an odd effect will be noticed quickly enough, but that doesn¡¯t stop it from working. One of the joys thates with those, <i>I¡¯m not here, nothing important going on</i>, effects. What¡¯s 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. Let¡¯s 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.]¡¯

 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 I¡¯ll need to reveal one of my hidden cards. Though I¡¯m 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. I¡¯m not connected to some deeper fundamental truth or what have you.¡±


    ¡°If I can do this, others will as well. In fact, I¡¯m 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 I¡¯ve 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 can¡¯t 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 don¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t 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 can¡¯t forge a dagger? No, but they won¡¯t 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 don¡¯t 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 aren¡¯t 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, <i>even if you could</i> a moment ago. Because you can¡¯t, not really. After all, you¡¯ve already seen the system¡¯s 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.¡¯


    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 <i>carving</i> skill. For poor Jimmy, though, that won¡¯t be the case because he doesn¡¯t 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.¡¯@@novelbin@@


    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 aren¡¯t simply showing off at that point. You¡¯ve 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 you¡¯ve achieved.¡¯


    ¡®You don¡¯t 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 didn¡¯t lie about anything as far as I could tell, so this should be too much of a challenge. Jamie, take your hat off, we don¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t go far, but it has been growing longer. He rolls his eyes, ¡°Just because my psychic powers couldn¡¯t spy on what that Ace was saying before doesn¡¯t 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 I¡¯ve met able to do so is Ben, so it would add up.¡±


    Mr. Stansible shrugs, ¡°Well, we can¡¯t 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 haven¡¯t 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 let¡¯s 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 isn¡¯t quite paying all that much attention to them to start. Mostly because of Jamie¡¯s 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 hasn¡¯t 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, we¡¯ve already missed them fighting through the first few rooms, so lets refocus on them.¡¯

 Having Jamie Along Is Practically Cheating – Chapter 116

    Mr. Stansible stands toward the back of the group as one of the twodies is field stripping a goat with her kukri. The rest of the goats in the room start to fade away, but the one being worked on sticks around until she has finished with the current cut of meat. She packs the meat into a container. Mr. Stansible nods, ¡°So what is your opinion on the drops?¡±


    Thedy stands up and stretches before answering him. ¡°The monsters can of course drop things that aren¡¯t avable normally by just taking them apart. The couple of copper coins we¡¯veted are a good example of that. As for the food drops? That is a little more up in the air.¡±


    ¡°Of course, you can still let them fade away. That will leave behind a perfect portion of meat or hide. Though by perfect, I mean perfectly normal. This is a useful feature for any group that has over aggressive methods of attack. Roast the goat a little too much with a fireball? Just let the things drop through dungeon shenanigans, and suddenly you could have an unburnt hide. In fact, if you don¡¯t have the skill for butchering the monsters in the first ce, that is your only option.¡±


    ¡°Once you have the skill for it, though? You can get a lot more by harvesting it yourself. The downside as I¡¯ve already hinted at is that you get the drops in exactly the condition they were on the monsters. Used poison to kill the goat? Well now, the goat meat is poisoned.¡±


    ¡°There is another problem though, and I almost missed it. Using the skill normally costs some stamina. Here, though? To a certain point the skill worked like normal, but after that point the cost ramped up. My guess is it is free for as much of the monster as would have dropped normally. This isn¡¯t much of a problem right now. Harvesting these goats even with the increased cost is well within my ability. The problem is that more powerful monsters will probably cost proportionally more to harvest like this.¡±


    ¡°That and the fact that you can only grab as much time will allow, limits this sort of thing. My guess is that for this early on, they just focus on killing things faster for their food. Not only will that get them better quality food than some noobs hacking at the goats. It will also allow them to grow their skills faster.¡±


    Mr. Stansible sighs, ¡°If bone carving wasn¡¯t such a niche skill, this sort of thing would almost make me regret giving the book to them. Though give them a few years and they might corner the nicknacks market. Well, let¡¯s continue deeper. And remember, ¡± He starts to say.


    Jamie however interrupts him and mimics his voice, ¡°Safety is top priority.¡±@@novelbin@@


    The othersugh at this, as even Mr. Stansible can admit he has been saying that line way too much. Still, he holds up his hand, ¡°I know it¡¯s fun tough at me parroting that over and over. This doesn¡¯t change how important it is. I don¡¯t want a single missing limb when we leave. And that includes temporarily missing limbs. I know that we have the healing backup to reattach a recently removed thumb, but I will count having to resort to consumables like that as a failure.¡±


    The others nod and the group moves onto the next room. As their guide had called it, this was the big goat room. Inside of it are nine goats, with one being clearly much tougher than the others. Mr. Stansible stands back with Jamie as the others charge into the room.


    The Lady who did the butchering leads them with a long-handled axe. Hands gripped near the end of the weapon, she takes one more step forward and leans into a swing. The axe glows ocean blue as it cuts through the air and subsequently through the throats of two of the goats in the room. As the axe leaves the goats, a trail of blood is pulled along with it. Not just from momentum but from the axe literally drawing the blood out of them.


    Next to her a guy uses a pair of brass knuckles to st through another goat and on her other side what can only be described as a dude keeps his hand in his pockets as he kicks a goat. The final frontliner has a short spear that she thrusts to the sides, preventing nk attempts by the other goats.


    In the back row, Jamie is the first to finish preparing his ability. His horn glows and the higher level goat stops its charge and goes back to grazing. Next up is Mr. Stansible, who releases a white light. Across the room, three of the undamaged goats light up as well. However, unlike Mr. Stansible, the goats start to bleat in pain.


    It doesn¡¯t take long before the three goats fall over dead. Long enough though for the melee fighters to finish up their side of the fight. Then all that is left is the goat that Jamie has locked down. Perfect for thedy with the axe to finish it with her kukri. Even before it can finish twitching, she starts on skinning it. Luckily this counts as a single piece so she has all the time she needs to remove it all.


    She finishes up and nods, ¡°Okay, I think I have it figured out. Part of how the dungeon decides what is a single piece for harvesting is how long you pause. The first goat ended up fading away because I had stopped for too long when working on the hide. Also, levels or at least the increased stats thate with it will improve the base quality of the parts.¡±


    ¡°We are all going to need better quality weapons if we go too deep in the dungeon. At least for the goats and any other constitution heavy monsters. Though I guess weapons will scale some with strength. There will be a hard stop, eventually. It is already a bit hard to cut the hide. Too much more and we won¡¯t be able to pierce the goats skin and anymore than that will even have a chance to break our weapons.¡±


    Mr. Stansible grimaces, ¡°And that means that if their ims of tin and copper ore on the third floor is true, this dungeon will be even more important. We need our smiths to level up quickly to make the best use of whatever ore we can extract before they try to mp down on the export of the stuff.¡±


    The group moves onto the berry bush room and Mr. Stansible turns to look at Jamie. He smiles, ¡°Yeah, I can sense the kobolds and there is only one magic user. The healer is all the way to the back with one guard, while the other three kobolds are in the middle of the room.¡±


    Mr. Stansible nods, ¡°Then we should be able to take the group out without too much nning. Melee fighters go first, I¡¯ll run support, and Jamie can lock down the healer. In fact, Jamie goes first, I don¡¯t want the enemy to heal themselves. Now let¡¯s go.¡±


    Of course, with the n to let Jamie lock down the healer first, they don¡¯t literally start right away. Instead, the group waits for him to finish activating his psionic skill. Once that is fired off, the melee fighters enter the room with Mr. Stansible right behind them. Only Jamie is left back in the previous room as to lock down the enemy he himself can¡¯t move around either.


    Still, this is enough topletely upset the bnce of the fight. Without the healer providing even basic counter-spelling, Mr. Stansible can fire off multiple low powered spells without worry. Distracted by this the melee kobolds are unable to fend off the front lines charge.


    All thisbined results in the group clearing the room even faster than they had thest room. From there Jamie locks down the kobold leader and another easy victory is gained. The goats in thest room are just unable to show their true capabilities without the head kobold¡¯smands.


    With the floor finished, the melee guy with the brass knuckles stretches and yawns, ¡°Well, this floor was easy enough. Going by how they described it, I have to wonder if they are weak. After all, dungeons get harder with time, not easier.¡±


    Jamie shakes his head, ¡°They didn¡¯t lie about anything when describing the dungeon. I don¡¯t know why it would be so hard for them and not us, but they aren¡¯t weak.¡±


    The brass knuckles guy shrugs, ¡°Difficulty is subjective. What is easy for us might be hard for them. I figure we should be able to breeze through the first two floors, no problem. Only the whole earth mage thing on the third floor feels like it would cause us trouble.¡±


    The butcherdyughs, ¡°What is the point of arguing this? We will know what is up after we experience the floors for ourselves. This first floor is beyond easy, but maybe they judged the difficulty going by the second and third floor. If they can just walk through this floor, they might not count it as part of the challenge.¡±


    Mr. Stansible nods, ¡°And we have to keep in mind that we are all the top fighters from our settlement. They have less than fifty people total. Their im of the others leaving isn¡¯t a lie, but their belief of being the most powerful in their group might not be strictly true. While I trust their opinion of that healer, the real power behind them might have avoided showing off. But yeah, we¡¯ll know more once we actually finish this delve. Now let¡¯s go through the portal to the next floor.¡±


    With Mr. Stansible putting down his foot on the conversation, the group makes their way through to the second floor. Once there, Jamie nods to confirm the next room matches what they had been told. Knowing that the group moves right on through, putting down the knife kobolds before they can even attack. Unfortunate for the kobolds, but when your enemy can pinpoint your exact location, sneak attackspletelyck any power.


    As the group moves towards the first goatherd room Mr. Stansible nods toward Jamie, ¡°Anothermander type monster up ahead so I leave it to you.¡±


    And of course this decision makes the fight way too easy. Without a leader, the goats lose their buffs, not that the delvers notice this. Seeing as they haven¡¯t fought a goat beingmanded by another monster, this oversight is easy enough to understand. This idental countering of what could almost be seen as a coreponent of Doyle¡¯s tougher fights continues to warp their opinion of the settlement just outside.


    Even the axebeaks don¡¯t provide much of a challenge. Jamie really is about the best counter for everything in the dungeon. While he isn¡¯t able to freeze more than a single monster at once, it isn¡¯t hard for him to trip up the charging birds. They don¡¯t fall down, but the axebeaks lose their chance to build up speed. This leaves them with no chance against the party.


    It takes until the ramp room before they face any kind of real challenge. There are too many monsters for Jamie¡¯s lockdown to be of much use, and so the group actually has to fight. This still doesn¡¯t make it a tough fight. The monsters just end up attacking in small groups that allows the party to wipe them.


    Only the rocks being rained down by the sling kobolds cause any kind of real trouble. Even then, Mr. Stansible is given enough time to charge his magic attack. After a couple pirs of light to toast those ranged kobolds, the room gets cleared. Not the fastest time, but they aren¡¯t focused on speed either, so impressive.

 Potion Observation – Chapter 117

    The visiting delvers stand on the wooden tform just inside of the second floor¡¯s 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 isn¡¯t in the cards today. Plus, we don¡¯t have any method of getting through the cliff. Weird as it sounds they weren¡¯t lying when they told me the cliff won¡¯t 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 aren¡¯t exactly out of shape so we could end up climbing that thing for a long while.¡±


    The butcherdy shrugs, ¡°We aren¡¯t exactly harvesting the herbs we have found so far, anyway. We don¡¯t even have someone to harvest them in the first ce. I¡¯m 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 won¡¯t be the only time we delve the dungeon. Let¡¯s 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 don¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t 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 dude¡¯s clever use of his short spear and Jamie¡¯s use of his ability to freeze a goat for a moment. Enough that the monster can¡¯t move for less than a second, but not enough to require any build up of power.


    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. Stansible¡¯s group aren¡¯t a bunch of unblooded fools.


    Even if they hadn¡¯t expected this sort of result didn¡¯t mean they weren¡¯t 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 aren¡¯t 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 wasn¡¯t in the report.¡±


    The spear dude shrugs, ¡°Since we know they didn¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t 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 guy¡¯s 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 aren¡¯t sending both of you up. If we did that, neither of you would stop. You over there, you seem grounded enough. I¡¯ll 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 hadn¡¯t 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 aren¡¯t actually making any headway and our stats it will take you a good long while to start feeling tired. We don¡¯t 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, let¡¯s 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 doesn¡¯t 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 aren¡¯t 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 hadn¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t 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 didn¡¯t 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 wouldn¡¯t show itself, likely because we steamrolled the big fight so quickly. This was the perfect time to lure it out so that we wouldn¡¯t leave any danger behind us if we have to retreat. Now let¡¯s 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]¡±@@novelbin@@


    The potion glows and the cks of Mr. Stansible¡¯s 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 don¡¯t 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 you¡¯re 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 aren¡¯t. It isn¡¯t like the mind of a young animal or child though. Rather, there just isn¡¯t much of a mind and no chance of more being there. Really freaky if I¡¯m 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, can¡¯t forget that.¡±


    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 haven¡¯t done that yet.¡±


    Thedy with an axeughs, ¡°While I don¡¯t 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 don¡¯t 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 don¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t in the settlement itself. Though speaking of settlement, they really need to figure out a name for the ce. It isn¡¯t like they are the only settlement in the area! If they don¡¯t get around to it soon, they might end up with a name pushed on them from outside influences. While I don¡¯t n to give them a nickname most other people aren¡¯t going to be so kind. Even if they don¡¯t get a true nickname, that won¡¯t stop them from being <i>The Dungeon Settlement</i> 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 don¡¯t 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 aren¡¯t 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 wasn¡¯t 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 don¡¯t know what is above the rooms in that direction so the chance of a way up isn¡¯t 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 don¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t a way up. Now keep the chatter down, they might not be smart but that doesn¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t 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 aren¡¯t 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.¡±@@novelbin@@


    Thedy with an axe rolls her eyes, ¡°You know there is. They didn¡¯t lie about the situation, and it was clearly stated that the orees back. And even if it didn¡¯t, 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 doesn¡¯t even matter if there isn¡¯t 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 can¡¯t feel anything up there. Though that isn¡¯t a certain thing depending on how much of a mind the nt monster has.¡±


    The guy with brass knuckles shakes his head, ¡°It isn¡¯t a regr nt. Those things are nt <i>monsters</i>. 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? They¡¯re mobile creatures that n ambushes. I¡¯m 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 didn¡¯t end up screaming for help there isn¡¯t 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 aren¡¯t 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. Stansible¡¯s 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 isn¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t do friendly fire or it would have been much harder for him.


    Though the group soon finds out that it wouldn¡¯t 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 human¡¯s 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 didn¡¯t 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 couldn¡¯t react, couldn¡¯t 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 didn¡¯t 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 didn¡¯t consider them on our level, but they weren¡¯t weak by any means.¡±


    Susan steps out of the crowdughing, ¡°Oh boy. That guy¡¯s 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 hadn¡¯t fought any of the monsters without taking out the leader, so I don¡¯t think they noticed. Once the leader of a group is dead, the rest of the monsters lose some of their power and don¡¯t work together as well.¡±


    ¡°Now maybe you noticed that I said <i>almost</i> 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 don¡¯t have? The dead idiot scoffed at the idea and assumed a monster needs a mind.¡±@@novelbin@@


    ¡°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 wasn¡¯t 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 wasn¡¯t 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 aren¡¯t 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, here¡¯s the bone carving book.¡± Then everyone either went back to their jobs or gathered in the dungeon¡¯s 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 aren¡¯t even too strong. Should have rushed their con stat for that sweet regen if you¡¯re going to be so dumb.¡±


    Doyle lets her finishughing before he can ask, ¡®So what is up with the regen? I didn¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t regen regen. They won¡¯t be growing back an arm, well most of them won¡¯t be. Rather it more matches the idea you see in some of your world¡¯s rpgs where someone doesn¡¯t 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 person¡¯s will to live than any actual regeneration, but that is what shows up on the status panel, so that is what I¡¯m calling it.¡¯


    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 I¡¯m more interested in is the failed psionic. How does your world even have someone like that already?¡¯


    Doyle tilts to the side, ¡®Mostly certain we¡¯ve 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 haven¡¯t 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 don¡¯t 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 don¡¯t bother. A farmer whose family has been farmers for generations doesn¡¯t 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 you¡¯re 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 don¡¯t need to test for because they are pretty darn obvious. Suddenly able to hear the thought of others? Guess you¡¯re telepathic now.¡¯


    Ally shrugs, ¡®Still, I don¡¯t 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 aren¡¯t rare, they are notmon. Otherwise more woulde along with them to try to spy on the settlement.¡¯


    Doyle sighs, ¡®I¡¯m 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 don¡¯t 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 aren¡¯t 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 wasn¡¯t 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 won¡¯t 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 don¡¯t lose too much when you subsequently deconstruct it. I can¡¯t 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 don¡¯t expect to be saving too much by doing this.¡¯

 11 Coppers – Chapter 120

    Doyleughs, ¡®Even if for every hundred points of world energy I use on it, I save only a single point that is still better than nothing. It would also give me something to do with the excess regen when my pool is full.¡¯


    Ally shakes her head, ¡®Yeah, don¡¯t do that. Either spend it on expanding your territory like you¡¯ve been doing or let it dissipate. While the sudden glut of power you get from something like a person, dying will vanish before it can do any good, the excess from regen doesn¡¯t. Because of how ites to be, the excess will more easily permeate the monsters and loot in your dungeon.¡¯


    Doyle nods, ¡®That would exin why not much loot has dropped. All my excess power has been going into expansion.¡¯


    Once again Ally shakes her head, ¡®No, not really. While your excess power at the moment might have been enough to spawn one or two more drops, you aren¡¯t exactly gaining all that much. There aren¡¯t that many people delving. And don¡¯t point towards how often people are in the dungeon. Those are all the same people. Remember, you aren¡¯t gaining the power from nowhere. What you are taking in is whatever you can manage to scrap off of delvers.¡¯


    ¡®You could think of it like shearing sheep. It doesn¡¯t matter how many times you shear one if you did so recently. They won¡¯t have regrown much wool at that point. So yes, people are constantly using your dungeon, but you are only getting a fraction of the power off them that you would if they waited a day or so before re-entering. Hell, I bet the farmers at least on a subconscious level already realize they get less on subsequent trips. If you haven¡¯t noticed, the farmers started to space out their trips more. Sure, they did not reduce how many trips they make, but now the same group doesn¡¯t just jump in and out until they get tired.¡¯


    Doyle sighs, ¡®Well it won¡¯t be long before I¡¯m flooded with new people. I wonder if the other settlement even knows about how much pre-system gear sucks. Those guys were all decked out in riot gear when they entered.¡¯


    Allyughs, ¡®I¡¯m sure they will realize at some point. Either by being told or maybe running out of the stuff and having to try new gear. Not that designs like that are bad. You just need to use new materials to make it. Though of course gear personally made by highly skilled crafters will be better. But even in this magical future your world has been thrust into, mass production still works a treat when you need to supply masses of people. There are never enough people capable of getting a crafting skill high enough to support amunity.¡¯


    Doyle tilts to the side, ¡®Can¡¯t you just keep working on a skill to increase the level? Sure it might take a while but with that I don¡¯t see why you couldn¡¯t just throw anyone at a skill and have them grind it out to high levels.¡¯


    Ally shakes her head, ¡®Look at how your skill levels stagnated there for a little before you got new material to work with. Sure, getting new material is one way to break the bottleneck, but you can¡¯t exactly go around providing massive amounts of new stuff to every crafter at a bottleneck. If a person isn¡¯t talented at it, either in the regr sense of the word or psionically, they might take a whole year to go up a level once they hit a hundred. On the other hand, those with talent would realize they can do this one strange trick or change up this one small step, and they gain that same level over a weekend of frantic experimentation.¡¯


    Doyle rolls back and sighs, ¡®So crafting either needs you to be really good at it or richly supported.¡¯


    Ally rolls her eyes, ¡®As if that hasn¡¯t always been the case. There are enough examples of this sort of thing in your world¡¯s history. Artists being supported by patrons and such. It is just that at the end there, your governments were too focused on the wrong kind of equality. They came with good intentions, but instead of making the conditions better, they shackled everyone to test scores and the lowest in the group. Wanting everyone to have a certain level of knowledge once they leave school is audable goal. You need to focus on stuff people actually need to know.¡¯


    ¡®I can¡¯t fully me them though. Your world was going through an upheaval on the same scale as the systeming along, if on a slower time frame. After all, how can you teach kids to avoid the new scams when some of the teachers themselves fall for them. And what do you do with all those people who can¡¯t find a job because automation was getting to where there isn¡¯t any worthwhile work to do? Forcing people to do make work so they can afford to live would have eventually backfired.¡¯


    ¡®Mind you, I don¡¯t know the solution for a non-magical world to that problem. You¡¯re part of the solution magical realms have to the fact that one man can do the work of 100. Just spread tales of glory for those who can be a delver and boom, all those second sons and such are grabbing cheap sets of leather armor and a sword. Not only does their delving provide them with an ie to live on, but it also winnows out the chaff. A little violent for your world¡¯s pre-system sensibility, but here we are.¡¯


    Doyleughs, ¡®I guess that is a way to handle the problem. I do kind of wish. Wait a second. Look at the entrance, a full team of founders is entering the dungeon and they are all carrying giant backs of something or other.¡¯


    Ally looks at the disy and nods, ¡®That should be a collection of trash they n to throw away. I do wonder why the founders bundled the trash up. It is a lot easier to just toss it through the portal before you begin a dive.¡¯


    Doyle shakes his core, ¡®I don¡¯t think they n to dump it on the first floor. They might be looking to get it to the second or even third floor. That would be good because I have a feeling that after that death, one of the bags of holding is just about to pop. Here¡¯s hoping they get it.¡¯@@novelbin@@


    Ally shrugs, ¡®Someone will eventually. Especially since all four groups have them at the moment. You¡¯re going to give them a bad idea for how often those things are going to drop.¡¯


    Doyle rolls to the side, ¡®Not important, I want to see how they n to fight with those bags of trash.¡¯


    Both of them quiet down and focus on the group as they reach the first goats. And promptly run past them. Of course Doyle has put no limit on how far the monsters can chase, so once they enter the sixth room just before the final goat room there is a sizable number of goats following behind them. That and a couple kobolds, but those two are following at a distance. After all, while the monsters aren¡¯t going to purposefully attack each other, getting trampled by a stampede of goats isn¡¯t going to hurt any less if they didn¡¯t mean to.


    Doyle almost expected them to try to run through the whole first floor, but they aren¡¯t quite that brash. Instead, in that room they all toss the bags aside and charge into the goats already there. With a teamposed of Ace, Sammy, Jack, Susan, Og, and Ruby the six goats don¡¯t stand a chance and are taken out before the rest of the monsters can catch up.


    Room cleared of the original inhabitants the group turns around and Ruby lets off a spell that is like a mix between silly string and a me thrower. The spell doesn¡¯t kill all the enemies as it is more focused on area denial, but it does cause the ones that make it to enter the room in dribs and drabs instead of all at once. This turns a deadly stampede into a shooting gallery as the rest of the team takes turns taking out the goats. Thenst but not least the two dagger kobolds rush into the room only for Ruby to turn her spell on them, proving it is still quite deadly.


    They collect their bags and head into the next room, though, leaving said bags in the hallway before they enter. There the fight doesn¡¯tst much longer than thest room and after collecting their bags the group moves onto the kobolds but Doyle has turned away at this point.


    He sighs, ¡®So Ally, I think they might have outgrown my early floors already.¡¯


    Allyughs, ¡®Yeah, and I don¡¯t see the second floor doing much more. Even the third floor is likely to just be a speed bump.¡¯


    Doyle sighs again, ¡®And like a speed bump, it won¡¯t be because of any difficulty to go over it. At least the randomized flooryout will cause them annoyance for a good long while.¡¯


    Ally shrugs, ¡®Long as it dys them enough that you can get a fifth and sixth floor up and running it should be fine. The fifth floor will have the first boss, and those are always tricky in some way. Beyond that, with the sixth floor and your portal doors the shortcut option should open up for anyone who has beaten the boss.¡¯


    Doyle nods, ¡®And it won¡¯t matter too much that they can skip the earlier floors as while the size of a floor doesn¡¯t feel like it is growing by much that isn¡¯t really the case. The sixth floor will have almost as much space as the first through third floor added together. That doesn¡¯t even count the 3d space, just the t cross section. It won¡¯t be long before I¡¯ll have enough space that I could make a mini dungeon within a dungeon thing. Hell, I could even recreate the first four floors if I wanted. That would be hrious.¡¯


    Ally agrees with him and they chat a bit about what to do with all that space while Ace¡¯s party rams right through the second floor. They don¡¯t even stop to deal with the monster train until the ramp room. From on top of the ramp, the magic users have no problem taking care of all monsters. So much so that the melee fighters don¡¯t even need to get involved. The forest room is the only difficulty, and that has more to do with Susan really wanting to go harvest the herbs. Ace however vetoes it and they move onto the third floor.


    If it wasn¡¯t for the little burst of energy and his wood pattern ticking up four levels when they tossed the trash through the portal, Doyle would have likely missed the start. Not that there was much to miss. As Susan had already delved the daysyout a little while following the outsiders, the group easily passed through the first few rooms.


    The group¡¯s first goal is the assassin vine that killed the guy. While the outsiders had killed it, they wanted to see if anything special was waiting for them. Not likely, as there was a quest involved when Sammy fought the special axebeak. As expected, nothing special dropped. Though either from the trash or the extra energy kicking about because of the death, the vine dropped 11 copper, the max amount possible from it.


    Jack shakes his head and sighs, ¡°Welp, this is apparently what that guy¡¯s death is worth. Few pennies.¡±


    Susan shrugs, ¡°Take it as a lesson. The idiot treated the dungeon like it was safe or something. I¡¯m sure with enough stats these first few floors will be practically impossible to die on. No one on the entire is even near that point. While we sped through the first two floors, we didn¡¯t let our guard down. Plus, we should all be closer to level ten than we are five. I would be surprised if that guy was even level five.¡±

 A Goat Drops Some Loot – Chapter 121

    Ace nods, ¡°Being reckless at this point is stupid. I don¡¯t 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 that¡¯s life now.¡±


    ¡°Now they didn¡¯t 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 let¡¯s 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 doesn¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t meant to be an impossible maze and so Ace¡¯s 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 founder¡¯s 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, ¡°We¡¯re 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 aren¡¯t 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 don¡¯t run into any rock bending potholes.


    Halfway to the room Ruby¡¯s spheres havee close enough to the monsters to reveal their hidden surprise. Each of the spheres bursts apart into one of Ruby¡¯s 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 isn¡¯t 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 Ruby¡¯s 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.@@novelbin@@


    Then Jack hits the wall with his hammer. If it wasn¡¯t 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 Ruby¡¯s spell. The injured goat doesn¡¯tst 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 isn¡¯t 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 Jack¡¯s sledgehammer introduces itself to the earthen cow¡¯s skull. Unlike most times hends a shot, the cow hasn¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯tst 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 hasn¡¯t 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 Jim¡¯s team. Like, we have every single one of the loot drops gathered with us. If it wasn¡¯t 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 can¡¯t 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 don¡¯t mind a helmet, this honestly would have been better on a frontline fighter.¡±


    Ace shakes his head, ¡°You¡¯re 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 weren¡¯t going to force the next drop on you, anyway. Now I¡¯ve 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 aren¡¯t 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 aren¡¯t 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 can¡¯t 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.¡±


    Ace nods, ¡°It never hurts to try to think of some new angle. And you aren¡¯t quite wrong with the idea of using magic to extract the ore. It is just that they still need the mining skill and they can¡¯t 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 wouldn¡¯t be able to extract ore faster than with a pick, that doesn¡¯t 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 hadn¡¯t 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 today¡¯syout. 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 don¡¯t know that yet. While neither of the previous couple encounters with them has been as tough as the first, it still hasn¡¯t been an easy thing. If the lost cost facy hadn¡¯t 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 wasn¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t 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 I¡¯ll take a goat. Ruby, you take the other goat. I don¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t 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 wasn¡¯t exactly her style. In the end, though, she grabs her reward. Though the magic of loot drops once again proves it isn¡¯t 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 goat¡¯s profile.


    Sammyughs, ¡°I guess you can technically put that on your head! Though I don¡¯t 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 can¡¯t detect its magical activity anymore.¡±


    Ace frowns, he hadn¡¯t minded getting a bag but if it was magical that threw a wrench in the works. And one peak inside proves Ruby¡¯s guess as the inside is so dark he can¡¯t 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 don¡¯t 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 I¡¯m 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 one¡¯s 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 user¡¯s lifespan.¡±


    Ace shrugs the bag onto his shoulder and yawns. ¡°Don¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t quite work like that. Let¡¯s say you had a lifespan of a hundred years. Reasonable enough for someone to live that long pre-system. Let¡¯s 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 person¡¯s lifespan.¡±


    ¡°That is not how it works. Rather, your lifespan is a set amount. So being able to live to 200 doesn¡¯t actually mean your lifespan has increased to 200. What has happened is you¡¯ve 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 you¡¯re 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 isn¡¯t 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. I¡¯m 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?¡±@@novelbin@@


    Susan doesn¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t 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 don¡¯t want toy down thew, but I¡¯m 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 Jim¡¯s team we are carrying literal rocks.¡±


    Jackughs again, ¡°We wouldn¡¯t bother carrying just rocks. This is some fine copper ore that I¡¯m 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 wouldn¡¯t mind pushing harder if we weren¡¯t all so tired. Dealing with those fools from upriver was stressful.¡±


    After that everyone besides Jack and Sammy side with Ace¡¯s 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 ground¡¯s imperfections, you can really tell how rough the stone is. At least there doesn¡¯t 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 can¡¯t 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 what¡¯s up with the wolves being so effective against them?¡¯


    Ally frowns, ¡®That is a good question, and the system doesn¡¯t seem to want to fill us in. It isn¡¯t 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 aren¡¯t 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 weren¡¯t 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. ¡°I¡¯m 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 isn¡¯t the end all be all. And by strength I don¡¯t 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 can¡¯t use it. But that isn¡¯t 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 aren¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t going to do much good. At least I assume it won¡¯t. You don¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t back down. With a sigh she looks away, ¡°Fine! You aren¡¯t 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 don¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t 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. Doyle¡¯s 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 don¡¯t want them to do it. I did not n the floor with that kind of thing in mind. Though I guess I wasn¡¯t specific enough when I let the ambush wolves do their thing. The only ray of luck is that they don¡¯t 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, ¡®I¡¯m sure this won¡¯t be thest time something like this happens. Anyway, I don¡¯t 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 it¡¯s time to make the fifth floor! Dungeon Boss time, booyah!¡¯


    Doyle tilts back, ¡®I can¡¯t 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. I¡¯ve 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 isn¡¯t even the realm of the gods! You need to be a true immortal to even think of granting souls.¡¯


    Doyle¡¯s core dims, ¡®And why would I let you help?¡¯


    Ally stops dead in the air, ¡®Huh?¡¯@@novelbin@@


    Doyle shakes his core, ¡®I have no reason to.¡¯


    Ally frowns at this, ¡®What are you talking about? We¡¯re partners! We¡¯ve 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.¡¯


    Doyle¡¯s core loses almost all radiance, ¡®You haven¡¯t 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 can¡¯t 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, I¡¯ll 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 doesn¡¯t take any guesswork on Doyle¡¯s 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 wouldn¡¯t 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 I¡¯ve 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 isn¡¯t 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 you¡¯ve been treating this whole thing.¡¯


    Ally frowns, ¡®But.¡¯


    Doyle cuts her off, ¡®No buts! I want you to grow from this and you won¡¯t if I just let this slide. Plus, I don¡¯t even know what will fix the bond. I¡¯m waiting at the halfway point for you. Not like either of us could leave. For now, though? I¡¯m going to design my fifth floor. If I need some information, I¡¯ll check on you.¡¯


    Ally raises a hand, ¡®Wait, don¡¯t you need some information on bosses first?¡¯


    Doyle leans forward, ¡®If I need some information I¡¯ll check on you.¡¯ And he turns his core away from her. Not that this does anything as the core isn¡¯t 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 floor¡¯s core room.

 Just Let The Kobolds Do It – Chapter 126

    Seeing this the much more expensive assassin vine starts to make ever more sense. Not that he ns to use them on this floor. That cer. For now, he decides on a small wolf pack. Ten dungeon wolves for 500 points, five stone wolves to act as mounts for Herpanions for 375, and five wind wolves priced at another 375 for a total of 1250 points.


    At this point, though, Doyle really doesn¡¯t feel the need to add more monsters. Though he does chuckle to himself when he realizes with the points left he could summon in another 461 goats. Still, it doesn¡¯t feel right to not spend the points.


    Since he doesn¡¯t want to add more, that leaves an increase in quality. The stone wolves are up first, getting two additional levels each, spending another 750 points. This leaves a bit more than a thousand points, and that is when it hits him.


    Before the people from up-river hade around he had unlocked a new feature, the farm zone. A handy little thing that simplifies stocking his dungeon. If he remembers it correctly, monsters in the farm zone only count as a tenth of their point total for the floor. Of course he can¡¯t just call them out, they need an actual vacancy on the floor proper.


    Upside is that from how it sounded, they are treated as almost a sub-floor. While it does prevent him from flooding a floor with monsters, it also removes the chance of others finding the farm and getting some easy kills.


    But the key thing right now is he has a little more than a tenth of the floor¡¯s point cap. That means he can make a farm with all the animals with room for a pool of breeding stock, so he never has to summon the animals again. This is of course possible because even with delvers on the floor, anything in the farm zone will still be advancing at an elerated pace.


    Now Doyle just has to figure out where the farm zone should go. Except it doesn¡¯t take much for him toe up with the perfect ce. With a swipe of mental power, Doyle hollows out the hill and makes the inner section into the farm zone.


    Extra points squared away, all that is left is to outfit the kobolds. Of course, those that came from the first floor are already equipped. Though now that Doyle looks over them again he realizes the equipment needs an update. This isn¡¯t the first floor, so he doesn¡¯t have to be too light on the equipment. At least not for the fivepanions.


    So with that in mind he equips the four melee fighters with full armor consisting of gauntlets, greaves, boots, a tunic, helmet, shield, and cloak. For weapons he gives each of them a different one. An axe, bow, mace, and spear. Then the healer kobold also gets dressed to the nines, even if instead of bronze, everything ends up as leather. And of course to top it off, Doyle makes it all loot and drops five silver coins on each of them as well as a random healing potion, including the special ones.


    For the rest of the kobolds, Doyle first pulls away one from each group to be the herders. Since the five would be in charge of the animals, they get a full set of leather armor with a shillgh. Though only the weapons are loot this time and a single silver coin each. That leaves the five groups of 15 to take care of.


    The simple way would be to set them up like the kobold in charge of them. However, Doyle has this feeling that 15 casters in a single group is just asking for trouble. Instead, he decides on each of the five groups beingposed of the same breakdown of gear.


    A healer with tunic, cloak, and wand. Two casters of random elements wearing the same. A trio of kobolds dual wielding daggers with helmets, cloaks, and boots for sneaky nonsense. Four spear users are set up with helmets, tunics, greaves, boots, and gauntlets. And finally, five kobolds wielding maces and shields who are decked out in a full set of gear minus the cloaks. Then instead of specifically assigning what would be loot, Doyle makes a random piece on each them be the loot like he has been doing with the potions.


    Satisfied with the results, Doyle pulls back to watch them construct their town. Of course, in normal circumstances this would take a significant amount of time. Luckily not only are the inhabitants sped up when no one is delving, the dungeon material practically falls apart how they need it. Not because it is weak, but because this is what Doyle intended to happen. Even the rocks are smashed up right quick.


    Once the town is done, wall and all, Doyle has one more thing for them to do. Right now there is a bunch of extra space along the sides and especially in the corners. To make use of it, Doyle gets the kobolds to dig outrge tunnels through the free area. And once the tunnels have been made Doyle moves the entrance portal to a random corner, along with scooping out a medium sized room.


    Tunnels finished Doyle made sure that the kobolds would send out patrols to keep the area safe. Or more likely to give adventurers a chance. Anyone capable of fighting through so many kobolds would be too strong for it to matter. Having two or three of the groups off checking the tunnels will turn the impossible into the possible. Though it also means that even if a group has seen a tunnel is empty, that doesn¡¯t mean it will stay that way.


    Doyle pulls back and looks at the floor as a whole beforeughing. The only thing on the floor that is predetermined is the hill and the farm. He hadn¡¯t meant to do it this way, but the boss floor is the most random floor yet. Even the maze floor was just a bunch of set pieces. While randomly ced, Doyle is certain the delvers will realize what is going on, eventually.@@novelbin@@


    Here? The floor is built anew by the kobolds whenever Doyle wants. Sure, he hasn¡¯t set it up to do that. But having the options means he will probably use it. Though with that thought Doyle realizes he will probably forget about it given enough time. Sure, with time his first floor boss won¡¯t exactly be the hot new thing. That doesn¡¯t mean he wants the floor to be formic.


    Given time, Doyle is certain that delivers will figure out the best ways to clear the floor and pull off the various groups. If video games had taught him anything, it is that people will try the craziest things to cheese a dungeon. At least he is mostly certain there won¡¯t be any problems with people finding untargetable areas and beating everything without any danger. While the most monsters aren¡¯t sapient, they are a good deal better than the AI of any video game he had ever yed.


    Now the question is how often he wants to reset the floor? The once a day thing with the maze has more to do with having to respawn the ores than any actual desire to make it shuffle so much. Still, he doesn¡¯t want it to take too long. From how he understands it, the boss will be like a checkpoint to the lower floors, so Doyle doesn¡¯t want anyone getting through too easily.


    Though in the future Doyle admits there will be ces, he wants to randomize, more or less. Once a day is a decent starting point, but it doesn¡¯t leave a lot of lower options. Sure, splitting it up by half a day, six hours, an hour, and so on could work, but it just seems too fiddly.


    Doyle shakes his core, ¡®Once a day should be the lower limit for the moment. From there, I guess it would follow the natural cycle of things. A week, a month, a year, and so on. Depending and given how long people can live I might even end up with once in a hundred year randomizations or even longer.¡¯


    ¡®Also, there is technically one step that could technically end up quicker than once a day that I want to try. But it would be more in line with special conditions like having a maze floor that randomizes right after someone solves it. But yeah, randomizing an entire floor for every new group would be hrious on the first floor with how often people are kicking about there.¡¯


    He goes on for a while longer thinking of other special conditions for randomizing things. While many of the options were quite interesting, they really went down hill in practicality until his attention came back to the fifth floor. He didn¡¯t even need to consider it at this point and pegged it to be randomized once a week. Once a month is too much time and he didn¡¯t want to mess around with counting days. This of course ignores the fact that a week isn¡¯t exactly some universal constant, not that he would care. After all, if he ever did end up on a where they didn¡¯t have weeks or theysted for ten days he could just change it up.


    For now, he had one final thing to do on the floor. Despite Her ability tomand the kobolds and mold the floor, she isn¡¯t a boss yet. In fact, without Doyle noticing it he was the one creating the scene that yed out. Like puppets on strings, they danced to his will, his human mind beginning to warp even further from what it had been to deal with keeping track of everything at once.


    Not from some force corrupting him. Rather, this is just an inevitable side effect of no longer having his mind and soul within a human body. What is strange isn¡¯t that it is happening, but that more hasn¡¯t happened. Most flesh based beings that turn into a dungeon core will end up radically altered with core beliefs shattered and central goals forgotten. The goat incident alone would have altered amon mind beyond recognition. Yet here Doyle is, slowly stretching his mind to multitask without the system¡¯s help for the first time.


    In her room Ally notices the change. Before now she would have ignored the change or not even detect it because it came from the soul bond. Not that she understands what it means, but even through the corrupted muck that had built up on the connection she can feel the bond hum in two different rhythms, as if two minds were on the other end.


    Not feeling like proving Doyle right and going back to people watching she is tempted to turn her gaze towards what he is doing. Then she twinges, remembering a past reaction from him. She had revealed that she would watch him without his notice and how that had unsettled him. With a grimace, this one memory dredges up time after time that simr events had happened, and she curls up on her bed again.


    Ally cradles her head, ¡®This isn¡¯t what I wanted! Why did it turn out this way? I thought I had pulled the lucky straw when I found out he was so developed, a real person already! Now all I can do isy here sick to my stomach at the corrupted bond. How did that even happen! I need to examine it closer, I need to know why! There has to be a reason.¡¯


    She settles in to feel out the corruption and cross check with the universal. Not that she will find much help there. Soul bonds are not something people share, and definitely not something that you can get help from someone on. They are too personal, a mix of all the souls involved.


    Plus, the answer is so simple that most people would miss it. The Fae are more of the soul than they are of the body and mind. Part of this connection of the soul is expressed through bonds. Like the Devil¡¯s and their contracts, the Fae are intertwined with their bonds. Simply put, Ally has failed her bond and so her core, the soul, has started to darken. The corruption on the bond is just one of the more visible results. At least for now, though, the change has been halted. Hopefully this kick to the butt she received is enough to truly change her for the better.

 And He Wasn’t Alone – Chapter 127

    Finished with the randomness, Doyle turns his attention to creating his first boss. He doesn¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t 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 hadn¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t 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 aren¡¯t 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 won¡¯t 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. Doyle¡¯s 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 floor¡¯s dimensional weave, looking for weak points. Because of course, making a boss monster isn¡¯t 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 floor¡¯s 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 isn¡¯t 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 aren¡¯t 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 system¡¯s control. In fact, the only reason the system works in Doyle¡¯s 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 aren¡¯t 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 fool¡¯s 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 one¡¯s own understanding, that doesn¡¯t 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 system¡¯s 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 wasn¡¯t 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 wasn¡¯t 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 weren¡¯t prepared for it.


    In fact, thisck of control puts a limit on how long Doyle can even keep this pseudopod extended beyond his dungeon¡¯s 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.


    And he wasn¡¯t 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 Doyle¡¯s 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 aren¡¯t 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.@@novelbin@@


    During this expansion of Doyle¡¯s 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 wasn¡¯t 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 wasn¡¯t 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 wasn¡¯t some cheesy ¡°past life¡± or simr nonsense. No new memories flood his mind, and he doesn¡¯t 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 hadn¡¯t 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 Doyle¡¯s 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 don¡¯t bother with following sillyws like space and time, that doesn¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t 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 can¡¯t afford what could be centuries, if not millennia of care.


    The third and final rule seems to almost go counter to the second rule. Don¡¯t pick a strong soul. While that strength might give the boss greater power, a soul doesn¡¯t be strong by ident. Something out there wanted a strong soul. Maybe you get lucky and the soul has done its job. What you don¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t 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 one¡¯sprehension. Observing this all, Doyle can only shake his core. He doesn¡¯t 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 wasn¡¯t raised a fool and didn¡¯t 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? He¡¯s 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.@@novelbin@@


    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 dungeon¡¯s realm.


    As the soul is squeezed through the w in the dungeon¡¯s 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 can¡¯t 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 don¡¯t naturally enter their dungeons. And this is where a dungeon¡¯s 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 dungeon¡¯s 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 Doyle¡¯s 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 Doyle¡¯s 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 kobold¡¯s soul just as it is about to enter the kobold leader¡¯s 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 doesn¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t 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 Doyle¡¯s side, his soul reaching out and connecting directly to the kobold¡¯s 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, Doyle¡¯s 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.

 A Path Not His Own – Chapter 129

    Like what Doyle had just done except in reverse, the kobold¡¯s 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 leader¡¯s five goats, and herpanion¡¯s 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 isn¡¯t 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...


    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 dungeon¡¯spleted path ¡°Kobold Community¡± and unnamed kobold¡¯s 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 it¡¯s 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 doesn¡¯t 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 hadn¡¯t 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@@novelbin@@


    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}


    Doyle¡¯s core glows bright for a moment, ¡®Well the system doesn¡¯t cheat you when you find something new. Though I doubt it is actually new to the system, as it specifically mentions the local system. I¡¯m 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 what¡¯s 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, Earth¡¯s 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, Fire¡¯s 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. That¡¯s 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, that¡¯s 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 Dungeon¡¯s 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 aren¡¯t 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. That¡¯s 22 points to every single stat. 22 alone is enough to outdo every other monster in my entire dungeon.¡¯


    ¡®Even if it didn¡¯t 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 won¡¯t 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 I¡¯ve heard, getting to the point that something can gain a soul isn¡¯t easy. I wouldn¡¯t 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 won¡¯t 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 you¡¯re teaching others how to be civilized. Though at this point I have to admit I¡¯m 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. I¡¯m 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.¡¯

 Language of Intent – Chapter 130

    Doyle stops dilly dallying and turns his attention to Ally. Not too much time has passed, so she is still in her room crying.


    Doyle sighs but doesn¡¯t back down, ¡®Hey Ally.¡¯


    She doesn¡¯t respond the first time, so he tries again, ¡®Hey Ally. Got something weird.¡¯


    Ally doesn¡¯t look up, but she does respond, ¡®What is it? You made a boss already, I could feel that.¡¯


    Doyle pauses for a second because he didn¡¯t hear any sobbing in her voice. Then he remembers they aren¡¯t actually talking so respiratory distress isn¡¯t going to change what she sounds like.


    As part of his response Doyle pulls up a disy with his paths, ¡®So there are like three different things with my new paths that are strange.¡¯


    She still doesn¡¯t look up, but does gesture her hand for him to exin. Doyle rolls his core but continues to react at this point would do more harm than good. ¡®So the first thing is my boss had some remnants, at least that is what the system called it, and ended up gaining a path. That path is interesting but my question stems from the results on my end. Apparently the local system didn¡¯t have a record of the path so I was rewarded with some info, a new material, and the system unlocked a path for me.¡¯


    Ally groans, ¡®And? Doesn¡¯t sound like a question to me.¡¯


    Doyleughs, ¡®Because I hadn¡¯t gotten to the question yet. Anyway, the path it unlocked was the Pathfinder path. Capital P and everything. The thing is that it¡¯s another path which only costs a single point. In fact, I have another path costing only a single point. Well, another besides the whole limit breaker thing. My first question is, what is up with that? I¡¯ve seen these single point paths pop up a few times and they always seem silly important for being so cheap.¡¯


    Ally stretches out on the bed, ¡®No official name for them in the system. Most ces settle on something like achievement paths or title paths. Sometimes people separate out the paths like you just got and call them reward paths, but that¡¯s stupid. My mom prefers to call them title paths because from her experience it fits best. They are the exception to the rule on sharing your paths with others. Well, some of them are. I wouldn¡¯t share the limit breaker path, for instance. An example of a good one to share is those founders and their founders path. If they had shared that around they would have figured out Jan right away.¡¯


    Doyle nods, ¡®That makes enough sense. It also allows someone to choose if they want the path or not. Anyway, the next question is the fact that I have a non-ss path showing as partiallypleted. Specifically, I now have koboldmunity two avable and the path is showing up as being 15/30 despite the fact I haven¡¯t put any points in it.¡¯


    Ally frowns, ¡®That shouldn¡¯t be. And there¡¯s the tutorial window. You¡¯ve got a rare yetmon path. Rare for most sapients because they are specifically for locations. Things like world trees and what not. On the other hand, they aremon for location based sapients. Dungeon cores being one such type of sapient.¡¯


    ¡®Apparently it is to make things easier on locations, as you generally can¡¯t get up and move somewhere else. Unlike ss paths you can have multiple of them but there is a limit. Your highest rank path can be upgraded as much as you want of course. Any location paths after that have to form a pyramid under the first.¡¯


    ¡®Once youplete thatmunity II path you will be able to have two rank I location paths. Get koboldmunity III? You can rank one of those rank I paths up to II. At that point you would have three slots avable at rank I because you don¡¯t have a second rank II path. Once you do, whether by ranking up the one you already had or gaining and ranking up a new one, you will have four rank I slots. And so on and so forth.¡¯


    ¡®Though like paths you can side rank a path so maybe your koboldmunity II turns into kobold dystopia I. At that point you can choose to rank the path all the way up again or you could decide you want another location path to be your focus. It¡¯s quite interesting and I¡¯m kind of sad that paths don¡¯t do this. Would be interesting. Now that is yourst question?¡¯@@novelbin@@


    Doyle nods, ¡®Interesting way for the system to deal with locations not exactly being all that mobile. Though I have to wonder how things like floating inds would deal with it. But yeah, my third question. It partly connects to the first question, as the second one point path is one of two oddities. Most of the paths are normal capitalization and such without any special characters. This one you¡¯re going to have to actually look at the screen because I can¡¯t verbalize it.¡¯


    Ally rubs her eyes and summons up some cold water that she sshes on her face. Specifically summoned water because momentster it all vanishes, leaving her dry. With a sigh, she looks at the screen and just freezes. ¡®What do the two paths read as for you?¡¯


    Doyle nces back at the paths, ¡®The one point path is called unique and on the other end of point costs the 1k path is called trinity. Though putting them into words, despite being how they seem to be written, seems overly reductive for some reason. They feel like they are more and an intent or will than words.¡¯


    Ally nods, ¡®You know how thenguage that true immortals use is overlyplex with words that describe things in totality? Like how your strength stat has a specific word in thenguage which urately describes it? What you have right there is thenguage they are aping.¡¯


    ¡®Called <inguage,</i> though obviously I can¡¯t pronounce that correctly, nor can most people. Instead, it tends to be referred to as things like thenguage of intent or heart¡¯snguage. It has no true words yet can say anything. The system can¡¯t even properly handle thenguage, which is why you can only understand it as a single word and I can¡¯t understand the word at all.¡¯


    Doyle¡¯s core dims, ¡®How does that work? If anguage doesn¡¯t have words, it isn¡¯t exactly doing a good job of it.¡¯


    Ally sighs, ¡®It doesn¡¯t need words. Speaking it involves using Truth with a capital T to say something. Though that doesn¡¯t really help, does it?¡¯


    Doyle shakes his core no, but then realizes Ally isn¡¯t actually watching him at the moment. ¡®Not really, no.¡¯


    Ally nods, ¡®Let me give you an example. If I say the word cat, you instantly have an image of a cat in your head. If you had a cat around you when growing up, that is the cat you think of. If I say the word cat to ten different people, they will all think of ten different cats. I personally think of a ck cat that would hang around near a fairy ring I would watch. There is no way you could have thought of that cat when I said the word. Even if I described the cat in excruciating detail, you wouldn¡¯t really be thinking of the same cat.¡¯


    ¡®Whenmunicating with others there are a lot of filters between you and them. Even something as simple as describing it as a bit warm out today has so much context that is left out. Someone who lives in a cold climate saying it is warm out might be shocked to see people from a warm climate bundling up because of how cold it is to them.¡¯


    ¡®Thenguage of intent sidesteps this issue. It takes what you intend to say and directly nts it in the mind of whoever you aremunicating with. If I could speak thenguage and I mentioned that cat, you would know exactly everything I understood about the cat with a single word.¡¯


    ¡®Where thenguage of true immortals is aplex mess of trillions of words that only someone with a memory unrestricted by physical space can handle. Thenguage of intent can technically be spoken by anything that can have an intent. One other important difference between the two is that you can¡¯t lie with thenguage of intent. Though this goes far beyond just the inability to say something false. It prevents things like lying through withheld information and other such tricks.¡¯


    ¡®If someone says something in thenguage of intent, they mean itpletely. Because if they didn¡¯t, what they said either would not be thenguage, or would include whatever else they might have meant.¡¯


    Doyle tilts to the side, ¡®And what does it mean that I have it showing up in my paths?¡¯


    Ally shrugs, ¡®Whatever those paths represent is important to you on a very core level. Obviously you will want to pick up the path called <i>unique</i> as long as your instincts aren¡¯t screaming at you to not take it. Achievement paths represent something important has happened to you and with a title like unique it must be something big.¡¯


    ¡®The other one you might want to put a point into just to keep it around. Though a thousand points is quite costly.¡¯ Ally shakes her head, ¡®There are never enough points. That is why most people go for the alternate ss paths. While getting more skills makes it harder to go deep, it does provide an infusion of easy points early on.¡¯


    Doyle nods, ¡®Short term versus long term. Though if given the choice, I would probably grab a refresh on my ss path. Not for the extra skill slots, though. Rather, as a dungeon core I might have the time to grind out skills, I also need my ss pathspleted for some of the functionality to unlock. Like, right now I have a max depth of 20 floors. While we just hit a quarter of the way, that doesn¡¯t mean I can¡¯t worry.¡¯


    Ally doesn¡¯t really have an answer to this, so instead turns her attention back to the paths. ¡®So you do have 29 points to put towards whatever paths might catch your eye. Any ns for that?¡¯


    Doyle turns back to the list before sighing, ¡®The one pointers are a no brainer. Koboldmunity two is next up because I happen to have a lot of kobolds at the moment. Besides that, I¡¯m going to take your advice and throw a point at trinity. The others seem fine enough but I don¡¯t exactly have enough points left. Instead, I will probably funnel some more into my ss path again.¡¯


    ¡®Though I should really get to it. I want to be there when the settlement finds out about my new instances. Mostly because I really want to know if they do notice anything different. They¡¯ve been really good at not ovepping parties.¡¯


    Ally chuckles, ¡®That will onlyst as long as it is only them delving. Nevermind the fact that you need the floor to be empty of delvers before you can refill them, idiots will always try to get a jump on theirpetition. Plus being able to skip earlier monsters by following behind another group is an easy cheat most scum figure out quickly enough.¡¯


    Doyle¡¯s core dims, ¡®While I am sure some who do that might be scum, it seems wrong to just dere everyone who thinks of it as such.¡¯


    Ally crosses her arms, ¡®Hrmph, dungeons are the primal test of the multiverse! To skip a challenge one hasn¡¯tpleted is disrespectful.¡¯


    Doyle¡¯s core tilts up and brightens, ¡®You know how I would describe your behavior? Like a princess, spoiled or not. Someone who sits back and tells others to do what needs done. Without actual power to demand it and yet because of your background you demand it, anyway.¡¯

 I Shouldn’t Be That Rude – Chapter 131

    Ally bristles, ¡®What¡¯s that have to do with skipping a challenge in a dungeon? They¡¯re unrted!¡¯


    Doyle shakes his core, ¡®Au contraire! Not only are these things linked, but I think it is something you¡¯re going to have to think long and hard about. Now, mind you, I¡¯m not exactly much better off. While I wasn¡¯t high on the hog pre-system. In fact, while I was not bottom of the barrel, I definitely wasn¡¯t 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 you¡¯ve ever been in. And don¡¯t 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 aren¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t 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.¡¯@@novelbin@@


    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 you¡¯ve been heavy handed mind you. I¡¯m 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 hadn¡¯t figured out how to let you control the view screens.¡¯


    Ally flops back down, ¡®But that wasn¡¯t 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 weren¡¯t friends. Wait, I shouldn¡¯t 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 can¡¯t be true! My mother wouldn¡¯t let me so easily be a dungeonpanion and her opponents wouldn¡¯t 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 can¡¯t realize you weren¡¯t right for politics, she wouldn¡¯t have been able to stay in power so long. Of course she can¡¯t publicly be for it, but she must have supported you from behind.¡¯


    ¡®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 wouldn¡¯t be out of the question either. I¡¯m sure she won¡¯t 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, Earth¡¯s 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, Fire¡¯s 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 doesn¡¯t 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 Ally¡¯s 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 isn¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t 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 kobold¡¯s 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 doesn¡¯t know everything. The system would really prefer it if you didn¡¯t 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 can¡¯t use thenguage either.¡¯


    ¡®Then again, as the kobold boss has shown, paths aren¡¯t 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 aren¡¯t real enough yet for the system to do anything with. The only question now is how to select the two. Let¡¯s 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, Earth¡¯s 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, Fire¡¯s 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 doesn¡¯t 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 can¡¯t say the name of. This takes longer than he would be willing to admit, but eventually something clicks. While he can¡¯t 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 can¡¯t really me the system for this. Since it can¡¯t handle thenguage, I¡¯m 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 you¡¯ve lost so much. Though here we are, talking to ourselves. Still doing that, might I add. Why? Because you¡¯ve found yourself. It still hasn¡¯t sunk in yet (I me the goats) and I don¡¯t know if we will remember this for long after reading it, but here we are. Oh, and of course the rewards, can¡¯t 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}


    Doyle¡¯s core dims as he reads the rambling text and then goes absolutely dark at trinity. ¡®I guess five points isn¡¯t enough for trinity to go anywhere yet. And another step on the path? What path, because it isn¡¯t one of the system¡¯s 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 I¡¯ve also gained a bunch of points in my soul stats so that might be the reason. And of course the path I¡¯ve 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 isn¡¯t 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 I¡¯m 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.¡±


    Billughs, ¡°They weren¡¯t that hard to fight before and I¡¯m 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 wasn¡¯t the real challenge.¡±


    Jim nods, ¡°More enemies doesn¡¯t 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 didn¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t take long for him to return.


    Jim smiles, ¡°Okay, it looks like this floor isn¡¯t randomizing itself on us.¡±


    Jeremy sighs, ¡°I don¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t like the third floor ispletely random. The entrance and exit always seem to be in the same ce. That and I think I¡¯ve 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. I¡¯ve 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 won¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t 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 wasn¡¯t going to arrive eventually, but this would definitely speed up the response time. Though with the warning from Ace¡¯s group, the backup won¡¯t 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 aren¡¯t creative with their abilities.@@novelbin@@


    While the kobolds would fight as a team, the wolves have experience with it. So much in fact that they have the skill <i>teamwork</i>. 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 don¡¯t 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 wolf¡¯s 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 Kellinger¡¯s 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 isn¡¯t ying around and the far end of the staff sinks a good few inches into the wolf¡¯s 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.

 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 Jim¡¯s 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 isn¡¯t 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.@@novelbin@@


    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 floor¡¯s challenge. I hadn¡¯t meant for it but the floor does a decent job introducing the idea that you¡¯re 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 isn¡¯t exactly going to mess with people around the edges, but if you¡¯re 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 floor¡¯s 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 dive¡¯s 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 isn¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t too much to ask.


    In fact, the only person for whom time drags is Ally. Doyle hasn¡¯t 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 wouldn¡¯t even try to im that. She pushed them to the side purely because she didn¡¯t want to see them anymore. Though some of the more astute might follow up by asking why she didn¡¯t want to look, but it¡¯s just her and Doyle.


    There is one screen still nearby though not one of Doyle¡¯s. 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 haven¡¯t 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 aren¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t know it. To gain a false path you have to admit what you¡¯ve 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 can¡¯t 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 weren¡¯t 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 settlement¡¯s first opinion of these visitors was outcasts, hoping for a miracle to happen. If it wasn¡¯t 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. I¡¯ve got more waiting for me back at our city so I¡¯m 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 didn¡¯t 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 I¡¯ve seen of your settlement though that problem would be short-lived if they tried anything.¡±


    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 don¡¯t 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 didn¡¯t die with the system¡¯s 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 that¡¯s 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 aren¡¯t 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 aren¡¯t 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 don¡¯t show up tonight and we need to offload these people.¡±


    The guy rolls his eyes, ¡°I don¡¯t 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 it¡¯s 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 doesn¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t think he could take them alone, it isn¡¯t 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 don¡¯t like that attitude. Maybe the other idiot can talk down to us with his connections but you¡¯re just a part of this podunk little dead end ce. I know people! Not only at the ramshackle ce I¡¯m forced to live at right now but in the Government! People so high up you¡¯ll 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 don¡¯t subscribe to your <i>government</i> here. Like, we don¡¯t 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 you¡¯re 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 government¡¯s army! You need to respect my authority!¡±


    Ace raises an eyebrow, ¡°I don¡¯t 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 don¡¯t expect us to wait in any lines or what not. I¡¯m 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 doesn¡¯t 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 won¡¯t 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 Ace¡¯s face, ¡°What¡¯s with the funny business!? We all entered but four from my party weren¡¯t 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 what¡¯s going on! I demand an exnation for this!¡±


    Ace rolls his eyes, ¡°We never go in with more than six people. There aren¡¯t that many of us after all. So if things happen after the sixth person tries to enter we wouldn¡¯t 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, doesn¡¯t 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 you¡¯ve 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.¡±


    ¡°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 that¡¯s 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 doesn¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t anything we can do about it so what do you want to do?¡±


    The guy snorts, ¡°I¡¯m sure you could do something about this but I don¡¯t 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.@@novelbin@@


    No one really has a chance to respond to this and Ace is left just rubbing his temple, hoping this doesn¡¯t cause a stress headache. Still, there is enough stuff to do, so he turns towards the four women that had apanied the guy, ¡°So, he¡¯s 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 don¡¯t 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 haven¡¯t even had a chance to level and I don¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t 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 dad¡¯s 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 aren¡¯t 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 he¡¯s 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 doesn¡¯t work around me. I¡¯m not saying you should just believe me right off the bat. Rather, he is in the dungeon right now so you don¡¯t have much to do. Instead of trying to figure it all out, I¡¯ll have someone show you around. Even if he wants to dive all the way to the lowest floor, it won¡¯t 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. I¡¯m 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 Barrai¡¯s and their alchemy but that doesn¡¯t 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 guy¡¯s neck, resulting in a quick kill.


    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 can¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t 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 didn¡¯t 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 Doyle¡¯s change this would have been enough as while they can move around a little, the monsters are mostly assigned to their rooms. The idiot doesn¡¯t 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 aren¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t 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 didn¡¯t 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 wouldn¡¯t 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 Courtney¡¯s 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 aren¡¯t 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 aren¡¯t one of the core members nor even one of the original group. Susan isn¡¯t 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 can¡¯t change with what is happening things won¡¯t 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?¡±@@novelbin@@


    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 don¡¯t feel the need to rush when you already have enough space to sleep. Though I do have to ask, you¡¯ve set aside way more space than your small group needs. Are you expecting migrants? Because the four of us aren¡¯t 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 wouldn¡¯t 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 wouldn¡¯t 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 aren¡¯t 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 don¡¯t 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 aren¡¯t 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 don¡¯t have to pay?¡±


    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 don¡¯t have anyone with an actual cooking skill. Our food isn¡¯t 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 wouldn¡¯t 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 don¡¯t <i>need</i> 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 doesn¡¯t matter if those fools are alive or dead. Do you want to stay? Yes or No. If not, you¡¯re going out on the boat tonight. If yes, it doesn¡¯t matter if they live. You four can stay because you aren¡¯t ves. In fact, now is the best time to make the decision. I fear that if they do get out of the dungeon, you won¡¯t have much of a will of your own at that point. Tell us you want to stay and you won¡¯t have to see them again. It might cause troubles for us but we¡¯ve 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 don¡¯t have all day. You four seem like nice people, if a little weak willed. If anything, at least while you are here they won¡¯t 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 wouldn¡¯t 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, ¡°It¡¯s 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. I¡¯m 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 don¡¯t 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 I¡¯m keeping them under wraps.¡±


    Ace sighs, ¡°Well, you aren¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t 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 don¡¯t 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 aren¡¯t 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.¡±@@novelbin@@


    Ace sighs, ¡°I¡¯ve already got that nned for after tonight¡¯s 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 can¡¯t tell you that exactly but if I¡¯m 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 don¡¯t have much else at the moment as it isn¡¯t like the coin count is going to change right now. Let¡¯s 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 aren¡¯t 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 don¡¯t 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 can¡¯t 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 can¡¯t 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 wouldn¡¯t 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 won¡¯t 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 you¡¯re using the nts¡¯ own magical effects and so don¡¯t need to. At the high levels though? Sure, there are nts that will restore someone from ash but you wouldn¡¯t 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. It¡¯s 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 won¡¯t work. Any one piece of wood isn¡¯t 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 hasn¡¯t been reduced to sawdust.¡±


    Ace sighs, ¡°I¡¯m 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 haven¡¯t respawned, then the floor still has the other party on. Now with instances it isn¡¯t that simple.¡±


    Kelly shrugs, ¡°We might not have thought of this method if the instances hadn¡¯te along. That¡¯s 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 weren¡¯t 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.


    Their conversation had been going on for a little bit already but hadn¡¯t touched on anything important until Courtney sighs, ¡°I don¡¯t 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 don¡¯t fully trust us but I can understand that.¡±


    Jessica nods, ¡°I¡¯m a little surprised they offered me the head cook position right off the bat. Sure, we weren¡¯t 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, ¡°I¡¯ve 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 isn¡¯t 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 leader¡¯s office, which is built into the safety zone around the dungeon¡¯s entrance. Not only are they unlikely to let me clean there, but I don¡¯t want to be that close, anyway.¡±


    ¡°In fact, I think the only paper this entire settlement has is in there. They just don¡¯t 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 wouldn¡¯t 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 don¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t 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 don¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t like people will stop trying.¡±


    Courtney shrugs, ¡°Well, there was a reason we decided to stick with this settlement in the first ce. They¡¯re 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 won¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t letting peoplee by. But that won¡¯tst forever. All it will take is one ship dropping by topletely upend any efforts on our part. The visitors don¡¯t 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 don¡¯t. That ce is going to stagnate and I don¡¯t want to be brought down by it. Someday, if they don¡¯t get their act together, that ce will be looked down upon like it was a slum.¡±@@novelbin@@


    Susan nods, ¡°I¡¯m going to throw my full support behind this ce. The only question that remains is what do we tell them? I don¡¯t want to cause any of you trouble but I¡¯m 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 won¡¯t mind too much but you can¡¯t 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 don¡¯t want to be thought of as that weak willed.¡±


    Jessicaughs, ¡°Even if the idiot survives the dungeon, he doesn¡¯t have long to live, anyway. Seems like he has been on good behaviour but that can onlyst so long. He can¡¯t 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 don¡¯t. While the system as a whole seems to frown upon such nonsense, it hasn¡¯t beenpletely ouwed. Anyway, let¡¯s 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 aren¡¯t 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 wasn¡¯t enough to handle magical spying.


    Back in Ace¡¯s 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 wasn¡¯t 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 aren¡¯t 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 weren¡¯t normal people, but rather spies. Not professional spies, mind you. Rather, there are some powers up the river who aren¡¯t 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 you¡¯ve looked into it after the four talked to you during their walk?¡±


    Kelly nods, ¡°Sadly, I didn¡¯t 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. I¡¯m sure everyone is relieved to hear that.¡±


    ¡°The problem is that while the mind control might not be permanent, this doesn¡¯t 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 idiot¡¯s 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 isn¡¯t 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 idiot¡¯s 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, I¡¯m 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 can¡¯t 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 I¡¯m hearing is that while annoying and something to look out for, mind control isn¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t matter to the system.¡±


    ¡°That and the system only controls our dimension. From how I understand it, gods aren¡¯t so limited. They can¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t 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 don¡¯t 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, ¡°I¡¯m sure I know all kinds of worrying things but nothing right now that rtes to mind control.¡±


    Ace sighs, ¡°I can¡¯t even make mind control spells illegal because I don¡¯t have some easy line to draw. Is a fear spell mind control? What about when someone tames a monster with a skill? I can¡¯t 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 we¡¯ve had visitors, we¡¯ve already gained four new people and they aren¡¯t in the know. We aren¡¯t 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. I¡¯ve done the math and we aren¡¯t 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, ¡°Isn¡¯t 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 I¡¯m sure you are thinking, then why don¡¯t you rece the energy? I wish it was possible as that would make things so much easier. I can¡¯t though as the body breaks down those mystical energies in a way that matches it. So no matter how much I flood a person¡¯s 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 don¡¯t 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 don¡¯t have anyone capable of scribing some scrolls. While the rest of the universe looks at them as a poor man¡¯s enchantment, that is exactly the kind of thing we need right now.¡±@@novelbin@@


    Ace holds up his hand, ¡°What do you mean by a poor man¡¯s enchantment? Wouldn¡¯t it still need masterwork paper to enchant?¡±


    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 don¡¯t 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 don¡¯t do passive effects. You might have a scroll that shielded a person for a minute but you couldn¡¯t have a scroll that automatically shielded a person. Besides that, unless you¡¯ve trained with scrolls, which is something most don¡¯t 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 don¡¯t 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, ¡°I¡¯ve gotten the skill. Of course the book didn¡¯t 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 don¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t pay too much attention to things on an individual basis.¡±


    ¡°We just make the building out of wood and stone? It won¡¯t 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, ¡°I¡¯m only getting nudges from my architecture skill for this part so I can¡¯t be too precise. Somewhere in between is the feel I¡¯m getting with the only solid bit being that decorations won¡¯t 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, ¡°Hasn¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t 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, we¡¯ve covered up the entire area around the dungeon and I¡¯m 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 can¡¯t exactly change things now as others have noticed it already but we don¡¯t 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 Kyle¡¯s 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 isn¡¯t 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 hall¡¯s 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 don¡¯t 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 wasn¡¯t 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. I¡¯ll 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 don¡¯t 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 haven¡¯t noticed them doing so and think they saw it all on the sly but I¡¯ll leave the details up to you Susan.¡±

 Combat Shaping Vs Building – Chapter 141

    The next dayes and with a little tweaking of the n by Susan, Ace¡¯s idea works. The boat arrives filled to the brim with 15 people on it. One is of course the captain, 12 n to delve the dungeon in two parties, and thest two are a bit more tricky. The settlement up the river doesn¡¯t mind the equipment lost within the dungeon, but those four women who didn¡¯t delve still have their stuff.


    Of course Ace andpany are perfectly fine with getting rid of the pre-system equipment but it isn¡¯t theirs. Those four are technically the owners and while Ace is in the process of making his own little feudal society, the group still very much clings to old ideals. Susan heads up the negotiations between the two parties as both sides would very much like to keep the gear.


    Though it wasn¡¯t both the guys who argued for the return of the gear. Instead, only one of them headed that up. The other decided to wander around town and see the sights. Susan, with a cramped smile waves the guy off, ¡°Don¡¯t mind the construction and what not. Lots of things are being built.¡±


    The spy smiles at this. He didn¡¯t only not mind all the construction, it was perfect for what he was here to do. In normal situations, it would be hard to get invited into a house to check on theyout. It is a whole nother story if all you have to do is stand on the outside and look in through a partly put up wall. Though one other thing did interest him. There was a freshly dug hole out in the field. Not much was happening with it but you rarely dig a hole like that without a reason.


    However, when the spy got to the gate and looked out something curious was happening. A bunch of people were hauling nks out to the hole and starting to cover it over. This seemed like a good enough reason to go and check it out. Except, of course, for the fact that when the spy was halfway to the hole someone intercepted him.


    One of the people working on covering the whole rushes over, ¡°Sir, big of a sinkhole or what have you over this way. Nothing much to see and all that so why don¡¯t you head back to the town proper?¡±


    The spy chuckles, ¡°I know a little about such things, how about you let me check?¡± And he tries to walk around the guy blocking his way. Of course this leads to the ssic routine of the guy moving to block his way. Back and forth a couple times before one of the other people working on the site yell over that things are almost done.


    At that point the guy blocking the spy turns around to look. The spy takes advantage of this moment to quietly activate an eye skill. The sclera of his eyes glow blue while his pupils seem to turn from brown to the deepest ck. With this he is able to catch a glimpse of the hole close up before it ispletely covered and he notices something.


    The hole isn¡¯t just a normal hole. Not that he thought it would be. But rather, there are wooden stairs right below the surface that he was able to barely make out. That and the sides of the hole are way too smooth. Maybe if they had tried to im it was a well, he would be more believing. As it is though, the fact they are hiding something is clear as day to him.


    Satisfied the spy returns to the settlement and joins back up with his partner as the negotiations wind down. Though not only is the spy happy, the negotiator is as well. He had been expecting to need to trade something of real value to the town. Instead the settlement is looking for the system coins. He had brought a sack of them just in case he could get away with it, but hadn¡¯t been expecting to.


    While upriver the coins do have some value as they can be used in the system stores, overall they didn¡¯t really use them for anything else. Instead, because of being a bigger town there were a lot of dors around town. Something the older generation was thrilled with, as they hadplete control over it, unlike the system coins. After all, any idiot can go and get new system coins by doing a quest. No one was printing new dors and what do you know? Those at the top happened to have their people go and collect all the dors left in the town before anyone else thought to.


    Of course Ben was against this, going on about how the system coins were the future. But when your entire council is invested in the dor, it is hard to change once you figure out what they are doing. So suffice it to say, the negotiator is quite stoked to be able to trade away the system coins. After all, as far as he is concerned, the pre-system gear is top of the line. All those system shops their town has ess might as well be filled with toys instead of gear in his eyes.


    With the arrival of the spy Susan ¡°gives in¡± and gets the fourdies to agree to sell their gear back to their old town for all the coins the negotiator had on him. A good five hundred coppers and change. The gear is handed over and the two guys leave happy.


    On the boat the captain sees theme back, sans a pouch of coins and shakes his head. While most of the people in the town have views simr to the council, most of the people who believe in Ben have a different opinion. After all, while anyone can get system coins, it is a currency backed by the system. As far as they are concerned that is much better than a currency backed by a government that likely doesn¡¯t exist anymore. Still, it isn¡¯t his ce to say anything. At least not to the two council toadies. Once back in town, the captain has some news to report to Ben.


    Back in the settlement Susan chuckles as she watches the boat leave. Her n had been a two-fold sess. Just getting the coins alone was a much-needed boost. But going by what the others have told her about the sneaky one¡¯s time they managed to pull off the main deception. The hole was a matter of minutes to dig with magic and those stairs in it only went down a couple steps. Now though, the town upriver should believe the hole hides something. She just has one final question.


    Turning to Jimmy, Susan asks, ¡°Can you extend the protection of the town hall down into the ground? Otherwise they are going to get someone to dig in and figure out nothing is there real quick.¡±@@novelbin@@


    Jimmy nods, ¡°We will just have to excavate a decent sized room down there and put up walls of some sort. My advice for that is stone brick walls. That way it will look even more important than just wooden ones.¡±


    Susan sighs, ¡°That will take a lot of mage time to make.¡±


    Jimmy raises an eyebrow, ¡°I¡¯ve seen a mage or two raise stone walls in moments in the dungeon. I¡¯ve seen them transport multi-ton rocks from the river with ease. Why would a few stone bricks cause a problem?¡±


    Susan shrugs, ¡°There is a difference between shaping stone forbat purposes and for the long term. Those stone walls? They aren¡¯t permanent. Give them an hour or two and the stone would quickly flow back into the shape it was before. Even if you tried to break off the raised section, it would fade away.¡±


    ¡°Of course, the same is true for most instantbat magics. The vines that Ace can summon will wither in minutes even if he keeps feeding them magic. A tree someone bends to block a blow will shift back into ce after about ten minutes. Even just rushing the growth of a nt will cause at best the new growth to wither away and at worst kill the whole nt.¡±


    ¡°The only way to make permanent change is through slow and steady shaping. Maybe in the future with the right skills and enough power someone will be able to instantly grow food for us or take a boulder and turn it into a house. For now though any real change is tiring and time consuming.¡±


    Jimmy shakes his head, ¡°Well that sucks. Though you might be onto something with the whole skill thing. Do any of them have skills rted to the changes they are trying to make? Because I know that you need the right skills to harvest stuff in the dungeon. While that might work on a different principle, it might be simr. Maybe you need someone with the woodworking skill to properly bend trees as you want.¡±


    Susan nods. ¡°That is possible. Too bad we don¡¯t have anyone we can ask. Stuff like this wasn¡¯t really at the top of our minds in the tutorial.¡±


    Jimmy shrugs, ¡°Well, I¡¯ve got to get back to supervising the general construction. How much time do you think we have before there is enough coin to buy the anchor? If it is soon enough, we can probably settle for wood as I don¡¯t want to be the one dying the creation of the town hall.¡±


    Susan smiles, ¡°Well they just gave us five hundred more coppers to y with so I¡¯m thinking three days. Ace ended up drawing back the full on delve ns because we do still need people working on the buildings and such.¡±


    Jimmy frowns, ¡°I thought he was expecting more on the lines of five to seven days? If it is only a few days, I really don¡¯t have time. Luckily the people with magic that can affect wood are capable of cutting the stuff now that I know our magic isn¡¯t yet able to just bend it to our will.¡±


    Susanughs, ¡°If they had been bending the wood into shape it wouldn¡¯t work. As it is, they are instead using magic itself to separate the wood and their wood magic to make sure ites out strong. Likely the thing that takes them the longest is the knots as they actually have to bend those into shape.¡±


    ¡°Anyway, Ace believes it will take that long because even after my reminder of the new people delving, he is still judging it off of the old drop rates. We were getting enough coins that way but itpletely skips the fact that none of us have any real trouble with the earliest floors.¡±


    ¡°From how I understand it, dungeons grow on challenge. Since it isn¡¯t a challenge for us, the dungeon isn¡¯t really dropping all that much. With those guys from up river, though, I suspect we will be rolling in the coins. Nevermind the fact our deal with them means all the coins they do get will likely end up in our pockets. They are clearly here for the meat so when given the choice between the two it is obvious which they will pay out.¡±


    Jimmy nods, ¡°Okay, I can see that. Though it isn¡¯t like we demand that much in return for delving.¡±


    Susan¡¯s smile curls up even further, ¡°That would be the case if not for one little fact I just sussed out. They heavily undervalue the coins. My bet is that we can check what they bring out and ask if they are fine with us just taking the coins they earned.¡±


    Jimmyughs at this, ¡°You know we can¡¯t scam them forever? Soon enough we are going to have system shops of our own and not just the newb shops either. There will be proper potion shops and what not. So no matter how deluded they are about pre-system gear, they definitely will be hot for the consumables.¡±


    Susan shrugs, ¡°We¡¯ll cross that road when we get there. For now though, well, sheep are meant to be shorn!¡±

 No Really, The Dungeon Is Tough – Chapter 142

    When ites to the two teams from upriver, Susan isn¡¯t 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 aren¡¯t 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.


    While none of them have a skill for it, the berries don¡¯t 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 aren¡¯t 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 didn¡¯t 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 aren¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t because they can¡¯t go faster. Rather, they are making sure all of them stay topped up. After harvesting the berry room clean, though, they don¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t 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 kobold¡¯s 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 delver¡¯s front line a little. Nothing a quick round of healing doesn¡¯t 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 group¡¯s reports, the kobold had been sitting on the chair previously. Still, it doesn¡¯t change the n all that much and so they let the scout start the fight once again.


    Without the cover, the scout¡¯s 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 isn¡¯t enough to throw any of the team¡¯s front line off bnce, the goat¡¯s 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 doesn¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t 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.@@novelbin@@


    While their town has some basic ability to repair things, the armor isn¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t in the cards for today. Their equipment is worse for wear and while he can¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t 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 team¡¯s healer wouldn¡¯t 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. You¡¯ve just bumped up against the reason that isn¡¯t actually an option. Part of absorbing mana is that you make it your own. Doing so isn¡¯t free and so you put a part of yourself into your mana. Not too much of a problem if you don¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t exactly shy in telling you when something like this is going down.¡±


    The healer sighs at this. While they hadn¡¯t known exactly what was wrong, this wasn¡¯t 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 don¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t able to feed the town at the moment, it definitely takes a lot of pressure off of them. The teams still don¡¯t 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 wasn¡¯t what they had grown up with. Not that the settlement wasn¡¯t 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. ¡°Don¡¯t 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, I¡¯m not even going to try and hide it since the dang thing isn¡¯t exactly hidden. We¡¯re going to be building something over the next two days and during that time we don¡¯t want anyoneing here.¡±@@novelbin@@


    The captain sighs and shakes his head, ¡°The council isn¡¯t going to like that. They¡¯ve 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 can¡¯t guarantee what will happen. I won¡¯te by but that doesn¡¯t mean they don¡¯t send someone else.¡±


    Ace shrugs, ¡°We expected that. To make up for it, we¡¯ve 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 can¡¯t 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, ¡°I¡¯ll try but you and me both know they won¡¯t take it gracefully. All they¡¯ll see is extra fooding in and expect it to stay that way. Though since you¡¯re willing to do this, I assume the building is more than a shack to hide something with. Don¡¯t tell me though, that¡¯s 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 let¡¯s 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 didn¡¯t know about the milk and the herbs so they could have it all to themselves. Of course the captain isn¡¯t 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 hasn¡¯t left the best of impressions on the settlement. Ben sounds like a nice enough person but he didn¡¯t take control. He let people still stuck in the old world ethos set the rules. Ace can¡¯t 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 someone¡¯s 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 didn¡¯t 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 wasn¡¯t 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 can¡¯t be the only ones who know about them.


    Ace doesn¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t 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.


    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 aren¡¯t 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, we¡¯re going to be stuck with the theme?¡±


    Ace sighs, ¡°I¡¯m 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. Can¡¯t 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 I¡¯m 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 don¡¯t think any nonsense was going to linger enough to cause trouble. Though I must admit, I¡¯m very thankful we aren¡¯t 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, let¡¯s get this town hall setup. Jimmy, you ready?¡±


    Jimmy nods, ¡°Just have to redeem the anchor. Which before you ask, does not mean I didn¡¯t actually buy it. Rather, the system lets me choose when to take it out so I don¡¯t 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, I¡¯m 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, I¡¯m thinking I turn it into the room¡¯s light. Later on when we get a better light source it can mask the glimmer. Now let me get this thing ced. I¡¯m 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.


    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 don¡¯t know how the system makes stuff. Give it a little more time to work. From what I can figure out the system shouldn¡¯t 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 didn¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t 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 Doyle¡¯s 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 wasn¡¯t 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 wasn¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t 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 didn¡¯t 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 won¡¯t 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 won¡¯t be able to stop you from doing stuff in the dungeon proper.¡¯


    Doyle¡¯s core dims, ¡®That still feels a bit annoying.¡¯


    Ally shrugs, ¡®Honestly it will be pretty limited. You haven¡¯t 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 I¡¯ve 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 I¡¯m people, as it were, everything bes personal. It isn¡¯t a friend dying against some monsters. It is a friend dying by my hands.¡¯@@novelbin@@


    Ally shakes her head, ¡®You won¡¯t 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 you¡¯re getting away with it because they only have experience with awakened dungeons from the tutorial. Far as the settlement. Well, I guess it¡¯s a town now. But yeah, as far as the town is concerned, you are just a normal dungeon. While dungeons aren¡¯t exactlymon right now, the system won¡¯t 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 don¡¯t have a clue what the system has actually done to your world. It¡¯s 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, ¡®You¡¯re going into tutorial mode again.¡¯


    Ally coughs, ¡®Anyway, the dungeons will mostly be around human settlements. So while the world isn¡¯t 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 they¡¯ve reached any sort of bottleneck, but rather managing the whole town creation mess has stopped them from reaching as hard. I don¡¯t need to get to a point where they can¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t 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 hasn¡¯t 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.

 Soul Plates – Chapter 145

    Ace can only sigh and turn towards where Jimmy had built the town hall and is happy to see it in the same ce they left it. The ce wouldn¡¯t do as good of a job in pretending to hide a secret if it was shifted over a building or two. Besides that, though, there are six other buildings around it and Ace can see a number of beings inside them.


    Ace is about to go and check it out when Susan Smithsones out to get him. ¡°Um, Ace, the others want you back inside real quick. There is apparently something else by the dungeon besides the containment thing.¡±


    While checking the new buildings by the town hall was important, anything to do with the dungeon was top priority. Following Susan Smithson back into the central area, the new building isn¡¯t clear at first. But once Ace is in the entry tunnel leading to the dungeon portal, the new shop stands out like a sore thumb. Built right into the side of the tunnel is a fancy little shop with an ddinmp for a sign. Themp is engraved with the words ¡°Soul Lamps Unlimited¡± and there is a small blue me flickering at the wick.


    Once inside the shop, Ace is greeted by a jinn of some sort, or at least a being with a form simr to what he would imagine one would look like. Which is a bit odd. From a half remembered book on arabic myths they tend to appear as either animals, winds and sandstorms, or part human part animal beings. The creature in-front of Ace however is none of these, instead taking from the modern genie.


    The being has the oddly colored skin, though this one is more of a yellow sand color instead of the ssic blue. And of course below the belt it doesn¡¯t have feet, but rather a small cloud of smoke supporting it. And of course it is dressed in quite the revealing Arabian nights style.


    With a chuckle, the jinn sketches out an attempt at a bow. ¡°Well, if it isn¡¯t the leader of this fine attempt at a town! Wee to my fine system provided shop. Without system support, my job wouldn¡¯t be easy. Oh, and no I don¡¯t grant wishes. Anyone high enough rank to do that nonsense wouldn¡¯t be reduced to such a horrible state as this! Stuck under system control forever doomed to watch the world go by. Woe is me!¡±


    Ace does a slow blink, ¡°Okay. So, what is this shop?¡±


    The jinn tilts his whole body to the side. ¡°You mean you don¡¯t know? It takes a town of resources to get one of these shops set up! You built my fine establishment, may the system rue the day it trapped me with it, and didn¡¯t know what you were getting into?¡±


    Ace coughs, ¡°Well, since we got around to setting up the town so early and there was a dungeon in our town the system just provided it as one of the starter shops.¡±


    The jinn continues its rotation untilpletely upside down. ¡°You got my shop as a system reward? For being quick about it? May the elemental fire abandon me now, this is a new world. Not only isn¡¯t this a good ce to make enough to get a vacation, but I¡¯m going to have to deal with unknowing idiots. What genie cursed me with this assignment?¡±


    Ace sighs, ¡°I¡¯m sure your story is full of exciting highs and gut wrenching lows. Now what is this ce? Because I can totally close this whole thing off and make sure no one enters.¡±


    The jinnughs at the threat. ¡°As if anyone would dare remove ess to a soulmp store! Especially not when you have a dungeon literally just a hop, skip, and a jump down from here.¡±


    Ace rolls his eyes, ¡°Caring about what your shop does onlyes about once I know what it does. As it is, you haven¡¯t really given me a reason not to brick up the ce.¡±


    The jinn quickly rights itself and lets out a nervousugh. ¡°Oh, right. New world so you don¡¯t exactly have the background of how amazing my services are. I assume you already know that dungeons are a pain in the butt to keep track of? People go in and who knows if they will being out, dead, or diving deeper? Well, I can help solve that problem! For a nominal fee I can create soul tes to keep track of if someone is alive or not.¡±


    Ace takes a moment to look around the store. Along the walls are various examples of antiquemps, tablets, tes, candles, and so on. ¡°So notmps? And while knowing if they are alive is nice, that doesn¡¯t help me know what is happening in the dungeon. Anyway, the dungeon we have is one of those fancy separate dimension types.¡±


    The jinn coughs, ¡°It was originallymps a good while ago. If you look outside, themp used for my sign is actually my own soulmp. That is the ssic style which us jinns have perfected for use both with and without a system in ce. If you were going to be sending people somewhere without a system that is what you would want. And yes, I can sell them but they cost a cool grand. And that isn¡¯t in copper but gold.¡±


    ¡°As luck would have it though, your dungeon there is still within the purview of the local system despite being a separate dimension. That means I can provide a simple soul te as the system can keep track of things for us. At the cost of five coppers you get a te that can track you down to the first boss floor.¡±


    Ace nods, ¡°But what happens if someone goes past the boss or leaves the system¡¯s influence?¡±


    The jinn smiles, ¡°That¡¯s the charm of system assisted soul tes! A normal soulmp would react as if the person had died. Because the system is watching though, it knows the person just went out of range instead of having died. Of course if the person dies while out of range you won¡¯t know, but that¡¯s life. For any dungeon based town, a soulmp store is practically required and the fact you have one this early is a blessing. Knowing when you can send the next team in is always going to be one of the more annoying tasks and these soul tes remove the guessing.¡±@@novelbin@@


    Ace takes another look around the store, now recognizing that each disy piece is probably a style of soul te. Deep down he has to admit this is exactly what he needs. In fact, it is almost too perfect. Not too long ago he was thinking up ways to develop something simr only to have it dropped in hisp.


    Not that Ace is going to turn it down. While he would like to not trust the system fully, he can¡¯t really see a way not to and live. ¡°What does it take for a te that works past the first boss? We aren¡¯t sure yet but because of how things have gone, we suspect not just a boss floor but potentially floors beyond it. Also, while this is a littlete, how would you like to be referred to?¡±


    The jinnughs, ¡°Just call me the jinn. While for most true names and such don¡¯t have much meaning, the jinn at least are more closely bound to our names. And as for better tes? I can honestly say I don¡¯t know. I get only a fraction of the money earned while the rest is taken by the system to prep the tes for use. The final cost will depend entirely on the dungeon itself. The system can only figure out how much needs to be spent for a sessful te after someone has beat a floor.¡±


    ¡°Though in reality I¡¯m willing to bet the next grade of te will cost either a copper te to buy outright or six copper coins to upgrade. While it is possible for the costs to vary wildly, the early floors tend to be stable if only because there isn¡¯t much to work with. Now, would you like to purchase a soul te? We have options of who can ask about your te¡¯s status so you don¡¯t have to worry about revealing your death to hostile forces.¡±


    Ace sighs and hands over the five copper coins. ¡°Fine. Sign me up for a soul te. Does this take long?¡±


    The jinn grabs the coins and tosses them into the air. A small swirl appears that reminds Ace of a loot spiral if tamer and the coins end up falling into it. Then just momentster a soul te falls out of the swirl. ¡°Done! Just let me store this away.¡± And the jinn seems to carelessly toss the soul te over his shoulder. Though with a small application of magic, it swiftly falls into ce within a case clearly designed to hold the tes.


    Ace nods his thanks before turning to Kellinger who had been watching what was happening. ¡°We don¡¯t have the most coppers on hand right now, but we can definitely afford the 160 some coppers coins needed to get a te for everyone here. Gather everyone in groups and get them processed.¡±


    Ace turns back to the jinn, ¡°And I only want those who share my founder¡¯s path to be able to check on the status of my te. The same goes for those who share the path with me. Besides that just make sure those covered by the above uses can check on the status of anyone¡¯s soul te.¡±


    The jinn nods, ¡°Easy enough to do with the system¡¯s help.¡±


    Ace nods in return before leaving the shop. While the shop is going to be a required stop for anyone new to dungeon delving, the new buildings by the town hall are calling his name. He might have put them aside to find out what was up near the dungeon, but now he knows and the shop is out of his hands.


    Back outside, Ace takes in the small sprawl of new buildings. The town hall stood exactly where it should, so nothing to worry about with it. Besides that though Ace groans at the style chosen by the system. He should have guessed this would happen, but there are a whole lot more bones being incorporated into the structure of the buildings. Whereas the town hall looks more like a hunting lodge.


    Ace can only shake his head. He had been asking for it when allowing Jimmy to use bones wherever they fit. Now he has to live with the results. Every single building seems to userge bones as part of their foundation. Though the ce that really takes the cake is the butchery. Already destined to be covered in blood and guts, it was kicked up a notch. While the inside area is rtively normal, the outside makes it look like all there is on the thing is bones.


    The roof is made of bones shaped vaguely like shingles. There are support beams at the corners big enough around that Ace doubts his ability to wrap his arms all the way around the things. And of course the sidings are created out of bones as well.


    Inside though, Ace is greeted by a kindly looking old man. ¡°Wee to my shop! While I am sure you¡¯ve had some experience with extracting food from dungeon monsters. Even with the system, that isn¡¯t quite how it normally should happen.¡±


    Ace smiles, ¡°This would have been useful to have before the wolves attacked. Though I don¡¯t know if we would have used it too much, anyway. While Jeremy isn¡¯t the best at skinning wolves, he is much better at saving people. A bit ironic, but life goes on.¡±

 Almost The God Of Butchers – Chapter 146

    The old manughs, ¡°If you have someone with experience butchering things or at least has the skill for it then you don¡¯t need me for much. From what I can remember of other times the system has used a me I tend to be unbothered once a town grows enough. There have even been times when a town has closed the butcher shop though I don¡¯t advise it.¡±


    ¡°Since there is a dungeon I have two main functions. The first and biggest reason to keep me around is the fact that I can butcher any monster known to the system. Maybe you don¡¯t need my services for years but it isn¡¯t like it costs you anything to keep me around. But that one time one of your hunters manages to bag a unique creature that you aren¡¯t quite sure about? Let me tell you, better safe than sorry! A good example is that there are certain monsters that store stuff inside of themselves. If you puncture the structure keeping half an ocean worth of water locked away in a space the size of a fist you are in for a bad time.¡±


    Ace grimaces as he can definitely imagine something like that happening. ¡°How rare is that? I know that our best hunter has a tendency to field dress his kills since he knows how.¡±


    The old manughs, ¡°Oh, don¡¯t worry about a creature like that sneaking up on you. Anything capable of storing cmitous amounts of stuff isn¡¯t going to be handled by a single person, at least not within the next hundred or so years. The more likely oue is finding an odd red variant of a monster and the hunter ends up burning themselves something wicked when the pressurized burning blood sshes everywhere. Just remind everyone to bring any new monsters here. I charge depending on how hard, dangerous, or valuable things will be so if I quote you only a copper coin or so then you can feel safe butchering without my help. Though I do suggest having me butcher even themon critters a few times so your people can learn the most efficient way to do so. It is a good way to quickly improve a butchering skill.¡±


    While listening to thatst part, Ace gets a glint in his eyes. ¡°So, I understand that part of butchering isn¡¯t going out and hunting down monsters. But if we had some farm animals would humanely dispatching them be a part of butchering? And if so, what counts as a quote unquote <i>farm animal</i>.¡±


    The old man shakes his head. ¡°Well, aren¡¯t you clever! You must have had some experience with the butchering profession to ask that because you aren¡¯t wrong. I can only do so much with a dead body. With a living creature, though? That is when the fun begins! Some creatures need special prep to be their best. One strange example I¡¯ve seen of this is a species of spiked boar. Annoying beasts who likely had a dragon somewhere way back in their blood line that has scales instead of hair.¡±


    ¡°The catch on them is that exactly 153 of the scales are spiked and ooze out a nasty mix of poison and venom to discourage eating them. Because of their body structure you have to remove those scales in exactly the right order, which is different for each boar or else the entire beast bes tainted with the nasty mix within seconds. Oh, and the boar has to still be alive when removing those scales because killing them with them still on automatically spreads the poison and destroys the structures that determines the order you should have removed the scales in.¡±


    ¡°Anyway, before you get me distracted again, I should inform you of my other function. Well, I guess there are a bunch of things I can do, but for right now all you can ess is these two. So yeah, you have a dungeon. Convenient ces as they can take even the most messed up of corpses and spit out a perfectly tanned hide or the perfect cut of meat. Except, of course, for the fact it only spits out one of those things and going by my shop¡¯s structure those two will be fighting with bones to drop as well.¡±


    Ace nods, ¡°It is limiting though we have found that those with the right skills can manage to extract an extra piece or two depending on the skill¡¯s level.¡±


    The man shrugs, ¡°True enough, skills do give you a bit of time to extract more value out of your kills. If you have the time, that is. My little shop provides a special service for that. I give out markers, they aren¡¯t magical or anything, just something the system recognizes. Then while you¡¯re in the dungeon, if you touch a kill with the marker the system will provide the option to have the corpse pulled out whole and delivered to me.¡±


    Ace squints, ¡°So what¡¯s the catch?¡±


    The manughs, ¡°Well the first catch though not much of one is that you can¡¯t send out anything that was going to turn into loot. That process interferes with my services. Though most people don¡¯t see this as a problem as loot is worth more than most corpses. And of course the main catch is how much the service costs. Pulling the corpse out isn¡¯t free. You get a blue screen telling you how much it would cost to do so. For the first few floors this isn¡¯t going to be too hard so the cost stays in the copper range. Later floors though? You¡¯re going to want to limit it to the special beasts and bosses. Though the bosses tend to drop loot so not much to worry about there.¡±


    Ace sighs and stands there for a moment before turning to the people who had followed him into the shop. ¡°I have some questions for him that need privacy. I don¡¯t want anyone within a hundred paces of the buildings within the next three minutes.¡±


    The man raises an eyebrow at this but stays silent while they wait. It doesn¡¯t quite take three minutes but the wait for the all clear seems to drag on much longer. Ace turns back to the man, ¡°You don¡¯t just butcher monsters, and that ability doesn¡¯t just work on dungeon creatures. If we brought in a human body, you would process it without blinking an eye and we could send out our fallen with your marker. And this isn¡¯t a system thing, you¡¯re a sick person.¡±


    The man¡¯s smile turns crooked, and heughs, ¡°Well aren¡¯t you the noisy neighbor!¡±


    Ace shakes his head, ¡°People don¡¯t find themselves in the system''s service for nothing. I¡¯m sure there are plenty of normal people taking up any number of jobs. We rolled the dice and got you.¡±


    The man shakes his head, ¡°Have you noticed that you haven¡¯t even thought of asking me my name yet? Don¡¯t worry, that¡¯s normal. You see my name is ¨ˆ¨ˆ¨ˆ¨ˆ¨ˆ¨ˆ! The very concept of it has been erased by the person who threw me to the system. You couldn¡¯t have asked about my name even if you had someone constantly reminding you to ask.¡±


    Ace nods, ¡°The system is your punishment.¡±


    The manughs, ¡°Oh, you sweet summer child! I¡¯m not being punished for most of what I¡¯ve done. Most couldn¡¯t stop me and those who could I avoided. If it wasn¡¯t for that damn kid refusing to admit to who his father was, I wouldn¡¯t be here. I was so close to godhood as well! People feared my name and now all records of my existence are gone. Though if you ever manage to kill a god, please, hand the corpse over to me. I doubt anyone else in this universe has the skill level to truly extract everything from them.¡±


    Ace rubs the bridge of his nose, ¡°Well first off, you aren¡¯t allowed to tell anyone besides me about your past. God, I need to go back and talk to that Jinn some more. Anyway, you also may not provide butchering services for sapients¡±


    The man licks his lips, ¡°But don¡¯t you know? Dungeon bosses are sapient! Would you really want to lose the chance to lose out on the materials?¡±


    Ace looks up with a re, ¡°In fact, you know what? I also don¡¯t want you to butcher humanoids. Don¡¯t provide tips, don¡¯t even hint at the knowledge. As the person in control of this town I have a lot of leeway in dealing with system shops and I¡¯m not going to let you spread your nonsense.¡±


    The manughs at this, ¡°But you can¡¯t prevent the knowledge from being known! Just leveling up the butchering skill will provide it! I was almost the god of butchering and oh the secrets I knew!¡±


    Ace shakes his head, ¡°Don¡¯t try and trick me. If the system provided all the knowledge it had at certain skill levels, there wouldn¡¯t be so many differences and variants out there. If someone isn¡¯t searching for that knowledge, they aren¡¯t going to suddenly learn it. And even if they do learn it, I can work with them from there. The secrets you hold are worth the levels because I can feel the corruptive influence you have.¡±


    The man leans forward onto his counter, ¡°Knowledge isn¡¯t good or bad! What corruption? I¡¯m just not following your moral code.¡±@@novelbin@@


    Ace fixes the man with a look of pity, ¡°You can¡¯t even see it. While I am willing to agree that knowledge itself isn¡¯t good or bad, corruption is very much a thing. It is the intent behind the knowledge that matters. We had a guy pre-system who wrote stories about god-like beings who didn¡¯t even notice humanity and their very presence warped things. One of the biggest things in those mythos stories was the idea that just knowing about some of the entities could ruin a person¡¯s mind. The scary part of that is I believe those stories aren¡¯tpletely false.¡±


    The man sighs, ¡°You have those stories here? I guess I won¡¯t be restricted too long. Either this ce won¡¯t exist soon enough or your silly morals will fade fast enough.¡±


    Aceughs, ¡°Like I said, knowledge doesn¡¯t corrupt you, it is the intent behind it. A handwritten manuscript by a cultist might be capable of driving the reader insane but isn¡¯t the actual words doing it. Rather, the cultist had the intent to corrupt and you better believe that I will root out any such influences as soon as possible. If those beings were all powerful, they would have already taken over here. Those stories are popr and I¡¯m sure more than a few people will have attempted one of the described rituals by now.¡±


    ¡°We might not be able to win but that is because we aren¡¯t the ones ying the game. I¡¯ll leave that to others. What I can do is make sure my world doesn¡¯t fall to corruption. So no, you aren¡¯t allowed to influence others to follow your path. You¡¯re a small yer with the taint of the grave on you. I might not be worth much now but I don¡¯t n to limit myself or my world to being pawns. If life is chess, even if I can¡¯t be a yer I want to be more. So yeah, keep your tainted intent out of your teachings, don¡¯t butcher sapients and humanoids, and if anyone asks you don¡¯t have a past. Beyond that? I¡¯m sure with rules like that you could find a loophole or two so as a final bit of screw you, the system knows me and so you are restricted from doing things that I wouldn¡¯t approve of.¡±


    The man recoils, ¡°No! No! You can¡¯t do <i>that</i> to <b>Me</b>! That isn¡¯t how the game is yed. State out the rules! Give me clear instructions!¡±


    Ace lets out a sadugh, ¡°Like I said, I¡¯m not going to be just another pawn so why expect me to make the same moves as one?¡± Then he walks out of the store to check on the other ces.

 Orc In A Suit – Chapter 148

    As Ace exits the leather workshop, he nces over at the town hall but shakes his head. While the temptation of seeing what is up with the only building they actually built themselves is tempting, he wanted to get through the rest of them first. Good thing there isn¡¯t much left, just the general store and the delver store.


    Of which Ace heads towards the general store first. Anything to do with the dungeon is going to be its own bundle of fun and so can wait its turn. Without even a nce at the delver store right next to it, Ace enters the general store.


    And once inside he finds just about what he expected. A room stuffed full of shelves with the oddest assortment of things. Though the sheer breadth of what is avable does shock Ace. While so far it has felt like the System was very much into knocking people back tech wise, the shelves tell a different story. Modern looking bandaids are sat next to poultices you¡¯d expect a witch to give you and on the other side a wandbeled ¡°the ultimate cut sealer¡±.


    On the back wall are innumerable potions, pills, and pastes. In front of that sits an older woman manning a counter with a number of devices both magical and high-tech that look suspiciously like cell phones. Thatst bit of course draws Ace¡¯s attention.


    Thedy behind the counter sighs when she sees him attracted to the disy. ¡°I assume your world developed handheldmunication devices, then?¡±


    Ace nods his head as he continues to look through the options and so misses when she rolls her eyes. ¡°Well, I¡¯m going to have to disappoint you. These won¡¯t be half as useful as you expect them to be for a few hundred years yet. Magic does a lot of things but at the low end everyone is still stuck with the same limitations. Even if your world had satellites up before the system came, they¡¯re all gone now and without something to bounce a signal off of any of the affordable options are reduced to walky talky level tools.¡±


    At this Ace does look up. ¡°Shouldn¡¯t we be able to at least put up some kind of signal repeater or some such?¡±


    Thedy shrugs, ¡°Yes, but it wouldn¡¯t do much good. The reason it will take a few hundred years to get your satellites back isn¡¯t because your tech can¡¯t do it anymore. The reason it isn¡¯t happening and why there aren¡¯t any up there is because high level fliers love to knock them down. This wouldn¡¯t be a problem if they were closer to the because the system does a decent job keeping the high level critters away. That however means any flyer that feels stifled by the system will just keep flying up until it isn¡¯t anymore.¡±


    ¡°For ground based repeaters that wouldn¡¯t be a problem. Except now every monster can get at them and they dislike the signal the tech ones put off and the magical ones are just seen as a tasty snack to boost their power. So instead of having to worry about the asional high level flier you would be dealing with a flood of every monster imaginable as whenever one gets close to it they will try to attack it.¡±


    Ace frowns, ¡°Could we at least get it so they work within the town and around it? Communication was an important thing here before the system and something as simple as this would go a long way to easing some worries.¡±


    Thedy taps the disy and all the tech options drop away as well as the more intricate magical devices. Left behind are a handful of palm sized rectangles and a couple of sets with onerge box and a number of small pins. ¡°These are your options. I¡¯ve limited it to the low-end magic options because part of what makes them low-end is that they have to hook into the town hall to work.¡±


    ¡°The bigger ones are standalone. You get one and as long as someone else has anymunication device that can hook into the town hall you can call them. The other two are sets. The box goes in the town hall and it creates a privatework. The pins are small enough and you can change their design so more than a few towns use them as the badge of authority for their guards.¡±


    ¡°Also, both types are well out of range for your pocket book right now. For the all in ones the going price starts at a gold and for the other type the base station¡¯s go for ten. Luckily the pins are cheap at only five silver but yeah. If tech was an option that always tends towards the cheaper but not an option. For now, let me direct your attention to this other section!¡±


    Thedy walks out from behind the counter and guides Ace to a case filled with rolled up scrolls and y tablets. ¡°Scrolls and tablets are wondrous things! Scrolls for flexibility and tablets for ease of use and cost. The simplest one off way tomunicate is a connected tablet. Costs five coppers and when one is broken, the other breaks as well! Not in the same manner, mind you or else they would be a lot more useful.¡±


    ¡°Though one word of warning that covers all methods ofmunication. Unless noted otherwise, they do not work between dungeon floors. Anyway, the next option is scrolls of written message. They cost 30 copper and when used allow a simple message of up to ten words to be sent. Though the magic behind it is persnickety about your wording. The mostmon catch people run into is that it counts contractions as the base words so, for instance, can¡¯t be can not. The message is sent by writing down what you want and activating it, which will cause the message to appear on the paired piece of paper. Just the words, though. It loses all the uniqueness that handwriting normallyes with.¡±


    She appears to be about to go on about the next item when Ace interrupts her. ¡°While your sales pitch is quite good, I do have other buildings to check. I¡¯m sure there will be enough people with cash in to buy things. Though don¡¯t show themunicators to anyone else without my permission.¡±


    And before she can start talking again Ace speed walks out the door. With a sigh he looks around, just the delver store between him and the town hall. Though after the experience with the general store he isn¡¯t quite so sure about wanting to check it out. Still, that is what he said he was going to do and so that is what he is going to do.


    Ace walks over to the delver store and takes a look at it from the outside. Whereas the other buildings had used bones sparingly as ents, this ce was decked out in them. Wherever you could stick a bone and make it look good, someone had stuck two. And not just bones but hides, horns, and anything else that mighte off a monster. While the main structure is still made of wood, it takes looking between the decorations to see it.


    Once inside, Ace sees much of the same thing except more delicate things such as feathers are included as well. In fact, the decorations take up so much space on the ceiling and walls that the only ce with product is in the center of the store on free standing racks. Even then those racks are made of delicately carved bones.


    Behind a counter stands an orc. Ace wasn¡¯t going to say that until it was confirmed but the man matches the media portrayal of orcs down to a T. The biggest bit of dissonance to the whole thing, shop included, is the fact the orc is wearing a well tailored suit of some kind. It isn¡¯t one of the ssical suits from pre-system but has simr lines to it.


    The orc steps out from behind the counter with a smile that is visible despite the protruding tusks on his lower jaw he makes a half bow. ¡°Wee to my store! I pride myself in carrying only the best so when adventures get exciting, you can enjoy it. My tribe has been in charge of thispany for many years now and no matter what the local dungeons throw at you I can acquire a solution if we don¡¯t already have it here.¡±


    As the orc straightens up Ace nods, ¡°Nice to meet you. Now we don¡¯t really have much money hanging around at the moment having just started the town but I¡¯m sure we will need things soon enough. Despite being a new dungeon, it has at least four floors. How about you tell me a couple of the things that shock people to find is avable but end up being very important?¡±


    The orc nods, ¡°An interesting question! To answer it, let¡¯s start with my personal favorite. While not on disy, I have one magical pop-up boat avable for purchase. A little costly at five gold but most devler gear tends to fall into the gold economy instead of the silver. All it the device is, is a specially prepared hide boat except it uses magic for structure instead of physical support. Able to fold up smaller than amon sleep roll yet fit six people and their supplies. It is absolutely necessary if a dungeon figures out the secret of how a big puddle can stop adventurers dead in their tracks.¡±


    ¡°And of course right after that I can¡¯t forget the ever faithful continual light marbles. Cheap and effective being one of the few things I¡¯m surprised aren¡¯t sold at general stores instead. For only ten silver you can get a single marble, other shapers are avable, which have had the continual light spell cast upon it. A decent light source that puts out more light than a torch and doesn¡¯t foul the air when in tight spaces. Of course they only work in ces with magic and are stupidly easy to dispel so a backup light source is important. Though I would say the same no matter what you choose as your main.¡±


    ¡°Last but not least, something you can¡¯t afford! That doesn¡¯t narrow it down much of course. Like I said, delvers tend to be on the gold standard. Most things in here start at a gold and go up. Still, since it is a new dungeon, don¡¯t be afraid to bring any interesting drops around. I¡¯ll pay some of the better rates you see for at least the first few and even beyond that depending on the usefulness.¡±


    ¡°Where was I? Oh right, thest thing costs 50 gold. The bodysuit to beat all under armour within its price range for one simple reason. The enviroplete suit! Through special enchantments this one size fits all suit will cover your entire body, including a clear face shield, and goes under whatever armour you wear. For an extra five gold it will even fade to invisibility until you actively use it. And what a use it has!¡±


    ¡°It provides life support in a number of key areas. The suit will keep you protected from extreme heat and cold. It will regte the internal gravity so even if you¡¯re hanging by your feet the blood won¡¯t all run to your head. The air will be at just the right humidity for yourfort. The facete even provides some protection from bright lights. It even has an internal air supply that can keep you going for a good 30 hours.¡±@@novelbin@@


    ¡°Though I will admit it isn¡¯t too powerful. Sudden spikes aren¡¯t going to be handled too well, which means a fireball to the face will still burn and blind you. The gravity feature is honestly the most powerful thing as it reorients gravity within the suit. On the other hand this also means it isn¡¯t able to increase or decrease gravity either so zero g and heavy g will suck just as much. Overall though the suit should keep you safe from the moremon hazards you might find over the first fifty floors of a dungeon barring special cases.¡±

 It’s Lily! – Chapter 149

    Ace politely ps as the orc finishes his presentation. ¡°A bit out of our price range but I¡¯m excited to see my people outfitted properly. With how quick the dungeon is growing, it shouldn¡¯t take too long.¡±@@novelbin@@


    The orc nods, ¡°I will admit that gold can be tight. But that is why this isn¡¯t 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, I¡¯m sure you have other stores to check out. While this might be my first time taking charge of a store, I know that most can¡¯t help but check out anything dungeon rted as soon as possible.¡±


    Ace smiles, ¡°You¡¯re actually thest shop. I just have the town hall left to check out. While a store devoted to delvers is important, I didn¡¯t 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 wasn¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t 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 couldn¡¯t 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 wasn¡¯t 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 didn¡¯t 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 shouldn¡¯t be able to.


    In this case, it was runes within runes that weren¡¯t 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 wasn¡¯t 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 shouldn¡¯t 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 couldn¡¯t be certain, his guess was that the system cheaped out because it didn¡¯t think anyone would notice.


    Soon enough the building was once more revealed to Ace and this time he didn¡¯t 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 wouldn¡¯t 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 shouldn¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t 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 name¡¯s Lily. I bet you¡¯re wondering what I am, but don¡¯t know a polite way to ask?¡±


    Ace nods and Lily giggles before going on. ¡°There really isn¡¯t a good way to ask. Being a base-line human you won¡¯t have too much trouble yourself but I¡¯m 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 isn¡¯t rude not to, some people do like to keep such things under wraps, but it isn¡¯t 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 you¡¯re still curious, how about we give our introductions again?¡±


    Ace swallows, ¡°Ah, yes, that would be, um. Hello, my name is Ace and I¡¯m a human.¡±


    Lily giggles again, ¡°Hello Ace! My name¡¯s Lily and I¡¯m a rabbit folk. Though that likely doesn¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t really a good dividing line so most just rely on the system to make the decision.¡±


    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 don¡¯t mean being good at social situations but rather with a capital S. Normal social skills won¡¯t 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 you¡¯ve 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 won¡¯t 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, ¡°I¡¯m 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 doesn¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t mentioned anywhere and most literature on the subject will assume any dungeons aren¡¯t that close because for some reason kings and such don¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t 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 aren¡¯t caught by surprise.¡±

 Not Much There – Chapter 151

    Ace groans, ¡°Well, that sounds like a problem for the future.¡±


    Lilyughs, ¡°Or not even your problem at all. Let those kingdom builders take care of it. For now, just focus on your town.¡±


    Ace justzily waves his hand in the air as he calls up the town panel.


    {[Unnamed] Dungeon Town


    Coffers: 0


    [System Buildings]


    [Laws]


    [Officials]


    [Options]}


    Ace frowns, ¡°Of course everything would be in sub panels. [Buildings].¡±


    {[Upgrade] [Creation] [Customize] [Repair] [Removal] [Systamize]


    Town Hall, General Store, Smithy, Leather Workshop, System Well, Gruel Dispensary, Butchers, Basic Bone Road, Basic Living Mangrove Dock, Delver Supply Store, Soul Lamps Unlimited, Reinforced Dungeon Containment}


    Ace turns back to Lily, ¡°Most of the building options make sense but what does Systamize do? Like, I understand it is going to make a building into a system structure, but what does that mean?¡±


    Lily nods, ¡°A powerful option that I advise you not touch with a ten-foot pole any time soon. What it does as you guessed is turn a building ornd feature in your town into a system controlled building. There are many benefits, including the ability to use the upgrade feature. The downside is that once you systamize a building, it is out of your hands. Unless you use the upgrade or customize feature, no one can make permanent changes to the structure.¡±


    ¡°That means if you systamize every building in your town, anytime someone wants to make a change like adding on a room to their house, they have to ask you. Also, while the upgrade option is powerful, it is also limited. A skilled builder can make all kinds of strange changes if you give them a chance. That and they can repair a building faster means that most towns will limit systemized buildings to things like what was already provided. Though it is important to note that even if you systamize a shop, the system will not magically fill it for you. Those starter buildings are special like that.¡±@@novelbin@@


    ¡°Oh, and the system will staff systemized buildings as well. So if you don¡¯t have any alchemists then setting up an alchemy shop and systemizing it isn¡¯t the worst n. Though at that point you would be better off using the creation option. Once again, the starter shops are special, so don¡¯t expect creation to magically spawn buildings in moments. However, it does give you more control over what you get as you can honestly dig quite deep. Each option has sub options until you get down to selecting specific groups of workers.¡±


    Ace nods, ¡°Okay, that makes sense. Thank you for the info.¡± And he turns back to the system screens and calls up thews panel.


    {[Create Law] [Update Law] [Remove Law]}


    Frustrated at the near useless panels, Ace pokes at createw.


    {New town detected


    Would you like to use a presetw package?


    [Yes] [No]}


    Ace shakes his head and closes the panel without making a choice. While interesting, that is the kind of thing he needs to go over with the others. Though speaking of the others, Ace pulls up the officials panel next.


    {[Assign Position] [Dismiss Official]


    Ruler: Ace, Treasurer, Guard Captain, Head Healer, City nner}


    Ace rubs the bridge of his nose, ¡°Hey Lily, there don¡¯t seem to be that many positions that I can assign people to.¡±


    Lily shrugs, ¡°There never is with a new town. Positions don¡¯t show up until it is needed. You can try to artificially add some on by acting out a need for some specialized positions, but overall, not worth worrying about. The important ones generally are there from the start. Mainly that of guard captain and city nner.¡±


    ¡°A guard captain can assign official town guards which mesh with thews. Beyond that, though, they have an easier time learning skills based onmanding their people. A group of guards led by a captain can be a scary thing, even for skilled adventurers.¡±


    ¡°On the other hand, a city nner is mostly useful because it takes some responsibility away from you. They gain ess to the buildings tab. You can restrict how much they can do, but even if all you let them do is make sure all the system buildings are in good repair, it can be worth it. But if you trust them? Just open the flood gates. Like the guard captain, they have an easier time learning skills rted to nning out a city. As the leader, those skills aren¡¯t what you need and this lets you push the responsibility off onto others.¡±


    Lily smiles as Ace turns back to the screens only he can see. The four open positions aren¡¯t too hard to figure out who goes where but once again Ace decides to leave it till he can talk it over with the others. Instead, he pulls up the options panel.


    {[Dungeon] [Citizenship] [Misc]}


    Ace doesn¡¯t even have to think about it before tapping the dungeon option.


    {Energy Well Aura: [<b>On</b>] [Off] [Area Restrictions]


    First Room of Each Floor a Safe Room: [<b>On</b>] [Off]


    Instance Overstuffing: [<b>On</b>] [Off] [Set Limit]


    Allow terrain modification around entrance: [On] [<b>Off</b>] [Area Restrictions]


    Allow monster spawning outside of dungeon: [On] [<b>Off</b>] [Area Restrictions]}


    Ace nods, ¡®The energy well bit must be the thing recharging people¡¯s power. Though the area restrictions thing sounds interesting and just what I needed. Besides that, I don¡¯t really see a need to change any of the others. Well, except maybe the one.¡¯ ¡°Another question Lily, what is instance overstuffing?¡±


    Lily stops doodling on a piece of paper and looks up. ¡°That one has to do with instanced dungeons and their limits. By default as many people can fit on a floor as you can pack in. the only limit being physical space. Once a dungeon has instances though it, and now you, can choose to prevent more than a certain number of people being on a floor for any particr instance.¡±


    ¡°Of course, there are limits to it. Six is the smallest amount you can set for instance. Besides that, the dungeon is more than capable of setting certain floors to be special and thus allowing more or less people in than what you chose. Though not even the dungeon has full control over it.¡±


    ¡°A normal boss floor, even in non-instanced dungeons, will limit the number of people that can be on the floor to ten. My advice for the moment is to just leave it on. You¡¯re already limiting people going in through mundane methods and it would suck if you needed to get everyone in the dungeon only for it to block most people from entering.¡±


    Ace just sighs and opens the citizenship panel.


    {[Citizenship types]: Citizen


    [Naturalization Requirements]: Leaders Approval


    Limit System Shops to Citizens: [On] [<b>Off</b>]}


    With not much there, Ace moves onto the misc panel.


    {}


    With an eyebrow raised, Ace slumps down onto the wall next to him. ¡°So, Lily, I would think there should be more options? Misc doesn¡¯t even have any options in it! What is up with that?¡±


    Lilyughs at his defeated look. ¡°What? Did you think the system would provide you page after page of options so you can customize your town without actually doing anything personally? If only that would be the case! As you start ruling, the various choices, you make will cause more options to pop up. Though you are a bit behind new towns on a more established. That, however, mostlyes from them having been trained to manage a town.¡±


    Ace shakes his head, ¡°But these options don¡¯t do anything!¡±


    Lily shrugs, ¡°You skipped thew section. No, I can¡¯t see your screens but it would have taken a lot longer even if you just wanted a preset. Without a bunch ofws, you don¡¯t really have that many levers to tweak. That is actually where most of the misc optionse from early on. Like, if you had aw rted to pets, then there would be a lot of options based on that so you can tweak the specifics without having to update thew all the time.¡±


    ¡°A really silly example would be using your world¡¯s tomato. While technically a fruit, most of the poption consider it a vegetable. If you had aw taxing fruit and people were debating over if it applied to a tomato, an option would pop up in misc that would let you choose. Basically, if you give it enough time, you will regret ever even mentioning there not being a lot of options.¡±


    Ace sighs, ¡°I guess it would make sense that without having chosen much of anything from the other panels, there wouldn¡¯t be much in the options. At least the dungeon bit had a very interesting option that everyone will be thankful for.¡±


    Lilyughs, ¡°You¡¯re a dungeon town. If there weren¡¯t interesting options for it, something has gone wrong.¡±


    Ace nods, ¡°True enough. Though back to the various positions I can fill. Do they get anything else from that? Actually, do I get anything for being the town leader?¡±


    Lily shrugs, ¡°Eh, not particrly. At least not to start. For the most part, the various officials will be ways of distributing responsibility. For instance, if you set up taxes in thews, you will have an official in charge of that. By default, the position will have control over the taxes unless you overrule them. Another useful one is that once you have some farms set up, there will be a position meant to keep track of food.¡±


    ¡°Remember how I said you can set up quests to stock therder on the second floor? Well, that position has the permissions to handle that sort of thing. That way you don¡¯t have to worry about the specifics of what is stored beyond just knowing if there is enough overall.¡±


    Ace sighs, ¡°Well, all of that can be decided uponter after I gather the others. While I wanted to give all the founders a position that doesn¡¯t seem feasible or desirable.¡±


    Lily tilts her head to the side, ¡°Founders? I¡¯m not asking but I assume that came with a title path. When setting up the citizenship stuff, the system should offer a pre-made founders citizenship option. Seeing as the anchor to make a town isn¡¯t cheap you normally end up with a few people who can im to have founded a town and that citizenship package is there to help. While not quite an official position like guard captain is, it has some simr benefitster on so well worth it.¡±


    Ace waves that off, ¡°I already have ns for an inner circle made up of all the original people who stayed to face the wolves.¡±


    Lily shakes her head, ¡°That¡¯s nice and all, but the system has a few special things added to the founder package that other types of citizenship can¡¯t get. You might have noticed that I said official positions don¡¯t get much right now? Well, with the right development, things change and founders can get in on it. Useful if you have someone focused on training so much they don¡¯t want an official position. If anything, you might get a few interesting options to y with.¡±


    Ace shrugs, ¡°I¡¯ll discuss it with the otherster. Honestly, all of this needs to be taken care ofter. I might even end up changing the government structure so I am no longer the only one at the top of the pyramid.¡±


    Lily taps the counter with an irritated look. ¡°Let me rephrase that. You will make a citizenship type for founders. It will be useful for you and the others. Even if you choose to change to apletely new form of government, that type of citizen is important and only you can make it. If anyone else who doesn¡¯t share the founder title was to gain control of the panel, the option would not be there.¡±


    Ace stands up and stretches, ¡°Fine, I¡¯ll do it. After I talk to the others. We¡¯ve cludged along this far and are still fine.¡±

 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 that¡¯s a new one. I guess that¡¯s a good thing for me as I don¡¯t 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] [<b>Off</b>]


    Limit allowed area: [Area Restriction] [Clear Restriction]


    Energy Well works in Safe Rooms: [On] [<b>Off</b>] [Town¡¯s Discretion]}


    ¡®Well, that¡¯s short and sweet. I¡¯m sure there will be other options for me to deal withter but for now I wonder what the area restriction does. Set [Area Restriction]¡¯


    Doyle¡¯s 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 Ace¡¯s desk are set to not have the Energy Well¡¯s 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 isn¡¯t 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.@@novelbin@@


    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 doesn¡¯t 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 wouldn¡¯t help if enough people stuck around. It wasn¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t cost much, he doesn¡¯t 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 Doyle¡¯s 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 won¡¯t 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 Ally¡¯s 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 doesn¡¯t 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.


    Doyle isn¡¯t 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 can¡¯t 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 aren¡¯t 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 didn¡¯tprehend the true meaning behind the change.


    Still, more and more people began to delve into Doyle¡¯s 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 isn¡¯t 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 didn¡¯t 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 aren¡¯t 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 aren¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t exactly informative.


    {Presence: A mind¡¯s specialty is projecting. Your race has turned what for most is an external stat into an internal one. This represents a core¡¯s 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 isn¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t mean that a monster with a mind of its own won¡¯t 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 aren¡¯t exactly figuring out a new strategy to fight and even the random ambushes had partly been figured out. At this point Doyle doesn¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t like he won¡¯t 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 wouldn¡¯t coddle them and death was possible even on the earliest floors if you weren¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t the instant heal that Doyle had seen from Doctor¡¯s spells, Ace¡¯s 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 Ace¡¯s 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.


    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 hadn¡¯t 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 don¡¯t even join in to start and yet the fight isn¡¯t 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.@@novelbin@@


    Of course, the kobold knight doesn¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t 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 Doyle¡¯s dungeon is small enough that teams can get quite deep before he shakes it off. Plus, it probably doesn¡¯t 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 Ace¡¯s 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 won¡¯t be a pure curb stomp they aren¡¯t 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 Ace¡¯s 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 haven¡¯t been since the original wolf pack Ace¡¯s 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 doesn¡¯t just go away. Sure, it won¡¯t linger forever but Ace is able to apply it to Jack after a minor scratch and won¡¯t 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 wasn¡¯t for the few loot drops that Ace¡¯s 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 didn¡¯t 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 can¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t leave any room to the left and there isn¡¯t any hallway going straight through. Plus, I¡¯m 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 floor¡¯s true reward pops up. He didn¡¯t 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. What¡¯s in the chest?¡±


    Susan shakes her head, not that Ruby can see her, ¡°I¡¯ll 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. I¡¯m going to take a look and see what we have.¡±


    This deration grabs Doyle¡¯s attention. As far as he can tell, there isn¡¯t 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 wasn¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t 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 they¡¯re 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 don¡¯t 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 I¡¯m sure dungeon loot spears will do a lot more damage when thrown than your lead slugs. Nevermind the potential to pin a monster.¡±


    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, I¡¯ll 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 don¡¯t 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.¡±@@novelbin@@


    Jackughs even harder, ¡°We all know that most of those are put up by you. It isn¡¯t exactly a secret yet.¡±


    Ace nods, ¡°But not all of them are. From chatting with Lily, I¡¯ve learned that you can sometimes find personalized stuff up there. You have to actually strive for it. The system isn¡¯t 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, that¡¯s a lot of herbs. Oh, and a single box. I¡¯ve got to say, Kelly¡¯s theory that it only drops a box if no one in the group had gotten one recently was looking solid. With this one though, that¡¯s out the window as we got one a couple days ago. Though how she even came up with that idea is a mystery. We haven¡¯t 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 wasn¡¯t quite ready for it either andined enough to attract Doyle¡¯s 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 isn¡¯t anything too impressive but Susan isn¡¯t all that happy with the tunnels. After taking a closer look at them, she turns to Ace, ¡°These aren¡¯t dungeon tunnels.¡±


    Ace raises an eyebrow at this statement. ¡°Last time I checked we hadn¡¯t left the dungeon.¡±


    Susanughs at that, ¡°Fair enough, I guess that wasn¡¯t 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 aren¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t nice enough to force it to be a truly safe room. Any nonsense we drag back with us won¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t exactly fit into any of my ns.¡±


    Sammy shrugs, ¡°Just follow a tunnel and see where it goes. There isn¡¯t 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 don¡¯t 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 couldn¡¯t enter. As luck would have it for the group, the previous patrol was recent enough the kobolds aren¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t 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 don¡¯t 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 don¡¯t 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 aren¡¯t impossible under the system and as far as I am concerned if the dungeon could just call down every single monster on us that wouldn¡¯t be possible. Way too much of a jump in difficulty.¡±


    Ace nods, ¡°I sort of agree with that. Let¡¯s 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 aren¡¯t all out at once and while it doesn¡¯t 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 aren¡¯t 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 aren¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t get much lead time before sts of rock and fire start raining down on them. There hadn¡¯t been too many caster kobolds who weren¡¯t healers so the slow gain in levels hadn¡¯t been overly noticed. Now though, even before any external bonuses, each of the kobold¡¯s have 29 agility and, more importantly, 31 wisdom.


    While this doesn¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t like they hadn¡¯t 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 didn¡¯t involve advancing into ranged attacks against a fortified position. Because while the kobolds aren¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t 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, ¡°Don¡¯t let it get you down. We¡¯re 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 wasn¡¯t going to be cleared anytime soon. While the patrols won¡¯t hold them for long, the monsters in the town should do a fine job. But that isn¡¯t 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 Ally¡¯s room but pauses. He hadined about her spying on him and it didn¡¯t 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, ¡®What¡¯s 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, ¡®We¡¯re still in this together. It¡¯s 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, I¡¯m 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 don¡¯t 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 wouldn¡¯t advise pushing the first boss much further back than the tenth floor, it isn¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t an option anymore. Bosses are checkpoints and barriers for a number of things and a part of that is people can¡¯t 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? What¡¯s that?¡¯


    Allyughs, ¡®I¡¯m sure you¡¯ve 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 isn¡¯t 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 don¡¯t 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. It¡¯s 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 wasn¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t 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 won¡¯t me you for trying. Trauma isn¡¯t something that you just <i>fix</i>. 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 doesn¡¯t 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 shouldn¡¯t 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 floor¡¯s 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 hadn¡¯t been mentioned so he was a bit concerned about it but after a quick check things became clear to him. The sixth floor¡¯s 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 can¡¯t 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.@@novelbin@@


    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 doesn¡¯t have to mean it will be worth it, it also doesn¡¯t mean it isn¡¯t. The only annoyance is that he had just talked to Ally and doesn¡¯t 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...


    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 can¡¯t 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 can¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t 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 hasn¡¯t really gotten into the strangeness. Now though, the system isn¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t 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.


    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 hasn¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t 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 aren¡¯t 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 floor¡¯s 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 doesn¡¯t 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, can¡¯t 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 can¡¯t be seen through and feels like it will act more like the floor connecting portals, he seeded. But it isn¡¯t quite what he wants so now he has to take a closer look and change things.@@novelbin@@


    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 can¡¯t work that way. A single hole is worthless if there isn¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t 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 person¡¯s 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 wasn¡¯t 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 don¡¯t exactly ovep. Perfect for what has now sprawled out into a full-blown n.


    Doyle pauses, ¡®Now what monsters to use for this? I¡¯m thinking grasnd with the asional tree. Though, do I have the pattern for grass? I¡¯ve 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 isn¡¯t 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, I¡¯m 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 I¡¯m 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 that¡¯s obvious now that I¡¯ve 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 doesn¡¯t 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 don¡¯t 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 didn¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t 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 didn¡¯t try to log the trees on the second floor was a bit odd. Since they aren¡¯t 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 wouldn¡¯t 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 aren¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t the end of the portals. No, he needs a way to bring in the monsters. As luck would have it, this doesn¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t 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.


    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 isn¡¯t 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 won¡¯t let him make it so delvers can¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t mean he can¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t 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 won¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t mean he has to force them down the correct path. Still, once again, he isn¡¯t 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 it¡¯s all loot.


    Of course, with animal handlers, they can¡¯t 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.@@novelbin@@


    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 won¡¯t 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 didn¡¯t 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 floor¡¯s 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 didn¡¯t 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 Moota¡¯s 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 isn¡¯t the end of it.


    They¡¯re 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 can¡¯t 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.

 Existence Existing – Chapter 158

    Doyle pulls back from working on the sixth floor, and things have changed. Not much, but enough for him to tell time has passed. The system doesn¡¯t have a convenient calendar function so it takes him a little to figure out that three days have passed. Once again, not much had happened so this loss of time wasn¡¯t critical but it showed that he needed to be careful about time slipping on him.


    Though he can understand why it took so long. Even if he hadn¡¯tpletely connected up the sixth floor portals like he had wanted, there was still a boatload of work done. While it felt like no time at all, there had to be some cost to warping reality, even if it is his own personal pocket dimensions and apparently that cost is time. A decent trade off if a little worrying.


    In fact, it is worrying enough that Doyle turns to Ally. ¡®Heyo, I just lost a few days. It was used on needed work but it is a little worrying. I understand it is a dungeon thing but I wanted to make sure things were alright.¡¯


    Ally looks up from a hefty tome that is bound in leather and without a title except for a strange gilded squiggle that tickles Doyle¡¯s brain as if it should mean something to him. She closes the book and frowns, ¡®You have already experienced the whole, time passes by you thing but this is different. While being in the zone while crafting something isn¡¯t the rarest thing, it is odd for a dungeon with so few floors. You simply don¡¯t have enough protection between your core and the surface. Did you experience anything like this before the system came?¡¯


    ¡®Sorta¡¯, Doyle pauses, ¡®When I would get into an exceptional book I would tend to get so absorbed that I forgot to sleep.¡¯


    Ally nods, ¡®That would do it. You already had the basic instincts for it before bing a dungeon and the new instincts just reinforced it. Of course, dungeon cores aren¡¯t the only ones that experience it. In fact, the state tends to be named schr¡¯s fugue because once they gain enough power to offset needing to eat and sleep they need someone to manage their time.


    ¡®With dungeon¡¯s in particr though you should get warned a few floors before a party reaches your core but that clearly didn¡¯t happen. My guess is that it isn¡¯t a set number of floors but rather a percentage, and a low one at that. This could be troublesome.¡¯


    Doyle sighs in frustration, ¡®There isn¡¯t even a good condition I can set with how few floors I have. Right now, there is nothing to stop someone from sending in waves of people to overwhelm me. I would need to know about that as soon as it starts, instead of once they reach the fifth floor or some such. Ally, would you mind keeping an eye on that sort of thing for me? I can easily set a warning for night time delves as even if it isn¡¯t a rule, the town avoids it so you would only need to watch during the day.¡¯


    Ally smiles, ¡®You know what? I wouldn¡¯t mind helping you with that.¡¯


    Doyle¡¯s core brightens, ¡®Thank you. While things got a bit rocky there, I really do enjoy yourpany and I hope this can be the start of us truly working together.¡¯


    Ally nods, ¡®I hope for that as well.¡¯


    With a lighter mood, Doyle sets up a night time rm and turns back to the sixth floor. Because of theplexity being used to express such a simple thing as a giant field of grass he can¡¯t change too much. All that really remains is to carve something and finish up the myriad of gate connections that still need to be made.@@novelbin@@


    After a quick look over the floor, Doyle realizes the perfect thing to carve, the ebony trees. Each one exactly the same as thest, which means he can carve up a single one and replicate it across the floor. Though that does leave figuring out what concept he wants the trees to embody. So far, the best results from his skill havee from when it was being used with a purpose driven concept. Sure, the lights turned more sun-like but it was weak.


    No, for this Doyle wanted something special. There is, of course the shade they cast which on a floor meant to simte a constant high noon is important. But the shade is already decent. It needs to be something important to the floor.


    Then it hits him, he is already going to be copying the carvings to all the other trees. Combine that with the point of the floor being to confuse people into thinking it was an endless prairie, that can be the concept. The idea of infinite reflection where the trees support the illusion of an infinite number of identical trees.


    Idea in mind Doyle begins to carve into the tree starting at the top of the main trunk. Around the top he repeats identical stick figure trees of eerie simrity despite each one being drawn separately instead of copy pasted. Then underneath those, there are elegant curves and curls connecting the trees above as if roots. Though this is also where the visual duplication ends. Each root weaves through the rest in a unique path and yet still manages to connect to all the others.


    A simple carving but there is power in the simplicity, and a mania overtakes Doyle. While he had nned to just copy, the carvings to the other trees that just won¡¯t do anymore. No, he instead goes to each tree and carves the imagery, identical trees on top with unique roots below. No one tree with the same root carvings and yet the stick figure trees might not have been so alike even if he had copied them.


    This process takes another three days of nonstop work but on the fourth everythinges together. A pulse of indistinct power that even Ally can¡¯t identify as it washes over her. Then not just the trees but the grass and dirt all modte and shimmer before bing otherworldly. Each de of grass, each speck of dirt, and every single leaf have turned identical.


    Not just on a surface level either, but down to the very mystical and physical core of each of them. The strangeness simmers on the edge of Doyle¡¯s mind as strange symmetrical tendrils of orderly void almost seem to extend out towards the other floors but are contained to the actual floor, unable to leave the straight lines of the floor¡¯s inner space.


    Then a snap and the goosebump raising sensation is shattered. While the grass and such remain identical on the surface, the inner spaces and actual material no longer matches. But still a connection remains and Doyle can tell that one of the minor effects of this is that damage to any tree will undo itself as much as possible before any unfixable changes are replicated to the other trees. While Doyle hadn¡¯t worried too much about it, this new effect will prevent people from noticing that they are just passing the same trees over and over again.


    Doyle was going to spend some time figuring out what just happened when Ally spoke up for the first time in a while. ¡®Why did I just feel an axiomatic event try to form?¡¯


    Doyle turns his attention to her, ¡®What is that?¡¯


    Ally sighs, ¡®There are a few intrinsic forces that seem to cover more than just the local dimension cluster. Basic building blocks that gain a force from their sheer ubiquitousness. Order and Chaos are two of the higher tier ones that as far as most can tell are the forces behind existence beyond just the void. Chaos creates new dimensions while Order is the force behind entropy and the continual decay towards a dimension returning to the void.


    ¡®Sounds like the ssic good vs evil conflict except with the usual roles flipped, right? Well, there is a reason good and evil aren¡¯t simr forces. It alles down to perspective. For instance, Order is all about civilizations forming while Chaos is at best neutral and at worst all about burning it down. Of course Chaos is the power behind sapient life forming in the first ce, while Order would very much prefer everything just remain as instinct based animal. And then, of course, Chaos is the one who creates life in the first ce, and so on and so forth.


    ¡®What is important for this is that even True Immortals don¡¯t directly deal with forces like that. Rather purely from those forces existing, there are beings who spring into existence whole cloth. Chaos, of course, doesn¡¯t have any set spawn but Order does. Some of your world¡¯s role-ying games had a concept simr to them in the modron. Anyway, if any ce bes too orderly, it will call those beings. Very inconvenient as living creatures aren¡¯t orderly enough for them. Whole worlds have been reduced to equal sized cubes of various materials by infestations of them and I just felt an attempted incursion.¡¯


    Doyle shudders, ¡®Okay, that¡¯s my bad. I¡¯ll have to be more careful with conceptual reinforcement from now on. I was carving up my trees on the sixth floor so they are as simr to one another as possible. Those carvings, however, did more than intended and turned the whole main floor area into exact copies wherever every de of grass and every speck of dirt mirrored themselves.


    ¡®What I guess was the incursion tried to take it further but something either rted to me being a dungeon or to the way my concept worked forced it to stop. Now, while the surface of everything is the same, the insides are all mixed up again. Thinking back on it I think the only thing that saved me is that I carved the roots underneath the depictions of my trees to be aplete tangle with everyone being different.¡¯


    Ally nods, ¡®Well yeah, that would do it. Luckily, Chaos is a whole lot harder to call in. Those beings tend to only show up tobat the forces of Order.¡¯


    Doyle sighs, ¡®Any other forces I should be aware of so I can avoid calling in?¡¯


    Ally shrugs, ¡®Not particrly. Most of them don¡¯t bother getting involved with Order being the main exception. Mostly because all the others get along with existence existing. For instance, there is a force that represents supernatural powers. Even a dimension thatcks the stuff is fine by that force because there is always a chance for it to be introduced. Your dimension is actually a good example of this. Sure, some dimensions might live and die without experiencing magic, but with the lifespan of a dimension the numbers are shockingly small.¡¯


    ¡®I¡¯m sure I¡¯ll stumble upon other forces that want to screw with me.¡¯ Doyle rolls back and his core dims, ¡®Though yeah, can¡¯t really do anything about it until it happens. Anyway, how have the delvers been?¡¯


    Allyughs, ¡®The people from upriver are quite a clueless bunch. They delve as frantically as possible while trying to increase their levels. Sure, they are gaining power and the difference between any normal team from the town and those upriver has mostly vanished. However, the people from town have focused on getting a very strong base and raising their skills as much as possible. Oh, and of course the founders are bonkers and could whip the butt of every single one of the teams from upriver. But that is to be expected. I¡¯m sure the ce upriver has a few trump cards that are above the norm as well.¡¯


    Doyle grumps, ¡®Bleh, I¡¯m almost jealous of them being able to level. I¡¯m only at three myself after all.¡¯


    Ally shakes her head, ¡®Most of your experience probably doesn¡¯t evene from the delvers. At this point, they are just too weak to be a real challenge. Rather, you¡¯re likely on the crafter track at the moment. After all, crafting each floor is more of a challenge for you than it is to use those same floors to defend yourself.¡¯

 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.@@novelbin@@


    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 haven¡¯t gotten much further. Today was different though because now Jim is bringing his team in to give it an attempt. While Ally admitted she didn¡¯t think they would beat the floor, it was their first attempt so she figured he would want to watch.


    And she wasn¡¯t wrong. Ace was a known quantity, but Jim tended to keep his cards close to his chest. All of Jim¡¯s serious training is done in the forest alone. And that doesn¡¯t 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 Doyle¡¯s caution of Jim. It doesn¡¯t 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 won¡¯t be entering the safe room, that doesn¡¯t 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 hadn¡¯t 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 boss¡¯spanion. 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 Doyle¡¯s hackles. Not that he can do anything about it at the moment.


    While Doyle was worrying himself, Jim¡¯s 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 Doyle¡¯s 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 isn¡¯t 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 wasn¡¯t just used to improve his directbat ability. The kobolds on the boss floor hadn¡¯t even gathered enough energy to ce down traps and here Jim isying out a variety of them. Though the good news is that he isn¡¯t 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 don¡¯t rush but the group is definitely faster than the usual patrol speed. You could even call it arrogance on the kobold¡¯s part. If they had gone at a steady pace, the traps wouldn¡¯t 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 wouldn¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t as effective as it would be if made now, it still hits above its weight group despite being mostly pre-system in make.


    But don¡¯t 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. Jim¡¯s 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 didn¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t the Jim show so while the traps are effective the group¡¯s 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 isn¡¯t 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 won¡¯tst like normal oil would. But it isn¡¯t going to vanish before the fight is over so she doesn¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t look good for them.


    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 kobold¡¯s 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 isn¡¯t as effective against the beast¡¯s 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 isn¡¯t exactly the best material to use. Most of them had shattered against the kobold¡¯s armor and while metal beating wood isn¡¯t 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 wasn¡¯t 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 wasn¡¯t working on a human level, she had improved.


    The act of retreating when Doyle hadn¡¯t 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.

 Three Potential Names – Chapter 161

    Midway through the next day, Ace finally finds out about the approaching headache. While Doyle hadn¡¯t been able to confirm it was Jan the day before, Ace has ess to Jim. After someone who was out managed to catch sight of therge caravan of people, it was only a matter of hours before Jim managed to confirm not only that it was Jan, but that she had only half of the original people still with her.


    Ace wasn¡¯t willing to instantly assume the worst, especially when, by Jim¡¯s estimate, she had managed to pick up extra people numbering at least as many as what she left with. However, she hadn¡¯t really earned herself any leeway. Plus, Jim was able to scout out the stronger people in the group and every single one of them was from her core believers.


    Sure, if it was just the people who had left that would make sense. But having so many more people join her? There had to have been stronger people with them at some point or they wouldn¡¯t have survived. The fact they aren¡¯t around anymore has some dark connotations to it which will need to be figured out and brought into the light.


    With a sigh, Ace turns to the rest of the founders, ¡°So we should probably finalize the town¡¯s name before they get here. While it isn¡¯t like people get alerted to the town¡¯s name when they enter. However, with the few that have decided to join we do know that the message they get includes the town¡¯s name. Or in this case, the word unnamed with brackets around it.¡±


    Off to the side, Kyle steps out from the crowd that had gathered. ¡°Sir, while most people have been referring to the ce as Dungeon Town, that name is probably a dime a dozen. Just on this alone there should already be a couple lucky ces with that name.¡±


    Aceughs, ¡°That was never in the cards. Those of us who lived here mostly didn¡¯t bother with a name because we aren¡¯t really interacting with other ces. It is only the people visiting from the town up river that calls the ce that. Using dungeon town as the name would be the same as them naming their ce up river town. If anything I at least want the name toe from one of us instead of given by somewhere else.¡±


    Above them, Doyle turns his observation away from them. While knowing what the town will be called is interesting, it isn¡¯t as important as the returning Jan. Admittedly Doyle doesn¡¯t have a horse in the race but they will likely be the greatest source of energy in the near future.


    Sure, the people up river had been sending team after team, but most of them weren¡¯t staying in town on a permanent basis. Whatever else might be in the works, since Jan is returning she isn¡¯t likely to give up on the town. At the very least, his dungeon is the most tempting resource on the outside of other dungeons. There just hasn¡¯t been enough time for anything else to develop.


    Most important to Doyle is the fact that most of Jan¡¯s group are weaklings. That means that to feed them they will need to dive the first floor at an increased rate and there is no way Ace is going to put that on his own people. Feeding what is less than 50 people even if you count the ones from up river that stuck around is nothingpared to feeding hundreds. There has been some work on getting some fields up but even with skills and magic it still takes time to grow edible nts.


    As luck would have it, though, Doyle had some ns already on what to change. The first is to move around his instances a little. If he was to be honest, this change was something he had been putting off, anyway. Right now, his fourth floor gets two of his instances when rarely do people even get to the third floor despite everyone wanting the third¡¯s ore. Jan¡¯s return was just enough of a jolt to stop his procrastination and move those two over onto the first floor.


    This brings the number of instances on the first floor up to eight. The second floor still has three of his spare instances but enough parties hit it up that the extra instances are still worth it. Though Doyle¡¯s change brings up an issue which had been the main force behind not making the change. How to inform the town that the change happened? Or more to the point, how to inform them without also informing them he was awake.


    Though this thought makes him take a step back. At the start, he was worried for a number of reasons. Just the fact that all it would take is someone to camp a person on every floor to take him hostage was a major threat. While no one on the could in theory kill him at the moment, there are many worse oues than death.


    If he had let them know he was originally human, that would have been a major weakness. It would have told them that they could threaten him, get him to do what they want. A malicious person could have easily forced him to change the dungeon to suit their needs.


    Now that threat is reduced. For someone to attempt it, they would have to first reach his core and no one has managed that in a while. Besides that, the town and even the ce up river have be somewhat dependent on his dungeon for meat. Sure, Jim still goes out to hunt and the patrols will bag any game theye across but there aren¡¯t any factory farms to supply a pre-system style diet.


    On the other hand, just because they haven¡¯t reached his core doesn¡¯t mean they can¡¯t. As it is, the founders are split up into two teams and they don¡¯t bring a healer with them. If Ace, Jim, the Barrais, Doctor, and one of the other founders who knows how far they could get. Though even just the addition of Doctor to a pre-existing team would be a major threat, giving them a sustain that has been missing.


    In fact, the more Doyle thinks about it, the more worried he bes. The two teams have both managed to make it to his boss¡¯ floor without any real support. Every other team that has made it to the wolf floor did so through having a healer.


    Doyle sighs to himself and puts aside any ns to reveal himself forter. Though it still leaves the question of how to tell them about the new instances avable on the first floor. This question takes Doyle a decent amount of time to figure out and even then the solution wasn¡¯t perfect.


    Since he didn¡¯t want tomunicate the change directly, all he could do was make a visible change so they get curious. So with that in mind, Doyle changed the ground cover on all the floors to grass interspersed with clover instead of beingpletely clover. This doesn¡¯t mechanically do anything in the dungeon but any change that is so widespread should cause the town to look into if anything else changed.


    Besides that, there were two main things. First was to amp up the tactical ability of the two dagger kobolds in the vine room. Second also involved kobolds, though this one targeted the ones in the camp and allowed them to go into the three goat rooms when delvers aren¡¯t around.


    With the dagger kobolds, Doyle hadn¡¯t been holding them back but there was only so much nning they could do. To make up for that, he gave them a few more tactics to use as well as shifting a few things around in the room to allow for better hiding ces.


    For the camping kobolds, the change was even simpler. Everyone knew that if you were going to see a trap, it was right between the berries and the camp. This was really an oversight on Doyle¡¯s part but he hadn¡¯t bothered to change it till now. With their new found ability to wander, the kobolds will be able to set many new and exciting traps. Still somewhat limited because the goats will still be grazing in the rooms, but better than before.


    And with that, Doyle manages to ramp up the difficulty of the floor without adding a single new monster or piece of equipment. Why make it more difficult? Because even with the ce up river, he had been limited on how many people were around. Now that there was going to be arge number of people taking up residence he could kick it up a notch.


    Plus, he wasn¡¯t exactly a fan of those who abandoned the town. While it wasn¡¯t intended, they had not only left most of their founders behind to fend for themselves. But they also left Doyle in a more vulnerable position. If the people who stayed hadn¡¯t managed to thin the wolves as much as they did who knows what might have happened.


    Doyle shakes his core and now finished with the changes turns back to Ace andpany. And of course, they hadn¡¯t managed to decide on a name for the town yet. It seems they had managed to reduce it down to three choices, but the debate on what to take rages on.


    After listening for a bit, Doyle does manage to figure out the names and who supports them. The first is Haven and has Ace behind it because he likes the simplicity of it. Second is Osto Strato, which Jim is particrly fond of. And of course, as a wild card, Jimmy had suggested Wolf¡¯s Rest and for some reason it had garnered quite a bit of support.


    Haven was a simple enough name and Ace supported it because it represented an idea. He wanted his town to grow into a true haven on the where the strong protect the weak. Though he might have been a bit affected by the sudden appearance of Jan and so is projecting his desire to protect those under her from her.


    Osto Strato is a bit of a joke that grew legs. Originally, someone had suggested Bone Street as at some point they had discovered that the system provided roads included ground up bone as part of the filler. Of course, Ace shot that one down because of how morbid it was. But sometimes a good joke won¡¯t stay down no matter what you try. So knowing that Ace wouldn¡¯t allow such an obvious name one of the people had remembered what it would be in Esperanto. With the new suggestion not being so in your face about the reference, Jim was able to get it past Ace.


    And finally we have Wolf¡¯s Rest. A name that Jimmy shouted out with little thought, the very first name suggested in fact. While the name is fun enough, it also has its morbid side as in this case the ¡°rest¡± bit refers to all the wolves that are now resting under the soil. Still, it sounds nice enough and was oddly popr so Ace lost his chance to veto it.


    Doyle turns away from them as it seems like the argument will take a while longer and shifts his view to the upper edge of his territory. Jan¡¯s group has gotten much closer by now. So close that going by their speed they should show up early next morning.@@novelbin@@


    Technically they could have reached the town that night but Doyle can see a group of people that had gotten ahead of the group. He wasn¡¯t sure when they had gotten there but it should be recently. The much smaller group had rushed ahead with the tents and all the other assorted equipment. And while not finished they had managed to set up two thirds of the stuff and should be ready a few hours before sunset, right around when the main group would arrive there.

 You Will Be Banished – Chapter 162

    While the town is arguing over what to name the ce, Ally speaks up to Doyle. ¡®I noticed something about the sixth floor. You don¡¯t seem to have used the farm zones there?¡¯


    Doyle turns away from the town, ¡®The sixth floor is special being the first after my first boss, so I added something special of my own. A farm zone would have let the floor be a lot more sustainable. However, I already made this floor quite special with how delvers have to beat all the monsters to progress.


    ¡®Now, what would happen if I noticed a tough group of delvers are steamrolling through my dungeon? Well, before now there wasn¡¯t much I could do. There, of course, is always the nuclear option like what I used against the wolves. Just lineup all of the floor¡¯s monsters near the entrance to bum rush the enemies.


    ¡®The thing is, farm zones prevent that. You only get that sweet 90% discount on the farm monsters if they can¡¯t join in on the fights on the floor. Now it should be obvious what the n is, but I would think a stampede of over a thousand cattle would be pretty deadly. They don¡¯t even have to stop and turn around to continue the stampede. Once I put the floor in death mode, it will cycle that stampede into an infinite flow of angry cows.¡¯


    Allyughs, ¡®Well that is one way to handle things. Plus, with how most of them have the teamwork skill, even though the skill is underdeveloped despite the floor bonus, will make it a true stampede.¡¯


    Doyle pauses, ¡®Wait, what was that?¡¯


    Ally shrugs, ¡®Stampedes, well, true system recognized stampedes are one of the uses for the teamwork skill on non-sapient creatures and mobs. It is actually kind of nifty. The beings in a proper stampede can move around in the group as if by magic and the collective consciousness of the group will cycle around beings so people can¡¯t just target down specific beings.¡¯


    Doyle shakes his core, ¡®That is interesting, but I meant the part about the floor bonus.¡¯


    Ally ps, ¡®Ah, right. That wasn¡¯t a part of the tutorial stuff, was it? Anyway, by now you should have realized that a monster with three levels in teamwork isn¡¯t exactly going to do much good. At higher floors than the minimum level of the monster, they get a boost to their skills.


    ¡®This isn¡¯t even a system thing but rather just an effect of the denser world energy when you create the monsters at deeper floors. The importance of a monster¡¯s starting skill level is more about how quickly it will grow. The actual starting value isn¡¯t even all that important though it does give a slight boost. Rather, what is important is the ratios between skills.


    ¡®So you have two monsters, one with a skill at level one and another at level two. The other monster has a skill at level ten and the other at level twenty. Both are a one to two ratio, so will be mostly the same. Higher levels tend to just show up on monsters with higher minimum levels. After all, you can¡¯t expect a dragon to start with a single level in breath attack or what have you.¡¯


    Doyle can understand that and nods, ¡®Good to know. I guess having the power of reality mainlined into you at creation would have a few benefits. Anything else to it besides skill levels?¡¯


    Ally shakes her head, ¡®Not that I know of. Mind you, lower floors will have more powerful monsters on them, but that is represented by them having higher levels. Skills are about the only thing not affected by levels and so goes unnoticed. After all, the only monsters that will gain skill levels are the sapient ones.¡¯


    At this point, Doyle is interrupted by a system alert.


    {The town you reside in has been named!


    Wee to the town of Wolf¡¯s Rest}


    Doyle whips his attention back up to the meeting, which is beginning to break up. It takes Doyle a minute to catch up but when he does, he really wants tough. If Doyle was to be honest, he would have voted for the bone road name. Sure, it was cheesy and used a fakenguage, but he personally felt ¡°Osto Strato¡± rolled off the tongue. In the end, though, only a third of the people felt the same.


    On the other hand, Ace¡¯s suggestion did even worse so Doyle didn¡¯t feel too bad. A third of the people were still double what Haven had got. That, however, means that Jimmy¡¯s random suggestion got over half the votes. Apparently, the desire to give a big middle finger to Jan and crew for leaving them to die was more important than the other names.


    Though Doyle did find a decent bit of irony in the fact that most of the people thought Haven was too generic when Ace had gone on about how calling the ce Dungeon Town would have been too generic. Though Doyle did admit to preferring Haven over Dungeon Town himself. If only because then you avoid the problem of what do you do when it isn¡¯t a town anymore. Not that there isn¡¯t humor in a future where the ce is still called dungeon town despite being the biggest city or some such.


    After that, not much else happens and the night passes peacefully. A good thing too because Ace andpany definitely needed their beauty sleep to prepare for the ruckus that started up nice and early the next day. Jan had subverted expectations and roused her entire group well before dawn so she could get to town just as the sun came up.


    Now, people had been starting to get up around then as theck of sustainable light sources was hitting them pretty hard. Even so, most had not gotten into that rhythm yet. The only saving grace for the town is that Jan couldn¡¯t get her people to be quiet on their approach so the town had enough warning to get everyone up. Even the people visiting from up river were roused, though more to get them out of the way than any desire for their help.


    So there Ace was, standing on top of a much more professional looking wall as Jan approached. And boy, did she not bother with tact as she yells up at him, ¡°We¡¯re here reim the settlement! <i>Nice</i> to see you survived but now I can take back over as the leader.¡±@@novelbin@@


    Everyone on the wall looks down at her in silence. Jan¡¯s patience isn¡¯t much though so she continues, ¡°I might have left you in charge but that doesn¡¯t mean you can get uppity now! This is my settlement!¡±


    Ace shakes his head and without yelling, but rather entirely through force of will and projection responds. His voice spreading out over the hundreds of people in the mob behind Jan. ¡°This is my Town. These are my people. You were never in charge here. Your only im to fame is a path you didn¡¯t have. All ten founders of the settlement are up here on the wall.¡±


    And with that, Ace, along with Jim, Og, Ruby, Sammy, Jack, Bill, Tess, Kelly, and Kellingermand the system to share their ten founders path with everyone nearby.


    Jan, of course screeches, ¡°You¡¯re Liers! I Am THE Founder! These are MYnds! You will not deny me! Through my healing, I was the one that saved the two towns and founded this ce. You all are just delusional idiots who stayed behind to face a massive pack of elemental wolves for no reason.¡±


    Ace shakes his head, ¡°If we are so delusional, then why were we able to beat the wolves with less than 30 people? If we are so delusional, why do we have the path for saving this ce? I know at least some of those behind you were there when it all happened. Are they so blind and forgetful as to not remember the pains we all went through? The trials we all faced together?


    ¡°You are the one who abandoned the ce. We are the ones who stayed and made something of it. And besides, no matter what im you falsely want to use to try and take this ce, it isn¡¯t the settlement you left anymore. This is the system recognized town of Wolf¡¯s Rest for here is where we put the wolves to rest. I am the one the system recognizes as the leader of said town and either you recognize this or you will be <b>banished</b>.¡±


    The long shadow under Jan cast by the rising sun begins to pool up as she screeches back. ¡°How dare you take my ce! How dare you usurp my position! Surrender or else my loyal guards will rend the flesh from your bones as my magic keeps you alive to suffer through pain unending!¡±


    The pooled shadow extends outward towards all of the stronger people behind her. Then, as those shadows connect those people all step forward and move around Jan in a protective formation. The people left behind all pull back and those on the wall with Ace who have the skills or stats for it can see they all have looks of fear and pain.


    Ace sighs and shakes his head again, ¡°I know you all aren¡¯t ves and since you all came from the original people who left that can only mean something has caused you to forget our sacrifices together. If this was before the system, I would try harder to reason with you but ever since magic came we have all had to make hard choices.


    ¡°One of my hardest choices was letting you all leave with Jan, despite knowing she was just a con artist. Clearly she has advanced past that into a full on tyrant and you so called guards have supported that. Those who attack our town will die. This is not a hard decision for me and that grieves me as it should be. Make your decision, do you continue to follow the increasingly delusional and narcissistic Jan or do you follow her to whatever afterlife is waiting?¡±


    Janughs, ¡°I have over fifty people here all over level fifteen! Have you all even managed to reach level ten yet? Besides, there are less than 30 of you up on that wall and my scouts confirm you don¡¯t have any other backup. When I left, only a handful of you werebat trained so what are you going to do now?¡±


    Ace stands up there without responding beyond one simple sentence. ¡°Make your choice.¡±


    Of course, this doesn¡¯t follow the script that Jan expected. She wanted a shouting match and Ace hadn¡¯t even raised his voice. She desired impassioned pleas to the sheep behind her that would prove her hold over them. Where were the attempts to justify their position? Ace¡¯s refusal to y Jan¡¯s game ground at her.


    She should have expected this. Ace and the other founders hadn¡¯t ever really yed along with her. But she was too full of herself to realize they epted her stepping out of line so as to keep the settlement running. Now though, now she realizes that before they hadn¡¯t been bending to her will. That they had been simply ignoring her.


    All around Jan the area is quiet. Even the birds off in the forest remain silent as a pressure builds and her face turns red. She hyperventtes and the shadows below vibrate even as the newly risen sun tries to erase them. In a nonstop loop, all Jan can think is that this will not stand.


    With an incoherent screech, she lifts her hand and points at the wall. Those around her raise their weapons and charge forward as one mass. Not her, of course, that would be dangerous. Instead, Jan stands back with a smug look. She knew that Ace wouldn¡¯t be easy to beat, but she had been forcing her people to train against the most vicious wild life her scouts could find.

 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 didn¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t much thought behind ¡°kill it before its friends arrive¡±. If the rest of the dungeon hadn¡¯t been so segmented by room, they likely wouldn¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t 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 aren¡¯t based on twisting space into a pretzel would use it to make portals and such. He, of course, doesn¡¯t 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 wasn¡¯t 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 didn¡¯t stay solid for long. Try to have more than about a square te with sides a meter long and a floor¡¯s passive energy use spikes like mad. Worse, it counts all the SDS on the floor so he can¡¯t just have a bunch of small hottes spread around to keep a magma pool liquid.


    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 floor¡¯s 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? You¡¯ve 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 can¡¯t exactly be making a new floor every few days.¡¯


    Doyle nods his core, ¡®True enough. While the cost to make a new floor isn¡¯t rising fast, it isn¡¯t 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 can¡¯t 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 won¡¯t 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 aren¡¯t 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 can¡¯t 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 aren¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t even breathe, but it gets Ally¡¯s 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 you¡¯ve not gotten to my second question. While I don¡¯t 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 won¡¯t go and say one is the yin to the other¡¯s yang but only because that would imply things about their rtionship that just aren¡¯t 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.@@novelbin@@


    ¡®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 can¡¯t reach the end.


    ¡®Not that it will be useful. Despite how games like to portray it, rare does not equal powerful. You¡¯re 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 isn¡¯t. 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 aren¡¯t 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 don¡¯t 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 wasn¡¯t aware of is kicking in. Would make sense as well. Don¡¯t want a dungeon to make a floor and then leave it empty. Even if this isn¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t 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 wasn¡¯t 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.

 Using The Strange Dungeon Stone – Chapter 166

    The answer is simple enough. Just use the outer surface of the floor as the floor. On the sixth floor, that area had been set aside for the farms and was honestly way too much room. Though even if he had wanted to use it more actively, it wouldn¡¯t have worked as well. After all, part of the way the floor was supposed to work is every tile looks almost the same. A curved floor would put lie to this and Doyle wasn¡¯t sure he had enough control of the gravity to tweak things so a number of t tes could be used.


    But for the seventh floor? That isn¡¯t a problem. In fact, it is a benefit. Because no matter which direction you go, it will always be uphill. Maybe not as strenuous as actually climbing as the gravity will be adjusting but that will probably cause its own set of problems. In other words, perfect for a floor meant to mess with the delvers. And back of the napkin math. Well, that took much too long.


    Doyle felt lucky he even remembered how to do it. First was to get the diagonal distance of the 135 meter square. Simple enough, square root of two times 135 and ites to about 190. That is the diameter of the sphere and after you raise it by the power of two, you can multiply it by pi for the surface area of the sphere. Or in other words, a bit more than 114000 square meters.


    In other words, more than enough space to y with. The question is how to y with it. One way would be to just leave the center empty so you can see everything. Doyle crosses that one out right away, if only because anyone with flying magic or simr would trivialize it. So that left various methods of blocking.


    And with that in mind, Doyle begins to fill in the floor with stone. There is, of course, a good bit more space he could technically use. After all, the 45 small rooms thing is a loose measure and the floor size has been growing and even just a meter more pumps up the size by a couple thousand. Doyle however leaves this extra space as a buffer between the void and dungeon proper.


    Once things are filled in, Doyle has a giant stone ball inside a stone sphere with the distance between the two being about 12 meters, so just a bit under four stories. Or rather, if the sphere of stone was perfectly centered that would be the case. Instead, Doyle has that sphere wobbling around a little. At the lowest point, the sphere is still six meters away from the ground, but having the ceiling reduced by half should freak out a few people.


    Mind you, the sphere isn¡¯t moving fast. In fact, Doyle spent way too long dialing the speed in just right. But after consulting with Ally the effect it had was well worth the effort. It moved just slowly enough that if you knew it was obvious but otherwise, you would easily miss it. Ally was on the floor a good ten minutes trying to figure out what was going on before she realized and once she did, she couldn¡¯t ignore it and described the experience as oppressive.


    But that was just the ceiling. Doyle wanted to keep ying up the tone of the floor. If the sixth could be seen as exploring the meaninglessness of exploring a repeating infinite space, this one would be focused entirely on the feeling of oppression. The idea of something weighing down on you and grinding away. Some of it was already built into the fact that everything was uphill but Doyle felt he could do better.@@novelbin@@


    The only question was when to stop and not how far he could go. It was only the seventh floor, after all. So the next thing Doyle adds to the floor is walls, tall enough to just barely not scrape against the sphere. And while he didn¡¯t want a maze orbyrinth for the floor, he did want something special.


    Up until now, even the more cave-like areas followed a grid pattern and being honest with himself,ter floors would be following that pattern as well. Something in his head had just always liked fitting things onto a grid. Maybe the various city builders and colony games were to me since they generally worked on square grids or some other strange thing. Whatever the case he was purposefully breaking that pattern for this floor. No sharp corners, no 90-degree angles, everything was non-euclidian in the traditional sense of the word.


    A fancy enough word that had taken on a much warped meaning when all it means is curved space. Like if you drew a square on a balloon instead of a t piece of paper. And what do you know, that is exactly like what he was doing right now. Everything taking on an organic curvature through excessive use of the golden mean. So outward from the entrance, the main wall spirals outward until it hits the halfway point.


    From there Doyle spirals it back inward to reach the exit, turning the entire floor into a giant spiral. But just that isn¡¯t oppressive. No, to fulfill his goal, Doyle needs to add even more curves. Especially in areas where it should exist. While he wasn¡¯t going to use spatial warping to increase the distance between the entrance and exit, that doesn¡¯t mean he can¡¯t apply some interesting effects.


    But before that, he builds a city. Or at least what if you squinted could be described as city-like. Stone buildings with one or two stories fitted together like a jigsaw puzzle begins to fill in the area. The only problem people will have is that once again, Doyle avoids straight lines as much as possible andpletely removes the concept of a 90-degree angle from his building repertoire.


    Walls randomly bow in or out, curve in strange manners, and walls can randomly end up as floors from a simple twist of architecture. The only thing that saddens Doyle about this disy is he doesn¡¯t quite have a fine enough gravitational control or else things would have gone full on M. C. Escher. But this is where his spatial warpinges into y.


    The simplest examplees from a small rpg story he had heard. The party was examining the building and the game master slipped into the description of the build something about the fifth corner or some such. One of the yers noticed it and took sanity damage because a square building can¡¯t have a fifth corner. Doyle was going to do something simr.


    By sliding in just a bit more space, a circr room could have more than 360 degrees. What was a wall that bulged outward changed to appear as if it was t until you tried to run your hand along it and realized there was more space in that area than possible. Of course, Doyle wasn¡¯t capable of going too far into the trope of things being bigger on the inside. Each floor is already that in a nutshell and if his spatial abilities had allowed more, the floor would just be bigger.


    Though that did give him an idea forter. While he didn¡¯t want to try it on this floor, if an entire floor represented the most he could expand space, then why not move it around? Doyle promises himself to try something with that on the next floor. For now, he stuck with the small effects. They would be more effective for what he wanted, anyway.


    And so he continued shaping the floor into a nightmare for whoever had to explore it. Sure, they would be able to map out the entire floor, but Doyle was willing to bet that even with a paper map people would still get turned around. There just wasn¡¯t any helping it when you just couldn¡¯t properly draw the rooms on a t piece of paper. He might not have warped every single room, but it was a close thing. Though the most fun came from figuring out how buildings would connect in a vertical fashion.


    Sure, stairs work and even abandoning that for a ramp would be easy enough. Instead, he pulled out all the spacial tricks to be had. Space warps in odd ways such that even without a true gate people still will get confused on how they got into one of the upper rooms. It definitely didn¡¯t help that windows could show off scenery in the oddest of ways. From upside down, to angled as if viewed through a periscope Doyle made sure things were suitably odd.


    Odd really is the best word to describe the floor. Doyle even gets the feeling as parts of his memory aches that not everything he had done could beprehended by a normal human. He even doubts that most dungeons could handle it as this might fall back on his dungeon type of diverse strange caverns.


    But he had decided to use strange dungeon stone and it hadn¡¯te up yet. So what could he have nned for it? Well, now was about the time to put it in ce. See, there was one feature he was missing to get proper water works set up. Doylepletelycked a method of having water pour out infinitely from a source.


    Sure, his third floor yed with this by having water trickle down from the upper sections of the floor to the lower areas. But that water flow was at best a trickle. Anything more was just out of reach for him, so no waterfalls or rainstorms. The strange stone provided an interesting solution. He didn¡¯t need much, just a double handful of marbles.


    What the marbles put out wasn¡¯t simple water, though. Rather, they wafted out a heavy fog that spread. With the few marbles strategically ced, Doyle was able to cover the entire floor in drifting clouds of fog that could thicken or clear up in moments. Obviously, this wasn¡¯t enough to properly fill the floor but that is what he wanted. But he couldn¡¯t stop there.


    Fog already messed with how sound propagated, dampening it and making it harder to hear distant noises. So Doyle added a twist to this, connecting it right into the nature of the fog itself through the strange dungeon stone itself. Now the thicker the fog was, the stranger it would act. Reducing only certain noises, shifting the direction a noise seems toe from, and even just canceling one noise out despite being closer than some other sound.


    And when these odditiesbined with the strange geometry of the floor a truly haunting soundscape formed. All it needed was extra sources of noise to make the best use of these changes. The first sound was easy enough. From the roofs Doyle grew out small spikes, shaped as if the stone itself had melted in those locations. Though he avoided making them look like stctites. One in ce the spikes did their job and provided paths down for any condensed water from the fog so as to provide the constant sound of water dripping.


    Next, used the strange dungeon stone for one of the ssic and cheapest uses. From the top of the tall walls, he ced strips of the stuff that would rise up at random if covered by thick fog and the sphere was close enough. Close enough for what, you might ask? Close enough for it to scrape against the sphere itself.


    This didn¡¯t create that nails on chalkboard sound, but rather a creaking noise as the sphere itself slowly raised or lowered. Like a tree being bent to the extreme except with stone. Doyle felt this almostpleted the soundscape. There was just one more noise he felt the floor needed and it required an instrument quite umon. And that instrument is the hurdy gurdy with its low droning tones. In the same style as how a bagpipe is a continuous sound, the hurdy gurdy does a simr thing but for string instruments.

 Just Smoosh Them Together – Chapter 167

    The only problem with Doyle wanting to use the sound of a hurdy-gurdy was he didn¡¯t have one. As luck would have it, though he had at one point got excessively interested in them and their history. So while he couldn¡¯t make a perfect copy, what he could make would get the sound he wanted. And it isn¡¯t 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 wheel¡¯s 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 wouldn¡¯t 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 don¡¯t really fit and that is a problem. He could flood the floor with kobolds but that doesn¡¯t 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.


    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 doesn¡¯t 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 aren¡¯t 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 can¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t 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 can¡¯t 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.@@novelbin@@


    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 doesn¡¯t 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 don¡¯t 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 didn¡¯t 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 didn¡¯t 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 wolf¡¯s mouth. While this didn¡¯t 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.

 Creating Elders – Chapter 168

    The lesser myconid troop guard also allowed Doyle to test one more thing out. It had a level requirement of 9 while the lesser myconids had a lower limit of 6. So with that in mind, Doyle went back to the sixth floor and temporarily cleared out enough space to put in six of the lesser myconids. Then he tried to smoosh them together. Even after putting them into a box and literally putting the squeeze on them, they did not form into a guard.


    This was an important discovery as it told him that his guess was correct. His floors can only have monsters with a requirement equal to or less than the minimum level. So even though it seems he can grow the myconids perfectly fine until he has a floor with a high enough level limit the next stage is locked off from him. On the other hand, it does tell him he can likely grow his own myconids, just not right now.


    Satisfied with the results Doyle turns back to popting the seventh floor. And first up are the lesser shadow wolves. Fun little monsters with a price tag of 500 points. For this floor specifically, they¡¯re extra fun as the whole floor is practically set up so they can take advantage of their shadow phasing skill.


    That, however, does bring up the question of what shadow phasing actually means. When Doyle had first seen it, he assumed short range shadow to shadow teleportation. But he now remembered another potential use for it and so spawned in a wolf to check. A good thing he did too as the ability was multifaceted in a way Doyle couldn¡¯t have predicted.


    It did allow the lesser shadow wolves to teleport within the shadows. However, that took a lot of power and likely isn¡¯t going to be the average use of the skill. And while powerful, the second use for shadow phasing is worth more to Doyle than that is basically the ability to teleport once a battle. Such a simple ability and yet so powerful, as long as the wolf is partially in the shadows it can flicker between substantial and insubstantial.


    So yeah, the ability to literally phase out of existence for a moment and thus dodge an attack, even those that are area of effect, is a bit powerful. They don¡¯t seem to have full control over the ability but that would make sense as they don¡¯t have many levels in it. So for now Doyle decides to limit it to just a small pack of four to roam the whole floor with a pair up in the farm.


    Next up is the assassin vines. Mostly because Doyle ns to flood the floor with myconids, so getting the smaller poption monsters out of the way first will make it easier for him. Of course, smaller and actually small are different things. The vines only cost 300 points and so he easily ces down ten of them over the floor.


    While it doesn¡¯t seem like too many, if the area wasid out on a square you would be meeting one every 100 meters or so. There might be a lot of space on the inside of the sphere, but the ground quite visibly angles upward for anyone standing on it. Of course, since he gave them free rein to move around the likelihood of the vines being evenly spaced is entirely up to chance and the vine¡¯s own instincts.


    That aside, Doyle throws a couple assassin vines into the farm. Technically, they only need a single vine to reproduce but something nudges him to allow for cross-pollination. And since this was a simple enough thing Doyle didn¡¯t mind going with his instincts, or more likely his biosphere bncing skill but either way is fine by him.


    Now all Doyle has to do is figure out how he wants to deal with the myconids and this isn¡¯t some easy problem to solve. The lesser myconids and the lesser myconid troop guards are easy enough on their own, but the sprouts are where the real difficultyes from. Since he isn¡¯t just spawning in each group and allowing for the random nature associated with it, Doyle hasplete control over groupposition.


    Does he want a bunch of groups with fifty tiny myconids? Maybe a pair of big sprouts or any mix in between. The only thing he can¡¯t manage is a sprout that would be worth over fifty points. That seems to be the tipping point between being a sprout and a lesser myconid. Though why adding arms to a sprout triples its point, cost is a question for another day.


    Doyle pulls back his view and takes in the floor as a whole. The wolves are roaming wherever they want and the vines are slowly shifting into position while jockeying between each other for whatever attributes their veg based minds value. Though one pair of vines have grouped together which should provide an interesting challenge.


    And of course also prompted Doyle to try for another transformation based on sticking multiple monsters together. It didn¡¯t work sadly, but was worth the try as far as he was concerned. Anyway, he refocuses on where and how to ce his myconids.


    The guards would fill exactly that position so there wouldn¡¯t be a lone one out wandering the ce. Besides that, myconids are amunal species to begin with so only swarms could be seen as going it alone. And that thought leads Doyle to how he wants to ce things.


    On the end of the floor, with the exit, would be the main colony of myconids. A decent gathering of lesser myconids, three guards, and arge variety of sprout sizes. Basically, making it like an actual colony of the things instead of a random gathering of monsters. Only the lesser myconids can even match the goats for smarts so it isn¡¯t like a kobold camp, but their higher wisdom should make up for it.


    Now the question is how many of each type should be there? The guards are decided already but that leaves the swarms and lesser myconids to decide. Doyle goes back and forth over this a few times before deciding to do things in threes to match the guards. So for the lesser myconids he ces 15 of them, enough to make three new guards. Then three times that many swarms of varyingposition.


    Mind you, they weren¡¯t all bunched up at the exit. Like a real colony, or rather troop as that seems to be how a group of them are called, they had spread out, taking up somewhere between a fourth to a third of the floor. Though the edges are mostly roving swarms of the smallest sprouts with therger ones increasing in quantity till right before the exit.


    The lesser myconids also tended to stick near the exit though a group of five would asionally break off to go and check on all the sprouts. It is only the guards that don¡¯t have a specific location. Rather, they spend their entire time roving over the entire area controlled by the troop and even somewhat beyond.


    And once all of that is ced Doyle takes some time to watch the floor reshuffle itself. The lesser shadow wolves quickly begin to avoid the area. Not because of any conflict between the two sides, but rather because even when not putting out harmful spores, the myconids are constantly shedding regr spores. Doyle can totally see this being a problem for anyone with fungus allergies. Not that he minds this. If they want to keep delving on this floor, they just need to put more points into the Constitution or a path to fix their problem.


    Satisfied with the current spread Doyle focuses on the cost, half expecting that after putting down 45 swarms he might end up a little over his spending limit. This was not the case, in fact he is shocked to find that there are still 4,490 points left to spend. So not only does he have points left, but he is only ten points short of being able to ce another 45 sprout swarms on the floor.


    That isn¡¯t actually feasible. Doyle still has to put a number of sprouts and lesser myconids into the farm so as to rece any lost to delvers. However, with that many points, it does mean he can put in a bunch more farm monsters in general so the recement can be done instantly instead of waiting for more to be born.


    In fact, Doyle decides to go a little overboard just to see how much it ends up costing. So in the farm he ces eight more wolves, 20 more assassin vines, and enough myconids to rece the current troop twice over with five lesser myconids to restart things if needed. He didn¡¯t need five of them except for what happens when they form into a guard. That explosion of spores is enough to kick start way more swarms than five alone could.


    Even after that massive addition to the farm, Doyle still has 1705 points left to spend. He literally has enough monsters in the farm to rece everything on the floor twice over and that wasn¡¯t enough to burn through it all. He can only shake his core and wonder where he will be putting all the monsters in the future. That or the cost is going to start skyrocketing.


    Still, Doyle wants to fill up this floor and so looks over what he currently has. The theme of the floor is basically the slow corruption of a twisted ruin into that of a fungus ridden and spore filled ruin. As almost an afterthought, after realizing this Doyle spreads arge variety of mushrooms over the second half of the floor with the density increasing the further you get. He had already done something simr on the maze floor so it isn¡¯t anything new to him. And except for a few spikes in spending as stranger mushrooms pop up he doesn¡¯t pay attention to it.@@novelbin@@


    Then it hits him. He had tried tobine assassin vines but that wasn¡¯t even the first thing he did to the myconids. If there is one thing that seemed to be a constant in the various games, it was that with nts and simr, the older the more powerful. Both for the normal varieties and the monsters. So Doyle spawns in an extra assassin vine in the farm.


    Of course, that alone won¡¯t be enough. He had the vines in the farm already and none of them had grown into something new so this would take a little extra help. Help supplied by another small marble of strange dungeon stone that was set to multiply the speed whatever was holding it would age. This was a hefty cost that started to eat into his actual store of world energy when raised too high but it was for a test so Doyle ignored the cost.


    As luck would have it, though, it seemed he didn¡¯t need too high of a multiplier as the assassin vine holding the marble soon changed. Two vines grew to triple the length of the rest and sprouted backward angled thorns. All the while the rest of the vines took on a much darker green coloration that moved towards brown. And then their surface started to wrinkle and crack like a tree¡¯s bark giving Doyle a clue that they probably were a lot tougher, if maybe a bit less flexible. Then the system dinged.


    {Elder Assassin Vine (lv8)


    S[30] A[12] C[24]


    Skills: Grapple lv7, shing Resistance lv4, Rapid Movement lv3


    Cost: World Energy[650]}


    Doyle was, of course excited for this new monster as it looked quite dangerous. Though, after closer observation, a few things stuck out to him. Only the shorter vines had shing resistance so the grabbing vines were still just as easy to cut. On the other hand, only the long vines benefited from the rapid movement. This was honestly even worse. Normal assassin vines moved around slowly but at a decent clip when they wanted to. The elder assassin vines, however, lost much of their speed in exchange for being able to grab their prey a lot quicker.

 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.

 What Does It Say? – Chapter 170

    Satisfied Doyle focuses on the big ball of stone he has decided to carve up. Of course, he could get down into and carve it up with a bunch of tiny lines and swirls. But even with the patience of a dungeon core, Doyle doubts it would be tolerable. If only because it might take until the whole thing is finished for any effect toe into y. Sure, he isn¡¯t depending on getting some spiffy new nonsense on the floor. But it would be a waste.


    Instead, Doyle has a different n. Until now, he had just used his carvings as a single work. This sphere of stone, however, allowed for something else entirely. So, withrge strokes, he would divide the sphere into smaller regions to create scenes within. Though those broad strokes aren¡¯t going to be literallyrge swaths of nk stone. No, the proper use of the borders is scrollwork. And to match the floor it will be all swirly vines and mushrooms.


    This of course takes time and a prior engagementes up before Doyle finishes. Specifically, Ally alerts him to the fact that it feels like the cows are almost here. Pulling back from his work Doyle looks over the sphere and nods, A good two-thirds of the scrollwork has been finished already. To start it was slow going but once he had figured out a pattern and vibe that felt right, it had flowed. But that can be left forter.


    A quick look over his floors showed that Jim and his team were working at the boss floor again. Ace and Jim seemed to be trading off every few days on who would actually attempt it. But the town was still a good bit away from solving the fifth floor. Though it seemed Jim had managed to figure out how to pull another lone patrol after the first.


    But that, once again, can be left forter so Doyle pulls himself away from the dungeon as a whole and thrusts his view up to the top of his influence outside of his dungeon. There he is able to get a better feel for the iing cows but they seem to have decided to approach from the forest direction and the trees are doing a good job of blocking his view. Still, that doesn¡¯t mean he iscking in methods to figure out their actual distance.


    This is especially true since he has the connection showing the direction. Doyle hadn¡¯t ever been too focused on the forms for this kind of thing, but even just the rough sense he got from checking the pull from opposite sides of his influence is enough. And Ally definitely wasn¡¯t lying.


    While not an urate estimate, Doyle¡¯s rough guess is that the cows should break the treeline a couple hours after noon. Plus or minus about 90 minutes of course, but that is close enough for him. Doyle didn¡¯t want to miss a single second because Moota had promised to leave a message for the settlement with them.


    After all, Doyle hadn¡¯t really hashed out what the message was going to be. At the time, this was mostly because he had forgotten to. Now though? Now it was part of the n! Because if he had dictated a message? Well, that would have probably given them even more clues to not only his existence as an awakened dungeon, but more importantly? It might point towards him being someone local.


    So Doyle stays focused on the direction the cows areing from. Just waiting to know just what reason Moota will give for the cows and her interference. And it shouldn¡¯t be too snarky because he had already started to include hundreds of cows in the dungeon.


    And the cows do eventually show up. Though more like three hours after noon. In the town, one of the scouts runs into Ace¡¯s office where he is currently meeting with one of the officials from up river. The official is arguing that, ¡°We really want you to recognize our town calling itself New Springfield. The name has a wonderful history and more of our citizens came from a ce called Springfield than any other ce.¡±


    Ace nods to the scout and res at the official, ¡°As it is you¡¯re lucky we aren¡¯t referring to your ce as Startertown and that ungodly number. Until you guys manage to make your starter town into a real town and gain the privilege to rename things, we are going to continue referring to it as the town upriver. If only for the sake of consistency. Now please leave. One of my scouts seems to have something important to tell me.¡±


    The official scrunches his face, ¡°Just because you have an actual popce now doesn¡¯t mean you can snub us!¡±


    Aceughs, ¡°I¡¯m not snubbing you. I snubbed your town when your little expedition first came around and there were less than fifty of us in total. Make a real town, get actual control of the system based policies, and then we can talk more. While it might not be like that truename magic some pre-system fantasy settings had, a name still has power. Now leave before I¡¯m forced to make you leave.¡±


    The official turns around in a huff and storms out. Nancy the scout nces over her shoulders to watch them leave before turning back to Ace. ¡°Are you sure it is okay to tweak their nose like that?¡±


    Ace sighs, ¡°Being in control of a system recognized town has more strings attached than not. If I officially recognized them as New Springfield, I would gain a level of responsibility over them that neither of us want. Now, if they had just been a new settlement, it wouldn¡¯t matter, but being a literal starter town puts into ce all kinds of limitations such as not being allowed to even tell them this! The whole misunderstanding because unless I am willing to make Wolf¡¯s Rest take on the role of their protector I can¡¯t even exin it to them.


    ¡°And of course, now that you know, you can¡¯t tell them either. But that is my burden. What has caused you to skip all the levels of bureaucracy I¡¯ve put in ce so everyone and their brother isn¡¯t bursting in here at all hours of the day?¡±


    Nancyughs, ¡°As if you would ever stop any of us core members from seeing you if we thought it was important. Those rules are very much for our lessers.¡±


    Ace sighs again, ¡°Just don¡¯t let anyone hear you talking about people like that. I knew from the start that this sort of divide would develop when I decided that we were inherently more important to the town. But that doesn¡¯t mean we have to be in their face about it. At least wait until us core members can each take on all themoners out there alone. Going by how much they ck off it shouldn¡¯t take long.¡±


    Nancy rolls her eyes, ¡°Well now, I might have found something for them to handle! More to the point everyone should be finding it soon. There is a herd o¡¯ cattle weighing in at about 30 heading this way through the forest. They should be here within half an hour.¡±


    Ace frowns, ¡°We should have noticed something like this much sooner than half an hour out. What happened?¡±


    Nancy shrugs, ¡°The bull at the front of the group seems to have a roll of leather, likely a message of some sort, attached to its horn. And what horns! While I am willing to bet they are actually normal cattle, their horns are wicked sharp. Like, deadly and dangerous. So someone sent them our way is my bet. Someone who managed to raise them to be more adapted to the post-system life. These aren¡¯t weak cattle kept alive because a rancher is watching after them.¡±


    Ace grabs the side of a block of wood next to him and pulls. Just a hint of magic, and a thin sheet of woodes away. With a flourish of his pen, Ace writes out a quick note and tosses the sheet into the air. As the wooden sheet rises, it bends and rapidly forms itself into an origami swan. From there, it ps its way out of the room.


    Satisfied Ace turns back to Nancy, ¡°Is Jim out of the dungeon yet?¡±


    Nancy nods, ¡°He should be. I saw Kellinger on my way in.¡±


    Ace repeats his magic act and this time the wooden sheet folds itself into a paper airne that zooms out of the room. ¡°Okay, Jim should be here in a moment as long as he can step away from whatever he is up to. I¡¯m going to have to go meet the first person I contacted so you can stick around here and tell him all the details. As the head scout, he should know what to do from that angle.¡±


    At this point, Doyle pulls his viewpoint back up into the sky and nces off towards where the cows would being from. They haven¡¯t quite left the forest yet but from above he can see that they are close to the edge. Now nervous about it all he returns to the seventh floor and knocks on Ally¡¯s door again.


    After being invited in, Doyle finds her having been watching the whole thing from the start. Ally turns to him and asks, ¡°What has you worried? While we didn¡¯t exactly iron out all the details of the agreement, Moota is a friend so things should be fine.¡±


    Doyle nods, ¡°I understand that but I don¡¯t know what the message will say, anyway. The whole thing is making me worried.¡±@@novelbin@@


    Ally shrugs, ¡°I¡¯ve been chatting with Moota for a while now and she wouldn¡¯t tell me when I sent her a message earlier. But from her general demeanor about it I trust in what she has written. She¡¯s a kind soul.¡±


    Doyle shakes his head, ¡°If my worries were based on logic it would be easy to get rid of them. Or at least once proven I could move to fix things. This is justst-minute jitters. It looks like she has sent the town about 30 cows and I don¡¯t know how anyone is going to react because of that message.¡±


    Allyughs, ¡°As if Ace would do anything rash. The longer he spends as the official leader the more reserved he has gotten with his actions. Start of it all I wouldn¡¯t put it past him killing most of the herd to shore up their stocks and then keep the rest. Now the only change is that more of the cattle will be kept alive, if only because there are more people to feed. Milk might not be the most filling thing but it is better than nothing.


    ¡°With all the new mouths to feed, the continued supply of milk easily outweighs any temporary benefits from butchering them. Even the bulls are needed so the cows keep producing. That and if the herd isn¡¯t growing, it¡¯s dying. Got to keep a bnce or the numbers just go down.¡±


    Doyle pulls over one of the screens disying what is happening. ¡°He definitely is going to try and capture as many as possible. Though I do have to wonder to what extent the town is ready to handle this kind of thing. From the description of the scout and a glimpse or two, they seem to be more like dungeon cattle than not.¡±


    Ally nods, ¡°Moota likely guided them and since your dungeon variant is based on the information Moota provided in the first ce, it would make sense. Though I doubt they are quite at the level of your dungeon cattle. Even with what magic can do to nature, things still generally aren¡¯t willing to have their DNA ripped apart and put back together with whatever you found in the back.¡±


    Doyle sighs, ¡°I¡¯ll just stick around here until they have the message. If I try to do anything else, it will just get messed up. I have no attention span for anything else.¡±

 They Lose Their Self – Chapter 171

    Out in the field in front of the town of Wolf¡¯s 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! I¡¯m [Moota], a Golden Alchemy Cow and a Lesser Goddess of Alchemy.


    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 don¡¯t want you worshiping me? That wouldn¡¯t 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 don¡¯t 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 don¡¯t 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 wasn¡¯t what I expected.¡±


    Ace shakes his head, ¡°More paperwork.¡±


    Jim nods, ¡°So are you going to go with this goddess¡¯s suggestion?¡±@@novelbin@@


    Ace sighs, ¡°I don¡¯t 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 won¡¯t give up worshiping their pre-system religions, which won¡¯t 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 don¡¯t 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. I¡¯m sure paths or some such can change it, but that isn¡¯t really a matter here. Rather, unless someone here is from a family that has been worshiping a proper deity for a few generations we won¡¯t 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 can¡¯t not be a farmer because of the bonuses. If your family worships a war god, you¡¯re 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 isn¡¯t going to provide special bonuses for someone because their family has been worshiping them. They¡¯re 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 don¡¯t want my children¡¯s children¡¯s 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 haven¡¯t, but this one Ace bothers to answer. ¡°Honestly, unless otherwise mentioned it is better to assume most faiths don¡¯t 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 can¡¯t 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! I¡¯m not saying your god isn¡¯t real. We are well beyond the point of old school atheism. Gods are real, the difference is we know yours isn¡¯t 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? We¡¯re going to get the best deal from her because we¡¯re 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 aren¡¯t at the top of the pile. We know that for certain because that is the source of magic. If you can¡¯t ept the reality of our new world, we don¡¯t need you here. I don¡¯t 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, ¡°I¡¯ve stayed until now to try and save you all from the devils that have infiltrated the world but it seems you¡¯re all too far gone! A pox upon you for even considering those false gods. God is the one most high!¡±


    Ace sighs, ¡°You¡¯re not the first one, you know? I¡¯ve had more than my fair share of peopleing to my office toin about all the false gods and magic that I¡¯m 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 we¡¯re going to roll you right out of here.¡±


    The crazyughs wildly, ¡°This so-called town isn¡¯t 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 wasn¡¯t 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. I¡¯d 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 can¡¯t save you even if they wanted to. Though more likely they don¡¯t 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 I¡¯ve 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 I¡¯m not going to kill you. Not because I can¡¯t or won¡¯t, but because it doesn¡¯t 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 didn¡¯t 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 Wolve¡¯s 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 Doyle¡¯s 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 Wolf¡¯s 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. Ace¡¯s 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 didn¡¯t 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 people¡¯s 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 isn¡¯t 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 they¡¯re showing around mentions this being the result of the deity they. They. They. Hmm, I can¡¯t 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. They¡¯ve been reduced to a fae will o the wisp and have lost that privilege. As for who they worshiped? They don¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t 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, I¡¯m 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 aren¡¯t allowed back to somece near you.


    ¡®The problem for that cultist is they weren¡¯t 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.¡¯


    Doyle¡¯s 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 didn¡¯t 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? You¡¯ve been out in the void and observed them so you might have realized some truths about them.¡¯


    Doyle¡¯s core stays dim and rolls to the side, ¡®I didn¡¯t really notice too much, though I wasn¡¯t 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 person¡¯s 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 doesn¡¯t 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 soul¡¯s 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 don¡¯t 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.


    ¡®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 can¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t 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 wasn¡¯t 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 wasn¡¯t 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, it¡¯s 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 won¡¯t 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 person¡¯s 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 aren¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t 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 you¡¯ve done wrong elsewhere, they can totally use thew to get at you. It just means that we won¡¯t personally being down on you because of who you worship. We¡¯ll 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.@@novelbin@@


    ¡°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 you¡¯re a citizen, we require you to report it as soon as possible. If you¡¯re 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 isn¡¯t actually made of gold but rather carved of wood and painted with some scavenged paint. Maybe the skill behind carving it isn¡¯t exactly the best. All of that didn¡¯t matter. Rather, despite the somewhat shoddy nature and low-quality materials, it was made by a true idol craftsman.


    An olderdy hade in with Jan¡¯s 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 isn¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t 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 wasn¡¯t missed by Moota. Not only wasn¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t 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 Doyle¡¯s even if every single cow had believed in her.


    The first true Idol is like a free ride to a so of course Moota isn¡¯t going to turn it down. Though this time she won¡¯t have to literally knock on the dungeon to get Doyle¡¯s attention. A quick call to Ally and she was let in.


    Moota takes a moment to look around and nods, ¡°Looks like I wasn¡¯t 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.¡±


    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, ¡®I¡¯m 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, ¡°You¡¯ve 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 wasn¡¯t expecting to be able to do much here? Like, you can¡¯t expect a true Idol to just pop up so soon! Even the pantheons have a hard time getting one this early and I¡¯m the first here.


    ¡°Sure, other gods have their believers, but they aren¡¯t 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, don¡¯t 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.¡±


    Doyle¡¯s core twinkles, ¡®I know what you mean!¡¯


    Ally rolls her eyes, ¡°Heh, funny. Anyway, the Fae aren¡¯t the worst things out there being worshiped and not all of them will be limited like others are.¡±


    Moota nods, ¡°True that. I¡¯m 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 don¡¯t see this turning into a shrine world so eventually you¡¯ll get to deal with those freaks.


    ¡°At that point, though, there should be enough people able to defend against it. I¡¯m 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 won¡¯t catch a passive follower, but I don¡¯t think those would be the type to get an idol.¡¯


    Ally grimaces, ¡°That might not be the case. Monitoring who is worshiping which being isn¡¯t exactly a new idea so of course there are ways around it.¡±


    Moota sighs, ¡°You can¡¯t really do much about it. But that is why I¡¯m going to warn them about the Idol thing. It isn¡¯t exactly something I¡¯m 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, ¡°That¡¯s just life. It isn¡¯t like your world was necessarily safer before this. Even without magic, a single unlucky event can doom a world. You¡¯ve 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 can¡¯t expect them to truly fix everything. After all, a desperate person is more likely to worship a deity.¡±@@novelbin@@


    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, ¡®I¡¯m 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 I¡¯m sure there are millions ofs like that out there.


    ¡°But we have gotten a bit off track. As I already mentioned, I¡¯m 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 won¡¯t work. On the other hand, deities can have all kinds of wild forms and so it isn¡¯t 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 I¡¯ll get a better return on the smaller pen in with those founders.¡±


    Ally raises an eyebrow, ¡°I must admit I don¡¯t know what blessing an Idol will do for it. Though I assume since you¡¯re 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 isn¡¯t 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 I¡¯m 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 aren¡¯t 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, ¡°I¡¯m 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 doesn¡¯t 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 don¡¯t have to go dumpster diving for it or the sapience one.¡±


    Ally frowns, ¡°If there are so many options couldn¡¯t the priest one be among them?¡±


    Moota sighs, ¡°If only. That isn¡¯t 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 won¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t 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, ¡°I¡¯m 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 couldn¡¯t ask for a better blessing. Still, I¡¯m going with the bloodline blessing, if only because of how interesting your town already is.¡±

 Observant Doyle – Chapter 175

    Moota shrugs, ¡°It isn¡¯t so much sapient cows in general. Rather, your world just gained mana. While there are obviously going to be some things already figured out, the more magical stuff is still up in the air. If, for example, a lot of people took up swords, the newly formed ley lines and other such magical deposits would take on sword-like characteristics. This would create a self-sustaining cycle after a certain point and your world would be a haven for sword users.


    ¡°Like, your very presence is going to tilt your world. Those founders in the town? They are as far ahead as they are because of the challenge you provide. While the system does some work to counteract too extreme of a tilt this early on, the magical side of things definitely takes on the vor of whoever is the strongest willed around.


    ¡°The fact that they are being so open about religions while at the same time restricting them? After a few decades, this could turn into the world itself being more open to the presence of deity level beings, while at the same time locking them down harder with naturalws. More specifically for me, by allowing my presence they are opening up the world for both good and bad things they don¡¯t understand.¡±


    Doyle¡¯s core dims, ¡®So what exactly are these bad things?¡¯


    Mootaughs, ¡°Well, I wouldn¡¯t exactly call them bad? Like, sure, it would make things harder for the humans. On the other hand, the native animal poption will be thankful for it. Just one big bncing act.¡±


    Doyle shakes his core, ¡®No, I asked what those things were. Not if they were bad.¡¯


    Moota nervouslyughs, ¡°My fellow monster gods are going to have an easier time getting in as long as there are naturally urring examples of their species. Like, just the act of setting up that blessing and the humans epting it would be enough.¡±


    A voice from outside the dungeon rings out, ¡°Let me confirm, it was well and truly enough.¡±


    From the voice Doyle can feel a deep set predatory vibe. Moota can clearly feel it even better as she freezes up and shivers. Doyle turns his attention to outside the dungeon and notices a small cloud of darkness cozying up to the edge.


    The voice speaks up again, ¡°Well, are you going to invite me in?¡±


    Ally scrunches her face and yells, ¡°How can we do that when we don¡¯t know who you are? Last time I checked the only deities being followed besides Moota were for sapients. If you came because of the blessing, you aren¡¯t one of those.¡±


    The voice whispers into their ears, ¡°Oh child of Autumn¡¯s Queen, I¡¯m just asking to be polite. I have things to discuss with a certain core and Nothing is going to stop me.¡±


    Doyle¡¯s core dims even further and snarls, ¡®Whatever it is you want, a name or title we can refer to you by is just polite. Hard to make a deal if I don¡¯t have any idea who it is with.¡¯


    The voiceughs, ¡°You can call me Jess. Now am I allowed in or am Iing in forcefully? You should feel lucky that your little friend there has backing or I wouldn¡¯t be asking. Your presence has already caused me enough trouble. If extra-dimensional beings didn¡¯t cause such a problem for prophecy, we wouldn¡¯t be in this situation.¡±


    Ally bristles at this, ¡°What idiot would depend on prophecy for any true matter. Besides, everyone on the ended up in void dungeons as a matter of course. That would have thrown any attempts at prophecy off kilter in the first ce!¡±


    The voice has had it at this point. ¡°Oh really? Well ready or not, here Ie!¡±


    Inside Ally¡¯s room, Moota rushes to the far side as a puff of darkness incarnate propagates on the other side. Then the darkness pulls back into the shape of a cloak thatpletely covers a person everyone assumes must be Jess.


    Ally sighs, ¡°I¡¯m going to have to get a sitting room soon if people keep visiting. I can¡¯t have people constantly popping into my bedroom.¡±


    Jess speaks up. However, this time since she is in the actual room means their magic isn¡¯t covering her voice in the same way. Instead of a genderless gruff voice, everyone hears a feminine gruff voice with just a touch of embarrassment. ¡°To be fair, I wasn¡¯t expecting to appear in your bedroom. That aside, one of my own fell in these halls! She was well ced and should have survived quite well but you killed her!¡±


    Doyle rolls his core to the side but before he can speak up the shadowy figure interrupts, ¡°Don¡¯t you roll your eyes at me! Err, core. Don¡¯t roll your core at me! I have a legit grievance with you!¡±


    Doyle rolls his core harder, ¡®Going by what you just said and your shadowy appearance right now, I¡¯m assuming you¡¯re talking about the lesser shadow wolf? The one that invaded my dungeon of their own will? Cause if it is that one I¡¯m iming self defense.¡¯


    Jess scoffs, ¡°As if my wonderful little pup would be attracted to such a third rate dungeon! You¡¯re clearly at fault!¡±


    Moota, having just recovered, speaks up at this point, ¡°I don¡¯t know who you are, but did you honestly expect a lesser shadow wolf to not attack a dungeon? What kind of prophecy did you use? The only reason there haven¡¯t been more beast attacks is because one of the town¡¯s founders keeps sneaking off and killing the leaders.


    ¡°Like, I wouldn¡¯t be surprised if by this time he wouldn¡¯t have already taken care of the whole wolf pack. Their rushing in from outside of his usual range of activity just sped up the process. He might not be leveling fast because of the tricks being used so the kills aren¡¯t attributed to him, but he isn¡¯t even the strongest one.¡±


    Jess whines, ¡°But the prophecy only saw a newborn dungeon here! It should have taken over a year before it had expanded enough to attract the pack from this far away. By then, she would have been strong enough to not bother going herself. Sure, the dungeon might have still won, but she wouldn¡¯t have been lost! And why are you talking back to me? I¡¯m clearly a greater god! Bow down before me!¡±


    Moota leans up against the wall behind her, ¡°Of course I can tell you¡¯re heads and tails above me. Like, you just radiate faith in a way I couldn¡¯t afford to. But more importantly, you¡¯re seven floors down in a dungeon that already has its first boss. How much longer can you keep that disy up? Plus, this is a dungeon on a new world. The System might not normally care about a couple of gods fighting but the rules are a lot stricter for us right now.¡±


    The shadows that shroud Jess pull back revealing a savage form halfway between a wolfkin and wolf folk. Her body is closer to a wolf while her head and hands while still clearly wolf inspired are nearly human. She is about to say something when Moota scoffs, ¡°And who are you trying to fool? You¡¯re a goddess, so why bother with the halfway form? Either go full human or full feral. Think for a second! You¡¯re dealing with a dungeon core and fae royalty.¡±


    Jess rolls her eyes, and suddenly she has a nearly human form. As a matter of style, she kept her wolf ears, tail, and pupils. ¡°Someone doesn¡¯t have a ir for the dramatic I see.¡±


    Moota sticks her tongue out, ¡°I¡¯m not the one that managed to lose a nearly sapient follower on a new to the system.¡±


    Jess snorts, ¡°You¡¯re not much better. At least I¡¯m not some dog for a bunch of alchemy geezers. Yes, I do know who you are.¡±@@novelbin@@


    Mootaughs, ¡°So you¡¯re admitting I¡¯m better known than you? Despite your power, you showed up here alone. For a wolf you seem to becking a pack.¡±


    Off to the side Ally is enjoying the back and forth but Doyle is fed up with it. He has better things to be doing right now and so, despite puppy dog eyes from Ally, he interrupts the two. ¡®Ladies. Shut Up! For a wolf and a cow you both sure know how to catfight. Now let¡¯s get something straight. You are in MY Domain. Sure, either one of you could smack me around but the both of you need me for something.


    ¡®Yes, Moota, I know you want something as well. You certainly didn¡¯t need to chat me up or clue us into the whole blessing thing. Maybe some chatter with Ally but I¡¯ve been the odd one out this entire time. I¡¯m not sure about your angle, but Jess. Jess, I know what you want. At least to some degree. You know the lesser shadow wolf died in my dungeon and you want more of them. You might have even been able to sense that I have a small pack of them hanging around on this floor.


    ¡®I¡¯m not exactly in position to re-release them into the wild or anything, but they are what you want. Going by your little mor I¡¯m guessing you¡¯re some kind of darkness based goddess and thus why you seem to be so into the shadow wolves. On the other hand, you¡¯re powerful. Between you and Moota, it is like the sun to the moon, her being just a pale reflection.


    ¡®But that power is hollow. Like Moota pointed out, you don¡¯t have a pack with you. I don¡¯t know much about gods. However, I feel safe in assuming that someone as powerful as you shouldn¡¯t be worrying about one small that just got inducted into the system.


    ¡®Either you¡¯re going behind the back of your pack, your pack betrayed you, or your pack doesn¡¯t exist anymore. My guess? You¡¯re down a pack. With your theme I¡¯m going to guess a wolf pantheon. For full cliche points your father was the leader and some kind of sun wolf, your mother was a moon wolf, maybe a sibling or siblings for the stars, and you the darkness in between.¡¯


    Jess¡¯ wolf ears lie back t on her head, ¡°You¡¯re just guessing! Besides, I¡¯m not the darkness between the stars. I represent the primal shadows!¡±


    Doyle nods his core, ¡®So that was mostly correct? I guess it would make some sense. That and the fact that you¡¯re the odd one out. You were supposed to be the interster darkness and might have been at some point. Maybe losing your family caused the change, only you know.


    ¡®Anyway, you were in a pantheon and that pantheon still has a lot of followers. Would be pretty hard to change that when you likely just passively have arge number of worlds where the wolves just follow you by default. But that isn¡¯t yours, not really. You¡¯re losing it. This disy of faith? It isn¡¯t a disy, you just can¡¯t stop shedding the power since it isn¡¯t rightfully yours.¡¯


    Jess shakes for a second before snarling, ¡°Are you some kind of prophet yourself? There is no way you could pry so many things out of what I¡¯ve said!¡±


    Doyleughs, ¡®I¡¯m not always the most observant, I admit. That, however, isn¡¯t because I¡¯m bad at it, I just don¡¯t care. Story of my life, that. Anyway, let mey it out for you. Moota got here through some unrted nonsense and made a deal with us. By that point, the wolves had already been long dead and yet you hadn¡¯t shown up. Then miraculously you show up the instant Moota does something to make such things easier?


    ¡®Fat chance of that being a coincidence. So that means despite your appearance of power you are being limited. Then you don¡¯t just pop in but wait until I had decided to let you in. From those clues and your outpouring of faith, I figured you didn¡¯t have control of all that power.


    ¡®Of course, I have to tip my hat to Moota. Well, I would if I had one. Whatever, she pointed out ack of a pack and you reacted quite aggressively to that which is part of why I interrupted at then. So family problems and by how raw your emotions looked it was recent. Combined with thest it meant you gained the power meant to be spread over your pack. Sure, there could be other reasons but I kept an eye on you while talking.


    ¡®It is simply amazing what my absolute perception can reveal about those within my territory. After that, it was mostly lucky guesses and deductions. You weren¡¯t the pack mother or else you would likely have more experience channeling all that power. While not necessarily true, I assumed your family was simrly themed and it couldn¡¯t be a terrestrial theme.


    ¡®For an entire wolf pack to be gods together would need interster travel capacity. So I took a stab. The sun and the moon, the stars and the void. A collection of entities that would easily trante over to a wolf pack. Now how about we get down to talking about what you and Moota want from me. Because if I had to guess, something I seem to be on a bit of a roll with, you both want a simr thing.¡¯

 Deals Decided – Chapter 176

    Jess scoffs, ¡°I don¡¯t care what she wants. All I need is a recement for the lesser shadow wolf you killed. Once you have one, I don¡¯t need you to release into the wilds or anything. I¡¯ll just take it from there.¡±


    Mootaughs, ¡°As if it won¡¯t 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. I¡¯m 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 can¡¯t 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 don¡¯t have the free will to actually worship anything.¡¯


    Ally frowned, ¡°I hadn¡¯t heard of that before.¡±


    Moota sighs, ¡°It¡¯s the same reason we can¡¯t just force animals to worship us. Well, we could, but it wouldn¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t 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, I¡¯ve got a bit of captured shadows.¡±


    Allyughs, ¡°A little bit of captured shadows isn¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t rare at all. Just going by your title it is impossible that you can¡¯t 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 I¡¯m not exactly gaining back the resources I used to gather the shadows in the first ce. Plus, I¡¯m 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. ¡®I¡¯ve 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 hadn¡¯t 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.@@novelbin@@


    ¡®Now Moota, we just finished up thest deal and we basically tapped you out on what you can provide. While I don¡¯t mind providing you with some cattle, I don¡¯t exactly have arge backlog of herb cattle. What are you offering?¡¯


    Moota smiles, ¡°I don¡¯t 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 aren¡¯t many things in my storage ring that the system would be happy with me giving away, so let¡¯s 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 we¡¯ll 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 isn¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t just hiding in the shadows. I¡¯ll have to look into who she is once I¡¯m back. It shouldn¡¯t be too hard. While a deity falling isn¡¯t 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 wasn¡¯t possible. Instead, I found two high-quality pieces of information. The first has to do with your monsters. You¡¯ve likely noticed they aren¡¯t 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. Don¡¯t shy away from it and instead get in close enough to see the monster¡¯s muscles tense or look out from the monster¡¯s eyes.


    ¡°Then when you have free time, don¡¯t 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 won¡¯t help a smith beyond the surface ws, watching a monsterze around won¡¯t 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 universe¡¯s system is sparse to nonexistent as before you, the only sapient ones were the tutorial dungeons and they don¡¯t like sharing. Not that the info I¡¯ve gathered isn¡¯t as useful as thest. Just not as actionable.


    ¡°I¡¯m not asking what paths you¡¯ve taken, but the important breakpoint for a dungeon¡¯s ss is the third rank. I don¡¯t know why, but I used some resources such that I can trust this info. So if you haven¡¯t 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, ¡°I¡¯m on your side for this, but you aren¡¯t 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 wouldn¡¯t quite call it enough but since you¡¯ve been friends with Ally, I¡¯m 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, ¡°Weren¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t. 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 wasn¡¯t the best choice, mind you, but I don¡¯t have enough things to trade for a herd in the three digits.¡±


    Allyughs at that. ¡°You aren¡¯t wrong. Plus, I don¡¯t think we would be able to deliver that number in any reasonable timeframe.¡±


    Doyle shakes his core, ¡®Especially since I can¡¯t 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, I¡¯m 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.¡¯


    Ally nods, ¡°I¡¯ll take care of things from here.¡±


    Of course, Doyle was forgetting something. Moota was currently on the seventh floor so he couldn¡¯t 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 wouldn¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t mean he didn¡¯t 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 wasn¡¯tpletely against this either but it wasn¡¯t 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 aren¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t 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 rabbit¡¯s pattern.


    {horned rabbits lv6}

 Ace And Jim Team Up – Chapter 178

    With everything figured out, Doyle turns back to the seventh floor. His grand masterpiece ising along and was a major reason why he didn¡¯t even consider the engraver path. It had likelye about because of how much engraving he had done. However, it wasn¡¯tplete. This, this would be a crowning achievement.


    While simple one word paths have a power in simplicity, Doyle felt something when he saw the path. That wasn¡¯t the ce for him to start down that path. So now Doyle focuses on engraving therge orb of stone, setting up the boundaries upon which future work would be done. Time passes and he barely turns away when his passive flow of world energy into the power storage option finally finishes. Only looking away long enough to confirm the rewards and move the world energy flow to buying the naming skill.


    {Mana Stone pattern lv30 acquired


    Spirit Stone pattern lv30 acquired


    Monster Stone pattern lv30 acquired


    PsiCrystal pattern lv30 acquired


    Karma Star pattern lv30 acquired


    Luck Stone pattern lv30 acquired@@novelbin@@


    Elementally Energized Crystal pattern lv30 acquired


    Prana Lotus pattern lv30 acquired


    Bloodstone pattern lv30 acquired


    Mana Stone, Spirit Stone, Monster Stone, PsiCrystal, Karma Star, Luck Stone, Elementally Energized Crystal, Prana Lotus, and Bloodstone patterns merged into Mystic Energy Storage Patterns lv33}


    The next interruption, however, wasn¡¯t something Doyle could easily turn away from. The town had what was at this point long ago, discovered the change to the instances. Though their guess on that was mostly that it had shifted around to take into ount the amount of traffic the first floor was getting.


    An idea that when Doyle heard it, decided to make it the truth. A few tweaks and a rule or two changed up how the instances worked. He could still move them around as he wanted, but if left alone and too many people tried to take advantage of a floor with fewer instances, they would shift topensate.


    All that aside, Ace and Jim had decided that the boss floor had stymied them for too long. While they had been fine with taking their time at the start, that was months ago now. Doyle had to pause when he heard that and check in with Ally. But no, it was the truth. Between two and three months had passed since they had first made it to the fifth floor and while thebat was still difficult, the teams weren¡¯t advancing fast enough anymore.


    The kobolds had stopped getting better and with theck of new challenges the founders started to stagnate, which Ace could not allow. So to bust through to the next floor Ace and Jim had joined their parties together as well as bringing along Doctor to provide healing. So Doyle was now staring down a baker¡¯s dozen of the strongest humans on the.


    He wasn¡¯t necessarily worried about this. If anything, this was a good chance to watch how the boss floor reacted to someone breaking the party size limit. Still, this was a worrying development as far as Doyle was concerned, but also a warning. He didn¡¯t n to change the difficulty of the boss floor, but it showed that if Doyle tried to y hard with a floor, they would be more than willing to follow through.


    All that, however, can wait. One of the parties had blitzed through the fourth floor and the other seven were now catching up so Doyle pulled back and let his mind epass the fifth floor. He could already sense everything, but delving deeper into it allowed what he considered as more of a dungeon¡¯s view.


    The first six delvers go through the portal and nothing much changes. The nameless kobold boss lounges on her throne wondering when the next incursion woulde. In steps the seventh delver though, and She sits up as if just shocked. A bloody aura spills out, killing intent suffuses the throne room as She roars amand to her troops.


    All the delvers have entered the boss floor at this point and they make short work of the patrol that got caught out. Jim¡¯s ears perk up as the sounds of theirbat dies down, ¡°The boss knows we¡¯re breaking the rules! Prepare for a swarm though going by the town, I think we might bemitted to a siege.¡±


    Jackughs as he bounces his giant bronze mace on his shoulder. ¡°I think I can bust their gate wide open!¡±


    Sammy smacks him upside the head, ¡°All the while they attack from above you. Leave the sieging to the magical types.¡±


    Ace gestures and the group goes silent as Jim puts his ear to the floor. Jim shakes his head, ¡°Siege it is then. There was another patrol around but with the boss roaring their head off they retreated.¡±


    Back in the center of the floor the boss has left her room and is stomping around the town square as every monster gathers. Even the cattle, goats, and wolves have been pulled in, with the five kobold herders takingmand of their flock.


    Up on the walls are the ten mages and the onemander with a bow, the floors only ranged threat. Still, with the support of the six healers the chance of any of them going down to anything short of a one hit kill is near zero. Nevermind that most of the founder¡¯s ranged threates from magic as well and so things would likely fall into a counterspell battle.


    Ace, wearing summoned vine armor, leads the group out into the middle section of the floor. That armor instantly proves to have been a good idea as an arrow smacks him right over his heart. The arrow quivers as a good half inch of it is sunk into the wood. Kellinger is about to cast a spell but Ace shakes his head, ¡°There aren¡¯t enough archers up there to make a windshield worth it. They¡¯ll mostly be using magic.¡±


    And he wasn¡¯t wrong. Now that they have a target, the ten mages begin to cast their spells at a sedate pace. Just slow enough that by the time they are casting the next spell, they have recovered from the first. Later on, there will be time to cast spells like a madman. As it is though, both sides recognize a situation that could easily fall into a stalemate. The nameless boss isn¡¯t going to let that happen, however.


    These invaders had broken the covenant. While She didn¡¯t care all that much about how they fought, the limit was six. Even if each of those six had the ability to summon an army, it wouldn¡¯t matter. But they had entered with more than double that and so She waited. More and more invaders entered into the center hollow and still She waited.


    However, once they had made it halfway to the gate despite the kobold mages¡¯ attempts to pepper them with magic, She gave the order and the gates opened.


    On the other side, Ace watched as the wooden gates part. But that wasn¡¯t the focus of his time. No, he knew what such an action meant and so instead focused on some magic suited for the grass covered field. As he finishes the first spell, the grass right in front of them bursts upward to form a solid wall of nt matter.


    This blocks their sight for the moment it takes them to get up on the prepared walkway. Once the town is visible again, they can see over 150 animals being led by five stone wolves charging their way. Oh, and while Doyle hadn¡¯t meant it to happen, the five herders were riding out with their charges, atop the level six goats.


    Kellinger wastes no time inying down a grease spell. This manages to slow most of the stampede but the stone wolves prove to be above such tricks. While the spell does make it near impossible to find purchase on the surface it is attached to, the stone wolves don¡¯t depend on that to stay up. No, instead, they use their innate magic to anchor each step to the ground.


    Now well in the front, they reach the grass wall, trampling over Ace¡¯s second spell that had stealthily converted the nearby grass into sturdy needles. Unfazed by this, the five wolves leap and handily make it to the top of the wall. Quite the impressive feat for what some might see as normal wolves with stone bs glued to the sides.


    Though unfortunately for the wolves, their achievement is short-lived. Jack alone smashes three of them back with his mace while Bill and Tess knock away one each. This doesn¡¯t slow the attack though as the next fastest of the monsters arrives as the five wind wolves leap up onto the wall as well.


    Not only that, but through the use of their wind the five are able to push back the nearby defenders. For the most part, that is. Jack manages to smash one of the wind wolves head in with his backswing. While that might not be possible with the stone wolves, the wind wolves clearly sacrifice some of their defense to move fasters.


    Then the magic happened. Fire swept out over the field, setting light to the grass and igniting the grease stuck to the charging animals. This alone was enough to take out the ten dungeon wolves as the spell was a cooperative effort between Ruby, Kelly, and Kellinger. On the other hand, the remaining four wind wolves are taken out by a much more mundane method.


    Og Pwner had been set up with a number of nasty items to throw around. Nasty items that the wind wolves were now intimately familiar with as the shards of ssy rock cut deeper with each movement. Of course he had been aiming to also do something about the stone wolves, but literal bs of rock tend to stop that.


    Jim, in turn is firing his arrows nonstop to slow down the massive numbers of goats and cattleing their way. While this doesn¡¯t work so well against the cattle, it does thin the herd. Not that he has much time to do so. Even with the grease and the fire, there just is not enough space between them and the kobold¡¯s town gate.


    Good thing Ace¡¯s sharpened grass did a lot better against most of the hooves. Only the earthen cattle have an easy time as they speed up and ram the wall. Well, they try to at least. All that extra material to get the grass to grow into a wall had toe from somewhere and that was right in front of the wall itself.


    The wolves had skipped the ditch made almost invisible by grass. Cattle and goats? Not so much. Instead, the front line takes a tumble and so does the line just behind them. Though speaking of the wolves, at this point, all of them had been taken out. Ace had animated the grass wall so it would grab the wolves and the Barrai¡¯s made short work of them with a dagger being inserted into certain unprotected spots like the neck.


    Down below, most of the cattle that fell are having a hard time standing up with only the earthen cows doing alright. It takes just a minor act of earth magic on their part to raise proper tforms. Though not before, Ruby once again shows why she is the town¡¯s top fire mages. Ribbons of liquid fire spew out of her hands wherever itnds, it sticks. A feature that the cattle and goats below are finding most unpleasant as the substance continues to burn.

 Overturning The Wall – Chapter 179

    Despite therge number of cattle and goats trapped in the pits, Ace¡¯s magic isn¡¯t 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 Jack¡¯s 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 kobold¡¯s 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 Sammy¡¯s shield arm.


    Nevermind that moment isn¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t 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, ¡°We¡¯ve been had! I didn¡¯t even realize it but the earlier fights were too easy, dammit. They kept the mages and healers back. In fact, I think they¡¯ve been doing that for days now. Everyone, back to the tunnels!¡±


    With that, they evacuate the wall, though they aren¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t 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, they¡¯re 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 isn¡¯t the end of magic really ruining the animal¡¯s 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 weren¡¯t 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 hadn¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t 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 don¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t quite a potion, but at the same time isn¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t 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.@@novelbin@@


    Even with that though, the delvers are basicallyid out for a good couple hours as they recover, much to the annoyance of Doyle. He wouldn¡¯t 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 can¡¯t do anything about it.


    In the end though and despite magic being real now, Doyle doesn¡¯t have the power to set people on fire with his mind so the grouppletes their rest safely. Something that won¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t 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 Barrai¡¯s and the healers aren¡¯t quite up to detoxing the poison they used.

 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 doesn¡¯t 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 hasn¡¯t 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 hadn¡¯t retreated quickly enough.


    Of course, the kobolds hadn¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t 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 Ace¡¯s neck. That one had to be the boss but it seemed to be holding back to protect the mages and healers. Despite meaning they aren¡¯t having to fight the boss right away, Ace isn¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t 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 wasn¡¯t 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 Bill¡¯s 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 isn¡¯t 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.@@novelbin@@


    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, doesn¡¯t 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 didn¡¯t 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, aren¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t escape Jim¡¯s 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 aren¡¯t going to let this go uncontested. But not having to focus on multiple directions they start to miss their counters.


    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. Ace¡¯s 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 doesn¡¯t 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 delver¡¯s 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 Ace¡¯s 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 doesn¡¯t n to let things go that way.


    With a shout, he redirects the Barrais. Jeremy had just finished his and Susan wasn¡¯t far behind but after hearing Ace¡¯s shout and looking around, they changed targets. The four special kobolds were staying near the center of the frontline mass of kobolds so they couldn¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t taking lightly. Though to her distress, she isn¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t 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 didn¡¯t pay enough attention to this detail. Though when a nasty fire spell burst in the middle of their frontline, they realized their folly. They hadn¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t quite there to anchor them. Nevermind the fact another healer soon falls to Jeremy¡¯s 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 doesn¡¯t 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, Ace¡¯s 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 don¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t 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 hadn¡¯t 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 wouldn¡¯t im that the other monsters followed some kind of set pattern when attacking. Once you saw what they had to offer, it wasn¡¯t 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 aren¡¯t 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 aren¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t 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 hasn¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t 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 Sammy¡¯s sternum and releases another Heavy Bash while swinging her Mace to the side and clipping Jack¡¯s 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 isn¡¯t fast as the boss¡¯s bronze armor still blunts most blows but no longer does it seem like she might pull victory from defeat.


    Of course, that wasn¡¯t 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 weren¡¯t 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 wasn¡¯t 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 couldn¡¯t 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 everyone¡¯s 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


    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 wearer¡¯s 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 spear¡¯s 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 spear¡¯s 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 wolf¡¯s 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 dungeon¡¯s 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}@@novelbin@@

 Craftsmanship And Raid Size – Chapter 182

    Suffice it to say, everyone was interested in that helmet and what exactly a craftsmanship of first drop dungeon boss loot actually meant. Before that though, they have to decide what to do. They just beat the fifth floor and so could move onto the next, but for some reason felt not quite up to it. The only thing they are sure of is that they all want to at least go through the portal.


    Jim heads through first to take a look and is suitably impressed by the scene. Now, he can tell that the ceiling isn¡¯t really all that high up. The rest of it, though? Maybe with time he will notice the repeating terrain but just a view from the safe zone isn¡¯t enough to reveal that secret, even to someone as observant as he is.


    Though after reporting what he saw to Ace any ns of exploring further are shut down hard. While the floors are supposed to get bigger the deeper you go, all of them are clear that it should not be to this extent. After all, as far as Jim could tell, the ins went on forever. While none of them actually believed it went on forever, something wasn¡¯t right and so they all just went through the portal and then with a quick reverse, out of the dungeon entirely.


    Of course, that doesn¡¯t change how interested they are about Ace¡¯s new headgear and it is actually one of those things none of them had heard about. Though they know who to ask first and so head directly to the town hall. After all, the people running it were actual people with much more experience under the system than all of the foundersbined.


    After a direct question, of course, the brown rabbitkin receptionist doesn¡¯t answer right away. While being the main receptionist doesn¡¯t put too many restrictions on Lily, she too is a person and has a word or two for them. ¡°While I don¡¯t mind answering some of your questions, might I suggest not treating me like a convenient info dump? It has been quite a while and most of you haven¡¯t even stopped in to chat. I understand setting up a new settlement on a new world is tough work but that shouldn¡¯t stop you from socializing at least some.¡±


    Ace, in particr, looks suitably reprimanded as of all of them, he had spent most of his time hidden away in his office. Lily shakes her head again, ¡°You¡¯re in theory trying to run a town here. While the system isn¡¯t going to just hand it over to someone else, you should at least try to be known around town. That, however, can be figured outter.


    ¡°For now, you¡¯re wondering about what the craftsmanship of a first drop dungeon boss loot means. Well, the most obvious is that it was the first drop of a dungeon boss. A suitably rare thing, even if deeper dungeons will have a good number of bosses. After all, it is the first drop and not the first equipment drop.


    ¡°So even with how rare it is to be the first to kill a boss, that boss needs to drop a piece of equipment or else it is wasted. After all, herbs and coins are nice to have but most would prefer equipment just waiting for magic. As for what it does?


    ¡°Eh, not much. Don¡¯t get me wrong, the quality will be much higher than boss loot, which is better than normal loot. For now, though, that doesn¡¯t do you all that much good even if you ignore the fact ites from only a fifth-floor boss. Once you have someone to do a bit of enchanting work, though? That¡¯s when the fun happens.


    ¡°Let¡¯s say each enchantment takes up a certain number of slots in a piece of gear. That isn¡¯t actually how it works but it makes things easier to exin. Anyway, regr loot has a single slot. Good enough to make it supernaturally sharp or something simrly tame. Boss drops, on the other hand would have, let¡¯s say three slots. So a few more enchants or a single, more powerful one.


    ¡°Then you have the first drops. From how I understand it, dungeons in ces without a system don¡¯t have this concept unless the dungeon specifically ces it. Anyway, since the system had fun and upgraded the thing it would have four slots. Once again, slots aren¡¯t how adding enchantments actually work, but the example is close enough to make sense.¡±


    Ace nods, ¡°So it is a minor upgrade over normal boss drops. A bit disappointing.¡±


    Lily shrugs, ¡°Wait until you find a boss that drops pre-enchanted stuff to see the really fun drops. You can get boosted gear with the strangest of enchantmentbos on it. But that is all an aside, how was your dive?¡±


    Jimughs, ¡°Well, as you might have guessed we seeded. Though I don¡¯t want to fight that again. At least not while we¡¯re unable with a proper group instead of a mini raid.¡±


    Ace sighs, ¡°The difficulty curve seems a little out of whack.¡±


    Lily rolls her eyes, ¡°The early floors tend to be meant for young teens trying to change their future from backup for the backup farmer to hero in training. Nevermind the way that usually ends. So yeah, what you have right there is some top ranked newb gear. If we were near a few other dungeons, I would say you were well on your way to a clown suit.


    ¡°Just p some minor shock absorption, self cleaning, and minor self repair on it when you have the chance. Even if you will have most likely outgrown it by, then I¡¯m sure you¡¯ll have someone that needs to be protected from further brain damage. Though my advice is try and get your kids hooked up with the system stores like I¡¯ve done.


    ¡°Sure, they won¡¯t end up the strongest but that was never in the cards. The rest of the universe is either way ahead of you or will have some sort of edge you can¡¯t expect. Just running a shop for the system is such a better role. Hard to lose those close to you that way.¡±


    Ace coughs, ¡°Well, okay. I can see you have some opinions on the subject. I doubt my current people have much of a choice with any of this but I will keep it in mind. Is there anything else you want to say?¡±


    Lilyughs, ¡°No. Though remember to stop by! The others are nice but the system likes to switch things up just when I¡¯m about to really get to know them. I¡¯ve been lonely enough and while you can¡¯t fix that, a good chat wouldn¡¯t hurt. And don¡¯t forget, I know more than you ever will and not all of what I know is locked behind system restrictions.¡±


    Ace nods to note his understanding and after a round of goodbyes from the group everyone splits up to do their own thing.


    Back in the dungeon Doyle and Ally are both happy and quite annoyed.


    Ally rages, ¡®How dare they raid our first boss! They didn¡¯t even give it a good old-fashioned try. Anywhere else they let the low ranks a year to try and clear any such obstacles before sending in the big guns.¡¯


    Doyle is just exasperated. ¡®I wanted them to beat the boss, but not like this. Worse yet, I bet if they had taken the floor seriously they wouldn¡¯t have been too far off doing it properly.¡¯


    Ally nods, ¡®They totally could have! Yes, your boss is basically one of the highest quality strength checks I¡¯ve heard of this early in a dungeon, but still. Worse yet, is that the fifth floor isn¡¯t exactly designed in a way to take advantage of the aggro generated by having too many people around.


    ¡®Even the fourth floor would have been better! I can just see it now. They try to go through the floor with all those people only for all of the random ambush wolves to all pour in from one of the ambush points right after they passed it. Nevermind the fact that the entire floor would be running off to fight them just the surprise from behind might have been enough. And the sixth floor! Glory be, I hope someone tries to raid the sixth floor.¡¯


    Doyle sighs, ¡®An endless stampede that crushes all before it. On one hand, I don¡¯t want to kill them. They¡¯re important to the town out there developing in the direction I want. On the other hand, they knew the rules and specifically worked to abuse them. The worst part though is I¡¯m not really sure what I should change.¡¯


    Ally sticks out her tongue, ¡°Bleugh¡±, ¡®I don¡¯t care how valid it is as a tactic. I don¡¯t want to see something like that happen again. At least not against whatever is the currentst boss. Though yeah, I can¡¯t really think of a solution off the top of my head.


    ¡®Plus, we can¡¯t really judge how it works off of them, can we? Sure, they basically did a speedrun of the boss floor but all that means is they were skilled enough to do so. Without other data points, we don¡¯t have any way to tell if the floor is too difficult or not. Those founders made short work of it as a minor raid but I highly doubt others would have a simr experience even with a full raid.¡¯@@novelbin@@


    Doyle tilts to the side, ¡®You¡¯re throwing around terms rted to raids and what not. Is there some set definitions or just how you like to call them?¡¯


    Ally shrugs, ¡®You already know that the ssic party is made of six or less people. Because people like even numbers and symmetry, someone at some point decided that a full raid should be made of six parties or in other words, 36 people. Anything bigger is just a raid up until the point someone decides to call it an army. Though some might use fancy terms like a major raid, double raid, or a raid of raids.


    ¡®Below that there is of course the half raid, can you guess how many parties are in one of those? Anyway, if you dip too far below that without any specific breakpoint you have a minor raid. Missing a party or so from your raid? Then you have a hard time figuring out what to call your group, though most settle for just calling it a raid.¡¯


    Doyle rolls back to the other side, ¡®Well that¡¯s a thing. Does the system actually recognize raid groups and such or is it truly just a bunch of parties working together.¡¯


    Allyughs, ¡®Not exactly the easiest question to answer. Suffice it to say the answers are a little of column A and a little of column B. The system itself doesn¡¯t recognize them per se and doesn¡¯t really need to. After all, it isn¡¯t like being in someone¡¯s party magically turns off friendly fire or some such.


    ¡®The other side of it is that people do need ways to keep track of all those people and without the party interface doing it for them things can be hard. Raid leads tend to be picked more for their ability to multitask thanbat potential. One dude able to swing his sword a bit better than others doesn¡¯t match up to another dude who can make sure that ten people all swinging swords have something to hit.


    ¡®To get around this system based limitation, there are people who have attempted to override the system to make it work. Seeing as we still have stories about it, I¡¯m willing to bet none of them seeded. Of course, for every rule, someone will be beating down our door to show off their exception. At least we haven¡¯t publicly stated your idea or something really sill will happen.

 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 doesn¡¯t directly recognize raid groups, that doesn¡¯t mean I can¡¯t. 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 wasn¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t 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 Ace¡¯s, as well as Doctor in a party of one.


    ¡®Or at least that is how I see it. They haven¡¯t 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 aren¡¯t 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.¡¯


    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 don¡¯t 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 wouldn¡¯t mind letting them do so, I just don¡¯t have a way to manage that.¡¯


    Ally shrugs, ¡®I can see where you¡¯reing from. But how are you going to alert them to this quirk? Like I said, the system doesn¡¯t really observe raids except in special circumstances, generally on a dungeon by dungeon basis.¡¯


    Doyleughs, ¡®But that¡¯s 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 doesn¡¯t 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 haven¡¯t 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 didn¡¯t 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 shouldn¡¯t 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, ¡®Don¡¯t 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 don¡¯t 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 wouldn¡¯t take fools lightly. Can¡¯t 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 aren¡¯t disconnected.¡¯


    Ally shrugs, ¡®Well yeah, there are the portals but you can¡¯t exactly be using them for much. They don¡¯t work like your inter-floor portals.¡¯


    Doyle nods, ¡®You¡¯re 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 can¡¯t 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 floor¡¯s points cap. I¡¯m not exactly capable of moving monsters between floors willy nilly and I don¡¯t 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 I¡¯m 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 don¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t just the connection, but rather the fact the queen can be a roaming boss. This will not help me short term. I don¡¯t even know how long the queen would need to live and how many subordinate queens she would need before gaining a soul.


    ¡®However, I¡¯m not really worried about raids in the short-term. Ace and his friends aren¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t matter if you find out about them if you can¡¯t respond.¡¯


    Doyle nods, ¡®That is true. Having a spymaster so I know about a raid doesn¡¯t in and of itself help. Except that once I have enough floors, I won¡¯t be able to always pay attention to everything and maybe I miss something. I¡¯m not perfect and will never im to be. However, we aren¡¯t the only ones capable of responding to these things.


    ¡®A normal floor isn¡¯t likely to hold back a raid no matter what I do so for now I¡¯m 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 isn¡¯t 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 didn¡¯t seem close but they didn¡¯t have a n on how to react. The boss hadn¡¯t 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 didn¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t much I can n for. Not that I don¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t 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, I¡¯m hoping a system message will work much the same way.¡¯


    Ally sighs, ¡®Fair enough. I guess you can¡¯t exactlyy out a detailed n for the unknown.¡¯@@novelbin@@

 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 building¡¯s 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 didn¡¯t match the orientation of the outside walls. No, the building¡¯s corners were to the wall¡¯s sides. And speaking of those corners, unlike with the wall building¡¯s corners were each made from onerge leg bone.


    While that might sound big, it doesn¡¯t 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 aren¡¯t 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 aren¡¯t. Instead of bone or wood, the bars are constructed of metal that has a blue-ish tint to it. There isn¡¯t 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 aren¡¯t 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 won¡¯t 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 can¡¯t 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 don¡¯t 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. We¡¯ve 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 wan¡¯t someone with a shield to represent the guard. I know it isn¡¯t fair, but that¡¯s life. So since no one else wants the position, Sammy is out of the running. Anyone else?¡±


    Jim raises his hand, ¡°I¡¯ll 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, I¡¯ve 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 can¡¯t really be in charge of adventurers when I¡¯m out exploring.¡±


    Ace¡¯s smile bes wider, ¡°But you wouldn¡¯t 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, you¡¯re the one who can stand up to me, at least from the viewpoint of those outside of our inner circle. You¡¯re 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 isn¡¯t that we don¡¯t trust it, but rather we don¡¯t know enough. So yeah, you get to test this ¡®working for the system¡¯ stuff out for the rest of us.¡±


    Ace nods, ¡°Now don¡¯t 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 I¡¯m 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 you¡¯re 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? You¡¯re out on the frontier and rules tend to be enforced at the point of a sword. While I¡¯m sure things are alright out there right now, give it a few years and you¡¯ll wish for a quiet office job.¡±


    Jim nods, ¡°I¡¯m 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 doesn¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t 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 don¡¯t have a heroplex. That¡¯s amon one if the usual politics aren¡¯t involved. After all, who else would be diving a dungeon before it gets figured out?¡±


    Jim sighs, ¡°You definitely don¡¯t have to worry about any heroes in our inner circle. We¡¯ve 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, I¡¯m a termitekin which normallyes with a lot of baggage and a generalck personal identifiers. Seeing as I¡¯m working for the system and not my hive that didn¡¯t exactly pan out. So of course when I was given the ability to name myself by the system I waspletely serious about it.¡±@@novelbin@@


    She pauses, ¡°That was a lie. I¡¯m a free thinker so my name is Frink. I don¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯te 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 aren¡¯t even quests avable yet as it will take some time for the system to decide what exactly should be offered.


    Of course, that isn¡¯t 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 aren¡¯t 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 wasn¡¯t the non-disclosure he signed with the guild. Rather, he felt the information wasn¡¯t something that should be shared, even with Ace. See, the adventurers guild wasn¡¯t a universal organization. It wasn¡¯t even an organization that just covered everywhere this system was implemented.


    The adventurers guild was multiversal in scale. Jim didn¡¯t 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, wasn¡¯t even from this universe. Hell, she wasn¡¯t even originally from a universe with a system.


    Jim didn¡¯t know what to do with this info. In fact, he didn¡¯t 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 wouldn¡¯t 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 hadn¡¯t 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 wasn¡¯t 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 wasn¡¯t 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 wasn¡¯t even the system doing it. The contract itself was forcing Doyle to read it and wouldn¡¯t 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 weren¡¯t 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, wasn¡¯t too terrible at the moment. The guild might provide party creation services but that didn¡¯t require joining the guild.


    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 wasn¡¯t technically qualified yet to join, only getting in on a technicality. After all, you can¡¯t have a guild head that isn¡¯t 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 didn¡¯t 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 wasn¡¯t allowed. Even better? It put a limit on guild members and what they can and can¡¯t do about his very existence. Not that anyone on the right could do much about even a newborn dungeon, but that wouldn¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t 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 wasn¡¯t 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. It¡¯s just that he doesn¡¯t want to get rid of his two loot rules and to keep the automation of the first floor. Later floors aren¡¯t 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 wasn¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t exactly going to gift him a point in Wisdom despite the fact it had workedst time.@@novelbin@@


    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 wasn¡¯t 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 wouldn¡¯t 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 didn¡¯t 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 wasn¡¯t 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 didn¡¯t 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 don¡¯t 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 Ally¡¯s 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 isn¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t look all that happy. ¡®So I hear you¡¯ve made a pact of some sort?¡¯


    Doyle¡¯s 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 I¡¯ve signed a bunch of contracts in the past. This one wasn¡¯t even all that long. I think reading the entire thing only took a day or two to fully understand.¡¯


    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 don¡¯t 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 Guild¡¯s 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 something¡¯s power to bind it. I guess I can¡¯t me you too much, especially since it doesn¡¯t go over who the Guild¡¯s founder is, cause that really is the sticking point here.


    ¡®Since we are already so bound, let me exin who they are. The Guild¡¯s founder is something of a mix between a god and a true immortal. You already experienced one of the big boys around, Order. The Guild¡¯s 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 doesn¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t leave any room for having a personality.


    ¡®So yeah, the Guild Leader is sort of important. You don¡¯t get to have interdimensional business without at least a true immortal behind something and it doesn¡¯t 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 aren¡¯t 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 aren¡¯t 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 aren¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t 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 you¡¯re 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 it¡¯s 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.¡¯


    Doyle¡¯s core dims, ¡®Oh. Yeah. You do deserve to be informed with this kind of thing. Not to excuse myself for not telling you, but I¡¯ve never exactly been one to have people to talk to in general so this is kind of new to me. I¡¯ll definitely work on it in the future though I don¡¯t expect you to believe me until I¡¯ve actually shown you that I can.¡¯


    Ally snorts, ¡®That was said a lot better than I expected. Sounds kind of like you¡¯ve been practicing speeches like that.¡¯


    Doyle nods, ¡®Basically. Take note of my previous statement. This isn¡¯t my first rodeo when ites to ack of social tact. I¡¯ve had a bit of time to get used to the fact that I¡¯m going to be putting my foot in my mouth more often than not.¡¯


    Ally sighs, ¡®Fair enough. Now, you¡¯ve already signed the contract so we can¡¯t 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 don¡¯t 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 team¡¯s 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 can¡¯t 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.@@novelbin@@


    ¡®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 aren¡¯t 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 wasn¡¯t 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 guild¡¯s list of dungeons to cull. Since I¡¯m not some kind of gue dungeon or other simr type of environmentally disruptive ce, it wouldn¡¯t be on some kind of rush order. However, anyone who is a part of the guild, including the outer circle that isn¡¯t 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 wasn¡¯t willing to try for it, someone would. I wasn¡¯t 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 wouldn¡¯t have been that dire, as what little experience I do have with thises from dungeons on the rush order list. But I¡¯ve 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 wouldn¡¯t get to her. Local guilds have a chance to deal with such things first. So if your guild couldn¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t excuse you for not bringing me into the decision. After all, I know a good bit more about the universe¡¯s 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?¡¯

 The Secret Holy Swords Don’t Want You To Know – Chapter 189

    Ally rolls her eyes, ¡®You¡¯ve had more than enough time to think about what you want the floor to be.¡¯


    Doyleughs, ¡®True enough. Though I must admit I haven¡¯t thought too deeply about it. I¡¯m having a bit of a hard time judging my recent floors. How will the delvers react to my seventh floor? While the sixth floor has some nonsense to it, I started to warp space in a visible manner with the seventh floor.¡¯


    Ally nods, ¡®Yeah, your world wasn¡¯t exactly at the tech level needed to bend space without magic. Of course, even with that tech, you wouldn¡¯t see such things just lying around. Magic takes those restrictions and tosses them out the window.


    ¡®My advice? Go wild! Sure, people around here won¡¯t be used to it, but that is a perfect reason to do just that. Other beings aren¡¯t going to hold back so they might as well get used to it in your dungeon. While you aren¡¯t going to hold back against them, you¡¯re also not going to go full murder house on them.


    ¡®After all, it won¡¯t be too long before they start facing the most basic spatial warpers. There are just too many empty houses left around and too many deaths. You might even want to include something like that on the eighth floor.¡¯


    Doyle tilts to the side, ¡®I¡¯m going to guess this is something ghost rted?¡¯


    Allyughs, ¡®If only it was that simple. Ghosts and other spectral undead are simply bodiless egos and or souls. The biggest difference between a hauntedputer and aputer with an AI is ghost style entities are generally defined by being the remnants of a dead being. Though even that gets blurry when you get into mind uploads.¡¯


    Doyle dims for a moment and tilts forward, ¡®But you were referring to undead hauntings, right?¡¯


    Ally nods, ¡®I was, I can¡¯t deny that. Though it is a little moreplicated. Haunted houses tend not to be full on undead. Rather, thebination of an abandoned house and enough sapient dead in an area will imbue the house with powers. The house being abandoned is important because it needs the intent left behind by the previous sapient owner and a sapient death to provide thatst bit of oomph to actualize it.


    ¡®Not that you will see any in this town. That intent and oomph? That¡¯s the stuff you eat so the fact your influence covers the town automatically clears it. You can, of course create something that mimics a haunted house, but it wouldn¡¯t be the same.¡¯


    Doyle tilts back, ¡®Interesting, but how does a crufty house warp space?¡¯


    Ally smiles, ¡®And how is a sparkly crystal warping space in here? Though more seriously, it is the weight of the abandonmentbined with the void left by a soul leaving the dimension. Thatst one is magnified by any feelings of resentment, of unfinished business, having been tortured, or if the being dying is on the younger side.


    ¡®On a metaphysical level, those kinds of situations leave the soul¡¯s shell more intact than not. The void left by the soul vanishing tends to just copse that shell. This is the key point at which you find out if you get a full on undead spirit, haunted house, or some other phenomena.


    ¡®A less intact shell will get dispersed as the void is filled with powering in through the shell and then exploding outward. The other side of this is if the shell is intact enough to survive. If you end up with an intact shell that copses in on itself, you get an undead. On the other hand, if the shell is sturdy enough to survive nothing reces the soul and you end up with a metaphysical vacuum chamber.¡¯


    Doyle dims, ¡®How would that cause a soul to be an undead or not?¡¯


    Ally sighs, ¡®These things aren¡¯t exact. The basic idea behind it is that when the shell copses in on itself the cruft has a chance to act like a recement for the soul. This creates one of the many non-physical undead. When the shell is sturdy enough to leave a void, the cruftcks the interconnections to gain sentience.@@novelbin@@


    ¡®The reason this causes, among other things, a haunted house, is that intent of abandonment. This leaves the cruft with an intent that will pull in those void filled shells. After a critical mass, those shells will begin to warp space. You can tell how many beings went into a haunted house by how many themes it has.¡¯


    Doyle nods, ¡®I don¡¯t really understand it, but I can see how things would work like that. Though that all depends on it being non-sapient.¡¯


    Ally shrugs, ¡®While undead do have one of the highest rates of earned sapience next to mythical beasts, that doesn¡¯t mean they pop up everywhere. Haunted houses in particr basically never gain sapience, as a core part of them is ack of a soul. Oh, and a side note. This sort of thing doesn¡¯t always result in what we would ssify as an undead.


    ¡®A good example of this is a tsukumogami, which roughly trantes to something along the line of kami of the tool. They¡¯re inanimate objects that have been used for a long time and be self-aware, IE having gained a soul. Part of the hidden requirements for that is the tool had to have been haunted. Though all those sapient holy swords bristle at this. Mostly because the way they ended up haunted is through the death of a previous user.¡¯


    Doyleughs at that, ¡®I can totally see it. To admit that, admits they didn¡¯t manage to do their job and connects them to the undead, if tangentially.¡¯


    Ally smiles, ¡®Got it in one! Though now that I¡¯ve given you an earful, do you have a n now?¡¯


    Doyle nods, ¡®I¡¯ve yed with a few things in thest couple floors. Stuff like portals and warped spaces. Well, I¡¯m going tobine those two things. Besides that, though, the seventh floor had an abandoned cityscape feeling to it, sort of. For the eighth floor I¡¯m going to hit it up even harder and set it inside a skyscraper, at least in theme.¡¯


    Ally ps, ¡®That should be interesting. I¡¯ll keep an eye on the town, so feel free to focus on that.¡¯


    This was easy enough for Doyle to do, especially since he had just thought of something quite clever for the rooms that would act as the edges. In fact, even before setting up anything else he takes a chance to make his n a reality.


    The idea was simple enough. Doyle wanted it to look like the floor was taking ce inside a skyscraper that extended both up and down infinitely. Also, the skybox had to make it also looks like it was the only thing. Nice blue skies without a cloud to be seen, going outward without end.


    A fun part with this is that even illusions would have a problem doing this. For most people, an illusion might be able to mimic it, but anyone with good enough eyesight would be able to see the end of the illusion. Doyle already has the solution to this though and since he didn¡¯t n on delvers to ever ess the space, it would even be quitepact.


    All he needed was two sections, a side piece and a corner. From there Doyle just put some portals in ce so that it looped. So with deceptive ease, he brought the concept of an infinity mirror to a whole new level. The only problem remaining was the up and down, though even that was more a matter of him having not decided on how wide the skyscraper was going to be.


    Doyle sits back and considers the amount of space avable to him. At this point, he had more than enough. In fact, he had way more as his previous method of judging the size of his floor was ending up a slight bit wed. Without portals keeping everything on a single ne and measuring it by how many small rooms squared could fit at the widest part worked. Besides that, the upper and lower hemisphere left more than enough room for farm space.


    Now though? The eighth floor, by that standard, had a space which could fit 48 small rooms a side. That added up to a touch more than 2300 small rooms and yet the wasted space just on that slice of the floor was likely equal to half that, nevermind the area above and below. Doyle didn¡¯t have infinite space, but there was a whole lot more of it than he had been considering.


    He wasn¡¯tpletely to me for this mental oversight and would likely continue to fall into it. No matter how much Doyle used to be human and how his dungeon type naturally provided more space than most others, there was that baseline instinct from being a core. The drive to make a naturally interconnected floor all on one 2d ne. In fact, if it wasn¡¯t for the ¡°strange¡± part in his racial subtype it would have likely taken him a lot longer to notice this.


    All that aside, Doyle had more than enough space to set a skyscraper in. Not just a normal skyscraper either, but rather one many times wider than any pre-system skyscraper ever managed. The question he put to himself was if he wanted to do that.


    ¡®No, I don¡¯t think I do. While that would be interesting, it doesn¡¯t fit the theme I want to make use of.¡¯


    Mind made up, Doyle begins his work. This floor was going to be abusing verticality and warped spaces with a touch of portals to connect it all together. So why bother with some kind of office space full of the dungeon equivalent to a cubicle? In fact, when he dug into his memories of the various skyscrapers, the ones used by the rich would have each floor be its own ce. After all, if you¡¯re rich, why would you want to share a floor with someone else?


    So with that core idea, Doyleys down the foundation. Of course, it was only a single floor and not even that deep all things considered so he decided to keep it somewhat constrained. Each room would be huge! And by this he meant that literally as he had way back at the start set a size for huge rooms. Not that he had used one since the second floor.


    By using huge rooms, he automatically restricted how many he could have as each one was 12 small rooms to a side. Even then, whereas on the second floor he could only fit four at most, the eighth floor easily fit four to a side. That meant 16 in total on the main ne alone.


    This number gave Doyle pause. He had already decided not to have the actual skyscraper of rooms be too tall and there was already enough to fit the second floor four times over. After a bit of time ying around with the fit, he makes a choice. By moving things around, he was able to fit 16 huge rooms with the catch being they were three times the height of a normal room, just like he had done on the second floor.


    There was space to fit more rooms, but the height made it tricky fitting what was already there. Doyle saw a few ces where he could squeeze out simr amounts of continuous space. That continuous part was important to him because while he had heavily abused portals on the sixth floor, he wanted to make sure that anyone capable of messing with that wouldn¡¯t have an easy out on this floor.


    Not that he was going to skimp on the portals either. Instead of just linking up the rooms wherever there was going to be a passage between them, Doyle just made the entire area between rooms one giant portal. That way, if someone manages to get through the dungeon stone, they would end up in the right ce.


    Doyle takes a mental step back and examines what he has done so far, frowns, and then dives back in real quick. He had forgotten to hook up the infinite sky room. A few more portals and the recement of the stone walls with ss set up to look like a window fixes that.

 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 wasn¡¯t 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 wasn¡¯t 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 can¡¯t help it, Doyle makes it so that the various bridges shift around when no one is on the floor.


    This wasn¡¯t 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 aren¡¯t a bad monster, he just didn¡¯t 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 wouldn¡¯t 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 wall¡¯s 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 weren¡¯t 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 aren¡¯t 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 aren¡¯t any special methods needed. Theplication is that Doyle has put up floor to ceiling gates, simr to the sixth floor except they don¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t 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 it¡¯s there and he¡¯s 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 he¡¯s 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?


    Doyle¡¯s first reaction is to make it look stupid simple again and he doesn¡¯t 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 floor¡¯s size was determined was how far Doyle could stretch things. So, like a rubber band pulled tight it didn¡¯t 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 wasn¡¯t 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 shouldn¡¯t be able to fit within the nine meters between the floor and ceiling.


    Doyle isn¡¯t 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.


    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.@@novelbin@@


    Of course, Doyle isn¡¯t 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 aren¡¯t quite yet able to be long enough for that and survive being climbed.


    That doesn¡¯t 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 wasn¡¯t 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 didn¡¯t 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 camo¡¯d 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 didn¡¯t know where the exit was, they would soon learn which vines are best to climb. Can¡¯t 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 aren¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t really have any creatures ready for zero g, but the adventurers aren¡¯t 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.@@novelbin@@


    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 can¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t use that technique. As Doyle examines it closer he can¡¯t even tell which four corners are the original ones. Quite the strange experience and he doesn¡¯t want to risk ruining it. That of course leads to a simple enough room.


    Doyle can¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t deign to use mirrors. Instead he makes use of warps in space. A perfect reflection of not just light, but force as well. It wouldn¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t work too well. At least Doyle isn¡¯t able to do it yet.


    This doesn¡¯t prevent him from developing a maze that shifts while being explored. It wasn¡¯t 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.


    That¡¯s 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 aren¡¯t being used they will be able to map out the room. Still, he can¡¯t 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 didn¡¯t look like there wasn¡¯t 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 won¡¯t 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 wouldn¡¯t 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 Flisle¡¯s 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 I¡¯m 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. There¡¯s 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 you¡¯re 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.


    ¡®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 doesn¡¯t work all that well of course, but someone is always willing to try.¡¯


    Doyle tilts his core to the side, ¡®Why wouldn¡¯t 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 don¡¯t have to. Just look at your early floors. Well less than half the floor¡¯s 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 doesn¡¯t mean you can¡¯t use oodles of monsters. Even if you don¡¯t want to ce each monster in exactly the right spot you can have that randomized. Don¡¯t tell me you¡¯ve 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.

 Adding Monsters To The Eighth Floor – Chapter 192

    The top most room of the eighth floor was easy. Just a copy paste of the monsters on the first floor. That also made figuring out the total points spent a breeze as well, after all, he did spend the full 1,000 points there. That settled, Doyle moved his attention to the first room.


    A big room full of ss tforms and bridges. Yeah, that¡¯s going to be goats and kobolds. Sure, he has all these other monsters, but that is a little hard on anything else. Assassin vines? Nowhere to hide. Myconids, cattle, or axebeaks? They would fall off the tforms too easily, especially the axebeaks.


    With that in mind, Doyle decides that kobolds can be on the ground with goats on the tforms. Though he does decide a pair of kobolds should be on the ss tform with the stairs up. Then he pauses and ups the number to six along with three groups of six on the ground.


    As for the goats? He decides to go for the baseline variety. Mostly because wood and grass don¡¯t exactly scream ss to him. Doyle shrugs to himself and ces four groups of ten. Though with the size of the tforms, they spill out some onto the nearby bridges.@@novelbin@@


    Doyle gets an overview of the room and nods. That was a decent amount of monsters for the room, now to arm them. The reason for all the kobolds is ranged attacks but they still need a defense. With that in mind, he throws leather gear at all of them along with bows, leather quivers, and twenty wooden arrows each.


    Doyle could afford to give the arrows a metal tip, but wanted them to have more of a bludgeoning effect to them so as to push people off the tforms. Besides that, though, he gives two kobolds in each group a shield and a club. Happy with that, Doyle also throws the goats leather helmets and barding, IE system adjusted tunics. Because when he tried it, the tunics on the goats ended up looking just like it, which makes sense as that is kind of what the stuff is. After that, a quick pass makes it so a random piece of the leather gear, the shields, and all the goats¡¯ stuff will be loot.


    This brings him to the second room. A room that he didn¡¯t really need to think about. It was for the axebeaks. Especially since he had the fancy 900 point bank breakers. Good thing he has points to throw around now.


    On the entrance side of the room, Doyle ces four randomly ced regr axebeaks. More because it felt barren than anything else. As for the ceiling? Three groups of four axebeaks, all led by a Windcutter Axebeak. And because of how costly those windcutters are, he decks them out in full leather gear as well.


    With the second easiest room finished, Doyle moves onto the third and fourth room. Twin rooms that are inherently connected through unseen portals. The good news is that his dungeon monsters will be able to just ¡®get¡¯ the two rooms. However, to take advantage of the room they need a little more cunning and a good bit of speed.


    Doyle knows that his kobolds have the cunning, but they aren¡¯t quite there on the speed bit so of course this led to mounts. However, he doesn¡¯t want to just have wolves. If anything, the goats would be a better solution with only a little bit of change to the room. Of course, he also turns a side eye towards the axebeaks. After all, they are his fastest creatures when ites to direct charges.


    The two rooms however aren¡¯t exactly designed for straight paths so Doyle throws away the idea for them. Though it does turn his thoughts back towards the second room. He doesn¡¯t want to make all the axebeaks into mounts, but he does have all those fancy windbreakers.


    This prompts a quick backtrack as Doyle can¡¯t help but put a kobold rider in full leather gear onto each of the windcutters. Then to arm them he gives the trio a set of three spears tipped in bronze. Two to throw and the third for meleebat, which has a chance to drop as loot.


    Backtrack finished, Doyle takes some time to try and figure out if goat riders or wolf riders would be a better choice. While there are ways to use the third and fourth room¡¯s gates to hide, the areas are a decent size. This means that any attempts to hide will be obvious.


    On one hand, Doyle figures the pack tactics that wolves would bring could be useful. They already know how to hunt together, after all. The problem is that this isn¡¯t really prime wolf territory. It isn¡¯t a forested room and the grass isn¡¯t high enough to hide them.


    On the other hand, the goats are just so much sturdier and stronger. Sure, the wolves will get a little bit of a buff from beingmanded by the kobolds, but the goats have per level boosts. They might not be adding up like the kobolds, but five extra points into physical stats every level is going to do work.


    In fact, the normal wolves have fallen far behind everything else by this floor. So much so that Doyle makes a note to himself that he needs to figure out a path for them. Sure, the elemental variants provide a method of upping their power, but that can only do so much. Even the assassin vines are advancing more than them.


    Of course, this little revtion instantly swings Doyle¡¯s opinion on what to use as his kobolds¡¯ mounts in the twin rooms. Though since the room is supposed to be more of a maze, he decides to go with a stealthier approach. Sure, a nice cavalry charge isn¡¯t ever out of ce, but he has grassen goats for his kobolds to y with.


    This, of course, necessities a slight physical change to the rooms, but it was a small one. Doyle just spread a decent number of goat sized bumps all over. After all, it doesn¡¯t matter how well the goat might blend in if it is the only thing sticking out of apletely t bit of ground. Then, after some exhaustive calctions (IE picking a random number that felt right), Doyle ced down a single group of twelve grassen goats and twelve kobolds.


    The kobolds get another round of leather gear as well as bronze tipped short spears. Sadly, the goats can¡¯t exactly be armored if they are going to take advantage of their stealth skill. Still, they are more than sturdy enough to handle things so after making a random piece of the kobolds leather gear loot, Doyle moves on.


    This leads on to the fifth room. A room that Doyle takes a single look at and is tempted to just move on. The room itself is fine. Sure, the crazy spatial nonsense going on really stretched some of his abilities, but that was the n. The problem is that even with his monsters knowing how to deal with it all, none of them can physically deal with it except assassin vines.


    Now, those vines aren¡¯t the worst of monsters. The problem is that this room has literally nowhere to hide. Even though the terrain is quite nasty with all kinds of sharp drop offs and jagged cliff faces, the delvers will first see it as just a t stone room. The assassin vines would stick out like the sorest of thumbs.


    The delvers might have a hard time killing the thing, but they wouldn¡¯t ever be surprised by it. Doyle, however doesn¡¯t want to leave the roompletely empty. It contains one of the wildest terrains of the whole dungeon and his current best bet at triggering the elemental animals bonus. As it is, there isn¡¯t a volcano floor that can help add a fire themed temte on them. Though the question is whether ¡°space¡± would count as an element.


    That path sounded like it had a bunch of potential but it had already disappointed him to some degree. Most of thating from expecting more from a five point path than reasonable. He had missed it at the time, but the path didn¡¯t give him an elemental variant of the assassin vine. Sure, it could be argued that it already had the element of wood like how he got that wooden goat, but it didn¡¯t feel fair. Though some part of him did question if it was because the path specifically mentioned animals. Still, Doyle held out hope and ced five normal goats.


    Doyle shakes himself and shifts to six, seven, and eight. A trio of easy rooms, though not quite as straightforward as the second room. Believe it or not, the vine room was going to be filled with assassin vines and their elders. The only problem is that the longer he looks at the room, the more he realizes that it needs to wait.


    While the monsters for the room are easy, he isn¡¯t quite able to figure out how many to throw at it. Doyle sighs and puts the three rooms aside until the end. This, however, leads to rooms nine through twelve. Another power block, except this time he really could just call them a single room. There are no gates between them as they have been put together in one physical space.


    The biggest catch of the four rooms though has to be theck of gravity. To y with that, Doyle knows he has to have at least one elder assassin vine. While they aren¡¯t all that fast, theck of gravity and all the handholds will allow it to fly around the room. Especially with the two triple length vines they sport.


    With the elder in ce and acting as a more active predator than usual, Doyle decides to take one of the active monsters and turn it into more of a trap. That monster is the myconid sprouts. They won¡¯t be able to move on their own, but when ced throughout the room, they create wonderful mines.


    Not only do they work as mines, but they are the epitome of point efficiency for the role. Sure, the sprouts won¡¯t be able to do much damage. Damage doesn¡¯t matter though as the spores are what matter, after all, Null G is a lot less fun when paralyzed. This means Doyle can get away with the smallest sprouts.


    At the cost of 50 per 100 points means each sprout costs half what a goat would. Doyle doubts that the sprouts could ever match the goats in most things, but he managed to find the one. The small size is even a benefit as it makes them harder to spot. Doyle was quite pleased with this and so decided to spread out two groups of them. The biggest shame is that whole group thing. Got to keep them close enough or they be multiple groups.


    That just left the kobolds. Because of course the room would have kobolds. There just wasn¡¯t any other monster that could manage the floor. Though it would have been funny to have just a random cow floating in the center of the room, kicking its feet.


    How many kobolds you might ask? A group of 40 kobolds, all decked out in full leather gear. Though not just normal leather. Doyle specifically used leather made from ashen cattle so it took on a deep gray color without using any dyes. That all was easy. The tricky part was deciding on what weapons they would use.


    Magic was an obvious one. Who cares about the physics of Zero G when throwing fireballs? It would however be a little much to make all of them mages. Ten of them would be enough, with four of them being healers. Another ten get bronze tipped spears so they can do a bit of shish kebabing, ten receive an iron dagger each, and the final ten get to try out unarmedbat.

 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 can¡¯t figure out how to repeat, but otherwise theyout is simple enough. A bit of a problem, as that also means it doesn¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t 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 aren¡¯t directly rted to dragons.


    Nevermind the fact that Doyle doesn¡¯t even know if dragons grow with age either. That is the general trend in their myth, but even with the soul nonsense, myth doesn¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t 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 wasn¡¯t 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.


    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 wasn¡¯t 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 wasn¡¯t 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 floor¡¯s 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 couldn¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t sustainable for the vine rooms.


    With a shake of his core, Doyle distributes the assassin vines. The elder, of course, goes near the eighth room¡¯s 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 wasn¡¯t certain that a group would run into one of them, but it was better than could have been if he hadn¡¯t 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 didn¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t 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.@@novelbin@@


    This wasn¡¯t 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 wouldn¡¯t do his main goal. That of improving people¡¯s 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 moment¡¯s 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 hadn¡¯t felt the need to inform him as they couldn¡¯t 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 hadn¡¯t 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 hadn¡¯t 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 wasn¡¯t really all that much, all things considered. In fact, if it wasn¡¯t 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, hadn¡¯t 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 couldn¡¯t entirely me him. It isn¡¯t 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 hadn¡¯t 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.@@novelbin@@


    The system wasn¡¯t 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 wolf¡¯s rest. Ace sighs, ¡°So if I¡¯m 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 wouldn¡¯t 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 I¡¯ve seen this enough times before. I can¡¯t trust you, especially not after what happened in thest ce.¡±


    Ace snorts, ¡°Cam, don¡¯t try and pull that on me. Yes, they were pretty vile upriver. Hell, this world¡¯s history has more than enough examples of even worse beingmitted because of skin color. I¡¯m certain your original world wasn¡¯t 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. I¡¯ll y along with you, but if I don¡¯t believe it is worth it I¡¯m taking my people and moving on. This won¡¯t 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 hadn¡¯t 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 weren¡¯t 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 town¡¯s core members had done so. He would prefer more people give it a try. Sure, the +1 to a stat isn¡¯t 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 don¡¯t actually get as much benefit from it.


    Back with Ace and Cam, the two of them watch thest of Cam¡¯s direct family climb back down. After hearing what they had gained, Cam couldn¡¯t 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 can¡¯t be helped, this world has gravity just that bit lower than our original.


    ¡°Eh, whatever. I¡¯m 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 haven¡¯t 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 wasn¡¯t 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 wouldn¡¯t 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 wouldn¡¯t catch onto that. All we can do is nudge things in their favor.¡±


    Camughs, ¡°Isn¡¯t 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, let¡¯s 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, ¡°I¡¯ve seen some of the people in the outer ring. Even some of our kids can take them.¡±


    Ace waves his hand, ¡°They don¡¯t count. I¡¯m 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 don¡¯t 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 you¡¯ll be pigeonholed into that role. Yes, we need proper crafters, but I don¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t 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 won¡¯t 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, ¡°We¡¯re only kin so in theory our origin species shouldn¡¯t 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 I¡¯ve learned, this isn¡¯t 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 aren¡¯t 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.¡±


    Ace waves her argument aside, ¡°You¡¯re 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 hadn¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t work, magic has other options still. You just admitted that magic allows for crazy family nning. I don¡¯t 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 don¡¯t particrly see humans being down for that.¡±


    Ace¡¯s 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 isn¡¯t 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? They¡¯re just elves. Your world wasn¡¯t 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 can¡¯t 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 don¡¯t 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 don¡¯t 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 didn¡¯t 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? What¡¯s 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 can¡¯t 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 can¡¯t seem to make up its mind. Now let¡¯s 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 weren¡¯t too out there. Susan, Zach, and Sammy had all been in the dungeon enough.


    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 wasn¡¯t 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.@@novelbin@@


    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 didn¡¯t even bother to do a shakeout run of the first floor. The floor just was not any sort of threat to the group. It wasn¡¯t 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 today¡¯s configuration had a pretty direct route from the entrance to the exit.


    Mind you, the wolves on the fourth floor weren¡¯t 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 hadn¡¯t delved into his dungeon with this particr group setup, it was very apparent that it wasn¡¯t 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 don¡¯t 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 can¡¯t 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 weren¡¯t any other kobolds nearby. Sure, a wolfkin doesn¡¯t 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 hadn¡¯t 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 kobold¡¯s back line, a ball of ice and de of wind flies towards them. Zach isn¡¯t a slouch though and while he can¡¯t 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 didn¡¯t have anyone to heal yet, so put into practice a little anti-healing. It wasn¡¯t a harm spell like some roleying games like to put as the yin to healing¡¯s 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 kobold¡¯s 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 leader¡¯s bronze shield. Though she wouldn¡¯t be a Barrai if she didn¡¯t 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 kobold¡¯s 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 kobold¡¯s 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 Susan¡¯s 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 didn¡¯t.


    A good thing that as Jay has to step back right quick as an ice spear tries to skewer him. Zach wasn¡¯t 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 weren¡¯t 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 wasn¡¯t 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.@@novelbin@@


    Then the kobold leader joins the fray. On her stone wolf, she barrels through Sammy and Zach¡¯s 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 mount¡¯s 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 isn¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t 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 wolf¡¯s wounds and the tree¡¯s bark seems to be just a bit closer to the color of fresh blood.


    The kobold leader isn¡¯t 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 Sammy¡¯s 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 doesn¡¯te 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 leader¡¯s 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 aren¡¯t really under hermand like they were with their leader. She can already feel the weakness sweeping over her as thest of the leader¡¯s presence leaves them.


    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 weren¡¯t with this group. Good thing self heals not only are just as effective, but because you don¡¯t 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 Jay¡¯s 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 isn¡¯t anything he can do as the ensouled spear kobold¡¯s 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 can¡¯t help but frown. Even if most of the kobolds aren¡¯t 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 shouldn¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t 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 don¡¯t 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 patrol¡¯s 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 wasn¡¯t going to charge at them.


    Good thing there isn¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t a rule that mages are bad at melee, these kobolds wouldn¡¯t 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 wolf¡¯s 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.

 What Wall? – Chapter 197

    Jim looks over his party and sighs. Thatst patrol didn¡¯t end up dropping any equipment, not that they were depending on it doing so or even hoping that it would. Still, it would have been nice to get something to equip Jay with. Though admittedly, his leather armor was of better quality than everyone else¡¯s normal armor, but at least for the moment the dungeon based stuff was the best avable.


    Besides that, though, the patrol did end up dropping quite arge amount of non-equipment including a trio of health potions. Two of which were coagnts and the other a flesh mender. Good stuff, even if he did question why they couldn¡¯t just make a more generic healing potion like what was in pre-system games.


    Jim shakes his head and refocuses. Without a second party to support them,pleting this floor was going to be tough and require new strategies. Until now, people had mostly given up when they realized that after killing the second patrol the other three would be called back to the walled town. Not an imprable defense, but definitely not easy for six people to handle.


    Good thing that more people have taken up the mantle of healer or this might have been a hard stop for much too long. There were even a couple core members, Mos and Justin Smith, who took up the role. Though Doctor was going to be the best in Wolf¡¯s Rest for a long time. There was just something about having a pre-system medical degree that boosted his abilities.


    So much so, in fact, that Ace had a standing order to gather as many pre-system medical books as possible. Though that was true for most things honestly. Every scrap of pre-system knowledge was being hoarded by the town at the moment. Not necessarily to keep to themselves so much, but rather to preserve it until needed. A book on how transistors worked didn¡¯t exactly benefit anyone at the moment. In the future, though? They could be the key to some kind of amazing magitech device.


    Without pause, Jim leads his team around the perimeter of the floor. Sure, there was only a single gate into kobold town. That didn¡¯t mean they had to use it. Not that this was the first time Jim had thought of this. Rather, until now, they had kept the n under their hats because of one helpful reaction that the kobolds currently had.


    Whenever they called back the patrols to guard kobold town, they would also call in all the animals. Animals that in normal times would act as an early warning system in case someone tried to sneak up behind the town. After today, though, the animals likely weren¡¯t going to be kept inside anymore. Both a blessing and a curse.


    With them out and about, this tactic wouldn¡¯t work anymore. On the other hand, it would allow teams to slowly pick away at the animals without having to face them as part of a full on assault of the gate. Because if there was one thing the kobolds didn¡¯t do anymore, it was send out the animals first in onerge stampede.


    Now behind the kobold town, Jim peaks out from a tunnel. There is a single kobold on the wall, but they aren¡¯t there to patrol. Rather, it looks more like they had just decided to walk around a little to stretch their legs and so soon left to join back up with the other defenders at the gate.


    Jim gestures to the rest of his team, and they all begin to sneak up to the wall. The very wooden wall. And they have Zach with them, a proficient wood mage. Yeah, once they reached said wall it didn¡¯t exactly stop them.


    Of course, once they were in the kobold town, things got a lot more dangerous. Over time, the ce had gotten more borate with every building having a second story and the back alleys being quite the maze. Jim was particrly frustrated with this natural feature of a kobold warren as while it provided a tight space so they wouldn¡¯t get overwhelmed, it also allowed the kobolds toe at them from any direction once the group gets discovered.


    Not that they are going to go shouting their presence. As far as Jim is concerned, they can stay hidden for the rest of the floor. While unlikely, Susan goes a long way towards allowing this as the moment they are into the town she vanishes into the sprawl. There aren¡¯t many kobolds just walking around right now, but any that are won¡¯t be soon enough.


    With Susan otherwise upied, Jim leads the rest of the party into one of the ever so slightly too short buildings to hide out. It wouldn¡¯t do much good for Susan to go off if the party instantly gets found out. Though they don¡¯t have to wait long before she returns.


    Though the frown on her face doesn¡¯t exactly point towards good tidings. Susan sighs, ¡°They are mostly sticking to the gate right now. I guess we wouldn¡¯t have gotten in so easily if not for that, but it also means there weren¡¯t many out and about for me to pick off. Not to say I didn¡¯t get any. Butpared to the horde at the gate one kobold with a small herd of 5 goats and a lone wind wolf sniffing around isn¡¯t exactly moving the needle.¡±@@novelbin@@


    Doctor shrugs, ¡°I¡¯m sure in the future you will be able to have a lot more fun with this floor. For now though, any of them down is another that isn¡¯t going to be attacking uster.¡±


    Jim nods, ¡°Plus, it isn¡¯t like they have reinforcementsing. That kobold, wolf, and those goats aren¡¯t being reced. Now, what did you see out there?¡±


    Susan gestures in the gate''s direction, ¡°Like I said, they¡¯re all guarding the gate. More specifically, the animals are mostly gathered in arge open area next to the gate, the ranged attackers are of course on the wall, and everyone else is spread through the nearby houses. Oh, and there are traps. Simple stuff like tripwires and pitfalls, but suffice it to say, the kobolds haven¡¯t left the rest of the townpletely undefended.¡±


    Jim shakes his head at thest bit. ¡°Those traps sure are a nuisance. Anyway, did you spot the boss? If we don¡¯t beat her, the shortcut isn¡¯t unlocked.¡±


    Susan chuckles at that, ¡°I guess I did skip mentioning where she was. So there is this throne, right smack dab in the middle of that open space. The boss is, of course sitting on said throne in the middle of all the animals with six beefy goats nking her.


    ¡°Like, I didn¡¯t really notice it in the past, but with all the animals standing around, those goats are stacked! Just under a head taller than the other goats and tough as nails. Not that they should offer too much of a problem for us, but it does look kind of silly next to the other goats.¡±


    Zach snorts, ¡°Those are likely just higher level than the rest. If the dungeon put them as a sort of honor guard for the boss, it would only make sense.¡±


    Jim shrugs, ¡°Either way, it doesn¡¯t really change my n. Since we can¡¯t do a boss rush, we will need to start somewhere we can defend from while still having a way out. That is going to mean next to the outer wall. Susan, you will guide us to a good spot. Though make sure we can spend a little bit of time unnoticed. There is still a little preparation we need to make.¡±


    Such a spot was easy enough to get to though did involve stepping over and around a handful of the previously mentioned traps. Once there, Jim has Zach do a bit of modification. Stuff that everyone considered to be quite clever.


    First on the list of changes was creating an escape route. This involved Zach hollowing out a section of the wall and leaving the inner and outeryer connected to the rest of the structure by only a few points. This not only made it so that a slight shove would allow the group to escape the kobold town, but provided material for the next bit.


    That of spreading attice cover over their heads. It wasn¡¯t some solid wall of wood, there wasn¡¯t near enough material for that. It, however, was enough that projectiles would be screened. Sure, stuff could still get through, but some would be blocked while allowing the party to see if any sneaky kobolds had decided to take the high ground. As a bonus, Zach used any spare material to block up the windows above them.


    The third and final change was to partially block off the direction they came from. Their location was more of a sharp corner alley than anything else, which meant there were two ways in. Zach didn¡¯tpletely block off the second way that was directed away from the gate. Rather, he just bowed the walls out enough that they would have to file through one at a time. For the kobolds that would probably allow two at a time if they squeezed, but Jim figured it would be enough to slow them down without forcing them to think of an alternate way to get to the party.


    Then, with preparations in ce, Jim gets the party started with a loud shout. See, the alley they are in continues a short distance forward until it meets with the open area with all the animals in it but the angle of the path¡¯s curve is so sharp they are out of sight. Convenient for blocking even more of the ranged threats and also means that it doesn¡¯t take long for the kobolds to realize where the enemy party has gotten to.


    Though the first around the corner isn¡¯t any of the kobolds. No, the animals had been getting restless and Susan had killed one of the herders who had been keeping them under control. In fact, the first to attack are the wind wolves, now down to just four. Their elemental nature allowed them to pinpoint the location the shout hade from and speed ahead of the rest.


    An unfortunate situation for them. They aren¡¯t weak, but just the floor before involved fighting through a den of wolves. Anyone that has made it to the boss floor will be more than versed in how to handle a handful of wolves in a tight corridor so the fight itself isn¡¯t all that interesting. What is a twist on things is what happens after they are dead, but before the next batch of enemies arrive.


    Sure, the corpses of dungeon monsters will fade away with time. Jim just figures that time might not be quick enough to prevent the area from clogging up. This is easy enough to fix with Zach around. The walls on both sides physically reach out and grab the bodies, drawing them into the buildings. If they win, the party will be able to go and grab the loot and if they don¡¯t? Well, they won¡¯t have time to worry about things like wolf pelts and goat meat.


    Then the next wave of monsters arrive, though calling it a wave is a bit of a misnomer. Rather, it was the rest of the monsters as one big blob. They hadn¡¯t really been prepared to fight within their own town, at least not like this and so the kobolds fell back on mob tactics.


    Not the easiest thing to face, but the chosen location really benefited Jim¡¯s party. Even the small touches, like restricting the other direction, quickly came into y and proved their worth as all the dagger wielding kobolds seemed to have the same idea and had gone for a nk. They, of course, soon died and were swept to the side by Zach.

 Stand Out Cattle – Chapter 198

    They don¡¯t get much time though, as the cattle stampede into the alley. Not by chance though. It is a little hard to hear, but Jim is certain that some of the kobolds had guided them to attack.


    He isn¡¯t wrong either. Out in the za, the four remaining kobold goatherds have taken charge of the animals and created enough distance for the cows to have an actual run of it. More than enough for the cattle¡¯s teamwork skill to kick in and allow for an actual stampede and not just a simple charge.


    In front of the party, Sammy and Jay are hard pressed to hold the line. If not from timely assistance from Zach and some wooden tripping hazards they would have been easily thrown back by the herd. As it is, they are still forced backwards a good few paces, forcing those behind them to retreat as well.


    Good thing Jim had positioned them further forward or else they wouldn¡¯t have had the room. As it is though, Doctor is quite close to the false wall and the party can¡¯t really afford to retreat again. Then spells start toe down on the woodttice above their heads.


    The woodenttice manages to hold off the attacks as only two of the remaining kobold mages are using fire. Though the one volley of stone shot does quite a bit of damage as well. It won¡¯t hold forever sadly as none of the magic users in the party know any water magic. At least none that would help in this situation. Ace had made certain that all of the town¡¯s core members knew the basic quality of life spells such as being able to create drinking water and detectmon poisons.


    Such survival spells aren¡¯t much help against the napalm like magical fire which is currently eating away at the woodenttice. About the only good news is that the magic is contained. While it looks like it is dripping off the wood, any drops vanish before it gets even halfway to the group.


    Sammy and Jay of course don¡¯t have the luxury of noticing such details, having to instead focus entirely on the herd of cows trying to trample all over them. At the front of the over 40 cows are the six earthen cattle who all alone would be a problem. Their tough hides turn most blows into ncing hits.


    Not only that, but their skill heavy foot makes it nearly impossible for the two front line fighters to throw them back. Still, the two aren¡¯t alone and so what might have been impossible bes reality. Through abination of Zach battering them with wooden spikes from below and Susan nipping in to strike at their joints, Sammy and Jay manage to drive them back.


    Then Jim releases an arrow and one of the earthen cows falls, an arrow through the eye. This opens up the entire fight as it allows Susan to get in deeper and cause some real damage. From there it is a slow grind as the earthen cattle die and the normal cows dwindle until only a cow that smells heavily of herbs remains.


    Well, it would be all that remained if not for the gaggle of goats and ten wolves that came right after. Though after the cattle, they aren¡¯t exactly the most effective. That one remaining cow however is more than pulling its weight. Susan is still doing work, cutting into all kinds of locations.


    The biggest problem she is having is that the cow seems unphased by her poison. Though even ignoring that, the cow seems designed to be her nemesis. The way things would normally go without poison is she would cut a few important blood vessels and soon enough the enemy would bleed out or be forced to attend to their wounds.


    The herb cow however ignores such things. While the wound itself isn¡¯t instantly healing or anything, even the most dire wound soon clots up as some form of innate healing easily deals with what would have been an unfortunate amount of blood loss.


    Susan can remember fighting this cow previously and it takes her a moment to figure out why this time is so much tougher. Then it hits her, what is one of the most ssic tropes for how to stop rapid healing? Of course the answer is fire and thest time they had two mages throwing around the stuff willy nilly.


    Without a fire mage the herb cows above average Constitution score and fast healing makes the thing an absolute nightmare to take down. So much so she can only give up on taking down the beast and move on. Though if anything, this made it easier for Sammy to handle the cow as she no longer has to worry about hitting Susan.


    On the backline Jim is a bit worried about the herb cow. The enemy mages had almost broken through the woodenttice at this point and Zach was going to have to focus more actively on countering them. If the herb cow wasn¡¯t taken care of soon, things could start going badly.


    Worse yet, he had already tried applying some pointed force to the cow¡¯s eyes and it managed to fend off his attack. This wasn¡¯t the first time such a thing had happened, though those asions were rare. What it did say was that the cow wasn¡¯t fully engaged with Sammy and was able to keep an eye out for itself. So as the wolves approached the front line, Jim worries and decides to focus on them instead.


    A smart decision as while dangerous, the wolvescked a lot of the oomph that the goats and cows had behind them. This difference in ability shows clearly how levels aren¡¯t really all that important, but rather the paths you¡¯ve taken. With three shots, Jim is easily able to take down three wolves. Something he wasn¡¯t capable of doing even against the goats, let alone the cows.


    Heartened by this, Jim soon manages to finish off the rest of them, beating the enemy mages in their attempts to breach thettice. This doesn¡¯t stop the breach from happening of course, but it does allow Jim to be ready to help Zach fend off any attackers trying to get the high ground on them.


    A good thing too, as the only remaining ice mage had decided to do just that. He wasn¡¯t exactly allowed to join in on trying to break the woodttice, ice being a bit of a counter to fire, and so had decided to sneak into the nearby building to try and rain down icy death from above. Jim dly introduced him to pointy death in return.


    That didn¡¯t stop the other mages from raining down the damage, some of the goats and the herb cow even ended up in the crossfire. This ironically is what finally opens up the herb cow. A fireball skirts a little too close to the beast and singes its side. Thus distracted, Jay was able to get a powerful skill assisted swing in, lopping off a horn and cutting deeply into the skull.


    Jay¡¯s poleaxe does get stuck in the bone but he considers the trouble well worth itpared to finally being able toy low the beast as even fast healing can¡¯t fix that much brain damage. At least not with the skill level the herb cow had.


    Sammy in turn steps forward to protect Jay as he wrestles his weapon free. Though she isn¡¯tpletely on the defensive, her sword is doing fine work on the enemy goats. Then from around the bend five more goats, four of which are being ridden, show up before they are even a third of the way through the current batch.@@novelbin@@


    The kobold mages that had been lurking just around the corner make way for the goats and specifically the goats. While the four kobold goatherds might be riding the beasts, it is clearly the goats that are important. Not that the party wouldn¡¯t have been able to tell that they were special. Compared to the other goats, these five are all a good few inches taller than the rest with a much more muscr overall appearance.


    Then with a snarl from one of the goatherds, the unmounted goat charges into the herd with the other four following closely behind. As it makes its way towards the party the normal goats split apart from them without even looking back. This allows the four to easily reach the battle.


    Though not before Jim manages toy low one of the goatherds with an arrow to the heart, the kobold¡¯s leather tunic not up to the task. The big goats ignore this change and barrel into Sammy as she braces with her shield.


    One of the goatherds manages to get a good thwack in with their shillgh, but Jay isn¡¯t standing around like a lemon andes in from the side with a grand sweep. Not prepared for this response, the three goatherds are all swept off their mounts and back into the herd of goats behind them.


    It is only through abination of skill and incredible luck that none of the three end up trampled before the goats notices what is up. As it is though, they aren¡¯t doing too hot and their presence has caused a disruption in the herd. A fact that Jim easily takes advantage of as goat after goat falls prey to his arrows.


    All the while Zach and Doctor are hectically holding back five kobold mages. To say this was a challenge would be understating things. Even if it had been five normal kobold mages, two spells a person would be a difficult proposition. When you include mages learned in your group''s counter, that spells trouble.


    Even though none of them have been ensouled, they are still able to make excellent use of the baked in spells that the System provides. Whether it is the simple fire shot, the devious napalm burst, or the more powerful fireball. The only lucky part is that they never have a chance to figure out Ruby¡¯s fire ribbon. A truly dangerous spell that proves Ruby is more than just a normal magic user. All that aside though, the basics are still deadly.


    Zach is trying his best, making use of what is left of the woodenttice to reflect what shots he can. Doctor on the other hand, is trying a more aggressive tactic. After all, no matter how much they block, it might only take one missed shot. To solve that, sometimes the best solution is to remove the source of the danger and that is exactly what Doctor had nned.


    He might not have any real spells, but it is amazing what can fit under the auspice of healing magic. In particr and of incredible use at the moment, he has managed to develop a spell that detects foreign magic and applies pressure back towards the source. A useful ability if one had to deal with a curse or harmful spell that was still being fueled by someone else.


    Or as in this case, adding a bit of a kicker to an enemy mage¡¯s spell. While not capable of killing the kobold mages, it did give them a massive headache and cause their spells to no longer feature the incredible uracymonly seen in simple bullet spells. Taking what was essentially a hitscan spell and adding the need to focus on aiming causes all kinds of problems for a being not used to it.


    Of course with just a minor amount of mental defense would protect against this ability. A wonderful thing that the kobolds arepletelycking in. Not the hardest thing to believe, when until now all spell disruption had been happening right before the spell hit and not before it was even cast.

 Do You Think You’re Some Kind Of Protagonist? – Chapter 200

    Doyle turns away from Jim¡¯s new group as they rest. They¡¯ll take some time before moving onto the next floor so for the moment he can focus on other stuff. Most important of which is a question for Ally which had percted to the top of his mind. ¡®Hey Ally, even the wolfkin has mostly caught up to them. Though that likely has more to do with having started in a more martial society. Why aren¡¯t I gaining levels?¡¯


    Ally looks up from a screen and shrugs, ¡®Remember, you gain levels for doing things beyond your norm. I know I talked about how patterns are the answer to a smith from cranking out nails until they¡¯re super high level. That however is a system based restriction to fix a system based problem.


    ¡®In reality someone could be a godly smith at making nails even without the system. All it would take is to constantly try and improve on the nails they are making and there are so many things to improve on that would transfer to other stuff. A nail that can pierce through wood from a world tree would work just as well if used as the head of an arrow.


    ¡®On the other hand, just cranking out nails like a machine isn¡¯t going to do you much good. With that in mind, floors are the nails to your machine. So far despite all the tricks and twists you¡¯ve incorporated, none of it has really gone beyond what a dungeon of your type can naturally do so you aren¡¯t getting level experience from that. This leaves experience gained from delvers.


    ¡®Which, I admit, you¡¯ve had more than a few die. They aren¡¯t worth much at all though. They¡¯re the greens a picky child has to eat to grow up strong, but they won¡¯t inherently make you stronger than others. So far everyone has been stuck in your lower floors which while dangerous in their own ways, don¡¯t really stretch them.


    ¡®Of course, if you were still a human with human experience scaling you would have gained a good number of levels. You''re not a human though and to gain levels with any speed from eating your food is kind of silly. Like a wolf killing a normal rabbit, you¡¯re just doing normal wolf stuff.


    ¡®You should however gain a level soon because of Jim and his party. That boss fight likely gave you a healthy bump, but more importantly, they¡¯re moving onto your new floors. Those new floors will be where the levels will be at.¡¯


    Doyle¡¯s core dims while he thinks about what he just learned before nodding. ¡®Let me guess, since bosses are a sort of checkpoint in my growth as a dungeon, I don¡¯t really get much experience from people delving in the floors before my deepest boss.¡¯


    Ally shrugs again, ¡®Eh, sort of? It isn¡¯t quite that cut and dry. If you didn¡¯t mind waiting a year you would likely gain a level even if no one ever left the first floor. That guy making nails, even if he is just cranking them out like a machine will get levels from doing so. On the other hand if he went on to make, I don¡¯t know, butter knives or some such? He would be gaining a lot more experience even if the difficulty didn¡¯t exactly go up all that much.@@novelbin@@


    ¡®To a certain extent, novelty is the best way to gain levels, both personal and in skills. That guy would likely gain a lot more from trying to make arge variety of nails over just moving onto making the same spoon over and over. You can see that in the delvers. It has been a while and yet this is the first time someone managed to beat the boss fairly.


    ¡®They aren¡¯t cking off. Their skills are getting higher and paths are being invested in. There is just one little thing that a proper level will do over all else. The tyranny of stats!¡¯


    Doyle tilts to the side, ¡®Tyranny of stats? Sure, levels can really crank them out, but it should be that big of a difference. After all, if the average strength is ten, twenty can¡¯t be all that much crazier, can it?¡¯


    Allyughs, ¡®By now some of your stats should be gaining ten a level. So no, going from ten to twenty isn¡¯t too big of a change. Barring things like with humans and getting enough constitution to slowly regenerate stuff, any one point isn¡¯t crazy. But that is just it, a single point together with a bunch of other single points can add up to a lot.


    ¡®I me yourck of reference for why you haven¡¯t noticed. If you still had a human body the increase in strength would be more visceral. Every single one of the founders, even the mages, are likely stronger than the strongest human before the system came. That even makes sense when you look at how many people it took them to beat the boss floorst time.


    ¡®You don¡¯t suddenly require half as many people out of nowhere. Sure, skill will make up for some of that, but look at the Barrais. They likely haven¡¯t yet reached the limit of their pre-system skills. That and consider the wolfkin. It isn¡¯t like he would magically catch up in so little time. His race just naturally has more strength and so can already party with them equally. Give everyone ten levels though and he will be weaker than all the fighters.


    ¡®Magic, Qi, and so on all allow for a twisted form of equality. Without it, no human would ever be stronger than a bear at a simr stage of life and health. With it and even the smallest ant could in theory be stronger than a sized dragon. Physical matter doesn¡¯t work like that. Even the least magical melee fighter is using some form of supernatural energy to empower themselves.


    ¡®And the system is what limits that. You know those cultivation stories? The ones where a person can go and sit in a cave for hundreds of years only toe out astronomically stronger? That is what systemless qi and magic can do.


    ¡®Though I think at this point we might have strayed a little from the original question. So yeah, you will gain levels soon enough and so will the people in the town. If there was one final thing I would add, it would be part of the problem is being on a new world. Anywhere else and there would be a range of threats, both for you and the delvers. As it is, you''re both kind of bootstrapping off of one another.¡¯


    Doyle turns towards a disy showing Jim and his party. ¡®Going by that, I can¡¯t imagine how slow some of the other ces must be developing.¡¯


    Allyughs, ¡®Only ces like the settlement upstream are developing slower. You think you¡¯re special or some kind of protagonist? Sure, the founders are quite stable for their levels, but part of how the system spaces out these things is to have ces paired with a source of early growth. Whether that is a dungeon or some special danger zone is up to chance.


    ¡®If anything, the levels here are growing the slowest of any active ce because you aren¡¯t a normal dungeon. Every floor provides a stable experience without any kind of nonsense gotcha. A normal dungeon would inevitably have something overtuned, whether that is a specific monster ending up with too much path support or something else.


    ¡®Though remember, slow and steady wins the race! Yes, the strength of everyone in your town is growing slower than other ces. However, their and more importantly your strength willpound. Maybe you only have a few levels now and not too many stats, but each of your levels might be worth twice a normal dungeon''s level.


    ¡®The same is true for your world¡¯s current generation as well. Even on a safe world there isn¡¯t really a chance for someone to slowly grow. They need early stats and levels just not to die despite any so-called safety. Just think about it from the perspective of themon cold. Sure, people die from it, but most generally don¡¯t consider it a threat.


    ¡®Now consider those with apromised immune system. Themon cold suddenly bes a very deadly issue. A person who doesn¡¯t raise their constitution enough early on will be just like the person with apromised immune system. After all, themon cold is going to be on the level of an adult with a half decent constitution score and there is magic to give the cold a boost to ovee that.


    Doyle makes the sound of drawing a breath through your teeth. ¡®I hadn¡¯t thought of that. A disease capable of affecting someone with twice a normal human¡¯s constitution is going to absolutely ravage someone without that advantage. Though it can¡¯t be that straightforward. Otherwise kids wouldn¡¯t exactly be able to survive being a baby.¡¯


    Ally nods, ¡®One important fact about life, the stronger something is, the harder it is to make more of itself. So themon cold will be better tuned, but rarely will you find a devastating gue because someone with thousands in their con score sneezed.


    ¡®Plus, ironically some of the strongest diseases arepletely useless against your average office worker. After all, another thing that is generally true is that stronger things need more energy to survive. A disease that is so strong it can be caught by high level beings would nearly instantly starve if it tried to infect said office worker.


    ¡®As luck would have it, that also means that said office worker won¡¯t be passing it on to someone else stronger than them. Of course, that doesn¡¯t always mean the office worker will survive the experience. A magical disease might manage to suck the life right out of them in its death throes.¡¯


    Doyle sits there for a moment in silence. ¡®So if they are so quick to die, how are there such things in the first ce?¡¯


    Ally rubs the back of her neck, ¡®Well, magic is magic. Various reasons to have such things hanging around are numerous. Weapons research, the disease being able to hibernate, and so much more. Sometimes, these diseases even manage to just spontaneously form out of thin air or they were normal sicknesses that suddenly decided to y with the big dogs.¡¯


    Ally stops and turns towards the screen monitoring the party. ¡®Huh, looks like they decided to not rest all that long. Since they¡¯re about to head into the next floor, how about I try something? Before getting chosen I of course read a bunch of books on how to help a young dungeon grow. Of course upon finding out you were already awake I had basically gone and thrown all that knowledge to the side.


    ¡®I wasn¡¯tpletely wrong there as most of it was based around having to prod a dungeon into doing simple things like making hallways at least tall enough for your average human. One thing though still sticks out and I really should have tried this. It just fell to the side as well because I hadn¡¯t really considered your situation. Most of the time an awakened dungeones from some centuries old wizard trying to cheat death and they already know enough about fighting.


    ¡®Now, they¡¯re about to start fighting and I¡¯m going to analyze the battle so you can hopefully learn from it. I noticed you aren¡¯t exactly a bleeding heart, but it is clear that wherever you lived in your world, you were free from most physical threats.


    ¡®Over the years I have watched more than just a few dungeon raids and delves. Now, I might not be some genius fighter, but with all the knowledge about how such things go, I should at least be able to help figure out any problems within your dungeon.¡¯


    Doyle bobs his core and settles in to have the fight narrated to him or some such.

 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 I¡¯ve seen. However, from that alone, people won¡¯t 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 group¡¯s leader or not and you tend to just point out leaders. Anyway, the three things are range, role, and source.


    ¡®I¡¯m 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 they¡¯re actually decent at. Though this group does have a multi-threat with Zach. He gets to be both dps and crowd control. Zach won¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t quite that. The group has martial and magic right now, but martial isn¡¯t 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 haven¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t 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 aren¡¯t even super strong. Their skills are just so transcendent that it doesn¡¯t 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 don¡¯t 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 aren¡¯t the group¡¯s main target. Jay and Zach can both help in a pinch, but a proper tank is preferred. Of course this isn¡¯t the end all be all of things.


    ¡®You don¡¯t need an off-tank or even a tank at all. In fact, depending on what a team¡¯s goal is, you don¡¯t 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. They¡¯ll 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 won¡¯t 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, they¡¯re missing out on the earthen cattle, but that happens.


    ¡®Notice how Sammy is taking the lead? Don¡¯t 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 let¡¯s watch them go through a few fights.¡¯@@novelbin@@


    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 don¡¯t want to.¡¯


    Doyle nods, ¡®I can definitely see that once the skirmish line forms. Wherever the line ends up being, the earthen cattle wouldn¡¯t be pushed back a single step. They wouldn¡¯t always advance at that point, but retreat doesn¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t 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, Jim¡¯s 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 isn¡¯t much suspense. Not a bad thing, mind you, it is just that fights of attrition aren¡¯t 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 wouldn¡¯t have been too big of a difference except for the fact that they¡¯re 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 didn¡¯t 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 Jim¡¯s 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, Zach¡¯s wall and traps aren¡¯t 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.¡¯


    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 Jim¡¯s party. To start things don¡¯t 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 aren¡¯t doing too hot on the stats front, but I don¡¯t want to believe Jim andpany have gotten that much stronger.¡¯


    Ally sighs, ¡®You haven¡¯t really been paying attention to the fourth floor. The wolves are still a decent challenge for most people. Jim¡¯s team isn¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t 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. I¡¯ll 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, ¡®That¡¯s the spirit. Now be quick about giving the other floors a once over. It shouldn¡¯t take too long for Jim and friends to beat the sixth floor.¡¯

 Boss Talk – Chapter 202

    Starting on the first floor, because despite what Doyle had said he couldn¡¯t help but check the floor in numerical order, he starts to give them all a once over. First floor? How can you improve on perfection? Second floor? Marvelous! And of course the third floor is random, so not much to do there.


    Though at this point Doyle suspects something and takes a moment to gauge his mental state while flipping between all the floors. It takes a minute but he catches it. Whenever he is looking at the floors before his boss, they feel set in stone. Not a human mental feel, but a dungeon instinct feel.


    Doyle tests and he can change things. It is just that he doesn¡¯t want to. This necessitates another look through from the top with that in mind. He still doesn¡¯t find anything to change on the first three floors and he isn¡¯t certain if that is because of his dungeon instinct or there really isn¡¯t anything to change. About the only thing that stands out is there are quite a few more anthills around than before, but he had expected them to spread, anyway.


    The fourth floor is the one that sets his worries to rest. There is something to change on the floor. As it was created, the floor ces the ambush wolves by teleporting them into ce right before the floor is entered. Now, Doyle has changed it to use portals like on the sixth floor.


    That one little tweak out of the way, he returns his attention to Ally¡¯s room only to find her frowning. ¡®What¡¯s up?¡¯


    Ally rolls her eyes, ¡®Apparently you did too good of a job at making the sixth floor a battle of attrition. Doctor had to heal a few too many booboos and isn¡¯t doing too hot either so they n toe back tomorrow. This is such a tease!


    ¡®I guess we can use this as an object lesson about the stamina of various power sources. Most of their team is martial, which depends on a person¡¯s stamina. Very easy to improve on the low end. Magic users, on the other hand, depend on their minds. Not so easy to recover from mental fatigue and generally you have to get up there before improving a person¡¯s ability to recover.


    ¡®Of course, on the true high end, all those minor differences tend to melt away until you get to True Immortals who are infinite fonts of powers. At that level, you worry more about throughput. I¡¯lle get you when it is time to watch them again.¡¯


    Doyle nods, ¡®Sounds like a n¡¯, and with nothing else too pressing turns back to his floors. The sixth onward hadn¡¯t really been tested so didn¡¯t need much and he had already checked one through four. This left the boss floor and one important thing he had been putting off in rtion to said floor.


    The boss was sapient and not in the ¡°animal recognizes itself in a mirror¡± type of way. She was a person and Doyle really should do something about that. She had a chance to settle in and got killed twice already. Good thing that as one of his bosses it was incredibly easy to talk mind to mind with her. You know. Once he respawned her. He hadn¡¯t exactly automated the floor yet.


    That chore out of the way, Doyle sends over a friendly hello. It isn¡¯t actually ¡°hello¡± mind you, she doesn¡¯t speak anynguage yet, let alone his. This, of course, gets her attention and luckily, being a dungeon monster means there isn¡¯t any confusion on her end about who is speaking to her.


    Though she does do a quick nce around to try and spot him before answering with a string of thoughts and concepts that Doyle roughly trantes to mean, ¡®My Dungeon Core, have I displeased you? Few travel through my domain and while the non-people are better trained, The People are not getting enough proper fights.¡¯


    Some of what she is saying gets a little rough around the edges as various concepts mix. For instance, Doyle decided to go with domain though it could have meant floor and only the fact it felt like she would have included other floors as well if she was able to travel.


    Doyle assures her that she is doing a decent job and he was simply talking to her to find out if she needed anything within reason.


    This sets her to thinking for a while before she finds an answer. She doesn¡¯t really even have a full understanding of the concepts, but requests herbs and equipment to brew with for the mages and more metal and stone to reinforce the town.


    Doyle is a little torn, he doesn¡¯t really want to change up the town structure too much and more metal is not in the cards at the moment. Not that they have the ability to smith the metal, anyway. At least not easily, as he does remember that bronze was popr for the ease of forging.


    In the end, Doyle decides to add a bunch more herbs to the area, a few small bronze cauldrons, and makes a change to the outer area so that stone that is purposefully mined would stick around. That way, they don¡¯t end up with a bunch of perfect stone bricks.


    After informing her of this, the boss nods her head and responds that it will do for now and questions if she can ask for more in the future. Doyle doesn¡¯t have a problem with that in theory, though pulls Ally over.


    Ally raises her eyebrow, ¡®So, what¡¯s up with your kobold boss?¡¯


    Doyle nods at her, ¡®Do you mind if I have here to you first whenever she needs something? I can¡¯t guarantee that I will always be avable. Huh, and now that I said that I realize that was quite rude and made it sound like you don¡¯t do anything.¡¯


    Allyughs, ¡®Yeah, that wasn¡¯t the most polite, but I understand what you mean. If you get in the zone while carving, it could be quite a while before you realize she was trying to talk to you. At least with me, I tend to keep things on a mortal scale right now. So sure, she can poke me when needed.¡¯@@novelbin@@


    Doyle brightens, ¡®Wonderful, let me patch you in¡¯, and then connects Ally into the near talk he has been having with the boss. A quick greetingter and he manages tomunicate what is up and also that if the boss can¡¯t get through to Ally, it is perfectly fine and in fact preferred if she then goes to him directly.


    That done, Ally shakes her head, ¡®Not the easiest thing to understand.¡¯


    Doyle sighs, ¡®I¡¯m really going to have to focus on naming skill andnguage pack even if they are a bit pricey. 100,000 and 1,520,000 world energy is a small amount to pay to have a proper name to call her and the ability to actually talk.¡¯


    Ally frowns, ¡®While the naming skill is nice, couldn¡¯t you just call her something until you got it?¡¯


    Doyle shakes his core, ¡®I tried. Something about how she is one of my dungeon monsters prevents it. I can feel energies coil as I get closer to calling her something and they don¡¯t just ever seem to coalesce. Caused a terrible case of that feeling when you have a word on the tip of your tongue.


    ¡®I could probably earn the skill by trying hard enough, but the price is low enough for the current me that I don¡¯t feel like bothering. Plus, I can tell that it would be easier and flow more naturally if some outside entity had referred to the boss by that name already and I don¡¯t want to let Ace or Og Pwner to name my first boss.¡¯


    Allyughs, ¡®Fair enough. Though you aren¡¯t really giving them a fair shake with their names. Both of them have good reasons for doing what they did.¡¯


    Doyle nods, ¡®True, but examples of a good reason could be them calling her something like Spazzy because of how she fought when surrounded. Better not leave it up to chance at all. Oh, and I¡¯ll need it quick because I bet if enough people start calling her a specific name it will stick on a more magical level.


    ¡®Oh, and a side request rted to her. I am horrible at being social so could you chat with her asionally? Before this all, I lost more than one acquaintance because I would onlymunicate with them when firstmunicated with. She might be a murder machine right now, but she can and should be so much more. Thatmunity path of hers has a lot of potential and I don¡¯t want to stunt it.¡¯


    Ally sighs, ¡®You mean like how you only ever seem to talk to me when you need something? Though I can¡¯t really me you, what with you having had zero Karma to start with. It isn¡¯t like the system magically makes you a more social person. You would need a skill for that to happen and even then it might not fix the whole not talking thing.¡¯


    Doyle is quiet long enough that Ally wonders if he was just dropping the conversation. Then he responds, ¡®You know? I hadn¡¯t really connected those two things. It would make sense that not having a strong connection with others would lead to not talking to them.¡¯


    Ally rolls her eyes, ¡®Ya think? I¡¯m honestly surprised you had acquaintances at all.¡¯


    Doyle bobs his core, ¡®I was really into trading card and roleying games, both of which are activities that you do with others. I¡¯m sure if my only hobbies had been stuff like reading or nature walks, no one would have even known that I existed there at the end. Thank goodness forputer scheduling or else I suspect keeping a job would have been hard.¡¯


    Ally looks down for a moment, ¡®That¡¯s really sad, you know that? Didn¡¯t you at least have family? Their bloodline connection should have overruled the Karma nonsense.¡¯


    Doyle rolls his core back, ¡®Eh? Kind of? Some of them were nice but even with them I tended to be the responder and not the person reaching out. Nothing against them. I really did like to just stay home and read there at the end. If it wasn¡¯t for needing money for food and stuff, I really doubt I would have left the apartment. Hell, with enough money, I wouldn¡¯t have had to leave for food either. I wasn¡¯t exactly a fan of delivery but I wasn¡¯t exactly a fan of grocery shopping either.¡¯


    Ally nods, ¡®Well, I don¡¯t exactly think being a dungeon core is going to help with that in the short-term. Though if you ever feel like talking more about it, I¡¯m willing to listen.¡¯


    Doyle sighs, ¡®Kinda, yeah? Butter. For now, despite it having been months at this point, things still feel very much up in the air. I don¡¯t think everything has fully hit home yet.¡¯


    Allyughs at that, ¡®Wee to the rest of your world¡¯s poption. I don¡¯t have any proof but I very much suspect that the system is doing something behind the scenes to soften the blow and spread it out. People as a whole really shouldn¡¯t be adapting as well as they do.


    ¡®Like, the entire world was literally reduced to bits smaller than the smallest particle your world knew about and then put back together again. Human structures were seemingly at random protected or not as a few years passed while the few survivors got put through a strange tutorial where you could just die as much as you wanted. Sure, ces will try to hold on to the past like the ce up-river, but enough ces like this will pop up that within a hundred years everything will be settled enough that the system will start letting outsiders in even if at a limited capacity.


    ¡®All of this is weird and sometimes you just have to hold on till things stop spinning.¡¯

 A Simple Question – Chapter 205

    Doyle watches as the group leaves the floor and can¡¯t help butugh. ¡®I didn¡¯t 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 don¡¯t have normal people exploring their territories, the visitor¡¯s constitution will take care of the rest.


    ¡®That doesn¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t 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 I¡¯ve 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. It¡¯s 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 isn¡¯t going to cause permanent damage.¡¯


    Doyle groans, ¡®That¡¯s going to bring back smoking, isn¡¯t it? I guess at least as a dungeon I won¡¯t have to smell it.¡¯


    Ally snorts, ¡®Be honest with yourself, from what I¡¯ve seen of your world¡¯s pre-system media, smoking didn¡¯t 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, I¡¯m going to go back to working on the sphere. I can feel that the outlines are almost done.¡¯


    Ally tilts her head to the side, ¡®Aren¡¯t you worried about them noticing the changes?¡¯


    Doyle tilts his core back, ¡®They didn¡¯t really pay attention to the design. I¡¯m 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 I¡¯ve done so far and I¡¯ve put so much into it.¡¯


    Ally shakes her head, ¡®I¡¯m 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 floor¡¯s 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, Doyle¡¯s 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 Jim¡¯s 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 didn¡¯t distract Doyle as they only beat the boss and left. In fact, a few more days passed as the rest of town¡¯s core filtered through and beat the boss one after another.


    They weren¡¯t 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 Doyle¡¯s 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, Jim¡¯s 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, Jim¡¯s 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 group¡¯s heavy hitter. Sammy did her best, but the vines really called for a two-handed weapon that could put a person¡¯s 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 Jim¡¯s party was through the stuff they had already fought before and once again faced the myconid menace. To Doyle¡¯s shock, they hadn¡¯t figured out the simple solution Ally had suggested. Sure, a damp cloth wasn¡¯t 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 weren¡¯t 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 body¡¯s natural energy field so it repelled the spores. Jim, on the other hand chose the hard way. He didn¡¯t 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 one¡¯s 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 weren¡¯t 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, Jim¡¯s 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 wasn¡¯t for the fact that he genuinely didn¡¯t seem to be trying to do so was the only thing preventing Doyle from being certain.@@novelbin@@


    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 Jim¡¯s 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. Zach¡¯s 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 weren¡¯t stupid. You want an exciting fight, do it on your own time when your life isn¡¯t in my hands.¡±


    Then he had them set up camp. Sure, it wasn¡¯t all that long past midday, but he wasn¡¯t about to go to a new floor without everyone being prepared for it. For Doyle, though, this wait was nerve-wracking.


    You wouldn¡¯t 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 Ally¡¯s assurance that basically no one on the could currently crack his core. That didn¡¯t mean he wasn¡¯t 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 core¡¯s 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 didn¡¯t 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 wouldn¡¯t 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 didn¡¯t know the answer. Still, she couldn¡¯t avoid it for the rest of her life and with eyes closed, popped it open and shared it with Doyle.

 Ally’s New Path – Chapter 206

    {Name: Ally Huxley


    Race: Autumn Court Dungeon Fae


    Soul Bound: Doyle Huxley


    Paths: [101] True Dungeon Companion II 10/10, Primal Magic I 10/10, Limit Breaker I 1/1, Autumn¡¯s Jester 3/100


    Level: 10


    S[12] A[9] C[12] I[17] W[8] P[15] D[13] K[24] L[16]


    Skills [5/5 ss, 1/5+1 General]: Tutor lv25 > 31, Primal mor lv2 > 7, Courtly Manners lv5 > 9, Telepathy lv19 > 58, Soul Sight lv14 > 15, Scry lv21 > 36}


    Doyle ps a couple of stone blocks together. ¡®Congrattions, you¡¯ve done a pretty good job.¡¯


    Ally opens her eyes and looks the panel over. ¡®Huh, I am honestly shocked by that. My growth is at least double what I would have even dreamed of. The mor and manners growth, while small, likely is rted to having literal gods pop into my room. Maybe soul sight as well? That one is honestly a little bit of a mystery to me, could also be from that short bit of interaction with the kobold boss. We¡¯ll know once I interact with her more. Though I guess it would make sense, she is the only other creature with a soul in this ce.


    ¡®Scry of course is going to keep growing as I use my abilities to disy what is happening in your influence and I use telepathy for basically all mymunication now. All I¡¯m confused about is Tutor. Well, all I¡¯m confused about besides the massive amount of growth in general.¡¯


    Doyle tilts to the side, ¡®Well, as far as tutor is concerned, you¡¯re doing a lot better when telling me about stuff. While you can still get a bit wordy about stuff, it feels less like some bot reading off of an encyclopedia page. You are actually teaching me stuff instead of saying things in my direction. Of course, you can still work on it, but that alone is a good improvement and that is what skill growth is about. Now let¡¯s see how your paths are doing.¡¯


    Ally nods and pulls that up as well.


    {Points: 101


    ss: True Dungeon Companion II 10/10, Dungeon Companion I 1/1


    Completed: Fae Magic I 10/10, Scryer 10/10, Limit Breaker I 1/1


    Started [2/3]: Autumn¡¯s Jester 3/100, Dungeon Fae Legacy I 23/120


    Avable: True Dungeon Companion III 10/100, Royal Tutor 0/25, Primal Magic II 0/100, Hidden Advisor 0/15, Fount of Knowledge 0/30, Soul Chanter 0/100, False Dungeon Companion I 0/1, Godly Friend 0/75, Redeemed Dungeon Companion I 0/1}


    Reading down the list of avable paths, both of them freeze for a second at the falsepanion ss path only for the redeemed ss path to cause Ally to tear up a little.


    With a sigh and a nod, Doyle congrattes her, ¡®It looks like the system has decided you¡¯re well on the path to better yourself. Mind you, I can still feel that our connection isn¡¯t some gleaming wire of gold between us. The thing is still scuffed up, but keep up the good work.¡¯


    Ally lets out a long breath, ¡®I definitely still have a lot to improve. The fact there are only a couple new paths avable for me shows that. I¡¯m not doing enough new stuff or maybe not putting enough work into current stuff, for new options yet. And you don¡¯t have to say it, I understand that no matter what the system might say, in the end what matters is our rtionship.¡¯


    Doyle nods again, ¡®Last I checked, free will was still a thing so the system can¡¯t force that kind of judgment on us. Still, I¡¯m not going to put all the responsibility on your shoulders as I need to work at it myself. We don¡¯t really just chat. Every time Ie to you it is with a question. I recognize this because it is honestly one of my greatest failings.


    ¡®While my goose egg of karma as a human didn¡¯t help, I tended to not keep up conversations with people. Right now because I do keep needing to ask you about things, I talk to you rtively often. Once I get my feet under me, though, I¡¯m going to have to keep up on things. This isn¡¯t like when I drifted away from the few high school friends because I never contacted them. We¡¯re stuck together and I don¡¯t want to end up spending thousands of years with us basically in rooms across the hall from one another, yet never talking.¡¯


    ¡®Now, do you have any ideas on how you want to spend your path points?¡¯


    Ally pauses for a second as she looks over the list again. ¡®I think I¡¯m going to double dip on my ss paths this time. I have more than enough points to both buy andplete the third path and the redeemed one path. As it is, while some of the other paths might sound interesting, those should give me the most benefit. Looking at it, I could even afford the second step of the redeemed path if I wanted. Though it might be better to hold on to a few points just in case. Ten will be enough to buy any situation paths that might pop up.¡¯


    Doyleughs, ¡®Sounds like a n! I honestly don¡¯t really have any idea how your paths should go. If there had been something to help with scrying, it might be worth it, but that doesn¡¯t seem to be an option.¡¯


    Ally frowns, ¡®I really should have another scrying based path. Sure, I already have Scryer, but I spend most of my days working on it.¡¯


    Doyle tilts to the side, ¡®Meh, maybe it just hasn¡¯t judged what you¡¯re doing as stretching anything. After all, as it is, you¡¯re only using the ability for about the most basic thing you can, a t screen from a fixed perspective.¡¯


    Ally¡¯s eyes go wide, ¡®I. I think you might be onto something there. That can be something I try to stretch myself with. The skill has seen some decent growth, but that isn¡¯t a good reason to think I¡¯m following it perfectly. Plus, it is something I can do and really help with.¡¯


    Doyle holds up a stone block to get her attention back. ¡®Don¡¯t think you have to do one specific thing. There will be enough things for you to help with around hereter on. Even now, you¡¯re helping me by talking to the kobold boss. Really can¡¯t wait for the naming ability, ¡°kobold boss¡± just feels way too generic for her. Anyway, even if you couldn¡¯t do anything directly beneficial, you¡¯re the only person I can bounce ideas off of and talk to. No matter how antisocial I was, for some reason I doubt even sapient dungeons can survive without some sort of being to talk to.


    ¡®Sure, the bosses will be able to talk, eventually. The thing is, unlike a normal dungeon I started out awakened. In the normal swing of things, the bosses will end up more developed than the core. In fact, by the time a normal dungeon does wake up, there should be a ton of bosses and most of them will be older than a normal universe.¡¯


    Ally nods, ¡®That is true enough. In fact, the whole idea of a dungeon master is the result of a boss figuring out how to nudge an unawakened dungeon¡¯s decisions. Anyway, let¡¯s see what my paths do. [System,plete the True Dungeon Companion Three path and thenplete the Redeemed Dungeon Companion One path.]¡¯


    {90 points applied to True Dungeon Companion III...


    20/100 - You have earned +10 Wisdom and +2 Wisdom/Level


    30/100 - You have earned the Bargain skill at level 0 and +1 Intelligence/Level


    40/100 - You have earned +2 to each body stat and +1/Level to each body stat


    50/100 - You have earned an upgrade to the Scry skill, Scry upgraded to Dungeon Scryer with level retained, +1 Karma/Level


    60/100 - Your Soul Shell has been slightly repaired, Level limit increased


    70/100 - You have earned +10 Presence and +2 Presence/Level


    80/100 - Your Race has been adjusted to better fit your Dungeon, Racial Ability Spatial Slip awakened and turned into a skill at level 0


    90/100 - You have earned +5 to each soul stat and +2/Level to each soul stat


    100/100 - Path Complete, Deeper ess to Dungeon abilities granted, Minor Dungeon terrain maniption ability based on a percent of home Dungeon¡¯s Territory Control skill, Dungeon Scryer improved to allow minor identification of objects within the home Dungeon


    1 Point applied to Redeemed Dungeon Companion I...


    Contradictory path False Dungeon Companion I removed...


    1/1 - Path Complete, You have earned +1/Level to all stats, Telepathy adjust to better send and receive emotions, Soul Sight adjusted to better match current race}


    Doyle whistles at the results while Ally quickly pulls up her status panel again.


    {Name: Ally Huxley


    Race: Autumn Court Strange Dungeon Fae


    Soul Bound: Doyle Huxley


    Paths: [10] Redeemed Dungeon Companion I 1/1, Primal Magic I 10/10, Limit Breaker I 1/1, Autumn¡¯s Jester 3/100


    Level: 10


    S[12 > 14] A[9 > 11] C[12 > 14] I[17] W[8 > 18] P[15 > 25] D[13 > 18] K[24 > 29] L[16 > 21]


    Skills [5/5 ss, 1/5+1 General]: Tutor lv31, Primal mor lv7, Courtly Manners lv9, Telepathy lv58, Soul Sight lv15, Dungeon Scryer lv36, Bargain lv0, Spatial Slip lv0}


    Doyle picks out the racial change right away. ¡®Looks like you¡¯re a strange fae now. Not really sure if that is all that different as normal fae seem strange enough.¡¯


    Ally snorts, ¡®I¡¯m guessing by the racial skill that awakened because of the ¡°strange¡± there it has more to do with getting into the spatial side of my fae heritage. Fae have always been a little off from normal realities, preferring to exist in fae realms. So much so that those realms are called fae realms, which is a little presumptuous of us as more than just fae live there.


    ¡®Anyway, the skill basically lets me blink around without using resources when just flying or walking. Seems that because of the race change I¡¯m a bit more outside of the regr 3d space and so can literally just slip between space to move elsewhere. Not quite at the point of slipping between time so there is a limit on distance, but it seems that those restrictions are lifted within your territory.¡¯@@novelbin@@


    Doyle nods, ¡®That probably somewhat has to do with the upgrade of your scry skill. If you can already teleport, I don¡¯t see why distance should matter too much besides maybe requiring power. You likely need to be able to sense the location you are slipping to. The dungeon scryer skill probably hooks you directly into my ability to sense my territory.


    ¡®While my ability to sense stuff isn¡¯t at the level of omniscience, I can get a super urate view of anywhere within my territory without even thinking about it. The moment there is even a ghost of a chance that I might want to pay attention to a location it is in my mind. If I had to guess, the skill dungeon scryer is giving you a sh of knowledge for a location that spatial slip is taking and running with.¡¯


    Ally frowns, ¡®If you can view anywhere in the dungeon with your mind, why do you keeping to me for screens to view stuff?¡¯


    Doyleughs, ¡®You have to remember, my mind is still a good bit human and while I have always had a good spatial sense, that is nowhere near what a dungeon can do. Even if you weren¡¯t here, I would still be using the view screens because my mind just hasn¡¯t gotten used to what amounts to a 3d model popping into my head which I see all points of at the same time, including inside of the monsters and environment.


    ¡®The only thing I don¡¯t see the ¡°full view¡± of is the delvers because their souls and power push back my territory. Though there is a second reason why Ie to you for my viewing portal needs. At the start, it was because of how good you were at it. Mind you, you still are better than me seeing as while a dungeon can do it, we aren¡¯t exactly set up for it because normally we wouldn¡¯t need it. More importantly though, it seems to help improve your scrying skill. I don¡¯t think I ever fully thought about it? But it just felt right to give you a chance to work with it.¡¯

 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 wasn¡¯t just a nk te. I had a bunch of levels, skills, and paths. I¡¯ve lived longer than civilization has existed on your and even if higher doese slower, I was still up there. I can¡¯t really remember as after I broke level one thousand, it really didn¡¯t matter all that much to me and that was quite a while ago.¡¯


    Doyleughs, ¡®You definitely don¡¯t act like some elder being.¡¯@@novelbin@@


    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 that¡¯s 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.


    ¡®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 don¡¯t have to be evil. It, however, doesn¡¯t help that they are closer to how your world¡¯s 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 don¡¯t have to be evil, but you¡¯re better off assuming they all are.¡¯


    Doyle rolls his core to the side, ¡®Well, that sucks for them. I¡¯m sure with all the nonsense we¡¯ve 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 can¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t 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? You¡¯re in a universe with a rtively low concentration of them as they really favor the three tyrant¡¯s 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 Jim¡¯s 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 I¡¯m sure we¡¯re 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 don¡¯t 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 wouldn¡¯t 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.¡±


    Susan¡¯s eyebrows go up, ¡°I hadn¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t 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 can¡¯t 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, ¡°What¡¯s 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 wasn¡¯t 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 don¡¯t have to worry about hitting them then. Anyway, there isn¡¯t anything out there.¡± And she goes on to exin what it looks like.


    Doctor squints at her and frowns, ¡°Don¡¯t do that. I¡¯ve done my best to keep us all alive so I don¡¯t need one of you throwing your life away for no reason. Besides, you didn¡¯t bother to tell us what you saw! If you¡¯re going to be terminally stupid, at least inform us of the situation first.¡±


    Susan shrugs, ¡°I¡¯ve 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 aren¡¯t 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 didn¡¯t 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 don¡¯t 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, I¡¯ve talked to a lot of people. Side note: Ace already knows this, but in case he hasn¡¯t 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 don¡¯t 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 haven¡¯t found any settlements down river from us. We¡¯re the end of the line here.


    ¡°Anyway, I¡¯ve 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 can¡¯t 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 didn¡¯t expect the window to break but I had to try. It doesn¡¯t feel like an illusion but how can the dungeon keep creating suchrge spaces? This shouldn¡¯t be possible!¡±


    Jim sighs, ¡°So, I¡¯m not going to dance around this too much, but do you have a hard time when reality doesn¡¯t 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 can¡¯t be easy, either. That doesn¡¯t mean you can be so reckless.


    ¡°Now, I¡¯m 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 doesn¡¯t surprise you. Not to be harsh, but that isn¡¯t going to work anymore. There is literal magic being used and gods walk among us, or can, I don¡¯t think any are literally walking the right now.


    ¡°I¡¯m 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, I¡¯m sure there are magical solutions out there, but just like I don¡¯t want you to do something like what you just attempted with the window. I also don¡¯t 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 aren¡¯t 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 can¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t any better than the downed kobold group, but twelve enemies all shooting at you isn¡¯t anything tough at. Though Zach once again has the answer.


    While he wouldn¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t 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 wouldn¡¯t 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 let¡¯s 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 isn¡¯t the immediate threat. ¡°Eyes on the ground. We have a couple axebeaks here with us and they¡¯re 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 doesn¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t her first rodeo with the things and she doesn¡¯t believe getting beat down again would result in another quest. ¡°Just get ready to dodge. They don¡¯t 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 we¡¯re 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 don¡¯t want a broken wrist. Susan and Zach, hold your ranged attacks until they¡¯re beginning to turn around. They might not have the best turning ability, but dodging isn¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t 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 bird¡¯s 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 didn¡¯t 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.¡±


    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? They¡¯re 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, ¡°Don¡¯t 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, let¡¯s get behind some of the boulders.¡±


    The group spread out even more to take advantage of the rocks. This doesn¡¯t 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.@@novelbin@@


    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 kobold¡¯s spear is able to prate far enough to scratch him. Sammy isn¡¯t 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 don¡¯t. 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 doesn¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t 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. I¡¯ll hold them up but I don¡¯t 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. We¡¯ve 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 isn¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t 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, isn¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t 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 can¡¯t 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 don¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t for the equipment to be repaired, but rather Doctor to finish healing Sammy, which takes almost an hour to finish up. While the spear hadn¡¯t 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 can¡¯t help but shake his head, ¡°You aren¡¯t even in shock after that! I¡¯ve 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. I¡¯ve invested a fair bit into my Con stat and I¡¯m certain that thing helps prevent stuff like that.¡±


    Jim shakes his head, ¡°Don¡¯t 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, don¡¯t you worry. I realize this isn¡¯t like those games where you can mono-stat your way to the top. I¡¯m 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 doesn¡¯t do all that well at regrowing important bits.¡±


    Jim shrugs, ¡°As long as you¡¯re keeping things even keeled. I don¡¯t want you or any of our core people ending up useless because of unbnced stats. You wouldn¡¯t be a good tank if any noob curse caster could throw you into a deep sleep. The same goes for all of you. I don¡¯t 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 Sammy¡¯s wound is all fixed up, that doesn¡¯t mean the stress from it all has gone away.


    While they are resting though, it isn¡¯t 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 don¡¯t 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 didn¡¯t 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 don¡¯t see why it would work for the axebeaks.¡¯


    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 don¡¯t 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. That¡¯s 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 isn¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t 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 can¡¯t see past the horizon to the part of Strength that deals with lifting heavy things. That human, in turn, can see the edge of Strength¡¯s sturdiness while mostly being in the part that focuses on exerting Strength with their bodies.


    ¡®Of course, beyond both you and the human¡¯s sight there are other beings who, despite having a physical body don¡¯t 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?¡¯@@novelbin@@


    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 wasn¡¯t out of sight. Rather, it was next to them and they could see it, but the concept wasn¡¯t close enough to heavily affect them. Hmm, that does sound better now that I think about it. After all, while humans can¡¯t 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 I¡¯ll head it off at the pass, no, it doesn¡¯t mean they start using mana or qi to start moving things.¡¯


    Doyle hadn¡¯t 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. I¡¯ve read a few cultivation novels in my time and I¡¯m going to base my guess on stuff from there.


    ¡®There is a limit on how tough a human¡¯s 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 isn¡¯t limited to the physical.¡¯


    Ally nods, ¡®With a high enough Strength you don¡¯t need other stats because Strength bes everything. I can¡¯t even properly exin it because I don¡¯t understand it fully myself and likely only those on the path do.¡¯

 Invisible Corners – Chapter 210

    Doyle nods, ¡®Well, that¡¯s nice. Now, I did ask for it to some extent, but how does this help me?¡¯


    Ally smiles, ¡®It doesn¡¯t, 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 aren¡¯t 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, ¡®I¡¯m 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 didn¡¯t 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, you¡¯ve 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, you¡¯ve 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.¡¯@@novelbin@@


    And Ally wasn¡¯t 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 wouldn¡¯t 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 wasn¡¯tughing at them. The act really was fun when you didn¡¯t have to worry about falling. Still, it didn¡¯t 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 wasn¡¯t any harm in the crossing, she walked right up onto the window, across the ss, and onto the ceiling. She didn¡¯t 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 didn¡¯t 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 don¡¯t see the way forward.¡±


    Sammy shrugs, ¡°I¡¯m 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 don¡¯t trust that ss, but there isn¡¯t 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 aren¡¯t 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 can¡¯t 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, ¡°I¡¯ma tank, clear and simple. That, however, doesn¡¯t mean I haven¡¯t picked up an interesting thing here and there. I won¡¯t say how, but I do have a bit of a danger sense. It isn¡¯t 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 don¡¯t feel anything from the squares next to it? Don¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t 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 don¡¯t get split up, but I¡¯m sure if anything there will be some fun benefits from having such obvious spatial anomalies hanging around. Now let¡¯s 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 don¡¯t 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 they¡¯re still goats.¡±


    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 aren¡¯t 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 don¡¯t want Doctor to fall to another unseen threat. As for you, Doctor, I don¡¯t 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, I¡¯m 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 don¡¯t fully know how this room is set up as things don¡¯t seem to line up, but I hope there is some sense to the madness. Now let¡¯s 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 can¡¯t see any goats, in fact, they can¡¯t 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 didn¡¯t 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.

 Fragile Kobolds – Chapter 211

    The grassen goat cavalry charges at the group with the kobolds brandishing their spears. Except instead of shing with the party, they all go to the left of the group and get a few strikes in. Then they continue onward in retreat, crossing into the square behind the group before swinging to the left and vanishing into another space.


    Zach points towards the ground, ¡°Look, the checkerboard pattern is broken there.¡±


    Jim nods, ¡°And back that way the same thing happens. If I had to guess, this area is actually two rooms that are inteced with one another. Though that does mean those goat riders cane at us from any direction now. Sammy, how did you hold up against their attacks?¡±


    Sammy scoffs, ¡°They hit nothing but shield. While the run by was unexpected, they¡¯re just copying thest room so I was ready. Though they definitely hit a whole lot harder. The axebeaks might have had a slight advantage in speed, but the goats overall are way stronger and certainly tougher.¡±


    Zach sighs, ¡°That is certainly true enough. While I was keeping an eye on everyone, I did try to trip one of them. The goat walked right through a piece of wood that would have stopped the axebeaks dead in their tracks. Only the fancier axebeaks evene close to that kind of power.¡±


    Susan clicks her tongue, ¡°I managed to nail one of the goats with a dagger and the damn thing only went halfway in. Even then, the dagger was pushed out before it even left this square. Those goats are not only stronger than us, they are tougher than us as well. Of course, there is going to be a little bit of them having naturally tougher hides and suchpared to us. If I had to guess, though, then at the very least, their strength is above 25. That and their Con should be cking either. I just don¡¯t have a good way to judge that.¡±


    Doctor looks over, ¡°And how did you judge the strength in the first ce?¡±


    Susan tosses her retrieved dagger in the air and catches it by the de. Doctor cringes, yet the dagger doesn¡¯t even leave a mark on her skin. ¡°See this dagger? Without any strength behind it besides your basic gravity assist, the thing can¡¯t hurt me. Of course, the thing is still tougher than my skin so if I tried to squeeze it, I would still end up with a bloody palm, but that would be using my strength.


    ¡°So, after throwing it with most of my strength it only went into the goat halfway. I can¡¯t be certain of the specifics, but to me that indicates the goat¡¯s strength should be around 25 or greater to counter the amount of strength I used to throw the dagger. Though that is as specific as I can get. While I¡¯m certain strength means about the same thing across the board, factors like having a naturally tougher hide or potentially even a skill that improves the toughness of their hide could mess with that. They might not even have 20 strength and instead have multiple skills that improve their defenses.¡±


    Jim is about to say something when they hear hooves again. He turns his head around quickly and pinpoints the direction. ¡°To the right!¡±


    Sammy and Jay reposition themselves just in time to meet another charge by the goats and kobolds, only this time there are six pairsing at them.


    Jim isn¡¯t happy about that, ¡°Zach! You need to pull down at least one of the kobolds or we might end up overwhelmed.¡±


    Without thinking, Zach dumps arge portion of his mana into a wood summoning spell. This causes arge block of wood to appear in front of thest two cavalry. One of the goats has enough time to react and jumps right over it, though it does lose its rider. The other goat isn¡¯t so lucky and runs right into it, stunning itself for a moment.


    That moment is more than enough as Susan gets in there with her knives and starts opening up wound after bleeding wound. Sure, some of the shallower ones do seem to stop bleeding just moments after they are made, but the deeper cuts on the neck don¡¯t show any signs of stopping.


    And the two kobold riders? They suffered a more humiliating fate. The one that fell off at least fell to a swift strike from Jay¡¯s poleaxe. The kobold on the goat that ran into the wooden wall died from a broken neck it acquired mming into said wall. Of course, while this is happening the five goats and four kobolds ride off around an invisible corner to vanish once again.


    Jim points towards the direction they came from, ¡°Let¡¯s find out where they areing from!¡±


    As one the group starts to move, leaving the fallen monsters behind. They move from one square to the next until the checkerboard pattern switches and suddenly they find themselves staring down 11 grassen goats charging at them, ten of which are being ridden by kobolds.


    Jim shouts, ¡°To the left!¡± and the group dodges while the goats in turn move so they pass on the right.


    When they pass though, Jay turns back as Sammy shields him and he takes a wide and low swipe. Three of the goats get taken out as their legs are sliced off. One of them was the goat that had escaped, so didn¡¯t have a kobold. The other two however pitch their kobolds who prove once again that if they can¡¯t dodge, the kobolds are currently quite fragile.


    The remaining eight riders guide their goats towards another transfer point but Zach isn¡¯t going to let them escape so easily this time. Ifst time he had put a good chunk of his mana into the wood summoning, this time he dumped it all.


    It took longer to charge this time so none of the goats ran into the giant wall of wood, however none of the eight attempted to jump over. What with the wall going all the way to the ceiling. Zach had meant for the wall to cover the entire square area, and he had done a better job than expected.


    The wall looked like a normal enough wall to everyone except for the two watching from the core and Jim. At the edges of the wall, there were micro fractures in space itself. Though even Jim missed that it wasn¡¯t just the dungeon¡¯s space that was warping. Whatever realm the wood was being called in from wasn¡¯t taking to the spatial shenanigans either.


    Good thing this wasn¡¯t the first time even within this universe that such things had happened. Not only did the system have an answer, but dungeon instincts had an answer as well with both acting as things are stabilized. This took but a moment, but in that moment both Doyle, Ally, and even if unknowingly Jim managed to get a glimpse into one of the pseudo realms that tends to pop up around any magical universe.


    Then the goat cavalry turns and takes a second run at the group, breaking the moment. Jim shakes his head before shouting that everyone should, ¡°Target the kobolds!¡±


    It wasn¡¯t needed though as at this point everyone had noticed the rtive weakness of the riders. While the goats themselves have a decent Agility score, they didn¡¯t have enough to protect their riders nor the skills to make up for it.


    Susan is the first to im a kill, her daggers doing a much better job when turned towards the riders.


    Jay, on the other hand, continues to focus on the goats as he was the only one able to take them down without magic. Though the goats were on to him by now and so he only manages to take out one of them as they charge past.


    Jim and Sammy however make up for it. Jim fires off arrows at a rapid pace, taking down three kobolds one by one.


    Sammy, on the other hand, just makes sure they stay behind. As the kobolds strike out with their spears, she uses her shield, reinforced with a skill, to bash them off their goats. All but two of the remaining kobolds end up on the ground.


    All around the group, there are now a handful ofmed goats as well as a bunch of dead kobolds.


    Jim frowns as Susan goes around and frees the goats from their pain. He looks around and sighs. ¡°I have to wonder if the goats will be tougher to fight without the kobolds.¡±


    His question is soon answered as the herd charges in again from a new direction. Without the kobolds there to guard with their spears, the goats are wide open. Sure, as the floors have gone on it has be harder to hurt them, but they certainly aren¡¯t impervious. Not only that, but once thest two kobolds are taken out, the goats stop running off to re-engage from another direction.@@novelbin@@


    From there, it was just a matter of cleaning up. Though once that was done, the party still ended up in the room for a good half an hour. While from Doyle¡¯s perspective it was a simple enough set up, it is quite hard to figure out a maze when you can¡¯t see the walls. Something that Doyle is quite happy about.


    Besides that, Ally has one little thing to say about the room. ¡®So, maybe add some seat belts to the goats?¡¯


    Doyleughs, ¡®That would improve things a bit. I guess I hadn¡¯t really been paying attention but the kobolds probably have less than 10 Strength and Constitution. I¡¯ll need to work on that if I want them to continue being a threat.¡¯


    Ally shrugs, ¡®Remember our conversation about going mono stat. The kobolds have been getting by so far because their Agility is making up for their fragility. After all, it doesn¡¯t matter how weak a sandcastle is if nothing ever hits it.¡¯


    Doyle nods his core, ¡®That is true enough. However, I don¡¯t really want my kobolds to go in that direction. They have scales! Scales shouldn¡¯t tear apart like wet paper. Sure, bashing into a wall head first at great speed is going to kill many things. On the other hand, I don¡¯t want them to continue to die just because they get knocked off their ride. After all, mounted kobolds are doing quite well.¡¯


    Ally rolls her eyes, ¡®We both know those aren¡¯t actually scales. Your kobolds aren¡¯t actually directly rted to lizards or as themon myth goes, dragons. Sure, out in the universe, that isn¡¯t exactly the rarest of kobold variants, but you have the monotreme style. While the scales of amon lizard and the modified spines on your kobolds tend to be made of the same material, it is also the material that a human¡¯s fingernails and hair are made of. The scales on your kobolds are more for environmental protection instead of any actual defense.¡¯


    Doyle sighs, ¡®Well, I guess I better figure out a saddle for the goats. It is going to be hard because I want them to still blend into the surrounding grass.¡¯


    Ally snorts, ¡®That boat has sailed for this room. You could ce some grass mounds to trick the delvers, but there isn¡¯t really all that much going on besides the maze. Just saddle up the goats and keep the kobolds from flying off every which way at the lightest breeze.¡¯


    Doyle sighs again, ¡®You aren¡¯t wrong. I guess if I want them hidden I can just have them around the corner as it were. Now moving on, what was up with that dimensional nonsense when Zach¡¯s summoned wall messed with things? I felt something in my core flex.¡¯


    Ally shrugs, ¡®Eh, spatial anomalies and summoned things can interact in interesting ways. What happened there was Zach summoned in a chunk of wood within a portal that was actually bigger than said portal. If it had been a creature being summoned, the spell would have likely failed as there are more safeguards on that kind of thing.


    ¡®With just a chunk of wood? They get thrown together and let the universe sort it out. In this case, you are that universe, though I¡¯m sure the system provided a helping hand. Though now that it has happened, things will likely be taken care of. Kind of like riding a bike.¡¯


    Doyle shakes his core, ¡®Fair enough.¡¯

 Something Breaks – Chapter 212

    Jim and his team are a little irritated at the invisible maze from thest room but that quickly falls away when they see the next room. Jim slowly spins around to check if he missed something, but nothing has changed. The entire room was empty, the only thing out of ce was a set of stairs that was hanging down from a hole on the other side of the room. Maybe if the stairs had been a ropedder, the hanging adjective wouldn¡¯t be so bad. Instead, it was just a short section of a staircase that stopped after only a couple meters.


    Jim shakes his head, ¡°In theory there should be a way to get up there.¡±


    Susan squints at the stairs, ¡°The system wouldn¡¯t allow it not to have a way. Beyond that, though, this ce had been quite strange. Maybe we have to figure out an invisible path that involves walking up the walls with any step out of ce introducing us to a new down. Plus, we don¡¯t really know how the system qualifies whether a room is traversable. Because, technically, if we could fly this wouldn¡¯t even be a problem.¡±


    Doctor shrugs, ¡°I¡¯m mostly certain that things will be to human standard, at least on this. If anything, the system should be judging it by the local people.¡±


    Jim sighs, ¡°Zach, I¡¯m not going to ask you to walk into the unknown this time. I do however want you to use a few vines to get a ¡®feel¡¯ for the area around us. The space directly around the portal should be safe enough, but beyond that I feel there has to be something going on.¡±


    Zach shrugs and summons up a bunch of vines and flings them outwards in a circle around the group. The vines going back and to the sidend in a rtively normal fashion. Those thrown forward on the other hand, did everything besides what was expected.


    As the vines tumble through the air, they start to warp and twist, seemingly growing shorter as they fall to the ground. Even once they havended, they don¡¯t stop moving, instead they begin to roll around on the seemingly t ground.


    Zach turns to the group, ¡°Well, if any of you suffer from sea sickness, motion sickness, or VR sickness you likely won¡¯t be too happy with this room. The good news is that the vines haven¡¯t been damaged or altered so it should be safe enough. That also means this is likely the most aggressively spatial warping we¡¯ve seen.


    ¡°Sure, thest room had a bunch of portals, but that is just 2D nes being connected or some such. Here? My bet is the entire area in front of us is warped. Like, instead of a 2D ne, it¡¯s a cube or some such.¡±


    Jay sighs, ¡°And how are we supposed to navigate this mess?¡±@@novelbin@@


    Susan shrugs and steps into the warped area. Behind her, the shocked group sees her body distort and stretch. Her appearance is a shocking match for the smear frames you might see in a ymation movie if you paused at the right time except it is all smear frames.


    Jim roars at her, takes a step forward from the back of the group, and grabs her by the cor before dragging her back to the group. ¡°WHAT DID I TELL YOU ABOUT RISKING YOUR LIFE LIKE THAT!?¡±


    Susan takes a moment to realize what was going on before freezing as it catches up to her.


    Doctor shakes his head, ¡°Don¡¯t be too hard on her. This isn¡¯t exactly something recent. Now Susan, once we get out of here the both of us are going to have a talk involving me in a chair and youid back on a couch. I would normally let people decide on their own whether they want to seek help, but we don¡¯t really have that luxury anymore.


    ¡°In fact, Jim, when we get out of here I want you to talk with Jeremy andbine your two spyworks to rustle us up some trained psychologists. I¡¯ll talk to Ace and make sure physical, mental, and even soul based check-ups are mandatory for all the core members. Hell, I¡¯m going to make sure medical care can finally be free to all. At the very least, we should be able to sustain our own people and the town as a whole.¡±


    Jim nods, ¡°I always did hate how much of a bloodsucker the insurancepanies were. Now, as much as I hate taking advantage of your situation, Susan, what did you see?¡±


    Susan shakes herself and breathes out. ¡°As you step into the distortion area, the warped terrain bes visible. You can¡¯t see too far, but what I did see makes me believe the area is basically mountainous terrain that has been warped so it looks t.


    ¡°We are going to have a tough time climbing up to the stairs as I suspect the cliffs are actually taller than the apparent ceiling height would allow. That and there could be monsters hidden in there by the simple fact of being under an overhang or some such. What we see is very much like a satellite map of the room. Though even worse than that because the shadows don¡¯t show up for some reason. They should, it isn¡¯t like the light source is directly overhead, but here we are. Better to just assume the spatial nonsense also works on light in just the right way.¡±


    The group talks about the room a little bit more, but soon enough are disappointing Doyle with their performance. Sure, Jay does get a bit motion sick while traversing the warped cliff and the goats almost managed to knock Sammy off when she blocked without quite a good enough of a footing. Still, Doyle had been expecting them to have a lot more trouble with the room aspared to other simr environments. Instead, the only real challenge the group faced was a simple act of climbing, something all of them had done a much tougher trial of back on the second floor¡¯s cliff.


    Then again, while the concept is quite interesting, it really boils down to hiding a cliff as t ground. The cliff is still there and once a yer is within the area, they can see it. So yeah,pared to a cliff that is literally taller than a person can physically climb, a cliff that acts like someone turned the render distance way down is nothing. All Doyle can hope is that future groups have more of a problem with it.


    Though Doyle does consider removing the five goats from the room. While they could prove lethal, even with how powerful his goats are, they won¡¯t be making a major difference to the room.


    After the disappointment of the t cliff room, the next three rooms are quite a bit more satisfying for Doyle.


    At first, when Jim and his team arrive in the first of the three rooms, they aren¡¯t too impressed. To be fair, it was a normal room without any spatial nonsense going on soparatively it was easy to look down on it. Then they realized the only way forward was to climb up.


    Though the three rooms were just as simple as the previous one so it didn¡¯t take them too long. That is, it didn¡¯t take too long if you discount the six assassin vine encounters and the elder guarding the exit. The only disappointment was that the room was so obvious that Jim andpany knew exactly what to expect so even the first vine wasn¡¯t a surprise.


    That didn¡¯t mean they weren¡¯t effective. In fact, this was the most effective Doyle had ever seen the assassin vines be. Being ready for it, Jay was able to get his poleaxe between him and the vine that grappled him. That saved his life because the others found it quite hard to fight back while holding onto a vine so they wouldn¡¯t fall to the floor.


    In the end, Jim ended up descending to what little floor there was on the second floor and using his bow and arrow. While arrows might not seem like the best option for fighting a vine, the fact that assassin vines work mostly off of pneumatics means that a hole in a vine can go a long way towards disabling said vine.


    Of course, with such an obvious weakness, the assassin vines aren¡¯tpletely defenseless against such things. With each pierced vine, sap soon flows out and hardens to plug the hole. Still, the damaged vines weren¡¯t quite as flexible and prone to spring leaks.


    Then they fought the elder assassin vine. By that point, they had already figured out their strategy so Jim had stayed on what little ground that wasn¡¯t a hole. The problem was that he positioned himself directly under the exit, not quite realizing just how long the elder vines could reach.


    With a couple vines of a length three times that of the normal vines, it was able to reach out and touch him. A touch that quickly turns into a grapple as Jim finds himself yanked into the air. Maybe if he had been on more solid ground, he could have resisted it. Instead, the elder vine was simply able to yank him to the side, which had Jim falling into a hole before being pulled up.


    This led to the group¡¯s first serious loss, not in life, but in equipment. Jim tried to use his bow to hold off the elder vine. This actually worked quite well. After all, it isn¡¯t like he was using a weak bow. Rather, the opposite, in fact, with only dungeon loot currently outssing it.


    So the bow held up under the pressure of one of the long vines. Once the elder assassin vine noticed this, though, it had an answer. And so the second of its long vines came in and grasped the bow itself and flexed. The bow, already stressed from the first vine, snaps under the assault.


    Jim, now deprived of his main defense, is suddenly in a lot more danger. Well, he would have been if the elder vine hadn¡¯t been so focused on snapping the bow. The others in turn were able to approach the monster and while his bow had been decent at hindering the vines, Jay¡¯s poleaxe and Sammy¡¯s sword were quite capable of chopping through the normal vines,pletely removing them from the equation.


    So the elder assassin vine was defeated, but Jim was now down his main weapon. Sure, he had some melee options. That didn¡¯t change the fact that while the others weren¡¯t sure, it was safe to assume most of his skills weren¡¯t helping with that. Still, they decide to continue exploring the floor. Though that mostly had to do with not being sure how much more of the floor there was left to explore.


    That is, they had wanted to do that, but noped right out as soon as they found out the theme for the next room. A zero G environment was too dangerous without someone focused on rangedbat and so the group could only turn around with ns toe back once Jim got a new bow.


    This wouldn¡¯t be the next day or even the one after, as the bow would need to be made from scratch. Not that Jim had been using the same bow all this time. No, as one of the premier defenders of the city, the crafters had been hooking him up with any upgrades that came through.


    That, however, didn¡¯t mean there were any spares around. Most of the wood carvers had focused on spears to arm the small but growing group of people in the outer ring who were a mix of guards and militia. It wasn¡¯t quite official yet, but Ace was nning on purchasing a town guard charter from the system. A useful bit of recognition from the system that would allow them to use certain peacekeeping features such as making their jail resistant to most skills as long as they are being used by someone less powerful than whichever guard is on watch.

 Bigger Floors And More Plants – Chapter 213

    Doyle watched Jim and his team leave, feeling quite disappointed that he would have to wait for the zero g room¡¯s test. Though he can¡¯t fault their decision on the matter. This was doubly so when viewed from his end, as he knew there were six mages waiting for them in the room. A fact that might be a wee bit hard for their current equipment and might hold them up some.


    On the other hand, it had been long enough that he could get working on a new floor. Which would make him feel all the morefortable as it would mean that once again, people wouldn¡¯t be delving into his veryst floor. It wasn¡¯t too bad, but there was a sort of itch in the back of his mind that came from delvers being on the same floor as his core. An annoying itch that wouldn¡¯t go away.


    So yeah, new floor time!


    Though first he turns to Ally and informs her of his ns. She doesn¡¯t have anything going that would need him so gives a new floor the green light. From there Doyle goes through the usual mind bending process where he puts the entire new floor within the space his core took up on the floor before. This time there is one difference: he can feel more of what is happening. As if he is on the tip of understanding something. Not this time, though.


    {Ninth floor dimensionally anchored


    World Energy cap +5700 [Constitution(57) * 100]


    ninth floor spending limit set to 27000 [Previous floor¡¯s limit(22600) + Intelligence(44) * 100]


    Monster level cap updated


    Random on-theme monsters package purchasable for 10000we


    Quintessence debt paid back by 5}


    Doyle notices that he gets another random monster package and can¡¯t help but sigh at the cost. Ally, on the other hand, has a more optimistic outlook on it, ¡®It isn¡¯tpletely random after all. It says on-theme so it will likely pick something rted to your current paths. That and it says monster¡±s¡± and not just monster. You might get more than one from it.¡¯


    Doyle nods, ¡®Fair enough, though I¡¯m going to need to wait for the energy to buy it. I will, however, pick it up before popting the floor. Should have enough by then as it is going to take a while for the floor to finish the main expansion period and to fill it with stone.¡¯


    Allyughs, ¡®Going to get to the point that you have more space than you can use.¡¯


    Doyle sighs, ¡®I¡¯m going to have to make simpler floors. The eight floor was fun, but that was way too much effort. It was like I was making the first floor over and over again. Not exactly a sustainable thing to be doing on every floor.¡¯


    Ally shrugs, ¡®Compared to most dungeons, you¡¯re super varied. Part of thises from having the diverse keyword in your race, but mostly it is just you being a human. Dungeons tend to have blocks of floors which follow a theme. The fact you switched from a normal cave on the first floor right into an open area of forest on the second is strange. Which I guess goes with your race, but even a strange and varied dungeon would have likely kept the cave theme going for five to ten floors.¡¯


    Doyle¡¯s core sink for a moment, ¡®Well that¡¯s a relief. I figured that was the case, but I guess I had gotten into a sort of rut. Do you think I should keep the ninth floor weird and start with themes on the tenth floor? It feels like that would be a round number to start on.¡¯


    Allyughs, ¡®Whatever feels right for you. If the tenth floor feels right to you, then start with the tenth floor. Dungeon design is very much an artistic sort of thing. While there is some science to it, as long as you aren¡¯t just creating a straight hallway directly from the entrance to the exit, you¡¯re probably fine.¡¯


    Ally can¡¯t see it, but when she mentions a straight hallway, certain thoughts take root in Doyle¡¯s mind. So with a n in mind, he says farewell to her and focuses on expanding the floor. Though he is back with her much sooner than nned.


    With a sigh, he announces, ¡®Well, I have more space again.¡¯


    Ally tilts her head to the side, ¡®What do you mean by that?¡¯


    Doyle tilts his core to the side, ¡®So, it isn¡¯t exactly a sudden change, so much as I just recently hit a breakpoint. The first floor just grew to the size that it can fit a square of 18 small rooms by 18 small rooms. It isn¡¯t much, but apparently that extra space scales in some manner. So floor one and two only gained an extra small room in size. However, three to six gained two small rooms while seven, eight, and presumably nine gained three.


    ¡®That still doesn¡¯t sound like much until you realize that is an extra few rooms to both sides. The eight floor went from what I count as being almost seven thousand meters squared, to almost eight thousand. An increase of about 900 square meters.¡¯


    Ally rolls her eyes, ¡®You really haven¡¯t been keeping track of your dungeon size, have you?¡¯


    Doyleughs, ¡®Not really at the top of my mind. For some reason, I was able to keep track of what the size was supposed to be and ignored any extra space. It was just this time something ticked over in my head and suddenly I realized how much space I had.¡¯


    Ally frowns for a second before snapping her fingers, ¡®I think I know what happened. As a dungeon core, you now have an innate sense that keeps track of things like what monsters go where and simr such nonsense. After all, despite not automating most of the floors, you¡¯ve still managed to keep every single floor stocked almost on autopilot with exactly the right number of monsters.


    ¡®Sure, a few of those are now happening because of your farms, but that isn¡¯t quite the case for the earlier floors. With this, your subconscious was capable of figuring out the form for how the floor size was increasing and so it just kept ticking away in the back of your head until just now.¡¯


    ¡®Huh¡¯, Doyle tilts his core back, ¡®That is an interesting bit of tech in my head. I¡¯ll have to figure out if I can abuse it moreter. For now, I should get to setting up my new floor. That and buying the new monster pack. Goodness, saying that feels like I¡¯m ying a trading card game again.¡¯


    Ally floats over to watch as he opens up the new random monsters as Doyle finishes putting world energy in and the system puts up what he got.


    {Selecting random on-theme monsters...


    Udoroot Selected


    Shrieker Selected


    Violet Fungus Selected}


    {Udoroot (Lv15)


    S[1] A[5] C[22] I[45] W[38] P[10]@@novelbin@@


    Skills: Telepathic Skills lv16, Telekic Force Lv9, Body Adjustment Lv3


    Telepathic Skills: Mind Thrust lv15, Energy Stun[Fire] lv13, Telepathic Confusion lv13, Thought Shield lv9, False Sensory Input lv5


    Description: A nt that on the surface appears to be a small patch of sunflowers. In reality, it is a psionic nt with most of its body being a giant bulbous root hidden underground. The flowers above are non-vital parts of the body and it will not be damaged if they are destroyed. To kill an Udoroot, you need to dig it up and damage the root itself. When young, the nt starts with only two crowns and will grow additional crowns until it has six total at maturity. There are rumors though of elders of this nt managing to grow beyond this, though they are sketchy at best. The crowns are capable of projecting a number of psionic effects though the nt can only project from two at a time no matter how many it has. If all crowns are destroyed, it will only be able to slowly use its psionic power to regrow them.


    Cost: World Energy [500]}


    {Shrieker


    S[1] A[1] C[18]


    Skills: Shriek lv3


    Description: A stationary man-sized purple mushroom capable of making loud noises to attract prey or when disturbed. Otherwise, it appears like a normal mushroom. Often seen together with Violet fungus so that any prey attracted can be taken care of.


    Cost: World Energy[10]}


    {Violet Fungus (Lv10)


    S[40] A[25] C[12]


    Skills: Bash lv15


    Description: A stationary man-sized mushroom with a coloration ranging from purple to dull gray with violet spots covering the cap. Hidden under said cap are four tentacles that it uses to il at any nearby enemies. The tentacles are covered in a poison that damages a being¡¯s Strength and Constitution. Often seen with Shrieker fungus, killing any prey attracted by the Shrieker¡¯s noise.


    Cost: World Energy[300]}


    {Udoroot gained at lv15


    Sunflowers gained at lv15


    Sunflowers added to Food Patterns


    Shrieker gained at lv15


    Violet Fungus gained at lv15


    Udoroot, Shrieker, Violet Fungus, Myconid Patterns, and Assassin Vine merged into nt and Fungus Monster Patterns lv23}


    Ally smiles, ¡®Oh! Cool, you got the pattern for sunflowers as a bonus pattern. Though I would have thought if the system was giving you that it would have also given you some big generic mushrooms as well. While you do have some normal shrooms here and there, none are big enough to act as cover for your new mushroom monsters.¡¯


    Doyle rolls to the side, ¡®I¡¯m more interested in the fact I now have a psionic nt. Not that a nt with a mind shocks me, I do have the myconids after all, but simply the fact it is psionic.¡¯


    Ally taps her head, ¡®Technically, everything with a mind is psionic. Of course I understand what you mean with your question. You¡¯ve only seen a single guy with psionic powersing through so far and so it seems quite rare. And to be fair, having measurable Talent is situationally rare. Something about Talent seems to pull out the psionic Talent in others so it tends to clump up.


    ¡®The fact there is one person with it already means that the human variant on this is likely predisposed towards it so you will be seeing it more in the future. Though I wasn¡¯t lying about everyone with a mind being psionic. The power of your conscious mind is psionic energy. It is just that most people don¡¯t have enough of it or a way to channel it, instead having it contained to just their mind and providing some protection.


    ¡®Now, going by the monsters the system pulled, I¡¯m guessing that the list was likely limited to nts and fungus because of your basically unused vegetation variety path. The Udoroot and a decent number of other psionic nts were likely included to help counter people like thatst guy. If you take a look at the Udoroot¡¯s skills, you¡¯ll notice it has the thought shield skill.


    ¡®All that skill does is make it so when a guy is scanning around with their mind, it looks like you aren¡¯t there. Sure, it provides some minor protection against other telepathic abilities, but as a nt the Udoroot is going to be immune to any the skill would have worked on, anyway. Useful for ambush predators like this.


    ¡®Oh, and you likely were only going to get two monsters until it rolled the shrieker. The system isn¡¯t aplete jerk about such things. Since the shrieker literally can not attack, the system likely tacked on the violet fungus to make it more fair. Still, the udoroot alone is worth the world energy. While all three are ambush monsters with even less mobility than the assassin vines, they are a lot more powerful.¡¯


    Doyle nods, ¡®Fair enough. Though I would have likely thought the Udoroot was worth it even without your exnations. In general, it just sounds like a cool monster as well as one that I might be able to get more than its original world energy from. The fact they can just grow back after what is apparently just a haircut to them means that unless the delvers know, they are likely going to be left alive. This is especially true if I have them on a floor with a system like the fourth floor where all the loot is given at the end. That way, people aren¡¯t confused when they are not dropping anything.¡¯


    Allyughs, ¡®Don¡¯t depend on that. There are more than enough ways avable to the town to identify what is really going on.¡¯

 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 Ally¡¯s offhandment about how he can¡¯t just have one long hallway and run with it. Not a straight hallway, though, rather a slightly curved to the left hallway.


    Doyle doesn¡¯t have a particr reason for the direction, but the fact it curves is so adventurers can¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t 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 kilometer¡¯s worth of segments, though only after he remembered that orientation of a segment didn¡¯t 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 hadn¡¯t managed to strip the third floor of ore. Good thing there isn¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t certain about the two new fungus varieties. The walls and ceiling might be cave-like, but the ground didn¡¯t exactly scream mushroom infestation. Plus, as Ally had pointed out, he doesn¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t 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.@@novelbin@@


    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 wasn¡¯t 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 hasn¡¯t 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 didn¡¯t 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 don¡¯t end uppletely spread out, the packs aren¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t 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 hadn¡¯t meant for the floor to be free of them, but he also didn¡¯t 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 can¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t 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 floor¡¯s 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 aren¡¯t in a farm zone, they can be a part of the main floor¡¯s 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 world¡¯s 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. Don¡¯t expect to be getting a dragon in your dungeon anytime soon, or ever. I¡¯m 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 can¡¯t 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. Don¡¯t 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.¡¯

 Farmer Doyle – Chapter 217

    Allyughs after she thinks of something, ¡®Besides not wanting a clone army because your enemy might figure out how to hit them all with the same spell, there are a few other fun little quirks that can pop up if you try it. The mostmon one being that a hivemind forms. This is especially likely if you have certain clones with more smarts so they can be a leader. Gctic empires, no, not the one you''re thinking of, have fallen to this as their entire armed force turns on them.


    ¡®Even short bake clones with a quite limited lifespan can fall to this if there are methods to quickly spawn them. After a certain point, the hivemind will be able to exist as apletely ethereal mind construct thattches onto any new clones. So yeah, not that clone armies never work, you¡¯re just the exception if they do.¡¯


    Doyleughs, ¡®I¡¯m more interested in that ethereal mind thing than the clone army nonsense.¡¯


    Ally shrugs, ¡®They fall under the same category as things like sapient AIs and such. The important part there being the sapient bit. So unless you¡¯re making a boss hivemind, you¡¯re not going to get all that far.¡¯


    Doyle¡¯s core brightens up, ¡®That sounds fun. I know you said that as a joke, but I¡¯m thinking goat hivemind boss. I¡¯ve already set my goats on the path of being as goat-like as possible, which denies them the whole ¡°humanoid¡± nonsense so this could be interesting.¡¯@@novelbin@@


    Ally sighs, ¡®While I do agree that it would be interesting. You have tried to keep the power level of your monsters down to a reasonable amount. In your dungeon, a goat hivemind boss would be a tad too powerful, especially if you have more than say, five goats for it to inhabit. Though I don¡¯t even know if five goats is enough to start a hivemind. With rats, you generally need a full-blown swarm and at least five rats basically attached to one another to even begin to support a hivemind. Goats are more advanced, but they are still animals.¡¯


    Doyle¡¯s core dims right back down. ¡®Sigh, fair enough. It would be just a tad bit too crazy if I made an empty room full of hundreds of goats, all controlled by a single hivemind. Though if I ever need to hardstop a group and I have a boss slot open, well, I have a n now, at least.¡¯


    Allyughs, ¡®That would certainly do it. Though maybe not an empty room. You would be asking for a fireball to take them out. No, make it big twisty corridors with smaller goat size holes so they can be attacked at any time from any angle and with as many goats as the hivemind wants. Besides, I can¡¯t remember what it was, but I feel like you had something simr already.¡¯


    Doyle takes a moment to think about it, ¡®Nothinges to mind off the top of my head? After I finish ying with my wheat, I¡¯ll have to take a look andb through my status. There must be a ton of stuff in there that I¡¯m forgetting. Haven¡¯t forgotten the naming package though. That just costs a lot and it isn¡¯t like I¡¯m funneling all my world energy into it.¡¯


    Ally nods, ¡®Well, have fun. If I can remember what it was, I¡¯ll let you know. Though if it has held for this long, we probably aren¡¯t on a timer over it.¡¯


    Doyle for the most part agrees with that and so turns back to his wheat. The current crop hadn¡¯t quite matured yet so he spent the time waiting on checking any nts that stood out. Some of them were clearly inferior and so he culled them without waiting for them to finish growing. Others showed promise so they got marked with a red piece of string that Doyle would have an easy time finding again.


    Because, while he wouldn¡¯t mind searching through all the nts. Doyle wanted to get onto the next generation rtively quickly so he could see if this would raise the wheat pattern¡¯s level. This meant there was some aggressive culling.


    One of the aspects was that he didn¡¯t wait for all of the wheat to finish growing. Instead, once all but about ten percent was fully matured, he removed the wheat that hadn¡¯t finished growing as long as it wasn¡¯t part of the marked group. From there, he started lopping off even more, each time removing an amount equal to the first.


    The tallest wheat was first to go. All that really mattered was the grains so the extra stem wasn¡¯t needed after all. Though Doyle wasn¡¯t going to go for micro-wheat. In his mind, the perfect wheat should still be wheat-like. So if all it did was grow a couple centimeters of stem before the grain, it wasn¡¯t exactly wheat anymore, at least in his opinion.


    After that, he removed double the amount, half of it from those that drooped the most and those that dropped the least. Doyle wanted amber waves of grain, not a bunch of straight up and down spikes orpletely bent over nts. There needed to be just enough give that they would bend in the wind''s direction, but not so much that they ended up lying t. If only because in a real situation, getting bent over too much could lead to the grain ending up in moist dirt and rotting.


    For the final bit of culling, Doyle removed another part equal to the first and let the system randomly cull them. A little disappointing that the system wasn¡¯t able to just pick out the best ones for him, but he could understand. This was, after all supposed to be him working on his patterns. Would kind of defeat the purpose if the system handed him the answer.


    So with the total amount of wheat reduced by half, Doyle begins to skim over the stillrge amount of nts, removing any that obviously look wrong. Sure, there might be nothing bad about them, but part of this is that Doyle does want something to use in his dungeon and not just spawning the end result. So while there might be nts with better wheat that ended up looking wonky, they weren¡¯t going to make it.


    Still, even being super critical doesn¡¯t cut out enough wheat. After all, most of the wheat just looks like wheat. It isn¡¯t like he has manipted the stuff too much at this point. Though as Doyle look at the wheat that is left, he can¡¯t help but mentally shrug. Sure, there is a lot, but it isn¡¯t like he was growing a proper field of the stuff. It was all spaced out enough that what was left only numbered a couple hundred nts.


    At this point, Doyle decides he had removed enough. Before he had nned to cull it down to the low tens of nts, but since the next batch he ns to nt will be bigger, this should be enough. Besides, you can be too aggressive when doing this. If he had reduced it enough, then the pattern level might not change at all as he cycles through basically just some imaginary perfection. That would, of course be a far way off, but even now some instinct in him is ringing, warning him that there is no perfection.


    This causes Doyle to pause for a moment. After all, for something like the simple idea of aiming for perfection to cause such an instant reaction from his instincts means it is a big deal for dungeons. Though as he takes a moment to consider the issue, he realizes why. Abination of a dungeon¡¯s ability to get trapped in the details and how they don¡¯t have some sort of innate understanding of what anything is.


    If Doyle had wanted to, he could have easily gotten down and examined every single grain of wheat that had been grown and it wouldn¡¯t have felt like any time passing at all. He also had some idea of what ¡°wheat¡± is supposed to look like, something other dungeons would not have. It would be too easy for an unawakened dungeon to get stuck on perfecting a piece of wheat yet going in circles. Maybe the instinct will fade once he gets a few more floors under his belt, maybe not. For now, though, Doyle turns back to his fields.


    Since he ns to use all of them that are left, it is time to harvest. An act made supremely easy as he can deconstruct an entire nt, roots and all, with only a thought. He does try to y around with it like he did with creation, but he has a different feel from the skill. Instead of it feeling like he was using aplex tool with just the default settings, Universal Deconstruction instead feels like he is using a very simple tool.


    The only problem with it is that, in its simplicity, the tool outputs too much information. With each use of the skill, he is force fed everything about what was being deconstructed. Even as a dungeon, he wasn¡¯t able to handle it and so most of that information is lost. There is simply too much to absorb. What the skill feels like it is doing is allowing him to capture more of that ocean of information, as well as making sure to grab some of the more useful bits.


    So knowing it doesn¡¯t matter if he goes carefully over each nt or grabs them all at once, Doyle zaps the whole field. That taken care of, he goes and checks the pattern level of his wheat. Which hasn¡¯t budged. Not the expected oue, but also not not the expected oue.


    Doyle had to admit to himself, a single generation of wheat isn¡¯t going to change things up too much. So he goes to create another batch, except this time creation feels different. Not in a ¡°same thing but I notice more¡± type of way, but rather in a ¡°there literally are just more options now¡± sort of way.


    With sugar, while he could create the various shapes he came up with, it all just fell under sugar. The wheat, however, had a different feel. This was a sort of nebulous thing where while it didn¡¯t have some specific mentalbel, Doyle could tell that he could create generic wheat seeds, the original wheat seeds, or a mix of the wheat seeds from the recent crop. In fact, he could even off to the side feel the rejected wheat seeds. They were just sort of there, sort of not. As if he could create them if he wanted to, but if he didn¡¯t they would end up fading away.


    An interesting feature which was likely meant to keep living patterns organized without forcing anything specific. Though Doyle could also see iting up with something like sugar as well. After all, what Doyle currently has to work with is basically just table sugar. Later on, he will probably end up gaining less refined forms of sugar and while patterns are fun, the system has to draw the line somewhere.


    So with this newfound quirk of his skill, Doyle nts a muchrger crop of wheat. The first time didn¡¯t yield any levels, but he was willing to let it ride for five or so generations just to see. It isn¡¯t like it was going to take him years to get there after all. Besides, it would be silly if he could improve them that quickly. Sugar was easy enough because it was just perfecting the shape. A living nt, on the other hand, has so much more to it than what it looks like. You could have an apple that looked perfect only for the fruit to taste nd and be incredibly mealy.


    Still, while this was important, he didn¡¯t need to focus on it quite so much. His nts would grow in the background and Doyle could focus on other things, only asionally popping in to check on them.

 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 sugar¡¯s level by six, a single level doesn¡¯t 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 Wolf¡¯s 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 isn¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t 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 hadn¡¯te 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 doesn¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t 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 wasn¡¯t 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 didn¡¯t 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. Didn¡¯t 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 didn¡¯t 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 wasn¡¯t expecting to call out a literal world serpent if he drew one well enough. That didn¡¯t 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 didn¡¯t 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 wasn¡¯t 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.


    That¡¯s 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 hadn¡¯t 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 didn¡¯t 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 wasn¡¯t to harm. It was a simple reminder of a ce that still existed, but someday wouldn¡¯t. 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 wasn¡¯t 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 wasn¡¯t 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 wasn¡¯t 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 wasn¡¯t 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.

 Only Took Over 150 Chapters To Remember – Chapter 220

    After being called back to Ally¡¯s room, Doyle sees arge nk screen up against the back wall. Ally gestures at it, ¡®Now before I reveal it, I¡¯m going to go over what will be up there. Of course, there are the stats which start at the starting value. Which, by the by, is what would change whenever you level up the kobold pattern enough to give them a stat bonus. Important because that means all of your kobolds, no matter the floor, would get stronger. I don¡¯t know how yet, but I assume there is a way to limit the stats of your monsters so you don¡¯t identally end up with a lethal first floor.¡¯


    Doyle snorts, ¡®I¡¯m mostly certain that the stat gains from the pattern won¡¯t get too crazy. While yes, some beings get born with a lot more in their stats than others, A kobold that naturally has 100 Strength on reaching adulthood isn¡¯t really a normal kobold anymore. Even if it does happen, I¡¯m most likely going to end up with a variant type of kobold that I get to use.¡¯


    Ally nods, ¡®That is a fair assessment. Anyway, like I said, there will be the actual stats which I will have by level. Next to that I will include any static bonuses and the bonus per level. For the bonus per level, I will be noting when the bonus is gained separately because you only get a benefit from that on the next level up.


    ¡®Also, I have the breakdown for where all the bonusese from and I will have an example of that at the bottom for the very first bonus you got for the kobolds, that of per level to Agility. Oh, and I¡¯m only going to disy up to level three because after that it is literally just adding the per level bonuses over and over.¡¯


    Doyle tilts to the side, ¡®So basically a giant spreadsheet?¡¯


    Ally shrugs, ¡®Why fix what isn¡¯t broken? The real difficulty was gathering all the data, anyway. Though for this, I have prettied up the data. Now let me reveal my work. Oh, there is onest special thing to note. There are some odd bonuses with the first being that kobolds are capable of alchemy and the second, which I will have separate is for monsters in amunity. Now here it is!¡¯


    {lv0 S[ 4] A[ 7] C[ 4] I[ 6] W[ 6] P[ 6] D[ 5] K[ 5] L[ 5]


    lv0 gained *+2A/lv, +2W/lv, +2K/lv


    lv1 S[ 4] A[ 9] C[ 4] I[ 6] W[11] P[ 6] D[ 5] K[10] L[ 5] [+2A/lv, +2W/lv, +2K/lv]


    lv1 gained +3W, +3K, +1I/lv


    lv2 S[ 4] A[11] C[ 4] I[ 9] W[13] P[ 6] D[5] K[12] L[ 5] [+2A/lv, +1I/lv, +2W/lv, +2K/lv]


    lv2 gained +2I, +4A/lv, +1I/lv, +4W/lv, +4K/lv


    lv3 S[ 4] A[17] C[ 4] I[11] W[19] P[ 6] D[5] K[18] L[ 5] [+6A/lv, +2I/lv, +6W/lv, +6K/lv]


    lv3 S[ 4] A[17] C[ 9] I[11] W[24] P[ 6] D[10] K[18] L[ 5] (gained +5C, +5W, +5D formunity)


    *Kobold Community path 15/15 adds +1 and Synergy from Kobold Bosses¡¯ Soul of the Community path doubles that to +2 (the system said it was retroactive, but what it actually meant was that any newly spawned kobolds would have this bonus added in. Likely if you lost your kobold boss, the bonus would go away for any spawned kobolds in the same way.)}


    Ally sighs, ¡®It isn¡¯t the prettiest thing I admit, but the information is all there. Especially thatmunity nonsense. I put level 3 twice because technically the actual base stats of your kobolds are equal to the first line, but if there are at least, I think three, kobolds together they get the bonus even if some of them die. About the only ce your kobolds aren¡¯t getting that bonus are the ambushes and the axebeak riders on the eight floor.


    ¡®Everything else besides the wolves have more strict requirements for it, though you mostly have it covered. One caveat to that is that the assassin vines and the Udoroot don¡¯t seem capable of benefiting from the bonus? Maybe they would if you stationed other beings with them, but they can¡¯t form their ownmunities.¡¯@@novelbin@@


    Doyle shakes his core, ¡®Of course they don¡¯t. Anyway, even if the stat line is a little eh, the line below it showing the gains helps. Though it does point out to me that the kobolds aren¡¯t really gaining that many bonuses.¡¯


    Ally shrugs, paratively they¡¯re actually gaining a lot. Sure, if you want to look at any random citizen in the town outside, the kobolds are falling behind, but I took a quick look at the other monsters. You need more paths that give bonuses like Vegetation Variety did. That one path gave a bonus to all nts and fungi monsters. The only shame is that it specified monsters. Otherwise, your nts would be tougher in general as long as they can hit level two.


    Oh, and I know what we were forgetting. Have you figured it out yet?¡¯


    Doyle tilts back, ¡®Not a clue. I haven¡¯t even looked at my path points since I leveled up. Last time I checked was before I built the eighth floor! While I didn¡¯t do anything too crazy on the ninth floor, the eighth had a bunch of tricks on it.¡¯


    Ally coughs, ¡®Ah, well, you should probably do that. However, you also need to look into your ants. I don¡¯t think either of us can really be med for forgetting it since you took the path months ago at this point. But yeah, the Ageless Queens path.¡¯ And she pulls up a new screen.


    {Ageless Queens path


    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, ¡®We¡¯re missing out on a hivemind! You now have nine floors and you¡¯ve basically ced ants on all of them except the third floor and you could probably manage something there easily enough as well. That would mean a massive plus nine to the queen¡¯s intelligence, which would put it above everything besides your kobolds and Udoroots.¡¯


    Doyle dims for a moment, ¡®I don¡¯t even have the pattern for ants. All I¡¯ve got is a more general prey insects pattern.¡¯


    Ally rolls her eyes, ¡®Well you better get around to fixing that. It shouldn¡¯t be too hard since all you have to do is get a queen toy some queen and drone eggs. You don¡¯t even need to worry about things like royal jelly since the dungeon will sustain them. My advice is to get an ants pattern before choosing one to be the hivemind focus.


    ¡®Sure, you could change itter, but that would be a waste of the time already invested. In fact, maybe try to get the pattern to the point that it counts as a monster since that will give all the ants the mind stats.¡¯


    Doyle tilts to the side, ¡®What does turning them into monsters have to do with them getting the mind stats? And won¡¯t the chosen queen get them, anyway?¡¯


    Ally nods, ¡®Yes she would, but that would be an artificial uplifting and she would be limited in what she can do with the hivemind. While gaining a soul through some system, interference is the same as gaining a soul in general, the same is not true for a mind. Not because the system couldn¡¯t make the perfect mind, mind you. Rather, it was designed to only put in the minimum required mind. Now, normally, that wouldn¡¯t matter.


    ¡®However, for a monster that will eventually have the chance to be a boss you will want a bit more than just the minimum. Oh, and as for why getting monster ants would give the normal ants a mind? That is because the difference between a monster ant and a normal is mostly an artificial system distinction. They would still be ants. What you are thinking of as a monster ant is more properly the giant ant.¡¯


    Doyle tilts forward, ¡®If I turn my regr ants into monsters, wouldn¡¯t I have to pay for them?¡¯


    Ally shrugs, ¡®Don¡¯t turn them into monsters. Like I said, there basically isn¡¯t any difference. What you are aiming for is the system to open up the possibility so you can grab the ant pattern with a mind. It is like the difference between having amon ant and what you would call a fire ant.


    ¡®Do note, basically everyone else just calls them red ants. This mostlyes from the fact that to us, a fire ant refers to a magical variant that bursts into mes when it dies. But yeah, technically, the ants have a mind, probably the best mind among the mundane insects. That isn¡¯t saying much, though.¡¯


    Doyle tilts further forward, ¡®But will I have to pay for them?¡¯


    Ally scratches the back of her neck, ¡®Eh, maybe? In theory, from everything I¡¯ve heard they shouldn¡¯t. Turning them into a monster is lifting them out of the mundane like how the horned rabbits horn can be magical. That doesn¡¯t make the horned rabbit actually count as a monster you have to pay for out of your floor points. Still, the horned rabbit is a monster under the system¡¯s rules. They¡¯re harmless enough though for them to not show up as such unless you ask the right questions.¡¯


    Doyle sighs, ¡®You aren¡¯t really certain of this, are you?¡¯


    Ally makes a face, ¡®I¡¯ve read some reports rted to this issue and while talking to Z she mentioned something simr? I just had to be vague to keep how much I knew about your paths and just in general the information on your paths a secret. Kind of hard to do that if I juste out and start talking about immortal ant queens and such.¡¯


    Doyle nods, ¡®Fair enough. Now how am I supposed to know when ants have reached the point of being monsters yet not actually counting as monsters?¡¯


    Ally shrugs, ¡®Not a clue! I suggest only spending a week or two on the project before simply going ahead with choosing a normal ant queen. You have a pretty powerful ratio on your speed up so that should be enough to see results if there are going to be any in the near future.¡¯


    Doyle sighs, ¡®Actually, I think I know the answer to it now that my mind has had a chance to catch up. Since the turning point is connected to having mind stats, I just have to check the new ants for that.¡¯


    Ally shrugs again, ¡®I¡¯m going to be honest, this is a little deep in the woods so your guess is as good as mine. That does make some sense, though I guess you would have to check one of the queens right now. They might get the mind stat just because popr mythos ascribes such to them.¡¯


    Doyle nods, ¡®That isn¡¯t a bad idea. I¡¯ll go and pick one from the first floor since they have been around the longest.¡¯


    Doyle pulls up a screen showing the first floor and takes a moment to find one of the ant nests he had ced then pulls up the status of the queen and one of her workers.


    {Ant Queen: S[1] A[1] C[2]


    Ant Worker: S[1] A[1] C[1]}

 Over The Roof – Chapter 222

    In the town Jim frowns. He kept his desk for official Adventurers Guild work clear of paperwork. Yet despite that, there was now a paper on it with official guild letterhead on it. Official official, with proper gilt and everything.


    So with only the slightest of a sour face, Jim sits down to read it. Though his face rxes as he gets to the core of the matter. It did however cause him to sigh and mutter about how the next boss might block them for a good bit longer.


    Not long after he is in Ace¡¯s office reporting on the paper. Ace of course isn¡¯t the happiest camper as the visitors weren''t going to be happy. The boss floor was still a stumbling block for anyone that wasn¡¯t a core member of the town. So much so that the ce up river was making noise.


    This was going to make all their nonsense sound even more realistic. Ace can just imagine it now. ¡®Oh look at that! They got through the boss with a raid and now suddenly no one else is allowed to raid? Suspicious isn''t it?¡¯


    Of course no one in town can do anything about this. The Adventurers Guild is way above their heads. Not that anyone else in the world likely fully gets what that means at the moment. Ace looks up at Jim, ¡°You realize you¡¯re going to have to be the one to announce this, right?¡±


    Jim recoils, ¡°You¡¯re the big cheese here. Why would I be announcing it?¡±


    Ace snorts, ¡°As if, we both know that you have more political power than I do at the moment. Besides, this ising from your guild.¡±


    Jim shakes his head, ¡°Maybe once the world connects up to the rest of the universe. Right now people recognize you as being the top dog.¡±


    Ace, ¡°Avoiding that second bit? I¡¯ll back you up, but you''re the ringmaster of this circus.¡±


    Jim sighs, ¡°Do we have someone good at calligraphy?¡±


    Ace blinks, ¡°That is a bit of a random tangent?¡±


    Jim shrugs, ¡°I get it, I¡¯m the one that gets to stand in front of the annoyed crowd and announce that no, you can¡¯t just bum rush the boss with fifty people. However, we are going to need signs and stuff put up just about everywhere. The gates, the guild, and of course a couple times at the dungeon gate itself.¡±


    Ace, ¡°Oh, yeah, that makes sense. And yeah, we do have ady in town with decent calligraphy. Jimmy can work with her to make some wood signs. Do you think we need multiplenguages? Everyone I¡¯ve met so far is speaking the same one, but there might be peopleing from farther away.¡±


    Jim shakes his head, ¡°Nah, I¡¯m sure we¡¯ll eventually get people stopping by that speaks something else, but that is a matter forter. By the time we need to care we will probably have better options.¡±


    Ace sighs, ¡°Can¡¯t the System do something about this?¡±


    Jimughs, ¡°It could, but it won¡¯t. After all, where should it stop? Signs automatically tranting would be nice, so why not other text? Why even bother with multiplenguages? Just have everyone speak the same thing! Hell, why bother with speaking? That can cause so many problems inmunicating. Everyone can speak mind to mind so no one misunderstands.


    ¡°So nah, let people figure it out for themselves. Besides, there are many methods both mystical and technological that can do it for us. Though I¡¯m going to guess our will skew towards the magical side of things for this one. We didn¡¯t exactly have the best tech based methods before the System.¡±


    After that they talk it over some more before getting a bunch of things ready. Then early next morning we find them on a stage Jimmy threw together for them at thest minute. In front of them is a crowd of people from the outer ring and out of town. Not too many, but there are a few more official sorts with the power to represent the closest settlements.


    Jim ps his hands, ¡°Okay, we have a few things to announce. I¡¯m up first because more of you are going to hate what I have to say so we¡¯re making a you know what sandwich. Anyway, to start I¡¯m going to announce something that to those of you familiar with more recent fantasy novels will be a familiar concept. I¡¯m happy to inform you all that the Adventurers Guild hase to town!


    ¡°Now, some of you might have known we had something of the sort in town, but until now we¡¯ve kept things underwraps for one very important reason. I forgot to announce it till now! More seriously though, it is because when I say we have an adventurers guild. That doesn¡¯t mean we decided to make one. This is THE Adventurers Guild. A universal organization.


    ¡°For those of you who want to find out more, don¡¯t ask me. I¡¯m the guild leader. Instead you can direct your questions to my lovely receptionist, Frink. Now for the middle of these announcements. So you know how I said this was a universal organization? Well part of what they do is determine some basic rules for those who belong to the guild and one of those is the max party size for a dungeon. Anyway, the Guild has decided that the max for this dungeon will be six.¡±


    The crowd starts to get restive and shout, but Jim speaks over them. ¡°Hold all your questions for the end! I¡¯m now passing it off to Ace for more general announcements.¡±


    Ace steps forward, ¡°Okay, let me make my announcements before you get too angry. I¡¯ve got a few more general things to go over. First up is the fact we are epting more applications for citizenship. We¡¯ve managed to house everyone and then some so joining us won¡¯t mean sleeping in a tent.


    ¡°Along with that is the fact we havepleted three hotels. Now, I¡¯m sure we aren¡¯t past our tent city times, but those of you starting to make some decent money can at least pay to have a proper room and a real bed. Also, I¡¯m happy to announce that our town is now fully based on System currency. No more wondering how much a pre-system currency is worthpared to a settlement backed currency or a chunk of gold. All official business and taxes will be in System coins.@@novelbin@@


    ¡°On top of all that, my final announcement is that we are going to be setting up a town guard. I know a bunch of you have been ying fast and loose with the rules and to be honest? For the most part we don¡¯t care as long as you don¡¯t actually cross the line. Well, some of you have. I know, I know, we suddenly have a bunch of supernatural powers and it can make you feel invincible. After all, what can a jail do when you can just walk through the wall?


    ¡°A lot. See, as a System recognized town we can have a System recognized town guard and a System recognized jail. Guards and Jail that can keep you in ce even if the guards just have handcuffs made of rope and the jail a wooden shack. Of course there is an upper limit on who can be contained that way, I just doubt any of you have a level in the high triple digits. Now, are there any questions?¡±


    A bunch of people start to yell questions while one guy at the back raises his hand. Ace ignores the yellers and points at the guy in back, ¡°So, what''s your question?¡±


    The guy is shocked at being called on, ¡°Ah, uh, what are the requirements to be a guard?¡±


    Everyone else boos him, but quickly quiets down when they realize Ace was going to wait till they did to answer the guy. Once everything is quiet Ace coughs, ¡°Okay, that is an easy enough question to answer. To be honest the requirements aren¡¯t too heavy to start. While higher level individuals will be preferred just because they can respond to problems faster, but that isn¡¯t strictly required.


    ¡°The main requirement is that you are a citizen, an obvious enough one. All the others are less requirements and more us trying to have some variety. We aren¡¯t going to have a town guard full of just melee fighters. We want mages, rangers, and so on. Right now though we are small enough that it will probably mean only a few of any specific archetype is going to be hired. Next question.¡±


    This time everyone raises their hand and Ace points to someone in the middle. Thedy asks the question on everyone¡¯s mind, ¡°Why aren¡¯t we allowed to go dungeon diving with more than six people in a team?¡±


    Ace shrugs, ¡°Jim didn¡¯t say you couldn¡¯t. He said that this would be the limit for those who belong to the Adventurers Guild or want to do business with them. Now I¡¯m only going to answer one more question for the moment as I¡¯m sure basically everything can be answered by the Guild¡¯s receptionist.¡±


    Ace points out the next person who asks, ¡°So you aren¡¯t going to limit the amount of people going in?¡±


    Aceughs, ¡°We already do that. When a team enters we make sure you aren¡¯t going to be interrupting other teams already. If you¡¯re asking if we are going to stop you from going in with a ton of people to try and conquer the boss? Yes and no. Obviously because of how the instancing works we can¡¯t just let you roll up with 50 people and all run in. You¡¯d end up in other people¡¯s instances.


    ¡°If you want to try and raid the dungeon boss, you¡¯ll have to apply ahead of time or be willing to wait as your team slowly filters in six at a time. Because if it isn¡¯t clear enough already by the instances, the dungeon wants six to a floor.¡±


    With that Ace and Jim leave the stage. Of course a bunch of people still had questions and wanted to surround them to ask them. Jim looks over at Ace who rolls his eyes and tells the crowd, ¡°Like I said, no more questions.¡±


    Then both of them jump over the heads of the crowd,nding for a moment on the side of the building behind the stage before bouncing over the roof. Ace yells back as he disappears, ¡°Oh, and only town officials are allowed to do this! I know it looks incredibly fun, but keep to the roads!¡±


    The stunned crowd is left behind with one person asking into the silence, ¡°Where is the guild?¡±


    Ace heard the question and for a moment felt a little guilty as that was an important question. Then he remembered how they tried to bum rush the stage to get their questions answered and decided to not mind it.


    Once back in his office Ace asks Jim, ¡°So, how do you feel we did there?¡±


    Jim shrugs, ¡°Next time if we have the guards set up we won¡¯t have to parkour over a house.¡±


    Aceughs, ¡°But then where would the fun be? We even got permission to do it!¡±


    Jim snorts, ¡°We both know everyone made their roofs so people could run on them and not damage the building. Even if they didn¡¯t n to do that, everyone knows nothing we do will stop people from doing so. It is a ssic chase scene and now people can actually do it safely.¡±


    Ace rolls his eyes, ¡°And we just made it against thew unless you¡¯re an official.¡±


    Jim nods, ¡°And wouldn¡¯t you know it, all the core members of the town at this point count as officials.¡±


    Ace shrugs, ¡°If we¡¯re going to be some kind of pseudo-nobility, might as well make it fun. Besides, after a certain point running on a roof just won¡¯t be worth it. Sure, we made the roofs strong, but that will only go so far.¡±

 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 doesn¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t 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 wasn¡¯t 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 didn¡¯t 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 didn¡¯t feel quite right so he went and talked to Ally real quick.


    Allyughed, ¡®Nope, still looking at their stats. It is just that you¡¯re looking at how their stats are expressing themselves. I¡¯m going to guess that with the horned rabbit¡¯s 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, you¡¯ll 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 don¡¯t realize that because you only have normal stuff kicking around. In the future though you¡¯ll end up with true magical herbs and at that point no matter how much a normal horned rabbit eats of the stuff, they won¡¯t 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 I¡¯m 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 wasn¡¯t 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 didn¡¯t 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 wasn¡¯t enough toe to a conclusion. So for every current nest, Doyle created five farms with clones of the original¡¯s queen to man them.@@novelbin@@


    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 weren¡¯t needed, they wouldn¡¯t be created. Those nests which had nearly all specialized ants required way more food than the other nests and it just hadn¡¯t 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 wasn¡¯t 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 wouldn¡¯t 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 can¡¯t 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 Doyle¡¯s 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.

 Covered In Vines, Waiting For Them To Pass – Chapter 224

    The average worker ant doesn¡¯t 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, they¡¯re already losing.


    Average worker ants are for once the rush has finished and the nest is dug in. At that point they¡¯re 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 wouldn¡¯t naturally show up in Doyle¡¯s 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 hadn¡¯t 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 weren¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t 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 didn¡¯t 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 weren¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t 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 wouldn¡¯t help the pattern¡¯s level quite as much. Without his personal touch, the system just doesn¡¯t 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 didn¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t involved.


    In the end though, there just isn¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t 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 floor¡¯s points and room in the farm zone, but that isn¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t 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 Doyle¡¯s heavy lifter. That and the show is quite fun.@@novelbin@@


    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 wasn¡¯t a typo, the <i>three</i> goats.


    The fourth goat was in the room, it had just decided the corner in the blindspot of the room¡¯s 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 didn¡¯t die, but he ended up needing some serious healing to take care of that kidney damage.


    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 wouldn¡¯t 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, didn¡¯t 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 Jinn¡¯s 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 dungeon¡¯s party size limit, some options opened up to Doyle. Key for this incident is that while he isn¡¯t able to order his monsters around like he is able to when the delvers aren¡¯t 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 don¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t 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 Doyle¡¯sst 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 didn¡¯t 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 wasn¡¯t just that day that they wouldn¡¯t 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 hadn¡¯t really been looking at his skill levels and path points. It hadn¡¯t 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, Earth¡¯s 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, Earth¡¯s 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, Fire¡¯s 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.


    ¡®As for the ss paths? They¡¯re some of the few paths that will just show up and go away depending. You¡¯ll 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 isn¡¯t 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 you¡¯re 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 doesn¡¯t 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 don¡¯t 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 shouldn¡¯t take. Not that I should have to tell you that trapless isn¡¯t exactly a long term restriction you want to build around.¡¯


    Doyle sighs, ¡®fair enough.¡¯


    Ally holds up both her hands, ¡®I¡¯m not saying I won¡¯t help. I¡¯m 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, I¡¯m 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 wasn¡¯t 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 didn¡¯t 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 wasn¡¯t 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 didn¡¯t have to struggle with it like most sapients did, but that was just an advantage his race gave him. Though of course his people¡¯s 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 didn¡¯t 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.


    Doyle¡¯s 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 wasn¡¯t 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 didn¡¯t 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 wasn¡¯t 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 didn¡¯t 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...@@novelbin@@


    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 didn¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t 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}


    Doyle¡¯s 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 didn¡¯t handle things all that well. On the other hand, all that info felt a little pointless as Doyle wasn¡¯t 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 wasn¡¯t 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 can¡¯t 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 Ally¡¯s 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, Earth¡¯s 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, Fire¡¯s 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@@novelbin@@


    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, ¡®That¡¯s 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, what¡¯s up with that? Couldn¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t like traps are purely the realm of sapient beings or anything. What the designer opens up however is trap patterns.


    ¡®This hasn¡¯t reallye up since you¡¯ve hadplete ess to all the patterns you needed, but it isn¡¯t 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 floor¡¯s 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 isn¡¯t going to cause much trouble with the pit, but what if the floor was instead made of dirt or sand?¡¯


    Ally smiles, ¡®Exactly! You¡¯d 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 don¡¯t 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 didn¡¯t 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 didn¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t 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 wasn¡¯t a problem, but it did cut off a couple interesting paths. Not that he couldn¡¯t 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 path¡¯s 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.


    Doyle kept going around in circles over which to choose until Ally stepped in and knocked him out of the spiral. He hadn¡¯t 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, you¡¯ve had the ability to build many more floors than you have. Instead, you¡¯ve 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 can¡¯t 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 wasn¡¯t 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 wasn¡¯t 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 wasn¡¯t 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 wasn¡¯t 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.


    {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 wasn¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t putting any special kind of spin on their energy for Doyle to snuffle up.


    As for what might be theter limitations on the path¡¯s bonuses? Doyle¡¯s 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 wasn¡¯t 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 wasn¡¯t going to let that get in the way of what was best for himself, he also wasn¡¯t 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].@@novelbin@@


    {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, doesn¡¯t really have much to add. The Trinity and Unique were well outside of any tutorial text the system was willing to share and she hadn¡¯t found anywhere mentioning them. Though not finding information on such unique paths was the norm so that didn¡¯t 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 don¡¯t gibber mindlessly. The only other time you¡¯ve 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, ¡®We¡¯ll just have to wait and see. At the moment I¡¯m only throwing my spare points in and I don¡¯t 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 you¡¯re saying that specifically within the training rooms and <i>only</i> 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 hasn¡¯t 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 hadn¡¯t yet gotten to designing for ergonomics like some pre-systempanies had, and he sighs before dismissing Josh. Of course, Ace wasn¡¯t worried about this news being leaked to those who shouldn¡¯t know. Heavy oaths had been traded after all.


    No, what was rapidly giving Ace a headache was that there wasn¡¯t 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 wasn¡¯t 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 couldn¡¯t 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 didn¡¯t 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 didn¡¯t 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 dungeon¡¯s 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 wasn¡¯t 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 I¡¯m 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 I¡¯m 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, wouldn¡¯t 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 they¡¯re only one step away. Of course, that one step is quite the challenge and you might never manage it. Plus, as a dungeon, you can¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t 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 you¡¯re saying that not only don¡¯t we have an idea of where this monster came from, but we have no way to even narrow it down?¡¯


    Ally shrugs again, ¡®It doesn¡¯t 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@@novelbin@@


    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 doesn¡¯t really exin much.¡¯


    Doyleughs, ¡®What were you expecting when the system couldn¡¯t even be bothered to name it?¡¯


    Ally sighs, ¡®I guess this is better than I should have expected? Worse yet, is that we can¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t 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 aren¡¯t 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 core¡¯s personality. After all, the act of gaining a boss when the core isn¡¯t awakened is pretty much just done on instincts.¡¯


    Doyle, ¡®Yeah, but that is more likely to get bosses that will follow all the core¡¯s orders or at least will do their job quietly. Being surrounded by the dungeon equivalent of a bunch of yes men isn¡¯t exactly a good thing. In the long run, an awakened dungeon is going to need people to have other views or they¡¯ll 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? I¡¯ve noticed that you¡¯ve mostly kept it to the area around the town. Not that it matters one way or another, but I¡¯ve been listening in on Ace and it sounds like he is going to send some people upriver to start sorting things out. I¡¯m 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.¡¯


    Doyle¡¯s core dims for a moment, ¡®Huh, I¡¯m 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, I¡¯m 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? They¡¯re gathering supplies and are about ready, though they haven¡¯t 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, ¡®Wouldn¡¯t Jim¡¯s position as the leader of the Adventurers Guild stop him from doing this? I would think the guild wouldn¡¯t 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 can¡¯t hold any other official office as over the years they¡¯ve 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 won¡¯t really have to worry about that in the ce up river. After all, it isn¡¯t a quote unquote real town. In fact, I¡¯ve listened to peopleing from elsewhere and it sounds like no one else within a week or so of travel to Wolf¡¯s 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 Wolf¡¯s 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 didn¡¯t 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 couldn¡¯t 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 wasn¡¯t 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 can¡¯t really me them. Even in Wolf¡¯s Rest most of the people aren¡¯t 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 wasn¡¯t 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 weren¡¯t 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 didn¡¯t 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 Wolf¡¯s 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.

 Happy New Year! [Not A Chapter]

    Hello! Wee to one of my rare ¡°not a chapter¡± posts.


    A new year is upon us and if you¡¯re only reading this novel here, don¡¯t worry, nothing is changing. I can guarantee weekly releases for the next year!@@novelbin@@


    What will be changing is my Patreon. Because I¡¯ve gotten a third book started, I¡¯ve finally gotten around to updating the tiers. You might have noticed this already as a little while ago I added a new tier. Now, I¡¯ve gone and renamed them as well as removed the book specific tiers. Right now there are 5 tiers, though the fifth is just a super supporter tier with the same benefits of the previous.


    The tiers are thematic to me; being Hatchling, Drag, Dragon, Ancient Dragon, and Greatwyrm. So, seeing as the names have changed I¡¯ll give a quick run down of what each tier gets, with anyter tier having all the content the previous tiers get except for one specific thing I¡¯ll mention right away.


    Hatchling: This tier has a 7 day free trial and is the only tier with one. As for what it gives you for $1 USD? You get five chapters of NeoRealm, two chapters of Dungeon¡¯s Path, the 20 most recent short stories, ability to vote on any polls, and right now it has one chapter of my newest book Banished Talent


    Drag: This was the $3 USD tier I added just recently so you can read a good chunk of content. So, on top of everything from the previous tier; you get 25 more chapters of NeoRealm, 10 more chapters of Dungeon¡¯s Path, and 2 chapters of Banished Talent


    Dragon: This is recing the previous two novel specific tiers. So for $5 USD you get content from all my novels. The main reason forbining the two is that I didn¡¯t want to make a new tier every time I start a new story. Thus, instead of adding a tier for Banished talent, I removed a tier. Unlike previous tiers, at this point NeoRealm and Dungeon¡¯s Path goes from a specific number of chapters ahead, you get an extra chapter every week or so depending on the story involved. NeoRealm will get an extra chapter every other week and Dungeon¡¯s Path every third week. Uh, and Banished Talent does get a straight plus 2 chapters because I¡¯m not exactly writing weekly chapters for it. Also, this is the first tier in which you get to help suggest prompts for my monthly short story instead of just voting on one of the prompts.


    Ancient Dragon: This tier is exactly the same as it always was. For $8 USD, you get to read every avable chapter of all my novels. This means an extra chapter of NeoRealm every week instead of every other and Dungeon¡¯s Path goes from every third week to every other week. Also, at this tier, you gain ess to all the archived short stories. The most recent 20 monthly stories are avable to any patron, but after that I move them here as well as any random short stories I might have written in that time period.


    Greatwyrm: Literally the same as Ancient Dragon. This $15 USD tier is simply for those who want to help support my work a bit more.


    Now that all the official stuff is out of the way, let¡¯s talk a little about what has happened over 2023! Over the year, I¡¯ve released 52 chapters of both NeoRealm and Dungeon¡¯s Path here (which makes sense with the whole weekly chapter thing) and I wrote 104 NeoRealm chapters and 78 Dungeon¡¯s Path chapters. On top of that, I wrote 12 short stories off of patron prompts and started a third story, Banished Talent, which now has 12 chapters though I wish I could have written more of it. Though I will note, I mean Banished Talent to be a regr length book and so it is actually between a half and a third finished at this point. I actually n to always have a third story going on the back burner with a slow release.

 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 isn¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t actually result in a new pattern.¡¯


    Doyle nods, ¡®Tutorial screen?¡¯


    Ally, ¡®I won¡¯t 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 won¡¯t 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 you¡¯re 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. You¡¯re 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 doesn¡¯t 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 wouldn¡¯t 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.@@novelbin@@


    ¡®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 don¡¯t get any levels for your pattern if you do this.


    ¡®With points? Everything changes. So like the best pay to win mobile games, it will allow you to spend your points which totally aren¡¯t just a way to obfuscate how much quintessence you¡¯re spending, because you can buy the points, on making your wolf¡¯s 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 aren¡¯t required for the monster. For instance, I¡¯m going to guess that the myconids need the paralysis spore skill, but you could probably remove the sleep spores.


    ¡®As for skills? You¡¯ll have a few avable by default. Basic skills like your kobold¡¯s heavy bash. That doesn¡¯t 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 don¡¯t 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? I¡¯m 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 that¡¯s a bit much.¡¯


    Ally chuckles, ¡®Don¡¯t worry, there are just a ton of unique options in the already unlocked section because most skills of this simplicity aren¡¯t 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 shouldn¡¯t 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 didn¡¯t 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 don¡¯t 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 wasn¡¯t 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 monster¡¯s 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 wasn¡¯t certain what it meant that the kobolds didn¡¯t 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.

 A Small Selection Of Basic Skills – Chapter 233

    There were a lot of strange skills. Some of them even seemed a little too powerful to be just a free skill, but that was only if you think about it from the perspective of being used in the right situation. Most of them were like the old roleying move of bracing a spear against a charge. They do a lot of damage if the enemy actually uses the charge action. Except, of course, most of the time things didn¡¯t use the charge action.


    These strange skills? Just like that, except somehow even more specific. Some of them even started to sound more like run-on sentences instead of skill names. The scary thing is that Doyle could see how they could be used if a dungeon stuck too closely to a particr monster type. As it is, while he has been using the same monsters, they¡¯re a very diverse selection of monsters.


    If he had ended up using only fire elementals of varying power, there were some skills on the list that would trivialize any sense of challenge. Plus, with the skills being so specific, they¡¯re heads and tails more powerful than more general skills. Doyle had even seen a skill that was basically called ¡°Immunity to the attacks of any fire elemental of equal or smaller size to the user¡± though in more technical terms.


    That sort of thing wasn¡¯t what Doyle wanted, especially not this early. Because while powerful, those skills were limiting, especially for the non-sapient dungeon monsters, as they only have five skill slots total. So instead Doyle searched up several general skills for the kobolds as a test. Simple enough things that very much followed the pattern of their ¡°Heavy Bash¡± skill.


    Of those skills Doyle picked out a handful to focus on and those were Precise Stab, Smooth sh, Forceful Bullet, urate Arrow, and Combat Casting. Allbat skills, all very basic, and all needing to be actively used. There were, of course, defensive skills and other fun things like Efficient Counter Casting, but Doyle wanted to keep things on a level ying field. Besides, his selection basically picked out a skill for the direct damage types as he understood things. Piercing, shing, bashing was already there, ranged, and spells. Of course, spells can double dip a bit as a simple stone bullet spell not only would benefit frombat casting but also from forceful bullet.


    Also, Doyle was certain he had missed something, but this was all he could think of at the moment and it covered what he wanted the kobolds to do in the first ce, anyway. Though the forceful bullet and urate arrow skills in particr interested him, as after diving deep into the tutorial prompts he could ess, it appeared they worked with quite the range of attacks. In fact, they both covered every form of ranged attack that didn¡¯t have an innate form of course correction, with one being for damage and the other for uracy.


    Though in a way both worked for damage and uracy? It took a while but the best example Doyle could find in all the dense text used a sling bullet as an example. The forceful bullet skill would increase the sling bullet¡¯s damage by guiding the user such that the bullet will hit harder. It will also be more urate as this extra force also allows it to cut through stuff like wind. So what you aim at, you will hit. On the other hand, the skill urate arrow will guide the user to take those things into ount and allow the user to aim more precisely. This will also increase damage as it allows you to better hit weak points and less force will be used to get to the target, so more will be left over when the bullet hits.@@novelbin@@


    In the end, the best Doyle can figure out is that the two are basically two sides of the same coin. The more blunt the ranged attack is, the better one skill will be for it and the more sharp the ranged attack is, the better the other skill. Thus why one is called ¡°forceful bullet¡± and the other ¡°urate arrow¡±.


    Though after this little discovery, Doyle takes a closer look at the three melee damage skills of precise stab, smooth sh, and heavy bash. And guess what? They all follow a simr pattern. Every melee attack will have aspects of the three skills, with the big difference being which will be more helpful.


    These two discoveries led Doyle to look deeper into the skill list and into the locked skills before finding something interesting. Two locked skills, one called Melee Strike, and the other called Ranged Strike. Skills that just happened tobine the other skills and below those two was a third skill, [Strike]. That one perfectlybined all five skills!


    This just leftbat casting as the odd one out, though Doyle suspected that if he searched around a little there would be an even more basic skillbining it with other power types or some other simr bit of nonsense. Well, he thinks ¡°basic¡±, but Doyle gets a feeling that basic doesn¡¯t have anything to do with it, especially with how he can¡¯t urately think of the melee skill. He tries, but it alwayses out as ¡°Strike¡± and not ¡°[Strike]¡± as it was shown on the list.


    Not that Doyle got any sense that [Strike] was more powerful than a more specialized skill. In fact, once he got into skills that mentioned specific weapon models or even specific makers, of which there was an ungodly amount, Doyle could tell the skills were starting to extracting more power than the user had to give.


    It was basically that old saying about working on a project. Getting 90% done will take 10% of the effort, while getting thest 10% will end up taking 90% of the effort. At least it went something like that. He couldn¡¯t quite remember, but it felt correct enough. So [Strike] would let you get to 90% with using any melee weapon, while the more specific skills got you the full 100% with that very specific weapon quite early on.


    Doyle even suspected there were even more specific skills meant to use with one specific weapon and the system didn¡¯t bother showing them. Though being fair, that might be to restrict the power curve of dungeons. After all, while every crafted weapon will be different, as long as it wasn¡¯t some sort of sapient magic weapon Doyle could summon up exact duplicates for all his monsters. With that in mind, it was easy to see how stupid powerful it could be if Doyle got ess to weapon specific skills when he could just buy one and give that exact weapon to all his monsters.


    For now, though, Doyle decides to limit himself to just the basic skills. They aren¡¯t too specific, but are not too broad and would allow him to cater the skills to the kobold. Plus, he took a quick look at the prices, and that sort of scared him away. The basic skills he had been picking out were all cheap as dirt.


    Doyle even suspected that the only reason they all cost a single point each was because the system rounded up. In fact, he ns to buy them all at once for the kobolds just to see if there is a ¡°discount¡± from the system, adding the pre-rounded numbers together instead of the post-rounded numbers. However, going in either direction, more specific or more general, all ended up costing more.


    While most of the basic skills had already been unlocked, Doyle found a few that were still locked. Those being for special power types that the kobolds didn¡¯t innately have and to unlock, they also cost only a single point. More specific, like a skill for axes, or more general like the skill, Melee Strike, would end up costing between ten and 100 points, depending on how far it goes. Then the [Strike] skill cost so much the system wouldn¡¯t even let Doyle see the price. That or maybe it required other things besides customization points to unlock it.


    Anyway, with the skills he wanted to test picked out, Doyle bought them all at once and then checked his customization point total. And what do you know? Buying the five skills for his kobolds ended up costing less than five points, a lot less even. He had started with 220 points and now had 218. So not only weren¡¯t the skills worth a full point, they weren¡¯t even worth half a point. Though it is possible that some cost more than others, Doyle was going to ignore that for now.


    Instead, he summoned a group of kobolds on hisst floor, each equipped with a weapon and matching skill, then had them one by one use those skills. This resulted in an interesting series of shing lights. So interesting, in fact, that Doyle had them redo the test using different weapons and skills to see how that would affect things.


    For instance, when the mage usedbat casting, the tip of his wand would glow, but if he used forceful bullet, the stone bullet would glow. Then the melee weapons ended up with some interesting results. First being the club, something you would consider a purely blunt weapon.


    Despite that, each of the three melee skills worked with it, and the club glowed differently each time. Heavy bash of course just made the entire head of the club glow, as usual. However, precise stab and smooth sh did not. Instead, with precise stab, the tip of the club and any section that stuck out a bit on the rough club glowed. While with smooth sh, only the side of the club facing in the swing''s direction glowed.


    This caused Doyle to think back on the skill use he had seen the founders use. Though that was a somewhat futile action, as they seemed to use more passive skills. So instead Doyle shifted his attention to his first floor and watched for a short amount of time, only a few hours. This revealed that the kobolds on the tenth floor have a high enough skill level to focus the power.


    Doyle can see various delvers use the same skills and the weapons all end up covered in a glow, even the handles. Though even among the first floor farmers, there are some showing signs of being better where the handle no longer glows when using their skill. It makes some sense. Why waste so much power making the entire thing glow if you don¡¯t have to?


    That brought up some questions such as, with a high enough level, would the weapon stop glowing? Also, why does providing an active skill like urate arrow make it so the kobolds can use a bow even when not using the skill? Though no matter how he asked, the system didn¡¯t seem to want to give him a straight answer. Good thing Ally wasn¡¯t so shy about telling him what was up.


    Sheughed when he informed him about the system¡¯s unwillingness to answer. ¡®All this info is meant to be like a tutorial, which means it won¡¯t ever tell you the full story, instead giving you enough to start out with. Just think of any game you¡¯ve yed that had a tutorial. Did they break down the end game builds for you? Give you tips on how to beat the final boss? No, that is the stuff you¡¯re meant to find out on your own.


    ¡®Thankfully, just like your world pre-system, I have ess to the inte and I don¡¯t care about spoilers. Anyway, you can never conceal the glow of them activating. Though precise stab is easiest to hide because the end goal there is to have only the very point of your weapon glow. With the sh, the entire edge of the de is always going to light up and the bash skill is the worst off as the entire head of the weapon will glow, since it also does some stuff with mass and momentum. If you want to hide the fact you¡¯re using a skill, you will need to go looking for skills with words like concealed or hidden in their name.¡¯

 Lost Options – Chapter 234

    Doyle tilts to the side, ¡®Why do these attack skills glow when I¡¯ve 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. I¡¯m sure you¡¯ve 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 isn¡¯t 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, you¡¯ll 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 user¡¯s ability to swing their weapon as well. This doesn¡¯t have to be linear, but most likely if a person is able to activate the skill twice as fast, they¡¯re 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 you¡¯re joking with that. Yes, you could, but the resources spent wouldn¡¯t 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 they¡¯re using innate as well. It won¡¯t 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 wasn¡¯t a proficiency skill like bowmanship, they¡¯re going to be lost. Even a skill like urate arrow can only do so much. It doesn¡¯t 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 don¡¯t know if you¡¯ve noticed, but their wind de skill isn¡¯t 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.


    ¡®They would also be able to change the shape of the de. For that, you can just look at how the core mages in Wolf¡¯s 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 I¡¯m 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 aren¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t even look up, though his few supporters grimace. One of those supporters steps forward, ¡°We don¡¯t really have any hope? They¡¯ve 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 isn¡¯t going to have the answers. At this point I¡¯m expecting to hear about how this ce was wiped out with every new boat thates down river.¡±@@novelbin@@


    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 won¡¯t protect you like you¡¯re expecting it to.¡±


    Ben looks up, ¡°And what do you know? We don¡¯t have many guns, but all the monsters we¡¯ve 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 who¡¯s married to who nonsense.¡±


    Ben sighs, ¡°Even if that is the truth, so what? I¡¯m sure the system will eventually allow the purchase of bullets, and even if it isn¡¯t going to protect us, it should at least give us ess to ammo.¡±


    Jim shakes his head, ¡°The system isn¡¯t 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 you¡¯re 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 don¡¯t need it.¡±


    Ben looks up, ¡°Oh, so all they¡¯ll have to do is fully take over the town and then they¡¯ll 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, you¡¯re clearly feeling defeated, but I don¡¯t think they¡¯re really impressing upon you how much danger the settlement is in.


    ¡°This isn¡¯t 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 don¡¯t 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 won¡¯t 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. ¡°I¡¯m bloody not in charge anymore! Gray option after gray option of things I¡¯ve 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 doesn¡¯t 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 we¡¯re 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 don¡¯t want me anymore. Even to the normal people out there, I was just a figurehead. Now that I¡¯ve outlived my usefulness, they don¡¯t need me.¡±


    Jeremy snorts, ¡°So why are you alive? Don¡¯t for a second believe they don¡¯t need you. You¡¯re 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 isn¡¯t anything stopping you.¡±

 So They Have Been Getting Loot – Chapter 235

    Ben stands up with a red face, but in the end can¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t run on it. All those grayed out options? You can just take back the rights you gave out. What happened wasn¡¯t you giving away the rights, it was you delegating the ability to make those decisions. The options being grayed out is just to show you¡¯ve 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, you¡¯re 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 don¡¯t care about what the people actually want.¡±


    Ben snorts, ¡°Maybe they didn¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t 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, you¡¯ve 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 I¡¯ve seen used a hundred times and some that I¡¯ve even used myself.


    ¡°None of them worked like they should have. The push mower couldn¡¯t cut grass and the nippers struggled with it! Then I used some tools one of our wood carvers made. It wasn¡¯t fancy, just a basic scythe with a wood de. That scythe cut the grass exactly how you would expect it to. In fact, if I¡¯m being honest it probably worked better than it should.¡±


    Jim nods, ¡°I double checked their results on my own time and I¡¯m 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 you¡¯re 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! I¡¯m 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 Wolf¡¯s Rest, though that will involve a lot more deaths.¡±@@novelbin@@


    Ben looks up, ¡°A reverse of? What are you even talking about? I don¡¯t have any monster horde in my back pocket and I¡¯m not going to cause the death of people on purpose.¡±


    Tess rolls her eyes and steps forward, ¡°They¡¯re talking about how most of the people left when the wolves were on their way. There isn¡¯t any obvious threat to your settlement right now so of course the council won¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t 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 Wolf¡¯s Rest. It might take a while, but eventually this ce¡¯s hubris wille down on them and Ace doesn¡¯t want you to end up being a metaphorical pir of salt.¡±


    Bill nods, ¡°Like my Girlfriend said,e with us back to Wolf¡¯s Rest. Even if they don¡¯t 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 they¡¯ve turned their back on me right now, they¡¯re 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 couldn¡¯t let himself adjust. You took control once, you can do it again. However, all those people out there under the council¡¯s rule? They aren¡¯t your people anymore.


    ¡°Since they weren¡¯t ves, they can choose to follow a new master of their own free will. So, don¡¯t try to pull that nonsense. As for warning them? You think we haven¡¯t? Their damn council is still dying over whether to see us or not. I¡¯ve 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, I¡¯m not saying guns can¡¯t work. It is just that the guns and ammo we currently have avable to use won¡¯t work. If you want a proper gun now, you¡¯re 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 don¡¯t trust your reasons. What is actually holding you back? I¡¯ve seen all your close subordinates. What do they have on you?¡±


    Ben freezes and one of the supporters steps forward, ¡°We aren¡¯t hiding anything! We could leave anytime we wanted to.¡±


    Ben lets out a breath and gestures to the supporter to step back. ¡°The council doesn¡¯t have anything on me.¡±


    The supporter that just stepped back looks smug, ¡°See!¡±


    Ben shakes his head, ¡°Let me talk. Anyway, they don¡¯t have anything on me, but something is holding me back. At the moment, I¡¯m pretty strong. Maybe not as strong as you guys, butpared to anyone else? Heads and shoulders above them. While I¡¯m here.


    ¡°My path is to grow this town. My power, in turn is supported by the town. The reason I¡¯ve 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 don¡¯t 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 don¡¯t 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 you¡¯re 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, isn¡¯t a luxury anyone can afford right now. Over in Wolf¡¯s 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 don¡¯t even bother picking up things dropped before the fifth floor anymore because it isn¡¯t 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. We¡¯ve 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? I¡¯ve 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 doesn¡¯t really have much meaning.¡±


    Ben breathes heavily out through his nose, ¡°No, if you¡¯re trying to im that magically infused gear is so important, why aren¡¯t 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 settlement¡¯s people over-delving it. However, we did manage to test a helmet from the first and fourth floor. While we don¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t matter as much. I¡¯m 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.¡±

 Fungal Skills – Chapter 236

    Jim raises his hand, ¡°We¡¯ve told him enough. Ben, what do you n to do? If you want to leave town, we can help you leave without being noticed. Not even your current minders would know.¡±


    Ben frowns while Jeremyughs and tells him that, ¡°Yes, we know about those watching you and the ones watching them. We even know of a number of third parties trying to fish in troubled water. Those are mostly from other towns, though there are a couple that seem local to your settlement.¡±


    Ben snorts, ¡°Congrattions, you found the obvious. Yes, I¡¯m being watched. If I wanted to, I could ditch them.¡±


    Jim raises an eye, ¡°Yet you¡¯ve moved your location at least once before? I don¡¯t believe it. You might be able to avoid some of them, but you either didn¡¯t avoid them all or you have a spy.¡±


    Ben stomps the ground, ¡°I won¡¯t have you doubting my people. Everyone with me right now are people I implicitly trust!¡±


    Jeremy smirks, ¡°So the ones not here aren¡¯t implicitly trusted? I count, what? Five visible people and seven hidden in the surrounding rooms?¡±


    Ben freezes, but doesn¡¯t confirm nor deny Jeremy¡¯s assumption.


    Jim sighs, ¡°Do you want out or are you staying in this death trap?¡±


    Later in Wolf¡¯s Rest, Doyle notices Jim and his team returning with a few tagalongs while he is taking a break from analyzing the myconid¡¯s skill selection. The problem wasn¡¯t how many total skills there were, though there certainly were an absolute ton of the things. Rather, the problem was the variety among that selection.


    The kobolds were easy enough to figure out since, at a basic level; they don¡¯t have all that many truly different options. Yes, there were a ton of skills for basically every way you could think of to categorize weapons and spells, but in the end you just choose a skill based on what you¡¯re arming them with. Myconids, on the other hand, could be specialized in so many interesting biological ways.


    Whereas the kobolds could wield almost any weapon, the myconid skills specialized them physically. A myconid with sleep spores can¡¯t switch to using paralysis spores and another with a skill that increases spore output will actually look different from one without. Having certain skills could even block them from gaining others.


    Thatst idea wasn¡¯t exactly new to Doyle, but the myconids really took it to the extreme. Though it definitely didn¡¯t help that there weren¡¯t any clearly defined rules to follow. It wasn¡¯t like a myconid could only have two spore types or simr, but rather a limitation based on how they mixed and matched.


    Doyle however was saved from an expensive mistake or two with the discovery of a testing system that in the adjustment screen. It didn¡¯t do much, but it did allow him to mix and match skills to see if they worked together. Though this was limited to the currently purchasable skills. No peeking at secret skills and such.


    Ally had been a great help at first with the subject as her general knowledge andmon sense developed from living under the system for hundreds of years allowed her to sort out redundant and lower quality skills. Now though, it is all on Doyle to make the final choices based purely on how he feels about the skills. Yes, Ally did give some suggestions, but one of her biggest was that Doyle should pick skills that feel right to him, even if they don¡¯t seem as ¡°good¡± as others.


    The system rewards you more for personal growth when offering paths and so being able to understand yourself and pick things that fit who you are is important. Even if one skill might be considered more powerful, getting a generic path will easily quell any benefits over the other skill after receiving a path tailored for it. Not that such knowledge is all that widespread, but having lived in a Fae Court for so long has some benefits when ites to knowledge beyond the mortal sphere.


    So after a considerable amount of consideration, Doyle has narrowed it down to a select few skills. Top of the list was Spore Magic and two derivatives of it, Healing Spores and Darkness Spores. The healing spores are an obvious enough choice and only get better when you look into it more. Doyle isn¡¯t sure how it works, but the healing spores also cause a small amount of damage to any living creatures that aren¡¯t at least partly fungal in nature.


    Darkness spores, on the other hand, are pretty simple, at least at the low end. Maybe they do moreter on, but for the moment each darkness spore creates a small radius of darkness around itself. Sobine enough of them together and you¡¯ve got quite an effective darkness spell.


    On top of that, spell spores are a lot harder to counter via magic. Doyle wasn¡¯t blind and had noticed that the more skilled the delvers had gotten at magic, the easier it had gotten from them to counter the kobold mages. Part of that was because they didn¡¯t have the actual skill for their magic, instead gaining the ability to cast purely because they had mana and a wand. However, it was also because delvers can just outcast them.


    It doesn¡¯t matter how good of a fire spell you cast if the enemy can use two water spells worth of mana to smother it. The spell spores flip that situation on its head. Sure, each spore contains just the barest wisp of mana in it, but each spore can almost be seen as its own magic spell.


    After those three rtively expensive skills, Doyle also bought a couplebat skills for them, Fungal m and Spore Grenade. Both are purely physical in nature. The m skill for instance, is literally just the more generic m skill except adjusted so that more spore gets knocked off when the myconid ms into something. Spore Grenade, on the other hand, involves an actual physical change where to start with a myconid will grow a small sack which is hidden under their cap. Said sack is, of course filled with spores and when thrown will violently explode creating a localized cloud of whatever type of spore was grown in it.


    Thoughbat isn¡¯t the only thing Doyle focused on, purchasing for them Fungal Farming and Fungal Construction. The first is simple enough being just the normal farming skill with a focus on growing fungus. And yes, there were an absolute ton of skills in there, which basically amounted to normal skill plus the word fungal.


    Anyway, fungal construction actually breaks the mold a little bit, having more inmon with what pre-system fantasy stories would consider an elven style. Instead of cutting a tree-like mushroom down to make stuff, the skill helps grow said mushrooms into the stuff instead. A big difference between growing a tree into a house and growing a mushroom into a house is that the fungal version is a lot more temporary. A grown chair of wood willst just as long as a normal chair while the fungus versionsts maybe a week, though closer to a day.


    The upside is that the skill uses the astounding growth factor of mushrooms to make it reasonable. Yes, the myconids will have to remake all their smaller stuff every so often, but it will take a matter of moments to do. Even better, itpletely removes any worry about what to do with broken things, as the fungal structure of the items will break down incredibly fast after it is past its prime.


    Happy with his choices, Doyle purchases the skills for his myconids. The Spore magic skill costs two points, the two derivatives both cost a full point each, and the rest cost what he would guess is about a half point each. Though if he was going to be honest with himself, he hadn¡¯t originally nned on getting fungal construction, but it was one of the cheaper skills to buy. So, after slotting in a number of other skills and having them all tick the cost over to an extra point, the construction skill was the best option that didn¡¯t increase the cost.


    Satisfied with his purchases, Doyle pulls up the kobold and myconid status panels just to see how they have changed with the addition of new skills.


    {Kobold


    S[4] A[7] C[4] I[6] W[6] P[6]


    Max 3 Skills


    Avable Skills: Heavy Bash lv3, Improvise Trap lv3, Animal Handling lv1, Precise Stab lv1, Smooth sh lv1, Forceful Bullet lv1, urate Arrow lv1, Combat Casting lv1


    Cost: World Energy[50]}


    {Myconid (Lv12)


    S[25] A[15] C[40] I[15] W[10] P[6]


    Max 4 skills


    Required Skills: 1 Summon Spore skill


    Avable Skills: 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


    Spore Magic: Healing Spores lv1, Darkness Spores lv1


    Cost: World Energy[300]}


    The kobolds panel was slightly interesting as it introduced the ¡°max skills¡± sections, but otherwise looked the same plus the extra skills. Myconids, on the other hand, included all the most recent discoveries, the sub-section for sub-skills, the max skills, and most importantly the required skills. Doyle puts a heavy emphasis on thatst one because it revealed more about how he can juggle the skills around than the others.


    Sure, knowing you could fit four skills on a monster is useful, but knowing what is required to go in those slots and what he can change is just as, if not more important. Myconids have a great example of this because it tells Doyle they just need a summon spore skill. Ally had guessed earlier that they would need the paralysis spores.


    The new addition to the status panel however revealed that it wasn¡¯t specifically paralysis spores that were needed. Rather, any of the spore summoning skills was required. So if Doyle wanted to he could have a myconid with just sleep spores. Also, it points to there being a difference between summon spore skills and the magic spores from spore magic.


    Doyle isn¡¯t quite certain what the difference is at the moment, but maybe with further observation it will be revealed. For now, though, it was time to figure out the design for the tenth floor. A task he had been putting off much too long at this point.


    The thing is, despite knowing full well that it isn¡¯t the case and thank all the valid deities, higher powers, and every single true immortal out there, Mushroom monsters have a connection in his mind to a certain pre-system mythos. A bunch of stories where the void very much stares back at you with an uncaring eye. Though as he carefully puts more thought into it, he remembers that while adjacent to the void, most instances he can remember of fungal beings are at least partly material with just a smattering of extragctic and extra-dimensional stuff thrown in.@@novelbin@@


    So, while elder things are interesting. One, they aren¡¯t in the myconid evolutionary line, and two; they aren¡¯t directly rted to the void even if the stories said they traveled through the void. That was just the void of space and not The Void. Though the idea of interdimensional invaders that aren¡¯t True Immortals shows that every rule has an exception. That or there are fungal True Immortals out there looking to spread their kin far and wide.


    Potential dimension ending fungal infections aside, Doyle feels safe enough ying with his myconids and so, after some consideration, decides to go with a cavern themed floor. Different from his previous uses of them, though. His other floors technically have their fair share of them and the fifth floor boss is technically onerge cavern, but Doyle had lit it up and made it feel open.


    For the tenth floor, it is going to be all aboutrge damp tunnels leading into massive open caverns filled with stctites and mites that while notpletely dark, won¡¯t be lit up.

 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 didn¡¯t 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.@@novelbin@@


    This pointed towards more environmental based dangers. After all, 33k points to spend on monsters might seem like a lot. That wasn¡¯t 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 floor¡¯s 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 didn¡¯t. 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 hadn¡¯t 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.


    Doyle takes a moment to look over the portal and nods his core. While carving would have resulted in a cleaner edge, that doesn¡¯t 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 couldn¡¯t 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 didn¡¯t, 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 didn¡¯t 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 didn¡¯t 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 don¡¯t look like much, especially since he hasn¡¯t 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 hadn¡¯t 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 Doyle¡¯s 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 hadn¡¯t 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 wasn¡¯t 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 wasn¡¯t going to let things get out of hand. With the temporal speed up that happens when delvers aren¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t have ess to the correct rocks, either. As luck would have it though, he can cheat. After all, he isn¡¯t trying to make a real habitat, just mimic one.


    Though Doyle¡¯s 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 wasn¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t quite pain, more of an itch really, but Doyle isn¡¯t 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 couldn¡¯t quite remember and at the moment didn¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t just ground up rock. It is made of all kinds of minerals that have ended up being eroded by water. Good thing he isn¡¯t 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 wasn¡¯t 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 didn¡¯t 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.

 Buying Packets To Advance – Chapter 239

    In fact, as Doyle considers the avable points, he realizes he could probably just divide everything by 100 and have an easier time doing the mental math. Not that it was hard, but seeing that sprout swarms take 1 from 301 is a lot easier to parse than 100 from 30,100. It also puts the various types of myconids into better perspective. One troop guard is equal to two myconids, four lesser myconids, and six sprout swarms.


    Though breaking it down like this makes Doyle groan to himself. He tried to keep the size of the floor down a little, but there is still probably too much space to fully popte it. If he wanted to put a small tribe with a guard in each of the ces where the tunnel expands outward, the guards alone would cost almost half his points. That meant cutting back and to cut back, he needed to analyze what the point of the floor was.


    The shape was a singlerge tunnel leading to arge cavern. Monsters would obviously be all four forms of myconid. Doyle decided against any other type of monster. While having goats running around would be interesting, this was going to be the fungus floor.


    And by thinking that Doyle feels like facepalming. He figured out all that stuff with the myconids andpletely left out his other fungus monsters. Doyle pulls up the status panels for the two.


    {Shrieker


    S[1] A[1] C[18]


    Max 1 skill


    Required Skills: Shriek


    Avable Skills: Shriek lv3


    Cost: World Energy[10]}


    {Violet Fungus (Lv10)


    S[40] A[25] C[12]


    Max 1 skill


    Avable Skills: Bash lv15


    Cost: World Energy[300]}


    First thing that stands out to Doyle, is the fact that the violet fungus doesn¡¯t have any required skills. Not the most useful thing, but interesting nheless. Though it does cost a decent chunk of points. The same as a myconid, in fact. Good thing the shrieker made up for the violet¡¯s cost by being so cheap.


    Even if Doyle used as many points as possible on the myconids, he would still be able to ce three shriekers around the floor. Not that he ns to have so few. Since they are so cheap, they will be a perfect early warning system for the myconid viges, he is going to be putting up.


    Doyle stops himself and focuses back on the current task. Cavern floor, fungus mushrooms, small viges, and mushrooms everywhere. In fact, he can kit out a few myconids with the fungal farming skill and the synergistic fungal construction skill. From there, they should be able to add some interesting bits and pieces of terrain.


    Sure, the construction skill had sounded quite short term, but Doyle could read between the lines. It waspared to elven wood products, things grown from trees! How could a mushroom everpete with the lifespan of a tree and since stuff constructed with the skill are still technically alive, of course the wooden products would win out. Nevermind the fact that in general wood is going tost longer than mycelium, anyway.


    That, however, didn¡¯t mean the fungal constructs had to be short-lived, especially those still rooted to the ground. No, a fungal house might not live for hundreds of years, but it could easilyst a decade or more with the right skills. One of which is certainly fungal farming as it will clue the myconids in on what the constructs need to survive.


    What Doyle isn¡¯t going to do is make a myconid at each vige with those skills. No, there will probably be a three myconid group that travels between all the towns. That way there won¡¯t be too many with that skillyout as it basically restricts them to having one free skill to choose.


    Yes, the summon spore skill will be nice no matter what the fourth skill ends up being. It is just that depending on how a certain other skill interacts with the two fungal skills, even the free slot might not be free. In fact, the information is going to be pretty important going forward and so Doyle summons in a myconid with sleeping spore, both fungal skills, and the wild card; spore magic with healing spores selected.


    The test is easy enough, Doyle has the myconid use the two fungal skills to grow a cube of mushroom. Partly because it didn¡¯t need to be any specific shape, but mostly because we all know what game he was remembering. So of course he then has the myconid punch the meter cubed of mushroom.


    Though instead of vanishing or popping off into a small block, it is damaged. Just what Doyle wanted for the test. So, for the final step, he has the myconid use his healing spore magic on the damaged mushroom cube. This was the moment of truth.


    Doyle isn¡¯t certain which oue he would prefer and so when the mushroom starts to heal, he almost feels a bit down about it. Sure, he wanted the magic to work on the structures. On the other hand, it locks in the fourth skill for his builders. There isn¡¯t even enough room for teamwork, which was honestly his second choice.


    After all, while the myconids could each build separate things and likely would be doing so. Doyle wanted to find out what teamwork would do to a group project. Sure, most of the bigger structures weren¡¯t going to be left up to the builders, but enough work would need to be done.


    That just left fine tuning where they would go and the cement of the monsters. Except for this floor, Doyle wanted something more. His fifth floor boss had a town and he could very well go with a simr setup here, but he wanted to grow and not just repeat the same thing over and over. This was going to take a while and so Doyle settled in.


    Because of this focus, he missed a development that happened about a week into his work. Regr people in Wolf¡¯s Rest figured out the fifth floor. Sure, the core had long ago managed to win and they did with actual skill. In fact, given a few more decades of growth, the fifth floor would likely be considered a normal enough boss even if the setting is a bit weird for how early it is.


    Right now though, very few people grew up with any kind ofbat training and besides maybe a couple veterans, no one had been in the military. If it wasn¡¯t for skills spoon feedingbat knowledge to them, it would be questionable on whether it was the dungeon monsters or themselves that would end up hurting them the most. This meant that without really being noticed, the fifth floor had acted as a skill check. Though not as in skills provided by the system, but rather a person¡¯s ability to fight skillfully.


    Of course, humans being humans, they figured out a way to cheat. Not like when Ace andpany first beat the floor by flooding it with people. Rather, they went with depending fully upon the Barrais¡¯ work.


    For a while now, Susan and Jeremy had been working on those spore drops. They had figured out an antidote, but their real passion was in turning them into a weapon. Suffice to say, they seeded and started selling packets of paralysis and sleep spores that would burst apart when thrown against something.


    The two even managed to specialize the products even more than the myconids did. While there was some difference between the two, these new products really shined. Paralysis acted quicker, left the victim aware of their surroundings, and could partially affect their target; but in exchange, the paralysissted only a short time.


    Sleep wasn¡¯t quite aplete opposite of it. The sleep packets still acted faster than the sleep spores, though definitely slower than the paralysis packets. Besides that, though, the victim would obviously be asleep and not aware of what was going on, was basically all or nothing, and could technicallyst indefinitely. After all, while the spores did basically force the victim to sleep, that part onlysted about half again as long as the paralysis packets did. The catch was it actually put the victim to sleep, which means once the effect wears off, they¡¯ll still be asleep.


    If someone was tired and got hit by the sleep packet, in all likelihood they would end up sleeping like normal as long as you don¡¯t disturb them. So for all this utility, the Barais obviously weren¡¯t selling the packets cheaply. Once people realize the value of coins, people will look back and realize just how much they were ripped off, but for now, most visitors didn¡¯t really put much stock into the coins earned in the dungeon.


    Now with the knowledge of those packets, you might be thinking they used them to just steamroll the fifth floor. That, in fact, did happen the first few times. However, you have to remember that the boss and twelve of the other kobolds all got to remember what has happened. It took a few attempts, but eventually the boss and friends figured out a design for their town that inhibited the use of those packets.


    It was technically still possible for someone to cheese most of the floor. The only thing holding them back is the cost and supply of the packets. Instead, people were using them to strategically take outrge groupings of enemies. Thatbined with the boss quickly figuring out an effective way to hop out of the area of effect, meant the floor stabilized.


    Sure, one in three parties could now beat the fifth floor if they had the coin, but it wasn¡¯t a walk in the park. Though there were quite a few merchants with green eyes upon learning just what was waiting for them on the sixth floor. Sure, rumors of a warped cityscape on the seventh floor were a nice tale to tell, but an unending supply of beef? Well, that was the meat of choice!


    All the goat meat provided substance for a meal, sure, but beef was what many grew up on. So, many of the first floor farmers suddenly found their product worth a lot less. Not just because most of the nearby settlements preferred beef, but because of how abundant meat in general was on the sixth floor. Even if you did want goat meat, the sixth floor had well over a hundred and fifty goats!


    For people who had been scraping by on the 25 easier to farm goats, the first floor had, most not even bothering to pick up goats 26 to 30 since they were in with the kobolds. The discovery of a floor where each run could in theory bring back meat from not just 165 goats, but Five Hundred cattle. Well, suffice it to say those farmers would soon be out of a job if they couldn¡¯t manage to beat the fifth floor.


    Sure, they wouldn¡¯t starve as the soup kitchen was always weing, but a lot of the farmers had actually been getting rtively wealthy. Well, maybe notpared to most others in wolf¡¯s rest, but if they went to the ce up river or any of the settlements connected to it, they would be rich.@@novelbin@@


    This left them with a choice to make. Some of them didn¡¯t want to give up on the gravy train and so attempted to beat the fifth floor. Not just that, but the various merchants would constantly support groups in attempting the floor so as to have more beef to sell. If Doyle hadn¡¯t been so focused, he would have definitely noticed this change as the number of deaths in his dungeon has taken a steep upswing.


    Others choose to sign on as porters and guards for those merchants. A decent choice since they had the money for some proper protective gear. Of the three main paths those farmers took, this was the most consistent. Their experience with fighting and the boredom of repeating the same task over and over made them excellent guards. Then there was thest group.

 New Skill – Chapter 241

    What Doyle missed was that Ace was preparing alternate options in case things go south. In Ace¡¯s 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 they¡¯re good for. Give them a task and they¡¯ll 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 didn¡¯t 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. Doctor¡¯s best guess is that the system¡¯s arrival broke them. They¡¯re still the people they were before, but with such an unpredictable event they just can¡¯t.


    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 wasn¡¯t exactly the hardest. You just give them a task and they¡¯ll do it if they feel capable of it. If they don¡¯t? They¡¯ll 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 weren¡¯t 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 weren¡¯t 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 aren¡¯t any rules saying he can¡¯t have abandoned viges. In fact, the fungal construction skill made it so things would work out even better.


    So what was Doyle¡¯s 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 wasn¡¯t fancy and Doyle wasn¡¯t going to have to use his dungeon rules to make it work. That, however, was the beauty of it to him. The floor wouldn¡¯t be resetting or randomly moved around like some of his other floors. Instead, it would naturally develop.


    Mind you, he understood this likely wouldn¡¯t be noticed by most people. While things would change, it wouldn¡¯t be fast and what did change wouldn¡¯t 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, doesn¡¯t 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 floor¡¯s limits. That added up to 1,500 points, which on its own isn¡¯t 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 didn¡¯t 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 wasn¡¯t 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 floor¡¯s 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 wouldn¡¯t be in line with his goal.@@novelbin@@


    Doyle¡¯s 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 they¡¯ll 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 don¡¯t 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 wouldn¡¯t 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 wasn¡¯t 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 couldn¡¯t 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 didn¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t what Doyle wanted.


    Though, of course, with this new knowledge, he couldn¡¯t help but take a look at Wolf¡¯s 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 couldn¡¯t feel much from the inner ring, he could tell that both areas were intertwined.

 Doyle’s Thoughts On Tradition – Chapter 242

    Doyle was about to move onto something else when it hit him. The inner circle was working like a seed crystal. While the roads encouraged people to build in certain areas, the design of the inner circle gave them a guide to follow without making it aw that people would chafe against. Though for some reason he suspects Ace wouldn¡¯t put up with any spite houses or people following the letter of thew and not the spirit.


    Not that there are too many choices for Wolf¡¯s Rest when ites to building style. You could im that the houses in the second circle closely followed how the first circle did things. The reality of the situation is that even with magic, there are only so many ways to build a house when your materials are wood and bones.


    Though with a closer look, Doyle can tell that at least to start the second circle tried to not use bones. After all, they don¡¯t have ess to bones big enough to provide any structural support. Except now that magic is a thing, stuff like scrimshaw takes on a whole new purpose.


    Doyle can tell it isn¡¯t like his conceptual reinforcement skill. Instead, those who work with the bones channel the power contained within the material itself to bring out effects. An interesting and yetpletely opposite approach to Doyle¡¯s skill.Though he can see the good and the bad between the two.


    Conceptual reinforcement pulls more from the crafters¡¯ beliefs and so while the material used in an item might make things easier, Doyle could grab a piece of pre-system lumber and turn it into a powerful artifact. The method used by crafters instead depends more heavily on the material used, or rather the power contained within the materials. Of course there is some limiting by skill level, but that works both ways so isn¡¯t as important.


    What is important is that traditional crafters can create things well beyond their skill by getting their hands on powerful materials. Even a crafter with low skill levels across the board could make a powerful dagger if they used the tip of a dragon¡¯s rib to make it. The bigger limiting factor on what can be made tends to be on the side of if they can work the material at all. A new crafter that gets their hands on a piece of dragon bone is more likely to break all their tools than they are to leave even the smallest of marks on the bone.


    Besides, even if they could, it would be a waste. Doyle was able to watch more than a few crafters ply their trade and he had noticed that unused power within the material would leak out after an item was finished. Better to work with materials around what your own level of skill can use with maybe a touch of difficulty for some growth.


    Doyle pulls himself out of his thoughts. While not magical items, since they now have ess to the bones of the sixth floor cattle any scrimshaw made will have a superb effect on any building it is incorporated with. This difference is quite visible as well, at least to anyone with even a minor amount of sensitivity to magic.


    If a regr house is like a farm field with a river to one side, the scrimshaw is like adding irrigation ditches. Thoughparing it to irrigation ditches isn¡¯t quite appropriate. Doyle had noticed a few of the early houses had a few pieces of scrimshaw added on, but they didn¡¯t do anything. So, like crafting an item, decorations that are incorporated into the structure need to be added while actually crafting the item for them to connect with the structure.


    Not that those original houses were bad houses. In fact, despite their humble nature they would be considered quitefy by pre-system standards. Compared to the houses constructed with scrimshaw included? There was noparison.


    A properly decorated house feels like home while those without are just a building. You would think such a simple difference wouldn¡¯t matter all that much. Except early on, it was found that resting in a proper home provided a number of benefits including faster recovery from injuries as well as a bevy of vague effects such as the house not getting dirty as fast.


    Thatst one oddly enough was the most obvious effect even for those without sensitivity towards mana. After a dusty day, the original houses all look dull with a fine coating of said dust. The decorated buildings, on the other hand have half as much dust hanging around. So everyone in town is very much aiming for one of the decorated houses.


    Doyle couldn¡¯t help butugh at one of the effects of this. In most novels he had read, cheaper housing would be located closer to the outermost wall because it is less safe. In this case, though, all the original buildings had been built near the inner wall and so the situation has basically reversed. Though he could see that the buildings are slowly being taken down and reconstructed so this difference should be remedied quickly enough.


    After all, the crafters had all leveled up their skills and so any new scrimshaw is going to be that much better than the old work. Doyle didn¡¯t know how he felt about watching what is basically sped up gentrification. In the end, though, he mostly ignored it as it wasn¡¯t like there was some kind ofmunity built up around the houses. It was all too new.


    That, however, left Doyle with some time on his hands. The tenth floor was almost finished, but he had one thing he wanted to do before truly finishing it by creating the boss. It hadn¡¯t been obvious at first, but now that he knew he used time shenanigans to speed up the growth of stuff, it became clear. The fifth floor proper didn¡¯t advance as fast as the other floors or even the farm.


    This made sense as the boss is a fully sapient being that needs to be treated as such. The kobold boss is lucky since her path allowed her to create a few pseudo-sapient kobolds to chat with. Otherwise, it would be like a man stuck in a pen full of sheep. Sure, there are sheep to keep youpany, but that doesn¡¯t rece having another person to interact with.


    So before Doyle goes soul fishing, he wants to let things advance at a faster speed first. Easy enough to do. He simply summons in every other monster for the floor and then ignores it after giving a few loose rules for the myconids to follow. That, however, left him with a good bit of time to fill.


    For a few weeks, that involved carving the great sphere on the seventh floor. Doyle would have probably kept carving until he felt the tenth floor was ready, except he finished the borders. At this point, the entire stone sphere has been covered in broad strokes, delicate lines, and fanciful flourishes. All with the purpose of containing scene after scene of what has happened in and around the dungeon.


    {World Heritage Site formed...


    Special Location Paths unlocked}


    That was interesting, though Doyle had somewhat expected something like the first part of the message. The second part also honestlyes naturally from the first. After all, he already knew about location paths. Though the fact it told him the new paths were avable was new. Too bad it didn¡¯t also tell him what it did. Still, since it did mention new paths, he decides to pull up the list right away.


    {Points: 105


    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, Earth¡¯s 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, Heritage Dungeon Core I 0/1, Traditional Kobold Community I 0/15, Heritage Kobold Community I 0/15, Communities of Myriad Heritages I 0/15, Vine Warper 0/15, Kin yer 0/100, Voidborn 0/250, Axe Sharpener 0/5, Expansionist 0/30, Fire¡¯s 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¡¯s core glows a little brighter as he notices the new location paths. He had long ago noticed that the location paths didn¡¯t work like ss paths. Even now, he has a couple of new ss paths to choose from and the next rank is always avable. Location paths, however, are not assured.


    Even now, he doesn¡¯t have the option to choose the third rank of Kobold Community. On the other hand, Doyle does now have three potential paths to choose from and maybe if he had gotten these options before making the tenth floor it would have been a tough choice.


    Now though? The choice was obvious as while Doyle does love his kobolds, his second boss is going to be a myconidmunity. That meant the best choice was Communities of Myriad Heritages.


    Not that the choice would have been between all three paths even if he didn¡¯t have the myconids to consider. While the traditional koboldmunity path sounds nice and Doyle wasn¡¯t one hundred percent certain, he believed it was a trap. The words almost felt greasy as he thought them.


    So despite knowing what path he wanted, Doyle spent some time pondering on why it sets him off so much and yet the heritage option didn¡¯t. Then he realized the difference. While both could represent something inherited from the past, he personally put different spins on the two words.


    Tradition was a word many nasty people liked to throw around pre-system to justify archaicws and nasty behavior. On the other hand, heritage was connected in his mind with things like heritage foods. Stuff like vorful tomatoes and interesting apples.


    They weren¡¯t necessarily better like with the tomatoes, but they represented something preserved from the past with a positive spin. Sure, idiots talked about their heritage all the time, but Doyle didn¡¯t hang around those people in the first ce so the word didn¡¯t connect to the nastier aspects to the same extent that ¡°traditional¡± did.@@novelbin@@


    At this point, some people wouldugh and realize they were biased against one word over another for no good reason. Doyle however dug deeper as he remembered things he had learned about the system. In particr, how stats can be called different things from person to person. That represented the system being capable of personalizing the wording of things on an individual level or at the very least the trantion was a lot more advanced.


    Combine that with how personal paths were to start with, and that meant the wording of each path could have significant personal meaning. After all, even paths with the same name were already known to have different benefits from person to person. So since it was that personal, the words likely drew upon his own personal definitions and connections.


    Yes, a path would always be positive, but that didn¡¯t mean much when the same was true for everyone. If everyone took a path that gave +3 points to a stat, then even though taking a simr one that gives +1 points wouldn¡¯t be a negative, it would be worse than everyone else. In this case, the tradition path would have represented stagnation in some capacity.


    Any other dungeon might even heavily benefit from this as it would represent themunities bing more predictable. Each member doing the same routine, following their traditional role. Doyle however wanted his monsters to have more freedom. Which, in an odd way was what heritage represented to him. The freedom to use both the present and the past.

 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 wasn¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t 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 aren¡¯t 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 wouldn¡¯t 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 don¡¯t 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, ¡®That¡¯s 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.


    ¡®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 didn¡¯t want this, it is a little toote.


    ¡®Besides, you¡¯ve already built both your boss floors intomunities. It doesn¡¯t matter if you tried to bepletely anti-social. With those in ce, you¡¯ve 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, Earth¡¯s 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, Fire¡¯s 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.@@novelbin@@


    {15 points applied to Heritage Kobold Community I...


    5/15 - You have earned +2 Wisdom/Level, Kobolds get +2 Wisdom/Level, Kobolds within your Dungeon¡¯s 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 Dungeon¡¯s 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 wasn¡¯t going to be helping Wolf¡¯s Rest like the previous location path did. Not only are kobolds going to be moremon, they¡¯re 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 wasn¡¯t 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 they¡¯re all in one ce, they¡¯re easier to take care of all at once.


    Though with that Doyle is left with the capstone, maybe quite literally as he hasn¡¯t 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 system¡¯s 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 isn¡¯t doing too well with this revtion, Ally pulls up a screen to disy the fifth floor kobold settlement. Suffice it to say, the monument isn¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t all that big, just fouryers, so while it does rise above the other buildings, it isn¡¯t 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 obelisk¡¯s 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 hadn¡¯t met Moota or Jess, he wouldn¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t 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.¡¯

 The Monument – Chapter 244

    Ally turns to Doyle, ¡®Now that the whole god thing is out of the way, what seems to be the problem? I can practically feel your emotions churning about through our link.¡¯


    Doyle¡¯s core shakes for a moment, ¡®A double hitter. Both my normal nonsense and dungeon instincts teaming up to cause problems. Though what ites down to is the fact the monument was ced in my dungeon without my say and I didn¡¯t have a choice in it.


    ¡®I¡¯ve just personally never liked people messing around with my room so this feels bad. On the other side of things, I¡¯ve felt simr reactions though on a much smaller scale and out of my control. After all, to a certain extent it is the same sort of thing anytime a delver uses magic to shape the stone.¡¯


    Ally nods, ¡®I can see how that wouldn¡¯t be pleasant. Though this is definitely something I have a hard time rting to. Living as fae royalty basically meant most of my furniture was mobile in some manner or another. Combine that with the maids and I don¡¯t think I went a day without someone else moving my stuff around at least once. It has honestly been weird living here and not having stuff walk off after I put them down.¡¯


    Doyle lets out a slightly stressedugh, ¡®I don¡¯t think I could have lived with that.¡¯


    Ally, ¡®It isn¡¯t for everyone, that¡¯s for certain. Anyway, we should probably figure out what the monument is for. After all, it is taking up such a prominent space on your first boss floor. The dang pile of stones should be doing something.¡¯


    Doyle zooms in on all the carvings, ¡®This is clearly some form of writtennguage.¡¯ He turns to the kobold boss, ¡®Can you read this?¡¯


    The boss shakes her head and shrugs.


    Ally raises an eyebrow, ¡®Why¡¯d you ask her first? Not trying to start anything, but I¡¯ve been around the block a few times. If this is amonnguage, I would be the one to ask.¡¯


    Doyle, ¡®I must admit, I assumed that if you recognized it, you would have mentioned it.¡¯


    Allyughs, ¡®Fair enough. That is sort of my thing. Anyway, while I don¡¯t recognize the specifics, it is simr to another ss ofnguages.¡¯


    Doyle tilts to the side, ¡®Let me guess, draconic?¡¯


    Ally shrugs, ¡®Got it in one. Though to be fair, most reptilian and near reptilian sapients end up with their writtennguage looking like this. Dragons just tend to end up absolutely everywhere and so their version takes over since very rarely are they not at the top of the food chain. Combine that with all the stories about kobolds being rted to the things and it does seem to jump out at you.¡¯


    Doyle, ¡®While I did remember the whole kobold dragon rtion thing, I was actually going off something else. Mainly the fact that most fantasy settings tend to imbue draconic with magic of its own and the writing on the monument is putting a tiny amount of pressure.¡¯


    Ally frowns and looks closer at the picture, ¡®I guess I can¡¯t feel that through the screen? Anyway, that isn¡¯t entirely incorrect, but at the same time it isn¡¯t really true either. It would be better to say that theirnguage is closer to magic and so easier to use for it. Whereas a siege magicien might need to chant a long spell to gather and aim enough power to break enchanted walls, a dragon can simply draw a single rune and push a ton of power into it.


    ¡®In this case though, I suspect the pressure you are feeling morees from the belief and intent pushed into whatever is written there. It would shock me to no end if whoever carved this didn¡¯t have Conceptual Reinforcement at an absurdly high level. In fact, the only reason the force is so weak likely has more to do with how long this thing has existed for.


    ¡®Now all that is interesting, but the real question behind it all is how did you get it? Growing up I saw a ton of ¡°extranar¡± stuff, if only because my family is extranar in origin so all our family heirlooms are as well. The problem with that is those things don¡¯t really weigh in at the same level as this monument.¡¯


    Doyle circles the view around the obelisk part, ¡®I don¡¯t really get a sense of great power from this thing. I¡¯m sure the knowledge written across the thing will be useful once we can read it, but the monument itself seems to just have that slight pressure and nothing more.¡¯


    Ally shakes her head, ¡®You have it just about backwards. Sure, some of the knowledge on this thing will be useful, except this is a different dimension and so has different rules. Of everything carved on it I would say the kobolds are the most useful as evolutionary lines tend to line up even across dimensions. Not sure why, they just do. Oh, and the images of the various kobold deities will be useful if we ever have to get in contact with them or they contact us.¡¯


    Doyle, ¡®If the knowledge isn¡¯t all that useful because of the different rules, why would the monument be useful? Wouldn¡¯t it be ying by those same rules as well?¡¯


    Ally nods, ¡®That is actually the thing that makes it extranar. After all, if you pull a human from one dimension to another they don¡¯t get tagged as extranar. The same for mostmon items, so you won¡¯t ever find a normal hairbrush marked as extranar. That is because when brought over, those things are either altered to fit the new rules or they just don¡¯t work.


    ¡®For something to be marked extranar, it has to have kept its old rules and still use them. So there is something about this monument that breaks the rules of this dimension and despite that, it still works. About the stupidest example I¡¯ve seen of this was an extranar rock.


    ¡®In its home dimension the rock was just a normal rock. When brought over to a new dimension though, something about the situation or maybe just random chance caused it to hold onto the rules of gravity. That rock was from a short lived dimension where gravity was many times greater than most dimensions and a few other interesting tweaks which caused an early death from copsing in on itself.


    ¡®The rock was pulled out by a curious True Immortal and ironically they were quite disappointed by the results. They wanted to observe the material makeup of a rock from that dimension when ced in a more baseline dimension. Instead they got the ultimate paper weight. A rock with the density of some white dwarves and yet the atomic makeup of the thing matches a normal rock, just closer together.


    ¡®Even odder is the fact that it doesn¡¯t affect other things as if it was its actual mass, instead affecting things like a normal rock of that size would in whatever dimension it is in. It wasn¡¯t even super sturdy or anything. Though once you shaved off a piece of it, the smaller piece would let off a ton of heat as the extra mass dissipates and it bes a truly normal bit of rock.¡¯


    Doyle mimics a whistle, ¡®You seem to care quite a bit about this. Do you have some idea what this monument is supposed to do?¡¯


    She shakes her head, ¡®Not a clue, however it was a bonus granted by a location path. That means that one, it won¡¯t be harmful and two, it will affect an area. I¡¯ll send my mom a picture of itter so see if she has a clue, but for now we can make a couple assumptions. First is that since it came with a bunch of other bonuses that affect kobolds in your territory, the monument should do the same.


    ¡®Second is that kobolds will likely want to make pilgrimages to it. Both from within your dungeon and from without. The only monuments that don¡¯t get visitors are those controlled by a force strong enough to prevent people from showing up and those which are lost. That first bit mighte true, but the second one won''t, seeing as the thing is in the middle of a kobold vige.


    ¡®Even if no outside kobolds ever evene in contact with your territory, they will know it is here. Their racial akashic will make sure of it. So you better be ready for kobolds to sulk around the entrance.''


    Doyle nods, ''I guess that would be a worry, though more for Ace and Jim than for me. I''m sure they''ll figure it out though.''


    Ally shrugs, ''Even when not sapient, kobolds are one of the easier "monster" races to deal with. They''ll actually learn to not attack well defended settlements, even when the poption gets out of hand. Though it might end up being a problem with the monuments attraction.


    ''In normal times, the extra kobolds and a few of the elders will split off to find a new home. Now they might want to stick around. Though as you said, that''s not our problem.''


    Doyle, ''I would be interested in seeing what the monument does to kobolds that aren''t mine.''


    Ally nods, ''I would be interested as well. Though it might not be impossible one gets in, just unlikely. If anything, you can at some point figure out a way to grab one. After all, evenpletely barred off dungeons eventually get ess to outside creatures and I suspect that means being able to port them into the dungeon proper.''


    Doyle tilts to the side, ''I doubt it is that straightforward. The area outside the dungeon feels like one of my floors when it is being delved, except increased by a couple of magnitudes.


    ''I don''t doubt that I''ll gain ess to the stuff outside at some point. However, chances are it isn''t going to be me literally teleporting them into my dungeon proper. Maybe I start benefiting from deaths within my territory if I make it thick enough?''


    Ally sighs, ''That does make sense. I guess we''ll just have to roll with whatever hand we''re dealt. Anyway, how have your location paths panned out?''


    Doyle, ''I picked up another which is where I got that monument from. Anyway, here is what I have at the moment.''


    {Location [2/1 I]: Heritage Kobold Community I 15/15, Communities of Myriad Heritages I 15/15}


    Doyle pauses for a second when he sees it. ''So uh, what is with the two of one for locations? I had the kobold rank two path and I don''t see it anymore.''


    Ally raises an eyebrow, ''Think about it for a second.''


    Doyle does before he realizes what happened. ''Right, while the number of location paths I can have isn''t limited to one, like with the ss path. It still does the whole "varied path" thing where one can turn into another.''


    Ally nods, ''Got it in one! Also, now that you have it with two first rank paths, this is a point at which you can rank up the other one and make it the main location path. Later on when you have higher rank paths it will be harder to bnce things so this is going to be your best chance.''


    Doyle tilts back, ''That is a good question. On one hand, I really like kobolds. On the other, the "myriad" path option is more generally applicable.''@@novelbin@@


    Ally shrugs, ''This is really a choice between a powerful buff to kobolds and a more general buff to everything.''


    Doyle nods, ''True enough. Though it also sounds like a problem for future Doyle. I really hate when people say that, but this is very much the case right now. I haven''t checked so in theory I could be wrong, but I''m guessing I don''t have any other location paths avable as the other was also a modification to the kobold path. So yeah, I''m just going to put it off for now.''

 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, Earth¡¯s 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, Fire¡¯s 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 isn¡¯t 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 didn¡¯t 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. Don¡¯t 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 hadn¡¯t actually left his room, half expecting that he would need her help, anyway.


    Though she takes one look at the path andughs. ¡®I¡¯m honestly surprised it took you this long to get a path like this. I Guess since you already have the dungeon stuff the System didn¡¯t feel all that rushed about finding your path of power.


    ¡®Anyway, most people who don¡¯t 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. I¡¯m 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 doesn¡¯t require a masterwork to use.¡¯


    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 aren¡¯t 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.¡¯@@novelbin@@


    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, you¡¯d 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 isn¡¯t a skill and it won¡¯t show up on your status panel. Rather, this is more in line with stuff like the ability to breathe. Either you can or you can¡¯t.


    ¡®Also, it didn¡¯t 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 hadn¡¯t 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. You¡¯ve 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 you¡¯ll still asionally want ¡°gs¡± in the form of carved stone discs. Sometimes you just need the array to be separate from the area you¡¯re 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 doesn¡¯t 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 wasn¡¯t 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 don¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t matter how high a level your sword pattern is, you¡¯ll 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 I¡¯m looking at it, it doesn¡¯t say it is a pattern.¡¯


    Ally nods, ¡®Arrays and Enchantments are ¡°special¡±. It wasn¡¯t technically stored in the database skill because you can¡¯t improve them as you are. The level they note is the level of effect. So your level 14 energy gathering array won¡¯t 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!¡¯

 Figuring Out Arrays – Chapter 246

    Doyle tilts to the side, ¡®So will the level my arrays can affect rise with the pattern level?¡¯


    Allyughs, ¡®That would be so, so, so convenient. So no. You can totally have a level one thousand pattern for a level one array. It can even be really handy as you could specialize the array. A popr version of that is a hyper-efficient one which is meant to run off of the natural energy so people don¡¯t have to keep throwing power at it.


    ¡®You would think that an array meant to gather power would be able to use said power to run. It always disappoints people when they find out this isn¡¯t the case. Something about how it pulls the stuff in makes it so it can¡¯t be used. That doesn¡¯t stop the array from using any nearby ambient power, but you generally need a ton more power than is avable unless you¡¯re in some kind of heaven or wondend.¡¯


    Doyle, ¡®So how does the pattern for the array work if you can have multiple distinct versions?¡¯


    Ally shrugs, ¡®It just keeps track of them. Though don¡¯t expect to have some list of one to one hundred or some such. The granrity isn¡¯t quite that fine.


    ¡®Instead, you¡¯ll probably end up with a list that goes one, six, 14, 23, 42, and so on. The idea behind it is that the array uses runes and there are only so many ways to put them together and actually get a world energy gathering array. Of course, with higher levels and ess to more runes up to and including entirely new runguages, you can start filling in the nks.


    ¡®For now, though, you¡¯ll be stuck with the default runenguage since it is what the system gives out for free. Anyway, spawn in your array and I¡¯ll help you figure it out.¡¯


    Doyle nods and creates a nk tile of stone in the tenth floor¡¯s farm zone, then stamps the tiny world energy gathering array onto it. With that finished, he pulled up a blue screen with a view of it.


    Ally nods, ¡®Okay, let¡¯s see if we can get the system to rename your pattern to something more descriptive.¡¯


    Doyle tilts to the side, ¡®What¡¯s wrong with calling it a tiny world energy gathering array? At default size, the array is a rtively small circle of runes and going by the feel I get from the area, the world energy is gathered within it.¡¯


    Ally pulls up an image of a potion, ¡®Remember, you got the pattern off of one of these. It was likely called tiny because when you received it, the thing was quite tiny. Yet here you have it big enough for one human to sit within it.


    ¡®Also, you¡¯ve lost quite a bit of quality off of the array. Right now since you used your creation skill toy it out, the array is being directly powered by you. If you tried to make a potion bottle with it and someone took that bottle out, the array would stop working.


    ¡®Remember how I said a level one thousand pattern could power itself? Whilemon, I didn¡¯t pull that example out of nowhere. Anyway, on the Interdimensional Net, this type of array would be called something like ¡°simple world energy gathering array for individuals¡±.


    ¡®If that sounds a little clunky, that¡¯s because it is. The actualnguage used to name arrays is a deadnguage used for naming things, magic, and science. Kind of like how science did things on your world.¡¯@@novelbin@@


    Doyle, ¡®What makes it simple? Since that is just the name, I¡¯m guessing it won¡¯t be aplex array with more levels.¡¯


    Ally shrugs, ¡®It¡¯s two dimensional and made of only one rune circuit. Also, the runes don¡¯t need any kind of fancy carving to work and the lines don¡¯t need to be filled in or colored with other materials.¡¯


    Doyle nods, ¡®So because a kid could literally scribble this in the dirt and have a working array?¡¯


    Allyughs, ¡®Well, the kid would need to figure out a method to power it, but yeah. Though because the methods to make an array moreplex are varied they generally just drop the word simple. About the only exceptions to that are arrays that are no longer 2d and any array whichyers rune circuits.¡¯


    Doyle, ¡®Question, how would you even create array gs when stuff like iys and cut depth are potential variables?¡¯


    Ally points to the array he had just created, ¡®That looks all fancy and connected, but a lot of that is simr to cursive. All connected together to better control the array and it allows you to write it out in one go. What matters are the runes and rune words.


    ¡®You could make that exact array by just extracting out every rune, pping them on gs, andying them out so they¡¯re in a simr pattern. That, however, would be tooplicated and would require a ton of gs, so most people use the rune words instead.


    ¡®Now, since this is written in magical cursive it might be hard to pick them out, but there are three rune words being used here. The trantion is a little rough because each rune word is actually like a mini sentence all of its own, but the three basically mean ¡°world energy¡±, ¡°gather¡±, ¡°within¡±.¡¯


    Doyle tilts to the side, ¡®So this would require three gs in a triangle?¡¯


    Ally nods, ¡®You could even draw lines connecting the gs to help define the array¡¯s boundaries, though that only goes so far. If you try to make silly shapes or have the lines bulge out, the array will ignore them. Now, can you guess how much of your array is taken up by each rune word?¡¯


    Doyle turns back to the array and tries to make heads or tails of it. While Ally hadpared it to cursive, it wasn¡¯t, not really. The entire array was seamlessly connected into one whole, which now that he looks at it, is somewhat impressive in and of itself.


    There are sections of mostly just connecting lines, but none of it feels like a space. Sure, the longer he looks, the more Doyle feels he can pick out the individual runes, but that is about it. So, instead of trying to figure that out, he backs up and tries to find arger pattern in the array.


    Doyle doesn¡¯t find one they¡¯re either and so takes a guess, ¡®I¡¯m not able to spot anything so if I had to guess? ¡°World energy¡± probably takes up, I don¡¯t know, say a fourth of the array. Then ¡°within¡± seems simple enough so I¡¯m going with an eighth and ¡°gather¡± takes up the remaining five-eighths of the array.¡¯


    Ally smiles, ¡®Not quite right. ¡°World energy¡± actually takes up the least amount of space. It is the leastplex rune word in the array as it doesn¡¯t actually have to say too much. World energy is simply the energy naturally present around worlds. Now, if you wanted to specify something like Mana, it would be a lot moreplicated and likely involve an extra word or two to convert world energy into that energy.


    ¡®As for the other two? They somewhat match each other inplexity, though ¡°within¡± manages to edge out ¡°gather¡±. While it might seem simple, the actual space it defines isn¡¯t 2d. Instead, it defines an area that extends mostly upward, though slightly downward so a person or item can fit within.¡¯


    Doyle pulls up a picture of one of the potion bottles, ¡®So I¡¯m going to guess the extra lines carved into this thing helps define the entire inner space of the bottle as where the array will affect?¡¯


    Ally shrugs, ¡®Yes and no. There are other things going on that require those lines, but that involves array stacking and 3d arrays. Things which if I might remind you, are so special they actually get their own descriptive words when naming an array.


    ¡®Anyway, the array you have seems to be almost exactly the same as the one I got off the I so we can work on teaching you how to actually carve the thing.¡¯


    Doyle, ¡®Another question first. You said the order you draw the runes in matters, but you also said you could make each rune into a g and set the array that way. What¡¯s up with that?¡¯


    Ally raises an eyebrow, ¡®Well if they¡¯re all gs you simply need to ce them correctly. That is actually another reason why people like to use rune word gs. Though sometimes, despite using the exact same rune word, one array will require you to draw the runes in a different order.¡¯


    Doyle nods, ¡®I can see that. I¡¯m guessing the order you draw them helps determine things like energy flow and certain other qualities. So one array could have different requirements for a word than another.¡¯


    Ally slow blinks, ¡®Huh, yeah, that¡¯s basically correct. There are some nuances, but even I don¡¯t get them. Anyway, let¡¯s look at your array.¡¯


    Ally draws three lines, splitting the array into parts on the screen. ¡®These are the three rune words and since you know a bit about them, it should be obvious which is which. Since world energy is so simple, we¡¯ll start with that one.


    ¡®To do this, you¡¯ll need to use that new ability the engraving path gave you. Now, the type of power you use to draw the array, especially one this simple, isn¡¯t going to matter much. However, for now, stick to world energy. Now make a stone disc and I¡¯ll show you how the runes have to match up to make a word and the order in which you have to carve them.¡¯


    From there it takes Doyle a little under a month to learn how to engrave the three gs needed for the array. Then it took another few days for the two of them to figure out how to power the array. Though the trouble they had with that is the answer was too simple.


    To power the array, you simply need to have a socket on one of the gs, and it could be any of them as it wasn¡¯t picky, into which you can slot some kind of energy stone, crystal, or what have you. Ally was mostly certain that it could probably even fit pre-system batteries, though with Doyle¡¯s current skill level they would be sucked dry within a few hours.


    Simple electricity just isn¡¯t mystical enough to be a good power source. Oh, and someone can power the array themselves, but that is even less efficient than the batteries would be. At least with electricity, it is a neutral power source. A person¡¯s own power is marked by their soul and would be hard for the array to use, with the caveat being that the person who sets up the array can power it just fine.


    Not that Doyle would have that problem. While he does technically make just as much cruft as any other sapient, it¡¯s like how a nt also makes carbon dioxide. Sure, they put off a little bit of the stuff, but you wouldn¡¯t notice. So he can power any array he wants since he can use pure world energy.


    Oh, and Doyle learns why the array is for individuals. While it does fill an area with world energy, the first thing that uses world energy to enter the array will be the focus of the gathered power. Anything else in there that tries to use the power will find it harder than even outside of the array.


    The array is designed that way as this style, while also used by people, is mostly used for objects and nts. So to make sure some other entity doesn¡¯te in and mooch off the power, it is set up like that.


    This is especially useful for growing individual nts as it keepsmon mystical pests and parasites away. Sure, you still have to watch out for any fungus or aphid trying to suck the power out of the nt itself, but they won¡¯t be able to multiply through the increased density of world energy.

 Myconids Did Something Unexpected – Chapter 247

    Suffice it to say, Doyle was happy with his array. Sure, the level 14 limit hadn¡¯t changed as so far he was only copying it, but the array section turned into a proper part of the pattern database.


    {Array Patterns: simple world energy gathering array for individuals [lv14] lv21}


    Though the way it disyed the 14 next to the pattern level of 21 was a bit confusing. However, Ally assured him that once he had more arrays and an array had more options, it would likely split into its own sub-table of sorts. Though not in the usual way, as only the array itself will have a pattern level and not each individual instance of level a level range.


    The other decision he made was that once he figured out how to up the level limit, he would add his array gs as potential drops. Hopefully, this would happen before anyone beats the tenth floor, but only time will tell. Though he did set up a new loot rule to support this and any other nonsense, the town might get into.


    It was both a simple andplex rule. Simple because it was for all monsters on floor ten and after. Complex because it didn¡¯t simply give the monsters a new bit of loot they could drop. Instead, part of the energy that was going to make them real, would instead be siphoned off into making a monster stone, one of the mystic energy storage patterns he had gotten.


    Anyway, it didn¡¯t siphon a lot of power so the stones would be a rare drop on any floor on which people often killed the monsters. The catch to this is that after a monster bes real enough, it could leave the dungeon, the amount of power being used drops drastically. Before, that power would just be released, but now it would instead be put towards making the beast stone. So basically any floor left alone long enough would end up with every single monster dropping a beast stone.


    Of course Doyle would have to keep up with the pattern¡¯s level if he wanted the stones to continue to be useful. Right now, he has a bit of a buffer as the pattern is level 30, but that will only keep him until he has monsters of a greater level. After that, if he tries to have them grow a monster stone, it would explode from not being able to contain the power.


    Though thinking of that, Doyle alters the drop condition to limit the stones to monsters with a level equal to or less than the level of the monster stone pattern. When he mentioned this though, Ally wasn¡¯t too worried and she went on to exin why. There were a lot of special cases and interesting quirks, but what Doyle came away with was that when he got higher level monsters, he could just throw stones into lower-level monsters and level them up.


    Sure, most of the monsters would explode from that as they aren¡¯t slowly gaining power and building up their stone naturally. Some of them, however, would survive. This should both help improve the monster¡¯s pattern, but also improve the monster stone pattern. And that would work until he manages to get a monster where the stone doesn¡¯t explode.


    Though that was more of ast ditch effort sort of thing as apparently the stone level should just go up. Mainly because if you have a monster with a stone that lives long enough, the stone will attune to some aspect of the monster and the specialized stone would be worth a lot of experience.


    More fun is that this doesn¡¯t just mean a stone in a fire monster bes a fire attuned monster stone. No, the variety is much greater. You can get stones for that specific monster which can have their own special uses. Though Ally did make it sound almost like a joke when she talked about how many goat stones he would have.


    While that is interesting, Doyle turns his attention back to the final product of his array work. Three smooth stone discs which if you ced them face down would look like ck pieces from a giant game of reversi or go. On the face of each of the three, was engraved a multitude of runes.


    Though to make itst longer, the engravings were filled in with white stone. Also, in the center of the disc, with the least number of runes, was a slot into which a monster stone could fit. A simple solution to powering the array and why he decided to have the things start dropping.


    The only thing that looked like it was missing, would be something to hold the stone in. Sure, despite the name, the stones were actually more pearl-like than not so a simple half sphere depression is enough to hold them, but it wouldn¡¯t hold them in. Good thing this isn¡¯t needed, as the act of sucking power out of the stone creates a slight force that can hold it in ce.


    Now, if you turned the array g upside down and shook it, the stone would fall out. If that is happening, though, they¡¯d be much better served with just pulling the stone out by hand. The array isn¡¯t exactly designed with security in mind, instead focusing on ease of use.


    Ease of use which includes a slight bit of power storage so if you¡¯re quick, you can swap stones without the effect stopping. Overall, the array was an interesting piece of work and it was clear that the design had been iterated on quite a bit and any rough edges had long ago been smoothed away. Doyle would almost be willing to call it perfect, if not for his increasing pattern level and what he suspects is a nascent skill.


    Oh, and the fact that he doesn¡¯t believe in perfection. Doyle had spent a decent amount of time pre-system pondering on the subject as so many people seemed to have a hang up with getting things perfect. But despite those people who legitimately chased after it, he sided with those who thought of it as the eternal goal. Something to strive for, yet never reach. Any ims of true perfection are just someone blinding themselves to reality.@@novelbin@@


    Sure, a lot of people saw that as depressing as it meant you would never reach your goal. Doyle however saw that as a wonderful feature. He had heard of too many people who created what they considered their best work, only to fall into some form of despair. Instead of reaching higher, they stopped.


    Not a very healthy situation. Though for some reason it almost seemed celebrated. The only stories Doyle had read that really looked at the negatives of this were stories of revenge where a character would seed only to be left empty without a goal. This dichotomy of opinion on the same thing always confused him.


    As if just because the master painter going and painting their magnum opus is seen as positive, their depression afterwards is justified. While the angry hero getting revenge only to be left empty is a negative because the goal is seen as morally wrong. Doyle had long ago decided to throw that nonsense all out. There was no perfection or clear cut finish!


    Doyle would always see the magnum opus and ask why the painter didn¡¯t try to reach higher. He would read the hero¡¯s story and ask why he didn¡¯t then go on to try and fight the underlying root which allowed the event to happen in the first ce. Though more importantly, he also epted that on that path, good enough was a valid answer.


    The painter shouldn¡¯t burn all his previous works whenever he creates a better painting. They were good enough for when he painted them. The hero shouldn¡¯t ignore the noble who killed his family because he can see the bigger picture and wants to take out the political system that allowed it.


    And when Ally heard him describe his views on all of this she pped. ¡®Congrattions! You managed to stumble into one of the healthier mindsets any long lived sapient can have. I¡¯m not saying there aren¡¯t immortals out there that believe in perfection. Even True Immortals can fall into that trap.


    ¡®What is important is the idea of good enough. There are likely uncountable True Immortals floating motionlessly in the void between dimensions as they try to construct the perfect something or other. And just as many who have ended up getting killed by void entities for being idiots and not moving to a new dimension when theirst died and left them floating there. Entities with infinite time to n need to be careful that they don¡¯t actually run out the clock with their nning as many find their ending a lot quicker than never.¡¯


    That response did bring up a question Doyle had been sitting on, how did True Immortals die? Ally just shrugged and admitted no one who wasn¡¯t already one really knew. The only reason people even knew they could die was that other True Immortals had said so.


    So while that was an interesting question, Doyle turned to a couple of things which had been set to the side. Though at the top of the list was finally getting around to cing the boss for the tenth floor. The myconids had been on the floor for who knows how long at this point, so they should have reached an equilibrium. Though Doyle took a look around the floor first to make sure of that.


    On this overview, the first thing to stand out is thergemunity in the boss room. The myconids had moved some of the dirt around, Doyle not being quite skilled enough at vige nning to havepletely gotten it right. More interesting though are the houses.


    Doyle had been somewhat trapped in a human mindset when he nned things out. Myconids, believe it or not, aren¡¯t humans. This meant that some of the vige was just opaque to him at the moment.


    He could feel there were specific concepts behind how the myconids had set up things. However, it seemed to tap into a form of proto-consciousness. An almost hivemind formed from the natural interactions that fungus had with one another. This wasn¡¯t some Akashic memory based nonsense. Rather, just as humans found certain things came to them naturally because of the structure of their minds, the myconids had their own concepts.


    For Doyle, this was really trippy because he also wasn¡¯t human, at least not anymore. So while he could grasp at the concepts, it was like until now his mind had been coloring inside the lines and this new experience required leaving those lines and entering a new drawing. As a human, those lines weren¡¯t just marks, but the actual extent of the paper he could draw on, but as a dungeon he had a whole page to work with instead of a small corner.


    This was certainly something toe back to, but for now Doyle turns to the rest of the floor. It was. Interesting.


    The myconids had been forced to move settlements so that had gone to n. Except they didn¡¯t seem to want to let the old settlements fall into disrepair. Also, it seems that while only myconids with fungal construction can actually grow mushrooms into stuff, this doesn¡¯t stop the others from maintaining the stuff.


    There were small teams of sprouts being led by a single lesser myconid going around and applying spores to the ces they weren¡¯t currently living. More to the point, that seemed to work and keep the structures and furniture alive.


    Doyle had very much not been expecting this twist. Though just like he was able to make an array without a skill for it, this once again shows that skills aren¡¯t the end all, be all of things. It would have made him question what the point of skills were if you didn¡¯t need them.


    Except Doyle already had an answer to that. Skills represented the ability to exceed the norm. Any myconid could use their spores to heal and maintain normal mushrooms, but it took skill to make them grow into buildings and objects that couldst.

 Deciding The Boss’ Skills – Chapter 248

    Doyle still isn¡¯t 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 couldn¡¯t 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 they¡¯re 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 myconid¡¯s 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 hasn¡¯t yet been a monster without it. Maybe it costs a point to unlock or some such.


    At this point, the n wasn¡¯t to open up the fifth slot, not that he wasn¡¯t going to spend arge chunk of points. It just wasn¡¯t going to be even half the 100 points to unlock the next skill. Though it wasn¡¯t 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 wouldn¡¯t be all that necessary. Especially with all the monsters kicking around with the teamwork skill. Except Doyle has a different view on that.@@novelbin@@


    Sure, the various monsters know how to work together for the best effect. The only problem is what happens when there isn¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t give the leader any actual skill in leading others.


    Now, Doyle wasn¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t actually the level a monster will spawn with unless they¡¯re 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 wasn¡¯t 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 wasn¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t 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 hadn¡¯t 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 wasn¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t 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 monster¡¯s 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 weren¡¯t 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 wasn¡¯t a space. Swarms of beasts so called only because they appeared separate, whether that was true or not, shifted through what Doyle could sense.


    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.


    Doyle¡¯sst 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 wasn¡¯t a human; he wasn¡¯t 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 wasn¡¯t quite ready for it and didn¡¯t 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 wasn¡¯t 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 wouldn¡¯t 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, aren¡¯t 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 wouldn¡¯t 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 can¡¯t see it from too far away, but once you¡¯ve seen it, it¡¯s 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 wasn¡¯t only inhabited by fungus based creatures. It seems that some of his thoughts about the mi-go spreading their malignant form of corruption around wasn¡¯tpletely 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 didn¡¯t notice any beings moving creatures around to corrupt new dimensions. This revtion shows that it wouldn¡¯t 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 wasn¡¯t quite as bad as it might be. While Doyle could grab one of the souls and use it for a boss, they aren¡¯t 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 Doyle¡¯s dungeon senses tells him, even an entire world that has been taken over by tainted fungoides isn¡¯t 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 can¡¯t 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 didn¡¯t 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 weren¡¯t 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 wasn¡¯t any taint.


    Doyle was mostly certain that not all dimensions with the more alien options were all corrupted. He couldn¡¯t 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, wasn¡¯t 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 Doyle¡¯s 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.


    This soul wasn¡¯t anything particrly special. Unlike thest boss soul, this soul hadn¡¯t been living as a specific species for tens of generations and it hadn¡¯t 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 wasn¡¯t 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 wasn¡¯t 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 don¡¯t 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 Doyle¡¯s 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 weren¡¯t 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 Doyle¡¯s 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 dungeon¡¯s 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, Doyle¡¯s 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@@novelbin@@


    Myconid Fungal Lord}


    Doyle can¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t 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.

 The New Boss’ Status – Chapter 250

    As the wave of power flowed over myconid after myconid, they changed. From a rabble of random mushroom types, they took on the myconid boss¡¯ characteristics. Along with that, another shift happened, though this one was much less visible.


    Before, each group had been its own troop. While they would share work and the floating three with the construction skills were epted everywhere, each group was its own thing. Now they were all one troop under the boss despite living in separate viges.


    Doyle could tell that this effect had a limited range. It wasn¡¯t a small area, mind you. The floor could have been increased in size a decent bit before it would start to matter. However, it did hint towards what sort of monster a myconid troop lord is.


    More interesting to Doyle was the fact that unlike the lesser troop guard myconid, a pattern for a myconid troop Lord didn¡¯t show up as a new spawnable monster. However, he could also feel that given the right situation, it wouldn¡¯t take any effort to upgrade a regr myconid into one.


    And for once, turning to Ally didn¡¯t instantly garner an answer. She checked a few things, but none of them really fit the situation. As far as all the tutorial text was concerned, when a monster evolves into a new form, that form is counted as a new monster pattern.


    In the end, they both spent a decent chunk of time searching for an answer and this time it was Doyle to find it. The reason a troop lord doesn¡¯t end up as a new pattern is because, despite the overt body changes, they¡¯re still just a myconid.


    Rather, troop lord, despite the physical changes, is more like how Ace is the lord of Wolf¡¯s Rest. Myconids are just somewhat unique in that actual physical changes happen to the local ruler. Though they aren¡¯t the only creatures out there to have changes like that. There were even a few pre-system animals on Doyle¡¯s that did something simr.


    The biggest thing is that the system and Doyle¡¯s Creation skill sped up the process. No need to wait for the boss to naturally grow into a lord when you have magic. The only question left was why it was offered as one of the three choices alongside the troop guard, which very much would have been a separate pattern. Even the fungal lord option would have ended up being a pattern as it connects to all fungus based creatures instead of just the natural order myconids work within.


    Also, the golden red diadem isn¡¯t something a normal troop lord would receive. Though Ally guessed it was to make up for the change not fully being an evolution. Also, while a troop lord would be able tomand other myconids around them, they wouldn¡¯t cause aplete shift in coloring.


    Ally just shrugged and put it down as system shenanigans. Doyle, on the other hand, tried to look into it deeper, but in the end could only put it down. Though he did feel that the circlet was special in some way.


    Not quite an independent item, but also not one with the boss. There was a feeling like it was meant to be loot and not just any loot. So more system shenanigans.


    Doyle was frustrated with running into a roadblock for the second time and so let the boss limatize itself with the floor as he turns to the sixth floor. With how much time had passed and the various changes, there was now always a team farming the floor. Most don¡¯t even bother clearing the floor before retreating with their spoils.


    Not the worst n as the monster encounters are a bit spread out at times. Better to just grab a backpack full of steak and leave rather than waste time trying to gather every cow and goat. Though likely the fact that there were goats mixed in, also didn¡¯t help. Beef was on the menu and so many people who were happily eating goat not that long ago now were turning their noses up at it.@@novelbin@@


    The core members of the town, on the other hand, would fully clear the floor multiple times throughout the day. Not only that, but after spending a short amount of time watching, just a few days, Doyle noticed that they had a nice system going. The guards would keep track of how long the teams were taking, how much they brought out, and how tired the team was.


    Once things lined up or someone died, they would send their team through. This was all to time the best drops. They knew that dungeons got power from effort and that they would drop more after collecting enough power. So from there, it was a simple matter for the more mathematically gifted to figure out the best time to clear.


    Though it isn¡¯t like they were crazy about goat meat, either. It was good. In fact, there had been an old guye into town who had grown up in another country where goats were amon dish. Suffice to say, he knew the best way to cook and season the stuff. The guy¡¯s only disappointment was that he could manage to get a goat¡¯s body to do a traditional full goat roast.


    This just meant that unlike most of the second ring folks, the people in the inner ring simply started having it less instead ofpletely stopping. So, what did they do with all that meat? Sure, some of it would sell, but most of the out of towners were more than happy to farm meat like crazy so most of the time the merchants didn¡¯t need any extra meat.


    Not that they would have sold most of the meat they get from clearing the floor even if it was an option. No, they were stockpiling the stuff by turning it into jerky. Not only did this mean it took up a lot less space, butbined with some rough prototypes trying to copy the preservation boxes Doyle had as loot meant it couldst a long time.


    Sure, their preservation enchantment was rough and wouldn¡¯tst a month. By then though, they could enchant it again and maybe in that time they will have improved. Most important though, was why the enchantmentsted such a short amount of time, or rather, why itsted so long.


    They had tried to alter the enchantment to fit onrge wooden chests that were big enough you could fit three or four people in them. On top of that, while enchanting an item with preservation doesn¡¯t technically need a masterwork item, it inherently puts a time limit on the item¡¯s existence.


    Without a master¡¯s skilled touch, the power inside of an item cannot handle the power being injected by an enchantment. Wood at leastes from a living organism and so isn¡¯t as easily broken down. If they instead tried to enchant a metal box, it would begin crumbling within a day and that is with something weak like the preservation enchantment. A more powerful enchantment like one meant to wreath a de in mes would cause a de to begin crumbling away even before the enchantment was finished.


    Anyway, even if the wooden chests were temporary, the wood was all sourced from the dungeon so it was free practice instead of a waste of resources. A good thing too, since they were still a long way from making actual masterworks. It was hard for the townspeople to tell, but Doyle could somewhat feel the internal power structure of items.


    Now, he wasn¡¯t some kind of electron microscope or anything. Rather, it was like being able to run your hand over a piece of wood. You might not even be able to see it, but if the piece of wood is rough, you can tell. Though a small number of the chests certainly felt ¡°smoother¡± than the others and it wasn¡¯t hard to tell why. Those chests had pieces of ivory iid and featured decorative carvings wherever the enchantment didn¡¯t need to go.


    Maybe for some this wouldn¡¯t be enough to identify the crafter, but Doyle knew that only Jimmy had an actual bone carving skill. Though going by how ¡°smooth¡± the transition between wood and bone was, it certainly seems like his dream of eventually merging his carpentry and bone carving skill into one isn¡¯t an impossible dream. Especially since that doesn¡¯t require masterwork levels of skill and instead just needs the right intent and skills close enough together in level.


    Of course the path point situation is a little messy, but Doyle just ignored that since none of his skills were of the sort that he couldbine. Well, maybe Psychology and Vige nner could, but it wasn¡¯t something he was working towards. Besides, Doyle knew himself pretty well and part of that was realizing that Psychology by itself was worth a lot more to him thanbined with anything else that would constrain it.


    Now satisfied with what he has seen, Doyle turns back to his second boss. To his surprise though, the tenth floor had advanced a good bit of time once again. Though Doyle was able to figure out the cause after just a little bit of thought. The fifth floor doesn¡¯t advance at a rapid pace because the boss there needs some outside conversation to stay mentally healthy. On the other hand, the myconid boss, at least at this point, isn¡¯t restrained by those chains.


    Despite being a part of arger group, few if any other myconids in the boss¡¯ troops from his two previous lives contained any other sapient myconids. In fact, while Doyle didn¡¯t get something like a write up of those lives, he had definitely gotten the feeling that whenever a new sapient myconid appeared, it would be pushed towards a troop without one yet. So the tenth floor boss was not only used to loneliness, but had been warped a little to crave it and in turn, the deep instincts of Doyle that controls speeding up time saw no reason not to just go full speed ahead on the boss.


    So since he had noticed this and now having questions about the boss in general, Doyle pulls up its status screen.


    {Name: [Unnamed] Troop Lord


    Race: Myconid


    Dungeon Bound: Doyle Huxley


    Paths: Myconid Lord 20/20


    Level: 23


    S[122] A[110] C[164] I[124] W[111] P[63] D[79] K[60] L[77]


    Skills [4/4 Monster]: Spore Talk lv93, Teamwork lv68, Summon Paralysis Spore lv42, Leadership lv37}


    The first thing that attracts Doyle¡¯s attention is the sheer weight of the lord¡¯s stats. Every single one of them is impressive. In particr, Constitution stood out, being over double the lowest stat despite that being a decent 60 points. Though after being distracted by how strong the boss was, something else stood out and it was weird.


    The skills almost seemed random in their levels! Oh, and there was a path despite Doyle not being alerted to it and the race/name thing, but the skill levels really mattered. The oddest part of them being that Teamwork and Summon Paralysis Spore both had the same level in the pattern and yet Teamwork was over 20 levels above the other.


    Of course, the answer was really boring for Doyle. The level of a skill in a monster¡¯s pattern was a modifier, but only one of the modifiers. In this instance, while Ally wasn¡¯t certain of all the modifiers at y, it was clear that being a Troop Lord favored lordly skills on the monster. So Teamwork was a much higher level than the Summon Spore skill because a lord is more aligned with the first skill than the second.


    After he got her answer about that, Doyle brought up the other two things he had noticed to Ally. Though the name and race thing didn¡¯t really need an exnation and rather he was just showing her that one. They both already knew troop lord was a modifier instead of a proper evolution and the path question was simple enough as well. It all boiled down to the fact that with the kobold boss, the path was new to this dimension¡¯s system. On the other hand, the Myconid Lord path likely came default with the system just because it was such an obvious path for myconids to take.

 Change In Leader – Chapter 251

    Out in the second circle of Wolf¡¯s Rest, Ben is moping around. This doesn¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t 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 didn¡¯t 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 didn¡¯t particrly care about this, but the original developer of the system had gone through a rough transition from a system that didn¡¯t 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 wasn¡¯t anyone better not from Wolf¡¯s 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 couldn¡¯t. 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 didn¡¯t 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 you¡¯re 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 wouldn¡¯t matter if a certaindy was away at the time, right?


    So after that week of niggling little things that shouldn¡¯t 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 wouldn¡¯t have been a problem. Hell, even if Ben had simply called on one of Ace¡¯s people to help it would have been all right, after all, Ace had stationed a person nearby in case they needed anything.


    Ben didn¡¯t 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 wasn¡¯t even a lie. The pre-system method of building a house so that it wouldpletely block off the outside doesn¡¯t really work for a normal house. With magic around, the elements are a little more insistent on getting into ces. It wasn¡¯t 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 weren¡¯t originally that many ces built in that style at all. After all, you can¡¯t exactly expect a weather tight house when building what are basically fancy log cabins. Though something like that isn¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t 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 didn¡¯t have easy ess to the information required to figure this out.


    In fact, the only reason Ace¡¯s 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 Wolf¡¯s Rest, it wouldn¡¯t 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 Ace¡¯s office. With a sour face she informs him that, ¡°Ben can¡¯t continue being the leader up river.¡±


    Ace folds his fingers together in front of himself on his desk, ¡°And I¡¯m 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 don¡¯t care about that right now. The problem is getting someone everyone will follow and unless you¡¯re volunteering, no one else here can handle it.¡±


    She recoils a little, ¡°I don¡¯t think I¡¯m¡±


    Ace interrupts her, ¡°Do you really think so little of my people? Do you think we¡¯re blind?¡±@@novelbin@@


    She stammers, but Ace doesn¡¯t 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 you¡¯ll be officially in charge.¡±


    She backs up, ¡°But I¡¯m sure there has to be someone else?¡±


    Aceughs, ¡°Which one? Like I said, we¡¯ve been watching your group ever since you arrived. Yes, Ben would have had the easiest time getting the others to do things, but you aren¡¯t 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, ¡°You¡¯ve 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, ¡°I¡¯m not a leader. I don¡¯t want this anymore! I don¡¯t, I don¡¯t know what happened. Before this happened, I was always the leader, always the person in charge. Why doesn¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t fun anymore! Why did things change? People aren¡¯t different, so why doesn¡¯t anything work anymore? Whatever, since this isn¡¯t working I¡¯m passing on my position to my childhood friend. She¡¯s 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 weren¡¯t alerted to the change. He smiles, ¡°Good, it looks like we were able to hide the change in leadership. I¡¯m uncertain that would work if the change in leadership was forced in some way, but thankfully that wasn¡¯t the case here.¡±


    Ace nods and turns to thedy, ¡°Anyway, I¡¯m sort of embarrassed to admit this, but I don¡¯t think I¡¯ve 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 you¡¯ve 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. I¡¯ve 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 wasn¡¯t fun anymore. The whole leader thing wasn¡¯t 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 parent¡¯s influence. Now though? The world ended and your family¡¯s riches from investing in IT mean nothing now.¡±


    She shakes her head, ¡°Leading isn¡¯t supposed to be a fun pastime! It is a tough job and I¡¯m 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 Wolf¡¯s 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 you¡¯re 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 wasn¡¯t 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 wouldn¡¯t 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 don¡¯t actually even care what happens up river? They¡¯re going to abandon the cause now that I¡¯m actually trying to advance things! Those, aaarrgh, yeah, they just stuck around because being a part of our group meant they didn¡¯t have to do anything to live!¡±


    Ace nods, ¡°That¡¯s 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 didn¡¯t 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, ¡°Don¡¯t try and pretend you don¡¯t know what I¡¯m getting at. Yesterday, you literally just went through an entire spiel about how he wasn¡¯t a good leader. You¡¯re picking up the pieces for yourself.¡±


    Melonie rolls her eyes, ¡°I¡¯m just making sure he develops well. His dad might have been fooled by how things were going, but his mom never agreed. I¡¯m 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 isn¡¯t a good leader, but his mom understands that even if his dad doesn¡¯t. Still, she wants him in charge of something and the town up river seems good enough.¡±


    Ace shakes his head, ¡°They¡¯re 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 can¡¯t 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 didn¡¯t survive when magic arrived.


    ¡°As long as you use the hair of someone rted, any divination spell can detect this. We haven¡¯t even fully checked our own people, but I made sure to check all of you. Mommy and Daddy aren¡¯t 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 they¡¯re looking down on us from one deity or another¡¯s heavenly realm.¡±


    Melonie frowns, ¡°What proof do you have? While I can confirm this spell should work how you describe, the system bit isn¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t 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 didn¡¯t leave much doubt.


    Melonie wipes the y tablet clear and looks up, ¡°How did you find this out? No one I¡¯ve 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 can¡¯t 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, you¡¯re at the bottom thrashing around and kicking up mud. Anyway, she was ¡®lucky¡¯ enough to figure this out. My guess on why the system doesn¡¯t 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 don¡¯t have a purpose!¡±


    Ace sighs, ¡°You know? I wasn¡¯t 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 you¡¯re just sitting thereughing about it!¡±


    Ace rolls his eyes, ¡°You¡¯re their leader now. Not Ben, not someone else, and certainly not Ben¡¯s 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 you¡¯re not much better.¡±


    Melonie, ¡°Our parents had uster in life.¡±@@novelbin@@


    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, ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I wasn¡¯t nning on bringing it up, but I wanted to clear the air between us. Oh, and don¡¯t worry, that spell can¡¯t pinpoint siblings of any kind. It can only move down the bloodline and not up.


    ¡°Though I guess bloodline isn¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t 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 can¡¯t 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? You¡¯ve ckmailed me enough. Just tell me how to dance.¡±


    Aceughs, ¡°On the contrary! I¡¯m doing something much worse to you. I¡¯m cutting your strings instead. Maybe you thought you could be a big shot by following along with Ben, but that wouldn¡¯t even set you free.


    ¡°There is no ckmail, I¡¯m 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. We¡¯ve found this way has a greater chance of being believed, anyway.


    ¡°As for you? Everything Ben¡¯s parents wanted to see in him, is in you instead. You¡¯re the leader and going by what you just told me, likely always have been. Just because before this you were leading from the shadows doesn¡¯t change that.¡±


    Melonie sighs, ¡°Fine! I¡¯ll run the damn ce. I¡¯m not going to give up on Ben though! I¡¯ve been watching over him for too long.¡±


    Ace lets out a sad sigh, ¡°The parentification of one child to help raise another isn¡¯t 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, I¡¯m 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 wasn¡¯t even originally made in that style, either. My people secretly retrofitted it all so it would fail at the same time as the others.


    ¡°I¡¯ve been trying to get you in charge for weeks now! I don¡¯t want to start a kingdom or some such, but the ce up river needs someone in charge who isn¡¯t going to ignore the fact we have god damned magic! Ever since we found out that Ben just does not want to rule, and don¡¯t you try to deny that. Ben does not want a leadership position that has actual consequences attached to it.


    ¡°Ever since then, we¡¯ve been pushing you towards taking over. Now, of course, it is obvious why you didn¡¯t 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 couldn¡¯t seem to even mentally realize what we were asking. Once again, knowing more about his background makes it obvious why.


    ¡°The only thing we didn¡¯t do is push people to act one way or another. We might have set up the dominos, but it was Ben who¡¯s 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 doesn¡¯t cause too much of a problem with our working rtionship. Be a bit droll if the leadership of two settlements so close together didn¡¯t work together somewhat.¡±


    Melonie just doesn¡¯t seem to know how to react. ¡°If you¡¯re going through this much trouble, why didn¡¯t you just put your own puppet in charge?¡±


    Aceughs, ¡°People are going to find that controlling things indirectly doesn¡¯t 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 you¡¯re 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 don¡¯t want to try and make a shadow kingdom. If I control something, it will be in my own name. The thing is, I don¡¯t want to control a kingdom. I¡¯ve said it before and I¡¯ll 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, we¡¯ll be able to stop it as well.¡±

 Back Into The Dungeon- Chapter 253

    Doyle couldn¡¯t help but shake his core as he watched Ace¡¯s n y out. It was impressive, long reaching, and could have blown up right now if Mnie reacted differently to hisst bit. The fact she only sighed before leaving shows this likely not the first time she had gotten caught up in a crazy n like this.


    That wasn¡¯t really the center of Doyle¡¯s attention, though. Rather, it was the fact that before Mnie had arrived, Ace had decided that his group would start delving for depth again. He had felt obligated to stick around while this all was ying out, but with the nplete, he felt free to continue. Though as Doyle watched, it still took a few more days to get everything ready.


    Soon enough, though, Ace and his team appeared on the sixth floor. It had been a while since Ace, Sammy, Jack, Susan, Og, and Ruby had all gotten together at once in the dungeon, so good thing for them the sixth floor was a perfect chance to re-familiarize themselves with each other.


    It was on the seventh floor, they really hit their stride. The lesser shadow wolves in the early sections of the floor did provide them some challenge. That ability to shadow warp was simply too novelpared to any other enemy they had fought. However, the floor didn¡¯t require the wolves to be killed.


    So while the group did fight back when they were attacked and Ruby even managed to take one out. Overall, the group trudged right in through the wolves¡¯ area and into the section with the myconids. An area where once again Ruby and her fire magic shined.


    Though the others weren¡¯t slouches either. Og, in particr was really good at sniping away at the sprout swarms. With wood discs created by Ace, he was more than able to mow down the sprouts inrge quantities.@@novelbin@@


    Then they hit the eighth floor. The first room was a little harder than not as the kobolds there had a more than ample amount of time to familiarize themselves with their bows. In the end, Og once again shined as he started spamming a skill that infused whatever he was throwing with mana.


    Sure, it really took it out of him when he used it to throw a handful of small wood caltrops and he didn¡¯t seem up to giving it another go. The results, though? They were more than impressive, putting down a majority of the kobolds, leaving only a couple kobolds on the ground and the goats for the rest of the party to clean up.


    The second room was even less of a trouble as the group knew what wasing. In particr, Ace had the best solution to being charged at by kobolds mounted on Axebeaks. He simply raised an ankle height wall right in front of them and watched them fall all over themselves. Then, without the advantage of speed, it was a simple matter for Sammy, Jack, and Susan to finish them off.


    The next room was, of course the invisible maze. Sure, the grassen goats weren¡¯t an easy fight, but most of the challenge came from the maze itself and once you know you¡¯re in a maze, it bes a lot easier to figure it out. Then the fourth room isn¡¯t exactly any better.


    While the spatial maniption on disy to make the room look t is impressive and the goats did a good job, Ace andpany hadn¡¯t been stagnating even if they weren¡¯t able to regrly delve together. Though of all people, Ace did almost get knocked off the cliff by a well-hidden goat. If he hadn¡¯t kept his guard up, it might have worked, though even as Doyle watched in Glee, he had to admit to himself that a simple fall wasn¡¯t likely to cause that much damage anymore.


    Then they got to the vine rooms. Though most people in Wolf¡¯s Rest who had made it this far generally agreed to just call it all one big room. This was actually a difficult room for those who weren¡¯t prepared for it. While a simple fall and a few assassin vines aren¡¯t the biggest threat, most peopleck the skill to fight while hanging from a vine.


    Worse, and this was something Doyle hadn¡¯t even nned on, using too power of an attack could cut off progression if you aren¡¯t careful. All it takes is damaging the wrong vines during a fight and you might end up with nothing leading through one of the holes. In the first and second levels of the vine room, this was a bit hard as there were vines that went up scattered around. For the final section, though? There was only one vine leading to the next room.


    Suffice it to say, Ruby wasn¡¯t allowed to throw around her signature fire ribbons. Instead, Jack took the lead to act as bait. While he wasn¡¯t yet able to resist the monsterspletely, that was mostly a leverage thing. After all, the regr ones only had 40 Strength and Jack had certainly exceeded that amount.


    The one they had to worry about was the elder assassin vine. Weighing in at 60 Strength, the elder¡¯s two longer vines had killed more than a few people on this floor. While not what Doyle had intended, with how weak the normal assassin vines tended to be, it had given most people a false sense of security when it came from the elder.


    A sense of security that said elder crushes between its two vines and asks for seconds. With the Elder, Jack had to be extra careful and make sure he got his arms between the vine and his neck or the group was going to have to retreat for healing in a best-case scenario. Worse, it was guarding the exit so Ruby was doubly restricted from her fire magic.


    A weakness that she swore to work on. So far, fire magic had been enough to get her through everything. Now though, she realized that while power, it isn¡¯t omni-capable.


    In the end, instead of sending in Jack, they spend time, allowing Og and Ace to bombard the monster from afar. It tries to make its way over to them, but without a solid point of connection, the limbs start to il around a little bit. The elder does manage to make it over to the group, but Sammy is more than able to keep its awkward iling away as they finish it off before it can stabilize itself.


    Then Ace uses his wood magic to turn the vine heading up to the next room into adder. Ruby turns to him with a betrayed look and he smiles while shrugging. ¡°Yes, I could have easily fixed any damage your fire magic might have caused. However, you had to realize the limits of your path. After all, you won¡¯t always be partnered up with someone whose magic can fix what you break.¡±


    Ruby isn¡¯t exactly happy with this response, but sighs and the group continues to the next room. Being angry or annoyed can wait until they¡¯re no longer in the dungeon. After all, the next room is a hard stop for most groups that get there.


    In fact, of all the groups that report in on how far they¡¯ve gotten, this sixth room blocks over eighty percent. Not that any of theter rooms on this floor are any better, but room six does a really good job of separating the wheat from the chaff. People just are not ready for a zero gravity fight. Hell, even with system buffed bodies not everyone can even stomach it in a literal sense, losing their lunches.


    Ace¡¯s group luckily doesn¡¯t have that problem. Though the fact that even with the system, people are still able to be affected by the various annoyances that follow in line with seasickness is impressive. Not that better body stats don¡¯t help with the problem.


    The group looks out into the sixth room and takes in all the enemies. While there are floating cubes to block the line of sight, people have managed to get a good count of what they¡¯re about to fight. Most worrying, though, are the six elemental mages that the kobolds have and of course another elder assassin vine. Though the two sprout swarms make decent environmental hazards with their obvious clouds of spores.


    Ace can only sigh in relief that the room¡¯s current set up is decent. He is sure that some groups have tried just jumping straight for the room¡¯s exit. Of course, he can¡¯t be one hundred percent certain as any that have got wiped.


    Doyle, on the other hand is hoping very much that Ace doesn¡¯t try that as he has seen what happens when you try that. The unarmed kobolds have more than enough practice in between fights practice and any group that spends too much time in the air will have party members sniped away as kobolds m into them, separating the group.


    In the end, Ace has a much safer n. Instead of trying to jump straight across the room, they do short hops between cubes. The melee kobolds still try to grab away people, but Ace has prepared for this and with the handles on the cubes as an anchor point is able to use vines to rescue anyone that needs it. Though the real trouble with the kobolds starts once they¡¯re in range of the mages.


    Magic being magic, their wands are able to shoot without any recoil, and so it is quite simple for them to anchor themselves to the handles on the walls with their feet. This leaves them free to fire off spell after spell without worry. Ace is certainly thankful that his group¡¯s magic is just as inertia-less as the kobolds¡¯ magic.


    While countering it all is out of the question, there is more than enough air time for the group to be ready for it, especially since the kobolds are yet capable of guiding their magic after they shoot it. Still, by the time Ace andpany make it to thest hurdle, there isn¡¯t a single one who doesn¡¯t look at least a little bit scorched.


    And thest hurdle? There are two cubes. Either will get them to the exit. One has the elder vine on it and the other a sprout swarm. Now, for a normal group, this might actually be a challenge. Ace, however, is in charge of the only people capable of producing the counter for the myconids spore magic and so has more than enough doses of the stuff.


    Doyle is a little sad that they are able to trivialize the choice, the group easily able to move through the spore cloud and onto the exit. On the other hand, the potion to resist the spores requires spore to make and more than enough farmers have ended up dead trying to collect more since the money is better than just harvesting meat.


    Once through, Ace and his group are onto areas of the dungeon they haven¡¯t ever been before. There are reports of what to expect, but as they enter the room, the warnings about how you have to see it to believe it ring true. As Ace tries to take in the room his mind squirms.


    This room was simr to the room with the cliff that looked t, but worse. Whereas the t cliff room and some of the sections of the seventh floor felt wrong but could be ignored since it looked alright. This room put it all on disy. Each wall was straight and even, while each corner was made up of a crisp ny-degree angle. If only there weren¡¯t five of those corners.


    Ace knows of a few out-of-town groups who have managed to make it here and their current situation made the need for mental healthcare professionals all the more important. Worse was the fact that a high Intelligence stat actually makes this room¡¯s effect worse if you don¡¯t have it bnced with an equally high Wisdom score.


    Suffice it to say, the other groups who made it this far through min maxing their stats lost any mages they had. They saw too much and lost themselves to it. Doctor isn¡¯t even certain if regr therapy will help them, instead believing they¡¯ll either need a high level psychologist whose skills allow them to use mental powers to help root out the corruption or something that can wipe memories.


    Though he does admit that if you could force them to increase their wisdom that might help as well. Oh, and the memory wipe solution might not work if you wait too long. From what he can tell, the revtions caused by the spatial maniption can taint even old memories of stuff like a math ss on trigonometry or even something as simple as the memory of drawing a square.


    Thankfully, the Wisdom needed to stay sane isn¡¯t too extreme. In fact, anyone who isn¡¯t trying to dump everything into one stat or another should be fine. Still, these experiences were enough to warn Doyle about the potential dangers that could lurk in his dungeon if he doesn¡¯t design things carefully. Though admittedly, whatever he did with the room was still beyond him normally and might only be repeatable if he takes the path he got for it.

 Eighth Floor Conquered – Chapter 254

    Ace and his team; Sammy, Jack, Susan, Og, and Ruby managed to tank the strange effects of the square room with five sides decently well. While each of them tended towards having one or two stats they¡¯re focused on, they still spread the points around. Plus, they had a few paths which gave points per level to all stats.


    Of course, while they were capable of handling the strangeness, that didn¡¯t mean they were able to roll with it right away and this presented a chance. As they try to recover, the group of 20 kobold mages go on the offensive. After corralling the 14 wooden goats near them into charging, all 20 of them start to cast spells.


    While there does seem to be a general avoidance of the fire element, all the ssic elements are now shooting towards the team. Though at this point, a disy like this doesn¡¯t really phase the Ace andpany. It was a lot more dangerous in the previous room, but more because it could push them around.


    Not that spells weren¡¯t dangerous. Rather, with the skills and experience the team has, elemental bullet spells just seem weak. In particr, Sammy is the best at dealing with these fireworks disys of low-level spells. She stands in front of the group and raises her shield, which starts to glow.


    Then, as the spells begin to fall upon the group, they all seem to funnel towards Sammy¡¯s shield and get snuffed out as they touch it. Of course the skill won¡¯tst forever and since it is a more general ¡°pull attacks toward the shield¡± style of thing it isn¡¯t perfect. But against elemental bullet spells? The skill is way more than enough.@@novelbin@@


    Not that the ssic spell of summoning a small ball of stuff andunching it at your enemies is a bad spell. Almost every mage, even the nonbat types will have it as an option, and it can be improved. Whether that means more of the stuff, shaping the stuff, or making the stuff fly faster, you can do a lot with it.


    It is unfortunate for the dungeon kobolds that they aren¡¯t actually able to cast the spells on their own and depend on the wands to facilitate casting the spell. Maybeter on this issue will be fixed, but for now they¡¯re stuck using the base spell. So instead of worrying about them, Ace¡¯s attention is more on the small herd of wooden goats now barreling down on the group.


    Sure, the kobolds are dangerous, but it was the goats that really shined once you actually looked into it. In the background, they had slowly been getting stronger and harder to deal with. In fact, on this floor, Ace was certain the goats were actually stronger than anyone in town.


    Besides the strength though and despite their own strength increasing, the goats innate toughness was still well on its way to our ssing them. Originally, most goats could be taken out with a single hit and a few requiring a couple more after. The goats on the eighth floor almost never fell to a single hit, nearly always requiring a couple extra shots.


    If both sides had been progressing linearly that shouldn¡¯t be the case. Though as Ace blocks a goat with a wooden shield, he has to admit the goats aren¡¯t the only ones getting tougher. Still, it was clear that the townspeople weren¡¯t on the winning side of the toughness race.


    The only good thing is that while a higher Constitution does allow them to survive more of a beating, it doesn¡¯t remove their weaknesses. Though variants like the wooden goats definitely made hitting those spots harder.


    Then, as the fight seems to have stabilized, Og gets a little too close to one of the beds and the assassin vine under it grabs him. When Ace notices this, he calls Susan back from the front line to take care of it. This isn¡¯t a major problem, but with two of the damage dealers now distracted, especially Og who had been focusing on keeping the mages in check, things get a little hectic.


    Though of all the back line fighters, Og was the safest one to get grabbed. While Sammy has him beat in Constitution, he isn¡¯t actually all that far behind. Og has actually focused mostly on his physical stats at a pretty even split. Not that he would even match up with someone trying to be a tank even if they had the same Constitution scores.


    Sure, as a human, Og is receiving improvements to how tough he is. That isn¡¯t the main drive of what his constitution score means to him, though. Instead of a focus on toughness, he views it as a way to increase his Qi pool. A vitally important resource when ites to his focus on using anything as a throwing weapon.


    Though not for any kind of damage, at least not yet. While Qi can stick to thrown objects, it isn¡¯t like Mana and quickly fades. The reason Og finds it so useful, despite using throwing weapons, is the fact that it supports what he is throwing and provides a slight amount of correction to the objects rotation after release. This allows him to do stuff like you would see in superheroics. In fact, if he gets his Strength high enough he could replicate stuff like throwing a house without it justing apart as he tries to lift it.


    Not that he can do much more in this specific fight. While not having him to thin the mages and keep them pinned down made it harder. By the time Og was free from the assassin vine, the fight was wrapping up.


    With the fight over, the group takes a quick look around the room, though they do avoid going near any of the beds. It is a bit disappointing in the end. Ace had half expected some of the furniture to be normal with their looks just being warped by the room¡¯s oddness, but nope. Every piece of furniture is basically unusable.


    Seeing how they react, Doyle gets a bit of augh out of it. While his original purpose wasn¡¯t to mess with them like this. The fact that none of the furniture was usable ended up havingyers to it. Not only did it enhance the room¡¯s strangeness, it teased them withplete furniture that they couldn¡¯t use.


    After that discovery, Ace andpany push on to the next room. The mirror maze! Except it is so much more than just a mirror maze as the group quickly finds out. After all, what¡¯s the first thing you try if fighting your way through a mirror maze? You try to break the mirrors, of course. After all, even if doing so doesn¡¯t let you break the maze, at least you¡¯re removing some of the confusion the mirrors cause.


    So Jack takes his mace to the nearest mirror and not only does it fail to shatter, but there is a sound of metal hitting metal and he suffers twice the recoil. Very strange, especially since the mirror doesn¡¯t seem to even have a scuff mark on it. Though after Susan tries to mark it with a piece of chalk, they assume they know what is up.


    After all, the chalk seemed to rub off onto the mirror, it just didn¡¯t stick for even a moment and fell to the ground. Except then Ruby tosses a spark at it. Should be a simple enough thing. The spark hits the mirror and goes poof. Except it doesn¡¯t. Instead, the spark seems to bounce off the mirror.


    Good thing they can still mark the ground or else it could have taken them hours to figure out they were going in circles. Instead, it just took them getting rerouted to the entrance three times to realize the marks they had been leaving on the ground now sometimes seemed to go through a mirror. Certainly strange, but upon seeing that it became pretty obvious that the maze could rearrange itself.


    Not by too much, there were set patterns to it. So, once that was figured out as well as the grid it seemed to work on so they knew when to mark the ground, the actual maze part got easier, if tedious. More insidious were the small side passages.


    One moment there would be a small alcove dead end and the next it would open up onto another corridor that had monsters in it. So, while the maze never reorganized itself while being watched, it did care if you were right next to a wall that was opening up. The only saving grace is that what the group could see was greatly extended by the nature of a mirror maze.


    Then Ace got grabbed by a vine reaching through one of the mirrors. It tried to pull him through, but Susan was quick enough to grab him. The others soon followed and Sammy took the time to line up a shot and, with one mighty overhead swing, sliced off the vines with her sword. After that, the group moves far enough away that not even an elder assassin vine could grab them and they take a moment to recover.


    Ace rubs his neck, ¡°That was close. Though more worrying is if there are more of those ambushes.¡±


    Ruby nods, ¡°You managed to hold on long enough for someone else to grab you. If I got grabbed, I might be gone before others even notice.¡±


    Ace, ¡°Besides that vine all we¡¯ve seen are sprouts and their big brothers. While dangerous in some ways, they¡¯re not as physically threatening as that vine monster was. Worse, that assassin vine is still alive and the room likes to shift the maze around. For all we know, that assassin vine could be right next to us at this very moment.¡±


    Susan pulls some rope out of her backpack. ¡°We should pair up and tie ourselves together. Not everyone on one big rope, though. While less threatening, the myconids are still dangerous. Instead, just one to one, pairing those with lower Strength to those with strength to spare. It wasn¡¯t strong enough to grab Ace away, so we just need to give the rest of the group a chance to respond.¡±


    Rubyughs, ¡°I feel a little singled out here. The rest of you all have decent strength while I¡¯m a pure caster.¡±


    Susan smirks as she ties Ruby to herself. ¡°You still probably have twice the strength of any other ring mage. With our positions and achievements, we all have managed to grab some decent foundation building paths. Still, I understand your point.¡±


    Ace sighs, ¡°Well, now that we¡¯re all paired up, we should probably continue.¡±


    And they did. Though they didn¡¯t encounter the assassin vine even a single time after that. This was mostly because Doyle hadn¡¯t wanted to make the abduction of a party member an instant kill move. So while the assassin vine could pull someone through the impassible mirror, there was a close-by path that would have taken the rest of the party to the monster.


    Doyle could have ced the assassin vinepletely out of reach in its own little pocket and have allowed it to reach through any of the mirrors. In the end, though, he wanted to y fair. Though that more extreme idea was a thought for the future as it certainly would fix the weakness of the vine being an ambush predator.


    Doyle then realized he got caught in his musings and turned his attention back to the team who had made it into the next room. A room that to Ace and friends looked like a t field of grass with some goats, but to Doyle looked like a minefield of tripping hazards. It honestly wasn¡¯t the hardest room.


    In fact,pared to a few of the earlier rooms it was downright easy. Even with the unseen tripping hazards scattered about it was more frustrating than difficult. Something Susan more than agreed with.


    It isn¡¯t like Susan had never tripped or fallen in her life. However, as a professional, she was proud to have basically never done so while on a job. This room, though? Even as they fought the hundred or so goats in the room, no matter how much she paid attention to her feet, she kept tripping.


    For the most part, she would catch herself before eating a face full of grass. Still, when in the middle of a bloody fight, the rogue type tripping over their feet isn¡¯t exactly ideal. Most of the others in the party were able to stand still and fight.


    Susan? Not so much. Though even with the rooms imposed clumsiness, the monsters are soon cleared out and the party make their way to the next room. They do so slowly and with more than their fair share of falls, but they do make it.


    And then they¡¯re on the first floor again. Well, it looks like it anyway after the first few sub-rooms. The party fights their way through what with each passing enemy and room reveals itself to be an exact replica of the first floor. The only difference is the enemies are stronger. Suffice it to say, they are more than ready for it and soon find themselves in front of the portal to the next floor.

 Oh Hey, New People – Chapter 255

    Outside of the dungeon, time moved on. While to Ace andpany, it might not seem like they¡¯ve been in there all that long, once you add up all the breaks and the sheer number of monsters to fight it certainly isn¡¯t morning anymore. Though it certainly doesn¡¯t help them keep track of time now that they all have a decent amount of physical stats. What only a month or so ago would have exhausted them, not just requires a short break before they¡¯re ready.


    This isn¡¯t true for everyone, but a certain out-of-town team is at this very moment taking advantage of this to st through the first five floors. The group are good sorts, simr to Ace and the other people in the inner circle except for the fact they didn¡¯t end up with a dungeon nearby. They even ended up having to protect their settlement from wolves, though this was a more ssical defense involving a much smaller pack taking people on the edges.


    Still, the system rewarded them, and new paths opened up. In fact, they probably could have measured up to Ace and the others if they had arrived at the dungeon early. As it is though, they¡¯re ying catch-up, not that they realize that. As far as Henry and his five friends are concerned, they¡¯re as strong if not stronger than Ace and the others.


    Now they¡¯re finally delving into the dungeon and since they just got there, that includes the early floors. This was actually almost enough to draw Doyle¡¯s attention away from Ace¡¯s delve. It had been a while since thest team of true delvers had shown up, aspared to all the farmers.


    In the end though, Henry and his team make it through most of their delve unwatched. Though when ites to the end, Doyle couldn¡¯t help but pay attention as the team, in turn, pays attention to something others hadpletely ignored. The giant, super obvious, kobold monument.


    Not that other teams hadn¡¯t seen it. In fact, for a while there, Doyle basically had an rm set up for whenever someone entered the fifth floor just so he could see how people reacted to it. And how did they react? They didn¡¯t.


    Oh sure, they oohed and aahed over it a little, but at this point the people running the dungeon were all aiming for the sixth floor or sticking to the first three floors. So, the only people fighting the boss hadn¡¯t been there before and didn¡¯t stop or pay attention too much. Though if Doyle was to be honest, it was slightly his fault that no one reported it.


    After all, he let the kobolds build their town anew after every defeat. That meant that people expected the kobold town to be different every time. Sure, the addition of the monument was impressive and didn¡¯t quite match the rest of the ce, but how were the delvers supposed to know?


    They¡¯d never seen the floor before and wouldn¡¯t be seeing it again. Henry and his team were different, though. Instead of just looking at the monument or touching the lowest step, they actually searched around it and climbed up.


    This made all the difference as the farther up the steps you go, the more pressure the monument puts off. Doyle had been able to notice it right away when the thing first appeared because it was literally in him. For others, though, it would be hard to pick out from the slight pressure his dungeon has already. Henry and friends were the first to climb the step pyramid and thus notice that the monument itself wasn¡¯t normal.


    Henry reached the top of the pyramid section and ced his hand on the obelisk section. ¡°Hey Trevor, I¡¯m feeling something really heavy from this thing. Is it pinging any of your magic stuff?¡±


    Trevor rolls his eyes, ¡°Sir, we both know that isn¡¯t how that works. Though if you¡¯re just asking if it¡¯s magic? Well sir, it isn¡¯t. Not a drop of unnatural energy to be found. In fact, if not for the pressure that I can already feel down here, I would just say it was a fancy bit of dungeon stone.¡±


    Henry snorts, ¡°Well it isn¡¯t and I haven¡¯t heard news of this yet. You think it is new?¡±


    Ady in a cloak speaks up, ¡°Not new new, but certainly recent. I¡¯ve heard a few of the dungeon farmers mention seeing it, but there aren¡¯t any official reports.¡±


    Henry, ¡°Good catch Alice. Anyway, going by that I¡¯m assuming no one has actually reported it to the guild yet. I bet we can earn some rep if we do. Is everyone up for ending the dive here? We¡¯ll be able to hit up the sixth floor next time, anyway.¡±


    The otherdy in the party nods, ¡°I didn¡¯t have to heal too much, but without a refresh I might not have enough mana if someone gets seriously hurt.¡±


    Trevor sighs, ¡°Susie, you really have to up your mana pool.¡±


    She shrugs, ¡°I¡¯m working on it. I figured you would prefer me to have the proper stats to reattach limbs first.¡±


    A guy wearing a muscle shirtughs, ¡°Good thing I¡¯ve got enough Con to regrow a limb if I need to!¡±


    Susie rolls her eyes, ¡°And how long will that take? I don¡¯t mind if you¡¯re willing to step out of the party for a month or two. Maybe by then we will have reced you.¡±


    Henry fake coughs, ¡°Ah, Susie, let up on Chad, will you? I know neither of you really get along, but we¡¯re a team. Anyway, it sounds like we¡¯re ready to.¡±


    Then he turns to thest party member, ¡°Unless you have something to add? Remember, even though you weren¡¯t an original part of the team, you are still a part of the team.¡±@@novelbin@@


    The guy shrugs and Alice sighs, ¡°Just let him be. He¡¯ll speak up when he needs to. Not like he¡¯s mute or anything. After all, he managed to introduce himself as Ion.¡±


    Henry nods, ¡°Fair enough, now let¡¯s report this to Jim! Maybe if I get enough reputation I can take over from him. After all, I should be stronger than him. He¡¯s just been here on easy mode, grinding away at the dungeon.


    ¡°The only challenge they faced was a few wolves. Hah! We fought a wolf pack as well and we didn¡¯t feel the need to rename our town after it. Sure, Jim has an in as a local, but a guild like the adventurers guild should have the strongest lead.¡±


    Susie sighs at this, but doesn¡¯t speak up and so the group finishes gathering their things and leaves. Once on the surface, the team splits. Half going to turn in their harvested meat, the other led by Henry head directly to the guild.


    In the guild, Jim is going over various reports. Stuff like how the drop rate for actual equipment is 10% for guild members and the fact that somehow there has already been over 10 gold in fees paid. There isn¡¯t anything too exciting and Henry is about to fix that.


    Well, he will once he manages to actually meet with Jim. Even in a new guild hall like this, it isn¡¯t easy to talk to the guild master. Though with the news they do have, they eventually make it through to him.


    Jim, however lets them stew a little as they stand in front of his desk. While he might like political nonsense, that doesn¡¯t mean he is clueless. So, for an up-anding team like this, he makes certain to keep up with the various protocols.


    Though once he finishes reading the report in his hands, Jim looks up and addresses them. ¡°So, there has been a significant change on the fifth floor?¡±


    Henry takes a step forward and begins to exin what they found, as well as why it isn¡¯t just a new bit of scenery on the floor.


    Suffice it to say, this news does not make Jim a happy camper. Not only does a monument like that bring its own load of worries, he also isn¡¯t able to go and take a look quite yet because Ace is currently in the dungeon. While it does mean the two won¡¯t ever be able to dungeon dive together in the near future, both Jim and Ace agreed that one of them should be outside at all times. You never know what might happen when delving a dungeon.


    Though in the end, since the monument is on the fifth floor, it won¡¯t immediately affect anyone from the town¡¯s inner circle. At this point, even the purest crafter has been boosted through the kobold boss fight.


    Still, with the reports of kobold sightings around town, something will need to be done. The only thing that eased Jim¡¯s worries was the fact he didn¡¯t have a gut feeling about it. So, whether the oue ends up being good or bad, it won¡¯t be too far in either direction.


    Of course, back in the dungeon, Ace and his team have no clue about what was happening up top. Instead, they¡¯re shocked by the ninth floor. So far, each floor has been unique in its own way.


    As for the ninth floor? It is almost too straightforward. The hallway isn¡¯t too big, though the ceiling is definitely taller than not and the width a little wider than a small room. Besides that, though, there isn¡¯t anything much else going on past an aggressive curve that manages to cut off their view after about fifty paces. Though when Susan gets the distance, it is quickly revealed that the hallway continues the curve.


    Oh, and there are sunflowers, a lot of sunflowers. This is a nice discovery as not only are the seeds a nice treat that will add more variety to people¡¯s diet, but they have medicinal and magical properties. The medicinal side of things is simply enough. They¡¯re good for basic inmmation relief.


    Though it is on the magical side where things really light up. Ace, in particr, is quite happy to see them. ¡°This is perfect! I¡¯m not going to say I specifically needed sunflowers, but there are a few rituals I¡¯ve been imbued with by the system that need them.¡±


    Rubyughs, ¡°It isn¡¯t just you who can use them. We¡¯re going to have to make sure someone is harvesting these, though that might be hard. We¡¯re a bit far from the start here.¡±


    Ace shakes his head, ¡°You don¡¯t get it. I received those rituals for being the person in charge of the town. More than that, specifically for being in charge of one of the world¡¯s first true towns. The various rituals I know of are weird and varied.¡±


    Susan nods, ¡°I could see how sunflowers would be useful for someone in your position. As far as I remember, they¡¯re generally connected to things like the sun, luck, loyalty, and of course fertility.¡±


    Ace nods, ¡°The sun part is neither here nor there as we aren¡¯t exactly nning to worship a sun god anytime soon. The other three, though? While I can use any material that matches those aspects for most stuff, a few rituals are more specific. In particr, the dried sunflowers, stalk and all, make wonderful ritual staves for certain holiday celebrations.


    ¡°Of course, even without worshiping a sun deity, the whole sun connection makes them great for rituals on both the shortest and longest days of the year as well as spring in general to wee the sun back. Though in the end, as the ruler of a town, what interests me the most is that loyalty but. Sunflowers aren¡¯t some mind control cheat, mind you. However, with the right holiday celebrations, I can make it so that people generally feel better when loyal to the town and worse when being disloyal.¡±


    Susan raises an eyebrow, ¡°No, that is basically mind control, if on a low level. Though at the very least, it is a frightening level of hidden positive reinforcement.¡±

 Sunflowers – Chapter 256

    Ace coughs awkwardly, ¡°Well, I don¡¯t intend it as...@@novelbin@@


    ¡°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 won¡¯t know it is happening. I know there is a better word for this besides mind control as it isn¡¯t quite that far, seeing as the system is okay with it.¡±


    Jack shakes his head, ¡°The fact this sort of training doesn¡¯t count as mind control as far as the system¡¯s 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 I¡¯ve seen of the system, the restrictions on stuff like mind control are a lot more specific than not. It won¡¯t 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 don¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t 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 wouldn¡¯t 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, you¡¯ll have lockstep progression and very specific bonuses from, for instance, getting plus one to Strength. They won¡¯t even have varied names for the stats, with the most direct trantion being the same across the entire system.


    ¡®So, while this certainly isn¡¯t the most expensive system out there. It is actually meant more to help us than anything else. Now, I won¡¯t 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 didn¡¯t have malicious intentions or even just neutral ones when they bought and installed the system. After all, my mom wouldn¡¯t 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 haven¡¯t 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, they¡¯re 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, isn¡¯t 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 hadn¡¯t 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 wasn¡¯t able to stop Sammy. A thing it probably should have focused on as her sword is more than able to slice off the Udoroot¡¯s 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 hasn¡¯t recovered from the stun and Jack falls to the ground.


    Susan rushes over to his side and finds that while he still breathes, he isn¡¯t responding. One health potionter and Jack seems to have stabilized, but they can¡¯t really tell. So, after collecting up the Udoroot¡¯s 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 wasn¡¯t physical, but rather in Jack¡¯s mind.


    As Doctor puts away the few tools he has managed to scrounge together, he can¡¯t help but sigh. ¡°Ace, I don¡¯t see any reason why Jack shouldn¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t 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 don¡¯t 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 won¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t actually make you wiser. However, if a person knows enough to realize that, hopefully they¡¯ll know better than to neglect their mental stats. We aren¡¯t 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, we¡¯ll 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 wasn¡¯t 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 didn¡¯t actually kill the beast, but whatever the case may be, those flowers are special. I don¡¯t 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 I¡¯ve seen, it won¡¯t be any good for general detection and instead focused on finding out if someone has the potential for it or not.¡±


    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, I¡¯m 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 isn¡¯t 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 wasn¡¯t 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 they¡¯re weak, you could still use them when shopping to make the stuff you¡¯re weighing weigh less. Nonsense uses like that.¡¯


    Allyughed at that image, ¡®I understand where you¡¯reing 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?¡¯@@novelbin@@


    Allyughs, ¡®Well first, you have to remember that each stat represents multiple things about a person. Strength doesn¡¯t 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 can¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t certain, some people are just weird. However, going by what we know of him, my guess is the most likely oue. Jack doesn¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t 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 can¡¯t just keep building your foundation until you¡¯ve 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 god¡¯s of Strength out there. For you and everyone in Wolf¡¯s 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 human¡¯s muscles don¡¯t 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 let¡¯s 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 Jim¡¯s 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 I¡¯m 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 they¡¯ll 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 won¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t 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 wasn¡¯t using his full strength yet.


    Now knowing this wasn¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t 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 Henry¡¯s 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 doesn¡¯t release all the tension and break her table. With a sigh, she rolls her eyes, ¡°Not bad. You¡¯re probably the strongest normal person here. Going by pre-system standards you¡¯re easily beyond the strength of an Olympian athlete.


    ¡°That isn¡¯t strong enough. Ace, the leader of this town and not even a pure physical fighter, is stronger than I am. They¡¯ve 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 isn¡¯t 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.


    ¡°I¡¯m 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. They¡¯ve been at the forefront of exploring this dungeon from the very front as well and while I can¡¯t be sure, there are likely secrets to it.¡±


    Henry crosses his arms, ¡°And what of it? If I¡¯m so far behind, don¡¯t 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. I¡¯m sure you noticed.


    ¡°They want to stick their heads in the sand and ignore the system. Sure, they¡¯re 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 aren¡¯t making use of it!


    ¡°So I¡¯m going to have to go and take it all back. If I just wanted to do so by crude force, we wouldn¡¯t 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. I¡¯m sure that if given enough time they¡¯ll have more, but the fact that even they only have one shows how rare they are. After all, even if they aren¡¯t 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 didn¡¯t stay. That path clearly doesn¡¯t fit you.


    ¡°No, you wouldn¡¯t 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.


    ¡°You¡¯ve already experienced being outnumbered in the dungeon so it shouldn¡¯t 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 don¡¯t even have any mages. The idiots havepletely foregone magic! This isn¡¯t even some religious nonsense, they just mistrust the system so much that they won¡¯t 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 group¡¯s might and magic, but also the ability to have taken them out without even being noticed.¡±


    Henry snorts, ¡°Easy! But why don¡¯t you do it if you¡¯re so strong? Also, you still haven¡¯t 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 wouldn¡¯t 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 don¡¯t 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 Henry¡¯s team clearly know their boss quite well as they all sigh and get ready to join up with Melonie. As for Henry himself? He¡¯s a little caught up in the ideas that just got tossed his way.

 A Discovery Of Great Worth – Chapter 258

    With Ace back in town, Jim didn¡¯t waste any time gathering together a team to check out the kobold monument. Not his usual team, though. Since the goal isn¡¯t to dive deep, but rather to just check out something on the fifth floor, he grabs those best suited to check it out.


    That results in a teamposed of him, Doctor, both Barrais, Kelly, and Billy Brown. Thest guy was one of the two core members who came from overseas. As for why he was joining this expedition? Simple enough, he enjoyednguages to the extreme.


    In fact, he enjoyed them so much, even the system recognized it. Not that anyone else knew this, but he had received the skill polyglot. It wasn¡¯t quite as overpowered as some of the pre-system RPGs made, but having it still meant Billy could analyze newnguages and break them down like never before. Of course, since Jim didn¡¯t know that, why did he get Billy to join the team?


    Well, Billy has one side passion outside of learning normalnguages. He loved learning congs. Stuff like the made up elfnguage a popr author made and the various tweaks the audience did to them so they felt more natural. So while he was ¡°only¡± proficient in seven different majornguages, the guy was passing in at least seven more fantasynguages.


    Languages which, except for a couple more out there ones, were confirmed to bear at least passing resemnce to majornguages spoken out in the wider universe. In fact, the elf one turned out to be eerily simr to the major elf tradenguage. So suffice it to say, Billy was going to be the best bet at understanding any writing they might find.


    And so, with the team gathered, they quickly make their way through the first four floors and arrive on the fifth. Not that beating the boss was in question or anything. While none of them are at the point that they could solo the floor or anything. With just Jim and the Barrais, it was almost guaranteed. No, that wasn¡¯t what stopped them.


    Instead, the Barrais were going to do some scouting. The previous teams that had seen the monument had all done so after beating the floor and so didn¡¯t really get to see how the kobolds were treating the thing. So now was the time for stealth.


    In fact, after they confirmed the entrance was clear of kobolds, everyone else retreated to the previous floor so they wouldn¡¯t give away the Barrais. A move that proves itself as moments after they leave, a patrol passes by.


    Jeremy and Susan both manage to go unnoticed, but the rest of the team certainly wouldn¡¯t have managed it. Though after that near miss, the two manage to infiltrate into the kobold town rtively easily. Not like the kobolds, we¡¯re necessarily ready for this kind of thing in the first ce. Sure, a few teams would send out a scout, but that was always to find where the patrol was and would generally get caught.


    Susan, in particr managed to find a really nice spot on top of one of the buildings that surrounded the center space. Jeremy, on the other hand, ended up with a less than ster position underneath some scrap wood. He could still see into the center where the boss and monument were, just from foot level.


    Still, they both managed to see more than enough. Most importantly, the kobolds were not worshiping the monument. Don¡¯t get me wrong, they clearly revered the thing, but it wasn¡¯t a matter of faith and deities. A thing which both of them had trained themselves to recognize after the incident with the announcement of Moota and the crazed being that Ace had banished from town.


    While the Wolf¡¯s Rest still operated on the ideal of religious freedom, some would even say more so than the pre-system country did, they weren¡¯t lenient with people because of it. The idea of being able to get away with things because of one¡¯s religion was a thing of the past. So while the town doesn¡¯t care if you worship a devil or fae; you can¡¯t go around sacrificing people, setting up fairy rings, or not paying your taxes. Though, of course, if it was revealed that you were worshiping something like that, the people of the town might not be too happy with you.


    This and more flitted through Susan¡¯s mind as she watched, especially when she recognized the capstone of the monument as being representations of various kobold deities. Not that she recognized which deities, Susan wasn¡¯t exactly knowledgeable of such things. However, her recent training did allow her to recognize depictions of the divine and their pretenders.


    Down below, Jeremy was able to spot some things of his own. In particr, was the fact that while the number and type of kobold around the thing stayed the same. The actual kobolds were cycling through. Susan didn¡¯t particrly notice this one as they did mostly look the same from above and she was paying attention to other things. Jeremy, on the other hand could see much above the knees and so noticed a difference of how dirty the feet were and in what way.


    In the end, though, there wasn¡¯t really much for the two to see. While the boss and her closest minions seemed to talk, the Barrais didn¡¯t understand them. As for the other kobolds? Sure, they didn¡¯t move around like robots or anything, but it felt like something you might see attached to a really fancy model train setup. Like clockwork, the normal kobolds and animals cycled through their lives.


    Upon hearing this report, Jim was both happy and a good bit worried. Sure, the boss going off script, as it were, was normal enough. However, there shouldn¡¯t be other monsters acting like that. The only problem was that he didn¡¯t know if this was a new thing or how they always were.


    Jim sighed and got the team moving. While interesting, they weren¡¯t going to find out more until after they could examine the monument a little closer. And then they won.@@novelbin@@


    Sure, it wasn¡¯t quite a walk in the park. The near stampede, not an actual one as far as the system was concerned, of all the animals hurt. Yes, the kobolds managed to put up a spectacr fight. In the end, though; Jim, Kelly, and the Barrais outranged them in a deadly manner. That and Doctor to keep them in top shape after any stray hits meant even the boss was quickly dealt with and the threat of death shockingly low.


    The only thing of interest in the entire fight was the fact that the Barrais had upgraded their ranged options. They had always been good with the ssic hidden weapons, but rarely used them at range so as to not risk losing their weapons. Plus, throwing knives and needles aren¡¯t exactly being produced at the moment so it was all pre-system gear and thus even on the fifth floor their usefulness had begun to drop off.


    Their answer? Stone weapons supplied by Kelly through the magic of magic. The two hadn¡¯t yet really clicked with any kind of magic yet so the option was limited, but at some point Kelly had figured out the perfect spell to handle things. She would create a simple ritual circle of some sort and by supplying it with magic, the circle would suck up stone from beneath it and turn it into throwing needles.


    Doyle could only imagine any future enemies of the town that tried to siege them. That spellbined with some wood and stone would be able to create basic arrows like nothing else. Sure, handcrafted arrows by anyone besides the newest of beginners would likely out damage them. That wasn¡¯t the point, though. Special arrows are good for taking care of special enemies. These arrows, on the other hand, would be usable with most archer skills and could be spammed out without worry.


    Which is, of course why Doyle hadn¡¯t seen anyone else use it. Ace and Jim had both agreed that the spell was a little too troublesome to spread around quite yet and so only the inner circle knew it. Though speaking of inner circles, Jim and his party just finished cleaning up from the boss fight and were in the inner circle of the kobold town, looking up at the monument.


    In particr, both Kelly and Billy were grinning like fools as they began to canvas the structure. Each carving taken note of and even the negative space was analyzed. Of the two, Billy was the first to get results. More because he was focused on one aspect as well as there being some vague connections between the runes and some of thenguages he had passing familiarity with.


    Now Ally had assumed most of the knowledge on the monument was going to be basically useless since it came from a different dimension and so would follow different rules. An assumption which wouldn¡¯t be wrong if it had involved any sort of advanced knowledge. However, that wasn¡¯t what the monument was about.


    Instead of some sort of record of how to advance up the techdder, itid out a foundation. A storage of knowledge on how to start being civilized, not for after bing a civilization. Sure, even the most simple of things wouldn¡¯t work in every dimension, but the kobolds who made the monument had something to work with. It was for kobolds and so only needed to ount for dimensions where they could exist naturally.


    That meant it was full of all kinds of stuff like the six simple machines. More important for Wolf¡¯s Rest though, was that it contained some basic knowledge which involved supernatural energies. As while kobolds technically don¡¯t require any of the stuff to work, a majority require it to develop and survive.


    The knowledge itself was vague, of course. Whoever made the monument must have realized it wouldn¡¯t be limited to just their home dimension. What it described though was worth more than all the materials and items retrieved from the dungeon so far.


    How to identify if an illness was in some way supernatural. Simple solutions for when a local pest bes more than just an animal and threatens the crops. Ways to test the local powers to get a feel for what kind of dangers might be lurking. There were even methodologies for how to saturate food crops with power and then figure out if the resulting crop was a good thing or not.


    All of it was generic as well. Whether it was mana, qi, or something more obscure, like prana; the monument had a number of ways to test how it all worked, the best way to handle it, and some warnings on when not to handle it. This monument basically had everything a small group of sapients would need to explore a dangerous and magical world. So, while the town wasn¡¯t exactly in unfamiliar territory with the whole ¡°being sapient¡± thing, the stuff about exploring the magical side of life would be of great importance.


    The only problem was that the farther up the monument Billy got, the harder it was to read. It was the samenguage and writing system in theory. However, what it discussed became more profound and the meanings of what he read began to slip through his mind and right back out. It got so bad that he had to give up after the middle step.


    Not that he wanted to, but whoever had carved the words, while okay with others reading the earlier bit, must have been highly against anyone that wasn¡¯t a kobold figuring out the upper steps of the pyramid, to say nothing of the obelisk.


    Though as Billy lost steam, Kelly was finallying into her own. She had observed the entire structure and was now dissecting the various meanings behind it.

 Why They Can’t Remember – Chapter 259

    To Kelly, the stepped nature of the monument¡¯s lower section was obvious enough, especially after Billy¡¯s 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 wasn¡¯t 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 wasn¡¯t 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 weren¡¯t 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 wasn¡¯t sure of the details, but that and more opened up before her. Though of course the capstone of the obelisk wasn¡¯t 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 didn¡¯t 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 wasn¡¯t 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 Kelly¡¯s 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? I¡¯m looking at it right now and the thing isn¡¯t really that mysterious.¡¯


    Allyughs, ¡®Most of what they¡¯re grappling with is the extra-dimensional nature of the thing. I still can¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t 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 don¡¯t 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.


    ¡®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 can¡¯t in turn summon anything of equal or greater strength to itself.


    ¡®Not saying there aren¡¯t 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 aren¡¯t 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. I¡¯m assuming there is some leeway and signs of this happening so we aren¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t 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 don¡¯t actually get hurt by them per se. Or rather, for something as simple as an invasion of demons, they don¡¯t 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, ¡®Don¡¯t worry, it isn¡¯t 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 boss¡¯s soul before pulling it in. Also, while whatever was being done left a mark on the souls of fungaloids longer than not, it wasn¡¯t permanent.¡¯


    Ally makes a sour face, ¡®Yeah, I think you mentioned something about it? Maybe not asplete as that, but I¡¯m surprised I didn¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t strange. Since even for you it felt like a good distance away, we should be safe until you¡¯re more ready to defend yourself.


    ¡®Also, since the dimension we¡¯re 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 doesn¡¯t require supernatural powers to exist. They¡¯re 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, let¡¯s 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 doesn¡¯t make sense. It says they¡¯re avable to be used for all of my unlocked floors and yet I can very much tell they¡¯re 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, I¡¯m a bit ignorant on the subject.¡¯


    Doyle, ¡®So why isn¡¯t my dungeon more stable now that I¡¯ve 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, you¡¯ll 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 don¡¯t 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 dungeon¡¯s 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 aren¡¯t 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 dungeon¡¯s bosses is to defend the dungeon. So while having the myconids on the outskirts of the boss¡¯ domain might seem like enough, such threats aren¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t happen the instant the fight finishes. However, it won¡¯t 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 aren¡¯t 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 don¡¯t know.¡¯@@novelbin@@

 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 weren¡¯t 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.@@novelbin@@


    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 wasn¡¯t 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 wasn¡¯t 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 weren¡¯t going to beplete barbarians when they finally got out into the rest of the universe. That, however, didn¡¯t change the fact that watching it was boring when you weren¡¯t involved.


    Instead, he turned to his own experiments. More specifically, Doyle¡¯s 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 wasn¡¯t 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.


    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 wasn¡¯t 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 hadn¡¯t 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 can¡¯t really advance or grow on their own if they aren¡¯t real.


    Of course, the worst part from Doyle¡¯s view, is that those few real queens are some of the ones he first ced way back at the start. He didn¡¯t 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 didn¡¯t 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 don¡¯t 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 didn¡¯t notice anything as most of the action happened when they weren¡¯t around, but it was wild. After those three days and an uncounted number of experienced days because of Doyle¡¯s 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 isn¡¯t 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 Doyle¡¯s 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 didn¡¯t 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 they¡¯re 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 isn¡¯t 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, they¡¯re 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 isn¡¯t 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 wouldn¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t 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 weren¡¯t 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 ant¡¯s don¡¯t suffer this problem as they split the work. As the system shows, it isn¡¯t impossible to watch literally everything. Dungeons and in fact most sapients just aren¡¯t up to it. A swarm of ants, though? Well, now we¡¯re 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 floor¡¯s entrance portal. Sure, it means they can¡¯t do much about enemies that pass them by. However, that doesn¡¯t 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 wasn¡¯t 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.


    So with his choice made and a new ant nest ced, Doyle sits there for a moment. He pauses a moment more. Right, he doesn¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t 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 Doyle¡¯s 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 can¡¯t really tell what is happening as the queen¡¯s 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 doesn¡¯t take too much time, but it isn¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t include the legs and antenna. Rather, just the central body and head parts are the size of an adult¡¯s thumb.


    Quite impressive, though through knowledge provided by his ant pattern, Doyle realizes this isn¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t like there are rainforests around here, so most ants people will have seen are the smaller kind. Good thing the queen isn¡¯t meant to be parading around outside of her nest.


    However, before he can think on this more, a sort of static seems to invade Doyle¡¯s 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 isn¡¯t 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 wasn¡¯t too big. After all, he is restocking the floors as they get cleared multiple times throughout the day.@@novelbin@@


    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 aren¡¯t cheap. However, he couldn¡¯t 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 wasn¡¯t 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 don¡¯t 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 Wolf¡¯s Rest. Though even as it is, they¡¯re basically already supplying all the meat.


    Which would be more impressive if people¡¯s 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 Wolf¡¯s Rest weren¡¯t 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 didn¡¯t 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 wasn¡¯t 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 don¡¯t 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 won¡¯t have been a waste.¡±


    Henryughs, ¡°Good chance for me to go get some more lessons from that butcher in town. I don¡¯t get why everyone insists on using the much less skilled locals to do the butchering when they¡¯ve got a true pro in the system shop.


    Susie shudders, ¡°That <i>thing</i> isn¡¯t right. I don¡¯t get why you¡¯re so insistent on learning from them. It isn¡¯t like you want to be a butcher.¡±


    Henry shakes his head, ¡°You wouldn¡¯t get it. The guy knows stuff! Didn¡¯t 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, ¡°I¡¯m the rogue and yet I¡¯m not in with this. Like, sneak attacks and hitting weak points should be my jam, but I can¡¯t stand the guy. There is just something off about him. Plus, his past is totally locked down. No question works and not because he doesn¡¯t want to tell. No, it is because he can¡¯t tell. I advise you to give up on his lessons.¡±


    Henry snorts, ¡°You just don¡¯t get it. He knows stuff! Sure, some bits of him are a little unstable, but I¡¯m willing to ascribe that to some kind of past trauma.¡±


    Susie rolls her eyes and sarcastically quips, ¡°Yeah, just a little unstable.¡±

 Despite The Wait, He Was Too Early – Chapter 262

    Of course, after the party breaks up when they get back to town, Henry is off to see the butcher. And honestly, he isn¡¯t wrong in his opinion. The butcher can help him. In fact, with the limitations ced on the butcher by Ace, it could even be seen as safe.


    Yet still, Henry is about the only one who is regrly getting lessons that hasn¡¯t been assigned to do so. After all, even if Ace doesn¡¯t like the butcher, Ace also understands they need his knowledge. As it stands, even if they had a person who lived their entire lives as a true butcher, they¡¯d be out of sorts.


    How are you even supposed to deal with a monster that is more rock than meat? What do you do with a nt that seems more animal than not? That and more to stumble across out in the wilds.


    In fact, Ace and Jim both have made it a requirement that anyone who is assigned to exploration needs at least a few lessons. If only because magic can do some crazy things to biology. Still, those lessons are closely watched, whereas Henry is just sort of hanging around in the butcher shop unsupervised.


    His party sort of noticed this, but it isn¡¯t like they can do much about it. Though maybe they would have been more worried if they knew of just what he was doing during their days off. Because learning how to butcher what are pre-butchered chunks of meat isn¡¯t going to do you much good.


    Henry, encouraged by the butcher, was going out and procuring his own materials. At first, that meant buying some hunters catch every once in a while. It cost a little, but he didn¡¯t have to get his hands dirty or leave town.


    The butcher, however, ever so slowly pushed him towards sourcing his material directly. To go out and find monsters and animals, then use his knowledge to start the butchering process even while hunting it. After all, the only way to know how the meat was damaged before under the knife, is to be the one that damaged it.


    This does not go unnoticed. Both Ace, Jim, and even Melonie have their eyes on his current activities. Though for the moment, things are harmless enough. Not that they trust things to stay this way.


    And so, in the middle of this intrigue, down in the dungeon, the ageless ant queen finally figures things out. Through the magic of shenanigans of three types; path, system, and dungeon, she is able to pick up how tomunicate telepathically. Mind you, it isn¡¯t like she started speaking Doyle¡¯snguage. That will have to wait either for thenguage pack to be bought or for her to learn thenguage naturally.


    Doyle puts quite a lot of weight on this. While the roughmunication with his kobold boss is alright, for someone meant to basically act as a spy, he needs better. Though that does raise a question for him. ¡®Hey Ally, how does all thisnguage stuff work with the system? Like, I can understand to some degree if once I get thenguage pack, kobolds I spawn can speak kobold. However, what about those who are already alive or even when respawning don¡¯t start fresh like my kobold boss and her friends?¡¯


    Ally frowns, ¡®Give me a moment. I¡¯m going to need a little prep to exin this as it is more than just a simple ¡°system injects thenguage¡± sort of thing.¡¯


    Doyle nods his core and then sits back to watch as Ally begins to bring up various panels and disys, sorting through them and altering things. Neither of them are really paying attention to the time and so it flies by, first minutes then hours pass as she readies herself. In the end, it takes her a good 18 and a half hours to gather all the material she wants and to perfect it.


    Ally turns to Doyle and taps thergest screen of her presentation. On it are the pictures of a human in simple clothes, a dragon that looks bored despite Doyle¡¯sck of ability to judge its facial expressions, a kobold wearing what appears to be a toga, and a regr enough badger if not for the fact it is wearing sses. ¡®These are the four broad categories into which sapience is split. Now,nguage is not some inherent property of being sapient, but with broad strokes there are three types ofnguage based around sapience.¡¯


    Doyle raises a piece of stone he had shaped into a hand while waiting. Ally quints at it but finally relents, ¡®Do you have a question?¡¯


    Doyle raises a second piece of stone, this one in the shape of a hand pointing at something and has it do so towards the screen. ¡®You say three, but I see four.¡¯


    Ally¡¯s mouth tightens before rxing, ¡®The fourth can be seen as a wild card or a grab bag. To exin that, let¡¯s putbels on these pictures.¡¯


    Underneath each picture, abel is revealed starting with the human; born, growth, work, and chance.


    Doyle nods, ¡®That makes some sense, though aren¡¯t sapient animals also a work thing?¡¯


    Allyughs, ¡®If it was that easy, Moota wouldn¡¯t have so much trouble with getting bovine worshipers. I mean, sure, an animal can work towards sapience, especially those who might have some kind of heritage thates from the growth category. Overall, a badger gaining sapience when, as a species they aren¡¯t already developing towards sapience is for our purposes a random chance.


    ¡®Anyway, the three others should be easy enough to understand. Humans, elves, dwarves, and so on are all born sapient. They get handed a soul just for existing. Some beings, generally those you would describe as mythical, will gain a soul upon growing enough. This doesn¡¯t always mean maturity. Though with certain species like with dragons, bing sapient is considered one of the requirements to be seen as an adult.


    ¡®Then finally you have the poor kobolds. Like humans, they keeping into existence all across existence and yet they drew the short end of the stick. While the spark of sapience is there, it takes work to ignite it. In some dimensions, this is easy, even to the point that if one of the parents are sapient, the child will be born with a soul. Other dimensions make it so hard that even normal animals have a greater chance of gaining sapience.¡¯


    Doyle raises his ¡°hand¡± again, ¡®What is our dimension like?¡¯@@novelbin@@


    Ally shrugs, ¡®While not particrly one way or another, since kobolds are at least humanoid in form they¡¯ll have an easy time spreading sapience once the ball gets rolling.


    ¡®Anyway¡¯, and she pulls over a smaller screen. On it are a bunch ofnguages arranged as three groups, though some such as kobold are more in between than others. ¡®This is the three mainnguage groupings.¡¯


    Ally points towards the group with Doylesnguage in it, ¡®This is what is generally referred to as the civilizednguages, a slightly bigoted way of saying they¡¯re from beings which are born sapient. The next group with Draconic and what not, are gguages. Technically, they don¡¯t only show up in the growth type sapients, but for the most part that group does have a lock down on them. These are a funny group ofnguages as even if the creature should be incapable of understanding it, if they¡¯re rted to the right species they¡¯ll still be able to understand it.


    ¡®Then finally we have racialnguages. As you might have guessed, these belong to the sapients that have to work for it. Instead of there being onenguage that all members of the species can speak, it is instead a grouping ofnguages close enough that knowing one version will get you by with another. The basic idea is that while a species like kobolds don¡¯t innately have anguage, something about their mind or body makes it so that when they do develop anguage, even without having ever heard the koboldnguage before, they¡¯ll end up developing kobold.


    ¡®Though notice how I ce the koboldnguage somewhat between racial and gic. Remember, their writtennguage is draconic. So, while they aren¡¯t directly rted to dragons, there is a mystical connection. No matter how weird a kobold is, at worst their own version of the koboldnguage will end up sounding like a heavily ented version of mainstream kobold. Not all racialnguages are that close together.¡¯


    Doyle nods, ¡®So how does this rte to jammingnguages into my monsters?¡¯


    Ally points towards the civilizednguage group, ¡®These arepletely free formnguages. Just on your alone with only humans you managed to develop hundreds of distinctnguages. Of course, it doesn¡¯t have to work that way. The more magic a world develops with, the more likely it is that they¡¯ll end up having one widenguage, even if thatnguage ends up changing.


    ¡®It is so much easier to spread anguage when you can have one dude who can teleport around and force others to speak theirnguage. These are shockingly easy for the system to stick in someone¡¯s head while also being the hardest to learn.The only physical connection they have is pronunciation and so the system can basically plop the entirenguage into someone¡¯s mind in the form of a seed. Sure, they won¡¯t be speaking it like a native from the get go, but they can work towards that if they need to. I¡¯m willing to bet thenguage pack the system is offering will be almost entirely civilizednguages.¡¯


    Doyle, ¡®So, if the civilized tongues are the easiest for the system but the hardest to learn naturally, which of the other two are the reverse?¡¯


    Ally shrugs, ¡®Not really the reverse per se, but they are different. For example, the kobold tongue will be harder for non-kobolds to learn and yet a snap for kobolds or any rted species. In fact, the system doesn¡¯t even really have to imnt kobolds with thenguage. If the civilizednguages were a seed, then for kobolds learning kobold, it is more like the seed is already there and the system just needs to water it. For others, the system has to go in and make some special connections because they don¡¯t have a kobold body.¡¯


    Doyle, ¡®Does that make the gguages the toughest to learn?¡¯


    Ally shrugs again, ¡®Eh, in theory they aren¡¯t really all that much tougher to learn than a racialnguage. In theory. The difficulty doesn¡¯te from learning thenguage, but rather using it. Notice how kobolds only have the written portion of draconic and not the spoken. Most gguages are actually primal tongues that hide great power.


    ¡®The primal bit and the fact that over the entirety of history, not every creature has kept to their own species means that thenguages are rtively easy to understand. Even pre-system, your had some draconic bloodlines kicking about. Where the problemes in is using gguages. The various written forms are the easiest though you better make certain to not try and use it for magic purposes. It is the spoken word that most find themselves incapable of.


    ¡®In fact, most believe that the only beings who can fully speak a gguage are thenguage¡¯s origin species. People generally are happy to be able to even just say a single word. Of course, that is mostly because if someone lucks out and can say fire in draconic, it will allow them to boost any power they have rted to fire. Though if thenguagees from something with only one type of power, thenguage will only be able to boost stuff using that power.¡¯


    Doyle, ¡®I¡¯m guessing the system isn¡¯t going to automatically unlock all the draconic words I¡¯m capable of speaking?¡¯


    Allyughs, ¡®Exactly. It will teach you how to understand thenguage, but to use it verbally you will have to experiment with it yourself. The system won¡¯t even give you a clue.¡¯


    Doyle, ¡®So how does the system imnt them if the others were seeds and watering or what have you?¡¯


    Ally shrugs, ¡®No one knows. While they¡¯re called gguages, that is because the easiest way to judge who will be able to speak them is gics. As far as most researchers can tell, the gguages aren¡¯t even stored in the mind or body while the soul doesn¡¯t show any signs of it. Gguages are one of those mysteries that even True Immortals haven¡¯t figured out entirely. Not even True Immortal dragons know, though there is a rumor that upon bing a True Immortal, those with an inborn gguage will open up an even higher level of saidnguage.¡¯


    Doyle sighs, ¡®I just realized something. Knowing what I know now, I would have held off on designating my ageless ant queen. As it is, once I get thenguage pack, she will have to get used to thenguage and grow into it. I¡¯m assuming if I had waited to designate her the system would have instead been able to create her with the knowledge fully formed in a simr manner to how I can create animals fully grown.¡¯


    Ally just smiles and shrugs.

 Well That’s Comforting – Chapter 263

    Doyle, ¡®So since I can¡¯t really do much about getting my queen up to speed, is there a way to kick-start the kobolds? With how you described the racialnguages, as long as I get them up to speed it should stick even if people start delving aggressively. Well, I guess the boss and her friends could spread it when given a chance. Actually, now that I think about it I don¡¯t think I have kobolds in the fifth floor farm so I guess they¡¯ll have to.¡¯


    Ally nods, ¡®As long as delvers aren¡¯t hitting the floor one after another she should be able to handle it. Though do you really want to go and teach them how to talk? The boss and her friends, sure, but you¡¯re making the regr kobolds a little too person-like. Even normal dungeons tend to end up connected to the monsters in them that are closer to being sapient. With your past as a human, will you be able to handle seeing creatures which might have been hanging around for months get killed when someone needs to run the fifth floor again?¡¯


    Doyle turns to the side, ¡®I don¡¯t know. I assume the issue wille up the deeper the floor is. Though the fact people can skip around because of the boss equals checkpoint thing should ease it some. After all, even now I suspect that if someone wanted to do the entire dungeon, it would take more than a day.


    ¡®Later on, without the checkpoint thing, it would get to the point where getting to new areas would take a multiple day journey. That kind of time investment would cause all sorts of problems though, for someone like Ace. As it is, he barely gets to stretch his legs in here once a day and hasn¡¯t pushed deeper since thest time I really paid attention.¡¯


    Ally shrugs, ¡®While from a safety standpoint, the portals aren¡¯t the best. They do allow deeper delves and harder boss fights, which is better for extracting cruft. Though there is some debate on whether a slower extraction through mazes and not allowing checkpoints does a more thorough job.


    ¡®But that gets away from the point. Are you going to be okay when your little sandcastle gets kicked over? When a vige of kobolds who have started to act like sapients is wiped out?¡¯


    Doyle, ¡®I don¡¯t know. I could, in theory have the non-sapient kobolds retreat, making the boss fight only the main boss and her friends. It might even in some ways make the fight harder because they would all be together instead of fighting piecemeal.


    ¡®Of course, that would just be kicking the problem down the road. If I¡¯m going to feel that way about the kobolds, I¡¯ll probably end up with the same problemster. Whether that is literally the next boss fight with the myconids orter.


    ¡®Though now that I think about it, I do need a more singr boss fight. So far, both are more along the lines of a siege. Not that I have anything against sieges. They just aren¡¯t what I imagine when someone says boss fight.¡¯


    Ally nods, ¡®That has made it particrly tough for the delvers. Though you arecking some of the support normally used to make bosses harder on their own. Like, none of your paths give your boss a stat boost, a race boost, or even a simple level boost. You just have bare bones bosses.¡¯


    Doyle, ¡®Well that sounds interesting. Any idea why I didn¡¯t get those things?¡¯


    Ally shrugs, ¡®You¡¯re awake? In the normal swing of things, you wouldn¡¯t be capable of picking paths on your own yet and so that alone makes your dungeon tougher. Though even without a system to solidify the paths, simr things would be building up as well. Then, when a boss is made, generally around floor ten, it boils over with the boss as the focus.


    ¡®Since the dungeon won¡¯t have focused on any one monster in the dungeon until that point, they will tend to get some kind of bonus to their boss rted to what the dungeon is doing badly at. A simple example you see all the time is if the local delvers are over leveled for the dungeon. In that case, the resulting path will boost the boss¡¯s level and make it so that the next floor has a much higher level as well.¡¯


    Doyle nods, ¡®I guess that does make sense. I¡¯ve been buying a bunch of low-cost paths as I go instead of waiting for one high point option.¡¯


    Ally, ¡®Neither way is better than the other. Buying many smaller paths allows for a moreplex dungeon which you can take advantage of. I mean, just look at your goats. I don¡¯t know if you¡¯ve really paid attention to them, but they¡¯re kicking butt. People on the sixth floor aren¡¯t targeting the cattle just because people prefer beef.


    ¡®Goats have a five point lead over them in Strength. That doesn¡¯t seem like much, butbined with their smaller bodies can be devastating. Nevermind that gap will just continue to grow since even with the recent investment into cattle, goats still have the higher per level stat growth.¡¯


    Doyle shakes his head, ¡®I don¡¯t mind the goats being powerful, but I need even more general paths. As it is, if I¡¯m not using the kobolds or goats, I¡¯m starting to lose out in power. The wolves should be better!¡¯


    Ally, ¡®I¡¯ve asked around about that. The problem is that you are an awakened dungeon. A normal dungeon doesn¡¯t have the capability to focus on any specific monster while that is about all you do. Even from the start, you were picking out favorites.


    ¡®Just look at your boss. You had her picked out from the literal start. A normal dungeon might set up a scenario like that, but it wouldn¡¯t put any weight to it. Then when the boss floor came around and it all overflowed, most bonuses would be more generic. Sure, whatever species became the boss would get a specific boost, but that is about it.¡¯


    Doyle¡¯s core dims, ¡®Well I don¡¯t really have a good answer for that, now do I? It isn¡¯t like I can stop paying attention to things!¡¯


    Ally shrugs, ¡®About the best suggestion I got was to more general groups. You¡¯ve already managed this to a point. After all, you got that monster rancher path which gave a nice plus two boost per level to the body stats. Not only that, but you have a lot of support formunity-based monsters.


    ¡®While I will admit, most of themunity stuff is static, it doesn¡¯t have to be for the next path. As it is, you¡¯ve got over twenty cumtive stat points gained from it on any monster in amunity. Something more monsters in your dungeon than not happen to fit.@@novelbin@@


    Doyle grumbles, ¡®Though that is a bit of a Catch 22 with the previous problem. I get more bonuses for putting them in amunity and yet we don¡¯t know if I¡¯ll be able to handle seeing thatmunity die.¡¯


    Ally nods, ¡®Maybe you should focus on the monster breeder path. If anything, you sort of have been with the way you¡¯ve worked on leveling those patterns. It might be a little expensive, but skimming a few extra pattern levels for your various monsters should open up more paths like that.¡¯


    Doyle, ¡®That does give me an idea. Have you checked non-dungeon paths?¡¯


    Ally shrugs, ¡®I¡¯m not really ¡°checking paths¡± as it were. It is just that people with the right skills are able to get a feel for how monsters are growing with each floor. Anyway, where else would I check?¡¯


    Doyle rolls his core, ¡®Farmers? Or really any sort of breeder or grower of things. A cow farmer is going to have paths that help the cattle they¡¯ve raised, while a wheat farmer will have paths that let their wheat grow more fruitfully.


    ¡®It won¡¯t be exactly one to one, but there should be some connections there. After all, I¡¯ve got normal cows as an option and I¡¯m sure there are monster breeders out there. If there isn¡¯t any ovep at all, I would be surprised.¡¯


    Ally nods, ¡®That does make some sense. Though the chance of ovep isn¡¯t quite as good as you think. After all, while you can breed your monsters. In the end, your main ability is creating them whole cloth.¡¯


    Doyle, ¡®Well then look into golem and robot crafters. Maybe the way I create them is unique, but the fact I create them isn¡¯t. Pre-system, my world had more than enough stories about monster makers.¡¯


    Ally looks like she is about to say something, but then pauses.


    Doyle tilts to the side, ¡®What?¡¯


    Ally starts tough before exining, ¡®I was getting way too defensive there. It felt like you were attacking the research I had done into other dungeons by suggesting alternative things to look into. Like, we were basically arguing over that and it was so stupid.¡¯


    Doyle, ¡®Uh, what?¡¯


    Ally giggles, ¡®You don¡¯t even see it, do you?¡¯


    Doyle shakes his core, ¡®I¡¯m not really sure what you¡¯re going on about. Though this feels a lot like some of the stuff I¡¯ve dealt with in the past.¡¯


    Ally sighs, ¡®Your idea to check on farmers is a good one. There should be something we can use and if anything, the fact we have explored it might help with your paths. You won¡¯t see it much right now, but in the future adventurers will really be into adventures.


    ¡®You would think that would be obvious, given the name, but what I¡¯m talking about here is traveling around to strange ces as a means to an end in and of itself. The more you experience, the richer your paths will be. Right now, just existing as the first generation of this world to have the System is enough.


    ¡®Later on though, to gain stronger paths, people will have to experience more things. Of course specialization can help as well, but that works better for stuff like crafters. Someone whose job it is to kill monsters will want a broad base of experience.


    ¡®After all, what good is a person devoted to killing goats, wolves, and kobolds if what attacks a town is goblins? At best, maybe some of the bonuses against the kobolds might half work.¡¯


    Doyle sighs, ¡®That sounds fun and totally not an option for me.¡¯


    Ally shakes her head, ¡®You have itpletely wrong. You¡¯re actually in the best position. Whereas they have to go out into the world to explore, your varied experiencese to you.


    ¡®Every new delver is different. Sure, if some family or sect took power here and only let their people enter, it might be a problem. As it is though? Everyone for miles around ising here.


    ¡®Plus, you¡¯re getting the same easy mode that Ace and friends are getting as well. It just isn¡¯t as obvious. After all, you¡¯re a local as well. If anything, you will get the most use out of it.


    ¡®Ace and the others aren¡¯t wrong in thinking they can live a good long time under the system, but you have an innate quality of immortality that theyck. Sure, it is one of the lowest forms of immortality, but even then, it puts you outside of the ws of time.¡¯


    Doyle nods, ¡®It does feel nice to not be under that time crunch. Still under a time crunch, though. The system isn¡¯t going to quarantine the from outside influence forever. We¡¯ve already got those animal kin. So while the fact no one on the right now can damage my core, that isn¡¯t going tost forever.¡¯


    Ally grimaces, ¡®I wouldn¡¯t say that nothing can, at least at this point. However, nothing that would being here can. Oceans are scary ces if you don¡¯t have a civilized, fully aquatic race to start with. It has been a few months so there is probably some deep sea horror that could crush you. Though chances are just as well that whatever it is wouldn¡¯t be able to fit down your hallways in the first ce.¡¯


    Doyle rolls his core and in a sarcastic voice, ¡®Well that¡¯sforting.¡¯

 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, it¡¯s upriver from here. While I can¡¯t 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 haven¡¯t heard of it yet, we probably won¡¯t hear about it for a while. Wolf¡¯s 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 isn¡¯t what I was getting at. Rather, if we are thest stop on the river, isn¡¯t the ocean-going to be just a bit further down the river? At least, isn¡¯t 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 aren¡¯t 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 we¡¯re 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 doesn¡¯t 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 aren¡¯t 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, isn¡¯t that pleasant? So, are the shores just barren wastnds, then?¡¯


    Ally, ¡®Nah, the shores get a boost from magic as well. They¡¯re 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 didn¡¯t have instances that deep by all gathering on the seventh. Doyle wasn¡¯t too annoyed by this though, as they weren¡¯t 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 weren¡¯t just trying to get through the room. Their goal was to full clear it. Doyle wasn¡¯t 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 didn¡¯t 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 Doyle¡¯s relief, they weren¡¯t 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 haven¡¯t 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 can¡¯t use all the skills his kobolds have. He could. It just didn¡¯t 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 weren¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t 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.


    Good thing the magic it has on the low end isn¡¯t 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 superhero¡¯s 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, what¡¯s 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, they¡¯re 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 don¡¯t live in the void between stars.


    ¡®Rather, they are a species specialized at living in things in space. They can¡¯t 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 can¡¯t rece.


    ¡®Oh, and the inherited bit? That¡¯s the bonus you get for naturally evolving them. Skills you buy for normal kobolds will propagate to evolved forms.¡¯


    Doyle, ¡®Then why don¡¯t the myconids have that?¡¯@@novelbin@@


    Ally shrugs, ¡®They probably do now. Saying you had to unlock the feature isn¡¯t quite right, but it is close. The myconids didn¡¯t 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 don¡¯t get it. After all, you can¡¯t expect a butterfly to have the same skills as a caterpir. You¡¯ll 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 don¡¯t cost more.¡¯


    Ally, ¡®Yeah, the cost thing is weird. I¡¯m 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 I¡¯m nning on using them?¡¯


    Allyughs, ¡®Not only are you thinking of using them, you¡¯re likely also thinking of adding a pair to the fifth floor. I¡¯d be willing to bet the reason you got the evolution is because of the monument and you¡¯ll want to have some there.¡¯

 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 don¡¯t quite match the rest of the panel. Sort of like someone had used a simr font, but it wasn¡¯t quite the same.


    Ace sighs, ¡°So how much wiggle room do we have?¡±


    Both of them knew that when dealing with the Adventurer¡¯s Guild, they don¡¯t have a lot of say. They¡¯re 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 wasn¡¯t good.


    Jim, ¡°We can save the healer.¡±


    Ace¡¯s face falls, ¡°And?¡±


    Jim, ¡°The only reason we get to keep the healer is because we¡¯re critically low on them. If we had a sufficient number of them around, even the healer wouldn¡¯t be safe. At least we don¡¯t have to carry out the punishment. That is about the only upside. We¡¯ll be having a guild officialing in to pass judgment. I don¡¯t know why they¡¯re cing so much importance on this incident, but I feel we¡¯re 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, ¡°They¡¯re 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 wouldn¡¯t 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 weren¡¯t 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 wasn¡¯t 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 didn¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t 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, I¡¯ll 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 couldn¡¯t 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 Guild¡¯s 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 can¡¯t 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 haven¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t matter.


    ¡°That isn¡¯t fair! This is especially true when you consider the fact that those who haven¡¯t joined the guild aren¡¯t held to quite of high of a standard. It is worth it though.


    ¡°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 don¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t a crime if you aren¡¯t caught.@@novelbin@@


    ¡°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 aren¡¯t ready for. Maybe this will be enough of a warning to prevent some of you from signing contracts you really shouldn¡¯t.


    ¡°Remember, magic is a thing for you now and it can extend to contracts. The Guild doesn¡¯t 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 group¡¯s 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 world¡¯s 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 didn¡¯t do it.¡±, ¡°I have a family.¡±, and of course, ¡°I don¡¯t deserve this.¡±


    As if such things can sway thedies¡¯ judgment. She wasn¡¯t sent here to y around. She wasn¡¯t 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 don¡¯tst 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 wasn¡¯t here to torture them and so she wasn¡¯t 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 didn¡¯t let him rx long.


    Jim, ¡°So uh, I don¡¯t think we¡¯re 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 don¡¯t want an executioner¡¯s tform outside my town¡¯s gate.¡±


    Jim snorts, ¡°I don¡¯t think you get a choice about it. Give the town menu a quick check to see if it got added there.¡±


    Ace nods, ¡°I don¡¯t 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 we¡¯re 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 don¡¯t 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 don¡¯t want it next to our main gate.¡±


    Jimughs, ¡°That¡¯s your fault. I wasn¡¯t the one that had the thing built there. Besides, you could always move the gate.¡±


    Ace groans, ¡°No, we can¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t 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 aren¡¯t going anywhere. However, we should set up a cycle of rebuilding. If you were even in a city before this mess, I¡¯m sure you¡¯ve 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, I¡¯m 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 weren¡¯t 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 can¡¯t have that. Instead, while we can¡¯t do it to the whole town, we should do renewals regrly. This time would, of course be different as we aren¡¯t 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 won¡¯t 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 don¡¯t know how to integrate magic into our buildings yet. While the pillory over there is a masterwork, the system buildings aren¡¯t 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 don¡¯t seem to be an option for enchanting, we might get a jump on things with some slightly better buildings.¡±


    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 wasn¡¯t any build up. No trial happened. A strangedy showed up, dered some things, killed some people, and left.


    Sure, people realized this wasn¡¯t Ace or Jim¡¯s 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 hadn¡¯t realized everyone on the saw what happened. Though they would soon find out it might have been better if the council hadn¡¯t 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 weren¡¯t 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 weren¡¯t natives of their town, they had spent more than a few coins to hire them. Now they don¡¯t 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 council¡¯s citizens by some rule the council doesn¡¯t even recognize? They didn¡¯t 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 didn¡¯t 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 wasn¡¯t 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 Wolf¡¯s Rest, the ce upriver started to lose power over their farming teams. Before, they could hide in ignorance of what the council¡¯s policies actually meant. Plus, while they didn¡¯t 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 wouldn¡¯t starve. This alone ingratiated all the farming teams to her and made sure that even those who didn¡¯t take her up on the offer right away, didn¡¯t 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.@@novelbin@@


    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 Wolf¡¯s 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 wasn¡¯t willing to call what was forming a cult, but some of her informants weren¡¯t so kind.


    Though as this had all happened, something else took ce. The shark-tootheddy hadn¡¯t 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 Jim¡¯s 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 Maiden¡¯s Tear, Mage¡¯s 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 Ally¡¯s attention.


    The Guilddy, ¡°Ahem, if the dungeon fairy in residence wouldn¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t have a clue about you. Now, I know you¡¯re against revealing yourself to the town outside, but how about her? She isn¡¯t sticking around after all.¡¯


    Doyle tilts to the side, ¡®She certainly won¡¯t attack us, that¡¯s in the contract. Outside of that, though, we can¡¯t really be sure. How about you go and get a feel for what she wants and if advantageous enough I¡¯ll consider it.¡¯


    Ally raises an eyebrow, ¡®Well that¡¯s 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 I¡¯m 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 I¡¯ll head off then. Not like we can¡¯tmunicate as long as I¡¯m anywhere in the dungeon.¡¯


    Doyle, ¡®Couldn¡¯t 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, I¡¯m 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 I¡¯ll make contact.¡¯@@novelbin@@


    Ally removed her mor and flew through the portal, entering the second floor. Once there, it wasn¡¯t hard to find the Guilddy. In part because she hadn¡¯t moved from her location, though mostly because while she wasn¡¯t 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, I¡¯m sure you¡¯re wondering why I¡¯vee 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 don¡¯t consider them a gift or repayment for what happened.


    ¡°Sure, the political types back at the office would like you to, but I¡¯ve 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 I¡¯m sure you know, the system is more than happy to dump info on me. How about some general gossip on this region? We¡¯ve already got beastkin from another walking around.¡±


    Thedyughs, ¡°As much good that information from the system will do you. From what I heard, it is like being in the universe¡¯s biggest library except someone mixed all the books up.


    ¡°Anyway, something the system won¡¯t 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, you¡¯ve 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 shouldn¡¯t 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 won¡¯t 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 I¡¯ll 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, you¡¯ll 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 we¡¯ve 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 world¡¯s first true town built around it and the first true guild office on the being located in said town? Suffice it to say, they¡¯re interested.


    ¡°Sadly, this material might be a little too high level for what you¡¯re currently working with. Though even if the dungeon can¡¯t use it right away, it will be able to store the pattern for when it can. Besides, a small bit of mithril isn¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t a particrly high level or rare material and while the town doesn¡¯t know it yet, there is a second boss on the tenth floor.¡±


    Thedy raised an eyebrow, ¡°Well aren¡¯t you the little speedrunner? A second boss already? Since you¡¯ve managed that already, I really can¡¯t 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 won¡¯t suddenly make spells a magnitude more powerful. In fact, without a special design or an enchantment, it won¡¯t 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 didn¡¯t 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 I¡¯m just going to record myself stating that the dungeon is under control and won¡¯t 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, that¡¯s 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 didn¡¯t take too long.


    Ally nods, ¡®Correct, works just like with monsters. That means you¡¯ll 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 won¡¯t 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 wasn¡¯t 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 I¡¯ve been using before the supposed level limit would allow. I don¡¯t even really know why I guessed it would represent a limit.¡¯


    Ally shrugged, ¡®They aren¡¯t 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 don¡¯t exist, the system just doesn¡¯t bother showing them for the most part because it isn¡¯t useful information for most. After all, knowing that a specific variety of bird can only give birth when the local world energy is enough isn¡¯t 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 aren¡¯t going to mine for it in an area below that even if the ce looks prime for it.


    ¡®Of course a level 20 field isn¡¯t 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 they¡¯re so great, are we going to see a bunch of them artificially set up once people figure it out?¡¯@@novelbin@@


    Ally shrugs, ¡®Sort of. After all, the water does need to pick up that power in the first ce. You can¡¯t 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 they¡¯re 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 they¡¯re 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 don¡¯t 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 didn¡¯t know crystals could itch.¡¯


    Doyle rolls his core, ¡®Not a literal itch, rather the artistic type. I¡¯ve got something in me that wants to be expressed and I¡¯m 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. I¡¯ve 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, ¡®I¡¯m not aiming for some specific effect. Instead, I¡¯m delving deeper into what a concept actually means and how that applies to my carvings. Though once I¡¯ve 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 I¡¯ll 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 Wolf¡¯s 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 wasn¡¯t 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 Wolf¡¯s Rest. Most of iting from amunity college library that some teachers had taken over early on. Those teachers hadn¡¯t 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 didn¡¯t 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 didn¡¯t 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.


    Now though, Melonie¡¯s 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 wasn¡¯t any of this construction or the smuggling of weapons that lit the fuse. Melonie and her people weren¡¯t 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 didn¡¯t help. That is, it didn¡¯t 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 wasn¡¯t the case anymore, as working a few people harder means those few people gain power a lot faster than not. Sure, they weren¡¯t catching up with Ace or any of the other original members of Wolf¡¯s 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 they¡¯re being allowed to make any money from food that was rightfully theirs in the first ce.


    The funny thing from Ace¡¯s perspective when he learns about it, is that they aren¡¯tpletely wrong. Arge portion of the food extracted from the dungeones from one of the council¡¯s teams. After all, Wolf¡¯s Rest isn¡¯t focused on food and other settlements are far enough away that if they don¡¯t have to, they aren¡¯t going to send people.


    If only things had stayed like they were before the big dungeon market was set up, there wouldn¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t 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 hadn¡¯t 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 wouldn¡¯t 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 don¡¯t 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 wasn¡¯t 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.


    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 weren¡¯t trying to go too far.


    They were traders, after all. There was money to be made in the settlement so they didn¡¯t 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 didn¡¯t 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 didn¡¯t mean they couldn¡¯t do it themselves. At least, they thought they could.


    They couldn¡¯t. Not just that, but they even stooped to banditry and still failed. After all, it was ¡°their¡± food so there isn¡¯t 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 settlement¡¯s forces were quite a bit stronger.


    And so Melonie¡¯s 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, what¡¯s 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 they¡¯re in?


    Along with that, they did more humanitarian work as well, including handing out food. Not that the settlement¡¯s 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 settlement¡¯s people were a known quantity, just like people pre-system.


    Melonie, of course didn¡¯t 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 ¡°don¡¯t use the system¡± nonsense wasn¡¯t 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.@@novelbin@@


    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 didn¡¯t want it to, but a good number of people who didn¡¯t 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 didn¡¯t 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 hadn¡¯t 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 wasn¡¯t 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 didn¡¯t 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 hadn¡¯t 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 Wolf¡¯s 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 wasn¡¯t 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 didn¡¯t 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 wasn¡¯t 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 couldn¡¯t help butugh at the hoops they had to jump through for this. She exined it to Doyle, but he didn¡¯t see the joke so she exined.


    Ally, ¡®They didn¡¯t have to bother with all that mess. They never did. This was all because they¡¯re still stuck in some of their pre-system ideas.


    ¡®They¡¯re clearly not bound by pre-system morals or else the council guys would still be alive. So why didn¡¯t 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 don¡¯t 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 don¡¯t 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.

 Fae Powered Growth – Chapter 271

    Doyle sighs, ¡®So with that bit of drama wrapped up, I¡¯m going to assume Ace and friends will focus on delving for the next boss.¡¯


    Ally nods, ¡®That seems likely enough. Does that mean you¡¯re going to make a new floor?¡¯


    Doyle sighs again, ¡®Second thing on the list. First, though, I have to take a look at my paths.¡¯


    Ally frowns, ¡®Why the sigh? Paths are the core of what makes you, so they¡¯re sort of important.¡¯


    Doyle tilts back and forth, ¡®I really enjoy them, but I also don¡¯t like how I have so many expensive ones when I¡¯m scrounging for a hundred points at a time.¡¯@@novelbin@@


    Ally shrugs, ¡®Well, you do still have around seven skill slots to fill. Also, you aren¡¯t exactly supposed to be buying paths so often. A lot of humans tend to only check on their birthdays or if something important ising up.¡¯


    Doyle dims, ¡®That doesn¡¯t make sense. If paths are more beneficial to get early on, why wouldn¡¯t people be checking them constantly?¡¯


    Allyughs, ¡®What is optimal and what people actually do tend to have a decent amount of separation. Even adventurers aren¡¯t constantly in life or death situations, let alone a farm hand or a seamstress. The few people who do constantly check are either neurotic or in some sort of situation that requires it of them. Stuff like being in a sect with a high requirement to enter or they¡¯re an heir apparent to some kingdom.¡¯


    Doyle, ¡®Still, I would think people would be checking a lot right at the start?¡¯


    Ally shakes her head, ¡®People from newly integrated worlds will tend to act like this, so you aren¡¯t alone. Others, though? You have to remember, people grow up with the system. What is a novelty to you will be old hat for them. I don¡¯t know if this specific system works in the same way, but in some ces the blue status screen will be the first thing a being sees. Sometimes even before they¡¯re born if they have some form of consciousness while gestating.¡¯


    Doyle dims, ¡®So I¡¯m checking too often? Still, that doesn¡¯t feel right because I always seem to end up with new paths.¡¯


    Ally shrugs, ¡®And would likely have about the same number of paths if you took longer to check. While not set in stone, the paths you see will stick around on the list. If you don¡¯t see a path and then do things that change or leave said path it will change or never appear.


    ¡®That is one way to get more expensive paths. If you spend years smithing without checking your paths, you¡¯ll end up with a much longer path to travel. This isn¡¯t good or bad as it more than likely contains all the smaller paths you could have gotten otherwise. It all depends on what you did, as always.


    ¡®I will admit. Your paths are a little off. Checking so often should beting you things in the ten to fifty range and not the hundreds. Though that might just be because you are a dungeon.¡¯


    Doyle, ¡®Why would me being a dungeon matter?¡¯


    Ally, ¡®You¡¯re more thematically important to the world. One guy born to normal parents isn¡¯t going to do all that much on average. One dungeon will warp an entire country, world, or even sr system around its influence. Nevermind the difference in lifespan.¡¯


    Doyle nods, ¡®I guess I can see that? If paths represent a being¡¯s potential, then that would also include their potential to change others as well.¡¯


    Ally, ¡®That¡¯s a good way to put it! Anyway, are you going to look at those paths now?¡¯


    Doyle sighs again, ¡®Yeah, though I really do have to figure out what other skills I can squeeze in. Maybe you can do a little searching for me?¡¯


    Ally shrugs, ¡®I¡¯ll put some time towards it. Though only as reference material as finding out what skills a dungeon has in the first ce is hard enough. No clue if there will be actual listed skills to pull off of or just suspected skills.¡¯


    Doyle nods, ¡®That should be good enough. Better to have something to work with than wandering randomly. Anyway, [system, show me my paths].¡¯


    {Points:53


    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, Earth¡¯s 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, Engraver 5/5, Boss Builder 50/50


    Started [1/3]: [TRINITY] 31/1000


    Avable: Awakened Dungeon Core III 10/100, Awakened Spatial Dungeon core I 0/1, Dungeon Core of Awakened Intent I 0/1, Heritage Kobold Community II 0/30, Vine Warper 0/15, Kin yer 0/100, Axe Sharpener 0/5, Expansionist 0/30, Fire¡¯s Flying 0/7, Deal Broker 0/10, All the Potions 0/60, 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, Voidborn 0/200, Fungal Growth 0/30}


    Ally smiles, ¡®Well, it looks like you have more than a few points to y around with.¡¯


    Doyle, on the other hand dims right down as he reads the paths at the end. ¡®Why is voidborn there? That was one of the first paths I got ess to. Also, I¡¯m almost certain it used to cost 50 more points.¡¯


    Ally frowns for a moment as she thinks back. ¡®Ah, now that I think about it, that seems to be correct? If I remember correctly, we originally thought you got ess to it for being born in the void. We were apparently wrong about that and now that I think about it, I don¡¯t have a clue why I connected it to capital V void in the first ce.¡¯


    Doyle rolls his core, ¡®So why did I get it before? Since it just popped up, it must be for the void kobolds. Back at the start we didn¡¯t exactly have any of those to work with. Also, still have to deal with the fact it costs fifty less points.¡¯


    Ally shrugs, ¡®Might just be something you got in general for basically living in zero g. Maybe it had to do with the bit of time where your dungeon was basically a giant void with no gravity. As for the discount? My best guess is that part of the path¡¯s cost was granting you a void variant monster and now that you have one, it isn¡¯t going to give you another. Not the rarest thing to see, but certainly umon when zing a new path.¡¯


    Doyle shakes his core, ¡®So. All I have to do is figure out whates with a path and I can work on discounting it?¡¯


    Ally, ¡®Yes, but no. Like I said, umon when zing a new path. As in, you don¡¯t know what your paths are going to give you so anything would be a wild guess at best. Though even known paths aren¡¯t going to allow this to happen often. Remember, each path is to a certain point, unique to the person walking it. Even if you¡¯re going in the same direction, your steps aren¡¯t going to ovep 100%.¡¯


    Doyle rolls back, ¡®Anyway, with that out of the way I would really like to know where all those points came from. [System, show me my skills.]¡¯


    {Skills [6/10 ss, 3/5+1 General]: Territory Control lv96, Dungeon Rules lv71, Universal Deconstruction lv60, Dungeon Pattern Database lv53, Creation(Energy Powered, Pattern Based) lv77, Conceptual Reinforcement lv82, Biosphere Bncing lv61, Psychology lv61, Vige nner lv31}


    Ally¡¯s eyes go wide, ¡®What is up with your territory control? That one has mostly been leveling equally with rules.¡¯


    Doyle, ¡®I don¡¯t know, though that would at least half exin the fifty some points.¡¯


    Ally frowns, ¡®We need to take stock of all your territory. If control is ticking up, something must be fighting your control. We¡¯ll both look it over just in case one of us misses something.¡¯


    The two of them start examining the dungeon floor by floor. Doyle even takes a quick peek outside of his dungeon at the void, just in case something was hanging around out there. Both of them are quite thankful that nothing was found.


    While he wasn¡¯t supernaturally aware of what was going on in his dungeon, Doyle should have easily been able to detect something contesting him. That left his influence that had spread out from his dungeon, covered the town, and with each floor spread further and further into the wilds around the ce.


    This expansion had slowed with time and it was obvious that after a certain point Zeno¡¯s paradox would make certain he didn¡¯t cover the world. Though as Doyle thought about it, he could tell that if he really wanted to there were options. He didn¡¯t.


    As for the search? It took a third check for Ally to spot what was going on. Someone was contesting Doyle, just not on purpose. They weren¡¯t even necessarily there to cause trouble for Wolf¡¯s Rest. They would eventually do that, but when Ally finally spotted it, she couldn¡¯t help but facepalm.


    There was a fairy ring. Hard to spot as it was literally just a ring of mushrooms. Amon enough natural urrence based on how mushrooms grow. This wasn¡¯t natural. Now they just had to figure out what to do with it.


    Because they weren¡¯t foreign fae that snuck into the world. In a simr fashion to elementals and other naturally spawned beings, the lowest level of fae tends to just pop up. Then things end up turning into something quite simr to what Doyle would recognize as an rts game.


    The lowest level fae will build some form of fae structure, a fairy ring in this case. Those structures either pull in foreign fae or cause one of the fae to rank up. From there, more and more end up spawning, ranking up, and getting called in until there is a proper fae realm in the area.


    As for why, what are basically fluffy balls of light, can fight against Doyle¡¯s territory to the point that it leveled up multiple times? The fairy ring is one of the summoning type fae structures. Doyle, in turn, is a spatial type dungeon. So yeah, those balls of light and fluff were trying to mess with space in an area where space was controlled by Doyle already.


    Doyle had tough at this as it meant he was identally a passive defense for the town against something popping in here. It wouldn¡¯t prevent a mage using an actual summoning spell, but any natural or passive spawns would get culled. This was something normal dungeons would not be able to do.


    In fact, if it was any other fae trying to use the fairy ring Doyle¡¯s territory wouldn¡¯t be able to stop it. As it is though, the forest now has the equivalent of super weak will-o-the-wisps chilling around and nothing else. Doyle could pull his territory back, but as Ally pointed out, whatever got summoned would be random.


    It could be some friendly if mischievous pixies or it could end up with a tribe of malicious red caps. Ally could go out there and take charge of it, but that would just be asking for trouble as her connection to her mom would likely pull in something that shouldn¡¯t be on the yet.

 Well Well Well – Chapter 272

    Doyle shakes his core, ''So, how long are they going to be basically banging their heads against a wall out there?''


    Ally shrugs, ''It isn''t so much a matter of how long they''re willing to do it and more a matter of how long it will take a stronger fae to move in and help themplete it. They''ve honestly got the short end of the stick there. It''s like they''re trying to solve for two and keep just multiplying by one. The actual difficulty of piercing your territory out there isn''t hard, but they''re all just so weak that even quantity doesn''t have enough quality.


    ''Plus, if I tried to help them that would be adding my own story to the mix and nobody''s ready for what might show up then. Even with the System blocking, just having thematically simr fae popping up would create a local nobility. Then things go from dealing with a redcap to potentially a hunt.''


    Doyle nods, ''Anyway, it feels like I can probably milk this situation for more than a few levels. Why is it so effective at doing nothing, yet training my skill?''


    Ally waggles her fingers, ''Because it''s magic! Or more seriously, because it''s Fae magic and not just a fae using magic, but the proper racial cornerstone. The same sort of stuff that let Ace almost reduce that one person to nothingness when kicking them out.


    ''While all fae can use it, the basic stuff like hospitality and fairy rings are more like forces of naturepared to someone turning a fan on. Royalty, even a queen like my mom, isn''t above them.''


    Doyle tilts to the side, ''Still, this feels like getting wind resistance for standing on the beach and enjoying the breeze or water resistance for standing out in a mild drizzle.''


    Ally shrugs, ''More like a mage casting a low power breeze or water ball spell at you over and over. While extreme weather can develop skills, to get something from a weaker power requires there to be something living behind it. In this case, those fairies who keep trying to activate the ring.


    ''And if I had to guess, you''re going to cap out at around level 99 in the skill. While not always true, this system likes to put the first major bottleneck for levels at 99. From what I''ve been able to gather this is more of a psychological maniption than any actual naturalw. Whoever made the system had figured out that most sapients hate being so close to a round number like 100 and so will work harder to break through because of it.''


    Doyle nods, ''Getting stuck at 99 would bother me. Though I also feel that territory control won''t be hard to break through with.''


    Ally, ''Eh, it happens. Like I said, the system is sometimes adjusting things to make it pan out that way. It is quite possible that the skill doesn''t actually have a proper bottleneck there and one was artificially inserted. That or the whole, being a dungeon core, thing makes it easier for you to breakthrough.


    ''After all, cores aren''t the only sapients with the skill. Rather, that skill gets a lot of use with the more elemental crowd, including the fae. So like, a water elemental will get the skill if they control something like a pond.


    ''In fact, now that I think about it, you''re likely going to have an easier time of it because you keep growing your territory. Once an elemental or simr takes over a ce, they will generally run against boundaries. A water elemental can''t exactly control the air above the pond or the dirt along the edges. You on the other hand cheat and have a constantly growing internal space.''


    Doyle, ''Fair enough, now with that out of the way, what should we do about the fairy ring?''


    Ally shrugs, ''Why should we do anything about it?''


    Doyle pauses for a second. ''Ah. Huh. I, hmm. Doing nothing hadn''t really urred to me.''


    Ally nods, ''That will be your dungeon instincts. This is like if a seamstress was weaving a nket only to discover an earlier part had begun toe apart. You want to go back and fix it.


    ''The thing is, once the connection is made it won''t bother you anymore. The hole goes from loose threadsing apart and turns into a purposefully ced hole with proper reinforcements along the edge of it. Same thing will happen with any teleport circles or portals the town might set up.''


    Doyle sighs, ''So I can just leave it alone then. I guess it will be good for training my skill.''


    Allyughs, ''Nah, shut it down. While you could leave it alone with few consequences, having those fae that close will only cause problems. I was mostly just using this to point out the instinct so you can recognize it.''


    Doyle tilts to the side, ''So I shouldn''t just ride out the passive skill gain?''


    Ally nods, ''All it takes is one slightly stronger faeing along to finish making the connection and it bes a lot harder for you personally to shut down. Ace and friends could do it, but they would have to know about it in the first ce. Right now though? Like the weaver example, all you have to do at this point is tighten a few threads. The fairies will be attracted towards some other point of interest or just wander and we won¡¯t have to deal with a growing fae enve being that close. Go on, give it a try!¡¯


    Doyle rolled his core, turned his attention back to the fairy ring and yep, space was a bit loose. In fact, if he hadn¡¯t had the experience with grabbing the souls of his bosses from the Void, it would have likely caused quite the headache. There isn¡¯t really any pure way to describe what he is seeing with the closest example being one of those pictures that show space as a sheet and gravity like a ball pulling it down. Except in four dimensions and the fourth isn¡¯t time.


    There might also be a fifth, but he didn¡¯t let that get to him. Instead he focused on how he could go about fixing it. He could tell that obviously if the dimple in reality popped, the portal would be connected.


    That wasn¡¯t all that hard to understand as his own portals have a simr effect going on. The difference is that his portals aren¡¯t this weird. Doyle¡¯s best guess is that the extra dimensionalityes from the need to connect to the fae realm. Of course part of it should alsoe from the connection being made with fae magic.


    None of that mattered in the end though, as the solution Doyle came upon when using his control skill sidestepped all thatplex magic. After all, why try to untangle the knot if cutting the thing solves it just as well. The biggest difficulty in the end was the fact that it wasn¡¯t inside of his dungeon proper.


    That just meant putting a good bit more power into smoothing it out. So just like making a bed sheet look nice and t, Doyle mentally ran his hands over it until the thing stopped trying to wrinkle up again. Though the more visual sign of this working was the fact that a bunch of the mushrooms in the circle wilted and fell over.


    With the ring out of the way and a quick check for any others that might have popped up. Doyle turns back to his paths. Oh, and apparently smoothing things out was enough to get thosest three levels of territory control before it hit 99.


    {Points:56


    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, Earth¡¯s 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, Engraver 5/5, Boss Builder 50/50


    Started [1/3]: [TRINITY] 31/1000


    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, Fire¡¯s Flying 0/7, Deal Broker 0/10, All the Potions 0/60, 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, Gatekeeper 0/5}


    Doyleughed when he saw thest path. It did say something about what he just did, though he wasn¡¯t exactly nning on grabbing it. No, a few others stood out to him and it isn¡¯t like he has all that many points for the moment. First was the next rank of Energy Well and second was the next rank of Monster Rancher. A bit boring to just be going for rank ups of his current paths, but both had some fun things attached to them.


    Energy Well was a simple enough path that up until now had simply increased his passive recharge rate. A fun little perk that for the previous two ranks wasn¡¯t the most impactful. Except the first rank was by 20 and the second by 200. Now, Doyle wasn¡¯t expecting an 18 point path to give him 2000 points of world energy regen. However, he had to try.


    Then there was Monster Rancher. Doyle wasn¡¯t going to be able to finish the path even if he didn¡¯t buy Energy Well. However, it was a path that gave a bonus to all of his monsters and while it had been mostly in his down time. He had seen what the extra points of Strength could do for his monsters, let alone the others.


    Doyle¡¯s best memory was when one of the sixth floor farmers got mad about encountering goats instead of cattle and tried to punt one of the critters. The goat in turn gave the guy a nice headbutt that sent the guy flying into the ceiling. Sure, the guy didn¡¯t hit the ceiling hard enough to hurt him, but the blood stters from a couple of pre-existing wounds were quite artistic. So, while he wasn¡¯t nning on having his goats specialize in giving adventurers flying lessons, it would be nice if most of the monsters could keep up.


    After all, it works both ways, especially as people from further and further away start showing up at the dungeon. Just as the one goat was able tounch an unprepared guy, his early level monsters were getting bashed around by people on the level of Melonie¡¯s group. Of course, that solves itself quickly enough as those types beat the fifth floor boss and move on.


    ¡®[System, 18 points into Energy Well three and 30 points to Monster Rancher two.]¡¯ He had considered dumping all the extra points into rancher, but decided to leave himself the eight points spare as most paths liked to keep the benefits to round numbers.


    {18 points applied to Energy Well III path...


    3/18 - You have earned +50 passive World Energy recharge rate, +1 Presence@@novelbin@@


    6/18 - You have earned +50 passive World Energy recharge rate, +1 Presence


    9/18 - You have earned +50 passive World Energy recharge rate, +1 Presence


    12/18 - You have earned +50 passive World Energy recharge rate, +1 Presence


    15/18 - You have earned +50 passive World Energy recharge rate, +1 Presence


    18/18 - Path Complete, You have earned +150 passive World Energy recharge rate, +3 Presence, Sapients near an entrance portal but outside of your dungeon gain a buff to the recharge rate of any energy pools they have}

 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 pattern¡¯s 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 didn¡¯t 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 haven¡¯t 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 hadn¡¯t 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 wasn¡¯t 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 hadn¡¯t 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 goat¡¯s horns and bones was off the chart. He didn¡¯t remember their horns ever breaking and this certainly exined it. While they weren¡¯t as tough as metal or stone yet, just give them time.


    The second thing and one which exined why they weren¡¯t 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 don¡¯t 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.@@novelbin@@


    Doyle, ¡®So uh, monster rancher now lets me see my monster¡¯s stat specializations. I tried it out on the goat¡¯s 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 I¡¯m 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 don¡¯t know if I would want to do it that way, now that I¡¯ve 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. Can¡¯t 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, isn¡¯t 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 you¡¯ve got the deep dive on stats I¡¯m 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, I¡¯m going back in then. I¡¯ll try to make the smallest change possible and see what happens. In theory such a small change shouldn¡¯t cost more than 50 points since the system gave me fifty with the ability. On the other hand, most people aren¡¯t 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 hadn¡¯t really thought about what he should try changing. That passed quickly as he wasn¡¯t nning on actually purchasing whatever change was made this time so he poked at the strength of the goat¡¯s hide, adding just a drop more toughness to it.


    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 theke¡¯s surface spreads across more dimensions than his mind can currently fullyprehend. Good thing it settles down quickly as at least the changes being made aren¡¯t 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 didn¡¯t 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 wasn¡¯t until he figured out how to think extra t, that progress was made.


    Doyle¡¯s 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 wasn¡¯t 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 wasn¡¯t 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 goat¡¯s defense. The only problem was it came at the cost of the goats horns. It didn¡¯t 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 didn¡¯t take long. Since the beginning his assassin vines have underperformed. So, Doyle set about checking each of the nt¡¯s 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 wouldn¡¯t 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 wasn¡¯t going to be doing their best. Though Doyle wasn¡¯t 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 wouldn¡¯t be doing much.


    As for grab speed? The nts weren¡¯t 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 vine¡¯s 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?@@novelbin@@


    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 couldn¡¯t mindlessly just spam the ept button, but it wasn¡¯t even an ept button anymore. That way verbal cues wouldn¡¯t 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 didn¡¯t experience any change.


    That is, they didn¡¯t 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.


    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 you¡¯ll 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. I¡¯m sure you¡¯ve watched your goats charge more than enough and noticed they tend to look the same when charging.


    ¡®That isn¡¯t because they¡¯re 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, they¡¯re 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 didn¡¯t 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 I¡¯m not 100% certain, I can guess what is actually happening.


    ¡®While it might look like the skill is adjusting potential, I¡¯m willing to bet that the bit added on doesn¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t 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, ¡®Don¡¯t get me wrong, that bonus is pretty powerful. The thing is, you¡¯re missing that actual y. Yes, that bonus to the stat is just added on top of what is already there, but that means it doesn¡¯t 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 haven¡¯t run into them as you¡¯ve kept to the basics. However, even your kobolds are going to be interesting. They¡¯re 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.¡¯


    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 aren¡¯t 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 didn¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t 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 wasn¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t 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 Wolf¡¯s Rest. Not that he couldn¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t 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 dad¡¯s 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, I¡¯m the second ring either.


    This was to some degree, Ace¡¯s 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 doesn¡¯t 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 wasn¡¯t 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 weren¡¯t full time, so working at the Guild wouldn¡¯t 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 can¡¯t 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 wouldn¡¯t 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 Ace¡¯s office. It is like being in school and being called to the principals office. Even if you know you haven¡¯t done anything wrong, you still worry.@@novelbin@@


    Suffice it to say, they weren¡¯t 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 wasn¡¯t 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 hadn¡¯t 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, Ace¡¯s 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 weren¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t remove any of the weight.

 Strong Because He Believes So – Chapter 276

    Doyle of course was watching as they fumbled around. More to the point, he made sure to ask Ally, ''Will them messing around with spatial magic cause any problems?''


    Ally shrugs, ''Could it? Sure, anything possible with the right set up. Will? Almost certainly not.


    ''A big part of my assurancees from the difference between your power and their magic. It is a little hard to package the concepts down into a few terms, but your abilities basically count as being a part of thendscape. That''s why you get to also have location paths. You are a location, simr to how the they live on gently warps space with its mass.


    ''In fact, fooling around with spatial magic while in your territory is for the best. Now, being in your territory won¡¯t stop fatal consequences from catching up to the caster. However, simr to how your territory stopped the fairy ring, your territory will dampen any spatial magic that escapes. So, instead of someone managing to turn everyone in the town inside out, only they suffer that fate and maybe any nearby helpers.''


    Doyle nods, ''Fair enough. Though wouldn''t the whole dampening thing make it harder for them in general? Same as what happened with the fairy ring?''


    Ally, ''The fairy ring didn''t work because while those fairies are called Fae, they''re more like balls of fae attuned fluff. It is like how your world had so much trouble deciding if viruses were living or not.


    ''For any creature with an actual status, your territory can''t stop them as it is. Sure, you can set rules in your dungeon to prevent stuff, but that is different. At most your territory might shorten the distance a spell can travel when disconnected from the caster.''


    Doyle, ''Fair enough, now onto something else. I''ve had some idle chatter with her, but you''ve been the one talking to her the most. How do you feel the kobold boss is doing mentally?''


    Ally shrugs, ''It is kind of hard to judge those sorts of things with dungeon monsters. After all, if she was a normal kobold, she would be insane by now. To die and revive, sometimes multiple times in a day? Normal beings aren''t really set up for it.


    ''As a dungeon monster though, from the very start she has had certain revtions about reality that mostck. Stuff like being able to process pain as a signal and not something traumatic. She doesn''t feel the sword chopping her arm off and lose herself over what that means to most beings on a primal level.


    ''After all, most humans would first have the idea that they just lost their arm permanently, hit them. Even if intellectually they know their healer can regrow the arm from nothing if needed or they have enough regeneration going on that it will grow back naturally. Sapient dungeon monsters on the other hand will instead have the idea that nothing done to them physically matters at the core of their beings.''


    Doyle, ''I hadn''t even considered that. Well, I guess that isn''t entirely true. I had thought about it a little with the normal monsters, but figured it was brainwashing or some such.''


    Ally shakes her head, ''Many peoplee to that conclusion. It is sort of unavoidable with how much control a dungeon has over its normal monsters. Though even that isn''t really mind control. Well, at least it isn''t if you don''t consider programming a bot mind control.


    ''Anyway, the kobold boss and the myconid boss aren''t going to see all that much emotional development, as it were, until you get them names. If you get them names.


    ''Even dungeons who have that ability already don''t use it on every boss. Sometimes you need an animal boss or a mindless undead boss. Not to say that naming stuff magically makes them into people.


    ''Give your kobold enough time and she will be a full fledged person and not just some caricature or trope. Though that isn''t really fair, I guess. They aren''t really less people now? It is just that they''re more on the level of young children except without most of the childishness.''


    Doyle sighs, ''I had noticed that. Though I have to ask, why would using the naming function change that?''


    Ally shrugs, ''Asks the person with a skill based around concepts. While there isn''t anything like the whole "true name" magic your world yed around with for a bit. Having a name or knowing someone''s name does have some power to it. As an example, it is a lot harder to put a curse on someone if you don''t know their name.


    ''Though for normal beings outside of a dungeon, names are a lot more loose and personal. Knowing a person''s given name means nothing if they don''t ept that name. Also, people aren''t restricted to a single name.


    ''Thatst one tends to trip people up who are trying to avoid curses or simr. If you use something as your name and ept it, the name works just as well as the name they use normally. So someone trying to hide their identity by giving a name like "John Smith" will be out of luck if they use it enough that they ept being called by it.


    ''This is why anonymous groups end up with everyone being called something really edgy. Stuff like "The Dark Lord" or "Savior". By having a generic enough name that in theirnguage can''t be a name, they automatically distances themselves from the moniker. Your world''s superhero genre has a bunch of good examples of this sort of naming scheme.''


    Doyle nods, ''That makes some sense. Now why do I need something special to name my monsters and why would it make my bosses more mature?''


    Ally coughs, ''Sorry, got a little carried away. Names are a bit important to the Fae so I know a good bit about the subject. Anyway, the reason as a dungeon you need something special to name your monsters is because they are designed to inherently not maintain an identity.


    ''It''s not "the goat in the first room", it is "there is a goat in the first room". This is more obvious for you since you''re farming the recements instead of spawning them in. However, it even goes as far as the bosses themselves.


    ''Though I must admit, you''ve sort of broken that with the kobold. Normally the boss would spawn in with all kinds of minor differences. Stuff like being a different shade of color, random spike patterns, you name it. You, on the other hand, have gone and made the kobold boss an individual.


    ''However, you''re still fighting against the natural state of a dungeon. The name function is something that normally only develops in a dungeon once the people delving it have put enough conceptual reinforcement behind some monster''s identity. Doing so actually diverts some of the world energy towards the feature until it naturally unlocks and then gets applied to the monsters.''


    Doyle nods again, ''That does make some sense. Though I guess I will have to be careful about monsters gaining names naturally. Still doesn''t exin what is up with the bosses though!''


    Ally smiles awkwardly, ''There, erm. There just isn''t really a good exnation? Like, I have the info right from the system that names stabilize a sapient dungeon monster''s personality. It just doesn''t exin why.''


    Doyle rolls to the side, ''Fair enough, though you don''t have to give me the run around. We''ve been getting along pretty well as ofte, though in a more hands off sort of way. I understand you don''t know everything. On the other hand, I also know some stuff of my own, so don''t be afraid to ask if you have questions.


    ''For instance, with this particr bit. If I had to guess what is happening, while the souls and memories are the same, the brain or equivalent is likely in just as much flux as stuff like coloration. So like a kid, their mind is always changing. Adding a name sounds like it stabilizes their form and thus their mind.''


    Ally nods, ''That would make some sense.''


    Doyleughs, ''Though it is only a guess. Could also be that the name gives them a concept to build upon outside of "dungeon monster". Not really much idea of stable person behind that title.


    ''Anyway, since we are on the topic of bosses, what is taking Ace andpany so long in getting to my second boss? They had gotten so far and yet suddenly seemed to stall out.''


    Ally shrugs, ''You gave them a spook with those psychic sunflowers of yours. If I''m not judging things too badly, Jim''s team should be able to make it to the boss and Ace''s team can at least make it to the boss floor.


    ''As it is though, they''ve decided to improve their foundation, going for more of a pyramid of power instead of a tower. Oh, and your world is stupid amounts of psychically charged. Like, generally to have this many talents develop requires a race devoted to psychic power.''


    Doyle tilts to the side, ''What do you mean?''


    Allyughs, ''I think your world''s variety of human all have the potential to develop psychic powers. Of course not everyone will, but even those who don''t will develop psychic mental defenses. Do you know how hard that is?


    ''Most people have to settle for magic based defenses or simr. Not that the power used to make the defense makes it any stronger or weaker in theory. However, psychic power is its own resource. That means a mage with psychic mind shielding can throw around fireballs until they''re empty and still be protected.


    ''So yeah, both Ace and Jim have developed such a defense and others will likely gain it soon enough. Also, one of the other core members, Dan, has already developed a psychic power. That of a self buff.


    ''It is the really annoying type as well. He doesn''t just give a t bonus to his Strength or some such. No, the more he believes in a certain aspect of himself, the more that aspect is buffed. So seeing as he decided on the name "Dan TheMan" I''m predicting he will be a bit of a powerhouse.''


    Doyle nods, ''A buff based on how much they believe in themselves could be really dangerous. And I''m assuming this alsoes with quite a sturdy mental defense as well?''


    Ally, ''Eh, in a sense? The more he develops a persona, the more solid that persona will be. So say he decides to y the role of some honorable muscle man. The more into the role he gets, the harder it will be for someone to try and alter that.


    ''A good example of this is someone trying to trick him with illusions. Someone tries to make a friend look like an enemy? Dan the honorable would never attack a friend and so he is going to see through the illusion on "instinct" alone.''


    Doyle, ''So on the other hand, if he decided he was a muscle brain, it would instead make him weaker to those types of maniptions?''@@novelbin@@


    Ally, ''Very much so. However, Ace seems to have sussed out Dan''s power and given him guidance on the matter. Not directly of course, since that type of power also suffers from major performance anxiety. The whole "Am I really this good" thought worm, except by doubting yourself with that power, you are literally weakening yourself.


    ''Instead, Ace has basically written up a face powerset for the guy and convinced him of it. Honestly it is a brilliant piece of brainwashing. By convincing Dan that he knew what he was talking about, Ace was able to reinforce Dan''s belief in him.


    ''Though Ace is still taking it slow. He basically wrote up a pretty nice slow growth talent and convinced Dan that it was what he had. Give the kid a few thousand years and he''ll be able to punch out a good after out thinking them.


    ''I of course suspect this will only be able to work for a rtively short period of time. After all, for all the behind the scenes evil nning Ace has done. He is overall a decent person. So, instead of convincing Dan he was a muscle brain and Ace knew best, he instilled Dan with a belief that he was also growing mentally and spiritually.''

 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."


    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."@@novelbin@@


    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 weren¡¯t 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.

 That There Is A Monster – Chapter 278

    Jim sighs, ¡°Well, at least that fight went better than thest fight against those things.¡±


    Jeremyughs, ¡°We¡¯re going to have to warn people about them before others start arriving on this floor. The fact that we are having problems against a lone enemy says something about our defenses against this kind of stuff.¡±


    Bill shrugs, ¡°Too much to defend against. There is magic, psionics, and who knows what else out there.¡±


    Kelly shakes her head, ¡°No, we should be able to manage it. While there are a ton of different power types, most of them can affect one another. Plus, they tend to not do pure damage in the first ce.


    ¡°A good example is this very monster. It uses psychic powers, yet one of them is fire based. We can defend against that just as easily as we can against our own fire magic. Though even the more pure psychic attacks can be countered by more generic defenses.@@novelbin@@


    ¡°Reading our minds? Who cares if it is magic or telepathy, just defend the mind. I¡¯ve done some tests with our emerging Talent and the only benefit from countering like with like is efficiency. Blocking a telepath is a lot easier with psychic power than it is with magic.¡±


    Bill rolls his eyes, ¡°So what? We have to have some kind of overcharged defenses to counter every type of power?¡±


    Tess shakes her head at her boyfriend. ¡°I¡¯ve been keeping up with her research. To start, she just simplified it as stuff like water blocking fire is still a thing. However, it is rock paper scissors all the way down.¡±


    Bill, ¡°What does that mean?¡±


    Kellinger takes over at this point. ¡°RPS, rock is strong against scissors, equal to other rocks, and weak to paper. For defense, this mostly determines how strong a defense needs to be to work.


    ¡°Take fire as an example. Strong against wood and weak to water. If you are defending against fire with fire, you need about an equal level of power. However, if you defend against fire with water, you can do so with less power. And of course if you try to defend with wood it will take a lot more power.¡±


    Kelly sighs, ¡°It isn¡¯t that simple! Life doesn¡¯t actually have elemental weaknesses like some kind of video game, no matter how things look with the system being around.¡±


    Kellinger shrugs, ¡°But you can¡¯t deny that defending against fire with water works. I understand that such things aren¡¯t set in stone. However, powers like magic work to some degree based on how we expect them to work and so ssical elemental weaknesses are built right in. This is especially true since they seem to be pretty universal.¡±


    Jim sighs, ¡°And this is why pure defenses are the way we are going. I don¡¯t need to worry if some attacker one mindedly believes fire can prate everything to the degree that it is strong against a water shield. Instead, just throw up a Mana shield and juice it a little.¡±


    Bill, ¡°Then why are people using elemental defenses and such? If pure Mana shields are so good, why doesn¡¯t every magic user use them?¡±


    Kelly sighs, ¡°It is a lot trickier to use pure Mana as a shield. So, when in the middle ofbat people use what defensees the quickest to them. After all, a weak defense that is right on time is better than a strong defense that arriveste.¡±


    Bill sighs, ¡°I¡¯ll stick to my clubs. Now, how are we handling the next one?¡±


    Jim gestures at the next flower ring. ¡°Well, we first figure out if it is a monster.¡±


    Bill grabs a rock, ¡°Screw it, here¡¯s how you test if something is a monster.¡± Then he throws the rock at the closest sunflower.


    Of course, what he is aiming at is an actual Udoroot and so once the stone gets in range of the monster¡¯s telekinesis, it begins to slow down. Almost as if it had hit a cushion or pile of fluff. After that?


    Well, turnabout is fair y. So the Udoroot sends it screaming back towards Bill with a little extra mustard to boot.


    Since it ising back along the same path, Bill is able to causally bat it away with his offhand club. ¡°So I figure that there is a monster.¡±


    Tess rolls her eyes, ¡°That now knows we are here.¡±


    Bill shrugs, ¡°I doubt it was ignorant of our presence. While its psychic powers do seem to be limited in range, it should at least be able to detect us from much farther away.¡±


    Jim, ¡°Whatever, let¡¯s begin our attack.¡±


    Kelly nods and starts charging up a fire ribbon as the group cautiously approaches. Then right on the edge of the monster¡¯s range, she wraps the ribbon in on itself and sends it spinning off.


    The fire chakra arks to the side and sears through three of the stalks to the left of the group. Though only two of the stalks end up falling, the third manages to resist the damage.


    While that is happening, Bill and Tess charge at the monster. Tess manages to reach it and her quarterstaff is spun around, smacking one of the stalks over and over on opposite sides. This isn¡¯t enough to break off the stalk, but the damage is enough to cause it to fall over.


    Bill, on the other hand is alpha striked. It seems the Udoroot was less than pleased with having a rock thrown at it. He gets stunned and then the nt spikes him with multiple mind thrusts.


    Despite being stunned, Bill falls over and loses consciousness for a moment. Though he wakes back up as he hits the ground.


    Good thing for him that Jeremy was following behind. With Bill stunned on the ground, the Udoroot tried to take him out with a hefty rock. Jeremy is able to block the blow, though Bill was just lucky that the nts have telekic force instead of something with more finesse. Otherwise, it might have managed to curve the rock around and still strike him.


    Though Jeremy¡¯s defense wasn¡¯t able to stop another cheeky stun from sneaking through. The good news for the rest of the party, though, is the fact that after focusing so hard on Bill, they easily took it down.


    As Bill gathers himself, Jim shakes his head. ¡°If you¡¯re nning on taking aggro, tell us first. We don¡¯t have a healer with us right now. Though that reminds me, Kellinger, how is your attempt at learning healing magicing along?¡±


    Kellinger shrugs, ¡°I can see why all the roleying games tend to portray healing magic as being divine in origin. It isn¡¯t impossible, but I¡¯m going to need a better foundation in medical knowledge. Though give me a month and I should be able to at least stop a wound from bleeding.¡±


    Jim, ¡°Damn it, I don¡¯t want to let anyone who worships another being into the inner circle. I have nothing against a man of the cloth, but they put their gods ahead of themselves. It would suck if part of that was sacrificing themselves to reveal info about the inner circle to their church.¡±


    Kelly nods, ¡°They might not even do it on purpose. An errant prayer at the wrong time or the god taking a peek at what is happening could reveal our secrets. Though that does bring up the matter of pre-existing risks.¡±


    Jim smiles, ¡°You can rest easy on that matter. While there were a few faithful types in the original two towns, there weren¡¯t many and the wolves sorted them out easily enough. Though if what Ace has heard turns out true, this isn¡¯t by ident.¡±


    Jeremy, ¡°What has he been hearing? I¡¯m not exactly able to be at all the secret meetings.¡±


    Jim shrugs, ¡°While the system isn¡¯t biased per se. It does group like with like and some deities basically bribe it to make sure their most faithful all end up in the same settlement. Though luckily, it doesn¡¯t ce all those settlements together.


    Tess sighs, ¡°That should slow down the forming of any theocracies to start with. Though if they have easy ess to healing magic, it might not be all that long till one does pop up.¡±


    Kellinger, ¡°And they do have ess to healing magic. At least, some of the deities can grant it. The cheaters do all the heavy lifting so the faithful caster only needs to channel the magic.¡±


    Bill snorts, ¡°You¡¯re just jealous that they don¡¯t need to actually learn the spells.¡±


    Kellingerughs, ¡°Most certainly not. Even if I did follow a god, I would take the time to actually learn what is going on. To depend on your god for spells leaves you at their whim.


    ¡°I¡¯ve read enough myths to know no matter what some of the modern faiths might say, most gods are capricious. I don¡¯t want to need a heal spell only for some god to say no because they don¡¯t like the person I¡¯m healing. Better to know the actual spell and simply channel a god¡¯s power.¡±


    Jim sighs, ¡°There are going to be a ton of people falling for a bunch of tempting deals. It won¡¯t even be limited to gods as that crazy person who Ace banished proved. Any being with even a modicum of power that they can share will be trying to get in on the fun.¡±


    Kelly nods, ¡°It is going to be a pain figuring out all the ways on which people will try to hide the affiliations. At least Ace went with the more permissive approach. Sure, we might end up letting in literal devil worshipers, but at least we will know who they are.¡±


    Jim, ¡°Meh, let¡¯s kill some more stuff. We can talk about heavy stuffter.¡±


    After that, the group manages to make it to the second ore vein. It takes them a while, of course, and they still haven¡¯t figured out a good way to handle the Udoroots. Though the instances of actual danger have dropped.


    The most dangerous aspect however hasn¡¯t evene close to being figured out. They still can¡¯t tell the difference between a group of sunflowers and a monster. As far as Kelly can tell, it should be easy in theory.


    All you need to do is scan the area below the flowers for the giant root of the monster. The problem is that the monster¡¯s false sensory input power has an interesting quirk to its range. It only needs the thing you¡¯re using to sense stuff to be within range.


    That means that while it can¡¯tpletely hide as your eyes could still see the sunflowers up top. By sending out your magic to detect the ground under the monster, you are putting yourself in range and it uses the power to hide itself. This even seems to be a form of passive defense for the Udoroot.


    Though the power still needs to be channeled through the sunflowers. Once they have been cut off, it is quite easy to detect the monster¡¯s root.


    Of course, the team can just alpha strike every patch of sunflowers theye across. The only problem with that is the other monsters on the floor aren¡¯t going to sit back and let them rest afterwards. About the only thing the party agrees on, is to not use Bill¡¯s method of checking.


    Sure, it works, but the Udoroot seems to really hate having rocks thrown at it. Good method for taking aggro, mind you. The party just doesn¡¯t have any good defenses against the Udoroot¡¯s various psychic abilities.


    Down in the dungeon¡¯sst floor Ally can¡¯t help butugh at their attempts. She has nothing against them, but they¡¯re missing proper magical defenses and nothing short of a mystical power is going to block a simr level of power. It was especially funny to her since they had literally just went over how such things worked and yet expected to find some kind of loophole.

 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.¡¯


    Doyle¡¯s core brightens for a second after hearing that. ¡®I wasn¡¯t 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 didn¡¯t 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 I¡¯m a dungeon that is disconnected from the world I¡¯m 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.¡¯


    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) ¡Â 10] + RoundDown[(I + W + P) ¡Â 10] + RoundDown[(D + K + L) ¡Â 10] }


    Ally nods, ¡®Would be a lot morepact, but I don¡¯t 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) ¡Â 10? + ?(I + W + P) ¡Â 10? + ?(D + K + L) ¡Â 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 isn¡¯t masterwork? At least, from what I can feel I don¡¯t think it is?¡¯


    Ally, ¡®Of course it isn¡¯t masterwork. They want that, they¡¯ve got more than a few pieces from us already. I¡¯m kind of surprised that at least Jim doesn¡¯t already have some enchanted gear.@@novelbin@@


    ¡®While rare, I suspect we¡¯re 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 isn¡¯t actually magic equipment and if analyzed wouldn¡¯t disy any effects. It isn¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t 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 wouldn¡¯t for a fox.


    ¡®That all to say, there are reasons most mythological monsters that aren¡¯t a deity¡¯s 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. Don¡¯t assume there aren¡¯t herbivores in those ces with a lot of power. They just aren¡¯t 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 don¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t just vanish. At least not if properly processed by someone with the right skills. Something the town finally has. That means while the helmet doesn¡¯t have some realized defense, it is equipment and stuff like the Udoroots mind st will have a harder time going through it.


    ¡®This isn¡¯t 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 shouldn¡¯t be too hard, at least going by my own skills.¡¯


    Ally shrugs, ¡®They¡¯re limited by their resources. That and there is a bottleneck at 99, though it shouldn¡¯t 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 wouldn¡¯t be seen as slow. While your drops take away some of the skill needed because they¡¯re 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 you¡¯re 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 can¡¯t beat if there is an easier one a few days away? That means the people delving won¡¯t be facing as much of a challenge and thus feeding you less.


    ¡®There would still be deaths, but more a fool¡¯s death than the end of their rope style deaths. Anyway, what do you n to do for your next floor?¡¯


    Doyle sighs, ¡®I think I¡¯m going to be boring. It isn¡¯t 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 I¡¯ve messed with space and I know that isn¡¯t 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, ¡®I¡¯m 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 don¡¯t 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 floor¡¯s 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 doesn¡¯t want to waste a clever trick on it. Well, a trick that doesn¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t 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 hadn¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t 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 don¡¯t 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 didn¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t expect anyone to have a method to deal with the water so it could be a dead zone on the floor. That isn¡¯t 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 pool¡¯s entire surface area. This did require the removal of a lot of water to Doyle¡¯s 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 can¡¯t. 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 water¡¯s 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 floor¡¯s 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 wasn¡¯t 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 wasn¡¯t careful. Not that he wasn¡¯t going to use them.


    Oh no, the mushroom trees were very important. They would block the line of sight so people couldn¡¯t 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 didn¡¯tpletely 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 wouldn¡¯t be hard. Though this thought sends him down another dying tactic of trying to figure out if a new myconid form was avable. It wasn¡¯t.


    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 can¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t want delvers hanging out in there while recovering.


    Another rule is ced. The room is safe as long as they don¡¯t 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 can¡¯t 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 wasn¡¯t 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 don¡¯t 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. Doyle¡¯s 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 doesn¡¯t 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 don¡¯t exactly have a door to knock on. Anyway, I was watching you make the new floor and wanted to know how you¡¯re 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 don¡¯t think I¡¯ll do anything specific to push people into the water. The sea cattle are rtively cheap at 17 points each so I¡¯ll just add a small herd of ten of them. That way, people don¡¯t 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, ¡®I¡¯ll 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 couldn¡¯t 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 dungeon¡¯s 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 doesn¡¯t 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 one¡¯s 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 can¡¯t swing it. This led Doyle to dive deep into the lesser myconid¡¯s 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 wasn¡¯t 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 couldn¡¯t budge the point. So with that in mind, he moves to check the other myconids.


    The sprouts? Maybe there was a point, but Doyle couldn¡¯t 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.@@novelbin@@


    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 wasn¡¯t quite as if it was treating the swarm of one entity to lead, but it certainly wasn¡¯t counting it as anywhere near 100 individual sprouts.


    On top of that, Doyle wasn¡¯t 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 you¡¯re 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 they¡¯re 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 can¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t stretch quite as far as it used to, but was still worth it. After all, being able to add a third of amander¡¯s Wisdom to the highest stat of every monster they control isn¡¯t 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?


    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, they¡¯re a lot bigger than a normal mushroom by mass, but that isn¡¯t 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 wasn¡¯t a tight fit.


    Even adding in the seven myconids and their guards wouldn¡¯t do much. Though those troop guards do take up a ton of space. Still, it doesn¡¯t mean the n won¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t 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 don¡¯t get confused when they reach the safe zone and realize there aren¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t 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 haven¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t 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 they¡¯ll 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 wasn¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t 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. Doyle¡¯s 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 isn¡¯t quite sure if either of those ideas are correct, He¡¯ll 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 doesn¡¯t 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 aren¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t take too long, just a week, as he isn¡¯t trying to make the most detailed carvings. Instead, going for a more tribal style. Though once that is done, nothing happens.


    Why? Because he hasn¡¯t 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 Doyle¡¯s 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, Doyle¡¯s 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 won¡¯t fill up with magic spores.


    He hadn¡¯t 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 won¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t what I came to ask. While working on it, I noticed something.¡¯


    Ally nods, ¡®Well let¡¯s 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? I¡¯m leaning towards yes. You normally don¡¯t 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. Wouldn¡¯t 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 don¡¯t exactly want to make a kobold drowning machine or some such.¡¯


    Ally, ¡®You probably won¡¯t 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.¡¯@@novelbin@@


    Doyle, ¡®Except that kobolds aren¡¯t lizards, but I get what you mean. Besides, there are already typuses kicking around so it shouldn¡¯t 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 aren¡¯t going to make a powerful monster.


    ¡®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 don¡¯t. For every environment, there will be those weaker and stronger. You¡¯re 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 aren¡¯t that much more powerful. This is because they¡¯re 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, you¡¯reing 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 aren¡¯t 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 can¡¯t 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, they¡¯re living on what is likely an abandoned space station. Someone needs to be able to go out and repair things. The only kobold¡¯s 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? That¡¯s 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 can¡¯t 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 won¡¯t 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 aren¡¯t too many injuries that are career ending. That means even age doesn¡¯t require you to retire from adventuring as you¡¯ll heal damage from aging as well.


    ¡®Of course, regeneration doesn¡¯t make you immortal or anything. They¡¯ll still get old and die. It is just that up until their veryst day, they¡¯ll 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 don¡¯t have to worry about that.¡¯


    Ally shrugs, ¡®Though we do have an even worse statistic. All un-aging eventually get killed.¡¯


    Doyleughs, ¡®Because we aren¡¯t truly immortal and if we can¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t bing a True Immortal, the step into being un-aging isn¡¯t 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 don¡¯t actually cross over that well with other species or even others nominally in the same species.@@novelbin@@


    ¡®There are un-aging humanmunities out there. It is just that their method won¡¯t 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 don¡¯t mind it.¡¯


    Doyle, ¡®Well, good thing I skipped that step and went right to being un-aging. Though I noticed that while you¡¯re saying un-aging, that doesn¡¯t 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 couldn¡¯t get some kind of feel for this stuff, we¡¯d need to revisit our rtionship.¡¯


    ¡®Oh¡¯, Ally sits up, ¡®Yeah, you¡¯re right. I guess I just haven¡¯t noticed that part because I already know this type of stuff and you aren¡¯t shy about asking questions first.


    ¡®Anyway, un-aging isn¡¯t 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 didn¡¯t mention it, but the first level of regeneration that humans unlock isn¡¯t 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, aren¡¯t 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 don¡¯t really count? Mostly because part of what makes an immortal isn¡¯t just not dying, but being yourself. If you fall asleep and the next day wake up as apletely new person, I wouldn¡¯t 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 they¡¯re 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 Ace¡¯s 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, they¡¯ve made it to the third ore deposits. Of course, since they don¡¯t actually know how much farther it is till the exit, that is where they stop. Of course, it didn¡¯t help that they loaded up on iron ore. That stuff is a bit heavy, after all.


    Ally, ¡®I predict that within two weeks they¡¯ll make it to the tenth floor.¡¯


    Doyle tilts to the side, ¡®That feels a little long. I didn¡¯t 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 didn¡¯t take too long, you spent a good bit of time nning. And that doesn¡¯t even count the time it took you to get the floor up to size.


    ¡®These clips? I¡¯m only ying the highlights. There are a ton more where they came from. Just not as meaningful. I figured you wouldn¡¯t want to see the many daily trips they did at the end of the day to take the fruit of the kobold¡¯s 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 isn¡¯t 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 didn¡¯t 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 haven¡¯t realized it sincest I checked, the third floor isn¡¯t automated yet.¡¯


    Doyle, ¡®Well, it might not be automated, but I don¡¯t 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 aren¡¯t putting your full attention on making the loot, they¡¯re 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 aren¡¯t 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 wouldn¡¯t 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! You¡¯d run out of space to spare if you weren¡¯t careful.¡¯


    Doyle¡¯s core darkens, ¡®Hmm, that could be a problem.¡¯


    Ally shrugs, ¡®With just the asional drop on the third floor, you aren¡¯t going to run out.¡¯


    Doyle shakes his core, ¡®But that won¡¯t be the only ce in the future. I¡¯ll need to make a new limitation on them. The only question is what limitation?¡¯


    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 floor¡¯s 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 didn¡¯t cover the entire floor.


    In the end though, even the bag of holding automation wasn¡¯t 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 didn¡¯t feel as real anymore. This could be a problem as Doyle didn¡¯t 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, there¡¯s definitely something odd there. Let¡¯s 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 can¡¯t 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, weren¡¯t 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 weren¡¯t being damaged, at least not as some results posited. That and there wasn¡¯t 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 didn¡¯t seem right though as it isn¡¯t 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 hasn¡¯t done much better. There are things that can happen to bags of holding and space rings, but this doesn¡¯t seem to match any of them. That and the fact it isn¡¯t 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 wasn¡¯t anything.


    Both of them sighed as they sat back and watched a timepse of the original bag¡¯s 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.@@novelbin@@


    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 they¡¯ll 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. Can¡¯t exactly grind away at farming if the farm¡¯s closed. Still, one day of not farming isn¡¯t 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 haven¡¯t yet started to change color, the winter months would soon be upon them.


    Wolf¡¯s 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 didn¡¯t either make new homes or use the tutorial settlement controls to upgrade the existing structures.


    Why? For the same reason all the buildings that weren¡¯t being maintained were starting to fall down. Weather was now magical. Sure, an average rainfall wasn¡¯t 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 wasn¡¯t exactly working.


    If it wasn¡¯t 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 wasn¡¯t 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 wouldn¡¯t 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 Rest¡¯s 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 doesn¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t 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 Jimmy¡¯s 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 isn¡¯t 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 hadn¡¯t really noticed it until now with the decorations as it was a slow process. Now though, any worry about the discovery of Doyle¡¯s awakened status through the carvings is gone. A dungeon takes from their surroundings and Doyle¡¯s? Well, even a normal run-of-the-mill cave dungeon would start having intricate carvings appearing on the walls.


    Though it does make Doyle¡¯s 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 Doyle¡¯s conceptual reinforcement. Least until the crafters get good enough to start making masterworks. Then they¡¯d 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 aren¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t 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 Ally¡¯s 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 wasn¡¯t on their minds. It is just that they didn¡¯t 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 couldn¡¯t 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.


    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 they¡¯re 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, they¡¯re 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 doesn¡¯t need to involve a good night¡¯s sleep. The town needs them up top on a regr basis at the moment.

 For Want Of A Rope – Chapter 285

    Jim stretches as Jeremy what should be thest Udoroot. They¡¯d been keeping count and knew that there were only 20 of the things on the floor. Not that knowing this makes them any less dangerous and they certainly weren¡¯t going to let their guard down in case of a rare spawn or some simr nonsense.


    Still, this one had been ced so deep into the floor that they could actually see the end of the tunnel. So, seeing as there weren¡¯t any more sunflowers patches, it was mostly safe to assume more weren¡¯t hiding. At least, none that could hurt them.


    If the dungeon had ced a flower-less Udoroot, that was just more training for their detection methods. An important bit of training as within thest week, more human psychics had been showing up in town and most didn¡¯t have such an obvious tell as that first guy¡¯s horn.


    Not that there was some epidemic of mind controllers. The system really didn¡¯t like people who tried that. And the merchants weren¡¯t getting the ssic hand wave mind trick to lower their prices. While they weren¡¯t some special race immune to such things, a proper merchant ss path and skills go a long way in protecting them from that kind of thing.


    Most of the problem instead came from thieves. Such a stupid use of such a wonderful power. It was however quite effective to steal when you don¡¯t have to physically be near the item you¡¯re stealing. Though a few had gone beyond a bit of telekic theft.


    Some psychics thought to dabble in a bit of spycraft. After all, what better way to get secrets than directly from a person¡¯s mind? These attempts ran up against some pretty aggressive defenses when it came to the inner circle. Nevermind that the true secrets were protected by an oath that would hide such things from any surface level mental peaking.


    The worst part? At least, as far as Jim was concerned. Wolf¡¯s Rest was the only ce really dealing with this nonsense. Sure, the ce up river had a few attempts since they were close and politically connected.


    But most of the local psychic poption had gathered in their town. Whether they were there for good or for ill, it was now his problem. At least with the Udoroots, there was somewhere to train against those types of power.


    Though at this point, Jim wouldn¡¯t be shocked if some phrenic creatures started showing up outside of town. All this despite how rare such things were supposed to be. Jim shakes his head as the group finishes setting up camp.


    Not that they n to actually camp in the dungeon. However, they had found that setting up one provided some unstated bonus to recover if you were settling down for at least an hour. And to be honest? No one was really sure if this was system nonsense or something natural.


    Well, no one except Ally who exined it to Doyle. It seems that the answer was actually in the camping equipment itself. While not on the level of being an effect, crafted equipment will bend towards fulfilling their role. Which, in the case of camping equipment, meant rest and recovery. This also only worked if the equipment was handcrafted.


    Not even the fancy manufacturing techniques used to provide good system stats worked for it. An interesting quirk bordering on cebo if not for the fact that even someone who doesn¡¯t know the origins of something will experience it. Though most evident in stuff like camping equipment. Things like swords are just easier to make better with alloys and figuring out the best cutting edge instead of making it feel right by having it handcrafted.


    Back with Jim, a couple hours have passed and they¡¯re ready to head into the tenth floor. As they stand in front of the gate to the next floor, Bill asks, ¡°So do you think it will be a boss floor?¡±


    Kelly shrugs, ¡°I didn¡¯t really focus my questions on that sort of thing in the tutorial.¡±


    Jim nods, ¡°Being in a dungeon I asked some stuff, but I think things like boss cement varies dungeon to dungeon. But why would you think this floor is a boss floor?¡±


    Bill shrugs, ¡°Multiple of five and a huge portal.¡±


    Jim rubs the bridge of his nose, ¡°Sure, we¡¯ll go with that.¡±


    Bill, ¡°What? Makes about as much sense as a literal hole in reality leading to aplex of ever respawning monsters. I¡¯m willing to bet it is a boss floor!¡±


    Jess sighs, ¡°No one is going to take you up on that bet. We just don¡¯t know enough and betting on stuff like this when magic is real feels too much like tempting fate. Besides, the previous boss floor didn¡¯t have arge portal. That¡¯spletely new.¡±


    Jeremy, ¡°Okay, enough nonsense. We won¡¯t know until we not only get in there, but reach the end. So let¡¯s go figure out what we are dealing with, shall we?¡±


    No one else had much toment on the nonsense and so they all stepped through the center of the portal as they still didn¡¯t trust it.


    Once through, Bill turns around, ¡°Huh, guess it was just arge portal to match therge tunnel.¡±


    Tess sighs, ¡°I love you, but we just can¡¯t know anything about that. It was safe and I¡¯m fine with that for now.¡±


    Of course, Bill¡¯s guess was right on the money, but Doyle and Ally weren¡¯t going to tell him that.


    So, without any guidance on the matter, Jim¡¯s team turns away from the entrance gate and observes what challenges await them. That and a very short section of tunnel ending in a sharp turn.


    Jim sighs, ¡°At least this isn¡¯t that gentle curving nonsense anymore. A nice proper corner to peek around instead of the horizon constantly shifting.¡±


    Kelly smiles, ¡°At least the curve meant nothing was waiting to jump scare us.¡±


    Jim rolls his eyes, ¡°Yeah, because the various flower arrangements did enough of that already.¡±


    They approach the corner and Jeremy goes ahead to get a look. Though without any visible enemies, he is quick to call the others to follow.


    Bill, upon seeing the next areaughs, ¡°And I thought the previous tunnel was big.¡±


    Jim eyeballs the height. ¡°I¡¯d say this thing expands to about the height of a three story building, maybe a little less.¡±


    Jeremy nods, ¡°About that, though more annoying is that it is also that wide. A lot of space for something to surround us. Oh, and everything is wet. Those look like legit stctites and stgmites. Nevermind all the mushrooms covering the ce.¡±


    Bill shrugs, ¡°Those mushroom monsters are easy enough to smash. Should see our fair share of them here.¡±


    Tess nods, ¡°I can certainly agree with that. I just hope there isn¡¯t any trouble with breathing in what is undoubtedly a ton of spores.¡±


    Jeremy shrugs, ¡°Eh, maybe, maybe not. It is dungeon stuff so chances are it vanishes after a while. Though even if it doesn¡¯t, our increased stats should protect us some. I guess we¡¯ll find out if we end up hacking up globs of sporester on.¡±


    Bill looks ill, ¡°Never liked when cats would hack up hairballs and now you¡¯re telling me I might get to experience it first hand, but grosser?¡±


    Jeremyughs, ¡°Better out than growing on your lungs!¡±


    Jim sighs, ¡°Let¡¯s get a move on. We don¡¯t even really know what the floor is like. For all we know, it could be a maze.¡±


    Off in the core room, Doyle rollspletely to the side and growls. Ally raises an eyebrow, ¡®What just twisted your panties?¡¯


    Doyle sighs, ¡®I forgot, I was going to make the eleventh floor maze! There are way too many floors in a row right now that are literally straight shots to the next section. Plus, I just thought of a really fun way to make the maze work.¡¯


    Allyughs, ¡®Fair enough. For now, though, let¡¯s just see how they deal with the tenth floor. I doubt they¡¯ll beat it on the first try, but that doesn¡¯t matter. Once they leave, you should get more instances to y with.¡¯


    Doyle, ¡®That will be nice. Though I will definitely need to automate the sixth floor as I think I¡¯ll just have to throw them all at it.¡¯


    Ally nods, ¡®True¡¯


    And they both turn back to Jim¡¯s party as they approach the first dug out section.


    Jeremy is the first to reach it, being the scout, and he can¡¯t help but be impressed by the scenery. There are giant mushrooms covering the cliff walls and the small trickle of water that had been collecting at the bottom of the tunnel runs over a bit of a lip.


    From there, it does that thing you see with very tall waterfalls without a lot of water where the water turns into mist before it reaches the bottom. Though he can tell that in this case it isn¡¯t so much the height, which just seems to be double the normal tunnel height, as it is how little water there was.


    The rest of the part reaches the edge as well, and Kelly groans. ¡°We¡¯re going to have to climb down this cliff, aren¡¯t we?¡±


    Jimughs, ¡°Afraid of a little cliff? We¡¯ve all climbed worse!¡±


    Kelly shakes her head, ¡°No, we¡¯ve all climbed farther. That nonsense cliff on the second floor wasn¡¯t hard to climb, it was tedious. This is hard to climb because those walls are slick. At least there doesn¡¯t seem to be any mold.¡±@@novelbin@@


    Jim nods, ¡°Okay, I can see what you mean now. Plus, it isn¡¯t a straight shot with those giant mushrooms on the wall. They¡¯re not packed tightly or anything, but they¡¯ll surely get in the way.¡±


    Back in the core Ally turns to Doyle, ¡®Now that they¡¯ve mentioned it, what is up with that?¡¯


    Doyle tilts back, ¡®That¡¯s all on the myconids. They nted them there and I just let them. Though it looks like they use them to get around. While the builder trio can grow stairs for themselves, it helps to have something to start with and those are perfect for them.¡¯


    Ally gestures and a bunch of screens pop up showing the other areas where there is a pit. ¡®Then why don¡¯t I see any stairs?¡¯


    Doyle, ¡®They don¡¯t leave them in ce, I presume for security reasons. It does sometimes leave a settlement a bit stuck, but the builders get around to them quickly enough that they don¡¯t seem to care.¡¯


    Ally shrugs, ¡®Well, it will be interesting to see how Jim andpany deal with the situation. Though next time we both know they¡¯re going to show up with a long rope.¡¯


    Doyleughs, ¡®They clearly didn¡¯t y enough tabletop roleying games or they would have had a rope already. Well, they also might have just been exclusively ying the more modern versions. Those tend to focus more on character ability over nning.¡¯


    Though as he is saying that, back with the group, Kelly has something to say about the situation as well. ¡°I told you all we should bring a rope! Sure, I understand not bringing a ten-foot pole, while useful, that is more of a joke item. But rope? This would have made getting down a whole lot easier.¡±


    Bill snorts, ¡°And the chalk you¡¯ve been bringing with you has been of so much help.¡±


    Kelly rolls her eyes, ¡°Situational, but light enough to not matter in the long run. Whereas a rope has a ton of uses. Shame about all the pre-system stuff sucking. There was some really quality rope being made before the apocalypse. Light as you could dream and strong like nothing else.¡±


    Bill, ¡°Next thing you¡¯re going to do is ask me where my towel is. Hardy har har, let¡¯s go all pop culture references.¡±


    Kelly crosses her arms, ¡°Pop culture just took what was there already and ran with it.¡±


    At this point, Jim gets between the two. ¡°Okay, let¡¯s cool off you two. At this point, I have to agree, a rope would be useful to have with us. We¡¯ll have to figure something out as there aren¡¯t exactly any sheep to shear or cotton to spin.¡±


    Jeremy shrugs, ¡°If you just want some rope, me and my wife already have a decent supply of the stuff. I don¡¯t know what Kelly and Bill are going on about, but Kelly isn¡¯t wrong about the stuff being useful.¡±

 Got Instances? – Chapter 286

    Jeremy sighs, ¡°The question is, do we want to risk climbing down this wall?¡±


    Kellinger takes another look over the side. ¡°So I¡¯m guessing you wouldn¡¯t have any problem climbing down, but I¡¯m just as likely to fall and break my neck.


    ¡°Which thankfully isn¡¯t quite as much of a death sentence as it used to be. However, we only have so many of the potions which will allow someone to fully recover from that kind of injury.¡±


    Kelly sighs, ¡°We haven¡¯t even seen the first monster on this floor and we might already be defeated.¡±


    Jim shrugs, ¡°Better to know our limits and live. We¡¯ll juste back tomorrow with a rope and some climbing tools. This isn¡¯t some magical cliff from what I can see so that should help a lot.¡±


    Jim turns to Jeremy, ¡°At least, I presume you and your wife have that kind of stuff? Seems on brand for you two.¡±


    Jeremy nods, ¡°We do have some stuff, though for this we shouldn¡¯t bother. Any equipment put in the walls to make it easier will vanish between runs. For this, we are better off just using the right knots.¡±


    Jim, ¡°Fair enough. Anyway, it looks like we¡¯re turning around. More than anything else, because I don¡¯t want to be target practice for anything that might be at the bottom of this pit. Those giant mushrooms would be more than able to hide a number of ranged monsters.¡±


    And with that, the group turns around and leaves.


    Suffice it to say, Doyle and Ally are more than a little disappointed. Though they understand why. Also, the disappointment doesn¡¯tst long as Doyle gets a system message he had been waiting on for a good bit now.


    {Delvers detected having visited a boss floor for the first time...


    Instancing for all floors before the tenth floor unlocked


    10 additional instances avable for use among all unlocked floors}


    Doyle, ¡®Huh, I can use the instances on all the unlocked floors. I can¡¯t remember if we talked about that bit. Anyway, I have an idea of how I want to divvy out these things.¡¯


    Ally, ¡®What¡¯s the n? Just going to throw all the new ones at the sixth floor?¡¯


    Doyle shakes his core, ¡®That would work, but I¡¯ve got a few other concerns besides that. And top of the list is the fifth floor boss. She¡¯s doing alright and I did put in some stuff to stop the whole swarm tactic thing. However, I¡¯m sure someone is going to try it again at some point so I¡¯m going to be tricky.


    ¡®If I just put an extra instance on the boss floor, they¡¯ll know about it. Instead, I¡¯m going to throw an extra instance at floor seven. I wasn¡¯t nning on doing that since most people don¡¯t hang around there too long. Except that¡¯s perfect for my n.


    ¡®By putting the instance in a ce that it isn¡¯t needed, if I noticed a raid group trying for the fifth floor, I can switch it over real quick to split the party.¡¯


    Ally raises an eyebrow, ¡®Well that is a nifty n, except I don¡¯t think you should bother. ying around like that is the sort of thing which makes a dungeon untrustworthy to delvers. You aren¡¯t the first toe up with this n, even unawakened dungeons stumble across it asionally.


    ¡®It doesn¡¯t spread because people stop visiting those dungeons since people can¡¯t trust anything. A dungeon changing is normal. A dungeon changing while people are delving as a response to them? Especially to finish a group off?


    ¡®People will understand of course, but they also understand spiders and yet they still scare people.¡¯


    Doyle tilts back, ¡®That, that is a good point. I guess I¡¯ll scrap that n.¡¯


    Ally shrugs, ¡®You can still put an instance on the fifth floor. It just won¡¯t be a surprise.¡¯


    Doyle shakes his core, ¡®No, there isn¡¯t enough traffic to make it worth it. In fact, since I¡¯m changing things up, I¡¯m going to redistribute them all. If I¡¯m honest with myself, only the first and sixth floor need them and even the first floor not so much.¡¯


    Ally nods, ¡®That does tend to happen with any dungeon that allows short cutting. Otherwise you end up with a pyramid of use and need them more on the early floors¡¯


    Doyle, ¡®Fair enough. Anyway, I¡¯m thinking three to the first floor and seventeen to the sixth. There are still a good number of groups delving the first floor, but most of them are there because the sixth floor is taken.


    ¡®Once the sixth floor has instances up and running, I expect all but the newest groups and those who haven¡¯t beat the fifth floor yet will stop delving the first floor. Just four spots should be more than enough to handle things.¡¯


    Ally nods, ¡®Once the sixth is more essible things will definitely move more smoothly. You might even manage to eliminate the line they always have out there. Though don¡¯t forget to automate the sixth floor. I know the farm does a lot of work, but running so many instances would be a nightmare if you¡¯re not careful.¡¯


    Doyle, ¡®Good catch, I¡¯ll do that first. In fact, it is almost night. Might as well wait till then to make the changes so people don¡¯t get too excited right before closing. Though I do have to wonder.¡¯


    Ally raises an eyebrow, ¡®Wonder about what?¡¯


    Doyleughs, ¡®Will this crash the food market?¡¯


    Ally rolls her eyes, ¡®There isn¡¯t a food market to crash. It probably hurts them to admit this, but basically everywhere else is living at subsistence level right now. No one has a surplus except Wolf¡¯s Rest.


    ¡®At least not that we know of. I¡¯m sure there are more than a few ces with dungeons of their own that are feeding them. Just not in this settlement group.


    ¡®To put it in perspective, you were meant to be feeding tworge tutorial towns. That is why they started out so close together whenpared to everywhere else. Dungeons are a source of goods, always. It might not always be food they provide, but your very existence is based around peopleing into your dungeon and taking things out.


    ¡®Now, if they try to run things the way they used to? Well, suffice it to say, that isn¡¯t going to work. Dungeons and magic mean that so many of your oldws and norms are moot or unenforceable.¡¯


    Doyle sighs, ¡®My is going to have a very rocky time of it, aren¡¯t they?¡¯


    Ally shrugs, ¡®Eh, I¡¯ve seen worse. At least they aren¡¯t one of those false utopias. Here, people still worked. Of course, it would be better if people only had to work if they wanted to and weren¡¯t held hostage by things like health care being tied to employment, but there are certainly worse ces out there.


    ¡®Some ces advanced enough that they created societies where there was no money, yet did nothing to rece its function. This generally also included not having any real jobs that needed to be done, even if someone wanted to work. Those types of ces tend to be quite brittle and the second they get hit with the fact that so many people died, they break.


    ¡®From there, they either turn into savages or choose not to continue as a species. Now, the system could probably rehabilitate them, but they sort of failed at life already so it lets them choose.¡¯


    Doyle tilts to the side, ¡®Failed at life? I certainly have a goal now, butst time I checked, there wasn¡¯t really a failure state to life outside of dying.¡¯


    Ally raises an eyebrow, ¡®Not even 42? Though more seriously, there isn¡¯t, not really. However, life is struggle. Those civilizations? They lost that struggle and in doing so became shells of themselves.


    ¡®I¡¯m not saying everyday needs to be life or death. However, if you don¡¯t even have the chance to think hard about something? If the most you are allowed to lift is a spoon? What even is the point of your life?


    ¡®Like, I¡¯m talking about civilizations where even something like a crossword puzzle is more difficult than anything they¡¯ve been allowed to do in their entire lives. Every task automated down to the smallest action. They don¡¯t even get forks because they¡¯re too dangerous. Now, they¡¯re not always quite at the point of being basically installed in hover chairs that do everything for them, but walking is rare.¡¯


    Doyle, ¡®That sounds boring.¡¯


    Ally nods, ¡®Some people might dream of that kind of thing, but only after having worked hard. Even then, if they manage something close, they generally can¡¯t help but give it up. It is like how your world had people who would retire only to go back to work because they were bored.


    ¡®Of course, that is stupid as well. Their problem was they made work their lives and so not working equaled not living to them. They needed a hobby outside of work. Work shouldn¡¯t be your life if it is being imposed on you from the outside.


    ¡®Though just as equally, that saying about if you make something you enjoy your job, you never work a day in your life? Utter hogwash. Work is work for a reason. You have to push yourself in some way. In a normal society, only the children of the rich get to truly experience never working a day in their life. They¡¯ll im that they made their hobby a job, but when the ¡°job¡± is constantly losing money and they don¡¯t care? Not a job. Of course, not all children of the rich end up like that.


    ¡®In fact, one thing the system will do, is at least force some degree ofpetence out of them to inherit. After all, you aren¡¯t going to inherit when your dad isn¡¯t going to die for another hundred years if you¡¯re lucky.¡¯


    Doyleughs, ¡®I¡¯ll believe it when I see it. Why would someone rich like that even bother with having the kid inherit?¡¯


    Ally, ¡®For the same reason rich people the multiverse over have done even crazier things. To live longer. Money, clout, and even power is meaningless once you die.


    ¡®The rich always have ess to better life extension options than the poor for a reason. Anyway, what the rich parent will do is hand off all the responsibility to the kid. Then, taking their piles of cash, that parent will go hard on leveling to extend their life even more.


    ¡®It is kind of hard to focus on leveling yourself and your skills if you¡¯re having to deal with a business. Even when their skills are focused on doing business, it isn¡¯t the same. Skills need to be used in novel ways to grow while a business needs consistency. You can¡¯t go out and make crazy deals day after day or you¡¯re soon going to go bust.¡¯


    Doyle shakes his core, ¡®I don¡¯t know. My world had its fair share of crazy rich people and they were always doing some sort of nonsense or another, yet never seemingly running out of funds.¡¯


    Ally shakes her head, ¡®They were just ying. If you still have your base position, all the money you spend is just pocket change. That won¡¯t budge a skill anymore than trading a handful of normal dirt back and forth would.


    ¡®No, I¡¯m talking about crazy deals that touch that nest egg. The kind of thing that if youe out on the losing side, you might not even have your shirt left. Of course, they still have their family to fall back on, but they aren¡¯t able to just recover like it was nothing.¡¯


    Doyle tilts to the side, ¡®But I¡¯m not exactly defying death or bankrupting myself right now to improve my skills?¡¯


    Allyughs, ¡®You don¡¯t even have a skill in the triple digits. Those old guys are dealing with quad digit skill levels. Besides that, your skills are inherently more danger filled.@@novelbin@@


    ¡®Unless it is a ck market trade skill, moving beans from one town to another isn¡¯t dangerous. As a dungeon or anyone with abat focus, the skills you practice are for defending against death or bringing death to others.


    ¡®Still, as an example, sparing will only take a weapon¡¯s skill so far. Even if you find a high level teacher, that can only raise it so far. So at the top end, increasing your skill level is always going to involve something crazy.¡¯

 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 wasn¡¯t 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 hadn¡¯t really considered how much food a dungeon could output. Sure, it wasn¡¯t 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 wasn¡¯t 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 couldn¡¯t 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 didn¡¯t bother with that kind of thing. Some even entered while fully loaded down with their only goal being of racing ahead of the Wolf¡¯s Rest natives. They¡¯re dead though. Not to say that the sixth floor farmers don¡¯t die, they do.


    It is just that the reason Jim and Ace¡¯s teams manage to get so deep is they¡¯re heads and shoulders above everyone else in power. Maybe their levels weren¡¯t 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 you¡¯re 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 Wolf¡¯s 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, they¡¯re the cream of the crop, only beaten out by Jim and Ace¡¯s teams.


    However, by this point, Ace¡¯s team was starting to fall behind as Ace was finding it hard getting enough time in the dungeon. Not that Ace wasn¡¯t growing in other ways, it is just that diplomacy and organization aren¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t, but the option was there.


    In fact, the only reason he denies the idea of automating the floors was that he wouldn¡¯t 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 hadn¡¯t 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 wasn¡¯t 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 weren¡¯t any skyscraper style buildings nearby. Just considering how unsafe those things must be now was horrifying.@@novelbin@@


    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 didn¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t 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 weren¡¯t 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, Doyle¡¯s 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 wouldn¡¯t exactly mean much within a decade. Rather, by then, the ore wouldn¡¯t even be considered magical in the same way metal isn¡¯t 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 Doyle¡¯s 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? That¡¯s 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.


    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 they¡¯re 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 didn¡¯t 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 I¡¯m okay with using magic to untie the rope, I¡¯m 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 wouldn¡¯t 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 I¡¯m 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, ¡°We¡¯ve already been turned back by these cliffs once. We should at least give it a try while we¡¯re here.¡±

 Jeremy Likes The Unplanned Supplies – Chapter 288

    While the party wasn¡¯t 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 didn¡¯t 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 didn¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t have anything like that yet, though just like what the others in Jim¡¯s team were worried about, he marked it down for future use. After all, even if the dungeon isn¡¯t 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, ¡°I¡¯ve 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 aren¡¯t just wet, they¡¯re 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 shouldn¡¯t. 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 I¡¯m sure the dungeon could make things like that. I¡¯m assuming they aren¡¯t 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. I¡¯m going to guess that the dungeon just makes replicas and it doesn¡¯t matter what the source looks like, it can just copy it.¡±


    Kelly shrugs, ¡°But those marks aren¡¯t ¡®rough¡¯ tool marks. It isn¡¯t like I haven¡¯t observed the various pieces of loot slowly flooding the market. The only reason we aren¡¯t 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 isn¡¯t really all that much of a difference.¡±


    Bill scoffs, ¡°Rough tool marks? What¡¯s 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 isn¡¯t always the best option. Though I will admit, it might be possible that the dungeon simply doesn¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t. 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 don¡¯t 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 aren¡¯t masterwork items, shows something besides the dungeon has been making stuff.¡±


    Jim nods, ¡°Good to know. Now, are we ready to continue? I don¡¯t begrudge us the time to figure stuff out, but I don¡¯t particrly like standing around on soggy ground.¡±


    Kelly nods, ¡°I¡¯m sure we¡¯ll find more stuffter. In fact, it is likely we¡¯ll find more mini viges like this that aren¡¯t 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 they¡¯re in. After that they don¡¯t have to wait long to finally face some monsters. Though it seems that the ninth floor isn¡¯t 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 weren¡¯t 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 you¡¯re 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 isn¡¯t the group''s first rodeo. While the shrieks are certainly annoying, it doesn¡¯t 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 wasn¡¯t 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 wasn¡¯t in their favor. Good thing the others weren¡¯t just standing around.


    Jeremy wasn¡¯t 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 aren¡¯t 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 wasn¡¯t 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.


    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 wasn¡¯t going to fill itself with arrows.@@novelbin@@


    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 hadn¡¯t been intended, but the farms didn¡¯t exactly vanish once the myconids were beat. Even if you didn¡¯t 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 doesn¡¯t 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 aren¡¯t 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.


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