NOVEL SIMPLE 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 racial languages, 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 regular 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 will come 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 the last 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 village 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 problems later. Whether that is literally the next boss fight with the myconids or later.
‘Though now that I think about it, I do need a more singular 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 particularly tough for the delvers. Though you are lacking 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, similar 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 related 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 more complex 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, but combined 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 for community-based monsters.
‘While I will admit, most of the community stuff is static, it doesn’t have to be for the next path. As it is, you’ve got over twenty cumulative stat points gained from it on any monster in a community. Something more monsters in your dungeon than not happen to fit.
Doyle grumbles, ‘Though that is a bit of a Catch 22 with the previous problem. I get more bonuses for putting them in a community and yet we don’t know if I’ll be able to handle seeing that community 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 overlap at all, I would be surprised.’
Ally nods, ‘That does make some sense. Though the chance of overlap 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 to laugh before explaining, ‘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 places 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 it completely wrong. You’re actually in the best position. Whereas they have to go out into the world to explore, your varied experiences come 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 is coming 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 they lack. Sure, it is one of the lowest forms of immortality, but even then, it puts you outside of the claws 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 planet from outside influence forever. We’ve already got those animal kin. So while the fact no one on the planet right now can damage my core, that isn’t going to last forever.’
Ally grimaces, ‘I wouldn’t say that nothing can, at least at this point. However, nothing that would be coming here can. Oceans are scary places 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 place.’
Doyle rolls his core and in a sarcastic voice, ‘Well that’s comforting.’
