[D'sP] Things Falling Into Place - Chapter 494

The idea that not everything had stats was interesting and Doyle spent some time considering what it actually meant. Especially after he confirmed that high-level materials or a high-level creator isn’t enough. Otherwise, it would be a simple matter of quality. Even if the quality was based on something like concepts, intent, or weight of importance. Though all of those things have been shown to enable an item to gain a status.

This all had Doyle thinking back on what stats Are. Because what they aren’t, is a simple representation of the physical reality, even for the body stats. A handful of dirt would not have stats, but a handful of dirt Could have stats given the right circumstances.

Because stats aren’t physical. Stats aren’t even magical, though the results can express themselves as such in the same way they can with the physical. Stats are a pure expression of aligned power. More than aligned, connected.

Doyle isn’t certain why he is certain, but this is what he feels. Stuff gains stats when able to maintain itself against the rest of reality. Which would explain why a clay golem has stats and a lump of clay being manipulated by magic doesn’t. Especially if the magic is temporary.

Though it isn’t about being able to last forever or else animals wouldn’t have stats. No, it had to be some odd mix of many elements with no one true way. Which left the question of how to tell when something has stats?

Well, Doyle doesn’t get an answer to that, even if he does figure out something else. The concept of “artifacts” comes from items with high stats. Similar to how the higher Doyle’s Strength is, the sturdier his walls are as long as they’re meant to be that way.

An artifact sword that seems unbreakable simply has so much Strength that outside forces find it hard to damage. Though the concept of artifacts does send Doyle down the path of considering just how powerful something could become without a soul.

Ally rained on that parade a little by pointing out a True Immortal would trump all such nonsense. Though Doyle considered an item able to resist everything up until the point of a True Immortal as pretty impressive, nonetheless. Still, he personally left open the door for some sort of platonically perfect ideal of some sort or another which could survive even that. Maybe something like a certain green lizard plush he remembered from some story or another.

One final bit of an idea slithered out of his mind right before moving on to something else. Such a platonic ideal could not have a soul. Because to have a soul represents change and a platonic ideal by necessity can’t change. After all, for something to be “perfect”, even in a limited sense of being a perfect example of itself, would mean it has to have always been and always be what it is. A thing with no start nor end.

Or rather, since Doyle is considering the idea of such things being created and having a similar level of staying power as a True Immortal, reality would warp around the creation to make that true. A self-sustained time loop in the same way a True Immortal has their own self-sustained timeline.

So with those thoughts in mind, Doyle turns back to his dungeon.

And he sees more.

Oh, it wasn’t some major revelation. However, knowing how stats connect to reality allowed Doyle to see the difference between his territory and his dungeon.

Yes, he could always feel the difference. One was him and the other wasn’t. Doyle even knew that one of the differences was that his dungeon was affected by his stats.

Now though, Doyle could see that. He could feel how his stats were within his influence, yet not merging with the terrain. There was even a small bit of resistance that he wasn’t sure about within Wolf’s Rest that was likely the town’s own presence. Whether that was because the town had stats or simply just a metaphysical interference preventing Doyle from fully considering it a part of him.

It was interesting, and within this clarity, Doyle’s influence suddenly extended a few meters. Which doesn’t seem like much until you remember that is being added to the radius of a circle already bigger than the town itself. And Doyle’s mind went blank for a moment from relief. Like if he was still human and had been holding in his gut for a while and just let it out.

He turns to the side and glances at his skills, or rather, one in particular.

{

Territory Control lv102

}

Yep, his first skill to break level 100 and by three levels at that! Though he also noticed another improvement. His Village Planner skill had been at 39 and was now at 51. That was likely just from designing the various monster settlements. Though the lack of improvement to Biosphere Balancing was strange.

Well, Doyle thought that at first, but decided it was because he hadn’t been balancing the creatures. Not really. After all, the last few floors had been themed “monsters, but air”. Which works, but he doesn’t have enough air creatures to create an actual biosphere. At the very least, he would have needed things like a flying rabbit, floating flowers, and whatever other nonsense air aligned flora and fauna might be available in a magical world.

There must be entire realms out there based around the classical elements and really just about any element and more. Though it did bring into question how useful the skill would be in the short term.

Oh sure, Doyle saw the future potential and wouldn’t drop it, even if given a chance. He could see the high end where it allows him to create entire environments. A very important consideration for when his floors become truly too big. Besides that, it would likely also allow him to put together fun environments that don’t drain points to maintain.

Like with the mithril forge now being cheaper to upkeep, Doyle saw a future where the “balance” in the skill’s name allows him to set up lava next to an ice flow. Which technically already exists, but is inherently unbalanced. Whereas, for the dungeon, Doyle would want it to maintain the same layout.

For now though, Doyle had a very specific goal in mind and so sets aside these considerations. Now, luckily part of his goal was already met, quite by accident, for what he wanted to do was raise his main dungeon skills to level 100. Or more, as ended up being the case with Territory Control.

Though in raising Territory Control, his desire to do this went up in an unquantifiable way. The feeling of relief revealed that while his skills hadn’t grown, that didn’t mean his skills had stayed the same. So to relieve the pressure, they needed the levels.

And next on the list was Dungeon Rules. Doyle honestly felt a bit mixed on it as while used for some very key things, also wasn’t used much. Then again, it made sense. You don’t make the same law anew every day. Once written, you move to enforcing the rule.

Which, to be fair, likely would help the skill level. To level the skill though, Doyle felt he needed to be a bit proactive. But what to rule on?

Why, the twentieth floor, of course!

Right now, people can avoid the kobold towns by going along an edge. Doyle wasn’t going to change too much about this. Delvers would still be allowed to sneak around.

But in turn? So would the monsters. And so a new rule is born. If delvers sneak past one of the kobold towns before the last, a portion of that town’s monsters will make their way to the last town where the boss is at.

A simple enough rule, but from the release Doyle can feel, it was enough. Besides, the rule managed to do something that otherwise would have required quite a bit of complex planning.

After all, while Doyle could tell his monsters to abandon their place and head back if they see someone sneaking past. The very nature of stealth means some will be missed.

With a Dungeon Rule, the result happens automatically. No need to spot the enemies or any such nonsense. Though he can feel that it is close. The rule didn’t touch on the delvers or use any actual skills to cause an effect.

It wasn’t anything earth shattering, but the single level gained was enough for Doyle. Which meant next was, well, three interlinked skills. Universal Deconstruction, Dungeon Pattern Database, and Creation (Energy Powered, Pattern Based). Once any of the three broke through, the others would follow and Doyle had the perfect thing to handle this.

The goat pattern had been at lv99 for quite a while now, so it shouldn’t take much to push it over the edge. With that in mind, Doyle spawned in ten or so goats on the 21st floor and had them roughhouse a bit. Well, “roughhousing” implied a certain level of holding back. While it wasn’t an all out fight, they weren’t holding back either.

Still, this wasn’t a quick little test. Doyle stayed focused on the goats as they played around for multiple days. Then he spotted something.

He has watched how his goats acted for quite a while at this point. Not that they were robots, mechanically following the same actions over and over. Rather, they maintained a very base goat lifestyle.

Which might seem like a weird way of putting it until you remember these goats had enough strength to easily jump three times their height straight up from standing. So why do they maintain a “normal” goat life. It was only with the 20th floor goat boss that Doyle had begun to see a goat exceed that base level of living.

Now though, these goats on the 21st floor had actually begun to step past that! It is simple stuff, sure, but seeing a goat hop right into the crown of a tree is quite something. They were also beginning to play around with some rocks. Big, head-sized rocks that they began to kick around to pass the time. Which is something the goats would have never done before.

Doyle isn’t 100% sure, but figured this was enough for his purposes. And if not? Well, he doesn’t need to use all of the goats, just one was enough. So after separating out the most “advanced” of the group, he deconstructs the goat.

This causes a double wave of relief. Soon followed by a third wave as he creates a new goat.

The “deconstruct” skill hit 100 for the more advanced goat. Which in turn granted a level to the goat pattern, boosting the database skill as well. All ending with creation reaching 100 for spawning a goat with the pattern.

Though after collecting himself, Doyle has a feeling that such a tactic of keeping the three core skills in line won’t work again. Not that he expected it to.

He shouldn’t really be learning anything much from deconstructing something he just spawned, unless an outside influence modified it. Which simply having the goats play around shouldn’t have been enough. This has worked purely because after being at his bottleneck for so long, the skills were only a sliver away from leveling.

{

Level Gained!

Level goes from 11 to 12, Strength goes from 104 to 112, Agility goes from 292 to 338, Constitution goes from 137 to 147, Intelligence goes from 124 to 134, Wisdom goes from 352 to 396, Presence goes from 107 to 115, Destiny goes from 229 to 242, Karma goes from 329 to 370, Luck goes from 188 to 205

}

Doyle can’t help it, but to laugh. It seems that with the release of his bottleneck, a bunch of things have begun to move once again. Not that he hadn’t been making progress, but there was just something about numbers go up!

A Lot Of Ways To Cheat On Traps - Chapter 493

The Database Skill - Chapter 495