[D'sP] A Lot Of Ways To Cheat On Traps - Chapter 493

Doyle was back in the bear room, but not for the bear. The trap ceiling was in the middle of resetting, but what he was more interested in was the trigger. As while it was physically connected and all of the traps set up by his kobolds were as well. But why?

There was literal magic. Doyle was a crystal in a fancy hole. He finally had someone to spend time with and not just watch videos alone at home. So why force a trap to be directly connected to the trigger?

Doyle pauses. ‘Well, I guess it has to be directly connected in some manner. It simply doesn’t have to be physical. Even pre-system, there were things that could be seen as not being directly connected. Stuff like laser trip wires and such. The emitter and sensor could even be on separate power grids and work just fine. Still, the light connects them.’

And it is that thought which sends Doyle down a bit of a trap-based rabbit hole. Though it has a couple of false starts. The biggest of which was trying to use his strange dungeon stone.

It worked. In fact, it worked perfectly! The strange dungeon stone could do amazing things. Except, it was cheating. It was like playing a survival game and finding out the hunger meter wouldn’t actually hurt you when low and so you don’t bother scavenging food. The strange dungeon stone worked miracles because the stone bypassed so much of the actual work.

Sure, unawakened dungeons likely need that kind of hand-holding. Doyle, on the other hand has a human mind full of clever tricks and a desire to play with some of the materials he had gathered. In particular, there was the quartz mana cable. Though stringing the cable up directly wasn’t the solution. After all, that would still be a physical connection.

No, the proper use was as a method to direct the Mana. First was the trigger. A simple enough construction for this first attempt, just a run-of-the-mill pressure plate. Doyle was tempted to use a tripwire having just thought of the laser version, but pressure plates were more stable.

Anyway, it was a simple plate on the ground and stepping on a sliver of Mana stone. Which was actually a lucky find for him. At first, it seemed like he was going to need to use strange dungeon stone to turn pressure into a Mana signal.

However, it turns out that an empty Mana stone will recharge to ambient levels of Mana. Which is important because you can get a Mana stone to release power if squeezed. Dangerous if the stone is full, but more like a piezoelectric unit when simply at ambient Mana levels. Though maybe it would be better compared to a sponge in a water balloon.

The “water balloon” part actually being an important detail. All because it means you can direct where the Mana will go. In particular, it most prefers to escape from a concave surface. So, a small disc of Mana stone with one dimple on the edge makes a decently directed burst of Mana.

So, a single step on the plate releases a small burst of Mana. This, sadly, can likely be detected by those who are alert for such things. Anyway, the burst rolls forward in one direction. That would be enough if you just want something directly in front of or behind the plate. Well, and to the sides.

This is where the quartz Mana cable comes into play. A small segment is placed under the ground, lined up with the area the Mana burst will pass through. And when it does? Some of it will enter the cable and exit whoever the cable is pointed.

This can’t be directly towards the trap itself. Someone might detect the burst of Mana. Anyone half competent at seeing Mana will notice if a packet of the stuff flies up out of the floor.

Instead, use what are basically reflectors–

Doyle pauses as an idea takes its time to percolate through his mind. Reflector? Why use the whole cable! The walls are a Mana reflector of sorts and so should work just fine for that.

It takes some finesse, but Doyle manages to remove the outer coating of the cable and flatten the piece out. Now, to test it! The extracted piece is placed where the piece of cable had been and after dropping another rock on the pressure plate, Doyle watches closely.

The burst of Mana fires out, a little weak as the stone didn’t get enough time to return to ambient Mana levels. Still, it travels swiftly through the stone as if it wasn’t there. Right until it hit the square of material.

And much to Doyle’s joy, the Mana bounces off the material. All while showing some useful characteristics as compared to the cable. In particular, since the Mana didn’t get funneled through a cable, it stayed somewhat diffuse.

This would limit the distance it could travel, of course. However, the diffuse nature means it will also be harder to detect. Or rather, someone will be able to detect it, but not pinpoint the burst of Mana. An important thing to obfuscate where the actual trap is located.

Besides, what does it matter if the Mana burst can’t travel all that far? This is for a trap, not a telegraph. More secure methods can be used if distance is needed, but a basic trap will have the trigger and right next to it. The biggest use for these deflectors was actually going to be simply to bend the burst around edges.

As for how to trigger the trap itself with a Mana burst? There are a couple of options there. Of which, Doyle decided to use runes. The simplest setup being a gather rune and a projection rune of some sort. For instance, force or sharpness. The first being perfect to set off a rock fall trap and the second to handle cutting a string or similar.

As a method of triggering a trap, runes were quite powerful and versatile. Though if going off just the burst of power used to trigger the runes, they weren’t ever going to be dangerous in and of themselves. Which, in its own way, is also useful.

 If Doyle wanted to use runes as a trap, he could do so. In fact, he was pretty certain they’d work as a trigger as well. Rune-based traps are likely to be an all-in-one solution to trap making.

Which is exactly what he didn’t want. Maybe in a later floor after traps aren’t as novel? For now though, Doyle wanted to play with traps! So the simple all in one solution that runes or slapping down a pattern would represent are ignored for the moment.

Though there is one simple solution that he doesn’t ignore. Pitfall traps can be fun and will work even if the first person to step on the trap causes it to activate. However, more effective is if you let someone get towards the center of the pit before letting things fall and for that, runes are perfect.

The floor can be stable as people walk across it and only falls into the pit when someone is unlucky enough to be detected by a rune. And this doesn’t have to be the first person. If the activation rune is just a small spot on the floor, there is the possibility a party traipses right over the trap without realizing it was there. Or maybe everyone crosses it, only for the last person in line to trigger the trap.

Of course, similar to the rockfall trap, a simple fall isn’t going to cause much damage. Except there’s a practically built-in solution of adding spikes. Falling onto them is never fun and better spikes can make up for shorter falls and increasing defenses.

Oh, but don’t think Doyle only laid out a bunch of directly activated pitfalls and called it a day. He would play with the formula and push things around. Things like having the trigger activate a pitfall that is behind the trigger. Placed such that it has a chance to catch any back line support roles that aren’t being careful enough.

Doyle also had a couple pit traps placed in front of their triggers. This time to catch anyone that figured the best solution is to just rush through the traps. Doyle even did a couple instances where the pit itself is actually quite small around. He wasn’t certain if they’d ever catch a person, but it would be valid to worry if a decked out tank might not even be able to properly fall down the hole, getting stuck. An outcome Doyle was not only ready for, but felt would be quite amusing to watch.

Besides, even more than the rockfall traps, the pitfall traps are more about controlling the field. So Doyle focuses on being clever with them for a little, even missing when the system recognizes the mineshaft pitfall pattern.

As for why it is specifically a “mineshaft” pitfall? Well, simple enough. The floor is already carved up for the cart track and so the infrastructure was used to enhance the design.

And of course, Doyle wasn’t going to be satisfied with just rock falls and pitfall traps. These more natural options are all fine and dandy, but there is a reason dart traps are such a classic “ancient temple” style trap. They’re just so versatile.

Even better, once Doyle figures out the best runes to shoot the darts, it is quite simple to make the trap act even more like their video game versions. Though being a dungeon, one aspect of that was already taken care of. Once fired, the darts quickly fade away, meaning he doesn’t have to worry about them piling up or causing a jam that requires fixing.

Oh sure, he can’t exactly have the classic puzzle room where it’s just darts being fired continuously in a pattern. Doyle still needs to include a magazine of darts to pull from so there are some physical limitations on such things. Though Doyle does spend a little more time than not on one particular avenue.

After all, the darts vanish with time, right? Well, the energy is going somewhere. What if that somewhere was to refill the dart magazine? Oh sure, Doyle can’t spawn stuff on floors where delvers are, but this was more about moving the darts around instead of spawning in new ones.

A shame this didn’t seem feasible, at least for the moment. Maybe later on if he can figure out space runes better. That or figures out a better way to hook into the dissolution that happens to darts and dead monsters. Obviously, it can’t be used to make infinitely respawning monsters, but there had to be a line. Maybe it was that the target can’t have stats of its own?

After all, even a simple robot would have physical stats, if nothing else. The darts, though? No stats there. Well, technically they do have stats as they’re a physical object. Doyle rolls the idea around in his head a little before asking Ally. ‘When does something have stats?’

Ally turns away from watching a bird make a nest by the second portal. ‘I assume by that you’re asking when does a thing go from being an object with stuff like hardness and becomes something with a status panel with things like “Strength” and whatnot?’

Doyle nods, ‘Yeah, that sounds like what I was asking. If a bit better said.’

Ally, ‘No clue. It is kind of hard to figure out when there isn’t an identify spell to pull up an object’s stats. The best guess is that it has something to do with when the object goes beyond just being an object. After all, a newly forged masterwork iron sword made by a normal smith isn’t going to have a status panel. However, throw the right enchantments on it, have someone wield it long enough, keep it in a special area properly, or any number of other circumstances can change things so it ends up with a status.

‘It isn’t easy, mind you. But it is possible, and so, yeah. There isn’t a one size fits all answer. Well, except maybe if you asks a True Immortal who has studied such things. Though the chances of your understanding their explanation isn’t all that high.’

Not Worth The Weight - Chapter 492

Things Falling Into Place - Chapter 494