[D'sP] A Little Work, A Little Fun - Chapter 477

Doyle turned to floor 21, which had just hit the point of diminishing expansion. ‘Well, I can mess with getting a panda later. Right now I need to work on making an earth bear. Shouldn’t be the hardest thing?’

Ally nods, ‘Not only do you have the Elemental Animals path, which improves the odds, bears are also more naturally attuned to the Earth element. So yeah, at the very least? Quicker than air goats.’

Doyle, ‘Eh, maybe the same speed? While in my world’s mythology, air goats aren’t the most common thing. Goats are known for climbing mountains. Which along with, admittedly, being very much Earth aligned, also touches on the element of Air. Especially the idea of being on top of a mountain.’

Ally, ‘I would say it has more of a connection to Ice and Cold.’

Doyle, ‘Would not Ice and Cold be about the same thing? They tend to be used that way in the stories I remember. Sure, the twist is usually connecting Cold to Hot, but that is usually a “protagonist” specific power.’

Ally shakes her head, ‘While Hot and Cold do tend to be connected, that isn’t more powerful than just Cold or just Hot. The key thing is that Cold isn’t about a specific temperature, but rather a state of energy drain and stasis.

‘True Cold is more than freezing things. It revolves around removal. A person hit with a cold spell will lose not just heat, but kinetic and magic. A falling rock stops falling as the energy behind gravity drains away. Gears stop being able to turn as the mechanical energy goes away. Absolute zero is the starting point for the truly powerful as the magic of Cold then exceeds the mundane and enters the truly magical.

‘Then you have Ice. Which to truly reach the top end, you have to go beyond simple ice and reach into all the odd forms that frozen water can take. Including things like liquid ice. I don’t know how it works. However, it is what it says on the tin. Not water, but ice that moves like a liquid.’

Doyle, ‘Fair enough. Though I’m certainly not touching any of that for a while. I simply have to figure out the best way to expose a bear to the earth. Well, outside of the normal things a bear would experience. Maybe set up the floor a bit first?’

Ally shrugs, ‘Maybe crafting the floor will spark an idea.’

Doyle nods, ‘Yeah, let’s see what we can see.’

So, for the first time in a while, Doyle leaves the floor mostly as it formed, dimensionally speaking. A simple empty sphere. Which is soon coated in stone. More because it is easier to paint a scene on stone than a dimensional boundary.

That settled, he begins to form stone along the bottom to create a spike upward. This wasn’t the final form, but it would give a basic shape to build off of. Though there is one other matter Doyle takes time to watch.

As his pool of world energy dips, Doyle watches how much energy he is receiving from delvers. And yep, definitely getting more. How much? He has no clue! The amount received was never steady, based on a bunch of factors, some not even visible.

What Doyle would compare his world energy income to was less of a specific amount and more of a random range. As if a bunch of things that delvers did provided a die roll of energy and every second a handful of dice were rolled based on what they’ve done.

Except now each roll was at +1 or something. Very noticeable, but hard to pin down when you don’t know how many dice are being rolled. Still, it made creating tons of stone go by a lot quicker and the spire grew.

Once that was crafted, Doyle began to add on to it. Bulk it out into a proper mountain shape. Though a lone peak instead of part of a range. Layer after layer of added stone. Except Doyle didn’t want Just a mountain. Instead, going for plateau after plateau. Five layers in total with the last being the mountain’s peak.

And to connect each layer to the next, Doyle began to dig out tunnels. These aren’t meant to trap the enemies, and so progressing won’t be too hard. Well, the actual path itself. There would be monsters to contend with, obviously.

The only annoying bit that Doyle can see? Someone could easily climb the mountainside. Which is he made the sides steeper, would cut down on such attempts. Except that was going towards making the already malformed mountain into just another plateau.

There was nothing wrong with plateaus. Just that Doyle had used them for the Air themed stuff. Besides, he wanted mountains!

Doyle shook his core and put the problem to the side. Except suddenly, an idea came to him out of the blue. Right now the flats around the mountain literally went all around the mountain. That didn’t have to be the case.

The ridges and flats fall away from the mountain while the tunnels fill in, reducing it once again to a craggy spire piercing the heavens. Well, not actually, and the ceiling was still just stone. Oh, and there wasn’t any light yet. But it was the feeling that counted in this case.

Anyway, Doyle begins to build rocky shelves into the mountain once again. Except this time around, they are much smaller and more constrained. They no longer ring the mountain, instead having only a couple small rooms worth of space at most. Said shelves would no longer be the main area of the floor. Instead, being at most a small set piece.

After all, the floor was meant to be Earth-themed. And yes, a mountain counted for that, besides, Doyle didn’t want just more tunnels that you can’t actually see where you are. But this? It would give the tunnels a reference point and meaning.

Because tunnels are what was going to be most of the floor. Still no mazes. That way led only to disappointment. After all, this was the first floor after a boss. Any attempt at a static maze would quickly be mapped out and Doyle didn’t want stuff shuffling around.

Instead, the tunnels that Doyle is now digging out will be snakey messes, but mostly a straight shot from one rocky shelf to the next. Only mostly. There would be the occasional offshoot, which would be obvious.

Why? Because down the offshoots would be that classic adventurers equation of risk equalling reward. A room with monsters and a treasure chest. Doyle wasn’t 100% sure what he would put inside, but there was more than enough stuff he could use as a reward.

Though with the tunnels laid out, there was something missing. At the moment, the shelves and reward rooms were the only places to face multiple enemies in a practical manner. So Doyle goes back for another pass and widens a number of sections into rooms.

Satisfied, he pulls back and takes a look at the mountain as a whole. And yeah, an excellent base, but it needs a lot more work. To start, the rest of the floor needed some set dressing.

Doyle wasn’t going to add a flat area around the mountain. Rather, he was going to make the entire stone sphere into a scene of the sky. Well, not all of it. Directly below the mountain, Doyle decided to make it appear like the mountain kept going.

Another sudden idea came to him. What if instead of climbing, you were descending? Oh sure, in theory that would make “cheating” easier. After all, descending is easier than climbing.

That was an easy fix, though. A bunch of birds that attacked anyone trying that would go a long way. And if they could still manage it? Well, fair enough.

There was just the question of how the skybox should act. Because it wouldn’t be hard at all for the delvers to get to it. In particular, if they went to the bottom of the floor, they could walk on the “sky”. Maybe not that far before it got too steep, but still.

Doyle stares down at the base of the mountain, even though visually it seems to keep going down. To himself he couldn’t help but think to himself, ‘You know what? Sure, let them. It won’t hurt them and this wouldn’t be the first time they could find the edges.’

So, instead of worrying about that, Doyle focuses on making the sky look pretty. Match the day and night cycle with the outside world. More clouds? Yeah, more clouds. Fluffy, fluffy clouds.

And now, the mountain itself needed some spiffing up. A shame that in the “lore” of this specific floor, this was definitely above the tree line. Doyle has finally gotten the pattern for trees and now he has made a floor that wouldn’t make use of them.

Though that did remind Doyle of something else. Since he had the pattern, maybe he should go and update the pseudo-trees. Make them actual living trees. Which was also a good excuse to take a glance over things.

Doyle turns to Ally, ‘Hey, I’m thinking of replacing my existing trees with actual trees. Anyway, since I don’t have a perfect recall of every place I’ve ever put tree stuff, I’m also going to be doing a review for the floors. Oh, and check on what the delvers think of it all right now.’

Ally, ‘That sounds like a fun distraction.’

So together, the two turn their attention to the first floor. It was a simple enough design, a cave floor. The entrance room is empty of enemies, with clovers covering the floor. What it isn’t empty of, is delvers. The duo only had to wait a few minutes and there was already a party making their way through. Though Doyle can’t help but sigh.

The party doesn’t even look around, heading straight to the right of the gate where the tunnel to the next room is.

That room is the same size as the last and has four goats in it. Goats that do actually put up a decent fight. These delvers are certainly green. It isn’t their first fight. It would be kind of hard when you’re well over a year into this nonsense. Though Doyle is sure there are still people out there who haven’t fought a single monster.

Anyway, the four goats charge the party in pairs. This knocks the delvers around and even draws blood from the off-tank of the group. Sure, the cut is quickly healed, but that was more than Doyle had expected for the very first fight of the dungeon.

Goats put down and the loot collected, the party moves straight across the room into the next room, which is empty and a quarter the size, so they continue into the vine tunnel. Said tunnel runs almost completely along the side of the floor and is filled with vines.

In this hall of vines, there are a couple kobolds and a trio of goats. Except, they’re spread out over the entire hall and hiding in predictable locations. So yeah, the delvers make quick work of them. The fight is even easier than the four goats.

Though they actually stick around the room a bit longer than the last few. This delay was for a simple enough reason. Doyle had almost forgotten, but he placed a trio of aloe vera plants as harvest nodes. And yeah, this party, while knowing about the herbs, sucked at actually finding them.

Aloe eventually gathered, the party heads into the tunnel at the end of the hall, which turns to the left and leads into a room slash hall sort of set up with six goats. Of which, Doyle notices one is a level higher.

And though there are two extra goats and one stronger than previous goats, the delvers have an easier time than the first fight. Not because they’ve suddenly gotten better after only a couple fights. Rather, because the room is long, it means the goats are more spread out and they’re much easier to handle one at a time.

The next room is the same size and monster layout, though the leveled-up goat here is actually two above, instead of a single level. And now Doyle can tell, their earlier stumble was definitely a matter of them not being familiar with shorter quadrupeds than a lack of fighting experience. They handle this room with more skill and clear signs of adapting to having to fight goats.

Which is good for them as the next room has nine goats, one that is three levels higher. Oh, and the room is the same size as the one that had only four goats.

Nine goats is a lot, even when the delvers are presumably a few levels higher than not. Oh, and the goats have helmets.

A New Floor And A Discovery - Chapter 476

Isn't Healing Rare - Chapter 478