[D'sP] Next Element - Chapter 475

Outside in the town, Ace is meeting with a few of the town leaders. Not just the usual suspects, his fellow inner circle, but also those who have made a name for themselves in the second ring and the outskirts. These aren’t the strong adventurers who have made a name for themselves, but rather the strong management types, because even they gain power by following their talents.

Ace looks around the table. Jim is directly across from him as the far side of the rectangle with the rest of the gathering arrayed along the long sides. “We need to rebuild again.”

There are grimaces all around, but no one objects.

Jim sighs, “I’m just glad my Guild is built of sterner stuff or I’d be going through doors like crazy.”

Around the table, there are murmurs of agreement. Stories of even regular people accidentally breaking doors and shattering cups are widespread. Though the worst is how often walls and floors are developing holes.

A lady who manages a couple of large hotels sighs, “Even if I don’t purposefully rebuild my buildings, they’ll end up ‘ship of Theseus’-ing into being rebuilt. The only saving grace is that alcohol isn’t keeping up with people’s ability to resist poison. Otherwise, I wouldn’t be surprised if every inn, tavern, and hotel in the city ended up demolished in a drunken kerfuffle by the end of the city’s second year.”

Ace puts his head in his hands, “I thought we wouldn’t have such a problem. Strength has its whole ‘self-regulating’ thing like from the cartoons, so why are people still breaking stuff?”

Jim laughs, “Intent! Or more often, the lack of it. You lean up against a wall? Everything’s fine as long as you aren’t too heavy for the wall. Though that will be a problem at some point for certain builds.

“You grab a door handle without thinking about it? You’re probably fine as well, but if the door resists at all? Bam, you push right through. Although you didn’t intend to break the door, you no longer intended to just open the door. You were forcing the door open.

“And it is even worse for those in an altered state of mind. Whether from being drunk or simply more tired than not. At that point, things really go bad.”

A man who handles the making of most of the towns kitchen tools and utensils grunts, “My metal stuff is actually breaking quicker than the wood stuff. People are careful with wooden mugs. A metal mug? They slam it around, and the next morning they’re complaining to me that it was too weak because they barely cheers-ed with their friend and now it’s flat.”

Ace, “There has to be a solution for this. The universe is a big place and all, but I doubt they’re all over enchanting their mugs with durability and self-repair. And they certainly aren’t making it all out of something like adamantine or whatever fantasy ultra-tough metal is out there.”

A lady who has a hand in much of the basic clothing shrugs, “We’re still growing. Our world’s still growing. If we brought in a cup from some high-level world, even if it was the most basic cup you’ve ever seen, it would survive much longer than our best attempts.”

Ace, “But that doesn’t help us Now. And we’re gathered here to figure that out.”

The lady shrugs again, “Well, you already said what needed doing. We need a full rebuild. Honestly? We should probably always be in a state of rebuilding. Start at the center and rebuild a few places at a time. Then, once everything has been rebuilt, it will probably be time to rebuild the first stuff. And the timing can be adjusted by how many buildings are on the go at once.”

A Wolfkin man who handles much of the cheaper construction at the edges of the town nods. “Not only would that fix the current problem, it would also be a boon for training our builders. I don’t know how other places handle it, but you can’t just depend on the old hands to do everything. We need to continually be training the next generation. Raising their skill levels and such so that they can replace us.”

A man who handles money frowns, “Well, with how the world works now, I don’t plan on retiring or dying within the next century or more. Why should we settle for the unskilled? Just to train up some people who aren’t ever going to match their betters?”

A look flashes across Ace’s face, though no one besides Jim catches it.

The Wolfkin man shakes his head, “And more the fool you are. For one, rote actions will only ever provide the base amount of experience. Sure, you’ll be a higher level in your skills, but not by as much as you seem to think.

“Besides, I don’t know if your people had a phrase for this, but mine understands the ‘Lone Hunter’ problem. If a community depends on a single hunter to feed them, they’re just one problem away from starving. After all, no matter how good a hunter might be, anything could happen to them.”

Jim nods, “Yeah, we had something like that, though a little broader. In the corporate world, I saw it referred to as the ‘Bus Factor’. It is a measure of the risk resulting from information and training not being shared. Basically, what’s the lowest number of people who can through an accident become unable to do their job or share information will ruin your business. With the idea that there is always a number, but you want to make sure that number is as big as feasible.”

The Wolfkin nods in turn, “Yes, that. Along with making sure you don’t put everyone capable of a certain task in danger at the same time. Two hunting teams might not be able to hunt as big a beast as they would together, but you don’t lose all your hunters in case of a disaster.”

The man who handles money shrugs, “Eh, I’m not going out and hunting. Practicing my trade is good enough for my levels. You aren’t killing me off that easy.”

Ace doesn’t look too impressed with the man, “Okay. Though I do have to side with the others. Every building will be rebuilt in a cycle. However! In understanding that people like some of us here will want only the best, we won’t require you use specific builders. Rather, the town will cover a basic rebuild using a team of builders we provide. For anything more, the person who owns the building will foot the difference.”

The man frowns, “Hmph, that might end up expensive for me. After all, I handle money and so need extra security in my building.”

Ace nods at him, “I can understand that. This was simply the opening discussion and the details will have to be hashed out later. But for now? I feel we’ve covered it, so let’s move on to the next topic.”

Down in the dungeon, Doyle asks Ally how other places handle this sort of thing.

Ally shrugs, ‘They don’t. Or rather, in a place where the world’s World Energy has stabilized, the regular building materials will be strong enough for most of the population. And those who are strong enough to cause problems? Well, they’re the world’s strongest fighters, adventurers, and whatnot. They’ll either keep their power in check or are strong enough and immoral enough to not care about causing trouble.’

Satisfied, Doyle turns to something else. His plans for the next five floors. Right now, he figured Ace and Jim could probably beat the twentieth floor and the boss if they worked together to do so. The simple fact that they aren’t risking both of them at once means there is still likely another few weeks or maybe a couple months before the floor is beat, which means he has time to work on the theme.

For the first twenty floors and a little less on the last four or five, each floor could vary widely from the last. Cool, but Doyle was starting to feel it made expanding his floors unnecessarily hard. Though mostly because of his own hang-ups.

Doyle could just throw whatever he wanted on each floor and call it good. Instead, he felt a need to either have some internal logic between floors or for each floor to be different enough from the last.

Days passed him by as he entered a bit of a creative fugue state. Deep in his own mind, it didn’t hit him like a bolt of lightning from the heavens. It wasn’t some stroke of brilliance.

The decision was made after going over the details of what he had available and had done. One detail after the next softly clicking into place. Though the last piece solidified his vision.

Over the last few floors, Doyle had focused on Wind. Which, given his significant number of Air-attuned monsters, made sense as a theme. So why not keep the elemental theme rolling?

Rolling like a stone!

The next five floors would be devoted to his heartier fellows. Those aligned with earth, soil, dirt, and rocks.

Doyle did have to admit, some connections were more tenuous. Though the quantity of them was absolutely enough! Well, he thought so, looking over the rough list he had gathered on a blue screen.

{

• Grassen Goat

• ? Wooden Goat

• Stone Wolf

• Earthen Cattle 

• ? Herb Cattle

• ? Brown Bears

}

Okay, so two on the list might not quite be “to prompt”, and the bear would need to be evolved into an earth variant. But Doyle felt it was perfectly possible!

Oh, and some (Ally) might point out that the Grassen Goat doesn’t fit either. Doyle felt that while not inherently “Earth”, the plants growing in it made the goat look like a part of the landscape.

As for what kind of terrain these floors would have? Well, as he told Ally, ‘It isn’t set in stone, yet’, but a fun mix of cave-like and cliffs was the idea. Because both were very on theme when you think of elemental earth as found in fantasy novels.

The most important though, would be getting that bear evolution. Though Doyle wasn’t sure if as straightforward a method as used to evolve the goats would work this time. After all, the equivalent of using wind to blow a goat off the mountainside would be to collapse a cave or cause a landslide. Which is inherently more lethal up front.

Part of why the wind thing worked was because the goat could be thrown into the air and experience things. At least, that is what Doyle figured the case was. Maybe all that matters is a sudden exposure to the element? Besides, he knows that gradual adaptation can work as well.

The problem with that is bears are already natural inhabitants of caves and such. While, yeah, in fiction they do seem prone to “Earth” based magical variants. Bears would also to some extent be adapted to Earth powers and so harder to evolve in the short term. Unlike his work with sticking an assassin vine underwater and hoping for the best.

But whatever the case, Doyle knew that at this point, he had to make the 21st floor. Because his work on evolving a bear would be best done with a special setup. One which Doyle doesn’t want lying around on a regular floor.

Doyle turns to Ally, ‘I think this will take a long time. How can I throw together a floor in a day and yet now take so long?’

Ally laughs, ‘You only think this is long! Though consider whales. Their calves can gain up to 90 kilograms a day in their early months of life. Now just scale that up to Dungeons! You’re how big now? And how big was Flisle?

‘So yeah, being able to create your early floors so quickly? It was admittedly impressive for a dungeon, but only on the high end of what is possible. Now you’re not so young anymore, but you’re still growing quite fast, all things considered.’

Permafrost - Chapter 474

A New Floor And A Discovery - Chapter 476