[D'sP] End Of A Joke - Chapter 466

It wouldn’t be correct to say Doyle found out what changed by accident. While it wasn’t done all that purposefully, it would be an insult to the day or so of work put in.

All it took was to proverbially ball up one of the gates and toss it behind his back in disgust. Not entirely on purpose, Doyle was pretty annoyed at this point. However, it also wasn’t not on purpose either. He did want to see what happened when you threw a gate around. The answer is that, yes, you can throw them around.

That wasn’t what was important, though. Doyle and Ally watched the crumpled portal move through the dungeon, deflecting a bit with every floor barrier it went through. The gate wasn’t moving too fast and transitioned fine enough. Each new floor, the gate ended up on, accepting said gate. 

Though with the transition, the gate itself changed. Leading to the previous floor instead of the original exit. Then it hit the dimensional wall between six and seven, stopping dead in its tracks. Because no, they weren’t going to sidestep not being able to change stuff on an active floor.

That didn’t matter though as Doyle found it amusing to toss a gate around. In large part because there is not much else which can seamlessly transition through the floors like that. Oh, sure, if you line up some gates, you could easily toss a rock from the core room, through every floor, and out of the dungeon.

That doesn’t count, though. Using a gate is less “moving through” and more “teleporting to”. A gate being tossed around actually travels to the edge of the floor, passes through the floor’s exterior, and into the next floor.

Of course, Ally pointed out that looking at it that way is a little pointless. ‘Oh sure, the gate reaches the dimensional barrier at the edge of the floor and given your dungeon is like a nesting doll, moves right onto the next. But that isn’t needed to make it physically move between the floors.

‘Sure, I agree with your point about using the gates. Though I’d more compare it to using an actual gate in a wall. Anyone can do that. It takes something more to jump the wall itself without worrying about the gate. 

‘Especially when the wall is more like a two-story stone edifice with spikes and all the fun tricks architects have for defending against sieges and spies trying to get in. Now see if you can toss a portal onto another floor without using the dimensional boundary.’

Doyle had to admit, she wasn’t wrong about that and so spent some time giving that a try as well. This only took a quarter hour to get working. But at that point, it was half game to the two, and so they didn’t stop there. Like skipping a rock on a lake, could they skip the portal over floors? Specifically, the sixth floor?

So Doyle sat there in the center of his dungeon, throwing a gate outward over and over as Ally encouraged and cheered him on. Though skipping a floor turned out harder than just transitioning to the next floor from anywhere on a floor. As while they weren’t using the edges for that, the floors were still connected.

Still, he kept at it and managed to figure out the trick with a little effort. Except, the sixth floor still stymied him. The resistance from delvers, even when supposedly skipping it, causes problems.

Then it happened. Doyle figured that if there was resistance, why not throw the gate harder? So, he did. Once, twice, faster each time.

On about the fifth attempt, the gate managed to skip over floor six and keep ongoing. Not all that fast anymore, mind you. The effort needed to get through was quite high. Though that wouldn’t be a problem as no one was clearing the lower floors at the moment.

And so the gate floats through five, four, three, two, and one. Right up to the edge of the first floor and right on through.

Doyle, ‘That wasn’t supposed to happen.’

Ally was silent as she frantically pulled up the various screens around her. The gate hadn’t vanished. It still existed. ‘I am getting movement, but no visuals. Should still be nearby, for what that’s worth when dealing with the void.’

Doyle, ‘It doesn’t feel like the void. Which is good, I don’t want an opening for Those creatures to get in through.’

Ally pulls up a screen, ‘Okay, yes, I think it is between us and your original dimension.’

Doyle, ‘Is this a good time to say this feels right?’

Ally grumbles, ‘Must be what we were looking for. Don’t know how a dungeon is supposed to figure it out on their own.’

Doyle, ‘Well, just like I could skip floors, you could probably skip right to tossing it out of the dungeon. Though yeah, you’d be relying on an unawakened dungeon to create and then toss out a gate. My guess is there’s probably some sort of activation thing that would do it naturally in response.’

Ally, ‘Wait! The gate is straightening out. Its tumbling is reducing.’

Doyle quiets his mind and feels for the gate. Yep, less of a sense of multiple vectors of movement. Slowing as well.

Then the gate is through and Doyle’s territory expands outward in a rush. A forest reveals itself along with all the expected wildlife.

The two of them look around, trying to spot any danger. Though they almost missed something. Growing over the portal is a tree, and in that tree, a squirrel of sorts. Though the critters snout is quite long and has a pair of fang-like teeth near the end.

Said squirrel had been running across the branch above with an acorn held tightly. And with the appearance of the gate, the squirrel was shocked, sensing a wave of power coming off the gate. Thus distracted, the squirrel’s grip on his acorn loosens, dropping said acorn.

The squirrel is frozen for a second before it scrabbles after the acorn as the nut falls down between the branches. Down through the last layer, the acorn keeps going, straight towards the gate. Just barely behind it the squirrel lands on the last branch and reaches desperately after the acorn.

Hind limbs grasp the branch as the squirrel fully extends, claws flailing after the acorn, the tip of one claw barely swiping the cap, causing the acorn to tumble. Tumbled right into the gate. And the squirrel throws itself in right after, not knowing that the moment the acorn had entered the dungeon, it was absorbed.

{

Wood pattern lv58 evolves into Tree pattern lv72

}

And right behind that, the squirrel barrels through the gate and in a panic rushes around, looking for its acorn. Except it can’t even smell the acorn in the dungeon and so right away turns around and leaves. All before anyone can react.

Doyle, ‘Huh, I guess I have trees now.’

Ally shakes her head, ‘That’s what you focus on? We’ve got a second entrance now! We can start getting some basic flora and fauna. That will be wonderful going forward.’

Doyle, ‘As long as something too dangerous doesn’t decide to invade.’

Ally shrugs, ‘You have the town. Just set things up so they can enter the same space as the intruder and they’ll take care of it. Besides, I highly doubt you can prevent them from finding out about this second entrance.

‘I don’t know if they’ll be able to use it, mind you. But they’ll know about it for sure. I wouldn’t be surprised if Jim didn’t just get a big ol’ alert when that happened.’

Doyle, ‘Wait, if you don’t know if they’ll be able to use the new entrance to the dungeon, how can they mix with things that came through it?’

Ally shrugs, ‘Well, at that point they’ll be in here. Now, if they try to leave together, I assume they’ll end up at their respective entrance points and not together. Same with any gear they brought in. Dungeons are not meant to be some form of fast travel.’

Doyle, ‘But then what about whatever they get for killing something from the other entrance? Seems like they’d be less likely to bother if they don’t get to keep anything.’

Ally, ‘I don’t know. Maybe they’ll get a dungeon drop for it or something? I know you can’t put a bounty on delvers and drop loot for them killing each other. But a beast? That might work.

‘Also, like, eating or drinking something obviously changes it fundamentally. So I guess they could use potions and such from the other gate. Especially if they wait for the stuff to completely process.’

Doyle, ‘This all sounds a bit wishy washy.’

Ally nods, ‘Yep, stuff like this tends to be more based on how magic feels at the time. Honestly? It is possible that they’ll be able to go through that other gate, but with restrictions. I’m just guessing the most likely outcome.’

Doyle sighs, ‘Well, we can’t do much but wait. Though I guess it is always possible that some critter tests it for us.’

Ally, ‘That is possible. Also, given some of the conditions to pass your later floors, I honestly don’t worry as much about outside monsters. Just the second boss floor alone will be a hard stop for any monster that can’t jump far enough or climb. What with those pits you have there.’

Doyle, ‘Good point. Now, what does having a second entrance mean for me as a dungeon?’

Ally snaps her fingers and a screen pops up. ‘Well, if you look here, you’ll notice that your world energy regeneration doubled from 2,070 to 4,140. Which is a pleasant bonus and the most obvious.

‘This is a well-known phenomenon for any dungeon that ends up developing a second entrance. And this is despite the fact that the actual physical entrance itself isn’t the primary way for a dungeon to absorb world energy from a dimension, whether it is a regular dungeon or a portal dungeon like yourself. The effect is believed to be at least partially conceptual in nature.’

Doyle, ‘Ah, so because people believe a second entrance would mean double can fit in, double does fit in.’

Ally nods, ‘Exactly.

‘Now, as also shown, it gives you access to new resources. Though I can already tell that this new portal is on the same planet as your other. You didn’t win the jackpot by getting access to another world’s resources and maybe even adventurers.

‘Though I wouldn’t be surprised if the system nudged this along. Would suck for your world if you just happened to open up a gate to a world of highly advanced colonizers. Your history has enough of that already.’

Doyle, ‘I can see that, though it would have been nice to at least give me an opening to a similarly developed world.’

Ally shakes her head, ‘Too many chances for problems to crop up when it can all be fixed by keeping you planet-bound. Though it is possible that the other gate ended up a good distance from here. We at least know that it is far enough away that I can’t recognize anything. Which isn’t saying much, but it would suck if the second gate ended up right next to the first.

‘Now, since this is a bonus from settling your dungeon, I assume there are other bonuses besides more stuff being able to enter the dungeon. However, just like we weren’t told you could get a second gate, it is safe to assume we won’t be told what else came with it.’

Doyle, ‘Bleugh, an unsolved mystery that is somehow intertwined through my entire dungeon. I guess all we can do is puzzle it out with time.’

Ally, ‘Well, that and I can tell you what a normal second gate would entail.’

Doyle, ‘True, so what would it entail?’

Ally, ‘Oh, I already told you. The extra world energy and a second way to gain things. That’s about it.’ And she smirks at him

Settling Down - Chapter 465

You Can Close One - Chapter 467