[D'sP] The Setup For 20 - Chapter 455

Doyle pondered the 20th floor. An important number, it represented so much for him. His survival? Eh, it wasn’t as in doubt as it might have felt at points. For it to flourish so much? Go so far? Well, that was an entirely different matter and a lot of it wasn’t in his non-existent hands.

Ace and the others? Doyle had to admit that their taking over continues to be a great boon to him. An orderly town is the best setting for a dungeon among humans. Not only does that mean people will have the free time to go into the dungeon. It also means that those from elsewhere will feel safe visiting the dungeon. Which is important because no one wants to win something in a dungeon, only to have it taken away when they leave.

Though it certainly helped that he picked kobolds and goats. The assassin vines are questionable, but he enjoyed them enough that Doyle didn’t regret the choice. Oh, and the cattle certainly made him the food center of the entire community. While the goats would have likely worked for that, people are more familiar with beef and so making it easier.

Not that he would be using cattle on the 20th. It had a wind theme. Which meant windbreaker axebeaks, razor foxes, void kobolds, and the newly gained cyclone goats. Not necessarily in that order, despite the fact he had already placed the birds first.

They were set to be the first enemies at the top of the floor as a sort of choice. The floor would slope downward and if a group didn’t clear the axebeaks, they would get a chance to charge down at them later. Now, though, he had to figure out everything else.

In particular, Doyle isn’t certain what kind of biome to use. The plateau is a field of grass and so continuing the grass field wouldn’t be out of place. Doyle had other plans. Literally.

He had been considering the construction of this floor for a while. Longer than any other floor. Though that’s a bit of a deceptive statement. This was the first floor he seriously considered long before he got to it.

Ever since Doyle decided to wait till 20 for his next boss, it had been in the back of his mind. More so after he realized how long those extra five floors would take. However, that didn’t mean he had been building on the same idea the entire time.

What floor 20 would be had been shifting in my head like a mirage. It is only with the construction of the 19th floor that the design settled. Admittedly, the monster layout was mostly settled when floor 17 had been made.

Doyle laughed to himself, there is a slight temptation to alter his plans and make it so the slope is uphill, both ways. It was possible for him, maybe? Eh, better to stick with the plan.

Floor 20 would be a gentle downward slope. The key challenges would come at flattened areas as things don’t tend to like to live on a slope. Though there would be encounters on the slope as a challenge to the delvers.

Three flats. His first boss floor had been, for all intents and purposes, a single encounter. Oh sure, you could run into the kobolds before then, but a good team would end up fighting basically the entire floor in one running battle. Which was less workable considering how many monsters he can throw at them.

Then the second boss floor? A ton of battles! Oh sure, the “main” battle is at the end with the boss. However, each of the myconid settlements is potentially a challenging fight.

For floor 20, Doyle had decided on a middle point between the two. There would be three major fights and a few regular fights, of which the windbreakers would be one.

Hmm, Doyle looked down on the floor from overhead. Right now, it is still a sphere. That obviously would not work for his design. He cut and shifted the space around to make a rectangle.

This is closer, but he wanted a longer floor. An easy enough thing to handle. Doyle cut the floor into three slices and arranged them in a line.

Doyle nods, yes, this is the length that he wanted. Now to cheat the whole “slope” thing. After all, what defines a slope? Why, the angle of the land compared to gravity! So all he had to do instead of shifting the land? Why, Doyle simply tilted the direction of gravity.

This turned out to be incredibly useful for the floor. Doyle wanted the slope to be the right steepness, which took fine tuning. A process that is a lot easier when he could simply tilt gravity a smidge as compared to digging out the dirt and moving it around.

Once that is taken care of, it is time for the flats. Areas where monsters can set up a home base without worrying about rolling downhill. This is the first point of indecision.

There weren’t walls to force people to go through a flat area if it was small. Is he fine with people bypassing those battles? No, no, he was not. On this floor, the three main fights are meant to be fought. Doyle wouldn’t enforce a complete massacre to progress as he had on the sixth floor, but the battles themselves? They are not optional.

Doyle pulled up and sunk down the land to form the three flats. An entire band of the floor altered to create this effect. Except this left sheer cliffs of sorts, which is not his goal. The fix lining up with his plan is at the center of the area, Doyle took dirt from the raised area to make a ramp down and that provided enough dirt to make an equal ramp up on the other side.

A good start, but the “cliffs” are more of a short bluff and so not the greatest of deterrence. This is especially true considering some of the cliffs the delvers had been willing to climb previously. Just his second boss floor showed their willingness to do so even when unnecessary.

So, how to prevent them from cheating? Without cheating himself of course. Otherwise, the answer is simple. Throw up an invisible wall.

Well, Doyle had one simple answer. It sadly wouldn’t fit the pattern he had for a kobold pit trap. That having a restrictive size limitation and a covering aspect that if he used it would require points for upkeep. But he could just dig a literal pit and add spikes at the bottom.

Which he did as pits and walls have a synergistic relationship. After all, the distance you fall is not just how deep you dig, but how high the wall is added together. Doyle just had to make sure the pit is wide enough so that people couldn’t make the jump easily. Oh, and he made the edge of the ledge crumbly.

It isn’t so bad that it would crumble just standing on it, though you would notice. However, if you exerted any decent amount of force, say, from jumping. It would crumble beneath you. That is going to take some upkeep, but Doyle figured it is worth it to help limit the delvers.

Oh sure, if they can fly, summon up a bridge, or jump far enough, then it wouldn’t matter. Then again, if they are strong enough, they could just stomp right through the center. Doyle had to pick his fights, and this ledge and pit combo, which he placed at the front and back of each flat space, is his fight. A person who isn’t capable of getting their entire team across the divide has to fight.

Though Doyle isn’t giving them a free pass if they could. After all, he is 100% certain that if given a bit of time, everyone in Ace or Jim’s team can climb down the ledge and figure out how to cross the spikes. The problem would be how fast they can manage it, because no matter how the rest of the floor is going to be set up? Doyle is leaving the flats clear.

The delvers would be able to see the monster, while the monsters could see them if they tried to slowly climb down. Maybe the two teams would be fast enough to climb down the ledge and make it across the clearing. Doyle however doubted they’d be able to get down the ledge on the other side before the monsters reached there and one thing almost all the wind aligned monsters had? A form of ranged attack.

Maybe not the strongest or one meant for it, but even the cyclone goats Spiral Blast could be fired from their horns instead of just sheathing them. It would be much weaker that way, but you don’t need the most strength to knock someone off a cliff face.

The only odd one out is the void kobolds who don’t innately have a ranged attack. This is made up for by being able to give them magic, a sling, or simply placing head sized rocks nearby for them to drop on any delver slow enough to get caught.

Doyle frowned to himself. Despite what he had done, it still felt like something is missing. So, with a mental shrug, he went and turned the ledge into a slight overhang. Not by much, the top sticking out less than a pinkie’s length from the bottom of the pits below. Still, this is more than enough to increase the difficulty, especially when you consider the fact the whole thing is smoothed so there aren’t any rocks or roots sticking out to grab ahold of.

Still feels like something is missing, but Doyle can’t think of anything else, so he moves on to how to set up the rest of the floor. After all, the flats would be a mix of kobold houses and everything else living with them. A setup that said kobolds are more than capable of building themselves, which would add a random element to things that a pre-built by him wouldn’t have.

Doyle shook his core, that was enough thinking about the flats. How should the rest of the floor look? Like, he had a basic idea. Spread some trees, but not so dense that it feels like a forest. More to block line of sight over a distance than any impediment to close range sight and movement.

That would be what the grass is for. Though, once again, not an entire field of the stuff. Patches spread around that delvers could avoid. Like it is one of those monster pet games. Stay out of the tall grass and what not. Except, of course, at the moment, the only ones with pets would be the kobolds.

Though that gave Doyle a fun idea. He already has goat herders and such on previous floors. He could place shepherds here with mixed teams of monsters under them and see how that works out for the wandering monster threat.

Doyle turns to Ally, ‘With floor 20, I’m spreading out a bunch of trees and grass fields and such. Is there anything I’m missing? I want varied terrain on the slopes.’

Ally looks over the small mock-up section that Doyle has laid out for her. ‘Hmm, looks alright, but it does feel like it is missing something. Tip of my tongue.’

They both continue to look at the scene for a minute or so before Ally snaps her fingers, ‘Ah! I got it. There aren’t any boulders or rock formations. A big rock can provide more cover than a tree, but not quite as much as a field of grass does. Though I guess a bit of bramble would work as well?’

Doyle shakes his core, ‘No, I don’t want bramble right now. A boulder or two would be perfect, though. They would allow groups of monsters to be out of sight without allowing delvers to shoot through their cover if spotted ahead of time.’

Ally Is Why - Chapter 454

Two Or A Double - Chapter 456