[D'sP] Magic Is Like Gravity - Chapter 450

Once back in town, Ace met with Jim and explained what they found.

Jim laughed, “Even more water! At least there hasn’t been a true water level yet.”

Ace rolls his eyes, “If we didn’t literally just have a couple of floors with massive water reserves, I would be excited. As it is, floor 11 is good enough if we ever need emergency water. What with it being right after a boss floor.”

Jim nods, “As long as you’re quick. Can’t wait around for the sprouts to attack. Spore tainted water isn’t exactly going to help anyone. Even in the best circumstances, it would be using up a healer’s time to cleanse the water first. I guess you could try filtering it? But the poison is at least partially magical in nature.”

Ace sighs, “We aren’t even close to level 100 and way too many things are nearly magical.”

Jim laughs, “What? Were you thinking you’d be able to set up some sort of null magic zone? Even if you remove all magic from an area, you haven’t actually removed all of the mystical nonsense. Either you’re going to have something like Qi kicking around or void magic.”

Ace frowns, “When did you learn this?”

Jim shrugs, “I’ve been working with Doctor to test things. Well, I guess it would be better to say I’m supplying him with test subjects.

“We aren’t ready yet to reveal this, but it is better to think of magic, or rather the supernatural as a whole, as an inherent property of reality now. Like gravity. Just because you don’t feel it out in the void of space, doesn’t mean gravity isn’t affecting you.”

Ace, “What more needs to be done?”

Jim, “Eh, higher levels?”

Ace shakes his head, “That will take time. What is holding him back? Is it a lack of skill or does he need a higher stat to observe something?”

Jim shrugs, “I meant a lack of levels quite literally. Doctor suspects that the higher your level, the less ‘physical’ you are. Or rather, the more of the matter that makes up your body is magical particles. Saying physical implies you are becoming some sort of energy being like some kind of sci-fi ascended being nonsense.”

Ace, “But wouldn’t you be exactly that? If you aren’t made of atoms, but energy, aren’t you by default and energy being of some sort?”

Jim raises an eyebrow, “Well firstly, even pre-apoc, science had the concept of matter and energy being interchangeable. Now? That’s 100% proven and easy to do. What do you think is up with conjuring? Matter out of nowhere? Nah!

“But secondly, you’re thinking of magic as energy. Magic is more than that. Well, I guess more properly, all this mystical stuff together is more than that. There are mystical elements that substitute for what we consider ‘the physical’, just as Mana can substitute for electricity.”

Ace, “What does that mean for us?”

Jim reaches under his desk and brings out a small cube of buttery smooth metal. “Mithril? It is partially made of magic! And it starts appearing relatively early. The periodic table of elements? That is a starting point. Mithril is an alloy.”

Ace rolls his eyes, “Cool, now what does it Mean for Us right now? In a workable manner. Because as far as I’ve been told, people keep being people at higher levels, even if this does explain some of why those at a higher level can go without food and have a harder time having kids.”

Jim shrugs, “Nothing much. Remember, I told you this before Doctor was ready. Wait until he’s done more tests. Oh, and having a higher level does not automatically mean it is harder to have kids. Creatures who are based around progeny tend to bring those abilities forward, especially things like Ant queens and slimes.”

Ace throws his hands up, “Of course! It only makes sense.”

Jim smirks, he can hear the sarcasm a mile away, but can’t help himself. “Oh yes, it does! After all, if you’re slowly being made more and more out of magic, intent will matter more. So if a being’s intent is to have kids, well, beyond just the usual ‘replace yourself’ manner.

“It would make sense for the magic that now makes them up to also be focused on that aspect. Though I can see a human being able to keep up having kids with levels as well. It is probably only a problem for many of the high leveled because their focus will tend more towards gaining those levels instead of children. At least”–

Ace clenches his fists and makes an angry growl noise. “Well, I have told you the new information. I will be going now.” And he quickly leaves the office, Jim’s laughter chasing him out.

Ace storms through the town, back towards the inner circle. Not that he is actually angry or anything. Well, okay, he is a bit peeved at Jim, but the display of irritation is purposeful.

In Wolf’s Rest, there are two main factions. The government and the Guild. Except for one thing, both are run by the inner circle. Oh sure, Jim wasn’t under Ace in any sense of the word. This isn’t a situation where Jim was secretly corrupting the impartiality of the Guild.

The contract to become a guild leader more than protected against that sort of trickery. Noble families weren’t going to be putting stooges in the position to puppet things from the background. They’d have to do it out in the open and even if they did manage to get one, do their actions in the position? The guild leader has to work towards the Guild’s best interests, at least enough that it comes out ahead of their other loyalties.

That didn’t stop those families from doing so anyway. After all, you can still make outrageously profitable deals, the Guild just has to come out on top. And with how big the Guild is? Well, outrageously profitable goes way up the scale.

So here the town was, two factions, both from the same group? Well, that was a sure way to make people want to set up some other force to balance things and Ace didn’t want to go full dictator. Which resulted in this bit of theater.

Oh, make no mistake. Ace wasn’t having shouting matches in the street with Jim. Not only did they not want to cause actual problems between the Guild and government, but people wouldn’t have believed it. So instead, they made sure that if someone was spying on them, they would see rough patches under the surface.

Ace almost laughs. “If someone was spying on them.” There is no “if” to it. Not only were there organizations keeping watch, but more than a few locals who would keep an eye out and chat about what they’ve seen for some spending cash. Though Ace trusted the Barrais to handle it.

Once back in his office, Ace has more than enough paperwork to get through. Each delve was now taking a full day to complete. At least things were set up so that the town didn’t need him for every decision.

Back in the Guild, Jim is laid back in his chair, still bemused by his interactions with Ace. Though the knowledge of what the new floor held was worth gold to the Guild. First reports on a dungeon’s new floor always were.

Of course, the actual reward was just going to be tossed in the town’s “war chest”. Every reward so far had been. Well, every reward for their dungeon. Some clever sod thought to report on the dungeon across the community.

Now, since that guy did not swear under a truth oath that he had personally found the information out, he only got a partial finder fee. Still, it made their trip worth it. Though thinking about that, Jim couldn’t help but laugh.

After people found out about the reward? More than a few tried to make reports on the tutorial dungeon they had been in. Which, fair enough, Jim could respect the hustle.

One problem though. The Guild’s dungeon database, while restricted so you can’t find out stuff from places where you aren’t, was universal. To be honest, Jim suspected it was multiversal.

Anyway, every single tutorial dungeon was well documented by the guild. So no, random citizen, your info that a dungeon you don’t even know where it is, has a marsh land on the three hundredth floor won’t be netting you any cash.

Though it did help the town gather a bunch of information on the tutorials. While they paid a lot less than the Guild, getting paid at all took the sting out of things.

And with that little bit of drama out of the way, the town settled back down to business.

Over the coming two weeks, Ace and Jim’s two teams would keep pushing deeper into the 18th floor. The alarm was more than enough early on to escape into the alcoves dug out of the rooms. In fact, it gave almost too much time, except for the fact that the horn was a little quiet and could have been missed.

This dynamic changed the further into the floor they got. While the fights stayed mostly the same, barring traps being added back in a few rooms in. The further they go, the louder the horn gets, but the less time they have to react.

Worse, the monsters didn’t exactly care about their lives. So while the kobolds using ranged weapons would retreat to the alcoves, everything else tried to hold the delvers in place. Perfectly willing to sacrifice themselves if it took the delvers with them.

Now, they had made it to the break point. It wasn’t halfway through the floor, more like two-thirds or maybe even three-fourths, not that the town knew that. What was important? If the horn sounded, you needed to get to safety, Which was kind of hard in the middle of a fight.

Worse, it wouldn’t be long before the water would come quickly enough after that they wouldn’t even have time to retreat to the previous room. If the alarm sounded during a fight, they would have burst through the fight and get into that room’s alcove.

Doyle watched this and made careful note of the difficulty curve. It was working out better than he could have hoped. In particular, the kobolds trapping their alcoves? Perfect!

It caused quite a bit of stress, despite those traps generally being tamer. What with the fact that the kobolds and their birds have to get into the alcoves as well. Still, neither team was stupid or lax, and so they survived easily enough.

All it did was slow their progress. Except, the reason it slowed their progress made Doyle a bit annoyed. If the previous floor focused on wasting resources, this one ended up wasting time.

Not every fight, but the teams were making sure to rest back to full fighting force way more often. All so they could pull off a massive burst of power at any moment. That way they can escape to the alcoves safely.

Doyle didn’t particularly mind this in theory. More than enough teams who were in over their heads used this tactic to try and delve just one more floor, one more fight. In fact, a lot of the deaths in the dungeon at this point came from that sort of circumstance.

Except this wasn’t that. Neither Ace nor Jim’s team was fighting for their lives. They didn’t need to rest up just to fight the next fight. So all this waiting? A waste for everyone.

What could he change? Doyle watched carefully as the teams battered away at the floor and came to a conclusion.

Not much.

A slight change to the horn so it went off a bit earlier? Sure.

Adjust the monsters so the delvers couldn’t freely wait around? Eh, the first test just showed that the delvers preferred just retreating from the floor at that point.

Doyle ended up just leaving things mostly as they were. If anything, it now acted as a strength check. After all, you can’t exactly depend on doing a full rest between fights to get through when those were already required to begin with.

Wall Of Water And A Bloody Nose - Chapter 449

Doyle Is Kicking Himself - Chapter 451