[D'sP] Split Attention - Chapter 442

Once satisfied with the quantity of water, Doyle turns to Ally. ‘So, what do you think?’

Ally raises an eyebrow, ‘So, how are the monsters supposed to know when the water is coming? After all, a big danger of slot canyons is the fact they generate flash floods, not leisurely floods. The tight spaces means by the time you see the flood coming, it’s too late. If you’re lucky, you might hear it.’

Doyle tilts back and dims, ‘That would be a problem. Would be sad for a group to get through by basically waiting out the flood and then strolling through an empty floor.’

Ally nods, ‘And besides, an actual flash flood is a bit too dangerous. How about you set up a horn down where the water starts and have it blow a bit before the water releases? Yes, that will warn the delvers, but at the same time, you were going to need to figure out some way to warn them, anyway.’

Doyle shifts over to where the water is stored. ‘Well, if I throw on a water wheel here. Then from the axle I attach an air pump. Now if I hook the pump up to this horn, it should work.’

Doyle moves his view back and releases the water again. This technically works as the horn does sound. It just isn’t loud enough.

Doyle fiddles with the horn part and tests it again. This time it was louder, but not by enough. Then Ally chips in to help. Neither of them know what makes a horn loud, but together they figure it out. Loud enough to be heard right from the start, but not so loud as to bust your eardrums when you get closer.

Ally, ‘Welp, that works. Though I have to ask, why no gears? It would have been a lot easier.’

Doyle, ‘The simpler the better was my view on things. Could we have made it louder by modifying the gearing? Sure. But I’d rather have a well-made horn that does its job instead of just forcing more air through the first horn I made. Though I will admit, I don’t really care one way or another, but it was nice to work on it with you.’

Ally smiles, ‘We did get it working. Now, are you going to sit on the floor for a while or start on the next floor right away?’

Doyle tilts back, ‘Huh. This floor came together relatively quickly so it wouldn’t hurt to see what I can do for the next.’

Ally raises an eyebrow, ‘No, it didn’t come together quickly. Probably took about the same amount of time as usual, if not longer when we count in the periods of waiting.’

Doyle, ‘Guess I’m slipping. Though I see my biggest problem being the design of the next floor. For some reason, 18 came together oddly well. The windbreaker axebeaks ended up fitting the role here exceedingly well.’

Ally, ‘Do you want to change up which monster you’ll be adding next?’

Doyle sighs, ‘I’m thinking of doing something with the razor foxes. They’re a new toy and I feel they would have good synergy with the kobolds. Both have that image of being clever going for them.’

Ally nods, ‘I don’t see why that wouldn’t work. What’s holding you back?’

Doyle, ‘There isn’t really a problem. I just have one of those blocks where I know what I want to do, but it doesn’t want to start. Now, admittedly, I literally just finished the last floor and every other time I’ve given myself more time to consider the next.’

Ally, ‘That sucks, but I wasn’t trying to rush you either, so if you want to take your time, by all means. While I suspect 18 won’t be as much of a hard stop as 17, the town still isn’t likely to get through in a week or something. Though even if they did, it doesn’t matter.’

Doyle, ‘But I have the floors to 20 already paid off by the system. Well, the expense for starting the floor that requires sapient sourced world energy. Feels like a bit of a waste to not rush floor 20 so I can start building up for the floor after.’

Ally shrugs, ‘How fast you build your floors won’t matter even in the short term, especially since it is rare for delvers to even get close to your old last floor. Let alone what will be your new ones. But even if they do get to the core room again? Not the end of the world.’

Doyle nods, ‘Oh, I know that. Shame that even as a dungeon core, I don’t get to skip out on being nervous about things outside of my control. Even if I made floors as fast as possible, someone out there will be able to reach the end.’

Ally laughs, ‘Yeah, no escaping that. So, what do you want to do while you let the next floor stew for a bit?’

Doyle pulls over a screen. ‘People watching wouldn’t be the worst.’

Ally nods, ‘What do you want to watch? Wolf’s Rest has quite the variety at this point.’

Doyle considers it for a moment. ‘Well, not Ace and friends. I’ve been watching them more than enough as of late. Maybe an out of towner? Someone new, at least.’

Ally, ‘Well with that in mind, how about the raccoonkin? A few of them stick around, but as a group they tend to be traveling merchants. Besides, it would give us more of an idea of how the community is doing. There is nothing like a merchant’s words to spread news. Bards and such spread news as well, but the merchant is constantly on the move until they manage to get a place of their own.’

Doyle, ‘Are we going to end up with a large population of late game merchants settling here?’

Ally shrugs, ‘It is possible, though merchant guilds tend to use the retirees to hold down the fort elsewhere. Besides, people tend not to settle down for long.

‘Oh sure, anyone reaching the end of their path and actually growing old would settle close to home. There might even be some reaching that point as we speak. For now, though, the raccoonkin’s compound will feel empty.’

And she’s right. As Doyle looks into the satellite settlement sort of setup that the raccoonkin has going he can see the compound is light on population. There are many covered locations to house wagons, but less than a fourth of them have someone staying in them.

Sure, part of that is because wagons aren’t the easiest to make and require you to have a beast of burden. However, Doyle had seen more than enough of their relatively unique looking wagons to know it wasn’t actually a case of being short on them.

As for how the wagons were unique? Well, while they are kin, the raccoonkin are on the smaller side of things. Not quite kobold small, but definitely be about the same size as actual dwarves or other similar folk. Which necessitated a smaller seat up front. Though they made great use of the extra space provided by a wagon sized to fit on a human road.

Or rather, a bit taller than the normal human built wagon. Doyle was honestly tickled pink going over the details as it was such a fun design. They basically reinvented a semi-truck sleeper cab, except double decker.

It was a bit of a shallow space, but given a meter of space up front for it and they had beds and a place to rest. Besides that, Doyle didn’t think he would ever get bored examining them. One thing about the post-magic world was that even if people could in theory crank out a ton of duplicate items, they only did that for basic stuff like fire starters.

For anything of worth, such as a wagon, the item was commissioned and personalized. It just didn’t make sense not to as even without enchanting, well-made items crafted with thought and care did markedly better than mass-produced items. Oh sure, the raccoonkin complex had entire rooms devoted to replacement parts for the wagons. But that was all for things like the wheels and axles where a bit of Order was needed to work right.

Anyway, even without mass production, skills and all those stats meant people could be pretty quick about things. The time needed coming more down to prep than production. Though it certainly helped that every merchant who owned a wagon was expected to be able to repair said wagon. Maybe not the extent of building it anew from scratch, but enough to assist.

Though a lack of wagons didn’t mean the compound was too empty. While they seemed to take their kids along with them when going out, parents stayed at the compound during the children’s younger years. Which was honestly a surprise to Doyle.

Not that they stayed, but the fact there were children of all ages in the first place. It had honestly been since the apocalypse that he had last seen a toddler. Which given his position as a cashier had been quite a wonderful experience.

Doyle had nothing against kids. Their parents, though? Oh, how he judged! Anyway, most of the wagons that were in at the moment actually belonged to these families and were what ended up providing him hours of entertainment.

Before the apocalypse, Doyle had enjoyed watching videos of people doing crafts like wood working. Not with modern tools, or at least not too modern. Rather, those working with hand tools and the rhythmic scrape scrape scrape. It probably qualifies as ASMR, especially when he just had it on in the background.

Though admittedly, he preferred to have podcasts on for background noise. Crafting and games were for relaxation and more active watching. Except this ended up being for both.

Doyle hadn’t been paying attention to his ability to multitask, but it was inhuman at this point. It wasn’t long before he realized that he was fully focused on carving the giant sphere. All while at the same time fully focused on watching one particularly grizzled raccoonkin elder showing the older kids in the compound the ropes.

And neither of them suffered for it. Each felt as if he was committing his full attention. Doyle spent some time trying to nail down exactly what causes this welcome development, but it seemed to be some synergistic effect between multiple stats and likely some racial trait.

Doyle did however find out that this multitasking only stretched so far. While he could do something and passively watch something, that didn’t mean he could actively do two things at once. He was fine with this though assumed if he got really deep on something then even the passive watching would drop as well.

And all of this provided him just what he needed to let his mind work on the 19th floor in the background. He was now sure that the floor would add foxes, with the 20th floor being the one to add goats. For which he also has a wisp of a plan.

Either way, it wasn’t like time was standing still and Ace’s people had stopped delving. Though no one else has quite managed to complete the 17th floor again. More because they didn’t bother than couldn’t.

While still a slog, it wasn’t so death defying. With caution and a healthy dose of care, both Ally and Doyle figured the entire inner circle was close to being able to beat the floor. Well, if they cheat by mixing and matching the teams, but still. Even if one or two people on a veteran team are switched out for people who haven’t fully experienced the floor yet, it could cause disaster. And yet they seem more than fine.

So Doyle turns away from all of that and begins to finish up his mental plans for the 19th.

Flooding Floor - Chapter 441

Flow Between Floors - Chapter 443