[D'sP] Chatter And Plans - Chapter 440

Jeremy, “So, we’ve reached the end. What now?”

Ruby shrugs, “A mining we will go?”

Jim nods, “Now that we’ve found the core, we should probably go and grab any mithril we can. Though not actually mining. We just need to do a better search. They must have a smelter and whenever that is, there might be bars.”

Jeremy shrugs, “It’s on the other side of the lake from the direction we came. While scouting, we saw some smoke over there. So yeah, either a smelter or something similar. We directed us around the opposite way to avoid it in case of a better armed threat.”

Jim nods, and the group makes their way over there.

After searching for a while, Jay scratches his head, “I’m not seeing it.”

Susan frowns, “This is the right area.”

Jeremy nods, “We should have seen it by now.”

Jim sighs, “Back to the core room. No need to take any more time on this. Next time, we can observe things more carefully. For the moment, it is more valuable to inform Ace about our successful delve and the fact we found the core.”

There was some grumbling as while mithril is not what any of them would consider rare, you could gather an infinite amount of the metal from the dungeon if given time. Though mithril was limited in supply and it isn’t like they were extracting all of the available mithril every day. In the end, though, they had been in the dungeon for days at this point, so the thought of getting home to a proper bed? Well, that was too tempting to resist for mithril that might not be there. They might not have even considered the mithril in the first place if magic hadn’t provided various methods to clean up.

Whatever the case, they now rushed back to the core room and took the exit portal out. And outside they were met with an oddly sizeable crowd of people waiting for them, specifically them. At least, the cheering at their arrival would indicate it as such.

There is also a frustrated-looking Ace. “Was 17 the last floor or did the kobolds have something worth sticking around for?”

Jim raises an eyebrow, before glancing at his and his parties clothes.

Ace shrugs, “Fair enough. Let’s get you out of here. Then once you’re cleaned up, I can tell you why we’ve got such an audience. Because they weren’t here yesterday, that’s for sure.”

And Ace along with some guards guide Jim’s team out of the complex and to the nearest entrance to the inner circle. From there, everyone breaks off to get themselves situated. Though Jim finds himself in front of Ace’s desk soon afterwards.

Ace fixes him with a look and sighs, “We’ve got fortune tellers. Or I guess more properly, oracles. Leastwise, that is the terminology my staff have informed me is widely used. Seems a bunch of the different words actually have meaning now that seeing the future isn’t just hogwash.”

Jim sighs, “Well, don’t leave me hanging. What do they mean, specifically?”

Ace shrugs, “Fortune tellers guess the future, seers see the current future, diviners search for specific things in the future, prophets cheat by having their deity do it for them, and oracles get uncontrolled visions.

“Oh, and you can be a mix of all those things. In particular, oracles are commonly picked to be prophets since it takes less faith to channel the existing talent.”

Jim frowns, “Given that, are we certain they’re just oracles? Also, wouldn’t oracles be rare? Why do we have ‘oracles’ plural?”

Ace, “They are rare, but they also tend to cluster, at least from what I’ve been told.”

Jim, “That doesn’t make much sense. Did the system just put a bunch of them in this community or do they naturally tend to cluster?”

Ace shrugs, “Neither, err, well I guess the second one is technically true. They do tend to cluster, but because of their visions. After all, if you see something bad happening, wouldn’t you move away from it? So having the oracles show up in town is actually a good thing. It means our town will be stable.”

Jim frowns, “Wouldn’t that mean we’d be getting the other kind of tea leaf readers? After all, oracles sound like they don’t get to choose what they see.”

Ace, “The trick is that oracles are the only ones that have an easy time reading their own future. Every other form of reading the future, well, besides prophets, basically can’t read themselves. Makes it a bit harder to predict trouble coming your way.”

Jim pauses as something comes to him. “Eyo, I feel like we managed to dodge the main issue. What are they seeing? Like, I would expect them to not be speaking up if there wasn’t any reason to reveal themselves.”

Ace, “Oh yeah, seems we’re going to have a bit of a good crisis. Well, the community is. I guess having a bunch of untrained people try to farm, or worse, not try to farm, is a recipe for disaster. We’re going to be paying more for wheat from the 12th floor so we can build up a stockpile.

“Anyway, you’ve also gotten away from the original reason you’re here. Tell me about your delve.”

And Jim does just that.

Once he finishes, Ace smiles, “So we’ve reached the last floor again? Wonderful! Though I have to assume that by the next time we reach there, a new floor will exist.”

Jim nods, “I don’t know what was holding the dungeon back, but we definitely provided more than enough power to make a new floor or two. 17 is quite the slog, at least for the moment.”

Ace, “Can we speed up the delve? It was a bit nerve-wracking after the first couple days passed.”

Jim shrugs, “Skip the early lakes? You’ll be fighting through a bunch of kobold patrols and the traps. Still, we don’t know if in doing so, those left behind won’t come to the last lake’s defense.”

Ace sighs, “We need to push people to go deeper.”

Jim, “As if we weren’t already trying to do that. We’ll need some sort of outside force to push people. As it is, people are going as hard as they feel like they need to. Nevermind how unstable our situation actually is.”

Elsewhere, the Barrais are working with any of the other core members who are interested in traps. While Susan got annoyed by the repetitiveness of it all, that very thing made the training so much more effective.

Of course, they do plan to spread the knowledge to the growing “trap and locksmith guild”. For the moment though, they don’t need this info and so the Barrais are focusing their efforts elsewhere.

Like making sure there are legitimate people in the trap and locksmith guild. After all, without them it’s just a thieves guild by another name. Not that there are many locks at the moment, which does make it hard.

And they aren’t the only ones spreading what they’ve learned. Ruby is up in the mage tower. After all, she just got to test her wind blade barrage! What better time to discuss the construction of the spell than right after such extensive real world experience?

Though probably what will have the biggest effect is Jay passing on his knowledge. After resting in the Sela compound in the inner circle, he gathered with the rest of the wolfkin. As for what he passed on?

It wasn’t some secret martial technique. He wasn’t going on about the floor’s design or the monsters. Rather, Jay was passing on the difficulty, the challenges of a long delve. But this wasn’t to scare the others off.

As Camila put it, “That sounds a lot like our tradition of the Journey.”

And she wasn’t wrong. The wolfkin on their original planet had a tradition of taking a Journey near major life events. Capital J because it wasn’t about going down to the local market.

The Journey was about going out with a “pack” and traveling across a significant distance. Significant not in distance, but in changes. You could have a short Journey as long as there are changes of importance. Which generally means a variety of biomes.

Camila, “With this, I feel we can resume our Journeys. Maybe not out into the wilds, but the dungeon will suffice. We will need to set up a schedule for those who have been putting their Journeys off.”

An elder steps forward, “Let me present the opposing position for the sake of fully hearing this out.

“Part of our Journeys is passing through uncharted territory. Maybe not unknown, but certainly not known by those going on the Journey. The Dungeon is a known thing.

“In fact, not only is it a known thing, but presumably everyone will be delving the dungeon to begin with. So not only will people have second hand knowledge, but also first hand knowledge. Then there is the fact that throughout life, people will need to make more Journeys.

“They will not want to repeat the same Journey. I would not want them to! Part of the Journey is self-discovery facilitated by external discovery. We will need to provide a proper Journey.”

Around the circle of elders, others put forward their support of these worries.

Jay steps forward, “You speak the truth! The dungeon is a stop gap measure. Though I can see it becoming the traditional first Journey, that of the transition to adulthood.

“But for the moment? It will suffice for those who have been holding back. Right now, the forest is too dangerous. But I can see a day when our people can properly Journey once again.”

The elder who had raised the concern bows their head. “As long as we restrict people from using the dungeon for more than a single Journey. But! How shall we handle other dungeons?”

Camila shrugs, “Unimportant. Later on? Jay or another of our strongest can go and judge other dungeons for their suitability. If anything, part of someone’s Journey could be making the rounds of any new dungeons and checking on them.”

This was met with general approval. Not that any of them were particularly against it. The opposition was mostly because the wolfkin had a heavy emphasis on making sure every decision had at least one opposing side.

And with all this happening, down in the core room, Doyle is preparing to start expanding again.

Ally, ‘So why are you waiting?’

Doyle tilts back, ‘Well, I’m waiting for the dust to settle.’

Ally lets out a sigh of relief. ‘I was a bit worried you’d delay it even more by waiting for another visit.’

Doyle shakes his core, ‘No, I need to expand. Besides, you heard Ace, they expect me to have another floor by the next time. If anything, waiting would be the strange option at this point.’

Ally, ‘So, what do you plan for the 18th floor then?’

Doyle, ‘Well, I think I told you at one point my plans up to 20. But just to remind everyone, because I’m not certain I fully remember, I will be making each floor with an additional monster in support of the kobolds. So for 18 I’m thinking goats. Just a giant floor of goat herders.’

Ally, ‘Blarg, you are going to have way too many monsters at this rate. And the elders have already proven a good force multiplier. Not a kobold replacement, but certainly something to throw into any group you want to be just that bit more effective.

‘Maybe keep the goats for another floor. Instead, what about making use of your windcutter axebeaks? This floor is deep enough that it should show some of why it costs almost a thousand points.’

Doyle, ‘Why would a deeper floor make their point cost more worth it?’

Ally, ‘Remember, not all abilities are skills. Humans get a lower form of regeneration around 50 constitution. For the windcutter axebeaks to cost 900, there must be a reason. So, at the very least, we should test them out again.’

The Final Push - Chapter 439

Flooding Floor - Chapter 441