[D'sP] Fox Vs Fox - Chapter 433

Then Doyle had the new fox fight one of the old foxes. The results were...

Disappointing.

Doyle turns to Ally, ‘So uh, why’d it die so quickly? For a monster that costs more to summon, it sucked.’

Ally smiled, ‘If anything, I think it did quite well!’

Doyle tilted forward and dimmed, ‘What’s the trick?’

Ally, ‘The trick is you’ve had those other foxes training their skills to the point of being the best they can be. I won’t say your new fox was less skilled, just less specialized. And then? Then you went and told them to fight in exactly the way the old foxes had specialized in.’

Doyle turned to the foxes, ‘Huh, fair enough. Didn’t really consider that. Except I can’t exactly summon an unspecialized old style fox.’

Ally shrugs, ‘Just have a few of the new foxes train up as well. Or honestly, you could probably have a few more fights. The difference really shouldn’t be that big.

‘I’d still bet the trained foxes would win three of every five fights, but it won’t always be this extreme. You just have to ease up on your micromanaging of the new foxes. Let them fight in whatever way is most natural to them.’

Doyle considers that for a moment before going through with it. And Ally’s words proved to be true enough. In fact, the win to loss was more fifty fifty than Ally had expected.

Ally was quite happy with this. ‘I bet if trained to the same degree, the new foxes would be winning most fights.’

Doyle sighed, ‘Would it be worthwhile putting them through that training? We had this same thing with the sling using kobolds. Actually, how did we solve that? Aren’t they still training a bit in the farm before going out?’

Ally, ‘Eh, at this point I would probably just give those kobolds a skill. You have a couple ranged skills for them at this point.’

Doyle, ‘Huh, yeah, let me go fix that. I’ve got Accurate Arrow, would that work?’

Ally, ‘It won’t be as effective as a skill specific to slings, but as dungeon monsters it should work. At least better than your other ranged skill. That one would technically work perfectly with a sling, but it wouldn’t help as much with their accuracy. What was that one called?’

Doyle, ‘Forceful Bullet.’

Ally nods, ‘Yep, exactly. The kobolds would get a little skill at using a sling, if only because it will include knowledge to use the skill itself. Accurate Arrow might not be meant for a sling, but it will provide things like hand eye coordination for ranged attacks and general muscle memory.’

Doyle nods, ‘Okay, give me a second.’

Doyle turns away and does a few quick fixes, then turns back. ‘So, train the foxes or not?’

Ally shrugs, ‘Well, you got a bunch of foxes here already who can help train the new foxes. Might as well give them a go and see how they fight fresh and trained. The town is already used to the foxes being strange.’

Doyle, ‘Sounds like a plan.’

And in an odd turn of fate, things actually went according to plan. The old foxes were able to train the new foxes. So soon enough, Doyle had a small supply of trained new foxes.

Happy with the number of them, Doyle starts tossing them at his test instance, alternating between trained and untrained. And at first, it seemed that the training did make a big difference. Though as the days went by, this was shown to just be a fluke.

Yes, the trained foxes did better in a fight. They didn’t do well enough to be worth it. The most important part ended up not being their battle proficiency, but the fact both with and without training, they had one fancy ability.

It was this ability that showed why the pattern needed the wind blade skill. Maybe it was the now inherent magical nature of the claws. Maybe the opposite and the fact the claws were a physical part of the foxes body. It could even be because of the mixed nature.

Whatever the case, everyone of the new foxes could imbue their claws with the wind blade skill. This didn’t let them make painless cuts like the mythical weasel Doyle had been thinking of. What they did do is cut even better than the wind blade or claw alone.

Leather armor, well, leather armor made from surface animals or first floor monsters, split with ease. A stunning achievement when up until now, basically any post-system armor was enough to protect people for the field couple floors. Not that the armor was particularly good.

Rather, the first couple floors were simply behind everything else, even animals on the surface. Oh sure, if they butchered one of their cattle, that leather wouldn’t hold up either. But those were for milk and lived a peaceful life. Their actual leather source on the surface was wild beasts in the nearby forest. Maybe not the strongest of beasts, but they all had more levels under their belt than the monsters on the first few floors.

Doyle is quite happy with the results. ‘So, it looks like I don’t need to bother having them train.’

Ally nods, ‘I’m sure you could get paths related to training your monsters. However, without that dungeon, monsters are meant to be plug and play. No extra work needed.’

Doyle, ‘I guess that does make sense. Be pretty bad for a dungeon if it needed to train the monsters before they can be used.’

Ally, ‘Exactly. The training you do with the monsters is more about specialization. However, you could achieve that with skills, like what you just did with the kobold slingers.’

Doyle, ‘You know what? I think I’m going to make the random fox. A. Thing.–

‘You know what? Nevermind that. I’m not comfortable with a permanent change. Let’s get rid of that instance right now.’

Ally laughed, ‘I was wondering how long that would last. Now, what are you going to do with all these foxes?’

Doyle turns his attention to the plateau with all the foxes. Mostly the old style, but there are a few of the new style. ‘I am uncertain. For now, maybe we leave it as is? They’re not exactly taking up my points on the floor and I’m not getting more of the old style. I guess the new style foxes can go?’

Ally, ‘Yeah, there isn’t really a pressing reason at the moment.’

Though of course since there isn’t anything else to do, they spend a good bit of time talking things over.

Out in the town, though, Ace is frustrated once again. “I’m sure the foxes will be back.”

The messenger from the adventurers guild shakes their head, “It has been a week and no one has reported another fox encounter.”

Ace frowns, “Why can’t the dungeon make up its mind? How worried are the delvers?”

The messenger shakes their head, “Only half as worried as they were when the foxes first showed up.”

Ace groans, “So only a dull roar. Blarg.”

The messenger shrugs, “Jim responded about the same. We held off on telling you until things were confirmed. I’m surprised you haven’t heard yet.”

Ace waves his hand, “Like, I heard a few people saying they hadn’t seen the foxes, but that means nothing. They could have just gotten too strong to stumble upon them. Now knowing that no one is? Quite different.”

The messenger nods, “I can see that. Oh, and did you hear about that new merchant? The racists. Speciest? The bigot.”

Ace sighed, “Don’t know his name, I thought we pushed them all into one or two towns. What was he thinking?”

The messenger, “Heh, fool got run out of town after trying to charge non-humans a significant markup. Should have given up after he got that shiner from his trash talk.”

Ace, “I’m just glad no one broke the rules while running him out of town. I wouldn’t have let them off, but I would have felt bad.”

The messenger shrugs, “I’m not certain if they kept following the rules once outside of the town.”

Ace, “Well, that’s not my problem. Though I feel insulted that you seem to think I don’t know what happened. Which is nothing directly harmful.”

The messenger raises an eyebrow, “Directly?”

Ace shrugs, “Well, we did ban him from ever buying and selling from us and our sponsored merchants. Oh, and we put out a blacklist on him.”

The messenger cracks up at that. “Oh yeah, not directly. Nevermind you probably just forced him to stop being a merchant. I don’t think there is a single place that won’t heed your blacklist. He’ll have to go back to one of those isolationist settlements. If they’ll even take him.”

Ace, “Meh, not my problem. The world had enough idiots when it was only humans. I can’t stop people from being bigoted, but I can sure as all get out punish them for being bigots. If they don’t like it, they can just keep their opinions to themselves.”

As Ace was worrying about that, Jim was already on to the next worry. He had had time to get over the foxes going away and now had new reports.

Jim shuffles through a trio of papers on his otherwise empty desk. Across from him is one of the system provided receptionists that he isn’t too familiar with. He sighs, “So, what does this mean? I can see the data isn’t what it should be.”

The receptionist shrugs, “I can’t be fully certain. Despite humans being the most populous species in this universe, you humans are shockingly diverse. With my position, I’ve managed to learn a few things about other universes.

“You go to one with something like ants as the main species or even just beasts in general? The people there are much more uniform. By the lower realms, even the non-human humanoids tend to be more consistent within their own species.”

Jim laughs, “Ain’t that the truth! You ask a hundred humans their opinions on something and you’ll get one hundred and three different answers.

“But you should know something. What do these numbers mean?”

The receptionist nods, “As everyone knows, those grinding against the sixth floor cattle are hard stuck at this point. However, that means nothing for those who are trying to delve ever deeper. And yet, despite there being a significant, if small, portion of people that do that? There isn’t progress being made.”

Jim, “I almost wish I didn’t set it up for people to watch what floors people were making it to.”

The receptionist, “But you did it and now we have this information. As for what this data means? It means we have what your world would call brain drain. Besides our inner circle and a few of the old timers, people don’t stay here. They’re leaving after reaching one of the later floors and getting stuck.”

Jim frowns, “But why? It isn’t like they can’t gain levels. The dungeon is about the best place to gain power in this entire community!”

The receptionist laughs, “But that’s the thing. While they are gaining power, it isn’t as quick as they expect. So while they’re still growing, it doesn’t feel like it.

“Then they go out and the change in scenery and it feels like they’re gaining levels faster again. It might even be true, but most likely it is that they’re doing something new and so it doesn’t drag as much.

“And of course, that eventually slows down, but they don’t think to return. After all, this new thing they were doing was faster than the dungeon. Why would they go back to that?”

Jim closes his eyes and rubs one of his temples, “Yeah, that sounds about right. Sounds completely human. So, any suggestions on how to fix this?”

The receptionist shrugs, “Eh, just wait until not everyone is about the same strength. At that point, you’ll have people experiencing that, but from the opposite direction. They’ll have gotten tired of the other stuff and so will be invigorated to delve into the dungeon.”

Jim leans back, “Ah yes, the ol’ wait the problem out solution.”

Pattern Update - Chapter 432

Purposefully Bad Buffs Banned - Chapter 434