Part 1 - Getting Into God School ----- Zane looks around in wonder as they walk around the school’s assembly hall. This wasn’t their first t
Part 1 - Getting Into God School
-----
Zane looks around in wonder as they walk around the school’s assembly hall. This wasn’t their first time in a multicultural, multi-species school. However, this place went way be...
2024-04-01 01:14:07 +0000 UTC View PostWhether still being able to feel the humidity was good or not, I soon found the source. That water I was looking for? It arrived in the form of a small waterfall coming out of the ceiling and creating a small flow down the middle of the tunnel.
As for the heat? Well, water ended up forming a pretty straight tunnel and off in the distance I could see an orange glow taking over for the mushrooms’ more blue green tinted light. I didn’t go all the way down there, so I don’t know the t...
2024-03-30 06:20:03 +0000 UTC View Post{Sixteenth floor dimensionally anchored
World Energy cap +9,700 [Constitution(97) * 100]
Sixteenth floor spending limit set to 91,560 [Previous floor’s limit(81,480) + Intelligence(84) * 120]
Monster level cap updated
Quintessence debt paid back by 5}
The message had been there for a while and Doyle just stared at it. He had honestly just went straight into making a new floor almost on instinct. Except he was, well, not tapped out? But his pool of floor ideas w...
2024-03-29 10:19:02 +0000 UTC View PostDoyle thinks for a moment, then nods, ‘The flat increase to what it takes to make the next floor is a bit strange. I figured with the fact there are dungeons with very few floors, just as there are dungeons with a ton of floors, it would be more variable. If anything, the fact I keep nearly maxing out how much can fit in each floor should make it so each floor comes slower.’
Ally shakes her head, ‘That sort of thing would have come up right at the beginning. If you had done stuff ...
2024-03-29 10:17:44 +0000 UTC View PostJason took a moment to read the note left by Rosha and Courtney.
[Heyo!
Sorry, not sorry to hear about your death! Congratulations on joining the rest of us. Well, I assume Courtney has died at some point. She’s nodding right now so I’ll take that to mean I’m right. Anyway, Lily is doing fine. How could you leave her alone like this? What if she got hurt? Thankfully, she was able to take care of herself and managed to kill a handful of pests over the last three days.
O...
2024-03-27 11:36:37 +0000 UTC View PostJason stretches one last time, having just gotten all the kinks out of his muscles, and settles down in the middle of the living room. This was going to be his longest out of the capsule since he was maybe 13? The government was a little picky about how much time kids could spend in VR.
It didn’t matter to Jason, though more than a few classmates got in trouble for trying to skirt around the rules. Of course, even back then he had seen through what was actually happening. It is practi...
2024-03-27 11:35:53 +0000 UTC View PostDoyle sighs, ‘Whoever developed the system, at least going by what I have experienced so far, feel like the type to look down from on high and judge things by the greater good without caring what it takes to get there.’
Ally shrugs, ‘A common viewpoint even among the more kindly higher life forms.’
Doyle tilts to the side, ‘Higher life forms? What does that mean?’
Ally, ‘Eh, it isn’t a specific term, but basically just counts everything above a certain level ...
2024-03-22 09:33:22 +0000 UTC View PostJason sighed, it wasn’t like he could somehow divine what was actually going on with the System. Most times and for most people, there wouldn’t be a single error their whole lives and so many consider it rare. However, after more than a few fireside chats with Courtney, Jason had broadened his horizons. Even if this was his first sighting of an error, they’ve existed forever and there are even certain glitches that the top families make use of that still throw them.
Sure, the Syst...
2024-03-20 20:02:54 +0000 UTC View PostWhile haste makes waste, Jason was certainly on a timer. His body was cooling off supernaturally fast, likely because of his void body and the sudden expulsion of so much energy in the form of those Energy lines. Though if anything, that might help as it would slow down the usual nastiness a body goes through when they die.
Fighting against this was the fact that from the start it was obvious that his body had begun to lose his void-like qualities. The System slowly forcing a flesh and ...
2024-03-20 20:02:24 +0000 UTC View PostAlly looks to the side, ‘The uh, the monsters certainly help as well.’
Doyle pauses, having just been considering what a high level table would actually be like. ‘The what?’
Ally nods, ‘The monsters. Like, they’re out there and no place is ever truly secure against them. It just takes the right ability or enough of them. A monster attacks a town and boom, people need new stuff. Even on Ecumenopolis there are monsters. Hell, even on supposedly lifeless rocks, floating o...
2024-03-15 10:52:04 +0000 UTC View PostAlly shrugs, ‘If I had to guess, the system decided your understanding of “rooms” has shifted far enough away from being a pattern that it doesn’t count. While the system keeps skills and paths intact, it likes to prune patterns when people gather a lot of them.’
Doyle, ‘How in the world has my understanding of a room changed?’
Ally, ‘There are two main ways to lose a pattern. Generalization and specialization. Two extremes between which levelable patterns sit. In ...
2024-03-15 10:51:34 +0000 UTC View PostAs for what the alarm ritual provided? The ability to make the Energy draw worthwhile. The light ritual could only hand a single Energy, while the alarm could manage ten. A little magnitude of difference.
There was one minor problem. Since the Energy gathering ritual was very much kludged together without true understanding, Jason would basically have to figure it out all over again next time he wanted to set it up. The current one was very much balanced around the exact conditions of t...
2024-03-13 14:53:53 +0000 UTC View PostHowever, no matter how chaotic the Deep Wilds can be, it is still a place entire civilizations can live. So, not every moment is fraught with life-threatening danger. While changes like the local area had just gone through do cause chaos, the native beasts and monsters are more than used to this, so it doesn’t take long to calm down.
A calm that allows Jason a chance to finally relax and focus on himself once again. While a clearing in the Deep Wilds certainly isn’t the most peacefu...
2024-03-13 14:53:05 +0000 UTC View PostDoyle slowly came to as his mind once again settled down. While he hadn’t been able to observe, the scene created by his sea of consciousness was astounding. As if the world has reverted to some primordial pre-world space from mythology. A time before the heavens and the earth were separated. The separation between the ocean, air, and land was removed creating a space of chaos, except ordered.
Yes, ordered. For at the center of it all was one triangle that with the chaos became as if ...
2024-03-08 20:21:07 +0000 UTC View PostFirst order of business for the trio, what should Rosha and Courtney be looking for to improve the clearing? Since the majority of adventuring would be done by them, they’re the ones that need to know. Not that Jason knows exactly what they need.
They will definitely need to play it by ear as they go. A good example is stone. Jason would love to have an unlimited supply of equal sized stone blocks. That would make things so easy.
Except, where are they even supposed to source so...
2024-03-06 23:46:39 +0000 UTC View PostThe trio eventually get out of the man’s office and are able to go do a little shopping. At this point, they would normally split up. Though, because of the boisterous crowds, they decide to stick together as a group.
Not that there was much to get. Courtney and Rosha had a couple supplies to replace for their continued exploration and Jason picked up a couple tools. In particular, Jason grabbed a bunch of metal working tools. While he didn’t have any readily available ore, it would...
2024-03-06 23:45:59 +0000 UTC View PostBelow are the full prompts as the poll doesn't allow the full text. In the case of ties the first option that got there wins. The short story will be finished by the end of the month.
Of note, there was only one suggestion and it was simply me saying that I would be putting God School up for a second part. I'll still give a choice, but, well, I figure we know how this will go.
Luck, however, would not remain on their side for too long. Though them beating the 14th had nothing to do with luck. Any sort of hidden information trick where said information doesn’t keep changing will be found out, just as with the 12th floor. So, after they realized how important it was to deal with the other side of the floor, Jim’s team managed to become the first to step onto Doyle’s last floor in a long time. And he wasn’t even there to witness it!
This, however, was wh...
2024-03-02 06:55:36 +0000 UTC View PostDoyle focused on the lone triangle of who he was in the middle of an ocean of instincts that not even a normal dungeon would connect with. Each dungeon core was like an island within this ocean, only taking on a small part of the ocean’s bounty. And the reason for this was obvious enough.
Even two dungeons that both started with the common dungeon snake could end up with wildly different options. Though that example was a little bit cheating. What with the fact snakes diverge quite ea...
2024-03-02 06:54:56 +0000 UTC View PostOnce again I'm here to ask all of you for short story prompts! I'll take the more popular ones as decided by the number of hearts (or that I particularly like) in the comments and make a poll at the start of the month. The winner will be made into a short story of a thousand or so words.
Not many rules on what you can suggest at the moment. That will mostly be figured out as we go. Besides that, the short story will come out before the end of the next month.
Rules for prompts:
... 2024-03-01 00:42:28 +0000 UTC View PostZare sat in what some of his followers would call the lotus position. That wasn’t the original name for it, but over the eras, various old souls had done as they always do and polluted the local language with words from their old lives. Zare had done much the same a number of times. Now, though, Zare had survived long enough that they hoped to finally escape the cycle.
The first step had honestly been counter intuitive. Zare had been too many worlds where people could rise to power th...
2024-03-01 00:37:07 +0000 UTC View PostI can’t help but sigh and shake my head as I look back on this. Why did I think being on top of something would hide me from ants? Sure, they were pretty big, but why would that stop them from climbing the wall? They’ve already broken the cube square law, what’s a little gravity? I should have been thankful they didn’t have flying ants with them.
As it was, at least the ants had mostly passed by before some of the group took to the walls. The bad news was that it was a few of th...
2024-02-29 23:48:59 +0000 UTC View PostThe man shrugs, “One can assume such failures have happened. Though kingdoms tend to keep such things quiet.”
Rosha, “Wouldn’t it be hard with travellers and what not?”
The man smiles, “Well, it will be now. You all are new and so most examples of failed expansion happened before travellers showing up. Oh, and when an attempted claim fails, there isn’t any time for people to get away. The Deep Wilds is like a bear trap and the kingdoms are trying to disarm it while s...
2024-02-28 11:01:01 +0000 UTC View PostJason crosses his arms, “I prefer the giant beasts.”
Rosha raises an eyebrow, “Why? For some reason, I doubt you can take one of them down yet, no matter their level.”
The man nods, “The beasts don’t actually have that high of a level, only a couple hundred. In theory, the kingdom could easily put up a quest and get one of them killed.
“Except, this isn’t NeoRealm, not properly. This is the Deep Wilds and the System rules with a looser grip. Mainly, that mean...
2024-02-28 11:00:10 +0000 UTC View PostSatisfied with his design, Doyle sat back and waited. While compared to his points outlay across all his floors, nearly 75k isn’t really all that much. He doesn’t actually have that much world energy lying around.
If he had to compare it to anything, it would be a saying he heard about farmers. How they’re paper rich, but cash poor. Because yeah, they own a ton of land, their crops are worth bank, and all the equipment certainly isn’t cheap. However, they can’t actually use th...
2024-02-23 11:26:28 +0000 UTC View PostWhatever the case may be, Jason and friends manage to work their way through the crowd of celebrating locals. And thankfully, the guy they had been dealing with in the settlement wasn’t out celebrating as well. In fact, it looked like he was just as busy as usual.
Courtney steps forward, “I assume the recent shift at least was enough to remove the really nasty monsters?”
The man sighs without looking up, “And left us with some normal nasty monster. I guess you were the guy...
2024-02-21 20:37:15 +0000 UTC View PostThe man, with his hands on his waist, throws his head back and lets out a full bellied laugh.
Jason, Rosha, and Courtney fall back a few steps and group up.
With a shake of his head, the man sighs, “Been hunting these beasts for a week! Stupid blighters kept hiding whenever I came around.”
He shakes his head again, “Sorry that you three ended up being used as bait of sorts. I didn’t plan it, but, well, that’s how life works sometimes.”
Courtney stepped forw...
2024-02-21 20:36:40 +0000 UTC View PostSo with all that new information in mind, Doyle begins to figure out the ratio he wants between the various monsters. After all, 73,000 points isn’t going to spend itself. This meant going back to the hexku as they had the fewest living spaces. Doyle had only placed a few of their trees because of wanting to limit the number of treasure chests and three seemed like a good number.
The question now is what percentage of his points does he want to invest and how much is too much? The thi...
2024-02-16 13:30:19 +0000 UTC View PostWith the bird’s situated, that left figuring out where the kobolds would go. Doyle paused and looked over the landscape. The natural place to put a settlement would be at the bottom of the mountain valley where there was the most flat ground.
Except the kobolds weren’t going to be alone. Now, if they were just going to have some goats, it wouldn’t matter. That wasn’t the case, though. The kobolds would also have Axebeaks to act as mounts
Once it all connects in his mind, D...
2024-02-16 13:28:51 +0000 UTC View PostThe first challenge was a hive of necromancer bees. Which, despite the name, do not actually use necromancy. Rather, they make a hive near the recently deceased body of some creature. The name comes from the fact that the venom of their sting causes a zombie-like state in their victims. They are not capable of making those that are actually dead get up and walk around.
Why the bees do this? It isn’t like they eat meat or anything. Rather, they’re macabre gardeners. The bodies of the...
2024-02-14 14:36:18 +0000 UTC View Post