dragonheartednovels

[D'sP] I Forgot - Chapter 281

As Doyle starts to do the math, Ally knocks on the wall. Doyle bobs his core, ‘Yes?’

Ally rolls her eyes, ‘You don’t exactly have a door to knock on. Anyway, I was watching you make the new floor and wanted to know how you’re going to get the adventurers into the water?’

Doyle tilts to the side, ‘No real plan for that. Why?’

Ally shrugs, ‘I figured you were trying to make use of your sea cattle.

Doyle pauses for a moment. ‘I had completely forgotten...

[NR] Maybe Take A Break Next Time - Chapter 483

Though even the perceived safety of the arena is proven at best temporary. Within three hours, smoke begins to leak in and gather on the roof. Jason and Courtney rested another couple hours as the ceiling filled until they once again retreated out of the dungeon.

The smoke had only halfway filled the ceiling at that point, but the two remembered how the rest of the dungeon was more up than down. If they weren’t careful, the exit could end up full of smoke. Not impossible to escape, bu...

[NR] Will Rosha Survive? - Chapter 482

Since every one of those bladders was interconnected, blocking off a few wouldn’t actually interrupt the slow flow of sap through them. Even better, they weren’t connected up in a line, but rather as a mesh. So basically, as long as Rosha didn’t block off adjacent plates, it wouldn’t be a problem.

That didn’t make her task easy. Oh no, in fact, getting to the fronds was quite a doozy. Step by step, she had to disable a bladder, move into the new bladder, and then repeat it. 2023-04-05 22:32:55 +0000 UTC View Post

[Closed] Deciding the Short Story Prompt for April 2023

Below 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 and will be available to all patrons.

• in the surface world~~~~~ Truck-kun was shocked, never in his days since creation had someone dodged him, he recalled what happened and still could not believe it. the initial accident was dodged, but truck-kun didn't give up, he carried on chasin...
  2023-04-03 14:34:29 +0000 UTC View Post

[D'sP] Time For The Eleventh - Chapter 280

Still, looking at the first floor made him realize how important his method of floor creation is. Not only does it keep his core at the center of his dungeon. It also helps hide himself from the outside.

After all, when your relative size and visibility is completely determined by how powerful you seem to be. The act of wearing his weakest floor as a disguise is brilliant. If instead of expanding inward, he had created the floors next to each other, it would be like broadcasting his exi...

[D'sP] Oh Hey, Equipment - Chapter 279

Doyle sighs, ‘How long till they get to the second boss?’

Ally stops laughing and shrugs, ‘If I had to guess, you have two to two and a half weeks.’

Doyle’s core brightens for a second after hearing that. ‘I wasn’t actually expecting them that soon. It feels like a month or more on the inside. Why so quickly?’

Ally pulls up a screen showing a workshop on the surface. ‘They need magical defenses. Not just because of the Udoroot, but it certainly is giving th...

[NR] We'll Stand Back Here - Chapter 481

Courtney shakes her head, "I've never heard of the System testing or punishing someone for getting a skill well outside their level range. Just look at Jason! He's had a core since nearly the beginning. I don't see any stupid test like this for him. If anyone was to get a test, that feat would be worth one!"

Rosha shrugs, "You have to admit, this would fit that sort of thing.”

Courtney rolls her eyes, “Whether it fits or not is meaningless. What matters is the fact that it doe...

[NR] A Trap - Chapter 480

Rosha really enjoyed all the traps. Each one unique in a manner that wasn't quite human or plant. The dungeon's ability to make traps might not have been rated as complex by the System, but it certainly did things differently.

Complexity not found in naturally grown plants outside of some strange monsters. Designs that even those with the magic to create things whole cloth would find hard to faithfully replicate. Yet at the same time there is a simplicity inherent to the designs in a wa...

[Closed] Collecting Short Story Prompts for April 2023

Once 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:

[Archived Short Story] Raising A Dungeon

Dassil Sandual sighed as their master continued the debate into the ninth hour. They didn’t really understand why whether a dungeon was a living creature or not mattered. Dungeons just were. Still, it seemed pretty important to the five grand mages currently sitting around the master’s table.

At least, Dassil hopes it is important because they’ve spent the last three months having the same argument for at least five hours every day. Honestly, they didn’t care, it would make all ...

[D'sP] That There Is A Monster - Chapter 278

Jim sighs, “Well, at least that fight went better than the last fight against those things.”

Jeremy laughs, “We’re going to have to warn people about them before others start arriving on this floor. The fact that we are having problems against a lone enemy says something about our defenses against this kind of stuff.”

Bill shrugs, “Too much to defend against. There is magic, psionics, and who knows what else out there.”

Kelly shakes her head, “No, we should b...

[NR] Just A Bit Of Poison - Chapter 479

With a name like “trapsmith”, you might expect it to be purely a crafting skill. After all, being a smith doesn’t automatically mean you’re good at swinging a sword that you make. A trapsmith, on the other hand, is almost the exact opposite.

After all, part of what makes a good trap is how well you set it up. It doesn’t matter if the trap is assured to catch whatever walks into it, if the trap is so obvious that no one triggers it. Of course, there are skills focused on one as...

[NR] High Rank Skill - Chapter 478

Jason sighs as he thinks. It had been a long time coming, but after learning about what the sixth break resistance was, he finally figured out what the System had done to him so long ago. The difference between pre and post sixth bottleneck is having a core.

That is the only difference. So, way back when the System nerfed him, what it was actually doing was countering the benefits he got from already having a core. Which, looking at it with what he knows now, is fair enough. Being able ...

[D'sP] Sad Wolves - Chapter 277

After talking about psychic powers a bit more, Doyle sinks into carving on the seventh floor. Though the thought of humans on the world outside being psychically charged does give him a sense of satisfaction. He had always enjoyed the thought of psychic powers and had researched it a little.

Of course none of the older research that showed the most positive results really meant all that much. Either it was dependent on one particularly strong person and this not scientifically relevant ...

[D'sP] Strong Because He Believes So - Chapter 276

Doyle of course was watching as they fumbled around. More to the point, he made sure to ask Ally, 'Will them messing around with spatial magic cause any problems?'

Ally shrugs, 'Could it? Sure, anything possible with the right set up. Will? Almost certainly not.

'A big part of my assurance comes from the difference between your power and their magic. It is a little hard to package the concepts down into a few terms, but your abilities basically count as being a part of the landsca...

[NR] Lots Of Resistances - Chapter 477

In the end, it takes Jason two and a half weeks to find a helmet. In fact, the helmet he found was a bit pricier than he would have preferred, but Rosha was close to finishing up her training. Not that it should have actually taken almost the full time to complete.

Rather, since she paid for the time and it had been taking Jason a while, Rosha took her time. Not just learning things, but working to internalize them. This both annoyed and amused her teachers.

They could tell that s...

[NR] So Powerful, Yet So Poor - Chapter 476

Over the next three days, Jason takes his time going from store to store. Whether it is a Smith or a shop that sells random leather goods. Though as the days roll on, the task of finding a helmet that fits his requirements begins to feel more and more impossible.

Not only is he looking for something most see as a mistake, he is asking for it as a cheap price. So of course the metal workers in town aren't going to save something like that for him. In fact, Jason even learns a bit more ab...

[D'sP] Some Help For Jim - Chapter 275

It took Doyle a moment to process what Ally had said, when a realization hit him. ‘The adjustment points are for exactly that, permanent adjustments. That is why skills and stat adjustment felt so similar. It is just one is more modular than the other.

‘In fact, I would use a different comparison. The stats are the land and the skills are what gets built on top. Brick by brick, level by level, a skill can build itself up. The land beneath, on the other hand, silently supports it.’...

[NR] Difficulty Finding A Helmet - Chapter 475

Rosha ends up taking much of the rest of the day haggling over what skills she will learn and at what price. It isn't even that the rogues are trying to fleece her. After all, they're in the Adventurers Guild right now. No, it is just that doing so could almost be seen as part of the cost of doing business. Not everyone can be as lucky as Jason and run into someone willing to pass on a rare skill.

Speaking of Jason, while Rosha was getting frustrated, he wasn't doing much better. While ...

[NR] Roguish Bards - Chapter 474

The group's exit from the dungeon goes mostly unnoticed and from there it is a quick trip back to their inn. Once there they settle down and begin to actually plan out what they each need to complete the dungeon.

Rosha was easy enough. She just had to hit up the local guild office for the generic scout skill package. This was going to cost at least 3,000 gold, mind you. However, her family was going to cover a good portion of it.

Courtney wasn't as pampered, though she was still g...

[D'sP] Skills Vs. Stats - Chapter 274

Doyle sat back after that little multi-day diversion and took a moment to think if any of his current monsters could use a nudge.

That didn’t take long. Since the beginning his assassin vines have underperformed. So, Doyle set about checking each of the plant’s stats. Which was honestly one of the reasons he chose the monster besides the whole “underperforming” thing. After all, it only has three.

This took a few days even after the experience with the goat and a ton of no...

[Closed] Deciding the Short Story Prompt for March 2023

Below 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 and will be available to all patrons.

• Undead Dungeon Core - Scholars have often debated whether or not Dungeon Cores are actually living creatures or natural Artifacts, or some weird other thing. Evidence was presented, counter-evidence shown. One overly ambitious, and somewhat misgui...
  2023-03-03 11:35:05 +0000 UTC View Post

[D'sP] That Costs A Bit - Chapter 273

{30 points applied to Monster Rancher II path...

10/100 - Farmed monsters can be released early at half their projected level for the floor and for half their point cost though monsters with a minimum level can not be released early if their level would be below that minimum

25/100 - Allows the viewing of a monster pattern’s stat specialization as well as minor modifications to them with the use of Monster Pattern Adjustment Points, Earned +50 Monster Pattern Adjustment Points}<...

[NR] Maybe We're Not Ready - Chapter 473

Jason raises his eyebrow, “The traps are more serious than you expected? Sure, it took a quarter of my health, but that is sort of my role right now. I’m the tank.”

Courtney sighs, “That might be the problem. Most information I had gathered pointed towards the traps doing more in the range of a tenth of a person's health, but that was likely tanks much better equipped for the role. After all, this is a place people use to break through their bottleneck.

“By this point mo...

[NR] Shattered Spear - Chapter 472

After the exciting discovery of water vampire lollipop plants, the group continues onward finding more and more nonsense. Vines growing straight out from the sides of the walls that use the strength from being able to do so to wrap up prey. What looked like small clouds covering the ceiling, but was actually collections of algae like plants as far as the group could tell. Even some flora that looked like wagon wheels which used roots to slowly roll around so as to extract whatever little nutr...

[Closed] Collecting Short Story Prompts for March 2023

Once 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:

[Archived Short Story] Mr. Pawdles

Dear Diary,

The world ended! And not in one of those fun, everyone gets super powers sort of ways. Well, some things did get super powers, but not me, which makes it super double unfair! Even Tim next door managed to gain the ability to fly.

Not that I want the ability to fly! I’d have to wear something super uncool or the creepy guy down at the bus stop would probably try filming up my skirt. My dad called me to ask though the surprise there was that he could in the first place...

[D'sP] Well Well Well - Chapter 272

Doyle shakes his core, 'So, how long are they going to be basically banging their heads against a wall out there?'

Ally shrugs, 'It isn't so much a matter of how long they're willing to do it and more a matter of how long it will take a stronger fae to move in and help them complete it. They've honestly got the short end of the stick there. It's like they're trying to solve for two and keep just multiplying by one. The actual difficulty of piercing your territory out there isn't hard, b...

[NR] Poison Lollipop - Chapter 471

Rosha casts a cantrip and conjures up a piece of ice. "What about sucking on a piece of ice to stay cool and hydrated?"

Courtney laughs, "A good idea, except that is conjured ice and not created ice. It does melt, so much as it vanishes. Good for cooling off though, more for me and you.

"Since we are kin, we do get to sweat like humans, that doesn't mean we've lost the animal side's ability to cool off either. Though if you could stand it, you'll have much more luck with holding i...

[NR] First Flora - Chapter 470

The party steps into the seventh floor and everything changes.

Well, not really, but they had expected it to. After all, this is the floor where space veg is supposed to show up. Even Courtney had expected more.

Though as they traveled further into the floor things began to change in small ways that escaped them. The hallway widened out a little, the tardigroids began to look healthier, and the final step was the air getting a lot dryer. After all that, it wasn't until the group w...