> Let's talk about stats Barbee~
>
> I’m here to provide a quick lesson about stats. My funding is provided by the adventurer’s guild who require me to remind you they believe “knowledge should be shared” and “not hoarded like a dragon”.
>
> Using a human as the example but reminding everyone that other species exist and have slightly different stat distributions.
>
> Lets go over this shall we? Every human gets +1 stat to every single “open stat” every level. They also get +5 “free stats” per level along with an extra +5 for each multiple of 5, 25, 125. That means at level 25 a human receives 15 free stats. Easy enough?
>
> Now onto the offered stats. A human starts off with 2 choices. STR, INT. Brawn or brain. Body or magic. Easy enough. Now going over 5 in either of these “Splits” the stat into two. This can be completed at level 1 assuming all 5 free points + the unchangeable level point all go into one stat.
>
> Reaching 6 STR breaks STR into 3 STR & 3 DEX. INT becomes 3 INT & 3 WIS. Now I can tell I’m losing some of you. You just want to go off and fight monsters and I get it! But, there’s some important points to look out for in terms of stats that even the most ADHD of adventurers would appreciate.
>
> Okay, the first split is 6. After reaching 26 the second split happens opening up: STR, DEF*, DEX, VIT, INT, CLR, WIS, PER; respectively.
>
> *- fun trivia: according to credible sources, defense used to be called constitution before it was changed in 34AS to reduce confusion between it and vitality.
>
> Now, Based on each “Stat” group being worth twice as much after each split (level ups distributing 1 point to each stat that’s displayed gives +1 INT, +1 WIS after a split but only +1 INT before it), the “Optimal” decision is to maximize the number of stats by splitting both physical and magical stats first at level 1 and 2 and then working your way up to splitting at 25 for each group.
>
> There’s a counterpoint to this strategy which is the body titles. You get [Body of the Warrior] for splitting STR before INT and keeping physical stats double your magical. [Body of the Mage] For the opposite. [Perfect Body of the Warrior/Mage] for splitting either of the physical/magical stats at 25 before any magical/physical stats are split and then maintained with a a >4x distribution. This can only be done by putting everything into a single stat up till level 5. There is also a [Body of Balance] by splitting stats at the same time and keeping them within 1 of each other and a corresponding [Perfect Body of Balance] for splitting all 4 secondary stats at 26 simultaneously. These balance bodies require banking free stats between some levels to make sure they are distributed evenly.
>
> Why are the body titles important? Well other than a +20% +30% effectiveness of the physical/magical stats for warriors/mages with the regular/perfect titles? (+10%, +15% for balanced). These titles unlock most of the stronger classes! Both to obtain and keep!
>
> Okay. So now you are wondering if its best to go “All In” and stick to one area permanently, only choosing physical or magical stats. Many would consider you correct, except for the fact that some stats on opposite sides have good synergy. Dex, especially when split into pure physical agility improves most mage’s casting. It’s no good having a high-speed thought process if your physical reflexes and spell casting can’t keep up. Many physical tanks take clarity to prevent mental shenanigans and increase their calmness during battle, while other warriors choose PER to increase their perception of time up to match their reflexes.
>
> Which brings me to my final and most important point. The average human reaches level 10 before they are 3 years old. The system takes a few liberties for the young – employing the same sort of decision making as it does for the dumbest monsters. Walked for the first time, clenched your fist or had a tantrum in a decidedly physical way? Obviously, you just picked strength!
>
> Stared at something or tried to talk? Look at you little smartie, 1 point to intelligence.
>
>
>
> This has led to certain cultures trying to convince babies to bank their points in till they are old enough to make a conscious decision. That never ends well for the system can't be interfered with with mind magic and not distributing stats makes it harder to continue leveling up with increasing experience costs.
>
> Not to mention how hard it is to convince a child what the "optimal" choices for their life are. Most enter adulthood with arbitrary stat distributions and random classes that must be changed and releveled when they enter society. Despite how easy the body titles are to obtain; many don’t have a single one. Sadly, their existence is less a reward by the system and more a side effect of stat distributions on a developing body. By keeping the correct stat distributions, the “regular” “warrior/mage/balance titles” can be obtained after roughly 5 levels of maintenance – but the perfect ones are forever locked away. They exist only to tease those who chose “poorly” as an infant and many wish they didn’t exist.
>
> More information about the effects of split stats can be found in the next section “The effects of stats on the body”
Adventuring Handbook entry. “On stats” written by Tix the gnome.
Innearth burned with a desire not to fall behind.
The system really likes when I try new stuff and flip between different concepts? I can do that. I can do all the flipping!
Okay, so for the most part experience is trickling in just for doing what I’m doing…but it's not enough. No. Especially because I don’t have adventurers like the others. That’s a whole revenue stream I’m missing out on!
Is there a way I can get in on that?... I can’t really control adventurers coming…but I could still get delvers, right?
Innearth hadn't received a similar adventuring monster group since the otters but had received plenty of small and large animals that had briefly entered and left or been spooked when seeing a monster.
I just need to market myself…lure some of the local monsters! That shouldn’t be too hard.
Trying to figure out what attracted monsters Innearth tried to think about the ones he had seen, heard about and spiced in a bit of “common” knowledge.
They seem to like attacking other monsters? Especially stronger ones that they think they can win against? Okay. Let's try that.
Placing a breadcrumb trail of slimes from his entrance to his first tutorial room Innearth waited for a monster to “bite”. He didn’t have to wait long.
A pack of shadowolves started poking around his entrance as soon as a slime was placed within view of the outside.
Cautiously sniffing about the wolves were half melded with the shadows that were cast by the sun into his domain. Noses would pop out of shadows and then retreat before with a pounce a flurry of motion happened.
The pack ripped through several dozen slimes heading down past his tutorial area.
Innearth couldn’t even see how most of the slimes had died the pack of wolves almost acting as one entity moving between the shadows cast by his light torches as they explored briefly.
I can work with this!
Suddenly as one the group turned and trotted away. Moving up and out and gone before Innearth even got to appreciate their presence.
…of course I spoke too soon. Why did they stop at that specific point? It's not like the trail of slimes stopped?
Were the slimes too weak for them to bother?
…or was it because they were slimes and they got tired of biting into gooey balloons.
Innearth tried again with a single lesser snake but this time nothing approached.
Looking around Innearth noticed his scout was out. When he gets back I'll ask him what the wolves are doing.
Let’s see.
Checking the market, he saw very little about attracting wild monsters. For the most part there were guides to keep them out – most dungeons didn't like beasts as delvers for some reason and a few were about setting up traps that only targeted wild monsters but nothing was close to what Innearth wanted.
I guess I can put this on hold until my scout feels like telling me his thoughts. I wonder how he’s doing? …he’s been talking less and less as he gets bigger. I hope he wants to stay with me and not head out into the world abandoning me. That would be rude. I raised him! I treat him well don’t I? Maybe I should think of a way to reward him.
…Anyways Flipping about! I haven’t designed a monster from scratch for a few months. That’s always good for points!
One of Innearth's strengths was his increasing expertise with circuits. New knowledge had started to run slightly dry – he hadn’t had any big breakthroughs in a while, but it was still a defining trait of his dungeon.
He was able to design monsters capable of skills, singular complex spells built into their body using nothing but many small mostly tier 1 cores instead of a few tier 2 or even 3 cores.
…that being said the strength was also holding him back slightly. After seeing Amy’s underwater beholder using a tier 4 core and large amount of high mana liquid acting like a second attunement core…the biggest difference was the variety of spells they had cast. It wasn’t a single magical skill like with tier 2 cores or more complex tier 1 circuits.
I think it would be a waste just to dump my circuits and focus on throwing more and more mana at the problem…using more and more layered and dense cores seem kind of lazy but also…thinking like that is limiting me so I should try and make a few higher-tiered cores just to see what I can make. It seems as good enough time as any to work on something else I’ve been looking forwards to trying.
Innearth had seen many sapient creatures in both Amy and Bose’s tours. The problem was he had seen them through a flat window of the system. It wasn’t the same as his regular sight that involved looking from all angles at once with faint peeks into the inner workings of something and an overlay of mana when he concentrated.
He HAD done so with a dwarf however.
I was able to see quite a lot. Honestly would have been better if the dwarf delved without all those pesky clothes I think I could have learned a lot more that way but what can I say. Clothes are used for defense and it makes sense to wear clothes in a dangerous place. Still annoying!
While Innearth was remembering the dwarf, he had been designing the outline of its body.
Two short legs a stout body and thick burly arms. A smooth face with a slit for a mouth and two clear crystal balls for eyes.
After the shell Innearth had worked inwards. A tier 4 pure core in the center of its body >2000amu wrapped into 4 different thickness layers.
Short half circuits of straight wires connecting the center to 4 attributed cores. Earth and Stone for the legs. Metal and Kinetic for the arms. Crystal for the head.
If he was properly using his circuit knowledge this starfish shape would involve more connections and many more cores, but this was enough for an “uncorrupted” test attempt.
I’m still not able to fully design the eventual skill a monster will have from scratch, but I’ve gotten pretty good at figuring out what type of skill they get. Defensive or Offensive circuits look and feel quite a bit different.
The idea here is that the dwarf won’t have a single spell per circuit however. It's going to use multiple spells cast from different places… somehow. Pure mana doesn’t really do anything so the attributed cores help with the spells it will be able to cast.
That makes sense, I think. Moving on!
Ripping out the "solid" silicon model he had designed, Innearth placed strips of alternating liquid crystal muscles around "metal mana metal bones".
Crystal bones are too brittle at times sadly. Metal is stronger than earth for this and might have some nice synergy with the metal core.
Limbs were pulled apart and re-added. Sockets that allowed free movement were made then altered into constrained directions as Innearth tried to mimic the way the dwarven visitor had moved.
Adding minuscule lines of kinetic crystals and a single healing potion sack next to the central core Innearth pushed the design into “Elite” territory.
…Not wanting to ignore his shiny void affinity for a single monster that mattered, he moved the metal core into the bottom center of the monster's chest – replacing it with a void core. Adding a long fingernail of void silicon onto that hand he next added “pores” of mana on the hands and feet. Quickly giving what he had a once over Innearth paused at his legs and feet.
...I should add a 3rd one just to be safe.
No. The dwarf had two legs. I want to use two legs! How about this?
Innearth added faint kinetic soles onto both of the crystal dwarves toeless feet, then added a matching plate in its head pulling it upwards.
…Or maybe?
Removing the head plate he instead worked his way down the top of the body replacing every metal bone with a “directionless gravity/weightless” rod wrapped in a shell of metal mana.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
Adding more of the bones now that they were lighter Innearth added rebar like directionless gravity rods across the chest and head protecting the cores in those locations.
Cages of metal made ribcages and skulls, and then matching forearm and leg cages that had no natural equivalent.
Okay, this should be enough?
Setting it to spawn in the beginner area, Innearth attempted to print.
…This monster cost just under his maximum of 6218amu…anymore and he would not have been able to use the printing function. Setting it to spawn on his second floor Innearth pulled back and waited.
…And waited. I wonder if this would have taken less time to make manually? No probably not.
As the dwarf formed Innearth felt his influence flutter in anticipation. All of his attention was diverted from all the small tasks he was constantly doing to focus on this one spot.
This monster doesn't matter. It doesn't need to be great. It's just for experience! I just made this to see if I could…and make it seem like a mine. If it doesn’t work, no biggy.
Innearth lied to himself while fully knowing if his redemption for legs failed, he would be devastated. With the amount of work he put in if this monster couldn’t use its legs Innearth might stick to wheels for years and years.
The crystal dwarf appeared – and immediately clutched its chest and fell to the ground.
Dammit. It didn’t work. What went wrong? It can maybe crawl around on its hands and knees?
As Innearth was proving to himself that he couldn't make a humanoid monster the dwarf stood up. Its chest heaving and its hands clenching and unclenching – mana rushing out into the world.
Okay, now its standing…whats wrong with it? Does it have any defects? Its standing at least. I think the legs work!
Looking down at itself the monster stabbed its own hand with its void claw. Reaching down to the stone it infused its will into the floor and slowly moulded the ground like clay as it made thick bulky gloves.
Going from heaving and in pain to simply uncomfortable the monster stabilized as it wrapped its arms and legs in stone that grew denser with mana and then kept its arms intact.
I think…I think it’s getting better after its mana pores have been blocked but I don’t really know why it had issues in the first place? Its worked for other monsters why did it break on this one? I guess I’ll see if anyone else has had this problem
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Fated Eternal Design: Abe I'm telling you. Adventurers hate being blinded. They love a good monster fight and can pretty cheerfully fight through hoards of monsters and dangerous looking traps… but you shouldn't hit them with these "flashbangs" if you want them to keep coming back.
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Abe: "flashbooms" and they only get hit by them if they take the boring shortcuts. There's also monsters that focus all their mana into creating the loudest sound ever in those shortcuts called "bangbooms".
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Innearth: Hey guys so this is what's happening. Any thoughts?
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…
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Abe: Oh! Yeah, I gotchu. Easy question. I bought a primer that had that information in it so send you just that part in a second. Before I do though I want more input okay?
Abe: So what do you think? Punish adventurers that take the boring paths?
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Innearth: You do you. Personally either offer the shortcut or don't. If your offering it maybe don't punish them for using it?
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Abe: they can use them safely if they've already passed through the area. It's just trying to skip ahead that gets the worse treatment.
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Innearth: …shouldn’t you figure out how to stop them if they are trying to skip ahead? Not punish? Why offer the option if you’re going punish those that take it?
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Abe: If they think they are strong enough to skip to the good stuff they can deal with the consequences of not hitting everything…besides who am I to block people from wanting to go fast! I have to give them a trial though if they skip the normal one. It makes sense!
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Innearth: Alright. That’s fine. Should be fine. Thanks for the information!
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Abe: np, np. Anyways! Bose Look it's fine. I’m not scaring adventurers away…
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Reading the small snippet of the primer Abe had sent, Innearth read over the symptoms and their cause. Most was pretty self explanatory, but it was good to have it spelled out sometimes.
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Mana dehydration.
Dungeon monsters survive inside your influence but also consume mana. Unless you truly break something, a monster should be able to live off its own regeneration perpetually with no external aid. However…larger and stronger monsters with more mana requirements or “organs” and with stronger souls require more and more mana to survive. If placed in an area with too low of an environmental concentration your monsters might start to leak mana faster than they regenerate it. If this happens for a while, or if you spawn a monster with 0 mana stored, they will begin to break down. If they can’t consume their own mana they will eventually die.
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The rest of the packet was just a list of various “surface environmental mana levels”, corresponding floor mana and a list of core/regular organ requirements and the equivalent mana levels to host them safely.
All the numbers were very inexact. It was also never really a big problem. Floor mana increased exponentially while monster mana requirements were a lower mostly linear requirement. Several floors deep and it quickly reached a staggering concentration that didn’t even need to be
Dungeons don’t normally put strong monsters on higher floors…this was normally never a “problem” it only ever really happened when a core got experimental as Innearth had just done.
…the crystal dwarf had moved down 2 floors stopping on the last of the beginner floors to regenerate up to full mana.
They had also begun to craft.
Not delicate items but large stone supports for the ceiling – not fully needed with Innearth’s influence but they did add to the ambiance…and it did help him slightly.
Next the monster moved back to the 2nd floor and began to craft a short rail of silver.
Parallel lines pumped with metal mana and then marked with a long scratch as the crystal dwarf dragged his void fingernail down its full length and pumped mana in a swirling pattern.
A deep glowing groove was left, with occasional dashes.
Starting and stopping several times to regenerate mana or move to the large “mining rooms” Innearth had sprinkled throughout the beginner floors the monster worked away.
You…hey uh, are you doing this because you know what your purpose is and then saw me being disappointed when you had mana dehydration? Don’t worry! You’re definitely doing great.
Feeling weird trying to console his monster Innearth really did appreciate the work they were putting in. A tier 4 core was strange. Innearth had never felt like this for his weaker monsters.
I'll help.
Running strips of Iron through his halls Innearth created a quick loop through his whole second floor then made matching loops on his 3rd and 4th floors. Connecting each loop with short side rails Innearth turned to watch the crystal dwarf come back to find kilometres of track in the time it took them to make a few meters.
Nodding after seeing them the dwarf started the laborious process of making their channels throughout the whole railway. As the dwarf laid glowing strips Innearth turned to other tasks.
I wonder what they wanted this for? Decoration, right? I could use it myself! Oh! I know!
Innearth flipped between a few uses for the railway and settled on swapping the crazy ball mothers from a “turtle” shape to a “minecart” shape.
Ever since he saw Bose’s theme…and the number of adventurers delving him…Innearth felt the difference a true theme could make.
Even comparing Amy and Bose he saw the difference. Amy had a dozen groups delving her. Bose had hundreds of people.
He had been researching dwarves on and off ever since one had arrived at him and found a lot of information.
Most dungeons agreed dwarven adventurers were rare. Most older dwarves preferred staying in their own underground communities getting drunk and crafting constantly. Some mined on the side, but it was mostly a hobby for those. The true way dwarves gathered materials was through artifacts.
Tools that would strip metal from the earth without having to raise an arm. Long drills that dug through the earth creating conveyor belts behind them out of the earth they passed through sifting through the ground and sending back “good” materials.
Small golems of staggering runework whose sole purpose was to head out across the land or down into caves and gather vast swaths of mana-rich materials in their huge spacial storages.
So Innearth’s initial idea from the dictionary of a bunch of pickaxe wielding midgets was slightly removed from reality…humans were much more likely to use pickaxes and the stereotype was unfounded.
That being said. Dwarves didn’t care. From what he could tell if he depicted dwarves as pickaxe wielding sapients they wouldn’t be offended, and the worst case would be not attracting any.
The crystal dwarf had made the whole loop on one side of the rail and was switching over to infuse the opposite side.
...I'm still not sure what they are doing...I might as well start on the minecart for now.
Quickly designing a box with 4 wheels that fit perfectly into the groove Innearth transferred the important connections and circuit over from the previous mother to the new.
While I'm working on this I might as well see if I can fix the connection somewhat.
Trying once again to solve his ongoing problem Innearth fiddled and cursed and thought and was fully stumped.
Currently, there was a pair of mental cubes between balls and mother. They were designed mostly as a one-way connection that existed to help the mother control its unruly “children”.
If a crazy ball died Innearth could pull the block out and remake it into a new ball but that was slightly unwieldy…it took much more effort and attention, then printing a new ball and was…an annoying process.
I hate having to make weak monsters all the time. Sure I can spawn them with the system now bit I still have to think about spawning them and pay the mana cost.
Trying to think of a better way of dealing with the connection and failing at attaching a new connection once it was made Innearth caved. Innearth finally caved and asked Bose for help.
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Innearth: Hey, you're a mental mana dungeon right? Want to help me out with this monster setup?
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Fated Eternal Design: !!! Of course my apprentice! I've been waiting for you to ask me for assistance for ages!
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Sharing his schematic and explaining the problem Innearth asked for help with something that wasn't urgent...for probably the first time in his life.
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Fated Eternal Design: Hey okay, so a few things do you want me to help slightly or do you want to work on this whole monster pair together? I didn't realize you used air in any of your monsters and that earth and air made such an excitable little ball when combined.
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Innearth: if you want to help fully, you can, but I feel like I need to give something in return.
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Fated Eternal Design: Nonsense! It's my job to help my apprentice out!
Fated Eternal Design: So, here's how I see it. You need an intermediary. Instead of making a mental mana pair you should make a hub of sorts. Make two pairs and join them together in the middle. The alternative method would be setting up your mother to not have the connection embedded in it. Just make a tube that can hold a cube and swap it out when a ball dies. I don't recommend that however, building the connection directly into the monster is part of what’s letting it have as strong of a connection and control as it currently has.
Fated Eternal Design: My “Urn network” has dozens of nodes that bounce signals around its a much cleaner solution.
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Innearth: well now hearing you say that I feel pretty dumb. I should have been able to figure that out.
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Fated Eternal Design: No problem! I think you told me about these before and I mentioned having a stronger connection between them so the mother could heal the balls back? I take that back now. Definitely set up a hub!
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Innearth: Great. I think my other goal is to figure out how to make it, so I don't have to manually make all the crazy balls every time they die. Any thoughts?
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Fated Eternal Design: I...hmmm...I'm not sure if that's possible but if anything were to work you would probably have to make a monster with a tier 4 core or higher. That sounds like a life problem. You could ask Amy? I haven’t heard of her finding out anything in that direction though.
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Innearth: yeah, I checked there's nothing on the market for that but I can feel it's possible somehow...I'll work on it.
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Fated Eternal Design: good luck!
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Setting up a closed off room in his 2nd floor Innearth thought about what he wanted from the design. Ideally, it would be the least amount of work for him as possible going forward.
First, he made a dozen thin strips of mental mana material...they didn't have a goal other than as an easy connection point and Innearth made sure to think of connections while setting them up.
Next he lined up 10 paired cubes on one side and placed them inside his minecart. Switching to the other side he lay another 10 cubes and paired them with 10 Earthen balls filled with Air for the crazy balls. The cart was given life first and then the balls one by one by one were added.
As more connections were made the balls started to shake slightly. Their mother’s hold over them getting weaker and weaker as each new one was added. By the 9th, the balls were jumping up and down and by the 10th, a ball actually jumped away. Bouncing down the hall as the minecart mother decided it was unable to handle that many.
Rolling forwards slightly the minecart moved around and around the track – seeming content with its slightly trapped existence.
Walking out of a side tunnel just in time to see the minecart fly past the dwarf froze then looked…annoyed?
What? Didn't you want me to use the tracks like this?
Wandering over to the first smaller strip the Dwarven monster placed a pair of heavily scratched up wheels that instantly locked into place. Connecting them with a bridge of force he laid a platform on top – a large rectangular plate that sat perfectly balanced on only two wheels.
Stepping onto his contraption and wheeling back and forth just by leaning forwards and back and Innearth got it. He got the original goal even if he liked what he had done with it instead.
Don't worry! That's great too! Is it a shortcut for adventurers? Or something for monsters to ride?
Seeming frustrated by its lack of communication the dwarf paced before Innearth realized what to do.
Setting up a slime mental connection – copying his scout’s debriefing station to facilitate a mostly two-way communication with his monster.
“What is my purpose?”
...Well that's an existential question Innearth had not been expecting to hear from his monsters.
“My being feels...open and large but you haven't designed me for combat and I feel no desire to fight. Look. This finger cannot be used to attack it'd too fragile to whip about I feel...I feel lost. I have a purpose but I don't know what it is.”
You...uh. You are supposed to help me attract any adventurers that will inevitably arrive. Make sure they are excited when they see my first few floors and tell more adventurers.
It's a really important job. I'm counting on you okay? Make some decorations? Some traps?
Seeming relieved the dwarf nodded.
“That is acceptable. Thank you for telling me my purpose. With this...with this, I can continue. Can...this small one ask for a favour?”
Sure. What is it?
“I require more materials if my job is to truly live up to the goal you have of me. There is plenty of silver and stone and even some great infused materials but...some things require more than just those. If not I can work with what I have been given! Don't worry.”
Okay yeah. Sure I can make a room for you.
Looking around Innearth dug a larger 6x7m room out of the wall and started filling with all the materials he could think of.
Piles of alternating metal with every flavour of mana he knew, then a line of crystals infused with singular elements.
Seeing those the dwarf grew very excited.
“Crystals are very good at conducting storing and altering mana, master! I can do a lot with these.”
No problem. I am curious about something however. I just made you...how do you know that about crystals?
“..You made me with the desire for me to create did you not? I just learned the purpose with which I was created! That is why I know how to properly use these materials.”
...To be honest, I made him with the purpose of making a tier 4 core and humanoid shape for ambiance...I only started thinking about him making stuff when I saw him already doing so.
...I guess intent works in weird ways? Ah well I guess it's fine.
Watching for a few minutes Innearth saw the dwarf stretch out wires and string together small crystal shards from a fire crystal.
Pushing mana down the line set off a stream of fire from every crystal like a line of stretched out candle flames.
Twisting the crystals while they still streamed out the dwarf aligned all the “Shards”, so their flames were facing the same direction. Next they froze each with force and slowly slowly embedded the whole line into the stone floor.
Pulling more wire out of a block of iron the dwarf twisted a complicated shape that was embedded into another stone and then marked by glowing rivets as the dwarf carved large scratches of mana. Waving his hand near them produced a slow pulse of mana and the dwarf frowned before finding a kinetic crystal and crushing it into dust. Brushing the carving pulled the kinetic crystals into the crevices where they fused and tinted the carving purple.
This time when movement was made in front of the plate, a solid stream of mana was produced and pulled through the line towards the candle-like flames.
Satisfied with his trap the dwarf moved to another, and another. Making his way through the pile and making a sizable number of small devices. Each combined in ways to give different results.
Bursts of a deadly miasma pooled out of death crystals and lingered in the air. Cloying clouds of confusing mental mana that streamed out in a mist then faded away to nothing.
Each time a certain critical mass of traps was made, the dwarf would pick them all up and wander out into the halls. Each time the dwarf had to enchant something, their mana would drop low and they would be forced to rest. As they continued on Innearth secretly tried to copy them by eating out shapes that matched or making a void “pencil” and drawing the shapes but nothing Innearth did, made any effect.
Okay, fine. Keep your secrets.
As Innearth was just starting to get annoyed by the whole process, he received a excited message from Abe.
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Abe: Hey! Bro! Guess what I just learned!
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Innearth: What?
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Abe: I was talking to Abyss and…we can make something together! Okay. Technically we can’t yet… but with him we can! This is how we can advance faster! Paired monster design does a lot!
Abe: You in? Abyss will make us a paired room and then sit back and we can bounce stuff around together. It will be great!
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Innearth: …sure. Why not. Could be fun – what do I have to do?
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