They’d survived. Evelyn felt relief fill her as the [ranger] started making his way out. Turning to her similarly relieved colleague her resolve hardened, it was time for some answers.
----------------------------------------
“So, you’re from another world. The gods found you drifting in the space between worlds after what was probably a summoning gone wrong and made you into a [guide] when I formed the dungeon, taking some of your memories and emotions in the process. Is that correct?”
Even as Evelyn spoke she conceded it sounded ridiculous, yet as she looked across at Ivy she didn’t sense any deception. Gods above! There were certainly more reasonable deceptions if she’d been so inclined and it all made a strange sort of sense. How else would someone not understand how drastically levels changed things, or know elves from half-elves and that the former would hardly leave their corner of the city, much less scout a dungeon. As for the gods? Well, The Warrior enjoyed the sort of conflict a dungeon would bring. The Lover would want a person running one to have social contact, so making a human [guide] made an amount of sense. And of course The Seeker would want dungeons to have access to things from other realms.
“Yeah, pretty much,” Ivy replied with a bashful look, as Evelyn's mind continued a mile a minute.
“Well, it's certainly irregular, but that rather describes this whole situation. I’m not sure what to make of this so called ‘angel’, supervisor person you mentioned though. I’ve never heard of anything quite like that.” Some sort of ascended being who claimed to speak for the gods was odd to say the least. Add to it that some of Ivy’s emotions and memories were taken, and Evelyn was distinctly suspicious.
“It was a fairly common idea where I’m from actually; I played one in a nativity when I was young.” It was good to see Ivy looking a little more comfortable again, even if Evelyn did have to raise an eyebrow at that last comment. “We should really get back to beefing up the defences though. I assume that [ranger] is planning to bring back friends.”
“Indeed.” Ivy had made this argument earlier when Evelyn first asked about her background, but conceded quickly in the face of Evelyn’s determination. She did however, have a point. “Shall we start by looking at what was gained from that delve?”
“Absolutely!” Ivy practically bounced with excitement, “We should have picked up a few good things. By the way did you add anything to the second floor while our visitors were here?”
“No, I got a rat schematic from a random roll and I picked the [untiring legions] boon before the [ranger] decided to pick up the pace. I’d thought it might catch him off guard.” Evelyn shrugged. With a casual flick of her wrist, she brought up the screen that appeared during their earlier discussion as soon as the [ranger] exited.
Congratulations, you have successfully repelled 1 delver and killed 1 delver.
You have obtained the following:
Bower Boar creature schematic
Bower Boar Skeleton, Fertile Soil, Boar Vines schematics
Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.
Torch schematic
Common Beeswax, Spruce, Jute schematics
2387 Mana
Life affinity unlocked for appropriate creations.
[Charge] skill unlocked
[Momentum] skill unlocked
[Flourishing grasp] skill unlocked (Life affinity required for use)
[Identify] 60% progress
[Relay] 12% progress
[Danger sense] 10% progress
[Wind’s Edge - Knives] 3% progress
“It would seem that boar monster was life aligned…” Evelyn mused.
“Uh yeah, that’s why you can make things life affinity now instead of just undeath,” Ivy replied distractedly as she tapped at the air. “Oh, that’s really cool. The boar and the vines seem to have a symbiotic relationship, it provides the life affinity and location for the vines to grow, and the vines help protect the boar.”
“That sounds vaguely familiar. I assume I can give creatures the skills that were unlocked?”
“Yes, only those fully unlocked and compatible with the creature. Monsters in the dungeon don’t have skills unless you give it to them, and the levels work like the creature levels where it starts at the floor level but can be upgraded at additional cost, but only up the level of the creature for some reason.”
“That’s how it works for people levelling up skills too, it can’t be higher than the level of the class which gave it to you.” Evelyn peered at her mana and after some rough math realised about an hour had already passed since the [ranger] left. “Before we get too distracted with all these new options, we need to update our defences before the next delve.”
“You’re right. As much I’d like to work out all the best, most efficient options, it’s more important to get some good things down than determine the optimal solutions but not have the time to use them. So, I think we have 3 main options:” Ivy started counting on her fingers, “Strengthen the first floor, add rooms to the second, or finally, try to build a boss.”
“While a boss has a certain appeal, that’s likely to be fairly involved and I’d want to use some skills and maybe a new creature template. Let’s proceed through the first floor rooms and see about fixing issues there then see where we stand. It would irk me to leave obvious flaws in something I’ve worked on if we don’t have to.”
“Good idea, it should be quick and might help us avoid mistakes on the second floor.” Ivy said with a clap, clearly eager to get started.
“The low ceiling of the corridor seemed to put the [ranger] on guard and the first room proved it was relatively dangerous. Particularly given how little mana it required.”
“One thing that occurred to me is that we might want a monster in there to deal with creatures that wander in but are too light to trigger the pitfall. Also falling stalactites are kind of a classic and would keep people looking up but I have no idea how to trigger that…” Ivy mused.
“I might have a few ideas,” Evelyn responded with a smile. The stalactite trigger might be a little unreliable but testing would show if it was worthwhile. “An enemy there would also be most likely to benefit from [untiring legions]. Now that they’ve seen our hand there’s no need to hide the undead from casual probing.”
“Cool, I messed up in the second room. I never imagined that guy would be able to walk on top of them!” Ivy alternated between abashed and irate. “I think we should trap some of them rather than just thin the numbers.”
“It occurred to me we should also add something to discourage movement at the edges since the middle of the bars is most likely to break if the weight is too great. The half height walls in the third room were incredibly affordable…”
“The third room was the one that actually managed to injure him and got us the torch. It was really effective, although was it just me, or did the skeletons seem to struggle a little lifting the bricks?”
Evelyn waved the comment off, “Another level’s worth of stats should fix that. The more pressing issue is that while he suffered injury there, none of it was truly hindering. He was quite high level but we need something more substantial.”
Ivy looked thoughtful, clearly considering the problem until her eyes went wide and a broad smile crossed her face, “I’ve got it! How didn’t I think of this earlier? Indie is a classic! We’ll have to make it a bit smaller, but it can totally work…”
Bemused, Evelyn responded, “Well I’ll follow your lead with that then. I may add the rat somewhere to provide a disposable distraction.”
Mana: 5648/20,000
Mana Regen: 20/hour