Doyle watches as the group leaves the floor and can’t help but laugh. ‘I didn’t intend for the myconids to do that.’
Ally shrugs, ‘It is kind of their main defense when in large groups. Though not really something mentioned. In the normal swing of things, myconids are one of the more peaceful monsters, even when not led by a sapient. A normal myconid colony will keep the spore density well below the dangerous level and since you don’t have normal people exploring their territories, the visitor’s constitution will take care of the rest.
‘That doesn’t even get into later changes, which will happen to people as their stats optimize their bodies. Some people develop the ability to breathe through their skin and other crazy things. At that point, it doesn’t matter how many spores are in the air unless they have enough magic to get through.
‘Even mages who ignore their bodies will generally have some form of magic shield up non-stop at that point. Really, you managed to hit a sweet spot here. Ten or twenty floors deeper, and the only danger the spores would present would come from their poisons. Something the town is more than ready to handle with potions.’
Doyle sighs, ‘So I’ve got a random gear check on my seventh floor.’
Ally laughs, ‘You could look at it like that. Though honestly, a simple damp cloth over their mouths would likely do the job. It’s like smoke, you just need something to catch the stuff before it gets in you. Plus, even at their current levels their constitution should be getting up to the point that stuff like smoke inhalation isn’t going to cause permanent damage.’
Doyle groans, ‘That’s going to bring back smoking, isn’t it? I guess at least as a dungeon I won’t have to smell it.’
Ally snorts, ‘Be honest with yourself, from what I’ve seen of your world’s pre-system media, smoking didn’t really go anywhere. Even the people who knew with 100% certainty that smoking kills you would still do it.’
Doyle sighs again, ‘Fair enough. Anyway, I’m going to go back to working on the sphere. I can feel that the outlines are almost done.’
Ally tilts her head to the side, ‘Aren’t you worried about them noticing the changes?’
Doyle tilts his core back, ‘They didn’t really pay attention to the design. I’m sure that once I start putting actual pictures and such, it will become obvious. For now, though, I want to see what happens. This is the biggest work I’ve done so far and I’ve put so much into it.’
Ally shakes her head, ‘I’m clueless myself. At this point, I half expect whatever you get to be a major disappointment.’
Doyle sighs and turns his attention to carving. Throughout his time working on the seventh floor’s stone sphere, he had felt many things and despite trying to keep the same style of border; the lines flowed with emotion. Besides all that, Doyle and Ally had missed one quirk. Without paying attention to it, Doyle’s territory had started to mix with the conceptual reinforcement of the design and extended the carvings into smaller and smaller details.
Like a fractal, what had been a decent design had grown in complexity through repetition. Still, Doyle had a way to go before the carving was finished, so the potential stayed dormant. Through the next day and the day after, he continued to carve as Jim’s group was taking time to recover.
During that time, Ace came in with a somewhat new team. After all, he had to sub out Sammy and Susan. Still, that didn’t distract Doyle as they only beat the boss and left. In fact, a few more days passed as the rest of town’s core filtered through and beat the boss one after another.
They weren’t 100% successful. Some groups required multiple attempts, but it was clear that Ace had ramped up their training as not a single other team had done more than take out a couple patrols. A thing that was getting harder and harder as the kobolds finally were getting a surplus of power. While the earlier floors did have a few kobold traps here and there, the boss floor was finally coming into its own with them, especially since the kobolds had the ability to dig out the terrain and shape it to better fit their traps.
One of the groups that came by way of the place up-river even managed to lose a person to a pit trap. Such a classic example of dungeon architecture and it took a group of kobolds pooling their trap resources before Doyle’s dungeon finally had one. Of course, since it was on the boss floor the location had a nasty habit of changing locations whenever the floor got refreshed so it was sure to be a bane for the unprepared.
Two full weeks later, Jim’s group finally re-enters the dungeon intending to beat the seventh floor. Sure, they had been back a few times, but those were more to test some tactics and get their exercise in. Now, though, they had a plan. Though it still took them a day to properly get through the sixth floor, something that tickled Doyle pink as it meant that floor was going to be a stumbling block to any group trying to race through his dungeon with harmful intent, at least until the next boss.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
Even better, Jim’s group managed to stumble into one of the elder assassin vines on the seventh floor. They had already fought the lesser shadow wolves, finding them quite early in the floor and so a bit less wary than they should have been. Then, out of nowhere, a couple of long vines dropped in from above and grabbed Jay.
This caused a real shock for the group as the elder had been in a second-floor room back from the window. Much too far away for a regular assassin vine to reach. It took more than a moment for them to find it with only the fact that Jay had protected his neck with his poleaxe allowing him to yell, preventing a disaster.
Though even once they found it, the fight was a lot tougher than they expected. Even the normal length vines had an unnatural toughness to them and Jay was the group’s heavy hitter. Sammy did her best, but the vines really called for a two-handed weapon that could put a person’s full strength to work. Still, the group won out in the end and received some elder berries. Not literal elderberries of course, rather, just the normal assassin vine berries except with more oomph to them.
Then Jim’s party was through the stuff they had already fought before and once again faced the myconid menace. To Doyle’s shock, they hadn’t figured out the simple solution Ally had suggested. Sure, a damp cloth wasn’t perfect, but with things like this you need to think in layers of protection instead of just stopping the threat all at once.
Still, they did manage to figure out some tricks of their own. Both Doctor and Zach had picked up a mage shield, though Doyle had expected that as the other mages that had been beating the boss started using it. Besides that, the martial party members weren’t left out in the cold either.
They had figured out a couple of tricks. For those with Qi, it was a simple matter of charging the body’s natural energy field so it repelled the spores. Jim, on the other hand chose the hard way. He didn’t stop the spores from getting into his lungs, no, instead he figured out a way to deal with them once there. A bit nasty, mind you, but being able to manipulate one’s own lungs so that you can cough up any gunk that got in there would likely be a useful skill, especially if it can extend to other things.
Thus prepared, Zach and Doctor weren’t forced to spend all their mana on spore protection and the fight looked a lot more favorable. Though it definitely helped that they were a bit more thorough in killing the myconids they came across on the way. So much so that there were only a couple sprout swarms left and only five lesser myconids. The guards, on the other hand, still managed to show up in full force.
Not on purpose, Jim’s group just managed to once again thread the needle when it came to avoiding stuff. Though at this point Doyle was beginning to get suspicious of this. Once or twice was normal enough. The fact Jim kept doing so pointed to other things. If it wasn’t for the fact that he genuinely didn’t seem to be trying to do so was the only thing preventing Doyle from being certain.
Doyle can only sigh and sit back to watch the fight. A fight that turns into something of a disappointment. The spore cloud really was a gear check as once that problem was taken care of things went a lot smoother for Jim’s team.
The three lesser myconid troop guards did a fine job of guarding the lesser myconids, sure, but there was only so much they could do. Zach’s ability to summon up wooden structures had been greatly improved, and so their attempts at grappling and stomping were all curtailed.
For both sides, the fight was a bit of an anti-climax. Though Jim cut through to the heart of the matter. “Yes, it was easy, but that is because we weren’t stupid. You want an exciting fight, do it on your own time when your life isn’t in my hands.”
Then he had them set up camp. Sure, it wasn’t all that long past midday, but he wasn’t about to go to a new floor without everyone being prepared for it. For Doyle, though, this wait was nerve-wracking.
You wouldn’t think it would be all that much, except for the fact that this would be the first time in a long while a group had made it to his last floor. By this point, he had mostly accepted Ally’s assurance that basically no one on the planet could currently crack his core. That didn’t mean he wasn’t worried about what else they might be able to pull. A worry so deep that he could only assume it was one of a dungeon core’s central instincts.
The most annoying part for him was that he could do what he normally does to relax. They were, after all, camping out on the seventh floor. Kind of hard to lose yourself in carving when your current main project is unavailable. So instead he turns to Ally and asks her a question, ‘How are your skills doing?’
You could practically hear the sounds of screeching brakes as whatever she had been thinking about grinds to a halt. She knew that up until recently her skill growth had been basically non-existent. It was only after Doyle had blown up at her that she noticed.
Sure, she had a decent enough excuse for it. Up until now, she had always been forced to train her skills so once that force was gone, she didn’t even realize she stopped training. That, however, was still just an excuse. Like the college student living on their own for the first time and realizing they could eat ice cream whenever they want, she had lost control of herself.
While Ally wouldn’t classify her mother as having been too controlling, being in a fae court had its own restrictions. So there she was with a metaphorical stomach and a promise not to overindulge again. Yet had she really done much to fix the problem, or was her shelf now just full of instant ramen?
She had been avoiding her status panel, so didn’t know the answer. Still, she couldn’t avoid it for the rest of her life and with eyes closed, popped it open and shared it with Doyle.