As the wave of power flowed over myconid after myconid, they changed. From a rabble of random mushroom types, they took on the myconid boss’ characteristics. Along with that, another shift happened, though this one was much less visible.
Before, each group had been its own troop. While they would share work and the floating three with the construction skills were accepted everywhere, each group was its own thing. Now they were all one troop under the boss despite living in separate villages.
Doyle could tell that this effect had a limited range. It wasn’t a small area, mind you. The floor could have been increased in size a decent bit before it would start to matter. However, it did hint towards what sort of monster a myconid troop lord is.
More interesting to Doyle was the fact that unlike the lesser troop guard myconid, a pattern for a myconid troop Lord didn’t show up as a new spawnable monster. However, he could also feel that given the right situation, it wouldn’t take any effort to upgrade a regular myconid into one.
And for once, turning to Ally didn’t instantly garner an answer. She checked a few things, but none of them really fit the situation. As far as all the tutorial text was concerned, when a monster evolves into a new form, that form is counted as a new monster pattern.
In the end, they both spent a decent chunk of time searching for an answer and this time it was Doyle to find it. The reason a troop lord doesn’t end up as a new pattern is because, despite the overt body changes, they’re still just a myconid.
Rather, troop lord, despite the physical changes, is more like how Ace is the lord of Wolf’s Rest. Myconids are just somewhat unique in that actual physical changes happen to the local ruler. Though they aren’t the only creatures out there to have changes like that. There were even a few pre-system animals on Doyle’s planet that did something similar.
The biggest thing is that the system and Doyle’s Creation skill sped up the process. No need to wait for the boss to naturally grow into a lord when you have magic. The only question left was why it was offered as one of the three choices alongside the troop guard, which very much would have been a separate pattern. Even the fungal lord option would have ended up being a pattern as it connects to all fungus based creatures instead of just the natural order myconids work within.
Also, the golden red diadem isn’t something a normal troop lord would receive. Though Ally guessed it was to make up for the change not fully being an evolution. Also, while a troop lord would be able to command other myconids around them, they wouldn’t cause a complete shift in coloring.
Ally just shrugged and put it down as system shenanigans. Doyle, on the other hand, tried to look into it deeper, but in the end could only put it down. Though he did feel that the circlet was special in some way.
Not quite an independent item, but also not one with the boss. There was a feeling like it was meant to be loot and not just any loot. So more system shenanigans.
Doyle was frustrated with running into a roadblock for the second time and so let the boss acclimatize itself with the floor as he turns to the sixth floor. With how much time had passed and the various changes, there was now always a team farming the floor. Most don’t even bother clearing the floor before retreating with their spoils.
Not the worst plan as the monster encounters are a bit spread out at times. Better to just grab a backpack full of steak and leave rather than waste time trying to gather every cow and goat. Though likely the fact that there were goats mixed in, also didn’t help. Beef was on the menu and so many people who were happily eating goat not that long ago now were turning their noses up at it.
The core members of the town, on the other hand, would fully clear the floor multiple times throughout the day. Not only that, but after spending a short amount of time watching, just a few days, Doyle noticed that they had a nice system going. The guards would keep track of how long the teams were taking, how much they brought out, and how tired the team was.
Once things lined up or someone died, they would send their team through. This was all to time the best drops. They knew that dungeons got power from effort and that they would drop more after collecting enough power. So from there, it was a simple matter for the more mathematically gifted to figure out the best time to clear.
Though it isn’t like they were crazy about goat meat, either. It was good. In fact, there had been an old guy come into town who had grown up in another country where goats were a common dish. Suffice to say, he knew the best way to cook and season the stuff. The guy’s only disappointment was that he could manage to get a goat’s body to do a traditional full goat roast.
This just meant that unlike most of the second ring folks, the people in the inner ring simply started having it less instead of completely stopping. So, what did they do with all that meat? Sure, some of it would sell, but most of the out of towners were more than happy to farm meat like crazy so most of the time the merchants didn’t need any extra meat.
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Not that they would have sold most of the meat they get from clearing the floor even if it was an option. No, they were stockpiling the stuff by turning it into jerky. Not only did this mean it took up a lot less space, but combined with some rough prototypes trying to copy the preservation boxes Doyle had as loot meant it could last a long time.
Sure, their preservation enchantment was rough and wouldn’t last a month. By then though, they could enchant it again and maybe in that time they will have improved. Most important though, was why the enchantment lasted such a short amount of time, or rather, why it lasted so long.
They had tried to alter the enchantment to fit on large wooden chests that were big enough you could fit three or four people in them. On top of that, while enchanting an item with preservation doesn’t technically need a masterwork item, it inherently puts a time limit on the item’s existence.
Without a master’s skilled touch, the power inside of an item cannot handle the power being injected by an enchantment. Wood at least comes from a living organism and so isn’t as easily broken down. If they instead tried to enchant a metal box, it would begin crumbling within a day and that is with something weak like the preservation enchantment. A more powerful enchantment like one meant to wreath a blade in flames would cause a blade to begin crumbling away even before the enchantment was finished.
Anyway, even if the wooden chests were temporary, the wood was all sourced from the dungeon so it was free practice instead of a waste of resources. A good thing too, since they were still a long way from making actual masterworks. It was hard for the townspeople to tell, but Doyle could somewhat feel the internal power structure of items.
Now, he wasn’t some kind of electron microscope or anything. Rather, it was like being able to run your hand over a piece of wood. You might not even be able to see it, but if the piece of wood is rough, you can tell. Though a small number of the chests certainly felt “smoother” than the others and it wasn’t hard to tell why. Those chests had pieces of ivory inlaid and featured decorative carvings wherever the enchantment didn’t need to go.
Maybe for some this wouldn’t be enough to identify the crafter, but Doyle knew that only Jimmy had an actual bone carving skill. Though going by how “smooth” the transition between wood and bone was, it certainly seems like his dream of eventually merging his carpentry and bone carving skill into one isn’t an impossible dream. Especially since that doesn’t require masterwork levels of skill and instead just needs the right intent and skills close enough together in level.
Of course the path point situation is a little messy, but Doyle just ignored that since none of his skills were of the sort that he could combine. Well, maybe Psychology and Village Planner could, but it wasn’t something he was working towards. Besides, Doyle knew himself pretty well and part of that was realizing that Psychology by itself was worth a lot more to him than combined with anything else that would constrain it.
Now satisfied with what he has seen, Doyle turns back to his second boss. To his surprise though, the tenth floor had advanced a good bit of time once again. Though Doyle was able to figure out the cause after just a little bit of thought. The fifth floor doesn’t advance at a rapid pace because the boss there needs some outside conversation to stay mentally healthy. On the other hand, the myconid boss, at least at this point, isn’t restrained by those chains.
Despite being a part of a larger group, few if any other myconids in the boss’ troops from his two previous lives contained any other sapient myconids. In fact, while Doyle didn’t get something like a write up of those lives, he had definitely gotten the feeling that whenever a new sapient myconid appeared, it would be pushed towards a troop without one yet. So the tenth floor boss was not only used to loneliness, but had been warped a little to crave it and in turn, the deep instincts of Doyle that controls speeding up time saw no reason not to just go full speed ahead on the boss.
So since he had noticed this and now having questions about the boss in general, Doyle pulls up its status screen.
{Name: [Unnamed] Troop Lord
Race: Myconid
Dungeon Bound: Doyle Huxley
Paths: Myconid Lord 20/20
Level: 23
S[122] A[110] C[164] I[124] W[111] P[63] D[79] K[60] L[77]
Skills [4/4 Monster]: Spore Talk lv93, Teamwork lv68, Summon Paralysis Spore lv42, Leadership lv37}
The first thing that attracts Doyle’s attention is the sheer weight of the lord’s stats. Every single one of them is impressive. In particular, Constitution stood out, being over double the lowest stat despite that being a decent 60 points. Though after being distracted by how strong the boss was, something else stood out and it was weird.
The skills almost seemed random in their levels! Oh, and there was a path despite Doyle not being alerted to it and the race/name thing, but the skill levels really mattered. The oddest part of them being that Teamwork and Summon Paralysis Spore both had the same level in the pattern and yet Teamwork was over 20 levels above the other.
Of course, the answer was really boring for Doyle. The level of a skill in a monster’s pattern was a modifier, but only one of the modifiers. In this instance, while Ally wasn’t certain of all the modifiers at play, it was clear that being a Troop Lord favored lordly skills on the monster. So Teamwork was a much higher level than the Summon Spore skill because a lord is more aligned with the first skill than the second.
After he got her answer about that, Doyle brought up the other two things he had noticed to Ally. Though the name and race thing didn’t really need an explanation and rather he was just showing her that one. They both already knew troop lord was a modifier instead of a proper evolution and the path question was simple enough as well. It all boiled down to the fact that with the kobold boss, the path was new to this dimension’s system. On the other hand, the Myconid Lord path likely came default with the system just because it was such an obvious path for myconids to take.