[Loot Screen]
[Creature]
[Drop]
Monster
Item 1
50%
Item 2
50%
The Core was happy with its efforts at some level. The Screen was working as it was meant to, the sections weren’t flowing inside the other and the percentage-based drop-chances weren’t adding up to something other than a clean hundred.
A lot of time had been spent trying to make the system bend to the Entity’s will, though most of that had also been attempts to make sure it did such a thing the right way. The screen would bend and break as much as the Core wanted it to. It just didn’t do it the right way. And that was the annoying part that had caused all those hours of work to nearly go unnoticed.
But, finally, the end product had been revealed. It was the [Loot Screen]. Two main sections filled the space, the one on the left showing off which creature was being considered and the one on the right showing off which items could be dropped along with what per cent chance there was of it happening.
And that wasn’t all. Though time had been taken out of the actual creation process, the Queen had finally shown off the process of which the [System Screen] could be attached to the creatures themselves. It required an additional piece of manipulation with the blue screens yet it allowed some form of it to understand what the Core wanted to happen. Whenever they killed one of the [Giant-Ants], any could spawn in at will. Anything that could be created from the nearby Mana, at the very least.
The [Loot Screen] was able to absorb the energy from around the creature. Yes, there was no mistaking that. Such an idea had fueled the Core to try and make an endless replicator where one creature would spawn two more of its kind. It… only worked for a round or two until the spawning simply didn’t work anymore, the Mana in the air not holding up to the task. While the Core would have loved the idea of never having to spawn in anything by itself ever again, it seemed the natural Mana-Density was against it once again. If there wasn’t enough energy for the system to use, no spawns would appear.
It was a brutal mechanism yet it worked flawlessly. When the Core finally began to match it up with the Dungeon’s current inhabitants, however, it started to become slightly hard to comprehend quickly.
[Loot Screen]
[Creature]
[Drop]
Blood-Moss
Moss
75%
Bronze Coin
25%
Giant-Ant
Silver Coin
1%
Bronze Coin
39%
Air
60%
Infested Giant-Ant
Silver Coin
3%
Bronze Coin
42%
Air
55%
Undead Giant-Ant
Silver Coin
3%
Bronze Coin
42%
Air
53%
Exoskeleton
2%
Flinging Giant-Ant
Silver Coin
4%
Bronze Coin
41%
Air
55%
Acidic Giant-Ant
Silver Coin
4%
Bronze Coin
41%
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Air
55%
Entangling Oak Tree
Silver Coin[5]
15%
Bronze Coin[20]
30%
Gold Coin
1%
Air
54%
Flowering Oak Tree
Bronze Coin
1%
Air
99%
Lacus Otter
Bronze Coin[5]
75%
Air
25%
Queen
Gold Coin
45%
Silver Coin[20]
55%
The list was certainly longer than any other screen the Core had ever seen. It was more than likely due to the sheer amount of information on it. After all, every single creature that the Core needed to think about had been added to it to make sure that the [Loot] would be dropped properly. And… now it could.
Slicing off the head of an [Giant-Ant] as a final test, the Core was happy to see a small [Silver Coin] drop to the ground, having been spawned in just a meter above the corpse. It made a small clink as it hit the ground. The Entity was sure the sound alone would help more than a few lose their lives.
‘Everything seems to be in order,’ the Queen finally stated, having looked upon the process carefully. ‘Make sure the Mana in the air remains at a high density and try to add in the [Drops] discreetly. Those further out shouldn’t notice the addition too quickly if you do it right.’
With those parting instructions, the ant left the Core to its works yet again. It wasn’t the first time such a thing had been done to the Entity so it wasn’t too surprising. With no real strain on its mental capacity, it merely returned to doing its observations, gathering its thoughts systematically.
Looking back to the group of intruders at the entrance of the Dungen, the Core skimmed the people there. There were a lot of common faces, that being those of the miners from before. It seemed there weren’t too many different ones to choose from outside of the cave, making many of them return two days in a row.
It was different for the guards. All those seen on the perimeter the day before had retreated into the circle and those previously in the circle had left completely. A new set of people had been added to the roster to keep up the higher number of people yet there were too many new ones for the Core to grasp where to attack. It hadn’t killed a single person that day and was hoping to change that fact.
Not that it could just overwhelm them and call it a day. No, that had been strictly forbidden by the Queen at the very start. If a horde of monsters were to suddenly attack one person only, it would seem as if the creatures were picking them off one by one instead of just being dumb animals. That would lead to fear which would lead to the humanoids deciding that the Dungeon was better left dead than alive.
So instead, it would have to make the death seem like a dumb accident on the Guard’s part. What dumber a death could there be than one where they died to a single ant? It would certainly be understandable that one could slip through to them without being noticed if somebody were to try and shoot projectiles from the roof down on the miners…
“Cover your heads!” one of the archers in the group shouted as they prepared an arrow to shoot through the skull of the flinging ant on the ceiling. It was hit without effort and its body was dropped out of the hole in the ceiling, landing just ahead of where the man with the bow had previously stood. Most of the guards sighed in relief at that, not looking at the ceiling for another.
And a certain clink of a coin hitting the floor very much distracted the people from actually fulfilling their duties. The archer was forced to move the Giant ant-carcass to the side yet the result was a small silver coin. A real silver coin not made of alloys or anything other that could cheat the system. There was a moment where the man perhaps thought about hiding it away yet the enclosing footsteps of a superior made that dream end.
“What did you find, officer?” a larger Guard, likely the leader, questioned. The archer in question seemed like he was about to answer just that when a piece of bone was flung at his neck and his head was nearly separated from the rest of his body. It dropped to the floor without question, allowing blood to run into it without issue. The Core slurped it up without hesitation, happy to get a new source of entertainment.
The larger guard had a rock in their hand within the second the archer had fallen, throwing it at the ceiling just before the small hole closed itself. The skull of the ant was destroyed with ease, the power of the throw more serious than anything else seen before. There was more than a small level of happiness about that guard not trying to fight the Queen. The Core wasn’t earnestly sure who would win it.
The other archer in the group was made to watch the ceiling and leave the looting of the bodies to another person. Because that was one thing the people had just noticed. Looting. As in, there was something to gain from inspecting the corpses. Coins started to be found in the next couple of waves, a small pile of [Bronze Coins] being gathered. Most of the coins announced their arrival by the small sound of them hitting the floor, the volume growing each time a few creatures were killed at the same time.
It had the intended effect of making the guards more reckless in their endeavours. They swung their weapons heavier, trying to gain more coins from their kills. The Core even manually gave it out at points, not wanting to disappoint them. There were even moments where it had to wonder if the guards would make a run for it and try to get deeper inside yet such things were never allowed to happen. The larger man from before did nothing but shout and all were back in their positions with a focused gaze.
The Entity needed that large man dead at some point in the future. Killing them now would cause issues yet having them fall into a spike in a week or two wouldn’t hurt anybody except them. If anything, leaving a pile of coins right next to the body would be perfect for distracting the others from the tragedy. There was more than a little greed in their movements and the Core was sure it could exploit that to the fullest in due time.
For now, it simply had to courteously refill the area with Mana, the larger amounts of [Bronze Coins] being made causing the density to fall considerably. There was something about that which the Core knew it needed to change soon. It had created a drop rate where it would mostly give out nothing but air yet those rare times when it didn’t make it harder to work with.
There was always the point where it could readjust the numbers, at least. They weren’t set in stone or anything, the intruders never knowing them. Not that they ever would even, the Core doubting anybody would note down hundreds if not thousands of drops. Even then, the Entity knew it would foil such results by giving sudden, large drops of items along with it.
Because that was something that it wanted to do soon. [Item Drops]. The Core was still having trouble with such a thing since it required another list just for the various items that would be created at such an opportunity.
And then came the issue of the Core not having too many items it could work with. While there had been a few dead people in its Dungeon, most of the items had either been utter trash or required so much Mana to create that it would bankrupt the Core even trying. The axe the [Axwoman] had carried so long ago took more energy to create than the Queen required. It was mere steel yet the inscription on the side was filled with energy.
Wait… inscriptions on the side of a tool that required more energy than the tool itself? That wasn’t just random etchings. That was a [Rune]. When the Core got the chance and the energy, it knew it had to show that off to the Queen.
Before that, however, it truly did need to get item drops in working order. While armour, weapons, and tools were out of the question, it did have general materials it could give instead. Food, rope, and a few pieces of medical gear was in working order. While it perhaps wouldn’t be the most common [Drop] seen before, the Core was sure someone would find them useful. Maybe they would even be able to sell them off.
However, that would require a certain level of merchants to finally gather outside of the Dungeon. If the guards’ small-talk was to be believed in the mornings, they hadn’t gotten more than a few straggles visiting. There weren’t many who had reached the new settlement yet, though some were meant to be on the way.
The information itself was nearly ten hours old. Perhaps there had been some form of development in the meantime? The Core had no real ability to question the current group of guards so it did what it did best instead and focused a burst of Mana onto the area where it knew the guards’ outpost was meant to be located.
Gathering up the required Energy and will, it sent it outside the area of the Dungeon, letting it fly at high speeds until… it hit a wall, splattering the energy everywhere and leaving the Core without the faintest clue what just happened. A few meters before the river ended, a lot of meters before the guards’ outpost started, the Mana wasn’t able to get through. It couldn’t have been a creature getting in the way, the surface at which it stopped being much too curved and smooth. It had been a larger sphere of sorts. Something man-made.
Trying again a few times with the same results, the Core concluded something must have changed in recent hours. There was no way to know what though, any Mana from outside being stopped within mere moments. Even the sound meant to come from within was stopped, the Core not able to hear a single word. One would have to be inside to get the pleasure and there was no way it could do such a thing.
Yet, there was one who could. With the smaller tunnels made to be just beside the cave entrance, the Core measured the distances. While it would push what had been practised. There was a real chance it could work. Now it just had to bring out a certain Druid for work.