Cipiteca396

I originally meant for this to be the title of Chapter 2. I really managed to drag this story out, huh?

I left the unusually pensive Geni to her work. The Kindlesprite followed me without needing to be told, and we went back to my computer. This time, I looked through the dungeon layout threads, among other things. By now, enough people had uncovered their Gates that it was confirmed you could get an extra CP per hour by doing so. Additionally, having a place to start had completely changed the nature of the thread.

Before, they'd mostly been playing around with their tools, like a sandbox game. Now, there were heated arguments over the ideal types of defenses. Mazes, fortresses, someone even suggested an island surrounded by monster infested waters. No idea where they thought they could get that much water, but I applauded their imagination. Personally, I was more interested in a fortress type build. Mazes would be a great way to stall invaders, but I wanted them dead as quickly as possible. Though it feels kinda weird to put it like that...

People had already confirmed that modern weapons could be used, so I wanted to build around that as well. I vaguely knew there were special fortresses built with modern weaponry in mind, but I didn't bother looking into that knowledge yet. After all, the addition of magic would change things. Eventually, I wanted a sort of hybrid defense, with all of my creatures that cost CP using cannons or something from as far away as possible, and as many summoned creatures as possible stalling the enemy so they could be shot at leisure. No reason to give them a fighting chance.

That meant the Gate needed to have a lot of open space around it, so there wouldn't be anywhere the invaders could hide. Preferably, that open space needed to apply passive damage to the enemy and strengthen any summoned creatures that entered.

Then I needed a way to control the enemy's movement, if that was possible. If they directly targeted my Core and ignored everything else like a Tower Defense game, that might be ideal. Most likely though, they would just attack anything nearby. Or maybe a hybrid of the two.

With as much control over the terrain as I had, I could make a steep plain that forced the enemy to move uphill, then block them off with walls and pits. The question being how durable those walls needed to be. I could easily imagine stone walls being torn down in a moment by my Rockworms. If I got unlucky that could actually happen. So I needed some redundancy.

There was also that 'Elegy of the Pale Moon' thing. If it gave my creatures the extra boosts from Blessing of Night in addition to the buffs it mentioned, it was a must have. Meaning the room needed to be bigger than a football field. Well, that fit well enough with my plan so far.

Probably most important of all was a fallback option. I wasn't a perfectionist with most things, but when I played games I preferred a perfect score when it was possible. Even winning wasn't enough to offset deaths or lost objectives for me. Obviously that meant I didn't really enjoy multiplayer games... Even just designing a failsafe wounded my pride as a gamer, but this wasn't a game. I wanted to ensure that I could minimize the damage if something went wrong.

So, layered defenses. Probably separated, as well. I would try to split my creatures into teams and spread them across my defenses. If one of the teams was targeted, they could pull back to the next layer of defenses without leaving the others vulnerable. Ideally attacking one team would be just as difficult as attacking any other, and would always leave an opportunity for the others to attack.

I started drawing up a basic design on my computer, talking out my thoughts with the Kindlesprite. It didn't have to be good, since there might still be more things I could add. But having a starting point to build off of would make it easier for me. As opposed to just sitting around letting my thoughts run in circles like I had been.

I was making somewhat decent progress when I felt something in the dungeon. Like when the Gate was uncovered, but far more subtle. At first, I had no idea what had changed, but it became rather obvious as a swarm of Common Rockworms piled into the room. They flooded across the floor with all the delicacy of a rockslide, but twice as loud. Then they vanished through the door leading towards the Gate, leaving a shocked silence in their wake.

One Common Rockworm on its own was kind of cute, but that... I looked at the Interface, wondering if I could forcibly repress memories somehow. There was no response.

Well, whatever. I was almost done with my outline, so I would look into the Rockworms soon enough. It was good that they were beginning to repop at least. And it seemed like they were following the same orders I'd given the other two, based on their actions.

The initial defense was covered, with room for improvement. Next I needed a civilian area. The Kindlesprite room was a good example. Geni was surprisingly useful, so creating more Fairies was an option I was likely to take. Hopefully there were different types that could fill other roles, like tailors, armorers and... Actually, do I need to have cooks or anything like that?

When I asked her, the Kindlesprite said that she could survive with only mana, just like me. The Fairies also didn't need physical food, but they did require specific types of mana. Geni could survive with what was produced by my computer, apparently. Other Fairies might have more difficult requirements. And the Rockworms obviously only needed stone or ore. I wonder how much stone there is in this place? Can they actually run out?

Well, either way I needed a place for the Fairies to live as well. Housing for Fairies... What a strange development. And then, a place for them to work. The finer details would have to wait until I had an idea of what they would need and what they could do. But I already knew one thing. If it was possible, I should try to put all of it in one room and apply the 'Elegy' effect to that room. Having multiple rooms would be better, but it might be more effort than it was worth to get multiple rooms big enough to apply the effect. And those buffs were just too strong to ignore.

Because of the Primordial Clay, I should separate the Kindlesprites' room, and make it as small as possible as a 100m cube. The Fairy room would hopefully be the same, but... I wondered if I could make 'rooms' inside rooms. Buildings? If that was possible, I might actually be able to fit the Fairies and the Kindlesprites in the same Room, by creating walled off areas inside. It would have to be a priority to figure that out. Whether it was possible or not would completely change the design of the civilian area. Not so much for the Gate room, though.

Then was the Core Room, perhaps. The Kindlesprite didn't want to live here, so I should think of it as a place only for me. My bedroom, sure. But also a final defense. It would need some failsafe defenses in case everything else was broken through. Maybe a maze, even though I figured that wouldn't be a good idea before. That original message from Nyx said I would revive if killed. If there was a timer or something, then having a maze would give me time to uh... respawn. And then get back in the fight.

It felt rather... Unsatisfying. Just three or four rooms, maybe five if I really stretched it out. The 'Elegy' was strong, but it really messed with that traditional dungeon feel. No endless corridors with dozens of rooms. I could still do that, of course. The rooms would just be useless for fighting in. Maybe a storage room or two. Well, there was still plenty of stuff that needed testing before I really committed to this design.

I was interrupted in my musings by that feeling again. I looked towards the other room. Just as before, a swarm of Common Rockworms swept through the room and towards the Gate. But that was impossible. They were supposed to have a repop time of like, a day at the lowest. They literally just repopped an hour ago. What is happening here?

The Interface buzzed on my desk, making me jump fully out of my seat. If only there was a way to change that...

Cipiteca396

I feel like I missed something important. Oh well~.