Ace shakes his head, “If the spores aren’t magic, why don’t the effects just go away?”
Jeremy shrugs, “I just know how the poison works, not why it works. Kelly, do you have an idea on this?”
Kelly nods, “I actually do though in a roundabout way. My guess is that the skill used to create most of the spores is a summoning type as opposed to a creation skill. Many people seem to assume that summoning is a powered up version of creation. Mostly because the quantity you can summon far out classes what you can get with creation. For many skills this starts at a magnitude more. So where one person can create a pound of rock, they could instead summon ten pounds.”
“Most people know about the time limit on summoned objects so I shouldn’t have to go into why eating and drinking summoned food is a bad idea. For most, though, this isn’t even much of a tradeoff as they use the skills for combat. After all, who cares if a fireball’s fire would only last a few minutes at most if you can make it ten times bigger.”
“My research however has shown that creation and summoning spells are very much equal to one another. They just have different benefits and creation will only start to shine in the future. As it is there just aren’t enough people and items capable of countering and banishing. Though the real breakthrough for creation spells will be when anti-magic zones become easy enough to set up, that people start using them in war.”
“Summoned material disappears if countered, banished, or it enters an area that its magic can’t exist in. That last one doesn’t even have to be a true anti-magic zone. Instead, if someone saturated an area with enough fire attuned mana, then ice magic will treat it as an anti-magic zone. This means that while summoning spells are good for adventurers, creation magic is where strategic magic lives. From a simple spell that creates water to keep a person hydrated to creating defenses.”
“Honestly, what we need more of at the moment is creation magic. Look around us, we have stone walls only because we scored the land around us for the material. With Kellinger here being able to shape stone we don’t need whatever we use to be giant blocks. This means that all we need to do is have someone using magic to create rocks nonstop.”
Kellinger frowns, “I don’t mind shaping stone but how is being able to literally create stone sustainable?”
Kelly shrugs, “No clue. I’m sure someone knows, but the tutorial guides weren’t exactly scholars. They knew more than us just by having lived a long time with the System.”
Ace shakes his head, “Okay, sounds like trying to figure out anything more at this point would just be going in circles.”
Kelly interrupts him, “Wait a second, I didn’t get to explain why even after people leave the dungeon they would still suffer some of the effects of the poison.”
Ace raises an eyebrow at her. Kelly notices his displeasure at being interrupted but honestly doesn’t care all that much and continues. “See, it’s a really clever poison and this is connected to why the stuff hits you instantly instead of spreading through the body. Now for anyone that wants to put spells into little boxes, this will be annoying, but spells aren’t just one type. They might have a dominant type like summoning, but.”
Ace snaps his fingers, “We have more to get to. This is really interesting, but your info dump would be better done on paper so more people can benefit from it. Now what’s the tldr of it?”
Kelly snorts, “If I put a tldr in my paper no one would read the paper. Anyway, the spore skill has a minor amount of transmutation in it which alters free chemicals in the body into more of the poison. Not a lot, but enough to shock the body stiff all at once while the summoned stuff has a chance to infiltrate. When most of the poison vanishes that small amount remains and needs to be processed normally.”
Ace nods, “There we go. That’s what I needed to know! Now going by the fact we can dispel it, I will guess that means that you can resist this not only with poison resistance but magic resistance as well? Don’t answer, I can see it on your face. And yes, I know magic resistance is a lot rarer, even the bad version of it. I definitely don’t want any of us to get the complete magic resistance and start having buffs and healing fail on them.”
“Now you and the Barrai’s can take the spores we have and go figure out what we can do with it. If possible, I want an antidote and a resistance potion. It won’t last forever, but I want a monopoly on such things for our dungeon. Not only will it be good for our core group, but the money we can get from outsiders is important to grow our town as well.”
“Though that brings up a good question. The system recognized the two old towns. How do we get that here? I want system shops and services to be available before any outsiders come here. It would suck if someone in the know created a nearby town and stripped us of the ability to do the same somehow.”
Silence stretches out as none of the founders know the answer to this. They have some guesses, but it wasn’t exactly something they had asked their guides about. Finally Doctor shrugs and suggests, “Why don’t we ask the others?”
With no one having a better idea that is exactly what they did and not ten minutes later all the founders had gathered again. This time with the addition of Jimmy, the settlement’s only remaining carpenter. He hadn’t been the best but when told about what was to come with the wolves he had only scoffed, “Not like its a dragon”, and stayed behind to help build the walls.
Now he stands before the ten most powerful people in the area and potentially the world, depending on how things panned out elsewhere. The only thing keeping him steady under their gazes was that he knew something important. Of course that didn’t stop him from freezing until Ace coughed and asked, “So you said you knew about founding a system town?”
Jimmy snaps to attention, “Yes sir! I don’t know if anyone noticed, but by the end of our construction work I was laying out where stuff should go and deciding on what designs to use.”
The other founders mostly nod at this. Only Kellinger realizes how deep this went. Looking back, even he had been taking orders from him.
Jimmy seeing that they agree he continues, “I gained a skill and completed a path. The skill is architecture and while I won’t share the entire path title, part of it was civil engineer and it cost a lot of points. I had been saving those up for another path related to crafting, but honestly? With what I have learned, it was worth delaying that.”
“Part of the reward for completing the path was some info and a lot of blueprints. Like, all the blueprints we could want for a new town in the wilderness, including a town center. In our previous two towns, the system retro-fitted the town halls to be this. In my opinion, we would have wanted to knock them down and start over anyway.”
“The town center blueprint actually isn’t so much a blueprint as a guide for what counts as one but that isn’t important. What is important is the fact that this is what makes a town be recognized by the system and opens up system based town management. This is why the old towns would have had to start over anyway. The system provided starter towns can’t actually grow. With the management system the people recognized as being in charge of the town can set all kinds of things. This includes stuff like giving out quests for the construction of structures.”
Ace nods, “Is there a limit on how close towns can be? Basically, can someone come in and snipe our town out from under us?”
Jimmy rubs the back of his neck, “Yes and no. The system does take into account pre-existing claims to a point. Because we have built up the area then even if someone made a town center literally right outside our walls we could still found our own town. The problem is that they would have priority in claiming territory because they are technically the older system town.”
“Also important is the race to being a system recognized city. Were a town claims land, a city claims towns. This gives them the ability to do things like apply a tax to system shops and other potentially nasty tricks. Mind you, a city’s ruler can’t just point at a town on the map and say it is theirs. The city actually has to have some claim over it for the system to recognize in the first place. But yeah, we probably want to fast track upgrading our town center into a city center.”
Ace sighs, “Even under the system politics can cause all kinds of nonsense. Not, mind you, that I expected otherwise. Now what does it cost to make a town center? Also, why isn’t there a village center? I would think it would have a smoother progression.”
Jimmy shrugs, “Technically there is a village center. That would be what the old towns had. The thing is only the system can make them and it tends to be less for the benefit of the village as it is for outside forces to control the village. The way one would normally appear is if a village lasted long enough the village head’s home or the local gathering place would be turned into it. Oh, and if the old towns still existed and we made a town hall here, they would instantly fall under our control.”
“As for making a town center? The building itself is somewhat up to us. It does have to be of a certain size and room count, but as long as it is well made that will do. What is costly is a system anchor which is required to finalize the structure. Normally one of those would require so many system coins that to try and use coppers for it would be best done in outer space, so you had enough room.”
“Gold coins aren’t even practical for the purpose of writing out the cost. Side note, there are apparently many higher types of coinage under the system that make our simple metal coins seem worthless.”
Ace nods, “That is interesting but brings up the question of why tell us about this? How do people even afford anchors on a new world in the first place? Seriously, are worlds just devoid of towns or some such?”
Jimmy had relaxed at some point, but with Ace’s pointed question, he straightened up again. “Ah, right. That cost is just if you are buying one. We would have to pay that because we can’t exactly go out and find the rare materials. Also, a city center can slowly form new anchors in prepared structures to form new towns as long as it doesn’t control too many already.”
Ace frowns and Jimmy tries to stand even straighter, “What I mean is normally people have to pay, we don’t. We don’t have to pay the full price at all. Because we are a newly integrated world, there are a hundred cheap anchors available to people with the right paths. Still expensive for us mind you at 1 gold coin, but there it is.”
Ace rubs the bridge of his nose and waves Jimmy away. Glad to be dismissed, Jimmy stiffly walks away so as to not look like he is running. Ace turns to the others and groans, “We really need to stop this hero worship, at least for the other people who stayed behind. We might be the founders, but they are a part of the settlement’s core.”
Thanks for the chapter
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Hope Ally finally does something that makes her useful aside from answering Doyle's questions. Even just that she fails to do her best at it. Being the companion she should have some management authority for the dungeon. That's the place where she could be most useful.
Life she's a secretary of sorts. Doyle focuses on the bigger pictures and details while Ally finesse it and maintains it. Also she could do the normal constant jobs like strengthening the walls, gathering intelligence, etc. She should have a specific role or position for her to not just let her keep reading and watching. Then suddenly acts like siri when Doyle's need answers.
Her behaviour and personality is so bad and blatant that surely most would expect that something bad will happen because of her. It's like her character was setup to fail at some point. Then a cliche moment will happen where a disaster comes which forces her to mature and create the much needed character development she needs.
Ally will have to work on herself. While I don't personally know any princesses or rich brats I have somewhat based her on some people I have known in my life.
so... chapter 83. what the point of dungeon companion? so far she been utterly redundant and in some places harmful to dungeon. not to mention her personality worse then Jan's
They are supposed to be helpful. Ally is her own little basket of problems though and that will eventually come to a head.
@Akhier no no, no excuses for her. if this was married couple, she is abuser. she has problems, its obvious but she does nothing. sits whole day watching "TV" or reading book. core asks a question and for some reason system sends answer to her instead? and even then she is half assing it, debt is prime example of consequence of that. earlier on Doyle snapped on her for ordering him around and not asking please. now as said before, she does nothing or slaps core when he does something without her "permission" even sits on him! she also compromised him twice, opening a doorway to fairy queen and ok... its emergency and they both didnt knew its a door. then she spews his status to her..? she will open a door in future again too. second when she wanted goats as main mob and didnt explain misconception that all mobs aggressive. set him up for failure just to feel smug about her self.
founders favoritism another thing i dont get. they are practically choking dungeon yet we reinforce that a good thing? but that for another "day" and i kinda expect all their shenanigans bite em in the arse.
i am basing my opinion on Ally from real life. in my job if i let someone like her on a team, that we will have accidents or worse... casualties. i'd rather take Jan over Ally. whats up with soulbound anyway? usually stuff like that comes from bonding but we had none? Doyle trusts her yes but she does not?
@Lachlann Did I say Ally wasn't a harmful element? Dungeon fairies are supposed to be helpful, as in Ally not being helpful is an outlier.
As for the founders? They are the main driving force behind why Doyle is expanding so quickly. All those people who are just diving real quick for food might be enough to live on, but it is the higher level founders who are the main course. Seeing as this isn't more evident I haven't properly explained it in novel. The farmers are constantly diving but at the same time they don't expend much effort and mostly just take stuff. Using fake numbers this is like them paying 10 while Doyle has to pay 9 to restock everything. The founders on the other hand might put even less effort into the first floor, maybe only paying 9 or potentially even less putting Doyle at a loss. Once they get to the second and third floor Doyle's costs don't raise as quickly as their effort does so while they might be paying 20, Doyle is only paying 15. If the founders intended to prevent others from entering the dungeon that would be a different story, but that isn't their plan.
@Akhier i am just afraid her behavior will be rewarded as so happens in hundreds of media variety. that provides a horrible example. general trope: MC meets a character, said character has problems that create problems for MC, MC solves his newfound problems and still mingles with said character and s/he happy to to hitch a ride. then something life threatening happens to MC because of that and secret whatever it is out. MC be like "dont worry ill handle it" and they live happy after. here we have MC sweating to solve unnecessary problems while problem maker on a leisure ride. person in question should put an effort to fix own problems and not wait for someone else to do it for them. there reason such scenarios prevalent in media and not real life. worse i expect her to "pay" nothing for all the trouble she made and will make for Doyle. it be "i forgive ye" or some other nonsense. hence i am ringing alarm bell... i expect such outcome, 90/100 this is usually how it goes
for founders i was under opposite impression, he is expanding slowly? dying is better for dungeon growth and they dont die? mechanic on dungeon economy bit fuzzy to be honest. i know they are restricting who enters dungeon and they are also restricting information about wall, the one giving baby dungeon free stats. there also lack of animals coming in that would bring some plants or whatever on them to add variety for creation. they are reducing his available tools while giving false sense of security what with them coming to core room villy nilly? he is protected by system? but there was words of some way to break dungeon cores if they are hindrance like plague dungeon, i dont remember chapter. Doyle has no... capacity? for leisure but instead he is making early floors easier? that just playing with matches. if they can reach core=you are in danger. you also creating pavlov dog, today they expect reaching core is normal. what if tomorrow Doyle is not ok with that? how he tells them that? most obvious is flooding area with monsters as they reach room near core but how would people react? is it still safe dungeon? or its on verge of breach? should we get rid of it? rules are set from start, much harder to change them as you go as it provokes big amount of aggression
now i have to clarify... because that assumed quite often. i am not trying to be a d*ck here or rag on you. there several reasons i am making walls here.
1: many use media as "educational" material and i dont want people go in life thinking "do bad get good"
2: "justice" for Doyle. atm he is between two negatives, Ally and founders. he seems like a guy who will answer on that "its ok" and that aint fine by me. he has debts to collect, even now and i am not talking about quint debt
3: my recent experience... recently read a book where was 2 characters, male and female. male was giving MC stinky eye and snide remarks and MC kills him cuz he is liability. female on the other hand was constantly getting physical with MC and interfering with his plans and... was made one of most powerful in entire world by MC. power she used to control MC and he is all happy for that... this is actually happens in almost every xianhia or however you write that. reinforcing bad behavior is just a NO... not when you punish people for less with more harshness
to conclude... the wall is here cuz i care, not opposite. maybe "Doyle" has some plan to deal with that but from what i know, my conclusions are above
@Lachlann Don't worry about the wall. I've written my fair share of them. As for the founders, they are going to limit who can enter the dungeon but more in the sense of not having multiple parties diving on a floor. They are also going to make sure their own people dive quite a bit. As for the wall, they definitely aren't going to be sharing that until someone else finds out about. Once someone does know about it though Ace's reaction will be to spread it around far and wide. That way people will try for it but because they know about it they won't get the bonuses for not knowing.
Quick Edit: Also it doesn't matter if they spread it or not because the plateau has a lot of herbs so people will try anyway.
i think their basically just guides to help a dungeon in the beginning and a companion in the long term. imagine being reduced to having no limbs or physical feelings and sitting in a room with nothing better to do than to think about how to set death traps all day every day for eternity and if anyone finds you they may or may not kill you, their choice. i guess u might want a companion during all that to prevent yourself from going crazy