Satisfied Doyle focuses on the big ball of stone he has decided to carve up. Of course, he could get down into and carve it up with a bunch of tiny lines and swirls. But even with the patience of a dungeon core, Doyle doubts it would be tolerable. If only because it might take until the whole thing is finished for any effect to come into play. Sure, he isn’t depending on getting some spiffy new nonsense on the floor. But it would be a waste.

Instead, Doyle has a different plan. Until now, he had just used his carvings as a single work. This sphere of stone, however, allowed for something else entirely. So, with large strokes, he would divide the sphere into smaller regions to create scenes within. Though those broad strokes aren’t going to be literally large swaths of blank stone. No, the proper use of the borders is scrollwork. And to match the floor it will be all swirly vines and mushrooms.

This of course takes time and a prior engagement comes up before Doyle finishes. Specifically, Ally alerts him to the fact that it feels like the cows are almost here. Pulling back from his work Doyle looks over the sphere and nods, A good two-thirds of the scrollwork has been finished already. To start it was slow going but once he had figured out a pattern and vibe that felt right, it had flowed. But that can be left for later.

A quick look over his floors showed that Jim and his team were working at the boss floor again. Ace and Jim seemed to be trading off every few days on who would actually attempt it. But the town was still a good bit away from solving the fifth floor. Though it seemed Jim had managed to figure out how to pull another lone patrol after the first.

But that, once again, can be left for later so Doyle pulls himself away from the dungeon as a whole and thrusts his view up to the top of his influence outside of his dungeon. There he is able to get a better feel for the incoming cows but they seem to have decided to approach from the forest direction and the trees are doing a good job of blocking his view. Still, that doesn’t mean he is lacking in methods to figure out their actual distance.

This is especially true since he has the connection showing the direction. Doyle hadn’t ever been too focused on the formulas for this kind of thing, but even just the rough sense he got from checking the pull from opposite sides of his influence is enough. And Ally definitely wasn’t lying.

While not an accurate estimate, Doyle’s rough guess is that the cows should break the treeline a couple hours after noon. Plus or minus about 90 minutes of course, but that is close enough for him. Doyle didn’t want to miss a single second because Moota had promised to leave a message for the settlement with them.

After all, Doyle hadn’t really hashed out what the message was going to be. At the time, this was mostly because he had forgotten to. Now though? Now it was part of the plan! Because if he had dictated a message? Well, that would have probably given them even more clues to not only his existence as an awakened dungeon, but more importantly? It might point towards him being someone local.

So Doyle stays focused on the direction the cows are coming from. Just waiting to know just what reason Moota will give for the cows and her interference. And it shouldn’t be too snarky because he had already started to include hundreds of cows in the dungeon.

And the cows do eventually show up. Though more like three hours after noon. In the town, one of the scouts runs into Ace’s office where he is currently meeting with one of the officials from up river. The official is arguing that, “We really want you to recognize our town calling itself New Springfield. The name has a wonderful history and more of our citizens came from a place called Springfield than any other place.”

Ace nods to the scout and glares at the official, “As it is you’re lucky we aren’t referring to your place as Startertown and that ungodly number. Until you guys manage to make your starter town into a real town and gain the privilege to rename things, we are going to continue referring to it as the town upriver. If only for the sake of consistency. Now please leave. One of my scouts seems to have something important to tell me.”

The official scrunches his face, “Just because you have an actual populace now doesn’t mean you can snub us!”

Ace laughs, “I’m not snubbing you. I snubbed your town when your little expedition first came around and there were less than fifty of us in total. Make a real town, get actual control of the system based policies, and then we can talk more. While it might not be like that truename magic some pre-system fantasy settings had, a name still has power. Now leave before I’m forced to make you leave.”

The official turns around in a huff and storms out. Nancy the scout glances over her shoulders to watch them leave before turning back to Ace. “Are you sure it is okay to tweak their nose like that?”

Ace sighs, “Being in control of a system recognized town has more strings attached than not. If I officially recognized them as New Springfield, I would gain a level of responsibility over them that neither of us want. Now, if they had just been a new settlement, it wouldn’t matter, but being a literal starter town puts into place all kinds of limitations such as not being allowed to even tell them this! The whole misunderstanding because unless I am willing to make Wolf’s Rest take on the role of their protector I can’t even explain it to them.

“And of course, now that you know, you can’t tell them either. But that is my burden. What has caused you to skip all the levels of bureaucracy I’ve put in place so everyone and their brother isn’t bursting in here at all hours of the day?”

Nancy laughs, “As if you would ever stop any of us core members from seeing you if we thought it was important. Those rules are very much for our lessers.”

Ace sighs again, “Just don’t let anyone hear you talking about people like that. I knew from the start that this sort of divide would develop when I decided that we were inherently more important to the town. But that doesn’t mean we have to be in their face about it. At least wait until us core members can each take on all the commoners out there alone. Going by how much they slack off it shouldn’t take long.”

Nancy rolls her eyes, “Well now, I might have found something for them to handle! More to the point everyone should be finding it soon. There is a herd o’ cattle weighing in at about 30 head coming this way through the forest. They should be here within half an hour.”

Ace frowns, “We should have noticed something like this much sooner than half an hour out. What happened?”

Nancy shrugs, “The bull at the front of the group seems to have a roll of leather, likely a message of some sort, attached to its horn. And what horns! While I am willing to bet they are actually normal cattle, their horns are wicked sharp. Like, deadly and dangerous. So someone sent them our way is my bet. Someone who managed to raise them to be more adapted to the post-system life. These aren’t weak cattle kept alive because a rancher is watching after them.”

Ace grabs the side of a block of wood next to him and pulls. Just a hint of magic, and a thin sheet of wood comes away. With a flourish of his pen, Ace writes out a quick note and tosses the sheet into the air. As the wooden sheet rises, it bends and rapidly forms itself into an origami swan. From there, it flaps its way out of the room.

Satisfied Ace turns back to Nancy, “Is Jim out of the dungeon yet?”

Nancy nods, “He should be. I saw Kellinger on my way in.”

Ace repeats his magic act and this time the wooden sheet folds itself into a paper airplane that zooms out of the room. “Okay, Jim should be here in a moment as long as he can step away from whatever he is up to. I’m going to have to go meet the first person I contacted so you can stick around here and tell him all the details. As the head scout, he should know what to do from that angle.”

At this point, Doyle pulls his viewpoint back up into the sky and glances off towards where the cows would be coming from. They haven’t quite left the forest yet but from above he can see that they are close to the edge. Now nervous about it all he returns to the seventh floor and knocks on Ally’s door again.

After being invited in, Doyle finds her having been watching the whole thing from the start. Ally turns to him and asks, “What has you worried? While we didn’t exactly iron out all the details of the agreement, Moota is a friend so things should be fine.”

Doyle nods, “I understand that but I don’t know what the message will say, anyway. The whole thing is making me worried.”

Ally shrugs, “I’ve been chatting with Moota for a while now and she wouldn’t tell me when I sent her a message earlier. But from her general demeanor about it I trust in what she has written. She’s a kind soul.”

Doyle shakes his head, “If my worries were based on logic it would be easy to get rid of them. Or at least once proven I could move to fix things. This is just last-minute jitters. It looks like she has sent the town about 30 cows and I don’t know how anyone is going to react because of that message.”

Ally laughs, “As if Ace would do anything rash. The longer he spends as the official leader the more reserved he has gotten with his actions. Start of it all I wouldn’t put it past him killing most of the herd to shore up their stocks and then keep the rest. Now the only change is that more of the cattle will be kept alive, if only because there are more people to feed. Milk might not be the most filling thing but it is better than nothing.

“With all the new mouths to feed, the continued supply of milk easily outweighs any temporary benefits from butchering them. Even the bulls are needed so the cows keep producing. That and if the herd isn’t growing, it’s dying. Got to keep a balance or the numbers just go down.”

Doyle pulls over one of the screens displaying what is happening. “He definitely is going to try and capture as many as possible. Though I do have to wonder to what extent the town is ready to handle this kind of thing. From the description of the scout and a glimpse or two, they seem to be more like dungeon cattle than not.”

Ally nods, “Moota likely guided them and since your dungeon variant is based on the information Moota provided in the first place, it would make sense. Though I doubt they are quite at the level of your dungeon cattle. Even with what magic can do to nature, things still generally aren’t willing to have their DNA ripped apart and put back together with whatever you found in the back.”

Doyle sighs, “I’ll just stick around here until they have the message. If I try to do anything else, it will just get messed up. I have no attention span for anything else.”

Akhier

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