Suffice it to say, Doyle was happy with his array. Sure, the level 14 limit hadn’t changed as so far he was only copying it, but the array section turned into a proper part of the pattern database.

{Array Patterns: simple world energy gathering array for individuals [lv14] lv21}

Though the way it displayed the 14 next to the pattern level of 21 was a bit confusing. However, Ally assured him that once he had more arrays and an array had more options, it would likely split into its own sub-table of sorts. Though not in the usual way, as only the array itself will have a pattern level and not each individual instance of level a level range.

The other decision he made was that once he figured out how to up the level limit, he would add his array flags as potential drops. Hopefully, this would happen before anyone beats the tenth floor, but only time will tell. Though he did set up a new loot rule to support this and any other nonsense, the town might get into.

It was both a simple and complex rule. Simple because it was for all monsters on floor ten and after. Complex because it didn’t simply give the monsters a new bit of loot they could drop. Instead, part of the energy that was going to make them real, would instead be siphoned off into making a monster stone, one of the mystic energy storage patterns he had gotten.

Anyway, it didn’t siphon a lot of power so the stones would be a rare drop on any floor on which people often killed the monsters. The catch to this is that after a monster becomes real enough, it could leave the dungeon, the amount of power being used drops drastically. Before, that power would just be released, but now it would instead be put towards making the beast stone. So basically any floor left alone long enough would end up with every single monster dropping a beast stone.

Of course Doyle would have to keep up with the pattern’s level if he wanted the stones to continue to be useful. Right now, he has a bit of a buffer as the pattern is level 30, but that will only keep him until he has monsters of a greater level. After that, if he tries to have them grow a monster stone, it would explode from not being able to contain the power.

Though thinking of that, Doyle alters the drop condition to limit the stones to monsters with a level equal to or less than the level of the monster stone pattern. When he mentioned this though, Ally wasn’t too worried and she went on to explain why. There were a lot of special cases and interesting quirks, but what Doyle came away with was that when he got higher level monsters, he could just throw stones into lower-level monsters and level them up.

Sure, most of the monsters would explode from that as they aren’t slowly gaining power and building up their stone naturally. Some of them, however, would survive. This should both help improve the monster’s pattern, but also improve the monster stone pattern. And that would work until he manages to get a monster where the stone doesn’t explode.

Though that was more of a last ditch effort sort of thing as apparently the stone level should just go up. Mainly because if you have a monster with a stone that lives long enough, the stone will attune to some aspect of the monster and the specialized stone would be worth a lot of experience. 

More fun is that this doesn’t just mean a stone in a fire monster becomes a fire attuned monster stone. No, the variety is much greater. You can get stones for that specific monster which can have their own special uses. Though Ally did make it sound almost like a joke when she talked about how many goat stones he would have.

While that is interesting, Doyle turns his attention back to the final product of his array work. Three smooth stone discs which if you placed them face down would look like black pieces from a giant game of reversi or go. On the face of each of the three, was engraved a multitude of runes.

Though to make it last longer, the engravings were filled in with white stone. Also, in the center of the disc, with the least number of runes, was a slot into which a monster stone could fit. A simple solution to powering the array and why he decided to have the things start dropping.

The only thing that looked like it was missing, would be something to hold the stone in. Sure, despite the name, the stones were actually more pearl-like than not so a simple half sphere depression is enough to hold them, but it wouldn’t hold them in. Good thing this isn’t needed, as the act of sucking power out of the stone creates a slight force that can hold it in place.

Now, if you turned the array flag upside down and shook it, the stone would fall out. If that is happening, though, they’d be much better served with just pulling the stone out by hand. The array isn’t exactly designed with security in mind, instead focusing on ease of use.

Ease of use which includes a slight bit of power storage so if you’re quick, you can swap stones without the effect stopping. Overall, the array was an interesting piece of work and it was clear that the design had been iterated on quite a bit and any rough edges had long ago been smoothed away. Doyle would almost be willing to call it perfect, if not for his increasing pattern level and what he suspects is a nascent skill.

Oh, and the fact that he doesn’t believe in perfection. Doyle had spent a decent amount of time pre-system pondering on the subject as so many people seemed to have a hang up with getting things perfect. But despite those people who legitimately chased after it, he sided with those who thought of it as the eternal goal. Something to strive for, yet never reach. Any claims of true perfection are just someone blinding themselves to reality.

Sure, a lot of people saw that as depressing as it meant you would never reach your goal. Doyle however saw that as a wonderful feature. He had heard of too many people who created what they considered their best work, only to fall into some form of despair. Instead of reaching higher, they stopped.

Not a very healthy situation. Though for some reason it almost seemed celebrated. The only stories Doyle had read that really looked at the negatives of this were stories of revenge where a character would succeed only to be left empty without a goal. This dichotomy of opinion on the same thing always confused him.

As if just because the master painter going and painting their magnum opus is seen as positive, their depression afterwards is justified. While the angry hero getting revenge only to be left empty is a negative because the goal is seen as morally wrong. Doyle had long ago decided to throw that nonsense all out. There was no perfection or clear cut finish!

Doyle would always see the magnum opus and ask why the painter didn’t try to reach higher. He would read the hero’s story and ask why he didn’t then go on to try and fight the underlying root which allowed the event to happen in the first place. Though more importantly, he also accepted that on that path, good enough was a valid answer.

The painter shouldn’t burn all his previous works whenever he creates a better painting. They were good enough for when he painted them. The hero shouldn’t ignore the noble who killed his family because he can see the bigger picture and wants to take out the political system that allowed it.

And when Ally heard him describe his views on all of this she clapped. ‘Congratulations! You managed to stumble into one of the healthier mindsets any long lived sapient can have. I’m not saying there aren’t immortals out there that believe in perfection. Even True Immortals can fall into that trap.

‘What is important is the idea of good enough. There are likely uncountable True Immortals floating motionlessly in the void between dimensions as they try to construct the perfect something or other. And just as many who have ended up getting killed by void entities for being idiots and not moving to a new dimension when their last died and left them floating there. Entities with infinite time to plan need to be careful that they don’t actually run out the clock with their planning as many find their end coming a lot quicker than never.’

That response did bring up a question Doyle had been sitting on, how did True Immortals die? Ally just shrugged and admitted no one who wasn’t already one really knew. The only reason people even knew they could die was that other True Immortals had said so.

So while that was an interesting question, Doyle turned to a couple of things which had been set to the side. Though at the top of the list was finally getting around to placing the boss for the tenth floor. The myconids had been on the floor for who knows how long at this point, so they should have reached an equilibrium. Though Doyle took a look around the floor first to make sure of that.

On this overview, the first thing to stand out is the large community in the boss room. The myconids had moved some of the dirt around, Doyle not being quite skilled enough at village planning to have completely gotten it right. More interesting though are the houses.

Doyle had been somewhat trapped in a human mindset when he planned things out. Myconids, believe it or not, aren’t humans. This meant that some of the village was just opaque to him at the moment.

He could feel there were specific concepts behind how the myconids had set up things. However, it seemed to tap into a form of proto-consciousness. An almost hivemind formed from the natural interactions that fungus had with one another. This wasn’t some Akashic memory based nonsense. Rather, just as humans found certain things came to them naturally because of the structure of their minds, the myconids had their own concepts.

For Doyle, this was really trippy because he also wasn’t human, at least not anymore. So while he could grasp at the concepts, it was like until now his mind had been coloring inside the lines and this new experience required leaving those lines and entering a new drawing. As a human, those lines weren’t just marks, but the actual extent of the paper he could draw on, but as a dungeon he had a whole page to work with instead of a small corner.

This was certainly something to come back to, but for now Doyle turns to the rest of the floor. It was. Interesting.

The myconids had been forced to move settlements so that had gone to plan. Except they didn’t seem to want to let the old settlements fall into disrepair. Also, it seems that while only myconids with fungal construction can actually grow mushrooms into stuff, this doesn’t stop the others from maintaining the stuff.

There were small teams of sprouts being led by a single lesser myconid going around and applying spores to the places they weren’t currently living. More to the point, that seemed to work and keep the structures and furniture alive.

Doyle had very much not been expecting this twist. Though just like he was able to make an array without a skill for it, this once again shows that skills aren’t the end all, be all of things. It would have made him question what the point of skills were if you didn’t need them.

Except Doyle already had an answer to that. Skills represented the ability to exceed the norm. Any myconid could use their spores to heal and maintain normal mushrooms, but it took skill to make them grow into buildings and objects that could last.

Akhier

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