[D'sP] Gah! - Chapter 406 (Patreon)

Tess glares down the path, “Yes, we can get fire resistant leather, but at what cost?”

Kellinger, “I feel that even without armor, we should be able to handle the heat.”

Jim shakes his head, “If I was afraid of the fire, we would have turned around before we even entered. Well, I would have sent him”, and he points over his shoulder at Jeremy, “To do a quick scouting run.

“The problem I see is with the physical aspects. These aren’t classical imps with weak bodies, throwing fireballs at us from afar. They’re cows. Big cows at that. One wrong move and we’re on the wrong end of a stampede.”

Tess nods, “I agree. While I think we can take them, it only takes one mistake!” Everyone else glances away as she glances at each of them.

Jim coughs, “Yeah, no reason to go hard right now. We wanted to see how far we would get and this is it. Our bodies are willing, but the gear is weak. If anything, I’d compare this to a gear check. Sure, if we were strong enough or had the right abilities, we could power our way through. We aren’t. Respect the dungeon! It is not our sparring partner.”

Jeremy nods, “Besides, even if it was our sparring partner, you can die during a spar. It happened before the system and I’m sure death will still happen now. Though healing magic will probably help remove the danger.”

Tess, “So we’re leaving?”

Jim rubs the back of his neck. “Well, if we lure a couple cattle out. Like, we can really use some of their leather right about now.”

Tess turns and glares at him, “And do we have someone with a skill that increases our chance of getting leather with us? While leather isn’t loot or even a rare drop, it certainly isn’t common. Risking everything for a few extra steaks isn’t worth it.”

Jim smiles, “You’re right. So let’s get out of here. Besides, it isn’t like we were full clearing the place. Who knows what might be in our way on the way back to the entrance portal? Better to leave while our armor still functions as such.”

Tess rolls her eyes, “You just want some new leathers. I don’t blame you, the monsters down here have the disturbing tendency to bypass the armor, even if they don’t break it. Kind of annoying how magic is now so deeply ingrained that a piece of armor isn’t worth anything against higher-level threats.”

Kelly snorts, “More like it is our fault for coasting on our gear upgrades for so long. We’ve been wearing basically the same stuff since we began to dependably get loot drops. Sure, we replace a piece or two as they wears out, but we’re replacing it with the same thing.

“Looks snazzy to have matching gear, but there is a reason MMO before magic ended up with characters so chaotically dressed. Style can be a consideration when choosing between equally good gear. You don’t wear the starter gear just because it looks better or doesn’t clash.”

Jeremy, “Yeah, it is a bit our fault. Even pre-system, me and my wife would be switching to better gear at regular intervals. And this is especially true for the high end gear that gets personalized. At that point, you’re scraping the bottom of the barrel for improvements and paying through the nose. Still, we lived, so worth considering.”

Kellinger, “Not just considering. Now that I’ve had a moment to think about it, we really should try to keep at the bleeding edge, same as how we are with personal strength. Good gear can be a multiplier and I’d rather at least have an equal multiplier against our future enemies.

“Even the best gear might not let them face us fairly, but the ones we have to look out for won’t be coming at us fairly. Besides, why not when we can? As it is, we are literally the only ones capable of getting materials of this level. If we didn’t take advantage of it, we’re fools of the highest quality.”

They go on about this for a bit more as they make their way to the floor’s entrance. All the while, down in the core room, Ally is booing them. ‘Hiss! Boo! Come on, push a bit further. Like, they almost made their way to the last floor. That would be the first in a long while. Besides, it sounds like they’re going to try the most boring route of gear. Getting a piece which covers most things and then having specialty sets. I swear, half the reason magic bags and such are so expensive is so people can lug around five different sets of armor.’

Doyle nods, ‘I can see that. There was certainly some of that in the various pre-system video games. Especially the loot based ones. At least the more straightforward MMOs tended to have specific sets that ended up being best in slot.’

Ally shrugs, ‘I mean, chances are that eventually happens to some extent. I’m more angry because there are other models to work off of for this. It is just so much simpler to make a chest plate to specifically resist fire than to make one good at resisting in general.

‘Sort of like how a chest plate resists physical damage in different ways from chain mail or leather armor. It is all trade-offs layered on top of one another. But, I don’t really want to ask this. Can you, perhaps, make bone drops more common?

‘They’ve already–’, “Gah!”, Ally bends over in pain. ‘Okay, can’t say that. Just uh, hmm. Skulls are fun? Same with knuckle bones and such.’

Doyle tilts forward and dims, ‘You okay there? Don’t push the system like that.’

Ally leans back and waves his worries away, ‘Just a little pain. Unexpected, sure, but that was mostly because I was expecting it later. Would have stopped short of that point, but it seems the system saw something else I was going to reveal.’

Doyle nods, ‘Got to let them figure out their own stuff. At least until the quarantine is done. Either way, bones will be useful for them. Let me just figure out how to phrase this.’

Doyle pulls up a screen and writes out a few options for the new rule on bone drops. He could understand some of what Ally had been trying to communicate, which is likely why the system zapped her when it did. Skulls and knuckle bones point towards magical fetishes. Though, of course, regular bones can be equally as useful for that.

Doyle rolls back, ‘Okay, I think I should just increase the amount of bone drops in general. They aren’t rare, even if they tend to get left behind. Though that is probably more a matter of Ace needing some reason for them which earns more than dragging back as much beef as possible.

‘Like, why bring a skull when you can stuff that space with so many more steaks? The kobolds might be a good place to help turn the attention of Ace and friends. A few changes to the tribe living in that gigantic tree trunk would bring it home, I think.

‘That or I can leave it for the next floor? In fact, I think I will leave it for 17. They haven’t been there yet, so don’t know what to expect. Plus, the monster theme for the floor is kobolds. Any changes in behavior will get blamed on the elders, anyway.’

Ally smiles, but doesn’t say anything or even shake their head.

Doyle shakes his core, ‘Even this is giving away some of what you’re thinking. While I suspect I’ve figured out enough on my own, maybe I should remove myself from the room to plan further.’

Ally grimaces, ‘That. That might be for the best.’

Doyle nods, ‘Well, here’s to a peaceful afternoon?’ He takes a peek at the sky outside, ‘Morning. Have a good morning.’ And he draws back away from Ally’s apartment.

Which, now that he thinks about it, has become more of an ops center than it should be. Sure, neither of them have to sleep and so a “bedroom” is a bit pointless. Except, everyone should be able to have some privacy. That would have to wait for now.

He turns his attention to floor 17, which has both changed a lot and not at all. The groups of kobolds have stayed mostly in place. However, the terrain has been altered in all kinds of small ways. Sure, on previous floors, especially those with a heavy kobold presence, there would be traps littered around.

On 17, they took it up a notch. Sure, there were all those traps that Doyle had patterns for along with a few other basics. However, there were bits and pieces that might not even count as a full trap. Stuff like carefully adjusted tree roots meant to trip those running around without looking.

It was honestly quite nasty. Doyle even felt the urge to tell them to tone it down. Though something holds him back. Most of the half traps were simply stumbling blocks, many quite literally so. The kind of thing that isn’t directly lethal, but could certainly spell doom if your party isn’t working together properly or weren’t careful enough.

What if? What if like how Jim saw the 16th as a gear check, 17 was a team check? No more randos being able to just show up together and make it through. Well, it isn’t like that had been happening. Or rather, those groups tended to stop at floor 6.

That wouldn’t be true forever, though. So, this could be a stumbling block for exactly that. Doyle mentally sighs and leaves the floor as it was, turning towards how he would implement bones. Knuckle bones? Rough dice, but that certainly wasn’t what Ally had meant.

Doyle just wasn’t certain how to make magical fetishes. Well, that isn’t quite true, now is it? Part of what this floor was meant to do, is introduce more runes. So, what if the runes were on bones?

The question being how to get Ace and friends to be motivated by the idea instead of just copying. Like, sure, they would experiment some, but it needs to go beyond seeing the bones as a convenient canvas for runes. After all, the more convenient canvas is the hides.

Doyle focuses on the largest gathering of elder kobolds and spreads out a bunch of cattle and goat bones. Of course, the kobolds don’t go out of their way to do anything with them besides incorporating them into structures. Sure, some do use them to carve runes into, but that is more about having a place to carve that isn’t wood, but not rock either.

This was to be expected. They weren’t even pseudo-sapient like the fifth floor boss’s companions. However, in not being creative, that pointed towards gaps in their process. In particular, Doyle was reminded of something he had read in a fun LitRPG before the system came.

Could the skulls be turned into a fetish of sorts that provided a boost of damage against those related to what it was made of? A mostly useless endeavor unless Doyle was going to start spawning in human skulls. However, he can point the way, if only he could figure something out. Even getting halfway there would be worth it.

Beyond that, even his spawned bones which had never seen a drop of living blood had a connection to a flowing vitality of sorts. It wasn’t enough to power anything directly. That didn’t mean it couldn’t be used to siphon power from elsewhere.

In particular, masterworks tended to have some innate quality that without an enchantment to harness it, laid dormant. Could a bone talisman or token of sorts be able to tap into that dormant power? Doyle was certain this would not be as versatile or strong as a proper enchantment, but it might be a halfway step which would help bridge things. Oh, and give his kobolds a nice boost.

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