[D'sP] Ace Considers The Weather - Chapter 408 (Patreon)

Back on the surface, Ace is frustrated. They were getting into late winter and yet not a single snowfall. Now, normally he wouldn’t be one for snow, feeling it was best seen on the TV screen instead of out the window. Still, they were far enough north for it, at least going by some rough guesstimates some astrology club nerds in town had made.

Though more than his annoyance at not getting any snow, is his worries for the coming years. Chances are, this wasn’t the area's natural weather and who knows how people will react after such mild weather a few years in a row. At least levels should make it harder to suffer from low temperatures. That obviously isn’t an excuse for not housing people.

Even now as work is wrapping up on the new outermost wall, apartment complexes are going up. Ace wasn’t aiming to be a city, but the presence of the dungeon alone is enough to assure it. So, no matter how much he would prefer not to, preparations need to be done to manage such things.

There had been one problem with the expansion. Ace and the guards had told them repeatedly they couldn’t stay there. However, a bunch of merchants kept setting up a veritable tent city along what had been the outer wall.

It made some sense. While not too dangerous, the deeper into winter it got, the more beasts attacked. The satellite camps around the town had mostly been safe, being more built up. Lone merchants and even small groups weren’t as lucky, and so they hugged the walls.

All because Ace had gotten around to running the town more like an actual town. You know, with taxes and stuff. It wasn’t a big tax or anything, but even in the apocalypse people would go the distance to punch pennies. Ace didn’t particularly care. He wasn’t looking to have all the money.

Then Jim shows up. “We’re ready for another dive.”

Ace, “If you had come a few days ago that would be a straightforward thing to okay.”

Jim frowns, “Are the beasts getting uppity?”

Ace shrugs, “After we took care of those pigeon griffons there was a lull, but the problem didn’t go away.”

Jim, “Do you want me to go do a little scouting before the next dive?”

Ace sighs and shakes his head, “No, but this time start as deep as you can. You already did a full dive recently. Afterwards? Then a survey of the forest will be in the cards. I’m worried for the community as a whole and that sort of survey isn’t going to be quick.”

Jim shrugs, “Not like I would be going out right away. In fact, I need to get back to the guild to set up some quests. Get my people to do the preliminary scouting. Then me and the Barrais can run around to check out any locations of interest.”

Ace, “Will that be quick enough? I kind of want it done before winter progresses any further.”

Jim, “Oh yeah, with the messenger pigeons, I can get a quest up across the entire community. There might not be any other official guild locations, but people are setting up outposts, getting ready for when we have the money.”

Ace, “Are there enough pigeons for that? No, more importantly, do we even have pigeons for that many places?”

Jim waves Ace’s worries away. “It’s fine. After you put up the coop, I used quests to spread my guild’s communication network. Ferrying pigeons around is actually worth a good bit of experience for certain skills. 

“Believe it or not, carrying a bird in a cage requires a lot of work. Let alone keeping the bird safe, you need to feed the thing and what not. There are always adventurers in my guild willing to do the job for minimal pay. It is just one of those quests that you can pick up when moving between villages and get a little extra on the side.”

Ace, “Huh. Well, it sounds like it works. Well, don’t let me hold you up. Go get the quests set up and your team ready.”

Jim laughs, “As if I wasn’t the one who stopped you in the first place.” And then he heads off to set things up.

Not that they set off right away. Even skipping the early floors still calls for an early start. Though they don’t need to start at the crack of dawn for it and so enjoy a quality breakfast.

Down below, Doyle watches as Jim and his team hammer their way through the floors right after the myconid boss. He turns to Ally, ‘You know what? I think the fact I don’t have a boss on 15 is the big deciding factor for why more people aren’t delving as deeply.’

Ally raises an eyebrow, ‘You think? Because I know. They’ll always find something to grind on the deepest floor they can easily access. Without portals, that tends to mean people plan their delves to take a day or maybe even two.’

Doyle nods, ‘I can see that. Do you think I should keep the bosses spaced out like this?’

Ally takes a moment before responding. ‘There is no right answer. It comes down to what you want the bosses to represent. You could do a boss rush or never place another boss again, people will still eventually reach your core. Even that requires a few thousand years and for a high level travel to decide they find out how deep you go.’

Doyle, ‘I don’t have a specific plan. Ok this boss, I do have some ideas of a two-party raid, whatever the term is when you have that. Though I’m also not sure if me doing so will mean one tough boss or two bosses.’

Ally, ‘Okay, quick refresher. A full raid is six parties, three is a half raid, and two is a minor raid. The numbers aren’t that strict, mind you. There can be people in the raid, but not a party, or parties with less than six people.

‘I’m not going to say you should consider cranking it up to a half raid. That is simply the expected outcome and people around here don’t know to expect it yet.’

Doyle, ‘I’m going for the two party third-of-a-raid boss, but I have a specific reason for doing so. With it being just a two-party raid, maybe I can get Ace and Jim to bring both their parties at once. Now, it isn’t likely, but if they get stuck on the boss floor, it could force them out.’

Ally nods, ‘I can see that. Though if I had to guess, you won’t manage to bring them both in at the same time without a proper raid boss. They’re the current linchpins keeping the bureaucracy of the town together.

‘If anything, Ace is lucky Jim ended up a guild leader. There are truly few other roles which can stand in for the town leader during integration. Though even out in the wider universe, Ace would have a bit of trouble since he is running a city state. A regular city under some sort of ruler can have another similar rank official within that government step in.’

Doyle, ‘So what I’m hearing is that other town leaders are going to be behind the power curve and it sounds by design.’

Ally shrugs, ‘That is possible. It might also be a side effect of something else. Though I could certainly see this as a way to either search for quality leaders or at least make it so poor leaders either lose their town or end up weak enough to remove.’

Doyle, ‘Well, not our problem. Though I do wonder if a dungeon core could be a leader of something like a town or guild?’

Ally, ‘I’m uncertain, but you definitely can’t be one. Or rather, instead of being specific to you, portal type dungeon cores can not be one in the universe they’re connect to. After all, systems are universe specific and portal dungeons for their own dimension.

‘Like, I guess if a system was installed into your dungeon instead of just being here by osmosis, you could make a system town in your dungeon? Though I guess we should be thankful that the system can get in here at all. Would be kind of awkward if when you entered the dungeon, you lost the system.

‘Not that such a thing isn’t an option. Though with this type of system, it wouldn’t be the end of the world. There are some systems that provide additional buffs on top of helping people guide their own growth.’

Doyle, ‘What would even be the use of such a thing? It sounds specifically tailored to prevent people from actually becoming strong in and of themselves.’

Ally, ‘I won’t say such systems aren’t in use for that kind of thing. In fact, it tends to be the sort of system most popular among the non-True Immortal system buyers. After all, not only can this help make sure you’re the top dog, but you can set a personal power boost to near assure it.

‘However, such settings do actually have some uses. There are universes where factors make it common to have awakened cohabitating on most worlds with Kaiju. The buffing systems are then used to make sure people can actually handle things from the start, especially if the natural power density is low enough that most can’t reach that level of power.

‘Such systems in those universes also tend to be selectively applied. The concept of super heros have a lot of parallels. Though it isn’t the source of such things, but built off of it. Entire universes where a lucky few gain “super powers”.’

Doyle, ‘That’s cool, but I just thought of something. Because of me, is this universe a multiverse?’

Ally frowns, ‘What do you mean?’

Doyle, ‘Well, I’m a dimension and I’m attached to my old dimension. Isn’t that the definition of a multiverse?’

Ally, ‘Ah, that’s what you meant. The answer is yes, but no. Because using the basic definition, that is technically true. However, it is accepted that a portal dungeon does not a multiverse make.’

Doyle, ‘Well, I don’t know how I feel about that. And it doesn’t look like we have time to continue pondering on it. Jim and company just made their way to the sixteenth floor.’

Ally turns her attention to the screen. ‘Oh, huh, you’re right. Wait a second, are they trying something with the water?’

Doyle, ‘Maybe, let’s listen in.’

They both quiet down and focus.

All the while, Jim is going over the plan. “Okay, we’re going to leave the later stuff alone, but I want to know what we’re facing here. If only because these seem different from the others. Those were moving and whatever is here seems to be hiding. Kelly, you got a spell to aggro whatever is there?”

Kelly frowns, “I might. There wasn’t a chance to properly test my spells because the river is always busy now. Well, not always, but recovery and preparation for our return was more important. I wonder if Ace will cave and let people enter at night as well? It would help with the crowding.”

Jim sighs, “Ace is more worried that the dungeon won’t be pleased with such a change. I know that it isn’t uncommon for dungeons in the wider universe to have some sort of penalty for entering ‘after hours’, as it were.

“Now, that doesn’t seem to be the case with this dungeon. Then again, why would there be a response to something which so rarely happens? Though from our talks, I do find it more likely he will instead formalize the open hours. That way I can add the rule to the guild restrictions for the dungeon for cheap.”

Kelly sighs, “I guess dungeons are alive. Though if I understand things right, higher levels do tend to mitigate the need for sleep. Not that I suspect the dungeon is high level. Rather, my understanding of it is that power density tends to be what allows for it and a dungeon core is basically completely power.”

Jim shrugs, “Who knows? Anyway, how about we test that spell so we do know if it works?”

Jim points back and to the side, “I don’t feel anything out that way. Aim at the water and let it rip.”

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