[NR] Interesting Ideas About Dungeons - Chapter 455 (Patreon)

After that first fight, the floor basically repeated itself. One chest-high wall after the next, each one followed by a ramp down and then a turn so the ceiling could reset itself. About the only change was the addition of an extra tardigroid with every encounter. By the last encounter, this meant they were fighting 15 of the things at once.

This, while not an easy fight, did not hold the group back. It was only the first floor after all and they were here to conquer the dungeon as a whole. Though no matter what you do, fighting a force with five times as many combatants will be tough if they have even the minimum amount of teamwork. A thing that while hard to notice, was there for the tardigroids, if maybe a little forced by the dungeon.

Then they arrived at the second floor. Though with this type of dungeon, it could be a little hard to tell the difference between floors if you aren’t sensitive enough. Unlike more regimented dungeons with stuff like actual stairs, the transition between one floor to the next in a pure cave dungeon at most is a hole in the ground. Or as the case was with this dungeon, there was no visible difference.

Floor one led into floor two without any sign except for a slight change in the world energy. A change that most people complain about, but Jason found quite to his liking. Though it did cause him to think of some theories behind why NeoRealm’s dungeons existed outside of being playgrounds for players.

See, most people report that the available power decreases as you get deeper into a dungeon with the core room basically being devoid of the stuff. And this isn’t just in their heads. Part of the difficulty of delving a dungeon is that power begins to recharge slower. For instance, a mage will find that by the time they get to the boss floor the speed they regain Mana at will be halved in even a low level dungeon like this. This gets worse the higher level the dungeon is and of course with every dungeon, the core room cuts off all Mana and Qi regen.

Though the fact Jason specifically pointed out Mana and Qi while thinking this over had a very good reason. Most obvious was that people who use Energy, draw power from within instead of depending on external sources. They only use external Energy to cultivate. More specific to this situation though, is the fact that the total power in the air wasn’t actually decreasing.

In fact, if anything, the total power in the air was getting denser. No, what was happening was that the balance of power within the world energy was shifting. If outside and on the first floor, it was about an even spread with some variance based on local features and plants. On the dungeon’s second floor, Energy was ascendant.

Not by much, but enough that regaining either of the other powers would be impacted as there just wasn’t as much of it. Jason could only laugh at the situation. This, of course, alerted the other two that something was up.

Rosha raises an eyebrow, “I know the tardigroids are a bit easy right now, but they aren’t a laughing matter.”

Courtney nods, “I agree, though seeing as we just passed into the second floor, I’m guessing you figured something out?”

Jason nods, “Did I ever tell you about how I suspect NeoRealm was created? Not as in from our side, but rather the mechanics of how the system built the world.”

Courtney shakes her head, “You haven’t and it isn’t exactly something people have been able to look into all that much. There is too much in-game history between now and when it happened. We don’t even have the classic styles of creation myths you generally find when gods are involved.”

Jason shrugs, “I can’t really say my idea has the sturdiest of foundations, but I have a gut feeling about it. Anyway, my belief is that the System used a Primordial form of Energy to follow the one two three many creation story.

“It isn’t the most popular religious view this side of the world, but the idea is from nothing came some sort of primal source. That source then created two, generally viewed as yin and yang. From those two came three and from three came many.

“The whole ‘production of three’ part has much debate going on, but for NeoRealm I think I have it solved. We start with Primordial Energy from which came Primordial Mana and Primordial Qi. Together those two created the normal powers of Energy, Mana, and Qi by dilution. From there, everything else is created using the normal powers.”

Rosha looks a bit lost. Courtney, on the other hand managed to follow, mostly because part of her training was a decent primer on all the major religions. Though she isn’t going to let him just continue blabbering. “So, what does this have to do with dungeon floors?”

Jason waves his hand toward the deeper section of the dungeon. “In my attempts at understanding the world, my conclusions are that the center of the world is full of Energy as it is the building blocks of everything in NeoRealm. This is why no matter how hard the System tries to eliminate those who use Energy, it can’t prevent it.

“The devs originally intended there to be only Mana and Qi, but since the world runs on Energy, it remained even after the System finished creating the world. That is why, unlike Mana and Qi, the natural features that put off Energy are ley lines and springs. The world is constantly releasing Energy and my belief is that dungeons as they currently exist were implemented to try and prevent the Energy from getting out.

“While hard to feel, going from the first to the second floor there isn’t less power. There is just less Mana and Qi, while the amount of Energy has increased. I bet that if the dungeon wasn’t here, there would be a small energy spring at this location. The reason they call the area it originally came from, ‘the deep sky’, isn’t because they wanted a fancy name for space. Rather, the world’s mystical influence extends far beyond what most would think, likely as a result of whatever the System did to supercharge the world for adventure.”