[D'sP] For Want Of A Rope - Chapter 285 (Patreon)

Jim stretches as Jeremy finishes what should be the last Udoroot. They’d been keeping count and knew that there were only 20 of the things on the floor. Not that knowing this makes them any less dangerous and they certainly weren’t going to let their guard down in case of a rare spawn or some similar nonsense.

Still, this one had been placed so deep into the floor that they could actually see the end of the tunnel. So, seeing as there weren’t any more sunflowers patches, it was mostly safe to assume more weren’t hiding. At least, none that could hurt them.

If the dungeon had placed a flower-less Udoroot, that was just more training for their detection methods. An important bit of training as within the last week, more human psychics had been showing up in town and most didn’t have such an obvious tell as that first guy’s horn.

Not that there was some epidemic of mind controllers. The system really didn’t like people who tried that. And the merchants weren’t getting the classic hand wave mind trick to lower their prices. While they weren’t some special race immune to such things, a proper merchant class path and skills go a long way in protecting them from that kind of thing.

Most of the problem instead came from thieves. Such a stupid use of such a wonderful power. It was however quite effective to steal when you don’t have to physically be near the item you’re stealing. Though a few had gone beyond a bit of telekinetic theft.

Some psychics thought to dabble in a bit of spycraft. After all, what better way to get secrets than directly from a person’s mind? These attempts ran up against some pretty aggressive defenses when it came to the inner circle. Nevermind that the true secrets were protected by an oath that would hide such things from any surface level mental peaking.

The worst part? At least, as far as Jim was concerned. Wolf’s Rest was the only place really dealing with this nonsense. Sure, the place up river had a few attempts since they were close and politically connected.

But most of the local psychic population had gathered in their town. Whether they were there for good or for ill, it was now his problem. At least with the Udoroots, there was somewhere to train against those types of power.

Though at this point, Jim wouldn’t be shocked if some phrenic creatures started showing up outside of town. All this despite how rare such things were supposed to be. Jim shakes his head as the group finishes setting up camp.

Not that they plan to actually camp in the dungeon. However, they had found that setting up one provided some unstated bonus to recover if you were settling down for at least an hour. And to be honest? No one was really sure if this was system nonsense or something natural.

Well, no one except Ally who explained it to Doyle. It seems that the answer was actually in the camping equipment itself. While not on the level of being an effect, crafted equipment will bend towards fulfilling their role. Which, in the case of camping equipment, meant rest and recovery. This also only worked if the equipment was handcrafted.

Not even the fancy manufacturing techniques used to provide good system stats worked for it. An interesting quirk bordering on placebo if not for the fact that even someone who doesn’t know the origins of something will experience it. Though most evident in stuff like camping equipment. Things like swords are just easier to make better with alloys and figuring out the best cutting edge instead of making it feel right by having it handcrafted.

Back with Jim, a couple hours have passed and they’re ready to head into the tenth floor. As they stand in front of the gate to the next floor, Bill asks, “So do you think it will be a boss floor?”

Kelly shrugs, “I didn’t really focus my questions on that sort of thing in the tutorial.”

Jim nods, “Being in a dungeon I asked some stuff, but I think things like boss placement varies dungeon to dungeon. But why would you think this floor is a boss floor?”

Bill shrugs, “Multiple of five and a huge portal.”

Jim rubs the bridge of his nose, “Sure, we’ll go with that.”

Bill, “What? Makes about as much sense as a literal hole in reality leading to a complex of ever respawning monsters. I’m willing to bet it is a boss floor!”

Jess sighs, “No one is going to take you up on that bet. We just don’t know enough and betting on stuff like this when magic is real feels too much like tempting fate. Besides, the previous boss floor didn’t have a large portal. That’s completely new.”

Jeremy, “Okay, enough nonsense. We won’t know until we not only get in there, but reach the end. So let’s go figure out what we are dealing with, shall we?”

No one else had much to comment on the nonsense and so they all stepped through the center of the portal as they still didn’t trust it.

Once through, Bill turns around, “Huh, guess it was just a large portal to match the large tunnel.”

Tess sighs, “I love you, but we just can’t know anything about that. It was safe and I’m fine with that for now.”

Of course, Bill’s guess was right on the money, but Doyle and Ally weren’t going to tell him that.

So, without any guidance on the matter, Jim’s team turns away from the entrance gate and observes what challenges await them. That and a very short section of tunnel ending in a sharp turn.

Jim sighs, “At least this isn’t that gentle curving nonsense anymore. A nice proper corner to peek around instead of the horizon constantly shifting.”

Kelly smiles, “At least the curve meant nothing was waiting to jump scare us.”

Jim rolls his eyes, “Yeah, because the various flower arrangements did enough of that already.”

They approach the corner and Jeremy goes ahead to get a look. Though without any visible enemies, he is quick to call the others to follow.

Bill, upon seeing the next area laughs, “And I thought the previous tunnel was big.”

Jim eyeballs the height. “I’d say this thing expands to about the height of a three story building, maybe a little less.”

Jeremy nods, “About that, though more annoying is that it is also that wide. A lot of space for something to surround us. Oh, and everything is wet. Those look like legit stalactites and stalagmites. Nevermind all the mushrooms covering the place.”

Bill shrugs, “Those mushroom monsters are easy enough to smash. Should see our fair share of them here.”

Tess nods, “I can certainly agree with that. I just hope there isn’t any trouble with breathing in what is undoubtedly a ton of spores.”

Jeremy shrugs, “Eh, maybe, maybe not. It is dungeon stuff so chances are it vanishes after a while. Though even if it doesn’t, our increased stats should protect us some. I guess we’ll find out if we end up hacking up globs of spores later on.”

Bill looks ill, “Never liked when cats would hack up hairballs and now you’re telling me I might get to experience it first hand, but grosser?”

Jeremy laughs, “Better out than growing on your lungs!”

Jim sighs, “Let’s get a move on. We don’t even really know what the floor is like. For all we know, it could be a maze.”

Off in the core room, Doyle rolls completely to the side and growls. Ally raises an eyebrow, ‘What just twisted your panties?’

Doyle sighs, ‘I forgot, I was going to make the eleventh floor maze! There are way too many floors in a row right now that are literally straight shots to the next section. Plus, I just thought of a really fun way to make the maze work.’

Ally laughs, ‘Fair enough. For now, though, let’s just see how they deal with the tenth floor. I doubt they’ll beat it on the first try, but that doesn’t matter. Once they leave, you should get more instances to play with.’

Doyle, ‘That will be nice. Though I will definitely need to automate the sixth floor as I think I’ll just have to throw them all at it.’

Ally nods, ‘True’

And they both turn back to Jim’s party as they approach the first dug out section.

Jeremy is the first to reach it, being the scout, and he can’t help but be impressed by the scenery. There are giant mushrooms covering the cliff walls and the small trickle of water that had been collecting at the bottom of the tunnel runs over a bit of a lip.

From there, it does that thing you see with very tall waterfalls without a lot of water where the water turns into mist before it reaches the bottom. Though he can tell that in this case it isn’t so much the height, which just seems to be double the normal tunnel height, as it is how little water there was.

The rest of the part reaches the edge as well, and Kelly groans. “We’re going to have to climb down this cliff, aren’t we?”

Jim laughs, “Afraid of a little cliff? We’ve all climbed worse!”

Kelly shakes her head, “No, we’ve all climbed farther. That nonsense cliff on the second floor wasn’t hard to climb, it was tedious. This is hard to climb because those walls are slick. At least there doesn’t seem to be any mold.”

Jim nods, “Okay, I can see what you mean now. Plus, it isn’t a straight shot with those giant mushrooms on the wall. They’re not packed tightly or anything, but they’ll surely get in the way.”

Back in the core Ally turns to Doyle, ‘Now that they’ve mentioned it, what is up with that?’

Doyle tilts back, ‘That’s all on the myconids. They planted them there and I just let them. Though it looks like they use them to get around. While the builder trio can grow stairs for themselves, it helps to have something to start with and those are perfect for them.’

Ally gestures and a bunch of screens pop up showing the other areas where there is a pit. ‘Then why don’t I see any stairs?’

Doyle, ‘They don’t leave them in place, I presume for security reasons. It does sometimes leave a settlement a bit stuck, but the builders get around to them quickly enough that they don’t seem to care.’

Ally shrugs, ‘Well, it will be interesting to see how Jim and company deal with the situation. Though next time we both know they’re going to show up with a long rope.’

Doyle laughs, ‘They clearly didn’t play enough tabletop roleplaying games or they would have had a rope already. Well, they also might have just been exclusively playing the more modern versions. Those tend to focus more on character ability over planning.’

Though as he is saying that, back with the group, Kelly has something to say about the situation as well. “I told you all we should bring a rope! Sure, I understand not bringing a ten-foot pole, while useful, that is more of a joke item. But rope? This would have made getting down a whole lot easier.”

Bill snorts, “And the chalk you’ve been bringing with you has been of so much help.”

Kelly rolls her eyes, “Situational, but light enough to not matter in the long run. Whereas a rope has a ton of uses. Shame about all the pre-system stuff sucking. There was some really quality rope being made before the apocalypse. Light as you could dream and strong like nothing else.”

Bill, “Next thing you’re going to do is ask me where my towel is. Hardy har har, let’s go all pop culture references.”

Kelly crosses her arms, “Pop culture just took what was there already and ran with it.”

At this point, Jim gets between the two. “Okay, let’s cool off you two. At this point, I have to agree, a rope would be useful to have with us. We’ll have to figure something out as there aren’t exactly any sheep to shear or cotton to spin.”

Jeremy shrugs, “If you just want some rope, me and my wife already have a decent supply of the stuff. I don’t know what Kelly and Bill are going on about, but Kelly isn’t wrong about the stuff being useful.”

Who To Ask? - Chapter 284

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