TtOW! - Chapter 8: Terminate the Earth Dungeon! (Patreon)

The dungeon was not much longer after the fight with the dirt golems.  There were a handful of pitfall traps, but no further battles.  As a result, NSLICE-00P had a chance to evaluate the Magic Missile upgrade options and made her choice.

[Magic Missile has been upgrade into Dense Magic Missile.]

Of all the options, a straightforward boost in effectiveness seemed the most efficient.  Exploding seemed unnecessary when she already had anti-personnel missiles available, and the Mana Blast spell indicated there might be other, more suitable options for area damage spells.  Multi was useful but she could already increase the number of projectiles via Multicast, so it wasn’t a new capability for her.  Instant had potential, but now that she knew it was possible to cast spells without the magic circle, she wanted to research said possibility on her own.  The fact that she had conducted the Mana Beam on her own implied such a thing was within her capabilities.  Finally, Piercing seemed useful, however she already had the Equalizer to try and strip defensive spells, which was the point of pursuing Arcane Magic to begin with.  As such, she had chosen the simple but effective option of stuffing more mana into each projectile.

What was more valuable to her was the adjustments the upgrade made to the magic circle.  She now had two versions of the same spell to compare, and could thus determine which parts of the formation were likely related to mana density, or perhaps containment?  In any case, it added to her growing knowledge base, and so was a step towards her ultimate goal.

But now was not the time for such long term calculations.  For NSLICE-00P and Rattingtale had reached the final room of the dungeon.  A large chamber with a glowing crystal on a stone pedestal…and a huge stone statue standing in front of it.  A stone statue with glowing eyes.

“So you’re the intruder who tore through my dungeon.  Surprising.”

“Warning Query: Will the hostile dungeon master like to surrender?  Or should this unit engage termination protocols?”

Rattingtale stuck out his head to squeak into the cyborg’s ear.

“Hey!  I thought I told-warned you other dungeon masters would be hostile!  What do you mean surrender?!”

“Explanation: This unit calculated surrender as a more efficient option, given the risk factor of combat and the added benefit of additional friendlies.”

Fortunately for Rattingtale, the dungeon master had other plans.

“Surrender?”

The statue let out a low rumble.

“No.”

And with that the statue rushed forward, slamming a stone fist into the ground.

“I think I will crush you instead!”

NSLICE-00P dodged to the side, aiming a fist at the statue.  An anti-tank missile launched straight into the dungeon master and exploded.

They heard him laugh from behind the cloud of smoke.  The dungeon master emerged, his stone armor barely scratched.

“I invested most of my perks into my personal defense.  You will need much more than that to take me down!”

He slammed his fist into the ground.  Several stones blasted up from the ground, launching towards NSLICE-00P.  She used her repulsors to boost out of the way of the attack, firing a laser beam at the dungeon master, but that too failed to make much impact.

“Equalizer engaged.”

She tried the rainbow beam once more, but the dungeon master’s HP barrier was solid as a rock.  The Equalizer tore at it but barely made a tiny hole in it.  She still tried to fire a beam through it, managing to pierce a small hole.

However, a small hole was nothing to the stone behemoth.  He had no flesh or bone under his rocky skin in the first place.

It seemed the only way to destroy him was to take him down the regular way.

The dungeon master lunged forward, ducking his shoulder in.  NSLICE-00P jumped back and activated her repulsors, flying high into the air.

“...get down here!”

NSLICE-00P decided not to comply with that request.  Instead, she created a dozen magic circles in the air, firing a barrage of magic missiles.

[The spell Dense Magic Missile is now level 13!]

[The skill Multicast is now level 5!]

Her robotic eye flickered as the dungeon master cried out, shielding his face with his arms.

It seems the magic missiles did the trick, dealing heavy damage to the HP barrier.

And fortunately for the cyborg, it seems the dungeon master had neglected long range attacks, believing in his defense alone.  He tried the rock-launching punch several more times, but it was simple for NSLICE-00P to move out of the way, keeping up the barrage of magic missiles as she did.

[The spell Magic Missile is now level 14!]

[The skill Arcane Magic is now level 9!]

[The skill Multicasting is now level 6!]

Still, the dungeon master had quite the large HP pool, and Magic Missile wasn’t exactly the most powerful spell in existence.  It took a long time to work down the stone behemoth’s defenses.

[The skill MP Regen is now level 4!]

Fortunately, NSLICE-00P had full access to her Dungeon mana pool, as well as the MP Regen skill.  She could keep up her current barrage indefinitely.

The match was decided the moment NSLICE-00P determined an effective attack.

Still, she was only damaging the HP pool barrier.  The dungeon master himself was still some sort of stone golem, practically solid rock, which she would have to find a way to terminate once the protective HP had been drained.  Her arsenal was not exactly optimized for mining.

But she had an idea on that.

She had been analyzing the flows of mana from her opponent as she assaulted his HP, and had determined his mana was coming from a central location.  Her analysis predicted this might represent the equivalent of a vital organ.

So once the HP barrier was on its last legs, NSLICE-00P dropped her assault and landed in front of the dungeon master.  She fired a final blast of the Equalizer, tearing a hole through the now paper-thin HP remaining.  Then she pulled both her hands together, charging her laser attack with as much power as she could put into it.  And as she did, she used her experiences from practicing Arcane Magic to push her mana into the attack as well, activating the relevant skill to support.

A huge beam fired from her hands, piercing straight through the dungeon master’s body.  And destroying the golem core animating the stone he wrapped himself in.

[You have slain Golem Dungeon Master (Level 12)!]

[Gained 28 Personal XP, 28 Dungeon XP!]

[The skill Mana Beam is now level 4!]

“No!”

In fact, the beam continued straight through the dungeon master…and straight into the dungeon core behind him.  Rattingtale cried out as the core shattered.

NSLICE-00P felt the mana and information from the core flow into her own as a flash of light covered her vision.

[You have absorbed a dungeon core (Earth Tunnels)!]

[Gained 6 status perk points, 6 dungeon perk points!]

[Gained Dungeon Affinity: Earth(minimum)!]

[You have accomplished the feat: Dungeon Conqueror (Earth Tunnels)! (Conquered the Earth Tunnels Dungeon)]

[Dungeon Conqueror (Earth Tunnels): Unlocked by Conquering the Earth Tunnels Dungeon.  Grants +1 perk point, grants Earth Magic skill]

[You have learned the skill Earth Magic!]

[You have learned the spell Rock Throw!]

“What have you done, you strange man-thing?!  You destroyed-demolished the dungeon core!”

“Correction: Apparently destroying the dungeon core has the same outcome as absorbing it.”

“I know-understand that, already!  But we were supposed to stay-rest there!  Now where are we supposed to stay-hide?!”

“...Analysis: It seems search-and-destroy protocol resulted in an overzealous termination of hostiles.  However, the other objective of improving this unit’s capabilities and available resources has been achieved.  This unit shall consider this mission a partial success, and will adjust search-and-destroy protocols for the next target.”

Rattingtale groaned and rubbed his face with his paw.  It seemed he would be stuck with the man-thing for a while longer.  So much for that plan.

***

Later that night, as NSLICE-00P looked for another dungeon, she evaluated the options available to her.

[You have learned the spell Mana Blast!]

First things first, she selected her free spell from Arcane Magic.  There were a number of options, but she decided on the Mana Blast.  As another offensive spell, she predicted it would provide the most useful comparison with the Magic Missile magic circles, improving her understanding of how such circles were constructed.  And in this latest dungeon, she learned the value of having mana-powered offensive tools.

Which led her to her next decision.  The foes in this dungeon had proven remarkably resilient to her conventional arsenal, but terribly vulnerable to her new magic spells.  It was logical to assume, therefore, that there may be foes who could resist magical attacks, but might prove vulnerable to something more mundane.

She had therefore decided to invest some of her Dungeon perk points into her weapon loadout, as well as her own defenses.

So, she started by opening up the trap menu.

[Traps]

• [Unlock New Traps]
• [Upgrade Traps]
  • [Assault Rifle (Amount: 2/2)]
    • [Assault Rifle +1: Improves basic performance across the board.  Higher levels unlock additional upgrade options.  Cost: 1 perk point]
  • [Autopistol (Amount: 2/2)]
  • [Anti-Armor Missile Launcher (Amount: 2/2)]
  • [Anti-Personnel Missile Launcher (Amount: 6/6)]
  • (continued…)

It seems she had several options.  She could unlock brand new weapons or unlock new variations of weapons she already had.  She didn’t have enough data to evaluate new weapon choices at present, and she didn’t require greater quantities of the weapons she already possessed, so she went ahead and upgraded her primary weapon.

[Assault Rifle +1 now available.]

[New Assault Rifle upgrades available.]

She went ahead and replaced both her assault rifles with the new option.  She was able to pull weapon statistics from the system, and was pleased to find across-the-board improvements, as well as unlocking some new options for upgrades:

• [Assault Rifle (Amount: 2/2)]
  • [Assault Rifle +2: Improves basic performance across the board.  Higher levels unlock additional upgrade options.  Cost: 2 perk points]
  • [Infused Rounds: Imbue projectiles with mana.  Improves performance against targets with physical resistance/immunity.  Enables additional upgrade options.  Cost: 1 perk point]
  • [Penetrating Rounds: Improve projectile performance against DEF.  Cost: 1 perk point.]

For now, she would accept the improved performance of the weapon.  She then went ahead and moved to her next order of business.

[Implants]

• [New Implant]
• [Upgrade Implants]
  • [Bionic Prosthetics]
  • [Armor Plating]
    • [Armor Plating +1: Increase DEF by 10 and RES by 5.  Higher tiers unlock additional upgrades.  Cost: 1 perk point.]
  • [Bonded AI]
  • [Techno-Organic Interface]
  • [Advanced Sensors]
  • [Internal Weapon Bays]
  • [Internal Capacitors]
  • [Repulsors]
  • [Energy Channels]

She had a lot of options here as well, but for now went with a basic boost to her armor plating.  She felt mana move from her core and travel throughout her exterior, increasing the density of the metal plating.

Her calculations indicated these upgrades would not be sufficient to defeat the Ursanus she faced, but it was a step in the right direction, and she still didn’t have enough data for a larger scale expenditure at this time.  In addition, Arcane Magic has already dramatically expanded her capabilities and now she had a new skill, Earth Magic, to explore, so she was not ready to invest more in her conventional weaponry.  Above all, she needed more intel.

So, NSLICE-00P started to explore the new magic available to her as she searched for another dungeon…

Author’s Notes:

Dungeon #2 terminated!

…oops we weren’t supposed to terminate that one, huh?  Ah well, we’ll get em next time!

Also, it’s kind of hard to decide what perks a character will choose when she’s never played a video game before and also doesn’t have much individuality, lol.  Like I know what implant I want to give her but first we have to teach her AI why said implant is useful haha.

Anyways!

Will NSLICE-00P accidentally terminate more dungeons?  Will Rattingtale ever make any progress on his plan?  Can the author get NSLICE-00P to pick the right perks?  Tune in next time, to find out!