Chapter 113: Figuring It Out On His Own – Chapter 113

{Invalid Request

Problems: Source of extra drops and preservation box

Please state a solution or choose to cancel the rule}

Doyle leans back, ‘Huh, fair enough. I guess I didn’t question how this all was supposed to get the items in the first place. [System, can I attach loot options to the floor itself?]’

{Loot drops may be attached to any number of things, including groups, challenges, and floors.}

Doyle nods, ‘Okay, it sounds like if I can think of attaching loot to a thing, I can. [System, can I store up spawned loot? I want to give the floor a bunch of herbs and then when people don’t earn those rewards just store them up so others can potentially win them.]’

{Loot attached to monsters must drop when earned. Loot attached to challenges can be stored and only given to those who have earned it.}

Doyle tilts to the side, ‘Oh right, why attach it to the floor when I can attach it to the challenge itself? Plus, now that I think back on what I said, I didn’t actually set up the reward for completing the floor quickly all at once. [System, cancel the invalid rules.]’

Now, with the invalid rules taken care of, Doyle’s core dips as he considers how to word the rules. He was honestly a bit disgusted with himself for how off the cuff he was when trying to set it up the first time. After an hour of thought, he has the rules hammered out.

‘[System, create a challenge to collect 50 herbs from monster drops alone with attached loot of a box of preservation. Only drop the box if no one on the floor has gotten a box from this challenge in the last seven days. Store any unused boxes.]’

‘[Create a challenge to finish the fourth floor all at once and as quick as possible with attached loot of 50 herbs made of a random selection of herbs pulled from a list created with all my current herbs and scale the rewards to how quickly challengers finish the floor as compared to how quickly their abilities would indicate them being able to. Store any spare herbs and use any previously stored herbs as needed.]’

‘[Create a challenge to finish the fourth floor with attached loot of a box of preservation. This challenge can pull spare boxes from the challenge to collect 50 herbs from monster drops alone.]’

Doyle waits for a minute and when the system doesn’t yell at him, his core glows bright for a moment. ‘Well, that worked out! Though I do somewhat wonder why this falls completely under my dungeon rule skill when the loot rules need wisdom to power it. After all, I am attaching loot to things. Maybe I should ask Ally about this one.’

‘Or wait a second. The thing I need wisdom for isn’t setting things up. What wisdom is used for is making respawn mechanics automatic. Ten points does an entire floor, including the act of respawning monsters. Loot rules, on the other hand, attaches loot to my creatures when they are spawned.’

‘For the challenges I’ve told it what loot it should have. Maybe by creating the rule I added on loot. In fact, looking over at my world energy total, that is the case. However, from now on, I’m willing to bet the loot won’t automatically get re-added to the challenges. Until I automate the floor, I will need to remember to stock the challenges. Especially the herb rewards, as I can see that being used up quickly.’

‘Though now that I’ve done this, I could go back and add on the challenges to the rest of the floors. What would I do for the first floor? As for the second floor, my cliff already is sort of covering it. Third floor? A mess and I don’t know what challenge would go there either.’

Doyle settles down to consider things when suddenly Ally interrupts him.

Ally is in the core room, knocking on his core. ‘Yo, Doyle! Those river guys have returned. We should probably pay attention to what is going on out there.’

Doyle shakes his core and turns his attention to the settlement. Ally hadn’t been lying as out past the wall a group of people had gathered. This time, though, a new person is leading them. He turns back to Ally and is about to ask how much time had passed when he suddenly knew that three days had passed since he delved into challenges for his early floors. ‘Huh, okay, I can see them. Let’s take a closer look’ And he pops up a screen to show Ally what is happening.

While that is happening, Ace has taken up position on top of the wall with the rest of the settlement gathered behind him. As he glares down at the others, he has a slight worry at the back of his mind. They had almost gathered the 10,000 copper coins needed for the system anchor. Just another three to five days would be enough. With a sigh, Ace yells down at them, “So I notice some new faces.”

An older looking man steps forward. An oddity in and of itself. Not only did the elderly have a hard time surviving the transition, but those that did all ended up with ten to twenty years knocked off of their looks as the system rejuvenated them. Also compared to the others in his group, the man is wearing a higher class of clothes. Not quite a suit, but he had a wrinkle-free button up long-sleeved shirt, a dark blue tie, some brown corduroy pants, and a pair of black leather shoes.

The man nods at Ace and in a sing-song voice greets him, “Hello, sir. My name is Jack Stansible, and I prefer to be called Mr. Stansible. A bit of a step down from being Judge Stansible, but last time I checked there wasn’t exactly a court for me to work in yet. That and even before this nonsense I had been retired for a good twenty years or so. How may I refer to you?”

Ace raises an eyebrow at his greeting. A bit more info than he had expected. Still, to be polite, he responds in kind, “Hello Mr. Stansible. My name is Ace, and that is how I prefer to be addressed. Though I’m sure once more people start living here I will end up being called Founder Ace I hope our relationship can stay good enough to not need that level of formality.”

Mr. Stansible sighs and nods, “Yes, even though Ben is trying to keep a lid on that kind of nonsense, people are already calling him the savior. Oh, by the way, Ben is the person in charge of our city as he was the one able to organize us against a certain external threat that recently attacked us.”

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Ace nods, “We had a similar emergency here. That is why there are so few of us. Everyone else packed up and ran away under the leadership of a scammer. A cowardly lady who lied about being one of the founders here. Goes by the name of Jan and is a healer. Be careful if you ever interact with her. Like sand, her influence can get everywhere. We expect her to return and have taken steps to prevent her from taking over.”

Mr. Stansible frowns, “That does sound a bit troubling.” He pauses as he considers how his own skills can affect the mental state of others. Not that he would ever reveal this to others.

He coughs, “Anyway, I have the power to make decisions so we can hopefully come to an agreement. Particularly we want to make use of your dungeon.”

Ace smiles, “Not unexpected. In fact, we plan to open up the dungeon to anyone that wants to dive it. However, we also thought about how to restrict access as well.”

Mr. Stansible nods, “We would like a quota of the delves you’re willing to give out. There are several things we can trade for this and ahem, a certain lady from last time, would like me to remind you that a peaceful resolution isn’t the only possibility.”

“That aside, I honestly don’t think there is much need to fight. While everything appears to be reduced to the middle ages, it isn’t quite that bad. A lot of knowledge has been saved. A lot of knowledge can be bought. Magic exists now, and a lot of our old concepts can be interpreted through it. There might be a bit of a squeeze while our world gets back on our feet, but I foresee a bright future!”

Ace raises an eyebrow, “Fair enough, not that I ever doubted that. If anything, the knowledge we had is now only a single drop in an ocean of otherworldly info. I’m sure something we discovered is unique. Everyone has their own understanding of the universe after all.”

Mr. Stansible laughs, “You think we’re just going to get access to that knowledge? Just look at the history of our own world! One of the best tools to keep people down is to prevent them from learning. Do you really expect the rest of the universe to be any different?”

Ace shakes his head, “I see that some of the side effects of the system haven’t really sunk in yet. That or you’re just covering it up for a better deal. Anyway, as a freebie, skills mean that even if we might not learn all the new stuff in a generation or two, there is nothing to stop us from advancing to the same point that everyone else is. It literally downloads the know-how that you’re missing when you level your skills.”

Mr. Stansible squints up at Ace, “I don’t trust it.”

Ace shrugs, “Well, I can’t help you with that. But nonsense aside, we should really get back to what you’re here for in the first place. We have a dungeon and you supposedly have stuff we need. Or at least that’s what you hope.There isn’t much that we need at the moment.”

Mr. Stansible smiles, “How about skill books? I know they aren’t dropped in dungeons and there don’t seem to be any system stores around here.”

Ace shakes his head, “No, we don’t have any. But honestly? We don’t really need them.”

Mr. Stansible rolls his eyes, “What if we had some skill books for magic? How about some farming? It looks like you could use it. Maybe some crafting books?”

Ace laughs, “Is magic supposed to be special? Over half of us have it. Farming? I’ve got a couple of experts. Though depending on what type of crafting, those books might be useful, but that’s a single trade. We could give your city a time limited deal, but we both know that won’t be worth all that much. After all, your settlement is the only one in contact with us at the moment.”

Mr. Stansible sighs, “I was really hoping you would be interested in the magic skills. We only have a bone carving book for crafting.”

Ace nods, “Yeah, bone carving isn’t exactly the most mainstream of skills. How about this. You give us the skill book for it, and we go to your settlement first when we need to start making deals related to dungeon entry. Though I have to warn you. Most of our people are in favor of running it on a first come first serve basis.”

Mr. Stansible nods, “That would be acceptable. Would you accept a team of ours running the dungeon real quick before we leave?”

Ace turns to Kyle and whispers, “A or B?”

Kyle shrugs and whispers back, “They’ve done a lot to improve good relations with us. Go with B.”

Ace nods and turns back to Mr. Stansible, “We would be willing to let a group of no more than six people run the dungeon.”