Chapter 160: Existence Existing – Chapter 158

Doyle pulls back from working on the sixth floor, and things have changed. Not much, but enough for him to tell time has passed. The system doesn’t have a convenient calendar function so it takes him a little to figure out that three days have passed. Once again, not much had happened so this loss of time wasn’t critical but it showed that he needed to be careful about time slipping on him.

Though he can understand why it took so long. Even if he hadn’t completely connected up the sixth floor portals like he had wanted, there was still a boatload of work done. While it felt like no time at all, there had to be some cost to warping reality, even if it is his own personal pocket dimensions and apparently that cost is time. A decent trade off if a little worrying.

In fact, it is worrying enough that Doyle turns to Ally. ‘Heyo, I just lost a few days. It was used on needed work but it is a little worrying. I understand it is a dungeon thing but I wanted to make sure things were alright.’

Ally looks up from a hefty tome that is bound in leather and without a title except for a strange gilded squiggle that tickles Doyle’s brain as if it should mean something to him. She closes the book and frowns, ‘You have already experienced the whole, time passes by you thing but this is different. While being in the zone while crafting something isn’t the rarest thing, it is odd for a dungeon with so few floors. You simply don’t have enough protection between your core and the surface. Did you experience anything like this before the system came?’

‘Sorta’, Doyle pauses, ‘When I would get into an exceptional book I would tend to get so absorbed that I forgot to sleep.’

Ally nods, ‘That would do it. You already had the basic instincts for it before becoming a dungeon and the new instincts just reinforced it. Of course, dungeon cores aren’t the only ones that experience it. In fact, the state tends to be named scholar’s fugue because once they gain enough power to offset needing to eat and sleep they need someone to manage their time.

‘With dungeon’s in particular though you should get warned a few floors before a party reaches your core but that clearly didn’t happen. My guess is that it isn’t a set number of floors but rather a percentage, and a low one at that. This could be troublesome.’

Doyle sighs in frustration, ‘There isn’t even a good condition I can set with how few floors I have. Right now, there is nothing to stop someone from sending in waves of people to overwhelm me. I would need to know about that as soon as it starts, instead of once they reach the fifth floor or some such. Ally, would you mind keeping an eye on that sort of thing for me? I can easily set a warning for night time delves as even if it isn’t a rule, the town avoids it so you would only need to watch during the day.’

Ally smiles, ‘You know what? I wouldn’t mind helping you with that.’

Doyle’s core brightens, ‘Thank you. While things got a bit rocky there, I really do enjoy your company and I hope this can be the start of us truly working together.’

Ally nods, ‘I hope for that as well.’

With a lighter mood, Doyle sets up a night time alarm and turns back to the sixth floor. Because of the complexity being used to express such a simple thing as a giant field of grass he can’t change too much. All that really remains is to carve something and finish up the myriad of gate connections that still need to be made.

After a quick look over the floor, Doyle realizes the perfect thing to carve, the ebony trees. Each one exactly the same as the last, which means he can carve up a single one and replicate it across the floor. Though that does leave figuring out what concept he wants the trees to embody. So far, the best results from his skill have come from when it was being used with a purpose driven concept. Sure, the lights turned more sun-like but it was weak.

No, for this Doyle wanted something special. There is, of course the shade they cast which on a floor meant to simulate a constant high noon is important. But the shade is already decent. It needs to be something important to the floor.

Then it hits him, he is already going to be copying the carvings to all the other trees. Combine that with the point of the floor being to confuse people into thinking it was an endless prairie, that can be the concept. The idea of infinite reflection where the trees support the illusion of an infinite number of identical trees.

Idea in mind Doyle begins to carve into the tree starting at the top of the main trunk. Around the top he repeats identical stick figure trees of eerie similarity despite each one being drawn separately instead of copy pasted. Then underneath those, there are elegant curves and curls connecting the trees above as if roots. Though this is also where the visual duplication ends. Each root weaves through the rest in a unique path and yet still manages to connect to all the others.

A simple carving but there is power in the simplicity, and a mania overtakes Doyle. While he had planned to just copy, the carvings to the other trees that just won’t do anymore. No, he instead goes to each tree and carves the imagery, identical trees on top with unique roots below. No one tree with the same root carvings and yet the stick figure trees might not have been so alike even if he had copied them.

This process takes another three days of nonstop work but on the fourth everything comes together. A pulse of indistinct power that even Ally can’t identify as it washes over her. Then not just the trees but the grass and dirt all modulate and shimmer before becoming otherworldly. Each blade of grass, each speck of dirt, and every single leaf have turned identical.

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Not just on a surface level either, but down to the very mystical and physical core of each of them. The strangeness simmers on the edge of Doyle’s mind as strange symmetrical tendrils of orderly void almost seem to extend out towards the other floors but are contained to the actual floor, unable to leave the straight lines of the floor’s inner space.

Then a snap and the goosebump raising sensation is shattered. While the grass and such remain identical on the surface, the inner spaces and actual material no longer matches. But still a connection remains and Doyle can tell that one of the minor effects of this is that damage to any tree will undo itself as much as possible before any unfixable changes are replicated to the other trees. While Doyle hadn’t worried too much about it, this new effect will prevent people from noticing that they are just passing the same trees over and over again.

Doyle was going to spend some time figuring out what just happened when Ally spoke up for the first time in a while. ‘Why did I just feel an axiomatic event try to form?’

Doyle turns his attention to her, ‘What is that?’

Ally sighs, ‘There are a few intrinsic forces that seem to cover more than just the local dimension cluster. Basic building blocks that gain a force from their sheer ubiquitousness. Order and Chaos are two of the higher tier ones that as far as most can tell are the forces behind existence beyond just the void. Chaos creates new dimensions while Order is the force behind entropy and the continual decay towards a dimension returning to the void.

‘Sounds like the classic good vs evil conflict except with the usual roles flipped, right? Well, there is a reason good and evil aren’t similar forces. It all comes down to perspective. For instance, Order is all about civilizations forming while Chaos is at best neutral and at worst all about burning it down. Of course Chaos is the power behind sapient life forming in the first place, while Order would very much prefer everything just remain as instinct based animal. And then, of course, Chaos is the one who creates life in the first place, and so on and so forth.

‘What is important for this is that even True Immortals don’t directly deal with forces like that. Rather purely from those forces existing, there are beings who spring into existence whole cloth. Chaos, of course, doesn’t have any set spawn but Order does. Some of your world’s role-playing games had a concept similar to them in the modron. Anyway, if any place becomes too orderly, it will call those beings. Very inconvenient as living creatures aren’t orderly enough for them. Whole worlds have been reduced to equal sized cubes of various materials by infestations of them and I just felt an attempted incursion.’

Doyle shudders, ‘Okay, that’s my bad. I’ll have to be more careful with conceptual reinforcement from now on. I was carving up my trees on the sixth floor so they are as similar to one another as possible. Those carvings, however, did more than intended and turned the whole main floor area into exact copies wherever every blade of grass and every speck of dirt mirrored themselves.

‘What I guess was the incursion tried to take it further but something either related to me being a dungeon or to the way my concept worked forced it to stop. Now, while the surface of everything is the same, the insides are all mixed up again. Thinking back on it I think the only thing that saved me is that I carved the roots underneath the depictions of my trees to be a complete tangle with everyone being different.’

Ally nods, ‘Well yeah, that would do it. Luckily, Chaos is a whole lot harder to call in. Those beings tend to only show up to combat the forces of Order.’

Doyle sighs, ‘Any other forces I should be aware of so I can avoid calling in?’

Ally shrugs, ‘Not particularly. Most of them don’t bother getting involved with Order being the main exception. Mostly because all the others get along with existence existing. For instance, there is a force that represents supernatural powers. Even a dimension that lacks the stuff is fine by that force because there is always a chance for it to be introduced. Your dimension is actually a good example of this. Sure, some dimensions might live and die without experiencing magic, but with the lifespan of a dimension the numbers are shockingly small.’

‘I’m sure I’ll stumble upon other forces that want to screw with me.’ Doyle rolls back and his core dims, ‘Though yeah, can’t really do anything about it until it happens. Anyway, how have the delvers been?’

Ally laughs, ‘The people from upriver are quite a clueless bunch. They delve as frantically as possible while trying to increase their levels. Sure, they are gaining power and the difference between any normal team from the town and those upriver has mostly vanished. However, the people from town have focused on getting a very strong base and raising their skills as much as possible. Oh, and of course the founders are bonkers and could whip the butt of every single one of the teams from upriver. But that is to be expected. I’m sure the place upriver has a few trump cards that are above the norm as well.’

Doyle grumps, ‘Bleh, I’m almost jealous of them being able to level. I’m only at three myself after all.’

Ally shakes her head, ‘Most of your experience probably doesn’t even come from the delvers. At this point, they are just too weak to be a real challenge. Rather, you’re likely on the crafter track at the moment. After all, crafting each floor is more of a challenge for you than it is to use those same floors to defend yourself.’