Chapter 53: They Noticed – Chapter 53

They both sit there in silence for a moment. Then Ally claps her hands, ‘enough of that! I have some paths to invest in! [System, put nine points into true dungeon companion two, ten points into scryer, and 22 into dungeon fae legacy.]’

{9 points applied to True Dungeon Companion II...

5/10 - You have earned +3 to each soul stat and +1/Level to each soul stat

10/10 - Path complete, You have earned +2 Intelligence, +1 to each soul stat, and +1 Constitution/Level; Gained Soul Form skill

10 points applied to Scryer...

1/10 - You have earned +1 Wisdom and Presence

3/10 - You have earned +1 Wisdom/Level and +1 Presence/Level

6/10 - You have earned +5 Presence and your minds eye can be jolted once upon request

10/10 - You have earned +2 Presence/Level and gained the skill Scry I at level 0

22 points applied to Dungeon Fae Legacy I...

20/120 - Fae Magic I path overwritten by Primal Magic I path, Fae Glamor lv13 skill overwritten by the skill Primal Glamor lv2}

They both look over the results and Doyle is the first to speak up. ‘So what’s this about paths being permanent?’

Ally lets out an awkward laugh and explains that, ‘no matter what rules the system might have it isn’t the end all be all. So while I said you couldn’t lose a path, like most absolutes that isn’t entirely true. In this specific example, my legacy path overwrote the fae magic I use with primal magic.’

‘That doesn’t happen in most cases because magic paths tend to stack on top of one another. You get the magic paths for fire, water, earth, and wind. Then you can get an elementalist path. It doesn’t replace any of the four paths leading up to it. If you had the skill fireball, you would still have it afterwards. This shifted everything related to my fae magic into primal magic.’

‘More interesting though is the fact that primal glamor has a lower level. Much more common of an occurrence, but oh so handy. You most commonly see it with martial arts skills. Someone will gain a bunch of component skills and then combine them into a single skill to represent their style of combat. If I had known this was going to happen, I would have grinded my glamor more because with the level reset comes easier leveling.’

Doyle nods, ‘fair enough. Though it looks like the legacy will be a bit of a point sink as you only got a bonus at 20. Also what is with the six of ten scry thing?’

Ally glances back over the system message, ‘ah, you mean the mind’s eye thing? That is a bit of a misnomer, to be honest. Should probably be called the soul’s eye, but once a name sticks, it can be hard to change. Anyway, you know how I have soul sight as a skill? Well, all that represents is my physical eyes being able to see souls and doesn’t have anything to do with my soul.’

‘The mind’s eye represents when you have connected a special part of your soul to your mind. This does a few things but the primary purpose is to keep an eye on your own mental health. While meditation and introspection can help you monitor it, there is a reason a good therapist is so sought after in the wider universe. When a being can have the power to destroy a planet on a whim, keeping them stable is an important task. Not that they are inherently unstable or anything, but they do tend to live long enough to gain some baggage.’

‘Of course that isn’t why scryer gives the reward it does. Instead, that comes from one of the secondary benefits. When you use scrying, a lot of information gets dumped into your mind. For most people what this means is they get a scene like watching a tv and a headache to end all headaches. Opening the mind’s eye, as it is called, allows a scryer to offload the initial load onto the soul. This allows the person in question to examine what they are looking at as if they were there in person as the soul filters out what can’t be experienced.’

‘Now because it deals with the soul, the system isn’t quite able to do it for you. Like how it couldn’t connect our souls, it can’t connect my soul with my mind. Instead, what it can do is send a jolt into my soul at the specific site I need to connect to my mind. Very important because the soul tends to shift around so connecting it up would normally require years, decades, maybe even centuries of soul searching.’

‘A lot easier to find it when the place is smarting from the system poking it. Though I think I will wait until my soul stats are all over twenty. That isn’t some watershed mark or anything, but a soul tends to stabilize when your stats are in the 15 to 18 range. Sort of like puberty for the soul. It isn’t finished growing, but that is when it matures the most and separates your current life from any previous ones.’

Doyle rolls to the side and his core dims for a moment. ‘Huh, that is interesting. Maybe I should try and get my destiny two more points because otherwise the rest are there.’

Ally laughs, ‘it isn’t really important for most things. It will just make dealing with the mind’s eye easier.’

She is about to say more, but Doyle suddenly smacks one of his stone cubes against another. ‘I got it!’

Ally raises an eyebrow, ‘what do you get?’

Doyle’s core pulses and he laughs, ‘I get why it is called the mind’s eye! Or more properly minds eye without an apostrophe. It isn’t saying that it is an eye belonging to the mind. Rather it is you keeping an eye on your mind.’

Ally sits on her bed stunned for a moment, ‘huh, that almost sounds sensible. Still a stupid name, but if that is true it isn’t as nonsensical as I thought.’

This minor revelation is enough to knock the conversation off track. The two of them start down the road of talking about words, translations, and how in the world the system manages it in the first place.

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While that is happening Ace is getting some annoying news outside and he is not happy about it. “What do you mean the kobolds are cleverer?”

The leader of one of the more competent teams shrugs, “We took a quick look into the kobold room after snaffling up all the berries and honey.”

Ace raises an eyebrow, “and by a quick look you mean trying to beat the floor because you don’t want to fall too far behind us founders?”

The guy smiles, “yep, that exactly! Unlike most times we try them, it was odd. You’ve been there so you know the usual flow. The team enters and that has the melee bolds charging on up. If my team had any sneaky types that would let us send them around to paint a few red smiles for the caster bolds in back.”

Ace nods in confirmation and gestures for him to continue.

“Well, that didn’t happen today! Those melee types stayed back and the group actually used the terrain to screen my ranged dps guy. We just turned around at that sight and got out of dodge. Real strange, that.”

Ace sighs and waves him away, “Thanks for the report. I am sure your team has already started their fun. Go on and join them.”

Once the man has left Ace turns back to the small council of people. Only two other founders are there at the time. Kelly to report on some minutia her research had discovered. Jeremy because it was a wonderful excuse to be away from the fields while his wife goes crazy on them. He looks at Kelly. “So, your opinion on this development?”

Kelly looks down at the construction paper she had written out her notes on and sighs. She puts them back in a beat up suitcase with a forced lock, then looks back up at him. “You do need to listen to my discoveries at some point. Oh well, guess I should help you decipher your pet dungeon’s recent vagaries.”

She pulls out an actual piece of paper from the suitcase and takes a minute to read it over. The other people wait patiently as she refreshes her memory. She shakes her head and scribbles a few more notes onto the paper, then puts it away again. “There are two possibilities. The most likely one is that the dungeon leveled up. While the limits aren’t proven, most people believe that dungeon monsters are limited by the core’s level. With levels come stats such as more wisdom to make plans.”

At this point one of the listeners interrupts, “Wait a second! You mean to tell me that our teams have been having trouble with level one mobs?”

A glare from Kelly shuts him up, though she does answer his question. “Yes. We have been fighting level one monsters but you need some context for that. Levels mean a lot less for monsters unless they are sapient because they don’t get paths. Dungeons mess with this as some seem to provide a boost but that isn’t important.”

“Whether we are fighting level one, level ten, or level 100 monsters. Them getting smarter depends on the dungeon itself improving in some manner. However, as I said, there were two things this could be. Though the second one is a bit wild and I don’t want any of you to spread this. In fact, Ace, you should send away those you don’t trust or we should wait.”

Ace rubs his eyes and sighs, “now everyone is going to wonder about what your guess is. Is it really that important that the others don’t know about it in spite of the rampant rumor mongering that will go on about it?” Kelly simply nods in response so he rolls his eyes and gestures for the others to leave.

Once everyone besides Ace and Jeremy have left Kelly sighs, “the core might be awake.”

Ace stares at Kelly waiting for her to continue and when she doesn’t he glares at her, “is that all? I don’t see why I had to send the others away for that.”

He is about to go on but Jeremy interrupts him by laughing. “Well, that is a jolly good time! Ace, you need to calm down. If what she just dropped on us is true, then we really don’t want the others to know about it.”

Ace shakes his head, “why does it matter if the dungeon is awake? All dungeons are sapient already. Whether it has an ego to go with, it shouldn’t change much at this stage of development.”

Kelly sighs, “it is exactly because the dungeon is this early in development. We aren’t dealing with a newly born core if it is awake. The dungeon might be new but the mind behind it isn’t. This is one of the least likely options. It would require a lot of work on the systems part and I got the feeling that it doesn’t do that whenever possible.”

Ace rubs the bridge of his nose and scrunches his eyes closed. “I do not want system nonsense in the center of the settlement.”

Jeremy shakes his head, “with that effect from the dungeon, you know which one, we don’t really have a choice. Either hold it or die because no one would let us live with that knowledge.”

Ace throws his hands up, “Fine, we are between a rock and a hard place already. I just didn’t want to add something pointy to the mix as well. Kelly, please tell me there isn’t anything else?”

Kelly glances away from his gaze. He squints his eyes, “Kelly?”

She purses her lips and then sighs, “whatever else has happened the dungeon should now have a second floor. My bet is that it finished it which led to the first floor improving.”

Ace looks like he is about to collapse when a commotion attracts their attention towards the edge of their land.

Akhier

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