The Cost Of A Boss – Chapter 125

Akhier

{Fifth floor dimensionally anchored

World Energy cap +3000 [Constitution(30) * 100]

Fifth floor spending limit set to 10500 [Previous floor’s limit(7800) + Intelligence(27) * 100]

First boss monster unlocked for use

Monster level cap updated

Quintessence debt paid back by 5}

Doyle nods, ‘Nothing out of the ordinary. Though it looks like the system replaced the new monster option with the boss monster unlock. Also, it doesn’t say that the boss was unlocked for this floor. I can probably use it wherever I want. Still going to use it on the fifth floor, but it is something to keep in mind for the future.’

‘Speaking of the future, I wonder when I will get the next boss. Probably was told this, but I can’t remember. Being a dungeon core definitely didn’t give me a photographic memory. Except for my patterns but that feels like muscle memory instead of actual memory.’

While considering these things, Doyle isn’t slacking off. The fifth floor is expanding outward at a decent clip. And a good thing as while the new floor is only four small rooms wider and taller. Over 280 small rooms bigger than the last floor and that is only one small room less than the entire first floor.

Once the floor has finished growing Doyle pulls back his view and begins to layout the floor. And it would be a real change. Even when he had done large rooms, they never took up more than a fourth of the floor. Plus, those floors were much smaller. Here, though, he plans to turn that on its head.

What he plans to make escapes from the term “room”. A circle with a diameter of 34 small rooms. Yes, a large space over 900 small rooms squared. If he had placed it on the last floor, there wouldn’t have been much space left over for any other room. On the fifth floor there is just enough space, especially at the corners, to fit in a few rooms.

Not that the center space was going to be empty or anything. In fact, the first thing he does after making the room is basically grab the center and pull upward to make a hill of it. Then he pulled the ceiling upward even further, not as far as he could, but enough to give a large amount of head room.

Of course he can’t leave it at that. To further add to it Doyle tries something hadn’t yet. Through a moment of mental effort, the entire dome above goes smooth, perfectly smooth. Not quite on the level of atomically smooth, but definitely on the same level, if not better than pre-system science had ever managed. Once smoothed out, another force of will changes the basic structure of the stones surface.

Instead of using something like a dye or special mineral to color the ceiling Doyle went directly to changing up the reflective properties so that it matches the blue of the sky outside. He shakes his core, this still wasn’t good enough. Taking directly from the view outside he sets the rule that the floors ceiling will continually shift to match the sky above his dungeon’s entrance, minus anything like birds flying across.

Now the dome has changed from a simple ceiling into a perfect view of the outside. The illusion is almost complete, as it would be hard for anyone to tell where the ceiling starts. Not perfect though as while it can imitate the color of the sky this is more like a painting instead of a tv screen. The stone ceiling still isn’t able to project light. A bit of a problem.

While he does fix some problems by placing a ton of his lights and having them follow the position of the sun. Of course, at night they would spread out to try and match the stars. Though that mimicry would be much worse as the number of lights is by far dwarfed by the number of stars in the sky.

After this, Doyle can only bob his core and give up on making it better. Until he can make the stone emit light, there just is no way to get the flat stone to mimic all the ways light is bouncing. Still, the ceiling will take care of the one problem he had been worried about.

Doyle could have just set up an illusion of the sky. Not only would this have mimicked the look, but it would have also taken care of the light problems. What held him back from using this method is the fact that illusions can be seen through. By changing the ceiling to match the sky outside, while he would lose in accuracy, he would gain dependability. The only way to stop the sky from being shown would be to dispel the entire ceiling. Even if someone could damage the ceiling, that would only stop the bits actually missing from the dome.

Satisfied, Doyle turns his attention to the floor beneath. With a cheeky flash of light from his core, Doyle changes the hill to match how he remembered the hill outside of his dungeon before the settlement had changed things. This didn’t change much, but gave the area a much more natural feel. Though if any of the founders have even a half decent memory, they would be able to tell what he did at this point.

Doyle was even tempted to copy the settlement itself, but shook his core. No, he had a much better way to develop the town he wants to be placed here. Instead he turns to setting down a base of dirt and clover with sprigs of herbs spread around. He even places a couple of olive trees and a lemon tree, because why not?

Then comes the fun part. Doyle could go around building huts and such until a nice little town develops. But having tasted the forbidden fruit of self generating content he wants to take it further. And he has the perfect method to build a kobold village. After all, why build a village for his kobolds when he can just make the kobolds do it themselves? They can already build traps, even if limited by his nature as a dungeon. There should be nothing to prevent them from making some scenery as well. He has a spending limit of 10500!

Though that did bring up one question, which forced him to grudgingly ask Ally about. His core turns back to her where she is slumped up against the wall. While a little sad to see her right where he left her, Doyle knew he couldn’t buckle. Having worked in a grocery store he had seen what happens when you let a kid get what they want when they cause a scene. So all he does is ask, ‘Hey Ally, how does a boss work when it comes to the world energy cost?’

Ally pouts and turns her back to him. This lasts for a few moments when her body tenses up. Doyle can even see small sparks of static. She shakes herself and tries to continue ignoring him, but the shock repeats and she gives up.

With a growl in her voice, she rolls her eyes, ‘I guess the system isn’t going to let me ignore you for legitimate questions. Bosses cost the amount of points a normal monster does, but times five. The other catch is that bosses break the max level for the floor and even the dungeon as they will be leveled up to the floor max plus five.’

She shuts up at this point, but another shock convinces her to relay one final piece of info. ‘Yeah, and you can use the three free levels per floor with the boss. You just have to use them on the monster you plan to make a boss before you make them a boss.’ And now the system doesn’t bother her as she lifts off and flies into her home.

Doyle rolls his core at her antics. ‘It looks like I will have to treat her more like a child than I suspected. At least she is putting herself in timeout at the moment. Anyway, back to the floor. With so many points to spend, it won’t matter much that I have to spend a few hundred on the boss.’

With a final shake of his core, Doyle turns back to his fifth floor and starts doing some math. A kobold costs 50 points and the three free levels puts one at the level cap for the floor. Five more levels beyond that means that for a normal kobold the cost would be 300 points. Multiply that by five and you end up with a shocking cost of one and a half thousand points. Well, it would be more shocking if he didn’t have over ten thousand points to play with.

Besides the kobolds, he of course will want some goats and wolves, maybe some cows? Not much else, though. The focus of this floor is going to be the kobolds, plain and simple. Though it won’t stop him from using some of the more advanced forms of those monsters. After all, how could he not use his newly available herb cow?

Doyle’s core glimmers, ‘First though, I need to make sure I have enough kobolds to make it a well and proper village.’ And with a mental wave of the hand he summons 80 kobolds with plans for 5 more at level eight, adding another 5000 points to the total.

The newly summoned kobolds are all milling about with little order or reason, but Doyle has just the solution for that. See, he never planned to summon up a fresh monster for the boss. Yes, he knows that without a soul all his monsters are like fresh slates. Still, since the very beginning, he has always had one kobold in mind to be the boss. Until now, she had been sitting around on the first floor.

A blank slate she might be but Doyle has a certain amount of trust in one point that had been hammered home to him ever since the goat incident. Much of his dungeon powers are based on intent, and guess what? Ever since he placed Her, his intent had been firm. She would be the boss, She was the boss.

So now from the first floor Doyle calls Her up as well as Her five companions and Her five goats. Of course once they have transferred the first floor summons up some more kobolds and goats, but for Doyle they aren’t the same. As the kobolds and goats traverse the floors, they gain in power and levels. Her goats all hit five, while She and Her companions all hit the fifth floor’s cap of level eight. Of course the three free levels are used on Her as Ally had grudgingly suggested.

As She enters the floor from the portal all 80 kobolds on the floor stand up straight as if a shock had just passed through them. Then within moments they have all gathered in front of Her kneeling before Her. In the background Doyle summons up a large quantity of logs, rocks, axes, and picks.

With a wave of Her hand, backed up by Doyle’s authority, the kobolds split into five forces of 16 each under one of Her companions. No matter what profession they will eventually have all the kobolds have now turned towards converting the raw material into a true village.

Satisfied with this result, Doyle turns his attention to spending the remaining 4k points. Or rather 3980 points as he did bring Her goats up as well. Speaking of which Doyle decides to pump them as well. Though not to the degree of the others from the first floor. Instead, he just puts an extra level on the five of them using up another 20 points.

Of course, if there are going to be five goats, there might as well be a hundred goats, using up another 380 points as Doyle counts the original five as a part of this number. And then comes the cows. One herb cow at 26 points, six earthen cattle at 108, 12 long-horned cattle for 132, and finally 24 dungeon cattle for 240. All of them together equals up to 506 points, he double checked! Doyle had been tempted by the ashen and sea cows, but they didn’t really fit the floor.

Akhier

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