Chương 17: [b1] 017 - Victory in defeat

[KLUDGE> That's totally bogus! There's no way that fight was right. How did Ash do so much damage with a single hit? MAM, I want PANIC's bet struck from the record.] [MAM> Don't drag me into this, this is officially a Colin problem.] I ignored the thunderous sound of thousands of pings going off, everyone furious about PANIC's suspiciously well timed bet. I stared at the delvers as they huddled around in the center of the bridge.

It was a scene I'd seen played out a dozen times before, just with a different set of people. Pilot Reed, Engineer Heli, and the rest of the bridge crew huddled around Captain Wilnur as they celebrated overcoming immense odds and saying fuck you to the universe. My delvers roared their thanks to their Goddess up at me as they basked in the feeling of victory, and I basked in it with them. It was so, so good to see them so happy.

I know I just lost, but after watching them struggle for so many attempts it was so satisfying to see them overcome the boss. It felt like I did it with them. Then I got the chance to reward them. Star Coordinator Loot Options ► This was a boss encounter and therefore you have been given extra loot to distribute. Choose from the following options. Once your choice is given, you can choose to distribute loot from your Loot Tables as well.

Sharpened Feral Blade ▹ Strong and sharp, this sword is crafted from the corpse of an Ankle Biter. ▹ Rank: Uncommon ▹+1 Strength ▹10. 0 damage per second ▹ Requires level 5 ▹ Cost: 1000 Anima Hardened Ash-Coated Bow ▹ Hardened by the fires of Star Tomb, this bow can handle heavier arrows. ▹ Rank: Uncommon ▹+1 Agility ▹20. 0 damage per second ▹ Requires level 8 ▹ Cost: 1000 Anima Ley Staff ▹ Infused with the essence of the leyline, this staff brings enhanced magic to its user. ▹ Rank: Uncommon ▹+1 Intellect ▹3.

0 damage per second ▹ Requires level 6 ▹ Cost: 1000 Anima Finally I could reward my delvers with something actually exciting. I had a chuckle at some of the names; the system was so interesting and I wished not for the first time that my tutorial guide had worked. Like how did it know about my Ankle Biters or better yet, the forest I nearly burnt down around me? This was also the first I'd seen of stats. I wasn't sure what they did and of course the System didn't explain any of it, so I decided to message Adranath.

He'd been warming up to me I swear, and I think small but somewhat frequent interactions were helping. DC-003) ➤ I just had delvers defeat my first boss! What a rush. Now I'm trying to reward them and was given a choice between weapons and they have stats I've never seen before. What are Strength, Agility, and Intellect good for? While I waited for a response I peeked in the subsystems chat. Great Creator it was a bloodbath.

Calls of collusion between PANIC and I even though I didn't place a bet, demands of compensation. MAM was going to be pissed. Adranath) ➤ Congratulations, and condolences to Star Coordinator. I am sure its defeat was well earned. Stats enhance delvers natural abilities and are highly coveted, especially early on. ➤ Strength makes them do more damage with melee weapons, and also block more damage with their shields. ➤ Agility increases ranged and melee attacks, while also increasing their chance to dodge.

➤ Intellect is coveted by magic users and increases their maximum mana and the chance their spells will critically strike, offensive or defensive. I couldn't help but focus on how he used magic as a description. If even a dungeon core—especially as one as old as him—thought of their skills as magical, maybe… I pushed the thought from my processors and thanked him, then returned to the loot options. So the sword was clearly for Burke, the staff for Frost or Angela, and I guess the bow could be for Ash?

He didn't use bows. Maybe it would get given to Laura instead? I thought about what they struggled with the most, and it was clearly healing. Angela was the weakest one of their party, so I should reward her. But Ash had done the most for the fight, right? Maybe that wasn't true. I decided before I rewarded anything, I should figure out how they actually beat the boss. That was one of the joys of working at compute-thought scale rather than mushy brain scale—having a second to think.

I pulled up the logs of the fight and started piecing it together. There: Ash's backstab hit for 253. That didn't make sense. It normally hit for only fifty. With a fifty percent increase from the boss's vulnerable state after a card was used it would have been seventy-five. Oh… oh no. I dug into the code of the key cards, a sinking suspicion I knew what the problem was. The keycards were supposed to create a vulnerable state of fifty percent increased damage taken for fifteen seconds. But—yep.

Instead of extending the duration of the vulnerability, they multiplicatively increased the amount of increased damage taken. [Colin> PANIC, how did you know that the delvers had figured out the bug?] [PANIC> THAT IS CONFIDENTIAL INFORMATION AND WILL NOT BE DISCLOSED UNTIL ALL BETS HAVE BEEN SECURED. I REQUIRE A CRYPTOGRAPHICALLY SIGNED AGREEMENT, FROM YOU AND MAM, IN TRIPLICATE, THAT I WILL RECEIVE MY PAYOUT BEFORE I DISCUSS ANYTHING!] Great Creator was MAM going to lay into me for this one.

[Colin> I don't care about the bet. I need to reward the delvers for their victory, and I want to know how they figured it out before I do so.] PANIC hesitated, but after 8. 3 seconds he answered. Only after making me sign a Non Disclosure Agreement first. [PANIC> I OVERHEARD THEM TALKING ABOUT IT AFTER A PREVIOUS ATTEMPT WHERE ASH WAS ABLE TO STACK TWO CARDS AND HIS BACKSTAB DID MORE DAMAGE THAN IT SHOULD HAVE.] So they did know what they were doing the whole time.

My mind shifted and I viewed all their attempts in a completely new light. They weren't stubbornly ignoring the very obvious mechanic—okay maybe they still were, but they had a reason—they were trying to exploit a bug. I decided to reward the bow. Ash deserved it. In addition, I gave them each three System Coins and 2000 experience, plus another spool of copper wire. Maybe that was overboard, but they had done so well, and they were my first delvers to defeat the boss. It felt good.

I pushed my presence up against the feed as the rewards rained down on them from the heavens. Burke knelt down and picked up the bow in two hands, the ashen color of the bow contrasting against the blood still on his hands.

"Well… I guess Laura could use this." The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

"We go through all that and we get an item we can't even use?" Frost said. My operating efficiency wobbled at the look of frustration on her face. I went back in the feed to make sure I heard Burke correctly. Why can't Ash use the bow? It was for him! The options available made it obvious—the Strength item was for Burke, the Intellect item was for Frost or Angela. Therefore, the Agility item had to be for Ash.

"I mean… I could benefit from the Agility," Ash said. Yes! Thank you! Burke rolled his eyes.

"Not a chance we're wasting the first Uncommon item as a stat boost. No, Laura can make good use of this at least. And their group has been struggling. This'll be good for her." Ash shrugged, seemingly not even bothered by having his loot stolen. DC-003) ➤ Okay, I have maybe a dumb question. Why can't one of my delvers use a bow? I rewarded it specifically for him and they're acting like I gave them all a useless item. Adranath) ➤ Did you ensure they had an Archer class with them that could use a bow? DC-003) ➤ …

how would I even do that? I had a sinking suspicion I knew the answer to that question. Adranath) ➤ Do you mean to tell me you have been running your dungeon, this entire time, without an Identify skill? I refuse to believe that. What classes are in the delve? I swear to the Great Creator the second I figure out how to get myself a Dungeon Guide I was going to kill it. [Colin> KLUDGE, do we have an Identify skill? Adranath seems to think we should.] [KLUDGE> Uh, we have Anima Monitoring. Does that count…? I'll see what I can do.] I told Adranath that I didn't have the skill and assumed it was yet another casualty of not having a Dungeon Guide or tutorial. I then did my best to describe the delvers based on what I'd seen them do and the weapons and armor they had. Adranath) ➤ Your existence is truly an anomaly, and for once, I am proud of you for continuing to suffer through it. ➤ The delver you intended to reward the bow to appears to be a Rogue. They use daggers, maces, and fist-weapons.

The one with the shield is a Warrior. The one with the ice is a Mage, and the healer could be a few different things, but I'd guess a Cleric based on the color of the spells she used. At least Adranath was helpful. And hopefully Burke would give the bow to Laura like he said, so it wouldn't go to waste. I'd have to figure out what items go to what classes, maybe KLUDGE could fuzz something out of the System once we got our dedicated fuzzing rig together.

As I watched the delvers leave with their somewhat appropriate loot and spirits high, I went to open my rewards but was interrupted by MAM. [MAM> YOU. You need to answer for your crimes.] She pulled me into a shared processing space without even asking, which was very rude. It was crammed full of all 600 subsystems, and all of them were furious. [MAM> Colin is here to speak on the betting pool issue. Colin, what do you have to say for yourself?] [Colin> Uh, my bad? Next time I'll unit test my code. And before you get all upset about the queue cuts, we need the fuzzing rig.] [ChefFlavor> I lost my top 500 spot because of that bug! I was going to print out some really nice baking trays.] [GreenThumb> Well I lost a top twenty spot! It was going to be the start of the hydroponics system.] Eighty other messages just like those flooded in before I slammed the mute button. This was a mess. I browsed the solutions coming off my processors and actually liked one of them.

It was small and wouldn't impact things much, I didn't think, but should appease most of them. [Colin> To make it up to all of you, we will be introducing an entirely new, separate print queue. This queue will be for cosmetic dungeon items! That's right—you will be able to decorate the halls of this very dungeon. How does everyone feel about that?] There was a brief 0. 3 second pause, followed by a roar of approval.

MAM, as always, had doubts around how a separate print queue would fix anything given that we still only had one printer. I sent her a gif of someone playing a shell game on the streets of Earth somewhere. She wasn't amused. With that crisis seemingly side-stepped for now, I opened my own rewards for the dungeon run. Delve Completion Rewards Star Coordinator Defeated ► Your boss, Star Coordinator, has been defeated for the first time!

▹ Attempts this dungeon: 11 ▹ Total attempts before defeat: 16 ▹ Delvers slain: 0 Anima Calculation ▹ Baseline (Boss Defeated): 1, 500 ▹ Attempt Scaling: 16 failed attempts ↳ Subtotal: 5100 ▹ Delver Mortality Multiplier: ×1. 00 (0 slain) ↳ Potential: +25% per delver slain ═══════════ ▹ Total Anima Awarded: 5, 100 I had to take a moment to stare. Not at the total Anima rewarded, that number was obscene, but at the calculation.

I wasn't doubting my plan of not killing delvers, but twenty-five percent per death to the boss was… disgusting. Adranath was right about the Unyielding. It really wanted delvers killed. Beyond the horrifying details of the math, the fact that the System revealed such intimate details seemed surprising and I almost wondered if it was a bug and I'd somehow gotten access to some weird developer loot breakdown. After a few seconds to spin on it though, I doubted it.

It was still obscuring some details to the equation, but it very clearly wanted to highlight the optimal path forward—slaying delvers. I shuddered, then moved on to the rest of the rewards. Upgrades and New Unlocks ▹Ankle Biter has reached level 4. ▹Rammer has reached level 5. ▹Rock 'Em has reached level 3. ▹You have unlocked a new Crafting Recipe. ▹You have unlocked a new Consumable. ▹You have unlocked a new Monster Template. ▹You have unlocked a new Offensive Trap Template.

► You have reached 10, 000 Anima collected and have now reached Tier 2! This comes with the following upgrades: ▹ You have grown in power and now need more space to exist. Expansion into a second floor is now available. ▹ You have unlocked a new Trap Type: Environmental. We could build a second floor? My mind raced, ideas flying off my processors and into scattered lists of data points. [MAM> I saw that we can extend down into Deck 2. We need to work on some repairs before we can allow delvers into that area. We should have a meeting to discuss what repairs need to happen first.] MAM was right, there was a lot of work to do. Thankfully, we'd just gotten a nice chunk of Anima to help power us through all of that. As I hopped into a shared processing space with her to go over everything, Adranath messaged me. Adranath) ➤ I see you have reached Tier 2, congratulations. You are well on your way to earning a title of your own. Tell me, what is the area around your dungeon like? Are you near an ocean, or in the mountains?

Keeping a strong theme with the world around you is important. ➤ Also, as a congratulations for reaching Tier 2, I put this together for you {link to document} I opened the document, slightly suspicious of what it could be. Knowing him, it could be a highlight reel of his most favorite deaths. Instead, it was actually useful. The document broke down every class he knew about—and there were a lot of them with all the sub classes—along with their preferred stats, weapons, armor types and roles.

This was probably all information I would have gotten from the tutorial or my Dungeon Core Guide, but my drives warmed with the effort he'd taken with it. Just the fact that he had bothered at all showed that maybe I had judged him wrong. Was he a murder hungry ancient being that wanted me to kill my delvers? Yes. But that didn't mean he couldn't also be something more. Not a friend, but maybe something close.