Chương 53: So you want to be an adventurer. Eh?

Eh?

RECESS THE COURT: The court is once again in session and the case of Joulee Celsius will now resume. Mr. Wright? MR. WRIGHT: The Coalition would like to present the evidence object D-V-1. [A magic projection of the Accused backstabbing the party during the end of combat is played, the recording appearing to be taken from just up the wall on the right side of the party. Partway through, the camera zooms in on the laughing face of the Accused and freezes in a wild mugshot on the wall] MR.

WRIGHT: And with that irrefutable evidence, the prosecution rests its case. THE COURT: Thank you, Mr. Wright, Mr. Murphy, would you like to do your opening statement now? Or would the defense like to change its plea? MR. MURPHY: Yes, Your Honor, we would like to present our opening statement. MR. MURPHY: Good day, I am Melvin Murphy, and it's an honor to represent Ms. Joulee Celsius on this crucial case. The Defendant stands here falsely accused of murder, a grave crime.

When the time comes, we shall plead not guilty. MR. MURPHY: Dear Committee members, Your Honor, this case concern a person mentally ill, who did not know what they were doing. The prosecution has explained that there is magi-video of the moment my client killed the other party members, what they didn't say is that my client suffers from a mental illness. She was literally out of her mind on the day in question, and we have an expert witness who will testify that my client is insane. THE COURT: Thank you, Mr.

Murphy. You may now call your expert to the stand. MR. MURPHY: The Defense calls Dr. Jason Gaines to the stand. Jason Gaines Called as a Witness on Behalf of the Defendant Joulee Celsius, having signed a magical contract, was examined and testified as follows: Direct Examination Q: Good Afternoon, Dr. A: Good Afternoon. Q: Would you state your name and profession for the court? A: Why, that's obvious. My name is Jason Gaines, and I'm a professional doctor of Mentality.

Q: So, Doctor, is my client insane according to your analysis? A: I believe so, yes. She has periods in which she acts diametrically different from her normal self, including violent tendencies. Q: Thank you, Doctor, this is all. End of Examination THE COURT: Thank you Dr. Gaines, you ma- MR. WRIGHT: HOLD IT! THE COURT: What is it, Mr. Wright? MR. WRIGHT: I would like to ask the witness a question: When was the witness diagnosed with the illness? DR.

GAINES: Why that would be two years ago, I was there with my old friend who sadly already left us. MR. WRIGHT: Thank you, doctor. That's all from me. THE COURT: cleans throat Then thank you Dr. Gaines, you may leave. MR. WRIGHT: I would like to present the evidence object AD-02, the defendant's Association registration form, it clearly states that it was filled nineteen months ago, and the "Other Illnesses" field is empty. Meaning that the Defendant was either not disclosing the information or the witness has lied.

THE COURT: Thank you, Mr. Wright, is that all? MR. WRIGHT: Yes, Your Honor. THE COURT: Mr. Murphy, do you have any other evidence to present? MR. MURPHY: sweating No, Your Honor. THE COURT: Then Mr. Wright, your closing statement, please. MR. WRIGHT: Of course, Your Honor. MR. WRIGHT: Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen of the Committee, Your Honor, again my name is Reagan Wright, and I am the prosecutor in this case.

In my opening statement, I mentioned that I would call two witnesses to testify as to the defendant's guilt. Each witness testified as I explained, and we have established the following facts beyond a reasonable doubt: That on [DATE UNREADABLE] the Defendant has entered the Dungeon with the party later leaving by themselves, and that the Accused was a new addition to the party and equipped far worse than the rest of her group.

Furthermore, the magi-video evidence provided shows that the Defendant clearly had hostile intentions toward the victims and killed them in cold blood, MR. WRIGHT: We would ask you to dismiss the defense's theories of the case. The Defendant has clearly either falsified the information provided to the Coalition, or the witness has lied to the court under the contract. In conclusion, we would ask that you find the defendant guilty as charged. Thank you. THE COURT: Thank you, Mr. Wright. Mr. Murphy? MR.

MURPHY: Naturally, Your Honor. MR. MURPHY: Greetings, my name is Melvin Murphy, and again I'm the defense attorney in this case. Ladies and gentlemen of the Committee, let's review the legal standard for insanity in this city. The standard is: Did the mental illness affect the defendant's ability to perceive the nature and quality of her actions, or was she unable to tell the difference between right and wrong?

As my witness has testified, my client was most definitely of not sound mind on the day of the saddening event. We clearly saw it then, my client has confused the monsters with her party-mates and stabbed them to death! It was truly very disturbing. But this action was committed because my client had no idea what she was doing and thought they were the monsters. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is insanity. Pure and simple. Therefore, we ask for a verdict of not guilty. THE COURT: Mr. Wright, your response? MR.

WRIGHT: Ladies and gentlemen, before you incorrectly conclude that Ms. Celsius was stark raving mad, let remember some facts to keep this in perspective. Please remember, the testimony of Ms. Alpenter, she clearly stated that the defendant has taken some items with herself, clearly not a thing an insane person would concentrate on yes? We have a more modern view on madness in this fair city. One that's a far cry from barbaric execution as in the south.

In this case, the defense has to prove insanity, not the prosecution prove that she was sane. We only have to prove that she intentionally killed someone without lawful excuse. And we have done that. The correct verdict is guilty on the charge of intentional murder in the Dungeon. Thank you. Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings. THE COURT: The Court will now adjourn for a thirty-minute recess, during which the Committee and I shall decide the verdict.

The Verdict THE COURT: The proceedings will now resume. We shall now announce the verdict. THE COURT: On the basis presented by both sides, the committee and the Judge find the defendant, Joulee Celsius, guilty of the crime of intentional murder in the Dungeon. The Accused will be sentenced to a lifetime of internal work for the Adventurer's Association for room and board, along with a pension of 150 credits per quarter of work. THE COURT: This court session is now closed!

End of Transcript Excerpt Obtained from the second half of the court case "Party murder in dungeon" Rules: So you want to be an adventurer? This event will be completed with groups of 3. The goal is to make an "adventuring party" of 3 monsters that can delve a prepared dungeon. There are various small and large treasures hidden in it that an adventurer might like. You have 24 hours to prepare and are prevented from watching other delves until it is your turn.

Brackets are separated by tier and various factors are used to determine your final score. Finally and this is important, there is a penalty for having heard about or participated in this event before. Blind delves have been determined to be more fun, think carefully about what will be required before you commit to the setup you are going to do. Final Description and sign-up. This is a somewhat famous event.

It has reached such prominence that Cores have even been warned beforehand not to research this beforehand due to part of the fun being going in blind. There are many factors that need to be considered when designing your party. Good luck! Enter? Y/N? Current teams participating [12] Abe: Alright! What's the plan. Innearth: Well I think you two probably have more experience watching adventurers… off the top of my head we should probably fill in a ranged member, a damage sponge and a melee attacker no?

Abe: Mostly correct. There are many different setups we could use with 3 adventurer's I'd go with at least one support that can control the surrounding's or boost the other 2. Fated Eternal Design: We have to keep in mind we are sending off a party into an unknown area. There is nothing in the rules about communication, but I move we set up a mental mana relay to send advice or commands to our squad. Innearth: Hey, FED you're a genius.

I didn't think of that and now I can't imagine a setup where we don't have a way to communicate with our monsters. Mental mana connection to a slime? Fated Eternal Design: Oh? You've done something like that? That's good for reading a monster's thoughts but it wont actually help you talk to them if they are outside your influence. I'm thinking of a connection to a more intelligent monster that can relay your orders down the line. We can see what they are coming up against in the stream after all. Innearth: …

want to ask the host if that breaks the "3 monster party" rules? Fated Eternal Design: … sure I don't want to be disqualified. … Fated Eternal Design: Okay. Here's what I found out. First off our lovely host laughed a whole bunch "eheheeheehe you figured that out huh" sort of thing. Then he told us that if we build a relay into a monster its cheating as we are "making 4 monsters" If we wanted to do that we would have to leave one behind and only delve with 2.

He then mentioned if we made an item it would be safe, however. Innearth: … seems roundabout but okay. We make two rings or something that are linked and then connect them between monsters in our dungeon and the adventurers we are outfitting. How does that sound? Abe: Great. So back to roles. I'm thinking of altering my gorilla boss design to be much cheaper. Enthalpy magic core and maybe a way to apply it selectively to speed up the group. What else is important to follow. Innearth: 3, 000amu can do a lot.

Its less than most of my bosses and some of my newer creations… but if I tweak it a bit that's a greater snake right there. I re-read the rules. I think the important thing to notice is the item requirement. What do you guys think? No mana limit? Seems like that's a loophole. Abe: … good catch. I guess I'll make some armour for my gorilla. Fated Eternal Design: A tier 4 core is 2, 000amu.

I think the reason its set like this is if anyone tries to use a tier 4 core they are blowing most of their mana budget and the rest of the body might be shoddy. Innearth: … so my circuits costing less is a good workaround for that. Fated Eternal Design: … I could try and offshoot into some of my more advanced designs but this seems like a case to build on one of my regular masks. Innearth: … in that regard I should be using a snake. Do we need a tank? Should I use a solo magma spider build instead?

Abe: I think its fine. FED are you making a ranged or melee mask. FED: I can do either. Honestly my wind spirits are pretty resilient to non magical attacks so it can double as a tank. I'll build off one of my melee variants. Innearth: I'll use a mage circuited snake then… with 3000amu I can make a smaller "normal" sized one with one of my more powerful circuits. I can even boost it to a similar state as a tier 4 core if I remove the healing potion sacks. Abe: That shoves the requirement of healing on to me.

I can do wide ranged healing explosions pretty easily but if we want more purposeful effects, I might have to drop some utility. Innearth: Healing syringe? Refilling healing potion in a spike that can be injected? Haven't made it before but it could work. Abe: True. For it to be strong enough to be useful I'll have to remove the speeding up effect though and I think that might be easier. I also have no clue how it could heal the wind in Boses spirit that way. Innearth: Time based items? Abe: … could work I guess.

I've never tried and the boost we can get will probably only be close to 10% faster if we do it that way. Innearth: … is using another crafter for items cheating? Fated Eternal Design: Reviewing the rules nope. Just can't be unique materials. Innearth: … in that case give me all your materials I'll handle the items. Fated Eternal Design: oho. Mysterious aren't we. Innearth: My crystal dwarf can make some pretty strong runes. Abe: what? A dungeon monster lol Innearth: Trust me. It can give us an edge.

Abe: I trust you. I also remember the stuff in your dungeon. It just surprised me I forgot that was even a thing. In that case I'll provide some raw materials to be used for this event. Fated Eternal Design: Likewise. Innearth: Do we have a plan? Abe: I think so. Have we considered every aspect? Fated Eternal Design: traps and defenders. I think we've rounded out or team well enough yeah. Innearth: Alright. Item Rush Order. COMING UP! The crystal dwarf is going to hate me lol. Abe: … are they ascended? Innearth: …

no actually but if feels almost like they are sometimes. Funny huh. Fated Eternal Design: … strange more like.... The trio set up their group while Innearth manipulated materials into armour and weapons before handing them off to the dwarf to add to. Finally, the event was upon them. They were the 23 rd group to head out with 8 tracks in front of them and until they "delved by proxy" they were not allowed to see what they were going to face. Some groups spent days while others only managed a few minutes or hours.

By the time Innearth's group was up they had waited over 48 hours and they were getting kind of impatient. Then it was time. The group was slotted into "track 7" where they deposited their 3 monsters. Each was decked out in plenty of armour and linked with mental mana. Looking down a purple bricked hallway all 3 monsters spend a moment conversing before they head out already understanding their roles. In the front.

A robed and masked wind monster holding a strange branch-like metal weapon full of hollow holes that shaped wind mana. Coming up behind them was a snake in the equivalent of black and silver plate mail. On its side, like a rifle scope, was a long rod with a dozen crystals inset on it and countless small wrapping wires that could direct the flow of mana. Bringing up the rear was a bulky boxing gorilla. The first obstacle the group had to face was a flight of stairs.

None of the group had trouble making their way down it although the snake's armour made it slow going on the way down. When the group reached the bottom, they were met by a large cavern with a still pool in its center and a door on the far side. Abe: I'm telling them to go around. Innearth: Smart. Smart. Traveling around the far edge of the pool the group took the long way around and then entered the next hallway without anything eventful happening. Innearth: … tricksy. The test dungeon is meant to lower our guard.

Smart. I want to try using that in a few places in my own dungeon. Halfway down the hall the gorilla suddenly punched forwards, two taser-like lines hitting its two allies and speeding up their movement. This boost was applied just in time – for out of both sides of the hallway, several solid sideways facing blades began slicing back and forth. Some were set vertically into the wall requiring the "Adventures" to duck or jump as the blades whizzed past overhead.

The rest had been placed horizontally running from one wall to the other and could only be dodged by jumping forward or back. Each blade looked deathly sharp – with razor-thin sword mana extending out from each tip. The additional speed boost from the time mana connection made the very real threat disappear, however. From the group's perspective, the blades were sliding along at a glacier pace and even if they were hit by one of the sharp edges their armour more than made up for it.

At the end of the hall, they encountered a room with their first monsters. A swarm of Mosaic Monkeys attacked the group. Each has a patchwork of painted stone across their body and stone blades on the end of their "claws". They dashed forwards mindlessly falling up the group who quickly started setting themselves up in a battle formation. The wind-like front monster sucks monsters towards him while slashing back and forth with their "metal branch".

Each swing caused a single blast of air to be split apart and sent off in a dozen slashes at a time. Behind the mask, Innearth's snake directed mana through its body and up into its equipment. Soon, arcs of lightning began shooting up and out the end of their scope – linking between dozens of the swarm monster and cooking them as it chained between monkeys. On the other side of the wind monster, dozens of small bombs were tossed from a side pouch.

The pouch appeared to be physically attached to the gorilla's body and was ripping into its insides to create the tossable items. Abe's monster caused several muffled explosions that flung bodies in all directions and despite having no way to "talk" appeared to be laughing wildly a faint hint of their creator's love of explosions leaking through. The swarm might have initially been over a hundred strong but once again the trio managed to churn through them like they were nothing.

When the last enemy monster finally fell the group slid, stepped and flew forwards. They reached the end of the hall confidently before coming across the first real obstacle they had faced in the event. … Innearth: … so does anyone know how to open a door? Abe: Don't ask me, my monster just has boxing gloves for hands. FED do you think you're mask can turn the handle with wind? Fated Eternal Design: … why did we not make a monster that could open doors. Innearth: How were we supposed to know this would be a thing!

Phantasmal Patterns knows we are sending dungeon monsters through this. He knows exactly how evil this trap is. Fated Eternal Design: What if we wrap Innearth's snake around the handle and let them slide over it and pull it sideways? Abe: let's just blast our way through. I'll tell support. Communicating back and forth the gorilla steps forwards and reached into its pouch.

Slightly sticky blobs that didn't seem to stick to each other were pulled out then flicked onto the handle and across the sides coating it liberally in goo. As soon as they landed the balls started to pulse – the trio backed further out to a safe distance before watching as a flash of fire and force consumed the obstacle and then quieted down. This time when they come to examine the door it was covered in black circles of soot.

Pushing forwards against it, the gorilla considered trying again with more explosives but then the snake had an idea. Moving to the side it concentrated while a solid spike of crystal appeared beside their wand and slowly began to grow. The wand was truly a work of genius brought forth from the crystal dwarf's still growing skill. It had runes and ways to transform mana to make a shocking lightning attack courtesy of some materials given by Abe.

It had methods of directing and controlling the crystal snake's base skill of crystal manipulation into anything from countless small shards to one big one. With enough time and mana, the control could even extend to it - making a ramp or bridge of crystal in case the group had to cross a chasm or reach a high up door. It also had an option to shoot a small ball of fire in case they needed to light something on fire without exploding it and a method of casting a "force wave" that could push something back.

It was incredibly versatile and overlapped in functionality with Abe's monster who had shots of either enthalpy or eternity to speed up allies or slow down enemies or traps. Abe's monster also had a small growth that was "harvested", shaped and maintained stable by its belt, offloading a lot of the complexity of creating bombs into an item. Finally, there was the mask's equipment.

It was harder to equip an air spirit and they had nearly run out of time but it was equipped with an "air shaper" that could extend and enhance its wind blades. The three monsters were also given small "mental mana badges" that connected them to corresponding monsters in the three dungeons. The snake was connected to a nameless crystal dwarf who sat in a small room – widdling crystal statues with its void claw while it waited for commands to relay. …

The crystal snake shot off its large crystal spike – grown and condensed over several minutes – which smashed forwards across the room. Accelerating the whole way, the strike hit the already weakened door knob that had blocked the group from advancing, pushing it through and slamming the door open for them with a loud bang. Abe: How you're supposed to open doors as far as I'm concerned. Who puts doors in their dungeons? Innearth: Don't you have doors to your vaults? Abe: Nope just entranceways.

Innearth: You had a door on some vault of money in one of your vaults – I remember. Abe: That's not a door…. that's a… a safe. Innearth: Safe… door? Abe: Dammit bruh. Fine. I used a door. that's different though. Why put doors between rooms? Fated Eternal Design: To block us… and I'm pretty sure most of the other monsters. Anyways. Look at the next room. The group had been split in focus between watching the new area and talking, but they spent a moment fully focusing on what they were looking at. Tiles.

A long wide hallway filled with different coloured tiles. Painted on each square was a different dungeon number from 1-4. There didn't appear to be a pattern to either the colours or numbers with both randomly distributed throughout the path. Abe: As far as puzzles go 0/10. There's no hints. Innearth: Let's try checking around. The group scours the displayed room while discussing what they think will happen if one of the pseudo adventurer's steps on the "wrong" square. Abe: What if there is no puzzle?

What if it's just meant to stall us into guessing pointlessly about how the halls meant to be completed? Fated Eternal Design: Nah. As funny as that is, I'm nearly positive this is an actual puzzle. Someone get their monster to toss something onto one of the squares? Innearth: On it. Commanding the snake to shoot a smaller crystal spike at one of the squares the group watches as… nothing happened. Abe: Think I was right? Fated Eternal Design: Either lucky guess or that wasn't enough to set it off.

We should check the other squares first and then send one of our monsters to test it out and then return. Abe: or just go. Gotta go fast and all that. I bet we can have them run through the hall without any bad effects. Innearth: I'll take the slow and steady path for now Abe. If this test doesn't work we can try your mad dash idea. Abe: asfk this is taking too long. Okay.

Tossing out shots onto the full row in front of them and then the two in front of that, Innearth stared confused at the squares while Abe got steadily more and more impatient. I have to figure this out. I'm smart. I can do it. There has to be some sort of pattern to it. I agree with FED there has to be a puzzle. It's either a trap or maybe one of these squares is hiding a treasure… or maybe a shortcut down to the next floor that we will miss if we just rush through? Abe: Alright. My gorilla is resilient.

I'll ask him to take a step on some of the squares and then jump back. Walking forward, Abe's monster put a single foot and then its whole weight on the middlemost square. It was at this moment that Innearth noticed his crystal dwarf was trying to get his attention. Hey. Yeah, what's up?

"I can tell based on what the snake is thinking but I'm pretty sure the monsters you've sent out have solved your puzzle. You aren't giving them enough agency right now however so they are just waiting for orders." What? How can they have solved it?

"It's simple really. They can see the answer and you can't. They trust you blindly right now so they aren't bringing it up, just thinking about it." …they can see it and we can't?

"The answers are all written on the roof. I believe you are looking down at them right now?" … it's that simple? Really? Alright then. Innearth: Guys. I think this is a trap designed specifically against people like us who have ways to command our monsters from outside of the event. Abe: hmm? Innearth: let's just tell our adventurers to solve the problem and move on. Fated Eternal Design: … I'm quite fond of this Phantasmal Patterns character. Fine example of a Dungeon Core. Abe: Okay.

Told them to solve the puzzle. The adventurers step out into the hallway moving purposefully and avoiding certain squares based on the giant skulls painted above them. Halfway down the hall they stopped and pulled one of the squares up. Out of the crevasse floated a purple coin that disappeared once it reached midway up the hall but caused a popup to appear in the stream as it did so. [+1 Hidden Loot.] Points calculated. [Loot packet sent.] Twice more the trio found and obtained coins from different coloured squares. [+1 Hidden Loot.] Points calculated. [Loot packet sent.] [+1 Hidden Loot.] Points calculated. [Loot packet sent.] The packets obtained were a "jackpot" of 3 well made monster schematics each with dungeon descriptions. Mosaic Monkeys Ambush / swarm predators that look like monkeys with exoskeletons covered in interesting stone tile patterns. Their claws are sharpened stone blades. Their tails have scorpion-like stingers.

These stingers do not have poison they are used to suck blood out of their victims. They attempt to swarm their victim, grabbing hold en masse and then draining them as a group with their tails. They emit "don't pay attention to me, I'm not important" vibes.

"I REALLY NEED TO REPLACE THESE… THEY AREN'T VERY CLEVER. DID THEY GIVE YOU TROUBLE HOWEVER? EHEEHEEHEHHEE" Duplicitous Mirror Slimes These slimes have a reflective surface. The reflections are just a bit off, inventing clues or evidence that attempts to trick adventurers that their party is trying to cheat or betray them. They hide in the mirror hall, thinly coating the mirrors to blend in. The dungeon can also use them to block off passages to attractions that aren't ready yet.

Resistant to slashing & explosion damage.

"What, DON'T LIKE WHAT YOU SEE? COME ON. ADMIT IT." Dream / Mosaic Spider Swarm Their exoskeleton is covered in mosaic patterns and they are very hard to see if surrounded by mosaic tiles. Their webs blend into mosaics as well. Their webs make hypnotic patterns that effect people subliminally as they look at the mosaic's patterns. They have a venom which has a numbing effect that causes the desire for sleep and rest. The spiders are normally fist-sized and attack in swarms.

"MY LITTLE WEAVERS MAKING DREAM TAPESTERIES." Moving on the group continued to delve deeper and deeper. They fought against stronger and more numerous swarms as well as reached a chasm like they had guessed they might have to cross. A long time spent growing a rough crystal bridge later and Innearth and Abe's monster were able to reach the other side. Probably the hardest boss they had to face was the Glitter Worm.

The trio's armour and base abilities were stronger than quite a bit of the monsters they faced, causing most of the fights to be ended quickly. The Glitter Worm however was a mental creature with spells that slipped past Abe and Innearth's monsters defences. Somehow FED's air spirit had a strong enough mind made by the mental mana FED wove it together with that it was unaffected.

That was the single reason they managed to get around it, but the battle was long and tedious due to the snake and gorilla protecting the creature from the mask. When they beat that boss, they received the schematic for it as a slightly ironic reward. Glitter Worm (Boss Monster) A worm the size of a wagon that secretes glue. The worm hides under a pile of coins, many of which stick to its body. These coins act as armor. The glitter worm may also spray out a stream of sticky quick hardening glue.

Its armored shell glitters while projecting a charming aura that causes the weak-willed to become enamored with it and believe they were meant to be together forever… while violently attacking those trying to hurt "their love."

"WHO'S A PRETTY GIRL?!" Finally after beating the final puzzle – one that took absolutely ages in part due to the fiddly switches and dials they had to press, flip, turn and hold despite not having opposable thumbs the group finally clears the dungeon and gets their score in the event. So you want to be an adventurer? Scoreboard. #1. Dungeons participating [Brutality Queen] [Amy] [Jake]. Time [9hrs 23minutes 2s] Treasure found [13 coins] #2. Dungeons participating [Abe] [Innearth] [Fated Eternal Design].

Time [16hrs 15minutes 48s] Treasure found [15 coins] Abe: Oh hey! Amy beat us. DAMMIT, WHY! WHY HER! We did so well… I'll just pretend Amy did all the work. That's a much more satisfying conclusion. Innearth: Congratulations Amy! Amy: Thanks! We haven't won yet… there's still some groups behind us after all, but I'm quite confident in our odds! Innearth: I'm happy you won but disappointed I lost… When's the next event so I can put this behind me lol.

Amy: Thinking I'm taking a small break from events to celebrate my (almost certain) win. That should give you a chance: 3 Innearth: Wow. Rude. Amy: I'm joking <3. The next event looks up your alley Innearth. I'll be rooting for you!