Chương 65: Anti Exploit Engineering. Part One - The Carrot.

Part One - The Carrot.

--|/-//-/-|/||||/|/-/-----|-|--//|---|//||-|/|||-|/||//-/---/-|//|/-|/-/-|/|||---|--||//-/-|/-/|/----|/-/|--|/-||/------|--||//-/-|/-/|/----|/-/|--|/-||/----/---||--||--|/-||----||/|--|/---/-/|/-----|///-|--/-|/-/|--||/-/|---/-|//|/-|/-/-|/|||-------|//--/--|/-/-----/|//--|/-||/-/|---|||/|-||-/-/|--/||-|//--/-|-|/-------|//--/--|/-/---------|-|/-/---|/---/-||/-/|-/---|--|/---|--/-|-----/-|/|--||/-/|----|-|/-/--/--/|-|/|/-/-|/-||-----///|----|///-|--/-|/-/-|/||/-|--|/---|/--/------|---|||--|-/||---|----/-|//|/-|/-/-|/|||---/-/-//--|/-/----/-|/-||-||-|/-/|//-|----|||---/--/--|//---|/||//-/---/--/|-||--|//-|-----|||/-||---|--/-|----|-|/-||||/|||--|//-/-|/||-//|---|--||/-|-|/-||||/|--|/-/|----/||--|/---/|/|--/-/-//-----|-|--//|---|//||-|/|||-|/||//-//-|------/-|//|/-|/-/-|/|||----|//-|-|---||/||--||/-/| Excerpt Obtained from an unknown source.

Okay. Okay… Okay. Innearth ran through the issues he was currently having. He wasn't getting enough attention. If he didn't get attention he would die! To be more exact he had set up the gate network with Doc specifically to gain adventurers to delve him and – while there was currently three groups that had actually explored his crystal caverns – the majority of delvers were using him as a passage. The goal was to bring people to him…

thus he didn't want to hinder people from showing up – otherwise summed up as "no portal costs". That wasn't to say he wanted to keep feeling taken advantage of. Just because it cost him nothing to let them teleport to him for free, didn't mean he was fine being used as nothing more than transport. So. I want to prevent the specific scenario that's happening but not in a way that blocks actual adventurers from arriving. …

I also wouldn't mind as much if they were travelling themselves and treating me like a dungeon but… the overkill is getting annoying. I'm making progressively more difficult areas for a reason! Adventurers should be congregating in the places that are better levelled for them difficulty-wise. So. Two goals I guess and I can work on them simultaneously. The first goal is to lure adventurers deeper. I think an easy and cheap way to do that is to go all out on loot and bribe 'em down.

Innearth had spread loot about his dungeon pretty thoroughly… there were several item pools at this point named "Common Low, Common Medium, Common High, Rare Low, Rare Medium, Rare High, Special pool" – all filled with hundreds upon hundreds of items mostly made by his crystal dwarves. The pools contained several choice items – including a bunch he had been proud of making – along with a large portion of "randomized" ones.

These pools were then attached to all of his bosses, mini bosses and several secret chests throughout his dungeon that had been set up recently. These chests were set up to "give the item" into the container when it was opened – providing potential adventurers with a personalized item that looked like it had been contained in the chest the whole time. Add to the fact that Innearth had been making loot for a while before he had actually gained adventurers… and his backlog of items was now truly huge.

I asked my friends and researched a bit – so as far as I can tell my current setup is pretty generous while not being a piggy bank. I just haven't been able to match whatever they are making on escort quests. Or maybe I am matching it, but the escort quests are much safer… I might as well just keep enacting different plans until I'm satisfied with the result. So plan number one will be to setup an incentive for delving deep along with as good of a reward as I can make for it.

I could use my "Special pool" and add one of my Tier 5 random weapons or items to the current final boss? Yeah I'm going to do that and then set up a quest to find it. OH! I can set up a weekly quest to reach my furthest floor! Swapping the pool attached to the ice golem to "Special" and creating a quest that would trigger to anyone above level 40 that entered his dungeon was a matter of seconds to implement. He held off on finalizing the changes however.

I only have a few tier 5 items though and I don't even know if that's a good enough grand goal. A weapon is a bit easier to make and even if the system likes to bump up the reward for practical items… I think my best shot of reaching as high as possible is to make a weapon. Innearth had a list of processes he could do that each increased the cost of making an item – but also increased its value. One of the easiest but most expensive things he could do was just "throw more mana" at the problem.

With something to focus on while he was still brainstorming the end result Innearth got to work. Setting up a workstation in his lowest floor he began to make a core. A cone of very high concentration crystal mana surrounded by multiple sources of pressure – inverted gravity above and below, all of his focus and concentration, and a void mana construct shrinking the whole core when he reached the limit of his other avenues.

The cone started out roughly a meter in length and took his entire pool of mana to make before it ended up compressed to around 20cm long and 8cm wide at its widest point. The end result smoked constantly with mana – despite the gradient he had used to contain it – so Innearth was forced to momentarily shove it in a mana oven while his mana regenerated. He had an hour till he reached full again. Innearth (Dungeon Designation: Crossroad Link from Murek) Level 68 4928/5382 exp to next level.

System Access Level 6 0/2 requirements met to advance. -795/2500 sapient delves. -Level 82+ Stats Mana Regeneration 89. 53 personal unit/min Mana Concentration 2. 92 AMU / personal unit Mana Storage 23. 22/15701. 11 AMU Regeneration over time 4. 35 AMU/s Time to Full Mana 60. 0 Min Physical Storage 42% Capacity Age 3 years Current Year 2000 AS Distance underground 399 meters Number of floors 16 floors Titles. Earth Mana Specialization, Crystal Mana Specialization, Void Mana Specialization, Customization. …

Last I checked I was called the sub dungeon of Doc! When did that change? Innearth: … my name just changed. I finally have a cool name. I'm the crossroad link from murek! Goodbye Pit stop! Goodbye Sub Dungeon! ZeMadDoctor: Hey. My name has changed as well. To the "Crossroad Link from Central Continent". Abe: Woah woah woah. First off. Awful name. I really don't understand your taste… it doesn't tell you anything. Can you really have a crossroad with just two dungeons by the way? Sounds fake.

Innearth: I'm just hearing you are jealous of my new best friend. If you think we can't have a crossroads with two points want to join us? Make the third? Abe: … bruh. I'm hurt. You can't replace me as best friend just like that. ZeMadDoctor: I just traded a dozen cheap cores for information on Murek. It's a continent. So is the central continent. Abe: Lol. Oh really? The central continent is a continent? You don't say.

: 3 Innearth: Don't act sassy with Doc just because he's replaced you: 3 Abe:: 3< And here I was about to lovingly gift you these 30 unstable bombs. Whatever will I do with them now? Innearth: Toss em at an adventuring group? Abe: I guess. They won't appreciate them as much as my best bud will though. ZeMadDoctor: who knows what the adventurers think sometimes. I wanted to be sure. Apparently my continent is the biggest coming in at 175million square kilometers.

Fated Eternal Design: I'm doing pretty well for myself right now but… the idea of a portal to the unknown would make for an amazing end to the questline to end all questlines. Innearth: You're planning on letting adventurers travel to us? Fated Eternal Design: Only after having gone through the longest and most involved questline I can think of. I'm talking using my cultists to hide quest items in the town near the dungeon.

Talking setting up linked questlines far away from my dungeon that will lead adventurers towards me and Innearth: woah woah woah. Whats this I hear about questlines outside of your dungeon? How do you get that to work! And why didn't you tell me earlier I could have used it to try and get adventurers for my own dungeon! I wouldn't have had to go through all those hoops and made those cursed items! BY THE WAY! YOU NO LONGER NEED TO KEEP GIVING THOSE OUT!!!! I'm good now. They didn't work anyways.

Fated Eternal Design: Sorry I left off details that wouldn't have worked. I'm talking about having cultists make quests that link to me and tie into my own questlines. They would be the ones making the quests in nearby towns not me. Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more. Innearth: oh… okay that's fine then. Amy: … stop giving these out you say? Okay. I ran out anyways – was actually waiting for you to send more. Innearth: I sent you 300 of those cursed locators.

You gave them all out? That's… awfully nice of you. Amy: Yeah they made a good non lethal trap. There's some priest of purity or something who keeps removing them but quite a few adventures have dodged them and headed off to find you. Abe: I C O N I C. I'm dying. I gave a bunch out as well but not the whole batch. Brutality Queen: What's this about cursed items? I don't believe I've heard anything about these. Abe: OH! This is great. Let me tell you what Innearth thought up to try and get adventurers.

Returning to his item-making while his friends teased him, Innearth called his three ascended crystal dwarves down to check on it. This feels like a tier 10 core? It was briefly tier 11 and then when compressed it almost seemed like it was becoming an unstable tier 12 core before it finally settled at 10. Such a huge waste of mana… at least it's somewhat stopped leaking now. From what I can tell it's diamond mana as well. I don't want to waste the mana that went into making this so what have you guys got for me?

"I call this project. I have some ideas" Ilmenite thought out a few seconds into seeing the diamond core Innearth had designed.

"Fine. I call the next one" Steve responded, grabbing his third "brother's" hand and returning to their workshop.

"First off we have to properly store the power you've given us. I wouldn't want to make an item that consumes the core to power itself… but this much mana can definitely catalyze some strong runes. I'm going to try my best to seal it so it doesn't degrade more. Did you want to add more mana to it first?" Ilm started returning to speaking directly to Innearth. … sure.

I'm not asking you to make an item using this material by the way I'm already planning on making a spear I just wanted help with the parts I can't do myself.

"Just a spear? A spear it is! Well if you're putting this much effort into it I can't disappoint you. We'll reach masterwork quality at least don't you worry." Ilm responded confidently. Masterwork quality is tier 8 right? Innearth asked while topping the spear tip up.

"Yeah… system knowledge. I have a racial quest to make a tier 8 item before I have access to the booze system. From what I can tell… tier 8 is the sign a dwarf is an adult… most dwarves reach that point around when they are 14? As a kobold I'm not sure if I have quite the same craving for alcohol as the natives but… I'll admit I'm somewhat excited to try it out." Ilm responded their mental connection briefly containing their emotions proving their statement.

Reaching a void claw out, Ilm drew several spiralling screw-like lines down the length of the tip – wrapping into a sort of circle with a star at its base. As Innearth watched the faint stream of mana that had been whipping out of the too dense spearhead started to act less like steam – or mist floating out of the cone – and more like liquid. Manna dripped and flowed down the spiral and then somehow sucked itself back into the bottom as if there was a vortex pulling it back in.

"Okay, Should prevent it from wasting as much. Bonus with this setup is the flowing mana should be able to power some more exciting effects. This flavour of crystal mana won't work well with most effects… but should be good for some durability and sharpness at the minimum." Ilm spoke as they worked. So mana that's moving can power stuff it passes over? At least with runes? Can I try something?

"Should be pretty safe. Go ahead." Ilm responded. Innearth started making X crystals and placing them up against the spiralling screwhead. A Kinetic crystal was placed where it promptly shot forwards. A Fire crystal began shooting out a steady stream of magical fire like an endless flamethrower. A life crystal appeared to do nothing, but steadily began accumulating a misty green cloud of healing mana in Innearth's mana sight.

"Huh… okay. I've seen these in the workshop but haven't touched them much and don't have enough information on them. DON'T call for Steve to finish this he'll never let me live it down. I can figure it out." Ilm sent t he last few words in a quick jumble along with a need to prove themselves. Pulling the Fire crystal towards themselves, Ilm pushed mana through it and watched the passage of their own neutral mana being converted to fire.

Pushing through in several different intensities then using different flavours of mana – a crystalline mana, a metallic mana, a fire mana. This dwarf was able to use quite a few types which while abysmally low for a dungeon core was impressive for a young dwarf with which they technically counted. Poking holes in the crystal shaving off slivers and drawing small runes before repeating the previous experiments. They trashed the first crystal then moved on and finished testing on the final two.

"Okay. From what I can tell these crystals act somewhat as an inefficient but strangely durable and open Active Item. I…I don't want to presume anything you know about magic, but you know how active items work right?" Ilm asked hesitantly. …can I pretend I do and let you teach your progenitor anyways?

"That works. Hey off topic but I vaguely remember how awed I was by you. You were this grand existence beyond my understanding with infinite wisdom and strength but now that I've ascended and you're talking to me, that illusion's breaking somewhat." Ilm said. …I feel like I should be offended. Anyways how do active items work?

"First off I'll go over the different types of items and how they are made. Spells can pretty simply be placed into two categories. Active and Passive." Ilm began their explaination.

"For passive runes a shape is made for an initial activation of mana along with the storage of that effect. Typically with how they are made the mana is sourced from the creator. That means – at least at the lower level – passive runes can only be made using mana types that the creator can use… but with conversion runes to help alter how mana feels and the potential for either donors or using conversion setups to artificially make the most effective mana type and inject it.

Well the whole concept gets a bit more complicated." Ilm paused despite not needing to breathe to speak through the necklace they wore on their chest.

"For active runes however a shape is created for mana to travel along. Passages are made with mana that let future mana flow and create effects. This is then outsourced to whoever uses the rune to activate the effect." Ilm continued.

"Now passive runes are much harder to make and are typically weaker or less durable with simpler effects. They tend to fall apart after a while, as the mana flowing and pooling endlessly inside of them breaks out. Because of this, most magical items are active. You're flipping that on its head by making most of your magical items passive with constant effects and no user cost…I don't understand how you manage it." Ilm spoke the first time their confidence started to displace cracks.

"Getting off-topic. Basically, these crystals are essentially normal active items except for a few key points. The runes in active items need to be tuned to accept a specific mana type. Because of this, most use pure mana as most people can use it… even if the efficiency would be much much higher if the initial mana type matched the desired effect. These crystals are able to accept other sources of mana at a reduced efficiency without being designed that way.

So while fire mana works the best in the fire crystal it also accepts metal mana which should be impossible for something so small. I'm sure they would shatter if fed with drastically different mana types like water mana through the fire crystal or madness types but it's still impressive." Ilm finished. Innearth thought over how dwarves saw spells. At the start of the explanation he took it all at face value but as he had time to sit and think about it…

he started to find some discrepancies that meant it didn't fully transfer over to his own or even other species' spell systems. Active or passive could technically be used to describe other spell types. I guess… Potions might be passive and chanting active… but that feels limiting. I also wouldn't call most of my materials passive effects they are magical materials! You can't draw passive runes in water to make a healing liquid.

"I guess those are just magical materials and not a spell? Either way, I don't think that's important. What is important is that an active effect is achieved when mana is converted into environmental mana. That change of state of someone pushing their personal mana through an item and turning it into environmental mana makes the actual magic. A "Active" lantern that needs mana isn't really using mana like a fuel source just converting personal mana to environmental pollution and light.

Passive effects usually involve loops of mana that radiate an effect without diminishing themselves." Ilm responded.

"I've been thinking about how I can use the crystals – or even if it's a good idea to use these in this spear. If the crystals were just attached to the core, I'm sure they would eventually empty the spear's storage – as all of the Diamond mana was converted into their effects and shunted into the environment…" Ilm continued.

"Maybe if I mulch the crystals and turn them into a coating for the inside of the runes? I could try and make passive effects that take advantage of the conversion these crystals have… if you wanted to go that route?" Ilm asked. That seems like a convoluted series of steps. I do remember Onyx doing steps like that at a few points... but if it's just converting the mana type I'm not sure if it's worth it. I can make materials with "passive effects" to include in the spear instead?

They would be much more durable and endless without needing pathways. Innearth mused.

"… I forgot you can just make free passive effects whenever you want. The bonus of doing it the rune way is we could set up passive effects that had actual logic and turned on or off… but you are correct it would be a strain on the stream the core you made gives." Ilm relented. Got it. I'm thinking of increasing the stabbing speed and strength with either void or sharpness… some kinetic and inverted gravity materials sucking stuff towards it and pushing it forward faster…

might add some gravity handles around a soft grip to make it easier to use…. Think with the core that will get us to tier 8? If it were a monster I'd try and add a refilling healing potion or maybe poison or void liquid that can be injected… but an item can't heal those back.

"If you want a healing effect I could try and divert some of the power into a slowly filling single-use healing rune? I think with some careful use of the life crystals enhancing a healing battery I might be able to pretty safely fill it almost passively." Ilm said after a moments thought. Would it be strong enough to heal a high levelled adventurer? If not, there isn't much of a point. Also would it drain the core? I thought you mentioned using the crystals would drain the core.

"Using the crystals quickly would drain it. I should be able to pass it back into the core to recycle the mana – minor chance it would slightly corrupt it to a life based mana type but I also don't think you can store life mana in a diamond core so who knows." Ilm started.

"And yeah. It would take over a day to refill to a point that a high-level adventurer would be able to heal with it but it would work. What do you say?" Ilm finished. I think we have a plan. Finally finished brainstorming, Innearth began building what he had decided to work on. A casing was made around the screw and tipped with Sword mana then a long pole was designed with several compounding effects that each made the item slightly better.

Partway through designing the shaft Ilm asked him to make a compartment for them where they placed a stack of over 50 "Life crystal with strange squiggles followed by a plate of metal with different strange squiggles" layers. Going over the top of the whole spear Ilm laid a careful stream of runes that seemed to grow down the whole shaft's length away from the tip – like interlocking chains mixed with vines.

When they finally relaxed and left the creation settle Innearth placed it in his item panel to read its information. Dormant Seed of the Diamond Spear Tree. [Tier 9 Weapon] Description: A seed of a weapon that may one day awaken to its true purpose, this spear is infused with Life and Diamond mana but does not yet have a soul. Perhaps if used enough it will awaken to its true purpose? Growth Weapon with high chance of evolution. Stabbing damage 500-1000. Cold Damage 20-30.

Continuous damage from injected crystals 1/sec per 3 crystals. Durability 1800/1000. Once per day can activate [A Seedling's Blessing] healing life attuned creatures for [10, 000 health] over 5 seconds. Excess life energy revitalises and returns stamina. Frequent use of [A Seedlings Blessing] increases likelihood of eventual evolution.

"I…that was enough to do it. We did it!" Ilm said pride shining through. Pulling out a crystal dagger Ilm pushed it into an invisible panel pulling their hand back a moment later with a mug of some sort of frothy burning liquid.

"Hah! Take that Steve. I get to try fire beer before you!" Ilm said no longer speaking directly at Innearth their thoughts being sent anyways. Watching amused as his ascended monster ran off to show off her new system controls Innearth returned to his dungeon design. Okay! I have my bait! I could theoretically randomize this but… well when I put that much mana and effort into making it I kind of want to show it off itself.

Bonus is my quest can show the reward effects now I feel like showing off this tier NINE potentially upgradable weapon is more exciting than just writing "masterwork reward" or whatever. Instead of just attaching this reward to the snow golem boss, Innearth made a liquid crystal pool in the portal room beyond it.

He carefully placed his "bait" on a ruby red pedestal that contrasted the green script covering the item nicely – running fire mana metal in a swirling fractal around it – one that didn't do anything but add to the aesthetics. He then set up the quest and watched as the only group currently in his dungeon grabbed the builder they were walking up a flight of stairs and HUSTLED. They carried the surprised client like a sack of potatoes out of Innearth's dungeon and then regrouped.

The group ran through his first floors using well-mapped-out skips to reach the forest portal. Then, when they snuck through the passage that only opened for those who had "beaten the spider sisters at least once before" they started heading deeper – hoping to be the first to reach his reward. … that seems to have done it. Hope I get more than this group before the end of the event.