Ally lapses into a moment of silence as she finishes her explanation. Then she looks up, ‘so you probably have enough points for that path now. What with the new skill and all.’ Doyle calls up his status to check.

{Name: Doyle Huxley

Race: Dungeon Core (Strange Caverns)

Soulbond: Ally Huxley

Paths: [18] Dungeon Core II 10/10, Kobold Community 15/15

Level: 0

[6] S[12] A[11] C[14] I[12] W[9] P[5] D[14] K[20] L[16]

World Energy(/R per hour): 836/1000(250)

Skills: Territory Control lv7, Dungeon Rules lv6, Universal Deconstruction lv7, Dungeon Pattern Database lv13, Creation(Energy Powered, Pattern Based) lv7, Conceptual Reinforcement lv2}

‘Huh, you would be correct. In fact, I have an extra point to spare. First though, [System, put 17 points into the Goat Supremacy path]’

{17 points applied to Goat Supremacy…

5/20 - You have earned +3 Strength, Goats get +2 Strength/Level

10/20 - You have earned +1 Constitution/Level, Goats get +3 Constitution, and the Path diverges

Goats are hardy creatures with a long history of being kept by sentients. They have risen up to be gods and bowed to devils. Before you now stands a choice. On one side you have a classic goat yet better. This is the mighty creature which in myth has fed newborn gods with both its milk and flesh. Many smaller sentients have gone on to conquer great swaths of land upon the back of these mighty animals. However on the other side is another goat. This one has the flicker of a true mind behind its eyes. While they can give freely of themselves it takes more than just being an animal to truly rise or fall. Choose your path.}

Doyle pauses, ‘Uh, Ally, it just gave me a choice? Here look at this.’

Ally reads the message and nods, ‘good. I was wondering how long it would take for you to find a diverging path. This one is straight forward which is nice. Some of them can get pretty abstract. All this one means is that you get to choose between more physical goats or more intelligent goats. Likely the smart path will lead you to having some form of goat sentient. This could mean goat people, goatkin, goat folk, satyrs, or any number of strange goat themed beings like a goat based centaur. Not sure about the other exactly but it might focus on either body stats or some sort of adaption like letting them live in a freezing wasteland. Pick whichever you like as neither are putting up any warnings.’

Doyle ponders on the choice for a moment. ‘I think I will go with the physical path. While it might be all about strengthening them it also sounds like it could deal with domestication and I already have a pair of goats being led by the kobolds. Plus I have the kobolds in the first place. Maybe later I can get some other awakened monsters but for now I should be good. [System, I choose the classic yet better goat].’

{Path Chosen…

You are their shepherd and they are your flock. Guide them wisely and their very presence will be a great boon to those around you.

15/20 - You have earned +3 Wisdom/Level, Goats get +1 to Body Stats/Level

20/20 - You have earned a reduction of 1 to the cost of goat based monsters, Goats under the command of another monster receive a bonus to Agility equal to half that monsters wisdom score rounded down and capped at the goats base Agility}

Ally whistles, ‘well don’t expect that with every path. Dang, it even reduces the cost of your already insanely cheap goats. You can fit five more goats into your dungeon with that! Though that agility boost will make your kobold leader all that much more dangerous. It isn’t that much of a bonus at the moment. Probably only one or two but once you get a few more stats for your kobolds, it should do some amazing things.’

Doyle nods, ‘don’t worry. That is beyond anything I expected anyway. Though I guess I should place some goats while I am thinking about it. Lets see, one goat in the entrance on a more permanent basis. A couple more in the vine room. Another in the large goat room, and a single goat with the regular kobolds. Plus add some helmets to those last two goats and we are good. Now do I have anything to spend my remaining point in?’

{Points: 1

Class: Dungeon Core II 10/10

Completed: Kobold Community 15/15, Goat Supremacy 20/20

Started [0/3]:

Available: Dungeon Core III 10/100, Vine Warper 0/15, Kin Slayer 0/100, Voidborn 0/250}

Ally glances over, ‘looks like the answer is no. In fact, the goat herder path is gone as well which is kind of sad. It would probably have some synergy with supremacy. You probably need to do more things or possibly level up the patterns more? You have goat at level nine so something might become available at ten.’

Doyle closes all the screens, ‘true enough. Though I think the next path I go down will deal with my assassin vines unless something else interesting pops up. They are being a bit neglected at the moment and the sooner I get something for them the better.’

Doyle’s words seem to remind Ally of something and she mumbles under her breath and tap the air a few times. ‘Okay, while that might be a good way to go, it might not be the best. What you just said got me thinking. Dungeon cores are very unique in the Multiverse but other people can travel similar paths. What I just thought of was those who focus on monster taming.’

‘I had to double check but they can get paths that boost their monsters in a similar way to that last bonus from goat supremacy. A temporary boost to stats that lasts only as long as the monster is under their orders. Thing is it comes in two flavors. The specific and the general. What your goat path provided was a scaling and potentially quite hefty bonus to goats, specifically. The general paths on the other hand will tend to give limited boosts to everything.’

‘I bet if you either advance down your class some more or do some other more general work with your monsters similar options will show up. Your focus on goats and kobolds is a decent idea. Goats are your go to at the moment and kobolds have a lot of potential. Plus with your supremacy path you need someone to lead the goats anyway. Assassin vines are powerful but not that versatile. While the points seem to just be rolling in at the moment that won’t last. That combined with when you get more monsters means you can’t specialize everything. Even just a single plus one a level to strength across all your monsters will eventually be worth much more than even plus five per level to your assassin vine’s strength.’

Doyle’s glow fluctuates for a moment as he absorbs what she just said. ‘Garrr, you're right. I probably just need to put in place some more general rules for my monsters or something. The vines are cool but they don’t really defend me enough anyway. Any point I spend on them would get more return spent on the kobolds or goats and who knows what else I will get. Plus we already have seen some more general rewards. The cost reduction wasn’t to goats but goat based summons.’

Ally nods, ‘good catch on that one. In fact, we can get a bit more out of that little snippet than just it being general. I think if you had gone the other path you might have gotten even more general rewards. This also means you aren’t cut off entirely from stuff like goat folk. Rather, you will just have to get them yourself rather than have the system assist you.’

At this point they don’t really have much else new to add and for the next hour or so they speculate on it. As that winds down Ally glances over at the screen showing the entrance and lets out a yip. ‘Doyle I think you might want to take a look out our front door. Something is going on in the towns!’

Doyle looks over as well and is shocked. Great plumes of smoke are rising from both towns and not the clean smoke of a wood fire. Rather it is the nasty black choking smoke you get when plastic and other nasty things are all burned together. ‘Well, I guess that one guy stirred up some trouble?’

Ally shakes her head, ‘I don’t know if this is a good or bad thing. Those towns are burning and there is nothing we can do about. Hopefully the forest doesn’t catch fire.’

Doyle’s core dims, ‘Eugh, a forest fire so close would not be good at all. Who knows what it might drive out of the deeper parts. Plus those guys over there are sort of my customers at the moment. It would set us back quite a bit if they all died.’

Ally settles down on his core to watch. ‘It was somewhat inevitable. I have seen enough petty tyrants come about right after the system hits. Some just take to violence and bullying more than others. Never ends well for them of course. Everyone is on an equal footing after the tutorial so their scare tactics only work so long before either a hero takes vengeance or mob justice. Going by the flames this is probably an example of that second one.’

Doyle’s core sparkles, ‘look on the bright side, we might get an actual dungeon town a lot sooner rather than later. Far as I can tell a dungeon is a much surer and safer bet than the forest when it comes to food.’

Tilting her head down Ally sighs, ‘well you're more ready to be a dungeon core than I am apparently to be a dungeon companion. After having to take care of so many messes like this it hurts me to see it happen just outside our home.’

Doyle bobbles, ‘There is a saying for this sort of thing. You have to break some eggs if you want to make an omelet. The tyrants had to be taken care of for people to have a better life. All that would have happened if they weren’t taken out is people wouldn’t be able to level enough to stay safe in the new world. I bet you have seen more than enough places that have fallen to some horde of monsters only for the leader to be the only one that escapes.’

‘If they build a town around us that would be the omelet. Sure that nasty hard shell is gone but everyone gets tougher by facing my monsters. A town where everyone is level ten has a better chance of survival than one where the ruler is level 20 and everyone else level one.’

Laying back on his core Ally sighs again, ‘you’re right. Much more than you would believe. But still it hurts me to see them go through the pain. Worse yet, even when I was out helping with this kind of thing there was nothing I could do then either. This is just one of those things people have to experience to realize how the world works. Having someone swoop in and fix what ails them doesn’t make them appreciate how bad the world is now. Until you get a few truly powerful organizations set up and a couple individuals with enough power to matter on a galactic scale nothing is really safe.’

Doyle nods, ‘Telling someone the stove is hot will never be remembered as well as actually touching the stove. Though thinking about the potential town it looks all that closer to being a reality. If you squint, you should be able to just make out a gathering of people between the two towns. They are closer to us than the forest or anywhere else of importance so will probably head this way. At the very least we will likely have a temporary camp around us for a while.’