Back in the Dungeon Ally is laughing. She shakes her head and sighs, ‘Did you see how those guys from the other settlement reacted to him whispering? Classic misdirection and a wonderful test. Ace and Kyle had no plans laid out except for Ace to ask A or B and Kyle to respond with B. That whole skit was purely to check if someone in the other group had some form of enhanced hearing or another method of spying on them. I bet they retreat into the dungeon for any serious conversations from now on.’

Doyle nods, ‘I’m actually kind of surprised they haven’t done that yet. Though I need to ask, what is up with that skill book thing?’

Ally shrugs, ‘Really as simple as that. Dungeons can’t create skill books. Or I guess I should say you can create skill books. They just wouldn’t be all that useful. Skill books can only be made by someone with the skill you want the book for. You know two skills that aren’t basically dungeon exclusive, Conceptual Reinforcement and Biosphere Balancing.’

‘Also, your pattern database cannot store skill book patterns in the first place. Skill books are the embodiment of the skill it holds. Which in this case means messing around with souls. So yes, you need to be sapient to use a skill book. So no, you can’t give them to your normal rank-and-file monsters.’

‘Skill books are made by someone with a good enough foundation in the skill, generally meaning they need a skill level over 100. That person puts their heart and soul into explaining the very basics of the skill in some physical media. Books are the most popular method, but you could paint, sculpt, or create a video. The skill book can technically be copied but the copies would not be skill books.’

‘As for how skill books work? Once someone takes in the entire work, the soul imprint of the skill that was left in the book is transferred to the reader. Now this does not give you a level in the skill. Instead, you get the skill at level zero. That might seem a little harsh, but it does leave a bunch of information on how the skill works. Generally, someone that uses one will be able to progress as if they have a personal tutor for the skill. This can really be a step up for a world that lacks a tradition in some skill or another. For instance, your world and its lack of a magical tradition.’

Doyle tilts to the side, ‘Huh, do you need to read the skill book or is that dependent on the form. After all, it would be hard to read a music track or some such.’

Ally rolls her eyes, ‘Well yeah, if there is one in a different form the way you use it will be based on that form.’

Doyle’s core sparkles as he laughs, ‘That sounds fun. I could probably design an object that worked as a skill book for dungeon skills when it is deconstructed. Anyway, it looks like Ace and the rest of the settlement have entered the dungeon, so I assume they are about to talk about something important. Let’s see what they have to say.’

Doyle isn’t wrong, Ace has some important things to go over with the others, though he starts with a smile. “So I caught at least two people who managed to overhear me. The guy at the very back and the young girl right next to Mr. Stansible. Anyone able to catch someone else?”

Kelly nods, “The guy with the sand color hat tried to use some kind of scrying magic but it backfired. My guess is that some path you have was able to prevent it or you are simply too powerful for him to spy on like that.”

A few others nod at this, but no one else has seen another. Ace sighs, “With only three found, I guess there should be at least one we didn’t detect. Better than I expected. I had assumed they would pack the group with that kind of thing.”

Kyle shrugs, “They probably just don’t have enough people with those skills trained up. Besides that, though I need to ask, why the interest in the bone carving book?”

Ace smiles, “That book is more important for us than almost any other crafting skill besides leatherwork. Our settlement’s big thing is the dungeon. Not a mine, not an ancient forest, not anything else really. Sure, there are natural resources like that around, but everything on this planet is new to the system. All those other crafting skills are needed, yes. To not have them would put us behind all the other settlements, eventually. The problem is the long-term sources for the material to use those skills.”

“A masterfully crafted sword made of normal steel will only go so far. A bow crafted from a normal oak tree has a limit to its draw strength. But we have a dungeon. As it gains more floors, the resources we can get out of it will continue to grow in strength. While someone with a woodworking skill might be waiting hundreds of years for magical trees to grow, we won’t have that problem. Tougher monsters means tougher leather and bones.”

Jeremy nods, “Things like leather armor and bone weapons are seen as primitive, backwards even. That is why the other settlement is so easily swayed to give up that skill book to us. Even if they realize we will be able to make good use of it with the dungeon, very few people will realize how good of a use, it will be put to.”

“Maybe even as soon as the first boss monster and we might be able to create bone weapons capable of piercing tank armor. Besides that, I’ve noticed something about the goats. All of their hides are absurdly tough. Some might be from buffs but there is an innate quality to it making the hide a high-quality product even now. But I must admit, even if they had a leatherwork skill book, I don’t expect them to give it away. We will need to learn that one on our own. Luckily it shouldn’t be too hard.”

From near the back, a man steps forward and speaks up. “I don’t have the skill for it, but I’ve learned a bit about leatherworking from my dad. And not the modern version either. My dad was heavily into cowboys and wanted authentic gear. He went through all the trouble of doing everything himself, including tanning the hide. Up till now I focused on the small amount of water magic I can do, but I feel this would probably be a better direction for me.”

Ace pats him on the shoulder, “Glad to hear that, Larry. I’ve heard you hadn’t been doing too hot with the magic and am glad you might have found your calling. Though don’t let this pressure you. We can always get you to teach others how to work leather if you aren’t cut out for it.”

Ace turns towards the crowd, “Anyone want to volunteer for taking on bone carving?”

No one moves at first, but then Jimmy steps forward. Ace raises an eyebrow at him, “Not that I mind if you want to take this on, but you’re already our main carpenter and civil engineer.”

Jimmy sighs, “You weren’t wrong when you talked about waiting for the resources to use our skills. In fact, I feel everyone who works with wood should also train in bone carving. While different the disciplines are similar enough, there should be some synergy between the two skills. Though at the very least, they take advantage of the same stats.”

“All that aside, there is one main reason for my change of heart and it is the fact I am a civil engineer. When you were going on about the benefits of bone carving, something connected in my mind. Until now we built our stuff out of wood or we had the system built stuff. This will work up till a point. After that we will need a better material for at least the wall.”

“The bones of powerful creatures are the answer for us. Whether from the dungeon itself or hunting in the wilds, it doesn’t matter. A world as new to the system as ours won’t have a better material for a long time. And by long time I mean potentially thousands of years. Until then, we either need to use bones and leather or buy off world materials. We can barely scrape together a gold to pay for the system anchor we need. What chances do you think there is of getting enough materials to build a wall with the money we can get?”

Kelly frowns, “I’ve been researching some ways to improve our defense, but I hadn’t even considered this. I guess it can’t really be helped though. Until now, better defense wasn’t a matter of finding a better base material. Rather, it was all about finding the right composite. It is going to take a lot of time for most people to internalize the fact that a rare rock will be more capable of defending against an attack than the most advanced of normal materials.”

“Though we can’t lose all our knowledge of material science either. A magic rock might be able to defend against attacks really well. I will bet that properly treated the same rock will be able to do so much more. The only question is how much things like the periodic table covers anymore.”

Ace nods, “We will need to put somewhat of a focus on gathering all the pre-system knowledge we can, even if it is just to store it. Anyway, we are going to let them send a group in. We can’t even begin to guess what their goal with this is going to be. Since anything could have ambushed them on the way here, I’m sure they have some heavy hitters. They won’t be able to send all of them in because they still need to protect the group, so I’m guessing the second string types will be used. Anyone have an idea on how we should handle it?”

Susan taps the floor with her foot and gathers the group’s attention. “I’ve kept to the background this time around so they shouldn’t think too much about me. Especially since I was working to keep my presence down to that of a normal person. Now when we go back to welcome them in, they will be careful to make sure everyone is greeting them so I can’t just hide in the dungeon and wait for them.”

“However, once that is over, I can rush back to the dungeon ahead of everyone and hide in the entrance room here. Then I follow behind them as they dive to keep an eye on the group. Sadly, my husband decided to stand front and center so can’t help me with this.”

“Besides that, I don’t think I should try to weaken the dungeon before they dive. The second they start sending teams in, that kind of deception would be revealed. We also can’t lie to them about the situation in the dungeon for the same reason. If they do ask about the dungeon layout, we should be factual but bland. Don’t describe how easy or hard it is to fight anything. Just state stuff like, this room has five goats in it and we sometimes find aloe vera in this room.”

“Also, when they inevitably ask how far we got? We should admit that the third floor is random and say we’ve seen a group of kobolds with what we think is an earth mage. Don’t say whether we beat them, just keep it at that and they will assume we didn’t. Then say something about how we have focused on farming food from the dungeon. This will paint the picture that we made it to the third floor but because of the randomness and difficult enemies have as a whole settled into just farming the early floors.”