Doyle stops dilly dallying and turns his attention to Ally. Not too much time has passed, so she is still in her room crying.

Doyle sighs but doesn’t back down, ‘Hey Ally.’

She doesn’t respond the first time, so he tries again, ‘Hey Ally. Got something weird.’

Ally doesn’t look up, but she does respond, ‘What is it? You made a boss already, I could feel that.’

Doyle pauses for a second because he didn’t hear any sobbing in her voice. Then he remembers they aren’t actually talking so respiratory distress isn’t going to change what she sounds like.

As part of his response Doyle pulls up a display with his paths, ‘So there are like three different things with my new paths that are strange.’

She still doesn’t look up, but does gesture her hand for him to explain. Doyle rolls his core but continues to react at this point would do more harm than good. ‘So the first thing is my boss had some remnants, at least that is what the system called it, and ended up gaining a path. That path is interesting but my question stems from the results on my end. Apparently the local system didn’t have a record of the path so I was rewarded with some info, a new material, and the system unlocked a path for me.’

Ally groans, ‘And? Doesn’t sound like a question to me.’

Doyle laughs, ‘Because I hadn’t gotten to the question yet. Anyway, the path it unlocked was the Pathfinder path. Capital P and everything. The thing is that it’s another path which only costs a single point. In fact, I have another path costing only a single point. Well, another besides the whole limit breaker thing. My first question is, what is up with that? I’ve seen these single point paths pop up a few times and they always seem silly important for being so cheap.’

Ally stretches out on the bed, ‘No official name for them in the system. Most places settle on something like achievement paths or title paths. Sometimes people separate out the paths like you just got and call them reward paths, but that’s stupid. My mom prefers to call them title paths because from her experience it fits best. They are the exception to the rule on sharing your paths with others. Well, some of them are. I wouldn’t share the limit breaker path, for instance. An example of a good one to share is those founders and their founders path. If they had shared that around they would have figured out Jan right away.’

Doyle nods, ‘That makes enough sense. It also allows someone to choose if they want the path or not. Anyway, the next question is the fact that I have a non-class path showing as partially completed. Specifically, I now have kobold community two available and the path is showing up as being 15/30 despite the fact I haven’t put any points in it.’

Ally frowns, ‘That shouldn’t be. And there’s the tutorial window. You’ve got a rare yet common path. Rare for most sapients because they are specifically for locations. Things like world trees and what not. On the other hand, they are common for location based sapients. Dungeon cores being one such type of sapient.’

‘Apparently it is to make things easier on locations, as you generally can’t get up and move somewhere else. Unlike class paths you can have multiple of them but there is a limit. Your highest rank path can be upgraded as much as you want of course. Any location paths after that have to form a pyramid under the first.’

‘Once you complete that community II path you will be able to have two rank I location paths. Get kobold community III? You can rank one of those rank I paths up to II. At that point you would have three slots available at rank I because you don’t have a second rank II path. Once you do, whether by ranking up the one you already had or gaining and ranking up a new one, you will have four rank I slots. And so on and so forth.’

‘Though like paths you can side rank a path so maybe your kobold community II turns into kobold dystopia I. At that point you can choose to rank the path all the way up again or you could decide you want another location path to be your focus. It’s quite interesting and I’m kind of sad that paths don’t do this. Would be interesting. Now that is your last question?’

Doyle nods, ‘Interesting way for the system to deal with locations not exactly being all that mobile. Though I have to wonder how things like floating islands would deal with it. But yeah, my third question. It partly connects to the first question, as the second one point path is one of two oddities. Most of the paths are normal capitalization and such without any special characters. This one you’re going to have to actually look at the screen because I can’t verbalize it.’

Ally rubs her eyes and summons up some cold water that she splashes on her face. Specifically summoned water because moments later it all vanishes, leaving her dry. With a sigh, she looks at the screen and just freezes. ‘What do the two paths read as for you?’

Doyle glances back at the paths, ‘The one point path is called unique and on the other end of point costs the 1k path is called trinity. Though putting them into words, despite being how they seem to be written, seems overly reductive for some reason. They feel like they are more and an intent or will than words.’

Ally nods, ‘You know how the language that true immortals use is overly complex with words that describe things in totality? Like how your strength stat has a specific word in the language which accurately describes it? What you have right there is the language they are aping.’

‘Called language, though obviously I can’t pronounce that correctly, nor can most people. Instead, it tends to be referred to as things like the language of intent or heart’s language. It has no true words yet can say anything. The system can’t even properly handle the language, which is why you can only understand it as a single word and I can’t understand the word at all.’

Doyle’s core dims, ‘How does that work? If a language doesn’t have words, it isn’t exactly doing a good job of it.’

Ally sighs, ‘It doesn’t need words. Speaking it involves using Truth with a capital T to say something. Though that doesn’t really help, does it?’

Doyle shakes his core no, but then realizes Ally isn’t actually watching him at the moment. ‘Not really, no.’

Ally nods, ‘Let me give you an example. If I say the word cat, you instantly have an image of a cat in your head. If you had a cat around you when growing up, that is the cat you think of. If I say the word cat to ten different people, they will all think of ten different cats. I personally think of a black cat that would hang around near a fairy ring I would watch. There is no way you could have thought of that cat when I said the word. Even if I described the cat in excruciating detail, you wouldn’t really be thinking of the same cat.’

‘When communicating with others there are a lot of filters between you and them. Even something as simple as describing it as a bit warm out today has so much context that is left out. Someone who lives in a cold climate saying it is warm out might be shocked to see people from a warm climate bundling up because of how cold it is to them.’

‘The language of intent sidesteps this issue. It takes what you intend to say and directly plants it in the mind of whoever you are communicating with. If I could speak the language and I mentioned that cat, you would know exactly everything I understood about the cat with a single word.’

‘Where the language of true immortals is a complex mess of trillions of words that only someone with a memory unrestricted by physical space. The language of intent can technically be spoken by anything that can have an intent. One other important difference between the two is that you can’t lie with the language of intent. Though this goes far beyond just the inability to say something false. It prevents things like lying through withheld information and other such tricks.’

‘If someone says something in the language of intent, they mean it completely. Because if they didn’t, what they said either would not be the language, or would include whatever else they might have meant.’

Doyle tilts to the side, ‘And what does it mean that I have it showing up in my paths?’

Ally shrugs, ‘Whatever those paths represent is important to you on a very core level. Obviously you will want to pick up the path called unique as long as your instincts aren’t screaming at you to not take it. Achievement paths represent something important has happened to you and with a title like unique it must be something big.’

‘The other one you might want to put a point into just to keep it around. Though a thousand points is quite costly.’ Ally shakes her head, ‘There are never enough points. That is why most people go for the alternate class paths. While getting more skills makes it harder to go deep, it does provide an infusion of easy points early on.’

Doyle nods, ‘Short term versus long term. Though if given the choice, I would probably grab a refresh on my class path. Not for the extra skill slots, though. Rather, as a dungeon core I might have the time to grind out skills, I also need my class paths completed for some of the functionality to unlock. Like, right now I have a max depth of 20 floors. While we just hit a quarter of the way, that doesn’t mean I can’t worry.’

Ally doesn’t really have an answer to this, so instead turns her attention back to the paths. ‘So you do have 29 points to put towards whatever paths might catch your eye. Any plans for that?’

Doyle turns back to the list before sighing, ‘The one pointers are a no brainer. Kobold community two is next up because I happen to have a lot of kobolds at the moment. Besides that, I’m going to take your advice and throw a point at trinity. The others seem fine enough but I don’t exactly have enough points left. Instead, I will probably funnel some more into my class path again.’

‘Though I should really get to it. I want to be there when the settlement finds out about my new instances. Mostly because I really want to know if they do notice anything different. They’ve been really good at not overlapping parties.’

Ally chuckles, ‘That will only last as long as it is only them delving. Nevermind the fact that you need the floor to be empty of delvers before you can refill them, idiots will always try to get a jump on their competition. Plus being able to skip earlier monsters by following behind another group is an easy cheat most scum figure out quickly enough.’

Doyle’s core dims, ‘While I am sure some who do that might be scum, it seems wrong to just declare everyone who thinks of it as such.’

Ally crosses her arms, ‘Hrmph, dungeons are the primal test of the multiverse! To skip a challenge one hasn’t completed is disrespectful.’

Doyle’s core tilts up and brightens, ‘You know how I would describe your behavior? Like a princess, spoiled or not. Someone who sits back and tells others to do what needs done. Without actual power to demand it and yet because of your background you demand it, anyway.’