《Dungeon AI》Chapter 6 - Irontown: part 3/3
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As Carol and I started walking up the hill. I decided to ask her some questions that had been bothering me. "Carol was wondering why you guys hadn't release anybody else from cryo yet" Carol looked back and answered "there's actually a lot of reasons, one of which is that we don't have a psychologist or a safe place to hold them for now. We also only had enough food for a month, and that was just with the three of us. We only have one working restroom and only three beds. The whole place also smells like a cave and needs to have the water damage cleaned up." When Carol finished speaking, I made 7 cleaning drones to begin work on the floor of the medical bay and the crew quarters. Since most of the ship had finally been drained.
I asked another question "I also meant to ask you guys what your classes were. I know yours is a healer, but what did Andrew and Steve get." Carol thought for a second and then said."oh, I remember, Steve had alchemist class and Andrew had the Scout class. The alchemist class from what Steve told me lets you know more about the chemicals you're using and their potential properties. It also lets you put magic into the chemicals to enhance or change their properties.
She waited a second before continuing to speak." Andrew said his class let him see farther. He also has a mini-map that shows areas he's explored. He also has a tracking ability. And some other stuff he hasn't finished going over yet.
Only had one more question left "what where your abilities" Carol looked thoughtful and said "I still have six more ability points and I haven't really picked out anything else besides. Healing hands and diagnose.
We finally came up to the entrance in the side of the ship. It was one of the maintenance hatches. There was a man in an open shopfront, next to the hatch. We walked up to him and asked "hey, is there a place that we can go and find out information about the dungeon or can we ask you some questions" the man looked quite cheerful to have somebody to talk to and answered "yes I can answer some questions about the dungeon. Is this your first time seeing an iron dungeon?"
I looked at Carol and turned back to the man and said "yes, in fact, we've never been in a dungeon before or seen one. We would love to know everything about them." The man was still excited and started explaining "iron dungeons are called iron dungeons because it's where we get all of our metal from. The dungeon doesn't like people taking metal from the wall. It will send out really strong combat golems to stop us. So we have to send people into defeat weaker golems and bring out their corpses for us to melt down into ingots. It's also one of the few mildly safe places to get experience. There are five types of golems, spider golems, cleaner golems, shock golems, combat golems, and remnant golems.
Spider golems 50XP: look like giant spiders, but they're made out of metal. There pretty easy to kill, If you know what you're doing.
Cleaner golems 5XP: are completely harmless, you can just pick him up and bring him home if you want and they'll take care of your house for you. They sell for a high price on the market.
Shock golems 225XP are humanoid or without heads and have a shield and a baton with lightning magic on it. They have the most armor, but also the most metal on them. Their shields and lightning rods are worth quite a lot.
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Combat golems unknown XP: are the ones you don't want to mess with. If you see one, you got a runaway. They have some kind of long-range attack that nobody's been able to stop yet and nobody's been able to kill one.
Remnant golems 170XP: are golems that are made from the bodies of the dead. We don't know much about them other than their previous adventures that have died in the dungeon and somehow have been completely converted into metal and brought back to life. They act like feral zombies, though not as hard to kill as shock golems, but way scarier when there up close.
Unlike most other iron dungeons. Ours has never stopped growing. And it stretches kilometers underground. And yet, like other iron dungeons we've never managed to find the dungeon core.
Oh and one last thing. Adventures occasionally find random items such as shoes, clothes, and the occasional short folding knife.
"Okay, thank you for all the information. And do you know where we could go to register to get into the dungeon?"The man turned his head slightly and answered with a chuckle in his voice."You don't need to register anywhere to enter the dungeon but you do need to sign the sign-in sheet so we can tell who's in the dungeon. How long they've been there and whether they're still alive or not. If they've been in there for more than a week there registered as dead." The man frowned at the last part of the sentence.
I said, trying to be comforting "sorry to hear about that last part but thanks again for the information will probably come back tomorrow and see if we can get into the dungeon" I then turned around and tugged on Carol's arms that we could start moving.
As we walked away, I started talking to Carol "it sounds like the ship's AI has gone insane. If it's been building down for kilometers and somehow making people into mechanical zombies, It probably has the same ability I have, matter absorption and reconstruction. It's an ability in the AI class that allows me to absorb matter and reconstruct into whatever I want."
Carol then spoke with a concerned voice "yeah, but the question is should we stop it. I mean the AI, the whole town is built around this ship, and it making metal for them. The adventurers go in at their own risk. Should we take that away?" I stared back thought about it and then answered,"I wasn't thinking about stopping it at all. I totally agree with the adventurers taking their own risk and earning experience. I'm thinking about the other life pods that are in the ship. If what the little girl said is true, there's still some life pods in theirs and we need to get them out.
Carol looks shocked when she said. "I completely forgot about the life pods. I know only a few survived on our ship but yeah we definitely need to go in there and get those. I am thinking that we're going to have to decide whether to stop the ship AI or leave it. Who knows, maybe we can fix it so that it stops expanding at the very least.
I suggested."For the meanwhile, we should talk to Andrew and Steve and get their opinions," Carol then asked them where they were in the party chat and started leading me towards the market."
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On the way, I got a report back from Scout.
Scout
reporting sighting of wolf analogs.
Average length 180 cm and from the height of their shoulder to the ground 80 cm.
They went past the town and stopped in the woods in front of the bunker.
Their current pack numbers 42 adults and 23 pups.
From observations, they have some form of long-range stun.
Risk evaluation: highly dangerous.
I turned to Carol and told her about the report and then suggested "we should stay in the town tonight. I will make a combat avatar and then, see if I can scare off the wolves. If that doesn't work, I'll probably have to kill them.
Carol then replied."it would be nice to have a hot meal, and not sleep in a room that smells like a basement cellar. And if the wolves are that big, they might be maneaters.
When we reach the market, Andrew and Steve were waiting for us. We decided to go to an Inn and discuss what we found out. Andrew pointed out one that was nearby. When we walked in, we saw that the first floor had a bar and tables for serving food. We sat down at one of the tables, and a maid walked up to take orders. Andrew Steve and Carol asked for anything that has alcohol in it. They then asked if there were any foods The maid would suggest. The maid said."the stew is really good here," they ordered that. I didn't order anything because you know, no stomach.
Steve then began to explain what they figured out. "The currency here works off of the base ten systems.
10 small coppers = 1 large copper.
10 large coppers = 1 small silver.
10 small silvers = 1 large silver.
10 large silvers = 1 small gold.
10 small golds = 1 large gold.
10 large golds = 1 Orichalcum coin.
Orichalcum is an alloy, made from copper and gold while being infused with mana. Only very high ranking alchemists can make it. Orichalcum is the only alloy that allows you to make enchantment runes. That's why it's the most expensive coin.
12 small coppers can get you a meal. The Inn cost 2 small silver's a night per room. The throwing daggers you gave us had a molecular edge, WHICH YOU FORGOT TO MENTION. I nearly cut my own fingers off before I realized it. Luckily I recognize the case they were in. Anyways, they sold for five large gold that's $76,000 cash if I converted that to standard. Oh, and the reason why he paid so much for them, was because molecular weapons are super rare. Most kingdoms will pay a lot more for them. But there was nobody around who could pay the full price so I had to sell them to the shop at a discount.
The coins also have an enchantment on them that makes them glow when you release mana nearby. The kingdom of Vanaheimr makes all the coins and enchants them. Nobody can counterfeit them without being caught.
So if we're going to make any money, we probably need to come up with a plan. I mean selling artifacts worth more than most people make in a year is bound to bring about unsavory people. Nobody knows about us, and I just sold a set of knives nobody's ever seen before. We're probably, going to get robbed tonight and that's if we're lucky.
I thought about what Steve said he's probably right. We also don't know much about this culture. I'll make another four Scout drones and have them armed this time. I'll need three combat drones. Two will defend the base, and I'll control one of them. I'll use that one against the wolves.
I then told the others."I'm going to go back to the basin work. The infiltrator will stay here with you guys and will obey any orders. He is also our radio if you need anything." after I finish talking to them. I said goodbye.
When I was back at the base, I used one of the spider bots to see. Several spider bots were still bringing up chopped up parts from the farming equipment. The cleaners were now working diligently on making the place livable. I made another 10 spider bots. Then I chuckled. "if the ship ever receives a name. It's going to be called the Spider Queen" especially since I've made so many spiders throughout the ship. Half of them are just sitting in nooks and crannies just waiting to be used.
I started summoning up parts for the combat drone. I wanted to get started on the wolves first. I was going to have the spider bots assemble the rest while I was gone. 2 hours later and we were done with the first combat drone.
Combat drone description: the drone is 200 cm tall and a shoulder length of 56 cm. They are heavily armored and mainly resemble humans. They have two forwards facing slits where eyes would be on a human. They also have to back, arms connected to the shoulder blades. These back arms are used to either hold shields or small arms weapons, depending upon the situation. For now, I put a shield split into two parts one on each arm. The arms can connect the shield in front of the suit. It forms a kite shield that will provide heavy armor against most attacks. I also modified the blueprint of the kite shields. Now they hold four 40 mm grenade launchers on the lower portion of the kite shield. This also leaves the two normal arms to carry heavier weapons.
I had a 90 cm long kukri magnetize to my back. And a 50 caliber electromagnetic machine-gun with a drum magazine that holds 500 rounds of caseless ammo. Electromagnetic weapons don't need any accelerants. Now they run off of power crystals instead, This makes caring ammo a lot more efficient. I had another three drums magnetize to the back my ammo belt. I also had another electromagnetic pistol strapped to my left thigh and autoloader case for it. The autoloader case would load the gun whenever it was holstered. It would also hold about 200 rounds of ammo for.
For some reason, I had the odd sensation that I was not prepared for this fight.
I finally exited the bunker. The scout was giving me the real-time video of where the wolves were. They were about a kilometer away. I started walking in that direction.
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