The horned rabbit pattern had only grown 4 levels. On the other hand, with so little, it managed to grow by 200%. This clearly has more to do with how low level the pattern had started out as, but still impressive, especially as it means all his low level patterns can be quickly advanced. Important not only for his skills in general, but after taking another look at the new rabbits there are clear signs of them just being better in general.

Before he can do more with this though, Doyle can feel Moota leaving the seventh floor and so has to make the decision of whether to continue here or with his carving. So of course he can’t decide and winds up with the third option. Checking on his growth and path points. Though he does decide to leave out the patterns as he had just learned how to begin advancing them.

{Name: Doyle Huxley

Race: Dungeon Core (Diverse Strange Caverns)

Soulbond: Ally Huxley

Paths: [64] Dungeon Core II 10/10, Kobold Community II 30/30, Goat Supremacy 20/20, Energy Well I 3/3, Commanding Subordinates 12/12, Ageless Queens 15/15, Earth’s First Home of the Limit Breakers I 1/1, Biomes Aplenty 5/5, Potion Dispensary 10/10, Elemental Animals 5/5, Cows for Milk 12/12, Vegetation Variety 20/20, Divine Border 1/1, Dungeon Core III 45/100, Know Your Enemies 10/10, Pathfinder

Level: 3

S[26] A[36] C[37] I[34] W[49] P[25] D[45] K[58] L[35]

World Energy(/R per hour): 18200(420)

Skills [5/5 Class, 3/5+1 General]: Territory Control lv24>38, Dungeon Rules lv28>34, Universal Deconstruction lv30>32, Dungeon Pattern Database lv34, Creation(Energy Powered, Pattern Based) lv32>36, Conceptual Reinforcement lv24>25, Biosphere Balancing lv16>28, Psychology lv12>37}

Doyle can only sigh as his thoughts on the pattern stuff is proven true through the simple fact that the database was the only skill that hadn’t advanced. Of the rest, the most impressive improvement had to be the psychology skill. Though Doyle could only shrug. It isn’t every day that a person gets to analyze a god. Still, a single skill being able to account for almost half of his path points this go around is impressive. And speaking of path points, Doyle pulls up that screen as well.

{Points: 64

Class: Dungeon Core II 10/10

Location: Kobold Community II 30/30

Completed: Goat Supremacy 20/20, Energy Well I 3/3, Commanding Subordinates 12/12, Ageless Queens 15/15, Earth’s First Home of the Limit Breakers I 1/1, Biomes Aplenty 5/5, Potion Dispensary 10/10, Elemental Animals 5/5, Cows for Milk 12/12, Vegetation Variety 20/20, Divine Border 1/1, Know Your Enemies 10/10, Pathfinder, [UNIQUE] 1/1

Started [1/3]: Dungeon Core III 45/100, [TRINITY] 5/1000

Available: Vine Warper 0/15, Kin Slayer 0/100, Voidborn 0/250, Axe Sharpener 0/5, Energy Well II 0/6, Expansionist 0/30, Fire’s Flying 0/7, Deal Broker 0/10, All the Potions 0/60, Community Driven 0/10, Community Builder 0/30, Boss Builder 0/50, Engraver 0/5, Godly Negotiator 0/500, Heavenly Gate 0/350, Clan Head 0/25}

Doyle laughs to himself at getting a couple new paths related directly to gods. It was sort of inevitable when most people don’t even get to personally interact with one for the first time, let alone multiple times. Though going by the heavenly gate thing, the system probably sees him as the gateway through which deities enter his world.

If that was cheaper he would be tempted to get it just to see if that was more literal. After all, being able to pick and choose which deities can visit would be very useful. More interesting in the short term was clan head. Doyle isn’t 100% certain about it but his best guess is that it comes from having so many monsters that form groups. He has the wolves, myconids, cattle, goats, and even the kobolds have been set up as a community.

There is just one little thing that stops him from completing it. Doyle had just learned that the third rank of the dungeon core class has some kind of worthwhile thing attached to it. And what do you know? With 64 points, he has more than enough to finish it.

Whatever is left over can be used for something else but Doyle can’t help himself. ‘[System, put in enough points to finish dungeon core three.]’

{55 points applied to Dungeon Core III path...

50/100 - +10,000 world energy for creation of new floors, -10 to any existing quintessence debt and reveal of such debt if hidden, Release of ability to have lower level monsters than the minimum on a floor, Unlocked system based pattern adjustment

52/100 - You have earned +50 World Energy/Hour

60/100 - You have earned 10 monster pattern adjustment points

66/100 - You have earned +1/Level to all stats

70/100 - You have earned 20 monster pattern adjustment points

77/100 - You have earned +10 to all Mental stats

80/100 - You have earned 30 monster pattern adjustment points

82/100 - You have earned +10 to all Soul stats

87/100 - You have earned +10 to all Body stats

90/100 - You have earned 40 monster pattern adjustment points

95/100 - You have earned +2/Level to all stats

100/100 - Path Complete, Monster Naming skill available for 100,000 World Energy, Common Language pack available for 1,520,000 World Energy, Level range goes up by 2 a floor from now on, Sapience prevention seal for 1,000 World Energy (Repeatable), 4 additional Boss slots unlocked, Max floors raised to 50}

Doyle was paying attention to the message but right around when it hit 80 a pain started to spread through his mind. With every additional point that went into the path, the pain grew and twisted until sweet relief came as the path completed. This, of course, was worrying so Doyle skipped the formalities and directly questioned Ally about it.

She was a little annoyed about being interrupted after they had set up some ground rules on their interactions. However, after hearing he had been in pain calmed down and became worried. Though that didn’t last long either, as she soon went right into laughter.

Ally shakes her head, ‘Well, I guess we know how the system has decided to prevent you from overspending on a level.’

Doyle’s core dims, ‘But I haven’t spent all that many path points.’

Ally shrugs, ‘If my calculations aren’t wrong you should have about 250 points spent at this point. Sure, you only spent a few this level but you have been progressing your level enough that the system didn’t mind too much. Now though? Well, you’ve clearly hit your limit.

‘And don’t blame the system for limiting your power. An important thing to remember about paths is that they represent your soul shell. There is an absolute limit to how many points you can have invested before that starts to break.’

Doyle rolls his core to the side, ‘Still sort of feels like the system is yanking my chain.’

Ally laughs, ‘I’m not going to deny that as you can’t really know how much leeway you have but it is important to stop when warned. If the soul shell is like a writing surface, then the paths are sentences. Eventually you run out of room for more words. If you try to write more, you’re going to overlap other sentences causing trouble.

‘The worst outcome? True death, the kind that even a true immortal can’t bring you back from. With so much weight on the soul shell, it just shatters and without that you no longer exist.’

Doyle freezes in place as he processes this new info. ‘Huh, well, fair enough. I guess I’ll just keep those nine extra points in reserve then. Though I have to ask, does the limit truly have anything at all to do with levels?’

Ally shrugs, ‘Eh, sorta? Similar things exist in universes that don’t have systems so clearly that isn’t the case. You know all those super hero stories your world had? That sort of thing exists with the powers being engraved directly onto a being’s soul shell.

‘On the other hand? More levels do allow for more points to be invested. Though it is highly suspected this has more to do with the increase in stats that most get when leveling up.’

Doyle nods, ‘That would make some amount of sense. Though this does bring us back to leveling up. More specifically, how am I supposed to level more? While idiots aren’t dying daily, I’m definitely not short on deaths either.’

Ally gestures at a screen showing the boss room. ‘I wouldn’t be surprised if you leveled within the week. Levels aren’t just gifted for taking out the trash. You’re more likely to end up at fourth level from the founders beating the boss than you are from clearing out the noobs.’

Doyle sighs, ‘I do still get something for them, right?’

Ally nods, ‘Most assuredly! After all, part of your purpose is to extract as much cruft and those soul shells are quite a boost. It’s just that while there aren’t literal xp points those first floor farmers would only be worth a few points each. In the long run, that is where most of your growth will come from, but early on a highly skilled enemy will out shadow everything else.’

Doyle shakes his core, ‘While one plus one is two, that is slow going when you’re aiming for 1,000. Besides that though, I have two other things to ask. The system has a couple offers available since I completed the third rank of my class path. I can buy the naming skill, a common language pack, and sapience prevention seals.

‘The 1k seals are mostly self explanatory. Just some things I can throw on my monsters so they don’t gain sapience. Useful when the whole point of most of the dungeon is to use cheap respawns. One of them getting haughty would be annoying. The other two however escape me and are expensive. I haven’t even finished paying for the power storage things I got with the floor.’

Ally takes a moment to check universenet and then looks up. ‘Okay, so naming skill is a must have. This universe doesn’t have truename magic, but dungeon creatures are their own bundle of worms. Simple explanation?

‘Names grant power. The power to break rules. You might not have noticed but despite all the skirmishes your kobolds have had with the founders, they seem to have stalled out? They need names to get better. This is a matter of the floor’s energy limiting them.

‘By naming them you’re basically hooking them up with a direct line to your power. The problem with naming is that despite it being a natural part of a dungeon, it requires the universe that you’re currently in to give permission. A normal universe basically just rubber stamps these things. Sadly, the system has taken over that part as well.

‘And the language thing? What it says on the tin. You’re getting by right now because there aren’t any visitors from beyond earth to spice up the language pool. It costs so much because the book should contain literally every language spoken across more than one planet. A condition that means that English isn’t on the list, but that’s life.’

Doyle rolls his core, ‘Well, I will need that pack of common languages later. Besides that, though, I’m not too interested in the other stuff. At least not enough to fight over.’

Ally shrugs, ‘That’s life sometimes. Though the fact you got four boss slots out of completing the third rank would make it worth it all alone. Your current boss hasn’t had a chance to shine yet, but that chance will come.’