Doyle nods his core in response to Ally’s question. ‘Yeah, I didn’t quite have enough Wisdom to accept the Guild’s contract and keep the first floor automation and the two loot rules I have running.’

Ally looks really aggrieved at this. ‘So you, who had just recently reached the limits of your soul, decided to buy a new path? Didn’t the pain from before push it deep enough into your mind to not do that? You haven’t even gained a level! I’m surprised you didn’t howl out with pain so loudly that I could hear it even if you weren’t trying to talk with me.’

Doyle’s core flashes as the memory of the pain returns to him. It really wasn’t that long ago since he had completed his dungeon core path and felt that twisted mind rending pain. Then something else comes to mind. ‘I didn’t feel any pain this time?’

Ally frowns, ‘you should have? While your soul does grow with experience, both literal and figurative, the system isn’t as kind. Until you get that last tick of it to push you over into the next level, it treats you like you had the same limit as when you first reached your current level. Were you doing anything special to allocate the path points?’

Doyle shakes his head, ‘I was deciding whether or not to accept the contract and so after noticing I could use a few more points of Wisdom I spent the points on the path most likely to give me some. I said it exactly like I normally would and everything.’

Ally rubs the bridge of her nose, ‘I suspect I know how it happened and I suspect you might have gotten a bit deeper into debt. What likely happened is that the system allowed you to spend more path points than you were allowed in exchange for increasing your quintessence debt. Hopefully not at too steep of a price.’

Doyle’s core dims, ‘Why would it do that? Like, I know it likes the quintessence and so is all for putting me into debt, but I also don’t see why it would still cause all the pain and what not.’

Ally laughs, ‘Because you were still in the middle of reading the Guild contract of course. Whoever made the system likely had someone come by to talk with them about what should be included in as an exception. Now how about we check on the damages as I’m sure the system will be just as recalcitrant on telling us the new debt as it was in telling us the old one.’

Doyle nods, ‘[System what was the cost of buying my latest path and what is my current quintessence debt?]’

{The last path cost: 10pp, Quintessence debt where each point spent adds 0 plus 1 after every second point spent

Current Quintessence debt: 82.61}

Ally bites her thumb. ‘Yeah, that could have been a lot worse. If those first two points hadn’t been free, it would have cost 10 more quintessence. We probably owe whoever was sent to represent the guild for getting those freebies. It had taken us this long to get down to 60ish and if we had tipped over the 100 point things would have gotten nastier.

‘Still, as long as we owe more than 10 quintessence we’re going to be stuck with the slower world energy gain from delvers. That’s basically giving up our energy to the system for free without it even going towards the debt or anything. I can’t even imagine how much more you could have done so far if the system wasn’t taking some undetermined amount of power from us. Though I guess it is probably better than owing interest on the debt.’

Doyle can’t help but laugh, though stops after Ally shoots him a dirty look. Still, he can’t help but shake his core, ‘I had completely forgotten about the fact that my debt reduced how much world energy I get from delvers.’

When Ally hears that, she can’t help but let out a giggle as well. ‘Okay, that does deserve a bit of a laugh. But increasing your debt isn’t a laughing matter. Going over a debt of 100 is when the system starts increasing the penalties. I don’t know what the dungeon based penalties would be but think along the lines of holding back stat gains from your paths and such. Your grab for more Wisdom would have been quite the failure if at the point when you have gotten it on the path the system had already decided you wouldn’t get it.’

Doyle’s core goes almost dark before the glow returns, ‘That, that would have been bad. Why would the system get so persnickety at such an arbitrary point?’

Ally shrugs, ‘Cause it can? Other possibilities include that maybe that number was an unlucky amount to owe in the designer’s culture, someone thought the number was funny, or they rolled dice. Remember, for many of the core functions that don’t grow with the system, the reasons will boil down to one person wanting it that way.

‘Even the fact that it is just the system and not the System tells us something. My personal guess on that one is that whoever designed it originated from a universe that had a System. So when designing their own, it wasn’t the System, but rather just a system they were making.’

Doyle nods, ‘I guess that all makes as much sense as the next guess. Still, I’m glad I managed to stay under an arbitrary number. I should probably look into paying it back more actively. If I remember correctly, we had figured it would take something like 4 days of my natural power generation to generate a single quintessence? Though for some reason I feel like we’re missing something about the debt penalty?’

Ally frowns and brings up her notes. After reading them, she sighs, ‘Yeah, I misremembered a few things. It isn’t at 100 that the heavy penalties come in. For 100 and every power of ten, after that you gain 10% extra leveling experience. Also, just for having a debt you experience slower skill growth. The breaking point actually starts at 153 for some reason. Though I wasn’t wrong about not knowing what the penalty would be. I just have it marked as being a big breakpoint.’

Doyle groans, ‘So my skill growth has been stunted this whole time? That does bring up the question of what I would be doing with all those path points seeing as I already managed to cap that out. But yeah, I really need to pay down this debt if that is the case. Maybe back then I couldn’t afford to put in my full natural regen but now I basically don’t even use it.’

Ally nods, ‘That does sound like a good idea. Though maybe just limit it to when you have your poll capped? Don’t want to end up in a situation where you need more and don’t have it. As for your skill growth? You have to remember you aren’t leveling as fast as most dungeons would.

‘If you were on a planet that was already integrated with the system, you would be at least level 10 by now, even if a sapient population hadn’t found you. Not many monsters got here not because the draw isn’t powerful. Rather, there just weren’t many monsters in the first place. On a planet that has had at least a century go by, you would have had multiple monsters entering every day from the moment you entered. Not to mention if you were anywhere near a sapient population.

‘Dungeon deaths are, in most places a way of keeping their population and unemployment in check. Fools and their lives are soon parted, which is a quick and easy way for dungeons to level up. You might not have had as many deaths as with the monsters but each sapient death is worth more no matter how grim that sounds.’

Doyle sighs, ‘So I’m just growing slowly on all metrics?’

Ally shrugs, ‘Eh, not much you can do about it. On the bright side, you should have a more consistent growth instead. Dungeons tend to grow to the area’s level of competence and then stop. If a world rarely gets anyone above level 100, the dungeon isn’t going to be getting anywhere above that, with any great speed.

‘By having a captive audience, as it were, you can continue to grow as they do. Plus, the system tends to give a bit of a boost to the first generation after it arrives on a planet. Their kids might not be growing like they are, but you only need Ace and company to keep growing even without the death factor.’

Doyle tilts to the side, ‘Why would that matter all that much? I’m not exactly rolling in the levels right now and they’ve way out leveled me. I have floors they won’t get to for a while now.’

Ally nods, ‘You aren’t wrong in the short term. The thing is, each magnitude of levels increases the experience scaling. So while they’re ahead of you right now you will likely catch up at each of those break points. That and the fact that you will stay ahead of them with floors will keep it in check. There is a reason I used level 100 as a sticking point in that example.

‘Though I suspect that your world isn’t going to be one of those stuck there. You’ve already got a couple of gods personally sniffing around just you alone. Besides that, I can already feel a level of world energy out there high enough to support higher levels and it is growing.’

Doyle tilts back, ‘I can see that last bit being a problem.’

Ally laughs, ‘Well, yes, it can be. A world just needs to make sure there are enough high-level people to keep it in check.’

Doyle tilts back, ‘And if they don’t?’

Ally shrugs, ‘Well, we call those worlds, death worlds. Partly because monsters end up gaining the levels through growth and so they kill off the lower level sapient inhabitants. Mostly though because once monsters get far enough ahead they corrupt the local world’s energy. This is technically fixable but it is much cheaper to just move.

‘See, what that corruption does is increase the chance of monsterification. After all, you can have an animal with mana but it isn’t a monster. Once the world energy has monster energy in it, though, that is a whole lot harder. Worse yet, more things can become monsters.

‘Because normally it takes either some sort of special condition for a stone golem to just form out of a natural rock. On a monster world, it isn’t out of the question for a mountain to just stand up and walk away. Extreme examples of this include having any local moons turn into golems. That is only if the other local monsters don’t take over the mountain first. A mountain with a dragon living in it isn’t going to come alive on you even if that situation might be more survivable.’

Doyle sighs, ‘And of course either way I would come out ahead.’

Ally shrugs again, ‘Dungeons just sort of are. After all, eventually even the most monstrous world will end up with sapients, even if they are all monsters. Dungeons are honestly the species that has the hardest time waking up to full sapience. I guess it makes up for their massive innate ability. Gotta keep that soul asleep to keep things fair.’

Doyle shakes his core, ‘I don’t want fair, I want strategically unfair in my favor.’

Ally snorts, ‘Well, you got it. After all, you’re an awakened dungeon already. Can’t get much more unfair than that unless the rumors of certain monsters being able to naturally grow into true immortals is true.’