Dungeon Life-Chapter Four-Hundred Thirty-One

I may have underestimated the whole Raid Boss thing. Not in how difficult it is to set up. The setup is going pretty smoothly. Nova’s making great progress on the boss altar sculpture, and between Queen, Thing, Fluffles, Coda, Goldilocks, and practically any other scion that wanders by, the arena itself is coming together quickly, too.

I also didn’t underestimate being able to actually deliver a raid boss. If any of my scions qualify, it’ll be Fluffles, and I know he qualifies. I’m also confident in the others who are interested. They’ve all been gaining strength in their own ways, and I can feel them all eager to get to show off and let loose a bit.

No, the underestimation is in how interested the delvers would be.

I was expecting maybe a dozen or two would be strong enough and curious enough to want to fight Fluffles. From the activity I’m seeing, we could see over a hundred for the first raid, and that’s if the army sits out the first round! Luckily, I do think they’ll watch for the first one. They’ve been doing well, but they’ve also not had much chance to actually relax since they got here. Fighting will let them blow off a bit of steam, but from what I’m hearing in the cathedral, they’re more interested in getting back into something resembling a proper barracks. The church and the local government are looking into throwing them a little housewarming party now the first area of the Hold is nearing actual habitability, and that includes making a temporary public bath.

So yeah, the army is looking to enjoy the finer things in life, like a bath and sleeping in a real bed, so they’re probably going to sit out the first raid.

Which means it’s time for some proper competition between the Slim Chance and Calm Seas guilds. If it was just a normal slugfest of a fight, I’d probably bet on the Calm Seas. They definitely have the lion’s share of the strongest delvers, after all. But I think the Slim Chance has a fighting chance with how much more familiar they are with me and how I work. Home field advantage is definitely a thing, not to mention that the raid isn’t going to be a simple matter of stacking dots and hoping nobody gets feared into the whelps.

I think the Calm Seas is expecting a more ordinary fight, but the Slim Chance is definitely working on expanding their options. The Seas are trying to get more levels and more loot, really putting the Tree through its paces, which is a great stress test for it, honestly. Goldilocks is busy directing everyone where they need to go, thriving under the pressure and rising to meet the challenge.

We’re even starting to release a few of the new pieces of composite armor. In lab tests, they’re holding up great. They’re still not up to Rocky standard, but I’ll honestly be surprised if they ever get there. In defense of the defense, Rocky is familiar with how they’re made, so he knows how to counter it. It takes a lot more effort for him than with more ordinary armor, so I’m counting it as a win.

I think there’s still room on making them stand up to constant beatings, but they’re definitely workable now. The average delver isn’t going around getting attacked for like four hours straight. They get a little time to repair between encounters, and a lot of time to repair once the delver leaves.

But by the same token, an average delver probably isn’t facing the things to need that sort of protection. More longevity and faster repair are going to be things I’ll always chase, but I think we’re finally good to start letting some bits out for field testing.

Meanwhile, the Slim Chance is more focusing on the labyrinth and a few other places to get some crafting materials and other more subtle advantages. I think the crafters are seeing a massive boom in their power right now, thanks to delving, so Karn’s guild is more than happy to provide them with even more and commission custom gear, instead of betting on the random drops from my denizens and chests. The composite armor’s good, but we’re still working out all the kinks.

And, of course, they’re all still looking for the other keys. That… also might have contributed to the hype around the raids, come to think of it. I might be all cynical and desensitized to a slow drip-feed release of a thing I want, but they’re never had to deal with that kind of promotion.

So yeah, delvers are training extra hard right now, so mana’s flowing nicely into my account, with a portion going to the ally fund, of course. I take a quick peek around to see if anyone has anything they want to do with it, but it seems like basically everyone is still adjusting to their share from the Harbinger, and maybe trying to let the emergency fund get a bit deeper. We still don’t know much about the Betrayer, so it’s probably a good idea to save up in the time of plenty to make sure we have what we need when that shoe finally drops.

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In fact, it’s a good motivation for me to make sure the delvers are up to snuff in all this. Stronger delvers means stronger allies to fight off whatever might try to jump us, and fewer people getting hurt or killed.

And the delvers aren’t the only ones preparing for a fight, though my dwellers are more worried about the Betrayer than the raid boss. My ratkin are focusing more and more on mastering archery, thanks to the composite bows. They know how to make them and are developing a skirmishing style of fighting to take advantage of them. With the power and ease of holding a full draw, we might be able to train them to be proper snipers, taking devastating shots and dissolving into the surroundings, only to reappear with the shock of another arrow in an unsuspecting target.

They’re also working well with my other enclaves. The spiderkin much prefer melee, with the jumping spiderkin easily able to provide support with the skirmishers, and the larger tarantulakin able to form defensive lines in larger scale, letting the ratkin rain destruction on their foes.

With them both getting supported by the antkin. The medic caste are welcome no matter the size of a fight, with a few learning some basic supplementary fighting skill with either a bow or a shield and shortsword. Dedicated medics don’t have the sort of protections here as back on Earth, so they need to be able to defend themselves. Most don’t bother, hoping to show with actions they’re here to save lives, not take them, but some are a bit more pragmatic and would prefer to protect their patients a bit more proactively.

The alchemist and enchanting castes provide material support, including enchanted and alchemical arrows. They’re experimenting with temporary enchants for melee weapons via oils and simple drawn runes, but the results in testing are still mixed. In short: they’re unreliable. An oil might last for a whole fight, or only a few swings, same with the temporary runes.

I’ve actually doodled a few vague ideas of cartridges for weapons, holding the alchemy or enchantment and using a simple action to eject or cycle when needed, but it has the taste of overcomplication, like the foldable spearheads I tried to make. Probably for the best to ignore that particular design. I don’t think I’d be able to keep from laughing at a fully-automatic sword.

It does make me wonder how my birbs are going to defend themselves, though. Most of my other enclaves had a few people settling into a kind of soldierly role, but I’m not seeing a lot of weapons so far. At most, I see a few knives, but I don’t know if I’d even call them daggers yet. They look a lot more like tools than weapons.

Though that’s not to say they can’t bring the hurt if they need to. With all the arguing, they do come to blows at times. There’s a lot of posturing first, and usually someone will back down, but when squawks are useless, their persuasion of choice seems to be gravity.

They still haven’t decided on the best way to actually have a scuffle, either. Sometimes they keep with the strutting and posing, using gravity to try to throw off their foe’s form, sometimes they’ll take to the sky and the first one to be forced to land is the loser, and many other fights besides. It does make me wonder if they’re going to focus on their magic for self defense, unlike my other enclaves.

Flying gravity wizards sound like a pretty good army to me. Or airforce, as the case may be.

I’m just curious if they’re going to get organized enough to even have a standing military. They love arguing, and I’m pretty sure more than a few do it because they genuinely enjoy it. I’m not sure if they’re desperate to be right, intensely curious, or are philosophical like my ratkin, and are simply more energetic about their debates.

Either way, I’ll need to keep an eye on them. Having some kind of organization is definitely one of the things they need to fill their progress bars. They’re still progressing, probably thanks to their efforts at making shelter and in securing food, but it looks like governance might be their main sticking point.

My other enclaves tended to need a little nudge to get their political system into place, just a little suggestion for how to organize. But my birds… they’re acting like they don’t even know if they want to organize in the first place. Anarchy might technically be a form of government, but it always gives way to something with more structure, and if you’re not careful, something dictatorial.

Luckily, I have an idea for what they might like, though I’m going to give them the time to get their bars stuck before I go offering solutions they haven’t asked for yet. There doesn’t have to be oil to try spreading a little democracy, but I’ll wait to see if they figure out a version on their own. There’s a lot of wriggle room under that particular umbrella, so I’m sure they can figure out something they like, or at least something they’ll have fun arguing about.