Dungeon’s Path
Monster Inheritance – Chapter 306

Doyle focuses on the nine golems and with the intent to gain the pattern, deconstructs them.

{Plated Crystal Core Crystal Clay Hexape Golem pattern acquired at lv13}

{Plated Crystal Core Crystal Clay Hexape Golem

S[6] A[15] C[15] I[2] W[1] P[1]

Inherits from [Golem]

Max 2 Skills

Required Skills: Magic Resist

Available Skills: Magic Resist lv5

Cost: World Energy[70]}

The stats look alright, though Doyle pulls up the kobold’s starting stats to compare.

{Kobolds: S[4] A[7] C[4] I[6] W[6] P[6]}

Close, but the golem is ahead by 7 points and had most of the stats focused on the body. Though the low Strength seemed odd at first. That was, until Doyle remembered what else was a part of Strength, that of the bodies ability to hold together.

While the clay golem is pretty decent at maintaining itself and thus Constitution and the fluid form automatically has more flexibility. That very fluidity would prevent the golem from having too high of a Strength score. Though Doyle does consider whether this is actually all that necessary.

Sure, he had been expecting the classic idea of a golem. Something with unearthly Strength, but it is still better than a base kobold. Sure, said kobolds also weigh a lot less, but the golems’ weight could be used to its benefit. Maybe they won’t be able to throw a straight punch, but smashing their fists down on something should have a good amount of oomph.

Besides, Doyle had planned for these golems to be used in precarious locations where their extra limbs would provide stability. One of them hanging off the side of a cliff would be able to grab something with two hands and not worry about falling if they failed. Plus, those extra hands should also make it better at climbing.

Though speaking of climbing, he did sort of want these golems to be capable of that and so got the skill for nine adjustment points. Points well spent since the skill actually ended up on the base golem pattern. Useful as that means any future golem patterns will have access to it as well.

However, this also revealed another reason why the system might be putting the squeeze on golems. If Doyle could make a dungeon filled completely with golems, he would only ever have to buy adjustments for the base golem pattern. Right now he is holding back on powerful skills because they are limited to only one monster, with only the void kobolds and now this new golem pattern inheriting from another pattern.

One thing about this inheritance that caught Doyle’s eye was how the skills transferred. With the void kobolds, the new skills it received were under “extra skills”. The hexape golems, however, still listed magic resistance under available skills. He had a guess about this, though. The void kobold’s extra skills are completely new. On the other hand, the hexape’s magic resistance skill is the same as the base form, except at level five instead of one.

Of course, to confirm this Doyle would need to develop more inheritance monsters. That and figure out why the myconids aren’t all one big inheritance pile. After all, the sprouts grow into the lesser, so why doesn’t a lesser inherit from the sprouts? Though that might be why, now that he thinks about it.

Kobolds do not grow into void kobolds, they evolve into them or are born as such. Doyle stretched his mind to make it make sense and he finally settled on something that might explain it. There was a mega popular monster raising game where the monsters could evolve. At one point, that game had introduced baby monsters with the strange caveat that the form was optional.

You could just have a monster be born as the first non-baby form. However, if you did have the monster be born as a baby, it could naturally learn attacks which it wouldn’t if it started as the non-baby form. The myconids, in turn, aren’t normal flesh and blood monsters. They’re mushroom based. Maybe, even out in the wild, it was possible to have a myconid that is born fully formed as a myconid instead of as a sprout or lesser.

The big question now is if this pattern holds or if, with this being the adult form, will the next stage of myconid inherit from regular myconids? After asking Ally about it which sort of interrupted her. In fact, it knocked her right off track.

Ally, ‘Huh? Myconids? What about? Aren’t we talking about golems right now? You got the pattern. Where did myconids come into this?’

After recovering though, she was able to confirm some parts of his guess. ‘Yeah, while myconids can start as sprouts, the monster referred to as a myconid can just be born like that and grow up just like a human. Sapient insects sometimes have a problem with this.

‘Just look at your world’s butterflies. The act of growing up includes a stage that literally reduces them to an organic slurry and rebuilds them into a temporary form designed only to reproduce, some not even able to eat. For certain races, growing up is literally seen as dying because the soul tends not to stick around through the whole process.

‘This isn’t the rule, though. Some manage to maintain their soul through it. Others? They don’t even gain a soul until that happens. While rare, there are even some races that, through such processes have two lives. The first ends with growing up and then after the first soul leaves, a second soul will end up connecting to the adult form. You could actually see some of the undead that later gain a soul as having gone through a similar process.’

There was more that they talked about, but once Doyle turned back to his patterns, this was the part that stood out to him. It represented an interesting quirk, after all, what happens if a myconid sprout has a skill and you raise it into a lesser myconid which doesn’t have the skill?

If it ends up working like the game did, he might be able to focus his adjustment points on the sprouts and simply raise them. After all, that is what his farm zone is currently doing. Though this brings up the question of how he could get his farm zone to skip young forms and go straight to the regular myconid.

Doyle shakes his core and turns his attention to something more pertinent.

{7538/14000 world energy till floor 13}

He sighs. Doyle hadn’t been putting too much sapient based world energy towards the next floor and so is only a little more than half-way there. Maybe if he could focus fully on putting energy towards it, things would go quickly. However, Hundreds of cattle die on his sixth floor a day and it has honestly gotten a bit too easy for his delvers. The only saving grace is that he hasn’t had a run on that floor end up negative.

However, that is mostly because the farm for that level is working over time to replace the cattle. Oh, and the fact that each delver generally doesn’t actually kill all the cows on the floor. Maybe if each cow dropped more meat, they would end up killing even less. After all, only a couple steaks off of an entire cow? If they were butchering the animals that would be seen as supremely wasteful, especially since with how little effort the delvers have to put in, many of the cattle aren’t even dropping anything at all.

If it wasn’t for how many cows were on the floor, Doyle doubted they actually could afford to supply other settlements with food like they currently are. The sheer scale of things when considering that the planet has basically been reduced to subsistence level food tech. No giant mono-crop farms, no chemical fertilizers, they don’t even have basic fields!

Doyle would be seriously worried about humanity dying off from starvation if the system didn’t have things in place, such as the food place Ace had brought in. That and the ability to buy basic tools and seeds directly from the settlement core meant that while things might get tough, people would manage. Though it certainly helps to have a dungeon nearby with any kind of edible creature in it.

Doyle cringes a bit at that thought. While some monsters may be edible, people might have a hard time accepting things. Stuff like spider dungeons and similar. Yes, even before the system came, people would eat those kinds of things. However, it certainly wasn’t the norm around where he had lived. Nevermind the fact that while surviving on just meat is sort of possible, it certainly isn’t healthy for everyone. This is especially true without vitamin supplements, no matter what the strange carnivore diet people claimed.

Doyle shakes himself again. No matter how he slices it, he needs more time. Which, to be fair, as a dungeon core he has nothing but. In fact, Ally has a bit to say on the matter when he goes to her with his problems.

Ally lays back on her bed and smiles, ‘Immortality isn’t all fun and games. I suspect you’ve simply reached the end of your growth spurt. And honestly? You’ve gone farther than most dungeons.

‘By this point, most would be forced into clearing out some monsters on their fifth floor and putting in their first boss. No sixth floor, let alone trying for your thirteenth floor. There is a reason your own level is so low.

‘Hells and heavens, the fact you’ve managed so many paths and skills is almost unheard of even for those who get turned into cores. I must admit, I got caught up in the rush myself.

‘Lost that timeless quality during my training and reset. Now though? We don’t have to obsessively watch the surface. We don’t have to scramble for every single advantage. Sure, the next floor will be quite the power boost, but the people outside are good people.’

Doyle, ‘What about the fact that people are heavily over leveling me?’

Ally shakes her head, ‘Most of your delvers are only farming the sixth floor over and over. All monsters except the one herb cow are level 8. Those strong ones? They’re likely around level ten, if that. Only Ace and his people will be higher.’

Doyle, ‘But they’re killing so many monsters? While I’m sure there is a fall off in experience, wouldn’t they still be leveling at a decent clip? Let alone their skills?’

Ally shrugs, ‘Experience to your next level comes from tough situations. Now, out in the wild, each fight is unpredictable and unless you’re so overpowered that the enemy is literally no threat, you’ll keep leveling. Dungeons are different, though.

‘In fact, dungeons are seen not as a place to level quickly, but rather a place to level skills. After all, unlike a monster out in the wild, in a dungeon, they’re always the same. Same stats, skills, and levels across the board unless you purposely go in and change things.

‘Though even if you do and make every monster on a floor unique? They still end up the same between runs and to do otherwise would require you locking people out while you change things. So while the fights will still be dangerous, the actual experience gained will plummet.

‘If those people farming the sixth floor don’t push deeper? I suspect they’ll still be around level ten this time next year. Maybe a little higher, maybe not. Though speaking of skills, that is where they fall behind.’

Doyle tilts to the side, ‘Why would they fall behind in that? I’ve got so many skills and the levels for them that it isn’t funny.’

Ally shrugs, ‘You’re a newborn still. Yes, your mind has been around for a number of decades at this point, but your core certainly hasn’t been. Being new, especially for a species that needs to be up and running right away? Skill levels come fast.

‘Just like a baby cow is up and walking around just moments after being born. A newborn dungeon core learns skills like crazy. That will probably slow down as well? Maybe.’