The Dungeon Fairy: Two Choices: A Dungeon Core Escapade (The Hapless Dungeon Fairy Book 2) by Jonathan Brooks (free e books to read .txt) 📗

were at her figurative fingertips – but there was something hanging over her Core that needed to be addressed.  Not only that, but it needed to be addressed quickly, because otherwise she might not have an opportunity later on.  It had to do with her negative Special Characteristics, namely the ones that reduced the Level of her creatures by 10 and the reduction of her earned Core Improvement Points by 95%.

Shale, what can you tell me about the conversion rate between CIPs and SCPs?  I want to make sure, with everything going on lately, that I remember correctly.

“Uh, sure.  Well, you can exchange any number of available Core Improvement Points for Special Characteristic Points at a rate of…4-to-1, I believe.  Ah, yes, thank you,” her Dungeon Assistant said after she shared her Core Improvements screen with him.

When he didn’t expand on that, she asked, And what happens when I raise my CI Level past a certain point?

The Dungeon Fairy looked confused for a moment before he got what she was talking about.  “Oh, well, at Level 11, 21, 31, and so on for every 10 levels, the conversion rate goes up—oh.  Yeah, that could be a problem.”

In Tacca’s position, as a Dungeon Core, it was quite unfair; as a trained Dungeon Assistant, she understood the increase in conversion rate.  As Cores gained higher Core Improvement Levels, they required more and more CIPs to progress to the next one – and therefore had more Points to spend on Improvements.  For instance, to progress from CI Level 40 to CI Level 41, the Core was required to accumulate 18,800 CIPs; if the conversion rate stayed the same, then if they used every single CIP they earned on Special Characteristics they would have 4,700 SCPs – more than enough to purchase two or three of the most expensive beneficial Characteristics.  Doing this for a few Levels, especially as they grew in CI Level, would end up with them being so powerful that they could practically do anything they wanted, with minimal effort on their part.

The Special Characteristics were supposed to be special, and not options that could be unlocked by every Dungeon Core.  As a result, when she hit CI Level 11, the conversion rate increased to 12-to-1; at Level 21, it increased to 36-to-1.  From then on, every 10 Levels would see the conversion increase by 36, until at least Level 81 – where it was 252 CIPs to 1 SCP.  What it was after another 10 Levels, no one knew, because there hadn’t been any dungeons that had survived long enough to see it.

Tacca was hoping to be the first to experience it herself.

At DAPS, one of their exercises had been to calculate how many SCPs a dungeon could receive if they used every single CIP they collected up to CI Level 80 using these reductions in conversion rates; including the nearly 2,000 SCPs they would receive achieving that Level 80 (at 25 per Level), they would have access to a little more than 20,000 SCPs total.  Quite impressive, yes, and more than enough to outfit a Core with the best of every available Special Characteristic – and yet they would fail, because they would be stuck with very little available Dungeon Force, practically no DF regeneration, a single creature with no Variants, and a Control Limit that would be even less than her own Core.

It was a balance between wanting “bonus” Characteristics and growing a dungeon at acceptable rates; in the end, very few Dungeon Cores chose to spend much – if any – extra CIPs on purchasing additional SCPs in their lifetimes, instead using the 25 Points they received each Level increase to make small purchases that helped incrementally.  Some even saved their SCPs for decades or centuries to get that one, desirable Characteristic they had their eye on for a long time, potentially converting a few CIPs into small amounts of needed SCPs at the time.

The problem with Tacca’s situation, however, was that she had stunted her growth potential by her initial selections.  This was something that she already knew and had factored into her “All Variants” plan, and she also knew when she decided on that path that she was going to have to make some difficult choices in the future to negate that stunting of her growth.

Unfortunately, that time for making difficult choices was now.

“Are you sure you want to do that?” Shale asked when she explained what she was going to do.  “Not that I disagree, mind you, but that’s a big decision.  Luckily, it’s likely that none of the Raiders will even realize the potential you’re giving up, because a dungeon normally takes years to really change their layout and difficulty.”

Yes, this is the only way I can grow from here.  It’s already getting harder and harder to increase my Core Improvement Level, and it will only get more difficult to acquire enough CIPs in the future.

Her decision made, Tacca converted all 1,800 of her Core Improvement Points into Special Characteristic Points – giving her a total of 450 more SCPs.  She did it to remove the temptation of spending her CIPs on something more “fun”, so banking it for later was the smartest move she knew she could make at that time.  She was tempted to use 550 of her now 625 SCPs to eliminate her negative Special Characteristic regarding her creatures, but she also knew the smart play would be to wait until she increased her CI Level one more time so that she could get rid of the one thing really holding her back: The reduction in her Core Improvement Points earned.

Dungeon Core Status

Dungeon Core Name:

Tacca GloomLily

Core Improvement (CI) Level:

8

Core Improvement Points (CIP):

67/1200

Core Improvement Pending/Countdown:

0 in 30 days

Special Characteristic Points (SCP):

625

Current Primary Assistant Bond:

Shale IronSchist

Dungeon Force (DF):

620/1500

Dungeon Force Regeneration:

18 per