Doyle sighed, the previous monsters hadn’t exactly prepared him to name stuff. After all, the bulk of his patterns are just element plus base monster. Though honestly, “monster” is stretching it since most are actually just some normal animal, but slightly improved.
Though the fact so much of his stuff comes down to patterns is annoying in its own way. Doyle almost fears checking his status with how many of the things there are. Nevermind the fact that they all funnel into the level of a single skill. In theory, if he focused on one pattern, he could level that skill up, at least to the damn cap.
For now, though, and go procrastinate the mind numbing work that surely lay in front of him in that front, Doyle turns to the idea of new skills. His current skills are decent enough, even if most came with being a dungeon core in the first place. Still, he had a good number more he could know.
{Skills [6/10 Class, 3/5+1 General]: Territory Control lv99, Dungeon Rules lv83, Universal Deconstruction lv99, Dungeon Pattern Database lv53, Creation(Energy Powered, Pattern Based) lv99, Conceptual Reinforcement lv99, Biosphere Balancing lv75, Psychology lv84, Village Planner lv39}
Doyle shakes his core after taking another look at his skills. With four class skill and three general slots left, he could really expand his abilities. Though he also considers that even more of the current general skills could probably be moved over to being class skills. Those general slots are just worth a whole lot more than the more specific and easier to acquire class slots. Which, as he thought about it, was actually a good question.
Doyle, ‘Hey Ally, can skills be moved between general and class slots?’
Ally turns away from the article she is currently reading. ‘Sort of. I assume you’re thinking of moving some of your general skills into the newly available class skill slots you get with a new class path?’
Doyle nods, ‘Spot on.’
Ally, ‘Most people don’t bother, but I guess you’re in a relatively unique situation. General skill slots tend to end up filled with life skills that aren’t eligible for their class. Stuff like an adventurer having a skill for camping and foraging.
‘You, on the other hand, are pretty focused on your class. What with being a dungeon core. Anyway, you get one chance to move your skills around between them however you want. People with more varied class paths, to the point that the pool of skill slots actually get split up even further, tend to be the ones using the onetime offer the most.’
Doyle, ‘That is what I want to do. Though only once? That seems a little restrictive, especially if someone has a magic skill in general, only to gain a magic class.’
Ally shrugs, ‘You can earn a chance to move a single skill. Though such chances are rare and tend to come in the form of a physical item. Don’t expect any for yourself, though. Such vouchers tend to be the reward for completing system events and outside of that area worth ruinous amounts of money.’
Doyle, ‘I guess anything that changes how the system works would be worth a lot. Anyway, do you think I should use my chance now or wait?’
Ally smiles, ‘Now that is the question, isn’t it?
‘Well, the answer to that question is no. You still have multiple slots open in each. Though you might want to focus on buying any system offered skills at the moment. I think you still have the naming skill in limbo.’
Doyle rolls his core to the side, ‘And it all comes back to naming stuff. I can’t even think of a name for the bird monster I have now and you want me to name the individual monsters?’
Ally laughs, ‘I’m sure you’ll have an easier time, even if that means you start naming everything ‘Bob 1’ through whatever number you reach. Not that I suspect you’ll be able to name too many monsters to start. While from what I know, the skill doesn’t have name slots, per se, it does have limits.
‘Names can be power. So I certainly advise you to try and come up with good ones. Though the limiting factor will likely be on you as you will have to support the names you give. Of course, there is a cap on how much a single name can do, but spread out too many names and the overall power of each name will decrease.’
Doyle sighed, ‘So not only do I have to name things, I have to decide what to name? Choice overload.’
Ally shrugs, ‘Well, first off, every sapient should get a name. Though the actual boost in power from that will be miniscule to non-existent. Sapients just sort of get names. With them, it is titles and such that can grant power.
‘Besides them? Lynchpin monsters wouldn’t be the worst place to start. Oh, and going by how you’ve kept the kid gloves on, heh goats, you’ll want to only name stuff from the eleventh floor onwards.’
Ally nods, ‘Oh yeah, totally, until you realize most dimensions don’t form with a pre-existing runic system in place. It is like how your world used Latin as a scientific language. Latin isn’t some magical ur-language, it just isn’t modern and so has more history to it.
‘Runic systems are similar, except history is power. The longer a symbol has been used to represent fire, the easier it is for that symbol to represent fire. That is why some languages end up causing magical effects just by speaking them.
‘The only thing that stops the draconic word for fire from literally setting everything around the speaker on fire is that there is also the intent to use it as a language. Whenever a language is reduced to only being used for magic? That’s when the fun begins.’
Doyle, ‘Still don’t see how that doesn’t just end up with a magical math equation?’
Ally, ‘Because no matter how you slice it, one plus two will equal three. It doesn’t matter how well you understand the concept of the number one. However, with formations? If you use the symbol for fire, it will vary depending on how well you understand “fire” and a concept and how good you are at drawing the symbol.
‘There are high-level formation masters who can draw the most basic symbol for fire and with that alone create a fire as weak as a candle or as strong as a forest fire. They understand the symbol and fire to such an extent that an actual formation is no longer necessary. And the system has no good way to represent that with patterns.’
Doyle, ‘Couldn’t it just have a pattern for each symbol?’
Ally shakes her head, ‘The power of understanding is in effect at every level of an array, formation, or ritual. From comprehending the reason for a single line within the simplest symbol to understanding the meta-view of how multiple formations connect together to form something greater.
‘You get a pattern because you’re skipping all that. You don’t understand what the symbols mean at all and normally that would bar you from being able to create them in the first place. However, as a dungeon, you not only count as a location which lets you hook into “natural” formations. The dungeon skills also lets you just copy an existing setup, understanding and all.’
Doyle, ‘Still sounds like I would have array patterns and such. Just that it would only be for the ones I don’t understand yet. Also, if I don’t have the pattern, will I still be able to stamp them out like I currently can?’
Ally, ‘That would make sense, except the system doesn’t like half measures for stuff like that. Maybe if later you get a formation, that will be a pattern. However, once you have an array making skill, all arrays will fall under it. You’ll still be able to create arrays, but you will lose one feature of patterns. The arrays won’t naturally become better as you don’t have a pattern to level.’
Doyle, ‘Wouldn’t I have needed to already have improved the pattern in some way for it to level in the first place? Besides, the skill sounds a lot more free-form and adjustable. After all, it sounds like the reason the system doesn’t use patterns is because you can literally change and improve every single thing about an array and get results.’
Ally nods, ‘The system doesn’t want to record a new pattern every time someone tweaks a symbol to do something different. And it definitely doesn’t want to propagate new patterns for every pattern the person already knows that uses that symbol. Not only would it be a waste of energy for the system, but it would make things hard on the user as well.’
Doyle laughs, ‘I can just imagine it! Just an endless list of “Fire starter array A with variant rune S, Fire starter array A with variant rune S.2, and so on”. Nevermind the fact that even if they only knew a single array, each symbol within it represents a combinatorially nightmare when things start changing.’
Ally, ‘Quite. Now, some have argued about why the same thing doesn’t count for stuff like swords. Except they’re missing the fact that how curved the blade is on a sword isn’t the same thing as switching out a symbol in an array. Sure, curve a sword enough and eventually people will start calling it a chakra, but it is still close enough to compare.
‘Like, I don’t understand your world’s saying about comparing apples and oranges? They’re both fruit from a tree. With arrays, you can get the same effect with an infinite number of setups while getting in theory an infinite number of effects with the same setup. At least with a sword, people can get a handle on when something is sword-like.’
Doyle tilts back and forth, ‘Fair enough. Now how do I go about getting an array skill? I don’t exactly have a tutorial for it or some how to book. Also, I suspect you aren’t allowed to just slip me the info in this case.’
Ally nods, ‘The rules on what I can tell you are many and varied, but introducing completely new knowledge to your world isn’t currently allowed. You’re lucky you got all this stuff through godly nonsense. While they need to follow the rules, they’re also given more leeway when it comes to this kind of stuff. Besides, there is one other thing to talk about. Formations and arrays are simple enough and you can easily fit under one skill. But what about rituals?’