Lewd Dungeon, Book 45 Prologue (Patreon)

Prologue – Trade Chat

(Adventurer’s Guild Official Forums, Miami Branch)

SunnyBunz, MightyMouse, ImAPally, DontYouWantMe, AsaAkiraIsBae, BestGirl, LatinHeat, Salty, Backpage, Craig34, l33tpally, Anonymous3, Anonymous4, RedFox, Kimiko, DonnyJuan, Crusader, BadCompany, HurricaneGal, Ambassador, Scholar, Righteous, Id10t, Satyr, DarkEnchanter, RangerMiguel, ScoopGirl, VenusFlyTramp, MagicMike, TsundereHealer, Max, LightningLegacy, SwiftTaylor, Domino, Bacchus, Aegis, Temptation, and Lord_Kickass are in the chat.

BestGirl: The raid floor is fascinating. I haven’t seen anything like them before.

Ambassador: Raids in dungeons are not uncommon, though usually you will find that, once a dungeon grows enough to be able to do a raid, the dungeon changes into a raid dungeon, rather than just having a floor for it.

Temptation: Actually, I basically combined three floors for the raid, which allows for plenty of minibosses and bosses. And because it is a raid zone, the creatures are tougher than you’d find in other parts of the dungeon. But hey, at least there are the charms which allow you to be resurrected after each raid. Of course, you have to earn recruitment to get the charm. Unless you’re going in as a crafter, rather than a combatant.

Craig34: There are crafter positions in the raid?

Temptation: More like that if those in the Lower City recognize your skill enough that they report it up the chain, you may get approached by one of the Great Houses in the upper city, and get to craft for and with them, possibly learning new recipes and techniques, and definitely getting to work with certain materials more easily, since the House would be covering the costs for their projects. But there is a strict delineation between combatants and noncombatants in the Upper City, and everyone is expected to adhere to it, or everyone will punish the transgressor.

MagicMike: Huh. Why is that? Seems to me, if the goal of the raid is to attack and win control of the Upper City, that eliminating support staff would be a key objective.

Temptation: For the same reason the Geneva Conventions exist. Keeps things civilized. Combatants are easily visible by badges worn at all times in the Upper City. Combatants cannot use noncombatants as shields, but you still need to keep careful when using AoE spells, for instance. Not to mention, another of the rules is that you cannot damage the surroundings too much.

Scholar: That isn’t out of some bit of moral righteousness, though. Right?

Temptation: Of course not. Purely practical considerations. No one would enjoy the raid if powerhouses just nuked sections of the battlefield and wiped enemies out before they had a chance to do anything. And I would have to be constantly rebuilding the Upper City, which not only goes against the lore of the raid, but also would be a major pain in the ass to keep up with. So, some simple, lore-friendly reasons why you shouldn’t get too happy with the explosions, unless you’ve verified targets, including everyone and everything in the ‘splash zone’.

TsundereHealer: Hmm. Speaking of the raid, one of my buddies was in the raid floor with his team. He’d joined up with House Vomhur, and said he was looking forward to trying out the raid, but he missed the last couple check-ins.

BadCompany: Name of the team?

TsundereHealer: Walker’s Striders. Punny name, I know. But Dylan was more concerned with creating a well-rounded team that could function well as a unit, rather than having a flashy name.

Temptation: You’ll be able to speak with him again after the next Game is over. It will start tomorrow, and probably run a couple days, at most.

TsundereHealer: He’s not able to get to a safe area with the computers?

Temptation: He caught a bad case of ‘getting killed’, along with his party. Fortunately, they were registered combatants, and their badges are functioning as intended.

RangerMiguel: Temptation, would it be possible to link the badges to a database of some sort? So that we could get updated KIA information, and an estimated time until revival? That would help settle a lot of worries from people above ground, without giving away too much information about the raid itself.

Aegis: At the very least, it would allow those outside to know if their friends and family are coming back, or not.

Temptation: I’m not opposed to the idea, but that would require some extra enchanting and coding to make it work without being manual data entry each time, and though I am many things, a computer programmer I am not.

SunnyBunz: I was a programmer before I became an adventurer. Mostly phone apps, but it is better than nothing. I’d be willing to try?

Temptation: Come by the dungeon, and we’ll discuss it, along with rates for the work.

Max: You’re willing to pay for it, instead of just making it a volunteer thing?

Temptation: I have paid agreed upon wages for every service I’ve contracted out to individuals not bound to my dungeon. Now, my church is more willing to accept volunteer services, but I try to keep some separation between the two, since it helps with the proper mindset when I’m engaging with one system or the other.

SunnyBunz: I’ll download a couple coding guides for different programming languages, and head over. Might not be the same, but it ought to work on the human internet side of things, at least.

MightyMouse: The raid looks amazing, though it seems like it is less an organized raid, and more of a six-way war, with adventurers caught up in the middle.

Temptation: I initially thought about doing a ‘traditional’ raid, but decided it wasn’t really fitting my theme. So, I went with this, instead.

Max: How many people have died in the raid zone so far?

Temptation: Most of the teams of adventurers are playing it safe. A couple have run afoul of ‘champion hunters’ looking for early points from the bounty board, but most have been staying within their factions’ safe zones, to take advantage of the training services and get stronger, deciding that will give them a better shot of surviving the Game when it begins.

Temptation: I will say that there are a couple teams that have shown the initiative, and started actively hunting bounties, hoping to gain house points and recognition before the raid begins. The Guildmistress from LA, in particular, has done quite well with her team, bringing in four large bounties, along with a half-dozen or so smaller ones.

RangerMiguel: How in the hells does she have time for diving the dungeon? I’m always swamped with work! I barely ever get to head out in the field, and when I do, I have to tag along as an extra, because my time off is too irregular to have a dedicated group!

Temptation: Unlike you, she designated several assistants, and set up a rotating schedule, to ensure that everyone usually has two weeks off each month. That gives her time to level up and head into dungeons, while still making sure her responsibilities are taken care of.

VenusFlyTramp: Guildmaster, I would be happy to help you ‘relax’ sometime, if your pet secretary doesn’t give you enough attention.

RangerMiguel: That is not necessary. Isadora is quite capable. More importantly, when the raid is cleared, does this mean new floors will open up?

Temptation: Why would the raid, which is separate from the normal progression, cause new floors to open in the dungeon?

Salty: Wait, the raid is separate? Then that means there’s a boss room somewhere in the Lower City? And no one has found it in the months we’ve been banging away at earning our way into the raid?

Temptation: Not my fault people got distracted by the keys dangling in front of them.

Temptation: But enough about that. Let’s go back to talking about how well Miguel’s secretary takes care of him.

RangerMiguel: That’s a hard no.