Chapter Five-Hundred Nine (Patreon)

Honestly, I thought the kids might want to back out after the raid.  Silly me.  I’m equally concerned for and proud of them as I watch them training in the floodable sections of the lava labyrinth.  I’m probably going to keep that feature, makes the name feel more accurate like that.  The kids are going over the boring things that will keep them alive, practicing communication, working on spotting dangers, having plans for what to do if they get separated, and all the things delvers need to actually do that probably don’t make the recruitment pamphlets.

And they’re not alone.  I’m tempted to dig out a bigger lava pool just so the delvers can practice in it.  Maybe I could flood a worldfruit… but that’ll probably take too long to be useful for this.  Besides, the limited space means the other delvers get to practice on the other major thing they need to do: not use combos.

It’s slow going.  We’ve been working on better coordination for a while now, which naturally leads to more combo attacks.  So now everyone is having to unlearn the combos while keeping the coordination.  The fruits are great for practicing.  Them, along with the tree itself, offers plenty of room for the delvers to face strong denizens and try to avoid any combos.

They still slip up, but that’s what the training’s for.  I don’t even need my denizens to jump them for them to know they messed up.  They still get the loot and experience, but each combination attack is its own reminder of what Poe was doing in the raid, and what the Harbingers will do, too.  They all understand the stakes without me wagging my finger with an I-told-you-so.

Which is good, because it lets me focus on the subs.  I think I’ve made a critical mistake with the design, and I’m working out how to fix it.  It’s not structural, thankfully.  The subs themselves are as robust and durable as I can think to make them, and Thing and even the antkin enclave are constantly coming up with improvements for if we ever need to make another fleet of the things.

No, the problem is the sort of simple thing to forget about, but also among the most dangerous things to allow in a confined space: boredom.  I left plenty of room for them to hang out and talk and stuff, but the kids weren’t the only ones wondering about places to enchant or train or that sort of thing.  The delvers need something to do, and if I don’t give it to them, they’re going to go stir crazy before they ever reach the forward base.

So first thing, the kitchen is getting a complete overhaul.  If you can make a soup there, you can make a potion.  If you can make a potion, you only need a couple things to enchant something.  And if you can brew and enchant, you only need a small forge to work on weapons and armor.

Thankfully, the spatial vines make redesigning a lot simpler.  Without them, we’d need a lot more space to fit all of this in.  With them, though, storage for the different professions is a lot easier to sort out.  The brewing and cooking can be handled in the same area, they just need different storage for their stuff.  I don’t care how diligently someone cleans a beaker, I don’t want to drink out of one that’s been used in a lab.

Enchanting is pretty easy to slot in as well.  It mostly needs counter space, which cooking and brewing also need.  Folding counters give room to put things without taking up all that space all the time.  Add in a bit more spatially compressed storage, and maintenance enchanting should be a breeze.

Smithing is the harder one, but I’ve kinda accidentally already solved one of the biggest problems.  A traditional forge is huge and needs coal and significant ventilation and whatnot.  We’re still putting in a nice fume hood over the forge… over the entire area, actually.  I don’t think enchanting makes much in the way of fumes, but brewing definitely does.  I guess the putrid slime air filtration system is going to see more use than I was expecting.

I don’t know how stinky the induction forges my ravenkin have are, but I do know they take up way less room than a traditional forge.  Nobody’s going to be working on chestplates in the subs, but I think most things will be doable.  The anvil is also kinda small, but I hope the delvers aren’t silly enough to want to forge an axe or something while the subs are moving.

I’m also working on other things to keep the delvers from getting too bored.  Having a craft to pursue is always helpful, but sometimes people just need to have fun without producing anything tangible by the end.  Delvers love to play cards, so we’re going to have several decks available in the eating/living area.  Dice are also popular and don’t take up much room, so they’re in.  Practically everyone knows Chess and checkers too, so boards and pieces can be stashed underneath seats without any problem either.

I consider a few other boardgames, but I forget the rules to most of them.  Something like Monopoly is simple enough to remember, mostly, but I’m trying to stop boredom among the delvers.  Which makes me consider more modern solutions.

Can I make a videogame?  I ignore the thought at first, but it keeps whispering into my nonexistent ear.  We already have the display sorted with the illusion arrays.  It’d only take up a portion of one wall for the screen, and the controllers don’t take up much room, either!

I almost defeat the idea with how complicated a game is to make.  Even something like the original Mario game is complicated.  Sure, jumping and climbing isn’t hard, but it’s the level design that really makes those games shine, and I don’t remember every single block in just 1-1, let alone the rest of the game!

But… we could go simpler.  Pong.  Tetris.  Maybe Duck Hunt, just with a wand instead of a plastic gun.  Before I can stomp down the idea with the simple fact that I’ve given the nerd squad enough to work on already, I feel Thing get inspired and start drawing out runes for the simple logic.

I even try to get his attention through the bond, like tapping him on his shoulder, but the hand is inspired.  It’d probably take a full order for me to get him to stop, and I don’t want to do something so extreme, especially with the excitement I feel through the bond.

The last of my resistance to the idea crumbles as Slash drops in to play some music for the games, because of course he’s picked up on the song for Tetris, and the little duck hunt jingle for the start and getting ducks.  I don’t know if Pong ever had music, but it sounds like Slash has ideas for that, too.

I chuckle and pat the bonds with them, wishing them good luck.  I briefly wonder if I’d be able to someday drop something like a console for delvers, but I mentally lock that idea away quickly.  I do enjoy gaming, but if it blows up here like back on Earth, there’s no way I’d be able to keep up with demand.  For now, I’ll probably try to keep it in the subs, maybe create a secret arcade at some point.

I can’t help but laugh at the idea, and make sure to keep my thoughts to myself as I doodle a design for it.  It’d need to be secret, definitely.  Change the entrance regularly, make it incredibly obscure to get into.  The kind of obscure that lives in playground rumors that sound ridiculous, but no guys, I really saw it!

Prize counter and tickets for high scores.  Not the kind of insane prices at an actual arcade for like a hundred-thousand tickets for a console.  Something obtainable with effort.

I set aside the doodle and take one last look at the trial prepared for the kids.  It’s not going to be easy.  It’s even going to be a bit rigged against them, like carnival games instead of a fair arcade.  If I made it fair, they’d probably pass it with flying colors.  But I don’t think the Betrayer’s going to be fair.

Which is fine.  I’m not going to fight it fair, either.  I just hope I’ve managed to anticipate the kind of unfairness it’ll try to pull.  It’s probably going to be my own playbook.  It basically tried to take me out with the sort of plan I’d come up with, if I was evil.

Which is why I want to make sure everyone is as prepared as I can make them.  Because if I’m careful to not reveal my full strength, how much more careful will it be?  It knows I’m coming to get it, it’s been killing any of my expeditions that get too close.  I just have to hope my denizens and the delvers have what it takes to trip the trap, avoid the worst of it, and still have the strength to put the Betrayer down.