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[D'sP] Oh, Maybe It Won't Be That Easy - Chapter 497
🕑 Added 2026-01-09 20:47:56 +0000 UTCDoyle settles in and pulls up his pattern database, giving it a once-over to get a feel for things.
{
Dungeon Patterns: creature patterns lv100, mystic energy storage patterns lv99, bricks lv99, vines lv99, material patterns lv78, food patterns lv70, shrubbery lv62, grass lv54, weapon patterns lv52, gem patterns lv50, vial lv34, quartz synced polymer lv32, potion patterns lv30, trap patterns lv30, array patterns lv21, wooden hinged box of preservation lv21, cart lv20, armor patterns lv11, clothes lv11, seaweed lv1
Weapon Patterns: axe lv50, sword lv50, dagger lv50, bow lv50, arrow lv50, mace lv50, staff lv50, wand lv50, spear lv50, pickaxe lv10
Armor Patterns: gauntlets lv10, greaves lv10, boots lv10, tunic lv10, helmet lv10, shield lv10, cloak lv10
Material Patterns: tree (earth [-20lv]) lv77, strange dungeon stone lv62, charcoal lv58, Earth standard air mix lv56, clay lv55, glass lv50, metal patterns lv43, water lv42, dungeon soil lv42, cloth lv27, leather lv12, wax lv6, volcanic rock lv4
Metal Patterns: iron (crystal lv10 [-10lv]) lv43, copper (earth, water, air, and fire [-5lv]; crystal lv10 [-10lv]) lv31, tin (earth, water, air, and fire [-5lv]; crystal lv10 [-10lv]) lv29, gold (crystal lv10 [-10lv]) lv22, silver (crystal lv10 [-10lv]) lv22, mithril (lv20) lv20, lead (crystal lv10 [-10lv]) lv17
Food Patterns: sugar lv70, herb patterns lv55, wheat lv48, sunflower lv42, olive lv40, salt lv32, bread lv16, lemon lv14, strawberry lv14
Herb Patterns: clover lv54, mint lv51, tea lv49, sage lv47, aloe lv45, pepper lv44, peppermint lv44, rosemary lv44, lavender lv44, maiden’s tear lv40, mage’s delight lv40, springleaf lv40, meditation lotus lv40, royal lingzhi lv40
Potion Patterns: coagulant lv27, flesh mending lv27, regeneration lv27, healing lv27, antidote lv27, cure disease lv27, fire resistance lv27, cold resistance lv27, wind resistance lv27, poison resistance lv27, lightning resistance lv27, thunder resistance lv27, blunt trauma resistance lv27, stab resistance lv27, cut resistance lv27, climbing lv27, jumping lv27, invisibility to animals lv27, invisibility to non-sapient undead lv27, oil of magic weapon lv27, oil of silver weapon lv27, Moota’s coagulant lv27, minor cure all lv27, pauper’s fix lv27
Gem Patterns: pure quartz pattern lv99, amethyst pattern lv99, blue quartz pattern lv99, citrine pattern lv99, milky quartz pattern lv99, rose quartz pattern lv99, smoky quartz pattern lv99, green amethyst pattern lv99, quartz polymer lv43
Mystic Energy Storage Patterns: sealed quartz mana cable lv99, quartz mana cable lv99, mana stone lv30, spirit stone lv30, monster stone lv30, psicrystal lv30, karma star lv30, luck stone lv30, elementally energized crystal lv30, prana lotus lv30, bloodstone lv30
Trap Patterns: kobold dart trap lv30, kobold rock fall lv24, kobold trip wire lv20, kobold pitfall lv16, kobold murder hole lv16, mineshaft rock fall lv10, mineshaft pitfall lv10, mineshaft dart trap lv10
Array Patterns: simple world energy gathering array for individuals [lv14] lv21, tiny area right angle gravity array [lv1] lv3
Enchantments: Preservation [lv12], Unbreaking [lv10, 12, 20], Sharpness [lv10, 20], Impact [lv10, 20], Piercing [lv10, 20], Magical Efficiency [lv10, 20]
Creature Patterns: goat patterns lv100, ant lv99, kobold lv99, elder kobold lv79, plant and fungus monster patterns lv74, cattle patterns lv45, wolf patterns lv38, brown bear lv34, golem patterns lv33, windcutter axebeak lv31, axebeak lv28, razer fox lv24, insects lv23, horned rabbits lv17, permafrost lynx lv17, horned lizard lv13, squirrel lv12
Wolf Patterns: lesser shadow wolf lv38, wind wolf lv23, dungeon wolf lv23, stone wolf lv23
Cattle Patterns: dungeon cattle lv43, mad cattle lv40, longhorn cattle lv40, earthen cattle lv40, sea cattle lv40, ashen cattle lv37, herb cattle lv27, cattle lv5
Plant and Fungus Monster Patterns: myconid patterns lv73, Assassin Vine lv46, Shrieker lv27, Violet Fungus lv26, Udoroot lv21
Myconid Patterns: myconid sprout lv72, myconid lv66, lesser myconid lv62, lesser myconid troop guard lv53
Golem Patterns: plated crystal core crystal clay hexape golem lv33
Goat Patterns: goat lv100, grassen goat lv57, wooden goat lv52
}
Eugh, it was a mess. To Doyle it felt less like a database or even a spreadsheet. Rather, the display made it seem like someone had recorded everything on a simple text document. Not even using rtf to jazz it up.
So, the first thing he tries to do is move things around. In particular, in the main table, creature patterns come first, and yet the sub-table for creature patterns is right at the bottom. Doyle isn’t even sure how that happened, since creatures are just about the first thing he had patterns for!
Nevermind the fact that the tables seem perfectly capable of moving entries around within themselves based on level. And speaking of levels, not much leveling seems to have been going on. Which now that Doyle looks at it closer, doesn’t make sense.
He isn’t going to claim that the equipment being made by the town is going to match his level 50 weapons. But his armor patterns? Those are just level 10! Surely someone has brought something nicer into the dungeon.
‘Hey Ally! What’s up with the low levels on the equipment patterns? Shouldn’t someone have dropped something better by now? Like, I understand the pick pattern not going up. Miners aren’t exactly throwing themselves into danger or anything, but my shield pattern is still at level 10!’
Ally looks over and nods, ‘Ah, well, you’re facing a bottleneck that dungeons on worlds that have already integrated, don’t face. It is a combo of reasons caused by a lack of resources.
‘There aren’t many resources and so smiths aren’t able to train as much as they need. Much of that training is also done by re-smelting old equipment. Nevermind the fact that the better stuff ends up being worth way more than it should be. All of which comes together to make it so most delvers using armor, are wearing level 5 stuff, give or take a level.’
Doyle shakes his core, ‘No, that still doesn’t make sense. Better gear means you are safer.’
Ally shrugs, ‘For what? Level 5 armor is more than enough to farm your sixth floor with. And anyone who is trying to reach the sixth floor? They can’t afford better gear! Prices are all out of whack with level 7 stuff occasionally selling for a gold.
‘That’s Nonsense! Well into level 25 and you should still be on the silver standard for plate armor, let alone the simpler gear. It is generally accepted that something simple like a leather tunic shouldn’t be worth a gold piece until level 100!
‘This isn’t an exact thing, but 100 is an accepted breakpoint because people like round numbers.’
Doyle, ‘I know they are pulling out a good bit of ore every day. Sure, it is going to be mostly copper and tin, but bronze is a perfectly workable alloy! If I remember history right, the only reason bronze comes before iron is because it is easier to work with, but tin was hard to find. So once they could work iron, which was practically everywhere, they moved to that.’
Ally, ‘They don’t need good gear here. Maybe if you could take down another of the inner circle, your patterns would jump significantly? But the reality of it is, any good gear? The smiths are selling it to merchants to get the best price. And those merchants? They aren’t keeping it around here where they’re already paying what is locally the high price for the stuff. They’re shipping it out to the other border settlements who will pay through the nose for it!
‘Here? There are a bunch of powerful people who can handle threats from the wilds even without armor. Our dungeon allows them to level up and increase their stats.
‘Even a single settlement over and the people there have a hard time leveling. Though at least those close by can set up rotations to delve into our dungeon. Those further away? They need the better armor to survive when a random level 20 boar snuffles around the edge of their settlement.
‘So yeah, you aren’t going to be leveling armor for a while. I mean, armor drops are considered one of the most valuable drops in your dungeon right now! And that is over your level 50 weapons.’
Doyle, ‘Hmm, I guess I can see the cause and effect going on there. Maybe I should include more armor drops?’
Ally shrugs, ‘More like increase the available ore on floor seven.’
Doyle shakes his core, ‘I just looked over the floors and seven doesn’t have ore, it has drops related to the Mana cabling.’
Ally, ‘Then add some. Floor 8 and its many designs in a single floor thing is a bit of a bottleneck. People can manage it, but the mental fatigue builds up quickly.’
Doyle, ‘I consider it. As much as it pains me, I think I might need to go and change all the loot tables. Though after I get the database skill organized.’
Ally nods, ‘Given what you want to do with the skill, I can understand that. Well, good luck! I’ll keep an ear to the ground to see if I can find anything to help.’
Doyle, ‘Right now, just a method to organize the database skill would be quite useful.’
Ally gives him a thumbs up, ‘I’ll get on that! Though make sure to tell me if you figure it out beforehand.’
Doyle nods, ‘Will do, thank you for the help.’ And he turns back to looking at the patterns.
Doyle sighs to himself, realizing a truth that had eluded him till now. A dungeon is a passive entity. They guide those who delve their halls.
No. That isn’t quite true. A dungeon core is a creative force! They build wonders and create incredible things. However, what they don’t do is uplift people. The push for strength does not automatically mean a push for better gear, more complicated magic, or technological wonders.
The dungeon is a collaborative effort between the core and those who delve it. With the core building the dungeon out of what delvers provide and locking in advancements.
If a local smith manages to break through and create high-quality swords? Eventually, the dungeon will be able to drop similar swords even long after that smith has moved on or passed on. So while Doyle can level some patterns, he can’t go and push too far past what Wolf’s Rest is capable of. Things like his weapon patterns are already more of a head start than would normally be available.
Doyle sighs again. While all that was fine fodder for future pondering. He really did need to figure out the database skill. Because here he was, with what pre-system would have been considered a super high-tech AR display and yet it was working more like he had a piece of printer paper and the person with control over the printer was as stingy as the librarian in high school.
And honestly? This really should be exactly its namesake. A database. And maybe it was! Doyle’s difficulty could be entirely based on the display sucking instead of how it was stored.
Except that wasn’t really true.
Doyle knew how skills and such worked, to some degree. It was like one of those dust simulation games he used to play during school because the firewall didn’t block them. Each skill and pattern a different kind of dust being dropped on his soul core.
So of course the database skill wouldn’t reorganize stuff easily! The underlying structure wasn’t changing. Only with new levels did more get added to the soul and thus rise to the top of the pile it was in. The sub-tables were already beyond the norm. Calling it a database was likely the system using a similar word to describe something more complex.
But that wouldn’t stop Doyle! It could be reorganized. Changes can happen. That could be seen from how he could change up monster patterns. The question wasn’t “if”, but “how”.
So Doyle sat there and poked at his skill for a bit. This wasn’t anything complex. Just simple stuff like trying to drag and drop the entries and sub-tables. Plus a few other common things you could do on a touchscreen device.
This would have been quicker, but there was a large range of optional stuff to tack on. For instance, what if you tried to drag and drop a sub-table while thinking the intent to reorganize at the screen? Or if he did it while trying to carve the concept of change?
Yeah, there was practically infinite numbers of ways to play around with the screen and none that he tried over the first few days ended up working. Then Ally came by with some of what she had found out.
Ally, ‘So, wanting to reorganize things isn’t the rarest thing. Your problem is going to be figuring out how to do it early. Seems from the five instances I’ve read about, it always happened north of skill level 1,000. Which yeah, you’re a bit far away from, to say the least.’
Doyle, ‘Fair enough. Now, how did they manage it?’
Ally shrugs, ‘In the most unhelpful of ways.
‘They wanted it to happen, so it did. And only three of them got the ability to do so from a path. Which all things considered? Pretty good ratio. Changing up stuff in your status generally comes from paths.’
Doyle, ‘Hmm, the system almost seems allergic to moving around information. The reason the status would change with a path likely isn’t because the system is moving around information. Rather, the path must have fundamentally changed things and that is simply reflected on the status. Like how your level goes up on the status when you level up. The status being purely a visualization of what lies underneath.’
Ally, ‘Huh, I can see that. The system probably does as little as possible to save energy. I mean, reorganizing a single person’s status is one thing. Doing so for everyone because they at one time tried it on a lark and never switched things back? That’s a lot to keep track of.’
Doyle groans, ‘And probably means I need to actually figure out how to manipulate my patterns and the skill itself on a fundamental level. You know, instead of simply reorganizing some stuff on a spreadsheet. This would have been so much easier if it had actually been a database! I took a class once on them and while I don’t remember much, I know enough for something as simple as this.’
Ally shrugs, ‘No one ever claimed something like this would be easy.’
Ace Finds Some Scum - Chapter 498
Comments
Akhier Dragonheart
Yes and no? There is magic so the limits won't be horse + donkey = mule. But it isn't easy for dungeons without special conditions that Doyle does not have right now. Oh, and grafting is super easy for Doyle, but that doesn't make a new plant. Especially since dungeon magic smooths over many of the normal problems you get with grafting.
Akhier Dragonheart
Why yes. That probably would help
Akhier Dragonheart
Hmm, I did miss the air mix thing. As for the synopsis? That is partly on purpose, though also the fact that it is written in English and the English word for our home planet is Earth. Also, while I avoid calling it Earth, I guess it would be more proper to say that this isn't directly Earth. Our Earth, this very planet, did exist at some point deep in the past of the Omniverse my stories occupy. And just like how in Doyle's universe, humans end up evolving all over the place as the main sapient force, "Earth"s pop up all over the Omniverse for a similar reason. Though different (if connected). Original Earth (ours) had something happen to it such that its people developed until one of their people broke through to the highest levels of power where they stopped existing as a being and became an underpinning part of reality itself. And in doing so, they stamped the existence of Earth and Humans into the fabric of reality. The same has happened for a number of other beings over the many cycles and are why while time doesn't repeat itself, it often rhymes (in the setting). For instance, Dragons. They're everywhere. Oh, I will also note that this is likely a story that will never be told, but only hinted because I want it to exist at a distance from the setting. Rather being more of a hand wave for why D'sP and NR both have Earth-like home systems for Humans and so many other connecting threads.
Akhier Dragonheart
That is basically how I'm thinking of this. Though it won't be quite as direct or literal. Even if doing so would be much more effective of a solution. Rather, I figure the steps would be more surface level. So instead of taking every bit of the creature pattern soul stuff and placing it in one spot, you rearrange the "top" layer of the soul core so that it is all now connected.
SerpentiCat
Btw, I'm not seeing some creatures in creature patterns. Where are the 0G kobolds and kobold elders? What about the elder assassin vine and aquatic assassin vine? I can't find cyclone goat either. Akhier, there's no other way about it, you need help with notes about D'sP. I'm pretty sure us readers can organize something. I certainly have been thinking about rereading to make notes for you. Floor design, making and changes, Ally's and Doyle's statuses and path gains, plot and all happenings, lore compendium, all of this with timelines and source chapters. If all of that could get done and people helped to keep the notes up to date and double check new chapters with it. Then you might as well publish D'sP. The inconsistencies would all be known and easy enough to root out. It still wouldn't be a story for everyone, you do have a tendency to stretch explanations. However, your story isn't doing bad by any means so there certainly are people intrested regardless and because of your explanation style. Besides these notes might be something only I see myself ever making and no one else does. It's quite possibly not a feasible goal. I certainly know one person alone can't do all of that. Alright people, I dived down this rabbit hole, now, can someone help me out?
SerpentiCat
Floor 8. Ever since the review of it in chapter 482 I really thought it would be nice if Doyle could just redo it but considered any large changes not explainable if he still doesn't want to be known as a sapient dungeon that had been an Earth human before his transformation in the tutorial. Now that Ally let us know it's an actual bottle neck I want it changed enough that I came up with a way to at least make it somewhat explainable to have happened in an unawakened dungeon. Here's the idea. First of all don't change it all at once but in increments over a span of multiple days at least if you keep the changes small and months if you decide to change up the floor a bit more than would be easy to explain. Remove various spatial anomalies add things one by one. Often remove something and next add something in its place. Basically push out the changes in increments. The idea is to stretch the changes over time to make the system buildings' staff at least somewhat think that the Wolf's Rest dungeon's fairy is struggling against the dungeon's instincts for keep complete floors unchanged in order to change a problematic floor, which floor 8 is. You could even roll in some larger changes to the look of the floor and still pass as an unawakened dungeon that just did some additional changes while working and/or after it adjusted to resisting its instinct. Actually, I would start with adding resources to floors 7th, 11th and 12th and maybe 13th like I already described. Add fissures and mushroom bridges on 7th and additional plant features on 12th, and maybe the ores in the walls of 13th. Then later in hindsight this would looks like tests and preparations by the Wolf's Rest dungeon's fairy to push out bigger changes to an older floor, floor 8. And now I can't unremember the idea of dim 0G tower of rooms connected by smallish ceiling/floor holes and full of vines, assassin vines and 0G kobolds. If 0G isn't a part of the bottleneck problem this could even be implemented although these absolutely would be huge changes and would require a lot of time to them them gradual enough to not really turn some heads. The floor would still be an outlier but at least it wouldn't be spastic.
SerpentiCat
Btw, I'm thinking of a pattern for floor bosses. 2 of 5 floors gap bosses up to 10th floor. 3 of 10 floors bosses up to 40th floor. 4 of 15 floors bosses up to 100th floor. 5 of 20 floors bosses up to 200th floor. Then maybe 6 of 25 floors bosses up to 350th floor. However, afterwards to keep bosses on multiple of 10 floors it would have to be: 5 of 30 floors bosses up to 500th floor OR probably better: 3 of 50 floors bosses up to 500th floor This is where previous pattern stops working. There can be 5 of 100 floors bosses up to 1000th floor and 5 of 200 floors bosses up to 2000th floor. Then 500 floors bosses and so on but again, that's after floor 2k.
SerpentiCat
This is a longer subject but I got to talk about resource rich floors arrangement. Floor 6 is constantly being delved but floors before and after it don't see anywhere near as much visitors. Doyle has this extremely helpful function of allowing delvers to anter directly the first floor after any boss floor the boss of which they already personally defeated. With floor 6, the first floor after floor 5 boss, having such a desirable monster drop as beef, people swarmed it and it became the only focus of vast majority of the delvers and it remains such. However, Doyle can use the very same situation that caused this focus to pull delvers further in. Floor 7 is basically resource bare and it's just the next floor after 6. I completely agree with Ally that Doyle should place ore there and actually have an idea for where exactly that I can propose. Floor 7 space has obviously grown much since Doyle first made it. There's a lot of space under the surface of the sphere's inside wall the delvers walk on. Doyle can just add fissures in the ground and ore veins in them. The fissures could be too thin to comfortably enter and mine so miners would have to put more effort in to get the ore. On myconid side of the floor the fissures would cause the monster population problems unless they were bridged with mushrooms, either in organic growth or built structure style. For the structure style you could use mushroom matter the builders/crafters on floor 10 use. I would leave up to you whether the bridges are to small or weak for delvers to traverse or can cover whole fissures and break under unsuspecting delvers weight or both types are used. You can always squeeze in some other interesting resources on the floor to find but I don't have any ideas off the top of my head. Now like I already said already Doyle shouldn't limit himself to making only floor 7 an additional resource hot spot. Next boss is on the floor 10 so floor 11 is the next entrance floor. Like floor 7, floor 11 isn't really a prime option for placement of a variety of valuable resources, however, it could still house some ore veins. Floor 11 is a very straight forward floor and it's walls are covered in brick carvings so I would place the ore in the ground just not covered by it. They would still be not the easiest to spot but I'm sure Barrais will notice and heck, Doyle can even leave some sticking out a bit more above the ground level until they are found and known. Now although, like in case of floor 7, no plants on floor 11 could be placed without shifting the floors appearance widely but Doyle could certainly keep adding edible mushrooms as he gets them. Floor 12, as the next floor after an entrance floor, can be utilized just like floor 7 can and it happens to be a grasslands floor. Sure it's fey wilds themed grasslands but plants are the core of the floor so adding spots with a variety of mundane desirable plants would be an obvious choice. Heck with such a magic mystery theme Doyle could straight up add tiny overgrown gardens. Even some ores could be squeezed in too although not really necessary if floor 11 would have them added in not tiny number. Floor 12 could be just focused on plants. The only issue I can foresee is to actually make changes to this fey wilds themed floor. It might prove problematic. Moving on, I would actually consider putting some valuable resources on floor 13 too and all floors third floors after a boss when the next boss is 10 floors deeper in the dungeon. 10 is a lot of floors between entrance floors. As for floor 13, it could house cracks with ore veins in the cliff wall above forest spiral and below the path and some forest fruiting plants and herbs in the forest section. What I'm trying to say is that there need to be resource rich floors after each boss to pull delvers deeper and not have them stay on the 6th forever.
SerpentiCat
So after delving the comment section of this chapter I'm curious. Why does Doyle still have so few food and herb patterns. I would expect the town to give him at least some small samples of everything they might particularly like to see in the dungeon. Yet somehow the edibles patterns haven't changed since first few floors and somehow Doyle has olive patterns but not potatoes, rice or tomatoes. I don't remember for sure but I think the town's people might have gotten their food and spices from system arranged starting towns. How did they not find any potatoes or rice? If they found any they would leave at least some potato peels and a rice grain or two in hope of seeing them in the dungeon.
ReShaddoll
Also, something else I wonder about is if Doyle could crossbreed animals to develop more variants. Or cross pollinate and potentially do grafting on plants.
ReShaddoll
I feel like Doyle’s experience with [Self-Actualization] should help him in his goal to reorganize his patterns. (Chapters 351-353)
SerpentiCat
Yeah, no trust is happening between the town and Doyle. They don't know he's sapient so that would put a damper on any ideas of trust and besides that they know and are correct about that the dungeon will weaponize everything it learns to make. Sure plants that they find useful are fair game to give dungeon samples of. Animals are a risky game, however, and the bigger and deadlier they are the worse danger they will be in the dungeon. Doyle on the other hand is not interested in interacting with people, he actually doesn't want them to know he's sapient, let alone that he had been human from this very same planet as them. Meanwhile his dungeon instincts are also making him distrustful towards delvers and flare up when they get close to the core. No obvious invitations of gifts absolutely no interactive floors. Doyle would never risk people finding out he's a sapient Earth human with such obvious signs.
SerpentiCat
So database skill diving with the goal of changing the database display is going to be the subject for next couple chapters with breaks maybe. That or somehow only maybe one. That can happen too technically. It also can get pushed aside and forgotten but this is like the third chapter on the database so that's not very likely in my mind. I just found the post on here announcing Dungeon's Path with the synopsis included. Something in it didn't agree with a more recent comment of yours, Akhier. I went to the synopsis on Royal Road and it's same there so I decided to let you know. In that previously mentioned recent comment you wrote that you are specifically avoiding mentioning Earth by name. I certainly don't understand the reason for it but the synopsis at least on RR has it mentioned by name like two times. Also you literally just used the word in this chapter.
Quyan640
Honestly, Doyle should be doing everything in his power to advance the town and vis versa. The town should trust the dungeon now or at least more with Doyle signing that contract with the adventurers guild. Even nonverbally like adding more ore, or an obvious outline or spot for something the dungeon needs. Or put in an offering bowl, in a kobold village shrine if Doyle wants to be less direct. Can he or his monsters do quest? I could imagine a floor where it’s easier to gain merit points with a monster town or city than to fight or lay siege. A wandering trader would be interesting as well. Maybe a secret room that can only be assess by utilizing a specific material or equipment.
Kenneth Welever
Step one.... Defrag your core.... Scratch that. It'd probably fix a lot of things but no way would that be an easy endeavor
