The second tablet he had used to take notes on was a little more unbelievable. "This information was given to you by the goddess who created the dungeons and cities, who has given them to our old enemy—but is using dungeons to harass them. During your upgrade time, you assisted her in training a dungeon in the nastiest tactic to use against a city: plague."
"Yeah." Travis ran through the words, reading them off the tablets through a curious wyvern's eyes. "She—Bookkeeper—can't act directly to stop them. She said they have their own gods, and forcing them to stop would only unite those gods against her."
"Which would make all her efforts for naught and possibly risk our way of life." Honor reached a hand down to pet the head of the wyvern that was using her lap as a pillow for its chin. "Is there anything we can do to help her?"
Travis checked his own notes that were drawn in mana on the walls of his heart room. "I'm already working on that. I'm building my own temple to her and encouraging other dungeons I know, and all the cities, to dedicate time and resources to direct worship. Cities, in particular, can inspire their Keepers of Knowledge to dedicate their libraries to her. She used to be the goddess of scribes, and I hope we can make her comfortable in that role again."
Taking more notes, Stewart planned to meet with the capital's Keeper of Knowledge to see about that himself. "I had hoped that this civil war would be the end of mobilizing the kingdom's armies. Not counting Northern raids."
"Did she reveal what direction they would approach from?" Honor asked.
"I… Uh. It didn't come up. I'll ask her." Travis directed his thoughts inward and asked, "Bookkeeper, which direction is the old empire from here?"
It's to the east. A loooooong way to the east. ヽ?(?￣?д?￣?;?)?ノ?=3=3=3
"She says it's a long way to the east. Thanks, Bookkeeper." Travis didn't fail to register the looks of shock on Stewart and Honor's faces. Both looked like they'd experienced something very uncomfortable. "Is something wrong?"
Honor recovered first, raising a hand to cover her face. "Travis, you're not meant to just talk to gods and expect them to answer. There are priests and priestesses you have to work through."
Lol! Ask him to point in the direction of my nearest priest or priestess. He doesn't appreciate a good joke, I bet. If he wasn't so nice to my dungeons and cities… (???ˉ?????ˉ?????)?
Biting back mental laughter at her commentary, Travis did his best to focus on Stewart. "He's a good man, and has had a rough few years. Cut him some slack."
Catching up quickly, Stewart closed his eyes and turned his focus toward the place he always had when praying. "Goddess Bookkeeper, I hope we have not caused you undue ire in this. May you forgive us and our allies."
Awww. Tell him it's no probs. I'm glad Sandy helped get him a waifu! (???????????)?
"Sandy?" Travis asked, keeping his words for Bookkeeper.
Oh! Sandwalker. She can be a bit annoying, but her heart is in the right place. If she wouldn't let me hear the end of it, I might put on some cute cat ears. What do you think? (?=?^???ω???^?=?)?
"I think my own liking of catgirls is well-documented; especially some art I've worked on." Travis wished he could hug her again. Stoically, he moved on. "And thanks again, for everything."
You're welcome! Oh! Your "trainee"? They were more than capable of finishing your work. As a reward I appointed them with the new "Leader Dungeon" bonus template. It means they now direct the other dungeons in the area, gaining part of their rewards and sharing some of its own with them. (?*?′?▽?`?*?)
Did you want that template?
Laughing, Travis asked, "You want me to test it too?"
?☆?(>????)?
"Okay, make a quest for it or something, I guess. I better get back to giving Stewart and Honor all this info. You're the best." Travis turned his focus to the pair in question. "She said it's fine. Also, she said congratulations on announcing your impending marriage."
I didn't say it like that! Okay, here's a quest. (?⌒?ω?⌒?)?
Bonus Quest: Count to eleven!
If Travis had eyes, he'd have rolled them. "One, two, three, eleven."
Bonus Quest Complete!
Template Applied: Leader Dungeon
A ridiculous flood of food washed into Travis. His storage filled to capacity in seconds and then stopped. "Ahhh! Too much food! Breeze?" Travis felt stretched thin. Normally he could handle one or two important conversations, and numerous other smaller communication tasks, but with Stewart and Honor, Bookkeeper, and now this new effect impinging on his attention he had to find a way to cope. "Actually, sorry Breeze. I'll figure it out with you later."
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Breeze was just happy to hear from their friend. Curious about the new link between them—Breeze'd gained a template called Vassal Dungeon—they prodded at what it could do. There were interesting mechanics that allowed for sending technology and resources, though the big one that was obvious was a constant flow of resources to Travis. Breeze was fine with this, and continued to produce food at ever-increasing rates.
"I'm sorry, but I have a lot of other things to catch up on," Travis told Stewart and Honor. "Bookkeeper wants me to test a new dungeon leadership thing, I have all these options that just unlocked, and I need to get the miners back in to do their thing."
Honor laughed at that. Though Travis hadn't seemed to be too distant from the conversation, she could well imagine him splitting his time between topics he didn't want to. "I think we have all the information we can currently use. If they haven't left yet, there's nothing that can't wait another week. Stewart?"
Still struggling to get past the fact Travis was communicating directly with a god unfiltered by the churches, Stewart shook his head. "No, you're right. I'll notify the easternmost cities to cease building new settlements and focus on reinforcing already established ones. I believe, after Northridge, providing resources to those will be our next major project." For a moment he was quiet, then another thought hit him. "Oh. Would you be willing, Travis, to save that last dungeon entrance in case this attack does reach our shores? Being able to deploy a large army in barely a month could turn this potential invasion into a complete rout."
"I'll try. I have a bad feeling the Northerners will try something we haven't anticipated, and I might need to use that entrance before the campaign is done. We can fill them in, though. Hilda explained how her sister did it." Travis was itching to turn his full attention back to his other duties. "Let me know if I can help with anything else."
With no further requests from them, Travis focused on his new Template. For the first time ever there was documentation on items.
?Allies
For each allied dungeon, each dungeon gains (per day)?:
+5,000 Primary Resource
+1,000 Secondary Resources
The Leader Dungeon may turn this off on a per-dungeon basis.
Dungeons will not gain floor-delve rewards for exploring allied dungeons.
?Cede Ability
For double the cost of any trap, room, or feature, Leader Dungeons may allow an allied dungeon to build it without them meeting any requirements.
?Seize Ability
For double the cost of any trap, room, or feature of an allied dungeon, Leader Dungeons may acquire it for their own use.
There was a lot to take in from the abilities, not least of which being that he had to enable Allies for Breeze and, when he was doing that, he found he could turn it on fortoo. That brought up another thing. "Hey, uh, can you hear me, gnoll dungeon?"
The only feeling Travis got back from the dungeon was curiosity and a sense of warning.
"It's fine. I know you like to keep your distance. If you need anything at all from me, just ask. I can give you traps and rooms too, now." Travis hoped the dungeon understood, and focused on reviewing possible exploits for the new powers. The first was obvious and glaring. "Bookkeeper? Do the resources from Allies scale? They might be a bit too much for low level, and not really much at all for high level."
They are scaling. Aren't you getting enough from them? (?◎ ◎?)?ゞ?
"Well, with Breeze gaining a floor almost every day, that would be a full reward every day from her. That's the upper bound, I guess. Yeah, okay, I'm seeing what you mean. Maybe there could be hugely expensive upgrades to this?"
?(???_???)?
Let's leave things for a skosh. I'll keep an eye on how much this is costing me against how much it gains me. Everything has to balance. (???????)??
"Okay, okay. I really like the Cede Ability; already have some ideas for using that. I guess we'll get together again in a month?" Travis didn't mean to sound so eager, but the thought of being able to touch someone again was a big incentive.
Okay! (?≧???≦?)?
"Right, that's a few things taken care of. Breeze, I have a present for you!" When Travis looked at his room costs, he found an odd thing. "Huh, buildings don't cost rock anymore? Well, I'm not going to complain." At double the cost of gold and steel, Travis paid for a Temple and Ceded it to Breeze. "Build this, and dedicate it to a goddess called Bookkeeper. I promise you'll like her," he told Breeze.
Breeze didn't doubt Travis' word. They took the room from him and felt around the concept of it. Rooms weren't a feature of Verdant dungeons, but it wasn't hard to find a spot that felt right to put it: right beside the entrance to Northridge.
The moment the Temple was placed, and Breeze focused on the word Bookkeeper, a glow filled the open-air building and spread through their entire dungeon. So excited to have something that felt so good, Breeze replied to Travis, "Thank you! I love it!"
Bookkeeper herself could only stare at the temple. The very first thing Travis had done—before all his plans to exploit her new code—was to give his friend a temple to her!
Closing her eyes for but a moment, she became acutely aware of the feeling of being hugged by Travis at the fore of her memories. She squeezed her big kobold plush toy against her, but it wasn't the same.
"Someone's in a good mood."
"EEK!" Bookkeeper hadn't heard Sandwalker approach, and wasn't even sure how they'd gotten into her formerly private sanctum. "What are you doing in here?" she demanded. "And how did you get in?!"
"I am a cat, dear. I can get in anywhere. Now, something has you happy?" Purring softly, Sandwalker angled themselves to brush along Bookkeeper's back and lean against the flighty goddess.
"Travis! He's amazing!" Turning to the side, Bookkeeper leaned more on Sandwalker and started rubbing the ruff of their neck. "I found out that he was having bad nightmares whenever he upgraded, so I asked him to help me with some things when he did. He built up a dungeon so fast and used it to empty a city! Oh! I need to give that city a nice new home. I wonder if anyone near Travis is founding a city soon?"
"Focus," Sandwalker said, though they purred a little louder to match Bookkeeper's mood.
"He finished so soon that we had days to talk and I got to know him soooo much better! It's like, even with spending centuries combing through his memories of his old world, I didn't learn how much he loves making art!" The words tumbled from Bookkeeper in a rush, leaving her completely vulnerable to Sandwalker's need for more petting. "And now he's back, and I gave him a way to share his dungeon things with other dungeons. What's the first thing he does?"
Sandwalker opened their mouth to reply, but knew they wouldn't beat Bookkeeper to the punch.
"He only goes and gives his BDFF—that's Best Dungeon Friend Forever, Breeze—a temple to me!"
The squealing sigh that Bookkeeper loosed made Sandwalker pin their ears back. Despite the attack on their divine aural equipment, however, the vibes were as good as the petting, and so Sandwalker remained by Bookkeeper's side for a while.
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