SSD 5.02 - The Measure of Strength

And the promised chapter. Almost entirely dialogue, which is odd for me.

All adults that reach middle age, no matter how meager their class and position, will find themselves crossing the first threshold along the way. It is an event to be celebrated and honored, for it is a gift of the system, and, in turn, a gift from Yamash.

-A’lfias Demarvi, Cleric of Yamash, speaking at a communal threshold celebration.

==Zidaun==

Speaking with Caden was a whiplash of contrasting knowledge. The system, he seemed to understand on a general level, but the details were a mishmash of extensive comprehension arrayed against complete uncertainty.

And then there was Caden’s understanding of the various aspects of natural philosophy, which he called science; I was happy to admit that was not my specialty. Stone, I knew, the way it responded to stress, how to apply order to make it harder and denser, the natural weaknesses of fractures and minuscule imperfections. I knew how to make it grow, move, and entangle like a particularly recalcitrant plant.

I didn’t understand lightning, the more controlled use of which could apparently transform it into other forces entirely: magnetism, like a lodestone, light, or directly into physical motion.

Perhaps it is natural, for the dungeons to know so much more.

It was not a new thought and I had felt the effortless power when I had briefly powered the dungeon’s capability. The world bent to their will, so it was hardly a surprise if they knew more.

Supposed to be ancient… Maybe the system itself changed.

It would explain much, how Caden could know that which went even further than the proscribed knowledge.

Was the knowledge always forbidden?

And then… there was the fantastical. Caden had not said as much, but there was a hint of familiarity, of dealing with the system itself, as an entity in its own right. It wasn’t wholly unheard of, with various legends suggesting the feat was possible, direct communication coming after impossible feats, and before receiving equally impossible rewards. Still, it remained the domain of legends, for now.

Not that I would share anything without his consent.

“Zidaun?” Caden asked, bringing my attention fully back to the conversation.

What had we just been talking about? Something about choice and how the system dealt with slaves?

I had a vague unease about the conversation, even as the details were hazy.

Need to do better.

It was not acceptable to lose myself like that, but I had.

“Yes Caden?” I replied.

Caden looked at me oddly, his stone body managing to convey exceptional focus. He seemed almost, concerned.

“Are you alright? Do you remember what we were just talking about?”

“Uh, n-no,” I managed to stammer, before I elaborated. “Not really, my mind must have been wandering.”

I tried to think back to the conversation, but the last few minutes were entirely blank now.

Could swear I remembered more…

“We were talking about science, for a while,” I said. “I remember that, but then, I must have gotten lost in here.” I gestured toward my head, and I felt my face heat up slightly.

Don’t even have a good excuse, not particularly tired. Didn’t even have to run around to fetch Izradi, Caden had brought him to me, and sent him away just as fast.

Caden simply nodded, his jaw firming, which enhanced the air of grim resolve he wore like a cloak, as his eyes looked into the middle distance. They turned toward me, literal gems fashioned into facsimiles of eyes, the detail so perfect the stone of the iris opened and closed.

“Sorry,” Caden said, “lets talk about something else. Are there any downsides to leveling up?”

My mind scrabbled for a moment, before managing to get purchase and driving back into action.

“No, no. No downsides. There are the thresholds, of course, but those are variable, as I’m sure you know.”

“What is a threshold?”

My mind blanked again, for a moment.

How could he not know? Spoke a different language…

“Maybe you called it something else, in this “English?” I said, before gesturing. “Still, you will know it, the multiples of ten, ten, twenty, and so on.”

“Zidaun…” Caden said slowly, trailing off for only a moment before he continued, “what level do you think I am? Work through your logic for me.”

I thought about it moment, considering everything I knew about him.

“Well, you are fully sapient, can speak, and so on… So, you must be old. At minimum, several centuries, more likely a few millennia.”

I glanced at Caden, but he simply nodded to continue.

“Don’t know exactly how long it has been, since you were last active. Doesn’t really matter, now that I think about it. Other than all the cultures you referenced in all the art. Either lots of studying or just lots of exposure. Again, a sign of age and experience.”

For a dungeon, age was power.

“So you would have had a dungeon, all that time. You understand people, too, far more than any other dungeon. I…,” I trailed off for a moment. “I don’t actually know how long that would take. Most dungeons don’t really seem to care about people.”

I thought back to what I knew about other dungeon. Most were about the same, aloof. Whatever concerns they had, if any, were not divulged to the Adar. A few were slightly more involved, and those tended to be the most powerful.

Usually the oldest, too.

“The oldest and most powerful dungeons tend to have a little more… interest, animation,” I said. “Not sure how long it takes to get from there to you. Age is usually the best indicator of power, so… maybe in the eighties, perhaps even into the nineties, for your level?”

Caden nodded slowly.

“Most people don’t know dungeon that well, right?”

I agreed, and he continued.

“So, just based off of what you have seen of the dungeon so far, what level would the average adventurer place me at? Again, walk me through your logic.”

“Well…,” I started, drawing out the word slightly as I put my thoughts together, “there are contradictions. The monsters don’t indicate anything too high, level wise, but they are never spread out this much. The insects, the plate-rats, they start as things that anyone can kill. And then they went up to around twenty, where we were last. Monsters can get more powerful than the core, especially at lower levels. A beginning core can still have higher leveled monsters. Normally,” I paused, trying to figure out how to word this delicately, “if, these monsters were all I had seen…”

I trailed off again, but Caden merely seemed amused as he interrupted me.

“It would indicate a lower level, right?”

“Yes.” I said, unsure.

“I asked for your opinion,” he said, with a small smile, “I’m not about to be offended by the answer. Continue.”

I nodded, before continuing.

“Yes. With level twenty monsters, usually you are looking at a core just past the first threshold, eleven to thirteen, maybe. Other stuff says the opposite, though. Firstly, the dungeon is huge. Most dungeons are large, but they tend to stop growing after, roughly a mile or so. They put their mana into monsters, summoning them up as they are killed. Their focus is on a tightly knit dungeon, maximizing every bit of space into corridors, rooms, and so on. They slowly level from dealing with adventurers, and their monsters grow with them.

“Dungeons with large areas tend again, to be old and powerful. I don’t know any dungeon that uses the large open spaces like you do. The other sapient dungeons do carve away areas for us to use, but they tend to leave organizing and filling them to us. When dungeons resurface, they tend to rapidly expand to their previous size, with the amount of space you cover, and the continued rapid expansion… I don’t actually know. Somewhere close to my original estimate, at least level seventy.”

“The teleportation is something else. Not the only dungeon that uses that, though it tends to be more trap focused rather than helpful. Still, not something you would expect to see in a weak dungeon. Been seen in a few specialized dungeons that skewed more toward traps and labyrinths, with less invested in monsters… Still, minimum level thirty.”

“Other things are odd… you have monsters set aside, clearly functioning as bosses, but none of them actually have the boss designation.”

I caught a tiny quirk of Caden’s eyebrow, and rushed to clarify.

“Not that there is anything wrong with that, but normally only cores before the first threshold don’t have any. There are plenty of reasons not to use them here. I assume all your boss slots are filled by much higher level monsters.”

Caden simply smiled, not saying anything.

“Right, but again, dungeons without bosses are usually tiny. No more than a one to two hundred feet in diameter. With your size, anyone, who knows anything, will assume your bosses are somewhere else. No way for anyone to tell exactly…”

I trailed off as a thought hit me.

“It didn’t occur to me earlier, because I’m usually the one doing the initial survey, but, if you are really interested, we could ask for a strength assessment.”

Caden raised his eyebrows at me and his face grew contemplative in a way that was now familiar. Caden spent a lot of time thinking.

“What, exactly,” he asked, “would that entail?”

“Normally, you get people like me,” I said, and he nodded again. “My team are professionals, done it for a while, but not even close to the strongest. Occasionally, we get to a dungeon and it’s simply too much for us to handle.

“How can you tell?” he asked.

“Usually it’s easy. Some dungeons, you get monsters prowling, right inside the entrance, easily visible. Almost always, some are no more than a dozen feet inside, or after the first curve. For those, we feel things out really cautiously.

“Generally, I can feel them, even before I even get to them. Not enough to get details, but enough to feel how dense their mana is. If the density is high then we get all the defenses up in advance, go all out. If the density is too high, or the monster is tougher than we are comfortable with, we just hightail it out, then and there.

“That’s when they send in people of higher level. They’ll pick how high the level should be based on our reports. Usually that is enough, but that team can come back and send for a higher level team, as well.”

“I assume,” he said, “it’s more economical to send in the lower leveled teams first?”

“Yeah, plus the higher level teams they send tend to come from former scouting groups, the experience is valuable. Once you get to certain level, the normal scouting isn’t really worth it, though. We would have transitioned to the next level of scouts, and kept going, but, even beyond that… I would keep going, because, you know, it’s my role, was my role, but I would have ended up with a different team after a few more years, perhaps a dozen or so at most. They could have stuck with me, but… it was unlikely. They would have needed to move on.”

“So, you don’t do that, move on?” Caden asked. “You just do that forever, unless you find a dungeon to bind to?”

“No, no, once our level gets up high enough, we go home, usually. If there is a special assignment, or need of our skills, we might go off and do that, but generally we go home. What we do then, varies. With my skills, I would have helped with shaping the dungeon, probably. Also training some of the other Adar, helping them get the same class. My class is considered the best for Seekers, generally, but it is hard to get.”

“Okay,” he said, “so to get back to a strength assessment…”

“Yes, rather than do the full exploration, they send in either an individual or team, at very high level. They simply clear through the dungeon as fast as they can, making a broad assessment of how strong the dungeon is, what its strongest monsters are, most dangerous traps or environmental hazards, and so on. It is just to rank the dungeon overall. Sometimes the same people are hired to clear remote, but dangerous, dungeons periodically, to diminish the threat of a dungeon break.

“Your rating would be a little different. Usually that rating tell people what level they should be in order to delve. However, with the difficulty starting at, essentially, a complete beginner, and going up from there that wouldn’t be accurate here.”

I paused.

“However,” I said, “the scouts already make recommendations on who should be delving, the team level appropriate for an area. A larger version of that might be used. Just break the entire dungeon down into different levels of threat.”

Caden looked at me as I finished, the moment drawing out. Finally he nodded, before speaking.

“Don’t tell anyone, but I’m only level seven.”