Of Boss Chests and Boons

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Fortunately, the horde despawned with the **** of its leader. Otherwise, John would’ve been left in a very exposed position. Instead, he could just calmly put away the firearm and go help Qhila take down and pack away the trap modules and the payloads from the tripwires that hadn’t been triggered. “How are the batteries looking?”

“Four are too low to be relied upon, two are at about half charge and the last four are at around 95%. So I can’t do the kind of fortification I put up here, and a gauntlet like in the rat barrier will be a bit short on bite. But if we’re just talking one or two chokepoints we’re good for another dozen ambushes at least before capacity starts declining.”

“Sounds good.” John nodded. “While it’s possible we could get another point defense scenario, my guess for how the story goes is that we might be chasing down one or more leads about the source of the mutants next. Otherwise, we’re going to just get spoonfed directions and the rest of the Dungeon consists of going to the mansion in the Quest name and assaulting it, culminating in taking down the mad mutagenist, or his ‘greatest creation’, as the final Boss.”

“So use of traps will be limited to hostile patrols and what we can bait foes into?” the kobold replied thoughtfully.

“Pretty much, and that last one might have an extra hurdle. A common mechanic to avoid abusing the limitations of game AI too much is for mobs to have a maximum leash range from where they start out. They won’t leave it, teleport back or gain unstoppable return movement if physically **** out, and heal rapidly as long as no enemies are inside the range.”

“I’m guessing we’ll be experimenting with that first then. And relying more on the alchemical ordinance and Party Synergy going forward, in any case.” She looked up from packing her bag, saw him nod and continued, “I’m down about two fifths of that stuff, but I haven’t used much that’s flammable. So we’re definitely good for another Dungeon Segment, but two would probably be pushing it…”

“I’m down to about half on congealed lightning and winter’s breath, doing a bit better on shardoil, and alchemist’s fire variants are still plentiful. Elixirs too. But how much more we can do might depend a lot on the Dungeon Boons, and defense scenarios often have higher enemy numbers and bigger resource consumption besides.”

“Not much use strategizing more before we have a look at the Boons then.” John couldn’t argue with that, so they finished up the cleanup and went back to the inn.

Based on the soft golden glow around the door frame and golden particle effect sprinkling from the windows of the inn, it was eminently obvious where the Checkpoint was located. Not that that stopped the Developer from stating it outright in a system window as they entered.

Unlike passing through before, the common room was now filled with generic ‘villager’ NPCs portraying a celebratory mood, even though most of them had a conspicuous bandage somewhere.

More interestingly, by the counter directly across the common room from the entrance were two chests with the same cartoony 3D animation appearance as those from previous barriers. One plain and the other ornate made it clear what was in store there. Behind the counter was an old guy with a large, grey beard named Innkeeper and titled Boon Vendor. In front of him on the counter were three objects in the same cartoony style as the chest, and more were located on the shelves behind him.

Much as he was curious about the Boons, John was also curious about the loot and the layout provided a default order of things. In the interest of saving the best for last, he tapped the plain chest first, causing it to pop open.

The EXP rush was enough to level the both of them, restoring what missing HP and MP the Checkpoint hadn’t when they stepped inside. Combining that with three grand in cash made for a nice baseline reward. Better than doing tier 0 Arenas, but probably not by much if the EXP gain on those wasn’t docked.

Among the other drops from regular enemies, there was one particular thing he was curious about: a stack of papers with the same animated look as the chest.

Research Note (9)
Details part of the research conducted by the Mad Mutagenist and the Assistant. Collect 40 to gain the recipe for humanis elixir and one flask of 6 hours’ worth. Can also be sold for 3 Dungeon Points, or bought for 5 at the Dungeon End Shop.

“Well, that’s our goal then. Is any of the other stuff useful, or just a collection of vendor trash?”

“The essences may be useful for biomancy work, but that’s not really my thing. Moth dust is good for sleeping aides and the viper fangs are useful as a symbolic component.”

“Symbolic component?” John raised a brow at her.

“We haven’t gotten to that yet.” She made a dismissive gesture, then realized that his curiosity had been piqued and continued, “Basically, when you make an alchemical product, you can enhance the result with symbolica. If something has a symbolic link with the main effect or use case of what you’re making, it can boost the final result if it’s included in making the product. Like viper fangs for venoms, or volcanic glass for alchemist’s fire.

“Alchemical symbolica is generally divided into symbolic components and symbolic catalysts. Symbolic components work by way of the product siphoning some of the inherent mana of the component. As a result, they can be used at most two or three times, and can’t be used for other alchemical or artificing work afterwards. While the component usually doesn’t physically become part of what it’s used to enhance, it is effectively consumed in a magical sense regardless. The advantage of this type of symbolica is that it’s the stronger type, and since it’s integrated as a **** multiplier of sorts, it can be a way to utilize materials with little potency to relevant effect in something made with more potent ingredients.

“Symbolic components can be turned into symbolic catalysts with a bit of work. This sharply reduces the effect, but allows it to be applied to any number of products. When made, they’re usually incorporated directly into lab equipment dedicated to mass producing, say, healing elixirs. Symbolic catalysts aren’t limited to just objects though, they can be more intangible things like times, locations, and actual symbols. Like celestial alignments such as an eclipse, or placing your workshop by a major body of water if you’re doing something aligned with elemental water.

“Most of the time, these are minor enough not to worry about, but multiple pointing in the same direction resonate and reinforce each other. If you have a dedicated lab set to mass produce something related to elemental light, with multiple symbolic component objects, everything set up in patterns that trace alchemical symbols, located in a desert and so on, you’re going to see a significant difference between the stuff you make at dawn and noon versus any other time of day·”

“That’s pretty neat. Certainly makes alchemy feel more magical in production, and not just in the effects it can do.”

Qhila raised a brow at that comment, presumably some sort of cultural thing about what felt magical to John’s mundane-raised self. Seeing as she didn’t respond, however, he proceeded to the Boss Chest.

Another grand each of cash and EXP was nice, as were 3 more research notes and three ape essences, but they weren’t all that exciting. They were not all though, as the chest also contained a cardboard box marked “fragile”, an aptly named lab coat with faded stains in a wide variety of colors and a leather backpack with small pockets located on the front of the shoulder straps.

Actual numbers on armor was something that had shown up after he got the jacket he was currently wearing. How it worked was that the armor always blocked the minimum number listed when applicable damage happened, then a portion of any damage beyond that up to a maximum total of the larger number. The tooltip did note that these figures ran on some basic assumptions about human-on-human scale **** and the attack actually hitting the armor rather than an unprotected spot.

For comparison, his t-shirt had an AR of 0-2 and the jacket had 5-15 in general and a whopping 30-50 against abrasion specifically, but no elemental AR. So basically, this was a specialized armor for foes with little physical threat that were using elemental attacks, especially alchemical weapons like alchemist’s fire. Which was nice to have, especially in an alchemy themed dungeon.

‘Just 3 more slots for going from a regular backpack to a full cubic meter of space?’

Gaia: I threw you a bone with the backpack because inventory tetris is even more boring for the people in the audience.

’Ah, much appreciated the- Wait, people plural??’

When the Developer didn’t respond to that, John instead took the knapsack out of the chest and held it towards Qhila. “This is yours.”

“Wha- Are you sure? Why? This is…”

“Very expensive. Yes, I know. I looked up hammerspaces on the Auction. But money isn’t what’s important here. What’s important is that your skillset benefits more than mine from being able to bring a lot of stuff, and even if it didn’t, we benefit more from both of us having pocket spaces than from one of us having a bigger one. And I can get more from Perks next time I get a point. And you can’t use the lab coat unless we can get it resized.”

“I see. Uh… Thank you.” She looked away, a dusting of red on her tanned cheeks. With some difficulty, John wrestled down the urge to kiss her and emptied the rest of the chest before approaching the innkeeper.

The NPC started saying something and gesturing, but John was immediately distracted by a Dungeon Point counter appearing in his UI, showing a count of 151. John could think of only one reason it would be that high, and that was the Quest Reward. Come to think of it, the Checkpoint was also a reward. Checking the Quest Log confirmed that the first dungeon Quest was indeed completed and the only reward still pending was the next Quest.

That meant the EXP reward must have been delivered in either the normal Reward Chest or the Boss Chest. In turn making the EXP reward from the regular mobs themselves utterly abysmal or the one from the Boss itself underwhelming. That fit with Arenas being the best EXP farm as he had expected though, so it wasn’t too much of a bummer.

Having checked that, John refocused on the NPC in time to catch the tail end of him giving a basic “Am Vendor” introduction and saying that John and Qhila could have three of his wares for free, on account of the NPCs they saved. That last bit was followed up with a gesture towards the three cartoony objects on the counter. They were a loaf of bread, an acorn, and the most stereotypical healing potion imaginable. Observe revealed their actual effect.

Miller’s Loaf
Mrs. Miller is locally famed for baking the best bread in the barony. During the next Segment, gain a Food Buff of 4 MP per minute or increase any existing Food Buff by 2 MP per minute, whichever is higher.

Sosig’s Acorn
Fred is ready for adventure, bringing his porcine friend Sosig along. You will have two different stances for them to choose between, as well as acorns for limited control of Sosig’s movements. If Sosig is slain, Fred runs back to the village. If Fred is slain, you lose 10 Dungeon Points and Sosig goes on a rampage.

Cora’s Emergency Stash
Cora the Crone keeps a small stash of her strongest healing potions for emergencies, which this certainly counts as. You gain 4 lesser healing potions that only exist within this Dungeon.

The loaf was nice, especially once the Food Buff from lunch ran out, but not that big a deal since none of them were terribly mana dependent during combat. The pig and the potions were both outright fantastic, even if Sosig came with a fairly major weak spot in the form of Fred. Hopefully, it wouldn’t be too big of a deal against enemies running on video game logic though.

In any case, it was time to look at the rest of the Boons on offer, represented by cartoonishly animated objects on the shelves behind the innkeeper.

Innkeeper’s Hangover Remedy
Clear all potion and elixir side effects that were incurred inside the Dungeon from one party member.
Cost: 15 DP

Cora’s Wares
Gain 4 minor healing potions that only exist within this Dungeon.
Cost: 15 DP

Love Potion
Choose two party members to share this. While having sex, they recover 1% of their maximum HP and MP per second.
Cost: 15 DP

Charging Station
Recharge a mana battery of the mana that has been expended inside the Dungeon.
Cost: 15 DP

Luxury Suite
Gain the Well Rested (Dungeon) buff, increasing Skill EXP gain by 50%, for the next Dungeon Segment
Cost: 25 DP

Medicinal Drinking
Become slightly buzzed throughout the next Dungeon Segment, but multiply your base health regeneration by 60.
Cost: 25 DP

The big standout options here were the hangover remedy, the suite and maybe the charging station. Better Skill EXP gain was absolutely priceless, especially early on while the Boon could be worth several entire Skill Levels in itself. The charging station was fantastic if they ran out of battery since the trap modules were very powerful. If they didn’t, it depended on the monetary value of a full charge versus whatever they could buy at the end of the Dungeon.

The hangover remedy was a game changer for a different reason. Right now, John’s side effect debuffs were fairly mild, as were Qhila’s. But she had recipes for a few things that she had noted were usually not worth it outside of a dire emergency, because they brought a big benefit but also a very nasty side effect. If this was a staple Boon, making some ‘Godzilla Threshold’ elixirs for bosses was suddenly a much more reasonable idea.

Meanwhile, the king of ‘looks better than it is’ was medicinal drinking. He wasn’t sure what a light buzz would do, but probably nothing beneficial. Meanwhile, the regeneration multiplier looked insane, but in practice it would bring him up to a whopping 1 HP per minute. That was easily replicated with alchemy, not to mention Accelerate Recovery. But it did seem like the kind of thing that could be abusable with the right build.

“How big of a deal would it be to recharge one of your batteries on the spot? And how much money is a full charge?” He swiped the Observe result of the charging station over to her as he asked.

“Hmm,” she hummed thoughtfully as she read the display. “If you are correct about what is to come, we might not actually use it. But running out would limit my trap setting options significantly.

“As for cost, it’s about $200 in mana, by Auction currency exchange rates. In practice, it’s usually about 250 from the Market and about 300 from the Auction, but local prices are about matching the Auction right now because of the war.”

At this point, it would’ve been really nice to know what kind of loot could be bought for the Dungeon Points. If John were to hazard a guess, it would probably be worth more than the mana recharge, but it would be nice to know how much more. On the other hand, the recharge could mean the difference between getting and not getting through a Segment. And if the failure cost of the first Dungeon Quest was any indicator, failing was very expensive.