The City and the Dungeon

by Matthew Schmidt

  Why doesn't everyone talk in telepathy? Wouldn't that mean people can't lie?

  And that's basically why. Alice Black smiled again. Also, you can't listen in on two people who are using telepathy. So if you want to have a wider conversation, it's much easier to just say it out loud. Otherwise, people have to think to everyone they want to speak to.

  Then she kicked me under the table, and I yelped. George glared death at both of us.

  Ouch. Alice Black thought. See, you just thought-screamed. Didn't it hurt?

  You could have warned me!

  Nope. Had to be a surprise. Because you'll never be expecting the things that make you thought-scream.

  Right, I thought. I had never thought of her as cruel.

  Did you mean to think of that? Alice Black thought.

  I blushed. This is ridiculous!

  Did you mean to think that?

  Fine. Never mind. I reached to remove my Necklace.

  But Alice Black held it in place. For a moment, we were touching. You'll get it. We can have a normal conversation first, all right?

  All right, I thought. What would you like to talk about?

  What's your family like?

  I have Mom and a little sister, I thought. We were never that well-to-do after Dad left us. We were running out of money, so they paid for me to come here. So I did. Now I'm a delver.

  See? Alice Black thought. You're getting it because I'm sure you censored a bunch of thoughts about your dad.

  You'd be right, I thought. What's your family like?

  It's... I could see her pause. Ha. See, here you almost got me. Let me say this. I miss Dad.

  The thought was so strong it made me want to cry. I'm sorry.

  Actually, we've got... like, ninety to ninety-eight percent of his shards.

  I held my surprise.

  Don't look that way. You've shown you are surprised.

  How few are left?

  We're missing one, maybe two shards. But we've searched every section of the 50th Floor. Every single one.

  I wondered if there was a way to communicate comfort.

  There is. Just think that way. But go easy, all right? People do have a right to privacy.

  Right, I thought. Sorry, my head's getting tired.

  All right. We can stop now. You did well.

  I don't think she needed telepathy to tell my pleasure.

  * * *

  Days later, when we had all gotten our own Necklaces, I did the same training with all of us, minus the kicking.

  Almost all of us.

  "Andy? No?" Elise asked.

  "No," she said. I could feel the depth of her emotion even without telepathy. "No."

  "It's... Well, if you're ever the leader, you'll need to use telepathy—" Elise began.

  "She's not," Xavier said. "She decided to be sixth—fifth now—so that can't happen. Andy, can you tell us why you don't want telepathy?"

  She stared at us without words.

  "Right," I said. "We're not forcing you. So, if you don't want it... You can use an Amulet of Life, save yourself from some draining."

  "Better. No drain," Andy said. "Optimal."

  It was at that moment I realized I did not understand why Andy was with us. Sure, Elise was, but what did Andy want?

  What did I want?

  Chapter Fourteen:

  Optimization

  I watched Elise draw. The painting skillstone must have spilled into the other artistic realms, or by the Dungeon, Elise was trying to make it spill over. She was scribbling away on yet another page when Alice Black walked up to us.

  "So what are you building?" she asked.

  "Building?" I asked back.

  "Build path, growth strategy, whatever you call it?" At our confusion she rolled her eyes. "Are you seriously not planning?"

  "I thought that was the kind of thing green delvers did," Sampson said.

  "It's what green, and blue, and indigo, and violet delvers have done. By the time you've reached green... listen!" She took a blank sheet from Elise's pile and started drawing equations. "As far as we can tell, crystal consumption by Experience is linear. Ergo, if you gain the Experience of one green, but have wasted it on a suboptimal build, you'll have a consumption of one green until you've reached the power of one green—but now with the consumption of, say, one and a half green. But as you increase in Experience, power gain becomes non-linear, while the Experience necessary for a new level increases geometrically until level 100, where it becomes exponential. Meanwhile, you must still eat. Using the standard equation for delving income per delve before the Deep..."

  I considered it better not to interrupt. But I think I could have gotten her point without the calculus on how terribly one would have doomed oneself by neglecting proper Experience planning.

  "And that's why there aren't that many green delvers," Alice Black finished. "They didn't think beforehand. And by the time they did, they had to spend far too much to get to the power necessary to survive."

  "Honestly," I said. "We were just winging it."

  "No, you weren't," Alice Black said. "You spent a good deal of time and crystal on getting that Revive, all based on a plan. Which worked, accidentally, but that's not the point. Use that resource." She tapped me on the skull.

  "Um..." I said. "So, I'll think about—"

  "No. You're not just going to think about it. You're going to study. I want all of you to have a build path to show me by... oh, two weeks from now."

  I saw a spark of anger in Elise. But she said, with the most subtle sarcasm, "Yes, ma'am. I'll be sure to do my homework."

  "Be sure," Alice Black said.

  * * *

  The next day, I saw Elise alone in the library. I could tell something still simmered in her by the way she held the book, Builds for Rogues. I rethought the question I would ask her.

  "What?" She closed it with a snap and looked at me. "What?"

  No point avoiding it now. "Um, Elise?" I asked. "Can I talk to you in private?"

  "Sure?" she said, and raised an eyebrow. "This better not be some kind of love confession."

  I flushed. "No, no, it's... um, Andy." This was actually the other question I had thought of, but I didn't dare my initial one.

  "Andy?" she asked. "What about her?"

  "What exactly is a Digger?" I asked.

  Elise closed her eyes for some time.

  "I'm... I'm sorry, if it's..."

  "It's not," Elise said. "But it is sensitive. Have you ever heard of the Dig for Victory?"

  "No, actually," I said.

  "Figured. It's a delving strategy—corroborated by some evidence, refuted by others—that digging directly to the 25th Floor greatly increases a low-level party's chance of survival."

  "That's suicide," I said. While one can dig through Floors and even past Bosses, Boss Fights had half a Chapter on how it was a terrible idea. If you couldn't get to the Floor on your own, you really weren't ready for it.

  "Some evidence is in favor. A monster guarding a chest on the 25th is approximately as dangerous as the 5th Boss but has far better loot. And it's repeatable. Alternately, you could just pry greens out of the walls for free. So the strategy: dig as fast as possible to the 25th, dig the walls, maybe kill one monster, maybe open one chest, and Return. Repeat until fortune or death."

  "But if they run into a War Tree..." I said.

  "Then they're wiped—and lost, because no insurance policy will cover a Dig for Victory. Or at least, one that anyone that DfVs can afford. Add to this, I'm describing the sane version. There are hundreds of rumors about what happens at the 25th and below: a magical under-City, an endless treasure room, a portal to a Side Dungeon full of wonders. Or it's straight labyrintholatry, and it's a sacrament to dig to the bottom. Take all of this and mix it together, and you've got a Digger."

  "Oh." I said. "So... Andy?"

  "I knew Mr. and Mrs. Square—great people, if a little nuts. But one day they DfV'ed, and no one's heard of them s
ince. Andy was... left on the street, basically."

  "And... ugh," I said. "I don't know what to say."

  "Here's what not to say. Don't say it was the fault of the Diggers. It's... How can I put this to someone who didn't grow up here? They're derided, yes, but they're the adorable crazy people. Of course...” Elise trailed off. “Don't ask Xavier about this, because he's wrong. Skipping Bosses really does spawn more out-of-depths. So any Digger passing through is a walking out-of-depth magnet. Coupled with general Digger weirdness, there's some who really hate them. There's even been slayings.”

  “I've never heard of this,” I said. “The out-of-depth thing, I mean.”

  “Technically,” Elise said with an eye-roll. “It's just rumors. But there's not enough statistics to prove it either way, even if you were obsessed with numbers. Anyway, in polite company, don't insult Diggers or DfVs. It's really offensive, and Andy is particularly sensitive, for obvious reasons."

  "Right," I said. I didn't dare ask if Andy, too, was a Digger.

  * * *

  One week later, we went too deep, ourselves.

  We were looting a yellow chest on the 9th. Having taken so little damage on the previous floors, we decided to go deeper. It wasn't that odd—or so we thought. After all, delvers eventually begin delving several floors at a time, and, subconsciously, we had decided that it was that time.

  The chest itself was guarded by many, many Rats—even more than one or two Hordes. By the time we had gotten to the chest all of us were covered in small scratches, and I had used enough heals not to waste any more.

  No trap killed us; nor even the Rats. But when we walked to the door, Andy stopped and pointed.

  Floating still, in the corridor outside was a Ghost... but not?

  I remember what I saw, and remember clearly as if it happened this moment. For it was not only a ghost, it was surrounded by a glowing cloud—a cloud of smaller ghosts. One ghost—or rather, a burning fire made of ghosts—was attached by a line to the main mass, as if it were a kind of fisherman.

  The Ghost Fisher.

  "Retreat!" I shouted, but there was none. We fell back into the room. The Ghost Fisher advanced inside. The line shot out and struck Xavier; it dragged him into the flames. Andy reached to pull him back, but the reeling of the Ghost Fisher was stronger. I cast Greater Heal on both, but the ghostly fire was even greater. I heard them both scream, and cease.

  I almost cast Drain, but it would have been useless—reflecting the attack instead. Sampson! Circle it, so Elise can hit it from behind!

  The Ghost Fisher was happy to oblige by entering even closer, even as Elise threw daggers at it. I knew why in the instant it threw the fire-hook at me. I screamed in pain, but then it was gone.

  As he twirled his sword, Sampson said, "Not that much Health. Lots of Attack, but not that much Health."

  "Too much," Elise said. "A little less and I would have gotten it a dagger earlier. Alex? Don't you dare die here!"

  "I'm going to have to Drain one of you," I said. I couldn't get up. "I burned all my heals."

  "No," Elise said. "You. Will. Not. That'll make you Chaotic."

  "But—"

  "One moment," Sampson said, ran out, and screamed a most feral scream. A moment later a Black Ooze followed him back inside, which he kited as I managed to cast Drain. He killed it the rest of the way as I got up.

  "Thanks," I said. I took a deep breath. "We can't take risks like this. We can't. This could happen again."

  Nods. "Please tell me someone has a Return stone on him," Elise said. "I don't."

  "I don't think so," I said. "I'll... just have to Revive Xavier here."

  No one disagreed as I hoped they would have—just silent agreement.

  I was afraid, but being wiped down there would be even worse. Yet if I messed up—complications were a mage's worst nightmare. If stat loss meant you couldn't cast your best spells... Many mages were dumped by their parties after complications, having become just a living dead weight. But I couldn't, if—

  No. Stop thinking. Start doing.

  I took a deep breath, then another. No one spoke, but I saw them watch. I drew the plus.

  60%. No!

  But the heartstone grew into Xavier and he got up—no sign of complications. He picked up his staff with a wince. "That was unpleasant. Who did we lose?"

  "Just you and Andy," I said as Elise picked up Andy's heartstone and equipment "Return?"

  "Back we go." He drew the circle and wings, and we were yanked up.

  * * *

  "Hello, George," I told the librarian. "We ran into the Ghost Fisher."

  "Ouch! Enough to ruin anyone's day. At least you got back out."

  "Most of us did," I said. "Two dead."

  "Eesh," He dug around in his desk and pulled out some paper. "Go ahead and write down what you saw. The Ghost Fisher's rare."

  "Rare, or it serves you your own head on a platter rare?" Xavier asked. "No wonder so few come back from it. There's no front line."

  "That's the kind of observation I'm looking for. Now shoo. I've got work to do."

  * * *

  "Time to turn in your homework!" Alice Black said cheerfully.

  I tried not to hit our table with my forehead. I hadn't had time to transcribe my own sheet again after my most recent modifications.

  "Who wants to go first?" Alice Black asked.

  "Me!" Sampson cheered, and handed his paper to her.

  "Well, then..." She read it. "You're going in a lot of classes."

  "Seems to be the most likely way to a dual Knight Grandmaster. In case I change my mind in the middle, you know."

  "It's really not a good idea to change your mind in a build, let alone in the middle of it," Alice Black said. "That said, it's reasonable anyway. Consider going for White Knight instead of Steel Knight, just so you can get Knight of the Balance later. Even if you don't go for Grandmaster of the Balance.

  "Elise?" Alice Black asked.

  Elise handed her paper in, silently.

  Alice Black read it with a frown. "This is pretty standard. Why Rogue Queen?"

  "Why go for Kleptarch?" Elise asked. "It's a death wish to try to collect every treasure."

  "If you're going for Rogue Queen, I'd at least want to know more detail that 'Kleptarch is a death wish.' Talk to Isaac Black, if you would."

  Elise didn't reply, staring at Alice Black instead, who stared back. For several seconds, neither said anything; nor did any of us dare.

  Xavier looked extremely uncomfortable. "I'm next?" he asked. Both of them broke off, and I breathed a sigh of relief.

  "Sure," Alice Black said, and took his paper. Or rather, papers, it was more a sheaf.

  "I went ahead and described my specific build for every subclass."

  "Good work," she said, as she flipped through it. "Always a good idea to think these things through in detail. And your full build is ambitious. Why Master of Magic? You're just a few classes away from Grand Archmage."

  "And crazy amounts of Experience," Xavier said. "I want Master of Magic for two reasons: Unlimited spell slots, and being able to learn any spell in the world, with Power equal to the Master class."

  "That's an interesting personal goal, but how does that help in the Dungeon?"

  "I've looked through the library. There are some incredible spell combos that have never been done, because either the classes they are in are too distant tree-wise, or just don't have enough Power for higher spectrums. No one's going to overlevel Dimensional Apprentice, but I could Reverse an Apport of an Explosion Cursed object. By my calculations, the explosion will do significant damage at 100th Master of Magic."

  "Ambitious. Well, good luck. You'll have to find access to some of those subclasses, but some of the ones for Grand Archmage are equally difficult."

  "Between High House Magica and High House Medici, I can probably pay for access—once I have the crystal income of someone who actually can use those classes."

  "Fair enough. An
dromeda?" Alice Black asked.

  Andy very carefully gave her the paper, as if it or Alice Black might explode.

  Alice Black looked at it, then looked at it more, and paused in thought. "Hmm."