I decided that I would sleep, hibernate, whatever it was. If I don't do it now, I might not get the chance later, so I'll risk the six months instead, but before that, I would need to get my affairs in order. A surprisingly easy task all things considered if I'm honest, my monsters were understanding, at least they seemed like they did, and while the lack of input miffed him, Arthur was understanding, even if I hadn't given him all the details. And with a couple of more traps placed on floor 4, I was ready to begin.
Soooo, what happens now then?
Well, that's neat I guess, anything else I should be aware of?
I thought the entire point of my sleeping for the winter was BECAUSE of how fast I'm leveling, and now you're letting me advance anyway?
So, you're telling me that I could end up doing this again if I'm not careful?
I expected everything on that list to save the last, are you telling me that this dangerously video game of a world has honest-to-God (gods?) boss monsters?
If I could make a genuine boss monster then couldn't I have eased up on the defenses, not that I regret it, but it would certainly help with planning.
Hmph, well in that case I'll just see what I got before going to sleep, I'll deal with the boss monster last.
Alright, pulling out the 'the fucks' and 'holy hells' might be too soon, but I'm fairly certain something along those lines would be warranted. But instead, I'm going to see what's next before my internal yelling becomes external.
Eh alright, pretty good I'd say.
I'm questioning the wisdom of [sin] but if I decided to go full 'kill the gods' I suppose that would be a good(?) place to start. As for the other two though, they have their ups and downs, metal garden 5 increased the 'naturalness' of my dungeon even if those 'plants' are just another kind of machine, while lavish increased machine monster quality at a higher price. Long-term, the garden would increase the value proposition per floor so when Arthur and I got around to actually making good on both our ends of the deal, whereas lavish engineering would dramatically increase the price for better monsters.
As for [sin] though, a quick snoop around tells me that in an overall way [sin] is the direct violation of divinity, a rather poorly explained thing by the system, with it as far as I understood being somewhere between willful disrespect and any direct attempt at forcing divine energy to do something, and that normally [sin] is automatic in regular people but as a dungeon I am expected to interact with divine power at some point. In the context of [blasphemous engineering] however, [sin] allows me to create 'anti-supernatural' monsters and stuff, with [sin] derived stuff dismantling and disabling magic that isn't supposed to be there, i.e. spells, enchantments, magic potions, and the like. The system did warn me though, to use a metaphor I came up with, if the cosmic forces of the universe were part of a neighborhood, celestials, and infernals are feuding neighbors, but they aren't enemies, not truly, they wouldn't go into each other's homes and shoot them point blank, but they would dump their cut grass on each other's lawns, maybe punch each other. But then comes along [sin], destroying public and private property, killing people in their homes, and generally breaking the law. Where infernals are corruptive, [sin] is destructive, where divine celestials are enriching, [sin] is despoiling, which in practice makes it dangerously powerful and dangerously hated. That is what [sin] is to the system, a malicious force that can dismantle things irreverent to the divine cosmology.
So, it was safe to say that I was very hesitant to even consider the option once I got a better picture of it because part of me felt like taking that would be an escalation I couldn't survive, assuming I even wanted to. But it was still a valid option, just one that would set me against the world, at least most of it if religion is as big here as it was back on Earth during the relatively same period.
Hm
Let's put a pin in that for now, some distraction should help.
Tell me how a boss monster works.
Sure, worst case I just put off the choice until I decide on my 5th-level monster after the focus and perks.
The screen that came up was actually massive despite only having a handful of monsters. It had a version of every monster I currently owned, I could even recreate the greeble king and prince if I wanted to, thought I'd need some serious convincing to go with that. To be honest, I was seeing how this could get out of hand, how did the bigger, older, dungeons handle themselves?
Wish I could do that, I think.
Still, I'd need to make sure to keep track of future acquisitions to keep myself from forgetting.
Looking over the list one more time, each option was valid, but some were clearly better than others, for the most part. My level-one monsters like the clockworkers, spiders, or the golems would simply become bigger, better versions of themselves, the clockworker became a massive immobile mech that handled larger, more complex parts and pieces of metal, while the spiders became a duo of massive, armored spiders, that could masterfully manipulate and control well-crafted and scary suits or armor. That was to say nothing of the other dozen monsters I had available to me, but those were just the start.
With the defenses I had up right now could hold off most things, which could give me the leeway I needed to make less, murder-y, floors. Perhaps a floor that excited a sense of awe in people, or that would make people more appreciative of me. But that didn't apply to the boss, above all else they were meant to be my top killers. Logically it would probably be better to choose one of my innately powerful monsters, perhaps one of the special ones I had tucked away, both Astarion and Pandora were still available, and the brain monster was on the available list, it wouldn't be full power, but it would be better than if I made it as a regular monster. Of course, I could stick with the ones I've come to rely on the most, a ratkin or canid boss would probably be thematically more appropriate even if my kobolds were physically more powerful.
Thinking about it though, it's a choice better left once I got the perk and focus out of the way, and by that point, I might as well just take my level 5 monster while I was at it, it could be the perfect answer to the choice. But that left the question, what perk and focus would I go with this time?
What to do?
