Dungeon Core Chat Room.

System luck is a high level secret. It's one of those things that no one under a certain age knows about but everyone over does.

For the most part luck mana is out of Dungeon Cores' reaches. There has been leaks from the next rank that tell us about how luck mana is grayed out for all but those that picked the non elemental affinity. There's also proof the system doesn't like luck mana as quite a few of its goals are based around fairness and luck mana breaks that somewhat.

So what is system luck mana? System luck mana is built into several system controls but is hidden unless you look deeper for most of them. Essentially using it you can create random choices based upon even probabilities. You can make an event that only happens 50% of the time or a monster that has more or less strength based on a random chance.

Every single system initialized creature has a system luck value that's preset and hidden. That value is used with system luck enabled creations to create effects. You can make items that raise or lower that system luck value...and raise or lower the chance of winning or failing with system luck enabled events. But that luck doesn't affect their non system luck enabled interactions. They won't suddenly become unluckier in everyday life, it will just change their loot drop chance or chance to miss a system luck enabled monster.

Finally there are some theories that state by including and managing system luck the system has stifled the more powerful and general “Luck mana”.

The following sections are dedicated to showing off how to enable system luck in your “design, quest, event and zone setup” panels.

Excerpt Obtained from the high level dungeon packet "Secret of (System) Luck Mana"

Description of Part 2.

At most 2 Mana types can be used. For the purpose of this event you may combine more than those 2 types to make either of those types in a single material. For example Magma mana with Earth and Fire would count as 1 type out of your allowed 2. Mist mana with Water and Air would count as a second type.

Each of those chosen types have a max AMU amount allowed of 10. If you can make a slime out of that much mana you can make an item.

Re iterating the general rules, but unique materials are not allowed to be used. Only materials you can make yourself for the event. There is no limit on physical components.

Time remaining [23hrs 48min 10s]

…okay. So I’m only allowed 10amu x 2 mana types. That’s…well not a lot. Especially because it takes a bit more mana to make the stronger types at similar concentrations. I have to think about both what would give the best result for the minimum amount of mana used, as well…as what I can do about making sure something non-magical can help draw out its full potential.

If I had to make something strong with only a single element, Void mana would be the best…but that is also mana hungry. Even if I used a thin line of it along the tip of a blade it would use too much mana…I wouldn’t be able to make anything big enough to be useful or exciting enough to do well in this event.

…I think despite the difficulty in using them, madness combinations actually work a bit better for drawing out the most strength for the least amount of mana…But I’m scared of demonic mana and been warned off of whatever the mana that makes MIM’s is called – it would be dumb to experiment with that on a time crunch. I bet Doc’s going to use demonic mana again but I’m not sure what he’ll be able to accomplish with

So. Dry/Dust or Pressure/Steam? As an item?

Dry/Dust is much harder to think of using. It will slowly erode whatever I put it in and I need both Fire and Water mana to properly control it.

So, Pressure/Steam. The best way of containing it is using a bit of Earth mana in the item so those are the two types I think would be best to use.

Crystal mana would also work but to a lesser degree. In this case, simple is better.

What’s the best item I can make with Pressure? I could make some sort of cannon that shoots items placed in it? If I had more mana or could use unique materials and stick living crystals in it.

Well, that would be much better because it would provide a way to reload. I feel like I might be docked quite a few marks for a weapon the adventurer needs to load themselves.

There’s also the option to make something like the limbs of my steam horse? I just have to set up a manual way of reeling it back after it's been shot forward? I could make like a spear that shoots forward after being pressed?

…But now I’m reaching the problem that the ends of the spear would be non-magical. And even if I make it solid metal it won’t be very strong in comparison to earth or crystal enhanced materials nor will it be as sharp or pierce as well as Sword mana or Void mana tipped blades.

Hmmm. I also don’t need to focus on using Pressure mana? I don’t want to lock myself into using it if there’s a better option…but I know for a fact the results are more impressive for a similar amount of mana.

Returning to the projectile idea. I think the best thing I could do is base it off of something that already exists. I’ve heard a bit about guns so I could make a weapon that takes bullets as ammo.

But I also don’t think I’ll be able to make something that shoots things fast enough with just pressure mana.

Guns are also hard to get right because health blocks the small holes they can make.

A better option, in this case, might be making a weapon that takes arrows. I could use steam mana to shoot arrows off and that way adventurers might be able to use magic arrows that are stronger or even skills that work with arrows…the same could be said for a gun but I’ve heard of quite a few archers and not a lot of gunmeisters or similar.

Now, this is an important bit of information. Skills are weird and sometimes like the shape of a weapon to be in a certain way to work right. Someone with a slash skill…can’t really use it well with a non-bladed weapon. If they have a sword slash skill, they might be able to use a weaker version of it using a knife but they straight up won’t be able to activate it with like…a teapot.

If I want to make a “good” weapon that takes arrows it should be shaped like a bow.

Or now that I think about it. Let’s try and get as far as I can with making a bow from scratch?

Finally with a goal in mind, Innearth started designing a simple bow in his system panel which still doesn’t like it when he makes items instead of traps or monsters.

…

While Innearth designed his bow – iterating several designs that steadily got better – Phantasmal Patterns was providing more entertainment.

Phantasmal Patterns: For those of you tired of GAMBLING! Why don’t we spend some time looking at my art projects!

A screen split into 4 cameras appeared a moment later. In the top right, a mirror maze was displayed. The walls, floor and ceiling were all mirrors and the mix of different angles made the room appear to extend in strange dimensions endlessly. Every once in a while, a mirror slime covering a mirror would alter both what adventurers see, along with what is reflected and bounced between all the mirrors.

To complete the stream a group walks through the maze. Three adventurers wander around while attempting to remain calm.

In one mirror slime, there was a visual of the group member in the rear pulling out a poison dripping knife and rushing forward to stab the two in front.

One of the two in front jumped, then clenched and unclenched their hands, before turning and smiling at their teammate. They waved open palmed, making a point not to move immediately to show they trusted them then turned back around.

The other of the two glares at the mirror before running forward and smashing it with a huge flail in anger.

As soon as the mirror is hit, the slime on front of it popped and oozed to the ground. Its distorted image disappears as if a lie, while the mirror itself explodes with shrapnel. Bits of glass fly past both the adventurer who attacked it, as well as their teammates with quite a bit more force than the flail user used. The mirror itself was a trap that didn’t want to be disarmed.

Phantasmal Patterns: STOP SMASHING ALL MY MIRRORS! ITS…RUDE!

On the bottom left a room with different shaped bright colours sat. All the colours appear to shift slightly, ever so slightly out of the corner of your attention. The effect wasn’t as obvious nor as effective as the mirror slimes actively changing what is shown but there was a slight psychological effect in terms of making adventurers jumpier.

Hidden amongst the shifting room a multitude of colourful monsters await. “Mosaic Monkeys” make their home in twisting structures that cover the ceiling and “Blind Rhinos” run as if in slow motion about the floor.

On the top left yet another room is displayed. One that’s very clearly attached to the colourful room while showing several real and illusionary pit traps that blink in and out repeatedly as well as shift between solid and open.

Phantasmal Patterns: Ah yes! The cup game! Almost used this in the adventurer game we played recently.

A rhino runs in the hall and falls down one of the pits landing in a slightly broken heap at the bottom.

Phantasmal Patterns: HEY! I FOUND OUT HOW TO GET THE RINOS OUT OKAY??? IT'S NOT A BUG!

The floor plate the rhino fell in slowly rises as the rhino rights itself.

Turning it begins slowly running back into the previous floor where it impales the side of an adventurer that’s turned and facing the floor. Spasming the adventurer turns and stabs a spoon-shaped object into the rhino which falls. One of their teammates comes forward and heals their side as they kick the monster that surprised them.

Finally looking at the bottom right there’s a room that looks like a “funky” bar.

Around the room, there are various mind mana setups of various strengths. A bunch of obvious incredibly strong mental mana constructs that most adventurers can notice and block along with other more subtle…more nefarious or simply amusing devices.

A potted plant constantly emits a feeling of “Don’t notice me, I’m not hiding anything, Go away I don’t exist”

Two mages with floppy hats and monocles stand around it waving strange devices while muttering as they attempt to crack its secrets.

Phantasmal Patterns: THEY ALL THINK THAT THEY ARE SO SMART. EHEEHEHEEHEHEEHEHEE.

All around the room similar devices are set up combining illusion and mental mana masterfully to befuddle adventurers. The door into and out of the room are both shifted with illusions while attention is diverted with simple pervasive mental constructs trapping adventurers into the room.

These four rooms were displayed constantly for the 12 hours. Each showed a portion of the host's personality and each is enough to tie most over until the next event is done.

…

The next 10 hours passed in what felt like seconds and Innearth finished printing and submitting his final alteration of the steam bow.

It was a twisted device with printed wood and metal and tubes that strung around. It was complicated and fancy looking and was both shot and reset with the flip of a switch. It wasn’t complicated in terms of the effect it was complicated in terms of moving parts interlocked closely together. Like an old grandfather clock that only tells time looking more complicated than a “simple” digital clock despite being an older technology.

Every shot was accompanied by a dozen blasts of steam and a slight whistle – while effort was taken to prevent recoil and jolts that prevented the bow from firing wildly. All of which could have been easily done with gravity and kinetic materials but which were incredibly difficult to do unmagically.

Despite all the effort that went into this device, Innearth wasn’t nearly as confident this time around when he waited for the panel to judge them.

…

A Kingless World: DID EVERYONE MAKE A “SMALL DAGGER”! Come on.

Len923: Yeah I’m docking points for creativity. If one person made a dagger. Only one person. Then…they might have done well…but honestly. Originality people. You have less mana so you just make something smaller? Booooooooo. 4/16 for all of them.

Phantasmal Patterns: Let us go over them one by one. Proper scoring has to be done you two. Especially as there is quite a bit of variance in some of these.

Moving down the list Innearth watches as the daggers are picked apart. Each was around 12-15cm long with thin amounts of mana in certain areas. The “Strongest” was one that was 6cm long but actually used sword mana along its length as well as metal mana to support it. That was functionally what most of the “standard magical swords” were…but it was incredibly small for most normal uses. It also was only “standard” just barely reaching tier 1 for a dagger due to its low concentration of both manas and small size. Kingless and Len were too united in their dislike of the endless daggers to remember their previous “Bop Vs Boop” war.

There was an upset partway down the line however. The pattern didn’t last.

A Kingless World: Now that’s what I’m talking about! Look for the rest of you making daggers. They did something different!

Someone had managed to fit Void mana onto an item. Essentially what they had done was make a metal rapier and then tipped it with the smallest point of void mana. The amount of material they could make with 10amu was minuscule…But on a rapier that was being stabbed forwards, they only needed a small surface area to pierce stuff.

It also had a faint amount of metal mana in its main shaft strengthening the pole ever so slightly…but that effect was barely enough to make it count as a magical material.

Len923: Honestly. It's just the fact that this isn’t a dagger you know? If everyone made rapiers I would probably be bashing this…but as is? 14/16. Well done. Well done.

After a few more “Okay” daggers that got trashed Innearth’s was reviewed.

A Kingless World: 16/16. It looks cool. Can you see that? There’s faint steam hissing out of parts. I move we shoot it!

Len923: You can see its item description. Tier 2. Composite Steam Bow. 230 Projectile Damage. We don’t need to shoot it. That would be unfair to all the previous items we didn’t test out.

A Kingless World: Well in that case I’m sticking to my first score. 16/16. Its cool looking.

Len923: …as the only one who can stop this madness I’m going have to go with a 10/16. It's effective. But I also don’t think it's deserving of the praise Kingless is giving it. I’ve actually had archer adventurers and I can’t imagine any of them using this…device. All of them prefer simple wooden or metal constructs with MAYBE some option to apply effects to their arrows. Some wind magic or a bow that sets arrows on fire. Simple stuff like that. This…is too complex you know? It might work with their skills...to be honest for a non-archer this is a better bow. But it looks like it might interfere too much with the skills an actual archer would use. So yeah. 10/16 seems fair.

Phantasmal Patterns: Madness has been CONTROLED. :3

A Kingless World: Hmm?

Phantasmal Patterns: Have you never heard of Steam mana? It's what happens when you combine Water and Fire mana. This item shows remarkable use of it in a SAFE and controlled manner.

A Kingless World: …15/16 because it looks cool but uses madness. Only 1 Bop off!

Phantasmal Patterns: I believe they were the same Core who made a STEAM POWERED MONSTER for the races. This use of controlled madness doesn’t come up very often.

Len923: Annnd Boop. 11/16 to offset kingless being dumb.

Phantasmal Patterns: 14/16 for controlling steam mana so well in tier 5. 11/16 for the item. I’ll round that out…to 13/16 as my final score! MOVING ON!

Flipping forwards a few more cores they came up against Doc’s creation. Which surprisingly wasn’t demonic in nature.

Len923: It's tiny!

A Kingless World: I bet everyone else is jealous they didn’t come up with this.

Doc had made a miniature sword and shield…sized for a gnome. The sword was made of concentrated sword mana and was roughly 4cm long. But unlike the miniature dagger that was just a bit longer than that… it had a small handle and thin shape designed for a miniature person – instead of looking like a stubby dagger that was too small to function, it looked like a perfectly sized weapon that had been shrunk.

In comparison, the shield was made of a buffeting Kinetic mana that dispersed force in all directions.

Together they were attached by a small chain to make them be considered a single item that was popular with all 3 of the judges.

Len932: Hey Kingless did you manage to see that gnome fight in the streamcast?

A Kingless World: Hah. Yes this would have made great loot for it. 16/16!

Len923: 15/16 for me but I definitely think it's one of the best in the lineup.

Phantasmal Patterns: … It's not quite in the SPIRIT of the event. Although it is quite clever and follows the letter of, if not the spirit of the rules… it's not QUITE what I was hoping for when I made them. You were supposed to try and make something almost unmagical that worked well as a reward…In that regard, I think the steam bow is a much better item in this event. 10/16 from me. AND ON TO THE NEXT!

The results were tallied and the score for this part was given separately.

Top Results [Part 2 seperate scorboard].

#1. ZeMadDoctor: Item made [Minature Sword and Shield]

#2. Innearth: Item made [Steam Bow]

#3. Sin Seeker: Item made [Void Rapier]

Before Innearth could be sad at being placed below Doc he received a popup.

Description of Part 3

In part one you had material constraints, in part two you had mana constraints. The last thing that goes into making items is time…so you have [9 minutes 57 seconds] to make an item - using no unique materials and unlimited mana/materials from your inventory. Good luck.

Time left [9 minutes, 55 seconds]

…dozens of panicked thoughts flashed through Innearth's mind.

10 minutes is not even enough time to print a good item let alone design it. I have to make this manually as I design it.

AHHHHHH.

Throwing crystal mana at the problem, Innearth grew a thin greatsword 4 meters long. Crystal mana and carbon flew out in waves. Growing outwards from several nodes as he flung materials into the space. A dozen separate places grew together and smoothed over as they joined. Frantically juggling materials and multitasking Innearth somewhat roughly threw together a void shrinking zone around his greatsword, shrinking and compressing it down into a much more “natural” size of 1.5m. Before he could even start thinking of adding more to it the timer flashed and they were once more presenting their items.

Of the 39 Cores participating, only 20 had something to show off. Of those 20, 5 were swords – and Innearth was suddenly worried the judges would bash them for being “boring” or generic like they did when there was mostly daggers.

Len923: Oh! We are up again?

A Kingless World: …hah. Most didn’t make it. I can’t complain. 10 minutes is a positive sprint.

Phantasmal Patterns: This section is weighed less than the previous :3 JUST SO YOU KNOW! Lets see what we have!

Going through the line for a final time, the group compared the "fire sword" to the "stretchy hat".

Len923: What does this do?

Phantasmal Patterns: I believe… it's just a fashionable hat.

A Kingless World: …this can’t be what they meant to make. Probably ran out of time and submitted the half done item. Next!

Reaching Innearth’s item the group stopped once more.

Diamond Great Blade [Tier 3 greatsword].

Description: A sharp crystal weapon that’s more resitant than usual. Created with great care and skill by a dungeon core with Diamond mana.

Slashing damage 0-350. Durability 500/250. Skill Channeling Bonus +25%

…that description was fake but Innearth assumed the system compared it to someone with Dimond mana instead of someone with too little time throwing everything they had at it…and he didn’t have enough time to write a proper description.

Phantasmal Patterns: oho! Good attempt here. No special effects, but a solid base with nice damage. For the time given? 14/16

Len923: Solid. Useful. Not much to say. Its practical and well made. 14/16.

A Kingless World: Is this the competitor who made the steam bow? I liked that one more this is kind of boring. 8/16 I think. What else do we have?

Finishing their tally the final results were shoved into a weighed magic black box and spat out into the scoreboard.

Top Results For the Constraint based Loot creation event

#1. Innearth: Items made [Spinning Crystal Blade, Steam Bow, Crystal Blade]

#2. ZeMadDoctor: Items made [Demonic Cleanse, Minature Sword and Shield, Partial Kinetic Cage (unfinished)]

#3. Sin Seeker: Items made [Bottle of Acid, Void Rapier, Void Shield (unfinished)]

…I…I won? I won!

…

A few minutes after the host congratulated him publicly Innearth received a private message from the host.

Phantasmal Patterns: Eheheh. It's ironic that you are the one to have won. Quite a few of the so called secrets I can offer you it appears you have already discovered on you own huh.

Phantasmal Patterns: I feel like I'm going have to get a bit more personal for this to be a proper reward eh young core?

Innearth: What sort of information are you going to tell me?

Phantasmal Patterns: Well...I can tell you of system luck for one. It doesn't look like you've touched it before so I can send you a prepared packet. I can also help describe and answer questions about something I've noticed you apply – mana circuits.

Innearth: oh? You know about them? Do more cores know about them? …and why aren’t they talked about more often if Cores do?

Phantasmal Patterns: The answer to that lies in two separate directions. Have you been spreading about and teaching people about them? Selling packets on it?

Innearth moved to say yes and then stopped. All his friends knew and Doc had even done a lot to work with them… but beyond that he hadn't really been spreading it around.

Phantasmal Patterns: A lot of those that do find out keep it to themselves. The second reason is that fundamentally they are difficult and broken things. Do you know what mana circuits are?

Innearth: They are...paths for mana to flow and mingle that create effects? With nodes and shapes that can alter what they do?

Phantasmal Patterns: Yes but not what I was meaning when I asked the question. Mana circuits are simply a broken spell system. Do you know how spells are formed?

Innearth: not really. I looked about but there doesn't seem to me much on the market about it.

Phantasmal Patterns: Repetition and intent. If many different people do the same actions with mana and expect the same result...it happens. Sure it's a bit more complicated than that because difficulty and the amount of mana play a role but...that's how magic works. Spell systems are created when multiple similar spells blend together and build upon one another. They reinforce each other and make sense of the combinations and nearly every single spell system in this world is well put together.

Phantasmal Patterns: Dwarves have made a spell system of runes. They draw interlocking geometric shapes and can make effects. This is a well put together spell system because they have many small components that work together to make a whole...dwarves started off with simple small runes. They used less mana and created simple stars in circles or crosses or spirals and those held simple meanings. They then put those components together and decided how it would work from the ground up.

Phantasmal Patterns: Dwarves have one of the most satisfying spell systems in my opinion. It's almost art the way runes create magical effects. And they grew stronger as Dwarves grew better at using them. Now the items Dwarves make are known as some of the best in our world. They started off weak but grew and interlocked. Making new effects out of existing puzzle pieces is easy if you follow the rules laid out.

Phantasmal Patterns: Now adding new runes is hard but when they are added they work as a puzzle piece that falls in line with the rest of the magic. The intent of the rune system outlines what the intent of new runes can do. It's wonderful.

Innearth was happy to find the host also went on tangents. The amount of information he was suddenly learning felt like a gate had been unlocked.

Innearth: so I've read or heard before that combining mana types for dual or even triple component materials is a spell. Is that why some combinations don't make as much sense? Like why void and fire make both void fire and ice?

Phantasmal Patterns: Yep. The first creators of those materials influenced the way they were made...but that was done much longer ago. Way back before the system was even designed.

Phantasmal Patterns: Now that brings us to dungeon core mana circuits. They are a newer creation that has come up in the past few thousand years. They were designed from the top to the bottom. That means instead of making puzzle pieces that work together whole monsters with large circuits were made that had already created effects. Those monsters were perhaps shared by schematic and created by hundreds of cores cementing their effect in place. That was done over hundreds of monsters with different intents and almost arbitrary designs which is why there are so many inputs that can affect and control the results of a circuit...most cores who discovered the circuits actually had effects did so too late to fix what we as a species had done.

Innearth: ...so what does that mean?

Phantasmal Patterns: It means any sort of experiments or tests you have done or are trying to do are useless. There's no rules or laws or rhyme or reason to circuits the only way to discover good ones is through brute force and trial and error...and if you've discovered a good one then it's nearly impossible to transfer it between monsters that are too different. Sometimes changing small innocent things like the size of a creature or the material it's made of does nothing - other times small changes completely break the circuit.

...it was more than just some experiments or tests at this point...nearly every monster he made had a circuit...and he wasn't up to telling patterns that.

Phantasmal Patterns: ...in this regard I'm providing advice. If you don't have anything better to do circuits are a great time sink. But even though I know of them I don't use them in my own monsters. And that's because I can make much more consistent results with higher-tiered cores. If you want efficiency it's easier to design better parts and raise your skill level up till you can start making tri mana materials.

Phantasmal Patterns: Do you have any other questions? I'll also send the packet for system luck over. I'm sure while not game changing you can come up with some fun effects. Take a look at my gambling room if you want advice! Adding some randomness to your dungeon can make stuff interesting. It can make situations where you truly won't know what's going to happen. It's a perfectly fine way to spice up your entertainment.

...Innearth read over system luck and was suitably interested and dismissive. It was kind of interesting and he loved knowing more about how the world worked...but he also agreed with the system that luck sucked. It was his bad luck that caused him to dig into an area with a demon. It was his bad luck that he was placed in an area without adventurers...

No, he didn't want to make a dungeon designed around random chance. Skill and knowledge would win out. Not a coin flip no matter how much drama or excitement it could make.

Satisfied with his reward of knowledge Innearth turned to the next event deciding if he wanted to compete in it.