One more DSC to go then we’ll cut back to the story in progress. Things have settled down a bit but there’s still lots to do.

Max is being pretty unfair to Russia here. Infrastructure and upkeep is not a sexy thing to spend tax dollars on, but it is absolutely critical. I personally find it super embarrassing when a bridge collapses somewhere. I mean, as a citizen of my particular nation, which happens to have had the largest economy in the world since the late 1800’s, (I’m not sure how accurate this is, but I have to say I’m really surprised the UK’s GDP wasn’t WAY bigger around that time since they were big in the world conquering business at the time. Though I suppose you could arguably add the GDPs of all their vassal countries to theirs, depending on the extent to which they were conquered.) Anyway, my point is that the U.S. shouldn’t have collapsing bridges, but keeping them from collapsing is only important to a whole lot of people just after one has collapsed.

I don’t know a lot about Russia’s dedication to infrastructure, but I think the general sentiment is that any dictatorship swamped with oligarchs probably doesn’t have the general interest of the proletariat in mind. But you never know, I’m sure there are some dictatorships out there with their usual raft of horrific human rights violations, but not a single bridge collapse or train derailment or… I don’t know. Pothole? Well, maybe not within 5 miles of the dictatorial palace anyway. Still, as we saw… see with the Ukraine invasion – god, that’s still going on – it would seem Russian expenditures on upkeep can be very selective.

And a dungeon, once it exists is like an oil well that keeps building pressure. Farm it/pump it out every so often and you’re good, but it can get away from you if you don’t pay attention to it. Not usually in a decade, as Max suggests. Usually they grow down and become more intricate as they add chambers and floors, and eventually a certain level of monster power/magic density causes a sort of reflux that can cause a break. But dungeons can also encounter things that prevent their usual expansion, like pockets of low mana, or a lair of something that won’t be budged, like a dragon or something. Also another dungeon can limit their growth options, and if they don’t wind up fighting/absorbing/combining, that can cause a dungeon to break to the surface before expected. None of those things are likely on Earth, well, except the low mana pockets.

---

Oh, speaking of dungeons, there’s a three book series called simply “Blue Core” that I enjoyed. It’s kind of a weird isekai, as the person wakes up as a dungeon core and has seemingly little memory of his prior life. In fact it’s not really all that clear that it is an isekai until I think the middle of the second book when he starts thinking about what is clearly Earth tech. But I enjoyed it, even though there’s some kind of weird tentacle sex stuff which is passed off a a bonding thing… well it does factor into the story but it seems a little out of place. Not that I don’t mind weird sex stuff in books, it’s just kind of only a factor in the scenes where it happens. Anyway, if you like wildly OP MCs (and I do) and a good cast of supporting characters, then check it out. It was written by the same guy that did a book I really liked called Invading the System, and… holy shit, book 2 just came out! Thanks for not telling me Amazon. Dick. Welp, I’m going to go read that now.

---

The new vote incentive is up!

Dabbler went somewhere tropical, in a very small bikini. As you might guess, it doesn’t stay on for long, which of course, you can see over at Patreon. Also she has an incident with “lotion,” and there’s a bonus comic page as well.

 

 

---

Double res version will be posted over at Patreon. Feel free to contribute as much as you like.