The Matho-Dungeon Settlement Sphere, Part 4

The negatives were easy in Red-Belt dungeon, but the big digit multiplications were messing me up. I needed to be careful, but I was starting to care less about the star status. I preferred to work on the dungeons in peace. It was quiet in the door room, finally.

Name: Edmond Bauer

Ranking Status: Novitiate (Black Belt - Silver Star Track)

Sphere Ranking: 85,363,356th (27%)

Lives: 29

Race: Elothean

Race: Streak 2 - Skip two enemies with full rewards for every eight you defeat without getting defeated.

Class: N/A

Class Bonuses: None Unlocked


As soon as I walked into the Black Belt dungeon, I knew the whole thing was some kind of different Novitiate final exam dungeon.

Monsters were there, but they were lead by a goblin with a bullhorn, and they were on my side.

"The Mathomancer is here! He will save the day. Hey Mathomancer. We're going to go out there and attack the enemy, and you're going to be our fire support. I know each type of enemy is weak against certain types of attacks, so I will yell out suggestions for your arsenal."

This dungeon was wider than the rest. Instead of a narrow hallway, it was almost 60 yards wide. It took up a vast section of the Novitiate compound, I guessed.

There were walking flowers, and murlocks and goblins and halflings and squirrels on my team. They ran forward, and I grabbed a stack of paper and ran off after them.

It was pandemonium! Red Pixies and Blue Pixies and Green Pixies and a few black pixies were fighting my teammates.

The goblin bullhornist spoke into his device.

"The red ones are weak against Arithmetic! The Blue ones are weak against subtraction and negative numbers. The green ones are weak against Multiplication. The Black ones throw everything you've got against them but especially division."

I went against the black ones first.


7 * 3 - 2 + (105 / 21) + 9 = 33

boom, 1 black down, giblets spraying around his compatriots.

The shouting of math was making it hard to concentrate.

111 / 3 = 37

boom.

There was a big group of red, blue and green, with one black in the middle.

I took inspiration from continued fractions, and decided to deliberately try for an explosive overkill.

2 + 2 / (1 + 2 / (1 + 2 / (1 + 2 / (1 + 2 / ( 1 + 2 / 2))))) = ?
2 + 2 / (1 + 2 / (1 + 2 / (1 + 2 / (1 + 2 / 2)))) = ?
2 + 2 / (1 + 2 / (1 + 2 / (1 + 2 / 2))) = ?
2 + 2 / (1 + 2 / (1 + 2 / 2)) = ?
2 + 2 / (1 + 2 / 2) = ?
2 + 2 / 2 = 3

The black pixie exploded, skewering a dozen other pixies.

I grinned, and focused on another group that was far away from my allies. I had forgotten that algebra problems didn't work before.

x^3+2x^2-x-2 = 0
x = -2, -1, 1

The dungeon shook, and my ears rang from the booming explosion. Smoke filled the air where the group of pixies has been.

"Mathomancer is boomiest! Charge!"

It was only another thirty seconds before the battle was won and stragglers were caught.

"Congratulations, now hurry on ahead," their shouter said.

I  hurried on ahead, to where a stand with an intricate gold robe was hanging. It had tassels, the back of the robe listed my Novitiate Accomplishments.

White Belt - Diamond Star
Yellow Belt - Diamond Star
Orange Belt - Diamond Star
Green Belt - Platinum Star
Brown Belt - Platinum Star
Red Belt - Diamond Star
Black Belt - Silver Star

Novitiate Rank Completed!
Initiate - Stingray


I got a level of Streak as well. I didn't know how and when it was working.

Name: Edmond Bauer

Ranking Status: Initiate (Stingray)

Sphere Ranking: 81,855,273rd (30%)

Lives: 29

Race: Elothean

Race: Streak 3 - Skip three enemies with full rewards for every eleven you defeat without getting defeated.

Class: N/A

Class Bonuses: None Unlocked

A new section appeared in my status as well.

Tracking (2 of 2 required):

Algebra (Stingray)
Geometry (Stingray)


I walked out of the Novitiate dungeon, out of the Novitiate door room, and out of Novitiate life for good.

I got another hotel room across town, near the Initiate Center.

There were fewer initiates in 104 than Novitiates, but there were a lot more study rooms and restaurants even inside the center.

I even saw some older people, in their 40s here.

Instead of by belts, everything was organized by animals. And there were two separate sub-facilities. One for Geometry (hate!) and one for Algebra (easy!). I decided to start with geometry to get the news media out of my face while I struggled with diagrams.

Soon, I was standing at a whiteboard, watching a stingray draw a diagram.

{Author's Note, I really do suck at geometry and I actually did these, on Khan academy: https://www.khanacademy.org/mission/geometry/task/6416808181694464}

"What numbered angle refers to the same angle as DEF?"

All I had to know was how angles are identified by their vertices. Easy. Angle #2.

I was right, but even with the easiness, I had to think about it, and get a headache like I never got in Novitiate stuff. I knew I could blow through Algebra though.

He draw another one, and was asking me about the perimeter of a triangle where all three sides had their distances labeled. This was just arithmetic in disguise.

24 cm. Easy.

The next one was the walking talking stingray drawing a cartesian coordinate system, and asking me which points were on the diagram and which were not. Cartesian stuff was easy for me.

(-5, -7) was not on his whiteboard axis graph.

I couldn't figure out how geometry would be useful for combat, it was too slow, but I supposed it was a helpful foundation for knowing later, more advanced maths.

The next one was an algebra problem transplanted into geometry. It was a linear equation, but the answer was an angle. 80 degrees.

The next diagram and problem was stupid easy. It asked whether the angle was acute, right or abtuse. It was obviously abtuse.

The last one the stingray asked me was straight up algebra:

3 / 5 = q / 10
q = 6.

I got 2 gold for defeating the first stingray's problems. That was a lot of money

.
I moved forward, nervous for once, about what the next foe would throw at me. It was another Stingray at a chalkboard.
https://www.khanacademy.org/mission/geometry/task/4976427011342336


The first one was triangles that were obviously not the same, and it was asking if they were congruent, I said no.

Then there was an area of a parrallelogram with a side length of eight and perpendicular length of 5. I thought that's the same as a rectangle area. I answered 40, and I got it right.

The third was a diagram the stingray drew, that showed another angle that by the angle addition formula should have the same angle as the first angle. So I gave 35 deg. as my answer.

Then it was another algebra problem:

k / 6 = 4 / 3
k = 24 / 3
k = 8

Then, the Stingray showed me one that gave me pause. It was a cutout of a geometric shape and I had to figure out what shape I could make from it.

 It looked like a square pyramid after I thought about it. 

Then the sixth one was a simple angle addition one. the given angle was 149 deg. 

149 + x = 180 = 31.


I got two more gold.

I got a battle situation after that. Stingrays started to swarm. Since I couldn't very well draw geometry in battle, I used angle addition. Perimeters, right triangle lengths, anything I could come up with quickly to smash the stingrays.

As long as I didn't have to work on some complicated diagram and prove something about it.