At some point I notice that I've saved up enough to continue working on the fourth floor. This time I place down another long room in line with the last room I placed. Continuing with the cave aesthetic for now I add lots of stone carefully shaping it to fit the look I'm going for. As for mobs I add eight level 16 giant scorpions staggered throughout the room. I'm not done yet though. One of the reasons I waited this long was to get a dart trap.
The dart traps I place in the ceiling. Doing this will serve two purposes. For one it will teach delvers that I don't just have pit traps. Secondly, it will teach delvers to look up. I'm not sure why but none of them ever seem to look up. That may be partly my fault as everything I've attacked them with so far has been either on or in the ground. I plan to introduce fliers at some point. Though I'll probably wait till the fifth floor so I can make the rooms big enough that they won't be at a disadvantage. As for what type of ammo to use I choose sleeping darts.
Since I'm just now introducing dart traps, I don't want them to be immediately deadly. Although with the giant scorpions roaming around the traps not being deadly may just be a technicality. I do my best to try and place them in between where I think the battles will take place. Nothing is guaranteed though as I do allow the giant scorpions to roam. They are limited in where they can roam but their territories do overlap.
The reason I limited where they can roam is just that I didn't want them all congregating in one spot. That would create an encounter no party at that level could deal with. Once again size plays a factor in a creature's overall strength. On top of that their carapace is comparable to some armors in terms of hardness. That's not even mentioning the venom which if being impaled by the tail doesn't kill them the venom surely will. At least until they start creating anti-venom potions. Perhaps they may even create a resistance potion.
Thinking about that I go ahead and make it so that the venom gland and some portion of the carapace both have a chance to dop as loot. I set it so that there is a 25% chance for both of them. Though which one will drop is random. There is a very real chance that neither ends up dropping. On the flip side there is a very small chance both will.
Of course, the problem is that now I'm back to waiting for my mana to fill up again. Luckily there is always delvers to watch. except at night which is the only reason I even know that it's currently nighttime. One of the agreements that I made with Clyde was for the dungeon to be closed for a few hours each night in case I needed to do something on one of the early floors. It seemed like a good idea at the time. To be fair it probably will save me a ton of headache later on. For now, though all I can do is wait.
Meanwhile outside the dungeon
Clyde and Lily are discussing the future after just getting finished with activities best left to the imagination. "Have you at least decided on a name yet" she asks after getting comfortable. "Not yet" he admits. "There have been a few ideas, but nothing really seems to fit" he says while getting up, much to Lily's annoyance. "And just where do you think you're going" she says teasingly. While halfheartedly trying to grab him and drag him back to bed. "I'm going for a little walk to clear my head" he says before adding "and you still need to rest and recover. I plan for us to do a full clear of the second floor tomorrow. There was stone rank gear in that last chest and ideally, I'd like to have a stockpile of stone rank gear before people around here start to reach stone rank. The shop keeper certainly doesn't mind being able to brag about having more than just wood rank gear now."
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"That's fair" she says while recalling the look in his eyes when they gave him the stone rank gear to sell. "But what about you, don't you need to rest" she asks. "I'll be back soon" he says while flashing a smile that she knows means he's up to something. She trusts him though, so she decides it's not worth leaving her comfy bed over. Besides whatever it is she's confident she'll find out eventually, Clyde is terrible at keeping secrets.
Clyde heads straight for where the new arrives come in at. It's just a small building near the outskirts that the outpost is using to receive new people. They can't officially join the kingdom's currier route until they officially become a town which is why there isn't a set schedule yet. Today's package is special though. He didn't want to wait till tomorrow this time. Unfortunately, it doesn't look like it's arrived yet. He doesn't have to wait long though before he sees the dust trail that indicates the package is on the way. Seeing this he can't help but smile.
As the carriage gets closer his smile gets wider until it's almost jumping off his face. Soon enough it stops just outside the small building. After waiting for a few intense moments, the door finally opens. The first to walk out is a woman about Clyde's height with shoulder length curly blond hair that seems out of place on her frame, and a truly impressive bosom. One has to wonder how she manages to keep her back straight. She soon walks over to give Clyde a huge hug and it becomes obvious that they know each other.
As they're hugging four other people also exit the carriage. Soon she turns and begins introducing them. "This is Cragle our tank" she says pointing to the dwarf who just looks annoyed. Then again, he can't remember seeing a dwarf that didn't look either annoyed or angry. The dwarf is almost the same height as Lily which is rather tall for a dwarf. "This is Silvia our healer" she says pointing to an elf. "She ran away from her community because she got tired of being treated like a child" she adds quickly. Elves are one of the longer-lived species so by their standards she actually was still a child. Clyde wisely decided not to bring that up though. Aside from the ears and the completely white hair that goes down to just past her shoulders she could be mistaken for an average human woman.
"Next up is our fighter Fred" she says pointing to a rather ordinary looking human with a muscular physique about the same height as Clyde "And finally, there's Jim the rogue she says pointing to a slender young man who looks to be even shorter than Lily if Clyde had to guess. "I see you took my advice" he says to her after being introduced to Jim. "Now that introductions are out of the way how about we find a place to get some shut eye" grumbles Cragle. "Would it kill you to not be grumpy for like 5 minutes" Fred shoots back. "There must be a reason Luna bothered to introduce us." "To bore us to death most likely" retorts the elf earning a surprised look from everyone. "You might feel differently if it was someone you cared about, we were meeting." "Anyone I care about would have the decency to wait till morning." responds the elf and dwarf in unison.
Meanwhile oblivious to the interactions behind them, or rather choosing to ignore them. the pair continue to reminisce. "What about Lily? does she suspect anything" Luna asks hesitantly. "Doesn't have a clue" Clyde says smiling. "Great" she says "but how exactly are we going to do this" she adds while subtly motioning to the rest of her party. "I have already arranged some rooms; they should be ready for them" he says Which seems to perk everyone up. After some brief directions they are off to find their rooms leaving Clyde and Luna alone.
"As for you" he says with a grin. "You're coming with me. I've got a spare bedroom that I insist you use." "Perfect" she says smiling back. "I can't wait to surprise my big sister!"