Well, that was interesting. The fight with the level 10 skeletons went more or less exactly how I thought it would. They were not however as excited about the loot as I thought they'd be. To be fair they do get coin both for delving and for letting others delve. So, it's not like their lacking in resources. At least not like they were when they first entered the dungeon. I also like Clyde's strategy of letting first time delvers pay on the way out or risk getting banned. After seeing the amount of copper coins on the first floor no one has refused to pay. At any rate I decide to wait and see how other people respond to the chest before making any rash decisions.

Getting back to my work on the fourth I place down an 80x20x20 room Aligned so that it is longer in the north-south direction. In this room I place stone all around to really give it that cave aesthetic. I also place a few medicinal mushrooms and moss. For once I don't bother planting any grass since this room is supposed to be a cave tunnel. As for the mobs I place down eight level 15 giant scorpions. However, I stager them throughout the room so that the party isn't getting swarmed all at once. Of course, if the fight takes too long or ends up making too much noise there is a chance they could attract other nearby giant scorpions.

After that I have just enough world energy left to place a 10x10x20 room. It would have been much cheaper to make the room only 10 meters in height, but I wanted to at least maintain a consistent height. I also place this room diagonally from every other room I've placed so far. After that I continue with the cave aesthetic. In this room I also place my first lethal trap. A rather basic pit fall trap with spikes at the bottom. Another reason I wanted to maintain a consistent height. I needed to make the pits deep enough for the spikes to actually be deadly. It's not like I didn't give delvers plenty of warning this was coming. As for mobs a place four level 15 moss golems. Technically they're plant golems, but they're made of moss so fuck it I'm calling them moss golems.

Unfortunately, that's it for now. That one big room was 2,560 world energy after all. Even with the second floor getting delved more frequently it no longer produces enough mana to keep up with my spending. It was barely keeping up when I was working on the third. Fortunately, I'm starting to get as much daily mana from the second floor as from the first. Once the second floor becomes as popular as the first floor is now my mana generation should pick up significantly.

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For now, I do the only thing I really can do. Sit back and watch the delvers. At least I'm not staring at the wall waiting for my mana to ever so gradually increase. Surprisingly I'm not getting as many low level delvers as I used to. Low level being a relative term but it's rare to see a party with an average level of less than three anymore. I do still get the occasional newbie party, but it's certainly slowed way down. Most but not all of those are led by an instructor

Out of curiosity I ask Clyde the next time he comes to collect water. You'd think he would have hired someone to do that by now. Anyway, he confirmed my suspicion that everyone in this region who can delve and wants to have already started and the newbie parties I get now are those that just recently came of age to start delving. I was wondering why there were no children. Not that I'm complaining, I doubt I could bring myself to harm a child even if they were worth a million mana. It's just nice to get confirmation that a person has to be at least sixteen to register as an adventurer and most people spend a year or two training before they accept their first quest. You'd think they would gain a few levels while training but something about it not being life or death makes it not count towards experience. It seems even Clyde isn't entirely sure how that works.

Before he leaves, I let him know that I'm currently working on the fourth floor. He seems surprised but I can also sense a renewed drive to make it to the third floor. After he leaves, I get back to watching the delvers. That all female party is back on the second floor. I'm glad they didn't give up after what happened last time. They even managed to find a new female healer from one what was left of another unfortunate party. Also fortunate is that they are the same level.

This time the mage immediately throws up a stone wall as soon as they enter the room without even waiting for the archer to appear. After that the fight goes much smoother, ending with the tank using her taunt skill, which seems to be both common among all tanks and one of the first skills tanks learn, to keep the archer's attention on her. At least until they got within melee range. Ya, archers and melee are not a good combination if you happen to be the archer.

After that they actually take the time to look around before continuing on. Eventually managing to find the chest inside the abandoned cabin. I've noticed that around 30% of delvers that make it to this point miss that particular chest. I mean I kind of get it. Up till now the chests were all out in the open, but as adventurers and more importantly delvers you'd think they would be a little more thorough about collecting loot. Then again teaching delvers to look for hidden loot is partly why that chest is there.

Soon though they've rested enough that the leader decides it's time for them to tackle the next room.