Just as I'm about ready to place my first actual room on the third floor I sense that Clyde has returned to the dungeon. As soon as the rest of his party enters, I see why they were gone for so long. They now have a fifth member. I'm not sure why that surprised me. Obviously, there's no rule that says parties are limited to four people. As evidenced by the fact that the instructors with their students are technically parties of five. Not to mention the fact that Clyde's own party once delved with a fifth member in the form of the inspector. This realization makes me want to redo my first floor, or at least rethink the encounters. It's set up for parties of four after all.
After thinking it over for a minute I decide to leave it for now. Parties of four do still seem to be the norm. Focusing back on Clyde's party I take a closer look at the new member. She's not quite as short as Lily and not quite as well-endowed either. She also seems to have at least some muscle definition. I'm still curious about the new addition as I watch them begin their delve. Shortly after that my questions are answered. As soon as the new girl threw her first dagger, I knew what she was. It also explained why she was there. Apparently, their trip into the second floor was enough to convince Clyde the party needed a rogue. Also, she apparently just became a rogue. Aside from the throwing daggers she doesn't really seem to have any skills I can detect. It's also possible she just hasn't used any skills. If she was recruited specifically to deal with traps, then she most likely won't use her skills until the second floor. They know the first floor doesn't have any traps after all.
To my surprise after clearing the first floor they don't fight the boss. That kind of confirms my suspicions. They seem to want to get her level up a bit before going to the second floor. Fair enough, I guess. If they do want to get her caught up to them as soon as possible they will most likely return soon. Besides they aren't the only ones delving me anymore. Ignoring everything happening on the first floor for now I decide to get back to working on the third floor.
The first thing I do is place down a 10x10x10 room This will be the first room of the third floor not counting the entry way, so I try to make it special. After throwing down some dirt and grass I intentionally go back and give the ground a few curves so that it's not completely flat. Inside one of the hilly sections I hide a chest making sure to leave one corner poking out. It's not obvious but it's noticeable if you're paying attention. Part of me wonders how long it will be before it's found. I don't think it's very well hidden but then again, I know where it is and what to look for. Crucially, I also know that it isn't a trap which now that I'm looking at it, it does look very trap-ish. Oh well, a reward for the brave and observant, I guess.
As for what creature will inhabit this room. I decide on a group of four level 10 dire rats just like the first-floor boss. Yes, I know having a boss show up again later as an ordinary enemy is a bit cliché but it's also a good way to let delvers know just how much stronger they have gotten. Besides I paid for the pattern it'd be a waste to only use it once. I even give them a 20% chance to drop high quality dire rat leather. I also place some non-hostile creatures from my ranch theme. That being rabbits and chickens. These I naturally give a 100% chance of dropping the appropriate meat.
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
While I was busy with that something else surprised me. It seems that I am always aware of the entire dungeon whether I want to be or not. Despite not paying attention to the first floor and in fact having the entire second floor between us I knew with certainty that there had been five delves while I was working and one of them was Clyde's team again. Nobody has challenged the first-floor boss since that last group though. I also confirmed my original theory about them wanting to get her level up. While the first floor hardly did anything for the other members of Clyde's party anymore Chandra, her name apparently, had gained two levels in just two delves going from level 1 to level 3. I can't wait for them to challenge the boss again so they can start delving the second floor regularly.
The amount of mana the first floor provides while steady has become relatively small unless I want every floor to consist of nothing but small rooms. So now after creating the first real room of the third floor I'm back to waiting. Not that I'm worried since at this pace it'll be at least a few months before anyone challenges the second-floor boss. Over the next few weeks, I slowly gathered enough mana to buy the world energy required for four of the largest rooms currently available. Fusing them together into a 20m x 20m x 20m room I am delighted to see another room type become available for purchase in the rooms tab. What I'm less excited about is the 640 world energy price tag for a single room.
It's big enough that I can start to do some interesting things even if it's actually quite small still. For one thing it's actually big enough that I can plant trees. First though I go through and place down a layer of dirt followed by some random grass seeds. Random because I want this place to feel wilder than previous rooms. Then I go back through and plant trees in the middle of the room doing my best to make sure that they're not in any kind of pattern. Something that is surprisingly hard since true randomness is impossible to replicate.
After that's done, I throw in some Jujube trees here and there in as close to random locations as I can manage. Then I place the goblins they are still just level 10 because of the amount I plan to place. For the first time instead of just placing my monsters at random a specifically place down six male and four female goblins. I even briefly consider allowing them to reproduce naturally but the third floor is way too early for anything like that. No that would bring with it a whole host of issues that I'd rather not deal with at the moment. Besides the room isn't near big enough to support a growing population.
As a last bit of touch up I raise the earth in one corner so that I can carve it out and create a pond that is ruffly three and a half meters in diameter and about half a meter deep. Still though it feels like something is missing. The forest just doesn't feel alive. After some deliberation I decide that it'll have to do for now. I definitely plan to come back and make this place a bit livelier later though. For now, I've got the rest of the third floor to plan and build.
As I'm waiting for enough world energy to place down another one of the new largest rooms I since that someone else is preparing to fight the first-floor boss for the first time.