As I watched them enter the boss room, I couldn't help but notice it was an all-female party. They had full cleared the first floor a few times by now though they never attempted the boss room before. Not that they didn't already know what to expect. It was inevitable that after a few people fought the boss word would get out about what the boss was and how it fought. They knew for example that the boss liked to target the weakest members if it could get past the front line. I didn't specifically tell the boss to do that but I'm also not going to tell him to stop doing it.
The fight itself was remarkable uneventful. It started with the boss charging the party's tank while the helper went around the side to try and separate the mage and healer from the others. The mage began to conjure and throw stone spears so fast it was all the little helper could do to dodge them. Eventually his luck ran out and he was impaled. At the same time the tank had used a skill called shield bash to knock the boss backward, momentarily disorienting it. It was only disoriented for a second but that was all the fighter needed to slice its head clean off with her battle axe.
I'd be lying if I said I wasn't upset at how trivial they made the fight seem. I always knew that eventually the first-floor boss would become trivial, but I never expected it to happen so fast. Still, if they think the rest of the dungeon is going to be as easy, they're in for a surprise. I decide to watch them for a bit long. At this point I'm genuinely curious if they'll make it further than Clyde's party.
Just like Clyde's party they pause in the entryway of the second floor to rest and discuss their strategy. "Now remember" the leader says getting their attention. Not that I have any way of knowing who the party leader is, but they all seem to listen to her so that works for me. "According to the only other group to make it this far this floor includes ranged attacks and traps as well as new mobs. That means everyone needs to stay alert at all times." The others simply nod in agreement eager to get on with the delve.
Entering the first room they are surprised to be meet with a field of blueberries. The healer is tempted to begin collecting blueberries right away, but the party leader warns her to keep her guard up just as a wolf lunges at the mage. To her credit the mage is able to summon a spike just in time. The spike pierces the wolfs throat and causes a huge amount of blood and other things to come spilling out. She does receive a scratch across her chest. It's not very deep thanks to the stone spike stopping the wolfs momentum. Certainly, nowhere near as deep as it could have been. It's deep enough that it does require immediate healing though taking her and the healer out of the fight. The other wolf isn't as lucky choosing the party's tank as it's victim it doesn't even get a scratch in before the fighter and tank working together are able to dispatch it.
They spend a few minutes looking for anything else that my try to sneak attack them. finding none they decide to finally relax a bit and pick some blueberries. They even indulge in a few handfuls each while picking them. Not that I can blame them. Had I a mouth that would let me taste them I would probably indulge myself even without actually needing to eat. Well, I guess technically you could argue that I eat mana but that's not the point.
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As they enter the next room, they are immediately attacked by the skeletal fighter which their tank confronts head on. The skeletal rogue charges them half a beat later which the fighter turns to confront. Meanwhile the skeletal archer has let loose an arrow. the mage attempts to summon a stone wall to block it but is a hair too late. The arrow hits the healer in the neck killing her instantly. Honestly that was just an unfortunate shot since I intentionally made it so that the archers at this stage don't have very good aim. Still even a blind mouse will sometimes get lucky. The moment the healer died the party leader ordered a retreat. The fighter and tank managed to kill their opponents while the mage stood at the entrance to the room. The fighter grabbed the healer's body on the way past and they all headed for the exit.
I'd rather nobody had to die for me to get a huge burst of mana but it's not like they didn't know the risk going in. Once again, I consider turning down the difficulty of the first archer encounter but decide against it. I intended for this to be a hard stop for most delvers after all. They need to understand that from this point on it only gets harder to stay alive. I want people to make it to and explore later floors, but I also want them to struggle since the more effort they exert and the higher-level skills and abilities they use the more mana I get from them simply existing inside me. That's on top of the mana I get from the other sources such as harvesting and killing things.
The deaths don't seem to be hurting my popularity at least because there was already another team on the first floor shortly after they left. Deciding that I've let myself be distracted long enough I return to working on the third floor. Looking at the amount of mana I have to work with now I do briefly consider making an even larger room. I don't want to blow all my mana on a single room though. Instead, I place another 20x20x20 room. In this room I place another forest similar to the other room. This time however instead of goblins I place a pack of six level 11 wolves. These wolves have a 20% chance to drop either high-quality pelts or leather.
This is where I decide to start making the Branching paths. I also plan to give people the option to go straight to the boss. The reason being that people are opting to full clear the first floor despite knowing where the boss room is. That's another thing, there are already maps of my first floor. Not that I mind I just find it fascinating that they still chose too fully clear it. First things first though, off to one side I place a 10x10x10 room and populate it with four level 12 skeletal fighters. I give the skeletons a chance to drop a random amount of coins from a single copper coin all the way up to a silver coin. Silver coins at least according to Clyde are worth 10 copper coins. The systems description was a little vague, stating only that it was "a form of currency comprised primarily of silver ore". The larger the amount the lower the chance of it dropping although they are guaranteed to drop some amount of coins. I still don't want to completely disrupt the local economy. At least not yet.
I also place a few pit traps that are deeper and harder to spot than the ones on the second floor. still not really deep enough to be fatal, though it is deep enough that it could cause a few broken bones if they fall wrong. Certainly, deep enough that they won't be able to get out by themselves without a great deal of effort. It should only catch delvers who have let down their guard by now. This will teach them that they should always be on guard against traps. It's also my subtle way of letting them know that the traps aren't going to stay harmless.
After that I make an identical room on the other side of the larger room. Same size, same mobs, same everything. I plan to continue expanding the side paths later but for now I decide to work on the path to the boss. Considering few have made it to the second floor and none have made it very far on the second floor I think I'm safe for now. Otherwise, I would be making the path to the boss last.
After placing another large room directly in line with the other two large rooms I decide to fill it with miracle berry bushes. I also place four level 12 wolves and two level 12 archers. To have made it past the second floor the party will no doubt have a counter to archers at this point, but I still want to keep them on their toes. Besides not all of my traps are going to be pit traps.