One of the stranger things to get used to with Ivy and Evelyn’s new existence, was that neither of them needed to sleep. They hadn’t immediately noticed it during the first night as they scrambled to get the first floor put together but as time passed after repelling the day’s delvers, with mana trickling in to bolster their now meagre reserves, it became obvious that they were now in for a long night without the ability to do much. While they got along well, they both decided after a while to work on a few separate projects that wouldn’t be overly costly in terms of mana, which was how Ivy found herself relaxing in the last room of the first floor slowly shaping and reshaping a puck of steel.

As it turned out creating steel was relatively expensive, compared to stone at least, but shaping something the dungeon had created? Ivy still couldn’t believe how negligible the cost was as she put the final touches on a classic 4-pronged caltrop and willed it to solidify. Ivy’s elation at moulding some of the metal into the tricky shape was swiftly followed by a sigh, now she needed to think of another useful item. The faint throbbing of her headache wasn’t helping matters, coaxing the material into fine shapes for the first time seemed easier with more ductile materials but still required a great deal of concentration.

The metal in front of her rapidly shifted through some of the items that she’d already completed: sawblade, ball bearings, shuriken, a dizzying variety of weapon heads, mostly for polearms. As the steel landed with a clatter as a handful of the ranger’s throwing knives, Ivy rose sharply deciding she’d exhausted her creativity for now. Picking up the metal - back in puck form once again - with confidence the dungeon could now reproduce any of the items she’d willed into shape once before, she decided to see what Evelyn was up to.

Completing their first boss and levelling up had led to some upgrades, firstly max mana and regeneration had increased again and while the extra mana regen was nice, it still felt like a trickle compared to what they received from delvers. The increased maximum felt completely irrelevant while they languished near zero for the moment, but undoubtedly would be useful in the future. Secondly, they unlocked {Conditional Triggers} which Ivy was excited to use for puzzles, challenges that scaled based on the number of delvers, but mostly for boss rooms. She was proud of the contraption she had developed for the entrance to the boss room and was looking forward to seeing the reactions of the first to trigger it, but she had to admit it would be nice to just set a trigger so the doors close a predetermined period after the first person enters next time. At least they got it in time to keep the exit locked while Twrch was still fighting, so delvers couldn’t just rush through and ignore the boss. It was also validating to see the god of craftsmanship and blacksmithing seemed similarly pleased with Ivy’s efforts since she had offered her blessing for the floor.

As Ivy appeared in the boss room, the coppery smell of the blood so strong that she could almost taste it in the back of her mouth, she had to admit that despite her pleasure at the god of craftmanship’s offer, there had only been one real option for the blessing for this floor. Bringing it up to once again reassure herself that yes, it really was that good, she started squelching through towards the exit with a shake of her head.

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Second Floor dedication

Deity

Domain

Boon

Exousia

Blood, Oaths, Bonds & Order

Twrch passively absorbs nearby blood to mend its injuries. Delvers on this floor will bleed more freely unless they make an appropriate offering to the shrine at the beginning of the floor.

Ivy was all about having their zombie first boss being hard to kill, any extra bleeding was just a bonus. Her only slight concern was that she wasn’t sure if they could have the same god blessing multiple floors and she really wanted to have vampires at some point. Even more so when Evelyn had mentioned that she didn’t know what those were. It was a travesty, what self-respecting necromancer doesn’t know about vampires?

As Ivy finished squelching to the exit, the conversation about the safe room beyond came to mind. Evelyn had initially been opposed to it but had eventually accepted that even a skilled group would likely need a brief rest after the boss and by providing a safe space for them to do so, they might be more inclined to open up about the plans for the dungeon and what was happening in Timberhollow. The fact that a room without threats took very little mana to make also probably helped, she thought wryly.

Passing through the doorway Ivy gasped. The small rectangular room with stone benches down each side was expected, but the finely detailed carvings that Evelyn was slowly applying the finishing touches to was not.

“Wow Evelyn, I know I encouraged you to add a little artwork while we waited for the mana to recharge but I had no idea you were this good.”

“I dabbled a little in my youth. My parents tried to ensure I was familiar with the pastimes of polite society.”

“Dabbled, dabbled she says. I was forced to have art classes for 3 years and can barely draw a stickman, much less a diorama like this!” Ivy gestured dramatically to the carvings in gothic panels that depicted each room of the first floor of the dungeon. Most impressively she seemed to have captured the vibrant action that had occurred within. “You’ve got the shock on their faces when the skeleton dropkicked that guy in the first room just right! How did you remember all the little details?”

Blushing faintly Evelyn responded, “I seem to be aware of anything happening in the dungeon, like looking from every direction at once and that group was in here quite a while… Anyway, I’m hoping to put the second floor on the opposite wall once someone fights Twrch.”

“Awesome! I can’t wait!”

“Do you still wish to add a treasure chest to this room?”

Ivy’s exuberance flagged a bit as the final thing they got from their level up came to mind. “I know you’d rather just leave the rewards to be the mana stones, but I really think we need to add something else to keep people coming back. Even if we put a small chest in here it means there might be some loot that people want to earn for themselves.”

“And the way these chests work… If we spend 200 mana it will always create something worth up to 100 mana when opened?”

“Yes, though only delvers can open them, and we can make a list of suitable rewards that’s randomised or select a reward for specific groups. It’s a one-off cost.”

“I suppose the archers are losing arrows…”

“Exactly! This could be an opportunity to let Timberhollow restock… I forgot to make arrowheads didn’t I?”