Looking at the newly decorated ground floor, where all adventurers will be willingly risking their lives in order to gain strength, makes me feel proud at my little bit of the world. From glamour to the ditches but I will hopefully be back eventually.
Looking at the empty space that now need decoration makes me cringe, I can already estimate the price of making the first floor and I will be broke afterwards. Luckily I didn’t spend any money on the stone and instead hollowed out a room underground with the raw materials going to the Bear Cave, I have limited storage capacity so anything exceeding a 100kg simply gets left behind. In other words I can not remove objects without space in my inventory, luckily the System buys any resources from me for 50% of its value in the store which is not very profitable for me.
Unfortunately I do not get a say in this so most of the wood collected went towards the growth of my maze plants to get the bushes to reach 3 meters (10 foot) tall, but this land exploitation still netted me 400 points.
Most of these came from the large hardwood trees and a few ash trees that were in the way of my maze. Overall I now had 900 points but that would not last long.
Even if this is my first floor I have to pay full price for the initial beginnings, this is why most sentients use guilds as a way to not only arrange raids for dungeons but manage them like a gardener would, a gardener who works with a devouring maw underground that can get offended and actively try to kill their caretaker. Slightly more hazardous but the potential rewards can not be passed up.
Thinking about the price of things is not going to reduce it so I just ask the System.
“System, what monster variants are currently available for goblins and bears.”
[Currently available variants for bear:
Cave bear (30) – own a permanent fixture of a cave. Stronger variant of the bear at twice the size, however lacks mobility and is much slower.
Honey bear (30) – own honey as a patent. Have sticky fur that makes them able to stick enemies to their bodies to prevent further attacks, however the meat tastes sweet and is a favourite of most mortals making them popular targets during hunts.
Clay bear (25) – own clay as a patent. Have more vitality than regular bears and with clay instead of fur making them closer to a golem or an elemental than a regular animal, however they are weak to fire and any increases in temperature as it bakes their clay and makes them immobile.
Currently available variants for goblins:
Sticky goblin (10) – own honey. A goblin secreting honey from its pores allowing it to stick to enemies and immobilise them, however considered a delicacy by stronger sentient species increasing hunting chances.
Sentinel (10) – Own clay. A goblin with hardened clay on its body, does not have any magical affinity, the clay is grown by eating clay and is then secreted from pores on the body into make shift armour. However the armour is weak and usually useless.
Cave goblin (12) – Own a cave. A more primitive counterpart to the goblins seen living in plains or forests with greater emphasis on strength, however are less intelligent than the already low intelligence goblin.
Forest goblin (12) – Own a forest. A more agility focused variant that has better eyesight than regular goblins, however the eyesight and agility are not great even when compared to a human.]
Well I am looking forward to my goblins first variant, however now I have a choice to make for the bears and after looking for a bit I have an idea. I will put the honey bear as part of my loot for the ground floor, and while there is already a loot measure in the system, additional creatures that act like loot will help greatly in attracting adventurers as well as other monsters for patents.
Thinking of my defences for the ground floor I start placing and watch my points decrease, a dart trap and two pit falls at level 0 cost me twenty points, spending half on the dart trap as the pit falls at level 0 are just 4 metre (13 foot) holes in the ground with no lethality. Plus the ability to respawn after an hour sets me back 36 points.
After the maze comes the rest of my vast territory, the ground floor was never meant to be a densely packed area and supposed to be a rest between where the adventurers came and the dungeon. Therefore I can not help but feel ripped off for spending 378 on the bears alone. The honey bear that I placed inside of the Bear Cave cost 30 points as a variant and combined with nine other bears all at level 0 with respawns set me back a hefty sum.
Hopefully I can make most of my money back by getting rid of useless rock and dirt from my first floor, however most of it will have to be converted to dungeon stone in order to prevent dungeon cave inns, unless it acts like a trap. Forcing the System to allow me to build an illegal dungeon is out of the question since I am but a piece of a greater whole that would simply say no to me.
Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.
I spent 414 points on defences and now I needed loot. Most of it will be stored in the maze within jugs, as I plan on simply having clay jugs with water and basic berries placed within.
Some could say that I can poison the food or water, however that is a line that I do not plan on crossing until at least floor 20, and even then it will stay to such a floor and above. The last thing that a professional dungeon wants to do is break the trust with its gardener, no matter how annoying they can be I simply refuse to stoop so low as to be questioned on my morality at every step of the way.
I am not evil, simply curious, even with me being betrayed by my own worshippers.
Looking over my newly built rewards I proceed to set up their spawn locations, when taken out of their place within the dungeon they will have a chance to spawn at random designated spots around the maze to encourage exploration of the maze.
Fortunately, the respawning loot was free to set up this time, however next time it will cost me. I had set up 2kg of honey (2), 3kg of water (negligible), 5kg of berries (5 points), 5kg worth of clay pots (2.5), costing me 14.5 points in total. Water was dirt cheap and I could have set up fountains in order to not waste clay jugs on it, however I also did not want adventuring parties living in my maze so I limited the water inside, which should evict adventurers once they run out of water.
The refills every hour will not be enough for an average adventurers needs, water is not only used in drinking but also basic hygiene and a plethora of other activities like baking and things that I can’t remember right now.
Focusing on the total cost of 428.5 I can not help but feel as though I am leaving something out.
“Ah, Now I remember, System please bring out the potential upgrades for the current floor.”
[Teleportation upgrade (100) – locked until floor 5, allows to traverse the dungeon quicker, people will skip over dungeon areas regardless of them passing through them or not. Will also inform person before teleporting.
Maze upgrades – Thorn maze (30), makes traversing through the maze painful, makes the maze grow brambles to slow those trying to cut through the maze.
Moving maze (20), causes shifts within the maze, always creates a path to the entrance of the next floor and works once every day at midnight.
Misty maze (20), causes a perpetual fog to cloud the environment, low quantity of fog.
Bear Cave upgrades (50) – Tunnel cave, allows for the bear cave to teleport people to a selected part of the dungeon, people will skip dungeon areas regardless of them passing through them or not. Will also inform person before teleporting.
Bear Cave stalactites (30) – Drop randomly, can be connected to pre-existing trap triggers, may not always fall.]
Looking over the possibilities I realise that there are no good options, thorn maze might sound like it will stop people from cheating but most people will either use nature magic to part the way or burn holes in the maze.
The moving maze just makes it more difficult for lower level parties to enter further, but it also makes it so that these low level parties have a greater chance of triggering traps while wandering.
Misty maze creates a slight rise in humidity as well as creating slight visibility obscuration, this could potentially get people to step into a trap or two by accident but with my traps quality and this being the ground floor I see no purpose in such an upgrade.
The bear cave upgrade will either go to no where right now or actively harm my new honey bear.
Picking the moving maze, I proceed to begin work on digging out the first floor, thinking of ways to arrange my defences.
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Meanwhile, in a city called End Cave the adventurers guild was saying goodbye to four members, sent off to be the gardeners of a brand new dungeon. It is not their first dungeon delve but with unknow dungeons it might be their last.
The team consists of four members, Carla the blonde elf with a big bust showing over the top of her loose clothing, the druid of the team who focuses on medicinal herbs and plant based attacks. Wearing a simple green robe with a hood, along with a wooden staff that she hits the ground with every once in a while to connect with her plant friends.
Following behind her as Carla walks into the wilderness is Claw, the parties beastman panther rogue, who has a bow out and is ready in case Carla hears of monsters or bandits through her connection to the trees. Beastmen have animal fur, typically feline although in some parts of the world there can be canine beastmen, and they have greater strength, eye sight and sense of smell than human.
The cat eared woman is wearing a black cloak to hid her undergarments, meant to conceal the rows of daggers and vials filled with poison strapped to her hip. Underneath the cloak she wears a belt with all her immediately necessary items along with brown leather armour which has large gaps in protection around her joints to allow ease of movement.
Behind the silent panther is a much louder paladin who stomps his way through the forest, incapable of being silent the man does not even hide behind a robe or cloak, as his shiny full metal armour can be seen on full display. The human is Robert and like any good paladin gains magical power by worshipping his goddess through prayer every morning and night.
His undergarments are not light as under the cold steel he wears regular clothing, to keep warm while not in a fight, he has a sword and shield as well as a broadsword.
Right behind the man is the mascot of the party, standing at 2 metres (6.6 foot) tall he is the reason why the group calls themselves ‘Lion Mane.’ The barbarian is a lion beastman, wearing loose fitting animal hides he shows off his sculpted muscles proudly. On his back is a double edged battle axe the size of a normal man, but before the giant monster it appears of normal size.
Everyone within this party is at level 10, sent on this quest by the guild master they are handed a compass pointing the way and a promise of a lot of coin in return for a report on the dungeon and the distance to it from town.