The sun was already high in the sky when Five finally woke up. With Dreidus guarding the fort, he could allow himself a few additional hours of sleep, especially after the long discussion last night. He quickly prepared himself and dressed up before leaving his room.
In the common room, Dreidus, Lyra and Ariel were already up, taking their breakfast. "Good morning master!", "Good morning."
The monsters greeted Five as he went through the door. The latter quietly responded before buying something to eat from the dungeon shop.
"How was last night? Did Ivan do anything?" asked Five while taking a bite of his croissant.
Ariel covered her mouth to muffle her laugh, "nothing much, they quarrelled a little bit but it's harmless. Alice should still be exhausted and is probably sleeping. I know that Angela is already. She is busy reading the books you gave her. Should I call her?"
"Oh? She is already reading them? That's good, don't disturb her but help her if she needs it. Dreidus! If you are free after this, shall we build the new floor?"
Dreidus' eyes lit up, "No problem, master. Are there any changes to the proposal or should we go with that?"
"Looks fine to me, Lyra should also come. Since it will be her floor, she can give her opinion."
"Really? Thank you, master." The Banshee Queen quietly expressed her gratitude and lovingly looked toward Dreidus.
"Master? Will it be alright if I come with you too? There is nothing much to do anyway..." asked Ariel. Usually, the harpies would just laze around and chat among themselves. They did not have a floor to defend yet and would often pester Five. Sometimes, they would go to the floor of the Death Knights to cast some spells before returning the living quarters. Now that something new was happening, Ariel did not want to miss it.
"Sure, you can come and give your opinion too!" answered Five. He did not hide anything from the harpies and was already used to having them follow him around. There was no harm in having the beautiful harpy witness the creation of the new floor.
...
Soon, on the stairs leading to the grassy plain, Five activated the dungeon core and purchased a new floor for 12000DP. Officially, the new floor was the 7th floor and as a result, they did not witness any change but after paying 2000DP to swap the floors, the grassy plains in front of the monsters suddenly disappeared and was replaced by a small cubic room.
Lyra excitedly looked at the simple empty room. Although it was empty for now, she was still witnessing the construction of her home which was an emotional moment for her.
Five spent about 22000DP to create a large open space. Since they were planning on turning this floor into a forest, the room was made to be 12m high, resulting in the higher cost. When the materials were removed, Five purposedly made the ground irregular to give it an authentic look as the ground of forests would rarely ever be leveled.
With the most expensive part of the process done, Five quickly browsed through the decorations and placed quite a few forest trees and bushes. He chose the trees to only be 10m high and chose their appearance to match that of Treants. Fortunately, those trees could not yield any fruits and did not have any benefits associated with them, resulting in a relatively low cost. After spending 20000DP, the floor could already be considered as a forest with a small path leading to the end of the floor.
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"Is it alright like that? There are some empty spots, but we will fill them with Treants. What do you think?"
Lyra's eyes sparkled, "It is already nice as it is. Thank you, master."
Dreidus quietly nodded and sent a grateful look at his master. He knew that the floor was quite expensive and felt that Five agreed to build such an expensive one for his sake; he felt touched.
"In that case, let's proceed." Five opened the dungeon shop and first looked for the Banshees. Just one banshee would cost 1000DP which was quite expensive. According to the size of the forest, 50 Banshees would be the ideal population but at the moment, he only had 83000DP left. If he summoned all of them, he would hardly have any DP left after completing the dungeon.
Five did not like the idea of not having much reserve but in the end, he decided to use the items brought back by the harpies to gain some DP. Angela was just starting to learn to craft; judging from the level of the beasts, he doubted that these items would be appropriate for a beginner like her.
He quickly emptied his inventory of any materials, and just like that, his DP increased by 70000. He was surprised by the high price of the items but it seemed that they really came from boss monsters. The only material now left in his inventory would be the harpies' feathers. Just one would sell for 1000DP but he was reluctant to sell them and now, he had more than enough DP to complete the floor.
With just one click, 50 transparent women suddenly appeared in the forest. Some of them were pretty while some of them could barely be recognized as women but they were all wearing the same white dress Lyra was wearing when she was summoned.
The Banshee queen quickly stepped forward to greet the new banshees. She was touched that so many banshees were summoned. As for the banshees, they felt lost as they were not familiar with that environment, but they instinctively knew that Lyra was their leader and quickly converged to her.
Five, Ariel and Dreidus quietly watched the scene as Lyra was presenting herself and reassuring the Banshees. The scene felt familiar to Five; it was similar to the time when Harriet was comforting the harpies when they were teleported to the plains of the Sylvester Empire.
After a few seconds, Lyra finally broke free from the group and returned next to Dreidus while giving sending a grateful look to Five. As for the banshees, they quietly bowed to Five who they recognized as their master before spreading through the forest.
"Good, let's continue then." Five smiled as he opened his interface and looked for Treants and Ghouls.
After spending another 40000DP, the forest now housed 50 level 20 Banshees, 35 level 19 Treants and 40 level 18 Ghouls. Fortunately, the treants and ghouls were below level 20 which represented a milestone. Monsters at level 20 and above were considerably more expensive than those lower; it was thanks to that that Five was able to purchase that many. Still, the forest could still accommodate more monsters but that would do for now.
There was not much DP left but Five still spent some more to purchase some final decorations: will-o'-wisps. They added a final touch of mystery and boosted the ghost-type monsters' intelligence and wisdom.
At the thought of having so that many DP spent on just one floor, Five felt his heart ache but he knew it was for the best. He was building the foundation to a strong dungeon and it seemed that Dreidus and Lyra were more than satisfied with the floor.
"This is what I had in mind, is there anything you would like to add?" asked Five.
"Oh no, master. Thank you, it is already perfect like that!" said Lyra. She bowed deeply as she displayed a rare bright smile.
"Then let's go have a look!"
Following Five, Dreidus, Lyra and Ariel walked through the forest and found that everything was in order. Each time they would encounter a banshee, Lyra would excitedly chat with her for a while.
"Mmm, master. It is not that I am jealous but when will we have our own floor?" asked Ariel on the side. The purple-haired harpy was indeed wondering why the harpies did not have a floor yet. They were summoned before Lyra but they still could not actively contribute to the dungeon. It was not that she was not content with her current life, but she did not want to leech off Five forever.
Looking at the harpy's large eyes, Five answered: "Now is not the time. As you can see, those floors are meant to last for long. I won't build up a floor that is not suitable for you and unfortunately, we don't have enough DP to build an appropriate one for the harpies yet. At the very least, I should give you something at the level of the Avian Cavern... If not better."
Five sighed, just building the 5th floor of the dungeon was already that expensive; just how much would the later floor of his dungeon cost? When he looked at the Avian Cavern of Kroff's dungeon; although the design was simple, the cost should have at least totaled 1 million DP. Considering that it would cost 2000DP to dig 1m of material, the Avian Cavern which was more than 100m high would cost more than 200000DP just to remove the material for the room. Aside from the height, Kroff's dungeon was also longer and wider which would further increase the cost. It was an astronomical cost that Five simply could not afford for now.
"That's fine, master. I know you will always do what is best for us!" happily said Ariel, completely dismissing the matter. She had already heard of the Avian Cavern from Harriet and knew that they indeed could not afford something like that. "How great would it be to have a big cave like that just for us? Well, for now, we can just play on the grassy plains," said Ariel to herself.
Five was still quietly looking around and was satisfied with the results. "It does really feel like a forest; a little bit creepy but that matches with the theme and the banshees seem to like it." Five was murmuring to himself when he suddenly realized that he forgot a small detail.
'Arg, I did not put any herbs for adventurers to collect... Should I spend some more DP? mmm. Nevermind, let's pretend that I did that on purpose and ask Angela later to know which herbs are the most appropriate...'