After David and Alice left, Violet was once more alone in her dungeon. Well, she did have the bees and her cute slime and kodama [Monsters], but it just felt different to have people around she could converse with. Shaking the thoughts from her head, Violet decided to start expanding on her dungeon.
Her mana was once more full and Violet felt it was time to add a new room that she could build a puzzle in. So, she entered the disorienting building view and began to look through her options. Her wildflower meadow room was an 8-Units by 16-Units rectangular room, but a square room seemed ideal for the sort of puzzle Violet had in mind. Sighing, Violet decided to spend an entire 32 MP to build a 16-Units by 16-Units room in between her first room and the dungeon core room.
Violet left only 5-Units of hallways between the two rooms and was only slightly disappointed this time when she wasn't given any discount due to the 16-Units of hallway that was transformed into a room. She already knew to expect it this time, but it was still disappointing. Of course, it was still better than expending mana to build a new hallway for the room to branch off from. Violet was sure it would be even more expensive and slower to build when it came time to build hallways alongside the rooms.
Violet took a moment to reorient herself after exiting the building view before walking over to her new room. The room was already filled with grass and dandelions and had a sun shining overhead. This was likely due to the floor's flower meadow theme, but Violet wasn't sure if she really wanted all of her rooms to have the same scenery as it was bound to become boring after a while. Still, Violet supposed it did have to be better than having everything be made from the same gray stone bricks the hallways seemed to be made from.
Violet wasn't sure if 18 MP would be enough to build her puzzle, but she figured it wouldn't be bad to start doing some research using her DP and [Base Resources] so that she could build the puzzle once she had enough MP for it.
"System, I'd like to do some research using my [Base Resource] wood to make a wooden jigsaw puzzle."
Searching the database for 'jigsaw puzzle'...
Violet waited patiently for the system to do its thing, but was only met with another system prompt when it finally finished.
Unable to find 'jigsaw puzzle' in database. Now searching the host's memory.
Violet felt a headache building up and then her vision began to grow hazy before she fell unconscious. It took quite some time before she came to again and Violet groaned as she sat up from the ground. The grass might not have been as bad as falling onto concrete, but it certainly still wasn't very pleasant.
Please designate a theme for 'wooden jigsaw puzzle'.
The system prompt was a good reminder to Violet of what she had been doing before passing out. Violet hesitantly answered
"Oh, uh... Just make it a basic slime."
Would you like to complete research and build [Wooden Slime Jigsaw Puzzle] for 50 MP and 200 DP?
Yes
No
Violet balked at the price as she selected [No]. She didn't have sufficient mana anyhow, so she wasn't sure why she was even given the choice. Perhaps the menu would have complained about insufficient mana had she selected [Yes], but it was still strange to be offered the choice.
While a single apple tree did cost an entire 20 MP, it still seemed like a lot to have to spend so much mana on a single puzzle. Perhaps the size and complexity of the [Item] had something to do with it? It wasn't as if Violet had wanted a normal-sized jigsaw puzzle, after all. She wanted to have a giant puzzle that took up most of the space in the center of the room.
Still, with that plan scrapped until a later date, it brought back the other concerns she had. Why weren't jigsaw puzzles available in whatever this database was and why did the system have to knock her out to scan her memories? Were jigsaw puzzles not common puzzles in the dungeons of this world? Violet supposed it would be kind of neat if she could have a unique puzzle for adventurers to solve. It would likely make her dungeon both more interesting and make it more difficult for adventurers to solve the puzzle.
Deciding not to waste the rest of her mana and DP, Violet decided to review what other options she had available. David and Alice had left some medicinal herbs as tribute, so Violet now had basil, peppermint, and lavender available in her [Base Resource] and [Items] categories as well as another 105 DP, which brought her total up to 328 DP. Even if she had to save an entire 100 DP just to research her new puzzle, that still left her with plenty to play around with.
"Can I change the time of day and weather in this room?"
Room theme must be set before upgrades are made available.
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Violet facepalmed as she remembered that she had been told something similar when she had set her first room as a wildflower meadow theme. Violet walked back to her first room, deciding she might as well try to upgrade it then.
"Please show me the upgrades available for this room."
Wildflower Meadow Upgrade Options:
Sky Options
Weather Options
Temperature Options
Room Feature Upgrades
Violet wasn't expected to be taken to another menu when she asked to view the options for upgrading. She was expecting more of a short list of options she could choose from. Violet decided to select the [Weather] option first.
Wildflower Meadow Weather Options:
Option:
Cost:
Set To Change Seasonally
100 DP
Set To Spring Weather Patterns
50 DP
Set To Summer Weather Patterns
50 DP
Set To Fall Weather Patterns
50 DP
Set To Winter Weather Patterns
50 DP
Set To Always Be Sunny
25 DP
Set To Always Be Overcast
25 DP
Set To Always Be Raining
25 DP
Set To Always Be Storming
25 DP
Set To Always Be Snowing
25 DP
Set To Always Be Ice Storming
25 DP
Please conduct further research to unlock any other preset options for weather.
While it was nice that the costs were in DP right now Violet wasn't sure if that would be a good thing in the long-term. Surely there would come a point when it would be more difficult to earn DP and it would make it less reasonable to waste points on such frivolous things as changing the weather. Then again, it might not be that big of an issue in the long run. The tower was limited to twenty-five floors, after all, and there are bound to be thousands of different [Base Resources] that could be collected. It would just be necessary to convince people to bring more interesting [Items] as tribute as time went on.
Violet selected the [Spring Weather Patterns] option since she felt it was only fitting. Spring was when flowers were known to bloom in abundance and it was known to have a nice mix of sunny days, light rain showers, and heavier thunderstorms. While Violet doubted she would enjoy ending up drenched by the rain all of the time, she still couldn't help but feel that the change in scenery would be nice.
Next, Violet pulled up the [Temperature] option.
Wildflower Meadow Temperature Options:
Option:
Cost:
Set To Always Reflect Weather Choice
10 DP
Set To Higher Temperature Patterns
50 DP
Set To Lower Temperature Patterns
50 DP
Set To Higher Humidity Patterns
50 DP
Set To Lower Humidity Patterns
50 DP
Set To Custom Temperature & Humidity Patterns
100 DP
Please conduct further research to unlock any other preset options for temperature.
Violet shrugged as she selected the [Reflect Weather Choice] option. She didn't particularly want things to be colder or hotter and would rather have a milder option. Humidity was also important to keep in balance as too much humidity could cause a more mild temperature to feel unbearably hot while too little humidity was bad for other reasons. Still, Violet wondered what would happen if she didn't choose a temperature option at all. Would the temperature just remain the same regardless of the weather? That's certainly how it sounded.
Finally, Violet decided she would check out the [Sky Options] before calling it a day.
Wildflower Meadow Sky Options:
Option:
Cost:
Set To Natural Day Cycle
100 DP
Set To Always Be Dawn
50 DP
Set To Always Be Sunrise
50 DP
Set To Always Be Mid-Day
50 DP
Set To Always Be Sunset
50 DP
Set To Always Be Dusk
50 DP
Set To Always Be Midnight
50 DP
Set Custom Sky Colors
100 DP
Please conduct further research to unlock any other preset options for sky view.
It was a bit expensive to set the sky to a natural day cycle, but Violet was certainly tempted to do so. Thus far, her wildflower meadow room seemed to always be stuck on a rather generic daytime view. Violet wasn't sure it would be ideal to set every room up to reflect the natural cycle, but maybe it wouldn't be so bad for this room. It did already have a weather cycle, after all. So, it might be better to set a single time of day for a later room that always had the same type of weather.
It was unfortunate, but this actually brought Violet down to 168 DP, which was a little under what she needed for her new puzzle. Still, Violet didn't feel it was worth worrying about since she was likely to have more DP from adventurer tributes or her hardworking kodama by the time she had 50 MP again.