Finally! Violet was excited to finish laying out her first set of rooms. She finished connecting all the roundabout hallways to form a square around the square slime jigsaw room. Then she removed the straight pathway that led from the entrance to the dungeon core room. There was a path from left to right through the slime jigsaw puzzle room, but the adventurers would have to go through a minimum of three rooms before they could enter the dungeon core room. If anything, going through the slime jigsaw puzzle room would be a waste of time that would make it take longer to get to the dungeon core room.

With all of that out of the way, it was time to get to work filling the empty rooms with [Monsters] and obstacles. Violet called out to her system as she asked

"Is it possible to lower the ground in this room and then fill it with water and wooden platforms? I have water and wood as [Base Resources], so figure there must be some way to make it happen..."

Would you like to research [Base Resource] [Water] for 100 DP to permanently unlock it as a placeable room feature under [Items]?

Yes

No

Violet had been left some holy basil, chamomile, cinnamon leaves, and peppermint from the last group of adventurers. This had given her cinnamon leaves as a new [Base Resource] while peppermint was a repeat and the others were all listed as new [Items]. So Violet had recently gotten another 56 DP, bringing her total to 348 DP. So, despite the rather expensive cost, Violet went ahead and selected the [Yes] option.

Luckily, water only costs 5 MP per 100 Cubic Units. So, the 40 MP Violet had left after buying the last two 5-Units hallways should be plenty. Of course, that was depending on how much it would cost to create the hole in the ground in the room.

"Alright, what about creating a rectangular hole in the room? I'd like to leave some standing space on either side so adventurers can safely walk through the door. I'll also need some wooden platforms that can be placed in the water for them to jump across to."

Determining building design is in accordance with dungeon accords...

Violet blinked her eyes as she read the message. She didn't see any reason why it would be an issue. It would be perfectly possible for adventurers to swim across safely or jump from platform to platform to cross the room. It certainly fits the criteria of being humanly possible to complete the challenge and further traverse the dungeon. Even if this room somehow wasn't easy enough, there was still another open pathway on the opposite side of the dungeon that adventurers could use. At least, there was right now. Violet would soon enough have to fill that room with things as well.

Would you like to research wooden platforms for 10 DP to permanently unlock it as a placeable item?

Yes

No

Violet was relieved to see the system agreed with her verdict and also that the cost for this [Item] was much cheaper. She easily selected [Yes] before continuing

"What about the..."

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Please enter building mode to alter the terrain. Terrain alterations are limited to 10-Units of change outside of the normal room dimensions. This goes for all directions of the room whether it be a change to the horizontal or vertical plane. Changes do not affect any other floors' or rooms' placement within the dungeon. Costs are equivalent to 10 MP / 100 Cubic Units

Maybe Violet was pressuring the system to answer too quickly... oops. Violet shrugged before entering build mode. Since this was an 8-Units by 15-Units rectangle room, the total room area was 120 Square Units. However, Violet planned to leave a decent gap on either side, so it would only cost 10 MP for every 1-Unit of depth she planned to create in the room.

Deciding to just use up the rest of her mana on it, Violet dug a rectangular pool of 4-Units depth. It would seem that this project would take quite a while if she wanted to make the pool a full 10M in depth. Now it was starting to make sense why the system was hesitant to let her build the room without ensuring there were other routes that could be taken to the dungeon core room. This room would, essentially, be unusable until it was closer to being finished and that could very well take a few days.

Luckily, Violet didn't have to wait long before David arrived for their nightly sparring session. Violet still felt uneasy as she made her way to the wildflower meadow. While it was somewhat reassuring that she wouldn't have to continue to die in increasingly painful and gruesome ways, it was not something she'd be able to forget the feeling of anytime soon. The memories were still so fresh and painful that the previously goosebumps-like sensation had increased intensity and become a full-blown cold shiver whenever anyone entered the dungeon, but especially whenever David specifically entered.

It was still a bit strange for Violet to think about the fact that she was connected to the dungeon and that the bond could cause both to change whenever one was affected by something. I mean, sure, Violet had been told repeatedly that she would die a very real and permanent death if the dungeon core was destroyed, but that still didn't quite encompass everything that was different about Violet's new existence.

"I brought you something special today. They're black tea leaves. I figured you might enjoy making yourself some hot tea to enjoy with all these sweets you seem to want to make."

Violet tilted her head in slight confusion. Did David think that she was consuming the things she was making? Violet wasn't honestly sure how that would work. Wouldn't it just be the same as throwing away mana? Perhaps it might be fine once the dungeon was more established. When adventurers were regularly in the dungeon and Violet's mana pool was larger, spending a few stray mana points here and there on something nice for herself wouldn't feel like such a big deal. Still, Violet smiled as she gratefully replied

“Thank you for the tribute. I hope it didn't set you back too much."

David shrugged as he replied

"It's fine, I still have a good amount of money saved up from my adventuring days and I've been guaranteed a job once the adventurer's guild finishes being built. They've already got people in town looking at potential places to build and drawing up blueprints. They've likely got a good team hired too, so I doubt it will take very long for them to finish setting things up."

Violet nodded thoughtfully as she asked

"Is that because of my dungeon? Honestly, I don't even really know much about what the area outside my dungeon is like. None of my [Monsters] can talk and I can't leave."

David looked sympathetic as he explained

"The closest town is Millstone, but I'm from a small city a few days' travel away called Elesfield. I imagine most of the adventurers and locals who visit your dungeon will be from one of those two places. Millstone will likely grow a good bit over the next few years until it turns into a small city as well. I know a few merchants have been sending their children out to set up new shops in the area. Mostly alchemists, a restaurant, and a bed and breakfast, so far. Things may end up differently depending on what sorts of resources your dungeon ends up producing.

I wouldn't let any of that pressure you, though. No one is supposed to pressure the Dungeon Master into building any one particular way as it is against the dungeon accords. If anyone tries to mess with you, I'm sure Theodore will end up kicking their asses just like he did mine..."

David looked a tad embarrassed as he rubbed the back of his neck. Violet supposed it made sense that the man's pride had taken a beating after such a display of raw power. Even Violet felt somewhat afraid of Theodore after that display. She could only hope that she'd be able to remain on his good side so that it would never need to become an issue.

"Why don't we try something different today? I've been talking with some of my old adventuring buddies who ended up taking positions as knights for noble families after retiring from adventuring and they gave me some good tips for training. Apparently, I really should have started you out with some basic training exercises to work on your stance and your ability to maneuver. They said that a lot of recruits are also encouraged to do other exercises like running, push-ups, or weight lifting to work on their overall fitness as well.

However, I'm unsure if that applies to you or not since you are a Dungeon Master. After making some incorrect assumptions the last time, I hesitate to lead you astray again. I know Theodore mentioned that you can't unlock a class now that you are a Dungeon Master, so I don't know if it will be of much use to use training usually meant to increase one's stats either."

Violet shrugged as she still didn't know much about that. It would be worth asking if there were other ways to increase her strength the next time Theodore visited. For now, though, Violet was happy to skip the extra exercise and just work on her technique instead.