The next day, Violet noted that her kodama had brought her black-eyed susans, butterfly weed flowers, and two repeats. So, Violet now had 13 MP from her daily mana regen and another 72 DP. As there wasn't much she could actually do with so little MP, Violet just bought another aqua slime for 10 MP and 25 DP.

Now, she would have one normal slime in the wildflower meadow and two aqua slimes in the slime parkour room. That likely wasn't enough to really make much of a difference if Violet actually had to defend the dungeon from attack. However, Violet also kind of doubted that any number of slimes would really be that helpful since the best they could do was knock enemies down and keep them slightly distracted.

Of course, this notion was soon put to the test as five goblins entered the dungeon. Violet was somewhat confused by the idea of adventurers entering the dungeon so early in the day. The only one who would normally come so early in the day was Gregory and his son Henry. This was likely because they were used to waking up early for farmwork, but that was neither here nor there.

When Violet went to investigate, she was shocked as she watched a party of five goblins attacking her flower meadow slime. Two were wielding spears, one had a wooden club, one had a bone knife, and the last, apparently, had earth magic. Violet was quite startled as she watched the floor of her dungeon lift as it rippled and sent her slime flying past her and into the wall.

While the goblins had been failing to defeat the slime previously due to not attacking its core, the act of throwing it against a wall with so much force certainly did the trick. Violet gripped her iron sword tightly as she felt her heartbeat skyrocket. Goblins were a lot smarter than zombies and this was likely to be her first real test in regards to protecting her dungeon. It was time to sink or swim.

Mudmag cheered in delight as the slime disintegrated and he was filled with energy. The party's leader, a female wielding a spear, gave him a smile and Mudmag puffed his chest up with pride. On the leader's orders, Mudmag and another of their group ran through the door on the opposite side of the room while the leader and two of the others in their group charged the strange human.

The leader had convinced them that they should attack the dungeon to steal the orb of energy at its center. She had promised to reward whoever got it for her and Mudmag was quite excited to do just that. This was his big chance! He couldn't fail now.

All his life, he had been known as a weakling who was weird for enjoying mud baths. However, his strange hobby paid off when he was granted the unique opportunity to become a powerful earth elementalist! Many of his peers now admired him, much in the way that he liked to admire boats, and his position would be secured if he could marry their leader's daughter. Maybe he could even take over the position of leader himself one day?

Mudmag pushed open the door to the room with the help of the club user and they quickly made their way through the hallway. However, he started to grow frustrated as he went around in circles. Was this the entrance he had come from or was it a different one? As the strange human came through the door, Mudmag ran away, ducking through the next entrance. However, his companion was not so lucky.

Mudmag's mind raced as he considered the implications of seeing the human. Had their leader been killed? Were his hopes and dreams already being crushed this easily? No! He refused, if Mudmag couldn't go with his original plan then he'd just have to take the energy orb for himself! If he could become strong enough, then Mudmag was bound to have his pick of the female goblins in his tribe.

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However, Mudmag once more became frustrated as he took in the next room. How was he supposed to get across this water? He clumsily jumped onto the first platform before grumbling as he tried to jump to the next one. However, as he did so, something jumped out of the water and crashed into him, knocking him into the water.

Mudmag desperately thrashed as he tried to get to the nearest platform. However, just as he was starting to climb up, the strange human showed up. With a clean arc, Violet's sword swung through the air and Mudmag was beheaded, his body sinking deep into the water.

It had been easier to dispatch of the goblins than Violet had anticipated. Sure, she had quite a few nasty gashes and she had even twisted her ankle, but that would all heal quickly enough. Perhaps goblins were considered beginner [Monsters] for a reason. They had been clumsy in their attempts to use their weapons, even more so than Violet.

She had taken out the spear users first, wary of how much reach they had. However, that had given the bone knife user the opportunity to get a few attacks in. Then, Violet had caught a rather dazed-looking club-wielding goblin in the roundabout hallway who had barely even thought to raise the weapon before Violet had stabbed it through the chest.

While the earth elementalist was her biggest concern, Violet had gotten lucky that he was incapacitated by her new slimes. It was nice that her investment was already paying off, but it was still concerning to have [Monsters] running through her dungeon so easily.

Soon enough, the dungeon absorbed the bodies of the goblins and their gear. Violet now had earth magic among her [Base Resources] and wooden clubs, stone spears, bone knives, hide skirts, and hide dresses were among the new [Items] she had received. All in all, she had ended up with another 82 DP and some reassurance that her training was worthwhile.

Fortunately, having so many goblins in the dungeon at once meant that Violet's mana could still reach full, even if the fight hadn't lasted very long. Violet was definitely sure she needed to bolster her defenses some more to prepare for similar attacks in the future.

She quickly headed to the room closest to her dungeon core room. This room was still largely an empty grass field with the sun shining down. Violet couldn't do much about the feelings of emptiness this time around, but she already knew what she wanted to build in this room. She quickly spent 50 MP on a spawner for the room. Some more [Monsters] would be good for the dungeon, even if they were weak.

"I'd like to research long grass so I can make a hay field."

Would you like to spend 4 DP to research long grass using the [Base Resource] grass?

Yes

No

This was an easy decision for Violet, who quickly selected [Yes]. It would only cost 2 MP / 100 Square Units, but it wasn't like Violet had any mana left right now, so it would have to wait. Instead, she headed back to her slime parkour room. Pulling up the room upgrades screen, violet spent 85 DP to set the sky to midnight, the weather to always raining, and the temperature and humidity to always reflect the weather.

Maybe it seemed a bit cruel, but Violet was perfectly willing to use her room upgrade features to her advantage. Adventurers could always swim across, use magic lights, or take a different route. However, [Monsters] were often stupid enough that this would work quite well as a way to slow them down, if not kill them. It would be more difficult to complete the challenge, but it was hard for Violet to care very much about that when her own life was at stake.

"Forgive me, honey, but I think a lot more people are going to die here than I was previously hoping..."