The next morning, Violet woke up early due to her excitement at getting to unlock a new floor. She had enjoyed making a peaceful and relaxing space that was appropriate for the locals and children alike, but the second floor would be her chance to finally have a proper dungeon with [Traps], more dangerous [Monsters], etc. There was no telling what sorts of things she might unlock with her new floor and she almost felt impatient as she waited for Avorn and Camellia to leave.
After seeing they had submitted an entire one hundred juniper berries, netting her 134 DP instead of just 100 DP, she felt a bit guilty about her previous thoughts. They had chosen to give her the extras and yet here she was feeling frustrated they were taking so long to leave! Taking a breath, Violet shook off her thoughts and tried to concentrate back on the matter at hand. It was finally time to upgrade the dungeon!
Would you like to purchase the second dungeon floor for 1,000 DP?
Yes
No
Violet easily selected the [Yes] option and the dungeon immediately began to shake, almost as if the entirety of the dungeon was part of a massive earthquake. However Violet didn't have time to be distracted by that as a new system prompt appeared.
A [Monster] stampede has been initiated to ensure the dungeon is free of non-dungeon entities. The dungeon entrance will be sealed shortly. Please prepare for the dungeon upgrade in the meantime.
Please build or designate an 8-Units by 8-Units room for the staircase to the second floor. Please also ensure there is a clear path from the entrance of the dungeon to the staircase.
Well, that explained why the dungeon was shaking, Violet supposed. How strange that the dungeon core room always had to have a direct path available for adventurers yet the dungeon was being sealed now. Violet entered the construction view and spent 16 MP of the 50 MP she had left, from Avorn's and Camellia's stay in her dungeon the night before, on a new 8-Units by 8-Units room that she placed behind her boss room. She then rearranged the maze in the boss room so that it opened up from the opposite side it had before. Luckily, she didn't have to purchase a new 5-Units hallway and could move the one that had previously connected to the dungeon core room.
As soon as she finished designating the room for the staircase, Violet immediately passed out. While she was unconscious the dungeon continued to rumble and shake as the second floor of the tower was built and the dungeon core room, where Violet was, moved up to the second floor. By the time Violet woke up once more, the last of the earthquake-like tremors overtook the dungeon and then everything was still once more.
Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.
Wanting to check everything out, Violet opened her construction view once more. She was now on the second floor and there was a 42M hallway that connected the dungeon core room to a new 8-Units by 8-Units square room where a staircase connected the first floor to the second. There was now a blank space on the first floor where the dungeon core room had been, but everything else was the same as it had been.
Before doing anything else, Violet decided to also pull up the [Dungeon Status] menu to see if anything had changed there.
Dungeon Status:
Current Mana: 34 / 100
Current DP: 155
Current Floors: 2
Current Rooms: 10
Monsters
Critters
Construction
Research
Missions
Her mana cap had now increased from 50 MP to 100 MP and she had only lost the 16 MP needed to create the first 8-Units by 8-Units square room. It would seem that the hallways and the second floor room had been provided free of charge, much like the initial hallway she had been provided with, when she got the dungeon, had been free. It would also seem that the rooms with the staircases didn't count as rooms as far as the [Dungeon Status] screen was concerned. Well, it wasn't like they could be removed entirely and they didn't exactly add much value to the floor in terms of safety or resources. So, Violet supposed it made sense in a way.
Before Violet could even think to do anything else, a new system menu she had never seen before popped up.
The following patron deities are available to sign a contract with. You may choose up to one at this time.
God of Death
Goddess of Love & Beauty
Goddess of Commerce & Knowledge
Goddess of Agriculture & Motherhood
God of Design & Creativity
Violet felt a bit confused as she read over the first option a second time. The other choices seemed to reflect the choices and ambitions she had showcased during her time as a Dungeon Master, but the only connection she had to the god of death was that she died and been reborn into this world before coming to this world. Maybe, if you stretched things a bit, there was the matter of the undead she constantly defeated and absorbed into the dungeon or the one adventurer who had died in the dungeon. However, she didn't have any control over that, it wasn't something she had wanted or even caused to happen.
Shaking her head, Violet dismissed it as just being a strange phenomenon. She most certainly didn't want to spend the rest of her new life worshipping the god of death when she could choose something more suiting. As there was no guarantee that she'd be able to choose a second option later on, Violet wanted to make sure she chose something that fit her long-term goals for the dungeon.
When things had started, she had stated that she wanted a dungeon full of cute [Monsters]. That had seemed like a mistake at the time, but things hadn't turned out nearly as badly as she had expected them to. While it was a good idea to continue to build up the defenses in her dungeon and to even invest in ways to make more mana and dungeon points in the long term, her feelings about the dungeon hadn't changed that much. She still wanted the dungeon to be a place of beauty where she could live comfortably and enjoy her new life before anything else.
As such, Violet finally made her choice after quite a bit of time contemplating the issue.