It took Violet half the night to contemplate the possibilities for what she wanted to do for the next challenge. While the [Monster] field rooms could easily be thrown together with little thought, she didn't really like rushing through things when it came to the challenge rooms. Since she really liked locking the challenge room doors, that meant she would have to set the rooms' themes and that would make it difficult to change things too much later on.
She ended up leaving the dungeon core room to spend some time with her fairies and observe the newcomers while they interacted with the others. After some time, it seemed clear to Violet that they weren't much different from the older people she knew from her world. They just wanted to relax, enjoy their "retirement", and socialize with others. Hawthorn even seemed to enjoy cracking jokes with the others and was very easy to get along with, which is how she had ended up deciding on her next challenge.
The concept of what made a challenge room a challenge room was both very broad and very specific at the same time. She couldn't make it so that adventurers had to give her tribute or ask them to do the impossible, but she was otherwise quite free to make up her own stipulation and get creative with it. So far she had mostly done physical puzzles that required adventurers to jump across platforms, capture slimes, or even move giant jigsaw pieces into place. However, that was just one option she could use and she most certainly didn't have to limit herself like that.
Before she started working on anything else, though, she wanted to ensure the room was well decorated and somewhere comfortable for Hawthorn and Aster to live. So, she spent 200 DP to research a waterfall and 100 MP to install it. It was a bit painful, figuratively, to part with her entire mana pool's worth just for the waterfall portion, but Violet was sure the effect would be worthwhile.
The waterfall was up against the middle of one wall of the room. Stones stuck out from the wall and naturally led down to the floor where the water crashed down into a pool where it disappeared. As she had to wait a while for her mana to refill, she was grateful that the water wasn't spilling everywhere. Well, it wasn't like the river on the first floor had a problem like that either, so she likely shouldn't have worried about it.
Luckily, Avorn and Camellia sleeping in the dungeon meant that her mana could refill in its entirety in less than an hour. So, Violet soon was back to work as she created a winding river that led from the base of the waterfall to the other side of the room. That had only cost her another 25 MP, but that was with her only making the river 5-Units deep instead of the full 10-Units limit.
The waterfall had been quite expensive due to its scale and all of the effects to make the water act naturally, but the rest of the setup was quite cheap in comparison. Even researching a new stone brick bridge to put across the river near the end of it only cost her 20 DP and 10 MP to build it. It was still likely a bit wasteful to build the whole setup since it was hardly necessary for the challenge, but the sound of the crashing water sure was peaceful and it was definitely a lovely sight.
Creating a fairy house took a lot more work. Violet even made sure to go through and sketch out a detailed design before going to do the research. She still wasn't sure how much specifying changed how the system did things, but she wanted to do what she could. She wanted the houses to blend into the trees while being able to be hung from high up branches or set in between two converging branches. So, the base of the houses had to be made from wood while the roofs were meant to blend in with the foliage. Since the enchanted forest had purple trees and a deep dark brown color for the trunks, that meant the houses ended up in similar colors.
However, not everything had to be about blending in. The houses would be replaced when the room refreshed anyway, so she felt free to take some creative liberties. She added a tiny garden with miniature stones lining it and some of the smaller varieties of flowers and foliage in it. Then there was a cobblestone pathway leading up to steps at the entrance of the house. It was multiple floors tall with balconies with wooden railings and windows with actual glass panes. She even detailed what she wanted inside the home with light crystal-based lighting features, a kitchen with a tiny wood stove made from metal, and comfortable furniture with wooden frames, cloth covers, etc.
Since Violet knew she would be limited by which [Base Resources] she had, she knew she had to design things based on that. A wood stove could utilize fire should it ever become available and a sink could utilize water fetched with buckets from the nearby river. However, she didn't have fire or water magic / crystals, so everything would have to be done manually. If it weren't for her recently being gifted a magic lantern by Tobias, she likely wouldn't even be able to add proper lights to the homes. Still, she wanted her pixies to live comfortably in her dungeon so they could be happy.
The homes had ended up costing an entire 1,000 DP to research, which had nearly given Violet a heart-attack from worry, but she was relieved to find they would only cost 100 MP to build each of them. Perhaps the dungeon was being generous in even allowing her to get them for that cheap, but she certainly wasn't going to complain. Normally they would cost two the amount in dungeon points to research as they did to buy them with mana. So, this was already quite good.
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It took a while for her mana to refill again, but that just meant she had more time to consider next steps. A new spawner would cost her another 100 MP and then she would need another 100 MP to sign contracts with new pixies to cover the fae circles room. Hopefully, she would get more suitable occupants this time. While she didn't mind the elderly couple and even found them quite precious and sweet, she still had to consider what her current needs were.
It took a while to gather the needed mana, but it all felt worth it when Violet ended up summoning two young ladies. They both curtsied to Violet and greeted her in unison.
"Hello! I'm Iris..."
"and I'm Orchid! It's lovely to meet you!"
The two were twins with dark black hair and stunning blue eyes and they were wearing matching blue dresses that resembled the flowers they were named after. The two reminded her quite a bit of Jasmine and Daisy. Maybe the four would get along?
"Thank you. Please give me a moment as I need to finish things up here before I can show you around. I'll need your help with a challenge in a different room, which is where I'll be assigning you, but I have to finish this one first."
Violet explained. Iris was enthusiastic as she replied
"Alright!"
The two flew off to explore, giggling amongst themselves as they did so. Violet quickly switched the assignments for her pixies around and then started working on finalizing things. 300 DP had to be spent to set the themes in both the fae circles and mystery falls room, which was what she had decided to call the newest one. Then it was time to figure out the new challenge rewards.
However, before she did any of that, she wanted to try something new.
"Can I assign more than one reward for the same challenge?"
Would you like to research randomized challenge rewards for 10,000 DP?
Yes
No
Violet's eyes got big as she took in the biggest number she had seen the system quote her yet. The fairy houses had already cost as much as unlocking her second floor had, which was still quite insane. However, this was ten as much and almost made her wonder if it was truly worth the cost. She just wanted to have some more variety and felt like it would be better to have a variety of colors for the scarves rather than having things so limited.
Taking another glance at her dungeon point total, she felt even more nervous. She was already down to 13,011 DP, which was still a lot, but she was still starting to worry. Taking a calming breath, Violet decided to take the plunge and selected [Yes], watching her dungeon points immediately decrease to 3,011. Her heart started to beat wildly in her chest, but the dungeon soon pulsed around her and she felt herself become calm. Everything was going to be fine.
Smiling, Violet reassured herself that she'd have plenty of opportunities to earn more dungeon points in the future. Every week David always buys 2,250 DP worth of goods from her and she was sure that she could always try to convince others to buy her goods as well. Even just Avorn and Camellia's monthly rent meant she'd earn 700 DP in passive income each week. She would just have to wait a while to make any more big upgrades after she finished these two challenges.
Stretching, Violet relaxed herself and began to work on the research for the prizes she was going to use in the rooms. For the fae circles challenge, she wanted to use tie-dyed silk scarves. She used to have quite the collection of them, which she had bought from an art center in the small town they often vacationed in. She ended up making three different designs. The first was black, white, and gray with traces of yellow like a stormy day. The second was blue, yellow, and orange like a beautiful sunrise. Meanwhile, the third was green, brown, and white, which reminded her of the forest. All of that ended up costing her 150 DP with the scarves being valued at 25 MP each.
For the mystery falls room, she decided to go with flower hair clips. That one she only did two designs for. The first was a white lace flower with white goose feathers and a metal pinch-style clip. The second used a hair comb, a black flower, small glass pearls, and glass rhinestones. Despite the flower hair clips being smaller, they also cost 50 DP each to research since they utilized so many different [Base Resources] to create.
Another 300 DP had to be used to set the challenge with its rewards in the fae circle room as well as lock the doors. Meanwhile, the mystery falls room took 250 DP to do the same. For that challenge, Violet had stipulated that the doors would only unlock when someone said the password, which would be Aster's name. The adventurers would be encouraged to talk to Hawthorn who could be convinced to accidentally or purposely say the password, depending on the adventurer's behavior. Of course, it was possible that the answer could spread over time, but Violet wasn't worried about that since she could always change it later on.