As she got so many tributes so often, it was hard to keep track of what all was available to work with for her first-ever challenge room. While reviewing what resources were available to her, though, she made the fortunate discovery that she had been automatically granted the ability to create pools of water in the dungeon after receiving the water magic crystal. Also, apparently, the ability to terraform was always available to her with a cost of 10 MP for 100 Cubic Units of change. The water cost half that for the same amount of space.
That was hardly the only discovery she had made either. The leftover space in the front right side of the dungeon amounted to 17-Units by 37-Units. However, directly researching that particular room size wouldn't give her what she wanted because she was currently limited to a 50-point mana cap. A 17-Units by 37-Units room bought directly would cost 108 DP to research and 54 MP to purchase once. However, there was a workaround for this problem, which Veronica was happy to take advantage of.
First, she researched a 17-Units by 18-Units room for 70 DP and then she researched a 17-Units by 19-Units room for an additional 72 DP. Then she placed the rooms side by side for a combined total of 71 MP. It was already more expensive than being able to buy the room outright, but the real cost came into play with the rooms being able to be combined for 63 DP or 10% of the new room's total area. Honestly, though, neither the dungeon points nor the mana cost really bothered Veronica, though, as both were easy to come by.
Unfortunately, the room couldn't be finished that night since it took most of the rest of the night to change the terrain. Seraphina's presence ensured she could earn 720 MP across a 12-hour span of time, but digging a pool 10-Units deep that spanned most of the room cost most of the mana she had earned. Adventurers came through the dungeon throughout most of the day, ensuring she couldn't work on the new challenge room until they left for the day.
It was hard to complain, though, when it resulted in her earning more dungeon points as tributes continued to pour in. The traffic was slowly increasing as time went by and five parties of varying sizes managed to make it to the dungeon for the day. She even managed to get two takers for her newly furnished inn rooms. While the 20 DP was a drop in the bucket compared to the 360 DP she earned from tributes for the day, it was still exciting since it felt like she was making some real progress.
Pulling up the list of tributes, at the end of the day, she noted that she now had oatcakes, oats, cinnamon, eggs, butter, obsidian arrows, obsidian, lotus flowers, lesser mana potions, spearmint, sea salt, black peppercorns, and springy turf moss. The rest of the dungeon points had been from repeats, which only gave 1 DP each. Compared to the 25 DP from new [Base Resources] and 10 DP from new [Items] it was a bit disappointing, but even points from repeats and inn room rentals could add up over time. Just look at the amount she had earned from Seraphina.
After getting her butt kicked by Seraphina during training, Veronica dusted herself off and got back to work on her new challenge room. It would seem one of the new room rentals must be being shared as she was now earning 4 MP per minute, which meant she'd have nearly 2,880 MP to work with tonight. Filling the space with water took up roughly 315 mana points, but the rest of the work was rather cheap mana-wise, draining her dungeon point reserves instead.
Maybe it was a bit unoriginal, but the plan was actually to make a wipeout-style parkour course. It wasn't going to be quite the same as the original one, though, and, in fact, it would be closer to the Minecraft version she had once recreated for an online multiplayer world she was part of in college. Veronica had chosen to make a massive amusement park on the server with semi-functioning rides, games, and themed booths. She had spent hundreds of hours doing research, farming materials, and building the park only for the server to have to be reset not even a year later. Still, the memories were rather fond ones and she thought it was fitting to recreate such a masterpiece here in her own dungeon. The only way anyone could take it away this time would be for the whole dungeon to be destroyed, taking her with it.
Veronica started by removing many of the entranceways from the other rooms, funneling the adventurers through this particular area before they could move further into the dungeon. Since there weren't actual doors, that meant she got to watch as trees rapidly grew, cutting off the path forward. Next, she shaped the land masses in the room to create platforms where necessary. There was one near the only entrance leading into the room, one near the exit to the room, and four in the middle of the parkour course.
For 20 DP she managed to research big wooden balls, which would hurt more to fall on than the inflated ones used in her world, but utilized the [Base Resources] she actually had access to. Besides, why should she care if adventurers got injured in her dungeon? It was their fault for coming in here in the first place. Four of the big wooden balls were placed between the entrance platform and the next rest platform. Thanks to the tropical rainforest theme, the mini islands all still came with plants one would normally expect to find in the environment, really making them feel like mini tropical rainforests.
The next part involved a rectangular land-mass placed against a wall and the use of a brand new [Trap] she had to spend 40 DP to unlock. When she had first opened the [Traps] menu she had been met with a rather disappointing list.
Available Traps:
Name:
Mana Cost:
Info:
Tripwire
10 MP
Can be used with other [Trap] types. Trips enemies.
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Itching Powder Wall [Trap]
10 MP
Releases a cloud of itching powder when enemies walk past it causing itchiness and discomfort.
Unlockable Traps
Both tripping adventurers and making them itchy sounded great if you were going for practical jokester levels of chaos, but that wasn't really Veronica's motivation for using [Traps]. She just wanted to protect the dungeon so she didn't end up dying prematurely. The [Unlockable Traps] option hadn't had anything of much more use, but she did have some use for the [(Weak) Push Wall Trap].
Unlockable Trap Options:
Name:
Mana Cost:
Unlock Cost:
Pitfall (1-Unit Drop)
20 MP
40 DP
Small Wooden Barricade
20 MP
40 DP
Tar Floor [Trap]
25 MP
50 DP
(Weak) Flip [Trap]
25 MP
50 DP
(Weak) Push Wall [Trap]
25 MP
50 DP
Large Wooden Barricade
30 MP
60 DP
Slide Floor Trap
40 MP
80 DP
(Weak) Giant Flip Trap
50 MP
100 DP
(Weak) Giant Push Wall Trap
50 MP
100 DP
The push wall [Traps] were supposed to be placed inside the dungeon walls, but she didn't have walls, so they were placed inside of trees that formed the barrier and would jut out to push unsuspecting adventurers into the water beside the rectangular land-mass she had created. Assuming they could make it past that point, the next stop would be another mini island.
30 dungeon points bought some ice pillars, which were the next step before a large platform that had cost her 50 DP to research. The ice was slippery and would make it difficult to jump up onto the large, raised land mass of a platform. With water rushing downhill and only a few land pillars jutting up to anchor themselves with, it would be a literal uphill battle for the adventurers.
The way back to the exit platform was finished off with another large ice platform, mini island, more big wooden balls, another mini island, and then lots of ice pillars that had to be jumped across in order to reach the final platform where they could exit the room and move further into the dungeon. It was definitely not something that Veronica could ever see herself wanting to do, but there was no reason to go easy on those who wished her harm anyhow.
There wasn't much need for [Monsters] in the challenge room, so Veronica threw down a 50 MP spawner and then filled the water with twenty five angelfish. They came in a variety of colors and they added a nice bit of life to the room. While the other [Critters] were all pretty good as well, she wasn't sure they'd be happy with so little land space in the room. So, she wanted to save them for another time.
Finally, with the room complete, Veronica wanted to utilize the room theme setting option and finalize her challenge.
Would you like to set the theme for this room? This will cost 150 DP. You will no longer be able to change the room's theme and all [Items] added to it in the future must match the set theme, but upgrades will be unlocked for the room.
Yes
No
Is the current theme correct?
Theme: Tropical Parkour
Yes
No
For both prompts she chose the [Yes] option. Then she spent 60 DP to research a six-piece luxury towel set. Veronica got a chuckle just thinking about the faces of those who successfully completed the challenge just to get towels as a reward. They'd be able to dry themselves off, but it felt a lot like a middle finger to their efforts. She wasn't here to reward people who were trying to harm her, but it wasn't like it was all bad. They would get a nice towel set they could use while relaxing in her inn rooms later that night and it was a high-quality product.
It cost another 60 DP to set the challenge to require the challengers to cross the room without falling into the water. Apparently, the cost was always the same as the cost to research the reward being used for the challenge. That was, honestly, rather interesting since it meant she could, potentially, spend a mere 2 DP to set a challenge up if she offered something particularly worthless as a reward. She probably wouldn't do that, though, since the idea put a bad taste in her mouth. She still had standards, even if she thought the rewards were rather silly.
Before leaving the room, she spent 150 DP to lock the room until the challenge was complete. Since there were no doors, this led to the exit sprouting large vines, which twisted around one another to seal the exit. She could easily will them to untangle themselves and open the space once more, which meant it was likely they would move out of the way once the challenge had been completed.