Veronica sat down, panting heavily as she wiped the sweat from her forehead. Seraphina had recently increased the difficulty of their training. However, she was hardly going to complain. It was nice to see her effort recognized, even if she had been warned that she'd have to practice much of what she had already learned for years to come. No one could master anything in just a few days, weeks, or even months. Still, just knowing that she'd be able to better defend herself should Bo ever return was reassuring.

Ever since she had woken up from her forced hibernation state, the bull-headed adventure had yet to return to the dungeon. At least, she hadn't seen him, as of yet. She had no way of knowing if he had been visiting the dungeon just to farm without bothering her, but she kind of doubted he would just leave her be. The way he saw her as the final boss of the dungeon, as something to conquer, just seemed to guarantee he would be bothering her, once more, before too long.

"We should talk."

Came Seraphina's voice, sounding more tense than usual. Considering her normally bored tone was missing, Veronica couldn't help but give her full attention as she said

"What is it?"

"You remember how I went to see the elders a while back? Well, I finally got a reply from them. They tend to take everything pretty seriously when it comes to not influencing the Dungeon Masters we serve too much and I'm only going to talk about the things they've directly approved me for. I might be able to answer a few of your other questions, but there is only so much I know myself, much less can get away with saying, so I won't make any promises."

Looking at the elven woman, she couldn't help but frown. She had assumed that they were just going to continue pretending everything was fine between them. Veronica didn't exactly see any reason they had to be friends and she still needed to learn how to defend herself, so she had decided not to bother with revenge. For Seraphina's part, she never seemed to have any complaints, but she also never offered any explanations for her behavior either. Things were fine as they were, but it wasn't like she didn't have any curiosity at all.

"Alright, well, I'm listening."

She said as she waved her hand to indicate Seraphina could continue.

"Right, well, I suppose I should start with the purpose of the dungeon or, rather, what it is as far as the elders can tell. I'm sure you've always wondered why dungeon cores always have to be exposed or why they can summon people from other worlds. That sort of thing, I'm afraid I can't answer as no one can directly communicate with and understand the dungeon core in such a way that we could find out those sorts of answers."

Seraphina paused and Veronica rolled her eyes. She didn't need to know what information she couldn't ask for. She was certain that list was likely far longer than the list of answers she would be able to receive. After a moment, the elven woman seemed to gather her thoughts and continued

"However, there are some things that I'm sure even you've observed in your time running the dungeon. When adventurers enter the dungeon they bring tributes and you earn mana, which can be used to further enhance the dungeon. In addition, the dungeon takes in aether in the atmosphere and turns it into mana, which is where the mana you regenerate each day comes from. The latter method is far less efficient than the former due to adventurers releasing their aether by using magic in the dungeon, among other things, which gives the dungeon direct access instead of having to draw it in from outside the dungeon. As the dungeon grows, it has more surface area to interact with the outside world and can, thus, draw in more aether to process each day."

Veronica nodded as she replied

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"That sounds about right, but it's hardly some huge revelation. I can infer most of this just by observing how the dungeon normally functions."

If Seraphina was irritated by her reply, she didn't show it. Instead, she continued

"As you can tell from this symbiotic relationship, both the dungeons and the adventurers benefit from interacting with one another. Yet, dungeons are dangerous places where adventurers can easily lose their lives. You don't receive anything extra for killing people yet you have access to [Traps] and [Monsters]. Even if the latter offers experience for adventurers, when defeated, there is seemingly no good reason for dungeons to be as deadly as they are."

Veronica looked blankly as Seraphina once more paused to take a breath, giving her a pointed look as she did so. It was clear that the elven woman had some sort of point she wanted to get across, but it just wasn't quite clicking for her. Sighing in frustration, Seraphina finally said

"You need to stop trying to kill the adventurers. The dungeon system is meant to keep things fair by only giving you weaker [Traps] and [Monsters] because your goal isn't to kill and scare away everything that enters your dungeon. There are some wild [Monsters] and individuals who let their own greed influence them to go against the dungeon accords, but they aren't the primary demographic that enters dungeons. You even have an extra layer of protection thanks to having a city standing in the way of anyone coming here."

Oh, so that's what she had been hinting at.

"Well, I kind of guessed it was something like that after I got knocked out the last time. There hasn't been a repeat, even despite me slowly continuing to build up the dungeon, but I've also been building less lethal challenges and focusing more on the inn and tavern side of things. It would have been way more helpful had you told me that before everything happened, you know."

Seraphina seemed defeated as she sighed before sitting down beside her. She seemed very clearly stressed, but also like a weight had been removed from her shoulders now that she had spat the words out. After a moment, Veronica decided to ask a question of her own

"So, what exactly are the limits when it comes to building the dungeon? It seems to me that, while I can only put one spawner per room, I could, technically, spawn as many [Monsters] as I have the mana for. I just risk them dying to adventurers if I leave things be."

Seraphina nodded, seeming more relaxed as she answered

"That's all true enough. Some Dungeon Masters don't even bother using spawners, for various reasons. Some feel their [Monsters] should work harder to save their own lives and prove their own worth. Others think it isn't worth limiting themselves to what a spawner can hold and don't want to play favorites when it comes to who is saved and who isn't. However, you have to be careful with doing things like that as you can come across as too bloodthirsty and the system doesn't like you exploiting it. Most things tend to be in the "spirit" of the rules and trying to find loopholes tends to turn out poorly more often than not."

The two continued to talk on the matter for a while longer. However, most of what Seraphina was able to say seemed to echo her previous sentiments. Veronica needed to find balance, not try to exploit the system, and slowly build up her dungeon to be stronger rather than going all out in the beginning. It certainly gave her a lot to think about, but it was still disappointing just how limited the information was.

"You really can't tell me anything about what unlocking the second floor will be like?"

Veronica asked, only to be immediately answered with

"No, I'm supposed to let you discover most of that for yourself. At least, the first time around is supposed to be like that. You can ask your questions after you see what your dungeon has to offer you for it. A lot of dungeons have their own unique ways of doing things, both when it comes to the Dungeon Master and the system itself. Even if I told you about some of the things that are common amongst other dungeons, it might not happen for you and then I'll have gotten your hopes up for nothing. Don't worry, though, I'm supposed to come check on you everytime your dungeon gets a new floor. I can't drop everything if I'm with another one of my clients and I have to head to the nearest dungeon before I can teleport, but I'll come as soon as I can."

Veronica didn't bother asking too many more questions after that. It was more than clear that there was only so much Seraphina could tell her. Still, it was nice to have a bit more transparency on how things worked.