Veronica was starting to feel hopeless. What was the point of living like this? She couldn't help but wish she had never been transmigrated into this nightmare in the first place. It would have been so much better had she remained in her old world. Veronica didn't even care if her parents would have chosen her or her brother to inherit their bed and breakfast anymore. At least in her old world she wouldn't be a prisoner and she'd be free from the torture of being repeatedly killed for the fun of it. She was sick of it and all she wanted was to end the madness, but she couldn't. Perhaps, that was the worst part of all.

It wasn't fair of her most recent guests to give her false hope like that. She hadn't even gotten their names before she had chased them off. Thanks to her enhanced memory, she would likely never forget their faces, nor would she forget what they had done to her. She didn't exactly have the strength needed to kill them off. She couldn't even get rid of Bo, after all. Still, she was more than a little angry about being led on.

However, since there wasn't anything else she could do, Veronica decided to concentrate on her next challenge room. This one would be on the same side of the dungeon as the boss room, so it was more likely that adventurers' would have to pass through the area. The dungeon wouldn't allow her to make the challenge rooms too dangerous, but that wasn't going to stop her from pushing the limits.

Would you like to spend 50 DP to research thatch hut using the [Base Resources] straw, wood, and clay?

Yes

No

Would you like to spend 100 DP to research sandpit [Trap] using the [Base Resource] sand?

Yes

No

Technically, Veronica had never received sand as a tribute. However, it was one of those things that she automatically unlocked when she received another [Base Resource] around the time she unlocked land terraforming. Whether it was from receiving stone as a tribute or was just something she naturally had access to, like the land terraforming, though, she wasn't sure. Either way, she could freely change the swampy land for sand. She just couldn't create trenches full of sand without risking upsetting the system like she had when she built the firewalk challenge. So, she decided to try researching it as a [Trap] and was relieved to see it was possible.

This next challenge she was planning to name 'sinking feeling' as it would center around the use of sand. She carefully arranged a sandy path with sandpit [Traps] hidden along the way. If an adventurer stepped onto the sandpit they would slowly sink below the sand into what was essentially a deep pitfall [Trap]. The more they struggled, the deeper they would sink, similar to how quicksand works. The challenge stipulations would be the same as the firewalk challenge with adventurers required to cross the room using the main path in order to earn the reward.

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On the normal swampy land areas, she added thatch huts for her goblins to live in. The 100 MP spawner she added to the room would only support three goblins, but the other goblins from the nearby land masses could easily traverse the second floor if they wanted to sleep in the thatch huts. However, that was the primary point of them.

Would you like to spend 2 DP to research stones using the [Base Resource] stone?

Yes

No

Veronica happily spent a lot of mana to create many stones that she piled up outside of the thatch huts. She then instructed her goblins

"When adventurers come near, throw these stones at them. You can attack them with your melee weapons if they get close enough, but you should primarily use these."

The stones weren't exactly lethal, but they would be distracting to be pelted with and they could also leave nasty bruises, maybe even dent metal armor. If the adventurers were distracted, it was also more likely that they would end up falling into the sandpits as well, which was ideal as far as Veronica was concerned. Since she couldn't force the adventurers to walk through every room in the dungeon, she felt it was best to do as much damage as possible in the areas they did bother with.

Would you like to spend 60 DP to research a ginger lily bath set using the [Base Resources] ginger, peace lilies, lye soap, water, oil, honey, undyed cotton cloth, undyed thread, green dye, and wood?

Yes

No

Veronica didn't know how to make shampoo, conditioner, and body wash since the ingredients listed in her memory didn't quite make sense to her. Thankfully, the system either knew what it was doing or was able to piece things together for her. The bath set was made to include shampoo, conditioner, body wash, and a green sponge. The ginger lily scent seemed suitable and she had all of the materials for it, so she hoped the adventurers liked it. She still didn't feel the need to suck up to them, but she didn't exactly like the idea of people complaining about what she had to offer either.

Another 60 DP had to be spent to set the challenge up with its reward, but the room was otherwise finished. Honestly, the costs for building things barely seemed to matter anymore as there were plenty of tributes coming in. Veronica didn't even have to worry about getting the [Items] and [Base Resources] to build what she wanted for the future since the adventurers were more than happy to help procure anything she added to the corkboard list. Over the last week or so, she had received 3,065 DP from room rentals, 3,105 DP from tavern sales, 391 DP from repeat tributes, and 465 DP from new tributes including: sea cucumbers, corn, peanuts, sesame seeds, sugar pumpkins, broccoli, holy basil, wild mustard, sugar snap peas, lacey black gloves, leather boots, red linen dress, gold, and tin ore. Her dungeon point total was now sitting at 33,865.

At this rate, she could easily finish the second floor and move onto the third floor even if adventurers stopped coming to her dungeon altogether. However, since she was feeling more hopeless than angry of late, the dungeon was having fewer [Monster] stampedes and tremors, so the dungeon traffic was starting to pick up again. It seems word spreads fast among adventurers as the dungeon only had to be stable for a few days before they would all come flooding back in, eager to revisit her dungeon.