Dungeon Oasis

The first thing I do is move the tub full of water to one of the corners. Not completely flush with the wall but close enough to where it's no longer the focal point of the room. In the middle I set a series of six small tables. I plan to meld them together into a single table once I gain wood affinity but for now it'll have to do. Then I set a series of chairs down facing all different direction with some even knocked over. On the table itself a place a few dozen scrolls. They are placed in such a way as to give the appearance of a meeting having been suddenly interrupted. Adding to the effect created by the chairs appearing as if their occupants left suddenly.

On the scrolls themselves I plan to add cryptic hints about the dangers that lurk further in. Most of them are blank for now however as I only have the one floor and I don't want to commit to anything having to do with other floors this early on. On one scroll I do make references to a rat king that is much larger than the normal rats that inhabit the rooms. Speaking of my rat boss I thought about adding rat minions into the boss encounter but jumping from level 5 to level 10 is already a big leap so I'm waiting to see how he does on his own. I still want the fight to be fair after all.

As for the rest of the room I place a couple of beds. I would add more but the room is already starting to get cramped. Besides, it's not like the bandits would all be sleeping at the same time. Now for the rooms I purchased. First, I place six in a line off the north wall of the room with the two level 3 rats and two level 4 rats. This time I did not allow them to connect to nearby rooms. Then I placed another seven rooms off the south wall of the room with the three level 3's and one level 4 rat. The first five being in a straight line then the last two are in a line that goes east from that fifth room. Once again not allowing them to connect to the nearby rooms. The reason for the sudden turn being to keep them on their toes.

That leaves seven rooms. With these I decide to expand the starting area. The more they kill the more world energy I get, which in turn means I can finish the floor faster. Honestly, I would have done this sooner, but I wanted to make the path to the boss much less straight forward. At any rate I use three of the rooms in a straight line off the west wall of the rooms to the west of the entryway and three more rooms in a straight line off the south wall of the room to the south of the entryway. This gives newbie little adventurers a total of 18 more level 1 rats they can fight. It also gives me a potential 18 more world energy plus the world energy from the coins each delve. I decide to just keep that last room in my inventory for now.

After that I go about filling the various rooms with rats, coins and supply crates. I also take some time to rearranging a few of the supply crates to make the hallways that were formed accessible. Although the idea of hidden hallways is something I might play with later. Maybe I'll even have entire secret areas. I miss the delvers already, more to the point I miss the world energy they gave me.

I keep reminding myself that it's only slow right now because nobody knows about me. One thing that worries me a little is the possibility that Clyde, yes, I did learn all their names while they were delving, decides to keep me all to himself. While the occasional delve is better than none at all I'd still like the delves to be a bit more frequent. That thought only worries me a little though because of what that one guy who is the uh … Dungeon inspector apparently? Or maybe his job is just confirming that the dungeon exists, I guess I'll find out at some point. Anyway, like he said it would be silly for him to find a gold mine like me and not use it.

Surprisingly this time it takes less than a month for them to return. Just like the time before it seems like they managed to acquire some better gear. I for one certainly hope they can make it further this time. After all, the further they make it the better it is for me. I was only able to save up 40 world energy these past 28 days. With them here though I have a feeling my total world energy is about to skyrocket.

I watch as they look around in awe at the changes I've made. Listening to them talk amongst themselves it's my turn to be surprised. Apparently, they brought enough supplies to stay here at least overnight. Maybe I should have added two more beds, though I really don't know where I'd put them. It seems that they weren't happy with only being able to delve once every month or two. It also seems that he wants to reach my core before revealing my existence to others. At their level though I fear that could take a while even if I intentionally hold off on adding a second floor. They're barely making it to the level 3 rats and there are two more levels after that even if they go the right way. That's not even mentioning the boss which they are not even close to being ready for.

At any rate it looks like the question of my world energy has been solved, at least for the time being.