Dungeon POV
That was a nasty cut. Fortunately, they still had a few minor healing potions. It wasn't enough to get him back up to full health, but it did get him healthy enough that Cole could carry him out after the loss of blood caused him to lose consciousness. Honestly, it's a miracle nobody died as they were all nearly out of mana by that point. Still, they did make it far enough that I was able to receive a huge chunk of mana from their delve. Enough to once again confirm my theory that I get exponentially more mana per floor. It's just too bad none of them picked up the coins that dropped. Under the circumstances I can see why but that's still a lot of mana I didn't get.
My main source of mana at least right now comes from harvesting the fruit trees on the third floor. Of course, that's probably because they only made it four rooms in and two of the first three rooms contain Jujube trees. Not that I ever plan to become a farm, I am a dungeon after all. It's just smart to know what's working so you can plan accordingly. Speaking of planning it's time I got back to planning the fourth floor. I do miss being able to pace back and forth while I'm thinking.
Because the room I just finished is so large I have plenty of room to make another hallway along the southern wall with another 80m x 20m x 20m room pointed diagonally from the perspective of most of my rooms. This is going to be one of the optional branching paths and as such I want delvers to earn the reward at the end. To that end I place down eight level 18 moss golems. They are of course scattered throughout the room, so delvers won't get too overwhelmed. I also go back to using the cave theme even if I still don't technically have an official cave theme.
The next room I place is a tiny, relatively speaking, 10m x 10m x 20m room. In this room I place a level 18 giant scorpion and a level 18 moss golem. These two working together should be enough for any group that makes it this far. Besides that, I feel like placing more stuff in this room would make it unfair due to the size of the room. The next room though is another of the long rooms. In this room I place down eight level 19 scorpions scattered throughout the room.
Stolen story; please report.
The next room though is where the real test comes in. This room is 30m x 10m x 10m same size as the fourth-floor entryway. Nowhere near as peaceful though. in this room I place four level 20 moss golems right as you first enter and two level 20 scorpions guarding the chest at the other end of the room. aside from that I make the room Identical to the entrance aside from the campsite. I want this chest to be one that they can't claim shortly after entering the fourth floor even though it's literally the closest to the entrance.
As for what's in the chest I make sure the chest always contains two health potions a mana potion and a random amount of between one and ten silver coins. I also make sure it contains at least one but a max of three low quality obsidian rank pieces of gear chosen at random. I also add a small chance for it to contain an enchanted obsidian rank weapon of high quality. The odds of the enchanted weapon appearing is only 2% but it should be high enough to get people trying for the chest. To ensure it does I make sure the chest contains an enchanted weapon the first time it's opened to get people talking about it. Honestly, I think just the rumor that it might contain such a weapon is enough to get people scrambling for the chest but having proof that it does will rope in those few who might not otherwise risk it for a few extra coins and some potions.
With that done I decide to hold off on building any more just yet. I have enough for the next room but just barely and on the off chance that someone makes it to the fourth floor I wouldn't feel right having an empty room that's just bare no matter how big it is. While I wait for my mana to build up, I look in on my delvers. More and more of them are making it past the halfway mark of the second floor though not very far past it. The fact that I now have two parties in my dungeon most of the time certainly helps with mana generation. Technically I could have up to four parties since I have four floors but sadly none of my adventurers except Clyde's group are even close to fighting the second-floor boss. With the best performing among them still having just over a third of the second floor to go.
If it wasn't for the fact that subsequent parties would have nothing to loot or fight, I would let more parties on each floor. I also don't want them grouping up and forming huge raid parties to get further than they should be able to. Nor do I want to see groups cheat by letting the party ahead kill everything, so they remain fresh and ready to go. One thing I have learned from eavesdropping on conversations is that the mortality rate for my dungeon, which hovers around 20%, is apparently extremely low. Based on what I've been able to overhear most dungeons have a mortality rate closer to 50%.
I can certainly see why a dungeon would go that route. Killing delvers does give a boat load of mana. Though I suspect not taking the easy mana will result in more mana in the long run since more people will want to delve. My dream is to one day have twenty floors with a party on every floor. Not that I plan to stop there I just like the idea of having so many parties inside me at the same time. Who knows what I'll be able to afford from the system shop by then.
