Countermeasures

Showing up, late as usual, was Theodore. Violet wasn't even sure if he would have been able to help out with the recent invasion, but it still seemed more than a little ironic to have him show up immediately after she was done dispatching of the intruders. Deciding not to bother wasting any time, she made her way towards him. Theodore looked a bit frazzled as he said

"Sorry, I'm late. I was visiting one of the larger dungeons I work with today and I can't exactly leave in the middle of visiting another dungeon to visit yours. I'm guessing you've already gotten around to figuring things out by now, huh?"

Violet just nodded in response. Theodore sighed as he continued

"Well, I'm here now, so let's go ahead and go over everything we need to. First, congratulations on unlocking your second-floor. How are you feeling about it, so far?"

Violet wasn't sure such idle talk was really what they should be focusing on right now. However, she decided that it would be best to humor Theodore first and then worry about the recent events afterward. So, she put on a bright smile as she replied

"I'm excited to be able to build at a more comfortable pace now. It'll be nice not to feel rushed to finish building rooms so that I don't lose my chance before the next adventurer or intruder can enter the dungeon. However, I'm a bit unsure of how quickly the dungeon traffic will pick up or if the winter weather will cause the dungeon's progress to stall too much."

Theodore nodded as he replied

"That's about what I expected from you. Don't worry too much, everything will work out in the end. You can always take a break from building and just relax for a while, if you need to. It doesn't matter if you spend all of the mana the dungeon has right away. You should take some time to just enjoy your life and focus on pursuing some worthwhile hobbies.

Anyways, what sort of floor theme did you end up being offered? Which one did you choose?"

Violet pursed her lips, trying to remember what all had been offered, before replying

"Well, I had an option for grasslands, an enchanted forest, and a mushroom cave. None of them listed [Monsters] with the options, though, which was different from the first time it happened."

Theodore frowned, nodding as he replied

"I'm afraid that confirms it. You've been hard-locked into the cute theme you initially wanted. All of the floor themes were either generic or had the potential for building nice scenery and it would seem the [Monsters] are likely going to be the same regardless of which floor theme you choose.

Did you get anything more useful for combat this time? I know you were disappointed by the slimes and contracted [Monsters] you got last time."

Violet beamed as she excitedly explained

"Yes! I got some horned rabbits called al-mi'raj for my summonable [Monster] this time. They can't be evolved into anything, but they've already got better stats than most of my slime variations. For summons, I've got some mushroom dudes called myconid and some pixies. The pixies seem to be a mixture of the will-o'wisp's and kodama's traits since they play tricks on adventurers and are supposed to be worker [Monsters] who would usually care for their environment."

Theodore's eyes went wide as he said

"Wow! That's good! The pixies should be able to help with your desire for socialization as well since they can communicate and are fairly bright, even if they are troublemakers.

It's a relief to see you'll be able to have some better defenses too. Although, from what I've been hearing, apparently your boss [Monster] is quite impressive. Some of the adventurers recently reported to the adventurer's guild that the level of danger in the rest of the dungeon versus the boss room was vastly different. As your assigned dungeon diplomat, I tend to end up being filled in on anything relating to your dungeon, but that doesn't mean I have to interfere unless it's an actual problem.

I think you might want to consider making some changes to your first-floor now that you have a second-floor. Since you seem to want a first-floor that is appropriate for locals, children, and beginner adventurers alike, it might be better to make some adjustments to make the floor safer. I wouldn't normally recommend that, but you can always make the second-floor more dangerous so that it's only appropriate for beginner adventurers to slightly more experienced adventurers and still be able to fend off most threats. I can give you some more specific pointers, if you don't mind?"

Violet shook her head as she replied

"No, I actually would love to hear what you think. However, I do have some thoughts of my own. I've been trying to give each floor a few themes and I'd like to stick to that. The first-floor is supposed to be safer, as you've said, and has the wildflower meadow theme, of course, but it also has slime-themed puzzles and food-themed prizes. More specifically, I've been trying to make the food either appropriate for younger children or flower-themed since it fits the meadow theme.

I'm still thinking over what I want to do for the second-floor, but I'm thinking I'd like to have some pixie-themed challenges and colorful prizes. I'll probably have rabbits and the occasional myconid or slime in the other rooms, but I'm thinking of only assigning pixies to most of the challenge rooms. I, originally, wanted to have [Monsters] in the challenge rooms and to lock their doors to make them more difficult, but pixies are expensive and one of their requirements is that they live in groups. So, I figure it would be better to assign pixies to every room with challenges so the [Monster] fields don't end up as empty."

Theodore looked thoughtful as he replied

"I understand and you certainly don't have to take any of my advice to heart. It's fine to build the dungeon however you want. You were the one chosen to be the dungeon master, after all, so that means the dungeon core was entrusting the job to you.

However, since you said you're willing to hear my advice, I will provide it. Originally, I was just going to say you should likely rearrange some of the rooms and, probably, make the weather settings more tame for the slime parkour room. However, since you expressed your wishes to me, I'd like to make an additional suggestion.

It might be better to rethink the placement of some of your challenge rooms. The flower hunt room could be moved to the second-floor and you could switch the slimes out for pixies. If you add some rain and keep some edible plants, but lock the doors, it would work great as a [Trap] room while still being feasible for the adventurers to survive long enough to figure it out. It might also be worth considering that flower-themed sweets and colorful items might be more fitting for a pixie-themed floor. Children might not enjoy the taste of strong herbs and flowers as much as they would simpler sweet flavors.

Of course, there is also the matter of creating a space for tributes to be left and an altar for a patron deity. Most of the time, adventurers expect those to be directly connected to the first hallway in the dungeon so they can stop there before they start adventuring. The way you currently have things set up, I'm not sure there is space for those rooms.

Speaking of patron deities, how many did you end up with?"

Violet looked confused as she replied

"I was only offered the choice to choose one patron deity. I had the choice of the god of death, the goddess of commerce and knowledge, the god of design and creativity, the goddess of agriculture and motherhood, and the goddess of love and beauty. I ended up choosing the last one."

Theodore shrugged as he said

"Ah well, some dungeons get to choose two patron deities while others only get to choose one. Everyone can tell you've chosen the goddess of love and beauty, though, it's on the outside of the dungeon above the entrance. There is a placard for the dungeon's name too, but it seems you still haven't chosen a name for your dungeon."

Violet blinked in confusion. She hadn't heard of such a thing before, so, obviously, she hadn't tried to name the dungeon. Now that she did know, though, there was no way she was going to name it on the spot. She'd much rather think it over a while and decide on something that she would be happy with for years to come.