Dungeon POV
I was right. I had suspect it for a while now, but I finally had enough floors being delved to make actual comparisons. Each new floor represents a threefold increase in the amount of mana gained for the same task as compared to the floor just before it. Killing higher level mobs is still going to net me more mana regardless. So, those level 15 scorpions were worth more than if I had placed them on the third floor. Part of me wonders why that is but part of me also doesn't care all that much. It's just nice to finally be getting some answers. Even if they lead to more questions.
The next few months are rather uneventful as I focus on finishing the fifth floor. The ladies return about once a week making it a little further each time. With the mana from them delving on the fourth floor I manage to Make significant progress on the fifth floor. First, I place the last two town ... districts, I guess. I meant for them all to be part of the same town, so it makes sense to me to refer to them as districts instead of town rooms. Part of it is also that I had an idea.
That idea being to turn one of those rooms into the guard district. I even have a rather large building that would work as the guardhouse. While there will still be a few 'civilians' most of the skeletons in this area will be 'guards'. All of them level 25 of course. I even set it up so that the guardhouse leads directly on top of the town's wall, or at least it would if there actually was a town wall. I had to destroy part of the stairs to prevent delvers from trying to climb onto the wall and ruining the illusion.
After that I place down another five farmland rooms. Followed by another five forest rooms. The farm area directly north of the town is where I decide to place the mini boss. This mini boss is a level 27 griffon. To keep things interesting, I give my new mini boss the wind blade ability. This lets him turn the air itself into a weapon by channeling mana into his wings as he flaps them. I also give it the ability to command the other three normal griffons in the room. As well as the intelligent to properly use that ability. Not enough to make them sapient or even sentient but smarter than anything else delvers have faced thus far, including the goblins. This alone should increase the difficulty by a large margin since they will be facing coordinated attacks by a competent leader.
Stolen story; please report.
The forest room directly north of the mini boss room is the actual boss room. For that reason, I decide to change up the layout of this room. I go around placing scorch marks everywhere. A few at first but they become more frequent as you get further in. In the middle of the room there will be a clearing that is a circle with a radius of 30 meters. This is where the boss fight will happen. At least that's the plan anyway. The boss will emerge from the north as the delvers enter the clearing. As for what the boss will actually be I decided on a drake. Basically, a giant lizard with the only resemblance to drakes that I'm familiar with from my previous life being the breath attack, in this case fire.
As for the ladies without whom I wouldn't have made it nearly as far, I decided I should get to know them a little. While I didn't really care to much at first, if they were going to be the strongest party in me for at least the foreseeable future I should at least learn their names. A much more challenging job than it might seem as while they are chatty, at least when they aren't in combat, they rarely use names. Through searching my memories as well as listening to them speak I figured it out though.
The leader is Cassandra, the tank is Kara, the earth mage is Toph, and the current healer is Sam. Though whether Sam is short for Samantha I couldn't say. It makes sense to me, but I try to avoid making such assumptions. I'm sure at some point the title of strongest party will change again. Until then, I decide to start keeping an even closer eye on them least they make it to the fifth floor before I finish with it. Not that it's very likely seeing as I'm just two rooms shy of being finished already.
I would be done already but the new boss wasn't cheap. In fact, there were several varieties but because of the cost I could only afford the one pattern. Still, it's as close to an actual dragon as I can afford. So, while it would have been great to have a dragon be the reason that the castle and town are in ruin I'm still not quite there yet as far as mana income. At least if I want to keep building out my floors in a reasonable timeframe.
While waiting for my mana to build up so that I can actually finish the fifth floor I suddenly sense a familiar presence enter my dungeon. Clyde's party is back for the first time in almost a year. The first thing I notice is that the strange energy surrounding Lily is gone. So, I was right, it was related to her child and not her. While it would be nice to see if that energy is still hanging around the child, I guess it'll have to wait at least a decade or so. Interestingly, while the first two floors still offer almost no challenge, even they seem to realize that they've gotten rusty.
This is especially apparent on the third floor where they make several mistakes. Not fatal mistakes fortunately but they do end up using more potions than they should have while not making it as far as last time. Talking to Clyde on his way back out he said that they will probably need at least one more delve to get back to where they were both mentally and physically. He did however say that he fully intends to reclaim the title of strongest party in the dungeon.
