Core of Knowledge

With the changes to the first floor done, Xu Han turned his attention to his second floor and wondered what changes he could make to it.

The dungeon core within him did not believe the first floor, a simple wide cavern filled with a poisonous fog, posed much of a challenge to a well-prepared adventurer. It was dangerous enough to catch the unprepared, and the whole floor was a small puzzle to test their ingenuity, but it was nothing a competent adventurer couldn't overcome. It was more of a warmup, to weed out adventurers who did not know what they were doing. His second floor would be different.

Xu Han considered it his first real chance to make things interesting for the adventurers, which was why he had given the adventurers three routes to pick. Only the first route had been tested, but it had done well enough that Xu Han was confident the other two routes would stand up well against the adventurers. The question Xu Han had was how to make them better.

Xu Han had been told by Jemma he could modify his rooms in several ways but should not change the floor so much that it looks and feels like a different floor. As flighty as she was, his new mentor has not steered him wrong yet, so Xu Han fully intends to listen to the dungeon fairy.

As he contemplated his options, Xu Han thought about the adventurers that had come through and what might be useful on his floor. Focusing on the room with the lake and the giant squid sleeping in it, the dungeon tried to imagine what changes he want to make to it.

The room had a large lake, which was filled with water from the underground river that flowed through the entire floor. In the middle of the lake were the eight pavilions with puzzles, and the small island at the end. It was a good start, but Xu Han felt it could be improved on.

Looking at the island, Xu Han realized it was a little bare. Currently it was nothing, but a rocky shore and it did not fit the aesthetic of the room. The dungeon core focused on the island and made grass grow. Within seconds, Xu Han turned the island into a wide and spacious open field. He then created a few small trees here and there to populate the island.

It was not enough.

The island now looks better but the dungeon core was sure something more could be done with that. As the island changed to match his vision, the power Xu Han used finally caused Jemma to lift her head.

“Wait, what's happening? Are we being attacked?”

“No, it's just the dungeon. I made some changes to it. What do you think?” Xu Han assured his dungeon fairy as he sent out several threads of mana towards his dungeon fairy. Jemma latched on to the threads and Xu Han felt the connection. The link allowed Jemma to see the dungeon and the changes Xu Han made. As she took in the images, Xu Han saw a smile and a raised brow from the dungeon fairy. She looked pleased.

The dungeon fairy yawned and stretched before taking to the air and fly over Xu Han. “I must admit, the changes you made are positive. It makes the floor better than before. The chests and treasure on the first floor are a good touch. What is this printing press? Does it work?”

“It's a device that allows the printing of words and images on paper. And yes, it works.”

“Good. Dungeon cores that give faulty goods usually have a bad reputation, and that means less adventurers.”

“What about the changes of the island on the second floor?”

“It’s...good.”

“You don't sound so sure.”

“It's fine. Really. I don't have any objection; I just find it a little wasteful. Are you going to do anything else to it?”

“I’m not sure,” Xu Han admitted. “I am still thinking about it. Do you have any suggestions?”

“Well, first off I think you should hold off on making any changes to the other two rooms on the second floor. No one’s been in them yet, so we don’t know how they will fare against the adventurers.”

“I shall defer to your experience,” Xu Han respectfully said, “But what about the first room?”

“You have puzzles, and created some traps on the first floor, so what about some monsters in the room?”

“The squid is in the room.”

Jemma shook her head. “It is a Boss Monster, something that comes out when all the adventurers in the party fail to complete their jigsaw puzzle. You need something in between.”

“What do you mean? You know I intend to give the party a pass if even one of the adventurers complete their puzzle.” Xu Han replied with a mental frown.

“That makes it an all-or-nothing room, which I do not recommend. Since you have some excess divine power, my suggestion is to have a tier system. If none of the adventurers complete the puzzles, then the giant squid comes out and the adventurers need to fight the Boss Monster. No one will complain about that, but having a successful run when only one adventurer completes his puzzle is too much. I suggest creating some monsters and have them appear if only one adventurer complete their puzzle. The adventurers will need to fight them to go pass the room. If half the party complete their puzzle, the monsters will also appear, but there will be fewer of them, making it a less difficult encounter. If all the adventurers in the party complete their puzzles, then they get a clean run to the treasure.”

Xu Han considered the idea and could see the merit of Jemma’s suggestion. “That's a good idea. I could change the criteria of what it means to complete the floor. I can change the chest to give out a skill only to parties whose members all managed to complete their puzzles. If one or more of their members failed to complete their puzzles, they will get lesser rewards instead. Maybe I could even create a leaderboard.”

“A leaderboard? For what?” Jemma asked.

“As a reward to adventurers who managed to complete their puzzles the fastest. Maybe even give out a trophy to prove that they are on the leaderboard.”

“I don’t know if you need to go that far, but I don’t see the harm in that. There is the problem of how fair it can be though as the first adventurers who complete the puzzles will have an unfair advantage.” Jemma said as she got into her thinking pose. “Maybe you should add a threshold like an adventurer can only enter the leaderboard if he completes a puzzle under a certain timeframe. Like thirty or forty-five minutes?”

“An excellent idea!” Xu Han immediately agreed. “Anything else you wish me to add?”

“Add more creatures. Most dungeon cores need to kill and absorb creatures before they can spawn them as monsters, you don’t need to do that. You already have knowledge of what the creatures are, how they move, and how they hunt. You have an unfair advantage over the other dungeon cores, it’s time for you to use the knowledge to your advantage.”

“That’s…I guess I can do that. Anything else?” Xu Han asked.

“Nothing else springs to mind, but an alcove would be nice.”

“A what?”

“An alcove. A recess in the walls. Most dungeon fairies live in them. I am laying on the floor here.” the dungeon fairy said some misery.

“Oh! Why didn’t say so, I would love…wait.” The dungeon core was highly pleased with Jemma and would love nothing more than to accommodate his dungeon fairy, but he had a problem. He was on the first floor, in a wide-open cavern some distance from the walls. He could create an alcove in the walls, but Xu Han would rather his dungeon fairy be close by.

“This floor is not suitable. Let’s move.”

“Move?” Jemma looked at her dungeon core in shock.

“You did say I am too exposed here, right? So, let’s move to another location.” Xu Han paused for a moment before continuing. “And I have the perfect location in mind.”