Dungeon Oasis

I am bored. It doesn't help that I can't really afford to do anything. Well Technically I have managed to save up enough mana to exchange for 10 world energy. The thing is though aside from an extra room that doesn't really get me much. I do plan on adding more rooms to the first floor at some point. It's just that as I watch the sun rise up over the sandy dunes yet again, I have this nagging feeling that I'm overlooking something very basic yet also very important. Like there is some big obvious ... thing that I just can't see.

Maybe if I just keep saving up my mana it will come to me eventually. Over the next 70 days I manages to save up enough mana to exchange for another 100 world energy. All the while that feeling that I'm missing something never goes away. So finally, I decide to look at the shop to see if something will just click. I decide to take my time going over each category looking for something I might have missed the first time. Well except the rooms category because it apparently only had the one option. I am kind of curious why it even has an entire category if there is just the one option. No, don't get distracted, I chastise myself.

As I look over the plant category, I notice that a lot of them are locked. They're also rather expensive which is probably why I didn't even see them before. Looking closer I see that certain prerequisites have to be meet in order to unlock them. Some of them feel important but I can't really think about that too much until I can figure out how to unlock them. Not really seeing anything that jumps out at me, that's actually unlocked. I decide to close this category and move on to the next one.

The creatures category has a lot more options now. The creatures are still sorted based on what I can afford as were the plants but apparently, I can afford a lot of different blueprints now. There are some I plan on getting in the near future. Perhaps for my second floor. For now though, none of them strike me as particularly important. So, now it's on to the themes category.

The themes category is also greatly expanded. Well, technically not expanded because I suspect those options have always been there. The number of themes I can afford though is definitely increased. However, just like with the plants there are also quite a few that are locked for some reason. Looking at the ones that are locked and comparing them with the plants that are locked I start to wonder if it's because of my location. I quickly dismiss that thought though because it says that they can be unlocked once prerequisites are met. I very much doubt that would be the case if it was a region or some other form of location lock.

Moving on I decide to skip over traps for now. I've already decided that there won't be any traps on the first floor. The second floor is where I plan to start slowly introducing traps. The skills category though is where I finally get my answer. I almost instinctively reach out and grab the earth mana for 100 world energy. I have been wanting it from the beginning, but just at that moment something else catches my attention. Something that makes me metaphorically face palm so hard I nearly gave myself a concussion.

Water mana, mother fucking water mana! I'm in a desert for crying out loud. How did I forget about something so basic to most forms of life? I guess it's mainly because now that I think on it, I haven't eaten or drank anything since that morning just before I was struck by lightning. Not that I'm hungry or thirsty. Which does make since if I'm a dungeon, I guess. Without further delay I reach out and spend 100 world energy to purchase water mana. Now I can directly convert 1 unit of mana into 1 cubic decimeter of water. Fortunately, according to the description it won't evaporate unless acted upon by a set of dungeon rules designed to cause evaporation. Something I'm not worried about since I haven't purchased any rules, and at this point in time I don't see myself ever creating weather patterns. Which is the only reason I can think of for wanting water to evaporate.

Now though I look back at the abandoned cabin theme I purchased earlier. There's a lot more to it than just supply crates. I just hadn't felt like anything else was all that useful at the time. Looking through some of the other options I pull out a wash tub and place it in the middle of the first room. Which I have taken to calling the entryway. The wash tub, as the system calls it, basically looks like just a giant metal bucket that someone stretched out to make it just big enough for an average adult human to soak comfortably. It's not something you'd normally consider drinking from, but it suddenly occurs to me that anyone who actually makes it to me is probably not going to be all that concerned with the source of the water. It's going to cost me a lot of mana to actually fill it so that's going to be a long-term project. At least until I actually get delvers. I'm still kind of banking on the fact that there must be a reason why dungeons would want to attract delvers.

Continuing to look through the stuff I got with the abandoned cabin theme I pull out some candles. There were some light emitting crystals but they cost 100 mana each to activate. So instead, I spend a little time to spread candles throughout my dungeon. Unlike with the coins though I'm a bit more strategic with the candle placement. Trying to strike a nice balance between providing light for delvers and shadows for ambience. It does cost me 1 mana to light each one but that's still much cheaper than activating the crystals. I don't bother putting any in the entryway though because I can see out which means light must be coming in.

Thinking about what else a delver might need I spend 1 world energy to have meat added to the loot drop of the first 10 rats. I adjust the first rat to always drop meat. The 9 rats in the three rooms immediately after that are adjusted to have a 50/50 chance of dropping either meat or leather. Now I just need delvers to actually show up.