There is No Epic Loot Here, Only Puns

15: Delta Ducks

Delta waved at her... guests? Visitors? As Ruli and Quiss left the dungeon, Delta got as close to the barrier as she could.

While sad to see them go, Delta did feel better. Her menus popped up and she nodded with determination. Delta didn't have a clear goal right now but she did have something to aim for. People would come for her, ones who simply wanted to experience the thrills of a new dungeon and those who sought to ransack her for everything she had.

So, Delta needed to make it so she got the most out of people's visit while not letting them get very far, and hopefully not die either.

Delta needed to build herself a stall deck and play her best cards on the first few turns.

She opened her menu and eyed the notifications that had been waiting for her from Ruli's tributes. Delta liked Ruli, the tall fierce woman had a talent for calming Delta, despite the fact neither could talk to the other properly.

Quiss was funny. Watching him get annoyed at her Grove and her Mushys was funny. His reaction to the Greater Mushy?

That had been slightly more alarming when Quiss looked ready to unleash fire from his hands. Magic, she hadn't actually seen any before now!

Delta was a little worried but her dungeon wide 'cease' command meant that the all her monsters had left the two humans alone. Handy that.

Watching Ruli lift up thorny tentacles and poke the monster made Delta's heart jump to her throat. Ruli just laughed off the hissing and faux snaps. The woman was treating her evil mushroom like a cool bug she just found.

Quiss has just stormed past, a string of ducks following him like some sort of Duck king. The Boss room did have a door with a menacing pig motif and everything, Delta had just learned to ignore floating through it. The angry pig's eyes on the metal door glowed red and a line appeared down the middle making the door split open vertically as the two sides slid into the wall with a rumble.

"Arena style, not too bad for a first level," Quiss had said and Ruli looked ready to drool, licking her lips, at the size of Bacon as he appeared with Fran in the saddle.

Delta was worried but the Fran just looked sullen as he wasn't allowed to fight the two guests.

"Are they a combined unit?" Quiss had asked curiously and Delta could only answer as she thought of her menu.

"Sir Fran is Bacon," was all she could really say.

They had both declined to enter her core room. A part of Delta was glad but another was just confused.

"To enter the Core room without tribute or prayer is heavily frowned on by respected Adventurers. Usually, in a new dungeon when you beat a boss, you warp out, find a teleporter or just hoof it back. Entering the Core room otherwise shows that you might have plans for the core. Quite a few bits of magic crap can be used on cores. I think the most famous is the Mana drain spell. Old mages that can't get their wands up anymore go and pinch it from Cores," Ruli said annoyed and Quiss looked away.

"Dungeons do provide ample mana. A bill passed said that a core can only be drained every three days with proper permission..." he said quietly.

Delta guessed she should be happy there was a three-day limit and mages only needed to get some papers stamped.

Delta shivered, thinking of some powerful mage or witch coming in and touching her Core, taking her Mana that she earned and needed... because the magic users didn't see Delta as anything but a battery.

This world kinda sucked. But it had Ruli, Fran, Quiss, her Pond, and the gob brothers! Delta kept them in mind as she looked at her menus.

Common Metal elements added to Purchase and Upgrade menus!
Durable Leather has been added to menus!
Wax has been added to menus!
Ink has been added to menus!
Feathers added to menu!

Delta had noticed something else, well, a few other things.

Her Mana had maxed out with Quiss and Ruli's visit. But it didn't exceed the limit at all, that was something new. Ambient mana leech only filled her up, not topped her past her max. Delta could accept that.

Another thing was that two monsters appeared on her summon list.

Greater Mushroom: 25 Mana
Goblin Apprentice: 18 Mana

Delta could just outright buy her upgraded monsters but the cost alone left Delta a little wide-eyed. It cost more to buy one 2nd form than the summoning and upgrade cost of a brand new level 1.

Delta guessed that would be fair. If the second form was cheap, it would make her first forms pointless to experiment with purely due to the costs and numbers involved.

Good thing, Delta didn't use numbers as a way to live her life as much as she did her gut feeling.

With some stretching, she eyed her 52 DP and 55 Mana. Delta was running on a full tank and she couldn't wait to get started on some of the tips Quiss and Ruli had given her.

Quiss' advice was mostly to just upgrade her boss and hope for the best, he really did seem doubtful about Delta's life choices. Ruli was a bit more excited. She had never helped a dungeon improve its creativity and Ruli doubted many people had.

Already, that fact alone made Delta steam ahead with her plans with a big smile.

With some references to her menus, Delta and Ruli quickly devised several ideas Delta could try.

First up...

Delta purchased the Weak Tripwire trap.