There is No Epic Loot Here, Only Puns

27: Levelling Down

In the end, she created shelves, crates, pots, barrels and a single chest.

It wasn't a big chest or a small chest, but it was Delta's chest and she was proud of it. The more she created, the more the ideas came to her. There was bound to be many things Delta ended up creating out of curiosity and not actually find them that useful. It didn't look like she could actually destroy an item she created that wasn't considered 'Construction' or one of her monsters. Delta found out, with some help with Nu, that things like treasures, sandwiches or even the odd club were unable to be destroyed once created. Nu seemed to think that was a good thing or too many new dungeons would end up destroying loot in the belief that it was 'clutter.'

So, short of throwing them outside to gather dust and rust, Delta just turned the mana spring room into a Storeroom as per Nu's advice.

The pots were just hardened mud with a rough texture and her barrels had gaps between the boards, and maybe the shelves weren't exactly even, but Delta still felt pride in her efforts. She tried to make a pot with a fancy handle it came out looking like someone had taken limp noodles and attached them to a lumpy pot.

Delta named it "The first Pot" and it was saved into her menu as a new design. Nu's lack of commentary told her exactly how bad it was. She spawned a few arrows for the shelves and looked at the torches that her goblins had brought.

The downside of making it rain fire that the torches were one of the things she couldn't destroy. So, she had no idea what to do with 20 extinguished torches other than to dump them into one of her new barrels. She then had Numb pick up her batch of Edible mushrooms from the grove and put them in another barrel, any adventurers might need some food after all. He dropped a few in the mud but Delta could fish them out later.

She didn't want to improve each one to reignite when she needed the mana to do other fun stuff.

"Come to the Delta Dungeon and get a free torch with every trip!" she tried aloud and her goblins shared a look as Cois muttered.

"And a frigging mushroom..." he said, nudging Billy who looked down with a grin. Delta just glared at them. Sure enough, several types of mushrooms were already appearing in the room. Lumen mushrooms made bottoms shelves glow with a pale blue light as the ever-present Rotguts. A few edible ones appeared and Numb plucked one and ate it.

Delta grinned a she thought of Bacon eating a lumen mushroom and shooting lasers out his rear... but then Delta hoped he wouldn't. The first-floor boss had to be fair. It was just the rules. The room felt warm and Delta with a whim added a small lit sconce on the wall near the door. It sparked to life and shadows dance along the walls.

"Not good to give them torches and nowhere to light them," she concluded then frowned.

"If someone burns my storeroom down, I'll be pissed," she added as she eyed the room. She placed three Healthy apples in the chest. Be a shame to leave it empty. If nothing else, Hob and Gob could run down that way if more Slimers appeared. Delta left the room before she filled it to the brim with things for people to use in a pinch.

Cois seemed to look back as if hoping the room would catch fire any second. Delta gave him a look, not sure how happy she felt about Cois' love of fire growing hotter like this.

Ah well, everyone had their quirks. Delta hummed as she walked down the tunnel to the Mudroom and eyed the room. After it only seemed to catch Amanstar and the Slimers... Delta felt it needed something else...

First, she formed a trip wire above the logs. Someone had to be above 7 feet to hit it, so Delta was sure it be fine. This would catch people trying to take a flying leapt with magic or something. She had Numb throw Billy at it and the wire snapped at it slowed Billy down enough he landed with a crouch on a solid log.

Delta nodded, she didn't want super faster speedsters being decapitated if they did a Leeroy. Still, catching a spider off-guard was always welcome.

Next, she took one of the sinker logs and applied a stick trap to it. It flashed and Delta honestly couldn't see a difference between that log and another one. It wasn't dangerous but it would add some risk to the room if people had fast reflexes.

These traps weren't permanent until she tied them into the room but as prototype ideas... it was worth testing them out until she had the DP to spend. The stick trap looked like it had a few uses in it before it became defunct anyhow. That juicy 182 DP tempted her but Delta shook her head, using her inner-adult to remain stalwart in her goal of a second floor.

Overall, she still had 34 mana to mess with and Delta tapped her chin.

She could already see what would slowly become her biggest problem as a dungeon core. Choices. Should she do that thing or maybe those things? What if she did one thing and it unlocked a whole new world?

Delta was spoiled with choice and it was making things harder as her new life settled. She shrugged and headed to the grove. Delta guessed she could only do what felt like was a good choice.

Sure, she could have Nu go over everything in her dungeon, reporting what was valuable, what was needed, what could maybe make a mana generator 2000 but in the end, that just wasn't Delta.

Efficient planning turned into perfect planning. Delta guessed it would be good for everyone involved but if she had to wait until something was a perfect choice then she never get anything done around here.

She patted Boary and flexed her fingers with a smile.

She opened the menu and selected a gift from Mrs Dabberghast. It was the mushroom and everything about it made Delta narrow her eyes with suspicion but she found on multiple occasions that item absorption did not carry a taste. Maybe it would taste great or maybe it was her new antiChrist? She did not know, after all, absorbing the thing did not taste of anything as it was mixed in with many other items at the time.

Delta may never know unless someone brought another one.

So, she spawned it, the thing only costing 2 mana. It sprouted off to one side as she read the menu of it.