There is No Epic Loot Here, Only Puns

5: The Human Touch

Boss rooms are trials.

Delta paced as she waited for Hob and Gob to return with more... of those wretched things.

Mana was already an issue on large spending, Delta couldn't afford to just turn down a free source of income. Especially when it came with free DP.

She just wished they would find something else. Anything else...

So, as she waited, Delta pondered the boss room.

Having one meant her core had a final layer of protection before someone reached her core, that was good!

She'd need to evolve Fran into something else with a pig as a backup to form something she may not want protecting her core. The Mushys were hard enough to look at without fleeing. Seeing one yawning... or just hissing at the air made her ghostly flesh break out in goosebumps.

It was also just the idea that having a boss room meant that Delta was... cementing her purpose as a dungeon. Fight the weak mobs, find the loot, beat the boss, level up, and go home.

The bread and butter of any good adventure.

Except... Delta didn't have loot... or some grand treasure chest at the end.

"I'm not sub-par! I'm still developing," she assured herself and Fran's ears flicked as if hearing but choosing not to comment as he enjoyed the new goblin camp. The little guy did look a lot more healthy in the glow of the fire.

Delta summed up the life of a dungeon core. Make a dungeon, lure adventurers, kill them, grow, lure more people. Delta felt like she could maybe... with some effort cut it down to just the lure and grow stage somehow.

Far be it for Delta to stop an idiot wandering in here with nothing but a pot on his head and a butter knife. Delta felt bad about luring in the unaware or lost, not the terminally stupid, that was practically doing the species as a whole a favour after all.

You don't feel sorry for the people who set their head on fire and expect to be fine.

No, Delta wanted to have people agree to the game of dungeon and goblins. Win and get the shinies, lose and well... thanks for playing? It seemed too hopeful but if Delta could just show those that came near that her dungeon was dangerous and the unprepared should turn around and walk away, then she'd just feel better about the whole defending herself against humanity thing.

"Maybe... I can?" Delta muttered and opened the menu to the construction upgrade section.

Upgrade entrance into simple entrance hall: 10 DP or 20 Mana

Delta thought about it. She could purchase both the boss room and the entrance hall. Having 2 DP to spare and potentially having way more once her gobs returned.

With... more mushrooms.

Delta swallowed back more gags and tried to focus.

It seemed... that making a boss monster had no actual price and that worried Delta.

Nothing good was free in this little new life of hers. Except for mushrooms but they could go die in a fire.

Once she got the boss room up and running. There did seem to be no extra steps needed for pushing Fran up to the next level of evolution.

With a pig involved somehow...

Perhaps it was undoable? A one time, no-take-backies? Would Fran be her forever level 1 floor boss? Was that really a bad thing? Maybe down the line, when she had uber-wizards and three-headed frost wolves, it would be but for now, she had two fungi and three goblins between her and smashed-to-bits death.

Necessity was the mother of bad choices.

Delta purchased both rooms and the boss room flashed red and refused to be purchased. Delta blinked and saw a map opening, her two rooms flashing red. Right... need a room... to make a boss room.

One step at a time.

A room cost 20 mana and she had 15 going for her. Delta glared at her tiny single mana regen.

One day, she would regen enough mana to spend as wasteful as she wanted...

Oh, the gobs were back, joy. She zoomed to the entrance and saw them carrying more mushrooms but... Gob had something in his other hand.

He dropped it and it landed with a thud.

"Is that an apple? Gob, where did... you get an apple?" she asked and the goblin shook his hands in defence.

"Tree! Climbed with teeth, belonged to no mans!" he promised. Delta watched it fade as her dungeon consumed it. It tasted sweet but Delta braced herself as the dropped more mushrooms.

...Urgh.

But the apple made her mind spin.

If mushrooms gave her the mushys, and the fire crystal gave her access to some fire related items...

"Gob, go bring me a few branches and rocks," she requested. Delta thought about how her tunnels just banished whatever soil was in the way, she hadn't seen one rock or root appear in any of them. Just hard packed soil.

The apple finished fading and her menu popped up.