"The core of the dungeon is the dimensional space. It is the space under the Dungeon Master's jurisdiction. It is an upgradable space where the core of the dungeon is stored. The moment the core is destroyed, we are destroyed too." An office lady dressed adjusted her bright red glasses in annoyance.
"That is understandable." Elise nodded, pretending to understand.
"That's why," Zwei continued, "our main goal is to protect our core and make ourself stronger."
"Is this the dimensional space?"
"No, we are in the core right now. This is the master's room." Saying this, Zwei snapped her fingers and two doors appeared. They looked like modern wooden doors, smooth and white, almost blending into the walls.
The door on the right leads outside and the one on the left leads to the storage unit. The storage unit is currently 3 x 3 x 3 meters and would need to be expanded in the future. Gesturing towards the door, Zwei walked towards it.
Seeing her trying to leave, Elise panicked a little. "WAIT! I'm still NAKED!!!"
Hearing this high pitched wail, Zwei tsked and turned around with a glare. "There isn't even anyone here, you're so troublesome."
Pouting a little, Elise sulkily mumbled to herself. "It just feels wrong, you know."
Sighing, Zwei could only move on. "We'll tour outside later, let's explore the shop first then." Snapping her fingers again, a screen appeared in front of Elise like one of those games.
At the top were four big letters labelled [SHOP]
On the screen were five options. "Those are the five categories of the shop; Monsters, Traps, Treasure, Misc. Dungeon. Monsters and Traps are quite self-explanatory. Treasures are used to award people who do well in the dungeon and attract more people to come, well, that is the general strategy. Misc is just household items or anything that doesn't fit in the other categories. Dungeon is a little special, it contains all dungeon upgrades such as storage space or new gates."
While listening to Zwei talk, Elise quickly navigated through the menu which worked almost like a smartphone. Soon, she discovered the item [Women's Casual Clothing Set]. She looked up at Zwei with the 'can I buy?' look a child might give to a parent.
Seeing her cute look, a vein popped on Zwei's head. This really is a troublesome host. She could only take a deep breath and continue. "All dungeons use the currency DP, Dungeon Points. It is a numerical representation of the amount of power a dungeon has stored. For reference, the cheapest monster, a common goblin, costs around 3 DP but a dragon, even the cheapest one, would cost around… 10000 at least. Every dungeon only starts with 1000 so please don't spend too much, the dungeon battles begin in 3 months."
Elise looked up from her screen, hand hovering over the option for [Cute Girl's Clothing Set]. "Isn't 1000 a lot then? Three months is a lot of time right?" She asked in puzzlement.
Zwei could only helplessly explain the truth. "Actually, most gods sent their champions 2-3 years before the beginning of the battles…. Only in three months will everyone know each other's positions and begin battling."
Zwei dropped the bomb just like that sending Elise's jaw dropping, she didn't expect this kind of handicap. Then she can't hide, can she. "Don't worry," Elise tried to comfort her after seeing her shock. "You only have to fight one battle every season, three months, and you can reject the rest. It's actually really hard to kill an opponent dungeon at such an early stage so it's more to damage each other. If you quickly find a low-levelled opponent when the battles begin, you can gain more time."
Elise shook her head. "A method of delaying like that is good an all but we still don't have any troops. We also have no way of catching up to the ones further ahead." Slowly, her eyes were filled with determination. For the sake of food, for the sake of life, she will fight. There is still so much she hasn't eaten, she hasn't tried any of the otherworldy foods either? Gourmet food from a magical world? Just the thought of it made her drool. But firstly, she purchased a set of [Plain Girl's Clothing] and dressed herself in the simple white gown.
The set cost 2DP, almost enough for a goblin. She looked at her balance of 998 and felt a little helpless. "Hey Zwei, how do we get DP?"
The office lady smiled while adjusting her glasses. "I'm glad you asked. There are three ways of gaining DP. Firstly, killing a living creature, you would absorb a small portion of their life power, generating DP. This method gains quite a lot, however, it is difficult and one use only per target. The amount depends on the power of the creature.
Secondly, when a creature is present in your dungeon, you absorb a certain amount of ambient life power or mana from then, generating DP. This is because living creatures generate power themselves from their cores, when they are inactive the power leaks out slowly as to not overflow. Spells cast in your dungeon also help with this, and warriors battle power. The more power released inside your dungeon, the more you gain.
Lastly, absorbing all sorts of matter gives you power, ranging from corpses to dirt. Of course, dirt is 'dirt cheap', however, powerful materials are generally good."
While talking, the two walked out of the core room. Stepping outside, Elise was stunned by the beautiful scenery bellow. The two were situated within a castle elevated on a small hill, looking over lush green lands bellow. On the right was a patch of water next to a swampy area, on the left lay a lush forest. Closer to the castle was a lovely area of flat grassy plains, perfect for the construction of a village.
Far away in the distance where the rectangular stretch of land ends was a grey whirlpool carved into the invisible walls on the far end.
"Do you see that whirlpool there?" Zwei enquired, receiving a soft murmur in response from Elise. "That's our first dungeon, every dungeon starts with one. Buying another will cost 1000 DP from the shop menu. Every dungeon we buy, the price increases buy 1.5x. The rest of this land is for us to use as we please, usually to raise back-up troops."
"What if we never activate the first dungeon?"
"Then the invaders will come in from that portal."
Zwei's cold and calm answer was really quite disconcerting. They really had to grow in short amounts of time to survive this ordeal.
"Don't worry too much, all invaders come from that wall. It's quite easy to defend that way."
'No, Zwei, I'm worrying a lot. Doesn't all this worry you?' Elise yelled back in her heart but continued to look at the menu.
"Is there a limit to what the menu can sell?"
"No, it mostly sells whatever you want and can imagine. The only limits are the price. Oh, but, the monsters are set."
This response gave Elise an idea. She quickly thought of idea. Thinking of something, she looked through the menu again.
"Ah found it."