"Lord Gill, I don't know about this.. How about this Chipper gets the duty to find a new place to evacuate the dungeon?" The rodent clearly wanted to escape.
"No, we're not running away. At this moment, I'm overwhelmingly stronger than any would-be adventurer in the region." Gill explained some ideas for the gold and the immense potential there was in just staying put. This area was designated as a 'beginner'-region by the dungeon itself. Should he evacuate, Gill could get swatted to death by a random bird monster, a wandering adventurer or who knows what.
"The dungeon gains strength from us killing adventurers. At the moment, the only tool that has range and can kill from afar would be the cursed gold. I just don't have any good ideas on how to spread it out." Gill continued, "The optimal would be if the adventurers could survive the dungeon and bring it out as 'treasures' and 'rewards'. But that's detrimental to our growth aswell in the short and medium term."
"Lord Gill, it's not as if you're running a bank or charity here. It's a murder dungeon that sucks out the blood, souls and equipment of any visitors. I don't think this cursed gold has any practical use other than as a measure of anti-theft. This Chipper believes it is so." the chipmunk seriously couldn't come up with any good ideas.
As Gill listened to the rodents tirade, a glint flashed in his eyes. "Chipper my friend, you're brilliant!", he practically jumped from his seat, "You're right, we're not a bank or charity. Instead, we could set up a shop on the first layer of the dungeon. We purchase items from visitors with cursed gold, and any adventurers still get their adventure from the second layer onwards…" As Gill was grabbing at the idea, his eyes lit up more and more.
"The setup is easy to manage aswell. We simply have nothing to show up top with naught but a storefront and a teleportation array for goods." Gill thought out loud, "They place their goods on the array, as they arrive in the dungeon, we replace the goods with the gold they have 'earned'.." As he continued on this line of thought he simply couldn't help himself from laughing out loud. "I'm certain the dungeon price its goods drastically overpriced. We buy cheap, with cursed gold, and sell it for the inflated value to the dungeon!"
As if his eyes sprouted golden coins, Gill rushed out of the core room as fast he could. Opening the dungeon menu, Gill moved all the traps on the first layer down to the second. Although the portculis trap would be half as efficient, he could deal with it later. Turning towards the store menu, Gill checked out the assorted types of storefronts. There were all kinds of types from burger joints, medieval restaurants, majestic armories and royal banks - both modern and medieval.
Looking over his gold that had increased up to 1650 during his intervention with Chipper, Gill found a themed storefront that matched his corridor dungeons visuals. It was cheap too, only 250 gold that came with the same type of marbling as the pillars. There even was a few added signs made out of marble that he could edit through the dungeon menu. The teleportation array costed a bit more at 500 gold for a pair, even though it was only for dead objects. Then again, should someone try to send excrement or an explosive down his array, he could send an undead or poisoned canister back up.
Gill purchased the storefront first and placed it inbetween two pillars horizontally. Leaving the center of the corridor free for anyone not interested in the shop, he placed the signage mirrored on the other side of the hall. Writing down some simple explanations that covered all loop holes, Gill then placed the teleportation array ontop of the storefront desk. Meanwhile, Chipper was looking wide-eyed at Gill in disbelief. What a rotten scheme this is, demons truly are the worst of existences.
Glancing over at the flabbergasted rodent, Gill realized he should still have a clerk at the store. As if sensing his ill intentions, Chipper immedietly turned around to run. In an instant, he found that Gill was already standing in his way to the stairs down the dungeon with arms crossed. Deflating for the third time this day, he resigned himself by walking to the storefront desk, jumped ontop and laid down to sleep. Perhaps he could wake up from this living nightmare if he was lucky.
Nodding in appreciation, Gill walked back down to the second floor while turning on all the torches on the first layer. He still had to have some functional traps in case there was someone greedier for more than his supreme deals at the store. Rubbing his chin, he figured he should buy a Spike or Pitfall trap that he could rig to the stairs. Should he join the mechanisms between the Spikewall trap and something nasty to land on, the effect would be similar to that of the portculis setup from before. He still has 900 gold to play with after all.
Opening up the trap menu for a look, he did find a lot of more options available this time around. In particular, there's one called 'Grinder'. As its namesake, it's literally a meatgrinder made out of wood and iron spikes that spin rapidly. He could hide it under the stairs, and the moment the Spikewall flings any would-be adventurers, the stairs would open up and chew them up. The trap in itself even has options for upgrades, instead of a wooden mechanism with iron spikes, how about a steel mechanism and mithril spikes? Even the sturdiest knight would be crushed to mince meat.
Then again, their gear and items would also turn into scrap. No, a pitfall trap would be the best options. Least amount of damage done to the customers gear on their way to the afterlife. But it's not even remotely certain they'll die from just a smack and fall…
Taking a look at the trait menu once more, Gill wanted to see if there were any control options for certain types. For example, if he took the first level of a fire trait. Would the entire dungeon simply get a little warmer at level 1? Could he control the traits and make them concentrate at a singular spot, turning the hot ambience into a raging inferno within a square meter? If so, he had a lot of options to work with here.
Noticing that there really was such controll mechanisms in place Gill looked up his one and only trait, the Dimensional Layer. As it is, the only thing he can do with it is the actual placement of the layers. Does he want the core to be upstairs, so the stairs lead up instead of down? Perhaps just a simple door that leads to the second level? Extremely rudimentary options here, but miraculous nontheless. In fact, he could even distance the two layers from eachother, leaving the only way to the second level to be accessed through portals.
Just from looking at it, another layer of schemes came over Gill. What would you do if there was four portals, and only one leads to the second layer - while the other three lead to deathtraps? Plenty of good stuff here. 'As Chipper would say, this dungeon is a place for murder and death. And I must say that I like the options, haha!' Cackling to himself, another bright idea came to mind, 'Now that I think about it, I could make a sort of portal roulette. If you want free passage, you've gotta pay up to Chipper! Hahahaha!' Bursting out in a fit of loud laughter that echoed through the dungeon, Chipper at the first layer couldn't sleep for a second.