Chapter 204

204 Chapter 204: Future plans

Time continued to pass; the Dungeon ran smoothly even with the increase in visitors. Findlay wasn’t quite overwhelmed just yet and his frost troll lieutenants as well as the new D-rank monsters achieved through evolutions were coming into their own. Each managing an area or division of monsters while Findlay overlooked the entire project. Frost’s DP levels gradually rose as conflicts broke out not just between his monsters and the adventurers but between one another with a fair amount of deaths being generated. Greed was a terrible thing, people even the most incorruptible may do drastic things when riches are placed before them. Therefore, Frost’s 5000DP quickly turned into 8000 and was continuing to rise.

He met up with Findlay later in the evening after a spot reading, Maya took Loki and Nanna into the training room, and he’d join them later. The Dungeon core and their monsters commander discussed the future development of the Dungeon as well as how to deal with the adventurers. This sharp increase wouldn’t last forever, they needed a more reliable method to increase their DP gain.

“Master first off I think you should buy a few more high rank monsters to help fill out the new magic corps and ranger corps as well as purchase more foxes. The adventurers here tend to be really attracted to such monsters despite their low combat ability.” Findlay started to give his thoughts on the current situation. The second floor still had much more room for monsters so they wouldn’t be cramped with some more additions. Plus, Frost now had the DP to summon a fair amount.

Findlay was solidly in favour of fully outfitting their current rooms before rashly expanding more floors. Best to steady their current situation before taking much risk, there wasn’t the one month barrier after all. At the moment the adventurers could reach the second floor if they were strong enough and determined enough, and right now a fair number of groups met that quota. Findlay wished for more powerful monsters to help keep them locked into the first two sections of the second floor even without him having to take part.

“Once we’ve set up a solid barrier of monsters between the core room and any possible intruders, I recommend creating a third floor. The more powerful monsters can then move downwards whenever a new floor is established thus creating tiered levels. The weaker groups can stay in the upper floors while stronger ones hunt in the lower floors, it’ll help divide our forces better, making it so they’re battling the right opponents.” It was really pointless for goblins or slimes to fight against an upper E-rank or even D-rank party, they’d just be walking into the jaws of death for no reason. If it was known that the more valuable monsters were lower down, the higher tiered parties would travel quickly to that area, ignoring the weaker levels. Of course, this system wouldn’t be very effective until they had at least another 2 or 3 floors.

“In terms of traps, so far, they’ve been not bad but not great either however since they are single purchases that reset daily, I recommend adding more whenever there’s leftover DP. Sometimes a well-placed trap can swiftly take out an unsuspecting enemy.” Findlay frowned as he spoke, remembering the giant boulder trap that nearly ran him over during the dungeon war.

“Treasures wise I think you need to purchase a few more regenerating chests over the coming days and if possible, have their locations alternate, that way it’ll seem more random and harder to track them down.” At the moment things were fine but after a few days the adventurers would come down from their high and realise that there’s not much here in terms of treasure, just more monsters. plus, if the chests always respawn in the same place people would camp out or beeline for only that area.

Findlay continued to give his report and analysis, bringing up many areas which could be improved and changed to suit the current circumstances. Frost listened attentively but was already aware of most of the issues and planned to fix them. The problem was mainly getting enough DP and future proofing his choices. It was very costly to undo a room’s layout and environment.

Frost cupped his chin in thought as he listened to Findlay’s detailed report, nodding every so often.

.....

“That’s about all I can think of at the moment Master, is there anything I missed?” Findlay asked after taking a deep breath.

“No, you covered pretty much everything, and I agree with you on pretty much all your suggestions. It’s just finding the right timing given the DP costs and our current reserves plus there’s finding the best way to enact that plan.” Frost smiled before replying, Findlay’s report was accurate and concise, now the issue is what to tackle first. 8000DP was enough to fix a few things but not all.

“You mean the plan to attract long time tenants?” Findlay couldn’t help but frown as he spoke. This suggestion clearly had lots of positive benefits but also a lot of cons.

“Yes, that seems to be the best way to go in the future, long term passive gains will always beat out short, big wins in the long run. My brother Terra will surely be in the higher rankings at the next gathering and unless we enact a similar plan we could be left behind.” This plan was not something out of the blue that Frost concocted after the gathering no, this had been in the works for a while. He spoke and learned from Douglas for this very purpose and Maya had already mentioned that he should treat his dungeon like a territory and perhaps eventually a country.

Thanks to DP he’d be able to expand the area of his territory without much limit and he’d also be able to be self-sufficient. Mines could be bought to supply materials, plant seeds to grow crops, monsters to hunt for materials and food as well as many other benefits. As long as there was DP, he could create a paradise. Unfortunately, so far not a single wild monster has taken him up on his offer to come under his wing and the sapient races see this place as nothing but a hunting ground....for now. Thanks to Douglas as well as the array of books he purchased he knew a great deal about governance and how to make a location desirable.

· The place needs access to fresh water

· Animals or monsters to hunt

· Trees and other materials to forage

· Flat land in which to build upon

· Hospitable enough environment to live

· Farming capability or other economic advantage

· And the main thing is safety

Now Frost could meet most of these criteria’s, but he also missed out a fair number which are the most important. Possible safety would deter all those that were not adventurers. Civilians live in Furano because it has high walls all around and armed guards to protect it from monsters. They have access to fresh water, land to grow crops and they’re right next to Northrend forest that can supply not only wood but animals to hunt as well as herbs for alchemy. Not to mention the nearby glacial mountains that contain innumerable monsters to hunt. Plus because of its strategic importance it had trade contacts with the rest of the empire making it quite desirable especially after Douglas’s hard work over the years.

For now, safety would be an impossibility therefore he needed to cross off regular people and focus on adventurers and wild monsters and the sooner he started the better.

Frost brought up the dungeon menu and had the screen show the outside area of the Dungeon. Where the snow plains meet the Northrend forest with the Glacial mountains as a backdrop. A fair number of adventurers could be seen outside chatting amongst one another. Frost wanted to start the long term tenant plan as soon as possible and the best way he thought of was to buy another room. He couldn’t just expand up and down this mountain no, he could also buy the area outside, hell if he had enough DP and the entire town was deserted, he could even envelop Furano. Terra had mentioned that one of the first things he did was create a new room outside his dungeon since the wood elves wanted to establish a nearby base camp to monitor the new monster lair.

At the moment there wasn’t too much advantage to doing this for Frost’s dungeon, but Dark was about to reveal them to the world. Surely investigative teams would be sent and possibly station themselves nearby for several days. Frost already new that when very successful monster lairs attract more and more people the adventurer guilds and local communities quickly establish camps nearby which attract merchants and other vendors hoping to sell their goods to adventurers. Eventually these camps turn into villages then towns, cities, territories and then possibly a brand new country, all centred around a monster lair that provides a constant supply of materials.

No doubt after learning the qualities of dungeons people may move to strike first and set up a nearby camp or two, Frost was aiming for these groups. It’d be much too difficult to declare the area as part of the dungeon once they arrived, he needed to act now.