Misaki settled on the ground and looked out at the giant snake carcass. Now that it was dead she could get a better look at it, the Lizarna was predominantly snake-like, but it also had tendrils. Thin tentacles that ended with barbs, from which it could shoot those spines it had bombarded her with. Thankfully it wasn’t venomous, but she was still rather surprised the thing was Tier Three.

  Her gaze turned back to her towers, they stood almost ominously over the nd, the shadows they cast in the moonlight stretching over the fields. She’d known they came with a powerful magic weapon, but until this moment she’d never realized how potent. The Arclight Ray was a potent magical beam that ignored armor which was perhaps the key bit here; the serpent wasn’t particurly strong in battle, but it had very sturdy scales.

  Picking one up, she identified it. Lizarna Serpent Scale; hardened by magic, these dense scales provide protection comparable if slightly weaker than that of dragon scales; even heavy siege weapons will struggle to pierce this hide. Equally effective against both physical and magical attacks.

  She started ughing, no wonder her spells did so little. The damn thing was a living tank, good thing it's only real offensive ability came from its ability to bend minds. If it had been blessed with any other powers, the thing would have been a real nightmare. For a moment she imagined a Tier Four one and shuddered, maybe not the best thought. At least the children were a tad safer with one less of those monsters slithering around. She smiled at that thought, then her gaze fell back on the corpse, what was she going to do with a dead serpent? The scales would be useful, she had little doubt she could sell them for a tidy amount or use them to make new gear. Huh that option was an interesting thought, she didn’t need gear but there were options in the menu for experimenting with new gear and creating dungeon loot. Just where would she give out armor made from Lizarna scales? If the description was anything to go by, the resulting gear would be epic. She was going to need more floors.

  Her mind wandered back to her dungeon, she had five floors and while it wasn’t that common people were starting to reach the fifth floor. Hell yesterday she’d signed three adventurer reports on her fifth floor. Just part of the job she was doing while filling in for Phyllis, but it had felt a little weird. The real question was what would she do for her next floor? A Labrinth perhaps? Or maybe something with water? Misha seemed happy with her pond, but she was a growing mermaid, she’d need more space. Misaki was sure the girl would love having a proper ocean to swim in, or at the least a rge ke, and maybe friends to go with them.

  Turning from the corpse, she moved toward the wall, while surrounding the thing in her magic. Normally she wouldn’t be able to move a corpse killed outside her halls, but since she was the one who killed it, it belonged to her. Which meant she was allowed to move it. It's a funny thing sometimes how the rules worked. Still they were the rules she was bound by, but at least she got to py with magic.

  Earth had been a fun pce too, sometimes she missed her friends, Hina in particur, she’d always been fun, but here she had Phyllis. In a way she wasn’t sure she wanted to go back, there was so much fun to be had here. Of course back on Earth she might have had spaceships to py with and while they were pretty cool, they weren’t as cool as those in fiction. They didn’t have things like shields or warp drives. Humanity was still very much limited to sublight speeds, and the colonies didn’t go any further than the outer system. Everyone knew about Titan Colony, it was pretty much the crown jewel of the outer colonies and the center of industrial activity that far out. She recalled her neighbor’s farm shipped things out that way, it was good money, but her family didn’t bother. The money selling crops to Mars was almost as good, but more importantly, the trip was shorter which meant less time for a transport to get there, which meant getting paid faster and there was less room to be intercepted by pirates.

  She froze at that thought, a grin on her face, pirates might be good, they were a cssic choice. They would go well with a water floor and that would py well into the idea of providing more space for Misha. Who knows she might have fun with some pirates. Now what kind would she want? Maybe some Orcs? Or perhaps roving Minotaurs? So many good ideas! Maybe one floor wasn’t enough?

  With that thought she thought of something else, if she was building more than one floor, maybe it would be a good idea to talk to a few adventurers and get a feel for their thoughts on the dungeon so far. Maybe get a few more ideas for the next few floors, she had so many puzzles she wanted to try. Some of them were rather simple; she'd been floating an idea about a puzzle involving three-letter words tely. Misaki figured it didn’t have to be that complicated, half the time her adventurers were too horny to think straight. Honestly, her second-floor teleportation trap felt a little cruel, she hadn’t made the questions that hard, or she didn’t think so, but more than half the people trying it failed it at least once. Some people had failed it so many times, however, that she had to wonder if they were even trying? Maybe she’d made the harpy and arachnid nests too fun?

  Phyllis looked up when she heard the door open, and Misaki slipped into view. The girl was dusty, her hair coated in muck and the dress she’d put on earlier today was torn in so many pces it looked ruined. Her left breast was completely exposed and her right nipple was poking out of a hole. Down lower things weren’t any better, as rge rents in the skirt revealed her rather shredded panties which seemed to be hanging on a thread. What skin that wasn’t coated in mud looked clean and pristine though. If she hadn’t known about the fight, Phyllis would have had questions on what she was doing. “Well, since you are here. My head feels better, and I’m not having weird thoughts about my unborn daughters. I take it you dealt with the serpent.

  Misaki slumped into a chair, “I did, can you believe that it was Tier Three?”

  Phyllis blinked, “And you won? Damn, what level...”

  “I shot up to level 90, but I’m really gd I built those towers. I’m not sure I could have beat it without them.”

  “That bad?”

  Misaki produced a scale, “take a look at this.”

  Taking the scale, she looked it over with a frown. She wasn’t sure what was special about it, until she used Analyze on it. She blinked, then took another look, “By the gods, with scales like these how could you even wound it?”

  “The towers, the magical weapon they have ignores armor. They don’t ignore shields, but the bloody serpent's ward spells aren’t as potent as that natural armor.”

  Phyllis gave it another look. “I guess they need this kind of armor, given they are hunted by dragons.”

  “I imagine so.”

  Phyllis set the scale down, “Anyway, how’s it feel to be level 90?”

  Misaki shrugged, “I’m not sure yet, I still haven’t picked my free traits yet. It just feels so sudden.”

  “Well you did just defeat a Tier Three enemy. While admittedly it's one you were naturally strong against, you still did it. Beating a stronger opponent naturally leads to more growth than defeating a bunch of weaker ones.”

  “I guess you are right, but if this keeps up I’ll outpace you. You’ve gained what? One, two levels since we met?”

  “Only one, but I feel that second one is getting close, but at my level passive sources don’t mean as much.” She let out a breath, “Hell the only reason I got this much is due to guild managing work being new to me. That’s worth more experience since I’m rapidly developing new skills.”

  “Right, shame you couldn’t have fought that serpent with me.”

  Phyllis gave her a look, “I was busy trying to protect my mind from the damn thing, didn’t have much time to consider fighting it. Consider yourself lucky that dungeons are naturally more resistant to mind control.”

  Misaki let out a breath, and nodded. “I know, I could feel that... thing too, it was like being hit over the head with a hammer. Not a very fun experience, at least the damn creature is dead.”

  Shifting the subject a bit, Phyllis said, “Right, so you said you have more free traits, what are the choices this time?”

  “I’ve got nine to pick from, haven’t really looked into what they do...”

  A while ter Phyllis was looking over a piece of paper with the written traits on it as she considered her advice to Misaki.

  Improved Pheromone Potency: Increases the potency of pheromone-type traits by 25%.

  Fortified Puzzles: Puzzle gates are a powerful tool in any dungeon’s arsenal and no one likes cheaters. Reinforces your puzzle gates with a magical shield and doubles their inherent integrity, now not even over-leveled asshats can bypass your gates. The magical shield is equal to four times the dungeon level plus 35 multiplied by two thousand. Shield will regenerate instantly for a small cost of dungeon mana upon being attacked.

  Conditional Curse: As a nonlethal dungeon, failure penalties are always important. Leverage the power of dungeon w to add additional penalties upon failing, your main curse remains in effect.

  Improved Mana Density: Increases dungeon mana density by 25%, improving its potency. Dungeon costs will be adjusted to reflect the denser mana. Ambient mana within the dungeon becomes more dense as well.

  Dungeon Gates: Improves on standard dungeon portals, allowing a dungeon to link points of interest within the dungeon more effectively and efficiently. Additional options are avaible if the dungeon has Dungeon Law.

  Fortified Dungeon Towers: Allows the creation of well Fortified Towers on the dungeon’s territory with sturdier walls. Each tower is protected by a magical shield equal to double the dungeon’s level multiplied by five thousand. Tower shield can be further fortified at the cost of AE. Hostiles in range of the tower may be attacked by a magical ray that ignores armor. Attack scales with the dungeon’s level and can be enhanced at the cost of AE. The tower is further equipped with a bolt thrower that will automatically engage flying hostiles in range. Bolt thrower fires 5 kg projectiles enchanted with fire magic. The element can be changed at the cost of AE.

  Border Traps: Allows the creation of traps within dungeon territory and not just the dungeon’s halls.

  Cheaper Construction: Reduces the cost of basic constructions such as walls and tunnels by half. Fortified structures and traps are unaffected.

  Safe Zone Shrines: Automatically creates a proper shrine in every safe zone at no cost to the dungeon. Dungeon shrines can serve as respawn points for the dungeon and generate a small amount of resources for the dungeon and faith for the dungeon’s patron god. The dungeon may create a priestess to attend the shrine, improving its output.

  Honestly they all looked useful in their own way. Perhaps some were more useful than others but she could see Misaki putting them all to use.

  “So what do you think?” asked Misaki.