After they left the soldiers still outside began to set up their camp, albeit far more organized and less precariously placed. Already they were setting up camp basics all around with a few having to be further down the mountain due to the terrain. But for now, I could rest for a bit, use the time to remodel and adjust things, like all the damned messages that kept popping into my eyes, I swear, if I had actual eyes, I'd be blind right now.
But I digress and open the first of the messages.
Nice.
So that's what they were, kind of a shit name if I'm honest, but it's not like I'm expecting myself to use them. They certainly proved dangerous during that attack, but I'm fairly certain the only reason they were as much of a threat was because of their numbers, which were in the hundreds more than a mere 20, it was a lot for a single node and that making combined rooms would allow for possibly hundreds, but I kind of don't like these things. There was also a non-zero chance that I just wanted to make more rat people, not only did they keep up despite being hours old, but they also amused me greatly, especially that one rat that was using a regular rat as a hat while he cooked, maybe not the most sanitary practice but that's hardly a concern here. Overall, I'd say that perhaps I would use them in the future for one thing or another, but until that day I was going to wait until I could unlock the monster merging ability.
Moving on, I had also gained another growth level from all of that, and now having reached level 3, I gained around 6 DP per month, almost a full monster each month. But instead of going straight for monsters, I felt like I should spruce the place up a bit, and by that, I mean to unlock proper doorways so that it becomes harder for attacks to know what the next room held or if they were on the right path. So, after spending the DP I had just gained, many bronze and iron doors shimmered into existence in every room's entrance and exit, a small fun thing I noticed was that I could control them.
From there I moved on to the other messages.
Well, that's interesting, and rather game-like as well. The idea seems to introduce an adjustable element to the dungeon, a tool for me to fight or reward invaders with. The elite was obvious in how it could be used, it would roam around and kill things, simple as. But the other two were a bit trickier, the loot goblin was a honey trap essentially, meant to distract greedy adventurers off the main path and into monsters or traps, while this 'merchant' was meant to 'help' people that entered either giving them poisoned drinks or just selling them actual stuff.
It's not an easy choice I'd say, but also not the most pressing. The elite could provide the level of security I needed at the upper floor or to reinforce the second one, the goblin could steer people away, and the merchant could, over time, be able to trade for more exotic materials or perhaps more monster blueprints if we're lucky. The biggest downside is that I couldn't control where the elite went, making it difficult to include them in any consistent planning, the goblin could give them a power boost that could steamroll my defenses, and the merchant was a monster offering strange drinks in a place designed to kill or severely maim them, I highly doubt people would take it without some assurances that the merchant was genuine. What that meant was the elite was the only net positive choice, but the other two were gambles, options that if they worked would provide far more than their costs, the idea of a goblin leading some idiots into the startlingly deep wormhole was both hilarious and devious, or if the merchant traded 'healing' potions for parts of a dragon or something to that effect.
But, this wasn't the only choice I would need to consider, I still had one more message aside from the slew of side messages about the rats killing those greebles.
It's a shame there was no monster, but I already had my choice of unique ones and the Greeble blueprint so it wasn't all that bad. Besides, a relatively free upgrade was always welcomed in my dungeon. Before I viewed the upgrades though, I looked over what they gave me for the 'deep steel', a magical kind of steel that appeared gold.
Dang those were pricey, but also really good, I think I'll focus on these before I decide on the unique monsters. Going into analytical mode, the chassis option provided a bonus to my machine monsters as well as the [repair port] that can fix machine monsters mid-fight, it appears that room additions are more or less just improvements to the room itself without being a proper upgrade. Reinforcement was for the most part, arguably the least so far, yes it improved material production, but it lacked the 'oomph' that the others had, the thing that kept it in my eye though was that I would technically apply to the worm hole, making the already monstrous amount of mana I gained from burning the worm poop even more monstrous. It's room addition, the [automaton storage space], an addition that allowed production rooms to store their goods rather than just pile them up until the same production machines recycled them.
Deep steel armaments were both the same yet opposite of the reinforcements option, both improved produced items, but rather than providing an overall improvement, they created a few singularly high-quality goods. Still, unlike the other option, the armaments option unlocked a room for me to mess around with, a forge of all things. The final option though, was very interesting, a full upgrade to a monster, room, or trap, with each being improved both non-magically and magically. One of my monsters, likely the rats, would be stronger and have magic right from the get-go, rooms would have little magical helpers to make them deadlier or produce more, while traps would be even more dangerous, something that would complement the [ferrofluid lake] trap I would unlock with it. Considering these options, it was probably better that I hold off on the unique ones; each would benefit greatly from any of these upgrades, in their way.
As I thought about them, I sat at the edge of my entry room, watching the going ons of the small army that had the planet itself on my doorstep, considering how any of these choices would help me both protect myself and make it clear that I didn't want trouble, at least not without compensation. Taking the more aggressive options could make things tense between me and the outside, not that they weren't already, but taking too many 'cooperative' choices could put me in a situation where I couldn't deal with actual threats that came my way, or if they suddenly decided I wasn't worth the trouble.
Hmm... what to do?
What to do?
