Chapter 1004: Three village pass (2)

Chapter 1004: Chapter 1004: Three village pass (2)

"That sounds like a lot of work." Daki could already feel a headache coming on his behalf.

Designing monsters from scratch was an ordeal but very rewarding, Frost never regretted the time he spent designing the ronsos and the Niflheim gnomes, but an environment was different. The satisfaction upon completion wouldn’t be the same but the struggles and frustrations likely would.

"Yes, but I can make it a lot easier by cheating."

"Cheating?"

"I’ll basically throw in 3 to 5 environments with things I like and pick and choose their best features thus creating a hodgepodge environment that’s somewhat unique." He could still design the size, layout and even types of features present but he wouldn’t have to go through every square centimetre with a fine tooth comb, that would truly be exhausting work.

"You have an idea already don’t you?"

"Pretty much."

"Let’s see it then." Frost had drawn Daki into his madness by this point, she was looking forward to the final result.

Using the Dungeon design editor Frost started to create something new and fresh. He mixed in trees to form a few small forests -all at least 2 star-, carved out sky reaching mountains with diverse cavern systems. A couple medium sized lakes with underground ravines and above ground fast moving streams as well as the occasional waterfall. Mixing in some open plains, snow tundra dunes and then even what appeared to be crystalline structures.

Not only was it idyllic in appearance it was mysterious, complicated and also surprisingly efficient in regards to its intended purpose. The bases of the three villages, forts or bastions had been carved throughout the room, creating a solid dividing line between territories. He could easily repurpose the layout with a few minor shifts in positions and feature density for the following rooms and perhaps even floors.

Now all he needed was a name for this elegant stew of an environment that was built on the back of six premade designs.

"Well, what do you think good right?" His design took almost three hours to come together but such a wait was nothing for Daki, she sometimes had to wait double that when thermal cycling equipment in her forge.

"It....strangely yes. I thought that by adding too many differing features it’d end up a mess but actually it’s quite beautiful and even functional in its design." She had to admit, she was impressed.

"To be honest I was worried about that too and until I started carving out the underground systems and used the forests as a clear divide it did look quite the mess, but I have to say it turned out even better than what I imagined." Frost was dead chuffed with what he produced, almost giddy.

"Have you thought of a name?" Daki eventually asked after perusing the design from top to bottom, feeling a strong sense of creative kinship with the environment. In her line of work worthy creations deserved a name.

"All I’ve come up with is what not to name it." Frost shook his head and deeply sighed in response. Most of the good names had already been taken by the environment already listed i.e. winter wonderland, crystal caverns, tundra dunes, winter forest etc... he could take a page out of the higher ranked environment book and add a number or letter next to an already established environment thus showing it as an edited or modified version but that felt too impersonal.

"Well there’s snow, an underground system, mountains, forests, lakes, rivers and even crystal features so there a strong base you can choose from, the name doesn’t have to include everything." She knew the difficulty of coming up with a unique name, especially picking one that was both accurate and pleasant to the ears.

"...."Frost held his head with both hands, frowning and tapping his feet as he tried to clear a way through the mire and find the perfect name.

"Wait a minute." He was struck by a sudden inspiration and big, bold smile donned his lips.

"How about [Three village pass], it focuses on the purpose of the environment rather than what’s featured, I can then simply add a letter or number further down the line when I modify it, it’s brilliant." A whole lot better than calling something along the lines of [mountain underground, crystal lake forest].

"The villages are more important than the environmental features, hmm not bad." It wasn’t the best but given his short thinking time and the sheer difficulty of the task Daki had to give him a passing grade.

"I’ll take it [Three village pass] it is." With the name set Frost immediately moved to outfit all three rooms with the [three village pass] environment albeit each with slightly different arrangements in regards to the villages placement and layout. The features were also a tad different; one room had more trees while the other had a slightly larger underground, but the bare bones were the same.

However with a name chosen the Dungeon menu saw fit to generate an appropriate price for this newly created environment.

"30,000DP, damn that’s my most expensive environment yet." The previous record holder was the [heart of a glacier] which cost 21,000 but to be fair 30,000DP was quite the steal considering the depths of the environment and the free additions included within. 2 star materials were densely populated and even those at 3 star were merely uncommon and it wasn’t simply wood and flora based materials no Frost added pockets of crystal and metal ores throughout the subterranean system as well as a chunk of 1000 year old ice at the bottom of the largest lakes making the place a literal treasure trove. As long as an adventurer was willing to go exploring then they’d be able to uncover far greater wealth than a few monster carcasses could provide.

The only downside to the extra bits and bobs was that they wouldn’t regenerate very quickly once dug up, at least a week or so to replace the smaller pieces and longer for the larger items but even so after a few years he’d likely be raking in nothing but profit.

Frost therefore only briefly winced at the price before ultimately applying all three to the newly purchased floor and then adding in double expansions for each room bringing the total cost to a whopping 137,000 (floor =20,000, environment =90,000, first expansion = 9000 (3000x3), second expansion =18000 (6000x3). Just creating the floor itself minus any monsters and traps had cost him more than a quarter of his current reserves, far more than he had initially expected.

’This Dungeon development really is a bam business.’ If the drain was going to be this significant then perhaps he’d have to pay a visit to the [polar bear den] after all.

Thankfully however he could pilfer about 50% of the monsters needed to fill the nine villages from the upper floors and those currently awaiting deployment, the rest he could hold off on purchasing until the adventurers eventually reach the new floors, but the essence will be in place.

Hitting the confirm purchase button on the Dungeon menu Frost felt a large chunk of life energy flow through his body, - a marvellous sensation no matter how many times he experienced it- before hearing the tell tale confirming hum. The Dungeon now had a brand new fully kitted out floor for him to peruse...so peruse he did.

With Daki in hand Frost walked through the 15th floor’s exit and entered the brand new floor with a bright smile on his face, his heart briming with passion and excitement. It’d been a while since he last expanded the Dungeon like this.

"Wow it’s even more impressive than I thought." The first sight along their path was a mixture of a high rise cliff and a dense forest filled with not only trees but low hedges, shrubbery and colourful flora, several of which were poisonous to the touch or that would at least make the skin uncomfortable.

"Careful with that bush Daki, get to close and it’ll puff vapour in your face." Daki was drawn over to a purple coloured bush finding it quite pretty in appearance, she reached out to inspect it closer but instantly froze upon hearing Frost’s very serious warning.

"What happens after you get vaped?" She knew a little about plants, mainly what to stay very clear of but the one in front of her didn’t ring any bells.

"You’ll lose your sense of taste and smell for about a week and if you’re particularly sensitive, your skin may break into hives." It wasn’t a deadly poison per say but its effects were hard to resist and quite debilitating, especially if you were a foodie.

If he wanted plants that could easily kill on contact he’d have to pay a lot more than a mere 30,000DP but even so just because it couldn’t kill you didn’t mean it couldn’t make your journey here more perilous.

A lot of colour drained from Daki’s face as she heard Frost’s explanation, and she wisely took several steps closer to him before asking "Is there anything else here that can cause me similar harm?"

"Yes so don’t stray too far~" He playfully teased, his hands swiftly wrapping themselves around her lust inducing curves and taking firm purchase on certain soft and prominent ridges.

Daki wasn’t offended by his aggressive, wandering hands, more than happy to get up close and personal with her handsome man.

The two as if glued at the hip proceeded beyond the entrance and headed towards the first village which was carved into one of the sky reaching mountains and easily spanned several hundred metres in width.