Chapter 18 - Strategic Stagnation
“Alright... Let’s build the 11th floor.”
The moment I declared this, Peta-chan’s face lit up with an enormous smile.
Lately, we’ve been rapidly expanding with the 9th and 10th floors, so it’s no surprise that Peta-chan, who’s eager to grow bigger, is overjoyed.
“B-but... um... isn’t building the 11th floor going to drain almost all our points? Are you sure about this?”
While wriggling with excitement, Peta-chan still offered a reasonable warning, as befits a Dungeon Core.
Indeed, building the 11th floor now would leave us with almost no remaining points, so it’s natural to think the pace might be too fast.
“But we’re building it anyway.”
“H-huh...? Are you sure...?”
Peta-chan’s face was a mix of barely contained glee and genuine concern.
“Yeah, it’s fine. Because after this, we won’t be expanding for about two years.”
The smile on Peta-chan’s face froze in an instant, replaced by a look of utter confusion.
“Wha... wha-wha-what?! Two years?! Why?!”
“First of all, the 10th-floor spring’s effects won’t be noticeable for a while. I doubt people will keep coming all the way to the deepest part of the 10th floor just to bathe in it.
Even with the allure of the unknown, do you think many will bother descending that long staircase to the 9th floor? Probably not.”
“Ah... I see... And?”
Peta-chan’s enthusiasm took a major hit, like a bucket of cold water had been dumped on her.
But since the joy of building the 11th floor wasn’t completely gone, she didn’t throw a tantrum and instead listened quietly.
“That’s why we need to build the 11th floor quickly. It’ll be a more powerful version of the popular skin-enhancing springs on the 1st, 2nd, and 6th floors.
This way, while aiming for the 11th floor, people will think, ‘Might as well try the 10th-floor spring while we’re here...’ and bathe in it.”
“Ah... I get it. If the deepest floors don’t have appealing springs, people won’t come. So we need to build the 11th floor quickly.
But why does that mean no expansions for two years?!”
Considering other dungeons, growing one floor in ten years is already impressive.
But now, Peta-chan has become so spoiled that even a two-year stagnation declaration leaves her dissatisfied.
“Do you remember the effect of the 10th-floor spring?”
“What was it again...? Something about boosting the effectiveness of physical training while in the dungeon?”
“Exactly. It’s not so much a ‘get stronger by bathing’ spring, but more like a ‘gain experience points much faster while in the dungeon’ spring.
The two-year period isn’t just for saving up points for expansion—it’s also to give the knights time to level up.”
Thanks to the information-gathering trap of the 5th-floor spring, I can roughly gauge the strength of each female knight in numerical terms.
Since I control the dungeon’s monsters, I can clearly see their strength levels as well.
Comparing the current strength of the knights and monsters, it’s unlikely the knights will be defeated by the 11th-floor monsters unless they’re extremely unlucky.
But by the 15th floor, casualties will inevitably start piling up.
That’s why, for now, we need them to repeatedly explore the 10th and 11th floors to level up.
“But if they die, we get a lot of points, right?”
Peta-chan made a remark that was very much in line with her demonic nature.
“And then who’s going to explore the deeper floors?”
She blinked at me, her expression completely blank.
It was like she’d never even considered that before.
“Listen, Peta-chan. Even if we expand down to the 20th floor or beyond, if the number of explorers strong enough to venture that deep decreases, the dungeon’s growth will inevitably plateau.
So, I’m going to take the time to cultivate a large number of explorers strong enough to delve deep.
This is an absolutely necessary step if we want to eventually reach the 20th, 30th, or even deeper floors.”
This was something I realized while comparing the knights’ and monsters’ parameters during dungeon management.
In this ‘Dungeon Expansion Game,’ leveling up the explorers is an essential element for the later stages.
If we neglect this and focus solely on expanding deeper, the dungeon’s difficulty will eventually become insurmountable.
In the end, only a handful of the nation’s strongest heroes will be able to delve deep, retrieve incredible treasures, and bask in the adoration of the people.
The deepest parts of the dungeon will become nothing more than a stage for a select few heroes to shine.
“If we skip this step of cultivating explorers and focus only on expanding, even if the dungeon offers incredibly attractive treasures, once the explorers’ strength falls behind the monsters’, the dungeon’s growth will stagnate.”
“Eh...? Ah... Ahhh! So that’s why! That dungeon, and that one too...!”
It seems Peta-chan has had some realizations.
There are probably several super-massive dungeons out there that grew to enormous sizes but became so difficult that no one could explore their depths.
They might have plenty of points, but their growth has plateaued because no one can delve deep enough.
“In other words, we need this period to let the female knights level up enough to reach the 20th floor or so without casualties. Got it?”
Peta-chan looked like she’d been struck by lightning, her eyes wide and dazed.
Until now, she’d only thought, ‘If adventurers die, we get a lot of points! Yay!’
But when you think about it, it’s obvious.
If no one can explore the deeper floors, there’s no point in building them.
“...So, after building the 11th floor, we’re taking a two-year break.”
Peta-chan could only nod silently in agreement.
Comments
Post a Comment